Rent-A-Dog

Bariloche sits on a lake with gorgeous mountain views surrounding it. Trash stays off most of the streets and pine trees can be seen sporadically throughout the city. If I bought a house in South America it would definitely be here ! We checked into our hostel but it struck us as a wee bit dingy. So after checking in we looked around to find another hostel where we could spend the rest of the week. We picked two out of the Lonely Planet and went to investigate. The first one "Penthouse 1004" occupies the penthouse of a 10 story apartment building and we walked into one of the coziest hostels I have seen. Great sunlight, living spaces.



decorations, kitchen space, rooms, and the view !



We checked out the other hostel but after walking in immediately decided to come back to Penthouse 1004.

A bike tour provided us with entertainment the next day. We passed a 5 star hotel where we found out that the hombre negros stayed there, directly translated means black men but eventually figured out the gate guard meant Men In Black.



We tired pretty quickly after that and only stopped once more at a lake where we chatted with a couple from Buenos Aires on vacation and saw some local wildlife. They might not look big in the picture but they were the size of large chickens and they could actually fly.



The next day we hiked up to Mount Corro along an unmarked trail we later found out was "the trail to Milemarker 4.6" which marks the spot where the bus picks you up. Along the way we were joined by a companion we called Scout.



He definitely made us feel a little safer hiking up the overgrown trail. After reaching the top of the mountain we bought tickets to take a gondola down! Scout was still with us and the ticket agent said that he had seen Scout before and he called him Boomerang. Not his real name we found out later but that's what the guy called him because he was a stray and kept following hikers up the trail, which is 6 kilometers long! I succumbed to Scout's cuteness and gave him part of my sandwich. The ticket agent gave him a whole "triplé" sandwhich, so we left him well fed before we headed down the gondola.

Location:Bariloche, Argentina

Hordes of Penguins

Oddly enough I felt somewhat spry after my 27 hours of traveling from El Chalten to Puerto Madryn. 9 hours consisting of two connections and bus rides and then a whomper 18 overnight bus ride. A large part of it is due to the business class-esque seats that we sat in during the ride. Although worrying about getting a visit from my busmates "las cucaraches" kept me from sleeping too deeply. Food was provided on the bus, 2 snacks and a hot dinner, which made us think "great we don't need to pack any of our own." Unfortunately for us we should have brought our own food, the stuff provided ranked as the worst food I've ever eaten, lower even than airplane food.

Puerto Madryn occupies a nice stretch of coastline with many wildlife observation/interaction opportunities. While we buying groceries a funny lost in translation occurred. As we were checking out at the grocery store Nafisa was confused because the cashier asked her if she wanted to pay three times. After some help from another guy we figured out that she asking us if we wanted to pay for the groceries in installments ! We respectfully declined and paid all at once. I was also amused by the cooler at the checkout line holding beer instead of soda.



We decided on seeing the huge penguin colony instead of the moderate size sea lion/ penguin colony combo. We had a wonderful guide named Diana on a cozy 15 person bus. For our morning break we stopped at a gas station with a hot water machine which reminded me of mate. A drink that takes the place of coffee for many South Americans



I don't think I've gone a day without seeing someone with their small gourd and thermos of hot water for mate.

We made it to Punta Toomba where we saw Magellan penguins everywhere. I'm talking about you didn't even need to look 5 feet from the trail to see one. They especially liked the bridges which provided them with a bit of shade. We worried for a couple minutes because we heard a lot of the penguins sneezing and we thought they were getting sick. Our guide laughed and said that was simply a way for them to get salt out of their bodies.




We left Puerta Madryn on a 14 hour overnight bus to Bariloche. I woke up several times in the middle of night and was amazed at how smooth the ride felt. Only once the sun started to rise did I realize that was because we weren't moving at all ! Our bus broke down but after a couple hours another bus rescued us and we arrived in Bariloche.

Location:El Chalten, Argentinia

National Trekking Capitol

El Chalten is dubbed a national trekking center and sits right in the middle of the Patagonian Mountains, a 3 hour bus ride out of El Calafate. Should have taken two and a half but took three hours because of a half hour break minute break at a cafe/empanada stand. It would have been a tragic bus ride indeed without my morning coffee and pastry.


I'm not sure if the place has much business besides people from buses. I did not see any homes close by or other indications of why the place happened to be a good sight for the store. I'm also not sure why we stopped because there were bathroom on the bus.

Found the hostel and cancelled our rest day in hopes of getting a hike into the schedule because the weather was forecasted to be rainy the next several days. Bad idea. Our feet felt bruised afterwards, and we promptly decided no more hiking in El Chalten. I still snuck in a short waterfall hike the next day while Nafisa worked on a blog post.


Surprisingly, that night we found a store that sold non moldy vegetables! The first since we left Buenos Aires two weeks ago. The next morning we left amid wind and rain that left us feeling justified with leaving early.

Location:El Chalten, Argentinia

Starting the W

A bright and early bus ride took us to the border of Chile and the city of Puerta Natales. I declared the fruit that my bag held at customs and avoided a hefty fine. My stomach was none too happy after that because I tried to eat as many apples as I could in the ten minutes before our bus left. I did, however, gain a new sympathy for chipmunks.

Checked into someones house or should I say hostel before beginning "the W" trek in the Torres del Paine national park. So named because of the shape of the trail. In the teeny tiny town of Puerta Natales we found a trekker's dream, a dried fruit and nut stand. Lots of shoe box sized containers with dried kiwis, pears, melons, strawberries, candied peanuts, to name some of the more exotic ones.

Next came normal food and we stopped at a supermarket chain that seemed to be out of everything crucial to a backpacking trip , flavored instant oatmeal, salami, tuna in pouches (cans weigh a bunch), hot chocolate, peanut butter. Most of these are due to simply being in south America but being out of any sort of dried salami like meat, I mean come on ! Luckily we passed a second store later on that topped off our supplies.

A bus took us into the national park and we boarded a catamaran to begin the first leg of the trek. Clouds and misting rain were hanging low in the sky so i wasn't sure what to expect. The plan was to hike for 6 days and 5 nights to cover 80 kilometers, my longest trek ever!

A spectacular landscape and the best mountain views I've ever seen accompanied us along the hike. We stayed at mountain cabins and ate dinners there while bringing our own lunches. The dinners rated 5 stars every night, slow cooked chicken, creamy tomato soup, fresh baked herb bread, home made salsa, and chocolate mousse. I would have easily paid $40 or $50 dollars back home in the city.

Lady luck travelled with us as well and gave us sunny skies or clear views with only two days of light mist for an hour or so. One day the wind blew so strongly that I had to stop and stabilize myself (thank you trekking poles) whenever I heard it coming, later we learned it was up to 70 km/h.

All too soon the hike was finished and after four different buses/shuttles we made it back to El Calafate.

Location:Torres del Paine, Chile

Getting close to Santa's Vacation Home

While the Buenos Aires heat provided a nice break from the Boston cold, the weather in El Calafate was much more temperate and to my liking. Checked into a very new and clean hostel. I suspect it use to exist as a hotel but went out of business and then relieved as a hostel. It was out of the city (the city being one main street 20 minutes long) so I could see spectacular views of the Patagonian mountains and desert.

Trekking on the Perito Moreno glacier constituted the next activity. The rainy weather and low visibility made up for its morale dampening effects by causing the glacier to calve much more often than normal; the rain melts the ice faster than the sun. Sometimes the loudest sounds came from teeny tiny pieces of ice. That meant that rather then simply breaking off because of calving, the ice had been compressed so much that it exploded outwards. After hiking around the viewing area and running to the nearest open spot whenever I heard a sound, I boarded a boat and headed to the glacier itself for a walk on Perito Moreno itself ! I was fitted with crampons that must have been similar to the first designs ever and enjoyed a wonderful 90 minute hike over the deep blue ice. At the end of the hike, the guides said we were finished hiking and heard back to take crampons off. But then the group rounded a bend and we were surprised with whiskey poured over glacial ice and dulce de leche (caramel) "alfajores". A layer of dulce de leche between two wafers that was then dipped in chocolate, a staple of South American treats.

Location:El Calafate

Thankful it's not winter anymore

Made it safe and sound into Argentina after paying the 140 airport fee, only charged because the US levies the same fee on Argentinians. Similar charges apply if you're from Canada and New Zealand but not the UK.

Warm weather was a welcome change and I went bike riding the first day. Nafisa had already been in Buenos Aires and had the main attractions of the city picked out. I didnt make it to an official tengo show while in BA, but I did see some performances on small platforms setup outsde restaurants. I peered over the edge of a crowd to see some tengo action.

The next day included the highlight of BA. I went to a petting zoo for adults ! We're talking about lions tigers and elephants oh my, the bears we were not allowed to pet. Two people were let in at a time to the animal areas with two zoo attendants and you could pet and cuddle them to your hearts content, although not the big animals of course. The lions fur was short and course, it reminded me of holding a baby lion stuffed animal but it was real ! The zoo attendants said they raise the animals from birth with human interaction.

No he's not sedated, he just ate a huge lunch and was very sleepy.

Stretched my legs a bit my last day in BA and did a walking tour that visited the city cemetery, where Eva Peron is buried. Next came the contemporary art museum where I quickly realized that the Spanish explanatory notes combined with my lack of appreciation for modern art made for a short visit. However, The Museum of Decorative Art provided several hours of open mouthed wandering. Similar to the Isabella Stuart gardener museum, a family collected many artifacts during the early 1900s and arranged them in their mansion. The house and artifacts were then put on display for the public. The ballroom was designed around three enormous tapestries the family owned previous to building the house. The almost as large dining room was built with 5 or 6 hues of marbled granite.

Somewhere along the way we went to Jumbo which bears a resemblance to Super Wal-Mart. This might not seem so striking until you realize other similar types of large standardized stores simply do not exist in South America. Smaller family stores comprise the vast majority of businesses.

The next day I relaxed in the airport for 6 hours passing the time with an excellent Brandon Sanderson book. When i arrived for an 11 o clock flight it turned out that I had been bumped because of a strike the day before. They had rebooked me for a flight the next day but the line was long to get a hotel voucher.

Location:Buenos Aires