Architectural Delight

A simple walk around the Old Town of Montevideo reveals the richness of architectural wonder that awaits the passing tourist. Architectural Digest could do a whole series on the European influence on styles. I never did find an architecture tour to join. Instead I meandered the streets with my neck tilted upward checking every so often to make sure I wasn't going to get hit by a car.



Montevideo is Uruguay's capital which hosts a snazzy nightlife I never did check out, the hub bub of their business district and beach side restaurants. When not admiring the exterior architecture, I popped into numerous museums, toured the inner realms of these fabulous palaces and even watched a ballet in the refurbished Teatro Solis that cost $20M USD to rennovate.

Little Sister to Buenos Aires

Some cities reach out and embrace you while others seduce you slowly until you become enchanted and mesmerized by their beauty and charm. Colonia is just that type of city with its cobblestoned roads, historical ruins and romanticism that blows in from the Rio de la Plata. Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay sits opposite Buenos Aires on the Rio de la Plata and originally provided a strategic smuggling point to Buenos Aires for Portugal in the late 1600's. Now, it remains a Unesco World Heritage Site.

While in Colonia, I met up with Lucas who I had met in Nicaragua. He is currently researching Uruguay for Lonely Planet and I decided to tag along for a few days. We strolled the streets together, him with his paper and pen jotting down various notes, and me with my camera taking photos like the good Japanese in me. We peered into every museum in the city with our museum pass and discovered new cafes and restaurants, although some we ate at definitely will not go in the book. At one point, we rented a buggy and sped down the highway along with the regular cars all the while trying not to get rundown.

There is more to Uruguay than I thought originally since it is often overshadowed by its big brother neighbor and I continue to enjoy exploring it.

Cordoba, Cultural Capital

Cordoba has appropriately been labeled as the cultural capital of Argentina. With its numerous museums, oldest university, grandiose churches and non-stop nightlife, it is great place to settle into or just visit for a few days. My friend, Matt, who I met almost a year ago in Guatemala on my 2nd day of travels is settling down here after 2 years of traveling. Unbelievable that he has been on the road that long. I may just be like him though.

For my 4 days in Cordoba, I toured literally every museum, church, park and historical site around. Sadly, I did not check out the night life in the end. I've been pretty mellow these days and have not felt like really rocking it out on the town. Instead, I chose to listen to a church choir for Good Friday, attend a symphony another night, and cook all my own dinners.

Good red meat is cheap and juicy. Twice a day, I ended up cooking a good piece of steak that only cost $1. My budget is running thin and so I've resorted to grocery stores for most of my meals. Hostels are starting to add up at about $12/night when I was use to paying $4/night in Bolivia. Every $1 counts after a year of travel. Nevertheless, I never cut out good excursions and activities of interest.

Matt and I visited the original Che Guevara House in a nearby town. I didn't have high expectations and was pleasantly surprised at the numerous photos depicting his life from a very young age to his revolution years. Moreover, they had his original motorcycle made famous by the movie "Motorcycle Diaries" as well as personal letters he wrote to his daughter encouraging her to be a good revolutionary and to Fidel Castro and to his family saying his goodbyes should he die.

Near Che's house, we stopped into a nearby Jesuit estancia and church. The Jesuits, coming from Spain, provided Argentina with an abundance of intellectual and religious opportunities as seen in the plentiful churches and universities.

Cycling Through the Vineyards

When I arrived in Mendoza, I landed myself in yet another hostel with some sketch bathrooms. In fact, my hall bathroom that I had to share with 11 others along with anyone passing through the hall took the term "water closet" to a whole new level; I could not turn around in the shower for fear of touching the walls or the shower curtain. I survived in the end and again questioned why I put myself through such torment. Then I remembered that I don't have an income and hostels are the cheapest way to go besides couchsurfing.

In the hostel, I had a chance to meet some cool people and invited them out to go cycling through the vineyards with me while touring the local wineries. I always invite random strangers along to my activities, but this time I really needed someone around to make sure I got home ok since I get drunk after half a glass of wine. Brent from the US, Stefan from Germany and John from Canada all agreed and off we went to take the local bus there. Along the way, we met a couple Chileans who joined us on our tour.

We rented bikes and because I wasn't sure I would be able to cycle on my own, Brent and I picked up a double seated bike. Brent ended up doing all the cycling while I often put my feet at the top of the bike and enjoyed the scenery. Plus, I think I was slowing him down.

Mendoza is known for their fertile land perfect for grape growing and hence wine making. Along one main road, one can visit numerous wineries. We started late in the afternoon and only visited a couple since we stopped at other places along the road. We stopped in at a little chocolate liquor place and sampled their selection. John and Brent had the absinthe while the Chileans and I tried the chocolate with banana, chocolate with hazelnut, chocolate with coconut. We sampled another table's pepper liquor and almost choked.

At a gourmet restaurant, we had planned to have lunch there, but the prices were beyond our backpacker prices and so instead, we drank wine. Brent so graciously paid for it too since he seems to be the only one of us with a job. So, wine became our lunch.

At our final winery, we arrived just in time to buy 5 steak meals to share amongst the 6 of us. The winery was about to close and only had 5 meals left. Of course, we had wine to accompany our meal and I nearly passed out. Stefan and I took a photo in the vineyards and I was happy to be at our final winery, but also a little tipsy.

Chocolate Lover's Delight

Traveling upward from El Chalten, I stopped off in El Bolson, a little town known for their abundance of hippies. I scoured the streets looking for some, but didn't find any. I think I showed up on an off-peak-hippie day. After a day, I moved upward to Bariloche, a ski resort known also for the numerous chocolate shops and museum.

As a fine lover of chocolates, I visited many of the shops sampling various flavors and types. The size and detail of some of the Easter eggs in the windows impressed me greatly. Unfortunately, my budget and my stomach could not afford any of the chocolate gluttony. Nevertheless, I suffered from a chocolate overdose after a good 3 days resting up there. I caught a cold ice climbing, possibly because I fell into ice cold stream while ice trekking and nearly froze. Therefore, most of my time in Bariloche, I holed up in my hostel with gorgeous views of the Lake and chilled out and caught up on my backlog of blogging while munching on chocolate.

Wildlife Galore

On the East Coast of Argentina, a colony of Magellanic Penguins make their pilgrimage to Punta Tomba to stay between August and April . Here they lay their eggs, nurse their chicks, molt their old feathers for new ones and then migrate north towards the latitude line of Rio de Janeiro.

When I had arrived, they were in the process of molting. They looked quite ugly in their molting phase. To stay cool during this time, they just stood upright as the very violent wind blew away their old feathers. They are not very active during this time, but when they do walk around, they look like bobbleheads balancing their whole weight on each foot as they wobble by. They are much more graceful in the water.




Interestingly, the penguins burrow themselves in the ground in pairs. When armadillos cross their paths, they watch them carefully tilting their head back and forth to see them from each eye. Their eyesight isn't great and they don't seem to have lateral vision.




The other wildlife on the Peninsula include sea lions, elephant seals and whales.


In this photo, an Orca or Killer whale is watching over the sea lion colony for food. During this time of year, the Orcas almost beach themselves during high tide, pick up a sea lion and carry it off to eat it in the water. Unfortunately, I did not see a whale attack, but enjoyed watching four Orcas swimming about.

Trekking for 9.5 hrs

Since I didn't do a whole lot of trekking in Torres del Paine I thought I would venture out in El Chalten. Hiking to the Fitz Roy peak is suppose to take 8 hours round trip, however, I managed to spend 9.5 hours trekking on my own. Thankfully, the path was well marked and I didn't get lost on the way like in Bolivia.


The flora and fauna made the long hike quite enjoyable. Most of my time, I stared upward at the Fitz Roy peak waiting for the clouds to break so that I could take my usual series of endless photos. Thankfully, the weather behaved and Fitz Roy peaked out to greet all the hikers along the way. The last hour of the hike, I scrambled up rocks at an unbearably slow pace. I had to stop many times to allow those faster than me to pass me by. I walked so slow that I ran out of water while trekking up the rocks and had to eat the snow to keep hydrated. At the top, a stunningly greenish-blue lake just below Fitz Roy shimmered and congratulated me on my arrival. I ate lunch and snow on top of the mountain.




The trek back hurt more than the one up. My knees still have not forgiven me for the adventure and I have not hiked since.