Again this is going to have to be a short blog...things are spiralling into craziness as I ready myself to take to the seas on the way to Antarctica...this is not a bad thing, it just makes it tough to blog much. While I am gone, please read my older posts...unless you already have!!
I had a terrific New Years Eve and spent it with the Altube's in Buenos Aires where the weather is as hot as an oven. I made rabbit with Manuela, Alba's daughter, in a kitchen that was not unlike a sauna...we had a couple different forms of rabbit and a lot of alcoholic yummies. Stayed out real late and didn't get much sleep, but that was alright 'cause the very next day signaled the arrival of one of my best homies under the sun: Russell 'BAMF' Gaines and his lovely and talented better half, Jennifer. They rolled in after an insane trip from Bozeman to Denver to NYC to Washington DC to Buenos Aires. They were in good spirits despite not a lotta sleep and the fact that Russell's bag had been lost by the airline along with all his clothes. (He has this kind of luck...) We spent that day and the next one exploring Buenos Aires, eating, and sweating in the height of summer. Here we visited an ancient cemetary in the Recoleta of Buenos Aires...I may discuss it later...mostly it was just really cool architecture and really famous dead Argentinians...
On the third we made our way down to Bariloche, which is a small-ish mountain town in the northern part of Patagonia, a region in the southern part of Argentina. It is an incredibly beautiful place on the shores of the large and insanely blue Lago Nahuel Huapi. We spent the first evening trying to figure out when the hell the sun was going to set...it just kept staying light! Finally somewhere around eleven in the PM it was gone. We stayed out really late that night because we didn't feel ready for sleep so soon after the sun had gone.
We awoke early the next day to plan things for the week to come. That day we spent a lot more time eating delicious food and sitting by the beautiful lake. We discovered a wonderful version of churros here that have become something of a daily ritual. We also got things ready for the next few days.
The second day we were up with the sun and we took a local bus out along the lake to a place called Puerto Pañuelo, where we took a nice boat out onto the lake. We proceeded from the morning chill into the warmth of the crystalline sunshine and out across the vast blue water. The mountains were capped with snow and in the distance, the glacier of Tronador towered above the border of Chile. It was in that direction that we sailed. We passed beneath numerous giant mountains and across miles of water that was as perfect as water gets. The day was terrific as we hiked around a series of rushing waterfalls and explored the trails around the lakeside.
The following day we were again awake early, but this time we were on our way north to a small town called San Martin De Los Andes. On the way we visited seven different lakes, each amazing in its own way. We stopped at a Mapuche farm for a taste of local flavor and then we were back on the road. We had a nice lunch in San Martin and proceeded towards Junin to the northwest. From there back to Bariloche was a long string of mountainside stone monoliths and a series of man made reservoirs. That too was a beautiful day. (As you can see I am sorta doing the quick version of things here...no hay bastante de tiempo!)
The next day was yesterday and we spent the morning with our churros and hot chocolate and coffee and then in the afternoon we went to a place called Cerro Leones which is an ancient mountian made out of solidified lava. It has numerous caverns and for long periods of time it housed generations of indigenous peoples. We explored these chambers and learned of the history of the area by our rad guide Jose Luis. The highlight of the day that day was the cave that had a small laguna in it. To get in there we had to shimmy along for a ways on our bellies and wear spiffy red and blue and yellow hardhats. Once inside it was pitch black and totally silent. It reminded me of the Lewis and Clark Caverns when I was a little kid. The feeling of being in such darkness. Crawling through that crevice reminded me of how claustrophobic I felt in the Cu-Chi Tunnels in Vietnam, man that was crazy. Here I didn´t freak out, but I felt that throat tightening, muscle clenching feeling unique to such small spaces. On the inside it was moist and peaceful, with a small and perfectly pure pond against the far wall. That water has been in there for hundreds of years and evidently it doesn't ever get more pure than it is there. That night, back in town, we had a bottle of Malbec and chilled out a bit.
This morning we made it for churros and then hit the trail to a place called Cerro Catedral. After waiting for the bus for ages, we caught one and headed up to the mountain. This place is a huge ski mountain that is considered the most important in all of South America. We took a six person lift up to a spot above the treeline and then switched to a smaller one and went the rest of the way to the summit. Up there the view was quite something...and the wind was almost enough to send us out over the edge of the mountain. It was close to freezing temperature up there and the wind cut like it does in the winter. We explored a while and took in some great views and then headed back down. Those mountains are hard to explain, they are big, like most of the mountains here, but they have these huge stone spires that launch into the sky and these spires were the original reason for the name Cathedral for this mountain.
And now it is now and I have so much crap I gotta do to get ready to head south on the boat. Tomorrow I fly early back to Buenos Aires where I will finalize things and then it is off into the blue. I will be posting pictures from Patagonia before I leave so be sure to check those out! I will be off the email grid until the 26th or 27th of january, so feel free to send me some love and I will get back to you as soon as I am back in Argentina!! Love to you all and take good care of each other...Mateo!
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