America bound..

indulging in wine in 90 degree weather is less than ideal but nonetheless a good experience. We are in Mendoza, wine county Argentina. All the wine in Argentina is produced here and wine is common as water. But this 90 degree heat...

Anyway I am not about to write anymore... tomorrow morning we take a bus across the Andes Mountain range (again) into Santiago, capital of Chile and our flight out is at midnight!

Its been a long 3 weeks, in short:

6 books, 3 countries, 4 border crossings, 100 hours of bus rides, 1 flight to the end of the world, many packets of pasta and salsa de tomate.... and now towards the end in Mendoza some extravagent expenditures on steak and wine... one last bus ride into Santiago tomorrow and Champaign here we come!

6 books in 3 weeks this is a record:

1. The only Road North
2. A million little pieces
3. The time travellers wife
4. On the far side of the Mountain
5. The Sheltering Sky
6. The Continental Drifter

*did I mention a plethora of beautiful women? Argentinians. yes. extremely.

Hasta el proximo viaje! Adios!

30 hours closer to Chicago!

and 30 hours later we are... Bariloche! This is somewhere in the middle of where we were and where we NEED to be. In the grand scheme of things, time seems a little tight now. Ideally we will get into Santiago at 1430hrs on the 17th for our 2350hrs flight. If all goes well...

It´s been a while so I will do a little recap through pictures..

This is Glacier Perito Moreno from afar, and by afar I mean AFAR because...

you can see that it is actually this big up close (think 20 storeys):

Then to El Chalten, quaint little town which is barely inhabited yet for a glimpse at Fitz Roy which was a fail but nonetheless some random pictures along the way....

And 2 days ago this was where the massive hike took us... Lago Sucia at the foot of Fitz Roy. At this point we are really about thousands of ft. up in the atmosphere. Breathless, for sure.

This is the great Argentinian Road. By great I mean.... massive distances with nothing in between. Nothingness is an understatement.

I finished the Time Traveller´s Wife a couple days back. Excellent read! Now to attempt to find the movie when I get back to Champaign..

Ok tomorrow to explore Bariloche (known for lakes lakes and more lakes)... then to Mendoza for some indulgence in fine wine and steak... then across the Andes into Santiago, Chile for the flight back to Ohare!

Champaign here we come!

Northbound via route 3

(no pictures.. computers are too slow where I am)

8 hours round trip trek to Lago de Los Tres to get a close up view of Fitz Roy today was a fail. The peak was to shy to reveal itself with all those clouds embracing it. The last 1 1/2 hours was literally an uphill battle against gravity, each step with excruciating pain and effort. At the top with 20-30 miles an hour winds, SNOW, hail and every damn element that could be thrown upon us... well we got there. Conquered. Saw. Now I just feel like I have been hit by a truck. Well good times, enough of hiking and battling gravity. Off towards Bariloche then to Mendoza for Argentinian steak and wine!

so we had a choice: 30 hours on a bumpy gravel route 40 or 30 hours on tarmac road route 3. Route 40 is apparently mystical and legendary and all but I think 30 hours is too much to bear on gravel road so Route 3 it is! Cama-service too, that is, literally, beds. Beds on buses. I know, only in South America.

Trip is getting a little tiring especially with all the movement, well we are 30 hours closer to Champaign!

gotta get a little mud on the tires.

arrived in the little town of el chalten in the middle of the night.. not too good an idea. walked around for an hour or so in and out of about 10 different hostels to no avail... finally checked into a very pricey hosteria(think hotel standards) for 100pesos a person (its 50 at a hostel)....

Whatever it is we´re settled down in another hostel now and for 2 days of trekking the Andes Range of El Chalten region and of course the much acclaimed Fitz Roy peak.

There´s something mystical about this place; little town set in the middle of mountains. One can experience four seasons in a DAY here, thats how capricious the weather is.

Will pen down a little more thoughts in due time, someone is waiting to use this computer.

Greetings from El Chalten, Argentina!

on the great country road

Off to Parque Nacional De Los Torres Del Paine

So we figured renting a car and driving it to the park ourselves will cost a little more but provide us with an unprecedented level of freedom... and so we did! for 45,000 Chilean Pesos (90USD) we got a deal for a sweet 4-wheel drive for a whole day. Driving in Chile? Imagine that. But it was splendid because there were hardly any other vehicles on the road (I dont even know why they have roads?).

Torres Del Paine (Towers of granite) from Lago Azul

Some history: basically crazy rock formations shaped by the alternating melting and freezing from repetitive ice ages over the years and the Pantagonian weather.

Some geography: magma intrusions penetrating the rock forming the granite that withstands erosion at a different pace compared to its surrounding rocks.

GLOBAL FREAKING WARMING:

Monstrous chunks of ice which fell off from the mega glacier grey.

and so after a little Chilean adventure... back through the Border, we are in Argentina again. Thankfully it was the smoothest border crossings we had.

Food and such

Ater having boiled vegetables, homemade pasta and whatever creativity we could throw into the pot for 3 days, we feasted today at a buffet (for $13USD which is a budget burst). Esto se llama un ASADO. The strangest part was that we were having this traditional Argentinian grilled-meat meal in a restaurant owned by a Chinese man (damn it are they taking over the world? Even in Argentina?). Having the mandarin song One Night In Beijing play in the background was at best, weird and out of place. But whatever, we feasted like Kings.

And a few pictures.

City of Ushuaia - City at the end of the World. (and yes that Cruise ship is Antarctic-bound for a whopping $3990 USD 11 days)

Beagle Channel, an alternative route around Cape Horn

Lago Roca, Tierra del Fuego National Park

what happens when you need to cross a channel on a bus? your bus goes on a boat. (Straits of Mageallen, Chilean Pantagonia)

Argentina - Chile Border, Pantagonia

A random rainbow in the middle of nowhere.

follow the yellow sign.

I just finished ¨A Million Little Pieces¨ by James Frey, the third book on this trip already! Given my lack of intellectual stimulation via books in my normal life, 3 books in the span of less than 10 days is scholarly intoxication.

So its been sitting on my bookshelf for 3 years and I finally decide to read it on this trip. Man it started off seriously PSYCHOTIC but a relatively pleasant ending was very much desired. It basically describes a man´s journey through rehab; so go figure how the first half of the book was like, living hell, literally.

I particularly liked this little excerpt-

¨He is playing low like he always plays low. He is holding the notes for longer than I would think he would be able to hold them. He is repeating a melody over and over each time with variations. It is simple music, made by one man and his lungs and a piece of metal with holes and his fingers moving along the holes. It is just sound low then higher slow then faster slow again and low, repeated with variations. There are no words and there is no singing, but the music has a voice. It is an old voice and a deep voice, like the stump of a sweet cigar or a shoe with a hole. It is a voice that has lived and lives, with sorrowand shame, ecstasy and bliss, joy and pain, redepmtion and damnation. It is avoice with love with without love. I like the voice, and thought I cant talk to it, I like the way it talks to me. It says it is all the same. Young man, take it and let it be.¨

So yesterday I sat on a bench surrounded by snow capped Andes mountains and read and read and read for 5 straight hours; I havent done this in a lonnnng time. The last 5 straight hours of something was... studying for finals at Grainger. bummer. What's even more strange, I read from 4 to 9pm and it was still bright out. We're so near the Antarctic here that the sky gets dark only at 1030pm literally. Weird, I know.

No photos for now because this computer that I am working on is straight from the 1980s. I type and words appear half a second later. I would imagine uploading photos to perhaps destroy the entire harddrive, whatever of it remains inside this plastic case which looks like complete thrash. Its amazing how itnernet works on this peice of (or lack of) technology.