Hello Everyone!
When I left off I think that I had just finished our 10 day hike in Torres del Paine and was heading back to El Calafate Argentina. Back we did go, spending new years eve day on a tour to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. It is part of a huge ice pack that straddles the Chile Argentina border. The ice field is the size of Israel. HUGE. WE spent the day taking a boat to within 300 meters of the glacier face, watched huge chunks of it fall off...which looked very small when they fell, until we took into consideration that the face that they are falling off of is 20 stories high.... The thing is just massive. Apparantly every 2 to 10 years depending on the weather, an ice jam builds up in the lake that holds the berg, the water builds up on one side until it forces the ice out. The last time this happened was 2005 and huge thunderous pieces of the berg fell off all day long, they make a very explosive sound when they break off and hit the water, so I imagine that it was very impressive.
From El Calafate, we booked a bus ride to Perito Moreno the town (14 hours away) all on a gravel road. The bus had air vents on the roof of the bus that were open, and with every bump dust, and sometimes water, and sometimes mud came flying in....I was quite comfy and didnt mind too much, but my poor travel bud was not impressed in the least....and spent most of the trip and that evening....and the next morning....in a funk.
The next day off for a tour to Cuerva los Manos. A 3 hour drive from the town the site holds 9000 year old cave paintings. Paintings of hands, and people hunting guanacos (wild llamas). I hopped into the front seat by the driver for the ride and made a new friend. By the time that we were back in Perito Moreno I had learned a lot about the local governments, his job, how the tourist industry works, agriculture in the area, how the school system works....and so much more. I just love how Argentinians are so patient with me when I toture them with my questions and poor Spanish. As I didn t want to spend another night in Perito Moreno I asked the driver if he could bring me to los Antiguos, another town about 40 minutes from Perito Moreno. He did, gave me a guided tour along the way, brought me to a hotel where the owners own a cherry orchard, and just charged me a few translations of Spanish into English, a beer and a plate of appetisers!
Today I spent at the cherry farm of the hotel owners! I got to pick some cherries, learn about how the industry is regulated, made lunch with some friends of his who stopped by, had my first go round with the Mate gourd (see below), watched his son shoe a horse, played with puppies and a cat and some chickens, fed the pigs and the horses. What a great day!
Tomorrow we head back on the dusty bus, good thing that people are washable! On to Esquel where there are impressive forests filled with a sequoia type tree. Ill spend some time there hiking and such, and my dusty travel bud will be heading back to Canada. Once he s off I will start to head further north and into Chile where I will meet up with my longtime experianced travel pal Jill!
MATE
Mate is a very popular hot beverage in Argentina. From the yerba Mate plant, it is a bitter tea like drink that contains way more caffein than Coffee. It is a shared experiance drink as a gourd , or cup, is filled up with the dry mate leaves that look like tea, then the cup is filled with water, and the contents are drunk through a metal straw that has a filter on the bottom of it. When one drinker has drained the liquid, more water is added and the cup is passed to the next person.
Take Care
Erin
