Argentina! The land of gauchos, giant steaks, sunshine and tango! Despite suffering from a severe case of exhaustion, Joep & I were psyched to check out this very talked up land!!We have had limited time to research Argentina or make any plans. We’ve been busy … moving countries twice, planning a wedding and a month long honeymoon in Africa followed by a party in Amsterdam will take up a good amount of your time. Despite the lack of planning time, we did have the foresight to book a few things in advance.
Ushuaia & El Calafate was on our bucket list so I had booked in a tour a few months ago. It is a good thing I did this because otherwise we may have slept through the entire first week of Argentina.
And so it was that, after a very uneventful 3 hour flight, we looked out the plane window to be WOWED by snow capped mountains seemingly only meters from the wings of our plane. For those of you that remember our feelings when landing in Cuzco last year, this was pretty similar. The plane literally seemed to be dodging mountain peaks and we were in awe of the landscape and more than a little excited to start exploring it. We landed on a very desolate looking runway which seemed highly appropriate given that we were landing at ‘The End of the World.’
Yup. Ushuaia – It’s the most southern city in the world. The end of the road. Next stop, Antarctica. Pretty cool right? Right! And also cool in temperature. It was the middle of summer but it was frickin cooooold down there! Thankfully we had anticipated this and managed to squeeze a few winter clothes into our backpacks. A blessing.
Our first afternoon in Ushuaia was ours to do with what we pleased. I bet you think we slept it away right? Well you’re wrong. But I can understand why you thought that. Instead, we got our transfer to our hotel, dropped our stuff and went in search of … you guessed it! FOOD!! We accomplished our sustenance mission at a small little café on the main street. The food was average but the atmosphere was good so we shan’t complain. Afterwards we headed out for a wander around the city before deciding we were chilly and heading back to the hotel for a bit of R&R.
That evening saw us enjoying a delish pasta at Tante Sara’s which is a super popular spot for good reason – The food was really good and the atmosphere was fantastic! Even if the waiter totally screwed up our bill which Joep was about to happily pay without reading when I stopped him to look at it and question why 1 gin and tonic was costing us over AUD20!! Crisis averted, bill corrected and a good night of sleep was awaiting us.
A seemingly recurring theme of late is that the good nights of sleep are ended to early … the following morning was no exception. We had an early start to head off on a day of hiking and canoeing in Tierra del Fuego National Park. We weren’t sure what to expect having had limited research time however we were hoping it wasn’t going to be too strenuous. The crazy Amsterdam days had caught up with Joep and he had developed a mean case of the man flu. It wasn’t pretty.
He manned up though, and powered through and before too long we were trekking through the park along the shoreline. We were not too awe inspired by the surroundings along the shore of the Beagle Channel. It was kind of like a less amazing version of the walk around the mount in Taranga, NZ but we embraced the lessons given to us by our guide about the native people in the region known as the Yamana. These dudes were hardcore. Word on the street is they were nudists … it is not hot in Ushuaia. I am impressed with anyone who can be naked in that climate.
Having hiked for a good few hours we were very spoiled to arrive at lunch! We had anticipated a soggy sandwich. Our expectations were exceeded with a glorious hot lunch, complimented by red wine, in a big tent reminiscent of the Inca Trail meals. Exactly what we needed!
The conversation was good and we bonded with our fellow hikers – A lovely Aussie / English couple, their Chilean pal and, our most entertaining group member … Andora. I don’t know his real name. We called him Andora because he is from Andorra. He was in the Andorran Olympic team for cycling. He was highly enthusiastic about everything and I mean everything.
Following lunch we were taken to the nearby Lapataia River where we were split into 2 groups (not TEAMS Andorra, this is not a competition!) and set off on the canoe portion of the day.
It was pretty glorious out on the water. I enjoyed more than most people because I was given primo position at the very front of the canoe all by myself meaning that there was no real need for me to contribute to the canoeing action. OK there probably was some need … but I didn’t join in too much. It was lovely just sitting and enjoying the relaxation on the water.
Having powered through a number of rough currents and out run Andorra’s team despite his best efforts to motivate his team by loudly ridiculing their rowing abilities (I think this is why Andora doesn’t win gold at the Olympics very often) we arrived at Lapataia Bay. Word on the street is that this is the end of the world. It looked just like the landscape immediately prior to the end of the world. I was somewhat disappointed. My disappointment however, we abated by the sheer hilarity of our teams rowing chants spurred everyone on to get across the bay. Very very fun.
Row trip over and done with, we were bundled back into our transfer bus and taken back to our respective hotels. Our new found Aussie, English, Chilean friends kindly invited us to join them for a few beers prior to their departure (sadly, they were leaving Ushuaia that evening). We graciously accepted and by 6pm we were happily seated at Almacen Ramos Generales … coolest café / bar ever. It is set up like an old school general store. There is bric a brac everywhere and the atmosphere in there is awesome. We settled in for beers and snacks and spent the next couple of hours sharing our favourite jokes. Sharing is incorrect – We weren’t sharing. Joep & I contributed 2 jokes. Tom and Oscar did the rest of the work telling amazing jokes and laughing harder than anyone. It was pretty awesome. Except for poor May who had heard all the jokes a zillion times before and had a long road trip with the boys ahead of her where she would likely hear all the jokes again. She is an awesomely good sport.
Our newfound friends also gave us an awesome restaurant tip for dinner and so, after enjoying a few beers and getting freshened up back at the hotel we headed out to Kuar for a meal facing the ocean … next stop Antarctica! Dinner was lovely however, we were starting to realize that our culinary experiences in Africa may well have ruined us forever.
We were also exhausted so despite the wonderful atmosphere and good food, we were home at a reasonable hour for a wonderful night of sleep.
The following morning we had, you guessed it, ANOTHER early start. We were booked in for a cruise on the Beagle Channel to see the sea lions and the lighthouse at the end of the world. Thankfully it was not a strenuous morning and all we were required to do was sit in a warm boat, munching on biscuits and drinking tea and checking out the amazing views. We were very content.
Upon arrival back on the mainland we had 30 minutes before our transfer was collecting us to go to the airport. We made a joint decision to head back to Almacen Ramon Generales for another delicious cheese and meat platter. We figured if we got served right away, we’d have a good 15 minutes to eat before we had to leave for our hotel.
We underestimated the lunch hour rush =/ Our food took longer than anticipated leaving us a grand total of 4 minutes to down the entire platter. We managed it. Just. And then legged it to the hotel only to be told that our transfer had arrived early and left without us! Whoops!! Worth it for the delicious platter. Seriously.
We managed to make our flight without any major dramas though and that evening we touched down in El Calafate.
So El Calafate is north of Ushuaia and is situated in the Patagonia region. The Patagonia region, for those of you who don’t know, stretches between Chile and Argentina and is made up of the southern portion of the Andes mountains until you hit Tierra del Fuego.
We had come to see the Perito Moreno glacier. It is the same reason that pretty much everyone comes here. In fact, it appears to be the only reason that the town exists. It is tourist central. You can tell by the extreme cost of everything. Boy is it expensive down there.
Again, we had booked this part of the trip in advance because we knew we were travelling in peak season. That was a good thing because the town was packed! Upon arrival and checking into our (somewhat average) hotel we headed into the town for a delicious steak dinner. Argentinean steak. We were excited. La Tablita has a great reputation and we were NOT disappointed by the giant chunks of beef served to us cooked to perfection. Heaven!
During our meal Joep spotted a man at a table nearby who looked exactly like a young version of his godfather, Uncle Simon. The resemblance was uncanny and we spent some time talking about it … Joep even took some creepy photos from a distance. It got to the point that Joep couldn’t have a normal conversation with me anymore so when he told me that he was going to go and ask this guy if he was Dutch I was fully supportive.
Off Joep headed across the restaurant to interrupt this lovely group dinner by asking this man if he was Dutch and to then tell him that he looked exactly like his godfather. It was not a relative of Uncle Simon. It was not even a Dutchman. It was a lovely American man who was thrilled by Joep’s confidence in approaching them and we ended up having some lovely chats with the entire group. We even exchanged contact details! And later that evening we bumped into each other again on the street and shared a lovely stroll through the town. Travelling – we love it.
The following morning, after all the excitement of the previous evening, we headed off for our day trip to the glacier. I’ll be honest, we were not super psyched. You may have noticed that we’d had a busy couple of weeks and we were tiiiiiired. And there were so many tourists. And we were tiiiiiired. But off we headed to get the bus to the Los Glacieres National Park (entrance fee of 100 pesos per person is not included in the tour price … ouch) where we were transferred immediately to a boat which took us across to the glacier.
Despite being exhausted, despite the crazy number of tourists and despite the cost (exorbitant and best), the glacier is awe inspiring. It is seriously incredible. The first sighting is wonder-filled. It is huge, and the colors!! Blues of all different shades against amazing whites. Once you have digested all the views and colors and visual extravaganza you then have to wait only a few minutes (and hope that the tourists all around you will stay quiet for a moment) to hear the noise that the iceberg makes … it is surreal.
See the Perito Moreno glacier is the only glacier in the Patagonia that is still growing. The extreme rainfall in the Andes turns to snow at the high altitudes which then accumulates and forms ice which then pushes the glacier out across the surface of Lake Argentino. Once it is on the lake is slowly melts from the bottom and from the top. So when you are there you hear these regular, loud, rumbling cracking sounds. It is soooooo strange and really awesome. Every time you hear a crack you look up expectantly hoping to see a massive chunk of ice fall off the top. We witnessed a few of these and it was unbelievable! What was also very cool was that every now and then a huge chunk of ice would just bob up from the bottom of the glacier … weird. And totally awesome.
I’m getting all worked up here and forgetting to write this chronologically. So we arrived on the boat right near the glacier where we were allowed to dump our backpacks with our lunches in them (more on that later …). We then hiked on land to the edge of the glacier. As we were walking people in front of Joep & I turned around and stared into the sky in awe. Joep and I turned and looked up just in time to see a huuuuuuge condor fly right over our heads. Like right over. Like not at 2,000m altitude. It was incredible! You may remember these giant birds from our Inca expedition last year. They have a wing span of up to 3m. It is like seeing a dinosaur!!
They also always hang out at high altitudes because they can’t flap their giant wings a lot. Poor things. This poor dude was apparently injured or something to be flying so low and to add insult to his injury, little birds were flapping around him making fun of him. Boo. He found himself a tree to perch in to catch his breath and we all watched him in awe for a while before a giant ice crack scared him off and made us all remember where we were!! So we continued onto the glacier where we strapped on our ice clamps. Yes! Remember when we did the Athabasca glacier on the Icefields Parkway in Banff? Well we were doing a similar hike!
Here’s the dealio though, it was not pouring with snow this time! So we were able to see the glacier a lot more clearly and really appreciate the different shades of blue throughout. Simply incredible. The hike was not toooo strenuous but it was still a good challenge for us. The landscape was out of this world. After an hour or more of hiking we were ‘surprised’ by a cocktail on the ice! I say “surprised” because Joep & I knew that this was going to happen having gotten the tip of a friend of ours beforehand. Nothing like a whiskey on the rocks, on the rocks! We loved it!
It was pretty amazing! What was also amazing was that everyone in our group was wearing serious hiking shoes. What were we wearing? Our converse sneakers of course!! We got some strange looks … and our feet were pretty cold … but overall it worked for us!
After finishing the hike, and our whiskey, we headed back up to eat our lunch. Our hotel packed our lunch for us … 2 sandwiches, an apple each and a muesli bar. They charged us the equivalent of AUD 40 for this. We were less than impressed.
Still, it filled us up and we then headed off for our boat cruise along the front of the glacier watching ice fall into the water. After the cruise we were shepherded back onto the awaiting buses to head up to the main lookout area of the glaciers. By this stage Joep & I were a bit tour grouped out but we soaked up the views for a while longer before once again heading back to the buses to go back to our hotels.
A very long day. And one worth doing to see the glacier BUT the mass tourism production made it all a little less magical. Still we are very glad to have seen the glacier because it was surreal and something we were blown away by.
That evening we met up with new friends we made during the tour for a lovely meal. They are planning their wedding, he is British, she is German and they are moving to Singapore!! Can you imagine a better match for us? A lovely evening followed making us feel much better about the touristy aspect of our trip!
We had planned to have 1 more day in El Calafate before a late evening flight the following day. Alas, or perhaps fortunately, LAN changed our flight to the morning leaving us with a 9 hour layover in Buenos Aires before our connection to Mendoza
It sounds horrific but actually turned out to be wonderful! Upon arrival in BA we taxied it down to Palermo, our current favourite suburb in Buenos Aires, where we set up camp at a street side café with beers and food and wireless internet access allowing us an entire afternoon to plan out the rest of our trip!
It was a splendid afternoon and boy have we got a great trip coming up!!
No comments:
Post a Comment