May 10th was the City of Rosario ½ Marathon, which I decided to run. It went really well, and was a privileged peek at the organized side of Argentina! I ran my best ½ Marathon time yet, finishing in 2 hours and 12 minutes. That same weekend was also the weekend before all of my midterm exams, so I was also busy studying for the upcoming week.
Last weekend I went on a trip that I have been looking forward to since I started planning my trip to Argentina. A friend of mine from the program, Stephanie, and I, went down to Patagonia last weekend to see the Perito Moreno Glacier. We stayed in a little town called El Calafate, and we had an amazing time. On Thursday evening, after we finished classes, we headed to the bus station here in Rosario and caught a bus to Buenos Aires. We stayed the night in the trusty Art Factory Hostel before catching our plane down to Calafate at eight o’ clock the next day. The plane ride went flawlessly, aside from a little hiccup with people trying to board the plane from both ends. We arrived in Calafate before noon, and we checked into our hostel, which turned out to be a beautiful alpine style lodge. It’s the nicest hostel I’ve stayed in yet, by far. Anyways, we dumped our stuff there, and then headed into town to walk around for a bit. We got a bite to eat in a little café, and walked around by the edge of the lake, took some pictures, did some window shopping, and sampled some of the locally made chocolate that they sell in town. In every other shop… It was pretty good, too. That night, we ate some of the backpacking meals we had brought with, so that we wouldn’t have to take them home again. That, paired with a nice cold beer, was as tasty of a meal as any other, and we lightened our backpacks in the process.
` The following day, Saturday, was our full day in Calafate, and we used it to visit the magnificent Perito Moreno glacier in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It was snowing when we left, and it snowed almost the whole boat ride out to the edge of the glacier, but right as it came into view, the sun came out, and it was beautiful and clear for the better part of the afternoon. We chose to participate in a minitrek, a guided walk along the right shoulder of the glacier for a few hours, and we spent the sunny part of the day doing just that. We went with a group, and it wasn’t really a long or a hard walk, but it was a really unique way to experience the park. After the trek, the weather started to get nasty again, really wind and cold and snowy, so we took a quick tour of the viewpoint walkways, and then happily went back to town. That night, Stephanie and I went out to dinner at a pizza place, where they served us their special, Patagonian Lamb pizza. It was really delicious, despite my squirming conscious about eating baby sheep.
Sunday was our travel day. When we booked our flights, they were supposed to be together, leaving Patagonia in the late afternoon on Sunday. However, for whatever reason, my flight got switched and Stephanie’s didn’t. So I flew home in the early afternoon, and then waited about four hours for her flight to get in, and then we took a bus back to Rosario together. We got home early in the morning on Monday, and then it was business as usual on Monday morning.
This coming weekend is another group excursion. We are traveling north this time, to the San Juan and Rioja provinces, to visit a national park and a provincial park, as well as the city of San Juan, which is home to the childhood house of Domingo Sarmiento, a past president of Argentina. The national park is called Talampaya, and it is home to fossils and petroglyphs. It should be really fun, as should the provincial park, home to Valle de la Luna. I hope to be able to take lots of photos, and soak up some more of the clean mountain air that I was lucky enough to enjoy in El Calafate.
After this coming weekend, it’s back to school for about four more weeks, and then I’ll be coming home. I have one or two more personal trips planned in that time, and there are a couple more group activities and excursions, but my time in Argentina is winding down quickly now. I’ll see you all soon!
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