Viva Argentina

What a whirlwind trip! We’re finally back in the states but though I’d do a final recap of our days in Argentina.

We returned to Buenos Aires from Puerto Madryn (by plane this time, thankfully!) and because we didn’t take the overnight bus again found ourselves with an extra night in Buenos Aires. We opted to stay in San Telmo, a different, more urban neighborhood than where we stayed before for this night only.

After we got settled and explored this new part of town a bit, we were hanging out in the hostel and ran into some of our ‘old’ friends from el calafate- a guy from Seattle and another from Canada. They introduced us to more people at the hostel, and pretty soon we were hanging out with a very international crew: a guy from Portugal, a girl fom holland, a few other Americans (oddly all from Seattle), a Nigerian… It was a very motley crew and the mix of languages was beautiful. We had dinner all together that the canadian prepared, and tons of wine. Then off to the salsa club.

What inspired the salsa club action is that one of the Americans is a professional performer/ instructor in Seattle and wanted to show his stuff. Let me tell you, he was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like this club before, EVERYONE knew all the moves and seemed to me like a professional. I’m not one to be shy on the dance floor- ever- but this had me sitting out the first few dances while i tried to absorb what to do. After a brief lesson from our new friend I felt comfortable enough to dance with some of the locals, and it was great. I stepped on a lot of toes but it was worth it to get out there! Alex held his own very well too I must say.

After salsa was really the only negative event of the trip. I was walking home from the club with or of the other Americans - a pretty big guy- because I wanted to go to bed early ( I.e. 4am, which is actually early there) and during the 4 block walk we were accosted by 2 nervous looking punks that proceeded to rob us. My friend claimed he had no money, but I handed over about 200 pesos (ie $60) just to get them to go away. I then convinced them to leave us alone and they ran off, and we walked shakily back to our hostel. My friend then hopped in a cab to grab alex an the others from the club.

I debated telling people about this because I didn’t want it to take away from my trip overall, but I thought It was important to share it because these things can happen in ANY big city and it’s always a hood reminder to be on the alert. I didn’t let it ruin the rest of my trip at all.

The next night we met up with a friend from chicago we met on the bus and his friends from Australia and Israel. Went to an Irish pub and saw some of the NCAA tournament, which UCSB sadly lost. I had a fun time talking to an argentinian guy about the college experience and what it meant that our team was there.

The next day I got to go shopping with another girl we met. We went to this great street fair in Palermo where they opened up tons of bars and restaurants into spaces for designers to showcase their work. I bought a beautiful leather purse ( one of a kind ) as well as some shoes and earrings. All of it was of course ridiculously cheap.

Our last night we spent at a really intimate tango lounge, Which felt more like we were at a private party. These argentians our parents’ age welcomed us with hugs and dos besos, wine and empanadas, and of course, tango. First they demonstrated, then it was our turn to give it a shot. The dance is much different than anything I’ve done before, and you have to be very close to your partner. This was one of my favorite experiences.

Alas, we left Sunday night and are now safe and sound back in the states. It’s hard to believe but I’m actually going to work in 10 minutes.

We had such a great time, and i’d definitely recommend it as a place to travel for anyone. Thanks for reading.

Ciao,

Mary

After a 20 hour bus ride, we arrived in Puerto Madryn more than a little haggard. The bus was actually really nice and the seats fully reclined, but it still weighed on us to be on bumpy argentine roads for that amount of time. Not to mention that the bus operators apparently think people really like it when you blare 90s American rock music for the first two hours!

Puerto Madryn is a town on the Atlantic ocean that boasts really unique wildlife watching opportunities including sea lions and the orcas that snack on them (a rare thing to see). Perfect for alex’s marine biology tendencies. The town itself is somewhere between El Calafate and Buenos Aires, and is still considered part of Patagonia.

We checked into our hostel ( this one had bunk beds! Haha ) and hit the town to explore. The town itself isn’t that amazing, so we mainly stuck to the beach. That night back at the hostel we met two great argentine guys who taught us how to play a new card game. It was a funny dynamic- Franco speaks a little English, I speak a little Spanish ( it’s gotten about 100x better after being here ), and alex and Nando can only speak a few words of the other’s language. Despite that, we got along really well, and Franco cooked a great dinner for us that night.

The next morning we got up early to begin our excursion to peninsula valdez, where all the action happens. Nando and Franco came along too, and we were toted around in a van to all the various locations. Out first stop was a boat tour around the small town called Puerto Pyramides, where we saw a couple sea lion rookeries and actual wild penguins. It was really funny to see the little guys out there in such warm weather.

Keep in mind that this entire tour is in Spanish, and everyone else is from Argentina.

We were then coerced to go snorkeling in the freezing cold water, which turned out to be really fun. The visibilty wasn’t great, but we had a good time and saw a few cool schools of fish and some crabs.

Next on our voyage was a trip to a spot where orcas come up to the beach to grab sea lion ‘snacks’ off the water. Apparently, only 7 orcas in the world even have learned this behavior, so it’s a pretty rare thing to see. I’m actually sort of relieved we didn’t see that! The baby sea lions are so cute, they look like little grizzly bear pups- seeing one of them snatched up Planet Earth style might have traumatized me.

After that beach, went to 2 more spots, one to see sea lions and the other for elephant seals. It was definitely cool to see all of these animals in the wild.

After Puerto Madryn flew back to Buenos Aires again, more to come on that last part of our trip.

Words really can’t describe the experience we had today.

We trekked down to El Calafate at the recommedation of one of my Argentinian friends from San Fran. After he looked at me practically with tears in his eyes saying we had to go here, we opted for the epic trek down south to make it happen. I owe him a great deal of thanks, because it was so worth it.

We arrived in El Calafate, which is part of the Patagonia region that inspired the clothing company, and were completely shocked by how gigantic it was. The part we’re in is a beautiful, cold desert with gorgeous lakes and nearby national parks with the famous glacier.

Our hostel is darling. They serve a huge ‘all you can eat’ barbecue and salad bar each night, and let’s just say we got our money’s worth. We also made friends with Aussies, Brits, Frenchmen and a a few Americans on our first night, and had our dinner and drank wine with them (and unfortunately a spirit called Fernet, which is super popular here despite the fact it tastes like jagermeister wihout sugar) until the wee hours. Alex and I have now officially started telling everyone that we’re cousins, because everyone in buenos aires thought we were a couple and we didn’t seem as ‘approachable’ (not to mention that this was just a really awkward realization for us that people even thought this!) The American cousins from SoCal are a hit, so we’ll keep that up!

Our bus arrived early this morning and took us an hour away to Perito Moreno, the main glacier attraction. We met a young English girl on her ‘gap’ year (which, by the way, America should have- it’s a year of travel after high school and before college) and we hung out with her the whole time. The first couple hours were mainly a view of the immense glaciers, and an opportunity to take a small hike. We did this and took our shoes off to run around the shore of the lake with freezing glacier water.

Next on the agenda was a short but amazing boat ride across the south side of the glacier to our landing spot where you can hike on the ice. We landed and were strapped in to ‘cramp-ons’ which are hiking clamps that go over your boots to help you trek along the ice. After a short technical lesson on hiking a glacier, we were ready to go.

Let me just say that these glaciers are some of the most beautiful and bizarre things I’ve ever seen. They’re immense, hundreds of feet tall, jagged, imposing, and actually very blue. One of the craziest things is that parts of it are constantly falling off and causing a massive noise (like thunder or a car back-firing) and then causing a huge onset of waves in the lake below.

We start our hike and it’s immediately apparent this is not going to be easy. We’ve been instructed to walk ‘John Wayne’ style, and it’s an awakening of a lot of new muscles. But we trek along, and it’s really fun and the scenery is unbelievable.

We hike up and along the glacier in single file, and stop a few times for photos or to dip our water bottles in for some fresh glacier water (Evian will seem like gutter water to me after this!). We see some cool mini- waterfalls as well as frozen tide pools. All bright white or bright blue.

After about an hour, one of the guides gives an ice pick/ climb demonstration by going down a 20 ft. hole and using his picks to climb back up. Amazing! These guys have one of the best jobs in the world.

Toward the end of the trek we’re instructed to look down, and see that they’ve set up a glacier bar (!), complete with tumblers, ice straight from the glacier, and a whiskey for all! After one very international cheer, everyone sips fown the much deserved drink. I’ve never seen a group of people so giddy in my life. After the makeshift bar of amazingness, we hiked a short ways back, got on the boat and returned to our hostel.

Tomorrow we set off on a 20+ hour bus ride to Puerto Madryn (we splurged for the sleeping quarters). Another adventure awaits!

Ciao <3