The one where we hit ice, ice baby

Its been over a week since my last blog, because Ive been trekking in Patagonia... and actually did ok!
Mark, a Sydney girl he met in Peru called Alex and I went to a football match in Buenos Aires the night before we joined the tour. We saw two local teams play. It wasnt as good as the Rio match because they put tourists in this protected area, which has a great view, but is completely separated from all the fans, and you feel a little detached from the action. The locals are in the stands above us, and were crazy. At one stage there was about 20,000 people just jumping up and down and chanting. Awesome to see.
The three of us went out in Palermo, a cool part of town, after the match. We had possibly the worst meal Ive had on the this trip. Argentinian food and wine has been unreal, except for this dodgy restaurant where I ate spaghetti with soy sauce, and dessert was cheese and a caramel sauce. mmm tasty, not.
Buenos Aires nightlife doesnt kick in till 3am, so we stayed out a while drinking at an outdoors table.
The next day Mark and I switched hotels and joined our Patagonia group. There are 8 of us, which is a nice small size. When they all started talking about marathons, iron mans and everest base camp treks I started freaking out thinking Id be unable to keep up with them. But you know what? I managed fine, and really surprised myself. Some of them got a lot more tired than I did.
Martin is our tour leader. Hes a 31 year old from Mendoza, the Argentinian wine region. And as luck would have it is a sommelier, so every night we have been tasting different wines. Man they are so good here. Hes a lot of fun. In fact our group is getting along so well its ridiculous. We are all having a great time together.
We flew from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, and on the first day we went to Perito Moreno Glacier. Wow. Its a huge glacier, several kilometres wide and about 80m high. We went on a boat to get up close and see huge chunks of ice fall into the water. Global warming right in front of us.
That night, like every night, we went to a great restaurant to sample local cuisine and wine.
The following day we got a bus to El Chalten, the Argentinian trekking capital in Patagonia. Its a little village where we based ourselves for 2 days to do treks to Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Huge shaggy mountains. The first day trek was 9 hours and 24 km long and one of the hardest. Man we were all so tired, but at least I keeped up and felt pretty good afterwards. Mark was more tired than me! The second trek was shorter, about 6 hours, and easier.
The only problem with all our treks has been the fact they arent a loop, so we get to the lookout, or top of the mountain, then have to come back the same way, which is a bit monotonous. Although we certainly couldnt complain about the weather. Patagonia is notorious for changing seasons in an hour, and the wind, but we had perfect sunny days every day.
From Chalten we went back to Calafate and then got a bus to Chile, where we camped in Torres Del Paine for 3 nights. Yes, Lynne camped. Shared a tent with her brother even. I cant believe we fit inside it! Talk about bonding with your brother. Its been fun, and we have got along well. Hardly any little tiffs, let alone arguments.
3 more day treks there. They were quite hard. Mark says its been a lot tougher than the Inca Trail. All between 4 and 9 hours long. Plenty of thinking time, and chatting time.
The group has a lot of funny stories. Mark has re-introduced Roxette to everyone, so weve been reminiscing about dodgy 80s bands, and spotting people who look like celebrities.
Martin brought along 12 bottles of wine for the camping, which we finished on the second night. Peter, from Colorado, got a little drunk and nearly fell into the camp fire while doing the crump (a dance). Hilarious, but only because he so spectacularly managed to avoid the flames.
The camping wasnt that tough. We had cooks make us 3 excellent meals a day. The chefs name was Carlos Santana. Seriously. I guess hes taking a break from his guitar.
So I feel really good about managing to trek almost 90 km in 5 days. Quite an accomplishment considering my preparation involved 2 months of being a backpacker bum, sitting on beaches and occasionally going for walks around towns. Its been greast scenery. Huge snow capped mountains, lagoons and lakes.
Lots of condors, which I just love. They are beautiful to watch in the sky.
We are now in Puerto Natales, which is still in Chile. We are heading south over the next few days.
Last night we went out for drinks and Martin, me and 2 other girls had a pretty big one. So Im a little dusty this morning.