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Gidday just put a few more photos of Buenos Aires on here in case anyone is interested.
Hi there all, sorry no photos on this one yet. We have got way behind with the blogs as computers are much more difficult to find here in europe. Will hopefully get more photos on here soon. This blog has just been published on the 1st of July but the date is back dated to time of events. Next blog will hopefully be about our short travels in Britain, we are currently in europe. Feel free to email us at anytime with news from NZ or where ever you are.
Cheers
Steve and Casey
Argentina
We crossed into the Argentinian border town early in the morning after our freezing cold Bolivian bus trip and got a bus straight to Salta just as the sun was beginning to warm the place up. After about half an hour the bus stopped for no apparent reason behind a queue of traffic. Up ahead we could see clouds of black smoke billowing and people holding banners. People just seemed to be standing around,not violent or noisy or anything but with a pile
of burning tyres blocking the road. This type of road block is apparently quite common in this area which is the poorest in Argentina and it seems the locals do this to protest about anything they are not happy with. Police cars turned up but nothing really happened until about an hour later we started moving again. We had to stop at one more road block on the way to Salta.
Salta
Driving into Salta was beautiful, we had driven through miles of Altiplano land which gradually got more vegetation until we left that harsh environment behind were driving through green paddocks and trees. In Salta we went to the hostel that was recommended to us. It was a trendy backpackers place full of people and with bouncy, enthusiastic staff, and when we got there I just wished we had gone somewhere quiet.
We went out into the town to get some food, walked into its market square which was full of orange trees covered in oranges (we couldn't work out why no one picked the oranges), and we took the gondola up the hill. Very cool view. It was awesome to see the forest on this
side of the city. The hill was covered in bush and had tracks up it for bikers and walkers. At the top was the most amazing fountain/water feature. The water splits in to a maze of channels some which flow over walkways and make a curtain of water which you can walk behind, others drop down steps or into deep pools and then into more channels that twist around with the walking track so that you can have rushing water all around you and not have to walk through it ever, then the channels meet up again in impressive churning pools of white water. The man made miniature equivalent of the Iguazu falls.
The next night i got over wanting to be alone and we went up stairs to the in house bar where they were doing a traditional Argentinian barbecue. We hadn't realized how much we had missed good food lately and when they brought out these huge tender pieces of Argentinean steak and chorizo sausages as well as a buffet of fresh salads it was like heaven. We ate way too much then got chatting with the other back packers that were there. After a bit of
the wine that was included in the meal disappeared and Steven started buying drinks from the bar we ended up staying and talking and playing fuss ball until the early hours of the morning. Salta was our first taste of Argentina and we loved it. But our time was getting short so we moved on after two nights there.
We caught an overnight bus for 22 hours to a town called Posadas which is on the way to the Iguazu falls. Every one we had met had raved about the Argentinian buses. We heard that they were big and comfortable and had movies, which is similar to Peru and chile, but that they also served full hot meals and champagne and even played bingo. The seats were comfy and huge enough to put the aeroplane seats to shame but unfortunately we timed it just wrong to miss lunch, then had to change buses at tea time so missed another meal and got a dry biscuit for breakfast.
Posadas
We had a friendly taxi driver take us into town from the bus terminal straight to a restaurant, and only after lunch did we think about accommodation. We got
a place out of our guide book where an eccentric Swiss guy had been living for 6 months and he ran around trying to sort out for us things because he said the staff at this place are hopeless. The promised hot shower that only went cold put Steven in a bad mood but I managed to drag him out to look around town anyway. Posadas was a quiet town, it is just on the border between Argentina and Paraguay and has the huge river Parana running past it (it would suit being called the great grey green greasy Parana river). This is the river that starts somewhere in Brazil falls over the Iguazu falls them makes its way down to the Argentinian coast. We had an awesome meal in a restaurant by the river where they had half price steak!! (and hot waiters). We kept moving on to Iguazu the next day.
Iguazu
We were attacked by people trying to sell us a hostel as soon as we arrived at Iguazu. This was great cos we didn't have to think and got driven to our chosen hostel for free, and it wasn't a bad deal either. Nice
Buenos Aires
marching in the street for national dayclean rooms and breakfast included. Iguazu was definitely a tourist town which made it a bit more expensive but also meant that there were heaps of cool restaurants in town which we spent the next few days trying out. We also spent heaps of time on the Internet and just catching up. We caught a bus across to Brazil because we wanted to see the falls from that side first. We didn't have a visa to enter Brazil, but we took our chances and the bus didn't even stop at customs. Then we were thrown into a world of Portuguese where we waited on the side of the road for the bus to the falls. Near the falls is a bird park, it seemed expensive at the time but was one of the coolest things we have done. They had big houses which you could walk into, full of all sorts of strange birds. My favourite were the toucans of which there were about 4 or 5 different types. One of them had a beak as big as its body. They hopped around next to you and were curious like Keas and turned their heads on the side to see
you. We also saw all sorts of parrots and flamingos and heaps of strange birds i have never heard of before. very cool!
Across the road was the very well organized terminal for the Iguazu falls. You payed the entrance fee there and got taken in a double decker bus with a recorded voice telling you where you were. We got off near the top where you could walk out and look right over the waterfall. Spray was blowing everywhere and it looked amazing. A board walk lead out right over one of the falls. On the other side you could see all the waterfalls on the Argentinian side. It was really amazing but hard to describe. We met a cool little animal called a coyote which is apparently like a raccoon. It was so friendly but later we found out why. As it wandered up to us we thought it was cute until it darted under my legs and snatched a packet of chips out of Stevens hand, just missing taking his fingers as well and took off. It looked like it enjoyed them but we felt so bad because there are signs everywhere saying don't feed them
and chips are never good. I'm sure it wasn't the first bag it had ever eaten though.
After I had bought some more bargain jewelry we waited in the side of the road for a bus and made it back to Argentina easier than we had thought before the border closed.
The next day it rained so we put off going to the Argentinian side. Steven was getting sick too so needed the rest.
We got up early to see the falls the next day. we had been told we would hardly be able to see through the crowds, but maybe partly because it was still drizzling it didn't seem too crowded. And any way waterfalls are best seen in the rain anyway aren't they (though i doubt the mornings rain would have made much difference to the torrents in this river). We wandered round the tracks that follow the edge of the falls and down to the beach bellow them. Its is hard to describe because it is not just one waterfall but heaps of them falling in a U shape so that if you stand in some places it seems you are completely surrounded by
crashing water. We took a boat across to the island and saw yet another amazing view from another angel. Oh about halfway through the morning Steven surprises me by saying happy birthday and i have to think about it really hard to realize that it is actually my birthday today, had completely lost track of the date. What a cool place to spend it! After walking around amongst there waterfalls we take the free train up to the top to see the star attraction, the devils throat falls (la garganta del diablo). The board walk itself is amazing scratching across this wide shallow river full of Little islands of trees so you can never see the edge of it and it looks like water had flooded the whole of the jungle. Unfortunately we had to share the board walk with some with a very large tour group (the people and the group were large) who insisted on walking slowly in the middle of the board walk and blocking the way. We made it to the devils throat in the end. Here it was crowded but it didn't take away how spectacular it was. Incredible. You could look straight down and
see the water disappear into a cloud of white, looking across you could see water opposite us as well us to the right and the left and below our feet. in the distance on both sides the smaller waterfalls which we had walked through lined the edges of the canyon.
Too hard to describe but it was awesome.
The next day we took the first bus and headed down south towards Buenos Aries. We had decide to to stop in Santa Fe on the way.
Santa Fe
We arrived her in the morning hungry and tired and looking for breakfast and a hotel. But it was Sunday and everything was closed so after ages we ended up at maccas. Then went across the road to where there was a sign saying hotel. We walked up the steep dark stairs, it smelled like incense, and were greeted at the top. I had a funny feeling about this place, I asked is this a hotel. yes she said, sort of, but you have to pay by the hour. OK so not exactly what we were after. we carried on in search of somewhere less dodgy.
It
turns out that not many tourists come to Santa Fe so the only real accommodation is specially designed for people having affairs. We managed to find somewhere cheap and clean and not up a long dodgy staircase. The city was pretty ordinary but had a nice pedestrian street and a sports themed restaurant where we had some great food and gave the waiter some NZ coins to add to his collection.
Rosario
Next stop was Rosario. Birth place of Che Guevara. We stayed in a nice youth hostel here, and they recommended us a place to stay in Buenos Aires. We went wandering through Rosario, and found the very uneventful looking apartment building where Che was born and the huge monument for all the Argentinian soldiers who have died over the years, including a fountain with a map of the Falkland islands on it. It all seemed very patriotic and there were blue and white flags being sold on every street corner, though that might have something to do with the up coming football world cup. We met the Parana river again for the third time, this time much wider and full of enormous ocean going ships even though we are not exactly close to the sea. Coming from little old NZ I have never seen anything like it, (I try to imagine even a little ship stranded on rocks up the Waimak.) We went to a contemporary art gallery housed inside some old silos which was everything contemporary art galleries usually are. (though there was a cool room full of mosaics made out of cut up credit cards).
Buenos Aries
We got to Buenos Aires late and managed to get the most talkative taxi driver in the city. Luckily we had already booked our accommodation and they had been waiting for us and as soon as we checked in they locked the doors and the manager went home. We asked the night shift girl if there was a restaurant near by but she said no and for some reason send us miles away to a place that looked closed so we got the taxi driver to take us back to a place we had seen on the way. It was an awesome meal. Steven got the biggest most tender steak imaginable and i got Locro which is a traditional dish like a stew with meat and chorizo sausages and beans and lentils and chickpeas. Just before we left the waiter came up to Steven and commented on his fasted Indian Tshirt. He said he has an Indian motor bike at home and they talked motorbikes in broken English and Spanish for a while.
Our hostel was in a middle class neighbor hood away from the main tourist areas, which was great but also meant we had to brave the buses to get around.
The next day we took on this huge city of 13 million and tried to find a quantas office to reconfirm our flights. After a bit of the always expected treasure hunt being directed from one place to another we arrived at a shiny new sky scraper. The security measures were amazing. We had to get a swipe card just to get in the elevator and the card we had would only let us get off on that one floor and even then we had to ask to be let into the locked quanta's office. But all was well, our flights were still fine and now we could relax.
We walked sown the main pedestrian street and dodged the crowds in an expensive Italian restaurant.
The next day was a holiday. I got confused messages about what this day was actually celebrating, some said independence but others said that that was another day, but the general idea of the day seemed to be march around the streets with drums and rubbish bins and those horrible traffic control whistles and try to make as much noise as possible. We were told not to go to may square, because that is where everyone was heading. The buses weren't running and were parked on odd angles across roads, so we walked into the center. Crossing the 12 laned main avenue was an experience. There were no cars, only people dressed in blue and white and some dressed in green. All holding banners and marching to drums. There is something slightly intimidating about that many people all together at once, but there were police on every corner keeping an eye out. Actually with their huge guns they looked almost more intimidating but we spoke one who was really friendly and just told us again not to go to may square. We didn't mind listening after having seen that crowd. We headed for San Telmo and ended up by the old port where there was an exhibition of life sized colorful cows just standing around everywhere. Then we walked around into the posh suburbs, stopping on the way just by chance at an eire railway scrap art corner. At first it looked just like a scrap heap but as we spotted an aeroplane and a dinosaur looking out from between bolts and old iron we began to wander closer. It had the feeling of a disused junk yard and we weren't sure if we could go in until we spotted a guy in a tiny portable office who waved us over. he told us we were welcome to look around and said that it was a french artist who makes these sculptures. The strange rusted iron shapes of lizards and horses and huge ants covered the ground around and under an over head motorway but it was weirdly quiet there.
We then entered the poncy neighbor hood near by and passed hotels with men in top hats standing at the entrance waiting to great rich customers. Then we had to get an ice cream. We walked home passed the Congress where all that was left of the days commotion was trampled banners and leaflets and the temporary gates that had been put up to stop crowd's pushing into the building.
We got our hostel to book a tango show for us. It was at the historic cafe Tortoni where we were escorted into the room with a stage. The walls were covered in amazing drawings of musicians, my favourite being one of an old accordion player with smile wrinkles in pencil. Everyone was seated around small tables facing the stage and we were offered drinks. I got a The show was awesome! I had expected the emphasis to be on the dancing but the music and the singing was just as amazing. The band first did a musical piece which was great, then a very Argentinian looking lady came out and sang about Buenos Aries and about Argentina, then finally the couple came out to dance. they were amazing dancers and i cannot describe the dance at all, just awesome. one dance they did in modern style wearing black leather and the girl did bout 3 or 4 spins around his shoulders.
Our last day in Buenos Aries we went to the touristy La Boca. This area is the a poor area but its pedestrian streets attract huge amount of visitors. Everything is marketed towards the tourist. The houses are painted bright colours and the streets are lined with artists stalls, some beautiful some terrible. Everywhere there were people dressed in tango costumes to take photos with or dancing in front of restaurants. Shop after shop selling tacky souvenirs, and a market with more cool jewelry. One of the guys at the stall was taken with my All Black key ring so we swapped and i got one of the Argentinian key rings that he was selling. I was just stoked that he was interested in it. He wanted it for his motorbike. We had lunch in an over priced under quality tourist restaurant and watched the free tango show which was nothing compared to last night. Not the best value but still worth seeing. That night we went back to our first restaurant in Buenos Aries to enjoy the delicious Argentinian food before we left.
We got up early and got a Taxi to the Airport, and before we knew it were on the way to London and the South American part of our adventure was over. (for now).
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AWWWWWWWWEEEESSSOME
It is so cool to hear about everything that you have been up to! I can wait to see all of your photos. Dont give away all of your kiwi coins though, they are a collectors item now, we have a whole new set as of yesterday. I hope you are enjoying Europe as much as south america even though it will be very different. If you see any crusader castles of medieval buildings could oyu take a photo of them for me :)