From south to north

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On February 1st, I arrived in El Calafate, a tourist town south of El Chaltén. The next day, I took a bus to the Perito Moreno Glacier. The glacier covers an area of 250km² and is the only glacier that ends in water with a peninsula in front of it. Therefore, you can get very close to it even without a boat and have a great view. Additionally, the Perito Moreno is one of the few glaciers that is still growing and it calved at a very high speed, which means you often see huge chunks of ice breaking off. Despite the many tourists, the atmosphere at the glacier was truly impressive. I constantly heard the cracking and crashing of this huge mass of ice, which seems so unreal at Lago Argentinio, surrounded by green and vibrant nature. On February 4th, I flew to Puerto Iguazú, the starting point of my journey through the northern part of Argentina, to see the next natural spectacle, the Iguazú Falls. When I arrived there, the humid and warm weather at 37°C knocked me out. The tropical air was really a stark contrast to the dry mild air in Patagonia. Once I arrived at the hostel, I went with a nice roommate from Mexico to the tri-border area between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. Separated only by the converging rivers Río Iguazú and Río Paraná, these 3 countries border each other here. The next day, I originally wanted to go to the Argentine side of the Iguazú Falls (there is an Argentine and a Brazilian side, each of which is an independent national park), but it was pouring rain and one of my roommates said it would be better to go to Brazil first, as this side was significantly smaller, had less to see, and therefore would be a better starting point. When it stopped raining, I met two girls from Hong Kong and Hamburg in the hostel who were just about to go to Brazil, so I joined them. The waterfalls are one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, stretching over 3.7 km and being the widest in the world. Accordingly, the panoramic view that awaited us was impressive. After a two-hour hike along the waterfalls, which offered many different perspectives, we made our way back. The next day, I went to the Argentine side. There were many trails and a small island, so I could admire the different sections of the waterfalls up close and from different perspectives. At the 'Devil's Throat', the end of the waterfalls, I met Nico, a really nice Argentine from Corrientes who was traveling with an Argentine and a German friend. He told me that he would be driving back home the next day, and since that was exactly on the way of my roughly planned itinerary, he invited me to join him. So on February 7th, I made my way to Corrientes, where I am currently staying. From February 9th to 11th, we were in Mburucuyá with Aaron, the German friend who is visiting Nico for 3 weeks, and another friend on Nico's father's farm. On Friday, he took us on a tour through the local national park on the back of his pickup truck, a huge area with palm fields, lagoons, and marshes, where we could observe many different animal species such as caimans and capybaras. Since the day before yesterday, we are back in the city. We had a lot of fun and a great time. In the next few days, I will make my way towards Salta.