NB - blogging in Argentina has had a huge set back as t'internet connection is positively backward here, so sorry for the lack of photos. We'll try to upload to flickr when we can get the connection to stop bottoming out and to speed up from snail pace to walking pace... could take a while!
Buenos Aires 17.11.11 – 19.11.11
We travelled through the night from Colombia but our airline had first delayed our flight for eleven hours, then for another six. So we ended up boarding and taking off from the country we had travelled around for two months at five AM and through three quarter closed eyes. We arrived in BA in the late afternoon and took a bus from the airport then a taxi from Retiro (el centro) heading towards Palermo. We had left a rainy, cloudy and cold Bogota and landed in a beautiful, sunshiny and gloriously warm Buenos Aires. It was spring time and very warm. As we drove quite a long drive from the centre to Palermo with a very friendly television producer guy, I noticed how large and clean the city was. And then I saw my first PURPLE tree! I fell in love with these wonderful trees covered in beautiful long and lilac purple blossom.
We wandered the streets of Palermo that afternoon and evening, this place felt like a breath of fresh air and we quickly started commenting through our smiles on how much we love the place. We did become aware of one draw back however. It was becoming increasingly obvious to us just how much more expensive Argentina was going to be. Nevertheless, we had saved money in Colombia and were happy to treat ourselves which meant a slap up meal in a parrilla where Samly could get his first taste of the famous Argentinian steak he craved. We found a good place that evening, not touristy and quite cheap and ate and drank til we felt bursting. The wine was insanely delicious, a Malbec of course.
We spent the next day wandering around Palermo, which people had described as a ‘posh’ area and was filled with cute boutique shops, interesting architecture, sunny streets and smiley passers by. We felt safe in this area both day and night and it seemed like things were really going on here. We passed an huge impromptu drumming group in a side street and as we walked, the streets felt excited under our feet. The weather was glorious! It felt like summer time at home. The sun felt warming and sleep inducing rather than dangerous (although due to the hole in the ozone it most definitely is dangerous!) there were summer breezes and an almost completely blue sky. We spent so long wandering from Palermo Veijo to Recoleta that before we reached the famous Recoleta cemetery it had closed. We knew we would be back as we planned to spend new years here so it wasn’t too bad and before we knew it we were headed towards the airport again to catch our flight to Ushuaia – the most southernly city in the world!
They were everywhere in BA and most of my photography for the one and a half days we were there featured them heavily.
We wandered the streets of Palermo that afternoon and evening, this place felt like a breath of fresh air and we quickly started commenting through our smiles on how much we love the place. We did become aware of one draw back however. It was becoming increasingly obvious to us just how much more expensive Argentina was going to be. Nevertheless, we had saved money in Colombia and were happy to treat ourselves which meant a slap up meal in a parrilla where Samly could get his first taste of the famous Argentinian steak he craved. We found a good place that evening, not touristy and quite cheap and ate and drank til we felt bursting. The wine was insanely delicious, a Malbec of course.
We spent the next day wandering around Palermo, which people had described as a ‘posh’ area and was filled with cute boutique shops, interesting architecture, sunny streets and smiley passers by. We felt safe in this area both day and night and it seemed like things were really going on here. We passed an huge impromptu drumming group in a side street and as we walked, the streets felt excited under our feet. The weather was glorious! It felt like summer time at home. The sun felt warming and sleep inducing rather than dangerous (although due to the hole in the ozone it most definitely is dangerous!) there were summer breezes and an almost completely blue sky. We spent so long wandering from Palermo Veijo to Recoleta that before we reached the famous Recoleta cemetery it had closed. We knew we would be back as we planned to spend new years here so it wasn’t too bad and before we knew it we were headed towards the airport again to catch our flight to Ushuaia – the most southernly city in the world!
Ushuaia 19.11.11 – 23.11.11
Our very early flight came into sight of Ushuaia over the high snow capped peaks that flanked the city. The plane went up and down sending my stomach into knots and making my palms very sweaty. I don’t think I can remember such a turbulent flight. I kept looking around at the faces of the other passengers and the air stewards and this appeared to be normal so that kept the panic in my throat from rising into a full blown scream – just. To my relief we landed and I thanked the heavens that I wouldn’t have to deal with another flight until we returned home. Flying has been difficult for me this time round, not sure why, I’ve never had a problem with it before. Ushuaia took some getting used to but in the end I really liked the place. It has two main focusses – industry and tourism and not much in between. Houses are cobbled together out of corrugated iron and cement or are luxurious and empty wood affairs probably a second home to a wealthy owner. Ushuaia was cold. The kind of cold that gets into your bones making them feel like they’re made of metal. The aforementioned buildings however are very colourful and they brighten up the sky when it turns grey. It’s crazy to think it’s spring here, what with all the snow, the sleet and the hailstones still around. I wore all my clothes, every day. Our hostel was another grower. We found it a strange, unwelcoming place at first but soon came round after the best night’s sleep we’ve had since being away and cooking in the kitchen which afforded the best views from kitchen window I have ever seen. The view fell away from the window down over the patchwork of colourful houses into the bay and was lined by snow capped mountains. Not too shabby! Better than an expensive restaurant I’d say! We even had a belter of a view from our shower!
We decided to do some walking around the area and walk up to the chairlift which would take us to see our first glacier. But this was not meant to be as our crappy map reading skills led us instead down through the residential area which the Lonely Planet warns you not to go down on the account of the packs of wild dogs. At first we found the dogs to be very loud as we passed their houses and began commenting on how fervently they were carrying out their guard dog duties. Then we started seeing the usual groups of seemingly stray dogs on the grassy parts as we walked passed. But these ones looked particularly unfriendly. Some even began barking and lunging towards us, one even nipped Samly’s heel! This was not good. I remembered the old stick trick and we both armed ourselves with sticks. This worked brilliantly as just holding up the stick seemed to make the dogs shrink back from their lunging. The sticks were particularly useful when we realised that we had taken the wrong road and needed to retrace our wild dog infested tracks. We found a short cut through wood but the trail ended at the other side, so we decided to have a sub zero picnic and then give up and go home. An experience but not the one we had planned for! Hopefully our sea lion and penguin mission would be more successful. Good god, the coldest picnic in the world! If you look closely my lips are actually blue!
We decided to do some walking around the area and walk up to the chairlift which would take us to see our first glacier. But this was not meant to be as our crappy map reading skills led us instead down through the residential area which the Lonely Planet warns you not to go down on the account of the packs of wild dogs. At first we found the dogs to be very loud as we passed their houses and began commenting on how fervently they were carrying out their guard dog duties. Then we started seeing the usual groups of seemingly stray dogs on the grassy parts as we walked passed. But these ones looked particularly unfriendly. Some even began barking and lunging towards us, one even nipped Samly’s heel! This was not good. I remembered the old stick trick and we both armed ourselves with sticks. This worked brilliantly as just holding up the stick seemed to make the dogs shrink back from their lunging. The sticks were particularly useful when we realised that we had taken the wrong road and needed to retrace our wild dog infested tracks. We found a short cut through wood but the trail ended at the other side, so we decided to have a sub zero picnic and then give up and go home. An experience but not the one we had planned for! Hopefully our sea lion and penguin mission would be more successful. Good god, the coldest picnic in the world! If you look closely my lips are actually blue!
That evening we found a huge supermarket which had everything we had been looking for in terms of our camping mission. We had secured the tent in Bogota and had some camping equipment such as my billy can, grater, chopping board and our spice box, but to really save money and be as autonomous as we wanted to be we needed more. And here it all was for knock down prices! Result! We bought two sleeping bags, a gas stove, another pan and some other bits and bobs which should see us through our camping experience for the next few weeks. Brilliant! We also got our passports stamped ‘El Fin del Mundo’ (the end of the world) and send some postcards home. (Not sure if any of you have got them yet?)
The next day we boarded a catamaran and headed out into Beagle Channel. Our mission was to see sea lions and penguins and we were very excited! We had met Vivian in our hostel who had headed out on a ship to Antartica, something which we promised for ourselves for another time but this was the closest we would come this time. It was fantastic! We saw a whole island of sea lions, lying about scratching their bellies and honking.
Then more islands filled with different varieties of cormorants and finally an island of penguins! Magellanic penguins who were the most fascinating creatures to watch! They were really curious and we could see for ourselves their different abilities on land and in the sea. They were very cumbersome and gallumphing on land but as soon as they were immersed in the sea they became so graceful and super, super fast!
Then more islands filled with different varieties of cormorants and finally an island of penguins! Magellanic penguins who were the most fascinating creatures to watch! They were really curious and we could see for ourselves their different abilities on land and in the sea. They were very cumbersome and gallumphing on land but as soon as they were immersed in the sea they became so graceful and super, super fast!
We also saw the famous El Faro light house. As we sailed back towards Ushuaia down the Beagle channel the land that flanked us belonged to Argentina on the right and Chile on the left. Admittedly we spent most of the return journey warm in the belly of the catamaran but as we stared out the window, from time to time we saw a couple of penguin heads bobbing on the surface, looking at us and then ducking back down as they swam away. We saw these cheeky penguin heads nearly all the way back to Ushuaia!
Then we were headed for our bus to Puerto Natales in Chile to experience the ‘W’ trek. We hadn’t bargained on crossing into Chile but it seemed like over land from Ushuaia you have no choice really. We’d been told about the ‘W’ trek at the beginning of our trip in Colombia so we knew it was a good thing to be heading towards. On the journey up we met Jakob and Lene who were to become some of our lovely travelling buddies for the next two weeks!
Throughout our journey north and my gazing out the window, I was surprised to see how flat the land is in south Patagonia. Also it is so barren, and seemingly farmed the heck out of. Nearly all the land that we passed on route to Puerto Natales was fenced off cattle grazing land. I am getting more and more interested in just how much cattle grazing farming is destroying land and the environment in which it is occurring and how it effects our planet as a whole. I will certainly be looking into this more closely. I feel, as a lot of others seem to as well, that it is a huge problem for our world and if there is truth in the fact, that I was told about earlier on in our trip, that methane is more destructive to our planet’s atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it is exceptionally worrying. It’s not just cattle you see in the land next to the road, it’s also guanacos, a cousin of the Llama and some emu like birds called Rheas and lots and lots of sheep.
We travelled the whole day next to a sandwich of blue sky and pea green arid landscape with a rugged and continuous mountain sandwich filling. To cross over form Isla Grande we needed to take a ferry across the Strait of Magellan. Our bus loaded itself onto a huge metal structure of a ferry and we all piled off and up the stairs, wrapped up tightly to keep away the Antarctic winds. As the ferry moved off and we were staring at the light blue colour of the sea, we started to see black shapes bobbing up and down in the water! “Delfines!” someone shouted. Brilliant! We watched the tiny black and white dolphins as they rose and bobbed through the surface of the sea. We also saw pairs of penguin heads bobbing around too.
After we had driven for a long time and completed a border crossing, complete with a tomato freak out (you're not allowed to take fruit or veg across the border), we reached Puerto Natales at dusk which is at the crazy time of 10:20pm in Argentina.
After we had driven for a long time and completed a border crossing, complete with a tomato freak out (you're not allowed to take fruit or veg across the border), we reached Puerto Natales at dusk which is at the crazy time of 10:20pm in Argentina.
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