A few more pictures...

I've decided to put up just a few more pictures from my South Trip.

The Americans
Left to right:
Tucker-North Carolina, Gil-New York, Laura-NY, Miles-Washington, Emily-New Jersey, Drew-Colorado, Sarabeth-Vermont, Emily-Virginia, Me- New Mexico and Catherine- New York
Me and Torrun (Norway) at the bottom of the Glacier

The Group
The countries (no specific order): USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway and Japan.

South Trip: Patagonia

Wow. Where to start... I honestly don't know. I just got back today from my 16 day long tour of the South. Because I can't possibly explain everything that happened each day, I've decided to put 1 or 2 pictures up from each day and explain a little about them.
Day 1
Not too much happened this day. I got on a bus.
Day 2
After leaving Comodoro Rivadavia and arriving in Puerto Madryn I met all 55 of the other exchange students that would be on the trip.That day we took a small tour of the city where we walked along the coast and saw a few famous monuments. Sorry there is no pictures for this day, I wasn't quite on top of that yet.
Day 3
This day we took a full day excursion to Reserva Provincial de Valdes. The picture on the right shows some of the many sea elephants that lined the coast.
Later that day, we went to a small town that I don't remember the name of, but it is popular do to the tours it gives to go see Whales, and even possibly sometimes Orcas. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the orcas.
The picture below shows a tiny bit of one whale. It was hard for me to not just watch and actually attempt to capture a picture.

Day 4
We left Puerto Madryn heading towards Calafate. On the way, we stopped to see the continents biggest colony of Magallanes Penguins are living. This was definitely exciting for me. Seeing penguins was one of my big interests in the trip. It was hard to pick just two photos to show of this, seeing as I took at least 60.


The picture on the left shows only a fraction of the penguins and their habitat. Now picture this, but times 50. On both sides.
Wanna know how close I got? The picture below shows one penguin, but is not nearly as close as some of the others came.
Day 5
After one of the many nights spent on the bus, we arrived in Calafate for lunch. This is where the main tourist attraction is Lago Argentino and holds the Perito Moreno Glaciar. For the rest of the day, we had free time. This is when we got to just walk around the town, do some shopping and explore a bit. In all, I think that Calafate was one of my favorite places. The town reminded me of a small town you could find in Colorado, a bit like San Martin. The picture on the left shows just a little hint of Lago Argentino. What we ended up seeing more of the next couple days.
Day 6
This day we took went to see the Glacier and more of the lake. We traveled around the lake all the while seeing many different kinds of vegetation surrounding it. On the way up to the Glacier, it began to snow and the windows fogged up. But even though this stormy event was happening outside, the forest on either side of us were brilliantly green as always. Now comes a hard part for me. Trying to find a picture that actually shows how amazing the glacier was. It was one of those sights that no one will ever be able to appreciate and truly understand until they see it for themselves, something that can't be captured on camera. But here is a few sample photos of this amazing phenomenon.
These pictures I took of the Perito Moreno Glaciar. One of the only continuously growing glaciers in the world.

Day 7
This day was indescribable. We had the option of paying just a bit more money and being able to TREK across the Glacier. Seeing as this is a once in a life time opportunity, there was no way I wasn't going. After strapping on our crampons and bundling up (even though it ended up not even being that cold) we had a small educational talk about the glacier and we were going up. The following pictures were taken on the Trek.
If you look closely at the picture above, you can see the two lines of people. One heading up and the other coming down.

Looking back at the way we had come. And of course, Whiskey and Alfajores at the end. (Alfajor: and Argentine chocolate candy that contains two or three cookies sandwiched together with Dulce de Leche and covered in chocolate. Aka, the dessert that makes you gain far too much weight if you eat too many in one month).

Day 8
Not nearly as exciting as the last couple days I might say. This day we traveled all the way to the End of the World, or Fin del Mundo. This is Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. Before we got there though, we had to go through many hours of bus ride. In between "oh so fun" bus time, we had to stop for a long time to go through customs and migrations (because the only way to get to Tierra del Fuego is through Chile). The catch here, is that about half the kids on the bus were throwing up from a 24 hour stomach flu that was going around. And I, unfortunately, was no exception. Not the funnest part of the trip i might add. And yes, I just used funnest. Not sure if its a word but I'm not exactly gaining any english knowledge here.

Day 9

Upon arriving in Ushuaia I was stunned. Although we had all been seeing the Andes mountains for over a week now, we hadn't seen them up close. They are huge! So close it seems like you could just go hiking in them like the back foothills in Taos. Because were still coming out of winter, there is still snow on top of the peaks but a guide said that in the summer the snow melts. Because we arrived late in the night, we had a free morning to do as we pleased. And that afternoon we took the bus up into the mountains for an amazing panoramic view of the city. Again, another place that you can't capture in a picture... though I tried. After this little scenic tour, we had the afternoon free to do some "tax-free" shopping.
This photo on the left shows the view from my hotel room. --- In this photo below I sit with the view of Ushuaia and the mountains in the background.
Day 10
On this day we took a tour with a guide through the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (I'm counting on you english speakers to at least know what that means). That night after dinner, Rotary had a "treat" for us. Because that week it was three different people's birthdays, they rented the upstairs dance floor of the restaurant and hired a dj. Even though we would have rather them let us go out into the town and do what we want until 5 am in the morning, we were still thankful. And we were even allowed one beer! Wow... they were cuttin loose.
The photo on the left is pretty self descriptive...
This photo on the right is only part of the amazing landscape.

Day 11 & 12

I am combining these days simply because the only thing that happened was nothing. From the morning of day 11 to the evening of day 12, we were in the bus. In total, it was about a 34 hour bus ride. Woo hoo. I do have one picture though. To get through from Chile to Tierra del Fuego and back again, you have to take a ferry across the

Strait of Magallanes. Because last time we did this 20 minute boat ride, I was about to be sick I didn't see much. Now, I saw the most incredible thing. While sitting inside staying out of the chill wind up top, someone down the row screams, "Look at de fish!" Not sure what was going on, I looked out the window too. And sure enough, along side the boat there were black and white dolphins jumping in and out of the birds the boat produced. So I grabbed my camera and took it up to the top of the boat. While holding on the the railing so the wind wouldn't blow me over the edge, I looked around and was truly inspired. On either side of the boat, there were hundreds of these bizarre dolphins jumping up and down. Because of the small amount of time and the time it took to actually take a picture, I only got a couple semi good ones.

Day 13
After arriving in Esquel and having a free day for resting, we were off that morning to head to San Carlos de Bariloche. On the way there, we took a tour through Parque Nacional los Alerces. Where we again, saw some amazing sights and mountains. One thing about Esquel that is a little different, is that everything is so green! Compared to most of Patagonia which looks like the dessert. We then continued the trip to Bariloche and arrived there mid evening.
Picture on the right---> Left to right: Belgium, USA, France and USA (me).
Day 14
The next morning in Bariloche, we went up to again see a beautiful view of some beautifulness (yeah, i know.. i just said that). Later that day, we got closer to the famous hotel called Llao-Llao. I don't really know what's so famous about it, but it looked mighty expensive. Later that day, we went to a very famous Chocolate place in Bariloche, that is known about throughout all of Argentina. And yes, I ate lots of Chocolate on this trip. Don't worry daddy, christmas is around the corner ;) The building on the land that is tanish, is the hotel Llao-Llao.
That night the Rotary people decided to cut loose ONE MORE TIME, and took us to the very expensive, very popular Grisu. Because I'm sure I would get in trouble with some of my friends by putting some of the pictures up, I will put one up of some of us before we left the hotel. Left to Right: Canada, USA, Norway, USA and Denmark
Day 15

On this day we traveled from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes (where I had my Orientation meeting). On the way there, we were supposed to stop at the famous 7 lakes. But we had a bit of a problem. Because the weather had been so rainy lately, the dirt road was very muddy. And our big tour bus did not take well to that. After sitting in the bus at a 45 degree angle tilted to the right for an hour and a half, we finally decided to get out and start walking. And so, about 50 kids were walking along the muddy road in the rain in the middle of the forest. The fresh air was great, I enjoyed it. Until the other bus which had only around 10 kids in it came back to get us. Our bus. In the mud.

In San Martin de los Andes drinking milkshakes :)

Day 16
And so came the day where we all went our separate ways. Seven of us getting dropped of in Cipoletti and 4 of us traveling back to Comodoro. The rest of the kids were all headed up North to Cordoba, and from there to their home provinces. In general, majority of the kids on the trip were from Northern Provinces, and I met some really great people.