Things get interesting...

Jan. 15

What a lovely day. El Chalten is not our favorite place at the moment... It is about 30 degrees, it is pouring ass rain and it is so windy that we can barely stand upright at times. Needless to say, most of our tents are drenched along with everything in them. Heidi, Sara, and I spent the day outside, if you can imagine, trying to line up a trip to the nearby glacier. We felt as though it was a futile attempt since the weather was so foul, but we didn´t travel all this way to not at least try. Back at camp, most of our fellow travelers were in rightful foul moods or drunk.

It was a bit of a nightmare getting our trip organized. We needed to rent boots, buy rain pants, buy different gloves etc. All at different stores of course which required going out into the ghastly weather again and again. But in the end, it was all sorted out.

We spent the night in a giant workshop at the edge of town because all of the hostels were full. Most of us were greatly relieved we wouldn´t be stuck on the tuck overnight. Gotta love Patagonian weather. I can´t believe this is summertime...

Jan. 16

Holy shit! We awoke, in our dirty shed, to a glorious morning with bright skies and beautiful mountains that were previously hidden in shrouds of cloud and rain. It was like someone had flipped a switch. We were so excited and greatful that we braved the elements the previous day to book our glacier trip.

We took a boat across a lake to the Viedma glacier for our day excursion of ice trekking. After a short hike, we strapped on our crampons and took to the ice. We took amazing pictures as our guides led us around the glacier. Some people in the group were able to go ice climbing, which is what Heidi and I wanted to do, but it was booked full by the time we got all of our gear lined around. Bastards. We are still a bit bitter about that. Oh well. We had a great time anyways.

After a few hours, the guides gave us a nice cupful of Bailey´s Irish Cream with glacier ice. It was fantastic and we could have been content to spend the rest of the day on the glacier. We then ate lunch back on the boat and headed for shore.

That afternoon we left El Chalten for Calafate where we will visit another glacier and spend a couple of days.

Jan. 17

Arrived in Calafate late the previous night and for some reason the booking at the hostel was not correct. Once again, we have no rooms. Fuck. We ended up spending the night in their new construction site without any ammenities. BUT, we have upgraded from a shop (sleeping on plywood) to an almost hostel (with bunk beds and matresses!).

Today we had a free day in town. We spend the morning showering and pretending to be ¨civilized¨ human beings again. Then we had lunch and found a wine store, wandered around a bit, moved into our real rooms and are now at the internet cafe. I think tonight we shall try some local food and have a few drinks. Who knows, maybe we´ll even convince some people to go dancing!!!