Petzl Roctrip 2012 Argentina

Most of them did not believe in me, even there were times I did not believe in me as well. Anyway, this is not so important.. What more important than everything is what the voice inside me who shapes my life for a long time says; “I believe in you, go for it, do not give in”. These voices lead me to the Petzl Roctrip 2012 Argentina organized by Petzl.

In order not to suffer from the same troubles I had last year I had while going to Roc Trip in China, this time I arrived to Istanbul a few days before to work. What phobia of missing plane makes people? After working with Macera Akademisi who gave me big support, I left the office of Macera Akademisi at Nov, 5 2012 for Argentina. How come man can leave office and go for Argentina?

Answer is yes for me but not for Swiss Air... Why not? Let s rewind the story a bit;

We were going to participate to Petzl Roc Trip organized in Argentina; flight tickets bought by Toros - Petzl Turkey Distributor. Destination was like Istanbul/ Zurich – Sao Paulo / Brazil with Swiss Air.. After getting some taste about Brazil, we were planning to continue to Sao Paulo / Brazil - Buenos Aires / Argentina and Esquel / Argentina with Argentines Aerolineas Airlines. Except Zurich, few days were going to be spent in every city and we d like to take easy to get some taste about South America and Latin; but there are questions in my mind like;

- Do you think there will be a problem with Swiss flight? Swiss might need a visa...

- I asked already, no visa needed for transit flight

- Why not flying to Brazil directly? No connecting flight, no issue…

- 100 € price difference.

- If I compensate the difference?

- Why you do not like Swiss Air?

- Well…

Since the ticket we bought by Toros as a support, I could hardly speak. The important thing for me was just to go not having a long or a short journey. I arrived so early on Nov, 5th 2012 and started to wait for Zorbey Aktuyun. While waiting continues, doing check-in desire inside me picked up and panic began. Airport itself was so crowded then a normal day. Once Zorbey called from the entrance of the airport, the lady doing the check-in was complaining to me with a harsh look since we were the only ones who did not do check-in yet in the plane, so I gave my passport and ticket to her. Here is the dialogue between me and her

-Your visa?

- I have connecting flight to Brazil

-You need a visa for Switzerland. Your visa?

- I am a transit passenger, going to Brazil. I am not going to Switzerland

- If you don’t have a visa, you cannot board the plane

-I have residence permit for European countries!

- Ok, let s do your processes.

So I left my luggage and completed my check-in. What about Zorbey?

At this moment, Zorbey came and the same questions;

-Your visa?

- I am a transit passenger, going to Brazil

-You need a visa for Switzerland. Your visa?

- I am a transit passenger, going to Brasil. I am not going to Switzerland

- If you don’t have a visa, you cannot board the plane

- No visa

We got the point that it is impossible for Zorbey to get the plane. I always hated to say “I told this” but for a long time I’ve been telling this. Zorbey could not board the plane; I took my luggage back and did not board the plane as well. Due to staying in airport alone due to the problems I had before flying to Roctrip in China, the experiences I had till I get a new flight ticket and my point of view to life, leaving someone here in airport was not a type of decision I can take. If we take the road together, we will continue together. I cannot leave somebody alone behind. Believing in that Toros will not let us down, we tried to do change for the tickets; but the conclusion is that promotional tickets cannot be changed, new tickets need to be bought and whoever wants to go to Roctrip should buy tickets for their selves.

At the end of the say, the cost of the decision I took was to buy a new ticket “around 1000 €” and I did not have this money. I have dreams in my heart and cannot fly, nobody believes in them and find like bull shit. Petzl Roctrip 2012 Argentina was a dream and disappeared... You know me, I never gave up fighting, sometimes the fight lengthens but the body does not collapse.

I spent the all day at airport by investigating and speaking with phone, and the other day by sitting at home desperately to look for a solution and also in the mean time I tried to explain all day with never ending phone calls why I could not get the plane.. Why I couldn’t board the plane? Well, if you were next to me and I d left you behind, how would you feel? It’s hard to take the cost of leaving someone for me; however it’s nonsense for others.  I’m living the load inside me for years. Real hard to understand.

Finally, I made a reservation to the flight Istanbul – Dubai – Buenos Aires which does not require a visa and continued to work in Macera Akademisi. I need money to buy the ticket. 3 days before the flight, I could buy my ticket with the support of Caner Odabasoglu owner of Macera Akademisi after having busy working days in Istanbul. I am nothing without him. After the days with full frustration, stress, de motivation and questions in my mind, I left the office again... Second try... Most of the time better than first attempt, sometimes worse…

We arrived to Dubai after having 4.5 hours of flight and boarded to Buenos Aires plane after 6 hours of waiting at airport. Just about to slump due to the long flight of 19 hours and the effect of my dearest friend Jack Daniel’s, we landed to Buenos Aires at 23.30 with Argentina s time zone. Getting information about transfer and accommodation at airport, time passed and we decided to stay till morning there instead of getting out. With a less sleep in the morning, we learned Plaza de Mayo is one of the most touristic plazas and has lots of opportunity for accommodation and headed to the target. As the Turkish guys with good at mathematics, did some market research and found the best one for our budget, on the main street and close to the center and went out for sightseeing. First aim was to find transportation from Buenos Aires to Esquel... We asked every solution, horse, car, bus, plane, everything... One way bus ticket was 1000 pesos, the cheapest one is 800 pesos.

What the!?!

I got crazy when I heard the trip is so expensive. I have only 3000 pesos, if we d give more than half of it, what will we do then? It s better if I go out and smoke... As I told before, man should start smoking after 30 s...

Amigo, do you have a cigarette?

Could not find a cigarette but I dived into to Argentinas Aerolineas head office. Without giving a break, I started to talk so quickly and crying.

-We had a flight last week, now we arrived, can you make the change for a new flight please?

-Not possible!

-How come not possible? I am a national athlete (I say so every time when I’m in trouble). We are here for climbing from Turkey, I am Turkish.

-Not possible!

-What the?

When I’m stranded, I talk like a machine and convince them to make what I want by dizzying them. Since I have the power of persuasion, stories ends with a way that makes me happy.

People on the streets, hand sellers, musicians and more... And the tango dancers.... Life is on the streets, high rhythm and fire of Latino... The performance in Latin dance shows took my mind. How come a body could move so fast? This performance finished all the jetlag effect. Is there anything better thing in the world rather than watching someone who is doing the job in a very good quality? 

This night never ends... Shakira, Shakira…

We took a rest in Palermo which is a bit more high society by having a decent dinner with a meat and took the way to night life... Aim was to learn some Latin figures and discipline the body... If we could enter the night club, we would take the fire but what the people were waiting outside the club? The security guard;

-There is VIP party inside, your names on the list?

-Yes, I had my reservation.

-Your names not on the list, do not wait here!

-How come not exist? I do come this place every night! Are you new with this job?

As you might guess, I started to talk like a machine and finally we entered the place without any money, plus all the alcohols were free of charge and dance till late evening... Once the lights were on we realized that the club we wanted to get in was not this one, we were at wrong place. Immediately we tent to the next door and hit the target... Disco disco partizani... From this place to the cross streets and to the other night clubs... Briefly, (otherwise there will be no space for climbing) we turned back to hotel early in the morning… Singing a song… la la la…

Only kebap could gather together the body that battered till the morning... There is some here around, I am sure, I can even smell... Come to the smell... Look how the guy did the setup in a minibus... “Give me a big portion of steak, and a hamburger afterwards, then again a steak”...  Meat is like a marshmallow (saying in Turkey)... Man wants to get more and more... We covered all the protein reserves; get out for a strike to release some of our energy. Now we are where Ernesto Che Guevara lived, there is demonstrations everyday for a reason. Revolution... We dived into the protests and shouted some slogans very quickly. Revolution... Run, police is coming, what the hell is it a bomb or something? Go into cross streets, we ll be finished if we d been caught... Speedy Gonzalez…

We spent 3 full days with a high tempo and without any break by doing every item listed in what to do in Buenos Aires (look tip list for details). We boarded the plane to Esquel together with Zorbey Aktuyun, Gerome Pouvreau, Florence Pinet, Martina Cufar and Aymeric Clouet. I really cannot believe how we did this flight without any problem. How the ladies did manage this? We head to center of Esquel for shopping than to Piedra Parada with 4 private cars dedicated to us by organization.

-Isn’t the Argentina wine famous?

-Is there a Patagonia wine?

-May I have a glass of it?      

Do you think we ended with one glass only? We were in a peace and nearly half of the team was here, chat continued.... No complains, chat and wine was good. Catching up with friends after long time, chat around campfire and with the climbing plans of the day after, we fell asleep with our dreams under millions of stars.

We woke up excitedly and head to climbing in canyon.

We again had meat in the dinner and this is what I want. What we had besides meat; wine, millions of stars, chat, new friendships, music, climbing dreams, best climbers in the world and more. It was hard to fall asleep.

In third climbing day, we continued where we left with the same rhythm. It was hard to stop the bodies recovered with meat. There were the best climbers in the world everywhere around on your right, left, on the rock. Everybody completed super on-sights and their projects. 8a+ and 8c routes flew around. Everybody happy and we had lots of reasons to have rest for the next day. Some used rest day for hiking, some for sunbathing, having shower and washing clothes. We had a nice rest day and enjoyed being here. The coffees we had all day made the talks even better and when the day turned to night we fell asleep to keep the energy for tomorrow. Well, festival is starting tomorrow.

Once the festival started, our roles and responsibilities increased. We splitted into teams and climbed the routes for photo and video shots. First day, I entered to the route called La cumbia de la buitrera having a level of 8a located in La Calevera sector together with Sam Bie. In the middle of the route, fell down due a solution mistake of me but for Sam top of the route was more important, so we tried this part of the route several times.

-Hmm, ok can you please do this part again? But look to up to the right this time.

Ok, we can do that but the body moldered because of cold winds, do not ask about the skin, a big part of it I left at clear cut rocks. However, we were in a filming, no cry but move...

-Well, how is it now?

-Hmm, let s do this one again, please.

Since we were new faces as Turkish guys, we tried to our best as we can without complaining. Thank God, there was meat in dinner. First I put a big piece to my stomach, than a bigger part I suppressed to my skin smashed into bits because of doing the same move again and again, and the cold meat I put to my tired off biceps and I tried to recover my body. At night, as the tenth Roctrip celebration, a presentation was done covering all photographs and videos of the previous festivals and we came to the stage as the all team to greet the all climbers. Once coming to the stage, dancing was a no miss and as you might guess the night did not end so short…

Towards to noon time, we get together as the team in full view of hundreds of people for a climbing show in Piedra Parada sector. Today s aim was to work with the photographers and have a nice climbing day with everybody who d likes to climb with us. I get in a route of 7c+ called Piedras Fritas to warm up but I took a break just in the middle near I was dropping my helmet during a nice move to the express. Last thing I would like to have is to drop my helmet in front of all these people. I cannot say I got used to climb with helmet. Since I solved to route very well, all team made me to explain it and everybody entered to the route to warm up. I was a belay bunny for a wild but found a time for myself to second go. After all team went over the route we head to another target.

-Yes Mumin, next route?

You are the best climbers in the world, what about you go first and open new frontiers to us... Why I am climbing first?

Climb on, tight the rope…   

That night, Said Belhaj and Laurent Lafouche made music and did the performance everybody had been waiting for days and they made us dance till morning... Starting the day by watching the sunrise in Patagonia became an unforgettable memory. Since every good thing has an ending, this festival also ended and we enjoyed being here with lots of memories of full 4 days and nights that will stay with us for a long time. 

Roctrip videosu;

Petzl RocTrip Argentina 2012 [EN] The official movie from Petzl-sport on Vimeo.

Petzl RocTrip Argentina 2012 - Epic moments from Petzl-sport on Vimeo.

Petzl Roc Trip 2012. Piedra Parada, Argentina from Noel Martinez de Aguirre on Vimeo.

Argentina tip list;

The country is a bit expensive but not so much. For example, 1.5 liter water 10 pesos in the market. Dinner in the restaurant is between 30 to 100 pesos.

100 pesos makes 15€

There are two different airports in Buenos Aires. Be careful which one you are flying.

In order not to suffer, fly with a company which makes easy ticket exchange. Turkish Airlines initiated direct flights to Buenos Aires. We appreciated Emirates so much, which is one of the best in service onboard and flight ticket exchange.

Currency is Argentina pesos, American dollars is easier to exchange. Rate of exchange is low at airport. Rate of 4.8 pesos for 1$ in big city turns to be 6 another place or even 7-8 with the sellers at streets. Be careful for the sellers at streets, you can get cheated. Rate is high for 100$; whereas much less for less money.

Yerba Matte is a famous tea in Argentina. Put to your must to buy list.

Argentina other side of equator vs Turkey lives beginning of summer whereas it is the beginning winter here in Turkey.

They eat their dinner usually after 23.00 pm. Meals are mostly meat; do not come back unless you taste steak and asado sauce.

Nigh life begins mostly after 2.30 am in the Latin night clubs.

In this country, tip is a must. You need to give tip in the restaurants, or during the bus trips once you are giving or taking your luggage.

Fuel is more expensive in big cities rather than small ones. For example, 7 pesos in Buenos Aires whereas 5 pesos in a small city like Esquel.

It’s real comfortable to travel by bus but extremely expensive, e.g. 1000 pesos for one way trip of 1500 km.

Ruta 40 is a very famous way to Patagonia.