10 Days in Uruguay

     There was a crying baby on the bus to Concordia and we made lots of stops on the way but we weren't on the bus for a good-night's sleep.  The book talked about how there were some bus companies and some trips that didn't stop at the station but just left travellers on the side of the road.  On our way down to Iguazu we had stopped in Concordia's bus station and we saw no reason why a bus from the same company wouldn't stop there on the way up but no, 7.30 finds us under an overpass on the side of the highway.  According to the bus driver there's a taxi stand just up the hill so we climb it and find... more road and a gas station.  We might have ended up hitching a ride if not for the police checkpoint under the overpass from where we called a cab to take us to a money change to get some Uruguayan pesos and to the ferry terminal where we went through customs.
     So far we've skipped the medium-sized towns like Concordia and though we didn't stay it was nice to drive through.  The customs here was a small building with two rooms, joined in the front by a porch, in a park right by the Rio Uruguay.  After getting our passports stamped to exit Argentina we waited for maybe a half an hour for the ferry to arrive to take us across.  Getting to the ferry involved dragging our bags through an expanse of mud (at least, it did for those of use who were to tired and grumpy to walk around it: me) and we (I) got thoroughly mud-covered.
     The ferry was pretty small and very nice.  The floor was carpeted and there was a bench along each wall, with windows above them.  It took us about 20 minutes to get across and we passed many fishing lures and fishermen.
     Landing onces once more muddy and we walked a ways on a narrow path above the dock.  The customs there was the nicest yet.  It was the most informal, just two big rooms with a desk and chatty official in the first and a desk and motorcycle helmets in the second.  It was only us and 4 other people on the ferry and, since they weren't delayed because of luggage, there was no line at all.  The official called a taxi for us to take us to the bus station.
     We debated staying in Salto for a night before heading to Montevideo but upon finding that the bus left at 6.30 the next morning we decided to leave the same day, in a few hours.  There was a pleasant out-of-the-way cafe that we sat in for a while while we waited for our bus, and I finally was able to eat something.
      The trip to Montevideo was 6 hours but because I slept through 4 of them it was fairly painless.  We stayed in a nice hostel in Pocitos a few blocks from the beach.  The people there recommended a taco place a couple of blocks away, and though it looked more like a stand than a restaurant the food was good and it was nice to eat outside.  On our way back we stopped at a pharmacy and finally were able to get iron supplements.
     In the morning we walked back to the beach and walked along it for maybe an hour before catching a taxi to go back to the bus station.  Some of the buses in Uruguay have wifi on them, at least the COT company and maybe some others, and my parents researched places to stay later on our way to Piriápolis.
      It was only a little after noon when we arrived at Pare 6, which turned out to be another side-of-the-road stop.  This side of the road was across the street from the Devoto grocery store and on the main road of the city, along a boardwalk by the ocean.  At least, I think it was the biggest road.  I didn't do much exploring and it was certainly bigger than the network of dirt roads.
      We rented a house from two people called Erica and Gregoire, and they came to meet us and show us the way.  My dad joked that it might come with a dog, but it turns out that there was a stray who lived there named Pepino (cucumber)!  He was only a few months old, so alternately slept and chewed on things, but he was really sweet when he wasn't chewing on me.
      Of course we went to the beach right away.  When we arrived it was completely empty but people began to arrive around the same time we did.  It turned out that there had been a really big thunderstorm.
     The beach was seaweedy and unpleasantly rocky so we emailed Erica and Gregoire about finding a spot on the beach that was more pleasant to swim in.  Naturally, we found the next day that there was only one place on the entire beach that was rocky and seaweedy...
      We had a week at the beach with my birthday as an excuse, but even if that weren't the case I would have worked on my parents for a week without having to pack up, get on a bus, and sleep in a new bed for the first time (does anyone except me fall out of a bed the first time they sleep in it?).
      I didn't have to blog for this week and, with the help of my grandmother, didn't have to practice violin for 3 days.  I could do a minute-by-minute recap but most of it was decadent, alternatingly eating really good food now that we finally had a kitchen, swimming at the beach, sitting on the beach (the house came with beach chairs and bikes as well as the dog), reading in the hammocks, and hiding all the watches so we didn't know what time it was.  
      I will mention the dessert, though; brownies made by a new recipe that we plan on hanging onto were the first and we made brownie sundaes with some vanilla ice cream and melted dulce de leche (I am going to miss this stuff when we leave!) were the first and that held us the fiirst half of the week.   Then, on my birthday, I got a surprise lemon trifle.  I loved having lemonade but didn't know that it was just a cover-up for all the lemons going into the cake.  Because my mom stresses about cake and the oven was obstinate, I also got a chocolate cake that said from a store.  After some persuading we took the remainder with us back to Montevideo and have yet to finish it.
      Despite the use of tons and tons of sunscreen and wrapping up in towels when at the beach and even using an umbrella at times (precautions I was not happy with) we got really sunburnt.  Luckily no sun poisoning, though.
       It was sad leaving Piriápolis on Wednesday.  From 11.30-12.30 we sat outside the Devoto in the shade, across from the beach, because the house was being cleaned, and then we walked back, said goodbye to the dog (not as sad as it could have been after he grabbed my shoe and ran and hid in the bushes and came back to bite me) and took a taxi to the bus station.  
      Montevideo is the first city where they have glass between the driver and the passengers so it was crammed in the backseat, but it wasn't to long of a ride before we reached our apartment.  I am very happy that, if enough effort is put into searching, hotel-priced apartments can be found, but I'll have to say goodbye to that in barely a week.  We're also renting this from Erica and Gregoire, and though the air-conditioning doesn't work and the days are hot and humid unlike anywhere we've been except Salta (where we had ac) and Buenos Aires (were we wished for it).  
      We're in the old part of the city and on a peatonal street and love the location.  Last night we went for a walk to the Independencia square with a mausoleum in the center, to a grocery store, and down tot he waterfront before circling back.  A kitchen again, so we could have quinoa-lentil salad, and the evening's entertainment was a documentary we found called The Imposter.
     This morning we went on a long walk around the city.  It's not very big considering that it holds half the population of Uruguay in it, but pretty and probably my favorite city yet.  We went to the Carnival musem and are really excited to go to the world's longest Carnival tomorrow night.  Though we'll only see 1 or 2 nights and probably won't be able to stay awake through more than 3/4 of them the carnival lasts for 40 days. 
      During the heat of the day we came back to our apartment and plan on walking back to the taco place this evening.  In Piriápolis we relearned hot to play hearts so maybe we'll play again tonight, and then by June we'll be able to give my grandparents a run for their money.
      I really should have a lead-in for this, but there's a really interesting article in the New York Times about the really interesting president José Mujica, a former guerilla fighter who lives off a dirst road out of the city.

Cake #1

Cloud-rainbow above Piriápolis

Me and Pepino

Montevideo beach 

The presidential office building

An apartment building with a beautiful collage of windows

Cake #2

Iguazu 2

        Picking up from where I left off at the train ride to the Devil's mouth, there were a series of connecting boardwalks over the river that lead to the viewpoint.  These were packed with people shuffling either way and obstructing traffic every few feet to take pictures of eachother, the river, or the giant catfish that lurked in the river.  
        The viewpoint was almost more crowded than the bridge but people were moving around and it wasn't hard to get a spot by the railing.  We thought we'd seen big waterfalls before but noooooooo.   The noise the cataract made was deafening.  What is unique about Iguazu is that there is just about every type of waterfall-- the ones the come out of pools, the sheets of water that don't touch the cliff, the huge foamy sprays and, of course, the torrents.  To see the torrent that is the Garganta del Diablo was worth sitting packed like sardines on the bus and slowly moving across the bridges because when you reach it you look at it and you think wow and then you look down and you think wow and then you keep looking down because it doesn't really seem to end, but just, eventually, disappears into a huge billowing cloud of spray and then wow just doesn't cover it, with the rainbows and bird's nests and desperate vegetation and swirling mists and wet rockface and the water.  
     Walking back between trains was better than when one had just arrived, and we saw a caiman on a rock.  The trainride was also better then before, but we weren't really in the mood to appreciate it, having arrived at the point of a day walking around in the sun where what you really want is a glass of un-warm un-apple-flavored (an unfortunate misunderstanding at the grocery store)--or alternatively, coffee-flavored--water.  
     The only trail we hadn't done by then was the Sendero Superior, and that took us to more viewpoints of the falls.  People were beginning to leave so we managed to get some brilliant views.  At this point it was about 4.30  and we began to make our way back to the parking lot to get a taxi.  On our way there was a place where we needed to cross a bridge across a small stream.  This would be fine and simple if there weren't a herd of intimidating coaties moseying across.  They took their own sweet time and, apart from getting out of their way, we stood still and watched them.  If my parents were thinking the same thing as me, it was along the lines of 'wow that's a lot of coaties' and 'maybe they won't notice me if I stand very, very still'.  Luckily they ignored us.
     Back across the stretch of asphalt to the little museum they had there on whim of my mother.  She went inside while my dad and I sat on a bench and, braindead, wondered why they had a map in braille and then covered it with  glass until my mom walked out and showed us the hinges on the box lid.
     We taxied back to Puerto Iguazu, enjoyed the cool showers, and gazed enviously at the neighboring non-budget hotel's pool placed agonizingly outside our window.  The power went off inexplicably but came on soon after.
     For dinner we walked a few blocks to a restohotel called Jasy that had good food and a nice outdoor deck place.  On our way there we were followed by a kitten.  I think strays like us.
     In the morning we found a tiny spider in the bathroom in a tiny web that had caught a tiny scorpion that was nevertheess about a third the length of a non-thumb finger.  While certainly glad it wasn't bigger, presumably baby scorpions means adult scorpions lurking around and I was exceedingly cautious in shaking out shows and packing articles of clothing.
     Since we had visited the Argentinian side of the falls on Sunday we considered visiting the Brazilian side on Monday so my parents walked to the consulate to find out how much visas would cross.  They must hold something against Americans because the price was prohibitively expensive.  If they want to keep out backpackers, fine, if they want to keep out foreigners, fine, but Americans had to pay about 3 times as much as Australians.  And Australians don't even get a nationals discount, so that would be the price that everybody else would pay.  We didn't go to Brazil.
     Instead we went back to the Argentinian side and had a more laid-back day.  Since we had walked on everything the park had to offer we went back to the Sendero Inferior and walked to the docks where we took a boat that went under the waterfalls.  
     They first took you to take pictures of one waterfall, then around the cliffs to duck under a second.  I tried to look up at the top of the waterfall while we were right under it, but it was physically impossible for me to open my eyes under the spray and I was instantly drenched.   The second waterfall was even stronger, and on such a hot day the mist was delightful.
     It took us an hour to get on a boat to go back to the island when 20 people went on each boat... I'm not up to the math.  It was a couple hours after noon that we were there but there was still not much shade because of lack of trees.  We ate lunch in a bit of hard-one coverage that was effective in blocking the sun but attracted spiders and huge ants.  
     Sat on the beach for some minutes and beachcombed until we started getting burned by the rocks, when we ran into the water for a few minutes and back to the tree line.  We hiked back up to the San Martin viewpoint that overlooks the waterfall we originally thought must be the devil's mouth and we so glad we didn't miss it.  
      The island was closing then, so after admiring the falls we waited in line again for the boat to take us back.  No herds of coatis blocked our passage this time, though we stopped to look at a group of monkeys.  
     We stopped again to get a big bottle of water on our way home and then hung out in the hotel lobby until it was time to lug our bags down to the bus station and head off to Concordia, which I will write about at some point tomorrow.  Sorry if I have any repeat pictures.

Faux-Devil's Mouth

Real Devil's Mouth (next one too)

Parque Nacional de Iguazu (part 1)

    Day before yesterday, what with busy packing and scrambling to the bus station in the morning and then sitting on the non-wifi-full bus for the next 17 hours, then yesterday, what with wandering around looking for our hotel then running back out to get a taxi to the falls and then walking around and taking pictures of the falls for 8 or so hours and then taxiing back, eating, more non-wifi-full-ness and that brings me to posting this morning for the past 2 days.
     The busride was twistier than that to Bariloche but I slept better on it.  It was probably a combination of getting used to sleeping semi-lying down and exhaustion.
      Arrived around 7.30 in Puerto Iguazu and, as usual, the guidebook had a misleading map and we walked off in the opposite direction as we were supposed to.  A woman gave us instructions, so back past the bus station a few blocks and stopped at a street sign that wasn't supposed to be named what it was.  Checked in with someone else about directions and finally made it to our hotel.
      Since, for three people, it's just a 10 peso difference between taking a taxi and the bus we took the taxi.  The entrance to the Iguazu park was packed with crowds going into the park.  Once through the ticket booths and lines there was more space so for a while it was less crowded.
     There were a few trails that you could take to walk around the falls, and we went on the inferior trail first.  Stopping at different waterfalls coming through the underbrush to take pictures and be stunned, it was a surprise when we finally stepped out and saw a large part of the waterfalls.  I would have been impressed if that was all there was, but it was just a portion.  The problem with really writing about this day is that it was all about what the waterfalls look like, so I think I'll just say 'we did such and such' and include lots of pictures.
     I will detour here to explain the extent of the falls.  Taller than the Niagra falls and twice as wide, 1750 cubic meters of water pours over per second, and has the greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world.   They consist of 275 falls along the Iguazu river,  some of them up to 82 meters high though the majority are about 64 meters.
     After walking along the inferior trail we took a boat to the island where you can look right down on this waterfall that we at first thought was the huge one called the Devil's Mouth because of the amount of spray, but isn't.
     Besides the San Martin viewpoint there was one other viewpoint on the island that we hiked to, but it lead only to a platform surrounded by vulture nests from which, if craned your neck at just the right angle, you could make out a bit of spray.
     The hike to the San Martin viewpoint from the beach was up a huge amount of stairs.  Climbing down them was better than up, but just barely because they were uneven and slippery.
     In Oregon there is an agate beach which I have never been to but always been interesting.  It seems like, since it's a 'destination', though, you could look for 5 or 10 minutes and find an small agate, then look for 5 or 10 more and find another.  Not so here.  While we waited for the boat to come back we sat down on the stones that were at least 1/3 agate.  Some of them were huge, and all were beautiful.  We spent a few happy minutes making piles of them, but the because it's a park we couldn't keep even the most special.
    Once back on the mainland we fought our way back through a press of people to reach the lookout of another waterfall.
     Coatis are a raccoon-like creature that are cute and charming from a distance but at the park are rather scary and get close enough for you to see their long sharp claws and teeth.  Because people feed them they become aggressive and unshy, and swarm you.  At the table next to the one that we ate at one climbed up on the chair of a girl sitting there, grabbed her sandwich and ran away.  I don't know why she didn't knock it off, but maybe because they are rather intimidating.  Whole swarms of them walk along the path and leave no room for humans.  Some people pet them despite the fact that they are wild animals and the sign showing the snarling coati and the bleeding human.
     After lunch we took the train to the Devils' Mouth waterfall.  The 'Garganta del Diablo' is as a U-shaped, 82-meter high, 700-meter long, 150-meter wide cataract that marks the border between Argentina and Brazil.  The spray from it is unbelievable.  
    I'm sorry, but we just came back form our second day in Iguazu so I'm feeling wiped out and sunburned and, while I'm griping, I think I've become anemic since we left Olympia and stopped taking iron tablets and I have hives from some sort of ingredient in artificially-flavored-citrus-sweet-things and I have to leave in 10 minutes to get on yet another night-bus. 

All this is a tiny portion of all the falls
The boat is going to take people under the spray 

PenguinsPenguinsPenguinsPenguinsPenguins

     Now  that we are back in Buenos Aires and I have just figured out how to add a link, here is the website of the Teatro Colon which we visited last time we were here to see Onegin.  I don't think it has as many pictures as I would like but there's an interesting piece about the history.  Speaking of technical blog stuff, I would really like to post a video of the penguins but have to upload them to said Dropbox (thank you so much Uncle Scott) before and it is moving so slowly, so if a seemingly-random penguin video pops up in a few days this is my explanation.
     Last night we arrived a little before 10.  Even before we landed the vastly contrasting scenes were apparent; while Patagonia is wilderness for miles and miles and miles in every direction, dotted with a few towns, Buenos Aires is lights and city for miles and miles and miles in evey direction, dotted with a few trees.  Well, Patagonia is a lot more 'miles and miles and miles' but the point is that it's a lot of city.
     I think I mentioned the money-transfer company Xoom before but didn't go into detail, so while my parents are there I will explain.  
     In Argentina the official exchange rate is 4.9 pesos: 1 dollar but there is this thing called the 'blue market' where you can get a much better exchange rate of anywhere between 5 pesos:1 dollar and 6.5 pesos: 1 dollar.  The only problem is that you need dollars to make the exchange and the banks only give out pesos, probably because of this.  I'm not sure how but we found a company called Xoom that will let you make transfers from your bank account into pesos using a better exchange rate.  Something's a little messed up with how they do the transfers, though, so it's a hassle to actually comlete a transaction.
     Today we are either crashing or setting out on an overnight bus to the Iguazu falls.  There are pros and cons to either, but I hope that we aren't going anywhere because I am so sick of packing and unpacking.  When you're travelling for this long it becomes less like packing and more like moving since we have, in effect if not in fact, everything we own with us.  I am editing this again 12 hours later: we are staying!  Had dinner at an outdoor Mexican restaurant.  Sorry for any future discrepancies referencing the will we stay/won't we stay.
     Before going to the airport last night we redeemed the coupons given us by the Tres Marias company for hot chocolate.  It was possibly the first hot chocolate not made at home that was not too sweet and it just so happens that that same chocolate store has a location on the same street as our hotel.  Yet another reason to stay two nights here.
     Before going to redeem the hot chocolate coupons we went and walked with penguins.  
     We brought our binoculars with us so that we could be sure to see them well.  Little did we know that, had we used our binoculars, all we wouldn't have been able to make anything out on the smudge that is the view through the binoculars when looking at something to close.  They were everywhere.  On the beach where we landed there were hundreds watching us, sleeping, swimming, preening, honking.  The transformation of land-penguin to sea-penguin is extreme, morphing from plump, waddling, inquisitive little bird to sleek predators.  Underwater penguins can reach speeds of 15 MPH and, when in pursuit of a shoal of fish, will leap in synchronization out of the water a few feet into the air and almost skip like a stone across the water for a few yards.
     There were three types of penguins on the island.  The Magellanic penguins were the most common, the ones with black markings along their jaw and on their face, the Gentoos, which were the second most common, and the King penguins of which there were only three.  The Kings had arrived a few weeks ago on the island and nobody know how they got there, but if they breed they could start a third colony.
     Sometime in the future the island could be filled with too many penguins to be able to support them all.  This is hard to believe because it already felt like the island was filled with too many penguins.  Their nests are everywhere, and there are three or four penguins to a nest (two parents and one to two babies/juveniles).  At this time of the year the juveniles are mostly still nest-bound but are losing most of the 'fur' that covers their water-proof feathers and prevents them from swimming.  While they still live at home one parent will stay with them while the other goes and fishes, and the island echoed with the honks of the restless stay-at-home penguins.
     They burrow into the ground to be safe from predators and to stay cool, and are monogamous.   I suppose that I could have incorporated that into the body of what I was saying, but sorry, I didn't (and won't).
     A few zillion penguin pictures, on the basis that there can never be too many penguin pics:

Magellanic penguins (the fuzzy balding ones are juveniles)

At one point I had about 10 pictures of these two penguins

I think that these penguins pose for us

Our reception committee 

Going out for a swim

Marching Gentoo juveniles

Napping

More posing penguin

Yet more posers 

Heading home

Trip on the Tres Marias

     Though yesterday wasn't our penguin expedition day we still saw a few Magellans.  From a distance, because they floated on their stomachs and curved their necks back, they looked like regular seabirds but when we got close enough we could make out their coloring and features better.

     It was the first time I saw Magellan penguins, skuas, rock cormorants, king cormorants, dolphin gulls, or kelp gulls.  The first place we sailed by was a king cormorant colony.  Different from the Oly variety because they have white breasts, there were hundreds fishing, swimming, gulping food, sitting, and drying their wings on this tiny rock.  None of these had any babies, but the dolphin gulls at the edge of the island had three puffy grey ones.  The birds weren't bothered by us, but croaked a little as we passed.

     A ways farther on we sailed back and forth along the shore of a larger island, covered again in cormorants and with one side piled with sea lions.  A few lay along the slope leading down to the water, but most were in a huge pile on the top.  Being mostly blubber lets them ooze along the rocks to a comfortable dozing spot and let one sleep with its head curved back to rest along its back.  Our guide barked at them once, and they all barked back noisily, I think because their mothers bark at them when it's time to feed so they tell her where they are.

     The dominant male was a huge gelatinous sack of fur and malevolent little eyes, and it briefly exerted the energy necessary to glare at us as we passed before the effort of rasing its massive head became too much and it went back to sleep.  In the mating season the males can go for a month without feeding because, in their absence, another male will try to take over the colony.  We weren't told how often they eat during the rest of the year but presumably they aren't afraid of the coup because they need to eat sometime.

     For a little over an hour we hiked on the H island.  With a fairly symmetrical shape and a bay on each side, from an aerial view the island gets its name from the shape.  

     There are is a large variety of plants on the island, carried there from the birds who land there.  Pointed out to us were the orchids that grow a millimiter a year, Chilean fire-orchids, and a ground-cover that smells like honey to attract birds.  The tour was very small--only us, the guide, the captain, and a French couple--and we were very lucky in that because the average tour runs 40+ people.

     On the side of the island opposite from our boat there was a nesting colony of rock cormorants.  They make their nests from kelp dragged up from the bottom of the channel, and as it rots and dries it keeps them warm.  Nest is built on top of old, hard nest, and the oldest has been there about a thousand years.

     The adolescent rock cormorants are almost as big as their parents and seem bigger because of the fuzzy dark-brown fluff.  I think there were about 15 nests there and had between one or two babies.  One pair was molesting their parents for food, tapping insistently at the white spots on their cheeks.  In a way similarly boneless to the sea lions the parents didn't fly away but bent their necks over backwards and sideways to avoid their offspring.  Just before we left we got to see them feed.

     Going back to Ushuaia we were able to sail for most of they way as a strong westerly wind was coming through the Beagle channel.

     This area is unique in that it has mountains, forests, glaciers, and sea united in on relatively small area.  For hundreds of years there were a native people called the Yamani living here but were wiped out by the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century.  They canoed and hunted in the water and, unbelievably if you have been chilled standing in the wind on a summer day, wearing your coat and sweater and long-sleeves, were naked.  They carried fire with them wherever they went and our guide explained that no clothes were better than wet clothes.

     Today we went to the Tierra del Fuego national park around 11 and hiked 8 kilometers along the coast and in the forest.  At the 'post-office at the end of the world' I bought a postcard to send back to NOVA for the postcard wall but it probably won't arrive in Washington long before I do.

    A few kilometers into the forest I was surprised to briefly glimpse what I thought was the back half of a cat before it stepped out from behind the tree and locked eyes with us.  It was utterly curious and unafraid, and we stared at eachother for a few moments before a couple of noisy hikers walked up from behind and this red fox kit turned and ran silently back into the forest.

     When we stopped for lunch it must have been in a place where people often stop and eat and feed the wildlife for, a few minutes after we sat down, a shadow wheeled over us and stopped five feet away to watch us expectantly.  Some type of hawk walked in our direction and briskly circled us for a few minutes, stopping every now and then with its head turned to the side, waiting for an offering.  A second soon joined it but, upon seeing that no food was availing they flew to another group of people. 

     We arrived at the end of the trail a little before 3 and could have caught a bus then but decided to wait until the next one at 5.  In the little restaurant we had drinks, then hiked around the area for about an hour and a half.  From a distance we saw black-necked swans and storks that turned out to be flowers.

     I can't promise a post tomorrow because we are leaving early for the penguin trip and then have to float around town for a few hours because we'll have checked out before we leave.  At 6 we'll take a plane back to Buenos Aires, but won't get there until after 10.

Through one of the bays of H island onto the Beagle channel

Our sailboat

Our friend who joined us at lunch, no zoom used

To El Calafete, Torres del Paine, Purito Moreno, Ushaia

     On the day we left El Chalten we went for a few hours on a morning hike at a trailhead on the opposite end of town.  The trail to the viewpoints was surrounded by mountains on all sides and, as it was clear, was amazing.  At the first viewpoint we could see the boat we had taken to Viedma departing and, at the second, a view of the town.  There was a small lake to the side of the trail and there we saw some colorful birds that we would call Torrent ducks except they weren't in a torrent.  
      We went for breakfast at the Wafleria, and I unthinkingly got a ice-cream-fruit-chocolate waffle which was huge and stressful, so I prevailed on my parents to eat most of it.
    The bus left at 12.30 and we arrived in El Calafete around 4.  From the information window we got directions to our hotel and since it was only 4 blocks away set out blithely to walk.  After walking 4 blocks and seeing no sign of the hotel, we asked several people if they knew where it was and all replied that they had never heard of it.  For about an hour we wandered, lugging our uncooperative bags, on the dirt roads in the area that we had been sent to asking various hotels and passersby if they knew where it was but they all denied the existence.  Finally my mother wrote out the name of it on a piece of paper and that cleared up the confusion.  A very nice woman gave us a ride to the opposite side of town and we checked into our hotel.
     The hotel was very nice, and the room had a beautiful view of the city, but they owners were rather unhospitable.  
     My parents walked to the grocery store to get some provisions for our hike the next day and I practiced.  Then, upon finding out that 'This is not a backpacker's hostel' and we weren't allowed to get take-out we walked downtown to a restaurant called Viva la Pepa.  An apparently common practice in Argentina is to have a service charge included on the bill but this was the first time we encountered it.  The food was good but, for a country priding itself on its Italian influence the Italian food is inedible.  Actually, for any country the Italian food is pretty inedible.
     At 5 the next morning we had to get ready to go for a tour called the Torres del Paine.  The bus picked us up at our hotel a little before 6 in the morning, and we took the small bus to the station then transferred to a larger one with more people on it.
    It took almost three hours to get the Chilean border but we crossed through fairly quickly, only having to give up the avocado and tomato.  My passport is filling up with stamps.
     From there our first stop was at the Lago Amargo, so named because it has a pH of 9 and supports no life but cyanobacteria.  Surrounded on all sides by mountains as it was, we got some spectacular pictures of this deep and bright-blue lake.
     After the lake we stopped frequently at beautiful lakes, towering mountains, or nearby guanaco heards.  The most wonderful stop was at a place where we hiked for about an hour, towards a lake and waterfall.  The lake was 'glacier-milk' blue (I learned that term today and am proud of it.  It's the color a lake gets when a glacier travels over and pulverizes thousands of stones into a dust so fine that, when dumped into the lake, won't settle but will be suspended in the lake, giving it an opaque color) and had three huge mountains along one side.  The waterfall was mesmerizing.
     Here the wind was again strong enough to make us stumble even when we were braced.  Grit and spray blew into our eyes, but didn't detract from this scene at all.
    Our last stop but one was around 1 or 2, at a hotel on an island.  We had sandwiches and dozed in the sun, and could have stayed all day.  And, finally, we stopped on a little hill above the island where we could see the turquoise lake, craggy peaks, and picturesque hotel. 
     It was a long busride back to El Calafete.  I was going a little stir-crazy by the end of it but, luckily, our hotel was the second stop.  Since we sat closer to the front of the bus customs was even quicker returning to Argentina.
     The next morning I was finally able to sleep in a little bit.  I don't think I've ever woken up at 11 in my life, but the almost-1-in-the-morning nights and the crack-of-dawn mornings had taken their toll and I slept soundly.  The best part of the hotel was the breakfast, and luckily my parents saved me some (spice bread, fruit salad, and rice pudding).
     A little after noon we walked to the grocery store and got some pickles and things.  All of us are sick of cheese sandwiches so we agreed to just eat a large dinner when we got home.  The bus station was almost across the street from the store so we had some time to spare before our bus left.  It was about an hour and a half to the national park where happily, since I am a minor, I got free entrance and, unhappily, my parents had to pay more than twice the amount as nationals.
     Drove a little into the park and dropped of the people who were going out in boats.  Still a little further and we arrived at the Perito Moreno glacier.  This glacier is moving at a rate of 2 meters a day but isn't gaining or losing in size.  This speed means that it is constantly 'calving'; dropping huge chunks of ice into the water.  There were quite a few good-sized icebergs on the lake because of this.
     In the few hours after we got there we were lucky to see a couple of ginormous hunks of ice noisily detach themselves and even more noisily create a huge geyser of water as they fell.  The glacier where a calf had just broken off was blue, but within a few hours the now-exposed air bubbles made it turn white.
     Staring at the glacier and walking on the boardwalk across from it was how we spent most of our time there, breaking only to go eat ice-cream sandwiches at  the restaurant.  Because of my poor reaction time and my painfully (dare I say glacially?) slow shutter-speed I captured none of the calving, but the video camera did.  This is probably the best way of capturing the event but we won't be able to look at it until Olympia.
     Perito Moreno is spectacular to look at.  Unlike Viedma it is mostly white, and a field of 'pinnacles' (I just learned the word for them today and it's not pinnacles!  Why, brain, why?) stretches to the mountains in the distance.  We have no regrets about not getting on a boat as they couldn't possibly have gone closer than we did.
     Connecting the glacier to the land is a phenomena that I don't know the name of but can exlain.  The glacier moves forward and touches the land in a point.  Gradually, the lake on one side if this divide fills up higher than the other.  After a time it will wear out a channel beneath the promontory, and create a river as the lakes become balanced once more.  This also explains how the icebergs all sort of collect together because of the current.
     Our bus came around 7.  My mother chatted the entire way home with a woman from the Netherlands but seems to have enjoyed herself.
     Though planning to eat at a well-reviewed place that seemed very inviting there was an hour wait. Thankfully it was decided not worth it because, of the limited veggie options, almost everything had eggplant, roquefort, sweet peppers, or something else that I can't recall but most certainly despise.  I was able to refrain from using this as an argument not to stay but we didn't anyways.
     Instead we went to a restarant that seemed to be 90% outdoors and 90% packed, but the inside part was pleasant and empty.  I enjoyed everything about the restaurant, but must mention that the caprese salad, though tasty, was not made with feta.
     This morning I managed to wake up in time for breakfast.  Quite as good as yesterday, but I made the trade of rhubarb jam for fruit salad.  
      We took a taxi to the glaciology museum and walked around it for a little over an hour and a half.  Parts were very interesting but much of it, in particular the videos, were goofy.  There were 5 short videos in all and 2 of them just consisted of stirring music and a slideshow of glacier pictures.
     It took us about 45 minutes to go back to our hotel then to the airport.  Because we didn't have boarding passes and the flight was overbooked we arrived almost 2 hours early and were sitting around for a while.  The flight was uneventful (maybe because I slept through it) and we landed in Ushuaia around 4.30.  Though we were supposed to have a car waiting for us to take us to our accomodations it didn't show up for at least 20 minutes and turned out to be more expensive than taking a taxi would have been.  Too bad we didn't realize it until we arrived.
    If we have definite plans I don't know them yet, but they will involve landing on an island to see penguins and a trip to the Beagle channel (a misnomer if I ever hear one).  It's neat to be in the southernmost city in the world.
     Completely unrelated: currently we have 0 bytes of storage and a ton more pictures to unload... I'm getting worried about how we'll make it to San Francisco in time to transfer them from a disc.  I downloaded a program called Dropbox, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything other than notify me that it should be downloading photos, can find photos to download, but isn't.  Does anybody know how I can make it work?

Glacier View 1

A rainwater lake and a glacier-milk lake (the closest is the rainwater) and the Cerro Cuervo, Cerro Nientes, Cerro Paine Grande

Complaisant guanaco

Glacier View 2

Glacier View 3

Glacier View 4

The nameless but breathtaking waterfall

Our guide told us that a picture taken from this spot at this angle was the picture of the year in National Geographic, but that may be false advertising

Lago Sarmiento

Chilean border

Glacier View 6... and co