Out of the mountains, into the lakes!

Cj and I just spent most of the past week trekking in the incredible Andes mountains of Argentinian Patagonia and have emerged in good spirits if not extremely sunburnt. Cj´s head actually looks like the desert and the top of my right ear seems to have peeled off, but my ankle held up thanks to the extra ACE bandage in Deanna´s medical kit, and we were able to see some truly amazing things.

Before the mountains we spent Christmas day exploring the huge Perito Moreno glacier outside of the town we flew into called El Calafate. Calafate is pretty touristy as was the glacier trip, but the glacier itself was amazing! A huge, blue field of ice, which was impressive enough in itself, but even more so when we took a boat trip around to watch it ¨calve,¨which is when a chunk breaks off and falls into the water. Sounds cool, but it scared the bejesus out of me the first time because it sounds like a cannon or a gunshot when the tiniest piece hits the water. We were told that part of the reason so much tourism is set up around this particular glacier (there are many, we hiked in the national park of glaciers) is because this glacier is ín balance´, meaning that it gains as much ice as it loses, and thus is not receding like the others. We then had a killer meal in town at El Cucharon, where Cj had his first ´bife de chorizo,´a delicious steak, and i had a local lamb dish that was to die for. We drank the local beer which is called Quilmes, of which there is like two dozen different cans and bottles in the grocery store but I think the beer is exactly the same...Speaking of lambs, the hostel we stayed at in Calafate had a little lamb roped outside, where he just hung out all day and played with Charlie, the black kitten that also lives there. Federico, our helpful hostel acquaintance, informed us that this little Ovejo was going to be New Years eve dinner, but they changed their mind and are keeping him as a mascot for the estancia. Thus they named the lamb something that means both ¨ass¨ and ¨lucky¨as a joke.

We then bussed to El Chalten, the main jumping off point for trekking, situated at the base of the Fitz Roy, Torre, and Solo mountain peaks. We later learned from a local that El Chalten is the youngest town in Argentina, established in the early 1980´s as a land grab from Chile. Because of this the town is kind of wackadoo: there are no zoning laws, residences and businesses mingle willy nilly and there is one funny block with a few street lights. Apparently there is only tourism in the summer which supports this town of 770 people the rest of the year. Cj had his first traditional mate here and the jury is still out on whether or not it´s too much of an acquired taste. We met a lot of funny travelers at our Albergue Patagonia, including a fantastic young irishwoman named Maria who invited us to share a meal with her and who I will hopefully see again in Buenos Aires, the awesome Argentinian ladies who ran the hostel, and a german woman who will remain nameless because she just complained CONSTANTLY about Patagonia not being beautiful or impressive compared to the West Coast of the US while simultaneously saying she moved away from Germany to get away from what she described as a generally accepted attitude of complaining. She also explained to me that there is no prejudice in Germany, unlike in the United States where racism exists, and she doesn´t understand why the French don´t like the Germans. I was super tired when we were talking and just kept laughing at her incredible lack of insight, but we ended up having a pretty good conversation...my social work chops need honing from time to time.

Anyway, Patagonia is freaking gorgeous. Huge, soaring, snow capped peaks, icy blue and green lakes and lagoons, waterfalls, condors soaring...A deer-like animal called the Huemule lives in the mountains and is endangered, hunted by both pumas and people (though the park rangers have banned hunting), and they asked us to record where and when if we were to happen upon one of these ¨ghosts of the Andes¨on our trek. Alas, we did not.

In Chalten there are hundreds of dogs roaming the streets who are not neutered or well cared for, which is sad, but i was told the town generally tries to make sure they don´t go hungry when their owners leave for the winter. There is some very cool street art and humorous signs like the meterological center of Chalten which consists of a rock on a string and a sign stating ¨when the rock is wet, it is rainy. When the rock is swinging, the weather will be windy,¨etc...Speaking of wind, it is so intense in this valley!! The day before we set out on our backpacking trip my primary goals were: 1. Do not further sprain or otherwise screw up my ankle, and 2. Do not get blown off a mountain. Luckily, neither of these things happened.

We hiked the first day to a gorgeous lagoon where we just played around and explored. The second day we did a pretty strenuous hike up to the Laguna de los Tres, which is situated right below the Cerro Fitz Roy, so close that you can see the tracks where the climbers walked across, but unfortunately couldn´t see any climbers on the peak. I was sweating bullets by the top and was blown away seeing all of the folks in their 50s and 60s hiking down with their walking sticks while keeping up conversation in Spanish, Italian, French, and German. It was warm and sunny and we had just hiked straight up for at least an hour, so cj decided to pull off his clothes and hop in the GLACIAL lake. There were chunks of ice floating in it! So, needless to say, onlookers gasped and cheered and then a number of other guys decided to get in...one guy even went so far as to ride a chunk of ice for a few minutes. Besides the astounding beauty, one of my favorite things about being up here is that you can just drink the water straight out of the rivers and streams because it´s all glacial. It´s incredible! Cj got a couple of pictures of me drinking waterfall...Such a wonderful experience but also made me feel sad that it´s so foreign to be able to drink our water.

We camped that night at Poincenot, whereupon i did not sleep, got my period unexpectedly Sorry, TMI!), became extremely cranky and had a minor meltdown, informing cj in the morning that we were going back to town. Instead, he asked me to think what a ¨mountain woman¨would do in this situation and that I had access to clean socks and lots of plants. After yelling at him for not knowing what it´s like to be bleeding on top of a mountain, I decided he was right and would once again access the glory of Deanna´s medical kit. Thus, we were off on the next leg of our trip, a 5 hour unmarked trail to a refugio, or small ¨refuge¨where we could get food and sleep. Cj picked this leg of the journey because he thought it might be sufficiently ¨hardcore.¨ This was probably the most cathartic part of our trek for me because it was GODDAMNED HARD. We had to ford a river and rockclimb with our packs on and I lost it again because I thought i was going to fall in the river until cj clambered down like the lithe monkey he is and took my pack. Anyway, we met 4 other people on this whole hike and by the time we all got to the refugio, we were friends. It was hardcore. Ina and Franck from Germany (teachers living in Buenos Aires) and Frank from Holland who is biking around Argentina as part of his midlife crisis (his words). We had a fantastic dinner of pizza cooked by Flave and Jose, accompanied by beer and great conversation. I slept well that night.

We hiked out the next day in the raging wind and prepared to hitchhike back down Ruta 23 because we didn´t realize how far out we were and had to be back in town to catch our bus to Esquel that evening. One car came in about half an hour and didn´t even look twice at us! Luckily, a taxi showed up and dropped off some hikers starting from the other direction, so we hopped in back to town and i got a chance to converse in spanish again, which was not so common on the trek.

Filthy and tired but happy, we hopped on the bus on New Years eve and settled in for a 23 hour ride to Esquel. Our hilarious co-bus driver surprised us with Pan Dulce and apple champagne along with old Argentinian music videos and a new years countdown to ring it in bus-style. Needless to say, I slept a lot, we met two medical students from Germany and some folks who are on a very long cycling trip and watched the landscape which was...exactly the same for 22 hours: flat and brown with spiky green bushes. An hour before Esquel the hills rose up and things turned green...we are now out of Patagonia and in the very beginning of the Lakes District. Today is laundry and internet in this very non-touristy town (nothing open on New Years day or Sunday until 4pm!) and then we head to a little hippie enclave called el Bolson tomorrow where we will do more hiking and go to a local crafts fair, and hopefully eat some vegetables! We have mostly eaten bread, cheese and ham in the past 6 days, in a variety of forms, with a couple of oranges and a truly excellent bean and sausage stew called ¨locro¨a few nights ago.

As a side note, I sort of mocked my dear friend Deanna for making us a very complex medical kit to take on our backpacking trip but I am eating my words. We have used:
1. ACE bandage for ankle
2. Gauze pads repurposed for ¨mountain woman¨pads
3. Tape for cj´s broken shoe, to fix above mentioned pads to undies, and to mend a hole in our tent to keep out the sand flies thus preventing increased exposure to DREAD DISEASE
4. Claritin because cj was smart and realized he was having allergies and not the plague, so I didn´t take any allergy meds until i went and saw a pharmacist today and now i feel like a NEW WOMAN
5. Aleve for aching feet, backs and heads
6. Bandaids for blistered toes
7. Disinfectant for cj´s wound which we think was a bite from one of the monstrous, thumb-sized flies that attacked everyone who was not doused in DEET

So, um, thank you!!

We can´t upload pictures here which would help illustrate all of this SO much better, but those will have to come later.

We love you guys! Off to more adventures...I think I have found a spanish teacher for my time in Bs As thanks to Bre´s friend Mirta. Also, our friends from the refugio have invited us to visit them in the city, which we are excited to do! Until next time...xoxox keren and cj...next post will be from him!