Blog on Hiatus
Blog on Hiatus
SOON I will be uploading pictures from our latest travels...Aly and Amanda (my cousin) arrived in Argentina about a week ago and we haven´t stopped moving yet. First we went to Punta del Este in Uruguay- a beach resort town that was deserted in a good way, very tranquilo. Then we headed to an Estancia (big country house) outside of Buenos Aires. We had a barbeque, rode horses (Aly fell off her horse), sat by the pool and had amazing wine. Now we are back in the city hitting up all the ferías (local markets) and trying to enjoy the night life. More details and pictures to come!
boat
This is the boat we took to get a closer view of the Moreno glacier.
our view of the lake
Our photos couldn't do justice to the gorgeous Lago Esmeralda.
sunrise at 4 am
One morning we woke up at the exact same time needing to use the bathroom. What a fortunate pain in the a$$ (the bathroom was all the way downstairs) because we caught this gorgeous sunrise. Being so close to Antarctica, Ushuaia gets 16 hours of daylight this time of year.
both wind blown
Here's a pic of me and Ellie standing in front of the Perito Moreno Glacier
To the End of the Earth
I can not even begin to describe what I just experienced. I have become a journal-toting voyeur because of the things I saw and the people I encountered. This entry will be longer than my norm. If you want to skip this detailed account of my six day adventure in Patagonia*, el sur de Argentina, check out the pictures above…they won’t disappoint.
After a “blurry” (digamos Ellie?) encounter at the luggage counter, we shuffled through security and found ourselves in the airport at 4:45 a.m. waiting to catch our flight to Ushuaia, “the southernmost city in the world.” Luckily I was able to sleep through the entire flight (thanks Reggie!) and when I awoke, I found myself in a little town with a bay and mountains rising out of the water. We dropped our backpacks at the Antarctica Hostel and headed straight to the bay to board a boat that would take us around the entire bay in search of penguins and lazy sea wolves (and in my opinion, quite bizarre looking they were). After the exciting but COLD excursion was over we agreed to meet Joao, a Portuguese traveler who was on the boat and who had a good sense of humor, for a drink. After waking from a long nap at the hostel, we split a Quilmes (national beer) while playing Jenga with a quiet Spaniard, a funny guy from Ireland, and a very interesting (digamos Ellie?) tattooed guy from Basque. The meeting with Joao took us to an incredible lodge with windowed-walls that provided a view of the breathtaking mountains and boats heading to and from the harbor. The sun was out despite the fact that it was nearing midnight and we watched day give way to night as live jazz and bossa nova caused our bodies to sway. Because Ushuaia is so close to Antarctica they have 16 hours of daylight this time of year. The beer was brewed on location and delicious! I treated myself to two because we had skipped dinner.
The highlight of Ushuaia for me was the day hike that brought us to the enchanting lake Esmeralda (Emerald Lake, I’ll give you 1 guess why!) Gaston, our guide, was an enjoyable companion although he was probably amused by the self-proclaimed city girl from LA hiking through the mud. This trek was one of Ellie’s first big nature outings, she carried a cute handbag, wore an adorable smile, and only got stuck in the mud once! Ushuaia was really cold and we were ready to head north to El Calafaté, the jumping off point to see the incredible Perito Moreno glacier.
We arrived in Calafaté and promptly missed the only bus that would take us into town. Not to worry, we found a driver who was willing to help us explore the town looking for the Backpacker Inn, the hostel where we had reserved a room. Que pena! The hostel turned out to be a nightmare on earth. 10 dorm beds crammed into a room made for four, a tiny common area packed with guests, an Israeli girl hopping around in a towel because the shower was broken…yeah, no. We decided to suck it up and go somewhere else even if it meant double paying for the first night. Luckily we found a much cuter place called the Huemul Inn where we found ourselves sharing rooms with some really memorable travelers. The first was a Danish guy whose habit was to watch the Simpsons before falling asleep at night. Apparently he backpacks with his laptop and a supply of Simpsons episodes to make it through his travels. The second roommates were two Italian women who didn’t speak a word of English or Spanish. This became glaringly obvious when they woke us for breakfast saying “collecione! collecione!” Very sweet ladies, one of which was constantly smiling. I think we conveyed our mutual contentment using primal utterances and gestures J
The highlight of El Calafaté was our trip to the Perito Mereno glacier, probably the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen. An electric blue glow emanated from the craggy surface and our guide told us that on cloudy days it appears this way. We spent the whole day hiking the coast and taking a boat to ensure that we viewed the glacier from every possible angle. The next day we went to a bird reserve where we ate a picnic lunch and watched flamingos and other birds, an activity that excited Ellie more than me. She is a true animal lover who is quite angry about the treatment of the Alaskan Huskies we saw in Ushuaia, chained up and sleeping in metal bins. I hope she didn’t find my flippant attitude toward the situation appalling.
Don’t get me wrong, things weren’t unrealistically perfect. The trip home was a bane that had us pulling our hair out by the time we arrived in Buenos Aires. Our flight was delayed by five hours, the upside being that we could study for the final that we have today. The icing on the cake was our seating assignment, advantageously located next to the bathrooms. Unfortunately, we were the only ones on the entire plane that didn’t drink too much with dinner. As we sat listening to the drunk/perverted Italians behind us singing at an annoying pitch nearly every passenger shuffled by, anxiously waiting to see the green “vacant” sign pop up. What a feeling it was to find myself drifting to sleep after an hour-long ride from the airport, sharing a cab with a couple of guys from Israel, and having the taxi driver repeatedly scold us for having confused him about our final destinations. What a perfect welcome-home-to Buenos-Aires to remind us of all the chaos and excitement that we love about this city!
*Check it out on a map…I was nearly in Antarctica. Ushuaia is in the provencía of Tierra del Fuego and El Calafate is in Santa Cruz.
