First of all, it's been really strange having too see all the election madness from abroad. We're not out of the loop, but it's been amazing to see how much other countries know about US politics. But since our free travel started, we've heard some crazy stories about the tensions back home, including Ryan Oster's run-in at school...
But since you came here to hear about what's going on here, I'll tell you.
We got to our hostel without any problems and we are now in Tierra del Fuego! The whole region is known as Patagonia. The town we're in is the southernmost city in the world: Ushuaia, Argentina, El Fin del Mundo (which means "The End of the World"). Even though it's springtime here, it's quite cold and snows almost every day!
We did have a bit of a mix up with our taxi on the way to the airport, though. We loaded our luggage in the trunk and climbed in and I said, "Aeropuerto," as "Airport," and our driver started driving. A few blocks down I started to think, man I really thought the airport was the other way, but I guess he knows what he's doing. Just to be sure I decided to bring up the airport in conversation. I asked him what the name of the airport was, and he started to answer the question then said, "Oh, aeropuerto?!" We then proceeded to turn around. Apparently, when I told him "aeropuerto," he thought I said, "Al puerto," which means "To the docks." Once we got it all figured out, he turned to Lindsey and Jessica in the back and said (in Spanish), "This guy wants to take you to the port! But don't worry, I'll get you to the airport. Haha."
The rest of the journey down to Ushuaia, flights and all, went very smoothly. We got some interesting "food" on the flight, though. It was two icy pieces of bread on either side of egg, mayonnaise, and a thin slice of something that I think once was meat in a former life. Surprisingly, no one died more than a little bit from it, and we landed here amongst the Andes just fine.
The guys that work here at the hostel are extremely friendly and speak pretty good English. Once we got here, we showed them the tours we had scheduled through the travel agent in Montevideo and they said, "No no no, I mean those tours are ok, but they're made for old people. Let us call the tour company for you and tell them that you want to cancel your tours. We'll have them apply the money you already paid for tours to ones you won't get bored with." So after getting information from the hostel guys (who know all the tours in town), a little stubbornness on our part, and 30 more dollars, we got to extend our tour of the Beagle Canal by about 2 hours (which included seeing penguins), and we got to see Lago Escondido by a 4x4 off-road vehicle instead of by an excrusiatingly slow train. Everyone we ask about the train down here has a reaction that varies anywhere from rolling their eyes to pretending to blow their brains out. Needless to say, we went with the 4x4.
The off-roading was better than I ever could have imagined. The 4x4 picked us up at our hostel and then we picked up two other tourists. Turns out, they spoke English, too! Jo was from London, and Neil was from Northern Ireland. When we first started out, we drove to a lookout where we stopped and took pictures. Then instead of staying on the road, we drove off the side and down a steep switchback. We were all really exited, but after awhile, I couldn't help but thinking, "This is cool, but it's nothing I couldn't do back home." I especially thought this when, after we had been driving for a while, we saw a big truck and a camper parked on the side of the road. If they could get down there with the camper, then this hasn't been that extreme. Eventually, we got to a little farm and our driver said, "This is where we're coming back to for lunch." Then he turned off into the trees and said "Now the off-roading begins." Come to find out, the ride so far had not been part of the off-roading at all, just getting to the trail. Heck yeah.
There was an immediate difference. Instead of a dirt road with pot holes, it was now a mud track with huge ruts and divits. I was sitting in the front seat (not sure how I scored that one) so I have lots of pictures of the hood of the 4x4 with a wall of a hill in front of it or muddy water that would've been up to my waist.
At one point, the driver was pointing out all the damage that beavers cause to the landscape. There were huge trees knocked down and moved into the middle of the stream. At that, Jo said in her London accent, "I'd hate to run into an angry beava."
Meanwhile, the off-roading just kept getting better and better. At one point, the driver took Erin's video camera and GOT OUT OF THE JEEP. He goes "Bye!" and waved and climbed out his door to leave us rolling through a mud rut pit with no one at the controls. It wasn't that fast, but it was really weird because we just kept going without a driver!
After he climbed back in and we went a little longer, I noticed that I could see the lake (Lago Escondido) through the trees ahead. Then we started going faster than we had gone before, and the hill ahead seemed to drop off pretty suddenly.
And it did. He drove us right down a hill and straight into the water! The waves in that lake were higher than I knew were possible in a lake because of the wind, and they were crashing up against the side of our 4x4. When we drove up back on the shore, most of the drive along the coast involved the left half of the jeep on the trail, and the right half in the water.
Right before it was time to get out and take pictures of the lake, our driver pulled a sharp left away from the lake and towards a huge dirt wall. It wasn't just a steep hill like before. No, there was no way we were going to make it to the top of this thing. We drove up the wall and just sat there nearly vertical. It felt just like Jurassic Park...but with more laughing and smiling. And less dinosaurs. He finally let off the brakes and we rolled back down into the water. And then we went right back up again, the waves of the lake under the back window and the sky through the front windshield.
After he let us down, we climbed up on top of the jeep for a group picture and then headed back to the farmhouse for lunch. When we signed up for this tour and they told us lunch was included, we figured they'd just give us sandwiches or something before we went back to town. But no. They sat us down in front of some amazing barbeque'd beef and sausage. It was amazing. Too bad none of us really like wine, because they had that too.
Speaking of which, we've been making some excellent food choices since we've been here in Ushuaia. We did go out for seafood one night, which was expectedly expensive, but just about every other meal has been ridiculously cheap. We cook hot dogs with fresh buns from the panadería across the street from our hostel. We go to the supermarket and buy chicken and onions to sauté and vegetables and meat for a stew. It's amazing to come in from the cold and have hot stew! We can also make some pretty mean pizza with ingredients from the panadería. And since it's a bread store, the crust is obviously amazing.
Yesterday we went to the National Park here to hike around, and I don't think I've ever done anything quite that cool in my life. We drove out there without a guide or anything which was great because we could come and go as we pleased, never being rushed and never waiting on other people. We just packed some sandwich stuff and started off on one of the shorter trails through the park called the Island Hike. After a few minutes, it started to snow on us harder than any snow we'd seen here. It was freezing but we still had a blast because it was so cool to look around and see the snow falling all around us. It was even sticking a little bit. (Remember, this is their spring.) Tanner and I climbed out onto an island across a little stream. The wind was coming from the other side of the island so we stood out there and got COVERED in snow and then went back so the girls could see us looking like snowmen.
When we drove back to the hostel, we were all bundled up and frozen and wet from tromping around in the snow, so of course, we sang Christmas songs. We couldn't help it. It's like Pavlov's dog; in our minds, snow equals Christmas.
Then TODAY...oh man, today was awesome. We drove up the mountain behind the town as far as we could and then got out and walked up toward the glacier that overlooks the whole city of Ushuaia. While we were hiking, we met a hiker on the way down that told us, in a German accent, that there was no way we would make it to the top without snowshoes because the snow was just too thick. So of course, we thought, "Awesome! Let's see how far we can go!" Sure enough, the snowfall got thicker and thicker and it made for some incredible pictures. It was at this point that we couldn't help but feel sorry for those of our study abroad group who went to the beach for free travel. I mean, its getting hot in Montevideo, so we can go to the beach there later. But when are we going to get the chance to go to the END OF THE WORLD again? And even though our snowman making didn't go too well, we did just about everything else...snowballs, snow angels, sliding on the snow like penguins...and no matter how mundane the activity might be, everything sounds amazing when you put the phrase "AT THE END OF THE WORLD" on there. I hiked through the woods AT THE END OF THE WORLD. I nuked a hot dog AT THE END OF THE WORLD. I bought tic-tacs AT THE END OF THE WORLD. See? It turns everything to sheer epic-osity. Location, location, location.
