short written recap of a relaxing vacation
Argentina was great. Photos to come, but here's a quick written recapitulation in bullet point format:
- We arrived in Buenos Aires on the 13th. It's mid-summer and hot. Our hotel is nice, but a little out of the way. Buenos Aires is cheap. We eat well and drink malbec. We wander the city. Buenos Aires is huge. Buenos Aires is also late: dinner before 10pm is easy to find as most people don't leave the house before 11pm, even on a school night. Andy calls Buenos Aires "dirty cheap Paris" and is spot-on: lots to do, some beautiful old buildings, a wonderful easy attitude, cafes everywhere, and a lot of terrible graffiti and a lot dog poop on sidewalks. We love it (except for the poop). There are also mosquitos, so we learn through experience.
- We change hotels to one that is more central, in Palermo Soho; it becomes a friendly home base. We go to MALBA, the best museum in Buenos Aries in my humble opinion. We shop a lot thanks to the exchange rate: there are almost no chain stores, it's mostly independent designers who set up small shops in the front with their sewing machines and printing presses in the back room, or they collaborate into small store-front shops with many designers in one space. This is a great business model, we are impressed and are sad this can't exist in the bay area.
- On the 18th we fly to El Calfate in Argentinian Patagonia. It's on the edge of a giant beautiful Lake Argentina at the foot of the Andes. We pick up our rental car, eat, sleep. We wake up and visit the glacier Perito Moreno on the edge of the lake - the first glacier Andy has ever seen. It is spectacular and it even calves a few icebergs for our viewing and listening pleasure.
- We decide onward and forward to Adventure, and drive down a gravel Highway 40 to the Chilean border. The road trip was perhaps one of the most enjoyable parts of our travel: huge expansive plains, guanacos, rheas, flamingos, condors, foxes, sheep. A lot of sheep. And extreme wind. As manual transmission in the only kind of car you can get in Patagonia, Andy teaches me to drive stick on the way, and I love it.
- We arrive in Torres Del Paine National Park. The mountains are huge. We hike up a mountain from warm and dry to cold and snowing and are rewarded by the Torres. I find a pokemon orchid. It is a new kind of beautiful there. We hike around a lake in the pouring rain; it is still wonderful. The lakes are a pure milky blue unlike any colour I've ever seen, and the surrounding green is vibrant. I now have a field guide to the birds of Torres Del Paine. That part of the world was colder and more expensive than we expected, but we're most pleased with this journey nonetheless.
- We drive back to El Calfate to catch our plane, and are sorry to leave. The return road trip is just as much fun as the trip there; we have no radio so we make up songs, most of which involve the word 'ham'. I become obsessed with photographing the wildlife. We walk on the beach of Lake Argentina when we get back, then make our way to the airport.
- We fly back to Buenos Aires on the night of the 22nd. Our hotel sucks. Andy is great and finds us an amazing deal in a nearby hotel, and they give us a free upgrade to the master suite when we get there. It's the best hotel I've ever stayed in, ever.
- Buenos Aries celebrates Christmas on the night of the 24th. We have dinner with a couple from our hotel, then retire to our balcony to watch the fireworks people set off in the streets after midnight, as is the local custom. It's lovely.
- The 25th is Christmas. Everything is closed. We walk in a dirty park filled to the brim with families, and wander the city, and try to figure out which of the 50 varieties of mate we should bring home.
- Our flight leaves at 11pm that night. We're sad to go. It was great vacation and Andy makes a wonderful travel partner.
The vacation was great. But truly. I'm already missing it, but am also glad to be home and see my friends again. I hope your holidays were wonderful too <3