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Published: September 27th 2007
Cafe Tortoni
The delights of the Submarino and churros.Having had our fill of Incas, we decided it was time to leave Lima and fly to Argentina. We now realise that Buenos Aires is an amazing city, but again our first impressions were not great. Our taxi from the airport decided not to drop us off at the door of our hostel but instead three blocks away, muttering something in Spanish and driving off as fast as possible. As we walked towards our hostel (Portal del Sur) in the rain we realised why the taxi driver was so keen to make a quick getaway! Thousands of protestors were marching up the street towards us for the May Day protest and they were heading right past our hostel with their drums and huge banners. As we soon learned, there is rarely a day in South America without some kind of protest going on…
On our first night in Buenos Aires we visited the famous Café Tortoni, an Argentinean institution, and ordered traditional Argentinean food…steak. Sam was out to impress with his Spanish and had some Churros (Spanish doughnut) and a Submarino (hot milk with a slab of chocolate dunked into it)! We also decided to buy some tickets for the
Tango show on that night in the converted cellar of the café. From what we understood in Spanish, it was similar to a Chicago-type story and the dancing was amazing with beautiful music, a perfect end to our first day in Argentina.
From our lively hostel we went on a walking tour around the Cementero de la Recoleta, the graveyard where Evita is buried. This graveyard was unlike any others we have ever seen as it had huge statues and mausoleums and some were big enough to be churches and services were held in them from time to time - all rather bizarre but fun to see.
Sam was in his element when we managed to get tickets to see a football match, Boca Juniors (Maradonna’s club), who were playing in the South American Cup at La Boca. After many dodgy security checks we made it into the stadium and the atmosphere was wild and passionate. We were placed behind the goal with all the locals and had to sit on the cement steps. Sam had reluctantly agreed that wearing his England football shirt might not be such a good idea, especially as the 25th anniversary of the
Falklands war had just passed! The crowd did not stop cheering and singing for the whole game and when they kept jumping up and down Claire started to get a bit worried that the force of it all would bring the old stadium down! The crowds went mad at the end when their team won 3:0. At the end of the game we had to wait over an hour until the away fans had left the stadium and were well clear of the grounds…. a little bit worrying for Claire.
As we happened to be in Buenos Aires on a Thursday we were keen to see the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who marched every Thursday around a fountain in the Plaza. It began thirty years ago, as a demonstration by a small group of mothers whose children had been seized by the military government. There was something very emotional watching these lovely old ladies march around the fountain all linking arms and holding pictures of their children.
Sam really wanted to visit the Patagonian region of South Argentina and Chile but we had been told by a few people that it would not be possible due
Sam at the footy!
Loving every minute of it! to the cold weather. So we were really chuffed when some fellow travellers told us they had been recently and it was possible if we went soon. Sadly the once weekly cheap flight there was fully booked so we booked ahead for the following week. In the end, it was not too big a disappointment as it did mean that we had some time for an adventure! We caught a night bus to take us to Puerto Iguazú - we were expecting to get a basic style coach but were rather shocked when we got into our plush leather seats, were given a free meal and offered some wine - free wine! Then to our amazement, after dinner we were given champagne and chocolates, heaven - not like journeys on National Express! We spent the rest of the journey watching DVDs with English subtitles and sleeping.
The first thing that we noticed when we arrived at Puerto Iguazú was the heat; it was tropical. It was great not having to wrap up in all our clothes for once. We headed straight out to find some accommodation and then got straight onto a bus to see the famous Iguazú falls!
Iguazú Falls are made up of of 275 falls along 1.6 miles of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are over 80 metres high. So pretty much everywhere you look there are waterfalls gushing out loads of water. At Parque Nacional Iguazú we took the little train out to the Garganta del Diablo (Devils Throat) where you can walk out to the mouth of the falls on a boardwalk (a little bit scary when you walk past the old one that had collapsed from flooding a few years ago!). The boardwalk takes you out to the heart of the falls and you become surrounded by spray, rainbows and hundreds of beautiful butterflies and oh yeah, water! The falls are so impressive, that they take your breath away. We were soon soaked to the skin, so thought we would go and dry out while floating down the river on a boat (actually just a big rubber dingy). The ride was great, if not a little scary when we got a bit up and personal with some Cayman but the highlight was when we spotted some wild Toucans flying overhead, a spectacular sight!
Our day was made even more
perfect, when we found out that we happened to be at the falls around full moon, which meant that we could go out on an organised moonlit walk of the falls. So we waited in the park until nightfall, in that time Claire narrowly escaped a huge spider that was heading for her foot, a kind Argentinean lady, also waiting for the tour, started shouting at her in Spanish and Claire suddenly leapt onto her chair - much to the amusement of everyone else! Eventually we got back onto the train to take us to the Devils Throat to explore the falls by moon light - a truly awesome (but cold and wet!) experience, we never knew that you could get rainbows at night! The bright glow from the moon combined with the spray from the water produced beautiful dark rainbows across the starry sky. After the walk we had a cold trip back on the train but then went straight into the restaurant for an all you can eat buffet/BBQ that was included in the tour. We also had our first but definitely not last taste of Caipirinahs. Claire was in heaven with all the food - piles of
pasta, steak and even puddings! We followed what the locals did, which was eating huge plates of meat (nothing else) and then attacking the rest of the buffet. By the time we got home we were shattered and so full, but we had already decided that we wanted to go straight back to the falls the following day but this time to the Brazilian side.
Before heading off to Brazil we visited Tres Fronteiras a place where you could see three countries, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, all from one spot, not something you get to see everyday!
It was so easy to cross over to Brazil to see the falls, we hopped onto a bus that had “Brazil” on the front and then jumped out at the boarder for a quick passport stamp and then we got back onto the bus and entered Brazil! We quickly found some accommodation in Foz do Iguaçu and then headed to the falls. The Brazilian side gives more of a panoramic view of the falls but the views are beautiful and you still get soaking wet! You also get chased around by Coaties (a cross between a raccoon and a cat) especially
Iguazú falls - Argentina
Posing in front of the Garganta del Diablo (Devils Throat) when Sam is carrying chocolate cake in his bag (for Claire!), which they can smell and want! Sam loved the Coaties though and wanted to adopt one but surprisingly Claire was not so keen on this idea! That night we ate in a local parilla or churrascaria (in Portuguese), which is an all you can eat BBQ, we ate so much meat again but decided to decline the offer of a skewer of chicken heads!
The following day we thought it would be fun to visit another country, just for the morning, so we caught another bus and went to Paraguay! We did some shopping at Ciudad del Este, which was a bit grotty and just full of cheap electronic shops (Paraguay is definitely a poorer country than Brazil and Argentina) so we decided to head back to Argentina. This should have been easy but as it was a Sunday our bus decided not to come back in the afternoon! So after waiting for about four hours at the boarder we decided to risk it and walk back across into Brazil and then get a bus to Argentina. All very confusing and a bit scary for Claire but Sam
loving the adventure as ever! In Argentina we caught a local bus to take us to San Ignacio to see the Jesuit ruins that were used in the filming of the Mission. In the early evening the bus stopped and the driver informed us that we were there. In reality, we found ourselves dropped off on a very dark road in the rain and we did not really know where we were, even though the driver had assured us we were at San Ignacio Miní. As there was only one road leading away from us we thought we should follow it, eventually we found a small hotel but all they had available was some small wooden cabins at the back. We had a look at them and loved them so booked in straight away, lucky we did as the skies opened and it poured down and thundered for the rest of the night! The next morning we went to the Jesuit ruins, designated a UNESCO Wm,orld Heritage site in 1984, these buildings were built in the land of the Guaranis during the 17th and 18th centuries, not quite as impressive as Ankor WAT but still a great historic site and
Iguazú falls - Argentina
Getting in with the locals on the raft... we did get to see a Mate tree (traditional drink, drunk by EVERYONE in South America, more on that later). In the afternoon we went on a rather muddy and long walk to see Casa de Quiroga, a supposedly famous Uruguayan writer’s house, only to find when we got there that it was closed - so South American! That night it was back onto a night bus to Buenos Aires. Once back in Buenos Aires we both felt a bit down at the prospect of having to stay in one country for more than 24 hours, so we decided to head straight over to the ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay.
Colonia del Sacramento was an old smugglers port, it is full of windy cobbled streets and cafes - it is a very chilled out and pretty place. We spent our time wandering around the streets and the local market. We visited the 17th century ruins of the Covento de San Francisco (rather common name in South America!), a 19th century restored lighthouse (Faro) and the oldest church in Uruguay (Iglesia Matriz) built in 1680. As we only had two days in Uruguay
we got onto a bus that afternoon to the capitol, Montevideo (of course!). We arrived in the rather cold city and headed out to a parilla to stock up on some more fantastic “all you can eat” meat feast! The next day we explored the lovely city and saw the Plaza Independencia and went into the spooky underground guarded mausoleum (Mausoleo Artigas) and generally had a look at all the beautiful buildings. We also could not believe how much the locals loved and drank Mate (non-stop it seemed!) - they carried flasks and cups around with them all day long! Before we left Montevideo, we had to visit the Mercado del Puerto to have a huge steak at the markets there with all the locals! Great fun and great food - we were rapidly turning into big carnivores with all that meat! Soon we were back in Buenos Aires and frantically packing for our trip down south to El Calafate in the Argentinian side of Patagonia. During our last night in Buenos Aires Sam decided it was about time Claire tasted some of the famous Mate drink (he had already experienced this on a past rip to Paraguay). So Claire
tried some and wanted to spit it straight back out! Mate tastes like cigarette ash mixed with hot water…ugh!
Our flight to El Calafate was with the Argentinian Military Airline LADE and despite our initial concerns of it being cancelled it was merely delayed for a few hours. We eventually boarded the plane or should that be tin can, on reading more on the internet LADE is the only airline in the world to still operate Boeing 707s from the 1950s! So the plane was rather old and had no overhead lockers, just shelves so that everything fell off every time we took off or landed - which happened four times. We knew our flight wasn't direct but we hadn't expected to land four times before our stop - it really was like a local bus. We even picked up our friend Carolyn from Buenos Aires halfway through the journey! Our first stop was a bit scary as we landed in a Military base and were surrounded by fighter planes and tanks…a little bit worrying! We were sat at the back of the plane, right beside the engine, so we were deaf by the time we arrived at our
destination! What an experience though…
Our hostel in El Calafate was amazing, Patagonia was freezing cold and much of it was covered in snow so when we realised we had under floor heating we were in heaven - great way to dry our washing too (thanks for the tip Mo & Muv)!
The main attractions to see in El Calafate was not Sam finally shaving his beard off but the glaciers. We managed to get onto a boat trip to see five of the best glaciers in the area - Mayo, Negro, Spegazzini, Cristina and Upsala glacier, the latter being the largest glacier in South America but it is sadly shrinking in size (retreating). Each of the glaciers was absolutely stunning and we saw some huge icebergs and had to resist the urge to keep shouting “iceberg dead ahead!”. We were dressed in as many clothes as we could possibly fit on, as it was sooooo cold! We stopped for lunch at Lake Onelli, which was full of beautiful and bizarrely shaped pieces of ice floating around in the lake.
The following day we hired a car with some friends and drove out to Parque Nacional Los
Glaciers to see the extraordinary Perito Moreno Glacier. Perito Moreno Glacier is magnificent - it has blue and white coloured ice and it stands 60 meters tall above the water and is 30km long and 5km wide. This glacier is also unusual as it is one of only two glaciers in the world that is still advancing; the other is Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. Perito Moreno Glacier is advancing by nearly 2 meters a day. While we were looking at the glacier the air was constantly filled with loud bangs and explosions - the sound of pieces of ice continually breaking from the glacier. We were even lucky enough to see a huge piece of ice break free, which created a rather large wave, which scared a lot of tourists on a boat nearby! We spent another day catching up with things and escaping the cold in the warm cafes/chocolate shops.
Next stop was across the boarder to Puerto Natales in Chile, which is still in Patagonia. We wanted to visit the national park, Torres del Paine but had heard that it was all closed, as it was now winter and too cold and covered in snow!
Meat Feast!
Plate of meat anyone?! However, we were able to go on a photo tour for the day and then camp overnight and go trekking, at this point Claire was thinking that no-one in their right mind would want to camp at such cold temperatures and especially when the place would be deserted and have no facilities open…that was until she saw Sam with a big grin across his face and she knew the battle was lost!
We rented some camping gear and a stove and the following day we headed out to the park. We spent the first day driving through the fantastic scenery of the park and we stopped at the Mylodon Cave in the Ultima Esperanza Province. The cave was famous for the Mylodon skeletons that were found inside. Mylodon are now extinct and were a cross between a horse and a bear and they were herbivores. During the trip we also saw the Grey Glacier whilst battling a rainstorm, some more icebergs, waterfalls, some Namdu (look just like Emus) and some Guanaco (a cross between a lama and a deer). Then came the part that Claire was dreading - it was time to set up camp! We were dropped at
a deserted campsite at Las Torres and Claire started to put up the tent while Sam made a great campfire. We cooked up some dinner on our little stove and kept warm drinking tea made from water we had collected from a nearby stream and then purified! That nights camping was probably our coldest night ever and we slept in all the jumpers we could lay our hands on! We got up at 5:00am, put on our head torches and went out into the cold to start our steep trek to the three towers (Mirador Las Torres), which are a group of three granite spires over 3000 metres tall and are the focal point of the park.
The hike was hard work especially when we were walking in the snow, of course we had to make the obligatory snowman and have snowball fights. We were also lucky enough to see Condors flying on the first thermal air currents of the day. After much hard walking we had to admit defeat when the snow went past our knees and we still had to get back to the campsite and pack up in time for our lift home. It was all
Iguazú falls - Brazil
We made it to the other side! worth it though, for the beautiful views and the peacefulness of the empty park and trail!
Much to Claire’s relief we did make our pickup and we were driven back to Puerto Natales and we had just enough time to pack up again and head to the harbour to board the Navimag ferry. This ferry was one of the best ways to travel through southern Chile, whilst taking in the sights of the Chilean fjords. The Navimag is a cargo ship (full of cows among other things!) that has an area that has been converted for passengers to travel on. The journey took three days with no stops and we spent our time relaxing, watching DVDs and spotting the wildlife - seals, dolphins and even killer whales! Claire spent the first day and a half in bed as she had bad tonsillitis - quite amusing at mealtime when people tried to talk to her and she could say nothing! The last night was spent playing bingo and dancing - quite a giggle! Before we knew it we had arrived at Puerto Montt; a rather dead town, so we quickly booked onto a bus to take us back into Argentina
and onto Bariloche. Our bus was full of Navimag travellers, which was fun but nothing compared to our drivers who were completely bonkers and kept playing and singing the Beach Boy’s Barbara Ann and dancing up and down the bus (nutters)!
Bariloche is in the Lake District area of Argentina and it lies on the edge of the beautiful lake, Lago Nahuel Huapi, it is surrounded by mountains and is very picturesque. We had a great view of the area from our hostel balcony at sunset. In the winter it is an amazing ski resort but we were just a few weeks early for this, much to Sam’s disappointment! We did however manage to do some horse riding (it was at the same place that HRH Fergie goes too). We dressed in as many layers as we could and went out for a great ride around the countryside, although our horses had a mind of their own and liked to take us for a canter every now and again - to Sam’s horror! We had sore bums for days afterwards! That night we went out for dinner with some friends and had the best steak we have ever eaten!
We only ordered half portions of steak, but we still ended up with a huge portion of fries and two steaks each - we had a great night! The following day we explored the town, saw the gorgeous St Bernard dogs and their puppies in the main square, of course explored more chocolatiers, walked around some of the lake and caught up on the football in the local Irish pub!
Soon we were back on the bus taking us around seven lakes and then onto San Martín de los Andes, a pretty little ski resort in the mountains. We just had a night there to explore a little and go for a walk and then it was back on the bus for a long twenty-four hour journey further north to Mendoza with some friends we had just met. We had been told that Mendoza was a lovely city so were surprised when we started exploring and found that it was rather average and quite dirty. We visited some of the churches but quickly decided that one night in Mendoza would be enough. So although very tired, we went straight out on a wine tour, great fun especially when the
Coaties!
You still can't have one Sam! guides spoke no English! They also seemed to get the impression we were wine experts, hilarious as we are still clueless when it comes to wine! Our friends thought we were mad when we said we would be travelling on the next day, but we had decided to head back into Chile and visit Valparaíso a Unesco World Heritage site. The journey to Valparaíso was a lot longer and colder than expected as at the boarder to Chile we were made to get off the bus and get our passports stamped and then we had to wait over an hour in the cold while our bags were checked by sniffer dogs (so over the top)! We were expected to give them a tip as well!
Valparaíso is by the coast and is a charming place to explore, with cobbled streets lined with lots of pastel coloured houses stacked up along the hills overlooking the sea. We went up some ascensors (big rickety old elevators) to get some views of the city and also to visit the area known as Cerro Bella Vista, which has in the last few years become an open-air museum known as Museo a Cielo Abierto.
Many of walls of the houses are painted with strange murals in bright colours. We really liked our time in Valparaíso and wished we had longer but we had to head back to Santiago to meet someone - but that’s for the next blog entry!
Sorry this has been a long one again but we crammed in so much in a small amount of time!
Till the next time…
Claire and Sam.
xxx
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Muv Gill
non-member comment
Chilly Chile Blog
Fantastic photos but pretty chilly with all those glaciers. Only Sam could go camping in those conditions - the Wendover Scouts would be proud of you ! How long will these 2 travellers have been home before all Blogs completed we ask ourselves!!?