Posted on 02.24.10 in Year in South America | No Comments »
Tags: itinerary
By Matt
Hey everybody,
Stef and I just wanted to let you know that we left for our Antarctica cruise yesterday, so we’re not going to have email or web access for a couple of weeks. There are still a few blog posts that will be going up, but we won’t be able to see, read, or respond to comments or email until the week of March 15th at the earliest. Enjoy what we’ve got coming in the meantime!
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Posted on 03.09.10 in What about Gear | No Comments »
Tags: buying, camera, digital, gf1, interchangeable lenses, panasonic, recommendations, travel photography
By Matt
I wrote about buying a travel camera back in September when I had to replace mine after a nasty salt-water incident in the Galapagos. When we returned, I happened upon some descriptions of a new kind of camera: electronic viewfinder interchangeable lenses (EVIL for short). These cameras basically have the best of both worlds (meaning SLRs and point-and-shoots). They:
- Are pocket-sized, like a point-and-shoot (they fit in a jacket pocket)
- Use professional-grade interchangeable lenses, like an SLR
- Perform almost as well as a DSLR on the key aspects:
- Focus speed
- Low-light performance
- Full-manual control
- Offer sophisticated RAW file formats
So what does this all mean? This is the “Decisive Moment Digital” (as Luminous Landscape likes to say) or, a “camera for the rest of us”. Some people will still need and use DSLRs, but they will be people who already have a lot invested in canon or nikon glass, or pros who switch between the larger formats and their full-frame 35mm digitals.
Can you tell yet that I’m excited about this? I sold all my other camera gear and bought a Panasonic GF1 in December. I have two lenses with me (a 20mm F1.7 prime, and a 45-200mm F4.0-5.6 telephoto zoom). So, what has changed? Let’s review the old criteria:
- Big pixels. Better! These cameras (using the Micro Four-Thirds mount specification) have a sensor that’s 8-10 times larger than any of my previous cameras.
- Wide-angle lens. Worse. My new camera has a normal lens – it’s effective angle-of-view is 40mm (anything between 30 and 70 or so is considered normal).
- Fits in a pocket. A little worse. This camera is still small, just not as small as my prior cameras.
So why’d I do it?
There are a couple of reasons:
- Flexibility. Interchangeable lenses allow me to take advantage of different featuresets with only one camera. My GF1 fits in my pocket with its tiny 20mm pancake prime lens, but I can switch lenses and get amazing long-range bird and wildlife photos (yay! Antarctica!) with my 90-400mm effective telephoto.
- RAW+JPEG mode. Makes it easy to get uploadable photos while traveling, and large printable ones for when we return.
- Great movies. This camera shoots great 720p HD video.
- Lots of scene modes along with 4 programmable custom modes.
- Full manual mode for extended-exposure night shots.
- Auto-bracketing – this is great for making HDR photos – pictures that have way more colors than any camera (or even our eyes) can process at one time.
This makes the fourth (and hopefully final) camera for our trip. Watch for photos of Argentina (and beyond!) coming out of it!
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Posted on 03.08.10 in Year in South America | No Comments »
Tags: itinerary
By Matt
This week we’re finishing our cruise (and completely cut off from all communication). We’ll be on the Antarctic Peninsula this week.
Here is how our plan is shaping up for the next couple of months:
- Monday, March 15th – Sunday, March 21st: Argentina: El Calafate, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and El Chalten; Chile: Puerto Natales and Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
- Monday, March 22nd – Sunday, March 28th: Argentina: El Calafate and Bariloche
- April: Argentina: Mendoza, Cordoba Iguazu, Salta, Jujuy Bolivia: La Paz, and Peru: Cuzco, Puno, and Lima
- May: Peru: Lima, Colombia: Bogota, Cartagena, United States: Boston
This week, you’ll read about some of our thoughts on travel and our time in Puerto Madryn.
Hope you enjoy!
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Posted on 03.05.10 in Uruguay | No Comments »
Tags: bad surprises, hostel, mate, monument, parilla
By Matt
We made a quick detour into Uruguay – literally we spent three days in its capital city, Montevideo – to see what it was like. We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia, and then a bus to Montevideo.
Once we arrived, we took the public bus into the city and walked to our hostel (which was not great – unclean and generally pretty noisy. Thankfully it was the only really tough part of days in Uruguay). This experience helped highlight a couple of things we experienced in Uruguay (click on any of the photos to see more):
- People are super-nice here. As in, the older man whom we asked for directions actually got off the bus with us, found our street, told us which direction to go, and made sure we were all set before he got back on a bus to continue on his way.
- Everyone drinks mate. And they have this special way of carrying the mate stuff (cup, thermos, metal straw/spoon, and ground mate):
- They have a really cool monument to one of their great generals, Jose Artigas. It’s underground in the central plaza, so during the intense summer heat (temps here were in the high 80s every day), it’s a great place to cool off for a few minutes.
- They do parilla al legno (barbeque on a wood fire) here; in Buenos Aires it’s all parilla al carbon (barbeque on charcoal). I like al legno better.
Oh, check out the photos above to find the following:
- An ice-skating pengiun
- Some amazing ocean-side sunsets
- The Teatro Solis, one of the most accoustically-perfect theaters in the world
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Posted on 03.04.10 in Antarctica | No Comments »
Tags: advertising, boca juniors, burger king, christmas trees, food, futbol, la boca, malls, parilla, river plate, tango
By Matt
Buenos Aires. There are a lot of ways people have described this place, like:
- The Paris of South America
- Capital of a country full of faded glory
- The birthplace of Tango
- Home to a great culinary history
We were lucky enough to visit B.A. twice – once in November at the end of the first part of our trip (before we went back to the States for a couple of months), and when we returned to South America in early February.
The first time around, we didn’t get much of a sense of the city. We arrived on a Saturday morning after having traveled about 3300 miles in two days (2300 miles from Easter Island to Santiago, and 1000 miles from Santiago to Buenos Aires) – the equivalent of flying from San Francisco to Chicago, then taking a bus to Boston. Since our plane left on Monday night, we spent two days getting reservations made for our return to the city, and then walked around on Monday. We did see one or two kind of funny things along the way, though (click the photo to see the photos of the fully-decked out Christmas tree – in a mall in early November):
Yes, it says “You are going to feel like you robbed us!”
When we came back, we were a little more rested than we had been, we were excited to travel, and we had more time in Buenos Aires. So, the second time around we were able to (Click each photo to see the rest of the photos from that area):
- Tour La Boca, the famed neighborhood of colors (and poverty)
- Walk through El Caminito – the only touristy part of La Boca
- See the stadium and fan club of the legendary Argentinian futbol team, Boca Juniors
- See an incredible Tango show, which had 12 dancers and a live band with 14 amazing performers
- Visit La Recoleta Cemetary, the famed mausoleum that houses the ancestors of many of the city’s most important families, including Evita – Eva Peron
- Experience a real pro-league Futbol game – we saw River Plate play Rosario Central at River Plate
We had a great time the second time around in Buenos Aires, and we even found had some good food karma while we were there!
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Posted on 03.02.10 in What about Gear | No Comments »
Tags: miscellaneous, packing, packing list
By Matt
So, we brought a lot of other stuff besides packs, clothing, medicine, and electronic gear. This post details all of the other stuff. Here’s what ELSE is in our packs:
We each have:
- Sleeping bag in compression sack
- Travel towel
- Silk sleep sheet
- Money belt
- Journal
- Wedding ring
- Digital watch
- Spanish language notebook
For the both of us, we carry (some in Stef’s bag, and some in Matt’s):
- Finance notebook
- Continent guidebook (South America on a Shoestring)
- Antarctica guidebook
- Argentina guidebook
- Spanish-English dictionary
Matt brought:
- Sunglasses (with sunglasses case)
Stef brought:
- 1 biteplate
- 1 pair earrings
- 2 pairs prescription glasses
- 1 sunglasses add-on for glasses
- Sarong
- Eye mask
- 1 set of sleep socks
- 1 bag personal supplies
We each have 3 drybags, and Matt carries two more (one for the spare medicines, and one for the camera).
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Posted on 03.01.10 in Year in South America | No Comments »
Tags: itinerary
By Matt
This week we’re in the middle of our cruise (and completely cut off from all communication). We’ll be on South Georgia (British territory) and the South Shetlands Islands (Antactic territory) this week.
Here is how our plan is shaping up for the next couple of months:
- Monday, March 8th – Sunday, March 14th: Antarctica: South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula, Argentina: Ushuaia and El Calafate
- Monday, March 15th – Sunday, March 21st: Argentina: El Calafate, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and El Chalten; Chile: Puerto Natales and Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
- Monday, March 22nd – Sunday, March 28th: Argentina: El Calafate and Bariloche
- April: Argentina: Mendoza, Cordoba Iguazu, Salta, Jujuy Bolivia: La Paz, and Peru: Cuzco, Puno, and Lima
- May: Peru: Lima, Colombia: Bogota, Cartagena, United States: Boston
This week, you’ll read about our time in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Hope you enjoy!
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Posted on 02.26.10 in Vacations | 1 Comment »
Tags: anniversary, eagle's mere, poconos, snow, vacation
By Matt
We were married at the beginning of January, and like to celebrate every year by taking a few days off to ourselves. Last year we went to Portland Maine – and it was COLD.
This year, we headed up to the Pocono mountains, since we were in Northern Pennsylvania anyway. We stayed at a great B&B called The Eagles Mere Inn, and really enjoyed it. We walked around town (see the photo album below), drove around a bit, and even went to the movies (we saw avatar – in 3D – and it was better than either of us thought it would be!)
Our meals were incredible – the inn includes both breakfast and a five-course dinner – and everything was amazing – some of the best food that either of us have had.
Check out the rest of the Eagles Mere photos by clicking on the one below!
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