The Southern Expedition

Jon arrived here about 2 weeks ago, unfortunately sans suitcase. His 4 country flights/lay-overs made it hard for AirCanda to keep track of him – luckily, this didn’t keep him or us from having a wonderful time. During Jon’s first couple of days here we took him around the city to see the sights. We spent some time in Puerto Madero, the old port district here in Buenos Aires which has been revamped and now is a high-end area with fancy restaurants and offices. While we were there, we visited an old navy vessel that was used to explore Antarctica in the early 1900’s and is now a museum. We also checked out the old neighborhood of San Telmo. We went on a Saturday so the street fair was in full swing. Vendors cram the main plaza with tiny booths selling everything from old currency and silverware to old fur coats and sword canes. The highlight of the street fair, however, is the tango show that is always there. We watched for a while since this is one of our favorite things in the city. After that and a couple of excellent dinners at parrillas we were ready to start our Southern Expedition.

The plan was to spend 10 days traveling by bus to three different places in Argentina, finishing at the southern most city in the Americas. We delayed the trip by one day in hopes that Jon’s luggage would turn up… but it has yet to be found.

Our first stop was Puerto Madryn and the Peninsula Valdes, a large national reserve for many species of animals. The trip started off a bit rough since we missed our bus leaving Buenos Aires by about 3 minutes. Our options were to return our tickets once again – for a fee of course – or try to chase the bus to the next stop in a taxi about 40 minutes away. We decided on the latter. We found a taxi that was willing to speed onto the next town in hopes of catching up to our bus. The driver and all of us were not feeling too good about situation, as fast as he drove, we didn’t pass a single bus of the right company. What we would do if we got to the next stop and the bus had already left… none of us knew. Luckily, just as we were pulling up to the second bus terminal we saw a bus of the right company, the last thing to find out was if it was ours. The driver had me (Martin) jump out of the cab and get in front of the bus to flag the driver down… and Phew! it was the right bus and he was still just pulling into the terminal, so we were able to get onto our bus and finally let out a huge sigh of relief. So, our expedition was now well on its way – just another 18 hours to the first destination.

Puerto Madryn & the Peninsula Valdes

The next morning we checked into our hostel, which was run by a very nice couple who were able to give us a lot of good information about the area. We rented three bikes from them and headed out to see the city. We rode along the beach for a while, walked out onto the fishing pier and had a nice lunch. Puerto Madryn is a small city in the Golfo Nuevo, a large bay that makes up one side of the Peninsula Valdes. The water here is very blue, still and clear. From the pier we could watch schools of jelly fish swimming around. We were all pretty tired from not sleeping too much on the over night bus ride, so we returned to the hostel for a much needed nap. We woke up a couple of hours later and headed to the Ecocenter, a museum and an observatory dedicated to the marine life of the area. From there we watched a thunder storm roll in and light up the night sky over the Atlantic, it was great.

The following morning we had a tour booked to take us to the national park on Peninsula Valdes. The waters around the peninsula are the first spot where Patagonian and Antarctic animals can find a warm enough climate for their breeding seasons. The biggest attraction to see there are the Southern Right Whales, but we visited in the wrong time of the year to see them. However, we were able to see a lot of other wonderful creatures, such as: sea elephants and their pups, sea lions and their babies, rheas, which are kind of like ostrich, guanacos, which are kind of like llamas but of lower elevations, silver foxes, one armadillo, and best of all, Magellenic Penguins! This is also one of the few places in the world where Orcas swim onto the shore to eat all of these little creatures (sea lion and seal pups, as well as penguins) but we didn’t see any killer whales… to Gracie’s relief and Jon’s and my disappointment.

It was back to the bus the following day for our lovely 24 hour journey to El Calafate.

To see more of our pictures from Peninsula Vales go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/PuertoMadryn

El Calafate & Perito Moreno Glacier

This bus ride took us very far south along the Atlantic Coast and about 4 hours inland to the foothills of the Argentinean/Chilean Andes. Again, we checked into our hostel and received all of the information we were looking for, we booked a trip to an estancia (sheep ranch) for later that evening.

The estancia is about 45 minutes outside of Calafate on the shore of Lago Argentino. When we arrived we had tea and sweet treats in the main dining hall over looking the ranch and lake. This particular estancia has stopped raising sheep for meat and wool for profit and now only caters to tourists, however, we learned a lot about the ways estancias work in the Patagonia. The estancias are very spread apart from each other, on the drive out we maybe only passed 2 or 3. This is because for an estancia to be profitable it needs to have at least 7,000 head of sheep. Since the grass quality is very poor because of the climate, each sheep needs one hectare to survive – this is why estancias are so large. That and, they don’t just have 7,000 sheep, some have more than 200,000! After our snack we went outside to watch an exhibition of how kelpie dogs are used to herd sheep. One gaucho on horseback and one dog can control and move about 2,000 sheep. We saw just a handful of sheep be herded by two dogs. It was incredible to see how smart the dogs were, each had their own task and they stuck to it – one ran the perimeter and the other picked up stragglers. After that we took a walk down to the lake to get a good view of the flora and fauna that live in the area. We got to taste wild Calafate berries and see upland geese. After our walk we went back inside where we watched the shearing of a sheep and then came dinner! We ate an asado of lamb, lamb and more lamb (and some chicken, beef and chorizo). It was wonderful, I even ate so much that passing strangers made comments on where I was putting so much food. We were all in meaty heaven. That night we slept like logs.

We woke up early the next morning to start our tour and trek on the Perito Moreno Glacier. We first spent some time on the balconies overlooking the glacier and awing at its size, there are not words or pictures to do it justice. We had a picnic and watched small pieces of ice break off the glacier and thunderously crash into the lake below. We then hopped onto a boat to cross the lake to the side where we would be able to get onto the glacier. While we were on the boat, crossing the face of the glacier, a gigantic piece of ice (about the size of a bus) peeled off the front of the glacier and smashed down into the water. Jon got some excellent pictures of it while it happened and the subsequent swells.

Once on the other side of the lake we strapped on some ice cramp-ons and headed up the glacier. With our guides Lucia and Fredercio we spent 2 hours checking out ice caves, crevasses, and the bluest ice and water you have ever seen. Our destination was the bar on the glacier – which is actually just a small wooden table, a bowl full of bon-bons, a crate of glasses and a couple bottles of Famous Grouse Whiskey. With ice chiseled off of the glacier everyone was treated to a tumbler of whiskey and a chocolate before the hike back.

After our long day of exploration and trekking, we treated ourselves to pizza at our favorite pizzeria in all of Argentina, La Lechuza. We had empanadas, a couple of pints of Patagonian beer and 2 of the best pizzas we had ever eaten. None of us wanted to leave, but a couple hours later (at 3 a.m.) we had tickets for our third and final bus trip to the furthest place in the Americas, Ushuaia.

To see more pictures of El Calafate, the estancia and Perito Moreno Glaciar, go here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/Calafate

Ushuaia

It was only supposed to take about 18 hours, but due to some time-consuming border crossings between Argentina and Chile, and strong winds at the ferry crossing on the Straight of Magellan, it was a little over 22 hours before we reached our hostel in Ushuaia around 1 a.m. Our room was such a blessed sight, 2 big beds with down blankets, heated floors and even a small kitchen. We slept late the next day, and then wandered around the town of Ushuaia, stopping along the port to take pictures and at a chocolate shop for submarinos (Gracie’s favorite drink, a melted chocolate bar in a hot glass of milk!). We also went to the small museum which has exhibits on the native Yamana people, the early town settlers, ship-wrecks in the area, native birds and the noteworthy convicts held in the hard-labor prison that used to be there.

The next day was possibly our favorite, and definitely our coldest. We went with a small adventure-tour group, and a dreadlocked guide named Juancito, off of the main highway to a river that connects to the Beagle Channel. We donned somewhat waterproof pants, rubber boots, and life jackets, and set out on canoes. It was raining when we started, and everyone was a bit nervous about the cold and precipitation (not typically your ideal canoeing weather). Partway through our river trek, the rain turned to snow with the biggest snowflakes we had ever seen (the size of silver dollars) covering the once green landscape into a quiet, white dream, it was so beautiful. Now remember, it is summer down here! When we arrived at our river-side destination, we drove a little farther down the Beagle Channel and boarded a retired fishing boat where we warmed up with sandwiches and wine. Just as we finished our second bottle, we arrived at Hammer Island, the summer home of thousands of pairs of Magellanic penguins, and 14 pairs of Gentoo penguins. From our boat we watched them swim and waddle around, and contemplated how we could sneak one home. Unfortunately, none of our ideas worked, so we just took lots of pictures. The second stop our little fishing boat made was to Gable Island, which was once part of an estancia, but is now uninhabited. We hiked for a few hours with our guide Julian, who knew so much about the trees and animal life there. We had amazing views of the Beagle Channel and the snow-covered tail end of the Andes.

We decided to take a hike up these mountains the next day to find another glacier, and yet again, the rain turned to snow on us. We walked up part of a ski run, and then up further through a trail along a creek and through the trees, until vegetation completely disappeared and we were only hiking though the snow and rocks. When we could go no further due to heavy wind, snow and steepness, we headed back down the mountain, stopped to make a mini-snowman and then went back into the town for a warm lunch. Our favorite restaurant in Ushuaia was a yellow house with sheepskin covered benches and delicious local lamb and seafood dishes (we had dinner there the night before). We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at our hostel waiting for our much-delayed plane to bring us back home to Buenos Aires.

You can find more penguin and snowman pictures from Ushuaia here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/Ushuaia

Tierra Santa

The past few days we have spent hanging out here in Buenos Aires. Before Jon left there was one last treat for him, and us. We went to Tierra Santa, the world’s first and finest religious theme park. We warn you, this, much like the size of the Perito Moreno Glacier, is very difficult to describe. It was created by a man who designed and created fronts of restaurants and buildings using plastic molds. From what we gathered he became inspired and started to recreate the town of Jerusalem, out of plastic. It has many buildings, trees, camels and donkeys… all made of plastic. There are also many biblical scenes throughout the park: Jesus cures the sick, Jesus forgives the adulteress, the immaculate conception, resurrection of Lazarus, just to name a few, and yes, all made of plastic life-size figures. And wait, there’s more! There are shows, of which we caught three: the nativity and birth of Jesus, the last supper and our favorite, the creation. In these shows the plastic figurines came to life with basic animatronics. There were laser lights, fog machines and a glorious soundtrack.

Oh and there is more! The show we missed was the resurrection – where a 36 foot Jesus comes out of a hilltop with “special effects” – which was cancelled due to high winds. As bizarre as we thought all of this was, people here take it all very seriously: applause after the shows, quiet voices when taking pictures with the 2-story bust of Jesus, it was all treated as a religious place, not a plastic theme park. Very fantastical and unforgettable.

We know you want pictures of this place, so check them out here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/TierraSanta

The past two weeks have been wonderful. It was great to receive our first guest; we spent an unforgettable time with Jon in some of the most beautiful places we have ever been.