Week 6: Waterfalls, Glaciers, and last few days in Buenos Aires

This is the coldest I have ever been in July. El Calafate, the small town I am currently in is at about 55 degrees south latitude, a good deal below South Africa and Australia, and just about level with the southern tip of New Zealand. The town itself is tiny, with a population of about 7000 people. I have been travelling with Isaac, a fellow Yalie who also took part in the same study abroad program as me, as Admin had to abandon our travel plans due to crazy visa issues that she’s dealing with. (apparently she resembles one of Argentina’s most wanted to an eerie extent, and argentinian immigrations services are unwilling to let her enter their country)

The reason I am in the wonderfully (that’s right, I’m bringing wonderful back) quaint town of El Calafate is that it is an hour away from the Glaciers National Park, one of the world’s natural heritage sites. El C is a town that gets most of its business from the tourism industry. Even though its low season right now (in the dead of winter), the hostel that I’m staying at is full of tourists, mostly young students. We’ve had two full days here, and have made the most use of them. Yesterday, we went on a tour of the national park, that included a 1 hour bus ride to and from the park, a short 1 hour boat ride to the south face of the glacier Perito Moreno, and then a 2 hour walk around the different balcony viewing points of the same glacier. The glacier itself is huge, with an area of more than the whole city of Buenos Aires, and towering up to 60 meters. The last time I felt as cold as I did when I was on the boat was at the Yale Harvard football game, and that was very very very cold. The day trip was a lot of fun, in a large part because our whole tour group was students. There was a Spanish girl who was travelling alone who we befriended, two Americans who were also studying in Buenos Aires, and four British guys on a gap year after school who all thought each other was hilarious, and called each other ‘ol chap.

Today we took a boat tour of all the glaciers in the region. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the biggest one, Upsala, because the path to it was blocked by a number of large icebergs, which had broken off from the glacier, and didn’t let us get any where near it. Nevertheless, along with seeing all those awesome bigass icebergs, we saw two other glaciers. First was Viedma ( I think that’s what its called), which was an awesome sight. The glacier is surrounded by ice capped mountains on both sides, and on one side it actually extends up three quarters of the mountain. The different colours on show were spectacular. The sea was a shade of turquoise, the ice capped peaks were white, the bases of the mountains were brown and green filled with trees, and the glacier was crystal blue. Crazily enough there was also a waterfall on the opposite side of the mountain. Why some of the water decided to freeze and form a glacier, and the other decided to remain liquid and fall down the mountain side right next to the glacier, I cannot explain. We then went to see the north side of the perito Moreno glacier, which was as beautiful as the south side. The crowd on the boat tour was very different from that of the previous day, with everyone being much older, probably because it was quite a bit more expensive.

We also happen to be staying in one of the most awesome hostels I’ve been in. The view from the common room is just spectacular, as it looks out to the crystal blue lake argentina, with snow capped peaks in the distance. The hostel is full of young people, and the common room is alive with people meeting each other, reading, playing music and eating at all times. Because the touristyness of the town makes it really expensive, we decided to cook by ourselves (well Isaac did most of the cooking while I watched and gave a few words of wisdom off and on), and created a yummy pasta with chorizos, which lasted us for two dinners. We’ve been living a pretty healthy lifestyle too, waking up at about 7 in the morning to make the tours, even though the sun doesn’t rise here till about 930 am. Unfortunately we couldn’t quite get to see the sunrise today, because it was too cloudy and misty by the time we made it on to the boat. Tomorrow we head to Mendoza, the wine capital of the country, by way of a 48 hour bus ride, covering over half of Argentina’s length. I have a sort of trashy biography of the Bush family that will keep me company. Needless to say, we also stocked up well at the supermarket, with bread, jam, biscuits, and the cheapest wine we could find ($1.7). Luckily I can’t tell a good or bad wine apart, so I think I should be fine, though I plan on taking a wine appreciation lesson once I get to Mendoza.

Before flying down to EL Calafate, I divided the last week of my program (during which I didn’t have classes) between Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. The Iguazu Falls were of course beautiful as well. Thankfully everything wasn’t as much of a tourist trap as I found things to be in the Niagara Falls. The boat ride that took us close to the falls completely drenched us. While on the boat, we were about 10 meters away from the Braziian coast. I met an Indian lady on one of the viewing points closest to the falls, and lost ten pesos in the process, because I had bet with one of my friends that she wasn’t Indian, saying ‘of course I would be able to recognize an Indian if I saw one’. As I spoke with her in Hindi, Spanish words unconscioualy came tumbling out at random moments. I guess the second language compartment of my brain is kind of confused at the moment. Once I go home though, I need to set that right, lest my mom disowns me.
My last few days in Buenos Aires included a lot of going out and making the most I could of the city. As it happened, some muwci folk: Dianita, Lieke, Ellen and Sara, were in town for a day. We spent one whole night together, gossiping about muwci (muwci gossip never gets old), going to bars, cafes and a club. And when I say one whole night, that’s literally what I mean, from 7pm to 7am, in real porteno style. We went to a café at about 5 in the morning, and it was absolutely full with people who were putting an end to their night (Tuesday night that too) with some tea or coffee. How Argentinians manage such a life style I will never know. As Isaac puts it, ‘they’re absolutely craaaaazy’.

Having been in touching distance of the border with Brazil in the northeast, and the border with Chile in the southwest, I now have a week left of travelling before heading home.