Uyuni - Yannick´s post 2

we took a long long long time trying to figure out which tour company to take for the tour. papa actually spent 2 and a half weeks trying to figure out which tour to take. On the first day we had arrived in san pedro de atacama we went in search for tours. we were going to do it with Clint and Maree ( i have written there names about ten times in the diary ), so we were getting information for them. Our hostel owner gave us a small map with the agency's area on the map and the names. He recommended 2. One which was called Estrella del sur, and papa had checked them on the net and they had good reviews. The next one was called Cordilleria, papa had seen the name before but i am not sure. In the end we chose Cordilleria because the lady who explained the tour was really confident and papa and mamma liked her.

On the bus to the Bolivian imigration office there was an American called Ken, an Isreali named Dallia and a South African named jack...later i found out that it was jacque (pron. jackh). And last of all Clint and Maree. At the border the guy told us that we had to get stamped in, in uyuni, at the end of our tour. We met three other people who were joining the other 4X4. First there was a spanish couple whose names were Ion ( pron. yon or jon ) and susana who by the end of the tour ( and during ) mamma and papa really liked.  The third one was a Belgian guy named Henric. he was really quiet and nice..I didn't even see him until we got together for lunch. After the border and before lunch we saw 3 different lakes: the white lake, the red lake and the green lake. In spanish Lago blanco (lago=lake, Blanco=white), Lago Colorado( colorado does not even mean red so i dont know the reason for the name) and Lago Verde( verde=green). White was, i think, the coolest. It was called white lake cos most of it is covered by a thin layer of ice and was full of a mineral called Borax which is white, so from far it looked white. It was PERFECT for skimming flat stones and the stone would stop and keep sliding on the ice. But the best was the ice on ice. I broke a piece of ice and held it in the air and then let it fly... the air speed and force was so much that it would land on ice and keep going until it hit water.

The green lake smelled really bad...like rotten egg. Later i realised that sulphur was what gave the lake its amazing colour and horrendous stench.

The red lake got its colour because of the algae in it. All the other lakes did not have a single animal in it...but the red lake was filled with flamingos. The walk from one side to the other next to the lake was not fun...not fun at all. It was not a long walk...but we did not see a flamingo in the path ( cause they were all at the starting and ending point) and the wind was blowing so hard that i had to bend my head down to cut the wind...and when i got tired of bending i would sit behind a rock. That was the end of the first day and we headed to the refugio. 

We were 5000 meters above sea level, and so i got a really really bad altitude sickness. It was also like -10 degrees and I have not experienced something as cold as that…and I don’t want to experience It again. I had a tablet, i vomitted and uggggghhh. but by the morning i was compeletely fine. 

Ohhh ya…before the red lake we went to a thermal pool and it was really really hot..but the problem was that mamma did not allow me to put my head into the water, so my head was freezing and my body was warm so that gave me a small head ache.

The next day we left for the rock tree, Arbola de something. Basically that was supposed to be a rock that looked like a tree. It was a volcanic rock which is basically a rock that has landed where it has due to a volcanic eruption. Once we reached there I had still not recovered compeletly from my sickness and it was cold so I did not stay out for too long.

After that we saw a million more lakes which were not impressive after seeing the other main lakes. After that we were going to a view point. The view point was supposed to be of a volcano…but nobody was interested in that as one of the tourists from another company found a cave kind of formation in the rock and so everybody took pictures of everybody sitting in it.

The day was done and we were going to a salt hotel. Hotel is not at all the right word for it… I was expecting a 3 floor building with 40 large rooms on each floor or something like that. There were 10 or 11 rooms…just enough to fit 28 people in it. There was one bathroom with a shower and the other with only a pot. But the place was really cool cause there was salt everywhere: on the ground, the walls were made out of it…the only place which was not salt was the bathroom floor. That days dinner was amazing: a huge steak. We had an early morning so I slept at about 10 pm.

The last day had arrived. Today the plan was to go to the salt flats, watch the sunrise, go to fish island or Isla de Pescadore, and be gone to Uyuni town. I was really tired cause we had to get up and be in the 4X4 at 5…. but I got to sleep till 4:55 cause I had all the clothes I needed on me. The salt flats were covered in water when we reached. We were driving on the part which was not covered by water and whenever I saw a piece of salt that was big enough to stick out of the water.. it looked like the rock was floating in midair. ( I thought it was floating cause I did not know that there was water hehe). When the sun rose we could see a double sun because the sun was getting reflected of the water….. and it looked A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We took pictures of the sun in our hand and stuff like that it was really good fun. Then we drove on and reached a dry part and stopped at a mountain kind of thing with cactus all over it. We climbed to the top and came back down. ( was a really small hill) when we were having breakfast I asked the driver when we were going to fish island. He told me that we were on the island. I was confused, but I did not ask more. Then it struck me… since the water had gone the place was dry and the water was around it..it was an island….but “fish” island. I did not understand. After Breakfast we were going to take perspective pictures. Perspective pictures are basically when you take an object and put it right in front of the camera so it looks big and put the person far away so it looks like the object is bigger. Then you make the bigger thing do something to the smaller. We took THOUSANDS of those pictures…some of which were useless but we got some good ones.

The tour was done and they were going to take us to Uyuni. But before dropping us of they took us to a train graveyard. It was where there were many broken down trains. I thought it would be cool if I got a picture of me on top of a train. So I climbed on top of a train and suddenly I look around and everybody was climbing a train…. Copycats. We got more good pics and that was the end of a great great great tour. 

yannick 

Buen provecho

The food in Chile has been a revelation. After Argentina we were not too sure of what to expect, so I'm guessing our expectations were pretty low, or at least thats what Mauricio, our Columbian friend who we stayed with in Santiago attributes to our excitement! The wine here is even better. To be fair, the Argentinian wines are fantastic too . Chile produces a wine called Carmenere, the grape for which is only grown here. It is a fantastic wine and a great bottle costs under $5, much cheaper than beer and sometimes even water! A really good reserse, won't put you back more than $10-$12. In Rupees that is between Rs 150 - 500. Pisco Sour is the national drink. Its a kind of Cashacha drunk mixed with a lime mixer. Its sweet, but quite nice. Pretty potent like a  grapa really. They make a similar drink in Peru but its a little more evolved. They add some spice, egg white etc and so its not that sweet. I liked the peruvian version more. Chileans also have a sangria equivalent, generally made with cheap red wine in the winter, and white in the summer. Basically its wine with some sweetner, and strawberries. Its very refreshing and a pretty damn good drink! Would be nice on a hot Mumbai sunday afternoon!

The staple food as one would expect with a country that has a coast line this long, is sea food. They make a soup called Palle Marinara which is basically all sea food they can get their hands on cooked together eaten as a soup. It has shrimp, octopus, mussels, squid, fish and some stuff I haven't encountered before. I like the concept, but somehow cooking all this together did not hit the spot. The flavour of the different sea food all meld together so you can't really taste each component which is shame when you have quality sea food in the broth. Chilean food uses a spicy sauce called Aji Pembre and a chile they called Merken, both of which make me feel a little more at home. They also have a lot of different kinds of food including choclo etc, which I can't describe since we didn't eat it!! Its kind of tough to get decent Chilean food in Santiiago, and outside of Santiago we did not really know what to order in terms of local cuisine.

Chilean food comprises a lot of vegetables and hats fascinating in how inexpensive the Avacados are. We ate tons of Avacadoes, on bread, in salads, and just as a snack! Dominoes, a popular  local burger chain, makes a great Chilean version of the burger. Lots of veges, a huge slice of meat, really well grilled, but they use too much mayo. Luckily that  can be controlled if you take on the chef early enough. Naturally, he  just can't undertand how any amount of Mayo is too much!

We ate a fish preparation that was divine. The waiter could not expain what fish it was so I guess it will remain a mystery for sometime. It was fish but tated more like lobster, and the sauce  it  was cooked in was a slightly spicy beautiful sauce. You could taste the sauce but the fish did not lose its own flavour!

The meat is great, and cooked beautifully. The sanwiches fantastic! The  empanadas are very popular but not my favourite. They make them with mussels which is great when its fresh, but if its a few hours old then it gets a uncomfortable sea smell. We also ate barbecued  lama meat, a bit too tough, fatty and gamey for me!

One intersting thing about the meat especially the beef in both Argentina and Chile is that they use the cut with fat. This makes the meat cook a lot nicer and the barbecued fat is great! Not sure its doing anyone a favour health wise, but rarely is something that taste this great, healthy!

We also got to taste some Colombian food, by far the most exciting food I've  had on this trip. Bandega Paille I think it was called. Basically consisted of beef mince in a Indian type masala although not spicy, rice, chorizo, pork skin that was fried and a bit hard to eat, plantains like the ones we get in Kerala that were fried, and a friend egg on the rice. The flavours were amazing! We also tried a chicken in muishroom sauce with coconut rice! The rice was a bit sweet but it was all amazing! 

Btw every Colombian we have soo far encountered has been real fun and make a huge effort to be friendly!Pity we won't make it to Colombia this time, but I guess the icing on the cake is that this forces us to make another trip tp these parts soon!

Bariloche

The Road to Bariloche was a painfully long one. The bus started at 3 in the afternoon, would not stop at any decent hour for a meal and was generally uncomfortable. It did not help that the landscape was boring. Once you 've done enough 20 + hour bus rides you very quickly realise that the best rides are the ones that start in the morning and end after a night’s sleep. This one was a 28 hour ride that ended being some 31 hours so we had a full next day in the bus. At about 7 just as we began to get really itchy the landscape changed. The mountains were covered in huge green conifers, and lakes, big and small, dotted the valleys. We were passing through El Bolson. In a couple of hours we reached Bariloche. The first sight that you catch as you enter Baricloche is the huge Nahuel Huapi lago. It questions every belief I had of what constitutes a lake. NH is huge, has waves that actually break.

We stayed at the Las Moiras, one of our favourite hostels yet, not only for the hostel itself, but the staff too. Bariloche is a pretty little town on the edge of the lake districts. It is considered safe and seems to be home to lot Partenos who got tired of the big city life in Buenas Aires. We happened to reach on the day that it was celebrating its 100 something anniversary. The town was festive, and it was nice to be part of a huge crowd, the first since we left New York some 2 months ago. Yannick got himself some cotton candy as the fireworks lit up the sky.

That morning we trekked up to Cerro Campanaria, according to many one of the top 10 views in the world. The trek itself was about an hour and a half but up a stiff incline. We got glimpses of the view we would see, but nothing prepared us for what we saw when we reached the summit , a huge water body with beautiful islands covered in trees with leaves in green or bright yellow. On one island was a small log house with smoke coming out of its quaint chimney...enchanting. The lakes were set against the Andes, and that made the whole scene even more spectacular.

The next day we hired a car and drove through the 7 lakes. These lakes are huge and they make the lakes in Scotland look like little wading pools. Once again the fall colours with the lake as a foreground was stunning. It was cold, as low as -5 C but the sun was out. It felt really strange. Ice along the roadside, something I was particularly worried about since I had never driven in these conditions and I had enough on my plate driving a left hand drive for the first time and trying to keep the car on the right lane instead of the left. The real difficulty is when you get to a round-about, but luckily the route we took was pretty devoid of traffic so it was easy to acclimatise. The drive was beautiful, and we even stopped by the side of a beautiful little river, not much bigger that a stream really, to eat our sandwich lunch. I skimmed pebbles in the water with Yannick and it took me back to my school days. Tom, a young Londoner who  was taking a few months off to travel before heading to university at Cambridge joined us on the drive as we had room for one more in the car. The little towns we stopped in enroute were picturesque, especially Villa Angostura. We stayed the night in San Martin de los Andes and took off to El Bolson early next morning. We took another route back and once again we were blown by the natural beauty of this route. Seeing huge horse grazing along the gravel road added to the ethereal effect.

El Bolson was a 7 hour drive and I was kind of tired by the time we got there but we had a trek to we wanted to do, and only a few hours before it got dark, so we headed straight to the tourist info office to register ourselves. This is something you have to do before heading into the mountains because it is very easy to get lost in the dark. 

MUH ME LEH

Something that stare you in the face is how polite people are in this part of the world. This politeness is a very deeply ingrained way of life here. No offence to my American friends, but the politeness here seems to  be much more genuine and heartfelt, than the practised almost perfunctory politeness you see in the US. I apologise to my Latin American and Central American friends for calling my friends from the US American. Having complained about the US or people from Estados Unidos, as they are known here, I begin to think about us Indians. I wrack my brains to find words or phrases for cheers, or health, as the term transalates in most other cultures used before sharing a drink, or a word for Bon Apetite or Bon Provecho, its spanish equivalent before a meal. Muh Me Leh somehow just doesn't have the same ring to it!!

I love the fact that everyone greets everyone, whether on a street, in  a mall, or in an apartment building. Little todlers will scream Hola when you pass, and others will always have a Buenos Dias or Buenos tardes , or Buenos Nocches for you as you make eye contact. No conversation starts without a Con Permiso, Perdon, or Per favor, and rarely will an exchange not end in a Gracias.

I guess we Indians can add a few words to our vocabulary and learn a more few things besides learning how to stand in a queue.

Photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/page3/

click on the link. check out page 2 nd 1 too. 

The Cuisine - As I see it

One of the exciting aspeccts of traveling in South America is the food,or so we've always heard. Its been a mixed bag! The food in Brasil is interesting.

Breakfast is great! Breads, cheese, mortadella (a kind of ham), spreads and tons of fresh fruit. Great coffee, and juices. Who can complain!

As can be expected luch or dinner is basically a lot of beans, in dark shades of purple, in an interesting sauce, a little different from what we make in India, lots of rice or Aroz as they call it, once again just a little different from our rice. They cook it with some stuff thrown in , not just plain simple rice. Mandioca, something we have never seen is a key ingredient. Mandioca is a root, I think, looks like sweet potato, but tastes nothing like it. The Brasilian will use Mandioca in all forms in every meal. Dryed mandioca powder is always dropped on top of the rice and beans combo. I disked it because it kind of dries out the food too much and has a sand like texture...I can see my Brasilian friends waiting to have a go at me for that comment. Lots of fresh fish, meat, not too overly flavoured, but nice enough to make it great. They also eat a lot of vegetables like brocolli, spinach so all in all a nice mix. Lots of coconut in everything so I'm generally a happy man.
Before the meal you eat a starter that is a kind of pie. It is just fantastic! The one I really enjoyed was a crab meat mixed with some herbs. Really exciting flavours and texture. They also do the pastels. These are large samosas with either meat, ham, sea food, or chicken inside. Often time you have the option of adding queso or cheese, or you can get pastels that have only cheese. The cheese is pretty good too, not the same as Italy maybe but nice enough.

The best part of the Brasilian cuisine is fruit! The freshest, most exotic fruits especially in the form of Jugo or juice. The mangoes are huge, 3 times the size of the biggest mango you'll find in India, and a juice is 2 mangoes simply run through a blender, divine, and inexpensive. Sugarcane juice, or jugo de cana, is a another favourite! A tad too sweet for me but since no sugar is added, you have to respect the drink.

Desert is either portuguese as in fantastic caramel custard they call flan, or coconut based. They have this fantastic desert that is basically acai (a local very popular fruit), coconut shavings, lots of sweet syrupy stuff poured on top. Again too sweet but very very interesting.

Drinking in Brasil, is generally kept simple, Beer or Casacha. The beer really sucks except for one called Bohemia which is barely decent, and otherwise the beer our friends Ronaldo , Thiago and team brew(fantiastic beers). He will take over the beer market if he puts his beer out into the marklet. As someone with some advertising background, i have suggested the naked girl on a horse commercial (will need to get the rights from Ali G) to hit TV stations just before the world cup. Any ideas that could work better will be listened to and evaluated carefully.

Casacha is something else. They have all kinds of flavours and mixes so it is tough to really commnet on the Casacha itself. get you nice and drunk quite quicky, no hangover so thats a good drink for me. Without any mixers or falvours, I did not love it!

Oh yeah, last but not least is the Brazilian love for Chocolate milk ! Funily enough I think this love overpowers even their love for coffee. Full grown adults will drinks litres of the stuff. NESCAU is the favoured brand! So Yannick fit in completely.

Now we get to Argentianian food - meat...meat...and well, meat! Well done, very well done! Great meat by itself, the beef is the best but man its boring! No seasoning, sauce or veges to go with it, nor do they eat fruits. Pasta is their second staple, only its overcooked and the sauces are generally runny. Breakfast is sweet and basically non existant. Their all time favourite is Dulce de Leche, or a form of super sweet condensed milk. They do have an interesting biscuit/sweet called alfagor and they do make some decent empanadas or baked samosa like snacks with a filling. In Patagonia, its not beef but lamb that is favoured. Once again the meat itself is really good, but the preparations aren't very creative. Not terribly exciting but not bad! Basically the Argentinian philosophy to food is why waste space on eating anything other than meat. Exciting as a thought but very soon it gets downright boring. I believe on average an Argentinian male could easily eat 500 g of assado or grilled meat for one meal!

Not to put down Argentinian food, but it isn't something for a palate that is used to a lot of seasoning and flavour. We did have a great meal including the best steak *in terms of the quality of the meat) that I've had at DesNivel in BA that included a great provolone starter, ate great fusion food at a Effimero Festine , a friend Carolina's restaurant, but all that was not really enough for us to feel too excited about the general cuisine.

My different point of view to the trip - Yannick

After all those blogs by papa I have to tell everybody my point of view about our adventure. We started off in rio ( I know you know that, but anyway ), which was amazing. One night my parents and the people we were staying with (ronaldo and renata ) were going to a bar and so they asked them what they would do with me and they casually said " he'll come with us ".At first I thought they were joking but apparently in Brasil KIDS  are allowed into bars !!!!!  Well I thought they would be partying and dancing and all of that, but what do I say, you adults are soooooooo Boring. I mean on days you want to have fun and all that you go to a bar, and your idea of a fun night in a bar is talking to people with a glass of beer in your hand. Or maybe that's just with my parents and you do more fun things than THAT ( hopefully ) !!!!!!! My parents kept saying Rio is 'naturally blessed' ( I'm sure papa had written it in the blog ). I did not really care about the naturally blessed part and all that, but rio was amazing even otherwise.

We then went to Minas Gerias which to me was actually not so great. In minas we went to SJDR which was really boring. And tiradentes which was pretty and all that but it looked like a town for old people ( not as in older than me,  like 70 or 75 year olds ) who just want to sit around looking at the sky. In tiradentes we had heard from some one that we could do trek to the spring of a water fountain which was in supposedly the center, but it looked like it was in the furthest part from the center, in the city of 4 blocks by 4 blocks. The trek was a complete waste as we went a long way, it was not at al hard but it was long, and then just came to a dead end. The trek was full of beautiful vegetation and all that...but whats the point if you go for a trek to find some thing and then just reach a big dead end.

We went back and forth from rio to other places because we wanted see other places but we had to be close to rio cos we had to receive our chile visas. After that we said bye to rio and left for ilhe grande. Ilhe grande was nice but if it was known for it's beaches I would not be impressed. The sea did not have a single wave, just calm waters in which u can just sit next to and gaze at. I would have put ilhe grande in my bad books if what happened the next day did not happen. Early next morning, about 11 o' clock (I know that's not early but anyway ) we made plans to trek up to a water fall. By 11:30 we reached the trekking track. It was a 5 km trek. The path was...up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill and it went on and on like that. Midway or 1/4 the way a huge ( about 3 foot ) snake slithered right in front of me!!!!!! I did not spot it until It got into the grass!!!!!! I could have stepped on it!!!!!!! Well that was NOT the reason that changed my opinion of Ilhe grande. The waterfall was amazing.....mamma said she wanted to get under the waterfall. Which at that point, I thought was a stupid idea cos the waterfall was like an air conditioner from on the rocks 15 feet away. I knew they would freeze to death so I decided not to get under the fall even though I had swimming shorts on. So mamma got out of her clothes and  was in her bikini and papa took of his shirt and they went in. Just as they got In this couple  reached the place I was at. Even they started getting ready to go into the falls. ( I don't think they would have if mamma and papa weren't in already. As soon as they got in papa dragged me in as well. He helped the woman get right under the fall. When I reached under the fall I stayed only for 1 pic. It was freezing. And mamma who won't get into the sea unless it's not at all cold was relaxing on a rock under the fall.

After we got out we started to chat with the couple. Their names were nana (which i thought was a short form but i was wrong ) and andreas .We found out they were german and they had sailed across the Atlantic in a sailboat which  was 38 feet!!!!!!!! They asked us if we had plans and all that so we made plans to cook dinner on their boat.  We bought some ingredients and everything and got onto a 'dingy'. Andreas rowed the dingy to Their boat...which I think was quite hard cos there were 4 other people to row. Once we got into the boat he told us that we were gonna go to a quieter place and papa sailed or drove or whatever you call it halfway and the next half I sailed. It was fun but 5 mins from the destination there was a spider on the wheel and, I have a phobia of them, I got distracted and kept going right and so Andreas had to steer the boat back to the proper course.

We then went snorkelling, which did not work cos it was to big and the water got into my eyes....but even without the snorkelling gear I saw zebra fish, a huge starfish and  some weird glowing thing. After getting back we ate Doritos and drank coke ( adults drank beer and mamma drank juice ). Dinner was pasta and some fruit or veggie.

The next day we left Ilhe grande, nana and Andreas gave me some crepes which I ate on the bus Journey to Sao paulo............in Sao Paulo we were gonna couch surf for the second time in the trip with this girl called luiza. Well Sao Paulo was fun but it was not touristy at  all..........Which is completely fine by me as they had many parties and I played füsbal. We stayed at luiza's grandmothers house as there was no place in her house ( actually she stays with her parents, she's 25 ) cos her parents and her sister Maria, who is 16, her brother henrique and herself. I have realised that I get quite lonely in hostels and all that, but I love couch surfing....it's more fun.

It was easter sunday on one of the days and luiza was going to take us cycling around the city cos on sunday, from 7 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon there is this thing where one lane of the road is shut down for bicycles. mamma didn't wanna come cos she wanted to help luiza's dad make the easter lunch. The bicycle thing was supposed to be 7 kilo meters or something....but i think luiza must have been thinking about the number 7 when she said that or maybe she was going to mutiply it by 4, but she forgot. Affter 7 kilometers passed luiza told me we had half way to go. once the next loooong 7 kms got over i thought we were back but for some reason i did not regonise this place as the one where i rented my bike. And of course this was only the the half way stop. so when i asked luiza where we supposed to leave our bikes and she told me that we had to go back...i was wondering if 7 k was actually that long. cos im sure i would have done 7 k in 20 mins in a car. the ride back was really hard cos we did not even have any water with us....and it was raining...it was not raining heavily, but heavily enough to make me tired even quicker. after the terrific bike ride there was easter lunch. it was not even really easter but luiza parents were not going to be there the next weekend which was the real eaaster..so they decided that the party was gonna happen that day. It was mamma's b'day so we ate cake and all that. But the best part was playing foosball. luiza had invited a lot of people...so when me and maria went to the basement to play foosball a whole lot of people followed. One of luiza's friends named Corneilio was 6 foot 10 inches tall, and he was the 2nd shortest amongst the 5 who made his basketball team!!!!!! luiza had only 1 rule and that was if someone beat the opponent 10/0 then the loser has to go under the table. Papa and Cornelio lost to someone 10/1 which just saved Cornelio the trouble of getting his 6 foot 10 inch body under the table. Later  on maria and me beat papa and cornelio 10/0 and the picture of Cornilio trying to get under the table was priceless.

We then went to foz do iguaźu. Well this waterfall made the one in ilhe grande look like.....a needle in a hay stack......a very very big hay stack!!!!! The Brazilian side was nice and all that but all we did was look at it......and well get soaked by the spray of water ( that was fun ). On the Argentinean side we took a boat ride to get under the falls. That was probably the most amazing thing I have experienced with nature. We saw 3 or 4 rainbows, got completely soaked  and had fun.

Buenos Aires was our next target. The bus we took to get there was called "rio uruguay". It was the best bus ever.......they gave us snacks, drinks ( they gave papa whisky, liquor and last of all champagne ). We thought maybe the buses in Argentina were better than in Brasil. My first impression of buenos aires through a taxi window ) was: New York. Everybody was wearing black, it was busy with people on the streets and all that. The hostel we stayed in was a rubbish hostel. Breakfast was basically just bread and.....a replacement for butter. One day they forgot to even give us breakfast!!!!! But even now papa says it was the second best place we stayed in because of the people ( not only the staff ) we met in the hostel. The highlight of buenos aires ( for me ) was the footballgame. It was between 2 teams I had never heard of. The fans of the team I was supposed to support were all yelling abuses at the other team. All ages, kids, adults, grandfathers. So when children abused the parents would tell them to stop, and 2mins later they will start abusing. My team won the match. It was great fun.

The next best thing we did in BA was lujan zoo, it was great...i got to pet and hold lion cubs and tigers, but i was not allowed into the older lions cage...which was a bummer. But it was really good fun. since the keepers liked us a lot they asked  us if we wanted to take the cub to its mother...so i got to carry the cub outside the cage which was amazing. On the last day in Buenos aires one of our friends, Gaby, told mamma that her friend wanted her to cook an Indian meal, at her restaurant,  for lunch. The meal was not at all spicy...but for gaby she could not even finish half of the food on her plate. Her friend Carolina had no problem and she loved it.

Peurto madryn was the next destination. we basically went there because some travellers we met recomended it . The main thing we were gonna do was a tour. We had many options but we chose the "peninsula valdez" tour. the tour was gonna take us to see penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and orca which are basically just killer whales named differently cos killer whales dont kill anything but thier food and they are dolphins, not whales. The guide told us that seeing the orca is very rare. he told us that only 10% of the tourists see them, and this tour is taken every day. The guide kept telling us we probably wouldn't see the penguinds as they were starting to leave. but we were lucky and we even saw the ORCA!!!!!!!!!!!

The hostel in peurto madryn was the best one ever, it was just amazing. if i ever go back to Peurto madryn then i will definitely stay there.  The end of the world was coming up. Ushuaia was reallllllly beautiful. You could see the mountains from the hall in our hostel, which was pretty cool. We went for a trek up to a mountain, and for the first time I saw snow!!!It was proper snow when we got to the mountain area, not just some stupid, lame ice that you cant even make a snowman out of. although the snow was so cold that it burned my hand when i tried to make a snowball.  Next we walked around, took pics with the end of the world sign, typical for travellers in ushuaia.  That was it for the end of the world, i think people only go there, for the fact that they can say " ohhh i been to the end of the world and all that hocus pocus.We took a flight out if Ushuaia to El calafate, cos it was the same price as the bus AND it was shorter AND we wouldn't have to go through the chilean border.

In El Calafate, on the first day we walked around town and this dog followed us for hours. I named him woof. i would keep throwing stones into the lake and he would bound after them and jump into the freezing waters. Once we got into town i could not see him and i suddenly saw him jump into a car and drive of with a lady.
The next day we trekked on a glacier...it was the most amazing trek I have ever done. I never thought it would be so easy to walk on ice. The tour guides explained everything very well. It was lot of fun. In the end there was a surprise which was whisky with glacier ice, but I only got to drink water.

The glacier looked like the description of Mount Diablo in Heroes of Olympus except that it was flat and spiky rather than tall and spiky. It was huge, 30 kms long, adn 70 feet high outside the lake and 110 feet below the water.

I hope the trip continues like the glacier walk...and I have a strong feeling that it will. I thnk thats probably the most positive thing i have said since bieng above 10 years old. The trip is definitely changing me

yannick

The trekking capital

Something I forgot to mention in my last post,  was the surprise we had at the end of the Glacier trek in Perito Moreno. We walked into something that looked like a small landing on the ice and were greeted by a treasure box. Inside this box was a bottle of whisky... a very welcome sight  indeed. The guide then hacked some ice off the glacier wall and Whisky on the rocks took on a new meaning! Great touch I thought!

Our plan was to head out to Torres Del Paine in chilean Poatagonia the next day but we kept hearing about bad weather conditions, and cancelled treks. Torres del Paine has a beautiful but very tough trek called the W. It is a 4 day trek and if the weather is bad some parts of the trek can be life threatening! we heard a few horror stories as the wind was blowing at aroudn 90 k all week. Taking into account the cost, the chance of a cancelled trek and the time we would waste, we decided to cancel. The saving grace was that El Chaltan was in many ways similar to Torres del Paine but much smaller.

We took the early morning bus to El Chalten and planned to spoend the day trekking there. As soon as we reached El Chaltan we regretted not staying on for a few days. El Chaltan is the trekking capital of Argentina, and it is beautiful! Mount Fitzroy is the peak to try and get to but that is out of question at this time of the year. This rock edifice stan upright in the middle of the Andes. It is a strange sight because it is structurally nothing like its surroundings. Sheer, with a greyish tone, and ice capped, it sits near by a beautiful lake. We trekked to a viewing point and then to this lake where we had our home made sandwiches and drank pure water from the lake. The trek takes about 5 hours in total and it is quite a climb but the fall colours with the beautiful canyon below and the mountain on the other side makes it enchanted. the weather was great, the sun shone right through the day while the temperature were around 10 /12 C so it was perfect. The trek take you through streams and rivulets, beautiful little bridges, some fantastically huge trees, and leaves of yellow and red.

If we hadn't already bought out tickets to Bariloche for the next afternoon, we would have definitely stayed on to do a few more treks. At least we got to walk in a part of the earth this beautiful!
The next afternoon we jumped on a bus, semi cama this time, and started another 20 hour ride to Bariloche.

The river that froze

El Calafate is a small town with beautiful views of the Andes. Located on the banks of Lago Argentina, it is the popular base for all southern Patagonia travelers, being just a few hours away from both EL Chaltan, the trekking capital of Argentina, and from Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, touted to be one the most beautiful national park in South America.

The main attraction of Calafate is Los Glaciers National park, home to some 47 odd decent sized Glaciers including Perito Moreno, the only stable glacier in the world. The Los Glaciers National Park is the largest ice cap after Greenland and Antartica.

Interestingly, the name Calafate comes from a local berry and not from its main attraction, so as you can expect everything from Calafate liquor to calafate flavoured ice cream (not too bad, a bit like our Jamun) to Calafate snacks inundate their markets.

We arrived in the afternoon and after settling into our hostel, decided to spend the day walking around the lake. Yannick befriended a large dog and named him woof. Woof followed us around for 3 hours. Yannick would throw stones into the freezing lago and Woof would jump in after the stones. We saw what looked like a pink tint on the far bank of the lake and as we reached there we saw that it was a group of some 30 Flamingoes! Beautiful graceful birds. There were also swans, swans with black necks, fluorescent green ducks, and so many other birds that we unfortunately could not recognise. El Calafate and the area around is home to Eagles, Falcons and Condors and seeing a falcon sitting on a wire fence along side the road you realise how majestic a bird he is.

Anyway, woof continued to walk around with us and even re entered town when we did. I was getting a little worried as Yannick was now asking if we could take him back to Bombay with us. Suddenly, woof was not around, and Yannick looked back only to see him jump into a car and drive away. Argentina is full of dogs that roam around free of leashes or collars. It is quite an amazing sight to see them that free.

The next day we were headed out to see the glacier. My expectations were pretty low, and the trip was bloody expensive. A hour or so drive took us into Los Glaciers National Park. The park is beautiful, with the water on one side and different kinds of vegetation on the other. Finally we turn a bend and get our first view of Perito Moreno! I was stunned ! I felt the river had frozen in its path! The glacier is huge, some 30 kms long. At the point where is suddenly decided to stop freezing the water, it forms a wall of ice that is about 70 feet high above the water level and 110 feet below the water. This giant wall is inundated with crevices and has a very craggy upper layer, something I did not expect. These crevices reflect a blue that I have not encountered before.

We took a boat and sailed close to the wall of ice before being landed on the opposite shore from which we had taken off. From here we trekked a short distance to the Glacier and got our crampons tied to our feet. Crampons are like rudimentary roller skates that we grew up with, expect that they have 6 steel pegs instead of wheels. You need to walk with your legs apart and you need to crunch the crampons into the snow as you walk. We trekked on the glacier for a couple of hours and saw some incredible crevices. They were deep and blue and scarily inviting! Yannick was designated co pilot and enjoyed his duties leading the pack. To see a piece of ice calve off the glacier and fall into the water is quite something, but what is of much greater impact is the huge sound it makes.

A few hours later, we had our packed sandwiches at the base of the Glacier, headed up to a few different view points from where we got a view of the whole Glacier which is when we realised how big it really was. Perito Moreno isn't the largest glacier in the park, Viedma is the largest, but unlike every other Glacier that is shrinking, Morena continues to stay stable.

Fin Del Mundo

Puerto Madryn had been fantastic not only for the marine wildlife, the hostel, and the fantastic fellow travellers we met. We hung out with a crazy Italian Luca, a slovenian couple Miha and Nusa, met a bunch of others so it felt a little meloncholy as we left to the bus station.

The bus was a long one. Travel south to Rio Gallagos which is a 20 hours ride, switch buses and then do another 11 hours to Ushuaia. We cross the Chilean border and then get back into Argentine territory. This of course, is painful especially because the Chileans are painful about carrying anything organic through thier country. We were warned, but took a chance with some kori gussi masala we were carrying. They ran our bags through an x ray machine but we were let go. We heard later that someone got fined €150 for carrying in one apple! Not taking any more chances with the Chileans!

Ushuaia is the southern most town in the world. From here, you can do boat trips to Antartica if you are a millionaire but the reason most travellers go here is for that photograph with the Fin Del Mundo sign but there is more to this town. Glacier Martial for instance is a beautiful glacier a few hours trek from the city.

We decided to do the trek. The mountians here are not that high, but they are snow covered. It was cold and snowing. We had arrived at the perfect time, fall. The colours were beautiful. The trees were in reds, yellows, and green against a white snow background. The treks themselves were closed, but you can venture up if you want to, and so we did. We trekked for a about 2 hours through some of the most stunning scenery until we hit the snow. Walking on the snow was an experience I won´t forget. It has been years since I experienced something for the fist time and I felt like a child. The sound of the crunching ice was exhilarating.

We ended up spending a couple of days here and then decided to fly out to El Calafate since we got an air ticket for just a little more than a bus ticket. Thinking about the Chilean border post, the 11 hours to Gallagos again, and then another bus ride to Calafate made it an easy decision.

Taking the flight was a strange, but nice experience after all the buses. Even forgot to take out my Victorinox from my hand bag! Anyway an hour later we were in Calafate!

More Pixs ...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/page1/

People

Thought I must add a small note on what I think has been the best part of our travels so far. The places and things we hav seen have taught us a new respect for nature but what is more surprising in the way we people can be when we travel. We' ve met and spent time with people from all kinds of places and of all ages (sadly not one kid yet) and they have all been wonderful, open in sharing their info, and taking us into their worlds without suspicion or asking questions about each others motives. I wonder what the world would be if we could all be this way in our everyday life.

Burnos Aires

Is a contradiction, majestic colonial buildings, dog poo laden streets, charming street markets that criss cross dilapidated poorer sections, a certain strange pride mixed with a snob  attitude that lives alongside a general deep dissatisfaction with the way life is.
The city itself is interesting but in a big city way. The street market in San Thelmo is great fun. Ate the best steak I've eaten at a quaint assadora caled Des Nivel.
The food is meat and nothing else so not very exciting. No salads, no soups, no spice, no salt so after the initial excitement of seeing a beatiful t-bone or rib eye , the dryness of all of it catches up. Also the steak here is well done, no medium or rare options. This meant we cooked a lot.
Once again met a friend of a parteno (as people from BA like to be known) friend of mine Ana. Gaby was super ! She spent the weekend and another day hanging out with us , taking us to the local spots. She even introduced us to a friend if hers who has abeautiful little restaurant. Anu cooked a beautiful kori gassi at the restaurant the next day. Oh yeah she is carrying the masala.
We stayed at a hostel called Kilca that another friend Julietta had suggested. Not the greatest hostel in terms of amenities but the people more than made up. We felt we were at home and made some great friends.

Took in a football game , a classico between arch rivals Racing and Independiente. The atmosphere is unexplainable. It starts 4 hours before the game as the fans drive to the stadium, singing screaming but mainly cursing a very specific anatomical
Part of thier opponents mother. This curse is joined in by all ages and sexes. Yannick had a permanent smile and after a while joined in the tirade. I was hard pressed to find a reason to stop him. The stadium shook, smoke bombs were set alight To the point where visibility was about 4 feet. Fans danced on the moat wall and the drums joined in.
The game itself was ordinary but Racing , our team won, beating Independiante after 5 years! The visiting fans left and we were only allowed out half an hour later, smart given the general mind set around.

Ate our first chori pan or chorizo in a bun . Fell in love with it.

We walked around BA a lot, did all the touristy stuff like the Casa Rosada where  Eva Peron addressed he people, went to Palermo etc and then went. 2 hours out of town to find Lugan zoo.

I have ethical issues with all Zoos but this was one where most of the animals were born on the zoo which somehow made it a bit easier to deal with. The zoo authorities claim that their caring methods , feeding them since birth and growing up around dogs and other domesticated animals make them less aggeesive than they could otherwise be. Not sure I like the idea of  big cats behaving like domesticated animals but we got to play with lion cubs, Yannick even carried a 1 month old from it's enclosure to it's mother.  While I still believe animals should only be in the wild, I must admit that carrying  a lion cub was quite something ! At least the animals were definitely not sedated.

Patagonia

5 days in BA and we were ready to continue our journey. I could feel the difference in the way we approached travel.  We were cooking a lot more, making and hanging plans after chatting with fellow travellers, and taking decisions a lot easier. I began to feel the need for a netbook. Every place we were in had wi fi and using Yannick's I touch and Nu's I phone was ok for email but tough when you need to research the next destination. Watching films on long bus rides would be nice too. Anyway did not fond a decent prized one in BA.
We were headed to Puerto Madryn on the east coast of Argentina. It is the stop for a fascinating peninsula in the Atlantic called Peninsula Valdes, home to Penguins, Elephant seals , Sea lions, huge number of birds like the condor with a wing span of 3 m, and whales. We arrived whenthe whales had not yet come in, and the penguins were leaving.
Patagonia, the aouthern most province in Argentina iis one of the most blessed places in the world when it comes to nature and marine wild life. Beatiful coves, bays, glaciers, desidous forests and unbelievble wild life. Peninsula Valdes is special not only because of the marine wildlife but also because it is the only place in the world where the Orca or killer whales as they are unfortunately called in English, beach themselves to catch baby sea lions. They have learnt to, and teach their young this belly leap technique. This means we have the chance to see Orca on or really close to the beach. We need to be real lucky! From June to december this is where the whales breed so huge numbers of them can be seen from real close quaters. Of course all this makes Patagonia near unaffordable even during the off season.
Patagonia also has the most unpredictable weather, they say you can get all 4 seasons in one day. We had to finally open our vacumm bags and take out the warm clothes. The wind in Patagonia regularly blow at over 60 k , add to that temperatures below 10 C and we realised how under prepared we were.
We lucked out and found La Tosca, by far the nicest hostel we've stayed in. The trip to the peninsula turned out to be fantastic. We saw the last 5 pengunins, 2 elephant seal colonies, sea lions and finally something leapt out of the ocean 10 metres from the beach. Another followed almost immediately. I thought they wee dolphin but they had the black and white bodies and were larger . THE ORCA , 4 of them majestically leaping in and out of the water! To be in the presence of such a being is to be blessed! We watched mesmerised hoping they would beach. We did not have ti deal with The ethical conundrum of wanting to see a beaching and seeing the life of a baby sea lion taken. The orca sliced through the waters and finally disappered!
In silence we continued our trip.

For photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflydreams2011/