South America Explorations: Week 13 - Patagonian Fjords & Tierra del Fuego

Sunday, January 5^th, 2013

The weather today was on and off again, though it seemed it was mostly off. We did have some very nice sights from time to time, especially as we passed through a particularly narrow passage. We also saw some wildlife – there were some whales blowing in the distance and there were lots and lots of extremely large jellyfish floating by the boat as well.

Some time after lunch, I was feeling a bit claustrophobic. With the continued not-so-spectacular weather, we were spending an awful lot of time indoors. Elisa and I decided to change that – we went outside for a power-walking session. And to make this power-walking session even more impactful, we carried our beers with us. The rule was that we could take one sip each lap… if memory serves, we got up to 8 laps before calling it quits. All along the way, we had our own fan club of fellow passengers cheering us on as we passed by and undoubtedly commenting on how silly we were after we passed by. And with each passing lap, it appeared to us that more and more of them went from standing to sitting down on what ended up being an unbelievably crowded bench seat. What did I do? Why, I joined them of course.

The conversations that I was either able to engage in or at least listen in and understand were varied and educated and I thoroughly enjoyed listening in to the differing opinions. One of the more memorable conversations was about finding happiness, to which a retired Spanish pediatrician commented, “I think it’s a bad thing to tell your kids to do whatever they want and just be happy, because happiness isn’t necessarily something that can be found on purpose. Instead, I told my son to be a good person, and do your best, and hopefully you’ll find pockets of happiness along the way.” I found that to be an interesting perspective, though I would add that your personal outlook and daily choices (regardless of profession) greatly impact the frequency of those pockets of happiness. But I think her key point is that we shouldn’t tell kids to just be happy – they need to know that life will have pockets of suffering and sadness that need to be worked through.

For me, my big “a-ha” over the past decade has really been to recognize that success isn’t making my way as far up the corporate ladder as possible so that I can maximize my earnings, success is taking care of my obligations and enjoying life now and in the future. I don’t think our society always does a great job making the distinction, and I KNOW first-hand that many immigrant families coming from a “sink-or-swim” economy back home definitely stress financial success as paramount. Growing up where I did, I had no shortage of people telling me that they believed I was headed to spectacular success and wealth in my lifetime – and though this wasn’t the intent, this actually created an extremely high expectation that I felt I needed to live up to. And for the longest time, I actually felt as though I was letting people down by not over-achieving in my professional life. It took me a while, but I finally got over this feeling that I was “destined” for something great and that I was failing at that by not being on some crazy fast track to CEO or multi-billionaire. Truth is, I never really had the drive or motivation in me to achieve those things because I have always wanted to place more emphasis on enjoying my time on this rock in a different manner. Whatever successes I have had academically have rarely been due to the superhuman level of effort that would necessitate such professional achievement.

As I’ve shared with my mom in the past few years, I really believe that the gift that they and other immigrant parents gave to their kids like me through their massive sacrifice is not only the opportunity for greater financial success, but more importantly the ability to make a choice to have a balanced life. “Balance” is in many cases a luxury only afforded to those fortunate souls living in a first-world country. And in reality, it’s pure luck of the draw that my consciousness (and yours) was borne to parents living in a first-world country and not to peasants scrubbing by for one small plate of food per day in a slum of Sao Paulo or La Paz or Mumbai or Beijing. It’s pure luck and I think we often have a tendency to forget this because in a Western world, that type of reality is so far removed from our own so we only see it in the movies.

Philosophical waxing complete for today.

Monday, January 6^th, 2013

We arrived to Puerto Natales by about 9am, easily 4-5 hours earlier than expected. The captain had told one of the others that we had stronger than expected tail winds through the journey. As a result, I ended up missing what was supposed to be a scenic section of the landscape through another set of narrows. I woke up early and got outside by 6:00am, but a fellow Indian-American passenger, Lekha, told me I had missed it by 15 minutes but that it wasn’t anything special. I think we all had some visions of seeing ice floes and glaciers and all sorts of neat things like that, and that just didn’t happen. While I enjoyed the company, I definitely feel like this trip was a bit of a letdown. Quick aside, Lekha is an incredible young lady - an Indian parents' wet dream actually - Harvard undergrad, Harvard Med & Harvard MBA (combo program), Harvard residency, and pretty good likelihood of Harvard fellowship. I was thoroughly impressed with how grounded she is while also being at the pinnacle of excellence through what I'm sure has been an absolutely incredible amount of hard work.

After an unbelievably lame breakfast (bread and butter, yippee!), we sat around and talked politics and discussed the labor systems with a heavily pro-unionized labor Frenchman sparring with pro-capitalism Swiss woman. It would have been even more enjoyable if I had a better grasp of Spanish and French as they flipped back and forth between them (including English). It really is a shame that our educational system doesn’t embrace learning multiple languages as much as Europe does… then again, my nieces were learning basic Spanish in 1^st grade, so maybe things have changed a little. I remember almost being a teenager and having to explain to a classmate the concept of a different language – the poor fella had no idea that people in different countries didn’t speak English. Given the diversity of what’s on TV these days, I don’t think this is possible anymore so we’ve definitely progressed a bit.

In Puerto Natales, we split up to go to our respective hostels and agreed to meet up for lunch a few hours later in the main square. It was overcast and cold and lightly drizzling on and off, which left me with a less-than-positive initial impression of the town. Not much would change over the coming days. Since it was still early, I couldn’t check in yet, so I plopped down at my hostel, El Patagonico, and took the opportunity to catch up on e-mail and finish cranking out a blog post.

Right when it was time to leave to meet the others, it started downpouring, so I waited the rain out for another 30 minutes. By the time I made it to the square, no one was there, so I explored the town a bit and bumped into pockets of people from the boat in no time. It really was a pretty small place.

We grabbed lunch at a place nearby and I ordered a burger because I figured that would be safe. I figured wrong. Out came the biggest burger I had ever been served – it was easily 7” in diameter. I ended up cutting it into quarters to even have a chance at eating it. Unfortunately, the meat didn’t taste right – it wasn’t spoiled, it’s just that they cooked it with something bitter and a bit peculiar, vinegar maybe. I asked Christian to take a small bite (remember, he is a restaurateur back home) and he almost spat it back. Poor fellow knows too much about restaurants and doesn’t end up enjoying eating out much. He pointed out to us that his wine glass smelled like “wet dog” – he was right. Nothing was wrong with the wine, but the wine glass had not been cleaned and dried properly. If I make it to Zurich again, I’m definitely making it to a few of his restaurants because I'm sure those establishments are well-oiled machines. He clearly would not settle for less.

I spent the rest of the day flushing out some more of the details of my future hike to Torres del Paine, the key reason tourists come to Puerto Natales to begin with. Everyone else from the ship would be headed there in the next day or two. I’m coming back in mid-February and three friends from the States are joining me. And since they have each plopped down a nice chunk of change for a 10-day trip, I figured that my laissez-faire style of travel on this long trip is not quite appropriate. And… Chilean companies don’t always have everything as put together as we would expect. I definitely learned a lot by being right here, getting advice from my hostel owner and asking questions directly to the companies involved.

Tuesday, January 7^th, 2013

The weather got much better today, though it still rained a few times randomly through the day. It’s really amazing how quickly everything changes. I still had a lot to flush out with the February trip while in town, so I took it a bit easy today and spent a few more hours just doing that.

And then I read a book. I had finished George W. Bush’s “Decision Points” last night, and today I read the majority of Craig Ferguson’s “American on Purpose”. I enjoyed both. I actually found that I agreed with a lot of what GWB shared in his book, though he definitely did leave out plenty of things that I know I disagreed with. For example, I agree with his position on stem cell research (because of concern of the ethical slippery slope) as well as on immigration reform. I've also always appreciated how he was extremely quick to do what he could to ensure that Islam as a religion was not demonized post-9/11. He made this a point of emphasis in his first speech and the first religious service his administration organized included an imam.

But it reminded me that the Democrats were obstructionists to his policies just as the Republicans are doing to Obama. I do think it’s a lot worse now though, simply because the two camps are increasingly getting more and more polarized. But I also know that I only know what information has been shared with me – and GWB’s book had a number of examples where what was shared was only half (or less) of the story… though I’m sure there are definitely pockets missing from his as well. At the end of the day, we need less bickering and more talking from people at every level of our nation, not just government.

Though much of Craig Ferguson’s book is based on his stories of growing up in Scotland (which were definitely entertaining in their own right), I enjoyed hearing his accounts of what makes America special. I really do think that immigrants have a much better idea and respect for what it means to be an American than the people who grew up in the US, myself included. I think they also have a deeper true love for our nation than the schoolyard arrogance and bravado that many flag-wavers proclaim because they have a first-hand understanding of what actually makes us great vs what the 6th grade US History textbook tells us.

Wednesday, January 8^th, 2013

Today was a travel day – it would take nearly 14 hours to go from Puerto Natales, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina and it wasn’t as simple as you’d think.

First, I boarded a bus from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas. About three hours later, the bus stopped on the side of the road and the driver told all of us that were headed to Ushuaia to get off the bus. I had no clue what was going on, but there we were – 14 of us with our bags standing on the side of the road. Fortunately, the bus didn’t leave us stranded and within 5 minutes, a bus heading in the opposite direction pulls up and we are instructed to get on it. Owing to the geography, going from Ushuaia from Punta Arenas would require about an hour’s worth of backtracking. So the bus company coordinated their buses to save us this travel time – hence the deboarding in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for your foresight, bus company people.

This new bus was headed to the town of Rio Grande in Argentina. Along the way, we had to do our border crossing (no issues this time) and take a vehicle ferry to cross a strait. This area of the continent has lots of islands and straits and fjords and whatnots. In Rio Grande, we 14 people boarded a small bus/van for the final 6 hour drive to Ushuaia.

When we finally got to Ushuaia, I had about a 15 minute walk to get to Antarctica Hostel where I was staying. When I turned on to the street, I was immediately taken aback owing to a handful of strip clubs. Apparently the hostel was in the red light district of this very small, picturesque town. I haven’t even come across a red light district in all of the other places I’ve traveled the past 3 months, so I wasn’t expecting this in the least. The hostel itself is very nice and has a much older clientele than any other places I’ve stayed at to date – there were plenty of folks well into their retirement years who were there. And through the massive bay window in the front lounge, you can see a gorgeous mountain range in the background (if it's not too cloudy) and a sexy woman’s ass on the billboard across the street.

Thursday, January 9^th, 2013

I had another day off today and just wandered around town a bit. I had some coffee and ate some lunch and dinner and spent time reading and writing. This is unbearably exciting, I know. Riveting. It rained on and off too.

Friday, January 10^th, 2013

Early this morning, I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep. I heard a dormmate, Yoko - a slightly older lady from Japan, talking to the hotel guy about sunrise. So I crept out of bed and joined her to take a quick walk down to the pier. The cloud cover is too heavy to get a colorful direct view of the sun, but as you can see, it was really beautiful nonetheless.

Late in the morning, I went on a day hike with two people from my hostel: a Canadian fellow whose name I think might be James (but you can call him Marcelo if you want), and Yoko decided to join as well.

Our destination was up on a hill nearby for a grand view of the city, port, and the mountains beyond. Ushuaia is on a large island adjacent to the mainland, and this island is split between Argentina and Chile and is collectively called Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire!). I didn’t see any smoldering remains, so perhaps the fuego has already been put out by the heroic efforts of muchos bomberos.

From the hostel, we just had to walk north until we hit the mountain. This gave us an opportunity to see where the locals lived and get out of the 3-4 avenues near the port that cater to the tourist throngs. I half expected to see dilapidated homes or other crumbling structures, but in fact many of the homes were really cute and beautiful – not massive as much as just interestingly cute. It’s entirely possible that these are vacation homes of rich Argentinians who live up north. I don’t know that I cared enough to figure that out. But along the roads we took to the trailhead, we saw the cutest pair of dogs in the world poking their heads out to greet us and they were very soft and well cared for. I miss my doggies.

At the trailhead, we heeded our hostel guy’s advice and followed the trail marked with yellow. We were told that the red-marked trail is a rather circuitous route to the same location, or so we were told. I think it’s actually the trail to the hot tub that they don’t want us to know about.

The weather was actually quite warm, far warmer than the crazy cold weather back in Ohio that I’m fortunately missing out on. The trail was pretty well marked – both by a worn trail and by occasional yellow ribbons tied to trees or rocks painted yellow. It was a very nice and beautiful walk through the woods with my new friends. Occasionally, we were met with some large muddy spots or pseudo-marshes that required some navigation – my left boot took the brunt of a mistake in one of these, even though I had walking sticks to pre-test the terrain. I'm not always the most graceful of hikers.

After about 2.5 hours, we got to the tree line – it always amazes me that trees will just stop growing at a straight line versus just thinning into oblivion. One second we’re surrounded by trees, and the next second there’s no trees around us. But it also turned rocky and steep in a hurry as well. My guess is that this terrain change had something to do with the abrupt tree line.

It wasn’t actually clear where the trail itself was supposed to end, or in the very least, where the key viewpoint was actually supposed to be. So we walked along towards a pass between the two mountains we were partially situated between before deciding that the view wasn’t going to get any better. Actually, I think the wind blowing directly at us with no protection from the thick forest of trees had something to do with that decision as well. Regardless, the views were really nice, especially since the sky was fairly clear. And by that I mean that we could actually see a blue sky in some pockets above us. Having suffered through well over a week of a cloudy rainy mess in southern Chile, this was an extremely welcome change.

The hike down was fun, as always. Muddy & steep is harder to go down sometimes than up. I lent James Marcelo one of my two walking sticks to assist, whereas Yoko opted for a more Tarzan-like method consisting of alternately grabbing trees with either hand as you pseudo-run down the hill. She was definitely faster than us so I think she had the right idea, and it looked like more fun to boot. Perhaps too much (and too literal) since the sole of her left boot sheared off completely somehow while we were making our way down the hill and she had to try and epoxy it back together when we got back to the hostel.

Saturday, January 11^th, 2013

This afternoon I will embark on a trip of epic proportions, truly a trip-of-a-lifetime for most who undertake this. But I’ll save the details for the next blog post (suspense!).

So I spent much of the morning taking care of some business and loose ends, and checking out of my hostel of course. I’ll just leave it at that and pick up on the next post.