Argentina 1
- Linda Chen
- Apr 17, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 20, 2019
1. What color is Argentina? I think glacier blue.
I often like to remember every city in colors. For example, Vancouver is blue to me; London, Ontario is grey and Beijing is red, one of those thick thick red but bright. The kind of red that is very energetic, powerful but also suffocated. That was Beijing in my eyes.
I remember Vancouver in blue because whenever I thought of Vancouver, Lions Gate Bridge always come to my mind. It was because every Sunday, I would need to drive across the bridge to West Vancouver for school; then every Friday, I would need to drive back to Vancouver West, where my parents were. Even now when I go back, I often need to drive across that bridge, for skiing, for visiting friends and families.
I love how I was speeding on the bridge during summer time with the blue pacific ocean connected with the blue sky on both of my sides. I always liked to open the windows of my car and turn up my music. In my memories, Vancouver was never too rainy, it was always that beautiful blue.
I thought I would never see a bluer city than Vancouver, but when I came to Argentina and standing on the Glacier Perito Moreno, I was astonished by the blue here, the glacier ice blue. It was so clear, so pure and so cold.
Our tour guide told us that the deeper you go inside the ice, the bluer it gets because of the density. It is darker than the sky blue, lighter than ocean blue. It's the blue that is thick enough you don't see the bottom, yet it is so clear that you felt like if only if you just look closely enough, you will be able to see through it. It is the blue that you thought you would only see it in high-school chemistry class, CuSO4. It is the blue that only appears in Disney movies where magics happen.
Not just the glacier blue that surprised me. A lake that we accidentally passed by on the road of Route 40 also made me, who was sleepy, widely awake all the sudden. The lake was like a blue opal hiding in a beautiful jewelry box. The owner of the box forgot to close the box properly and shin of the blue opal sneaked out of box. You caught a glimpse of it and you could not take your eyes off it now.
The driver drove around the lake and the lake started to reveal its whole landscape in front of me; it was as if I slowly opened the jewelry box and hold the opal in my hands. I stared at it. I recognized this blue. It Look like the same blue that was used to build the famous Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The blue that is beautiful and unique enough would make you want to propose to the girl standing right next to you.
To make the lake even better, the lake was not famous. Her name was not on the map, there were no signs beside her, and there were no tourists or cars crowded around her. She was just lying there so casually. I would have missed her if I fell asleep. She was just like one of the flowers in the bouquet, one of the stones on the unpaved road, one of dust in the universe. She's the girl right next door who does not realize how beautiful she is.
2. El Chalten
I went to a massage therapist because my left leg hurt so much that I could not even lift it up. "but I wanted to do rock climbing today." I said
"That would not be a good idea. You really need to rest and use your leg as less as possible." said the massage therapist.
That afternoon 4pm, I have my harness on my waist, climbing a rock.
The next day I went back to for another treatment, and I thought she would be mad at me, but instead, she smiled like she already knew and said: everyone is a climber in El Chalten.
I like el Chalten a lot more than el Calafate. It is a seasonal boutique town that is catered to tourism, like the grand bend beach in London, Ontario. There were only 3 small-middle size supermarkets in the town where shells were not filled and fruits look like they were 2 days from rotten.
Nonetheless, such a town has almost 10 trekking trails within walking distance! The most famous trek is the trek to see Fitz Roy, which is the mountains that make the logo of the famous outdoor clothing brand: Patagonia. After seeing the mountains myself, Patagonia as a company has a very special place in my heart now, not to mention that they are super environmentally conscious.
I love the trek to Fitz Roy a lot. During the last part of the trail, which is the most difficult part, it feels like you are hiking over a small creek or a small waterfall (since it was pretty steep) instead of a mountain. It was because we hiked on a beautiful sunny day and the sun melted some of the snow into water and water was flowing down the unpaved trails, filled the gaps among different shapes of rocks.
Bushes in maple red, yellow and green were all over the whole mountain. The bushes were not so tall that they blind your sights and they were not too small to be negligible. Therefore, you can see the whole view of the mountain and of the city in beautiful autumn colors whenever you look back.
The town also has all the outdoor activities that you can imagine, hiking, horse riding, amazing rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, and etc.Therefore, it is almost like a hub for all the outdoor sport lovers.
For example, the guy who took me to rock climbing told me this town has climbers (some very famous ones) from all over the world. He himself is also a great climer and he once hitchhiked a 3-month trip. I asked if he has ever ended up sleeping on the streets. He said: many times, sometimes three days in a roll.
Yup, he is one of those. Reckless.
It was very nice to have people who share the passion for the nature, for outdoor sports and for adventure all around you.
3. El Calafate
I was walking on the street of El Calafate at 8am in the morning. The sun had not raised yet and none of the shops were opened. Only a few dogs were hanging around on the sidewalk. The streets were mostly empty with only buses of travel companies passing by occasionally; these are the buses to see the glacier; pretty much the only activity in town.
I was walking on the street this early in the morning because I planed to see the sunrise from the lake. I was going to join a tour to see the petrified forest and to learn something about the dinosaurs because this area actually discovered the largest size and a great number of dinosaur fossils.
Unfortunately, I was the only one during these days who want to do anything other than going to the glacier and they need 2 people to form a tour. Therefore, I was not able to do it and I went to a museum instead.
The museum did a very good job of documenting the development of the Patagonia area, from the dinosaur era to the first settlement of human being in this area and to the present day.
One thing that surprised me was the genocide of the indigenous people in Argentina. When I was in Buenos Aires, my tour guide mentioned it to me a couple times that the reason why we don't find indigenous-looking people in Argentina, like you would find in Peru or Bolivia was that: "we killed them all."
I never realized the matter was so serious that it could absolutely be classified as a genocide. I thought my tour guide was exaggerating things since he was really funny. In fact, he was not. On Wikipedia, this event was called: the conquest of the desert.
4. Ushuaia
Ushuaia is small town where I feel like I can just hide in here, days after days, weeks after weeks and years after years. It is known as the end of the world because it is the southest town on the planet.
This small town is surprising famous among Chinese due to a famous old movie called Happy Together 《春光乍泄》by Wong Kar-wai. Inside the movie, one of the characters said he wanted to travel to Ushuaia, because you can throw away all your unhappiness at the end of the world and leave with a light heart.
Here literally has not much to do but I like it so much. I like the chilling temperature here, it is about 5 degree today, feels just right to me, feels like autumn in Vancouver when Christmas is approaching. I also like the rain here. It rains like Vancouver, not pouring rain, but rains just enough to moist the chilly air and the pavements that are not shaded by the trees.
The mountains here with snow covered on top reminds me of Cypress, the abundant seafood, especially King Crabs here reminds me of Richmond, and the cafe that I am sitting in now smells just like IHOP.
The only difference is that Ushuaia is a much smaller town than Vancouver. Life here seems much simpler. Even the roads here are mostly only way with only 1 lane and many cross roads on the busiest area of downtown have no traffic lights or stop signs. I really don't know how people manage the traffic here but I rarely hear a horn.
How I wish I don't need to go back to Sao Paulo.
4. The solo-traveler squad
"Here Linda, you dropped your glove." Nicola handed me one glove, then Emiliano standing behind her said "Here is the other one."
I thanked them with embarrassment.
Emiliano teased me and said: "you sure you did not lose anything yesterday when you were on your own."
"Well, I almost lost myself in the forest."
Then we all laughed.
I started to miss el Chalten the minute I left. It was mainly due to the 4 amazing other solo-travellers who I met there. Nicola from the UK, and the guys, Emiliano, Nacho and Guido who are all from Buenos Aires.
We hiked in a similar speed and so we were good company to each other. On the first day that I was in el Chalten, I did an independent hike and I got lost in the forest for half and hour. Thus, I was so glad that the second day I was hiking with the group and I had someone to pull me back while I was heading to the wrong direction.
Nicola also introduced me to the app map.me , which saved my life while I was hiking alone in Ushuaia, not to mention that you finally got someone to take pictures from different angles that you want for you haha
It was not always easy to meet solo traveller and it is even harder to bond with another solo traveller. Therefore, I felt incredibly blessed that we bonded and made a good team. I wish we would meet somewhere in the world again and do more hike together.
However, if not, I wish them the best. Keep travelling, even if we need to do this alone.
"Where did you get that white elephant bracelet? I really like it." I asked
"I think it's Hello Kitty. It is a gift from a friend. We met in New Zealand. She was one of the best ice climber and I belayed (protect the other climber while climbing) her."
"Oh, where is she now?"
"I don't know. Probably back to my country. We are from the same country."
"Do you guys still talk to each other?"
"Not really. We met for one day. That was all."
Silence
"This is what happened. People come and go." He said.
"I know. Sometimes, it was not the other person who is leaving us but it was us who cannot stay."
"Yea, exactly that."
-- April 17th, 2019 @ Tante Sara Café, Ushuaia, Argentina
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