Trespassing with Ann!

First full day in Calafate today and it was one of the best I've had so far on this trip. We got up at 9 but missed the shuttle to the glacier, Perito Moreno, so instead we came up with our own agenda. The town is really cute with a nice main street and views comparable to Ushuaia's (but, in my opinion not as good). My favorite part was the Borges Libro-Bar, which was recommended by the hostel. It's the coolest place I've ever seen. Everything is wooden, feels almost like a treehouse, there are comfortable couches and tables and of course, the walls are lined with books. I could spend all day there just reading and drinking my fav. cafe con leche. The guys ordered some ridiculous Irish coffee's but too early for me so I had a cafe americano. We hung out there for a bit then walked to the Laguna Nivez ecological reserve. Since we can't see penguins on this trip, we got to see flamingos, which is almost as cool when it comes to birds. I'm so bitter about the penguins, I don't know if I already mentioned this but why do they have to be such pussies!? Apparently in the winter it gets too cold for them so they migrate to the Galapagos. Lame. I'm just going to have to buy a stuffed one and take a picture of it on the glaciers.

Basically we spent the day wandering around, off the map, just trying to head in the right direction. Our good judgement led us on a long walk through a dump before we got back into town, nice. Then the adventure really began. The girl from the hostel recommended we walk along this river that runs through a canyon outside town. So, we get to the river, think we see a path and follow it. Not only was this NOT a path, it was all mud, dirt, rocks and other obstacles we had to get by. We climbed up the steep hills, went through trees, and jumped down cliffs to stay near the river and to get around the numerous fences we encountered. It was literally a natural obstacle course, but so much fun. We had lunch on one of the hills down there and then continued on a road finally (which we got to by scaling the side of a bridge) toward the canyon.

Right when we left town we had picked up a stray dog who ended up following/leading us the entire way. We named her Ann in honor of Ann G. our favorite leader ever and it's ironic because she did end up leading us most of the way and guided us to the right trails. She was a really gorgeous husky but kind of looked more like a wolf. Also, for a stray she was really well behaved and only ate the food we gave her and then curled up for a nap during our picnic.

We walked pretty far, off the road onto the trails through the canyon. Since no one trail was really defined we blazed our own. It was more of a hike than anything else, we got pretty high up one of the mountains on the edge of the river. The view from there was worth it though. You could see the town, then Lake Argentino right behind it and beyond that more mountains. So weird because where the canyon was it felt like dry desert with rocky, red mountains and huge rolling pampas with horses everywhere. Then to the right you could see the expected Patagonia with the snow and water. Very cool.

Anywayyy I guess it's not a very exciting story but it was just so much fun getting lost and trekking through private property with our new, loyal dog friend, Ann. She stuck with us the whole time and led us to a good place for crossing the canyon and then back up onto another trail. On the way back we were definitely walking through people's private land and were lucky no guard dogs or angry Argentines with shotguns crossed our path. Back at America del Sur now, time to power nap then decide between going out or going to the grocery store to cook dinner here. Blahhh I don't want to cook but I need to save money. They have an all you can eat asado here too which is so tempting. This trip is getting expensive. 375 pesos for the bus to Bariloche (which is going to be total of 32 hours, shoot me in the face) and then 165 for the glacier tour tomorrow plus 96 for the 2 nights at the hostel. Damnnnn not leaving me much to buy any souvenirs.

---

---