Adventures, Adventures!

*Apologies if the formatting on this post appears strange, something weird is happening whenever I copy and paste text from a Word document. But I have to do it that way because of the lack of a stable connection in my apartment. Sorry if it's hard to read!

 As good as my intentions were to write an entry before I left for Patagonia for four days, my body had other ideas. I (not 100% positive, but almost certainly) have IBS, as I figured out back in 2006 after a particularly stressful year at Hamline. The last few years I’ve been able to keep my IBS under control by following a diet of lots of organic whole grains and veggies and trying to keep my stress to low levels (part of why I haven’t gotten as involved in campus life at NMU). I’ve still had a few flare-ups brought on by stress, but they’ve always been manageable and short-lived. Looking back on the week leading up to my trip to Patagonia, I had been ignoring warning signs that I should slow down and take better care of myself. And so the day and night before I was scheduled to leave I didn’t write anything or sleep a wink because of being sick. Thankfully I got it under control by the time I got to El Calafate (whew!) and ended up having a great time seeing glaciers and riding horses.

The trip to El Calafate was one of ISA’s scheduled excursions, but had a lot of free time for us to explore the area on our own. We left Buenos Aires incredibly early in the morning in order to get south as early in the day as possible. I didn’t realize until looking at a map on our last day how truly far south we were, further south of the equator than Marquette is north of it! People aren’t kidding when they refer to it as the ends of the earth; it definitely felt like that at times.

            The first day after getting off the plane was spent viewing the Perito Moreno glacier. The views of this monster were just amazing. I’ve seen a good few glaciers in my life (thanks, Mom and Dad!) but this was something else. The sheer size of it coupled with the sound of it – huge chunks of the glacier cracking loose and crashing into the lake below. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life and since I have no words to describe it that don’t sound like clichés – breathtaking, astounding, jaw-dropping, etc. – you’ll just have to go see it for yourself ;) Here’s a link to some videos of it. We did get to see the glacier calving (breaking) into the lake right before we were about to leave, but because I was watching through my binoculars (thanks, Dad!) I didn’t get any pictures of it. Like I said, you’ll just have to go see it yourself!

After the planned excursion to the Perito Moreno with ISA, we all had two days to do our own activities around the area. Many people chose to go to nearby El Chalten to visit other parts of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (the park that Perito Moreno is in) but I opted to stay in El Calafate and see some sights around there. Because of a mix-up with times and companies, I ended up doing not one but two horseback riding excursions that first day. The first turned out to be just me, the guide, and four scruffy dogs for two hours! The second lasted closer to three hours with seven other tourists and two guides and included an enormous asado (Argentinean barbeque) at the end.

            For my second free day I booked an excursion called Todos Glaciares, or All Glaciers, and was up bright and early to see…all the glaciers! Well, all the glaciers on Lago Argentino at least, which meant most of the glaciers in the park. The excursion lasted all day and I got some beautiful pictures of the glaciers and the lake. Here’s a link to see the rest of my pictures from the trip on Facebook. That night I went with Ashley (another NMU student whom I had never gotten to know before this trip, which is crazy because we know a lot of the same people and frequent many of the same places in Marquette!) to a restaurant called Pura Vida where we had a fantastic meal. I got a dish called Carbonada de Calabaza, which was a rich stew – with potatoes, carrots, squash, onion, and peaches! – served in a half of a pumpkin. I am definitely going to try to recreate this when I get back. Any volunteers to taste-test?

So, when does my volunteering finally start, I’m sure you’re wondering, or am I going to spend all my time here gallivanting around glaciers and devouring whole squashes? A fair question, dear reader, but not to worry: I met with Federico, ISA’s ELAP coordinator, yesterday and I am going to FundaciónCor this Friday to meet with Silvia, the presidenta (not to be confused with Silvia my host-mom!), and meet the kids and see the house. We’ll also figure out my schedule for the next eight weeks; after talking to Lukas, who’s been at Cor for several weeks now, I want to try to schedule my days over the weekends, because there are fewer volunteers who want to do weekends and they need more help. I think this will work out great for me because it will leave me some days during the week to see sights around the city and maybe go on a few day trips outside it.

In order to keep myself focused and busy while waiting to start at Cor, and during the eight weeks when I have days off, I plan to visit at least one museum or cultural center each day I’m in city and not at Cor (most museums are only open in the afternoon, so on days I’m at Cor it might not be possible to get to one in time). So many museums have reduced admission for university students so it’s a very affordable way to pass the time and learn a lot. I’ve already been to the Larreta Museum, La Redonda, the Carlos Gardel House, the Evita Museum, and the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA), as well as both the Recoleta and La Chacarita cemeteries, the San Telmo art and antiques fair, and the Carlos Thays botanical gardens. Among the next things on my list are the planetarium, the city zoo, and the Museum of Fine Arts. I’ll make sure to keep posting updates of the things I see as well as my time at Cor.