Patagonia

I found my future home. It’s called Chalten and it’s in the South West of Patagonia tucked up against the Fitz Roy Range. It’s perfect. A small quaint town with few year round residence, packs of dogs roaming the streets (but not the nasty ones you see in ciites, the tough mountain kind), and mountains and beauty EVERYWHERE. We were only there two days, but in the time we were there we were able to hike up to the base of Fitz Roy. We went up with a group of kids that we met a few towns back in Calafate and happened to be traveling in the same direction for a few days. There were 8 of us total. 1 girl from Ireland and 1 from Whales traveling together. They had been out about a month and had made their way down from Brazil. 1 guy from Philidelphia who had been traveling all around South America and had been out 8 or so months, he plans to be out a whole year. 1 girl from London who was a photographer and had been living in Buenos Aires for 4 months off and on while traveling in between. 1 guy from London who had met the photographer in Brasil and they had traveled together ever since. Lastly there was 1 girl from California who had only been out a few days. All of this to say there are soooo many people out here traveling the world. 3 months sounded like a long time while I was still at home and after talking to these people it doesn’t seem like nearly enough time. They all have amazing stories about where they have been and where they are going. It’s been nice to get out into the travelers circuit to get the first hand advice because we have been in BA for so long trying to figure it all out, and now we realize just how much there is to do and just where we want to go.
Anyway, back to the mountains. They’re beyond words. Vast and seemingly untouched compared to the bustling National Parks we have back home. The other noteable strangeness is there are very few animals out here. Aparently there aren’t many because of the harsh conditions (yes, it’s freezing and the wind usually blows all of the time), but still it feels strange for all of this open wilderness to feel so empty. When I come down next time (and there will be a next time, mark my words) I’d like to go with a group of friends, buy a beater car, take camping gear and go everywhere. One of our friends in BA asked “What are you going to do in Patagonia for a whole week?” Which seems even funnier now because I feel like I could be here for months and not see enough.