Sorry, but I won't be able to update my blog for awhile. I'm going on a trek for 8 days in the Torres del Paine national park in Chile, so I'll be completely away from civilization. I'll have a lot of work ahead of me when I return, but that's ok with me. I'll catch you all later.

January 9, 2006
Day 103

Madsen's House

This was mostly a day of planning. Jenny and I wanted to go on a trek near town, but we weren't quite sure where to go. We decided on a route that would take us to some lakes in the national park here, camp overnight, and walk over to another sight that I was promised would be impressive on the second day before heading back into town. After we decided where to go, we spent most of the day figuring out where to rent the gear we needed and buying food.

This afternoon, we took a short trip to the house of Andreas Madsen, the first pioneer to settle near El Chalten early in the 20th century. To get there, we had to cross the river near town in a cable car that was retrofitted over the remaining structure of the bridge that collapsed there a few years ago. After walking for about half an hour, we saw the house. Our enthusiastic guide explained the entire history of the house, including how Madsen went there to farm sheep and how he built it out of scraps that a government-run company had discarded. He also explained the history of the Madsen family, including the wife that waited for him to return to their native Denmark for over a decade before marrying him, their son who died in a car accident, and their other son who committed suicide at 17 over a lost love. Finally, our guide revealed that he in fact owned the house, was restoring it himself, and was also living there! The whole time I was there, I had thought that I was on an organized tour run by a big company, but this guy was just trying to raise some money to fix up the house. He was obviously very passionate about his job.

Before the tour ended, we walked around the Madsen house. Nearby was the graveyard, where everyone in the family was buried except the daughter, who is still alive in Buenos Aires. Next, we walked up the hill behind the house, which gave us a great view of the area, including Cerro Fitz Roy, the famous mountain nearby, and the town of El Chalten. At first, I wasn't sure if paying money to see an old house would be worthwhile, but the fact that I helped an historical landmark get restored made me feel good about my decision.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 8, 2006
Day 102

There has been a change of plans. There isn't a bus that goes to Ushuaia for four days, and neither Jenny, who I've been traveling with for the last week or so, nor myself feel like sitting around town until then. Rio Gallegos is a world away from home. It's a city of about 100,000 people, it's cold, windy, desolate, and there's absolutely nothing to do there. Actually, now that I think about it, it's exactly like Rochester, Minnesota, which was my home before going on this trip! It's definitely a great place to leave.

This afternoon, Jenny and I took a bus to El Calafate, which is near the Perito Moreno Glacier, an attraction that everyone raves about. Still, as luck would have it, a bus was going to El Chalten, a few hours north, as soon as we got to El Calafate. We decided that it would be better to go to El Chalten first, and backtrack later. The bad news is that we had to spend nine hours on buses during the day today.

The guidebooks will tell you that El Chalten is a remote frontier town, but I can already tell that that is changing. Although it is at least fifty miles from the nearest paved road, big hotels and trendy restaurants are everywhere, and with all of the construction around, more are going to start popping up soon. They even have Internet access here now, but it is only via satellite, so it's slow and very expensive. I imagine that five years from now, there will be McDonald's and Starbucks all over the place. The town is overrun with tourists, although most of them are Argentines because January is the biggest month for people all over the country to go on vacation. Maybe this town isn't quite so touristy the other eleven months out of the year, but I won't be here to find out.

January 7, 2006
Day 101

A clown struts his stuff.

Last night, we took an overnight bus to Rio Gallegos. There isn't much to do here. It sits almost at the bottom of mainland South America, and our plan was to stay here for a day before moving on to Tierra del Fuego. That plan was thwarted, however, when we learned that no buses would go there for the next four days. Not wanting to sit around this sleepy town, we will instead go northwest to El Calafate tomorrow. Flexibility is essential when traveling to Patagonia, the last section of Earth to be colonized by humans.

Luckily for Jenny and I, the circus was in town this weekend, giving us something to do. We walked over to the large tent that was set up for the "Circo del Sol" around 9:30 PM. By the time the circus started at 10:30, it was barely dark, and I felt a chill that I hadn't felt since I was in the mountain town of Sajama, Bolivia. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Would they have elephants, lions, and trapeze artists like the circuses of the States, or would there be guys dressed in gorilla suits juggling tennis balls like the street performers of Latin America?

The first people to perform were in fact jugglers. They were much better than street jugglers, but they were still throwing and catching bowling pins for entertainment. They impressed me with their grand finale, however, when they juggled flaming swords. When I saw them throw fire back and forth, I wished I had brought my knife to make a quick getaway from the tent in case of a screw up.

To break up the action, a few clowns performed. "They got the most laughs," Jenny later told me. I laughed and told her, "What did you expect? They're clowns." Even though they only spoke Spanish, I got a kick out of the clowns' antics.

Later, an animal trainer came out. When I saw that he had cats instead of lions, I thought it was a joke. In fact, cats were his entire act. He spun one around on a wheel, made one walk over some pegs, and he was done. When you put a cat on a large wheel and spin it around, of course it's going to run to avoid falling. You don't need to be an animal trainer to know that.

The next few acts were much more impressive. There was the guy who threw knives at his partner who was spinning on a wheel, the woman who was suspended from a cable around man's neck high up in the air holding on for dear life with her mouth, and the monkey. Hey, monkeys are always funny.

The show ended with a typical act: people riding around a small metal cage on motorcycles. Even though I had seen it before, I thought it was the best act of the night. How they could ride around so fast without hitting each other was beyond me.

The circus in Patagonia may not have been the same high-quality production that is put on in the United States nowadays, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Indeed, a few of the performers were just one step above begging for money at street intersections, but most of the people I saw were very talented and athletic. I was lucky that such a good show happened to be in town that night, because I'm confident that there wasn't much else to do here in Rio Gallegos.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 6, 2006
Day 100

A penguin walking on the beach.

The honeymoon is over. At least that's what they say when a new president has been in office for 100 days. Now that I've hit the century mark in my travels, is it time for me to stop having fun and start doing some hard work? Of course not! I'm going to keep moving and enjoy ever day as if it were my first.

Puerto Deseado is known for its large amount of sea life. Although there aren't many tourists in town, several companies operate boat tours to see the area animals. This afternoon, Jenny and I went on one of these tours, hoping to see penguins, sea lions, dolphins, and whatever other cute little wildlife we could get our eyes on.

We walked down to the harbor, where our tour would begin, and were loaded onto a small boat with about ten others. Our fearless captain first took us to an area that is home to a school of dolphins. We saw a few of them almost right away. Over and over again, the dolphins would swim up to us, run into the boat, and swim back away, as if we were playing a game with them. I think they won the game, however, because they never revealed themselves to us for more than one second before sinking back into the water for several minutes, making us completely unaware of their location. Trying to photograph them was almost useless, although I did manage to get a few pictures of their backs.

Next, we moved near an island containing hundreds of penguins. They waddled around, basked in the sun, and went into the water, without even noticing that we were there. I actually mistook them for ducks at first, because that's what they look like when they are swimming on top of the water. We only got to see the island for about ten minutes, but we were promised that we would see more penguins later. I began to salivate.

For our next stop, we went to a giant rock with a bunch of birds. Two varieties were represented, although their names have since slipped my mind. The first species had red legs, white necks, and white feathers mixed in with black on their backs. The other birds had white bellies, black backs, and red around their eyes.

After seeing the birds, we turned around and almost immediately were able to see a group of sea lions on another rock nearby. Most of them just sat around and acted very lazy, although they occasionally fought with each other and proclaimed themselves to be the queen of all sea lions. There were only two males mixed in with about two dozen females, which our guide explained was the ratio for optimal sea lion breeding. In fact, the females were all gathered around the larger and older male; the other one had to sit by himself. The unpopular small male probably wouldn't get a chance to breed until either he could beat up the bully, or much later in life when the females realized that his tremendous earning potential made the nerdy sea lion an attractive candidate for procreation.

Our last stop was also the highlight of our tour: The Island of the Birds. We docked our boat, walked onto the island, and saw that it was home to thousands of penguins. The penguins didn't play games like the dolphins. When we sat down, they waddled all around us. The constantly went into and out of the water, which made me chuckle every time I saw it. Penguins are almost useless on land. They can't fly, and they can barely walk. They are so slow, predators must be able to catch them easily. A lot of them resort to hiding under bushes to protect their eggs. Bus as soon as they hit the water, they become like torpedoes, dashing to and fro.

We sat around and watched the penguins for about an hour. They were among the cutest, most amusing little creatures I had ever seen. At one point, our guide pulled out a cup of mate for us to enjoy. Sitting on a beach, passing around the mate, and watching the penguins' antics was paradise for me. It was honestly one of the greatest points of my entire trip so far. The honeymoon may be over, but travel and I will continue to act just like newlyweds for a long time to come.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 5, 2006
Day 99

The bus last night was a killer. As soon as I stepped aboard, I saw that the seats did not fold down into beds, semi-beds, or even somewhat comfortable reclining positions. They played a movie, but it was a horribly-made illegal copy of a combination martial-arts-time-travel flick. During the movie, the bus employee gave a cup of coffee to anyone who wanted it, including the 5-year-old sitting in front of us with no parents to supervise him. Surprisingly, the ride wasn't going too bad at that point, but that was only the beginning.

After the movie ended, I tried to get some sleep, but that did not happen. Next to me, there was a screaming baby. It wouldn't shut up no matter what its mom did to comfort it. In front of me was a snoring guy. I've been traveling long enough to have gotten used to sleeping with snoring people around me, but this was not your average snorer. Every thirty seconds or so, he let out this screeching noise that sounded like he was being attacked by a wild boar. I thought he was dying at first, but his friend next to him didn't seem to be concerned (although he was wide awake just like everyone else around him), so I neglected to check his vitals. Two rows in front of me, the driver was chain smoking and playing loud music. Since turning down the music or disrupting his routine of smoking could have made him fall asleep, I decided not to bother him. And that kid in front of me that drank a cup of coffee earlier proceeded to sing along really loudly to every song that came on the radio, all night long, whether he knew the words to the song or not. To top it all off, every time I was about to fall asleep, a girl behind me, probably in an attempt to figure out why there were so many loud people on the bus, thought it would be a good time to turn on her light, which of course shined directly into my eyes. Needless to say, lots of sets of red, droopy eyes walked off the bus the next morning.

We got to Comodoro Rivadavia at 8:00 AM, but we had no interest in staying there. Luckily, a bus left to Puerto Deseado, a much better place to stay, five minutes later. This bus had a much friendlier environment, and I managed to sleep for the entire four hour ride.

Puerto Deseado is a small port town in southern Patagonia. It was cool and rainy all day, so there wasn't much to do, other than go to the tourism office and figure out if there was anything to do on a cold and rainy day. We decided that we will go on a tour of some of the islands of the area tomorrow, weather permitting, and check out the shipwreck museum today.

In the late 1700's, a cargo ship had an unfortunate encounter with a large underwater rock near the harbor of Puerto Deseado. The ship sank and nothing was heard about it for nearly 200 years. Then around 1980, three adventurous teenagers went on an underwater expedition and rediscovered the wreckage. They began pulling storage containers, anchors, canons, and other items from the ship. At one point, they took out a well-preserved jug of 200-year-old wine and celebrated their discovery by drinking it. Unfortunately, several years later one of the kids drowned. A museum was later erected containing the booty from the ship. It was named the "Mario Brozoski" Museum in honor of the ship's fallen discoverer. Even though it was small, the museum was a fun place to visit and relive the adventure of the ship's discoverers.

Puerto Deseado may have bad weather, but at least the atmosphere there is friendly.

January 4, 2006
Day 98

This morning, Jenny and I got up really early and took a bus to Las Alerces National Park. I thought the park was right next to town, but it ended up taking two and a half hours to get there. I slept on and off the whole way, but it was almost impossible to get any quality sleep on the rickety bus that slowly traversed the gravel national park roads.

When we got off the bus, we took a walk up to the mirador, a lookout point from which all of Lago Verde and its surrounding forests were visible. The view was great, one that reminded me of northern Wisconsin, which made sense because I am about at the same latitude as there now, only at the southern end of the world, of course. There are no more palm trees where I am now; they have been replaced by endless expanses of deciduous forests and hundreds of gentle lakes that perfectly reflect all of the natural beauty back to the eye.

After seeing the lake from the mirador, we decided to walk around it. We went down to the shore, where there was a large pier and several fly fishermen. We started walking along the shore, but quickly ran out of path. Of course, the path was actually there, it just wasn't marked and probably hadn't been walked down, either. Every five minutes or so, we would see a tree with a yellow marked nailed to it, telling us that we were going the right way, but that's all we had to go by. The "path" led us up and and down hills, around cliffs, and occasionally, around giant fallen trees.

Eventually, after an hour or so of not knowing if we were actually on a path, or just a narrow strip of dirt that a deer had walked down at some point, we saw a suspension bridge on the other side of the lake. A bunch of tourists had driven to that point, which was our first indication that we weren't completely lost. If I ever become head of the South American national parks, the first thing I'll do is implement trails that are actually marked and maps that actually tell would-be trekkers where they are and where they are going.

Once we found the bridge, the rest of the day became easy. We walked on the other side of the lake for awhile, then decided that it was time to head back. The bus going back was one we couldn't afford to miss, so we needed to leave an hour or so of extra time to ensure we would make it. Luckily, there was an actual road that took us back to the starting point in no time. I was too tired to even remember the long ride back to town.

Back in town, we had to make a tricky decision on where to go next. Rawson is the coast city directly east of here. There is a lot to do there, but we would be managing our time better if we headed somewhat south and east at the same time. Comodoro Rivadavia is almost directly southeast of here, but there isn't much to do there. The current plan is to head to Comodoro overnight and try to move somewhere else right away if possible.

The photo album for this entry is here.

January 3, 2006
Day 97

Esquel is the last place the public buses go to on the way south through western Argentina. Figuring out where to go next wouldn't be easy, so Jenny and I dedicated the day to trying to figure out what to do next. There appeared to be four options:

1. Go to Chile, which is just west of here, and move south from there. After asking some of the local people around town, we decided that this option wasn't going to work because no buses go south on the Chilean side, either. Their apparently are roads over there, which opens up the door for hitchhiking, but we were advised against trying because people with cars in that area tend to be afraid to pick up strangers off the road. This may or may not be true, but neither of us wanted to risk being stranded in the middle of nowhere for several days while waiting for someone to stop for us.

2. Rent a car and take route 40 down the entire 1500 KM stretch of road to El Calafate. No public buses go down that road, but apparently a dirt road does, in fact, exist. The only problem was that renting a car would be too expensive for two people. We have been trying to find others to go with us, but I don't think that will happen. This would be a fun option, but it doesn't look possible.

3. Take the special tourist bus down route 40. A bus does actually go down route 40 all the way to El Calafate, but it is very expensive, only leaves twice per week, and goes for two days without stopping, which doesn't sound very fun to me. I'm not in a big hurry to keep moving, and I'd rather not spend a ton of money to take that route, so I think this option is out, too.

4. Cross to the east coast of Argentina and go south from there. This would mean riding in a bus straight east for eight hours overnight before being able to head south. It's somewhat of a waste of time, but the east coast is the only part of Patagonia that has paved roads that go south from here. It also means that I'll have to backtrack somewhat on the way up, but this appears to be the only option available to me.

Unless we find some other people to share a rented car with us, it looks like Jenny and I will head out tomorrow afternoon for Puerto Madryn on the east coast.

January 2, 2006
Day 96

I spent this afternoon uploading photos. The Internet is really slow here, but I have no other choice if I want to keep my site up-to-date. I also chatted with several friends online, which was a nice way to start the new year (I know, a day late).

In the evening, I took a bus with Jenny to Esquel. I wasn't sure why it cost more than normal when I paid for the ticket, but as soon as I sat down, I figured it out. The seats were gigantic, folded back all the way, and had about two feet of extra space for my legs. It was like I had my own Lay-z-boy, but I couldn't figure out how they could fit such big seats on a bus. Then I noticed that there were only three rows of seats instead of four! I felt way too privileged to be able to ride such a nice comfortable bus. Too bad it was only for four hours.

We got into Esquel late tonight, so we weren't able to do much other than hang out at the hostel. There were a lot of Argentinian people staying there, which was a nice change of pace. In the last few places I've stayed, everyone spoke English, which isn't good for learning a new language.

Even though Argentina suffered an economic collapse a few years ago, it still feels like the richest country I've visited so far. It's not as expensive as Chile, but the people act the part. They all wear nice clothes, eat big steaks, and drink good wine. This is also the most European country I've visited so far. Most of the people in the hostel can trace all of their ancestry back to Europe. It's strange seeing so many people with blonde hair and blue eyes in South America. Argentina used to be one of the richest countries in the world, and even though the prices are very low here compared to the United States, it still has all of the conveniences of home, making it one of the best bargains around.