Month: March 2007

Today Kruse went to Mordor.

Hello there all.  Today, I went to La Payunia.  Nearly didn´t.  The photos didn´t look particularly interesting.  Sure, supposed to be the least known, but best landscapes in Argentina.  Sure, seven or eight hundred volcanos in the region.  But… didn´t look that special.  Also, guide I´d decided to go with (through indecision/inaction rather than anything else) – nearly cancelled due to me being the only interested party.  But, then the dutch turned up – and all was saved.  A bit pricier than originally quoted – but I decided I might as well.

Took some photos, kinda impressive landscape.  Ran out of batteries – and replacement Eveready´s wouldn´t work.  Then – over each rise was a more spectacular sight.  This place was awesome.  The advertising photos didn´t do it justice, so I doubt my own ones will.  But at least through some biting of batteries and other tricks, I managed to take all the photos I wanted.

Argentina could have been used for Lord Of The Rings.  This place was pre-made for it.  The reserve is pretty much what happens when a heap of volcanoes get together, and just party until they drop.  Black volcanic rock/ash everywhere.  Lava streams – big & small.  Big volcanoes, little volcanoes.  Broken volcanoes,  intact volcanoes.  Black volcanoes, red volcanoes.  I climbed a red one.  It´s side had fallen out, and a huge stream of lava had emerged.  Big, big stream of lava.

Was hoping to upload photos tonight, and even got close.  But computer crashed, and realised that with the speed here, it might take all night.

I also saw a llama.  And a baby llama.  Many many goats.  Held an armadillo.  It did poose.  Ummm…. flamingoes, lizard, no snakes.  Saw some volcanoes.  And some oil rigs.  Got sunburnt and windburnt.  Spent quite some time trying to explain to my hostel owner that I had a silly plastic red tennis-racquet type thing (my electrified fly/mosquito-swat) on my bed when I left, and not when I returned.  Trying to ask if he knew where it might be (assuming kids had taken it to play with, and trying not to sound accusatory).  Finally, somehow, he clicked.  And it had been locked away from the chicos.  He did click quite soon after I said (I think) “It´s not expensive, but I like very much.”

Cerveza time now.  Actually well past, but I get lost on the single main street of this town everytime I walk down the bloody thing.  Really quite odd.  I think I might be distracted by the boy racers having a contest of who can drive slowest (they´re really rather good), or the pick-up trucks, or the gangs of pre-pubescent boys acting extremely machismo.  Excellently machismo.  Hassling waitresses and any other girl.

Today Kruse went into a cave.

Woke up to mosquito. Lay awake for three hours. Got up, hostel owner couldn´t give me change for a 50 to pay my bill. So, decided to stay another night. Figured I was too late for one of the various day trips. But – was wrong. Got myself on a trip to Las Brujas Cavern (Witches´ Cavern). Long drive out there. Went into some caves. Very dark. Normal much-used jokes from guide.

Stopped at a place on the way back. Looked at fossils. Don´t like fossils. Looked at a waterfall. I like a good waterfall. And this was pretty good. Would post photos here right now, but USB has been either disabled or broken on this PC. And I don´t want to ask which, cause I took the cellotape off the port to get to it.

But – could climb behind waterfall. Waterfall came off rock in the shape of a persons face/head. 25m tall waterfall. Nice waterfall. And surrounded by toi-toi. Odd.

Supposedly, we´d pre-ordered meals. But, the amount of boring fossil-talk makes me think that during this time, meals were being cooked. Especialidad – chevito. Roast goat. So – have had my fill of goat for a while. Cerveza went down well though.

Think I might have got some sunburn. But got back to the hostel, and shower was pathetic. Unusable. And cold. So, some splashes of cold water – and smelly for another day.

Apologies for the frequent & wordy updates by the way.  Here in rural Argentina, there´s not much to do between doing stuff during day, and when it´s acceptable to start drinking.  It kind of seems to be acceptable anytime – but it also seems to go on until very late.  Every night.  Just a few quiet drinks seems to be happening 1 or 2am, even here.

Not terribly much happening over the last 24 hours.  Went to dinner last night, and ate some delicious “Little Goat”, accompanied by a bottle of red wine.  Now I believe I told him I wanted a small one (thinking I would get a glass), but received a normal 750ml bottle.  Am intrigued as to what a big one is.

Afterwards, went to the Irish Pub (called, “Irish Pub”) – to see if there was a faint chance of them playing the NZ-England cricket game.  Got there, realised nobody spoke the Inglis, and had a bottle of beer by myself.  Got home at 2am, and discovered that I was the first in my hostel room (of 8), if not the entire hostel.

An interesting situation at about 4am when three girls came home, one wearing a very short skirt, and spent some time standing in front of my bunk trying to close the window.  I was sleeping, or pretending to be, on the bottom bunk – trying not to be too much of a pervert.   Similar situation this morning, when they got up to leave.

Anyway – I guess the big invisible guy who lives in the sky thought that I hadn´t closed my eyes quickly enough, or for long enough, and it was raining when I got up.  I had, however, decided to leave (sick of the debauchery).  I underestimated the argentinean rain though.  Used to NZ, I was expecting it to only last a while – as it didn´t seem heavy.  I was drenched in 10 minutes, as it was deceptively heavy.  I stopped, had breakfast, and tried to figure out what to do.

Plan:  try to find pub playing cricket.  If can´t, go to hostel with free wine – see if they´ve got any vacancies today.  If not, go to bus station – and get out of town.

Irish Pub was closed as I walked past.  Went to the hostel which advertises having free wine.  Told they were full, and door shut in my face by worker.  Owner came out, and apologised.  Invited me in to dry off.  Seemed bemused about my plan.  Told me of a pub called “Pub Liverpool”.  I kinda backtracked a bit to go there.  Sure enough, an english-styled pub.  But nobody who speaks the Inglis, and I wasn´t about to try to demonstrate “Cricket”.

To bus station.  Very very wet.  Bought a ticket to Malargue, supposed to have some awesome scenery about, and then an irish coffee.  Caught my bus, and drove through some very large plains.  Watched Pearl Harbour on the telly, with only sound effects, music, and spanish sub-titles.  Possibly the best way I could imagine seeing it, other than not at all.

Am in Malargue now – have walked around hostels, on dusty streets.  Nobody speaks Inglis.  One hostel was quite some distance from town, down dirt tracks.  Another was closed.  Gonna go back to my original place I visited, where the guy had never heard of internet.  And no Inglis.  Gonna be great fun.  Tomorrow I find out how difficult it is to organise tours to the various sights (apparently need tours/guides to do them)  with my espanol which is turning out to be more harm than good.  Ask a question, they usually understand, but I assume that I´ll be able to understand their long-winded answer.  A real problem.

Listened to a few more lessons on the bus here.  Most of which revolved around modifying what I already know to be able to refer to “us” rather than “me”.  Made me a little lonely.  But don´t cry for me Argentina, I´ll be alright.  (Like that?)

Right – I´d best be off.  Have discovered the cricket score.  Good work the lads.  Now I´ll see if my hostel is still available – or if the guy has got into his pickup and gone wildlife shootin´.  He seems like that kind of guy.  A lot of people here do.