Monday i went to see the perito moreno glaciar in el calafate, argentina. its absolutely humongous. my tour picked me up at 8am. i was the second person to get picked up. the only other person on the bus was eitan. i swear this boy has been following me...i´ve lost him now that i´m in chile. we met at retiro in buenos aires when we were getting on the bus to puerto madryn. we were in the same tour for puerto madryn. then he showed up at my hostel in ushuaia and now the same tour in calafate. anyway, we went to the glaciar. first we took a boat and got pretty close to the glaciar. then we hiked with the group along side the glaciar, which was pretty awesome. we got to the camp-like area where the lookouts were and i bumped into my spanish travelling buddies. they were doing everything in reverse. we walked around the lookouts, which were the closest part to the glacier and then had lunch in the rain....and it was chilly out. from there we went back to the bus and chatted with the driver. upon arriving in town, we went for ice cream...i had already had calafate, which is a berry, ice cream, but he wanted to try it. then we walked around until i had to catch a 6pm bus to el chaltén with the spaniards.
i met them at there hostel, where the hostel paid for us to take cabs to the bus station and be put on a bus to el chalten. on the bus we met three porteñas who were going to hike fitz roy also. they were hilarious. they were all in the forties or fifties and had way too much luggage. we´re talking actual suitcases....to do the same thing as most backpackers. the ride to el chalten was amazing. it was up the ruta 40, which is a dirt/gravel road through the mountains...but more like along side the mountains.
in el chalten, we found our hostel and went to sleep. we were sharing a room with an aussie woman who spoke a little bit of spanish and was somewhat confused by me...everyone is. i had to do a little bit of translating between her and the spanish.
tuesday, we woke up at 7ish to take a van at 8am out to an estancia. from there we hiked 2 hours up this hilly area to the base of the fitz roy (granit rock formation mountain thing) lookout. it was a really nice hike through the woods and we could see a glacier from the lookout areas. we crossed a one-person-only bridge over this stream to get to the laguna de tres lookout area for fitz roy. getting up that part was really difficult because it was mostly rocks and very steep. my asthma started to bother me a little bit. alicia and i took the climb slowly, while piluca and pedro went really fast. we couldn´t even see them for parts of the climb. when we finally reached the top, the view was georgeos. however, fitz roy was covered with clouds, which was kind of sad. hiking down was actaully really hard to do because we kept slipping on the gravel.
when we got to the bottom, we ran into the three porteñas who were on their way up. they were absolutely hilarious, their clothing also. we´re talking camo spandex pants.... they besoed us and kept going. from the bottom, the clouds lifted and we could see fitz roy. which was kind of a disapointment, because we had just been up top and took 1.5 hours to get there and now we could see it perfectly. anyway, it was still amazing. we hiked down to the town which took another 2 hours. when we got there, we had been hiking 7.5 hours. it was tiring, but really fun also. then we went to a cafe and i had a smoked trout and lemon tostado (tosted sandwich). i love fish, so it was super yummy. then we caught our bus back to el calafate...4 hours. i slept the entire time.
in el calafate, we had a private room with a bathroom en suite, which only cost 3 pesos, 1 US more. it was super nice because we were really tired and had to wake up at 5 am wednesday morning.
wednesday, 5 am came way too quickly. we woke up and had breakfast in the hostel. then we went with a tour bus to the border, which was 3 hours away....i slept the entire time. we did all the usual border crossing formalities, except this time they took my entrance card, which they didn´t do the last two times i left argentina...i hope i get another one when i re-enter in bariloche....from there people changed money, which i had already done in el calafate. we went to the torres del paine national park. the excursion was ok. it was really sad because we couldn´t actually see the torres. they were covered in clouds and fog. it was also a really cruddy day...rain and wind like crazy. we walked 10 minutes to see a waterfall and we almost couldn´t get there it was so windy. most of the excursion was spent on a bus. the lakes we saw were really georgous, so that was nice. and we were able to get really close to some guanacos, which are lamas. we had lunch at a refuigio, which was expensive and not that great. i was debating staying there for the night, but the guide told me that the weather was so bad that it probably wasn´t worth it. i would have probably had to camp anyway. it was super sad that we couldnt´see the torres, we saw the cuernos though. i talked to some people who had been there for two days and they hadn´t seen the torres at all....so sad because its expensive to get in and expensive to be there and all that. from there we took half the group back to the boarder where they would return to calafate. we were then taken to puerto natales, chile. we stayed at a hostel where i met three people who were going on the boat also. wednesday night i went out for dinner with the spaniards.
thursday morning i woke up really early to say goodbye to my friends. pedro wanted to take me with them. alicia was really sad to say goodbye also. then i went back to sleep until 9ish. the hostel breakfast was amazing. it was tea, cake, crackers, bread, and jam. this hostel owner is super sweet. she´s an older lady and her teenage daughter lives with her in the hostel. they cook and are soooo nice. the people in my room are chad, english, sammy, aussie, and shivon (not spelled like that), irish. we are such a weird english speaking group....we´re going to be together on the boat also. anyway, they slept and i walked around thursday morning. for a connection point, puerto natales isn´t that bad. its a cute town with a personality. i walked through the working class neighborhoods where there were fisherment taking today´s catch out of coolers in the trunk and putting them in plastic bags to hand deliver to the houses. from there i walked the coast and saw the ferry. then i walked back towards the hostel and bought some fruit and veggies. i met up with my new travel buddies and we ate lunch while watching the oc in the hostel kitchen. then we walked around a bit more and checked-in at the boat. i´m soooo excited!! we board in a few hours. i´ll blog from puerto montt or chiloé, my next destinations. get out your atlas, mom....besos!!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Flying over the Andes and the Glaciares
Yesterday i spent most of the day in the hostel in ushuaia. it was kind of like leaving home when i got into my taxi to head to the airport. i had become pretty good friends with the people i met there. we had traveled from rio gallegos together. the airport in ushuaia is brand new and has spectacular views because they built it on a peninsula facing the city. you litterally take off over the beagle channel with snowcapped mountains on either side. i still can´t get over how much i love the andes mountains. i think there´s a blog entry from when i went to peru. if not, there should be and the andes are amazing.
at the airport i bumped into a group of spanish travelers whom i had met on wednesday on a boat excursion on the beagle channel. we started talking and soon realized we had basically the same schedules for calafate and torres del paine, chile. we decided to join up....aka me join them...and travel together. we arrived at el calafate and went to our hostels. then they called me and told me they had everything figured out for the next four days. i was somewhat shocked and hurried to their hostel. at there hostel, which was a hell of a lot nicer than mine...oh well, there is a travel agency. the guy there had put together a plan for the next four days which allowed us to see all the glaciares, go to chalten, which i didn´t think was possible, and get to torres del paine. we end in puerto natales, chile - less than 24 hours before i need to be on the boat from there. so we all went to the atm and took out a lot of pesos to pay for this adventure and now i have spanish travel buddies and i can´t talk to them in english, which is fantastic because it means i get to practice spanish. then we went to the grocery store to stock up for these excursions. also, the travel agent guy gave me a free membership for hosteling international, which is something i was considering anyway and costs in the range of 25 US. i went back to my hostel and ate my food for dinner. i´m sharing a room with a french couple, which is difficult because the wife speaks spanish poorly and neither speak english. so our conversations are basically me guessing what she is saying. they´re nice though. there´s another guy in our room, but i haven´t talked with him yet.
today, i woke up super early to go to see some glaciers. we took a boat trip which brought us around the northern ones, not perito moreno, which is the famous one. we´re going to that tomr. it was freezing outside the boat because of all the wind. the glaciers (is this how its spelled in english??) were amazing, but even better were the ice bergs. they´re sooooo cool, literally and figureatively. we stopped for lunch in the bay where we walked through the forrest and ate overlooking three more glaciers and a river full of ice bergs. it was incredibly beautiful. on the way back, all of us fell asleep in the boat and they had to wake me when we got to the port. all in all it was a great day, especially because i paid 1/6 the entrance price for the park. the entrance price is 30AR for foreigners, 10 AR for nationals, however i paid 5AR because i am both a nacional and a student....man i love that my paper USAL library card with my picture taped to it can do all this stuff!!
right now i´m at a locutorio-communication center??- then i´m running some errands, like getting some more food, souveniers, and trying to change money because i need chilean pesos. then its bedtime for another early morning.
tomorrow i´m going to el chalten, where i won´t have internet at all, there is no bank or atm, and we´re going hiking. i´m also going to see the perito moreno glaciar...so excited. yes mother i´m 100% fine and doing well.
at the airport i bumped into a group of spanish travelers whom i had met on wednesday on a boat excursion on the beagle channel. we started talking and soon realized we had basically the same schedules for calafate and torres del paine, chile. we decided to join up....aka me join them...and travel together. we arrived at el calafate and went to our hostels. then they called me and told me they had everything figured out for the next four days. i was somewhat shocked and hurried to their hostel. at there hostel, which was a hell of a lot nicer than mine...oh well, there is a travel agency. the guy there had put together a plan for the next four days which allowed us to see all the glaciares, go to chalten, which i didn´t think was possible, and get to torres del paine. we end in puerto natales, chile - less than 24 hours before i need to be on the boat from there. so we all went to the atm and took out a lot of pesos to pay for this adventure and now i have spanish travel buddies and i can´t talk to them in english, which is fantastic because it means i get to practice spanish. then we went to the grocery store to stock up for these excursions. also, the travel agent guy gave me a free membership for hosteling international, which is something i was considering anyway and costs in the range of 25 US. i went back to my hostel and ate my food for dinner. i´m sharing a room with a french couple, which is difficult because the wife speaks spanish poorly and neither speak english. so our conversations are basically me guessing what she is saying. they´re nice though. there´s another guy in our room, but i haven´t talked with him yet.
today, i woke up super early to go to see some glaciers. we took a boat trip which brought us around the northern ones, not perito moreno, which is the famous one. we´re going to that tomr. it was freezing outside the boat because of all the wind. the glaciers (is this how its spelled in english??) were amazing, but even better were the ice bergs. they´re sooooo cool, literally and figureatively. we stopped for lunch in the bay where we walked through the forrest and ate overlooking three more glaciers and a river full of ice bergs. it was incredibly beautiful. on the way back, all of us fell asleep in the boat and they had to wake me when we got to the port. all in all it was a great day, especially because i paid 1/6 the entrance price for the park. the entrance price is 30AR for foreigners, 10 AR for nationals, however i paid 5AR because i am both a nacional and a student....man i love that my paper USAL library card with my picture taped to it can do all this stuff!!
right now i´m at a locutorio-communication center??- then i´m running some errands, like getting some more food, souveniers, and trying to change money because i need chilean pesos. then its bedtime for another early morning.
tomorrow i´m going to el chalten, where i won´t have internet at all, there is no bank or atm, and we´re going hiking. i´m also going to see the perito moreno glaciar...so excited. yes mother i´m 100% fine and doing well.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Chicken soup
today i woke up super tired from yesterday´s hike. i didn´t really want to do anything. i had lunch and then took a colectivo around the city for a litte while. i wanted to see other parts because we´re staying in the center. then i went to see the former jail. on the way i stopped at a bread/pastry shop to get something to eat. the clerck couldn´t make propper change...she was short 5 centavos, worth less than 2 cents US and gave me bread to make up for it. it was so weird, i wasn´t even going to complain about the lack of money, but she gave me two pieces of bread.
ushuaia was formed by prisoners. they made this city the place where they sent the worst prisoners because it litterly is the end of the world. now the jail is a museum and i walked around it and had a guided tour..it was a huge tour group though. the best part was that i only paid 5 pesos. foreigners pay 30 to enter, but i used my argentine student id (really a library card with my picture taped on it....so ghetto) to pay the national student price. i´m really liking using my id and visa to pay less for things. my favorite part of the museum was an art exhibit. there were really political paintings done by a local artist. they were black and white and dealt with the war in iraq, war in israel, bush, and the imf. after the museum i went back to the hostel and planned dinner with eitan, this israeli guy whose been everywhere i go...litterally since retiro, and jon, an american student here from CA.
we made chicken soup because i had been craving it. they don´t have soup in argentina....well they do, but its different. they don´t have cans of soup. only packets. so what i did was take chicken and brown it. then i added zuccini, onion and celery (they didn´t have carrots today). then i added two soup packets and water. i boiled the whole thing and had soup. i added parsley also. it was so yummy!! then we made salad to go with it. the soup was so delicious and exactly what i wanted....ok, so it wasn´t grandma´s soup...but it was really good! now the guy who works at the hostel is trying the soup...can´t wait to hear his reaction. tomorrow i have to leave here which is sad, but basically everyone i´ve become friends with is leaving, so its kind of ok at the same time. anyway, tomorrow i´m flying to el calafate, argentina to see a glaciar....then its off to chile!!
ushuaia was formed by prisoners. they made this city the place where they sent the worst prisoners because it litterly is the end of the world. now the jail is a museum and i walked around it and had a guided tour..it was a huge tour group though. the best part was that i only paid 5 pesos. foreigners pay 30 to enter, but i used my argentine student id (really a library card with my picture taped on it....so ghetto) to pay the national student price. i´m really liking using my id and visa to pay less for things. my favorite part of the museum was an art exhibit. there were really political paintings done by a local artist. they were black and white and dealt with the war in iraq, war in israel, bush, and the imf. after the museum i went back to the hostel and planned dinner with eitan, this israeli guy whose been everywhere i go...litterally since retiro, and jon, an american student here from CA.
we made chicken soup because i had been craving it. they don´t have soup in argentina....well they do, but its different. they don´t have cans of soup. only packets. so what i did was take chicken and brown it. then i added zuccini, onion and celery (they didn´t have carrots today). then i added two soup packets and water. i boiled the whole thing and had soup. i added parsley also. it was so yummy!! then we made salad to go with it. the soup was so delicious and exactly what i wanted....ok, so it wasn´t grandma´s soup...but it was really good! now the guy who works at the hostel is trying the soup...can´t wait to hear his reaction. tomorrow i have to leave here which is sad, but basically everyone i´ve become friends with is leaving, so its kind of ok at the same time. anyway, tomorrow i´m flying to el calafate, argentina to see a glaciar....then its off to chile!!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
yesterday night i was in the hostel when this israeli guy i met at retiro showed up...i knew he was not coming to ushuaia so it was surprising to see him. thats the life of travelers...
i also made dinner with this guy from california..we made a weird rice, egg and veggie thing...it wasn´t bad.
today i woke up super early and went to the national park tierra del fuego with this italian guy. i don´t speak italian and he doesn´t speak english, so all of our conversations were in spanish, which was good practice. we had to take a bus there. i met an american couple on the bus. they were really young and were doing an around the world thing. they didn´t realize i was american and the girl told me i spoke english very well. (i had only been speaking in spanish to the bus people). when we got to the park, i paid the argentine price, which is awesome!! granted it only saves a little money, but hey, its great.
so the italian and i started off on our hike. we started with two spanish guys. we walked a lot...maybe like 10 kilometers or something...at the least..i have to total it later. it was a lot of fun, we lost the spanish guys for a while and then met up with them again. we also bumped into some more israelis from our hostel along one of the trails.
we walked along the water for most of it, but had to go up and down some hills. there was some mud, but nothing terrible. we stopped at the beaches a couple of times to look at the view, which really wasn´t that different from what i saw on the water yesterday. then we had lunch, i had brought leftovers. then we walked some more and saw some bunny rabbits and a lot of birds. we got to the end of the route 3 which i had been taking since buenos aires to get down here, so that was kind of cool. there we met up with the spanish guys again, and we walked together to go try to find beavers. we found there dams, but no beavers....which was sad. then we walked to the lago roca and it started to rain a little bit...but only for 5 minutes. we took the bus back from the cafe there. all in all, we hiked for about six hours...it was a lot of fun. its also fun to think that i spent thanksgiving hiking, aka working out, while most americans were eating.
i´m not sure what i´ll do for dinner. i think some of us will cook, we have so much rice left over from yesterday.
i also made dinner with this guy from california..we made a weird rice, egg and veggie thing...it wasn´t bad.
today i woke up super early and went to the national park tierra del fuego with this italian guy. i don´t speak italian and he doesn´t speak english, so all of our conversations were in spanish, which was good practice. we had to take a bus there. i met an american couple on the bus. they were really young and were doing an around the world thing. they didn´t realize i was american and the girl told me i spoke english very well. (i had only been speaking in spanish to the bus people). when we got to the park, i paid the argentine price, which is awesome!! granted it only saves a little money, but hey, its great.
so the italian and i started off on our hike. we started with two spanish guys. we walked a lot...maybe like 10 kilometers or something...at the least..i have to total it later. it was a lot of fun, we lost the spanish guys for a while and then met up with them again. we also bumped into some more israelis from our hostel along one of the trails.
we walked along the water for most of it, but had to go up and down some hills. there was some mud, but nothing terrible. we stopped at the beaches a couple of times to look at the view, which really wasn´t that different from what i saw on the water yesterday. then we had lunch, i had brought leftovers. then we walked some more and saw some bunny rabbits and a lot of birds. we got to the end of the route 3 which i had been taking since buenos aires to get down here, so that was kind of cool. there we met up with the spanish guys again, and we walked together to go try to find beavers. we found there dams, but no beavers....which was sad. then we walked to the lago roca and it started to rain a little bit...but only for 5 minutes. we took the bus back from the cafe there. all in all, we hiked for about six hours...it was a lot of fun. its also fun to think that i spent thanksgiving hiking, aka working out, while most americans were eating.
i´m not sure what i´ll do for dinner. i think some of us will cook, we have so much rice left over from yesterday.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
1 day, 5 passport stamps and the END OF THE WORLD!!!
Tuesday i woke up and went to the bus station really early to leave rio gallegos with a bunch of people from my hostel. we had an 8 am bus out...we got to the argentine boarder a little while later and crossed it. then we entered chile! we had to go through metal detectors and have all of our stuff scanned before entering. we traveled through chilean pategonia until we arrived at the strait of magellan, which we crossed on a ferry. the bus just drove right up onto the boat. while on the boat, we could see a tonina, a small black and white dolphin. it was swimming along side the boat with us, which was so cool. we entered chilean tierra del fuego, which was flat and rather boring. then we left chile and re-entered argentina. they misstamped my passport as a turist (90 day visa). even though i´m leaving before the 90 days are up, i made them change it to a year long stamp. i didn´t want to start a presidence in my passport.
then we arrived in rio grande, argentina where more than half the bus got off. we stopped a little while later in tolhuin, argentina which isn´t important enough to make it into lonely plannet. we had pastries there and saw the beginning of the snow-capped mountains, which was great. this part of the drive was the best. we were along side the mountains and some lakes and it was absolutely amazing. we arrived in ushuaia at 8.30pm or so and it stayed light out until later than 10pm.
we´re all staying at the same hostel, which is cool. its a great hostel, super social. everyone cooks together and hangs out. its also really colorful!
so i had dinner with two americans- one from westchester and one who used to live in summit, nj....they made pategonian lamb, which was amazing.
21 nov (wed) i woke up early and walked around the town a little bit. then jon (a guy from CA) and i went on a beagle channel excursion. we took a 4 hour boat trip and saw lots of bird, seals, a light house and we got off on one of the islands. it was fantastic. the views were absolutely incredible. we got super close to a lot of seals and stuff...my pictures should be great. the water was really rough, which was not great for my stomach...but it was only rough in a few spots, so that was good.
our group was interesting..a mix of spanish and portuguese people, whom we could barely understand because they were speaking a mix of portuguese and spanish. we were the only americans. no one can understand how i, as an american, sound like an argentine. i have the accent down really well. i´m constantly having to explain that i live in bsas as a student. its really funny how many people are confused by me.
ushuaia is absolutely beautiful and i love the hostel here....the people are so fabulous. i´m going to go make dinner now and then get some sleep.
the city is super nice...i look one way out the window and see snow-capped mountains...i look the other way and see the beagle channel. the end of the world is georgous!!
then we arrived in rio grande, argentina where more than half the bus got off. we stopped a little while later in tolhuin, argentina which isn´t important enough to make it into lonely plannet. we had pastries there and saw the beginning of the snow-capped mountains, which was great. this part of the drive was the best. we were along side the mountains and some lakes and it was absolutely amazing. we arrived in ushuaia at 8.30pm or so and it stayed light out until later than 10pm.
we´re all staying at the same hostel, which is cool. its a great hostel, super social. everyone cooks together and hangs out. its also really colorful!
so i had dinner with two americans- one from westchester and one who used to live in summit, nj....they made pategonian lamb, which was amazing.
21 nov (wed) i woke up early and walked around the town a little bit. then jon (a guy from CA) and i went on a beagle channel excursion. we took a 4 hour boat trip and saw lots of bird, seals, a light house and we got off on one of the islands. it was fantastic. the views were absolutely incredible. we got super close to a lot of seals and stuff...my pictures should be great. the water was really rough, which was not great for my stomach...but it was only rough in a few spots, so that was good.
our group was interesting..a mix of spanish and portuguese people, whom we could barely understand because they were speaking a mix of portuguese and spanish. we were the only americans. no one can understand how i, as an american, sound like an argentine. i have the accent down really well. i´m constantly having to explain that i live in bsas as a student. its really funny how many people are confused by me.
ushuaia is absolutely beautiful and i love the hostel here....the people are so fabulous. i´m going to go make dinner now and then get some sleep.
the city is super nice...i look one way out the window and see snow-capped mountains...i look the other way and see the beagle channel. the end of the world is georgous!!
Monday, November 20, 2006
Pategonia part one
Thursday 16 Nov I left Buenos Aires with my friend Meagan and headed to Pategonia. Our bus was super nice. they even gave us wine with dinner (which was a hot meal). the bus attendent (same principle as a flight attendent) couldn´t figure out why we didn´t want coffee or tea the three times she offered it to us. i was like hello why would we want something that will really make us pee if we are on a bus for 20 hours??? i mean really.
before boarding the bus, this guy started talking to me in this language i couldn´t understand. he was convinced i was israeli because of my backpack and hiking boots. we chatted with him for a while on the bus. then these people boarded and there were two little kids, like 5 or 6, from rochester, ny. it was so weird to be with little american kids again. they whined so much. every 5 minutes was mom this or dad that.
anyway, meagan and i arrived in puerto madryn on friday 17 nov and went to the hostel. we dumped our stuff and walked around the little town. we had lunch at this bar (i had grilled chicken and salad!!). then we figured out a tour to go on the next day. sandra and amy arrived at 5ish and we took a remise (hired car) to this beach to try to sea whales...but we had no luck. that night we went out for tea and dinner where i had some yummy seafood.
saturday 18 nov we woke up really early for our tour of peninsula valdez. our tour group was late picking us up. we got on the bus and then picked up the israeli guy that we had met the day before (complete coinsidence!). peninsula valdez is more than an hour from puerto madryn...we arrived and i only had to pay the argentine price to enter (10 pesos, as opposed to the 35 the others paid).
we went first to the whale watching which was really awesome. they came really close to the boat and we saw one of them jump, which was super cool. the boat launch was not from a dock, we got into the boat on land and a car-like thing drove us out into the water. i had a really good time on the boat.
then we went to the penguin lookout point and saw some really cute penguins. then we went to the lunch area, ate and walked down to see the seals on the beach. then we drove to another area to see more seals. basically the entire day was driving around seeing seals and penguins and other animals. we did see the guanacos (kind of like llamas) and maras (big rabbits, but they are rodents). we spent a lot of time in the car. we stopped at the museum thing on the way out. it had a baby whale skeleton in it. afterwards we went to the hostel and showered and went to dinner. i had more fish, the rest of the girls had parrilla and then ice cream. then we went to bed because...
we got up at 6.30 am on sunday 19 nov to head to the punta tumbo penguin colony. however, like the day before, our ride was late coming to get us. we wound up leaving with a private guide at 9.30 (2 hours late). it worked out better to have the private guide because we only went to the penguin colony and to gaiman and we skipped the museum stop in trelew. he also dropped me in trelew where i caught a bus to río gallegos.
the penguin colony was really interesting because you litterly walk among them. they cross your path and you cross their´s. it was super cool to see them up close and there were babies and eggs. then we went to gaiman, which is a welsh village. it was kind of touristy, we had tea in one of the welsh tea houses (princess diana had been there!!). it was super yummy, kind of expensive in a touristy way, but still really nice. after that the driver took me to trelew, where i said good bye to the girls and got on my bus. my bus was the complete opposite of the first one i took this trip. this bus was not at all touristy and there were no backpackers on it. that was okay though, i slept a bit.
on monday 20 november, i arrived in río gallegos to find that i was not going to make it to ushuaia that day. after chatting with other travlers, i booked myself a ticket on an 8AM bus the next day and went to a hostel (the only one in town), where i met another american who had been studying in bsas. he and i spent the day walking around town and went to some museum things...one of which was an old house and the other was supposed to be a science museum, but wound up to be under construction (the whole town is) except for a bad modern art section. río gallegos is nothing special and i am happy that i will be getting to ushuaia tomorrow. while sitting in the locutorio, i was given more info about ushuaia from another traveler, which is always helpful. right now, i´m going to buy some food and then go back to the hostel to do some wash, shower and sleep....don´t worry family, my first day alone was totally fine and i´m meeting lots of great people (other travelers)
before boarding the bus, this guy started talking to me in this language i couldn´t understand. he was convinced i was israeli because of my backpack and hiking boots. we chatted with him for a while on the bus. then these people boarded and there were two little kids, like 5 or 6, from rochester, ny. it was so weird to be with little american kids again. they whined so much. every 5 minutes was mom this or dad that.
anyway, meagan and i arrived in puerto madryn on friday 17 nov and went to the hostel. we dumped our stuff and walked around the little town. we had lunch at this bar (i had grilled chicken and salad!!). then we figured out a tour to go on the next day. sandra and amy arrived at 5ish and we took a remise (hired car) to this beach to try to sea whales...but we had no luck. that night we went out for tea and dinner where i had some yummy seafood.
saturday 18 nov we woke up really early for our tour of peninsula valdez. our tour group was late picking us up. we got on the bus and then picked up the israeli guy that we had met the day before (complete coinsidence!). peninsula valdez is more than an hour from puerto madryn...we arrived and i only had to pay the argentine price to enter (10 pesos, as opposed to the 35 the others paid).
we went first to the whale watching which was really awesome. they came really close to the boat and we saw one of them jump, which was super cool. the boat launch was not from a dock, we got into the boat on land and a car-like thing drove us out into the water. i had a really good time on the boat.
then we went to the penguin lookout point and saw some really cute penguins. then we went to the lunch area, ate and walked down to see the seals on the beach. then we drove to another area to see more seals. basically the entire day was driving around seeing seals and penguins and other animals. we did see the guanacos (kind of like llamas) and maras (big rabbits, but they are rodents). we spent a lot of time in the car. we stopped at the museum thing on the way out. it had a baby whale skeleton in it. afterwards we went to the hostel and showered and went to dinner. i had more fish, the rest of the girls had parrilla and then ice cream. then we went to bed because...
we got up at 6.30 am on sunday 19 nov to head to the punta tumbo penguin colony. however, like the day before, our ride was late coming to get us. we wound up leaving with a private guide at 9.30 (2 hours late). it worked out better to have the private guide because we only went to the penguin colony and to gaiman and we skipped the museum stop in trelew. he also dropped me in trelew where i caught a bus to río gallegos.
the penguin colony was really interesting because you litterly walk among them. they cross your path and you cross their´s. it was super cool to see them up close and there were babies and eggs. then we went to gaiman, which is a welsh village. it was kind of touristy, we had tea in one of the welsh tea houses (princess diana had been there!!). it was super yummy, kind of expensive in a touristy way, but still really nice. after that the driver took me to trelew, where i said good bye to the girls and got on my bus. my bus was the complete opposite of the first one i took this trip. this bus was not at all touristy and there were no backpackers on it. that was okay though, i slept a bit.
on monday 20 november, i arrived in río gallegos to find that i was not going to make it to ushuaia that day. after chatting with other travlers, i booked myself a ticket on an 8AM bus the next day and went to a hostel (the only one in town), where i met another american who had been studying in bsas. he and i spent the day walking around town and went to some museum things...one of which was an old house and the other was supposed to be a science museum, but wound up to be under construction (the whole town is) except for a bad modern art section. río gallegos is nothing special and i am happy that i will be getting to ushuaia tomorrow. while sitting in the locutorio, i was given more info about ushuaia from another traveler, which is always helpful. right now, i´m going to buy some food and then go back to the hostel to do some wash, shower and sleep....don´t worry family, my first day alone was totally fine and i´m meeting lots of great people (other travelers)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Streets of Sand
Monday, I went to COPA to study for my Borges final. I then went to a café near my house to study with my friend Alex. We wound up talking more than studying, which was fine.
Tuesday morning I went shopping…for the first time in a while. I went to Merrell and bought a pair of hiking boots to wear in Pategonia. They’re super cute (I was going to buy a pair of light blue ones, but then decided that the boring khaki color would last me longer). Then I spent the day in COPA planning my trip and went to Retiro with the girls to buy bus tickets. Tuesday night I didn’t get that much studying done because I went to Blythe’s house to watch the midterm elections. At 3AM I finally left because I couldn’t stay away any longer and they weren’t calling the results of the Virginia election.
I spent most of Wednesday at COPA, working on my final paper for my grammar class and studying for my final exam for my Borges class. Then I went to Havana, which is basically Starbucks. While I was there, Bryan from Borges class walked in to study with Alex, who came later with Glen. So we had a last-minute power study/review session. Then we went to take the test which was pretty easy.
On Thursday morning my host mom and I left the house at 7:45AM to go to Retiro to take a bus to the beach. We took a taxi…my host mom instructed the cab driver how to get to Retiro. They argued about the route, she wanted to take the road with all the buses and he wanted to take the clearly faster road which has like 10 lanes and no buses at all. we took his road and she refused to admit that it was faster. We got to the beach midday and walked around by the water a little. it was too windy/cold to actually go in the water, which was kind of sad. The cutest thing about this town was that the roads, except for the main drag and one or two more, were made out of sand. Most of them don’t have sidewalks; this made it difficult to walked and I would suppose hard for cars to drive. Then we made dinner and went to bed. At about midnight, my host mom’s friends, Irene and Alicia arrived. They took a later bus because Irene had to work. While I was “sleeping,” I overheard my host mom telling them how helpful I was and how I always offered to do the dished and stuff.
We woke up Friday morning and had breakfast together. It was an Argentine breakfast, so it basically consisted of toast, marmalade, butter and tea. Then we went with Irene to her friend’s wedding. We just went to the ceremony part, which was at the borough hall and took about 20 minutes. We left Irene with her friends and went to a café. My host mom and Alicia are café obsessed. Then we walked up the main street shopping and stuff. Alicia bought a microwave for the beach apartment…this took a while because the stores were all closed until at least 5 PM, which meant that in the interim we went to the beach, had a huge lunch and went to another café because my host mom needed more coffee. Then we went home, didn’t eat dinner (no one had room for it) and played buraco, which is this card game they play here.
On Saturday we took another walk through the town and stopped by the wedding party. Irene wanted us to go to the wedding with her, but Gilda (my host mom) refused. it was a cute little wedding in this restaurant right on the water. We walked around and did some more shopping. Then my host mom and I went to a café (we had gone with Alicia to another one early that day to have lunch). We went home, played some more buraco and went out to dinner at this Spanish-style seafood restaurant. I had rice and shrimp in a saffron sauce which was amazing. my host mom got a little angry with me because I ordered a pitcher of tap water. They have this weird social class thing when it comes to restaurants…you can’t be seen drinking the tap water, even though when we were home she had told me that the tap water in the villa tastes much better that the water in Buenos Aires. she was like, no…you don’t need a picture of water, you can share my mineral water. I pointed out that no only was I going to drink my entire picture (dad you would have needed at least three), but I was going to drink her water as well. then, I horrified all of them by not ordering dessert. Argentines need to finish every meal with something sweet…at least all the Argentines I know do this. how was it that I wasn’t eating something sweet? they were so shocked. seriously, I couldn’t put more food into my stomach.
Sunday morning Irene left at 7ish to catch a bus back to BsAs because she wanted to get stuff ready for work. Alicia, my host mom and I went to brunch at an Austrian tea house. We didn’t wind up leaving the apartment until 11:30ish, but at 9:15 I had eaten a grapefruit because I knew we wouldn’t be leaving for a while. At 10:30ish my host mom and I went to throw the garbage out and she looked at me and was like, “Pobrecita, tenés hambre” (poor little thing, you’re hungry)…I had to convince her that no, I had eaten a grapefruit…I was not at all hungry. This took a good 5 minutes. At the Austrian place I had fantastic tea which was a mix of fresh fruit and spices. then I had smoke salmon (lox!), which I had not had since coming here…they’re aren’t super big on fish in BsAs.
Sunday afternoon we took the bus back to BsAs…part way to the city the AC broke and the bus was sooooo hot… I had a window next to me which I tried to open until my host mom told me I was not allowed to open the windows…. I let it go for a while and then tried again (the window was also stuck, which made it very difficult to open). she said people weren’t supposed to touch the windows because the bus had ac…I pointed out that we currently did not have ac and were stuck in traffic. Then the rest of the passengers started rebelling and getting very angry. we opened the windows. a little while later they magically fixed the AC, while we were still moving…not entirely sure how this worked out….and I couldn’t close my window because it was stuck….oh well, at least I got a nice breeze. Then my host mom wanted to send text messages to her daughter and Irene to let them know that we were going to get in late….she didn’t want her daughter to worry. however, my host mom has clearly never sent a text message in her life…because she didn’t understand how long it takes to type everything and that texts are for quick messages, not for a life story. when we got back to our apartment (only an hour and half late), she tried to call her daughter. This didn’t work because she had left the cordless phone unhooked from its charger. I have no idea why, but her daughter told her that this was what she should do…I noticed it on Thursday and didn’t even want to ask/argue/point out that when we returned the phone wouldn’t work. she waited a while and then called her daughter who had not received the text message because her phone was off.
Monday morning I woke up early and went to a café with my friend to work on our paper for our grammar class. At the café, my friend ordered what looked like and was called a bagel. It wound up to be a round ring of regular bread. She also ordered cream cheese which wound up to be sour cream. Luckily the sour cream came on the side and the bread wasn’t bad bread…its just wasn’t a bagel. our professor had screwed up and told us to write four pages per group, but then the program said four pages each. we had thought four pages per pair/group of three was a little ridiculous and had confirmed this with the teacher about 10 times (she has two classes and both classes had done the same thing). Monday morning, the professor sent us a very condescending email saying that we didn’t understand her/the syllabus (which doesn’t specify per student or per group at all). She agreed to let us have an extra week to finish the paper, but no one really wanted to take that time because we want to travel. So, I spent most of Monday at COPA where there is wireless and outlets (aka you can actually use your computer for more than three hours).
Tuesday morning I went shopping…for the first time in a while. I went to Merrell and bought a pair of hiking boots to wear in Pategonia. They’re super cute (I was going to buy a pair of light blue ones, but then decided that the boring khaki color would last me longer). Then I spent the day in COPA planning my trip and went to Retiro with the girls to buy bus tickets. Tuesday night I didn’t get that much studying done because I went to Blythe’s house to watch the midterm elections. At 3AM I finally left because I couldn’t stay away any longer and they weren’t calling the results of the Virginia election.
I spent most of Wednesday at COPA, working on my final paper for my grammar class and studying for my final exam for my Borges class. Then I went to Havana, which is basically Starbucks. While I was there, Bryan from Borges class walked in to study with Alex, who came later with Glen. So we had a last-minute power study/review session. Then we went to take the test which was pretty easy.
On Thursday morning my host mom and I left the house at 7:45AM to go to Retiro to take a bus to the beach. We took a taxi…my host mom instructed the cab driver how to get to Retiro. They argued about the route, she wanted to take the road with all the buses and he wanted to take the clearly faster road which has like 10 lanes and no buses at all. we took his road and she refused to admit that it was faster. We got to the beach midday and walked around by the water a little. it was too windy/cold to actually go in the water, which was kind of sad. The cutest thing about this town was that the roads, except for the main drag and one or two more, were made out of sand. Most of them don’t have sidewalks; this made it difficult to walked and I would suppose hard for cars to drive. Then we made dinner and went to bed. At about midnight, my host mom’s friends, Irene and Alicia arrived. They took a later bus because Irene had to work. While I was “sleeping,” I overheard my host mom telling them how helpful I was and how I always offered to do the dished and stuff.
We woke up Friday morning and had breakfast together. It was an Argentine breakfast, so it basically consisted of toast, marmalade, butter and tea. Then we went with Irene to her friend’s wedding. We just went to the ceremony part, which was at the borough hall and took about 20 minutes. We left Irene with her friends and went to a café. My host mom and Alicia are café obsessed. Then we walked up the main street shopping and stuff. Alicia bought a microwave for the beach apartment…this took a while because the stores were all closed until at least 5 PM, which meant that in the interim we went to the beach, had a huge lunch and went to another café because my host mom needed more coffee. Then we went home, didn’t eat dinner (no one had room for it) and played buraco, which is this card game they play here.
On Saturday we took another walk through the town and stopped by the wedding party. Irene wanted us to go to the wedding with her, but Gilda (my host mom) refused. it was a cute little wedding in this restaurant right on the water. We walked around and did some more shopping. Then my host mom and I went to a café (we had gone with Alicia to another one early that day to have lunch). We went home, played some more buraco and went out to dinner at this Spanish-style seafood restaurant. I had rice and shrimp in a saffron sauce which was amazing. my host mom got a little angry with me because I ordered a pitcher of tap water. They have this weird social class thing when it comes to restaurants…you can’t be seen drinking the tap water, even though when we were home she had told me that the tap water in the villa tastes much better that the water in Buenos Aires. she was like, no…you don’t need a picture of water, you can share my mineral water. I pointed out that no only was I going to drink my entire picture (dad you would have needed at least three), but I was going to drink her water as well. then, I horrified all of them by not ordering dessert. Argentines need to finish every meal with something sweet…at least all the Argentines I know do this. how was it that I wasn’t eating something sweet? they were so shocked. seriously, I couldn’t put more food into my stomach.
Sunday morning Irene left at 7ish to catch a bus back to BsAs because she wanted to get stuff ready for work. Alicia, my host mom and I went to brunch at an Austrian tea house. We didn’t wind up leaving the apartment until 11:30ish, but at 9:15 I had eaten a grapefruit because I knew we wouldn’t be leaving for a while. At 10:30ish my host mom and I went to throw the garbage out and she looked at me and was like, “Pobrecita, tenés hambre” (poor little thing, you’re hungry)…I had to convince her that no, I had eaten a grapefruit…I was not at all hungry. This took a good 5 minutes. At the Austrian place I had fantastic tea which was a mix of fresh fruit and spices. then I had smoke salmon (lox!), which I had not had since coming here…they’re aren’t super big on fish in BsAs.
Sunday afternoon we took the bus back to BsAs…part way to the city the AC broke and the bus was sooooo hot… I had a window next to me which I tried to open until my host mom told me I was not allowed to open the windows…. I let it go for a while and then tried again (the window was also stuck, which made it very difficult to open). she said people weren’t supposed to touch the windows because the bus had ac…I pointed out that we currently did not have ac and were stuck in traffic. Then the rest of the passengers started rebelling and getting very angry. we opened the windows. a little while later they magically fixed the AC, while we were still moving…not entirely sure how this worked out….and I couldn’t close my window because it was stuck….oh well, at least I got a nice breeze. Then my host mom wanted to send text messages to her daughter and Irene to let them know that we were going to get in late….she didn’t want her daughter to worry. however, my host mom has clearly never sent a text message in her life…because she didn’t understand how long it takes to type everything and that texts are for quick messages, not for a life story. when we got back to our apartment (only an hour and half late), she tried to call her daughter. This didn’t work because she had left the cordless phone unhooked from its charger. I have no idea why, but her daughter told her that this was what she should do…I noticed it on Thursday and didn’t even want to ask/argue/point out that when we returned the phone wouldn’t work. she waited a while and then called her daughter who had not received the text message because her phone was off.
Monday morning I woke up early and went to a café with my friend to work on our paper for our grammar class. At the café, my friend ordered what looked like and was called a bagel. It wound up to be a round ring of regular bread. She also ordered cream cheese which wound up to be sour cream. Luckily the sour cream came on the side and the bread wasn’t bad bread…its just wasn’t a bagel. our professor had screwed up and told us to write four pages per group, but then the program said four pages each. we had thought four pages per pair/group of three was a little ridiculous and had confirmed this with the teacher about 10 times (she has two classes and both classes had done the same thing). Monday morning, the professor sent us a very condescending email saying that we didn’t understand her/the syllabus (which doesn’t specify per student or per group at all). She agreed to let us have an extra week to finish the paper, but no one really wanted to take that time because we want to travel. So, I spent most of Monday at COPA where there is wireless and outlets (aka you can actually use your computer for more than three hours).
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