After flying back to the states, I had two days back home before I headed up to the slopes at Squaw Valley with my dad and brother. Although the season got off to a late start, the conditions this weekend have been superb. Beautiful fresh powder, but warm and not too blizzardy. A ski trip was the perfect way to get my dad, brother, and myself away from our busy lives and catching up with each other. I also learned that beautiful, fluffy powder + high end tequila = BIG AIR and Lightning speed
What to do during my last days in Argentina? Eat steak! Truthfully, though, the steaks here were definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Richard and I came back from Iguazu on Saturday morning (my birthday) and then went back to Tigre, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires with canals for streets. That night we went to a tango show which was really great and then back to our favorite restaurant, Desnivel. Sunday we did some Christmas shopping at the Recoleta Market, a local crafts market, and then I met up with my old roommate, Cydney. Monday we did a bit more Christmas shopping on Florida Ave and that night went to La Bomba, which is a big outdoor drum concert and met up with people from our old Spanish schools. For anyone in or going to BA, I recommend going to La Bomba if you get a chance, its every Monday night and a lot of fun. That night was my last night in Argentina (on this trip, anyway) so we had dinner at La Cabrera, where we first met. I guess all in all we had a pretty lazy last few days, but whenever I started feeling guilty for not getting out to more museums and doing more sight seeing, I just convinced myself that I was on vacation and needed to relax before coming back. Plus, I think I did pretty much everything I wanted to do during my first month in BA from Sept-Oct.
At the Japanese Garden in Palermo
On the boat in Tigre
At the Tango Show
The Tango Show
One of many, many steaks. So delicious.
Sorry to all the Veges out there.
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Action shot.
Birthday dinner at Desnivel.
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Real beers.
At La Bomba
Last dinner in Argentina. Unfortunately, I don\'t remember much.
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Frozen margarita. A little bigger than I expected.
For my last trip in Argentina before I come home for the holidays Richard and I went up to the Iguazu Falls for 3 nights and 4 days. Although the bus ride was 16 hours from Buenos Aires, we did the super cama (super bed) option which is like the most pimped out bus ride you can imagine. Free whiskey, wine, champain, good food, good movies, and a great big chair that fully reclines (pics below). I know it sounds like I’m spending a lot, but the truth is that its only about a US $10-15 dollar difference from the lower option, so I believe its well worth the upgrade.
I had heard a lot about the Iguazu Falls before I went, but was still very impressed and glad I had an opportunity to visit them during this trip. The first day we arrived we went to the National Park and did a boat tour that took us right underneath the falls. What an experience! I couldn’t take a video or pictures myself, but decided to purchase the video they took and although I look ridiculous in it, I posted it below so you can see how much fun it was!
Alright, so Richard and I talked each other out of taking classes in Buenos Aires in December and going traveling instead. After we met up in Buenos Aires (he was in Antarctica) and a few days around BA, we took the ferry over to Uruguay. First we spent a day in Colonia, which was a cute little town with many little museums, parks, and a lot of Portuguese history. Then we spent a few days in Montevideo, the capital. We did a tour of Torre Antel, walked around Plaza Independencia, saw the city founder (Artigas’) remains which are always guarded, went to the Carnival museum, went to the flee market, did a tour of the Teatro Solis ( a bit of Spanish practice). And you know me, the highlight is always food We ate at Mercado del Puerto which was a huge indoor warehouse-type-building with a bunch of parrillas (barbeques) inside. It’s very similar to Mercado Central in Santiago, but with parrilla instead of fish. It was really busy because there were a ton of people off of a cruise liner that was docked for the day. We tried to go to a few other museums, but unfortunately we had a bit of bad luck because they were closed.
We also came across an interesting group of French musicians who were playing on the street. I’ve been wanting to learn the saxophone for a while and watching how much fun they were having makes me every more enthusiastic to learn. I also looked up there website, which I found quite interesting:
http://www.globenote.org/site/accueil.php
I’m uploading a video of them now. Will post soon.
I took an overnight bus from Bariloche to Puerto Madryn. Arrived in Puerto Madryn around 7am, found my hostel, dropped off my stuff, and went on a whale watching tour. We had really great luck with a mom and baby Southern Right Whales (Ballena Franca Austral in Spanish). They came so close to the boat I could almost reach out and touch them and they were both doing so many tricks, such as jumping straight out of the water, sticking their tales up, and rolling over on their backs so we could see the whites of their stomachs. After the whale watching we went to a small Penguin Colony on Peninsula Valdez and then to the museum on for the national park on the peninsula.
The next day I did another tour. The first part of the tour was dolphin watching and the second, main part was at the Punta Tombo Penguin Colony. The dolohin watching was fun, but they are so fast that I didn’t get any pictures of them, but I did get some video. (The picture below is a picture I took of another picture). The Penguin Colony was really great. I loved watching the little guys walk around, and couldn’t believe how many of them there are there. The guide said there are around 500,000 magellan penguins that come each year.
That night my hostel prepared a great feast and we all ate, drank, and hung out for many hours. Though this hostel is run by locals, there happened to be a big group of Irish there at that time, so I got to learn a lot about Irland. They also taught me a bit of Gaelic and told me that I shouldn’t spell my last name with an “e” haha. Thought that was quite interesting.
The next morning was really beautiful so after I checked out of the hostel I walked along the beach with a couple of girls from my hostel to the ecological museum. Unfortunately, it was closed so we just hung out for a bit at the beach and walked around the town. That afternoon I took a bus back to Buenos Aires.
Peninsula Valdez
Geared and ready to go!
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The mama waving \"hello!\"
The mama and baby side by side
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Big, fat, lazy sea lions
Me and the tour guide
Yes, I took this picture ....of another picture ;-)
On Sunday 11/23 I took the bus to Puerto Montt and then to Bariloche. Then went to my hostel, Penthouse 1004, where I met a bunch of people, drank wine, made dinner, and hung out. On Monday I when on a hike with a group near the Frey Wilderness. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn in the beginning and didn’t make it to the Frey, but we still had a great adventure, a fun hike, and took a lot of scenic photos. The group I was with has traveled extensively in Australia and South-east Asia, and a bit in India and after hearing their stories I’ve been getting really excited to explore that side of the world.
On Tuesday I rented a tent, packed the sleeping bag, food and warn clothes and we made our second attempt to the Frey. After a 12km hike with a bit of steep uphill we arrived at one of the most scenic places I have visited on my trip. We hung out, made dinner, drank wine, played cards (learned some new drinking games), and spent the night in the tents. A few of us woke up early Wednesday morning to watch the sunrise. Then we hiked back and rechecked into the hostel.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and a pretty lazy day for me. I was planning on making myself a nice Thanksgiving dinner, but was missing family and didn’t feel much like celebrating so I walked around town a lot, did a bit of shopping, a lot of reading, went to an ice skating rink, and went to my first Catholic church service (and doing so got in a bit of Spanish practice). That night the hostel had a big wine tasting party and went to a bar afterward which was a a lot of fun.
First diner at Hostel 1004
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First attempt to the Frey
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Wait...which way is that arrow pointing?
Uggg...men! hahaha.
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Heavy tent, but was worth the work.
Refugio Frey
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Almost a bird eye view of the lake (in previous pic).
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A little after sunset.
I need a better camera because this does not do that sunrise justice.
The most interesting bus ride I’ve ever taken all started when I was at my hostel getting ready to go and I got a call from my bus company, Cruz del Sur, asking me if I could please hurry to the bus terminal right then because the bus was ready to go. I was a little confused at first, not sure if I was hearing the lady on the phone right or maybe my Spanish was failing, but after a few clarifications from her I ran to the bus station. Although I arrived 10-15 minutes early, sure enough there was a bus full of people waiting for me. It was full of kids from about 10-13 years old that had been on the bus since Santiago, which is at least 12-14 hours from where I got on the bus in Puerto Varas. The bus was hot, humid, crowded, and smelly, but the cultural experience was unforgettable and well worth the trouble. All the kids and a few adults were staring at me for about 5 minutes (which felt like forever) until finally one of the boys around 10 years old came up and asked me where I was from. Then the questions started! The kids were so curious about everything! “What is California like?” “Does everyone there look like me?” “What’s my name in English?” etc, etc, etc. Since they were in that special age group, the boys and girls couldn’t get too close to each other so I had to talk to them separately and answer each question a few times. I was having a good time with the kids, but I was also really into a book I’m reading so when their was a long pause with the kid’s questions I pulled it out for a bit. Then they where fastened with the fact that I like to read and had a millions questions about that. They made me show them how many pages my book had and then just kept repeating “348..348!” over and over. They even had me translate a bit of it. “The Street Lawyer” -> “El Abogado de la Calle” haha.
Since I’ve been traveling down in Latin America for a while now have had experiences similar to this, but never to this extent. The bus ride was about 4 hours and I talked to the kids most of the time which I’m sure was great for my Spanish. It was a very interesting experience and really renewed my interest in spending more time with kids. I’ll probably be looking into spending a few weeks teaching English to kids somewhere up in Central America.
