Week 14 – Perito Moreno and Bariloche

Unlike last week when we were somewhat active this week we mostly sat on the bus. We travelled 2,641km which took us together 44 hours! So inevitably this week’s blog will be dedicated to the bus travel.

Route 40

The first and the slowest was the overnight journey from El Calafate to Perito Moreno. 621km would have taken us 14 hours on mostly unpaved (apparently famous) route 40 if the bus wouldn’t break some 2 hours before destination. It added extra 1.5h to the already turtle like ride. The bus drivers clearly struggled with the repair and needless to say there was no mobile coverage at all. Fortunately the bus was full (like always) with Israeli backpackers, one of whom managed to fix the problem with the help of a duct tape. I guess it was Israeli backpackers’ redemption after adding 1h to our journey to Punta Arenas because of illegal fruit smuggling. Still they need to do much more to redeem themselves after burning Torres. There is no much going on outside the bus window on the route 40. Really nothing, sometimes occasional guanaco would make an appearance or a livestock from the surrounding estancias. That’s it. The landscape got a little bit more varied on our next stretch from Perito Moreno to Bariloche travelling through the Lake District and Andean valleys. Luckily so because this time it was a 12 hours (800km) journey during the day. Both trips were on special bus services for tourist or as it may seem for Israeli backpackers and occasional Polish or Irish. There are almost no local passengers travelling on route 40. I guess they have no business going from El Calafate to Bariloche overland, not to mention that there is not enough of them to make any sensible demand! Even for the tourists in high season the buses are scarce, El ChaltenTravel goes every other day and Marga/Taqsa only once every four days. So, if you do not plan and buy the tickets in advance you might be really stuck!

Very sweet bus
From Bariloche we went to Mendoza on normal scheduled service and on a fully paved road. We made 1,220km in 18hours mostly overnight with an hour stopover in Neuquén. And what a bus it was! Seats and leg space more comfortable than any business class I have flown. The seats stretched to almost a flat bed. But the ‘thing’ on this bus journey were the meals. There was tea in the afternoon; the sweetest meal I have ever had with 3 types of cookies with dulce de leche, cookies with jam and crackers with dulce de leche and jam on the side in case you haven’t had enough. I did not think I needed coffee at first but then ordered one just do swallow all that sweetness, yet the coffee came sweetened too! Later there was diner service with wine (of course) preceded by dulche de leche snack and followed by digestive liquors. I skipped the breakfast but as one can expect it was also full of dulche de leche!  

Bus entertainment

The description of the bus journey would not be complete if I would not mention how entertainment provided by the service operators helps survive the long hours. It is all about really bad movies carefully selected from the big DVD library by the bus attendant. First I thought that the movies come in two categories: bad SF or worst of American comedies. SF I skipped except for one with Justin Timberlake titled ‘In Time’ but I watched ‘Hangover 2’ and ‘I pronounce you Chuck and Larry’ even though I never watch any movies with Adam Sandler. Then, however the very sweet bus surprised us with some film for children with Bill Murray and with action movie ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’. Yet for me the best way to pass time on the long bus journey was my ipod listening to the Argentinian diva Mercedes Sosa, or Andres Calamaro. Both their music goes well with the Patagonian landscape. I discovered also my new favourite tango 'Naranjo en Flor' that I replayed probably a 100 times this week.

I guess I have to explain why we ‘suffered’ all these hours, sweet food and bad movies on the bus.

We decided to visit Cueva de Las Manos, a Unesco World Heritage site with the paintings of mostly left hands (and also some guanacos, some other animals, hunting scenes, moons and some abstracts) made by indigenous inhabitants some 9000 years ago located in the Pinturas Canyon. Very impressive, almost hard to believe that it is not some modern graffiti! The closest town in the area to make a visit to the cave is Perito Moreno, very sleepy where everything or rather nothing happens on the main street San Martin. The main entertainment in town seemed to have been an afternoon dice gambling in highly overpriced hotel Belgrano, where we had to stay because of lack of alternatives.

Bariloche is the hub for seeing the wonderful scenery of the Lake District when it is not covered by the ash clouds from the erupting (since 4 May 2011) Chilean volcano Puyehue, which makes everything look rather grey.  The Icelandic volcanic ash in Europe in 2010 was nothing compared to this! The ash clouds have cleared up slightly when we were hanging out in town resting after the bus journey but then it went back to grey when we cycled Circuito Chico up in the lakes. The sitting and nibbling on the bus must have taken its toll on our fitness; we have really struggled to cycle undulating 32 km. It took us a disgraceful 7 hours with the long lunch break on the lake, ice cream in the Swiss village and a slight detour among barking dogs! But it was a good and rewarding cycle and in our time and budget probably the best way to get a glimpse of the Lake District.

To Mendoza we travelled of course for wineries and Argentinian Malbec tasting, unfortunately not for summiting Aconcagua like my fellow polish explorers; no fitness, time or money for this. But wine is coming next week. We just booked our first wine tour for Monday!

Week 13 – Torres Del Paine/Puerto Natales (Chile) and Glacieros/El Calafate (Argentina)

This week has been all about hiking and so will be this blog entry but because we stayed in the very interesting accommodation in both Puerto Natales and El Calafate I will first say a few worlds about them in case somebody would like to use it as recommendation for future trips.

Puerto Natales is a little sleepy town on the shores of the Sound of Last Hope (in Spanish it sounds even better Seno Última Esperanza) that serves as base for people heading to Torres Del Paine, famous Chilean National Park and as a transport hub between Punta Arenas and El Calafate. Therefore it has lots of tourist facilities; it seemed like every other house in the centre was a hotel or hostel, restaurant or tourist agency among shops with the travel gear. We read somewhere that no booking was necessary in Puerto Natales because the people with free rooms are meeting tourists at the bus terminal. We thought we try our luck like we did in the Western Balkans. To our disappointment there was only one older lady at the bus stop so we did not have much choice or bargaining power.  She turned out to be a mad woman owner and the heart of the hostel El Mirador, cheap and dated but clean establishment outside of the town centre close, where on the first night we were the only guests. It took the mad woman no more than 5 minutes to arrange for our bus to Torres del Paine, outward bus to El Calafate and recommend the best place to eat in town. Later as we were walking through town we often saw her cruising in her SUV way above the town’s speed limit. Her madness proved to be very handy for us because she seemed to have been always around to give us a lift to or from town. I thought that the hostel should be maybe renamed to Mad Woman but then we saw the binoculars at the window. She has probably been using them to spot the buses arriving to town to come down to town and get more guests hence the name El Mirador is probably appropriate.

El Calafate is a modern very commercialised town on lake Argentina with very good tourist infrastructure around its bustling main street San Martin that serves as base for day trips to the Parque National del Los Glacieros. This time we booked our accommodation because we heard that it gets very full in high season. We found Hospedaje Lautaro on hostelworld.com (I guess it did not make it yet to latest edition of Lonely Planet but I am sure it soon will) and chose it both for price and ratings. It turned out to be a lovely small hostel on a quiet street, yet very close to the centre, run by Belen, former tourist guide who was the friendliest source of all information and Dario, a former chef who cooks a few dishes in the evenings just for the guests from the best of what Patagonia has to offer. We had very tasty homemade fettuccini with wild mushroom sauce, so good that we had again the second night and wonderful pastel de papa, a dish very similar to shepard’s pie. It was a very nice change from not very creative Chilean fast food dishes and steaks and pizzas that dominate menus in the restaurants.

So now back to hiking, in chronological order:

Torres Del Paine – When we arrived in Puerto Natales we already knew about the fire that was burning significant portion of the park (allegedly started by one of many Israeli campers in the region). We knew hiking routes were limited but in any event we only had an appetite for not more than 2 or 3 days trek in the wilderness. Luckily, the trek to the view point of the Torres themselves was open and we saw them on the first day. On the second day after overnighting in the shelter El Chileno, we did Los Cuernos leg of the trek, scenic and relaxing but long walk along the lakes. We ended our last day in the park with a couple of hours wait for the bus back to Puerto Natales. Waiting would have been really boring if it wouldn’t be for a parade of beautiful horses walking past to another gazing field finished with a spectacular sight of the gaucho herding them.

Reserva Nimez – After we arrived in El Calafate we had a spare day of wondering around and doing nothing before we could go on a day trip to Perito Moreno. We spent most of it on a very slow 3 hours walk in the bird’s reserve along the lake. It was a real treat for a newly discovered and emerging birdwatcher in me. I am not very educated, yet, so I cannot really name the species but we saw flamingos, lots of different ducks, geese and some small flying birds (apologies to all the real birdwatchers that might ever read this blog). Thanks to a stray dog that decided to walk with us (until he started to follow some other tourist) we got an up close encounter with some sort of birds of prey (again apologies to real birdwatchers) that followed him until they decided he was too big for them to attack.

Perito Moreno – Perito Moreno glacier is part of the Parque National De Los Glaciares and part of the third largest ice field (after Antarctic and Greenland). We did a day trip that included 1.5 hours walking in crampons on ice. It actually was much easier than I thought. Or maybe it was easy because we were told exactly where to step to avoid any ‘wholes’ or other dangers. It was a very good day and I do not think I have to say how spectacular it was. Just see the photos. We could also visit the glacier just by walking on the viewing balconies and taking a regular boat trip and skip the trek which was much cheaper option but I thought the mini trek was worth the price for somebody who may never have an opportunity to step on a glacier.

Lago Roca – We had one extra day to spare in El Calafate because we could not get our onward tickets. We read about Lago Roca, the southern corner of the Parque National de Los Glaciares, in Frommers that we randomly picked in our hostel. Frommer’s said that Lago Roca was an undiscovered secret of the region offering spectacular views of both Perito Moreno and, on a clear day, Torres Del Paine. So it was an easy choice for our spare day. What Frommers said was absolutely true. The views were spectacular and it was rather empty over there, no words necessary if you look at the pictures. What Frommer’s (or Lonely Planet or the locals) did not say was how strenuous the hike to get those lovely views is. It also did not warn us about jinxing German!  When we started hiking, the 1000m ascent, described on the local map as 4h medium trek we were alone on the path. We were doing really well and well ahead of the scheduled time until some 200 meters before the top when German caught up with us with his super hiking boots and pols. After a very friendly chat he set off to the peak while we took a water break and watched him struggling up the last 100 meters. Then we followed just to discover that some 50-60 meters before the top that I was paralyzed by fear on a very steep, dusty path. I couldn’t do a step forward or backwards. I barely kept my balance on what then seem to me a vertical slope with the sliding gravel surface. And so we turned back sliding our asses down on the gravel… Very unfulfilling to miss the peak by some 50 meters but I guess one has to know the limits. At that time we did not know that it was the German jinx, until he caught up with us again on our way down after our picnic lunch. We started to walk down together chatting our way but three people walking together create too much dust so he decided to go ahead alone. Then I realized I left my camera on our lunch spot. It was there but recovering it cost us climbing up another 150m and worse coming it down again! Anyway, absent German jinx, it was a really good day trip. Highly recommended if you every make it to El Calafate, I just maybe have to tell the national park guards to design the last part of the path in some smoother zigzagging manner rather than straight up!

That’s it for hiking stories. The treks we done this week were just about enough to get us back in shape. We are now heading north and not planning any more substantial trekking, unless absolutely necessary!

Ps: As I discovered in the bus back from Lago Roca to El Calafate, the jinxing German studied BWL in Tuebingen, about the same time where I was there as an exchange student. He now lives in Augsburg and follows the opinions of prof. Starbatty who now is a well-known Eurosceptic.

Week 12 – Ushuaia (Argentina) and Punta Arenas (Chile)

This blog entry will be about what happens at the end of the world (or rather its more southern corner) and it will be very short because other than being stunningly beautiful not much happens here at all, especially in sleepy towns with lots of tourist infrastructure but not to many tourists at all.

How long are the days at the end of the world?

When we arrived in Ushuaia on Tuesday (3/1/2012) after a long journey via Madrid and Buenos Aires we were exhausted and went to bed rather early and woke up late so I had no idea that the sun sets close to 11pm. I discovered it the next day when we walked to the hostel from the Irish pub ‘Dublin’ in the daylight! The following day I was wearing sunglasses at about 9pm. Incredible! On Saturday we walked at about 4:30am to the bus station to catch the 5am bus to Punta Arenas in the daylight looking at the still slightly pink clouds over the Beagle Channel. I realise that this is known fact that the days are longer at the southern-most end of the world but yet it felt sort of out of this world. I guess the long days are also a reason why the locals do not seem to eat dinner before 8pm, with restaurants still filling up long past 9pm. We just have to adjust our bodies to the new schedule.

What did we do on the long days at the end of world?

I never thought of myself as the wildlife aficionado or worst a birdwatcher. Yet, I wholeheartedly enjoyed a visit to the penguin island and a costal walk in Tierra del Fuego national park. Unlike more tourists in Ushuaia who take a long cruise through the Beagle Channel (named after the ship that Darwin sailed on) and see the penguins only from the boat and considering my aptitude for the seasickness we decided to take a different option with Piratour. It involved 1.5 hour bus ride to Estancia Harberton and only 15 minutes on the small boat to the Isla Martillo, with the colony of some 14 thousand Magellanic and a small colony of Papua penguins. This is the only tour in town with permission to walk on the island among the penguins. Our tour guide, Marcia, was really wonderful. The penguin families were now bringing up their little ones that were about 40 days old. It was very exciting to walk among those little families of 4 (Magellanic penguins have always 2 kids) and even more so among the 1 year old youngsters, who unable to nest, are just hanging out on the beach. I had to, however, contain the excitement not stress the penguins!

The next day we went to the Tierra del Fuego National Park, mindful of being out shape after long hours spent at the table at home at Christmas and New Year, we picked costal hike on the banks of Beagle Channel that did not ascent too much. Strangely enough, as we were walking the sun always shone when we were crossing the beach and the rain came when we were in the shelter of the Fuegian forest. Other than the lovely landscapes we saw a fox, rabbits, and black-necked swans and some other ducks. We ended our walk at the end of national route 3. You could say that this was the end of any roads in South American continent. And like anything at the end of the world, there was not much happening there, just the end of the road with a parking spot.

When we went to Punta Arenas, a sleepy town in Chilean Terra del Fuego (I think it is southern-most city in Chile) we decided to rent bicycles for two reasons; (1) to get back in shape a bit, (2) considering our post-Ushuaia budget shrinking we could not really afford another trip to the penguins, even though here it was the major attraction in town. We decided to cycle up to the forest above the town but failed to find the way. We could not really ask the neighbourhood dogs which seemed to be the only creatures we saw on the way. Cycling steep uphill on the gravelled street only confirmed how out of shape we were! So we returned and ended up cycling through town and some 15km south of town in the sun and wind along the Straits of Magellan. We had pick lunch on some deserted beach nested between fishing villages or rather cemeteries of really old ships.

What not to do when crossing the border between Argentina and Chile?

We took a regular bus from Ushuaia that was supposed to get us to Punta Arenas at about 4.30 pm after 11.5 hours. As if the scheduled time was not long enough we arrived some 3 hours later. Luckily (as noted above), the days are long here so we still had time to check into the hostel and have a nice dinner at local treasure restaurant La Marmita. Some of the delay was attributed to the busy border crossing with several buses arriving there at the same time at least 1 hour delay was because of 3 fellow travellers who decided to ‘smuggle’ 1 apple, 1 orange and 3 tangerines across the border. The border guards turned out to be very strict about and ended up writing them up with warning and detailed stamped reports on the smuggling. I guess there must be good reasons to for protecting own habitats, so for future reference please do not try to break the rules for your own and fellow passengers comfort!

After the border the ride was smooth. We had to cross the Straights of Magellan on the short ferry ride at Punta Delgada. Just to reaffirm that nothing happens at the end of the world, there was nothing to see from the ferry, just long stretches of water and a lighthouse closer to the shore. Not much happened on land either; just big fields with sheep, cows, occasional guanaco and a newly discovered birdwatcher in me spotted one nandu (sort of an ostrich known as rhia in English).

This is it for my account of nothing happening at the end of the world. Next week we continue to travel north to the world famous national parks Torres Del Paine in Chile and Los Glaciares back in Argentina. Another border crossing is awaiting us, hopefully smother this time.

Week 10 and 11 Vietnam – Cycle Ho Chi Minh to Hue, Night train Hue to Hanoi, Boat on Ha Long Bay

Another overdue blog entry but I do have a really valid excuse. It was very hard to find time to blog after cycling all day followed by hot shower to keep the muscles in relatively little pain followed further by lovely dinners where we explored the best of the best of local cooking and tasted local beers or surprisingly nice Vietnamese wine from Dalat. So here I am typing this blog already home in Poland in the middle of Christmas preparation and finalising it while waiting in Madrid for our flight to Buenos Aires and publishing already in Chile.

Cycling

I am not sure where to start, so much as happened in these two weeks! We started easy with a 20km ride from Ho Chi Mingh to the Vietkong tunnels where the purpose of the ride was to get a feel for the bikes.  And since then every day was more difficult but yet more rewarding because despite more and more sore muscles I could feel the ability and fitness rising with every km on the bike. To the point that when on the 10th day of the trip (from Hoi An to Hue) when we climbed up the Hai Van pass at 500m I (couch potato) thought it was not that difficult. But do not get me wrong a continued clime 10% for 10 km was hard! But as always with this kind of effort the views on the way: jungle forest, coffe and dragon fruit plantations, rice fields, the fishing villages with its blue boats and beaches (including the famous China beach) plus the satisfaction you feel at the end of each day where very rewarding.

Another reward was the Vietnamese kids in the villages along the way. They did not let us pass without screaming hello or trying high five. Occasionally they would try to race us a short distance on their simple, no-gear bicycles and sometimes they would win! Or as on one break they would just hang around with us being so excited about every gesture of interest.

Hardest Day
While Hai Van pass was possibly the biggest climb in the trip for me two other days were much harder to cycle. The hardest by far was 80km day from Nha Trang to Quy Nhon where we cycled all afternoon in the rain and into a head wind. The head wind was so strong that at some point where we turned around the mountain ridge I could not balance myself on the bike and had to walk a few meters until I was able to shelter behind the next turn. Even at some downhill slopes I had to pedal because otherwise the bike would have come to a standstill!

Easiest day (supposedly)
The 100km day from Dalat to Nha Trang started with a 50km downhill ride. Supposed to be nice and easy way down yet it was another hard day for me but not necessarily for my fellow cyclists who seem to have enjoyed it wholeheartedly. The top of the mountain was covered in the incredibly dense jungle mist with the visibility of not more than 5 meters. It was for me as nerve wrecking as a rollercoaster. At the bottom of the mountain the visibility and the weather improved somewhat but still the pace of downhill was a bit much for me so I rode slowly on the breaks (probably a cycling crime) and arrived last at the lunch break some 20 minutes after the rest of the group! Later I found out that the trip mechanic who had to stay behind me all the way was previously a racing cyclist. I could only imagine how painful it was for him to go so slow downhill yet he patiently followed my turtle pace.

Spookiest day

On a way to Hue we cycled flat. It was nice and easy 100k ride among… graveyards! Apparently people around Hue (former capital of Vietnam) are very superstitious and believe in worshiping the ancestors and build them incredibly ornamental and often very large (larger than their own home) expensive graves. They stretch along the road and sometimes in the middle of rice fields. It was quite spooky experience to see nothing else for some 20 km but graves… Not to mention trying to find a spot to pee in the emergencyJ that would not offend the ancestors! 

Non-cycling days

In the trip we had two days break from the bicycle designed to see the best of the Vietnamese costal town, or maybe to get some time lying on the beach which we could not enjoy cause of the rainy weather) or maybe just to give the butt a rest from the saddle, which my backside was really grateful for. We stopped for a day in Nha Trang and Hoi Anh. Nha Trang is not a very exciting place with a temple with a giant Buddha and a site with well-maintained Cham Towers but it has mud baths. We awarded ourselves with an afternoon soaking in the mud and mineral tubs watching the rain dropping on the jungle covered mountains and really good massage.

The other day break was in Hoi An, very cheerful somewhat touristy historical town set on the river banks. Sightseeing was interesting, the Japanese-Chinese friendship bridge, temple and ancient houses and the wonderful market. We also made a half day trip to My Son, a not very well maintained and damaged in the war site of Cham constructions from about the same time as Ankor Wat (though those who have been at Ankor Wat said it was not as good). Anyway, the day in Hoi An was all about shopping!  Hoi An is the shopping capital of Vietnam. It has tons of trinket but also lots of hidden treasures and I ended up spending some money from ‘the other budget’.
 

The trip finished with a night train ride from Hue to Hanoi where we transferred for a one day/one night cruise on the Ha Long Bay, one of the new 7 natural wonders of the word that defeated Masurian Lakes in the vote. It would have been probably much nicer if the weather were more considerate of our short stay in the bay. It rained a little bit but it was overcast, grey and a bit cold. Yet, I dared to swim for a few minutes in the bay given that it was my last to swim in the South China sea.

Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi

On our last day in Vietnam we went to a Pho restaurant for our last pho. We were sat at the two empty seats and picked our beef style for the pho when we were joined by the English man with his Vietnamese fiancé whom we already met for lunch the day before in the local Bun restaurant… Rather uncommon encounter in the city of 10mln people. If you meet strangers two days in a row it is time to chat. We found out that they are getting married in January and their biggest decision was where to settle in Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi. I so could relate to their hardship in making this choice. Both cities are vibrant, full of life and motorcycle traffic, but Ho Chi Minh City had slightly more European feel to it with is wide avenues and western style shopping malls, large and expensive hotels. Hanoi appeared to have kept its Asian fare busy with small family run businesses. So it is a hard choice to pick either to live in. Luckily as a tourist you can visit both and there is no need to decide which one is the favourite! I liked them bothJ

Pho, Bun or Cau Lau

Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi is a tough call; it seemed to me however that everybody was either a Pho or Bun person. Pho is a clear broth with white noodles served either with slices of different styles of beef of your choice or chicken which you then spice yourself with a bit of chilli and lots of fresh herbs, bean sprouts and lime. Bun is slightly more complicated dish and involves more effort from the ‘eater’. All the ingredients are served separate: cold noodles, fried pieces of pork in the slightly fatty broth, garlic crushed with chillies and a plate of fresh herbs (of course) that you put in the bowl as you like it.

For those that cannot decide the favourite between the pho and bun there is also a dish ‘in the middle’: Cau Lau served only in Hoi An. It is made of thick noodles (slightly similar to the german spatzle for my germanofil friends) served with sauté pork and its jus, and as always with some herbs and lettuce. Unlike pho or bun it is served ready to eat so there is no work before diving into the bow. I do not think I liked it more than pho or bun but yet I had 3 times in a row while we were in Hoi An considering that it is confined to such a small area that I may not visit again (or at least not for a long time).

Generally the food in Vietnam was wonderful. We enjoyed every single meal whether in posh or street restaurant. The only exception was the food on the train from Hue to Hanoi but that often is the case when it comes to train food in any country.

At the end of the trip when we said our good byes to the fellow cycling tourist and our wonderful trip crew we had to fill out the trip evaluation. One of the questions in the form asked what was the highlight of the trip. It was very hard to answer because every day was different and equally wonderful! And such was my response. Today I can also easily conclude that Vietnam is my favourite travel destination, beautiful and varied landscape, different and interesting culture, lovely people, exciting shopping and wonderful and really varied food… and contrary to my expectation it was much more to it than the world famous fish sauce!


To all my friends: Start planning your trip to Vietnam, it does not have to be cycling, however you travel I am sure you’ll have wonderful time!