Where: Santiago (Chile) and La Serena (Chile)
The good: Wonderful day exploring Chilean coast near Santiago (Zapallar, Vina del Mar, and Valparaiso, especially Zapallar). Beautiful sunsets from the beach in La Serena over the Pacific Ocean rate a close second.
The bad: Losing stuff. Not a huge deal, but a big inconvenience as I somehow managed to part with the following without my knowledge: 1 pair of underwear (I'm down to 5!), my wonderful North Face windbreaker (big loss), the most comfortable sleep shades and earplugs I've ever encountered (huge loss!), Swiss Army knife, mini-flashlight, big bag of trail mix, box of chocolates from Mendoza, and 1 large Space Bag (which is also a big loss though it probably doesn't sound like it). I've spent way too many hours already trying to replace these and have generally be unsuccessful since I am fairly particular about quality since I'm packing light.
The possibly interesting: There was quite a bit of hotel room availability in La Serena, a 100% tourist town, on Easter weekend, one of the biggest holiday weekends of the year, which was fortunate (long story).
Biggest surprise: Chile is significantly more expensive than Argentina/Uruguay and Chilean Spanish very difficult to understand as Chilenos speak very quickly, drop the last syllables of many words, and use a lot of slang.
Lesson learned: Plan ahead. I was fortunate in being able to book the very last available bus seat available from Santiago to Buenos Aires for the Monday after Easter that arrived just in time for me to catch my flight to Ecuador. If the bus ticket weren't available (~$70), I would have had to buy a one way plane ticket for $350.
Regrets: Not being able to spend more time in Zapallar/Vina del Mar/Valparaiso.
March 26, 2008
Week 3: San Martin de Los Andes and Mendoza
Where: San Martin de Los Andes (Argentina) and Mendoza (Argentina)
The good: SM de los Andes is an exceptionally beautiful little mountain town (though expensive by Argentinian standards) north of Bariloche, though also in the Lake District. At around 15 blocks by 8 blocks, the city is wonderfully walkable (or perhaps "wander"-able) with well maintained sidewalks, cute family owned shops, and rose bushes everywhere. I hadn't heard of SM de los Andes until I was in Argentina and am really happy that I added it to my trip on the fly.
The bad: Poor tourist infrastructure for wine tours/tastings in Mendoza, Argentina's wine capital ... reminiscent of Bariloche. This is surprising since ~70% of the country's production comes from the region and the city is a major domestic tourist destination. The main concentration of wineries is only 10 miles or so outside of town but the only transport options without a car are a 1 hour public bus ride from the city center (but remember, it takes time to get to the bus stop too ... 20 minutes in my case) or a fairly expensive taxi. And upon arrival, bike rentals are heavily promoted and would be a good idea if there were actually exclusive bike paths. Instead, bikers have to negotiate heavily pot-holed roads with other vehicular traffic including large city buses threatening to make you roadkill.
The possibly interesting: I noticed that nearly every Argentinian city I visited had a casino. SM de los Andes was the first time I went in one (originally to have a drink at the bar), which is unfortunate because I lost A$50 (~$13) at blackjack, which is the cost of a nice meal. Oh well.
Biggest surprise: I had a wonderful local microbrew in SM de los Andes called Cerveza Lacar, which is one of the best beers I've ever tasted. Too bad I'll probably never be able to have it again.
Lesson learned: This was one of my most enjoyable weeks mainly because I took it a bit slower than Week 2 and met really great people at the hostel in Mendoza.
Regrets: not buying chocolate in SM de los Andes where it's supposed to be heavenly (I just plain old forgot), not drinking enough Malbec in Mendoza, and not eating enough steak before leaving Argentina for Chile.
The good: SM de los Andes is an exceptionally beautiful little mountain town (though expensive by Argentinian standards) north of Bariloche, though also in the Lake District. At around 15 blocks by 8 blocks, the city is wonderfully walkable (or perhaps "wander"-able) with well maintained sidewalks, cute family owned shops, and rose bushes everywhere. I hadn't heard of SM de los Andes until I was in Argentina and am really happy that I added it to my trip on the fly.
The bad: Poor tourist infrastructure for wine tours/tastings in Mendoza, Argentina's wine capital ... reminiscent of Bariloche. This is surprising since ~70% of the country's production comes from the region and the city is a major domestic tourist destination. The main concentration of wineries is only 10 miles or so outside of town but the only transport options without a car are a 1 hour public bus ride from the city center (but remember, it takes time to get to the bus stop too ... 20 minutes in my case) or a fairly expensive taxi. And upon arrival, bike rentals are heavily promoted and would be a good idea if there were actually exclusive bike paths. Instead, bikers have to negotiate heavily pot-holed roads with other vehicular traffic including large city buses threatening to make you roadkill.
The possibly interesting: I noticed that nearly every Argentinian city I visited had a casino. SM de los Andes was the first time I went in one (originally to have a drink at the bar), which is unfortunate because I lost A$50 (~$13) at blackjack, which is the cost of a nice meal. Oh well.
Biggest surprise: I had a wonderful local microbrew in SM de los Andes called Cerveza Lacar, which is one of the best beers I've ever tasted. Too bad I'll probably never be able to have it again.
Lesson learned: This was one of my most enjoyable weeks mainly because I took it a bit slower than Week 2 and met really great people at the hostel in Mendoza.
Regrets: not buying chocolate in SM de los Andes where it's supposed to be heavenly (I just plain old forgot), not drinking enough Malbec in Mendoza, and not eating enough steak before leaving Argentina for Chile.
Week 2: Colonia, Mar del Plata, and Bariloche
Where: Colonia (Uruguay), Mar del Plata (Argentina), and San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina)
The good: Tie between wonderful steak in MdP and the scenery of Bariloche
The bad: The local bus system in Bariloche, especially in comparison to the long distance bus
service available in Argentina
The possibly interesting: I got my first haircut in MdP
Biggest surprise: Bariloche, being in the mountains, is steep! (Crazy, I know.) The hostel I booked was only a couple blocks from downtown but those blocks were up steep hills, combined with my hostel not having an elevator to my 5th floor room, meant that once I came back from sightseeing for the day I became a bit of a homebody and wouldn't leave the hostel again until the next morning.
Lesson learned: This week was hectic with many, many kilometers logged between boats and long distance buses and only a couple days in each city ... there's a lot to see out there, but there is a such thing as trying to do too much and I think I just went over edge this week.
Regrets: not going white-water rafting in Bariloche ... it's supposed to be great there and in retrospect I think my injured arm could have handled it.
The good: Tie between wonderful steak in MdP and the scenery of Bariloche
The bad: The local bus system in Bariloche, especially in comparison to the long distance bus
service available in Argentina
The possibly interesting: I got my first haircut in MdP
Biggest surprise: Bariloche, being in the mountains, is steep! (Crazy, I know.) The hostel I booked was only a couple blocks from downtown but those blocks were up steep hills, combined with my hostel not having an elevator to my 5th floor room, meant that once I came back from sightseeing for the day I became a bit of a homebody and wouldn't leave the hostel again until the next morning.
Lesson learned: This week was hectic with many, many kilometers logged between boats and long distance buses and only a couple days in each city ... there's a lot to see out there, but there is a such thing as trying to do too much and I think I just went over edge this week.
Regrets: not going white-water rafting in Bariloche ... it's supposed to be great there and in retrospect I think my injured arm could have handled it.
Week 1: Iguazu and Buenos Aires
Where: Iguazu Falls (Argentina and Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina)
The good: The insanely beautiful Falls, especially from the Brazilian side
The bad: Injuring arm in Iguazu
The possibly interesting: Language-wise my Spanish is slowly coming back to me, but having more recently learned Latin in college and basic tourist Italian last summer, I found myself accidentally using words from the latter languages quite often.
Biggest surprise: Meeting a husband-wife Taiwanese couple running a souvenir shop in BA and feeling strangely connected to them. We chatted for about 45 minutes in Mandarin (in which I was surprisingly fluent). After them, I've only met a few other Asians (all of whom were Japanese tourists).
Lesson learned: Shared-room (aka dorm) hostel beds aren't as scary as I thought. So long as the roommates are courteous, as mine were in Iguazu and BA. I switched into a private room on my second night in BA and found it to be somewhat isolating ... and 3.5x more expensive!
Regrets: not going to a soccer game in BA
The good: The insanely beautiful Falls, especially from the Brazilian side
The bad: Injuring arm in Iguazu
The possibly interesting: Language-wise my Spanish is slowly coming back to me, but having more recently learned Latin in college and basic tourist Italian last summer, I found myself accidentally using words from the latter languages quite often.
Biggest surprise: Meeting a husband-wife Taiwanese couple running a souvenir shop in BA and feeling strangely connected to them. We chatted for about 45 minutes in Mandarin (in which I was surprisingly fluent). After them, I've only met a few other Asians (all of whom were Japanese tourists).
Lesson learned: Shared-room (aka dorm) hostel beds aren't as scary as I thought. So long as the roommates are courteous, as mine were in Iguazu and BA. I switched into a private room on my second night in BA and found it to be somewhat isolating ... and 3.5x more expensive!
Regrets: not going to a soccer game in BA
Let's Go Back in Time
As of yesterday, I am month into my RTW trip, which coincidentally was also the last day of the Argentina and Chile parts of my trip (I am now in Ecuador). I was originally hoping write about my travels in detail on a weekly basis (hence the name of the blog), but an injured arm, poor internet connections, and fatigue from frankly trying to do too much have conspired to prevent me from doing this.
So with that in mind, we're going to go back in time a bit and I'll provide quickie reviews in the next few posts. Hopefully, I can get my act together from here on out and write on a more timely basis.
And of course, don't forget to check out picasaweb.google.com/26weeks to see pictures (with captions!) that I have so far been posting on a reasonably timely basis.
So with that in mind, we're going to go back in time a bit and I'll provide quickie reviews in the next few posts. Hopefully, I can get my act together from here on out and write on a more timely basis.
And of course, don't forget to check out picasaweb.google.com/26weeks to see pictures (with captions!) that I have so far been posting on a reasonably timely basis.
March 17, 2008
2 weeks: where have I been?
I am all too aware that I failed to live up to the promise in my last post to post more regularly. Instead of doing that, I've been in radio silence for the past 2 weeks. Sorry!
I haven't posted lately because after my last post my arm (injured at Iguazu) became unbearably painful, even with my self-medicated Vicodin. For a while I was scared to the point where I saw two different doctors and called my cardiologist in LA. I've had X-rays done and there's no fracture and the doctors all tell me there wasn't any indication of infection, so I'm guessing my pain can and should be blamed mainly on me for using my arm too much the day I last posted. Between shooting pool with fellow hostelmates and using the computer, I intensively "used" my arm that day for about 6 hours, way more than I should have.
Since my last post, I've been to Mar del Plata which is on the Atlantic coast and from there I went on to the Lake District in western Argentina, staying in San Carlos de Bariloche and San Martin de Los Andes. I am currently in Mendoza, which is the center of Argentina's prolific wine industry and a very nice, livable city to boot.
I've posted more pictures at picasaweb.google.com/26weeks for your enjoyment (or perhaps mockery). Be sure to tell me what you think.
I don't think I'll be making any more promises as to posting frequency for this blog, but I will certainly try by best to keep everyone up to date on my travels much more so than I have to date. If I have the time, I also hope to go back in time a bit and write a little bit about the places I've been to in the past three weeks. Wow ... three weeks. I can't believe about 10% of my trip is already over. Crazy.
I haven't posted lately because after my last post my arm (injured at Iguazu) became unbearably painful, even with my self-medicated Vicodin. For a while I was scared to the point where I saw two different doctors and called my cardiologist in LA. I've had X-rays done and there's no fracture and the doctors all tell me there wasn't any indication of infection, so I'm guessing my pain can and should be blamed mainly on me for using my arm too much the day I last posted. Between shooting pool with fellow hostelmates and using the computer, I intensively "used" my arm that day for about 6 hours, way more than I should have.
Since my last post, I've been to Mar del Plata which is on the Atlantic coast and from there I went on to the Lake District in western Argentina, staying in San Carlos de Bariloche and San Martin de Los Andes. I am currently in Mendoza, which is the center of Argentina's prolific wine industry and a very nice, livable city to boot.
I've posted more pictures at picasaweb.google.com/26weeks for your enjoyment (or perhaps mockery). Be sure to tell me what you think.
I don't think I'll be making any more promises as to posting frequency for this blog, but I will certainly try by best to keep everyone up to date on my travels much more so than I have to date. If I have the time, I also hope to go back in time a bit and write a little bit about the places I've been to in the past three weeks. Wow ... three weeks. I can't believe about 10% of my trip is already over. Crazy.
March 3, 2008
Iguazu Falls
The first stop on my trip was to Iguazu Falls, which is located at the corner of where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. To get to Iguazu, I first flew from Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile (11 hours, 5600 miles), then from Santiago to Buenos Aires, Argentina (1.5 hours, 560 miles), and finally Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (2 hours, 670 miles).
Needless to say, it was a long day of traveling (I left LA at 2:30pm and arrived in Puerto Iguazu 23 hours later) and by the time I arrived I was especially tired since I wasn't able to sleep very much on the first flight, despite my taking an Ambien and normally being a good sleeper on flights. I blame the combination of anxiety and excitement I was feeling about finally beginning my trip after thinking about it for so long.
I spent two and a half great days in Iguazu and saw the falls from both the Argentine and Brazilian sides, though I stayed in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina the whole time. From Puerto Iguazu, the Brazilian Falls were much harder to get to unless you splurge for a taxi, which I didn't. By bus, it took ~2 hours to get to the national park there and over an hour to get back, not including the 15 minutes it takes to get from the main visitors center to the Falls trailhead.
The inconvenience (and $125 Brazilian visa fee for Americans), however, is rewarded by much more scenic views and a better designed trail, though the Argentine side gets you closer to the various major waterfalls (there are actually many waterfalls at Iguazu Falls spread over a few miles), and has 3 separate trails.
I left Iguazu on Friday, Feb 29th for Buenos Aires where I am writing this post from. The reason it took me so long to post, dear reader, is not that I don't care, but rather I've been injured, though the poor internet connection at my hostel in Buenos Aires has also been a problem. The night before I left Iguazu was rainy and I fell hard on the slippery deck at my hostel. The result was heavy bruising and a number of cuts on my left arm, one of which seems to have gotten a small infection which is now under control thanks to the Cipro I brought with me.
In the future, I expect to post every couple days--barring injuries of course.
Now, for some pics (the slideshow feature to the right will over time include pictures from my entire trip, but as of now, it's all Iguazu so you've probably already seen these):
Here are world famous Iguazu Falls
Kidding, of course ... here are the real falls:
If you'd like to see more (with captions) go to picasaweb.com/26weeks.
Needless to say, it was a long day of traveling (I left LA at 2:30pm and arrived in Puerto Iguazu 23 hours later) and by the time I arrived I was especially tired since I wasn't able to sleep very much on the first flight, despite my taking an Ambien and normally being a good sleeper on flights. I blame the combination of anxiety and excitement I was feeling about finally beginning my trip after thinking about it for so long.
I spent two and a half great days in Iguazu and saw the falls from both the Argentine and Brazilian sides, though I stayed in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina the whole time. From Puerto Iguazu, the Brazilian Falls were much harder to get to unless you splurge for a taxi, which I didn't. By bus, it took ~2 hours to get to the national park there and over an hour to get back, not including the 15 minutes it takes to get from the main visitors center to the Falls trailhead.
The inconvenience (and $125 Brazilian visa fee for Americans), however, is rewarded by much more scenic views and a better designed trail, though the Argentine side gets you closer to the various major waterfalls (there are actually many waterfalls at Iguazu Falls spread over a few miles), and has 3 separate trails.
I left Iguazu on Friday, Feb 29th for Buenos Aires where I am writing this post from. The reason it took me so long to post, dear reader, is not that I don't care, but rather I've been injured, though the poor internet connection at my hostel in Buenos Aires has also been a problem. The night before I left Iguazu was rainy and I fell hard on the slippery deck at my hostel. The result was heavy bruising and a number of cuts on my left arm, one of which seems to have gotten a small infection which is now under control thanks to the Cipro I brought with me.
In the future, I expect to post every couple days--barring injuries of course.
Now, for some pics (the slideshow feature to the right will over time include pictures from my entire trip, but as of now, it's all Iguazu so you've probably already seen these):
Here are world famous Iguazu Falls
Kidding, of course ... here are the real falls:
If you'd like to see more (with captions) go to picasaweb.com/26weeks.
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