Marvelous Mendoza

For you, Maz!

I really don't have the time to prepare the entry this place deserves. So a setup with some grapes and wine bottles I did tonight will have to suffice.

For now I'll simply say I'm quite glad to have stopped here. This place is incredible.

Bariloche

Bariloche is a pretty nice town. It's bigger than the previous places (well over 100,000 inhabitants) and it must get a lot of money from tourism because things are quite nice here. It's the first city I've stayed in where the hostels give you a decent breakfast!

Bariloche exhibits the traces of a European founding. We went on a great hike the other day by a Swiss village.


Here's a shot of the hostel house I'm staying in. It's really a pretty nice place for $13 a night. The inside of it they call the hobbit hole.

I ran out of clean pants so I wore some water proofing slick rain pant cover things. They don't breath AT ALL so my legs got sweaty. I found a very fashionable solution.

Bird

So this was a really funny sign. The trail actually starts in the exact opposite direction. Many of the trails are poorly marked and you can't really tell where to go. This one was finally so clear that it was ironic that it pointed in the wrong direction.

We climbed quite an incline for three hours or so. Why these cows decided to do the same I will never know.

  

We sort of lost where the trail was heading and ended up following the water up the mountain. I'm not sure if we just have trouble following trails or if they really aren't marked.

Beautiful area. Classic Bariloche.

 

 

j

  This was our group from the 7 lakes tour of the area aroung Bariloche. We rented a car and spent a day driving up to San Martin and back. It's me, a girl from Brazil, one from Switzerland and the other dude is Palestinian. Had a very interesting conversation with the Palestinian fellow. Interesting to compare his version of history to that of the many Israelis I've talked to.

  This was one of the most fun days we had in Bariloche. The city is home to the largest ski resort in South America at Cerro Catedral. We rented mountain bikes for 100 pesos, took them up the lift and down the mountain several times. Me, John and Julian/Amulek from Poland.

  The 'quick' Columbian :)

***Warning*** Explicit Material below!!! One very white muchacho.

Drying all my stuff at the edge of the lake.

 

Mucho trabajo para conseguir esta foto.

El Calafate's Birthday

So I decided to stick around for the 'aniversario del bautismo del lago argentino'. It's on the 15 and the festivities precede the town's birthday with a couple days of partying. They brought in some pretty noteworthy Argentine bands, had a beauty pagent, had an old car show and more. Worth staying for.

 

Never seen such intense harmonica jammin before

 

This was my favorite part of all the festivities--the famous 'assado popular.' I've never seen so much lamb meat in my entire life. The slaughter nearly 300 patagonian lambs, cook the meat in the traditional style (see picture) and feed thousands of people who wait in a loooong line for it. We waited about two hours, but it was worth it.

 

The beauty pagaent was fun enough. Really need the 80-200mm lens again, though :)

This girl was possessed of the most sincere and unconstructed smile I've ever seen. I mean that as absolutely sarcastically as possible.

The fireworks were nice. They were really kind of just...like fireworks. I just felt I needed to comment on the picture since I'm posting it.

Funny Signs

I wish I would have been keeping this list from the beginning. Alas. There are a ton of hilarious English translations posted around here (particularly in the hostels). I'm going to try to be more diligent about recording them, but here are a few to enjoy for now...

 

This one requires a little explanation. The locals here are tired of the Israelis causing 'trouble.' Not that funny unless you're down here...

El Calafate

Good bus ride into El Calafate. This town is named after a thorny bush that cut John all up when he tried leaving the boardwalk to relieve his bladder in the woods. It's berries are pretty good. Not only that, but it is said that the person who eats the Calafate berry will stay in Patagonia forever, or if they do leave, will return to spend the rest of their days here. The version of this legend I read said that eating the berry will magically inspire the consumer to  fall for one of the dark-haired native beauties, get married, and never go back home. I'm trying to eat as many of these berries as I can get :)

El Calafate plant

The hostel here is a fantastically rustic little place called 'I Keu ken'. It looks like a little hiker's log cabin trail stop. There's a duct tape guitar for the playing, a dart board inside, and right next to them, a large fire where Fredrico makes his famous Argentine barbeque several times a week. Met a lot of great people there as always. More than ever, I am coming away from this trip with a lot of friends from all over the world. It's quite phenomenal how tight these groups can get after so short a time of knowing each other. Just as much as the fantastic places I've seen, I know the people I've encountered (including but not limited to Argentines) will be part of my memories of Patagonia.

Enough with the sentimental drab stuff and onto some pictures...



Flamingos at sunset near the edge of Calafate and Lago Argentino

 

 

Met some great people down here. Went on a picnic with an awesome family. Sipped some mate, went on a hike, got rained on a little.

 

I think this was from El Chalten, but I am too lazy to get back into that post and put it there.

The town cemetery is beautiful at night

Calafate is close to the southern end of the Glacier National Park where one can see the incredible Perito Moreno. This is a BIG glacier.

 

 

El Chalten

El Chalten is about 3 hours north west of El Calafate. It's at the northern end of the National Park. This place is fantastic! There is no entrance fee, and visitors are greeted at the information lodge with friendly staff and a surprisingly tolerable conservation awareness talk. The info station has some nicely arranged images and informative displays.

The beautiful thing about all these towns is that you can drink the water straight from the tap. It comes directly from the abundant glaciers in the area and is 'usually safe.'

Chalten is even smaller and more rustic than El Calafate. The place is littered with hostels and second only to Ushuaia in the beauty of its natural setting. It's location allows for hikers, ice and rock climbers and anyone else to access some fantastic hikes within a day of the town.

This is the magnificent Cerro Torre, rumored to be the hardest peak in the world to climb. Take a look at the picture and I think that's understandable.

The famous Mt. Fitzroy. Much of the hike had these amazing towers covered in clouds, but after about 30 minutes of waiting at the Lago dos Tres we were given a decent view. Got very burned on this day.

We found a great little place to eat in El Chalten. It's called La Senyera or something like that. The food was reasonably priced, the environment very small and homely feeling (usage of the word meaning like unto a home and not as a euphomism for less-than-attractive physical appearance) and the small staff very friendly. I was impressed by small things about the place--things that made is stand out from the U.S. in terms of business practice. The place is quite popular; every night we were there they were turning people away for lack of room. I don't know that the restaurant had more than 10 tables or so. One of the biggest tables was occupied with a dummy dressed as a Gaucho or something and a patron registry book sat near him. I was considering how the management could have increased their revenues dramatically by moving the dummy and book anywhere else, opening that table, and accepting quite a few more customers, but I am glad that financial profit doesn't seem to be their priority. Argentina has really impressed me so far in regards to things like this and their focus on customer service.

My only complaint (not even a complaint to be honest) is that one of the lights doesn't ground correctly and I got a fairly invigorating 220 volt shock out of it. Very strong experience for my whole left arm.


A fair amount of wood peckers on the trail

Torres del Paine National Park

Wow. This is an amazing park. These towers are the poster child of Patagonia and the epitome of the trekking experience.

 

Worth getting up at 4:00 AM and hiking in the dark for :) 

  

  

A pretty crowded campground

  

The beautiful Gray Glacier

John and I switched packs because I've been carrying this gigantic blue beast for a long time. You can sort of get an idea of the water color in the background. I'll have to post a picture where you can see it better. It's an amaaaazing vibrant blue like I've never seen anywhere else.

We ran into some awesome people--the guy with the camera is from Germany and the girls is a Bolivian who does Yoga and knows how to crack backs. It helped after carrying that huge pack around all day.

 

Strangely enough, the Guanacos roam around outside outside the park but not in it.