What do you get when you put an Aussie, a Brit and an American on the side of a mountain?
Three buggered, knackered and pooped hikers who had a bloody unreal, fuckin´ brilliant, awesome week of hiking and camping.
On our second night of camping in Torres Del Paine we met a Brit camping on his own. We met him because he made popcorn on his camp stove to share with everyone. Who can resist popcorn?!
We invited him along on our hike the next day. That would be nine of hours of hiking through the spfitzing rain. Up steep inclines and down slippery slopes only to find we´d followed the wrong path for 20 minutes (sorry guys, really!).
And then there were the streams. The ones that were flowing faster and higher than normal because of the rain (it was our third day of rain!). Plus, one wide river that came with horror stories from passing hikers. Here, to get a better picture of the day, try this. Put three sacks of potatoes in your backpack, stand in the shower for half an hour to make sure your clothing is drenched, and then go down to your local stream and try skipping from wet rock to wet rock ever so delicately. Not so easy is it?
And yet through it all our spirits were high and I have come away with only fond memories (well, and a nasty cold) of hiking through one of the most beautiful national parks I´ve ever visited -- with two "awesome" hiking companions. For all that told me that Torres Del Paine in Patagonia was a must, you were right, and I thank you for your suggestion.
Five days in "the nature" cooking gourmet camp meals, meeting similar minded people and doing everything possible to keep your sleeping bag dry is what Visa would call "priceless."
hop, skip and a jump away ... plus a couple bus rides.
it´s not the easiest place to get to. perhaps comparable to visiting perth although patagonia might win with the number of options available. the nearest airport is 3 hours from the nearest town to Torres Del Paine (where we were heading to hike). and the nearest town is another 2 hours from Torres Del Paine.
we booked a flight from santiago to punta arenas not knowing it stopped in two other cities along the long, long chilean coast. up, down, up, down, up and finally down again.
the upside was that they would serve us a new meal during each 1.5 hour leg.
i can assure you i´m not starving on this trip. and i´m glad i´m not doing the driving!
When someone suggests I take a bus somewhere I picture the Chinatown to Chinatown buses you can find from NYC to Washington, DC. Very basic ammenities with a slight stench oozing from the back toilet.
So, when I found out many of the buses from point A to B were 14 - 20 hours I wasn´t so keen to start hopping around from spot to spot. Our first bus rides from Montevideo to Valiz already sent some encouragement that perhaps things wouldn´t be so bad. We at least had air conditioning and the seats were quite comfy.
Then, we took a ferry boat from Colonia to Buenos Aires. We thought we bought tickets for the slow 2.5 hour boat for $US20 but it turns out that bought us tickets on the 1 hour fast boat. We get on the ferry having forgotten to buy lunch supplies. Next thing we know ferry attendants are wandering the aisles handing out packed lunches. This is more than most American Airlines hand out for free these days!
Well, then ... then we finally tried an overnight bus. We took a 14 hour one from Buenos Aires to Mendoza (Argentina´s Wine Country). When we saw the seats on our bus we must have looked liked little kids going on their first ride ever! These seats were similar to ones you´d find in first class on a plane. We only had semi-cama seats which tilt about 3/4 of the way back. For about $8 more you can buy cama ones that go almost flat.
It just got better from there. They showed us two movies, fed us dinner and breakfast and gave us blankets and pillows. If I had known how to say "will you tuck me in?" in spanish I may have asked the bus attendant to do so.
Inspired by my Italy bike tour of the wine country I suggested we rent bikes when we got to Argentina´s wine town, Mendoza. When I read the closest bodegas/wineries were 17km away I still thought -- no problem.
We arrived in Mendoza early in the morning on our overnight bus from Buenos Aires. Finding the closest hostel to the bus station was booked, we found a cheap huespedes which, in my very bad Spanish, I translated as a bed and breakfast. After seeing a door open to one of the rooms -- where an elderly lady was tucked in bed and someone was in the room caring for her -- we thought we had checked ourselves into an elderly hospice. Our very friendly host arrived and showed us down the back of the building into another area looking more like a simple hotel. Whew!
After a quick bite for lunch we found ourselves some bikes to rent. $US5 bought us each an afternoon of biking and off we went. Anyone we spoke to about biking pointed us to the large park nearby, but one woman finally helped us map our way to a couple bodegas.
I´m not sure how best to describe the journey. We weren´t on the rolling hills of Tuscany. Nor the small long roads of Napa. At one point we were on a highway cycling with cars whisking by at top speed. Next we were riding over bumpy roads in a sleepy, slightly shady looking town.
We did get into one tasting. We missed the second one by half and hour. That must have been the half hour we spent trying to figure out where the heck we were on the tourist map.
Yowsers. I think I´ve eaten more meat in the last week and a half then I have in a typical year. You wouldn´t want to be a vegetarian in Uruguay or Argentina. One, because its hard to find dishes with out meat or fish in them and two, because it tastes SO good!
While in Valizas my friend Sergio cooked us a traditional Argentinian BBQ. It takes a minimum of 2-3 hours to cook the BBQ. You start by eating the offols like mollejo (cows throat) and choto (small intestines). Then you move on to large chunks of Asado (ribs) and other various large meats. And yes, I did try the mollejo and choto ... the mollego was like a meaty corn casserole and the the choto like tough calamari.
Beyond BBQ meals one tends to eat little sandwiches with the crusts of the bread cut off. They are typically filled with ham and cheese. Those are eaten for breakfast and lunch.
There is little escape. It´s everywhere.
While eating breakfast one morning, in Montevideo, an elderly man walked up to us and said "Guten Morgen.¨ Surprised by the German greeting in a Spanish speaking city we both hesitated and then smiled and greeted him back in our choppy German.
He turned out to be the owner of the confiteria we were sitting in. His father had migrated from Germany and opened it years ago. We aren´t sure if he approached us because he thought we might be German or because he saw one of us looking at the old photos in shop. Either way, we made a new friend that day. He toured us around the shop and then the next day drove us along the coast of the city dropping us off at an old Spanish Cemetery we had wanted to visit.
A sweet new friend we made in Montevideo.
i´m off on another set of travels. this time i´m touring the southern part of south america. i started in Uruguay to visit some friends. lucky for me they decided to take their summer holiday at a tiny town along the coast called Valizas. it was an amazing 5 days of sunshine, sandy beaches, body surfing, sand surfing down dunes and strolls through neighbouring towns. oh, and lots and lots of fresh fish and BBQ meats.
the place they rented was a new one for them and they were even shocked to find it had no electricity. it also didn´t have running water. the water had to be pumped from a well outside the house. the toilet was flushed by dumping water into from a bucket.
what i enjoyed the most about this experience was having to think a different way about my daily routines. i would plan out when to take a shower so i could handle, maybe even enjoy, the refreshingly cold trinkle of well-pumped water. you had to turn a little nossle on the shower head to make the water flow. to conserve pumping you would turn it off while sudsing up. it made me so very aware how much water i could save if it was this easy to turn on and off my faucett at home. even better, it would be great to see how much water i'm consuming during my shower. anything to make me better informed and help me conserve.
another thing i would do is read in the early evening before going out for a late dinner (an early dinner in Uruguay was 9pm, so sometimes we qualified as early). when i got home from dinner it was late, dark and i was sleepy. it worked out pefectly.
it was fantastic to step away from technology. it was a much faster process to decompressing. of course, i´ll admit i loved the hot shower i took when we got back to Montevideo. and, i soooo enjoyed hearing the toilet flush.
