Escape from the heat

Leaving the burning hot Iguazu falls and the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires, we arrived at the picturesque, quiet and peaceful Patagonia, where snow capped mountains, glaciers and lakes await. It´s very refreshing to be here. Not having to look out for reckless drivers, pickpockets, dog poops in the city, mosquitos and the brutal sun in subtropical Iguazu makes walking around in this small town El Cafalate specially pleasant.

We made another excellent choice of the hostel (go hostelworld.com!). When the airport shuttle dropped us off, we were greeted by the super friendly staff, music was flowing in their high-ceiling ¨living room¨with huge windows, nice sofa and tables where a few people are chilling out, reading or just staring at the mountains outside the window. Above us is a loft area where there is couches with throwing pillows, ottomen, travel books, chess, card games and a guitar. I feel like I´ve just walked into a page in Traveller´s magazine. I already loved Patagonia.

Later we just spent the afternoon strolling in the town. Dainty little shops, bookstores, restaurants and travel agencies fills this not very big but really charming downtown. People are just strolling at an easy pace and enjoying the very gentle sun. As for me, not having to apply sun screen or smell like eucalyptus to repell mosquitos already make this the most enjoyable walk of the trip, not to mention the hot chocolate and calzone (italian stuffed pizza) we had at a corner bar. it was delicioso.

There´s just one thing. All the internet here is still via satellite. (they can definitely use some cisco equipment here!). I guess all the people around me at the internet cafe are competing for that very limited bandwidth at this very moment, so pictures will just have to wait.... but I promise some mind-blowing pictures of the glacier will come very soon...

the ¨living room of our hostel. this is where we hang out, read a book, or having simple meals.

Iguazu Falls

We just got back from Iguazu Falls today. It was brutally hot... just when you thought Buenos Aires is hot enough! I can´t believe it´s only ¨subtropical¨there, and the temperature is actually just about 32C (90F). Back in San Jose, temperature breaks 100F in summer easily, but the heat was no where near this. Humidity plays a big role! It makes hot hotter and cold colder.

Iguazu Falls are spectacular. Even First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed "Poor Niagara! upon seeing it! It´s the world´s widest fall, only rivalled by the Victoria Fall in South Africa (which is the ´widest´fall). It split into about 270 discrete falls. Together they provide a stunning panaromic view. We visited on a clear day, the rainbow, the butterflies, the deadening sound and the vapors around it is just stunningly beautiful. I stared it and got completely soaked for minutes! It´s so huge, you even need to take a train or a boat ride to reach the other end of the falls. And the plume from the falls can be seen from miles away!

another exciting part of the trip is now I can say Ï´ve been to Brazil!¨. Okay so i didn´t really ¨visit¨Brazil, I just crossed the border to the other side of the fall, without a visa! This is huge because people who know a little bit about my trip planning know I had a HARD time obtaining visas. So that makes this feel like a freebie. First we went to the Brazil consulate in Iguazu. They told us it cost $72 pesos for Taiwanese and we can get it ¨maybe¨today or tomorrow. So we went to take photos and filled the form, when we came back, he changed his statement and pointed us to a line in a deck of documents that says $108, which makes the total cost $180 pesos (US$60). After we repeately asked him what´s the extra cost, he didn´t really answer us and seemed annoyed and so do we! So we walked away and on the way back we were stopped by a taxi driver who aassured us that I can go across the border with no problem. He´ll take us there for $150 pesos. that sounded pretty good, just not very legal. So we hesitated again. After much consideration, the next day we went to a registered taxi company and explained the visa situation and asked them if they´ll take us. Then they told us öf course, all you need to do is to pay the police $60!¨. wow deal! no wait, no visa, just $60, i will do it! so we hopped in the taxi and the whole process was very smooth, and very legal (at least it seemed like!). We arrived at the border, there´s a window where all the taxi drivers lined up to show documents, our driver handled everything for us. So we did not exact see whether he slipped the money through the side of the window or otherwise. what matters is we crossed the border okay and saw the spectacular falls from the other side. It was wonderful and Brazil does look a little greener than Argentina.

About our accomodation, we stayed at a really really nice hostel. It has a pool, hammocks, bbq, internet access, and a common area where guests can sit, relax, and often exchange travel stories. We met some interesting people here, people who have been on the road for months and have tons of tips for us. On one hand we were happy about it, on the other hand it makes feel like such spoiled rats! Those people take buses through south america, they stayed on buses for 20+, 30+,40+ hours, they camped and cooked their own meal. We eat at parilla everyday and flinched at the 18 hours bus ride from Buenos Aires. Okay so i guess we can´t really call ourselves backpackers yet until our first overnight bus ride. And at this point i feel really grateful that years of working as engineers have given us some financial cushion, so we can afford a bit more comfort than the typical backpackers. so thank you cisco!

advise? try not to come in summer and use mosquito repellent religiously!!

some pictures here.

this photo is shot on a boat. We took a boat ride to have close encounter to the falls. The results is us competely soaked. I was screaming like crazy when the water was pouring down. The adrenaline rush is no less than the jurassic park ride in Disney land.

man don´t I look sun burned?!

the common area in our hostel.

we dined at this restaurant THREE times during our 4-night stay at Iguazu. It´s easy to tell how much we are anticipating the food from Pascal´s face.

We are back at Buenos Aires now, tomorrow we´ll fly to Patagonia where cold weather will be very welcome. We are prepared - we bought two boxes of alfajores from Havanna with us. One to be consumed while trekking in Patagonia and the other to be brought on board the Antarctica cruise so we always have something handy to boost our energy. chao!

Let's talk about food

i haven´t posted or talked much about food, that´s unusual for me. so here they are.... when it comes to food, Argentina really has a lot to offer, the variety, the quality, the price, and the density. Restaurnats, cafe, little eatery, kiosco (little stand that sells newspaper, snack, drinks, and more), are everywhere. You literally can´t walk a block without finding something good to eat (unless it´s a residential neighborhood, but still). The portion is so normal (compared to american standard), which means you can try different things without stuffing yourself. The variety ranges from little light food like alfajores, empanadas, sandwich de miga, to steak, steak and steak! Argentina is the kingdom of steak. I never had to choose from more than 3 different cuts of steak in my life, but here, i was overwhelmed by the choices in spanish menu and often had to look up a dictionary to determine what i´ll order. My favorite so far is lomo al champignon, it´s tenderloin cooked with mushroom, cognac, white wine, and served with potatoes. it´s so tender, so juicy, and i am feeing hungry right now as i type. I also love their sandwich de miga, it´s basically layers of thinly-sliced white (or wheat) bread sandwiched with ham, cheese, egg, salami, tomato, etc (not all together). It´s like the tea sandwiches you can get at Lisa´s Tea Treasure or other afternoon tea house, but they are everywhere here, it´s a good lunch in hot summer days like this. And the empanadas are just equally impressive. At first sight it looks like taiwanese ¨baked curry dumplings¨, but the texture is so much different. And the fillings range from vegetable, cheese, to meat. I just tried a corn and cheese one and it was fantastic. And the alfajores are my favoiurte sweets in the afternoon for an energy boosting dose.

here are some pictures...

we went to a buffet restaurant and here ´s all the meat you can eat.

a bakery within 10 steps of our hostel that has huge selections of sandwiches, pastry and sweets, often the first stop of our day. look at those little things, aren´t they a sight for sore eyes?

HOT HOT HOT!

It has been really hot in Buenos Aires. It reminds me of those summer time in Taiwan. I haven't had this kind of weather for so long, almost forgot how it feels. The weather finally cools down a bit and our days in Buenos Aires also turned from sightseeing into a more relaxing pace. I started taking some spanish class. In BA, spanish classes are everywhere, and so affordable! An on-one-one class only cost you $33 pesos (that´sabout US$10!). I went with this institution that advertised ¨survival spanish crash course¨, exactly what I need! And I am really happy with my choice. The class is practical. Today I managed to make people understand when I asked ¨where is the bank?¨. I am a little bit proud! The instructor is so friendly, I was treated with mate during the class (she probably noticed my yawning ). Mateis a very popular tea-like hot drink in Argentina. In fact, it's more than a drink, it's also a ritual, a social practice, shared among family and friends. It's generally not available at restaurants or shops because of its complex process, and that's why an invitation to mate is not to be missed!

The drink mate is to be prepared in a gourd also called mate. Hot water (not boiling water) is poured into it. It's sipped through a silver straw called bambilla.

In San Telmo antique market, we came across this street vendor that sells all kinds of mate. The sight of tens of mates is really beautiful.


Besides that, i also want to share my personal survival guide in BA. Walking in the streets of BA is requires multi-tasking: the heat, the crowded and sometimes not evenly paved streets, the bustling roads, and the occasional land mine - dog shit, can wears you out easily.
so, here are the items that are on top of my list -
1. a pair of Havaiana flip-flop. it´s so soft, the cushion makes you feel like it´s part of your feet. You can walk in it for hours.
2. Shu uemura deep sea water spray, or my new discovery, available everywhere in BA pharmacy - La Roche-Rosay thermal water spray. I kept it in my purse everyday and spray it on whenever i feel like. it is very refreshing - but don't forget to reapply sun screen after that!
3. a 30+ sun screen that doesn´t clog your pore. I got this really good sun screen from a boutique in San Jose and it´s amazing. if you are interested, let me know. I will try to look it up or post a picture.
4. a hat, if you dare to wear one. why? because NO ONE in BA wears a hat. they love the sun!
5. if you stay in hostels, this link is your best friend. It´s an English website so you don´t have to flip through your so-and-so phrasebook to book a room. Don´t forget to take a gold card if you are a frequent traveller. It saves you $2 everytime you book.

ok. it´s time to go to bed.

Hola from Argentina

Hola! We´ve been in Buenos Aires a few days now and everything is going well. We are getting into the rhythm of traveling as backpackers. the best part of is is not having to rush to do anything, or visit any place. We can stay at a place as long, or as short as u want. Sometimes we simply just hang at an internet cafe and connect with your family and friends back home - like what I am doing right now.

Before diving into the detail of our trip...

I want to backtrace and tell you the days before our departure. We were seriously stressed out. As we were boxing things up and moving them to the storage, we realized we have SO much crap! When we first saw the 10x10 storage unit, we thought it was REALLY spacious. After moving everything in, it's now filled to the brink, after we threw away many things and made several trips to Good Will. Few hours before flying out, we had to call our friends Anne and Naim to rescue us with their truck(thank you Anne, Naim!)! with everything stacking up like this, I had no idea how on earth am i going to find that electronic scale in the bathroom, or the water boiler in the kitchen,, but at that point, i really did not care, all i wanted was to shove everything in and forgot about it. i never ever want to move again....

after weeks of whirlwhind, we finally arrived at the airport, waiting in line to check in.

the flight to Buenos Aires was really long. i almost kissed the ground when we finally got there. we checked in to the first hotel we could find and went straight to bed. when we woke up, we went to look for hostels, almost all the popular ones are full but we finally found a decent one and moved in the next day. never staying at a hostel, I must say i am quite impressed. some of the hostels even offer free tango & spanish lessons, cooking class, soccer match, and .. party! we are still learning in this whole new department but i can say we are getting better. we´ve booked ourselves some really nice hostels down the road with excellent ratings.

BA did not disappoint me as the capitol of tango. you can literally see people dancing on the street, that´s no exaggeration. and there are of course tons of shows and lessons you can choose from. we went to the classic cafe tortoni for our first tango show and it was really impressive. pascal took some nice shots of the dancer.

the dancers

inside the cafe, isn´t it really nice? it has that kinda of old world lavish feel to it.

another ärea worth mentioning is La Boca. this is what i imagine BA would be, colorful walls and windows, artsy sculptures, street fair, and tango dancer on the street. this place has it all! every corner, every building in this area is a good photographying material and i couldn´t stop snapping shots here. however, sadly this is also a poor neighborhood and we´ve been warned not to stroll outside the main touristic blocks. something to note if you have plans to travel to BA.

see any familiar face here?

our hostel. this is the common area where people can rest, upstairs is free internet, TV and an lounge area. our room is the first one to the left.