Slivovice & Hagelslag: January 2010

Ok, so it's been a little while since the last update - long enough so that people have begun to make comments about 'the next post'. Rest assured my absence has not signaled the end of the blog, but is a reflection of being very busy and moving around a lot more than we were when the other entries where written. Not an excuse, certainly, but there you have it. Actually, we're no longer in Argentina, but are in California getting ready to head to our new home in South Korea and so now I've found some time to give a brief recap of our last month and a half or so in Argentina...

(Iguazu - Argentina Side)

(Iguazu)

After leaving Cordoba behind we headed on an overnight bus to see Iguazu Falls in the far North East of Argentina. Everyone had been telling us that we should go see the falls and that we would regret it if we did not. To be honest we did not plan to visit the falls at all, but after extending our trip (and seeing/hearing constant reference to the place everywhere we went) decided that we would go. It was definitely not a wasted trip and turned out to be one of our favorite places visited while in Argentina. We stayed in the nearby town of Puerto Iguazu at a nice hostel where we could sit out by the pool and while away the hours in the thick, oppressive heat. One day we opted to travel across the border into Brazil to see the falls from the National Park on that side which offered a panoramic view of the falls from across the river, whereas the Argentinean side gives a more 'close up' experience of the thundering water.

(Iguazu)

A few days in Iguazu and we headed again by overnight coach to Buenos Aires to meet up with some friends, whom we had met in Cordoba weeks earlier, for Christmas. The bus was supposed to take 18 hours but due to a little drug smuggling by a passenger upstairs, we ended up spending an extra six hours at a police station before be allowed to continue on our way, finally pulling into the Buenos Aires Retiro Bus Station 25 hours after we had started the journey. Pure, unadulterated awesomeness.

(Christmas Tree- complete with wine and counterfeit 100 peso bill - Merry Christmas!)

Christmas was great (involving lots of wine, good people, music, and food - just the way it should be) and on the morning of the 26th we took a flight to El Calafate where we spent the night and then the next morning caught a bus to El Chalten, a town at the foot of Mount Fitz Roy. El Chalten is a funny place because it is one of those towns that were it not for tourism and the climbers that come from every country in the world to climb Mt. Fitz Roy and it's fearsome neighbor Cerro Torre, it would not exist. Not even a little...well, except for a few Gauchos, their mate, and their cattle. This, along with it's remoteness and the incredible extremity of the weather there, also makes it very expensive. So we camped, ate rice and beans, and it was cold. On the first day we woke up, made coffee, and headed out despite the thick cloud cover and snow flurries, up a trail which promised "majestic panoramic views of both peaks." Naturally we held no expectation of witnessing this natural wonder, but thought a bit of conditioning and exercise would be good. And there is nothing to do in El Chalten but hike...and drink wine, so it being 8am, hiking seemed a good option, at least this early in the trip.

The hike was cold. Really cold and so after making it to the 'majestic lookout' we got moving and returned to the comparatively blistering El Chalten where we drank hot soup and sat around in the cold. The next day we got up early again and seeing the clear blue skies and rays of sunlight glinting off of the peaks, got going up the trail leading to the base of Fitz Roy. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the excellent views the whole way. After another day in the cold we opted to move to a hostel at the end of town because it seemed like it might be a little more fun for New Years. This proved to be a good choice A.) because it was warm, B.) because there was a warm bed, and C.) because there was internet (absurdly expensive as it was) with a nearby heater. On New Years eve we met a large group of people, mostly of the British and Australian variety, traveling together in a big bus attached to a Semi Truck. This is a type of tour we've encountered frequently on recent trips and seems to be becoming very popular. They're extremely cheap and often very long. This one was a couple of months but some of the people onboard had already signed on for another 40 week trip in Africa following the end of this one!

(Christmas Eve - Us with Dan and Ciaran)

(Fitz Roy in back)

(Cerro Torre on left, Fitz Roy on right)

A few days later we returned to El Calafate and caught a flight down to Ushuaia where we boarded a boat to go South.....WAY South.

All told we spent five days down on the Antarctic Peninsula and another five crossing the Drake Passage complete with twenty foot waves, weather, and wind. Antarctica is truly awesome, while the Drake is, well, pretty hellish. Having planned originally to go with one of the cheapest boat companies (whose boat actually sank a few years prior), we were informed some days before the launch date that the cruise was cancelled because the ship was dry docked with engine trouble. Excellent! So instead we emailed a couple of tour agencies in Ushuaia asking if they had any last minute walk on deals (which are generally discounted more than 50%) and as luck would have it, they did on board a much nicer boat! There were a couple of other people from our old boat on this one and we all joked that it was actually a great favor that the other company had done for us since this boat, in comparison, was quite luxurious. I could write a lot more about Antarctica, but it would sound pretty expected and typical. I think it would be pretty difficult to actually get across the immense beauty and incredible grandeur of the place and so I would simply say that it is the most amazing thing I have every seen and that should anyone ever have the opportunity to go but question the worth of the trip, I would say without hesitation, no matter your reason, to do it.

(Das Boot)

(It's bright in Antarctica)

Well, that was about as short of a recap as I could give of the rest of our trip. We had an amazing time and though it was three months, upon arriving at the baggage terminal of LAX, the whole thing seemed very short and very long all at the same time. Kind of a weird thing to try and describe so I'll let it go at that. In all likelihood I'll continue to use this blog as we make our move to Miryang at the end of next month so if you're interested, keep an occasional lookout for a new posting....

Here are some more pictures from the trip: