Two Fathoms Deep

I am just slightly more than halfway through my trip.  The same can be said for the homework I have to do on this trip.  Sadly, I've been putting this blog off the way I normally put off homework.

Olivia joined our troupe today via plane from Buenos Aires.  The airport there is apparently a mess.  His flight was only delayed one day, but we met a guy yesterday who had been stuck in the airport for four days.  I think the whole country must be on strike...  So far there has been bankers, airline employees, nurses (solidarity, brothers!), and a protest over privatization of the docks by the workers there.  Workers of the world, unite!

Today we took a boat trip through the Beagle Channel where we saw more sea lions and the lighthouse at the end of the world.  We were able to hike on one of the islands where I partook of the fruit of calafate bush.  It is said that if you eat its berries, you will return to Patagonia.  I ate several, just for good measure.





















I was disappointed by the national park here...  While very beautiful, I saw remarkably little wildlife.  Several decades ago, beavers were introduced here in hopes of using their valuable pelts.  However, their hair becomes too hard in this cold environment.  Having no natural predator here, the population has grown out of control and the resulting deforestation has made parts of the park look like Tunguska circa 1908.

Rumor has it there are mountains here, but I'm too tired to go through any more photos.  Below is a shot of the view from our hostel's lounge, and a wonderful sunset shot from the airport yesterday.

I woke up yesterday morning to no power at the hotel in Comandante Luis Piedrabuena, so conveniently, they couldn’t accept our credit cards (which is, in itself, another story). It’s always a relief when a place of business in Argentina accepts credit cards. They hate doing it because of the associated fees. Sometimes they pass their charges along to the customer. Even if they do accept tarjeta de creditos, they give you a dirty look or act inconvenienced by having to use it. We actually found a gas station that accepts cards only If your transaction is between the amounts of 50 to 100 pesos; no more, no less. And I thought having a credit card with no foreign transaction fees would be so convenient…


It’s been a little chilly a few times on this trip, but today was the first day I wore my coat while riding in the car. It’s also the first time I glimpsed snow, which was predicated by more winds, rain, and huge balls of ice falling from the sky. The ferry from the tip of the South American mainland to Tierra del Fuego was unbelievably cold, but made more interesting by the dolphins swimming alongside the boat. Last night we checked into this hostel in Ushuaia, which is (arguably) the southernmost city in the entire world. For the past several days, I could quote Samwise Gamgee at nearly every moment by saying “If I take one more step it will be the farthest away from home I've ever been…" However, I'm now running out of places to step. In five more days, we'll begin the journey back to the Shire.


When we crossed the border for our first brief foray into Chile, we stopped at a restaurant apparently frequented by truckers and bikers. I took great pleasure in being able to translate a question asked in Spanish by the waitress to my travel companions who were unable to understand the meaning. Also while there, I winced at the fact that the television was turned to a network whose owner would have supported the U.S. President who authorized the 1973 coup of Chile's democratically elected President over growing fears of global socialism. The coup lead to the one of the most notorious military dictatorships in modern times (names withheld to protect the gulity... and spare further political discourse on a vacation blog).


For the second time in my life, I held in my hand three different animals between two pieces of bread, and reflected over my position in the food chain. Learning from current events, my liver threatened to strike unless I made the concession to never consume so much cholesterol at one time ever again.  A motion was made, seconded by my arteries, and was passed unanimously; cholesterol intake to be limited for the remainder of this trip.


Photos to come.

My throat and sinuses are becoming less angry as we move farther south, away from the worst of the ash cloud. In Puerto Madryn, it was becoming so bad that there was a thin layer of ash on my laptop after only a few minutes of blogging doing homework while sitting in the courtyard.


After a relatively short day on the road, we stopped in Caleta Olivia on our way to the end of the earth.  It's a strange feeling looking for a place to sleep while the sun is still up.  I also wasn't quite ready to leave Puerto Madryn.  I'm continuously rethinking where I will live when I become an expatriate.  No hostels to be found in this town, by the way...  We're in a hotel that was slightly cheaper than the lone hosteria we located.
























We stopped just north of Comodoro Rivadavia to visit Faro San Jorge (pictured below).  I learned today that in Flatigonia Patigonia you shouldn't wear glasses that aren't securely affixed to your body in some way.

I stood zero chance of staying awake last night long enough to sort through photos and make a blog post...  this vacation is a lot of hard work, even when it doesn't involve 1,000 km daily treks.

Yesterday we explored Península Valdés and went to Puerto Pirámides to take an excursion with the whales.  It's amazing to think that we are in the same classification as this creature.  The species we saw was the southern right whale.  They take a great interest in the tour boats, sometimes swimming very close to and directly beneath them.  One even came close enough to brush the side of the vessel with his magnificent fluke (tail fin).  Of note is the fact that in the past, whales only gave birth in the gulf before moving along.  After the first commercial whale excursions began, the mothers began staying to raise their calves for several months.  Also pictured is a seagull feeding on a whale.  This is a newer development thought to be caused by gull overpopulation secondary to a rise in the number of open landfills.  This parasite/predator is quite problematic for the whales. 


























Last night we stopped at a produce stand after dinner to stock up on snacks. Luiz checked out first and the conversation below is loosely translated to English for Dear Reader's convenience:


Owner: That will be three pesos. Where are you from?
Luiz: I'm from Brazil.
Owner: Oh, then it's six pesos.
Luiz: I meant to say I'm from Paraguay!
Owner: Ok, then only five pesos.

Now it's my turn:

Owner: And where are you from?
Me: Ummm... Argentina!

I received laughter and high fives all around.



Today is my day of rest, being spent at the hostel doing homework.


Lymph, I feel you calling.

I sliced a finger and stabbed another one while packing for this vacation.  I lacerated a toe while walking down the street in Foz do Iguaçu.  Today I played foosball until the skin peeled from my fingers...  and still managed to lose! At this rate, I'll have no arms left by the end of the trip.

Today began with a snorkeling trip with sea lions, followed by a very brief scuba diving session.  My first dive was cut short when my weight belt took a cue from the Argentinean bankers and oil workers and went on strike.  Fortunately, I was in shallow waters at low tide and nitrogen crisis was averted, despite the rapid ascent.  Following that, we dined with two other divers from the trip (who will hopefully forgive my likely horrible misspellings of their names); Jean-Marc from Brussels, and Noelia from Madrid.  There was almost zero driving today, and I was able to take one of my famous old-man naps before dinner, which we shared with our hostel-mate Gesine from Isenburg at the restaurant of the dive shop owner.

At Foz do Iguaçu, there's a place called Devil's Throat, which I was in, and it's actually a pretty pleasant place.  Today, I think I woke up with the devil in my throat, which I blame on the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle erutpion (instead of the coughing and sneezing of my travel mates...  seems that it's my turn, now).  It's much better to be in the devil's throat than vice versa.

...but leaving Viedma is damn near impossible.  Route 3 disappears somewhere inside the city and emerges on the other side.  Even the policia we asked for directions said it was to difficult to explain, and that we should drive to the next stoplight and ask someone else.

I'm a big fan of spending less than 12 hours on the road in any given day.  Five-ish is very manageable, despite the monotony of only have to make a single turn of the steering wheel on the trek.  Points reversed below because Google Maps was also incapable of calculating the route through Viedma, as the aforementioned policia prognosticated.  The bridge into town is shared by traffic and trains alike...




























Currently I'm in Puerto Madryn at a hostel whose name escapes me at the moment.  I'm trying to type very quietly so as not to wake the two French girls in the bed next to me. adjacent to me.  If I'm unheard from after this post, it's safe to say they killed me... which is quite unfair, since I didn't complain when one played French horn whilst getting ready for bed.  We were originally going to stay here only one night, but decided there was enough to do to extend the stay to four nights.  Hopefully that will give me time to do some blogging homework as well.  Enjoyed a quiet night along the boardwalk and dinner afterward.

I was glad to be able to explore centro de Viedma on foot today. Perhaps not as beautiful (quaint?) as San Miguel, but still very nice.  There's actually a law in this town that prohibits the sale of sunglasses outside of shops designated specifically for that purpose!  Fortunately, we were able to ask around and find a bootlegger of said goods.  I am now officially an international criminal.

We ventured along the coastline and stopped at Faro Rio Negro which was built in 1887.  In remarkable shape, it is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Patigonia and, amazingly, still in use today.





















The number of parrots flying in the wild was simply astounding to a gringo.  They must have eaten all of the seagulls.






















We enjoyed an amazing homemade pasta dinner at a restaurant overlooking the coastline.  The beach here is made of some very unique rock formations with no sand at all, and counterintuitively I was privilege to a sunset on the South American side of the Atlantic coastline.

Photos to come.

Yesterday I visited the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls.  Today was the Argentinean side.  Eleanor Roosevelt was 100% correct...  the waterfalls here are like nothing I could have imagined.  I've had more interaction with people today than any previous day, so it's by far my favorite.  Who would have thought I'd  be relieved to be in a locale where Spanish is the most commonly spoken language?  Yesterday we met Vanessa from Lisbon e Cecilia from Lyon.  We assisted Cecilia on the paths along the falls with her wheelchair, and they were very pleasant.  We also ran into them today in Argentina.  I had a nice little conversation with a guy from Saudi Arabia and talked about tourism in the U.S., including California and Niagara Falls.  We also kept running into a couple from Seattle today who were very talkative and informative about sites to see in Argentina.  I had an amazing shower after riding a boat under the falls.






Back at the hostel, we socialized and played pool with Peter e Peter from Poland, now both of London.  Renata (the owner of the hostel) was present with her niece, Maria.  The billiard balls here are all solids, so we played a variation of 8-ball (four-player) where one side was even- and the other side was odd-numbered balls.  Here, the rack is backward and the 1-ball is taken out of the rack to serve as a version of the 8-ball...  so we ended up breaking an inverted 14-ball rack.  I lost my ass while teaming with Luis, and lost to Luis on a foul when playing cutthroat with one of the aforementioned Peters.






















I hope Livia did a good job of planning the route for tomorrow, because I totally screwed off tonight.  My instructor e-mailed me and basically told me not to worry about having my assignments graded for two weeks.  So that's exactly what I did.

Photos to come.

In São Paulo, each care is assigned one day in which it cannot drive in the city during peak hours.  This is determined by the last number of the license plate.  This reduces the still-horrible traffic congestion by 20%.  I shudder to think of the average workday commute...


...unless you're on a motorcycle.  Motorcycles have special paths for them, designated by the yellow or white lines between the other cars.  

I saw Pearl Jam on another continent tonight...  not to be confused with another time when I might have traveled to another continent to see Pearl Jam.