Trekking in Patagonia, Southern Argentina

I´m taking South America for all its got! I actually think i´ve planned my itinerary quite well by balancing seeing the big towns and cities with time in between to soak up the beauty of this continent. I´ve spent the last few days trekking hard in Southern Patagonia, the physical exercise is really needed given my personal challenge to eat as many Argentinian cows as possible plus an unhealthy addiction i´ve developed for Dulce Leche. The beauty of this place really feeds my soul, at this particular moment in time every muscle in my body hurts, I´ve embraced the no make-up/completely windswept look but i feel wonderful. I´ve taken about five thousand photos of the Perito Moreno Glacier and Fitz Roy here in El Chalten and I dont think one really captures how stunning these places are, i really do need a better camera. Photos to follow when I get somewhere with decent internet connection.

So after arriving in El Calafate I explored the town which is small and not worth staying in for more than a day. I went down to the laguna and had an amusing moment with some locals watching a bird of prey try to attack and eat quite a large dog. The next day I visited the Perito Moreno glacier....oh my word, it´s amazing. And huge. The first time I saw the glacier was from the viewing balconies and it stretched back as far as I could see into the mountains, at different times of the day the colour changed from white to blue and it was gorgeous. Every so often a piece of the glacier would fall off into the water and it would sound like thunder, it actually made me worried about the amount melting off, i´m not as environmentally friendly as i should be but the thought of this glacier melting motivated me to be more responsible. But after learning more about the perito it apparently is quite stable, it moves 2 metres a day which is pretty crazy too. In the afternoon a group of us actually went onto the glacier and did some mini ice-trekking with these crazy spikes they attach to your shoes, it was so much fun.

Earlier in the day I´d started chatting to a girl who i discovered was from Holland and also travelling alone. Even better she seemed completely lovely and was travelling in the same direction as me. She told me she´d met a couple of girls from Israel who were also travelling my route so we agreed we´d try to travel at least as far as Bariloche together. A couple of the mini-trekking guides invited us out for a drink in El Calafate so we agreed to meet for drinks and check out the rocking nightlife in the town. OK so it wasnt really that rocking but it was an amusing night anyway. The girls from Israel were also really cool and fun, funnily enough i´d actually been introduced to them in Buenos Aires a few days before. A girl from Germany staying in my dorm also joined us and we had lots of interesting chats about boys, work and study. These girls have impressive jobs, one is a prosecutor in Germany, another a doctor, and another doing medical research. It really is nice spending time travelling with cool people, especially staying in places as beautiful as this - you need to share it with someone.

The girls and I took a 3 hour bus ride north from El Calafate to El Chalten on Friday and we´ve spent the last 4 days trekking in the national park here. El Chalten is beautiful and unpredictable, the weather is crazy. Yesterday we experienced sun, rain, and snow all in the same day and I cant quite explain how strong the wind gets. You can be walking down a steep hill leaning forward at about 90 degrees and the wind will still push you backwards. There are several long day treks you can do here, they take on average 8-9 hours a day and the advantage is it gets dark at around 10pm so loads of daylight for it. On Saturday the weather wasnt great but one of the girls and I decided to trek to one of the lagoons. We got totally lost, ended up climbing over two mountains and somehow ended up finding the path again (no thanks to me). Yesterday we all did the most popular hike to the base of the Fitz Roy, the last hour climb was really tough but we felt a big sense of achievement making it and rewarded ourselves with dulce leche cookies. Today my muscles were sooooo tired but I made myself do one last trek because tomorrow I will be on a bus for 2 days up to Bariloche so it was my last chance to get some walking in. I´m so glad I did, the weather today was really sunny and the best its been so far. I took a trail behind the mountains and had a complete moment with nature (think meadows full of yellow flowers, dense forrest and ice-cold lakes).

Last night was the first time since travelling where i got a full decent nights sleep, the last couple of dorms i´ve stayed in have had VERY loud snorers, it was driving me insane. In my current dorm there are two really cool girls from France who are doing the same route as me but opposite direction and a lovely guy from Buenos Aires who can speak as much English as I can Spanish so we have been having some funny conversations. Oh and over the weekend something funny happened...I was using the internet in my hostel when a girl accidentally pulled the plug of my computer out. When I went to see what had happened I realised it was Elspeth - a girl I worked with in Manchester who I was planning to meet up with in Brazil for Carnaval! Very funny and random.

So tomorrow I will take a TWO DAY BUS RIDE (urgh) to Bariloche, the girls and i are hoping for some sunshine so we can go swimming in the lakes and improve our tans. We shall see....

Thanks for the messages from people back home, really cool to hear from you. Lots of love xxx