Mate

Our very first day in Argentina, we noticed that everyone seems to have some strange looking drinking apparatus that they are always fooling with. The next day, we started to make inquiries. We were told that the drink is called mate. Everyone, literally everyone, drinks it. Mate is a dried herb, much like tea. It is prepared and consumed in a mate set that consists of a gourd-shaped cup and a stainless straw, with hot water. Most people carry their own thermos, even on backpacking trips! Various public places, e.g. bus stations, would have hot water dispensers, some furnished by mate manufacturers. I have never seen hot drinking water so readily available outside of China.

In this increasing homogeneous world where people are eating the same food (e.g. hamburgers) and drinking the same drinks (e.g. colas). I find the mate tradition endearing. When we asked Anna, from Buenos Aires, if one can buy a mate drink in a cafe or restaurant. She explained that mate is something one drinks at work or on the go. It is not a leisure drink. People have tried to sell them in Buenos Aires, but failed. When John suggested that Starbucks may one day sell mate as they do with chai, Anna found the idea very amusing.

Mate gourds for sale at the San Telmo Street Market in Buenos Aires.


Woman prepares to fill her thermos at a free hot water dispenser (sponsored by one of the herb vendors) in the Bariloche bus station.


At a bus stop a hiker checks his thermos before heading off into the woods.

Ho-hum Buenos Aires

I am surprised that I do not like Buenos Aires as much as I had expected. Compared to the cost of living and the level of goods and services that are aimed for disposable income, Buenos Aires is low on upkeep, e.g. trash, sidewalks, buildings, etc. For a New World city, it is unusually crowded, and for us, is reminiscent of Shanghai and Mumbai. There seems to be a lot of petty crime, right around us too, probably festering on the hordes of tourists. We are usually just content looking at grand buildings in big cities, but in BA there is a hodgepodge of different architecture styles, but none outstanding.

The highlight for me was the totally unexpected Floralis Genérica, a recent sculpture that combines art and technology. In fact I was so impressed with it that I lament Washington DC does not have a cool addition such as this. We found the famous Recoleta cemetery nicely outrageous, even after what seems like the grand-tour-of-South-American-cemeteries that we have been on.

We are experiencing our third period of hot weather of the trip. Since we are used to hot and humid summer at 35 degrees north, BA, at 34 south does not seem so bad.

A couple of shots of Floralis Genérica.




Eva Peron's tomb draws a crowd in Ricoleta Cemetery.


The Art Deco Metropolitan Cinema.


La Bombonera: Stadium of the Boca Juniors futbol team.


Russian Orthodox Church (Iglesia Apostolica Ortodoxa Rusa).


The "first plates" of our all-you-can-eat-buffet lunch at Granix, one of many vegetarian restaurants in Buenos, Aires.


The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo still march on Thursday's at 3:30PM. Very poignant and inspirational.

From top to bottom

In exactly five months we traveled from Cartagena, Colombia to Ushuaia, Argentina (about 4000 miles as the crow flies) by bus, except for two trains and one ferry. It is our longest continuous journey by land. I like our route very much; of course, I did most of the planning. Yet I am still amazed by all that we have seen and experienced.

Ushuaia was not even in our original plan, but somehow it worked its way into our itinerary. The southern most city in the world and located on the Beagle Channel Ushuaia may be conceptually significant, but there is nothing unique about its physical feature. It feels like a tourist trap to us, maybe because many cruise ships pass and originate here, and the usual tourist attractions seem overpriced. We had to drum really hard to come up with some worthwhile outings. Our efforts did pay off. The first outing was a hike up towards Cerro del Medio, through a forest reserve, above the tree line, into the snow. The second outing was a coastal walk to Estancia Tunel with unexpected sightings of wildlife and beautiful views of the Beagle Channel.

Walking up through the beech trees on the well-maintained Cerro del Medio trail.


Great views to the Beagle Channal and Ushuaia as we walk above the treeline.


Sun-Ling heads for a patch of snow. That's Laguna Margot at left; Beagle Channel in background. We turned around just after this point as the weather deteriorated.


Stopped at Playa Larga for some beach combing on our way to Estancia Larga.


Sun-Ling looks out at the Beagle Channel on the way to Estancia Tunel.


Beagle Channel with cruise ship in the distance.


View of Beagle Channel from a meadow near the ruins of Estancia Tunel.


Patagonian Fox.


Came on a noisy flock of Austral Parakeets but were too far away for a decent photo - sorry.

Penguins, Isla Magdalena, Chile

We are on our way down to Tierra del Fuego. We chose to go the western route through Chile so we could visit the Magellanic penguin colony on Isla Magdalena near the city of Punta Arenas. Punta Arenas is at the southern end of Chile on the Straits of Magellan, so we were just about as far away from the 2/11/11 earthquake as possible while still in Chile, much to John's dismay. Punta Arenas is yet another underwhelming town except for the cemetery.

To visit the penguins, boats do not leave everyday, so we had to stick around town an extra day. The boat ride is four hours round trip for a mere one-hour on the island. It is going to be yet another one of those US$100+ day trips. The worst part was that the boat would not leave until 5pm and all the weather forecasts were predicting rain. I hesitated. All the penguins are going to be in their burrows hiding from the rain, our time and money wasted. John was unfazed, so we went ahead.

We packed all our warm and rain gear and bought John a pair of gloves. It started to rain as we headed out to the ferry terminal. When our boat approached island we could see penguins fishing in the water; the island thick with white, black and gray. When we touched ground, I felt I had just landed in a penguin documentary film. All my senses were filled with penguin, sights, smells, and sounds. All my previous doubts evaporated. There were supposed to be 65 thousand pairs plus their new-borns living on the island. It did not feel like an overestimation. The penguins were every bit adorable "in actu" as in film. The one hour flew by even though it was very cold and rainy.

The highlight for me was being "attacked" by a penguin. Visitors were supposed to stay on a marked path which all of us observed well, as opposed to the penguins which wandered indiscriminately. So when I noticed a penguin stepping into the path towards me, I stood still. I could not bring myself to walk away. He first rooted around my shoe laces which I thought was really funny. Then he proceeded to tug at my rain pants. At which point I had to shoo him away. I was so excited by the encounter, it did not dawn on me until later that the little guy was looking for building material for his burrow. What a smart fellow! My rain paints would make very good burrow material.

The shaped trees and park-like atmosphere of the Punta Arenas Cemetery.


Penguins!

Patagonia summer - my coldest winter

Actually, it is not that cold. It just that every hotel room we have been in has a radiator that gets turned on at least at night or all day. It puts out more heat than our heat pumps in Raleigh. Maybe the title of this port should be "the warmest winter I ever spent was a summer in Patagonia". I hate to think what real winters are like here. Yet the days are long. Every day we go to bed at or before dusk, and the sun is already above the horizon when we get up.

Weather here is highly variable. It can be anywhere between sunny and hot to rainy and cold. But we can always bet on wind, the strongest we have experienced. Throughout the day we are always putting on and taking off our wool hats, fleece jackets, windbreakers, and sometimes rain pants, a million times. The wind makes my nose run, but we have managed to stay healthy -- knock on wood.