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OK, another rapid fire blog post! I've really been slackin' on my blog posts, and since we only have three weeks left on this trip so I figured I had better get my last, very wordy post about our trip cranked out so Sky can start working on our final blog post for our trip!
Puerto Natales, Chile After spending a couple of days back in Ushuaia getting my whits about me after Antarctica, Sky and I headed back on the road on our way to Puerto Natales, Chile, the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park. We were headed there to spend 5 days trekking the famous "W" trail. Thankfully our bus ride to Chile was one of the least eventful bus rides we've had to date! Twelve continuous hours of relatively smooth roads, no wind, no border control issues, the Strait of Magellan was totally calm, we were on time, and if you can believe it, our bus did not break down! A-freakin'-men!
We arrived in Puerto Natales just in time to get an awesome Chilean parilla dinner while sampling some Chilean wine (Argentina you win). We then checked into our hostel and quickly hit the
sack. The next morning, Omar, the owner of the hostel gave us the skinny on what we needed to prepare for our trek. We were able to rent all of the gear we required (tent, sleeping pads, cooking stove, utensils, trekking poles for me) for those five days from him which made the preparation a heck of a lot easier.
We attended another lecture on the "W" that afternoon which basically informed us of different routes, do and don'ts of the Park, what to bring, potable water locations, etc.. After this lecture we spent the next few hours buying food and getting packed. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with trekking/camping/packing in and out all of your own stuff, but geeze, food is really heavy! I really didn't think I would end up despising all the dried fruit and M&Ms I demanded we bring with us! When all was said and done, and after Sky combed through my bag looking for extraneous non-essential-to-him items I stashed, our packs ended up weighing 29lbs and 33lbs. Yeesh.
Torres del Paine National Park - The "W" Trail After a totally sleepless night due to some jackass snoring like
a freight train in our dorm room we hopped on a bus at 7am that took us to the Park. We were looking forward to catching a little shuteye; however, we spent the next two hours huddled for warmth since the bus we were on didn't have heat! OK, rough start, but at least we're on our way! We then took an easy 30-minute ferry ride across Lago Pehoe which would then dump us out at our starting point.
Torres del Paine is again another example of how truly spectacular the Patagonian region is. The mountains, the glaciers, the rivers, the lakes, and the views are breathtaking. We really had a spectacular trip, over the 44-miles we hiked we barely had any of the wind Patagonia is famous for, the trail was practically empty, even though it rained at night it always cleared up by midmorning, we were able to take one hot shower along the way, everything always dried out before it got wet again, I learned how to set up a tent and gave oatmeal another try (success and no success), I came to the realization Sky is part mountain goat, neither of us got hurt (although
our knees were barking quite a bit), on our last morning we were able to watch the sunrise over the Torres del Paine, and thankfully as they always do, our packs got lighter along the way! We hope the pictures do TdP a little bit of justice, but yet again, this is another spot that all of you need to see in person!
After sacking out the second we got on the bus back to civilization we arrived back in Puerto Natales. As much as we wanted to relax we had only 5 hours before we had to be on a ferry from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt, Chile. With the assistance of the amazing Omar we were able to get all of our laundry done, get cleaned up, get repacked, get our backpacks down to the ferry, get rations (booze/wine and chocolate) for the ferry ride, get cash and have a ridiculous celebratory dinner before we boarded the ferry at 9pm.
Navimag Ferry to Puerto Montt, Chile We were excited to spend the next four days traveling north by cargo ferry. We had come across many travelers who recommended it, plus we were anxious to have
a little bit of post hike downtime. Considering this is a true cargo ferry (semis and livestock below) the accommodations were very basic, but more than comfortable. We had great weather which allowed us to be out on deck the majority of the time. We cruised by another glacier and two volcanoes, we saw many dolphins and birds, and a few whale spouts. The Chilean fjords were a bit uninspiring but pretty nonetheless. During the day there were a few lectures and at night, bingo (I won at blackout), karaoke and movies. While we were anxious to disembark in Puerto Montt we were happy to have had the time to kick our feet up, read a few books and let someone else worry about getting us to our next destination.
We spent one night in Puerto Montt before catching a 4-hour bus ride back to Bariloche, Argentina the next morning where we would spend one more night before heading to Buenos Aires. Neither of us were looking forward to the 24-hour bus ride across the La Pampa region of Argentina, but we bought our tickets anyway on the nicest bus we could find and departed Bariloche for Buenos Aires
at 1:30 that afternoon.
We made it three freaking hours into the trip before our bus broke down. Seriously? Awesome. So we waited for two hours on the side of the road before a different, shittier bus from another company pulled over and let us board and continue on to BA. So after 27.5 hours we finally pulled into BA at 5pm the next day. The difference in fare between our original bus and the deathtrap on wheels was about $50/ticket. Sky insisted we at least try to get our $100 refund. What the hell? After we found the bus kiosk Sky threw down some badass Español, a phone call was made, and voilà, we had an extra $100 for BA. We were both absolutely amazed this panned out.
Buenos Aires, Argentina We arrived at our hostel, feeling like we'd been run over by every single broken-down bus we've been on, but we managed to clean up and grab a quick bite to eat. When we returned to the hostel we met Kyle from Atlanta who was in BA for his spring break. He somehow convinced us to wake up at 5:30 the next morning to go
down to the Cathedral square to watch a live feed of Pope Francis's (El Papa) induction.
Figuring this was a pretty big deal to actually be in Argentina for the first New World (Argentinian) Pope's induction we dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the square. Let's just say that Argentina is El Papa loco! The energy in the square that morning was amazing. Papal and Argentinian flag banners were on every building and waving all around us, people cheering and praying while watching the giant screen TVs, all different kinds of Pope schwag to buy, it was pretty cool. Even though we're not religiously inclined it was great to see a country that is going through so much turmoil come together in its excitement for Pope Francis.
After El Papa Madness broke up we walked a couple of miles to the US Embassy so Sky could get more pages put in his passport. While he was inside taking care of his business I went across the street and hung out in the park. While in the park I had a big embassy party foul. OK, I certainly know that you can't take pictures of the Embassy
itself, but down the street that it's on, c'mon, how am I supposed to know that?!? No later than 10 seconds after I had snapped a single picture down the beautiful tree lined street did a really big man come barreling out of the guard house and begin crossing the street. Realizing pretty quick that he was indeed headed directly and speedily towards me I immediately realized I had screwed up. I then had a fleeting vision of being hauled into the Embassy by the collar of my shirt, past Sky standing in line, and into a dark room where someone with no neck and an earpiece would stomp on my SD card. Thankfully as the big man and I deleted my picture together he very politely informed me that even pictures down the street are not allowed. OK, good to know. That afternoon we walked to the Recoleta, a cemetery where many famous people are buried, the most recognizable being the Duarte family mausoleum where Eva Peron is buried.
We spent the next day sightseeing around BA and later that evening taking our first tango lesson followed up by dinner and a tango show. Wow, what an amazing
dance, I love the tango! We had such a good time learning our basic tango steps with our instructor Alejandro. He taught the women our steps first, then the men, then together with all of us having to change dance partners every minute. The best part was coming up with our best "tango faces" at the end. After being presented with our official "masters of tango" certificates we were served some humble pie while watching the pros dance. Ummm, where is the basic tango six-step that we just learned? I have never seen feet move so fast, they must have shorter neural synapses than we do!! It was a great evening and one of our favorites of the trip.
The next few days in BA were pretty sweet thanks to our friend Dave who gave us three nights at the 5-star Park Hyatt. It was pretty funny rolling up in the taxi, stepping out in our finest faded/worn travel clothes and flip-flops. I don't think the bellman could've held my daypack any further away from his body! We arrived to the Hyatt just in time for the start of March Madness so spent a great deal of time enjoying
a taste of luxury while watching college basketball. Thanks Dave!
Sky was able to tear me away from our accommodations long enough for us to take in a futbol (soccer) game, something we have been wanting to do since we arrived in South America. We were super excited to be able to see the national teams of Argentina and Venezuela play in a World Cup qualifying match. We were also very excited to be able to see the Argentinian hero, Lionel Messi (the best player in the world) play and score on a penalty kick. We were taken by bus to the River Plate Stadium and enjoyed cheering Argentina on to a 3-0 victory. Our tickets were in the "popular" section aka: the cheap seats. The section was surrounded by 6 foot chain link fence with razor wire on top. No stampeding coming from our section. We were surprised the crowd wasn't more crazy, apparently angry mobs/shootings are reserved for local match play, but there still was plenty in singing and derogatory chants. Interestingly all of the Venezuelan fans were brought in by bus before anyone else was allowed to enter the stadium, they were guarded by police in
their own section, they also had to wait until the entire stadium emptied before they were allowed to leave. Sucks to be the away team.
Unfortunately our time in Buenos Aires came to an end. Wow, what a great city, I know I can't wait to head back there with a suitcase full of clean clothes, more money in my pocket and a group of friends. BA has such great energy, we can't wait to return! We said goodbye to BA and hopped on a ferry to Uruguay, another country we'd heard great things about.
Colonia, Uruguay After only an hour on the ferry crossing the Rio de la Plata and the easiest border crossing ever we were in Uruguay. Traveling along with us was Dave from Denver whom we met in BA. The three of us found a hostel to stay in and set out to see the quaint city of Colonia. Really not much to report about Colonia, a lighthouse and nice waterfront that's about it.
Montevideo, Uruguay Realizing that we had seen all of Colonia the previous afternoon we hopped on a two hour bus ride to Montevideo in the morning. The
three of us found our next hostel, that afternoon Sky and I walked around the shady port area of Montevideo, not sure how we ended up there, but I don't think we should've been! We also visited the Mausoleo Artigas, the spectacular tomb of yep, Artigas, the "Father of Uruguay."
The next day Sky, Dave, me and a German girl whose name I can't remember all rented bikes so we could ride on The Rambla along Montevideo's miles of waterfront. We had a great day riding about 10 miles, playing frisbee on the beach, and watching Dave and Sky jump bikes at the skate park and enjoying our first taste of seafood empanadas!
Punta del Este, Uruguay Having seen what we wanted to see and do what we wanted to do in Montevideo we said goodbye to Dave and hopped on another two hour bus ride to Punta del Este. We had heard from several people how swanky PdE is, and they weren't wrong. Punta is a beautiful beach town with miles of white sand. We enjoyed ourselves by having a couple of wonderful beach days. Again, another place we'd love to come back to.
Punta del Este to Montevideo to Salto (Uruguay) to Concordia to Posadas to Puerto Iguazu (Argentina)
Ready to move on from Uruguay and anxious to get to Iguazu Falls we decided (we still are arguing who made this decision because it wasn't a wise one) to spend the next 27 hours taking one bus after the next (5 total) to get from Punta del Este to Iguazu. It just happened that as a bus trip ended there was a bus headed in the right direction 30 minutes or so later so we hopped on. It wasn't really that awful and crossing back into Argentina was breeze. Ever since we started this trip the guidebook has mentioned to be aware of travel/accommodations during Semana Santa (Holy Week/Easter Week) as this is one of the most popular travel times for South Americans. OK, well needless to say we weren't really as aware as we should have been.
Puerto Iguazu, Argentina We rolled into Puerto Iguazu - the Argentinian gateway to Iguazu Falls (one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World), the top tourist destination for Argentinians - at 11am the day before Easter. Without a room reservation. The
day before Easter that also has some other random holidays tacked onto the Monday and Tuesday after Easter (more on that later). We slogged all around Puerto Iguazu in the 90+ degree heat looking for a room. We got what we like to call "Semana Santa'd", basically bitch slapped by Easter Week. It wasn't until the owner of the 10th hostel we tried took pity on us and told us we could go stay in the spare bedroom at his mom and dad's house. For $60!! Laughing because we knew we haven't spent $60 on a room since we left the States we realized we had no other option we hopped in the car over to Mom and Dad's house. We'll let the picture speak for itself, but it was kinda weird, especially since Mom, Dad, Grandma (I think she had a cot in the carport), the cat, Sky and I were all sharing one bathroom. Mom and Dad were lovely people, but let's just say we were glad that we found a hostel that had a room opening up the next day at half the price!
So on Easter morning we said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad
and checked into our new digs. We intended to come to Puerto Iguazu to not only see the Falls, but also it's the easiest and fastest place to get our Brazilian visas. We spent that morning getting all of our necessary documentation together/printed in order to go to the Brazilian Embassy the next morning. Once everything was all together we decided to walk down to the Embassy to see what time they opened on Monday. That's when we saw a sign stating that they weren't going to be open on Monday, or Tuesday for that matter, the Brazilian Embassy had decided to celebrate the Argentinian holidays as well so they wouldn't reopen until Wednesday. Awesome.
So now we had some time to burn, and we were told not to even consider going to the Falls that afternoon or on Monday due to the hoards of people that would be there for the holidays. So we spent Easter Sunday and that Monday hanging out reading and nothing much else of good.
That Tuesday the majority of the vacationers went home and we decided to take our trip to Iguazu Falls. It was a great day, the park was practically
empty and we were really able to enjoy our visit there. Damn it's a lot of water that goes over those Falls! Again, another location where the photos or words won't do it justice, but a place I'd put on your list of things to see. Thinking this was our last night in Argentina we went our for an awesome steak dinner and filled up on our last sips of Argentinian Malbec.
We cruised to the Embassy first thing Wednesday morning hoping to get our visas cranked out, but unfortunately they wouldn't turn our visas around the same day, claiming some holiday hangover and that we'd just have go pick them up the next day. OK, gotcha. One more night in Argentina, one more night of Malbec, I'm OK with that!
Total mileage by bus in Argentina: 5100 miles. Basically from NY to LA and back again. Brazil Finally on Thursday morning we packed up our backpacks, got our passports and headed over the border into Brazil! We decided to forego going to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls (or Foz do Iguaçu in Brazilian Portuguese) because we wanted plenty of time in Rio before having
to fly to Colombia, but we hear that side is pretty amazing too. After a series of screwups (not having Brazilian money, getting on the wrong bus, not taking a taxi) we missed the bus we really wanted to take for the 24-hour bus ride to Rio by two minutes, but thankfully (without understanding a word of the Brazilian Portuguese they were speaking) we were able to get on another bus that was just getting ready to pull out of the station. So we spent the next 26 hours cruising by the never ending cornfields of Brazil. Unfortunately both of us were sleeping as we went through Sao Paulo, maybe we'll see that next time.
The strangest adjustment we experienced upon entering Brazil was being totally thrown off with being in a Latin American country that does not speak Spanish. Even though Brazilian Portuguese has a few similar words as Spanish the pronunciation and accent of the words are very different. Not many Brazilians speak Spanish and even less speak English. We realized how far we've come in learning Spanish this past year when what we wanted to say came easily and effortlessly out of our mouths in Spanish!
Not that it did much good.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil We arrived in Rio and for the first half of our time there we stayed in the Lapa neighborhood, this is where all of the samba clubs and bars are located. We had a great time in Lapa, enjoying the atmosphere and some of the sights in the area as well. We had one very fun day in the city with our friend Sergio (a transplant from Spain) whom we met in Montevideo. He took us to the Jardim Botanico, around the Lagoon in the center of the city as well as to an amazing juice bar up in the Leblon neighborhood. We ended the day watching the sun set on Ipanema Beach then walking to Copacabana where he put us on a local bus back to Lapa.
The next morning we went on a tour of Rocinha, the largest favela (slum) in Brazil. It sounds a little weird, but it really was interesting, especially the pacification of these favelas by City of Rio in preparation for the World Cup and Olympics. The pacification doesn't seem to be going over so well considering the majority of Cariocas
live in favelas and they're not too keen on being relocated. That afternoon, seeing a break in the clouds, we decided to go up to the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer). It was quite crowded up there, but still a good place to take your typical Rio photos, and the best place to see how massive the city of Rio de Janeiro truly is. After a day full of running around we checked into our next hotel in Rio which was right on Copacabana Beach.
We spent the rest of our time in Rio laying on the beach, walking up and down Copacabana, watching the sunset over Ipanema, drinking raspberry sucos (juice), taking the cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açucar), eating Brazilian churrasco, and enjoying the very easygoing Brazilian lifestyle. Again, I can't wait to come back to Rio/Brazil someday, hopefully for Carnival!
As I'm writing this we are spending the last few weeks of our trip here in Colombia, it's hard to believe it's coming to an end! I want to say thank you for following us on this trip of ours, there have been so many times we could have shared the time we
Torres del Paine
Torre Sur, Torre Central, Torre Norte spent in places with the people we love. Happy Spring to all of you! We'll see you soon and we'll be writing our final post about our time here in Colombia! As always there are many pictures at the end!
See you soon!
Becky & Sky
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