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Published: February 28th 2011
With dwindling funds we had already decided that we would cut out our initial ideas of travelling more widely in Chile to places such as the Atacama Desert and instead concentrate on travelling thoroughly in Argentina. We stayed about four days in Santiago in total. Our hostel was not the best but also not the worst but by far the strangest thing about it was that they had a large kitchen but it was not for guests to use and so we had no hot water or even cold water for that matter to make drinks with. Anyway, we set out to explore Santiago with no guidebook or any grasp of the language. It wasn’t a city geared up for non Spanish speaking tourist and the tourist information was pitiful. We decided to take the hop on hop off bus to help orientate ourselves and this was one of the few touristy things on offer. The centre gave us the impression of being a small city but the tour showed us the true size of Santiago. It was huge. We visited the trendy cultural centre of Bella vista where we accessed San Cristobel hill via the funicular to see views over
the smoggy city. We visited art galleries and did the usual city sightseeing. It was a nice relaxed city but had nothing much to keep tourists there after a few days. We mastered the metro and went to the bus station to buy our ticket to Mendoza Argentina.
Chilean and Argentine buses are famous for being very good and I can say now after many hours on them that this is true. The buses offer many varied seat types and each seat is very spacious giving you at least double the space of that on an aeroplane. The seats all reclined and had foot rests. On one bus we even had fully reclining seats that turned into full length beds and we were served 3 meals and red wine with dinner and then offered champagne. Most people in Argentina travel by bus to cover the vast miles between towns and cities. Our bus to Mendoza was a great first introduction to bus travel and indeed the country of Argentina and the route was picturesque as we wound our way through the Andean mountain range.
Mendoza it is safe to say marked one of our lowest moments in travel
so far and has left us scarred both mentally and physically. We checked into to our hostel and set about exploring Mendoza. The temperature was about 38 degrees Celsius and we were suffering from this sudden onslaught of heat but we knew not was suffering was until we woke the following morning. I discovered some small rashes around my knees and what looked like a couple of bites on my arms. This was not at first particularly unusual because we had slept with the windows wide open as there was no air con and the room was like a green house. That night’s sleep was an unsettled one and I had felt like I was being bitten during the night. However not long after waking up I began to suspect something else and soon I noticed many more red bumps and then Jacks also began to notice that she too had red spots. I don’t know why but I immediately began to suspect BED BUGS and after some research on the internet I was absolutely certain that we had been sleeping in a room infested with these bugs. We obviously checked out straight away cancelling our other 3 nights and
as the day wore on we were covered with more than 100 bites between us. Bed bugs tend to bite or suck or whatever it is they do in the same area and bites are often linear and the doctors call this Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The bites grew in size quickly throughout the day and were incredibly painful and itchy and this was made worse by the sweltering temperatures. We spent another unhappy day in a different hostel in Mendoza before we could get the next bus out of there. We did not of course know whether our clothes, backpacks and stuff were infested with bed bugs. They can be impossible to get rid of once you have them in your clothes etc. Luckily for us we had managed not to have any infestations but to be sure we washed all of our belongings and scrubbed our bags. The good news is in the last 5 weeks we have had no bites and so we know that we have not carried them with us. We did eventually tell the hostel just so that they could do something about it and hopefully it would prevent others from being bitten but
they were not entirely convinced by are email. In the middle of all of this we did our wine tour which was great but really hard to concentrate and enjoy ourselves when we were literally covered in bites and feeling self conscious about them. Apparently they like to bite on the neck and face but luckily for us we had absolutely none here.
The 28hr overnight bus journey to Bariloche with bed bug bites itching all the way was surprisingly good and time flew by. Bariloche was the turning point and the start of a great time in Argentina. We had scanned the guidebooks for a good hostel and we think we found one but they had no room for our first night so we had to stay elsewhere first. But when we turned up at hostel penthouse 1004 we were not disappointed. It was fantastic. It was situated on the top floor of a block of apartments in the centre of town with the most stunning panoramic views of the lake and mountains. Along with this it just happened to be the most chilled out and relaxed hostel that we had ever been in before or since. The other
backpackers were friendly and we soon made friends with an Irish couple and many others. It was the kind of place where people kept extending their stay. We had already decided that we would spent longer in each place simply because the distances that we had to travel around Argentina were so long that it would be really exhausting to move on after 2 days when it takes 2 days to travel to a new place and so we had 6 nights in Bariloche and we were disappointed to leave this amazing place even after so long. The town was a ski area in the winter and had good hiking in the summer the buildings were like wooden Swiss alpine buildings and it was famous for making chocolate. Many chocolate shops littered the high street and the shops were decorated like chocolate emporiums - a chocoholic’s paradise. St Bernard dog and puppies were also in the plaza and you could have a photo taken with them for a small fee.
We relaxed for a couple of days reading books and planning the next stages of our travels but sooner rather than later we ventured out to explore the beautiful
surroundings. Foolishly we listened to our Irish friends who recommended a cycle ride for us to do. Jen told us it was a little hard but the scenery was stunning and worth doing she said there were some hills but to quote her “You can always see the top of each hill” No problem we thought. A short bus ride took us to the bike rental place where we were talked through the 26k route and given instructions on cycling up each mountain. We began in good spirits and cycled through areas with great views most of the cycling was done on mountain roads with loose gravel and soon a flat tyre followed. A helpful policeman came to our aid and we were back on the road. The hills were steep and long and not once could we see the top of them and pretty soon we had to get off and push our bikes up the hill. 6 hours later we had finished the cycle and were heading home on the bus to confront our deluded Irish pals.
The sun set so late that we would eat our evening meal at about 10 or 10.30 and drink fantastic
Argentine red wine until late into the night. A lot of the friends we made were leaving the night before us and so a big meal was planned. Huge joints of beef were brought and veggies and spuds were roasted and late that night 15 of us sat down to the best roast dinner we had ever had. The wine flowed well and for the first time in a long time we got very drunk. We had a great night and said goodbye to our new found friends the following day. How they travelled for 27hrs on a bus hung over I will never know. Pretty soon it was time for us to leave and head towards El Calafate.
Another long bus journey followed and eventually we arrived. This town is famous for one thing and that is the Perito Moreno glacier. We had 6 nights here but all in different hostels and for some reason we had decided to book a dorm for 3 nights which we had never done before as we always booked private rooms. I think we must have been under the influence of alcohol because we really didn’t want to sleep in a shared
room even if it was only a 4 person dorm. We arrived early at the 2nd hostel but as our rooms weren’t ready we headed into town to book our trip to Glacier Hiking. When we returned and found our room two Norwegian guys were already in there and they had taken the 2 bottom bunks leaving us the top bunks which meant we had to drag ourselves unceremoniously onto the top each night. With surprising ease we managed to resemble an elephant seal hauling itself out of the ice. The boys were actually very lovely and tidy but the second night one of them became ill and spent the entire night throwing up in our en suite bathroom which had paper thin walls and left nothing to the imagination. We decided never again to use a dorm as we are ladies who like our sleep and the bottom bunk.
Our choice of glacier hikes was the mini trek. The glacier was absolutely stunning and we had definitely made the right choice to save glacier hiking until here instead of New Zealand. It was absolutely amazing. We took a long ride to the national park and then a boat
ride past the face of the glacier to the south side. Here we got kitted out with crampons. Using them made flat walking or uphill walking a real pleasure but downhill walking took far more skill and we all found this tricky. The glacier was huge and beautiful iridescent blue. This is one of the few glaciers that is actually advancing. For a glacier to advance more snow has to fall and freeze in the winter than melts and falls away in the summer. The hike was great and just the right length for us. We saw small crevasses up close and crystal clear glacier melt water. The hike was finished with a glass of whisky complete with glacier ice and Argentine chocolate. Witnessing a glacier calve is what everybody hopes to see and we were not disappointed. We watched the calving of ice from the front wall fall into the river below and create tsunamis all along the shoreline. Chunks of ice broke up and floated to the edge and waves pounded the landed. Our boat was just about to dock but had to make a quick exit and we had to retreat backwards so as not to get
a soaking. The trip was not over though as they took us to the viewing platforms on the north side of the glacier which gave us the overall picture of the size of glacier and it was massive. As the glacier moves cracking can be heard all around and then the calving of the ice creates a large booming noise but the noise comes after the calving and so photographing this relies on luck more than judgement.
Ushuaia is commonly known as the southernmost city in the world although the Chileans would disagree with this as they have a small settlement further south but it barely classifies as a town let alone a city. Anyway we decided as we had been to the bottom of the top of the world (Everest base camp) that we ought to go to the end of the world as we were so close to it. By close I mean an 18hr bus journey away. This was not our longest journey but it was certainly the worst most drawn our journey. We had to leave Argentina enter Chile leave Chile and return to Argentina and take a small Ferry as well as travel on
unpaved roads in a double-decker bus surrounded by barren landscape. Arriving at the end of the world late at night meant it was hard to tell what kind of place this was.
We found our hostel which was outside of town but the cleanest hostel we had ever been in and enjoyed a great sleep. The following morning we booked a trip at the hostel desk. It was called “walking with penguins” we were really excited we would get to land on the island they inhabited. We walked into to town to explore feeling excited about our trip tomorrow. The town had a relaxed feel and was clearly used to tourist with merchandise advertising its end of the world status all around. The town had more than its fair share of travel agents and we soon noticed signs in windows for last minute deals. We remarked on them saying wouldn’t that be great etc but otherwise paid not too much attention to them until that was we decided to just ask for a brochure of which we were only going to look at. Honest! The lady gave us her chat and we asked if we could take a brochure
with us. We both left the shop grinning from ear to ear and I said: “that was the stupidest thing we could ever have done” Jacks agreed. The price was significantly cheaper than if you booked from home. How could we not go? Jacks helpfully pointed out that we were only 2 days sailing away from Antarctica and that it had taken us 2 days to travel from different places within Argentina. A small beer in the Irish bar had sealed the deal and we went back to the shop to book our trip. We had left the hostel that morning happy and content with a penguin tour and now we were going to ANTARCTICA.
Back at the hostel we met Bianca who also going on the same trip as a last minute thing and a friend of hers from another hostel. Together we began to get excited and managed to persuade Ali from Liverpool to also book the trip and then we found another guy called Joe at the hostel who also going and so an excited and merry band was formed. The 6 of us spent the next couple of days in a state of pure excitement.
Having planned a trip which basically followed the sun we were severely underequipped for Antarctica. One long pair of trousers was never going to be sufficient. The tour company gave us a voucher to hire waterproof ski pants for free and the expedition company gave complimentary waterproof jackets with a fleece inside and welly boats for landings. Hats, gloves, long johns and another pair of trousers later and we were ready to go to Antarctica.
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Wow!! sounds absolutely amazing!! This is my favourite blog so far. Glad you enjoyed new Zealand as well. My favourite country in the world. Did you manage to get some air on the toboganning in Queenstown? That was the aim when we did it!