Back from the bottom of the world!

I made it back from the far southern end of the world earlier this week -- about 620 miles away from Antarctica. It was cold but not as cold as you'd think it would be that far south... but I was definitely wrapped in layers of winter clothes! We hiked around on glaciars, cruised around in boats to see icebergs and (more) glaciars, rode bus after bus down through southern patagonia, hiked in the Torres del Paine national park in Chile, and crossed the Straights of Magellan to get down to Ushuaia, "el fin del mundo" (or "the end of the world," as their chamber of commerce markets it), where I was promoted to captain and piloted a boat through the Beagle Channel. More on that later. But in the future you can be sure I will begin a lot of stories with "...it´s like the time I circumnavigated the Beagle Channel as Charles Darwin & co. once did..."

The trip was amazing enough but the return on the 3.5 hr flight back to Buenos Aires was hideous... somehow I was lucky enough to be seated (in the middle seat of course) in the "family day" section of the plane with a bunch of extremely obnoxious, loud, barely-attended children.

I had a demon-spawn of a toddler EXACTLY next to me (sitting in mommy's lap, the cheapest way to fly!) that literally screamed for the first 1.5 hrs of the flight for no apparent reason... then there was the five year old brat-of-the-year contestant practicing his field goal kicking into our seat backs for the majority of the flight (mom was sitting right by him but sleeping/talking was more important than paying attention to him)... and I basically got to pay twice the ticket price for some surly Aerolineas Argentinas employee service than the locals do. If you're not from this country, they charge you extra for the plane fares... lovely.

Anyway, that's enough whining. When I get around to it, I'll post some pictures. Somehow I managed to take around 800 photos... that's the problem with the digital photography age! Now I have to pick through them and delete what's redundant, no good, etc, and find a few of interest to post here.

The Fog

I won't have much time to add anything new for the next few weeks since I'm headed waaaaayyy down to the southern tip of South America (650 miles north of Antarctica!) for the next week and a half, so here are a few items of interest to "show off" before leaving town.

A while ago we had some fog roll through the city (it's so humid that during the winter-to-spring transition it creates some interesting weather situations). So whilst wandering around one Saturday afternoon, here are a few scenes from foggy Buenos Aires... on the left, this is the view in the Plaza de Mayo. It sorta feels like you're in London or Paris, with the exception of the kidnappings, motor thieves, labor strikes, protest marches, and work stoppages constantly going on. ¡Viva la america latina!

Moving along, to the right is another view of the Plaza de Mayo, over towards the old Cabildo building. It was really strange because in my neighborhood (20 minutes away by subway), it was a sunny blue sky day... but when I arrived downtown, this is what was going on. You could see where the actual wall of fog began and ended - really weird but interesting. I am submitting it to Al Gore for more proof of "global warming". Plus with summer on it's way, I suspect the globe down here will become even warmer in the coming months. Al Gore will be getting lots of email from me keeping him apprised of our situation down here.

I also made a stop in the mega-touristy barrio of La Boca. This is the place where all the ubiquitous photos are shot of the Argentine tango dancers in front of the multi-colored houses, buildings, etc. But the real "photo action" this day was down by the docks on the foggy Rio Riachuela that feeds into the Atlantic (eventually). I also did a nice job editing out all the nasty garbage and junk floating in this river... if you accidentally fell in, I bet you'd lose a few layers of skin and probably contract some sort of hideous, incurable skin disease. Yes, it's that nasty and smelly. Looks pretty, tho...

Anyhoo, tomorrow is the big day that I head down to Patagonia. For those with a map, I'm flying down to El Calafate (for the Perito Moreno glaciar), then across the border to Puerto Natales, Chile to hike in the Torres del Paine national park, then down to Punta Arenas (Chile), and finally back across to Argentina to "the furthest south (populated) city in the world", Usuhaia. Then back to Buenos Aires... or at least that's the plan for the moment!

Iguazú Falls

After Paraguay it was time to find a bus and head 300 km south to Encarnación, a Paraguayan border town near Argentina. I didn't really take any pictures of it, but it was pretty nice for a border town. Fairly "secure feeling" as well... most border towns have barred windows all over the place & a lot of seedy people on the street corners but Encarnación was pretty nice over all. When I walked around downtown at 10:30 PM or so it was kids and old folks galore.

The next day I crossed the border with my ultimate destination being 250km away in Puerto Iguazú (at the spectacular waterfalls that form "the triple border" of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil). I have a bazillion pictures of them so it'll be hard to figure out which ones to post here.

But to summarize, they're almost 2 miles long, drop down over 200 feet, and during the rainy season (when I was there) there's nearly a half MILLION gallons of water per SECOND going over the falls. Or, if you're a fan of the metric system, 1800 cubic meters of water... which means nothing to me. I had to 'Google it' for the conversion.

There's an Argentina side and a Brazilian side to the falls. Brazil has the best panoramic view but you get to 'experience' the waterfalls on Argentina's side. But I did not go on the Brazilian side for reasons that I've already ranted about in months past (least of all spending $100 USD for a stupid one day visa!). Plus I'd already seen it 3 years ago. And Argentina has a really impressive national park that costs $30 or $40 pesos, depending on low or high season.

It's huge with 3 different levels to view / walk around things, so you end up doing at least 5 miles of walking on the trails and catwalks themselves (if you see the entire park). Plus you can ride a boat down by the falls and get soaked, take a jeep through the jungle, paddle a canoe, and who knows what all else.

Officially, it was winter (and in the upper 80s) while I was there. Summer temps have to be brutal! But some people are prepared for the weather, no matter what comes at them as my favorite tourist of the day proves. This sassy little emsemble of a T-shirt, pink flowery shorts, and black socks will be all the rage in Paris next fashion season... so I assume, since I heard him speaking French.

Plus I was lucky to be there on a sunny day this time around. The last time I was there, it was overcast and rainy so the sun really made a major difference in the experience. Especially when it came to the wildlife.

"I call the big one Bitey" (someone reading this will get my obscure Simpsons reference!). Anyhow, here you can see some of the coatís... I don't think we have them in the USA but they're sort of like long-snouted raccoons. And they're really cocky and try to mug you for your lunch at the snack bar.

Besides the coatís (that were all over the place, not just the food- intensive areas), there were monkeys, crocodiles, exotic birds (allegedly toucans, which I never saw), and who knows what all else was hiding in the jungle. But at the bottom right is a good reminder why to not go into the water... besides the potential of going off a 200 foot cliff in 1800 cubic meters of river water.

And I guess that's it for this little trip. On the heals of it, next week I'm headed for a completely opposite experience, in the frozen south of Chile and Argentina: Patagonia! It should be a lot of glaciars (Perito Moreno) and hiking (Torres del Paine), while hopefully ending up at "The End of the World", Ushuaia!

Paraguay - Part II

Continuing where I left off last time, along the streets of Asunción... so you've now seen the highlights (nice buildings, etc). At left is a fairly good representation of the old colonial part of town... dating from the 1500s to 1700s, which is REALLY rare since most of it was knocked down by one military dictatorship or another in the past few centuries. An effort to modernize or something - I have no idea what the rationalization was. So let's move along to my "Poverty Tour 2007"...

Returning to the pink congressional building, this was a street that went down towards the river behind it. Onward ho!!! At least that's what the statue seems to be saying. Alas it's a great big shanty town down this street that you're onward ho'ing... leading to a huge "villa misería", as they call it in Spanish. It translates pretty well into English too, methinks.

Anyway, if you walk along the top of the hill (around the Congress building), this photo on the left is LITERALLY what you see down the hill in the "back yard" of the legislative branch. I semi managed to capture the wall dividing the top of the congressional hill from whatever lies below it. Anything below "the white wall" is subject to flooding. Whenever. However. And so on.

Here's a wider shot of the same area, below right. The business towers and strip malls around here are built on stilts, if that gives you an idea of what it's all about. Also, this would be one of those areas I mentioned that I didn't venture into at night. Actually, I didn't venture during the day either... this was close enough. Although I did read a few stories (on the internet) about some 'rocket scientist wannabes' that DID go look around... they usually ended up getting mugged or otherwise robbed.

So, right when you're thinking to yourself "Guess I've seen it all. Paraguay really is poor." No, this is one area that Paraguay can really distinguish itself. Moving right along over to the Plaza Uruguaya, this is what I happened to encounter. I don't quite know what the story is behind it, but when you're looking at the shacks, that's not the poorest area... this tent city is.

And I use the term "tent city" loosely, because really it's just rope tied around the trees with tarps slung over them to act as a tent. Then there's lots of campfires, laundry, and basically just sitting around. The big banner says "Dengue fever can be avoided", which is a mosquito-borne disease that's rampant in the tropics and especially in this country. Having been to both Bolivia and Paraguay now, I think I would have to say that Paraguay appears (to me, anyway) to be the poorest country. Bolivia at least has some hope in scenic wonders/tourist attractions plus natural resources (2nd largest South American producer of natural gas) going for it. Paraguay? Not so much.

But to end on a positive note (too late?), the people I spoke to were really nice and despite what the photos look like here, I never felt insecure/unsafe while there. In fact, you don't really even get harrassed by the street vendors. I plopped down in the middle of the main town square, Plaza Independencia, wondering how long it would take until I would be swarmed by the sunglasses-N-fake-Rolexes salesmen. After a half hour of taking in the afternoon, people watching, & enjoying some winter warmth, the grand total was exactly ZERO annoying salesmen that pestered me. So maybe Paraguay DOES have something going for it.

Up next: the Paraguay/Argentina border and the amazing waterfalls at Iguazú!