I've left Argentina so many times in this trip, that I it was hard to assume that this time was truly the last time.
Argentina is a great place, and certainly one of the few countries that I've visited in my life where I wouldn't mind living (at least for a while). It has an incredible varied landscape, lakes and deserts, the highest mountains and the flattest plains, cosmopolitan large cities and small villages in the middle of nowhere, milenary trees and moving glaciers, beautiful waterfalls and colorful icebergs, friendly penguins and huge whales, delicious meat and excellent wines. A land where policemen help hitch-hikers get a ride and where military welcome backpackers at their camps.
But above all, one of my favorite things about Argentina are Argentinians themselves. This explosive mix of Spanish and Italian culture has created a certainly unique type of people. Ironic and sarcastic, welcoming, passionated, unreliable, outgoing, ecologically conscious, creative, idealistic, ... They are proud of their country and themselves (and Maradonna ;) but they continiously laugh at themselves. They have a passionate love for soccer and mate, and a passionate mistrust on polititians. You will never find a single Argentinian that doesn't complain about politics, the same way you will never find one that will do anything to try to solve the situation. Argentinians will blame anyone else (US, the IMF, Menem or all politicians) for the situation of the country, but none will assume any self-responsibility for it.
I take with me great memories of this country and of this people. I've visited spectacular places and met outstanding people. I cannot recall a single Argentinian that wasn't nice, helpful and welcoming to me. And that's why I say "hasta la vista" and not "adios", because I will definitely be coming again to this wonderful country.
¡Hasta la vista, Argentina!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Sleeping in the middle of the Andes
On the way back to Santiago, I decided to stop at Puente del Inca. Well, I must admit that I first tried hitch-hiking from Mendoza, but it was impossible to get a ride, so I ended up going the old fashion way: by bus.
This small village in the middle of the Andes (2,800 m high) is next to one of the natural wonders of South America: a natural bridge over Mendoza river formed by hot spring waters, salts, minerals and micro and macro organisms. Its formation is still a mystery for geologist, but the main theory is that it was initially an ice bridge that the thermal waters transformed in what it is today. You can still see the ruins of the old hot springs and even get into them for free (if you're brave enough to stand the low temperatures when you get out).
The colors on the bridge are something unique: green, red, yellow,... I have never seen something like that. And if that's not enough reason to stop there, you can also walk to the Aconcagua National Park, and see (or climb) what is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas.
But one of the highlights of this stop was where I spent the night: at the officers building, in a military camp. Yes, the military rent some rooms to travelers to help cover the expenses of the building and, since I was lucky enough to skip military service in Spain, that was quite an experience for me :) The officers and all the military guys at the camp were surprisingly nice, laidback and fun, and I had a great time there. They spent all night telling incredible (and absolutely hilarious) stories while we watched two Copa Libertadores soccer matches,... It truly was a great experience.
And to make what would me my last night in Argentina even better, we had full moon. So walking along the village at night, alone, in complete silence (and in the cold) and seeing the Alps illuminated by the moon light was certainly the best way of saying goodbye to this wonderful country.
This small village in the middle of the Andes (2,800 m high) is next to one of the natural wonders of South America: a natural bridge over Mendoza river formed by hot spring waters, salts, minerals and micro and macro organisms. Its formation is still a mystery for geologist, but the main theory is that it was initially an ice bridge that the thermal waters transformed in what it is today. You can still see the ruins of the old hot springs and even get into them for free (if you're brave enough to stand the low temperatures when you get out).
The colors on the bridge are something unique: green, red, yellow,... I have never seen something like that. And if that's not enough reason to stop there, you can also walk to the Aconcagua National Park, and see (or climb) what is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas.
But one of the highlights of this stop was where I spent the night: at the officers building, in a military camp. Yes, the military rent some rooms to travelers to help cover the expenses of the building and, since I was lucky enough to skip military service in Spain, that was quite an experience for me :) The officers and all the military guys at the camp were surprisingly nice, laidback and fun, and I had a great time there. They spent all night telling incredible (and absolutely hilarious) stories while we watched two Copa Libertadores soccer matches,... It truly was a great experience.
And to make what would me my last night in Argentina even better, we had full moon. So walking along the village at night, alone, in complete silence (and in the cold) and seeing the Alps illuminated by the moon light was certainly the best way of saying goodbye to this wonderful country.
The home of Argentinian wines
Yes, that's what Mendoza is best known for. But in addition to visiting one of the oldest wineries in the country (and learning the processes of making red and white wine), there are many things to do in this wonderful place. You can go rafting on the Mendoza river (level 4 in summer), horse back riding at over 3,000 at the Quebrada del Cóndor, mountain-biking on the surrounding hills, chill out in one of the nice bars on Arístides street or enjoy one of the best "tenedores libres" (all you can eat restaurant) in the country.
In fact, simply enjoying the spectacular views of the road from Santiago to Mendoza is a good enough reason to visit this lively town. You climb to over 3,000 m going through 29 continuous hairpin bends, surrounded by spectacular mountains with incredible shapes and amazing colors and passing next to the highest mountains in the Western hemisphere.
Mendoza is a vibrant city, full of life, young people, nice shops, excellent and cheap restaurants and fun bars, and all withing a walking distance. Like in Buenos Aires, people here are very stylish and good looking, and they are extremely friendly and fun to be with. Of all the places I've visited so far, Mendoza would be my first pick if I had to spend a few months somewhere.
Probably one important reason why I enjoyed Mendoza so much is because I was lucky to meet a great group of travellers from several countries (Australia, UK, Germany, US and New Zealand). We got along great from the start, shared the same interests and really had a wonderful time together.
So, the combination of all the things this city has to offer has made Mendoza one of the highlight of my trip.
In fact, simply enjoying the spectacular views of the road from Santiago to Mendoza is a good enough reason to visit this lively town. You climb to over 3,000 m going through 29 continuous hairpin bends, surrounded by spectacular mountains with incredible shapes and amazing colors and passing next to the highest mountains in the Western hemisphere.
Mendoza is a vibrant city, full of life, young people, nice shops, excellent and cheap restaurants and fun bars, and all withing a walking distance. Like in Buenos Aires, people here are very stylish and good looking, and they are extremely friendly and fun to be with. Of all the places I've visited so far, Mendoza would be my first pick if I had to spend a few months somewhere.
Probably one important reason why I enjoyed Mendoza so much is because I was lucky to meet a great group of travellers from several countries (Australia, UK, Germany, US and New Zealand). We got along great from the start, shared the same interests and really had a wonderful time together.
So, the combination of all the things this city has to offer has made Mendoza one of the highlight of my trip.
Friday, May 07, 2004
Santiago or forgetting I'm a backpacker
Arriving in Santiago was quite a shock, after over 2 months of traveling as a backpacker: heavy traffic, modern buildings, a nice appartment all by myself, exclusive clubs, expensive restaurants,... Well, basicaly everything I hadn't seen (or enjoyed) in two months.
Santiago is a very modern town, and you see right away that the average standard of living here is way above any other South-American city (or at least, any South American city I've visited). The subway system is modern and clean, modern (and many expensive) European cars all over the place, nice music is broadcasted through speakers on the pedestrian streets, lots of high and modern office buildings, many nice residential areas, modern design bars and restaurants,... Just everything you would expect in a modern city. To me it's a strange blend of many cities, a mix between American architecture and European design. I also found interesting that there are many more design and modern places here than in Buenos Aires (restaurants and bars on Bellavista district remind me a lot of those in El Borne, at Barcelona), but on the other hand people are (and dress) much more conservative than in Argentina.
Another pleasent surprise of my arrival here was the place I stayed at. Yes, I stayed at a friend of a friend of a friend's appartment. The owner, a great guy from Sabadell (Spain) whom I had never met, let me stayed there all by myself while he traveled to Brazil. So, after having spent the last two months sharing small (and often smelly) bedrooms and bathrooms with a bunch of noisy youngsters, having now a full appartment, with 3 bathrooms, all by myself was a total luxury.
However, I also had to get used to the other implications of living a luxury life. So after having lived the last weeks on a 25 € daily budget (and that includes everything: lodging, food, transportation, tours and the occasional beer), spending 50 € one night on a taxi, dinner and drinks made me thought I was wasting a fortune. But I must confess that it was nice to enjoy an excellent fish meal, great drinks a nice atmosphere, and experience again "how the other half lives" :)
However, all this glamour and modern city look that Santiago has disappears as soon as you try the bus system. Three of the five lanes of Alameda, Santiago's main street, are dedicated to buses, and there are hundreds of them racing each other along these 3 lanes as if they were competing on the Monaco Grand Prix. They accelerate like crazy, brake on the last second, make unpredictable turns forcing other buses to stop suddenly (and scream at them). But amazingly, they never hit each other (or any other thing on the street).
The experience of taking one of these buses is certainly something I recommend. If you're smart enough to find out the number of the bus you must take (out of the hundreds of them) and you're bright enough to see it when it's speeding along the third bus lane, you must wave to the driver as crazy, as if he were a relative you haven't seen for centuries. He will stop in the middle of the lane (maybe he'll make it to the second lane) and all the claxons will go on, while you cross the two lanes hoping no other bus will run you over. Once inside, the bus will start accelerating before you have both feet inside, so you develop a sense of equilibrium that event the best surfers in the world don't have. Along the trip, the bus will be boarded by people selling all kinds of stuff, from chocolates, to gloves, pens and I even enjoyed a rap concert. All that while you enjoy a roller-coaster trip across the streets of Santiago.
In any case, my stayed in Santiago was certainly enjoyable thanks to all the people I met (most friends of friends), who enabled me to see and enjoy this city in a way that would have never been possible as a tourist. So, Ximena, Carlos, Marc, Camile and the rest, thank you for taking care of me..
But in addition to enjoying my "The Rich and The Famous" life in Santiago, you can visit all the highlight in Santiago in one day (including my personal favorites Bellavista district and Cerro Santa Lucía, from where you can enjoy a view of the smog-covered city and the Alps), so I decided to head to Mendoza, and cross the Alps one more time to Argentina.
Santiago is a very modern town, and you see right away that the average standard of living here is way above any other South-American city (or at least, any South American city I've visited). The subway system is modern and clean, modern (and many expensive) European cars all over the place, nice music is broadcasted through speakers on the pedestrian streets, lots of high and modern office buildings, many nice residential areas, modern design bars and restaurants,... Just everything you would expect in a modern city. To me it's a strange blend of many cities, a mix between American architecture and European design. I also found interesting that there are many more design and modern places here than in Buenos Aires (restaurants and bars on Bellavista district remind me a lot of those in El Borne, at Barcelona), but on the other hand people are (and dress) much more conservative than in Argentina.
Another pleasent surprise of my arrival here was the place I stayed at. Yes, I stayed at a friend of a friend of a friend's appartment. The owner, a great guy from Sabadell (Spain) whom I had never met, let me stayed there all by myself while he traveled to Brazil. So, after having spent the last two months sharing small (and often smelly) bedrooms and bathrooms with a bunch of noisy youngsters, having now a full appartment, with 3 bathrooms, all by myself was a total luxury.
However, I also had to get used to the other implications of living a luxury life. So after having lived the last weeks on a 25 € daily budget (and that includes everything: lodging, food, transportation, tours and the occasional beer), spending 50 € one night on a taxi, dinner and drinks made me thought I was wasting a fortune. But I must confess that it was nice to enjoy an excellent fish meal, great drinks a nice atmosphere, and experience again "how the other half lives" :)
However, all this glamour and modern city look that Santiago has disappears as soon as you try the bus system. Three of the five lanes of Alameda, Santiago's main street, are dedicated to buses, and there are hundreds of them racing each other along these 3 lanes as if they were competing on the Monaco Grand Prix. They accelerate like crazy, brake on the last second, make unpredictable turns forcing other buses to stop suddenly (and scream at them). But amazingly, they never hit each other (or any other thing on the street).
The experience of taking one of these buses is certainly something I recommend. If you're smart enough to find out the number of the bus you must take (out of the hundreds of them) and you're bright enough to see it when it's speeding along the third bus lane, you must wave to the driver as crazy, as if he were a relative you haven't seen for centuries. He will stop in the middle of the lane (maybe he'll make it to the second lane) and all the claxons will go on, while you cross the two lanes hoping no other bus will run you over. Once inside, the bus will start accelerating before you have both feet inside, so you develop a sense of equilibrium that event the best surfers in the world don't have. Along the trip, the bus will be boarded by people selling all kinds of stuff, from chocolates, to gloves, pens and I even enjoyed a rap concert. All that while you enjoy a roller-coaster trip across the streets of Santiago.
In any case, my stayed in Santiago was certainly enjoyable thanks to all the people I met (most friends of friends), who enabled me to see and enjoy this city in a way that would have never been possible as a tourist. So, Ximena, Carlos, Marc, Camile and the rest, thank you for taking care of me..
But in addition to enjoying my "The Rich and The Famous" life in Santiago, you can visit all the highlight in Santiago in one day (including my personal favorites Bellavista district and Cerro Santa Lucía, from where you can enjoy a view of the smog-covered city and the Alps), so I decided to head to Mendoza, and cross the Alps one more time to Argentina.
The quest for climbing Villarrica
I had never heard of Pucón until I met Dimitri, a Belgian guy, in Chiloé. He told me how he had climbed the Villarrica volcano (one of the few active volcanos in the world that you can climb) and how incredible it had been and I decided I had to stop there on my way to Santiago. And so I did.
The day I arrived was absolutely perfect, unlike what I expected: blue skies, no clouds and no wind. Unfortunately, the bus arrived too late for me to attempt climbing the volcano, so I had to wait for the next day. Or that's what I though. Because for 3 consecutive days my trip to the volcano's summit was cancelled due to rain, wind and many other negative weather conditions. I couldn't stop thinking that if the buses from San Martín hadn't been booked out I would already be on my way to Santiago, but well, that's what low-budger travel is about.
Pucón is a small town located next to the Villarrica lake and is almost entirely devoted to adventure or active tourism. You can do climbing, rafting, horse back riding, windsurfing,... And all the agencies that are all over the main street are a good sign of that. So, I decided to enjoy Pucón's possibilities.
The day I arrived I went horse back riding with two girls from my hostel, and it was a great experience. It was the first time I ever gallopped on a horse and the views we had were spectacular. From one point we could see 3 volcanos: the Villarrica, Quetrupillán and even the Lanín, in Argentina.
The highlight of the next day were for sure the hot springs. It was night-time, cold and raining, but that made the experience even more enjoyable (perhaps because we took along with us a bottle of Chilean red wine :) The sensation of being immersed in natural open-air hot springs, while feeling the cold outside and the rain falling in your head, seeing the stars and hearing the river below was truly indescribable. We thought one hour would be too much time, and they had to drag us out after two and half!!
And well, I did almost everything else that you can do under bad weather: visited Pucón, watched spectacular sunsets, eat out, watched terrible movies on the TV, had a beer or two at the Mammas and the Tapa's (the local bar), chatted with people in the hostel and went to the Caburga lake and the "ojos del Caburga", natural pools that, when it doesn't rain, are fed from underneath with incredible colors of water, but when it rains, as it did when we went, are just a dirty waterfall.
But the perfect day for climbing the Villarrica finally came, and it was absolutely worth it waiting for it. The spectacular views of 4 lakes and 4 other volcanoes, the sensation of climbing on steep ice with crampons on your feet, the satisfaction of reaching the smoking crater and enjoying the view from up there are all unique and certainly worth waiting for. And so it was descending down, sliding on our butts as if the volcano was a giant water-slide (or snow-slide). I even had a chance to prove the emergency procedures we were taught, when I got overconfident descending the volcano, slipped and had to use my ax to stop myself from falling down. In fact, I had to do it twice, and while the first one was a bit scaring, the second one was even fun.
So, with the satisfactiong of having met my objective in Pucón, that same day I took a night bus to Santiago, where my cultural shock began.
The day I arrived was absolutely perfect, unlike what I expected: blue skies, no clouds and no wind. Unfortunately, the bus arrived too late for me to attempt climbing the volcano, so I had to wait for the next day. Or that's what I though. Because for 3 consecutive days my trip to the volcano's summit was cancelled due to rain, wind and many other negative weather conditions. I couldn't stop thinking that if the buses from San Martín hadn't been booked out I would already be on my way to Santiago, but well, that's what low-budger travel is about.
Pucón is a small town located next to the Villarrica lake and is almost entirely devoted to adventure or active tourism. You can do climbing, rafting, horse back riding, windsurfing,... And all the agencies that are all over the main street are a good sign of that. So, I decided to enjoy Pucón's possibilities.
The day I arrived I went horse back riding with two girls from my hostel, and it was a great experience. It was the first time I ever gallopped on a horse and the views we had were spectacular. From one point we could see 3 volcanos: the Villarrica, Quetrupillán and even the Lanín, in Argentina.
The highlight of the next day were for sure the hot springs. It was night-time, cold and raining, but that made the experience even more enjoyable (perhaps because we took along with us a bottle of Chilean red wine :) The sensation of being immersed in natural open-air hot springs, while feeling the cold outside and the rain falling in your head, seeing the stars and hearing the river below was truly indescribable. We thought one hour would be too much time, and they had to drag us out after two and half!!
And well, I did almost everything else that you can do under bad weather: visited Pucón, watched spectacular sunsets, eat out, watched terrible movies on the TV, had a beer or two at the Mammas and the Tapa's (the local bar), chatted with people in the hostel and went to the Caburga lake and the "ojos del Caburga", natural pools that, when it doesn't rain, are fed from underneath with incredible colors of water, but when it rains, as it did when we went, are just a dirty waterfall.
But the perfect day for climbing the Villarrica finally came, and it was absolutely worth it waiting for it. The spectacular views of 4 lakes and 4 other volcanoes, the sensation of climbing on steep ice with crampons on your feet, the satisfaction of reaching the smoking crater and enjoying the view from up there are all unique and certainly worth waiting for. And so it was descending down, sliding on our butts as if the volcano was a giant water-slide (or snow-slide). I even had a chance to prove the emergency procedures we were taught, when I got overconfident descending the volcano, slipped and had to use my ax to stop myself from falling down. In fact, I had to do it twice, and while the first one was a bit scaring, the second one was even fun.
So, with the satisfactiong of having met my objective in Pucón, that same day I took a night bus to Santiago, where my cultural shock began.
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