El Calafate and El Chalten, aka The End of the Avinash Era pt 1

Aw hey now,

Excited to catch everyone up on recent developments. A few general observations to go along with this post:

1) Stray dogs. Everywhere. Barking and fighting and being adorable/filthy.
2) Spanish improving steadily, if unevenly.
3) The landscape down here is extreme. As are the winds.

Avinash and I arrived in El Calafate on the afternoon of Wednesday 3/19 after an even-lengthier-than-before bus trip. Somewhere around 28 hours or so. His time down here was starting to run out (plane was early Saturday morning), so we were trying to squeeze some quality experiences into the last few days. El Calafate was not my favorite town on this trip. It's a cute but overpriced and touristy place dedicated almost entirely to accommodating visitors to the nearby wonder that is Perito Moreno Glacier:

I think it's something like 60m high and 16km deep as you're looking at it in the pic above. Couldn't see where it ended. Don't quote me on those numbers, just wiki it. Anyway, on Wednesday we settled into a very nice hostel called Hospedaje Lautaro (after quickly leaving a couple of others that felt like crack dens). 

It was run  by a very friendly young couple, who lived there with their adorable baby girl and toddler named Leon. He cried almost constantly, but it was cute.

Wednesday was sort of a "gather ourselves" day. We went and checked out a bird sanctuary that wasn't all that impressive, although there were flamingos. Then Avinash "I have a weakness for fine dining" overruled Justin  "I have a weakness for cheap, authentic, non-touristy local eateries", and we indulged in what was admittedly a very delicious meal. We also chatted to a surgeon from Mexico and his wife, who were sitting next to us. They must have liked us because they gave us half a bottle of expensive wine that they weren't going to finish. Slept well.

Actually, what we really did Wednesday was try to figur out the best way to approach Perito Moreno would be. We wanted to trek on the glacier, but it was a little pricey and also would take up all of the day Thursday and keep us from making it to El Chalten for hiking on Friday. So we decided to do the far less extreme boat tour, followed by meandering along the catwalks that overlook it. This is all from Thursday, first the boat, then the walking:

Kinda tough to capture how enormous this hunk of ice is. Also, the sound of cracking ice was awesom. Really, everyone is just standing there waiting for a big chunk to break off and fall into the water, which happens every few minutes. Very cool.

We got back to Calafate in the afternoon and took a 3hr (child's play!) bus ride to El Chalten, which declares itself the trekking capital of Patagonia or South America or the world or something. On the way, we encountered more kittens at a rest stop:

Very quiet little town. Worst wifi I've ever experienced, but I suppose that's not what we were there for. After checking into our hostel we went out to a nearby cervecería. Really great atmosphere, tasty pizza and home brew, and most importantly...

...the cutest baby beagle anyone has ever seen ever running around the restaurant. Bwaaaah.