Ushuaia

Ushuaia is on the southern end of the Argentinian side of Tierra del Feugo, at 55 degrees south latitude. It is likely the southern most settlement in the world, and so it´s tourist marketing thing is ´the end of the world´. Cruise ships for Antarctica leave from here. It seems like a sleepy little place, with one main street for shops and restaurants and another main street along the port. It is on the Beagle channel, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the Andes mountains in the background. It is quite cold, raining off and on. Apparently a couple of days before we arrived it was snowing.

Today we did a tour to the Tierra del Fuego park. It is quite scenic with hiking and camping. The southern end of it on the Beagle channel, and it reminded me a lot of the British Columbia coast.

This is also the terminus of the Pan American highway that starts in Alaska. We saw several camping vehicles and motorcycles with European licence plates that had been shipped over and the people were travelling part of the highway.

El Calafate and Moreno glacier

After Buenos Aires we flew to El Calafate, about 3 hours flight south of Buenos Aires. The main attraction here is the Glaciers national park. There are many  large glaciers in the area and there are some of the few glaciers in the world that are actually advancing.

El Calafate is a small town in the steppe, on the shores of Lake Argentina with the mountains in the background. It is very spread out and there are many wide streets with nothing on them, in anticipation of future development. The core of the town is one street with restaurants, souvenir shops, and outdoor gear shops.

We went on a tour to the Morena glacier which drops very fast down to the lake forming a massive wall of ice. We first went on a boat trip that took us within  a couple of hundred metres of the glacier, which was so close you could see not only the details of crevaces but the fine horizontal layering of the ice. The height above water is 60 m, but total height here is 180 m. Further up the mountain it is 1 km thick.

After the boat trip we went to a set of walkways with views of the glacier. The enviroment here is beautiful with lichen covered forest and brilliant red fire flower bushes. The interesting thing about the glacier is that the ice comes all the way down to this forested environment. It must move very fast.

The next day we just hung around town and relaxed. There is a lagoon near the town with, of all things, pink flamingoes. Go figure.

Buenos Aires, politics, icons, and Tango show

We had an guided city tour in the morning. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so it was difficult to get out and take pictures. The guide said it was common to have such a day of rain after several very hot days like the ones we´d had.

The city tour bus first went south along the river. The river is over 30 km wide at Buenos Aires and is 200 km wide at it´s mouth. We came up behind the main square where the cathedral was, where we had walked to the day before. In the middle of the square were many large groups of protest signs. The guide said some have been there for many years. For example, some are protesting the fact that veterans of the Falklands war never received any support or pensions, and all governments since have simply said it´s not their problem. Also, politically, it seems there is a lot of tension between the working class and the ´high society´ families who inherited the original land allotments from the Spanish crown and are extremely wealthy and powerful. I got  the impression there is a lot of corruption. For example, near the river we passed a new development of expensive condos and hotels whose value went up many times in the last few years. It just so happens that most of the people who bought into it are friends of a former president.

The city tour continued south to the San Telmo area where the market was the day before. This area is poorer and retains original Spanish architecture, compared to the wealthier northern part. Further south is an interesting area called Boca, which was settled mainly by Italians. It has very colourful streets.

Afterward the tour went back north along the river to the Recoleta area and the cemetery which we saw a couple of days before. The tour ended there and I walked to the hotel.

In the markets there are a few iconic figures that appear over and over again. One is Evita, the very popular wife of the former president Peron.

Another iconic figure is Che, of course, who was from Argentina. Another is a cartoon character from the 1960´s I´d never heard of before. The character was a  six year old girl name Mafalda, and the cartoon was very popular in Argentina and in Europe.

Another very Argentinian thing is mate, an herbal drink that is a mild stimulant like tea and seems to have cleansing properties. What´s interesting is not so much the tea itself but the way it is prepared and consumed. There is a special container and a kind of metal straw for drinking. The way the tea is put into the container, when to add water and how much, and when to put in the straw how to drink, are all very important. I got to try one myself one day.

Something else about Argentina - from the first stop in Mendoza, I´d never heard so much Beatles music. Every restaurant, cafe, street performer etc. Not that I´m complaining, but I find it interesting.

In the evening we went to a Tango show. I´d never seen Tango before, and it seemed a lot more than the stereotypical move I´d always seen portrayed. The music has strong rythms and is fast paced, based on accordian, guitar and piano. The show itself was excellent and the dancers seemed top-notch. Perfect timing and amazing presentation.

Buenos Aires

The next day we covered a lot of ground walking, going all the way from Recoleta in the northern part of the downtown core to San Telmo in the southern part. We took side streets, with no real destination in mind other than the direction towards the areas that looked interesting on the map. It was Sunday so most things were closed. The day started out hazy but became blistering hot. There is much more humidity here than, say, in Mendoza or Santiago.

We walked past some small parks and reached a square with a major theatre on one side. In the square there was a memorial to the people who disappeared during the dictatorship in the 1970s. You start to get the idea that politics is never far away, and this gets confirmed later. In fact, the following Monday is a holiday to commemorate the longest stretch of democracy in Argentina - 30 years since 1983.

Continuing on, we reached the main square of the city, with a huge cathedral on one side and the presidential palace on another. I think the cathedral is where the current pope was bishop. Inside the cathedral there is the tomb of General San Martin, and there is even a changing of the guards ceremony for the guards that stand beside it. San Martin liberated Argeninta, Chile, and Peru from the Spanish in 1810 and seems very highly revered.

We continued south, not expecting anything, really, and then stumbled onto the huge, famous San Telmo sunday market. I measured the length on the map based the streets it covered, and it is over 1 1/2 km long, and that does not include sidestreets. Absolutely incredible. Lots of tourist stuff as well as some art works and antiques. In fact the market started as an antiques market in a square at the south end, and expanded from that. It was the main place to be on Sunday and it was filled with people.

By the time we had walked through the market it was almost 6:00 pm and stalls were starting to back up. It looked the area had a lot of restaurants that opened later in the evening. We took a cab back to the hotel and had dinner near there.

Buenos Aires - Recoleta

We arrived in Buenos Aires late at night, after our flight out of Mendoza was delayed over an hour, which meant lots of waiting in the departure area.

We arrived at the Ministro Pistarini International airport, about 30 km out of town which makes for an expensive cab ride. There is also a Jorge Newbery domestic airport right inside Buenos Aires.

The next day we explored the area around our hotel, called Recoleta, which is a wealthier area in the northern part of the downtown core. It has beautiful tree-lined streets in purple blossom, and sometimes garden plots between sidewalk and street. The buildings are white and ornate of French 1800´s architecture.

It was very hot and sunny, as this is the beginning of summer.

A major tourist attraction in Recoleta is the cemetery. This is a huge area where mausoleums line walkways like buildings on city blocks. The very, very rich are buried here, including many of Argentina´s presidents and other historical figures. Some mausoleums are very ornate while some are crumbling. It makes for an interesting walk around.

Also near the hotel is a large park that on weekends is filled with a market for crafts and works of art. Most of it was very nice and not just tacky tourist stuff. Behind that is a cultural center. There was a Jazz Festival going on and free concerts were taking place in the area behind the center. In front of the parks is a street lines with restaurants for tourists.

In the evening we walked over to the cultural center again and watched one of the jazz concerts. The area was packed with people.

Winery and olive oil tour in Mendoza

I havent posted lately. I got a very, very nasty food poisoning bug in Mendoza the night before we left for Buenos Aires. Fever all night, on and off fever for a couple of days, and I couldnt eat anything. So I didnt have the energy or enthusiasm for blogging. The last of the symptoms seem to be finally clearing up, now.

On our last full day in Mendoza we did a tour in the afternoon that consisted of visiting a small family run olive oil factory, a traditional winery, and a modern winery.

The olive oil tour was interesting in that I finally found out what the difference is between regular, virgin, and extra virgin olive oil. It all has to do with the quality of the olives, level of acidity, and resulting amount of bad saturated fats in the oil. We got a brief description of the processing, and we led to a tasting room. There were olive oils with different flavours added light garlic or oregano, and we tasted them on bread. Of course the tasting room was also the sales counter. 

At the traditional winery they described the processing for making sweet wine the old fashioned way. Processing steps like clarifying the wine are done by repeatedly transfering the wine between containers, which takes much longer, whereas the modern methods use chemical and filters. Also, anything like sugars and alcohol that are added to the wine to make different types of sweeter or stronger wine (muscatel for example) are derived from the earlier processing steps of the grapes used to make the wine, rather than being obtained externally.

In the tasting room we got to try at least four different small glasses of wine, including the stronger ones. There was a bucket for dumping the wine you didnt like, but instead the people in the group just gave it to me. Hey, I wasnt driving.

The modern winery was surrounded by a large vineyard, and had the huge metal containers for making the wine and rows of wooden casks in the basement for aging the wine. We tried three different wines in the tasting room. I found out names of wines I liked that Id never heard of before, like Torontes and Carmenere.

After the tour Celene and I went to the main street in Mendoza for restaurants for dinner. Meat is very big in teh Argentinian diet, and many places have tons of meat grilling in the window. A thing to note though, the portions are MASSIVE. Literally twice what you would expect in Canada. Better to order one dish and share it. 

The next day was a travel day to Buenos Aires, and we didnt do anything else as I was quite sick.

Mendoza, Argentina

Yesterday was a travel day. Flight from Santiago to Mendoza, Argentina, and getting settled. We walked around town a bit, but theres not really much to see in town. The main reason for visiting is the area around it. This is a major wine producing area, and there are thousands of wineries around, and, it is very popular to do wine tours. Medoza is also just on the other side of the Andes from Chile, and it serves as a base for outdoor activities in the mountains such as trekking and white water rafting.

Today we did a day long tour into the mountains. Unfortunately (or fortunately, since we got some extra much needed sleep) we didn´t get the wake-up call, so when the bus arrived we had to scramble to get out the door. It all worked out, and we were on the road shortly after 8am.

It was an international group of about 20 people from Argentina, Mexico, England and Canada. The tour was mainly in Spanish, and the guide would repeat some things in English.

We headed up the highway that goes toward Chile, along the Mendoza River valley. In the foreground are fascinating multi-coloured hills due to deposits of minerals such as iron and sulphur.

 One of the most interesting stops was the Inca Bridge, which is actually a natural formation of mineral deposits.





The furthest stop was a pass near the border with Chile, at an altitude of 3200m, with great views Aconagua park, and of Andes peaks that are up to 7000m high. Beside the road ran an abandoned railway, which added a kind of feeling of desolation to the place.

We stopped for a big lunch, and most of us slept all the way back to Mendoza.

Valparaiso and Vina del Mar

Yesterday we got up early, took the subway to the bus station, an hour and a half bus ride to Valparaiso on the coast, and then in Valparaiso a taxi to the main square. The idea was to get there before the 10:00 am walking tour, and we just made it. It was well worth it. The tour took us up fascinating alleys and passageways we would have never found on our own. Our guide, Nelson, was a local. The tour started up a street with bars frequented by students - closed at this hour of the morning - were one can get a drink called 'terremondo', or earthquake, so called because apparently it is so strong that after drinking one the earth starts moving.

Valparaiso is built on steep hills leading down to the portside, and there are up to 30 furniculars around town.

Unfortunately there were closed because of the municipal strike, and we had to take the stairs.

Valparaiso is a UNESCO world heritage site because the unique character of the buildings that cover the hills - both in the architecture and the vibrant colours.

Nelson said there is a vibrant student and artistic life here. At some places they'll have a gathering and play music and make graffiti. The graffiti are works of art, and there are well known and well repected graffiti artists. Some of the walkways had spectular examples.

We ended the tour at the port, which seemed quite busy and the colourful array small boats seemed to match the town.

After the tour we joined another couple, Tim from Australia and Michelle from Brasil, for a walk up to a market place. Nelson came along as well to help show the way. Afterward the five of us took a bus to neighbouring Vina del Mar, which basically seems like a beach side resort town.

We stopped for a drink and had a nice chat for a while. Tim and Michelle met in Australia and recently got married, and have now started a business organizing destination weddings. Nelson is actually a translator and does the guiding a couple of days a week. Afterwards Nelson walked with us to the bus station in Vina del Mar, where Celene and I caught the next bus back to Santiago.

There are some downsides to being a world heritage site. Mainly, nobody is allowed to change anything to do with the architecture of their house. There was an empty lot where a house had burnt down, but nothing was built there because it would have to be an exact replica of what was there before. The colour and graffiti are OK, though. On the other hand, as Nelson saw it, if Valparaiso were not a world heritage site, it probably would have ended up looking just like Vina del Mar. Good point.

First full days in Santiago

We are staying at an apartment hotel right downtown in Santiago. The weather yesterday was very clear, with a view of the Andes over the city. The picture was taken from our window. The apartment hotel is actually only a few floors of a huge, 4 building complex of apartments, each one over 20 stories high.

We did a walking tour of the city with a group called Free Tours. The idea is that after the tour you pay by donation. It was great. The guide was a young guy from Edinburg named Johnny, who´s been living here for a year. We started in the main square of the city, the Plaza de Armas, which  has artists, performers, speakers, and people idling about. It is surrounded by a cathedral and important government buildings from the 1700s or 1800s. 

The tour covered the main parts of central Santiago: past the presidential palace and through interesting neighbourhoods like Lastarria and Bella Vista. It was about 3 1/2 hours long, and it was quite hot. Afterward we had lunch at a restaurant in Bella Vista that served home cooked Chilean food.

Today was cloudy and a bit cooler. We took the subway to the Parque Quinta Normal, a lovely vast space of trees, a little lake where people can rent paddle boats, and a waterpark for the kids. 

Next we went to the the nearby Museum of Memory and Human Rights - about the atrocities of the Pinoche regime. Unfortunately the museums are closed today because there is an election.

Overall, Santiago feels like a European city. It is very clean - which is even more impressive when you find out the municipal workers have been on strike. The people seem quite friendly and open, and public displays of affection are very common - so romantic!

It is too bad we don´t know more Spanish. In contrast to travelling in Asia, where English is like the international language, I feel more of a language barrier here, where even most other travellers speak Spanish so there is little or no information in English.

a new trip : Chile and Argentina

Well, after my aborted Japan trip, and everything that had to be done in last 6 months in dealing with my mother´s estate, in addition to being very busy at work, it is time for a long overdue vacation. This time Celene and I are travelling together. It´s the first international trip we´ve done together in quite a few years.

We decided on Chile and Argentina partly for the weather in November, and for something that neither of us had seen before.

I just realized that this is my first time south of the Equator. I can´t wait to see water going down the drain in the opposite direction:)

We arrived today in Santiago, Chile. It was a long flight: 5 hours to Toronto, layover in Toronto, then 10 hours to Chile. The view of the mountains during landing was spectacular. The landscape looks drier than I expected. Right now we´re getting some sleep in the hotel. Our hotel is very centrally located so I´m going to walk around a bit.

Santiago will be our only stop in Chile. After a few days here we fly to Argentina, where the stops will be Mendoza, Buenos Aires, and the southern tip of the continent.