Tripping the Life Fantastic

Bariloche, Argentina (Feb 16-20) Bariloche is suffering from some sort of an identity crisis. The town has convinced itself that it is not , in fact, Argentinian at all, but rather SWISS! All you have to do is count the number of chocolate shops and fondue restaurants along the main tourist drag and you will see that I speaketh the truth. I chose, however, not to indulge in either due to budgetary & belt constraints/concerns. I spent three and a half days in total in Bariloche, but the first day (+ half) was plagued by a steady, depressing drizzle that kept me off the trails and mostly indoors. I stayed in the town center in a dorm at the Periko Hostel, which was only a few blocks from Lago Nahuel Huapi. That first night turned into quite the memorable evening. First of all, the whole town was blanketed in darkness for about an hour or so due to an inexplicable blackout. Thankfully our hostel was fully prepared for such an occurrence and sprang into immediate action by l...

El Bolsón, Patagonia, Argentina (Feb 12-16) Gotta give it up to the hippies of El Bolsón! They sure do know how to expertly brew some amazing beer and organically grow the most incredibly juicy varieties of berries! When I read in my Lonely Planet that the town of El Bolsón was a hippie haven, I knew that I had found the right place to spend my 45th birthday on February 15. Furthermore, when I read the extremely positive reviews online for the delightful "La Casona de Odile", I knew that I had found the perfect spot to rest my tipsy head once my cumpleaños celebrating had concluded. But first! I had to get there... Travelling to El Bolsón from El Chaltén entailed yet another arduous lengthy bus ride(600 pesos) which was broken up into two tortuous segments by an overnight layover in the creepy Steven Kingesque town of Perito Moreno (Seriously - the town was so deserted at night that I kept glancing nervously over my shoulder as I walked along the street in search of a...

El Chaltén, Patagonia, Argentina (Feb 5-11) El Chaltén is known as a wild and wooly Patagonian frontier town and has not even been in existence for all that long. Located within Los Glacieres National Park, it was built in 1985 for the sole purpose of securing the somewhat tenuous border between Argentina and Chile, but these days it's all about trekking/climbing tourism. I arrived there on a wet and windy Sunday afternoon, and spent the remainder of that first day un chilling my limbs & bones in the toasty comfort of my hostel, Aylen Aike, run by the amiable Sebastian. I met an extremely interesting young German traveller named Miriam there as well as her Aussie walking buddy, Jake (the snake), and we three amigos ended up bonding that night while watching the DVD, "Valkyrie", and mutually poking fun at Señor Cruise's atrocious German accent. By the end of that first evening, we had agreed to team up for a 25k round trip trek the following morning to Laguna ...

El Calafate, Argentina (Feb 2-4) My bus journey from Ushaiia to El Calafate (503 pesos=$117) was an exercise in excruciating endurance. Starting at the ungodly hour of 5 AM, there were numerous obstacles which stood between me and my destination, such as 4 tedious border crossings, a temporary vehicular breakdown in the middle of Bumblefuck, Egypt Argentina, and a ferry crossing delayed by 2 hours due to fierce Patagonian winds. Thankfully, I was supposed to have a 3.5 hour layover in Rio Gallegos so being 2 hours late to arrive there only meant having to wait a further 90 minutes before my bus left for El Calafate. We arrived at nearly 12:30 AM, but I had fortunately booked a dorm bed in a hostel only 2 blocks from the bus terminal so I managed to hit the sack by 1. I was so plum tuckered out that I didn't even notice whether or not any of my bunkmates were snoring the Hallelujah chorus. The next morning I was rudely awakened at 6:30 by the loud, grating voice of an elderly w...

Ushaiia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (Jan 28-Feb 2, 2012) Traveling to Ushaiia, the furthermost city in the southern hemisphere, aka "El Fin del Mundo", was my introduction to Argentina. And I must admit that it came as a bit of a jolt - pricewise! I'm not necessarily talking about the cost of accommodation but rather eating out in cafés/restaurants and even more so, the cost of bus transportation. For example, on the dining front, there was one day I walked around town desperately looking for a place to have dinner and eventually wound up eating in a fast food burger joint. I had a grilled cheese sandwich, small French fries and a beer. And the grand total was...$12!!! Another time I was searching for a café with WiFi and I could scarcely believe that theses cafés were charging close to $7 for a simple cappuccino! Finally, when it comes to bus tickets, Argentina takes the cake. To travel from Punta Arenas, Chile, to Ushaiia, Argentina, I paid about $60, which was rou...

What could possibly top the splendor (in the grass) of the Torres del Paine?! And no, what I am about to write about was NOT in fact " better " than T.d.P., but it was pretty darn incredible for yours truly, an ardent animal lover and vegetarian for 22 years! So without further adieu...appearing for the ump teenth time on the Patagonian stage near Punta Arenas....stars of the adorkably cute cartoon "Madagascar"... Los Pingüinos de Isla Magdalena!!! Back in 2003 I actually visited the smaller of the two penguin colonies located on the Straits of Magellan, namely the Otway Colony, which has approximately 10,000 avarian colonists spread out along a small beach. But this time, I chose to splurge on the boat trip out to the Isla Magdalena as it had something like 7x mas pingüinos (the guide said it was close to 70,000 at the time of my visit) and visitors are able to get up CLOSE to the critters, within practically spitting distance! There is only one trip to the i...

Torres del Paine, Patagonia Chile - January 22-24 I´ve been fortunate enough to visit a number of exquisitely beautiful places in the world, but whenever asked in the past to come up with my "Short List", Torres del Paine was always up there at/near the top of my list. So when I was informed of the devastating fire that took place there during the New Year, it felt as if my heart had leapt out of my chest and landed with a hard kerplunk on the pavement only to then have a pack of feral dogs come along and defecate on my heart and finally stomp all over it. Yeah. I felt...r..e...a...l...l...y BAD . And a part of me seriously questioned whether I should pay a return visit to the park once it had been reopened to tourists. To see a cherished place where I had left a piece of my heart in such a state of natural distress and devastation? Should I? Could I? In the end...yes. I decided that it was actually morally imperative for me to go and go NOW so that I could see ...