Journey Through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15)
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Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) We flew from Ottawa to Buenos Aires via Toronto and a stop in Santiago de Chile. The plane was an hour late leaving Toronto due to mechanical problems. We checked in our maximum allowance of 23 kg per suitcase and carried on 10 kg more. Surprisingly 23 kg makes a suitcase very heavy to carry. Figure 1. Deicing in Toronto Figure 2. Clouds over Lima We deplaned for a couple of hours in Santiago de Chile and then reboarded and flew on to Buenos Aires. Page 1 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 3. Flying over Andes from Santiago to Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (1-3 February) We arrived at the Buenos Aires international airport and bought a couple of tickets for delivery to our hotel for US$38. A bus (www.tiendaleon.com) took us downtown to the bus terminal where we boarded a car for the final leg to our hotel. Our co-passenger was a local who told us that in the days of President Juan Perón, Argentina had a good economy like Canada. Our tour leader later explained that Juan Perón ruled during the 1950s when Argentina was still benefitting economically from not participating in WWII. However he said that Argentina did not invest in education and its economy suffered when the European countries recovered after the war. Figure 4. Central district of Buenos Aires Page 2 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) We had a day to wander around Buenos Aires and see the sights. We were warned that Buenos Aires was dangerous and that we should not carry valuables including cash. A woman who we later met in Ushuaia who was from Buenos Aires also said that the city had a robbery problem. Fortunately we did not encounter that side of life in Buenos Aires. Walking down the 9 de Julio Avenue, we encountered the huge image of Eva Perón on the side of a prominent building. Figure 5. With Evita in Buenos Aires on the 9 de Julio Avenue We visited La Recoleta Cemetery where many notables in Argentina have been buried since 1822 – many in quite elaborate and ostentatious tombs. Figure 6. Ostentatious tomb in La Recoleta Cemetery Page 3 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) For us, the most notable figure interred in La Recoleta Cemetery is Eva Perón, the wife of President Juan Perón and the heroine of the musical Evita who died in 1952. Her remains are in her family’s, Duarte, tomb. Figure 7. Evita’s family tomb in La Recoleta Cemetery Figure 8. Beautiful stained glass in one of the tombs in La Recoleta Cemetery We went down to see La Casa Rosada where Evita gave her speeches on its balcony and then walked to Calle Florida to find the black market money traders. Page 4 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 9. La Casa Rosada is the executive mansion and office of the President of Argentina The Argentine economy is experiencing significant inflation of more than 40% per annum and the government is holding the value of the peso artificially high. Hence a parallel, unofficial dollar market has emerged with a separate rate called the “blue rate”. The official exchange rate is about 9 pesos to the dollar, while the blue rate is 13 pesos to one dollar – almost a 50% difference. To get the blue rate we visited the black market currency traders on Calle Florida in the city center. A trader s you walk down Florida there are lots of guys saying “cambio, cambio, cambio” (currency exchange). These men tell you the rate and then take you to an unmarked office where the exchange is made. Figure 10. Black market currency trading from magazine stand on Calle Florida Our 1st currency trade was made inside a magazine stand where we got 13.3 pesos to the US$. Six hours later we returned to exchange some more money but the operation had moved to a backroom in a building due to “security Page 5 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) concerns”. Later on we exchanged dollars for pesos at a casino in Ushuaia. In short the black market currency exchange is widely spread and one would be a spendthrift not to use it. Figure 11. Beggar on Calle Florida Figure 12. Cathedral of Buenos Aires, Argentina (former See of Pope Francis) Leaving Calle Florida, we walked to the Cathedral of Buenos Aires which is the former See of Pope Francis. Inside in a side chapel is the tomb of General Jose de San Martín. Martín is credited with the liberation of Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spain and statues representing those three nations surround his memorial. The tomb is guarded by two Granaderos. We watched the changing of guard ceremony. Page 6 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 13. Granaderos guarding the tomb of General Jose de San Martín We came across the beautiful Galerías Pacífico – a high end shopping arcade originally built in the 1890s by the al Pacífico Railroad. Figure 14. Murals inside the Galerías Pacífico Page 7 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 15. Warning sign inside the Galerías Pacífico Figure 16. Two shoppers overwhelmed by the Galerías Pacífico Puerto Madero was constructed in 1897 as Buenos Aires’ port on the Río de la Plata but was too shallow by the 1920s for bigger ships so became a decaying area. Starting in the 1990s, it has become one of the most successful recent waterfront renewal projects in the world. The cargo cranes in Puerto Madero are now purely decorative. Page 8 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 17. Corvette ARA Uruguay built in England in 1874 on display in Puerto Madero Near Puerto Madero is the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve but we could find an entrance so we walked alongside the Laguna los Coipos and watched the birds. Figure 18. Guira cuckoo at Laguna los Coipos We watched a large crew removing posters from street light posts. This appeared to be a work for welfare program as there was little enthusiasm for the work. Page 9 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 19. Part of large crew removing posters from street light posts Like elsewhere in Argentina, Buenos Aires has a monument to the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. The Argentines refer to the Falkland Islands as las Islas Malvinas. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. Figure 20. Monumento a los Caídos en Malvinas ("Monument for the Fallen in the Falklands") in Plaza San Martín At night we ate a sidewalk café on the 9 de Julio Avenue that served good food at a reasonable price and served Quilmes beer in the convenient 1L bottle for 50 peso or about $4! Our restaurant took US$ at the rate of 12 pesos to the dollar. Page 10 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 21. Quilmes beer in the convenient 1L bottle El Chalten (3-5 February) Early in the morning of 3 February we flew from Aeroparque Internacional Jorge Newbery (Buenos Aires domestic airport) 2,100 kms south to El Calafate. The airline Aerolineas Argentinas has a 15 KG limit on checked baggage and since we were at 23 KG, we were concerned about a penalty, however, in the event the airline was not concerned about the excess weight. Figure 22. Goodbye to Buenos Aires At the El Calafate airport, we were met by Fredrico, our tour leader, who turned out to be excellent and really helped out folks when required. Page 11 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) From the El Calafate airport, we made the four hour drive to El Chaltén about 220 km north of El Calafate. This village was built in 1985 to help secure the disputed border with Chile. Today the sole reason for its existence is tourism. Along the way, we saw the first of many guanacos that we’d see along with wonderful views of world class climbing mountains near El Chaltén including the pillar of Cerro Torre (3,128 m) and the fin shaped Monte Fitz Roy/Chaltén (3,375 m). The top of Cerro Torre often has a prominent mushroom of rime ice, formed by the constant strong winds. Cerro Torre literally means “hill tower” in Spanish. Monte Fitz Roy was named by Francisco Moreno in 1877 in honour of Robert FitzRoy, who as captain of the HMS Beagle had charted large parts of the Patagonian coast. The mountain is also called Chaltén from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) Indian word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak. Both mountains are difficult to climb because the sheer granite faces presenting long stretches of arduous technical climbing and the weather in the area is exceptionally inclement and treacherous. Hence the rate of summiting is orders of magnitude less than that of Mount Everest. Figure 23. View from airplane of El Chaltén peaks 100 km away Page 12 of 99 Journey through Patagonia (31 Jan – 19 Feb 15) Figure 24. Mini-bus to El Chaltén The road to El Chaltén from El Calafate passes through a flat desert area with the Andes mountains in the west.