El Bolson

El Bolson

We arrived in El Bolson March 16^th after driving 8 hours from the town Perito Moreno. It was a long day on the desert highway. Oh, I’m sorry, what Argentine’s call Patagonian Pampas! It’s a bad subject. With all of our research, we have come to terms with a few stretchings of the truth. First of all, of the misleading information is the pampas, the fact is that most of Patagonia is actually desert. Secondly, is that El Bolson is a quaint hippy town. Granted it was the first town to declare a nuclear free zone back in the 1970’s, but I bet the majority of those on the city government who declared the nuclear free zone are not living in El Bolson anymore.

El Bolson is truly a nice town, however, it’s a work in progress. Once again, it’s reminiscent of a beautiful town that had a lot of forethought but quickly forgot about maintenance and preventing the deterioration of their town. El Bolson resides in a beautiful valley, surrounded by mountains on all four sides, which helps provide a microclimate that enables El Bolson to be a leader in fruits, vegetables and most importantly beer.

According to El Bolson’s website, they have a lot of mountain biking and trekking around and throughout the Andean mountains and the beautiful glacial river water. After speaking with the tourist office and getting a map of the area, I had Jen and Payton drop me off at the base of the Rio Azul River refugio. The biking was single track, finally, and the surrounding area was truly magnificent. The River was crystal blue and cold. The trails had a few hike-a-bike sections, but there were some good technical areas that I enjoyed. When I got to the bridge to the cross the river with my 28 lb bike it was a little sketchy. First, I forgot my helmet; second, I was by myself on a sketchy swinging bridge with quite a few support boards missing. (I’ll try to include photos when we get a decent Internet connection). I was planning on reaching the Rio Azul Refugio, but unfortunately, it was too late in the day and the majority of the sections were too steep to ride and I had to walk the bike. After climbing for nearly 1.5 hours I decided to head back because it was nearly 6:00pm and I was a at least 1 hour from town. My decent down the steep sections were quick and I had to place my hips completely behind my seat, since it was so steep. Luckily, I have a new Vanilla Fox 140mm front shock and loved it down the mountain. After a 10-12 minute decent I was back at the bridge. I crossed the bridge with some interesting wind gusts and started my return back on the trail. I reached an area on the map where it appeared that the main road was a couple hundred feet above me, which I thought would allow me to save time from hike-a-biking some of the way back to the beginning of the trail. I hopped a fence and started climbing a dirt road. After 15 minutes of climbing I could see the main road. Unfortunately, I was also on somebody’s private property. I was nearly 50 meters away from a barn and 150 meters from two different gates that accessed the main road above. As I approached the road some horses got spooked and they headed toward the barn. To my surprise, the owner of the property was in the barn yelling at the horses. As he came out, he quickly saw me. I put my hands up in the air telling him I was sorry for being on his land and that I was lost and confused from a fall on my bike. I apologized again in the best Spanish abilities I had. (I didn’t fall on the bike, but it he didn’t know that) He was pissed!!!! Yelling, in English, “this isn’t the Far West, people here are at WAR! Gaucho’s have guns and dogs. You are lucky!” He walked towards me angrily and told me to follow. I picked up the bike and walked to the gate with him. He let me out the gate and he told me if he saw me in 5 minutes he was going to call the police. I was gone! Landed in town in less than 30 minutes. So, Chris if you’re reading this, NO POACHING in Argentina!

We’ve been enjoying our down time. Went on a bike ride Saturday after visiting some cascading falls. The three of us hiked down and up the side of a mountain. Payton did great. She thought the falls were “beautiful.” Truly I think she enjoyed the picking of wishmakers and dandelions the most. My ride was not as eventful but interesting. I found another route all most all single track. Uphill with some screaming downhill options. I was climbing up the hill and there were tons of off-shoots from the primary trail, I told myself to stay on the main trail and avoid getting on other people property. When I made it to the top of the mountain I came across this old couple with a medium sized dog loading wood in the wheel barrel. I stopped and talk to them and also made sure the other trails were o.k. to ride on, I said good bye and the older man gave a weird look and I must have scowled or frowned, because the gaucho dog started barking and running towards me, the lady started yelling for the dog to come back, I decided to get the f--- out of there! I was flying down this small decline and the dog kept running at me attempting to bite at my heels and went through all my gears downshifting like crazy and flying down the now steep hill. I almost lost my helmet to a few tree branches more than once getting fleeing from the dog. In retrospect, I was glad I was going that fast, because the downhill section was so awesome and with some technical options I would probably have had tolow down if I wasn’t being chased. Therefore, slowing down wasn’t a for a possibility when I was going over 25mph. What I thought was going to take me a hour to complete, just took 25 minutes…

The next day we went to the artesian fair and Payton and I went on a run later in the afternoon. We took the chariot out and I think we received more weird (than astonishing) looks from people in town. During a section of intense starring and abrupt conversations when we ran by, I thought to myself, that Argentineans must feel the same way when we (Americans) see them driving their children through town on mopeds.

El Chalten

3/18/07

The drive to El Chalten was difficult to say the least. The winds were notorious! I had to take the bike off the roof and put it on the back of the car because the wind gusts were blowing us all over the road. THIS TIME OF YEAR IS SUPPOSED TO BE MILD WIND! The paved road to El Chalten is nearly complete. The small climbing town is growing with little guidance from public officials and is almost a free for all. Apparently, there are no building codes and hotels and houses are going up everywhere. Roads are dirt, but are in the process of being prepped for paving. El Chalten will be one of those places that you wished you bought property or housing at now so that you can count the money rolling in your pockets over the next 5-10 years. The mountains are beautiful and the trekking is easily accessible and free. I think the “no charge” for entering the park will unfortunately be short lived. The best thing about the park is that the trails can be easily tackled by anyone who is willing, regardless of age and physical abilities, even the couch potatoes!

The family and I rented backpacks, sleeping mats and a tent from the Camping Center. Word of advice, make sure you check your equipment in the store before you leave the store. I looked at everything, but didn’t actually try the equipment on. My MISTAKE! To my amazement the backpack I rented didn’t have a waist buckle. Unfortunately, my stubbornness and eagerness to get on the mountain surpassed the need to go back to the store. Fortunately, we had Payton’s carrier with us, which has a waist strap and buckle, so we were able to rig something together to make the journey more enjoyable for me. The beginning of the trail was frustrating to say the least. We had to climb over wood water bars while climbing a 15-18% grade. I forgot to mention that Payton was riding in her chariot and I was pushing the Chariot with Payton inside. The trail improved and as the climb progressed and the Fitz Roy Mountains became more apparent the nagging frustration quickly dissipated. Payton hiked the trail for 1.5 hours and loved it. She said repeatedly, “It’s beautiful here,” and “I like this place.” Of course, Payton got all of the attention while we ascended the trail. I don’t think anyone has seen a Chariot on this trail before; even the Park Rangers were surprised. We took a photo of the Chariot with Fitz Roy in the background, we are going to email it to the Chariot Company and see if they want to use it in an ad. Wish us luck; we need the income!

Nearly 1 mile from the campground, a guide informed us that we were “off roading” with the Chariot and that it was not allowed in the park. We defended ourselves quickly and informed him that a Park Ranger had already approved of us using the Chariot at the Mirador Fitz Roy and the guide became defensive and stated the fact that he worked for the Park and doubted anyone would allow the Chariot in the Park. We stuck to our guns and blew him off. It felt good to put this a-hole in his place and basically tell him to kiss our American asses. We were going on regardless of what he said!

The views were incredible! I can’t write down what we saw, nor what we experienced. I hope Payton visits this place again when she is older. The funniest thing about this trek was that we met 6 different groups from Seattle, WA. I have to say that Seattle holds the record for the most adventuresome group of individuals. We also met people from Belgium, Finland, England, Australia, France, Israel, South Africa and British Columbia

Camping was great for me. Jen wasn’t a big fan! She’s editing this, so I will let her write in what she wants at this juncture. Okay here is my take on backpacking, Jen’s comment, I like the hiking and love the scenery, but 3 people sleeping in a small 2 person tent is uncomfortable and sleeping in a tent with a two year old is challenging. She kept waking up and crying, asking us to turn on the lights. It is difficult for her to understand that the only light that we have is a headlamp. We finally decided to leave the headlamp on for the night and decided that we would only stay out one night, so it didn’t matter if the battery ran out.

We left the campground the next morning after climbing to Lagunas de los Tres! Great hike, Great Views! Unbelievable view of Ritz Roy! We hiked back to our car and without too much frustration while pushing the Chariot with a flat tire, we made it back to El Chalten with smiles on our faces and landed ourselves at the local brewery. The beer was great!

We spent the night in El Chalten, returned our rented gear and I was refunded for the backpack. We left the next morning, heading for El Bolson, knowing that we would stay overnight somewhere along the way. On our way out we saw a large glacier floating in the water from the Glacier Viedma. I couldn’t believe the size of this iceberg. I know that calving occurs often on Glaciers. I just can’t think that things are progressing faster than nature had planned. Global Warming at its best!

We drove and landed in the town of Perito Moreno. We had to drive Ruta 40, Argentina’s equivalent to Route 66. However, Ruta 40 for the most part is not paved. We drove 5+ hours on what felt and appeared to be dried up river/lake bed. The entire area appeared to be a riverbed thousands or millions of years ago. We stayed in a cabana in Perito Merano, which was really cute and rustic. It actually gave us some ideas for our next house. We were recommended by the owner of the cabana to try a particular restaurant a few blocks down the street. I was hungry and looking for something good. We walked into the restaurant and the female owner had a glass refrigerated display case of a variety of food options. One of the options appeared to look like fresh turkey with lots of oregano and seasoning on it. I knew that this was going to hit the spot. After a liter of beer our food came out and I took a bite of Lengua. I knew deep down that this wasn’t turkey, but I hoped that it was and was not in the mood for anything that was traditional Argentinean food. Well, after taking a few bites and examining the cross-section of the meat, Jen and I came to the unspoken terms that what I was eating was indeed COW’S TONGUE. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t make the nausea go away either. I didn’t feel right the entire night. I think Jen must have had sympathetic nausea as well. She didn’t feel good either. Payton on the other hand found another dish she likes, Milanesa. Basically, milanesa is like chicken fried steak, except that the meat is better down here. I guess she has a little of my grandfather Eugene in her.

The next day wasn’t enjoyable either, except for the fact that after driving over 2 hours on the worst gravel road EVER, we ended up in El Bolson. El Bolson is a very cute, hippy town. It has lots of green tree’s and multiple national parks and lakes. We will be here for two weeks. We are staying in a cabana that we really like. Unforunatley, after two days in the really nice cabana we had to downgrade to a smaller cabana because the previous cabana had wasp issues in the master bedroom. Everyday for two days when the sun came out the wasps would find a way into the bedroom until evening. I must have killed 12+ wasps in less than 48 hours. This wasn’t going to work for Jen. She has a phobia of bees and wasps, which she will admit openly. We’ve been eating good and enjoying some down time. Will visit the bike shop on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

El Calafate

El Calafate 3/12/07

We found a nice hosteria after minimal searching. It was rustic, old, but clean and had breakfast included. Which, in Jen’s world, is one of the most important things to be offered by a hotel. She reminds me of my younger brother, Jeff, when we were traveling through Europe. It didn’t matter where we were, he only would stay at a hotel that included breakfast. I think Jen is taking that role now. El Calafate is a nice upcoming town. Although it has been a tourist town for the last 50+ years, it appears within the last 5+ years that it has strived to serve the non-backpacker/hostel tourist; ie. Dinners are served earlier than the typical (1900), there are spa hotels, and there are international menus. We stayed in El Calafate for 3 nights and it was definitely what we needed. It is a mountain town with plenty of things to do and with the typical laid-back atmosphere of a mountain town. El Calafate is also home of Glacier Perito Merino. This is the fastest moving Glacier in South America and the world. It was truly beautiful. I think our pictures will represent a lot of what we saw. Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be able to share the high resolution photos we shot of the glacier on this blog. Payton enjoyed the glacier and she was definitely dressed for the day with many layers.

After 3 nights in El Calafate Jen wanted to stay at a Estancia that was 1.0 hour outside the city near Perito Merino Glacier. The estancia is over a century old, but from the looks of it you would never know. It is a working Estancia with sheep, cows and horses. We saw a sheep get sheared and took a short hike to Lago Roca (Lake Roca). With the estancia being so old, it seems that the only newer things added to the Estancia within the last 10+ years is satellite. Everybody in rural Argentina has satellite T.V. The food and hospitality were great. I even was able to enjoy the glaciated waters of Lago Roca. I took a quick swim in the water while Jen and Payton watched in dismay. Ian Golden and my brother would be proud! The adjacent picture is a photo of sheep skins removed from the carcas of a few sheep.

During our stay in El Calafate we discussed our dilemma in detail (crossing the Argentina/Chile border) and did some research on Torres Del Paine Nacional Parque. We even went to a rent-a-car agency where they were so mystified with our situation that they contacted the Argentina border control for us and attempted to figure out the problem for us. Once again, we were told that we need a DNI. Unfortunately, that wasn’t gong to happen. After much review and reluctance we chose not to rent the car and to go to the north section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciers instead in El Chalten (the south section we visited when viewing the Perito Merino Glacier). One of the main reasons we made this decision was based on the weather for the next week. It was going to be cloudy/sunny for 3-4 days and raining for the next 7 days. We had to choose between Torres del Paine or Parque Nacional Los Glaciers, specifically Fitz Roy and Cerro Toro. We chose El Chalten, not only for its legendary Fitz Roy and Cerro Toro, but also due to the fact that we read a blog and guide book that eluded that going to El Chalten was the better choice. What we researched informed us that El Chalten is basically the same park as Torres Del Paine except that Torres Del Paine has longer trekking routes and there is a fee to enter, whereas the north section of Parque Nacional Los Glaciers is free to enter and free to camp at.

FRUSTRATION!

Frustration/Anger/Disappoint 3/08/07

Today was one of those days that I will remember for a long time. Prior to coming down to Argentina I performed countless hours of research on Argentina and purchasing a car. With all the information on the internet, I figured once we bought the car and were out of Argentina everything would be fine. First, I should say that I’ve read about other people’s experiences crossing the borders with purchased cars or rentals and experiences have varied greatly. It seems to depend on the border crossing or the person at the counter. After reading the aforementioned paragraph you could only guess that we experienced problems at the Argentina/Chile border outside of Rio Turbio.

We left Puerto San Julian knowing it was going to be a very long driving day, but we also knew that it was going to be well worth the travel once we got to Puerto Natales, Chile. Nearly 6 hrs after we left Puerto San Julian we were at a “Y” in the road, 25km east to Rio Gallegos and 200+ km west to Rio Turbio. Unfortunately, there are not enough gas stations in southern Patagonia for detours not to occur. We had to drive east to Rio Gallegos, which was out of our way, in order to get gas and food. The other option was to take a gamble and drive west towards Rio Turbio in hopes of finding a gas station in the next 100 km with diesel on hand.

In retrospect, we were glad for the detour into Rio Gallegos. We found a Chinese buffet restaurant called Chan’s. Let me just say that in the states, this Chinese restaurant would not be in business for long, however, with everyone hungry and wanting something different, we thought the food was great. Payton liked the restaurant the best, it had a Parrilla and Chinese and she ate five 8 inch sausage dogs. I don’t know where she puts it.

Arriving in Rio Turbio, the last town before the Chile border was a sight for sore eyes. Rio Turbio is an old coal mining community that is trying to find new ways to beautify the area and generate money. The city went as far as to have the houses within the city limits painted bright colorful colors to help beautify the town. Trust me, it doesn’t help much. We didn’t care, because we were leaving Argentina! We drove through Rio Turbio and had to drive a couple of miles to the border crossing. The drive was beautiful. The closer we got to the Chile border the more green things became with evergreen trees and rock croppings. We stopped at the Argentina border crossing for our departure stamps on the passports. Everything seemed simple enough. We went to the border-crossing soldier who stamped all of our passports and then she directed me to the AFIP (Aduana) Customs agent. We waited in long line for approximately 10 minutes and during this time I got this unsettling feeling in my gut. We arrived at the window and after showing them all of our paperwork for the car; ie. registration, insurance, international driver’s licenses and our CDI, the man behind the window stated we couldn’t cross the border. WHAT!!!!! With our limited Spanish and the soldier’s very limited English we were able to recruit another tourist to help translate the issue at hand. It became apparent quickly that we were not crossing the border. Basically, it comes down to this… WE ARE NOT ARGENTIAN CITIZENS AND TOURISTS ARE NOT ABLE TO CROSS ANY BORDER WITH A CAR PURCHASED WITHIN ARGENTINA! We could only cross with a DNI. Well in order to get a DNI you need to reside within Argentina for 2-3 years and complete more paperwork…I attempted to argue with the man behind the counter, but that was useless. In Argentina, once someone says “no” it’s law. I requested to see the law in writing, unfortunately, it was on a laptop that was maybe older than I was and it wasn’t going to do any good. With Jen crying in the background, and Payton not knowing what just happened, I felt this overwhelming hopelessness. The closest town to rent a car was 2.5 hrs away in El Calafate. In addition, it was getting late, almost 2000, and we had to get a place to stay the night, but the closest town, which met our minimal habitation standards, was in El Calafate. With all of this disappointment, I once again had to get back in another line to re-enter Argentina and get our passports stamped again. If you remember, we were given approval to leave the country by the Border Patrol, but not by customs! Therefore, border patrol has to stamp our passports to enter the country. This required translations and help from superiors as well.

Referencias del mapa

Map references

Wthis map shows how close we were to the Chile border. The black dotted line is the Argentinean border. So Close!

Got into El Calafate that night at 2200. Long day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What will we do now?

Puerto San Julian

Driving in a foreign country is difficult at times. I felt myself reflecting on American driving standards, its laws and safety standards. For instance, most roads would have a maximum speed limit ie. 80 or 100 km/hr and most cars would be driving at 150+km/h. Although I feel that Argentinean drivers are generally better than most American drivers, I believe that the majority of them have a blatant disregard for driving laws and personal safety. I cannot count how many times we would be driving 65-70mph/hr and would be passed by a car driving well over 100mph/hr with either poor visibility or on a blind corner. More often than not, I feared that I would drive up on a traffic accident and would have to administer emergency care. Luckily, we didn’t witness nor were we involved in an accident.

We left Puerto Madryn fairly early the next morning. We knew it was going to be a long day, but didn’t anticipate the road construction and a few detours in small towns since there were no signs to direct to the route/highway. This resulted in nearly 10 hours in the car. Payton did great! I think she was in a better state of mind than Jen and I. This was also the first time we drove at night in Argentina. What a difference. Argentinos are so particular with the use of their high beams on the car. I can’t recall how many times I would be driving with my high beams on and a car barely visible, traveling toward me, would flash their high beams until I put my lights to low.

We arrived in Puerto San Julian around 9:00pm and found a hotel at 10:00pm that night. This fairly new hotel was cute. Unfortunately, due to fatigue and a lack of caffeine we didn’t take any pictures. The hotel reminded me of an old bar/ restaurant that was converted to a hotel. Our hotel room was tiny, two twin beds with a small armoire (I don’t think it was bigger than 10x12 room with a bathroom equally as small. The only way to go the bathroom on the toilet was for me to sit on the toilet at a 80 degree angle because my knees would touch the sink that was opposite of the toilet. We would have stayed in a better hotel but our pickings were limited. With no telephone or internet at the hotel we had to stay in town until 1000 to take care of some business at a local locuturio.

Long awaited Journey

Here is the complete up to date information you all have been waiting for…………… The best thing about Argentinos is their patience!

Patience for:

· foreigners buying up their country,

· Tourists who don’t speak a lick of Spanish

· buying a car without ever test driving or even sitting in it.

I equate this to the simple fundamental saying: It’s like premarital sex. Why wait until after the purchase before you know it’s going to be a good fit. It seems that the Argentino’s have a lot of faith in the person selling them the car. Luckily so did we! However, it seems foolish to pay up front and not be able to test drive what you will be with for a prolonged period of time.

After getting the money situation finally straightened out on Thursday, 2/22/07, we were told it would take an additional two days (two business days) for the proper paperwork to be completed; ie. registration, licensing etc… Holy Shit! Another three days in the wonderful city of Buenos Aires. Did we tell you that we are not city people? After finding out this news we decided to get the ball rolling on our Thule cargo box purchase and ensure that the Thule was in stock at the store we visited three weeks prior.

As our luck turns out, the Thule store, Waypack, will be closed the following week for vacation. Imagine that! Apparently, everyone that works at this particular store will be on vacation. In addition, they sold out of the Thule Ocean 700 that we wanted. (When we were at the store 3 weeks prior they informed us that they were getting a shipment in and they would have plenty of Thule Ocean 700 in stock. The only other store in the area was there sister store in Pilar (1-1.5 hrs away by car). You may think to yourselves, no big deal, just find another store! NO!!!!!!! The only place in BA that sells Thule is Waypack. We couldn’t find any other dealer nor were we told of any other dealer. I kept on thinking to myself that this would be o.k. We will just have them deliver the cargo box to us on Saturday, 2/24/07, to our apartment. Saturday morning came by quick. We took our 30 peso taxi ride to the store and talked with the owner of the company and explained our situation. After being told more than twice that he wouldn’t be able to deliver the boxes before the first week of March, we pretty much were having a cross between a panic attack and an all out, no holds bar, ass kicking session. He must have seen the anger in my eyes and the tears forming in Jen and Payton’s eyes, before he gave in . Come to find out, he is a very nice Porteno who actually ended up going above and beyond. He delivered the Thule, car rack and bike rack to our apartment within an hour.

On Monday we were finally able to pick up our car. The early afternoon started out as the typical path of misinterpreted of translations. I was told that we could pick up the car at 1300 (1:00 pm). However, I must have experienced the head up your ass syndrome, because we arrived at 1300 and were told that we couldn’t get the car until 1500. This is because (what I believe to be the truth) everyone in the office goes on his or her cushy siesta for 2 hrs.

Long story short. Renault gives you, the purchaser, a bottle of nice champagne and what I believe to be the “Golden Handshake.” Everything is on track. We left with the Kangoo at 1600 and drove to the apartment. Jen packs everything down from the apartment and loads the Kangoo while I put the racks on the car. Racks went on easy, however one simple problem. The damn racks were too far apart for the Thule and the bike racks. Jen and I just gave each other disappointing looks. We had few options at this point. Our check out was at 1700 and it was already 1645. We needed to get different racks and fast!

After the checkout we made a mad dash out of BA to Pilar, where the sister shop of Waypack was located, it was approximately 1-1.5 hrs away depending on traffic. We left at 1800 and we knew that the shop closed at 1930. Despite what a lot of you may be thinking, we didn’t drive fast to make up time, nor did we attempt to take a “short-cut.” We were actually the ones being passed left and right of us. With little traffic we made it to Pilar at 1900. Thirty minutes before the shop was to be closed. Ismael, (the owner of the shop) was very nice and was actually briefed on our situation by Carlos (owner of the Waypack shop in BA) prior to us even calling Ismael. Two hours later we have new bars and our Thule Ocean 200 is secured and ready to go. The only bad thing is that we were unable to have a second bike rack on top. Oh well. Ismael helped us even more by finding lodging for us since it was so late. He called numerous hotels in the area and after making the reservation for us he guided us personally to our hotel. We gave him our champagne we received from Renault as a thank you (it was a really nice bottle of champagne).

We stayed at the Parque Hostel. It was probably a 1-2 star hotel. It was clean, but the sheets were really thin and the king size bed (two twins put together) were very old and used, so say the least. Jen didn’t really care for the lumpy pillow (it was old egg foam pushed together inside a pillow case. I thought it was comfortable. I like the fact that I’m breaking down Jen’s 3-4 star hotel comfort requirements!

Tuesday was nothing but pouring rain. The Parque Hostel was on the verge of flooding from all the rain we received during the night. Payton slept with us most of the night because of the thunder and lightning, it scares her. We drove to La Plata from Pilar, but first had to make a quick stop back in BA to pick up my bike at the apartment and to drop off a present for Juan Harrington since he had been so wonderful to us. When we arrived in La Plata we went straight to Repulica de los Ninos. (put link here) Supposedly, depending on what reference you read, Walt Disney visited this establishment in the early 1940/1950’s and got the idea of Disneyland from this ideological children’s park. Eva Peron (put reference here) had this built for her hard working constituents. Unfortunately, I don’t think the park has had much maintenance performed on it since the park opened in the 50’s. It’s in much disrepair. It seems that the only good thing at the park is their outside pool for the children. It’s very sad. I truly could imagine this place back in the 50’s with all of its glory.

Due to the lack of fun potential at Republica de los Ninos in La Plata, we decided to go to Pinamar a day early. It was only a couple of hours away so the drive was short and rewarding. The roads down here are quite impressive. They are as good as any federal highway in the states. Pinamar is a beautiful, small and well designed beach resort town. Apparently, 50+ years ago the entire area was displaced with sand dunes. Then ___________planted some trees and realized he was able to change the way sand dunes were placed and designed Pinamar from the center square and outward.

We quickly found a nice two star hotel, unpacked and walked to the beach as quickly as we could. When we got to the beach we let Payton run and play since she has been talking about the beach for nearly two weeks now. Payton loved it…The next day, we got a tent on the beach for 30USD. Payton took her first nap outside in the fresh air! She slept on a lounge chair in our tent. We stayed on the beach from 1000 to 1700 and Payton played in the sand the entire time, minus her 2 hour nap. We were truly happy for her! If it wasn’t for the weather, we probably would have stayed in Pinamar for a couple more days, however, as our luck turned out it rained the entire night and into the morning. The forecast for the next couple days involved more rain and clouds. Therefore, we decided to leave Thursday and drive to Tandil.

Tandil reminded Jen and I of what Sonoma County probably looked like 50-60 years ago. Rolling hills, green farm pastures, and plenty of open space. Tandil is approximately 25-30000 people in the central city, then all of the outlying areas are fairly large parcels. Tandil was designed for individuals who want what a city has to offer, but want to live just a short distance outside of the city to enjoy open space and rolling hills. If only we had the same premise in other areas of the world. Tandil is now a destination for adventure tourism. (not that I see much of that) Tandil also appears to be a meca for athletes. I’ve never seen so many people running and road biking in all of Argentina. It was a site for my sore eyes! I was fortunate enough to get on my mountain bike finally. I transported this bike from the U.S. and have only ridden it once prior to leaving Buenos Aires. It felt good to get back on the saddle. I went on a 2.5 hr ride and only 1 hour of it was on dirt. However, I was able to play around in some moderate technical areas, so it was worth it. Apparently, a lot of the mountain biking around here is on private land, so I’m told I need a guide. My plan was to get a guide for Saturday, but my luck is changing. While we were driving toward a mountain bike guide’s shop I saw a guy on a pretty nice mountain bike take a good jump off this embankment. I looked at him riding and 100 yards later there was a red stop light. I waited, fortunately for me, he was riding towards us and stopped at the stop light right beside us. I started talking to him, he said that he saw our Thule Bike rack and suspected I was a rider. After conversing with him for a couple minutes on the side of the road, he said he would take me out Saturday for 3-5 hrs. Holy Shit!!!! Am I out of shape!!! A lot of sedentary activity and drinking by my part has left me to be one lard ass. I’m going to have my ass handed to me on a platter. Hopefully, he isn’t that good on the technical stuff, it maybe the only way I can hang with him, (Gustavo). Best of all, I don’t have to pay him. I told him that I would buy the beer!

Well, I found the right person to ride with. Gustavo invited two of his friends, Martin and Marino. They are all on the same mountain bike racing team. Gustavo is the most talented. Martin is another Ryan Ness (for those of you who don’t know Ryan, he’s a highly talented and athletic person who kicks my ass on the road…) Marino who didn’t understand nor speak a lick of English was always smiling and very gracious; he also wanted to find out how much everything cost ie. Watch, bike etc... He was a very good climber. All I can say for me, I’m out of shape. They are at their peak shape from summer training and races. However, when it comes to downhill biking. The Yeti takes it all… I actually felt bad/worried at the same time. They kept looking at my bike and speaking in Spanish, it’s all the “best.”

After a little over two hours of riding, my ass was sore and my legs were tired. I literally got my ass handed to me on a platter… It was embarrassing to be this out of shape on a bike…After the ride we stopped by a little minimarket. I told them I would by the beer, I went in to buy four 1 liter beers, but Martin stopped me and said way too much, so we got 1 liter of beer and 1 liter of coca-cola and split it between the four of us…Definitely not like riding with the guys at home. We would have finished a liter each.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Tandil. We NEED to get to Patagonia before the weather becomes unbearable. We had a long day in the Kangoo, 8 hrs, driving to Las Grutas. If any of you have ever went to Rosarito (put link here) Baja California, Mexico back in the late 1980 or very early 1990’s then you know exactly what Las Grutas looks and feels like. In the next ten years Las Grutas will be upscaled and no longer inexpensive for the commoners. Because truly, Las Grutas now is for the Commoners. Unfortunately, we never took one picture. We got in 1800 and left at 1400 the next day. We spent four hours on the beach and Payton wanted to go after that. Mainly she was tired, but also the tide was increasing more quickly than we imagined.

We left Las Grutas and drove to Punta Piramedes. Small village on Puerto Valdes. This town is really small. All of our guide books informed us they didn’t have atm or internet yet. However, recently, (very recent) they obtained both. They use satellite. However, after using the Internet, they might as well be on high-speed dial-up. Puerto Valdes is a World Heritage site. Something very unusual about the SE seashore was very amazing. The entire hillside and rock walk way had visible crustaceans from 10+ million years ago. None of the guidebooks mentioned this in its description of the small town. After speaking with two different people we were told the high tide the next morning would be at 0800. Therefore, you would want to be there at 0700-0900. The night went pretty smooth, except at 0400 in the morning the electricity went off. No big deal, alarm on the wristwatch. We awoke in mid darkness; luckily we were prepared with headlamps etc…

We drove off to Puerto Norte at 0700 in hopes of seeing Killer Whales eat baby sea lions. Unfortunately, we arrived at 0800 after driving 1 hour on pretty horrendous dirt roads. We arrived, however, the high tide, which enables the Killer Whales to beach themselves and grab a pup, didn’t arrive till 1255. Its amazing two different locales within the community could get the tide incorrect, but be able to tell us the exact same time when it was to occur??? We took the liberty to see other animals ie. Penguins. See photos.

After a couple hours we ended back at Puerto Norte, however, after 1.5 hrs their was no hope of seeing a Killer Whale. Nature is unpredictable. Did I mention the weather was pretty bad with 50 mph/hr winds and rain at times… Oh yeah, the roads. I sparing our family from the details, but lets just say, that the Kangoo takes a lick and keeps on ticking, even with 10kg of small gravel rocks remaining above the skid plate.

We drove to Puerto Madryn, found a nice hotel. However, as luck turns out, electricity has been another issue. Only on our block has it been out for the majority of the night, in addition we are having problems with the internet, like no internet. This is the major night in determining what are plans will be for the next couple of weeks. Will see and how it turns out. I’m writing this letter right now at 2200 and hoping to get on the internet before its too late…