Our flight from El Calafate to Ushuaia was scheduled to depart at 12.53p.
Here you can see that the ticket said 12.53p
but the tv screens with the flights just decided to round our flight (# 2892) up to 1.00p.
I know this was a very small airport but could you imagine the chaos if JFK or LAX ran on that kind of rounding system?
I can truly call walking on a glacier a once in a lifetime experience. It was the most physically difficult thing I have ever done in my life. On the plus side, I cannot believe I did not die. We did the Big Ice Tour with Hielo y Aventura.
Big Ice was extremely demanding and I was clearly the weakest link on our tour. We had to hike nearly vertical on rocky terrain and soil with no guard rails and straight down drops with rocks and tree limbs and random cows (yes, really) just to get to the tip of the glacier. We didn’t even have crampons or harnesses on yet.
To say I was completely out of breath and seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack is probably an understatement. At this point I was nearly in tears while some girls in our group were talking about needing a cigarette – are you kidding me??
We were the only Americans in our group and I think I myself proved that Americans are out of shape. At the very end of the trek, where I was in really bad shape – note the knee brace – we were passed by the second group AND the guides who had stayed behind to clean up the area with the crampons and harnesses.
And because I probably wasnt hiking right, my right knee was twisted or sprained or something. It hurt something horribly. My right ankle did too but the knee is so much worse that I wasn’t worried about the ankle.
Throughout the day, I wouldn’t let anyone tell me the time. I didn’t want to know how many hours of suffering were remaining and that was mostly before the knee pain.
Hiking on a glacier was definitely once in a lifetime because I will never ever ever ever ever do it again. ever. With that said, it was truly an amazing experience, and now that it is over, I am happy I did it. It is an absolutely incredible sight.If I ever go to Alaska, I will be taking a helicopter tour of glaciers because I will never walk on one again.
Needed to find a brace for my knee and cerveza for my pain. I found both.
Getting cerveza not so much a funny story. Getting the brace is.
Needed to go into a drugstore for a brace. The staff at our B&B told me the word for knee in Spanish, which helped me a bit since my alternative was tengo dolor de mi (I have pain in my) and then pointing to my knee. The word for knee is rodillero, and not one I will soon forget.
In my Spanish, I was able to let the pharmacist know what was wrong. It took a few minutes to realize that no one knew a word of English in the store. So it took a few more minutes to realize they were sending me into the back room to try on the brace. Even longer to realize that I couldn’t just lift my pants. They were actually (all females) telling me to take off my pants and put the brace on so they could check that it fit.
I was in so much pain but the hilarity of the situation was not lost on me that I was standing in the back room of a pharmacy in my underwear letting a few women who spoke no English check to see that the knee brace fit correctly. After trying on two different braces, as the first was too tight, I limped away with a suitable brace.
We didn’t get a photo with the brace on but here it is pulled from a video shot. It’s quite a monster of a brace.
This brace came in handy for horseback riding later that day. And since I had never been on a horse before I also didn’t really think about how you get on a horse. Thankfully it was the bum leg that had to swing over the horse, and not the leg that you had to put all the weight on in order to get that leg to swing around.
And if I ever need surgery or physical therapy to repair my knee or ankle, at least I have a good story.
Update: I did require physical therapy to strengthen both of my knees and my left achilles.
There’s not much to say here. The pictures do not do the experience and the views in person any justice.
This was amazing and spectacular to see in person.
I have many photos of this experience so picking three was difficult.
In this photo, a big hunk of ice, maybe the size of a bedroom, fell off the side. We got there, got the camera ready, thinking we’d get a still, but instead ice broke off at the moment I hit the button. It falls fast and furious and the sounds were incredible. You can see the rings from the splash as the ice landed in the water. I felt like I was in a National Geographic documentary.
This picture is after a 50 minute hike to get to the part of the glacier we would actually be hiking on. Read: a steady part. This is where land meets ice. Of course this land WAS ice a long time ago.
This picture is from actually being on the glacier. It actually looks like what I think the moon looks like except here, the Andes are in the background.
Simply spectacular.
Today we flew from Buenos Aires to El Calafate. It was about a three hour flight.
I could tell a story about the international airport and the very organized chaos, but I won’t. I can talk about the country’s domestic airline and that airport, how all three of our domestic flights were on time and that we had safe and uneventful flights. I could talk about the interior of the plane, and how it looks like it was from 1985. I could talk about the ashtrays in the arm rests or the food and drinks we were served but I won’t. Why? Because the view from the domestic flights were simply spectacular.
Here is a shot from the air…
We flew over so many different landscapes. We must not have been that high in altitude because I always saw the ground – at least for the time that I was awake! We were over water, over desert, over farmland and over mountains! Over all of that, we saw maybe one house! There’s a whole lot of empty land in Argentina. They say that most of the population lives in BsAs.
At one point we had been flying over the coast for some time and all I could think about were the unspoilt beaches. We hadn’t seen a town, and the beaches were clean, empty and not a soul in sight.
When we flew over the farmland, it’s the kind where you know someone did work. We saw big squares of different shades of green, yet no tractors, homes or people.
Flying over the mountains made me remember the move Alive.
If you look at a topographic map and trace your finger from BsAs to El Calafate you can see the different kinds of landscapes you fly over.
Here’s what it looked like when we touched down. We got nervous. After all we were going to be spending three nights here!
And here’s the view from the plane as we rolled towards the gate. I wasn’t worried about disembarking the plane and walking onto the tarmac to get into the airport. It was the nothingness around us that surrounded me that concerned me.
Well worth traveling so far south. We found plenty to do and see in and around El Calafate.
This is sunset. Around 10.30pm! Very different from getting dark around 4.30pm in New York City!
If I had to put a theme to our second day, it would be eating! And eat we did.
We started our day with our first breakfast in Argentina and it was self-serve in our hotel, with typical Argentine breakfast foods – croissants, jams, cheese and meats.
For lunch we received a recommendation in Puerto Madero by a guide on our city walking tour. We walked to a restaurant called Happenings. Puerto Madero is the up and coming barrio (neighborhood) in BsAs. The area was a shipping area but recently transformed into a modern hotspot with lots of restaurants, high-rise apartment buildings and very trendy, and beautiful, people.
Our table was right on the water, and the place was full of businessmen so we assumed it would be good. Portions were huge, the steak was juicy…
The gnocci were the biggest we had ever seen…
Needless to say the flavors of lunch did not disappoint.
After lunch, we took part in an Argentine tradition. Ice cream! The hot weather and strength of the sun did not allow for photos to be taken as we had to eat it before it started to melt!
Dinner, many hours later, was at restaurant de puertas cerradas – closed door restaurant – with no published address, and attendance by reservation only.
Basically, we pay to eat dinner at someone’s home, where they do all the cooking, and our dining companions are perfect strangers. To some, not an ideal situation…for us, it was a blast! We got to meet people from all over the world and eat fantastic food! Attendees represented the US – two of us and our chef. Our host was from Peru and the rest of the dinner party included travelers from Australia, London and Holland. By the time we finished our welcome cocktails, we had already learned so much about the travels of our companions for the evening.
Dinner is a five course meal. Dan, the chef, gets his inspiration from significant dates in history. Our dinner happened to fall on the weekend of the founding of Georgia (the US state) and the day that Chile was proclaimed an independent republic. The menu was a combination of the two cultures, and very tasty! Here’s the link to the menu: http://casasaltshaker.com/20110211.htm
Here, you can see Dan’s write-up on how he decided to mix the food of two places in order to create a five course meal.
http://www.saltshaker.net/20110216/from-savannah-to-santiago-and-back-again
Here’s a photo of the pappardelle — a tie in from southern style mac and cheese, with a Chilean tilt of a cheddar salsa!
And the dessert, a Georgia peach inside an empanada with a South American favorite, dulce de leche, a caramel sauce.
We only had a chance to take two photos of dinner but you will see photos from the rest of our meal in the link above. Buen apetito!
Getting from the international airport to the center of BsAs should take 45 minutes. Not the day we landed.
These would be protesters. In the middle of the highway. And yes, those are tree branches they used to make noise. They were also banging empty water bottles on the ground, which again, was a major highway.
Traffic was backed up and our driver spoke no English.
Our driver was trying to explain what was going on but since I didn’t know the word for picketer, and we couldn’t see anything but massive traffic, it wasn’t until we actually passed the people to realize what was going on. (He also called someone that would translate, so that helped us figure it out too.)
At one point, our driver got annoyed we were in traffic so simply drove on the grass. Not the shoulder because there was none. The grass. And not just slowly cutting ahead of cars, literally pedal to the metal and OFF ROADING. The engine growled, grass was burning and we were flying past the traffic!
When our cab driver decided to rejoin the traffic we went right past cops who simply stood and watched.
As for what they were protesting, we got mixed answers. Our cab driver thought the picketing was because of land rights. The people at our hotel told us that the reason for picketing the day before was because of an airport union issue.
Who knows but it was nice to see there is freedom of speech.
Note: this is definitely a scheduled post. I will not be blogging from the airplane.
Barring any delays or natural disasters, right about now we are probably getting ready to land in Buenos Aires! Even though I am just over a week out writing this, I am still so excited that we are this close!!
Once I make it onto Argentine soil, I will be able to cross off one of my (many) new year’s resolutions — make it to another continent! South America, I plan on falling in love with you. Don’t let me down.
Abrazos y besos
And we’re off! Heading to Buenos Aires (locals call it BsAs for short)! We left cold, snowy and icy New York for summertime in Argentina! This trip was my first time to cross the equator (except I was asleep both ways).
And speaking of sleep, I did get some. Our plane was two – aisle – five – aisle – two. We were in the three and four seats in the five. Two friends were on the aisles, and one moved over so the middle was empty. One of the girls and I took turns sprawling across that extra empty seat.
Not sure if this arrangement makes sense as I write this but long story short — even if I didn’t get a wink of sleep during the whole flight, the minute I stepped off that flight, I was AWAKE!!
BsAs is a city full of life and we had much to see, do, eat, drink and buy!
We’re getting really close! Flight leaves about this time tomorrow night! I’m probably running around the apartment packing last minute things into my bag.
Once I am back, I plan to upload one photo from each day I was gone. I’ll then blog about something memorable from that day thus attempting my first official foray into travel writing.
About a year ago I discovered an organization called Slow Food.
‘Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.’ — courtesy of slowfood.com
I tried to find a Slow Food group during my last international trip but there was not an organized group in Croatia at that time.
For my upcoming trip to Argentina, I found many Slow Food groups throughout the country. I chose to email just three members based in three different cities (actually one city and two towns) that I will be visiting, including Uruguay.
Not a few hours after I sent the emails, the woman who heads up the organization in Uruguay, told me there were no Slow Food events over the time period, as it is summer vacation. However, she told me that I could come and visit her and her farm and I would be most welcome. She also recommended a local entrepreneur who is part of Slow Food who runs a restaurant in the town we are planning on visiting.
I looked at her location on the map, and for the day trip, we just wouldn’t have time to spend 4 hours each way traveling to visit her. But, what a lovely woman to invite a perfect stranger into her home for a day. And for the local restaurant, she even gave me the website and the owners name. I found out a few days ago that Uruguay leads South America in cheese consumption. The restaurant’s website is not in English so I can only partially translate. But, it has an entire page dedicated to cheese, and there is a ribbon noting an award. I think we’ve got to stop by!
simply three cents 