Argentina, We Hardly Knew Ya

This blog was written by Jen on Christmas Eve in a Los Angeles hotel near the airport as we waited for our flight to New Zealand. Now we’re nearly three weeks in New Zealand and Jon is just now reviewing and posting. So much to say, we’re going to just bust right through the 500 word blog guideline and also post as many pictures as we can. On with the blog!

Okay, we’re terrible bloggers. In the blogosphere, it’s blogsphemy to be over five weeks behind. Let’s see of we can wrap up three weeks in traveling the Argentine countryside in just one big post! At the end of our trip to Argentina we explored more than we could have hoped, though we left so much unseen. We’ve made a promise to return on a northern South America journey sometime soon. For this trip, all fabulous six weeks of it, we focused our attention on Buenos Aires and the southern regions of Patagonia and the Lake District.

When we last wrote, we’d been boozing, shopping and eating our way through BA. Jen thinks this is the best way to see it! Jen bought a gorgeous pair of tango shoes plus other shoes and clothes while Jon picked up a few quality wardrobe additions. We’ll just be upfront and tell you we sent a bunch of our booty and Saida’s loot home with Tracey Sylvester in a suitcase purchased just for the occasion. We can’t wait to uncover all the goods when we return to the States!

Before this post leaves BA, we must mention the incredible birthday party Lisa organized for all the November birthdays we had in the apartment (including her own). Lisa suggested a sailor-themed party for herself, her sister Kristen and Jen Dalton. Saida created a delicious meal and Fernando was kind enough to bring by wine and liquor from the bar. Lisa, who is a party expert, helped with actual costuming for a party thousands of miles from SF. Check out this group shot of Fernando with all the ladies.So after our romp in BA we took a 17 hour bus ride south to Puerto Madryn on the Atlantic Coast. Our original intention was to visit northern Argentina. But after getting some wonderful advice from fellow travelers about Patagonia, we felt it would make the greatest impression on us so we changed course. This is one of the great joys of extended travel. Puerto Madryn is famous for it’s whale watching at Puerto Piramides and we were not disappointed! We closely and carefully followed a momma and a baby whale swimming in the bay for over an hour. On the trip we met a wonderful couple who were, coincidently, also staying at our hostel. Moaz and Marina are from Tel Aviv, and they recommended we definitely go to Bariloche and even recommended an excellent hostel. They suggested we might meet them there later in our trip. We have a nice composed picture of them but this candid shot is so much more sweet! And here's an oddly similar candid shot of us on the same beach. We promise these weren't planned! Jon also went diving in the frigid waters off the coast. After the excellent experience in Hondorus though, the two dives were pretty sad in comparison and the dive shop was way under par. He’s also decided he’s a warm weather diver all the way (no more full wet suits for him).

After two days, we hit the bus again, this time for another 17 hour ride to Rio Gallegos (pronounced ga-Shea-goes). A note about the buses: most trips are pretty long so it’s best to get an overnight trip. Nearly all buses are double-decker and have bathrooms and video monitors for movies. There are three levels of quality for long bus rides. Lowest is Semi Cama, which is a basic cruiser bus with four seats across. This is fine for short rides, but overnight it can be uncomfortable, especially when they leave the AC on all night as they did on the way to Rio Gallegos. Next is Coche Cama, on which the seats are wider and recline more like a Barcalounger. These buses have three seats across – one row of one seat and a row of two seats. They are pretty comfy and we were even offered whiskey before the night movie. But the best way to travel is on Super Cama or Ejecutivo on which the seats go almost totally flat and there are barriers between the seats so you don’t have the guy in front of you reclining into your space.

The 17 hour ride to Rio Gallegos was an overnight Semi Cama trip and somewhat uncomfortable. Certainly it was no chicken bus like in some countries, but it’s a long ride to be unsettled. We only stayed in Rio Gallegos long enough to switch to a four-hour bus ride to El Calafate, the home of the majestic Perito Moreno glaciar (that’s how they spell it) and the Los Glaciars National Park. We went on the “Alternative Tour” of the glaciar that included a back roads bus trip where we watched condors overhead and spied a lagoon with pink flamingos just right there in the middle of nothing! This is pretty crazy considering just how far south we were and that the temperature hovered around 50 degrees. Jen was quite blown away seeing those flamingos, and combined with the sight of the massive glaciar, we had one of the most amazing days of the trip. The glaciar is enormous and moving so quickly – a few meters a day – that bits of it break off in random intervals all day. The chunks make a huge splash as they crash into the lake and it sounds like a high-rise demolition.

Our next stop, after a five-hour bus ride, was El Chalten, home to the other side of the Los Glaciars National Park and the famed Fitz Roy mountain peak. We loved everything about El Chalten, which is located inside the national park. Filled with hostels, small (and expensive) hotels and a few cafes and restaurants, the town is perfectly situated for outdoor enthusiasts. (Imagine a little town in the middle of Yosemite so well appointed.) All buses arriving from El Calafate are routed through the park station on your way into town. Split into English and Spanish groups, a park ranger tells you about the hikes and camp areas, plus that you can drink water right from the streams and lakes. Jen particularly loved one bit of advice, to “dress like an onion” in preparation for any type of weather. El Chalten has no ATMs, no banks and the world’s slowest internet. But it also has a few excellent restaurants including El Muro which we visited three times!

The weather in El Chalten can be pretty extreme. The town itself sits in the middle of a valley where the wind really whips through. The heavy wind helps create the glaciers. But even the driving wind (sometimes at 120 km per hour) and hiking with ice and rain in our faces didn’t deter us from taking two epic five-hour hikes -- one to Laguna Torre and the other towards Fitz Roy. At Fitz Roy the park ranger turned us away because it was far too windy and dangerous to climb the exposed mountain peak. We were with our pals Sarah and Jason and felt we should heed his advice and head back towards town. The trails in this park are wonderfully well marked and maintained, By the way, the water is cold and delicious and you can truly drink any water in the park without any risk. Here's Jen dressed like an Onion at Laguna Torre. Yes, those are small icebergs which broke off from the glaciar floating in the lake behind her.
Back at our wonderful, friendly hostel, Jon was quick to make friends with everyone. He got expert maté instruction from a Philosophy Ph.D. student from Rio Gallegos (we wish we remembered her name!) and had our hosts Vinina, Cordy and the owner Marcelo rolling with laughter.
In the first picture, it's the owner Marcelo. In the next shot, it's Cordy (a nickname because she is from Cordoba, her real name is Mariana) and Vinina with a random dude in the background. Vinina is doing her special Zoolander face. They were great help in planning our time in El Chalten and we offer our gratitude! Stay at the Trivi Hostel in El Chalten! We also enjoyed meeting Zoey and Christian from Melbourne and Henk and Helene from Holland at the hostel. One of the best parts of the trip is meeting people along the way.

After four days in El Chalten we took a bus up the famed Ruta 40 to Bariloche. It’s mostly unpaved for miles and is well known because Che rode his motorcycle on this road. While the scenery was pretty, that didn’t prevent Jen from some serious napping. Thankfully our friends Sarah (from UK) and Jason (from Oz) came along for the ride and we traded iPods and trashy novels. Both Jen and Sarah read the Sharon Osborne autobiography (grabbed at a hostel book exchange and now highly recommended) and can regale you with tales of Sharon and Ozzy’s wacky life together. Helene and Henk from the hostel were also on the trip and the six of us had dinner in the town of Perito Moreno. (The town is different from the Perito Moreno glaciar or Perito Moreno National Park and much different from famed actress Rita Moreno). We all got along so well we made plans for dinner in Bariloche as well.

Bariloche is to Argentina as Lake Tahoe is to California. Bariloche is roughly a 20-hour bus ride southwest from Buenos Aires. Here there are wonderful mountains for trekking and exploring, plus great scenery and abundant lakes. While we were a bit depressed that the cold and rainy weather followed us from El Chalten, we didn’t let it slow us down too much. After a couple days spent catching up on email and planning for the rest of the trip (thanks to Fez and Yolanda for their NZ and Oz advice), we took a gorgeous all-day drive around the Siete Lagos (Seven Lakes) with Sarah and Jason. We ended up in the small and posh resort town of San Martín de Los Andes which had a beautiful viewpoint. Of course, we took plenty of pictures...many of them silly. First, here's Jason and Sarah. Aren't they cute? Here we are showing the love. Here's Jason and Jon as dangerous hitmen. And here's Jason and Jon as male models.
Here's Sarah overlooking the city. Here's Jen doing the same.
We also had our dinner with Henk and Helene and Jason and Sarah at a restaurant famous for smoked fishes, meats and cheeses. That's Sarah and Helene next to Jen and Jason and Henk next to me.

There was lots of eating in Bariloche, but we couldn’t help ourselves. One day as Jon was trying to figure out yet another Sudoku puzzle at the hostel, our friends we met in Puerto Madryn, Marina and Moaz, popped in to say hello. We ate dinner with them a couple times and also conducted an unscientific test of the famous chocolatiers of Bariloche. We sat on a bench overlooking the lake in Bariloche and decided Abuela Goye was best overall. Here is a shot of Jon with Marina and Moaz. And here is a shot of the four of us. Though it may be hard to tell, we are stuffed with delicious chocolate!

It wasn’t just eating though. We also went for a full day horseback-riding trip with an excellent little outfitter called Dinma Patagonia. The owner Gerd and an experienced gaucho took just the two of us for a day trip. We rode two hours in the morning followed by a full asado (bbq) at the estancia, then three more hours into a secluded national reserve. The rock formations and the river valley were incredible and untouched. Of course, we forgot our water bottle, so we simply leaned down drank from a cool, clear stream. No weird bacteria or strange pollution. Gerd is the only horse-trekking outfitter to have access to the parkland where we rode and it was a wonderful trip.

We also took a tough day-hike up Cerro Torre where we had an amazing view of Bariloche and Lago Nahuel Huapi. The weather can be so changeable in Bariloche and while it is sunny, yes I am really that cold! On the way down a ridiculously steep avalanche trail, we were followed by Rhonda the dog who decided that we would be her new masters. She followed us for about 5K, nearly the entire way back to our hostel, before joining a couple of girls going in a different direction. This is a good time to talk about dogs in Argentina. They love their doggies in Argentina! In BA we would see dogs everywhere, and dog walkers all over the place. One time, Jon spotted five dog walkers, each with ten dogs, on one street corner alone. There are simply dogs everywhere, owned and strays. They all seem very well fed either way, if a bit grungy, and they always have somewhere to go. We would see stray dogs running up our street in Bariloche, not being chased, but obviously with a very important place to be.

After Bariloche, we took our only Super Cama bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Note how relaxed Jen is in her full reclination. Instead of staying in a hostel, we were treated to a stay on Fernando’s boat docked in the Puerto Madero barrio (aka, 'hood) of BA. It was fun sleeping on the boat and far more quiet than the rest of BA. We have many boat pictures, but here is one of Fernando where you can see the entire 42' steel-hulled boat. Most boats are fiberglass, but steel is the way to go! The boat is named "Club" and it has the name of Fernando's bar, UnoSieteSieteUno on the boom. We finally went to La Boca (sort of the Fisherman’s Wharf of BA) and after a few minutes were ready to leave. We had a great time in Argentina and as we said, we definitely plan to return to hit Mendoza, Cordoba, Salta and the Iguazu Falls. We really loved all the people we met, and if any of you are reading this, please stay in touch! And if your travels ever bring you to San Francisco or the States, please make sure to drop us a line.

Now we’re headed to New Zealand. Stay tuned for more!

PS: We’ve been in NZ for some time now and Jon is working on a video we took at our WWOOF visit. (Willing Workers On Organic Farms)