Pura Vida Uruguaya

Fishing is one of Montevideanos' favorite hobbies - here the port in the old town

Uruguayans, like Argentinians understand how to live a good life. Montevideo is only 3 hours from Buenos Aires by ferry boat, right across the Rio de la Plata, and there are many similarities between the two people, although they like to focus on their differences. One of those differences is just the matter of size: Uruguay is only 3 million inhabitants when the greater Buenos Aires alone is 13 million. This is palpable in Montevideo, which feels more like a town than a city (I went out with a local friend, Mateo, and he knew people everywhere we went). Because life is not as crazy as it is in Buenos Aires - but the weather is similarly good - uruguayos favor outdoor activities (sports, fishing, suntanning...) when they are not partying (Thursday is the best night out, I heard) or enjoying local cuisine, which most famous representative is the Chivito: a local hamburger composed of a flattened steak, bacon, ham, peppers, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce, olives, onions and a local type of mayonnaise (Note: it is delicious but one of the hardest things to eat granted the overwhelming amount of ingredients and the fact that my front teeth were not engineered to cleanly cut through steak).

Uruguay would have deserved more than 3 days, but I constantly have to balance between staying in cool places and discovering some new ones. I barely had time to lay my towel on the beaches of Punta del Este, enjoyed Chaja (a desert made of meringue and ice cream) at the terrasse of a cafe in Montevideo and visited the charming colonial town of Colonia that I am already in the ferry back to Buenos Aires. I will come back - who knows, maybe for retirement...

Punta del Este, South America's playground for the rich and famous

Back to Bs As

El Puente de la Mujer (Calatrava) and my temporary place (brick building to the right) in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

A 20-hour bus ride from Bariloche - much more pleasant than it sounds, buses in Argentina really are as comfortable as people told me - brings me back to the capital. I think I'm going to spend a week here, probably with a trip to Uruguay (a 2.5 hour ferry-boat ride away) in the middle. I stay at Piu's office/apartment next to the water in Puerto Madero and it is wonderful (thanks Greg for introducing us!). Buenos Aires seems to be a truly great city, combining the energy of a city like New York with a more latin pace of life. And the climate doesn't hurt either: it's 22 degrees in May (which is the equivalent of November in the northern hemisphere).

The Snows of the Andes y El Condor Pasa

I'm very lucky and the weather is wonderful for my hike to Cerro Lopez today. We are 5 to exit the public bus at the start of the trekking path some 25 kms from `downtown´ Bariloche - 2 couples and me. I will not meet any other people that day. It really feels like the mountains are ours. The hike to Cerro Lopez is not difficult past the first hour, and it is very pleasant to walk on the snowy path under the sun. Once again the combination of autumnal colors with the white of the snow and the deep blue skies makes for wonderful pictures.

I decide to descend using another path (a little longer) because the way up this morning was way too crowded ;-) I will only meet 2 cows, some condors and a few woodpeckers in the afternoon. Because I feel so genuinely happy I sing anything that comes to mind and whistle El Condor Pasa. I keep thinking that sometimes life is really, really simple. These are also the kind of moments I am traveling for.

The view on the Andes and Lago Nahuel Huapi from Refugio Lopez (1629 m)

On Ernesto's Tracks

After El Calafate I stop for 4 days in the lake district, a region north of Patagonia (some people even say it is not Patagonia). Small trivia: Patagonia is believed to mean "the country of the people with big feet" and was named like this in 1520 by 1.55 m-tall Spaniards (Sarkozy would have felt at ease with them) when they met indigenes Tehuelches - whose size was about 1.80 m on average - and were impressed by the size of their feet.

The main city in the lake district is a cute and relatively small town and ski resort laying on the banks of beautiful lake Nahuel Huapi called San Carlos de Bariloche (but everyone calls it Bariloche, apparently I'm the only one who finds that strange although I agree it sounds better and more special than just San Carlos).

The region has dozens of dark blue lakes and sits geographically at the door of the Andes, just miles away from Chile. Snowy peaks fill the skyline all around and plunge in the lakes. It makes me think of Switzerland and of Grenoble and I already feel like home here.

Following the advice of various locals and people who know the region well, I rent a car to drive `la ruta de los siete lagos´. It is a windy and picturesque road that passes through lakes (7 of them) and wonderful scenery (waterfalls and lush forests). When I bought a map the morning before, the store clerk tried to warn me that the road was not finished. I understood the meaning of "ruta ripia" soon enough. The distance is not great between San Carlos de Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes (about 150 kms) but it took me more than 4 hours due to the poor quality of the road. Moreover, I forgot to charge my camera battery so I

couldn't take any picture along the way. I guess you will have to believe me when I tell you the landscape along this road is splendid, even under pouring rain!

The Lanin Volcano and National Park

The next day I continue north a little past Junin de los Andes on my way to Chile to see the Lanin volcano. At 3747 m it dominates with majesty the eponymous National Park. I stop a little before the international border because I'm not sure I can enter Chile with my rental car. I come back by the mythical Ruta 40, the one the Che used on his trip across South America that participated in feeding his sense of revolt, except I'm not riding a motocycleta and I'm also going it in the opposite direction, going back to Bariloche towards the south. I still try to imagine what it may have felt like: there is something about this country that makes it seem like it's made for traveling!

La Ruta 40 above the Northern Branch of Lago Nahuel Huapi near San Carlos de Bariloche

(Almost) Touching the Glacier

The 2.5 km-wide Perito Moreno glacier

Peter - my Canadian traveling buddy - and I returned to El Calafate, at the South of the P.N. de los Glaciares. This is the "base camp" for the Perito Moreno glacier "expedition". And it must be quite an expedition to make your way among people on the balconies to take a peak at the glacier during high season. Thankfully, this is the lowest of low season and we are about 100 in the park. The setup makes me think of Iguazu falls, where entire buses of tourists are guided to something grand and amazing. I guess I like better to hike for 7 hours to enjoy something like this almost by myself - like yesterday - but the Perito Moreno glacier is enormous and unique and loud (it advances 2 meters per day, makes loud cracks and loses huges pieces of ice to the lake every so often). It was also one of the milestones of my trip, something I have wanted to see since I heard about it a few years ago. I probably won´t come back, but I´m glad I saw it because it´s definitely something that would be hard to see anywhere else. The boat tour was also quite amazing, since it brings to about 100 meters of the icy cliffs - themselves 80-meter high.

¡ Increible P.N. de los Glaciares !

Postcard Material #1

Instead of talking about the magnificence of the Parque Nacional de los Glaciares, I´d rather post a few of the pictures taken along the hike above El Chalten. This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen: a combination of landscapes from the Alps, the American Northeast during foliage season and its great and wild West, to form pure natural beauty. I made friends with Peter, a Canadian from Toronto and will travel with him for a few days. It had been raining for a week in El Chalten but the weather was simply perfect for our hike, yet we met with maybe 10 people the whole day (they probably all left, discouraged): we can´t really believe how lucky we are!

From foreground to background: Max, la Laguna de los Tres and el Cerro Chalten (or Fitz Roy)

Postcard Material #2

Where Are the Penguins?

Are these sea lions Chilean or Argentinian?

I saw a few animals (sea lions, cormorans, seals) on my boat tour on the Beagle Channel, the sound that separes Argentina from Chile, but no penguins. According to the guide, they are moving up North during winter (Rio? I asked). What´s with penguins nowadays, aren´t they supposed to be polar animals?

Also, I found out that Ushuaia, the self-proclaimed most austral city in the world, is actually only so because of their own definition of city. Puerto Williams, in Chile, is technically more South, but doesn´t qualify as a city according to Argentines: it doesn´t have 10,000 inhabitants, or a night club. It´s true that Ushuaia has a few fun ones.

Oh and I got my passport stamped, not once but 5 times (one guy went a little crazy). These things are like flairs at Applebees, the more and the cheesier, the better.