Advertisement
Published: October 9th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Sorry its been so long since my last entry, if you check I finally uploaded some more photos. The internet is always unreliable and travelblog was down for a while. After a few adventures we have made it to the Galapagos and started our volunteering. We get to come to town on the weekends and can use internet. The reserve we are working on is great and all the other volunteers are super nice. I will definitley elaborate more on that later. But for now I wanted to give you a quick recount of the rest of our time in argentina and show some more photos.
So after Iguazu we spent 2 days 3 nights in El Calafate in Patagonia. Our frist whole day there we took a tour into the national park and saw the Pieto Moreno Glacier, it is an incredible site, we walked around for a few hours watching it crack and break, it was very cold but totally surreal to be watching this giant wall of ice move. It moves around 2 meters a day at the time we were there! We also went on a boat tour to go right in front of it, we
Biggest glacier
Biggest glacier in south america, note all the enormus ice bergs, bigger than a city block were on the tour with 4 other people(2 americans and 2 spainards) on this huge boat that could have heald over 150, so that was odd, but cool.
The second day there we took a long boat tour to see all the other glaciers around. Aaron was really sick, he had a cold and felt like crap, but luckily he could stay inside the warm boat the whole time. For lunch we went to a lake that was fed by 3 different glaciers, it was filled with ice and very picturesque. The next day we left for Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego.
In Ushuaia we took it easy the first day and tried to set up some activities for the next few days, we had 3 whole days there and it seemed like there was a lot we could do. We went to a tour company and the guy that worked there was a complete idiot and really didn´t understand english too well although he was very confident in his ability. After much confusion, we tried to book a couple of really cool sounding tours with mountain biking and hiking on glaciers with cramp ons, and when he called
in they said ¨no way, its too cold and still covered with snow to do those tours¨ even after I has clearly asked him if we could do those tours now, in the winter time. He finally booked us on a 4x4 tour for saturday that included canoeing as well as something called ¨nieve y fuego¨ snow and fire, a nightime excursion that had dog sledding and walking with snow shoes.
The next day, friday, we decided to hike up to the glacier that was nearby to the town. Once again we were confused on wehre to go and ended up hiking a really nice hike through the forest below the glacier and as we hiked up higher and higher there was more and more snow, eventually we were knee deep and couldn´t see the trail any more, so we turned back and found the ski lift that takes you to the top in liew of the trail, we were freezing but still managed to make it and see the incredible view of the Beagle channel and the town. Aaron was still sick and thinking it wasn´t a very good idea...
The next day, saturday, we had our
4x4 tour and it was raining. We were concerned about the canoeing, but went anyways. OUr guide didn´t really speak english but he was still really fun and we did the trip with 2 other people a girl from buenos aires and a french girl that spoke almost fluent spanish. We worked really hard on speaking and understanding spanish that day, and saw beaver dams, went through brief snow storms and saw a few lakes, it was fun. That night the same guide picked us up for ¨nieve and fuego¨ane we went out to the area where we hiked with snow shoes over mostly mud and a few patches of snow, completely ridiculous, but easy anyhow. We came up to this little wooden structure and there was a big fire and dinner waiting, it was really great. They played guitar and sang, there were about 12 other people on the trip. It was really fun. On the way back we got to ride in the dog sled, we went really fast and even caught air. Those dogs are incredibly powerful. The best part was the view, by that time it had cleared up and the moon lit up the entire
National Park
Glassy lake from the hike in Tierra del Fuego national park valley and the snow covered mountains were an image out of a movie or something. The stars were shining brightly and the few clouds framed the southern cross just right. It was truely a sight I hope to never forget.
On Sunday we went hiking in the national park along a lake and saw glassy water reflecting the mountains. It was an easy hike and we even went across the boarder to chile. We flew out that night to Buenos Aires, spent the night there (see the other blog entry)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.274s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 16; qc: 55; dbt: 0.07s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Betsy
non-member comment
Beautiful
I love your guys's blogs. Its like we are there with you! Keep it up!