Auckland

An English speaking country! Thank goodness. I’m always appreciative of Ana’s Spanish speaking skills, but personally was ready to speak to people in something other than broken Spanglish. We were scheduled to leave Chile a few days later, but opted to push up our schedule as it was snowing again in Patagonia. What’s up with that? Anyway, we were ready for some improved weather, so off to New Zealand we went. Along the way, we managed to bump into some friends that we met in Argentina… As luck would have it we were actually on the same flight, and we had roughly the same amount of time in NZ! This would be an excellent chance to share in some adventure… More to come on this later.

We showed up in Auckland and immediately noticed that we were NOT in South America anymore. This town was very multi-cultural (translation: Asian food!). Our first day here we ate Japanese food for lunch, Korean food for dinner, and then had Thai/Malaysian food the next day. Come to think of it, we might of had Udon for dinner the next night as well! Man, I missed Asian food. They have these food courts here as well which serve every type of Asian food imaginable… great for window browsing at lunch. Yum.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Auckland

Tags: New Zealand,Auckland

Patagonia

This my good brothers and sisters, is a land of harsh extremes… Here is a place where it can (and will) rain, hail, and snow on you in a single day. Here is a landscape where the (weather seasoned) people of Tierra del Fuego determined it was too inhospitable to live. The wind blows pretty fiercely down here: It’s relentless, bone chilling, and quite nerve racking for anyone trying to hike along the edge of a steep and slippery slope. So why would anyone in their right mind come here? To answer this question, one only has to open one’s eyes. It is gorgeous here… just breathtakingly, heart-achingly gorgeous. I mean, you just want to yell out at the top of your lungs, “Are you kidding me right now?”… halfway expecting an answer from whatever all powerful force/entity created such a spectacle. This place has it all: Lakes of sparkling sapphire and glowing turquoise… towering peaks of black and tan granite… snow covered mountains… psychedelic forests of red, yellow, and green… And towering hulks of glacial ice that threaten to devour anything that lay in it’s path. If you can brave some of the elements, the poet in you (not to mention the photographer) will be much obliged.

Parque National Torres Del Paine

We started our Patagonian adventure in the port town of Punta Arenas: a short 2 hour flight south from Puerto Montt. We had originally planned on taking a bus down, but at 36 hours long we just couldn’t pull the trigger. Besides, the plane ticket was pretty inexpensive considering all the time it would save us. There wasn’t much that we intended to see or do in Punta Arenas, so we quickly turned around and caught a 3 hour bus back north to the town of Puerto Natales where most of the tourist infrastructure is based… or so we had planned. About 1 hour into our ride the bus broke down in the middle of nowhere, stranding us to wait for another bus to come by. Oh well… I suppose it was bound to happen at some point with all the busses we’ve been taking. Once in Puerto Natales, our target destination was almost in sight: the Chilean national part of Torres Del Paine… one of the greatest trekking meccas in the world. People come from all around to hike the famous “W” trail: a 4 day jaunt around the park whose path traces out the letter “W” on the map. I had SOO wanted to do this trek, but there were several things holding me back.

1. Ana wanted nothing to do with it, as it requires some sleeping in the cold.
2. Hiking on my own would be hard because I had no camping gear.
3. We only had 1 clear day before the weather turned absolutely miserable.

Seeing as we only had one day to really see most of the park (before the clouds shrouded everything), we opted to sign up for a full-day tour which would cart us around to some of the more photogenic spots. We probably could not have picked a more perfect day for this. The skies were clear and blue and not obstructing any views. Even the few clouds that remained were wispy and swirling… creating interesting visual effects. Some of the most incredible photographs I have ever taken have come from this day, and the pictures just really do not do the scenery any justice. The mountains are just so immense and jagged and imposing… it is impossible to get the correct sense of scale and the proper perspective from seeing it on the screen.

The next day we made it out to the park to hike the eastern leg of the “W” as a day hike. We were pushing our luck a bit as there was a storm coming in later that afternoon, and we were kind of racing to beat it. We got as far as the 1st pass before Refugio Chileno as the storm came in much more quickly than we had hoped. At one point Ana wanted to smack me silly as she thought that I had been blown off a cliff by the 60MPH+ sustained winds. Not that she had anything to worry about… The only reason that she couldn’t see me anymore was because I was crouched on all fours clinging to a boulder after almost getting blown off a cliff!

Parque National Los Glaciares (Perito Moreno)

Ok seriously… what is up with this weather? We took a look at a few different weather forecasts and saw that it would take nearly a week to wait out some of the storms passing through the area. What ever happened to spring shoulder season? No such thing I suppose. Instead of hunkering down and waiting around for 5 days (or –gulp- hiking in a torrential downpour) we decided to roll the dice and see what the weather was like on the Argentinean side of Patagonia. It couldn’t be any worse than Puerto Natales… Right?

After a 5 hour bus ride east, we were back in Argentina at the tourist town of Calafate. Here we signed up for a bus transfer to take us to see the glacier Perito Moreno: The natural wonder that every guidebook insists is a must see to any trip to Patagonia. We got there and discovered a remarkable winter wonderland. It was snowing. Hard. Like Lake Tahoe in the winter hard. We could barely see a thing; I couldn’t believe our miserable luck. The glacier itself is still pretty impressive, even through all the thick grey clouds of snow. The ice is noticeably blue and rugged… like the crooked teeth of some gargantuan predator perpetually frozen into a terrifying howl. They say that this glacier is very important, as it is one of the few remaining glaciers that is still advancing. Obviously it can’t be bothered with all of this global warming talk. As you stand and gaze at the endless expanse of ice, you can actually hear the glacier at work: the silence interrupted every now and again with the clapping thunder of expanding and cracking ice. If you’re lucky, you might even see a piece break off and float away down the lake.

Parque National Los Glaciares (Fitz Roy)

Next up, we headed north to the town of El Chaltén, home to the northern part of Parque National Los Glaciares. This is where the famous Fitz Roy mountain peaks call home and is kind of the Argentinean equivalent of Torres Del Paine. The hiking here is much better set up for tourism and day hikes, as most trail heads actually start at the outskirts of town.

We rushed off the bus and headed (more or less) straight for the Sendero al Fitz Roy to get a hike in right away. As was becoming (unnervingly) common, we were trying to beat a storm that was due in sometime the next morning… We wanted to try and get a look at the Fitz Roy peak before it was completely shrouded in clouds for the next few days. And we did beat the storm in… kind of. I think that I got a glimpse of the peak for all of about 30 seconds before the clouds swallowed the mountain whole. The hike itself was incredible though. The thing that struck me the most was all of the completely unusual colors seen along the way. The rocks were tan, and green, and black, and sometimes (in the case of the glaciers) blue. The trees and grass were red and yellow, where green leaves should have rightfully been. and the waters and streams were green and turquoise due to the milky glacial fed waters. This must be quite an impressive sight to see when the sun is actually out once or twice a month. Similarly to our Torres Del Paine hike, we didn’t actually make it up to Laguna del los Tres because of waning daylight and a quickly building weather system. Of note: This part of Patagonia shares the same high wind conditions as its Chilean counterpart.

Click Here to see a map of Patagonia near the end of the world.

… and here are some pictures to see what we’re talking about:
http://www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/TorresDelPaine
http://www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/PeritoMoreno
http://www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/FitzRoy

Tags: Argentina,Chile,Patagonia,Torres del Paine,Los Glaciares,Preito Moreno,Fitz Roy,Puerto Natales,El Chalten,El Calafate

Chiloé

With the weather looking horrible for the next few days, we decided to go somewhere where it rained all the time anyway. Chiloé is an island just south of Puerto Montt, and is considered by many to be the beginning of the frontier lands of southern Chile. When the Spaniards first tried to establish colonies this far south, they encountered fierce resistance from the native Chilote people… in fact, they resisted integration with the rest of the country until 1960 when a devastating earthquake leveled the main island. Because of this, the islands and the people here are quite unique and different culturally from the rest of Chile.

The things that Chiloé are most known for (architecturally) center around distinctive wooden structures. Back in the day, the people of Chiloé exclusively used wood as a building material because 1) there were no rocks to build with on the island, and 2) there was an incredibly strong/dense native tree available called alerce (now protected from logging). Alerce is very durable and has the property of being watertight… a useful trait in the cold, wet environment here. Anyway, with no stone to build with, the structures here are pretty unique. Tejuelas (churches) here are as large as many stone cathedrals, but are built entirely of wood… right down to the wooden pegs that hold everything together (no nails). It’s pretty crazy that these things haven’t deteriorated and fallen apart. In the fishing villages and port towns such as Castro, homes are built right out over the water on a network of pillars and docks… with no part of the house built on land. These houses are called Palafitos, and are pretty photogenic even on a cloudy day. The tides here are pretty extreme, so depending on the time of day the piers under the houses could be dry or submerged by the sea. Both the churches and homes are weatherized by shingling the sides and roofs of the buildings with overlapping scales of alerce. Usually the shingles are cut into some sort of decorative pattern and painted vibrant colors to complete the maritime fish theme.

Click Here to see where Chiloé is on the map of Chile.

…and here are some photos from our stay:
http://www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/chiloe

Tags: Chiloé,Chile,Palfitos,alerce

Pucón

I had such big plans for Chile’s Lake District: hiking in national parks, summiting Volcan Villarica, soaking in numerous hot springs. Bill Cifford really sold this place to me when he was talking about places to go in Chile… and his pictures from his stay here in 2005 are quite breathtaking. Alas, we had already used up all of our luck this week in getting reimbursed for the stolen car… so naturally it was raining and windy the entire time we were here. Sadly, I had to scale back my plans: Blame it on the rain.

Obviously I didn’t get to climb to the top of the very active volcano Villarica (an imposing backdrop seen from anywhere in town). If only we had shown up a day earlier, we would have had perfect weather. Oh well. Not all was lost though as we were able to do a few other cool things around Pucón. We rented a car (I still can’t believe it!) and toured the surrounding area on our own… visiting waterfalls, hot springs, and one national park along the way.

The park that we visited went by the tongue-twisting name of Parque National Huerquehue (Where-Kay-Way), located about half an hour north of Pucón. We did a quick but steep hike there, passing along some waterfalls and clear mountain lakes. The snow line here was pretty low (around 1500 meters), due to the bitterly cold weather that we encountered in town… so we had to huck it through some snow and ice at the top. Of coarse Ana did this in her trusty Keen Sandals :-) Besides the natural beauty of the park the big draw here is to see the araucaria trees which line the tops of the mountain peaks. These trees look like something straight out of the Jurassic period and are rare, as they were heavily logged back in the day. It’s easy to see why they were logged as well: These were some of the straightest tree trunks I have ever seen. They practically scream “cut me down and turn me into a ship mast”.

Here is a map of Pucón in Chile.

… and check the link below for more pictures of the area:

http://www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/pucon

Tags: Chile,Pucon,rain,Villarica,Huerquehue

Show me the Money

We’re back! Back baby… Aww-Yea! It may have taken 3 months and numerous moments of frustration, but our stolen car ordeal has finally come to an end. After basically buying a slightly used Nissan Tsuru, we have been reimbursed -in full- courtesy of VISA card services. I cannot believe it took this long (check our previous post on Chiapas for the full story).

As is the case with many insurance companies, if they can find a way to back out of payment, they will. In our case, even though we had filled all paperwork required on the VISA claims agreement, we were still held up because VISA wanted the title to the car before reimbursing us. What??? They claimed that there was nothing stopping Thrifty Car Rental from finding the car, collecting the payment, and still renting the car out if they kept the title. We could have cared less, because we got charged immediately and had zero leverage to ask for any sort of title transfer. Thrifty on the other hand had already collected their money, so they had no interest in forking over title (they probably took a tax write off). We were truly stuck. Of course, when stuck… never underestimate the power of Ana’s attack-dog mode. She can be persistent when the situation requires. In the end, she found the one person who was holding up payment and made her aware that we would hold her responsible for not honoring a valid claim. Our car was stolen, we followed all published requirements to fulfill the insurance agreement… we needed to get paid.

Will we go through this ordeal again? Who knows. Paying the rental car company twice as much to still buy 20% of the car is a sucker move. I will say this though… the next time I’m staying in a questionable part of the world, I’m parking the car in a garage.

Tags: Insurance,rental,VISA,Thrifty

Valparaiso

Our first taste of Chile… We caught a bus across the Andes from Mendoza to Valparaiso: a small port town on the Pacific coast. We had decided to ditch our original plan of flying in from Buenos Aires for several reasons: 1) We were already in nearby Mendoza, 2) we had no interest in stopping over in Santiago, and 3) we wanted to avoid paying the $130US(!!) visa reciprocation fee imposed on US citizens flying into Chile. Besides, we were pretty used to long distance bus rides, and the trip across the border was only 8 hours. The ride over the mountains was quite spectacular as the peaks were immense and still covered with lots of snow. We had a not-so-brief stop at the border itself to clear customs (and watch the Chilean customs officials destroy imported fruits and vegetables with theatrical glee), but other than that the ride was remarkably smooth and void of delays.

Valparaiso is a pretty cool and unique town as it is built up amongst the impossibly steep hills that encompass the natural port harbor… think hills or Granada or something like that. The houses and buildings on these hills are difficult to access (even on foot), so the city built an extensive network of “ascensors” (funiculars) to cart people up and down the hills. These are not unlike some of the inclines that still run in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. We stayed in a hostel up one of these hills above the Ascensor Espiritu Santo some 65 meters above the town below. This lift isn’t the oldest one built (that would be Ascensor Concepción… built in 1883), but it is a respectable 98 years old and still in operation.

Aside from the ascensors, there isn’t anything particular to see in Valparaiso. The charm and character of the town lies in walking around and climbing endless hidden stairs to discover sweeping panoramic vistas and vibrant mural art painted on the sides of most buildings. Even the people here are interestingly quirky: We were walking to lunch one Sunday only to encounter a pack of young folk singing and dancing and drinking on the side of a hill, apparently still parting from the night before!

Ok… there is one other thing to experience here (as Ana has pointed out), and that is the work of the poet Pablo Neruda, who called Valparaiso his home. Pablo was a communist activist and outspoken political figure in Chile. Though he held many diplomatic posts for his country (he was even a Senator), he was highly critical of Pinochet’s military coup of 1973 and subsequent dictatorship. On the way to his house in the heights of Valparaiso, houses have poems placarded on their walls in his honor… making for an inspiring stroll to get in the appropriate frame of mind.

Click Here to check out where Valparaiso is on a map of Chile…

Also, check out the pictures that we took at the link below:

www.picasaweb.com/richmosko/valparaiso

Tags: Chile,Valparaiso,funicular,ascensor

Tasting Wines in Argentina

From Salta, we headed south on Ruta 40: the fabled lonely highway that runs north to south along the Argentinean western frontier. This was wine country in these parts, and we wanted to see what the fuss was all about. Argentina has had a bit of a renascence in the past decade with regards to wine making and the notoriety of some of their larger Bodegas(wineries). This is not a result of some recent discovery of prime grape growing conditions… The Argentineans have been growing and consuming wine in large volumes for well over a century. No, the reason for the increase in wine exports can be traced to another wine growing region in northern California: the San Francisco bay area. In the early 90’s, the Argentine government pegged the peso 1:1 to the US dollar to fight crippling hyperinflation. This stabilized the peso, but in an unsustainable way… since the government had to borrow large amounts of foreign currency to maintain this valuation. When the global economy crashed (hello, Silicon Valley… dot-com bubble), the money from foreign loans ran dry. No longer able to hold the exchange rate to dollars, the peso plummeted to 4:1 to the dollar… effectively making Argentinean exports very attractive to the world. Not only were the bottles of wine cheap to buy in foreign currency, but the underlying land and bodegas were as well. Established and aspiring winemakers from France, California, and Australia flocked to Argentina to invest in production and modernization in the regions with excellent grape growing climates. As a result, some of the best wines in the world are now made in Argentina.

We don’t profess ourselves to know much of anything regarding wines: we leave that to some of our friends (Matt, Keoni) to tell us what should be good and why. Our selection of regions and Bodegas were a bit random… mostly following listings in guidebooks and places easily reached by bus. Our first stop was a town called Cafayate… just south of Salta. Cafayate is a very dry area located at some 1700 meters of altitude. This is perfect conditions for growing white varietal grapes, specifically Torrontes grapes. This type of grape is unique to Argentina as it is a cross breed of Muscat and a local indigenous grape of the region. The resultant wine has characteristics of both base grapes… having strong and sweet aromas of Muscat(used for dessert wines), but with a dry and refined taste and finish. These bottles went down really easy with the plate loads of empanadas that we were wolfing down for lunch. :-)

Next we stopped in the town of San Juan, located just north of the more famous Mendoza region. This was a great experience as San Juan is kind of like what Mendoza must have been like a decade ago. The bodegas here are mostly small and family run… very small scale. There has not been as much winery modernization here, so the wines have a bit of a more hand crafted feel. Reds varietals are the only grapes grown here as is the case for Mendoza. Malbac is the signature grape around here, but Cabernets and Sirahs are produced as well. We did go to Mendoza as well, but did not visit some of the more well known wineries, as they were pretty far out of town. One interesting note about wine tasting here is that it is pretty rate to have any bottles opened for tasting that are aged in barrels (labeled as reserve wines)… they only open young wines. This was a bit annoying because there was no way to taste test the differences that the oak barreling made. I have to say this though… I don’t think we had a wine out here that was bad or even just ‘ok’. Most wines were good to great…. and the prices could not be beat: I think the most we ever paid was $5 USD for some really good bottles.

Here are maps of the region to get your bearings:

…and some links to photos that we took:

http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Cafayate

http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/SanJuan

http://picasaweb.google.com/richmosko/Mendoza

Tags: Argentina,Mendoza,San Juan,Cafayate,Torrontes,Malbec,wine