Oh the things that have happened since last I updated! You would think that I would learn to update more often so that I wouldn't have to rack my brain everytime I write...but really that would be too easy ;) Forgive me, as always this is terribly long. I will have to send this update in pieces!!
The last time I wrote, Andrea and I were in Puerto Madryn...awesome awesome place! After that we headed south to El Calafate, gateway to the Glacier National Park. In Calafate we stayed with a fascinating family of 2 (mother and 9-year old daughter) which was an adventure all on its own! We took the daughter iceskating as our 4th of July celebration and cooked a typical...Morrocan meal that night! We also saw the Perito Moreno Glacier....incredible! I really can't describe the experience, please check out my pictures for that story!
After that we crossed through Chile for the 18th time in order to reach Tierra del Fuego and the bottom of the world!! (luckily the Parmesan cheese made it safely across once again) Back in Argentina, we stayed in Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world. Reaching Ushuaia was easily my biggest goal on my South America trip. Cheeeeeckk!! While there we went dog sledding and visited the famous “End of the World” Prison. What an amazing time! Seriously...dog sledding, who does that!? On our last day it started snowing, and after fighting with bus companies for 2 days, I was afraid that we would continue to be stuck in Ushuaia. Happily our bus made it out, but because of snow and ice it was a very slow journey.
After fulfilling my Ushuaia dream we headed back north again (now we were making a mad dash north in order to make it to Machu Picchu before Andrea flew out). Unfortunately at this point I got super super sick. I was oddly grateful to be sick during this mad dash...can you imagine if I had been sick sooner how much I would have missed out on? We theorized that I had Swine Flu because it was such an epidemic when we were in Argentina. Clearly I never had that confirmed, but I will be having Swine Flu t-shirts printed up when I get home anyway ;)
I had really wanted to see the Lake's District and was excited that the furthest our next bus could get us was Bariloche, smack dab in the middle of the lakes! Getting off the bus we were greeted by amazing views even from the bus station itself. In town we stayed in the penthouse of a hostel...haha!!! No really, they were on the 10th floor in order to make money off the view they could offer from the balconies. Bariloche also turned out to be the Chocolate Capital of Argentina...see, we were meant to be there! :)
In Bariloche we booked plane tickets from Santiago to Lima (refer to racing up the continent remark) but we couldn't get Andrea's ticket paid for (problem with the website)...ohhh if only we had known the drama that would ensue from this! Then we headed out on our mad dash to Osorno/Santiago, Chile.
Haha, as we crossed the border back into Chile once again, Andrea and I got “busted” by cutoms...repeatedly!! First we got in trouble because we had left our sleeping bags on the bus, then Andrea got in trouble for having an apple core...and then customs went through Andrea's bag looking for marmalade. She had no idea how many she had, so she straight-faced lied to the agent that “yes, that is all I have.” Then they saw something in my bag on the x-ray and wanted to know if I had any marmalade and I began to panic about the safety of my Parmesan cheese! Luckily the guy believed me when I said I didn't have any marmalade and he left it at that (after x-raying it one more time). Oh Chile...
No really, oh Chile... After a surprise ride on a full cama bus (seats that recline into full beds...a bus not unlike first class on a plane) we made it safely to Santiago for our flight. We loaded up all of our belongings (and plane-ified our bags!!) and headed to the airport where we discovered that Andrea didn't have a ticket anymore (despite getting a confirmation the night before). With a little yelling and a few tears, she ended up with a more expensive ticket, but still on my flight!...and with both of our bags underweight!!
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