Long time since the last post ....Argentina.... holidays ...great places, bad transport system....
During the last two months very few things have happened: a quite big forest fire burned ~2500 ha next to Zaragoza and thus became my first priority.During August and September I have been busy doing field work in the area, installing 125 plots for fire severity assessment and forest biomass estimation. Therefore I had very few free time that I spent mostly around Madrid. The first time we went for a bachelor party of Cris`s friends, the second time for the wedding and the last time for the second Maich meeting. Actually none of these times we remained in the city.....
And now about the meeting...it was great seeing that so many people have come at the end: the "spanish" team: Cris, Fabri, Nacho, Emil, Argyro, Marc and myself and the "foreigners" Pana and Ervin. The meeting was held close to Segovia, in the mountains were we rented a rural house. During the first day we visited the natural park "Hayedo de Tejera Negra" and the one of the "black villages" (Valverde de los Arroyos)while the second we went for a village fair in Cantalojas. Of course we had a barbecue, followed by party afterwards were we rememberer the good old times :)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Second day in Ushuaia
Fort his, last day of our Patagonian trip, we had arranged a horseback ride though the forest of Ushuaia with our Spanish new friends. As soon as we arrived to the horse center we knew it was not going to be an easy ride. The rain that had fallen the nigh before was now slippery ice on the ground.. making it quite difficult to walk for us, and of course, for the horses. The guy from the center told us to be calm, we would go by safe paths so there was nothing to be worried about... JA JA!
As soon as we started following our guide we realize he was a lier. We ride trough the forest, downhill to the bottom of the valley, with the horses slippering on the ice. Then we climbed up the next hill... it was amazing how the horses were able to walk by extremely narrow frozen path without falling down! From time to time a horse was too scared to continue, so the guide had to climb back to push the horse to continue walking.
It was a real adventure and after we got used to the wild path we enjoyed it very much. I guess not many people can say the ride a horse at the end of the world!
After the ride, a minivan drove us to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. There we went for a walk, but as it was late and we wouldn´t have light for long, we came back after 2 hours. The minivan was waiting for us. The sun has gone and the water of the ground started to freeze again... so at some point, in the middle of a hill we notice that something was going wrong: we were not going uphill...in fact, we were going BACKWARDS!!! The van was slippering on the ice, despite the special ice- tires it had.
The driver told us to go down and push while he tried to drive... great idea when even us were not able to stand up on the ice. And the worse part was that we had to take the plane in three hours!!!
Luckily we saw some car lights coming from down hill... they were our salvation, or not1 The cars passed bay without stopping (otherwise they would have got stuck just like us!).
We had started to panic when the 4x4 track of the park guards came to rescue us pulling our car with a rope to the top of the hill.
Finally we arrived on time to the airport to descover that our plane had the normal one hour delay. We called the hostel we had booked in Buenos Aires to inform about it when we discovered that our reservation had been cancelled. Apparently we should have re-confirmed the reservation within 24 hours after the booking (despite we had already payed the 10%). However we hadn't read the email in which they notified us this "procedure". Se, as a result we had nowhere to sleep. To make it worse every hostel we called was full.
In this occasion our saviors were my Argentinian uncles Blanca and Eduardo who live in Buenos Aires. Just a call was enough for us to have a safe place to sleep that night.
As soon as we started following our guide we realize he was a lier. We ride trough the forest, downhill to the bottom of the valley, with the horses slippering on the ice. Then we climbed up the next hill... it was amazing how the horses were able to walk by extremely narrow frozen path without falling down! From time to time a horse was too scared to continue, so the guide had to climb back to push the horse to continue walking.
It was a real adventure and after we got used to the wild path we enjoyed it very much. I guess not many people can say the ride a horse at the end of the world!
After the ride, a minivan drove us to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. There we went for a walk, but as it was late and we wouldn´t have light for long, we came back after 2 hours. The minivan was waiting for us. The sun has gone and the water of the ground started to freeze again... so at some point, in the middle of a hill we notice that something was going wrong: we were not going uphill...in fact, we were going BACKWARDS!!! The van was slippering on the ice, despite the special ice- tires it had.
The driver told us to go down and push while he tried to drive... great idea when even us were not able to stand up on the ice. And the worse part was that we had to take the plane in three hours!!!
Luckily we saw some car lights coming from down hill... they were our salvation, or not1 The cars passed bay without stopping (otherwise they would have got stuck just like us!).
We had started to panic when the 4x4 track of the park guards came to rescue us pulling our car with a rope to the top of the hill.
Finally we arrived on time to the airport to descover that our plane had the normal one hour delay. We called the hostel we had booked in Buenos Aires to inform about it when we discovered that our reservation had been cancelled. Apparently we should have re-confirmed the reservation within 24 hours after the booking (despite we had already payed the 10%). However we hadn't read the email in which they notified us this "procedure". Se, as a result we had nowhere to sleep. To make it worse every hostel we called was full.
In this occasion our saviors were my Argentinian uncles Blanca and Eduardo who live in Buenos Aires. Just a call was enough for us to have a safe place to sleep that night.
Friday, July 18, 2008
First day at the End of the World
First, I guess you appreciate the difference beetwen Mihai's posts and mines. He is absolutely emotionless!!
Well, as you already know due to transports difficulties we wolud only stay in Ushuaia one day and a half inteads of two and a half. That meant that we had to be very efficient to do all the things we had planned in such a few time... and we were.
We woke up early and went to the tourist office where they gave us all the information abouth the activities we could do there. In half an hour we were already on a boat to seal at the Beagle channel. It was a small yatch (10 passengers plus the guide and the "capitain"). We navigated from island to island watching at the sea lions. They were so close to us that we could notice that they really stink! The females were pregnang but still they had their last babies. They were soooo cute!!! We even so them bresting, with the milk all over their faces. The males were huge and each of them had a large harem for himself.
During the trip we also saw few lonely pinguins that were the only ones that had not migrated north to spend the winter. The trip also included a short walk on the island Bridges, from where we could see both Ushuaia bay and the Chilean shore. Very beautiful panoramic.
Back in Ushuiaa we went to Aerolienas Argentinas offices to receive good knews: instead of coming to Buenos Aires in different planes, we could do it in the same plane, at 22.00: that gave us more time to enjoy ushuaisa, plus we wouldn't have to pay the bussines class differences of Mihais old ticket!!
So, now that we were more relaxed we went to enjoy a really good grilled Patagonic Lamb. It was a buffet in which we payed 10 euros each and eated lamd untill we couldn't move! Even the waiter (whith a little unpolite atitude) told us whe we asked for the bill: "yes, in fact it is a good idea to stop eating, otherwise you will get sick..."
To help the diggestion of the patagonic lamb we went to the Marcial Glacier. There was a skilift that took us to the base of the glacier. The skilift moved soooo slow that by the time we rached the top we were already frozen. In addition the gñacier was covered by the snow, so there wasn't much to see. Specially after coming from the Perito Moreno!!
To finish the day we had booked what seemed to be and amazing activity: a night excursion with a dog sleigh and snowshoes!! We had arrange to meet with the tranfer that would take us to the dog's center at 6 at the port. At 6.20 no-one had come to pick us up yet... the common punctuality of the argentinian transports!
We were doing the activity with our spanish friends, so when we arrived to the mountain center we were as excited as a group of teenagers. They told us that we would do the first part of the excursion walking with the snow shoes and after we would take the dog's sleigh to complete the excursion (that was supposed to be 3.30 hours long...)
We started walking through the forest, under the moonlight... it was great and so funny!! It was not as cold as we had feared so it seamed to be perfect until, after only 15 minutes we saw the refuge that indicated the middle point of the route... already!!!????
So, what to do, we took off the snow shoes and entered to drink a hot chocolate. Of course we started complaining among us... why so short????? They told us that they would take us to see some beaver houses, so we though : ok, at least we will do some more walking. Well, the beavers houses where just 200m away from the refuge: not too much to walk!!!
We spend some time having a look at an iglu that was constructed next to the beavers and then we started with the dogs. We were sit on the sleigh while the dogs pulled from us during less than 15 minutes. Then we arrived again to the mountain center and that was all. They offered us a terrible dinner (of course, included in the price) and send us back home. So yes, we where there for 3.30 hours, but the real "adventure" lasts 45 minutes..... at least those 45min where really funny!
Well, as you already know due to transports difficulties we wolud only stay in Ushuaia one day and a half inteads of two and a half. That meant that we had to be very efficient to do all the things we had planned in such a few time... and we were.
We woke up early and went to the tourist office where they gave us all the information abouth the activities we could do there. In half an hour we were already on a boat to seal at the Beagle channel. It was a small yatch (10 passengers plus the guide and the "capitain"). We navigated from island to island watching at the sea lions. They were so close to us that we could notice that they really stink! The females were pregnang but still they had their last babies. They were soooo cute!!! We even so them bresting, with the milk all over their faces. The males were huge and each of them had a large harem for himself.
During the trip we also saw few lonely pinguins that were the only ones that had not migrated north to spend the winter. The trip also included a short walk on the island Bridges, from where we could see both Ushuaia bay and the Chilean shore. Very beautiful panoramic.
Back in Ushuiaa we went to Aerolienas Argentinas offices to receive good knews: instead of coming to Buenos Aires in different planes, we could do it in the same plane, at 22.00: that gave us more time to enjoy ushuaisa, plus we wouldn't have to pay the bussines class differences of Mihais old ticket!!
So, now that we were more relaxed we went to enjoy a really good grilled Patagonic Lamb. It was a buffet in which we payed 10 euros each and eated lamd untill we couldn't move! Even the waiter (whith a little unpolite atitude) told us whe we asked for the bill: "yes, in fact it is a good idea to stop eating, otherwise you will get sick..."
To help the diggestion of the patagonic lamb we went to the Marcial Glacier. There was a skilift that took us to the base of the glacier. The skilift moved soooo slow that by the time we rached the top we were already frozen. In addition the gñacier was covered by the snow, so there wasn't much to see. Specially after coming from the Perito Moreno!!
To finish the day we had booked what seemed to be and amazing activity: a night excursion with a dog sleigh and snowshoes!! We had arrange to meet with the tranfer that would take us to the dog's center at 6 at the port. At 6.20 no-one had come to pick us up yet... the common punctuality of the argentinian transports!
We were doing the activity with our spanish friends, so when we arrived to the mountain center we were as excited as a group of teenagers. They told us that we would do the first part of the excursion walking with the snow shoes and after we would take the dog's sleigh to complete the excursion (that was supposed to be 3.30 hours long...)
We started walking through the forest, under the moonlight... it was great and so funny!! It was not as cold as we had feared so it seamed to be perfect until, after only 15 minutes we saw the refuge that indicated the middle point of the route... already!!!????
So, what to do, we took off the snow shoes and entered to drink a hot chocolate. Of course we started complaining among us... why so short????? They told us that they would take us to see some beaver houses, so we though : ok, at least we will do some more walking. Well, the beavers houses where just 200m away from the refuge: not too much to walk!!!
We spend some time having a look at an iglu that was constructed next to the beavers and then we started with the dogs. We were sit on the sleigh while the dogs pulled from us during less than 15 minutes. Then we arrived again to the mountain center and that was all. They offered us a terrible dinner (of course, included in the price) and send us back home. So yes, we where there for 3.30 hours, but the real "adventure" lasts 45 minutes..... at least those 45min where really funny!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
From Rios Gallegos to the end of the world
A long trip in a normal bus... the good ones are to high for the ferry. Just after departure we were told to eat all fruits and vegetables because we cannot pass them to Chile. After one hour of travelling the bus reached the border. Of course we needed twice the time to pass through the argentinian part were they have just one guy controlling the passports. After the border the bus traveled for another hour until we reached the Magellan channel. Here we saw a dolphin (tonina) jumping arround the ferry and of course some see birds. On the way we saw also the guanacos, a fox and some wild geese. After more hours we reached the border again. Same story..... Chilean part was crossed very quickly and we waited about one hour to pass the Argentinian custom. This time it was justified somewhow.... Couple of days before they caught somebody trying to pass three kilos of coca in a luggage. The problem was the scanner was not functioning so everybody had to open his bag and show the content......
We reached Ushuaia couple of hours later after 14 hours on the bus.
The good side was that we met a group of spanish people and we arranged some excursion toghether for the following days.
We reached Ushuaia couple of hours later after 14 hours on the bus.
The good side was that we met a group of spanish people and we arranged some excursion toghether for the following days.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Will we ever reach Ushuaia???
As I had told before today we were suppose to travel by bus to Ushuaia. The bus departs at 3.00 in the morning so we made de enourmous effort of waking up at 2.00 and take a taxi to the bus station. The effort was worthy, we thought....
Again we were wrong. When we arrived a the station we were told that because of an accident that had happened at 19.00 in the road to Ushuaia the police had decided to stop the trafic during the night. That ment, of course, that our bus would not leave that night. Instead we would have to take it in the morning and travel to Rio Gallegos, an intermediate town between Calafate and Ushuaia. There we would have to spend the night and take the bus to Ushuaia next morning.... WHAT A SHIT!!!! A completely wasted day in Rio Gallegos, a horrible city where there is absolutely nothing to do.
And there we are right now, in the only cyber that is open hoping that tomorrow, finally , we wil reach Ushuaia. But maybe that´s too much to hope.
Again we were wrong. When we arrived a the station we were told that because of an accident that had happened at 19.00 in the road to Ushuaia the police had decided to stop the trafic during the night. That ment, of course, that our bus would not leave that night. Instead we would have to take it in the morning and travel to Rio Gallegos, an intermediate town between Calafate and Ushuaia. There we would have to spend the night and take the bus to Ushuaia next morning.... WHAT A SHIT!!!! A completely wasted day in Rio Gallegos, a horrible city where there is absolutely nothing to do.
And there we are right now, in the only cyber that is open hoping that tomorrow, finally , we wil reach Ushuaia. But maybe that´s too much to hope.
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