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Published: January 22nd 2011
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Uruguay – Colonia de Sacremento ‘Colonia’ We decided to check out Uruguay while we were in Buenos Aires, it was only a ferry trip away and another country to check off the list. We caught the slow 3 hour Burqebus ferry to Colonia and had a great time playing Uno looking out over the really brown water (any ideas why it is brown??!! We hope it’s not pollution).
Making our way to the hostel (Hostel El Espanol – we highly recommend it, BYO brekky but everything else supplied) we then set off to find the old historic area of Colonia and were not disappointed. Beautiful cobbled streets, coloured house, lovely tree lined streets, cafes, quaint museums... it really did have everything. They love their ceramic tiles here – every house, street, point of interest had lovely painted tiles.
We went up the lighthouse and looked out over the little town, visited around 5 museums (favourite was the dinosaur bone display in the Museo Municipal) and wandered the little shops and street stalls looking at souvenirs. Really relaxing little place.
On the second day, once we’d done the historic part to death we set out on a massive
walk in the blistering heat to check out the town’s bull ring and a dinosaur museum. It was only about 4kms away but my god it was hot... we finally arrived and after cooling down in the shade we walked around the bull ring, which was in ruins (surprise to us!), we even snuck in and wandered around inside it. The dinosaur museum was closed/also in ruins so we walked back directly to the ferry (fast 1 hour service this time) and headed back to Buenos Aires.
Chile – Santiago Love love love Santiago! It was a friendly, easy, clean city. We stayed for two nights in the fantastic Eco Hostel. Staff, room, breakfast was great! We arrived around lunch time and set off for a walk of the city and walked up Cerro Santa Lucia - a great old fort/church/residence on a hill with stunning views over the city and out to the Andes. After walking around the city and soaking up Santiago we headed back to the hostel and masterchef David cooked up a delicious meal, much needed after so many meals out.
The next day we traipsed around all the tourist hot spots. If
you’re ever in the town, here is what we recommend NOT missing:
Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino – great indigenous sculpture, art, clothing etc. Beautifully set up with English explanations
Mercado Central de Santiago – dive into the local fish markets and enjoy a big bowl of broth filled with seafood (paila marinara) – YUM. Loads of little hole-in-the-wall cafes, fish stalls and lots of people!
Catedral Metropolitana – one of the most beautiful churches David and I have ever seen
Chile – the Andes We booked a days trekking in the Andes through our hostel – the owner takes you in the bus and leads a great tour. We set off around 9am and had a bumpy 2 hour ride to the foot of the Andes. We were taking the 8km hike to the San Fancisco Glacier. It was breath taking from the beginning. Snow capped mountains, fields of clover and wild flowers in the valleys, rivers of gushing melted water from the glacier.
It was hard going but a really relaxing hike, the guide, Enzo went very slowly – the poor Brazilians on the hike were in converse shoes and jeans –
they don’t quite cut it in the mountains! We stopped for lunch at a scenic little lagoon – Laguna Morales – and also sampled the amazing carbonated mountain water at Aguas Panimavidas. We finally reached the glacier and actually went inside the cave that had melted out from within it. Constantly melting you had to watch out for falling rocks and the small torrent of water. It was surreal and beautiful.
David and I literally ran the 8kms back down the mountain (with a few knee jars and ankle twists on the way! Yep we’re hard!), to beat the looming thunder storm. I felt so vulnerable on the mountain face with a metal walking pole when the huge claps of thunder and streaks of lightening were blasting away around us. We made it back and jumped on the bus for a snooze while we headed back to town. AWESOME day!!!
Argentina – Mendoza We caught a bus over the Andes to Mendoza arriving at the crack of dawn to the very friendly hostel owner Gustavo. He runs Hostel Mendoza Lodging, a super friendly hostel. Last night we had a Parrilla with Gustavo, his daughter Jesabelle and a
few other guests – we haven’t really had that social experience in a hostel yet so we had a lot of fun.
Mendoza is a beautiful little city. It just has a local, friendly feel. Most streets have lovely big trees growing down them and the plazas are filled with the community having fun and enjoying life (after their siestas that is! The town is a ghost town between 12 and around 3-4pm).
We jumped on a half day wine tour on the first afternoon, we visited 2 vineyards, an olive oil factory and lastly a chocolate/liqueur shop. Great value for money but very touristy - the wine snobs in us craved the wonderful Malbecs that Argentina is famous for... we did some research and found 'Trout and Wine' and booked a full day tour.
After a rest day we were fully recharged and ready for our wonderful wine tour with Trout and Wine – a company run by an Irish guy called Charlie. The bus picked us up together with two other Irish couples – Colim and Susan, Colin and Sharon. We had a ball and tried some absolutely fantastic wines. James, our tour guide (expat from
Sydney Australia – doesn’t think he will ever return given the great life style in Mendoza!) was great and took us to four fantastic vineyards – Kaiken (which exports to Australia – look out for it, yum!), Sottano, Belasco de Baguedano (famous for a ‘smelling room’ – where you can smell around 50 different wine aromas – from peach and cherry to coal and grass) – we had an amazing lunch here overlooking the vineyards and the Andes, then finally Alta Vista. By this stage we were all having so much fun (I suspect the 16 very large wine tastings could have had something to do with it) that when it was time to be dropped off we all opted to head to a local cafe for some icy local brews. GREAT DAY! It ended too soon though, as David and I had to jump back on the bus and head back to Santiago to catch our flight to Lima, Peru. To the two fabulous Irish couples – if you ever read this blog... thanks for a great day!
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