The Final Curtain

Well the end is near on this fantastic journey. We ended our last night here Buenos Aires with a big celebration for St. Patricks. We met up with a couple of folks form Ireland (Mark and Karen) and a lad from London (Michael). Mark and Karen were on a year long travel and had some awesome stories about their far east adventures. Michael had been traveling here in South America for about 3 months and told us some great stories in particular about working with pumas in Bolivia. Really amazing.

When we got back to the hostel we pretty much passed out. Tells you what kinda evening that was :) However, I was abruptly awakened to the sound of a body thudding the floor. The girl above me had apparently gotten smashed last night and in her tossing and turning spell she fell from the top bunk and smack the ground pretty hard. I immediately jumped up to see if she was alright. Luckily she was fine. I ran into her a bit ago and asked her how she was, and she said she was fine and that she had gotten pretty smashed last night. I looked at her and said, "you don't remember falling off the bed last night do you?" She said "No." Wow!

Today we just putzed around the city and took in some sights. Found a store that didn't except Visa but to American Express. Visa, Everywhere you wanna be except for that place. wtf.

It's going to be really difficult to top this trip. It's an amazing country with lots to offer. From mountains to falls to big city culture and cuisine. There's something sure to meet your desires. Of all the things we did I'd have to say that Iguazu was the most amazing. The sheer beauty and power of those falls is remarkable. We learned quite a bit in a short period of time (we're smart like that). I'll leave you all with one piece of advice if you decide to visit Argentina. Hit up a mercado for change because the ATMs here only give you 100s and no one seems to have change in this country.

Oh and...

For those of you who still prescribe to the conspiracy theory that Zac and I are not "really" in Argentina, BOOYA!!!

Tango y Iguaza

Well the last couple of days have been jammed with exciting adventures. We left El Calafate Monday morning only to find that the President of Argentina had made a visit to El Calafate and thus backed up traffic at the airport. Thankfully their airport was the size of a podunk country club and thus the delay was only 30 minutes or so.

Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, we found our hostel in the trendy little neighborhood called Palermo. The folks at the hostel were very kind to us and we decided to work through them to take in a tango show. We ended up taking the subte (subway) to a neighborhood called San Telmo (we stayed in this area of town our first night in Buenos Aires) and located a restaurant called La Ventana. The event for the night was called Gala y Tango. It featured a live orchestra and some amazing tango. The grub they served us was pretty good too. Unfortunately the folks at the hostel didn't give us a heads up on the attire, so jeans and t-shirt were our protocol for the evening.

This morning we got up and hightailed it to Puerto Iguazu. Unfortunately the hightailing was brought to a sudden halt when we arrived at the airport only to find our flight had been delayed a couple of hours. No worries though. When we got here to Puerto Iguazu we arrived to beautiful clear skies. Apparently something that this sub-tropical region hadn't seen in several days.

Because of our limited time here in Iguazu we left straight from the airport directly to the park, put our crap in a locker, and set off for the falls. We decided on a trip that trucked you through the forest and then by boat down the the Iguazu River from which the Iguazu Falls are formed. The falls were absolutely amazing. We spoke to both Americans and Canadians who said that these falls blow away the Niagra Falls. You decide for yourself.

Tonight we're staying in the Hostel Peter Pan here in Puerto Iguazu. It's pretty bare bones here, but they have a nice courtyard with a pool and plenty of eateries within walking distance. Oh and litres of Quilmes cerveza for $ARG 8. Muy Bien!

Tomorrow night we're back in Buenos Aires for St. Patricks day. Zac and I are dressing as "white boys wearing green." Should be a real hit. We met some folks at the tango show who were from Chicago (still my favorite city) and recommended a brewpub called Buller. It's right next to the Ricoleta Cemetary where the famous wife (Evita) of Argentine President Juan Peron is buried. They said that St. Patrick's decorations were going up when they were there and that they brewed 6 0r 7 decent brews. Game on!

Last couple of days

Well the last couple of days we've either been travelin or chillin out. Saturday we found this hotel in Puerto Natales, Chile called Indigo. It was really nice inside (very contemporary) and the cool thing about it was that the restaurant inside had satellite radio and they exclusively played chill music. So Zac and I thought we'd try each of the cervezas on the menu. They had some good ones (Baguales: Lagar, Dark Ale, Pale Ale, Austral: Lagar, Corona). There we're others but I don't recall the names :)

We left for El Calafate yesterday morning and arrived here around 2pm. Since we got here in the afternoon there really wasn't much time to do anything of any real significance. So we just kinda chilled out around the hostel, grabbed some dinner, and called it a night.

Today we're headed back to Buenos Aires. We're staying in a pretty trendy section of town this time called Palermo Viejo. There's lots of nightlife to be found in this area so hopefully we can find a cool little spot where we can observe some good tango.

Tomorrow we're off to Puerto Igauzu to see the Iguazu Falls. We'll be checking that out from both the Argentina side of the Iguazu River as well as the Brazilian side. The hostel we're planning on staying at has a large pool. So after the sight seeing is over, it's on. Cannonball!!!

Torres del Paine (Towers of Paine)

Today Zac and I took the rental we reserved last night here in Puerto Natales and hightailed it up to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. The ride required us to travel along a dirt road for a stretch of a little over 2 hours in a Nissan V16 (the V16 stands for ¨bad ass¨ of course). This proved to be the roughest stretch of road that we have ever traveled in our lives (so bumpy). Along the way we pulled over and took in the sights whenever we had the chance. It was then we discovered what high winds and rain on a mountain top is all about (rough).

After being jostled around for 2 plus hours we arrived at the base of Torres del Paine around 11:30. Man what a beauty that structure is. Peaks as sharp as a sharks teeth that rise up into the clouds. Fortunately mother nature gave a moment or two to capture some pictures of this magnificent piece of art.

Without any hesitation we decided to start hiking up the mountain to get a better look at this structure. It was a pretty steep ascent for sure. As I rounded the front of one the smaller mountians the wind began to howl and the rain started to come down pretty good (it stung when it hit your face). Alas the storms started blowing in. I turned to Zac to hear him say ¨This shit sucks.¨ I said well it ain´t looking any better my friend. So we decided another route at a lower altitude and not exposed to the elements was a better approach. From the looks of it, we chose wisely.

Below is a 360 degree view from a spot taken within Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Even with the mountain blocking the roaring wind to the west, you can still here the wind blowing in the video. Chow.

Bienvenidos a Chile

So we made it to Chile yesterday. We took a 5 hour bus ride from El Calafate to Puerto Natales. The wind here is pretty serious. They said gusts would be in excess of 100km an hour plus a 50% chance of rain. Should make for an interesting hike.

Day 2 in Patagonia

Today was an awesome day here in Argentina. Not a cloud in the sky and a perfect day to set off hiking to one of the top 5 climbing destinations in the world, Monte Fitz Roy. Zac and I rented a car from Localiza (it was a Chevy Corsa as seen on the above) here in El Calafate. We then set off this morning around 7:00 and made it to the town of El Chalten (about 220km to our north) by 9:30. As we headed out into no mans land we saw off in the distance some 170km away our destination, Monte Fitz Roy. It just had a presence about it that made you think "yeah that's definitely the place were headed."

Patagonia is inundated with lamas. They were all over along the roadway to El Chalten. The guy at the car rental said to look out for them because they've been known to jump out into on coming traffic and basically destroy a vehicle. This could have cost us big. $AR 8,000 pesos (~$3000 bucks). We got lucky and no accidents occurred.

Once we reached El Chalten we stopped off at the park information center and found a trailhead that would lead us to the Fitz Roy (left) and it's cousin Cerro Torre (below). It was a moderate hike that put you at the base of Cerro Torre. What a site it was. Glaciers surrounded the base of this mountain so anyone wanting to climb it first had to wade through all that snow.

Tomorrow we're off to Chile so it will be mostly a traveling day. Friday we'll be heading to Torres del Paine. Some say this is the finest park South America has to offer. Can't wait to see it!