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Published: December 10th 2006
Ciao South America! We Love You Argentina!
The question is ladies and gents: Can you pick the missing country? England, France, Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Germany, ??? Answer after the commercial break......
So we left the land of wind and snow and headed North to Peurto Madryn in search of the Southern Right Whales. 22 hours later and we arrived at our destination on the East coast of Argentina, checked into our inn for the evening and booked ourselves onto a a trip to see these majestic creatures. The Southern Right Whale is so named as a result of their inquisitive nature, which means they approach the boat to simply check you out and watch you through their big blue eyes. This was a hunters dream, as the whales were "Right" to kill....... Quite how anybody could hurt these beautiful creatures is beyond me and always will be. Save the whales I say!
Puerto Valdes is the palce where the Mothers give birth to their calves and raise them for 12 months, before taking them into the open ocean in search of warmer waters. As we arrived, we were treated to a whale breaching, crashing through the
air and back into the ocean with the majesty of a true king of the ocean. This is going to be a good day me thinks and we spent an hour or so on the open water, being treated to a show that you couldn´t put a price on. Surronded by whales swimming, breaching, making out and simply doing their thing. It was a truly awesome experience and up there with anything we have experienced this year. We also saw Orca´s in the open ocean, Elephant Seals and pinguino´s which just added to the experience overall.
Back on the bus again for another 18 hour bus journey to the city of "Good Airs" - Buenos Aires. Now BA has been given a very big rap by our friends (Randy & Rita, Nath & Gemma) so we were expecting good things and once again, we weren´t dissapointed. BA claims to be one the most European cities in the world, which is a big call given that it is in South America. It is a fusion of many different nationalities and cultures including the Spanish and Italians, although surprisingly, there are very few indigenous people living in Argentina and this is
also true of BA.
The architecture is classic European style and it is like being in Rome or Barcelona in many respects. The streets are wide, parks are beautiful, coffee is good, food is fabulous, steaks bigger than the plates they are served on and of course the Tango is on many a street corner and can be enjoyed over a coffee or a beer. BA is truly a place to watch the world go by.
We spent a couple of weeks at a great hostel called the Garden House in St Telmo and loved the place. It was just like being at home and run by some top fellas who made us feel very welcome. We explored St Telmo, Palermo, Recoletta, Boca and numerous other fabulous suburbs. We also had access to a circle of friends we had made along the way in South America and enjoyed simply hanging out with the guys and living a somewhat normal life again. Of course, we couldn´t sit still for two weeks and along with a Tango show and a Queen tribute band, we managed to take in a trip to "Foz De Iguassu" (some 18 hours North of BA)
and and back again, all within 60 hours. The highlight being mistiming the viewing of the "Gargantua Del Diablo - The Devils Throat", the largest waterfalls in South America. The result being that we spent ten minutes at the main falls and five hours at the minor falls. A truly chumpy affair indeed.....
A visit to BA would not be complete without taking in a football match at the Bombonera (the chocolate box). We didn´t get to see a match but we did manage to take in a tour of the ground, completing YT´s hat-trick of the worlds greatest football stadiums (the Bernebau, Maracana and Bombonera). Boca Juniors are legenday in Argentinian footballing terms and their most famous son is a man who goes by the name of El Diego. Maradona is a legend full stop, regardless of what you think about his conduct off the field. This boy could play and spent time with Boca Juniors, Barcelona and Napoli. He broke the hearts of the English in Mexico 86 with THAT goal provided by the hand of God, or was it god...... and went on to lift the world cup for Argentina. For a boy from the one
of the poorest suburbs of BA, I had to take my hat off to him when I learned that he turned down $US100m+ for his image rights from a US company, who requested that in order to recieve the money, he must take duel nationality with the US. Fair play El Diego, if you know what I mean?
That brings me nicely to the initial question and our trip to Uruguay. Who of course were the winners of the first world cup. We hit Uruguayan soil and were both delighted by the fact that we have now visited every country that has won the world cup. YT is loving this "soccer gig" I can tell you! We spent the weekend in Colonia which is a fabulous little colonial town with Portuguese and Spanish influences. Again, the coffee was good, the VW Beetles were everywhere and we caght up with Bennie and Karen for lunch too!
As our time in BA drew to a close, we hit the shops and spent a day shopping for new clothes for our non-travelling life. I have to say that having spent the past 8 months living out of a ruck sack, wearing
the same old shorts and t-shirts, we both both loved a day spending money we don´t have and wearing some new clothes for a change. We arrived back to the Garden House with bags arms full of shopping and the only problem being how we get everything into our back packs!
Overall, we had a fabulous two weeks in BA and genuinely loved the place. However, it was time to move on from South America after three months of pretty full on travel. We have covered some serious ground across this amazing continent, crossing from Lima to Rio on bus, flying over to Santiago and then covering Santiago to Patagonia to BA all on bus. I am not sure of the mileage but I do know that it was well worth it. Argentina has been incredible and BA was a special place to finish our South American experience.
Next stop, the land of Salsa and Tequila - Mexico!
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rita
non-member comment
I want to go traveling again
Glad to hear you guys loved BA as much as we did, it's a wicked place! looking forward to the next blog. x