Yeah, we're moving on up.... to the East Siiiiiiide

Wow, what a different experience the last couple of days have been.

We woke up on our last day in El Calafate and had one of those, 'our flight leaves at 8pm tonight and we have nothing to do for the next 10 hours in this crap town' kind of moments. Luckily (or maybe it was fate? or maybe divine intervention? or maybe the work of Al Qaeda?), we stumbled upon an absolute oasis - the Humus Spa (part of the Hotel Posada Los Alamos). After a long hike and 3 nights of restless sleep we decided we should treat ourselves. Although the massages were not that wonderful (downright mediocre), it didn't matter. We had a great day - got our work out on, got our pool and hot tub on (yeah - nice!). Awesome.

The day just kept getting better. We got to fly FIRST CLASS back to BA. No WONDER the flight was so expensive! This was a first for both Brianna and myself and I can safely say that it is going to be hard to go back to peasant class. The meal we had was actually decent and we got to use real silverware?! Although we didn't get to our hotel until 1am, we were EXTREMELY pleased when we got to our room.

This place is awesome!!! Our room is HUGE and we have a view of the Obelisk and the famous Teatro Colon, which are right across the street - we're staying on '9 de Julio', which is the largest street in all of Argentina - 14+ lanes! The cherry on the top is the pool and gym on the 23rd floor. The views are pretty wonderful.

On our second tour of BA, we have eaten sushi at SushiClub (yum - NO BEEF for a whole day!), had dinner with our friend Gloria at a trendy bar/restaurant called Gran Bar Danzon (food was ok, but the dulce de leche souffle and ice cream were incredible), had drinks at this really cool bar called Milion which is situated in a refurbished 3 story colonial home, AND planned the logistics for the rest of the trip (this took the better part of yesterday)

We are headed to Rio tomorrow for 6 days and then on to Peru/Machu Picchu for the last week of our trip. As we bid Argentina adieu, I present to you the 5 worse smells we encountered:
1) Our room at the Hostel del Glaciar in El Calafate
2) The water surrounding BA (Puerto Madero, La Boca)
3) The dead llama smell at the restaurant/stop between El Calafate and El Chalten (a dog was gnawing on an uncooked leg portion)
4) The Zoo (we ran by here everyday when staying in Palermo)
5) Our bathroom every morning..... remember the commercials, 'beef does a body good'? I am going to have to disagree with that.

Also, 5 random/quirky things about Argentina
a) When you want a drink, you have to first go to the cashier and THEN stand in line and hand your ticket to a bartender (this happens at ice cream places too) - think Soviet Union circa 1985
b) Then when you order a drink, lets say vodka and red bull, you get a glass with vodka in it and a whole can of red bull (unmixed)
c) Everything is in what they call the 'metric' system. I have never heard of this, but it seems very confusing.
d) This is more of a BA thing, but the double l is pronounced 'zh' instead of 'yuh'. We confused more than one cab driver with our pronunciation of 'Callao'.
e) All of the above

The answer is e). Overall, we had a great time. The people have been extremely friendly and tolerant of 2 English-only speaking gringos. Adios to the land of Evita...

El Calafate… a dusty, dumpy town near a big ass glacier

WOW. For the first time on the trip, we officially heard the record player screech to a halt. You know, like when you walk into a Mexican bar and you are the only gringo and everybody’s like, ‘what the f*ck is he doing here?’

We arrived Saturday in El Calafate, a dirty town in the middle of nowhere and a stark contrast to the green lush beauty of Bariloche. After driving down a dirty road and several trailer park style houses, we arrived at our hostel, Hostal del Glaciar Pioneros. First, they screwed up our reservation – put us in a dorm (ok, I am DEFINITELY too old for that). After I argued with them for awhile, we finally got our room. Ah, how I love the smell of mold in the summer. Blargh. And, as we tried to sleep the next morning, we heard cleaning ladies, people walking down the wooden staircase (they say location is everything?), even a few dogs that sounded like they were dying of hunger… not exactly the Ritz Carlton. There are about 4 blocks downtown that are dressed up pretty nice, but otherwise this town is a heap full of old tourists.

We decided to take a painful 4 hour bus ride to El Chalten on Sunday, an even smaller town, but with great views of two mountains, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. El Chalten was amazing! Lots of charm. It also is a pretty dirty town as there are no paved roads yet, but the hostel we stayed at was great, the brewery next door was amazing (food and beer) and the views on our 8 hour, 20 mile (no exaggeration!) hike on Monday were stupid. So many great trails in the area. Although we had to battle winds of 40+mph, it stayed sunny all day….and all night. We are so far south that it stays light until 11:30pm!!!! So incredible!

Today we went to the Perito Merino glacier. We got to hike on the glacier for a couple hours and the hike ended with some whiskey and alfajores on the ice! Also saw huge chunks of ice fall into the lake (this is pretty much all you do at the glacier, other than making fun of old people).

Brianna and I are so tired of eating the same 5 foods and are eager to get back to the city (BA) where we will spend 4 more days. Small change in plans after that…. we are headed to Brazil for a week! Brasil, Brasil, Brasil, Brasil. Too bad we will miss Carnivale by 3 weeks!

Sorry for the delay in posts… El Calafate did not have anything but dial up internet - Dark Ages!!!