Cindy and John’s Adventures

Hah! I wish! What I wouldn’t give for a nice spicy salsa that doesn’t taste like half a salt-shaker worth of salt was sprinkled on top of it. And a chip…they’re really not big into corn here so tortilla chips aren’t really big here…actually, chips in general aren’t really big here…

Anyway, we’re back in Buenos Aires…our last leg of our grand tour. We’re kind of sad, but are looking forward to going back to the states Sort of. Anyway, as usual, we’re conflicted. Too many options, not enough life!

So the main reason we’re in Buenos Aires for like 2 weeks is because we wanted to take some salsa lessons. Because, let’s face it, they tend to have WAY more rhythm down here. Or more Latin rhythm anyway. We saw some little kids in some parades that moved their hips better than a belly dancer…

So we started with Cuban style. Which is way different than we were used to. We go to this class at this Cuban restaurant and there were beginners and advanced people. We’re with the beginners and it’s kind of lame. Almost like an aerobics class. But scarily, the advanced class isn’t that good either. I mean, not any better than the advanced classes at the Century Ballroom. And apparently Latin people aren’t born with rhythm because man, there were some scary left-feet going on. Oh, and there were like 75 people in a pretty small space so you couldn’t really hear with the music going on and couldn’t really see the teacher with the music going on. So we’re like, okay, good experience, not going back…

So after some consideration we decide to spring for private lessons. We found this couple on the internet, gave them a call and headed to Palermo, where they teach lessons at their apartment. Wow, talk about different!

First off, they were correcting all the things we were doing wrong. All the things that made things really awkward…I mean moves that were doable but kind of uncomfortable? Plus they concentrated on feeling the music…where we had taken lessons it was about staying on beat and doing the moves whenever you wanted to regardless of the music…here they want you to listen to the music and dance TO the music. Totally a different kind of thing going on.

The only problem with being in Buenos Aires right now is the smoke.  Oh geez, the friggin’ smoke.  So, here’s the deal – well, in my opinion of course – the government, under the severely plasticized el Presidente Christina decided to increase export taxes on soybeans.  Essentially, it was to keep inflation down since the government wants the farmers to produce domestically.  Well, when you have places like China that are willing to pay a lot more for food to feed their people than Argentina – it’s kind of hard to pass that kind of thing up.  So the farmers got upset.  Instead of being diplomatic about the whole thing she pretty much told the farmers that they were rich anyway and to suck it up.  So they struck.  For something like 21 days.  They went to the roads and barred all trucks from going to any of the major cities.  It was amazing when we went into a grocery store around day 14 and there was quite literally nothing but scraps in the produce and meat sections.

So anyway, they ended the strikes with the promise of talks with the government.  Which don’t seem to be going very well.  But, coincidentally, some also decided to burn the fields to get rid of weeds.   I’m sure it’s unrelated :).   So, in places like Buenos Aires, they closed down 3 major roads, which means that buses were stuck in Retiro (the bus station in Buenos Aires), the airports were shut down for a day because of all the smoke and people were having respiratory problems.  But they say the smoke is from organic materials so it shouldn’t be hazardous or anything.  OKAY!

But, it’s slowly moving on, and we bop off back to the USA in a few days – to Houston, taking the slow trip back to Seattle.  We’re looking forward to it.  Argentina has been really fabulous, but we’re looking forward to returning to the states…

Mendoza…the heart of the Argentinian wine region. Okay, I just made that up, but it sounded kind of good, huh? And I’m sure it’s mentioned in some kind of marketing scheme somewhere…

But really, this is where they have like a gazillion different wines.  We actually met this couple from Mercer Island at this wine tasting which was just bizarre…anyway, it was just a nice place after that hellish bus ride to hang out, drink wine, do a little shopping…it’s kind of cool because they have a bunch of different wines because a lot of them are small so they never make it out of the region…and we tried their Syrah which is totally different than the Australian ones we’re used to.

It’s kind of funny because we go to the wine region, and don’t take a wine tour.  We have been to wine tours before.  And they’re kind of lame.  And the ones that did sound kind of cool were like $150 USD.  C’mon, that’s just crazy-talk.  So we decided to just spend the money that we would have spent on the wine tour on more wine.  I mean, when you can buy 3 bottles of wine for the cost of 1 of us on a wine tour…

Unfortunately for us, we couldn’t send any of it home without going through a bunch of hoops because of Washington State’s lame liquor law.   I guess that just means we have to come back to Argentina…

So, we had the bright idea of going from Resistencia to Mendoza. And we had the equally bright idea of actually looking at our tickets and seeing how long it was going to take. 24 hours. Okay, we could handle 24 hours. And the idea of stopping in another town just for the sake of stopping in another town just didn’t really appeal all that much.

So we spring for cama. Meaning, instead of 4 across on a bus you have 3 across on the bus. So, you have these cushy seats. We also got seats on the bottom instead of the top of the bus which we have never had before, which were mildly interesting since you were kind of in a cave. And the seats recline pretty far back.

So, we’re happily going south, which is where we wanted to go…then we reach a crossroads that we found on our map…and went, how is this trip going to take 24 hours? It should maybe take 18 hours, tops. Well, this kind woman next to us, pointed out that we went like 5 hours south, then we were going to go back northeast. And ultimately end up going back south to finally get to Mendoza. So we were taking like a backwards N. Okay, this is making more sense. Not good sense, but more sense.

So we finally make it to Tucuman where a lot of people get off – and with good reason since it took us about 6 hours longer to get to our ultimate destination than the tickets said and the scary part is that it was primarily in this last leg because we got to Tucuman about the time we were supposed to get there.  Very annoying.  Oh well, just one more bus ride from Mendoza back to Buenos Aires, but luckily they have DIRECT buses!  Woohoo!  Meaning, they don’t stop in every town, just one or two!  And it’s a straight shot, not another lengthy letter like W or M.  M would totally suck.

Anyway, Mendoza…

So, the problem with going to Iguazu Falls, well, the problem with Argentina in general, is that it’s huge.  Okay, not USA huge, but pretty darn huge.  Which makes getting around a bit of a pain.  So, not wanting to take a 36 hour bus ride to Mendoza, which was our ultimate destination before we headed back to Buenos Aires, we decided to break it up a bit and hit our first, and apparently only stop-over…Resistencia.

So, yes, we headed onto another overnight bus ride.  But it was kind of cool because we ended up in the front of the bus so we could watch out the front.  Anyway, it was rather uneventful, except for Andesmar, the bus company we were using, had the big sign that said it’s ultimate destination “Mendoza”.  Hmmm, maybe we’ll just skip right over Cordoba, which we were thinking of making our next stop-over and just keep on moving for a 24 hour bus ride.

Anyway, Resistencia…first off, accomodations.  We had called like 3 places from our handy-dandy Lonely Planet but they were all full…which kind of alarmed us since this isn’t what you would call a huge tourist destination.  In fact, unless you’re from the north of Argentina, most people hadn’t even heard of it (although it’s quite a large place).  So we made a booking at this kind of expensive place, but when we got to the bus station, John had this bright idea to try this place that was posted on the tourist information door…and it ended up being a really cool hosteria and we were quite happy with it.  TV, a super-loud fan, own bathroom…really, what more can you need…

So we head towards the center.  And we’re like going…this is really not a very pretty place.  But, it had rained all night and typically when things rain all night…they look kind of miserable even if it’s like the Wizard of Oz where the streets are lined with gold…but it was so weird – it had the nicest park in the middle of it.  So, after stopping off at the tourist information office for a map of where all the sculpture off and then a quick cafe at a scarily super-busy cafe which at 10:00 am people were waiting for tables to have their morning coffee, we were off to see the sculptures.  And let’s just say, they weren’t kidding when they said there were a lot of sculptures.  John had a literal field day…and they were all within like a 10 block radius of the park in the middle…

1 p.m.  The whole town stopped.  I mean, quite literally, stopped.  Other places had the idea of the siesta, but this town…it took this term VERY seriously.  So we searched around and around for some food of some sort…and ended up at this place that served way too much food for a reasonable price – let’s just say quantity over quality.  But, well, when you’re the only place open…

Anyway, it was a very pleasant stop-over – and it gave us plenty of time to rest for our monster bus journey to Mendoza…

Okay, it was the weirdest thing…since we didn’t actually leave the climate controlled Buenos Aires airport before hopping another plane to Puerto Iguazu…let me just tell you – I was wearing my puffy winter coat in El Calafate and quickly shedding it in Puerto Iguazu and seeing lots of tourists in shorts.  We went from ice to the tropics.

Anyway, Puerto Iguazu is on the Argentinian side of the border.  Brazil has the other side of the falls.  Unfortunately because America charges $100 USD for foreigners that are not visa-exempt to use their airports, we were going to have to pay $150 USD to get into Brazil.  Needless to say, we didn’t make it to the other side of the falls.  If we were going farther into Brazil it would be one thing, but that’s an awfully expensive day-trip!  You used to be able to just go for a day-trip and not worry about the visa thing but apparently they kind of closed that loop-hole.

But it didn’t really matter anyway because I’m not sure how the Brazilian side would have been better.  Iguazu Falls is really a series of waterfalls – I think 7 – and we had heard from a couple of people when we were at Victoria Falls in Zambia that Iguazu was so much better – not sure how you can even remotely compare the two.  Victoria is 1 huge fall.  Iguazu is 7.  You can’t see the bottom of Victoria since there’s so much water coming back up and Iguazu (while we were there), you could see pretty well.  Plus they have some dams on the Brazil side that may impact the whole thing.  So, in my honest opinion, people should just look at the beauty of the falls and forget the comparison (which, I guess it is kind of natural)…

Anyway, the falls were fantastic.  You take this little train inside the park (you can’t walk it, you have to take a train) to the main viewing point of the falls.  John put his arm on something that felt like a sting and then immediately thought he was going to die in 24 hours (and you thought I was dramatic!)  Well, much to my dismay, he’s still alive.  There are also a bunch of other little trails along the park and of course the handful of “adventure activities” which we skipped – they also had these animals called “coati” running around – they kind of looked like a raccoon with a long nose – they seemed to be a very nosy version of our squirrel.  Like if you’re eating, about 20 of them will show up to share your lunch.

We also ran into a couple at a restaurant from South Carolina – Greenville, I think – they were trying to order dinner at a restaurant.  We noticed them when the woman was trying to order a bottle of water.   In English.  In Argentina.  They speak Spanish here.  And she apparently did not know Spanish or know how to play charades (very useful, especially in Chinese speaking countries!).  My favorite universal tool is the writing in the air one to signal for the check.  It’s worked EVERYWHERE!  They were heading back to Buenos Aires in a couple of days to take a cruise from Buenos to Santiago around the horn.  I thought that sounded very cool.  But they decided to take a small detour to see the falls.  So we helped them out and recommended some food choices although they ended up with 2 salads instead of 1 for some reason.

Anyway, it was well worth the trip to get up there, well, it seemed like it at the time…

So we head back to Argentina. I mean, literally, we go 15 minutes outside of Puerto Natales and go through border checkpoint. The checkpoints are like a mile away from one another. You got to wonder, who owns the land in the middle?

I just have to mention one random thing about this whole region. It’s like an REI catwalk show. I mean, there are so many people in brand spanking new outdoor clothes it’s totally amazing. We saw a few people with gaiters on (those things that look like leg-warmers that keep the mud/snow out of your boots) – why, I have no idea. Because there was maybe 1/4 inch of mud in really small areas and yeah, no snow. Well, except on the glacier and it’s not like you’re going to go crawling on a glacier…it was kind of nice to see all the new stuff (and hello, cut off the tags if you’re going to wear them!).  The woman who owns the hostel we stayed in Puerto Natales said this Japanese guy bought all new stuff and then gave all the stuff to her son since he was only going to use it the one time!

Anyway, El Calafate is home to this huge glacier. I mean, HUGE! We saw these, apparently mini-glaciers in Ushuaia and in Torres del Paine – they’re like ice cubes compared to this thing. And the sound it made even when just a tiny portion came loose and hit the water. It was totally cool. And pretty good infrastructure – they have the usual tour buses but they also have a bus that dumps you off at the glacier, lets you tool around for a couple of hours and takes you back. Which I can’t really imagine what the tour would do that would be very different – I mean, the whole viewing area is on these wooden walking paths – it’s not like you need someone to tell you – look that’s a glacier. But maybe they stop off somewhere else too…

Since that’s pretty much the only thing to see in El Calafate and it’s mega-expensive (like twice as expensive as the rest of Argentina – if it’s any indication, internet is by satellite), we decided to stay there only one night. But we did a splurge in another place…we flew to Buenos Aires and then to Iguazu Falls.  I think it would have taken us at least 3-4 days by bus to get to Iguazu…the buses are nice here but that’s a long time.  So we took the last flight out of El Calafate, slept in the airport and then hopped on a plane the next morning.

Well, as some of you know…we’re cutting our trip short and going home. We have under a month left in our trip before we head back to the states.

Why? Not for any dire reasons…we’re not dying or anything…just tired. When you’ve been living out of a backpack for a year it just gets tiring. It helped to see friends that live abroad and my parents mid-way through but things are starting to kind of look the same and aren’t very exciting anymore. When I hear the excitement in other traveller’s voices – it must be the thing to do to go for 5 months in S America for some reason – I get excited for them but not so much for us anymore!

So anyway, by the end of May, we’ll have landed back in Seattle (for a while!)

So we made our way 4 hours from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales…the gateway to Torres del Paine.  We had called to make a booking at this hostel called Erratic Rock…run by some Americans and they completely had the low-down on trekking and all that business.

We were originally, when we were planning this trip, to do the “W”.  Essentially it’s a trek that hits 3 major “stars” of the park – Glacier Gray, the Cuernos, and the Torres.  At this point, we were like, screw this, we’ll just do 2 nights in the park because, let’s face it, we’re not really peak baggers and just didn’t feel like carrying all that stuff for 4-5 days – which, I’m really glad our laziness carried through because I think it was all for the best.  At the Erratic Rock they have this 3 pm seminar deal where they tell you about the do’s and don’ts of the major treks and the guy giving the seminar (an Oregonian, by the way) and he recommended we see the 2 left parts of the W, so essentially, we did a U.  They rented us all the equipment, and we just went shopping for the food and off we went the next day to the park.

They pick you up at like 7 y media a la manana and it’s just a normal bus but the guy stopped along the way so we got some pretty good pics of the Torres which is the part we decided to skip.  Around midday we hit Lake Pehoe and for kind of a rip off they take you .5 hours across a lake where you get dumped off at, if you’re looking at a map, the left side of the lake.

I just have to mention that this is one of the strangest parks in terms of set-up.  Like they have actual hotels, refugios (kind of like a hostel with dorm beds) and then paid campgrounds and free campgrounds.  All inside the park.  So you don’t actually have to carry the big heavy pack to do the W.  You can stay at refugios the entire time.  Or you can just dayhike from one of the hotels or refugios.  Or just camp at one place (like the place where they dump you off the boat)  and dayhike from there.  So you are hiking with big backpacks next to a person just carrying water.

Like the first night, we hiked 4 hours up to the paid campground at Refugio Gray.  You could stay at the refugio there and just take a daypack.  Or you can rent one of their tents at the campground.  And they’re already set up for you.  But we did it the hard way (I know, surprise, surprise) and had tuna sandwiches (which would be our meals for the next 2 days since we didn’t want to carry a stove) and it was fine.  Except for some of our neighbors got robbed.  One girl got a camera and money taken…another guy a jacket and pants.  From the vestibules in front of their tents.  We found out about it at the next campsite since we left really early.  Which totally sucks because when you camp and stuff you’re generally safe no matter where you are.  John was pissed because he saw a guy, in the middle of the night, crouch in front of our tent and when he said something the guy took off.  So it was probably the guy getting ready to rob us but John scared him off.

The Glacier was really cool.  The views to get up there were incredible.  And so were the winds.  Oh my gosh!  I mean, I almost fell over several times (I did, later on).  But we had really incredible weather – no rain which I guess is most important!

Anyway, the next day we walked down the 4 hours the way we came and went 3 hours to the right.  To a campground at the bottom of the middle part of the W.  It was pretty nice and the views were fantastic in the middle.  But at this point we were so grateful that we didn’t decide to do the W.  Several people just went one more day and essentially did a U with a tail.  We were done.

Torres del Paine was really beautiful and I’m glad we went but I think it’s a bit over-hyped…or maybe it wouldn’t be over-hyped if we hadn’t been to Nepal…Africa…okay, maybe it just takes more for us to be impressed anymore!

Our short stay in Chile ended with us staying at a cool little hostel after Erratic Rock overbooked us and so we stayed at their friend’s hostel…she was very cool and we were able to gather a bit more insight into the area and into Chile in general.

Onward back to Argentina to see the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate!

So after avoiding all the penguin colonies on the way down because John had it in his head we would see the penguins at Isla Magdallenes in Punta Arenas.  Alright, sometimes he knows what he’s talking about…

We were on a boat for 2 hours (and by the way, the water was soooo smooth that I didn’t feel sick – or on the Beagle Channel either – hip hip hooray!) and then we arrived at the Island…it was just like you see in the movies where you saw the acre of penguins wandering around – and you could get really close to them and of course there were these tourists that were just asking for trouble by trying to pet them – and they were molting – so they looked like they were shedding and picking at each other…it was so incredibly cool…then 2 hours back…

It was so weird because as soon as you cross the border to Chile it looks like a totally different country.  Isn’t that amazing!  That totally sounds stupid because, after all, every country is different – but hello, we’re in the same area – anyway – in Chile helado (ice cream) and cafe (coffee) are not as important.  And the cities seem dingier for some reason.  Maybe we’re just totally biased because we’d be in Argentina for 20,000 years…

Anyway, we only spent a couple of nights in Punta Arenas because, after all, Torres del Paine was calling.  If you’ve ever seen any travel literature from Chile – guaranteed you would have seen the spires of Torres del Paine on the front cover…

Ushuaia.  Okay, not really the end of the world, but the farthest south city in Argentina and except for this tiny little town in Chile (which Argentina tries not to acknowledge) called Puerto Williams which seems quite a pain in the butt to get to just to say, yes, you are in the farthest south city.  Anyway, we get there and are totally shocked.  It’s a wonderful little city that is surprisingly not too expensive considering Rio Gallegos was kind of expensive compared to it and it was not nearly as interesting.  And can you say BEAUTIFUL!  The plane ride going in was amazing.  It reminds me a lot of Alaska (okay, I haven’t really seen too much of Alaska except for going to Jimmie and Leilani’s wedding, but it just reminds me of what it would look like).  Apparently it kind of looks like Maine too, if that gives you any indication.

Anyway, we grabbed a taxi and it dropped us at this B & B a bit outside the city.  Yeah, this whole B & B thing is totally a crapshoot – I guess it’s like a hotel or hostel but they encompass such a wide range.  This B & B, was 4 floors – the proprieters lived in the bottom, there were 2 floors of guest rooms (4 in total) and then on the top was the kitchen or TV room which makes things kind of noisy since you can hear everything anyone says in the living area upstairs, and, well, Argentinians are not known for going to bed very early.

And this started the cold I decided to keep and I still have it (we’re currently in Iguazu which is about as far north as you can get without entering Brazil) – I’m sure it has nothing to do with going from sub-tropical climates to freezing butt-ass cold climates.  Where wool and fleece are now king.  And I so generously gave the cold to John and he is now totally cursing me.  But really, what can you do?

Anyway, first up we found out we had to extend our original stay by a day because the buses are very limited to go to Chile – you have to go by ferry across the Strait of Magellan, go through customs and then go down to Punta Arenas.  It wasn’t that big of a deal but it meant changing B&Bs.

Then we went up to see Glaciar Martial.  We took a taxi up to where the tarmac ends and then you can either grab the ski-lift or walk it – so we walked it and then went on the funniest hike.  I’ve never seen the widest variety of people going up this hill to – some in loafers, some in hiking boots, some in slippers – it was totally funny – young and old – John helped this 60 year old lady part-way down the hill after she freaked out and was just sitting on a rock I guess waiting for the bottom of the hill to come to her – she was okay after she got past this really steep part – anyway the Glacier wasn’t really all that but the views of the city and the channel were amazing.  AMAZING!

The next day we went on a boat tour of the Beagle Channel – there are a ton of these boat tours and they’re all pretty much the same except for ours included a “trek”.  Which was really a walk on the end of the tour but it was kind of cool.  We went out to the lighthouse called Faro Les Eclaireurs and then to Isla de Los Lobos where a ton of sealions were hanging out – John is convinced they look like dogs – and then went and trekked on this island to see where the natives used to hang out before they were overcome by smallpox.  Does that not sound familiar or what?  Apparently the native people down here didn’t wear clothes – just paint – they must have had some miraculous kind of internal heating system because it was cold in the middle of summer!

The next day we went to Tierra del Fuego National Park and hiked to the lower of  viewpoints entitled Cerro Guanaco – it was super windy and it was freezing and since we saw a full rainbow and such beautiful views from the lower ones we decided to forgo the higher viewpoint and went down and around the lake for a while.

Oh, also Ushuaia is one of those places where you can catch those big cruise ships to Antarctica – for a mere 5,000 USD you can add that last continent to your wish list.  Maybe someday we’ll return…