I'll always remember my first.

The anniversary of the Naval Battle of Iquique brought an opportunity to revel in Chilean pride and hear about the courageous actions of a national hero named Arturo Prat. He was the captain of a wooden ship called the Esmeralda that was sent into battle against a Peruvian ironside during the War of the Pacific in 1879. Unfortunately for Cpt. Prat, this story doesn't have a Hollywood ending where some sort of miracle overrides the common sense that it takes to predict a Peruvian victory (although they have recently made a 'big' budget movie here about the battle). At some point, the Peruvians simply rammed the Esmeralda, causing it to sink. In the process, Arturo Prat climbed aboard the attacking ship to find a good ol' fashioned fight. Apparently, he found one that was a bit too much for him as he was killed shortly thereafter. Those actions have resulted in monuments being erected and streets to be named in his honor in almost every city in this country.

So yes, Chilean's celebrate the anniversary of a battle in which they were absolutely slaughtered. The good news is that they went on to win the war and take some land from Bolivia and Peru as well. There is still tension between the countries to this day. I've found Chileans to be somewhat suspicious of all neighboring countries to a certain extent.

ANYWAY...this holiday suddenly granted us an unexpected three day weekend that we needed to fill with something fun. A few other volunteers and I decided that the best way to celebrate our first major holiday in the country was to get the heck out of it. We decided on a short-ish trip to El Calafate, Argentina to visit the nearby Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.

Much like almost all kinds of travel here in South America, it can take a while to get there from my city. There are flights but crossing any border around here always includes a hefty premium so taking a bus is almost always the best way to go. Another volunteer from my city and I decided to split the journey in half by first meeting up with fellow volunteers and co-travelers in Puerto Natales where they live and work. I've made this trip a few times before and it's a fairly easy, cheap 3 hr ride. We stayed overnight and took the first, and only, bus to El Calafate the next morning. This ride was a little more difficult but still cheap, only $20. It's scheduled for 4-5 hrs and you never know quite how long it will take because you have to pass through Chilean and Argentine customs. Unfortunately, we did have some problems at the border that took a little while to 'work out'. One of the volunteers that joined us for the trip is Chinese and teaches Mandarin at a school in Puerto Natales. For some still unknown reason, there has been a recent change in the relationship between China and Argentina which requires Chinese citizens to get visas specifically for Argentina before entering. Needless to say, our friend didn't know this and didn't have one. The border agents talked to her for quite a while before deciding that she wouldn't be allowed in. So 7 travelers suddenly became 6 and she had to take a taxi all the way back to Puerto Natales. It was quite sad and slightly surreal to see someone be denied access to a country just because of where she comes from. She took it all in stride but we all felt slightly guilty while having to watch her go back home.

We arrived in El Calafate around 1 in the afternoon and quickly set out to figure out how to get to the glacier the next morning. After finding a bus company with reasonable rates we found some place to eat and then headed to the cabin we'd be staying at for the weekend. It was outside the more developed commercial center of the city so we had to get a ride to get there. We were all a little unsure of what to expect as we rode on a very bumpy, unkept dirt road but the place we found was great. The cabin only had 2 bedrooms but there was enough room for up to 8 people to sleep comfortably. It was situated relatively close to the shore of Lago Argentino which provided us with great views directly from the kitchen/dining room. Besides the fact that we all had to share one bathroom, it was absolutely perfect. In fact, we'd only planned to stay for two nights but found out that we'd stumbled into a deal where we got the third night for free so we ended up extending our stay a bit.



We headed out for the glacier early Saturday morning, all of us very excited about what awaited. The bus ride from the town to the park was about an hour and a half and had the potential to be quite scenic. Once again, I slept most of the way because the windows fogged up almost immediately meaning there wouldn't be much sight seeing along the way. The bus eventually dropped us off at the base of a long, complex network of walkways that provide views of the enormous glacier from all sorts of different angles. We decided to opt for a boat ride that would take us relatively close to the glacier first and save the walk around for later.

It's truly difficult to explain why the glacier was so incredible. After all, it's just a lot of old ice. The two things that I kept coming back to were the size and all the different colors displayed. I've never seen blues and greens like the ones we saw there. The color of the lake reminded me of water that you'd see at an amusement park or miniature golf course. The difference was this wasn't artificially created which made it way more awesome. I hope the pictures do it justice but I'm afraid they may not. We walked around and took in the sights for close to 6 hours and I felt like I could have stayed there for another 10. It was another one of those experiences that I'll never forget. I seem to be having a lot of those lately.