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| El Calafate, Argentina - Day 3 |
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
El Calafate, Argentina - Day 3
Today was a picture, blog, and relaxation day as I waited for my flight in the afternoon to Bariloche.
El Calafate, Argentina - Day 2
El Calafate is the jump off point for the amazing Perito Moreno Glacier, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the third largest body of fresh water in the world, and one of only a three glaciers in South America which are increasing in size. The glacier advances at the rate of 2 meters per day, causing large chucks of ice to fall off in breathtaking fashion.
The first thing you noise when standing on the platform overlooking the immense glacier is the constant groaning bellow, like a Brontosaurus trying desperately to escape from the glacier’s icy grasp, but has given up hope and is content to periodically roar in frustration. The next thing that occurs is that chunks of ice, sometimes small like the size of person, sometimes larger like the size of a car cleaves off of the glacier and crashes into the water in a colossal manner creating a temporary crater and seismic waves to a thunderous splash.
Oh, then I strapped on some ice crampons and trekked over the glacieral hills, valleys, rivers, and deep crevices. Easily another highlight of the trip!
The first thing you noise when standing on the platform overlooking the immense glacier is the constant groaning bellow, like a Brontosaurus trying desperately to escape from the glacier’s icy grasp, but has given up hope and is content to periodically roar in frustration. The next thing that occurs is that chunks of ice, sometimes small like the size of person, sometimes larger like the size of a car cleaves off of the glacier and crashes into the water in a colossal manner creating a temporary crater and seismic waves to a thunderous splash.
Oh, then I strapped on some ice crampons and trekked over the glacieral hills, valleys, rivers, and deep crevices. Easily another highlight of the trip!
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| El Calafate, Argentina - Day 2 |
Saturday, December 27, 2008
El Chalten, Argentina - Day 3
Today I did a shorter five hour trek to Mirador Cerra Torre, a smaller mountain range than Fitz Roy and then caught a bus back to El Calafate in the evening.
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| El Chalten, Argentina - Day 3 |
Thursday, December 25, 2008
El Chalten, Argentina - Day 2
This was one of the highlights of the trip. Fitz Roy. Immense and amazing. It was a 7 hour round trip hike up a steep ravine. The last 500 meters was an intense climb up a steep rocky incline that even a mountain goat would balk at. And it was totally worth it. The views at the top were breathtaking and awe inspiring.
In front of you dramatically looms Fitz Roy, strikingly towering over you with it's shimmering crystal clear blue glacier lake at your feet. To your left and right, gigantic snow capped mountains encapsulating prehistoric glaciers struggling to reach up to Fitz Roy, and behind you, a magnificently stunning valley with a river peacefully meandering through the trees.
Ok I’ve run out of illustrative adjectives so I’ll stop because I don’t feel like consulting a thesaurus.
In front of you dramatically looms Fitz Roy, strikingly towering over you with it's shimmering crystal clear blue glacier lake at your feet. To your left and right, gigantic snow capped mountains encapsulating prehistoric glaciers struggling to reach up to Fitz Roy, and behind you, a magnificently stunning valley with a river peacefully meandering through the trees.
Ok I’ve run out of illustrative adjectives so I’ll stop because I don’t feel like consulting a thesaurus.
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| El Chalten, Argentina - Day 2 |
El Chalten, Argentina - Day 1
El Chalten is the trekking capital of Argentina with easy access to the famous Fitz Roy mountain range and Cerra Torre. We arrived mid afternoon; and with some people I met on the bus, spent a lazy day having lunch and doing a short 2 hour trek to a waterfall. The highlight of the trip was actually catching a train of horses traveling along the road and through the ravine. At first we only saw about 20 horses coming along the road in a single file line seemingly leading themselves along the path but at the end of the train a gaucho was following along to ensure that none strayed.
The weather is extremely fickle with the mountain ranges causing some strong wind tunnels. At times the wind was so strong that we couldn’t even walk forward and had to hold on to each other to keep from falling over. Luckily we only did an easy hike and not the 7 hour hike up to Fitz Roy which could have caused significant issues with windy conditions like the ones we faced that day.
The weather is extremely fickle with the mountain ranges causing some strong wind tunnels. At times the wind was so strong that we couldn’t even walk forward and had to hold on to each other to keep from falling over. Luckily we only did an easy hike and not the 7 hour hike up to Fitz Roy which could have caused significant issues with windy conditions like the ones we faced that day.
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| El Chalten, Argentina - Day 1 |
Torres del Paine, Chile - Day 1
The Torres del Paine National Park in Chile is popular hiking destination with three huge towers created by glacier movements. Most hikers do a 5 day trek in the shape of a “W” around the three large spires.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to stay there for 5 days so I did a one day tour from El Calafate. We left at 6 in the morning and got back at 10 pm. It was a long trip but well worth it as the views are stunningly breathtaking. Sometimes amazing landscape views cannot be truly captured in all their exquisite beauty with a simple photo. I tried. I tried hard. But I failed desperately.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to stay there for 5 days so I did a one day tour from El Calafate. We left at 6 in the morning and got back at 10 pm. It was a long trip but well worth it as the views are stunningly breathtaking. Sometimes amazing landscape views cannot be truly captured in all their exquisite beauty with a simple photo. I tried. I tried hard. But I failed desperately.
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| Torres del Paine, Chile - Day 1 |
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 5
After a hard day of working on my blog and pictures, I wanted to treat myself to a nice meal so I set out for Volver, a good seafood restaurant overlooking the water to try the local specialty - King Crab!
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| Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 5 |
Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 4
Today I went on a boat tour of local animal preserves checking out seals, birds, and local fauna. In the evening, I went to see some beaver huts and damns. The locals had imported the beavers to harvest their pelts, but the beaver’s pelts did not grow the same way that they did in Canada and the locals couldn’t use the pelts as originally intended. As a result, the swimming mutant rodents have built damns, flooded the natural habitat, and taken over the forests as they have no local predator.
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| Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 4 |
Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 3
Today I went on an off roading trip in a 4 x 4 around the lake area. I’m never doing that again unless I'm the one driving. It was a full car and I had to sit in the back which is akin to playing twister in a cement mixer with 4 other people. I think I got a minor concussion. Steak was great!
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| Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 3 |
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 2
Ushuaia is purported to be southern most city in the world. While there are other groups of people further south than Ushuaia, like Antarctica, this city has all the trappings of a genuine city with a hospital, university, army base, etc. There is one road that connects Ushuaia all the way up through North America and ends in Alaska. On my lake trek we ended our canoeing part of the trip at a sign which says its 17,848 km up to Alaska.
Ushuaia started out as prison city; where Argentina would send their most harden criminals. They have since transformed the prison into the oddest museum that I’ve ever been too. A couple wings of the prison were transformed into the museum with the cells holding the presentations. As cells are usually built to hold one or two people the rooms were obviously small and only one or two people could fit comfortably in each cell at a time.
This museum was a peculiar amalgamation of curios from Ushuaia and the surrounding areas with a rather haphazard approach in presentation. If you asked me what the theme of this museum was, I would have no idea. It’s like the museum curator went door to door and collected antiques from the sheds of the locals. There was a collection of old typewriters, next to stuffed penguins, birds, and other local animals, next to a corporate oil drilling diorama, next to a model collection of sailing boats, next to life sized models of the prison’s most notorious prisoners. And to top it all off there was a fine arts gallery in one wing showcasing Pategonia’s local talent.
The museum was $3 dollars for Argentineans and $15 dollars for foreigners. Perhaps we should make Disneyland $50 dollars for US citizens and $250 for foreigners. Well at least you are allowed to visit the museum over a 48 hour period so I split my trip up over two days since it was getting a bit late and I wanted some dinner.
Ushuaia started out as prison city; where Argentina would send their most harden criminals. They have since transformed the prison into the oddest museum that I’ve ever been too. A couple wings of the prison were transformed into the museum with the cells holding the presentations. As cells are usually built to hold one or two people the rooms were obviously small and only one or two people could fit comfortably in each cell at a time.
This museum was a peculiar amalgamation of curios from Ushuaia and the surrounding areas with a rather haphazard approach in presentation. If you asked me what the theme of this museum was, I would have no idea. It’s like the museum curator went door to door and collected antiques from the sheds of the locals. There was a collection of old typewriters, next to stuffed penguins, birds, and other local animals, next to a corporate oil drilling diorama, next to a model collection of sailing boats, next to life sized models of the prison’s most notorious prisoners. And to top it all off there was a fine arts gallery in one wing showcasing Pategonia’s local talent.
The museum was $3 dollars for Argentineans and $15 dollars for foreigners. Perhaps we should make Disneyland $50 dollars for US citizens and $250 for foreigners. Well at least you are allowed to visit the museum over a 48 hour period so I split my trip up over two days since it was getting a bit late and I wanted some dinner.
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| Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 2 |
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 5
The town of Puerto Madryn is basically a desert, receiving a miniscule amount of rain fall during the year. If it does rain it's usually a drizzle and then the sun comes back out. So for the last three days it's rained for some portion of the day and hard at times I might add. Then today we got HAIL?!?! Really? Two of the locals commented that they've never seen hail before...gotta love global warming.
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| Puerto Madryn - Day 5 |
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 4
Today I went on a tour to observe black and white dolphin and to visit Punta Tombo, the largest colony of Magellan penguins with over half a million penguins on a small peninsula. This article from the Washington Post describes some of the penguin’s characteristics and habits.
These little guys were fun to watch as they waddled around, played with each other, and took care of the baby chicks that were starting to appear.
These little guys were fun to watch as they waddled around, played with each other, and took care of the baby chicks that were starting to appear.
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| Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 4 |
Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 3
One of the benefits of traveling is that it dramatically increases your tolerance and patience in difficult situations. It exposes you to excruciatingly slow, inefficient processes or procedures; or ones that are simply unfamiliar to you. Yet inspite of all the trials and tribulations that accompany traveling, you get the sense that it forces you to adapt and look at the optimistic aspects of the situation. You have to – otherwise you’re going to spend your vacation mopping because it invariably happens to anybody who travels extensively.
So today I took a tour of Peninsula Valdez, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to see whales, seals, and penguins but we also got to see dolphins, armadillos, a white whale (only 2-3 are born every year), llamas, and grey foxes. Oh and two flat tires. On the same back wheel. The roads are really long, dusty, and extremely rocky so I could understand how flat tires happen with some frequency. We were at our second stop checking out some seals and upon boarding the bus the driver realized we had a flat and spent about 30 minutes changing it. About 15 minutes into our drive to the next stop we heard a loud pop. It was an hour to our next destination. Luckily the back axle had two tires per wheel so we could do the drive, but we had to do it at about 15 MPH instead of 40 MPH.
After our 45 minute stop at the seal sanctuary we were suppose to go to the penguins and a museum, but they still hadn’t changed the tire or found a tire to swap out with another tour group. The driver was still staring at the wheel. Did it change itself in the last 45 minutes? Can we please have some action or progress here? Sigh. Things move rather slowly around here. Oh well, after milling around for another hour we grabbed another bus back to the city and got to see the penguins but had to skip the museum. And everything ended up OK.
So today I took a tour of Peninsula Valdez, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to see whales, seals, and penguins but we also got to see dolphins, armadillos, a white whale (only 2-3 are born every year), llamas, and grey foxes. Oh and two flat tires. On the same back wheel. The roads are really long, dusty, and extremely rocky so I could understand how flat tires happen with some frequency. We were at our second stop checking out some seals and upon boarding the bus the driver realized we had a flat and spent about 30 minutes changing it. About 15 minutes into our drive to the next stop we heard a loud pop. It was an hour to our next destination. Luckily the back axle had two tires per wheel so we could do the drive, but we had to do it at about 15 MPH instead of 40 MPH.
After our 45 minute stop at the seal sanctuary we were suppose to go to the penguins and a museum, but they still hadn’t changed the tire or found a tire to swap out with another tour group. The driver was still staring at the wheel. Did it change itself in the last 45 minutes? Can we please have some action or progress here? Sigh. Things move rather slowly around here. Oh well, after milling around for another hour we grabbed another bus back to the city and got to see the penguins but had to skip the museum. And everything ended up OK.
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| Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 3 |
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