The Gaucho Homeland

For those of you out of the know, UCSB’s mascot is the Gaucho; and if you are even more out of the know, a Gaucho is an Argentinean cowboy. So I joined forces with another UCSB alum, my friend Greg, so we could embrace our roots with a 3-week tour of Argentina. Olé! (Here we are hanging out with UCSB’s version of a gaucho vs. Argentina’s.)

 

I arrived in Buenos Aires and was instantly faced with culture shock. Skyscrapers, highways, packed apartment complexes, bus stops, well-marked streets… and most shocking of all, people who spoke English. I have yet to encounter anyone in Paraguay whose primary language is English, so even though I can speak English with a couple people here (that’s an exaggeration… there are 4 people), it’s not the same. Combined with my lack of internet, I found I hadn’t had a full-on English conversation in almost 2 months so it was strange that I actually knew 100% of what was going in conversations for a change. On top of stumbling on my words, I was off to an extra-awkward start when I started greeting people with the traditional Paraguayan double-kiss. It turns out Argentineans only do a single-kiss. Awkkkward. (Asuncion from above vs. Buenos Aires from above.)

 

Once acclimated to talking, my first stop in BA was actually 2 hours outside of the city, too a little place called Zoo Lujan, “The World’s Most Dangerous and Controversial Zoo.” There you are free to pet lions, tigers, and bears (insert cheesy “Oh My!” here – but these really were the main animals) without fences or protection of any sort. They claim that the animals aren’t sedated or drugged in any way, though since almost all of them were sleeping, it seemed hard to believe. The guilt was definitely felt, but I admit that it was pretty cool to get up close and personal with such amazing animals. I never felt threatened or scared (I know, the picture is deceiving) and had a strong urge to cuddle with all of them (though I refrained because the keepers weren’t keen on that idea). Rawr.

 

We toured around the different barrios of Buenos Aires including Palermo, Recoleta, and San Nicolas; stopping at cemeteries, parks (one with really cool rubber trees), fruit stands, and stores to buy warm clothes for the coming adventures. Buenos Aires reminded me so much of Spain and I felt much more like I was in Europe than in South America. Unexpectedly, it was full of fair-skinned, highly fashionable people in a very much commercial and developed city with a “big-city” feel. We went to see a tango show where sexy, saucy, and very sweaty dancers performed on stage to give us the authentic tourist experience. I may or may not have enjoyed the food more than the performance… We also found time for a graffiti tour through the city. There is an interesting history to it in Buenos Aires and artists started painting happy pictures on walls just to brighten up the dull mood many faced after the economic collapse in 2001. Since there is no neighborhood planning committee, there are no rules against painting huge, colorful murals on your walls and the police don’t seem to interfere. It was a good view of the city off the beaten track and had plenty of history mixed in. We also stopped by the Buenos Aires Marcha del Orgullo (Pride Parade). It was very interesting to see such an event in a place I had expected to be much more conservative. Overall, I thought Buenos Aires was a nice city, but it wasn't a must-see destination. It didn’t wow me and I was slightly unimpressed. Bummer.

 

From Buenos Aires we hopped onto a bus to get to Puerto Madryn, a beach town in the northern part of the Patagonia. Let me say that overnight buses are the way to travel down here.  The seats recline to 160º, meals and snacks are served, and movies shown. Rather than finding it hard to sleep in moving vehicles, I find it hard to stay awake. So I used these long bus rides to catch up on rest after all the activities we did in the destinations. Plus you save money on a night in a hostel and arrive in the morning for a full day o’ fun. Winning!

 

Upon arrival at our hostel in Puerto Madryn, we rented bikes and headed 17km away to where the sea lions supposedly hung out. We were not told that it would be a fairly strenuous bike ride along a dirt road nor that the ozone layer was particularly thin there. We also had difficulties finding the promised sea lions. But after getting thoroughly sunburned and taking a dip in the Atlantic we did manage to find them. It was more about the journey than the destination. Adventure.

 

The main reason that we had wanted to go to Puerto Madryn was to see the penguins. We were told that there would be baby penguins and I had visions of them waddling around all over the place. Unfortunately it turned out that we were 2 weeks too early to see the babies. Although disappointed, we were not deprived of penguin sightage. We headed to Punta Tombo where we saw the largest penguin colony in South America (and the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world). Hundreds of thousands of penguins were nesting there in little holes or cubbies beneath bushes...or for the lazy ones, right in the middle of the dirt with seemingly zero effort put into their "home". Penguins waddling is a hilarious sight and made the excursion worth it. Fun fact, penguin noises are called brays. Like donkeys. Because that’s what they sound like. Comical.

 

From Puerto Madryn we also headed an hour north to Peninsula Valdez where we went whale watching. I have been whale watching before and was hesitant to go again because we were pressed for time and I felt that whale watching was slightly boring with a lot of waiting around and just seeing the backs of whales; but this blew those old experiences out of the water. In just an hour we saw about 30 right whales and they we breeching all over the place and coming right up to our small speedboat. A mama and her baby were close enough that I could practically reach down and pet them and I was sprayed from mist blowing out of their blowholes. It was an absolutlely incredible experience heightened with the adrenaline rush of speeding away from the coming storm and getting completely drenched. Awesome.

 

After a failed attempt at hitchhiking back to the bus terminal, we caught a cab back so that we could make our way further south in the Patagonia. Our original plan had been to go to Bariloche in the Lake District of Argentina; however, a recent volcanic eruption ashed on our parade. We instead rerouted directly to El Calafate via another 20-hour bus ride. El Calafate (which appeared much like a small town in the Alps) was highlighted by 2 gorgeous outdoor landscapes: Estancia Cristina and Perito Moreno Glacier. Our day trip to Estancia Cristina started with a ferry ride across a glacial lake (a bright teal color that isn’t crystal clear due to the tiny ground rock particles suspended in the water) and up through icebergs breaking off of a massive glacier. We then hopped in the back of a 4x4 to drive up a mountain with fantastic views. We got off at the top and hiked down 15k through terrain that at times could only be compared to Mars. The geological formations were incredible and extremely diverse. There was everything from glaciers to meadows and fossils to grand canyons. The entire scene seemed like a fake backdrop and it was an unbelievable experience. A picture is worth a thousand words so these will show better than I described. Breathtaking.

 

 

 

Perito Moreno Glacier was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was ginormous! You can get right up close to it and watch/listen has huge chunks of ice break off and fall into the lake with a huge splash. Chilling.

 

 

El Chalten is a teeny tiny hiking town a few hours north of El Calafate. As a nice change you could do self guided excursions (translation: free activities). One day we set out early for a day long hike to see Mt. Fitz Roy, an impressive rocky mountain. High winds and rain were predicted, but we decided we were there so we should go for it anyway. It started off fine but suddenly turned to a miserably cold hike into nothing but fog. Greg, collegiate-waterpolo-playing-casual-marathon-running extraordinaire, had no problem running up the endless steep incline. Katie, out-of-shape-newly-Paraguayan-girly-girl, struggled much more. By the time we reached the destination 4 hours later, it was snowing and freezing and you couldn't see Mt. Fitz Roy at all. We quickly turned back around and just a few minutes later, the clouds parted, it warmed up, and it turned into a perfect, gorgeous day. Mt. Fitz Roy came out in all its glory and we had a great day of hiking back. The next day we had good weather again and enjoyed another 8-hour hike. It felt great to get my walking legs going and to be out in nature. Another highlight was that you could drink the glacier water straight from the streams. Delicious. (You can see the difference between the morning and the afternoon weather as well as the difference between Greg and my interpretations of “drinking the water directly.”)

 

 

From El Chalten we started to make our way down to Ushuaia, the world’s southernmost city (very cute but basically the poor man’s Antarctica). Since the our whole trip was largely based on spontaneity and luck with only mild planning, at 9:50pm we found that our bus would be leaving at 3am, not 8am the next morning. Since we knew grocery stores closed at 10pm we had 10 minutes to stock up for the bus ride. In a panic, Greg bought: 14 yogurts, 11 rolls/small loaves of bread, 9 oranges, 5 bananas, 30 crackers, 1 bag of cereal, and 2 rolls of mentos. All for a 20-hour bus ride for just the two of us (on a bus that ended up providing food). According to Greg, it “smelled like a good decision.” Getting to Ushuaia by bus was quite the hassle since you have to cross into Chile and then back into Argentina and then the bus has to board a ferry to get over to Tierra del Fuego. Continuing with our lack of planning, we hadn't booked a hostel yet and when we arrived to a rainy Ushuaia at 11pm, we found that every single hostel in the city was full for the night. To our incredibly good fortune we had recently befriended some Italian guys who were following our exact Argentinean itinerary and they gave us the phone number of a bed and breakfast. It ended up being the cutest little cabin with the nicest woman and her adorable 2 daughters running it. She baked us fresh bread every day and it was cozy, warm, and inexpensive. It couldn’t have worked out any better. Lucky.

 

We wandered the city and had fun pointing out the “southernmost” everything before taking the southernmost sunset boat tour with our Italian friends and about 5 other people who all ended up being great company. Delicious handcrafted beer and hot cocoa were provided as we went around to small islands filled with sea lions, Imperial Cormorants (aka fake penguins), and cool plants. Since we were so far south, the sun didn’t set until 11pm! Crazy.

 

We did another long hike through Ushuaia National Park. It is the epitome of serenity with crystal clear waters, views of snowcapped mountains, singing birds, dense forests, fields of daisies, and horses nursing. Relaxing.

 

Since we had forgone Bariloche, we had extra time left over in our trip. Although the Patagonia was beautiful, we were a little glaciered out and decided to tag Mendoza onto the plan. The southernmost airport has limited options, so we flew to Buenos Aires and took one of our beloved overnight busses to Mendoza from there. While back in Buenos Aires, we decided to hit up one of the main tourist destinations that we had missed my first time around, La Boca. The buildings were colorful and photogenic, but the streets were swarming with tourists and there wasn’t much to do except look. Hectic.

 

Mendoza = wine country. So naturally the first thing we did upon arrival was rent bikes and go biking from winery to winery wine tasting. We joined forces with some girls from New York, an Aussie, and a Brit as we went around the vineyards and sampled the famous Malbec’s of the region. We may or may not have gotten lost a few times along the way and one of the New Yorkers may or may not have biked into a 4-foot deep ditch and miraculously jumped off safely. All in all it was a great way to experience Mendoza. It’s common knowledge though that wine is my kryptonite, and within minutes of our return to the hostel I was malbeckoned to bed and sound asleep. Mmmmm.

 

Finally back in the sunny part of the country where it actually felt like the summer that it was, we enjoyed the next afternoon by paragliding high above the city in Mendoza. After watching our Aussie friend run off the cliff with his guide frantically screaming “NO! NO! NO!” I took off to float peacefully down from the mountain. It is certainly no adrenaline rush (unless you mess up like the takeoff), but you have a great view and get to sit back and take everything in from your comfy perch. Unfortunately I felt gypped on my flight because I only got to stay in the air half as long as everyone else. Must be my borderline obesity (Cunningham family joke). I don’t want to sound like a soar loser though (bad puns are apparently my new Mendoza trait); it was definitely still a great experience and I’m super glad to have done it. Scenic.

 

Against Greg’s advising, I wanted to go on a bus tour called “Alta Montaña” that went across Argentina through the Andes to the border of Chile. Turns out it was a lot of driving, a lot of old people, no English, and nothing too exciting to see. (The one cool thing was the Inca Bridge, a natural bridge formed from all the minerals in the water. There are so many minerals, if you drop shoes in it, after a while they come out looking like this.) Point Greg. Lame.

For Thanksgiving, we hunted down turkey sandwiches at a Subway (yes, the Subway sandwich chain from the US). I proceeded to eat said sandwich at the airport. Alone. Quite the feast. Hard to complain though when I have so much to be thankful for, as proven by this trip. Grateful.

Argentina is so different from Paraguay and I basically felt like I was in Europe the whole time. It was a nice little break and also made me realize that I’m glad that I’m Paraguay for the majority of my stay because I could foresee myself not getting the full South America real-deal experience had I been in Buenos Aires or somewhere similar. Although challenging, it’s a great experience to live in a family where no one speaks English and to be fully immersed in the culture. It’s not exactly my cup of tea much of the time, but it’s a once in a lifetime experience that I’m definitely enjoying. Fortunate.

After 70 hours of bussing, 18 hours of flying/airport time, 22 days, and a sizable dent in my wallet, I arrived safely back in Asuncion. To sum it all up in one word: veryeuropeanandtouristybutafantasticunforgettableoverallexperience.

Other highs and lows of the trip:

Low: Greg beating me in our ongoing card game

High: seeing a triple rainbow

Low: using peanut butter as pasta sauce

High: realizing I’m more competent in Spanish than the Paraguayans lead me to believe (though still far from fluent)

Low: finding out that we missed out on killer whales feeding on seals on the beach earlier in the morning in Puerto Madryn

High: completing the bucket list task of traveling backwards in time (I took a flight that landed 10 minutes earlier than when it took off)

Inner hippie has been reached. Phew.