trekkin'

i have spent my time in ushuaia hiking, and it has been lovely.

yesterday, i invited myself along with two girlsfrom the hostel - they were planning to do the same hike i wanted to do, plus i enjoy companionship where i can get it. they are from san francisco, of all places - residents at UCSF - and clearly serious hiker/outdoorsy types. and man, am i glad i tagged along.

they show up decked out in REI, i am carrying an overstuffed messenger bag. they´ve also been in town for 4 days, so they showed me where the market is, and then we headed out. this was listed as the 'glacier martial´hike, and i must admit, i was excited to see a glacier in real life. we didn´t really know where we were going - all of us were inspired by the description in lonely planet, and the directions there were vague at best. but we were supposed to find a chairlift, and we did - nonoperational, but no matter. we were going to climb anyway. so we CLIMBED THE SKI RUN. it was killer steep (probably at least 30% grade? and LONG. but the views at the top are killer. then we kept going and...nothing. i mean, it was a cool, boggy, meadow at the top but...nothing glaciery. damn you, global warming! clearly, this was glacier-made, but no ice except on distant mountain tops. we werent sure it was the right hike, but when i got back and checked, yup. we were in the right place. don´t know where the glacier was. they were acting like it was a casual walk, but the ascending/descending killed me. i thought it was worth it, too - i´ll upload the picture form the summit, and you will see too.

today i went to tierra del fuego national park. dude - i went to TIERRA DEL FUEGO. i am like, living in 3rd grade social studies, y'all. so cool. anyhow, took a bus there this morning, and did the 'moderate' hike, and i found my level. it wasn´t egregiously hard, but there was enough climbing and trudging and scrambling about that i was beat at the end. it was great for a non-hiker, too. the path was really well-marked, and i would wander along and feel like the only person in the world, and whoop! there´s a tour group. it was nice in making me feel that if, hypothetically, this klutzy city girl were to fall off the trail, someone would find her. hypothetically.

in the end it was about 6 miles, and i am BEAT. totally gorgeous, though - it wound along a lake, overlooking mountains, through some forests. completely wonderful, and totally picture-perfect glacier topography, which i always love.

it was unusually warm, though - generally this area gets to about 50 in the summer, but it was at least 60 all day, and still is at about 9pm. so i came away with a niiiiiice sunburn on my nose and back of my neck. hot!

tomorrow, i leave the country for about a week - i am going to punta arenas, chile, on a smashing 12 hour bus ride. should be...awesome. but hopefully pretty, and i have benadryl on hand for when it is not.