Re-open the Blog?

So, we are getting ready to head to Spain and for the first time I'm taking a laptop with us on a trip with plans to try to write more. Previous trips have largely included an iPad...not the best writing implement. This led me to consider if perhaps I'd prefer to Blog again versus just post some stuff on FB (which I avoid normally). Wondering whatever happened to our old blog I tried going to 'Blogspot' only to be re-directed to 'Blogger' and find that it is now the property of Google and so of course it took me straight to the old blog and logged me in and everything! Yes, kind of creepy, but also convenient.

So, here I am learning how the new format and tools work. I think I'll give this a go for this trip and maybe consider really getting back into blogging in general. Welcome back to our Blog. It will continue to focus on Travel...but I'm guessing many of the musings will wander a bit beyond that, to life choices and prioritizations.

Cheers and Mas Pronto!

Esteros de Iberá

So, this is going to be pretty much my final blog on Argentina. We are now sitting around Buenos Aires, packing a getting ready for our flight tomorrow. It’s a good time to ask ourselves questions like what our favorite part of the trip was. The interesting answer to that question has almost always been where we saw animals.

I bring that up because one of the best “wild” places we saw with animals were the Esteros de Iberá. It is a huge wetland area between the largest two rivers in Argentina (Rio Parana, and Rio Uruguay). In many ways its hydrology is very similar to the Everglades, with the underwater flow being the most important. The main component are the many floating “islands” of vegetative material that has become the substrate for an entire habitat, including trees!

We came here to see Capybara… those who know me will not be surprised that I felt compelled to see the worlds largest living rodent. They are well represented here, being one of the few places in the country where they are protected. Apparently good eating (though we sadly couldn’t find any to try) and also producing very high quality leather (which we did buy), they are hunted elsewhere, as well as raised in farms.

Of course, being a wetland, it was also full of birdlife. The largest is this “Southern Screamer” a group I was unfamiliar with before coming here. These guys hang out in family groups and make a lot of noise if anything approaches too close, so they are the watchdogs of the marsh.

The top predator here (other than man, as usual) is the Yacaré, or Caiman. They were hunted near to extinction at the turn of the century for leather exportation, but now are thriving here in the reserve. They were everywhere, mostly sunning to be ready to hunt at night. Apparently, their favorite food is a pirana-like fish that lives here, but the only one we saw eating was swimming around with a dead Capybara (found dead, not killed by the Caiman).

Another large bird is the Jabiru, a huge stork. Not much to say except it is considered to be the main predator of young Yacarés, and it’s the tallest bird that can fly.

Overall our time in the Esteros was very good, we saw Howler Monkey (terrible photos…I hate trying to take monkey photos, they are always backlit looking up into the trees!), iguana, and more Cui! Of course, it was indisputable that the best things were the capybara… we are pretty sure you can never have too many photos of unusually large rodents!

Streets, Meats and Sweets

This is a non photo blog because last time I couldn’t get my photos to load and I didn’t have a blog written that didn’t need photos… so, time to write one!

One of the great things about camping and traveling by car for two weeks was we lived much more like the regular traveling Argentines, versus backpacker tourists. We visited grocery stores, gas stations, and campgrounds. We got to see how the locals act in all of these different places, and learn the subtle things you can only learn while pondering why there are over 20 different labels and varieties of yerba mate!

The first thing we had to deal with was the simple act of driving in Argentina. I knew that even the U.S. State departments website declares that driving in Argentina is so hazardous, it is the most likely way to injure or kill yourself in the country! Just from walking around we had a good idea of how scary it could be. The reality was that it was not that bad. I just had to approach it as if, as one other book stated, “every other driver was out on the road to kill you.” It worked! You just drive super defensive, which is not to say the same as passive, because sometimes the only answer was to be aggressive.

Needless to say, we survived unscathed, and the car did just fine as well. We really enjoyed our newfound freedom. Remember, even in El Salvador we had to rely on buses… so for us it was more than two years of not having our own car to get around in!

Driving in towns and cities is always the most difficult. Argentina is no exception with some interesting peculiarities. One, though there are some signals (lights), the majority of the intersections are uncontrolled, no stop signs; you just kind of roll up to one and if you think you can make it without hitting anyone, on you go! Over time I realized that this was the reason for all of the one-way streets. It limits where you have to look, plus reduces the number of intersections with the potential for left hand turns. Once you are used to it, it all makes sense because you don’t waste so much time (or energy) stopping and starting at every intersection… I started to like it!

It was only the two-way streets that needed the complication of signals. These had an interesting wrinkle as well. Whereas in the States we have a yellow light to let you know that the light is going to turn red, here they also have a yellow light to let you know that it will be turning green. This leads to a bunch of anticipation and engine revving! I’m not sure that this helps the countries statistics of auto accidents. Still it is an interesting cultural insight that Argentines have decided that this is something they need in their traffic system.

Beyond the driving, the next big change in our travels was going to the grocery store to buy everything we were going to eat for the next week. We had been in to buy water and yogurts, but not the full repertoire that the stores offer. Probably the most daunting was the meat section. Argentines love their beef, but they also have their own system of cuts, including a ton of things we don’t offer at all. So, looking over the offerings and trying to decide what we could cook on a gas stove was difficult. What was a “Tapa de Asado”, a “Paleta”, or “Bola de Lomo”? We knew something about beef from eating at the steakhouses… but it seemed like the markets offered something completely different. 

It was fun to try out some of the different cuts, but there is no doubt that we sometimes ate something tough and stringy, that probably should be stew meat. It was even more daunting when the pre-wrapped offerings were slim and I had to actually go over to the butchers. This is the way most Argentines would buy their meat, ordering the specific cut, and watching as they cut it. For me it was more difficult, I would have to ask for suggestions and describe our cooking situation, and then hope that the butcher wanted to be helpful and wasn’t too pressed for time. We did have lots of good beef along the way, but then, as I have said before, it is hard to get bad beef here!

Another interesting grocery section was the Dulce de Leche row. Yes, a whole row for what amounts to caramel! We had become addicted to the stuff thanks to the service-included breakfasts at the hostels. Now we had to choose between multiple companies, and styles like ‘clasico’, ‘reposteria’, ‘casero’, and ‘traditional’. Again, hard to actually make a mistake, but it was disorienting just buying blindly. Still, we managed to travel for enough time to discover our favorite brand and style, and will probably be bringing a case of the stuff back with us on return!

The final thing, bought frequently right at check-out were the Alfajors! These are also a national addition. The simplest description would be two softer cookies with a layer of (no surprise here) dulce de leche between them, and the whole thing dipped or coated in chocolate, sugar-glaze, or coconut… quite decadent! They run about 75 cents each and make a great snack on a bus, or a good way to top off a nice meal. Once again it became our mission to try them all and decide what we liked best. On top of the large companies offerings, there is a thriving ‘artesanial’ or hand-crafted market, with every little regional store having their own variations.

These are probably the things I will take away from this trip as quintessential Argentina. Not the natural wonders, animals, or landscapes…rather the quirky cultural priorities, habits and pastimes that consistently remind me that we are not in the U.S. or El Salvador anymore!

Wow!

That's really about all you can say about Iguazú... It is stunning and overwhelming to see. This will be a mainly photo blog because I am feeling blog-guilt for not posting for so long, plus, in this case the photos do as good a job as I could do with words.
Much of the falls... and note that I say plural because it is not just one fall, but rather many many over several kilometers of cliffs. Still many of them are accessed on these metal catwalks. On the particular one shown above, Katie is approaching a feature called 'Garganta del Diablo'. That leads to the question... Why are so many of the earths coolest features attributed to the Devil??
It is amazing though, and fairly throat-like... It is also the most powerful of the falls, with the majority of the water all funneled into this one chasm. The sound is visceral! I do have video... maybe I will try to post it here later.
This one is looking downstream of the 'throat'.
Some more of the falls. These you get to appreciate from both a trail at the bottom, and a catwalk along the top.
Again, sound pounding wetness!
Iguazú is not just about the falls, it also is a refuge for an interesting variety of wildlife.
This one was a bit too interested in Katie!
I saved the most spectacular for last. Here it is...a rare photo of the elusive 'Cui'! Also known as the wild version of a Guinea Pig. Cheers!

Volcanos and Puzzled Monkeys

Ok, this will be a quicker entry because I’m really way behind! We are currently sitting around Buenos Aires, waiting to take our bus to Iguazú Falls. Yet this blog is to cover from our Siete Lagos tour to finish out our time camping.

So mostly this will just be to show some good photos like the “Mighty Fiat” that got us to all of these locations safely, regardless of all of the crazy drivers and horrible gravel roads out there. It was a good vehicle, and of course I couldn’t help but be reminded of my wonderful driving trip though Australia with the “Mighty Ford Falcon” named Dave.

So the next part of our trip was up to Parque Nacional Lanin. We were able to find a perfect campsite (free) in a native Araucana stand right next to a beautiful stretch of the Malleo River. Araucanas are those things you may know as Monkey Puzzle Trees. Very cool looking, and fossils go back to well before the dinosaurs.

Here is a photo of Lanin Volcano in the dawn light from our campsite. Nice way to wake up and begin a days fishing!

Here is the pool we camped near. The river is not big here, but it is very good trout habitat… the density of fish is amazing!

After leaving that site we moved to another part of the park and took a good hike up to the base of the volcano. It was a nice all day hike with many spectacular views of both the volcano, and the surrounding mountains and lakes.

Up near the volcano’s base, we also encountered a distinct habitat zone that had a number of pretty flowering plants adapted to the dry conditions and sandy soils.

Once we finished exploring Lanin, we returned to Junin de los Andes, which wins hands down as the place I’d like most to live here… or at least near Junin, having it as my town for shopping ect… Not only does it have trout on it’s street signs, but it is just so mellow compared with many of the surrounding towns like Bariloche and San Martin… too touristy! It also had one of the nicest central parks that we have seen our whole time here.

Siete Lagos Tour

So, just finished a round of drinking mate. I’m hoping it will help me to get a blog together to post. Among the many qualities attributed to drinking mate are; increased alertness, greater mental acuity, improved digestion, and a host of other great things! Considering how much mate the Argentines drink, if these were all true they should pretty much rule the world. Still, it is a good drink. I’ll still take my coffee in the morning, but mate is not bad for the afternoon.

Well, I have been well away from the blogging sphere the last few weeks as some of you may have noticed. That’s because upon arrival to Bariloche, we quickly decided that the right thing to do was rent a car and get out into the surrounding parks and reserves. So, for the past two weeks we have been out exploring and camping. It was a super great time; a really good way to change up a trip of hostelling and eating in restaurants. It also meant that I could go fishing!

Our first stop was the Rio Limay. Not far out of Bariloche but gives you a good idea of what it’s like just to the east side of the Andes. This is the drier steppe habitat, with a super clear Andes glacial melt river running through it. It is also amazing trout habitat.

Now for those of you that know fish, you may have realized that it is not a trout I’m holding in that photo. It is a small landlocked salmon. The Rio Limay, along with the rio Traful and Lago Traful are one of the few areas to catch these fish. Apparently, someone at some point planted salmon in this river system… in fact in many of the river systems here, but this is one of the few that they really took off in. I was caught off guard when I pulled it out, I wasn’t sure what it was. Then I read up on the rivers later and it made sense.

After camping on the Limay a few days, we drove up to Villa Angostura to start the famous “Ruta de los siete lagos” or seven lakes tour. Before starting we went hiking in Arrayanes National Park to see a larger forest of Arrayanes trees. They are present along many of the waterways, but only here form a pretty extensive forest. They make for yet another “Tolkien-esque” type of forest. The rails of the walkway, and some of the bases are made of Arrayanes too, so you can see it is a nice looking wood.

The lakes of the region are all basically like mini (or even large) Lake Tahoes; beautiful super blue lakes, surrounded by forested mountains and rocky crags. The surprising thing is that they are all natural (no reservoirs), and that outside of Bariloche, thay don’t have the crowds or development that Lake Tahoe has. Most of them are within the National Park. However, a National Park here is a bit more like a national forest back home. Meaning that you will see plenty of livestock and have lots of private inholdings, including those for indigenous peoples.

So they are not as pristine as they first look. It is mainly thanks to the low population pressures and poor road and trail system that helps them maintain their protection. That plus unlike the Sierras, things go from lakeside to very steep very quickly, so having trails and roads, or even houses becomes a problem. The understory of much of the forest is also quite dense. The main component of which is bamboo. I’m still at a loss to say what is native and non-native here. The park infrastructure didn’t really give out much information on species or ecosystems. I’m fairly certain that the bamboo is a native and not an invasive. You will however see lots of non-native pines, firs and doug firs… most of these are outside the parks though.

We spent most of our time camping near rivers… yes so that I could fish! I will break here and do another blog to finish out the trip showing Lanin Volcano and the Araucaria trees. Cheers!

Ruta 40 to the Patagonian Express

Ok, I’ve put off doing a blog for far too long! We’ve been moving slower, and relaxing more, but for some reason that didn’t translate into more time to write blog entries. So, leaving from Los Glacieres national park, we took the famed Ruta 40. Because of it’s remoteness and the variety of landscapes it passes through it has a kind of mystic about it, a little like Route 66 in the States, it even has several songs about it. The photo shows what much of our view was heading north through the Patagonian steppe. It reminded me a lot of my time driving Dave through Australia.

At one point the driver of the bus pulled over because the bus had separated a mother Guanaco from her kid, and the kid was confused running alongside the bus. He decided it would be fun to catch the baby, who was probably only a few days, or even hours old, to show it off to the tourists. He was actually pretty careful but let several of us take photos of the little guy. They were very common along the entire route, which I was a bit surprised at considering all of the sheep. They must be competitors for the pasture. Still the government has protected them, and maybe people are actually going along with it.

The bus was continuing on to Bariloche, but we weren’t ready to get there yet so we got off in El Bolson. Unfortunately I didn’t really find much to take photos of in El Bolson. It’s a hippy town, both Argentine, and from other parts of the world, apparently even California (as we were told several times, though we never met any). The biggest deal there was a thrice weekly crafts fair. It was more or less as you’d expect, though less tie-dye, and more micro-brews. Coming for the land of sucky beers (El Salvador) we took advantage of the beer. We also did lots of walks and bike riding around the outskirts of town. We’d hit a whole new climate zone and it was pretty mountains with pines and firs everywhere. It also is the main hop-producing region of Argentina.

Next we moved south a bit to Esquel. This is interestingly enough, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid country! Yep, this is where they came when they fled the US. It looks a LOT like much of the west that they’d come from. Dry and desolate with ranches along the river valleys. Esquel is a very pretty town, quiet for the most part, though they do drive around honking their horns if there is a soccer victory or a wedding. We used it as a staging point for going up into Los Alerces national park.

Los Alerces is our first real look at the true Andes, and it is no disappointment. It was beautiful dramatic landscapes with forested slopes heading quickly and steeply up to rock and glaciers.

It also, conveniently enough, is the start of all of those amazing trout’s streams I had heard about! The waters, both lakes and rivers were transparent, deep and strong, and full of fish. The rivers were lined with Arrayane trees, something like looks just like a madrone, and the Alerces are the Giant Sequoias of the Southern hemisphere. Look just like them, and live to be 4,000 years… of course they are doomed due to climate change. Not the current craziness, but just the fact that the climate has been changing for the last 10,000 years, and the habitat that they were evolved for doesn’t really exist anywhere down here anymore.

Ok, the last thing we did from Esquel is take the train made famous by Paul Theroux when he wrote the Old Patagonia Express. (Plus I think that Chawin wrote about it as well, but I haven’t read that yet). Anyway, it is a narrow gauge steam engine that really was still running up to 1993. Now it just runs for tourist, but it is trying to make a comeback and increase the route.

It was a fun trip, and would be a really great way to travel through the Argentine steppe. It’s too bad they really don’t have more train services… I have always enjoyed traveling by trains where we could. Next stop, Bariloche!