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San Martin Park in MendozaWell it has been a little while since we have been in touch, however before I fill you in on what we have been up to and some of you may be aware of this already but Mikes Nana unfortunately suffered a stroke a couple of weeks back and so we have decided to head home to see Nana and spend time with her and the family rather than continue to Europe. For those of you who know Nana she is doing well and was able to return safely to NZ on Tuesday from Canada where her and Grandad Mike were holidaying.
Ok so to continue on I think the last you heard of us we were in Arequipa, South Peru. Well after (yet another) 14 hour bus we arrived back in Lima and were out the following morning to Santiago!!
We spent one night in Santiago - just another big city really and so we hightailed it outta there for Mendoza - bring on the wine and steak!
So after yet another bus trip - this one across the Andes which were aleady getting snow - we crossed the border into Argentina and arrived in the very
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The ONE winery we visited in Mendoza picturesque city of Mendoza. Fortunately for us it was Autumn here so for a city whose streets are lined with trees and which has beautiful parks full of very grand old trees it was a stunning time to be visiting. The weather wasnt too warm however not too cold either but we certainly werent out sunbathing thats for sure!
So after covering some serious ground in the last few days we decided to just chill out and we did nothing other than sample the local cuisine and vino!!!
The wine was fantastic - Mike and I are now lovers of the firey ´Malbec´ - they certainly do them well here that is for sure!!! The steak was good here also and the boys would testify to that though Im not sure they have it over the kiwis !
So the hostel we stayed at was pretty cool and we had a couple of boozie nights at the hostel with a couple of Aussie boys from Townsville, 2 Swedish girls and two chileans cousins who couldnt speak two words of English between them. So with our Spanglish it made for a very entertaining nights especially when the Chileans
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Arriving into Buenos Aires and one of the toll gates that we came too - it was something like 24 lanes across!!! decided that since we were on our honeymoon that we shouldnt be going out we should be at the hostel doing ´you know what´- very funny for all of us as most of this was communicated in hand signals!!!!
So with our days lazed away we decided we would head out for a winery tour - well what a disaster that turned out to be!! We wake up, head out and realise ohhh it must be Sunday no one is around and all the shops are closed ...typical travellers losing track of days - so we headed out anyhow and found one winery open and the Mendoza Wine Museum the rest of the wineries were about 5kms away and with no transport - the rental bke company was also closed - we decided to call it a day !! That will teach us to assume that wineries all around the world are open Sunday's!
With that we said goodbye to Mendoza and were on our next bus to Buenos Aires - it was an overnighter and we left at 8.00pm and arrived into the madhouse at about 11.00am. The outskirts were looking sketchie as but once we arrived
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The streets of BA into town all was good! What an awesome place - for a CITY BA is a wicked!
Mike and I did a tour the day after arriving (Gary was hungover -surprise surprise !!!) and we were able to check out the main hotspots, sights and suburbs. The place has alot of flash as suburbs, heaps of awesome restaurants and bars (according to Gary who has frequented several more than us!), awesome parks and monuments - over a 1000 in central BA alone apparently!
However, their was one incident on the tour in a place called La Boca - the suburbs is famous for its colourful streets and its Soccer team Bocas Junior who are the South American champs - anyhow we had just jumped off the bus and an older woman behind us starts yelling - Im oblivious to all this as their were shops so my attention was elsewhere anyhow Mike turns round and yells oyyyy and this woman is wrestling with this dude for her camera. Luckily she was a toughie and she fought back and so he ran off empty handed but given this occurred in broad daylight with heaps of people around it gave
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´La Boca´ where the famous Bocas Junior Soccer Team comes from and where the lady nearly got mugged. It is famous for the colourful buildings and Maradona! Mike and I a reminder that we should still be very wary!!!
The other great thing about BA is that it has great shopping and everything is pretty damn cheap - even the travellers can afford to shop here which is saying something.
The highlight of BA however was our trip to a soccer match between River Plate (from BA) and Libertad from Paraguay. River Plate is the side second to Bocas and now ´our team´ here in SA!!! Well what a mad mad experience the game was! We were told it is the one thing you must do when you come here (other than learn Tango or go to a Tango show which we certainly havent done although we have seen plenty of it as they quite literally tango in the streets here).
Anyhow 5 of us went to the game and we paid for the best seats we could which cost us all of 50 pesos! We arrived and the stadium was packed with around 70,000 River Plate Fans and 100 Libertad fans in a cordoned off section with about 80 cops around them alone!!! Anyhow the fans all jump up and down on their
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´Mate´ in Argentina is the local drink for young and old - its a type of tea which they drink through a straw with a strainer on the end - this one caught my eye!! seats for the whole game and not only that they sing - very very loudly and very very passionately!!! Their were streamers and signs and singing and flares - all this combined made for the most amazing atmosphere - it was just like being at the sevens again but with much madder more passionate people - it was just awesome! Unfortunately no photos of all this though - camera was left home along with everything else of value!!!
So we left BA on Sunday night - finally - and we headed to Puerto Iguazu (just another short bus of 16 hours) to the Argentinian side of the falls. After arriving Monday midmorning and sorting out our accomodation we made plans for the following day to head out to the falls. We were told numerous ways of doing it i.e. the brazilian side first, the bottom circuit, the tours etc but we finally decided on doing the biggest first so we could get the biggest wow factor and boy did we - the Devil´s Throat - - you get so close it was just amazing!!!!! So full on!!! In fact the whole park was awesome - we arrived at 8,30am
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Buenos Aires ´Avenida 9 de Julio´ at night outside our hostel - its the biggest avenue in the world with 14 lanes. and left at 4,30pm - a full day of viewing the falls and we did tour through the jungle down to a speed boat which went up the rapids to the falls where we were able to view all the falls from the river - it was just wicked!!! We all got absolutely drenched as he took the boat completely under one of the bigger falls and so we lay in the sun on the island in the middle of the falls for about 45 mins before we all dried out- the weather was awesome - hot again yay!!! Anyhow all in all it was just amazing, a definate highlight for us all!!
So we left there yesterday morning - other than the falls Puerto Iguazu doesnt have too much to offer and so we arrived in Brazil in Foz de Iguazu today and left that night for Florianopolis on the Brazilian Coast in the hope of finding some some more warm weather, beautiful
beaches and some surf!!!
And have we lucked in - a guy at the airport hooked us up with an apartment 80m from the main beach at the northern end of the island -
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At the BA zoo - a camel with two humps - only found somewhere near China - Mum and Dad this ones for Aunty Robyn!! it is two bedroom two bathroom and is costing us 25 reals each per night - a massive $37US dollars for all three of us!!! Full kitchen, balcony and everything else you could think of is included!!! WE are stoked! We have paid for 5 nights and will see how it goes and see whats the surf like. The place is really quite at present as its off season - not sure why cause its perfect blue skies and about 24 degrees today - just lovely!!
Anyhow sorry for the delay with this blog and sorry its soooo long but I have been putting this together over a few days now as we keep moving and I havent been able to find anywhere to upload photos!
We hope all is well with you all at home and will be seeing those of you in NZ soon. Take care all - love and miss you all heaps
Love
SnM xxxxx
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toad
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awesome
A bit disappointed Mike wasn't able to wrestle a camera from an old lady, his karate skills need honing. Hey, sounds like a great trip, good luck and best wishes for your Nana. love todd