Tuesday 12/16/08: Today after lunch, Steve and I went separate ways and did our own things. Steve bought a used bike. I walked through what appeared to be Buenos Aires’ financial district (big banks making big statements with far out modern architecture) on the way to Plaza de Mayo and the subte stop.

The financial district.

Along the way I encountered a demonstration (there seem to be a lot of them) which ended at Plaza de Mayo. Police in orange vests and other police in riot gear stood at the place where the demonstration ended. It seemed quite peaceful to me so I don’t know if all that police stuff is routine for any demonstration, or if there was a possibility that this one could get out of hand. I couldn’t tell was it was about. From the banner it seemed to have something to do with retired people and seemed to be in honor or memory of a particular individual.

A peaceful demonstration in Buenos Aires

I guess they take "Be Prepared" quite seriously at a Buenos Aires demonstration..

 I then walked to the other side of the Plaza and visited the main cathedral.

Catedral Metropolitana

A view of the interior of the main Catedral Metropolitana.

Tomb of José San Martin, who I know was important in Argentina's war of independence. He is revered sort of like George Wahington.

After that, I took the subte to our neighborhood where the Eva Peron Museum is conveniently located. It was very interesting to learn more about her. The museum is housed in what was once a mansion that she turned into a shelter for homeless women and their children where the women got social services to help them find work and other housing. Eva Peron was only married to Juan for about 7 years, and she died of cancer at age 33. She was apparently quite a beloved figure and reminded me a little of Princess Diana. Bit by bit, I’m learning more of Argentina’s story.

Eva Peron Museum, formerly a home for women that she established. I went there trying to better understand the "cult" of Evita that still exists.

Eva Perón forever.

The famous presidential palace, the Casa Rosada. Evita Perón gave her crowd energizing speeches from its balcony.

Thursday 12/18/08: We were told it was not far from where we were, so we headed out to walk  the Recoleta Cemetery, a major sight where, among famous military and other wealthy people, Eva Person is buried. Well, not actually buried because it appears that the bodies are kept above ground, embalmed I assume, in these elaborate mausoleums. The mausoleums were amazing but the idea gives me the creeps. The walk turned out to be long, we got a little lost, the day was hot, Steve doesn’t do well in heat, so it was a somewhat difficult hike.

Evita's tomb is a major attraction in Recoleta Cemetary.

Recoleta Cemetary, where the embalmed bodies of the elite rest in ornate splendor.

Friday 12/19/08: We visited the National Museum of Fine Art. What a fantastic collection! We wondered why there is a Museum of Latin American Art, the collection of which we found disappointing, separate from this museum, which also has art from Latin America. We learned that the other museum was privately built to house a certain individual’s collection. That explained a lot. There are a number of museums named for individual people, and I wonder if they are the same deal.

Museum of Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). We were disappointed by the art in this so-called cutting edge, privately owned, museum. But the building was an interesting place and space.

The National Museum had two special exhibits: a very exciting traveling exhibition of Latin American art, and an eerie and interesting exhibit of the work of a contemporary Argentine artist named Jacques Bedel.

The public Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes has a very interesting collection. We appreciared the Latinoamericano subject matter better when we visited it for a second time after having been inSouth America for 3 months.

Upon leaving the museum, we walked again to the Recoleta district, which was not so far away this time. We found that there is a street fair in the park there every weekend, as well the Recoleta Cultural Center, housed in an historic building that was formerly part of a religious institution.. The city operates cultural centers in various neighborhoods where they offer classes and have a variety of programs. The few that we’ve been in so far have been very impressive: well kept, architecturally interesting places with libraries, exhibits and performance spaces.

Monday 12/22/08: This morning we are going to have coffee at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in BA where all the famous people used to hang out. Opinions differ on whether the waiters are friendly or obnoxious and whether the food is bad or good. In either case, it is sure to be very touristy, but they say worth it anyway.

Historic, classical Cafe Tortoni.

Wednesday 12/24/08:  Steve and I took a day trip to a resort town about an hour’s train ride north of here.  The train was like the regional rail in Philadelphia, another form of public transportation in addition to the subway and the buses.  We had a lazy morning and left Buenos Aires around noon. The train departed from one of the main train stations.  I’d not been there yet, but Steve was familiar with it from his bike rides. It is a big, bustling place with a market and deserves a more leisurely visit sometime.  Fortunately, it is easy to get to by bus from our apartment. 

Buying tickets for the train (like the regional rail) to Tigre, resort town on the river, an hour north of Buenos Aires.

 The town we went to is called Tigre. It is located where a couple of rivers come together to form the big Rio de Plata on which Buenos Aires is located. The story goes that when Tigre was discovered, tigers were seen in the area.  But everyone knows that there are no tigers in Argentina.  Maybe they were some other kind of cat.  We expected to find it crowded, but it was actually pretty quiet on Christmas Eve day.  We did not venture much into the town per-se because from the little that we did, it did not look too interesting.  Besides, it was very hot and we were hungry. The tourist area close to the train station and near the river was, however, quite lovely and we headed back in that direction.  Being hungry, we stopped to eat in the first place we saw, realizing only later that if we’d walked on just a bit we would have found several more attractive places.  But no matter.  After our pizza and beer, we took a short nap in a park, and then checked out how and where to catch a boat for a touristic ride on the river.  Steve, with his keen mastery of where to go, noticed some wooden boats along the other side of the river from where we were.  We headed across the bridge to see what the deal was with all these smaller boats.  Turned out that they are colectivos that transport the regular folks to and from their houses in the delta.  We got round trip tickets on one.  It was a lovely hour long ride, through a part of the delta, past houses and small docks where the boat pulled up to pick up and let off passengers, many of whom had come to be with their families or friends for Christmas at their summer resort homes (remember it is summer in South America in December); others to take the boat back to Tigre to catch the train for Buenos Aires which is also what we did at about 6:30 p.m. 

An hour's train ride out of Buenos Aires is the river resort town of Tigre.

Riding through the delta around Tigre.

Tigre Museum of Art, which we did not visit.

An amusing dock-side scene. Be sure to read the sign. Drinking water has to be transported to the homes on the islands in the delta.

We later went back to Tigre and spent several days at a kind of run down resort that we grew to love, among other things because of the people who ran the place.  Steve has already written his post about Tamet.  Maybe I’ll get around to writing my version of the experience.  So you may have more to look forward to. 

Sunday 12/28/08: If I were a poet I would write poem about how the green parrots flying across the sky with their loud squawking are taken for granted and about the lady sunning herself on the balcony of the apartment across the street, having a cigarette, with her little dachshund playing around at her feet. And about how I, a foreigner, having breakfast on the balcony of our apartment in Buenos Aires, don’t take these birds for granted.

We rented bikes and went to the neighborhood of La Boca. In doing some research about it I learned that La Boca, which means The Mouth, is located at the mouth of the river and was an area settled early on by Italian immigrants who worked in the shipyards.

The neighborhood of La Boca is situated along the original port at the mouth of a river. It was build by Italian immigrants from Genoa who worked in the shipyards. It is still a working class neighborhood, but also a major tourist attraction. This view of La Boca (drawbridge no longer functions) is recognizable by all and the subject matter of many paintings in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.

Close-up of the drawbridge, landmark of La Boca

Boats still carry people across the river in La Boca.

The Italians who settled in La Boca used left-over paint from ships to paint their houses. What was once done out of necessity became a trademark of the neighborhood.

I also learned that the soccer team from there, La Boca Juniors, is the most popular club in Argentina and is virtually undefeated. The timing was right for me to be interested and to re-read an article Zach sent us about Diego Maradona, the best and most famous player in Argentina who played for that team, about his problems with drugs and obesity, and about how, after many years of inactivity and various hospitalizations, he was appointed, not without some controversy, to coach the men’s national team to, hopefully, increase their chances of winning the World Cup.

La Boca Juniors is said to be the best soccer team in Argentina.

La Boca, a major tourist draw, is full of action during the weekend days. We enjoyed the street fair and all the tourist activity. In addition to booths or stalls where people were selling clothes and all sorts of Dollar Store type stuff, there were artists displaying and selling their work, street performers and people eager to take your photograph in a tango get-up.

Musicians entertain the tourists in La Boca.

La Boca street scene.

We had lunch of ravioli in a fun and funky place, then went to the new modern building of the Foundation Proa (which mean the bow of a ship) whose mission is to promote contemporary art, and enjoyed going through the Marcel Duchamp exhibit for several hours.

Fundación Proa (means bow of a ship) in La Boca, promotes contemporary art through exhibits and educational activities.

A wonderful Duchamps retrospective at Fundación Proa, La Boca.

We got back to the bike rental place at 7:45 p.m. (they closed at 8 p.m.) and returned the bike. As we’ve done with so many people, we referred the lovely young woman working there, whose English was actually quite good, to Zach’s web site, hablamejoringles.com . Then dinner followed by ice cream on the way back to the apartment. Quite tired as you can imagine.

Steve and Rebecca as happy tourists.

 If you like Madrid, you’ll love this place: soot, diesel, sidewalk tiles coming up, plane trees, movidisimo, but not nearly as noisy, and for the most part, people carry plastic bags and pick up their dog’s shit! The incredible talk of the town is that Madonna is here giving four concerts. They seem to love her.  I wonder if that was because she starred in the movie “Evita” or whether it is simply because she is Madonna.

 The apartment is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Photos on web pages always look sooooo good. It is in a modern building. We are on the 9th and top floor.  An elevator big enough for two people goes up to the 8th, and then we walk up a short flight of stairs to the 9th. The kitchen is so small that two people cannot be in it at the same time. The bathroom is pretty normal, actually large by Argentine standards.  The living/dining area has a futon, two Ikea type chairs, a table with four chairs, and a TV. The bedroom is just big enough for a double bed with just enough room on either side to get in and out.

The living/dining room combo and bedroom are sort of one big space separated by a closet unit divider kind of thing that goes almost to the ceiling which makes the space into two rooms, so to speak. There is also a balcony which runs the width of the apartment. It has a big awning you can roll out and one of those plastic deck tables, 4 chairs and two deck lounge chairs. It also has a hose and cold shower hook-up, I guess for when you get really hot sunning yourself.

There is no washing machine in the apt or in the bldg. The system is to take stuff to what you might think is a self-serve laund-ro-mat around the corner, but is really where you drop off your stuff to be washed and folded (maybe even ironed) by someone else. Costs about $6 a load, I think.  Taking the laundry there is another thing we have to look forward to.

 We live in a very pleasant, quiet neighborhood called Palermo with tree lined streets and parks. The housing stock is basically all newer apartment buildings like ours, attached to each other and lining both sides of every street.  We are not far from the zoo and botanical garden, neither of which we have visited yet. Nice cafes, restaurants and specialty shops. In that respect it seems quite European.

The people seem to be/look very European too. While the population is diverse, most people seem to be of European background. Italian. German. There are some recent immigrants from Africa, but no descendants from African slaves since Argentina managed to get rid of its African population when slavery was abolished. They also managed to pretty much wipe out their indigineous population, so there are not many from pueblos originales.

On the other hand, our neighborhood is said to house the biggest Mosque in maybe all of South America (not sure about that statistic). There is also a Chinatown somewhere, probably not as big as NY or even Phila, but I can’t say for sure since we haven’t gotten there yet. Quite a few Jews in our neighborhood, but it’s not the main Jewish area. But enough here to support a Kosher restaurant and even a Kosher sushi place. There is a Conservative synagogus about a block from our apartment. You can see orthos walking around, like in Lower Merian, but not as many.

Our neighborhood is next door, so to speak, to one of the poshest neighborhoods in town, called Recoleta. There the apt buildings are older and more elegant. We’ve walked around there some, but getting to know it better is still on the list. There are also poor areas, and you see some people begging but not in your face and not as many as in Casablanca.

A short walk away is a busier street, called Santa Fe,  where we can catch a subway. That street is usually quite crowded. The stores not as elegant. That area, as well as the downtown, are maybe sort of like NY. Very busy, lots of traffic, lots of hustle and bustle.  And then there are also these really lovely areas with wide boulevards, which is why this city is often referred to as the Paris of South America.  

One thing that struck me is that there are all these fancy shoppes and quite a few fancy malls, then you go out onto the street and the pavement is crumbling and there is a lot of graffiti. It’s kind of third world trying to become 1st world, or maybe it’s just a combination of the two.  Maybe it is 2nd world.  Having traveled to some extent, Buenos Aires does not seem all that exotic, except that everyone speaks Spanish and many people speak with an Argentine accent which is difficult to understand.

In short, it seems like a combination of Europe, NYC and its own thing.  But I’m sure it is more different than we are aware of after only one week here.

And yes, it is a big city.  The following photos will give you an idea. Click on the thumbnails for the complete image.

Rebecca has written about our time in Esquel, on the edge of the Patagonian Andes. In her post she included a bunch of pictures of he jineteada, that we attended. Her pictures were all of the first day, because her camera battery died the second day. So I’m sending along my jineteada pictures with a few comments and, hopefully, captions (Rebecca hasn’t told you that each of her posts has taken her close to all day because the software, Word Press, is extremely hard to use. It doesn’t always do what you want it to, like put the pictures where you want them in the text, or put the caption you want with the picture you want it with.)

Jineteada is a gaucho word, and is the “Southern Cone” version of the American “rodeo.” I “googled” the word, and the article related it to rodeos, a Mexican version of the same thing with another name that I forget, and a Spanish sport that was practiced even before the Spaniards came to America. I suppose it must go back to the Arabs of Al Andalus, and some day I’ll look it up again, because it’s just fascinating. (Don’t  forget to click to read more and see the pictures.)

Part of a jineteada is the presence of a payador, about which I learned from Padre Oscar on my January 28^th walk in the Andes, which I already told you about in this blog. The payador sings a payada, a stanza he improvises on the spot, in honor of the jinetero, or rider, both before and after he rides. I could only follow them enough to know that they included comments, sometimes very clever, about the particular rider and his ride of the day. We met and talked with two payadores, Manuel Rosa and Marcelo Marín.

We had a chat with Marcelo and his girlfriend, and he showed me a whole other rhyming scheme, that is other than the one that Padre Oscar had shown me. Rosa was at the event not to sing, but to to sell his CD’s and we bought one. Marin was one of two official payadores, who took turns singing in honor of jineteros. We bought a tape of his work; he had no CD’s, explaining that country people often don’t have CD players.

There are four or five categories of jinetea, and we witnessed two – one bareback and the other with saddle. You can imagine that the amount of time you have to stay mounted in order to qualify is longer with saddle than bareback.

We spent more time looking and shooting than getting to know people, so we didn’t learn much more than this. Oh, except that each untamed horse, or potro, is new and has never had a person on its back. Don’t ask me how they get the potros to accept the ride in a trailer, probably many kilometers.  And except that riders go all over the country doing these events, so that some of the national champs were at this one.

At the event are many fogones, which are barbecue fires. And I think the word also refers to campsites where people stay for the whole event. Like at the Folk Festival. It was very “festival,” as I think you can tell by the way people are decked out. The elegance of their dress and stature knocked me out, and I took as many pictures as I could of people to show their outfits and great gaucho faces. Here are only a few.

I thought these were some pretty captivating pictures, but here, they’re only “thumbnails.”  I hope you’ll click on them — and then click again – to really enjoy looking at them.

 

 

 

 

We relied on maps a lot. Does this help orient you?

 Click on “read more” to learn about our wildlife adventure.

We left Esquel late on Sunday night, 2-22-09, and took an overnight bus to Trelew, a city located between the two reserves. It was a ride of about 10 hours or so. We chose to stay in Trelew, instead of the larger and more tourist oriented town of Puerto Madryn.  Via the internet, we found a comfortable, although somewhat sparse, apartment to rent for a few days. Trelew, we decided, is basically a farm town even though the population is 100,000 and it is considered a big city. Raising sheep for wool seems to be the main kind of farming. Merino wool comes from these sheep.

In addition to the landscape and the wildlife that is found in the area, its interesting history includes the fact that in 1865 Welsh people fleeing slavery in Great Britain found their way here and established settlements. There remain some remnants of Welsh culture, noticeable in the architecture and the tea houses where afternoon tea with traditional fruit cake is still available. Many of the Argentines living in the area trace their origins to these folks, and their Anglo-sounding names reflect their national heritage. An interesting bit of information is that the name Trelew comes from its Welsh founder, Lewis Jones. In Welsh, tre means “town”and lew is short for Lewis.

While the city itself was not too exciting, there were some interesting things to see. Most notable is a state of the art paleontological museum that documents important Argentine dinosaur discoveries. Of course I knew nothing about the central Patagonian steppe and its importance as one of Argentina’s prime digs. Apparently discoveries made here were able to confirm a theory about how the earth’s large land mass broke apart and about the evolution of various types of dinosaurs. All of it was more information than I could take in, but still fascinating. 

Pianitzkysaurus at the Museo Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Argentina.

Dinosaur detail.

Lab at the paleontological museum

One day we rented a car to take ourselves 100 kms south to the “must-see” Punta Tombo reserve, the breeding ground of the Magellanic penguins. It is the largest penguin breeding ground in South America. Nearly 250,000 birds come ashore here every spring to mate and nest. We got here towards the end of their season, when the fledglings are getting ready to take off with their parents into the sea to where ever it is they go from here. Because it was the end of the season, there were not too many tourists. Though there were still a lot of penguins. We did not, however, see many other seabirds that are said to be here in great numbers. Still it was well worth the drive along the dusty unpaved road and through a different type of landscape to get to the reserve where we spent several hours walking the paths and observing nature.  

In case you haven't figured it out from previous photos, I'd follow Steve anywhere.

Magellanic penguin at Reserva Provincial Punta Tombo

All those black dots are penguins.

More, more and still more.

This is proves I was at Punta Tombo.

Guanacos, related to the camel and llama, enjoy their natural habitat -- and we enjoyed seeing them there.

Away from mountains, another kind of landscape.

Our other big excursion was to Península Valdés, which is north of Trelew. For this all-day trip, we signed on to a guided tour which got on the road at 7:15 a.m.  

Sunrise in Trelew as we waited for the van to take us to Reserva Provincial Peninsula Valdes.

Going on an organized tour to Peninsula Valdes made it a lot easier for us to get around.

The tour guide was knowledgeable and well organized, and the other folks on the tour were congenial. The drive from Trelew to the peninsula took a couple of hours, the roads on the peninsula were unpaved and difficult. We were glad not to have to deal with that.

Negotiating the gravel roads.

Península Valdés is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve and is the place where the great southern right whales breed and give birth in the winter (June – December). Of course we missed all of that. But the up-side was that the place was not overrun with tourists who come from all over the world to witness this major world event.

We stopped at several places along the several hundred km circuit through the reserve where there were specific things to see. Although not there in great numbers this time of year, we did see elephant seals, sea lions, herds of grazing guanacos (relative of the camel), a few rheas (a big bird sort of like an emu or small ostrich) and one hairy armadillo. Also some penquins. 

Hairy armadillos live in these holes.

A hairy armadillo greeted us in the parking area.

An exciting thing that can occur here between October and April (we are here in March) is that killer whales (Orcas) patrol the beaches in search of sea lion pups to kill and consume. One disadvantage of being with a tour group is that we were not able to hang around long enough to wait and see if we’d be fortunate enough to witness such an event.

Sea lions

I am glad I remembered to bring my binoculars to see these hard to see sea lions.

We were a little disapppointed that we did not see more wildlife while on this sort of safari. But seeing the environment was also fascinating. Broad sandy beaches where people are not permitted line most of the coast, but there are also steep cliffs of relatively loose sediments with lots of fossils embedded in them. Most of the interior of the peninsula consists of sheep ranches. Wild guanacos (relative of the camel) and rheas (sort of like an emu) share the arid grasslands with the sheep. There are some salt depressions, and salt was mined here at one time. The climate is very dry and windy. Of course, a day excursion like this can only gives you a taste of what a region has to offer. That was more than satisfying for us at this point.

Peninsula Valdes view.

Just in case you were wondering, we are still in Argentina.

Peninsula Valdes cliffs.

Our bus to Buenos Aires left Trelew at about 1 p.m. on 2-27-09. We arrived in Buenos Aires the following morning around 6 a.m. For our last bus trip, we chose to go first class: chairs that fully reclined for sleeping comfort, two meals (wine included) plus a snack.

Waiting for the bus to Buenos Aires where we would spend a few days before flying home.

We had a good view from the upper deck, front row seats.

We got first class seats for the 20 hour overnight ride. Super-cama accomodations, two meals with wine, and a snack.

Sunrise as we pulled into Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires bus terminal.

I’d found a place to stay in BsAs on the internet, but it turned out to be a dump. After one night there, we moved to the most expensive hotel we’d stayed in the entire trip ($90.00 a night). It was a small boutique type hotel in a trendy part of the city. It was clean, comfortable, with good service, friendly staff and worth it. We mostly just relaxed, did a little shopping, went to the Museo de Bellas Artes again, and repacked our luggage in preparation for the flight home Tuesday night 3-3-09. We also found a good kosher restaurant in the same trendy neighborhood, so Steve and I were able to share and enjoy a good steak for final dinner of the trip.

Nest stop, Pennsylvania. 

Home, sweet home.

We spent the first day trying to find a place to stay.  We had found something adequate but not very interesting via Lonely Planet for the first night. But since she only had one night available, we had to find something else anyway.  Our search led us to a cabin that we loved, made with loving care by the owners.  It was really a wonderful place.  These photos only give you a small idea.

The town of Esquel was not remarkable.  But there were great things to experience in the environs. 

 The first one was a ride on a narrow guage steam train that, with its wooden cars and hard backed benches, is a national historical monument.  The train yards are open, and we were able to walk around and observe, close up,  the staff getting the engine ready for its journey. 

Called La Tronchita (a dimutive for “guage”), the whole excursion takes about three hours, goes up into the mountains a bit and takes you to a Mapuche hamlet called Naheul Pan.  The folks there wait with their crafts and food for the arrival of the tourists.  Amazingly, it is all low-key and pretty tastefully done. They also maintain a lovely little museum about Mapuche history.  We boughts some hand knitted, woolen socks.

The second thing we did, and a main reason we were in Esquel in the first place, was to visit the Parque Nacional los Alerces.  You may remember Steve’s post about the priest he met on the trail at  Aconcagua who wrote a payada for Steve and encouraged him to visit this 263,000 hectare park. 

This park owes its name to a tree named incorrectly Alerces (or larch) by some Europeans because it looked like the larch.  It is also known as the Patagonian Cypress, but the name Alerces seems to have stuck.  It is a very unusual, slow growing tree that requires certain moist conditions and other factors to grow.  So, basically, it only grows in this part of the world.

You get to the part of the park where these trees grow by boat across a glacial lake, and then must take a guided tour through a protected area.  It was a great walk through the thick forest, along a river, water fall, etc. , culminating in a visit to the oldest tree in the place, known as El Abuelo.  Unfortunately I don’t remember just how old this tree is, but rest assured that it is up there in the thousands of years.

But even more exciting than seeing this tree was experiencing the guide, Manuel.  A young man, enthusiastic about his work and about the wonders of the natural world. A born teacher, he was able to beautifully and articulately impress upon us lessons about ecology, conservation and the importance of passing the message on to younger generations.

El Abuelo

We got back to town in time for a sunset over Esquel and with enough time to prepare for our departure by bus the next day. We would be traveling overnight across the steppe to the Altantic coast and the city of Trelew.

This post is about what we did after we returned to Argentina from the lake district of Chile. In that previous post, I mention our plan to go to El Bolson, the hippie capital of Argentina, if not of all of South America. Whoever said “You can’t go home again” never visited El Bolson. 

From Puerto Varas, Chile (remember Andres living out his dream of having a hostel?) we took a bus on February 14 across the border to Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche is a major stop for those wanting to be wowed by glacial lakes. The ride there took us through the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi, and we were appropriately wowed.

In 1903, explorer Francisco Pascasio Moreno, who was later nicknamed “Perito” (expert) , explicitly mentioning the U.S.  as a model, donated a huge amount of land to be a national park.  More land was later added to the park, which includes large glacial lakes, rivers, forested moraines and mountains, and snow covered peaks of the Andes. The way-south Parque Nacional Perito Moreno and the famous Glacier Perito Moreno, are named after him. We, unfortunately, were not able to visit glaciers this trip. (So much to do, so little time.)  Anyway, it is worth a google to learn more about this very interesting man.

As beautiful as the Bariloche setting is, we had decided not to stay in this major tourist town, but to go further south. That decision took us to El Bolson where we spent a relaxing 4 days..

The town of El Bolson is charming enough, but the real attraction is the mountains around the valley in which the town is nestled. The decision not to rent a car left us a bit stranded in the town, and we did not get into the mountains as much as we would have liked. We rented bikes on two occasions, but the roads and the up-hill climbs were a real challenge for me. So we didn’t get too far afield by that method of transportation either. But we definitely got the idea. We also enjoyed the artisan fair and concert in the plaza of the town. It was the happening place to be.

The following pictures will hopefully be worth more than thousands of words.  Remember that you can click on them to open them up fully.  Enjoy.

We arrived in Santiago on February 1 after a long bus ride that was made even longer by delays at the Chilean border. I wrote about that bus ride earlier. We were met by Carolina and Luis Edwardo Guzman who we had met some days before in Mendoza, Argentina where they were on vacation.

Luis had suggested an hotel apartment, reasonably priced and near to where they live. We decided to follow his recommendation and found ourselves in a newer area of the city, very modern and very much like the USA. During the days, Steve and I ventured into the “old” city and did some sight seeing, even checking out neighborhoods that caused the Guzman’s to be a little worried about us. We had no problems anywhere and found the neighborhoods interesting.  We did not get to know the city as much as we might have if we’d been there under different circumstances. But the trade off — city or friendship — was well worth it.

In the evenings we got together with the Guzmans, meeting at a cafe or at their apartment, and stayed up into the wee hours talking. The conversations took place in a combination of Spanish, English and even some French since Vivian (Mrs. Guzman) spoke French. The dtrs, Carolina and Maria Ignacia spoke English. M.I and I hit it off well, and she – having been initially shy about speaking English – took advantage of the opportunity to practice with me. And I practiced my Spanish with her. So we had a sort of “intercambio.” 

It was like a new love with all of them, in that we always had a hard time saying good-bye and the relationship was intense. We and they acknowledged that it was not usual for us to “click” with people to that extent.

One day, Carolina took us on a car tour of their part of the city, up into the hills, past their schools and other sights,  and to an interesting artisan mall. Maria Ignacia came along, too. One of the things we did was stop in to visit their aunt, also named Carolina, the sister of Vivian. We had a great visit with her, and an immediate connection, due in large part to her interest and profession in art history and curatorial work. I got teary at the idea that we had met these wonderful people who we might never see again. Aunt Carolina was more optimistic, saying that we just have to make it happen somehow.

I will leave it to you do do your research elsewhere on the history of Chile and of Santiago. In this post, instead of writing more, I am sending 36 pictures with descriptions. I figure 36 is only a roll of film – not too many. 

I hope the descriptions print in such a way that you can follow them.  If not, I hope you can figure them out. Many of the pictures  have gotten automatically cropped, so click on them to get the complete photo.  I think you’ll get the idea.  Mainly, I hope you enjoy them.

Aconcagua, 6,900 + Meters -- 23,000 feet

Written on 30. enero 2009

We went up National highway 7 to Aconcagua regional park, and took a little hike in the hills. We were at the foot of Mount Aconcagua, which I now know is the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, and second only to the Himalayas. Nearly 7,000 meters, 23,000 feet. We didn’t go that high, we were in the neighborhood of 2,500meters I suppose. There were climbers around, and we learned that the trek up is two weeks, while the trek down is a couple of days.

But I was very satisfied with where we were. There are plenty of words in English that are overused, “promiscuous” words, one is breathtaking. What we saw today really deserved that word in its strictest sense. Neither words nor pictures can convey it, but Rebecca was snapping away so she’ll likely give you some little fragments through images.

For my part, I made some great contacts. That’s what I do.

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Written 8. febrero 2009

Three Conversations in the High Andes last January 28^th

First was Juan Sebastián, his father Coco and his family. Next to us in the parking lot at Aconcagua Departmental Park as we had our lunch and prepared to take our walk a ways up the summit trail, a family was returning from their own walk. A little boy about three was among them and of course I had to ask him his name and how old he was. He was Juan Sebastián, and his father was also called Juan Sebastián, but people called him Coco. Coco and I got to talking and one thing led to another, and so after we had talked about Obama and the election, and how I had gone door to door on election day and how glad people were to see me and how they had told me they had already voted at seven that morning, Coco told me some of the “must-see” sights in the south of Argentina. He told us to be sure to go 400 km. south of Bariloche to Esquel, to Parque nacional los aceres. Alerces is the name of very old trees, he said, that are very tall, and can be thousands of years old. Sounded very much like Sequoia National Park in California, which I also haven’t seen. I’d love to see the alerces, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to fit them in.

At the end of our day in the high Andes, we met up again with Juan Sebastián and his family, which included, I think, a sister-in-law whom I hadn’t met at the park’s parking lot. Coco recounted to them the whole story of my election day experience and the whole family shared our joy at Obama’s election. Sadly, neither Rebecca or I thought to take a picture of Juan Sebastián and his family.  But we did follow up on his suggestion so here I am publishing from Esquel.

I meet Padre Oscar and his companion on the trail

Then came Padre Oscar, coming down the mountain with a friend as we were walking up. He was bearded and very hip looking, wearing his t-shirt over his head, un-self consciously protecting him against the sun, and was reciting some kind of poetry as he walked down toward us; I remarked, ¡que palabras hermosas! what beautiful words! I asked him what he was reciting and he explained that he wasn’t reciting, but improvising. He explained that Argentineans have a tradition of improvised gaucho poetry, called “payada.” Oh, yes, I said, I’ve learned something about payada, since I’m working on reading Martín Fierro. “Oh, but Martín Fierro doesn’t follow the traditional meter and rhyming scheme of the payada.” He then pulled out his cell phone, on which he had recorded some payadas he had heard, or downloaded, from the national payada contest in Buenos Aires, and played one for me.

Padre Oscar gives me a listen to a Payada

He further illustrated the form by showing me. “The rhyming scheme follows x-o-o-x-x-o-o-x-x-o.” He used x and o the way we would use a and b in plotting the rhyming scheme in an English poem. “What’s your name? Steven? Here, I’ll compose a payada for you.” And he proceeded thus, in my notebook (without punctuation, of course):

x Yo te doy la bienvenida I offer you welcome

o Amigo Steven que no eres retoño Friend Steven, you who are not [young] like a bud

o Tu eres otoño You are autumnal

x En el arbol de la vida In the tree of life

x Y te lo digo en esta subida And I tell you this during this climb

o En esta simple canción By means of this simple song

o Con mucha unción With much unction [?]

x Por tí me saco el sombrero For your sake I doff my hat

x Amigo verdadero True friend

o Que dios te de la bendición May God give you blessing.

signed, P[adre]. Oscar, vocacionista

Oscar, it turns out, is a priest, and had recently spent a good deal of time in Rome. He and his friend had been accompanying an Italian friend, a bicycle racer, who was summiting at Aconcagua in order to expand his lungs for a forthcoming bike race. He sprinkled Italian into his Spanish conversation. Oscar called himself a vocacionista, meaning that his priestly vocation is vocational – he helps young people prepare themselves for productive careers. He gave me his email address, and among the many homework assignments I’ve picked up on this journey is to contact him.

His companion gave me another near impossible assignment, to take the time in Chile to see Torres de Paine at the very south of the country.

Sometimes you put yourself out there, anywhere, and beautiful gifts fall into your lap. With the amazing privilege of being on this trip at all, these things continue to take my breath away.

And then, on the way back to Mendoza, we met Juan _________, I forgot the second part of his name. Juan was at he overlook of the Puente inca, a must-see rock formation, bending over a bicycle. The bicycle was pointed toward Argentina, so I assumed he had come up the Chilean slope, and indeed he had. “How long did it take you?” I asked him. “About six hours” was his reply, but that didn’t sound quite right. “I mean the whole way,” I said, and he replied that he’d been on the road for two and a half months.

Chatting with Juan, the long distance cyclist

Juan spoke in the unmistakable cadence of a madrileño. He had flown over with his bicycle. To comply with the requirement that you have a return ticket in order to be admitted into the country, he had bought a Madrid-Buenos Aires-Montevideo ticket. “Pero nadie ha averigüado,” he said. Nobody checked and he could have come with a one-way ticket. The same went for his taking the bicycle on the plane. He should have been charged extra for the bicycle, but nobody charged him. From Buenos Aires he had flown with his bike to Ushuaia, the southernmost Argentinian city, and he had been working his way northward ever since. His plans involved continuing on at least to Peru, and possibly to Colombia, by next June.

“What are your plans for your return?” I asked Juan. He said that he had worked in the insurance business, but had no expectation of being employed easily because of the economic crisis. “I can always be an alpinist,” he went on; he had a lot of experience as a mountain guide in the Alps. “The form of traveling you’ve chosen is cheap, at any rate,” I suggested. “I don’t spend much money at all,” he replied. He gets put up in places like fire stations, or he camps out, so that he rarely pays for a place to sleep; groceries are just about his only expense.

We spoke about bicycles at some length. “Did you do a lot of research to choose a bicycle?” I asked. “No, I just brought the bike I had.” It was a pretty fancy bicycle though, an expensive looking American mad mountain bike – was its brand Merida? “From California”, he said. “At home, they were advising me to buy these 80 Euro tyres so that I wouldn’t have any flats. These are six Euro tires. I’ve had to patch them maybe five times, and they are fine. “Do the shock absorbers absorb energy, and make pedaling harder?” I asked. “You can lock the shock absorbers,” he replied, and went on to say that he would never have been able to handle some of the roads he’s traveled on without them. He wasn’t sorry to be on a mountain bike rather than a touring bike. Unfortunately it looks like my camera strap got in the way when I took his picture so you can’t see all the details of his bike. You can’t see his waterproof paniers.

Juan and his bike -- long distance rider

The Guzman family as seen from the window of the bus as we left Santiago.

We rented a car in Temuco and spent several days having a good time exploring the Chilean lake district.  First we went to Villarica, which does not mean Rich Town but is an Indian word for something like sandy bottom. It is a busy tourist town, but has remained fairly modest compared to some we saw. We had a good time getting to know it a little bit.  

In addition to the large and beautiful glacial lakes, the area has a lot of volcanos. We hiked  in the area around the Villarica Volcano, but did not go to the summit. 

A picture pretty view of Volcan Villarica.

A wide variety of vegetation

Interesting colors and formations

Where there are volcanos, there are thermal baths. So we took advantage of the opportunity.

I also enjoyed shopping at the various artisanal fairs in the town. There was one that was organized by a collective of Mapuche people, and was more interesting than the run-of-the mill ones. (Street/craft fairs are all over the place.) 

Weaving demonstration at Mapuche artinasal fair.

Young man working in his uncle's food stand at the Mapuche fair. He is planning on becoming a lawyer and enjoyed practicing English with us.

Mapuche artinsanal fair in Villarica.

 In Villarica we stayed in a room in a private home.  The home was over-decorated with artificial flowers and the lady’s collection of ceramic plates and figurines.  Not to our taste, but interesting in a curious kind of way. Very German, I’d say. (See more later about the German influence in this part of Chile.) Anyway,  the woman and her husband were very nice.

Villarica tourist house. Are we in Chile or Germany?

Our hosts in Villarica.

From the Villarica/Pucon area we headed south to the Frutillar/Puerto Varas area. We planned to make a circuit around Lago Llanquihue (pronounced Yankeeway). We based ourselves in Puerto Varas, where we stayed in the Hostel Helmut House.  Andres just opened up this place the beginning of February and was still getting organized.  The room was large and comfortable, the breakfast was good, and Andres was a bit eccentric. Andres had given up his job in an insurance company and was following his dream. He ended up endearing himself to us and by the end of our stay, it felt more like we had stayed with a friend than in a business establishment.   One thing he did was make real coffee for us in an Italian type espresso pot.  Most Chileans drink instant Nescafe.

Steve and Andres at the Puerto Varas mirador.

Andres gave us a tour of Puerto Varas and took us to see the view. Too bad it was an overcast morning.

(As an aside: Steve recalled a scandal some years ago in Chile because poor people were giving diluted – to make it go further –  Nestle instant baby formula to their babies, resulting in malnutritian.  The Nestle Company bore some responsibility for promoting their product over breast feeding.)

Nestle is still very big in Chile.

We could not find any real coffee on the shelves in the supermarket. It looks like Nestle even wants you to give up real milk!

A restaurant in Puerto Varas advertizes that they make real coffee.

Throughout the region, the towns vary from fancy touristy places to small, more depressed or neglected places.  Rio Negro is one place that didn’t seem to benefit much from the tourist trade.

Rio Negro street scene. The riches of the tourist industry don't reach everwhere.

Buying our daily supply of fruit in Rio Negro.

Colorful photo, but poor town (Rio Negro).

Not everything in Chile is "1st world"

It is also a curious area culturally because around 1850 the Chilean government recruited immigrants from Germany to settle in this heavily forested part of the country, to develop it agriculturally and improve the economy of Chile.  This they did, with the help of government policies that, among other things, took land away from the indigenous Mapuches. The prevalence of lace curtins and kuchen, as well as farmland that was all forest at one time,  speak to the success of this effort. 

German influence in Fruitillar.

The history of the Mapuche people, their resistence to the Spanish conquistadores of the 16th century, issues related to the German immigration and their current efforts to maintain their identity and claim their rights make for good reading.

History and politics aside,  the landscape is beautiful throughout.  As I suggested earlier, get out your map of Chile so you can find the region and our favorite place, which ended up being Las Cascadas.  It  is across Lago Llanquihue from Frutillar. 

This could be land cleared by German immigrants in 1850.

Across the street from Bavaro Beach Lodge.

So much beauty no matter the weather or time of day.Amazing glacial lakes.

Another amazing glacial lake.

A few km on the dirt road going out of Las Cascadas towards Ensenada we happened upon a place called Bavaro Beach Lodge. It was quite lovely, peaceful, with a beautiful black sand beach, good food, lovely grounds.  It was across the road from the dump that Lonely Planet recommended. 

Bavaro Beach was just what we needed.  We had a simple,  but nicely furnished and decorated room with our own bathroom for around $50.00.  There were larger, more elegant ones for a little bit more.  If you ever want to take a quiet, restful vacation in Chile, I highly recommend it. It is owned by a guy who left Bavaria, Germany where he was a dairy farmer.  He told us he knew nothing about the history of German settlement in the area when he bought land in this part of Chile about 15 years ago, set himself up as a farmer raising trees for lumber, calves to sell to others who then raise them for beef, and sheep which he raises for meat that gets exported to Europe and the United States.  About 4 years ago he decided to build Bavaro Beach Lodge, using lumber from his farm, and add tourist business to his resume.

Fine, black volcanic sand at Bavaro Beach.

The dining room at Bavaro Beach Lodge.

The Bavaro Beach "cottage" that our room was in.

Our room at Bavaro Beach had two beds. This was mine.

We did not see much of the town of Las Cascadas, but it does not seem to have much going on. For more action, it is not a far drive to Frutillar or Puerto Varas, which are major tourist towns. In Las Cascadas, we took a beautiful walk to a waterfall.  Two kms on a dirt road in the car and then a 1 km walk through woods and across streams to get to the waterfall. The walk , the woods and the falls were magnificent.

More hikers crossing the river on the way to the cascade.

Tree roots made the path more interesting.

There were at least three of these log bridges. I was thankful for the handrail.

Worth the trip.

We had to hurry back to Puerto Varas because we – I should say Steve –agreed to take on the task of returning the car in Puerto Montt, the largest city nearby.  That turned out to be somewhat of a hassle because it needed to be returned to the airport, which was difficult to find. Then Steve had to get back to Puerto Varas where we are spending the night. Figuring out all the logistics, and getting exhausted in the process,  are among the ”joys” of traveling.
  
Tomorrow morning we are taking a bus to Bariloche, Argentina and from there we are going to El Bolson, said to be the Argentine version of a hippie town in a valley in the mountains.  Backpackers and hikers flock there as the base for their adventures. The mountains that I’m referring to are still the Andes, though further south and not as high as those near Mendoza. And the area  is lush and green, though the mountains themselves rise above the  tree line.

Then we plan to go to Esquel and the  Parque Nacional de los Alerces, a forest with big, ancient trees called Alerces, maybe comparable to the Sequoias in California (which we’ve never seen). We have only two weeks left until we must return to Buenos Aires.  We don’t yet have definite plans for the remaining two weeks, but have ruled out getting further south to the glaciers. Time is short and the distances are great. Unfortunately the distances do not get shorter even though time goes by more quickly.