Bottom of the World

---

I sent a link out earlier to see some pictures. Please email me if you cant access them ([e-mail]).

This one is a little long...

It took about two weeks, multiple 15+ hour bus rides (mainly on flat nothing to see bumpy dirt roads), and zig zagging back and forth across the Chilean and Argentine boarders (customs and all), but we finally made it to the southernmost city in the world. The sign on the boardwalk reads "Ushuaia - fin del mundo", which according to legend (or my broken understanding of Spanish) means..."Ushaia - end of the world".

The journey down has graced us with some amazing sights. After leaving San Martin we headed south to Bariloche, which is a beautiful city in the lake district and perhaps my favorite city in Argentina. Bariloche looks like a German or Swiss ski town, due to the influence of Europeans who took refuge in these parts post WWII. We went whitewater rafting the first day (wetsuit and all), which afterwards included an impromptu session of jumping off of a 40ft bridge into the ice cold river.

We rented bikes the following day and rode out toward a resort outside of Bariloche, called the Llao Llao, with the intention of going to the driving range...the first city that offered such activites. We had met some cool folks in Bariloche and one of them decided to join our ride. But instead of the Llao Llao, he convinced us that he knew of another place to hit golf balls. So we followed his lead to the "driving range". After renting 3 busted looking clubs and some golf balls that looked like they had been dredged from the bottom of a lake we headed over to the tee area. There were about 5 or 6 older guys there who were hitting balls but had no idea what they were doing. I warmed up with a pitching wedge, moved to the 6 iron and then started hitting the stellar 3 wood we rented. About 10 mins go by and I'm pleased with how I'm swinging, hitting it nice and straight for once. I also notice that the older guys have stopped hitting and are now standing around just watching me. The looks on their faces were like that of cavemen discovering fire. A few more minutes pass, a few more oohs and ahs at the American hitting golf balls. Out of nowhere the guy who was working runs over and asks me to stop hitting. Apparently I was hitting the ball over the "boundary" and into someone's backyard who had come over and asked the guy to get me to stop. Great, for once in my life I'm hitting em straight on every swing and I'm told I have to stop...figures. So since I couldn't hit anymore, I helped the old guys with their swings. In my broken Spanish mind you...I showed them how to grip the club, how to draw it back, stop at the top of the back swing, follow-through...yada yada. The following half hour was pretty damn funny and they were all very happy to pick-up some golf tips from such an amazing instructor. With my easy 3-step program, you too can be slicing left in no time.

Anyways, so Bariloche was great, but we had to continue south via Ruta 40...hence 15 hour, dirt road bus ride number 1. The first night of this journey took us to a very forgettable town called Perito Morreno, which oddly enough is named for the Perrito Morreno Glacier which resides about another day and half bus ride away. Craig and I, out of sheer boredom, passed time by challenging each other to a pull-up contest on the playground across from our luxurious hostel (not to be confused with the push-up contest that Centor challenged me to in Buenos Aires). Luckily we left early in the morning and headed out on yet another 15 hour dirt road. This time though we ended up in a great town called El Chalten which has only been around since the early 80s. This place is dubbed the trekking capital of Patagonia, as it is very close to the Chilean boarder, multiple national parks, and the amazing Mt. Fitz Roy. We hiked a trail to see Fitz Roy (click the link to read more about it ) which was the coolest thing we had seen since Machu Piccu. The next day we headed south again towards a city called El Calafate.

We arrived in El Calafate and ended up spending an extra day so we could see the Moreno Glacier (click the link to read more about it ). The glacier was incredible to see first-hand, and even more incredible to see and hear the explosion of massive pieces of ice crack off and fall into the water. We hiked to several viewing points and later boarded a boat to get about as close to the thing as possible...very cool.

So after seeing some incredible sights for a few days it was time to head even further south, this time to a town called Rio Gallegos. Aside from the aforementioned town of Perrito Moreno, this place could take the cake for "town most closely resembling El Paso, Texas". Perrito Moreno was pretty awful, but luckily we found perhaps the coolest bowling alley in South America. This place had manual scoring, manual ball return and manual pin set-up. There was literally a kid sitting at the end of the alley setting the pins up after each roll...pretty cool. Games that require a field or court or course I can handle, however, anything that can be played while drunk (i.e. darts, bowling, beer pong) are not my strong suit. Since we had nothing else to do though, I told Craig that I wanted to stay till I topped the 120 mark. Unfortunately that never happened, and I'm still nursing a sore left arm after rolling 6 games.

The last leg of this journey was not unlike the first few...long bumpy dirt roads, but finally, we landed in Ushuaia. This, as I mentioned, is the southernmost city in the world, and the main port to Antarctica. Its cold here and extremely windy but the city is beautiful...completely surrounded by mountains, and both the Pacific and Atlantic can be easily reached. Today we are going on a 5 hour boat ride down the Beagle Channel to see the last light house before Antarctica, and some penguins and sea lions. We leave Ushuaia on the 2nd back to Buenos Aires.

Hope this gives yall an idea of what I have been up to for the past few weeks. We only have a few weeks left, and I'm really looking forward to Brazil.

Hope everyone is doing well...more updates to come.

Adios

---

Comments

[Mark Richt]

Question
How many German or Swiss ski towns have you actually visited Marc?? Hope you're ready for a big season. Ole Nick has no idea what's coming to him. Also, your friend Josh asked me to ask you to get him straw hat from Brazil. That boy is crazy, God I wish he would have played linebacker for me in 04.

[Craig H Kodish]

For The Record...
I won the pull up contest with an unprecedented 5

[Daniel G.]

Hello Marc
I haven't really been reading any of these blogs (including this one) due to lack of interest, length, and generally having better things to do.... BUT.... I do miss you and wish you well. Love, DG

[Dad]

Those Germans that took refuge in Baraloche post WWII were not the yodeling Bavarian type, but the goose stepping Nazi type. Hope ya'll didn't spend too many sheckles. Glad to hear about your 3 step slice. I can do it in one. Keep having a blast ! love, Dad

[Kathy Goldman]

Wow, it sounds as if you are having a wonderful experience. The pictures are wonderful. Can't wait to hear all about it in person. You can hold court!