Valparaiso

An hour and a half from Santiago is a town called Valparaiso - a place that reminds me of a cross between San Francisco and La Boca in BA. The streets are all up on massive hills, and the buildings are all brightly colored and covered with beautiful artistic graffiti. We got there and made friends at the hostel and all went out to dinner at a place called Mastadome, the wooly mammoth, which looked like Rainforest Cafe with giant dinosaurs and animals hanging off the walls. It was a nice change from the veggies I'd been making for the last few nights in Santiago to try to save some money on food. It's not hard to want to eat out every night in Chile when I don't really like anything but the candy anywhere.

The first full day in Valparaiso we walked around all day, taking millions of pictures of the artwork and buildings and marveling in the adorableness of this town. On the other side, there are a lot of sheisters around trying to steal your bags and run away with your passport, so the people take away from the scene a little bit. Two things I learned in Valpo were that the farther you get from cities, the less likely it is that you find English speakers in restaurants and hostels, and 2 - don't trust Lonely Planet.

The most recommended restaurant not only didnt exist, but no one had ever heard of it so it must have been closed for quite some time. We came across a policemen parade with cops from all over Chile. My favorites were the ones from the southern region who had skis in one hand, guns in the other. At the parade we ran into Sophie, who I met at the volcano in Pucon. I still think it's funny how I can be all the way in Chili and run into people I know! It's happened 3 times so far, once at a hostel, once at an Internet cafe and once in the street. Back at the hostel the employees were cooking compleados, which are hot dogs covered in every condiment imaginable - ketchup, mustard, mayo, salsa, avocado - probably other things too but it was piled so high I really couldn't tell. We all split one and it was interesting, but I was happy to have a third and not a whole thing. Almost a month in to the trip started to take it's toll, and my tiredness and hunger have officially both caught up with me. I slept until nearly 9 both days in Valpo, which is so late for me!

Our second day here we took a hostel group trip to the beach at Vina del Mar, a 15 minute train ride away. It was only about 15 degrees (yes I speak in Celsius now since America is the ONLY country who uses Farenheight), so we couldn't lay on the beach but it was nice to walk along for a few hours. Everything is really beautiful here, and I can imagine it being a really nice beach in actual beach weather. I seem to like to go everywhere off season so I never get the full experience of it, but I think for the second half of my trip (Bolivia, Ecuador) by coming now I'm avoiding the rainy season in those places.
The 8 of us from Hostel Casa Valpo had a great 3 hour walk, and finished out brief stint in Chile at a restaurant called color cafe. We are now on the night bus to Mendoza, which crosses the Argentinean border at 1 AM and gets to Mendoza at 6Am, so there will be no sleep for me tonight. But then I will have 4 horseback riding, winery filled days in Mendoza so it will be worth it!

Santiago, Chile

2.5 days in Santiago and I feel like I've been here for a week. It's the first place I've been to since my 2 day stint in BA that was a city and not a town with one main street.  We got in early Easter Sunday after an overnight bus from Pucon. I'm not going to rehash the events of my last day in Pucon because they involved monsoons, mud, a ruined bike ride and the closure of all laundry places, therefore resulting in the loss of my one warm semi clean article of clothing.
Everything was great once we got to Santiago though. We had breakfasts #2 and 3, and were off. I´ve learned that if I eat as much of the bad bread and jelly in the morning, I save $ on food for the rest of the day. I am still way over budget for month 1, so for the last few days I´ve been trying to be extra careful!

We climbed up a hill in Santa Lucia park that had some pretty nice views of the city. We found a market where Kenzie and I found adorable rings. We went to the big church in the Plaza de Armas for Easter Sunday, where I was accosted outside by an old senile Chilean man. We found the food market, which was more of a fish market, and after fainting 5 times from the smell managed to walk around and found sugared dried sweet potatoes - my new favorite snack! We were all then accosted by a squeaking mime, who tried to steal Kenzie´s camera and kissed us so we had white face paint on our faces all day.

Santiago is a big but manageable city. Every street is lined with beautiful trees. There are parks everywhere and statues and fountains - you can spend days just wandering around exploring it.  Day 1 we were exhausted and hung around the hostel, Cassie and I decided the best way to teach ourselves Spanish was by reading children's books. Which conceptually is a smart idea, however the book we found was a tongue twister nursery rhyme, so not a good starting point. We opted for Alvin and the chipmunks with Spanish subtitles instead.
Day 2, we headed to the Santo Domingo market at the end of town. It was a textile, artisinal and jewelry market that also sold chickens and rabbits. Not sure what the birds were for, but the market was a really nice place to walk around. We walked through practically the whole city of Santiago coming home, and I even found a froyo shop that had sweet potato froyo! At least I think it was sweet potato, I can't be too sure. But it was delish. Then we went into the Bella Vista barrio, on a 2 hour walk up the mountain to San Cristobal,

which is the highest point in Santiago. The view from the top is interesting because Santiago is surrounded by mountains, but you can't really see them through all the smog. Luckily there was a cable car to take down because that was way too much walking for one day. On the cable car I learned the word for backpack, mochilla, and was able to tell a girl that I liked her Hannah Montana backpack in Spanish.  Makinng progress!
When we got back we went to a local Chilean bar for terramotes, or earthquakes. These are a traditional Chilean drink of pineapple ice cream, Fernet and white wine. It's probably as strong as a red bull vodka, and tasted a little bit awful but it was fun, and there were accordion players at the bar and the locals befriended our group and it was so much fun! There was the option of getting an aftershock to follow, which is a smaller version of the same drink, but one of them killed us and I definitely couldn't handle any more. We had drunken empanadas (not quite Pizza 33 but it did the trick) and passed out. I was staying in a mixed dorm which for some reason meant I was the only girl again for both nights, so the boys were all out when I got home and noone was able to laugh at me for passing out before 1 am.

On the last morning in Santiago, we went to the Bellas Artes and Pre-Colombian art museums. A famous Chilean poet died yesterday, and his open casket funeral was being held in the museum. It was my first time seeing a dead person, and it was a totally strange experience. We took samples of his poetry and bought a Spanish dictionary to decipher it on the bus rides. Now we're on our way to Valparaiso, a town 1.5 hours from Santiago by the beach. It's warmer than Santiago, an apparently NY hit 70 degrees today, so to avoid getting jealous I have to go to the beach town :) Easter Island is definitely out since I checked into flights and its $1400 to go there! Flights can be $300 if you book in advance which I definitely couldnt, so this will be another day, another trip...

Pucon, Chile

Today I think the toll of travelling is hitting me. I really liked Bariloche and left earlier than I should have. My bus ride to Pucon I thought was 7 hours, but it turned out to be 11. I got to the hostel and there was no one there for half an hour to check me in. Then when the guy came he said tomorrow is going to be the only nice day all week and Its going to rain the rest of the week, and it's too late to reserve anything for tomorrow. I'm hungry, dirty, tired and cranky and the wifi doesnt work. I went to a restaurant around the corner and the whole menu is in Spanish and I can't make out any of the words for some reason. I think Chilean spanish is different from Argentinian Spanish. There's one weird Swiss boy in my hostel that kept trying to talk to me but I was too cranky to maintain a conversation. I'm also in a mixed dorm, top bunk. Only girl among 5 obnoxious Belgian boys, who took all the lockers and will probably steal my money in my sleep And the  I hate top bunks by the way! I want to change hostels but don't even know where to start looking. Oh and I ordered roasted potatoes which just came to my table and look like fried knishes with hot sauce. The currency is in hundreds, $1 USD = $496 Chilean dollars. So I don't have the slightest clue what I'm paying for anything without using the currency convertor on my iPhone which I'm too scared to take out! As I sit here eating my knishes I just realized it's fried bread. Ew. And it took my 2 of them to figure that out. I really wish I'd stayed in Bariloche with all my nice friends and waited til they were ready to come here!

Day 2 Pucon, April 19
Ok, calm again. They were able to get me in the group for the volcano this morning. I woke up at 6 and 2 people in my hostel were also going, so they shared their breakfast with me since I had none and showed me where to go. Once I slept off my hissyfit from last night, I felt much better and was ready to tackle Volcano Villarica. When I got there it was just as the sun rose, which always makes things even better, especially when the sky is every shade of pink and yellow you cab imagine over a backdrop of volcanoes.

The hike up started off okay. They gave me snow pants and hiking boots and a jacket to wear, since as always I was highly prepared. The clothes were all 8 sizes too big since I was a last minute add on the to tour, but I was glad to have them since it was freezing on the volcano and the wind hitting you on the way up could have easier blown me off the damn thing. After the first hour of sidestepping my way up over the snow, the ground turns to ice so we put on our clampons and hiked (slowly. Very slowly.) the last 3 hours on a glacier with the clampons and ice pick as my only defense against the volcano! Now I love to hike, and I ran through Tierra del Fuego, Fitz Roy and the accidental wrong way up Cerro Otto no problem. But this volcano was a monster, and absolutely the hardest thing I've ever done. It puts all 100 miles of the NY Century, even the Bronx part, to shame. Once we got to the top we got to look in over the top of the volcano. The sulfur stung like hell and I couldn't see or breathe but I loved it. And the view!

We were so high over the clouds, surrounded by whiteness everywhere you couldn't tell where the clouds ended and the snowy mountain began. After eating lunch, which involved people pitying me for not having one and giving me random cookies and pieces of banana and mate tea, it was time to go down. Down is supposed to be easier than up because you slide your way down the mountain. Which conceptually sounds fun unless you're a wuss like me, who couldn't figure out how to stop and slid right into the guy in front of me. That did it and I refused to slide anymore, so the guide Leonardo my lifesaver somehow dragged me the whole 2.5 hours down. It was physically and mentally exhausting and I loved every decide of it!
Back at the hostel the obnoxious Belgian boys checked out so I can sleep in peace tonight. The hostel owner said the next few days will indeed be awful weather but if I do water activities it won't matter. And the best part is I can do one that starts at 2 so I can sleep in tomorrow. Hooray!

Pucon day 3
It ended up being a beautiful day so I went to the national park for the day. I thought it was going to be a nice leisurely stroll but it turned out to be a 4.5 hour hike up through muddy hills. I might never have a day to just relax after all! I ran into 2 of the guys from Holland that were on my volcano tour, so I hiked with them. The park was really nice, beautiful bamboo and jungle trees everywhere surrounding lakes and waterfalls. When I got back there was a new girl at the hostel that I really liked, and then all my friends from Bariloche came and are staying at the hostel which I'm SO happy about!
We are all heading to Santiago together on Saturday too! It was our hostel owners birthday so we went and picked up vodka and celebrated at the hostel. I accidentally left my bag of vodka at the grocery store, but was able to successfully go back in the morning and tell them in my still awful spanish and got it back for tonight! We all drank and played multi-language scattegories ( travel scatts was a great idea to bring along on the trip!) and it was so much fun.

Day 4, the whole hostel took a trip 2 hours away to thermal springs called thermos geometricas. It was about 17 different hot springs  in all different shapes connected together. The weather was freezing and monsooning, but in the water it was ok and there was a little shelter at the front with a fireplace to warm up and get coffee and soup at the end.
The springs were so necessary to relax in after all this hiking. My whole body is suffering still from the volcano, my arms are so sore from carrying the ice pick around for 6 hours. While we were at the fireplace, a mouse from the roof fell into the fire and committed suicide. I hate mice and watched the little guy char himself in the flames. It was a great day despite the weather. Tonight were going to make mexi guacamole and tacos and play more and drink at the hostel. I love Pucon and don't want to leave here! I'm glad I have 2 more days!

Bariloche, the chocolate capital of Argentina

At long last, after 32 hours on 3 differed buses, I made it to Bariloche. It's such a pretty town, with all of the shops and restaurants concentrated on a couple main blocks surrounding Lago Nahuel Huapi. I got in pretty late, met 2 nice girls in the dorm (more Europeans, British and Irish), and we went and got some vodka sodas and hung out at the hostel. I was very happy to learn that the bottle of smirnoff only cost $12. I ran into Joel, the Australian friend we had met on the glacier. The people at TangoInn downtown are nicer than I met in El Chalten, and I like this town better already. The weather is still cold, so I'll probably stay here shorter than I thought since rafting and kayaking are probably no go's.

On my first full day, I went with Joel and 2 Israeli guys from my hostel to rent mountain bikes and go on this very steep, very hard bike ride called the Circuito Chico.
The whole thing was only 20 miles, but took us about 4 hours to do. I thought I was a good biker, but I had to get off to walk the bike at least 4 times. I guess all those spin classes weren't that necessary after all! In the middle of the ride we stopped at a Swiss village called Colonia Suiza for lunch. We ate at a restaurant that doubled as a treehouse. There were fairies hanging from the ceiling, incense burning from the center tree trunk and trippy lights everywhere. Best place ever! The menu only seemed to have fondue and boars head, so one pot of chocolate fondue later we were ready to go. After we got back we walked around the town, which is the chocolate capital or Argentina. I have never seen so many locally made artisinal chocolate shops. I found Mamuska, which is supposed to be the best one, and saw that inside they shops not only have every flavor combination of chocolates imaginable, but they also decorate the store so beautifully. This one had tons of winnie the pooh decorations, and those little Russian dolls that go one into another. The chocolate shops all have little cafes you can eat at too, but after the fondue I opted out ( I'm sure ill be back tomorrow!)

When I got back our 3 girl dorm turned into 8, so I made new friends (Lynn, Belgium and Gabby, Hungary), and went to this great Mexi place for dinner. It was the first real meal I've eaten in days and I was thrilled. We even made it in time for happy hour with 5 minutes to spare, so $2.50 margaritas all around :) Bariloche is definitely one of my favorite towns in Argentina so far.  To end my night wonderfully, I spoke to Caryn and Melissa today, trying to coordinate meet-ups.  Melissa is most likely coming to meet me in Bolivia, which will be so cool because Bolivia looks like such an amazing country with so many unique places and I think we'll have so much fun! And I reworked my schedule to meet Caryn in Cusco for a few days. I hadn't planned on going back but I realize to go from Bolivia to Ecuador it's not so far to go through Peru. I want to see Caryn, and Peru was the trip that started my South American obsession. The timing is actually perfect because she is going during the big Semanta Sana festival which Becca and I missed by 1 day our last time in Cusco. I am so excited about seeing my friends, because as much fun as I'm having, I miss my friends and family so much!
Day 2 of Bariloche I went with 2 girls from my hostel, Cassie and Kenzie from Australia) to El Bolson, a hippie town 2 hours south of here. They have a feria artisinal fair on Saturdays, which was mainly handmade jewelry and things like incense burners, gnomes and fairy sculptures and pressed flowers made into clocks and things. It was a cute place to spend the day, but the town was small and I'm glad I didnt end up sleeping there. When we came back Cassie and Kenzie share my love for chocolate, so we went to this chocolate shop called Rapa Nui which was like a mini version of Willy Wonka. They had everything I've ever dreamed of! We had hot chocolate and bought some chocolate dulce leche for dessert, and I'm already excited to go back tomorrow to try some of the ice cream after hiking! The days are so tiring (and cold) that I had planned to go out tonight but the thought of leaving my warm hostel bed sounds so unappealing. To me, vacation is about seeing things, keeping busy all day, 8 hour hikes followed by massive amounts of chocolate and sleeping in right now! I will go out in the next town that hits a temperature above 30 degrees :) Its actually a good thing that I didn´t go out because I heard that it was a total mess at the bars. When you go inside they give you a red ticket that means you have to buy a drink. When you buy a drink they give you a green ticket which means you can leave the bar. Apparently people were drunk and lost their green tickets, and the bouncer wouldn´t let them leave. One girl tried to leave and the bouncer tried to stop her and she ended up getting hit somehow. Even more reason I´m glad I was in my nice warm bed last night!!!

Day 3, I slept in, and when I woke up the room was empty so I was even able to get in some pilates exercises (finally!) I went with Cassie and TJ from New Hampshire to Cerro Otto, another hike. It took is about an hour to get to the base, and an hour and a half to the top, but it was one of the hardest climbs I´ve done. It was all on dirt and there wasn´t a path, so for every step I took up, I ended up half a step back, slipping the wrong direction. When we got to the top though the views were stunning, and there was a restaurant at top that rotated 360 degrees so we had a view overlooking all of Bariloche.  We had a coffee and then were rushed out of the place because the only way down, a chairlift, was closing at the random time of 2:50 pm. We ran and got our tickets and went on little bumper car ski lifts down the mountain back to town. Very fun day, very good workout, I am ending the day with a big ice cream from Rapa Nui to celebrate! Tomorrow I head to Pucon, Chile, where I plan to stay for 5 days - 1 week. I´m not so sure how long my bus ride there actually is, I had heard it was about 7-8 hours but my bus ticket doesn´t really seem to tell me much information.  Either way, it should be a few degrees warmer there which I´m really looking forward to!

El Chalten

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to catch my bus to El Chalten. It is the youngest Argentinean town, established in 1989.  It's basically a tiny town that was built up as a base to 2 mountains in the area, Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. I had wanted to come to El Chalten on a day trip but I was recommended not to because you need time to spend hiking both mountains.
When I got off the bus, I found out that I wasn't able to take a bus out on Wednesday. The bus only runs on Tuesday's and Thursdays, so now instead I am taking a 30 hour ride back to El Calafate, then up to Bariloche. This should be interesting.   It's kind of funny how off the beaten path this place is. The town has about 5 streets. A lot of people come here and camp in the mountains. I got to the hostel, dropped my stuff off (plus got them to do my laundry for $4!) and headed to the first mountain. To get out of the town was a little confusing, there were just signs with arrows so I had to assume I was going the right way!  This hike was 6 hours roundtrip, through woods and past a river, with snow covered mountains in the background and these awesome trees where some were totally dead next to trees that were fully bloomed and beautiful. At the Laguna Torre, the end point for the hike, all of a sudden the path opened up to a lake with a glacier at the end, chunks of ice floating near the shore.  I sat down to eat lunch (an amazing empanada, I have to find this place again tomorrow!) and met 3 people who were up here camping for a few days.

I was so happy to have someone to talk to, since I hadn't met anyone at the hostel to go with in the 10 seconds I was there to check in. The girl was from Guyana and it was her first time camping. She tried to convince me to come with them, promising the boys would take care of everything, but I don't think I would enjoy camping plus it's really cold here!! One of the guys has been on the road for 18 moths now. I asked him how he's able to do that and he said he volunteers here and there and the camping is super cheap once you have the equipment. If I think it's rough living out of a backpack I cam only imagine living under a tent! I don't understand where he showers or like charges his camera. It seems a lot of people do it though. The most popular hike down here is the Paine Circuit, or W, in the Torres del Paine in Chili. It's a 5-7 day hike, all camping. It's supposed to be amazing but I don't think I'd be able to handle it. Or enjoy it. I mean I know I´m backpacking and all but theres a difference between living out of a backpack and not showering for 5 days. I wandered the 3 streets of town that night, and even though I liked the hiking I kind of wished I had gone up to Bariloche to start to head toward weather that will stop giving me frostbite!

El Chalten, Day 2
I was so unlucky with the weather today. It was freezing when I woke up, and the sky was overcast. The guy at the hostel recommended me waiting another day to climb Fitz Roy since he said I wouldn't be able to see anything from the top, but I have a bus ticket for tomorrow so there was no other option. Finding lunch to bring along on these hikes has been a challenge in itself. All of the breakfasts have been bread and cereal. Because of the gluten deal, I try not to eat too much bread, because I only have about 30 pills with me to last the whole trip. So for lunch everyone brings sandwiches.  I´d be okay bringing a sandwich and eating the middle only, but the only option I'm given is ham and cheese. Since Charlottes Web was my favorite book growing up I have big issues with eating anything coming from a pig, so I won't eat ham. I don't know why they're so big on ham and cheese here. No matter what you order they try to put ham in it. My omelet at breakfast, the empanadas - I´m surprised my alfajores didnt have ham in it! I don't even see where they're getting all these pigs from since they specialize in carne de vaca, the meat of a cow.  But there's no such thing as roast beef or turkey, or even just cheese sandwiches in Patagonia, so I'm out of luck. The fruit isn't in season either so all I had for my 8 hour hike today was my daily alfajore cookie and a yogurt. Not a smart idea.
I set out for the Fitz Roy hike and about an hour in found a British woman to hike with. She somehow was an even faster walker than me and I had to run on the trail to keep up with her. Until she fell off a little bridge and got soaked and covered in reddish brown mud water. And broke her camera. Then we slowed down. At the 3rd hour, we got to the last stop before the 500 meter (1500 foot) vertical ascent up rocks.
There was a sign saying not to go if you weren't an experienced climber, didn't have hiking boots or it was raining or snowing because the rocks get slippery. It had started to snow and was impossible to even see anything because of the fog surrounding the mountain, but she wanted to keep going so I went along. Halfway up, it was so slippery that I actually thought I was going to fall off the mountain. We ran into a few people coming down that said the snow was accumulating fast at top and people couldnt walk! They also said you couldn´t see a thing from the top. At that point I left Allison and joined the group heading back down the mountain. I made it back in one piece, and am treating myself to so many alfajores as a reward! As an added bonus, one of the girls coming down was really nice and wound up being in my hostel, so we got dinner (more empanadas from my favorite bakery!) and passed out early because, well - 14 hours of hiking in 2 days - I've earned it!!! It will be nice to sit tomorrow on the bus and just read and watch some really bad spanish-subtitled movies. I have 30 hours, so if I can read for 15 of them and sleep the rest, that would be amazing! On to Bariloche!

Random thoughts 1 week in

I can´t believe I left only a week ago. Right now last Sunday I was eating guac at Papasito´s in the Houston airport waiting for my connecting flight to Buenos Aires. One week and I´ve been to 3 cities already. Not bad! I´m already getting antsy thinking about all of the travel over the next few weeks. After Argentina I don´t think it´s too awful, but looking at what´s coming up -
Tomorrow I go to El Chalten to hike for 2 days.
Then I have a 29 hour bus ride to Bariloche on Rt 40, which I heard is the most awful road ever. 
After Bariloche it´s a 20 hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. I´m there for a week with a few day trips to visit Montevideo, Uruguay (I deserve a beach after all of this cold weather). Then Iguazu falls, 18 hour bus. Then Salta, 23 hour bus. Then Cordoba, 13 hr bus. Then Mendoza, 10 hr bus.  Some won´t be bad if I can catch night buses, but the 20+ hour ones sound torturous unless I make a new friend that will make it more bearable.  I wish flights were cheaper like in SE Asia or Europe, but the flights are all crazy! And with all of the traveling and excursions, I´ve spent WAY over budget for my first week. So bad that it´s making me nervous that I´m going to go through all of my money too quickly. I bought yogurt and fruits from the supermarket for dinner twice now to save money on food to make up for the astronomical bus fares. I´m hoping I can find better flight fares to avoid some of the time spent on buses.
My lesson of the day was that you really can´t pretend you´re in NY in a lot of these places and do things like go for a leisureley morning jog.  After waking up to find there were 2 men in my all-girl dorm, and realizing I slept in only a sports bra and underwear because it was so hot in the room and the laundromat was closed and I´m already out of clean clothes to sleep in, I decided to go for a run to not have to be there when they woke up. It was beautiful out and I was so happy to be running just after the sun came out when the streets were so empty. But I had forgotton that this town is full of stray dogs that like to follow you down the street, pop up behind you and scare you half to death.  When I went for my run, the entire dog population of El Calafate decided I must be a thief or criminal since I was running, and they all came chasing after me barking. I was scared to death and ran up to the main avenue, where some local teenage boys were out and thought it was the funniest thing ever (it was not!) One of them started running next to me joking around, and the dogs ended up staying back after my countless attempts to yell ´Cerrado´ (stop) since I don´t know how to stay Stay, or Go Away. I tried to continue but another giant dog found me and started to chase me too, so I gave up and went home after only 15 minutes. I was very disappointed, and hope I´ll be able to run in other towns because I´ll definitely miss it if I can´t for 5 months!!
Today I found a new favorite ice cream place. They had an ice cream/gelato mix that had M&Ms in it, and chocolate with pieces of these chocolate bars that are native to the Patagonia region. Only $2.50 too, which is cheap for this very tourist-priced town.  My one friend left today, I tried to go to the next town but there was no space left in the hostels so I putzed around here today. We found a lagoon earlier that led out onto the Lake, laid down and listened to the waves crashing on the shore. So peaceful. Even for someone like me that has no clue how to relax (I´m learning!)
The next 2 days I´m staying in a town that only has about 4 hostels so I´m not sure if they will have internet. I might be off the map for a couple of days. I love that I´ve gotten to go on this first week. It´s helping the transition period. I know there will be points when it´s completely unaccessible (San Pedro de Atacama, the salt flats, Cuidad Perdida) so I will have to taper off. But it´s still the beginning so I need to be able to still have one convenience that reminds me of civilization!!

El Calafate & The Perito Moreno

Oh . My. God.
The Perito Moreno was THE most amazing thing I have ever seen. EVER.

We are now in the town of El Calafate, about the midpoint of the Patagonia region. After an 18 hour bus ride, a dinner of imiation M&Ms and gummy worms and buying coats off of random girls at the hostel, I passed out to wake up and find out yet again, wake up calls were not received. Luckily we got our stuff together in time to get on the ice trekking tour of the glacier. 
The weather was awful. It was pouring and cold and I the glacier was beautiful, but I didnt know how we were supposed to walk on it with the rain coming down.  But we made friends with Joel from Australia, went to the cafe for coffee and crossed our fingers it would pass.
And sure enough, the rain disappeared, the sun came out and a rainbow shone over the glacier, as if to thank us for our patience :)

We took 3 boats (the first 2 were broken) across the water to the back side of the glacier. As we took the boat through the water, chunks of ice that had broken off (if you wait long enough you can watch the ice fall in to the water), colored aqua blue, floated past.  We strapped on clampons and climbed on the glacier for about 2 hours. On the ascent, it looked like we were climbing up to heaven. All you could see above you was blue sky and giant clouds. INcredible.  It was beautiful weather, amazing to be up there, and one of the best experiences of my life to date. Close to seeing Machu Picchu.

At the end they surprised us with a table on the ice set up with whiskey and chocolates. Nice way to end the experience!  I learned today that El Perito Moreno is the 3rd largest glacier in the world, followed by Antartica and Greenland!  Also, on the way back so many chunks of ice had melted and fallen off, which the guides said happened only once before this season, that we had to walk about 20 minutes through the woods so the boat had somewhere else to pick us up and not have to hit chunks of the glacier on the way!

Tonight we are going out with our new friend Joel, and then tomorrow sleeping in and relaxing since I haven´t had a day of rest since I left my apartment which feels like years ago (it hasn´t been a week!) This town is super cute, it feels like a little Swiss ski town, and has lots of cute restaurants and homemade chocolate shops. So tomorrow I will sit and eat and relax and do absolutely nothing but enjoy Patagonia. Ciao!

Bus wheels keep on turning

I'm writing this as I sit on the longest bus ride of my life to date. 10 hours so far, with 7.5 hours to go. I can't complain though, because the trip from where I'm going to the next stop is 32 hours. I thought it would be worse than it is but I'm not having an awful time. I woke up just in time for lunch, which turned out to be a loaf of bread. There were other foreign objects on my tray that despite my hunger will not be digested by this girl, no way no how. So I started off the morning in a panic. The lovely worker at the hostel forgot for the second day in a row to pass along our wake up call requests. Luckily my back up alarm worked, but I didn't hear Baptiste downstairs, who wanted to be up at 4 to eat his breakfast before heading to the bus. I checked his room and sure enough he was still in bed, and we had 9 minutes to be at the bus. We got dressed in under a minute and ran off, with me making a mental note to not forget to review this hostel. We made the bus, but I hadn't had time to check if I had everything and my backup credit card isn't here. I ran back to the hostel, located 2 blocks up a massive hill, and with my lungs burning a pain I've never felt before, searched in the dark and then realized that even if it was there, leaving ALL my belongings on the bus was a stupider choice. If that bus left without me I had no ID, no money, no anything. So I ran back and am crossing my fingers the card  is in the room.
Things I learned today - I'm going to run out of space in my passport because Argentina and chile both feel the need to stamp it every hour as we cross the borders over route 4. I am going to contact the embassy when im back in buenos aires and get more pages added in. I met a girl who casually told me that get passport was stolen in London so she got a new one. I wouldnt be as casual about it but with enough time on the road, I think enough things happen that they become less dramatic and don't phase you as much.  I just found out that  my Brazilian visa is good for 5 years and I am now able to go to their side of the waterfalls at iguazu! That is a really nice added surprise and now I can go to see both sides and mate somewhere else in Brazil that I hadn't planned on going to! So exciting! Makes me feel better about the $180 I dropped on the visa 2 summers ago!
I think my favorite part of this experience is meeting people and hearing their stories. It seems that most Americans are on vacation. The standard 2-3 weeks, running from place to place to get it all in quick and get back to work. All of the South Americans, Europeans, Australians, israelis - they are the ones who do things right. I've met so many around the world travelers, who have been to so many amazing places. They wake up each day and decide where they'd like to go next and just do it. I'm still trying to plan my next steps but a little at a time and I'm going with it. I skipped 2 towns because of the weather and am playing the rest of Patagonia by ear. It's great because the people you meet are all going up or down the region. The ones going down can tell me about where theyve been and the ones going up can tell me where try are going. And sometimes you can travel together like I am with Baptiste. Possibly he will come with me to El Chalten or Bariloche. The next few weeks are hazy, I am going to try to stop crossing over the borders until I am sure I can get extra passport pages at the embassy in Buenos Aires.
I am also learning a lot about myself. For example, I pulled a typical Lori move - when we transferred buses in Rio Gallegos, I left my coat on the bus. I got to El Calafate, and instead of freaking it out, I said I would hold off on going to the glacier until I could buy a new coat. Good karma came around and a girl at the hostel who was on her way to the Torres del Paine heard me talking, and sold me her coat since she had just replaced it with a heavier one for her 5 day trek. I am learning to roll with the punches and enjoy each day as it comes!

Tierra del Fuego - The end of the world, and we´re the last 3 in it

Day 2 of Ushuaia. Wow. Words can not express what I saw today. We woke up in the morning, me and m new friends Yang from Brazil and Baptiste from France. We rode to El Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, to hike at the end of the world. I literally felt like if I took a step into the water I would fall off the planet. We were at the farthest point you can get to before Antartica, which I am unfortunately not going to because a) I don´t have anywhere from $4,000 - $15,000 and b) this weather sucks, and wont be any better there.

 Today was snowing, raining, and somehow we managed to hike for 6 hours in it without dying of frostbite or sliding down the trails.  I fell in mud a couple of times, and Baptiste told me I jump like an American (oops) but it was well worth it because the views were phenomenal. The park sat around a lake, with snow covered mountains in the background and red and yellow trees surrounding the lake. The scenery changed every 30 minutes as you can see from the pictures. We were only on the hike from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm so it wasnt like we went so far, the park was just incredible.

I think my favorite part was when 2 little ducks came out of nowhere and swam across the lake. It was so peaceful there, I actually was walking without having a thought in my mind. I was completely immersed in the scenery and taking in everything around me, that I couldnt formulate a thought. then out of the blue these 2 ducks swam by and I remembered there was life out there aside from the 3 of us. Since we did seem to be the ONLY 3 people to hike the park today due to increment weather. But I am stubborn, and devloping frostbite in this city so need to move on tomorrow. My second favorite part of the day was getting my passport stamped at the ´´post office at the end of the world´´, which wasn´t a post office like I thought but a place where they will stamp your passport all pretty saying you were at the fin del mundo. Becca, don`t worry, it doesnt replace my love for our Macchu Picchu stamp. I am a little bit nervous that they stamped the last page OVER my passports barcode, so I hope there isnt trouble getting into any of the next 5 countries. Time will tell. So after we got back to the hostel and I turned a shade of purple Ive never seen before from frostbite followed by a COLD shower to wash off the mud (thanks hostel for the no hot water in this 0 degree temperature), I had a nice dinner of lamb (gross) and carne chorizo and felt better. Now I can knock myself out to be up at 4 am to get the bus to El Calafate. 15 hour ride with 3 hours of stops for food and checkpoints as we cross into Chile. This should be interesting, or a lack thereof. As I am typing I realize that the spanish computer is trying to autocorrect every single word I am typing. Thats pretty funny.

Also, we stopped a ta sign that marks the end of Rte 3, where we met a biker from Brazil. He had just rode down from Sao Paolo to start at the beginning of Rte 3 and was riding his bike all the way to ALASKA  He said it wound take about 200 days, which is about 8 months!! CRAZY! He was so cool, and when we asked if he was going solamente, he said he had 2 friends - god, and something in his trunk. As a typical New Yorker I anticipated a dead body to come tumbling out, but quite the opposite. It was a stuffed animal, Donald Duck, that he had his whole life. The most sentimental thing I ever saw, and this guy was awesome.

One last very important thing to mention - my Lululemon clothes were the biggest investment I have ever made. While everyone else got soaked walking around, my pants stayed dry. I was able to wash the mud off in 2 seconds and they are beautiful again. My friends loved them and I am going to have to open up locations around the world now to share the love. I cant wait to sit in them for 18 hours tomorrow!

Ushuaia - It´s the end of the world as I know it

I made it to the end of the world! Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, is where I flew in to this morning. I came to the hostel, changed, and ran out to do a boat tour.

The one that sails past the lighthouse wasnt running because of wind, so instead I took a 6 hour tour to go to a penguin colony where you get to walk right up to the penguins! There were 2 kinds of penguins, one kind were Magellenic (we are on the Magellin strait), the other I cant tell you because the tour guide was speaking in spanish but I do know they had orange beaks because I heard the word naranja. Either they had orange beaks or really like oranges.  The tour was awesome, and the town is cute.

There are a lot of locally made chocolate shops. The Godivas of Patagonia. I of course tried one, it was decent but I heard Havana is the best Argentinian chocolate. I will be sure to try it when I get back to Buenos Aires. I got to the hostel and started to pack for tomorrow´s 6-8 hour hike through Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. A French guy named Baptiste explained the getting out of here situation to me, basically either I take a 15 hour bus ride a day earlier than I had planned (I do not want to go myself and he promised to let me teach him Scattegories) or I spend more than double the price to fly. So, of course my first reaction was to fly, but if I am going to last 5 months on this continent I need to stop impulsively booking insanely expensive flights. I need to learn to start playing things by ear more. I got very upset when he told me to cut my trip to Ushuaia short by a day. But then he said why did you say 3 days? And I dont even have a reason. There is so much of Patagonia to see that it´s probably silly to sit here with nothing to do but eat chocolate for another day! I´ll see how I feel tomorrow. I am glad that I found a computer to upload pictures. I want to try to do it every few days since I have so many and it takes 2 hours to upload!

The real highlight of my day today was a girl on my penguin tour who knew I was from NY because I was wearing my Lulu pants and headband. Only a NYer or Californian would recognize that!!

BsAs Day 2 - Recoleta, San Telmo & La Boca

The amazing thing about being here is that after only 2 days, I'm letting go and allowing myself just to live. No agenda, just playing things by ear  getting on a bus and seeing where it takes me. Today I rode a bike around the city with a girl from the hostel. She woke up the same time as me this morning, asked me to eat breakfast, and then spent the day together. I don't remember her name, but I know where she's from, where she's been and where she's going. This is the part about backpacking I like - everyone is instantaneous friends. There is no judging anything - looks, accent, background -  in a hostel, everyone becomes friends because we all have one thing in common. We are here because we want to be. Everyone is happy and wants to experience things and just live life. And as for natives - they are even better. They sit with you when you're alone at re dinner table, and they make sure you get where you're going and let you know the inside tips.

For example I am sitting at the caminito, a strip in the La Boca barrio, drinking a coffee and watching a tango show. The whole street is filled with brightly colored art and sculptures, it's truly gorgeous, but the bus driver made sure to let me know that if I walk a step away off the strip, I will get mugged. Good thing to be warned of, especially since I like to wander. I love Buenos Aires, and am so glad to be coming back here to see all of the parts I missed! I did make it back tO Recoleta cemetery and found Evitas mausoleum which was nice and another BA to-do crossed off since yesterday's cemetary trip was a big fail. I also four another heladeria, ice cream place, cafe grumpy which was good but nOt amazing like Freddo, the Grom of BsAs.

So 20 minutes after writing this, I actually witnessed a man get mugged. He was on the floor with 2 men pulling things out of his pockets. In all fairness I think the guy was a thief himself but either way was my cue to leave. I came back and met up with a friend I met in Peru 2 years ago for dinner. All I can say is the steak was incredible. The wine was delicious. He ordered and is living here so there was nO 2 Plates of salad or eggplant included. It was fantastic and a great way to end my entry into south America, or el America del sir. I fly down to Ushuaia tomorrow morning, winter coat ready to go. Thus is where this trip will go off the beaten path. Ushuaia's agenda includes a lot of cool things which I hopefully will get to do since I'm going at the end of the season. We will find out tomorrow!!

Buenos Aires, Day 1

After nearly 24 hours of traveling, I made it to Buenos Aires! It turns out the night before I left I realized I never paid for my flight to Ushuaia, and my flight was now gone. The second I got off the plane I hauled my 500 pound backpack and broken spanish speaking butt to the Aerolineas Airlines booth and somehow explained the situation to the woman, who graciously got me on the flight with an additional $87 fee.  So 10 minutes into the country, and I dropped $140 on a visa and $287 on a flight to Ushuaia. But, now that Im here its all settled and I can move on. I was so proud of myself, I figured out how to get from the airport to the city, and from the city on one of the 100 buses that show up to the bus station and straight to my hostel with no problems, except a very sore back (note to self = toss anything with weight out before attempting to lift this thing again).

I made friends with 2 guys that were on my airport shuttle who were here from San Fran, 2 Google employees - I think everyone I know works at Google now.  We got lunch, where I learned my next lesson. Just order things on the menu. This is not New York, and attempting to order a salad and add chicken will result in getting a plate of salad, a separate plate with an entire chicken, and a double bill. Ouch. Good thing its cheap here because that would have been annoying if it came out to more than $10!
I spent most of the day wandering around with my first South American friend Charles. We walked down to the pink palace where Evita and the rest of the Perons lived, down to this cute area by the water where I found Freddo, the famous ice cream shop of Buenos Aires. I got dulce de leche ice cream with brownies in it and it was awesome!!! There are 2 other ice cream places I read about that I need to find.  While we were walking I stumbled upon this junkyard filled with metal sculptures and pictures of crazy things like old men peeing. It was the randomest place ever, and I wish I had a clue what it was. I tried to ask someone and they told me it was a railroad museum, which doesnt explain why WallE was there or the urine art.

People are super friendly, I ended up losing my friends and walked to the San Telmo district where theres supposed to be really great restaurants and bars. I sat down to eat at a restaurant and was heartbroken to find out I didnt have wifi. I was sitting and staring into space, and some Argentinian guy named Don San Juan or something along those lines came and sat with me. Turned out he was a friend of the owner and he gave me free wine. I was just happy to have someone to talk to while I ate my eggplant salad (next note to self, only order things on menus that have pictures next to them. I totally thought I was ordering steak.)
I made another friends back at the hostel, a girl named Daniella from Brazil. Im relieved that its easy to meet people and make friends I was worried about that since Ive never traveled alone before with the exception of Israel, which definitely doesnt count.  Tomorrow I have one more day in Buenos Aires, and then its off to Ushuaia!