South America: Patagonia & Modes of Transportation
We are in our second night in Ushuaia, Argentina -- the end of the world. As with all of Patagonia the scenery is wonderful. Even the airport is great. The plane approaches from out over the Beagle Channel so that you are flying over very blue water with the small city of Ushuaia in the foreground and in the background surrounding the city are blue mountains each capped in white snow. And just to make it a little better the sky is the proverbial sky blue with whiff of white clouds. As the plane touches down you can look out the windows and see the blue water on each side of the runway maybe 20 yards away.
We flew in from El Calafate. And the plane only left two hours early! We got lucky with this flight. I had asked our hotel owner to confirm our flight about 9 in the morning. She got no answer but said she would keep trying. I took off to check email while Nancy got ready. Nancy then stopped to drop her bag off and catch up with me. But before she could leave the owner told her our plane was leaving at 12:15 not 2:20 pm. Nancy finds me, we jump in a taxi, pick up our bags and head for the airport to catch our flight.
We had arrived at El Calafate six days earlier. The plane lands outside of town in what at first appears to be a very barren landscape. But as we drive into town the landscape turns from the initial brown to various shades of brown and green. Then you see the very blue lake and there in the middle is a cold blue iceberg. In the background mountains, some bare, some with trees, others with snow and even others with ice.
Immediately after checking into our hostel and dropping our bags we head for a small lake to stretch our legs and look for birds. The hostel owner had given us directions and a place to stop for lunch. Of course, we changed our plans immediately upon smelling the wonderful chocolate coming from the first chocolate store we passed. Yes, in this very small town there must be a half dozen chocolate stores to tempt your every walk. Into the store and out of the store with a sack of sweets for lunch.
As we walked the wind got stronger and stronger. About 10 minutes after the chocolate store we came to the lunch restaurant and ducked in to get out of the wind as much as for real food versus the chocolate we had been eating.
As we eat the wind realllllly begins to blow. It is not our imagination because our waiter has to chase the large wooden garbage can down the road and bring it back. Patagonia and wind are one in the same.
Never to say die, we leave our safe indoor spot for the great outdoors. The lake walk was great, except for when we were face into the wind which caused tears in our eyes. It must not be as bad as I remember because we stayed out for about two hours. The best part of the walk was on the back side of the lake where there were several park benches hidden behind low bushes which blocked the wind. Several times we spend better than 5 to 10 minutes looking at the same birds or ducks or geese -- each must be very rare for the time we spent watching from our wind free bench.
The next two days were great weather days and we did tours. The first day was to the Glacier. When I mean to the glacier I mean to and on. We walked for about an hour and half on the ice. Walking ice is so very interesting: the color of the ice, the water running off or through, the holes and the crevices, the crunch of ice beneath your crampons, the bright sun both in your face and reflecting into your face off the ice and knowing you are on ice but not in the least bit cold. The Argentineans know how to end a hike. Less than five minutes from where we started we stopped for a piece of chocolate and a glass of whiskey. Life is good.
The next day was a different lake and different glacier. You can not get close to this glacier because of all the icebergs. The captain of the boat weaved his way in as close as possible and several times I caught myself thinking of the Titanic.
After the glacier the boat dropped us off at what use to be a sheep estancia. Out of the 40 people on the boat, six had signed up for the horse ride. Yes, Dale Key and Roy Allin were two of the six. No, I did not play the guitar and sing. Almost the first question was, Have you ridden before. Of course, we both answered, yes. And then under her breath Nancy made what is the key statement: Just how good a horse back rider can you be when you only ride every 20 years or so.
Our horses were good. But the landscape made it an adventure. We rode through brush, under trees, through several creeks and a river, through marshes, up and down hills, and then we stopped to get lessons on steep hills both up and down. Roy Rogers I am not but I was at least as good as everyone else.
The advantage of the horses is they took you where it would have been very difficult to hike and even if you wanted to hike it there was not the time. The two and half hours was just about right, any longer I might not have been able to walk to the dinning hall.When we got to the dinning hall we were sat with four other people. And these were great people. I would guess they were in their early 60s, Argentineans and as friendly as anyone you will ever meet. Believe it or not, I knew more Spanish than they knew English. Plenty of laughter by all of us. They explained how to eat the different dishes, including complicated food like salad, lamb, etc. One of the men practiced all his English he could remember from school on us, like: open the door, close the window, how are you. I hope someday when strangers sit down at my table I remember to include them in the meal like these four very gregarious people did with us.
The next morning we caught a bus to El Chalten. This is a five hour bus ride that for some reason bounced me hard. Almost the entire road is a gavel-rock road. But the trip is worth every minute because you get off in El Chalten and its magnificent mountains and hiking trails.
We had decided to splurge on our place to stay. We went Frommers best place to stay -- at about $80 a night. El Pilar is located 15 Km outside the very small town of El Chalten. 15 Km does not sound far until you note the speed limit is 30 Km and the road does not always allow you to drive that fast. The road parallels a fast moving river with snow cover mountains on both sides of the valley and in front of you. The hotel was wonderful. A big big room with a too die for queen size bed, lots of windows letting in light and looking out on the mountains and a bathroom the size of an American home bathroom. We had obviously hit the big time with this pick of hotels.
Upon our arrival we opted for the light lunch: rice pilate plate for an appetizer and then a large dish of beef stroganoff and we gathered up all our courage and said no to desert. Of course, we ordered our first bottle of wine to go with the meal.
Later that afternoon we took a short hike. But the trail and scenery was so good we ended up hiking between 5 and 6 Km and did not return to the hotel until a little after 8 in the evening. The hike begins outside the hotel door along the river. Then you elevate a few feet into the forest. Finally you come to the National Park and using planted tree stumps you climb over a fence into the Park. We ended our walk when we could look out across the river, about our elevation on the opposite side is a lake with a glacier feeding into the lake.
The next morning we had an 8:30 breakfast. God I love Argentina, no 6 am tours -- Argentina is so civilized. A taxi picked us up a little before 10 and dropped us off at the trail head about 10:15. We stretched the legs this day. We were on the trail for almost 8 hours and did about 22 Km. When we reached the end of the trail, Nancy sat down to take in the view -- I hiked down another 30 feet to the lake, broke off a piece of ice from a small iceberg that had floated across the lake from the glacier, and brought it back for Nancy to cool off with! What a view!!!!!!!!
Our luck with weather continued to hold, we had two beautiful days and later found out from one of the other two couples staying at the hotel (would you believe they were from Loveland, CO) that their hiking guide said they get about 20 days a year when the clouds are not obscuring the view of a least one of the major peaks.
The final day in El Chalten I did a three hour morning hike, maybe 10 Km. Walked through forests, along a river, through shallow like marshes, over river crossings made out of tree limbs and ending in a forest that will make you believe in gnomes! But I will say the first 30 minutes were very windy and cold, so windy that even with my sunglasses on the wind had my eyes tearing. And all the time I knew Nancy was back in our room getting a few last minutes use out of the queen size bed and wonderful warm comforter.
Note: The hiking in Patagonia is made for people our age. You are hiking at 2500 feet above sea level, most trails have an elevation gain of maybe 750 feet, the weather is cool, the scenery unforgettable, lots of birds singing and almost no one else on the trail.
Note: For you that may have missed it, Bolivia has a new president. We have decided that we will have to return to South America and do Bolivia. The Vice President who is now the President may not quell the rock throwing, tourist kidnapping, etc. and I am not going to travel Bolivia until I know for sure the people are happy with their latest president.
Modes of Travel: So far we have traveled by airplane -- we saved our napkins from the LAN Peru because they were better than anything we had been given to use in the previous two months;
taxi -- some nice and some not so nice but almost every driver did everything in their power to make our trip a wonderful experience;
Bus -- long distance, our bus from Arequipa to Puno was as nice as any plane trip,
Bus -- short distance, no chickens but interesting never-the-less;
Motorized canoe -- the only way you can travel in parts of the jungle, one motor in the water and a second in the boat should the first not work and a 55 gal drum of fuel in front of the second motor -- at least our boat drivers did not smoke;
Catamaran Dugout -- a wooden platform suspended across two dug out canoes, recommendation: make sure there are two paddlers and two paddles or you will end up like me: first bailing out the two canoes because they leak and then paddling one of the canoes with half a paddle;
Train -- still a very civilized way to travel;
Motorized Bike -- Gets you where you want to go but not conducive to conversation;
Catamaran Boat -- A great way to see the Galapagos Islands;
Motorized Rubber Boat -- Sit on the side and in the middle -- back is by the motor and front sometimes a wave will cool you off;
Llama cart -- a great way to see scenery -- slowly but I do not think the llamas enjoyed the cart rideHorses -- a walking horse is a great way to get around but a trotting horse leaves no bone unbounced;
Walking -- Quito: Walking the sidewalks of Quito, Ecuador may be our most dangerous walk to date. An American attorney with a judge support by the trial lawyers and a jury in Texas-Alabama-Mississippi could retire after one day of ambulance chasing of people walking these sidewalks -- open holes, broken concrete, unflat, dips where dips should not be, etc.
Walking -- Inca steps; you can not do enough lunges to prepare yourself for these steps which I believe we never set foot on one at less than 8,000 feet
Walking -- Trails: some of the best trails we have every set foot to!
Tom
South America
We flew in from El Calafate. And the plane only left two hours early! We got lucky with this flight. I had asked our hotel owner to confirm our flight about 9 in the morning. She got no answer but said she would keep trying. I took off to check email while Nancy got ready. Nancy then stopped to drop her bag off and catch up with me. But before she could leave the owner told her our plane was leaving at 12:15 not 2:20 pm. Nancy finds me, we jump in a taxi, pick up our bags and head for the airport to catch our flight.
We had arrived at El Calafate six days earlier. The plane lands outside of town in what at first appears to be a very barren landscape. But as we drive into town the landscape turns from the initial brown to various shades of brown and green. Then you see the very blue lake and there in the middle is a cold blue iceberg. In the background mountains, some bare, some with trees, others with snow and even others with ice.
Immediately after checking into our hostel and dropping our bags we head for a small lake to stretch our legs and look for birds. The hostel owner had given us directions and a place to stop for lunch. Of course, we changed our plans immediately upon smelling the wonderful chocolate coming from the first chocolate store we passed. Yes, in this very small town there must be a half dozen chocolate stores to tempt your every walk. Into the store and out of the store with a sack of sweets for lunch.
As we walked the wind got stronger and stronger. About 10 minutes after the chocolate store we came to the lunch restaurant and ducked in to get out of the wind as much as for real food versus the chocolate we had been eating.
As we eat the wind realllllly begins to blow. It is not our imagination because our waiter has to chase the large wooden garbage can down the road and bring it back. Patagonia and wind are one in the same.
Never to say die, we leave our safe indoor spot for the great outdoors. The lake walk was great, except for when we were face into the wind which caused tears in our eyes. It must not be as bad as I remember because we stayed out for about two hours. The best part of the walk was on the back side of the lake where there were several park benches hidden behind low bushes which blocked the wind. Several times we spend better than 5 to 10 minutes looking at the same birds or ducks or geese -- each must be very rare for the time we spent watching from our wind free bench.
The next two days were great weather days and we did tours. The first day was to the Glacier. When I mean to the glacier I mean to and on. We walked for about an hour and half on the ice. Walking ice is so very interesting: the color of the ice, the water running off or through, the holes and the crevices, the crunch of ice beneath your crampons, the bright sun both in your face and reflecting into your face off the ice and knowing you are on ice but not in the least bit cold. The Argentineans know how to end a hike. Less than five minutes from where we started we stopped for a piece of chocolate and a glass of whiskey. Life is good.
The next day was a different lake and different glacier. You can not get close to this glacier because of all the icebergs. The captain of the boat weaved his way in as close as possible and several times I caught myself thinking of the Titanic.
After the glacier the boat dropped us off at what use to be a sheep estancia. Out of the 40 people on the boat, six had signed up for the horse ride. Yes, Dale Key and Roy Allin were two of the six. No, I did not play the guitar and sing. Almost the first question was, Have you ridden before. Of course, we both answered, yes. And then under her breath Nancy made what is the key statement: Just how good a horse back rider can you be when you only ride every 20 years or so.
Our horses were good. But the landscape made it an adventure. We rode through brush, under trees, through several creeks and a river, through marshes, up and down hills, and then we stopped to get lessons on steep hills both up and down. Roy Rogers I am not but I was at least as good as everyone else.
The advantage of the horses is they took you where it would have been very difficult to hike and even if you wanted to hike it there was not the time. The two and half hours was just about right, any longer I might not have been able to walk to the dinning hall.When we got to the dinning hall we were sat with four other people. And these were great people. I would guess they were in their early 60s, Argentineans and as friendly as anyone you will ever meet. Believe it or not, I knew more Spanish than they knew English. Plenty of laughter by all of us. They explained how to eat the different dishes, including complicated food like salad, lamb, etc. One of the men practiced all his English he could remember from school on us, like: open the door, close the window, how are you. I hope someday when strangers sit down at my table I remember to include them in the meal like these four very gregarious people did with us.
The next morning we caught a bus to El Chalten. This is a five hour bus ride that for some reason bounced me hard. Almost the entire road is a gavel-rock road. But the trip is worth every minute because you get off in El Chalten and its magnificent mountains and hiking trails.
We had decided to splurge on our place to stay. We went Frommers best place to stay -- at about $80 a night. El Pilar is located 15 Km outside the very small town of El Chalten. 15 Km does not sound far until you note the speed limit is 30 Km and the road does not always allow you to drive that fast. The road parallels a fast moving river with snow cover mountains on both sides of the valley and in front of you. The hotel was wonderful. A big big room with a too die for queen size bed, lots of windows letting in light and looking out on the mountains and a bathroom the size of an American home bathroom. We had obviously hit the big time with this pick of hotels.
Upon our arrival we opted for the light lunch: rice pilate plate for an appetizer and then a large dish of beef stroganoff and we gathered up all our courage and said no to desert. Of course, we ordered our first bottle of wine to go with the meal.
Later that afternoon we took a short hike. But the trail and scenery was so good we ended up hiking between 5 and 6 Km and did not return to the hotel until a little after 8 in the evening. The hike begins outside the hotel door along the river. Then you elevate a few feet into the forest. Finally you come to the National Park and using planted tree stumps you climb over a fence into the Park. We ended our walk when we could look out across the river, about our elevation on the opposite side is a lake with a glacier feeding into the lake.
The next morning we had an 8:30 breakfast. God I love Argentina, no 6 am tours -- Argentina is so civilized. A taxi picked us up a little before 10 and dropped us off at the trail head about 10:15. We stretched the legs this day. We were on the trail for almost 8 hours and did about 22 Km. When we reached the end of the trail, Nancy sat down to take in the view -- I hiked down another 30 feet to the lake, broke off a piece of ice from a small iceberg that had floated across the lake from the glacier, and brought it back for Nancy to cool off with! What a view!!!!!!!!
Our luck with weather continued to hold, we had two beautiful days and later found out from one of the other two couples staying at the hotel (would you believe they were from Loveland, CO) that their hiking guide said they get about 20 days a year when the clouds are not obscuring the view of a least one of the major peaks.
The final day in El Chalten I did a three hour morning hike, maybe 10 Km. Walked through forests, along a river, through shallow like marshes, over river crossings made out of tree limbs and ending in a forest that will make you believe in gnomes! But I will say the first 30 minutes were very windy and cold, so windy that even with my sunglasses on the wind had my eyes tearing. And all the time I knew Nancy was back in our room getting a few last minutes use out of the queen size bed and wonderful warm comforter.
Note: The hiking in Patagonia is made for people our age. You are hiking at 2500 feet above sea level, most trails have an elevation gain of maybe 750 feet, the weather is cool, the scenery unforgettable, lots of birds singing and almost no one else on the trail.
Note: For you that may have missed it, Bolivia has a new president. We have decided that we will have to return to South America and do Bolivia. The Vice President who is now the President may not quell the rock throwing, tourist kidnapping, etc. and I am not going to travel Bolivia until I know for sure the people are happy with their latest president.
Modes of Travel: So far we have traveled by airplane -- we saved our napkins from the LAN Peru because they were better than anything we had been given to use in the previous two months;
taxi -- some nice and some not so nice but almost every driver did everything in their power to make our trip a wonderful experience;
Bus -- long distance, our bus from Arequipa to Puno was as nice as any plane trip,
Bus -- short distance, no chickens but interesting never-the-less;
Motorized canoe -- the only way you can travel in parts of the jungle, one motor in the water and a second in the boat should the first not work and a 55 gal drum of fuel in front of the second motor -- at least our boat drivers did not smoke;
Catamaran Dugout -- a wooden platform suspended across two dug out canoes, recommendation: make sure there are two paddlers and two paddles or you will end up like me: first bailing out the two canoes because they leak and then paddling one of the canoes with half a paddle;
Train -- still a very civilized way to travel;
Motorized Bike -- Gets you where you want to go but not conducive to conversation;
Catamaran Boat -- A great way to see the Galapagos Islands;
Motorized Rubber Boat -- Sit on the side and in the middle -- back is by the motor and front sometimes a wave will cool you off;
Llama cart -- a great way to see scenery -- slowly but I do not think the llamas enjoyed the cart rideHorses -- a walking horse is a great way to get around but a trotting horse leaves no bone unbounced;
Walking -- Quito: Walking the sidewalks of Quito, Ecuador may be our most dangerous walk to date. An American attorney with a judge support by the trial lawyers and a jury in Texas-Alabama-Mississippi could retire after one day of ambulance chasing of people walking these sidewalks -- open holes, broken concrete, unflat, dips where dips should not be, etc.
Walking -- Inca steps; you can not do enough lunges to prepare yourself for these steps which I believe we never set foot on one at less than 8,000 feet
Walking -- Trails: some of the best trails we have every set foot to!
Tom
South America
posted by Rambling Tom at 6:34 PM
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