Oh, the Places We'll Go

As the Graces were in mid-air back to Ann Arbor, Ted and I were once again at the Johannesburg International Airport (visits 4 and 5 of 10) to welcome our second round of parental visitors.  Similar to the Graces, it was the Martens’ first time to Africa and we so appreciate them coming so far to be with us.  Rob, Sarah (Ted’s mom is also named Sarah!), Ted and I have traveled together several times before, so we knew we were in for a good time.

We spent our first couple of nights in the Drakensburg Escarpment, in an amazing hilltop accommodation that Ted and I had identified while previously driving through the area during my parents visit.  Though none of us have been there, we imagine that the surrounding landscape was similar to the Irish countryside – lots of green, rolling hills.  We spent a whole day driving a scenic loop through the region taking in waterfalls, rock formations and exploring caves.

Could be Ireland?

Drakensburg Escarpment

Blythe River Canyon

Sarahs

We then ventured into the Kruger Park for a couple days of self-driving safari.  As Michiganders may spend vacation time on a lake Up North every year, many South Africans make an annual trip to the Kruger Park.  You stay in the park, you drive around looking for animals all day (drinking beer optional) and you BBQ in the evenings.  We channeled our inner South African and did exactly that.  Though Ted and I knew a little bit from our previous safaris, we were by no means a wealth of information, so we opted to do a ranger-guided night drive.  It was totally worth it as we finally saw our first rhino!  Ted and I had been on safari for a total of 18 days (between Botswana and South Africa) so it was long overdue.  Those things are ridiculously intimidating and very pre-historic looking.  The good news is, we had many more rhino spottings still in store for us!

Self-drive safari treats

Self-drive safari treats

Rhinos!

Hyena

After a week in Cape Town we headed to the eastern side of the country to see some big animals.  We spent a few nights at the Pondoro Lodge in part of the greater Kruger National Park.  Pondoro is an incredible spot and my parents were treated with quite an array of beasts.  Highlights included a pride of 9 lions lying together under a tree; a gigantic elephant saying hello while crossing the road; and dozens of hippos chilling in the river.  We enjoyed our nightly sundowners; Lar dug sitting shotgun with the safari guide and we all loved the amazing dinners including ostrich filet (which tastes like steak, not chicken) and impala pie!

HELLO!

Larry in shotgun

Sundowners in the bush

Giraffe

We had an incredible couple of weeks with Sal and Lar and we can’t thank them enough for making it all the way over to South Africa, and spoiling us to boot!

South Africa is a well-known wine-producing region of the world.  Stellenbosch is the unofficial capital of the wine region here, and is less than an hour from Cape Town in a beautiful mountainous valley.

Stellenbosch Vistas

Stellenbosch Vistas

Unbeknownst to me, Sal and Lar had never been wine-tasting before (Ted and I had been on a few tasting excursions in both Argentina and New Zealand).  Each wine region has their own approach, but here in South Africa the norm was to show up at a winery, pay a small fee and get the opportunity to taste 4-6 different types of wine.  We were warmed up pretty quickly when our first stop served us 6 wines before 11am!

Morning tasting!

I was hoping to get Sal and Lar on a cellar tour so that they could hear about how the wine is made and how they store it, bottle it, etc. but after 3 attempts, we realized that we should have made appointments.  Apparently, many of the workers were busy in the cellars due to it being harvest season and couldn’t be bothered to give a tour at a moment’s notice.  The nerve!  We think they should take notes from the Argentines, who will show you around any time of day.

Anyway, we had a beautiful day driving around and exploring all the amazing properties.  After our strong start with the wine-tasting in the morning, I was reminded that my folks aren’t really winos and were just as happy to stop into a winery and have a look around – they didn’t feel the need to do the tastings!  That is not something I inherited from them.

Tastings!

Stellenbosch

Beyond the excitement of Table Mountain, we did a lot of other activities that were not-so-life-threatening. One highlight was driving along the coast and to the Cape of Good Hope, a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean south of the city. We’d stop when we felt like it to check out a cool beach or watch the fishermen bring in their catch. African wildlife viewing began here – we saw the adorable African penguins at Boulders Beach, as well as ostrich, antelope and zebras on the Cape Peninsula.

Muizenberg Beach, False Bay

Cape Peninsula

Cape Point

Lots of penguins!

We spent a morning at Robben Island which is where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner for 27 years. The tours are led by former political prisoners of Robben Island which made the experience so much more authentic, and it was a stark reminder of how recently apartheid ended (1991!).

Mandela's cell, Robben Island

Robben Island

Ferry back from Robben Island

And no good trip would be complete without excellent eating. One of our favorite meals was the hilariously named Cod Father restaurant. It was highly recommended by our lodge and it was certainly a unique eating experience. There are no menus at the Cod Father – you waiter simply brings you to the display cases and shows you exactly what fresh catches the restaurant has available. As a group of four, we got an amazing assortment of different things – from crawfish (like lobster) to butterfish to prawns. It all came steaming hot to the table with overshadowed sides of fries and vegetables. We all supped to sufficiency and finished every single thing put in front of us. In honor of our memorable meal, Lar now has a Cod Father hat to add to his amazingly expansive collection that I imagine I’ll see him wearing while BBQing up north this summer.

Cod Father dinner choices

Massive seafood feast!

We arrived in Cape Town at the tail end of an extreme heat wave. Temperatures were at or near 100 degrees and the whole city was moaning and groaning in discomfort. Though the thermometer had dropped a few degrees, it was on a still very hot day that our fit and ambitious group attempted to climb Cape Town’s famous and beautiful Table Mountain.

Our host at the Lodge had tried to deter us and told us that we needed to leave early in the morning to avoid the direct sunshine on the path, but we merely smiled and nodded as we continued to enjoy our leisurely breakfast.

Upon reaching the trailhead, we were greeted with some rather steep stairs and very minimal shade. Within 90 seconds I was pretty sure that it was going to be too hot and/or difficult for our group to make it to the top however, I kept my mouth shut and we pressed on.

Nearly 1 hour into what is supposed to be a 2-3 hour hike, the group had a pow-wow to discuss our options. My mother, who is in great shape, was extremely uncomfortable in the heat and wanted to head down to the take the cable car up instead. I offered to go with her. My Dad, was determined to press on to the top, as was Ted.

View from the trailhead - a long way to go!

Mid-way up, getting real hot...

Looking back as we near the top

After nearly losing my mother to heat exhaustion (I swear the woman doesn’t sweat), we made it safely to the bottom where we promptly consumed one Powerade and one bottle of water each (as we’d sent most of our water on with the men). Once I was sure that neither of us were going faint, we bought our tickets for the cable car and ascended the mountain like 99% of the tourists do.

Once we got to the top, it had been over 3 hours and I was almost expecting that Ted and Lar would be up there waiting for us. When we arrived and there was no sign of them, I decided to go looking. I plopped Sal (who was quite worried at this point) at our planned meeting-up spot, bought a couple of liters of water and went running down to trail to rescue my husband and father.

But no rescue was needed. I didn’t get more than 200 yards before running into to them. They were tired and had run out of water so were thrilled to see I had some (though Ted had been wishing for it about 30 minutes earlier). However, they were there in one piece and were happy to have successfully made it to the top.

After a group refueling, we finally got around to taking in the amazing panorama. The view of the city and the surrounding beaches from the top is different in every direction. We had a blue-sky clear day and we could see for miles.

Northward views from the top!

Southward views from the top!

Graces on top!

The rest of the day was rightfully spent napping and relaxing before heading out for a much deserved celebratory dinner!

It’s very exciting to be driving into a big city on the other side of the world and to know your parents are waiting for you when you get there!

Sal and Lar (my Mom and Dad) had made the long trip to the southern tip of Africa and we were thrilled to have them there. Lar had done a lot of the organizing for the trip and hit a home run finding the Rutland Lodge for our home base (Sal was busy first-time grandmother-ing in Minnesota during most of the planning). Situated up in the highlands overlooking the whole city and the ocean, the Lodge is just a short trip from the base of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.

View from Rutland Lodge

View of Table Mountain from Rutland Lodge

Cape Town is an impressive city that has many things going for it, from beautiful secluded beaches, to mountains as a backdrop, to a multi-cultural mix of people and music and food that is incredibly intriguing. It’s part San Diego, part Sydney but all South African. However, Cape Town isn’t all sunshine and good. Like the rest of South Africa, crime and safety are huge issues. Most houses and businesses in this beautiful place are behind tall walls with security alarms and electric and/or razor fences. It is something you are aware of at all times, but more so than in any other cities we visited in South Africa, you actually feel quite safe.

I guess you have to have at least one negative thing to say about the place or otherwise it would just be too perfect. We were excited to be there and have nearly a week to explore it with my parents.

Cape Town Beaches

Arrival in Africa - Welcome Graces!

Like all good things in life, safaris must come to an end.  After an extremely long day of travel that involved 17+ hours, 2 countries, 3 flights (stopover #2 of 10 in the JoBurg airport), 1 car rental and a 1 hour drive – in the pouring rain, at night, on the other side of the road – we made it to our hostel on South Africa’s coast in Durban.  It was New Year’s Eve and Ted and I were pumped to go out and party! Yeah? No.  We were asleep by 11:15pm.  In our defense, the hostel bar closed at 10:45, and the nearest bar was miles away – too far to wander in the un-walkable night streets of South Africa, and too much of a pain to wait for a cab.  We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks and dogs barking and wished each other a happy 2011!

The next day we hit the road driving west to check out the famous Garden Route with the goal of being in Cape Town on January 5^th to meet up with the Graces.  The Garden Route is a scenic coastal drive that has been compared to California’s Highway 1 – lots of lookouts, beautiful beaches, coastal National Parks, cute vacation towns and plenty of tourist attractions ranging from snake museums to butterfly gardens to bungee jumps.

Jeffrey's Bay, Garden Route

Tsitsikama National Park

Tsitsikama National Park

We had quite a lot of ground to cover so most of our sight-seeing was from the car.  However, we were able to stay 2 nights in the cute, little town of Knysna and overlap with Dave and Jesse, the American couple we met in South America (who are also doing an around the world trip).  They happened to be in South Africa coming from Cape Town and we were headed to Cape Town so we decided to meet up in the middle.  We had a blast eating seafood, exploring ocean-front cliffs, sitting on the beach, and hearing what they’d been up to since we’d last seen them.  We even brazed the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean one day just so that we could say we swam in it.  We’re hoping to pull off another meet-up in Asia – we’ll see if we can make that work.

Knysna Heads

Beach day, cold water, cold beer

Knysna

Mmmmm...Oysters!

Wow, Argentina is a bit of a show-off – this will not be easy. We’ll do our best to narrow down our Top 10, come up with a bottom 5 and limit ourselves from going on and on about all the great food. Okay, here we go.

Top 10

1. 

   Salta Road Trip

   Lotsa Boulder friends – Getting to see Courtney and Jed in a different South American country, overlapping with Steph in Bariloche AND El Chalten, as well as connecting with Bern and having an amazing few days in Patagonia – we were feeling the Boulder love.

2. New fun friends – We met Dave and Jesse, a hilarious couple, doing their own ’round the world thing; We connected with Estefania’s little sis in Buenos Aires and we got to meet and hike with other fun folks from Mexico to the Netherlands to Michigan!
3. Salta road trip – After a lot of public transportation it’s quite fun to have your own car and get to be on your own schedule for a change.
4. Luxurious bus rides – Nicest buses we have ever been on. Double-decker, super reclining seats, meal service, air-conditioning, movies, the works.
5. Watching a giant chunk of the Perito Moreno glacier hit the sea – Yup. Would have loved to get a picture of it but you’ll just have to take our word for it.
6. Unfair proportion of Patagonia blue sky days – We’d been warned about the regions notoriously unstable bad weather, but lucky for us it was (mostly) for naught.
7. 

   Frey Sunset

   Super-Trekking – Though one of the longest hikes Ted has ever done – the scenery, the weather, the hiking companions and the accomplishment made it oh-so worthwhile.

8. Most amazing waterfalls on the planet – Iguazu is a sight to see. You can’t visit that place and leave feeling disappointed. Mother Nature at her best.
9. Refugio sunset – You’re in the middle of nowhere at a backcountry hut and the sun is setting over ridiculously jagged, snow-covered peaks. Life is good.
10. Biking the Circuito Chico – Northern Patagonia is a gem and this not-so ‘chico’ bike loop shows her off quite nicely.

Bottom 5

1. 18+ hour bus rides x 4! – Yes, the buses are luxurious but 18+ hours is a really long time to be in transit.
2. Cost of transportation – Yes, the buses are luxurious but you should not have to pay nearly as much as a plane ticket when the travel time is six times longer than a flight.
3. 

   The Glacier was well worth the hassle

   Getting ourselves from our fancy hotel to the glacier – We’re really stretching here but our fancy hotel made it quite a hassle (and an expense) to get us to and from the Perito Moreno glacier. As we were trying to meet up with our friends, we were a little bitter that our transit involved hitching to get there and walking 7km to get home.

4. Expensive dorm beds (yes, we slept in a lot of dorm beds) – Just like in Chile, we had to do the dorm bed thing to save some money. However, when dorm beds are still expensive it’s a bit depressing.
5. Leaving Argentina, meant leaving South America – And we weren’t ready to go yet! We heart South America and can’t wait to return one day…

Food and Drink

1. Steak – Argentina is known for their beef and for good reason. We rarely go out at home and order a steak off the menu. In Argentina we did it quite a few times and were never disappointed. A special shout-out to our first Argentine steak in Cachi, to Disnevel Parilla in San Telmo (where we went twice, including our last night on the continent) and to the steak dinner we had with Ninon and her friend.

2. 

   Wine tasting with Courtney and Jed

   Wine – Like Europeans, Argentines drink wine like water. It’s cheap, it’s prolific and it’s delicious. We drank a lot of it.

3. Family night – For our last night with our new friends in Patagonia we decided to whip up a dinner at the hostel family-style. Wine drinking, game playing and tango dancing ensued.
4. Dona Salta’s empanadas – We asked several people in Salta where we could find the best empanadas in town and they all said the same place. Mmmm.
5. Bariloche’s famous ice cream – So good we had to have it. Every day.

If you really want to see how amazing this country is, check out our “Best of Argentina” photo album, and then go see it for yourself.  Trip highlight for sure.

When we were in La Paz, Bolivia, we had the opportunity to meet some family members of our good friend Estefania. Estefania is Bolivian but had been living in Colorado for many years. When she heard that our travels were taking us to her home country, she generously offered to introduce us to her cousin Ale. Ale was a super fun gal and invited us to her little sister’s first communion brunch where we proceeded to meet more of Estefania’s family including other cousins, aunts and uncles and even her grandparents.

Well, as it turns out, Estefania’s sister lives in Buenos Aires, so we were once again hosted by her family. Ninon is Estefania’s younger sister and we met her over at her apartment in the energetic Palermo neighborhood. Ted and I went out to dinner with Ninon and her friend to an amazing parilla (steakhouse) in her neighborhood – it was one of the best steak dinners we’ve ever had.

I was curious to where the night might take us after dinner, as BA has a ridiculous nightlife scene with crazy clubs that don’t close until 6am or later. Since I had never met Ninon before, I wasn’t sure if that is what she had planned for a Saturday night or not. Ted and I are not big clubsters (big surprise there), though I was willing to give it a go if that is what Ninon had in mind.

Well, as it turns out the club was not in out future and we instead headed over to a house party of one of Ninon’s friends (phew!). Though there are a lot of differences between our people and counties, the good old fashioned house party is surprisingly familiar anywhere you go – everything from not really knowing anybody, to the majority of people congregating in the kitchen; from a few guys hanging out around the keg in the backyard, to folks in the living room dancing to 80s music. To their credit though, a house party is not immediately over in Argentina once the place has run out of booze and the dance floor had a much higher percentage of men dancing than we see at home.

And though we didn’t think we were up for a 6am night, it was certainly after 5am by the time we got ourselves back to the hostel. Thank you Ninon for showing us a fun time!

Sadly, we did not bring our camera this night, so no photos of Ninon or the party

When our brief stint of luxury was over, we headed back to El Calafate and then back to the bus station in time to catch the afternoon bus to El Chalten. Wonderfully, our new friends, Bern, Dave and Jesse were on the same bus.

El Chalten is a hiking and climbing mecca. The famous Fitz Roy range (the range the Patagonia clothing logo is designed after) towers over the quaint town of Chalten. The little town’s population soars during the summer season as people come from all over the world to check this place out. Though El Calafate is a proper tourist town with all the restaurants and souvenir shops to prove it, El Chalten feels more like a frontier town with many of the roads still unpaved.

El Chalten

The hiking around town is extraordinary and you can literally walk from anywhere in town to the trailheads. There are two very popular hikes that people do and we all planned to do one the first day and one the second day, depending on the weather. The weather in all of Patagonia is notoriously unstable. We had been warned about rain, clouds, cold temperatures and wind being the norm and sunshine being an exception to the rule. We had lucked out in Torres del Paine, we had lucked out visiting the Perito Merino glacier earlier in the week, and we once again lucked out in El Chalten.

As the five of us headed out on what was meant to be a 6 hour (roundtrip) hike to Laguna Torre with a view of the majestic Cerro Torre peak, we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. Even the ever-present wind was taking the day off. We were very appreciative of our luck and had a great hike to the view of Cerro Torre where we had lunch. On the way down, we got to talking and the group decided to take advantage of the amazing weather and press on towards the second popular hiking destination. The clouds can be so thick that they completely obstruct the view, so we decided to keep walking on the blue sky day.

Hiking to Cerro Torre

Cerro Torre, up close

Our hiking crew at Laguna Torre

The path we were on conveniently connected over to the other path and rewarded us with spectacular views of the Fitz Roy mountain range and a crystal-clear blue lakes along the way.

Hiking in the park

Rest stop

At another junction, the boys decided to head all the way up to Laguna de los Tres – the high view point for Fitz Roy. At the thought of an additional 3.5 hours of hiking on top of what we had already done, Jesse and I decided to head down.

We got back to town around 6:00 pm after a 10-hour, 16+ mile day of hiking, feeling pretty good about ourselves. We both got cleaned up and met for beers at the local brewery to wait for the guys. Little did we know that they wouldn’t roll in until just after 10 pm and 25+ miles of hiking! Luckily it stays light until after 10pm in Patagonia at that time of year because I wouldn’t have felt okay about them wandering in the dark. Jesse and I had just started to get worried when they arrived at the brewpub famished and exhausted.

Bern, Dave, and Ted

Laguna de Los Tres (covered with ice and snow)

The beginning of a LONG way down

We later learned that the full hike the guys did is known as the Super Trek. Needless to say the next day was a sleep-in and relaxation day.

For our last night in the area we decided to cook a big dinner at the hostel and drink some wine with all the fun new people we had met. As the night went on, we found our table growing larger and larger and before we knew it we were next door at the local tango bar! There were professionals on hand who were quite impressive, and many Argentine men who were happy to lead, and then there was our group that managed to have quite a great time with little to no tango knowledge whatsoever. It was a hilariously fun night and a great way to celebrate our last night in this amazing part of the world!

Family dinner and drinks

The Tango Party

Addendum – Our friend Dave is not a huge hiker, and the Super Trek basically broke his soul. Read his hilarious account of our day on his and Jesse’s blog.