Patagonia - not just a clothing brand.

Seeing the Andes from the window of our plane definetly got us excited to do some hiking. We were surprised by how closely the El Calafate climate resembles that of the east side of Sierra Nevada. In fact, the setting looks just like Bishop, CA but with bigger mountains.


The security for domestic flights is like it used to be in the US.  There is one person looking at all the luggage passing through the x-ray machine (no need to take your computer out, no need to take your shoes off or worry about liquids) and you walk through the metal detector.  If it goes off they pat you down and that is it. Easy!

The first thing we did after we got settled in El Calafate is sign up for a whirlwind tourist package to see Glacier Perito Moreno.  We caught a bus and then a boat to do a short glacier trek then back on a boat to a different lookout.  The glacier is amazingly huge. You can see the whole extent starting in the distand mountains and ending in a milky-green lake where it calves (gigantic chunks break off) frequently.  Amongst the glacier guides we had celebrity status being from Yosemite. They all talked about how they wanted to climb El Capitan and definitely treated us differently than the other people on the walk.

At the end of the tour they served the whole tour group Jameson Irish Whiskey on the "rocks" (crushed glacial ice).
On the trail back to the boat Tamara met a five week old cat which she named Negrita. She wanted to take her with us as a "travel cat."  She now lives in Tamara's backpack above her sleeping bag and next to her sleeping pad.  It hasn't been a problem yet but we are a bit worried about traveling though Chilean customs.

Next, we took a bus to El Chalten, a town inside of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, where the spires of Fitz Roy tower over the town. Our friend from Yosemite, Jon Jon, was supposed to be somewhere in the town, but he didn't have good internet access, so we arrived regretting that we had not kept in better contact. But the very next person we encountered walking down the street, was our tall gringo friend Jon Jon. I know its a small town but it was a pretty amazing coincidence. 

After making the appropriate preparations (Above, see Tamara shopping for essential backpacking food. Faty is actually the brand name of lard.) we set out on our four day backpacking trip near Fitz Roy which was kinda amazing.  The weather didn't fully cooperate with lots of rain and insane wind but we managed and it helped keep the crowds down.

Tamara with El Chalten in background

Mt. Fitz Roy

Tomorrow we are on a 8:30am bus headed to Puerto Natales, Chile.  From there we will spend the night before catching yet another bus headed to Torre del Pine National Park.  We hope to get in eight days of "treking" there before catching the NAVIMAG boat for a four day trip ending in Puerto Montt.

Aquí en Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday to find Dan's friend Miguel waiting at the airport.  Since then we have had the whole Buenos Aires experience.  We have drank Fernet which is a popular Coke and Fernet (Italian liquor) drink. We have shared maté (pronounced mah-tey), participated in an all day (and most of the night) barbecue, have tried two of the three "best ice cream places" in Buenos Aires, sat in many a corner cafe and drank really good coffee with medialunas (croissants with a sweet sort of glaze), crossed the widest street in the world, went on a tour at the Teatro Colón. (an amazing opera house), went to a tango show, and it has not even been a week.

Buenos Aires has a very European influence, due to a massive immigration from Europe in the late 1800's. So pasta, as well as the famed beef, are common dishes here. In fact, Argentinians eat twice as much meat per capita as people from the US do. So we are getting used to new meal times here. People don't eat lunch until 1-1:30pm, and then restaurants close shortly after. You never catch people eating dinner before 9pm, and a 10pm or 11pm dinner is normal. People go to sleep late, but they rarely start work before 9am.

The Argentinian accent is also something that has been really difficult to get used to. First, many of the Spanish words I have learned for things are not used here. Fresa (strawberry) is frutilla. Carne doesn't mean meat, it means beef. Spanish isn't even español, its castellano. On top of that, they make a "zsh" sound for any "y" sound. So "yo" translates as "sho" and "pollo" translates as "poeshoe". It's been really difficult to understand people, so I hope its just a matter of getting used to it. But that is why we're here.  

Our first weekend here, Miguel took us to his parents country house in the pampas (grasslands) where we relaxed, went swimming, and hung out with some of his friends. Our all-night barbeque consisted of building a fire in a dug out pit, then placing a rack that resembled a medieval torture device, with meat strapped to it, next to the fire to slow-roast it. We probably didn't eat until close to midnight, but the array of steak, and sausages, really good baguettes and some salad and Argentinian wine was pretty amazing. The next morning we had a funny experience. Miguel loves pancakes so he bought some Aunt Jemima pancake mix and wanted us to make them. They stood around watching us make them wide-eyed like we were some culinary geniuses. Since Miguel lived in the US for a year, he was excited, everyone else didn't know what to do with them. One of the girls made a face and politely declined them. They also pointed to the syrup that Miguel bought and asked what flavor it was and the closest translation was dulce de leche, which people are crazy about over here. We hope to make authentic "not from the box" pancakes for them eventually.

When we got back, we mastered the subway (with some help from the locals) and ventured downtown. There are some amazingly beautiful old buildings and we toured the even more amazing opera house. I have never seen anything like it. We also got to see the president's house or Casa Rosada (The pink house. Yes, it's actually pink.) Since we are not city go-ers these days, one of the things that surprised us was the many air conditioning units on the side of downtown buildings (no central air I guess) that constantly shed their substantial amount of condensation.  As a result, you are forced to dodge a shower of "street water."  I'm sure it's clean enough but it doesn't feel that way.

We have had an incredible first week here in Argentina and this would not have been nearly as enjoyable with out Miguel and Flor's hospitality.  Not only have they given us a place to stay but they have taken the time to show us around, translate, help make reservations, given us free Spanish lessons,... the list goes on.  They have been great and we only hope that we can one day return the favor.

Yes, this is Dan making Buffalo Wings for Miguel, Flor and some family.