It´s been altogether too long since I updated this! The continuing difficulties with getting photos uploaded have sort of put me off blogging. That said, I´ve been having fun. I´m off to the airport to leave Argentina in about forty-five minutes. Since the last update, I´ve visited Mendoza, Cordoba, and Buenos Aires again, and done a great deal of walking around in cities as well as one day´s nature walk, the Quebrada del Condorito in the Sierra de Cordoba. The latter trip made me feel like an old South America hand because I hailed a bus from the side of a deserted road to get back into town. My time in Mendoza was spent doing a day of napping (it is possible to sleep on overnight buses, but it doesn´t really feel like enough), a day of wine tours, and two days of wandering happily around the city and getting terribly lost in public parks. Even with the Andes to the west, I could not get out of the park in Mendoza to save my life, and wound up stopping a pair of passing cyclists for directions. There was another pair of people I was happy to see in Mendoza, though: Lucy and Dave, the young British couple I´d met in Buenos Aires my first week, were also in town and so we got together for dinner and caught up on the adventures we´ve been having. It was lovely to see familiar, friendly faces.
As warned, I liked Cordoba more than I was expecting to and stayed for four nights instead of moving on. I wandered around the various historical sites - there are two really lovely churches in Cordoba, and a bunch of Jesuit buildings that have been designated as a World Heritage Site. There is also a small town called Alta Gracia, just outside of Cordoba, where one Ernesto Guevara spent much of his childhood. The family home there is now a museum devoted to his life and doings. The exhibits are pretty matter-of-fact in their adulation of El Che, but he was an impressive person in many ways, at the centre of some of the most significant revolutionary movements of the 20th century. Visiting the site made me want to learn more about him and the times he lived in. In fact, this whole trip has made me want to dig into Latin American history a bit. The fallout from the government repression in Argentina is still going on, with debates over reconciliation and punishment still evident in posters on the streets demanding accountability for the crimes. So there are two additions to my reading list once I get home.
I didn´t spend all of my time in Cordoba doing worthy and intelligent things, though. It is also a university town par excellence, having seven universitiesm and the nightlife is thus pretty hopping. I went out with some people from my hostel on the Saturday I was there. The club, Chateau Carreras, was lively even when we left at 5:30 a.m., and played Argentine national rock as well as Cordoban-style cuarteto music, cumbia, and (mysteriously) Shania Twain´s smash hit, Man, I Feel Like A Woman. One of the guys from the hostel was on vacation from Buenos Aires, so he explained the music to us - I was quite glad he was along, because I wouldn´t have had a clue what I was listening to, aside from the Shania.
My last stop was a night in Buenos Aires before my plane tonight. Yesterday I was just wandering around in Palermo, eating ice cream from Chocorisimo (the strawberry-lemon is sensational), but at night I roped a Brit from the hostel into going out for a tango lesson. I liked it a lot, and would definitely go again, because it would be nice to get competent. But I am jealous of Ben the Brit, because he is in BA for longer and can go to this same club again. Once the floor opened up after the lesson, it was full of gifted amateurs and tons of fun to watch. We left at 3 a.m. and there was no sign that the dance floor would be shutting down anytime soon. People were completely caught up in the dance, no matter who their partner was - the very young and rather old danced together, dress shirts and fancy skirts with jeans and t-shirts. It was extremely cool.
Because I kept delaying moving on in order to explore Mendoza and Cordoba, Iguazu Falls and Rosario both got cut out of the itinerary. The natural wonders of Patagonia will just have to suffice for this trip. Plus, it´s kind of nice to be cold and I cannot honestly say that I would have wanted to be (a) on buses for two out of three days, and (b) in a seriously tropical climate at the end of summer. Anyway, this is all a lesson that longer periods of time will be necessary for future travels!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
El Bolson and Bariloche
Big happenings today: I took a four-hour nap. The nap was necessary because the bus I took from Bariloche to here was air conditioned so much that I only got a few hours of sleep, in between waking up to go "my God, it is cold. Why did I think I could leave my sleeping bag in the cargo hold?"
Anyway. I spent Monday and Tuesday in El Bolson and enjoyed it. I did a day hike up past an overlook onto the Rio Azul, to the Cabeza del Indio (Indian´s Head), a rock formation that looks like, you guessed it, a face. It´s pretty neat. The weather was scorching hot and the hike up was lined with blackberry bushes. That night a group of three really rowdy guys got the hostel common room shut down by midnight, so I packed it in then in order to be up in good time for the Feria Artesanal the next morning. There, I bought a few presents for the fam and a pair of really nice dangly copper earrings for myself. For a town the size of El Bolson, the fair was pretty impressive. The aisle of sellers took up the entire south arc of the ovoid main plaza, and there were lots of really beautiful things on sale. Even the yerba mate gourds were nice, and ordinarily I look straight past those because they don´t pass my "will this item look stupid if I use it when I get home?" test. I spent a very happy hour and a half wandering the fair and then departed - I had a bus to catch for Bariloche!
Bariloche was the first place I´d arrived without a reservation, and I had to truck around to a few different hostels before I found one with space. This was no hardship as they were all within about five blocks of each other. Even once I was checked into Periko´s, I wound up hanging out more at another hostel with a few of the girls I´d met in El Chalten. It was quite nice to see some familiar faces, actually, and we tried to go out for a beer before realizing the pub was too expensive for us to ensconce ourselves for the night - we ordered one round and got out ASAP in favour of sitting around playing chess and making fun of Twilight at their hostel. Good fun.
The next day, I took a wander out of town to the Llao Llao municipal park, which is very pretty and is home to the Hotel Llao Llao, reputed to be the finest in Argentina. I wouldn´t know about that, but it certainly looked nice from across the bay. I spent a pleasant few hours rambling around on the pedestrian trails, wondering whether there was any way the pervasive bamboo was native (Dad?). Waiting for the bus back to town, I was forced to buy 100g of mint chocolates by a woman who was not operating under traditional methods of pricing by weight increments.
Thursday and Friday were a real highlight of the trip so far. I hopped on the Club Andino Bariloche transfer out to Pampa Linda, about two hours west of town. Accompanied by a friendly New Yorker named Johnathan whom I´d met on the bus the day before, I hiked up one of Mont Tronador´s glacial valleys and ascended the steep valley wall. One last hour´s walk up a rocky ridge between two valleys got us to Refugio Otto Meiling, which is located between two glaciers and has stunning views of both the summit of Tronador and the country to the east. The refugio itself was much nicer than I expected. The kitchen, staffed by the only two male vegetarians in Argentina, turned out amazing food, but I didn´t buy any because I had been anticipating ski-resort-style food, i.e. overpriced and underwhelming, and had thus schlepped all supplies up the mountain myself, right down the the instant coffee. However, I was able to cadge a piece of chocolate walnut whiskey torte and oh mama was it good. There was also a champagne toast to a nice young Californian couple (Troy and Angie) who had gotten engaged on the way up the mountain. Not bad for a place so far away from anywhere that the stove had to be helicoptered in when they were building it. The mountain division of the ejercito (army) is headquartered in Bariloche, so there were a bunch of soldiers up at the refugio as well, doing some kind of mountain survival training. This is awesome, for the sole reason that Troy and Angie now get to tell people they spent their engagement night sleeping with the Argentine military. As for me, I spent a very comfortable night courtesy of my decision to bring along every bit of warm clothing I had, and exhaustion from six hours of hiking.
A very pleasant surprise awaited me in the morning: affordability! In El Calafate, glacier trekking was in the neighbourhood of 300 pesos: yowza. At Tronador it was "only" 120, so I jumped on the opportunity and spent the morning strolling about between crevasses. Our guide, the fabulous Maurizio, also top-roped us one by one to rappel into a crevasse and climb back out again using our crampons and two ice-picks for traction. A rainbow was hanging over the glacier almost the entire time we were out there. It. Was. Great.
The hike down was a little rainy, but not too bad, and I joined Angie, Troy, and Johnathan for quesedillas at the only Mexican place in Bariloche, Dias de Zapata. After that, there was a house party at Hostel 1004, which is on the 10th floor of the civic centre and has great views over the town and the lake, so I stopped in there and enjoyed some time travel thanks to 1004´s wicked 1970s decor. And that... well, that brings us up to now, because all I did after that was pack up in the morning and head for Mendoza. I nearly didn´t make it, though. The tendency of Argentine bus companies to have several different names simultaneously means that your bus can be kind of hard to spot. I had innocently lined up in front of the only Andesmar bus in sight but fortunately, about three minutes before my bus was due to depart, I asked some the old woman in front of me whether it was the bus for Mendoza. She looked at me as if to say "oh, estupida gringa" and directed me to the correct bus, which had an entirely different line name and no Andesmar insignia. Huh. Anyway, I am now fed, showered, and siesta´ed and feeling much better about life. I have only one complaint: I would like people to stop stealing my instant coffee and tomato sauce. The aforementioned items have been jacked from me twice now, along with a kilo of dried fruit purchased for hiking. Whoever is responsible for these incidents is cordially invited to jump off a bridge.
Anyway. I spent Monday and Tuesday in El Bolson and enjoyed it. I did a day hike up past an overlook onto the Rio Azul, to the Cabeza del Indio (Indian´s Head), a rock formation that looks like, you guessed it, a face. It´s pretty neat. The weather was scorching hot and the hike up was lined with blackberry bushes. That night a group of three really rowdy guys got the hostel common room shut down by midnight, so I packed it in then in order to be up in good time for the Feria Artesanal the next morning. There, I bought a few presents for the fam and a pair of really nice dangly copper earrings for myself. For a town the size of El Bolson, the fair was pretty impressive. The aisle of sellers took up the entire south arc of the ovoid main plaza, and there were lots of really beautiful things on sale. Even the yerba mate gourds were nice, and ordinarily I look straight past those because they don´t pass my "will this item look stupid if I use it when I get home?" test. I spent a very happy hour and a half wandering the fair and then departed - I had a bus to catch for Bariloche!
Bariloche was the first place I´d arrived without a reservation, and I had to truck around to a few different hostels before I found one with space. This was no hardship as they were all within about five blocks of each other. Even once I was checked into Periko´s, I wound up hanging out more at another hostel with a few of the girls I´d met in El Chalten. It was quite nice to see some familiar faces, actually, and we tried to go out for a beer before realizing the pub was too expensive for us to ensconce ourselves for the night - we ordered one round and got out ASAP in favour of sitting around playing chess and making fun of Twilight at their hostel. Good fun.
The next day, I took a wander out of town to the Llao Llao municipal park, which is very pretty and is home to the Hotel Llao Llao, reputed to be the finest in Argentina. I wouldn´t know about that, but it certainly looked nice from across the bay. I spent a pleasant few hours rambling around on the pedestrian trails, wondering whether there was any way the pervasive bamboo was native (Dad?). Waiting for the bus back to town, I was forced to buy 100g of mint chocolates by a woman who was not operating under traditional methods of pricing by weight increments.
Thursday and Friday were a real highlight of the trip so far. I hopped on the Club Andino Bariloche transfer out to Pampa Linda, about two hours west of town. Accompanied by a friendly New Yorker named Johnathan whom I´d met on the bus the day before, I hiked up one of Mont Tronador´s glacial valleys and ascended the steep valley wall. One last hour´s walk up a rocky ridge between two valleys got us to Refugio Otto Meiling, which is located between two glaciers and has stunning views of both the summit of Tronador and the country to the east. The refugio itself was much nicer than I expected. The kitchen, staffed by the only two male vegetarians in Argentina, turned out amazing food, but I didn´t buy any because I had been anticipating ski-resort-style food, i.e. overpriced and underwhelming, and had thus schlepped all supplies up the mountain myself, right down the the instant coffee. However, I was able to cadge a piece of chocolate walnut whiskey torte and oh mama was it good. There was also a champagne toast to a nice young Californian couple (Troy and Angie) who had gotten engaged on the way up the mountain. Not bad for a place so far away from anywhere that the stove had to be helicoptered in when they were building it. The mountain division of the ejercito (army) is headquartered in Bariloche, so there were a bunch of soldiers up at the refugio as well, doing some kind of mountain survival training. This is awesome, for the sole reason that Troy and Angie now get to tell people they spent their engagement night sleeping with the Argentine military. As for me, I spent a very comfortable night courtesy of my decision to bring along every bit of warm clothing I had, and exhaustion from six hours of hiking.
A very pleasant surprise awaited me in the morning: affordability! In El Calafate, glacier trekking was in the neighbourhood of 300 pesos: yowza. At Tronador it was "only" 120, so I jumped on the opportunity and spent the morning strolling about between crevasses. Our guide, the fabulous Maurizio, also top-roped us one by one to rappel into a crevasse and climb back out again using our crampons and two ice-picks for traction. A rainbow was hanging over the glacier almost the entire time we were out there. It. Was. Great.
The hike down was a little rainy, but not too bad, and I joined Angie, Troy, and Johnathan for quesedillas at the only Mexican place in Bariloche, Dias de Zapata. After that, there was a house party at Hostel 1004, which is on the 10th floor of the civic centre and has great views over the town and the lake, so I stopped in there and enjoyed some time travel thanks to 1004´s wicked 1970s decor. And that... well, that brings us up to now, because all I did after that was pack up in the morning and head for Mendoza. I nearly didn´t make it, though. The tendency of Argentine bus companies to have several different names simultaneously means that your bus can be kind of hard to spot. I had innocently lined up in front of the only Andesmar bus in sight but fortunately, about three minutes before my bus was due to depart, I asked some the old woman in front of me whether it was the bus for Mendoza. She looked at me as if to say "oh, estupida gringa" and directed me to the correct bus, which had an entirely different line name and no Andesmar insignia. Huh. Anyway, I am now fed, showered, and siesta´ed and feeling much better about life. I have only one complaint: I would like people to stop stealing my instant coffee and tomato sauce. The aforementioned items have been jacked from me twice now, along with a kilo of dried fruit purchased for hiking. Whoever is responsible for these incidents is cordially invited to jump off a bridge.
Monday, March 9, 2009
O Little Town of El Chalten
Just arrived in El Bolson at 6 a.m. today after two days on a bus through the desert, driving the legendarily isolated and dusty Ruta 40. It is the quintessential road trip experience for those who prefer to see more alpacas than humans on their road trips, and if you are taking the non-stop bus from El Chalten, it entails not showering for two days and living on either truck-stop food (if you are a normal person) or ultra-mushy cheese and tomato sandwiches (if you are extremely cheap, like me). My camera and memory stick are both having some manner of problem with the computer here at the Refugio Patagonico, so I will have to stick to prose for the time being - a shame since I meant to put up some of my favourite photos of Buenos Aires as well as some from my week of hiking. Oh well, live to fight another day.
El Chalten is possibly my favourite town in Argentina so far. El Calafate is nice and all, but it felt rather like Banff. Practically every store is a chocolate shoppe, gift shoppe, or outdoors gear shoppe, and everything is rather expensive. It is the kind of outdoors town where you don´t actually have to hike to fit in - it sort of caters to rich tourists. So I met a nice British girl my first day in town, did the Perito Moreno glacier the following day (incredible!) and caught the bus north to El Chalten on Monday. I much preferred El Chalten, which is much smaller (pop. only about 200) and has a reputation as a trekking centre, as it is very close to some really excellent hiking. Take any trail out of town and you are just a few hours´ hike from the rarefied air. On clear days, you can look up from the townsite and see Cerro Fitz Roy looming majestically over everything - it is the most arresting mountain I have yet seen. To top off all this wonderfulness, Rasila (my travel buddy for the week) and I stumbled into the Albergue Patagonia, which was full of people travelling alone or in pairs and looking to find a hiking buddy or someone to sit with at dinner. Some of the people we met are going to be in Bariloche this week, so I may see them again. To top it off, the lady who greeted us and showed us the ropes, Cecilia, was ultra-friendly and enthusiastic, and made sure we knew where all the trails were. It was out-and-out fabulous, and if the rest of my trip is anything like as good as that week, I will be a happy camper indeed.
El Chalten is possibly my favourite town in Argentina so far. El Calafate is nice and all, but it felt rather like Banff. Practically every store is a chocolate shoppe, gift shoppe, or outdoors gear shoppe, and everything is rather expensive. It is the kind of outdoors town where you don´t actually have to hike to fit in - it sort of caters to rich tourists. So I met a nice British girl my first day in town, did the Perito Moreno glacier the following day (incredible!) and caught the bus north to El Chalten on Monday. I much preferred El Chalten, which is much smaller (pop. only about 200) and has a reputation as a trekking centre, as it is very close to some really excellent hiking. Take any trail out of town and you are just a few hours´ hike from the rarefied air. On clear days, you can look up from the townsite and see Cerro Fitz Roy looming majestically over everything - it is the most arresting mountain I have yet seen. To top off all this wonderfulness, Rasila (my travel buddy for the week) and I stumbled into the Albergue Patagonia, which was full of people travelling alone or in pairs and looking to find a hiking buddy or someone to sit with at dinner. Some of the people we met are going to be in Bariloche this week, so I may see them again. To top it off, the lady who greeted us and showed us the ropes, Cecilia, was ultra-friendly and enthusiastic, and made sure we knew where all the trails were. It was out-and-out fabulous, and if the rest of my trip is anything like as good as that week, I will be a happy camper indeed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
