Immediately upon arrival to Montevideo I took a taxi to Daniel´s house, Zach´s friend. As soon as I arrived and found there was no one home and could not contact him by phone either I went to contact him by internet. Luckily he was online and immediately found out that he was not in Montevideo but that he was in Melo, at his parent´s house. Melo is in the northern part of the country, near Brazil. He told me I could come there and stay with him. It was carnaval there for the weekend. I jumped on the idea and took the first available bus. He met me and I spent the night getting to know him whom I have never met but had heard many stories of. This was the first person that I had met in my travels that had had direct experience with and was friends with someone that in my life at home in Canada. It was an interesting change at first.
My accomodation was continuously getting better. I was now in a fully equipped house with a double bed and a tv in my room. Man I feel spoiled. Daniel´s parents were very welcoming and insisted that I act as if I ws living in my own home.
We spent the friday day relaxing in the park, drinking mate and then beer. The social culture here is much more extensive. To the point where people actually go out and use the parks. Through the middle of the day in the heat, people either hide out in their homes or go out to sit in shaded parks and talk. Then once the sun dies down a bit, people flock to the parks, all the benches are full of people chatting drinking mate, playing music or fútbol. It is such a different form of socializing here. Here in Uruguay 2 friends say lets meet in the park and drink mate. In Canada one friend says, he lets go to the park and hangout, the other would say, why? we can just hang out at your house, it would be the same. haha different cultures. Anyway Daniel and I spent that day talking and getting to know each other, him often telling me stories and memories that he shared with my brother, albeit i´m sure they´re not ones that Zach told me before. Daniel was is a funny character that insists upon speaking english and I insist upon speaking spanish, both with our personal difficulties or mistakes all the while. Daniel is an extremely short little basterd and I am an extremely tall basterd. We make quite the pair. We are both the sort of guys that more openly and act more wildly with a bit of beer in us, Daniel especially! We spent the next few days living like complete recluses. This is where I went full nocturnal. Sleeping all day until around 7pm and staying up until 7am all the nights. I officially think that going to bed before 3am is early now and waking up before 12 pm as the same. It was Carnaval in Melo and thus there was parades each night Friday, Saturday and Sunday which last for nearly 3 hours. These parades are then followed by drinking by all the youth and adults in the streets and plazas while the children run rampant in playgrounds or rides nearby. Some people dress up in rediculous costumes as on-lookers to the crazy parade that seems endless. A straight file of people in costumes, dancing, bands of drums and horns with near-naked women shaky their bodies all over the street in front of them to the excitement and applause of the people. Different groups will appoint a Reina¨- Queen to dance for them and the different groups have a competition to decide the best bands and the best dancers. For looks and for skill. The music fun, the dancing is great and the people love it. Three nights of this carnaval parade followed by drinking in the streets waiting for the time to become ripe and go to the bar at 3am to start the night, or to a club. Although because we are in Melo, a smaller town, there aren´t too many options at night, and practically nothing during the day, thus I do not miss out on anything by sleeping all day!
All the while me and Daniel comparing views and customes between our two countries, for he has actually been to canada and experienced our culture and society. He says for example, in his choppy, heavily accented english about what he dislikes about Canada and how we ¨are too strict, here in Uruguay people piss in the street, everbody piss in the street and police don´t look at all¨ and how ¨alcohol can be bought all night in Uruguay everywhere! When zach come to Uruguay he love how we buy all night alcohol, all night¨. Many conversations went this way and I agreed with him on many occasions. The little man is a funny conversationalist that is always talking about his memories of Canada. We had a great time in Melo together and may meet up again in Montevideo although will depend on his parents. The same as in Argentina, students are fully reliant upon the money that their parents give them and when they give it to them. Thus Daniel is stuck here in Melo waiting for money and I am bored because Carnaval is done and I am moving on. I will stayin touch with him and hopefully our paths will cross again in Uruguay.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Breath of Fresh Air - Colonia - Feb 22nd - 23rd
Arriving in Colonia was a complete change from where I had just come from. I took the less expensive and slightly longer ferry across the straight which lasted 3 hours. A huge boat that had 3 floors, chairs, arcades, restaurants, tourist shop, Fake Plants, and spiral staircases. Colonia. Sitting directly across from Buenos Aires, with nothing but the expansive river in between. By expansive I mean it big! Looking back across the river seems like you are looking out onto a large lake. This river which is more like an enormous bay where several other rivers join from inland and flow down and out into the ocean is completely brown and thus the main reason why I didn´t spend an extra day indulging on the lengthy beaches of Colonia.
Colonia was suprisingly much less humid and much more calm. Walking about the old cobbled streets of the colonial town it ws almost completely quiet. Few people that were there just walking about the narrow streets, drinking beers or eating food under the shade of palm trees.
Colonia is a very well preserved colonial town that is famed for its extreme amounts of smuggling centuries ago. This was the main port where things would be smuggled to Buenos Aires from outside the area.
I spent only 24 hours in this place and do not have much to say. I slept in a campsite alone and went to see a movie at night. There is nothing there but it was a good respite from city life before I jumped right back into it and went to Montevideo to stay with a friend of my brother´s. Someone he met years ago when he came to Uruguay with Canada World Youth. Another local to show me the ropes.
Colonia was suprisingly much less humid and much more calm. Walking about the old cobbled streets of the colonial town it ws almost completely quiet. Few people that were there just walking about the narrow streets, drinking beers or eating food under the shade of palm trees.
Colonia is a very well preserved colonial town that is famed for its extreme amounts of smuggling centuries ago. This was the main port where things would be smuggled to Buenos Aires from outside the area.
I spent only 24 hours in this place and do not have much to say. I slept in a campsite alone and went to see a movie at night. There is nothing there but it was a good respite from city life before I jumped right back into it and went to Montevideo to stay with a friend of my brother´s. Someone he met years ago when he came to Uruguay with Canada World Youth. Another local to show me the ropes.
Johnny, La Gente esta muy Loca acá - Buenos Aires - Feb 14th - Feb 22nd
Arriving in Buenos Aires was a bit crazy. The sheer size and amount of people in this city is crazy and one always needs to keep an eye out, more in some areas than others. I arrived and got the first taxi to Gaspar´s house, which turned out to be a fair distance away from the station and I ended up having to pay 100 pesos for the car, which is around 25$, I guess not a crazy amount at home, but here 100 pesos is a lot for a taxi... Anyways I arrived and got settled into Gaspi´s house no problem, which was nice. He lives alone in a small apartment. I had a pull-out love-seat to sleep on, which was better than the previous sleeping arrangement in BB. I was determined to take care of some errands first, including a Brazilian Visa and mailing a some extra weight home. After spending some time talking over the city with Gaspi and the various transportation roots I begun the searchs, which I soon realized took me right back to the area around the bus terminal where I had come from.
I spent the next few days and nights taking care of these errands. The Brazilian Visa proved to be too long of a wait here in the Buenos Aires office so I gave up on that, but the mailing went well. In between doing these things I would walk about different parts of the city. I would say it takes at least a week in the city to get to know its different districts at all, and that is what Buenos Aires is all about. Walking amongst the different districts and feeling the differences between them, some being very rich, upperclass areas, while others are the complete opposite. Each ¨barrio¨ has a distinct feel, this is cool thing about the city. I was staying in Chacarita and thus had to take public transportation everywhere to get anywhere, so after a week and a half in the city I got quite used to the bus routes and subways. The buses are fast and extensive and the subways are slow (for a subway) although direct. The subway system is useless in some ways because all the lines lead to the center from different parts of the city, except never go in a diagonal or perpendicular to the main straight lines. So to take the subway to Palermo which is next to Chacarita. I have to take a 20 minute subway to the center then change lines and another 15 minutes back out of the center. Quite inconvenient. In that sense buses work much better.
I arrived on monday and thus there wasn´t much to do in the city, at least compared to the end of the week... So it wasn´t until wednesday night that I went out with a friend and began to comletely ruin my sleeping pattern and begin damaging my liver with alcohol. From this point on the days continuously began to shorten and the nights lengthen. Going to bed at 9am would without a doubt make one feel like sleeping until around 5 pm at least. ISome days I would force myself to wake up early (at 3 pm) to go out for a walk or go to a market. Gaspar, my temporary room-mate seemed to have this lifestyle built into his being, and he rarely ever goes out at night for lack of money. Studying here in Argentina is free and thus many students from outside the country swarm to get in (which is no problem) and study for free. The vast majority of these international students go to Buenos Aires because UBA (University of Buenos Aires) is the most prestigious school in the country for many things, even more so than the private Universities. Although these students that come, including Argentinians, to BA to study are being completely supported by their parents. While they do not have to pay for Tuition they do have to pay for a place to live and food. I accompanied Gaspi to one of his summer course lectures on evening. It was much different than the schools at home. It is only a school, a place to go and sit in a room and study and take notes. The basicness of the place leaves one with a feeling of amazement towards the idea that it is prestigious. It is not an institution that has an incredfible amount of organization, hierarchy or staff. There are no clubs or groups for people to meet others. It is just a building with rooms and a common area in the middle with plastic patio furniture to study. So much is built around the institutions that we call Universities at home. Such effort to incorporate students and make them fit in. Such a pride and competition between students and other schools, attempting to create a comradery between students and a respect that they wear on their chests for their schools and who they represent. A part of me thinks this is extremely stupid and unnecissary. Is this what we are paying thousands of dollars for? Because that is what the main differences seem to be between their FREE education and ours. They view University as study and nothing more, because thats what it is. We view University as fun, partying and clubs. Being a part of something! I feel like this is the wrong viewpoint of education. People here study to work and if they fail they try again because its free. They can work while they study although it means they will simply take more time to complete their courses. School is not seen as something that needs to be completed and put in the box as soon as possible but something to get done as you see it and when you want it.
So, unless they work on the side, adding more pain and suffering, their parents do not give them extra money each week for the sake of their social life... So, while Gaspi didn´t go out much, he still seemed to prefer the night as opposed to the day, staying up late playing video games or whatever else he might do with his girlfriend when the door is closed. At any rate I truly do not blame him for being nocturnal, the days here are infernal... well the nights are too but just less so. The heat and humidity in Buenos Aires is horrendous and constant. Unless it is completely cloudy and raining I would not recommend even stepping foot outside before 3pm. Even then you will still work up a sweat. So spending full-days walking around the city was not preferable and left me exhausted by the night time, where we would eat dinner at around 11 pm and begin to drink at least a few litres of beer, whether we were going out or not. On the nights that we did go out. We would gather, order-in, buy maybe a dozen litres of beer, a few bottles of Fernet and maybe some wine on top of that and proceed to dry up for the next 4 hours, when we would go out to the club and carry on doing so until at least 7 in the morning.
One morning I was the last one of my group to leave the club at about 7 am (when it closed) walking down the street I asked for directions from a trio of guys who then started up conversation and I got swept away with them to eat breakfast/continue drinking. The later came first. We sat on a patio under a porch casually talking as the rain turned on and off from above. Casually drinking and exchanging cultures and opinions. The dim, half-light of dawn at 9 am was either held back fog or over-tiredness. After finishing up here we proceeded to look for an ¨after¨ which is a place where people go after the club closes to party until around 11 am. On the way there fight broke out between 2 guys, each with a friend, a few meters in front of us leaving one side with 2 bloody noses and the other walking off satisfied. They said it was over a ¨mina¨ or a chick. Mina directly translating to Mine in english. We then became doctor for these two poor souls who clearly had the worse end of the stick. While talking to one bloody face and telling him I was Canadian, he grunted out a ¨mmm arcade fire¨ I smiled because this was one of the first south americans that I had met that knew of the band that I hold with such pride. Arriving at the ¨after¨ and finding it was full, we left to get some breakfast, which was followed by sleep. A damn long night...
When I did not go out for nights like these Gaspar and I would just go out to a bar in Palermo (the night life hub) and sit and watch the women go by. When doing this it was clear that many others were doing the same. That was the entertainment! The abundance of gorgeous women in Buenos Aires is stiffling and they all seem to come out when sun comes down like vampires coming out of their dens to get some attention, and do they ever get it. They dress themselves up without shame and do the walk, they may be with their boyfriends or not, it doesn´t matter. Here in this country this sort of thing is not attached to the idea that this is an easy girl or a tramp. Neither the women or the men look at an attractive women with disrespect when she shows off her body, it may be all she has, why take that from her. At home in Canada this girl would be shunned from the get-go as a skank by her peers and abandon those ¨evil ways¨ just as quickly as she had taken them up. On top of that in Canada, because the men are not used to these types of treats as soon as they see such ¨mina¨ they begin to drool uncontrolably. They lack of ability to contain what they are thinking and desiring brings about the jealousy of the other women who degrade this skank who is taking all the attention. These petty social insecurities do not exist here and I am glad. While the men do drool here they keep it to themselves or amongst their friends bringing it down to a nod of the head, a raising of the eyebrows or some such signal that lets his companion know there is something coming. Yes the nightlife was a considerable part of the experience.
All of these bars in Palermo, centered around a main Plaza would then turn into clothing outlets in the morning. The tables and stools would be put away and the entire floor of the bar or club would be filled with racks of clothing while outside, the streets would be filled with kiosks selling jewellry, art and leathers. I spent several days walking about the different markets of Buenos Aires, for there is an abundance of them, especially on weekends. Occupying streets and plazas all over the city. These are the places where the coolest things can be found and often for a much more reasonable price.
I stayed for little over a week, taking my time doing these things. I got quite accustomed with the city and how it ticked. It was a thrilling ride although I don´t believe I could live in the place simply because of the size and sprawl of noise and industry. Nevertheless it would not get old to visit the city for a few weeks each year to do what I have just done! I left on the wednesday morning, and did not take a taxi to arrive at the Port where I was going to take a Ferry across Rio de La Plata and arrive in The Republic of Uruguay. To Colonia del Sacramento.
I spent the next few days and nights taking care of these errands. The Brazilian Visa proved to be too long of a wait here in the Buenos Aires office so I gave up on that, but the mailing went well. In between doing these things I would walk about different parts of the city. I would say it takes at least a week in the city to get to know its different districts at all, and that is what Buenos Aires is all about. Walking amongst the different districts and feeling the differences between them, some being very rich, upperclass areas, while others are the complete opposite. Each ¨barrio¨ has a distinct feel, this is cool thing about the city. I was staying in Chacarita and thus had to take public transportation everywhere to get anywhere, so after a week and a half in the city I got quite used to the bus routes and subways. The buses are fast and extensive and the subways are slow (for a subway) although direct. The subway system is useless in some ways because all the lines lead to the center from different parts of the city, except never go in a diagonal or perpendicular to the main straight lines. So to take the subway to Palermo which is next to Chacarita. I have to take a 20 minute subway to the center then change lines and another 15 minutes back out of the center. Quite inconvenient. In that sense buses work much better.
I arrived on monday and thus there wasn´t much to do in the city, at least compared to the end of the week... So it wasn´t until wednesday night that I went out with a friend and began to comletely ruin my sleeping pattern and begin damaging my liver with alcohol. From this point on the days continuously began to shorten and the nights lengthen. Going to bed at 9am would without a doubt make one feel like sleeping until around 5 pm at least. ISome days I would force myself to wake up early (at 3 pm) to go out for a walk or go to a market. Gaspar, my temporary room-mate seemed to have this lifestyle built into his being, and he rarely ever goes out at night for lack of money. Studying here in Argentina is free and thus many students from outside the country swarm to get in (which is no problem) and study for free. The vast majority of these international students go to Buenos Aires because UBA (University of Buenos Aires) is the most prestigious school in the country for many things, even more so than the private Universities. Although these students that come, including Argentinians, to BA to study are being completely supported by their parents. While they do not have to pay for Tuition they do have to pay for a place to live and food. I accompanied Gaspi to one of his summer course lectures on evening. It was much different than the schools at home. It is only a school, a place to go and sit in a room and study and take notes. The basicness of the place leaves one with a feeling of amazement towards the idea that it is prestigious. It is not an institution that has an incredfible amount of organization, hierarchy or staff. There are no clubs or groups for people to meet others. It is just a building with rooms and a common area in the middle with plastic patio furniture to study. So much is built around the institutions that we call Universities at home. Such effort to incorporate students and make them fit in. Such a pride and competition between students and other schools, attempting to create a comradery between students and a respect that they wear on their chests for their schools and who they represent. A part of me thinks this is extremely stupid and unnecissary. Is this what we are paying thousands of dollars for? Because that is what the main differences seem to be between their FREE education and ours. They view University as study and nothing more, because thats what it is. We view University as fun, partying and clubs. Being a part of something! I feel like this is the wrong viewpoint of education. People here study to work and if they fail they try again because its free. They can work while they study although it means they will simply take more time to complete their courses. School is not seen as something that needs to be completed and put in the box as soon as possible but something to get done as you see it and when you want it.
So, unless they work on the side, adding more pain and suffering, their parents do not give them extra money each week for the sake of their social life... So, while Gaspi didn´t go out much, he still seemed to prefer the night as opposed to the day, staying up late playing video games or whatever else he might do with his girlfriend when the door is closed. At any rate I truly do not blame him for being nocturnal, the days here are infernal... well the nights are too but just less so. The heat and humidity in Buenos Aires is horrendous and constant. Unless it is completely cloudy and raining I would not recommend even stepping foot outside before 3pm. Even then you will still work up a sweat. So spending full-days walking around the city was not preferable and left me exhausted by the night time, where we would eat dinner at around 11 pm and begin to drink at least a few litres of beer, whether we were going out or not. On the nights that we did go out. We would gather, order-in, buy maybe a dozen litres of beer, a few bottles of Fernet and maybe some wine on top of that and proceed to dry up for the next 4 hours, when we would go out to the club and carry on doing so until at least 7 in the morning.
One morning I was the last one of my group to leave the club at about 7 am (when it closed) walking down the street I asked for directions from a trio of guys who then started up conversation and I got swept away with them to eat breakfast/continue drinking. The later came first. We sat on a patio under a porch casually talking as the rain turned on and off from above. Casually drinking and exchanging cultures and opinions. The dim, half-light of dawn at 9 am was either held back fog or over-tiredness. After finishing up here we proceeded to look for an ¨after¨ which is a place where people go after the club closes to party until around 11 am. On the way there fight broke out between 2 guys, each with a friend, a few meters in front of us leaving one side with 2 bloody noses and the other walking off satisfied. They said it was over a ¨mina¨ or a chick. Mina directly translating to Mine in english. We then became doctor for these two poor souls who clearly had the worse end of the stick. While talking to one bloody face and telling him I was Canadian, he grunted out a ¨mmm arcade fire¨ I smiled because this was one of the first south americans that I had met that knew of the band that I hold with such pride. Arriving at the ¨after¨ and finding it was full, we left to get some breakfast, which was followed by sleep. A damn long night...
When I did not go out for nights like these Gaspar and I would just go out to a bar in Palermo (the night life hub) and sit and watch the women go by. When doing this it was clear that many others were doing the same. That was the entertainment! The abundance of gorgeous women in Buenos Aires is stiffling and they all seem to come out when sun comes down like vampires coming out of their dens to get some attention, and do they ever get it. They dress themselves up without shame and do the walk, they may be with their boyfriends or not, it doesn´t matter. Here in this country this sort of thing is not attached to the idea that this is an easy girl or a tramp. Neither the women or the men look at an attractive women with disrespect when she shows off her body, it may be all she has, why take that from her. At home in Canada this girl would be shunned from the get-go as a skank by her peers and abandon those ¨evil ways¨ just as quickly as she had taken them up. On top of that in Canada, because the men are not used to these types of treats as soon as they see such ¨mina¨ they begin to drool uncontrolably. They lack of ability to contain what they are thinking and desiring brings about the jealousy of the other women who degrade this skank who is taking all the attention. These petty social insecurities do not exist here and I am glad. While the men do drool here they keep it to themselves or amongst their friends bringing it down to a nod of the head, a raising of the eyebrows or some such signal that lets his companion know there is something coming. Yes the nightlife was a considerable part of the experience.
All of these bars in Palermo, centered around a main Plaza would then turn into clothing outlets in the morning. The tables and stools would be put away and the entire floor of the bar or club would be filled with racks of clothing while outside, the streets would be filled with kiosks selling jewellry, art and leathers. I spent several days walking about the different markets of Buenos Aires, for there is an abundance of them, especially on weekends. Occupying streets and plazas all over the city. These are the places where the coolest things can be found and often for a much more reasonable price.
I stayed for little over a week, taking my time doing these things. I got quite accustomed with the city and how it ticked. It was a thrilling ride although I don´t believe I could live in the place simply because of the size and sprawl of noise and industry. Nevertheless it would not get old to visit the city for a few weeks each year to do what I have just done! I left on the wednesday morning, and did not take a taxi to arrive at the Port where I was going to take a Ferry across Rio de La Plata and arrive in The Republic of Uruguay. To Colonia del Sacramento.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
R&R - Bahía Blanca - Feb 9th - 13th
I arrived in Bahía Blanca late at night, expecting to meet Juani at the station, he was not there upon arrival, although I was not completely suprised. I was simply happy to be off the bus. After nearly 30 hours of straight travel I was ready to be done. That was officially the longest bus I have taken in my entire life. Ding Ding Ding, New Record. El Calafate to Rio Gallegos took about 5 hours, I had 1.5 hour break in RG before enbarking for another 27 hours straight north. I covered a hell of a lot of ground. The trip cost me just under 200$! Man buses are pricey here, still can´t let that go.
Bahía Blanca is an important port city. A quiet relaxed town about 600 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. It was late and I wasn´t sure whether to give up on my friend and find a place to stay or not. I decided to get a strategic taxi to an internet cafe. By chance he would be online. Shortly after coming online I got in contact with him, got his address and walked to his house. Upon arrival I was introduced to Juani´s brother and friend then a few girls that were there pre-drinking for the night. I took a shower, relaxed and then we went out for the night. Things had turned out quite well considering how the evening had began.
I cannot say a whole lot about Bahía Blanca although I had a very good time. We spent the days sleeping in, walking around the city, and relaxing. Simple living, not worrying about being a tourist or seeing everything there is to see. This comes mainly from staying with people that live this way. It was very calming, the previous 2 or 3 weeks had been constant one thing to the next. Here I am staying with locals who don´t care about what they do that day or when they wake up. I took on this lifestyle from simply being in their presence and I enjoyed it. The nights were spent with little/no sleep, as is customary here in South America, when you go out, you go out, and when you stay in, you stay up half the night doing nothing in particular, different lifestyle for sure. Juani introduced me to all sorts of his family members and friends which was really nice, once again in the presence of Argentinians and not tourists. I was planning on staying this was for sometime as I had a contact in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Brasil. All of which providing me place to stay for basically as long as I wished. Things were gonna be nice and relaxed for the next month or so, a good way to follow up on the Patagonia experience.
The last night we took a bus to Juani and Mariano´s home town, Pigué has a population of about 15,000. I am told about 90% of students from Pigué go to Bahía Blanca to study, the other 10 go to Bs. As. Thus Bahía Blanca is full of people from this town, Juani is surrounded in a nest of friends from this town and thus practically everyone I met is from there. It was a birthday of one of the friends from in the nest so they were going out there to celebrate it. They invited me to come so I changed my bus ticket to the day after. Juani ended up getting a fever the night before, he came out to the town although did not come out to the party. We arrived at about 11 o´clock so I thought we were late, there was about a dozen guys standing about. It was in a large barn in a decent sized field. There was music set up inside with lights and all. Good scene! There was a huge fire place/BBQ spot set in the wall and they already had the damn grill full of meat grilling up. Several kinds of meat, sausage, steak, bread, beer, fernet, champagne. They were going it right. BBQ or ASADO in spanish is the main fame of Argentina. Fernet is also the common argentine drink, usually taken with Coca-cola. Most foreigners hate it, but I don´t think its too bad, different, like the Yerba Mate. For the asado a pile of wood was kept off to the side and burnt down too large coals, then these coals would be lifted with a shovel and placed evenly beneath the grilling meat. This way the meat cooks slowly and evenly and does not burn. It takes a few hours to cook entirely whence the men stand around, drool at the meat and keep the drinks constantly flowing. It seemed my name preceeded me everywhere I went as though there was a Canadian in Juani company for they had everything prepared. They divided the price so that I didn´t have to pay, against my insistance and constantly made sure that my glass and plate were full. The amount of meat was absolutely incredible probably amounting to around 100 dollars of meat which the man always cooks, this is a strict rule as proof of a man having the right stuff. One particular meat, a slin big slab of half meat half fat was dressed with tomato sauce, cheese and various colours of peppers, like a pizza, I forget what they called it, but it was absolutely fantastic... This was a real Argentine night. Once the men were finished eating some scurried off to the their homes to prepare for the evening and the women, who began to arrive shortly after the pack of men had disappeared in their cars. I think that is something notable about the Argentine people. They thoroughly dress themselves up and prepare themselves but not just before they begin the night, that means we are talking around 2 or 3 am. They sure are cute, getting themselves all dampered up and ready, the women arrive in taxis and pick their way through the tall grass in their short revealing clothing and highheels. The men return after completing their own procedures roaring back in their fast or noisy (because theyre not fast but they still want to be noticed). The men jump out in their dress shirts, hair still wet from the shower and covered considerably in Eau de Toilette. They had all returned and I was left with the feeling that I had underdressed. Afterall I was wearing my nicest backpacking t-shirt, shorts and sandals! haha and no I didn´t have any Eau de Toilette either, but there was enough in the air I was getting my fair share just standing about in this throng of 30 odd beautiful human-beings. I was satisfied. Full stomach, all the drink you could want and beautiful women. Now thats Argentina!
We went out to a club late and I started walking back to Juani´s house sometime after dawn alone. I remember somehow through the noise and madness of the club Mariano telling me the house address if we got split up and that the key was hidden under a ceramic snail in a flour pot on the left side of the door. I found the snail and the key upon arrival and was passed out on the floor within a minute. I awoke and was immediately introduced to Juani´s parents who made me a nice hangover breakfast and I took the bus back to Bahia Blanca alone where I would get ready and take another bus that night to Buenos Aires where I would meet Gaspar, another friend from El Bolson and the Hielo Azul hike.
Things were lookin´good
Bahía Blanca is an important port city. A quiet relaxed town about 600 kilometers south of Buenos Aires. It was late and I wasn´t sure whether to give up on my friend and find a place to stay or not. I decided to get a strategic taxi to an internet cafe. By chance he would be online. Shortly after coming online I got in contact with him, got his address and walked to his house. Upon arrival I was introduced to Juani´s brother and friend then a few girls that were there pre-drinking for the night. I took a shower, relaxed and then we went out for the night. Things had turned out quite well considering how the evening had began.
I cannot say a whole lot about Bahía Blanca although I had a very good time. We spent the days sleeping in, walking around the city, and relaxing. Simple living, not worrying about being a tourist or seeing everything there is to see. This comes mainly from staying with people that live this way. It was very calming, the previous 2 or 3 weeks had been constant one thing to the next. Here I am staying with locals who don´t care about what they do that day or when they wake up. I took on this lifestyle from simply being in their presence and I enjoyed it. The nights were spent with little/no sleep, as is customary here in South America, when you go out, you go out, and when you stay in, you stay up half the night doing nothing in particular, different lifestyle for sure. Juani introduced me to all sorts of his family members and friends which was really nice, once again in the presence of Argentinians and not tourists. I was planning on staying this was for sometime as I had a contact in Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Brasil. All of which providing me place to stay for basically as long as I wished. Things were gonna be nice and relaxed for the next month or so, a good way to follow up on the Patagonia experience.
The last night we took a bus to Juani and Mariano´s home town, Pigué has a population of about 15,000. I am told about 90% of students from Pigué go to Bahía Blanca to study, the other 10 go to Bs. As. Thus Bahía Blanca is full of people from this town, Juani is surrounded in a nest of friends from this town and thus practically everyone I met is from there. It was a birthday of one of the friends from in the nest so they were going out there to celebrate it. They invited me to come so I changed my bus ticket to the day after. Juani ended up getting a fever the night before, he came out to the town although did not come out to the party. We arrived at about 11 o´clock so I thought we were late, there was about a dozen guys standing about. It was in a large barn in a decent sized field. There was music set up inside with lights and all. Good scene! There was a huge fire place/BBQ spot set in the wall and they already had the damn grill full of meat grilling up. Several kinds of meat, sausage, steak, bread, beer, fernet, champagne. They were going it right. BBQ or ASADO in spanish is the main fame of Argentina. Fernet is also the common argentine drink, usually taken with Coca-cola. Most foreigners hate it, but I don´t think its too bad, different, like the Yerba Mate. For the asado a pile of wood was kept off to the side and burnt down too large coals, then these coals would be lifted with a shovel and placed evenly beneath the grilling meat. This way the meat cooks slowly and evenly and does not burn. It takes a few hours to cook entirely whence the men stand around, drool at the meat and keep the drinks constantly flowing. It seemed my name preceeded me everywhere I went as though there was a Canadian in Juani company for they had everything prepared. They divided the price so that I didn´t have to pay, against my insistance and constantly made sure that my glass and plate were full. The amount of meat was absolutely incredible probably amounting to around 100 dollars of meat which the man always cooks, this is a strict rule as proof of a man having the right stuff. One particular meat, a slin big slab of half meat half fat was dressed with tomato sauce, cheese and various colours of peppers, like a pizza, I forget what they called it, but it was absolutely fantastic... This was a real Argentine night. Once the men were finished eating some scurried off to the their homes to prepare for the evening and the women, who began to arrive shortly after the pack of men had disappeared in their cars. I think that is something notable about the Argentine people. They thoroughly dress themselves up and prepare themselves but not just before they begin the night, that means we are talking around 2 or 3 am. They sure are cute, getting themselves all dampered up and ready, the women arrive in taxis and pick their way through the tall grass in their short revealing clothing and highheels. The men return after completing their own procedures roaring back in their fast or noisy (because theyre not fast but they still want to be noticed). The men jump out in their dress shirts, hair still wet from the shower and covered considerably in Eau de Toilette. They had all returned and I was left with the feeling that I had underdressed. Afterall I was wearing my nicest backpacking t-shirt, shorts and sandals! haha and no I didn´t have any Eau de Toilette either, but there was enough in the air I was getting my fair share just standing about in this throng of 30 odd beautiful human-beings. I was satisfied. Full stomach, all the drink you could want and beautiful women. Now thats Argentina!
We went out to a club late and I started walking back to Juani´s house sometime after dawn alone. I remember somehow through the noise and madness of the club Mariano telling me the house address if we got split up and that the key was hidden under a ceramic snail in a flour pot on the left side of the door. I found the snail and the key upon arrival and was passed out on the floor within a minute. I awoke and was immediately introduced to Juani´s parents who made me a nice hangover breakfast and I took the bus back to Bahia Blanca alone where I would get ready and take another bus that night to Buenos Aires where I would meet Gaspar, another friend from El Bolson and the Hielo Azul hike.
Things were lookin´good
Ice - El Calafate - Feb 4th - 8th
Luca, Oli and I arrived in El Calafate in the afternoon, back to Argentina once again. El Calafate is the gate-way to the national Park nearby named Glacieres. It is called this because the park is full of some of the biggest and most infamous glaciers in the world! The most famous of these glaciers is named Perito Moreno. Ultimately, El Calafate is only a tourist town. The streets are full of log shops, kiosks, restaurants, and an overly large casino. Everyone you see wandering the streets are tourists, poking about the shops, window shopping.
I didn´t much like El Calafate simply because of this. There was much more I would have liked to do there but I have reached the point where I am beginning to hold back on the money that I spend so that I can make it to the end of my trip. That and everything that goes near the glaciers is expensive. The cheapest way to simply look at the thing costs around 50 dollars. Now I think a lot of people, at least youth that travel here are impressed and awestricken at the end of the day although still recognize that it cost lots. When I would ask someone at the end of the day. ¨So Jimmy, how was the trip you did today?¨ Jimmy would respond with ¨It was really cool but it was expensive¨. Jimmy would put a bit of extra stress on the word expensive so that I understand that he had a good time but he definitely doesn´t feel it was a good deal per se.
Now don´t get me wrong, this is one of the highlights of the Patagonia, to see this massive glacier. A view and size that cannot be imagined before visiting it, even if you prepared yourself thoroughly beforehand with google images. The sheer cold that is given off as an aura by this mass of ice that extends as far as the eye can see, sitting casually between snow capped mountains. Endless crevaces and deep cracks can bee seen all over the ice face that stares at the spectators that are teeming on the walkways across the straight, trying to move their bodies or cameras into the desirable position to catch the right shot. I myself took many photos, and in hindsight most of them look the same. There are only so many photos you can take of a piece of ice that doesn´t move. While Perito Moreno doesn´t necissarily move, it makes noise. I believe it is either the only, or one of the only glaciers in the world that is still shifts about. (Don´t know if that is true, sometimes you hear things and it gets stuck in your brain as fact, when the source of the fact was never sought out). Aside from shifting the waters below itself, chunks of varying size frequently break off and crash into the waters below and begin to melt away for who knows how long... By frequently I mean daily, hourly, minutely. This is another reason why people come to see this glacier. To hopefully capture this glacier in action, the action of it slowly breaking up and dieing away. Although the hordes of people who come to see it don´t view it in this light. When they hear noise, the buzzing of the people hushes down and waits expectantly for something to happen, if nothing happens a bit of disappointment can be heard out of the spectators. Although, if something does happen, a cheer breaks out! A toast to the Glacier, what a show it is putting on today! The amount of reaction by the crowd completely depends upon the size of the chunk that has just decided to go for a swim in the nippy waters. I was lucky enough to witness an enormous chunk suddenly break off and crash into the water, submerge itself completely and pop quickly back up to float around with the other smaller hunks that had fallen before it.
The day that I visited the Glacier, it was bad weather... just my luck again... it was extremely foggy and rainy which didn´t help my mood. As soon as the sun came out. The weather was still not on my side throughout this southernly excursion. The next few days were spent sitting about the town, waiting to sort out bus issues over the internet which further battered my spirit. Things continued to bother me throughout these days and I was seriously ready to simply put Patagonia behind me and head to the next stop, which I had decided would be Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic coast. I was planning on staying with a friend from El Bolson, one of the guys that I did the hike up to Hielo Azul with.
Patagonia was exciting, although it took a lot out of me which I am still recovering from. I lost several objects, some of them being very important to me. As well as being absolutely exhausted physically from the near constant walking and camping. From this I chose to scrap another stop down in the Patagonia and move on while I was still half sane. To me that has been my best defense against anger, frustration or lonliness is to simply move onto the next step, take a bus to the next city and start fresh. I am doing one long trip down here in South America but to me it is broken up and segmented into many smaller trips and experiences. Moving onto the next step has really assisted me throughout the course of this trip with staying on top of things and especially put things behind me, geographically and mentally. To keep going with a clear head. Anyone can make mistakes but a foggy head is what makes a person more likely to make several consecutive mistakes.
So I left El Calafate, alone and looking forward to the next step. While I felt I had been cheated of a few things there I didn´t worry about it. I will definitely return there, maybe when I can be less conscious of the money I am spending, when I am old and retired and have nothing better to do. Like most of the tourists down in that area of the world, taking cruises and being catered to in every manner.
I didn´t much like El Calafate simply because of this. There was much more I would have liked to do there but I have reached the point where I am beginning to hold back on the money that I spend so that I can make it to the end of my trip. That and everything that goes near the glaciers is expensive. The cheapest way to simply look at the thing costs around 50 dollars. Now I think a lot of people, at least youth that travel here are impressed and awestricken at the end of the day although still recognize that it cost lots. When I would ask someone at the end of the day. ¨So Jimmy, how was the trip you did today?¨ Jimmy would respond with ¨It was really cool but it was expensive¨. Jimmy would put a bit of extra stress on the word expensive so that I understand that he had a good time but he definitely doesn´t feel it was a good deal per se.
Now don´t get me wrong, this is one of the highlights of the Patagonia, to see this massive glacier. A view and size that cannot be imagined before visiting it, even if you prepared yourself thoroughly beforehand with google images. The sheer cold that is given off as an aura by this mass of ice that extends as far as the eye can see, sitting casually between snow capped mountains. Endless crevaces and deep cracks can bee seen all over the ice face that stares at the spectators that are teeming on the walkways across the straight, trying to move their bodies or cameras into the desirable position to catch the right shot. I myself took many photos, and in hindsight most of them look the same. There are only so many photos you can take of a piece of ice that doesn´t move. While Perito Moreno doesn´t necissarily move, it makes noise. I believe it is either the only, or one of the only glaciers in the world that is still shifts about. (Don´t know if that is true, sometimes you hear things and it gets stuck in your brain as fact, when the source of the fact was never sought out). Aside from shifting the waters below itself, chunks of varying size frequently break off and crash into the waters below and begin to melt away for who knows how long... By frequently I mean daily, hourly, minutely. This is another reason why people come to see this glacier. To hopefully capture this glacier in action, the action of it slowly breaking up and dieing away. Although the hordes of people who come to see it don´t view it in this light. When they hear noise, the buzzing of the people hushes down and waits expectantly for something to happen, if nothing happens a bit of disappointment can be heard out of the spectators. Although, if something does happen, a cheer breaks out! A toast to the Glacier, what a show it is putting on today! The amount of reaction by the crowd completely depends upon the size of the chunk that has just decided to go for a swim in the nippy waters. I was lucky enough to witness an enormous chunk suddenly break off and crash into the water, submerge itself completely and pop quickly back up to float around with the other smaller hunks that had fallen before it.
The day that I visited the Glacier, it was bad weather... just my luck again... it was extremely foggy and rainy which didn´t help my mood. As soon as the sun came out. The weather was still not on my side throughout this southernly excursion. The next few days were spent sitting about the town, waiting to sort out bus issues over the internet which further battered my spirit. Things continued to bother me throughout these days and I was seriously ready to simply put Patagonia behind me and head to the next stop, which I had decided would be Bahia Blanca on the Atlantic coast. I was planning on staying with a friend from El Bolson, one of the guys that I did the hike up to Hielo Azul with.
Patagonia was exciting, although it took a lot out of me which I am still recovering from. I lost several objects, some of them being very important to me. As well as being absolutely exhausted physically from the near constant walking and camping. From this I chose to scrap another stop down in the Patagonia and move on while I was still half sane. To me that has been my best defense against anger, frustration or lonliness is to simply move onto the next step, take a bus to the next city and start fresh. I am doing one long trip down here in South America but to me it is broken up and segmented into many smaller trips and experiences. Moving onto the next step has really assisted me throughout the course of this trip with staying on top of things and especially put things behind me, geographically and mentally. To keep going with a clear head. Anyone can make mistakes but a foggy head is what makes a person more likely to make several consecutive mistakes.
So I left El Calafate, alone and looking forward to the next step. While I felt I had been cheated of a few things there I didn´t worry about it. I will definitely return there, maybe when I can be less conscious of the money I am spending, when I am old and retired and have nothing better to do. Like most of the tourists down in that area of the world, taking cruises and being catered to in every manner.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
A Strange Mixture of Good and Evil - Torres del Paine - Jan 31st - Feb 4th
I was travelling at this time with 2 guys I had met in Ushuaia. An Italian, Luca and Swiss, Olivier. We arrived late at night in Puerto Natales, Chile, the main gateway town for beginning Torres del Paine trips. This national park, unlike the Tierra del Fuego park is enormous and would take weeks to experience all of it. It is famed world-wide for its splendid trekking and scenery. The park is full of intriguing rock formations, snow-capped mountains, blue lakes, and enormous glaciers! The two most common treks are the O and the W, both of which suprisingly remained open after the immense fire that around 50 percent of the parks area. While these trails were tecnically considered open, parts of them were not in the good shape, being surrounded by dead, burnt trees and landscape with the entire ground covered in ash. Many of the free campsites were closed... how convenient.
Upon being given this information the morning after we arrived we made a quick descision to just do the V trek. a short 3 day trek where we would not encounter any ash and not ever se evidence that the park experienced any fire what-so-ever. The standard W takes about 5 days and the O can take around 8 to 10 days. These two treks do not include any of the trails on the southern half or third of the park (where the main fires took place) I tell you this to attempt to give you an idea of the size and grandeur of this park.
Luca, Oli and I set out that same afternoon after buying all the food necissary for 3 full days and renting a stove. The food was extremely basic, consisting of rice for 3 dinners, ham & cheese sandwiches for 3 lunches and fruit/cereal bars for 3 breakfasts. The main exciting descisions we jokes about making each day was ¨so boys what sauce do want to eat with the rice tonight¨. After 3 days of this we were all quite done with eating rice, as I think all of you could imagine!
We took the 2 hour bus ride out into wild rugged landscape to reach the entrance to the park, where we got another shuttle to a point where we began to walk. We didn´t start walking until around 6 PM and the expecting time was about 4 hours until the campsite where we would be settling in for the night. Sun goes down at around 10:30 PM here so we figured we could make it. The walk was a struggle. The wind was constantly blowing in our faces at torrential speeds, making the walking much harder. I was already much more tired than both Oli and Luca from having spent the entire week previous this walking as well. It was beginning to take its toll on me. The wind at times was so strong it would blow you in the complete opposite direction, off the path, or change the course of our legs during mid-stride making us stumble all over the place. The wind would come from all dirrections making you never really know where to put your weight. It was like recieving consecutive left and right blows from a boxer that kept changing the combination. It sent you swirling all over the path and leaving you constantly paranoid about what was coming and when. This left me walking more like a waddle, with legs spread wide, knees bent and ready for the next attack. It may sound quite amusing but I assure, at the time, it was not in the slightest.
We ended up completing the walk in 3 hours getting us in at 9 PM. We paid for the campsite, which was a whopping 12 dollars a night, absurd for a campsite! We quickly realized after walking around that this was no campsite at all. There were not designated camping spots. It was basically just find a nice piece of ground and put up your tent. By the time we arrived, there we not many nice peices of ground, there were not many to begin with! I was tired and the wind had not let up what so ever. I was getting quite annoyed with this park already its management. ¨This is a national park!?¨ I thought, ¨it does not even have a suitable campsite, even when you pay for it¨. I was disappointed. We found some nice ground next to the rich cabin´s that some fools pay gold to stay in. The ground was good but there was no protection from the wind, which decided to blow all night long! I didn´t sleep much that night because of constant worry that a part of my cheap tent would simply break and fly away! This was insane I thought, my tent is not going to survive the Torres del Paine. We had 2 more nights like this and my tent would not survive another. It had already broken at several places where the fly is pegged down to the ground. I had to improvise in the middle of the night and use some of my own elastic chord which I happened to have and make some extra one, to stop the flapping of the half-loose fly. I went to bed with near-constant sounds of wind blowing the roof of my tent down in on me. The winds could be heard building up over the lake slightly below. As the rose off the lake and got closer and louder one could almost predict the exact moment it was going to attack and the tent practically immediately implode around you for anwhere between 2 - 10 seconds straight! The next morning I was unhappy and knew we needed to find another, better place for our tents. Luca and Oli fared a bit better than me, they had a small tent that could be secured much more. We found a place but during the moving process another part of my tent broke, one of the rods that holds up the roof cracked losing all of its tension and strength. I felt defeated. I ended up finding a rocky spot in trees not far off, just enough room for my tent, I quickly took the space and it proved to a much better area.
We spent that day doing one of the sections of the V walking a number of hours into a valley where we would go by a glacier and a few good lookouts. Leaving in the morning the weather was even worse than the day before. The wind was insanely strong, just when I thought it could not get any stronger. We were now down, level with the lake and the wind on the lake was blowing showers of water up onto the shore several feet high. Luca and I both got hit by these showers and were immediately soaked. From where we were the weather in the distant valley looked even worse. Luca was beaten and said the it was pointless. I urged them on. I had been dealing with the wind al morning. I was not gonna let it ruin my entire day and part of my experience here. We went on and got up and away from the lake. It got much better and the weather even cleared up in the valley. By the time we were at the valley it was quite clear and the massive white and blue glacier and snow streaks could be seen at a distance, that inspired all of us to push on. The weather was more or less poor all day, although it cleared up a lot in some places and provided some great views. By the time we got back to camp we were all dead but satisfied... I think. On the walk throuh the valley I ran into Mark completely randomly. I knew he was in the park but I didnt know where. We were both happy to see each other. When we got back to camp we family relaxed around our miniature stove, ate some rice and Oli taught me some guitar tricks. I said farewell to Mark for the last time. He was going home in a few days.
The next day we walked across to the other campsite in stinking hot sunlight, there was practically no wind and no clouds. The weather kept pulling tricks on us. The other campsite was free one, it ended up being muuuch better than the priced one believe it or not. I ran into all sorts of canadians strangely. We went to bed early so that we could wake up for sunrise and climb to the look-out of the Torres del Paine. the main attraction, the big event. The rock formations of towers of granite, 4 of them in a row, that soar into the sky a thousand meters up. Beautiful on a perfect day. We woke at 5 suprisingly and started walk shortly after. Even from below in the half-light, the fog could be seen above. We climbed up for 45 minutes. Lines of head lamps could be seen all the way up, of dozens of people all waking early to wind their way up the precarious, rocky mountain side. When we arrived at the top it was slightly raining, windy and cold. The headlamps were not needed anymore. There were about 30 people up at the top, all waiting like buzzing flys for something they would not get. As soon as I got up there I knew. The towers could hardly be seen through the fog. They say on a clear morning, the sun comes over te rise and makes the entire rock faces and towers shine a bright orange. How pretty it would be, how perfect, too bad it was foggy. There was a brief period of orange then the sun went behind endles expanse of cloud that dominated the entire sky (at that point during the day). Slowly people filed back down the path they had come feeling cheated.
We got back to camp, took everything down, walked the 3 hours that it took us to get down the entire mountain and begin the wait for the bus back to Puerto Natales. When we got the bottom and looked back up from where we had come from it was beautiful. Warm weather, no wind, blue skys, white-capped mountains. If only we had been up there then. Torres del Paine was over and I was glad. I was exhausted and done with walking. I abandoned the idea of going to El Chalten after El Calafate and doing more walking, I was not interested. I felt like the world was messing around with me with all this unlucky weather throughout my entire southern experience. I look forward to coming back to Torres del Paine and seeing more of it, maybe with some better luck. The next plan was to go to El Calafate with Oli and Luca as well and see some serious glaciers, some of the best in the world as is said. Although my luck with weather did not look to pick up any time soon.
Upon being given this information the morning after we arrived we made a quick descision to just do the V trek. a short 3 day trek where we would not encounter any ash and not ever se evidence that the park experienced any fire what-so-ever. The standard W takes about 5 days and the O can take around 8 to 10 days. These two treks do not include any of the trails on the southern half or third of the park (where the main fires took place) I tell you this to attempt to give you an idea of the size and grandeur of this park.
Luca, Oli and I set out that same afternoon after buying all the food necissary for 3 full days and renting a stove. The food was extremely basic, consisting of rice for 3 dinners, ham & cheese sandwiches for 3 lunches and fruit/cereal bars for 3 breakfasts. The main exciting descisions we jokes about making each day was ¨so boys what sauce do want to eat with the rice tonight¨. After 3 days of this we were all quite done with eating rice, as I think all of you could imagine!
We took the 2 hour bus ride out into wild rugged landscape to reach the entrance to the park, where we got another shuttle to a point where we began to walk. We didn´t start walking until around 6 PM and the expecting time was about 4 hours until the campsite where we would be settling in for the night. Sun goes down at around 10:30 PM here so we figured we could make it. The walk was a struggle. The wind was constantly blowing in our faces at torrential speeds, making the walking much harder. I was already much more tired than both Oli and Luca from having spent the entire week previous this walking as well. It was beginning to take its toll on me. The wind at times was so strong it would blow you in the complete opposite direction, off the path, or change the course of our legs during mid-stride making us stumble all over the place. The wind would come from all dirrections making you never really know where to put your weight. It was like recieving consecutive left and right blows from a boxer that kept changing the combination. It sent you swirling all over the path and leaving you constantly paranoid about what was coming and when. This left me walking more like a waddle, with legs spread wide, knees bent and ready for the next attack. It may sound quite amusing but I assure, at the time, it was not in the slightest.
We ended up completing the walk in 3 hours getting us in at 9 PM. We paid for the campsite, which was a whopping 12 dollars a night, absurd for a campsite! We quickly realized after walking around that this was no campsite at all. There were not designated camping spots. It was basically just find a nice piece of ground and put up your tent. By the time we arrived, there we not many nice peices of ground, there were not many to begin with! I was tired and the wind had not let up what so ever. I was getting quite annoyed with this park already its management. ¨This is a national park!?¨ I thought, ¨it does not even have a suitable campsite, even when you pay for it¨. I was disappointed. We found some nice ground next to the rich cabin´s that some fools pay gold to stay in. The ground was good but there was no protection from the wind, which decided to blow all night long! I didn´t sleep much that night because of constant worry that a part of my cheap tent would simply break and fly away! This was insane I thought, my tent is not going to survive the Torres del Paine. We had 2 more nights like this and my tent would not survive another. It had already broken at several places where the fly is pegged down to the ground. I had to improvise in the middle of the night and use some of my own elastic chord which I happened to have and make some extra one, to stop the flapping of the half-loose fly. I went to bed with near-constant sounds of wind blowing the roof of my tent down in on me. The winds could be heard building up over the lake slightly below. As the rose off the lake and got closer and louder one could almost predict the exact moment it was going to attack and the tent practically immediately implode around you for anwhere between 2 - 10 seconds straight! The next morning I was unhappy and knew we needed to find another, better place for our tents. Luca and Oli fared a bit better than me, they had a small tent that could be secured much more. We found a place but during the moving process another part of my tent broke, one of the rods that holds up the roof cracked losing all of its tension and strength. I felt defeated. I ended up finding a rocky spot in trees not far off, just enough room for my tent, I quickly took the space and it proved to a much better area.
We spent that day doing one of the sections of the V walking a number of hours into a valley where we would go by a glacier and a few good lookouts. Leaving in the morning the weather was even worse than the day before. The wind was insanely strong, just when I thought it could not get any stronger. We were now down, level with the lake and the wind on the lake was blowing showers of water up onto the shore several feet high. Luca and I both got hit by these showers and were immediately soaked. From where we were the weather in the distant valley looked even worse. Luca was beaten and said the it was pointless. I urged them on. I had been dealing with the wind al morning. I was not gonna let it ruin my entire day and part of my experience here. We went on and got up and away from the lake. It got much better and the weather even cleared up in the valley. By the time we were at the valley it was quite clear and the massive white and blue glacier and snow streaks could be seen at a distance, that inspired all of us to push on. The weather was more or less poor all day, although it cleared up a lot in some places and provided some great views. By the time we got back to camp we were all dead but satisfied... I think. On the walk throuh the valley I ran into Mark completely randomly. I knew he was in the park but I didnt know where. We were both happy to see each other. When we got back to camp we family relaxed around our miniature stove, ate some rice and Oli taught me some guitar tricks. I said farewell to Mark for the last time. He was going home in a few days.
The next day we walked across to the other campsite in stinking hot sunlight, there was practically no wind and no clouds. The weather kept pulling tricks on us. The other campsite was free one, it ended up being muuuch better than the priced one believe it or not. I ran into all sorts of canadians strangely. We went to bed early so that we could wake up for sunrise and climb to the look-out of the Torres del Paine. the main attraction, the big event. The rock formations of towers of granite, 4 of them in a row, that soar into the sky a thousand meters up. Beautiful on a perfect day. We woke at 5 suprisingly and started walk shortly after. Even from below in the half-light, the fog could be seen above. We climbed up for 45 minutes. Lines of head lamps could be seen all the way up, of dozens of people all waking early to wind their way up the precarious, rocky mountain side. When we arrived at the top it was slightly raining, windy and cold. The headlamps were not needed anymore. There were about 30 people up at the top, all waiting like buzzing flys for something they would not get. As soon as I got up there I knew. The towers could hardly be seen through the fog. They say on a clear morning, the sun comes over te rise and makes the entire rock faces and towers shine a bright orange. How pretty it would be, how perfect, too bad it was foggy. There was a brief period of orange then the sun went behind endles expanse of cloud that dominated the entire sky (at that point during the day). Slowly people filed back down the path they had come feeling cheated.
We got back to camp, took everything down, walked the 3 hours that it took us to get down the entire mountain and begin the wait for the bus back to Puerto Natales. When we got the bottom and looked back up from where we had come from it was beautiful. Warm weather, no wind, blue skys, white-capped mountains. If only we had been up there then. Torres del Paine was over and I was glad. I was exhausted and done with walking. I abandoned the idea of going to El Chalten after El Calafate and doing more walking, I was not interested. I felt like the world was messing around with me with all this unlucky weather throughout my entire southern experience. I look forward to coming back to Torres del Paine and seeing more of it, maybe with some better luck. The next plan was to go to El Calafate with Oli and Luca as well and see some serious glaciers, some of the best in the world as is said. Although my luck with weather did not look to pick up any time soon.
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