Vova's Travel Blog

Back on track!

2009-06-02T20:24:00.001+03:00

We're back on track. I'm moving all my travel emails back here. It'll take some time, but it will come :)

Carretera Austral part II

2006-07-19T04:36:00.000+03:00

Next day, we decided to get the hell out of Cochrane, heading south. Villa O´Higgins if possible (it´s the far end of the carretera austral), Caleta Tortel if not. And so, we grabbed our bags and sat at the south exit of the town waiting for a nice cozy car to take us south. We were waiting for hours. All the cars passing by were giving us the familiar signals from the army trempiada - ¨I´m going, and you´re staying here¨, or ¨I´m going really far, Villa O´Higgins, you have nothing to do there¨, or ¨La bahad¨. Anyway, around 5 in the afternoon, we decided to give up, the people of the fine city of Cochrane just refuse to go south more than 2-3 km, and so we bought ourselves bus tickets for the next day to Caleta Tortel.
The next morning, without much hesitation, we sat on the bus headed to Caleta Tortel. It is amazing how the view on this side of the mountains is so different from the same place on the Argentinian side. Instead of the desert, we were going through high wooded mountains with glaciers on the top and lakes on the bottom. After only an hour, we had a pancher, which revealed the true nature of our driver. While changing the wheel, the driver was screaming ¨Haya!!!!!¨ so passionately, it was obvious that the samurai ways were not strange to him. We only had to wonder how come he didn`t get out his sword and cut the misbehaving wheel in two.
After picking up a dozen hitchhikers from nearby farms and dropping a lot of boxes and bags in an airdrome next to Tortel, we finally arrived at the village. Caleta Tortel, a small village situated on the Baker river. The interesting thing about the village, is that it has no roads. It has the access road which ends in a parking lot, from which you start descending using stairs to the village itself. The village was built on the slope of the mountain, and because of the steep climb and the humidity, the only way to get from place to place is by boat through the river, or by walking on wooden passages and stairs which can be a great scenery for a nice horror movie. Not really understood at first why would anyone bother to build this place, but probably, the Baker company got a lot of money on cutting the local forest and exploiting the population that it was worth it.
Walking around the village, we got to the Plaza de Armas, a ¨must have¨ in almost every city in SA (until now except Argentina). Joking about being the last tourists in patagonia, we suddenly heard English. We went closer and talked to the tourists. It appeared that they worked in some volunteer project from British kids, and finished it, and were on their way to catch the boat from Villa O´Higgins to Candelaria Mansilla and cross to Argentina (the boat we didn´t wait for). The volunteers were waiting for a boat to take them to the Isla de los Muertos - Island of the Dead. They offered us to join them and so we did. Island of the Dead is located not far from Tortel, but because we rented the slowest boat in the western hemisphere, it took us some time to get there. The story of the island was, that the Baker company, which exploited the local resources a hundred years ago until a few decades ago, settled about a hundred workers on the island. After not so long, all of them died from unknown (until now) cause.
While getting closer to the island, i had, again, the feeling that i´m in a cheap horror movie. 8 people in their early twenties arriving at and island, holding a terrible secret! The Island Of The DEAD! The island itself was a lot more boring than the story surrounding it. We disembarked, walked for 10 minutes, looked at the old cemetery, and went back (except for the people who disappeared on the island and were never to be found again). All this journey made us hungry, and we started our quest for food. It appeared to be a much harder task than you can imagine. We walked all around the village, but could find only one overpriced restaurant in the whole village.
Anyway, the next day we decided we´ve had enough, and started pondering about ways to get out of the village. There were two possibilities: taking a bus back to Cochrane or taking a lift with the micro that was supposed to pick up the volunteer guys and take them to Villa O´Higgins. The micro was full and so we decided to take the bus to Cochrane, get off at the intersection of carretera austral and the access road to Tortel (intelligence reports advised that there´s a mirador - lookout point - there where we can sleep), spend there the night, and in the morning try to catch a ride to Villa O´Higgins. The backup plan for no rides was the weekly bus Cochrane-O´Higgins that was supposed to pass there around 1130. Without pulling the cow by it´s tongue, we bought tickets for the bus, said goodbye to Tortel and headed away.
Walking around the village, we got to the Plaza de Armas, a ¨must have¨ in almost every city in SA (until now except Argentina). Joking about being the last tourists in patagonia, we suddenly heard English. We went closer and talked to the tourists. It appeared that they worked in some volunteer project from British kids, and finished it, and were on their way to catch the boat from Villa O´Higgins to Candelaria Mansilla and cross to Argentina (the boat we didn´t wait for). The volunteers were waiting for a boat to take them to the Isla de los Muertos - Island of the Dead. They offered us to join them and so we did. Island of the Dead is located not far from Tortel, but because we rented the slowest boat in the western hemisphere, it took us some time to get there. The story of the island was, that the Baker company, which exploited the local resources a hundred years ago until a few decades ago, settled about a hundred workers on the island. After not so long, all of them died from unknown (until now) cause.
While getting closer to the island, i had, again, the feeling that i´m in a cheap horror movie. 8 people in their early twenties arriving at and island, holding a terrible secret! The Island Of The DEAD! The island itself was a lot more boring than the story surrounding it. We disembarked, walked for 10 minutes, looked at the old cemetery, and went back (except for the people who disappeared on the island and were never to be found again). All this journey made us hungry, and we started our quest for food. It appeared to be a much harder task than you can imagine. We walked all around the village, but could find only one overpriced restaurant in the whole village. Anyway, the next day we decided we´ve had enough, and started pondering about ways to get out of the village. There were two possibilities: taking a bus back to Cochrane or taking a lift with the micro that was supposed to pick up the volunteer guys and take them to Villa O´Higgins. The micro was full and so we decided to take the bus to Cochrane, get off at the intersection of carretera austral and the access road to Tortel (intelligence reports advised that there´s a mirador - lookout point - there where we can sleep), spend there the night, and in the morning try to catch a ride to Villa O´Higgins. The backup plan for no rides was the weekly bus Cochrane-O´Higgins that was supposed to pass there around 1130. Without pulling the cow by it´s tongue, we bought tickets for the bus, said goodbye to Tortel and headed away.
The bus to Cochrane left us on the junction, and we headed to the promised mirador to start getting ready for the night. The mirador was very comfortably located, allowing us to see the carretera austal for miles in the direction we needed. Besides that we had a nice wind sheltered large room, a balcony and a nice fireplace. A fireplace is a real happiness, because in Patagonia, it is forbidden to light fire anywhere because of massive fires that exterminated large quantities of forest in the 30s. Anyway, we started a nice fire, and called it a night.
In the morning, we started waiting for passing cars in the direction of Villa O´Higgins. Didn´t pass a long time, when a nice jeep stopped by. In the jeep was a woman, driving from Coyhaique almost until Villa O´Higgins. The only problem with her, was that she had only one spare place. Since passing cars in the carretera are not that common, without thinking too much we both sat on the same seat. As the smaller one, i was sitting on top, trying not to bang my head in the windshield each time there was a stone on the road. Like this, after not much time we entered Puerto Yungay.
Puerto Yungay, a small village (10 houses), used to be the end of the Carretera Austral, as a nice sign, signed by Pinochet himself sais. In the year 2000, the carretera was extended until Villa O´Higgins, and in Puerto Yungay, the government has put a free barge service to cross the canal.After crossing the canal, we continued driving down the carretera, and this time we managed to locate ourselves better, and even could smalltalk with the driver. In the south of Chile, everyone are occupied with the Baker river hydro electro station. Chile doesn´t have much electro stations, and she needs to buy electricity from Argentina and Bolivia. The same situation happens with natural gas, so in all chilean houses (in the south at least), besides the gas stove, there is a wood stove, on which most of the cooking is done. About 6 kilometer from Villa O´Higgins, the woman took a turn to the farm she was headed to, and we started walking towards the village. Pretty soon, a tender passed by, and picked us up and brought us to Villa O´Higgins. The bus to Cochrane left us on the junction, and we headed to the promised mirador to start getting ready for the night. The mirador was very comfortably located, allowing us to see the carretera austal for miles in the direction we needed. Besides that we had a nice wind sheltered large room, a balcony and a nice fireplace. A fireplace is a real happiness, because in Patagonia, it is forbidden to light fire anywhere because of massive fires that exterminated large quantities of forest in the 30s. Anyway, we started a nice fire, and called it a night.
In the morning, we started waiting for passing cars in the direction of Villa O´Higgins. Didn´t pass a long time, when a nice jeep stopped by. In the jeep was a woman, driving from Coyhaique almost until Villa O´Higgins. The only problem with her, was that she had only one spare place. Since passing cars in the carretera are not that common, without thinking too much we both sat on the same seat. As the smaller one, i was sitting on top, trying not to bang my head in the windshield each time there was a stone on the road. Like this, after not much time we entered Puerto Yungay.
Puerto Yungay, a small village (10 houses), used to be the end of the Carretera Austral, as a nice sign, signed by Pinochet himself sais. In the year 2000, the carretera was extended until Villa O´Higgins, and in Puerto Yungay, the government has put a free barge service to cross the canal.
After crossing the canal, we continued driving down the carretera, and this time we managed to locate ourselves better, and even could smalltalk with the driver. In the south of Chile, everyone are occupied with the Baker river hydro electro station. Chile doesn´t have much electro stations, and she needs to buy electricity from Argentina and Bolivia. The same situation happens with natural gas, so in all chilean houses (in the south at least), besides the gas stove, there is a wood stove, on which most of the cooking is done.
About 6 kilometer from Villa O´Higgins, the woman took a turn to the farm she was headed to, and we started walking towards the village. Pretty soon, a tender passed by, and picked us up and brought us to Villa O´Higgins.
That´s all for now,
Almost coming back,
Vova, Huaraz, Peru

The bycicle accident, or Carretera Austral part I

2006-06-27T20:32:00.000+03:00

Shalom gente,
First, let me assure you that indeed, there was a Taxkir, and the maskanot were published in ¨Argentina Taxkirei Kimat Ve Nifga Daily¨. Anyway, we left El Chalten for good. Got in the bus and never looked back. Actually we did look back, because the bus driver was stopping every now and then to smoke and for us to take pictures (all the bus were tourists). After 12 hours, we made it to Los Antiguos, a small nice town on the border with Chile. The name ¨Los Antiguos¨ - The Old People, was givven to the town because in the previous times, Tehuelche indians were coming here to live their last couple of days. Indeed, this town makes you sleep well. Everytime we were going to take a nap for and hour, we ended up sleeping ¨without our back legs¨ for 5-6 hours. We happened to be in L.A. on sunday night, and had the privelege of participating in the weekly parillada (barbeque) of the family in whose house we were staying. I have to say, it´s a very nice tradition. You make a fire in your yard, take a corpse of a nice, young lamb, crucify it and stick it near the fire to cook a bit. And then you eat it :)
When our plan codename ¨Lago Desierto¨ failed, we decided to buy bicycles in Los Antiguos, and do some cycling down the Carretera Austral (the southern highway).In Los Antiguos, we found a bike shop and negotiated two pairs of used bikes. As the future showed us, the only thing, cheaper in Chile than in Argentina, was bicycles... All the ____. After buying the bikes, we ate our last meal in L.A, and headed off to cross the border to Chile, to a nice small town called Chile Chico. I won´t go into long explanations about how we managed to put all our equipment on the bikes. Let´s just say, it was very heavy and uncomfortable. According to the map, there were 7 km from L.A to C.C, but when we arrived at the Gendarmeria Nacional of argentina, they informed us that it´s 15 km until the Carabineros of Chile. Anyway, we started paddeling. Luckily for us, half of the road was paved, and in general, it was very plain. And still, with 20 kg on your back, the bikes were the source of all evil. After a lot of suffering, we finally arrived in C.C. A very grey town (like most chile towns), windy and cold. After finding an hospedaje, we started analizyng which bodyparts we need to cut.In the next couple of days, we were making ¨tipul 10000¨ to the bikes - brakes, bought grills for the bags. Besides that, we were mostly watching TV. 3 times xXx (not the porn, the movie with Vien Diezel). I have no idea why they decided to play this movie every day.
Anyway, after lots of television, we finally hit the road. The road was aweful. Lots of steep accents, where we needed to get of the bike, and walk with it. To add to that, my ¨grill¨ broke at some point, and I decided to take a ride about 20km from where we were (we wanted to do 30km that day) and wait for Roman while trying to fix the grill. A small truck came by, which was going to a road workers´ camp just about where I wanted to wait for Roman. While we were passing through Roman (about a km in front of me) I signaled him, and unfortunatelly, because i was sitting in the back of the truck, I couldn´t tell the driver to stop so I could explain where will I be, so I just hoped Roman will not abandon the plan and I will meet him in the camp as I planned. After arriving to the workers camp, i set up a headquarters, wrote my name in stones, and put my bike where it could be easily seen from the road. A couple of hours with the leatherman (a real life saver :) i managed to fix my grill. In the evening, some guy coming from Chile Chico, told me he saw Roman, and Roman told him that he´s coming tomorrow noon. As i found out later, i just didn´t understand him correctly. But at that point, i decided to stay with the workers, who kindly gave me dinner and a bed. In the evening we talked a bit. Most chileans, make about 300K pesos (around 3000 shekels), while prices are mostly like in Israel, and some things are even more expensive. Most chileans don´t go on vacation, not even to neighbouring latin countries. The economy is good, but it serves only a small layer of the population. These guys work like in the army, 26 days on the road, 6 days at home. Most chileans (everything here, refers more to the south of chile) get married very young, 22-23.
In the morning, i continued with waiting for Roman. At 1300, i started asking passing cars, and no one saw him. Since he might have taken a ride and passed by me, i decided to get as fast as i can to Cochrane, where there is internet, and send Roman an email, and wait for him there. Luckily for me, there was a guy going from that camp, to another camp near Cochrane, and he agreed to take me there. After a couple of hours we made it to the Carretera Austral. On the road we passed a couple of small villages - Mallin Grande and Puerto Guadal. These are very funny places. Puerto Guadal, for example, is a very touristical place, with lots of cabañas (zimmerim) and hostels and stuff, but the roads inside the village look like a tank platoon just had a massive lashab training on them, and a lot of houses had the toilet outside. After passing these villages, we came to the end of the lake, and the road connected to Carretera Austral. Carretera Austral - the Southern Highway, is really a 1.5 unpaved lanes going from Puerto Montt to Villa O´Higgins. On the way, it´s passing through chilean Patagonia, a very beautiful region. On the way, we passed a river called Rio Baker, a very beautiful river, on which, a spanish firm is building a hydro-electro station. This station, is talked about in all southern chile. I´ll tell about it more a bit later.
Finally, we made it to a point, 30km from Cochrane, where Marcus (the driver) had to turn right to his camp, and i stayed on the road waiting for a ride. I waited for about 3 hours, only 2 cars passed by, and they didn´t have room, so i was very happy to see, that by the road, there´s a small house (like really small, 2X2). But because i didn´t have a tent, it was a real saviour. Besides, in the cabin was a small stove, and a bit of wood, so i could make fire and not die from cold. While i was making these plands, suddenly a pickup came from the camp, and it was going to Cochrane, and had place in the trunk. So i loaded all my belongings, sadly abandoned the cabin plan and climbed to the trunk.
After a VERY cold ride in the trunk we made it to Cochrane, where i asked the locals and they showed me where to find a hostel. I won´t bore you with the details of what i did in Cochrane. Only it really reminded me of the Bahad. To get a map, i was sent to the city hall, which sent me to the library, which sent me to the cultural center, which sent me back to the library, which called the city hall, and gave me the stupid map. After two days, in which i was basically just walking around the town, i met Roman in the only internet cafe in the city where he told me how he got to Cochrane on a vegetable truck, with stuff flying around him. That´s it for now, next time, we´ll get with the brave travelers to Villa O´Higgins.
Chao, Vova,
Santiago de Chile

Parque Nacional Los Glacieres, part II

2006-05-18T08:39:00.000+03:00

So, ladies and gentlemen, after 5 hours bus ride, we arrived in El Chalten. El Chalten is a very small village, very touristical. It´s sole purpose is to be the base camp for trekkers, mountaneering parties and just bored tourists who come to walk around, climb and look from far away (respectively) on the Fitz Roy massif. Actualy, in the winter, most of the village population leaves. The town is located in the park itself. Just exit your hostel and start walking. El Chalten, is actualy the Indian name of the Fitz Roy mountain, it means The Peak of Fire (they thought it was a volcano).
Anyway, we arrived in El Chalten, and the first thing i saw when i stepped out of the bus, was Alex (Sarit´s husband) who was checking if we were on that bus. It turned out that Sarit, Alex and Alon were still in El Chalten, so we made a little reunion dinner and celebrated Roman´s birthday. The next day everybody left, and we started planning our trek. We didn´t want to do the traditional trek, so we decided to walk on the first day until the far end of the trail (after the limit of the national park), climb Cerro (mountain) Electrico - about 2400m, we were climbing from 900m, and then on the third day return to El Chalten.
Before going on that trek, we found a tour agency who might be able to get us to a place in Chile called Villa O´Higgins. It´s an isolated village, who didn´t have a road leading to it until 2000. We were supposed to take a bus to Lago Desierto (30km from El Chalten), then walk 13 hours and catch a boat in Candelario Mansilla (already in Chile). The only problem was with the boat. The agency didn´t know when the next boat leaves (off season...). If we were to take that boat when we thought it might be on, we were to return in three days.
That was the preface. The first day of the trek went without much adventures. We got to the first camping (Poincenot) where most of the people stop, and continued 3 more hours to Los Troncos where we were to camp. In the middle, there was a very nice valley called Piedras Blancas (white stones) with a glaciar, a lake and all the happy stuff. Near the last camping, i suddenly heard a sound of an animal jumping on the leaves on the path just behind me. ¨A puma! Finally!¨ i said to myself happily, but i turned out to be a regular cat. Well not too regular. It ate some wrong mushrooms, and got megalomania. The poor cat thought it was at least a tiger, with a definite mission: protect Vova from the dangerous beasts of the forest (rabbits and woodpeckers). It was walking right behind me, meaw-ing at the forest. Everytime i stopped to rest, it was making circles around me, climbing on fallen trees and looking very angry at the forest. Anyway, with that guardian angel i safely got to Los Troncos where we camped. Usually, this was a paid-for camping (private property and stuff), but the owner went somewhere, and the camp was deserted. It looked very much like a cheap horror movie: broken toys lying everywhere, locked cabins, squeaking chains... Besides us, there was another couple who climbed the mountain that same day, and a strange guy, who was alone, but with a HUGE tent, with lots of wine, food, gas and stuff in it. Later we talked, and he turned out to be the keeper of the museum in Chalten, and his friend, a guide, asked him as a favour to be a cook for some rich tourist couple who were coming the next day.
Next morning, we started the accent. It was hard, but interesting. It took us about 4.5 hours. All the time a very strong wind blew, and we had to climb on snow the las couple of hundred meters. Unfortunately, the visibility was not so good (snow), so we couldn´t see much, only the really close mountains. After taking some pictures, we climbed down from the mountain (a lot scarier) back to the camp. As usual, we started cooking our pasta, while 2 meters from us, the ¨chef¨ was making some meat-potato meal for the rich guys, while they drink wine and chat. At some point, we had a full detailed plan, of how we murder them, eat their food and hide their bodies (they won´t be found in a long time) but the plan didn´t get the permission of the parlament so we abandoned it and went to sleep.
Next day was supposed to be very easy - retrace our step back to El Chalten. Or so we thought...The morning was very beautiful. Perfect sky, not a cloud, shame we didn´t have that weather yesterday on the mountain. After walking about an hour, we got separated (Roman was going a lot faster), and then i got the feeling, that the path is not taking me in the right direction. Mefaked toran talked to kzin agam, and the final decision was to cut through the woods to the river (by which we were going all day1) and turn right. Somehow i managed to find (or make) a path between the thick woods, and made it to the river. Roman wasn´t waiting for me at the corner (which is very untypical), but i decided that he´ll probably wait for me in Poincenot, so i continued there. In Poincenot i didn´t find any signs of Roman. Because he´s much faster than me, i decided that he probably waited for me, but because i got lost and it took me an extra hour to get to Poincenot, he continued to El Chalten. Just in case, i waited for him for 45 minutes, and then continued to El Chalten. After arriving in the hostel, i started questioning the receptionist if Roman already came. He told me that he didn´t, so i rented us two beds and went to check if we have a boat, and if Roman is there. The answers to both questions were negative, there was no boat until the 25th, and Roman didn´t pass by. I went back to the hostel, and started waiting for him. When the sun was starting to set, i decided it´s time to call the cavalry (the guardiaparque) to look for him. I made only 100 steps from the hostel, when i suddenly saw in the twihlights a familiar figure. It turned out that Roman got lost more than me, and that he was running around the parque trying to find the correct entrance from the private property part of the trek. When he finally entered the parque, he assumed that i´d wait for him in Chalten, and made another 2 hours side trip.
After all these nerves, we decided not to cook this evening and went to make some restaurant owner happy. Because we didn´t want to wait a week until the 25th, we decided to change the boat plan and go north until Lago General Carrera, buy there bycicles, and go south on the carretera. We bought ourselves the last two seats on the last bus from Chalten to Los Antiguos (on the shores of Lago Buenos Aires - the argentinian name for Lago General Carrera) - else we would have returned to El Calafate, made another day trip to Laguna Torre - a very nice lake underneath the Cerro Torre, a very beautiful and tecnically hard mountain, and left with peace.

Make love not war,
Vova, Bariloche, Argentina

Back to Argentina or Parque Nacional Los Glacieres, Part I

2006-05-12T03:15:00.000+03:00

Hola,

And so, we made it back to Argentina. It was nice, because Puerto Natales is a very grey and windswept city, and finally we saw some sunshine, and people smiling, and stuff is cheap.

The park divides into two major parts: the southern, in which the famous attraction is the glaciar Perito Moreno (or the ¨cracking¨ glaciar), and some more expensive-to-see glaciars and the northern part, with the Fitz Roy mountain. From El Calafate you leave to see Moreno, and from the touristic town of El Chalten you leave for the treks around the mountain.

We didn´t want to spent too much time in El Calafate, so we decided not to tie ourselves with the bus to the glaciar, but to rent a car. We found a british couple that wanted to join us, and that way it turned to be almost the same price as the bus. The car we rented was a Folkswagen Gol. That´s right, Gol, it´s not a typo. That´s what they have here. It´s like Golf, but a little shorter...

Driving to the glaciar (about an hour from the city) reminded me of the racing computer games from the 90s - the road twists and turnes, and in the background you have a static image of mountains.

Finally, after a very beautiful drive, we arrived at the glaciar. It´s really an attraction for old people. You don´t have to do anything, just sit and wait for the stupid glaciar to crack. Luckily we brought food, so we made a little lunch while waiting for a big piece to fall off. It really reminded me of wild west: a bunch of people standing, looking at the glaciar. Who will be the quickest to draw the camera? Aweful. At some point, it got so boring, so we all started taking macro shots of an unlucky caterpillar with the glaciar in the background.

Anyway, when we got sick of it, we returned to the car and drove back just in time to catch the bus to El Chalten.

Who will they meet in El Chalten? Will the mighty Cerro Electrico be conquered by the brave voyagers? Will they return safe from the trek?

All this and more, next time.

Pictures, as usual, by mail.

Vova, Esquel, Argentina

Torres del Paine, part III

2006-05-12T02:45:00.000+03:00

Hola guys and girls!
The final chapter of the story.
I believe you are sick of this story (i know i am), so i´ll move on.
Actually, nothing especially interesting happened. We continued to the next camping, it rained like hell, we almost died, mice ate out cookies, met a guy from my hashlama, weather didn´t get any better, finished the trek.
The next day we took a day off (internet and stuff) and then moved on the El Calafate, Argenting.
So expect the next story to deal with Parque Nacional Los Glacieres.
Cheers,
Vova, Esquel, Argentina

Torres Del Paine, part II

2006-05-01T02:38:00.000+03:00

I´m back ladies and gentlemen,
and so, we have arrived at the Dickson camp by the dickson lake. While sitting and resting on a bench outside the camp keepers´cabin, I looked at the window of the cabin,and suddenly I saw Che Guevara looking back at me. Of course it wasn´t the real Che hiding in the woods of Torres Del Paine park, but it was very close. The whole camping was a very strange place, inhabited by ¨The Dickson Gang¨ how Roman called them. The Gang, consisted of an ärs¨, a ¨kusit¨, Che Guevara and Sancho (know to his family as Iglesio). Very funny guys. There were a couple of australians that came a bit before us, and they didn´t want to pay on the grounds of ¨we-didn´t-know-it´s-a-pay-site¨. So israeli of them. Anyway, by how it looked, we thought the gang was going to kill them. At first, sancho went to persuade them. When he miserably failed, he sent the ars and the kusit (while operating something in the garage that sounded like a chainsaw) who failed also. Finally he fired the dooms day weapon - Che Guevara on a horse. Fun to watch, but nothing came out of it. The australians just didn´t pay. Sancho told the authorities, but we don´t know if they did anything.
Next day was avery nasty one. It was supposed to be fairly easy - only 4 hours walk, without much elevation to camping Los Perros (The Dogs). We even though to go see the glaciar Punta Puma, an hour walk from Los Perros. But, someone had other plans. In the morning it started raining. While we were walking in the woods, we didn´t really feel the might of the rain and the winds, because the trees were shielding well, but 30 minutes from the camp, i suddenly felt that i´m about to be ill. Worry not, because i always have in my backpack the perfect kit against all sorts of illness - advil and fine argentinian brandy. Feeling better, i continued walking, and found out that i was only 50 meters before the end of the forest. Coming out of the forest, i suddenly felt the rain and the wind, but after climbing a hill in front of me, i stood up before a nice glaciar, ¨Los Perros¨ and the lake to which it melted (including small icebergs swimming in the lake). Nice view, and i continued to look for the camping. Coming down from the hill, i found myself on a bank of a river, which always pisses me off because everything is rock, and it´s hard to find the trail. Anyway, i continued in the direction i thought was correct, and after 10 minutes walk, i started seeing the path again. After 5 more minutes, i entered the Campamento ¨Los Perros¨.Camping Los Perros, was usually a pay site, but it was abandoned for this season. We armed our tent and went inside to get warm and play cards. This night was one of the worst. Because of the rain, we were cooking in the tent, and the fumes, by morning, made all our stuff wet. Besides, my sleeping bag stopped closing so i was a bit cold all night. Of course, we didn´t go to Punta Puma...
The morning surprised us with the pirfect weather to climb the paso John Gardner. Sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky, and so, after breakfast we started our accent. The first part of the accent was through a muddy wood, and we needed to be very creative not to step in the mud, which was up to our knees. After the woods, came the part of the rocks. It was a hard, but very fun accent, with a lot of wind, snow and nice view.Rising to the paso, was (and untill now i think it still is) the most beautiful thing i ever saw. Underneath us, we saw glaciar Grey, like a river of ice, coming out of Campo Grande de Hielo Sur - the largest piece of ice outside the poles. You saw the picture, it´s an amazing view.
After smoking a sigaret, and taking a lot of pictures - vova with campo grande de hielo sur in the background, campo grande de hielo sur with vova in the foreground, glaciar grey and us and more - we started the descent. The accent from Perros to the paso was about 650m, and the descent to camping Paso was supposed to be something similar. The first part of the descent was nice - rocks and nice view. But after 15 minutes, we entered the forest and the not-so-fun part of the descent started. All you can see is the stupid woods, and the descent goes on, and on, and on...
After a couple of hours, we made it to Campamento Paso. We left our mochilas there, and headed down for the glaciar. After an hour descent we made it to the glaciar - a large and dirty piece of ice, and with that pretty amazing. There was a crack in the ice (10 points to whoever guesses the conotation) and you could see the glacier from inside - gradient colours of blue and white. Amazing. But, after 10 minutes we got bored, and went back up to make food and go to sleep.
Next time, i hope i´ll manage to finish this story and move on the Parque Nacional Los Glacieres. But meanwhile, peace out, cska sucks.
Vova, Cochrane, Chile.
P.S. Pics in the mail

Torres Del Paine, Part I

2006-04-13T19:43:00.000+03:00

And so, as i promissed, the story of Torres Del Paine national park.
When we arrived in Puerto Natales, we stayed in a hostel, belogs to a guy called Juan, who basically rules the world. He quickly realized the potential of israeli customers, and learned hebrew. He owns half of Puerto Natales: he has a hostel, an internet cafe, bus agency, money exchange, equipment rental and what not.
The next day, after a korean ¨shakshuka¨ (made by the recepee of Jeehong Chan, a korean guy we met on the bus), we went to a lecture about the park Juan was givving. After the lecture we bought tickets to the park, and went to buy supplies for the trek. As it seemed, Alon and Oron were going to do the W (4 days) trek, while me, Roman, Sarit, Alex and Roee were going on the longer circuit (8 days +-).
The next day, we headed for the park, which was about 2.5 hours bus ride from Puerto Natales. At the entrance to the park, you have to pay 10,000 peso (100 shekels), and of course we saw a lot of israelis trying to get in without paying. It was funny to watch how the ranger spots them one by one and sends them to the booth to pay. After paying for the entrance, we had to pay a 1000 peso more for a minibus to the starting point of the trek.
Anyway, we finally made it to the starting point, and started the accent to the Torreses, which are three granit towers which are very beautifull during sunrise.
After a horrible accent, we finally made it to the first stop - Camping Los Chileanos. From there it was an hour to Camping Los Torres, where we were going to camp and then in the morning climb to the Torreses (another hour, but without the bags). While climbing to Las Torres, I suddenly found myself all alone - Roman and Jay were very quick and were first, I was 10 minutes after them, and the rest were 15 minutes after me. It´s a fun expirience walking in the woods all alone.
After setting the tent, we waited for everyone to arrive, and went to climb the viewpoint on the Torreses. We wanted to see them by day and at sunrise tomorrow. The climb was not easy but fun. A lot of boulders to climb and jump from one another.
After spending half an hour looking at the stupid towers, we went back to the camp to eat. When night fell, we found out that the quantity of stars you can see in the area is phenomenal. I think itñ´s the first time I saw the Milky Way, with the ¨black-spot-center-of-the-galaxy¨ thing.
That evening, we decided to divide differently between the treks. Everyone decided to go to the W, while only me and Roman continued to the full circuit.
The next morning, we woke up at 0530, and headed up for the lookout. The weather was as we ordered, not a cloud in the sky, and we saw the Torreses coulored in yellow, gold, red and every other colour possible. The view was fantastic, a lot better than in the evening.
After breakfast, we headed back to the point where we (me and Roman) were heading left, for the circuit, and the others right for the W. In the middle of the way, we re-divided our food supplies, said goodbye to everyone (we thought we´d probably never see them again) and headed off.
Right in the beginning of our descent, I almost lost my camera. It was connected to the waist belt of my backpack, and when i decided to take off my jacket, i unziped the belt, and the camera fell. The problem was, that it started rolling downhill instead of just falling to the ground as i expected. As a lightning, i ran downhill after the camera trying to catch up with it. At some point, it stopped rolling, and i found it hanging on a rock above a river. Of course i made a ¨taxkir erua¨, made a ¨vaadat xakira¨ headed by two 1st leutenants and the ¨maskanot¨ were to ¨leshapzer¨ the camera to the bag with another rope, which i did.
That day, we were supposed to go until Campamento Seron, about 4 hours walk from the place we started the trek, so after we returned to the beginning point, we had lunch and headed to Seron. The rest of the trip to Seron went without too much adventures. Near the camping, we were passing through a very beautifull valley. A valley like all others, but somehow the contrast of colours between the trees, the plants and the mountains wes very beautifull.
When we arrived at Seron, we found out that it´s a camping you need to pay 3500 peso to put a tent. To give a point of reference, in Puerto Natales, it costs 2500 peso for a bed in a room with a bathroom. Bu we were already used to Chilean goverment robbing us so we payed, made our tent, and started cooking dinner.
Next day, we were planning to walk 6 hours to the next camping (Lago Dickson), and eat lunch in the middle, where it was supposed to be another camping. After walking 3 hours, then 4, then 4.5, i started worrying about that camp and our lunch. It appears, they decided to close that camp so there wasn´t anything between Seron and Dickson. At that point, i was walking of food fumes, and everyting around me looked very tasty - the grass, the trees, the frogs... Finally we made a stop and ate, only an hour walk from Dickson lake. Dickson lake lies in a Beautifull valley (with a capital B). There´s the lake, and a peninsula which is making a smaller lake connected to the larger lake, and a river flowing out from the lake. To sum up, there was a huge glacier hanging above the lake. Awesome view. The camp was located on that peninsula.
That´s all for now, next time:
Who were the Dickson Gang? Is Che Guevara alive? Will they make it up the Paso John Gardner? Wait and you´ll find out. :)

Cheers,
Vova, El Chalten, Argentina.

P.S: as usual, i´ll send pics by mail.

End of the World

2006-04-06T19:25:00.000+03:00

Hola People!

First, Lior, congradulations on your wedding, finish that crap already and come to your honeymoon to argentina, it´ll be a blast. :)

Second, unfortunatelly, I can´t put pictures here on blogger while in patagonia because the connection keeps on breaking. I´ll send the pics to the mailing list i sent the original mail to. Whoever i miss, tell me and i´ll send you the pics. When I get a better connection, i´ll upload them to blogger too.

So, we´ve landed in Ushuaia. That´s still argentina. Ushuaia is located on the big island of Land of Fires (Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego). It is concidered the most southern city in the world. The chileans are claiming the Puerto Williams is the southern city, but it´s not really a city, just a small army base so it doesn´t count.

Ushuaia is surrounded by the sea on one side (Beagle Channel) and the mountains on the other. The mountains are not very high (1000m +-), but they rise from almost see level so it looks fantastic. Eating out is a lot more expencive, and much less tastier in Ushuaia, so almost all of the meals, we were cooking by ourselves in the hostel. Btw, the wine in argentina is fantastic. I bought a bottle for 2.50 pesos (less than a dollar) and it was much better than lots of 30-40 shekel wines in Israel.

On the next day, we went to buy tickets to Punta Arenas, our next destination. While we were walking in the city, a dog started walking with us. When we went out of the bus agency, we saw that it was lying outside waiting for us! It followed us to the hostel, and while we were sitting in the lobby, it was standing on two legs staring at us through the window... That, and holocaust violin music on the radio, we just couldn´t take it. We went to buy it some pork sausage and fed it to her.
After that, we went to climb up the Glaciar Martial. A nice looking glacier with nice view of Ushuaia and the channel. The first trip to the nature, very exciting. Unfortunatelly, my legs froze from hitkavzut shririm, and in order to climb the glacier, i had to sit 2 minutes, wait till the legs are releaved, then run as much as i can untill they froze again. It was painfull as hell. But playing with the snow was so worth it.

Argentina, is a very strange place. Here you can find dishes like ¨Croison, with ham and cheese¨. And the croison is sweet and all. And actually, it´s not bad at all, althou very weird. Another funny bit: our hostel had two cats, a black and a white one. One time we were sitting in the lobby, and suddenly, i see the black cat jumping on the door, hanging on the knob, then shifting weight in order to turn it and then when the door opened, he slid into the room... He used this trik to get into our room at night, that bastard.

Next morning we moved to another hostel, because the hostel we were in, had a large reservation (and we didn´t have one). Actually, the new hostel was a better one. In the new hostel, i went into the TV room, and started talking to a russian couple that sat there. It turned out that she lived in Israel and then moved to the states, and he went from Russia straight to the states. After a bit more talking, we figured out that she studied at Shevax and we found a lot of common friends. After 5 more minutes, we found out that we met on Lev´s officers course finishing party. It was Sarit and Alex, her husband. Very small world...

Since Punta Arenas, is a boring place, and it´s only virtue is the tax free market for trekking equipment, and since we had all the equipment we needed, we decided not to stop in Punta Arenas and bought a ticket to Puerto Natales. The city from which you leave for the Torres del Paine national park.

Same day, we went to the Laguna Ismeralda, a very easy hike, with very beautiful sites. The only problem with the laguna, is that the terrain is very ¨swamp like¨, and we were waisting a lot of time trying not to get our feet wet.
Next day we went to the Tierra Del Fuego National Parque. It´s a bit west to Ushuaia, on the border with Chile, and has very cool one day hikes. We went to hike number 4, which is climbing the ¨Cerro Guanaco¨, a 1000m mountain. The first half of the way, we were climbing in the woods, and then we came to the mountain itself, which was a very high and rocky. As soon as we started climbing, the weather got poor, it started snowing, and a fog filled all the mountain. It made the climb very interesting. As soon as we finished climbing, suddenly the sun came out, the fog disappeared, and we saw and amasing view of Tierra Del Fuego, two oceans and lots of lakes.

In order not to pay the entrance fee to the park, we got up at 630 in the morning, and went with Pedro, the cab driver who promissed to get us there before the guards. Unfortunatelly, it took us a long time to get ready, and we weren´t there in time. At some point during our trip there, Pedro shouted ¨¡No problema! ¡Rapido, rapido!¨ and pointed at the fence. We got off the cab, went through the fence and started figuring out where the fuck are we. It turned out that he dumped us a bit before the entrance to the park, but on a trail that goes around the guards. After 1.5 hour walk, we finally arrived at the correct place to start the trek. It really felt like being in the army again... Anyway, the view from above was very beautiful. I hope the pictures can replay at least a bit.

After three day trips, we decided to take the next day off and rest, use the internet etc. Unfortunatelly, that was the day, in which all Ushuaia was disconnected from the internet. Instead, I went to the prison museum, which was nice, but to my opinion not worth the money. Apart from the museum, I went to the Tourist Information office, and put a stamp in my passport, that I reached the end of the world. Fun.

Last day in Ushuaia, we returned to the park, this time paying the fee, and walked trek number 2. It wasn´t really something, so I won´t talk about it.

Next morning we took a bus to Punta Arenas (from where we already had connection tickets to Puerto Natales). 12 hours ride went pretty smoothly. At some point, we got to the Magellan´s Strait, and I did what I was planning for long. Stand by the Magellan´s Strait, and smoke a cigaret. Muy fun. That was already on the Chilean side of the island.

Yesterday we returned from the Torres del Paine national park, where we make an 8 days trek with Roman. Next time, I´ll write about it, meanwhile see the preview pics.

Tomorrow we´re leaving for El Calafate, in Argentina.

That´s all for now,

Have fun,

Vova, Puerto Natales, Chile, 13:20

Buenos Aires

2006-03-27T03:12:00.000+02:00

Hola chicas!
Haven´t written in a long time, that´s not because I don´t love you all. I just have very little time, and Internet in south patagonia is not so well. Yesterday, the whole city was out.
Anyway, before talking about Ushuaia, let me finish the story about Buenos Aires. We went the first time to eat in a Tenedor Libre restaurant. It means a ¨free fork¨ (all you can eat). We got a recomendation about a great place, 10 minutes cab ride from our hostel and went there. The place is called ¨La Generosa¨ - The Generous. It it really is :). It was a bit expensive, but it was worth every peso i spent on it. We sat there for 4 hours, just eating grilled meat, cooked meat italian style, sushi, empanadas, cheeses, anything. It was an awesome experience. Puts Papagayo in the right proportion :). La Generosa, can be described (like Yoni once said) ¨Carne grande, lo meshane ma...¨.
After seeing how much money I´ve spent in the last few days, I realised I need to enter the ¨Cruel Economy Mode¨, and bought myself a jeans. Almost everything is cheaper here than in Israel, but not by much.
That evening, was St. Patrics Day, and like good jewish guys, we went to celebrate. The 4 quadrants around the famous ¨Kilkenny¨irish pub, we blocked by a mass of people. Of course we couldn´t get in to any of the nearby bars because they were packed. Alon and Roman went home, while me and David continued to hop from bar to bar and eat empanadas.
Saturday, we went to the famous La Boca neibourhood. Diego Maradona grew up in this quarter and played in the Boca Jr. soccer team. La Boca, is a very poor neighbourhood. You´re not recommended to cross the ¨Tourist Zone¨. So we didn´t. The whole tourist zone is colored in different places and is very nice. On the street, you can see many tango dancers and there are many restaurants around. We went to grab something to eat, and ordered a parilla, which is a grill. You get a small mangal, with lots of happy stuff on it. Aside from the happy stuff, there were also some weird stuff, like small intestant and a blood sausage. For those who haven´t tried it, it´s very nasty. It´s lots of cow internals, mixed with a lot of blood and coocked. Like I said, nasty. Small intestant, is just like a bubble gum. Not tasty at all.
After La Boca, we went to the San Telmo neibourhood. The main highlight of San Telmo, is it´s park. When we arrived, we saw on one side of the park, a local rock concert, and on the other, local folk dances. Funny shit. This park is very nice, with a flea market and lots of other shows. It really makes you feel the culture of the nation. The streets of San Telmo are all stone, and here and there you see the remainder of the tramway lines (for those who saw Motorcycle Diaries, there are no more tramways in Buenos).
A couple of words about driving in Buenos Aires. HELL!!!!! They drive like a loose hurd of buffalos running away from fire. There´s no such thing as lanes. The street is a large place, where lots of cars try to live together. One taxi driver gave us the creeps. He was taking us from the Carting we went to after San Telmo to our place. He reminded me the old joke about the ¨Real Djigit, who doesn´t stop at red lights¨. Because he didn´t. He even turned left, on red light, while passing from the right cars that were waiting for that same red light. One time he stopped, when we got to a very large street. We thought it might be the first time he´ll actually wait for the green light, but no. As soon as he could, he crossed that street still on red light.
Sunday, we went to see soccer. Unfortunately, we couldn´t see the Boca-River game (the 2 best teams in Argentina) because they play now, when we´re already in Ushuaia, but we went to see River Plate vs. Olimpia. The game was held at the home, River stadium, and 90% of the fans were Rivers. The Olimpia fans were kinda sad. The were trying to make a lot of noice, but with each goal, their team got, they turned quieter and quieter. Of course River won, and I even learned a few songs like ¨Yo amo River Plate¨, and ¨La Puta Madre¨ which a poetry classic.
At the last evening in Buenos Aires, we wanted to go out somewhere, but we sat to drink a beer at the roof of our hostel. When all the guys heard we´re leaving tomorrow, they started joining us and fast, this ¨just drinking a beer before going out¨ became a ¨the whole hostel is drinking together¨ party.
This time no pictures, because of the slow net. I´ll make it up to you next time :)
That´s kinda all, soon I´ll write about Ushuaia.
Take care, Vova
Ushuaia, 26/3/06, 22:24

Living la Vida Loca in Buenos

2006-03-16T10:01:00.000+02:00

Buenos Dias Compadres,
I´m doing great. And how are you?
A fact about Buenos Aires: in the city, almost all the kiosks, that work 24 hours, have a steel net guarding the entrance during the night. They must not feel too safe. Except for the kiosks that don´t have a net. They probably have an AK and a couple of hand grenades under the counter.
Anyway, in the mean time, Buenos Aires haven´t made too much of an impression on me.It´s a great city, but it should be a stop on the way north from patagonia, when you´re tired of the nature and want some civilization. Currently, most of the streets, remind me of Allenby...
Yesterday we went to the Recoleta quarter.It´s famous attraction is the cemetary. There is a cemetary in Recoleta,which is like a city. Streets upon streets, with plazas and houses and shit.
We´ve seen the grave of Evita Perron, and even a grave of some jew (just when i thought how it´s a shame there isn´t a jew in this cemetary).
After visiting the cemetry, we went to the Belle Art Museum (or the Gay Art Museum like we called it). The Belle Art Museum is a very nice place. Lot´s of interesting art. Lot´s of impresionism, modern and other interesting stuff. There was one particularly interesting excibition: ¨Stuff robed from the indians¨. It had a lot of vases, smoking pipes and other stuff taken from the indians. Some of the vases were in the shape of monsters, and they were so horrible, you could think it´s the materialized fear itself. Fun. Also, unlike the center of the city, Recoleta quarter has a lot of parks and green spaces and grass.
Yesterday was Purim, and the israelis in Buenos, were having a purim party. We decided to go and pay our due to the holiday. What a mistake. It started when we came to the israeli hostel. It consists of four floors, all filled with israelis. It was like going backto israel for a while. And also the party was like a typical israeli discoteque. I got sick of it after a while and started practicing my spanish with some chilean girls which happened to be at the party.
Before leaving the hostel for the party, i suddenly heard russion singing from the hostel stereo. It turned out that one of the hostel workers (aspanish guy) is into Babkin and Patnizza.I promised I´ll let him listen to russian rock and israeli rock.
This morning we had the first spanishlesson. We´re totally not the same level,but theteacher is filling my gaps at the basics of spanish.

Anyway,kinda miss you all,
Vova,0525,Buenos Aires

Answering your comments

2006-03-16T09:47:00.000+02:00

Answering you requests.
1. First picture, is me and alon in front of the royal palace in madrid.
2. 20 shekels steak
3. The building of the mayor,in Buenos Aires.

Sasha, try the Quilmes chop negro,meaning Quilmes draft, dark. It´s one of the best, and it´s local so it´s cheap. And BTW, You are a little princess, and also you´re a pretty little girl.

Other comments weren´t that informative, so I just piss on you (that includes you max, you closer to me than ever, it´s just closer to piss on).

Just kidding, you know I love and miss you all :)
Hugs and kisses, vova.

From Madrid to Buenos Aires

2006-03-14T10:36:00.000+02:00

Hola Señores y Señoras,
And so we made it to Buenos Aires. Not without a bit of a delay I must say. At first, when we arrived at the Ben Gurion airport, we found out that the flight was delayed by two hours. So we flew out at 0840 instead of 0640. Which means we got to madrid two hours late and missed the connection to Buenos. Right away we went to Iberia counter, and they gave us tickets to the next flight to Buenos at 0005. Having 11 hours to spare Iberia gave us free hotel, dinner and (very nice of them).
At that point we started walking towards the bus which was supposed to bring us to the hotel. The road of thouthand stairs. That´s the only way I can call it. We were walking for and hour through different stairs and elevators and escalators. Partee :).
After finally arriving at the hotel, we ate quickly our dinner and went to madrid to hang around. I´ve already been to madrid so i led. We went to see the royal palace and stuff. On our way, in the metro, we met a group of americans from denver. We started talking and their ¨leader¨, after having foundout we´re from israel, asked us if in israel they already ¨speak hebrew¨. I said we do,for more than half a century. Like they said in the matrix, ignorance is blissed...
After walking 3-4 hours in the center of madrid, we headed back to the hotel, had supper (one of the best meals btw) and went to the airport.
After 12 hours flight, we arrived at Buenos Aires (0800 local time). After smoking the best sigarrete in my life, we started looking foraflight to Ushuia (the far south of argentina). Unfortunatelly, there were no flight till the 22, so we got ¨stuck¨ in Buenos for 8 days.
After a two hoursbus ride to the center of the city, we started looking foraplaceto stay. We found the St. Nicolas hostel, not bad,free internet and stuff. We put our stuff in the room and went to have a dinner.
The globalization of the world is killing me. After withdrawing cash from the ATM just like in Bat Yam, I got a call from mom to the cell phone I brought from Israel. And so I am, walking on a street on the other side of the world, talking to mom just like i could come home in the evening and she needed me to buy stuff at the grocery. fun.
Mostly, Buenos Aires reminds me of Allenby street. From all the cities I´ve been to , it feels most like Israel.
Anyway, we went to eat dinner. The hostel operator recommended us a place and we headed there. I think I had the best 20 shekel steak ever. There are lots of beef, it´s cheap and tasty. Just like you would expect...
After the dinner we headed to the center of the city, to the plaza de mayo. A nice european-style plaza. We were very tired so it didn´t take long till we headed back to the hostel to sleep.
An interesting fact: in Buenos Aires, there aren´t many pedestrian traffic lights. Mostly, you just needto look at the cat traffic light and guess when you need to cross.
Atnight (0400) we tried to go out have a beer, but we didn´t find almost any pubs. We´ll try to look harder tomorrow.
So, now it´s a week of Buenos Aires, spanish and tango lessons, lots of carne and cervesa.

0615, Vova, Buenos Aires, Peace out.

The first post

2006-03-08T09:18:00.000+02:00

Hola people,
Welcome to my blog about the trip to south america.
Most of the preparations are finished, sunday the plane leaves, I'll continue from there :)

Vova