Iguazu Falls

We went to Igauzu Falls last week. The falls are situated in in Northern Argentina on the Brazilian border. The waterfalls are taller then Niagara and twice as wide. The area is broken up into approximately 275 separate waterfalls. It's pretty big...

We spent two days here. The first was really overcast and rainy. It took the next two days for some of our stuff which got soaked on this day to dry because it was so humid.

Here is a picture taken from the same spot as the last one but on the second day when it was clear.

This is from the top of the Devil's Throat waterfall. It is the most famous waterfall. You can walk practically to the edge of it on a catwalk. It was really wet from the spray of water.

Water + camera lens makes Lindsay angry.

We also got to walk down to the lower part of the waterfalls and enjoy them from below. The whole area was pretty touristy but it was so magnificent that it didn't really matter.

More photogenic waterfalls.

These are some Coatis in a tree above the waterfalls. These little guys were everywhere. Their relative to the raccoon and adorable.

And just because you can't have enough Coati pictures, here's another.

Some photos for Mom (and everyone else too)

Hey Mom it's a Guanaco! We saw this handsome devil on the Peninsula Valdez. Do you think he could be Fearless' an ancient ancestor?

These are about 3 month old Elephant Seals, but already HUGE. Our guide warned us that they were big fat blobs who just sit there or else they over heat. Good to know or we might have thought they were all dead.

Lindsay acting nonchalant right before the giant sand storm behind her hit us. I had to get a picture even though at this point the wind was raging and blowing sand was already everywhere.

The Sea Lion colony at Punta Lame-o. The colony was actually really cool for the 30 minutes we got to see them before the wind forced us to leave.

Mother and pup Sea Lions at Peninsula Valdez.

One of the thousands of Penguins we saw at Punta Tombo. Also only one of a thousand pictures we took of these cute little guys.

Lago Menendez in the Los Alerces National Park from the back of the boat we took to get to the Los Alerces trees.

Me standing next to an Alerces tree. I think this one is around 600-800 years old.

Part of the trail through Los Alerces. The forest had a lot of a bamboo species growing in it. Sometimes it felt more like hiking in Asia then South America.

Torrecillas Glacier seen from the boat.

This was taken on the ride from Esquel to Los Alerces. Its where the Patagonia Steppe meets the lakes and mountains of the Lake District. Big and beautiful.

The Bosque Tallado (aka worked forest) on the Piltriquitron mountain.

Another carved tree trunk in the Bosque Tallado with El Bolson's valley in the background.

The view of the valley from Piltriquitron.

View of Bariloche and the surrounding Nahuel Huapi National Park from the Cerro Otto trail.

it has been awhile....

Hello Friends and Family,
We are sorry it has been so long since our last post. The time has been going really fast, and blogging is one of those things that gets easier to put off and harder to write each time you skip it. But we have put it off long enough and will finally write about what we have been doing before it is ancient history. For those of you who might not know, we decided to not get jobs here and bought our return tickets home. But before we left Argentina we wanted to see as much as we could. With that in mind we have restarted our ‘Big Bus Fun Trip’ and it is bigger, bussier, and funner then ever.

We bought our return tickets about a month ago and jumped on a bus headed to Bariloche three weeks ago. To understand the distances of this country you all need some figures; we were in Mendoza which appears in the upper half of the country…we bused for 19 hours to Bariloche which is closer to the mid-section of the country. We wanted to go further south to the great glaciers of Patagonia, but to then go to El Calefayte…30 more bus hours, and to get to Tierra del Fuego…who knows how many hours. Don’t get disappointed in us just because we didn’t get to the “end of the world,” we saw some cool things. So Bariloche is the major Argentine city in the south and the center of the beautiful lake district of Patagonia. Traveling through the Patagonia landscape brings similarities of Wyoming to mind constantly: vast plains of brutal inhabitable land besides the tough Gauchos (Argentine Cowboys), terrible winds, wide-open nothingness, and then serine beauty captured in mighty snowcapped peaks. The differences are the lakes; they are huge melted glaciers that are perfectly blue and green. Bariloche, we had been warned is the vacation spot for Argentines during January so it can be busy and expensive. We thought since maybe it was late January and we hadn’t seen so many tourists that it wouldn’t be so bad: nope, it was packed and too much for us. We had difficulties not just finding cheap lodging but by late in the afternoon any lodging at all. We found a silly little hotel and were able to stay long enough to do a nice hike up Cerro Otto to get a vista of the city lying on the banks of the gigantic Lago Nahuel Huapi.

For our next stop El Bolsón, you need background information: we were trying to figure out a cheap and fun way to spend some time down in the lake district and were turned on to WWOOF Argentina, an international organic farming organization. Sounded fantastic, we go live on a farm either in bunks or in tents and learn the organic/permaculture farming methods of some easy-go-lucky Argentine hippies. We sent inquires to a bunch of farms and we were organizing our schedule so that we might be able to do two volunteers: one in a community (a little bit rougher) and then a second at a mountain spa that sustains the resort by its farm. First we decided to stay with Blanca Rosa in El Bolsón, a small hippie-hamlet south of Bariloche made famous by its organic and home-made everything sold at their huge artisan’s market. Blanca Rosa offered us to stay at her “hostel” while we organized our WWOOFing. Her hostel was just her house 40 minutes walking out of town and we stayed in makeshift rooms. We had decided to stay there because she was hosting some WWOOFers and we thought it might help us see what we were in-store for and we were glad we did.

The WWOOFers were great Ignacio from Buenos Aires and Ryan from Toronto; they were the perfect yin and yang, both looking for something totally different from the experience but both happy and good friends for Jeff and I for 5 days. Their jobs were not often related to farming and the farm was more like Blanca Rosa’s personal garden, what we saw was loosely: two young kids helping and older women with some chores in exchange for some food and a mattress. We of course heard about other WWOOfers in the area: the best was the volunteers who instead of farming were making wind chimes in this guy’s shop that he was selling at the artisan’s market in exchange for ONE meal per day…this is plain and simple exploitation. Its not like we weren’t expecting that, it’s kind of the name of the game for volunteering: you give your work away not. But we wanted to see some grassroot farming, see what the Argentines were doing in organics that was creative and different… so we decided not to go to work on the farm and travel a bit more extensively in Argentina before getting on the plane. I don’t want to give you all the wrong impression about WWOOF, because It seems like a great organization and I might try it again in the future just maybe someplace where the work is more farming. So instead of farming we took some hikes to the mountains, one towards the Cerro Piltriquitron, the high mountain that gives its energy to the valley below, and another to the “indian’s head.” Both were great because they provided amazing views of the valley and huge Andean peaks in the distance. On the route to Piltriquitron we stopped to see the carved forest, where various artists had taken their artistic skills to the trees. You walked a marked trail and admired the interpretation of an artists’ vision for a trunk, they were transformed into human forms to abstract figures.

From El Bolson we took a short bus ride South to the small town of Esquel. Esquel is the Laramie of Argentina. It is a small (26,000 pop.) frontier town on the edge of the beautiful lake district and the desolate Patagonian Steppe. It was cold, windy, and friendly. We felt right at home. The reason to visit Esquel was its close proximity to Los Alerces National Park. We got to spend two days hiking this park. Its houses some huge pristine glacier lakes, the glaciers themselves, and some amazing trees. We saw the Arrayan trees we had missed in Bariloche (which are a cinnamon colored), and the Alerces trees which is why this park was created. The Alerces trees are really old (some over 2,600 yrs) and grow really slow (1 millimeter/ yr) so their protection is absolutely necessary.

In hind sight we probably left Esquel a little too quickly. We spent two days in Los Alerces but we easily could have doubled or tripled that time and still not seen as much as we wanted to in that national park. But it was unseasonably cold, Lindsay and I were both starting to get sick, and our only sleeping arrangements were dormitories, so we bought some tickets on a short (9 hr) overnight bus to Trelew.

Trelew is Patagonian city on the Chubut River close to where it empties into the Atlantic. It isn’t a touristy town and there is little of interest to invite tourists here. But what it does offer makes it totally worth it. In the town is an awesome dinosaur museum with a couple dozen dino skeletons. And an hour and half South of town, at Punta Tombo, is South America’s largest Magellan Penguin colony. Colony in fact isn’t the right word; it is actually a metropolis of penguins. When we got there we walked up the path and stopped (probably like everyone else) in amazement at the first sighting of a penguin at 20 ft away. But by the time we had gotten over the hill and onto the beach we were surrounded by thousands of them. As you are walking along the path so are the penguins. They are going about their daily business as if you were just one of them. Every now and then you stop as you cross paths with a penguin probably heading to the sea to fish, or maybe coming back to the nest to see how his lifelong mate is doing at the nest. One tough penguin, probably putting on a show for his friends, blocked the path so we couldn’t pass for a couple minutes. It was so surreal being a part of penguin life if only for a few hours.

Well after seeing the dinosaur museum and Punta Tombo there wasn’t much more that Trelew could offer, so we took a bus one hour North to Puerto Madryn, a touristy beach town on the Atlantic Coast. The biggest draw is Peninsula Valdez, which is ‘the place’ to see Right Whales and other sea creatures. Unfortunately we weren’t there at the right time of the year for whales but we did take a tour where we got to see Sea Lions, adolescent Elephant Seals (they were only 3 months old and still gigantic), Guanacos, Armadillos, Maras (weird large rabbit looking rodents), and a Fox. It was an animal packed day of fun, and we were officially introduced to the Maté ritual by our guide (but we will get into that in another post maybe).

Even after Peninsula Valdez we still hadn’t gotten our Sea Lion fix so we planned a bicycle trip to Punta Loma, another Sea Lion colony 12 km South-East of town. It sounded like such a lovely afternoon; little did we know the day was going to turn into Punta Lame-o. We rented a couple bikes and set out mid morning. We wanted to get out there and back before the wind got too bad (it had been really windy most of the time we had been in Puerto Madryn). Well, we didn’t beat the wind, it beat us… The wind was only tame enough on the way out there to keep us from turning around. When we got there a huge sand storm came at us and we had to take refuge in the park ranger cubicle. The sand storm engulfed everything, at one point we couldn’t even see the ocean 200 ft away. When it became visible again we noticed that the waves were actually retreating from the beach because the wind was so strong. The ranger assured us that they don’t get tornadoes in Argentina but the wind was really strong. During a calm moment we got to see the Sea Lions which was cool but not worth the work it would be to get back to town since the wind was blowing against us. For the sake to time we won’t get into it, but the ride/ walk/ hiding behind bushes to get out of the wind and blowing sand sucked. Luckily a couple guys, or as Lindsay refers to them ‘her angels in a pickup’, picked us up a couple km out of town and took us the rest of the way. But alls well that ends well, right?

As of now, we are writing this from Buenos Aires which we just showed up in yesterday. We hope this post hasn’t dragged on too long. We will try and post more often and keep them shorter. We will also post some pictures in the next couple days.

-Beacon and Red

Our mission: to discover Mendoza's beautiful wine.

Estamidos amigos,

I am sure there were no doubts that Jeff and I would be enjoying the deep red liquid gold from the Mendoza province making it a region famous and popular. This liquid gold I am talking about is of course wine, more specifically the mendocinos pride and joy, Malbec wine. Since the city of Mendoza lacks some on the typical sites that draws the attention of tourists like museums and shopping, Beacon and Red decided that their tour of Mendoza will be through its vino. This burden we carry of discovering the secrets of Mendoza wine is not something we take lightly and we feel that we must fulfill this mission on behalf of all of our loved ones who do not reside in wine country.

The testing process did not of course just start when we stepped onto Argentinean soil; we drank Malbecs in the States probably due to the influence of my mom. It always seemed to us to be a quality alternative to the cheap Australian Shiraz. To find our first bottle was not a challenge since all shops seem to sell the fermented grape juice; from the fancy wine shops to the little minimarket on the corner. We have been shopping primarily at the supermarket because of the selection and the ease.

As for the learning component of this prized study we went to the source: we took and organized Bodega Tour (bodega is winery/shop on location at the vineyard). I am sure you are all a little curious of what type of funding has been needed for our scientific pursuits, to be fair when applicable I will put the price in Argentinean pesos and you can do the conversion (3.8 pesos= $1), Jeff and I are guessing to approximate what the same tour or bottle of wine might cost in Napa valley….just don’t convert the price. Anyways we did a four hour bus tour (45 Ag Pesos/person) which included transport to the close wine region and a guided tour of two very different wineries, one was small and more focused on high quality export wine and the other was more industrial and for national consumption. The tour also went to an olive oil factory, because where there is wine there is usually olive oil production. The olivícola produced beautiful olive oil some of which was unfiltered (not usually produced for stores b/c people don’t like the cloudy color) with an oliveier flavor. Finally, we went to a homemade liquors and chocolate shop.

We have learned about the process of wine making and although all wines are so unique in flavor, texture, smell, etc. the process is about the same as well as using the same basic tools. Thus, the mystery remains; is it the love and the intention of the winemaker that makes each so special and different? (the real secret is of course in the grapes). So for some facts and an abbreviated rundown on wine making for you: 1st you need your vineyard and even after planting your specifically selected grape varieties the vines will not produce for two years and will not be fit for harvest for another two. Once you have grapes they need to be de-stemmed and smashed (making sure not to break the seeds). If you are making white wine you ferment just the juice whereas, red wine is fermented using the all of the fruit the seed and skin (its where those illustrious tannins come from). The fermentation takes place in either stainless steel vats or concrete cells that are coated an epoxy resin for about 12 months. If you are making “young” wine aka cheaper wine it goes straight to the bottle and it might be aged in the bottle for a little bit. Otherwise it goes to the oak casks where it can age anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. Now this is where my ignorance about wine was wizened up: the description of wines varies greatly mentioning flavors of citrus, cherry, plum, chocolate, vanilla, leather, and oak, but where do these flavors come from? THEY ARE NOT ADDED TO THE WINE, the wine accumulates these flavors during the aging process in the oak barrels, so the only real “flavors” would be oak naturally and smoky flavors which come from the curing in the barrels, the other flavors are memories that the wine coaxes out of us while we enjoy the blood of the grape.

Our next adventure in wine exploration apart from bottles at the house (ranging 12-30Ag pesos) was a solo tour via bicycle. We took the bus to Maipú the close wine region and found a great a little bicycle rental shop (if you like cool websites check out theirs www.bikesandwine.com) and they gave us a bottle of water and a map and sent us on our way. We biked for 9km to a great old winery and worked our way back to the center of the town. We saw a few other wineries all pretty different, sheek and new compared with vintage and classy. Our lunch break was at the Tempus Alba winery; good wine but fantastic food (140 Ag pesos/2 meals with glasses of wine + 2wine tasting flights) although a splurge it was worth it and probably some of the best food we have had since leaving the states.

It was overall a great afternoon, I did take a minor spill on my cruiser but I refuse to believe it was because of the wine. Besides minimal roadrash we made it back to the house without problems and the day of research of wine and jubilation was a total success.

Les extraño,

Red

Wine Touring in Mendoza Argentina

Beacon and Red on bikes!!! (only the 2nd time since leaving home)

Olives and grapes growing harmoniously.These are the doors to the huge concrete cells where the wine is stored during
fermentation.

French oak barrels for wine aging - classic wine beauty.

These old bottles are the winery's archives; they save a bottle along with notes to remember each batch.

Don't be fooled, these barrels are huge but now are only for decoration.

Happy Holidays Friends and Family,

I know most of you reading this are in, or near, Wyoming and are suffering from what I hear is one of the coldest winters in a really long time. Nonetheless I hope that you are all in good spirits for the holidays and are enjoying yourselves, and situation, as much as possible. Lindsay and I have been trying to call as many of you as we can to wish happy holidays and to keep you informed about our whereabouts and plans. Unfortunately because we have talked with a lot of you we haven’t posted, except pictures, in awhile but here we go.

So in Lindsay’s last post we were in Arequipa, Peru, a little past halfway through our “Big Bus Fun Trip”. From there we had what was looking like a long trip down through the Andes into Northern Chile and then we were going to cross over into Northern Argentina and see the city of Salta before zipping down (about 20 hr bus ride) to Mendoza. But when we were in Arequipa we found a flight from a kind of small time airline to Santiago for less then the busing would have cost. It was one of the funniest flights either of us has ever been on because it was practically a flying bus. The flight took off from Arequipa and landed first in Arica, Chile - which was about a 30 min flight. Then we got off and did customs and continued on to Antofagasta, Chile – which was another 45 min flight. This time only some of the passengers got off and new people got on. Then we flew to Santiago, Chile – which was maybe a 90 min flight.

We spent a couple days in Santiago which is a HUGE city. As most of you know, or have gathered from this blog, we aren’t really big city people. That being said Santiago is actually a pretty cool place. It felt very safe and friendly (we had a complete stranger stop and ask us if we needed help because we were looking at a map, this isn’t that much different from other places we have been except that he didn’t try and sell us something afterwards). On the downside of things Santiago is expensive like all big cities. From Santiago we took a beautiful 8 hr bus ride over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina.

This is where we are now. We have gotten a short-term apartment here in Mendoza (which was enough of a hassle it might warrant its own blog post) to spend the holidays and figure out what we want to do next. Mendoza is known for its wine and its proximity to Mount Aconcagua – which is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. Mendoza is bigger then we thought (about 850,000) but it still maintains kind of a smaller town feel. Unfortunately we are only at about 2,000 ft altitude here so we should probably change our blog name. It is really hot, which makes us feel even worse for those of you who are suffering through such bad weather right, but we do have an extra bedroom for anyone who can’t take the cold any longer. We have already taken a regional tour which included a short trip to Aconcagua National Park and we are going to take some wine tours soon. So hopefully we will have more to post later about wine tours, our future plans, and anything else that we do and think y’all be interested in.

-Beacon

Mostly Machu Picchu

We climbed up, and down, this ladder and five others like it to get to the top of Putucusi Mountain in order to see Machu Picchu from a distant right before sunset. This ladder continues for another 100 ft out of this picture frame... It was pretty scarry.

The nearby town of Aguas Caliente nestled in the forested Andes from half way up Putucusi Mountain.

More of the Andes mountain range. On this trip we have seen so many different ecosystems housed in this mountain range, from high altitude paramoes to densely covered cloud forests as seen here. Our Machu Picchu guide said that the Incans built more trails then the Romans, and looking at the sorrounding vegetation it no wonder why. This trail that took us to the top of Putucusi is actually an old Incan trail.

A view of Putucusi from Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was covered with fog almost the whole time we were there. It really added a lot to the experience. It just made the whole place seem even more other worldly.

Machu Picchu was a sanctuary for Incan itellectuals. It wasn't around for very long before it was abandoned but how amazing it must have been when it was in occupied. We are so lucky that it escaped pilaging and is still so well preserved for people to see.

And of course without the skills of such a talented photographer there would be no way to capture the beauty of Machu Picchu.

When it was for a sacred building the Incans would carve the rocks so that they fit together perfectly and they did it all without morter either.
Now we are out of Peru... but still in the Andes. This was taken during the bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed up this road and when we couldn't climb any further we drove through a mountain via a really long tunnel. When we came out the other side we were in Argentina.