I am currently in Valparaiso, Chile. Clearly I have absolutely failed at updating this thing in a timely manner. But, I have been jotting down what I do each day, and trying to continue putting a lot of love and memories with each written blog post, hence why they take so long to write. And I will finish writing about every day of my trip in the near future. If you want real, day to day updates, SnapChat is probably your best option (most likely going to be a hilarious sentence in 20 years when I look back on this blog).
Tuesday 3-31-15
The previous night we had heard that Argentina was going on strike and that no public transportation was going to be let in or out of the country. So there was the potential we could be waiting at the border for quite some time on our bus. But, upon hearing this, I consulted the awesome hostel employee and she called the bus line, who said not to worry. Still, we had little idea what was going on and if we were going to be caught in a sticky situation on our bus. We heard the info at 10pm the night before, so there wasn’t much we could do besides show up for the bus and hope for the best (as opposed to moving our reservation or such).
We got up and were downstairs at 6:30 sharp for the start of breakfast, and we departed the hostel for the 10 minute walk with all of our stuff at 6:45. Arrived at 6:55, checked in, and I couldn’t find my ticket (first time that I can remember being unprepared), but the guy was very nice and used my passport to confirm everything. We threw our stuff on the bottom of the bus, and it started to pull away at about 7:03. While it was pulling out of the parking spot, I double checked to make sure I had my passport, and it was not in it’s normal place. So my heart skipped a beat, and knowing that it could possibly be in the office and I had almost no time to act, I ran to the front of the bus, knocked on the glass door and told the bus driver I left my passport. He cussed in Spanish, told me the office was closed and had to call the man to come back. The man ran back, I told him I think I left my passport in the office, and he disagreed. But, even though he was clearly in a huge hurry, he was nice enough to run the 40 steps to unlock the office, check the counter, and sure enough, it was absent. Oh god. I thanked him and his inpatient friend, hopped back on the bus and prayed that the passport was somewhere in my things. I frantically researched my carry on backpack, and after a minute or two, the passport turned up in my folder next to my reciprocity fee (which I had to show the office guy to confirm the ticket). I took a huge deep breath and just settled for about 10 minutes, not going to lie, I was freaking out. Loosing my passport may be the worst (non-physically harmful) thing that could possibly happen on this trip.
The bus ride ended up being very smooth, border patrol didn’t take long at all, and we got to El Calafate a little after noon. By this point, we realized the best thing to do when you arrive in a city is to check the days/times of the buses to the next city to which you’re headed. That way you don’t miss buses if they’re not every day, and you can know what the options are for exactly how long you’ll be in the city. So, we did that, and we consulted the information desk to ask about the Perito Moreno Glacier options. The lady referred us to a company and we wasted no time in heading to their office.
Turns out there were 2 options to walk on the glacier: “minitrekking” and “big ice”. We were told that Big Ice is very hard to book, it is always full, but the lady told us that she had 2 recent cancellations, so Gabi and I jumped on the opportunity. We definitely weren’t going home, so guess we were going Big. We were going to be picked up at 7am the next morning and dropped off at 7pm, and she made it clear we needed to be in good physical shape in order to participate. Apparently it was 7 hours on the glacier, we were pumped.
We headed to our hostel, I Keu Ken, the same hostel where we wasted 4 hours from 3am-7am a short week earlier, and prepared for a chill day. We went to the grocery store, made lunch and dinner, and just relaxed all day after many long days in a row of hiking and traveling. An Israeli named Yosi that we had met a few times on the W came to the hostel later in the afternoon (because I told him he should stay there too) to check in, and he joined our clan. Our wolfpack grew from 2 to 3. He also managed to snag another spot on the Big Ice trek with us the next day, and did basically all of the cooking for dinner. He’s a good guy.
Circling back to the Argentinean strike we had heard of, turns out it was a real thing, just only for Buenos Aires. On that day, no planes were flying in or out of BA (I believe), and the city buses were not running as well. Not sure what the strike was for, but there were 2 USA lads at the hostel basically wasting time because their flight back to BA had been cancelled, and they couldn’t get another flight until Friday due to the fact that they were camping in the wilderness when the news broke. Seems like these things happen in South America, sometimes things are closed or cancelled or not working or on strike and there is very little or no warning.
Wednesday 4-1-15
Gabi and I were sharing a room with a French girl and all 3 of us woke up at 6am. Turns out she was going to experience the glacier as well. After a quick breakfast, the van was at the hostel promptly at 6:57am. It was still dark. We then picked up others, transferred to a bus, changed buses again, and by 9:30, our bus of Big Icer-ers had arrived at the glacier park. The package cost us 1,680 pesos and this did not include the 215 peso charge for park entrance, which a park employee came on the bus to collect. Quite an expensive venture, but being able to walk on a glacier is priceless.
First we had an our to view the glacier from the metal walkway viewpoints. The glacier looked incredible, but we did not have the best luck with weather. It was snowing/raining and it was freezing. And the clouds were very low so you really couldn’t see very far into the distance. But regardless, the glacier looked extremely impressively large. We then hopped back on the bus, defrosted, and headed to the boat dock. The boat took us across the water, where then we split up into English and Spanish groups and walked up a hill to the little base building where we had the option to leave some stuff if we didn’t want to carry everything.
On the hike up, we met 2 guys in our group from Minnesota, Ben and Nate. They were cool guys who were living the life. They were traveling for a year while working 20 hours per week remotely from their laptops. Different jobs, but both of their employees were allowing it. So they had built in relaxation days, and they were covering costs. Amazing. We hung out with them throughout the day and advised them on what we had heard and done because they didn’t have much planned.
The hike was about 30 minutes uphill right along the side of the glacier, which went farther than we could see at all times during this day. When we reached the hut, we were fitted for cramp-ons and harnesses, and we headed down the hill to the ice. I only took a couple of steps on the ice before we put the cramp-ons on, but I can confirm it was ice. It was very slippery.
Walking with the crampons was fun, they definitely worked as you could stab your shoe into the ice and it would be very stable. After a quick lesson on how to walk uphill/downhill/sideways/etc from Violeta, our attractive English group guide, we split up into two groups and set off. We walked up and down the hills of the glacier and over the blue crevices, some of which went farther down than we could see. It was a blast just walking on the ice and looking around and attempting to walk with the correct form. Walking downhill, you’re supposed heavily bend your knees and lean back, a lot like the “Bernie” dance. So I was able to prove to everyone, especially Gabi, that I could do the best Bernie of the group.
After about an hour of walking and only breaking the ice a few times, we stopped to eat lunch. It was still freezing outside, so this was no easy task, but we all brought food and were very hungry. It was probably 1:30 or 2 by now. I stupidly sat on the ice and the butt of my pants got rather wet, which was not pleasant when we started walking again. Lunch was pretty quick, probably because it started to snow heavily. After lunch, it wasn’t long before we were headed back to base. We definitely didn’t walk on the ice for 7 hours, but we think the weather had a lot to do with that (since apparently there are tremendous views on a clear day), and there was some heavy marketing involved in the sale regardless. Apparently many others had heard the “2 spots just opened up” schpeel, which definitely worked on us. But the whole experience was worth the money regardless, it was a ton of fun.
Taking the cramp-ons off was interesting as well, they worked the ankles pretty hard, so our ankles felt new and strong the first couple 100 steps after removal. We put away our supplies, used the bathroom/forest, and hiked back down before taking the boat, then bus. After a nap-filled bus ride back to El Calafate, we arrived at the hostel at about 5:30, not the 7pm like we were told. But relaxed for a second, showered, and then Gabi and I met Scott and Gee (from our W trek) for dinner and drinks at Begones y Alvarez, a fun touristy bar on the main street.
Thursday 4-2-15
Today we had planned to do nothing, just relax, catch up on travel planning, and journaling/blogging, and catch a later bus to El Chalten. There wasn’t much to do in El Calafate aside from the glacier anyway. Also, it was awful weather of rain and cold all day, good day to lay low. Gabi, Yosi, and I all set up shop in the main room with a great view, and didn’t move much.
I actually left at about 12:30 and walked around the main square for a bit where I didn’t buy anything, got some empanadas, and then walked back. It’s the same thing in every touristy shop in every city. Keychains, Mates (mah-tehs), and over priced clothes. Back at the hostel we continued to chill and discussed some sedar options. Yosi and I and Alie (another crew member staying at our hostel) all wanted to do something for passover, so we had to figure that out. Israeli’s have a ridiculous traveling network, so Yosi found an option in El Chalten and we discussed the pros and cons of attending that sedar. In the end, we decided to do it. We caught the bus at 6:30pm and were on our way to Chalten, supposed to arrive at 9:30, and with hostel reservations at De Lo Trivi, the same hostel as Ben and Nate.
About an hour into the bus ride, the bus broke down. Go figure. So, we waited for about 2 hours for another bus to come save us. During those 2 hours, we bonded with others on our bus, including a group of 3 girls from the states/Canada who had just completed their W trek. Being able to hang and joke around with them made the 2 hours go by pretty quick.
We got to Chalten at 11:30 and didn’t get to the hostel until just after midnight, where we found that the hostel was closed. The owner/front desk worker had gone to sleep. But we had reservations for 4 and there was an open room, with the light on, and 4 beds. So we asked some of the guys in the common area if we should take it, and they said probably, why not. So we did. The only catch was that there were no sheet or pillow cases, only a blanket for each bed. So we all covered our pillows with shirts and made it work. This confirmed that we were only going to stay at that hostel for one night, though.
Tuesday 3-31-15
The previous night we had heard that Argentina was going on strike and that no public transportation was going to be let in or out of the country. So there was the potential we could be waiting at the border for quite some time on our bus. But, upon hearing this, I consulted the awesome hostel employee and she called the bus line, who said not to worry. Still, we had little idea what was going on and if we were going to be caught in a sticky situation on our bus. We heard the info at 10pm the night before, so there wasn’t much we could do besides show up for the bus and hope for the best (as opposed to moving our reservation or such).
We got up and were downstairs at 6:30 sharp for the start of breakfast, and we departed the hostel for the 10 minute walk with all of our stuff at 6:45. Arrived at 6:55, checked in, and I couldn’t find my ticket (first time that I can remember being unprepared), but the guy was very nice and used my passport to confirm everything. We threw our stuff on the bottom of the bus, and it started to pull away at about 7:03. While it was pulling out of the parking spot, I double checked to make sure I had my passport, and it was not in it’s normal place. So my heart skipped a beat, and knowing that it could possibly be in the office and I had almost no time to act, I ran to the front of the bus, knocked on the glass door and told the bus driver I left my passport. He cussed in Spanish, told me the office was closed and had to call the man to come back. The man ran back, I told him I think I left my passport in the office, and he disagreed. But, even though he was clearly in a huge hurry, he was nice enough to run the 40 steps to unlock the office, check the counter, and sure enough, it was absent. Oh god. I thanked him and his inpatient friend, hopped back on the bus and prayed that the passport was somewhere in my things. I frantically researched my carry on backpack, and after a minute or two, the passport turned up in my folder next to my reciprocity fee (which I had to show the office guy to confirm the ticket). I took a huge deep breath and just settled for about 10 minutes, not going to lie, I was freaking out. Loosing my passport may be the worst (non-physically harmful) thing that could possibly happen on this trip.
The bus ride ended up being very smooth, border patrol didn’t take long at all, and we got to El Calafate a little after noon. By this point, we realized the best thing to do when you arrive in a city is to check the days/times of the buses to the next city to which you’re headed. That way you don’t miss buses if they’re not every day, and you can know what the options are for exactly how long you’ll be in the city. So, we did that, and we consulted the information desk to ask about the Perito Moreno Glacier options. The lady referred us to a company and we wasted no time in heading to their office.
Turns out there were 2 options to walk on the glacier: “minitrekking” and “big ice”. We were told that Big Ice is very hard to book, it is always full, but the lady told us that she had 2 recent cancellations, so Gabi and I jumped on the opportunity. We definitely weren’t going home, so guess we were going Big. We were going to be picked up at 7am the next morning and dropped off at 7pm, and she made it clear we needed to be in good physical shape in order to participate. Apparently it was 7 hours on the glacier, we were pumped.
We headed to our hostel, I Keu Ken, the same hostel where we wasted 4 hours from 3am-7am a short week earlier, and prepared for a chill day. We went to the grocery store, made lunch and dinner, and just relaxed all day after many long days in a row of hiking and traveling. An Israeli named Yosi that we had met a few times on the W came to the hostel later in the afternoon (because I told him he should stay there too) to check in, and he joined our clan. Our wolfpack grew from 2 to 3. He also managed to snag another spot on the Big Ice trek with us the next day, and did basically all of the cooking for dinner. He’s a good guy.
Circling back to the Argentinean strike we had heard of, turns out it was a real thing, just only for Buenos Aires. On that day, no planes were flying in or out of BA (I believe), and the city buses were not running as well. Not sure what the strike was for, but there were 2 USA lads at the hostel basically wasting time because their flight back to BA had been cancelled, and they couldn’t get another flight until Friday due to the fact that they were camping in the wilderness when the news broke. Seems like these things happen in South America, sometimes things are closed or cancelled or not working or on strike and there is very little or no warning.
Wednesday 4-1-15
Gabi and I were sharing a room with a French girl and all 3 of us woke up at 6am. Turns out she was going to experience the glacier as well. After a quick breakfast, the van was at the hostel promptly at 6:57am. It was still dark. We then picked up others, transferred to a bus, changed buses again, and by 9:30, our bus of Big Icer-ers had arrived at the glacier park. The package cost us 1,680 pesos and this did not include the 215 peso charge for park entrance, which a park employee came on the bus to collect. Quite an expensive venture, but being able to walk on a glacier is priceless.
First we had an our to view the glacier from the metal walkway viewpoints. The glacier looked incredible, but we did not have the best luck with weather. It was snowing/raining and it was freezing. And the clouds were very low so you really couldn’t see very far into the distance. But regardless, the glacier looked extremely impressively large. We then hopped back on the bus, defrosted, and headed to the boat dock. The boat took us across the water, where then we split up into English and Spanish groups and walked up a hill to the little base building where we had the option to leave some stuff if we didn’t want to carry everything.
On the hike up, we met 2 guys in our group from Minnesota, Ben and Nate. They were cool guys who were living the life. They were traveling for a year while working 20 hours per week remotely from their laptops. Different jobs, but both of their employees were allowing it. So they had built in relaxation days, and they were covering costs. Amazing. We hung out with them throughout the day and advised them on what we had heard and done because they didn’t have much planned.
The hike was about 30 minutes uphill right along the side of the glacier, which went farther than we could see at all times during this day. When we reached the hut, we were fitted for cramp-ons and harnesses, and we headed down the hill to the ice. I only took a couple of steps on the ice before we put the cramp-ons on, but I can confirm it was ice. It was very slippery.
Walking with the crampons was fun, they definitely worked as you could stab your shoe into the ice and it would be very stable. After a quick lesson on how to walk uphill/downhill/sideways/etc from Violeta, our attractive English group guide, we split up into two groups and set off. We walked up and down the hills of the glacier and over the blue crevices, some of which went farther down than we could see. It was a blast just walking on the ice and looking around and attempting to walk with the correct form. Walking downhill, you’re supposed heavily bend your knees and lean back, a lot like the “Bernie” dance. So I was able to prove to everyone, especially Gabi, that I could do the best Bernie of the group.
After about an hour of walking and only breaking the ice a few times, we stopped to eat lunch. It was still freezing outside, so this was no easy task, but we all brought food and were very hungry. It was probably 1:30 or 2 by now. I stupidly sat on the ice and the butt of my pants got rather wet, which was not pleasant when we started walking again. Lunch was pretty quick, probably because it started to snow heavily. After lunch, it wasn’t long before we were headed back to base. We definitely didn’t walk on the ice for 7 hours, but we think the weather had a lot to do with that (since apparently there are tremendous views on a clear day), and there was some heavy marketing involved in the sale regardless. Apparently many others had heard the “2 spots just opened up” schpeel, which definitely worked on us. But the whole experience was worth the money regardless, it was a ton of fun.
Taking the cramp-ons off was interesting as well, they worked the ankles pretty hard, so our ankles felt new and strong the first couple 100 steps after removal. We put away our supplies, used the bathroom/forest, and hiked back down before taking the boat, then bus. After a nap-filled bus ride back to El Calafate, we arrived at the hostel at about 5:30, not the 7pm like we were told. But relaxed for a second, showered, and then Gabi and I met Scott and Gee (from our W trek) for dinner and drinks at Begones y Alvarez, a fun touristy bar on the main street.
Thursday 4-2-15
Today we had planned to do nothing, just relax, catch up on travel planning, and journaling/blogging, and catch a later bus to El Chalten. There wasn’t much to do in El Calafate aside from the glacier anyway. Also, it was awful weather of rain and cold all day, good day to lay low. Gabi, Yosi, and I all set up shop in the main room with a great view, and didn’t move much.
I actually left at about 12:30 and walked around the main square for a bit where I didn’t buy anything, got some empanadas, and then walked back. It’s the same thing in every touristy shop in every city. Keychains, Mates (mah-tehs), and over priced clothes. Back at the hostel we continued to chill and discussed some sedar options. Yosi and I and Alie (another crew member staying at our hostel) all wanted to do something for passover, so we had to figure that out. Israeli’s have a ridiculous traveling network, so Yosi found an option in El Chalten and we discussed the pros and cons of attending that sedar. In the end, we decided to do it. We caught the bus at 6:30pm and were on our way to Chalten, supposed to arrive at 9:30, and with hostel reservations at De Lo Trivi, the same hostel as Ben and Nate.
About an hour into the bus ride, the bus broke down. Go figure. So, we waited for about 2 hours for another bus to come save us. During those 2 hours, we bonded with others on our bus, including a group of 3 girls from the states/Canada who had just completed their W trek. Being able to hang and joke around with them made the 2 hours go by pretty quick.
We got to Chalten at 11:30 and didn’t get to the hostel until just after midnight, where we found that the hostel was closed. The owner/front desk worker had gone to sleep. But we had reservations for 4 and there was an open room, with the light on, and 4 beds. So we asked some of the guys in the common area if we should take it, and they said probably, why not. So we did. The only catch was that there were no sheet or pillow cases, only a blanket for each bed. So we all covered our pillows with shirts and made it work. This confirmed that we were only going to stay at that hostel for one night, though.