Argentina

I feel like almost every new entry starts like what I am going to write next, but in El Calafate itself, there is not much to see. It is a little village with some restaurants, shops, hotels, etc. and above all a lot of tourists. The reason for that is that El Calafate is the starting point to get to the Perito Moreno Glaciar, one of very few moving glaciars on this earth, at about eighty kilometres from El Calafate. Although there is some bigger glaciers in the same Parque Nacional Los Glaciares that Perito Moreno is in, Perito Moreno is star attraction number one. In the village there is a lot of travel agencies offering all kinds of trips to the glaciar but the agencies I have compared offered exactly the same excursions for exactly the same price.

The excursion I took, the mini-trekking, was a bit expensive, but very good. They picked me up at the hostel at 9 am and we drove to a first view point where everyone could take pictures. Than we drove closer by and we had about two hours to walk to different view points, ever so close to this wonder of nature, and to have lunch. The glaciar is just breathtaking and when the sun shines, you can hear and see parts falling of the front every now and then and you can hear the water from the lake lying above it making tunnels to get its way through the glaciar, it sounds like explosions. Next part was a boat trip to the other side of the lake, again, with a good view on the glaciar of course. Once back on the shore, everyone got crampons and we started a two-hour-walk on the glaciar! It was gorgeous, it looks so blue. The tour was finished with a glass of whisky with glaciar ice. Another unique experience!

Hasta banana!

Back in Argentina, the hostel Amanda, Alessandra and me were supposed to meet was booked, it is the high season, there are so many people travelling in Argentina! It was late when I arrived, so I went to another one, had a good night's sleep and guess who I met in the new hostel on my way to breakfast next morning? Yep, Amanda and Alexandra! We went for a walk and for something to eat in the city centre, a few streets that are packed with fancy clothes and chocolate shops. Not only the Swiss and Belgians claim to have the best chocolate in the world! Then, I went to get some information for planning the next part of my trip. Not a big success: I found out that the trip from Bariloche to Puerto Montt, Chile, over three lakes by bus and boat costs 170 dollars, a bit too expensive for one day, but it is supposed to be very nice. Next thing, the website navimag.com where you can book ferries to the south of Chile did not work so I could not reserve the ferry, nore could I find out if there was some place left. I went to buy a very little tent, cooking material and a matress, so Patagonia, here I come!

At night, we had a good party with a huge pan of paella cooked in the hostel and two famous Argentinian artists playing flamenco, it was lovely. In the end, there was only some Argentinians, some Brasileros and me left. The DJ was asked to play some Brasilian music and so he did. That is how I got my first Samba and Forró lessons from Amanda. It is al very simple: Samba is um, dos, tres and Forró is um, dos, um, dos but if they speed up the rhythm of the dance, than I do not see the um, dos, tres any more! Anyway, we ended up with Amanda taking the leading role, so I just had to let me guide, which is a lot more easy, I can tell you! It was after four when we went to bed.
Next day, the alarm clock went of at 8 am. At 8.30, Amanda and Alessandra had still not appeared at breakfast so I went to their room to ask what was going on. Of course, they were still sleeping and they asked me to take the bus at 10 am and so we did. The bus went to cerro Catedral, a hill with a beautiful view on the lake that Bariloche is next to. We took two lifts up, lifts that are used for skiing in winter. It was very strange to take a skilift without snowboard attached to my feet, I hardly knew what to do to get of. Anyway, at the top of the cerro, there was snow and that was the main reason for our trip. Alessandra and Amanda had never seen let along touched snow in their lifes! So, to celebrate them touching snow for the first time, we had a little snow fight and it showed they had never done it before. Later that day, we had to say goodbye because unfortunately they left for Buenos Aires.
At night, Gabriella, the girl I had met in Salta and who is doing voluntary work in Bariloche at the mo, went to have a Swiss cheese fondue and then sadly we had to say goodbye as well, cause I had a bus to catch early in the morning.

That's all, folks, byebye

To get from Mendosa to Chile, you pass by a spectacular mountain pass and drive through a beautiful mountain landscape. A thing to see is the 'Puente del Inca', a sort of bridge made of salt, 50 metres wide and 8 metres broad, pending 30 metres above a río. A few kilometres further away there is a mirador with a good view on the Aconcagua, with its 6.959 metres the highest peak in Latin America! It is very hard to believe the mountain is almost 7.000 metres high, though, the mirador is under 3.000 metres and when I was standing there, looking at it, I had difficulties imagining it is another 4.000 meters higher.

The region there is gorgeous, definetly good for a few days of trekking. We hitchhiked (hacer el dedo in Spanish) back to Uspallata and were picked up by a lovely couple from Buenos Aires, on their way back from holidays in Chile. Back in Upsallata, we, that is Katrien, a girl from Ghent I had met in Mendosa and me, tried to arrange a bus to Chile, but everything seemed to be booked, so we had to spend another night in Argentina. Next day, we tried to hitchike again with a paper saying 'Chile' in our hands and were taken by a little bus on its way to Santiago. We had to pay though! From Santiago, we took the bus straight to Valparaiso. Yet, another country, very exciting!
Chile seems even richer and more western than Argentina. As a consequence, living is more expensive than in Argentina. If accomodation prices doubled from about 2-3 US dollars per night in a dorm in Bolivia to 5-6 in Argentina, they have doubled again to 10-12 dollars in Chile! The prices of food have risen in the same proportion. There are some friendly people here, but a thing that strikes me is that people in shops are very unfriendly. Like yesterday, for example, when I went to buy a ferry ticket in Puerto Montt, the woman who was 'helping' me was so scarce on information I literally had to ask everything, very bizarre. The same story when I went buying camping material in Bariloche. But than, on the other hand, in Santiago, I went looking for an envelope that fitted an LP to send it home and I found one in a shop with a lovely girl serving me and giving me the envelope for free because there was a little cut in it.

Mendosa pleased me more than Córdoba. It is much quieter and with less traffic. The enormous Plaza Independéncia is the centre of the city and is surrounded by four other lovely squares. At the west side of the city, there is an enormous park that houses the zoo, the Cerro de la Gloria and a lot of green. I took a long walk there in the afternoon on December 31st and guess what I saw there? Old blokes playing tennisfoebal! They played four on four and were only allowed to touch the ball one time. As they were quite good (for their age), I did not invite them for the World Championship 2007. It made me long for the next Belgian summer a bit, I have to admit.
For New Year's Eve we had a Cuban dinner annex party with a lot of people on the terrace of our hostel. We wanted to go out a little in Mendosa after the dinner, but to our disappointment, most bars and clubs were closed or the entrance was very expensive, so we went back to the Cuban party. New year's day went by without much happening. I sat on a terrace of a Shell petrol station most of the time as it was the only place that was open and sold drinks and food. I managed to finish 'The Beach' by Alex Garland,which I liked.
Then, next day, we went to Maipú, half an hour from Mendosa, rented bicycles and went on a tour around the bodegas (wineries). The Mendosa area is very known for its good wines and it produces about 80% of all Argentinian wine, if I remember well. We started of with a guided tour in the wine museum, with some wine tasting at the end of course, and went to two other nice wineries. In the last one, we ordered a good bottle of red wine and sat down on the gorgeous terrace covered with sun and overlooking the vignards, pura vida! Then, we finished our tour with a visit to a chocolate and liquor shop where we, well, tasted some chocolates and liquor. I have not seen any scales for the last four months, but I am quite confident that I did not loose to much weight!
In his last e-mail my brother, den Baas, wrote that my webblog suffered of a severe jet-lag and I can only say he is so right. I am sorry about that, but writing the blog takes quite some time and I do not always have acces to the internet. Moreover, there is so many more interesting things to do here than sitting in front of a computer!

Ciao ciao!

In our hostel in Salta, I had met up with Gabriella, a very nice girl from Northern-Italy and a lovely travel companion. From Salta, we took a very early bus to Cafayate, a very nice little village a few hours south of Salta. After a little siesta we went on a tour to see a bit of the quebra de humauaca and it was very beautiful!

The landscapes and rock formations and their colours in the north of Argentina and the south of Bolivia are absolutely gorgeous.

Next morning, we took the bus to Córdoba, a student city, the second city of Argentina. Actually, it was quite a disappointment, a part from the very small historic centre and some beautiful women, there is not very much to see. Salta and Mendosa seemed much nicer to me.

Ciao ciao