Buenos aires, Carhue and Iguazu falls make one hell of an adventure

After staying way longer than I was anticipating in Chalten, I ended up taking my return flight back to buenos aires rather than hitching all the way back up. I got back into contact with the family that I had met in Bolivia to see if they wanted to meet up during my time in the bustling city of BA. Not only were they excited to meet up but they ended up hosting me for two weeks. When I got to their amazing apartment in downtown Palermo, a bed was made up for me and dinner was just about ready on the table. Things could not be going better. They ended up showing me around their massive city and then for Easter vacation we all drove down to their home town of a whopping 10,000 people out in the boonies. It was a great change being out in the middle of nowhere after being in a city of millions of people. 

Here's a few of Buenos aires:

The moment we arrived in Carhue, we were greeted with a full asado, or grill, all cooked up. The asado consisted of steak, lamb and chorizo along with side salads, fresh loaves if bread and some amazing bottles of wine from the Mendoza Vinyards. Our fine eating didn't stop there. The following day we went to their aunts house for some amazing pasta dishes and hordourves (I can't seem to spell that right but I'm sure you understand it haha). Then for the Easter celebration, we had a huge asado at their dad's house along with pies and tortas galore, salads and pastries. It was incredible to be able to share the amazing meals with all of them. It was unlike any grill I had ever had. 

Just outside of their hometown of Carhue lies this incredibly eerie town that was flooded and abandoned leaving ruins tracing across the valley. 

 Here are a few shots to give you an idea.  

This is the old slaughter house, El Matadero

The public pool now surrounded with water in and around it. 

After an amazing time with my friends in buenos aires and the surrounding areas, I packed my backs and set out for a world that I knew very little about: Iguazu falls. I knew that there were some huge falls. That about sums up my previous knowledge. I had no idea that they were situated in dense amazon jungles or that they were more than huge. They were gigantic! And it wasn't just one, not two or a few but hundreds of falls coming together falling off of a plateau and surging into one angry river. 

Standing on the lookout over the Main portion of the falls was incredible! The energy and power of the falls took over me and I couldn't help but just laugh at how amazing they were. 

Some light coming in perfectly at the end of the day 

I found Jurassic park 

Garganta del Diablo (the devils throat)

There's a boat ride that you can take to go right up close and personal to the power of the falls to get pummeled by water. I did that. 

Patagonia Video

Patagonia does it again: El Calafate and El Chalten

If Torres del Paine thought that it would be the only site in the Patagonia that I'd be taking in, it was incredibly wrong. The Patagonia just keeps on surprising me with every turn I take. I left Chilean Patagonia to venture north into the Argentinian side of it all. I was not let down. 

First I stopped by the city of El Calafate which is the staging point to go see the impressive Perito Moreno Glacier. The sheer mass of this ice cube is astonishing. It's very hard to comprehend just how large it actually is right up until the moment that it calves off a piece of ice with the height of around a 10 story building and creates a massive wave surging toward you along with an absolute cacophony of sound crashing into your ear drums. 

The front face of the glacier reaches up to sixty meters, just under two hundred feet and let's loose twenty-ton chunks of ice at a time. 

 

The front face of Perito Morenop

10 story tall piece of ice crashing into the crystal blue water below. 

After calafate took me in and showed me the insane capabilities of ice and time, I hitched my way up to El Calafate to do a few days of hiking in the Fitz Roy National Park. A few days was the plan anyway. After the first hike to the base of the massive granite tower of Fitz Roy, I was hooked. The hikes in this park don't compare to any treks that I have ever done. As I made my way through the beautiful autumn changing valleys with a backdrop of cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, I knew that I would be sticking around a while. 

After I had made it back to town from my first few treks, I met up with my friend Reanna for some dinner. After we finished an amazing plate of pasta and salad, she asked me if I wanted to go up to this grill and after party that she had heard about from one of her friends. "Sounds good to me."

As if I didn't have enough of a reason to stay stuck in the beautiful Chalten, I met this group who had the traditional grill and party and I instantly melted in. This group was incredible. It consisted of a couch surfing host who always had an army of cyclists camping out in her back yard. When I say cyclists, I don't mean some ametures who are going around for a nice stroll. These guys a freaking nuts! Some of them were traveling from Alaska for the last 22 months all the way down to Ushuaia (the southern most city in South America... And the world) what?! Needless to say, I stuck around a bit to see what they were all about; I'm very glad I did. 

Every day with this group was something amazing. We went on great hikes through the valleys straddling the city, we bouldered on some amazing rocks just behind Flor's (our amazing couch surfing host) house at the base of the mountains, along with some top rope climbing to top it off... during the day that is. By night fall we were grilling up a huge variety of meats the traditional Argentinian asado style and taking down bottles of delicious Argentinian and Chilean wines. Along with the typical asado, one night we had a mouth watering, fat dripping, smoke enriched, tender ripping Cordero!!! AKA, lamb on a stake sizzling over coals and smoking over logs of local trees. 

Two or three days easily turned into just under two weeks. I'll have to take out a few places that I had on the check list but it was completely worth it!

My first hitch... Pretty pumped. 

On my way to Lago Los Tres, just under Fitz Roy

Mt. Fitz Roy in all it's glory. 

Cerro Torre on a blue bird skied day. 

Relaxing in the hammock (Thanks to Taylor Gillis!) after a long trek through the Park

Bouldering with my buddy Kanaan (One of the crazy bastards (sorry, but that's the best way to describe them) who is twenty-two months deep in his biking adventure from Alaska to Ushaia.)

Part of the group. Our farewell to Andrew (the one who looks like Thor, the thunder god) 

Another partial group shot. Such fun people!!! 

Our traditional Argentinian Cordero asado! So gooooooodddd!!

Now I'm off to catch my flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up with a few friends and then take in the rest of Argentina that's left on my list! Talk to you all soon!

Adios amigos!