Calafate & Chaltén, Argentina

Getting to Argentina made our hearts beat fast... not just because we are totally enamored with this country (and we are!), but because we had to chase the bus that got us here! We were walking to the corner of the bus stop at 6:55ish am to catch the 7am bus only to watch it pull away and coast down the dark street without us. Again, Cullen saved the day by running (he caught up to the bus four blocks down the road) and I contributed by running down the middle of the street waving my arms wildly and whistling (apologies to the sleeping people of Puerto Natales!). We made a graceful entrance onto the bus, took our seats, and eventually got our breath back. Part of the reason we got off to such a late start had to do with our unusual sleeping arrangements that night. We had left our excess luggage at a hostel while we did the Torres del Paine trek, but when we returned to retrieve our belongings, there was a sign on the window telling us to call Victor. We had to get help from several Argentinians before we could get the number dialed successfully on a pay phone, but we eventually got a hold of him and he let us in to the closed down hostel to get our bags. He swung deal with the owner to let us stay in the empty hostel for a discounted rate, so we had a private slumber party in that hostel all by ourselves... unfortunately our alarm wasn´t working well due to the fading batteries on our watch, so we nearly slept in and there was no one around to let us know what time it is (the sun rises hear really late now- almost winter).

Now we are in the southern Patagonia region of Argentina where we saw one of the only 2 glaciers in South America that is actually growing. We took a boat to get up close to the face of it. Over the last few days, we have a gotten a good feel of what winter in the Patagonia can feel like- COLD!!! After the glacier visit, we took a bus to the small climber´s town of Chaltén to get a view of the famous Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy peaks. Unfortunately, we hiked two days in snow and never saw the full landscape. The town and terrain were memorable, though, and we would like to come back to see it in its full glory some day soon. We are noticing differences between Chile and Argentina already. The accent sounds Itlian-ish, the currency is easier to use (the peso here is more similar to the Peruvian sole, so we aren´t having to calculate in the 1000s anymore as in Chile), the food is wonderful (lots of barbeque for Cullen and lots of chocolate for me), and they have a custom of drinking yerba mate out of gourds through a metal sieve straw. We fly out today for another trekking town (Bariloche) where we will report from next- with better scenic photos! Come on sun!