Sara goes to Puerto Natales and Puerto Madryn

Puerto Natales, Chile
After Calafate, I headed to Puerto Natales, Chile, so I could renew my visa. Puerto Natales isn't a particularly interesting town, but it's the place that nearly every tourist stops when they head to Torres del Paine national park. I arrived on Saturday, September 18th, which happened to be Chile's bicentennial. As our bus pulled into Puerto Natales, several servicemen were already in the street preparing for the desfile militar (military parade). Most of the town shut down for several days during the bicentennial celebrations, which meant it was quite difficult to get basic things done while I was there. I couldn't find a hostel that was open when I arrived, so I lugged my backpack down to the waterfront in order to watch the parade.

The parade was really interesting to watch, and it didn't hurt that the beautiful sea and mountains sat right behind everything. First several different groups of soldiers marched in and stood around while military leaders gave a brief history of how Chile won it's independence and who their key historical figures were. Then, the parade continued as Chilean huasos (Chilean cowboys, similar to Argentine gauchos) came out to perform the cueca, a traditional dance. Eventually, the politicians dressed in suits came out and danced the cueca with the huasos. The parade ended with large military vehicles and firetrucks driving down the street. After walking around town a few times, I finally found a hostel and was able to get some much needed rest. Puerto Natales was also hosting a artisan fair, so there were several artists who were selling handmade goods and other people selling handmade foods. I bought some homemade empanadas and could quickly tell that the dough had been made from scratch--it really makes a difference and those were some of the best empanadas I've eaten in 11 months.

Torres del Paine is a beautiful national park that I wanted to spend time hiking around. Initially, Jill and I had planned to hike the famous "W" trail there in November, but we realized that wasn't practical, so this was my chance to see the park. I didn't think it was safe to hike the "W" alone, especially since there was still snow on the ground in some parts, so I opted for a day tour of the park. Again, much of the tour operators in the area were closed for the season, so day tours were the only real option. Driving around the park in a car wasn't really the way I wanted to see it, and it was a little disappointing. Yet, I was still quite happy to see it.

Before we reached Torres del Paine, we stopped at Cueva del Milodón, or "Cave of the Milodón." The Milodón is an extinct giant sloth that supposedly died out around 5,000 years ago. Skin and bones of the animal were discovered in the area more than a century ago. After that, we drove into Torres del Paine and stopped at a point where we could take a short walk to Lago Grey. From the lake, which was filled with giant icebergs, you could look across and see glacier Grey. A Huemul, a type of endangered Patagonian deer, was walking around to drink from the lake, and that was especially cool to see since Huemuls are Chile's national animal. From there, we drove to several beautiful lookouts where you could see the "towers" (mountains) of the park, but unfortunately there were clouds hanging over them most of the day. We also spotted several guanacos (similar to llamas), nandu and condors (a type of vulture that is Chile's other national animal).

Back in Puerto Natales, I spotted black-necked swans swimming in the sea on my way out of town. I took another 5-hour bus ride back across the border to Calafate.



Calafate (again)
I arrived in Calafate with 5 minutes to decide whether I wanted to take a 20 hour bus trip up to Puerto Madryn, and at the last minute I decided to spend one more day in Calafate. I had befriended one of my tour guides from the big ice trek that I did, as we bonded over discussions about politics and books. So we met up to have beer at a neat book bar, which was fun, but also somewhat awkward. After that, I spent some time walking around Calafate with a nice guy I had met from Korea, who I had met on the bus between Puerto Natales and Calafate. He cooked me a delicious pasta dinner at the hostel, and I got to chat in Spanish with several nice Argentinians while he cooked. It was a really nice to relax for a day while talking to cool people I had just met. The following day, I grabbed a lamb crepe on my way to the bus station for the 20 hour trip up north.

Puerto Madryn
I headed to Puerto Madryn to get to Peninusla Valdes, a famous area filled with wildlife and an increidibly good spot to go whalewatching. The first leg of my bus trip to Rio Gallegos was fine, but the second leg was pretty unpleasant. The bus broke down about 1 hour after we got on, so we hopped on another bus that came by. At the next stop (2 hours later), we all got off and waited for another bus to come pick us up. There was no phone signal in the middle of nowhere when our bus broke down, so the driver waited until we got to the next stop to contact the bus company. Since these are overnight buses, that meant that 30 people were all crammed into a tiny bus station in the middle of nowhere from 11pm to 3 in the morning while we waited for the new bus to arrive. I finally got to Puerto Madryn 4 hours late.

The following day, I took a day-tour to Peninsula Valdes with my hostel. We started by driving out of Puerto Madryn for about 20 minutes to a beach where you could watch several whales swimming about 50 feet from the shore. It was great, but we had a schedule to keep, so we quickly headed onto the next stop, which was a small museum about the Southern Right whale. From there, we went to Puerto Pyramides, where we hopped on a 90 minute whalewatching boat ride. This was the most amazing part of the tour because the whales came so close to the boat. Southern Right whales recieved their name from whalers because they are a curious and social animal, so they often swim close to boats and are the "right" whale to kill. I've never really done whalewatching before, but was excited to see whales breaching, swimming right under the boat and mating. After the tour, we ate lunch in Puerto Pyramides, the only town on the peninsula, and then headed to a sea elephant colony. The sea elephants weren't too exciting to watch since they don't move much, but we headed to a cool penguin colony after that. Both the sea elephants and penguins were on the peninsula for mating season.



Puerto Madryn isn't a very pretty or exciting place to spend much time in, so after the tour I was ready to move on. I took a bus up to Bahia Blanca, where there was a circus festival taking place. The festival, however, was very small and uneventful when I arrived. I was tired of traveling, missed Jill, and felt ready to get back to Buenos Aires. So after a very brief period of time, I hopped on the next bus and went home.

Random Calafate Photo: Tit Ice Cream

Since the word "tit" doesn't exist in Spanish (that would be teta), this sign doesn't really catch the attention of Argentinians. It's supposed to say "Tito's Ice Cream," but it sure looks a lot more like "Tit Ice Cream" to English speakers.

Sara Goes to Chalten and Calafate

Since the day I saw Jill's photos from the last time she came to Argentina, I knew the place I wanted to visit most was the Glaciers in southern Patagonia. So when I realized that I had to renew my 90-day tourist visa one last time, I used that as and excuse to book a last minute trip down to Patagonia, where I could cross into Chile. I was gone for about one and a half weeks, but it was one of the coolest places I've ever been. Here are my highlights.

El Chalten
I Flew from Bs.As. to the Calafate airport, which isn't actually in a city, and then immediately took a bus to Chalten so I wouldn't have to backtrack to get there. I spent two days and one night there, and would have loved to have stayed longer. Chalten is a little hippy town that calls itself the "trekking capital of Argentina" because there are so many easy day hikes in the area. Unfortunately, most of the town was closed since I was arriving at the end of winter. So I wasn't able to go on any glacier treks from here because those guided excursions don't start up until late spring.

After settling in at a hostel, I decided to take the 10 minute walk across town to the tourist information office, but that turned into a nightmare as a snow storm kicked in out of nowhere. Walking around town in just a fleece, I was underdressed for the wind and snow, and it became an incredibly unpleasant walk. Since nearly every business was closed, it was also really difficult to try to duck inside to warm up for a minute. When I finally got the the tourist office it was closed, and I was miserable. I returned to my hostel defeated. I missed Jill and felt like crying.

The next day, I found a panaderia that had some of the best pastries I've eaten down here yet. Then I headed out to hike to Laguna Torre (literally "Lake Tower"). It was an easy hike, but since it had snowed the previous day and the trails weren't clearly marked in any way, I lost the trail about 40 minutes into the hike. After climbing up a small cliff, I was able to see what appeared to be the trail, and finally got back on it! The rest of the hike was enjoyable, and it ended at a beautiful lookout point that stops in front of a lake. Beyond the lake was a massive glacier, and to the right of the lake was the famous Mt. Fitz Roy, one of the "towers" in the area. The view was breathtaking, and I intended to spend about an hour up there eating lunch, but the cutting wind was unbearable. So I headed back down after half an hour. Three hours later, I was back in town and running to the bus to head to Calafate. I probably could have stayed in Chalten another day, but I was worried about getting to Chile in time to renew my visa.



El Calafate
I had some work to do on my first day in Calafate, so I went looking for a hostel that wasn't too crowded and had a decent amount of computers. After checking in and getting some work done, I walked out to the costanera, where you can view various wild birds, including bright pink flamingos. Of course one of Argentina's many cute stray dogs decided to follow me along the way. I spent the rest of the evening strolling around Calafate's cute, but incredibly touristy downtown.

The following day, I began the "big ice" tour to see the Perrito Moreno glacier. One company has a monopoly on giving tours where you can actually hike on the glacier, so the prices are the same no matter where you go in town to set up your tour. I was incredibly lucky to get to hike on the glacier because the big ice tours had just begun two days earlier for the season. When the glacier gets covered with snow in the winter, it's too dangerous to go hiking on because there are large crevasses that get covered up with snow, and if you fell in one, it would probably be fatal... Anyway, the big ice tour started off with a walk along a boardwalk that follows the front side of the glacier. From there, you could see large pieces of ice that had fallen off the the glacier into the water, where they became icebergs. Luckily, we got to see one large piece of ice fall off while there. Although it's somewhat sad to see the glacier falling apart, this is one of the few glaciers that is actually growing, so it's not as tragic as it might sound. One of the most fascinating aspects of standing near the front of the glacier was hearing all of the loud popping noises that the ice made as it cracked in different places.

Next, we took a boat across the lake to a "dock," where we picked up our crampons and began our hike. For about an hour, we hiked on a mountain edge that ran alongside the glacier until we finally reached a point where the guides walked us onto the ice. We spent the next four hours hiking on the glacier, which is absolutely the coolest thing I've ever done. We stopped to have lunch on the glacier, drank fresh glacier water without any filters, watched our guide descend into a deep crevasse using only his crampons and two ice picks, tried ice climbing up a small 15-foot wall, and got to slide through part of a glacier where a hole had formed and created a natural slide. It was incredibly sad when it all ended, but afterward, we hopped back on the boat, which drove much closer to the side of the glacier than we had been before. On the boat ride back, our guides gave us a glass of scotch with ice from the glacier in it. I ended the day with a delicious Patagonian lamb Pizza and an artisan beer.

Random Bs.As. Photo: Policia Federal Ride in Style

It's hard not to laugh when you see the federal police driving around in one of these. Maybe not the "smartest" car for the job...get it?