glaciarrica

we arrived in el chaltén not really knowing what to expect...

el calafaté we had some idea of, being the gateway to a big glorious castle of ice, and oh did we get that. the perito moreno glacier was above and beyond what i ever expected...a true fortress of icey peaks and towers extending between a two mountain ranges that goes on for miles...i was gasping and hopping all the way down the platforms to get closer to the glacier goddess. i could have sat there for days, eyeing that mother as she rumbled like thunder and released pedacitos of herself into the lake surrounding her...there really are no words for her, but i am so very sure that she is one of the great mothers of this earth, for from glaciers come mountains and soil and lakes and all that is holy. you must come pay her some respect. please.

after spending the day courting the glaciers, there wasn't much left to calafaté except some bougey shops and pizza. so we went on a whim to el chaltén...four hours of unpaved road later, we arrived at the gateway to the true national park. all is completely free, park entrance, camping, all of it. so sivan and i, in honor of the día de la mujer, pulled up our mochilas and set out trekking the four hours to the campsite. it was intense, up and down rocky hills with 40lbs on your back...i felt the pain of the llamas and wondered why people do such things. but the view along the way, precioso. the campsite, lo maximo. how can you go wrong when you can see the glaciar looming above your heads as you camp. drinking water flowing fresh from the glacier. i found out why they call them sweatshirts, and i tell you, they hold sweat quite well. it was painful at times, but i can attest that we spend our día de la mujer showing what us womens got. fuerza. for sure.

and that was just the training course. we got back friday evening, cutting an hour off our time. damn straight. tomorrow is the real test, for we leave mañana en la mañana for torres del paine. we're planning 7 days of trekking, doin the "W", this fatty trek aroudn the park. we're planning 7 days so as to give us lots of time to hike without having to rush around with all those kilos of stuff. i can't wait really......

hmm...howabout some random amusing things:

- we continue with our quest to seek out and ride any seesaw we come across, seesaws being the best playground equipment ever invented. unfortunately, sivan got a little too excited on calafatés seesaw and managed to wrap her legs around it as she fell and clunk down hard on her shoulder. ay mujer. it was funny though...why is pain amusing?

- our busdriver to the glaciar perito moreno asked us what part of chile we're from. dammit.

- strangely enough, when we crossed the frontera back into chile, we felt more at ease, at home. argentina isn't our style...me miss all the sipo cachai huevadas. en serio, po. i don't get it either. oh and we missed the avocados. mmmm, so goood.

- today we were the translators for the torres del paine info session at our hostal here in puerto natales...the other atendees were from the czech republic and holland. i was amused by my translations, how my english comes out all choppy in spanish grammatical form.

all this glacier time has opened my head up wide and i feel more tranquila than i have in a long time...thanks for being patient with my lack of postings....my head was much too foggy at first to even express things to myself, let alone commit them to words for y'all to read.

pero, ahora sí. tomorrow the trekking begins...