South America - Chile - Uruguay - Argentina

  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

From 'mate' to 'amigo', from Fush and Chups to Steak and Papas Fritas, from cold weather to errr more cold weather, we have arrived in South America! First stop was chilly Chile where we had a 2 day pit stop to try and get over the 16 hour time difference from Auckland. No such luck. Chile was nice though, we stayed in the Central Business District and with its high rise Microsoft and KPMG offices, it could have been any city anywhere.

Presidents Palace Santiago Chile

We were pretty zonked though so didn't really get to explore too much. We flew from Santiago to Buenos Aires (hereinafter referred to as BA, as we have a perpetual struggle with the spelling.)Our first experience of BA was a leaflet given to us in the airport advising us only to use the official taxi booth in the airport and not to hail a taxi outside arrivals. Eek! On arrival at our hotel, we strolled around for a while; the pedestrian shopping zone was close by and just packed with people shopping, hawking, dancing etc. The jet lag was still taking its toll so we went for a snooze for 'an hour' at about 4pm. We woke up at 11pm, starving, and decided to see where we could get a bit of tucker. BA is not the place for early diners; in fact 11pm was peak time for restaurants. Trying to get dinner here anytime before 9pm is impossible, and to eat at 9pm is a lonely experience with just you and the waiters in the restaurant. We had decided to spend the majority of our 2 weeks in Argentina travelling around this absolutely vast country which gave us only a few days to experience the sights and sounds of BA. We did a walking tour which was great; BA is a city of such contrasts; the disparity between rich and poor is amazing. There are streets that would rival Kensington and 5th avenue, with magnificent architecture built by wealthy Spanish settlers, and antique and designer shops. And then after dark the garbage recyclers appear, rummaging through the rubbish left out for the bin men to find anything of value and claim money back on plastics. There is a strong Irish influence in BA, and we heard about the Kavanagh family who made their money buying cattle ranches in the countryside. Corina Kavanagh, one of the daughters was due to marry the son of another very wealthy family, the Anhorenas. But the Anhorenas were 'old money' and old mother Anhorena did not approve. She had built the most magnificent church which she was able to view from her palace on the other side of the Plaza San Martain. She did everything she could to break the relationship up and eventually succeeded. As revenge, Corina built the 'Kavanagh Building' one of the first skyscrapers in Buenos Aires which is still revered for its perfectly symmetrical style. The skyscraper just happened to block Mrs Anhorenas view of her church from her palace. Hell hath no fury and all that.....

Memorial in BA

One of the highlights of our stay in BA was a trip to the Boca stadium to see Boca Juniors play Rosario Central in their first home game of the season.

Boca Fans

The atmosphere was electric, these fans sure have passion! We went with a tour group as apparently tourists are prime targets among the 'working class football fans'. The truth is we felt very safe. I don't know how we would have felt on the terraces, where hundreds of fans watched the game from halfway up the barbed wire fence, but we were in the seating area and it was brilliant to see the sea of yellow and blue and the constant singing and chanting all the way through the game. The match itself was pretty dull, 0-0, and the less said about me thinking the captains name was Megatone (the team's sponsor), the better. Maradona, the team' most famous former player has his own box in the stadium, but wasn't there unfortunately. It is pretty obvious that Maradona is No 1 here, followed by the team itself, and God coming in a lowly 3rd. Considering that Argentina is 90% Catholic, that's saying something.
We also went to a tango show, a rite of passage for any tourist to BA. Tacky and OTT, its still worth it, and funny to think that Tango originated as a dance for men outside the bordellos of BA while waiting for the laydeez inside.

Tango Show in BA

We headed over to Uruguay for 2 days, to a little port called Colonia. Little being the operative word. The boat takes and hour from BA and we had walked around the town in less time than that. Nonetheless, it was a pretty place to visit, and a world away from the noise and bustle of BA. However, my dinner of spaghetti Bolognese which was honestly made from dog food made us question the culinary fabulousness of the place.

Colonia Uruguay

These guys are supposed to be the beef kings! Its hard to complain when everything is so cheap though, dinner for 2 including beer cost us no more than 15-20 euro, cigarettes cost about 80cent. Unvelievable.
So enough about that, and on to our big Argentinean adventure. This country is so massive, we have really only scratched the surface, but had an amazing time doing it! First stop was Iguaçu, home of the magnificent Iguaçu falls, about 2 hours (plane journey) north of BA. The waterfalls are out of this world for their sheer size and aggression, and the Garganta Del Diablo (the devils throat)

Iguazu Falls - Devils Throat

is the most impressive. The best part of the trip was the boat tour that we took under the falls, we got completelyn and utterly soaked! The force of the spray was such that it was impossible to catch your breath or even turn your face towards the water, but everyone on the boat, from 8 to 80 was howling with sheer joy and excitement by the end of it, notwithstanding the wet jocks.

Iguazu Falls

We drove across the border to Brazil which allows one to get a more panoramic view of the falls which was great, but most of the day was spent filling out immigration forms at the border. But it's worth seeing, and it's always worth geting another stamp on the passport!
On then to the End of the World- el Fin Del Mundo.

Ushuaia - end of world

Or Ushuaia,Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world. This is the closest place (relatively speaking!) to Antarctica, and the temperatures reflect this. When, oh when will we get some heat?! Ushuaia was a nice city to spend a few days in, but they really trade on the end of the world thing- 'end of the world' golf club, 'end of the world' train (which we took and was pretty lame), 'end of the world' restaurant etc. And its not like you just fall off the end of the pier into the abyss or anything, its just like any other coastal town, although Route 40 which Che Guevara drove in his Motorcycle diaries does end here, so it is the end of the road in that sense. The tours we did here were a bit daft; some 4x4 driving in lots of snow, a trip to a lake which was frozen; but the trip to the Tierra del Fuego National Park was beautiful; surrounded by the snow capped Andes, rest assured there is peace at the end of the world...

End Of the world - Barry and Eva

We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary in El Calafate, home of some of the world's largest glaciers. More glaciers! Yes, we are 'ice perverts' (thanks Shane O'B!) The Perito Merino glacier is one of the only stable glaciers in the world,

Glacier Falling

the rest are all retreating, and at a pretty fast rate judging by the size of the icebergs surrounding them. Some were the size of 2-3 football pitches, and of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg, har har (we have used that more than once this trip...) 85% of the icebergs are underwater, they are huge! And mostly blue, the bluer the 'berg the more compressed the ice. We spent our time in El Calafate on various boats looking at the glaciers, which sounds horrendously boring but was good fun.

Glacier View

One of the perils of boat tours however is the flock of tourists in such a confined space. Tourists suck, pretty much, and I know we are two, but jeepers- we have seen tourists take photos of their dinner arriving to their table in a restaurant; of their luggage coming off the conveyer belt in airports; of the reception desk in the hotel...and don't get us started on the camcorder folk. Anyway, if tourists take photos of such mundane events, you can imagine what happens when they get within a few feet of a bleedin' glacier. People had no hesitation in shoving you out of the way to make sure that the 856th shot of the glacier was the best one. I blame digital photography, and also, they are so vain!!! We have seen so many people ask strangers to take their photo, look at the finished product immediately, and then ask for it to be retaken. Ahh, whatever happened to leaving the film at the chemist and returning a week later with your little slip to receive your 28 exposures; at least 5 of which had a finger over the viewfinder and the customary one of your shoes as you figured out how to work the flash...?

Iceberg lake

We headed back to BA on 14th August on a dodgy, and much delayed flight, followed by a short but scary taxi ride by a Michael Schumacher-esque type taxi driver who brought us to our hotel at 4am. BA is in general a safe city, but there is a lot of tourist crime here, as there is in most of South America. Some of the scams are ingenious, a kid will spit on you and a group of locals will fuss around you to clean you up, all the while cleaning you out. The taxi situation can be dodgy, and it's not uncommon to have somebody jump in beside you in the cab who 'just happens' to be going to your hotel...and the rest. Outside the big cities, Argentina is a very safe country and we felt completely at ease there. What a great country though, and it is amazing to think it is a 3rd world (or emerging!) country. We met an Argentinean-Czech couple in Ushuaia (our Czech mates) and we could have listened to them for hours as they talked about one corrupt government after the next. Fascinating stuff, but this is a blog and not a thesis so another time perhaps.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the Mate ritual. Mate (pronounced Maa-tey) is a grass like hot drink that is EVERYWHERE in Argentina and Uruguay. People are addicted to the stuff and carry the herbs and a thermos of hot water around with them wherever they go. The ritual is lovely, if a little unhygienic... Mate is drunk from a hollow cup type thing through a metal straw, and is shared around among friends. Apparently, it is a great honour to be offered to join in the ritual and we never refused the offer although it is definitely an acquired taste.
So we are in Peru now, the day after a pretty large earthquake about 150 miles outside Lima.Hopefully this is as close as we get to any natural disasters. Adios Amigos!

Barry´s Cliff Notes::
Am suffering amazing altitide dizzyness at the moment, so my prose may be shorter than normal!!! if that´s possible. (We are in cusco in peru- Very high up) Also got a taste of an earthquake today in the airport, scary!!

Note to anyone wanting to go to south America.. Visit Argentina. Very Very cool place and I take back what I said about NZ being the most beautiful place - Patagonia southern Argentina is. It is just amazing and worth spending a few weeks touring. Really nice.

Iguaçu falls - Amazing sight and we got to go to Brasil for a day to see it from their side. Which is a much better view.

Fin Del Mundo - End of the world - Terra Del Fuego - I think this is one of the great places to go, if not for exictement or things to do, it is just good to be there!

Barry End of world

- Me there!

Glaciers Glaciers - Ice Ice Baby!!!!! The sight of Icebergs, glaciers, rivers, mountains etc in National glacier park in El Calafate are AMAZING. But I am now officially sick of Ice and the cold and am looking forward to some heat.

Anyway I am off to fall over from lack of oxygen. Hopefully you like the photos.

Buenos Noches. Barry x