Hace calor. Hace sol.

I have returned from a two week trip to Argentina. Amazingly, this is the only true vacation I get between May 2010-Dec 2011. Yay medical school. Anyway, I returned from a trip to El Calafate and Buenos Aires. Unfortunately time did not allow me to see Torres Del Pine and circumstances prevented a side trip to Colonia, Uruguay, so those will have to be accomplished in a subsequent trip.

In El Calafate we hiked the Perito Moreno glacier; first an hour along the lateral moraine, then four hours on the accumulation zone (complete with crampons) before hiking back out along the lateral moraine again. It's impossible to capture the scale of the glacier with photographs. The weather was fantastic; I did the second half of the hike in just a long-sleeved t-shirt.

We also hopped onto some horses to see the surrounding countryside, which is practically an iridescent shade of green. It's complete with wild llamas and plenty of space for a good gallop or a cozy lunch of steak, onions, wine and havanas.

Back in Buenos Aires we did a little going out, a little cultural enrichment and a lot of reading and relaxing. And eating. There is a lot of great food (especially ice cream), but interestingly, no peanutbutter to be found. Anywhere. There might have been a little shopping in there too.

Going out in Argentina is a bit crazy because, in general, dinner is between 9-11pm. No one arrives at the bars or clubs until 2-2:30am and then people stay out until sunrise. Needless to say, that's not my usual schedule so it took a little adjusting too. As did coming back (to surgery and 5:15am pre-rounds). We went to a local, unmarked bar to shoot some pool, a swanky foreign bar, spent a night learning to tango and hit up a hip-hop club, complete with break dancing and dance crews.

Overall, I was surprised by how European the city is and how good the English is (although a friend who was also there said he had more trouble with the level of English). It's definitely a place I would enjoy returning too and there are plenty of stunning landmarks I missed: Mendoza (wine country), Iguazu Falls (natural wonder) and the previously mentioned Torres Del Pine. It also reinforced the fact that I absolutely must learn Spanish. It is an extremely useful second language in medicine and in travel.

Advanced civics

Since my last post about DC, I returned and managed to correctly identify the white house. I even took a photo of it (left).

I also hit up the botanical gardens, air & space museum, natural history museum, art museum, aquarium (ninja turtle, right), washington monument and climbed the rocks at Great Falls.

Not of historical note, I had the best tuna and salmon sashimi I've ever eaten (including in Japan) and went to a bar called "sign of the whale." Great name. I also spent a lovely evening eating chocolate chip cookies, drinking wine and watching Sideways. In that vein, I would like to note there are some perfectly good merlots.

Oh, and I saw the Dark Knight in IMAX. Phenomenal.

North, to Alaska!

Completing my North American tour (S: Mexico to N: Alaska, E: NY to W: California) was an active little jaunt through Alaska by boat. The best moment was climbing the Mendenhall glacier in Juneau, hands down, no questions. Yes, that's me to the left. We helicoptered up there (fantastic), trekked around and did a little climbing. We helicoptered back out just as the storms rolled in.

In Skagway we rode a gold rush era train up to the white pass summit and biked back down (cold!). In Icy Straight Point we drove ATVs up a mountain and ziplined back down (that's my brother and I in the photo) from an elevation of about 3000ft. In Ketchican we went salmon fishing, but somehow managed to catch two dogfish sharks. We let everything we caught go- for the karma.

Straddling the Mississippi

The end of June found me down in New Orleans for a few days. Preservation Hall was probably my favorite experience - it's an old wooden room (no air conditioning) in the French Quarter where some old timers play jazz requests. Fantastic.

The strangest moment was definitely when we went inside the cathedral. First, the fire alarm went off. Shortly afterwards, a middle aged man with a cane started yelling at a man in the front pew who appeared to be praying. The middle aged man shouted "you won't speak to me in that manner, not in my cathedral" and waved his cane around. The other man just sat there. A third man approached, to mediate the situation. All three headed outside (we followed). A cop car pulled up and the cops arrested the man who had been sitting in the front pew and drove off with him.

There was no physical altercation and I can't think of anything a person can say that is egregious enough to warrant an arrest. It was all remarkably odd.

Another funny moment was when we ran under a roof overhang to hide from the sudden afternoon shower. Nearby there were several goslings and some grown swans and ducks. I guess the goslings didn't like the rain either because they came towards us. The parent geese were not so keen on that idea however, and we ended up fleeing from a large group of geese who were pooing/running/quacking at us.

A civic education

I spent a few days in DC and found out just how much I don't know. First off, it turns out the building pictured to the left is, in fact, the capitol building, not the white house. Oops. Second, the Library of Congress is not a library you can just read in (like the New York public library). Bummer. Third, I can eat and really like pesto. Yum.

Fourth, Pearl Jam has lots of awesome music I haven't heard. Well, hadn't - until I went to their concert. Amazing, even from the nosebleed seats.

Also in DC: Marvins (crowded), Mini Cooper (surprisingly spacious), sushi (excellent), the Hulk (mediocre) and Guitar Hero II on Xbox (solid fun).

Another stamp in my passport

Having just spent the last 6 days in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, I have arrived back in the US with a new stamp in my passport, a blotchy sunburn and a strong desire to sleep. There were 11 of us on the trip and we snorkeled, sunbathed, kayaked, rappelled, zip-lined, swam in a cenote, played water volleyball, and visited the Mayan city of Tulum.

I got a rather impressive sunburn on day 2, which has thankfully stopped hurting and started to turn more brownish than red. Don't get me wrong, I still look white, but now I can prove this is tan for me. The only part that has started to peel is my earlobes (I really did burn all over).

There was, of course, also plenty of partying. We spent one night in the resort's disco, which was so awful it was funny. They played rock around the clock and greased lightening, not exactly the clubbing music we're accustomed to. We spent another night in Playa Del Carmen, the local town, which was a mix of fun international chains (senor frogs - yay for the swing chairs) and local places (beautiful open air bars). We collected enough plastic cups to have our own flip cup tournament, but never ended up actually playing.

All around it was a really good time on beautiful beaches with great company. It will be nicely bookended with the upcoming trip to Alaska (July 4-11).

Idiocy of air travel

I flew out to Pittsburgh this weekend to re-visit the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The flight to Pittsburgh was delayed two hours so my scheduled 7:10pm flight became a 9:10pm flight. There was another flight scheduled to leave at 9:00pm, also for Pittsburgh, which was running on time. After an announcement that the 9pm plane was not full, most of the people (including me) on the delayed 7:10pm flight rebooked onto the 9pm flight. At 9:10 they began boarding both flights simaltaneously. The delayed 7:10 flight was now practically empty, with fewer than 50 passangers booked, so I ran back to the counter and rebooked again, back onto the 7:10 flight.

I arrived in Pittsburgh at about 10:40 and headed straight to the tram that runs between the flight terminal and the baggage/ticket terminal. The tram broke down and we were stuck for about 20 minutes. Since we were in a tunnel our cell phones didn't work and no one was answering the emergency call button. Eventually the tram re-started and we made it to the baggage terminal.

I immediately headed outside to grab the bus into Oakland (a neighborhood in Pittsburgh) and watched one depart just as I got there. 30 minutes in the cold and another bus arrived (it's now a bit past 11:30pm). Who turns out to be on the bus? A former student of mine from when I was an economics TA who now hates his job in finance.

I did manage to get to my host MS1's apartment around 1am. I left my apartment at 5:10pm. That's almost eight hours and I didn't even leave the state.

Get in the boat, fishes, jump in the boat!

First, 10 points to whomever gets the reference that is the post title. Not that the points are good for anything, but you can say you have them. Second, before I even describe the picture to the left: yes, I am aware that whales, even gray ones, are not fish. They are, in fact, mammals. Of the Baylean variety to be specific.

As you may have guessed by now the photo is of gray whales migrating off of the coast of California. The island shown is Anna Cappa, one of the Channel islands. This is about 15 minutes from where my parents live (well, the dock on the mainland anyway, it's another 40 by boat) so while visiting them we took a little romp on the ocean. Only one person on the boat got seasick, which is amazing, because it was so calm. Who gets seasick in calm waters on a sunny day?

The other photo is of sea lions (you can tell they aren't seals because they have ears): one male and one female. If you guessed the fat one is the male, you're right. I could insert a snarky comment here about why men are fat but in seals the women are the fat ones so it's a bit of a wash.

Next planned adventure in California: summer 2008: golf.

A common sight recently...

No plane.