Santiago
Sunday November 26, 2023
Our time in South America is about to end. What an incredible two weeks it’s been. Mentally and physically exhausting, but experiences and scenery I’ll never forget. I’m looking forward to speaking English and my bed. I’m not looking forward to the cold and the dark.
After arriving in Santiago from Puerto Natales, we took an Uber to a restaurant near our Airbnb and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I had been given a warning saying the food in Chile wasn’t that great so my expectations had been set really low. I think the only issue I’ve had with the food here is that they tend to prefer their proteins well done, instead of medium rare or medium. We spent the afternoon walking around La Moneda and the Plaza de Armas. I always thought that Latin Americans had late meals; since our lunch was so late in the afternoon, we only started looking for dinner at 8pm or so, and surprisingly some restaurants had already started closing. We did find this peculiar restobar named after Bill Clinton, and I had a traditional Chilean beef stew - cazuela de vacuno.
The next day, we covered pretty much all the remaining sights of the city. We walked to Santa Lucia Hill, Central Market (I found it awful and smelly, and I hate people yelling at me to eat at their restaurants), Vega Central and took the funicular to Cerro San Cristobal. We found a nice ice cream place near Santa Lucia and we got empanadas pinos from near Central Market. At Cerro San Cristobal, we walked around a bit but it was too hot to do much. We visited the Japanese Garden and had a nice view of the Sky Costanera. After taking the gondola and funicular back to the Bellavista side, we split for dinner. I went to this fine dining restaurant specializing in traditional Andean food with heavy emphasis on pre-colonial ingredients and techniques.
We had heard a recommendation for “a beach two hours away” from someone at the ice cream place and though no one thought to get the name of the beach, I knew he was talking about Valparaiso. It was on my maybe list, I didn’t think we would have time to visit but as I covered most of my list, and as the others seemed pretty keen on going, I told them to do some research and figure out how to get there. First step was buying a Bip Card for the subway, which was relatively straightforward, bar one question in Spanish I didn’t understand but did anticipate. Second step was going to the bus terminal and buying tickets. I wanted to leave the whole day’s logistics up to the others for a change. We tried to use the machines for one bus company but they wouldn’t work, so while the others lined up at the cashier, I wandered over to the other bus company and managed to get tickets through that.
The bus ride was around 90 minutes and took us through some of Chile’s wine growing region. Upon arriving, we went to a nearby shopping mall because we needed to use the bathrooms and didn’t want to have to pay for it at the bus station, and then we had to wait for Phoebe to buy a jacket because it was cold outside and she didn’t bring one despite Nancy nagging us to earlier in the morning. We split shortly after, I walked to the west side of town to check out some of the historic sights, the rest of them went to the beach. On my way back to the bus station, I went down to the water and saw a group of seals resting on a platform. Overall, it was okay, I don’t regret going to Valparaiso, it just wasn’t as amazing as a bunch of reviews had said it was.
We took the bus back to Santiago and transferred to the subway to go to Sky Costanera, the tallest building in South America. I was aiming to be there for the sunset and we made it in good time. For some reason, there was a capoeira performance happening on the upper deck of the tower, which was fun to watch. As the sun slipped behind the mountains to the west, the city’s lights flickered on. It was a nice way to spend our last night in Chile.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:54am on Sunday November 26, 2023 :: 0 comments :: 
Patagonia
Thursday November 23, 2023
We arrived into Punta Arenas Airport a few minutes early, and our bus to Puerto Natales was still a couple of hours away, so we took our time and had breakfast (which turned out to be quite expensive). Punta Arenas is the furthest south I’ve ever been, at 53 degrees below the equator. The bus ride took three hours, but I was asleep for most of it.
We spent the day doing food shopping for our big hike, and a bit of time being a tourist around town too. A games shop that we passed by was selling Watch Dogs Legion for 25,000 Chilean pesos! I had a delicious lamb dinner at a local parrilla and then it was time to go home and pack.
Our first day of the W Trek was frought with logistical problems. Someone in the group deleted the emails with her bus tickets. Someone wanted to go to the toilet just as we were boarding. No one had cash except me to pay for the shuttle bus (I was hoping to use some cash to pay for food as a nice treat at the end of the hike) but at least the shuttle saved us two or so hours of walking. When we arrived at the Central campsite, I had forgotten to get the campsite reservation number but they were able to find me by name. Also I found out I didn’t book sleeping bags, but thankfully it was easy to add to our reservation. Despite all of this, the hike up to Base Las Torres was stunning. We followed the river through the valley up to the Chileno campsite, had lunch there and continued up the ridge. Along the way, a rescue team was carting away what looked like a body bag in a wheelbarrow; someone later confirmed that that was exactly what it was. The last half hour of the ascent was especially grueling, but at last, the three famous rock towers came into view. It was emotional, after walking that much. I felt it was harder than Gros Mourne, but so much more rewarding. The ice floating on the azure glacial lake was so picturesque. I spent an hour at the top waiting for the rest of the group, they arrived close to 4pm, we took some photos together and I started heading back down.
On the way down, I saw a man carrying his baby in a backpack chair, and a poor park ranger carrying a young girl with a sprained ankle. There was also a team of skiers heading up the mountain. I made it back to the campsite at 7.30pm, checked-in and had dinner, then waited for the rest of them. After an hour, they still hasn’t showed up. I asked passers-by if they’d seen them, with not much luck. Finally at 9pm, I started walking back to the trail to find them and sure enough, there they were, finally making it back to the campsite at 9.30pm. The skies were still clear as the sun was setting and I would have loved to do some star gazing, but I ended up passing out in my elevated tent.
Day two was less intense. We followed the path along Lake Nordenskjöld, another beautiful blue glacial lake, crossing a suspension bridge halfway through. I was out of water by that point, but the water is straight from glaciers and is safe to drink, so I refilled my bottle with freshly melted water. Along the way, I could hear the low rumbling of avalanches occurring on the mountains. I reached Cuernos, the first campsite, at 2.30pm, while the others were an hour behind; it took me another 90 minutes to reach Frances, our destination for the day. As I waited for the others, it began to drizzle slightly. When they arrived, we checked in and had dinner. The next day would be the hardest hike, but I had heard some people saying it wasn’t worth going to the Británico Lookout if it was cloudy.
Thankfully I woke up to some glorious sun on the third day. I was hiking by myself the whole day, free to go at my own pace without waiting for anyone. I walked from the Frances Campsite to Italiano and dropped my main backpack there, then took my daypack up to Mirador Frances, a lookout over a mountain and several glaciers. I heard a few avalanches while on the hike, but wasn’t able to capture any on film. From Frances, I continued to Británico, the final point on the hike, a panoramic view of these stunning mountains and glaciers. I was back to Italiano to pick up my backpack and head to Paine Grande, the next campsite. The whole round trip took me under six hours, including lunch time. The hike to Paine Grande took me just under 2.5 hours, a relatively easy hike past Lake Sköttsberg. On the way, the devastation of a forest fire from 12 years ago was evident, with thousands of barren trees lining the hillside. The wind was strong as I walked, but the sun was out for most of the time, so it wasn’t too cold. As a reward for such a long hike, I treated myself to a buffet dinner at the campsite’s restaurant. Finally some hot, cooked food after three days! Chicken! Beef! Rice! Fresh salad! Chocolate mousse! Strawberry mousse! Hot tea! I demolished two plates (and two desserts), but as I watched people put their trays away, I was appalled at the amount of food being wasted. Naturally after eating so much, I was ready to food coma.
The strong winds continued throughout the night; at some points during my sleep, it felt like the tent was about to be lifted into the air. Luckily, the equipment held strong, and probably all the extra weight from the buffet helped to anchor everything down. However, it was a different story on the hiking trail. As we ascended up the valley, the gusts began to pick up dramatically, close to 100kph. The smallest in my group, a 4’11” 50kg woman, had to tether herself to me to stop being blown away. It was so strong that even I was losing balance at some points. It was brutal fighting against both gravity and the force of the wind. Eventually, Lake Grey came into view and with it, the Grey Glacier. I was taken aback by how big it was, a massive wall of ice stretching several kilometers into the distance. Eventually after the first lookout, the winds began to die down as we descended closer to the lake. What should have taken us three hours took us five hours, and we finally arrived at Campsite Grey after 3pm. While I was waiting for the ladies to check in, I walked up to the nearby lookout to get a closer view of some of the ice chunks that had broken off the glacier and floated to the shore.
After all of that, I decided to reward myself with another hot meal. I didn’t think it would be another buffet considering how small the restaurant was, but I was pleasantly surprised. This time, they only let me have one piece of meat; the previous day, I had managed to get one piece of chicken and one piece of beef after everyone had had their first round. I was ready to food coma again in anticipation of the fifth and final day.
The last day had a slow start because we only needed to be ready to go kayaking at 10.30am. However, we soon discovered that the high winds were too strong so both the 9am and our session at 11am were cancelled. This was really disappointing but understandable. The currents on the lake looked swift and it would have been dangerous to head out. Luckily we get a full refund in case of weather cancellation, and it also meant we could start the hike back to Paine Grande earlier. I walked with them until the halfway point, which took us two hours, then I gapped it for the end, which took me another two hours.
Upon arriving, I discovered that the ferry to the bus station required cash and I didn’t have enough after paying for the shuttle bus for all of us. The campsite reception assured me I could sort it out with the boat company, and that this happens often. Anyway, I bought myself a large hot chocolate to celebrate the end of five days of hiking. A phenomenal 181,295 steps and 113.9km in some of the most spectacular scenery I’ve seen on this planet. I’m so glad I did it.
The others arrived about 30 mins after me, and thankfully had USD cash to pay for the ferry. We managed to get on the early boat; I didn’t think there would be that many people and they ended up having to turn some people away.
What would I have done differently? Probably started booking accommodation earlier. The refugios (cabins) and domos (domes with bunk beds) were really nice and well equipped. The tents were okay but I wouldn’t say no to more comfortable accommodation. I would have tried to buy a better variety of food and only for breakfast and lunch; the restaurants are excellent and only buying dinners would have lightened the load. Also I should have brought more cash, and somehow I also blame my friends for not bringing their own. This was a once in a lifetime trip and I was reasonably lucky with the weather until the last day.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:07am on Thursday November 23, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Iguazu
Friday November 17, 2023
After a very early flight with much turbulence and old people coughing, we arrived into the town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side of the Iguazu River. We met with our driver and he took us to the Iguazu National Park where Phoebe and I immediately signed up for the boat tour.
It took a while for everything to get started, but after a short journey on the road, we walked down a small path to the pier and boarded the boats. We took off at speed up the river; the water had turned a brown colour from the amount of mud that the river had taken on from recent heavy rainfalls. I remember that feeling of awe as the falls slowly came into view. It just kept getting bigger and bigger, the thunderous roar of ten million litres of water rushing over the several cascades, the massive amount of spray hitting us as we drove in and out of the two areas. The sheer force of the falls is truly something you have to experience up close. By the end, we were soaked; and this may have been due to the captain being a bit cheeky by purposely steering through some big waves.
The rest of the day was spent walking the upper and lower trails of the falls. Part of those sections were closed due to damage from the flooding a few weeks ago, which was a pity, and the Devil’s Throat was also inaccessible. The viewpoints along the trails were excellent, and everything was so well placed and built. We also saw many reptiles and coatis!
We had a nice slow start the next day to go to the Brazilian side. Immigration was simple and now I’m at 32 countries visited. We spent a few hours at Parque das Aves, a fantastic bird park by the Brazilian falls. I thought it was so well planned - there’s a single linear route that takes you through a plethora of enclosures and you can really get up and close with some of them. The colours of the parakeets and macaws were absolutely stunning, as was the scarlet ibis.
We walked over to the Brazilian falls park and had lunch, then took the bus to the hiking area. While less impressive than the Argentinian side, the Brazilian side makes up for it with its proximity to the other set of falls and some stunning angles of the Devil’s Throat, which was also unfortunately closed from the flood damage. However, there’s one section where you can practically bathe in the spray of the falls, so I did just that, and got soaked. It was a welcome shower on a humid day that hit 37C.
Our driver took us for a quick tour of downtown, and then we got some food from a supermarket before heading to the airport. We’ve got some rough night flights to Patagonia over the next few hours!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:51am on Friday November 17, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Buenos Aires 2
Wednesday November 15, 2023
Caminito is a really colourful area spoiled by the dozens of tourists aimlessly blocking all the roads and taking pictures of the beautiful and vibrant façades. Of note is the balcony with a statue of Lionel Messi holding the World Cup, which has a queue of people waiting for the perfect Instagram moment. There’s lots of cool craft shops and a lot of touristy merchandise too, especially for the local soccer team, Boca.
We walked from Caminito to San Telmo and had lunch. The group had no cash so I had to pay for our empanadas and then had to go find an ATM to top up my own reserves. The first bank wouldn’t dispense any money so I had to walk further, but I managed to get some sweet peso bills and make it back to the market for more food. We continued north towards the Plaza de Mayo and the Obelisk. I wanted to check out the trendy Madero neighbourhood so we walked east, stopping at the Galerias Pacifico briefly.
We were still kinda full from lunch, so we decided to head back to the Airbnb and I was desperate to try some world-famous parrilla, so we split up and I went with Phoebe to La Cabrera. The wait was two hours, but ultimately worth it. I passed out from the steak overdose and the glass of Malbec.
The next day, we went around Floralis Generica and the Cemetery Recoleta, famous for the tomb of Eva Peron, the famous First Lady of Argentina, who has a movie about her life and was played by Madonna singing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”. Afterwards, we walked to Retiro station and took a train to Tigre, a town by the delta of the Parana River.
Tigre is quaint and picturesque. We had lunch at a cafe by the station; my Spanish was so bad that the waitress just straight up said she spoke English. We wandered around the craft market for a while and then took a boat back to Buenos Aires, exploring some of the many river ways in the area. My friends all fell asleep, which was an interesting way to spend $60 CAD.
We had to be up early the next day to go to the airport, so it was a quick solo dinner at a Mexican place before crashing for the night.
Posted by Jeremy at 9:09am on Wednesday November 15, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Buenos Aires 1
Monday November 13, 2023
We arrived 45 minutes before schedule so we hung around the airport for a bit, cleaning ourselves up before heading to the Airbnb. The host wouldn’t let us have an early check in because of previous guests, but he let us drop our bags so we could walk around the city. We had some issues trying to get Uber to work; apparently the Argentinian government cracked down on it by banning credit card payments, so we opted to walk around instead. We headed towards Palermo, the Italian neighbourhood and walked through the Botanic Gardens and the Ecological Park where we spotted some wild maras, some flamingoes and a tapir.
We were wondering what to do next; we tried to use the subway but couldn’t figure out where to buy a card from. My poor Spanish skills were unable to find out from the transit operators, and we didn’t have cash, so we decided to stay in the area for lunch.
Since we were in the Italian neighbourhood, I decided to try this pasta restaurant which was pretty decent. The group was tired so we walked back and dozed off for a bit at the Airbnb. Eventually I decided I wanted some time to myself so I left the group and wandered over to Centennial Park where it was buzzing with activity. Locals were sitting on the grass, enjoying the beautiful weather. There was a busy flea market, a lot of dancing and people playing soccer, it was really cool to just walk around and people watch.
I ended up in Caballito, where I got dinner from a local burger chain. It was not great. My Spanish skills were really struggling and deep down inside I felt anxious about committing to spending so much time in Barcelona. But I know it’s a much more international city, especially with all the different European nations, so I should be okay. I made up for a disappointing dinner with a ball of chocolate ice cream with a dulce de leche center!
Today has been a slow start for the group, but we’re heading to Caminito and San Telmo Market.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:00pm on Monday November 13, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
A man. A plan. A canal.
Sunday November 12, 2023
Panama surprised me. It’s the thirtieth country I’ve visited! Our Uber driver, José (Phoebe pronounced it Josie), picked us up from Tocumen International Airport and we drove straight to Miraflores Locks, the Panama Canal Visitor’s Center. I thought there were no ships scheduled to pass through the canal today but we saw three; two on the old canal and one in the distance, on the expanded canal. The ships take around ten hours to complete the 50 mile journey from one end to the other, so things move very slowly but extremely precisely. On the old locks, eight locomotives drag the boat through each section as it provides more control than a tugboat. Once inside, the locks are filled with water to raise the ship to the next level, or drained to lower the ship, depending on the direction of travel. The process is fascinating to watch, and it truly is a marvel of modern engineering. After watching a couple of ships pass by, we saw a film about the construction of the canal, narrated by Morgan Freeman.
We rushed for dinner in one of the trendy neighbourhoods by the waterfront. The food was interesting, it was unlike any flavour profile I’ve experienced, and it was very rich. We had a bit of time to walk around before taking an Uber back to the airport. One of the places we passed through was a seafood market, very much like an open air hawker stall you’d find in Malaysia, but full of salespeople desperate to fill a seat. The market was suspiciously empty for a Saturday night, but since we’d eaten already, we didn’t need to bother with them. I thought the drive to the airport would take longer and security would be a while as well, but we were very early and now we’re just chilling before our flight to Buenos Aires.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:32am on Sunday November 12, 2023 :: 0 comments ::
Southbound
Sunday November 12, 2023
This year, I’m not flying south to spend the winter. Instead, I’m flying south for only two weeks, to four new countries, to explore some of the most beautiful parts of South America. Our first stop is Panama for a seven hour layover, where we’ll go see the canal and grab some food before getting back on the plane to Buenos Aires. I’ve been preparing for this trip for a while, and it’s required a lot of planning and organisation. I’ve been learning some rudimentary Spanish too - this’ll help me for this trip and hopefully my three months in Barcelona too.
The last few months have been incredibly busy. Our trip to Newfoundland was amazing, with a gruelling eight hour hike up and down Gros Morne, as well as a sneaky visit to the town of Dildo. Our trip to Kawartha Lakes for Thanksgiving was less amazing. We were supposed to go kayaking on the Sunday but due to rough conditions and the inexperience of the group in general, the rental company asked us to cancel the excursion but wouldn’t refund us. Instead they offered us a 50% discount on the next trip, which means we’d have to drive back out to take advantage of it. We did see some nice fall colours on the Trans Canada Hiking Trail, and some spectacular salmon jumps at Port Hope, but a few things went wrong that weekend and it was mildly frustrating.
Work has also been busy, with several difficult technical problems to solve. We’ve got a new programmer starting while I’m away, and I’m hoping that’ll alleviate some of our challenges. The industry is in a state of volatility at the moment, with thousands of layoffs happening all over the place. 2024 will probably be much of the same. I’m just glad my job is safe and I’m constantly reassured by our CEO that Prytania is going to be fine.
I went to the CNE this year with Hardeep. It was a welcome return to Exhibition Place, and the air show had been buzzing around Toronto skies a few days prior. The dog show was hilarious and adorable at the same time, and it was video games themed, so extra special. The food was as expected - expensive and nothing to write home about, but the most surprising experience was the audio sensory light exhibit in a dark room. It was a kaleidoscope of colourful patterns and fractals and geometry with a gentle soundtrack to accompany. A couple of weeks later, I tried to show him the salmon run on the Humber River, but we saw nothing. Instead, we went for dumplings in Chinatown and then went kayaking around the Toronto Islands. At night, we wandered around the city for Nuit Blanche, but nothing was notable.
I was at Hemingways with Emilio for the Rugby World Cup final, New Zealand versus South Africa. There were a lot of Springboks supporters, but there were a lot of black jerseys around as well. The atmosphere was fun and jovial, with a few “chaaa hooo!”s throughout the game, but alas, it wasn’t the result that the we were hoping for. Has to feel a bit bad for Sam Cane too. As soon as the final whistle blew, I was out of there.
Emotionally, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster too, with ups and downs. We had to cancel our work trip to Los Angeles because of the hotel workers’ strike. The darker days have forced me to bring out my sun lamp, to force my brain to start making the happy chemicals. We haven’t gotten our first snowfall yet, but after I get back from South America, it’ll only be a month until Christmas!
Posted by Jeremy at 1:03am on Sunday November 12, 2023 :: 0 comments ::