Buenos Aires

So we are in Buenos Aires. The last few days have been full of getting the forms and filling them out. And taking the subway across the city to the Canadian Embassy. They even opened the embassy on friday for us even though its acctually closed, so we could get our applications submitted on time. Now proving our applications are decent well be alright to get home in a couple weeks. It sucks but we`re over it. Now were just trying to enjoy being in a massive city. It has some really cool buildings and statues. Dog crap all over the sidewalks. At least its not flooded, cuz that makes the crap float. Their are protests going on here because the government has increased taxes on agricultural products by 10%, to encourage the farmers to sell food locally rather than overseas where they can make more money. This is a real problem, because now there are roadblocks and food is not getting through to Buenos Aires. Yesterday we could find absolutely no meat anywhere we looked. This morning there is some chicken, I think the stores might be rationing it. No beef though, and little milk. Milk is rationed. So cooking might get more creative in the next couple weeks. Anyways we are in nice hostel called gardenhouse, in a decent area of town, with cool people around. Joel.

Mine and Joel's passports, camera, 8 gigs of memory cards (and photos from the last 2 months), wallet, VISA, bank cards (except one, hurray!), and one of my two tshirts was stolen. Ugh. We were sitting at a restaurant and my purse was beside me and Joel, we ordered drinks and when they arrived I went to grab my purse, only to discover that it was gone.

We've cancelled our VISA, obviously. The meanies who stole it tried to use it, but the purchase was declined. However, I am sure they will enjoy our camera and the photo journey that goes along with it. We reported it to the police right away, have a police report filed and have to get to Buenos Aires to the Canadian Consulate. The first bus from Bariloche (where we are) isn't until Wednesday and the ride is 22 hours. So that's the plan. I'm still hoping that our passports will show up, but it's a small hope.

I really miss my pretty purse from Bolivia. And my shirt. But the camera is the worst part of it.

Sorry, no one's getting any photos. We had big plans for them. So sad.

The situation could be a lot worse, we are safe, and our parents all have access to the account for the one bank card we have left. Hopefully we don't lose it. Joel's in charge of it.

So the internet is closing.. I have to go.

Camping Cuisine!

This is the best meal I have cooked yet, mostly because it´s the first ground beef we´ve had in 2 months. The best part is the whole meal was less than $15 pesos, about $5 Canadian - including the beer. The ground beef was $4.55 pesos, less than $1.50. Why is everything so expensive in Canada?

The ingrediants: Ground beef, carrots, green pepper, onion, garlic and a powdered mushroom sauce. All of the sauces here have MSG, I doubt a day goes by where Joel and I don´t eat any MSG. For about 6 months before leaving Canada we went on a *mostly* MSG free kick so it´s been quite the shock to our system here.



Our campstove set up. It´s amazing what one can cook with only one burner!
In Canada we use campstove white gas... they don´t have that here. The can of Fleming is a paint cleaner here, but it works so we can´t complain too much.


Sautè up the onions and garlic.




Add the ground beef, along with some spices like Merquèn (grown by the Mapuche people in Chile).
Yea! Thumbs up from Joel!


Cooking up the mushroom sauce. It calls for half milk and water, but we use powered milk. Powdered milk seems to be a norm down here. (It isn´t as bad as I thought it would be.j.. We even drink glasses of powered milk with chocolate mix, and use it for cereal in the morning.)



The final product! I forgot to take a picture of boiling the potatos. I added the ground beef and potatos and carrots together, poured mushroom sauce over and sprinkled some parmasean cheese over.

Soooo Yummy!!

Photo Journey

I have figured out how to post our photo albums from facebook. Enjoy!

Miraflores - Peru

Paracas & Islas Ballestas - Peru

Huacachina, Arequipa, Floating Islands - Peru

Copacabana & Isla del Sol - Bolivia

My favourite photo album, Salar de Uyuni & Laguna Tour - Bolivia

Bolivia - Incallajta & Cochabamba

Parque National Huerquehue, Chile to El Bolson - Argentina

Parque National Lago Puelo - Argentina

Parque National Los Alerces - Argentina

Top Secret Mission for Eco-Ninja

Time Shift

We are back in El Bolson. For a third time. Not going to lie, I want to move here. Just for a year so I can learn Spanish. On the 21st we are going up to Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) to meet Susan. Yippiee! Someone else to speak English to!

We just spent 4 nights at Parque National los Alerces, 160 km south of El Bolson. The ride took over 4 hours along dirt roads. Not too much fun with a screaming blatter. Every pothole was painful. But we spotted a couple of condors along the way! That made the ride all worth it. The first day we wandered along the beach, found some funny looking birds that Joel just had to chase for a flying picture. The second day we hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and along the way saw some pre Columbian artwork estimated to be over 2000 years old. Then we hiked along another trail, found a sweet spot to skinnydip and had lunch along the lake while being swarmed by wasps (clothing on). The next day it rained (only the 5th day of rain in our entire trip!) so we hung around our campsite drinking mate and playing cards. Joel drank an earwig accidentally! hahaa. It was hiding in the bombilla (mate spoon-straw) and he sucked it right up. I felt bad for him but couldn´t contain the laughter. Our last day was rainy too and Joel was feeling ill (earwig, perhaps?). So it turned into another lounging day playing cards (no mate).

On Monday we had to leave back up to El Bolson - we ran out of fuel, oops - on the 9:30am bus. We got ourselves out of bed early enough to use the last of our fuel to cook up some eggs and boil water for coffee, packed up our gear and walked up to the bus stop. After 15 minutes of waiting a German family joined us. They were friendly and curious about Canada, we discussed social, political and environmental problems in Canada, why geographers and maps are needed and about the baby booomers retiring. (They don´t have the baby boom generation in Germany...) So 10:30 rolls around and the bus still isn´t there and we´re starting to wonder what´s up... 10:45 and the bus finally shows up. We hop on, hear the German guy asking why the bus is late, only to hear that the bus isn´t very late at all. It´s actually 9:45am. Apparently they have time changes in Argentina too. I´m not really sure how this all works... since they´re changing their clocks for Fall, but in Canada it´s for Spring... what´s the time difference between here and Pacific Time?

I also have exciting news! Joel has an interview for a field work coop job this summer. It´s a phone interview... I hope the employer knows they have to call Argentina. And we really have to figure out what time it is in Victoria. The job description didn´t say how much it pays and that is a determining factor for a job this summer. So I hope it pays well and he gets it and then much stress for the summer is gone. Yea Joel!

Spend 2160 straight hours with someone. I dare you.

I love Joel. There is no one else I could do this trip with. It´s been about 2 straight months with our only alone time being in the baño (bathroom). We spend a lot of time talking, well, I spend most of the time talking, sometime Joel pitches in. Anyways, even after being together for 10 years there is still more to learn about each other (yes! It was 10 years ago that we first started dating...glorious time wasn´t it Moms and Dads? Hahaha.)

We play a lot of ¨What would you be if...¨ I ask Joel ¨what would you be if you were a sea creature?¨ His reply, ¨a Hammerhead shark.¨ mmm, good answer. I´d be Sea Anenomie. What would you be if you were an animal? Joel: platypus. Jen: Viscacha (No surprise there). A Tree? Joel: Cedar. Jen: Arbutus, or the Arbutus like tree here. Dinosaur? Joel: Terridactle (I have no idea how to spell it...) Jen: Stagosaurus. Yesterday while we were hiking Joel asked me what body of water I´d be. I saw hmmming and haawwwing, and replied ¨I´m not sure...something shallow and pretty...¨ Oh if only I thought before speaking. Joel would be the Goat River.

What would you be?

I have also spotted 4 grey hairs on Joels head. Amazing. I pulled out the first one to show him and accidentally pulled a few extra. I´m not allowed to pluck any more.

Our time at Lago Puelo is over. We hiked to the edge of the Argentinian border yesterday to another branch of the pretty turquoise lake. I wish I could upload pictures to show you. We had to cross a delta from Rio Azul (Blue River) at the start of the hike. Joel doesn´t have sandles and it hurt his feet to walk across the rocky river without them, so he was borrowing mine and throwing them back to me to cross. Well, obviously it was a disaster waiting to happen. One didn´t make it. He had to run down the rocks along the river, jump into the river and rescue it. My hero with now bruised feet. After that he had enough of using my sandles and decided to take a running jump at one of the branches that was only 8 feet or so across. Also a distaster waiting to happen. His foot and attatched hiking boot got soaked and he spent the night drying it off over the fire. Silly boy needs sandles.

In just a few hours we´re heading south to PN los Alerces and will hopefully meet up with our new friends!

Mate. The Argentinian way.

Hola. Joel and I are at Lago Puelo, and beautiful national park with a turquoise blue lake. Love it.

We met an Argentinian couple, Nacho and Laura, who we camped with. Every night we made dinner together, played cards (we know some new games, yippie!) and drank Mate. Mmmm, Yerba Mate, the drink of Argentina. It´s a tea, drank out of a special cup (usually made from a goard...the kind of vegatable. I can´t spell), and drank with a bomilla (a special spoon straw). I had it in Canada a few times and thought it tasted like hay. But here, they flavour it with other herbs and mints, and add sugar. Special. Laura and Nacho bought us a present, the mate cup, bomilla and mate tea. It was so thoughtful of them. They left today for PN los Alerces, and Joel and I hope to meet up with them in 3 days when we go down there. Meeting people while travelling makes everything so wonderful and fun. We got to practice a lot of Spanish, and they practiced a lot of English. With our 5 year old vocabulary we were able to talk about polictics, climate change, life, teach card games.

This has to be cut short because we have a bus to catch back to the lake.

Adios!

Belly Full of Steak. Yum!

We went out for Joel´s Bday on the 29th... and it was disapointing. We ordered carne (direct translation ¨meat¨, but means ¨beef¨), it was almost the most expensive thing on the menu ($27, almost $9) and it kinda sucked. Joel was still hungry afterwards... adn it was just lacking flavour. And I kinda thought the meat was so tender because it was slowcooked. But we ordered our favourite local Roja Cervasa (Red Ale) and that kinda made up for it.

So tonight we gave dinner out a second chance and it was PERFECTO! This cute little place had a salad bar with locally made raspberry dressing (Jen was so happy!), giant juicy steaks cooked right out on the patio where we sat, and a couple of baskets with homemade bread, with a garlic vinegrette dip. The food couldn´t have gotten any better. This time Joel was full, I even offered him the last few bites of my steak and he refused!
Besides the amazing food the place had great ambiance about it. The restaurant was adobe with wood detailing, cute curved doors, the outdoor grill hut was made of clay, and an amazing hostess who spoke English. So it may have pushed the budget a little, but splurges like that are good for the soul. Right?

We have enjoyed our time in El Bolson. Mostly we´ve just lounged around, went to the market (3 times a week). I´ve been having constant inspiration of things to make at home (mostly tie dying and silk screaning shirts). We´ve ate alot of homemade bread and jam, and drank some local beer. Joel beat me a almost every game we played... I don´t know what it is but I can´t win against him. He says he has ¨luck¨. Mmmhmmm...

Tomorrow we leave for Lago Puelo, just 19km south of El Bolson. We have enough food for 6ish days. Then we want to check out Parque National los Alerces, which is also a little further south. Then on the 20th or 21st my friends, Susan and Leana are meeting us in Bariloche (2 hours north of El Bolson) for a week or so.

It has been confirmed that we won´t be volunteering on the organic farm we wanted too. I was looking forward to learning some gardening skills and meeting some new people. Oh well. More time for exploring Patagonia.

The link for the lastest album is here. It´s from Parque National Heurquehue (Chile) and on route to El Bolson, Argentina.

So I think that is all! We will be without internet for the next 5 to 7 days... so sad.