On to the End of the World - Patagonia

After a very brief return to Buenos Aires, we headed to Punta Arenas, Chile and our multi-sport trip with REI in Patagonia. It is not possible to fly from Buenos Aires, Argentina directly to Punta Arenas. You must first fly through Santiago, go through customs and have a substantial layover. Ours was 6 hours - too short to go out into Santiago. It is necessary to get to the airport hours before any flight when you leave a country because it takes a long time to get through immigration. Then when you get to the next country you need to get your luggage and go through immigration in the new country. We left the Airbnb in Buenos Aires at 2:30 AM and made it to Punta Arenas at 7:00 PM that night - 16 1/2 hours later December 2nd. As we got closer to Patagonia, the view out the plane window was incredible!

We stayed one night at a B&B outside of Punta Arenas called La Casa Escondida run by a woman who is a high school teacher of English in Punta Arenas. We were the only guests that night and we were able to eat right there and not go into town. We sat by the fire in a large room made of logs and ate steak, fish, potatoes and salad. It felt like a hunting lodge. This is the beginning of summer here but it was chilly outside and much colder than Buenos Aires.

The next morning (December 3rd) we met with our REI guides Claudio and Alberto and ten other people who are on the Patagonia tour. We piled onto the small bus and began the 5 hours drive to EcoCamp in Torres del Paine where we would stay for the next week. On the way, we stopped in Puerto Natales to sign into the park register and also have lunch at a cafe that would have been very much at home in Portland or San Francisco. It was cute and hip and had great food and drinks. The waitstaff was young, had colorfully dyed hair and many tattoos. I guess there are hipster spots everywhere, even at the end of the world here in Chile. We were able to walk around town a bit with Claudio who lives here when he is not leading tours. We were given a hint about weather conditions in Patagonia when we saw a sculpture on the End of Hope Fjord. Wind is always a factor.

End of Hope Fjord, Puerto Natales, Chile

Claudio, the lead guide, spent the bus ride from Puerto Natales to Eco Camp where we would be staying for the duration of the tour, pointing out animals, talking about the mountains, and giving a bit of the history of the area. EcoCamp serves many people from around the world, traveling on their own, with a private guide or with another tour group  staying here. It is made of 33 geodesic domes, not surprising since the wind blows hard and often. It is fully sustainable and includes a Community Dome and Yoga Dome. Our little dome felt like a hobbit house where you had to duck down to get in the door.

The view in the morning was amazing.

It was really nice to be able to stay the entire tour in one place - one that served amazing food every meal. The dinners here were better than most restaurants - three courses, beautifully prepared including wine if you wished. 

Appetizer Salad our first night

For the next five days, we would explore some of what Patagonia offers - glaciers, hikes to craggy peaks and through meadows and crazy mountain biking. 

Iguacu Falls - Waterfalls on Steroids

When we were planning the scope and itinerary of this trip, we decided that a side trip to Iguacu Falls was something we needed to do. The falls are stupendous and straddle the borders of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. We consciously decided to stay in a very high end hotel on the Brasil side located inside the National Park. This meant that when the park closed at the end of the day, only the people staying at the hotel had access to the Brazilian side of the falls without the crowds. It also meant that we had to get a visa for entering Brazil as well as pay for the high end accommodations and food.

After flying to the airport on the Argentinian side, we took a taxi to the entrance of the National Park where the bus from the Hotel Belmond de las Cataratas picked us up and delivered us to a resort hotel that looked like something out of a period movie. The park was closing as we arrived so after getting settled, we walked down to the major falls on the Brazilian side. It was pretty spectacular.

 Front of the hotel

View from an arcade to some of the grounds

The word Iguacu means "big waters" in the Guarani language. Depending on the time of year, there are anywhere between 150 and 270 waterfalls with thousands of cubic feet of water pouring over the side per second. The spray from the cascade mists the air and depending on where the sun is, creates beautiful rainbows in the air above the chasm. The next day we hired a driver to bring us to the Argentine side so we could hike two trails - Upper Circuit and Lower Circuit and take the train to the Devil's Throat overlook.  

At the end of the day, we ate at the outdoor buffet barbecue at the hotel by the pool and relaxed on the grounds.

Since we had seen the Brazilian and Argentinian sides of the falls, the next day we decided to take a boat tour that brought you up the river to two of the actual falls. A tram takes you down to a path that leads to the dock where you board the boat. We were truly IN the rainforest (subtropical, semideciduous). Mosquito repellent was required. After getting down to the river, we all dressed in hooded plastic ponchos and flip flops and crammed into a long pontoon boat that seated about 40 people and headed up river. We headed into two falls and the guides maneuver the boat almost into the cascade and make sure everyone gets wet. It was very touristy but coming up close to the waterfalls is pretty impressive. I have a couple of GoPro videos but I guess they are just too big to upload to this blog. 

First Tango in Buenos Aires November 2017

It takes a very, very long time to get to Buenos Aires from San Francisco. I guess I really had not understood just how far away Argentina is. Now, I know.

Straight from the Thanksgiving table to SFO we started our journey on an 11:00 PM flight on Aeromexico via Mexico City where it was FREEZING in the airport for our 4 hour layover -  then, another 11 hours in the air -17 hours after we had started we arrived in Buenos Aires. It was now 10:00 PM Argentina time.  It still took a 45 minute taxi ride to get into the city to our Airbnb in the San Telmo part of Buenos Aires. But then we were smack in the heart of old Buenos Aires in an upstairs room with a beautiful bathroom and private deck across the street from the San Telmo Market with food vendors and small eateries. The apartment was off a courtyard full of planters of flowers and walls covered with ivy. Normally, I do not choose an Airbnb that is not fully private but this time, I made an exception and it really paid off. Our host, Carolina, became our concierge and made our stay so much richer.

Buenos Aires is a LARGE city and we only touched on some of what makes it unique. Our first day we hopped a bus and got off in the neighborhood of Recoleta where we walked through the famous Recoleta Cemetery. The large stone mausoleums and monuments are laid out like a small city with little "roads" crisscrossing acres of land. The tombs resembled Gothic chapels, Greek temples and grottoes. Eva Peron is buried there along with numerous generals, members of wealthy families and politicians.

 Eva Peron's grave

This one is for one of the presidents of the Buenos Aires Rowing Club. He looks pretty tired. He must have just finished a race. Ask my son. 

Lou on one of the "streets" of the cemetery. 

After the cemetery, we walked over to the Museo National de Bellas Artes for a look at a special exhibition on Joan Miro and then wandered the stalls of a Saturday feria or festival full of arts and crafts. Many, many of the booths were selling mate cups for the signature beverage of Argentina and Chile. It is a brewed leaf-based beverage and traditional drinkers carry the mate leaf, their cup and spoon along with a thermos of hot water to make and replenish their mate during the day.

At Carolina's recommendation, we went to see a tango show in a theater. The one she recommended, Piazzola Tango, is true to the spirit of tango and was a series of dances accompanied by a full orchestra and vocalists. Drama and passion! It was full of tourists but also seemed to attract a local following of true tango aficionados.

The next day was Sunday and in San Telmo that means a blocks and blocks long street fair with booth after booth of crafts, jewelry, textiles, mate cups from schlock to art. Food of all kinds was also available including the parrilla or barbeque which is a monument to meat - Argentinian meat. It is all grass-fed and range-free and always has been and is revered by all who aren't vegetarians.

A parrilla in an alley off the main street in San Telmo.

We hopped a bus to another very colorful neighborhood in Buenos Aires called La Boca. The buildings are all painted bright, primary colors and the street bustles with buskers, con artists, tango dancers, sidewalk restaurants and hawkers. There are many lifesized figures on balconies, in stores and store entries and in alleys throughout the district. 

Which is real? Which is fake?

There is another small but interesting museum in this district called PROA with a wonderful cafe on the second floor overlooking the harbor. We ate there today but returned on our last day in Buenos Aires at the end of the trip for an exhibition of Ai Wei Wei. More on that later. 

For a very traditional parrilla that caters to locals and tourists alike, we headed to El Desnivel. It's more than just a restaurant. The setting is utilitarian with lots of older harried waiters running around trying to take orders. On Carolina's recommendation, we ordered one entree for the two of us. She was right, the portions are enormous, especially since both Lou and I don't really eat much meat. The waiter didn't speak much English so we had to use what Spanish we had. Our first choice was nixed by the waiter telling us in Spanish that the kitchen was so busy we wouldn't get it until tomorrow. Our second choice of tenderloin with mushrooms was approved. We then ordered a salad, also approved. Our final choice of grilled provolone was nixed - bad choice, I guess. No explanation. We ordered another version which was approved but then we never got it. We sat next to two older men who looked to be regulars. They were deaf and communicated with sign language. After a while, we started communicating because the same waiter served them and was either telling them what they could have or bringing the wrong item. The more talkative gentleman thought I was Brazilian (!) and then was very approving when I told him I had been a special education teacher. 

After the meal, we walked up the street to the Plaza Dorrego to watch the outdoor malonga. Fascinating. People from all walks of life, locals and tourists alike come to the plaza with their tango shoes, change into them and stand at the edge as a sign of availability. Pairs of people come together and they dance the tango or folkloric dances which are more like line dances. There is a DJ and probably were about 150 people there the first night we walked down and watched. We were not brave enough to jump in and try. These folks know what they are doing and it was just too intimidating.

There is this amazing theater in Buenos Aires called Teatro Colon. It is huge, full of marble and gilt, columns and staircases. This is the theater international opera stars and orchestras come to when in Argentina. We took a tour to get a sense of its history and grandeur.

Our next stop was another of Buenos Aires' wonderful museums, the MALBA which is the Museum of Latin American Art in the Palermo section of Buenos Aires. The artists included Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera but also other artists I didn't know including El Corcito, Miguel Covarrubias and Maria Izquierdo. Some pieces were symbolic and revolutionary in subject matter. Others were modern or used mixed media or were photos. We ate in a modern cafe in the museum surrounded by museum goers and professionals from the surrounding area.

We headed back to our home base in San Telmo and when we were ready, walked to a restaurant called El Refugio for dinner. The food was delicious and included pasta and vegetables. The portions were large so we were able to share courses.

At the end of three days in Buenos Aires, we are off for a few days in Iguazu Falls before coming back to Buenos Aires for a couple of days before heading to Patagonia for our trip with REI.