Leaving Bariloche

Okay, so it never really stopped raining in Bariloche but the clouds did part now and then. We took a local bus partly around the lake and then rode a chairlift to the top of Cerro Campanario for some nice views of the snow capped mountains to the West and the series of lakes, islets, and wooded peninsulas to the East.

Yesterday, we braved the drizzle and hiked up 1400 meters from the center of town to the top of Cerro Otto for more views and to get some exercise (which was badly needed after multiple steak and beer dinners).

Dan hiking up Cerro Otto

We stopped at another cool mountain hut (a.k.a. Refugio) on the way and had some hot tea next to the fire while talking to some older German ladies who took the gondola up and were hiking down (hmmm, that did sound like an easier way to do it). Again, our efforts were rewarded with fantastic views of the scenery (between passsing cloud banks anyway). Speaking of steak dinners, I think we set a new record. 13 Pesos ($4.33) for a LARGE fillet mignon the size of two in the States. So that´s like $2 and change for a top notch steak - and heck you might as well order two at that price!

Today was supposed to be our flight to El Calafate but, alas, there is an airline strike which apparantly could go on indefinately. We finally decided to agree to take the 20 hour bus ride down Route 40 (the Argentinian version of Route 66) to our destination. Yes, that´s right, a 20 hour bus ride! It leaves in a couple hours so now, we just killing time till "take off". It was mass confusion at the airport and a weird looking Russian dude named Igor latched on to us as he spoke no Spanish and only a very little English so we helped him understand the situation and the options (wait forever in Bariloche for the strike to end and hope to get on another plane, or buck up and take the super long bus ride). On the taxi ride back into town from the airport, Doug taught the cab driver the meaning of the phrase, "That´s Bullshit!". We got a voucher for a free dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street from the airline office and Igor joined us for that as well. It was fun watching him try to read the menu which was in Italian with Spanish subtext and order in broken English with a thick Russian accent. We´ll I guess I´m not the worse one off here!

Will write again once safe and sound in El Calafate.

Patagonian Update

Just a quick update on Bariloche... It´s been raining here since we arrived and the forecast doesn´t seem to change. We may see if we can move our flight to El Califate up to escape the weather. Yesterday we braved the weather and did a six hour hike up in the mountains to the first ¨Refugio¨ (mountain shelter) and back. The hut looked like a little Troll´s house as a giant boulder served as the back wall and half the roof. We got a little wet but the hiking kept us warm. We decided against doing an overnight hike as the thought of returning to a hot shower and warm meal sounded good. The snow capped mountians were mostly obscured by clouds but we did make it to the snow line before retreating. The only really sketchy part was, what Doug called, a ¨slip, fall and die¨ bridge over a raging mountain river. The bridge looked like it was made out of lincoln logs - it was sturdy but only had a single hand rail for half the span. It really was a nice test of balance and something to get the adrenaline flowing.

Today we took a bus trip up further into the mountains to Pampa Linda at the base of Mt. Tronador, the highest peak in this area. Again it rained most of the day and the views were cloudy but we did see the base of a glacier that is slowly tumbling down the mountain and calving into an alpine lake. It´s called the black glacier as there is a lot of dark, volcanic rock mixed in with the ice and snow. The lake looked like a giant bowl of Cookies and Cream ice cream. It would have made me hungry if it weren´t snowing, windy and as cold as a bowl of ice cream up there! Nope, a hot bowl of soup sounded better! Back in Bariloche we went for a fondue for dinner! I had wild boar stew last night and Doug had the venison. Yum, yum. We´ll do another soggy hike if we can´t get out of town tomorrow.

That´s it for now!
-Dan

Buenos Dias from Patagonia

Well, we finished up in Buenos Aires after exploring every corner of the city - from the colorful old port section of La Boca where the Tango was born and the San Telmo barrio with it´s artsy stores and eclectic Sunday Market, to the MicroCenter filled with European looking colonial buildings and the seats of the local and national governments, to the upscale Ricoletta neighborhood which reminds me of Park Avenue in New York and finally, our favorite, Palermo whose tree lined streets are filled with sidewalk cafes and literally hundreds of restaurants, bars, and the curious ´restobars´(some type of hybrid restaurant-bar). The food was fabulous and cheap (think of an excellent, huge fillet mignon for under $7!).

We had fun talking with the myriad of traveller passing through Casa Ezmiralda (our Hostel in BsAS), from Mark, the British guy studying Spanish, to Rob, the DeBeers diamond buyer who lived in Zaire, West Africa, and India, then quit his job to travel the world, to the three college students from Michigan (yes, Michigan!) who were on a 10 day vacation. Along with the Germans, Norwegians, French, Spanish, Dutch, and our Argentinian hosts, there was always lively, interesting stories to be told.

We are now in Bariloche in northern Patagonia. It seems to be like a mix of Denver (as it's on the edge of the plains (or pampas) with snow capped peaks in the background), the Swiss Alps (since there´s a distinct itialian-swiss architecture and a ski town feel), and Alaska (because its chilly, rough, rugged and a strong wind is blowing across the lakes). Today we´re planning on exploring the small town center and planning our adventures up in the mountains.

Until the next update...
Dan

Dinner in Buenos Aires

So we decided to go to a traditional Argentinian "Parrilla" for dinner, which I think means "grill". There are dozens of these around town so we just picked one as we walked by - it was just filling up (at 10pm) and looked like a nice place. There was a bunch of raw meat in the window and a huge grill just inside the restaurant.We could have just ordered a simple steak but decided to get the "Parrillada Para Dos" which sounded like a nice mixed grill for two. I imagined a nice plate of steak, chops, sausage and chicken. Well, a plate of grilled food definitely appeared, but much of it was a tad bit hard to identify. We started with a nice normal looking Chirzo sausage which was actually pretty good. Then, we dug into the beef ribs, cut horizontally like in a chinese restaurant. It was quite fatty and full of grissle but tastey none-the-less. Our dinner then turned into a game of "guess that organ" as our choices turned out to be some kind of gland (or possibly kidney or heart), Argentinian blood sausage (which didn't tast bad but had the consistency of meat jam), some long piece of meat, probably from a cow, with a quarter inch of fat on it, and some kind of flesh tube (tripe perhaps?) on which I passed, but Doug said tasted like calamari filled with liver flavored cheese. Yes, our nice dinner turned into an episode of Fear Factor, but we scavanged enough to fill up (we ate all the papas frites (french fries) and bread) and well, it did make for a memorable experience. I think tonight we'll go for the steak...

Until next time...
Ciao,
Dan

Hola from Buenos Aires

So when we last left our intrepid travellers, they were still in the high Andes, enjoying the thin air and thick accents of their fellow Inca Trail trekkers...

After recouperating from our trek and a night out on the town in Cusco (at Patty O'Flannery's - the highest Irish Pub on the planet), we were off to the airport for our flight to Lima. As we had a six hour layover before our flight to Buenos Aires, we decided to take a cab into town instead of hanging out in the airport again. After a quick check of our trusty "Footprints South America" guidebook, we choose Plaza Kennedy in the Miraflores neighborhood as our destination. It turned out well as we zoomed past the graffittied barrios that surround the airport, then down an express avenue following the Pacific coast at the bottom of a large cliff (which looked strangely a lot like the PCH in LA) to a nice, middle class area with streets lined with shops, restaurants and bars. We strolled the avenues for a while, looking in bookstores and checking out menus until picking a nice, Parisian looking sidewalk cafe for dinner and drinks. After, we found an eclectic cafe for a cup of coffee and talked with a German student studying Mairne Biology in Lima, then it was back to the airport for our overnight flight.

Luckily we both slept almost the whole way to BsAs, however, the first two hours in the Buenos Aires airport were spent going through customs (easy) and finding a place to stay (hard). Almost everything was booked up but we finally found a room in the San Talmos area of the city. After a long cab ride, we checked in and headed out to check out the city. The city streets are lined with Eurpoean looking facades and full of sidewalk cafes and shopping streets.

Being Saturday, I did some research and found a bar that showed American college football. We stolled through the downtown area lined with old European looking government buildings, then found Ave. Florida, a pedestrian shopping street (think of a narrow version of the 3rd St. Promenade, a bit older and more run down, but that continues for 20 blocks!). We pasted most of the main 'plazas' of the city, then headed North to find my football bar - after a little searching, we found it - Remember El Alamo - and guess what, it was founded by an ex University of Michigan professor who hooks up several large screens to the Internet to get ESPN GamePlan.com and watch football! Several screens in the front of the nice, wood panneled saloon were dedicated to soccer for the locals, but the gringos congregated in back for good ol' American football. The Michigan - Indiana game wasn't on TV so we watched OSU, then the first half of the USC game (there were other USC fans and some Texas grads there too). I hope I have this luck at our next stop for the Michigan - Ohio State game!

Next, we strolled Santa Fe avenue for another 20 plus blocks with nicer shops lining the entire avenue. I can't beleive how many stores there are in this city - it really seems there are more here, at least in one place, then I've ever seen in LA, New York or Chicago - it's really unbelievable and I don't know how they all stay in business (plus prices for the nice stuff aren't that much cheaper than in the US!).

On day two in Argentina we slept in, then walked through some neighborhood Sunday markets with loads of street vendors, performers and lots of people dressed in costume (like a mix of Mardi Gras and Halloween) for a reason we really never figured out. We checked out the area by the river where a series of basins have been built to allow ship traffic to pass, then back to our 'hood for a rest and a change of clothes, then out to diner for a big Argentinian ¨Parilla¨dinner tonight!

Will write more soon.
-Dan

Peru & The Inca Trail

We´re back in Cusco safe and sound after finishing our four day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. Our first day in Cusco was spent walking around, getting oriented to the city and recouping from the long flights and lay-overs (a 9 hour flight, 6 hour layover and another hour flight plus a 3 hour time change!). We're staying in a great little hotel just 10 minute walk up the hill from the Plaza del Armes in the city center. The last 100 yards is up a tiny street through which only the local Tico taxis can fit (think of a small version of a Mini Cooper) and there's only 8 inches of sidewalk on either side. It's quite the balancing act with a backpack full of gear and clothes!. At first I wondered if this would actualy be more trecherous than the Inca Trail. The hotel is great though - the building is like an MC Eicher painting with little staircases going in every direction and no two rooms are alike or even on the same floor, plus there's a nice view of the city from the flower ringed center courtyard making the high altitude hike up the hill worth while.

The next day was spent on a tour of the Sacred Valley were we visited several Inca Ruins above and along the Urabamba river valley. The stone work is amazing and the hills are patched with potato fields and dotted with llamas, alpacas, bulls, cows, sheep, and pigs. Everywhere you go you see Peruvian women with tall, wide-brimmed hats carrying a colorful sack over their shoulder. Where they come from and where they are going is hard to say - they tend to appear on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

On our third day in Peru, we began our trek on the Inca Trail. There were 16 in our group, trekkers from Canada, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Czech Republic. We all got along fabulously and we started out up the valley and through the rain forest. Day one of the hike was "easy" but was still a grueling trudge up hill so I hired a porter to carry my backback for day 2 and 3! Day two was spent hiking over a 13,000 foot pass in the mountains and day three included decending 2000 stone steps placed and carved into the mountain side by the Incas. Porters carried our tents and did all setup, break down, and cooking. It rained quite a lot but once you´re wet, you're wet so you just keep going. Luckily my pack stayed dry (thanks to my $3 waterproof cover I bought in Cusco just before leaving!) so I had dry things to wear in camp. Day four of the hike had us waking up at 4am to complete the last two hours of hiking down the valley, through the cloud forest and past more Inca ruins to beat the tour buses to Machu Pichu. As we crested the last ridge, and walked throught the Sun Gate, all we could see was clouds and fog. This was supposed to be the first sight of the most dramatic of all the Inca sites! But as we stopped to rest, the clouds rolled out and, like the curtains parting at the beginning of a movie, the vast expanse of Machu Pichu appeared below us. The group began cheering and applauding at nature's cooperation and we donned our packs and hiked the last 30 minutes to our final destination.

After a long train and bus ride home, a hot shower and long nights sleep, our group had a reunion today for lunch at an Irish pub on the main square. Doug and I had our laundry done at our hotel and checked out some more sites in the city. Tomorrow, we're off to Buenos Aires.

Until the next Internet Cafe...
Dan