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Published: March 13th 2006
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Thumbs up for Hiking in Tierra del Fuego
Caroline, Mandy, and James enjoy a day of sunshine in Southern Argentina. I definitely never imagined spending any birthday, much less my thirtieth, in a tiny strange city called Los Antiguos. This little pueblo seems to barely be breathing. It is the last stop in Argentina before reaching Chile, and for this it is known by many. Supposedly there is also a cherry festival there in January or February- bummer we had to miss that. Anyhow, there we were with our travel buddies from Kendall, England-James and Caroline, and everyone was determined to make the day special, regardless of the surroundings. James and Caroline gave me a birthday card, and we spent most of the day at Lago Argentina (Lake Argentina). It was cold and windy, but we pretended that it wasn´t and took a swim in the freezing lake waters. As we were drying off after our rather short swim, we were rewarded by the sun breaking through the clouds! A stray pup, whom I nicknamed "Blacky", followed us everywhere- I liked to imagine that Blacky was connected to the doggie spirit of my little Lloyd, and Lloydy was loving me from across the world! That evening, Griff took out to the only modernish looking restaurant in town and we stayed there
until the early morning hours, talking and laughing and celebrating life. We toasted to the babies being born in our respective home lives- James´s sister´s baby, born the day before, Caroline´s friend´s baby, born the week before, and my cousin, Melissa´s little boy, born a few days before my birthday. It´s funny to think about our everyday lives being so far away from all the new beginnings happening with the people we are so close to. Since we have been away, so much has happened...friends going to Africa, others finding out they are pregnant, building new houses, changing occupations... how different it will all be when we arrive back home! The seasons pass so quickly, and the more years I have under my belt, the more I realize that every day holds the potential to be life changing, in both good and bad ways. My birthday, was in reality, just another day. I don´t feel older, just maybe a little more loved due to people going out of their way to make me feel special (emails, the card from the Brits, and the amazing gifts that Griff "thunk up" for me).Thank you to those who take the time to read
Patagonian Sunset
Taken from our bus windrow. When the sun set, everyone in the bus just came alive! The picture does not do this sight justice- it was amazing. my silly little blogs and who sign into the guest book, and send little emails just to let us know that we are not forgotten. As much as we are seeing and experiencing, there is nothing that can replace the love that we have for our friends, who have stuck with us through some tough times, supported us, laughed with us, and believed in us.
Now we leave behind Argentina and head over to Skinny Chile, taking you along with us.
Below are some quick little snippets of info that I have been sort of compiling throughout our Argentine journey. There are some that have web links to them, if you want further info.
ABOUT ARGENTINA -When a street sign here says that you now have the right of way, what it really means is that you have the right be be run over now. Griff and I have seen three extremely close calls since we have been here....extremely close. Many accidents involve bikers or pedestrians, and car accidents, as we have learned, are one of the leading causes of death here. We have a slight advantage over most of the population however, because of our enormously long legs, we
El Chaten
This tiny town was nestled in the mountains. can cover more pavement in one fowl swoop, leaving the the lesser-legged locals to the mad-minded taxi drivers and buses.
-Locals speak Rioplatense, a specific type of Spanish dialog.They use "vos" as a familiar form of "tu", not to be confused with "vosotros" which is not used here at all. Another of the attributes of this accent is that they pronounce all their double Ls as Js instead of the more common "ya". Griff´s teacher kept talking about his wife and referring to me as "ella" ("she/ her" in Spanish). But this SOUNDED like "Asia" to him. He did not know enough Spanish to correct the teacher, so he just let her think that I was Asian for a few days. Later he realized that it was his mistake and not hers. For more info see http://www.answers.com/topic/rioplatense-spanish
-There is no such things as friendly politics. A conversation over dinner about differentiating political views, ends in a punch in the nose and the end of a relationship. People here are adamant about their politics....Marxism, Communism, Peronist, the list goes on and on....there is a lot more than just the Dems or the Repubs.
-If you know nothing about
Julie the Guanaco (Llama)
Julie resided in the yard of our hostel in Los Antiguos. One day she followed the scent of her owner, who has a farm three kilometers away, all the way to the hostel and just stayed. A la Napolian Dynamite, Julie is a local joke, as she loves spitting on tourists and chasing them out of her yard. She charged after all four of us one night- I have never seen four adults run faster or yell louder. sports, pretend that you do, more specifically soccer, more specifically, the player Maradona. I quickly learned that anyone admitting to knowing little or nothing about this man, gets laughed at, and a dunce cap is quickly placed a top their head.
Go to http://www.vivadiego.com for more info on this guy.
-Watch your step! Pet owners here rarely pick up their dog´s poo, making a walk down the sidewalk, a game of dodging "landmines". It can get really ugly!
-Breakfast is ALWAYS a very strong, short cup of coffee (they drink it with three of the large packets of sugar in it), and a few medialunas (croissants). Lunch is late, around 1:30 or 2pm, and then tea is somewhere around 6:00pm. The type of tea that they drink is very specific to Argentinians. It is called mate, and is drank from a special cup (originally a hollow gord) with a metal straw. Then dinner is eaten around 9 or 10 pm. Beef is HUGE here, and it is quite fresh and BBQed on a long stick over an open fire. Beer and Wine are drank with lunch and/or dinner. People in Buenos Aires stay out until 4 or 5
am....not just the clubbers, EVERYONE stays out late. Family gatherings to celebrate Gramp´s birthday, baby showers, get togethers. This is a given on the weekends, but is commonly done during the weekday as well...sleep is in no way a priority here!
Mate info: http://www.travelsur.net/mate.htm
Photos of asado meat: http://www.argentimage.com/photo/asado0002.htm
-After visiting Argentina, we understand the benefits of paying taxes. Getting out of paying your taxes is not a difficult task in this part of the world. From what I am told, it consists of filling out a piece pf paper saying that you are unable to pay. This sounds pretty sweet at first until you see the repercussions. The sidewalks are ridden with potholes and chunks of broken cement. We watched a fire consume to top floor of a restaurant in Puerto Madrin, we stayed outside for 45 minutes. We finally left, and no one had even turned on the water hoses yet. It actually had all the makings of a comedy show, except the reality was that someone´s life work and investment was being destroyed in front of our eyes! The ladder on the firetruck was not long enough, the firefighters couldn't´t hook up the hose properly, the
Not a very nice picture huh?
Well, this is the reality behind the blogs...A LOT of our time is spent waiting for busses, boats, and information. This particular day it was pouring rain, and the closest town was quite a ways away. We waited 12 hours for a boat ride north, that never happened. This is the life of a backpacker I guess.
firefighter who had the best handle on the situation was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, obviously a lifeguard on duty when he was called to the fire. ALL of the bomberos (fire fighters) are volunteers, and most of them are very young. A few years ago several young bomberos lost their lives fighting a forest fire- they were fifteen years old.
Argentina has been a very interesting experience for both Griff and me. We have found ourselves enraged with our own government and how they have handled some of the relationships with other countries, and then at other times we find ourselves saying, "Geeze- The US isn´t all that bad." As I mentioned in my first entry from AR, there is so much political movement here, which gets a people like us evaluating world politics from a very different perspective. We are greatful for the opportunity we´ve had to open our minds a little further and to take in the culture and natural beauty of Argentina.
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Ken
non-member comment
OHMIGOD!!!
Mandy, you mean to tell me that you are now officially over the hill? A whole 30 years old. Sheesh, that means that you are almost half my age. Hee Hee! Love you darlin' and a very Happy Birthday wish to you. Ken