The past week of Patagonia

Sorry to not have written for so long–I have seen so much in the past week!

I went from Ushuaia to Puerto Natales, Chile which was a 14-hour bus journey (starting at 5:00, finishing at 21:30 with a stop in Punta Arenas where I purchased a lovely palm heart, avocado, and tuna sandwich in a restaurant where the waitresses laughed at me for specifically saying I wanted the full portion instead of a half portion…clearly they had never had a girl as famished as I was) during which I was detained at Chilean customs for a solid 20 minutes because I tried to smuggle in an orange. What can I say, I was hungry and on the bus rides you only get a lousy ham and cheese sandwich (I am vegetarian). The bus ride was neat in the morning–wandering through Tierra de Fuego’s wilderness with the almost full moon as light. It was like I was in some movie I had never seen before…or Harry Potter (something of the like).

I arrived so late in Puerto Natales I ended up staying in the dodgiest lodging alive–no heating, no other people, nada. It was above a sports bar and the “common area” doubled as the football player’s changing area. Interesante. The next day I spent catching up on sleep and walking around the ten blocks that made up the town. Since it was May 1 (Día del Trabajador) everything was closed except for two restaurants–where I passed my time writing in my diary and also reading Everything is Illuminated (a book recommended to me by a girl in Hanoi and one of my good schoolmates). I had really the best salad and pizza I had eaten in a while. The weather was…interesting–it snowed, rained, hailed, and was sunny in the course of an hour.

The next day I did the full day tour of the Torres del Paine National Park, one of the most beautiful national parks to which I have been. We saw a cave formed by a glacier (one of the first caves I saw after Vang Vieng, Laos without a Buddha in it) that was huge. Guanacos (llama like animals) and Chilean Ostriches were everywhere. I saw real flamingos for the first time (a.k.a. they weren’t plastic and stuck into someone’s lawn next to pinwheels) in lakes by the immense mountains. There were huge tower like rock formations, hence, why the translated name is “Towers of Pain.” There were so many lakes of different colors, depending on whether or not mountain and glacier sediments ran into the water. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. Other important events of that day included receiving two marriage proposals (which I politely declined) from one of the tour guides and a Brazilian trekker. I also tried an apple empanada (nom nom noms) and had amazing hot chocolate at the park gift shop. I had forgotten how amazing hot chocolate could be–especially considering that in Boston I had only really had Swiss Miss with dried out marshmallows.

I headed to El Calafate, Argentina Monday–careful NOT to bring in any fruit. Of course, they did not even check anyone’s bags or search the bus in this border crossing. I arrived starving to El Calafate, checked into my hostel (America del Sur), and went in the search of food. I had a so-so pasta, but an ah-mazing desert of rum soaked cake, dulce de leche (which they did not have in Chile–next time I go I will be sure to bring some with me and hide it better than the orange), and the Calafate cream with red fruit. The main attraction in El Calafate in the Perito Moreno glacier, which I went to see and even ice-trekked on it. The ice trekking was wicked awesome even if it was a bit scary at first–especially going down hill because it just it not natural for you to go down a steep hill with only ice. I did it though without falling on my self! I nice reward was alfahors (not that good because per usual, these alfahors were not made with a proper biscuit/cookie outside the dulce de leche) and whiskey over glacier ice. Looking at the glacier from afar, it is not that impressive, and when you see chunks of ice falling off, you think that it is not that big until it falls into the water and the noise to a loud “WOOSH” and water splashes so high. I went to El Chalten for the day and did a little hike with a British guy from the hostel in the freezing cold (I am not kidding, it was snowing and very windy). It was nice, but not as pretty as Torres del Paine. The town was dead since the high season is over, and only two overpriced restaurants were open for lunch. That night for dinner I scaled back and had a can of lentils and some basil flavored pasta. So gourmet! More importantly in El Calafate, I realized that it was not the dulce de leche that changed depending on region, but it must have been the brand. I have realized that my favorite brand is SanCor for sure.

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