TravelStream™ news feed for member mrewkowski on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/mrewkowski en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:24:55 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrewkowski/2/1234095780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrewkowski/2/1234095780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/mrewkowski/2/1234095780/tpod.html Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:24:55 -0500 Southern End of South America

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

We arrived in BA just before noon on Saturday, checked in out bags at the shuttle to the airport and head to re-explore our favourite city in the world.
It was not long before we remembered why liked it so much. Even though Saturday morning and early afternoon is very quite in downtown BA, we were quickly engulfed into the architecture, the lifestyle and magic that is Buenos. We wandered some new streets, and some old ones, and even made a random walk that took us to Palermo and the place we stayed 2 years ago. Occasionally we would stop off and remark at some building or café, that we were there and ate here and here and it seems just like yesterday that we did that.
We loved our last day in BA. It was sunny and warm, wonderful for slow walks on the streets, or sitting in cafes for fresh pastries and coffee. Our only regret was that we did not schedule more time here, probably a few days at the start of the trip, to get re-engulfed in Argentina all over again.
We were very sad to get on the bus to take us to the airport, and leave downtown and see as the suburbs slowly deteriorate, first beautiful old buildings all the way to crumbling very poor neighborhoods.
When we got to the airport, we were wonderfully surprised to see Witek and Mariela there. They had come by to drop off our sunglass case that we left at their house, along with a couple of gifts and to save us a spot in line as well. It was very nice to see them and great to feel that we have an extra set of parents all the way in Argentina.
We truly will miss them and the country.

Adios!
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Montevideo, Uruguay

We arrived in Montevideo mid afternoon, got on a local bus and headed downtown to check into an older hotel.
Then we hit the streets for some sightseeing. We had the one evening to spend here and we intended to make the most of it.
We wandered around town. It was a beautiful warm Friday afternoon. The city has a slight Buenos Aires feel to it, in that it has some older colonial style buildings. People also seem to be relatively relaxed even though they all must have been at work or just coming back from it. None of the rush rush, hustle and bustle that you see in north America. The main square (Plaza Independecia) is beautifully lined with palm trees and has a couple of very nice buildings off to one side of it. Unfortunately the other 2 + sides are surrounded by mid 80's style, kinda modern, kinda communist style buildings which leave a lot to be desired. While we were discussing their lack of appeal, we bumped into a polish couple, in Uruguay for an extended long weekend (6 days).
We spent the rest of the evening walking the streets, enjoying the old town which has a wonderfully renovated main strip with nice buildings, shops and cafes.
A lady at an information both had told us that there is a parade in town, so we went to check that out and it turned out to be the final preparations for Carnival. So we joined into the big party on the street with the folks beautifully dressed up in their shiny fancy costumes. Incredible music was blasting from the dozens of drummers walking along in their costumes. All the drums had their final preps done on the street which meant little fires here and there as the drummers stretched and tuned to their drums to the heat. Right downtown. AWESOME!
Our bus to BA was leaving at 7, so wake up was needed at 6 am. We got back to the hotel around 2, quite happy with what we got out of Montevideo in such a short time.
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Claromeco, Argentina

After 18 hours and 3 different buses we arrived in the little beach town of Claromeco. Through e-mail we had been introduced to the head of Polish Girl guides in Argentina and she said they were in a little forest by this town, and if we ask at the local gas station they would know where it is. The time was roughly 8 pm when we got into town, and there was no sign of the gas station. We asked for the forest and got a little map that showed forest on the outskirts of town. We walked down the sandy roads with tons of funky little dune buggies around and more stray dogs that you can shake a stick at. As we left the city limits (its getting late, the sun is setting, we are exhausted from now 20 hours of travel, and have NO clue where we are going) there was a small gate house to the entrance to the park/forest. We asked the ranger about scoutos polacos (that was the instructions we got). He looked at us like we were speaking Swahili. Might as well have busted out a Mambo Jumbo at him. Fortunately there was another guy in the booth who seemed to recognize part of what we were saying. They mostly explained where we were to head and we on our way into the forest. After about 20 minutes, we saw some tents a small sign that said Scoutos Polacos. We walked in to the camp and were welcomed by Basia, the aforementioned head of Polish Girl Guides in Argentina.
We spent the next 3 days with the scouts, learning their ways and sharing some of our experiences.
The weather was great and we spent some time on the beach and in the town and generally helping out as best as we could. On Saturday we folded up camp and boarded a bus with the rest of the scouts and head to Buenos Aires.

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Rio Gallegos, Patagonia, Argentina

We stopped off here for 30 minutes on the way to Bariloche. Onlything of interest is that the stop is after a 6 hour ride from El Calafate and we are currently farther from Bariloche than we were when we started. Taking the less sceneic longer route is the only option.
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El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

El Calafate is a cute touristy town, much more developed than the other Patagonian towns we had visited so far, with a pretty main strip, and much calmer weather.
We stayed at huge wooden log hostel with great balconies all around.
This is the jumping off point to go see Perito Moreno glacier, one of the last advancing glaciers in the world.
The day we went was beautifully sunny, but remarkably there was a steady 40+ km/hr wind blowing. Imagine that.
First we took a quick boat trip right up to the 60 m high face of the glacier. The multiple shades of blue were incredible. We then took a hike along the many little walkways and terraces available to get a good view of the main face of the glacier. All were full of people waiting and eagerly watching to get a glimpse of a huge chunk of ice to fall. This is apparently the thing to do here, to see and maybe take a picture or film of piece of the glacier falling off. Every few minutes you can hear a massive crack followed by what sounds like a building collapsing, but most of that happens somewhere inside the glacier and is not visible to the people on shore. But the roar is magnificent.
At one point a large piece started to break off and about 30 people rushed up from their seated positions and pulled out their cameras and started clicking away like they were guns and the enemy had just appeared. It was almost as cool to watch the people as it was to see a piece of the glacier the size of a bungalow come crashing into the lake!
This was the most breathtaking thing we have seen so far on the trip.
That evening we went to a lamb BBQ to try some famous Patagonian lamb, being made on a live fire spit, right in the restaurant. Niiice!

We also bought tickets for a 28 hr bus ride to Bariloche. A lot of reading to be done!

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Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile

Breakfast was some homemade buns by Teresa with her homemade strawberry and rhubarb jam. Absolutely Yummy. We packed our gear and headed out on the bus to the park. When we got there, the weather was not great. Very overcast, cool, and threatening to rain, but no rain. We estimated about a 4 hour hike to our campsite at the base of the lookout to the Torres, and hit the road. As the trail started to rise steeply, the rain picked up, and the clouds dropped. The mountains that were around us were becoming difficult to see because of the clouds, and there was no wind at all, hence little chance of the weather passing. After an hour we encountered some people heading down the mountain. They said the bridge that we needed to cross to get to the campsite had been washed out and there was no timetable for when it would be back up again. They were turning around. We decided to keep going and get to the Refugio (little mountain hut) to see if we could get a close view of the Torres. As we continued up the narrow slippery trail, we were passed by what looked like the ranger crew ready to start working on the bridge,... a guacho on a horse with three horses following him with some sort of equipment on their backs. No 4X4 here J
After a couple of hours we go to Refugio Chileno and got in to warm up. It was a wooden building, with a a kitchen some small rooms to sleep in, and a main hall to eat some food, warm up and dry off. We went in, made some food, had some hot tea, and try to wait out the weather. The rain had picked up and we were quite thoroughly soaked and could not see any part of the mountain. There were probably another 20 people who had similar thoughts to ours, just waiting out the weather. At one point, a small break in the clouds appeared and we ran out to get a quick picture of the towers, barely visible through the clouds and light rain.
After a while it became obvious that the weather would not clear up any time soon, and there was no news of the bridge getting fixed. So we decided to go back. Half way down the mountain, the rain eased up a bit and wind picked up (this is a common theme for us apparently.)

When we got down, the weather at the base had cleared up completely, but clouds still surrounded the peaks of the Torres. The wind was steady at around 50 - 60 km/hr and the sun was shining on us. We chilled a bit and had some food on the grass and waited until the clouds cleared from the peaks. After a while they did and the mountain looked incredible. We decided to set up camp there and try catch the peaks at sunrise. With great difficulty because of the wind, we set up our tent and used every trick in the book to get the pegs in deep enough, weighted down with rocks, protected from the wind by a picnic table. During this exercises, the wind picked up Malwina's jacket and through it into a nearby river where it was immediately swept away. On more than one occasion our big backpacks started to roll away. Putting down anything anywhere without tying it down was absolutely useless. We secured our stuff as best as possible and went to walk around a bit. When we got back, our tent was flipped over and folded up by the wind. The seemingly super stiff poles were bent in all directions. And our camping area was surrounded by grazing horses. Talk about Patagonia, wind, sun, horses and mountains! And it was starting to rain (even though it was sunny)!
We quickly decided that sleeping in a tent that was likely to fold and of course leak did not seem like fun. Others who had pitched tents also bailed and moved to the local hotel.
We decided to head back to town. On the way to the bus, we saw a group of hikers and as a gust picked up, 5 of them were swept off the road and into the ditch, and the sixth was picked up off her feet and dumped on her but right on the road. She looked like she got decked by Tyson and did not get up for a while and it turned out slightly hurt her leg.
While waiting for the bus we bumped into a few people we had seen on the mountain. We shared our wind and weather stories, but apparently we were lucky.
One couple was caught in the wind while walking on a sandy path. Their faces and hands were bloody with small scabs all over. It looked like they got the chicken pocks in the last 5 hours since we last saw them and scratched open every little pock. This was caused by the wind throwing little stones at them at what by then was close to 100 km/hr! To make matters worse, the guys backpack had been thrown into the river. He managed to save it but obviously all of his stuff was socked.
Another girl spoke of her bus ride to the bus stop. Along the way the windshield was peppered with stones and cracked all over place and started actually falling out. So the conductor with the help of some others held the windshield in place while the driver kept on going! This did not last long, as another gust came in, and swept the windshield out and away like a kite.

We got back to Porto Natales without incident, crashed at Teresa's place again, and headed out to El Calafate the next morning.

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Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile

The bus ride to Puerto Natales was relatively uneventful. We have grown accustomed to the Patagonian scenery, open barren fields, with occasional mountains popping up here and there. We arrived in town, and after some orientation problems found Casa Teresa, and checked into a small room on the second story of her house. We arranged to rent some equipment and got tickets to head to Parque National Torres del Paine. Most people do a 5-6 day trek knows as the 'W', so named because of the shape of the route. We were just going to do the right most '/' part of the W to the main look out of the three magnificent granite towers.
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Punta Arenas, Chile

The next day we set off to see one of the largest penguin colonies in South America.
Watching the penguins was really cool. You walk on a pathway only feet away from these little guys. They were only about a foot or so tall. Many of them hung around the beach and by the water. As they got food from the water, they would waddle their way inland, along little paths they had created for themselves, and go to their burrows to feed the young.
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Bariloche, Argentina

After 28 hours on a relatively comfortable bus, we finally arrived in Bariloche around 11 pm, and took a cab to what we thought was going to be our hostel. Turned out they were full. 45 minutes of wandering around the hostel area of town revealed they were all full. The last one managed to help us find a hotel that had a double room for us.
Bariloche is a picturesque town with wonderful Austrian/Swiss style wooden buildings especially the main square with the main centre and tourist office. It was packed with local tourists but great feel to it with tons of little cafes and chocolate shops (fresh made chocolate is a specialty here). The view is stunning as the town sits on the shores of a lake and is surrounded by snow dusted mountains from all other sides. Temperature was in the low 20s with clear sun all the time,... ideal for wandering around, enjoying some coffee and all around chilling.
On Sunday we decided to head to Cerro Campomento, a local lookout that supposedly has one of the top 10 views in the world according to National Geographic ( I was not able to find any such list on the internet though). We took a short ride to along the shores of the lake, which was full of beautiful villas, hotels and other picturesque buildings. Then we spent about 30 minutes hiking up to the lookout point. The view really was amazing, on a clear sunny day, the blue shimmering lake and awesome mountains around it. We could have sat there all day. This was pretty much how I envisioned Patagonia from the start and this time the expectation was met and exceeded.
We spent a couple of days in Bariloche, enjoying the weather and scenery and local chocolate. One evening in a chocolate shop, we were discussion what chocolates to get, one the fellow behind us asked if we were Polish. We said and exchanged pleasantries. He spoke Polish that sounded perfectly normal with no accent so we were shocked when he said he was born in Argentina to Argentine parents with no roots to Poland at all. He actually just randomly decided to learn Polish and went to Poland for 4 years, and now worked in Italy with polish immigrants. Incredible story. When I commented that Polish is one of hardest languages around, his exact quote was, "If you Poles can learn Polish, why can't I.". Great reason!
We also rented a car in Bariloche and headed north west to wards seven lakes road. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the drive, even though a large part of it was on very rough dirt road with tons of dust all over the place. We stopped of for some ice cream and made our way almost up to St Martin de los Andes, another small resort town in the mountains. All around were various mountains and lakes and wonderful scenery on a warm sunny day.
That night we left Bariloche and Patagonia and headed east to the coast to enjoy some beaches and see Polish scouts in Argentina
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Punta del Diablo, Uruguay

We arrived in Punta del Diablo in the early afternoon and checked into one of the three hostels here.
The town is very non descript. No paved roads, small houses, not particularly nice or special looking. Half the town is little cabanas for rent for tourists. It does have three beaches, separated by some rocky shoreline. There is a small boardwalk with the usual tourists junk for sale. And in the evennings, dozens of dirty hippies crawl out from the camp areas and try to sell teir little bracelets, anklets etc.
The beach was nice though, and the water very warm. On the second day we rented a surf board from a smaller hostel, and it came with lessons from a Diego, a 16 year old kid from Montevideo, who learned how to surf from his step dad, Fabio (owner of the hostel) who has been surfing all over the world and won some competitions.
Diego set our expectations very low. "Isss, no eeezzy. Chou weeel not be able to stand up." He was right. After trying for a few hours each, we were not able to stand up. We math managed to catch one or two waves on our bellies, but even sitting on the boad is hard. You see all those surfers out there just bobing up and down, like it is the easiest thing in the world, waiting for a wave, but it actually quite hard.
And padling around, trying to gain speed for a wave, etc is very tiring. We tried a bit, on and off all day, but with no success. It was great fun, and we very much enjoyed some local Chivitos (little steaks with fries and salds) in the evening.
Uruguayans seem similar to Argentinians so far. They have long siestas in the afternoon, eat good meat really late at night, and drink lots of Matte. Probably even more than Argentinians. Matte is this tea like thing. You have alittle special cup, absolutely stuffed with the leaves of Matte. You walk around with a big thermos, full of hot water, and add about a shot of water at a time (that is all that will fit into the cup after all the matte is stuffed in). And you drink it through a straw. Tases ok, but seems incredibly uncomfortable to walk around with the cup in one hand, and the
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