The day started inauspiciously - woke up around 8, some quick yoga, got dressed for a breakfast of tea and toast with dulce de leche. Being in southern Argentina for a two week working vacation means the daily routine is anything but, though the day didn’t feel much different than the previous ones. While packing for the day’s road trip, I discovered the overpriced sunglasses I’d bought in the Santiago airport (said the salesgirl with a knowing grin “que guapo”) had gone missing, without ever having been worn.

I accompanied a couple of my fellow project coaches, Kim and Jay, to drive a few hundred kilometers outside of town to check on several student projects. The drive, the second time I’ve made it, was beautiful again, with a few stops for photo ops. Around noon, Kim pulled over near a section of downed fence so that we could investigate the pebbled beach. We’re far enough south that it’s hard to say which ocean it is that was crashing on the shore. We walked a bit before I decided that today would be a good day to go for a swim in the oceans. I warned my compatriots that I was going to have to get naked, stripped down to an apropos birthday suit, and ran full bore at the waves. Not quite a minute later I was back on the shore, shivering triumphantly, my frozen feet unconcerned by the pebbles that they found so annoying wedged into my sandals just minutes earlier. Jay and Kim repeated my strip, run, freeze, shiver routine before we returned to the car, having valiantly steeled ourselves against the briny cold as men of action.

Our first student visit was held over lunch where I opted for a famous Argentinean steak over the traditional milanesa. After editing photos and audio for an hour in the restaurant under the gaze of every non-gringo patron, we had a surprise dessert of alfajores, complete with giant wax numbered candles and the song of the day in two languages. I’ve decided to adopt one of Argentina’s native desserts as my own once I return.

Before leaving the small, industrial town of Rio Grande, we found a MADE IN CHINA FM transmitter for our iPods, thus saving us from the same three CD’s and the motley collection of mostly pirate radio stations that dot the 450km roundtrip commute. Then, we were off to check on our next story at a traditional Argentinean estancia. After wandering around the fields full of fluffy and freshly sheared sheep, giving ourselves a tour of the shearing barn and asking a few locals, we found our students, deep in what appeared to be well deserved naps. They got us up to date on their progress before one of their subjects, a gaucho at the estancia, showed up to invite us all to dinner in an hour. We toured the ranch some more before the dinner bell called us and the others ranch hands, who were much more deserving of a meal but were all to happy to share. The lamb (of course) was delicious.

After adding a few more layers to protect against the ever present wind, we climbed a small hill to photograph the sunset behind the mountains and small saltwater lake. We stood watching as our shadows grew longer and fingers and faces tightened against the wind. The sun’s final hues were the perfect complement to the rising sliver of moon that only hovered above the horizon.

As the sun continued to fade on our drive back, the stars rose in collections I’ve rarely seen, being both below the equator and away from most light pollution. By 10:30, with some fading light still persisting in the west, we could see the Milky Way. It was about this time, at their moment of least usefulness, that Jay found a present for me in the center console of our rental car — my lost sunglasses. By 11, we decided to try our (unsteady) hands at some long exposure starry photographs, if only to test the infinity focal point on our lenses. We wound the mountain roads around until we made it back to our hostel in Ushuaia, most of our compatriots already turned in for bed.

All in all, not a bad twenty-ninth birthday.