What happened next...?

Well, as you probably already know, we arrived back in London safe and sound and after a short break there, headed for our new hometown - Stockholm.

We've been back for around 8 weeks now and already the routine has set in. Johan has found and started a new job and I have already completed one month of Swedish lessons and have started a second.

Who knows what the future brings. Whatever happens, we do know that we were blessed with the opportunity to do what we did and that we managed to do it without any serious accident, incident or illness and we thank God for that.

Regrets?
So, in hindsight, what would we have done differently? Many people have asked us that and I'm sure that Johan will have a different list than me but here goes:

1. Take our time - we had a fixed date when we had to be in Jamaica by (Christmas) so it sometimes felt like we were rushing from one amazing site to another without giving ourselves enough time to just chill and absorb our surroundings. Maybe we should have gone around the world the other way? Who knows.

2. Learn Spanish - you can get by quite well everywhere in the world with just English except in Spanish speaking countries. I don't know why, but South America would have been enriched if either of us or both had been fluent in Spanish.

3. Appreciate the food in China - nowhere else in the world was good quality food available at such low prices and I confess that although we ate well, we often ordered the same thing that we recognised out of fear of trying something new. Who cares if you mistakenly eat dog or order the spiciest dish on the menu? It will be an experience to remember for the rest of your life. NB: Neither of us got ill from any food we ate however I would avoid swimming in any rivers if I were you!

4. Do a hike in New Zealand - this has got to be, by far, the most beautiful country in the world (though Sweden certainly is beautiful too), but there is no point in watching the scenery go by from comfort of your car. Get out there. There are many outstanding hikes in New Zealand and I would definitely go back just to do one of them.

5. Win the lottery - Although cheaper than you think, it isn't free to take off and go travelling like we did. If at all possible, try to organise winning a lottery before you go or at the very least, plan and budget like we did. We met too many people who had run out of money and had to call home for more, or cut their trip short just when it was getting interesting.

Best of?
Probably the most popular question that we've had since returning was - which place did you like the best? This is understandably a difficult question to answer because it presupposes that you can compare all places with equal criteria. Can you compare Chinese food with New Zealand lamb? Iguazu falls with Franz Josef glacier? The Amazon jungle with Kowloon harbour? We loved them all.

But, since you asked, I will let you know my thoughts of the best (and some of the worst) in the following categories:

1. Best place to stay
We stayed mostly in hostels with varying degrees of comfort however these two stand out from the crowd. I would have to say Muyuna Lodge in the Amazon jungle, Peru. A close second would be the Outside Inn in Yangshuo, China

2. Best food
A difficult one, much of China had really good food however there were some stonkers like the chili hot pot in Chongqing. The lodge in the Amazon had amazing jungle food, Japan had beautiful but expensive food and Argentina had lots and lots of meat. I think the best food was Christmas dinner back home in Jamaica, ahhh...

3. Best and worst transport
You have never travelled on an overnight bus until you have taken a suite-cama in Argentina. A start but true contrast to the buses we encountered in Bolivia which were among the worst ever. A low point of the trip was needing the loo at 2am on a bus in Bolivia and being told to use the side of the road when the bus stopped. In second place was the accident that we got into before even leaving the station at La Paz.

4. Most amazing landscape
If you've seen one beautiful rolling countryside you've seen them all but nothing on this earth that I've see so far compares to the vastness and beauty of the Salt Plains of Uyuni, Bolivia. It's worth the discomfort of the buses just to be there yourself. Worth a mention are :

• the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina
• Kings Canyon in Australia
• Lake Matheson in New Zealand
• Iguazu falls in Argentina/Brazil
  

5. Most fun/memorable activity
My favourite activity was when we took the one day climb of Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand. We got the coolest (pun!) photos and walking on ice was not at all easy at first but you quickly got the hang of it. Afterwards we soaked in the natural hot springs nearby and warmed up. Nice.

So that's it, let me know if you have any other questions and maybe I'll write a post on them. But for now, jag måste prata mycket mer svenska!

Leaving Buenos Aires

After Iguazu we had a few days to spend Back in Buenos Aires before heading back to real life once again.

We arrived back on Saturday morning and a few later some friendly faces walked through the door of our hostel. David and Emelie were also stopping by in Buenos Aires before heading to Costa Rica. So we'd have a few days to spend together enjoying the wonders of this fantastic city. After a nice dinner on saturday night at Don Julio (thanks to Kalle for the suggestion) we started preparing for a few days filled with markets, walking and of course a lot of football.

On sunday after watching some tango shows and browsing the Defensa arts and crafts market with all its street performers and Tango me and David headed out to the River Plate staduim to catch the early evening game. It was a little worrying at first, hearing very regular and very distinct gunshots near the staduim. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on, if it was the arrival of the away fans or just a bad neighbourhood. The answer came as we climbed the stairs in the staduim. Next to it is a very large shooting range, with seems to be aimed both at military practice and sports. The firing we were hearing were people doing clay pidgeon shooting, thus the large shotgun firing. Slightly reassured nothing bad was going to happen (stray rounds were a distinct possibility albeit low risk) we settled down safely on the inside of our concrete bunker and watched the game. The staduim was a lot bigger than the chocolate box, which made it a bit more difficult for the fans to create a samba party, but they had a fair whack at it. And this time the home team won to our and the rest of the fans delight.

On monday we took on the role as tour-guides for David and Emelie and went for a walkabout around town in what turned out to be a lovely sunny day. Unfortunately the main target for the day, what looked to be like a nice park and botanical area, was shut as it is every monday. So we diverted to the backup plan, wandering through the city centre looking at the architecture and heading for the fantastic italian ice-cream shop we discovered (through the lonely planet) a few days earlier. So after an epic 6 hours of walking we got back to our hostel and had a small dinner (the icecream was big enough to warrant skipping it, but we felt we should...) and got ready for our tango class.

Tango is one of the main activities on offer in Buenos Aires, and no hostel worth mentioning fail to offer a Tango evening, certainly not this one. We signed up for it (free of course) and cleared out the kitchen, kicked off our shoes and went to work. During the next 1.5 hours the lovely teacher took us through the basic of Tango, some of the history and some of the different styles on offer. Obviously only a brief introduction, but still a great way to spend an early evening, even if we didnt reach the hights of the Tango on display earlier. For the more energetic an ensuing night at a Tango club would have been on offer, but with the mileage in our legs from earlier we had no energy to dance the night away.


During the evening we also met up with the resident football crazed tourist. This one turned out to be australian and on a mission to watch a game a day for as long as he could. Tomorrows target was a grand one - copa libertadores (The South American version of Champions League) and the current Argentinian champions. We decided to tag along.

So Tuesday, our last day in Buenos Aires was spent in the affluent area of Banfield first hunting for tickets, then grabbing lunch and lounging in coffe shops waiting for the match to start. We managed to make our way to the satduim through the away fand staging area, to the horror of the police on duty, and were quickly ushered toward the home fans area. This time as well, we were treated to some very interesting fans, onw who claimed to be completely clinical insane, but too insane to be put away, and the locals just doing the samba thing while waving umbrellas.

However at the end as the hime team were losing there was a bit of commotion in the stands so we decided to make a quick exit and headed back to the train station to get safely to our hostel. We watched in no little amazement when the home fans piled into the train station, using the quickest access route there, the train tracks as the train was approaching. No doubt they must have done this before and put a lot of trust in the train drivers ability to apply the breaks quickly enough. Fortunately no one seemed to get hurt in any way, judging by the fact that the train came and left without too much interruption.


And it was back to the hostel to do some packing and gettign ready to leave the next morning...

Getting wet in Iguazu

One of the things we did know about before setting out on the trip was the falls of Iguazu. Several of our friends both back home and ones we've met on the road have been there and it has not failed to impress any of them. It's also a UNESCO listed sight so We decided to go and see what all the fuss was about. If you just want the pictures, this is a good place to start, there are a lot of them...

We got off our overnight bus just after noon and made our way over to our hostel on the way realising that Puerto Iguazu existed for one reason only - as a convenient place for tourists to stay on their visit to the falls. We had roughly 2 days here, one full day and two halfs. We had been advised that we should reserve a full day for the Argentine side, so we decided to test our luck and head straight to the Brazilain side of the falls and spend the afternoon there.

Hang on, we weren't planning to visit Brazil on our trip, I can hear you say... too true, however, as the opportunity presented itself (5 pesos each for the trip across the border to the falls), we found it too tempting to resist.

The border crossing into Brazil was one of the easiest that we have encountered. In fact, as we discovered later, the Brazilian authorities have a very casual view of tourists crossing their border on public transport for a few hours to go to the falls. If you don't get out of the bus to get your passport stamped, then they don't mind. However, we heard that if you "forget" to get it stamped and then try to leave from another route, they get a little cross. We didn't know all this and got our passports stamped as we entered.

It's hard to describe the falls to anyone who hasn't been there, and photos and videos will never do it justice. It's impossible to replicate the tremendous sound of millions of tons of water falling hundreds of metres into the river below and producing huge clouds of spray on impact. And the wind that gets whipped up by this carries the spray huge distances so when you are on the lower end of the falls it feels like it is raining, even if the sky is cloudless. All in all it makes you feel like you are a tiny speck compared to the power of it.

The piece de resistance on the Brazilian side is a walkway into the Devils claw, thats what the most southerly part of the fall is called. It is a U-shaped part where you have water crashing down a mere 50 meter or so away on one side and the wind carries the spray to make it one of the largest powe-showers in the world. Fortunately I had brought my waterproof bag for my camera, others had not and were frantically trying to shield theirs with their soaked t-shirts. But the view and the experience was fantastic.

We then made our way to the top of the viewing platform and got the view that everyone had been talking about. From the Brazilian side you have the best viewpoint to see almost all of the falls, whereas the Argentinia side takes you closer, which after the enounter below felt almost impossible, but we were eager to find out.

The following day we got on the bus to go to the Argentinian part of the national park, and were immediately met by a massive crowd at the gates. Apparently this side of the border is much more popular and crowded. We had to wait for a while in the blistering heat before gettting in and on to the little train that took us to the top of the Devils claw, where we had our shower the day before. The view from the top was not too bad either, and the roar of the water crashing into the river below was just as powerful at the top.

We then went to the part of the falls wher you get up close and personal with the water. Passing on the way a lighthouse, and I can not think of a more odd place to have one, sure you need some warning if you are on a boat heading for the falls, but only if you are deaf and sailing at night. Which is probably a bad idea if you are close to one of the largest waterfalls in the world.

We headed down to the walkways that go along the base of the falls and were treated to some fantastic views where the waterfalls seemed to go on endlessly and you got so close you could almost touch it (which would be a very very bad idea!!). We ended up at the pier where the little speedboats go from that actualy takes you into the falls and handed over our tickets in exchange for a lifejacket and a sack to put our stuff that we needed to keep dry. A sure sign as any that we would be getting really really close, another sign was the heavy duty rain gear the crew were wearing on this extremely hot and sunny day. We packed away our stuff, used the waterproof case we got for Vaniah's camera and got ready for yet another power-shower experience, Iquazu style. It did not disappoint, we cruised around for a little while so everyone could get lots of photos then the crew started doing up their rain gear, and the passengers started putting away their cameras. And then we went close to the falls, I think we got as close as about 40-50 meters. It was hard to tell just how close we were with the wind whipping water in your eyes with such power and with all the mist. But it was definately a humbling experience.


We then went to dry off a bit and to catch our final view of the day, the walkway just above where the boat ride was. With the evening sun behind us we were treated to a series of rainbows shooting up literally from where we were standing (but no pots of gold), and some of the views were absolutely stunning.

In the end we spent the better part of the day here, and we could have spent longer if all the areas had been open. If the waterlevels had been a little lower you can actually visit an island in the middle of it all, but maybe we'll just save that one for when we come back.

Bomba de Tiempo

One of the things we were instructed not to miss in Buenos Aires was Bomba de Tiempo. Before we got here we did not even know what this was, not surprising as all the information we found on this online was in Spanish and its not in the guidebooks either. Instead it was some locals and other travellers that led us to it. Felix did mention when we were at the Boca Juniors game that rumor had it that the same guys that do the drumming in the stadium also have a show somewhere in town. That would explain why the music at the staduim is so good, but after having been to the shgow, I am pretty sure that might not be 100% accurate. The drummers at the stadium were realy good and they might just be a part of the Bomba de Tiempo crew, but the show was so much more.

At first when we got there there was a small group of people seated infront of the main stage drumming away. They were also accompanied by a backrow of cowbells, rattlers and grater-and-combs. I'm sure those are not their technical names, but hey its not my field, they were making noise and they were not drums.

Anyway, this assembly was serving as the warmup band and it did what it was supposed to, people were getting into the samba rythm and there was dancing going on all around the place, though most (us included) were seated enjoying their 1-litre servings of beer in the later afternoon heat. It was quite interesting to see the interaction between the band and the conductor. It seemed like the conductor would set the rythm in the beginning then the ensuing 10-15 minutes were based on spur of the moment decisions. He would increase the pace by jumping, alter the volume of some by raising or lowering his hands and have the different sides alternate by ponting at them. All preceded by a series of hand signals , nods and shakes of heads that seemed like mix between an auction and a negotiation. "I want you guys on the right to play 3 quick beats then you on the right play 5, ok? And you guys at the back go silent, sound " And they continued playing like that until they further instructions. And it was really really good.

Then the main act turned up, and it turns out it was more of the same, only a better. You could tell these guys had done this a few times, there was a lot more of handsignalling going on, and the combinations and interaction by the differnt parts of the ensemble were that little more intricate. By this time the entire crowd were on their feet dancing away, they even managed to get all of the white non-dreadlocked section of the crowd dancing (the dreadlocked part was probably dancing way before any music started so thats not really an achievement, is it??). They even introduced two guest acts - an opera singer and a guy playing a rock influenced electric guitar, and it was all really quite impressive. Everything down to their identical uniforms.

It was quite an experience, the entire place was a big samba party, people were dancing everywhere, others were holding their own personal beat-boxing concerts after the main act finished and it seemed like music would keep pouring out of the speakers until very very late. Or early, judging by the Argentinian schedule. We however decided to leave that to the youngsters and head back to our hostel for a quiet beer and call it a good night out.

La Bombonera

As we were noticing during the winter olympics, if you are in Argentina the priorities of the sports channels are

1. Football.
2. English Football.
3. Italian and Spanish football.
4. Football anywhere else in the world.
5. Talkshows about football.
6. Reruns of football games.
7. Documentaries about football players and teams of the past
8. .
9. .
   
10. Other sports.
    

So when visiting Buenos Aires, the home of all of the top flight teams in Argentina except a handful, of course we had to pay a visit to arguably the most iconic football venues of them all, the Chocolate Box, the home of Boca Juniors.

Vaniah was quite happy to get out of the ordeal, as Felix, a friend of ours that we first met in El Calafate, then in Ushuaia and now here, was going as well.

After getting our tickets and spending the afternoon browsing the local sports outfitters in San Telmo for some Boca shirts, but found little of interest until we jumped out of our taxi by the staduim. Our hostel is only 10 - 1 minutes walk from the stadium, but we were strongly advised not to walk there, 'take the bus', the lady in the tourist information said. 'Its not a nice or safe walk through La Boca, and don't bring anything you dont need or things you dont want stolen'... So a taxi it was.

We picked up a pair of anniversary shirts, designed after the Swedish flag to mark the clubs heritage and eventually found our way in, around and up to our seats. The game itself was alright, Boca started well, then lost the plot completely and lost 1-2 thanks to some horrid defending and a good Racing midfield that kept Boca at bay. The real show was on the stands though.



Even though we were early there was already a samba party happening. And it continued throughout the match, and for a good while afterwards. The samba beats kept on coming, the fans were jumping constantly for over two hours. Our section of the staduim were literally bouncing all of the time. Or as the fans say "The Bombonera does not tremble. It beats". Truly an amazing show, and it did not feel hostile like it can do in other parts of the world (though we did not understand the words, of course).

Beagle Canal cruise

Ushuaia is a long way away from everywhere - we saw this sign and were reminded of our journey - we entered Argentina through the border town of La Quiaca, it feels like a long, long time ago!

The following day we woke up to another day of glorious sunshine so decided to make good use of it. So we headed out on a boat trip on the Beagle Canal which is the body of water separating the various islands of Tierra del Fuego. October to March is a good time to visit these parts because there are large populations of sea lions and birds which populate the islands in the canal during this time and a boat trip is the best way to see them all.

Before we reached the first stop, we saw a disturbance in the water where what looked like hundreds of birds were converging. Our driver slowely inched towards it and we noticed that there were several huge shoals of fish in the water which were attracting the birds.

And what a collection of birds! I can't quite remember all of the names but there were definately cormorants (various types such as common, rock and king), an albatros or few and we even saw several penguins. The guide on our boat said that it was very unusual to see penguins because they don't normally come this way so we were very lucky to see the ones that we did. I also made up a little for the fact that we didn't get a chance to see them from Harberton Estancia.

We continued on.

First stop, the sea lion island and if I hadn't seen this place for myself, I may not have believed how many sea lions there were in the wild just sitting there. They didn't seem to mind our boats coming up to them (we were not allowed on to the island or even too close to them) and dutifully ignored us. The talk that we had been given at the museum the day before about the distinguising features of a sea lion vs a seal made it all the more interesting to see them. The males were clearly the bigger sex and the dominant males could be seen surrounded by the females and some of the younger sea lions.

The next island on the tour was the infamous lighthouse at Ushuaia which had apparantly been photographed for the cover of a version of Jules Vernes book titled "The lighthouse at the end of the world". Our guide was careful to explain that there was indeed another lighthouse near States Island which is the real lighthouse at the end of the world and the picture on the book was really a mistake. Whatever... we have been to see the lighthouse at Ushuaia and we have the picture to prove it!

The next stop was at an island that was completely covered with cormorants and several other species of birds. Hundreds of them. Possibly even thousands.

Our final stop was one of the islands where we were allowed to disembark and do a short hike. Our guide pointed out the local vegetation and we even managed to taste some of the edible berries (one was a little yucky and the other didn't taste of anything).

We managed to get a jumping shot in at the top of the viewing hill :)

Our guide then also told us a bit about the Yaghan, the native people of the area who used to live on the island. Now there are no signs of any habitation but in those days, the yaghan used to live naked on the shores and hunt sea lions and gather mussels for food. Charles Darwin, on his historic trip to the region, called them the most primative people on earth. Needless ot say, the one remaining pure blood yaghan is now in her 80's and lives (in clothes) on the Chilean side of the boarder.

In all, another good day.

PS. a picture of the penguins!!

The Bone House

At some point in your travels you cease to see all of the amazing, culturally significant, stuningly beautiful scenary/temple/sight and just want to spend a few days veg-ing on the sofa or spending some time having a completely different experience. Now at 6 months into our travels, we find ourselves in Ushuaia, the southermost city in the world which as the aptly named nickname of the "End of the World" or "Fin del Mundo" and we have run out of things to do. Sure we could go to the national park and go for walks, but the walks we went on in Bariloche are reported to be much better... there is a glacier, but once you've seen the magnificent glacier Perito Marino, nothing will ever come close... and there are penguins but we've seen them at Milford Sounds so what do we do?

We briefly entertained the idea of picking up a last minute cruise to Antartica but have I mentioned that we are at the end of our trip so neither of us could justify the £6000 that it would cost... even though it would be amazing and allow us to check off another continent.

Thankfully, our friends that we had met in Salta/Mendoza/El Calafate had arrived in Ushuaia the day before us so we headed over to their hostel and discussed our plight. We decided that since there were 5 of us, then it would be a good idea to rent a car and drive over to the Estancia Haberton and see if we could get a cheaper trip to the penguin island than we have seen advertised. Worst case scenario, we would head to the nearby lakes and do a hike or two. So after staying up far too late playing cards (Johan won again), we agreed to meet up at 9:30 the next morning and try to find a car.

The next morning we piled into our little VW Golf and headed the 85 km down Route 3 to the estancia. Even though they drive on the right, Argentina is a very easy country to drive in with only 4.67 cars per sq km making it #70 in the world (UK has 101 cars per sq km, Sweden 45), and when you drive in Ushuaia, you may not even encounter that many cars in your journey.

On the way we made a brief stop at the infamous flag tree of Ushuaia. A lot of wind for a long time does that to a tree, and the conditions are perfect here for trees to live very very long, even after they die. There are literally thousands of deat trees lining the hills, a remnant from a big forest fire almost 100 years ago. But temperatures here range between -10 and +18, not warm enough for bacteria that breaks down wood, so even the dead trees hang around for a long time.

An estancia is the Argentine word for a ranch and here they span hundreds of thousands of sq kms and are used to rear sheep in Ushuaia and more commonly, cows in the rest of the country. The land owned by Estancia Harberton was a bit too hilly for sheep rearing to be profitable so now they concentrate on an income from tourism. Having said that, when we arrived at the sleepy ranch, we could find very little sign of any tourists at all except for a little wooden sign pointing the way to "Information" which led to a cute little cafe. The guy inside kindly let us sit at the tables to eat the sandwiches that we had brought and while I went on the tour, apparantly Johan and the rest of the gang managed to eat their way through the entire menu of cakes on offer!

After learning that Estancia Harberton has the oldest continually occupied home in Tierra del Fuego and that the current occupiers are descendents of Thomas Bridges who was one of the first European settlers to the region, we headed for the little museum that we had passed on the hill before the estancia.

The museum, called Acatushun, is the name that the native occupants of Tierra del Fuego called themselves and it turns out that it is actually not a museum really, but a working labortory for the study of marine mammals and birds of southernmost South America. We were met at the door by a post-graduate student from Peru who talked us through the many skeletons of birds and mammals displayed there. Apparantly, there is fierce competition for places at the museum/research centre and when not giving tours at the museum, they spend their time cleaning skeletons of birds and sea mammals that die along the nearby beaches. We got shown some of the skeletons in the many closets and the final stop was the Bone House.

stop reading now if you get grossed out

The Bone House is the first stop for the sea lion, penguin, whale etc carcasses that they get at the centre and this is where all of the hair, skin and meat is removed, leaving only the skeletons. Because the heads are so much more complicated to clean, they are removed and stored until there is time and manpower to clean them. Our guide showed us a huge crate fulled with decaying sculls of various birds which were waiting their turn.

safe to read again

It turned out to be one of the most interesting days on the trip, we even learned the difference between a sea lion and a seal - no, they are not the same creature, a sea lion has visible ears, toenails and "knees" while a seal is more streamlined and has finger (or fin) nails.

Our journey back through the bumpy unsealed road and back to R3 was uneventful however when we were still a little way from Ushuaia, the little electrical glitch that we had noticed in the car took an unexpected twist. The little car decided to stop and despite our best efforts, refused to start again. Now, you will remember the sparseness of cars in Argentina and the desolate nature of our location however Johan had spotted a lone turn-off a few hundred metres away from where we were stranded. He and Felix headed off to call the car rental company who eventually sent a mechanic to rescue us.

The result? Still an interesting day with a little adventure thrown in for good measure. Highly recommend going to the Estancia but only if you also visit the museum.

Some ice with that?

Glacier Perito Moreno
If you can recall from previous posts, we are no strangers to glaciers, having visited both the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers in New Zealand and even had the opportunity to walk on the glacier - still a highlight of our trip. But seeing the pictures of the Perito Moreno glacier in real life could be described as an amaizing experience. Or as one of our friends who we met up with in El Calafate said "it gives you a smile inside" which doesn't go away for some time!

We arrived in El Calafate the easy way, by plane, and after hearing the stories of the 33h bus ride that it takes to get here from Bariloche, we were glad that we "cheated" a bit on this part of our journey. On our the first day we puttered around doing admin tasks like sorting out our onward bus tickets to Ushuaia - otherwise known as the end of the word - which is surprisingly difficult to get to. I'm pretty excited about going there, but more on that later when we actually reach. We also booked the 10am bus out to the glacier.

When we got there, our bus stopped at the boat terminal and said that anyone who wanted to take the boat should get off now. Surprisingly we were the only takers! We got off, bought our tickets and headed to the pier to catch the boat which would take us closer to the glaciers. As we were about to join the queue, we bumped into a Swedish couple that we had met a few weeks earlier in Salta when we went horseback riding. We joined them and another friend of theirs and boarded the boat.

The boat took us close to the glacier and even hauled out some ice so we could touch (and taste) it. We were taking some pictures at the back of the boat when someone gasped, Johan shouted "video" and I caught this on my camera.



Amazing, isn't it? Feeling very lucky to have caught this on film, we felt that the boatride was definately worth it. We climbed back on to land, had a picnic overlooking the glacier then followed the trails around the glacier to get a look from different angles.

With a smile inside, we caught our boat at 4pm and headed back to El Calafate to have a parilladila (Argentinan barbeque) with our friends. In all an amaizing day.

San Martin de los Andes

Or San Martin for short, is a beautiful sleepy little town just on the edge of the Andes, and is an ideal place for hiking and enjoying nature. Now, we've doen quite a bit of that the last few days and will probably do more of it in El Calafate, so we've just relaxed a bit here.

But that doesn't mean its not eventful. When we were casually walking around in town, we suddenly stumbled on a London bus. We were trying to get away from that busy bustling city, and this place could probably not feel farther from London, so seeing that bus was highly unexpected.

Then as we kept walking down the street, we stumbled on an Irish pub called Dublin. Ok, I admit, anywhere thats worth visiting eventually ends up having an Irish pub, its just one of those facts of life. But it still felt a bit out of place.

Our third surprise for the day was when we say a sign for a chocolate store called "Smaken by Johan" , yes Swedes get everywhere but still unexpected. It was even more unexpected to find out Johan was Dutch and still spelt his name with only one 'n'.

So San Martin is a nice relaxing place that keeps you on your toes we concluded and went back to our hostel, where the token guitar strummer had found some girls to jam with. Or so we thought. Turns out the two guys in our hostel decided to go travelling with their guitars on their break from univerity. They had been playing by the street the day before, when the two girls passed. They liked what they heard so they invited them to share their gig at the Irish pub (where else?), and they were now busy trying to reherse enough songs to make it through the night, and they were good. So in the evening (Argentinan time) we headed over to the pub and had some beer and enjoyed the show, which was really really good. Not just considering they had only been rehersing for two days and that one of the guys only had played guitar for three months. It was really, really good, and they played for well over two hours as well, quite impressive....

We'll definately go see them when they play the stadiums in Europe in a few years time. :)

Hikes & beers in Bariloche

From misty mountains to clear blue skies, it seems like the weather here is as unpredictable as it was in London. Still, we were not complaining when we woke up to sunny skies and t-shirt weather :)

So we donned our hiking boots and hopped on the local bus to the nearby Nahuel Huapi National Park and headed to one of their publicised walks by the lake. The scenary around here is very beautiful, with clear blue lakes, snow capped mountains and forests full of clean fresh air.

We finished the 3k hike quickly and found the tourist information centre at the end. Unfortunately, as will many things Argentinian, it was siesta time so the centre was closed however we bumped into an older British couple who told us about another walk which started not too far from the start of the walk we had just completed, which gave stunning views of the lakes in the park. Feeling energised from the sandwiches we had brought for lunch, we headed back to find this eutopia. 6.5k later we climed on to the big rock at the top of the mountain (hill... who's counting) and looked out at a most magnificent view (see left).

This is why we came to the "Lake District".

We headed back to our log cabin hostel to meet up with the lovely (Canadian/American) couple who were also staying there. We had planned to check out one of the local Cerveceras (beer breweries) with them for our final night in Bariloche. After dinner of home-made pizza, we headed out. The brewery was called Blest and the guys went for the taster and the girls each ordered one of their yummy deserts. We can heartily recommend both.

Tomorrow holds a bus ride to San Martin de los Andes for us and Buenos Aires for our new friends. We were sad to leave, but looking forward to the smaller, less touristy paradise by the lake.

Bariloche

Next stop - Bariloche, which has gotten raving reviews for its scenery and chocolate. It seems a place that can not be missed.

We got off our 16 hour 2 bus trip from Mendoza a bit tired, a long trip during which we were treated to two (thats right not one but two!) games of bingo where we managed to win absolutely none of the bottles of wine offered as prizes. We did make a decent dent in the wine offered with dinner though, and the champagne. Did we mention that we like the Argentinian buses despite their poor selection of movies??

The first day we spent finding our hostel, getting settled, doing the shopping and trying to get a few glimpses of the Olympics. After a long bus ride we figured we needed to charge the batteries in order to get ready for some hiking among the many lakes and peaks around here. The hostel we're staying at is about 15 km outside of the town, which means we have a lot of the trails just around the corner.

For our first hiking day, we decided to tackle the little knoll of Cerra Campanario. There is a skilift that could have taken us to the top but we decided to hike up. And the view at the top was spectacular, even though it was raining and there were loads of low clouds around. At the top there was also a coffee shop with massively overpriced coffee, but in the cold rain it was very welcome and appreciated.




After an extended break at the peak, we ventured down and hopped on a bus that would take us to a paleontological museum, well, we waited for 40 minutes for it to show up first. Thats arguably Bariloches 3rd claim to fame, there are a lot of well preserved dinosaur bones found in the region and some of them are huge. I'm sure paleontologists will claim its bariloches first claim to fame, but after visiting the site, we were not so sure. We got to what we were told was a museum but it turns out it was a theme park - but not just any themepark. This was "the most important themepark in South America". It consisted of a 250-300 meter long trail with scale models of dinosaurs and dinosaur eggs. And when they ran out of dinoraurs they filled the rest with gnomes and witches on broomsticks. No matter if you call it a museum or "The most important themepark in South America", the verdict is still disappointing. So on the 3rd claim to fame, this jury is still out.

Our second day in Bariloche we decided to not challange the rain and went into town instead, where we visited some of the many chocolate stores. And there are many. There are all kinds of varieties, combinations and constructions available. A lot of these shops also double in selling local fruit and beer from micto breweries. At the end of the day when we got back we had gotten some dark chocolate (really good) a lot of pralines (excellent ) and two bottles of beer. The chili beer will have to wait a little while but the chocolate beer has been consumed (a little on the sweet side bit that was kind of expected).

There will be a few days more of hiking to come, and the weather is supposed to take a turn for the better. We're looking forward to getting some nice photos to share...

From white water to red wine

Mendoza is a place most people visit for two reasons, adventure sports and wine. With some White water rafting and a cycle tour through the vineyards we put a tick in both of those boxes.

On Valentines day we jumped into a van early in the morning (well 9.30..) which would take us about an hour or so up into the Andes where there are grade 3 - 6 white water rapids. We can safely mention this now since we got out unharmed and it is unlikely our insurance agents will ever read this. At the basecamp we were kitted out with our wetsuits, life jackets, water resistant sweaters, helmets and anythign else you needed to look absolutely ridiculous but feel a bit more comfortable on/in the river which fed from melted glaciers in the mountains very high up in the Andes. The water up there is cold, very cold we noticed soon after our safety briefing. A briefing that surmounted to three pieces of simple advice

• dont fall out
• if you do, try to get back in the raft quickly
• if the safety kayaks try to save you, try not to flip them over, they will get wet and upset.

Which all sounds very sensible.

So after some exercises to make sure we'll not do something stupid we set out on the river,which seemed a bit calm for white water rafting. And in adition, the water looked very much more chocolatey than white. The water was a bit low and slow, but even so we did hit a few rapids that were quite interesting where we got completely soaked and nearly fell out. We kept in the raft all the way though, and we had loads of fun.





Since this was Valentines day we went out for dinner, traditional Argentinian parrillada, with some nice local wine. Dinner was followed by a nice 'death by chocolate' dessert accompanied by a chocolate Marguarita. All in all a nice way to spend Valentines day.







Next morning, almost as early, we were again picked up by a van - this time to be deposited in wine country, where we picked up our bikes and headed out among the vines. The Maipu Wineries maily focus on red wine and the most popular is Malbec, which is one of our favourite varieties so we had high hopes for this day. Though not as scenic as the Barossa valley or Marlborough, the wines certainly made up for it and some of the vineyards had stunnig views of the Andes and endless fields of grapes and olives. If you get a change to lay your hands on some Tempus Alba or Vina Maria, take it, they had some varieties that were fantastic. And true to our habits, we are now carrying some of Mendozas fines grape produce in our bags.

Cordoba

Cordoba has been great, largely because we managed to do lots of "normal" stuff that we haven't done for a while, but also because we stayed with a friend in Cordoba so experienced a bit of what life is like in Argentina.

Mate
Argentinans are pretty easy to spot when they are on holiday, they pretty much always walk with their thermos, containers of dried leaves and their carved wooden cups with silver straws - everything you need for mate. We had observed this phenomenon throughout Peru and Bolivia and realised that we probably needed a native Argentinian to properly instruct us in this ritual. Which is why when we agreed to stay with Celeste, we thought, here's our chance to have a real Argentine experience.

I liked mate, not with lots of sugar, but without sugar it tastes a bit like Japanease tea. Apparantly there are lots of little meanings and rituals surrounding it but the basic premise was that you drink mate with friends, sharing the same cup and straw. Lovely.

Empanadas
Another great Argentine staple is the empanada. These little half moon shaped snacks come filled with either carne (beef), pollo (chicken) or queso (cheese). These have been a life-saver for us while we were trying to adjust to the Argentine eating schedule. When we have gone out at 7pm in search of dinner and all the restaurants open at 8:30pm, the empanadas that are sold in the local pub which is showing the football has been invaluable. And they are yummy too. The ones that we made here were Celeste's special Arabian empanadas and are made without potatos but with lots of lemon juice and onions... yumm...

University museum
Apparantly Cordoba has one of the earliest universities in the Americas, started up by the Jesuits back in the day and made independent after the Jesuits were kicked out in the 14'00s sometime. They also have beautiful buildings and an impressive collection of very old books. The tour was pretty interesting, there was a tumultous past here, full of intrigue and espionage...

Winos of Cafayate

After we'd gotten off out high horses we took a morning bus to Cafayate, one of Argentina's wine regions and one that is not too well known.. At least we hadn't heard of it beforehand, but that might be because we do not really drink that much white wine and this region specialises in it. The vineyards here doesn't seem to export much either, which might also be a reason to why we hadn't heard about it. The ride to Cafayate from Salta via Quebrada de Cafayate was spectacular in itself, and apparently the route we didn't take there is equally stunning. The village is quite sleepy has a lot of character, nice sights and a nice central square where most of the artisanistas hang out seeking shade during the day. But as you might have guessed we were mainly there for the wine.

Eager to find out more about them we set out to visit as many as possible in the two days we had. Of course the first being a Sunday (and a very hot one, only llamas, cactuses and vines seemed to like the conditions) there were only two open. And after we'd taken our siesta the first one (Bodega Nanni) would not let us sample their wines, since we had missed the last tour of the day. We tried to tell them we could do withou the tour and offered to pay the A$5 for the samples, but to no success. Instead we went across the street to El Transito, where they did let us sample the fruits of their labor, and as a reward we promptly bought a bottle.

We'd also caught word of the local ice cream makers, famed for their wine-sorbets, and thought that after a long hard hot day, this was just the cure for us. So armed with a bucket containing white and red sorbet and of course some chocolate as well (everyone knows red wine and chocolate go well together) we went to the shaded park and indulged for a while. It was awesome, particularly the red, wonder how difficult it would be to make that at home??

The next day we returned , bright and early, to Nanni for a second attempt, but were refused again because at 9:30, we were too early. Sampling wine seems tricky in this country. Instead we wandered further on in the blistering heat and targeted a different cluster of bodegas. The first one, Vasija Secreta let us in to sample and visit their museum, though their wines were a bit average and nothing to write home about. So with our spirits raised a little we headed further on, only to be told that at the next one we'd have to wait about an hour to catch the next tour and then on to the samples. That seems to be the way they operate here. You need to take the guided tour of the vineyard where they tell you (in Spanish) how wonderful their wine is and how special their production method is. Only after that, when you are full of awe for the wine you can be allowed to sample it with the correct level of reverence. Now we are no wine making experts, but we have seen the insides of a fair few wineries on our trip, and since we can't really take in all the guides are saying (the accent in Argentina is particularly strong) we really just want to sample the wines, thankyouverymuch. A fact that seems lost or ignored by most guardians of wineries here.

So with a little resigntion we returned to the centre of town and the shaded park for a few hours waiting for the bus out of Cafayate, with only two wineries under our belts. A little failure. Though we did make up for it a little by returning a third time to Bodega Nanni, and were rewarded with a private tour in English. And it turned out these were the best wines we'd tried and they were a fully organic vineyard who seemed to have slightly unusual production methods, involving egg-whites...

It was now nearing the time where we had to call it a day, so with few bottles under our arms we left, got our bags and got ready for the 15 hour bus ride to Cordoba. There we'll meet up with Celeste again, our friend from Peru and Bolivia, and apparently its even warmer there. But we hear they have cinemas with air-conditioning and movies in English there...