Argentina the final chapter...

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well ho diddly bo diddly ho hummmy yummy mummy walking by there folks. if you´ll excuse me for a few hours of your precious lives i have another chapter in the blog to entertain you with (or not susan collins as you dont like them!!! that invite will never reach your door, i have a few replacements lined up you know!!!)

well as i write this we have less than 1 week left of our trip in SA. so heres whats been happening in our world for the last few weeks.

May 10 - May 13

Arrived in Salta after our 36 bus journey from Arica in Peru. We got attacked by a few hostels waiting at the bus station for travellers to arrive so they can fill their rooms. we got one for a good rate and close to the centre another hostelling international hostel but it was cheap enough for the room and we got a free taxi to it so i was sold nd at 11pm and travelling for that amount of time a rice krispie box would have looked nice. Well got up the next day to find nice sunny weather, not too hot and in the midst of our continued tiredness (cos i got up early i kicked ruth out of bed too!!) we found quite a nice city. Salta is situated in the north of argentina and founded in 1585. it lies in a valley surrounded by steep mountains and valleys. according to a few people we have met on our epic adventure argentina is the best country in the world. so salta is going to have to make quite an impression cos, well you get the rest of the sentence. and it does. its got quite a few good looking buildings and nice wide streets but the best thing that struck me about salta was the relaxed way of life in the town. as in spain an afternoon siesta is strictly observed. between the hours of 1pm-5pm most of the shops shut their doors to the public. not everything closes (police stations, bars, casinos, burlesque houses, atm machines to fuel the habit, you know the most important things). one more thing to strike me about argentina right off was that they had supermarkets. now dont get me wrong i think thats a pretty said statement to make, but when you cant find one in peru or bolivia for love nor money they become a startling find. and with a kitchen in the hotel are food needs are taken care of. anywho the first day we just walked around salta. in the evening the hostel we were staying in has a two toher sister hostels in salta. they put on a bbq for us for a small few pesos and we enjoyed all the meat we could eat. we found out that the cook had about 30 jgs of meat for the bbq!!! quite alot but i got through about a kg of it myself. the next day we went horseriding through the hills of san lorenzo on the outskirts of salta. a nice area of salta filled with posh big house of the rich people of salta. most of the house out there looked like hacinendas and villas. one of our guides even looked like a proper spaniard rideror polo player,lacoste jumper and shirt which was buttoned down half way, sailors shoes and trousers that were buttoned around his ankles. whip resting on his hip and other hand holding the reins. tosser i thought and was a bossy fool. that night we also had our first taste of argentianian meet. steaks to be exact. now acording to the people who tell you that aregentina is the best ocuntry in the world then the steaks here are also the best in the world. i would like to confirm this belief. shanaghans was nice and all but here you can eat for a fraction of the price in a fancy place. about 8-10 euro it cost ous each full meal with drinks. well the next day we went rafting. we were sent out into the outskirts of salta again and thrown into a boat. there was another couple from spain in the raft too and a dog. he belonged to the rafting company and apprantly has been down class 4 rapids and survived (obviously). well we only got grade two and afew grade three rapids. on one of these threes i was almost murdered by my finace. the boat started to flip going down the rapid and ruth was sitting opposite me. the boat flipped and i started to go over, but ruth with a fury in her eyes that i have never seen before launched at me and forced me into the river. its not like she has anything to gain from my death other than a corpse and jail time. well i got my revenge a few rapids later. and i ven got the dog in too. they put on a bbq for us after the rafting and we sat there in the sun for a few hours sipping a beer and eating again steaks. (steaks will later become our staple diet in argentina). our last day we just walked around salta, we have become sick of looking at museums a bit so that wasnt done here. we had a 13 hour bus journey ahead of us on our cama bus. to keep it short and simple try thinking of business class on a plane and thats what we got. dinner, drinks, wine if you asked for it, movies and when we woke up breakfast. nice.

May 14 - May 18

Arrived in mendoza to find that our hostel reservation has been mucked up. we had booked in, or so we thought, to have booked into a hostel that was supposed to be full of people and bit lively. but they messed it up and we ended up staying in their sister hostel around the corner which was not fun at all. it was dead and very few people in it. i know we were sort of out of season but still very few people in it. ruth went to sleep for a while and i went walking the streets for aw while to check out what mendoza has to offer. it looks nice i have to say. still autumn hanging on, the strets are lined with trees on either side. the streets are quite wide but there is a function for this. it was at first a part of chile back in the 16th century but then was part of argentina after the spanish left argentina. in 1802 the whole city was destroyed by fire and earthquakes, so today it is full of low buildings and wide avenues s a precaution against earthquakes. mendoza is also the region of winemaking for argentina. (Patricia, Justin and mam listen up). since it was a sunday we got there, there was not much open but we headed to the park. lots of people siting around doing nothing and relaxing, they even have space for bbqs oif you bring your own stuff. that night we were back at the hostel and we bumped into a guy we met on our inca trail trip (hi paul). he was in mendoza for a few days to run down the days till he had to go to santiago for his flight back to OZ. (how is life back home Paul??). well we decided to out for the night and found an all you eat restaurant in the town for about 4 euros. now we have been to a few of these in brazil and some of them were good and some you wouldnt even bring a rat into. but this one was fantastic. they have everything you need. steaks, (they were big on my plate), pastas, fish, chinese, salads, desserts. you ust had to pay extra for you drinks but they were not much. we then hith the casino in the town. i played roulette hoping that previous luck that i had when i played would come back but not to be. lost a grand total of 10 euros!!!! anywho (had to slip one in there kev), we went to a wine tour. there was a company that you go to and rent bikes off them. they then give you a map and tell you to follow the route. you get to visit about 6 wineries, a choclotier, and delicatessen. in each winery they give you a taster of their wines that they produce and also a tour of the vineyards and winery. we went to the first winery and the choclatier place. the choclotier also made liquers of all sorts. ruth had to have a chocolate one of course. we then made it to the next winery called TEMPUS. they only export to the US at the moment but they are going to open up in China and the EU soon. the guy, cant remember his name due to being a bit cloudy after the tour!!! he showed us round the winery and vineyards. he said they produced ´premium´wines. they sell for about 20 dollars US, doesnt sound very premium to me and i think he was just talking up the brand. anywho it was a nice day so we sat out on the outside area of the bar and he presented us with a glass of each of the wines he produced. he had the following
¨Syrah(chiraz)
cab sauv
merlot
tempus fugit (not the real name but begins with a t anyway, little help Justin??)
mixed

anyway i got hooked on the cab i have to say. we sat there for about two hours and tried all these wines it was one of the best days i have had in SA. nice weather, nice company (we had 7 in the group).
(clint - what are you doing out here solider?)
(donald - eating some cheese, drinking some wine and catching some rays sir. i sugest you get that bomb out of your bum and come join us!!)

guess the movie no prize for the corect answer. well it seems that alan now has a penchant for red wine, particularly with cab sauvs which go well with steaks and cooking with steaks and with these two great ingredients being so cheap here why deny myself!!! so that night we went out with the group to the all you can eat restaurantand had quite alot of food and wine. we also met these irish guys and they came with us, also in tow was a scottish guy called alex who was a right arse. he kept asking me and ruth if we were going together (maybe the ring is not sparkly enough), and asking our ages over and over again. a real creep. on our lsat day we headed to the park again on rented bikes. we found these two puppies that seemed to have been abondoned and were raoming around the park by thenselves. well we done the only humaitarian thing we could do and took a picture of one them for posterity and then left them!! well no we brought them to the park rangers office to see if we could drop them of to a home but he didnt want to know anything about it. at this stage on of them ran off back into the woods. the one left was shivering, one of his eyes was covered in some sticky stuff (not mine!!!), and he had somethign stuck on his teeth. so we brought him to a vet to get him checked out and he done that. when we asked was there home for stray dogs he said no, and that there were alot of dogs out there just like him so why bother. so with that we had to just leave him. we dropped him outside a shop and he went off wandering and we went the other way. that night we left on our first class bus to buenos aires.

May 19 - May 25

arrivesd in BA rather refreshed after the bus journey. anyway tried to get a taxi and one stopped to pick us up. but when we showed him where we wanted to go he just started shouting somthing to us in spanish and drove off. apparantly didnt want the hassle of trying to earn some money. anyway got to the hostel. hostel milhouse to be exact. this hostel has to be one of the most well known hostels in south america. it seems everyone we have talked to has stayed here. its quite a socialable hostel with everyone talking to anyone they like and having a few drinks. i found this out on my first night when i got quite tipsy at the hostel bar. was going to head to a club that the hostel had organised. anywho saturday and ruth hit the shops with a vengance. money burning a hole in her pocket and shops a plenty she went mad, i taged along but when we entered the centre i left her to wander by myself. i didnt have the head to be asked lots of questions about clothes she was trying on, i think i probably would have said that her little finger looked big in the stuff she was trying on amongst other things. so saved meself some hassle. that night we went out to a club called opera bay down in the docks area. we went with the hostel. we got straight entry, transport there,and a free drink. left the club at 5.30am and got back to the hostel at 8am. walked the streets in between. it was a good club, full of rather atractive argentian women, there was different rooms for music and different substances. no kiding one room smelled like eoin!!!! suffered the next day and also got to ring home for the first time in about 3 weeks cos skype wouldnt work the previous times i tried. monday the 22nd and we headed to recoleta. now BA is spplit into different districts and have diferent names for them, like recoleta, boca, san telmo, centro, palermo are the most popular ones. recoleta is famous for it graveyard. its full of mausoleums of families, here they can bury their dead all belonging to the same family. it was started in 1825 with the idea that back then all high class people and politicians can bury their families there. the first people to enter the cemetery were an unknown homeless person and the wife of a politician. the earliest grave we seen was 1835. its most famous resident though is a miss eva peron. the cemetary is also home to a load of cats, obviuosly looking for their owners but i dont think anyone has told them in meeooww language that they will not be coming back. the cemetary is quite freaky to see. some of the sites there are quite old and soome have been broken into and you can see a few coffins that have also been broken into. our next trip was to boca. this district is famous for being home to the tango area of BA, brightly coloured houses and of course the football team boca juniors. boca is also the poorest district of ba and the one with the highest crime rate. nice. maradona played here along with gabriel batistuta and nobby solano. we did a tour of the stadium. it was built in the 20´s and rebuilt in 1954 to basically the present state it is in today. the football season was over by the time we got to ba cos of the world cup so we couldnt see a match. but the interesting thing was that our guide called the fans who go into the terraces hooligans?? i asked her about this and she said they were all the mad fans of boca who breath and live boca. basically the nutters. the area was alright a bit dead and the touristy part was pretty small. i advise anyone coming here no to stray too far from that part. wednesday and shopping again. this time another centre but i actually didnt mind a manged to buy myself a coat fo the cold weather we were going to be heading into. that night i also got hammered by myself. just one of those night where the i wanted to be the drunkard propping up the end of the bar. last day in ba and it was independance day in argentina. on this day in 1802 i think they signed a treaty parting themselves from spanish control. there were partiesin the streets and a political rally near the hostel. apparantly we found out later that there were street parties well into the night but we were on a bus heading to our next destination puerto madryn.

May 26 - May 29

right puerto madryn is a real tourist town on the coast of argentina heading further south to antartica. there is an area near there called peninsula valdes. here for most of the year you can whales, sea lions and sea elephants. at this time of the year we were heading into whale season so we decided to head here and see if we could see some. and we did!!! on our second day we headed on a tour of the peninsula. we stopped off at a beach first to see three southern right back whales. there was a mother and calf and another one but our guide couldnt make out whether it was male or female. anywho the whales arrive here every year between the months of may till october to swim in th waters and some even give birth here. they pretty big whales about 8-10mts in length i´d say for an adult. they come into the shallow waters of the beach to´rub their bellies and backs alongthe sea bed, basically to scratch themselves most mornings. they were a brilliant sight to see. did you know that a calf southern right back whale drinks up to 200lts of milk a day!! and the mother does not have any nipples so how do they do it? well the mother sort of pees it out of her and because the milk is so fatty with about 1 million weight watchers ponts it stays prety much stuck together in the water, a bit like oil. then the calf swims behind the mother lapping it all up. we pushed on then to stop off near another beach and seen sea elephants. now most of them were young cos their parents were out feeding. they swim about 400kms from the beach to feed out in the ocean. the whales swim this distance aswell to feed. the elephants can also hold their breaths for about 2 hours under water i think the guide said. to do this they practice on land till they get good enough. they are huge animals with puppy dog faces on them. the sea lions were next but we could get that close to them cos they were down the side of a cliff close to the water and we were at the top of a cliff looking down. there were not that many and i forget why, but in the summer months (nov-march) orcas/killer whales come to feed on them. the lions rest on the beach close to the water, some couples with their young. (did you know that each male sea lion or sea elephant has group or harem as they are called to himself. in these harems are about 10-15 females that he mates with. but to do this he must protect them from harm and also himself from other males who want to steal his orgy fest. there was one sea elephant called bernard that had two harems to himself and in each harem was about 100 females. he was pretty big apparantly!!)
anywho the orcas swim onto the beach and try to catch the sea lions in their mouths. if they do or are unsuccessful they still have to get off the beach. to do this they wiggle themselves until they are free to move back into the water. next day we headed to a town near by called Trelew. this town was first founded by welsh people that had left their crappy little hilly country to live somewhere else. well they chose pretty badly cos thee is not much interesting in trelew either. since it was a sunday most of the shops were closed but we did go to a dinosaur museum. it was here i think in the 90´s that they found dinosaur bones from the middle jurassic period. apparantly according to a film we seen in the museum it was a big find cos they only had a bones from the late jurassic and early jurassic and were missing the middle bit to answer a few questions. so basically thats all trelew is famous for, founded by the welsh(nothing too exciting there) and about 150 million years ago dinosaurs were roaming there, again impressive if we could have seen it but did it really happen?? a few bones in a meuseum are not going to convince me. well next stop on the trail is el calafate. heading right down south to almost the tip of argentina and cold weather.

May 30 - June 1

arrived in el calafate with somewhat annoying colombian women. started talking to one of them in el calafate whilst waiting for the bus. then they sat down behind us on the bus and wouldn shut up talking. according to them they dont slep well on buses overnight so the only thing they can do is talk to keep themselves busy!!! but they talk to other people, why they couldnt talk to charlie instead is beyond me. its what their country is famous for. i suppose they were old and respectable so it was probably beyond them. they were even staying in the same hostel as us. nyway enough about them and back to about me. we were in el calafate to see glaciers, well one actually. the glacier is called puerito moreno glacier. its named after the man that found the glacier in the first place. its in a national park called park of the glaciers. its not the only one there, there are others but its the most accessable one. its 60mts high and stretches back about 14km before spliting between two mountains. it is very impressive to see. we even had the priviledge of seeing a big chunk of it fall off. it sounds like thunder when it starts to crack then just splash into the lake in which it sits. the piece that fell off was about the size of a bus. which is pretty big. it stretches down into the lake for about 180mts. so it can afford to lose such piece. also every so often it moves so close to a lake edge that it joins with the edge and starts to ´grow´ice on it. the last time this happened was in march 2002. when this happens the lake beneath it eventually starts to erode it and makes a tunnel from side to the other. then an arc forms. and on the 14th of march 2002 the whole join to the edge of the lkae came crashing down. ten thousand people came out to watch the event.

Jun 2 - Jun 9

next stop is bariloche. a town famous for its skiing in the winter and chocolate. ruth was looking forward to doing the 2 but me just the skiing. well when we arrived it we found that it hadnt snowed so there was no chance of skiing. bummer but the town itself it quite pretty. it sits on the edge of a lake. the area is called the lake district after all, with i think about 9 lakes in total in the area and some more across the border in chile. actually when we got to the hostel we found that the receptionist working there, diego, was the guy working the hostel on the island isla do mel in brazil when we went there about 3 months ago. it really is a small world. we also met a danish girl called ina who we had met previously in mendoza. second day in bariloche and we had awoken up to about a foot of snow. so we have had basically all the seasons on this trip now. we went doing canopying that day. basically we atached ourselves to steel wires that were attached to tree branches high up and flung oursleves across them. pretty cool, but also very cold cos it was still snowing when we were doing it. for the next few days we just chilled out. the weather is not the best to be honest, lots of rain. but i have to admit that i have had the best steak i have ever eaten here in argentina. a big big piece of fillet cooked to perfection on a large open fire and it only cost me about 7 euros!!!! nice.

well here i where i have to leave it. we leave here on sunday the 11th to head to santiago for the flight to auckland on the 12th. i will fill you in on the rest of the trip some other time but basically it will be just watching as much football as i can. i think the blog will be taking abreak for a while cos all i´ll be doing when get to nz is looking for a job and trying to get back to the real world. i think it will be a real blow to the mindset and i will miss getting up everyday and deciding where to go to and seeing different things. but its not all bad, i have never been to nz and i heard its supposed to be pretty good. anywho i´ll write again some time to keep you all up to date. take it easy and e-mail me please [e-mail]

burger.

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