somewhere between Chile and Argentina....

I have lots of updating to do!!!

We left off in El Chalten, known for the Fitz Roy mountain. Lindsey and I had enough hiking, so we decided to do an excursion to the biggest glacier in Patagonia near Fitz Roy. It was a 5 hour hike to/from the glacier (there is always a little hiking involved). We put these things on our boots called "crampons" (yes, that sounds an awful lot like.... ) and got to walk on the glacier and climb up a section of it too. It was very cool, and very exhausting. 10 hours of hiking is a lot!

Anyway, we stayed in the smallest room ever in the hostel in this little town. The room was so small and it had 2 bunk beds. At this point, Lindsey and I were still traveling with our other friends, Sean and Katie. So S and K are on the top bunks, Lindsey and I are on the bottom. First, the bunk beds are so close together that Lindsey and I are practically spooning. Secondly, the bunk beds were meant for kids so there wasn't much space between the top and the bottom. We had to catch and early bus out of there, so when Lindsey and I were not spooning, she would wake up in the middle of the night thinking we slept late and hit me asking me what time it was. I, of course, would panic, sit up, and hit my head on the bed above me. Sean, above me, was easily amused by these mishaps. I got him back later, read further down.

With all the backpackers in South America during the height of the season, you have to plan fast. As soon as you get to a town, you need to book your bus to the next town before it sells out. As soon as we got to El Chalten we discovered you couldn't get to the next town, Los Antiguos for another 5 days. Well, that's too long to be in Chalten, so we took a round about route to get to Los Antiguos. At 6:30 am on January 14th, we took a 5 hour dirty road path to Piedra Buena, Argentina. PB is a very small town. It's not on any maps that we have seen, not even in their own tourist information office, and you can't wiki it either. It basically doesn't exist. So we have 12 hours to kill in PB before our 12 hour overnight bus to Los Antiguos. While we only spent 12 hours in PB, I do feel the need to write a bit about it. As I said, it was a small town, but it was also very strange. Here are the top 10 reasons why Piedra Buena is a strange town (there are actually 20, but I will give the highlights):

10. There was a park with fake flowers.
9. The park also had fake grass.
8. The park had these weird sculptures that were like those cut outs you stick your face into and take a picture, but the the holes in the sculptures were in weird places, like the armpit.
7. No one was there, but it was really big.
6. Nothing is open except the bus terminal which is open till 2am.
5. It would hail, then rain, there would be some sun, then hail again.
4. There were garbage cans that had painted fish on the sides.
3. The fish garbage cans were every 10 meters, yet there were no people around to need that many garbage cans.
2. The sidewalks were painted blue, white, and yellow.
And the number 1 reason why Piedra Buena, Argentina is strange: we went to another park that was a little island about a 15 minute walk away, and the benches in the park faced a hill. On the other side of the very small island was a beautiful river. Why didn't the benches face the river instead?

So then the night of 1/14, we took an overnight, but very comfortable bus to Los Antiguos. We arrived in Los Antiguos, Argentina, and quickly crossed the border to Chile Chico, obviously in Chile, obviously a small town with nothing to do. Hung out there for a bit, and then the afternoon of the 15th, we took a 3 hour, very bumpy ferry to a town to take a 2 hour curvy nauseating bus ride to Coyhaique. Stayed in Coyhaique for the night and then early on the morning of the 16th, we took what would be the worst, 12 hour, all dirty road, not an overnight bus ride to Futaleufu arriving at 8 pm on 1/16. That summarizes what was roughly 4 days straight of travel. If we aren't doing 9 hour hikes, we are sitting in a bus for hours and hours!

And then the fun continues.... Futaleufu, also known as Futa, is a town that people from all over the world visit just for the river. Seriously, kayakers and rafting experts flock to this place. It's the only thing to do here. The Rio Futaleufu is an absolutely gorgeous light blue river with many Class V rapids. And we did it (with a guide, no doubt). Let's take a moment to talk about the rafting. The rafting was really, really fun. At times scary, but our guides were incredible, and we had 2 guys in 2 other boats as safety precautions. We paddled hard, we saw fantastic scenery, and I saved Sean's life. What could make for a better day? How did I save Sean's life? Sean didn't hook his foot into the boat as well as he should have and as we were finishing a rapid, he fell out. I will allow Lindsey to paint a picture for you, she tells the story better. Just for reference, K and S are sitting shotgun. I am behind Katie, Lindsey is behind Sean. There are 2 guides who are behind us.

Lauren: Lindsey, can you please explain to my friends and family that read my blog what happened?
Lindsey: Sure! Katie and Sean were up in the front. Wonderful people though quite the inexperienced rafters. At the end of a pretty intense rapid, appropriately named 'the terminator,' Sean loses his manly grip and proceeds to do what seemed to be a cartwhere out of the raft. Panic? Maybe? Depends what your name is. Katie, the love of Sean's life, sat and stared. ha! I was sitting right behind our beloved sri lankan friend and was therefore, the closest person to him. In my mind I had a great plan to save him, though my actions were not so valient. I tugged at his lifesuit - not so helpful. No problem though, because immediately someone threw me out of the way, launched himself to the other end of the raft and pulled sean in to the boat and on top of him in one fell swoop. For sure it was Cristian, our chilean guide, who skillfully rescued our friend. Nope. It was Lauren Sherwin, New York socialite turned tree-hugging, glacier-trekking, granola-eating champion. Like she'd been doing it for years, she yanked Sean out of the raft, leaving all spectators in shock and leaving Sean indebted and embarassed for life. On this day, I gained a new found respect for my travel pal. Makes me tear up and die laughing every time I think of it.
Lauren: And when I pulled Sean back into the raft, what did you do?
Lindsey: I nearly peed in my rented wetsuit.
Lauren: Muchas gracias, Lindsey.

Ok. So now I will always hold this over Sean's head. In 10 years, I will email Sean and ask him for a favor, and remind him about that time 10 years ago when I saved his life.

After our rafting excursion, we had a super delicious dinner and I ate muscles the size of a golf ball. It was Katie's birthday and the last night the 4 of us, the 2 happy couples, would be together so we danced and ate and had a fabulous time.

January 18th, we took a 15 min. bus ride back to the border of Argentina, and then another 2 hour bus ride to Esquel and then another 2 hour bus ride to El Bolson, this hippy town just south of Bariloche. We went up to a lake to relax and walk around a bit and had dinner with an interesting (but cute) Portugese dentist that sort of followed us from Futa.

We really liked El Bolson, but stayed in by far, the worst hostel EVER. Hospedaje Piltri, the gateway to hell. First, the first and second floor was separated by planks and that's about it. The room lacked windows, the showers lacked curtains, the beds lacked comfort, and the señora lacked a soul. With all due respect, she did have one talent, chain smoking for 12 hours in a room without ventilation. In the morning, we told her we had a bus at 2:30, could she hold our bags until 2 so we didn't have to carry them? Of course, no problem. We return to the hostel at 2, and she isn't there. We called her cell phone, she didn't pick up. We asked her neighbors, we tried to see if we could break in. Finally, the dirty hag shows up at 2:23, and we ask her why she wasn't here. Her response was absurd so Lindsey punched her in the face and stormed out. (NOTE = she actually punched her in the dream she had the following night.) Lindsey runs to the station to see if she can catch the bus, and threw two 50 pound bags on my body, one of the back, one on the front. She runs, I painfully walk. Luckily, the bus was late, and we got the hell out of El Bolson.

Now we are in Bariloche, our last stop in Argentina, where the beer flows like wine and the chocolate shops are more plentiful than the jews in new york city. Don't worry, the bitch didn't follow us and now we're in great hostel with great people and no bitch..yes! Bariloche is awesome and requires its own blog entry. Will update soon!

besos y abrazos,
Lauren