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Well I´m back in Calafate again, even though I am supposed to be in Buenos Aires, packing and getting ready for Santiago...but my flight was delayed over 5 hours, then cancelled...so now I´m just hanging out until they can get me out of here, whenever that is...hopefully before my bus to Santiago...and with enough time to do laundry (really needed!). At least they put me up in a very nice hotel, much more than I would ever spend on accomidations, and are providing meals and transport.
But GOOD NEWS!!! I have been officially placed in my children´s program by VE (Voluntarios de la Esperanza). I will be working and living at Hogar San Francisco de Regis, a shelter that houses around 30 girls from the ages of 5-15 who have been abused or neglected in some way. This is exactly the kind of work that I was looking to do, so I am very happy that I have been given this opportunity. If you want to check out their website it is www.hogarsanfranciscoderegis.cl I might also be part of VE´s Public Relations Committee helping to write newsletters, grant applications, recruitment information, etc. which could also be a very good learning experience. I´m very excited to get started in a few days (March 5th!= orientation) I´ve already heard from so many of the other current and starting volunteers and am encouraged by our conversations. I even have a madrina, Michelle, who is bascially a big sister to help me get started.
Anyways, on to my recient activities. Patagonia is breath-taking. It definitely joins the ranks of New Zealand and Southern Africa as my favorite naturally beautiful areas. In Calafate I took an excursion to the Perito Moreno Glacer, which just blows away the Frans Josef Glacier (NZ) in size and impressiveness (is that even a word?) It has three faces and grows so fast that it creates a dam between the lakes flowing past it by connecting with the shore on the opposite side of its source. This, in turn, causes the water level on one side to rise and rise until the pressure breaks a hole through the bottom of the dam and a arch slowly starts to form or a ¨burst¨ occurs, which is basically the collapse/blowing up of the arch or dam into the lake. It happens every few years. Really cool, huh? I was not lucky enough to be there at a time when a burst might occur, but chunks of the glacer still fall off the wall all the time and that is impressive enough. They said it can be compared to a 25 story building collapsing! It for sure sounded that way. It was impossible to comprehend the amount of snow and ice that made up that glacer. It really was amazing. I next went to El Chalten. The first day I got there I only had the afternoon, so I took a half day excursion to Glacer Huemul. The guide that drove us there asked if I wanted to take a little boat ride or hike up to the glacer view point (a very steep hike) and of course I said I wanted to hike. I didn´t realize that he was going to show us the proper starting point of the hike...and just started ahead of the others at a trail head nearby...that I thought had to be the right one, how many could there be? Well that wasn´t such a good idea. After a while the trail started to disapear. First in small patches, then I realized that I was in the middle of the forest with no trail to be seen. I figured at first that I would just continue in the direction of the mountains and I would eventually come across the trail again...but then there was more and more growth and rotting logs...and eventually I came to my senses and decided to head back and ask for directions...finally refusing to let my stuborness get the best of my common sense. =) I found my guide another 400m down the main road in front of the right trail head, wondering where I had disapeared to for the last hour and a half. I asked if I still had time to climb up to the Glacier and he said if I was very quick...I had 45 min to do what everybody else does in about 2 hours. =) So I ended up running up and down the trail so that I could see Glacier Huemul for a few minutes. The view was really worth it, and I like trail running anyways...and that was just my first adventure in El Chalten. =) Lots more to come, but first sleep! Its almost three here and I´ve been up since 5:30! Another common theme of Patagonia...early mornings =( my favorite.
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