Viaje al Sur

All right so I definitely have a lot of catching up to do in regards to my blog. There is some good news though. Even though I have not updated my blog with a new entry since before I left on my trip of southern Chile and Argentina on January 31^st (to be exact), I did write while I was on my trip. Yes I did bust out the pen to paper. Just letting all of my readers know or at least all 3 of them! Yes I will give a shout out to Kevin, Megan, and Emily. Thanks for reading :D I know my entries suck at times but hey, if it wasn’t for my loyal 3 then I would have no reason to put these entries on here. But here is my one entry I sat and wrote in a coffee shop in Puerto Varas, Chile.

Out of all the places I’ve been and the people I have met so far the highlight of my trip has been trekking the “W” in Torres del Paine, Chile (see picture below) and befriending 3 Israeli girls in a hostel, which was predominately inhabited by Israelis. I went to Torres del Paine to hike (hard and long trails) and camp something that I have never done before. Also, I went to Ushuaia, Argentina “the end of the world” and got a great taste of Israeli culture. These two experiences are something I will remember for the rest of my life.

            What I liked most about Torres is I hiked and camped. Something I have never done before. Camping was not my favorite experience but it wasn’t half bad. After carrying around a big-ass backpack stuffed with clothes, food, a sleeping bag, tent, and mattress attached to it for more than 24 km one of the days I felt a great sense of accomplishment. It felt great to trek that far with that much weight on my back because when I got to the campsite and set everything up, sat down and enjoyed a cup of tea everything seemed so worth every drop of sweat, pinch of hunger, and burning and aching in my muscles. As I sat down near the rushing river the cool breeze off the water and the soft pinks, reds, and blues dancing off the glaciers in the nearby mountains brought me to an inner peace. In the moment of listening to the calming and pleasant sounds of the overwhelmingly captivating countryside, I began to bask in a sense of pride. I wanted to remain in that state and place along the river for longer than Mother Nature could allow me. I had to respect the sun’s disappearance into the far horizon and get back to my tent before the night captured any remaining light from the day (a flashlight would have been great at this point)! It was the small luxuries on that camping trip that made me the most happy like being able to lie down at night after a long days hike, a small peace of chocolate melting In my mouth, or the cool water I often collected from the rivers I passed. Overall the experience in Torres del Paine was amazing and being there sparked a great feeling of inner peace, respect for natural beauty, and self-pride (plus I took so many awesome pictures).

            Traveling in South America I was ready to experience the Argentine and Chilean culture but little did I know I was going to experience a taste of Israel. In el Calafate, Argentina my traveling companion Ashley and I befriended three Israeli guys. They first went out to get ice cream with us (even though it’s not kosher to eat dairy right after meat), they taught us some Hebrew, and they even made us a typical Israeli dish, Shakshuka. We did not get to spend much time with them since we were leaving to Ushuaia the next day but they told us to stay in the Nana an Israeli hostel in Ushuaia. So when we got there we found the famous Nana. We sat ringing the doorbell for about 5 long minutes before someone came out, not to greet us but to exit to smoke a cigarette. With a puzzled expression on his face he forced a smile in our direction and walked outside. As Ashley and I turned to one another with a look of uneasiness we lugged our packed backpacks and carry-on items into the Israeli hostel. When we entered a young Israeli must have sensed our confusion so he offered to help. We asked him “Where is the office”? In his best English the young man replied, “Oh, it is in the back. Here I will show you”. So we followed this guy with all of our belongings through the kitchen, into an outdoor covered patio where 20 Israeli people sat in a circle singing songs in Hebrew. I tried not to stare too much but I shot a few glances around the room, careful not to make eye contact with anyone so they wouldn’t sense my uneasiness. As we approached what seemed like a dead-end three people got up in front of us and moved their chairs to open up a door that seemed as if it were part of the wall. We passed through the disguised passageway to the office where we reserved our spot with a nice Argentine lady. We followed her back through the singing Israelis and proceeded upstairs to pick our room. We had three choices but we chose the room with a bathroom attached. There were 5 beds in it so Ashley and I knew that we would have 3 other roommates. What appealed to me was the orderliness of the room and a private bathroom (let my tell you those are hard to come by in a hostel). So we decided on staying in room 7 of the Nana.

Immediately after putting our things down Ashley and I decided to go out to grab a bite after sitting on a 20 hour bus ride. When we returned we met out roommates, three Israeli girls that spoke broken English. At first we were all quiet towards one another and even Ashley and I hardly spoke but we managed to get their three very Israeli-sounding names Inbal, Galit, and Lital. As it turned out Ashley and I became good friends with our Israeli roommates in the 4 days we were there. We had some great adventures together to the Tierra del Fuego national park, Ramos Generales café, and Laguna Esmerelda.

That sums up my trip to the south. The note worthy parts anyway. Happy reading J