Torres Del Paine

I am currently in Puerto Natales, Chile, a small town beautifully situated along the southeastern flank of the Chilean fjords. Besides its great setting, the town doesn´t offer much besides supermarkets and camping stores where tourists stock up on supplies before heading up to Torres Del Paine National Park, a 2.5 hour bus ride to the north. This park is well known for its fantastic hiking or (trekking if you like) possibilities. I will be doing a 8 day circuit of the park, about 70 miles total. This sounds like a lot but the elevation change is supposed to be minimal as the route takes you around most of the big mountains, not through them. Still, the first few days might be tough because I will have 8 days of food on my back. Like on the previous trek, I will be out of touch because of this. Though in a rather shocking sidenote, someone did tell me that there is a small portion of the hike frequented by those doing 1-2 day hikes that does offer internet access at a cabin!!! The hike should have quite a different feel overall because it is much more visited than the area outside Ushuaia where I did my first hike. Because of this, open fires are not allowed, you actually have to pay for most of the campsites, and you have to camp at designated spots, not wherever you please. Though these restrictions might limit how much of a true wilderness feel the Ushuaia hike had, these restirctions are in place for a reason. The park is supposed to be quite a beauty and the authorities are doing their best to protect it.

One other thing, as you´ve noticed I like putting wikipedia links for a lot of the places I´m visiting and things I´m seeing. Obviously I´m not doing this for everything but if you do actually have the time and interest to learn more about some of these places I´m visiting it is truly amazing the depth of listings that wiki provides. Granted most of them are rather brief and could be improved but a little bit is better than nothing. I´ll report back sometime first week of March.

Penguinos

I feel like I saw quite a lot yesterday. My overpriced Penguin tour headed out to the boat at 7:30 am. It was a 25 km drive north of punta arenas and the mini van was filled with 5 Israelis, 2 other Americans, 1 Brit, 2 Swiss, 1 Chilean, and myself. Strangely, no women came along for the ride. The boat was a bit strange. Approximately 25 feet in length, it was the biggest zodiac/hard bottom inflatable I´d ever been in. We pounded our way out to Isla Magdalena, a large island smack dab in the middle of the Straight of Magellan. The penguins were there to greet us on the shore. You could hear their loud brays 100 yards before we had even tied up to the dock. We were emphatically told that we were to take no more than 1 hour walking along the designated path, up to a lighthouse at the highpoint of the island and back. To my amazement, the Penguins showed little fear of us as we slowly gawked up the trail, snapping photos at an astounding rate.

This type of penguin is known as the Magellanic Penguin; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_penguin which makes sense considering I was seeing them on an island in the Straight of Magellan. The hour quickly passed and we were hoarded back onto the Zodiac. Our next and final stop was Isla Marta, home to a huge colony of sea lions. This island has special protected status, thus not allowing us to disembark. Actually, I think this protection status was providing protection for us as much as for them because there were so many of these things flopping around on the beach that I´m pretty sure anyone would be pulvarised and then flattened in no time if they tried to make a landing. Like the penguins, they let off loud calls, even louder than those of of the penguins. It sounded a bit like an elephant call if you can imagine what that sounds like. After 20 minutes of sitting 100-200 yards off shore we were told it was time to head back to home base. By now we were quite far out, and the winds had picked up considerably from a few hours earlier. The trip from Magdalena to Marta was already quite rough and everyone knew the ride back would only be longer. I started down below in the covered area, hoping to stay dry. I realized this was a mistake as our route back had us going directly into and over the 6-8 foot swells. Every 20 seconds the boat would take off from the apex of the previous wave and levitate for a few milliseconds before pounding with tremendous force into the next trough. After a few minutes of this a couple of the Israelis looked like they were due to empty their stomachs at any moment so I hastily scrambled into the open air rear cockpit. It was much nicer back there, although the wind blasted your unprotected upper torso, the pounding was much less severe in the back and your legs were able to absorb most of the blows. The best part though of getting into the open air was spotting a couple of Commerson´s Dophins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerson%27s_Dolphin They are only found in this tiny geographical region of extreme southern Patagonia and they are quite beautiful with their unusual white and black markings. They almost look like miniature orchas.

Strong winds and currency confusion

I blew into Chile yesterday, quite literally. I scambled to the bus station a little before the scheduled departure to Punta Arenas. They had told me the day before the bus was sold out but I was hoping for come cancellations or no shows. Luckily, I think that was exactly what happened as I was quickly sold a ticket. The journey took 8 hours, mainly through the desolate unihabited grasslands of Chilean Tierra del Fuego. Part of the journey was a 30 minute ferry ride across one of the narrowest portions of the Straight of Magellan. The winds at the Argentina/Chile border were fierce, a constant 50-60 miles per hour. Poor old ladies were getting knocked down.

Punta Arenas is a very pleasant city. The central plaze has nice mature trees and the center of the plaza contains a large statue of Magellan himself. Legend says if you touch his toe you will return to Punta Arenas again someday. It is by far the largest city in Patagonia, with about 120, 000 citizens. I booked a Penguin sightseeing boat trip this mornning. It departs at 7am Thursday and it is done a smallish zodiac type boat, maybe 20 feet in length. The colony I am going to see supposedly hosts 120,000 penguins this time of year so it should be quite a sight. One side note about this trip, I booked quite an expensive tour, a lot more than I wanted to spend party because I got confused converting the Chilean Peso to dollars. Chile is one of those countries with rediculously high currency values, approx 500 to the dollar. (Not as bad as Vietnam but still, couldn´t they just change it to 5 and be done with it?) Anyways, I thought I was paying about $30 but it ended up being $60!!! Yikes! Maybe it is good though, the other tour operator going to this colony only charges about $35 but they use a huge boat with lots of people and hopefully my extra cash will by me a closer and more unique experience.

Viajar a dedo

Either not enough of you wished me luck or the Fuegian drivers were not feeling generous today, but I had no success at my attempt at viajar a dedo or ¨traveling by finger¨. I waited for an hour about 10 km north of Rio Grande town and nobody stopped for me. I would say about 25 vehicles passed in an hour and not one even slowed down. I tried to make myself look as non-threatening as possible but it did not work. Oh well, I will try to buy a bus ticket for tomorrow and I really really hope there is a seat open. Getting stranded here for a week waiting for the next bus seat out of town could get old really quickly. I don´t particularly have anything against this town it´s just that there is nothing to do and I´m ready to get to Chile and visit some penguin colonies.

Sleepy Sunday

With the possible exception of Buenos Aires, Argentina shuts down on Sundays. Not only is almost everything closed, but you see very few people walking around and even sginficantly less traffic. This makes it difficult to get much done, such as doing laundry, buying bus tickets, etc. Being in a small town like Rio Grande on a Sunday only exacerbates things. The only things open appear to be the supermarket, a small internet place, and the local cinema. I´m considering seeing of the offerings there tonight, though both look equally uninspiring. It´s either ¨A Night at the Museum¨ or ¨The holiday¨. I have learned through the years that part of the fun of seening movies oversees is you almost inevitably end up watching movies you would never bother seeing at home. Going into the theater with this attitude can make even the worst of flicks somewhat managable, if not downright enjoyable. If all the buses are sold out to Punta Arenas, Chile tomorrow, I will attempt my first extended hitchhike of the trip. Wish me luck!

Rest Day

Today is a rainy day in Ushuaia. It is also my rest day. It is a day to sleep for extended hours in my tent, watching the rain bead down the exterior walls of my tent. I will purchase a bus ticket this afternoon and leave tomorrow morning for Rio Grande, the next town of any size noth of Ushuaia. I plan on spending just a quick night there before continuning on to Punta Arenas, my first stop in Chile. Part of the journey will require a short ferry ride over the Straight of Magellan, a body of water I have long heard about it history books. That is all for now. Will write more when I get a chance or am feeling particularly inspired.

A round at Augusta National

Imagine you are 27 years old and have never played a round of golf in your life. This is not that unusual, plenty of people have never golfed before. Now imagine yourself traveling in a foreign city, say Augusta, Georgia. You happen upon a couple of other travellers (who themselves are fairly experienced golfers). These guys are planning on playing a round at Augusta National, home of the annual Masters golf tournament. (Please omit the fact that this would actually be impossible, being that Augusta National is an exclusive members only course). Stay with me now...August National is reputed to be one of the most scenic courses in the world, a place people will see on television and just shake their heads as the camera sweeps over the manicured greens and lush spring flowers. You join the others and play a round here. It is difficult, you don´t have the right equipment, your putter and driver was bought at a discount shop for five bucks, and you are spraying the ball left and right. Still, you love it. You find yourself stopping every few mintues and just shaking your head at the simple beauty of the place. You know that all courses can´t possibly be so beautiful but you can´t sure, you don´t have anything to compare it to, right?

Sorry to make you read all that but I couldn´t help but using an analogy such as that to describe the experience I feel one my hiking partners must have gone through during my recent 4 night trek through the Fuegian Andes in extreme southern Argentina. At the campground in Ushuaia I met a 24 year old American, Paul, and we agreed to hike a 30 mile section of the Fuegian mountains to the northeast of Ushuaia. The next morning we ran into Vincent, a 27 year old Irish man who was also travelling alone and looking for a hiking partner. The three of us quickly decided to team up and off we went. On the way there we had to stop in town and buy supplies. For Paul and I it was mainly just food, but Vincent had very little of the necessary equipment as he had never done an overnight hike before. He bought a tent, he already had a very cheap sleeping bag, and we were able to share the rest of our equipment with him. The hike itself was stunning. The scenery was constantly changing, from boggy crimson red valleys where your feet sank to your ankles, to high mountain passes with jagged rocks and some lingering summer snow. I attempted to capture it all with my camera, but I am afraid it is one of those places that a camera will never be able to do fully capture. Every night we camped in a different idyllic spot, first along a snaking river in the valley, next in a high alpine meadow surrounded by an ampitheater of mountains. It is always difficult to compare hikes to others but this had to be right up there with the best I have ever done. We lucked out with the weather as well. All the nights except one were clear, offering a briliant display of constellations. We made camp fires every night and I slept like a log after each days long up and down stretches.

Most of the hike was done without the aid of a trail, and our route finding and map reading skills were tested. Having two others people to bounce possible routes off of made things a lot easier, as there would have been stretches where if I had been alone, I would have been a bit uncomfortable in not knowing if my chosen route was the correct one. Coming back to the golf analogy, I could not believe that Vincent was having this type of true and beautiful wilderness experience for his very first overnighter. If only he knew the countless dreary hikes and campsties the average hiker is required to slog though. Just like the average golfer is required to toil at their poorly maintained local municipal course, most hikers do the best with what they have, even if it is a short hike through a flat and featureless forest. If only we could all be so lucky to save the very best for the first time.

Peat walking

Today I hiked up to a glaciar that overlooks Ushuaia, called Glaciar Martial. It took about 2.5 hours to hike from my tent up to the snowy base of the glaciar. From the top, the views down to the town and the Beagle Channel were great. The large ships in the harbor looked like tiny specs from so far up. Being that it was a Sunday, lots of other tourists were out walking as well. The temps were in the upper 50s and there were patchy clouds. I was able to put my fancy new gore-tex trail runners to good use as some ¨peat-walking¨ was required along the route. Peat, at least of the Patagonian variety, is a strange sponge-like ground cover. You expect to sink down to your ankles when you ask it to support your full weight but amazingly you only sink a couple inches at most. Any water that did seep onto the top of the shoe was expertly deterred by my trusty new salomons. That´s it for now, the blog will be dormant for the next 4 days or so as I attempt my first overnight backpacking trip of my journey. I will be hiking with Paul, a 24 year old guy from Maryland who I met tonight at the campground.

On being alone in a *enter superlative adjective here* part of the world

I´m quickly realizing that it would be wise from now on to curtail my usage of superlative adjectives when describing my location. If I don´t begin limiting my use of words like ¨gorgeous¨ ¨amazing¨ and ¨spectacular,¨ by the time I am in the Chilean lakes district in April my attempts at describing the azure waters and orange foliage there will fall on deaf ears. You readers will be thinking: ¨Does he really expect me to believe that this place is just as amazing as that Ushuaia place he was descibing a few months ago?¨

This all being said, I believe that Ushuaia is truly a unique place. The combination of its special geographical location and awesome landforms make it a location I already know I am going to be sad to leave. The only thing that could make a place like this better is having someone to share it with. I think the hardest part about my trip being of the solo variety is not having someone to just talk to about where I am at that moment. When you have a travel partner you can actually say ¨hey, look over there, isn´t that beautiful!¨ This may not seem like much but being able to share these thoughts with someone while travelling in one of the most beautiful parts of the world is important. Perhaps this is why I am doing a much better job so far of keeping up this blog than I did while travelling with Lindsay in SEAsia last year. During that trip I had an outlet for my thoughts beside me at all times. Nowdays, this blog is about as good as it gets!

Ushuaia

Well I´ve finally realized the title of my blog, I am indeed alone in Patagonia. More specifically, I am in Ushuaia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushuaia , the much hyped ¨southern-most town in the world¨ though there are a few military outposts and tiny Chilean villages a little further south. It has been a bit of a strange experience arriving here. Partly because I have felt a little sick the last 24 hours and partly because I only got about 3 hours of restless sleep before my 4am wakeup this morning, I have slept for most of my first hours here. The scenery is gorgeous, snow-capped mountain peaks in every direction, the island dotted Beagle channel in the distance, and the distinct feeling that you are a long ways from the rest of the world. I headed straight to the campground where I will be spending at least the first few nights. You can check it out here: http://www.lapistadelandino.com.ar/INGLES/ENG_index.htm I have an outrageous view outside the front door of my tent, a sweeping vista of the Beagle channel and mountain beyond. I´ve taken a photo of my tent and I´m hoping when I get home I can get it placed on this page: http://www.tarptent.com/gallery.html I hope to take a boat tour on the Beagle channel in the next few days where you can see penguins and other wildlife. I may also try to stay at an ¨estancia¨ a local homestead that settlers founded when they moved into the area in the early 20th century.

Dog walkers, PDAs, half covered bellies, and other BA quirks

Before I leave BA, I wanted to post a compilation of quirks, oddities, and other unclassifiable things that I have been witness to during my nine days here:

-Perhaps it is just a summer fashion statement, but nearly every pregnant woman I have seen on the streets or bus wears the same type of tight fitting tank top that covers exactly the top half of their bulging belly. The bottom half is open to the elements, letting the little one get a head start on the sounds and smells of the city.

-The subway here is great, on one line most of this seating is almost couch-like, with velvet upholstery. Also, the windows are left open, something you would never see in the lawsuit crazy USA.

-Seemingly all the locks in the city are opened with really old style keys. They are the type that are a couple inches long and look like they were used 300 years ago.

-Because of the heavy Italian influence here, they take their ice cream seriously. There are helado artesanal shops on every other corner. You can choose from eight different kinds of chocolate alone!!

-The nightlife here gets going at a rediculous hour. Many clubs do not open until 2am, this would probably explain why the bus I took home earlier this week at 1am was so crowded I could barely find a rail to grab onto. Supposedly even the Brazilians (notorious partiers themselves) think that the Argentine nightlife is crazy.

-Public displays of affection are commonplace. Yesterday on a packed bus, I gawked literally 2 feet away as a standing couple, each with one hand grip on a rail, proceeded to slobber on each other for about 30 seconds. It is so accepted here not even one person (besides myself) appeared to be bemused by the show. Compared to someplace like Thailand where holding hands in public is about as risque as it gets, this is quite scandalous.

-Finally, there are the dog walkers. I think this is my favorite BA quirk. In some neighborhoods (mainly the more upscale ones) you will see dog walkers walking anywhere from 10-20 dogs together at the same time!!! Amazingly, most of the time these are rather large dogs. I wish I had a picture to show what this actually looks like.

The Green City

It may have taken me a week to fully realize it, but I have come to this conclusion: Buenos Aires is an astonishingly beautiful city. It pains me to admit it, but it is far more beautiful than Chiang Mai, a place I have grown to love. This beauty is not of the geographical type. There are no great landforms surrounding the city, none of the awe inspiring mountains of Vancouver or volcanos of Antigua, Guatemela. It is the different features within the city itself that truly make it special. There are endless green spaces, one can never walk for more than 10 minutes without finding a place to take comfort under a generous canopy. These parks often contain historical statues or works of sculpture. You can even walk on most of the grassy lawns unlike in China! The architecture is classic, very European in some respects but with a certain flavor of its own. The traffic is not bad at all and for a pedestrian, navagating the city is easy. I will not go on, but if you do ever get a chance, spend a week or two here, it is a special place.

Tigre

Before I left Buenos Aires, I wanted to attempt at least one day trip out of the city. The lonely planet suggested Colonial, a you guessed it, colonial town situated across the Rio de la Plata in Uruguay. I was close to going for it, mainly because it would be fun to get a new stamp in my passport, which is quickly running out of blank spaces for new stamps! Unfortunately it involved a six hour round trip ferry ride and it cost about $40 so instead I headed to Tigre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigre%2C_Buenos_Aires

I think I made the right move, this Delta (which I had never even heard of until this week) is huge and goes on in a maze of stems and rivers seemingly in every direction. It is the drainage point for the entire northern Argentine watershed, and the silt filled water has a distinct mocha color to it. I only took a boat ride about half hour into it but you can take trips for 3-4 hours if you really want to get into the backcountry. Rumor has it that in the past pirates would take their fresh loot and hide out in the Delta, making it impossible to be found. The boat dropped me off and I hiked for about an hour on narrow paths that paralled the different rivers and streams. Beautiful little cottage-like homes were spread along the shores and most everyone had some sort of pier or boat lanch jutting out from their property as boats were obviously the only means of transportation. The weather was delightfully cooler though still quite humid and I had a large Quilmes beer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilmes_%28beer%29 after finishing my walk. I ran into a traveller from Portland, Oregon and we chatted for a few hours at a small restaurant before I headed back to the dock for my return boat. Strangely, on the return boat I ran into Gunner, the Swede I enjoyed the vacio with on my first night in BA.

The yesssssssssss man

I wasn´t dying to watch the Superbowl last night, but I had nothing better to do so I headed out in search of a bar carrying the game. I headed towards an upscale barrio and sure enough there was a row of several bars and restaurants showing the game on huge projection screens. I picked one out, ordered a beer (it was actually a local microbrewery!) and settled in for the long four hours. Most of the people close to me were also American, though there was a local couple behind me. The first half of the first quarter passed without anything notable happening. The beer was pretty good and the game was entertaining, if not a bit sloppy! It was nearing the end of the 1st quarter when three guys, probably in their late 30s or early 40s showed up. Thankfully they were seated a good twenty feet behind me but still, when they opened their mouths I wished they had been a good 100 feet away. Of the three, only one was truly obnoxious. Obviously a huge colts fan, whenever they did anything remotely good (ie, a positive play of 3 or more yards) he bellowed out a loud and repeated ¨yesssssssssss¨ ¨yessssssss¨ ¨yessssssss¨. It´s hard to adequately describe how annoying a sound this was. And like I said, he did it on every even remotely positive Colts play. Countering the yesssssesss were the occasional ¨noooooossss¨ when Chicago had a big play. Then of course, he had to mix in the most played out football cliches between the yesssssses. Things like, ¨they just have to keep moving the chains,¨ ¨it´s all about field position,¨ ¨this is the colts year of destiny¨ blah blah blah!! It got so bad that by the second half some of the other Americans were overtly mocking this guy. Yelping out ¨yessssesss¨ of their own. One younger guy even started mocking him by singing the ¨America, fuck yeah!¨ song from the South Park movie. I had to admit, the yesssss man did seem like someone the South Park guys would have a good time paradying.

Look what I found

When traveling, I usually glance a few times during my trip at the nytimes travel page, thinking it would be cool, although very unlikely, if there was a story that week about the exact place I was visiting at the moment. Well you guessed it, look what I found on the Times travel page today: http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/travel/04culture.html?ref=travel The article itself is pretty lame, they are stuck on this one enighborhood, Palermo, when there seems to be so much more to the city! Palermo was quite nice, though I enjoyed the many parks of that barrio, not the fancy shops and clubs. Still, it was exciting in a funny way to find an article that won´t even be published until tomorrows (Sunday) times, that was so closely related to where I currently sit.

Walking around

Yesterday and today were spent almost completely on my own. Rolo, my host, has been quite busy. I found out yesterday that he works for Avis, the rental car company. Tonight I should finally get to go out with him as he claims there is some type of city-wide dinner tonight for all of the HC members. It sounds like it could be a good way to get to know some new people.

I´ve logged a ton of miles these past days mainly just walking around. A few subway, or ¨subte¨ rides have been mixed in, but largely I have been doing an excellent job of breaking in the new shoes I bought for this trip. I´ve seen a lot of different neighborhoods and a lot of different looking people. People watching and finding shady spots to rest and read another chapter of my book have largely dictated where I go next. Today for example I went to a nature reserve that sits on the Rio de la Plata. The lonely planet claims this park has 200 species of birds within its boundries but I was only take in a few and it was just to bloody hot in the midday sun. Interestingly, as I stepped in the reserve office looking for a map, the man who handed me one could tell I wasn´t from around these parts and asked me where I was from. I told him the US and further replied Michigan when he asked what part. His face lit up and he excitedly told me, in perfect english, how he had attended grade school in Birmingham!! Weird, huh?

On the subject of people noticing that I am a foreigner, I´m guessing that they can tell but they have been doing an excellent job of not starting and pointing like you get so often in places like Thailand and China. It´s quite nice not being so strange looking, and I think I might be able to fool a few people as my skin is quite similar in color to many of the locals. Unfortunately, any doubts they have are quickly erased when I open my mouth!

The gay opera singer..... or the old Seinfeld trick

I am currently staying with a member of hospitality club (HC). HC, a group that anyone worldwide can join for free at hospitalityclub.org , attempts to give travellers the opportunity to meet and possibly stay with locals while on the road. Conversely, you can host people at your home as well, though for some reason I get very few international travelers coming through Westland, MI. Before leaving home I contacted several of the over 1000 HC members from Buenos Aires and get several resonses. One of these responses led to me meeting Rolo, a 23 year old, who currently lives with his parents in the barrio of San Cristobal, a lower middle class neighborhood in southwest BA. He offered me a room and I accepted. The room itself is quite small, maybe 10 by 6, with a window that looks out to the central open air part of the dwelling. We chatted for a few minutes and he explained he is quite busy this week with rehersals. This is where the opera comes in, he walks around the house spurting out random bits of whatever opera he is currently working on. I find it quite amusing and actually kind of nice to listen to. His parents are on vacation for the week and thus, it was only his aunt and younger brother who were home with him. At lunch I joined the three of them for you guessed it, more large pieces of meet. Unforunately I faired much worse with this one than the previously mentioned vacio. This home-prepared cut was medium rare, far from my preferred well done and verging on burned style that I usually have the few times that I do eat red meat at home. Of course there was also lots of fat mixed in with the meat at seemingly random places. These two fources of fat and rareness combined into something I found nearly impossible to chew and ingest. It was just plain gross. I resorted to cutting tiny pieces off just so I could successfully chew and swallow. I hate to admit it, but I even found myself pulling the old Seinfeld trick, stashing a few pieces of partiularly nasty meat into my napkin when nobody was looking, giving the appearance that I was actually making some progress!!!! I always knew watching all those Seinfeld episodes would be good for something. The rest of the day I didn´t see Rolo that much. He had rehersals and other things to attend to. He told me he wouldn´t be able to do anything that evening either, because he already had plans with his boyfriend. Interestingly, Buenos Aires is one of the very few locales in Latin America that has legalized gay civil unions.

Large pieces of meat

Wow, it already feels like I have been here a while. I´ve been doing a ton of walking around the city so far, just trying to get a feel for things, etc. For this post, let me go back to my first night on the town. I shared my hostel room with two Brits, probably around age 30. They were spending two weeks in BA attending spanish classes before beginning a bike trip that they hope will stretch all the way to Lima, Peru! I was a bit worried for them as they didn´t appear to be the most athletic duo I´ve ever seen but they could have been amazing cyclists for all I know, they told me their longest trip prior to this had been 1 week. They are budjeting 5 months for this one. The three of us plus another bloke from the hostel, a swede named Gunner, all went out together for dinner in San Telmo. We ended up at a local parillada, or argentine steakhouse, an ubiquitous sight throughout the city. A man was attending a giant grill inside the glass window, stacking and shuffling meats of various colors and thickness. Not surprisingly, the menu consisted mainly of fourty different cuts of steaks, veal, a little chicken and who knows what other meat products. I went for the vacio, or flank steak, with a mixed salad. Interestingly, the steaks come as is, with no accompaniements. You are served a plate with meat on it. Anything else must be ordered seperately. The other guys all went with other pieces of steak as well, it just seemed not right to order something else in a place like that. I mean I could have went for the chicken but, cmon, I would have been the laughingstock of the table. Though the vacio was the cheapest cut of meat out of the four that were ordered, it was by far the largest. This size may have been misleading though, as over half of the cut contained a thick layer of fat. I started to work on it immediately and it was hard work! The cut was not particularly tender and my knife, though searated, was just barely up to the task. It tasted ok, not amazing, but I was happy to be enjoying such an authentic Argentine dinner during my first night in the country. I should mention that the average Argentine consumes over 100 pounds of beef per year. I made my through half of the vacio before finally giving up, deciding that trying to seperate the meet from the fat was too much work! Afterwards, we had beers on a plaza in the middle of San Telmo, enjoying the perfect evening temps and full moon. It was about 12:30 am by then, which wouldn´t be surprising if I had mentioned earlier that dinner time in Argentina is from roughly 9-11. Come any earlier and you will have the entire restaurant to yourself.