Saturday, January 28, 2012

Parque Nacional Los Alerces...and a LOT of rain

We'd planned on taking an old steam train tour up into the mountains today but there were no seats left for us. Too bad - it would have been fun. Instead we took advantage of the time to wander around Esquel (a cute, Banff-like town) stocking up for our upcoming venture into the national park to camp.

Guille was so worried about the rain that she bought a brand new, certified water-proof tent in Esquel. She knows she'll use it again so instead of putting up the one we've been borrowing, we'd use the new one. A good investment.

We got to the information centre around 17:00. While we were planning on tenting, the ranger told us that they were expecting 50km/hr winds and upwards of 60mm of rain. If we didn't want a soggy night, he suggested we try getting in to one of the many cabins. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea. We tried several spots but no luck.

Accepting our fate, we pulled into the Bahia Rosales campground. It's a beautiful campground on the lake. It has a store, a common cabin/hall, showers with hot water, toilets and water. It's gorgeous despite the rain.


There were plenty of empty campsites to choose from so we opted for the one with the least mud, a mix of trees and open space, and one on a bit higher ground.


Fortunately it wasn't pouring too hard when we put the tent up but boy did it pick up! At which point we noticed a drip inside the tent! That was not supposed to happen. A little MacGuyver-ing and some kind words to the universe and we were sorted.

Then came the 'guardian angels'. That's how Guille prefers to think of the troop of slugs that began to climb the sides of the tent en-masse. I'd never seen anything like it. This picture shows a few early in the night, but they just kept coming and sliming all over the tent throughout the night. Blech! The joys of camping!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Across the country in a day.

It was another long day of driving today, hopefully the last for a while. We pretty much headed west across the country from Puerto Piramides to Esquel in the foothills of the Andes - about 750km.

As before we pulled in to town in the dark but tonight we opted for a hotel. We 'splurged' for a hotel for 220$. That's about $25 each. Not bad. To compare, the camping has been 30$/pp/pn so ~$7/pp/pn.

As far as the driving goes, it's been pretty good on the highways. The roads have been paved recently (Guille says that's because of the recent election and all the promises made!). The speed limit really doesn't come up much, you just go as fast as you're comfortable going. For the most part it's been flat and straight. Easy. The tricky part is all the necessary passing when stuck behind trucks.

Driving in the towns is generally okay except that lanes are fluid and optional. The one-way streets are poorly marked so you never know which way to look and even if you're on a main drag, the right of way changes according to who's on the right. I have come to the conclusion that in urban areas I am a much better co-pilot than pilot!

Roundabouts do my head in at the best of times but I've come to appreciate them now that I think I got the rules under control. Compared to all the 4-way stops in Alberta, they're brilliant. Here in Argentina any rules I know get thrown out the window. I need to just accept the non-sensical rule that those coming IN to the roundabout get the right of way and get Guille to coach me through them as I go!

The topography really changed today as we went from flat plains into the Valle de Los Martires around Las Plumas. It reminded both of us of pictures we've seen of the Grand Canyon. I confess I loved the geology and saw one of the most obvious unconformities I've ever seen.

It was always exciting to see what vistas were waiting for us around each twist and turn. There were literally a few gasps of awe between Guille and I as we were came to the crest of a hill or around a corner. We were gawking all afternoon with many 'wow's escaping from our mouths!

During Guille's shift driving, I paged through a book I picked up last night in Puerto Piramides called "Che Boludo! - A gringo's guide to understanding the Argentinians". We had a good laugh as I learned some expressions that caused Guille to cringe and shake her head with the suggestion that I never utter those words in polite company! Others were simply fascinating insight into the culture. Case in point: "la verdad de la milanesa"...'the truth of the breaded veal' naturally means 'the real deal'.

Now I have new sympathies for people learning English and all of our crazy expressions.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Peninsula de Valdes

Today in the car, Guille asked me 'so what are we going to remember from Puerto Piramides?'. My first thought was wind and flying-suitcases, referring to the middle of the night near-miss with her suitcase being catapulted by the wind within inches of my face.

It's hard to get the tent pegs to stick in sand dunes! Needless to say we watched attentively as our neighbours packed up in the morning. We actually dragged our tent, assembled with contents, 20m to our new spot where the pegs got some bite. The forecast read 55km winds after all - there's no point risking the tent becoming a kite!


In addition to our associations with the Peninsula de Valdes, Guille added openness, emptiness (of the landscape), clear blue skies, and solitude. It's really barren here and we're so far away from any cities...it's a wonderful escape.


Normally whales and sea lions come to this UNESCO world heritage site to breed and birth but now isn't the right time of year. Too bad. Still, the sea lions we saw sleeping on the beach were kinda cool. The penguins, the first of many on this trip, we're pretty darned cute too!


We drove almost 200km around the peninsula braving sand storms and thickly gravelled roads. Guille gave me a Spanish lesson as I drove back and I can now handle the regular verbs ending in 'ar' in the past tense, single person plural! The daily breakthroughs I'm making are incredible!!! Soon I'll sound like a four year old instead of a three year old! I can't wait.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Road trip!

Despite our best efforts to get an early start on our road trip today, at least 11 was still on the AM side of noon. After packing an amazing amount of stuff into the rental car, we said goodbye to Alejandra and Bahia Blanca. We headed south...or so we thought!


There are times where the GPS helps. There are times when it needs to be thrown out the window. I heard someone once say 'it's a GPS, not a co-pilot'. Fair enough. In this case, however, we discovered that we were on highway 22 east, not highway 3 south. Don't ask! In any case, when it kept telling us to turn left we needed to reassess!

We stopped once for a break from the car, excluding the mandatory 'fluid adjustment' stops. If we only got the chance to stop in one town, Las Grutas was the perfect choice. It's a beachy, summery town with young kids prancing around in next to nothing accessorized only by raging hormones. Too funny. It was cute, pretty, clean and very popular. The beach was FULL. The umbrellas were so pretty and colourful and it made for a fascinating view. Did I capture he essence?


It was a long day of driving. Nearly 11 hours from when we left to when we pitched a tent. It would have been longer but the 81km from highway 3 into Puerto Piramides were in fact paved despite what we'd heard. Thank goodness. At the end of the day, the odometer read 775 km more than it had that morning.

We made sure to fill the car with gas as we pulled into town, one of my new travel tips. Here we are on a road trip that's going to take us about 2500km and there's a gas shortage!!! Seriously! Guille didn't mention it before. Well...we've committed now. Boy did I witness the effect as we passed stations with line-ups dozens of cars long. We managed to find a station that had fuel (after passing several that were effectively closed) but it was only premium fuel and cash only. Ugh! We'll need to be very mindful of this as we go!!!

Scenes from a nationwide gas shortage:



Pitching a tent in the dark of a make and model we'd never seen assembled before took a couple of attempts and a dose of humour-shall-overcome-fatigue.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Pampero and quinoa

We left El Encuentro today after lunch. The morning was spent willing my clothes back into their bags. Where's Mary Poppins when you need her?

We also spent time tidying the house and staring out the window at the sudden and strong wind followed by heavy bouts of rain, a result of a phenomenon called 'El viento Pampero'. As we were washing dishes there was a round the rains and I had to chuckle at the neighbours running out to get their laundry off the line in a hurry. Some experiences are shared across borders and languages!

We got into Guille's apartment building around 17:30 in time to have more pastellitas and cafe con leche. So good. We needed the energy to make it through all the errands we had to run to get ready for the camping trip.

We sorted out the car rental. We picked things up at friends' who were generous enough to contribute to our adventure. We went shopping at the health food store where we stocked up on yummy and strange items I'd never seen before. I was holding my breath when the bill came given all that caught our fancy. Only 110$!!! (about $25) We would have easily paid about $50 at a north american health food store. Score!

The photo below shows a collection of some of what we bought. I included it here because the word 'fideo' (meaning noodle) is on the label. Fideo is the nickname I gave a dear friend of mine and couldn't resist snapping a photo of his name in print! (quando seran los fideos juntitos otra vez?)


It was amazing to run these errands with Guille and her mom because I quickly discovered that Bahia Blanca is a small town. Cochrane used to be like this; a town where it takes fifteen minutes to make a five minute trip. They know so many people and Guille and her mom are very extraverted and chatty. Her mom hosts a local TV show here too so she's quite well known. It was interesting to watch them light up when they turned around to see someone else they knew followed by big hugs and kisses on the cheek, a warm Argentinian way of greeting people. In my mind, Canadians have a lot to learn.

The last shop before dinner in town with Oscar (Ale's boyfriend) was the local Walmart! That was trippy! Aside from signs and announcements in spanish, oh and almost half an aisle dedicated to the Yerba herb used for mate, I could have been anywhere in Calgary or North America! Sometimes it's nice to be somewhere where you feel comfortable when so far away from home. I just never expected that place to be a Walmart!!!

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Not too many pictures today so I thought I'd include a photo from the other day that I really liked. I've been trying to stick to a limit of four photos per day, max. This is a great opportunity to stick in one that didn't make it on a previous day. It's of some of the flowers in the neighbour's garden in Sierra de la Ventana.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Don't should on yourself.

Rain today. Our grand plans of going for a hike near Villa Ventana were put on hold as a result of some heavy rain. It was great! Not only was it a warm summer rain but it was a great excuse to be lazy. Both Guille and I were glad of the opportunity to justify doing nothing.


We're both on sabbaticals right now. We don't have to work but we have this inherent drive in us to keep busy, to DO. I noticed I was feeling guilty as she and her mom worked on their house. I felt I should help. As a good guest I should have but I was told early on that my job was to relax. Why is that do hard for me?

I think I'm just gearing down. If this is an issue after four months, I'm in big trouble. As it is, in these early days I find myself 'shoulding' on myself a fair bit. I should read, I should do Pilates, I should go for a walk, I should stop eating, I should study more spanish. Bah! I SHOULD relax and give my busy mind a sabbatical too!

As it was, I did study a little Spanish. Today was fruits and vegetables day! I sometimes feel like I'm about three years old spouting off my brand new words with the pride of a child figuring out how to tie her shoes! 'yo quiero cebollas y zanahorias!' The trick, however, was that every time I'd look up a word on my translator app, I'd have to check with Guille if that was the argentinian version. Corn is known as mais in mexico but here they call it choclo.

With the effort put in to that exercise and a head full of spanish words in the shapes of nectarines and eggplant, I enjoyed a well earned siesta mid afternoon. Bliss.

We had facturas and pastelitos for afternoon coffee around five. It seems to be a nice part of their day though my guess is that it's partly intended to bridge the gap between lunch around 13:00 and dinner around 22:00. Guille's mom went into town expressly to grab some of the membrillo pastries they described to me last night as an Argentinian delicacy. In terms of typical Argentinian dishes, I'm doing quite well given that I've been here less than a week.


We then went driving around the little nearby town of Villa Ventana before heading up to the Bodega Dunguaray, the local vinyard. It was a beautiful setting and we got some great photos but my God the wine was bitter. It's a new vinyard and they probably need a few more vintages before it matures properly. Still, it was a great field trip and we got some great sunset shots!



The neighbours Nestor and Bimpi were over for dinner tonight. They are lovely people, I can tell. I just can't really communicate with them. It's so odd sitting at the table understanding only a handful of words and barely grasping the flow of a conversation. I'm a talker. I love lively conversations. This whole language barrier has me feeling a bit socially awkward and verbally paralyzed. It's quite the challenge.

Given how spoiled I was in Holland with all of the English spoken, it's important for me to be put into this position to appreciate how others sometimes feel. I genuinely believe that everyone should experience this challenge at some point in their lives.

Guille did a great job of bridging the two worlds but I know it's exhausting so I was fine to sit back and practice tuning my ear and trying really hard to follow. But that too is exhausting so after a while I would give up and accept being lost. Sometimes it's fun to be lost!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Villa Ventana and a food-athon!

I will be in serious trouble if I continue to eat as much as I have been.

Today I had my first parilla - an Argentinian barbecue with several chunks of meat known as asados. So much for being a 'boutique vegetarian'! Our lunch table at the Mirador near Sierra de la Ventana was full with fries, salad, wine and then meat, meat and more meat. In addition to helping Guille and her mom with some of their asado, I had a milenesa (like a wiener schnitzel) with lots of lemons, yummy!


The day started at ten again for me. Hey! I'm on vacation! After breakfast we got ourselves sorted to head over to Villa Ventana and the BBQ restaurant. That was followed by a drive around Villa Ventana where we all picked out a favourite little cabins. It's a gorgeous little town and I was reminded of a long-standing dream of mine to own land somewhere and build a cabin. This town is a bit too far from Calgary but boy was I impressed! Oddly enough, what I loved most was the smell of pine trees.

As if we hadn't eaten enough, we then stopped for tea and cakes with their neighbours at 17:30. It was delicious but I felt the need to go for a long walk...only it was really hot and we had other things to do such as stopping in at some local craft stores to snoop, stop at some good photo spots at sunset (it seems to be hitting the peaks of the Sierras around 20:20) and then driving back.


While I could have easily gone to bed, we couldn't go to bed without dinner! Fortunately we were all on the same page and ate lightly. Still, this Argentinian way of life of eating late and then rolling into bed is definitely not according to my natural rhythm. I'm curious to see how well I adapt before heading home though. Four months is a long enough time to potentially get re-programmed!