So, we finally made it to the Perito Moreno Glaciar today, and it was beautiful. Some of you may have been reading about this glacier in the news lately since it just had a big break off or something, but let me tell you—in person, it is just as incredible as in pictures!!
We did some research yesterday and found out that the bus to take you to the Parque Nacional de Los Glacieres costs 60 pesos a person, and when we found out that you could rent a car for a day for 140, it was a no brainer. We are still with Giorgio, the Italian we met in Ushuaia, and we invited Matt, the other guy from Ushuaia, to come along with us. We ended up meeting up later with Darìo and Ana Cristina, an Argentine and a Columbian that I am sharing my dorm room with, and the six of us decided to share our car and head up this morning. The glacier is absolutely huge, and is literally blue. It is moving forward at the rate of two meters per day, so this thing is literally calving off every few seconds. There were even big ice chunks floating around in the water from the other day when the ice bridge collapsed…..very cool. We were watching it for quite awhile, and we actually got to see a whole side fall off into the water. It made this huge noise and was absolutely wonderful–definitely go if you get the chance!!
So anyway, Giorgio, Steve, and I go to take the car back to the rental car place, and long story short, the lady had apparently seen us with six in our car and was pissed. She made Steve and Giorgio go to her mechanic with her to see if we had damaged the shocks in any way with our weight…..riiiiiiiiight. Of course we didn`t, but by the time they got back, Darìo was so pissed at her trying to take advantage of tourists that he went in to deal with the situation. Of course, it got settled and we didn`t have to pay any extra, but it was such a pain in the ass.
So, tomorrow the three of us are heading into Chile again, to a small town called Puerto Natales which is the jumping off point for Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. I have heard such wonderful things about this park and am so excited! They have a fairly common 5-day trek called the “W Trek” that I think we are going to do, so that should be pretty fun. We are a little out of peak season, unfortunately, so it means we may have to deal with some harsh weather, but whatever….hopefully it will be worth it!!!
I need to discuss etiquette in dorm rooms for a moment here. Granted, many of you may not have stayed in many hostels before, but even so, I think common courtesy might prevail in these situations. First of all, I go into my room yesterday, and my stuff is moved from the top bunk to the bottom, but then the person has also put his stuff on both bunks…..so not only did he move mine to another bed, but he then proceeded to take BOTH beds. Weird, eh? I went downstairs to complain, hoping they would put me in the room with Steve and Giorgio (cause for some reason, they refuse to put me in the room with them, regardless of how many open beds there are!), but they just got the guy to move his stuff and that was that. Ok. So, Steve goes into his room last night to go to bed, and someone apparently wanted his top bunk as well (and let me remind you, all bunks are the exact same, no difference whatsoever)so they moved his stuff to another bed, and then went to sleep in his….of course, they probably never realized they were Steve`s used sheets, but oh well. Strange, right? Can you really just move people`s stuff and take the bed you want? And last but not least, we came back from the glacier today, and someone else in Steve`s room apparently decided they wanted to put their backpack in the exact same spot where Steve had his….so naturally, they moved his to another area of the room, and put their bag in its place. Is that not weird? Maybe it is just me, but I would never think of moving someone`s stuff—a stranger, no less–and just kicking them out. Weird.
Anyway, I promise to get pictures up soon of Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego and the glacier, and maybe some of Torres del Paine…..be patient!
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