Have Sea Lions, Will Dive

The main motif of this week has been ridiculously awesome experiences. That's always a good way to start, right?

It started last Saturday night with a music festival in Buenos Aires. Headlined by the Arctic Monkeys and The Hives, PersonalFest 2014 was a small and yet fantastic affair. I arrived reasonably late Saturday afternoon, after taking my time walking around the Puerto Mardeo area in the early afternoon. The first show I caught was the latter half of James McCartney's - he's nowhere near his father, but makes some nice, if rather generic rock music. Next up were Echo & The Bunnymen, who were apparently famous in the 80s. I've never heard of them, and the best thing that came out of their show is that I met a group of american foreign exchange students with whom I hung out for the rest of the festival. 

The ridiculousness started with The Hives. They put on a really fun show (even if at some point most of their songs begin to sound a tad the same), and really got the crowd going. My only pet peeve is that the front-man was rather in love with himself and his band, and wouldn't move on to the next song without some cheering about how much the crowd loves The Hives. Meh. The Arctic Monkeys, on the other hand, simply put together an awesome show. They played an amazing 21 song set, which included most of their hits and several lesser-known songs. The crowd was absolutely wild, and didn't stop moving / jumping / smashing / pushing everywhere. The encore was long and well done, with amazing effects during I Wanna Be Yours, and an extended rendition of R U Mine to close the night. 

The next morning saw me wake up late and enjoy a stroll around town with two girls from the hostel, followed by an eighteen hour bus to Puerto Madryn. It was rather unremarkable - the views were rather bland, endless green fields and the occasional village. The bed service (Cama) buses are rather comfortable though - business-class level seats, snacks served, and wine with dinner. All-in-all nothing terrible, but I'm rather glad I opted for a flight for Puerto Madryn to Ushuaia. Puerto Madryn itself is a quiet little town, just under half way down the Argentine coastline from Buenos Aires.

The morning after arriving I went to one of Puerto Madryn's claims to fame: diving with sea lions in Punta Loma. Oh. My. God. It. Was. Amazing. The videos (first, second) tell the story better than I ever could, and the photos came out rather awesome as well. The sea lions (at least the females and pups) are remarkably curious creatures, and they just come right up to you and play with you. As they don't have hands or feet, they just nibble at your hands (or snorkel, or flippers) to see what they can find out about you. I also opted to take another dive afterwards, to a neat shipwreck they have nearby. Other than the fact the Atlantic Ocean is really bloody cold (7mm wet-suits, gloves, and hoods aren't optional), it was a rather fun dive, with some fish and coral as well. 

Later that day I biked up to a vista point nearby named Punta Felcha - the views were very pretty, but I ran into some rather destructive headwind on my way back to town, which forced me to walk parts of the way back. The milkshake I had afterwards certainly felt well-earned. I met some other fun travelers during my stay in Puerto Madryn (a couple from Austria, two girls from Germany, three Israelis (whom I met again in Ushuaia), and two more girls from the Netherlands), and cooked some solid meals. It was out of the way, but well worth it. Major props go to Johnny and Inbar who suggested it might be worth a trip.

The flight to Ushuaia was a tad bumpy, but the views were simply beautiful (photos coming soon). It's simply a beautiful place - snowy mountains to the north, the beagle channel to the south, and even more snowy peaks on the mountains beyond. Simply gorgeous. Between arriving here in the afternoon on Thursday, a skype interview Friday morning, and the cruise beginning Saturday afternoon, I actually haven't hiked here at all yet; but there'll be plenty of time for that once I get back.  

Next up: Antarctica. Eighteen days, including the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas, as they're known in the collective Argentine cognitive dissonance), as well as South Georgia, sometimes referred to as "The Galapagos of the Atlantic." It's going to be amazing. I'm stoked.

Introspection of the day: I'm not quite sure if (and how) I want to track my expenses on the trip. On one hand, it isn't about the money - it's about the experience. However, seeing that everything does indeed cost money, keeping some track of it makes sense. So far it's early enough that I still remember most of my large expenses (travel, attractions), and can approximate how much I've spent on hostels and living expenses. On one hand I want to have some idea of how much I'm spending and what's it being spent on, and on the other hand, I want to make sure the financials don't consume me, and that I don't mull every dinner out with how much I've spent so far. 

Add into that mix the Antarctica trip, which dwarfs every other expense (and probably all of the trip-related expenses so far), and I have no idea and and how I should do. Friends and family who have traveled, should anyone ever read this: What did you do to track expenses? How did it work out?

Have Cordoba, Will Enjoy

I have a feeling this will be another one of those posts where the introspective part of our programming follows the plan retrospective part. I spent most of the last week in the awesome city of Cordoba. Several things I realized (and liked) about Cordoba:

• Cordoba is young. Very, very young. I heard someone float the number of 50,000 college students, and Wikipedia confirms it's even more extreme - about 100,000 students out of a population of 1,300,000. Honestly, it felt even more lopsided towards the youth, as my hostel was in Nueva Cordoba, a few blocks away from the huge university campuses.
• As a result, there are a ton of people with dogs (awesome!) and quite a few dogs on the streets (disappointing!). However, many of them seem cared for - I might be optimistic, but perhaps some of those dogs roam the streets and go to their homes at night? I'm not sure how to explain it otherwise. 
• A ton of gyms. The amount of gyms I saw reminded me of Starbucks in Manhattan. 
• It's even cheaper than Buenos Aires. You can get a very nice lunch for 50-60 pesos, which are around $4-5 (depending on the exchange rate).
• The nightlife is great - there's a high number of bars, clubs, and everything in between. However, I didn't really enjoy it much. More on that later.
• The museums! There was a very cool modern arts museum, with two collections that did some very fun things with texture: one involved arts created from small, rough strings, and another from something that looked vaguely similar to play-dough. The museum of fine arts was good for another nice stroll, as well as the two huge cathedrals. I guess it's a sign I'm growing old: I'm starting to enjoy museums, and go on my own volition.  

Other than Cordoba itself, I took two day (or half-day) trips. The first was to Alta Gracia, a village about an hour away, mostly famous for a historical museum in what used to be a huge Jesuit monastery. It wasn't all that exciting, but still somewhat interesting to see, and they preserved plenty of the tools, furniture, and texts that used to be there. The second day trip was far cooler - it was a to a small village called La Cumbrecita. The village is essentially an alpine village, akin to what you'd see in Germany or Austria, but in the middle of Argentina. Obviously they have their own brewery, as well as restaurants named Engel and Helmut. It's a very pretty place to walk around in - there are a few waterfalls and small ponds, and should you ever spend a few days there, plenty of longer hikes to be taken as well. 

Introspective: Although I had three nights in Cordoba, I didn't go out even once. I could blame it on the fact I was tired (and certainly I was, especially on the first night - as nice as the night buses are, they don't compare to a real bed), but that'd be cheating. I found a great hostel in Cordoba (Tango Hostel), as it was both recommended by my hostel in Buenos Aires and by HostelWorld. It was clean, the staff and volunteers (more guests/workers actually, but for the lack of a better term...) were very friendly and helpful, the location was great, and it felt good. 

For better or worse, it was also a very small hostel. Most of the crowd was of the loud European type, and while they were very friendly (even if a lot of what they did was to smoke), I didn't really enjoy their company too much. I guess it just didn't click. However, I also didn't try very hard. One night I just missed them going to play bowling and drink (which frankly, sounds like a great time), and I didn't bother to ask where they are and join, and instead cooked dinner with some other guests and went to sleep. Another night I returned late from my trip to La Cumbrecita, and instead of joining the massive group going out I fucked around on my phone a bit and went to sleep.

Here's what I'm going to try and do differently: I'll try harder to get to know the people I'm staying with (even those of whom who aren't gorgeous blondes). I'll make an effort to go out when a group from the hostel goes, as usually once I'm out it's a lot more fun. All else fails, I'll ask around for a nice bar, and go drink a beer by myself and see if I meet people there. I imagine going out while couchsurfing will also feel very different - but we'll see about that once I give it a shot.

(Oh, and I'm aware how terrible the title is. Absolutely accepting suggestions for a better one)

Have Plans, Will Travel

I've finally made my plans for the next two weeks or so. The start was anchored by the fact I only got around to think about it on Saturday, and the end by the fact I'm taking a cruise to Antarctica on November 15th. I want to arrive in Ushuaia on the 13th, to have the 14th a buffer should shit go awry at some point on the way. After careful (read: way to much) consideration, I have arrived at the following plan:

• I'm taking a night bus from Buenos Aires to Cordoba tomorrow night. It's a bit further away from Roasario (a bit on the local scale, another four to five hours on a bus, and nine hours or so on the whole), but it's sounds significantly more exciting, and like there are quite a few cool day trips to take. We'll see in a few days, I guess.
• I'll return to Buenos Aires either Friday morning or Saturday morning, on another night bus. TBD based on where I decide I'd rather spend another day.
• Saturday evening will be spent at PersonalFest. James McCartney, The Hives and a host of other local (I think) bands will be playing. Oh, and a small band called the Arctic Monkeys will be headlining. Maybe you've heard of them?
• Most of Sunday and part of Monday will be spend on a bus to Puerto Madryn. That city, located roughly in the middle of nowhere, is the gateway to a (supposedly) amazing nature reserve called the Valdes Peninsula. It´s also supposed to be Argentina's best scuba diving location. I'll be there until Thursday morning, when I'll fly to Ushuaia.
• Why fly to Ushuaia? It would take two buses, and almost thirty hours total by bus. I'm not that much of a masochist. I would have considered hitch-hiking, had I not been in a hurry.
• Why not fly down there too? A concentrated effort not to be too spoiled, I guess. Although the flight down to Puerto Madryn is much cheaper than the one to Ushuaia, the bus ride is also significantly less annoying. Namely, it's one fucking bus.
• Starting November 15th I'll be on a cruise to Antarctica, but that's a whole other story. (Fun fact: Did you know that Antarctica is considered a desert?)

Actually, that wasn't the interesting part of this post, at least not in my mind. I arrived in Buenos Aires Wednesday afternoon, knowing I have booked the the hostel until Sunday, and that I need to figure out what I'm doing until the cruise. I entirely neglected dealing with that for the first couple of days (why worry now about something you can figure out later?), and at some point on Friday thought about it a bit, and realized I know nothing, Jon Snow. After pondering about it some more Saturday morning, with the great help of the staff here, I ended up with a few ideas, including the course I ended up taking. At that point, I was stuck.

If you've known me for long enough (especially if you're my dear family), you know I sometimes have a terrible time making decisions. In the past, I was truly horrible - If a restaurant menu looked too inviting, I would agonize myself over what to order for lunch. I've dealt with that shit, and when decisions are truly inconsequential, I either make them rapidly or outsource them to someone else. Unfortunately, actually meaningful decisions still pose me a problem. Let's use Saturday as an example:

As I was very tired (late night celebrating Halloween), I decided I'll nap it over. Of course, the napping proved to be of little help with the decision-making process. Slightly more helpful were my mom and a dear friend I consulted with. However, even after chatting about it with them to the point of exhaustion (at least on their side), I wasn't sure. As the night approached, I started to realize how mentally exhausted (and perhaps even crippled) this ridiculous exercise in over-thinking left me: After cooking myself dinner, I cancelled plans I had to go out that night, and then turned down a free ticket to a club, with one of the guys from the hostel, his girlfriend, and four other women. I've never been a huge fan of clubs, but still... Face, meet palm. 

In order to prevent the same thing from happening today, I basically made my decision in the morning, and then made sure I don't rot in the hostel all day (I actually didn't leave the hostel for the whole day on Saturday. Fuck.). I went out for lunch with a woman from Chicago who just checked in, and we braved the rain to walk around and see the Obelisk and Teatro Colon (famous opera house). Then I figured out what exactly I want to book and where, and the booking shall commence tomorrow morning.

What can I learn from this? The nihilist within me says I should treat every decision as inconsequential, because ultimately, well, they all are. Never count on a nihilist for good advice... Instead, I should probably realize that after eliminating the stupid and highly illogical options, most of my plans aren't half bad. I should pick whichever ones charms me the most, would only work now, or the one I manage to convince fun people to tag along to. If all else fails, I should just make a decision and start implementing it.Wasting a whole day pondering it is just not worth it. 

Anything else I should take away from this?