Chimichurri

...de "El Boliche de Alberto".

1kg de perejil (saucina)

4 dientes de ajo

Picar bien en procesadora y mezclar con 2 cucharadas soperas de orégano, ají molido y sal

En frasco de vidrio mezclar todo con 3/4 partes de aceite de mezcla y 1/4 parte de vinagre de vino

Guardar 1 mes como mínimo en la despensa.

Best. Salsa. Ever.

El que no se arriesga no cruza el mar.

(Puerto Montt, Chile): The M/N Puerto Eden - 116.50mts long, 19.23mts wide and able to transport 4402 tons of cargo and 225 passengers - has safely delivered me 1000km further north into the warmer climate of Puerto Montt.

For the boat and crew it was just another trip, and after having just arrived here at 4am this morning, as I write this they are getting the boat ready for the return to Puerto Natales at 2:30pm today. After a thorough clean-up job I imagine.

For us passengers it was anything but a normal trip.

After checking in on Friday afternoon, we were finally able to board the boat at 9pm and store our luggage away in the tiny quarters that were to be our home for the next 4 days. 4 Persons to a state room that was barely 2m wide and just about 4m long - with very little means of ventilation. No dinner was served on this last night in Pto. Natales, and before breakfast the next morning - with many passengers still asleep - we set sail for Puerto Montt at 6am.

The weather wasn´t perfect onthise Saturday, but the narrow passages and low hanging clouds were ample material for dramatic scenery nonetheless. We spent the day reading and playing cards in the lounge or armed with our cameras on bridge or observation deck. The food that was served for lunch and dinner was plentiful, pisco, wine and whiskey made their rounds that night, and late at night we fell into a deep slumber. Life was good.

Well, until the next morning it was. Apparently the lasagne from the day before was a bit undercooked, so the next morning half of the passengers found themselves suffering fromdiarrheah, and the bathrooms found themselves quickly out of paper. Woe to those that hadn´t brought their 10 essentials on this trip. To make matters worse, this was also the day that we were leaving the sheltered waters behind the islands, heading into the open waters of the pacific. With meter-high swells many a stomach was quick in turning over any contents to the open sea, and many passengers spent the day leaning far over the reeling, the eyes fixed on the horizon and breathing deeply the fresh air, onlinterrupteded occasionally... I pity those that suffered from both diarrheaah and seasickness at the same time.

Needless to say that dinner was calm that night - less than 30 of the 80 passengers even bothered to show up. The next day however, it was all over. We had left the open waters and were once again in the calm Patagonian Channels, the weather had cleared up and so had many people´s digestive system. While spending the day on the top deck enjoying the sun and the increasingly warmer air (I should say "less cold") we had magnificent views on the rough Patagonian landscape and the abundant marine life in the channels. Besides seals and birds, we even saw dolphins and a whale - what a grand finale for such a mixed boat trip!

This night again we celebrated like the first time - with Pisco, Whiskey, Wine and Beer.... because at 4am we would arrive in Puerto Montt and all head our separate ways yet again.

Pictures as soon as I have time to upload them!

Nate as uploaded some of my images from Tores del Paine National Park - check them out here.

Being a good boy scout...

Every boy scout, hiker, and climber knows that there is a set of "10 essentials" that you are supposed to carry with you whenever you set foot in the wilderness - whether for a short hike or for a multi-day trekking tour.

Is there a similar set of items that one should carry when heading to a foreign country? I think so... let´s see if it adds up to 10:


(1) Toilet paper
That handy roll stashed away to combat the constant lack of readily available paper in public and hostel toilets, it´s the replacement-tissue for the ever-dripping nose, or simply the kitchen-roll substitute, ready to clean and wipe dry whatever needs to be. Never leave without it.

(2) A spoon
I want to see you eat that yogurt at the bus station. And no, your tongue isn´t long enough to reach the bottom of that cup. If it is, the doors of certain industries are wide open for you.

(3) A knife
You go and cut that salami with your spoon. Wait. You didn´t bring a spoon either? Also useful to stab evil people in dark alleys.

(4) An ATM card
Unthinkable just a few years ago, today you can withdraw money from your home bank account through cash machines all over the world - from Cambodia to Tierra del Fuego. Traveller´s checks, while still a great backup to keep in your pocket, are increasingly harder to cash and require passport and business hours to obtain cash. It helps to have money in the bank to make this item more useful.

(5) Hand sanitizer
Two words say it all: Public Bathrooms.

(6) A notebook/diary
It´s not just a diary which helps you to keep track of the past - it´s also a great reminder for things to do or to take care of in the future. It will hold email adresses, phone numbers, directions to a hostel, or the newest cussword in a foreign language. Have a shopping list, your budget, or the numbers of the travellers checks you cashed always at your fingertips. Bring a pen to enhance usefulness.

(7) Duct tape
How to seal off that gap under the door, through which the spiders crawl in at night? Duct tape! How to keep that handle from falling off the pot? Duct tape! How to quickly fix that hole in your stuff bag? Duct tape! It´s like a McGyver on a roll!

(8) Imodium
Especially when you ignore #5, this little pill will make your life less miserable. More than invaluable when you have to get ready for a 11-hour bus ride the next morning. Or you already ARE on the bus ride (I hope you did listen to bring #1 then).

(9) Dictionary
Even though I have no doubt it would be hilarious to watch, explaining to the pharmacist in gestures and drawings that you need Imodium might be too time consuming and humiliating. A few words in the right language here and there can save you from a lot mockery.

(10) A second wallet
Keep your valuable posessions hidden in a money belt and carry the money you need over the course of the day and some unimportant cards and papers in a second wallet in your pocket. You´ll have much less of an interruption of your trip if you have to surrender that second wallet instead of the one with your passport, tickets, bulk of money (This item was actually mentioned to me by my friend Michael a few years ago. Thanks again!).


There you go. Don´t ever leave your country without these.

Now I´ll continue waiting for my ferry. 30 more hours.
I need to buy new toilet paper.

Godot should show up any minute now...

(Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile) The inherent problem with ferries that sail on a weekly schedule is that... well it takes a week from one departure to the next, so all you can do in between is waiting.

I have left Punta Arenas yesterday and took one of those fancy air-conditioned, toilet-equipped, non-stop, frequently going buses that make traveling down here so easy back to Puerto Natales. After a movie-watching marathon in my hostel last night, there is still another 48 hours to go until I can board the ferry which will take me over the course of 5 days to Puerto Montt, 1000km (600 miles) further north - surely it will be much slower than any bus, but I hope that the trip through the Patagonian Channels offer me views that I couldn´t experience otherwise. Until then I have more than enough time to explore the areas of Puerto Natales I haven´t seen... and then another 45 hours to spare.

The tourist season here seems to come to an end - like I did a week ago I am staying in the Hostel Kawashkar, but this time with far less people around than before. The streets and restaurants reflect that as well, and a few weeks from now the tourist stream heading to and from the Torres del Paine National Park will have slowed down to a trickle, and Puerto Natales will return to being a quiet harbor town.

By and large the Argentinean and Chilenean sides of southern Patagonia are very similar in that it is cold, the weather is harsh and changes quickly, the landscape is beautiful and the streets are crap, the people are generally friendly, and even the spoken Spanish isn´t radically different. What IS different, however, is the cuisine!

It´s not only the absence of empanadas (those tasty patries filled with meat, onions, cheese, etc.) and "Tenedor Libres" (it´s like a buffet - you pay once and can keep on stacking your plate with meat from the BBQ) - which were widely available in Argentina. What is the most striking difference is coffee. Argentineans love their espressos and consume these (or cafés con leche) after every meal and in between if there is time. Espresso machines are readily available in every restaurant! In Chile, however, what you are most likely to get when ordering a coffee is a cup of hot water and a box of instant coffee. Make it yourself! Just today at lunch I ordered a café con leche (coffee with milk) and received a cup with microwaved milk and a little shaker with instant powder. It wasn´t as bad as I feared, but I think the waitress was secretly laughing in the kitchen about me.

All that said, the Chilenean kitchen I have experienced so far has been very tasty and interesting as well. The region XII (Los Magallanes) is known for it´s abundant and flavorful Salmón (Lachs, Salmon) - and after a healthy portion of Salmón a la plancha (literally "ironed" Salmon) I understand why. Besides that there is a lot of barbequed sheep, a variety of "burgers" with different meats and sauces (lomitos, churrascos), and luckily still the tasty "Chorizos" I know from Argentina, little spicy sausages made of everything left from the pig that isn´t cut up otherwise. I´ll have a few of those for dinner tonight.

Países remotos, hechos heroicos, mujeres bonitas,...

Estrecho de Magallanes - Strait of Magellan, Punta Arenas: The strait Fernando Magellan discovered in 1520 during his famous journey around the world, a navigable connection between Atlantic and Pacific Ocean which made it no longer mandatory to sail around the dangerous Cape Horn.

For the first time in my life I am in Chile, and the city of Punta Arenas is the southernmost point that this trip will take me to - from here on it´s all north all the time. And really, there isn´t a whole lot more south to go. Across the strait lies Tierra del Fuego, and beyond that is only Antarctica. Just 200km north of here lies the famous Torres del Paine National Park - considered one of the most spectacular hiking and climbing locations in the world, and an must-visit location for any trip down here. Despite prior concerns whether the weather would allow us to see anything - or even allow us to complete the "W" tour, Nate and I set out with tent and supplies for a few days last week. And we were rewarded with spectacular sights: Glaciar Grey and the Patagonian Continental ice plate, floating icebergs, the Torres. We were considerably exhausted by the end of the trip, but no doubt was this a milestone not to be missed.

Punta Arenas itself is a rather dull place. We are staying in the "Calafate Hostel y Turismo", a moderately priced hotel that has seen better days, but offers clean beds and fast internet service downstairs. When Nate leaves I´ll have to look for another place to stay. The city itself doesn´t have much to offer - indicated by the waitress asking us at dinner yesterday simply whether we are "Heading to the park or coming from it". It´s all Torres del Paine all the time. Before the Panama Canal was opened, Punta Arenas played a major role as refueling harbor for trips between the Pacific and Atlantic, not much of that is left today. A moderate excitement for the town was the visit of the oil drilling rig "GSF Constellation II", which stayed for a few days for repairs before being loaded onto a huge transporting vessel and hauled off to Egypt. Nate and I were lucky enough to be witness to the loading procedure - a painfully slow yet fascinating process. When do you ever get the chance to see a huge 150m tall drilling platform being loaded on a boat?

Getting around overland is easy. As we had read many times before in the countless guide books that we brought along, the bus is the most convenient, fastest, and most affordable means of transportation. For the 5 hour bus ride from El Calafate (ARG) to Puerto Natales (CHI) we paid $16 USD, for the 240km ride from Puerto Natales down to Punta Arenas we only paid $3 USD.

This trip also introduced Nate to "Hostels" - and all the goodness that comes with them. From shared bathrooms and kitchens, to the shared snoring in the dorms and the shred living rooms in which conversations esily start and new friends are quickly made. Incredibly, many of the people that you meet in one hostel you´ll see at some other point during your trip again. Another hostel, another city, another country - the same faces. Many of the people staying with us are traveling for a lon period of time like I am. Some have just started their trip, others are already 9 month on the road and ready to head home - but the itineraries are often similar: See as much of South America as possible. Soak it all up. And maybe pick up some Spanish on the way.

Tomorrow Nate and my time will come to an end - he is taking a bus from Punta Arenas back to Puerto Natales and onwards back to Calafate, while I will remain a few days longer down here and eventually take a ferry 1000km up north to Puerto Montt. He will have to go back to work while I will continue zig-zagging north through Chile and Argentina into Bolivia and Peru.

I haven´t had the chance to upload any pictures lately, but luckily I was able to burn a bckup of all my imagenes on two DVDs, so I can free up some space on my memory cards again. Ah the hassle that traveling with modern deviced brings along. Where can I charge my backup harddisk now?

(The title for today´s entry is a quote taking from Ernesto "Che" Guevara´s book "Notas de viaje" and describes the expectations he had towards his trip: "Remote countries, heoric deeds, and beautiful women".)

Back at the end of the world!

After 3 years I am back in Argentinean Patagonia, backtracking a few of the places that I went to last time, and trying to see some new places that I simply didn´t have the time to visit last time.

Last week Nate joined me in Buenos Aires, and after a few days of sightseeing, we took a flight down to El Calafate, Santa Cruz. First on the agenda was the glaciar Perito Moreno - a massive block of ice that moves about a meter and a half each day, so over the course of an afternoon you have the chance to see plenty of huge ice blocks crashing into Lago Argentino. The sound that the ice makes when it breaks and hits the water is so loud, you´d believe you are suddenly in the midst of a thunderstorm. While the weather wasn´t as great this time around, this gallery has a few nice shots of the glaciar and the pieces falling into the water from my last visit.

The next day we took a bus up to El Chaltén, a little town whose main business is the accomodation of hikers and climbers. It sits at the northern entrance to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and serves as the gateway for all hikes and climbs leading to Cerro Torre and Mount FitzRoy.

Nate and I decided to spend 4 nights out there in our tent, carrying plenty of food and supplies in on a beautiful sunday afternoon, stopping occasionally to enjoy the gorgeous views on Cerro Torre as we approached our first campsite below the terminal moraine of the Glaciar Torre. The night revealed a sky as starry as it can only be seen in the remote corners of the world where no stray light brightens the horizon. It was amazing. And it was the last we´ve seen of the sky for the last 4 days.

Starting the next morning we were suddenly caught in a weather front that brought plenty of rain and wind gusts that approached hurricane strength. We spent the entire day in the tent and - after a long and windy night - decided to move to the second campsite the next day, in the hopes of a betterment in weather that would allow us to take some pictures of FitzRoy. While we broke down camp it had started snowing, and in worsening weather we slowly made our way north towards the second campsite "Poincenot". After setting up camp again we spent most of the day confined to the tent, with gusts blowing outside that made us fear for the well being of our tent. Not a glimpse of FitzRoy was caught.

After a total of 3 nights out in the weather we decided to head back to El Chaltén where we got some warm meals, comfortable beds, and a nice view on the famous Patagonian weather - this time from inside a warm shelter through the windows. Fall has begun to set it.

Tonight we´ll head back to El Calafate and will make our way to Puerto Natales, Chile, and onwards to Torres del Paine PN. As this parque is even further south, we are a bit concerned how the weather will influence our plans there. More rain to come. Possibly more snow. I need better gloves.