Imagine you´ve just gotten finished hiking for three days in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciers. You´re tired, you´re sweaty, you´re famished and parched. You´ve just spent several days of non-stop walking through one of the most breathtaking sites in Argentina including the monumental Cerro de Fitz Roy mountain range with it´s granite towers reaching up to the heavens themselves, splitting the clouds as they roll by. After spending your time basking in this natural glory you tromp down a steep hill sore and stiff. And there is El Chalten, a town so small it can´t have more than 500 people living in it. Nestled between two gigantic mountain ranges this little village appears out of nowhere after the bus ride from El Calafate. It´s quiet and peaceful and right at the fringe of the park. In fact you´re required to stop at the ranger station on your way in and can walk straight from your house to one of several trail heads, all of which interconnect at some point in the park. This made for lots of walking and after making it back to town we only had to walk two blocks to get to our hostel. The three of us (me, Jordan, and our French friend Fabrice) took our turns in the shower and then made our way to the traditional post backpacking trip meal: one large pizza per person and whatever we desired to drink which this time was a strawberry smoothie for Jordan and I followed by a glass of the local beer (wasn´t that great by the way). On a side note neither of us really liked beer before starting this trip but now seem to be developing a taste for it. Weird. Granted we have maybe one a week it seems like.
After this feast we lounge around for a while and then prepare for bed, for in the morning we have to be up for an 8:15 bus to Los Antigous, a small town on the Chile/Argentina border. We load up and prepare for the long 14+ hour drive. I settled in and put on my iPod and get set to watch the world go by. And oh what a world. I have never seen a road like this in my life. Going up the famous route 40, this way is a pure gravel and dirt road that at one stretch is literally six hours inbetween towns. In between is a vast expanse of desolate Patagonian desert that is just mesmerizing. The rolling dusty hills lead to flat lands with nary a tree in sight for hundreds of miles. This barren desolate land is almost too real to believe. At one point our bus came to a screeching halt and one of the attendants jumped out to grab hold of a live armadillo for us to look at! We got some good pictures (haven´t posted them yet) and I had no idea how furry these things were underneath. The poor creature squirmed and shook trying to get away, but the attendent had him held tight, sometimes by the tail. Then he let it go and the bus continued on its way.
The bus is cramped and hot as there is no air conditioning and no bathroom either. So you just sit and watch the desert roll by. As the sun began to set in the late afternoon we took a pit-stop in this middle of nowhere town that was comprised of just a few small blocks. Then we got back on the bus and continued on our way down the long winding dirt road. The air cools as the sun goes down, and as it disappears it lights up the clouds in the sky in way I´ve never seen before. The brilliant colors rain down as if the gates of Heaven were opening up. Luckily we got to stop and take some pictures. I felt like I could have stayed there just staring at the sky forever.
The bus rolls away and we look out on the vast desert expanse, and random herds of horses are grazing and running alongside. People scramble to take pictures of the horses who just look at us without a care in the world. Not hard to see why. They are so far away from anything human out here with just the occassional farm, they must run as free as they please across the land. As night falls and the last of the sun´s light fades we look the other way to say a very full and very orange moon rise over the horizon. It soon provides the only light visible from the bus as the rest of the sky becomes black and cold. Sitting there listening to Nickel Creek I felt very much far away from everything that I know and consider normal. This was a wild untamed land, and it´s hard not to appreciate it´s beauty as we pass through.
We will most likely pass into Chile again now. Jordan and I need to take a couple days to rest and let our bodies recover as we´ve spent more days than not backpacking in the outdoors these last two weeks. It´s totally worth it, but it can wear you out. Jordan´s knee has been bugging him and my hip has been a little sore, so we´ll likely just chill with our friend Fabrice while we figure out where we´re going next. Also we´ve added a new page to the website. Click on the “moments” link at the top and you can read some more in depth perspectives on things we´ve seen and done down here instead of the usual “Hiked this trail, posted this picture” posts. Also check out the Argentina and Chile pages under countries. Hope everything is good stateside!
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