Road Fever

Often when I travel I find myself doing things I would never entertain the idea of at home; sharing a bathroom with 17 other people, living on a crap diet and travelling large distances by bus.

I´m currently half way through another 2-day road trip that started in the very far Northern tip of Argentina (on the border with Brasil), brought me here to Resistancia after 12 hours in a bus and will see me finishing up in Buenos Aires after another 13 hours on the road. From BA I´ll then head to Uruguay, by boat.

I estimate that by the time I get to BA i´ll have covered around 6000 Km by bus, taking almost 102 hours (mostly overnight). To add to this i´ve taken 3 internal flights since I got here which will probably bring the total distance covered closer to 10 000Km - thats the distance from Paris to Dakar, or Teheran!) Never before in any of my travels have I covered such huge distances.

Unless you can afford to fly between cities here (and tourists pay 2.5 times more for a flight than an Argentine resident...) then the bus is your only option.

Up here in the North buses and roads are both of an excellent quality. The roads are sealed and the buses come in two classes; ´semi-cama´ which reclines more than a usual chair, and ´cama´ which goes all the way back to an almost flatbed giving you a ride pretty close to Air France business class (only with crap food).

The further South you go though the service of both bus and roads deteriorate. To get from El Chalten to Bariloche in Patagonia Johan and I spent 2 days on a bus. The first day being broken with regular 15 min rest stops, both for us and the drivers as the road was nothing more than a dirt track. The second day was about 50% sealed roads, but the same driver drove almost continously (2 stops, 1 of 10 mins, 1 of 15 mins) for 14 hours straight. With about 7-hours remaining and with both my legs and bum numb I asked Johan the question, ´That El Chalten trek again in the wind, rain and snow or this bus journey?´ His response matched mine. We´d both gladly expose ourselves to the elements for a grueling 5-hours of shivering pain than sit coupped up in a bus for 2-days again.

Somehow though when you´re on holiday it all becomes part of the adventure, adds to the experience. If I come back to Argentina though i´m going to buy myself a car and have myself a real roadtrip. The most popular variety around here seems to be an old citreon, which I think will suit me quite nicely!

xxx

V.

I´m having a hard time trying to decide which I hate more; mosquitos or Isreali backpackers. Both seem to come in large groups, make a lot of noise, keep me awake at night and generally giant pains in the arse.

I dont remember when I first encountered mosquitos but I clearly remember the first time I came across a platoon of Israelis 7-years ago in Asia. In fact in Asia you often come across hostels, cafes or restaurants that have signs saying ´No dogs, No Isrealis´. Unfortunately my impression of them has changed little over the years.

Having just completed one or two years of obligatory military service it seems they then all set off on an obligatory ´round the world trip´ before continuing their education. There is nothing wrong with this, Gap years are incredibly popular and infact I think that getting out and seeing the world should be obligatory - the idea being to meet as many people as possible, interact with other cultures, learn new languages and broaden your horizons and experiences.

Isreali´s however always seem to travel (like mosquitos) in large groups, often 8 or 10 of them together at a time. They are reluctant to mingle (either with the culture their visiting or other travellers) and being faced with a dorm full of them the chances of them speaking to you is remote, so unless you´re fluent in Hebrew interacting with them is impossible, in face they´re downright intimidating.

The chances of them taking over the entire dorm with their baggage (escessive), leaving the bathroom in a total mess, hogging all the lockers and then stumbling in at 5am totally pissed, turning on all the lights and making as much noise as possible is however incredibly high, and it happened to me again, in Cordoba.

Having spent the previous 22hrs on a bus I was keen to get an early night and so sorted out my stuff and bumbled off to bed around midnight. It was stinking hot so the windows were open with the protective mozzie screens in place. At 4am I awoke to find I was the only person in our 8 bed dorm in bed. Strange... until at 5am the other 7 returned, drunk beyond belief and making as much noise as possible. One guy, I guess complaining about the heat, in an attempt to open the already open windows pushed out the mozzie screens (we were on the 3rd floor overlooking the street, I dont know what they landed on below, a car I guess).
Theres no point trying to reason with a pissed 23yr old Israeli surrounded by his mates so I stuck in my earplugs and did my best to sleep.

At 7am I woke and decided to grab a shower before the bathroom queues started.
I nearly didn´t recognise myself in the mirror. In total I had 44 mosquito bites. 6 of which were on my face.

I have reason to believe that there must the a giant Mozzie ´McDonalds´ sign above my head as they often seem to flock towards me for a quick snack and therefore I do my very best to avoid getting bitten. Not only does getting bitten increase the risk of malaria, and dengue fever (very common in this area) but each bite on me swells up, affecting an area at least a couple of square centimetres around it.

The girl on reception looked somewhat shocked when I went to check out. My face was swollen and my arms, neck and shoulders peppered with swollen red blisters. The lady at the pharmacy gave me a lecture on dengue fever and the lady at the bus station went as far as to give me a flyer warning of the dangers of mosquitos, dengue fever and how to avoid being bitten.

I wonder if they produce a flyer on Isreali backpackers and how to avoid them?

I hate to appear prejudice or to tar an entire nation with a single brush but I know that the experiences i´ve had and sentiments i´ve shared are common among backpackers. Its a shame as from time to time you do meet an Israeli travelling by themselves, and just like many of the other Israelis i´ve worked with they´re incredibly open, friendly and considerate people. Its sad really that after their obligatory national service they then travel the world doing a total disservice to their nation and culture as the worst possible international ambassadors.

xxx

Missing In Action...

Friends, I have sad news.
Sunday night Mixie and I had ourselves a little crisis meeting. After 2 days stuck in Cordoba in continuous rain we decided to cut our loses, forgot those dreams of skydiving and landsurfing, and run for the border instead.
A quick check of the weather maps showed Puerto Iguazu, up North on the Brasilian & Paraguian border, to be basking in unbroken 30c sunshine and after 22hrs on a bus we were able to confirm this for ourselves.

Most people come this far north in Argentina for only one of two reasons; they´re skipping the country, or their visiting the amazing Iguazu falls and it was the second that made our itinerary.

The falls themselves are awesome and frankly i´ve no idea why i´d never heard of them before. Lets be honest, they kick Niagra´s arse and even though we saw them during low water their size and capacity was still stunning.
Whats even more amazing is the way the national park has been designed, with a series of catwalks and gangways that literally let you walk out over the lip of the fall, or within meters of the pounding water. Within the park you can also opt for either the ecologically sound tour (row boats, nature trails) or the ´Big fun´ pack involving the 4-wheel drive trucks and powerboats under the falls (guaranteed to come away drenched from head to toe).

On the bus on the way out there Mixie and I metTim, from NZ, and with whom we spent the day trekking. Tim had just entered Argentina from Brazil and Mixie was more than inqisitve about his travels in the rest of South America. Shes already dropped more than casual hints about Equador and Columbia being within spitting distance.

Anyway, to cut a long story short at somepoint during the afternoon I noticed it had been a little too quiet and on searching my backpack pocket (Mixie´s favourite hiding hole) I found her gone!
A quick rumage around in the pack confirmed that she´d not slunk off for a quiet nap or buried deep in order to raid the biscuit bag. yes dear friends, Mixie is officially MIA.

I believe there are a number of possible explanations for her absence:
The trail was rough and at somepoint she may have just bounced out or she may have turned stowaway and scuttled under a lifejacket to hide during one of our river crossings. There is however a 3rd rumour currently swepping the conspiracy theory message boards, that shes not MIA but more AWOL, having decided to make a break for the border and continue her South American adventures.

I grabbed my passport early this morning and crossed over into Brazil to make a quick sweep of the area from that side of the border but was able to pick up no scent of her trail. Mixie dear friends will therefore no longer be continuing this adventure with us, but i´m sure that somewhere out there shes starting her own adventure, and man is it going to rock!


Party on Mixie. We´ll miss you.


xxx

Los Amigos

One of the things I love about solo travel is that you meet other like-minded travellers. Some you meet on the road (bus buddies) with whom you spend X hours sat side by side. Some you meet in hostel dorms or kitchens and some you meet out and about, trekking, at a museum, the possibilities are unlimited. All of these friends however seem to fall into one of two catagories; those whom you meet for a couple of hours/days and may never see again, and those with whom you travel for a while and become good friends.

Johan and I finally managed to get ourselves on a bus out of El Chalten for the arduous 2 day bus journey on the infamous Route 40 that follows the Andes North. Personally I would have liked to have spent more time in the mountains, especially now that the weather had improved but Johan had a rdv with a friend in Bolivia so after 10 days of travelling together we said our goodbye promising to keep in touch, knowing that our Laguna de les Tres adventure would always be a strong bond between us. I would have loved to have continued North with him but had an important rdv in Bariloche to arrange...

Back 7 years ago I landed in Hanoi on a cold dark wet February evening and over the next couple of days became friends with Martin from Holland. We hung out in Hanoi and then headed in different directions. Vietnam being a long thin country though a week or so later out paths crossed and for about 2 weeks, along with a Danish couple and two Brits, we travelled together. Those of you who remember my ramblings from way back then may remember ´The Night of a Thousand Badgers´- a night that i´ll never forget and an experience that cemented Martin and my friendship for life. Not put off by the ordeal Martin and I both continue to travel and keep in touch, and so it came to be that we´d organised a rdv in Bariloche (Argentina´s answer to Switerland, complete with chocolate and St Bernards...)

He and his girlfriend, Ingeborg, quit their jobs and have been bumbling around S. America for the last 6 months and it was truely awesome to see Martin again, re-live those Vietnam memories ( favourite quote from Martin: ´we should have died so many times on those motorbikes´, hes right!) and meet Ingeborg. Their plans are to keep travelling for quite a while longer (7-years were mentioned...) and i´m insanely jealous that their able to take their time and see more of the country. I would have loved to have stuck around and spent more time with them. I´m grateful that we managed to arrange our RDV though I didn´t take any photos-doh!- and hope that we dont have to wait another 7 years before we all meet up again (M&I - Les Alps are calling...).

Thats the difference between bus buddies and good friends. With good friends even after 7 years you´re able to pick up right where you left off. And one of the joys of these friendships is the element of serendipity. Of not knowing when your paths may cross again.
Imagine my surprise when 3 days later arriving in a hostel early morning in Mendoza i´m tapped on the shoulder and theres Johan again. Plans may change but good friends don´t.

xxx

ps. For those of you that answered ´West´ i´m sorry to report that you´ll not be continuing the adventure with us. With at least 56hrs of bus journey between here and Buenos Aires (to the East) heading further West doesn´t make sense, especially given that Chile is more expensive than Argentina and El Nino is screwing with the passes over the Andes. We´ll save Chile for another time.
At the risk of sounding like I have a plan the next 5-6 days are going to be spent in the Central Sierras before heading NorthEast up to the Brasilian border for Iguazu Falls. We´ll see...

El Chalten


Having said goodbye to Alex in El Calafate Johan and I jumped on a bus NorthWest up a bumpy unpaved road to El Chalten, high up on the Chilean border.


Established in 1985 so as to claim the area as Argentinian the place has a very temporary feel about it. It lacks unpaved roads, has no banks or cash machines, no mobile phone connections and in fact all communications with the outside world rely on the satelitte links that allow phone calls and internet connections. What El Chalten lacks in technology it makes up for in natural beauty with the town being surrounded by fantastic hiking trails and the stunning Fitzroy peak towering at 3441m.


Arriving at night the first thing that struck me was the stars. Here in the Southern hemisphere there are just so many more stars (proximity to the milky way or something...) but high up in the mountains where there is zero light pollution the number of stars visible is awesome. Having been dump struck by the stars I was then quite literally swept off my feet my the wind. El Chalten has a bit of a reputation when it comes to blustery weather and what would be light rain anywhere else is transformed into a hail of bullets as the rain is driven horizontally at a rate of knots, and when it was not raining the wind will drive the dust at you with the same force.


The next morning the weather was a little better. It wasn´t raining but the wind was vicious. We set off none the less, wrapped up in Gore-tex and armed with the ubiquteous ham & cheese sandwichs and some cereal bars. Our route was the 8hr hike up to the Laguana de los Tres whch climbs up about 1200m. The first couple of hours were hard work thanks to the wind but nothing overly strenuous. The fun really started when the rain came on.


After about 3 hours of slight climb the last kilometer was at almost a 45º ascent on loose rocks and as we climbed that driving rain turned to driving snow so that when we reached the top visibility was seriously hampered, as was my ability to stay upright against the wind. This little hike had just turned seriously nasty. The tops of our bodies were somewhat warm and dry in Gore-tex but neither of us has waterproof bottoms on and so my trekking trousers and Johan´s jeans (!) were soaked. Stopping to admire the view or take a break at the top was not an option. I took a quick photo to capture the moment then we scrambled down that steep kilometer of loose rocks and an incredible speed, however with the wind in our faces the volume of water running off my jacket and down my legs was too much for my boots and for the first time ever my boots started to fill up giving me cold wet feet. Quickly I lost feeling in my toes making walking all that more difficult and dangerous.










The flash helps make the scene seem prettier than it was, I promise.









In the basecamp at the bottom there was, thanks to the trekking gods, a German couple who had just fired up their stove. We traded a bar of Milka for a couple of cups of tea but having stopped moving we were both quickly turning hypothermic. Johan rang out his jeans and we put our heads down for a quick march back into town against that bloody wind.

What should have taken us 8hrs took a little under 6hrs given that we practically jogged back to the hostel in order to keep warm, the only thing we stopped for being the supermarket to pick up mountains of pasta and a bottle of wine to sooth our aching limbs. We were still quite literally soaked, as was everything in our packs; money, passport, camera, maps. Even Mixie!


A hot shower, change of clothes, plate of pasta and couple of glasses of tinto later we could look back and laugh about the day, and also reflect on how lucky we´d been. If either of us had slipped or fallen on the climb or descent, or if that German couple hadn´t been their with their stove we´d not have faired so well, in fact things could have gone seriously wrong. Johan is a soldier in the Swedish army so when he says a hike is pretty hardcore I consider that relatively extreme.



Still we survived and over the next 2 days the wind dropped and the clouds evaporated giving us the most spectacular views of Fitzroy and some of the best hiking i´ve done in a long time. This is what I crave. Being in the wild, under enormous skies, in the mountains with high altitude sunburn being my only concern.



xxx

East or West, which is best? You decide!

So, i´m currently in Mendoza and wondering which way to go. West over the Andes into Chile for a couple of days unplanned adventure in Santiago and on the coast, or East for high-jinx big-fun paragliding, skydiving and land yachting...

You tell me! post a comment below and we´ll let the votes decide

xxx

Ice Ice Baby




Large swathes of Southern Chile and Argentina are in fact covered with glaciers and the area contains some of the most active glaciers in the world. Active unfortunately not just in that they advance and receed quickly, but that they're disappearing. Between '95-'00 the area experienced twice as much melt as it has for the last two decades.



Being one of Air France's favourite customers I have a carbon footprint the size of the Antarctic (thanks Jenko...) and so probably contribute considerably to the stat above so I thought i´d pop by the Perito Mereno glacier in order to apologise.

I´ve seen a few glaciers in my time but none quite as awesome as this. Its a 65ft high wall of ice, twisted into sharp towers with deep fissures and undulating through different shades of grey, blue, white and green. The photos really dont do it any justice, especially as you cannot hear the deep groans as the mass moves or the gunshot cracks as chunks break off and crash into the water below.




Many agencies in the area sell tickets to allow you to hike on the glacier, or if you´re skilled enough ice climb, however given that I was supposed to be paying my respects I decided to skip these and head for the ecologically sound walkways that have been constructed nearby.


It used to be that you could get a lot closer for the glacier face but since a couple of folks were killed by falling icebergs you´re now kept a safe 30m or so back, but thats plenty close enough to really appreciate how amazingly beautiful and powerful these things are. I´ve stolen the photo above from someone elses blog as it was kinda grey and rain the day I was there - punishment for my polluting now doubt...

Pictures!

Yeah, finally in a town that has a real internet connection (ie not via satelitte) and a PC that has a USB socket.

Mixie, having always to be first has managed to get some photos up on her earlier posts (scroll down) but for the time being i´m putting everything up on Flickr. Click here to take a look.

Hope you´re all doing well

X

Dont mention the war....

Pick up any Argentinian map and huddled just off the east coast, right down there at the bottom you´ll find Islas Malvinas, better known to the rest of the world as the Falkland Islands.



Easily mistaken for cake crumbs on the map they should be avoided in all conversations by Brits travelling in Argentina, and if you must talk about them dont for god´s sake call them The Falklands.

Back in 1976 in a bloodless coup the military took control and launched the ´Dirty War´ in which thousands (30,000 by some human rights group´s estimates) of Argentinians ´disappeared´. The wives, mothers, and children of the missing still parade every Thursday afternoon at 3pm in Buenos Aires in the hope of getting information of the fate of their loved ones or retribution for the crimes commited.

In 1981 public support for the military leader was fading fast so he played the nationalistic trump card and in 1982 General Galtieri invaded the Falkland Islands (sorry, Islas Malvinas).
A wave of national support and pride quickly swept through the country, then just as quickly disappeared when it became obvious that Galtieri had wildly underestimated the Iron Lady´s determintation not to lose an inch of British territory.

323 soldiers drowned on the Belgrano after it was torpedoed and every village town and city in the country has a public square, street or avenue named after the ship so that no one forgets. After just 74 days and with substantial losses, the Argentina forces, most of whom where no more than 20 years old, surrendered.

There is a happy end to this story though. All support for the military rule was quashed and in 1983 the civilian Alfonsin was elected President and the Dirty War ended once and for all. Those guilty of the crimes however have yet to be charged and the wives, sisters and children continue to parade each Thursday.

Tastes, Sounds & Smells

As scratch and sniff blogs have yet to be invented with the help of my amazing discriptive powers and your wild imagination i´m going to try and help conjure up the sights, sounds and smells of Argentina for all you armchair/desktop voyagers out there.

First though we need to set the scene so pop open a new browser and find some Gotan Project out there on the web or click here and search them out.

Next you need to get yourself 3 tins of condensed milk, 2 jars of caramel and 1.5kg of sugar. Mix throughly and ´hola!´ you´ve just made Dolche du Leche, the nation´s favourite food. Spread throughly on everything you eat, squeeze it into sandwichs, bake it into cakes and mix it into drinks at every opportunity. The quantity outlined above should be sufficient for an adult for about 8 hrs. Mmmmmm feel that sugar rush :-)
So far i´ve managed to pretty much avoid the stuff given that i´d quite like to keep all my teeth and i´m living on a diet of purely ham and cheese sandwichs, about all my backpacker budget will allow.

It would not be fair to describe the Argentian´s as only eating Dulche du Leche (DDL). Meat figures heavily on the agenda with crucified lamb being a firm favourite.
Take 1 lamb, lop its head off (smear head with DDL and eat for breakfast - probably).
Crucify lamb on iron cross and lean it up against a fire. Bingo, dinners ready!



The preferred serving suggestion seems to be as part of a chinese all-you-can-eat buffet which, let me tell you, when you´ve been living on ham and cheese sandwichs is pretty damn good. Washing the whole lot down with a 1 litre bottle of Quillmes, the national brew should set you back no more than Eu4.


Bon app!

x

Tierre del Fuego - Land of Fire

Sorry about the complete lack of photos on the blog but until I get to somewhere with decent internet service and reliable PC´s you´ll just have to use your imagination....

Looking back over my last entry I really didn´t say much about Ushuaia or Tierre del Fuego so here goes with an attempt to fill in the gaps.

Split unevenly between Chile & Argentina the area was named Land of Fire after the activities of the Yaghan tribes people that inhabited the area when Fitzoy first navigated the Beagle into the channel. These days the tribes and their fires are nearly extinct, replaced by the exploitation of the natural gas fields in the area.

Although the remaining tribes people are rare the region has abundant marine and wildlife. Even without really looking I saw penguins, sealions, guls, cormmorants, seals, albatross and a whale (ok, it´s hump) in the Beagle channel and whilst hiking in the national park came across foxes, woodpeckers, rabbits (hundreds of) and eagles, although the beavers and pumas remained elusive.

Despite being the Southern most city of earth with all the tourist trappings that the moniker brings Ushauaia remains remote. Its a damn long way to the nearest town and all communications with the outside world have to be transmitted via satelitte. These could be seen as inconveniences but coupled with the long daylight hours and stunning views they just add to its appeal.

Mixie - Live from South America!


Trixie thinks shes got one up on me with her US trip and now HK but i´m going to whip her arse with this South America trip :-)
It took some persuading but I managed to find a Mixie sized hole in KD´s backpack and have hitched along for the ride. The flight over was cool and I made friends with a big group of Argentinian´s on the plane who were totally up for drinking and partying all night. I had hoped to stay in BA and rock the city for a couple of weeks but KD had booked flights to some tinpot town down South so I didn´t have much say in the matter. I made friends with the crew on the flight down to Ushuaia though so it wan´t so bad.

Much as I was grumpy about having to leave BA, Ushuaia was pretty cool. Here are a few snaps of me out and about in the snow, on a boat and with my new friends and some pengiuns.




We landed in El Calafate last night and are headed up to some glacier or something tomorrow, at least that seems to be the idea, I´m perplexed. At work KD´s like clockwork and I know exactly what to expect when but this backpacking lark is totally freestyle. Guess i´ll just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

I´ll post as often as I can and drop all my photos here

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

I thought i´d struck lucky on the plane when I persuade the check-in guy to give me an emergency isle seat but hadn´t bet on the Argentinian´s on the flight turning the galley area into an impromtu tapas bar and partying just feet away from me all night long. It didn´t really matter though as for the first time in a very long time I´M ON HOLIDAY!!!!

Having recently visited the Paris of the East (Shanghai) after 13hrs of flight I found myself in the Paris of South America - Buenos Aires, where it seems life revolves around the tango and steak.
Sunday the San Telmo area becomes a sprawling street market where at every intersection the cafes spill out on to the streets and dancers strut their stuff to any one of the numerous bands. The ambiance is relaxed but the passion is high and its almost impossible not to get intoxicated by it all.
Outside of the San Telmo area the city has a much more commerical feel and the pace quickens ensuring you know BA is where business is at and theres money to be made.

I´d arrived in BA sunday morning and had booked a flight down to Ushuaia for Monday afternoon but didn´t end up there until the wee hours of Tuesday morning thanks to El Nino. Yep, 2007 is El Nino year and the storms somewhere in central Argentina had knocked out the air traffic control & radar systems plunging the country back into the dark ages and leaving passengers stranded. I should count myself lucky at only being delayed 4 hours, some other passengers were going nowhere for the forseeable future.
El Nino had also brought early snow to Ushuaia so on my first morning I awoke to breathtaking blue skies and snow capped mountains. Ushuaia is sandwiched between these mountains and the Beagle channel and touts itself as the Southern most city on earth. In the hostel I met up with an English guy (Alex) and a Swede (Johan) and the 3 of us set off up the hills behind town to the nearby glacier.
I have to say the glacier was somewhat unimpressive but the views from the top and getting to lark about in the snow definitly made up for it.
I left Ushuaia yesterday having been blown away by the scenery on the Beagle channel and had a great couple of hours trekking in the Tierra Del Fuego national park. I´ll post photos once I get to a place with a fast enough connection to let me upload.

Leaving Ushuaia was tough in that I felt I could have easily spent another couple of days soaking up the scenery and that the radar and air traffic systems are still not fixed so the flight to El Calafate was delayed by 3 hours. I have to say it was one of the best delays i´ve had in a while as Alex, Johan and I sat on a grass verge outside the small terminal in the sunshine with a bottle of cheap Argentinan Shiraz and a glorious view of the mountains. Thats what backpackings all about, impromptu friends and no fixed agenda.



x

Final Approach to Ushuaia

I had to call forementioned tin-pot airline the other day in order to pay for my ticket (their website didn;t support online payment) and after an enternity on hold got through to Miguel. He very kindly took my credit card details then explained that it was actually 2 flights from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, with a stop for refueling en route. OK, I thought, these are small planes so thats pretty normal.

'Where do we refuel?' I asked, curious to know which other town I might get to visit on the way. 'Please, one minute' he said and in the background I could hear him flipping pages in a book. 'Sorry, you have to refuel but it does not say where on the flight plan I have'. Great. What do they do? Just wait for the needle to hit zero then glide down to the nearest petrol station. Now I have images of that 'Alive' film flashing through my mind.

Part of me is thrilled by the unknown and the adventure of it all, the other part of me is somewhat less excited. Nervous may be the word i'm looking for.

In case I never make it to Ushuaia Doug very kindly found this clip on YouTube for me so I know what i'll have missed.

x