Patagonia Part 3

Hola todos,

Yeah, the title to this post is somewhat misleading, because there are no previous posts entitled "Patagonia Part 1" or "Patagonia Part 2". This was, however, my third time in Patagonia this school year: the first time was for our first EFT (educational field trip) to Ushuaia as a school, the second time was for a mission trip to Cabo Blanco, and I just returned from our latest EFT to Calafate and El Chaltén.
(And yes, I am taking another break from the Blue Backpack Break series. I promise the Machu Picchu post is coming next!)
Here are some things that I managed to do during my 6-day adventure in Patagonia.

Went to a museum about glaciers
In the El Calafate Glacier Museum, we learned all about how glaciers are formed and the globe's glacier history. Specifically, the museum focused on the Patagonian ice fields, which are shared between Chile and Argentina. Over the next few days in El Calafate and El Chaltén, I managed to see 3 separate glaciers of the Patagonian ice field. (For an idea of how huge this ice field is, read about my adventure walking on a glacier below!)

This was the view right outside of the Glacier Museum. The bluest water that you've ever seen!

Zip-lined across some Patagonian flatland
Zip-lining over Patagonian flatland is unlike anything else. Most of Patagonia (about 90%) is steppe flatland and 10% is comprised of the famous mountains. Seeing the expanse of land that is, well, flat... with twisting rivers that are many shades of blue, surrounded by snow-covered mountains that seem so close yet are miles away, is simply inexplicable (although it appears that I just tried...) I even zip-lined upside-down one time!

The middle of summer, snow on mountains. No big deal.

Celebratory victory pose because I didn't die on the zip-line!

Saw some incredible views after going on a janky 4x4 through some Patagonian mountains
Let me be clear: I don't get car sick. Ever. I can read, sleep, do whatever and not get car sick. But this bumpy, un-seatbelted 4x4 ride was rough. Probably the closest I've ever been to getting car sick. So it's a good thing that we got out twice for photo ops (which I took as a break from the chaotic drive, as well). Here are some photos of our incredible views of the Lago Argentino and the Patagonian mountains.

 

The wind was so strong that it took me several tries to take a panoramic photo. My camera wouldn't let me take one because I wasn't still enough- the wind was pushing my hand too much!

Rode a horse named Bill, who was a total jerk
I mean, you can't get mad at a horse named Bill. It just doesn't sound mean. Especially since all of the other horses had names in Spanish (Pájaro, Marcos, Estrella), Bill really should have been named Guillermo, but that's okay. Anyways, Bill wanted to stay in the front even though I am a very beginning-level rider. And several other students wanted to trot and gallop, while I was satisfied with a nice, slow walk. So I basically spent the whole ride pulling back on the reins (Bill didn't listen) or yelling at Bill to slow down (Bill didn't listen) or just yelling "Ahhhhh! I don't like this!" (the horse handlers laughed at me the whole ride). Did I mention that I am a beginner?! Plus, my booty was super sore the next day because I kept bouncing up and down courtesy of Bill's speedster tendencies.

Freaking Bill. Ugh.

Watched a stunning Patagonian sunset while eating dinner
Of course the Patagonian sunset was incredible- I would have expected nothing less!

 We watched lamb empanadas be fresh-fried over a fire pit and drank wine before dinner, which was a delicious asado.

Hiked a glacier that is older than human civilization
Yep- I strapped on crampons and walked around the Perito Moreno glacier. Later, I was able to see it from farther away for some big-picture perspective, but having it be up-close and personal was insane!

As water melts and drips along the glacier, it creates cool caves which, when filled with water, make some spectacularly blue scars along the surface.

I got to drink some pure glacier water!

The Perito Moreno glacier moves forward about two meters per day (huge forward progress) and loses about the same amount (regrettably large losses). Because of how much it loses, we were able to see chunks of ice fall off several times during our time there.

I'm pretty sure we only saw one-fourth of the Perito Moreno glacier which, at the size of the city of Buenos Aires, isn't even the biggest glacier in the lower Patagonian ice field! (Did I mention? There are TWO of these large Patagonian ice fields: the lower is larger than the upper.) 

Yep, those little black dots in the middle of the photo are people hiking on the glacier!

 After our hike, we drank some whiskey on the rocks: the only time the ice is older than the drink.

Went on a pleasant, small hike to a cool view

The little town of El Chaltén.

Yep- another glacier!

Isn't nature so incredibly creative?

Went on a long, miserable hike to nothing
This hike was actually miserable. A friend described it as "blissful misery", which is probably pretty accurate. You know, that point where you are soaked (both inside and outside of your waterproof jacket) and your shoes are super wet and the headwind is so strong that your ears hurt and you can't hear what your hiking buddy is yelling at you and you can't feel your fingers or toes. And yet, you can't get any more miserable and it isn't getting any better, so you might as well appreciate the nature. Well, that was what this 5-hour hike comprised of. And we didn't even get to see what we were going for (a killer view of Mount Fitz Roy from a lake) because the weather was too dangerous past a certain point.
When I got back to my hotel, I couldn't feel my fingers or toes or face, and my clothes and backpack were completely soaked through. My body was red from cold, and even hours later my fingers were still stiff! Even though I struggled through a 10-mile "swim" up a mountain, I look back on that day with fondness. I don't even know why. It's official, I'm crazy.

We did, in fact see the end of a rainbow. Unfortunately, no gold. But still a rare view!

This is a video of our hiking conditions- 5 hours of this rain and wind non-stop.

Went on a short, miserable hike to a waterfall

Not as miserable as yesterday, but still too cold and windy for my tastes. The waterfall, however, was incredible!

This "educational" field trip was fun, and I did tons of stuff that I normally wouldn't even dream of (and that I will probably never do again)! (Hiking on glaciers? Lasting for 5 hours on a hike in terrible conditions?) I ate a special berry in this area of Patagonia called "calafate" (after which the city is named). If a visitor eats this berry, it means that they will be back to Patagonia sometime in the future. Even though I don't plan on returning anytime soon, there are a few more things that would be cool to do in Patagonia- I might actually be back someday!

Besos,

Christina Seideman

Blue Backpack Break: Pablo Neruda's Houses

Hola todos,

One of the things that I had been dying to do in Chile since I started planning my winter/summer break was visit all three of Pablo Neruda's houses in Chile. Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat, writer, intellectual, and politician (and I probably left something out too). He was a very influential and loved public figure, and his eccentric style and appreciations for beauty, nature, and the ocean are present in each of his Chilean residences.

La Chascona is in Santiago, Isla Negra is in El Quisco, and La Sebastiana is in Valparaíso. While visiting Chile, I was able to visit all three within four days! Here are some photos of the three houses which, although they are now museums, were left relatively untouched after his death. (Although I was allowed to tour the insides- with extremely informative audio tours- pictures were only allowed to be taken of the houses' exteriors. Which is definitely a major bummer, because the coolest parts of the houses were the inside, in my opinion!)

Isla Negra, El Quisco
(visited during week 1 of break)

One of Isla Negra's many beautiful ocean views. That metal fish is a sculpture version of the symbol of the Pablo Neruda foundation. The symbol is found at all three houses!

Just another stunning view of the ocean from a patio. Casual.

This was first written by Pablo Neruda in chalk, and then carved into the wood by a friend of his who was a carpenter. It reads: "Regresé de mis viajes. Navegué construyendo la alegría." which means "I returned from my travels. I navigated by building happiness". Neruda fancied himself a dry-land sailor, and his fascination with boats and the sea is present in all three residences.

Neruda also loved trains. He had sculptures and actual train parts placed in various locations at his houses.

Again, with the whole "wanna-be sailor" thing. Neruda would actually ring a port bell at his house to let his neighbors and fellow sailors know that he was home.

As you can see, the landscaping is gorgeous. This house was also very long and thin- the house stretches past the width of this photo! The long and thin structure, as well as clever window placement and ceiling height, gave one the feeling of being inside a train.

La Sebastiana, Valparaiso
(visited during week 2 of break)

La Sebstiana was named after the original owner of the land that this house currently sits upon- Sebastian something-or-other. Because this man was the captain of a ship, Neruda focused this house on his nautical passions in honor of the sailor.

See the fish symbol again? (It is in the black circle in the upper corner of the gray wall.) This a view of the walk towards the house from the street.

Can you see the boat? Well, it is a house that is shaped like a boat. Again with the nautical theme. 

Neruda definitely had the best view of Valpo from his balcony. Stunning.

The view from a window in the study. What.

La Chascona, Santiago
(visited during week 2 of break)

The name La Chascona refers to the tangled, messy hair of Matilde Urrutia, the woman who Neruda had a not-so-secret affair with. He built this house as a place for her to live and for their secret rendezvous.

The entrance to La Chascona. The blue bold outside tricks you into thinking that this will be another bold architectural piece like his other two homes. Nopes.

Although the exterior was not as ostentatious as Isla Negra and La Sebastiana, the flora was incredible.

The outside of La Chascona was the most boring of all three houses (although it was still pretty- just not peculiar!), but the inside was still super cool and eclectic. I'm bummed that I couldn't take photos to show you all!

My favorite house was probably Isla Negra because of it's proximity to the ocean, although La Sebastiana definitely had the best views. (I'm not a huge fan of La Chascona mostly because it was Neruda's hide away for when he was cheating on his wife. However, the greenery and interior decorations are very nice.)

There were two main observations that stuck out at me during my tours of these houses. Firstly, Neruda was totally obsessed with trains and boats. Seriously. He was like a five year old boy. And secondly, you cannot fathom Neruda's randomness, eccentricity, and creativity until you see the interior designs and decorations for yourself. He was a strange man with some weird tendencies, which are highlighted by the way that he decorated his houses. However, there is a strange artistic reality that can be appreciated by all.
That being said, it is obvious that you must visit at least one of the houses. If you are ever in Chile, you must visit Santiago. While you are there, check out La Chascona! If you want more, you can take a 2 hour bus ride to El Quisco to see Isla Negra. And if you have traveled all the way to Santiago, you are almost obligated to take a side trip to Valparaíso to see the town (and since you will be near La Sebastiana, you might as well see it, too!)

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora

Uruguay

Hola todos,

I am going to take a quick break from the Blue Backpack Break series to tell you all about what I did this past weekend. Because it was the Carnival holiday here in South America (and yes, it is an actual holiday when businesses close!), my classmates and I were given from Friday to Tuesday of this past week to travel again!

The Uruguayan flag (which holds a striking similarity to the Argentine flag)

Even though I am a little travel weary from winter/summer break still, I knew that I needed to see Uruguay! So for 4 of our 5 travel days, three students and myself found ourselves across the river in the country where Argentines and celebrities vacation. (Again, one reason why we only used 4 days and 3 nights- although Uruguay wasn't super expensive, it certainly wasn't cheap!)

Day 1

We started off early because we had to check in for our ferry ride at 7:15 am. The station was across town and we were busing- it took us nearly an hour to get there! We had no problems checking in, though, and took the ferry across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, otherwise just known as Colonia.

A little history: The Río de la Plata (meaning Silver River) was called that by the Spanish who arrived in Buenos Aires during the period of the conquistadores. The river, which is the widest river in the world (or so I've been told by Argentines), seemed silver when the sun reflected off of it. Needless to day, this excited the Spanish who were looking for precious metals. Imagine their disappointment when they discovered that the glittering surface was caused only by the churned up dirt in the river!



Colonia is a very cute, quaint town that reminds me a lot of Smalltown, USA. I would have loved to stay the night there just to walk around the town a lot, but there really isn't much to do there other than sit in a very nice park.


So we took a 3 hour bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. From there, we took another 2.5 hour bus ride to Punta del Este, where we had booked our hostel for the night. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that our hostel was yet another 30 minutes away from Punta del Este! A lot of bus travel that day.

However, we got to see two cool sides of Punta del Este, the ultimate celebrity touring city in Uruguay. Right on the beach, this city has the expensive resorts right along the coast of the ocean, but it also had these very small beach towns with a few beach houses and dirt roads. (If you are familiar with Rocky Point/Puerto Penasco, Mexico, I got déjàvu from El Chorro, the beach town outside of Punta del Este that we were staying in. I suppose it was appropriate that I was at a resort beach town this past weekend- so was my church's Rocky Point mission trip!) It was nice to get a break from not only the hustle and bustle of city life in BA, but also to get some nice ocean weather- less humidity and much less heat.

Day 2

We decided to check out Punta Ballena, a cool beach with an awesome house, which was about an hour away from us. Of course, we had no idea where to get off of the bus or where we were going when we got to Punta Ballena, but we figured it out. ("We'll figure it out when we get there" was the motto of this trip, I think.)

The beach was incredibly gorgeous, and the houses in the area were stunning. However, the best part of Punta Ballena was seeing the Casapueblo, an artist's house that was converted into a museum and hotel.

Much of the work of Carlos Páez Vilaró (the owner) was on display throughout the house.

Then we checked out the beach and saw some paragliders! The wind that day was perfect for any sort of gliding/sailing activity. Here is a video of some of what we saw (WARNING: one of my traveling buddies got a little explicit when the paraglider looked like he was going to crash...)

We hung out at the beach at all afternoon and then headed back to Punta del Este, where we walked along the beach and the town there.

We also dropped by a casino to withdraw cash from their ATM. Uruguay is the only place in our area of South America where you can withdraw US dollars from ATMs! (No, I didn't gamble while at the casino. Kind of a wasted opportunity, but I was low on cash!)

Day 3

We left Punta del Este today. It was probably good that we spent beach time yesterday, since rain was spitting on us all morning!

However, before we left we checked out Los dedos (The Fingers), which is a big statue of a submerged hand in the Playa Brava of Punta del Este.
(PS. The story behind this statue is very sad- a father watched his son drown and the last he saw of his son were his reaching fingers. The father had this statue made in memory of his son.)

We headed off to Montevideo which, although we had spent about 15 minutes here on our first day in between our buses, we didn't actually get to see the city at all.

The Plaza Independencia in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo

We went to Ciudad Vieja (a Montevideo neighborhood) and checked into our hostel: Los Jardines de Babylonia. Like the name suggests, the theme was the lost gardens of Babylon, and the decor inside the hostel corresponded perfectly! We all really liked this hostel and wished that we could have stayed longer- alas, we depart Montevideo tomorrow.

We headed to the Mercado del Puerto to see the restaurant/tourism area in Ciudad Vieja. Tons of authentic restaurants were grilling up meats. Yum!

We headed to Los Pocitos, the main beach in Montevideo. (The water was a gross brown, though, because this beach is from the Río de la Plata, not the ocean, so there is a ton of dirt!)

Our travel crew at the Montevideo sign. The backlighting is weird because of the sun, but I am on the "o" on the far left and the rest of the group is on the "t" and both "e"s.

We wandered around in search of some dinner and came across a mall. Although it had a severely limited food court, it had an awesome candy shop! (And they had sour gummy worms, which I was seriously craving!)

We ended the night with a walk down the pier near our hostel. Seeing another beach sunset was beautiful!

Day 4

Today, we woke up early in the morning (5:30 am!) to head to the bus station, where we caught a bus from Montevideo back to Colonia. From Colonia, we ferried to Buenos Aires (and even though both Immigration and Customs were slow, we made it through without any problems!). We ended the trip with an hour-long bus ride back to our side of BA.

Well, another country checked off of my list and 4 more stamps in my passport. At this rate, I am going to need extra passport pages before my 10 year expiration is up! I had a great time in Uruguay, and even though is was short and sweet compared to winter break, it was nice to get out of BA a little (especially since the weather here has been horribly hot and humid).

Until next time...

Besos,

Tina the Exploradora