So my family came last Monday and spend Mon-Wed in Buenos Aires. I got to show them all the places I hang out and we went to a Tango show. Unfortunately we didn't tell the travel agent that i have already seen Senor Tango, so I got to see it for the 2nd time!!!! (kind of a disappointment) On Thursday, my mom, dad, Hilary, Kelsey, Jessie, and I all flew down to Bariloche, the lake district. Bariloche is kind of Lake Tahoe....very scenic with tourist towns.
When we got there, we unloaded at our hotel, Design Suites and went to the civic center/downtown area to look around and eat lunch. We had lunch at this place call Crocadila or something like that. It had great pizza and later we found out that Mike's "uncle" owns it. The downtown felt like we were in Switzerland or some ski-town. Bariloche is known for its chocolate so of course we had to walk around and taste the various chocolates and ice cream. In the main square there were tons St Bernards and their owners "pimped" them out. They were trying to get us to pay money to take a picture with the dogs....they had baby ones too! That afternoon we went to Cerro Otto, which was a look at point you get to by gondola. We had coffee in the rotating restaurant.
The next day we took an all day boat tour to see Puerto Blest, Lago Fria, and Puerto Fria. It was a lot of fun to be on the boat, but not so fun to be with tons of other tourists. We walked around and saw great views. The next tour day we took a 7-lakes drive. It was pretty boring because we sat in a car ALL day, but the view of the lakes was amazing. We saw the world's shortest river and got out of the car at different scenic points. The last tour we went on was to Isla Victoria. It was my favorite because we split from the group once we got there, so it was nice just to be with the 6 of us and nature. That day it was Easter, and my mom decided to bring easter eggs for a hunt on Isla Victoria. I'm 20 and Hilary is almost 18, so we are definitely too old for egg hunts, but it was still fun. Jessie found the golden egg. My mom and Hilary went swimming in the lake....brrr. Overall, the tours were fun. We were the only ones that spoke English and the tours were completely in Spanish. The tours lasted all day. We would leave by 9 am and get back just in time for dinner at 8pm. They were exhausting days, but really fun.
Other than tours, we spent our time eating and at the hotel. The food in Bariloche was amazing. I did not eat one bad meal. Food in Argentina in general is not my favorite, but Bariloche food was soooo good. We had italian, traditional parilla argentine, fondue, and a brewery. Each place was amazing. I had never had meat fondue before, and it was surprisingly good. I really can't describe how good the food was. The dinners were probably one of the biggest highlights of my trip.
Monday, we flew home and Hilary and my dad continued on to Calafate. It was a great Easter break and I was happy to get to see my family (minus Sallie).
Friday, March 28, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Iguazu Falls!!!
Fantastic weekend to Iguazu Falls. A group of 6 of us, which turned into a group of 9, spent the weekend visiting Iguazu Falls. I learned a lot from this weekend, especially about with who and how I like to travel. Iguazu is about a 2 hour flight from Buenos Aires, or a 18 hour bus ride. Taking buses places is really popular in Argentina. We decided to take a bus because it was only $150 round trip instead of $300 round trip. On Friday, Kelsey and I told our group to meet at the Pepperdine house at 1:00 pm to get to the bus station by 2:10 pm. One person wanted to meet us there, another forgot her passport, another forgot his credit card, two others decided they wanted to make a last minute grocery store stop (I know that doesn't add up to 9, but others went with the people who forgot stuff). So Kelsey and I were left just the two of us and it was 1:30 pm by the time everyone had shown up and left to do their separate errands. We made our way to the bus station, which was so huge. There were over 150 desks of different bus companies, similar to checking in at an airport. Our tickets were at desk #121. The attendants pretended they didn't speak English, so I made a complete fool out of myself trying to explain that I was here to pick up tickets. We got on the bus and ran into another group of Pepperdine students doing the same trip we were. Altogether there were 14 of us on the bus. I'm sure everyone else hated us. The bus ride was actually not that bad for being 18 hours long. We left at 3:00PM and stopped many times to pick up more people along the way before arriving in Puerto Iguazu at 9:30AM on Saturday. The food on the bus was disgusting, but the boys were very appreciative to take Kelsey and my meals. Everyone was jealous when Kelsey and I took out Peanut Butter for dinner. For the most part, we all slept well. Our seats only reclined a little bit, but somehow I managed to fall asleep.
Once we were in Iguazu, we went to our hostel, Hostel-Inn, to drop of our bags. The hostel is probably the biggest hostel I will ever see. It had a huge eating area, lounge area, swimming pool, ping pong, pool tables, someone to help with activities, bbqs, free brazilian dance show, and more. We dropped our bags and made it to the falls. The whole morning was very slow because everyone had their own agenda of what needed to be done before getting to the falls. Once at the park, we first went on the lower falls circuit where we got on a boat to get close to the bottom of the falls. We took off our shirts and put on life vests and got on the boat. They drove us around the bottom of the two different falls and then drove us under a tiny fall coming off the island in between the two huge ones. Kelsey and I thought the ride was over, but they started driving towards the smaller of the two huge falls. All of a sudden, we were driving straight into the falls. It was so scary, I was under Iguazu Falls. The Iguazu Water Falls actually were falling on top of me. After coming out from under the falls, we were completely soaked, shorts, tennis shoes, socks, and all. Then, the driver took us under again. Kelsey and I thought that one time was enough....it was so scary. After the boat, Kelsey and I wanted to take the train to the falls called Devil's Throat. The train closed early, so we wanted to make sure we spent lots of time at Devil's Throat because it is the highlight of the park. The rest of the group wanted to explore the island between the water falls, so we split up. The whole group didn't understand why Kelsey and I wanted to do our own thing, but we were both tired of having to stop and wait for everyone to be able to move on. We stopped to have a cookie break, where Cotis, a native animal, attacked Kelsey and stole our cookies. A park ranger had to get the cookies back from us. We went on the train and then to the Devil's throat. The view and sound was amazing. It was something that you can't take a picture of or describe adequately enough. You have to be there to truly experience it's beauty. We spent a long time just staring at the water falls. You can see Brazil from where we were looking, but the Argentina side seemed better than the Brazil side. We saw the other group going out when we took the train back in. Kelsey and I stopped for a pizza and beer lunch for $3 each....everything is so cheap in Argentina. It started getting cold and rainy, so Kelsey and I relaxed at the Havanna coffee shop, sipping chocolatada (hot chocolate) until our group was ready to leave. Overall, it was an amazing day.
We returned to the hostel, were we fit 9 people in 6 twin beds. The boys complained how expensive the hostel was...40 pesos or $13.... so they tried to sell their beds or half of their bed to the part of our group who didn't have one. The boys also didn't want to spend any money on dinner so bought pasta and cooked it and ate left-over ham and cheese sandwiches from the bus. The girls decided to go into town where we went to a artisan pasta shop and got 1 kilo of pasta, 1 liter of sauce, and 2 liters of drinks for 9 pesos each or $3. Generally, people take dry pasta to go, but they are willing to cook it for you. 1 kilo of pasta is more pasta than you can imagine. When they brought the plates out, we thought that 1 plate would be enough for 2 or 3 people and 1 plate was actually for 1 person. The next morning we woke up and got back on the bus to take another 18 bus ride home. There was a baby and snoring, which made this ride less plesant. Also at one of the bus stops, there was a doctor giving yellow fever shots for free. Kelsey and I were kind of creeped out by the whole thing, but almost half of our bus got of and got shots before continuing, including at least 5 pepperdine students. We got home at 6 am and had class at 9 am. Overall, very good weekend.
My parents and Hilary are now here to visit and we are leaving on Thursday to go to Bariloche, which is the Lake District.
Once we were in Iguazu, we went to our hostel, Hostel-Inn, to drop of our bags. The hostel is probably the biggest hostel I will ever see. It had a huge eating area, lounge area, swimming pool, ping pong, pool tables, someone to help with activities, bbqs, free brazilian dance show, and more. We dropped our bags and made it to the falls. The whole morning was very slow because everyone had their own agenda of what needed to be done before getting to the falls. Once at the park, we first went on the lower falls circuit where we got on a boat to get close to the bottom of the falls. We took off our shirts and put on life vests and got on the boat. They drove us around the bottom of the two different falls and then drove us under a tiny fall coming off the island in between the two huge ones. Kelsey and I thought the ride was over, but they started driving towards the smaller of the two huge falls. All of a sudden, we were driving straight into the falls. It was so scary, I was under Iguazu Falls. The Iguazu Water Falls actually were falling on top of me. After coming out from under the falls, we were completely soaked, shorts, tennis shoes, socks, and all. Then, the driver took us under again. Kelsey and I thought that one time was enough....it was so scary. After the boat, Kelsey and I wanted to take the train to the falls called Devil's Throat. The train closed early, so we wanted to make sure we spent lots of time at Devil's Throat because it is the highlight of the park. The rest of the group wanted to explore the island between the water falls, so we split up. The whole group didn't understand why Kelsey and I wanted to do our own thing, but we were both tired of having to stop and wait for everyone to be able to move on. We stopped to have a cookie break, where Cotis, a native animal, attacked Kelsey and stole our cookies. A park ranger had to get the cookies back from us. We went on the train and then to the Devil's throat. The view and sound was amazing. It was something that you can't take a picture of or describe adequately enough. You have to be there to truly experience it's beauty. We spent a long time just staring at the water falls. You can see Brazil from where we were looking, but the Argentina side seemed better than the Brazil side. We saw the other group going out when we took the train back in. Kelsey and I stopped for a pizza and beer lunch for $3 each....everything is so cheap in Argentina. It started getting cold and rainy, so Kelsey and I relaxed at the Havanna coffee shop, sipping chocolatada (hot chocolate) until our group was ready to leave. Overall, it was an amazing day.
We returned to the hostel, were we fit 9 people in 6 twin beds. The boys complained how expensive the hostel was...40 pesos or $13.... so they tried to sell their beds or half of their bed to the part of our group who didn't have one. The boys also didn't want to spend any money on dinner so bought pasta and cooked it and ate left-over ham and cheese sandwiches from the bus. The girls decided to go into town where we went to a artisan pasta shop and got 1 kilo of pasta, 1 liter of sauce, and 2 liters of drinks for 9 pesos each or $3. Generally, people take dry pasta to go, but they are willing to cook it for you. 1 kilo of pasta is more pasta than you can imagine. When they brought the plates out, we thought that 1 plate would be enough for 2 or 3 people and 1 plate was actually for 1 person. The next morning we woke up and got back on the bus to take another 18 bus ride home. There was a baby and snoring, which made this ride less plesant. Also at one of the bus stops, there was a doctor giving yellow fever shots for free. Kelsey and I were kind of creeped out by the whole thing, but almost half of our bus got of and got shots before continuing, including at least 5 pepperdine students. We got home at 6 am and had class at 9 am. Overall, very good weekend.
My parents and Hilary are now here to visit and we are leaving on Thursday to go to Bariloche, which is the Lake District.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Fun Weekend
So another week has gone by. I can't believe how fast this experience going. I have already been here almost a month and a half. Crazyness.
Friday night, Kelsey, Lauren, and I had Mexican food for dinner. The place was empty when we got there and four tables of people showed up while we were there. The food was decent for Mexican food, which is hard to find in Argentina. The food was incredibly cheap for dinner. I got asado tacos and it came with 4 tacos and it was only 12 pesos, or $4. The tacos were actually really good. It was definitely worth it! The rest of the evening kind of went downhill from there. We waited at the P-dine casa to go out with people and eventually Kelsey and I left with 4 other guys. College boys are super cheap, and refuse to pay for transportation and don't want to spend any money on drinks. Our group decided to go to a pool hall, which was 20 blocks away. After getting lost and spending too long walking, we finally made it to the pool hall. Right after we sat down, the boys decided that the drinks were too expensive. They wanted to walk 20 blocks back to where we started and then take a bus in the opposite direction to meet up with some other people. By that time it was 1am and Kelsey and I were tired of wandering around so took a taxi home, which by the way, only cost us 10 pesos total, or 5 pesos (less than $2) each to go back the 20 blocks we had just spent the past hour walking.
Saturday was much better. Kelsey and I went on a picnic! I brought Peanut Butter here from the US. So we went to Coto (the grocery store here) and bought bread, chips, lemonade, and chocolate. We took the Sup-T and then walked to a park. Lovely company and delicious food. It was a fantastic lunch and it was a really beautiful day. In the afternoon, we hung out with other students at another park, and then a cafe, and then at the Casa. Kelsey and I opted out of going to the circus, where almost everyone was going, and decided to have a really good dinner out. We picked a nice place in my travel guide in Palermo Hollywood and then wandered around that area. Dinner here is late, so we went at 9PM. The food was amazing and great ambiance. Kelsey and I had wine. I had steak and mashed potatoes and Kelsey had ravioli's with cream sauce. The steak was one of the best steaks I have had in my entire life. There was sooooo much of it. Then Kelsey and I had a brownie con helado for dessert, very rich. Everything we ate tasted so good. We came back to the Casa and watched Love Actually and then went out with Travis and Andrew to a bar. It was really fun to go in a small group and just talk. I got home at 4ish in the morning. So much fun. I love how it is so easy to go out with different people here and everything is so relaxed.
Sunday, I got up and went to church by myself at 11am. It was a Catholic church three blocks from my house. The church had services at 9, 10, 11, 12:15, and two more services in the evening. I thought that the whole church wouldn't be full because the church has so many services, but it was full. I was surprised that it only lasted 45 minutes. I could understand the scripture because it was also written down in a bulletin, but the speaking and songs kind of lost me. I decided that I don't really like going to Catholic church, and that I miss singing songs I know. The church was filled mostly with older people. I was happily surprised to see that women served communion, read scripture, and lead music. I hope to attend a protestant church to try out. The rest of the day has been spent doing homework and relaxing. I have some tests this week...no fun. Next weekend I'm heading off to Iguazu falls and then next Monday, my family comes to visit!
That's all for now :)
Friday night, Kelsey, Lauren, and I had Mexican food for dinner. The place was empty when we got there and four tables of people showed up while we were there. The food was decent for Mexican food, which is hard to find in Argentina. The food was incredibly cheap for dinner. I got asado tacos and it came with 4 tacos and it was only 12 pesos, or $4. The tacos were actually really good. It was definitely worth it! The rest of the evening kind of went downhill from there. We waited at the P-dine casa to go out with people and eventually Kelsey and I left with 4 other guys. College boys are super cheap, and refuse to pay for transportation and don't want to spend any money on drinks. Our group decided to go to a pool hall, which was 20 blocks away. After getting lost and spending too long walking, we finally made it to the pool hall. Right after we sat down, the boys decided that the drinks were too expensive. They wanted to walk 20 blocks back to where we started and then take a bus in the opposite direction to meet up with some other people. By that time it was 1am and Kelsey and I were tired of wandering around so took a taxi home, which by the way, only cost us 10 pesos total, or 5 pesos (less than $2) each to go back the 20 blocks we had just spent the past hour walking.
Saturday was much better. Kelsey and I went on a picnic! I brought Peanut Butter here from the US. So we went to Coto (the grocery store here) and bought bread, chips, lemonade, and chocolate. We took the Sup-T and then walked to a park. Lovely company and delicious food. It was a fantastic lunch and it was a really beautiful day. In the afternoon, we hung out with other students at another park, and then a cafe, and then at the Casa. Kelsey and I opted out of going to the circus, where almost everyone was going, and decided to have a really good dinner out. We picked a nice place in my travel guide in Palermo Hollywood and then wandered around that area. Dinner here is late, so we went at 9PM. The food was amazing and great ambiance. Kelsey and I had wine. I had steak and mashed potatoes and Kelsey had ravioli's with cream sauce. The steak was one of the best steaks I have had in my entire life. There was sooooo much of it. Then Kelsey and I had a brownie con helado for dessert, very rich. Everything we ate tasted so good. We came back to the Casa and watched Love Actually and then went out with Travis and Andrew to a bar. It was really fun to go in a small group and just talk. I got home at 4ish in the morning. So much fun. I love how it is so easy to go out with different people here and everything is so relaxed.
Sunday, I got up and went to church by myself at 11am. It was a Catholic church three blocks from my house. The church had services at 9, 10, 11, 12:15, and two more services in the evening. I thought that the whole church wouldn't be full because the church has so many services, but it was full. I was surprised that it only lasted 45 minutes. I could understand the scripture because it was also written down in a bulletin, but the speaking and songs kind of lost me. I decided that I don't really like going to Catholic church, and that I miss singing songs I know. The church was filled mostly with older people. I was happily surprised to see that women served communion, read scripture, and lead music. I hope to attend a protestant church to try out. The rest of the day has been spent doing homework and relaxing. I have some tests this week...no fun. Next weekend I'm heading off to Iguazu falls and then next Monday, my family comes to visit!
That's all for now :)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
EFT, Part 3
Punta Arenas was the final stop of our EFT. All the cities at the end of the world are small and distant from all other, so Punta Arenas had a very small-town feeling. We went on a tour of the city the day we got there. We took two buses and stopped at a look-out point over the city. Then we went to a museum. The museum was very strange to me because it was decorated in a European style and felt like I was visiting a museum house in Europe, except it wasn't as impressive. After the museum, the majority of the group walked back to the hotel, leaving 12 of us. The tour guides were confused and we condensed onto only one bus. We went to a cemeetary but it was pouring rain, so we got soaked. We were ready to go back to the hotel, but we made one more stop at another museum. That night for dinner, Rafa took us all out to dinner. We were very excited, but he took us to a traditional Chilean meal...hot dogs and pizza. The pizza was the appetizer and was ok after you took off the ham and tomatoes. The hot dog was the grossest thing I have ever seen. It had mayonnaise, guacamole, and other disgusting things that shouldn't be on a hot dog. In addition, the hot dog itself looked gross. Rafa felt bad, so treated us to dessert back at the hotel. That night, Jake, Justin, Kelsey, and I decided to go out to a bar. 10 others eventually joined us. The place we went was a lot of fun. It was a Wednesday night, but full of local people. We got a table and just enjoyed being in the culture of Chile. There was a table of young people (our age) next to us, so we introduced ourselves and joined our tables. We talked to them in Spanish for a while. It was so much fun. They turned on music and part of the bar became a club. Kelsey and I got asked to danced by two guys from the Chilean navy on their way to Antarctica. Kelsey's was tall and handsome and mine was shorter and not really attractive. In S. America, people dance more respectfully and if a guy tries to dance inappropriately with a girl, she stops dancing with him. So the guys that were dancing with us were very nice. They spoke to us in English too. During the slow songs, my navy guy told me that he loved me and that we could live together in Chile and start a family. I just laughed at him. He wasn't be serious, obviously, but he was trying to have a good time. Kelsey and I were soon ready to go to sleep, so left our Chilean navy guys and had Jake walk us home. Overall, it was a really fun night and I had a great story to tell everyone. I know have the possibility of a life in Chile.
The next morning we went to the airport for a long day of traveling. 3 flights later and after 14 hours of travel time (due to a delay in Santiago), I finally was back home in Buenos Aires. Classes are in progress again, and I am both excited and sad to be here. I wish the EFT could have lasted forever.
The next morning we went to the airport for a long day of traveling. 3 flights later and after 14 hours of travel time (due to a delay in Santiago), I finally was back home in Buenos Aires. Classes are in progress again, and I am both excited and sad to be here. I wish the EFT could have lasted forever.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
EFT, Part 2
I really enjoyed being on the cruise. Forcing 60 college students to hang out only with each other for 4 days is amazing. People could retreat to their rooms, but really there was no escape from getting to know everyone in the program. We made several stops on the cruise, but there also was a lot of down time. I enjoyed the time on the boat as much as the excursions because I played a massive amount of card games. Egyptian Rat Screw, Hearts, and a new game I learned, called 45 were just some of the games that I played. I basically dominated most of the games, and everyone learned that I was pretty much always up for a game of cards. We did other bonding things on the boat too. There was a bingo night, and after we played music and had a dance party. Also, this semester we are having a tournament of different events that everyone in the program is going to compete in. So I have a team of 8 people and the whole group played a game to see how well we know our teammates. I now know first, middle, and last names of my team, hometowns, greatest fears, majors, minors, biggest turn-on, ect. During the actually group game, certain teams got really competitive and there was a lot of arguing about who was actually winning and how to score the game. The bonding time on the boat was a lot of fun.
The excursions were absolutely breathtaking. The first stop was at Cape Horn. For each excursion, we took little boats. There were only a couple of boats so we had to be ferried into each stop. Since half of the boat were at least 65, loading and unloading of the boats took quite a while. Cape Horn was beautiful. We had to get up and off the boat by 7 am, so we were all tired, but the view was amazing. There was also a huge statue/monument that we hiked/walked to. We were required to wear our life-jackets every time we left the big boat and they wanted us to wear them on land as well...kind of weird. I guess they didn't want us to loose the life-jacket. So anyways, the trip to Cape Horn was early and cold, but very beautiful. I sat down and just stared at the ocean and the view. I could have spent the rest of the day just sitting and watching, but everyone was eager to get on our way.
The next stop that afternoon was at another island. Kelsey and I got the impression that we were going to see something to with Aborigines, but it turned out we were going on a hike to a look-out point. We had two options, the hill hike or a beach walk. All the pepperdine students did the hill hike. I wore a lot of layers because we were so cold that morning at Cape Horn, but hiking definitely got our blood pumping. 10 minutes in, our group stopped and took off all our layers and left them to continue up the mountain. I was at the front of group and Rafa, the P-dine BA director, was almost running up the hill, so I tried to follow as best I could. Once we got to the top, again the view was incredible. We all sat down and just looked out. One of the wilderness leaders tried to get us all to be completely silent for 2 minutes and just listen to nature. We started out pretty good, but then one of the boys farted and everyone cracked up. The older lady was laughing so hard and her husband thought it was the greatest thing ever and later asked to take a picture with the guy from our group. soooo funny. I could have stayed longer just looking, but we eventually headed down the hill where we were met with hot chocolate. YUM!
The next day, we didn't have an excursion until 5 pm. So we spent most the day playing cards. The excursion was a boat ride...in the small boats... to look at glaciers. There was actually boats that went out at 3, 4, and 5 pm to accommodate the entire boat full of people. Rafa decided that he wanted to go on every tour, so he snuck his way onto a boat for each time slot. The glaciers were gorgeous. We saw birds that kind of looked like penguins, but could fly, so were not penguins. Little parts of the glacier fell every couple of minutes, which was pretty cool to watch. We all tried to yell and whistle to get a big piece to fall. On the way back to the big boat, we drove close to some waterfalls and the boat driver tried to get us wet.
The final excursion was the last morning at 7am to see penguins! It was definitely a memorable experience, but also my least favorite excursion. There were hundreds of penguins everywhere, but we were on a roped off path so we couldn't get too close to them. They smelled really bad. We were up so early that morning that the sun was rising as we were getting off the boat to see the penguins. That sunrise was pretty spectacular. There were penguins on both sides of the path and every once in a while a couple of penguins would want to cross over to get to the ocean. We tried to sneak up on the ones that were crossing, but they would chicken-out and turn away. We headed back to the boat, and then a couple ours later we arrived at Punta Arena for our last day of the EFT. I will give another update about Punta Arena soon.
Pics of the Cruise: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047118&l=dead2&id=8505998
Pics of Penguins:
http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047120&l=0a00c&id=8505998
The excursions were absolutely breathtaking. The first stop was at Cape Horn. For each excursion, we took little boats. There were only a couple of boats so we had to be ferried into each stop. Since half of the boat were at least 65, loading and unloading of the boats took quite a while. Cape Horn was beautiful. We had to get up and off the boat by 7 am, so we were all tired, but the view was amazing. There was also a huge statue/monument that we hiked/walked to. We were required to wear our life-jackets every time we left the big boat and they wanted us to wear them on land as well...kind of weird. I guess they didn't want us to loose the life-jacket. So anyways, the trip to Cape Horn was early and cold, but very beautiful. I sat down and just stared at the ocean and the view. I could have spent the rest of the day just sitting and watching, but everyone was eager to get on our way.
The next stop that afternoon was at another island. Kelsey and I got the impression that we were going to see something to with Aborigines, but it turned out we were going on a hike to a look-out point. We had two options, the hill hike or a beach walk. All the pepperdine students did the hill hike. I wore a lot of layers because we were so cold that morning at Cape Horn, but hiking definitely got our blood pumping. 10 minutes in, our group stopped and took off all our layers and left them to continue up the mountain. I was at the front of group and Rafa, the P-dine BA director, was almost running up the hill, so I tried to follow as best I could. Once we got to the top, again the view was incredible. We all sat down and just looked out. One of the wilderness leaders tried to get us all to be completely silent for 2 minutes and just listen to nature. We started out pretty good, but then one of the boys farted and everyone cracked up. The older lady was laughing so hard and her husband thought it was the greatest thing ever and later asked to take a picture with the guy from our group. soooo funny. I could have stayed longer just looking, but we eventually headed down the hill where we were met with hot chocolate. YUM!
The next day, we didn't have an excursion until 5 pm. So we spent most the day playing cards. The excursion was a boat ride...in the small boats... to look at glaciers. There was actually boats that went out at 3, 4, and 5 pm to accommodate the entire boat full of people. Rafa decided that he wanted to go on every tour, so he snuck his way onto a boat for each time slot. The glaciers were gorgeous. We saw birds that kind of looked like penguins, but could fly, so were not penguins. Little parts of the glacier fell every couple of minutes, which was pretty cool to watch. We all tried to yell and whistle to get a big piece to fall. On the way back to the big boat, we drove close to some waterfalls and the boat driver tried to get us wet.
The final excursion was the last morning at 7am to see penguins! It was definitely a memorable experience, but also my least favorite excursion. There were hundreds of penguins everywhere, but we were on a roped off path so we couldn't get too close to them. They smelled really bad. We were up so early that morning that the sun was rising as we were getting off the boat to see the penguins. That sunrise was pretty spectacular. There were penguins on both sides of the path and every once in a while a couple of penguins would want to cross over to get to the ocean. We tried to sneak up on the ones that were crossing, but they would chicken-out and turn away. We headed back to the boat, and then a couple ours later we arrived at Punta Arena for our last day of the EFT. I will give another update about Punta Arena soon.
Pics of the Cruise: http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047118&l=dead2&id=8505998
Pics of Penguins:
http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047120&l=0a00c&id=8505998
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