Hey! I´m average height again!

        Crossing the border into Bolivia from Argentina was like crossing into another dimension. We were spoiled by the developed nations of Chile and Argentina where the buses were nice, cities well-kept, streets paved, and water potable. Nonetheless, it felt a little like home returning to the 3rd world, welcomed by the familiar Andina culture, tasty street empanadas, and where being on time is irrelevant. Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America. We sure felt the reality of it on our freezing cold and bumpy bus ride from the border to Uyuni. I didn´t expect it to be so cold. I felt colder in the high desert winter in Uyuni than I did in the snowy winter in the Patagonia! I also noticed up in the high desert, around 4,000 m, that I had lost my Cusco lungs during my travels. I could really feel the difference in my breathing and sharpness in chest back in high altitude.

       Uyuni sits in the high desert of Bolivia. This desert is encircled by the Andes where the mountain chain splits and then reconnects. On the other side of the western mountains lies the Atacama desert of Chile. The mean natural feature that draws tens of thousands of tourists here is the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flat in the world. The salt flat alone, not including the desert in which it is situated, is roughly the size of the Netherlands.

      We booked a 3-day tour to go to the salt flat and see the desert sites through Red Planet for 1200 bolivianos. It was the most expensive tour company, but the most legit and reliable. I was a little hesitant about spending over US $100 for a tour, since we hadn´t spent that much on tours since we left Peru. It was well worth the money, as we were well taken care of and our guides and drivers knew what they were doing.

      The first thing we did on this tour was visit the train graveyard on the outskirts of town. Why? The first rail station in Bolivia was built in Uyuni. Why? Uyuni is surrounded by many mines: salt, gold, silver, copper, lithium. Foreign investors, who basically owned these mines, including the Bolivian president at the time (who was Spanish) decided to invest their money together to build the rail in order to transport the products of the mines more efficiently instead of using llamas and mules. It was a big deal for the country back in the early 1900s.

 

       One of the main reasons why Bolivia is so poor is because it is a landlocked country. Bolivia lost the coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific. Bolivians are still very bitter about this. Understandable. It´s not like Chile needed that northern bit of coast. The whole country of Chile IS coastline. In order to export its products, Bolivia has to cross the Chilean border and pay taxes there, then export off the Chilean coast where they pay more taxes.

       Recently, Bolivia has developed a close relationship with Venezuela because the current Bolivian president, Evo Morales, was close friends to the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. They were both socialistas and believers in creating a United South America. Today, to export goods Bolivia goes through Venezuela without taxes. Free trade. The U.S. government has its eye in Bolivian president Evo Morales because of his close relationship with the late Hugo Chavez.

      After checking out the skeletons of these retired trains, we drove to a small town, Colchani, where we learned about mining and processing salt. The salt miners (men) collect the salt from the Salar de Uyuni and bring it to town to be processed indoors (usually by women) where they dry and heat the salt to dehydrate it, then filter and grind this sal de gema (rock salt) and add iodine. Finally it is packaged. Mining salt is really hard on the body. If it can cause so much eroding damage to metals and cars, just imagine what it does to the human body. Our drivers were very meticulous about driving the cars through the salar. If the water is high (during rainy season) they cover the bottom of the cars and the engine with plastic tarp to protect them from salt damage. Even still, their Landcruisers are still replaced about every 5 years.

 

The final step: packaging the salt

       Next, we drove into the famous Salar de Uyuni. The salar is very thin around its edges, so the towns have built roads through these parts to access the salt flat. It is solid in its center. If you don´t find these roads to enter/exit the Salar, you risk sinking into the salty water and destroying your vehicle. The Salar lies over an ancient ¨extinct¨lake. 40,000 years ago it was a massive pre-historic, gaseous lake. The Pacific tectonic plate crashed under the South American plate, pushing up this volcanic and seismically active area into what is now the Andes, creating its high elevations, also causing lots of volcanic explosions encircling the area. The strength of the Andean sun caused the water to evaporate from this prehistoric lake and leave a thick salt crust. This ancient lake still exists deep under the Salar. It is 140m deep.The Salar is solid salt, though.

 

Piles of salt (sal de gema) for collecting

 

Hexagons

      The relationship between the expansion of frozen water during the freezing nights here and the evaporation of water under the daylight sun leaves behind a hexagonal lattice of salt on the flat. Like a white, flat beehive. The flats are so bright white you have to wear sunglasses. This is where we took our funny perspective photos.

 

 Evolution from a Pringles can

       In the middle of the Salar we went to one of the 32 islands, called Incahuasi, or as I remembered it, cactus island. The cacti on this island are ancient. They only grow 1 cm per year! The tall ones, therefore, are thousands of years old. We hiked around the short circuit trail of this island. At 4,000 m elevation I was huffing and puffing. How embarrassing. I didn´t expect to lose my Cusco lungs so soon. I guess I won´t be running a marathon when I get home after all.

 

Isla Incahuasi

      That night we arrived at our hotel. It was made of Salt! The bottom of the building was made of rocks (so that it wouldn´t disintegrate when it rained lol), but above the base of rocks, the rest of the building was made of salt bricks. All the furniture inside was also made of salt! Tables, chairs, beds (obviously not the mattresses)!

 

Salt hotel room

       After dinner, one of our guides gave us an interesting history/cultural lesson about Bolivia. He started by making fun of the early tourists who first came to the Salar de Uyuni with their high expectations from a 3rd world country that didn´t have any comforts from home to offer them. Tourism has grown exponentially in Uyuni and the tourist facilities have improved. The tourism is helping the small towns around the salar, too. Many tourists who go to Peru to do Machu Picchu also swing by Bolivia to see the salt flats. That´s a lot of tourists.

       Bolivia is rich with natural resources such as minerals, rainforest, and even OIL! In fact, gasoline prices in Bolivia are cheaper than anywhere else in South America because it has its own oil reserves and one refinery. Why the heck is Bolivia still a 3rd world country then? It has OIL for crying out loud! As previously  noted, Bolivia is landlocked, so that´s a problem. Secondly, Bolivia has experienced numerous dictatorships. The last one was during the late 1970s-1980s during the ¨Dirty War¨, aka the U.S. CIA´s Operation Condor. The president (Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada) before current President Evo Morales was put into power through the support of the U.S. government. The Bolivian people overthrew and threatened to kill former President Lozada, and he is currently under refuge in the U.S. President Evo Morales was elected in 2007. He was an unlikely candidate because he was a coca farmer, he did not have any higher education, and he had been previously imprisoned. Despite all odds, he has turned this country around.

      Evo Morales is a socialist and the majority, especially the indigenous and the farmers, love him. Morales returned Bolivia to the hands of the people, its native people. By law there is no segregation between the classes. Big Cholita dress, or small dress, everyone has the right to go where they want. (Big Cholita dress, or native dress, was considered low class). Morales created a taxation system to fund education and health care for everyone, young and old, when there was no taxation in place before. He has turned Bolivia into a nationalistic country with the goal and efforts of being self-sufficient and sustainable. For example, Bolivia has oil. Oil is power (literally and figuratively). Enough at least to sustain itself. Another example is the mines only hire locals to work. La Paz has been transformed from a dirty poor city to a beautiful, clean, and business-flowing capital city. The question is: HOW did Morales find the money to do any of these things? What is the other side of the story? Where is the hidden corruption? Money doesn´t grow on trees.

      Morales was a coca farmer. He is currently the head of the Coca Farmers Association. It´s quite clear where his interests and support lie. He was previously imprisoned for trying to protect the coca farmers during Lozada´s presidency. Bolivia is infamous for its cocaine production (mind you, coca itself is NOT a drug. Coca is a widely used traditional plant and you need kilograms upon kilograms of coca leaves to make 1 gram of cocaine). I can only speculate that perhaps the money funneling into the government to support all of these social works is coming from cocaine. That´s just my guess. I don´t actually know. If this is the case, it raises the question: do the ends justify the means? In my opinion for Bolivia, my first impression is yes. The country and the people are so much better off than before.

      Like the other countries I have visited, Bolivia´s political system is modeled after that of the United States. The 2 political parties are the Socialistas and Sin Miedo (the conservative party). Next year is a re-election year and is supposed to be the end of Morales´s 2nd 4-year term.  Apparently he has recently succeeded in changing the number of presidential terms, so he can run for presidency again. Will this turn into a dictatorship-like presidency? We´ll see. However, the Sin Miedo campaigns have been on the rise, as the few wealthy people and other working groups (miners and other non-coca farmers) feel like they have been neglected by Morales. It will be an interesting election year.

      Back to our desert tour: we woke up on day 2 bright and early to questionable weather conditions that would determine where we could go and what we would see.

 

A semi-active volcano in the distance

 

 

One of the flamingo lagunas

 

Flamingos up close. Their down feathers underneath their big feathers keep

them insulated and able to live in the freezing conditions of the desert. Their

food is readily available. They eat the pink algae in the mud under the water.

That's what makes them so pink.

Arbol de Piedra (the Rock Tree)

 The highest elevation we reached: 4,800 m. Dry gusty wind

and snow. I was freezing and my lungs were hurting

walking around up here!

 Day 3 we saw more geological formations in the desert:

 

"The Lost City"

Valle de Piedras (Rock Valley)

 

The Canyon

Travel tips:
Red Planet tours for 3-day trip to Salar de Uyuni and desert
Hostal Piedra Blanca: book in advanced. 40-something bolivianos per night for dorm
Bus from Uyuni to La Paz: Omar bus 100 bolivianos

Cataratas Iguazu

        I was sad to leave Buenos Aires, but excited to see one of the 7 natural wonders of the world: Iguazu Falls (Cataratas Iguazu). We took a 15ish hour overnight bus ride to Puerto Iguazu. We still had some good travel karma with us and got our bus seats upgraded for free to the bus equivalent of first-class. We had seats that reclined all the way down to 180 degrees, hot dinner, AND wine, beer, or champagne to wash the meal down with! We even had personal TV screens and a pillow & blanket. It was great. The best unexpected bus experience I've ever had, and trust me I've had a lot of those.

       As for Iguazu Falls, words can't even begin to describe. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Even the pictures don't do them justice.

 

La Garganta del Diablo

(The Devil's Throat)

 

 

 The widest shot I could get on my little camera. 

Isla San Martin between the falls

       The best part of the day was doing the Aventura Nautica. We got to ride a boat and see the falls up close and personal. We were practically right under them. It was so cool, but we couldn't see a thing. So much water! Needless to say we were drenched. No, drenched was an understatement.

Travel tips:
- Cheaper to book bus to Puerto Iguazu, or anywhere in Argentina, day of. You might even get a free upgrade if those seats are available.
- Hostel: Marco Polo Inn (Hostelling International) 70 pesos per night 6 bed dorm.
- Parque Iguazu entrance 170 pesos. Aventura Nautical 110 pesos. Important tip: strip to just your bathing suit for the boat ride.

It Takes Two to Tango

FYI: I´ve been a couple cities behind in my blogging. Luckily, I have time to play catch up right now.

      From El Calafate we FLEW to Buenos Aires. So nice after being on a 28 hour bus. We got lucky and bought our flights for $160 each while we were in Bariloche, just a few days before take-off. Buenos Aires was a lively, colorful, tango-filled whirlwind. We stayed 4 whole days there. That´s a record for us since we´ve been traveling so fast. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, just in time to check out the Sunday antique markets in San Telmo. San Telmo is one of the oldest barrios in Buenos Aires. It is a very historical neighborhood, known for its antique shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars. This is where our hostel was.

One of the first buildings we saw upon arriving: the Catedral. It´s under construction

so what you see is actually a screen. Realistic, no? 

This catedral is where the new Pope used to call home.

     Our first goal was to change our American dollars into Argentinian pesos to get the ¨blue dollar rate¨. I mentioned this in my previous post while we were in Mendoza, although I think I misunderstood what it meant. The ¨blue dollar rate¨is what the Argentinian peso is actually worth in dollars. The Argentinian peso has recently experienced 30% inflation and its value is ridiculously unstable. The government has put a limit on how much it can be exchanged for. At all the official money exchange houses, the rate is about 5.2 pesos per US dollar. The ¨blue dollar rate¨, however, is at least 7 pesos per US dollar. We had no problems in Mendoza or Bariloche exchanging our dollars for pesos under the ¨blue dollar rate¨at the official money exchange houses. However, in Buenos Aires, that was not the case. The exchange houses offered us 5.08 pesos per dollar! This is how our money exchanging little adventure started. After doing some research online and asking fellow hostellers how they got the blue dollar rate, we learned that the only way to get our money´s worth was to change our money from the street exchangers at Calle Florida. We were told that these exchangers shouldn´t change our money right there on the street, but are supposed to take you inside to their hidden office to change the money. If that doesn´t sound sketchy, I don´t know what does. The reason why they´re so secretive about changing the money is because it´s an underground business. It´s silly because they blatantly exchange at the blue dollar rate at proper exchange houses in other Argentinian cities. The other silly thing about this whole operation is that Calle Florida is a really nice commercial street lined with banks, high-end shopping stores, and official exchange houses. These street exchangers yell, ¨dolares, dolares, dolares, cambia dolares!¨, right next to the police officers standing at the street corners. So we picked a dude, one that didn´t look too young or too ridiculous, and followed him into a building (out of sight from the police) to an office fronting as a tour agency. Upon entering the office, there were a few locals in line to buy dollars. The reason behind this ¨blue dollar rate¨ secret exchange is that Argentinians buy dollars because it´s a much more stable currency than their pesos. That way, they don´t lose the value of the money they earn and save. For example, in order to buy real estate property in Buenos Aires, you have to pay in US dollars. The inflation is so bad that a couple weeks ago while we were in Mendoza, the blue dollar rate jumped up from 7:$1 to 9.2: $1. Anyways, we got a decent rate for our dollars, 8.2: $1.

      One of the things we were really looking forward to in Buenos Aires was to do another walking tour. We´re such history/culture nerds. We did a tour through Buenos Aires Free Tours on Monday morning of downtown B.A. We had a small group of 7, which was nice because I got to ask our guide, and co-founder of the company, as many questions as I wanted. We started at the Congreso, where the senators and congressmen work. The Argentinian political system, like Chile´s, is modeled after the United States´. 3 branches of checks and balances, 2 term presidencies with 4 year terms. The giant, black front doors of the Congreso are only opened one day per year in March when the president enters to work with the Congress to pass legislation. The current president is Cristina Kirchner. She is a socialist, part of the Peronista party. There are two main political parties: the Perónistas are the socialists, named for former President Perón (Evita´s husband) who was ousted during Argentina´s military coup in 1978; the other party is the Radicales, which I think is kind of an ironic name because they´re the conservative party. 

El Congreso

      Argentinian politics is very complicated and like most countries has its own corruption. Since Buenos Aires has always been a wealthy city, most of the ¨Porteños¨(citizens of Buenos Aires, named so because of the ports) are politically conservative. The majority of Argentina is poor and most of these people will never see Buenos Aires. It was really interesting to see the political/cultural history through the eyes of the conservatives (our guide was a Porteño), as opposed to through the eyes of the young socialist activists like our guides in Santiago, Chile. President Cristina Kirchner has bipartisan approval ratings. The poor love her. She has done a lot to serve the people, like any good socialist would. However, the conservatives, especially in B.A. don´t like her because the economy is out of whack. Hence, the instability of the peso. It´s a fine line to walk in order to balance social service and the budget. 

Plaza de Mayo

      Then we walked to the Plaza de Mayo (pronounced ¨Masho¨. Argentinians pronounce the ¨ll¨or ¨ya¨sound like ¨sh¨, which is very confusing) and the Casa Rosada. La Casa Rosada is the equivalent to the White House, except it´s pink and the president doesn´t actually live there. La Casa Rosada is where the president works Mon-Fri. She actually lives farther away and comes to work via helicopter. Ridiculous, much? Plaza de Mayo is pretty much dedicated in memory of los Disparacidos (the young men and women who ¨disappeared¨) during the  military dictatorship, 1978-1983. Another military dictatorship sponsored by the United States´CIA during Operation Condor. Everyday for the last 30 years, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo march around the plaza in their white head scarves to remind people about their lost children and to never forget about Argentina´s dirty past. The original objective of Las Madres was to find their children who had disappeared. Their bodies were never returned, so they can´t really find closure and continue to be tortured by the hope that their children will return. 30,000 Argentinos suspected of being against the dictatorship or socialists were detained, tortured in concentration camps, and then killed. Many were killed by the ¨Flying Death¨, where they would be taken by plane and dumped into the ocean alive for them to die by impact or drowning. Others were killed and buried in mass graves. Today, however, the public support of Las Madres has decreased these mothers are now politically affiliated with whichever party gives them financial support. Now Las Madres has a political agenda in addition to remembering and finding los Disparacidos. 

La Casa Rosada from the Plaza de Mayo

      A sub-group of Las Madres are Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Their sole objective is to find their lost grandchildren. During the dictatorship, the pregnant women who were detained were killed after giving birth. The soldiers didn´t know what to do with the babies, so they either sold them, put them up for adoption at proper adoption agencies, gave them away, or adopted the babies themselves. Las Abuelas advertise: If you were adopted between 1973-1980´s or were born during that time and are questioning your biological lineage, come to us and take a DNA test; You might be our lost grandchild. Las Abuelas have found 107 of their lost grandchildren. The most recent one was discovered last week. The worst part is that she discovered that her adoptive parents had killed her biological parents during the dictatorship. Everyday Las Madres and Las Abuelas march together at 3pm at the Plaza de Mayo in memory of los Disparacidos, then part ways like they don´t know each other. 

Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo head scarves graffiti

     Then we walked to Avenida 9 de Julio, the ¨widest street in the world¨! ...Not. That statistic has not been updated. Culturally, Argentinians love to boast the ¨-est in the World!¨, which explains why I´ve been running  into a lot of the ¨(blank) best in the World¨! Currently, the widest street in the world is in Brasilia, Brasil. From this street you can see the mural of Evita, a funny house built on the roof of a high rise building (the only single-home in central B.A.), and the Obelisk. Rio de Janeiro has the Christ the Redeemer, the U.S. has the Statue of Liberty, and Buenos Aires has the Obelisk. On AIDS awareness day, the city covered the phallic obelisk with the largest condom in the world! Haha.

The Obelisk at Avenida 9 Julio

Funny house on the rooftop

Mural of Evita and some public displays of affection (very common in South America)

      So what´s up with streets and plazas named for the months of May and July? In May, many South American countried declared their independence from Spain. In Buenos Aires, the people marched to what is now the Plaza de Mayo to oust the Spanish viceroy and then elected nine presidents to rule. Then there was the war against Spain. These same South American countries have one man in common for their victories: General Jose San Martin. The Spanish Armada were coming in from the north via the Caribbean. General San Martin wanted to follow a surprise strategy by crossing the Andes and attacking the Spanish from the north in Colombia where they would least expect them. The people in Buenos Aires thought this was a crazy idea and didn´t support him. So Gen. San Martin went to Mendoza where they did support him. San Martin and his soldiers crossed the Andes into Chile, then Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia where he helped rally all of their troops against Spain. At last, Gen. San Martin surprise-attacked Spain and won Argentina´s freedom on 9 de Julio. I think the war against Spain lasted for 7 years. 

General José San Martin

      The evening ¨Aristocratic Tour¨through Buenos Aires Free Tours was more of a look into Buenos Aires´ culture. We walked around the wealthier neighborhoods of Recoleta and Retiro. Back in its hey day, Buenos Aires was a super wealthy city. It´s still called the ¨Paris of South America.¨There were no monarchies like in Europe, but Buenos Aires did have several wealthy, aristocratic families who built huge palaces as their homes. These families made their wealth off of the estancias (ranches) they owned outside the city, or the port as merchants, or by owning big businesses. There used to be 108 palaces. Unfortunately, most of them were torn down to expand the city infrastructure. A few still stand today, but are now used as official government or embassy buildings, or as hotels. Back in its day, B.A. was so rich that it imported building materials from France to build the city buildings because French architecture (during la Belle Epoque) was in style. Hence, Buenos Aires looks like such a European city because, construction-wise, it is. 

One of Buenos Aires´palaces. Now a fancy hotel.

     An interesting fact about current culture: Buenos Aires provides the most and the cheapest plastic surgeries. In fact, if you have private health insurance here, you get a free plastic surgery every two years! The wealthy are vain enough to get their plastic surgery, but not buy extravagant cars. You don´t see lamborghini´s or ferrari´s here because that kind of display of wealth is considered tacky. Such an interesting sense of humility. 

      The Porteños come from a mix of Spanish and Italian descent. That´s why they look so European and speak Spanish with an Italian flare. There was a mass immigration of Europeans to Buenos Aires before the World War because they knew things were looking for the worse in their mother-countries in Europe. I also learned what ¨Ché¨means. I heard it all over Argentina. ¨Ché¨ is the equivalent to ¨Oyé¨ in Peru, or ¨Hey!¨ in English. 

      Finally, we ended the tour at Cementerio Recoleta where many prominent figures are buried, most famously, Evita Perón. Evita was the illegitimate child of some important Porteño named Duarte. She grew up poor outside the city. When she decided she wanted to become and actress, she moved to Buenos Aires as a young adult. Here she met her husband and future president Perón. As first lady, Argentina adored Evita. She was beautiful, charming and compassionate. Evita did a lot to help the poor because she was one of them. Sadly she died of cancer at a young age. Her funeral lasted for 2 weeks in Buenos Aires. Her body was embalmed and her casket publicly dispayed. Argeninians from all over the country came to Buenos Aires to see her. 

Evita´s grave at Cemeterio Recoleta

        Then we learned about the infamous, horribly creepy story about Evita´s body. For some reason her body wasn´t buried right away. It was stolen by the man who had embalmed her. He was obsessively in love with Evita. He was a freak, really. He kept her body in his house and talked to her, watched TV with her, eat dinner with her, and sleep with her body! Eventually her body was found and the military took her body back. Things just got worse. These soldiers mutilated and raped her body. Eventually her body was shipped to Italy where her widowed husband, Perón, and his third wife were living. At last her body was safe. The Argentinians loved Evita so much that a group of them uprised, kidnapped the president at the time and demanded for Evita´s body. They gave the president a life or death ultimatum for her body´s return. Since Evita´s body was in Italy, the president couldn´t give them her body, so they killed the president! Qué loco! When Perón passed away, his wife didn´t know what to do with Evita´s body, so she shipped her back to Buenos Aires where here father, Duarte, finally claimed her (after becoming a prominent figure, of course) and buried her under the Duarte family mosoleum in Cemeterio Recoleta. 

       Neither of these tours talked that much about the military dictatorship. A lot of the information I received about the dictatorship was solely from visiting the Plaza de Mayo and the questions I asked. I don´t even know who led the coup or how it happened. All I know is that the military dictatorship fizzled out and ended with the loss of the Malvinas (aka Faulkland Islands) against the British. Elections were held after losing the war over the Malvinas and the Argentinians voted against the military dictatorship. The end. Besides las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, it didn´t seem like Argentina keeps the memory of this ugly past alive, unlike in Chile where the Chilenos own their ugly history and continue to remember their past so it is not repeated.

     On to more fun things: there is so much cool stuff to see and do in Buenos Aires. We didn´t even get to see all of its most popular neighborhoods! It´s a good thing we had such a limited amount of time to spend there because just those 4 days pretty much drained my bank account. Ugh. On Monday night we went to this awesome drum show called ¨La Bomba¨at the Konex. La Bomba is on every Monday night and entrance is only 60 pesos (under $8). So many percussionists, such lively beats, and such liberating rhythms. The drummers looked like they were having so much fun and they looked so free. The beat was contagious and you couldn´t help but dance through the whole show. 

La Bomba

      On Tuesday night we went to a Milonga. There are two ways to do tango. You can either pay a lot of money for a fancy dinner and professional tango show. Or you can go to a local Milonga, which is essentially a dance club/resto-bar with a dance floor. We opted for a Milonga at a local place in San Telmo. The group of us from our hostel pretty much got our own private tango dance lesson. It was awesome. We learned the basic 8 steps and a couple nifty moves. Tango is definitely different fom anything I have ever danced before. I danced a lot of salsa in Cusco, and tango is a lot slower and really sensual. Neither of which I am good at being, haha. After our dance lesson, acoustic guitar players and singers performed. Right when I was thinking about how Peru seemed more like a ¨spicy¨ latino country than Argentina, and especially compared to Chile, the singers started singing. So much passion. They sang from deep within their souls. It was amazing. This is how I came to believe my tour guides when they said that Argentinians are very passionate people. 

With our tango instructors at the Milonga

        On Wednesday we went to the port barrio of La Boca (the mouth). I really enjoyed how colorful this neighborhood is. El Caminato de la Boca (the walkway) is lined with cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating and stages for watching tango dancers. At lunch we got to sit right in front of the stage. First, an acoustic guitar duo were playing. Again, so much passion as they played, no felt, their songs. Then a couple professional tango dancers performed. The way they expressed the tango was so enchanting. After their dance, they invited us to take photos with them. I was practically pushed on stage first to take my photo with the male dancer. Then he asked me, ¨Quiere una foto o quiere bailar?¨(Do you want a photo or do you want to dance?) I was surprised at the question and kind of just stuttered. So he made the decision for me: ¨Pienso que quiere bailar¨ (I think you want to dance), and he started the music. Haha, so there I was dancing tango on stage in Buenos Aires. So much fun! Obviously this man is a professional so he was a very good leader. I just had to relax and follow. The steps I learned at our tango lesson the night before were pretty much useless because he kept twirling and turning me. It was all I could do to keep up! That was definitely my favorite part of my Buenos Aires experience.

La Boca

Our lunch time tango show

Impromptu tango performance, haha

      After all the ladies in our group got to dance tango on stage at this restaurant, Mallory and I went to La Bombonera. The stadium home to the Boca Juniors futból club. The home club of one of the best futból players of all time, Diego Maradona. We went through its museum and took a tour of the stadium. La Bombonera is a perfect example of the passion Argentinians have. In fact, the museum is named ¨Museo de la Pasion Boquense¨ (Museum of the Boca Passion). It was a really well-done museum. It was cute to see the little boys there with their dads. You could see the absolute joy on their faces, their dads´ too! For them it was like going to Disneyland... but way better. Their dreams, their heroes, were in this museum, play or played in this stadium. The other way I can explain the passion of the Porteños in La Boca for their beloved futból team is by relating it to Portland, Oregon and its Trailblazers... to the power of 10. Although we couldn´t see a futból match there, I´m glad we got to see La Bombonera and la Pasion!

Statue of the legendary Diego Maradona

Inside el Museo de la Pasion Boquense

La Bombonera stadium

Locker room throne

Locker room showers ;-P

      After all this time we had already spent in Argentina, we still hadn´t eaten Argentinian steak. So on our last night in Buenos Aires, we went out and split a butterfly steak, accompanied with some good Argentinian Malbec wine at a local restaurant recommended to us by locals and our hostel reception called, Desnivel. It was a really good cut of meat. Honestly, though I thought it was a little bland. Probably just because my American taste buds were longing for more salt. Nonetheless, it was of excellent quality. 

      Next time I come back to South America, I definitely want to come back to Buenos Aires, with a little more time on my hands and a little more money in my pocket. There is tango to be danced, steak to be eaten, and wine to be drunk. What a great city. 

Travel tips: (I forgot about this my last posts. Oops.)

Hostal America del Sur (in El Calafate and Buenos Aires)- 70-85 pesos per night 4 bed dorm with 10% Get South discount

La Bomba- 60 pesos entrance Mondays at 8pm at the Konex

Desnivel Argentinean steak restaurant: our butterfly steak with potatoes cost 140 pesos, good enough to fill two people, half bottle of Malbec 38 pesos

La Bombonera stadium tour and museum entrace 60 pesos

Must go to Sunday Markets on Calle Defense in San Telmo

Must go to el Caminato in La Boca

Ice, Ice, Baby

      From Chiloé, we crossed into Argentina to Bariloche. Bariloche is located in the Argentinian lake district, situated within Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, on the shore of Lake Nahuel Huapi. This town is the tourist hub for the Patagonia. I have been really excited to go to Bariloche, but because of our awkward timing with the weather, I was a little disappointed to not be able to hike around the lakes and mountains. It was the end of Autumn while we were there. The worst kind of Autumn weather: cold and rainy. I think to be able to really enjoy all that Bariloche has to offer, the weather either needs to be clear or snow. Clear enough to hike and enjoy the lakes, or snow in order to ski. We still managed to enjoy ourselves. How could you not when there´s chocolate to be eaten and Argentinian wine to be drunk? The best thing about downtown Bariloche is that it is lined with chocolate factories.

      One day we decided that we would brave the weather and hike up Cerro Campanaria and then rent bicycles to ride the short circuit around a couple small lakes, rain or shine. No more wasting time indoors. Cerro Campanaria is known for its beautiful 360 degree view of the lakes. National Geographic even rated the vista as the best view in the world. (I feel like I keep coming across things ranked as ¨best in the WORLD¨). Hiking up was alright. It was only sprinkling and we had good tree coverage. When we reached the top and stood at the vista point of the Best View in the World, we saw... fog. So anti-climactic. Then the light rain up there started to feel more like light snow. It was cold. We gave up on our bicycle plans as we didn´t want to be miserable bicycling through snow-like rain and the cold. We managed to console ourselves with the best hot chocolate I have ever had at one of the chocolate factories downtown. I think the chocolate alone made up for our poor weather in Bariloche.

So much fog

      Next, we took the longest bus ride we have ever taken (28 hours!) to El Calafate. I´m talking deep into the Patagonia. Snow everywhere! Our hostel looked like a cabin and even had heated floors. Ironically enough, the coldest place we went to was the warmest I had felt indoors because our hostel was so cozy. The highlight of El Calafate is the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and of course, the glacier, Perito Moreno. We arrived just in time to book the last day of the season to do the ¨mini-trek¨of Perito Moreno. We bussed to the national park, took a ferry across the Brazo Rico of Lago Argentina, and hiked through a little bit of forest, strapped on some crampons, and climbed onto this incredible glacier and hiked like a group of penguins in single-file behind our guide.

We love crampons

       The Perito Moreno glacier is so blue. Everything else seemed gray that morning, except the glacier. I don´t understand how it is so blue. The Patagonia ice field is the 3rd largest ice field in the world, behind the Arctic ice field in Greenland, and the Antarctic ice field in Antarctica. Perito Moreno is the third largest glacier in the Patagonia ice field. It is certainly the most accessible. Perito Moreno is a very unique glacier. First of all, unlike the majority of glaciers in the world that are receding, Perito Moreno is stable. The rate at which it is melting is the same rate at which it is growing. Every year it grows towards the Magellan Peninsula, creating a dam in the Rico Brazo of Lago Argentino. The water erosion creates a tunnel in this dam. As the weather gets warmer, the phenomenon called, the rupture, occurs and this natural bridge of ice collapses, leaving a giant block of ice at the tip of the peninsula. This block of ice is so big that it doesn´t melt all the way. The one standing there today was from the rupture last season. The center of the glacier is 700 meters thick. The edge on which we were hiking is 200 meters thick.

Where the glacier dam ruptured at the tip of the Magellan Peninsula

     There were a couple pleasant surprises during our ¨Mini-trek¨. First of all, it was our guide´s last day of work so he was especially happy and goofy that day. The first surprise was getting to drink fresh glacier water out of a water hole in the glacier. He said the water in that little hole was 45 meters deep. As the surface of the glacier melts the water collects in all the nooks and crannies, or crevices, within the glacier. These crevices, most noticeably the surface ones, are created because of the uneven growth of the glacier. Towards the lake the glacier grows at 2 meters per week while towards the peninsula it grows at 20 cm per week. So, the glacier cracks. Anyways, the water that fills up the spaces creates a network of interglacier rivers! The water was delicious, btw. The second surprise was getting to slide down a slope of the glacier. It was really carved out like a slide, with snow at the bottom to stop us. It was vital to keep your feet up so that your crampons wouldn´t get caught and break your ankles. For the third surprise, our guide picked one of us to be the leader (he chose me), and said just follow the trail, we´ll meet you up at the top of this rise for a surprise, and don´t forget to lead in Spanish, too. We walked the trail for not even 5 minutes, haha, and at the top there was a table with glasses and a couple bottles of scotch whiskey and a basket of alfajores (amazing shortbread cookie sandwiches with dulce de leche in the middle, covered in chocolate). My job as leader was over after I passed out the alfajores, lol. The guides used their ice picks to chop up some glacier ice to put in our glasses of scotch. I can´t say I like scotch, but it warmed us up, and it wasn´t as bad with the chocolatey alfajor to chase it with.

Scotch on the rocks, glacier rocks.

     After the trek, we got back on the ferry where we got to take photos up closer to the glacier. Then we went to the balconies where you could see the south and north faces of the glacier. From the ferry we could only see the south face. I have never taken so many pictures of one place in my life. I took 155 photos. That´s a record for me.

More chunks of ice from the ¨rupcion¨, and the north face of the glacier.

It´s a big glacier

So BLUE!

    Mission accomplished: we reached the south of South America! We decided to cut Ushuaia (aka ¨the End of the World¨) out of our route because winter that close to antarctica is too cold to try to bus through or for us to hang out in, not to mention the money we´ll save. Adios, Patagonia! Next time, I´m definitely going to explore the Patagonia during summer.