Chile and Argentina

South America » Argentina
June 10th 2008

Published: June 19th 2008

Edit Blog Post

andrewandkim

Santiago

Kim in the Plaza de Armas

Hello everyone, we´ve now been in South America for over a month, so this is an update of our time in Chile and Argentina. So far we´ve had a brilliant time and have met loads of friendly travellers.

We arrived in Santiago and it was a gentle introduction to the new continent. It feels very european, both architecturally and culturally. Chile´s status as South Americas richest country was evident from the numerous shopping malls and parades in the city centre and there are lots of bars and cafes. We were thrown into the deep end with the new language, luckily Kim saved the day (big shout out to Miss Murphy) as Andrew only knew words that had been in Ricky Martin songs.

We enjoyed wandering around the city but we were badly jet-lagged. We had gone from 11 hours ahead of England to 4 hours behind, so we were a bit dazed for the first week or so. Despite this we managed to make it up to the top of San Cristóbal (via train) to get a smoggy view over the city.

We didn´t know what to expect from Chilean food but it soon became clear that their

Santiago

View over Santiago from the Cerro San Cristebl - impressive but very smoggy

diet consists of a lot of meat, pasta and chips and not a lot of vegetables. Everyone seemed to be eating completas - hot dogs smothered in guacamole, mayonnaise and tomato sauce - and who can blame them, its great stuff!

From Santiago we caught the bus to Valparaíso, Chile´s cultural capital. It´s beautifully set on the Pacific coast with multi-coloured houses and buildings rising up on the hills that overlook the city. We went up and down the funicular and got good views over the city and coast. Here we had our first empanadas, which seem to be another staple food in Chile and Argentina. They are meat pastries which are better than anything you´ll find by Ginsters (they´re that good!), so Andrew was loving it. We paid a visit to nearby Vina Del Mar which is an upmarket seaside resort.

Chile is relatively expensive so we decided to head across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. The journey was 9 hours but the specatacular scenery made the journey pass quickly.

Mendoza is a really nice town, very upmarket and designed with a wide street pattern and lots of attractive plazas. There are loads of stylish

Santiago

Kim at Cerro Santa Lucia

cafes and restaurants, where everything is really cheap, the prices didn´t feel realistic as the food and drink were at least as good if not better than you´ll find at home but we weren´t complaining! The Mendoza region is famous for its wine production and on our first night we sampled a few bottles of the local produce, writing off the next day. The only thing we could manage to do was eat a steak sandwich. We decided to visit the local wineries and so the following day when Kim had recovered from her white wine hangover we rented bikes from Mr Hugo - the worlds most affable man. We were joined by two Irish girls and it was a really good day, sampling loads of red and white wine. There was a slight hiccup when the pedal fell of Andrew´s bike but luckily Mr Hugo drove out with a new bike, this time a girls one! We managed to get through the day without getting totally smashed (which disappointed the Irish girls) and got back to the hostel in one piece in time to catch the night bus to Cordoba. Instead of going east to Cordoba we did consider

Valparaiso

View over Valpo

going south to Patagonia but there had been a volcanic eruption in Chile which had resulted in lots of ash affecting parts of southern Argentina.

The night bus deserves a mention because it was the equivalent of flying first class. There was leg room, leather seats, hot dinner with red wine, blankets and a film. It was brilliant and there was even a game of bingo which was an additional bonus. Unfortunately this was a one time only treat.

Cordoba was a nice enough city with plenty of colonial architecture and plazas but not particularly exciting. So the next day we decided to head to Rosario, unfortunately here, Kim´s stomach decided it could take no more cheesy fast food so she spent the afternoon in bed with a couple of nurofen. On Andrews return from exploring the city Kim´s stomach ache had disappeared as Andrew had bought her a pair of blue, furry earmuffs as a present!?

Rosario was a chilled city with lots of colonial buildings and a very nice riverside promenade. But like Cordoba there wasn´t much to keep us so we decided to head to Buenos Aires the next day.

We loved Buenos

Valparaiso

Another view over Valpo

Aires straight away and decided to stay for a week in an area called San Telmo. This area had lots of European-style architecture and was famous for the tango which we saw on numerous occasions. Our hostel was right next to a British pub called Gibraltar which we frequented several times during our stay. After Andrew had dropped a glass he tried to explain to the barman in Spanish that he needed a mop, he was surprised when the barman replied in a thick Yorkshire accent "don´t worry I´ve sent a lad over."

Andrew wanted to see Boca Juniors so one day we headed to the La Boca area to secure some tickets. Fortunately there were seats still available for the derby against Racing. As we had arrived early we spent the day hanging out in the local area watching tango and drinking Cafe con Leche. Boca are the club of cheating Diego Maradona and his image was everywhere which Andrew found quite painful, although not painful enough to prevent him from posing with a Maradona lookalike. It was shameless stuff.

In order to get into the ground for the match we were searched five times and the

Valparaiso

Andrew and a completa!

police took our suncream and handwash. Argentina has a well documented hooligan problem so the police presence was quite reassuring. We sat in the equivalent of the family stand as we were told that the hardcore section was pretty rough.

The atmosphere at the ground was brilliant and we were lucky that the game was full of drama. Racing took an early lead, so the away fans were jubilant for most of the match. However Boca equalised with about 10 minutes to go and then scored a winner with the last kick of the match. The whole ground was shaking and the noise was incredible.

After leaving the stadium we needed to walk with the Racing fans for a few minutes in order to catch our bus back to San Telmo. Understandably they were a bit upset after suffering a last minute defeat and you could feel the tension. The situation was inflamed by a Boca fan who started to wind up the Racing fans, they started to spit at her and began threatening local people and shops nearby. It wasn´t pleasant and we made a sharp exit, avoiding an imminent charge of riot police. We made it

Valparaiso

Kim on the picturesque hillsides of Valparaiso

to the bus stop with the help of a friendly waiter who had served us earlier. Just as the bus was leaving there were numerous police cars and motorbikes driving into the area and it looked like it was about to kick off. We were glad to be heading the other way.

As Buenos Aires is the home of tango, one evening we went along to a concert and watched a live tango band which was a brilliant experience.

We really enjoyed wandering around the city, taking in antique markets in San Telmo, pubs in Palermo and the famous cemetary in Recoleta. The day we visited Recoleta was also the day of the European Cup final. We spent the afternoon watching the match in a pub where the walls were covered in TV screens. We felt a bit sorry for John Terry but the tears were a bit over the top - pull yourself together man!

You might have guessed by now that we loved our time in BA and the food was delicious! We would only change one thing; the amount of dog sh%t on the street mainly in the area of San Telmo, it is

Argentina

Arrival in Argentina

everywhere a few pooper scoopers wouldn´t go amiss! We both managed to tread in it within the first couple of days. Andrew was trying to scrape it off his shoe on the street, and was laughed at knowingly by a nearby taxi driver who had clearly been there himself! BA residents love their dogs, which explains the volume of sh&t, and walking around the city you can´t fail to notice the amount of professional dog walkers about.

From BA we caught a 20 hour bus to the Iguazu Falls near the Brazilian and Paraguayan border. We spent a couple of days admiring the falls and exploring the surrounding area. The falls are pretty spectacular and we took a stupid amount of photos. We recently watched the new Indiana Jones and whilst the film was woeful we noticed that the falls were used as a backdrop.

This brings us to our last destination in Argentina, Salta. This was a lovely town with nice old buildings and plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants. Here we tried an Argentine speciality, a Parrilla. This is a selection of grilled meat including black sausage, sausage, kidneys, intestines, pork, chicken, steak and it must

Mendoza

Kim in Mendoza´s main plaza

weigh kilos! It was brilliant. Kim wasn´t as brave as Andrew and stuck with the meat she could recognise. Unsurprisingly Andrew ate everything. We rolled out the restaurant and could hear a band playing so we went for a look. It was a little outside festival, so we ended up staying for awhile and the band we heard were really good (we bought the CD the next day). It was really cool because lots of young couples were performing a traditional dance with white handkerchiefs which added to the atmosphere.

In Salta we went on a day trip to see the cacti at Los Cardones national park. More spectacular scenery and lots of photo opportunities. Our guide was brilliant and we were lucky to be in a really small group with only two other girls.

From here we headed back to Chile to San Pedro in the Atacama Desert. Here we arranged a tour in a jeep to the Salar de Uyuni across the Bolivian border.

We had a great time in Chile and Argentina. It was very relaxed and the people are so friendly and helpful. We´ve lost count of the amount of time people have

Mendoza

Andrew in Parque San Martin

helped us or have been patient with our pidgin spanish.

We have spent the last 2 weeks or so in Bolivia, and we´re loving it here. We are enjoying being quite sociable it´s mad the amount of times you bump into the same travellers. Last week we had some much needed spanish lessons in Sucre whilst fitting in a euro football match or two.

Well hopefully we will update you with our Bolivian tales soon and be sure to let us know all the news at home.

Take Care
Andrew & Kim

Additional photos below

Photos: 46, Displayed: 29