To the Falls

According to Frost, fences make good neighbors. Apparently waterfalls make good borders; in this case, between Argentina and Brazil.

I was a bit leery about going to see Iguazu Falls. First off, it is a twenty hour bus ride from Buenos Aires, and I am getting a little tired of buses. However, everyone raved about the falls so we went. I have to admit it was well worth it. What does Iguazu have the Niagara doesn´t? First, Iguazu is bigger and in the middle of a jungle so that sort of adds an element of the exotic. Second, Iguazu has yellow fever.

I really think the threat of tropic disease adds something to the whole experience.

Turning North

NOTE: This is just a short post to catch up. I am in Buenos Aires at the moment, but the internet cafes here are pretty lousy and/or non-existent. Unfortunately, I can´t add any photos until I find a better cafe. Sorry.

Prior to arriving in BA, Drew and I spent time in El Calafate (in Argentinian Patagonia) and Puerto Iguazu (at the Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina border). This post will cover El Calafate and a subsequent one will address the north.

There are only four important things about El Calafate.

1) It is not Ushuaia. We finally finagelled bus tickets out of Ushuaia to a hole affectionally known as Rio Gallegos, Argentina. The only thing interesting in Rio is carafour, which is a cheap, depressing, South American version of Wal-Mart. Four hours later, most of it spend wandering the aisles of carafour, we manage to catch another bus to El Calafate. We left Ushuaia at 5 AM and arrived in El Calafate at 1 AM the following day. Then we spend two hours wandering the streets looking for our hostel. We arrive around 3 AM.

2) El Calafate is so important that it is one of the few cities to actually use a definite article in its name. Sort of like ¨The Ohio State Univeristy.¨ Admitedly, we refer to Washington, DC as ¨the District¨, but that is not as pretencious since it is only the short form of the official name. Besides, DC has something to be pretentious about. All El Calafate has is a glacier.

3) There is a big #$%&¿@* glacier just outside of town. It´s big! Like the size of New York City big! Its about 5 km wide and tens of kilometers long. It´s impressive, assuming you like large chunks of ice.

4) I learned to make a new drink - The Lenin. It is a surprisingly okay combination of vodka and beer. This make be old hat to all of you, but I had never heard of one. I googled it and didn´t see anything promising, so i will bear the mantle of bringing the Lenin to the USA.

Okay, that sums up El Calafate. At this point we got desperate and just decided to skip out on the whole two-day bus ride to Buenos Aires. We bought plane tickets and instead hung out at the airport with a bunch of Harvard grad students while they tried to fix our plane. In retrospect, the bus wouldn´t have been much longer.

Unto the End of the World...

Happy New Years!!!

We finally made it, sort of. Drew and I are now in Ushuaia, Argentina - the end of the world. Ushuaia considers itself to be the southern-most city in the world. It´s credentials are good. Ushuaia sits at the southwest end of Tierra Del Fuego and is nestled up against the Beagle Channel. It is tough to find a beer anywhere south of here.

There is just one small problem, Puerto Williams, Chile.

Puerto Williams is on the other side of the Beagle Channel and consequently, just a few kilometers farther south. Argentina deals with this problem just like every other great civilization deals with their sticky little issues. They ignore it. Apparently, inconvenient facts aren´t facts at all.

Ushuaia argues that Puerto Williams is not a city, it is just a small naval village. Therefore it doesn´t count. Being located in Chile doesn´t help Puerto Williams´case either. Chile and Argentina have been ignoring each other for decades. (Except when they are trying to blast each other off the continent. On this topic, I saw my first mine field the other day.)

So Drew and I will close out 2008 surrounded by penguins and beaver. Who couldn´t like that?! The only downside to being this far south is the absolute lack of college bowl games.

Where to next?? Good question. We had hoped to book passage to Antarctica, but that proved to be too expensive. The best price we found was about $5000 for a two week cruise. So the Antarctic will have to wait. The Falkland Islands are still a possibility (which the Argentinians are still pissed about) or perhaps we will wander up along the Atlantic coast of Argentina. Who knows.

Best wishes to everyone for 2009!