Charlie and Steve's Excellent Adventure

March 16, 2015

Top 10 – Argentina

The land of meat, wine and turning up late; you’d be forgiven for applying this simple tag line to Argentina. We have spent ten weeks soaking in meat, wine and a lifestyle that couldn’t care less about what time it is, the longest span in any country we plan to visit. With so much time to throw off the rapidly transient tourist jackets we also threw away the clock and tried to see what a pure meat and red wine diet would look like. This nation of acute style has produced some of the very best and the very worst in a travel experience that brazenly ignores the middle ground. Without further ado, here’s our Top-10 of Argentina.

10- Peuerto Pyramides:

A rare dash to the ocean quickly became a rare dash to a cage-less zoo. Sharing a beach with seals and penguins and watching a sea lion colony litter a beach like crowds on a sunny day in Bondi a sight to travel for. But who wants to just watch? We were treated to swimming with Sea Lions friendly and curious. Charlie literally left with a kiss on the forehead from a sea lion as nature gave is a close up little cuddle.

9- Quebrada de Cafayate:

There are places where the great mysteries of the world are no longer hidden from sight or buried in millennia of years past. The sharp ravine that is Quebrada de Cafayate is not only stunning, inspiring and weird, it’s an education. The surface of this earth seems so flimsy in the folded and rolled layer-cake that is this vein of a crushed planet. A textbook leaps to life in a dazzling array of colour to belie black letters on a white page; school was never this fun

8- Nickys New York Sushi, Buenos Aires:

Eating out in Buenos Aires is a force of nature: Olsen, La Cabrera, Bar du Marche all spring to mind, but above the pack is Nicky’s. A restaurant, just a restaurant right? So wrong. We shared a great meal with our nephew Ben in Buenos Aires; great food, great wine, great company. It’s after the meal that the magic started, a coded request saw us transported back to a private space and the world of a gangster speak-easy of the 1920’s in New York. Things can be so much more than they seem sometimes.

7- Mendoza wineries:

Our first stop in Argentina and what a place to start a new diet of meat and wine, what could possibly go wrong? With Kate and Sophie of team Melbourne we indulged, we drank, we indulged and we drank. Mendoza is a renowned wine region but what it is not known for is it’s stunning portrayal of ‘the good life’. Throw away glitz and glam, Mendoza is a place to be uplifted by the simple things in life made into so much more, it’s an education on how to live.

6- Perito Moreno Glacier:

Some things seem impossible, somethings seem too grand to be true and some things just make you stare like a pyromaniac at a bushfire. All of these things have a name and it’s Perito Moreno Glacier. So big, so tall and moving so relatively quickly this monster phenomenon allows you up close as it screams and crumbles towards you in an experience that is simply cinematic.

5- Sayta Ranch:

Soon after entering the country and still attempting to maintain our meat and wine diet we were introduced to Sayta ranch, in the fiery north of Argentina. Horse riding every day introduced us to a gaucho lifestyle and Argentinian hospitality introduced us to a diet that couldn’t continue. As far as cultural immersions go this is what we were after, hangover and all.

4- Cerro Torre:

Sharing a section of the Andes with Cerro Fitz Roy is the smaller yet arguably more dramatic Cerro Torre. In place of Fitz Roys sheer size, Torre inspires with its impossibly narrow match-stick type structure. rough imposing mountains crowd an iceberg filled lake at the bottom of a sweeping glacier. Such a perfect scene so unbelievably stands proud in the shadow of Fitz Roy giving nothing away to it’s bigger companion.

3- La Constancia:

Within the experience of a lifetime we met with good friends Laf and Barnaby in San Javier, Cordoba province for another dose of Estancia life. Where Salta was a cultural immersion La Constancia was a more glamorous and diverse slant on country life. Horse riding was accompanied by a winery visit, climbing mount Champaqui, fly fishing and so much more. Argentina just kept delivering on ‘the good life’.

2- Cerro Fitz Roy:

For so many years we had wanted to visit Parque Fitz Roy, the home of the famed Cerro Fitz Roy. This outrageous granite spire is the grandest monuments in a range of smaller imitators. Free park entry and limitless exploring of glaciers, hung lakes, waterfalls and forests became a playground to explore. So much pressure hangs on a goal held for so long, a sunrise climb to the lake at Fitz Roy’s base undoubtedly delivered.

1- Cerro Catedral:

How do we pick a favourite from a stretch of the Andes we lived with for such a time. We soaked up everything we could that the Andes had to offer and nearly all of it made some form of indelible mark. But favourites need to be chosen and while the natural world amazed at every turn, the journey into what’s hidden in one of the worlds greatest ranges wins the day. Beautiful quaint refugios in impossibly beautiful locations invited us into a world so foreboding to humankind. Looking across mountain tips in grand endless vistas is a view to the unknown. Not anymore, Cerro Catedral marks the entry to an alpine world that gave up a part of its secret just for us.

March 15, 2015

What you’d rather be seeing – Argentina

Steve and I have spent The last 10 weeks in Argentina and can’t believe we are leaving at the end of this week. Below are some of our favourite photographs from that time.

Click on the photos to be taken to the relevant post the photo was originally in if you’d like more context.
To view more images select the category “What you’d rather be seeing”
For more Argentinian images also check out: “What you’d rather be seeing – trekking in the Patagonian Andes“.
Note the best photos of our six months in Latin America are to be published within the next week as “What you’d rather be seeing – Latin America” so watch out for those.

Mendoza

Lunch at Casarena Winery, Mendoza: with Kate and Sophie

Plaza de Aramas, Mendoza

Cafayate

Football training, waiting for the flood over the road to subside, enroute to Cafayate

Quebrada valley, Cafayate, Salta Province

Sayta Ranch – Salta

Preparing the horses for riding, Sayta Ranch, Salta Province

Guacho sadling the horses, Sayta Ranch, Salta Province

Galloping near the end of a days ride, Sayta Ranch, Salta Province

San Juan – Córdoba

Barnaby in discussion with Augustin – asado/bbq, La Constancia, San Javier, Cordoba Province

Ushuaia

Old ship on foreshore, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

Argentina marking their territory to Chile, across the Beagle Channel, Parque Tierra del Fuego

Moreno Glacier – El Calafate

Perito Moreno Glacier, El Calafate

Fotz Roy National Park – El Chalten

Cerro Fitz Roy, Parque Fitz Roy, El Chalten

Cerro Torre, Parque Fitz Roy, El Chalten

Cathedral Reserve – Bariloche

Frey Refugio, Cathedral Reserve, Bariloche

Drake watching over his chicks, sunrise Frey Refugio, Cathedral Reserve, Bariloche

Sunset, Frey Refugio, Cathedral Reserve, Bariloche

Steve climbing, enroute to San Martin Refugio, Catedral Reserve, Bariloche

Buenos Aires

Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires

San Telmo’s Sunday Market, Buenos Aires

Shooting photos, Ricoletta Cemetery, Buenos Aires

Argentinian ladies at Evita’s crypt, Ricoletta Cemetery, Buenos Aires

March 13, 2015

While you were working- Lessons from the Road, Argentina, Latin America

So far from the jaded colourless world that was ours in 2010 we now stack the notations of six months in Latin America scribbled so busily onto a laden notepad into bulging back pockets. To borrow from the one and only Queen Elizabeth, 2010 was our ‘Annus horribilis’, when the machinations of our modern world so deftly turned from supporting environment to demanding machine needing more fuel than we had to throw into the furnace. We sought adventure, departure and to some degree healing from a world that we’d painted around us using all the wrong colours, or lack thereof.

Four years separates that year from this adventure, four years of leaving behind a year that permeated through a calendar for so long but without words attached to make it real. We never perceived the lessons awaiting us in the void of escape; liberation in separation, education in evacuation. Words inspired by Pablo Neruda, Chiles Noble prize winning poet paint the basis of this education via the senses so elegantly able to clean the back of the mental cupboard we so often choose not to look to. When words alone are not enough an up-close view is sometimes the only way; and so we journey beyond the words and onward to this education.

Oh words,

Take from me.
Traps my heart designs,
Stones my voice won’t cast,
When weight becomes too much.
Oh words, I beg.
Take ever on,
All:
Without you I can’t touch.

But words,
Allude a truth.
An open window,
To fly.
Not in letters I arrange,
But from:

The spaces in between.

From such comfortable bubbles we look at the world, it’s easy to perceive philosophy intellectually but it can be so much less digestible in practice. From the privileges of a wealthy stable country and lives of support and love to the awkwardly undeniable luxuries of being born healthy, without mental illness or disability we view the world from our perch of the lucky few percent.

Our first destination on this journey was Mexico and we were so quickly introduced to another privilege we seldom recognise such is the shame it invokes; we’re white and disturbingly this is a statistically undeniable privilege in a world of stubbornly resistant inequality. It disturbs me still to consider the idea, the racist premise so intrusive that we’re lucky because we were born white, but in Mexico as in Australia this distasteful truism is unavoidable. So easily overlooked by those on the lucky side of the ledger this evacuation has afforded us space to view topics so often conveniently shoved to the back of the cupboard, privilege hangs so heavily on our shoulders, a heavy weight born so easily.

In Chamula township near San Christobal in Mexico we found ourselves plunged into a rare circumstance, such a divinely succinct lesson so simultaneously common and unique. We walked the streets and heard the fireworks of a culture so defiant to conquerors, bending and straining at so many turns yet holding on grimly to what had been before, refusing to break. The Spanish like the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese among others of the time raped and pillaged so comprehensively that so many cultural victims have long since been lost to the world. A world squeezing into a gene-pool too small. How inconvenient it is to stare at the roots of that shame and see the breadcrumb trail to ourselves. So easily we ignore this from the perch of the few percent; what is so infrequently put into words so easily denies us the opportunity to see beyond them.

From the personally confronting lesson delivered so bluntly in Mexico that recurs still, we plunged into a surreal Orwellian adventure. Deviation and evacuation seem such feeble words to describe the parallel universe of our lessons which take us further from our bubbles already so far away. The grace of wealth remains for all to see among such decay, a people who display what our often listless bodies and minds might be capable of without the dumbing haze of modern trappings. So suave, sharp and elegant of mind and so fiercely powerful of body are a people free from the barrage of taming docility that this digital world rains down. Imagine a world free of internet, instant contact-ability and ego defined in ‘likes’. It’s not a post-modern hippie mental detox nirvana, it’s Cuba, it’s an education and it’s only available in the flesh so evasive to arranged letters.

And south we travel through this continent of such recent unrest, the last few hundred years have chewed up and spat out Latin America. Centuries of people forcing their way through struggle paints a picture of humanity under pressure. From Aztecs, Incas and Mayans to conquistadors from abroad a period of straight road is hard to find in this ever so tumultuous history as it is in our own country, so straight and untroubled for so long. That straight road exists of course if you’re that privileged shade of white; the black letters tell such a different story from a time when dreaming made the words.

In the former lands of the Incan empire and later Greater Colombia we saw the story of people and pressure so diversely told. Ecuador showed us a people rising from the ashes of that pressure, Colombia a nation growing with it and Peru: what can happen when that pressure becomes too much. This region of empirical relay lays out a story of power after power passing the baton like an olympic event, possession so much more a fluid idea than we understood it to be. Powers rise and fall yet people remain. But people don’t remain unaffected, centuries of learning may not always be conscious but present they are, revealing a tale from before a conscience can grab a hold of it or make it into words.

Not only empires, people rise and fall too. Like Chamula in Mexico the Mapucha’s in southern Patagonia never laid down, fighting a permanent fixture etched in a history of defiance, refusing to fall. Proudly argued as this continents only indigenous group to never truly be conquered the Mapucha’s write their own book adding layered complexity to this story. Breathing the air of the classroom it’s not from the book we learn, lessons contain so much more colour in real life. There’s stories and ideals not so easily put into words that ring so loudly into the cupboards of our minds now so much better lit; education through experience.

So what is this lesson, this education we have begun yet far from completed? Evasively it’s buried intangibly within us similar to the histories buried in so many millions of lives. It has leapt from the pages of the notepad and so discretely tinted all that we are and evade the words I use in an attempt to corral it. Not from the words do we learn the most, it’s from those spaces in between that this lesson comes to being and only with open eyes shall continue to do so.

March 11, 2015

While you were working – An Exhale, Buenos Aires, Argentina

A long drawn out and much needed exhale is what we find ourselves within, a temporary pause in the midst of the whirlwind that has been our last six months. In the rush of this adventure we have been assailed by sights, experiences and immersions so relentlessly that a slight pause becomes more than a rest, a languid exhale brings back a passive headspace we left at Sydney airport. Buenos Aires is the home we’ve made for this short stop, a city of great history, occasional calamity, drama and eternal grace to punctuate the final fling that is our newfound love affair with Latin America.

Mornings are punctuated by walking the seven blocks to ‘Latte & Te’, some of the best coffee in South America and our barista’s who know our coffee order. Cooking at home is a luxury but eating out is an awesome option in BA. A little lunch at a restaurant nearby called Olsen typifies this separation. Through a trendy facade we enter a lawn courtyard of a large industrial building crawled over by vines in a chic urban setting of modern cool to rival the best of them. Asparagus gazpacho, fish, pate on walnut bread, salads, roast potatoes, wine and delicious pudding form a spread to salivate over, so salivate we do. Getting up to leave this most exclusive of dining experiences our wallets are $40AUD lighter, for both of us. Argentina continues it’s ‘best or worst’ philosophy with very little in between.

A trip to San Telmo fills in the space of a day that would otherwise be crammed with transfers, packing, settling bills or of course sitting on a bus on any other travel day. The exhale continues with a casual stroll on cobbled streets through the maze of fading glamour that makes up the architectural maze of history’s patchwork. Buenos Aires hangs on tightly to a history of grandeur, romance and indeed glamour that it won’t be letting go of any time soon. Buenos Aires and indeed San Telmo tell a similar story, the yoyo that has historically been the Argentinian economy leaves remnants of great wealth collecting just a few barnacles on the hull of a country now economically struggling to forge ahead on a world scale.

In the seven blocks walk to our awaiting coffee, free of the mental roulette wheel of tasks before us we are able to absorb a closer look to a life here rather than a holiday. Buenos Aires also has a wide range of quality street art for any casual observer. Street graffiti was used commonly for political promotions and in the freedom of the early 80’s after the military dictatorship an underground sprang up to piggy back on what was culturally a fairly common practice. Using the walls of the city to communicate is not only common here it’s become a publicly supported trend, fantastic art rubs shoulders with grand historical buildings, the past and present showcased for all to see in a mismatched dance that sounds like it shouldn’t work but it does.

Ignore the tourism brochures, the travel shows and dare I say it, the blogs, you heard it here first, Buenos Aires is a beautiful city. We definitely haven’t seen all of Buenos Aires but we haven’t seen the stark social gap so easily present in other latin American capital cities. In this beautiful city we are dragged temporarily out of the hubbub and fuss that accompanies travel and delivered to a sense of comfort that we dare not hope for much of the time. If we shut our eyes just for a moment we can feel a little of the relaxation we left at home, speaking Spanish on a daily basis no longer seems quite the effort it once did.

For an Australian the prospect of leaving a beautiful city to wipe away more than a whole calendar day and onward to an exciting journey feels so familiar. This time that city is not our own but the feeling remains so true, maybe home can be a broader idea than we often take it to be after all. For now we’ll wave goodbye to Buenos Aires and the Latin world, so diverse is our new adopted home. We so often spy the Opera House and the sands of the Northern Beaches through windows so ironically small for a farewell glimpse of a home so big. Those inadequate windows will be a mockery once more, the grand vista may not be home but then again we look down on the world where home is and we’ll feel a little of the same.

March 10, 2015

Top 5’s – Latin America

Jumping the gun slightly with a few days to wile away in Buenos Aires it’s time to deviate somewhat from the social commentary, cultural immersion and environmental observations. It’s time to recount what any traveller needs to know about South America. Forget the travel guides, TV shows and, ahem, the blogs because we have all you need to know ladies and gentlemen. So here’s our somewhat light hearted look at what has made our trip what it is.

Top 5 coffee:

5- Hacienda Guayabal, Manizales, Colombia
4- Charlies boyfriends cafe, Lima, Peru
3- Latte & Te, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2- Ki-Bok, Tulum, Mexico
1- Wonderful, Santiago, Chile

Top 5 best meals (based on restaurant)

5- La Esquina, Huanchaco, Peru (with Ola and Piotr…aka Team Poland)
4- Resto Sibaris,Cordoba, Argentina (with Laf and Barnaby)
3- Bocanariz, Santiago, Chile (our ten year anniversary)
2- Casarena Winery, Mendoza, Argentina (with Sophie and Kate…aka Team Melbourne)
1- Nickys New York Sushi, Buenos Aires, Argentina (with Ben…our nephew)

Top 5 cities and towns:

Edit

5- Quito, Ecuador
4- Cuenca, Ecuador
3- Buenos Aires, Argentina
2- Santiago, Chile
1- Havana, Cuba

Top 5 drinks:

5- 1920’s cocktails, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Nick’s New York Sushi)
4- Mendoza red wine blends, Argentina
3- Mojitos, Ecuador
2- Pisco Sour, Peru/ Chile
1- Cuban Rum, Cuba

Top 5 hikes:

5- Volcan Cotopaxi, Latacunga, Ecuador
4- Volcan Purace, Popoyan, Colombia
3- Parque Huerquehue, Pucon, Chile
2- Cerro Fitz Roy, El Chalten, Argentina
1- Cathedral Reseve, Bariloche, Argentina

Top 5 Friendliest People:

5- Colombians
4- Argentinians
3- Mexicans
2- Ecuadorians
1- Chilenos

Top 5 Boozy Nights:

5- Dirty Sanchez, Quito, Ecuador – with Ola and Piotr (Team Poland).
4- Wine tasting, Mendoza, Argentina – with Sophie and Kate (Team Melbourne).
3- Cigale hostel, Cuenca, Ecuador – Team Poland.
2- Valparaiso, Chile, New Years – Team Poland and Team Melbourne.
1- Pucon, Chile, Christmas Day – Team France and Team Germany.

Top 5 Cultural Experiences:

5- Chamula Township, San Christobal, Mexico
4- Busking Duo, Havana, Cuba
3- Spanish School, Cuenca, Ecuador
2- Flamenco Dancing, Havana, Cuba
1- Frida Kahlo House, Mexico City, Mexico

Top 5 Great Outdoors:

5- San Martin Refugio, Cathedral Reserve, Bariloche, Argentina
4- Laguna Cejar, San Pedro, Chile
3- Perito Moreno Glacier, El Chalten, Argentina
2- Horse Riding, Sayta, Argentina
1- Cenote Diving, Tulum, Mexico

Top 5 Places we Stayed:

5- Chilli Kiwi, Pucon, Chile (for Christmas)
4- Rusty-K, Cafayate, Argentina
3- La Constancia, San Javier, Argentina (with Laf and Barnaby)
2- Sayta Ranch, Argentina
1- Valparaiso House, Chile (for NYE with Ola, Piotr and Paulina/Team Poland)

Start planning now. Actually no need to plan, we’ve just done that for you so go get travelling. Unsurprisingly we found that this list and the countries that feature in it are quite in line with the countries that we most fell in love with. Averaged out to days spent in that country Chile and Ecuador stand out from the crowd. Argentina remains the most dividing country with factors that are either awesome or disastrous making it a rollercoaster of a travel experience. Cuba blew us away, Colombia started poorly but came home strong, Mexico is food and culture paradise then Peru; well lets skip past Peru just as we did. A diverse continent in both natural environments and people, close land borders are as strong as ever making this continent a patchwork of divided cultures that are an artwork when viewed together. Bueno!

March 7, 2015

While you were working – More Than One Window, Buenos Aires, Argentina

So far from mountains we find ourselves, alpine escapists no more as we delve into the heady sweaty hum of one of the worlds great big cities. Buenos Aires unquestionably defies the Argentinian cliche that we’ve seen in cities settling some distance from the vibrant culture that defines this country. Buenos Aires has swagger, flair, frustration of course and style, BA has style layered on in deep generous slathers to make Argentinian hospitality proud. Where so many cities we’ve seen struggle to break free of the 80’s or 90’s Buenos Aires grabs it’s grand history by the hand and gracefully aligns it with a sophisticated suave modern cool to appeal to all tastes. In this nation of jaw-droppingly frustrating lax attitude and innovative malaise this town bucks the trend and does what a capital should do, leads the way.

Only a few days ago we were so comfortably applying a smell test to clothing many days old without a thought to the world. Now we’re rushed like a crash victim on a hospital bed into a bright new world, a shift in environments so jarringly rapid we still hesitate to throw a dirty shirt in the wash. To make this cosmic shift complete we’re off to indulge in some high-brow art so far from our serene mountain escapes. Tonight we’re off to see Beethoven performed by the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra in none other than Teatro Colon, only the third best concert venue in the world, but who’s counting really.

But one high-brow art form can wait for another, we’ve spent a month or so being told time and time again that scooping the dirty dish water left from yesterdays wash-up and telling us continually that it’s coffee. Our Spanish is mediocre at best but that’s a trick we’re not falling for any more. We know of a fantastical place full of wonder and promised dreams called Latte&Te. This place has not only produced coffee, actual coffee made from coffee beans, but it’s drinkable without sugar and I hesitate to say, wait for it, it might be as good or better than ‘Wonderful’ coffee in Santiago. Given the animosity between Argentina and Chile this designation of South Americas bet coffee takes on gargantuan importance; judgement reserved.

We indulge in all the comfort that having our own place brings, roast tomatoes, avocado and proper scrambled eggs (don’t start me on eggs in South America) replaces a solo sugar breakfast. It feels a little like someone built up a huge city around Leura such is our relative sense of comfort and place here, that happened quickly.

But in no time it’s time, we arrive at the imposing facade of Teatro Colon which we’ve only seen from the outside. With our daggy hiking shirts ironed by the maid we’re polished as well as can be as we walk into the auditorium, very nice of me to bring the maid along I think. Descriptions of grandeur queue up in my mind like a Buenos Aires traffic jam as we are swept away by the grandeur of this building; ornate, historic, a touch gaudy and above all, perfect. This is the grandeur of South Americas’ great churches without a non believers conflicting filter of injustice. For now one of histories great pieces of music performed by a celebrated orchestra can wait, through to the concert hall and six stories of balconies climb vertically above in awe inspiring severity; severe if not for the splendour.

The show starts amid an army of elegant performers in black set amongst a forest of gleaming polished red timber and sparkling brass. And there is the conductor. A small fidgety looking man takes his podium and fittingly as Mardi Gras is about to start in Sydney the fidgety man is no more, a strutting peacock to give any drag queen a run for her money thrusts his hands wide in a pose that is all theatre. The crowd erupts, we erupt, the ceiling mural so high above lifts in a restrained propriety to rival a modern rock concert. The expression of excitement is more demure but the tingling well of wide eyed wonder is not, wow. The crowd hushes, a pause, our peacock flutters his tail again to more eruption and applauds.

The show within a show draws to a close and unlike a drag show the music here is real, so real. Bow strings dance in unison to the dancing strings from the conductors fingers so tangibly connected. To our untrained musical ears we miss so much in this performances subtlety and perfection but we’re carried along none the less. The concert hall figuratively leans in for a closer look such is the steep intimacy of the stalls, every breath held inches from the stage. And of course the crescendo is epic, the manic thrashing of the seventy or so musicians so at odds with a unison that is so sublime, perfection to match this building.

Floating from the theatre we’re keen for a little drink after horrifically discovering there was no bar at the theatre, disaster. We’re trapped somewhere between the splendour of centuries past and a pulsing modern edge now just a little quieter not to mention alpine grace and the call of the wild. So many worlds crash together in an eclectic mix that simply makes the world feel bigger better. I’m reminded of my favourite quote of F Scott Fitzgerald ‘life is much more successfully looked at from a single window after all’. Even great writers can be wrong some times.

March 6, 2015

While you were working – Scratching an Itch, Colonia, Uruguay

There’s a really unglamorous side to travelling sometimes, particularly on these longer jaunts. Shorter term travel is so often full of excitement, sights and jam packed full of everything and anything; longer term travel too for the most part but there’s one tiny little massive difference. We can’t just ‘leave it till we get home’. As much as this trip for us is a kind of evacuation from our every day lives there remains lives that annoyingly need to keep on going, ours. In nearly three days we have done little other than sit in bus seats and dive into a heavy soup of admin Latin America style. Paying bills, buying tickets, dealing with banks and government agencies that all can’t wait till we get home. And by Latin America style I mean taking simple tasks and somehow injecting copious amounts of time and pain into the picture that wasn’t as they say in the travel business, ‘in the brochure’. These lives do continue but who’s lives are they?

The sobering thought goes something like this: shut up you whingeing first world tit, find a mirror and punch yourself in the face a few times, starving kids in Africa and all that. But I’ll tempt the scorn, poke the bear and run the risk of sounding a wee bit British, there are some days that this gig can get just a wee bit tedious. It’s in this respect that we thank our privilege, the worst circumstance we often find ourselves in is slight tedium, not bad after all I guess; where’s that mirror? Is it that we sometimes undervalue rest, routine and familiarity? Are the old adages of family, friends and food more than even we give credit to? Maybe it’s just that we haven’t had alcohol in nearly 100 hours. I know, the itching will stop soon I’m sure.

Yet all good things come to an end, as do the mildly tedious. We’ll be back in Buenos Aires shortly but for now nothing quashes tedium like donning secret agent garb again and making another international cash mule run to trade on the black market, this time to Uruguay. We’re racking up Argentinian passport stamps like Nigella Lawson racks up cocaine; first time bank balances are thankful for ‘racking up’. Third time in and out of Argentina; that’s normal right?

Uruguay for us now is sadly little more than a stop off point to load up our ‘boogie-board bags’ however we have a night in Colonia de Sacramento to enjoy. Uruguay is touted as the most liberal and progressive of all Latin American countries with president Tabare Vasquez leading the way. This dude is hilarious and awesome at the same time, he drives an old banged up car, moved out of his palace to donate it as a homeless shelter and insists on taking public transport; we need one of these. Throw in beautiful landscapes and beaches that actually have sand, golden sand and waves, who’d have thought. Uruguay; not only a cool country with the most popular President ever but what a way to break a bit of a travellers tedium.

Colonia is the mission point for our smugglers run, fittingly founded as a Portuguese smugglers port to move goods to Buenos Aires with much of the original ruins retained in the historical centre of town. So what to say about Colonia: gorgeous comes to mind. Focusing on the relatively small historical centre that fronts the shore are a range of cool bars and delicious food sympathetically nestles out of the way of historical walls, plazas and streets offering a trip back in time. The atmosphere is so relaxed it’s basically in a coma and at every turn we’re reminded of the quaint beauty that only history and age can provide. Crumbling walls laden with bougainvillea and wisteria line narrow cobbled streets, tight and uneven in their cries to be taken back a few centuries where they belong.

It’s only a day and despite having just one ATM in town that takes our cards we brush off the frustration that we’re becoming used to and drown in history, charm and beer; to hours of a slowly setting sun. I jest of travellers tedium however an unsettled life does demand constant fuel. Where commonly we might have friends, a comfortable home, the sanity of cooking or gardening we have a restless void of hostels, and bad food into which we dig up and throw a never ending stream of excitement and amazement to sate the beast. It’s travelling, it’s fun but it can sometimes be quite contra to a happy mind strangely enough. But the void does take a pause every now and then, sometimes you get some needed rest and other times you find a place like Colonia, a place that removes this sense of emptiness that needs ever more fuel to consume. Yes it’s travellers tedium but sometimes a place can feel a little like home.

I wonder now: have we found a piece of the world with a restorative vibe comparable to the nourishing good life of the Blue Mountains (where we have a house near Sydney) to sate the beast for a time? Or are we officially alcoholics and we just had beer? The itching has stopped but we’re going strongly with the former, Colonia scratches more itches than we knew we had.

March 5, 2015

While you were working- American History- X, Latin America

Travelling, what a romantic notion: sandy white beaches, not a care in the world, cocktails at any hour of the day and mind broadening experiences. Yes it’s all these things and more, when travelling it’s nearly impossible not to catch whisps of politics, tensions and history from anywhere you go. Every country in this great big world of ours has its own story, it’s own tale to tell full of vivid characters, rich culture and intriguing customs. It’s in the raft of this diversity that travelling sails so romantically into the sunset for so many of us. Obviously travelling the world wouldn’t be the same if it was all the same now would it?

As we near the end of our journey in Latin America we’ve seen a wide range of amazing sights, tasted exquisite food along with some culinary atrocities (looking at you Argentina), bathed in culture and soaked ourselves in the rich history of this continent. We are due for a dash through Uruguay tomorrow but for now we’ve been to seven countries and it’s in the sad history that we have learned lessons and now shoulder a greater affinity with this region.

The story we are now so familiar with; is of a pillaging conquest of a greater power over a weaker one. What we see existing today are so many legacies, so many hints and reminders of a broken corpse that’s been left at the side of the road when a great power has used up the best of a carcass that it leaves behind. In the plain view of everyday life we see people struggle with inequality so deeply ingrained, great wealth divides, people devoid of hope intermingled with those rising so hopefully from the ashes. One judicious look at our current world sadly paints such a familiar picture for anyone travelling Latin America repeated across the globe. Sure the bigger powers have developed more diplomatic methods to hunt and feed on their prey, but not always. Atrocities today are all too common and entire nations are dragged into a barbaric world that belongs to movie screens not to the lives of innocent millions.

Sadly this is not only a historical tale. From my view of the world via the media I consume:

China really should learn that declaring another country as theirs doesn’t simply make it so.
Russia seems to spin the wheel on who it wants to torment next with its draconian ways.
Syria needs a slap like a screaming child on a bus, along with Israel and Saudi Arabia among others in the region (yes I mentioned Israel in the same breath as Saudi Arabia, so bold aren’t I).
Africa, don’t get me started.
Oh and there’s IS, they’re in the news a bit lately.

For every victim in this world there seems to be five opinions and I welcome them all, I’m far more a part time wikipedia warrior than a learned historian so shoot me down at will, I’m always up for an education.

Back to Latin America; it’s impossible to be here for any real length of time with eyes open and not be affected, inspired and outraged. In this country there is a summed up history that runs so simply and is in various stages of repetition around the world, anyone can hit Google and become an instant historian and even plot the chart of nations for years to come. Such is the consistency of aftermath post-conquest that it seems like it’s a path that all conquered countries must tread, more a matter of how fast they can move through the steps rather than attempting to avoid or skip them. I wonder where Australia is on this pathway? So what are these steps? They might look something like this: Conquest over an indigenous culture, independence, power vacuum leading to dictatorship, intervention by a world power and years of torment in recovery. It seems it is sadly all too common.

But I must apologise, I have been sadly remiss in naming this country; sad for the most part because it’s all of them. Don’t believe me? In attempting to make a very long and complicated history digestible I’ve summarised, e.g. Greater Colombia was a region that roughly covered Colombia, Ecuador and Panama but I’ll use modern borders for now. Not all dictators were entirely evil and not all came directly after Independence. Indulge me if you will.

STEP 1: Crush, Kill, Destroy; Spanish conquest

Cuba – Tainos 1511
Mexico – Aztecs 1519-21 (Teotihuacans and Mayans existed earlier)
Colombia – Incas 1532
Ecuador – Incas 1532
Peru – Incas 1532
Chile – Mapuchas1540-1553 (Southern Chile arguably never conquered)
Argentina – Various groups 1536 (Charruas, Minuane, Guaranies, Yamana)

STEP 2: Liberation in Independence

Colombia – 20 July 1910
Chile – 1 Sept 1810
Mexico – 16 Sept 1810
Argentina – 9 July 1816
Peru – 28 July 1821
Ecuador – 24 May 1822
Cuba- 20 May 1902

STEP 3: Someone to fill the vacuum (note, there are many more names than this, this is a short list of the well known figures)

Mexico – Porfirio Diaz (Ruled for 35 years)
Chile – Augustine Pinochet (Ruled for 20 years)
Ecuador – Eloy Alfaro (Ruled for 11 years
Argentina – George Rafael Vileda (Ruled for 5 years)
Colombia – Gustavo Rojos Pinilla (Ruled for 4 years)
Cuba – Fulgencio Batista (Ruled for 7 years), Fidel Castro (Ruled for 49 years)
Peru – Manuel Odria (Ruled for 8 years)

STEP 4: The powers meddle

Colombia:

Colombia disagrees with the US over the area now known as Panama. US is not happy. US supports war to help form Panama as independent country. US get use of the Panama Canal. 500 dead officially, unofficially approximately 3,000.

Question from reporter: “Was it really worth it to send people to their death for this? To get Noriega?“

George Bush (Snr): “Every human life is precious, and yet I have to answer, yes, it has been worth it.”

Chile:

In September 1973, the military overthrew the government with US backing killing democratically elected president Allende in the process. Pinochet takes control, 3,000 executed, thousands more tortured or disappeared.

Cuba:

Fidel Castro came to power at the beginning of 1959 by overthrowing the US’ man Batista (he was a very nasty character that one). U.S. National Security Council meeting of March 10, 1959 included on its agenda the feasibility of bringing “another government to power in Cuba.” There followed 40 years of terrorist attacks, bombings, full-scale military invasion, sanctions, embargoes, isolation and assassinations.

Mexico:

The U.S. had helped the Mexicans achieve independence and supported Benito Juárez in his overthrow of emperor Maximilian, but had also forcefully annexed half of Mexico’s territory after the Mexican–American War and supported dictator Porfirio Díaz

Peru:

1948-1956: US backs Manuel Odria. To overthrow elected government

1968-1980: US backed Major General Juan Valesco Alvarado seizes military rule for seven years. Alvarado’s junta ousts Belaunde Terry, who was resistant to nationalizing oil production and had devalued the Sol by over forty percent.

Ecuador:

Ecuador 1960-63: The CIA infiltrated the Ecuadorian government, set up news agencies and radio stations, bombed right-wing agencies and churches and blamed the left, all to force democratically elected Velasco Ibarra from office. When his replacement, Carlos Arosemara, refused to break relations with Cuba, the CIA-funded military took over the country, outlawed communism, and cancelled the 1964 elections. And we thought they were independent at this stage?

Argentina:

1970’s: While Argentina was receiving worldwide condemnation for their human rights abuses during the “Dirty War”, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger financially backed Argentina and foreign minister Augusto Guzzetti saying “We would like you to succeed”. From 1975 to 1983, about 30,000 civilians accused of subversion either died or disappeared.

There is a huge amount of detail in this long and bloody story of American History, both north and south. I am no historian, I am a traveller gathering stories, looking up data and simply observing. I believe all of the above to be true and given that history always has many points of view have had a good crack at being as impartial as I can.

Flash forward to now and we see inspiring cases like Ecuador (Rafael Correa isn’t entirely un-dictatorial) rising from the ashes formed from centuries of torment and Chile making great gains to stand tall in terms of economic progress and safety. Brazil is a global economic powerhouse and Venezuela is happy to boldly stamp its ground and not be bullied in terms of its valuable oil. Times they are a changing and maybe Latin America is in the first throes of shaking off the centuries of abuse and resultant bloody rebuilding. The meddling power of course it’s not all the US and it galls me a little to paint the US as the worlds sole modern bad guy here; that’s far from the case, they just happen to be the most recent big player in the seven countries we’ve visited. Spanish brutality and atrocity clearly tops the list in this tale, make no mistake, this is a phenomenon, a comment on power and abuse thereof, not sandy beaches and cocktails at all. Remove the countries names and it’s a human story that so sadly gets forgotten in this story; then as it still is now.

March 3, 2015

What you’d rather be seeing – trekking in the Patagonian Andes

Tierra del Fuego

Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego

Southern Patagonia

Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, El Chalten

Perito Moreno Glaciar, El Calafate

Refugio Encanto Blanco, El Bolson

Catedral Reserva, Bariloche

Lakes Districts of Chile and Argentina

Parque Huerquehue, Pucon, Chile

North and Central Argentina

Champaqui Mountain, Córdoba Provice

Quebrada de Cafayate, Salta Province

March 1, 2015

While you were working – Seeing the Forest, Puerto Piramides, Argentina

It’s a day at the zoo for us eager little kids, we’ve wrangled together another guy from the hostel to join us on a tour which is an easy way of making a cattle herded bus turn into a private car. The cheesy tour groups are now about the same cost for us as having our own private driver for the day thanks to our extra friend sharing the cost. Something’s a little wrong though, we have a cultural about face in monumental scale, our Argentinian driver is here bang on 7:30am as promised and our Swiss hostel mate is running late. This is about as culturally discordant as possible and we’re not sure how this bodes for the day at all, we’ll see soon enough I’m sure. We’re touring peninsular Valdes which is where Puerto Piramides lies to catch sight of the wildlife on offer, the pre-African ‘diet’ warm up to our upcoming safari adventure.

There’s a hope on the horizon for this day, this is the place where Orcas beach themselves deliberately to snatch seals from the shore, a rare phenomenon that apparently has only been observed by seven individual animals ever… so, it’s rare. None the less this is the time of year that it happens and we’re timing our run for high tide, also when it’s most possible. Bundled in our little Renault we skip off down the road and into more repeated barren wilderness just in case we haven’t seen enough of this type of landscape in our past few weeks of bus rides. In pretty short order though we’re pulling up the car all over the place to spot an Armadillo and other little critters like, vultures, guanacos and mara: a really weird looking mega huge rabbit that looks a little dog like, we’re getting our moneys worth already.

First proper stop is Lago Chico, a salt lake. We’ve seen a few salt lakes so far but never been able to walk on one until now. The soft pink tone reminiscent of delicate flakes on the tables of posh restaurants is quite novel, enticing us to walk dreamily into the world of Salvador Dali over a deceptively hard packed salt floor. This lake is officially the lowest land point in South America at 42m below sea level, an apt tick-box after our recent jaunts into the high reaching Andes, Argentina does have it all if you care to look; high and low. This salt brick is a whopping 25m deep at the centre of the lake, a small lake really but standing in the midst of the saline rock it feels huge. Amazing as it is, there’s no Orcas here so off we shuffle.

Finally we reach the ocean and the benefits of a private guide reveal themselves in the form of: jumping over roped off paths and past ‘no entry’ signs, seems we’re getting the locals pass. We’re on a headland in the blustery warm breeze coming from the west looking distantly down to some Elephant Seals far below, nice to see but not exactly an immersive experience yet none of us voice disappointment. Soon enough however we’re stepping over a small fence and plunging down a rough path to the beach, the viewing platform seeming more like a practical joke. We arrive to a beach littered with Elephant Seals baking motionlessly in the sun embodying indulgent laziness like it’s a sport.

We have relatively free reign here, these huge sacks of blubber looking akin to a person wrapped tightly in a sleeping bag lay often in clusters moving only momentarily to burp or fart; such an enviable life. The breeding and foraging season has passed, most of the large males have moved from these shores leaving the colony to lapse into sloth. And burp and fart. This flatulent symphony develops into a comic force, entire bodies tense and pulse for one unimaginably heroic seizure to push out some air often in some vague sense of timing with another; and so music is made. But there’s no Orcas here either so we bid farewell to the symphony of lethargic delights and onto a life more active.

Journeying up the coast we stop at numerous viewpoints to look from a short distance down to Sea Lions and penguins, the diversity of life laid out for us in slow evolution as we venture north. The penguins are a highlight here, the Magellanic Penguins are small and unsurprisingly adorable in their cute awkwardness. On a platform near some nests a couple of penguins make the journey up the small hill to parade right before us, clearly they’re used to humans and really couldn’t care less. Gorgeous, but they’re not Orcas.

Final stop, Punta Norte is the northern tip of the peninsular where the wild of the ocean sweeps around the most outreaching point of land. Walking to the beach is full of anticipation, this is the prime Orca haven. What it is also a haven for it seems is pretty much everything else, Penguins, Sea Lions, Elephant Seals, Cormorants, Great Egrets and who knows what else, the beach is littered with a hodge-podge menagerie of wildlife. The noise is the big thing here, bleats from the seal calves, gutteral roars from the Sea Lion males, sirens from the females and of course farts from the Elephant Seals all boom up from the beach at high volume.

Punta Norte is a sight to behold, it’s just been calving season for the Sea Lions and the social activity is a frenzy of noise and energy. There’s nothing to do but look on and listen to the music, all except for the poor Elephant Seals who always seem to be a little out of tune. We pile back into the car quite exhausted and thoroughly satisfied. We haven’t been privileged with an Orca but we have been privileged none the less. We’ve seen an array of great wildlife but the privilege doesn’t stop there, it’s a good reminder that the Orca doesn’t really matter. On the verge of one of humankind’s most common errors we were looking for the forest but all we were seeing were trees.

As the saying might go, we couldn’t see the Orcas for the Seals, but we could see, we could see everything that we could hope to see. The Orcas retain the mystery and romance that our current perspectives imbue and maybe thats better. One day we might see an Orca, but what’s next in the queue of unappeasable disappointment? We will eternally have an Orca to chase, something out of reach; whether we saw an Orca or not makes little difference in this chase for the etherial. Must we inherently chase things based on their unattainability or should the chase be based on what we need? It seems we had the saying wrong and we’re glad we were able to see the seals for the Orcas.