3 Months Already?

Holy Crap! It's been more than 3 Months! I made a top 10 list to recap, if simply for my own enjoyment & recollection. There are really many many runner ups, but hey, anything more than 10 would just be weird.


1) Carnival in Rio: This would have been a cultural explosion without the host I had. But with Brian and his family, I spent my days like a regular Carioci, going to the best blocos, meeting all his friends, eating home cooked feijoada, and participating in the official Carnival parade in the Sambodromo. Unbelievable.

All the different colors in the photo really bring out the Carnival/Rio experience:


2) Easter Island: Like a paradise. Free to walk anywhere on the island amongst the roving horses and view the Polynesian plants, see waves crashing against the cliffs, and view amazing sunsets with a backdrop of Maori statues.

Hanging with the Maori:

3) Hiking Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina: Never will I climb on a glacier again with crampons. Incredible scenery. Plus, the freshest water I’ve ever tasted my entire life.



4) Staying with a family in Ushuaia, Argentina: I could not have learned more about the farthest south city in the world without this family. Plus, we went on amazing hikes I would not have gone on, and shared many homecooked meals.



5) Spending 3 weeks in Buenos Aires. Meeting many people in many Rotaract clubs. Making great new friend with Lautaro, whom I couchsurfed with for about 4 days in Feb and 5 days in April (plus who helped me replace my lost credit card!). Staying with and going out with Brian from Columbia/Jersey. Sucking at the Tango on two occasions. Making friends with all the people living at the hostel I stayed at for 10 nights. Wandering the plazas and parks.

Three weeks requires at least two photos:




6) Being taken, 100% unknowingly, to a whorehouse in Sao Paulo. It is #1 for most uncomfortable experiences. It was topped off with the fact that Bruno, whom I had met about 30 minutes prior, didn’t speak 1 word of English, and thought he was doing me a great service. Shopping para mujeres, as he calls it. Maybe I should learn the phrase ‘Get me out of here ASAP’ in Portuguese before I go back to Sao Paulo. Hilariously awful experience.

I have no photos of this or of Bruno (sadly I did not get any with him). So here's my friend Thiago in Sao Paulo:


7) Floods in Montevideo with Gonzalo: I don’t know why , but it was a thing to remember, having to run from the Governor’s palace (which we were inside afterhours, nonetheless) to the car with my friend Gonzalo in Montevideo, getting 100% drenched, then driving home for 30 minutes whilst not being able to see a damn thing, and watching stuff float down the streets. Inundacion.



8) Drinking Mate with hosts: Mate in Montevideo. Mate in Buenos Aires. Mate in Mendoza. Mate in Bariloche. Mate in Santiago. Mate everywhere. Gotta love this stuff and how ingrained it is in the culture of Uruguay, Argentina, and somewhat in Chile.


9) Bus Rides: Truly the best way to see the countries. The winding road between Mendoza & Santiago was the most ridiculous stretch (especially considering that the Aconcagua mountain is the tallest in the western hemisphere).

10) Lima: By far the most chaotic, disorganized, city of my trip. For simply that, I actually liked the city. Taking a bus is truly an adventure there. Thank you Marco & Renzo for helping me negotiate the system and preventing injury when my Spanish sucked royally. It’s a pity every traveler I have met says they hate the city. It has a lot to offer, even if you end up with the runs.



I’m sure once I go to Paraguay, return to Brazil for awhile, make my way back through the Pantanal to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, & Colombia, the list will double, haha.

*Most terrifying moment: At 3am somewhere over the pitch black Brazilian jungle, the plane started moving violently then did one of those very large instant drops. The whole cabin screamed. I thought I was gonna plummet into the Jungle at that point, haha.


Other really cool stuff:
-Going to a semi final soccer match in Rio at Maracana Stadium. Vasco da Gama vs Fluminese. The subway after was ridiculous afterwards between Carnival & Soccer people.
-Eating Anticuchos in Lima
-Going to a Parilla in Montevideo & a Churrascaria in Rio.
-Feria de Matadores in Buenos Aires
-Visiting wineries in Mendoza
-Going to a birthday party with Ulises in Maipu, outside of Mendoza
-Going to Nati's friends aunt's house in the mountains outside of Santiago, Chile.
-Parque Tierra del Fuego Ushuaia.
-Going out with Brian & his Colombian friends in Buenos Aires.
-Learning to make empanadas twice in Bariloche & Ushuaia.
-Rush Hour subway rides in Buenos Aires.
-Seeing the houses on Ancud, Chiloe & Punta Arenas, Chile
-Seeing people use horses as a method of transportation in Montevideo & elsewhere
-Walter's Birthday festivities in Parana

Ushuaia Part 2

Rather than talk about all the places I went near Ushuaia, I'll let the pictures do the talking. But first, a video from Buenos Aires:

This was a fair in the outer limits of Buenos Aires with hundreds of typical foods, crafts, etc. Plus, this crazy gaucho (cowboy) game, where they go full speed and try to stick a knife through a ridiculously tiny keychain ring.


Cormorants:


They look alot like penguins, but nope:


A view of Ushuaia:


Ushuaia:


Ushuaia waterfront:


Colony of Sea Lions:


Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse in the Beagle Straight:


Bridges Island:


The glacier behind Ushuaia:


A view from Parque Tierra del Fuego. It is in Argentina, but the mountains on the other side belong to Chile:


Another ecosystem in the park:


Woodpecker in the Park:


Another type of forest in the park:


A Peat Bog in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. This park is the only place in Argentina where sea meets mountains and forests, and thus creates alot of unique ecosystems:

Ushuaia, Part 1

If I had stayed in a hostel, my time in Ushuaia still would have been awesome. But wow, the family I stayed with made it such an amazing & unique experience.

Ushuaia is set at the foot of a series of mountains, with the houses rising up into it. There are a bunch of different peaks you can see from everywhere in town. It is also set on the Beagle straight, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific. On the other side of the straight, you can see a mountain range and a large island, the last piece of land before the ocean begins, belonging to Chile. While I was there, all the mountains were capped with snow, the trees were in full fall colors…reds, yellows, and oranges. It feels like a ski resort town, in fact, there is some decent skiing there. It is indeed the southernmost ‘city’ in the world. There is a settlement of about 2,000 people across the straight, called Puerto Williams, but they get most of their services from Ushuaia. I was surprised by the climate. It was about 50 degrees most of the time I was there. Typically, all year it never goes above about 60 or 65, but the winter didn’t seem as chill as Chicago’s, for example. For being so close to Antarctica, I was surprised at how pleasant it was.

Anyways, because of the couchsurfing family I stayed with there, my experience was incredibly fantastic and unique. The family had a full blown woodworked house, pressed up in the absolute last row of houses against the mountains. They moved there in 1984 from Cordoba, and built it when their street did not even exist. At that time, Ushuaia had about 17,000 people, whereas now there are about 80,000 people. They had no running water or electricity, and used natural gas tanks. It felt like a ski lodge to me…they left a lot of the wood beams within the house with the bark on them, and it was full of homely things. The house had a view of all of Ushuaia & the Beagle straight in the front, and of course the mountains were basically in the backyard. They had large windows all throughout to allow the most natural light in, and of course view the spectactular sunrises & sunsets.



Part of the view from the front window:


The house:


I got in after a 12 hour bus ride from Punta Arenas at about 7pm, and took a short taxi ride to their place. Cecilia greeted me outside, and I met the dad and one of their sons, and we shared some tea. Cecilia was like the kindest person you could ever meet, the dad (Carlos) was really friendly too. She is a phsychiatrist, he an architect (his business is booming now). I think she was the kindest host I’ve ever had haha, I felt like she was treating me like a son (well, she was 55 or 56, so….). Things like making sure I had gloves for my boat trip, enough change for the bus when I landed in Buenos Aires, etc, were really nice. I talked a lot with the dad about sports and buildings, but he also liked to talk about travelling.

Anyways, Cecilia loved telling me stories about Ushuaia. About how they had to buy the land they built their house on from the government years after they built the house (and the disputes between the two), how they essentially developed their neighborhood from when there was only 2 or 3 other houses, watched electricity and lights go up, and saw their neighbors build a wall next to their house that obstructed their view of the glacier (she said she cried for 2 years after this).

So the first night they cooked a nice meal at the typical hour of 1030pm. The second night, I volunteered to cook and again made Chili. As in Bariloche, they had no clue what it was. Admittedly, my chili sucks, but they don’t know the difference between good and bad chili…I mean, mine tastes decent (albeit lacking spices), but is NOTHING special. I’m talking ground beef, red/green peppers, onion, canned beans and tomatoes, garlic, and whatever spices I could find in their house. I made 2 batches, because the son is a vegetarian.

The fourth night, I helped Cecilia cook dinner, which was great because I learned a few things here and there. She threw a shank of lamb in a saute and cooked it with onions, pretty basic. Then, I was amazed at this eggplant sauce she made… with just a little garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, and blender. She threw the whole eggplant on top of the stove burner for like 20 minutes, until the juices spilled out after it was cooked….scooped all the meat out, and blended it up with everything else. I’m definitely going to make this when I get back. We put it on the lamb and sandwiches. The she made sliced potatoes in the oven, which admittedly, were really crisp, not sure if that’s what she was going for….Of course, we enjoyed all this with some nice Argentinian wine.

Cooking an eggplant sauce. New way to cook an eggplant, haha.


For lunch the day I left, I helped make empanadas. So now, I am officially a professional at this. I’ll definitely be making them when I get back. This time, we fried them in grasa (oil)… as opposed to using the oven in Bariloche…delicious.

Let’s see, the second day I went with a walk with Cecilia in the woods behind their house. It was cool because she pointed out all these different berries and we ate some… I’m proud to report I am still alive. She was a nature type person so she was pointing out all the plants and different types of forests. We also walked through some neighborhoods, and she pointed out who lived in which houses, and gave me a lot of history of Ushuaia. The next day, in the afternoon, we took a mega hike up to the glacier. She was like superwoman in her 50s, threw on her hiking boots, jackets, and trudged up the 45 degree hill few hours with me, explaining stuff about the glacier and forests the whole time.

They also showed me videos of their other son, who is a trekking guide. He went to Antarctica as a porter with a Spanish television show, and the footage was pretty amazing. Trips to Antarctica start at around $4,000 if you are considering it…

That’s my novel about my hosts. I’ll do something on Ushuaia later.



The family at dinner:


The eggplant is ready. Yum.

Punta Arenas, Part 1

Here in Punta Arenas, Chile, since Saturday. Heading to Ushuaia (Argentina) tomorrow (Tuesday), for a bit. There I´ll have to make the executive decision to fly back to Buenos Aires or take busses and stop along they way. Patagonia, you are very beautiful and impressive, but my wallet does not like you at all.

Huzzah for couchsurfing in Ushuaia for the next few days with a 55 year old mom and her family! Who says you have to be in your 20s to be on couchsurfing!