fox

fox Originally uploaded by Road Trip

these guys are all over the place but apparently not a native species

The Desdemona

The Desdemona Originally uploaded by Road Trip

mail at the end of the world

mail at the end of the world Originally uploaded by Road Trip

you can`t read it but it does say on the sign that this is where mail is dropped off

in the park II

in the park II Originally uploaded by Road Trip

in the park

in the park Originally uploaded by Road Trip

only a little less than 18,000km to Alaska

only a little less than 18,000km to Alaska Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Baptista, Emmanuel and Me

Baptista, Emmanuel and Me Originally uploaded by Road Trip

out trying and failing to see the marshall glacier

our bus on a ferry to Tierra del Fuego

our bus on a ferry to Tierra del Fuego Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Earth of Fire

Which is roughly what Tierra del Fuego translates to. So about 40 hours by bus out of Bariloche, and a night spent in Rio Gallegos which is really a town only worth going to on your way through and I`m at the end of it. Ushuaia billed as the ¨The Southern Most City in the World¨ is full of cattle, eagles and other birds, foxes, guanaco (a relative of the llama), beautiful views and ice capped mountains. Durring the quietest part of low season there are very few people down here. The city can probably only really be called that when its full. A lot of bars and hotels sit closed for lack of tourism, meaning even the seasonal residents have long since gone. It´s blisteringly quiet, so one thing about the long bus ride I`m grateful for is allowing me to meet a bunch of the small group of tourists that were going to be down here with me. We actually had a good group out til late last night, including 2 french guys, 2 portugese, an English, an Irish and a guy from Brazil. It`s actually nice that this kind of mix happens so often while travelling, you get used to the different accents and laughing at the the small things, often bits of the humor, that get lost in translation (which of course makes it all the better to be able to laugh at it). Unfortunately you also get used to the ephemeral friendships, as soon you start getting comfortable enough in them to fully enjoy them, one, both or all of you are on your way, most often in different directions. The two french guys, Baptista and Emmanuel, turned out to be really cool. We went hiking the first day up to see the Marshall Glacier not knowing that it would be covered in snow. Still a good day hiking through the snow which when bad choices were made sometimes came up to mid thigh. The next two days we rented a car, which between the three of us it was pretty cheap. The first we went out to the national park, quiet enough that most often we were the only people on the trails. The second we made it out to Cabo San Pablo where there`s a shipwerch on the beach that you can walk out to on low tides. The Desdemona was still in good enough shape to convince Baptista and I to try and cross a small stream in order to get to her. I don`t know what serious lack of judgement allowed us to think that taking off out shoes to cross a stream on the furthest south land mass other than antartica to be a good idea but it did. This was honestly the single most stupid decision I`ve ever made. Which says quite a bit. Only being maybe 30 meters wide it felt like it took forever to cross. My feet were completely numb after second of putting them in the water, the second half of the cross, made up of small stones that would have usually hurt, was crossed moving as fast as I could while still keeping my balance. The numbness was quickly passed by onto a pain that felt like it was inside your brain. Emmanuel had planned on doing the same but seeing our faces and hearing our screams kept him out of the water. After reaching the other side and having our shoes and socks back on didn`t stop the pain either, it probably took another half of an hour to get any feeling back what so ever. It took so long to get back any sensation other than pain we honestly both expressed fear of losing toes. If the water hadn`t been moving so fast it would probably have been frozen solid. At about the same time we got to the ship we were able to walk more or less normally. It had a huge whole in the side and you were able to get up into it and walk around, ladders led up two levels to the top deck but the rust was so bad that you could see through the floor in places making walking around up there a slow and nerve racking experience. The image of falling through was so strong a few times I opted to grab something covered in bird shit just to keep a hand on something solid. Frankly the whole experience was a little dulled because of the fear of having to cross through the stream again to get back to the car. Luckily form the deck of the boat you could see a path that looked like it might avoid the problem. It turned out to lead to a road with a bridges that we surely would have found if we had not been so impatient to get to the boat durring low tide and had looked around a bit more with the car. When we finally got back to Emmanuel he was talking to probably the only person living out near the beach. He was an old fisherman and was sporting about a twelve inch blade tucked into the back of his belt. We had parked at and abandoned old hotel and after realizing he was being watched while looking around in it and seeing the blade after starting up a conversation Emmanuel said he really felt for a while he was caught in the middle of a horror flick. Best we can tell though we was just a nice old guy living out there by himself looking for someone to talk to that had a need for a twelve inch blade. Anyway right now, I`m still well hungover, and all the new friends have gone and I`m at the end of a very slow slow day. All I want out of days like these is a bed, a television, and aome crappy movies but that didn`t out. So I thought maybe I`ll just go and write stuff on the internet. But it`s late now and I`m tired, so I`m going to bed. Have a goodnight.

nice houses in Bariloche

nice houses in Bariloche Originally uploaded by Road Trip

tons of really nice houses around this area, not to mention different than any others I`ve seen in Latin America

Bariloche

Bariloche Originally uploaded by Road Trip

volcanic ash

volcanic ash Originally uploaded by Road Trip

when I first showed up everything was covered in ash

the bus for the rich

the bus for the rich Originally uploaded by Road Trip this bus was so nice even the two kids and a baby in front of me, as loud as they were, couldn`t ruin it for me

Losing lunch in Bariloche

So my 19 hour bus ride out of Buenos Aires was pretty lujo, fully reclining seats and foot rests that pop up so you can lay completely horizontal, plus wine, champagne and steak dinner. They`re called Super-cama (super bed) and, although it costs a bit more, I figured I should at least try them once before I go. My first couple of days in Bariloche were nice its a real pretty place, lakes, mountians and great views. It was a little less than clear because it had been hit by the clouds of ash from the eruption of Chaiten in Chile a few days before I got there (ash was on everything) but beautiful nonetheless. I even somehow managed to meet some people who were nice enough that after knowing me for only a day to go get an icecream cake, throw in some candles, and sing me happy birthday on the 11th (I got into the how old are you game with the woman that worked there and it slipped out, of course she then proceded to tell everyone else there) . But unfortunately the next 24 hours were spent bowing to the porcelain god trying to keep my head from exploding. A few other people in the hostel had gotten it and they were kind enough to pass it on to me. The following day was spent in front of the television with absolutely no energy. The next I did manage to get in a very easy 2 or 3 hour hike but was still pretty shaky, and the following is was pissing down rain. Apparently it rains for about a full month and a half in Bariloche befor the snow comes and once it starts it doesn`t stop. So that was is it for me and Bariloche. I was gone the next day. Apparently the 7 lakes road passes, obviously, 7 different lakes that apparently with clear calm weather perfectly reflect everything around them. I was even considering covering it on a nice long bike ride but the illness and then rain made it was just about impossible.

River Plate v. San Lorenzo

River Plate v. San Lorenzo Originally uploaded by Road Trip

right before River took the field

a little bit of Honduras wherever I go

a little bit of Honduras wherever I go Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Atineo

Atineo Originally uploaded by Road Trip

this was a theatre years ago but its been converted into a huge bookstore. they even encourage you to grab a book and a cup of coffee and spend a few hours. it`s a cool place

Recoleta II

Recoleta II Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Recoleta

Recoleta Originally uploaded by Road Trip

its amazing how much money people would spend on tombs they would never even see

cranes

cranes Originally uploaded by Road Trip

in Puerto Madero, a Buenos Aires port. There was some cool stuff. I like how this foto turned out.

Casa Rosada

Casa Rosada Originally uploaded by Road Trip

their pink house is our white house

Buenos Aires

So I just finished two and a half weeks in Buenos Aires. Its a seriously amazing city. Argentinians go out to eat at 10, go to a bar at 1 or 2 and then onto a club at 2 or 3 until 7 or 8 in the morning. Sometimes they continue on to after hour places until 2 in the after noon. It`s completely insane and trying to get used to it was hard, I think that being trained on out at 11 and back in by 2 or 3 made it impossible. I was lucky enough to get a suggestion from a fellow traveler about staying at the Chill House in Palermo. It was probably the best hostel I`ve stayed in on the trip, both the employees and guests were equally likely to sit around in the eveing in the common room sharing a beer and bullshitting about whatever. It was also a great staging event for anything you`re looking to do in the city. I was there for 3 mondays ad went each night to Bomba El Tiempo, a local percussion show that would have a different guest musician each week. It was an amazing crowd, full of energy and the beats the group put out were impressive, made it hard not to get into it. I`d be going again if I stayed for an additional monday. I also tried to get into the Boca vs. River football game but it didn`t really work out. Its supposedly one of the 3 biggest games in the world because of the insane Boca fans and theri tendency to break out into riots. It sounded like fun. A few of us paid 80 pesos (25 bucks, more or less) to get passed the first checkpoint. We were pretty amazed because everyone else was paying 450 - 500 pesos. At first it looked promising, we were hoping they were using electronic tickets because noone else had any tickets in their hands. So we waited in numerous lines, actually more mobs than lines, and passed maybe 3 more checkpoints. Of course when we got to the last one all the legitimate fans finally pulled out their legitimate tickets. Apparently what they do is the fans without tickets wait outside the stadium building up a crowd and then charge the guards trying to overwhelm them. This was the plan until we got up to the front and saw how the police were handling it, they were seperating the crowd into three seperate lines, single filing down walks seperated by guard rails. This pretty much made the plan useless. At this point we were right outside the stadium and could already feel the fans shaking the ground so we still had to try. Going first I pulled out my subway pass hoping that somesort of piece of paper in the hand would be better than nothing. The guy didn`t buy it and asked me for the real one and before I could tell the guy I payed outside (playing dumb) he literally tossed me to the next guy who literally tossed me out of the fenced in area. We ended up watching the game at a bar with a few beers. The day didn`t go exactly as planned but it was exciting, I`d call it a successful failure. I ended up staying a few extra days in the city to go see a River game. It was for the Copa Libertadores but they were playing San Lorenzo another local team so it was another heated rivalry. It was an amazing game, complete with crazy fans (we saw a kid of about 3 or 4 going nuts and calling the aposing team putas) and an insane fireworks display set off by the fans when River took the field. It ended up a tie, San Lorenzo scoring their 2 goals under handed 9 to 11. There were honeslty more penalty card in this game than I had ever seen (maybe 10 yellows and 3 reds). There were also a few very near full on brawls between the teams. So the 2-2 tie put River out of the cup because of their previous match with San Lorenzo and they went nuts, in between tears they were ripping apart the seats and throwing the pieces on the field. Lorenzo fans were doing it too but they were throwing their debris down on the River fans below them. Because teams are so heated down here the control let the San Lorenzo fans leave first to ensure their safety; they were away and therfore a lot less in number. So me and Henrich, the Danish guy who went to the game with me, were stuck in the stadium for an hour after the match was over. It was a hell of a good time. Other highlights of Buenos Aires were, street artists tango-ing in the streets, Recoleta cemetary and some of the crazy people I met in the hostel. As of today I`m in Bariloche (the northern part of Patogonia), and on into the cold. I`m just moving further south so I hope all the cheap winter stuff I got in BA will be enough.

Home of Che

Home of Che Originally uploaded by Road Trip

hamburgers fighting back

hamburgers fighting back Originally uploaded by Road Trip

A little culture

A little culture Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Monumento de la Bandera

Monumento de la Bandera Originally uploaded by Road Trip

Rosario and Couchsurfing

So I spent a week in Rasario, where I tried out couch couchsurfing for the first time. For those of you that don`t know it`s a program that allows you, once you`re a member, to contact other people in the group around the world. I deally they put you up while you`re in the area but sometimes if they don`t have accomodations they will meet you out for coffe or a drink. The first guy I contacted was studying for an exam so he couldn`t help me out but he said I should contact agirl named Piru. Piru turned out to be an awesome girl who put me up for about a week, she was studyng too but she gave me good suggestions as to what parts of the city I should see and also a few names of people I shoudl try to meet up with while I was there. I ended up meeting a bunch of couchsurfing people out there and they were all very cool. It seems like a great program and from what I`ve seen has been set up pretty well (which is why Im going to lengths to exlpain it now). I definately plan on trying it out some more. As for Rosario itself, it`s a really cool town, a little over a million people but it doesn`t feel that big. It`s the birth place of Che Guevara and there are a good number of art and natural history museums. The city stretches along the river and there are tons of great parks and cafes all up and down it. Spent quite a few hours lying down in the parks to read which seemed alway seemed to turn into long naps.