All About Argentina

Cities Covered:

• Buenos Aires
• El Calafate
• El Chalten
• Esquel
• Trevelin
• Mendoza
• Barreal
• Uspallata
• San Juan
• Huamahuaca
• Iruja
• Puerto Iguazu

Our arrival in Buenos Aires (BA) after a delayed flight from Peru was welcoming and came into the city during early the afternoon.  The hotel wasn´t great and reminded me of our stay in Dushanbe, but it was affordable and had a private room with our own bathroom.  Since Argentinians love their meat and in keeping halal, found a vegetarian place run by a Chinese family that had good take out food.  No one, I mean no one on the streets here eats, so us stuffing our mouths in front on an office building probably looked awkward.   Most of the food consists of pizzas, pastas, and empanadas many reminders of its Italian migrants.

The whole of Argentina, especially BA is experiencing protests related to the economic collapse and the devaluation of the peso, so witnessed a lot of drumming, flag waving, and of course police in riot gear but it was non-provoking and more to raise awareness.

Before, the weather turns cold, we flew down to Patagonia to El Calafate to visit Parque Nacional Los Glacier.  Patagonia lives up to its reputation as its windy but also has a stark beauty of mountains and a wide expanse of desert as its a dry place.  The town of Calafate is upscale with many boutique shops and restaurant and not all of what we expected.  Luckily, found a cheap hostel as this is tourist heaven and made a plan to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier, a mass of ice that´s 5 kms wide, 14 kms long, and 60 meters high.  As the day warmed up, building size chunks of ice started calving off into the lake below with thundering noise and sounds of gunshot rounds going off.  Many parts of the are glacier are a deep blue from the compacted ice and reflect the wavelength of the light.

Next stop was to El Chalten, which is a growing village with steeply angled roofed homes, reminder of the snow that falls here.  The highlight here is the Mount Fitzroy Range with excellent trekking in the park.  There are some lovely hikes with views of glaciers, hidden waterfalls, and mountains.  One hike led us to a melting glacier creating a huge waterfall cascading into the blue green lake below.

Back to the hostel, we had access to a kitchen but the owner was never around and people seemed to come and go.

Next, hopped on a 24 hours bus journey to Esquel.  The town has an old steam train, which only runs a limited distance now but it was fun to ride it and made up for the fake one we rode in Ecuador. 

The lack of English in the country is surprising and Sabeen does most of the talking to get us around and oriented.  There are still a few Welsh settlers here and the town of Trevelin has the traditional stone houses and the tea houses to go with it. 

Left for Uspallata, a small mountain town with views of Aconcagua and Volcan Topangato.  A local by the name of Pachi saw us wandering around looking for a place and led us to a small place run by a young couple and decided to stay with them for a few days.  I decide to cook dinner for all of us, nothing fancy but more for the chance to sit and converse with locals.

We take a hike to Las Cuevas and go up Christo Redentor, a statue of Christ at 4,000 meters as a symbol of peace between Argentina and Chile in 1904 to settle the land dispute.  The hike was long but the views were outstanding of dark mountains with pure white snow.  I ruin my shoes however on the way down from the sharp stones that dig into my cheaply bought hiking sandals.

We leave next for Barreal, which is only 99 kms from here but is a remote place and the option to hitchike is limited, so take a bus first to Mendoza, then San Juan, before arriving after 11 hours.  On the bus to San Juan, meet a bus conductor who greets us in English, a first, so start chatting on the ride and get to know Francisco from Chile who speaks great English and tells us how he lost his father to a traffic accident and dreams of going to Nepal and India to help the poor and do more with his life.  He is 27 years old and reads the NY Times everyday to improve his English.  He lives in a trailer left by his father and plans to never move it as per his father´s instructions.  We part with hugs and kisses....

It is the Easter holiday so the locals are starting to travel themselves.  As we turn up in Barreal at midnight, no a room is available but Marsela, a lovely hotel owner takes mercy on us and invites us into her house to first feed us and then drives us a few kms to her sister´s house to spend the night.  Her sister´s place is quiet and cozy and we stay for a few days.  Marsela even drives us back into town a few days later so we check in to a hotel closer to town.

As we decide to leave for San Juan, a couple visiting offers us a ride and we stuff ourselves into their small car and go forward for the 4 hours ride.

Road Music

Spend enough time on buses and various other modes of transportation and you start tapping (to) into the popular music that is being listened to.  Some of my fondest memories of music and definitely not the bus rides are of Nepal, where the buses were cramped full of people, many often sitting or sleeping in aisles, chickens, and radio blaring with feet tapping rhythmic tunes.  Same was the case in Cambodia, albeit the buses were slightly more comfortable, the music more mellow.  While in Central Asia, we heard a mix of Russian and Persian music, which reflected more of the proud culture and its mix influence of Muslim and nomadic roots.

It was the music that made the rides more enjoyable paired with snacks and road stops.

Tajikistan Highlights and Lowlights

The country of Tajikistan is a haven for natural beauty with towering mountains of the Pamirs and Hindu Kush.  The country's neighbors include Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east.  Most of Tajikistan's population belongs to the Persian-speaking Tajik ethnic group, who share language, culture and history with Afghanistan and Iran. 

Highlights:

• Sleeping at homestays instead of hotels and spending time with the locals
• Witnessing the beauty of the Pamir Mountains
• Successfully communicating with our hands due to the language divide
• Seeing ruins and forts from by gone years
• Nan, Sharchai, homemade (butter, yogurt, milk, jam)
• The Badakshan hospitality
• Tajik music
• Caveman paintings and the isolated but magnificent surroundings
• Drive from Khorog to Dushanbe

Lowlights:

• Almost losing our life on the Pamir Highway
• Getting stuck on no-man's land for 5 days
• Almost getting thrown out of a car at the Tajik/Kyrgyz border over a money dispute
• Leaving Kyrgyzstan and then having to turn back around due to the condition of the car and icy roads
• Dushanbe (capital city)
• Soviet style hotels

Tajik Towns

Getting around the "Stans" isn't always easy as there aren't any buses and only private cars will go once they are full.

We caused a small argument when the driver that we had agreed to the day before couldn't leave due to lack of passengers, so when we returned tne next day another driver tried to pull us into his car, which resulted in a punch getting thrown and some pushing and shoving from the drivers. Luckily it was broken up quickly and we slipped into the car with our driver.

The towns that we visited during our time here were:

• Murgab - The first town from Osh, where we did a homestay with Gulnara's family.  Drove deep in the Pamirs to Shakthy to look at cavemen drawings of a buffalo hunt.
• Khorog - The heart of the GBAO with lots of Aga Khan NGO work going on and a young population with good universities.
• Ishkashim - Village town, had a chance to attend a Tajik wedding.
• Langar - On the drive stopped at Khakka and Yumchun Fortress, Vrang, Bibi Fatima Springs, and Abrashim Qala.
• Namadgut - Did a wonderful home stay with Bibimo and her father Ivan and family.
• Darst - Neighbouring village from Namadgut where we often took our daily walks.
• Varzob - Neighboring town from Dushanbe with nicer people and better scenery.
• Takob - Took a nice walk from Varzob to explore the mountains and the many waterfalls.
• Dushanbe - Capital of Tajikistan with lots of Soviet style monuments, expensive restaurants/hotels, and nothing too extraordinary.

Arrival into Tajikistan

The arrival into Tajikistan was emotional with almost dying on the Pamir Highway, getting stranded at the border for 5 days, almost getting tossed out at the border, and having to push one very old Soviet car across the ice.

The people of the Badakshan have to be some of the most hospitable and generous people we've met so far.  We were invited into people's homes, stayed with local families, attended a wedding, volunteered at a school, all for starters.

You go to Tajikistan for the scenery and it is breathtaking with Afghanistan just across the raging Panj River, which provides a natural barrier between the two countries and of course the mountains, which are the Pamirs, Alay, Tian Shan, and the Hindu Kush.

Scary Pamir Highway

The Pamir Highway is one of those road trips that you're supposed to do before you die. Its simply raw scenery at its most beautiful with towering mountains bordering Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and China. The road is one of the highest in the world with many passes exceeding 4,000 meters.

We are on this road to get from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan by way of Osh to Murgab. Our trip to leave for Tajikistan was a bit of a scramble as at the last moment our friends from Osh Guesthouse arranged a car for us to head out. The car didn't induce any confidence building as it was an old Volvo but with visas in hand and time expiring decided to take our chances.

The trip started out unassumingly enough, communicating with hand gestures and our broken Russian sharing the car with us, the driver, and his friend. The plan is to head to Sary Mogul spend a night with the drivers friends and then make the remainder of the journey to Murgab to avoid traveling at night. A few hours into the trip, heavy snow started to come down on a narrow pass shared with a few passing Chinese trucks. Our driver tried to pass one of these trucks and in his haste got the car stuck in snow. That wouldn't have been so bad had it not been for the low visibility, night time, and the fact that the truck that he tried to pass was pulling something big. As the truck went by, the last few feet ploughed into the car and our car went careening off the side of the mountain. Our lives flashed by and I didn't even realize that I was screaming.

Some good deed paid off and the car ran into a huge snow bank that stopped its fall. The truck kept going. We were now literally stuck in one of the remotest places on earth with heavy snow falling, darkness, and not a shovel in sight.

After trying to flag down a few trucks one did stop and with a rope tied to the front of the car, it was finally freed from the snow's grip.

The house at Sary Mogul was warm, had lots of blankets, and a bed prepared on the floor. We were served a delicious meal of fresh butter, nan, chai, and biscuits after which we turned in for the night with the sounds of the family nearby.