Argentina Tango

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 20:32:42 -0800

January 19 – February 10, 2005

We spent 24 marvelous days visiting Argentina. This is a big country, with a land mass roughly 60 % of the USA. Our travels took us to Iguazu in the north, where it can be very hot and humid, and all the way to Ushuaia in the south, where it can be windy and cold. In these days we enjoyed the very European city called Buenos Aires, the haunting and melancholy strains of the tango, the famous Argentinean beef, the vast expanses of verdant pampas, the magnificent landscapes and lakes of Patagonia and the Andes, and the extreme kindness and hospitality of the people. We were thinking where we had been In our last 12 months; we had traveled to Egypt, Jordan, Ireland, Montreal, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands , Scotland, Singapore, and Cambodia, but we felt we liked Argentina the best.

Our tour had been arranged by Paola at ArgentinaGo.com in BuenosAires at a price about half what a similar tour would have cost us if we had opted to go by National Geographic. Paola speaks fluent English, is very efficient, and her office is just a few blocks away from the Teatro Colon. Of course we did not have a live-in tour director, but we had all the hotel reservations, breakfasts included, flights, airport transfers, and many local tours. We were on our own for most of our lunches and dinners, which was fine with us, since that gave us an opportunity to sample the local fare at our own discretion. I was told that an Argentine travel agent would be able to get discounts on domestic air travel not available if you book on your own or through a non-Argentine travel agency, but I have not been able to verify this.

In Argentina the people are civilized and the scenery is awesome, there are plenty, clean public toilets, and the dollar goes a long way. A lady tourist behind us on a tour bus mentioned that when they decided to come from Taiwan to Argentina for their vacation, they were expecting a rather “backward” country because the prices on the brochures were so “cheap”. They were highly surprised with what they saw. And I would even hazard that Argentina is much more civilized than Taiwan in many respects or, for that matter, than most other countries in this world. Then again, these tourists may not have noticed. You bring a person from the bowels of the Amazon rain forests to the Metropolitan Opera and he or she will probably not appreciate how well Placido Domingo was singing that night.

above: collage of drawings for sale in the Caminito in Buenos Aires.

Ask the average American, and he or she will think that Argentina is similar to the standard Central American country they have seen, which is usually Mexico. Lower standard of living are more prevalent in Mexico than in the USA, and many people live in poorly maintained, somewhat dilapidated environment. Not true in Argentina.

Buenos Aires is Paris, not Mexico City. As you arrive in Ezeiza international airport and are driven to Buenos Aires, you find that you have arrived in an European city. The inhabitants are well-dressed and the buildings are European in style. You drive through the Champs Elysées of Buenos Aires, the Avenida 9 de Julio, which is the widest boulevard in the world, with 8 lanes of traffic going each way. The tree-lined islands lining the boulevard have benches and fountains. Here you will see people with 10 or more dogs on leashes. These are professional dog-walkers who give Fido his daily exercise while his master is busy working somewhere. To get from one sidewalk to the other side, you have to traverse two additional lanes of vehicular traffic on each of the two frontage roads. Getting from one sidewalk to the one opposite is an adventure, since you have to cross 12 lanes of traffic. But the drivers do stop for yellow lights and they do not run you over if you are a bit slow. There is of course always the impatient honking driver, but there are not as many of them as there are in good old USA.

Soon you will find out why I think that this is one of the most civilized countries in the world. Almost everywhere you can find clean public restrooms. This is amazing, but the public also helps to keep them clean by not thrashing or decorating them with gratuitous graffiti. Most of them do not even have an attendant. Only in a few places will you find attendants who will hand you a paper towel in exchange for his gratuity, commonly 0.25 pesos.

left: I like this window display in a shop in the San Telmo area of BA. It somehow epitomizes the classic elegance of Argentina.

The streets and sidewalks are cleaner than in most cities I have been in, because almost everyone refrains from throwing garbage on the streets. They actually use the thrash receptacles instead. In the bigger cities there is of course some trash lying around, but not much. And there are only a few signs exhorting you to keep your city clean. Most of the people are civilized enough to do this on their own.

The only other place I can compare in cleanliness is Singapore. But there one is forced to keep things spotless because Big Brother is watching you. With a caning stick, no less. There is a smoking ban in the Argentine National Parks. And there you will find much fewer cigarette butts, discarded food packaging, and plastic water bottles strewn around as compared to many of the National Parks in the USA. I sometimes believe that with the increase in smoking restrictions in the USA, people now go to our National Parks just to light up and chain-smoke to their heart’s content. And then they throw some additional garbage away because it looks so macho. The Parks in the USA are definitely filthier than the ones in Argentina.

Another striking thing is the distance people maintain when they queue. There is a lot of space between the people and they wait their turn patiently. If you are in a hurry, they will often gesture you to go ahead. I saw this in Iguazú, where the number of people waiting for a bus was obviously larger than the number of available seats. Yet people let us go in first. I wonder whether that was because I look old and decrepit. I hope not. Compare this with China or Indonesia where there is always a mad rush when there is a queue, and where people push and shove to get ahead, even into airplanes with reserved seats. And where it doesn’t matter whether you are old and decrepit or not; the public will run you over just to be the first in line for whatever.

right: There is always time to tango, and the tango is everywhere. These are street performers in downtown Buenos Aires.

Economic problems have forced the Government to take rather drastic steps, and the exchange rate of the Argentine peso is now approximately 3 pesos to a US$. Nine years ago, when I was here for a short visit, the peso was pegged to be equal to a US$, and everything was expensive. The number of pesos required to buy things or needed for services have not changed much. So, for practical purposes, the country is now three times less expensive for us. For the Argentines this is difficult, because they are not used to these hard times. Even the beggars and the panhandlers on the streets, which have apparently increased in numbers of late, are (still) quite non-aggressive in their approach. I suppose they have not yet quite adjusted themselves to harder times.

I: Buenos Aires

Wed, 9 Feb 2005 20:50:07 -0800

January is usually not a good time to visit Buenos Aires. It is summer, and it is supposed to be hot and humid. Many of the Porteños –that is how the inhabitants of Buenos Aires call themselves- flee the city for cooler climes. The streets are not as busy as usual. Everywhere there are empty taxis looking for fares.

So why were we there? I had been in Argentina nine years ago, on my way to the Antarctica. And even though I only stayed a few days there, I thought it was a wonderful country to come back, together with Norma, to enjoy the sights and atmosphere of this place. But with the peso tied to the dollar at that time, Argentina was an expensive place to visit. Now, with three pesos to the dollar, it was a good time to go.

Last year we saw a promotional ad by American Airlines offering a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in the world where AA flies. All what was needed was to fly two round-trips between selected cities in a defined 3-month period. San Francisco – JFK was one of the eligible segments and we had already flown one round-trip on our way to Egypt and Jordan. So we booked another round-trip SFO-JFK, this time to go to Ireland. And in due course we received the vouchers for the two round-trip tickets. We looked at the map of the world and Buenos Aires was about the furthest we could go from SFO by AA. Of course there were a zillion restrictions, including available dates. And the dates we chose were the last dates available before the tickets would expire, not to be used anymore. And it is long flight to get there from SFO.

Buenos Aires, or just plain BA, was actually quite pleasant when we were there. The temperatures hovered between 68 and 75 degrees; it was not really that humid, and there was a nice breeze. We stayed at the Pestana Hotel, a nice, 4-star hotel right across the Avenida 9 de Julio from the Hotel Presidente, where I stayed 9 years ago. And across our hotel, just one block south, is the famed Teatro Colón. Unfortunately, the theater was closed for performances until the latter part of February. But they had well-attended tours, both in English and in Spanish. It seems everybody who comes to BA as a tourist takes this opportunity to look at the innards of this famous institution. And the visit is certainly worth the time.

The Teatro Colón

The Italian Renaissance-style building of the Teatro Colon highlights the city’s European feel. Designed by Italian architect Francisco Tamburri, the theatre has seen dancers as Vaslov Nijinsky, Julio Bocca, and Anna Pavlova grace its stage. Bernstein, Strauss and Stravinsky have conducted here and Caruso, Melba, Callas, Pavarotti and Domingo have all sung in the 2500-seater auditorium. There are an additional 500 standing places. In the standing room cages on the top tier, nicknamed Paradise, where the view is not too great, the sound still comes through crystal clear. The acoustics are superb. No mechanical or electronic amplification is used. Our guide claims the Teatro is the third best opera house in the world, after the Palace Garnier in Paris and the Scala in Milan. I don’t know where she rates the Met.

The theater was built at the end of the 20th century and took 18 years to complete. As befitting a famous opera house, there was a lot of drama involved in the construction. The first architect fell ill and died soon after receiving his commission. The second architect was shot and killed by the jealous lover of his wife. But the third architect managed to complete the project. There is a lot of marble in the building, almost all of it hauled over the ocean and imported from Italy and Portugal.

left: The opulent interior of the Teatro Colon.

The Teatro was built in the classical style, in the shape of a horseshoe. The inside is red and gold. On the sides to the front of the orchestra the walls are covered with an iron grate, because at one time the Catholic Church forbade widows from being seen in public places, such as the Opera, during their period of mourning. So they had to stay behind these screens if they wanted to enjoy the Opera.

There is a lot of hidden space in this building. Below the main auditorium there are still 4 more floors in the basement, where the rehearsal halls are located, as well as the chantières where they build the sets, sow the costumes and manufacture the other required accessories. There are storage rooms for the 90,000+ costumes in their inventory, as well as for lots and lots of shoes. The Opera employs some 1200 persons, half of them artists. It runs on an annual budget of 35 million pesos.

All the tour books recommend a visit to the Theater, either for a performance, or just for a tour. I was lucky enough to see a ballet by the Ballet Company of Hamburg performing “La Dame aux Camelias” nine years ago. I remember it as being a superb and moving performance. I did not realize until then that emotions such as joy, despair and a whole range of other feelings could be so evocatively expressed by dance only. But the ending was slightly different than in La Traviata. Here Violetta dies alone, poor and deserted. The theater was not full then. I think it is now much more difficult to get tickets for performances. The theater will be closed for renovation work during 2006 and 2007.

Recoleta:

A good way to get a feel of the city is to take the half-day city tour. I think it is 10-15 pesos only per person. We were driven through the upscale Recoleta area, on the north side of the city. Here you’ll find the embassies, the nice parks and museums, the more expensive hotels and the nicer flats. This is the “beach front” property area of Buenos Aires. If you are somebody, you better have an address here. But not only the quick live here. So are the upper-class dead.

right: These are facades of tombs in the Recoleta Cemetery.

Here too lies the Cementerio de la Recoleta, an opulent city for the dead, with ostentatious mausoleums and sculptures, where the rich and powerful of Argentina are interred. Eva (Evita) Peron is buried here, surrounded by those powerful people who, when she was alive, despised her for her lower class origins. Well, she got her revenge, even in death. She lies in a simple, dark marble crypt and there is always a crowd of tourists looking at and into the Duarte family mausoleum, where she rests in eternity. But just to be sure that nobody will steal her body, her coffin is some 30 feet underground. The plaques on her grave read (translated):

Don’t cry for me for being lost and distant,
I am still an essential part of your existence.
All my love and pains are but humble imitations,
of Christ, in whose footpath I follow.

I have this burning desire to sacrifice my life, if this sacrifice could light the way and gain the happiness of this place called Argentina.

And, just for the record, here is Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Evita:

Don’t cry for me, Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance

The famous composer must have used the inscription on her grave for his haunting song in Evita. But notwithstanding his valiant efforts Eva Peron is not as popular or romanticized here as in the rest of the world. And even now, 30 years after her death, the wealthier upper class still sees her as an interloper and opportunist. I think they like Madonna better. During all the time I was there, I don’t remember seeing a statue of her in more than two locations in all of BA..

On weekends the Recoleta area is full of people enjoying the arts and crafts fair and the street performers. There is also a modern design center with stores showing really beautiful, modern, and sleek accoutrements for your new house. I wish they had something similar here.

Not too far away, several blocks in the direction of Palermo is this modern stainless steel sculpture of a tulip. As tulips go, this one is large, weighing some 35,000 pounds. As one can expect of a well-behaved flower, the petals close at night and open again in the morning.

left: Large metal tulip

And As befitting the upscale Recoleta area, here are also some of the nicer museums, such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Entrance is free, and they have a surprisingly large collection of French Impressionist paintings, many of which we had not seen before in printed volumes. At the time we were there, there was a retrospective of Emilio Pettoruti, (1892-1971), an artist who had a major impact on the artistic renaissance of Argentina in the 20th Century. He lived in France for a few years and many of his paintings are reminiscent of the work of Picasso. This seemed to upset another patron, when we brought this up, and who apparently did not think much of Picasso. Who was this upstart, this charlatan Picasso, compared to the genius of Pettoruti?

The Plaza de Mayo.

In another area of BA we stopped at the Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada, the orange-colored building housing the office of the president is located. Conveniently close by is the park where demonstrations against the Government are commonly held. The most well-known group of demonstrators are the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. a group of women, who have since become a symbol of human rights activism and courage. Dressed in black, they have been demonstrating here since 1977 every Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon, demanding to know the fates of their loved ones, the desaparecidos who have “disappeared” during the Dirty War, a bleak moment in Argentina’s history. As many as 30,000 persons, mostly young Argentinians, disappeared. Two of the most sinister figures in this drama were Bishop Antonio Plaza and General Ramón Campos, representative of the actions of the Church and the military.

Marching around the obelisk, symbol of liberty, in front of the presidential palace, they tie white handkerchiefs imprinted with names of disappeared sons and daughters, around their heads, and carry signs emblazoned with photographs of those about whose destinies they seek information.

right: Tourists talking to some Madres de Plaza de Mayo, older women with white kerchiefs around their heads, after their ritual Thursday afternoon march around the obelisk (on the right) in front of the Casa Rosada.

The mothers started their marches while the junta was still in power. Several of them, including their founder, Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti, disappeared themselves as a result. Even now, almost 30 years later, it is still an impressive and touching demonstration.

These demonstrations ended in January 2006, after President Kirchner took steps to erase the pain and to enact several laws to facilitate the finding and reunion of the lost children. His government even nominated Estela de Carlotto, one of the leading figures in the movement for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Also on the square is the neoclassical Catedral Metropolitana, which houses the tomb of General José de San Martin, the revered hero who liberated Argentina from the Spanish. He now has another legacy. In many cities, the main street is called San Martin. From the outside the Catedral does not look like a church, but rather like the Madeleine in Paris.

About a block away is the Gran Cafe Tortoni, a fin de siècle art deco hall, with lots of small marble tables, marble columns, and appropriately dressed waiters in tails. The place used to be a favorite haunting place of the likes of Jorgé Luis Borges, Carlos Gardel, the father of Argentine tango, and others famous enough to be mentioned with awe by the locals. Guests come here for the atmosphere. The list includes Sabatini, the italian tennis player, and Hilary Rodham Clinton.

La Boca, Caminito, and the Tango.

right: Some of the colorful houses of La Boca.

The very colorful La Boca is located in the south, the poorer part of the city. When the Italian immigrants came, they all settled in this area of corrugated iron houses. Because they were poor, they used to go to the ships in the port nearby to beg for leftover paint to paint their houses. That is why the houses are painted in so many different colors. Of course this is not done anymore, but the houses are still painted in a cacophony of bright, cheerful colors.

La Boca is also home to the Boca Juniors, a football team, who have won many national and international trophies.

left: This is a wall sticking out on the side of the Boca Juniors stadium. Those are effigies of the Boca’s fans.

The Boca Juniors have a huge and very enthusiastic fan base in this area, all wearing the same blue and yellow colors as Cal Berkeley. But the Boca fans are definitely more vocal. Their stadium has a capacity of 60,000. The streets around the stadium are narrow so you can imagine what the situation would be there on game days.

Some areas still have streets with cobblestones, such as the Caminito area, which is now full of artists, craftsmen, and tourists.

right: A busy corner in the Caminito district.

Tango is huge here and on the streets you can have your picture taken with an appropriately dressed tango partner for a small fee. Or you stick your face in a hole, which is part of a painting of a couple dancing the tango. The street performers are usually couples dancing to the strains of the tango. Or maybe of the candombe or the milonga, And sometimes you see two men dancing together. Because it is here, in the cafes and brothels, that the tango had developed, many decades ago. It is in this poor area, that men practiced with each other before venturing out to seduce their women with their dance. To the rich, with their conservative morals, the tango was forbidden because it was so sensual. Then, in the 40’s, the tango became a hit in Paris, and then it came back to Argentina, on the golden voice of Carlos Gardel. And only then, in the 60’s, was the dance accepted by the upper classes. The big comeback actually occurred only about 5-6 years ago. Porteños of all social backgrounds now accept the tango and the sweet, haunting, and melancholy melodies, that seem to be part of the Argentine fabric. Tango is everywhere. There are literally dozens of places offering tango shows, from Las Vegas type shows in exquisite and expensive surroundings to a simple couple performing on the sidewalk of a busy street.

left: The show at Esquina Carlos Gardel.

To go to a dinner-show most foreigners opt for the show presented by Señor Tango; the purists recommend Esquina Carlos Gardel. And everywhere you find places offering you tango lessons. If you want to make an impression on the opposite sex, there is nothing more alluring than being a good and fiery tango dancer. The pheromones you emit are astounding. Even better than money.

San Telmo

San Telmo is the city’s oldest neighborhood. Here are streets with cobblestones, low houses with barred windows, and lanterns that light up in the evening. On Sundays there is a street fair or market in San Telmo, centering around the Plaza Dorrego. If you are in BA on a Sunday, this is a place you should not miss. There are lots and lots of stalls selling really good antiques.

You can find old records, silver spoons, old bottles, porcelain, and clothing. You can also sit in one of the many bars surrounding the Plaza to enjoy the atmosphere. And inside some of these cafes there are also tango shows. The usual accompanying instrument is the bandoneon, which looks like an accordion and sounds like one.

right: Typical stall in the street fair in San Telmo selling antique glass.

There are painters and other artists displaying their products for sale. And if you need something to impress your aunt Agatha with your eclectic taste of modern art, this one on the left below may be a good candidate. I should have asked how much he wanted for the piece, although I am afraid US Customs may take a dim view if I tried to cart it home.

left: A rather overwhelming piece of modern art

Tigre and the Delta del Paraná

Buenos Aires is located on the Plata river which comes out on the Atlantic Ocean. The river is about 240 km wide at that point, so the last part of the river is almost like an inland sea. Just 40 miles or so north of BA there is a low-lying delta area in the river, with lots of islands around. This delta area is large, about 21,000 square kms, but there are obviously areas where there is more development, especially where the public buses (boats) go by. Here the main mode of travel is by boat, either by private boat r by the bus, because there are very few connections or bridges between the islands.

There are some 5000 waterways; the main ones are the Paraná Guazú, the Paraná Mini, and the Paraná de las Palmas. We stayed on the Rio Sarmiento, which seems to be the main drag in the Delta. This is a place for vacation, where you can relax in a house on one of the many islands which is only accessible by water. Don’t worry about being very away from everything. Floating grocery stores, actually small barges, filled with groceries, come by and you can just hail them to restock your supplies. This is also a good place for a day trip and have lunch in one the many restaurants on the islands. On the Rio Sarmiento, the Delta is full of vacation homes, recreation areas, little cafes and restaurants, etc.

Tigre is the big town in that area; it is also the place where the port, the Estacion Fluval de Tigre, is located for travel by water to the islands. The port itself is nothing fancy, just one bank of a river. From BA you can get to Tigre by train from the Retiro station. You can also take a taxi to Maipu station and then catch the Tren de La Costa to Tigre. This Coastal train is a small narrow gauge tourist train which goes through many upscale suburbs of BA.

right: The “port” of Tigre.

You don’t see much of the coast, but you can stop at one the many stations to look at the shops and crafts on display at the stations. It is very much tourist oriented, I would say, but very cute. For the tourist the easiest way is to buy a tour, which will take you to Maipu by bus. From there you go by Coastal train, you get out in one of the stations, look at the crafts, then by bus again to Tigre. You then get a 1-hour tour on a boat going on the main waterways along the islands, and then back to BA by bus. All for 40-50 pesos per person. We did that we skipped going back with the tour and stayed in Tigre instead.

Tigre is also the rowing capital of Argentina. There are posh-looking rowing clubs and everywhere you see sculls and people sculling. No other types of rowboats did we see. This is also where the Argentine national rowing teams practice.

left: This one is not quite to olympic form yet.

After leaving the tour in Tigre, we struck out on our own. We took the “bus” (a boat similar to our tour boat)) to the La Riviera restaurant in the Tres Bocas area, about 30 minutes away on the water from Tigre. Had a nice lunch in the restaurant at the water, and then walked along the path parallel to the water, before taking the waterbus back to Tigre. There were little guesthouses and cute cottages for rent and the atmosphere was very relaxed. It is a good place to spend a week in summer. The bus has a fixed route and time table; it does not have fixed stops; you just hail the bus and the boat will come and pick you up or drop you off.

right: The outdoor on-river terrace of the La Riviera restaurant in the Tres Bocas area.

From Tigre we took the train back to Retiro station in BA. It took about an hour for the train to get there, with maybe 8 stops on the way; but the fare was only 1.8 pesos, or less than 50 cents. It is plain incredible. I shove them a 10-peso note and I get change back. The service between Tigre and Retiro is quite frequent, so just wait for the next available train.

II: Food in Argentina

Tue, 8 Feb 2005 21:20:07 -0800

It would be presumptuous to consider myself to be an instant expert on what Bacchus and Lucullus would have enjoyed in Argentina after just the short time we were there. But we found beef to be inexpensive and everywhere you see parillas, where beef (and other meats) are broiled on racks next to an open flame. This takes a lot of fat away. In many cafes you can get Bife de Chorizo for just a few dollars, but we learned it was better, with all these inexpensive prices, to spend an extra dollar or two to get good meat. In the south, cordero (lamb) is also very popular, also broiled against an open flame.

right: Cordero (lamb) broiled against an open flame in a parilla.

In this setup the meat is only slightly salted with sea salt. Nothing else. The flavor you get is wonderful.

Argentine beef is from free-range cattle, so the meat is a bit tougher than usual, but more flavorful. If you pay a bit more, the pieces you get can be quite tender. In BA the best place we had beef was in Parilla 1880, on 1645 Defensa in the San Telmo area. We ordered the ojo de bife, or ribeye steak, al punto, or medium rare, priced at 13 pesos, or about $4.30, and more than large enough for the two of us. Bob Grey and his wife Carol, our neighbors, e-mailed us that the food there was wonderful. but that they did not expect to see half the cow served on their plates. The place is a hidden gem, because it is away from where the tourists congregate and you have to walk several blocks to get there. But it is always full. The place is only open for dinner, except for Sundays, when they also serve lunch. If you go to the San Telmo street fair, combine this with lunch at Parillo 1880. Come early or late, because otherwise there will be a wait. Unless you make reservations.

Another good place we dropped by to eat is Dada, a restaurant on 941 San Martin, BA. They have eclectic food, french style, in a small dark smoky cafe. A little bit more expensive than the average cafe, but worth it. Unless you find someone chain-smoking next to you. That can be a problem in many of the eating places in the country.

Postres y Helados.

Then there are the postres, or desserts. I sometimes believe the Argentines live for their postres. There is an amazing variety available in almost all the restaurants we have been.

left: Typical display case of postres in a standard restaurant.

If you believe that only in Vienna you can get superb little gems, come and try those in Buenos Aires. And we should of course not forget the helados, or ice creams. There seems to be helado places everywhere and they are often quite full with customers waiting patiently in line for the server to take their order. Their original ice creams are close to the original Italian gelato; not too sweet and not too creamy. Regretfully they are now changing things and many places now also supply the rich creamy sweet helado. I suppose the dentists are behind this move.

Wines.

Viniculture is practiced mostly in the mountainous Western part of Argentine. They are usually cultivated on sloping plains and the average winery is located at at the unusually high altitude of 900 meters. The major wineries hail from the regions around Salta, Catamarca, La Rioja, San Juan, Cordoba, Mendoza, Neuquen, Rio Negro, and BA. Regretfully we did not taste many of these varietal wines. But we found the wines from Mendoza to be very good. The first day we were served a 2004 San Felipe Chardonnay, almost as good as a French Puligny-Montrachet. This was amazing, especially since it was only 15 pesos for a 750 ml bottle. We did try the 2003 and 2003 vintage on other occasions, but the 2004 was the best.

Bacchus and Lucullus would have enjoyed living here.

Yerba Mate

Drinking Yerba Mate (pronounced Maté) is a cultural phenomenon throughout South America. Everywhere you see people carry their Mate with them throughout the day. Drinking mate is often a social ritual and friends share a mate as they sit or stand together. The mate is drunk from a special cup or gourd, also called the mate, to confuse things a bit. This cup is about 2” in diameter and 2 b1/2” tall. The name "Mate" is derived from the quichua word "matí", which is the name of the gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) that is traditionally used to drink the infusion.

Yerba Mate is a medicinal and cultural drink introduced by the Guarani Indians of South America. It is as tea-like beverage consumed mainly in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of the perennial tree Ilex paraguarensis ("Yerba Mate"). The tree belongs to the family Aquifoliaceae and grows mainly in the Paraná and Paraguay rivers basins. It is a tropical or subtropical plant, needing high temperatures, high humidity and up to 1500 mm of annual rain. On average, 300,000 tons of Mate are produced each year. In the wild, the plant needs about 25 years to develop completely, reaching a height of up to 15 meters. Mate has a characteristic mature flavor which is somewhat sweet, bitter, withered leaf like, and alfalfa-like, somewhat similar to that obtained from tea. Of the 196 volatile chemical compounds found in Yerba Mate, 144 are also found in tea. But mate infusions are less astringent.

To prepare the Yerba Mate infusion (called "mate" itself), the dried minced leaves of the yerba mate are placed inside the "mate" cup and hot water (approx. 70 C) is added (this is called "cebar el mate"). The infusion is sucked through a metal pipe called the "bombilla", which has a strainer at its lower end to filter out the minced leaves. There are as many different techniques to prepare mate. One of these are as follows:

* Fill the mate (cup) with the dried yerba mate herbs up to 3/4 of its capacity.
* Put your hand or a piece of paper on the mate's "mouth" and shake it gently upside-down. This is to force the smallest yerba particles (that are like a dust) to the top of the mate to make it is less likely that the bombilla tiny holes will get blocked by them.
* Gently revert the mate to the normal position and pour some hot water to soak the leaves.
* Let stand a few seconds and add hot water until about 1/2” from the rim.
* Close the bombilla's "mouthpiece" with your thumb and insert it firmly into the mate.

Some people add sugar and/or orange rinds. Some replace the water with milk, specially for the children. You drink the mate by sucking through the bombilla when the water is still hot. The mate is replenished with hot water many times until the leaves are spent. A typical charge can contain 500-750 mg of caffeine. But, since many extractions are performed, you will get a much lower dose of caffeine per sip. In comparison, a 7 oz cup of coffee contains about 80-175 mg and a cup of tea about 40-60 mg. Surprisingly, in spite of the tremendous popularity of mate drinking it is impossible to get mate at any bars or other places where tea or coffee is served. You can also prepare a mate infusion in the same way as a tea infusion using a tea bag containing yerba mate. In that case it is called mate cocido.

The mate cups used can be made of a non-porous material, such as glass, metal, or china. The purists frown on this, because there will be no "memory" of the taste when the cup is washed, and the container is unable to impart that aged taste that only a cured mate can do. Infusion must be prepared in a gourd which has been cured. The proper curing has two purposes: the removal of soft tissues and the adaptation of the gourd to the particular kind of mate.

For the removal of soft tissues, fill the gourd with used yerba mate; add hot water and let stand for a day. On the next day, remove the yerba, rinse the gourd and scrape off the soft tissues. Repeat the whole process one more time. Some people then like to fill the cup with brandy or something similar. Let stand for a day. Repeat for two or three days if you feel like it. Some people use sugar and/or charcoal, depending on how you want to use the cured mate. Now enjoy.

Shopping.

As for the shopping, there must be dozens of nice shopping centers, but close to our hotel was the Galerias Pacifico, a modern multistory shopping mall with very fashionable boutiques displaying the latest in clothing and accessories.

left: Entrance to the Galerias Pacifica, a large shopping mall in downtown BA.

Spanish in Argentina.

I have just stuck this section here, because I don’t know where to put it otherwise. And after all, it helps to get the real food you wanted, if you speak a little bit of Spanish.

I remember somebody telling me that the best Spanish is spoken in Argentine, because they speak the pure Castilian dialect here. I don’t know about this dialect, but in Argentina, the spoken Spanish seems to have strong Portuguese overtones. The first days I was wondering why there were so many people from Brasil there, because of the Portuguese accents I thought I detected. Of course I was wrong.

But they do pronounce some words differently from the Spanish you learn in the American classroom and what you speak in Baja California or in Mexico City. For instance, when I ask somebody for his name: Comó se llama usted, I would pronounce the llama as lyama. And then they reply, the way I hear could be: Me zhjamo Korge, which I don’t understand. However, in the written form his answer was: Me llamo Jorge. My name is George. So there you are. The Argentines do not pronounce the ll as ly, but rather as zhj. They also pronounce the j not as a soft g, but as the sharp c of cork.

The y is is pronounced as the ch in Johan S. Bach. So, the word arroyo, for stream, is pronounced arrocho. You know this, watch out for other pitfalls, and you can speak fluent Spanish, Argentine style.

III: Iguazú and Peninsula Valdes

Mon, 7 Feb 2005 12:21:57 -0800

Iguazú

Iguazú is of course where the world famous falls are; in the north of Argentina at the border with Brasil. To get to Iguazú from BA we took a flight on South Wind, the other major airline company in Argentina. They seem to have better equipment than Aerolinas Argentinas . Our travel agent, Paula of www.Argentinago.com, could not get a place for us in the Sheraton in Iguazu. So we had to stay at the Cataratas Hotel instead, which was miles away from the Falls, and outside the Parque Nacional Iguazú proper. But it was close to the little friendly looking town of Puerto Iguazú, which was only a 5 peso taxi ride away.

right: Main street of Puerto Iguazu. This one looks like a street in Mexico.

Nine years ago I stayed at the Sheraton, which was within walking distance from the Falls. The drawback is that at the Sheraton you are isolated at that location and would have to depend on the hotel for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And everything else in between.

In Puerto Iguazú, on the other hand, there are a lot of smaller restaurants, inexpensive internet access, and of course a lot of small tourist shoppes, where the operators would swarm around you as soon as you walk by their place, trying their very best to get you enter their shop to look at the bargains of a lifetime. But they learn fast; after one or two walks through town, where we politely said no everybody time somebody accosted us, they recognized us and left us alone for the remainder of our visit. But it is somewhat of a distance to get to the Park, but there is a bus which takes you from the front of the hotel to the Park. You can also use a taxi to get to the park for around 30 pesos.

There was nobody at the airport to pick us up, but when we made noises and waved our voucher, somebody drove us to the hotel anyway. Which was a long way away from the airport. The Cataratas hotel rates itself as a 5-star hotel, but I think it it just about a better than average 3 star hotel. Our room had a noisy wall-mounted air conditioner, which could barely keep the room cool, and sometimes we had to turn on the ceiling fan also to mitigate the heat. The outside temperature was in the high 80’s, which was not bad at all for that area, but it is the humidity which makes life somewhat unpleasant. Breakfast was ho hum. The tea they served tasted as if it was brewed the week before, and then slow-cooked on a warm plate for the last few days. We asked, but they did not have tea bags! The next days we just asked for hot water because the well-prepared traveler always has some tea bags in his suitcase.

I don’t think the average South American has a good notion of tea. When I was visiting my brother a few years ago in Saõ Paulo, I asked his housekeeper whether she could make me some tea. Which she did, with gusto, by putting a tablespoon of tea in a pan with water and boiling it for at least half an hour, I believe.

The next day there was again nobody to pick us up for the tour on the Argentine side but after several frantic phone call a taxi was dispatched to drive us helter-skelter to the Visitor’s Center to catch the tour. However, our tour had already left. So we demanded that they would take us on the tour the next day and we would spend the day by ourselves.

We had actually been assigned a tour on the Argentine side for this day and a tour for the Brazil side the next day. We had cancelled the Brazil tour, partly because we would have needed a Brazilian visa, costing $100/person, to get into Brazil. But somebody apparently cancelled everything, and so we suddenly had our “free” day. We found out that you actually do not need a tour to do the Falls. The trails are well-marked. A tour only ensures that there will always be a lot of people around you and that you will be hurried along when you want to make that nice picture, or when you want to stay a bit longer to enjoy the surroundings. And the tour leader will try to sell you additional tours, for which they get a cut.

We took the cute little, narrow-gauge Tren Ecologico de la Selva from the Visitor Center to Cataratas Station, sitting on benches 4 abreast. The train, running on natural gas, was specially designed for this area. The cabins are open so the passengers can see and smell the jungle and cool off a bit in the breeze.

left: The friendly Tren Ecologico de la Selva

It was a fun ride as the train makes a big loop before getting to Cataratas station going at breakneck speeds not exceeding 15 mph. We found out later we could have walked this distance through the Sendero Verde shortcut, which was not more than half a mile long. The path goes through the forest and takes just as long as going by train.

At Cataratas station we had to change trains to go to the Garganta del Diablo, or Devil’s Throat, railroad station. From that station we needed to walk another 900 m over a series of wooden catwalks over the upper Iguazú river to get close to this huge fall. These catwalks have been installed in 1971 and make access to the various view points extremely easy. You can see the catwalk in the picture to the left, and also in the top right corner.

right: The much-traveled orange umbrella on the catwalk over the Rio Iguazú to the Garganta del Diablo

At the Garganta del Diablo, the biggest waterfall in the world, there are some 14 falls with a drop of 350 feet. The water falls down with such a force that there is always this 100 feet cloud of spray.

Later that night we returned to this area of the Falls again. It was full moon and during these periods, for a few days, the park rangers organize a Paseos de Luna Llena, or full moon walk to these falls. It was a magical experience and I strongly recommend this tour if you happen to be there at that time o fthe month. To walk through the Selva, or rain forest, and over the catwalks in the light of the golden moon only and then seeing these huge falls shimmering in the moonlight is an unforgettable experience. We were lucky again; it was a clear night, with just a little breeze. Everybody walked quietly along , sometimes like in a daze, enjoying the magic of the moment.

The Garganta del Diablo

And after the walk, we stopped at the Restaurant La Selva in the Park for their buffet dinner, priced at 25 pesos. Gorged ourselves on the meats from the parilla; ribs, beef, chicken, fish, and sausage. All very tasty, capped with a red wine from Mendoza. Then we had to run to catch the second to last bus back to Puerto Iguazú leaving at 11:30 p.m. from the park center. The bus goes by our hotel and you just ask the bus to stop to let you off. Without the bus it would otherwise have been an extremely long walk or expensive taxi ride.

In the Garganta del Diablo are the biggest falls in Iguazú, but they are just part of Iguazú Falls.

left: The Garganta del Diablo.

The Iguazú river comes out of the Parana river some 22 kms before the Falls. In this area before the falls the river just meanders along and then broadens to about 1500 m, forming a huge “U”. A geological fault in the Parana riverbed produced this huge drop of around 80 meters spread in a horseshoe shape over nearly two miles of the Iguazú River and forms the falls. The falls here are taller than Niagara Falls and four times as wide. Depending on the season, you can see anywhere from 160 - 275 falls.

It is impossible to adequately describe the grandeur of the falls, the tremendous amount of water thundering down 270 feet, the tropical location and the sheer beauty that led Eleanor Roosevelt to say "Poor Niagara". Justly so, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Iguazú Falls are divided by various islands into separate waterfalls. During the rainy season of November - March, the rate of flow may reach 450,000 cubic feet (12,750 cubic meters) per second.

right: Another view of the Falls

In comparison, the Niagara Falls hurtles down (only) 170 feet on the Canadian (higher) side and the amount of water during peak tourist hours (when the flow is increased) is around 100,000 cubic feet/sec.

Back at the Cataratas station you walk down to look at the views of another part of the Falls. There are catwalks in the hills, called the Upper Circuit and a Lower Circuit with several viewing platforms on each. The picture on the left was taken from the Upper Circuit. The Falls we see here, the biggest of which is Salto San Martin, are about a mile away from the falls of the Garganta del Diablo.

In the picture below you may see a little red boat in the foreground. It is actually a high-powered speedboat, which darts in and out the falling water from the various falls, gleefully soaking the passengers in the process.

left: another view of the Falls.

We took a ride in one of those boats. That tour is called the Gran Aventura, it is one of the additional trips everybody tries to sell you for 75 pesos per person. Not cheap. But it will cool you down as the boat races down the lower Iguazú river, and the wind whistles through your wet clothes. And afterwards there was an 8 km ride through the jungle on open air seats mounted on the back of a truck.

The Iguazú river is also the border between Brazil and Argentina. Because the USA is now charging Brazilian citizens $100 for a visa to visit the USA, the Brazilian Government “reciprocates” by also charging $100 for a Brazilian visa for a US citizen. That is really too much and not worth it. Also, we were told that taxi drivers can drive you into Brazil for free without a visa.

When we were there, we spoke to an American woman who went with the big tour bus, the tour which would have been provided for us. She had to shell out $100 for the visa. The taxi driver at the Cataratas Hotel, on the other hand, told us he could get us in if we “donated” $30/per person to the Brazilian Federales welfare fund. I am sure he gets a cut, most probably the lion’s share. And when we spoke to a taxi driver in Puerto Iguazú in Spanish, he said he could get us in Brazil for free. Unfortunately, we did not have the time, having spent both our days on the Argentina side. So we missed the Brazilian side.

As I mentioned earlier, Puerto Iguazú is a small, friendly little town with a main street full of shops selling woolen knits, leather, and souvenirs. The first time we walked down the street, all the shopkeepers came rushing out inviting us to come in and look at their wares. I guess we must have stood out because in the subsequent days they didn’t bother to harass us anymore as we walked by. We were there several times and spent a lot of time drinking beer in cafes and getting on the Web in internet cafes. These are one of the cheapest places we have seen in our travels. It was 3 pesos per hour, and they sometimes even charged by the minute (0.05 pesos/minute) , with a minimum of 0.5 pesos per session.

Península Valdés

The Valdés Peninsula is several hundred miles south of BA on the Atlantic Coast of Argentina. Most of the peninsula is barren land with some salt lakes, but it is an important nature reserve and listed as an Unesco World Heritage Site in 1999. It is home to sea lions, elephant seals, guanacoes, rheas, Magellanic penguins, armadillos and numerous seabirds.

left: A picture of the peninsula, taken during shuttle mission STS-68 *. Only a thin throat of land connects to peninsula to the mainland.

As the plane descended towards the airport of Trelew, the landscape below us was just miles and miles of uninhabitable steppes, dry land with low bushes. The steppes differ from the pampas as being more dry and hence less hospitable. Somebody was there at the airport to greet us and to take us to our hotel. Except for Iguazú, there was always somebody at the airports to greet us and to take us to our hotels. And vv. And to the various tours. It was all extremely well arranged.

Puerto Madryn

Our hotel was in Puerto Madryn, a 45 minute drive away in our private taxi from the airport. Puerto Madryn was certainly much nicer than Trelew; it is on the Golfo Nuevo, which is connected to the South Atlantic Ocean. But the Golfo Nuevo, or the New Gulf, is so large, it looks like the ocean, except the water is much smoother. And Puerto Madryn is a regular port of call for many cruise ships. Downtown, where the shopping area is located, is an area about 6 by 4 blocks large, adjacent to the port, and teeming with visitors when a cruise ship is in town. Our hotel, the Peninsula Hotel, was in this area; it was also on the waterfront and we had a room with an ocean view, so we could see the cruise ships come in in the early morning. Our local travel agency, Cuyun Travel, was next door. So we felt quite safe.

Looking at the miles of inhospitable steppe, one would expect this city to be a hick town in a god-forsaken place. But is was a nice small city, population 50,000, with modern, well-stocked shops and shopping malls, restaurants and cafes. The reason is that a few miles away there is a huge aluminum producing plant, providing jobs for lots of people. The bauxite comes from Brazil; the electricity comes all the way from the other side of the country. The No 2 industry is fishing. The fishing fleets are mostly Spanish and the catch is almost all exported to Spain. The no 3 industry is tourism and the cruise ships contribute significantly to the economy. Outside the town, on the beach, there are lots of newly built vacation condos. They also process the wool from sheep prior to exporting; they have a ceramics factory and a lot of stone-cutting. Quite a prosperous city.

Dinner was in the “Antigua Patagonia” restaurant, a place with a very friendly waiting staff. We had a grilled piece of Abadejo, which was translated as kingclip fish. We were told this was a huge fish. The meat of this fish was very firm. Portions are usually large, so we shared an Abadejo, a mixed salad, and an order of noisette potatoes. And also a bottle of the 2002 San Felipe Chardonnay. It was not as good as the 2004 harvest. It was a very enjoyable place to have dinner.

The Valdés Peninsula

The next day we were loaded in a 20 passenger minivan for a tour of the Peninsula to look at the flora and fauna of the region. . Distances are huge. We were warned that we would be driving 400 kms that day. Our first stop was at the throat of the Peninsula for a small and simple interpretative center with the impressive name of “Centro de Interpretacion de Flora y Fauna”. The most important reason for the stop was that they had clean restrooms. All the tour buses stop here for that purpose. All around there was nothing to see except the low bushes of the steppe; and maybe some other tourists stretching their legs. But they did have some interesting displays about the area.

Then we drove north to Punta Norte, where we saw large colonies of Southern sea lions (Otaria flavescens.) These animals are smaller than the Northern or Stellar sea lions (Eumetopias jubata) we see in California. These sea lions derive their name from the adult male's coarse facial hair and broad neck, which resemble a lion's mane.

right: A colony of Southern Sea Lions. The lighter colored animals in the middle are the females.

There was a lot of activity going on. Big black males, up to 2.3 meters long and 400 lbs in weight, were busily multitasking. They were (a) watching and protecting their harems from intruding males, (b) having sex with one of their females, and (c) preventing their females from running away to the surf. Keeps them busy alright. The females, up to 1.8 meters and 200 lbs in weight, are lighter in color. They stay around to take care of their newly born puppies, small and black and about 13 lbs at birth. Babies are born between late December and mid-February. The females sometimes try to get away to the surf to feed, usually in groups to avoid being surrounded by other males or being roped back in by their master. A big strong male can have a harem of a dozen females; a smaller male may have only one or two. The younger males, having none, usually wait along the surf line to waylay and pounce on an unprotected female as she tries to get into the surf to feed. If a female becomes pregnant, she goes back to sea for a 12 month gestation period.

We then drove a bit more south to Coleta Valdes to see a small colony of Magellan Penguins. These penguins form colonies all over the coast of Patagonia at latitudes substantially higher than in the Antarctica. We have always associated penguins with cold weather. Here the weather was a balmy 80 degrees. And they live in areas with a lot of green shrubbery.

More south to the Punta Cantor, close to the Punta Delgada, we went to see Elephant Seals (Mirounga leonina) basking in the sun. The southern elephant seals are the largest of the pinnipeds. Adult males grow up to 21 feet long and attain weights of up to three tons. Spending most of their lives in ocean waters between Antarctica and coastal Patagonia, southern elephant seals lumber ashore during the spring and autumn to breed and molt respectively.

left: Female Elephant seals basking in the sun.

The elephant seal gets its name from the long, curved nose the male acquires around the age of three. The snout plays a significant role in the elephant seal's spectacular breeding ritual. In these brutal duels, competing males slam their blubbery bodies together and drive their canine teeth into each other's skin. Male seals inflate their proboscis, a symbol of sexual maturity and strength, to threaten enemies and establish dominance in social rank.

When we were there, there were no males around and there was little activity. The females were nursing their young and in this period after birth, they do not feed for several weeks, so they have to save their energy. The young, weighing around 90 lbs at birth, quickly gain weight until they are 270 lbs or so after a few weeks. All this gain comes from the milk of the mother. The mother, emaciated, then leaves. The pups stay a bit longer for the fat to convert into muscle. Only then do they venture into the water.

On the drives we saw in the low bushes herds of wild guanacoes, looking very much like llamas but graceful as gazelles. We saw rheas, which are ostriches, and armadilloes, which are ungainly little tanks.

right: An armadillo scooting around. Their heavy armor make them less fearful of predators.

There are not many sheep, because in the steppes you need as much as 4-5 hectares per animal.

We stopped at Punto Piramides, a small town which is the center for whale watching in season. The best time to look for whales (Eubaleana Australis) is September through December. Found in the seas around Valdes Peninsula, Southern Right Whales are giant mammals with thick, solid bodies and huge heads. Classified as baleen whales, right whales have hundreds of thin plates in their mouths instead of teeth. They feed by swimming into masses of plankton with their mouths wide open. The plates, called baleen, or whalebone, filter out food -- plankton and small fish -- from large mouthfuls of water. Also known as the giants of the sea, southern right whales can reach lengths of about 45 feet and can weigh up to 50 tons. The head alone makes up almost one third of the total body length.

Southern right whales seek the shelter of the Patagonian waters and stay there for a few months to breed and raise their young. During the breeding season, the female will mate with numerous males that compete for her favor. The following year, the female right whale will return to the same waters to give birth to her calf. After two or three months of rearing in shallow waters, the right whales return to sea with their young.

A “right” whale is not that obnoxious character in your club who always claims to be right all the time. No, “right whales” derived their name years ago when whalers hunted them with hand-held harpoons. They were considered the "right" whale to kill because of their slow speed, close proximity to land, and great buoyancy. They were the first whales hunted by man and for centuries, they were harvested for their valuable oil and baleen, reducing the population close to the point of extinction. In 1935, the number was so low that an international agreement was signed to prohibit their further slaughter. Revitalization of the endangered right whale has been slow, and the species has become one of the rarest large mammals.

It was hot and the sun was shining. So we sat in a restaurant on the side of the beach and shared a 650 ml bottle of cold Quilmes beer. The waiter obligingly brought us two glasses. The bill was for 3 pesos. This is the place to come back to.

left: Colorful scene at the beach.

That evening we went back to the Antigua Patagonia restaurant again, where we were greeted like long-lost friends. This time we had the red Comte de Valmont wine from Mendoza, a mixture of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Pinot Noir. Good wine, quite similar to our Santa Ema Chilean wine, very reasonably priced.

The next day Norma was not feeling well and decided to stay in our hotel room, since the planned tour would also take another 400 km day. And the little bus can be quite shaky on the rough unpaved roads and in the wind. Our first stop was a small, but neat archeological museum in Trelew, called MEF, for Museo Paleontologico Egudio Feruglio. That is the name of the guy who plunked down the seed money for the museum. I do think they charged a lot for entrance, 15 pesos.

right: A huge fossilized nautilus.

Only two floors, but quite modern, with many reproductions of skeletons of animals long gone. But they also had a nice collection of fossils found in the neighboring areas. But the most impressive items they had were the huge fossilized remains of nautiluses, several of them easily measuring 6-8’ across.

The Penguins at Punta Tombo

right: The penguin-laden beach at Punta Tombo.

Todays’ major destination was Punta Tombo to look at a colony of Magellan penguins. Punta Tombo is home to the largest colony of Magellan penguins in South America, It is a narrow peninsula that juts out into the South Atlantic. The 500 acre reserve provides nesting ground to this huge penguin population.

Efforts have been made recently by environmental groups to conserve the wildlife and natural resources of this important penguin reserve, so tourists are restricted to a small overlook area.

In Punta Tombo there are literally thousand of penguins, spread out over several miles. Their nests are in small depressions in the stony soil in the open or under the many bushes around. It was certainly not cold.

right: Penguins on the beach.

Because the area is so large, the birds stay away 1-2 feet from each other, much further than what we saw in other colonies where they were packed close to each other. Some of the birds have nests as far as a km away from shore. They always walk in a straight line, because at their height, it would be difficult to recognize the topography of the terrain. Even then, it is a long, long walk for a tiny penguin from food source to bed. Prime property, nests under bushes close to the shore, are usually inhabited by larger, healthier, penguins. Survival of the fittest, I suppose. Their strength allows them to claim these choice properties.

Penguins live most of their lives in the sea following schools of anchovies, their main food. Come mating season the males come back to land a few days early to clean and prepare the nest. The females come later. Although they almost always get back to the same nests, a female may decide to look for another partner if she does not like the nest. Or her erstwhile partner.
After the egg is laid, the parents take turns keeping the egg warm until it hatches. The parent also take turns going to the sea to feed and take food to the young. A penguin couple usually has two chicks.

left: Two penguins walking towards their respective nests, which can be as far as 1 km from shore.

Puerto Madryn and Gaiman

In 1865, 153 Welsh immigrants arrived in what is now Puerto Madryn to carve a new existence in this land. They had moved from Wales to find a better place to live and to be independent of foreign pressures. There were many hardships, but they coexisted well with the local population and the Indians in the area. Another two more groups came in 1874 and 1876. They then moved inland, to where Gaiman now is, and dug channels to tap water from the Chubut river to irrigate the barren land. Now the area is flourishing and green; there are many small farms, where they grow wheat. And now, after decades of hard work, times are good for them.

In Gaiman, just a few miles west from Trelew, Welsh architecture, tradition, and even the language is preserved in special schools. The main tourist attractions are now the cute Welsh tea houses, with flowering gardens, where servers in Welsh costumes serve high tea and Welsh cakes to tourists coming here in buses. They seem to be doing quite well.

right: One of the typical tea-houses in Gaiman. These are private houses where they serve tea and cake to small groups of tourists.

* The picture of the Peninsula Valdés from space was created by NASA and is in the public domain.

IV: Bariloche and Chile

Sat, 5 Feb 2005 15:58:40 -0800

San Carlos de Bariloche

We had to wake up early to catch our flight. This is one of the major downsides of vacations. You sometimes have to get up at the most uncivilized times to catch a plane. The hotel, great guys, had breakfast ready for us at 6:20 a.m., so we were ready when the bus picked us up at 6:45 for our drive to the airport of Trelew. Our earlier plans called for a direct flight from Trelew to Bariloche, but that flight was cancelled so we had to fly to El Calefate first and then catch another plane from there to Bariloche. That also added another $250 to our travel costs. Domestic air travel is not cheap in Argentina if you are a foreigner. If you are an Argentine national there is a price break.

The layover in El Calefate was 3 hours and they wanted to charge us a departure tax. But we argued that we were on transit, so they did waive the charge. We were told that many airports have been built financed by a private company, and they are then allowed to make money on their investment by charging departure taxes. If the airport was built with Government funds, then there are no departure taxes due.

We were picked up at Bariloche airport by Jennifer, of the Empresa de Turismo Blest, which was the travel agent assigned to us for this area. We were driven to the very nice 4 star Edelweiss hotel. The staff of the hotel was very friendly. And Turismo Blest had an office in the hotel, which made it really reassuring for us. It was around 70 degrees, sunny, but with a light wind. Really wonderful weather; just like in the Bay Area on nice days. They say this is the Switzerland of Argentina, and they are right.

left: On the main square of the city.

The buildings have an Alpine feel them, the surrounding mountains are gorgeous, and Lake Nahuel Huapi is a deep azure blue. We walked down Mitre Street, which is the main drag, and which has many nice shops and if they were not speaking Spanish here you would think you were in a small village in the Swiss Alps.

Food in Bariloche.

Every fifth shop on Mitre Street in San Carlos de Bariloche is a chocolate confectionary shop. There are chocolate shops everywhere. Argentines have sweet teeth. They must love their chocolates.

right: One of the many chocolate shops in town.

You can get an assortment of different chocolates for between 32 - 40 pesos/kg, which is at least three times cheaper than in the States. And with all that competition, the variety is extensive. Tourists coming here usually load up on chocolates before they leave for their chocolate-deprived climes.

And they also love their helados or ice cream, because here too the helado shops are always full. You can get a cone for 2.5 or 3 pesos, and they give you two flavors packed high up. At the Emeryville Food Court, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the gelato is $2.90 for the small cone (+ tax) or three times as expensive as in Argentina.

We had a trout dinner at the La Esquina, just a few blocks from our hotel. The specialties of the area are trucha (trout), which is of course the farm-fed variety bred locally, jabali, or wild boar, and ciervo (deer). La Esquina was OK, but nothing special. It was also very smoky, and you had to open the window to get in some fresh air. There are actually a lot of restaurants. But on one of the three nights we were there, we stumbled on a good one, Jauja, on Quaglia 325. . Most of my life I order deer if I see the item on the menu, and every time I am disappointed because the meat is so tough. But I never learn, because I keep expecting that one day, I will finally get that wonderful dish I always believe how well-prepared deer should taste. And at Jauja, I finally got my wish. The grilled lomo de ciervo was tender, tasty, and really delicious. But is was not as gamy as I expected. Well, maybe all the earlier times I had wild deer, and now I probably was served a deer raised and bred in captivity fed the choicest morsels of grass and grains.

But it is not always in a restaurant that you can get something yummy. During lunchtime in the park there was a guy with a portable BBQ made from an old 52 gallon iron barrel --the ones you see used in the oil industry-- sawed lengthwise and a grill installed on one side. The two halves are attached back to each other with hinges, with the top half tilted half open as shield against the wind and as a heat reflector.

left: Outdoor BBQ in the park.

We actually saw quite a number of these barrels, which had been converted into BBQs. The guy grills sausages and steaks and serve them on a French roll which you can then further improve by adding some hot stuff on it. The steak sandwiches were 3 pesos each, the sausage sandwiches even less. Really nice. When they are through, the two halves of their barrel closes and off they go. That vendor was there only for lunch; one day we came at around 4 p.m. and he had already left.

Then there are, of course, the empanadas. These are little pastries filled with carne (beef), pollo (chicken) and jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and they only cost 1-2 pesos each. They make wonderful snacks most of the time. If you feel like one, just go into any cafe, and most of the time they have them available. On a very few occasions the empanadas were no good because the oil in which they were deep fried tasted rancid. The well-prepared ones should not have any taste of oil.

The sights of Bariloche

We walked to the cathedral and looked inside. There were gypsy children at the entrances begging, but they were not aggressive at all. It was a reasonably modern church, and the stained-glass windows were stunning, bright, and cheerful, much lighter than the somber-looking ones we see in the older cathedrals. The one shown here is of an angel killing a bad guy who was trying to harm a praying priest. Rather unusual subject.

right: Stained-glass window in the cathedral showing an angel killing a bad guy.

When we woke up the next day in Bariloche, the weather was (still) nice. Come to think about it, we almost always had good weather during all the days we were in Argentina. The weather gods really smiled on us almost all the time.

We decided to go to the top of Cerro Otto, or Mt. Otto just a few miles outside town. There was a free bus which took us from downtown -and from many other stops in the city-- to the base of the funicular. Cerro Otto is 1405 meters above sea level, and the lake is 760 m above sea level. On the top of the mountain is a sizable complex. They had, amongst others, a museum with life-size reproductions of some of Michelangelo’s sculptures, including the statue of David, the Pieta, and the powerful looking Moses. Whoever was in charge, really must have liked Michelangelo. There was also a nice, revolving restaurant, where you can enjoy the all around view coming back to you again and again every twenty minutes or so.

You can also walk around, do some hiking in the hills around, and enjoy the beautiful view of the blue Lake Nahuel Huapi below you and all the mountain ranges around the area. Some people take the funicular up and then walk down. In the winter you can take the lift up and ski down.

In the afternoon we had a private tour of the Circuito Chico, going on the south shore of Lago Nahuel Huapi past some very beautiful areas with stunning views.

left: View from the top of Cerro Campanario.

The first stop was to go to the top of Cerro Campanario, which is not as high as the Cerro Otto, but has incredibly beautiful views of the lakes, the peninsula, the islands, and the mountain ranges around us.

Of course you need good weather to really enjoy the scenery and the weather gods obliged. The lake in the picture is Lago Perito Moreno, named after the same guy for whom the most famous glacier in Calafate was also named.

The picture on the right was taken from Punto Panoramico. The place is fittingly so named. In front is the Brazo Campanario, in the distance is Lago Nahuel Huapi. To the left on the landbridge is hotel Llao Llao, a very luxurious 5-star hotel and resort. The guide whispered that the rooms cost $300; an astronomical sum, she said.

Right: View from the Punto Panoramico.

Well, yes; $300 is what the average Argentine earns in a month. And the $300/night is for their simple mountain view room of 300 sq feet for the high season. You can get the same room for $140 in the low season You want the lake view suite and the price jumps up to $895 in high season but only $415 in the low season. Add VAT on top of the quoted prices. Now these are the quoted prices on their website and that is the price you will need to pay if you book directly or through a US travel agent. Go through an Argentine travel agent, and they can probably lop off 30-40 % of the price. And the awesome views of the lakes and the Cordillera range of the Andes you see from the hotel will still be the same irrespective of how you booked the room.

left: The Liao Liao resort in the stunning landscape.

We also stopped at the Arroyo Nehuen to watch the clear glacier water cascading down the creek. Legend says that if you take three sips of the water in the creek without touching the water with your hands, you will return to Bariloche again. Which we did. We haven’t been back to Bariloche yet, but we may, one of these days.

Crossing the Andes to Chile

This is an amazing trip from Bariloche in Argentina to Puerto Montt in Chile. It is offered by the company Cruce de Lagos. On this trip we cross the Cordillera range of the Southern Andes; to do this there were, alternating, 4 segments by bus and three segments by boat. Because of this we left most of our luggage behind in our hotel and packed just an overnight back. We later found out that most people took all their regular luggage along. At every stop the tour company provided porters to haul your luggage from bus to boat to bus to boat etc. You don’t have to do anything. On this trip we did the following:

1: Bus from hotel to Puerto Pañuelo, 25 km, 30 minutes, 760 m above sea level.

2: With the Condor, a catamaran, over the blue Lake Nahuel Huapi from Puerto Pañuelo to Puerto Blest, 15 nautical miles, 1 hr, 756 m above sea level. It was still nippy, but the scenery was beautiful.

3: With a bus from Puerto Blest to Puerto Alegre, 3 km, 15 min, climbing
to 770 m above sea level. On the road we stopped to have a good view of the snowcapped peak of Mt. Tronador, at 3491 m (11,450 feet) the highest peak by far of the southern Andes. Tronador stands for thunder and even though this is a volcano, the name is derived from the sound of breaking ice of the glaciers on the mountain.

4: With another catamaran from Puerto Alegra to Puerto Frias. The water
is dark green, Four nautical miles, 20 minutes, at 762 m above sea level, with views of Mt. Tronador reflected in the lake.

right: Mt. Tronador, at 11,450 feet high the highest peak of the Southern Andes.

5: With a bus from Puerto Frias to Puella; 27 km, 2 hours of climbing through narrow roads to 976 m above sea level. And after that down again to about 200 m above sea level. The Argentine customs are at one end and the Chilean immigration was at the other end of the road.

Chile

The official ruling by the Chilean Government is that a US citizen has to pay US$100 tax when entering the country. But the immigration people at the border just stamped our passport and allowed us into Chile without any fee. I suppose this rule is enforced if you come into the country by plane. But here, in this remote border crossing, the Lago de Cruces people probably arranged this free pass. Otherwise they could lose too many prospective clients for this crossing.

Puella

We had lunch in Peulla, which was just a resort run by the Cruce de Lagos people. Here you can spend a few days doing the usual things like horse riding, fishing, rafting, etc. They accepted US dollars, because most people did not have any Chilean pesos. We did have about $20 worth of Chilean pesos, but that was not enough for lunch in this pricey place. But they also accepted our credit card.

Then another short bus ride to the harbor of Peulla, (we could have walked this half mile) where we boarded yet another catamaran, the Lagos Andinos, for our trip over the Lago Todos Los Santos, 20 nautical miles, 1,4 hours, 150 m above sea level, to Petrohué. This was an extremely beautiful lake crossing. We sailed past the volcano Puntiagudo, 2493 meters high, with a cone on the peak typical of the result of a prior volcanic eruption. Then we saw, with a shock, the snowcapped peak of Mt. Fuji. No, it couldn’t be Mt. Fuji, it was the volcano Osorno, 2652 meters (8700 feet) high.

left: This is not Mt. Fuji; it is the Volcano Osorno, as seen from Petrohué Falls

The harbor of Petrohué is actually at the base of Mt. Osorno. From there we took a bus for our final leg to Puerto Montt.

On the way we stopped at the Petrohué Falls, which was not something very special, but from there you had exceptionally nice views of Mt. Osorno. We were very lucky that day. It rains a lot in this region, but we had almost clear skies. And the sun was just right when we arrived there at the Falls.

Volcanoes

In passing I have mentioned three volcanos so far. Chile actually has some 2000 volcanoes, 1300 of which are under water. There are still some 65 active volcanoes. The biggest earthquake ever registered since seismic records were kept, which was 1900, occurred here. It was on May 22, 1960, and it measured 9.5 on the Richter scale. If you realize that the Richter scale is logarithmic, you can imagine the tremendous amount of power which was unleashed at that time.

More than 2,000 people were killed, 3,000 injured, and 2,000,000 were left homeless. The temblor caused $550 million in damage, and the destruction didn't end there -- the earthquake also caused a tsunami that resulted in 61 deaths and $75 million damage in Hawaii; 138 deaths and $50 million damage in Japan; 32 deaths in the Philippines; and $500,000 in damage to the west coast of the United States.

In comparison, the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean earthquake, which was an undersea earthquake, had a magnitude of 9.0, or about 7 times smaller than the Big Earthquake. (remember, the Richter scale is logarithmic) The Indian Ocean earthquake also generated a tsunami that was among the deadliest disasters in modern history. It caused serious damage and deaths as far as the east coast of Africa, with the furthest recorded death due to the tsunami occurring at Port Elizabeth in South Africa, 8 000 km (5 000 miles) away from the epicenter. Anywhere from 228,000 to 310,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the tsunami, and the count is not yet complete.

Puerto Montt,

From Petrohué to Puerto Varas was about 76 km or about an hour’s drive away. The bus stopped in Puerto Varas and almost everyone got off the bus and picked up their luggage. Only a few were left behind; the two of us and another two couples, one from the USA and the other one from the Netherlands. These were obviously the ignorant tourists.

Because Puerto Varas is a cute little town with lots of hotels, restaurants, sidewalk cafes on the beach front, a few blocks of inviting shops and shopping centers. A cozy, little tourist town. The beach fronted on beautiful Lago Llanquihue where you see pleasure boats sailing on the blue water against the picturesque backdrop of Mt.Osorno in the distance.

Thirty minutes further we arrived in Puerto Montt, the capital of the region and a town with lots of dilapidated buildings covered with industrial grime, more typical of a Central American country. We drove through the unappetizing looking town center to the bus stop from where we had to take another bus for the 5 blocks to our hotel. Why the first bus just didn’t make that small detour to drop us off I don’t know. We decided to walk. The sidewalks were broken in places and the streets were not very clean. There were poorly dressed people loitering around. Not exactly a place you want to amble around as tourists.

The Hotel Presidente was, in spite of its name, just a regular 3-4 star hotel. They were also host to a large noisy Israeli tour group, whom we have seen on the Andes crossing. We had an ocean-view room, and as we look outside we could see the torn up road in front, the 10-foot tall wire fence which prevented you from getting to the water, and then the water, several hundred yards away, uninhabited and desolate. Anyway, the tour guide had told us to visit Angelmó for seafood, and so we took a bus there, not really knowing what to expect.

Angelmó.

After we were dropped off in a deserted looking area, we almost entered the only reasonable looking restaurant we saw. But we decided to explore further. Then, further away, we found the big hall with the food stalls. This is an amazing place.

right: Typical display case with seafood. On the top tray, from left to right, conch, green peppers, those clam-like shells tasting like crab. On the bottom tray shucked oysters, fish fillets; white meat, and fish fillets; red meat.

Angelmo is in this big building; there were little “restaurants” next to each other; each stall not larger than a 6’ by 10’ room, with two long tables and two benches to each table. So there was really not much place and if the place has more than 5-10 guests, you are really packed. This is where the locals come to enjoy their seafood. In front of the restaurant there are glass display cases showing the stuff they had that day. They cook and prepare in front of their stall in an area not more than a few dozen square feet so you can see what they are doing. But this is an eating area for locals and you better be able to speak Spanish, if you want to order what you really want.

They had a lot of shell-fish, some fish, also lots of uni or sea urchins. I had a tasty bouilabaisse type soup, with lots of oysters, mussels, conch, fish and even something we don’t know and never saw before, a 3 inch clam-like shell where the meat tastes like crab. But apparently it wasn’t a crab. Norma had a huge plate of raw shellfish, oysters, mussels, uni (sea urchin), and also that clam-like shell tasting like crab. Bread comes with the meal. We couldn’t even finish what was served. Plus two beers the bill was about $12. We didn’t get sick that night or the next day, so I suppose the stuff they served was OK.

We took a taxi back to the hotel, which was still about 4-5 miles away. The fare was 800 Chilean pesos, or about $1.40. The next day we were picked up at 8:00 and dropped off 5 blocks further away at the central bus station. We could have walked, but the feeder bus service was there because some people had a lot of luggage. We had reserved seats in a luxury Pullman bus equipped with toilet on board and where the seats could recline a bit. This bus left at 8:30 a.m. and drove us all the way back to Bariloche by going around Lago Llanquihue and then through a pass in the Cordillera range into Argentina. During our trip in the bus, we were served water, coffee and sandwiches by the conductor on the bus. That was included in the price of the ticket. There was another reason we had reserved seats. At the border crossings we were instructed to queue in the order of seating because the immigration people had the list of the names of the passengers in this order also. This really helped speed up the border crossing process.

The scenery on the trip was quite varied. There were large nameless fields, which could be anywhere in the world. But in the distance we could see Mt. Osorno for a long time. In the mountains the scenery was just like in the California Sierras. We drove along the north shore of Lago Nahual Huapi before entering Bariloche. There were quite a number of dead trees on the shore of the lake. The sun was shining on the white branches, giving it a surreal, eerie but beautiful look. We were back in Bariloche by 3 p.m. A taxi took us back to the hotel Edelweiss.

The next day we were back on the Civic Plaza, just a block away from our hotel. This is where tourists sit in the sun looking at the Alpine-style buildings around the square and at the blue lake below. There was a sculptor working on lifestyle carvings in wood of figures looking like saints. Or maybe the pained expressions on the sculptures were just describing their disapproval of the technique employed by the sculptor. There was a juggler working the crowd.

left: A juggler working the crowd on the main square.

There was the main stop of the elephant train for the tourist desiring a city tour. There was also a museum, the Museo de la Patagonia Francisco P. Moreno, with dioramas of stuffed animals and birds of the region, copies of prehistoric drawings from some of the caves nearby, and pictures and stories of the indigenous population. These were primitive Indians, whose history was very sad. These indigenous people were systematically wiped out by military actions, by assassins hired by the rich, large estancias who coveted their land, and by malnutrition. The estancias were huge; they specialized in sheep, and the wool was shipped back to keep the mills in England running.

V: El Calefate and Ushuaia

Fri, 4 Feb 2005 23:38:54 -0800

El Calefate
As the plane was making its descent into Calefate, the scenery unfolding below us was incredibly awesome. Mountains of brown rocks were interspersed with glaciers and dark blue waters. The Viedma glacier, which is the biggest glacier in the area, was clearly visible. El Calefate is on the West Coast of Argentina and the scenery was definitely different than that of the Valdés Peninsula.
Our weather fairy was doing her job again. The weather was beautiful. When we were here four days ago on transit, it was overcast, drizzling and cold. But today the sun was shining and the temperature was a balmy 70 degrees.
We were loaded in a bus, together with a number of other passengers, and dropped off at the various hotels. The Posada Los Alamos, on the Gobernador Moyano y Bustillo, was the biggest hotel in this small town. Tourism is the main industry here.. The hotel was located in a quiet area two blocks from the main street, which was also the center of town. It can get cold here, so the hotel had a good heating system, with good insulation and central heating. But they were not that well prepared for hot weather. Since it is seldom hot here, there was no air-conditioning. So we had to keep our windows open to catch some breeze. It was, otherwise, quite a nice hotel. We had the same problem some years ago in Helsinki, because we were there during one of the very few sunny and hot days in the year. The hotel, again very well insulated against the cold, kept the heat in, so we had to keep the windows open to let the air and the outside noise in.
It was a short walk of a few blocks to downtown. El Calefate is a friendly town catering very much to tourists and Norma got her daily ration of helado. Yes, there are helado stores everywhere in Argentina. Dinner was at Mi Viejo, which attracted us because it had a display of a lamb being grilled on a wood-fired parilla right in front of the restaurant. We had the grilled lamb in a mushroom Mornay sauce and half a bottle of Valmont red. The waiter said it was the most popular wine there; it was also the cheapest; but it was still quite drinkable. It was, otherwise, just a so-so restaurant. The service was slow, because there was a big group of Germans at a long table just ahead of us, and there was nothing remarkable about the food.

Minitrekking on the Perito Moreno Glacier.
The hotel restaurant had a superb buffet breakfast menu. A large variety of breads, fruits, meats, cereals, etc. There was even a bottle of champagne, in case you wanted to start the day with a Mimosa. There was also an opened bottle of red wine. And there was a special omelette chef to custom-make your eggs anyway you like it.
At 8:30 a.m. we were picked up by an almost full 50-passenger bus for our mini-trekking adventure. It was a 90 minute drive to cover some 75 kms, the last 20 km on a dirt road in the Parque National de Glaciares. Entrance fee to the park was 30 pesos/person for foreigners, 10 pesos/person for Argentines. I am afraid my Spanish was not good enough for us to pass as Argentines.
At the Puerto Bajola Sombra we boarded a boat which took us over the Brazo Rico to the left of the Perito Moreno glacier. (if you look at the glacier).
left: Path to the Perito Moreno glacier.
A short hike and then we were outfitted with crampons tied to the soles of our shoes. Most of the glacier itself was jagged and impossible to walk on. But the left side had rounded surfaces. There were 24 of us and two guides, expert young men who did not have any trouble at all moving on the ice. They were also very solicitous of our welfare and they were always there to help and prepare the path when we traversed a rather difficult part. But it would have been much easier if we had ski poles with us, because it was rather difficult, especially going downhill, with no additional support. We had told our neighbors, Bob and Carol Gray, about this, and when they showed up here a few years later they were well prepared. But then they were told not to use the ski poles they had so lovingly taken along. Well, sometimes you can’t win.
After walking for some 90 minutes on the ice, we walked over a hill into a valley. What awaited us there?
right: A table with chocolates and a bottle of whisky in the middle of the glacier.
A table with chocolates and a bottle of Famous Grouse whisky. In the middle of nowhere; on the ice. Cheers, everybody got to nibble on chocolates and drink whisky diluted with 400-year old glacier ice. We told you this was a most civilized country.
The Perito Moreno glacier is unusual because in close proximity to each other you will find barren mountains and lush vegetation. You see this in the picture above. Secondly, this is the only glacier in the world where the foot of the glacier is still occasionally advancing. All other glaciers are steadily receding because of global warming. The foot of the Perito Moreno glacier actually moves forwards and back and has somewhat stabilized at the current position. Why is this so?
The prevailing winds in that part of the world are from the West, because of the rotation of the earth. These winds, saturated with water after skimming the Pacific Ocean are suddenly forced upwards many thousands of feet as they hit the Cordillera range of the Andes. The air cools down rapidly and the moisture becomes ice and snow which then fall on the Andes at the head of the glacier. Snowfall can be as much as 400” or more per year in that area. On the other side of the Andes, rainfall is as little as 12”/year. The snow and ice falling high in the Andes builds up on the head of the glacier and pushes the glacier forward and down. It takes a snow particle 300-500 years to move from the point of impact to the foot of the glacier where it will then melt in the lake. So, depending on how much snow comes down and how fast the ice melts at the foot, the glacier foot will move forward or recede.
At one time the foot moved so far forward it made contact with the opposite shore of the lake, effectively sealing the Brazo Rico from the adjacent waters of Lago Argentino and the outlet of the lake. A separate lake was formed where the water rose. There was fear of flooding. The military started shooting at the foot of the glacier to force a passage. They covered the area with soot to increase heat uptake. All to no avail. The passage was closed until the glacier decided to retreat on its own volition.
After the trek we took the boat back to Puerto Bajola Sombra. The bus then took us some 3 miles away to another viewpoint of the glacier, the Panoramic Terraces.
left: The Perito Moreno glacier from the Panoramic Terraces
Here we could see where the glacier almost touches the opposite shore of the lake, as well as the right front facing the Canal de Los Témpanos.
Just as the other front facing the Brazo Rico, this front was also jagged and steep. The face of the glacier is around 200 feet high and at regular intervals we could see big chunks of ice “calving” or falling down. The fall is always accompanied by a sharp crack.
That evening we had dinner at the restaurant of the hotel, La Posta. Both the food and and the service were exceptional, well worth the designated five-star setting. We shared a chicken appetizer, a beef dish, grilled vegetables, and a bottle of good Terrazas Malbec wine.
right: A superbly prepared piece of beef.
The bill was only 105 pesos. A similar dinner would cost over $100 in the States. We found that all restaurants do not mind if we share the food. “Puedo compartir”, I would ask. Most of the time they give us extra plates or even divide the dish on two plates already.

The Upsala Experience
Another day and another exciting tour was waiting for us on the programme. We had our excellent breakfast this morning in the hotel restaurant, even though we were told we would get breakfast on our trip. But life is uncertain, and we were not passing over a superb breakfast for something we knew nothing about. The bus picking us up was 45 minutes late, because the driver said he was not notified in time. We had to be in Punta Bandera, 20 kms away, by 8:00 a.m. when our boat was supposed to leave. It was 7:35 when we were all seated in the bus. There was a rosary hanging from the rear-view mirror and the driver moved his lips as he reverently touched the crucifix. Then he crouched forward, gunned the engine, and tore down the streets. The boat was already making preparations to leave when we were still about a quarter of a mile away on the long driveway to the dock. Our driver leaned on the horn to tell the boat to wait as he went into overdrive. We held tight. But the boat waited for us.
The boat was an enclosed vessel with twin engines capable of speeds up to 20 knots. Breakfast was a sandwich and coffee. It took us almost two hours of fast going, occasionally with spray over the whole boat, to come to the face of the Upsala glacier.
left: Ice floes on the way to the Upsala glacier.
The glacier was named after the research team from the University of Uppsala in Sweden, who did a lot of research on this glacier, but somewhere along the line they lost one of the p’s. This glacier is 3 times the size of the Perito Moreno glacier and it is receding rapidly, about 10-20 meters/year. It is half the size of the Viedma glacier, the largest one in the area. It was a very impressive sight.
right: The face of the Upsala glacier. The average height of the glacier is 200 feet above the water.
We sailed to around 500 m of the glacier face. It was too dangerous to get closer because of the danger of falling ice. There were also a lot of ice floes in the water, which were formed from the glacier parts which had broken off.
After chugging around for about an hour to take lots of pictures, we continued our way to the “Estancia Cristina”. It took us another hour to get there. This Estancia, created in the middle of nowhere in 1914 by a young couple, the Masters, covered about 20,000 hectares, bordered by the mountains.
It is amazing that people would go to this forsaken place to establish a ranch and a livelyhood, away from everybody else. But at one time they had as many as 20,000 sheep and 23 employees . The wool was shipped back to England. Son Herbert left the ranch for England to study, but daughter Cristina stayed behind. She got chilled during an unexpected shower and died of pneumonia at 20. The ranch was renamed after her. Son Herbert came back later and then married the Scottish housekeeper. When they both died, a few years ago, without any heirs, the estate reverted to the State. It is now a National park. A concessionaire operates the food service.
For $25 I joined the optional 4x4 jeep ride over 8 kms of very rough road to a point, where we had to walk another half a mile to reach a vantage point where we could see the Upsala Glacier from above. The view was wonderful.
left: The Upsala glacier from another angle.
The guide showed pictures taken 30 years ago and we could see the huge distance the foot had receded and how a new lake had been formed.
Norma took the optional horse ride. That was free. They only had six horses and only one was left. She was able to take it and had a great time riding the horse, crossing three rivers in the process, including one big one.
right: Horse riding on the Estancia Cristina
It was close to three before we had lunch; a sumptuous meal of grilled cordero (lamb), salads, and postres. Argentines love postres. The ranch is actually still a good half mile from the landing place for the boat and we had to walk that distance back again. But as we boarded our boat for our journey back, almost all of the employees were there at the dock to wave us goodbye. These were the park rangers of the Argentine National Park Service, 22-28 years of age, of both sexes, living there during the whole summer as guides for the visitors. They were really nice people. And our group consisted of only about 35 people.
We were tired when we came back to the Posada, but we decided to go and have a late dinner anyway at the La Posta. Came in at 11:15 and we were still served with a smile. Wonderful service. Wonderful food.

Ushuaia
The flight from El Calafate to Ushuaia took about an hour. This time we had to pay the departure tax, 18 pesos/person, before boarding the plane. There were quite a number of older passengers on the flight. The weather forecast for Ushuaia was for 50 % chance of rain.
Ushaia is a port on the Beagle Channel, where cruise ships stop on their journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vv. The city prides itself as being the most southern city in the world. It is El Fin del Mundo, the End of The World. Port Williams in Chile is actually further south, but this is a military establishment, so the Argentines don’t count that as a bona fide town. Ushuaia used to be a penal colony but when the colony was abolished, the Government decided to keep the city alive by giving a 20 year tax holidays to manufacturing firms willing to locate in the area. And many firms, such as Grundig, took up on the offer and many people came to this place to “work for a few years” to earn good wages. So many of the houses were built to last for only a few years. But most stayed. And the houses had to be fixed. The tax holiday is now over and these companies have left the city because it was just too expensive to ship the raw materials in and the finished products out. The buildings they left behind are now used by the city for civic purposes. Now the city has to survive on tourism. So everything which can be converted into a tourist attraction is done so.
Ushuaia is also the port for ships going to the Antarctic. Here they pick up their passengers and their supplies before venturing out on the Drake Passage to get to Antarctica.
left: Port area of Ushuaia.
When I was here earlier our boat packed in 40 gallons of chocolate ice cream. I think there were fewer than 40 passengers + crew on board. We had ice cream at every conceivable occasion.
To get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific you could go around Cape Horn. This voyage exposes the traveler to rough seas and heavy winds. In 1520 Magellan looked for and discovered a shortcut, the Straits which now bear his name, connecting the two oceans. But the Strait of Magellan is narrow and shallow in many places and therefore unfit for larger vessels. More to the south is the Beagle Channel, which is 150 miles long and 3 miles wide at its narrowest point, now used by the cruise ships as they go from the Pacific to the Atlantic and v.v. The channel is named after the ship HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin explored the area in the 19th century.
Somebody from the travel agency was there to meet us and to drop us off at Tango B&B. This B&B is operated by Raul and Cristina de Luca, the parents of our travel agent, Paola de Luca. They had just converted 3 rooms of their 5-bedroom house for guests. It was a private house and we were given a nice room with our own bathroom and toilet en suite. It was probably the master bedroom. Paola’s sister, Sabrina, was there also. She was there on vacation. She is 23 and a student at the University of BA studying philosophy, hoping to get a grant in the future to do graduate or postdoc research in Berlin. Both Raul and Cristina teach Political Science at the local university.
It was an invigorating 13-14 blocks to get to the center of the city, not that far and it took about a pleasant 30 minutes. The weather was a nice 60 degrees and it was cloudy but dry. The city does not have much character.
right: Downtown Ushuaia.
We had dinner at the Cantina Fueguina on San Martin, the main street. We ordered cebolla, or king crab, which seemed to be the specialty of the region, because everywhere you see pictures of this huge crab. We ordered the cebolla a la casa, and got a mixture of crab meat in a sauce. Tasted OK, but really not worth the price. What we wanted was the crab itself, freshly cooked preferably, where we could pick out the meat. Rather disappointing, but the 2004 San Felipe Chardonnay was good, as expected. We took a taxi back home. The fare was 2.4 pesos, less than $1.=
We complained about the crab to our hosts and were advised to order the cebolla au naturel . We did so the next day and we were served peeled crab from their refrigerator. No freshly cooked crab. It tasted as if it had been in the refrigerator for some time; it was stringy and tasteless. But we were also served with a couple of sauces; to cover the refrigerator smell, I suppose. Complained again to our hosts and then he suddenly realized that crab was out of season and so all they had was frozen or refrigerated crab. Crab is expensive and the locals have found out long ago it wasn’t worth the money to eat it. So they had to push it on the unsuspecting tourists to get rid of their stock. You can get better tasting crab for less money in the freezer section of Safeway in the USA.

Tierra del Fuego National Park
The next day was unusually nice for Ushaia. Sunshine, dry, and warm; in the 70’s. The locals were amazed. We told them we had taken our weather along from sunny California. We were picked up at 8:15 for our tour to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. There were about 40 tourists in the bus but when the guide asked who wanted English, only two couples put up their hands. We were one of them. The other pair belonged to a Chinese couple from Taiwan, whose English was not too good but whose Spanish was non-existent.
Barbara, the tour guide, smoothly went back and fro between English and Spanish during the tour. On the tour the next day, we also had a full bus and we were the only people asking for the tour guide to explain proceedings in English. He put us in the front seats, so he could give us the tour in English face to face, and then switch to his microphone to give the same story to the group in Spanish. But it is clear that not too many foreign tourists come here. They do come on the cruise ships because Ushuaia is a port of call, and they come here as the jumping point for their trip to Antarctica. As a matter of fact, if you have time and want to go to Antarctica it is quite possible to join a ship here on the last moment for a good discounted price.
The Park is in the Southwest corner of Tierra del Fuego and comprises 63,000 hectares.. A interesting feature of the park are their peat bogs. They are accumulations of dead plant material, mostly Sphagnum mosses, reeds, and grasses. Low temperatures, acid waters, and the absence of bacteria in these regions, prevent the decomposition of this material. Under compression by the weight of the upper layers, peat is formed anaerobically. This peat layer is fragile and grows only at a rate of around 1 mm/year, so 25 years are needed to add just an inch to the peat layer. Outside the park some of the material is mined, dried (about 70 % moisture originally) and used as high-end fertilizer.
The most prevalent tree is the Lenga, or southern beech. Many of these trees have large whorls on their trunks. The tree is attacked by a fungus, and the tree exudes a sap to kill the fungus. The sap coagulates forming a small whorl. The next year fungus attacks the tree at exactly the same spot. More sap is produced and the whorl grows.

left: Large whorl on the trunk of a beech tree.
Rabbits, beavers, musk rats, and the Patagonian red fox were introduced into this area a few decades ago. As can be expected they have changed the environment drastically and not necessarily for the better. Especially the beavers are thriving. We visited a big beaver dam which is a standard item on the tour. I looked at the pictures I took 9 years ago, and there was not much difference.
right: A huge beaver dam. It had not changed much since I last saw it nine years ago.
We also drove past the world’s most southern golf course. It is pretty good looking now. Nine years ago it was rather desolate and they said the golf course was built only because Chile had one a little bit further north, which was the most southern golf course at that time. In September of last year we were in Ja∂arsvöllur, in Iceland, which is the most Northern golf course in the world, just 60 miles away from the Arctic Circle. We should have hit a golf ball all the way from north to south and establish a record of sorts. Don’t know about the oceans in between though.
In the park is also the end of Route 3 of the Pan American Highway. The other end is in Alaska, 17,848 km away, not sure exactly where. We couldn’t find it when we were in Alaska.
Then we took El Tren de Fin del Mundo, the train at the end of the world. It is a cute train for the tourist, and it was built on the tracks of the old train which brought the convicts to this area to chop down trees. In the fields you can still see the stumps of the trees they cut down half a century ago. There is little deterioration because of the absence of bacteria.
right: El Tren de Fin del Mundo
We were back in the city by 2 p.m. At 3:00 there was a tour on the Beagle Channel offered by Catamaranes Patagonia Argentina. For an additional fee of 50 pesos/person we took the extended tour which would bring us also to Isla Martillo, where there is a huge colony of Magellan penguins.

The Beagle Channel.
The catamaran Ana B. was large, comfortable, and stable. There was food service on board. The boat left punctually at 3 p.m.. We noticed that in Argentina people are much more punctual than in the USA. We sailed past the Islas de los Pajaros, where we stopped to look at the hundreds of cormorants on the island.
left: Cormorants and sea lions sharing space on an island in the Channel.
On the Isla de Los Lobos, there were cormorants on one side and sea lions on the other side. They share the space.
Then past the light house, El Faro Les Eclaireurs, the symbol used in the tourist brochures. We passed the Estancia Harberton, established by Harberton to create employment for the indigenous population, the Yamani Indians. Isla Martillo, our final destination, was still further ahead. There is a huge rookery of Magellan penguins. The boat parked its nose on the sandy shore for us to observe the penguins from closer by.

right: The signature lighthouse of Ushuaia.
That was the furthest point of our trip and the boat turned back. It was a long trip, because we didn’t get back until around 9 p.m. On the boat we spoke to a young American who is spending his vacation her trekking the mountains in the area. It is easy to find trekking partners, he said, here in the youth hostels. And he thought the trekking over the mountains here was awesome.
Dinner was at the Cantina Figuenia again for their special shellfish dish for two, It tasted as if it came from a frozen package, jazzed up in a tomato sauce. Maybe the package had already exceeded the pull date, because the meat was tough. But the waiters were very nice. We have learned long ago that a seafood restaurant close to a harbor does not necessarily serve fresh seafood from the waters close by. It is cheaper to get your supplies frozen from your supplier.
There is one good restaurant in Ushuaia, Tia Elvira on the harbor on Av Maipu 349. Yes, the prices are higher, the waiters are formal and rather cool, but the food is excellent. We were there twice and had the merzula (black hake). The taste of the grilled fish was marvelous.

Lake Escondido
The tour the next day took us to Lake Escondido and some of the other areas. We stopped at the Hosteria Pretel, where I had lunch 9 years ago. Nothing much had changed. They are at the lakeside and there are some nice views, some of them admittedly rather bleak.
left: Lake Escondido from Hosteria Pretel.
We did stop at a dog farm where they breed Siberian and Alaskan huskies to pull sleds in the winter. They claim that some of their huskies have competed in the Iditarod, the prestigious dog sled race in Alaska, all the way North. The Siberian husky is bigger and stronger; the Alaskan husky is smaller and faster. You can just walk around the grounds and pet the dogs. They are all very friendly dogs.
right: Dog sled going at breakneck speeds
In the summer they pull a wheeled sled around a 2 mile round track and the adventurous tourist can sit on the wheeled sled and be pulled on this sled at breakneck speed for 20 pesos/ride.
That evening we were back early and our host, Raul de Luca entertained us on his accordion accompanied by his synthesizer, playing for us tango pieces as it had developed over the last 5 decades. Marvelous. The tango is not necessarily determined by its beat, but by its expression of a way of life; a bit sad and melancholy.
Ushuaia is a small town so everybody knows everybody. But Raul de Luca is also a celebrity in town for another reason. Last year he organized, directed, and hosted a one-hour show airing monthly on the local TV station. He had local guests and groups come over for talk shows, musical performance, etc., and as host he would be needling the local politicians for what they were doing or not doing. That made him a popular hero for the masses, but the TV station, which is run by the Government, shut him out after a while. Hey, you don’t want anarchist on the air polluting the minds of your children, do you. I can still see him chuckling as he tells us these stories

left: Raul de Luca on his accordion
The last day in Ushaia we went to look at the local museums. There is the Museo del Fin del Mundo, where people come in to have their passport, (yes, their passport) stamped with a stamp showing you have been to the end of the world. There was another museum, this one devoted to the Yamani Indians, the indigenous population who used to live here in simple little shelters made from wood, boughs, and branches of trees. They were hunters-gatherers and even in this barren and inhospitable climate they used to move around completely naked, with just a thin layer of animal fat on their bodies for protection. Clothing, apparently, was more of a hindrance than an asset. If it rained, it would get wet and they would get chilled. And they didn’t have any gas or electric dryers in their huts. So clothing would stay damp. They were adept in keeping a little fire burning at all times.
There are now only a few dozen of these Indians left. Except for one woman, everybody else had intermarried.

The Glaciar Martial.
We also went to have a look at the Glaciar Martial. To get to this glacier, you take a taxi to the funicular station about a mile behind the Hotel del Glaciar, a large green-roofed building in the hills you can see from everywhere. From there you take the chair lift up and from the top station it is about a mile to get to the foot of the glacier.
left: The chair lift to the glacier. The Beagle Channel is in the background.
It is a nice, easy hike and you can walk up along the stream or through the forest. There are very nice views of the glacier in front of you. Looking back you see the Beagle Channel and Ushuaia below you. I think the foot of the glacier must have receded about 100 feet since I was there nine years ago. Back from the glacier you can relax at the cafe at the top of the funicular with a sandwich and a glass of beer.
Even though this sound like a remote location, there are always taxis available at the foot of the funicular from new people arriving there. Otherwise, the nice cashier who sells the tickets to the funicular is more than glad to call a taxi for you, so you can get back to town.
right: Walk to the Martial Glacier above Ushuaia
Before you get carried away too much about Ushuaia, there was the following posting by Bruce Burns in Frommer’s Travel Talk:
“Wow, I was in Ushuaia in January and I could not wait to leave. I found nothing to recommend it, although I didn't stay at the Tango B&B. I did take the incredibly boring prison-train ride (where they told us, oh, maybe 95 times, that we were riding on the very same train trail as the original prisoners. I know how they felt.), and the very hot (as in shed some of those sweaters they told us to wear) catamaran ride to see the lighthouse and sea lions. Tempers rose and fights broke out among the very old people on the trip (That was the highlight of the trip). And we trekked through a park. Gawd, it was awful.”
left: As a followup, the picture on the left shows how the people get rid of their garbage. They pack it in plastic bag and put them in baskets high above the ground for the garbage pickup.

The plane left Ushuaia late in the afternoon. There was a departure tax of 13 pesos/person and we came into BA just after midnight. We checked into the Pestana Hotel. Had a very nice breakfast the next day and explored the city some more that day. Our plane home left that evening from Ezeiza airport. Security was strict, since we were flying American Airlines back to the USA. There was a departure tax; this one in US dollars; $18/per person. They accept US$, pesos or Mastercard. No American Express.