Up-up and away

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

There is pretty much nowhere to go when you are at the end of the world, unless you have three thousand dollars to grab a boat to Antarctica. But as the freezing Antarctic winter was at the door, the last boat of the season left a week ago. Therefore, up-up and away, back North, zigzagging through Chile and Argentina, we go.
( more… )

Tags: people, sailing
Posted in Places»South America»Chile | No Comments »

Free Mint at the End of the World

Monday, March 27th, 2006

Although next to a nice plaza, the hostel we stayed in, “Hostel Carly”, was a dinky little place with one, and only one advantage to it – free internet. And there is nothing else that draws Israelis more, like free internet. We’ve stayed in that hostel a few times already and every time both the machines were taken by my fellow countrymen. The computer room was also the “hangout” room and had a little TV hanging off the wall as there was barely room in there for people. On our way in and out, we always peeked in to see if there was a free computer to check our emails, but many times got stuck inside waiting and chatting with other residents. On one of such occasions, we encountered Yosi, Yosi, and Hagai (who we now refer to as simply “Yosi and Yosi”). They have already been to Ushuaia and Patagonia and had some useful advice for us: “You must go to Nana Hinam (Free Mint in Hebrew),” said one of the Yosis. “It is not the official name of the place, but all the Israelis grew accustomed to the name as there is a mint bush growing right next to the house and you can pick at it for free.” Now, if any of you know Shurik, you must remember his never ending love affair with tea, so to the free mint tea at the very end of the world we went.

Tags: climbing, people, trekking
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

2 countries and 7 cities in as many days

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

After numerous delays Masha’s flight finally arrived late at night. I used the same car service as the night before when Stasya was leaving, and I got some surprised looks from the driver who has seen me take one girl to the airport, only to meet another girl the very next night.
( more… )

Posted in Places»South America»Argentina, Places»South America»Uruguay | No Comments »

Home Alone

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

And so it is. Stasya and I are apart for the next week. This is the longest we have ever been without each other in the past 4 years, both in terms of time and distance. Lucky for me, I will not be completely alone in BA, as Masha (our friend from Boston) decided to take a break from work and join us in BA for a week. I’m saying “us”, because when we started discussing meeting in BA, Stasya still had no idea she would be leaving. And as the luck would have it, hers and Masha’s flights are on the same dates, so the only chance they have to see each other is to wave out of their airplane’s window somewhere over Central America.

Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

Prestodigitation

Saturday, March 11th, 2006

I am so mad at myself I can’t even begin to describe you how much. I wish it was different, but it’s my own fault for letting my guard down and not paying enough attention. I guess the only excuse I can give is that we were really tired after our night bus back from Puerto Madryn to Buenos Aires. Even though we came in the afternoon, and sort off got some sleep on the bus, we were exhausted and wanted nothing else but to get ourselves a room and climb into bed.

We took a cab from the bus station, there was no way around it, BA is not a small city after all. I remember thinking the cab driver looked dodgy when he approached us, but we at least try not always judge a book by its cover, so we agreed to go with him. When we arrived at our hostel the meter showed about eight and change so I thought I’d give the driver ten, and we’ll all go to our merry own ways. Shurik went to get the backpacks from the trunk, and I was handing the driver the money when he refused to take my bill. “I don’t like this one,” he said. “It’s too old.” Fine. I handed him another bill, this time a twenty. “No, this one looks worn out too.” “Alright, how about this twenty?” “No,” and he reached for the fifty bill in my hands. Whatever, I thought to myself, as long as I get my change I don’t care from what bill is it from. By that time Shurik was already done with the bags, and so we were both standing outside the cab giving each other confused looks. “What’s the problem?” Shurik asked. I shrugged and turned to the driver who had a five peso bill in his hand. “Five, and another five,” he pulled another five bill from my hands. “And here is your change.” Great, I thought, since you’ve been so difficult, I will take my change, thank you very much. “Gracias, Ciao” and the cab drove off leaving me only to realize and say in a few seconds: “Didn’t I have a fifty bill here somewhere?”

Tags: people
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

Punta de “Inspiration”

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

We made our way to Punta Tombo’s Penguin reserve and once again our driver didn’t fail spotting a few treats for us. This time it was a rabbit-like rodent with a bit of a horse-like snout. There were also the usual Guanacos, but the real fun began when we actually got to the reserve. We saw some penguins in Galapagos, but never that close. This time we could get as close as we wanted to these awkward birds, but the guide warned us that penguins are very curious in nature and if you stick your camera in its face, before you know it, it will snap its very strong beak, and just might get a mouthful of both you and your camera.

( more… )

Tags: people
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina, wildlife | No Comments »

Peninsula Valdes, Argentina

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006

We were taken on a little bus on our first excursion. The ride itself was pretty boring with the exception of this little Birds Island whose shape has inspired the author of The Little Prince. The road had the usual occasional nandus (emu like birds) and guanacos (wild llamas), but the most amazing thing was that our driver spotted a couple of little gray owls in the brush not far away from the road. I still have no idea how he did it at the speed that he was going, but he did. To say the least, we were a bit spoiled for Peninsula Valdez after the Galapagos Islands and all the wild life we’d seen there up close. This time of the year the whales, one of the main Peninsula’s atraction, as well as many other animals even penguins leave for warmer climates. But this is the only tim one has the chance of observing a rare phenomen of orca whales beaching themselves during high tide to hunt for baby sea lions and penguins, so we were a bit excited and optimistic. Well, we haven’t seen any orcas, but we did see very aggressive displays of either affection or dislike from female sea lions and elephant seals. What’s for sure, we never saw them behave like that in Galapagos. Actually, I tired from watching them pretty quickly. My next mission became spotting armadillos that I was told roam the area. I searched high and low, but the only thing I found was this cute little hamster-like rodent. Bummer.

( Pictures )

Posted in Places»South America»Argentina, wildlife | No Comments »

Irina from Argentina

Tuesday, March 7th, 2006

As of now, my flight to NY was coming out of Buenos Aires in a week and that gave us two options – spend another seven days in the search of the perfect steak and the best Tango performance in BA, or snag ourselves from the comforts of our hostel room and use this time as a couple of self respecting travelers should. Well, self respect it is, and since we have been already talking about going to the “End of The Word”, the very South of Argentina along the country’s East coast, we decided there is just enough time to zoom down to East coast’s most interesting part – Peninsula Valdez – and when I return from NY simply fly down to Terra del Fuego (The Land of Fire), which despite its name is getting colder every day this time of year.
( more… )

Tags: people
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

When mommy calls

Monday, March 6th, 2006

It is quite liberating to travel the world the way we chose to. To disconnect from everything and have no worries apart from where it is we want to go next. Alas, we do have one connection to the life we left behind. Our friends and family still remain our first priority, and we have promised that if they need us, wherever we are in the world, we’ll be there for them. To be completely honest, we didn’t really think we’d have to prove it, but when my mother’s good friend Joseph stated in a phone conversation, and I quote, “Mommy needs you,” I had pretty much no other choice but to catch the next cheapest flight to NY. For financial reasons we decided I go alone. It would be difficult to be so far away from Shurik, especially given the fact we had spent the past four month together, 24/7, but when mommy calls you must answer.

Tags: relathionships
Posted in Places»South America»Argentina | No Comments »

Montevideo, Uruguai

Saturday, March 4th, 2006

Even though Uruguay and Argentina share a border and some cultural features like Tango and Mate, they definitely don’t share the same schedule. Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the capitals, could not be more different. We did hear that Uruguay is laid back, but we could not even start imagining how much. While in BA every day of the week every place around would be open till dark and many restaurants into the wee hours of the night; here, in Montevideo, we could barely find an open place to eat or shop on a weekend afternoon.
( more… )

Tags: art, dancing, food
Posted in Places»South America»Uruguay | No Comments »