Tierra Del Fuego National Park, Argentina

The relentless rainfall forced the clouds to surrender to a peacock blue sky the next morning. We downed our breakfast of toast with fresh fruit preserves and freshly squeezed orange juice. Then, a quick walk downhill from our b&b led us to the port of Ushuaia. As we looked around at the landscape, we noticed how stunning this place was. The next instant touts hustled us into the first rattling matador queued up to leave for Tierra del Fuego national park. The park is located thirty minutes outside of Ushuaia. Buses run frequently every hour in both directions. The ride out of the city offered us a full view of the mountains that almost seemed to rise out of the ocean glistening with snow-capped peaks. The city itself is a narrowly inhabited strip carved between the mountains and the Beagle channel (named after the vessel on which Charles Darwin sailed around the world for five years). At first glance, it reminded us of a much smaller and shoddier version of Sausalito - only far far prettier. Soon our lungs and nostrils were choked with dust as we rambled along the unpaved path that leads up to the national park. Tierra del Fuego - the land of fire - was thus named by Magellan when he first gazed upon the land blazing with fires lit by native Indians. The bus stopped at the park entrance where foreigners get to pay more than the locals. Very unlike American national parks, there are no visitor centers, marked trail heads, or souvenir shops even. This is as rustic and natural as it gets. We opted to get off at Lago Roca and hike up to Bahia (bay) Lapataia, which officially marks the southernmost tip of Argentina. Unmarked trails are filled with adventure. Of course we started off in the wrong direction but our first wrong turn brought us upon stunning views of Lake Roca. Emerald waters stretched towards cliff in the distance.The most notable aspect of our trek was the green carpet walk throughout. Lush green grass padded our steps throughout the trail. Enroute we came across multi-colored lagoons (green and black), lush valleys, soaring peaks, marine birds, and millions of rabbits.. Here´s one for you botany buffs, what is a Peat Bog (Turbal in spanish)? The black waters that characterize a peat bog are caused by plants that survive in waters filled with dead plants. Lack of oxygen and presence of special chemicals prevent the dead plants from rotting. The surviving plants have special acquatic qualities that allow them to thrive on the dead plants. The effect is a surreal body of black water. Well that´s the end of today´s botany lesson. We´ll talk about Ecotones in our next blog¨:-) After a two hour hike we reached our destination - more than 17,000 km from Alaska - the end of the last national highway in Argentina. The views from Lapataia Bay were splendid. We stopped awhile to picnic and ponder about our long journey.

Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina

Did we claim that buses were going to be our travel lifeline in Patagonia? Well never mind all that after that 12 hour bus ride from Punta Arenas through hours of barren nothingness. Not like we were really expecting much at this end of the world but let´s just say it wasn´t too exciting. The highlight of our journey was the checkpoint at the Chilean border before we crossed over into Argentina. The immigration officers got a real kick out of our Indian passports. The guy at the counter showed off our passports to all his colleagues and excitedly claimed that we were from India. Does that make us pioneers... first desis to ever cross the austral border into Tierra del Fuego? That made up for the rest of the butt-numbing, bumpy ride into Ushuaia. Not to mention the wind that was threatening to blow us away every time we took a pit stop.

¨Relax, you´re at the end of the world¨ proclaimed the punch line of our restaurant. Exactly what we were doing on this rainy evening at this southernmost port off the Beagle channels. Especially now that we had a great place to stay. After getting off the bus, we trekked around town and knocked at a few family-owned b&bs to find them all full. For all its remoteness, this was proving to be a mighty popular town! Big mamma at one of the b&bs directed us to the tourist information center for help finding an accommodation.

What´s that long line at the tourist info place all about? Oh, it´s those tourists wanting to get their passports stamped with ´congratulations you´ve reached the end of the world´ and receive a certificate of achievement. There were two suckers heading up that line - Nagesh and Kavita - of course. Umm, we´re here to find a place to stay, remember? Well, first things first.

Argentinians are just the most friendliest and helpful souls ever. The lady at the tourist info office called around a bunch of places in our budget till she found us a b&b. Our home here is an obnoxiously green structure with the most gorgeous views from our shocking blue bedroom. Our hosts, the Nahuels, have been more than gracious. The señora can´t stop chattering during breakfast to update us on all the current events.

Tierra del Fuego national park is on our itinerary for the day. Tomorrow we sail the Beagle channel to see a Penguin colony and visit an Argentinian Estancia (ranch). More on those trips later. Need to grab dinner now. Oh, by the way, the food here is seriously inexpensive - and delicious, even for Kavita.

For those who´re holding their breath on what´s going on with Torres del Paine, we´re still on our way but not until next week. In the meanwhile comes a detour to Los Glaciares national park near El Calafate, Argentina.

We gotta tell you one last bathroom detail before we say hasta mañana. Guess what? all the used TP needs to be trashed OUTSIDE the potty. The drainage system cannot handle flushing it down. We could make a killing out of marketing diaper genies as Toilet Paper genies in this part of the world. Any VCs out there dying to fund our brilliant ¨drainwave¨?

Punta Arenas, Chile

Embracing the Straits of Magellan, Punta Arenas is a shanty town that gleams with multicolored roofs of corrugated tin and lots of character. Once a prosperous trading port, it was reduced to a naval base after the Panama Canal opened in 1924.

All roads in this town lead to a central Plaza de Armas marked by an imposing statue of Magellan. This is where tourists, lovers, kids learning to juggle, and denizens taking a nap can all be found in an afternoon. Little girls with long hair, dressed in bright woolies, are by far the cutest sightings of the day. The weather fluctuates from bright and warm to cold and windy every few minutes.

Not looking foreign enough can be a disadvantage when you´re greeted with a torrent of Spanish everywhere you go. Our well practiced donde esta el baño? is not taking us too far in these parts. The good news is that we seem to, or at least think, we understand more than we speak. A patchwork of our ever-growing vocabulary has gotten us as far as booking our tickets, ordering meals, and asking for directions.

We had a new itinerary to plan today. A silver lining began to emerge after the grey news last night. The park opened today. Although hiking the ´´W¨´ or the circuit is still impossible, we may still be able to trek parts of the trail. But we´re going to let all the commotion calm down and head to Tierra del Fuego instead. So we´re off to Ushuaia tomorrow morning on a direct 10 hour bus - the last leg of our pilgrimage al fin del mundo.

We spent the rest of our afternoon visiting museums of historical and maritime interest. Great glimpses into the lives of Indian settlements, oil refineries, Antartic explorations, and missionary activities in the region.

More when we get to Argentina.
Chao

Are we there yet?

A trip to the end of the world takes just as long to get there as it sounds. Trust us when we say the world is not a small place. Five flights, two continents, three countries, and 36 hours later we´re still barely there. The flights were mostly uneventful but immigration had its share of surprises. Thanks to that distracted apple-munching lady at the Peruvian consulate, we arrived in Lima with a ¨business¨ visa. Now given the nature of our ¨business¨, it was no small task to prove our far-from-capitalistic intentions. Finally after running around in circles trying to plead innocence in our non-spanish, we signed some obscure form and wriggled our way out of Peru. Let´s not even worry about how to leave Peru next time just yet.

But wait, we didn´t really leave Peru that quickly. The last thing we needed after a seven hour sleepless layover followed by immigration drama was a two hour flight delay to Santiago. Brownie points to LAN Chile for serving sandwiches and bebidas (drinks) at the gate.

Touch down in Santiago was breathtaking. Nestled between the Andean mountain range was the sprawling expanse of the Chilean capital. It was a gorgeous summer afternoon - bright and 84F. Can we stay?

Now comes the famous ¨riding a bicycle in an elevator¨ flight to Punta Arenas. Chilean Patagonia is notorious for its gusty winds. While Nagesh was relieved that we were not riding a propellor plane, Kavita tried to abate her nervousness by focussing on winning rummy games. Apart from a few heart-lurching plunges, we made a smooth landing at 11pm on Feb. 22.
Are we there yet? Not at the end of the world. Not until we make it to Ushuaia, Argentina.

Although the airport at Punta Arenas was small, there were ample transfer options into the city. We chose to share a minivan that dropped us outside Hostal al fin del Mundo (hostel at the end of the chilean world). We were greeted by our very pleasant, bilingual host - Rodrigio. After a hot shower and change of clothes, we were energized enough to plan the rest of our Patagonian journey into Torres Del Paine national park.

We were in for a rude shock when Rodrigio unceremoniously told us that the park was indefinitely closed. A fire, accidentally started by a Czezh camper´s stove, had ravaged 14000 acres of the park. No one knew when it would open next. Rodrigio casually mentioned that it could take 2o days or more. We gawked at each other in utter disbelief. This was not really happening to us. Silence ripped through the room as all our planning, paranthas, and flights flashed by like a tragic movie.

Ah the joys of travelling. All we could do was to pick up the guidebook and start planning from scratch. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Hasta Luego 

Our Itinerary: Join the Caravan

Okay so here's a rough road map of our travels. All in the hope that everyone that's promised to meet us somewhere will start making some real plans. And those who have not will be tempted to do so.

February/March/April 2005 - SOUTH AMERICA
February 21 to March 10 - Chilean Patagonia (Torres del Paine)and Tierra Del Fuego
March 10 to March 20 - Santiago and vicinity
March 20 to March 28 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 29 to April 9 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
April 10 to April 24 - Peru (Machu Pichu and the Amazon)
April 25 - Return to San Francisco

May/June 2005 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (5 WEEKS)

June/July/August 2005 - EUROPE/AFRICA/ASIA
Exact dates for these travels are not known but here's a rough plan. Fly into Spain from USA and make our way into Africa via Morocco, onward to Egypt, and then into Kenya for Kilimanjaro. Probably in the June/July time frame.
From there we'll head into Russia via Eastern block. Then take the Trans-Mongolian into China through the Ger camps to meet our kindred spirits.
From China we make our way to South East Asia and of course, India! Yay!

We'll have more specific dates, so keep checking with us. We're flexible to some degree and will be happy to work around dates if you're joining us.

Pickled! 

Banjara; Gypsy; Traveler: Onward Journeys

There's a gypsy inside all of us. There's at least one kind. Wait until the one inside you springs out and urges you to "move on". Our gypsies have unanimously sprung for us to seek out the world. Now!

We're nomads for the next few months journeying onward and excited about our next destination. We invite you to join us in our junket; physically if you can but electronically as a must.

Do stay in touch.

Ciao