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Published: November 2nd 2008
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Sitting here in a hostel in Mendoza with Baz´s "Romeo and Juliet" blaring away in the background. Today is my chill-out day..even managed to get my hair cut today without saying a word in Espanol...amazing how far sign language can get ya. Also got my legs waxed...that´s another story..all I can say is...girls, I don´t recommend it in this country...stick with shaving.
Highlight of my trip to date has been the Iguazu Falls. Shared between Argentina and Brazil, the systems consists of (we were told) 365 falls along 3kms of the Iguazu River. The sound produced by these falls is thunderous...amazing. We viewed the falls from both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. I think you can get a bit more up close and personal with the falls from the Argentinian side and certainly they have things set up better to cater for the tourist. But my personal favourite was the helicopter ride we took over the falls from the Brazilian side
Spent the last few days up in the mountains outside Mendoza, Argentina, doing a few hikes. Trekked a bit through Aconcagua National Park and got to see the beast itself...in the distance of course...the climbing season won´t open
till late November. Still she makes an impressive sight. The scenary in this area (Los Penitentes -normally used for skiing in the winter) is absolutely amazing. Surrounded by mountains peaks of 3000m high and above...most of them snow capped. Put this against a very clear blue sky and you get the picture. We did a trek yesterday up one of the smaller "hills", Cruz de Cana which stands at 3700m high. We started climbing from 2500m...me being smug thought I´d have no problems with the climb...how wrong I was...after about an hour of hard climbing I was puffed and just wanted to sit down and go on strike...there were still 2 more hours of climbing to go! I eventually got to the top but boy, think it was one of the hardest hill-walks I have done in a while...I am just going to blame the altitude, not my general unfitness. But the view from the top was amazing...went a bit silly with the amount of photos I took up there. Hope I did it justice.
South Americans love sugar...they love their red meat too of course...but I think their first love is sugar...its in everything...I would love to know
the diabetes stats for this continent...well at least for the countries I have visited so far. A favourite is a caramel type sauce called dulche de leche...sickenly sick but it is used as a spread for bread or toast in the mornings. Also used as the basis of lots of sweets, cakes and desserts. A favourite snack here is a Alfahore...kinda like a Wagon Wheel but with dulche de leche in the middle.
And the main ingredient of Brazil´s national cocktail...besides the alcoholic cachaha juice (of course) is lots of sugar! This drink is yummy but very strong. Before I left Ireland a friend of mine warned me to go easy on the Caprinhia...she was right...this stuff is strong but once you get used to the first sip, its all downhill from there...think I overdosed on Caprinhia while I was in Brazil...but it had to be done.
Believe it or not, what they say about Argentinian beef is all true...that stuff is delicious. In the hostel I stayed in, in Buenos Aires, was an American guy who worked on a ranch in Montana..yep I know, kinda filling in a few stereotypes I know of...anyways he was down in
Argentina to visit a few ranches that his ranch in the US provided with embryos and such like...he told me of this restaurant in BA that served beef that resulted from the cattle bred from the embryos sent down from the States...following this so far? Anyways myself and a few of the girlies from the hostel visited this restaurant which turned out to be kinda exclusive and for which we had no reservations...after a few lies and begging they let us in and thank god they did. We ordered 2 steaks and between the 5 of us we still could not finish the bloody things, no matter how delicious they were. That´s another thing they like here...huge servings of everything! You won´t go hungry or lose weight in Brazil or Argentina.
I loved Buenos Aires....I loved the food and wine and shopping. Girls, if you are into your handbags, do yourself a favour and come to Buenos Aires sometime in your lifetime...very high quality funky leather bags which are not expensive at all. I didn´t buy anything since I already have too much crap to carry around but lots of the other girls (whose last stop was Buenos Aires)
shopped til they dropped. Well I did buy some clothes and jewellery...you know easy stuff to carry about :-)
I even did some tango lessons in BA. Learning the steps was great fun even though I don´t think the teacher was too impressed by my choice of footwear, ie flip-flops...I didn´t quite get to packing my tango heels before I left! But one of the main things to remember about tango is to let the guy lead....this was something we ladies from Ireland, Australia and England failed miserably at and this was driving the male teacher crazy. Eventually one of the girls explained that we have spent most of our lives trying to get guys to even get onto to the dance-floor in the first place...hence being led in a dance is a foreign concept to us! But we eventually got the hang of it and you know something, when you do, the steps become a whole lot easier. We watched the locals as they danced..it is such a sensual dance but is poignant is some ways. I think it came about from a fusion of Italian and Spanish dance and is meant to express their sadness at being
so far way from home.
Went to see a football match in BA...mad atmosphere...Boca Vs Rosario. Just an ordinary league match I think, but the atmosphere was electric...so much so we gringos were segregated from the main crowd for our own safety.
I had heard so much about how brilliant the night buses were over here in South America. I was disappointed with the first few but that all changed when I got the night bus from BA to Mendoza...it was deluxe...like being on what I imagine first class to be in a plane. As I got on the bus I was greeted by the bus stewerd who looked like he was just off the ladyboy boat from Bangkok. I swear by the end of the trip I didn´t know which one of us had more oestrogen flowing through our bodies. Anyways we were offered sherry, wine, tea, coffee, cold and hot food before the main film came on (Hairspray for this journey). The seats folded out flat to make a very comfortable bed. We even got brekkie in the morning! I could get used to this type of travelling.
Argentinians are obsessed with dentists...Hmmm that one
surprised me too. It seems that as people have become more properous, they have flocked in droves to dentists to get their teeth fixed ´cos their own parents were not able to afford it when they were younger...so now it is not unusual to say adults in 30s, 40s, 50s witha mouthful of braces!!Believe me I see signs for dentists everywhere. Even one of the heros involved in gaining Argentinian independent way back when, was a dentist!
Spent 3 days in Uruguay....visited the thermal springs in Salta, Uruguay for a relaxing day. Frequented the Irish bar in Montevideo and an very unusual Lord of the Rings themed bar....it was called the Prancing Pony and had all 3 films on a continuous loop..didn´t stay long enough to see all 3 but did stay long enough to feel "brave" or is that "tipsy" enough to try dancing with the locals...not a good move..think they are born knowing how to salsa or rumbo or whateve they call it!!
So that brings me up-to-date with my travels. Sure I have left loads out but these were the highlights. Heading to Quito soon where I start my Galapagoes trip next Wednesday..can´t wait for
that!
Hope ye are all well.
Siobhs
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great stuff
Enjoy the galapagos islands! and say hi to the sea lions