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Published: April 12th 2008
The frenetic pace continues as we travel down through South America, enjoying superb scenery, wonderful wildlife and fabulous food.
The birds were at Colonia Pellegrini, a tiny village at the centre of the Reserva Provincial Esteros Del Ibera, a wetland wilderness covering 13,000 sq km. The most notable wildlife species include the cayman, howler monkeys, capybaras and swamp-deer (all of which we saw), alongside anaconda and wolves (which sadly we missed). The park is most famous, however, for its abundant bird-life, with over 350 species present.
One of the best aspects of the village is that it´s so isolated. A public bus travels only six times a week from the nearest town of Mercedes, and takes 4 hours to cover an horrendous 120km stretch of dirt road. Whilst it took us two days to get there from our previous destination of San Ignacio Mini - including a restless night in Mercedes where the locals were drinking and dancing until the small hours (this was a Sunday) - the difficulty of getting there means that relatively few people visit.
We spent a fantastic two days touring the park, mainly on motor-boat, but also on foot, bike, horseback and in
a canoe. We spent much of our time with a lovely couple from Japan and a family from Buenos Aires, and aside from a night-time boat trip (when the number of insects was such that you were forced to keep your mouth closed as much as possible) the whole stay was fantastic.
It was also "interesting" seeing a capybara (carpincho in Spanish). On a work-trip to Venezuela a couple of years ago I was given something to eat one evening, which only subsequently was described to me as a big hairy rat. Our nature guide informed us that the capybara is sometimes eaten . . . it tasted a lot better than it looks! (as a complete aside, apparently there used to be capybaras that were eight times larger than today´s species, and would have been larger than a grizzly).
From Colonia Pellegrini we headed to Uruguay - eventually. Arriving back in Mercedes on a Wednesday evening, we were about to board our 9pm bus to the Argentine border town of Gualeguaychu when the grandmother from the Buenos Aires family we met in Pellegrini started to panic. Unbeknown to us, there have been ongoing disputes between the Argentines
Colonia Pellegrini
An amazing colour!and Uruguayans concerning a Finnish paper mill that the Uruguayan government allowed to be built in Fray Bentos (former home of the British meat producers). Argentina fears the factory will pollute the environment in a region heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism, while Uruguay argues the mill causes little harm to the environment, and will revive the local economy. The ensuing protests from the Argentines prompt the Uruguayans to close the border at short notice.
We didn´t fancy another night in Mercedes, and it was a little late to change our plans, so we boarded the bus, arriving in Gualeguaychu at 4am, only to catch another bus at 5am to Colon, back towards Mercedes (albeit only part of the way). After several hours in Colon´s bus station, and some confusion at the border (customs dragged some poor local off the bus to inspect what they thought were his bags, but which actually were ours), we eventually crossed into Uruguay and caught yet another bus (our fifth in less than 24 hours) towards the capital Montevideo.
We had a very pleasant eight nights in Uruguay, spending time in Montevideo, the quiet coastal resort of Punta del Diablo, and Colonia
Colonia Pellegrini
They are everywhere you look... del Sacramento, an attractive seaside town.
Uruguay lacks the world-class attractions of many South American countries, but the people are very friendly and it has a nice atmosphere. Indicative of the absence of attractions, the highlight of our time was eating at the Mercado del Puerto (Montevideo´s port market) on a Saturday lunchtime. The market is packed with locals enjoying meat cooked on huge BBQs. The beef and lamb were both superb, some of the nicest meat I´ve ever tasted, and we spent most of the afternoon eating our way down the menu and drinking a few glasses of house red.
We´d heard that the beef and red wine throughout Uruguay and Argentina would be superb, and that´s definitely the case. We´ve enjoyed some fantastic and very cheap meals, often paying a fiver for wonderful cuts of meat. The red wine is also excellent, with the cheapest house wine we´ve tried costing less than two pounds (it was very drinkable), although we drew the line when we saw six bottles of wine in a shop for ten Argentine pesos (about GBP1.60 for the lot!).
The only disappointment in Uruguay was having my footwear stolen in Punta del
Diablo. Del Diablo is a very quiet village, which attracts a mixture of surfers and naturalists, so we had no qualms about leaving our shoes outside our beach-side cabana. Having left my decent walking boots (still in good shape), some good if worn trainers, and some flip-flops on the verge of falling apart outside the previous evening, I was puzzled to find the next morning that the flipflops and one of my trainers had been taken. It was only after a few minutes of head-scratching that Sarah spotted a puppy running outside the cabana with some trousers (not ours!) that it had taken from the washing line.
Sarah and I spent a fruitless hour pursuing the puppy over the sand-dunes trying to retrieve my footwear (he thought we were playing), but without success. With our bus back to Montevideo already booked and departing shortly, we decided to abandon the shoes and head off!
Whilst Uruguay was calm and easy-going, Buenos Aires is manic, and was everything we hoped it would be - a beautiful city of European-style buildings, with great sights, restaurants, bars and nightlife. We had 3 nights there, and barely slept, even adopting the locals´ (Portenos)
habit of eating their evening meal at 10pm or later - which I in particular found very difficult.
We saw many of the sights (including the Casa Rosada from where Evita addressed the local masses, the beautiful city cathedral and the amazing gravestones of Recoleta cemetery) and a number of the cafes and bars.
We also went to see Boca Juniors (Maradona´s former club) play Independiente. The atmosphere was unbelievable, although the quality of football not as good as we see in the Premiership (except for those seasons when Watford are in the top-flight). Our guide also managed to lose us on our return to the mini-bus, which led to a few minutes of panic as we wandered round the working-class district of La Boca trying to find our group.
Perhaps the highlight of our time in BA, however, was a tango show.
We made a conscious decision not to see an extravagant show as we can see those in London - instead, we opted for something a little more down-to-earth, choosing a tango bar in a quiet corner of the San Telmo district, famous for its antique shops, cafes and bars.
Things started badly
Colonia Pellegrini
Capybara - they remind me of an enormous guinea pig! when we entered the tango bar to find three musicians and a sea of empty tables - our 9.30pm arrival was clearly too early by local standards, despite the fact it was a Sunday night. Things went from bad to worse when another musician (the accordian player) arrived, and shortly thereafter a singer. Even the arrival of an Italian tourist left us facing a 5v3 deficit. The singer´s attempts to build the atmosphere with some audience participation faltered when our Spanish was exhausted within five minutes.
Two dancers and two more singers further swelled the ranks of the entertainers, but slowly the crowd began to build, and after the initial embarassment of the first half hour, it turned into a fantastic evening. The singing, music and dancing was superb, a very notable exception being the two songs that Sarah and I had to dance to . . we´ve four left feet between us! We left five hours later to handshakes and slaps on the back from a number of the performers.
We spent our final day walking round the parks of Palermo, enjoying the fresh air (by BA standards) and admiring the professional dog walkers - the most
Colonia Pellegrini
Hundreds of caymen roam, hard to spot except when at the edge of the water we saw was 15 dogs being walked by one person. That evening, we caught a bus for the 23 hour journey to Bariloche in the Argentine Lake District, although with decent reclining seats, a number of English-language films and regular meals included (all for about GBP25) it was far less painful a journey than it might have been.
We had a fantastic four days in Bariloche, which is situated amidst some beautiful lake and mountain scenery. We spent our days walking in the surrounding countryside, and our evenings eating well back in town (and drinking the cheap house wine - see above). We spent two days walking with a lovely woman called Deb who we met at the bus stop, and were also joined on our second day by two dogs from a local restaurant who stayed with us throughout a seven hour walk. On our final day, we met a retired gentleman from Buenos Aires at the summit of a nearby hill (Llao Llao), and having spent some time chatting whilst enjoying the view, we spent the early part of our last evening eating empanadas (small pasties) and drinking wine together - a lovely end to a great
Colonia Pellegrini
Cayman - I wouldn´t mess with him! four days.
From Bariloche, we crossed into Chile to start the Patagonian leg of our travels. We hope to tell you about those shortly . . .
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