November 8 - 14: El Calafate and El Chalten

After a wonderfully relaxing week with the Akhnoukhs in Buenos Aires, we boarded a plane for Patagonia. Our first stop was the town of El Calafate or, more specifically, the Glacier Moreno which is the main draw of this gateway to Southern Patagonia. 6 months ago, neither of us had ever really seen a glacier. But after our journey through Alaska, we now considered ourselves somewhat of glacier connoseurs and, as such, were a bit skeptical of whether this new sighting would wow us at all. It did. The glacier is larger than all of Buenos Aires and positioned in a way that makes it very accessibly viewed. Yet perhaps more impressive than its size is the high level of activity. While there we witnessed a massive calving that sounded like a huge explosion and created a tidalwave of bobbing ice for a good 10 minutes to follow. We were impressed. It was also our first introduction to the ever changing and often extreme weather patterns that are Patagonia. Rain, sleet, snow and driving winds blessed our day at the glacier. Quite a change from 80 degrees and sunny in BA!

El Chalten was our second Patagonian stop, and one that we happly settled into for 5 days. A tiny (though ever growing) mountain village set near the base of the Fitz Roy range, El Chalten only officially became a town in the 1980s. We stayed in a charming little hostel (Albergue Patagonia) where we could cook our own meals and enjoy cozy afternoons curled up with a book in their living room loft. It reminded Allison of some of the New England ski lodges of her childhood. View from the dining area shown below.

With it´s sole purpose being as a base for trekking, El Chalten is surrounded by amazingly gorgeous and well maintained trails. Our days were spent hiking the region and getting views of the nearby ranges... Well, that and dealing with the wind. We´d read about the ¨November winds¨in others´ blog posts but didn´t give them much thought. They were, without a doubt, the most intense winds that either of us had ever experienced. On one hike we had to sit down on the trail to wait out a particularly strong blow for fear of being knocked over. We had toyed with renting gear for a backcountry trip, but were very happy to settle into our hostel each night after the hikes!



Our bus out of El Chalten left at 5:30 AM on a perfectly clear morning (a rarity in these parts). We were blessed with an amazing sunrise over the Cerro Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. We highly recommend an extended stay in El Chalten for anyone visiting the region.

Nov 1-8: Buenos Aires

We´ve spent the last week exploring the various neighborhoods of Buenos Aires with my (Nader´s) parents. It´s been a blast spending some time with them in this amazing city; thanks again for coming Mom and Dad!

As the locals will be sure to tell you, Buenos feels more European than Latin American, with it´s sophisticated shops, broad avenues and statue-studded plazas. While this might be true at first appearance the more you get to know the city the more the Latin in it comes out, especially in the passion of its inhabitents towards everything they do.

We rented an apartment for the week in perhaps the hippest block in South America, in the heart of Palermo Soho, which resembles its namesake with plush indoor/outdoor cafes, top-class restaurants and parks, but friendlier and without any of the pretense. We spent our days exploring the various neighborhoods, like Recoleta with its glitzy stores and very impressive cemetary. It´s a veritable city of large mausoleums and walking through it is the best national history lesson you can get as all the famous presidents, generals, poets, etc are buried here.



Dad lingered a little longer at Evita´s resting spot.



La Boca and San Telmo were other favorites, with the outdoor cafes and tango shows, and the old mansions giving a sense for what Argentina was like back in the 1890s when it was one of the richest countries in the world.


At night we wined and dined, and caught a couple tango performances. A little bit of luxury after a couple months on the road. (Thanks again Mom and Dad) We even took some tango lessions, care of the flamboyant and exceptionally talented Hugo; and yes it is as hard as it looks.



We also took a day-trip to the sleepy sea-side town of Colonia in Uruguay. The historic district dates back to the 17th century and is beautiful place to spend an afternoon with the tree-lined lanes and musician´s playing in the plazas. Highly recommended.



The highlight of the week for me - and I´m likely speaking for myself here :) - was definitely attending a Boca Juniors match at La Bombonera. They say this is the best place to watch soccer in the world and we were not let down. There was a little bit of a mix up with the tickets and the four of us ended up in the standing room only ´popular´ section, which are the cheap seats with the rowdiest fans. We arrived a couple hours early for both reasons of safety and because our section is herded in like cattle before the visitors section is allowed in the stadium. Boca was playing San Lorenzo another team from Buenos Aires and the two shared the top position in the league, so the atmosphere was unlike anything I´ve seen, including English Premiere League matches in London. The singing is raucous and continuous from well before the beginning of the match til after the end, and we must have heard over 20 different songs, all laced with curses, and sung while jumping up and down with arms waving in the air. The effect is that from across the stadium it looks like a continually rolling sea. The air and ground are littered with bits of paper and smoke. The full band that resides in the stands plays continually the entire match. An amazing atmosphere. We also successfully avoided the potential hazards like getting mugged, a beating for rooting for the opponents or the bags of urine that are flung from the visitors section which is directly above the ´popular´ section.



The other highlight was the local and global reaction to Obama´s victory. Being in Argentina, we´ve received a lot of global coverage and it cannot be overstated how excited the entire world is about this. I´ve got a bright blue shirt with Obama´s face on it that I wore around the day after the election and every where I walked I´d get a thumbs up from strangers. We´re both very excited to represent a country where from the depths of despair, the strength of a singular idea, that America can always redefine itself, is once again revealing itself to the world, as it is so easy for that to get forgotten in low times.

After an early morning flight we´re now in El Calafate, a gateway town to Southern Patagonia where we´ll be for the next two weeks. (Click on the link to the satellite map of the nearby glacier on the right-side of this page in the Status section.) We´re about to head into the Fitz Roy range to do some trekking so will likely be offline and unreachable for a week or so.

October 23 - 31: Cafayate and Mendoza

Before heading to Mendoza (the heart of wine country), we journeyed to the more remote town of Cafayate. With a charming central square, a number of vineyards nearby (specializing in the white torrentes), and a beautiful country side, Cafayate was the perfect place to spend a few days... After three wonderful weeks in Bolivia, we definitely felt like we were on vacation.

We spent one day hiking (or, more specifically, scrambling) up a riverbed to a swimming hole nearby. Other than that, it was lots of chilling sprinkled with some wine tasting along the way. Having found a hostel with a decent kitchen (not a common thing in Bolivia), it was also great to cook some dinners at "home" after so many nights eating out.

From Cafayate we headed to Mendoza on our first of the fabled Argentinean "cama" (sleeper) buses. They lived up to all we had been told to expect -- flat screen TVs, dinner with wine, AND if you ride the super posh line (which we took down to Buenos Aires), seats that go 180 degrees back and champagne after dinner. After 14 hours, we could have easily stayed on for longer :)

Mendoza is a city of about 100,000 people located not far from the Andes and the Chilean border. Before even considering all the beauty surrounding, the city itself is amazingly charming. Treelined streets, tons of hip cafes, and a 420-hectacre park in the middle of town... we could have easily spent a lot more time in this town.

We spent a day biking around to some of the local wineries which was lots of fun. The route we were on featured mostly small family run vineyards. Our favorite was run by a french couple who moved to the area knowing nothing about how to make wine just 10 years ago (anyone looking for inspiration?!).


Our other outing from Mendoza was to the town of Potrerillos which featured beautiful views of the nearby mountains and a lake where Nader braved the chilly waters for a dip.

So far Argentina is treating us very well... Off to an ex-pats election party tonight in Buenos Aires. Here's hoping for change.

Bolivia Recommendations

Here are a few recommendations of our favorite hotels, restaurants, tour operators, etc.

Hotels
Copacabana: La Cupula. Great views of the lake (amazing sunsets), hammocks in the yard out front, clean comfortable rooms. We went to their restaurant one night and didn´t think it was that great.
La Paz: Wild Rover Backpacker. A quality manifestation of your classic ¨hostel¨experience. Fun bar, clean bathrooms and rooms. We lucked into a room well away from the bar... We heard that it gets noisy late at night if you´re too close.

Restaurants
Copacabana: Any of the trucha stands down by the lake. It doesn´t matter which one as they all serve the exact same deliciously cheap and fresh fish.
La Paz: La Comedie. Delicious french food with a great atmosphere. A ¨spluge¨by Bolivian standards, but really not very expensive.
Sucre: Cafe Mirador. Set near a Children´s Museum in the hills above down, this is a great spot for a drink at sunset.

Tour Operators, Etc.
Tours El Grano de Oro. Salt Flats tour operator out of Tupiza (we recommend starting in Tupiza over Uyuni). Great guide/driver (successfully changed 4 flat tires quickly, being a good mechanic is by far the most important criteria in your guide). Delicious food. Tip for your search in Salt Flat tour operators: try to find a husband-wife duo. Ours were married and great. Apparently some of the younger single guides drive too fast and often drunk...

October 16-22: Southwest Bolivia

We´ve spent the past four days exploring Southwestern Bolivia by jeep with a great Irish couple, Sean and Michelle. This is an otherworldly place more reminiscent of an imaginary Martian landscape than anywhere else we´ve seen on Earth. Ranging from 3500-5200 meters (11000- 17000 ft) it is almost completely above the treeline and the temperatures ranged from subfreezing at night to warm during the days. This is also the highest either of us has ever been.

This is a land of deep red, bright green and brilliant white lakes, surreal desertscapes with pink and purple mountainsides and Dali-esque rock formations jutting out of nowhere. This is a land filled with herds of pecuñus (the llama´s fairer cousin), thousands of bright pink flamingos, and the occaisional Andean fox. We drove by many 20,000 ft volcanoes, some still active, geysers shooting up steam around splurting mud, and a well needed hot spring where we soaked our too-long-in-the-jeep aching bodies.

And finally, the highlight was the majestic Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. A blistering sea of white for as far as the eye could see. The salt was broken into geometric hexagonal shapes as if by design. The salt flat is dotted with a few coral islands habitated by giant cacti and long-tailed rabbits. We walked out a ways on to the salt and were met by absolute nothingness. Even the silence was complete.

I´m not sure words can really capture this truly unique part of the world, hopefully the pictures will do a better job.

For those considering visiting this part of the country we´d highly recommend starting your trip from Tupiza, instead of the more common Uyuni. Tupiza is actually a nice little town to spend some time in, it´s fairly warm and the countryside around it is spectactular. We spent a half day exploring it on horseback.

Also it is remote country that you are entering, ie no roads and very basic accomodation so the most important thing to get for the tour is a driver that is a good mechanic (we got 3 flat tires in 4 days).

A quick postscript on Bolivia. The media portrays the country as one in perpetual political turmoil and one with a hatred towards Americans. Well the former point is true. Bolivia is in a constant state of redefining itself. Almost everyone is involved in politics to some degree, every town has political propoganda, etc. The biggest issue now is that the state of Santa Cruz with a largely non-indigenous population wants to secede from the country as the current president Evo Morales is granting a lot of indiginous power. It was exciting to see a little bit of this in process. However, nowhere in this country did we feel at all endangered, and we encountered nothing but respect and generosity from Bolivians. Bolivians joke about Bush, but we felt nothing negative in their attitudes towards Americans. It´s a shame that the media portrays this differently, as we didn´t meet any other Americans in Bolivia and they´re really missing out on this amazing country.