And I'm Back

Hello readers, welcome to the last installment of The Rambling Backpacker! I've been home for a couple weeks now which has given me time to reflect on what I've learned and to try to draw a cohesive conclusion. Also I've just been busy bingeing Parks and Rec since they don't have it on South American Netflix and driving my sister to work (hey, one of us has to be employed!) so I haven't had time to write.

It's hard to summarize what the trip was to me. It already is starting to feel like a dream that I'm waking up from. I'm getting used to English being the default language and to greeting people with a handshake instead of a kiss on the cheek. I'm slowly weaning myself off the afternoon siesta (though I am unemployed so it doesn't need to go quite yet) and getting myself back on a diet that doesn't consist of massive amounts of dulce de leche and red wine. All those are relatively easy adjustments compared to the mental switch that I need to make between traveling and living in one place. I can no longer grab all my possessions and get on a bus in a matter of minutes if I'm tired of a place. In fact my possessions once again exceed the amount that I can carry. I'm no longer starting conversations with people by asking where they're from and where they've been and where they're planning on going. The backpacking community is a wonderful weird totally isolated microenvironment of its own and it was fabulous being a part of it for a while.

During my travels the people I met were some of the most laid back, accepting, interesting, and kind people I've ever known. Which makes one of my initial worries about being lonely seem kind of silly looking back. It was so easy to make friends traveling. Everyone is out of their comfort zone and are often by themselves so are very willing to strike up a conversation and go exploring. When most people think of friends, they think of people they've known for ages and have a comfort and a history with. These lifelong friends are important, but I've come to realize the day long friends, or the week long friends, or the OMG what are you doing here, I thought you were in Argentina?! friends can be just as important. Some people you may never see again once the tour or the city is done, but that's ok. What was important were the jokes and the conversation and the adventures you had during your time together that were enriched by having someone to share it with. And if you meet them further down the road, there's an excitement that's hard to match of seeing a familiar face in an exotic location where you didn't think you'd know anyone. And most importantly the friends you make on the road understand why you're traveling in a way that's hard to verbalize to anyone who hasn't experienced it. Sarah, Joe, Kate, Katrina, Franz, Lennart, and more, thank you for being my friend for a day, a week, a month. It was great.

As great as it is, traveling is much more than just the backpacking community, and really even more than just the sites you're seeing. Don't get me wrong, rounding the bend and seeing Machu Picchu spread out before you or watching the rising sun seem to make the Torres glow orange are sites that one should really see before they die. But when it comes down to it, the reason I find travel so entrancing, so addicting, is the way it makes the world a little less strange and dangerous. It is the fear of the unknown that keeps many people at home instead of venturing out, and that same fear that causes them to lash out at people or things that are different from their norms. However, if you can overcome that fear, and get out there, the world becomes a lot nicer place. The main drive for me to leave everything behind and strike out on my own for six months in a strange place was that desire to figure things out, to see what South America was really like outside of books and news broadcasts. And what I found was an incredibly friendly, fascinating, sometimes chaotic, and sometimes tragic place. But what I didn't find was a scary place. Instead, I found old ladies in traditional clothing that were happy to help me figure out which was my bus when there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to buses leaving the station. I found 8 years olds that were so excited to play Uno in a town five hours from anywhere in Bolivia. I found vendors at markets happy to give me just a little more fruit or a second helping because look a nice young gringo is actually able to converse in Spanish with me! I found people happy to take me in and serve me tea and cookies after running away from a tsunami warning. I found people that offered to give me a ride to the next town unasked when all I wanted to know was the bus schedule. I found lots and lots of people who were kind and happy to see someone from abroad coming to enjoy their country.

I found plenty of towns, cities, and parks that you could mistake for the US. Of course I also found extreme poverty, horrible corruption, political unrest and environmental disasters in the making. Often these things were juxtaposed right next to each other, the modernity of a developed country found right next to the problems of a developing country. Of course the problems, though often cited as deterrents for traveling there, aren't what defines the developing countries in the slightest. Peru shouldn't be defined by the slums surrounding Lima and Bolivia shouldn't be defined by the contamination and conditions emanating from Cerro Rico. All countries have these problems to a certain extent, developing countries more so than other countries where history has been kinder and allowed them a leg up in the global race. And seeing favalas and contaminated mines and leftover monuments to dictators allows you to understand the world and the full human experience better and realize the places or the people that live there aren't scary nightmares out to get you. The obstacles are there but so are people working to overcome them. And again, it's not like South America is a continent full of things like this, mostly it's an amazing place full of people cooking delicious food, playing amazing music, constructing beautiful buildings, preserving stunning National Parks, curating interesting museums, and welcoming strangers into their homes. It's a place similar to many others but at the same time like no other. And all the while, all these interactions and experiences worm your way into your heart so when you leave, you feel like you've left a small part of yourself behind as well. Everyone should go visit.

So hasta luego South America, but never adios. I'll be back again, maybe after I've checked out all the other parts of the world that are calling to me, telling me to come and experience them and make them a little less strange, but I will return.

Buenos Aires: The Family Arrives!

The end has finally (or already?!) come. The last stop on my trip was in Buenos Aires. Katie and I bussed up from the farm and spent two days playing tourist there before she had to fly home and my family arrived! Relativity is definitely a thing, because the hour spent waiting on the stoop at the apartment we rented for my family to roll in from the airport felt like at least 17 days. It was super exciting to see them again after six months traveling down a continent and up it again.

Finally here!!! 

Buenos Aires is a huge city. Though not as big as other cities I was in, the attractions are spread out so it feels like you have to do a fair amount of walking to see them all. Or maybe it was just the 90 degree weather and humidity that made the walks seem so long. Who knows. There's some nice museums and cool markets to walk through, but the city does feel over all like it's a little past it's peak. There's dog poop all over the sidewalks and lots of graffiti. Argentina has had economic problems for the past several years and has slipped from its spot at the top of the pile in South America and the city seems to reflect that. Not that it's a bad place to visit, just not my favorite city I was in.

Recoleta Cementary 

Tango in San Telmo

We were there over Christmas so the city was pretty quiet over the holidays with most stores and restaurants closed. We spent a couple days touring the city but also took several day trips - to an estancia to horseback ride, across the Río de la Plata to Colonia, Uruguay (another stamp in my passport!), and out to Tigre to do some boating on the delta. Clearly my standard of living/budget significantly increased once my parents joined the trip.

River crusin' with the babes 

It was very fun having my family join me for the end of my trip (even though their ulterior motive was clearly making sure I got on the plane to come back to the States). And I do have to say it would have been hard to stay behind while they all went home. I'm not going to say I was happy to leave South America but I do think I was ready to stop traveling for a while. More sappy reflections (as promised) will appear in my last blog entry, coming up where I think back on what I learned, if anything.

Cañuelas: Down on the Farm

For our penultimate adventure Katie and I landed near a town called Cañuelas, about an hour and a half outside of Buenos Aires, at a farm called La Farfalla run by a lovely couple named Matias and Mariana. While I've been using workaway to find my different volunteering gigs, Katie found this farm through WWOOF, the original work-travel site, exclusively dedicated to organic farms. It's pretty much exactly what you imagine a small farm to be like, full of animals, a vegetable garden, fruit trees, fresh air and good food.

We worked for six hours a day, three in the morning before it got super hot, and three in the evening after it had cooled down again. That gave us plenty of time to siesta, read, and generally relax after traveling at full speed for a couple of weeks. During our works hours we did a whole variety of tasks, from preparing new beds in the garden, to putting up chicken wire, to mowing grass, to, my favorite, wildly herding the sheep and chickens from one place to another. Nobody said farm animals were smart.

Another wonderful perk of staying on the farm was eating pretty much exclusively fresh, organic food, often harvested that day. Matias is a great cook, and consistently served up fresh bread and wonderful stir fries. Mariana spent some of the time we were there cooking down the gazillions of apples we harvested into preserves which of course were also amazing. The last day we were there, they actually decided to slaughter one of their sheep, so we had a massive asado which was delicious. Add in the fact that Matias also brews his own beer, and they produce their own honey, and it was some of the best meals I've had this trip. A really nice detox from the diet of carbs paired with ham and cheese that seems to be standard fair on busses and at hostels.

Additionally, while Katie is already a farmer extraordinaire, I as always, found it very interesting to learn some more practical farming skills, and to listen to Matias and Mariana talk about different problems and solutions they've encountered while growing their farm. Also, especially since Argentina has just elected a new president that a lot of people are not happy about, it was interesting to get their take on the political situation as well. The reality of how people feel about it is often at contrast to the dryer news reports.

All in all it was a great place to stay for a week and recharge for the last stop of my trip, Buenos Aires. It's kind of incredible to think that I've pretty much reached the end, but I am looking forward to seeing my family again after six months on the road. Stay tuned for one more city!

Mendoza: The Land of Vino

While we were in Mendoza with the express purpose of drinking wine, it also must be noted that it's a lovely city too. It's hot, but all the streets are lined with huge trees, giving you pleasant shade to walk in. There's five central plazas all will different statues or fountains and a nice pedestrian road full of restaurants and cafes. There's vineyards surrounding Mendoza for miles in all directions but the easiest to get to are in the neighboring town of Maipu, a short city bus ride away. There from a number of competing businesses, you can rent bikes, because the best way to get from vineyard to vineyard for a full day of drinking, or as the sophisticated call it "tasting," wine is careening around on a rickety bike navigating via provided free map that has no concept of scale or street names, right? Right.

Starting out strong 

Armed with our rudimentary map, we set out and managed to navigate to our first stop, a wine bar clearly marked with a gigantic purple bottle out front. There we pretended to know what we were supposed to be tasting and tried five different local wines before being gifted a full bottle of wine at the end. What a great start! From there we biked to a couple of really swanky vineyards, nice enough for us to sufficiently feel like we were in The Parent Trap, and acquired even more wine on each stop. By the end of the day both our bellies and backpacks were full of wine and we only had managed to stop at four places out of about twenty listed on our map. You could easily spend several days biking around trying them all.

After we returned our bikes, we hurried back into the city to catch one last overnight bus! This time we were heading for the outskirts of Buenos Aires to do a little bit of farming in the countryside. The second to last stop is coming up next in Cañuelas!

Neuquén: Another Dinosaur Land

After adequately filling ourselves up with  chocolate in Bariloche, we continued our Northward march by stopping in Neuquén to take a look at the remains of Gigantosaurus, the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered, bigger even than the famous T rex. After a brief set-back where all the tour companies were closed because it was the feast of the Immaculate Conception (who knew?) and we couldn't rent a car because neither of us knows how to drive stick (can someone please teach me?!), we were able to find a driver who would take us out to see the museum with the fossils and nearby dinosaur tracks for a fairly reasonable price.

After showing us the hydroelectric dam near the museum (strangely enough the second of my trip) we entered a small, but nicely curated museum. Typically the dinosaurs you see in the museum are replicas of the fossils mounted together so you can get an idea of the size and appearance of the dinosaur all together. This museum had these replicas too, but also the actual fossils of the Gigantosaurus which was super cool! The skeleton was 80% complete when found giving you a pretty good picture of just how big this dinosaur was. The museum also had a whole room dedicated to hydroelectric dams of Argentina in case that's your thing.

A little further from the museum were some fossilized dinosaur tracks which have unfortunately been mostly warn away by the Lake created by the dam. They weren't as numerous or as clear as the ones I saw in Toro Toro in Bolivia, but as always anything dinosaur is worth a look.

From our one day stop, we boarded another bus to bring us up to wine country aka Mendoza!

The Lake District: Argentina Edition

After finishing up our hike in El Chaltén, Katie and I boarded a bus to take us North out of Patagonia and into the Lake District. Though technically Patagonia in Argentina is a region that goes the whole way up to the Río Negro, most guide books separate the two regions out as they have very different characteristics. The Lake District is a more populated region and the landscapes aren't as stark as more Southern Patagonia. There's farms, forests, and of course the eponymous lakes.

Our first stop was in a smaller town called El Bolsón. El Bolsón is known as the town the hippies migrated to in the 1970s and still has a very laid back, crunchy feel to it. It's one of the first places I've come across in a while that actually sorts out some recycling from garbage which has been killing me a little for most of this trip. We also managed to time it so that we were in town for their craft fair that's held every weekend, where more really cool, handmade knick-knacks are sold than you could ever buy, along with a selection of local food and artisanal beer. The town itself is situated in a beautiful valley that has tons of hikes that we unfortunately didn't have time for and a couple of lakes for boating and swimming. It was definitely a place I would've loved to spend more time in, but bizarrely (at least to me) I'm actually working against a ticking clock now as my trip starts to wind down and we had to keep moving to keep to our schedule.

From El Bolsón we took a short bus ride to the better known town of Bariloche. This is the classic Lake District destination, and in my opinion, has suffered for it. While El Bolsón was charming, Bariloche has turned into an urban sprawl, although in a scenic location. Guide books had hinted that it was big, but I hadn't quite expected a full blown city. There was still hints of older charm, some of the buildings were still built in the tradition style and of course there was the main street full of chocolate shops, but it didn't really feel like a place to wander around in. Again, there is supposed to be some fantastic hikes and water sports in the surrounding area but we didn't have time to take advantage of them. I'm sure if we had had the time too, Bariloche would have been a more worthwhile destination, but just the city itself lacks charm.

If you're a faithful blog follower, you no doubt remember that I was also in the Chilean Lake District many months ago now. Of course when two countries have purportedly the same region, you can't help but compare the two. And really in a head to head competition, I think the Chilean Lake District comes out on top. Of course it has the advantage of being on the rainy side of the Andes so it's a lot lusher, and it also has a plethora of volcanos, a cool feature that the Argentinean side is missing. Finally, the old school German influence and charm is much more apparent on the Chilean side, giving it an interesting twist. So if you're ever in the position to choose one Lake District over the other, take it from the expert, Chile is the way to go!

Ushuaia: It's the End of the World as we Know It

And now for a bit of a backtrack to our stop in Ushuaia. After an incredibly long bus ride down from El Calafate that included a ferry across the Strait of Magellan and crossing both into and out of Chile, we arrived at the Southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia. It's where the Andes finally come to an end and it sits right on the Beagle Channel, where Darwin sailed through on his famous trip. It's where cruises to Antarctica leave from if you have a few thousand dollars to spare, which unfortunately we didn't, but it still has lots to offer besides that.

Ushuaia as seen from the Beagle Channel 

Our main goal in Ushuaia was to see some penguin, and to further that aim we booked a cruise of the Beagle Channel that among other attractions, such as sea lions and a light house, brought us to an island that several species of penguins inhabit. We saw a ton of Magellanic penguins and also a King penguin and a Gentoo penguin (all species identification is thanks to the informative guide). As stated before, penguins are the most hilarious of birds due to how awkward they are on land and the way they sleep like little logs. Additionally, it was very beautiful cruising through the channel and pretty interesting to think that the land which looks pretty identical on either side of the channel belongs to different countries (Argentina and Chile). Makes you think about what a human construct countries are really.

Magellanic Penguins hanging out 

We spent another day exploring Tierra del Fuego National Park then flew back up to El Calafate (turned out to be cheaper, not to mention much faster than taking the bus back) to get a bus to El Chaltén as detailed in the previous post. From here were heading North again to El Bolsón where craft markets and artisinal beer await us!