Feb 4, 2012
Argentina
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Calafate

El Chaltén, Argentina

Upon arriving at El Chaltén, Andrew and I had no hostel.  We made a little bet – I predicted being turned away from 4 hostels, he predicted 11.  Oddly enough, I was right – but we ended up at a pretty dingy place for the night.  We decided we would search for another hostel with openings for the next day, and buy some groceries for the hike tomorrow.

El Chaltén is a pretty small town, but it felt a little strange – nearly every single building was a hostel or something dedicated to tourism.  There were barely any houses, and barely any locals either – I could hear more Hebrew (and even see it – many signs, including official park trail signs, were in Hebrew) than Spanish!  The “super”mercados are something I would not call “super” either – every grocer was quite lacking, but that’s the case when you end up in an isolated town where you can’t even get cell phone reception with an Argentinian SIM card.  We find our next hostel, prep some chicken and avocado sandwiches for the next day, and have a wonderful Argentinian stew called locro (pumpkin, beans, meat, other yummy stuff) for dinner. Continue reading →

Feb 1, 2012
Argentina
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Wind

El Calafate, Argentina

El Calafate is a touristy town, thriving on tourists to the nearby Glaciar Perito Moreno. But after the long Torres del Paine hike that left me quite sore from the day before, I just needed to relax.

After I checked into my hostel (best one yet, young couple Belén and Darío were super nice and basically operated out of their house), I took a supposedly easy walk to the nearby Laguna Nimez, a nature reserve located by the very turquoise and beautiful Lago Argentino. Well…given that this is Patagonia, the presence of the lake made it very very windy! It was almost hard to stand at times, and just comical to attempt to walk against the wind and make no progress. I ended up even more sore that evening. Continue reading →

Jan 30, 2012
Chile
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Effort

Puerto Natales, Chile

Instead of staying in Punta Arenas for a few days like I originally planned (to see some Magellanic penguins…but kind of not necessary after seeing literally a million of them in Antarctica), I jumped my hostel booking and went along with Courtney and Simon to Puerto Natales. (I assumed that I would only forfeit my $2 booking fee, but turns out I was billed the full $20 for one night. Oh well, at least I saved some time, but I’ll try not to do that again – bad for me and bad for the hostel’s business.)

It’s hard for anything to top Antarctica, that’s for sure. But I was rattled out of that mentality almost immediately during the drive to Puerto Natales – places are different. There are different things to appreciate. And that drive was beautiful – Patagonia is very flat, with lots of dry brush around. On our left were mountains in the distance, on our right was water. Plenty of animals around with so much space to themselves – sheep and ostriches on the sprawling estancias, and some possibly wild guanacos (they look like smaller llamas). Continue reading →

Jan 28, 2012
Antarctica
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Exposure

Antarctic Peninsula

What an incredible week.

As I walked to the pier and was directed past the ferry daytrip people to the cruise dock, all I could say over and over again was, “I can’t believe I’m doing this, I can’t believe I’m doing this…” Continue reading →

Jan 20, 2012
Antarctica, Argentina
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Goodbye South America…

Ushuaia, Argentina

It’s been seven days. And I’ve had a wonderful time – in fact, I just got to the southernmost city (not quite settlement, but city) in the world! But I’ve just made a decision that leads me to have to say goodbye to Argentina, goodbye to South America, goodbye to my budget, and goodbye to my plans all so soon…

Well, temporarily. At least for some of those things.

I’m heading to Antarctica! Continue reading →

Jan 18, 2012
Argentina
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Tango

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Oh, the trials of traveling solo.  I intended to head over to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, for a day trip, but found all the ferries booked.  Serves me right for trying the day before I wanted to go.  If I had a travel companion, I’d probably have been a little more responsible.

So, with extra time in Buenos Aires, I decided to take it a little easier.

Day 3, Amanda and I headed over to the Microcentral area (downtown), as it was finally a weekday.  Bustling with people, we walked down to the Presidential Palace and the Plaza de Mayo, then over to the shopping streets of Florida (pedestrian only) and Corrientes.  Though I didn’t buy anything as usual, it was just good to get a sense of the modernity of the city.  After passing by Teatro Colón and the giant Obelisco dominating the sprawling Av. 9 de Julio, we split up, and I headed to Puerto Madero on my own.  Puerto Madero is the newest barrio in town, a gentrified waterfront area with expensive property and shops.  After seeing the needle-like pedestrian-only suspension bridge, Puente de la Mujer, I headed home completely exhausted and joined a few others at the hostel for drinks on the rooftop terrace and dinner in the area. Continue reading →

Jan 15, 2012
Argentina
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Meatatarianism

Buenos Aires, Argentina

¡Buen dia! You’ll have to excuse any typos, it’s tough to get used to a Spanish keyboard, and I’m still quite jet lagged…

My first impressions have been quite odd and take me back to my Christmas break in Vancouver. Upon flying in, the landscape looked like a game of Settlers of Catan severely lacking in bricks and rocks. Turns out that the city of Buenos Aires is quite far away from the airport, and the land around for miles and miles is farmland. And going around town, my interactions with others lead me to compare their currency situation with Monopoly Deal. Argentina does not seem to have enough small change – people hesitate or even outright refuse to give it! A Swedish girl at my hostel whom I met while checking in, Amanda, recounted her story of a store refusing to give her a quarter that was part of her change, instead giving her a piece of candy of similar value. Turns out that there’s even a black market for coins, which are required for the bus. If you don’t have the small change, you must overpay or just don’t take the bus…

It’s hot outside. Coming directly from winter, it’s quite a welcome change…but the locals, they all wear jeans! I really don’t know how they do it. Continue reading →

Jan 12, 2012
+ General
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Pre-departure

I’ve got the jitters.

The next three months will be a blast, I know it. Trip planning lets my imagination run wild and dream big, and I’ve got a big route to follow. But of course, I can’t help but be extremely nervous. This’ll be by far the longest time I’ve ever been on the road, and also the longest time I’ll have spent travelling alone. (The previous? 17 days in India, 7 of them alone.) This is also the first time I’ll be travelling in countries where using English might not work so well. For some, especially the experienced, this trip is nothing.  (Or perhaps I’ve been reading too many travel blogs and watching far too much of Departures lately.)  For me, it’s a big deal!

So yes, the jitters. Jitters of excitement, and jitters of nerves. Continue reading →