Saturday, January 29, 2011

Denise Milani 5 In Skins.be



29 January 2011

Today at breakfast Agnes was nagging me to update the part of Angielski our blog. I admit: I do not have the ease of writing as she does and just keep delaying it. But a promise is as promise and here is an update of Those last days in Argentina. I left it off in the day were purchasing a flight ticket to El Calafate ...

19 Jan
We are finally leaving Ushuaia by taking a flight to El Calafate (delayed of course). El Calafate is a kind of tourist resort almost on the border of Los Glaciares National Park and has all a tourist might need: plenty of shops and restaurants and hostels. It also lies by Argentina Lake, the biggest lake in, well, Argentina. We had booked a double room in Che Lagarto hostel. Location: perfect, close to everything. Staff: super nice. Ambiance: ongoing party (could be a bit annoying to have the loud music playing and people chatting just outside your door, but I guess that´s part of its style). Room: very nice with an extra bonus - a TV! Kitchen: on the last floor, to be avoided at all cost, bearing obvious signs of the mentioned above ongoing party.

20 Jan
We went to Los Glaciares by mini bus to see the Park´s most famous glacier Perito Moreno. The glacier is accessed either by boat or by a series of walkways that come real close to its icy wall. The glacier is so popular not only for its magnificence and grandeur but also because it calfs often (parts of the ice wall fall off with a roaring sound). We saw some minor calving only. But the weather, at least in the beginning, was nice and sunny and so the views were fantastic.

21 Jan
A lazy day. We walked to the nearby Laguna Nimez Reserve. It is a small reserve just by the Lake Argentina and has a variaty of birds, but above all pink flamingoes. Just that is enough to take tens of photos, it is our first encounter with a flamingo.
Later we walked along the Lake and spotted more flamingoes and some black-neck swans (the latter from very afar unfortunately).
In the evening we went to check another local specialty: parilla. It is barbecue of sorts: several kind of meat incl. chicken, lamb, beaf, sausages are grilled on open fire and served. Waiter kept bringing the meat in combinations until we said enough. My favorite is lamb, Agnieszka´s - chicken of course.
In the evening our hostel had some live music evening and Agnieszka went to enjoy (not that you had to leave the room to listen really).

22 Jan
We took a catamaran cruise to 3 glaciers within the Park. The cruise was bumpy as the wind got quite strong and half the passangers got seasick. The weather was rainy, windy, cold. One of the glaciers, Upsala (yes, that´s the name, our Swedish friends!), was not accessible: the entrence was blocked by huge icebergs. But we could approach the two other glaciers and the sight from the boat was quite overwhelming.

23 Jan
We left for El Cahlten, a small and charming village much closer to the mountains. El Chalten became our number 1 in Argentina so far. It is a place where 75% of the people either go hiking or return from it. Mountain ranges with a characteristic Fits Roy peak tower over the town. The views are just wonderful.
We stayed at Rancho Grande hostel which is not only close to trails but also has a very nice restaurant when you come back from it.

24 Jan
Time to start hiking. The weather is just perfect: sunny and clear. Alas, my lower back is in terrible pain and although I make an effort at first, I soon have to return. We decide however, that there is no point in Agnieszka'a sitting with me in the room and wasting this lovely day, so she goes on a trail. I stay sitting upright and reading a book. She probably run half the way because she comes 2 hours earlier than I expected her, carring pictures and films from her walk. Beautiful!

25 Jan
Despite all the measures I took my back still refuses to cooperate. The day is even clearer than one before. We decide again that Agnieszka will hike in the mountains while I will take it very easy and walk at slow pace across town to see Fitz Roy as it is not visible from the hostel. I walk slowly and when I finally get to the other side and walk onto the Rio Fitz Roy (Fitz Roy River) bridge and turn around, the sight takes my breath away. In a perfectly blue sky all the peaks are clearly visible, rock and snow.
Agnieszka walks 22 km this day and she has beatiful views and weather all the way. We earned it so we go to a waffle place this evening and enjoy huge waffles with chocolate, fruit and ice cream. Mmmm...

26 Jan
I feel much better so we venture out on an easy and short trail to 2 viewpoints. As I make it to the first one, I feel like I made it to Mount Everest. This one is called Viewpoint of the Condors, and true to its name, just before the top, we see a condor hovering above.
This afternoon another prize at waffle place:-) This is our last evening in El Chalten.

27 Jan
The bus journey from El Chalten to Los Antiguos lasts 15 hours. We hoped for some views but the road is mostly muddy and after about an hour the windows are completly dirty.

28 Jan
In Los Antiguos we wanted above all to see another big lake, Lake Buenos Aires. We walk by the shoreline and then catch a bus to Perito Moreno. We plan to spend 2 nights in Perito before we have to face another long bus trip to Bariloche.
As we enter our so called "Hotel" Bellgrano, a fat guy looks at us annoyed and asks: "reserved?". Later, not bothering to smile or talk, he takes us to our room. Probably a worst room so far, we try not to look too close.
As we take an afternoon walk across to town, we realize That it is just plane ugly, everything Seems to fall apart, even the cross on a church tower is skewed. People mostly look angry or sad and hardly look us in the eye, a contrast to our previous experience and CONCLUSION That Generally Argentinians are very kind and friendly. But in
find a few places: a cafe for example, WHERE staff is a bit warmer and even smiles occassionally.

29 Jan
We have booked a tour this afternoon is the Cueva de las Manos. More on this next time. Anyway it will be good to leave the Perito Moreno tomorrow and head for nicer places.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Spiritual Message For Getting Well



January 24, 2011

In our daily followed by the longest interval, and because of crowded classes and lack of meaningful access to the Internet (from three days trying to load pictures, as if this process is not yet zakonczylysmy). The journey by plane to El Calafate was a success painlessly and most importantly fast.
Rozlokowalysmy themselves in our shelter Che Lagarto, which was a nice attention and quite a nice room (with TV), but it was also the place where the party never ends, to which you can get used to, especially as you have a private room with TV . For other defects in our hostel, but it was hard to adapt, and was present total shit in the kitchen. Because it was located at the top, so and so did not want us to go there too often to walk, and already frightened away completely with the view we thought what zastaniemy there. But luckily
El Calafate turned out to be yet greater than the tourist mecca of Ushuaia, and there really is main street is dotted with restaurants and cafes, so we had to choose from. One evening we went to in the end to a typical Argentine so-called pubs. parilla, or meat served with a huge barbecue. We chose a buffet and it looked like this, the waiter reported more servings of meat for us, first of lamb, then beef and chicken, and then another chorizo \u200b\u200b(spicy sausage or local), and then we went no longer full, but wanted to gdbysmy we could sit there and eat, and we would burst. How are they able to eat such a quantity of meat that I do not know this so late in the evening. But on the other hand, do not see here very obese people as in the U.S., so somehow it works. We tasted meat Get very, ie, chicken and chorizo \u200b\u200bto me, and neither mainly lamb.

Because we had already generally quite a telling off after "Krupówki, we went to the first day of a trip to Los Glaciares National Park (the park glaciers), and more precisely to the southern part of the mostly famous Perito Moreno glacier. It is named after a part of the traveler and explorer of this region, who at the age of 21 years set off by a wild boar on horseback in the direction of Patagonia and Chile And discovered, and described the surrounding area. Also contributed to the establishment of the first National Park in Argentina, already in these areas.
glacier itself, in turn, is famous for its ease of accessibility, you can reach here by bus almost to the glacier and admire it from a series of footbridges observation, which approach really near (one of them was closed because of damage to recently by a block of ice detached from the glacier). The second reason is the popularity of its activity. This is one of the only known glaciers in the world, which has not been declining in recent years, due to its location (forehead almost touching the trace of a glacier on the other side) and the rates of movement of the glacier (up to 2 m / day), they often formation of ice bridges and impressive calving glaciers of the ice blocks wielich tearing. Unfortunately, that day, the glacier was probably not in the mood, or was tired, because apart from a few smaller pieces, nothing he did not want to break away. But anyway we liked.

We spent the next day watching your bird on a nearby lake Argentina (Moreover, the largest in Argentina), in principle, on its shores and reserve Nimez. Most involve us flamingos, which from afar looks like pink on the water fights, and so We called them, too. In addition to comical flamingos (hard to find a less proportional bird, as shown by the most in-flight), one could see all sorts of ducks (we liked this best with a blue bow, it looked as if dipped in a bucket of paint), the local geese and ibises.

zostawilysmy On the last day the catamaran day excursion to the glaciers, including glacier sounding familiar ... Upsala. The office advertises will this party as a preview three glaciers, which is not the end in accordance with the truth, because it turns out that the entrance to the branch of the lake leading to the Upsala glacier has long been blocked by the mass of ice, but this did not we already mentioned. Early in the morning about 7:00 when we left El Calafate beautiful sun shining, but already on the way to the port was felt famous Patagonian wind. How did then was to prove it was not without significance for our trip, because the lake in Argentina turned into a stormy sea, on which floated dotatkowo icebergs from the calving glaciers. Maybe it would be cool and had not rained the whole time, because by that views were not as impressive. And of course a big part of the passengers suffered from seasickness (luckily not us), which under these conditions was inevitable. But for now we still have great weather, so there is nothing to complain.
occasion we met a couple of Polish, which travels to South America from December, and started in Bogota, now moving to the south, in order to return to Bogota in May and finish their trip. They call it an adventure!

We, in turn, since yesterday we are in El Chalten, a tiny village in the northern part of Los Glaciares Park, where fortunately no longer have to pay for admission to the park, and it is a fairly expensive event, because for every "input" pay 100 pesos, or 75 zl! It's more expensive than in many national parks in the United States, and there the ticket is valid most often weekly, and not one day, with our not to mention the Tatras, because they seem funny at the same cost.

In the vicinity of El Chalten is a lot of trails for walking, and, above all the beautiful mountains. So far the weather was nice. Today was beautiful and the sun and even in the mountains was good visibility of what's here is rare, due to strong wind, which blows here, and almost always brings clouds and rain over the Andes. But the clouds kiedu August widens the views are breathtaking, like today, and even I managed to see almost the entire massif of Fitz Roy, who is the most chrakterystyczney for El Chalten and is here on every postcard. Regrettably, I only admire the views, because Ana today had got a very severe back pain (the roots) and barely moves. But it told me to go on the trail and do a lot of pictures, so yes I did.
I hope that tomorrow will Anne be able to move far more efficiently and we will go together in some way. We'll see!

PS. supplement 25 / 1: Unfortunately, neither back had not improved enough that she could go to a top, and the weather was beautiful again, so I go again in August alone have produced on the trails, and admire what it was. Tomorrow we hope to walk together to the waterfall, where he is going after nearly flat in August, because then hopefully back Neither ones will give advice, and even my legs need a little rest after yesterday's 14 km and 22 km lazenia today. You may find that tomorrow I will move me from Amy worse, but then at least we were assured that this transitional stage.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Afoil Boats Holding Pennies



January 18, 2011 Today

short update our blog. Still, we are Ushuaii, because still goes on strike. Our decision to resign from the National Park Torres del Paine in Chile, was absolutely right, because today we met the Poles, who just got stuck there, then encamped in the camp of the Red Cross in Puerto Natales, and spent the last 24 hours trying to get out, first for the smuggled money to the border, and then combined the road on foot and by bus arrived here. It turns out that sometimes blocked the ferry passed a single ferry, but it is totally unpredictable.

decided to do so again an overview of last minute deals to Antarctica, the next day, unfortunately, nothing like that is beyond the 19-day trip, which for us is a little too long. It is a vessel that will sail today, but we are today We did not know what's next, so we have too little time to get him take it. We stayed stocks plane to Puerto Natales. Initially we tried to buy tickets for it already yesterday, turned out to be very complicated. First, on the Argentinian airline reservations we did, hoping that you will be able to pay for it once the card, but none of that. With this book you must go to the airline office or travel to another office, which deals in such things, and there just to get a ticket and pay for it. In addition, it turned out that prices for foreigners are two times higher than for residents of Argentina, which we completely freaked. But we tried to do a first approach to buy a ticket yesterday in the office of the airlines, but cignela August kilometer long queue there. So I tried again to buy a ticket on the Internet, this time by another page, where one could pay the tab. Everything looked beautiful, we got a confirmation and also an accessible price, but in the evening I received an email that unfortunately may carry out this transaction, because foreigners are valid for different prices and I have to apply directly to the airline. Damn man can find directions, especially as I could my system immediately kick from the payment Keidy gave your card and passport number, but of course it did not. On the occasion of a curiosity: in Argentina, with every card transaction you have to hold a document of identity, they have proofs similar to our old ksiazeczkowych, so when they are being used so often are much more worn out than we ever were.

Bearing this original reservation on the plane in hand, we moved again today to buy a ticket. First, the travel agency because liczylysmy the lower queue. Unfortunately, in the office could not travel to get to the airline system, because it is so overloaded and so many volunteers. So we remained waiting in the office of the airline. Finally after about 3 hours there, we received koczowania our tickets, even managed to pay the tab, although the agency has no card reader, but all card transactions are carried out by the telephone system and called for help. Irons, a small card imprinting Prague and so totally antediluvian conditions. But I managed to beat it and tomorrow.
A wiec nastepne wiadomosci juz z El Calafate, miejmy nadzieje.

18 Janaury 2011

A short update on our situation here. We are still in Ushuaia. We decided today to check if there were any last minute offers for Antarctica because lot of people we met here seems to go there, among them Ruth, a very nice woman from Switzerland we met on the buss from Rio Gallegos. Alas, no offers at the moment so Antarctica has to wait. In the meantime we met a couple of Polish toursists who just got here from Torres del Paine. They told us how they had been practicly smuggled across the border and confirmed that situation in Puerto Natales and Torres was very bad. As of now the Park is entirely closed. My personal view is that regardless of the strike reasons this is going too far. It is no longer just a way to make yourself visible. These people do not let pass even the sick, mother with childen and the trapped tourists who have nothing to do with their country. This is going over the edge.

Knowing that we are not going to Antarctica this time we went to buy flight tickets from Ushuaia to El Calafate, further north in Argentina. We had booked them the day before but it turned out we needed to go to the airlines office to pay and receive paper tickets. There we saw, same as the day before, a huge crowd of customers and picked a number 66 (the desks were serving number 18). We sat down and waited nearly 2.5 hours for our turn, frustrated and annoyed that serving one customer takes such long time. When it came to paying the Mystery solved you. This rather large state airline does not have any credit card reader. To make a payment the staff need to call a number, press Several options and credit card number and finally They get a transaction code. They then use a press to get the image of the credit card, fill it in and finally it is done.

Anyway, tomorrow in the fly out of here and get back to sightseeing hopefully.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Sugar Brazillian Ottawa



January 16, 2011

after a long journey in the end we got to Ushuaii, but now we have a problem, lest it go. But after the turn.

Our subsequent episodes were conducted also with the travel adventures. First, at the exit from Caleta Olivia some kid threw a stone at the bus and knocked one of the side windows, So we had to go back to the station, where we substituted for another bus.

but the most points we had in the transit from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaii. First was waiting us cross the border with Chile, for, to get to Ushuaii, you need to go from Argentina to Chile, przeprawic the ferry to Tierra del Fuego, which is actually an island, and then enter back into Argentina. Checks at the border took us about 1.5 h. First collected our passports after the Argentine side, but we were able to celebrate in groups, but we had to unload our luggage and each individually approached with his bag, which then X-rayed as at the airport. In the end, we packed the bus and we went a few kilometers to visit Chile. Here again Step off the bus, luckily with only hand luggage, then queue to stop the stamp in your passport, then the next x-ray machine, where this time X-rayed hand luggage.

In the end, full of optimism, we set off on his journey and soon found ourselves on the shore of the strait of Magellan, through which we had to cross by ferry. Ferry Steel on the shore, so our driver positioned himself to enter counting on quick loading, but none of that.

turned out that the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego started to previous day's massive protests against the increase by about 20% of gas prices, which in this part of Chile is used to heat homes m.in what is needed most of the year. The protest blocked crossings ferry to the island and, later, as it would later prove, the main exit of the larger cities, as well as the way to the airport. Of course I need not add, that none of this information does not uzyskalysmy from operating a bus, who did not speak English, but from fellow travelers. For a few hours so we stood at the edge of not knowing when or if at all we passed. The long wait is approaching people, passengers and the driver entertained children are traveling with us and generally felt that we had been one big family, with the rest of August dogadywalysmy the family mostly in sign language and occasionally in English (except for other English-speaking tourists troika).

After about six hours of waiting we were loaded on the ferry, crossed to the other side, and here waiting for the manifestation of our banners to advanced, locking the exit of the ferry. Our captain tried to negotiate with them, but not much is it passed. So we stood on the ferry, and they're on the road, and so waited the 40 minutes, and finally, to our great joy, passed us and we went on, changing the way the bus (due to our siedmogodzinnego delays). For Ushuaii we arrived about 2 o'clock. Luckily we had booked accommodation, so there was no problem and immediately went to sleep. It turns out that we were lucky, because when we arrived here a single bus. Since about 3 days he already takes you to Ushuaii not, nor leaving, when it comes to railroad and road. From what we know, the situation has not improved, just the opposite. We leave today, we had to Punta Arenas, which is in Chile, and from there to go to Puerto Natales, from Tuesday to find yourself in the National Park Torres del Paine, where we have already paid for accommodation. It turns out, however, completely cut off from the protesters both Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales and the world, and the National Park is located about 1.5 thousand people, who do not have to get out, because the road is completely blocked. The situation had become so serious that even the Red Cross was in a switched on and trying to evacuate people from the National Park Torres del Paine and Puerto Natales. In this situation, we are forced to change our plans, firstly the lack of opportunities for travel by bus from Ushuaii, but above all do not want to push, where the problems are. Unfortunately, it probably means the strategy of money for accommodation, but it's better than pushing into the midst of riots.

Because at the moment no one knows when and how to get out of stocks, rozwazalysmy different options, including buying a 10-day trip to Antarctica last minute as we had done known Ruth from Switzerland, which starts tomorrow at the latter's conquest of the continent. We envy her, but for now zrezygnowalysmy this option despite the incentives on the part of us today who is encountered by the Polish crew member of one of the utensils. You have to admit, this is not a cheap event, but it's last minute deals are sometimes cheaper by several thousand dollars, so it is still a tempting proposition.

But Ushuaia is really nice place to be stuck here for a while. There are really beautiful. The city lies on the Beagle Channel and on all sides surrounded by mountains, on which lies the snow. A bit like Zakopiec, just more water. Building itself can not beautiful, but she brings nice walks, and finally you can eat something normal and it's a bit more decent time. Unfortunately, we found a nice cafe here, where he was mainly serves chocolate in different forms, and we zasmakowalysmy in pancakes with chocolate, which we did not go for good.

But like most about our neighborhood in August. We spent one day on the journey to Tierra del Fuego National Park, or Tierra del Fuego, who wowed us views of the mountains and water, especially, the weather was exceptionally Solar like this around. I find it very associated with Alaska, but Anne forbids me so to speak, she says, that every one has to remember the place apart. Sure is right, but I was up and so will associate with Alaska. Although the trail was not difficult, after a few hours lazenia up and down we went tired enough. Especially with our shelter in Ushuaii, to whom I later had to go, lies perched on a steep hot and you have to climb to it, but what we can burn calories portion of pancakes with chocolate. We hope to do one more trip to the National Park tomorrow or the day after, because he probably did not leave our hotel this time, at most fly by plane on Wednesday, if that time does not move buses.

Yesterday Again the weather was adding what we are very uprzyjemnilo catamaran trip Beagle Channel. Wykupilysmy a day excursion, which you ran a trail next to the various islands are inhabited by cormorants, sea lions and penguins are our favorite. This time, besides the Magellanic penguins, penguins podgladalysmy papua, which have long red beaks funny. It was not as exciting as previous our contacts with these creatures, especially not this time we went down to the shore, well, and the whole gave the impression of "mass production", where two large catamarans and a smaller boat swam very close to shore at the same time, but liczylysmy with that from the beginning.

then sailed on to Estancii Harberton, which is the first and oldest farm in Tierra del Fuego. Currently, she serves as a museum, but until recently was a functioning farm with sheep. Founder of the farm was Thomas Bridges, who was a missionary and as a first language he met peoples originally inhabiting the area, even wrote the first and probably only one so rich dictionary of that language. He is of course facilitated contacts with tybulcami and thanks not been killed by them, as the former missionaries.

Ushuaii we visited the tiny museum dedicated to the tribes originally living in Tierra del Fuego. Inhabited around four ethnic groups, of which we are most interested in the people of Yamana. Despite difficult weather conditions, they went almost naked, as it considers that naked skin coated with oil is easier to dry and warm in this climate, than dressed in animal skins wet. They do not build permanent settlements, but is constantly moved around with their belongings by boat, which constituted the most important asset. As these boats have always had a burning fire, which protect against moisture and wind, just kept the outbreak in the camps. Hence the name of Tierra del Fuego, because when I first saw the Magellan for the first time in these lands, they saw small flames from the boat and the natives camps. Unfortunately there is no longer a single person unless purebred Yamana, and also lost their language, although we are not completely certain of this. It was, moreover, an interesting society where women had the same rights as men, there were counselors, and the whole food was divided equally, regardless on who won the food.

last point of the trip was a visit to a farm in a small museum, with collections of skeletons of the surrounding fauna, and in the way of birds and marine creatures. These skeletons come from dead animals found on local beaches by the employees of the museum. Even though we enjoyed it, but we had very little time, because I was waiting for our bus that would take us back to Ushuaia. The return route was full of beautiful views, though some of us zmoglo excess impressions, so the 1.5 hours allowed us to drive even a short nap.

Today we were able to extend our stay in Los Cormoranes nice hostel, and besides, it is raining and cold, so I concentrate on the verification of messages from Chile, rip pictures, and of course blogging.
see how long some fun here and in what way we manage to pull stocks further, but more on that in the next episode.

16 January 2011

Finally in Ushuaia. We have come to the End of the World, but now It Seems we are stuck here for longer.

Firstly the buss from Caleta Olivia was delayed of course, no surprise to us anymore. As soon as the set off some kid threw a stone at our buss and broke the window just above us. We had to go back Those few kilometers and change the busses. I was kind of happy with the previous That Because they already stank after driving from Buenos Aires. Finally drove Towards the Rio Gallegos.

From Rio Gallegos, where we spent a night, in took a buss to Tierra del Fuego (Fire Land). In order to get there one has to leave Argentina, enter Chile, cross Magellan Strait by ferry (Tierra del Fuego is really an island with only two ferry crossings available), leave Chile and enter Argentina again. Very time consuming in itself with all the luggage scanning, stamps and paperwork. When we reached Maggellan Strait the ferry was already there so we thought it is going to be a quick trip. Nothing of the sort. We waited and waited and waited... After some hours, thanks to some English speaking co-passanger we learned that there was a strike in Chile and the road off the ferry was blocked. When I almost lost hope they packed us all into the buss and on the ferry. The crossing took 20 minutes but on the other side, sure eanough, there were strikers blocking the road, chanting, singing etc. It took another hour of heated discussions of the ferry captain with their leader to convince them to let us in. On the other side there was a long line of cars and busses waiting for their lucky chance to leave.

We arrived in Ushuaia with 7 hours delay, around 2 am, but fortunately we had booked accommodation in a friendly place called Los Cormoranes.

We might have been one of the last busses allowed in the Tierra del Fuego. The strike in Chile continues and it is not a small thing. People opose reduction of subsidiaries for natural gas (in other words price increases) and the protests have especially escalated here in the South where gas is used for house heating almost all year round. I thought the strike would end after a couple of days but no such thing. It has been a week now and it is getting worse with not just the crossings blocked (so the only way to get in or out of Ushuaia is by air now) but multiple roads blocked in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales in Chile as well as access roads to Torress del Paine National Park which had been our next destination.

Anyway the first day we still had no worries, walked Ushuaia and planned our next tours. Ushuaia lies by the Beagle Channel surrounded by snowy peaks of Andes meeting the sea here. It is a beautiful sight, provided the clouds allow to see it. It is a bit cold (but it is just 2.5 day by ship to Antarctica) and the weather can obviously change several times during a day. We booked one trip and visited a small museum of the history of the Yamana people. Yamana were one the 4 tribes inhabiting these land and the peculiar thing was that they did not wear any clothes (except a loin cloth). Think about the temperatures here! Their reasoning was that animal fur and skin soaked with rain would remain cold a long time and it is easier to be dry and warm if they kept naked and rubbed their skin with fat. They obviously always kept a fire on, even on a boat (they were nomads, did not settle for long in one place) and when Magellan saw all those fires in the dark of a night he called this place Tierra del Fuego, Fire Land.

On Friday we went to Tierra del Fuego National Park and hiked the whole day. The weather was wonderful, the views of mountains and lake stunning and the day was just perfect. The next day we boarded a catamaran on a tour which cruised the Beagle Channel. We had even more lovely views, mountains and sea gittering in the sun. We stopped at yet another Penguin Island but watching the birds with tens of people from the boat (and there were two other boats close by at the same time) was hardly as good as our previous meetings with penguins. Finally we cruised to another attraction: Estancia Harberton. This had been the first farm set in the Fire Land by Thomas Bridges, a missionary who learned the natives language and wrote the one and only English-Yamana dictionary. The generations of Bridges still live on and own the farm. There is even a small aquatic museum there.
We were driven by buss back to Ushuaia.

When we returned late afternoon, we went to enquire about our buss that was supposed to take us on Sunday (next day) to Punta Arenas. Not surprisingly, the buss was cancelled as no car could get past the road blocks. All the information we were reading on tourist forums (almost nothing in the news) stated that the situation in Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales is no good. People could not get out, shops were closed, tourists stayed in schools run by Red Cross which tried to evacuate as many as possible. Torres del Paine National Park where we had been heading was blocked, ca. 1.500 tourists trapped inside with no possibility to leave. We took these people advice and decided to skip Torres and cancel our already paid accommodation there. For The moment in the extended stay in Los Cromoranes and keep watching how the situation develops.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Katsu Curry Sauce Recipe



January 10, 2011

back to this last sentence with the previous post. Our next adventure with the bus was much less successful. We had to leave at 8.30 Trelew. At the station we were told that our bus is delayed and will arrive around 10.30, but earlier, who also goes to Comodoro Rivadavia and will be around 9.30. Hour later, no problem, we'll wait.

Ok. 10.00 as there is no bus, so no. Another question and answer in the window, the bus will be about 10 min. As it turned out, that we had yet to hear the answer many times. Eventually a bus arrived around 11.00 (the one who was to be about 9.30). Checked our tickets, it turned out that we can take you, packed our luggage, we boarded the inside, and here ... no seats! They made us get off, gave our luggage and said, lest wait for the next bus, which will be around .. 10 min. Then it was already known from our original bus is delayed by 8 hours, but guided by intuition we did not want to risk waiting for the end niego.W 12.00 near the bus arrived, who had a place for us and finally we moved in a way. Of course they asked us whether we really want to go, because we had bought a place in the higher class, which you did not have this bus, but because we had only go 6 hours, we did not care that we just spoke.

In this way learned August following local custom, especially in defining the relativity of time, ie, with 10 minutes may mean the 4 hours.

Other local customs, to which we can not get used, the decomposition of the day. Banks normally operates in the mornings and wczsnopopoludniowych, which makes it difficult to exchange money for us, because we are busy then often something else. Queues at banks after the payment are like us in the old days, and also stand for the ATM queue, because often only one of them is money. We've managed to withdraw money for a third approach. In the middle of the day is usually a siesta, which means that most shops and restaurants are closed, shops to 17.00, and bars opening up until after 20.00. Occasionally runs into a single otawarte grocery stores, so do not die of thirst, and often no small pastry shops are open, or kiosks, where you can buy cold sandwiches, pizza and various bits of sweet cakes. Thanks to this well are not dying of hunger, but it is our diet had become very poor and consists mainly of so-called. medialunas, a sweet croissants, which serves breakfast here. and we also often eat them for lunch with no choice. Dinner is eaten, there were approximately 21.00-22.00, which for us is far too late.

Well, enough whining. We spent the last two days in a small, friendly Puerto Deseado miejscowowsci lying over the ocean, where there is a nature reserve, established at the mouth of the river, where de facto the ocean enters the riverbed is about 50 km. With him appear sea creatures such as dolphins, sea lions, various birds, and of course, penguins. We chose a trip a little further from the mainland, the island of penguins, which live both magellanskie penguins, who were watching at Punta Tombo, eggs and penguins rock. On the way to another island zahaczylismy, where there is a colony of sea lions, in which males lounging with his haremami on the scales. On the island of penguins podgladalysmy other sea lion colonies composed exclusively of males, most of them elderly or takiech which is not yet established a family.

But the most fun constituted penguins. This was quite different than the survival of Punta Tombo. We went there among the crowds wild, there was us in total 18 people, and we had the whole island to yourself. Magellanic penguins we passed among the other side of the island where penguins nest hilarious rock. Lazilismy there beside them taking pictures with a very close and would sit in the midst of them. Although the island is not great, our walk lasted several hours, and in conclusion we had a picnic by the sea, of course, in the company of penguins. Here more than anywhere else felt that we were only guests in this beautiful place totally taken over by animals, that have taken over even the remnants of old buildings. We had beautiful weather at the same time, like a crawfish spalilysmy despite the sunblock, and a little way back, we porzucalo on a stormy sea, but it was worth.

And now you're just in the wild heat of the bus without air conditioning (because it broke down) to Caleta Olivia, and in the evening we get on the bus to Rio Gallegos, where to go longer the next day directly to Ushuaia.

PS. One more thing, which is hard to get used to, is, to throw waste paper basket next to the toilet to toilet, and then after it, lest August clogging the pipes. It's hard for us to come, but we try to apply to those recommendations.

10 January 2011

Forget the praise in the Gave in the last post is the public bus transportation. A few days later in a hard lesson Learned. We were to take a bus from Trelew at 8.30. At a bus station in the discovered That our bus was delayed and would arrive at 10.30, however there is another one at 9.30 That the board could. 1 hour waiting seemed ok. At 10.00 the bus was nowhere to be seen and when Agnieszka asked at the ticket box she was told the bus would be here in ca. 10 min. Later we heard such answer many times and by now we know it means at least (!) half an hour. At 11.00 the bus that was supposed to be there 1.5 hour earlier finally arrived, we were allowed to board... only to find out there were no seats left. We were told to wait for the next bus which would come in no more than... 10 min. Around 12.00 that bus finally arrived and we got the seats. It was hot and dirty inside but we did not care really. As long as we made it to our destination the same day...

That´s just one of many lessons in local customs we have gotten so far. We have learned (with difficulty) not to throw the toilet paper into a toilet but in the trash bin next to it. We have also learned that the during siesta (from 13.00 to 17.00) most shops are closed as are restaurants (the latter open around 20.00 and the first guests arrive at 21.00). This is a bit too late for us so we mostly have to relay on bakeries which sell some wet sandwiches, white bread and of course huge variety of cookies. My main course at breakfast, lunch and dinner are medialunas i.e. sweet croissants.

But enough wining. We have just spent 2 days in Puerto Deseado, a charming, small harbour town. Here the ocean waters are pushed into the riverbed by 50 km bringing in lots of wildlife such as dolphins, sea lions, albatros, petrel and of course penquins. We bought a trip to Penguin Island lying a bit further in the ocean and it was an amazing experience. Penguin Island is a rocky island inhabited mostly by Magellan penguins (we know this species already from Punta Tombo), but also rockhopper penguins, sea lions, oyster catchers (a very funny small black bird with a long red beak) and albatros. For several hours we walked between the penguins, carefull not to step in any nests or destroy eggs. We had the whole island to ourseleves! When we reached rockhopper colony, we stopped for a long while just enjoying their company. These penguins do not mind humans and let us come real close. We took this chance and filmed them, took pictures or just sat close by, no more than 0.5 meter away, and admired them. On our way back we stopped at sea lions males only colony (mostly elderly or very young ones) and watched them fight, rest or dive into the water. Finally we had a picnic by the sea, accompanied by the penquins of course, which seemed to get used to our presence. We got sunburned and shaken up on the boat on the way back but all in all this was an absolutely unforgetable day.

And as Agnieszka is writing this post, we are on our way to Caleta Oliwia in a 30-degree heat, on a bus with not air-conditioning (it´s broken). From Caleta we take a night bus to Rio Gallegos and after an overnight stop we continue by bus to Ushuaia in the Fire Land.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Big Poffy Prom Dresses



6 stycznia 2011

Jestesmy teraz w Trelew i wlasnie wrocilysmy z wycieczki do Punta Tombo, gdzie August is reportedly the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins.

must admit that our previous meetings with the penguins in New Zealand were very intimate in comparison with today. Punta Tombo is a nesting place for about 600 thousand. penguins, arriving here every year in September into the same sockets and the same partners, with whom they have offspring. Babies fed for three months and are reared by both parents, and in March set off on sea and begin their own adult lives. Despite

crowd of people walking among so many penguins and the opportunity to see them from really close (closer he did not give) is doing an incredible impression. Sometimes you have to outright careful not to step on some. Being subject to a Here is the rule that a penguin is always take precedence, and when he wants to go through the path, then people must stop. We are very liked us there, which translates into the number of pictures taken by us. We are expecting more in the next punkscie trip in Puerto Deseado. Tomorrow we board the bus and so we move on to conquer the coast.

By the way, our first and longest, so far, the bus trip turned out to be quite acceptable, although the 20 hour drive. Shortly after leaving the station we had a first point of entertainment, which was a game of bingo. Got the small pieces of paper with numbers and you have nice steward read numbers, and we sprawdzalysmy or something trafilysmy. Needless to say, that all was in English, so we had at the next test the language. Then it was also nice: Displaying three films dubbed in English, but especially for us joined subtitles in English, which facilitated our little affair. We received a total of dinner, breakfast and lunch, of which the most virulent was the dinner. For breakfast consisted of toast with jam, sweet muffins and even sweeter alfajor called cookies, in which you feel was the only sugar. We like sweet, but without exaggeration. For the future will therefore take a sandwich with one another (not sweet).

But we slept quite well, only the air conditioning once blew icy air, and there was no time at all. But the overall impression was about, and we fear no more special trips by bus, which will soon await us.

6 January 2011

We arrived in Trelew after a very long bus journey. More on that later, because the key point of our visit here was to see Magellan Penguin colony in the nearby (1.5 hour drive one way) Punta Tombo. They told us it was the biggest colony in the world (600 thousand birds) and it certainly impressed us in every respect.

We really liked those funny birds. So far during our travels we have seen the smallest blue penguins and one of the rarest Yellow-eyed penquins in New Zealand, but on those occasions the birds were not so easy to see or photograph. Here we walked among thousands of them, trying not to stomp on any, especially as they often crossed our path just a meter or so before us and their nests were sometimes almost on the path. As you can imagine the number of pictures taken by Agnieszka is overwhelming. We watched the penguins walk, cry, feed their young ones and even surf on waves. The only drawback was the tour guide gave us not enough time to enjoy. All the more we look forward to seeing more penguins in Puerto Deseado, our next stop along Argentina´s coastline.

I promised a few words on the bus travel because it was surprisingly confortable. The seats we bought were reclining to almost lying position with a support for legs. A steward offered to carry our luggage up (we were placed at the top level of the bus) which Agnieszka decidely but politely refused (no, gracias). As we started from Buenos Aires we were proposed some entertainment: a bingo game entirely in English (nothing like a quick language lesson to kill the time), then 3 movie viewings (English dubbing with subtitles Angielski Specially for us) and meals: supper (not bad), breakfast (terribly sweet) and lunch (not edible by our European standards). All in all we enjoyed the experience and are no more afraid of the many bus transfers Following ahead of us.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Flash Boobs Party Cove



January 4, 2011
happily we got yesterday in Buenos Aires, but today, for about two hours longer we leave it to go farther south. I will not tell us very zalowaly it's so short here we are. This is not a captivating city. First of all, it is very dirty and the cars run like crazy, you have to have eyes on the head about this, especially with the not always are separate lights for pedestrians. You just have to use the opportunity to run to the streets, when it can.

After a tiring, especially because of its length, travel by plane, but we had enough strength to move last August after a little town. Today pokonalysmy even bigger stretch, so it hurt us a little leg. But now we are waiting 20 hours riding buses, so the "rest".

Today we went in the neighborhood called La Boca, famous for its colorful houses and a bit of artistic atmosphere. The area, however, primarily attracts hordes of tourists like us. But the few times we trailed broken Polish, and this mainly in connection with the word "Poland" on my shirt. By the way it turned out that Argentineans Poland is associated with the trash-metal band Kat and Lukasz Podolski, who plays in the German football team, but it does not bother to call him a Pole.

crazy about soccer here, moreover, can see everywhere. The most popular souvenirs is a different kind of football shirts and scarves. You can also do a picture with Maradona on the poster or in a plastic version. With difficulty oparlysmy this temptation ...

The rest of the city is very diverse, many neglected homes here, or the strange structure, but also being taken at the beautiful houses in August with elaborate carvings on the doors and facades.

first day also proved to be a true test of my really poor knowledge of English. It turns out that even in the capital is hard to work it out in English, and express my attempt to learn English in recent weeks, very useful to us in August. So if somehow we get along, whether we were able to buy tickets for these long distance buses, which zaplanowalysmy.

buses here are main means of transportation between cities. Hence, a great range of hauliers, and thus unprecedented in Europe's comfort. On long routes can ransom of FMO, and almost Anchorages accumbens. For this there is full support inclusive with meals. Unfortunately

of Anchorages were already quite redeemed, so zadowolilysmy August pollezacymi. We hope it is enough for us to get enough sleep and somehow senses they spend long hours in buses. A wiec: vamos!

4 January 2011
We have arrived in Buenos Aires just yesterday, after a long flight, and will be leaving the city in just about 2 hours. Not that we cry much over that: Buenos Aires is not the most charming city we have seen in our travels.

What hit us most (almost literally) is the traffic here. The cars go almost as they please (fortunately respecting the red light but not necessarily other drivers or pedestrians), many crossings lack traffic lights so one must really be extra careful and cross at first opportunity. The city, as many in latin America (certainly in Brazil as we remember it) is dirty and the building mostly ugly and in some state of ruin. But once in a while you see a jewel: a beautiful bulding with stunning ornaments on its walls and gates.

Then there is La Boca. We walked it today: the most colorful district of the city, with a somewhat bohemian atmosphere. Colorful buildings, colorul murals and even colorful tango dancers posing for pictures. And of course Maradona rulling the streets painted on the walls or in plastic form to hug for a picture.

Those first hours in Argentina showed also that Argentinians do not speak English. None of the normal people we had to deal with did. This proved especially a problem when we tried to buy tickets for our following bus trips. None of the vendors could speak even basic English and were it not for Agnieszka we would be spending the rest of the 7 weeks in the capital. She, after just about a month of studing English, managed to get all the required information and buy us tickets for three trips, for the right dates and times, the required comfort class etc. I was just amazed!

A word on bus trips ahead of us. Bus is the main means of transport here, especially considering very long distances between the cities. This is the reason for, unknown in Europe, comfort offered by multiple carriers. You can get a wide, reclining seat (up to a point of making a fully flat bad), meals and steward service. We are staring our 20 hours bus journey soon so we will let you know how it went.