El Fin del Mundo

Spring Break finally arrived after a long and grueling four weeks of school (how did we all survive right??) and eight of us started our intrepid adventure to the end of the world and back again.  We flew into Ushuaia on saturday morning, which is known to be the southernmost city in the world and the port of departure for Antarctica.  We were however informed that sadly, for geographical drinkers, the southernmost
bar in the world is not in Ushuaia but rather at a Ukrainian base on Antarctica.  Typical.  First day we did some exploring and visited the prisoners museum.  Apparently Argentines
decided to do in Patagonia what the British did in Australia, and sent all their convicts there.  Needless to say it was probably a miserable place to live as we went down there during summer and it was still freezing.  In the hostel that night, all 6 of us girls were in one room and the 2 boys were in the room next door.  They must have missed us as they ended up moving both their mattresses and sleeping on our floor! Slumber party! Never have I seen one room with so many people/bags/bottles of wine. Our second morning there Keeley, Maggie and I went on a sailboat ride out into the Beagle Canal and got the most amazing view of the mountains from the ocean.  Stopped off on Island H (clearly the settlers were creative thinkers-the island is in the shape of an H) and learned about the Yamana people who lived stark naked on the islands and rubbed sea lion fat over them to keep them from freezing to death.  What a life!  After, we went and stalked some sea lions while they were sleeping, so cool!  After our long, wet, windy, cold, yet thoroughly enjoyable cruise we all found our way to the one and only Dublin Irish Bar which conveniently was situated around the corner from our hostel.  upon our return to the hostel, we were admittedly a little loud, and a fellow traveller decided to come out of his room and scream at us in spanish.  He ended by yelling "Idiotas" and storming back down the hallway.  This would have been a slightly terrifying experience, had this athletic young man not been wearing the equivalent of granny panties....they kind of took the edge off and left us in fits of giggles yet still remaining terrified that he might return for round two.

Monday was a pretty uneventful day as the majority of it was spent on a bus which drove us into Chile to Punta Arenas.  The town itself is pretty unexciting as we discovered on our trek to the hostel but from Punta Arenas you can go to see a penguin colony which has more than 100,000 penguins!  We nicknamed our hostel Grandma's House, as it was run out of an elderly woman's home.  Imagine the stereotypical grandparents house....thats where we stayed...that's also where Alana turned 21.  Raging with grandma, woop woop.  We made up for it though when we partied with the penguins, busting out the party hats and all.  Pulled out all the stops.  We even had lunch in a supermarket!  Punta Arenas is also where we got "gringo-ed", aka ripped off by the taxi drivers.  Let the good times roll.

Wednesday morning we took a bus to Puerto Natales, the gateway to Torres del Paine, Chile's (and arguably South America's) finest national park.  We then had a grand total of two and a half hours to buy bus tickets, find somewhere to rent backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, stoves, gas, jackets and pretty much anything else you need for a trek into the mountains.  It was like the Amazing Race, group style.  Everyone running in all different directions, tensions rising...it would have made awesome television.  Mission was accomplished with minutes to spare and we made it to our bus on time.  But only in South America would a bus driver with a bus full of people turn the bus around 20 minutes in because one passenger started crying that she had accidently thrown out her camera at the bus depot.  How you manage to throw out your camera I have no idea, next to my passport it is the one thing I care about most on this trip! But we made it to the park by 5:30 pm and got on a ferry across Lago Pehoe to get to our starting point, having little to no idea that what was in store for us was way more intense than we anticipated.  That ferry trip was absolutely gorgeous.  Blue skies, turquoise waters, very Caribbean looking, except for the fact that the temperature hovered around freezing.  The next 48 hours we spent trekking up and down mountains, pitching tents, eating borderline raw spaghetti and crackers and tearing all the skin off our feet...and none of us showered for three days. Sounds fun right? It was, in actuality, one of the most amazing experiences.  Not only was the landscape picturesque, but the feeling of accomplishment was a natural adrenaline boost!  We also saw the effects of a massive forest fire that had swept the park last November, starting from someone's campfire.  There were times when we walked through areas where everything around us was burnt.  Creepy but cool.  I will admit that Keeley had to bribe me with crackers during the last 30 minutes of our 11 hour hike to keep walking as my legs point blank refused to keep moving uphill.  And yes, I know, typical Olivia, bribing with food always seems to work.  Damn it.   

Our last stop on our whirlwind trip of Patagonia took us back to Argentina to Calafate, which has become a huge tourist draw because of the Perito Moreno glacier which is a 250 km² (97 sq mi) ice formation, and has a length of 30 km (19 mi).  It's one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing!  All in all an awesome trip to some of the most naturally beautiful places in the world!