The End is the Beginning; 3

January 3^rd 2012

1.     Tried to catch a bus from Ushuaia to el Calafate, our next stop, but all the buses were booked so after we hostal hopped until we found two empty beds, we pretty much had the day free. Since we spent money on the canoe trip and Tierra del Fuego tour and were still in our first days of our trip, we had to plan free activites for the day. Monetti decided to tour the really cool town of Ushuaia. So many trendy cool stores. OBSESSED on a whole other level with Ushuaia! IT’S A MUST GO! I, on the other hand decided to summit a glacier.

2.     Independent day. Two boiled egges, a loaf of bread, two oranges, hot water thermos, yerba and my mate cup and bombilla- and I was off. Left the hostal at 12:30pm. Heard about this glacier called Glaciar Martial. Heard it was right outside the town and was an amazing climb and I decided I was going to do it. No particular reason. I just felt this deep urge to see if I can do it. So, I was off accompanied by my first friend of the day…

3        No map. Just me, myself and I. Is that great company or what! I don’t even know where to start with this. Lets just say I hiked this snowcap mountain until I reached the top of the glacier. 10 hours. I had no map. I just figured..hey the glacier is on the top of this mountain, so I gotta climb up! I made my own path through the mountain passing water droplets gently sleeping on leaf tops. 

I was singing on the top of my lungs!! I literally felt high on life; I cant even describe it! After about 5 hours in, I realize Im pretty much alone. Im not passing anymore climbers. In fact, everyone I am passing is climbing down, not up-and they are all telling me to be careful. Every climber I passed did not finish, they turned around and came back down because they said it was too dangerous. I was determined to keep going. I had this gut gut gut of a gut feeling that I had already climbed this mountain. It was like I knew I was going to make it to the top before I even made it there. It was unlike any feeling Ive ever experienced. So another 2 hours go by and I see people! Yay! I passed 5 adults- two couples and one guide. At this point it was them, then about 10 football fields away, I can see like 4 or 5 people and me- that was it. They look at me like I am crazy and suggest for me to go back down. At this point, the mountain is empty. No one has gone past this point except for those 5 people in the distance. There are signs that say No Climbers past this point without license/licensed gear.

The couples and guide turned to go back down at that point. So there I stood. In my head there were two options. 1. Climb back down with these couples. Its getting late. I decided at that point, Im not going to climb alone anymore. So my options were like I said, climb down with this couple group or take a leap of faith and just go- book it as fast as I can to reach these 5 people I see far in the distance. Can I even physically do that?

I said bye to this couple, took about 5 deep breaths, looked up at the sky and asked the universe to stay connected with me. I swear I was high on life. Like I said, I had this deep feeling that I knew I was going to get to the top. It wasn’t like a hope or determination- it was like I literally knew that I was going to be somewhere before I even got there. Surreal feeling. I looked up at the sky and said outloud, Aunt Monica, if you hear me- help me finish this climb. Then, I just went for it. I booked it. It was like I was being carried. Im really not in that good of shape and still have no idea how I did any of this. Who treks a glacier with no glacier experience/equipment? In my brain, it felt stupid, but something deeper in me- knew that it was exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Call me crazy. Anyways, I end up meeting these people who were sitting on a rock. They took a break from climbing because this last hour of the climb was so steep, you have to break every 10 minutes. On their break, they saw this little body in the distance booking it (insert me here). They said they stopped just to watch me because they were shocked at how fast I was going up. I swear I was being carried; I know it. So I meet them, out of breath, soaked of sweat and ask them if I can climb with them. The were a crazy adventurous family from Cordoba, Argentina-mom dad two sisters and one brother.

Doing that type of climb is scary. You make FAMILY real quick! I absolutely adored this family as we finished the last part of the climb together.

So you know how I said, I looked up at the sky and asked Aunt Monica for help. Get this, as I first met them, completely breathless, and asked them their names- one of the daughters name’s was Angel and the mother’s name was Monica. Come on! I had such perma-smile(permanent smile). Talk about a whole body experience of knowing you are exactly where you are supposed to be. A connection with no words. I cant even describe this. I will NEVER forget it. So long story short, we made it to the top of the glacier where we stood soaked from the combination of our soul’s sweat and the precipitation from the cloud because we were literally standing INSIDE of a cloud on the top of this glacier.

Ice-capped mountains, drinking the water that’s flowing downward from the glacier. Sliding down parts of the ice from the glacier hoping that the brother will catch me so I don’t tumble down the entire mountain to my death. Ha. Beyond incredible.

We eventually made our way down the mountain, taking stops for fresh running water from the glacier! MMMM!

Got the the bottom where the family offered to give me a ride back to my hostal. I turned it down because I just needed to walk outside. I was so high on life; my body was vibrating. It made no sense in my brain (which I loved). How could I have physically done all that I just did and still feel so full of energy, ready to run a marathon?? I think it was because I was so connected-connected to this endless source. Being there surrounded by soooo much nature. Gigantic trees, mountains- pouring water from the tops of the glaciers, being inside the clouds. I felt like a piece of dust in the gigantic abiss of a universe. I was surrounded by SO much beauty, it was like the energy from ALL around was running through me. It was like I wasn’t there but I was. I was existing INSIDE of it. So, I start walking back from the edge of the town back towards my hostal. Found a cool tea shop and got myself some hot tea and a biscotti as a present. Then continued my 2 hour walk back into town. Hitch-hiked with a 17 year old kid and his dog that I met on the road. (hitch-hiked? Is she crazy? Is she stupid? That’s dangerous). Well first, yes I am crazy. Second, I don’t care if no one in the whole world believes me. This day was all about faith- again, I just knew this kid and his dog was harmless. He offered to bring me all the way in town to my hostal but I still felt like adventuring so I let him drive me 15 minutes or so until I felt like walking again.

On my last leg of the journey back, I just so happened to come across a soccer field. Asked these boys if I could play with them. 3 vs. 2. My new teammate and I totally won! So so so fun!

Anyways, a day that will forever go down in my history book! I made it back to the hostal where Monetti – like a worrying mom- stood with dinner (guess? Free pasta) so happy to see my face! She asked about my day…I didn’t even know where to start…we walked down to the port to talk about our individual days amongst the ocean.

January 4^th 2012

4am- up and out, on the bus…crossing the border again on our way to our next stop- El Calafate.

I didn’t want to leave Ushuaia because it was insanely beautiful and so cool there! But we had to continue on this adventure…see where it takes us. So, more guanaco, sheep, horse, and cow crossings. Many more dirt roads and beautiful landscapes.

 We stopped at Rio Gallegos after we crossed the Mallegan Straight where we had to wait about 4 hours to catch a connecting bus. Here we add some more characters to the adventure. There’s Eline, a dancer from France, the three Italian boys backpacking South America, and a couple from Germany. 5 languages being spoken at once as we all pull together the random food we had which composed of watermelon, nuts, rice cakes, raw carrots, 2 cans of corn, beer and soda. We sat for four hours belly laughing at accents, wrong language translations, sharing crazy things that have happened to us thusfar in our journies and so on.

Lets just say the four hours flew by. It is so cool how a group of strangers can have so much fun, like friends we’ve known forever. Eline had one of those special laughs that are so unique. You know when someone’s laugh is really loud but so so unique that it just makes everyone laugh around them no matter what. Well, that happened like every 5 minutes.

When our connecting bus came, we said our see you later’s and headed out. Back on the road- never gets old.  Plus, my legs/body were started to feel the reality of what I did the day before so it felt good to JUST SIT on the bus looking out the window. We arrived in El Calafate at almost midnight- did our hostal hopping looking for open beds. Mochilero (translation=backpacker) Hostal is where we planted. $10 to stay in some sketchy beds. Cant beat it.

January 5^th 2012

We were up and out before 10am looking for another hostal. The place we stayed only had two open beds for that first night. So, we were off before 10am looking for another place to plant to sleep that night. El Huemel Hostal- $7 a night! Its not “pretty” but hey cant be $7! Plus, we bumped into Eline, the dancer from France with the contagious laugh, who was staying there. Perfect. By this time my face I had flaky face. The cold wind from climbing the glacier gave me some pretty intense wind burn where my skin cracked and ended up pealing off my face!

Yummy! Hopped in some MUCH NEEDED showers (oh: the entire adventure our towel=our tshirt.

No room in backpacks to fit towels. Shower routine was shampoo for hair body and face. Then swipe all the water off your body in a quick motion with your hand, then pat dry with a tshirt.) El Calafate was the cutest town-def in our top 2 favorite towns of the trip! Besides it being full of lavender flowers, there were SO many cool artisan stands and shops.

So much culture here! Obviously our first stop was to look for icecream-cheap and yummy choice.

We heard there was a nature reserve around town so decided to check it out. Laguna Nimez- so beautiful! SO SO SO PRETTY!

There were two Laguna’s with lots of beautiful birds, including flamingos and blue headed ducks! With our little map, I was tour guide Jessie and as we passed different places, I read the info about the specific spot in my tour guide voice in Spanish to Monetti. We thought it was really funny.

We also decided to take our shoes off and walk barefoot. Barefoot Sisters picking and eating Calafate along the way.

We ran into a beach that ran parallel to the nature preserve.

                            

What life am I living and how did I get so lucky?? Heaven on earth –corny and so true!

Monetti and I were obsessed with the grass inbetween our toes (its all dirt roads in Paraguay so it felt amazing to have some green inbetween our toes!). We even stopped and played with some geese poop. GSV Orientation 2010, our program director Pete tries to talk to us about “conflict.” He says: “So there is two types of geese poop. The first type is the kind that lands on the cement; it just heats up and festers. The other kind lands on the grass where it is accepted and eventually sinks in-fertilizing the grass. Community conflict can sit and fester or it can lead to process and growth.” Being that this is our second year together as a volunteer community, Monetti and I decided to laugh and play with geese poop. So fresh! So fertile! We took these pics for you Pete!

After spending some hours and good friend time at this beautiful nature reserve,

we headed back into town to bump into some locals and check out some shops. SO many cool things-cool people making creative cool crafts. Never gets old.

(Sidenote- we also somehow ended up chillen at a store with one of the employees eating as she shared her cheetohs with us and asked me about my Karma tattoo and randomly had this deep conversation about karma and spirituality and stuff. So random.)

10867 km away from Home

Food for the day- bread, beans, peppers, oranges, and icecream

We bumped into contagious laugh girl Eline. (Her first and last name was hard to pronounce in French. The way you pronounce her name is “I lean my leg” = Eline Mallege. Love that..i lean my leg ahha! So awesome!) The man staying in our hostal room snored and was mean. This also makes for spice to the adventure. Ahhhaa. We had anywhere between 3 and 7 roommates in every hostal- all characters!