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9/26/04 MK We’ve now been in Argentina for 1 week. Our first few days were spent in Buenos Aires getting situated and making plans. As is usually the case, we had more places we wanted to visit than we had time. Not willing to cut anything out, we struggled to cram it all in. A particularly difficult task when the travel agents don’t speak English and offer very few flights to the places we want to go. After considerable effort and playing charades with more than a few travel agents, we worked out a schedule to our liking.
Another important task while in Buenos Aires was to attempt to have fixed the numerous bits of malfunctioning electronics. This includes,
Unfortunately, despite much running around we are yet to get anything fixed before flying off to our next stop. I will try again after returning to Buenos Aires in a few days.
Our first stop in Patagonia was to Peninsula Valdez to do a little whale watching in the very small town of Puerto Piramides. The town consists of about three streets, one of which is paved. There are maybe six restaurants and four or five small hotels. With one room above the main house, I can safely say we stayed at the smallest. Along with a great view of the bay, the room came with an incredible homemade breakfast which our host spent half the night preparing.
Lisa did a great job detailing our whale watching experience so I will keep this brief. (You might have noticed I do that a lot. Refer to what Lisa wrote using it as an excuse to write very little myself. It works for me.) Anyway, this was unlike the whale watching we did in South Africa, Hawaii and New Zealand where it took a lot of patience to get a brief look at one or two. The bay in Puerto Piramides was literally full of whales. They were seemingly all over the place showing off for the tourists. They would bob in the water upside down with their tails in the air as if posing for photos. They would swim right up to boat, close enough that we could almost reach out and touch them. We even saw one breach (jump out of the water). It was an incredible experience to be so close to a living breathing animal that is so huge.
10:36am. I am currently in an airplane en route to El Calafate where we are going to see Glacier Moreno, which is supposed to be a truly spectacular site. While writing this, I am enjoying what are perhaps our most spectacular views to date. Below us are the Andes Mountains; the worlds second largest mountain range next to the Himalayas. There is one jagged peak after another as far as the eye can see, each with it’s own unique shape. There is a distinct snowline beginning about a third the way up, and cutting through the mountains are numerous rivers filled with incredible turquoise water. In the water I can see numerous bits of floating ice. From here, they appear to be bits, but I’m guessing they are fairly large icebergs. What I am guessing is Glacier Moreno (I later learned it was not) just came into view. The glacier itself forms a long path cutting through the mountains. It ends abruptly with ice cliffs dropping hundreds of feet into the water.
I just threw a pillow at Lisa to wake her. This is too beautiful to be missed.
The flight attendant just announced that we are landing so I have to turn off the computer. These are going to be a spectacular next few days.
9/27/04 LPK Today was one of those days when everything makes sense. Today, traveling around the world felt like the right thing to be doing.
I guess with that opening sentence I’ve let you in on one of my dirty little secrets that there must be days when everything does not make sense. Now you finally know the truth: there are actually days when I wonder about what we are doing. Let me preface this by telling you that those days are few and far between. Nonetheless, they are there. Actually, Sunday was one of those days.
Sunday was supposed to be the day we finally saw the Moreno Glacier. I had been hankering Michael to see this glacier for a couple of weeks. We first heard about the Perito Moreno, as it is technically known, from the German couple we met as we were leaving Easter Island. They had somewhat downplayed it when describing other must-sees in Patagonia, telling us, “If you have time, also visit El Calafate.” I dutifully read all about the Patagonian sites they mentioned including El Calafate (the town you fly into to see the glacier). I figured the German couple must have slightly different travel priorities because the glacier and the surrounding area sounded like an amazing place to see.
I began to build the glacier up in my head especially since I felt like we were sort of short-changed during our last glacial experience in New Zealand. We were able to do some pretty cool ice climbing there at Fox Glacier but we were deluged with terrible weather. Even though climbing around on the ice is pretty thrilling, you can’t really see the glacier from that vantage point. We had heard that Fox was a spectacular sight from the air. But, after three days of waiting patiently for the weather to change, we finally gave up on the once-in-a-lifetime view of the glacier from a helicopter.
I was sure that the Moreno Glacier offered us a shot at changing our glacial karma.
When we arrived in Buenos Aires we discovered that despite it’s being a bigger and more international city than we had visited in a long time, far fewer people spoke English. We soon found this fact to be true all over Argentina, adding to the spectacle that was our communication. It was Saturday in Buenos Aires and most of the travel agencies were closed. Our feeble language skills faltered hopelessly at the few agencies that were open. We resorted to using the telephone back at the hotel. Thankfully, we understood enough Spanish to figure out that Aerolinas Argentinas allowed their callers a voicemail option to press “2” for English. With the help of the English-speaking Aerolinas Argentinas agent we managed to make reservations for Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia. Our plan had been to fly basically due south from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn then to El Calafate and on to Ushuaia - the southern most town in Patagonia and the world. Surprisingly, there were no available flights between El Calafate and Ushuaia. Even when we attempted to reverse our itinerary we failed to find any flight at all leaving El Calafate. It looked like we were out of luck on visiting the glacier. I comforted myself with the fact that there were a few other airlines in Argentina. One of them had to service to El Calafate, right? I convinced myself we’d be able to work something out with another airline in person once we were in Puerto Madryn.
I’ll admit that the whole always-having-to-figure-out-the-logisitics-as-soon-as-you-get-to-a-new-country thing gets a little old sometimes. But I was firmly in the “if there is a will, there is a way” camp on the glacier issue so I was up for the challenge of finding a flight. It turns out that LADE, another Argentinian airline, flies from El Calafate to Ushuaia. We found a LADE office on the main street in Puerto Madryn. For a moment, it seemed like things were looking up again. Unfortunately, that changed quickly when we attempted to purchase a ticket for the flight we wanted. We could not adequately communicate with the lovely Argentine gentleman at the LADE office. After an absolutely ridiculous conversation with the LADE guy, during which time I was sure that Alan Funt was going to jump out from behind the nearest door, yelling, “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera,” he finally sent us to his friend down the block who spoke English and happened to be a travel agent. The English-speaking travel agent helped us purchase tickets from El Calafate to Ushuaia on LADE. We hurried back to our hotel to call Aerolinas Argentinas. All we had to do was change our flight from Puerto Madryn to El Calafate but leave the return portion of the ticket from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires. Are you getting all of this? I thought I was. At the time, I thought we had it all down pat. But, after all of that effort to get to the glacier . . . we missed our flight to El Calafate.
The night before the flight Michael had asked me what time he should set the alarm for. I answered confidently that since our flight was not until 12:15 p.m., we really didn’t have to get up too early at all. Sometime around 10:00 a.m. the next morning, on the way to the airport, I realized that our flight had actually left earlier that morning at 8:50 a.m. If we had gotten on the correct flight we would have already landed in El Calafate. Needless to say we were both crushed.
When we finally got our wits about us, we managed to cancel our hotel room in El Calafate, book a room in nearby Trelew and change our ticket for the exact same flight the following day. (Trelew is closer to the airport than Puerto Madryn). Without going into all of the gory details, suffice it to say that Michael and I spent a miserable day in the positively dumpy town of Trelew.
About now you are probably wondering what you missed. How is any of this a description of a day when “everything makes sense.” Let me get to that part. We finally made it to El Calafate the next day. And though our time there was short, it now counts among one of my favorite spots on earth.
Seeing the Moreno Glacier for the first time was a bit overwhelming. Everything about it is extreme and abrupt: the brightness, the quiet, the sharpness, the sparkle of milky blue glacial water, the steepness of the 200-foot plus wall, the sheer mass of moving ice and the way it stops suddenly and the forest begins. Walking the series of catwalks and vantage points, I was sure of something much more powerful and mysterious than myself.
The glacier is part of a national park, Nacional Los Glaciares, so named because of the more than 350 spectacular glaciers within its boundaries. The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Learning a little bit about how and why glaciers form here was fascinating. In short, a low gap in the Andes allows moisture-laden Pacific storms to drop their loads east of the divide where they accumulate as snow. Over millennia, under tremendous weight, this snow has recrystallized into ice and flowed slowly eastward. From various vantage points, we were able to actually witness a tiny bit of the onward movement of the glacier. We watched as huge chunks of ice calved and exploded into the channel below. The roar of the ice echoed loudly throughout the canyon and was transformed into floating icebergs before our eyes.
We spent the night in Estancia Alice, about 20 km outside El Calafate, which by the way, is a charming village with only one main street. There’s nothing but fields, mountains and river between the village and the Estancia. The ranch’s lobby was warm when we checked in and smelled of a well-used fireplace. Our room was small but nearly perfect. The window looked out on a large marsh that led to the banks of a river. While Michael downloaded his photographs from the day, I watched as two horse-riding ranch hands rounded up a herd of sheep. Someone must have accidentally left a fence open because all of a sudden there were about 40 misguided sheep running amuck under my window. One of the horse-riding herders raced past me and ahead of the sheep. He skillfully reached down and closed the small white gate effectively trapping the confused sheep. Then he circled around the furry escapees and herded them back to their pen.
The next morning another American woman and I went horseback riding with two of the ranch hands I had seen the night before. As we rode near, sheep scurried away from beneath the low Calafate bushes. It was spring, and there seemed to be an abundance of sheep darting here and there. The sometimes harsh reality of nature was evident when we passed tiny lamb carcasses lying among the bushes. Calafate bushes are indigenous to Patagonia and renowned for their delicious berry, apparently excellent for making jam. According to tradition, if you eat one of the Calafate’s berries you will visit Patagonia again, but Argentines say that in reality, if you eat a berry, you will want to stay forever.
I was properly bundled up for the brisk morning, but I was slightly uncomfortable in my saddle and had to concentrate on staying upright. The Argentines use a saddle that is basically Western style, but not quite. There is no pommel or horn in the front to hang on to. I’ve heard you are not supposed to hang on to the horn at all but being a novice rider; I tend to grab hold of it quite a bit. Without it, I was a bit edgy and spent a lot of time exercising my inner thighs.
We rode past a few large brown birds about the size of American Eagles, called Guanacos, perched ominously on a bare tree nearby. One of the guides told me that they were wicked birds. They hunted newborn sheep, sometimes poking out and eating their eyes and face and then just discarding their bodies almost as if they did it for the fun of it. He said the birds did it because they were evil. Yuck. I was glad we rode by them.
We continued trotting across the valley towards Lake Argentino. Along the way, the guide described our surroundings (he spoke in Spanish and our other guide translated into English). He pointed to the nearby Andes Mountains. Chile was just over those peaks but as seemingly close as it was, there were no roads leading there. The mountains were too rugged and treacherous. Only one narrow pathway led over the mountains and only in rare situations did police on horseback dare to travel that path. The guide was clearly quite proud of his country. Discouraged, he stopped a few times during the ride to pick up an empty Sprite bottle or candy wrapper littering the pristine landscape. He told us, “ Some people don’t respect our land.” He said that he was trying to teach his fellow Argentines to protect their environment.
Just as I was navigating my way up a steep hill, two brown hares ran in front of my horse. I leaned back in my saddle as I was told but it was the first time I had ever gone up such a steep hill on horseback. Luckily my horse skillfully avoided the rabbits on his own. Even so, my horse lost his footing a couple of times in the loose gravel and it was difficult to steer clear of the knotty branches and low bushes. We had an expansive view of the surrounding area from the top of the hill. Miles of greenish brown fields and marshland lay behind us, our Estancia sat on top of a sloping hill to our left and the banks of the Lake Argentino in front of us. We trotted down the hill heading in the direction of the lake.
As we neared the lake, I saw that the bank was actually more accurately a wide sandy beach. Massive floating white icebergs were a striking contrast to the clear blue water of the lake. I got a bit excited as we got closer to the lake because I was hoping we’d be able to ride on the beach. Sure enough, we trotted down the side of the incline bank and onto the sand. With what seemed like miles of silky sand ahead of us, our guide let out a holler and took off. Without hesitation, my horse picked up speed and followed close behind. I couldn’t help myself from laughing out loud. I had never been in a full on run on a horse. It was fantastic. A couple of the other horses stopped unexpectedly along the way; the other woman’s horse even scarily bucked her for a few moments. But, my horse and I ran all the way back to the Estancia.
What I’m trying to say is that it was just one of those days. Most days back in the United States we are focused on our work and the daily grind of our lives. We buy our food at the supermarket, we exercise in the gym, we use our car for transport and we manage the temperature around us with heating and air conditioning. Life is a bit hermetically sealed. Today was different. I rose with the sun and the birds, traveled on the back of a live animal, I saw clearly the majesty and endurance of nature in the Andes mountain range and the glaciers around me, and I witnessed the powerful consequences of life and death all around me.
Like many days on our round-the-world journey, today I was in tune with the natural rhythms of nature. It felt right.
21 – 24 September Puerto Madryn. By describing the glacier first, I started telling you about Patagonia out of order. Now I need to double back to tell you about the rest of Patagonia.
We spent a day or two in Puerto Madryn finalizing the rest of our Patagonia plans as I’ve described. Puerto Madryn is located in the Chubut region, east of the Andes foothills. The area is known for its relatively mild temperatures, huge flocks of sheep and minimal number of human inhabitants. Located on Golfo Nuevo, Puerto Madryn is the site of the first aluminum plant in Argentina built in 1974. As a result of the plant and the development that ensued, the town is a bit bigger and more industrial than I had imagined. Somehow it still retains its beachy charm and served as a great jumping off point to the wildlife sanctuary of Peninsula Valdes. Rather than joining a group tour we decided to rent a car and explore Peninsula Valdes on our own. We arranged for a 1 p.m. whale watch tour in Puerto Piramides, about an hour and a half drive away. Puerto Piramides, once a sleepy salt export town was now the prime whale watching spot and still the only inhabited town on Peninsula Valdes. We easily found the office for our tour whale watch tour on a small street located literally on the beach. (It wasn’t too tough to find: there were only two streets to choose from in the whole town). As we had feared, the wind was blowing and we couldn’t take out the small Zodiac boat we had reserved. We were a bit disappointed; we wanted to get as close to the whales as possible but now didn’t want to risk waiting all day for the wind to dissipate. Luckily, a larger boat was still attached to its hitch on the beach while passengers finished loading. We hurriedly donned the bright yellow fowl weather gear the tour’s organizers provided us and ran down to the beach to catch the boat.
We had thoroughly enjoyed our whale watching experience in New Zealand and were really looking forward to the day. We were supposedly visiting Argentina at the perfect time. Each year between September and December, the Southern Right Whales migrate to the tiny coves along Peninsula Valdes to breed in its waters.
In New Zealand, we had spent much of one day “hunting down” a Sperm Whale with a completely tricked-out boat equipped with all the latest tracking technology. By the end of the day we finally got the big payoff, literally and figuratively. For about ½ hour we quietly rode alongside a female Sperm Whale before she gracefully arched her back and dove, providing us with the famous “tail shot.” We were both hoping to see another tail shot and adding the Southern Right Whale to our list of Whales Seen.
It only took about five minutes aboard the boat to realize we were in for a completely different kind of whale watching tour. Since all of the talk coming from the microphone system was in Spanish, it took us a minute to realize we were riding directly alongside two whales – a mother and her baby, about two months old. They were both swimming slowly, only about five feet from us; the baby playfully mimicking her mom’s motions, both seemingly oblivious to our presence. When we finally gazed up from our giddy stupor, we noticed two other boats a short distance away. Amazingly, both boats were also riding alongside two whales – a mother and a baby. Plus, behind us we saw two whale tails! These were different than the relatively quick dive of the Sperm Whale. These whales weren’t diving; they seemed to be stuck upside down. The whales were balancing on their heads so that their tails swayed in the air. Apparently, this is a behavior peculiar to the Southern Right Whale. They have been known to balance upside down for over 30 minutes at a time. Plenty of time for us to get the perfect tail shot!
All of the whale sightings were in pairs – each one a mother with her newborn. Apparently, all of the male whales are feeding out at sea during this time. As I mentioned earlier, the mothers come to the warmer waters of the coves, giving birth and schooling their young for a few months. The whale watch tour was only one hour but it was absurdly satisfying. We were so adrenalized when we got back to the office, we signed up for another Zodiac boat tour in the morning. Secretly, we didn’t see how we could get any closer to the whales than were already were.The whale sightings didn’t stop with our tour. We grabbed a late lunch on the other street in town at a cute restaurant with floor to ceiling windows facing the cove. We ordered two Cokes, something we only do when we are especially weary. As we were considering the menus, we both saw a shocking splash of water in the distance. In an instant we saw the highest and only breach we had ever seen outside of the Discovery Channel.After lunch, we took a short drive along the coast. We parked the car in the brush and walked down to a viewpoint of a smaller cove just west of Puerto Piramides. The cove was full of life: sea lions lie sunning themselves on the rocks below; flocks of seabirds were gliding on the thermal currents nearby; and of course, three or four pairs of Southern Rights were swimming in the cove. On our way back to town, two reddish desert foxes crossed in front of the car. Obviously accustomed to human visitors, they circled around us in hopes of a little snack. Normally, I am an ardent believer in doing my best to minimize human impact on nature, including trying not to alter animal behavior by feeding them. Unfortunately, they were so cute and I was very weak. We fed the foxes two of the granola bars we had stashed in the glove compartment. They seemed to enjoy the Argentine version of the bars a lot more than we had, so at least that was something.
We ended the day with dinner at a local hangout, the Paradise Pub, and spent the night at the cozy Refugio Luna. Our room was actually a small attachment to a lovely woman’s house. The room was comprised of two tiny levels – the bathroom and a small table downstairs and the bed with two skinny bed tables upstairs. We could see the water in the distance from our lone window. As luck would have it, we saw a whale from our window before the sun went down. The woman who ran the refugio didn’t speak any English but she was as welcoming and charming as you could imagine. The next morning, she served us homemade breakfast in the living room of her house. The room was centered on an open stone fireplace. There were comfortable chairs arranged around the room and beautiful picture books of Patagonia and Peninsula Valdes lay conveniently on the tables. Our host laid out a breakfast spread previously unknown to mere Americans. She served freshly ground coffee, the likes of which we had not tasted in more than four months. Her freshly-risen raisin bread was slathered with home made butter. We were in heaven until the half-dozen chocolaty and caramel morsels nearly put us both in a sugar coma.
The small Zodiac had been pulled down to the beach on its trailer so we were confident the wind must have died down enough to allow us to take her out. Our doubt about getting closer to the whales faded when a large Southern Right swam directly towards the port side of our boat and then directly underneath us. Her “little one” followed. The mother was so close and so big that Michael was able to get both the whale and me in a photograph. We easily could have leaned over and touched her. Without the need for a zoom lense, Michael got some fantastic shots of the entire top of the whale’s body. Bunches of white barnacles grow on the top of her head, giving her a weird sort of rocky appearance. Her eyes are tiny slits impossible to see unless you are as close as we were.
The Zodiac allowed us to zip around the cove to the scene of whatever seemed like the place to be. At one point, we decided to hurry over to a whale who had been putting on an elaborate display for two other boats. As we turned to head in that direction we saw a fully airborne whale twist on its side and come crashing down into the water. We were speechless. They say that sometimes whales breach more than once so our driver raced the engine in hopes of a second breach. She didn’t breach again, but we were satisfied.
That afternoon we drove through the middle and around the entire peninsula. We stopped along the way to see huge colonies of Magellenic penguins and their elaborate burrow systems all along the cliff sides. Away from the cliff side and the coast, the Patagonian desert is as desolate as you can imagine. The land is flat and dry, peppered with low-lying brush and sheep. I’m not sure how Michael managed to stay awake during most of the drive – the landscape is monotonous and never-ending. I was roused only when he had to brake for groups of sheep sleeping in the road. A few times we saw small groups of the elusive Guanaca, a relative of the Alpaca and Llama. We definitely wanted to see what there was to see on the Peninsula, but we were primarily interested in the seeing the Orcas at Punta Norte.
Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, are actually dolphins. They probably became known as Killer Whales because they are ferocious hunters, known to do so in organized groups, allowing them to take down prey much larger than themselves. They are even known for attacking whales, a feat no other species has dared. But, the Orcas that migrate to Punta Norte are unique for an even more peculiar hunting technique. Their particular behavior has been recorded in only two other locations in the world. The Orcas purposely beach themselves to attack the Elephant Seals that line the beach near Punta Norte. Researchers have been studying the Orcas here for years and still do not have a plausible explanation for exactly how and why the Orcas hunt seals here in this manner. Researchers have actually named all the Orcas in this area, successfully tracking many of them for decades. It seems that the same Orcas return to this exact spot year after year.
We knew our chance of seeing the Orcas hunting the seals was unlikely but we were hopeful nonetheless. The Elephant seals were barking and slogging around when we got to the main beach on the point. They are huge – bigger than any seals or sea lions I’ve ever seen. And they are ugly. They get their name from their enormous protuberant and fleshy nose. Despite their ability for aggressive behavior, their indelicate trunks combined with their big fat bellies make them comical looking creatures.
Unfortunately, the Orcas were not around. The Ranger stationed at the point told us that they would be back in three days. I never really found out how he knew they’d be back in three days, but that’s what the man said. Though we did not get a sighting of the famous Orcas in action, we did get a strange little Hairy Armadillo that darted out from the sand dunes just as we were parking the car.
We had another indulgent breakfast the next morning at Refugio de Luna. Our bellies and spirits full, we took the dirt road that ran along the coast back to Puerto Madryn. Amazingly, we saw whales each time we stopped. We even saw whales from the car.
9/27/04 MK Yesterday, after landing in El Calafate, we were met by our driver who after a brief stop at our hotel, took us directly to Glacier Moreno. The first view of the glacier was from an overlook several kilometers away. From this distance you can clearly see the path the flowing ice has traveled over many centuries. With tremendous force, it has cut a path through the mountains perhaps a kilometer wide destroying everything in it’s path.
From a distance, the top of the glacier appears very smooth, but after driving much closer we can see how remarkably jagged it truly is. They offer mini-treks on the glacier, but from here it looks like walking on it would be an impossible task.
The glacier comes to an abrupt end where it enters the bay with a wall of ice 200 feet high. We can hear, and sometimes see, huge chunks of ice breaking loose after baking in the afternoon sun. You first hear a loud crack, not unlike that of a shotgun, followed by some grumbling and a louder slap as the ice hits the water.
We signed up for a short boat trip in order to get a closer look. From the water you really gain perspective as to its size. Floating in the water are numerous pieces of ice ranging in size from very small to a few times larger than our boat, which I’m estimating was about 70 feet. The ice is constantly moving and on the way back to the dock, we found that we were blocked by a particularly large piece. The captain deftly positioned the boat against the ice and revved the motor in what appeared to be a vain attempt to move this small iceberg. However, after pushing it from several different angles, over about one-hour, we were finally able to squeeze by and reach our dock.
After a brief lunch, we drove to the main lookout where there is a series of walkways, each leading to a different viewing point. Lisa and I spent a good deal of time visiting each one and getting a different look at the glacier. Each vantage point offered a unique perspective and plenty of photo ops.
9/29/04 MK Today we continued our tour of Patagonia and flew to Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world. The only land south of us is the uninhabited continent of Antarctica. Ushuaia rivals any town we’ve seen in sheer beauty. It sits on the shores of the Beagle Channel, named after the ship that Charles Darwin spent 5 years doing his famous research from. On three sides are the Andes Mountains whose base is directly on the edges of town. Large jagged peaks with the top ½ still covered in snow. From any spot in town, you are awestruck by the beautiful landscape.
10/1/04 MK 12:05pm. We are currently on a flight returning to Buenos Aires where we are meeting up with our friends from San Francisco, Peter and Nanea. We are sad to be leaving Patagonia as there is so much more to see, but we are looking forward to seeing familiar faces and enjoying the luxuries of a world-class city.
10/11/04 MK We just had a great several days in Buenos Aires with our friends Peter and Nanea. Peter lived in Spain for 3-years and speaks fluent Spanish and Nanea is pretty good as well. Our first day together we went to La Boca for lunch. We sat at an outdoor café watching tango dancers perform on the sidewalk. It was exactly as I imagined Buenos Aires to be. After lunch we wandered the street market with its many artisans selling paintings and other local crafts. We ate fresh pastries and enjoyed a typical Saturday in Buenos Aires.
As is standard in Argentina, we had dinner around 11pm and didn’t get back to our hotel until around 4am. This is a late town.
After a couple of days in BA Lisa and I took a side trip to Iguazu falls. Iguazu, similar to Victoria Falls in Zimbabawe, or Niagara Falls in New York, is a tremendous tourist attraction and for good reason. The falls sit on the border of Argentina and Brazil and very close to Paraguay. It is actually a series of falls with a major section known as the devil’s throat. We spent 2 days exploring the falls. Day 1 was spent viewing the falls from the Brazilian side where you get a better panoramic view of the major sections. Day 2 was spent on the Argentinean side. We first took a boat trip up the river where at one point the boat driver steered the boat directly under one of the falls. The feel of the water falling on us from hundreds of feet above was at first a shock, since we didn’t know he was going to do this, and then was really fun. Lisa and I were both laughing out loud as the water pounded us.
10/11/04 MK After 2 days at Iguazu, we returned to Buenos Aires and reunited with Peter and Nanea. The next few days we had a great time exploring the city and enjoying it’s late nights. From tango lessons, to tango shows, to practicing our tango in the streets. It was a very tango-filled few days. It was great spending some time with friends.
10/13/04 MK The last couple of days have been something commonly referred to as a clusterfuck. After 7 months and 10 countries we’ve both been amazed at how smoothly our travels have been going. We’ve been prepared for mishaps. Forgotten tickets, clothing left behind in hotels, misplaced reservations, stolen property, etc. Perhaps as a result of expecting problems, we’ve been very organized and prepared and have had almost none. Well that’s all changed.
It started when we dropped off our laundry this past Saturday morning. It was to be ready that evening but we were feeling tired and decided we would pick it up the following day. A few hours later, after the laundromat had closed, we realized it was most likely also closed on Sunday. We then realized that Monday was Columbus Day and knowing that South Americans take every opportunity to skip work, they would most likely be closed then as well. The kicker is Monday we were flying to Brazil. After discussing our options we realized we had none and postponed our flight to ensure we would leave the country with our clothing.
In case you thought the story ended there, not even close. On Tuesday, after 3 days of wearing the same clothes, we picked up our laundry in the morning and began packing to make our 4pm flight. Around 10am, we suddenly remembered Brazil, unlike any other country we’ve been to, required a visa. We frantically packed and headed, with all of our luggage, for the embassy. Upon arrival we were informed that the visa department closed at 1pm. A quick glance at my watch showed that it was exactly 1:03pm. I explained the situation, accepted full blame as an idiot for not taking care of this earlier, and pleaded for help. The lady behind the desk let me know, in no uncertain terms, that she had zero interest in coming to our aid and walked off. But not before informing me that the quickest I could get a visa would be 4:00pm on Thursday, meaning we would not be leaving until Friday.
After several hours of pouting we gave in to our fate, checked into a new hotel, and settled in for another 3 days in Buenos Aires. There are a few sites we missed, so we’re going to do our best to make lemonade from the lemons we’ve bestowed upon ourselves.
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