Hola from El Bolsón! We have been here for... 4 days now? Hard to keep track... this is a lazy, laid back, awesome place. Big hippie town, along the lines of Berkeley, CA, with artisan markets every other day and organic produce everywhere. We are staying in a great little hostel outside of town in the woods- calm and relaxed, just like hangin out at the ranch. We have been cooking massive meals, handwashing all of our clothes, and reading far too many books while swinging in the hammock. Life is tough for us!
But alas, all good things must end, and we are skipping town on Sunday towards Púcon, Chile (we hope!). However, let me catch you folks up on what has gone on since our last update.
We had a terrible, sweaty 2 day bus, on which we were neither fed not watered. WTF!? Oh well, we slept and read and waited for the hell to end. And it did, dropping us off at 10am into the cool breeze in El Bolsón. Disoriented and without directions to our hostel, we wandered in the blazing sun as the breeze vanished, and eventually staggered upon our hostel with the help of a few amigos on the streets. Awesome little house, one of 3 or 4 on the property, with dorms upstairs, a double room downstairs, huge kitchen and great porch. We immediately settled our stuff in and then wandered around the town. Great huge artisan market with handicrafts and organic snacks, cerveza de casera, maté cups and straws galore, and loads of hippies. We felt right at home, as though we were wandering the vendors at SNWMF.
Spent the rest of the day kickin back, the following day too, come to think of it. We have not been overly productive while here, but everyone needs a break sometime. Yesterday we actually got our act in gear and hopped in a cab with our new German friend Sam, off to the Bosque Tallado. After a sweltering and steep 45 minute hike up a dusty hill, we made it to the entrance. The Bosque is a collection of 40-odd tree stumps that have been carved into works of art by different visionaries throughout the past few decades. Very interesting experience!! Photos below.
After wandering the Bosque, we hiked up to the Refugio to have some cerveza de casera and check out the view. Gorgeous panoramic of the mountains and the town! We hiked back to the start, waited an hour for the cab, and trudged into town. When we were getting dropped off, Oli realized he forgot his backpack in the parking lot. Passport, camera, cash, credit cards... everything. So he hopped back into the cab for another $40/90 minute round trip to see if he could find it, while I ran off to the local hiking club to see if they had anyone on site who could be radioed to grab it. I was in luck and they had someone go down to check. Thirty minutes later, they called back. Success!! They would deliver the bag to the mountain club that evening. I ran to the cab company to have them radio to Oli´s cab to let the driver know that all was well. A bit of flubbed spanish later, the message was sent, and I frolicked off to the hostel happy as a bee. Oli arrived about an hour later, bag in hand. He had run into the guy on the radio walking off with his bag! All was good though, and so we relaxed. I baked some bread (first time ever, it was aweeeeesome!) and we hung out for the evening. When we were in bed, we heard a knock on the door, a girl in the hostel had found Oli´s wallet dropped outside.
I have now come to the conclusion that Oli must be chained to his valuables at all times, and that we have very good luck. Musta been that gnocchi we had back in Dec. (If you eat gnocchi on the 29th of each month, it is good luck. We made sure to have some last night as well. We need all the luck we can get!)
So here we are, relaxing once again. We were going to hike today but my shoes were still wet from a little victory jaunt I had in the river. So we shall continue with our lazy selfs until Sunday.
We miss you all, hope all is well, and want to hear from you!!! xoxoxo
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tea in the Park!
When we were in Puerto Natales we looked into the possibility of going hiking and camping for a few days, however, it was then that we found out that not only was it expensive, but it was really a minimum of 5 days on the trail.... a little much for us right now. We decided that we would come back in the future, but for now it was time to move on to a new place. After another wonderful bus ride, we made it to El Calafate on Wednesday, home to one of the world´s most famous glaciers.
Upon our arival we decided on our timetable. Thursday we would visit the glacier via the tour ran from the hostel, and then on Friday we would leave for El Chaltan, a beautiful National park with free hiking and camping. We would camp 2 nights and return on Sunday for a 3am Monday, 36hr, bus journey to El Bolson for more wonderful hiking.
We were picked up with 4 others from our hostel, early on Thursday, shortly to find out that this wasn´t the usual hostel tour but in fact a large scale affair with old, rude, slow, French, tour group tourists. Not what the average backpacker is after! We settled in for the ride and it rewarded us greatly (though we could have done the same thing on our own and saved 30 pesos each... blast!). Before arriving at the actual glacier, we paid an extra 10 bucks each to take the boat tour to see the South face. Packed boat, rude people, one lady used Jen´s head as a tripod. We cruised right up to the glacier, amongst floating ice debris and were able to take in the sheer scale of it. The Moreno Glacier is 5km wide and 30km long, larger than Buenos Aires! It rises 60m from the water and every so often a large chunk crashes down into it. Other than nearly being crushed in the rush to the viewing deck, and after cursing several incredibly rude people, we were awestruck. It was amazing, and very, very, blue!
After our boat ride we were dropped at the viewing point for the North face of the glacier. This is a series of gangways that take you right up to the glacier, looking across the valley that it consumes. The views here were just as spectacular and accompanied by the unbelievably loud crashes that sound like thunder and echo from miles back in the valley as various pillars of ice collapse in on themselves. It really was an amazing site and we were greatly satisfied with our days sightseeing!
Interested? See for yourself!!
We finished our day by renting our camping equipment and booking our buses for our next destinations and rounded off the evening with a few beers (Thanks Skip & Lauren!) with our new Engish mates, Liz & Hugh!
Upon arrival in El Chaltan on Friday afternoon we appeared to be in luck. The Sun was shining and we had our hiking route planned out nicely to touch on all the good bits of the park - we were excited to start our camping adventure. Despite the fact that we are backpackers in many senses of the word, it is very different having to carry your own food and shelter, and I for one, had forgotten the extra burden this caused for the shoulders! But the Sun was still shining and we were seeing some amazing sights, so as we approached our night one campsight, by the river at the foot of a glacier, we were full of cheer. By this time it was around 830pm, the Sun was still high but it was growing colder by the minute, so we bundled up to cook our dinner on the stove and drank the quite delicious glacial-spring water that we had scooped up alongside the trail. We clambered into the tent and snuggled down in sleeping bags for the night.
And a bloody cold night it was too! We both suffered a bit but were warmed with hot porridge and jam before we headed out for our day of hiking. We hiked most of the morning and early afternoon, a lot of tiring up-hill in the forest, but we were rewarded with lunch at the side of a beautiful lake, overlooking the amazing mountains of the Fitz-Roy range. And once again, the lake water was delicious! After lunch only a few hours hiking lead us to another amazing view of Mt. Fitz Roy and then onto our night 2 campsight. Here we hung out, ate another great meal and when it got really cold, got into the tent, read and even watched a movie courtsey of the ipod!
With only a short hike back today we were able to sleep in a little before our porridge (it was an even colder night so hotter porridge was required), and within an hour of leaving camp, the town was in sight. We were very fortunate as we had 2 beautiful days of sunshine and today the wind started. At one point on the trail I felt that if we were to stop, the wind at our backs would start to push us across the gravel trail as if we were wearing ice skates on a frozen pond! And it was just as bad in town, but here there were (5 peso) hot showers!
After a wonderful wash and some hot empanadas we hopped on the bus back to El Calafate. We arrived here not too long ago, and, after a bit of a fright when they were nowhere to be seen at 1st, retreived our bags of stuff that we had put in storage. Afterwhich it was time to get our dinner ready.
We still had a little gas remaining, and being as frugal as we are, decided that we should not waste it. So we hunkered down in the nearby local park here in town, lit it up and chowed down on the last of our hotdogs and soup, not giving up on the weekends tradition of eating out meals in a Park! Fortunately, this was the one time the packs of stray dogs left us alone, aside from the rock we had to launch towards a yippy one (startled but not hit, rest easy animal lovers).
We leave at 3am tomorrow, still 6hrs away, for El Bolson and arrive there at 11am in 2 days! Wonderful! Here we hope for more wonderful hiking and more, we will let you know as soon as we do!
Hasta Luego!
Upon our arival we decided on our timetable. Thursday we would visit the glacier via the tour ran from the hostel, and then on Friday we would leave for El Chaltan, a beautiful National park with free hiking and camping. We would camp 2 nights and return on Sunday for a 3am Monday, 36hr, bus journey to El Bolson for more wonderful hiking.
We were picked up with 4 others from our hostel, early on Thursday, shortly to find out that this wasn´t the usual hostel tour but in fact a large scale affair with old, rude, slow, French, tour group tourists. Not what the average backpacker is after! We settled in for the ride and it rewarded us greatly (though we could have done the same thing on our own and saved 30 pesos each... blast!). Before arriving at the actual glacier, we paid an extra 10 bucks each to take the boat tour to see the South face. Packed boat, rude people, one lady used Jen´s head as a tripod. We cruised right up to the glacier, amongst floating ice debris and were able to take in the sheer scale of it. The Moreno Glacier is 5km wide and 30km long, larger than Buenos Aires! It rises 60m from the water and every so often a large chunk crashes down into it. Other than nearly being crushed in the rush to the viewing deck, and after cursing several incredibly rude people, we were awestruck. It was amazing, and very, very, blue!
After our boat ride we were dropped at the viewing point for the North face of the glacier. This is a series of gangways that take you right up to the glacier, looking across the valley that it consumes. The views here were just as spectacular and accompanied by the unbelievably loud crashes that sound like thunder and echo from miles back in the valley as various pillars of ice collapse in on themselves. It really was an amazing site and we were greatly satisfied with our days sightseeing!
Interested? See for yourself!!
We finished our day by renting our camping equipment and booking our buses for our next destinations and rounded off the evening with a few beers (Thanks Skip & Lauren!) with our new Engish mates, Liz & Hugh!
Upon arrival in El Chaltan on Friday afternoon we appeared to be in luck. The Sun was shining and we had our hiking route planned out nicely to touch on all the good bits of the park - we were excited to start our camping adventure. Despite the fact that we are backpackers in many senses of the word, it is very different having to carry your own food and shelter, and I for one, had forgotten the extra burden this caused for the shoulders! But the Sun was still shining and we were seeing some amazing sights, so as we approached our night one campsight, by the river at the foot of a glacier, we were full of cheer. By this time it was around 830pm, the Sun was still high but it was growing colder by the minute, so we bundled up to cook our dinner on the stove and drank the quite delicious glacial-spring water that we had scooped up alongside the trail. We clambered into the tent and snuggled down in sleeping bags for the night.
And a bloody cold night it was too! We both suffered a bit but were warmed with hot porridge and jam before we headed out for our day of hiking. We hiked most of the morning and early afternoon, a lot of tiring up-hill in the forest, but we were rewarded with lunch at the side of a beautiful lake, overlooking the amazing mountains of the Fitz-Roy range. And once again, the lake water was delicious! After lunch only a few hours hiking lead us to another amazing view of Mt. Fitz Roy and then onto our night 2 campsight. Here we hung out, ate another great meal and when it got really cold, got into the tent, read and even watched a movie courtsey of the ipod!
With only a short hike back today we were able to sleep in a little before our porridge (it was an even colder night so hotter porridge was required), and within an hour of leaving camp, the town was in sight. We were very fortunate as we had 2 beautiful days of sunshine and today the wind started. At one point on the trail I felt that if we were to stop, the wind at our backs would start to push us across the gravel trail as if we were wearing ice skates on a frozen pond! And it was just as bad in town, but here there were (5 peso) hot showers!
After a wonderful wash and some hot empanadas we hopped on the bus back to El Calafate. We arrived here not too long ago, and, after a bit of a fright when they were nowhere to be seen at 1st, retreived our bags of stuff that we had put in storage. Afterwhich it was time to get our dinner ready.
We still had a little gas remaining, and being as frugal as we are, decided that we should not waste it. So we hunkered down in the nearby local park here in town, lit it up and chowed down on the last of our hotdogs and soup, not giving up on the weekends tradition of eating out meals in a Park! Fortunately, this was the one time the packs of stray dogs left us alone, aside from the rock we had to launch towards a yippy one (startled but not hit, rest easy animal lovers).
We leave at 3am tomorrow, still 6hrs away, for El Bolson and arrive there at 11am in 2 days! Wonderful! Here we hope for more wonderful hiking and more, we will let you know as soon as we do!
Hasta Luego!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
No One Eats Beaver in Argentina....
Firstly, here are our photos from Puerto Madryn, Trelew and Gaiman:
Also, from our wonderful bus trip and arriving in Ushuaia and The Prison:
From where we left off last time we spent Friday in the National Park of Tierra del Fuego. We embarked on 7 hours worth of hiking in the light rain that came at us horizontally due to the howling wind! However, we were nicely prepared and were not concerned with the weather but with the amazing landscape that surrrounded us.
The hike took us through forests, wooded glades, bogs and marshes, over, around and near enough under the volumous mountains of the area region. As we hiked we came across wild horses and foals, numerous odd looking birds and some truely wonderful scenery, even an amazing example of a beaver dam. We stopped to enjoy our lunch on a shale beach in a tiny bay on the Beagle Channel, looking out over some amazing mountains. We were making good time but still were in a little of a hurry to meet our lift back to civilization. After getting to our bus stop with a little time to spare we settled in to wait.... nothing appeared. So we decided to walk along the road to the last stop, we would surely be passed by our ride on the way and we could see more of the park. Well, we were passed by lots of mini-buses, none of which belonged to our company. We started to believe that we would have to wait or the last bus at 7pm, still 90 mins away. We continued to hike and arrived at the very end point of Route 3, the end of the last road in the Southern Hemisphere, the last bus stop. By now it was 6pm, and still no 5pm bus, as more time passed we were concocting ideas of foraging in the forest and using the disabled toilet as shelter for the night!!
As luck would have it, at 7pm on the dot, to the minute, our bus arrived, so cold, tired and weary, we headed back to the hostel for some hot food and a little vino. We got chatting to some folks at the hostel (One girl, Jo, is cycling from Tierra del Fuego, North, up through South America!) and went to bed a little later than expected, particularly as we had to be up at 730am the following day for our penguin tour. We finally forced ourselves to retire, only to find our dorm door jammed shut... the locking mechanism had frozen! Our early bed turned into a very late night as we tried to fix the door, cliumbed in and out of the window, and eventually solved the problem in the early hours with brute force, lots of sparks and an angle grinder! None of this, coupled with the wine, lead to a pleasant wake up just a few hours later.
As expected, we awoke a little groggy and a little late. After quick showers we hurried down to the marina where we hopped on another mini bus and started our tour. After a little doze the tour started and it turned out that our guide, a young local guy, was really very informative. We stopped along the way, getting out briefly to look at wind swept trees, bays and more. We even stopped to check out a beaver dam - here we learnt that, 40 odd years ago, the Government introduced 25 pairs of beavers in the area to populate and create a booming fur business. However it failed miserably due to thin coats and now the beavers are in the 100,000´s. In fact, for every beaver killed, a hunter receices roughly $25, however, in the words of our guide, "in Argentina, no one eats the beaver"!
We continued on our tour to the small settlement where the launch to the penguin island leaves from. We huddled in the tea room here for warmth until it was time to leave. The boat ride was short and we disembarked onto a beach that was filled with penguins, as were the surrounding waters. It was quite the sight and we were able to observe their funny waddle first hand! We were very fortunate as the babies had hatched only a month prior and despite their size, were really cute and fluffy! It was also suprising just how noisy a penguin can be! We were able to walk around the island with our guide for an hour, we had a wonderful time despite the freezing temperatures and a wind that will tear you limb from limb if you are not careful! We left the island satisfied, cold but smiling, and happy that we were able to march with the penguinos of Tierra del Fuego.
Upon arrival back to Ushuaia it was apparant that Jen wasn´t doing so well, we had forgotten the travel sickness pills and she was suffering. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to move due to it being super full. Because Jen was in no state to be sharing a room with 4 strangers, we decided to bite the bullet and get a private room for the night. I left Jen to sleep and went to run some errands before returning to find her a little better, but not fit for anymore than hanging out with the TV on, something that we rarely get to do and is suprisingly nice! We got a pizza-to-go and settled in for the evening.
The following day, we had to move once again, back to a dorm and regular life! We had nothing planned for the day, it being a Sunday, so we caught up in our journals, read and prepared for our 5am bus journey the following day. We even managed to ship out the postcards we´ve been accumulating since Machu Picchu! We cooked, made lunch for the journey and went to bed as early as possible considering the Sun doesn´t go down until 11pm!
When we awoke at 430am the Sun was already rising! We went down to the bus station, boarded and settled in for 16hrs on a bus. Well, it was a little longer than that, we were delayed a couple times at the borders..... once because of me! I had forgotten about 2 apples in my bag and when they found them I was repremanded! I waited and waited until everyone else was on the bus and then they pulled me into an office, fortunatly no latex gloves appeared! After a little lecture, some paperwork and having to watch them incinerate my 2 apples (!!) I was free to go, pending an email to tell me my fate!
Anyway, a few more hours, a missed connection, another bus and a few more hours, we arrived here in Puerto Natales, tired, hungry, smelly and worse, ready for bed, at 10pm. We found a cheap hostel (no dorms in Chile - yay), got some good dinner and finally made it to bed. Today we are sorting out the situation here with the national park and planning our next few weeks, all based around the amazing hiking and trekking here in the Lake District!
With only a few more weeks till our rest stop in the UK, it feels like we´ve come so far. We miss everyone and can´t wait to see you all as soon as possible!
We will be posting more of the pix from our adventures as soon as possible, the computers here have stopped uploading... again!
Adios till next time.
Also, from our wonderful bus trip and arriving in Ushuaia and The Prison:
From where we left off last time we spent Friday in the National Park of Tierra del Fuego. We embarked on 7 hours worth of hiking in the light rain that came at us horizontally due to the howling wind! However, we were nicely prepared and were not concerned with the weather but with the amazing landscape that surrrounded us.
The hike took us through forests, wooded glades, bogs and marshes, over, around and near enough under the volumous mountains of the area region. As we hiked we came across wild horses and foals, numerous odd looking birds and some truely wonderful scenery, even an amazing example of a beaver dam. We stopped to enjoy our lunch on a shale beach in a tiny bay on the Beagle Channel, looking out over some amazing mountains. We were making good time but still were in a little of a hurry to meet our lift back to civilization. After getting to our bus stop with a little time to spare we settled in to wait.... nothing appeared. So we decided to walk along the road to the last stop, we would surely be passed by our ride on the way and we could see more of the park. Well, we were passed by lots of mini-buses, none of which belonged to our company. We started to believe that we would have to wait or the last bus at 7pm, still 90 mins away. We continued to hike and arrived at the very end point of Route 3, the end of the last road in the Southern Hemisphere, the last bus stop. By now it was 6pm, and still no 5pm bus, as more time passed we were concocting ideas of foraging in the forest and using the disabled toilet as shelter for the night!!
As luck would have it, at 7pm on the dot, to the minute, our bus arrived, so cold, tired and weary, we headed back to the hostel for some hot food and a little vino. We got chatting to some folks at the hostel (One girl, Jo, is cycling from Tierra del Fuego, North, up through South America!) and went to bed a little later than expected, particularly as we had to be up at 730am the following day for our penguin tour. We finally forced ourselves to retire, only to find our dorm door jammed shut... the locking mechanism had frozen! Our early bed turned into a very late night as we tried to fix the door, cliumbed in and out of the window, and eventually solved the problem in the early hours with brute force, lots of sparks and an angle grinder! None of this, coupled with the wine, lead to a pleasant wake up just a few hours later.
As expected, we awoke a little groggy and a little late. After quick showers we hurried down to the marina where we hopped on another mini bus and started our tour. After a little doze the tour started and it turned out that our guide, a young local guy, was really very informative. We stopped along the way, getting out briefly to look at wind swept trees, bays and more. We even stopped to check out a beaver dam - here we learnt that, 40 odd years ago, the Government introduced 25 pairs of beavers in the area to populate and create a booming fur business. However it failed miserably due to thin coats and now the beavers are in the 100,000´s. In fact, for every beaver killed, a hunter receices roughly $25, however, in the words of our guide, "in Argentina, no one eats the beaver"!
We continued on our tour to the small settlement where the launch to the penguin island leaves from. We huddled in the tea room here for warmth until it was time to leave. The boat ride was short and we disembarked onto a beach that was filled with penguins, as were the surrounding waters. It was quite the sight and we were able to observe their funny waddle first hand! We were very fortunate as the babies had hatched only a month prior and despite their size, were really cute and fluffy! It was also suprising just how noisy a penguin can be! We were able to walk around the island with our guide for an hour, we had a wonderful time despite the freezing temperatures and a wind that will tear you limb from limb if you are not careful! We left the island satisfied, cold but smiling, and happy that we were able to march with the penguinos of Tierra del Fuego.
Upon arrival back to Ushuaia it was apparant that Jen wasn´t doing so well, we had forgotten the travel sickness pills and she was suffering. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to move due to it being super full. Because Jen was in no state to be sharing a room with 4 strangers, we decided to bite the bullet and get a private room for the night. I left Jen to sleep and went to run some errands before returning to find her a little better, but not fit for anymore than hanging out with the TV on, something that we rarely get to do and is suprisingly nice! We got a pizza-to-go and settled in for the evening.
The following day, we had to move once again, back to a dorm and regular life! We had nothing planned for the day, it being a Sunday, so we caught up in our journals, read and prepared for our 5am bus journey the following day. We even managed to ship out the postcards we´ve been accumulating since Machu Picchu! We cooked, made lunch for the journey and went to bed as early as possible considering the Sun doesn´t go down until 11pm!
When we awoke at 430am the Sun was already rising! We went down to the bus station, boarded and settled in for 16hrs on a bus. Well, it was a little longer than that, we were delayed a couple times at the borders..... once because of me! I had forgotten about 2 apples in my bag and when they found them I was repremanded! I waited and waited until everyone else was on the bus and then they pulled me into an office, fortunatly no latex gloves appeared! After a little lecture, some paperwork and having to watch them incinerate my 2 apples (!!) I was free to go, pending an email to tell me my fate!
Anyway, a few more hours, a missed connection, another bus and a few more hours, we arrived here in Puerto Natales, tired, hungry, smelly and worse, ready for bed, at 10pm. We found a cheap hostel (no dorms in Chile - yay), got some good dinner and finally made it to bed. Today we are sorting out the situation here with the national park and planning our next few weeks, all based around the amazing hiking and trekking here in the Lake District!
With only a few more weeks till our rest stop in the UK, it feels like we´ve come so far. We miss everyone and can´t wait to see you all as soon as possible!
We will be posting more of the pix from our adventures as soon as possible, the computers here have stopped uploading... again!
Adios till next time.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
It´s the end of the world as we know it...
And we feel fine. And no, we have yet to fall off the edge, but thanks for the concern! We arrived here after a 33 hour bus, longer than expected, and less comfortable than we had hoped. Alas, we were alive and in one piece. It is gorgeous here. We got in around 11, walked the town a bit as the sun was still up (freaky!) and then settled in at the Antarctica Hostel. This morning we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off attempting to book our passage out of here, as there is usually a very long wait for an open bus. As beautiful and majestic as it is, we don´t want to be stranded. So by lunchtime, we had bus tickets booked for Monday, off to Puerto Natales in Chile. HOWEVER, we are very excited to be here, and immediately ran off to the Maritime Museum, which used to house the prisoners back when Ushuaia was a penal colony. It was extensive and very interesting, full of dramatic stories of the murderous prisoners, as well as the sad tales of many ships lost at sea. It was a phenomenal museum, to say the least, and we actually spent over an hour and a half in there- which is quite the feat for us. We then headed down to the docks to book our trip to go waddle with the penguinos- thats on Saturday, we´ll let you know how it goes. We also checked out the Museo Fin del Mundo, which was small but sweet, and chock full of indigenous artifacts from the brave Indians who once dwelled here.
Then it was time for a wild goose chase to find a plug adapter, as the last one we had burst into flames while Oli was trying to pry it from the wall. No luck though, and we are hoping our camera lasts. Back to the hostel for a homemade gourmet pizza, and a hello to you chaps! Miss everyone lots. We are off to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego tomorrow for some nice hiking.
ALSO- we are in the midst of booking the next step of our trip- from England, we plan to fly to Egypt and then Jordan (mid march to late april). Does anyone have any advice, comments, tips, warnings, etc? We know things over there are in turmoil at the moment, but as the State Dept. has yet to issue a warning for travelers, we are still game to go. Let us know what we should do!! xoxo hasta luego!
Then it was time for a wild goose chase to find a plug adapter, as the last one we had burst into flames while Oli was trying to pry it from the wall. No luck though, and we are hoping our camera lasts. Back to the hostel for a homemade gourmet pizza, and a hello to you chaps! Miss everyone lots. We are off to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego tomorrow for some nice hiking.
ALSO- we are in the midst of booking the next step of our trip- from England, we plan to fly to Egypt and then Jordan (mid march to late april). Does anyone have any advice, comments, tips, warnings, etc? We know things over there are in turmoil at the moment, but as the State Dept. has yet to issue a warning for travelers, we are still game to go. Let us know what we should do!! xoxo hasta luego!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Off to the end of the world...
Hola Amigos!
We abandoned Puerto Madryn for a town an hour south, hoping to be closer to Puento Tombo so that we could finally see the penguins. After a bit of deliberation, we decided that it was best to wait until Ushuaia, as we would be taking tours down there anyway, and why waste the cash? So we booked our 30 hour bus ride down to the end of the world, leaving today at 1pm and arriving tomorrow night at 7pm. WOW, it is gonna be interesting!
So since we arrived in Trelew, we settled into our hostel where we had a 6 bed dorm in a retrofitted garage. As our bed was closest to the garage door (still intact!) I was quite happy that I brought along my earplugs. I had also come down with a pretty wicked cold, so we decided to mainly lay low for a bit and try to recover so that I would be in good shape for trekking down south. On Sunday we made some feel good food for dinner, and kicked back with a book for the evening, hitting the sack early.
On Monday, we decided to sleep in, then take the bus 25 min. west to the Welsh village of Gaiman- settled 150 years ago, quite an ugly little town, but with a few historical houses and some all you can drink and eat teahouses! We hopped off the bus near a long railway tunnel that lead to town, so we walked in the pitch black while thinking about how it would be a perfect place to mug tourists. Luckily, we came away unscathed, and did a quick tour around the town. We saw the oldest house, still with some furniture and appliances, and then we went to the Parque Desfario, a park decorated entirely out of recycling and found objects. Bizarre, but kinda cool! We went to the tea house, where we were gorged on breads and cakes and pastries until we felt ill from the sugar. We were a bit disappointed that we were unable to test out the all-you-can-eat aspect of the place, but decided it was not worth getting sick over. So we headed out into the rain and hopped on the bus home.
Last night we cooked again, drank some Argie vino, and planned out what we want to do in Ushuaia. The most southernly town in the world, or so they claim. I'm sure some places would beg to differ, but still- this place is pretty far down there. Our bus will be driving to the end of Patagonia, cutting through Chile, and down through Tierra del Fuego. Icebergs and penguins galore! We are so excited to see such a different aspect of South America, and this will be something neither of us have ever come close to experiencing before. Yay!! We will keep you all updated once we find a reasonably priced internet cafe (as long as I don't end up falling into the ocean, in true Jen style!). We tried to update our pix from the past few days, but the forces are against us and it just wont work. Love to all, miss you, hope you are keeping to your New Years resolutions!! (Did anyone make the promise to themselves to comment on all our blogs, or send beer money every fortnight? ;) We kid, we kid. Love you guys, hasta luego!
We abandoned Puerto Madryn for a town an hour south, hoping to be closer to Puento Tombo so that we could finally see the penguins. After a bit of deliberation, we decided that it was best to wait until Ushuaia, as we would be taking tours down there anyway, and why waste the cash? So we booked our 30 hour bus ride down to the end of the world, leaving today at 1pm and arriving tomorrow night at 7pm. WOW, it is gonna be interesting!
So since we arrived in Trelew, we settled into our hostel where we had a 6 bed dorm in a retrofitted garage. As our bed was closest to the garage door (still intact!) I was quite happy that I brought along my earplugs. I had also come down with a pretty wicked cold, so we decided to mainly lay low for a bit and try to recover so that I would be in good shape for trekking down south. On Sunday we made some feel good food for dinner, and kicked back with a book for the evening, hitting the sack early.
On Monday, we decided to sleep in, then take the bus 25 min. west to the Welsh village of Gaiman- settled 150 years ago, quite an ugly little town, but with a few historical houses and some all you can drink and eat teahouses! We hopped off the bus near a long railway tunnel that lead to town, so we walked in the pitch black while thinking about how it would be a perfect place to mug tourists. Luckily, we came away unscathed, and did a quick tour around the town. We saw the oldest house, still with some furniture and appliances, and then we went to the Parque Desfario, a park decorated entirely out of recycling and found objects. Bizarre, but kinda cool! We went to the tea house, where we were gorged on breads and cakes and pastries until we felt ill from the sugar. We were a bit disappointed that we were unable to test out the all-you-can-eat aspect of the place, but decided it was not worth getting sick over. So we headed out into the rain and hopped on the bus home.
Last night we cooked again, drank some Argie vino, and planned out what we want to do in Ushuaia. The most southernly town in the world, or so they claim. I'm sure some places would beg to differ, but still- this place is pretty far down there. Our bus will be driving to the end of Patagonia, cutting through Chile, and down through Tierra del Fuego. Icebergs and penguins galore! We are so excited to see such a different aspect of South America, and this will be something neither of us have ever come close to experiencing before. Yay!! We will keep you all updated once we find a reasonably priced internet cafe (as long as I don't end up falling into the ocean, in true Jen style!). We tried to update our pix from the past few days, but the forces are against us and it just wont work. Love to all, miss you, hope you are keeping to your New Years resolutions!! (Did anyone make the promise to themselves to comment on all our blogs, or send beer money every fortnight? ;) We kid, we kid. Love you guys, hasta luego!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Argie Bargie.
Well, it´s been a while since we updated yáll.
We arrived in Buenos Aries to meet the girls at our hostel. After a heavy night of partying we decided that it was time to see at least one sight! We went to the Recoletta, a huge cemetary in BA. The mausoleums here are like houses! Some old, some new, gothic to modern, all with coffins and caskets readily visible! It was quite something. Here we saw Evita´s grave, along with hundreds of other people at the same time and headed out to get some food and soothe our hangovers before the girls last night.
We managed to meet up with Jackson, a friend who was on our Galapagos tour with us, and went out to spend our last night out till 6am. Upon awakening, alone and disoriented, Jen and I decide to sort our shit out and get some stuff done! Internetting and phone calls were required, along with recovering and planning out the next couple days.
We spent the next day as real travellers. We loved having the girls in town, such a good taste of home, but despite the sadness of them leaving we felt like travellers once more and our livers were certainly happy! We hopped on the subway and explored more of the city. BA is a beautiful city, reminisent of many European capitals, with the culture, architecture and people. We wandered around the sites, The Cathedral, the Palace that Madonna was seen crooning out of several years ago and much more.
We finished our night by going to a Tango show, one of the things that BA is famous for and is not to be missed. It was a lot of fun. The house singer was as cheesy as you would expect, the tango as flamboyant and spectacular and the male lead as greasy! We had a wonderful night with great wine and better entertainment.
We had decided that it was time to move on, if we wanted to come back we could, so later the next evening we hit the road on a 16hr bus ride south to Puerto Madyr, settled by the Welsh (who would have thought?!) in the late 1800s. Despite how far south we are it is rediculously hot, but despite this, yesterday we walked along the beach for an hour or so to visit the Ecocentre here, dedicated to whales and penguins. After a short marine biology lesson we headed back for a delicious (& cheap) hand made ravioli meal and bed (& cheap wine!).
Today we enquired about diving, but with nothing special or worthwhile here, we saw all the sea lions and birds we need to in the Galapagos, we are heading to the 2nd largest penguin colony in the world tomorrow.
With that being said, there will be more to come soon. Love to everyone, miss you all xx
We arrived in Buenos Aries to meet the girls at our hostel. After a heavy night of partying we decided that it was time to see at least one sight! We went to the Recoletta, a huge cemetary in BA. The mausoleums here are like houses! Some old, some new, gothic to modern, all with coffins and caskets readily visible! It was quite something. Here we saw Evita´s grave, along with hundreds of other people at the same time and headed out to get some food and soothe our hangovers before the girls last night.
We managed to meet up with Jackson, a friend who was on our Galapagos tour with us, and went out to spend our last night out till 6am. Upon awakening, alone and disoriented, Jen and I decide to sort our shit out and get some stuff done! Internetting and phone calls were required, along with recovering and planning out the next couple days.
We spent the next day as real travellers. We loved having the girls in town, such a good taste of home, but despite the sadness of them leaving we felt like travellers once more and our livers were certainly happy! We hopped on the subway and explored more of the city. BA is a beautiful city, reminisent of many European capitals, with the culture, architecture and people. We wandered around the sites, The Cathedral, the Palace that Madonna was seen crooning out of several years ago and much more.
We finished our night by going to a Tango show, one of the things that BA is famous for and is not to be missed. It was a lot of fun. The house singer was as cheesy as you would expect, the tango as flamboyant and spectacular and the male lead as greasy! We had a wonderful night with great wine and better entertainment.
We had decided that it was time to move on, if we wanted to come back we could, so later the next evening we hit the road on a 16hr bus ride south to Puerto Madyr, settled by the Welsh (who would have thought?!) in the late 1800s. Despite how far south we are it is rediculously hot, but despite this, yesterday we walked along the beach for an hour or so to visit the Ecocentre here, dedicated to whales and penguins. After a short marine biology lesson we headed back for a delicious (& cheap) hand made ravioli meal and bed (& cheap wine!).
Today we enquired about diving, but with nothing special or worthwhile here, we saw all the sea lions and birds we need to in the Galapagos, we are heading to the 2nd largest penguin colony in the world tomorrow.
With that being said, there will be more to come soon. Love to everyone, miss you all xx
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Photos from Porto Alegre and Punta del Este.
Here they are, we will have some Argentina pics up soon too.
Porto Alegre
Punta del Este
Hope you enjoy!
Porto Alegre
Punta del Este
Hope you enjoy!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Happy 2009!
Hello from Buenos Aires! We are now on country number 12, and we have been having a blast. A brief update on the past 2 weeks-
We flew into Porto Alegre, Brazil, to stay with our friend Kiki and her family. Fernanda and Kiki met us at the airport, gave us a brief tour, and we had a relatively mellow night. The following day, Jacki flew in from LA. It was Christmas Eve, and that night we had a fabulous dinner with Kiki's extended family, after which we went to her local country club for a huge dance party. Fun! On Christmas day, Renya and Lisa few in, and we had another big meal with Kiki's fam. Basically, the entire trip was one big fiesta! Lots of great food and company, and late nights! It was amazing for us to experience eating dinner around 11, going to bars at 2, and clubs at 4! I don't think we went to bed before sunrise more than a few times. So many fun and friendly people, and it was so nice for us to be around familiar faces again. We spent the next couple of days wandering around Porto Alegre, and the Sunday before NYE we headed down to Punta del Este with 2 other Brazilian girls for a week of fun in the sun!
The drive was about eight hours and extremely sweaty. We arrived at our lovely apartment and were happy to see how nice and open it was! We spent time on the beaches and wandering around, though a lot of our days were sleep filled due to the different way of life down here in the South. We were invited to a lovely NYE party, where we rang in the new year with smiles on our faces and champagne in our hands. We hung out in Punta for a few days more, then hopped on a boat to meet Jackie, Renya and Lisa in Buenos Aires for a few more nights of fun with our old friends before hitting the road again as a duo.
The girls have now all left, and we are at a loss for what to do! Its amazing how accustomed you get to being around people; things seem very quiet now. We are going to sit down tonight and figure out what to do with ourselves here in Argentina as we still have many weeks to go. Head south probably, but any suggestions would be appreciated! We miss you all, happy new years, and we would love to hear from you. Did anyone actually make it through the 700+ pix we put up over the holidays?
We promise to update more often and with more detail in the future. Love you!!
xoxoxo
We flew into Porto Alegre, Brazil, to stay with our friend Kiki and her family. Fernanda and Kiki met us at the airport, gave us a brief tour, and we had a relatively mellow night. The following day, Jacki flew in from LA. It was Christmas Eve, and that night we had a fabulous dinner with Kiki's extended family, after which we went to her local country club for a huge dance party. Fun! On Christmas day, Renya and Lisa few in, and we had another big meal with Kiki's fam. Basically, the entire trip was one big fiesta! Lots of great food and company, and late nights! It was amazing for us to experience eating dinner around 11, going to bars at 2, and clubs at 4! I don't think we went to bed before sunrise more than a few times. So many fun and friendly people, and it was so nice for us to be around familiar faces again. We spent the next couple of days wandering around Porto Alegre, and the Sunday before NYE we headed down to Punta del Este with 2 other Brazilian girls for a week of fun in the sun!
The drive was about eight hours and extremely sweaty. We arrived at our lovely apartment and were happy to see how nice and open it was! We spent time on the beaches and wandering around, though a lot of our days were sleep filled due to the different way of life down here in the South. We were invited to a lovely NYE party, where we rang in the new year with smiles on our faces and champagne in our hands. We hung out in Punta for a few days more, then hopped on a boat to meet Jackie, Renya and Lisa in Buenos Aires for a few more nights of fun with our old friends before hitting the road again as a duo.
The girls have now all left, and we are at a loss for what to do! Its amazing how accustomed you get to being around people; things seem very quiet now. We are going to sit down tonight and figure out what to do with ourselves here in Argentina as we still have many weeks to go. Head south probably, but any suggestions would be appreciated! We miss you all, happy new years, and we would love to hear from you. Did anyone actually make it through the 700+ pix we put up over the holidays?
We promise to update more often and with more detail in the future. Love you!!
xoxoxo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
