Cerro Campanario

Cerro Campanario- Voted by National Georgraphic as one of the top ten views in the world.

Autobus!

The large size in Argentina, together with our small budgets, makes bus travel a necessity. We’re not talking 4 hours to NYC on the Chinatown express, but 20, 30, even 40 hours straight on the same bus. We have spent 2 and a half months in Argentina and Chile so far, and by our calculations, have spent about 160 hours total over 7 major trips, for an average of 23 hours a trip. That being said, the following is a collection of thoughts and stories from buses in Argentina.

-The biggest factor on a bus trip is not comfort, nor whether it smells, and not even who ends up taking the seat next to you. It comes down to movie selection. Will the bus driver chose a poorly dubbed Nic Cage or Steven Segal movie? (This will make the bus ride very long). Or, something good, like Dark Knight in English. One time Morgan revealed that she had to watch “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” twice in a row.

-Buses can break, a 20 hours ride can quickly become a 30 hour ride, with 10 hours spent at a bus company warehouse. Also, on one ride from Rio Gallegos to Bariloche, the AC broke at around 1 in the morning. For whatever reason, the bus driver decided to jack up the heat. By around 4 in the morning, everyone in the bus was sweating, and the bus had a locker room scent. Good times.

-The seats recline almost all the way, they occasionally play bingo games with the passengers, and you get meals….sometimes. The best part of bus rides is the view. The buses will take you along some of the most desolate stretches of highway in Argentina, moreover, the world. Patagonia is one of the most uninhabited places on earth, nowhere is that more evident than a 35 hour ride across the Patagonian steppe.

Travel update

On Monday, we are leaving Argentina for good, catching a bus for Bolivia. I know that the frequency of my blog posting has been similiar to my freshman year class atendence rates, so I will try to make up for it by posting several blogs this weekend. Also, I'll be putting up a best of Argentina facebook photo album. Enjoy.

Bariloche

A couple weeks back we did a trek in Bariloche, since then, I have gotten lazier and lazier in my postings. We went all the way south to Ushuaia, did the W at Torres del Paine, saw some glaciers, then Morgan left for Chicago. Since then, I came back to Bariloche and have been taking Spanish classes. But, a month ago, we did this trek. Check out cyndi´s blog for the day 1 report, here is day 2, dia de la muerta.

First ascent out of our Lago Frey campsite, note the lack of trail. This was an I-pod on, no talking, everyone focused on their own route kind of hike. I may or may not have wrapped a bandana around my head at some point, early 80’s bad action movie style. I hope that photo never hits the internet.

Midway through this climb we hit another small lake, that was perched right above our route in a small glacial crater. We couldn’t really make out our next route, until another trekker pointed out some tracks in the snow, and we realized that we had to snow climb out of the crater.

After the snow climb we emerged in a barren rocky canyon, and finally the summit, and a beautiful view of the surrounding countryside.

After lunch, and a brief nap, we descended from the pass, which consisted mostly of sand sliding and avoiding large shin crushing boulders. This was exhausting, and time consuming. We rushed through the next valley, there was another pass between us and our destination and we were running out of daylight. Therefore, no photos were taken. This is after the valley quickstep, to give an idea of scale, the previous photo of the countryside was taken from the ridge in the background.

These next two photos are of our final climb, a 400-500m ascent through snow, attempting to use hand and foot holds made by previous trekkers, or making our own.

Our final destination, the final lake, and the surrounding mountains.

-We didn’t have much time in BA, but the Recoleta cemetery isn’t a bad way to spend a few hours. Imagine a labyrinth or garden maze over several city blocks, but instead of hedges or hybrid bull monsters, think large above ground mausoleums. Sariemento is buried there, as is one María Eva Duarte de Perón, aka Evita.

This is Patas Blancas, or white paws. We were camping in Puerto Madryn, which is about a 25 hour bus ride down the coast, and this semi-feral wild dog just wandered up to our campsite. We gave him some food and played with him a little, figuring he would wander off in search of more food. He didn’t, but instead decided to domesticate himself and appointed himself our dog. This was great for a night, as he slept outside our tent door and barked at anyone who came close. In the morning, we packed up our stuff, and walked about a mile to the bus stop. Poor Patas followed us the whole way. We tried to tell him to leave, he wouldn’t. We got on the bus, and listened to him cry outside the bus door until we left. Hopefully his one night of domestication didn’t kill his street dog survival skills.

-Beach at Puerto Piramides, a small town in a peninsula off the coast. The peninsula is also famous for marine wildlife; penguins, seals, and the occasional orca, although we missed the season.

Currently we are in Bariloche and tomorrow we leave for a trek in the backcountry, I will be back sometime this weekend, expect more photos then.

Things to do while spending 13 hours at the Mexico City Airport

10. Get excited about "authentic Mexican food"; end up buying sandwich in plastic box from 7-Eleven because you're cheap

9. Check out mini-museum of Mexican archaeology sites, nicely done dioramas

8. Have internal debate about the comfort factors of sleeping in seat rows at empty gates (awkward position, but comfortable), or hard floor (no arm rests, but not comfortable)

7. Decide on floor, sprawl out, confirm status as vagrant

6. Wake up occasionally to people either staring at you, or walking evasive routes around you

5. Question your own hygiene, brush teeth and wash self in bathroom, use duty free cologne and perfume testers to eliminate smell (Credit to Morgan for that one)

4. Look up cost of internet, tell yourself 8 dollars for access is ridiculous, read instead, congratulate yourself on being frugal

3. 13 minutes later, buy internet

2. Go to a cafe, watch an entire movie dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles, "Para ser verdaderamente eficaz, un buen agente de narcóticos debe conocer y amar a los narcóticos. De hecho, un buen agente de narcóticos debe tener estupefacientes en su sangre. "

1. Refer back to #'s 6 and 7