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Welcome to my travel log! You will find here a lot more than in the travel reports, stripped from political correctness. Enjoy! 
Dec 15, 2005 07:00 PM Vina del Mar (Chile)
The adjacent town to Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, grew when the richer of the Chileños moved out to the suburbs of the already upscale city. I do not blame them. It must so much easier living on a relatively flat territory and almost directly on the beach.
Viña del Mar is a modern town boasting pleasant beaches, department stores and grand residential villas, as well as the president's residential palace.
When I stopped for a drink at one of Viña del Mar’s restaurants with a terrace, overlooking a very busy shopping street I felt more like in Spain than in Chile. Ironically, the sun decided to come out at that very moment, and all over sudden the day appeared brighter and summer-like. This nevertheless could not change the fact that the town was boring. So, I made my mind to go back to Santiago.
Before I managed to do that, I stumbled across a middle aged, medium height man, dressed in an old dark suit, who carrying a guitar bag claimed to be a singing guitarists. He stuck on me like a cigarette smoke to a twenty dollar bill. I just could not shake him. He was speaking to me so close to my face that I could almost see his liver! I have never had a more uncomfortable conversation in my life!
He was on about how he sang in upscale restaurants and bars and how he did not like the USA. I have no idea why he decided to speak to me and why I just could not make myself clear enough that I really could not care less.
Later, he eventually asked me for money. He wanted 5,000 pesos (USD 10) and I categorically refused. This idiot claimed that I should not refuse because it was not much for me. I had to tell him that he did not look like he needed help and definitely did not sound like with his stories of playing at upscale venues. I could have used a range of arguments why I was not going to give him money, but I just told him that for 5,000 pesos I could buy a decent dinner and that he better buggered off, before I made it clear that I was in a slightly different weight category than him.
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Dec 14, 2005 07:00 PM Santiago de Chile - the first day
I guess I should now be quite used to be arriving late by plane, since I manage to be on an aircraft some 130 times a year, yet it annoys me every time.
The OneWorld airlines piss me off big time. I do not know why exactly, but they do. LAN Chile is one of them. So, when they arrived late at their own base at Santiago de Chile, it is something to do with reputation. Right? Well, never mind.
The main Santiago de Chile airport looked like it was brand new. The entire structure was made of a net of light sliver steel, and most of the spaces in between were made of glass. It was a two storey, large building which was spacious, if a little raw and un-cosy. Nevertheless it was well organised and orderly. It took me some time to walk from my gate to the taxi rank, but I found it easy.
As soon as I drove off the main airport highway into the city’s main artery, my thoughts began wandering around the terms that it felt like I was actually somewhere in Europe. Many buildings had obvious features of the old world’s architectural styles, particularly those grand historical buildings. There were also a few super-high new world style skyscrapers of steel and blue glass.
That was nothing compared with the area, in which I was staying. Right in the heart of the city, hidden in the back alleys, right off the main and extremely busy city centre highway, there was a pearl of Santiago. First of all, it was hard to believe it was there. Until then, I was a witness of multi-lane motorways and highways, frantic traffic, and, let’s face it, a rather random and variable architecture. When my taxi suddenly drove in to the area, I thought I was suddenly teleported to a different era, long, long time ago.
The entire ambience changed. I could swear it got a little darker and even the temperature dropped slightly. Everything moved considerably more slowly, and for the first time in about twenty five minutes I could see people relaxed and not rushing anywhere.
The alleys were made of grey cobble stone and were narrow to fit a single car only. The buildings looked like they were brought from the historical centre of Prague, or Vienna. They had classical features and I think they were built with sandstone, polished to perfection. All the doors were grand, or almost posh, made of bras plates, which must have cost the art smiths hundreds of hours. The windows’ frames were decorated with finesse-plaster work and it was clear that the houses had unusually high ceilings. It was all so surreal.
Santiago authorities must have decided it would spice up the area even more if they gave the streets the names of some of Europe’s most spectacular capitals, such as Paris or London. I stayed on both streets. My first night I spent on London Street and my last night at stayed at Paris Hotel, located on Paris street.
Weather on that evening agreed with me. It was warm and scattered stripes of white clouds complemented light blue sky. It was summer in Chile, so I should expect at least a blue sky, nice temperature and summer spirit.
I could not wait until I could explore the city a little more on foot.
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Dec 14, 2005 07:00 PM Gaiman (Argentina)
A Welsh extremely sleepy town of Gaiman remains famous for 'traditional' Welsh tea. Allegedly, it is now traditional in this part of Patagonia to spend a portion of the siesta at one of the tea houses. However, I could see no locals there - just tourists.
I have to admit that at least two of the tea houses looked nice and did [remotely] resemble pubs in Wales. Having said that I opted for not staying for tea. I wanted to see the village.
There was absolutely nothing to do there otherwise. I took a thirty minutes slow stroll around and I saw everything - an old church, old post office and few old buildings. Yes, they looked quite odd in Patagonia and had something Welsh in their architecture, however there were like three or four of them altogether. I really do not know what was the all fuss about this village.
Oh, yeah - there was a Jurassic Park in Gaiman. Instead of dinosaurs or fossils, it actually featured old cars. How refreshing. I just wonder what would our friend Ross say about that.
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Dec 14, 2005 07:00 PM Punta Tombo (Argentina) - Penguins...
The only reason to go to Punta Tombo is to see a large colony of Magellanic penguins. Well, this is why I did. Apart from the penguins there is absolutely nothing else to see there. And I mean, absolutely nothing! Nada! The landscape is flat and significantly boring. Exactly like the entire northern Patagonia! There are few estancias (farm houses) on the way to the main penguins site, which are a gentle reminder that the are actually people living there, but there are very few and far between. And they are nothing special, just plain houses often looking like barns or warehouses.
I had nothing better to do in the area, and since my flight was only leaving the next day, I thought I should go and try to see the penguins. I always wanted to see penguins in their natural habitat. Obviously I would prefer these to be the pretty and majestic King Penguins of the Antarctic, and of course I would very much prefer to go to the Ice Continent, but hey, there were reports about certain species of penguins at Punta Tombo, so why would I not check them out? I knew they would not be the pretty ones, though.
Reports regarding the number of the penguins were very inconsistent. I read about six hundred thousand birds but I heard about two million. I chose not too worry too much about this discrepancy, I was not a botanist to care about that at all, and thought that I might just judge the number as I got there. Not necessary being able to count them all, but just have a helicopter view (I mean birds view - ah, that is ironic, because penguins cannot fly...) and see which of the repots might be true.
The nests, made under small bushes were spread out around a large area and it did not feel that there could be such an overwhelming number of birds. I do not think there could be more than three hundred thousand of couples. However, they were everywhere!
Two separate colonies were lingering around the beaches, one pebble beach, the other rocky beach. Every now and again the birds were jumping to the water for fishing, so they could feed their young. Many others were nursing their babies or sat on the eggs, and a significant number were still wandering around, potentially looking for a partner to mate.
There were many baby penguins around! Their presence generated a particular scent, which simply by definition was ‘unpleasant’. That’s what I thought when I came there, but I quickly changed my mind when I saw the actual feeding of the young penguins. If feeding was ‘unpleasant’ by definition, then the smell must have been divine. How should I put it? Well, I am quite sure that I will not surprise anyone by providing a short description how the feeding process worked. Adult penguins chewed the fish they had caught in the ocean and vomited it directly to their younglings’ throat.
Oh, I saw one small baby penguin being rejected by its family. It was not being fed and by comparison with its sibling, it was fragile and at least twice as smaller. Clearly, it did not survive much longer after I visited the place.
A French woman, who was on the same bus with me, and who claimed to be very clever and knowledgeable about everything, suggested that I helped that small baby penguin. I told her that she must have been joking! This is how the nature worked and I was not going to change that, or attempt to save every single baby penguin that was being rejected by its family. Also, I did not fancy to be shitted down by the adult penguins, which used their fresh excrement to keep the tourists at bay. They actually try to shoot it in the direction of the people.
That French woman also decided to have an argument with me regarding the penguins and how they should be referred to in French language. She kept referring to the birds as ‘pinguoin’, which in English means auk. She should have been calling them ‘manchot’, which in English means penguin and refers to birds that do not fly. Auks can fly. My good (and trusted) French friends explained it to me when they told me about their work at birds at Crozet Islands.
Anyway, I was glad I saw the Magellanic penguins. It was good to approach then so close (at the distance of shooting shit) and look at them properly. I obviously took a few pictures and was happy I did not stay too long...
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Dec 13, 2005 07:00 PM Trelew (Argentina)
To my great surprise, Trelew was a pleasant, modern if slightly boring town with few examples of colonial architecture, including a very old, and disused, train station, and quite astonishingly a very interesting paleontological museum.
The museum exhibited items found only in Argentina, and many in the area around Trelew, actually. It was very well organised and the dinosaurs' skeletons were imaginatively arranged. I was impressed how many fossils had been found in Patagonia. This country must be paradise for people like dr Ross Galler. I actually knew that there were a few paleontological tours available in the area but I did not realise that there was a pretty good chance that one could actually find something genuine and truly old. I mean a piece of a dinosaur!
I tried to take Trelew seriously, so I checked to a hotel with a magnificent and grand entrance and rather shabby rooms, and went out to see what the town was like.
Two main streets ran parallel - one from the train station and the paleontological museum and the other along the main square of the town, complete with an old church. Both streets were perfectly and Americanly straight but only one the latter was considered the commercial shopping avenue.
I even stopped for a glass of local beer at one of the remarkably atmospheric pubs, which dubbed as an ice-cream bar. I tried those too. They were great.
I toured the avenues twice looking for something significant or some interesting action, but could not find anything. The only remarkable thing I found were prices of shoes and clothing. I could not believe how low they were!
Since, I could not find any action in the town, I went to back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. This is how I spent my last night in Argentina.
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Dec 12, 2005 07:00 PM Peninsula Valdes (Argentina) - no whales
I got up relatively late (I guess it was the fault of a comfortable bed of the Playa Hotel of Puerto Madryn) and got on the street just after 8 a.m.
I went to one of the travel agents and I asked about the trip to see the whales at the Peninsula Valdes. A girl there, who did not speak English told me in Spanish that it was not safe to see the whales. That idiot used a wrong term to say that viewing was not guaranteed. It was true though that the whales had departed from the peninsula two days previously.
Well, I went to another agency a few steps away, Flamenco Tours, who explained the situation. Yanina at the agency started to elaborate about the trip I could do the next day and I had to interrupt her to say that I wanted to go immediately. She looked a little surprised but radioed the driver and a car whisked me to the van, which was already on the way to the national park of the Peninsula Valdes. The tourists on board could not believe the personal service I got.
In Puerto Pirámide, the only sizeable town on the peninsula, the main gateway for seeing whales and dolphins, beach tractors put boats in and pull them out of the ocean. There is no pier and this way the local figures would be a good method of getting tourists on board without making them to wet their feet. For me it was an interesting procedure.
I was full of hope to see a whale’s tail. One traveller at the lunch feast in the Los Glaciares National Park told me that a week previously she saw many whales with their offsprings throwing their tails. However, the last whale must have left the area a day before and i was told to consider myself lucky that I saw some dolphins.
Although I could understand that the Peninsula Valdes is first of all a natural reserve for marine animals and its priority is preservation and not tourism, I found the experience very disappointing.
The sea-lions (and allegedly sea-elephants, which I did not spot) at Punta Delgada, Punta Cantor and Punta Norte were much too far to have a proper look at them and it did not feel that this place was any special at all. Apart from the small colony of Magellanic penguins, which did not mind camera lenses pointing right in their eyes.
And, yes, there were also a couple of small armadillos hanging around, almost dancing tango, at one of the car parks, which was an amusing sight. They were fearless but were moving very fast, so it was difficult to photograph them. The camera was taking too long to focus.
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Dec 11, 2005 07:00 PM Puerto Madryn (Argentina)
The town of Puerto Madryn is an uninspiring modern place with handsome seafront but no place to sit down and relax on or near the beach. There are only boring shops, tour operator offices and hotels.
I could find only two mediocre restaurants in the town, one near the extremely ugly concrete pier, and other at the main seafront street. None of them served fresh grilled fish. I could not believe it!
The former, and the scruffier, looked like could have served fresh fish but they all served it with terrible sauces. The latter had a grilled fish fillet on the menu however it was not fresh and over treated with lemon sauce, possibly to kill the stench of old fish. I still ate it. I had no choice.
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Dec 11, 2005 07:00 PM El Calafate - the last moments with the views
I almost overslept the next morning. I went to see what I could do until 6 p.m., the time I had to report at the airport. I chose a very last minute option to go with a four wheel drive up in the mountains for a view.
It was an excellent choice and the views were superb. It was then clear to me that it was snowing the day before, exactly when I was cursing the weather for the lack of view of the highest mountains while looking at the glaciers.
The main panorama was perfect - pictured on page 5. The pistachio colours of the lake, the steep and snow covered mountains in the distance were exceptionally photogenic. When I realised that the Fitz Roy mountain, 300 kilometres away was clearly visible I knew that on the day I saw the Andes from the airplane, I might have seen a few thousand of kilometres of this magnificent mountain range.
After the trip, there was lunch prepared exclusively by male ranch crew. It was delicious. The guys knew their stuff, were very friendly, professional and cheerful. They cooked so much food that at least twenty hungry people would fill up their stomachs. The meal was also a great value and wine was served based on ‘all you can drink’ principle.
It was a magnificent way of spending my last day in this incredibly spectacular area.
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Dec 10, 2005 07:00 PM El Calafate - Los Glaciares National Park
I started visiting the UNESCO listed National Park Los Glaciares from the obvious point - the unique glacier of Perito Moreno (pictured on page 3). It is one of few glaciers in the world that is actually moving. And currently it is advancing. Its sixty meter-tall and five kilometre-long front wall descents to Lago Argentino and every few minutes a loud thunder of cracking ice is heard. It is very loud actually and could sound also like a firing cannon.
It is very thrilling and spectacular to see a giant chunk of ice fall off the glacier's front wall into the lake! With every cracking sound tourists' eyes scan the glacier’s front wall hoping to see that happening but majority of the ice cracking actually happens inside the glacier itself.
The approach towards Perito Moreno from the main road offers extremely spectacular view of this magnificent glacier. It shows how the field of ice, like a tongue, descends from the mountains to lick the pistachio waters of Lago Argentino.
I do not know how many times I might have said that since I have seen so many wonderful places of this planet there must be few that would still impress me. And when I saw Perito Moreno I could not believe my eyes. I have never seen anything like it before! In fact this was the first time that I saw a giant glacier descending to a lake from the mountains. It is hard to find the right words to describe appropriately how this looks like. And I do not even like snow and ice. And cold!
The wind was harshly blowing from the glacier's tongue throwing people hair in the air in various directions. As noses and ears gained increasingly deeper shades of red, it was harder for the mind to agree with the ever popular theories of global warming. I could clearly see the expressions of a few spectators' faces indicating that about an hour ago, they had arrived at a more sophisticated level of cursing that they forgot to bring their hats and scarves.
The next day was the glaciers cruise day. I went on a boat to see a few glaciers - the Upsala, Agasiz, Onelli, Bolado, Seco and Spegazzini.
The boat, unusually called Upsala Connection (and not a female name) was new and could take about two hundred people on board. When I boarded, all window seats were taken and I switched my mind on the idea that I would need to linger outside most of the time. I was happy with my cleverness to bring my windstopping warm trekking jacket, but not with the idea of spending an entire day in the cold. However, as soon as the crew mentioned over the public announcement system that I could join the Captain's Club for an extra fee and sit by the skipper in a very comfortable cream leather armchair with a view and by a balcony, I did not think twice.
When I paid the extra fee, my personal attendant, Daphne, told me that I could have anything from the bar in any quantity and as often I wished for no extra charge. She gave me an identification pin, which was making me immune to bar charges.
The boat moved towards the northern end of Lago Argentino, the largest lake in Argentina, and reached the cold front wall of the Spegazzini Glacier by 10.30 a.m. The captain stopped the main engines and moved the boat around so everyone could take their pictures, and Daphne offered me a glass of whisky on the rocks with the ice of the glacier. I thought she was joking, but she pointed at the bottle and a bucket of ‘fresh’ ice.
Although it was just 11 a.m. and I was avoiding alcohol I could not refuse that. It is something to write about - I had a glass of whisky by a massive glacier with ice from its tongue! It was rather good as well. Later, I was shown the larger ice chunks on the boat’s main deck.
The next stop was a small Lago Onelli with three glaciers. The beauty of this small lake were many small icebergs floating in it after they had broken off the glaciers.
A petite forest separated the Lago Onelli from Lago Argentino. The woods gave shelter to wild cattle and pumas (mountain lions). The cattle went savage after it had been abandoned by the settlers when the National Park Los Glaciares was created in 1937. The authorities estimate there are 4000 wild cows, bulls and horses in the park. These animals are not considered friendly and people are advised to stay away from them.
The view of the largest of the glaciers in the park, the Upsala, is awesome. From a distance it looks like wide river of soft vanilla icecream mixed with blue curacao liquor. It has a few dark stripes which allow for the identification in which direction the ice has been moving (picture below).
Up close, the glacier makes a different impact. The ice looks most definitely more solid like a giant combination of uncountable massive ice-cubes, some of which glow hue-blue. Large chunks of ice broke off from the glacier and now float in the lake as white and blue icebergs, and make the boat trip Titanically thrilling.
The Upsala glacier receives much scientific attention since it is one of the fastest retracting, if not the fastest retracting, glacier in the world.
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Dec 09, 2005 07:00 PM El Calafate - the World's End
The town of El Calafate is very clean and organised but one should consider that every second shop along the main avenue is a tourist agent. Hordes of people from around the world come to El Calafate to see the Parc National de Los Glaciares.
It is relatively expensive but a pleasant and fully civilised place where the sun does not set before 10.30 p.m. in December.
In addition, El Calafate is situated at the shore of Lago Argentino whose colour is hard to describe.
First, when the sun was high in the sky, I thought it had a divine shade of turquoise. At about 3 p.m. I changed my mind and decided it was pistachio ice-cream colour, and I could not believe it.
My taxi driver who was forcing me to speak Spanish (he did not speak any other language but the strange version of Argentinean-Spanish) actually laughed at me when I confessed how astonished I was. His uneven teeth and a funny little moustache contrasted radically with the stunning Patagonian landscape.
Well, as the sun lowered itself considerably (but still well at the angle of at least 50 degrees), and its rays entered the waters of the Lago, the colour shifted dramatically to pistachio milkshake. The water lost its transparency completely and at certain angle it looked almost white. That was simply amazing.
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