Battling the Elements in Patagonia

We arrived in El Calafate and took a bus to our hostel - America del Sur. The receptionists immediately recognized us and asked if we are “Emily por dos,” as everyone seems to refer to us on this trip. We happily answer yes, mistaking recognition for a smooth check-in. They tell us that they overbooked and don’t have room for us but we can go to a nearby hostel and stay there. Unfortunately, the roads are unpaved and we had to carry our enormously heavy luggage several blocks to our destination. It turns out, nobody at the new hostel spoke English and they also didn't have space for us. Obviously, I storm back over to America del Sur in quite the huff and demand that the receptionist find somewhere else for us to stay and help carry our luggage this time. It worked and we ended up a perfectly fine hostel called Nakel Yanu with working WiFi. 

In the morning, we booked our excursions and planned the rest of our time in Patagonia. Then, we went for a run around the lagoon and returned to catch our bus to Chalten. With little time to get to the bus station, I frantically searched for food, racing through the streets with my luggage and calling out "excuse me" at the top of my lungs for people to clear the way. Melissa basically had a heart attack trying to keep up. Apparently, noone can make a sandwich in under 15 minutes so we got ice cream instead. With minutes to go, we race to the bus station and look up to see a massive flight of stairs in front of us. Out of nowhere, a guy comes and grabs my suitcase and starts to run up the stairs. Unsure of whether he was stealing my luggage or helping me, I chase after him.  At the pitstop, Melissa recognized the possible hero/thief and it turns out he speaks English and heard me call that he might be stealing my luggage. We introduce ourselves and David 2, and his girlfriend, Shannon, became our best friends of El Chalten. We basically had the same itinerary and ran into them everywhere. 

We had the strangest experience upon arriving. The bus stops in the El Chalten park entrance before arriving at the bus terminal. There, we received a stern lecture by a park ranger about the rules of the park. He had a vandetta against Israelis and every time someone spoke during his speech, he snapped “Shalom Shalom.” It was upsetting to learn that this anti-Israeli sentiment was shared by most of the locals. Their disdain for Israelis is not political but based in experiences interacting with rude Israeli travelers, fresh out of the army and too macho for rules. While a few obnoxious Israelis seemed to ruin things for their co-patriates, it was fun to see so many Israelis every place we went. In fact, on the trails, signage was posted in Spanish, English and…. Hebrew! 

At the bus terminal, I found a place to change money and Melissa went to the bathroom. The funny thing is, she got stuck in the stall. When I finally went to fetch her, a woman informed me in broken English that my friend is unable to get out of the toilet and she was finding help.

We spent the afternoon doing a really nice hike to a waterfall. The next day, we set out to trek Fitz Roy (Laguna de Los Tres). It was a long and challenging hike and also incredibly beautiful!! The final stretch to the peak was a very steep 2 km climb. At the top, we ran into David 2 and Shannon and squealed with delight. The 4 of us ate lunch together and enjoyed the scenery. We refilled our water bottles in the lake and drank the most delicious water. Throughout the entire hike, we were surrounded by incredible snow-peaked mountains and clear blue streams below. 

Back in town, we were barely able to walk. We hobbled to the restaurant only to find that it was full. We asked when a table would be ready and the waitress asked where we are staying. I told her “right here” and plopped down on the floor out front. She took pity on us and eventually gave us a table. 

The following day, we set out for arguably the coolest part of the trip: Ice climbing on the Viedma glacier. At the busstop, Melissa noticed a man davening and wearing a talit and tifilin. She obviously screeched and pointed at him to notify me of her finding. We took a bus to a boat and a boat to the glacier. Positive that lunch would be included with our excursion, we laughed at the over-prepared person who had packed lots of food. When the boat docked, it caught our attention that people seemed to have really intense gear. Still unfazed, we hiked up from the dock to the glacier. The first indication that we were actually the idiots was when the guides asked if anyone doesn’t have gloves and Melissa and I are the only ones to raise our hands. Starting to get nervous, I ask if lunch is included and find out that it is actually not. As if this wasn’t enough to ensure our place as the biggest jokes of the group, Melissa could not get into her harness and required the assistance from the guides. 

We hike to the glacier and start to climb down these really slippery rocks to underneath the glacier. We were the only ones struggling and noticed that every single other participant was wearing intense climbing boots. The tour guide turns to us and looks at our feet and exasperatedly cries “WHY TENNIS SHOES?! WHY!?” Apparently, we missed every memo of what we needed for the day. 

The guides gave us a quick tutorial, crampons and ice picks, and we successfully scaled several ice walls. It was really fun and rewarding and the whole group marveled at how we were able to do it in sneakers. Usually repelling down after climbing up is the easy part… except for Mel. She somehow slipped and dangled from her harness, falling into complete hysterics and crying “owwww” until the whole group was laughing at her and started taking pictures. Don’t worry, they collected her email address and promised to send over their gems. 

The glacier was massive — 950 square km! The scenery was beautiful, the day was a blast and we had a really fun group. We enjoyed talking to everyone and hearing about their various travel experiences. There was a British couple on a year-long journey around the world, an American couple on their honeymoon, a Russian couple who were definitely the best climbers, a needy Roman man traveling alone, and us. 

Back in town, we had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Parador, and got ready for Shabbat, which starts and ends really late. To set the mood, we sang lecha dodi while walking to our new hostel. We said kiddush and motzei in the lobby and went to bed before the sun even set. 

We woke up to miserable weather but determined to stick to the schedule, we hiked through wind and snow to do the Laguna Torres hike. It felt almost mystical. We came back soaked but accomplished.

Sunday morning, we grabbed brunch at the Wafleria before catching our bus back to Calafate. We sat at a long table with other customers and played Uno until our food came. These 3 massive guys from Boulder, CO, sat down next to us and decided to play with us. We had a hilarious conversation with them until we had to run to catch our bus. 

Laguna de Los Tres

Viedma Glacier

Videma Glacier

Viedma Glacier

View of Chalten

Fitz Roy

Laguna de Los Tres

Laguna de Los Tres