3-29
Since I will be waiting in Puerta Natales until monday night to catch my ferry to Puerto Mont,
I decided to head back into Torres Del Paine National Park to keep me occupied for a few days since there's not much to do in PN other than work on my resume for job applications and do some stuff with graduate school.
So I took the bus into Torres Del Paine and just did a short little two day backpacking trip to campamento Lago Pehoe. The walk there was further out from the Torres Del Paine massif so it afforded really nice views of the whole mountain range, especially some stunning views of the Cuernos del Paine. The hike started out by going by a very powerful waterfall and then walking past several lakes. This park really just has tons of beautiful lakes. And they are all so gorgeous. This unreal color of blue that can maybe best be described by saying the color of Angel's eyes. Eventually I got to the giant Lago Pehoe which I walked along for quite awhile. It was incredibly, incredibly windy. The rangers had said it would be a constant 40mph wind today with gusts up to 80mph. The lake looked like an ocean with huge breakers and water just blowing and ripping off the top of the waves. I was happy to see that the campsite was sheltered in some trees. The view from the campsite at Paine Grande and the Cuernos was stunning. The giant granite massif rising up over the turquoise water. I spent most of the afternoon reading and relaxing in the warmth and shelter of my tent with occasional walks out to the point, braving the wind to see the new developing views as the clouds and sun changed.
3-30
Got up early for an awesome sunrise of the mountains as they lit up over the lake. Then walked back to Lago Grey to catch the bus. Along the way I saw lots of Guanacos (llama like animals) and a patagonian fox as well.
Made it back to my favorite hostel, the erratic rock in the afternoon. I was hoping to use the next few days to really crank out some resume stuff and grad school stuff, but their computer had crashed! (I am currently using a friend's that is leaving tomorrow)
Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The Power of Nature
3-27
The hostel we are staying at is incredibly nice. Even has heated floors and an amazing breakfast of all you can eat toast, cereal, and even hot chocolate.
In the morning, I had to say a sad goodbye to Tom as he was flying off to Buenos Aires.
I then took the bus to the Southern Part of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares where I boarded a boat first to go have a look at the famous Perito Moreno glacier from the water. We sailed through icebergs before reaching the wall of the glacier. This glacier is famous bc it is one of the very few advancing glaciers left in the world, and it´s also quite massive. Its face where it touches the lake is over 200 feet above the water in places and its width at the lake is nearly a mile and a half. After the boat, I explored the myriad of cat walks that get you up really close and above the glacier for outstanding views. Today was the worst weather day, raining all day, that I have had while doing an activity in patagonia, but it was okay bc it didn´t obstruct the views of the giant glacier. And the clouds might have even helped to bring out the stunning blue of the glacier. The blue colors of the glacier are just so surreal and the ice "sculptures" made by the wind and sun are as amazing as anything humans could do. One of the coolest thing about hanging around the glacier (I was there for 5 hours) is all the noises you hear, from creaks and groans to large cracks and booms like a gun shot when pieces fall off. I got to witness (perhaps bc the rain had lubricated it a bit) some giant ice pieces (as big as small skyscrapers) fall off. A dramatic sight. The splash and tidal wave are humongous and the sound reverberates through the area. And then an hour or so later, the huge chunk would violently resurface, shooting straight up and creating crazy swells and eddies. Back at Calafated, I went to a Parilla grill with Laura, Katta, Leigh, and Anton (from South Africa). Meat, especially steak are famous in Argentina, and Parilla´s where they grill the meat and just keep bringing it out to you in all you can eat fashion are the best ways to eat it. Considering the quality you can and the all you can eat, the price of 15 bucks isn´t too bad.
3-28 The whole gang took the bus back into Chile to Puerto Natales where I will be doing another short trek in Torres del Paine and some grad school thinking and paperwork before I take the 4 night, 3 day Navimag ferry to Puerto Montt on Monday night. It was a relatively clear day today, so it was cool to see the Torres del Paine massif from a distance.
March (Mountain) Madness
This is the toughest time of year to be away from home aside from Christmas. Only being able to check ESPN.com to see that there have been sweet games, but not being able to watch. At least Tom is also in to basketball so each night we would eagerly check the scores.
3-21 Took the bus to El Calafate in Argentina. We had gorgeous views of snowy mountains during the ride. The road, Route 40 goes through arid patagonia step with Guanacos (llama type things) and Rheas (giant birds like emus) everywhere but off to the west are the big mountains. We had a layover in Calafate, so we walked around a bit and got the "famous" chocolate they have in so many shops. The town is very touristy and its downtown reminded me of Estes Park. In the evening we took the bus to El Chalten.
3-22 El Chalten sits next to the northern part of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. In the morning we hiked up to Laguna Torre. It was windy and cold and clouds were over the peaks, so we retreated to a sunny place in the trees to take a nap to see if the clouds would burn off. When we woke up, they had and we had fantastic views of the lake with a glacier falling into it and the famous granite spire of Cerro Torre as well as Cerro Grande and other spires and mountains. We then hiked up to a mirador (viewpoint) for nice views right down onto the glacier. Since Tom`s knee was still not 100%, he headed back down, and I hiked up a ridge for more views. Our time in the park and views were made even better by the fact that the colors were changing and the trees in the park were in full color change
3-23
Tom took a day off to rest his knee, so I hiked up by myself to Laguna Capri which had surreal views of toothy Cerro Fitz Roy and other towers reflecting in the lake. I then did the steep hike up to Lago los Tres, a turquoise alpine lake right at the base of Fitz Roy. Of course, more stunning views. I then climbed up Mt. Madsen (6000 feet)..(.Chalten´s elevation is 1300 feet) for in your face views of Fitz Roy which were made more unique by the clouds coming in. I read for a couple hours up on the peak to see if the clouds would dissipate, but they didn´t. On the summit I had a really awesome experience of two Andean Condors flying real close by to check me out. They flew right over my head and also below me, so I got a real close look of their coloration. When they saw I wasn´t anything too important, they soared off back towards the Fitz Roy peaks. A definitely inspiring contact. Madsen is a very pointy peak (as any patagonian peak should be), and it required a bit of climbing to get to the summit. From there I went back down to Laguna Los Tres (glissading down a steep snowfield for a good portion of it) and to a lookout high above Laguna Sucia. I then ended up hiking to Laguna Sucia itself, a pretty turquoise glacial lake with its glacier tumbling right into it amidst wind sprayed waterfalls. From there I hiked to the lakes of Hija (daughter) and Madre before heading back to Chalten. I ended up walking the last hour in the dark with my headlamp. A very big day of about 25 miles total and lots of elevation gain. When I got back I was expecting to have to cook myself some pasta, but to my surprise Tom was ready with a beer for me and our new friends Laura (from Espana) and Katta (from Germany) had made us a delicious and fancy Italian meal (with meat...something Tom and I are too cheap to add).
3-24 We had a gorgeous "Colorado" day today. Our first true one we had had, with perfectly clear skies. Tom, Laura, Katta, and I hiked up to Loma de Pliegue Tumbado, a viewpoint ridge where you can see both Cerro Torre and Fitzroy. The walk through the forest was gorgeous with the fall colors and blue sky. Up on the ridge, we had INCREDIBLE views of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre and all the other mountains in perfect blue sky. WOW! Wow the rest of them took naps in the grass, I hiked up another mountain (5000ft) for even better views. From there you could also look down on the giant Viedma Lake. Once back in Chalten, we went shopping with the girls and then had a cooking and beer and wine party--a curry, chicken, and rice dish. And then later that night we had "pressure" dance lessons led by Laura.
3-25. Another wonderful weather day!! And this one warm with no wind. I woke up at 5am so I could hike up to Laguna Capri to watch the sunrise on Fitz Roy. SPECTACULAR! I then hiked back up to Laguna Los Tres, bc I had just loved the view so much. Hung around up there for a bit, not a cloud in the sky. I then hiked the trail to El Pilar, passing by the hanging (and tumbling) glacier Piedra Blanco. Fall colors were again amazing today. I got back down to a dirt road that was about 12 km from Chalten. I walked along with my thumb out (hardly a car on the road), and got picked up about 2km in by an American couple on vacation from Crested Butte. Travelling out of frustration by the lack of snow there. We talked about how El Calafate is so much like EP and El Chalten so much like Crested Butte. Chalten is a cool little town with a very much outdoor and hippy type culture and obviously quite big in the climbing. It´s actually the newest town in Argentina (established in the 80s). It was laid down quickly bc in that area Argentina was having a dispute with Chile over the land, so they laid down a settlement really quickly. But I liked the town with its cheap and tasty bakeries and A frame houses and gorgeous views. Tom, Laura, and Katta left today for Calafate, but I would be meeting up with them later
3-26 I got up early again for sunrise, this time to hike to Mirador Condor to see the glorious sunrise on both Cerro Torre and Fitzroy. After I got back, I hung around the hostel a bit and then caught my bus back to Calafate. Of course the bus ride passing all the mountains and glaciers was just gorgeous. We had another fiesta night with the gang and also a newcomer to the posse, Leigh from the UK. It was spanish food and omelettes compliments of Laura
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Big Patagonia Trek: The Tom and Travis show
3/20
A day of relaxing at the hostel and Puerta Natales after the trek. Tom and I watched Pulp Fiction and did some big feasting at the hostel with some of our other hostel friends, especially a couple of dutch gals who also returned from a trek and are much better cooks than us.
My profile from when I got back from the trek
Then: 8 days, 61 lb pack, 108 miles of rugged Andean mountain wilderness, fierce Patagonian weather, a Canuck named Tom, 4 pounds of rice, 1.5 pounds of tomato sauce
Now: 1 liter Cerveza austral, feet by the fire, el gato purring in my lap, Tommy the canuck feasting on an entire chicken
Now: 1 liter Cerveza austral, feet by the fire, el gato purring in my lap, Tommy the canuck feasting on an entire chicken
3/12 Day 1
Took the bus to Torres (towers) Del Paine National Park. I had met Tom, a Canadian from Saskatoon, Canada late that night before at the hostel and we decided to trek together. He ended up being an awesome trekking partner. Unlike all other canadians, he doesn´t love hockey, but instead loves basketball, so we talked a lot about the march madness we were missing. He´s 25 and is on a 6 month travel through S. America. He walks at a good pace. Not quite as fast as me, but I was totally fine with that to have someone to talk to. He was also very flexible and wanted to see everything, so we both agreed that we would wait out weather in order to see things. He´s easy to talk to and fun to laugh with, joke about the hard times, and he really appreciates the good things. So I was really lucky to have met him and have him as a hiking partner. Wish we had met earlier so we could have divied up things in our pack like tents, stoves, etc to make them lighter bc we ended up having pretty big packs. My pack weighed in at 61 pounds when I started. I had lots of food though. The trek is supposed to take 8 days, but I had enough for 10 in case we got stranded with a closed pass bc of snow or wanted to stay at some place longer bc of weather. In the end, Tom ran out of food, but I had so much left that I was feasting the last few nights so had plenty to share with him.
It´s hard to know what to pack for food while abroad and without the familiar freeze dried cuisine you get back home and other things we have such as packets of oatmeal, trail mix, and high energy bars. I ended up taking 4 days worth of pasta with tomato sauce, 5 days worth of rice with tomato sauce and 1 to 2 nights worth of ramen noodle type things. For breakfast and lunch the first 5 days I had peanut butter (I found it in punta arenas!) and bread, but I worried the bread would spoil after that, so after that I had these low energy excuse for cereal bars and lots of cookies. I also had some snickers along too.
Most people do the easier "W" as it is called that days 4 to 5 days, but we went for the circuit trek which is supposed to take 8 days and goes completely around the Torres mountain range and on the back side is much more remote and hardly any people. On the W there are these Refugio places where for 40 bucks you can get a bed in a warm cabin and for 50 more full board. Of course we would be camping, but it added another thing to it to see these people carrying nothing bc they would be staying in warm luxury while we carried heavy packs and had cold nights
Most people do the easier "W" as it is called that days 4 to 5 days, but we went for the circuit trek which is supposed to take 8 days and goes completely around the Torres mountain range and on the back side is much more remote and hardly any people. On the W there are these Refugio places where for 40 bucks you can get a bed in a warm cabin and for 50 more full board. Of course we would be camping, but it added another thing to it to see these people carrying nothing bc they would be staying in warm luxury while we carried heavy packs and had cold nights
The first day, most people hike to Seron, but bc the weather the next day was supposed to be awesome, we went straight for one of the highlights (the Torres/the towers). It rained the whole bus ride over and rained a bit at the start of the hike, but luckily the whole big uphill to campamento Torres where we would camp was only in mist. Once we set up camp we hiked on a side route to campamento Japon, but couldn´t see much bc of the thick fog and at this point rain. After that we hiked up to the Mirador Torres (towers viewpoint). It actually cleared a bit, so we could see the lower part of the towers and the emerald lake in front of them. We were super impressed with just that view, so we knew it would be amazing on a clear day, which we hoped would be the next day.
3/13 Day 2
We woke up in the dark to do the hike up to the mirador to see the towers at sunrise. We could see stars out so we were hopeful. But by the time the sun came up and it got light, there was a thick fog, so thick in fact, that we couldn´t even see the lake. It was a clear and sunny day, it´s just that it had rained so much the past 3 days that a thick mist just clung to the mountains (we later found out in burned off after noon...but we had left around 9 to move to the next campsite, with the intent of coming back here at the end)
So we hiked back down and rejoined the trail that led to Campamento Seron. The weather was much nicer and the hike was very scenic meandering along a very blue river for some time. Seron was a nice campsite and in the sun, so we dried out all of our stuff and relaxed in the grass.
3/14 day 3
We hiked from Seron to Dickson and then onto Campamento Perros. This was a big and long day. The suggested itinerary and what most people do is camp at Dickson and then go to Perros, but we decided to do two days in 1 bc the weather was very nice. At one point when we came over a little pass we had a gorgeous little rainbow and then stunning views of glaciated mountains with large glacial blue lakes at their base. cap which is one of the largest non antarctic ice fields in the world. We had lunch at Dickson which is on a gorgeous lake with glaciers coming into it and mountains rising up all around it. From there we hiked through forest to get to los Perros. Along the way we passed right by a really sweet giant hanging glacier.
3/15 day 4. Hiked from Los Perros to Refugio Grey via Paso (pass) John Gardner (4000ish feet...remember we started at about sea level), Campamento Paso, and Campamento Los Guardias. Grey is where we met back up with the people doing the W. It was a beautiful and awesome day. Great view of the mountains from the pass and then incredible!!! views of giant Glacier Grey the whole day. The ice was just so gorgeous, and the glacier so huge. And you could see about 6 other glaciers running right into glacier grey. We walked about 10 miles along the glacier all the way to where it was calving off into giant Lago Grey. The whole time we were walking along on this cliff right above the glacier. Camping that night was right under these giant and spectacular granite spires
3/16 day 5
We started our day today walking in a steady rain all the way to where we had lunch at Paine Grande. After that the rain stopped in steadiness and we just got rain bursts with extremely high winds on the way to Campament Itiliano. A few minutes after leaving Paine Grande the weather cleared from the hard rain and the sky opened up a lot more and then all of a sudden through lit up clouds, the might Cuernos del Paine (horns of paine) broke through in front of us. What a spectacular sight! One of the more famous views of the park, and it just opened up right in front of us. The Cuernos are cool bc they are these giant grantie buttresses with a dark sedimentary rock cap on the top which gives them a unique coloring. The hike on this day took us past many, many lakes, including Lago Gray with all its icebergs floating around. We also walked along giant Lago Pahoe
3/17 day 6
Extra cold and night and woke up to some snow in the morning. Walked up the Valles Frances in the fresh snow for amazing, amazing views of giant granite towers and spires, including the Cerro Catedral. We had a 360 degree view of the towers and cuernos. And Tom and I were the only ones up there since the weather had been bad in the morning and no one had decided to go up. But it cleared for us when we got up to the viewpoints, and it was just unreal. There was also a giant mountain, Paine Grande, across the way w/ big hanging glaciers. It was cool to watch some ice avalanches fall down the mountain and hear them boom and reverbate throughout the tight valley. Once we got back to Italiano, I backtracked towards Gray for a bit of an hour since it was such a nice day and I wanted to see the famous view of the Cuernos with the lake in front in clear weather. Tom was feeling pretty exhausted so he moved on. After that I continued on to where we would campt at Refugio Cuernos which sat on a lake. Part of the trail went right alongside shimmering Lago Nordenskjold and was sandwiched between the lake and the towering Cuernos´.
3/18 Day 7
Walked from Cuernos back to Campemento Torres where we had spent the first night. The early part of the hike was spectacular bc the sunrise over the lake was unreal and in addition the sun lit up the glaciers on Paine Grande a nice shade of pink and lit up the Cuernos a fiery red. Tom was feeling tired and his knee was hurting so he wanted to go really slow and told me to go ahead. There were some ominous clouds ahead, and I really wanted to see the full Torres without them blocked by clouds, so I really busted through the route, doing in 4 hours what they say should take 7.5 hours. I hiked up to the mirador (viewpoint) and saw a really nice view, but one of the 3 towers still had its tip in the clouds. Then the clouds came in thick, so I walked back down to have lunch and wait for Tom. Later in the afternoon, the sky completely cleared to all blue, so I hiked back up and got the full view of this amazing view point. 3 giant granite spires, the towers, a glacial lake in front and a hanging glacier covering the rest of the cirque. I stayed up there for quite a while soaking it in and doing some reading and journaling. I finally started heading down when I got to cold, but ran into Tom, limping his way up, so I decided to join in and walk up once again (largely so that I could share my last of the 3 victory snickers I brought...one for here, one for the valles frances and one for the pass...all amazing views, all big climbs up.). So we watched the sunset from up there, which was very nice with the sun shedding a back light on the Torres. The view of these giant rock pinnacles with the lake and glacier and all of that, I will never forget.
3/19 Day 8
Went back up (without Tom bc he was hurting too much) to the Torres for a nice sunrise, lighting them up. I then hiked back down to the lodge at the start of the trek. From there you can pay a shuttle to take you to the park entrance, but since I had the time and energy, I hiked on the last 4 or 5 miles to the entrance. At this point Tom was exhausted and out of food, so I left him some cookies and at the shuttle stop and in the care of some Israeli girls who gave him a sandwich as well. This last part of the trek was through tree-less steppe and I saw a couple herds of guanacos (wild llama type things)
Back in Puerto Natales we had a big feast with wine and beer. I had been craving cheese tortellini and avacado sandwiches on fresh baked bread, so I had that. Tom ate an entire chicken of the kind you get pre cooked at supermarkets. That night we hung out at the bar attached to our hostel (remember, free pisco sours for those staying at the hostel!) and met some funny british girls who are all scared about their upcoming W trek.
Its pretty funny bc there are definitely a lot of people that head out for the W that have little camping experience and some have never even set up a tent. It´s also funny to see the groups that develop. There was one group doing the W that started the day we left made up of 3 Germans and a Brit (none of whom had camped) and they were all making jokes about how the germans were going to drive the poor brit into the ground, but he was going to call on the americans and aussies to save him. Patagonian weather can definitely be fierce and so there are definitely lots of people quite scared about doing the trek.
We definitely had our fair share of patagonian weather from heavy rain to snow to hail to crazy winds. Intense sun (this is one of the weakest ozone layers in the world over patagonia) and bitterly cold nights. But we were very lucky, we had really nice weather while hiking for the most part, saw all the views we had wanted to and never set up or took down our tent in the rain (something both Tom and I dreaded). We did take down a lot of wet tents bc it precipitated in some form or another every night except 1.
All in all we did the circuit in 7 days with 1 more day to redo part of it. We figured it out to be about 108 miles.
One of the other cool things about the trek is that you bond with the few other groups doing the circuit. There were 3 other groups more or less on our schedule: A three person group of very nice Frenchies, a 2 person group of fast-moving Austrians, and then 2 guys from Boulder who we were with for most of the trek, but they are 100 mile race runners and did the trek circuit in 5 days. They were funny bc they would only camp at the places that were paid campsites or refugios so that they could buy wine. They´d get really drunk, sleep in til noon, and then come rushing past all of us that had left at 8am later in the day. In the end, all they could think about was eating at El Asador, an argentine grill type place.
One of the other unique things about this park is that the water is perfectly safe to drink, so anytime you see a stream (and there are thousands with all the glaciers), you can just stop by and get an ice cold drink. Not many places left in the world where you can do that.
But WOW! what a spectacular trek. Such really unique mountains and stunning scenery.
Just a few notes about argentina and chile travel so far. Unlike Asia which is so dirt cheap, here you don´t get your own private bungalows or rooms, but you always stay in hostels. Also eating out is way too expensive so everyone cooks at night in the hostel and we all eat the free breakfast together in the morning. In this way, it´s more social than my travels through asia bc you share rooms with people (how I met Tom) instead of having your private place and you all cook and eat together instead of wondering around a town and eating street food or eating alone in a restaurant if you are by yourself. The cooking part is interesting bc it adds an extra challenge to things bc you have to shop most days in a super market or grocery store very unfamiliar to yourself, whilst on a budget, and likely buying for just one person for a day or two. Tom and I laught bc we are sort of uncreative, easy meal type guys. Sandwiches for lunch and then easy to make pasta with ready made sauces for dinner. Or rice or something. Whereas some of the girls, especially groups of girls, just go crazy and get all creative and make these wonderful dishes and meals (often some with touches from their own country...we had some very nice citrus type salad from Dutch girls today) of which they often can´t eat the whole thing and so we get to help out. Also, chile and argentina are very famous for their wines, and you can get a bottle for 2 to 3 bucks or a 2 liter box wine for the same price. So we often buy a bottle of wine to share and it´s really cheap, but really good still.
Tomorrow Tom and I are off to cross the border back into Argentina and head to El Chalten, home of the mighty and unique Fitz Roy mountain range. It´s quite nice to be travelling with someone. Tom has a music fest in LA coming up soon, so probably Chalten or maybe Calafate will be the last place we´ll hang out. But I have really enjoyed his sense of humor and positivity and stories and such while travelling with him.
3/14 day 3
We hiked from Seron to Dickson and then onto Campamento Perros. This was a big and long day. The suggested itinerary and what most people do is camp at Dickson and then go to Perros, but we decided to do two days in 1 bc the weather was very nice. At one point when we came over a little pass we had a gorgeous little rainbow and then stunning views of glaciated mountains with large glacial blue lakes at their base. cap which is one of the largest non antarctic ice fields in the world. We had lunch at Dickson which is on a gorgeous lake with glaciers coming into it and mountains rising up all around it. From there we hiked through forest to get to los Perros. Along the way we passed right by a really sweet giant hanging glacier.
3/15 day 4. Hiked from Los Perros to Refugio Grey via Paso (pass) John Gardner (4000ish feet...remember we started at about sea level), Campamento Paso, and Campamento Los Guardias. Grey is where we met back up with the people doing the W. It was a beautiful and awesome day. Great view of the mountains from the pass and then incredible!!! views of giant Glacier Grey the whole day. The ice was just so gorgeous, and the glacier so huge. And you could see about 6 other glaciers running right into glacier grey. We walked about 10 miles along the glacier all the way to where it was calving off into giant Lago Grey. The whole time we were walking along on this cliff right above the glacier. Camping that night was right under these giant and spectacular granite spires
3/16 day 5
We started our day today walking in a steady rain all the way to where we had lunch at Paine Grande. After that the rain stopped in steadiness and we just got rain bursts with extremely high winds on the way to Campament Itiliano. A few minutes after leaving Paine Grande the weather cleared from the hard rain and the sky opened up a lot more and then all of a sudden through lit up clouds, the might Cuernos del Paine (horns of paine) broke through in front of us. What a spectacular sight! One of the more famous views of the park, and it just opened up right in front of us. The Cuernos are cool bc they are these giant grantie buttresses with a dark sedimentary rock cap on the top which gives them a unique coloring. The hike on this day took us past many, many lakes, including Lago Gray with all its icebergs floating around. We also walked along giant Lago Pahoe
3/17 day 6
Extra cold and night and woke up to some snow in the morning. Walked up the Valles Frances in the fresh snow for amazing, amazing views of giant granite towers and spires, including the Cerro Catedral. We had a 360 degree view of the towers and cuernos. And Tom and I were the only ones up there since the weather had been bad in the morning and no one had decided to go up. But it cleared for us when we got up to the viewpoints, and it was just unreal. There was also a giant mountain, Paine Grande, across the way w/ big hanging glaciers. It was cool to watch some ice avalanches fall down the mountain and hear them boom and reverbate throughout the tight valley. Once we got back to Italiano, I backtracked towards Gray for a bit of an hour since it was such a nice day and I wanted to see the famous view of the Cuernos with the lake in front in clear weather. Tom was feeling pretty exhausted so he moved on. After that I continued on to where we would campt at Refugio Cuernos which sat on a lake. Part of the trail went right alongside shimmering Lago Nordenskjold and was sandwiched between the lake and the towering Cuernos´.
3/18 Day 7
Walked from Cuernos back to Campemento Torres where we had spent the first night. The early part of the hike was spectacular bc the sunrise over the lake was unreal and in addition the sun lit up the glaciers on Paine Grande a nice shade of pink and lit up the Cuernos a fiery red. Tom was feeling tired and his knee was hurting so he wanted to go really slow and told me to go ahead. There were some ominous clouds ahead, and I really wanted to see the full Torres without them blocked by clouds, so I really busted through the route, doing in 4 hours what they say should take 7.5 hours. I hiked up to the mirador (viewpoint) and saw a really nice view, but one of the 3 towers still had its tip in the clouds. Then the clouds came in thick, so I walked back down to have lunch and wait for Tom. Later in the afternoon, the sky completely cleared to all blue, so I hiked back up and got the full view of this amazing view point. 3 giant granite spires, the towers, a glacial lake in front and a hanging glacier covering the rest of the cirque. I stayed up there for quite a while soaking it in and doing some reading and journaling. I finally started heading down when I got to cold, but ran into Tom, limping his way up, so I decided to join in and walk up once again (largely so that I could share my last of the 3 victory snickers I brought...one for here, one for the valles frances and one for the pass...all amazing views, all big climbs up.). So we watched the sunset from up there, which was very nice with the sun shedding a back light on the Torres. The view of these giant rock pinnacles with the lake and glacier and all of that, I will never forget.
3/19 Day 8
Went back up (without Tom bc he was hurting too much) to the Torres for a nice sunrise, lighting them up. I then hiked back down to the lodge at the start of the trek. From there you can pay a shuttle to take you to the park entrance, but since I had the time and energy, I hiked on the last 4 or 5 miles to the entrance. At this point Tom was exhausted and out of food, so I left him some cookies and at the shuttle stop and in the care of some Israeli girls who gave him a sandwich as well. This last part of the trek was through tree-less steppe and I saw a couple herds of guanacos (wild llama type things)
Back in Puerto Natales we had a big feast with wine and beer. I had been craving cheese tortellini and avacado sandwiches on fresh baked bread, so I had that. Tom ate an entire chicken of the kind you get pre cooked at supermarkets. That night we hung out at the bar attached to our hostel (remember, free pisco sours for those staying at the hostel!) and met some funny british girls who are all scared about their upcoming W trek.
Its pretty funny bc there are definitely a lot of people that head out for the W that have little camping experience and some have never even set up a tent. It´s also funny to see the groups that develop. There was one group doing the W that started the day we left made up of 3 Germans and a Brit (none of whom had camped) and they were all making jokes about how the germans were going to drive the poor brit into the ground, but he was going to call on the americans and aussies to save him. Patagonian weather can definitely be fierce and so there are definitely lots of people quite scared about doing the trek.
We definitely had our fair share of patagonian weather from heavy rain to snow to hail to crazy winds. Intense sun (this is one of the weakest ozone layers in the world over patagonia) and bitterly cold nights. But we were very lucky, we had really nice weather while hiking for the most part, saw all the views we had wanted to and never set up or took down our tent in the rain (something both Tom and I dreaded). We did take down a lot of wet tents bc it precipitated in some form or another every night except 1.
All in all we did the circuit in 7 days with 1 more day to redo part of it. We figured it out to be about 108 miles.
One of the other cool things about the trek is that you bond with the few other groups doing the circuit. There were 3 other groups more or less on our schedule: A three person group of very nice Frenchies, a 2 person group of fast-moving Austrians, and then 2 guys from Boulder who we were with for most of the trek, but they are 100 mile race runners and did the trek circuit in 5 days. They were funny bc they would only camp at the places that were paid campsites or refugios so that they could buy wine. They´d get really drunk, sleep in til noon, and then come rushing past all of us that had left at 8am later in the day. In the end, all they could think about was eating at El Asador, an argentine grill type place.
One of the other unique things about this park is that the water is perfectly safe to drink, so anytime you see a stream (and there are thousands with all the glaciers), you can just stop by and get an ice cold drink. Not many places left in the world where you can do that.
But WOW! what a spectacular trek. Such really unique mountains and stunning scenery.
Just a few notes about argentina and chile travel so far. Unlike Asia which is so dirt cheap, here you don´t get your own private bungalows or rooms, but you always stay in hostels. Also eating out is way too expensive so everyone cooks at night in the hostel and we all eat the free breakfast together in the morning. In this way, it´s more social than my travels through asia bc you share rooms with people (how I met Tom) instead of having your private place and you all cook and eat together instead of wondering around a town and eating street food or eating alone in a restaurant if you are by yourself. The cooking part is interesting bc it adds an extra challenge to things bc you have to shop most days in a super market or grocery store very unfamiliar to yourself, whilst on a budget, and likely buying for just one person for a day or two. Tom and I laught bc we are sort of uncreative, easy meal type guys. Sandwiches for lunch and then easy to make pasta with ready made sauces for dinner. Or rice or something. Whereas some of the girls, especially groups of girls, just go crazy and get all creative and make these wonderful dishes and meals (often some with touches from their own country...we had some very nice citrus type salad from Dutch girls today) of which they often can´t eat the whole thing and so we get to help out. Also, chile and argentina are very famous for their wines, and you can get a bottle for 2 to 3 bucks or a 2 liter box wine for the same price. So we often buy a bottle of wine to share and it´s really cheap, but really good still.
Tomorrow Tom and I are off to cross the border back into Argentina and head to El Chalten, home of the mighty and unique Fitz Roy mountain range. It´s quite nice to be travelling with someone. Tom has a music fest in LA coming up soon, so probably Chalten or maybe Calafate will be the last place we´ll hang out. But I have really enjoyed his sense of humor and positivity and stories and such while travelling with him.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
3/9
Took the bus to puerto natales, which is a tiny town on in a fjord on the ocean with some distant views of snowcapped peaks. I met back up with Yu-shing, the taiwanese gal I met in PA, and we took a walk around town and down to the water. My hostel offered free pisco sours and cheap pizza night at their associated bar, so we went there, along with a few other people, including a new good friend Floor from Holland, from my hostel after we attended an informational meeting on the trekking in Torres Del Paine national park
3/10 Today was a day of preparing for my backpacking trip. Went to the supermarket for food and also bought a pot for cooking. We all went around shopping together (my friends are all either doing a shorter trek or staying in Refugios...places that have bunks and food), but I had the most to get. We met a fun american couple who work in Hollywood on the computerized portion of movies and with them we made pizzas and had a lot of fun. We then went back to our hostel bar and had some tacos which were very tasty.
3/11 Normally I would have left today bc I was all ready, but I had been trying to read the weather forecast and I figured today would be a bad day (it was, it rained all day!) so I stayed here. When to church in the morning and just did some last minute things and watched a movie with hostel friends and will just hang out some more later this evening I suppose. Thinking of carbo loading tonight bc it´s really hard to take enough food to really sustain on such a long hike, especially when going by myself and no one to share carrying the tent, stove, and water purifier, and such with.
Tomorrow I leave for the trek in Torres Del Paine. I am doing what is called the O or the circuit. It is supposed to take 8 days. It can probably be done in 7, but it may take longer if the pass closes to snow or if I want to stay and wait out bad weather for a view (so pray for good weather for me!). I am bringing enough food for 10 days (my back is going to be very heavy!) and there are also a few refugios once I get into the more heavily trafficed W part of the loop where I could buy food.
Took the bus to puerto natales, which is a tiny town on in a fjord on the ocean with some distant views of snowcapped peaks. I met back up with Yu-shing, the taiwanese gal I met in PA, and we took a walk around town and down to the water. My hostel offered free pisco sours and cheap pizza night at their associated bar, so we went there, along with a few other people, including a new good friend Floor from Holland, from my hostel after we attended an informational meeting on the trekking in Torres Del Paine national park
3/10 Today was a day of preparing for my backpacking trip. Went to the supermarket for food and also bought a pot for cooking. We all went around shopping together (my friends are all either doing a shorter trek or staying in Refugios...places that have bunks and food), but I had the most to get. We met a fun american couple who work in Hollywood on the computerized portion of movies and with them we made pizzas and had a lot of fun. We then went back to our hostel bar and had some tacos which were very tasty.
3/11 Normally I would have left today bc I was all ready, but I had been trying to read the weather forecast and I figured today would be a bad day (it was, it rained all day!) so I stayed here. When to church in the morning and just did some last minute things and watched a movie with hostel friends and will just hang out some more later this evening I suppose. Thinking of carbo loading tonight bc it´s really hard to take enough food to really sustain on such a long hike, especially when going by myself and no one to share carrying the tent, stove, and water purifier, and such with.
Tomorrow I leave for the trek in Torres Del Paine. I am doing what is called the O or the circuit. It is supposed to take 8 days. It can probably be done in 7, but it may take longer if the pass closes to snow or if I want to stay and wait out bad weather for a view (so pray for good weather for me!). I am bringing enough food for 10 days (my back is going to be very heavy!) and there are also a few refugios once I get into the more heavily trafficed W part of the loop where I could buy food.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
3.7
Took the bus from Ushuaia to Puntas Arenas, which involved a ferry crossing over the strait of Magellan and a border crossing into Chile. It was funny bc the bus was supposed to be 15 hours (took only 11 bc of quick border crossings and no ferry lines) but with no stops for food, so we were all told to bring lots of food. Then of course as we approach the Chile border they tell us they don´t let meat, dairy, fruit, veg, etc across the border, so it was this massive feast on board the bus to try and get everyones food finished. It was a hilarious scene.
Since we got in earlier than exptected, I had time to walk around Puntas Arenas a bit. The RV Palmer (the USAP´s research vessel that docked at mcmurdo for awhile) is stationed here so I got to see it, and it brough back a huge flood of memories! Oh how I miss Antaractica and the people involved!
I also got my hair cut which was an awesome and fun experience. A young girl cut it, and she couldn´t believe I was cutting my hair. She thought there must be something wrong with the translation. The talk during the cut was fun bc I could understand about 50 percent of what she said and could say only about 60 percent of what I wanted. So we did a lot of laughing and smiling. There was another woman there who came to join in the talk and laughter. They both just couldn´t believe I was cutting it, though I tried to explain it was for camping. They told me I was muy guapo (very handsome with it) and looked like James Bond. haha that is a funny one.
3.8
I had the whole morning free so I did some errands including buying a tent and stove. I decided it would be best and cheaper in the long run to have a tent, so I broke down and bought one bc some israelis here told me there was a cheap place with good quality. The tent and stove ended up costing me 150 bucks, which wasnt too bad. Patagonia has been about twice as expensive as I expected which is very rough on the budget. I think I will definitely have to shorten my trip if it stays like this. I was hoping to average 40 to 50 bucks per day but it has been more like 85 to 100. Hostels are 25 and I spend about 10 on food (boy am i going to lose weight), but its the national parks and bus fares and activities that are so very expensive. The last bus ride cost me 75 bucks. The equivalent in India or SE asia would be 10 for a fancy one 5 for a junker.
In the afternoon, I took a long ferry ride to Isla Magdaline which is home to a cool lighthouse and 150,000 penguins. This trip was actually fairly inexpensive bc it was on a big ferry, and it was totally worth it. It was so cool to walk on this small island just crawling with magellanic penguins. You just can´t possibly believe how many there are. Its like what you see on National Geographic. And as per usual, the penguins are so very cute and just funny going about their business.
Tomorrow I have a bus to Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for the Torres Del Paine treks.
Took the bus from Ushuaia to Puntas Arenas, which involved a ferry crossing over the strait of Magellan and a border crossing into Chile. It was funny bc the bus was supposed to be 15 hours (took only 11 bc of quick border crossings and no ferry lines) but with no stops for food, so we were all told to bring lots of food. Then of course as we approach the Chile border they tell us they don´t let meat, dairy, fruit, veg, etc across the border, so it was this massive feast on board the bus to try and get everyones food finished. It was a hilarious scene.
Since we got in earlier than exptected, I had time to walk around Puntas Arenas a bit. The RV Palmer (the USAP´s research vessel that docked at mcmurdo for awhile) is stationed here so I got to see it, and it brough back a huge flood of memories! Oh how I miss Antaractica and the people involved!
I also got my hair cut which was an awesome and fun experience. A young girl cut it, and she couldn´t believe I was cutting my hair. She thought there must be something wrong with the translation. The talk during the cut was fun bc I could understand about 50 percent of what she said and could say only about 60 percent of what I wanted. So we did a lot of laughing and smiling. There was another woman there who came to join in the talk and laughter. They both just couldn´t believe I was cutting it, though I tried to explain it was for camping. They told me I was muy guapo (very handsome with it) and looked like James Bond. haha that is a funny one.
3.8
I had the whole morning free so I did some errands including buying a tent and stove. I decided it would be best and cheaper in the long run to have a tent, so I broke down and bought one bc some israelis here told me there was a cheap place with good quality. The tent and stove ended up costing me 150 bucks, which wasnt too bad. Patagonia has been about twice as expensive as I expected which is very rough on the budget. I think I will definitely have to shorten my trip if it stays like this. I was hoping to average 40 to 50 bucks per day but it has been more like 85 to 100. Hostels are 25 and I spend about 10 on food (boy am i going to lose weight), but its the national parks and bus fares and activities that are so very expensive. The last bus ride cost me 75 bucks. The equivalent in India or SE asia would be 10 for a fancy one 5 for a junker.
In the afternoon, I took a long ferry ride to Isla Magdaline which is home to a cool lighthouse and 150,000 penguins. This trip was actually fairly inexpensive bc it was on a big ferry, and it was totally worth it. It was so cool to walk on this small island just crawling with magellanic penguins. You just can´t possibly believe how many there are. Its like what you see on National Geographic. And as per usual, the penguins are so very cute and just funny going about their business.
Tomorrow I have a bus to Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for the Torres Del Paine treks.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Penguinos
3-6
Had a relaxing morning of booking a bus ticket, booking my next hostel, and doing a bit of shopping, the post office, and organizing my bag that I got last night.
In the afternoon, I took a tour to Haberton Estancia (Haberton Ranch...Patagonia is famous for its ranches) which included a zodiac ride (the boat was named Skua..haha!) to an island full of penguins. The island has 6000 adult Magellan Penguins who have burrows in a rookery and also a bunch of Gentoo penguins. The bus ride out there (50ish km from Ushuaia) was of course gorgeous. The penguin island was really cool though b-c we got to walk on a 1km trail through all of the penguins. The penguins here are even less afraid of people than in Antarctica. It was neat to see them in their burrows and to see the couples (megellans breed for life) huddling up together in a penguin cuddle. It was fun to watch them jumping in and out of the water (with a mountain backdrop) and to see them jumping and diving through the water as they swam. You could get really really close, but the coolest part was just seeing a beach completely covered in penguins. Penguins are such funny little guys to watch.
At the ranch we toured a marine life museum which was actualy very informative and had lots of whale and seal skeletons. On the way back we stopped at the famous flag trees...trees with branches on only one side due to the high winds. To me, it actually hasn´t been that windy. They always say how windy Patagonia is and maybe I have been lucky. We have had some wind, but then again, maybe people from Patagonia haven´t been to Estes,.. we also definitely have flag trees, or just trees without branches period. But anyways, these trees were pretty cool bc they were much taller than our alpine trees and they did look like big waving flags.
Tomorrow I have a 15 hour bus ride to Punta Arenas, Chile, which is home to the USAP research vessel Palmer. I´ve been thinking about stowing away on it until next year! The ride will be beautiful I am sure and includes some ferry crossings to get off the island of Tierra Del Fuego.
Had a relaxing morning of booking a bus ticket, booking my next hostel, and doing a bit of shopping, the post office, and organizing my bag that I got last night.
In the afternoon, I took a tour to Haberton Estancia (Haberton Ranch...Patagonia is famous for its ranches) which included a zodiac ride (the boat was named Skua..haha!) to an island full of penguins. The island has 6000 adult Magellan Penguins who have burrows in a rookery and also a bunch of Gentoo penguins. The bus ride out there (50ish km from Ushuaia) was of course gorgeous. The penguin island was really cool though b-c we got to walk on a 1km trail through all of the penguins. The penguins here are even less afraid of people than in Antarctica. It was neat to see them in their burrows and to see the couples (megellans breed for life) huddling up together in a penguin cuddle. It was fun to watch them jumping in and out of the water (with a mountain backdrop) and to see them jumping and diving through the water as they swam. You could get really really close, but the coolest part was just seeing a beach completely covered in penguins. Penguins are such funny little guys to watch.
At the ranch we toured a marine life museum which was actualy very informative and had lots of whale and seal skeletons. On the way back we stopped at the famous flag trees...trees with branches on only one side due to the high winds. To me, it actually hasn´t been that windy. They always say how windy Patagonia is and maybe I have been lucky. We have had some wind, but then again, maybe people from Patagonia haven´t been to Estes,.. we also definitely have flag trees, or just trees without branches period. But anyways, these trees were pretty cool bc they were much taller than our alpine trees and they did look like big waving flags.
Tomorrow I have a 15 hour bus ride to Punta Arenas, Chile, which is home to the USAP research vessel Palmer. I´ve been thinking about stowing away on it until next year! The ride will be beautiful I am sure and includes some ferry crossings to get off the island of Tierra Del Fuego.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Tierra Del Fuego
3-5
Today I had planned to deal with baggage issues in the morning and then go for a boat ride in the morning. After I got my baggage issue sorted out (someone said they had sent it last night!) I went down to the pier, but the boat was all booked. I had planned the next day to go to Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego, but instead I decided to go today so I didn´t waste a day. I would have liked more time there (it was 230 but the time I got there), but sometimes you have to make do. I didn´t think the boat would be booked b-c it is sort of a swing season right now, but a big cruise ship came in so that must have done it, plus I couldn´t book easily the day before b-c everything was closed on Sunday.
So I took the shuttle out to the National Park and did a couple very nice hikes. One, the Costa Sendero (coast path) was 8km long and went along the rocky coast with gorgeous views of the mountains behind the strait. I then hiked to Lago Roca which was a pretty big lake and then I hiked along a river, checked out some beaver dams and ended at a beautiful bay that is the terminus of RT 3. Here is the sign for 17,000 something miles to Alaska. The vegetation in the park was quite unique with some unusual trees and some fall colors happening as well. There was a mountain I wanted to climb, but I just ran out of time to catch the shuttle back at 7. Oh well, there will be many mountains to climb here.
When I got back to Ushuaia I hoofed it back to the airport, picked up my bag!!! and then walked back to the hostel where I showed Lisa (from Japan) what Polenta is.
Today I had planned to deal with baggage issues in the morning and then go for a boat ride in the morning. After I got my baggage issue sorted out (someone said they had sent it last night!) I went down to the pier, but the boat was all booked. I had planned the next day to go to Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego, but instead I decided to go today so I didn´t waste a day. I would have liked more time there (it was 230 but the time I got there), but sometimes you have to make do. I didn´t think the boat would be booked b-c it is sort of a swing season right now, but a big cruise ship came in so that must have done it, plus I couldn´t book easily the day before b-c everything was closed on Sunday.
So I took the shuttle out to the National Park and did a couple very nice hikes. One, the Costa Sendero (coast path) was 8km long and went along the rocky coast with gorgeous views of the mountains behind the strait. I then hiked to Lago Roca which was a pretty big lake and then I hiked along a river, checked out some beaver dams and ended at a beautiful bay that is the terminus of RT 3. Here is the sign for 17,000 something miles to Alaska. The vegetation in the park was quite unique with some unusual trees and some fall colors happening as well. There was a mountain I wanted to climb, but I just ran out of time to catch the shuttle back at 7. Oh well, there will be many mountains to climb here.
When I got back to Ushuaia I hoofed it back to the airport, picked up my bag!!! and then walked back to the hostel where I showed Lisa (from Japan) what Polenta is.
El Fin De Mundo-The end of the world
2-3
Had a liesurely breakfast at my fancy hotel and then took a cab to the airport. I couldnt find Ximena, so I wrote her a thank you card to have someone give her b-c she had been very helpful. But she happened to be at the gate when I was boarding and she gave me a big hug and then a couple Argentine kisses. The argentine kisses are much more involved than the european kisses which are often just cheeks touching and a kissing sound. In argentina, they give you the full on kiss. You can imagine that special ted likes this!
The flight into Ushuaia was gorgeous. We had to circle around several times for some reason, so we got to keep flying over the snow-capped mountains. The landing strip is just one runway on a little spit of land on the beagle channel. When I exited the airport, I walked into town. One of the beauties of not having my big luggage was that it was easy to walk the 5km into town. Ushuaia is small so they didn´t have buses, and I wouldn´t pay a taxi for 5k or less. Turns out it was great I walked bc the views were spectacular. The area is supremely gorgeous. You had to walk on this isthmus to get to town with the ocean on both sides and tall, glaciated, steep, and very pointy mountains rising on all sides. One of the mountains was a mountain of dreams. It looked like that perfect mountain you see before watching a movie with one of the producing companies...but can´t remember which. It was just so cool to see snowcapped peaks rising right out of the ocean.
My hostel is very cute and nice. I met 3 american girls (one from CU) studying spanish in BA as well as Lisa (english name) and Japanese girl getting ready to sail to Antarctica on a cruise. The girls were so fascinated with Antarctica and that you can actually live there and that it is pretty normal really with bars and gyms, etc. The town is nice, with just one main road. Ushuaia is the jumping off point for cruises to Antarctica and there are lots of people walking around proudly with their antarctic patches and stuff. I am not a one-upper kind of person, but I have to admit I felt a bit of pride to see all these people who had paid a lot for a cruise to Antarctica thinking they were the coolest, since not many people do them, and to know inside that I had actually lived there! Just FYI b-c a few friends, mainly the Jovial Bison, had been wanting to do an Antarctic cruise. This time of year, which I think is towards the end of the time to go, I saw in the window signs for 10 day to 3 week cruises for 3000 to 3900 bucks. Don´t know what it includes or how good and didn´t want to ask for fear of being convinced to go since you know me and my live for snow, ice, mountains, and wildlife. These tours go to more of what I call the soft portion of Antarctica, the palmer peninsula and south georgia island. The scenery here is nicer, more icebergs, and much more wildlife than Mcmurdo and through channels with huge mountains, and I can imagine someday I will do one of these cruises if I never end up working at palmer. I think one of the best trips you can probably do
2-4 Woke up to pouring rain and still not luggage, and I was feeling a bit bad. Just hung out at the hostel with some folks and then decided to go for the hike to the glacier Martial after lunch b-c it had started to clear up a bit. It was still a bit drizzly and cloudy, and keep in mind I didn´t have my umbrella or rain jacket yet, but I couldn´t be kept in the hostel all day or I would go crazy considering the stress of the bag as well. It is 7km up to the chairlift of the ski area, and then from there I just hiked to the top of the ski hill instead of taking the chair. Going through the forest (not much forest bc tree line is so low down here) was nice bc it is beginning to be fall colors down here. As I continued up the mountain after I reached the top of the ski hill, the sky started to brighten, and all of a sudden the mountain and glacier in front of me opened up! It was gorgeous, and they had received quite a lot of new snow. I kept hiking and all of a sudden the mist below me, ascended quickly right through my elevation and then disappeared leaving a stunning view down towards Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. What a view! When I got to the glacier, a small one, maybe wider, but shorter than Andrew´s glacier in RMNP, but definitely thicker, I decided to keep going to the top of the mountain. I hiked a bit on a part of the glacier I knew was safe and then made it to a ridge, white with fresh snow, where I continued to the top of the peak. When I crested the peak, my jaw dropped. The view on the other side was amazing. Jagged peak after Jagged peak after Jagged peak, all with hanging glaciers clinging to their steep slopes. Of course on the other side was sunny Ushuaia and the beagle channel with mountains on the other side of the channel in Isla Navarino (Chile). This was the argentina of dreams with those amazing irradically pointy peaks! I had some fun glissading down the glacier and even with the late start made it back to Ushuaia town in time to buy some bread at the panaderia and make it to 8pm Sunday mass. I feel very blessed and lucky to have had the weather open up right as I got to the glacier b-c the views were just tremendous!
Ushuiaia is known as the end of the world b-c the southernmost road ends here. You cant (supposedly, but I guess they don´t know about the vans in mcmurdo) drive a car any farther south than here. This is where the road ends! A lot of bikers are here who have motorbiked from N. America down to here, traversing all of the americas. I met two guys from Colorado who had started in Denver to make it down here. From here, there is a sign (17,000km) to Alaska. One heck of a journey
3-5 Still calling and trying to deal with baggage issues, but will be taking a boat trip later this afternoon.
Had a liesurely breakfast at my fancy hotel and then took a cab to the airport. I couldnt find Ximena, so I wrote her a thank you card to have someone give her b-c she had been very helpful. But she happened to be at the gate when I was boarding and she gave me a big hug and then a couple Argentine kisses. The argentine kisses are much more involved than the european kisses which are often just cheeks touching and a kissing sound. In argentina, they give you the full on kiss. You can imagine that special ted likes this!
The flight into Ushuaia was gorgeous. We had to circle around several times for some reason, so we got to keep flying over the snow-capped mountains. The landing strip is just one runway on a little spit of land on the beagle channel. When I exited the airport, I walked into town. One of the beauties of not having my big luggage was that it was easy to walk the 5km into town. Ushuaia is small so they didn´t have buses, and I wouldn´t pay a taxi for 5k or less. Turns out it was great I walked bc the views were spectacular. The area is supremely gorgeous. You had to walk on this isthmus to get to town with the ocean on both sides and tall, glaciated, steep, and very pointy mountains rising on all sides. One of the mountains was a mountain of dreams. It looked like that perfect mountain you see before watching a movie with one of the producing companies...but can´t remember which. It was just so cool to see snowcapped peaks rising right out of the ocean.
My hostel is very cute and nice. I met 3 american girls (one from CU) studying spanish in BA as well as Lisa (english name) and Japanese girl getting ready to sail to Antarctica on a cruise. The girls were so fascinated with Antarctica and that you can actually live there and that it is pretty normal really with bars and gyms, etc. The town is nice, with just one main road. Ushuaia is the jumping off point for cruises to Antarctica and there are lots of people walking around proudly with their antarctic patches and stuff. I am not a one-upper kind of person, but I have to admit I felt a bit of pride to see all these people who had paid a lot for a cruise to Antarctica thinking they were the coolest, since not many people do them, and to know inside that I had actually lived there! Just FYI b-c a few friends, mainly the Jovial Bison, had been wanting to do an Antarctic cruise. This time of year, which I think is towards the end of the time to go, I saw in the window signs for 10 day to 3 week cruises for 3000 to 3900 bucks. Don´t know what it includes or how good and didn´t want to ask for fear of being convinced to go since you know me and my live for snow, ice, mountains, and wildlife. These tours go to more of what I call the soft portion of Antarctica, the palmer peninsula and south georgia island. The scenery here is nicer, more icebergs, and much more wildlife than Mcmurdo and through channels with huge mountains, and I can imagine someday I will do one of these cruises if I never end up working at palmer. I think one of the best trips you can probably do
2-4 Woke up to pouring rain and still not luggage, and I was feeling a bit bad. Just hung out at the hostel with some folks and then decided to go for the hike to the glacier Martial after lunch b-c it had started to clear up a bit. It was still a bit drizzly and cloudy, and keep in mind I didn´t have my umbrella or rain jacket yet, but I couldn´t be kept in the hostel all day or I would go crazy considering the stress of the bag as well. It is 7km up to the chairlift of the ski area, and then from there I just hiked to the top of the ski hill instead of taking the chair. Going through the forest (not much forest bc tree line is so low down here) was nice bc it is beginning to be fall colors down here. As I continued up the mountain after I reached the top of the ski hill, the sky started to brighten, and all of a sudden the mountain and glacier in front of me opened up! It was gorgeous, and they had received quite a lot of new snow. I kept hiking and all of a sudden the mist below me, ascended quickly right through my elevation and then disappeared leaving a stunning view down towards Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel. What a view! When I got to the glacier, a small one, maybe wider, but shorter than Andrew´s glacier in RMNP, but definitely thicker, I decided to keep going to the top of the mountain. I hiked a bit on a part of the glacier I knew was safe and then made it to a ridge, white with fresh snow, where I continued to the top of the peak. When I crested the peak, my jaw dropped. The view on the other side was amazing. Jagged peak after Jagged peak after Jagged peak, all with hanging glaciers clinging to their steep slopes. Of course on the other side was sunny Ushuaia and the beagle channel with mountains on the other side of the channel in Isla Navarino (Chile). This was the argentina of dreams with those amazing irradically pointy peaks! I had some fun glissading down the glacier and even with the late start made it back to Ushuaia town in time to buy some bread at the panaderia and make it to 8pm Sunday mass. I feel very blessed and lucky to have had the weather open up right as I got to the glacier b-c the views were just tremendous!
Ushuiaia is known as the end of the world b-c the southernmost road ends here. You cant (supposedly, but I guess they don´t know about the vans in mcmurdo) drive a car any farther south than here. This is where the road ends! A lot of bikers are here who have motorbiked from N. America down to here, traversing all of the americas. I met two guys from Colorado who had started in Denver to make it down here. From here, there is a sign (17,000km) to Alaska. One heck of a journey
3-5 Still calling and trying to deal with baggage issues, but will be taking a boat trip later this afternoon.
Friday, March 2, 2012
A travel nightmare: kicked off a plane, not allowed on another...and more!
2-29-12 Leap Day
Didn't have a chance to sleep last night b/c of getting in so late from CB and having to pack. I still left in a rush and wondering if I had everything. Drove down to Denver to catch the bus the DIA. Met with Chris Sherman at the airport as the mr sexy himself was connecting through Denver from Boise. It was awesome! to see him. After I said goodbye to Sherman, a nightmare ensued (which is not uncommon among the ladies that have to say goodbye for several months to sherman). When I checked into m gate for the passport check as this flight was going to Toronto, they said I couldn't get on bc I needed a visa for Argentina and they were also concerned since I didnt have a return flight and you are only allowed to stay in Argentina for 90 days. I convinced them that Americans don't need a visa for Argentina, we just have to pay a reciprocity fee on arrival, so they let me board the plane. Just as the plane was getting ready to be pulled from the gate, they rushed on board and pulled me hurriedly off the plane, much to the surprise of all the passengers on board who probably assumed I was some sort of security threat. It was pretty embarrassing. Bc it was a small express jet, I had checked in my carry-on at the gate to save room in the overhead compartment for others. When I got rushed off the plane, in the confusion, they only pulled off my big checked bag, not my carry-on. They didn't realize this until the flight was in the air--a huge break in international security regulation, by the way, to have a bag flying w/ out a person. They had pulled me off bc they said I needed a Brazilian visa since I had a connecting flight through Sao Paolo. It is true you need a visa for Brazil, but I was 99% sure I didn't need one bc I would not be leaving the airport. The guy at the gate who had pulled me off called in two supervisors bc I was a bit upset that I had been pulled off my plane for no reason, to me anyways. At first tey were all grumpy w/ me and upset that I didn't have a visa and hadn't done my research (I had). They said if I had made it to Brazil, I would have immediately been deported and United would have been fined 30,000 bucks. But I smiled, said I understood their concern, and was polite. Soon the two ladies were feeling bad for me and trying to figure out if I could go. In the meantime, I was freaking out inside that my trip was being canceled and felt like I could cry. Another gate agent, Sophia, was especially smart and helpful, and it was her quick research on the computer that originally got the two supervisors to being digging deeper in the first place. We spent several hours on their computers trying to understand all the jargon on their network about visas. Keep in mind at this point, I hadn't been asleep since 6am the previous night (a restless night night for zach and I on top of that as we kept waking up to see how much new snow had fallen), so I had been up for 34 straight hours. Their network seemed to indicated I needed a visa, but the Brazilian embassy website that Sophia was looking at indicated that didn't need one since I was connecting. But the supervisors had to go off what the United network said. But they said we could call the consulate, which secure). The problem, I thought; however, was in the wording. I wasn't "transferring", I was "connecting", in my mind. I knew about transfer visas from other countries that give you 3ish day to stay in their country befre you move on, and which is significantly cheaper than a normal visa. But I had trouble getting this across t the supervisors. At this point, I was exhausted and on the verge of tears, trying to get pity, and thinking that my plans were all ruined. On top of all that, my parents were out of the country for another 2 weeks. I had locked my keys in my car in Denver as mom would pick up the car w7 her spare keys when she returned, so I could even get into my car to go home. My carry-on, with all my important things (except my passport, thank God), was on a plane to Toronto, and I didn't even have my cellphone to make a call. I was eventually able to convince the supervisors that a connecting flight was different. They booked me on a later Air Canada flight to Toronto, washing their hands of me (they were United employees) and saying Air Canada could eal with this problem. They had tried hard, but were worried about their jobs, which I told them I understood. The Air Canada reps weren't in the terminal, so I had to leave security to go to check in. The agent their checked her computers and had no problems w/ me going. But I also didn't want to get deported from Brazil, so I asked for a 2nd opinion from a supervisor. Still no problem. So I spent the next couple of hours before my flight trying to figure out how get my carry-on back. People kept asking me to go to different people and parts of the airport from Air Canada to United to United Express/sky west, especially bc they were all shocked that I had a bag go internationally w/ out me--a major international security violation. Finally I got an answer that I would probably have to go through immigration and customs in Canada (as opposed to just connecting) to get that bag, a major problem since I only had 55 minutes between arrival of my flight and departure on my next one. As luck would have it, we were late getting to the gate, so I had 45 minutes to clear immigration (and its line), clear customs, find the united bag people, get my bag, go through security, and get to my gate at the far end of the airport. I ran past the connecting route (dang that would have been easy) and ran to and from all the places I had to go, out of breath. The united baggage people acted a bit clueless at first and said I just better get on the plane or I'd miss it. They said they would send it to my final destinations. I had this happen w/ a checked bag not meeting me in Morocco, and it took me 3 months to get that bag back, so I didn't like the idea as this bag had everything important to me in it. But then I spied it behind a counter. I grabbed it and sprinted to security. Got through and raced for probably 1/2 a mile to the far end of the terminal. I somehow got their 8 minutes before departure. Of course the plane was on mechanical delay and didn't board for another hour! I was sweaty, exhausted, dehydrated, and a nervous wreck when I got there. I relaxed a bit, but was still a tad bit worried about Brazil
3-1-12
Of course everything was super smooth in Sao Paolo. I didn't have to go through immigration (thus no visa) since I had a connecting int'l flight (as I had told the supervisors would be the case back in Denver). I just had the bad luck of getting that paranoid gate agent in Denver. Had it been the Air Canada group, it would have all been smooth. I had a really long layover in Sao Paolo and spent the time watching Glee that Cassa had put on my ipod in Antarctica. Got on my TAM airlines flight and headed for Buenos Aires.
3-2-12
My flight landed at 140am at the international, and I had until 445am to get to the domestic terminal across the city for my flight to Ushuaia. This time, also got uncomfortably close bc of course my checked in big bag wasn't there. I had worried this might happen. It took a while to wait for all the bags to come out to be sure that it wasn't there and then to fill out the necessary paperwork to have it taken to Ushuaia. When I got done with this, I knew time was close, so instead of my normal frugal self taking a public bus, I went for the more expensive mini van. I arrived at the airport about 7 minutes before bag check in would close for my flight, though of course I didn't have a check in bag, so it didn't matter as much. I walked confidently up to the LAN desk to get my ticket which I had booked on LAN.com back in January. The agent swiped my passport and then seemed to be having trouble. But I wasn't worried yet. They he called the supervisor over and before I knew it, they were saying I couldn't get on the plane. What??? I had clearly paid for this and had a ticket for this flight as my eticket showed. But apparently the ticket had been transferred to another passenger and it all had something to do about him being in Colombia or a LAN office in Colombia. I couldn't believe it! How do you just switch passengers on a ticket. I thought security issues made that illegal and if it were to happen, I feel like I should have at least got a confirmation email saying, hey, you were successful in giving your ticket to x.
Now the problem is that, the LAN people in Buenos Aires didn't really know what happened and whether it was my fault or theirs, so they couldn't just put me on another airlines flight to Ushuaia or so they told me. At this point I was incredulous. How could this be happening? I fricking had the ticket! And now the people here weren't being super helpful or doing much about it. I felt like they needed to do something about it. If I had been back home, I feel like they would have immediately booked me on another flight, even with a competing airline or booked me to a hotel until the next flight with their company. Instead, they gave me a phone card and said call reservations and see what you can figure out, and that they would try too. Well it was 5am and reservations wouldn't be open until 930. So I had to wait around in this domestic airport that really had no seating, which meant I just laid on the floor. I tried to be a little bit aggressive to get what I want, but I am not super good at that. This girl about my age, Gisela, came up to me and asked if everything was okay bc she had seen me pacing around and looking nervous and trying to talk to people. She said she was a big traveller, off to Korea next. She was Argentinian and said with Argentines, you really had to be aggressive so she marched right back up to the supervisor and got in quite the heated discussion, talking at a million miles an hour. I felt like it helped a bit, but then she had to hop on her plane.
Also keep in mind, that I hadn't gotten more than 3 hours of sleep since that last night with Zach as it is nearly impossible to do more than get a few cat naps on airplanes as they are always serving meals or calling something out over the intercom or whatever. So I was in a state of exhaustion I am sure, though I didn't feel it bc of all the adrenaline. I took the card to start making calls after 930. Luckily, I have been presently surprised by the Spanish I still remember bc it would have been impossible to navigate this card without it. I made lots of calls, getting nowhere bc the connections were so soft and it was hard to hear anyone and no one seemed to be able to help. Poor Ximena, the supervisor, kept getting pestered by me to see if she had found anything out. She hadn't. I eventually took a walk along the oceanfront/or is it a super wide river to clear my mind. I came back and made another call and got through with someone. She said she would contact me, via email being the only way, in 3 hours. After 3 hours (watching more glee) I checked back on the internet and found out indeed she had booked me for a flight for tomorrow. She said check back in a couple of hours for the free hotel and free taxi that I had requested. I checked back 3 hours later and didn't see anything. At this point it was 5pm and the work day was coming to an end, I was tired of being at the airport, and it was costing me 5 bucks for 3very half hour I used on the internet at the airport. I didn't see anything from her, but I saw Christopher D. Sherman, JD, MD, SexE, was on gchat. I had an American number for LAN and for the lady who had actually been emailing me. If there are any long-time blog members reading this, you will remember on my first asia trip it was indeed Sherms who was online at the crack of dawn (being that he was on the east coast) when I got bit by the rat and was able to call and wake up sweet sweet Jude so that mom knew what was going on and eventually realized I needed to bee-line it to Bangkok for a special shot. When I need help, I like to go to a Yale grad, but when I really NEED help, I liked to go for a College of Idaho strawberry mystique grad. I quickly told sherms my situation. I had 18 minutes left on my internet. He had the deal with that problem of trying to get a real person and then was put on hold. At 2 minutes left, I told him I would be kicked off soon, but asked him to see what he could do without me there. I waited a bit and then went back to the LAN counter and apparently the email to LAN or Sherman (but most likely Sherman) had worked his magic I now had a confirmed flight for tomorrow, I had a reservation at a fancy 4 star hotel in down town BA, and free taxi rides to and from there!!
My taxi driver was funny. He was overweight and probably 40. But he loved the ladies. What they say about Buenos Aires is true. Gorgeous ladies everywhere that definitely dress the part. The taxi driver couldn't believe I was all alone but told me it didn't matter if I had a girlfriend at home bc now I was in Argentina and that is far away and there are many pretty girls. I am pretty sure he gave me a special tour of the downtown area to show me his favorite places with ladies. He was funny bc he would slow down right by the girls and honk or whistle. The interesting thing is the girls weren't particularly upset by this and often smiled and waved. He showed me where all the best clubs would be (yea right, I was ready for a good nights sleep and I wasnt particularly wearing clubbing clothes and I didn't have a change of clothes with me). I had read in my travel guide that bc S. america is known a bit more for its crime and theft, on your first few days when you are jet legged, its best to not wonder around too much bc you are an easy target. I was wondering how easy of a target I would be after all my stuff, then again, my eyes after all this might have scared off a lot of people
I checked into the fancy, fancy hotel and took a nice shower and then hit the streets for a bit. BA is a busy and fancy city with a cool atmosphere around. I ran into a nice cathedral. There were 3 masses today (I have a feeling S. AMerica will be way different than Asia in finding churches) and one starting at 8pm, so I decided to go. It was apparent I needed some more prayer time. The church was full, but not as lively as Philippine masses (or longmont spanish ones for that matter).
After mass, I headed back to my hotel for the free dinner I was to get. A very tasty 4 course meal.
I am thankful to be where I am at the moment, but I still feel like I totally got screwed over by a couple airline companies. I feel like United/star alliance owes me something for kicking me off a flight, embarrassing me in front of all these people, causing me to stress, to nearly miss a flight, to have to fly an international leg without my carry-on (some people would have much needed meds or other things in their carry-on and couldn't be separated), and to lose a bag. For this kind of thing I would really expect a free flight or an upgrade to first class or at least a ticket to one of their lounges. I have gotten these things for much less before. And then I feel that LAN/one-world also owes me for screwing up majorly by allowing a ticket to be changed to another person and then when this did happen to have the person who had this thing committed against him, have to sit at a junky airport for nearly 15 hours and doing his own legwork. If I was more aggressive or just didn't feel that the most important thing is to get to Ushuaia, I would have demanded first class for tomorrow's flight. I may seem spoiled with this, but I did enough business travel to know what these airlines do for people with much much more minor inconveniences.
In the end, if you take the time that I was travelling from Crested Butte, I have been traveling for 75 hours, and I am still not in Ushuaia. And during that time I have not slept for more than a 3 hour stint, and I felt like constantly fighting to be able to get on a plane.
I was thinking if any of those single events, getting booted of a plane, losing a carry on to toronto, losing a checked bag, having a ticket problem and not being allowed to check in, had happend, it would most likely mean a really bad day and frustrating and super upsetting travel day. Yet somehow, they all managed to happen to me. Crazy! See you in Ushuaia...hopefully!
Didn't have a chance to sleep last night b/c of getting in so late from CB and having to pack. I still left in a rush and wondering if I had everything. Drove down to Denver to catch the bus the DIA. Met with Chris Sherman at the airport as the mr sexy himself was connecting through Denver from Boise. It was awesome! to see him. After I said goodbye to Sherman, a nightmare ensued (which is not uncommon among the ladies that have to say goodbye for several months to sherman). When I checked into m gate for the passport check as this flight was going to Toronto, they said I couldn't get on bc I needed a visa for Argentina and they were also concerned since I didnt have a return flight and you are only allowed to stay in Argentina for 90 days. I convinced them that Americans don't need a visa for Argentina, we just have to pay a reciprocity fee on arrival, so they let me board the plane. Just as the plane was getting ready to be pulled from the gate, they rushed on board and pulled me hurriedly off the plane, much to the surprise of all the passengers on board who probably assumed I was some sort of security threat. It was pretty embarrassing. Bc it was a small express jet, I had checked in my carry-on at the gate to save room in the overhead compartment for others. When I got rushed off the plane, in the confusion, they only pulled off my big checked bag, not my carry-on. They didn't realize this until the flight was in the air--a huge break in international security regulation, by the way, to have a bag flying w/ out a person. They had pulled me off bc they said I needed a Brazilian visa since I had a connecting flight through Sao Paolo. It is true you need a visa for Brazil, but I was 99% sure I didn't need one bc I would not be leaving the airport. The guy at the gate who had pulled me off called in two supervisors bc I was a bit upset that I had been pulled off my plane for no reason, to me anyways. At first tey were all grumpy w/ me and upset that I didn't have a visa and hadn't done my research (I had). They said if I had made it to Brazil, I would have immediately been deported and United would have been fined 30,000 bucks. But I smiled, said I understood their concern, and was polite. Soon the two ladies were feeling bad for me and trying to figure out if I could go. In the meantime, I was freaking out inside that my trip was being canceled and felt like I could cry. Another gate agent, Sophia, was especially smart and helpful, and it was her quick research on the computer that originally got the two supervisors to being digging deeper in the first place. We spent several hours on their computers trying to understand all the jargon on their network about visas. Keep in mind at this point, I hadn't been asleep since 6am the previous night (a restless night night for zach and I on top of that as we kept waking up to see how much new snow had fallen), so I had been up for 34 straight hours. Their network seemed to indicated I needed a visa, but the Brazilian embassy website that Sophia was looking at indicated that didn't need one since I was connecting. But the supervisors had to go off what the United network said. But they said we could call the consulate, which secure). The problem, I thought; however, was in the wording. I wasn't "transferring", I was "connecting", in my mind. I knew about transfer visas from other countries that give you 3ish day to stay in their country befre you move on, and which is significantly cheaper than a normal visa. But I had trouble getting this across t the supervisors. At this point, I was exhausted and on the verge of tears, trying to get pity, and thinking that my plans were all ruined. On top of all that, my parents were out of the country for another 2 weeks. I had locked my keys in my car in Denver as mom would pick up the car w7 her spare keys when she returned, so I could even get into my car to go home. My carry-on, with all my important things (except my passport, thank God), was on a plane to Toronto, and I didn't even have my cellphone to make a call. I was eventually able to convince the supervisors that a connecting flight was different. They booked me on a later Air Canada flight to Toronto, washing their hands of me (they were United employees) and saying Air Canada could eal with this problem. They had tried hard, but were worried about their jobs, which I told them I understood. The Air Canada reps weren't in the terminal, so I had to leave security to go to check in. The agent their checked her computers and had no problems w/ me going. But I also didn't want to get deported from Brazil, so I asked for a 2nd opinion from a supervisor. Still no problem. So I spent the next couple of hours before my flight trying to figure out how get my carry-on back. People kept asking me to go to different people and parts of the airport from Air Canada to United to United Express/sky west, especially bc they were all shocked that I had a bag go internationally w/ out me--a major international security violation. Finally I got an answer that I would probably have to go through immigration and customs in Canada (as opposed to just connecting) to get that bag, a major problem since I only had 55 minutes between arrival of my flight and departure on my next one. As luck would have it, we were late getting to the gate, so I had 45 minutes to clear immigration (and its line), clear customs, find the united bag people, get my bag, go through security, and get to my gate at the far end of the airport. I ran past the connecting route (dang that would have been easy) and ran to and from all the places I had to go, out of breath. The united baggage people acted a bit clueless at first and said I just better get on the plane or I'd miss it. They said they would send it to my final destinations. I had this happen w/ a checked bag not meeting me in Morocco, and it took me 3 months to get that bag back, so I didn't like the idea as this bag had everything important to me in it. But then I spied it behind a counter. I grabbed it and sprinted to security. Got through and raced for probably 1/2 a mile to the far end of the terminal. I somehow got their 8 minutes before departure. Of course the plane was on mechanical delay and didn't board for another hour! I was sweaty, exhausted, dehydrated, and a nervous wreck when I got there. I relaxed a bit, but was still a tad bit worried about Brazil
3-1-12
Of course everything was super smooth in Sao Paolo. I didn't have to go through immigration (thus no visa) since I had a connecting int'l flight (as I had told the supervisors would be the case back in Denver). I just had the bad luck of getting that paranoid gate agent in Denver. Had it been the Air Canada group, it would have all been smooth. I had a really long layover in Sao Paolo and spent the time watching Glee that Cassa had put on my ipod in Antarctica. Got on my TAM airlines flight and headed for Buenos Aires.
3-2-12
My flight landed at 140am at the international, and I had until 445am to get to the domestic terminal across the city for my flight to Ushuaia. This time, also got uncomfortably close bc of course my checked in big bag wasn't there. I had worried this might happen. It took a while to wait for all the bags to come out to be sure that it wasn't there and then to fill out the necessary paperwork to have it taken to Ushuaia. When I got done with this, I knew time was close, so instead of my normal frugal self taking a public bus, I went for the more expensive mini van. I arrived at the airport about 7 minutes before bag check in would close for my flight, though of course I didn't have a check in bag, so it didn't matter as much. I walked confidently up to the LAN desk to get my ticket which I had booked on LAN.com back in January. The agent swiped my passport and then seemed to be having trouble. But I wasn't worried yet. They he called the supervisor over and before I knew it, they were saying I couldn't get on the plane. What??? I had clearly paid for this and had a ticket for this flight as my eticket showed. But apparently the ticket had been transferred to another passenger and it all had something to do about him being in Colombia or a LAN office in Colombia. I couldn't believe it! How do you just switch passengers on a ticket. I thought security issues made that illegal and if it were to happen, I feel like I should have at least got a confirmation email saying, hey, you were successful in giving your ticket to x.
Now the problem is that, the LAN people in Buenos Aires didn't really know what happened and whether it was my fault or theirs, so they couldn't just put me on another airlines flight to Ushuaia or so they told me. At this point I was incredulous. How could this be happening? I fricking had the ticket! And now the people here weren't being super helpful or doing much about it. I felt like they needed to do something about it. If I had been back home, I feel like they would have immediately booked me on another flight, even with a competing airline or booked me to a hotel until the next flight with their company. Instead, they gave me a phone card and said call reservations and see what you can figure out, and that they would try too. Well it was 5am and reservations wouldn't be open until 930. So I had to wait around in this domestic airport that really had no seating, which meant I just laid on the floor. I tried to be a little bit aggressive to get what I want, but I am not super good at that. This girl about my age, Gisela, came up to me and asked if everything was okay bc she had seen me pacing around and looking nervous and trying to talk to people. She said she was a big traveller, off to Korea next. She was Argentinian and said with Argentines, you really had to be aggressive so she marched right back up to the supervisor and got in quite the heated discussion, talking at a million miles an hour. I felt like it helped a bit, but then she had to hop on her plane.
Also keep in mind, that I hadn't gotten more than 3 hours of sleep since that last night with Zach as it is nearly impossible to do more than get a few cat naps on airplanes as they are always serving meals or calling something out over the intercom or whatever. So I was in a state of exhaustion I am sure, though I didn't feel it bc of all the adrenaline. I took the card to start making calls after 930. Luckily, I have been presently surprised by the Spanish I still remember bc it would have been impossible to navigate this card without it. I made lots of calls, getting nowhere bc the connections were so soft and it was hard to hear anyone and no one seemed to be able to help. Poor Ximena, the supervisor, kept getting pestered by me to see if she had found anything out. She hadn't. I eventually took a walk along the oceanfront/or is it a super wide river to clear my mind. I came back and made another call and got through with someone. She said she would contact me, via email being the only way, in 3 hours. After 3 hours (watching more glee) I checked back on the internet and found out indeed she had booked me for a flight for tomorrow. She said check back in a couple of hours for the free hotel and free taxi that I had requested. I checked back 3 hours later and didn't see anything. At this point it was 5pm and the work day was coming to an end, I was tired of being at the airport, and it was costing me 5 bucks for 3very half hour I used on the internet at the airport. I didn't see anything from her, but I saw Christopher D. Sherman, JD, MD, SexE, was on gchat. I had an American number for LAN and for the lady who had actually been emailing me. If there are any long-time blog members reading this, you will remember on my first asia trip it was indeed Sherms who was online at the crack of dawn (being that he was on the east coast) when I got bit by the rat and was able to call and wake up sweet sweet Jude so that mom knew what was going on and eventually realized I needed to bee-line it to Bangkok for a special shot. When I need help, I like to go to a Yale grad, but when I really NEED help, I liked to go for a College of Idaho strawberry mystique grad. I quickly told sherms my situation. I had 18 minutes left on my internet. He had the deal with that problem of trying to get a real person and then was put on hold. At 2 minutes left, I told him I would be kicked off soon, but asked him to see what he could do without me there. I waited a bit and then went back to the LAN counter and apparently the email to LAN or Sherman (but most likely Sherman) had worked his magic I now had a confirmed flight for tomorrow, I had a reservation at a fancy 4 star hotel in down town BA, and free taxi rides to and from there!!
My taxi driver was funny. He was overweight and probably 40. But he loved the ladies. What they say about Buenos Aires is true. Gorgeous ladies everywhere that definitely dress the part. The taxi driver couldn't believe I was all alone but told me it didn't matter if I had a girlfriend at home bc now I was in Argentina and that is far away and there are many pretty girls. I am pretty sure he gave me a special tour of the downtown area to show me his favorite places with ladies. He was funny bc he would slow down right by the girls and honk or whistle. The interesting thing is the girls weren't particularly upset by this and often smiled and waved. He showed me where all the best clubs would be (yea right, I was ready for a good nights sleep and I wasnt particularly wearing clubbing clothes and I didn't have a change of clothes with me). I had read in my travel guide that bc S. america is known a bit more for its crime and theft, on your first few days when you are jet legged, its best to not wonder around too much bc you are an easy target. I was wondering how easy of a target I would be after all my stuff, then again, my eyes after all this might have scared off a lot of people
I checked into the fancy, fancy hotel and took a nice shower and then hit the streets for a bit. BA is a busy and fancy city with a cool atmosphere around. I ran into a nice cathedral. There were 3 masses today (I have a feeling S. AMerica will be way different than Asia in finding churches) and one starting at 8pm, so I decided to go. It was apparent I needed some more prayer time. The church was full, but not as lively as Philippine masses (or longmont spanish ones for that matter).
After mass, I headed back to my hotel for the free dinner I was to get. A very tasty 4 course meal.
I am thankful to be where I am at the moment, but I still feel like I totally got screwed over by a couple airline companies. I feel like United/star alliance owes me something for kicking me off a flight, embarrassing me in front of all these people, causing me to stress, to nearly miss a flight, to have to fly an international leg without my carry-on (some people would have much needed meds or other things in their carry-on and couldn't be separated), and to lose a bag. For this kind of thing I would really expect a free flight or an upgrade to first class or at least a ticket to one of their lounges. I have gotten these things for much less before. And then I feel that LAN/one-world also owes me for screwing up majorly by allowing a ticket to be changed to another person and then when this did happen to have the person who had this thing committed against him, have to sit at a junky airport for nearly 15 hours and doing his own legwork. If I was more aggressive or just didn't feel that the most important thing is to get to Ushuaia, I would have demanded first class for tomorrow's flight. I may seem spoiled with this, but I did enough business travel to know what these airlines do for people with much much more minor inconveniences.
In the end, if you take the time that I was travelling from Crested Butte, I have been traveling for 75 hours, and I am still not in Ushuaia. And during that time I have not slept for more than a 3 hour stint, and I felt like constantly fighting to be able to get on a plane.
I was thinking if any of those single events, getting booted of a plane, losing a carry on to toronto, losing a checked bag, having a ticket problem and not being allowed to check in, had happend, it would most likely mean a really bad day and frustrating and super upsetting travel day. Yet somehow, they all managed to happen to me. Crazy! See you in Ushuaia...hopefully!
Powder SnowCat skiing with bro in the Butte
2-25-12
Drove to Crested Butte to see the bro. Got in late, around 130am, but he was there waiting for me
2-26
Zach took me on an alpine ski tour into the Crested Butte backcountry. The weather and views were gorgeous and the powder pretty decent considering the majorly huge wind event they'd had the day before. You could tell I had just come back from Antarctica, b/c I was sweating up a storm all day while bro was feeling cold. I think we thought the temps were about 5F.
2-27
Skied a day at Crested Butte Resort, which was fun. CB has a lot of good steep stuff, and it was Zach's first time riding chairlifts this year. After skiing bro took me out to happy hour sushi as he had a gift certificate. We mowed down 50 bucks at half off worth of sushi.
I had originally planned to leave this night so I would have a whole day to pack and prepare for my trip to S. America; however, the promise of a huge storm and a free cat skiing trip kept me there one more night
2-28
The storm hit as promised dropping down a foot of soft fluffy white stuff (with lots more still coming as I left crested butte). Skied the whole day at Irwin on the luxury snowcat tour run by the Irwin snowcat company with the 12" of fresh powder. It's a really fancy operation w/ fancy snowcats (including satellite radio and flat screen tvs, a cool little yurt used as a base camp which included great food, lots of drinks, including alcoholic ones. There were 8 of us skiing plus 3 guides, one of which was Zach. They gave us these custom fat powder skis which were just amazing in the powder. The powder and another day of skiing with the bro was truly amazing.
I left at 7 from Crested Butte and had to drive through the nasty storm, sometimes with zero viz on the passes. The storm lasted all the way to Golden. Lots of cars in the ditch (this is when I am always glad I own a suby) and some pretty bad accidents near Buena Vista. B/c of the storm, I didn't get home until 230 am. I had to pack, clean up the house, water mom's plants, and so some other travel preparations
Drove to Crested Butte to see the bro. Got in late, around 130am, but he was there waiting for me
2-26
Zach took me on an alpine ski tour into the Crested Butte backcountry. The weather and views were gorgeous and the powder pretty decent considering the majorly huge wind event they'd had the day before. You could tell I had just come back from Antarctica, b/c I was sweating up a storm all day while bro was feeling cold. I think we thought the temps were about 5F.
2-27
Skied a day at Crested Butte Resort, which was fun. CB has a lot of good steep stuff, and it was Zach's first time riding chairlifts this year. After skiing bro took me out to happy hour sushi as he had a gift certificate. We mowed down 50 bucks at half off worth of sushi.
I had originally planned to leave this night so I would have a whole day to pack and prepare for my trip to S. America; however, the promise of a huge storm and a free cat skiing trip kept me there one more night
2-28
The storm hit as promised dropping down a foot of soft fluffy white stuff (with lots more still coming as I left crested butte). Skied the whole day at Irwin on the luxury snowcat tour run by the Irwin snowcat company with the 12" of fresh powder. It's a really fancy operation w/ fancy snowcats (including satellite radio and flat screen tvs, a cool little yurt used as a base camp which included great food, lots of drinks, including alcoholic ones. There were 8 of us skiing plus 3 guides, one of which was Zach. They gave us these custom fat powder skis which were just amazing in the powder. The powder and another day of skiing with the bro was truly amazing.
I left at 7 from Crested Butte and had to drive through the nasty storm, sometimes with zero viz on the passes. The storm lasted all the way to Golden. Lots of cars in the ditch (this is when I am always glad I own a suby) and some pretty bad accidents near Buena Vista. B/c of the storm, I didn't get home until 230 am. I had to pack, clean up the house, water mom's plants, and so some other travel preparations
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