Good Bye Argentina

Our southernmost point, on the Beagle Channel in the Tierra del Fuego National Park. El Fin del Mundo!

Am starting this note on the bus from Ushuaia, Argentina to Punta Arenas, Chile on Christmas Eve. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather also here in southernmost Patagonia - the sky is blue with little white clouds, and we have had sun since we arrived 2 days ago. The first day it rained some, while the sun shone, and the same happened briefly this morning. When it rains more, you just go to a different window and you see sun!
It’s early summer, and it has been warmer than the average yearly temperature of 10C (50F). But when not warmed by the sun, I needed my gloves and even wore my wool hat for awhile. Somewhere I read one should be prepared to experience the 4 seasons all in a day.. am not so sure it only pertained to hiking in the mountains here. The wind gusts are very impressive and I wouldn’t have wanted to be somewhere high and exposed.

Link to last few Bariloche, and then Ushuaia pic’s

Bariloche

It’s not only the mountains that make you feel small 

Refugio Lopez

It has become too challenging to transfer my pictures from the camera to the iPad. My link, below, includes the first 2-3 days. Craig is confident we can fix this problem at home, so for now I am guarding my old SD card with my life, and hope a new card will help.

The ‘beauty’ of bus travel - no prepaid reservations. We had booked a week at a little house here in Bariloche, in the Lake District of Argentina. Our week is turning into 2.5 weeks because we like it so much here. Instead of continuing to Chile by bus as planned, we’ll fly to southern Patagonia directly from here.

Bariloche is in the northern part of Patagonia, and spring had arrived in this part of the Andes. We were assured most of the snow on the hiking trails we would go on, would have melted, and that they were dealing with strong winds instead.
We rented a car, and driving into town from the airport, we were in awe of the beautiful landscape. Lots of colorful wildflowers lined the road, and Bariloche sits on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi [from a local language meaning the island of the jaguar (puma)]. The lake is in a National Park by the same name, and we are at an elevation of 770 m (2500’).

Link to Bariloche picture - incomplete

Uruguay 2

Huge parrots’ nests

We have spent 2 weeks in Uruguay, and think we have a fairly good idea of what the country looks like. Some of the inland country side reminded Craig of the Midwest. Except for the palms and the flat topped hills that look like volcanic craters, but are not. The weather has continued very pleasant - have had only one totally rainy day. I doubt I have heard thunder for hours on end before that day, though.

Link to Uruguay 2 pictures

Uruguay 1

A Coati - common in Uruguay

Uruguay 1

Montevideo is a much smaller city than Buenos Aires. But 1.8 million people live there, over half of the country’s population. There are fewer high rise buildings, the Old Town seems to have a combination of old and new. There is graffiti everywhere (not picture-worthy), they have tree lined streets, but somehow the parts of the city we saw seemed less well taken care of than Buenos Aires.
Our apartment in the Old Town was on the 7th floor of ‘Palacio Salvo’, which when it was finished in 1928, became the tallest building in S. America.

Link to Uruguay 1 pictures

An unscheduled return to Buenos Aires

At the Art Museum!

We had our third canceled flight, now an hour before heading to the airport. El Calafate is small enough that there isn’t daily service to the Puerto Madryn area, so we decided to come directly to Buenos Aires, our following stop anyway.
We are both cynical, and think the airline canceled due to a low number of bookings. Craig knows this happens at least at home. 2 days wasn’t enough time to visit Puerto Madryn - seems I shouldn’t have booked things ahead this time.. Had hoped to see whales for the first time, but guess we now need to book a whale watch at home instead.

link to pictures from our 2nd visit to Buenos Aires

Miscellaneous pictures & observations by Craig

 

We ate a few times at the same restaurant in Caraz. Each time this lady came in and went to each table trying to sell potatoes or wildflowers (actually begging). She's wearing the characteristic hat of the area.

This is a typical shower head from Peru, with exposed wires and taped wire junctions. Yikes! There is a heating element in the shower head. The way it works is you turn on the water, next you throw a breaker to shower, then you adjust the water so it's hot. If the flow is too high, the water isn't warm. If the flow is too low, there's a low cutoff switch that turns off the heat. It's very difficult to adjust the right trickle flow such that you get hot water.

We took this taxi up to a trailhead near Caraz. The road was very rough and narrow with about 50 switchbacks. Americans think we need SUVs with four-wheel drive and ground clearance. The taxi was an ordinary Camry about 15 years old.

This is a trash pickup in Cusco. People leave their trash out in garbage bags and packs of dogs then tear up the bags for the food inside. Then the poor trash collectors have to gather that up and shovel it into the truck. Stray dogs are a plague here.

This is a deep fried bread and relish that is automatically served with meals in parts of Peru. It's like the chips and salsa with a Mexican meal - quite good.

This church in Arica, Chile is made entirely of iron. It was prefabricated in France, designed by Gustave Eiffel. Apparently he made many buildings like this for export to South America.

 These folks are celebrating the anniversary of The Battle of Andamos, a national holiday in Peru. The battle was a crushing naval defeat for Peru in their war with Chile in the latter part of the 19th century. This defeat set the stage for their loss of the entire war, which led to the loss of Peruvian territory to Chile. Why this should be a national holiday in Peru is beyond me.

This building was a lactarium, built in a public park in Buenos Aires in the early 20th century for the convenience of nursing mothers.

 An abandoned fishing boat in Puerto Natales.

A typical breakfast in Buenos Aires - Cafe de leche and semi-lunas

We went to an art museum outside Buenos Aires, housed in what had been a beautiful and elaborate athletic and social club built in 1912. It has some of the original bathroom fixtures.

 Many older buildings in Buenos Aires have these tall (10-12 ft) narrow entrance doors.

This fountain replicates one found in the 16th century painting by Hieronymus Bosch called The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Torres del Paine and Puerto Natales

It’s windy!

We have spent over a week in Chilean Patagonia and have seen no signs of the political unrest that continues at least in Santiago.

Puerto Natales is a small town, and tourism is probably the most important industry here. Our hostel is very basic, but totally nice - Craig is able to sleep well, we have warm showers, and a large & clean kitchen in which to make our own meals. The staff is very friendly, flexible and helpful - they offered us free storage for stuff when we left for the Torres del Paine National Park, and even lent us a lock for the locker. Coffee & tea are free throughout the day!
But using the laundromat across the street after returning from hiking, cost almost $20 for our 4.2 kg of clothes...

We can see the ocean from the hostel, and despite the town being sheltered by islands and peninsulas, there were white caps the 1.5 days we spent here before heading to the Park. Fortunately the rain let up the morning we walked to the bus which took us there.

Craig’s Monkey Puzzle Tree - as mentioned in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Link to TdP & Puerto Natales pictures

Buenos Aires and El Calafate

Halloween in El Calafate

Our apartment, on the 8th floor, in Palermo, a central and safe part of this huge city, has a washer! We don’t have to disinfect water! I have wolfed down our basic home made veggie stir fries (the first time we have cooked since leaving home). I also totally enjoy my quinoa with added seeds etc. for breakfast (couldn’t find oatmeal the first several days, despite Argentina exporting grains..). We have 2 floors, 1.5 baths, Craig has a couch to stretch out on, no noise from the neighbors, a large balcony - this is just what we wanted, and needed. And we have enjoyed our first bottles of wine since home - Malbec.

Link to Buenos Aires & El Calafate pictures

Arica, Putre & the Lauca National Park

I had started this post, and will leave most of it as already written,  before we suddenly had to change our plans as Craig wrote in the last 2 posts.

We continue to find Chile very friendly. Arica, on the Peruvian border is a city of of ~230 000 people on the ocean, and in the desert and its downtown area resembles some in Europe more than what we saw in Peru - pedestrian streets and all.
I enjoyed the youngish guys we saw perform in cross walks when the cars were stopped - they didn’t hold up traffic and quickly walked around with their hats once the light turned.
There are plenty of traffic lights and cross walks, and cars yield to pedestrians even when there are no lights. This has not been the case where we visited in Peru. But the language barrier continues to be a problem. Only one woman spoke English at the airline office, and we continue to use google translate when my extremely limited Spanish fails at hotels and guest houses.

Link to Arica, Putre & Lauca pictures

Arequipa & the Colca Canyon

Seems the nuns had a huge library at their convent; now a museum

Craig’s haircut by an almost 80-year-old barber

Craig has taken interesting pictures also from our recent bus trips in southern Peru. Will post 3 towards the end of the text; not sure if I cropped them too much...

From Cusco we flew to Arequipa, the 2nd biggest city in Peru. Downtown is built with sillar, a white rock, mostly by the Spanish, and it is considered one of the prettiest cities in Peru. It is in the desert, and surrounded by tall volcanoes, some of which are active per a taxi driver. The center of town is very nice with a colorful Plaza de Armas (again). The outskirts are poor, grey and dusty, as seen from the bus to the Colca Canyon, ~6 hrs inland.

We had read about hiking options in both the Cotahuasi, and the Colca Canyons. The latter is a very popular tourist destination, and we had thought going to Cotahuasi might be more fun. But it is even further away, and the bus schedules are very inconvenient. So we took a local bus to Cabanaconde, one of the main places to see the Colca Canyon from. Both of these canyons are amongst the deepest in the world. On the trip there the conductor seemed to fill up the radiator several times.. Craig was a bit worried because you go through desert the entire way.

Link to Arequipa & Colca Canyon pic’s

Cusco & Our Vilcabamba Trek

Part of an Inca Temple Site 

Trekking..

Llamas at Machu Picchu

Cusco is a very nice town of some 100 000 people. The historic center is full of tourists, but this didn’t bother me. They mostly looked like us in their ‘trekking’ pants etc. Both the usual 20-somethings and now also people our age. We were told the town is safe, and we walked all over the historic center with no difficulties. At an elevation of some 11 100’ (3400m), the many steep stairs presumably helped us get ready for the even steeper slopes on the trek.
Our first morning in Plaza de Armas (seems all central squares in Peru share this name), I initially laughed when a shoe shining man wondered if we wanted our hiking boots cleaned. Then I noticed a guy on a bench having his boots cleaned... Ours were by no means very dirty - seems worth their while to ask, though.

Link to Cusco, trek and Machu Picchu pictures

Caraz

Caraz is a small town north of the tourist hub of Huaraz. Both are gateways to the Huascaran National Park, which is in the central Peruvian Andes. Plenty of mountaineers come here, and others do multi day treks. There are several ‘official’ day hike options, but getting to/from the trailheads is a bit challenging. We have taken taxis to be assured of getting back to the guesthouse.

Laguna Paron

We took a bus (8 hrs) to Huaraz from Trujillo, and couldn’t see anything because their windows are covered with some UV protective plastic. We both felt the altitude going over the almost 14 000’ pass (4225m), but could relax in our luxurious VIP seats - wide lounge chairs which reclined. Worth the extra few $ (total still < $20 pp).
There were the inevitable delays, and we arrived after dark. A friendly gentleman offered help finding the guesthouse. We declined, went on our way, but had to check the directions briefly a few blocks away. The gentleman was there again. Fortunately I had read about this scam - they offer to walk with you, but all does not end well.

Link to Caraz pictures

Trujillo

Pelicans and fishing nets at Chan Chan

We survived our most chaotic flight ever. Against all my predictions, Craig got his backpack a day late, and intact.
My earlier fears were quickly realized - communicating here is pretty much impossible for us. Am trying to get at least 10 min in daily of Spanish lessons - hopefully I’ll manage better in a month.

Have taken more taxis in 3 days, than we have in the past 30 years I think. Spent today walking. Figuring out how to get to some places by bus was too convoluted, and other areas are not safe for walking - for tourists.
There are electric fences, bars on all windows, impressive locks on the doors.. Craig said our apartment is like Fort Knox.

Link to Trujillo pictures

The Adventure Continues

On our way to Vermont

An earlier trip to leave ‘stuff’ with friends near Boston.

On our round-the-world trip, we managed 36 flights without mishaps. No lost bags, no cancelled or even seriously delayed flights, no gate-checked carry-ons, no bad food (ha ha, just kidding about the last one!). Well, the averages have caught up to us. On the first leg of our flights to Peru, we were told to gate check our carry-on backpacks at Logan. A-M managed to get hers aboard (and stowed) regardless. Then we were told we had to disembark while mechanics worked on a hydraulic leak. Later we were called to the podium and told we were being rerouted through Miami. The airline cancelled the flight, though they weren't admitting it. Now we are just hoping our bags don't get lost and that the gods of travel aren't still looking to get even.

Schooner at home in Round Pond, ME

It’s been a very nice month of visiting with friends! The weather has mostly cooperated; we have made use of all the many (food) bags, the 2 bikes, the one boat....that we brought along from Ashford. Our stuff is now strewn around metro Boston, and we cannot thank our many friends enough for allowing us to leave everything until we return. When? - still to be determined.

We should land in Trujillo, Peru tomorrow morning, and we’ll see if I can manage a few polite phrases in Spanish. We realized in rural Ecuador this past spring, that my rusty, basic Italian was insufficient, and that no one spoke English outside of the guest houses. I have spent hours using duolingo over the past 18 days - which I have enjoyed. Can only hope people will see I am trying.

Ecuador

Ecuador late April & early May 2019.

Written at the end of the trip mostly, and added to the blog a few months later.

2 nights in Quito before a week long tour of the Galapagos; then 3 nights again in Quito to acclimatize before a week on our own south of Quito by local buses with the goal of seeing villages and doing the 3-day Quilotoa Trek (sleeping and eating in guest houses).

link to Ecuador pic’s