This is Africa, Right?

Well, we didn't think that the meaning behind calling Afica, 'The Dark Continent', had anything to do with rain clouds--although after our first few days here we weren't so sure. After taking a few days to recover from jetlag the storms settled in, and it rained hard for about 24 hours straight...but not a warm tropical rain, it was cold. Hence, the raincoats and layers we'd been wearing everyday for the last two months had to stay on. The storms have been so bad all over the country that sections of the famous N2 highway (aka the Garden Route) that runs along the coast have been completely washed out. This is Africa, right? Ask the locals and they will tell you its global warming, and that storms like this are more rare than the Black Rhino. We'll keep you posted on our progress when we get out of Cape Town and hope that the highway re-opens, since that's the route that most travelers take.

Since those first few dark and stormy days the weather has now cleared and we've been exploring some of the city--sections of which feel like Malibu, California. There are a lot of people here who come and never leave, or who have been here before and are now back looking for work and permanent housing. This place is great, but I think we still like home. Hopefully we'll be moving on this week and should have more interesting things to show you. For the past few days we've been relaxing alot and bumming around town (almost feeling like a normal vacation).

Oh yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We missed the comforts of home dearly, and although we tried our hardest to find a place in town that would serve us turkey and mashed potatoes, all we would find was Waterbuk or Crocodile. Instead we landed at the closest thing to American food that we could find...the photo below says it all. Not surprised are you?

A Tribute to South America

We landed in Cape Town, South Africa yesterday (wow), but more on that later.

We decided a tribute to the great 2.5 months in South America was necessary to sum it all up. So here we have it, the top 10 and worst 10 moments of our trip so far (not in any particular order):


Best 10:
1. Second night camping in the W, Torres del Paine, NP. The amazing scenary, breathtaking sunset and great music from the Ipod (Ok so maybe the whole trek should be listed).
2. Car day in Villa Angostura, Argentina.
3. Of course, Macchu Picchu.
4. Bike ride in Valley de la Luna and/or town San Pedro de Atacama in general.
5. First/Second day of the Salkantay Trek on our way to Macchu Picchu.
6. Wandering the open air museum in Valparaso, Chile.
7. Market day in El Bolson, Argentina.
8. Salt Flats (Solar de Uyuni) tour in Bolivia.
9. Second morning on the Navimag Ferry (of couse, with a broken camera).
10. First half of the Bocca Juniors soccer game.

Worst 10:
1. The heartbreaking days stuck in the La Paz airport.
2. Typical Quechuan music (same 4 songs) blasting from the only speaker in the whole bus right above our heads for 8 hours on the bus from Puno (Peru) to Copacabana (Bolivia).
3. Lima.
4. Worst hostel ever in Buenos Aires (3 long nights).
5. Biting flys in Santa Teresa (3rd night of the Salkentay trek).
6. Oregano.
7. Raining spit and other things at the Bocca Juniors soccer game (2nd half).
8. Strange queso smell on all Peruvian and Bolivian buses.
9. Every morning at about 4:00 a.m. on bus street.
10. Every morning at about 4:00 a.m. in all small peruvian & bolivian towns (aka damn roosters).

¡Viva, Viva La Boca!

To go to South America and not go to a soccer game would be nothing short of foolish. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires we immediately did the foolish thing and booked tickets for a Sunday game through our terrifying, and disgusting budget hostel. Although we had been saying all along that we would not do a tour to a soccer game...that we were completely capable of doing it ouselves...we did in fact end up in the so called tour, which included the general admission tickets (standing room only), transfer to the stadium, and pizza & drinks. In hindsight, we now realize that we could have easily made it to the stadium on our own, had the best dinner the city had to offer and sat right along the sideline for less than we paid for the 'tour'. Classic. Had we done it on our own though we wouldn´t have this interesting experience to talk about.

La Boca is the neighborhood, the Juniors are the team, and as we approached the stadium you could feel the energy. Inside was a madhouse and the stadium was packed. The fans have five or six songs that they all sing together with incredible timing at various times during the game, and the crowd is never still--always moving, jumping and swaying in a sea of navy blue and bright yellow.

The tickets that came with our package were behind one of the goals, and behind a massive fence topped with barbed-wire, and on the other side were several police officers in riot gear...helmets with face shields, vests, clubs in hand. Serious stuff. At the end of the first half it was 2-0 for the home team, and that´s when I felt something wet hit the side of my face. I looked up at the blue sky...hmmm mysterious. Then the strange precipitation got more and more frequent, and when it hit peoples shirt is was white and foamy. No, not snow and not rain, but a more unpleasant kind of precipitation coming from fans of the visiting team in the stands above. Spit....lots of it, too. In fact, it started to come down at halftime and it didn´t end until the game was over. The Boca fans turned towards the visitors, yelling what sounded like horrible things in Spanish while shaking their fists. Then they would turn back to the game, laughing, and continuing to enjoy the action on the field. A guy a row in front of us turned and with a smile said, ´´Souvenirs.´´

Spit, as disgusting as it is coming from another persons mouth, won´t do you any physical harm. That´s when other debris started to hit the stands around us. Where they got this stuff I have no idea, but it started with small rocks. Some of them drawing blood on the heads of spectators. In fear everyone pushesback up under the stands to seek shelter. Then a big rock comes down and hits an area (cleared out because of the spit) with a loud crash. The disgust and partial amusement turns into concern as a piece of the stands makes its way down. This is enough to mae the locals yell at the police officers who are standing there, seemingly unamused with the chaos behind them. Now down by four goals the visitors do the unthinkable and throw over a 30kg bag of what appeared to be concrete mix. Again, it hit the spot that everyone had moved away from, but it sounded like a bomb when it landed on our level.
To the left is Shanon covering herself from the 'rain', in Jared´'s jacket, of course.

There was never any anger from the local fans...it just seemed to be another game, and another victory for the Juniors. Why they put the fans of the visiting team above the home crowd is a mystery--especially if these antics occur at every game.

This is South American futbol, and it was everything I expected, with some terrifying and disgusting additions. I guess all´s well that ends well.

City of Tango

Beunos Aires has been our home for the last week. This place is huge, modern and feels european with all of its street cafe´s, old architecture and clothing boutiques. As we wander the borro´s or neighborhoods, however, we are constantly reminded that we are in Argentina by the beautiful spanish being sung, the tango music blasting from all of the resturants and music stores and the cow parts hanging in the windows of the typical parrillo (grill) resturant. I guess Argentina is home of the best steaks and I think Jared can now vouge for that ("that was the best steak I have ever had").

This city is devided into distinct areas and we have explored all of them by foot. San Telmo (where we are staying now after three hellish nights in the worst hostel yet) is home of the tango and rustic antique markets. There are people dancing the tango in the streets and the restaurants offer free tango shows when you come in to eat. I love the tango, attempted it once, but the dance and the music is so fun to see here in the heart of Beunos Aires. I have even got Jared to come watch the shows 2 nights in a row, one night was in the basement of Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the city, very cool. The sunday market in San Telmo is also great. It is really an antique market in the square, but all of the surrounding streets have artists and vendors selling their goods. There are street performers and Tango bands/dancers all over. The antique vendors are all dressed up in ancient vintage wear, wigs and makeup, it is full of constant surprises.

We explored Ricolletta, where there are art museums, great boutiques and a beautiful cemetary. Palermo is the quieter part of the city with huge botanical gardens, parks and a great little mexican food restaurant that we happened upon while visiting the Saturday market (I made Jared take me back there the next Friday but it wasn´t open, how dare they!). The city center is fast and hectic with a lot of historic buildings and a great pedestrian street (Florida street) full of shopping. We stopped in La Bocca for a quick lunch but the only street to see (very vivid and colorful) was a bit overplayed and only sold rack after rack of tourist items (postcards, mate mugs, tee shirts, etc, things we definately don´t have the space or the money to buy). We have even gotten in a few popcorn and movies (in english) which we miss from time to time.

Overall it has been a nice stay but we are definately ready to leave this huge city. The loud traffic is a bit hard on the nerves, especially after our tranquil time in Pategonia. Our hostel is on "bus street" which is a very narrow street (think echos), but somehow manages to have every bus in the city doing loops on it (our room is probably the loudest room we have ever been in). Also, the exhust is getting to us. We are ready for some quite beach time in South Africa (after our stay in big Cape Town of course).

Hanging with the Whales

After a gruelling 22 hour bus ride (we are getting quite used to these) we arrived in Peurto Madryn (and Penninsula Valdes) home of the worlds best whale watching and penguin viewing. This city was great and warm! We relaxed on the beach, enjoyed meals outside with ocean views and calmly walked the streets all without chattering teeth and frantic sprints to the next warm shelter.

The town has a great ecomuseum dedicated to the marine life found in this region i.e. Sea lions (by the thousands), Penguins (by the millions), Sea Elephants (big fat creatures with creapy noses), Right Whales, Orcas, etc.

After the museum we walked back along the beach with the sun setting (not on the water since we are on the Atlantic ocean coast). There weren´t very many people around and we got a private whale show right there from the beach. It was amazing watching it playing about, blowing spay and flipping its tale.

The next day we actually took a tour of the Penninsula Valdes where we saw sea elephants, penguins and sea lions all along the beaches. The creepy gigantic sea elephants are so funny to watch I could have stayed there all day, laughing. It takes them so much energy and time just to move a few measly inches where they then plop down for a rest before there next attempt. Life would be so hard- move. rest. flip sand. rest. sleep. rest. move. rest...

We took a boat out into the ocean where there were right whales all over the place ( and yes, that is the new, very orange, fashion that the gringo's all over are wearring. It's so cool, I don't know why all the tour guides and the boat drivers haven't caught on!).

The guide said that during this time of year the waters just off the shore has thousands of these right whales swimming about. You could see their spray all over the horizan & their tails sticking out. They are supposedly really playful, curious and therefore they would come right up to our boat to check things out. Can´t say that I wasn´t just a bit nervous about the old "whale under the boat, whale tip the boat, whale eat the tourist" thing but I guess they only eat krill so "don´t worry about it".

Heading North

Since there wasn´t much more continent to keep heading south on we decided to start making our way back up through Argentina. The first stop (on the long, long road to Buenos Aires) was El Calafate, which sits on southern shore of Lago Argentina, the country´s biggest lake. At the other end of the turqoise waters is the Perito Moreno Glaciar--one of the last advancing glaciers in the world. There´s something about an absolutely massive block of snow and ice that is completely mesmorizing. It might sound like watching paint dry, but believe me, watching a glacier is way better. Gigantic blocks of ice regularly crack off the giant massif and into the water with the roar of an avalanche. Once again, everything in Patagonia is so overwhelmingly huge that its hard to describe seeing something like this. Save the Glaciers! And the Whales! In case you were curious, yes, we stared at it for hours. But, we really had no choice because the bus drops people off at about 10am and doesn´t come back until 3pm. That´s lots of glaciar staring time--and there´s not much else to do there.

El Calafate itself was nothing to write home about--even though I guess that´s what I´m doing. There is one main drag, bustling with travelers coming from every-which direction. We did spend Halloween there, and there were all kinds of little monsters running around--although, here they go to the chocolaterias, restaurants and gift shops and not through the neighborhoods.

Strange not to have to do last minute shopping for costumes for ourselves...we are usuually scrambling for costumes on Halloween day, but not this year. I myself wanted to make sure I didn´t loose the spirit entirely, so I decided to dress up in lots of facial hair. See below:

(NOTE: Anyone that knows me well also knows that I can't really grow facial hair--in fact this is the closest thing I´ve ever had to a mustache. Sorry, I had to throw in the photo just because it´s awesome.)

Anyway, up the famous Austral Highway (Route 40--which is partly paved and partly dirt) we made a quick visit to a small town in the middle of nowhere, called El Chalten. This place was really cool and rediculously overpriced. The main attraction is the giant granite tower Fitz Roy. Since we were still a little ahead of the summer climbing weather the crowds weren´t too bad, but this little place gets packed in the summer--and with good reason. We literally hiked right out the back door of our hostel and into the backcountry. Not bad living.

The roads in town are all dirt, and the day we pulled in the wind was ripping down the main street making it hard to walk and/or see. Big changes are on the way for this little palce though as they are in the middle of paving all the streets in town--as well as the road in from Calafate. I´m sure this remote little mountain village with about 1500 residents will see big changes once there´s a smooth ride in--because the ride in was not smooth.

One of our last views of the Patagonia Steppe and the southern Andes.