It’s Just Poison…

We woke up about an hour before we were supposed to be at check-in for the penguin tour. I grabbed a quick shower and some cake and then headed down to the bay to start the trip.

As it was explained to us before we left, we would be taking an hour or so bus ride through the mountains to get to private farm where we would then take a 15 minute boat ride to the island. Once we landed on the island, we would be staying for about an hour and then have to make the trip back to Ushuaia. The whole thing was to take about 5 hours. Penguins! I’m going to hang out with wild penguins! So excited right now.

The hour bus ride wound up being a little tour on it’s own. There were 12 or so of us all together and the guide talked about various points of interest along the way. I learned a lot about Ushuaia and beavers killing trees with their dams. Apparently some dolts brought down a bunch of beavers for some reason and the spread to crazy numbers because they don’t have any natural predators around. This led to lots of dams in the rivers and drowning of trees all around. The trip seemed like a tour of a forest graveyard.

One of the stops along the way that we made was at the one point where the wind was so strong almost constantly, that all the trees in the area were best way over. Looked pretty trippy considering that where we were there, there wasn’t any wind.

A little while longer in the bus and we arrived at the farm where we were to switch to a boat. We all boarded and were off to penguin island (Not the real name, just what I call it). It’s one of the little islands at the very bottom of continent. When the boat came to shore, we all jumped off and stood very silently for the first few moments. We were surrounded by penguins!

There were these three, that were already pretty close to us, that waddled up to check us out. None of birds on the island were afraid of us. Not used to that too much.

After a little discussion from the guide about the surroundings, she lead us around the island pointing things out and making sure everyone stayed a safe distance from the penguins. The were nesting all over the place and sometimes didn’t care if it was in the middle of the tour path. Before leaving the beach area, we were all allowed to take a photo with with penguins. We didn’t hesitate.

We then walked around the beach and up into the nesting area where we saw two different types of penguins nesting. One would build little pebble mounds, and the others would dig holes about three feet into the ground.

We walked around for a while in the nesting area and I got a couple neat photos of the penguins in the brush, but my crappy canon lens is broken or something, so most of my shots came out too blurry for my taste. I think it’s time to get a new all purpose lens =(

When we left the nesting area and were returning to the beach to get back on the boat, one of the other tour boats showed up. This was the tour that didn’t get to go on the island and was about $20 cheaper. I felt bad for them. They were probably pretty jealous of us. There were probably 30 or 40 people on the boat trying to cram up to the front to take photos and see the penguins. Sucks to be them.

We hung out with the penguins a little while longer while our boat came to shore, then we boarded and began our trip back to the farm where we were going to have cake and tea (yay cake!).

I think the penguins enjoyed our company, and were sad to see us go. One of them even hung out to say goodbye to us =)

We ate some cake, Nicole had some tea, then we all got into the bus for the trip back to Ushuaia. I think most of us slept a good portion of the trip. We walked around town a little while when we returned looking for a place to grab some dinner. We wound up eating at a place that was right next to our hotel. The food was overpriced and not too hot. Oh well, can’t have a great meal all the time. I don’t remember what I ate (the food made that good of an impression on me), but Nicole had the king crab something or another. The only reason I know this is because we took a picture of it. Once we paid our check and skidaddled, we went shopping. Well, Nicole went shopping, I tagged along. Around 10:30pm or so the crazy, “there’s still light in the sky” was going on. I told Nicole that I wanted to head back to the hotel so I could grab my camera and get a photo of it. She told me it wasn’t possible. I think I proved her wrong…

Getting ready for bed, we packed up all our things so that we would be ready to leave in the morning. We needed to grab a couple things from around town before we left and our flight was at noon, so we would be a little tight on time. Hopefully, everything will work out.

Apparently our alarm clock was set with the wrong time. So we were woken up at 4:30am from the guy at the hostel with, “Hey, your cab is downstairs waiting for you.” Crap. we hadn’t packed, or found a place to stay in Ushuaia. I was going to do that in the morning before the cab was supposed to arrive.

We crammed all our stuff into our bags, and ran downstairs to meet our ride to the airport. Thankfully, the airport was only a 10 minute drive away (different one that where we came in). But of course there would be one last hitch. To get out of the hostel, you have to buzz an intercom and say that you’re leaving. This is because there’s two doors to get outside, and they’re both controlled by a guy two floors above that can’t see anything. We have to say that we’re leaving so he knows which order to buzz the doors. Well, apparently the guy missed the second buzzer. We were stuck between the two doors and there’s no intercom. We banged on the doors, and I even contemplated kicking one off it’s hinges. What a stupid system. Before breaking the door and running away, I figured I’d try to jimmy the door open with a piece of wire I yanked out from the ceiling (hope it wasn’t to anything important). I was able to feed the wire around the locking mechanism, and with one swift pull the front door popped open. Freedom! On to the airport.

We showed up with time to spare. Checked our bags, and headed through security to our gate. Apparently, security for domestic flights within Argentina is pretty lax. Reminded me of what it was like to fly in the US before 9-11. We were waved through by the one guy working the metal detector. I don’t think he even looked up at the x-ray machine. We sat around the gate for a little but and then boarded the plane when it was time.

Our flight was a little over three and a half hours long with one stop in some little city that seemed to be in the middle of absolutely nothing. While descending we hit some pretty heavy turbulence. Felt as if we were in a boat more than an airplane. The lady that was sitting next to Nicole had a look of, “Uh oh… this looks like it’s the one.” on her face. The pilot made a quick hard bank and then things smoothed out for the landing. There must have been some serious cross winds or something coming off the Atlantic. Nicole wants me to mention that there were some "big" rabbits running around around the nothingness next to the runway.

It was somewhere about an hour to get to Ushuaia. For those that don’t know of the city (I didn’t until I bought the ticket), it’s the most southern city in the world and only a couple hundred mile to Antarctica. A lot of the cruises to Antarctica leave from there. Other than to say that I’ve been as far south as you can get, I also wanted to see some penguins. There’s a tour / charter that you can do go out and check them out. I was really excited about this part.

First thing I noticed once I got out of the airport was the view. It was spectacular. I’ve never see anything like it in the world. The second thing I noticed was how cold it was. When the sun is on you, it’s not that bad. Jeans and a hoodie would do. When the sun was gone / shade, it got pretty cold. At one point I was wearing long underwear, jeans, t-shirt, hoodie, jacket, winter hat, and gloves. A little different from laying on the beach in Rio a couple days ago.

While on the plane, the lady that sat next to Nicole told her that her friends rented out rooms and she would give us their number if we needed a place to stay. Sounded good, so we took it. The only problem was that all the phones in the airport were broken. We had to take a cab to the city center where there was a tourist information center. When we got there, they gave us a list of all the hotels and hostels in the area. The hotels were so cheap, that we chose one that was only a couple blocks away. It was somewhere around $60 a night. And we needed a break from the hostel life. The hotel was awesome. They also had free breakfast all day long which consisted of toast and cake. Free cake 24/7! Yes! Our view from the room was nice too. It overlooked the bay.

After dropping off our bags, we headed down the street to where all the tour guides were to try and get on the penguin excursion. The guy at the information center told us about how there’s one tour you can do where you actually get off the boat and get to walk on the island with all the penguins. Hell yeah! Unfortunately, the tour was already full for today, so we booked ourselves for the afternoon tour tomorrow. We then headed back uphill to find some lunch. We found a place that looked perfect. They had a giant sign painted on the side of their building stating “great service to tourists since 1912″. We both ordered some pasta (made fresh right there) and a bottle of wine. After lunch we had some dessert. Nicole got a homemade flan, and I had a crazy thing (The Don Pablo). It was neapolitan ice cream with walnuts in a glass of whisky. Sounded good. Not too much. The dairy seemed to curdle in the whiskey. I ate all the ice cream and left most of the whiskey. Then Nicole did the unthinkable. She dared me to down the rest of the melted ice cream whiskey walnut concoction. There was about a "full half-glass left" (Nicole’s words). I would like to tell you that I was smart enough not to do this, but after a bottle of wine, I’m not exactly up to par in the brains department. I knew it was going to be rough, but I totally forgot that there were nuts in it. Not really something you want to be surprised by while shooting liquor. I had to use all my shaolin skills just to keep it down. Although I was in agreement that if I did hurl, I would be allowed to do so on Nicole.

We left the restaurant and walked around town to look through all the souvenir shops, and there were a lot of them. On the main street, it was either a souvenir shop or a cafe.

I think these guys put nyc to shame. They had everything you could think of with either "Ushuaia" or a penguin on it. It was a tad sickening. Nicole bought a couple little things, and I bought her a neck scarf thing.

The sun looked like it was going down, and Nicole wanted to go back to the hotel to grab something. When we go there, she said she wasn’t feeling so well and wanted to take a nap. I wasn’t ready to sleep, so I went back out to take a couple pictures around town.

When I returned to the hotel room it was somewhere around 6pm and Nicole was out cold. I was pretty tired from the night before and I was beginning to think that my allergies her in Ushuaia weren’t actually allergies. I think I was sick. Crap. Pretty exhausted myself, I laid down and took a nap.

When I woke up, I felt like death and needed water so bad I would have drank toilet water. I was sick for sure. This sucked. I felt like I had the flu and I was supposed to go see penguins tomorrow. I had no idea what time it was, but I could see a little light breaking through the clouds, so I figured the sun had just set and it was about 8pm or 8:30pm. Nicole and I left to find water and some Tylenol Flu. Luckily there was a little 7-11 type place only a block away. I got my water and sucked it down. Now I felt a little better. Still mildly death-like though. This is also where I saw the news about the Antarctic cruise ship that sank. It was front-page news on all the papers in the store. Everyone survived. They just had to sit in a life raft for 3 hours. What a story those people have!

The bodega guy also told us about a pharmacy that would be open just down the street. In South America, nothing is really over-the-counter. All drugs must be asked for and retrieved by a pharmacist. You just don’t need a prescription for the over-the-counter stuff. They didn’t have Tylenol, but they had something else that did the same thing. I have no idea what they were. They didn’t even come in a box. It was 12 pills in the aluminum foil wrapper thing. I didn’t care. Popped the pill and headed back to the hotel to pass out. Before I fell asleep, I had some cake, and got the low-down on the crash from Nicole. I also took a couple night photos from the window. Two amazing things happened. 1, I was already feeling better. Not a little better, but totally better. These unknown pills are miracle drugs! 2, it was a little after midnight! We’d only been gone about 30 minutes or so. That was my first experience with the sun not really setting. Guess that’s what happens when you’re this close to the pole. Crazy.

Today was tattoo day, and I was pretty excited. I got out of bed around 10am (pretty early by my standards), and jumped in the showed. Actually, I should say, I walked down a flight of stairs and locked my self into a little closet that had hot running water. Fine by me, it did the job. I then put on my shorts / bathing suit / cut-offs, and grabbed some breakfast (ie. free bread). After there was some food in me I took my allergy cocktail and also added in a giant herbal vitamin. I try to be as healthy as possible the day of a tattoo. I tend to get sick after getting tattooed. My immune system is so busy dealing with the trauma to the skin (which is a giant open wound), it’s prime time for catching something.

Since it was early, we headed for the subway to go towards Bond Street and then I was going to look around to see if I could find the Alien DVD for sale somewhere. I still didn’t have Argentina, and I highly doubt Ushuaia is going to have it. This is my last chance. The entire time I was trying to find it, Nicole kept reminding me how stupid it was to get it, and that I already had it in Spanish. I think I must have heard that speech 4 or 5 times. With no success, and feeling quite aggravated that I will not get the DVD from Argentina, I stopped into Burger King to try the exclusive “XL Doble”. It’s like a long cheeseburger / sub mix. I ate less than half of it knowing that it was not the healthiest of foods.

Right before heading into the tattoo studio I stopped at a little Bodega-ish thing to stock up on apple and orange juices (good stuff to drink when you’re losing a lot of blood).

I had my necessities, so it was time to head on up. When I got there, there was a french film crew hanging out in the studio. Turns out they were there to film Cray tattooing me as part of a french hip-hop graffiti documentary.

They wanted to interview him about all his years doing graffiti while I was getting tattooed. I said it was cool with me, so the production started. This is when it clicked that this guy really is some world renowned graffiti artist. I found out later while talking with Cray that this kind of stuff happens all the time. His graffiti is is public mainstream artistic side, and he does tattooing to bring his art to a more personal, out of the lime-lite, nature. Something I appreciated very much.

Here’s the rundown of how Cray tattoos, slow, heavy handed, and he buries that needle! Oh man. My leg was tore up. Oh yeah, the tattoo wound up being pretty much the entire right side of my right calf =) “Go big or go home,” as Nicole likes to say. I find out about 6 hours in that he’s only been tattooing a little over 2 years. Oh… that 3-4 hour thing? Nope. We got a good 8 and a half to 9 hours in. Like I said, my leg was toe’ up from the flo’ up! I may have lost count, but in that time period I took at least 6 motrins to get through it. I don’t think I’ll ever get the back of my knee tattooed, that area is intense!

So, all in all, I wound up with a definite one-of-a-kind tattoo that I’m very proud to wear. On top of that, I made a bunch of great friends, Cray and Sebastian kick ass. After a few more years of tattooing, this guy is going to be insane. I plan on keeping in touch with him for sure!

When we were done saying our goodbyes, we took a cab back to the hostel. I wasn’t in the mood for a lot of walking around. We found a nice Italian place a block from the hostel and had dinner there (there’s a lot of Italian food in Argentina). I should probably say, tried to have dinner there. I wasn’t feeling so hot, nor was Nicole. The mushroom risotto was awesome and I really wanted to eat it, but my body just wouldn’t allow it. So I just payed the check and we left for the hostel. I think it was somewhere around midnight when we arrived, and I passed out almost immediately. We had a 6am flight to Ushuaia the next morning and a cab picking us up at 4:30am.

I woke up sometime around noon I think. Well, I was repeatedly woken up throughout the morning by other people in the room and the perfectly aligned sun through 3 different windows hitting me directly in the face. I actually wondered if they positioned the beds so as a cruel inside joke. Oh well. So noon is when I actually got out of bed.

To start the day out right, I popped a Claritin 24 and one of the knock-you-on-your-ass benadryl. I figured with a full nights rest, one of them shouldn’t really affect me…too much.

Nicole and I then headed outside to find a certain area in Buenos Aires called “Bond Street”. Here’s the neat part, it’s not a street. So asking around for “Bond street near the intersection of Santa Fe street and Rodriguez Pena street, and bond street isn’t a street” got some weird looks. To start the adventure off, I located the intersection that I was told to go to. I found it on the map in the back of my guide book, so we walked a few blocks and jumped on the subway six stops and then walked through what looked exactly like NYC’s upper west side to the intersection. The more and more I walked through Buenos Aires, the more I don’t notice it. It’s so much like nyc that I feel right at home. For the most part, I just thought I was in a part of nyc that I’ve never been to before that had a lot of spanish speaking people in it. The only difference is that Buenos Aires is waaaay cheaper. About a third of the cost. Very tempting relocation spot. New york feel and atmosphere, but without the ridiculous cost of living, and a much better climate. Something I’m seriously considering…

Ok, back to the Bond Street thing. Bond Street is a place that Gaz told me I would love. Supposed to be full of tattoo shops, metal-head stores, video game stuff, a bar, and all kinds of cool things. This is why I wanted to find this place so bad. After a few blocks of walking around the area we were told to find it, we stopped into a cafe to grab a snack. I had an apple tart and a coke (in a bottle…love it), and Nicole had a fruit salad.

A couple bites into the apple tart, I heard the voice, “Hey, remember that pizza last night that I told you not to eat?”. The bathroom was on the third floor.

Before we left, I asked our waitress about this mysterious Bond Street, and thankfully knew what I was talking about. In the mix of my less than perfect Spanish and her better-than-my-spanish English I got the directions. Turns out we passed it a couple blocks back. I guess in thinking “street” and not actually looking for a literal street I missed it. Her directions worked out perfectly. Bond Street turns out to be a mini-mall just like the one in Santiago. A bajillion tattoo parlors, and all the other deviant after-school kid hangout necessities. Though this one was much cooler. These people definitely 0wned this place. It was covered in graffiti, a lot of the lights were busted out, and there was various music playing all over the place. If you’ve ever seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the movie, think of the hideout for The Foot. This is the closest thing to that, that I’ve ever seen, except everyone is in their 20′s and early 30′s. I liked it =).

There was actually a more specific reason as to why I wanted to find this place, and the story starts with the discovery of Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world. It’s only a couple hundred miles from Antarctica. This was my next destination, and we bought the tickets back in Florida with the others. I had the brilliant idea to get a tattoo on the lowest part of my body (my foot) in the lowest city in the world. Brilliant! Here’s a mockup of my original idea:

It’s a simple outline of the lower area of South America with a bold star at the bottom pointing out Ushuaia. Well, after almost two weeks of sitting on this idea and mulling it over, I kept updating it and modifying it until I had a completely new idea. I wanted to get something iconic from every area that I visited all mashed into one collective piece. In the end, here’s what I came up with:

- Penguin (Ushuaia)
- Steak (Buenos Aires)
- Llama (Lima)
- Volcano (Pucon)
- Monkey (Rio)
- Coconut water (Rio)
- Pudu (Valdivia)
- Some Inca symbol (Machu Pichu)

A Pudu is a mouse-deer, worlds smallest deer and only found in Chile. It represents Valdivia because when I was drinking at the Bunker with everyone I was asking around for what is really Chilean. Matias mentioned the Pudu. Bam, pudu is was.

I would be taking a gamble with the penguin and machu pichu because I haven’t been there yet, but I figured I’d probably find a better (read: any) tattoo artist here than in Ushuaia or at Machu Pichu.

So we wondered through all the various tattoo shops looking at portfolios, or pictures on wall (that was the extent of a lot of portfolios) looking for someone that was half-way decent. Most of them were scratchers or copiers. Not too much originality. Then when I felt all hope for a nice tattoo, I stumbled in this one shop at the very top floor in the back with no one in it (most of the others were busy). The first thing I noticed about this guy was that he was a developed artist. Not tattooing necessarily, but he was gifted, creative, and definitely had his own style already pinned down. His name is Cray Fish. He turns out to be a world renowned graffiti artist that decided to move into the tattoo industry. His tattoo portfolio was ok, nothing really popped out and said, “woah!”, but I figured that was because I’ve been spoiled by being around some of the worlds greatest tattoo artists. What did pop out at me was his portfolio of graffiti. It was some of the best pieces of work that I’ve ever seen! This guy was awesome. I found my tattoo artist. A few minutes later and the artist, Cray, arrived. Nicole acted as a translator for us and I described what I wanted, “I want these items all working together somehow. I don’t care how it’s done, I just want it to be done completely in your own style.” We went over the list of items and he seemed more than happy to take on this project. I think he thought the collection of items was pretty amusing. There really isn’t a common link anywhere. After discussing placement and size, he told me to come back tomorrow at 1pm and that it should take around 3-4 hours. Seemed reasonable to me, so I shook his hand, left a deposit and then headed back to the hostel to get ready for some dinner (Argentinean Steak tonight!).

My dinner was awesome. Nicole’s on the other hand was plain gross. She ordered a salmon dish and the fish tasted not so fresh. She was also too embarrassed to send it back and get something else instead. So I did the dick move and told the waiter the fish sucked and to bring an order of the shrimp ravioli. This wasn’t exactly Burger King. When we showed up I thought there might have been a dress code just to get in. Anyway, the waiter took the fish and brought out a plate of the ravioli a little later (btw, the ravioli’s were “really good”… i don’t like shrimp, so I wouldn’t know).

After dinner, neither of us were feeling too hot, so we called it a night and headed back to the hostel to catch some zzz’s. This night was a little different than last night though. I wasn’t as tired, so I laid a sheet down first. Still no pillow. Still didn’t care.