Argentina and Puerto Natales
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jesper
05 Maart 2016 | Argentinië, Ushuaia
After just being rudely woken up by some Japanese guy -in the 6-bed dormitory-, who found it necessary to set his alarm at 3, 4, 5 and 6 a.m, to start unfolding and folding all the plastic bags in his backpack, my story a little bit earlier in the morning.
From the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu Falls I continued to the Argentinean side. A local bus service connects the two Iguaçus / Iguazús with one another. These buses stop briefly at the Brazilian border without mentioning the location. When the bus began to ride again, we got informed just in time by a Brazilian, that if we are planning to ever set foot again in Brazil without any problems, we had to obtain an exit stamp. After a lot of chaos, pushing and pulling, me and some Asians were finally able to leave the overly crowned bus.
Argentina's Puerto Iguazú is many times smaller than its Brazilian counterpart, Foz de Iguaçu, and is a 30 minutes drive from the national park. Because of the many different facades and dozens of viewpoints I spent a few hours on this once again very unique piece of earth. The absolute highlight of the park should be the "Devil's Throat". In the morning however, there was such an exceptionally long queue waiting for the train that drops you off at this spot, that my Hungarian fellow traveler and I decided to do some other trails first. The color-coded routes give excellent views of the falls, with every now and then a chance to stand pretty much under the streaming water. personally I found the "Devil's Throat" less interesting because of the heaps of tourists admiring the water clattering down in a giant horse-shoe shape. Besides this, because of the incredible power of nature, there is a lot of mist, which pretty much blocks the wonderful views.
From Puerto Iguazú I took a 17 hour bus ride together with the English and Emily Ross, to the capital of the huge country. Besides the champagne, whiskey and beer on board, we unfortunately didn't get a warm welcome of the well-known Argentine steak, instead they presented to us a nasty imitation pasta.
In the European-feeling Buenos Aires I stayed with above mentioned in a party hostel. Which indicated a lot of drinking in the evenings and at a day time quite some strolling through different boroughs of the city. Palermo with many large parks, Recoleta with the must-see Recoleta Cemetery, a graveyard where many important Argentineans -including Evita- are buried. Puerto Madero, an old port which in one of the latest trends turned into one of the major tourist areas with many bars and restaurants. And the central neighborhoods Balvanera and Montserrat, where, besides the "Obelisco de Buenos Aires" -a cheap replica from the much older and taller Obelisk in Washington-, Congressional Plaza and Plaza de Mayo with their architectural highlights are the main attractions. After some disturbing stories of people who were threatened with knives and guns when they walked to La Boca, I decided to take a bus to the central, safe part of this neighborhood, the borough is characterized by the stadium of Boca Juniors and a slum that was turned into a top attraction because of people who put some colors on the walls of their shacks.
From Buenos Aires I took a flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. With a stopover in El Calafate I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Perito Moreno which lies 80 kilometers further, this didn't work out quite as planned. However, I did have some beautiful views over the Argentine part of Patagonia, and the Andes Mountains adjacent thereto. Ushuaia may hold the title of most southern city on earth (which is still disputable with the Chilean -even further southern- "Puerto Williams"), but besides this there is nothing going on. Besides a 5-hour hike to the Martial glacier, which simply was a lot of snow, I've mainly been looking for good Antarctica deals. Furthermore you see in this city many avid cyclist who aspire to either reach Alaska or Iguazú. It's worth noting that in this (for a change, way too expensive) Argentinean city a piece of steak (600 grams) is cheaper than a bag of Lays potato chips.
The next stop on the trip was Puerto Natales, my first encounter with Chile. Puerto Natales is the base for the National Park Torres del Paine. In advance I already talked with many people about this tour, they pretty much gave me the idea that I had to climb The Lord of the Rings' "Mount Doom". This feeling was only strengthened after arriving in the park where everyone started the trip fully equipment, where I showed up in jeans, sweater and running shoes. After being stared at for several times, I just started walking, and eventually everything worked out well!
In addition to the frequently asked questions; "How long have you been traveling?", "How long you still got?" And where are you from?" (And for the Dutch "Hey, Groot-Ammers, where is that?") Other important topics here are; "What trail do you do?, the "W" or the "O"?" and "What kind of weather did you have so far?". on my first night I met an English lady, so far she spent nine days in the park and encountered 8 1/2 days of rain. Fortunately I was slightly more lucky. My first 20 minutes in the park it rained, the following days it was completely dry! the "W" track (which simply identifies the shape of the route on the map) I completed in 4 days, 150 km of walking, more than 10 hours diagonal sleeping in a tent that was way too small on a thin mat, with the company of a mouse that gnawed himself through the bottom of my tent, and meals named "Paella", "Curry" and "Mexicano" (they all tasted exactly the same). To finally see the cliché sunrise at the Torres. An experience accompanied by a herd of head lights that came stumbling up the mountain with clanging Nordic walking sticks. all in all a nice experience, but the latter is certainly not the highlight of this wonderful tour, the many (hanging) glaciers and emerald and azure colored lakes combined with the sharp mountains are just as beautiful! After this experience I have decided that you will never find me in a tent again, I have never slept so bad, not really a big camping fan.
After a bumpy road (it seems that both Chile and Argentina don't want to pay for the maintenance of the road connecting the two borders) I continued with a little stop in El Calafate by hitchhiking with an Israeli couple to El Chalten. This city was established in 1985 to settle a boundary dispute with Chile. However it seems that there is still no solution found. Several day hikes run from this town -which only has 1,500 permanent inhabitants-, to what on the map looks like a large rectangular limbo. The great viewpoints of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre from Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torro respectively, combined with the magnificent views from Loma del Pliegue Tumbado make this place a place not to be missed on any South America trip.
In an attempt to hitchhike back to El Calafate, I unfortunately booked little success. After several hours of practicing my old hitchhikers tactic (a sign with "I Have Cookies" got me throughout every part of New Zealand four years ago), besides that my thumb also began to be a bit numb, so I finished my Cookies and took a bus back.
In my hostel in El Calafate I met for the umpteenth time the Swiss Martin and Anja. They told me that after a puking feast at the camp after Torres (where I spent my last evening in Torres del Paine in) They unfortunately had to finish their "O" earlier than planned. Where you normally hang your bottle of water in the river throughout the park to fill it up, it was less secure in this ares. Luckily I had gone for the "short" route.
From the center of the village, I decided to try to hitchhike to the Perito Moreno Glacier. In Argentina, it is apparently allowed to fix prices, and the four bus companies that run regular busses on this route all ask ridiculously high prices for transportation to the park. A new government, a big change in the currency exchange rate of the Argentine Peso against the US Dollar and a huge inflation, made all services and goods at least 5 times more expensive in recent years. After standing there again for quite some time I came to the conclusion that Argentines apparently don't like cookies, and I nearly decided to abandon my hitchhike tactic. I was already grabbing my stuff to go the bus station when a touring car stopped that didn't mind bringing me to the beginning of the park. On the way we picked up about 15 other hitchhikers. From the beginning of the "Parque Nacional Los Glaciares" my tour continued with the 50 years married Argentinian and Spanish couple Miguel and Sofia. For 30 kilometers they were talking the ears of my head in fluent Spanish bullshit, still no idea where they were talking about.
Thus far I have seen several glaciers, but none of them is worth mentioning compared with the Perito Moreno. This giant is one of the only glaciers in the world that continues to grow, with its 30 km length, 5 km width and an average height of 74 meters it advances up to 2 meters per day. As a result every couple of minutes gigantic pieces of ice break from the face of the glacier. even with relatively "small" pieces this is accompanied by a thunder-like noise and a lot of ahhh's and ohhh's. Again a breathtaking experience!
Yesterday I took yet another Aerolineas Argeninas' flight back to Ushuaia. This to check off the last continent on my bucket list. A luxurious cruise ship will take me and a lot of Chinese people for the coming two weeks to Antarctica, South Georgia (a British overseas territory which is often compared to the Galapagos Islands) and eventually Buenos Aires. More about this experience in a few weeks though!
Ciao, Jesper
From the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu Falls I continued to the Argentinean side. A local bus service connects the two Iguaçus / Iguazús with one another. These buses stop briefly at the Brazilian border without mentioning the location. When the bus began to ride again, we got informed just in time by a Brazilian, that if we are planning to ever set foot again in Brazil without any problems, we had to obtain an exit stamp. After a lot of chaos, pushing and pulling, me and some Asians were finally able to leave the overly crowned bus.
Argentina's Puerto Iguazú is many times smaller than its Brazilian counterpart, Foz de Iguaçu, and is a 30 minutes drive from the national park. Because of the many different facades and dozens of viewpoints I spent a few hours on this once again very unique piece of earth. The absolute highlight of the park should be the "Devil's Throat". In the morning however, there was such an exceptionally long queue waiting for the train that drops you off at this spot, that my Hungarian fellow traveler and I decided to do some other trails first. The color-coded routes give excellent views of the falls, with every now and then a chance to stand pretty much under the streaming water. personally I found the "Devil's Throat" less interesting because of the heaps of tourists admiring the water clattering down in a giant horse-shoe shape. Besides this, because of the incredible power of nature, there is a lot of mist, which pretty much blocks the wonderful views.
From Puerto Iguazú I took a 17 hour bus ride together with the English and Emily Ross, to the capital of the huge country. Besides the champagne, whiskey and beer on board, we unfortunately didn't get a warm welcome of the well-known Argentine steak, instead they presented to us a nasty imitation pasta.
In the European-feeling Buenos Aires I stayed with above mentioned in a party hostel. Which indicated a lot of drinking in the evenings and at a day time quite some strolling through different boroughs of the city. Palermo with many large parks, Recoleta with the must-see Recoleta Cemetery, a graveyard where many important Argentineans -including Evita- are buried. Puerto Madero, an old port which in one of the latest trends turned into one of the major tourist areas with many bars and restaurants. And the central neighborhoods Balvanera and Montserrat, where, besides the "Obelisco de Buenos Aires" -a cheap replica from the much older and taller Obelisk in Washington-, Congressional Plaza and Plaza de Mayo with their architectural highlights are the main attractions. After some disturbing stories of people who were threatened with knives and guns when they walked to La Boca, I decided to take a bus to the central, safe part of this neighborhood, the borough is characterized by the stadium of Boca Juniors and a slum that was turned into a top attraction because of people who put some colors on the walls of their shacks.
From Buenos Aires I took a flight to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. With a stopover in El Calafate I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Perito Moreno which lies 80 kilometers further, this didn't work out quite as planned. However, I did have some beautiful views over the Argentine part of Patagonia, and the Andes Mountains adjacent thereto. Ushuaia may hold the title of most southern city on earth (which is still disputable with the Chilean -even further southern- "Puerto Williams"), but besides this there is nothing going on. Besides a 5-hour hike to the Martial glacier, which simply was a lot of snow, I've mainly been looking for good Antarctica deals. Furthermore you see in this city many avid cyclist who aspire to either reach Alaska or Iguazú. It's worth noting that in this (for a change, way too expensive) Argentinean city a piece of steak (600 grams) is cheaper than a bag of Lays potato chips.
The next stop on the trip was Puerto Natales, my first encounter with Chile. Puerto Natales is the base for the National Park Torres del Paine. In advance I already talked with many people about this tour, they pretty much gave me the idea that I had to climb The Lord of the Rings' "Mount Doom". This feeling was only strengthened after arriving in the park where everyone started the trip fully equipment, where I showed up in jeans, sweater and running shoes. After being stared at for several times, I just started walking, and eventually everything worked out well!
In addition to the frequently asked questions; "How long have you been traveling?", "How long you still got?" And where are you from?" (And for the Dutch "Hey, Groot-Ammers, where is that?") Other important topics here are; "What trail do you do?, the "W" or the "O"?" and "What kind of weather did you have so far?". on my first night I met an English lady, so far she spent nine days in the park and encountered 8 1/2 days of rain. Fortunately I was slightly more lucky. My first 20 minutes in the park it rained, the following days it was completely dry! the "W" track (which simply identifies the shape of the route on the map) I completed in 4 days, 150 km of walking, more than 10 hours diagonal sleeping in a tent that was way too small on a thin mat, with the company of a mouse that gnawed himself through the bottom of my tent, and meals named "Paella", "Curry" and "Mexicano" (they all tasted exactly the same). To finally see the cliché sunrise at the Torres. An experience accompanied by a herd of head lights that came stumbling up the mountain with clanging Nordic walking sticks. all in all a nice experience, but the latter is certainly not the highlight of this wonderful tour, the many (hanging) glaciers and emerald and azure colored lakes combined with the sharp mountains are just as beautiful! After this experience I have decided that you will never find me in a tent again, I have never slept so bad, not really a big camping fan.
After a bumpy road (it seems that both Chile and Argentina don't want to pay for the maintenance of the road connecting the two borders) I continued with a little stop in El Calafate by hitchhiking with an Israeli couple to El Chalten. This city was established in 1985 to settle a boundary dispute with Chile. However it seems that there is still no solution found. Several day hikes run from this town -which only has 1,500 permanent inhabitants-, to what on the map looks like a large rectangular limbo. The great viewpoints of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre from Laguna de los Tres and Laguna Torro respectively, combined with the magnificent views from Loma del Pliegue Tumbado make this place a place not to be missed on any South America trip.
In an attempt to hitchhike back to El Calafate, I unfortunately booked little success. After several hours of practicing my old hitchhikers tactic (a sign with "I Have Cookies" got me throughout every part of New Zealand four years ago), besides that my thumb also began to be a bit numb, so I finished my Cookies and took a bus back.
In my hostel in El Calafate I met for the umpteenth time the Swiss Martin and Anja. They told me that after a puking feast at the camp after Torres (where I spent my last evening in Torres del Paine in) They unfortunately had to finish their "O" earlier than planned. Where you normally hang your bottle of water in the river throughout the park to fill it up, it was less secure in this ares. Luckily I had gone for the "short" route.
From the center of the village, I decided to try to hitchhike to the Perito Moreno Glacier. In Argentina, it is apparently allowed to fix prices, and the four bus companies that run regular busses on this route all ask ridiculously high prices for transportation to the park. A new government, a big change in the currency exchange rate of the Argentine Peso against the US Dollar and a huge inflation, made all services and goods at least 5 times more expensive in recent years. After standing there again for quite some time I came to the conclusion that Argentines apparently don't like cookies, and I nearly decided to abandon my hitchhike tactic. I was already grabbing my stuff to go the bus station when a touring car stopped that didn't mind bringing me to the beginning of the park. On the way we picked up about 15 other hitchhikers. From the beginning of the "Parque Nacional Los Glaciares" my tour continued with the 50 years married Argentinian and Spanish couple Miguel and Sofia. For 30 kilometers they were talking the ears of my head in fluent Spanish bullshit, still no idea where they were talking about.
Thus far I have seen several glaciers, but none of them is worth mentioning compared with the Perito Moreno. This giant is one of the only glaciers in the world that continues to grow, with its 30 km length, 5 km width and an average height of 74 meters it advances up to 2 meters per day. As a result every couple of minutes gigantic pieces of ice break from the face of the glacier. even with relatively "small" pieces this is accompanied by a thunder-like noise and a lot of ahhh's and ohhh's. Again a breathtaking experience!
Yesterday I took yet another Aerolineas Argeninas' flight back to Ushuaia. This to check off the last continent on my bucket list. A luxurious cruise ship will take me and a lot of Chinese people for the coming two weeks to Antarctica, South Georgia (a British overseas territory which is often compared to the Galapagos Islands) and eventually Buenos Aires. More about this experience in a few weeks though!
Ciao, Jesper
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