A change of pace...(Slightly) Uruguay!!

A new country was to be visited.  Very exciting.  Infact, we wanted to be far away from the millions of people in the metropolitan region of Buenos Aires, and we wanted a little bit of peace and quiet.  My 30th birthday was quickly approaching, and we wanted to be somewhere nice.  Another beach sounded great, but we passed Puerto Madryn a while ago, and we're already heading North in one sense or another...

We had been talking to several people along the way about Uruguay, the small South American nation, that's squeezed in between Buenos Aires to the South, and Brazil to the North.  We had heard they had some incredible beaches, and it had been a while since we really had time to relax.

We booked a boat to Colonia, Uruguay, which is literally right across the bay from Buenos Aires, and the price was great.  350 Pesos AR / person, one way, what we wanted, and we planned on spending the night in Colonia, and maybe a day.  The price was good, and we jumped on it.

Leaving the hostel in BA, we grabbed a taxi, and headed to the boat dock for 'Colonia Express' which does frequent back and forth trips to Uruguay.  We walked through the fairly easy customs/immigration lines of both countries, and were in a boiling hot waiting room of restless travelers.  Most were Argentinians looking to spend the week away, on vacation, but besides us, there were  maybe 2 more backpackers.

We finally boarded the boat, which was a massive Catamaran, and the inside was literally just like being in a huge jumbo jet, with very straight-forward seats and a couple tv screens to keep you entertained.  We disembarked from port BA, and slowly taxi'd out into the Atlantic bay offshore to a mild wind blowing right at us.  As we slowly picked up speed, some stewards and stewardess' came and made their rounds, handing every person 2 barf bags "just incase..."  We kind of laughed, and didn't think much of it, but 15 minutes into the crossing would prove differently...

Not even joking, 80% of the passengers began vomiting like kids at the carnival, who just went on the 'gravitron.'  It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever witnessed, and while neither Danica, nor I were sea-sick, the smell of fresh vomit coming in a 360 just 'bout made us hurl.  I wouldn't joke about it at all, but the video selection that they were playing right in front of our faces, was 'Planet Earth,' the beautifully made British series of amazing nature scenes...But, the scenes unfolding in front of every already vomiting person, were that of Penguins, regurgitating food into their offspring's mouth.  Wow, I literally laughed out loud at the irony.

We made it across the channel, as you might have guessed, but without any fresh air of any kind...I've never seen so many mothers and fathers and grandparents running for the exit of a beautiful boat, so quickly.  It was understood.

We were in Uruguay, and we also didn't realize that the small country is on a different time zone from AR...One hour later, so our search for the hostel we had booked and dinner, was a late night operation.  The next day, we would spend walking the town, and enjoying what we could, before hitting up Uruguay's capital, and largest city, Montevideo.

An Uruguayan salad, from a pizza place....Unbelievable!

 Colonia was really nice.  A small coastal village with a lighthouse and beautiful little marina full of sailboats, with a slight outline of the massive Buenos Aires in the distance, across the bay...

Buenos Aires, and leaving Patagonia...

Our Patagonian days were over...Sadly. The area shared between the 2 countries, is something unbelievable, and we had barely scratched the surface, it seemed. Puerto Madryn did not really feel at all like the Patagonia we knew so well, especially compared to El Bolson, but it is technically still part of it. That's what Patagonia is, a bit of everything, from vast plateaus, to green forests, rivers, lakes, icebergs, glaciers, and of course Tierra del Fuego, and yes, Ushuaia. Patagonia is more of an idea than it is a place, because there is so much to it.

Puerto Madryn was really hot. The beachfront was gorgeous, and much needed of a visit by us, but after our 2 days there, we were itching for a taste of Buenos Aires, or at least I was...

We pre-booked a bus, with 'Andesmar,' and left at 7pm from the Puerto Madryn bus terminal. As usual, before boarding, I took our 2 big backpacks to the side of the bus, where there was a man with one arm, loading baggage. He was taking, one by one, people's bags and tossing them inside the loading bay. Upon my turn, he set ours aside, and I was a little weary of why. They are pretty big/heavy bags, but there were many others with very large suitcases, and oddly shaped, wrapped packages. I waited a couple minutes, then boarded the bus, and continued looking out the window to make sure they were put underneath the bus.

We pulled out of the terminal, and watched the sun setting over the last glimpse of Patagonian nothingness that slipped away to night. 15 hours later, we'd pull into Argentina's massive capital of Buenos Aires.

The only bus terminal we've seen thus far that comes even close to 'Retiro' in Buenos Aires, was Panama City, where we were several floors up when we got off the bus. This place was huge! Upon exiting the bus, I was immediately sweating, for the last two weeks in the capital, a major heat wave had been visiting. We waited outside the bus a few minutes for our bags, and the driver's assistant took them out for us. I went to put my backpack on, when I noticed that the small zip pocket on the waist-support belt was wide open...This pocket had been a spot for random change from all of our previously visited countries, and a small, gold, good-luck charm that my grandmother had given me years ago. All of it was gone, and I knew that that small pouch didn't come open on its own...I told the driver what had happened, and he let me crawl around in the baggage compartment to look for it. Nothing. Now, the change, obviously was just a keep sake, but the piece of gold, was sentimental. I was almost positive it was the man in Puerto Madryn. I spent a few minutes cursing and searching the ground out of hope and anger, and felt stupid for keeping that in there, but all of these countries, and Argentina had to be the one! Danica and I joked that his arm may have been 'taken off' after stealing...Karma's a bitch.

We were in Buenos Aires, and like I said, it was an absolute inferno, to say the least...We walked around the front of the Retiro Bus terminal, and found a line of taxi's looking eager to have an errand to run. We approached one man, who looked fairly normal, and told him where we were headed. “Rock Hostel, on Rivadavia,” we told him, and he quickly said it would be 100 Pesos, because it was out of the way. We thought about taking the subway, but with all of our stuff, it wouldn't have been very smart...We tried another cabbie, and he laughed at the last guys outrageous price quote, as we headed into the metropolitan madness that is Buenos Aires, South America's second largest city.

We pulled up to the curb in front of Rock Hostel, and paid 35 Pesos. Rang the bell on the big, old door downstairs from the hostel, and they let us in. Our one night reservation would turn into 3 nights, and a really cool, diverse group of people, and craziness...

We met some really cool people there, and roamed around with some of them, before heading back to play some rooftop tunes on the terrace above the hostel. Next day we met Rob, from Australia, who was working there, and invited us up top for a parilla. Our third night turned into an interesting one, because we had no where to stay...They were all booked from reservations, and all the close hostels were all booked up as well...The owner decided to let us sleep up on the roof, which was actually a nice deck, and despite the heat, we made it through. I can officially say we 'camped' in Buenos Aires.

Rob's rooftop Parilla

We had met some folks back up the road, in Colombia, and in Ecuador, that were from BA, and had invited us to stay with them and visit. We were looking forward to it, but seeing as that we didn't know our timing, it really didn't work, unfortunately. It will have to be on the next trip!

Our 3 days in the big metropolis was enough, mainly due to the heat...It was breaking 40 Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit while we were there...And if any of you have been there, you know that there's really no where to hide from that kinda heat...My 30th birthday was in 3 days, and we needed a plan. Uruguay....

Cynar/Pomelo...

Happy Birthday, D!

So we left Tierra del Fuego, after 4 amazing days in Ushuaia, and had to choose our next stop.  I knew it wasn't going to be anything compared to where we just were, but the 5th of January is Danica's birthday, so we had to choose something...

Puerto Madryn sounded great in our Lonely Planet book, so we found a connecting bus there, from Rio Gallegos.  Overnight, and we actually slept pretty well, and arrived in Puerto Madryn at noon, on her birthday.

We checked into "Tosca" hostel, only about 6 blocks from the bus terminal, and set out to enjoy the Atlantic beach town as much as possible...

Had lunch right on the beach, at "Lizard's" cafe, where the Pizza was delicious, but the waiters were idiots...We ordered a bottle of Chardonnay, which sounded great in the hot summer sun, and after 20 minutes of waiting, a waiter comes out holding a bottle of Malbec, and starts to open it...I quickly said, "Este no es vino blanco, es tinto!"  (Meaning, this is not white wine, it's red!)  He tries to convince us it's white, and I told him to send it back and bring the white...I mean, come on...First of all, I'm from California, where we too, have delicious wine, and lots of it.  He disappears with the Malbec, and another 15 minutes later our female waitress comes out and apologizes, saying they don't have white wine.  I walked 2 blocks down the road, and bought a bottle of champagne from a kiosk, for 5 dollars.  Worked out better in the long run!

Our day continued, as we spent a couple hours on the beautiful, vast beach just in front of town, and watched thirsty Argentinians sipping boiling Mate in the hot sun, while we continued our Champagne binge, on our second bottle, on the sand.  I cooked her a nice dinner, parilla style, with steak, corn, roasted red pepper, and zucchini and onion.  Visited with some guys from Buenos Aires for a bit, before retiring for the night.  Long day, but we had a blast, and 25 only comes once in a lifetime.  Happy birthday Babe!

At this point in time, looking back, we've done over 8,000 miles, or over 13,000 kilometers, since we started in San Jose, Costa Rica in March.  Wow...Ushuaia was the furthest south we'll get, and now we officially begin our ascent of the continent, where we ultimately will find ourselves back in Lima, to fly home...

Happy New Year from the end of the world!!

There were two buses heading to Ushuaia that morning from Rio Gallegos, the first being "Marga" and ours being "Tecni Austral."  The buses left at the same time, but ours was held back at the Chilean border for some time, because one man had trouble with his papers.  We sat for almost an hour while he sorted them out

Back on the road, we were on our way.  The bus was filled with backpackers heading there for the same reason as us, to ring in the new year, as far south as you can pretty much get, (at least by bus).

The island of Tierra del Fuego is huge.  It's about half Argentina and half Chile.  Getting there is not as easy as it looks on the map.  It took about an hour from Rio Gallegos to the Chilean border, where we had to stamp in, and get our bags all checked by sniffing dogs, apparently looking for fruits and veggies, more than contraband.  Once stamped into Chile, we drove about an hour, until we hit the Strait of Magellan, where the bus boards a massive freight ship, with a ramp on the shore.  We all walked onto the ship, and the freighter crossed the Strait of Magellan, covered in a stormy looking sky, that made me imagine past explorers and conquistadors navigating the southern seas.

Once on the other side, the bus drove off the boat ramp, and onto solid ground, on Isla Tierra del Fuego.  We re-boarded, and we on our way to the Argentinian border again.  Another hour or so, and we had to all check back into Argentina, and stamp out of Chile, which luckily, is a much smoother, and quicker process than the other way around.  I thought that we were pretty close after that last border, especially after we made it to Rio Grande, the smaller city on the island.  We were still pretty far, and the day was turning into night, slowly.

We pulled into Ushuaia at 10:30 PM, making it a 14 hour bus ride in total, from Rio Gallegos...We were beat, but ready to party, if there was anything going on!  We literally ran from the bus stop up the hill towards our hostel we had reserved.  We arrived at the door of "Cruz del Sur Hostel," and they opened the door to a ton of people partying and eating inside, where they handed us empanadas.  We put our stuff in the dorm room, and came back upstairs to join the festivities, and met a group of Brazilians, who were super cool, and offered us "Cynar," a strangely good liquor made from artichokes.  Suddenly we realized that 2013 was minutes away from being over...Wow.  A new year, and sadly, the quickly approaching end of our amazing journey...Not so fast, we've still got a lot of ground to cover!

We made some new friends at our hostel, and ended up having a blast there.  The owners were the nicest people ever, and after our 2 nights that were reserved, we didn't realize there was nothing available in the whole city, due to the holiday season.  They let us crash on the floor in the living room for a couple more nights, and thanks to them we were able to make the most of our southernmost trip!

We walked all around the city, in the freezing cold 'summer,' with rain falling in and out of the day.  Ushuaia reminded me much of some cities I visited in Alaska several years ago, due to it's surroundings and temperature.  It was gorgeous.  Situated right on the Beagle Channel, with Chile just across the way, and some scattered sailboats and cruise ships, as well as Argentine naval vessels about the waterfront.  We walked up to the Martial Glacier, as it's called, and had the most incredible view of the city on our last day there, and were pleasantly surprised by the sunshine that greeted us atop...

 

 

We spent 4 nights at the hostel, and like I said, met some really cool people.  The group of Brazilians were awesome.  The night before we left, they gave us a shirt from their Sao Paulo Pub Crawl business, and told us we were welcome there if ever in Brazil...Next trip!  The mother at Cruz del Sur Hostel, Marisha, walked up to me with a bag of goodies for our bus journey, which was so nice of her.  What a great place to visit, and an amazing hostel.  We really lucked out.

Next morning was going to be a long one.  All the way back to Rio Gallegos with all the border hopping madness included.  We would wake up at 4 am to get packed up and head to our five o clock bus.  The sunrise over the very calm Beagle Channel was unbelievable.  Turned out, the drivers were the same as on the way there, and were 2 really nice guys.  Alejandro, the assistant, was so cool.  He spoke English very well, and loved talking to us.  I had told him the following day was going to be Danica's birthday, and during one of our many stops, he get everyone on the bus to sing for her, it was awesome.

 We made it back across the Strait of Magellan, this time with some pretty fierce and freezing wind and waves crashing aboard.  Back on the mainland, we once again stamped out of Chile, and into Argentina, hopefully the last time for a while anyways...We hit the bus station in Rio Gallegos at 7:15pm, just enough time for our continuing bus, aboard "Via Tac," up the Atlantic coast, to Puerto Madryn for Danica's 25th birthday, taking a huge chunk out of the country going north, and far away from the land of fire.

Rio Gallegos

That morning was exciting, to say the least.  Especially crossing through ANOTHER international border.  It was becoming second nature, and really, a lot of fun.  All we could think about was Ushuaia.  We had to spend the night in Rio Gallegos, for the bus to Ushuaia only leaves at 8 in the morning, so we were to arrive there, finally, on New Year's Eve.

We got to Rio Gallegos about 4PM, and walked all the way from the bus terminal, into town, which was probably a couple kilometers with all our stuff.  We walked into the first, and only hostel we could find, and checked into a dorm.  Pretty pricey, but they had a really nice kitchen, and the whole place was spotless.  Met an English guy there that was also taking the bus to Ushuaia the next morning.

Danica cooked a delicious pasta for dinner, and we slept, thinking that we were almost there...

Border hopping, and more border hopping...South.

We had a couple weeks of window (actually more like a couple months), after we decided to go to Ushuaia for New Year's, to plan the whole thing out.  But, who really wants to spend their travel time figuring out buses and what-not?  Not us.  Infact, I've always been a procrastinator, but the funny thing about it all, was that we actually thought to book a hostel in Ushuaia for New Year's, but not a bus/flight/boat,etc. to get there...

Well, while still in Bolson, we did a little (a lot) of research on bus prices only, and I was actually at one point, a week before Christmas, super close to buying our bus tickets through a company called 'Taqsa' that passes right through El Bolson, all the way down to El Calafate.  It was pretty pricey, and infact, would have cost us about $300 US to get down to Calafate, then we'd still have to get to Ushuaia.  Bottom line was that buses in Argentina, although very nice, are the priciest so far on this trip...Yes, even more expensive than Chile!

So, after some research, and talking to our friends in Chile at the time, we decided to do a little bit of back-tracking, back up to Bariloche, and across the border to Osorno, where we'd spend the night, wake up, and jump on a Chilean bus, hop the border in reverse, and jump right back on Ruta Cuarenta, and head down through Argentina before crossing again, into Punta Arenas, Chile.  Also, on the map, Punta Arenas is pretty damn close to Ushuaia, but as much as I love maps, it's much more difficult than that, especially in this season (Hoidays/Summer in the south).  We hadn't booked anything further than Punta Arenas, and just sort of figured we'd be fine, and due to the distance between the two countries, and the fact that they literally 'share' Tierra del Fuego, we really thought it would be easy.

Upon our arrival to Punta Arenas, after our brutal 28 hour bus ride from Osorno, and our numerous border crossings, of just basically filling our passports with useless stamps, and not to mention useless searches (with dogs) of our luggage coming from Chile, and back into Chile, we were back IN CHILE, in Punta Arenas...Quite a beautiful sky upon arrival, and numerous cruise ships lining the shoreline, we had actually made it down south, real far south.  We found a hostel for the night at "El Mirador," a family run place with an incredibly friendly and helpful woman working the desk, frantically trying to find us transportation to Ushuaia.  I told her our plans to spend the end of the year there, and our reservation at a hostel, but she still ensured me that if for some reason we were unable to, Punta Arenas was (also) a great place to bring it in...Sweet lady.  We had dinner at "Lomito's," a 50's looking diner with hot dogs and beer.  Kind of a cool place, especially after such a long bus journey.

Heading out of Punta Arenas, with a view of Tierra del Fuego in the distance, across the water

We found some info, mostly letting us down, believing we couldn't get there in time.  I remember going to bed, pretty bummed, thinking that we'd get there after New Year's, but not for it, and that's been our plan for a while...

We slept like champions in one of the most comfortable colchones (mattresses) in a while, and woke, had some Yerba Mate.  I walked straight to the company doing the trip that morning to Ushuaia, to see if maybe someone had canceled, but to no avail it was a huge tour group, with months of reservations ahead of us...

When I got back, I decided to see if maybe we could figure out another route.  Instead of Punta Arenas to Ushuaia, I thought, well, maybe Rio Gallegos (Argentina) has more buses, or at least options on getting there.  First I searched for buses from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia, and sure enough found the company "Tecni Austral" was doing the journey the next morning, and had spaces left.  I kept the page open as I attempted another search for buses from Punta Arenas to Rio Gallegos, and sure enough, found one as well, aboard "Pinguino," leaving at noon.

I quickly typed in my credit card details as if they were going out of style, and felt excited and relieved.  The nice woman at El Mirador offered to print out our tickets for us, to save us from going to an internet cafe, and we had done it.  Next stop, Argentina.  Again.  Of course though, not before crossing the same border again.  Wow, it seems our passports will not have any room left in them after this trip.

As for our decision at this point, to travel through a Chilean company, even though it was cheaper for the tickets, we ended up paying more in the long run.  Sure, we had a comfortable journey, and got to see the famed city of Osorno, which was actually kinda fun, it was unnecessary to say the least.  We could have been picked up in Bolson, hopped aboard, and left out the whole border crossing nonsense, and went directly to Rio Gallegos, but guess what, we have much more of a story to tell this way!  Oh, and the Chilean buses do not serve meals.  They gave us a bit of white bread, with a pinch of ham and cheese for lunch the first day, and the second, they just pulled into some expensive rest stops and said "Almuerzo."  Let's see...$30 for lunch (empanadas and a shitty glass of wine.  And, I almost forgot to mention, the horrid movie selection that began with a movie called "Journey to the Mysterious Island," featuring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, and continued with a movie starring none other than Brendan Frasier, where raccoons and squirrels are trying to drive his family out of town...Wow, thanks Chile for all of that!  At least the Argentine buses served us a hot lunch.  I'll try and keep all that in mind for the next decision making process...

Volunteering at 'Light House 42' on Rio Azul

After our Camping in Bolson and Lago Puelo, we wanted to find another volunteer spot.  Nobody on HelpX had replied to us, and we felt as if it was just the busy season approaching.  While at Lago Puelo, we met Vivian and Michael, from Czech Republic, and they told us of a spot back at Rio Azul, that they happened upon.  A group of people were getting together to build a sustainable community on a beautiful piece of land next to Rio Azul, just behind the town of El Bolson.


Vivian sent an email, telling them that we were looking to volunteer, and we had the invite to come check it out.  The directions on getting there were a little iffy, and we walked past the entrance, and down a trail by the river, to where we thought the property was.  Nobody came all day, and we ended up pitching the tent by the river for the night, which was gorgeous and not to mention, a free night of camping...

The next day we checked all over the property a couple times, and nobody was around.  I was getting the feeling we weren't in the right spot to begin with...I walked back to El Bolson, and halfway there, got picked up, hitch-hiking.  Went to an internet spot, and hadn't heard from them, so I went back to get Danica, at the river and thought maybe we'd camp out in Bolson again, while we plan our next move.

As we gathered up our camp, and walked back towards the dirt road by the riverbank, I heard someone hammering in the distance, on a property with an old barbed wire fence around it.  I decided to go check it out and see if someone there knew of 'Light House 42,' the name of the project...

It turned out to be Shannon, and her boyfriend Nahuel, the people we had talked with, and I had been looking on their neighbor's property.  She asked if we still wanted to volunteer for a week or so, and we obviously did.  We set up our tent on the massive property surrounded by huge bushes of Rose Hips, or "Mosqueta" in Spanish, that are like huge rose bushes with 3 times the thorns.

We started helping around the property, on several projects, ranging from shoveling gravel, to digging drainage trenches, and coming up with new ideas for the building projects on the existing old house, also, clearing out Mosqueta.

Looking back now, we spent 3 weeks volunteering there, and have made new friends, as well as were able to offer some help and ideas towards their project.

"Light House" 42, as they call it, is a group of folks with a gorgeous, river front property, looking to build sustainably, and create a community in the hills behind El Bolson.  Shannon, Jon, and Nahuel, have been the active ones, getting the land livable for their approaching move there.  Their neighbor, Pastor, has a similar project going on, and was another great guy to meet.

We were stoked to be able to offer some ideas and helping hands to what they already have going on.  I built an outside patio table for them, and spent a good couple weeks building them a brand new kitchen counter, using only recycled/things around the property, then installed a new sink and plumbing.  Danica, again, employed her artistic techniques around the place, painting, and building a shelf from tree branches.

 

 Not only were all of them really awesome people, but we learned a lot as well.  A fucnny, and another small-world connection was figured out during our first week, when Danica, being from the Bay Area of California, thought she recognized Jon...Turns out, Jon is from San Jose, and the two of them met at a party, some 7 years ago!  Wow, this world just seems to get smaller and smaller as we get further and further away from home!

We spent Christmas with Jon and Shannon, and had a blast, hiking up the river to an amazing water hole, and eating some delicious food.  We'd love to come back sometime!

 

For now, it's down the road...Way down.  Tine to jump aboard a 30 hour Chilean bus, all the way to Punta Arenas, Chile's biggest southern city, before making our way to Ushuaia!

Danica and Shannon, before we left

'Brewski' their awesome dog

Check out Light House 42 on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/LightHouse42