Bye Argentina... Hello Peru!

Dec 13th

I woke up at 8:15am this morning to get myself showered and ready for my flight. We were supposed to leave the house at 9am, but Marita needed a little more time. We left at 9:30am and made it to the airport at 9:50am. It was so nice to Marita and Maria to get up and drive with us to the airport especially because I knew that we are all tired from traveling and I bet they would have loved to sleep in. Ruben and I checked our bags and said our goodbyes and were off. We boarded the plane right away and departed on time at 10:30am. The flight to Buenos Aires was only an hour and a half. I did some reading about the Inca trail and made a “to-do” list of little things I need. I’m supposed to have a day back pack for the hike and I read that I can rent them so I’ll have to arrange for that when I get to Cuzco. I also am supposed to bring a refillable water bottle as we aren’t allowed to bring plastic bottles since it adds to the waste and we have to carry out everything that we bring in. It is also supposed to be cold in the 40’s a night so I made a note to look for a cheap pair of sweats if I come across some. For the Amazon I’m supposed to be wearing long pants, I don’t have a single pair with me. I’m starting to feel very unprepared for this trip, but I hear things in Cuzco are fairly cheap so hopefully since I have some time to kill on Thursday before I meet with my tour group I can find the last minute items that I need.

We arrived in Buenos Aires at noon and Ruben and I hopped a cab for the Republic Hotel that he is staying at this week to do business (the same beautiful hotel that we stayed in during my first few nights in Argentina). Sofy and her boyfriend, Lucas were waiting for us at the hotel and it was great to see Sofy and finally meet Lucas. It was nice that I could leave my bag in Ruben’s room and didn’t have to carry it around all day. We sat in the lobby for about an hour and chatted, telling Sofy all about the trip. We went to lunch at around 1:30pm for a big feast. I had my last Argentinean Melanesia which, as always, was delicious.

After lunch we went back to the hotel and had an hour to kill so we talked about the trip a little bit more. Sofy and I went to a little shop next to the hotel and I looked for a backpack but couldn’t find anything that I liked so didn’t get anything. At 4:30pm we got a taxi and went to the airport. I was pleasantly surprised as I figured that I would be going from one airport to the next and not have a chance to see Sofy. I was so happy that she and Lucas were able to take time out of their busy schedules and spend a few hours with me. I checked in then said goodbye to Ruben, Sofy and Lucas. I am so luck to have the Garcia’s who bent over backwards for me this whole trip. They are great people and I’m so excited that I got to travel with them and got to know them even better. I hope that I see them again soon, it better not be another six years!

I went through customs which was horribly set up. There were about fifty people ahead of me (with lots of screaming children) and only two customs agents to check passports. At one point one of the agents got up to go to the bathroom and grab some water while we all waited. I luckily had time to kill, but was stressed with the whole setup. The Buenos Aires international (well both international and national actually) is surprisingly small with only three gates. I walked around the two duty free shops to kill a little time. I used up all of my coins and bought the current Times magazine and caught up on world news while I waited to board the plane.

The plane ride was horrible. I flew Argentina Airlines which I found out is their budget airline and I can tell why. The people were all very pushy and everyone carried on huge bags and there wasn’t enough room in the overhead compartments. There were two endurances to get on the plane and no one to direct the people which way to go so everyone was moving in opposite directions down the narrow plane isles. It was a mess. The flight as long, 4 hours. I was happy that I had a big meal with the Garcia’s because they served us a tiny little ham sandwich which wasn’t good at all. Luckily I was still full from lunch. I finished my Time magazine and was able to take a little nap.

I went through customs at the airport and was selected to have my bag scanned and searched, just my luck. It was 11pm by the time I finally made it to the taxi area where I was bombarded by different companies trying to get me to take their taxi company. The hostel that I booked through STA was supposed to be close to the airport, but it turned out to be actually quiet far. The first taxi company that I found wanted to charge me $40USD, the second company wanted to charge me $45USD. Luckily when I went to the third company they only wanted $25USD. I was excited and tired so I went with them for a forty minute ride through the city. The driver knew the area but we had a hard time finding the hostel. It turned out to be in an apartment type of complex and the hostel owns the whole top floor. It was close to midnight by the time I checked in and no one was around at all. The staff member showed me to my room and I was stoked to find out that I am the only person in the room and have a bathroom all to myself. I was able to spread out my stuff on all of the beds and charge all of my electronics and not worry about keeping people awake. I did a few things online and got myself to bd around 2:45am. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day!

Love,
Katie

Dinosaur Country

Dec 12th

We got an early start and woke up at 9:30am this morning. I was quite tired after a long night at the bars. We left Bariloche at 11:30am and were on the road headed for home. I quickly fell asleep in the car because I was still so tired but Ruben stopped at all of the scenic spots and make sure I got some good pictures, even if I do look half asleep in all of them. Our first scenic stop was at a rock formation called the Figures of God. I got many pictures of the mountains and several lakes that we came across. Since Ruben likes to fish he know all of the names of the different rivers as well as the fish that can be found in each river, I thought that was pretty cool.

 

After about three hours we got to Chorcon which is dinosaur country! We went to a dinosaur museum and saw the bones of the world’s largest meat eating dinosaur as well as some other large dinosaurs and fossils. The town has several great dinosaurs’ signs and huge dinosaur statues so we got some great pictures. Chorcon is also home to a huge dam, which we drove and got to see. Research shows that in prehistoric times there was water in this area and when the drought started to hit Argentina many dinosaurs came to this area because it had water. When the water supply completely ran out the dinosaurs died together there, which is why its such a popular archeological site. The dam is huge, the lake is approximately 50 miles in width and the dam gates are opened once daily which floors an area and produces energy that powers a large portion of Argentina. Many people from Neuquén have summer houses on the man-made lake and the Garcia’s come to BBQ and visit sometimes when we want a retreat close to home. I thought it was a really nice area but don’t think that I’d want to live so close to a huge power plant.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived back at the Garcia’s house in Neuquén at around 7pm. After unloading the car we relaxed. I started to look through my paper working and get organized for my next leg of the trip; I can’t believe how quickly my time in Argentina flew by! At around 10pm everyone was getting hungry so we decided to order pizza and empanadas. Ruben, Maria and I drove downtown to order the food and drove around while they cooked. It really is a lively town with many people outside gathering late at night. We got the food and brought it back to the house and enjoyed it!

Maria and I spent the rest of the evening sharing music and pictures. I organized and packed my backpack so it would be ready for the morning since we have an early morning flight. I stayed up way later than I wanted to get myself organized for the next leg of the trip. I am getting a little bit nervous to travel alone. It’s not being by myself that scares me, it’s more so the unknown part. I get nervous that my alarm clock won’t go off and that I’ll miss my flight and it will be my first time staying at a hostel by myself. It will be interesting to say the least. I always seem to be able to make friends easily and am pretty easy going, but I get nervous before I meet groups of people, especially when people within the group know each other and I don‘t know anyone. I am curious and anxious for this leg of the trip. Along with reading all of the fine print I realized that I won’t be able to shower on my Machu Picchu hike and that there might not be bathrooms available in which case the staff will dug a hole and put a tent over it for us to use. In the mornings we will be provided with a bowl of hot water to wash up with. I’m scared to death. I really have never camped before and this is ROUGHING it. According to the documents as a single traveler I will be paired with a person of the same sex in a tent. The whole experience will be nothing less than an adventure that’s for sure. I also found out that there is a 6KG weight limit for the bags which the porters can carry for us and since mine weights 15KG I need to do some serious downsizing. I’m sure it will be a great time I just hope that the group that I travel with on both the Amazon trip and the Machu Picchu trip is similarly aged and a fun inclusive group. Keep your fingers crossed for me; I’m going to need luck to not only make the 30 mile up hill hike, but also to survive in the wild with strangers!

After reading for a few hours and getting myself thinking about a thousand different things related to the trip I was laid down and down and couldn’t sleep. I finally was able to clear my head and get some sleep at 4am.

Bye for now.
Love,
Katie

Culture Shocks

Dec 11th

I was startled awake this morning at 9am by construction workers who were drilling and banging. Although we were on a different floor it still seemed like the construction was taking place on the wall behind my head. I laid in bed and tried hard to go back to sleep, but wasn’t able too. Maria is sensitive to sound when she sleeps so she always sleeps with ear plugs and had no problem drowning out the construction noises. I played online to pass the time and listened to my Ipod which couldn’t mask the construction sounds. Maria got up at noon and we found out that Ruben and Marita had gotten up early as well because they couldn’t sleep either. They were waiting for us so they told us to get ready and we’d go sight seeing. Maria and I both decided to shower and since Maria and Ruben were ready Maria showered in their bathroom while I showered in ours. I had just finished showering and was ready to get out when the water got really cold. I was getting dressed when Maria came back into our room wrapped in a towel with shampoo and soap everywhere. She was so annoyed that the hot water had cut out and that she wasn’t done showering. She wanted me to go downstairs to complain with her, so I did. The manager said he’d turn the hot water back on for a couple minutes, but that the workers needed to work so it wouldn’t be long. Maria finished her shower and we got ready and packed up our bags, knowing that we’d need to change rooms.

We met Marita and Ruben in the car and we went off for some sight seeing. Our first stop was at Llao Llao which is one of “The Leading Hotels” and the most famous and most expensive resort in the area. They only allow so many visitors in at a time so we had to wait until some people left just to go in the lobby. The hotel was beautiful inside but there were many hotel staff around all making sure that we didn’t go anywhere expect the main corridor. I would have loved to explore a bit more and see a room, but hopefully I’ll be back some day! Our next stop was at the cathedral that Llao Llao owns which was really cute and had a great view of the lake, it’s a really popular wedding spot and I can see why!

 

 

 

From there we headed to a Swiss village. Many Swiss and German people came to this area of Argentina to settle after World War Two so small villages of Europeans are pretty common. We had lunch outside at a cute little restaurant and enjoyed relaxing in a quite place. We were all exhausted so we decided to go back to the hotel and all take naps. It was around 4pm when we got back to the room and the construction was still happening. After much discussion with the manager they finally moved us to a different hotel right next door. We moved into our new rooms which were much much nicer and unpacked a bit. Maria and I walked around downtown Bariloche and grabbed an ice cream. Since we could still hear the construction from our near room I bought a pair of ear plugs. Maria and I then headed back to the room to relax. I washed laundry in the sink because I have almost no socks left and know that I will need them for my hike. I was able to sleep for about 2 hours which was wonderful and the construction finally stopped.

 

 

At 9:30pm we got up feeling much more refreshed. We showered and got dressed and met Ruben and Maria as well as, Simon, Maria’s cousin, and his girlfriend. The six of us had dinner La Vizcacha which was typical Argentine gaucho steak house. I had Melanesia that was great, but of course not as good as Maritias’.

After dinner Simon bought us a bar called Antares which specializes in different types of beers. I was very brave and ordered a sampler with tastes of eight different types of beers. I had everything from a dark to light and every shade in between. I really had never liked beer or red wine before this leg of the trip but both are growing on me. I wouldn’t say I love beer, but some of them were good. I really liked a local honey beer that they served, it was delicious! While we were drinking two of Simons rugby friends joined us for drinks, they were great guys. One of the guys, Alex, is working for a hotel now and working on getting his private pilots license. He lived in Chicago for two years when he was younger and had great English we chatter for a couple hours. Alex’s father is also a pilot and once Alex has his license and is comfortable flying the two of them are talking about opening an adventure-tourism shop in Bariloche. Now if I could only find a guy like that in America! He seemed really nice and was sad that we couldn’t hang for too long.

Our next stop was an Irish pub called Wilkeny which had great music. We chatted and had a drink staying until just after 3:30am. From there we headed to one of the most popular clubs in Bariloche, which was filled with high school students. At this point it was close to 4am and Maria and I were both tired and knew we had to be up early and didn’t want to stay too long. The cover charge ended up being over $20USD which everyone thought was outrageous. Since we were getting tired and it was a young crowd we all decided to move on. We went to another club that had free entrance but was very hot and smoke-filled. I hated it. We danced for a bit, but everyone seemed to agree about wanting to leave. It was 4:30am and Maria and I were exhausted. Simons friend drove us back to the hotel. I showered  because I was so hot and smelled like smoke, then quickly got myself right into bed!

Bye for now.

Love,
Katie

On The Road Again...

Dec 10th

The phone rang at 11am this morning and woke us up. Ruben informed us that we were late for checkout and to hurry and get packed up. The Garcia’s have a morning routine of drinking Mate and having a leisurely start to the day which they hate to break so although we tried to hurry we didn’t end up leaving the room till 12:30pm. We left and were in route back to Argentina. Ruben stopped several times for me to take some scenic pictures and made sure I got all of the best angles and views. We went through customs at a point more south than when we entered Chile, which was much nicer. The road was paved and the process was easier because we didn’t have to take everything out of the car and put it through x-ray machine scanners.

We drove for a couple of hours, stopping about every twenty minutes to take pictures. I got some great ones! We stopped and grabbed a sandwich in a small town called Villa La Angostura - I had a waffle with dulce de leche which was unbelievable. Our next stop was at Bahia Manzano which is a beautiful resort that the Garcia’s stay at from time to time. We walked around the waterfront and enjoyed the scenery. Next we went to Messidor which is a castle where Isabella, the 2nd wife of Peron, and president of Argentina locked in castle for 1 year until they exiled her to Spain in 1976 when the military took over. I am hearing a lot about the economic and social problems that Argentina continues to face, I feel bad because I feel like they feel trapped in their own country with a corrupt government.

 

 

 

 

 

About an hour later we arrived in Bariloche, Argentina which is home to the largest Ski Area in all of South America, called Catredral. This town, much like Pucon, reminds me a lot of ski towns in Colorado. There were tons of hotels and ski shops on every corner as well as lots of cute little candy shops and ice cream parlors. We didn’t have a reservation so we drove around and tried to find a hotel. Many places were booked because this is when all of the high school students are graduating and go on graduation trips to celebrate. Bariloche is the most popular spots for students to visit; 100,000 students go throughout each year, the graduation trips receive the most students than at any other particular time of the year. The schools set up tours and give the students hotel rooms and food and they are allowed to go out to the bars and dance all night to celebrate. We had a bit of a hard time finding a room and eventually found one hosteria with two rooms. It wasn’t exactly the Ritz Carlton but it had two beds and a private bathroom even though it was a bit dingy. We relaxed in the room for a bit, Maria was really unhappy with the quality of the room so we checked out a couple of other rooms that the hotel had available. We were surprised when the manager brought us upstairs to see a different room; the hallway was all torn up at there were construction workers everywhere. I was shocked to see them working at 7pm, regardless the manager showed us a room across the hall that was a bit nicer than ours but we opted not to stay there because we were afraid it would be noisy with the construction workers. I asked what time they started constructions and the guy said not to worry not until 11am.

We hung out in the room since we were all pretty tired from the drive. I played online and unpacked while the Garcia’s drank Mate. At 10:30pm we went to dinner at one of the Garcia’s favorite places called El Boleche de Albelto. We had empanadas to start which were filled with meat and really good. For dinner we had two different cuts of steak, lomo and ojo de bife, both were really good, I’m certainly getting my meat fix here.

We returned to the room after midnight and tried to find something on TV to watch. There were only about six channels that came in and they were all bad and in Spanish.  Maria and I looked online and tried to find a movie that we could watch. We finally found Pearl Harbor on YouTube and watched that until 4am, my schedule is so thrown off here!

Bye for now.

Love,
Katie

Sol Casinos’ Big Winner

Dec 9th

We woke up at 11am this morning and got ready for the day. We had a late breakfast, showered, packed and were out the door at 12:30pm. Our first stop was at The Grand Hotel at Pucon, this is the hotel that the Garcia’s usually stay at, but it was full when we were looking for a room. The Garcia’s showed me the room that they reserved and will be staying at for six weeks starting Dec 23rd. The resort was very nice, it has several restaurant, was in a good location close to town, and sits right on Villarrica lake. There were many amenities such as kayaks and canoes that hotel guests can use; there were also two pools and a gym for the guests. It looks like a nice place to vacation! Our next stop was at Park Lake Villarrica which is a 5 star resort about 10 miles from the center of Pucon. The resort was beautiful but it definitely lacked the location and it didn’t have access to a beach, only a rocky shore.

 

After that we were on the road and off for our three hour drive to Osorno, Chile. Osorno is a frontier city right on the boarder of Chile and Argentina. We stayed at a nice played called Sonnesta Hotel that was attached to Sol Casino. The hotel was brand new, not even nine months old, it was beautiful. Our room was huge with two queen beds (which has been hard to find here in south America, generally if you ask for separate beds in hotel rooms you get twin beds), a flat screen TV, many bathroom goodies (toothbrush, shoe polish, a sewing kit, shampoo/conditioner, etc), and even a high tech Phillips alarm clock that you could plug in a USB and play your music or display your pictures from a camera or memory card on the large screen.

Maria and I relax for a couple of hours and settled into our life of luxury. The TV had a million channels so we flipped through and watched E-Entertainment and a found a movie channel. At 10pm we went to the pool for about an hour and leisurely swam laps while talking about life. We showered in the room and got ready for dinner. Marita was ready to play in the casino and Ruben wasn’t hungry so they skipped dinner. Maria and I went to the restaurant located inside he casino and grabbed sandwiches, it was midnight at this point so they only had a limited menu. After dinner we played in the casino for two and a half hours. I played with $7,000 Chilean pesos (approx $14USD) and had fun the whole night, when I cashed out I had $8,700 pesos- a $3.50 increase, not much, but I was pleased to be leaving with more money than I started with after playing for several hours.

We went to bed at 2:30am we were both exhausted!

Love,
Katie

Happy Birthday To Meee!

Dec 8th

We enjoyed sleeping late this morning, we all slept until 1pm. The hotel delivers breakfast to the room but Marita and Ruben had the maids deliver our breakfast to their room so that we could sleep a bit longer and not be woken up by the maids. When we got up we the breakfast which wasn’t extensive but included toast, cinnamon bread, and two slices of ham and cheese. Maria and I showered and got ready for the day. We left the room around 3pm. We walked around the downtown area for over an hour. There was a cute little local artisan market that we poked in and out off. We took lots of pictures with the various wood carvings spread throughout the town. I was on the lookout for a jacket because its very chilly in Chile and I have been freezing. I was very unsuccessful, all of the coats that I somewhat liked were over $200USD which I thought was outrageous, but I guess its because were in a tourist ski area. Just when I had give up all hope and came to the understanding that I was going to be cold for the next week or so I found a nice light blue jacket that was just under $80USD, I bought it and have been much warmer ever since.

 

 

After shopping we jumped in the car and drove to Villarrica volcano which is only about 2 miles away. It was a long drive to the top of the volcano and we stopped several times along the way to take some pictures. When we got to the creator of the volcano we had missed the last tour which was unfortunate. I was shocked at the road leading up to the volcano, it was all dirt and not smooth at all. It was a good thing that we were in an SUV or we may have gotten stuck. On the way down we followed a school but that I was almost certain was going to tip over. Luckily it didn’t but I was very nervous for the kids. Our next stop was along the river where the snow from the volcano melts and runs off the mountain. We hiked all along the river for several hours, we got some great pictures! Our last stop of the day was at the harbor in Pucon to take a couple more pictures. Pucon is really in a nice spot, I can see why the Garcia’s spend a month of their summer vacation here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the hotel and parked the car and grabbed dinner right around the corner from the hotel . We had quite an Italian feast! We shared a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and two pizzas to start. For dinner I had ham and ricotta raviolis in an alfredo sauce and two desserts, a chocolate mousse and a piece of strawberry cake. It was a great birthday celebration! We were all full and exhausted so back to the room we went for a good nights rest.

 

Love,
Katie

Country Roads…

Dec 7th

I Woke up at 10:45am this morning. I was tired again after not sleeping very much the night before. We discreetly packed our bags into the car, so that the gardeners wouldn’t tell that we were leaving. We left the house by 11:45am. It was a 7 hour drive to Chile. Along the way we saw a drastic change of scenery. I was surprised that the Patagonia area wasn’t very pretty at all, especially because it is so famous. As we were driving I also was able to see my first real life Argentinean gaucho who was herding cattle. When we got to Chile we had to take everything out of the car and have it scanned through an x-ray machine like at the airport. It was quite a process. Chile is much more lush and green than Argentina is. The Garica’s pointed out Araucarias trees which are famous to this area, we even drove through the largest Araucarias forest in the world. I was very surprised that about one third of the drive was on dirt roads. Maria kept saying “that’s Argentina for you,” I just couldn’t believe that such a traveled international road could be unpaved. I also found it interesting that for the whole drive the highway was only 2 lines, one lane in each direction. I can only imagine how bad the traffic must be during peak season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got to Pucon we had to drive around for a bit because we didn’t not have a hotel reserved. We ended up getting a nice place called Volcano Apart Hotel which is right in the center of the downtown. It had great views of the city and the late and the room even had a little living room and a kitchenette. We decided to walk around a bit and went to the grocery store to grab a few snacks for the room. Afterwards we went to dinner at a place called Suizo. I had a dish with a thin layer of steak with ham and grilled cheese and another layer of thin steak. It was really good. We were all exhausted from our long day on the road and after dinner went back to the room and went straight to bed.

 

Bye for now.
Love,
Katie