Sunday, October 31, 2004
Back to the Wild - Patagonia & the Lakes
After the big city lights of Buenos Aires it was time to get back to the wild and down to the wonderful area of Argentina called Patagonia and the Lake District. This is a huge area of the country and runs from just south of BA down to Tierra del Fuego in the very south. Aside from BA it is probably the most famous region in Argentina and deservedly so as there is so much to see and do here that you could quite easily spend a couple of months here trekking, biking, kayaking and viewing an enormous array of wildlife.
We started in Puerto Madryn - 17 hours south of Buenos Aires and situated on a huge, almost completely circular bay just south of the Peninsular Valdes. The Peninsular on a map looks a little like an elephant crawling up the eastern coast of Argentina but is perhaps better known for the wildlife. We were so lucky with our timing as it is the whale season amongst other things. We spent a couple of really superb days here on organised tours to see the sealife and landlife. The first day involved a trip through the Peninsular to see elephant seals, Magellan penguins, guanacos (like llamas), big hares, owls, armadillo - yes, I have seen an armadillo - very exciting! The elephant seals were great - each huge male weighing 4 tonnes with its bulbous trunk and vast blubbery body and keeping a harem of up to 18 females. The females all had their young with them - little black and grey balls of seal pups and along the shore lurked predatory males who the main male had to keep chasing off. Although the word chasing is not very apt - they sort of blubbered over towards the challenging male, then he blubbered off into the sea to avoid conflict. They do fight occasionally an you can clearly see a lot of scars and some blood on both males and females - the main male bites and scars a female who is unfaithful to him. The beaches where we saw the elephant seals are those that David Attenborough showed on his very memorable programme about orcas playing and attacking seals. It is not orca season now, but in February and March they can be seen approaching the beaches and throwing seals around the beach.
The main highlight of this day was undoubtedly the whale-watching. We had seen killer whales (orcas) in the Galapagos, but these whales are Franca whales and absolutely enormous - 40 tonnes in weight and apparently up to 25m in length - although they never totally emerge from the sea so it is difficult to estimate the length. It is calfing season now and we saw many many female whales and their white coloured calves swimming alongside. We even saw a mating pair of whales - a bit late in the season - with a couple of playful sealions nearby. One female drove herself high out of the water then splashed back down creating a huge surge and water went everywhere which was spectacular. The whole experience was unforgettable. I thought we would be lucky to see a whale, but we saw tens of them - everywhere you looked you could see a tail glinting in the sun or a fin on the horizon. But best of all, we got to within almost touching distance of many of the whales. The sound as they breathed out through their blowholes echoed around the bay.
On our second day trip we went out on a boat to see dolphins and sealions. These dolphins were different from the other types I have seen as they were black and white - very beautiful, elegant, and seemingly fun-loving - just makes you laugh and smile to watch them jumping through the air and darting under the boat. We tried to take photos but I am sure that we just have a whole load of photos of the empty sea as they were too fast. From here we travelled to the largest continental colony of penguins in the world - in Punto Tombo. There are apparently just over 1 million penguins that come here every year between Spetember and April. Now is nesting time so all the penguin couples are with eggs. Under every bush was a nest and all around the paths were holes dug by the males to provide protection for the young as they develop. A unforgettable experience to walk along the red, volcanic cliffs and scrubby, straw fields seeing hundreds of Magellan penguins waddling up from the sea - almost human like - some falling over as they go into the sea, getting knocked over by the waves, lying on their nests, standing still like statues drying out their wings, oiling their feathers. Once in the sea they come into their own - they look awkward on the land, but in the sea they dart about, seemingly flying, at great speed snapping up fish for supper.
This area of Argentina was first settled (by external settlers) by the Welsh in the early-mid 19th century, and Puerto Madryn has a lot of streets names after the first settlers - so there is a Jones street, and Evans street, Mathews, Davies and Morgan street. The area is very dry and almost desert-like so the Welsh had a hard time when they came here, but they managed to irrigate the land, and it is now a very productive area. The local population seem proud of their Welsh herritage (strange!) and Welsh is taught in the local schools, but not spoken by many people any more. We stopped for a traditional Welsh tea in a little Welsh village called Gaiman which was the second settlement here. Wow - for a couple of English people far from home with no sniff of a cup of tea for nearly 6 months, this was like heaven. We could have been in Wales - there was Welsh music on (not Tom Jones!), and the tea house was decorated like a Welsh cottage. We had a vast plateful of delicious homemade cakes and scones and sandwiches - served by a very British looking lady who could have been called Beryl but who was speaking Spanish, and whose surname was Jones nee Evans! Extremely friendly place and made me feel quite homesick for a while - for the first time. I don't even like tea normally, but I must have drunk about 5 cups of the stuff, and we only stopped eating cake as the bus was about to leave, otherwise we could have spent another hour or so there as Senora Jones kept bringing the cakes out as fast as we could eat them - fantastic! To top off our visit to this part of the world we even got a glimpse of Bill Oddie who just crossed the road in front of us - very surreal.
From Puerto Madryn in the east to Bariloche in the west and the lovely Lake District area of Argentina. We arrived in the midst of a thick blizzard which was the first snow we had seen since Bolivia. Very Christmas-like and made the chocolate box, chalet town of Bariloche look even more beautiful. Set on the edge of a huge lake, surrounded by vast, snowy mountains and deep green fir trees, this must be one of the most picturesque places on Earth. We had a great 4 days here enjoying many long day treks around the area including some through the recent snow. We took a boat on the lake to a couple of the secluded islands with stunning vistas and strange Arrayan forest comprised of trees with orange-gold bark that seem to glow in the sunlight. We had pretty good weather after the initial blizzard, although the days of T-shirts and shorts are gone now until Hawaii, and things will just get colder and colder as we head south.
We bumped into Reggie again – a big, black America bloke who we have met a few times on our travels. He had just come back from a few days in Ushuaia in the very south of Argentina and thought he was probably the only black person ever to have gone there. All the school children were just staring at him and shouting out “Michael Jackon, Micheal Jackson”. He couldn’t look much more different to Michael Jackson if he tried, but you have to bear in mind that there is no music here from past about 1985 – so the kids in Ushuaia probably still think Michael Jackson is still black. We also met a friendly and interesting couple from Columbia, a couple of Aussies who seemed to spend their entire time in a chocolate shop and saw nothing of the scenery, and some funny northerners in their late 50s traveling around South America for 2 months with not one word of Spanish, but with backpacks and a guide book, turning up to places saying "what's to do 'ere then?".
A quick note on the food in this part of the world - Patagonian lamb is the speciality. Very different from either English or NZ lamb. It is leaner as the sheep seem to enjoy more exercise here andthe taste is sublime - almost gamey in its intensity. All restaurants cook the lamb in the same way - splaying the lamb carcass into a star-jump type formation and cook over an open fire to give delicious juicy and tasty meat. This combined with great steaks, and venison gives a wondeful meal - especially when there are many "eat as much as you can" places. A perfect Atkins diet place.
Our final port of call in Argentina before another spell in Chile was El Calafate in the south, a bleak, shack-town largely built on the tourist industry. We flew here to avoid a 30 hour bus trip (bus fatigue is really setting in now) and the landscape between Bariloche and here is very desolate, barren and rugged. El Calafate is the base for exploring a the magnificent glaciars of Argentina - some of the biggest in the world. We visited the Perito Moreno glaciar - probably the most famous glaciar in the world. This was one of the most spectacular sights I have seen on our travels so far. It is one of the best natural wonders in South America. This huge glaciar measures 30km by 5km in width. It flows from 2 points higher up the mountain into one huge glacial flow that makes its way slowly into Lago Argentina. It is 60m high above the lake and stretches to the bottom of the lake, a further 120m below. It advances 2m every day, but 2m also shears from the front face every day. This is one of the reasons Perito Moreno is so famous as the spectacle ofwatching and hearing this shearing is amazing. We saw several large hunks of ice tear and plunge into the icy waters below creating dynamite-like explosions, but when one entire 60m block ripped from the glaciar to hit the water, the waves created were enormous. The ice is blue and the more compacted it is the bluer it appears. The turquoise lake is covered with wind-sculpted icebergs in whites, pale and deep blues. Even with the cold and wind, it was difficult to tear ourselves away from the magnificence of this spectacle.
The other major attraction of this area is the Fitz Roy national park - 4 hours away near, to El Chalten. We hiked around the beautiful national park for a couple of full days. One day we had mild blizzard conditions so were unable to see the huge spires of the Fitz Roy massif, but we did see more glaciars, milky-turquiose glacial lakes and snowy mountains. The second day was clearer and we saw the granite towers stretching through atmospheric clouds, too steep for the snow to stick to. The weather in this part of Argentina is very unpredictable and it is possible to experience all 4 seasons in 1 day. It is very windy and cold, but great rosy cheek weather. Annoyingly, the day that we left was the most perfect day with a wonderful red sunrise and cristal clear views of all the towers of rock. Superb views, but we will have more of an opportunity to see this kind of scenery in Torres del Paine in the next few days.
We started in Puerto Madryn - 17 hours south of Buenos Aires and situated on a huge, almost completely circular bay just south of the Peninsular Valdes. The Peninsular on a map looks a little like an elephant crawling up the eastern coast of Argentina but is perhaps better known for the wildlife. We were so lucky with our timing as it is the whale season amongst other things. We spent a couple of really superb days here on organised tours to see the sealife and landlife. The first day involved a trip through the Peninsular to see elephant seals, Magellan penguins, guanacos (like llamas), big hares, owls, armadillo - yes, I have seen an armadillo - very exciting! The elephant seals were great - each huge male weighing 4 tonnes with its bulbous trunk and vast blubbery body and keeping a harem of up to 18 females. The females all had their young with them - little black and grey balls of seal pups and along the shore lurked predatory males who the main male had to keep chasing off. Although the word chasing is not very apt - they sort of blubbered over towards the challenging male, then he blubbered off into the sea to avoid conflict. They do fight occasionally an you can clearly see a lot of scars and some blood on both males and females - the main male bites and scars a female who is unfaithful to him. The beaches where we saw the elephant seals are those that David Attenborough showed on his very memorable programme about orcas playing and attacking seals. It is not orca season now, but in February and March they can be seen approaching the beaches and throwing seals around the beach.
The main highlight of this day was undoubtedly the whale-watching. We had seen killer whales (orcas) in the Galapagos, but these whales are Franca whales and absolutely enormous - 40 tonnes in weight and apparently up to 25m in length - although they never totally emerge from the sea so it is difficult to estimate the length. It is calfing season now and we saw many many female whales and their white coloured calves swimming alongside. We even saw a mating pair of whales - a bit late in the season - with a couple of playful sealions nearby. One female drove herself high out of the water then splashed back down creating a huge surge and water went everywhere which was spectacular. The whole experience was unforgettable. I thought we would be lucky to see a whale, but we saw tens of them - everywhere you looked you could see a tail glinting in the sun or a fin on the horizon. But best of all, we got to within almost touching distance of many of the whales. The sound as they breathed out through their blowholes echoed around the bay.
On our second day trip we went out on a boat to see dolphins and sealions. These dolphins were different from the other types I have seen as they were black and white - very beautiful, elegant, and seemingly fun-loving - just makes you laugh and smile to watch them jumping through the air and darting under the boat. We tried to take photos but I am sure that we just have a whole load of photos of the empty sea as they were too fast. From here we travelled to the largest continental colony of penguins in the world - in Punto Tombo. There are apparently just over 1 million penguins that come here every year between Spetember and April. Now is nesting time so all the penguin couples are with eggs. Under every bush was a nest and all around the paths were holes dug by the males to provide protection for the young as they develop. A unforgettable experience to walk along the red, volcanic cliffs and scrubby, straw fields seeing hundreds of Magellan penguins waddling up from the sea - almost human like - some falling over as they go into the sea, getting knocked over by the waves, lying on their nests, standing still like statues drying out their wings, oiling their feathers. Once in the sea they come into their own - they look awkward on the land, but in the sea they dart about, seemingly flying, at great speed snapping up fish for supper.
This area of Argentina was first settled (by external settlers) by the Welsh in the early-mid 19th century, and Puerto Madryn has a lot of streets names after the first settlers - so there is a Jones street, and Evans street, Mathews, Davies and Morgan street. The area is very dry and almost desert-like so the Welsh had a hard time when they came here, but they managed to irrigate the land, and it is now a very productive area. The local population seem proud of their Welsh herritage (strange!) and Welsh is taught in the local schools, but not spoken by many people any more. We stopped for a traditional Welsh tea in a little Welsh village called Gaiman which was the second settlement here. Wow - for a couple of English people far from home with no sniff of a cup of tea for nearly 6 months, this was like heaven. We could have been in Wales - there was Welsh music on (not Tom Jones!), and the tea house was decorated like a Welsh cottage. We had a vast plateful of delicious homemade cakes and scones and sandwiches - served by a very British looking lady who could have been called Beryl but who was speaking Spanish, and whose surname was Jones nee Evans! Extremely friendly place and made me feel quite homesick for a while - for the first time. I don't even like tea normally, but I must have drunk about 5 cups of the stuff, and we only stopped eating cake as the bus was about to leave, otherwise we could have spent another hour or so there as Senora Jones kept bringing the cakes out as fast as we could eat them - fantastic! To top off our visit to this part of the world we even got a glimpse of Bill Oddie who just crossed the road in front of us - very surreal.
From Puerto Madryn in the east to Bariloche in the west and the lovely Lake District area of Argentina. We arrived in the midst of a thick blizzard which was the first snow we had seen since Bolivia. Very Christmas-like and made the chocolate box, chalet town of Bariloche look even more beautiful. Set on the edge of a huge lake, surrounded by vast, snowy mountains and deep green fir trees, this must be one of the most picturesque places on Earth. We had a great 4 days here enjoying many long day treks around the area including some through the recent snow. We took a boat on the lake to a couple of the secluded islands with stunning vistas and strange Arrayan forest comprised of trees with orange-gold bark that seem to glow in the sunlight. We had pretty good weather after the initial blizzard, although the days of T-shirts and shorts are gone now until Hawaii, and things will just get colder and colder as we head south.
We bumped into Reggie again – a big, black America bloke who we have met a few times on our travels. He had just come back from a few days in Ushuaia in the very south of Argentina and thought he was probably the only black person ever to have gone there. All the school children were just staring at him and shouting out “Michael Jackon, Micheal Jackson”. He couldn’t look much more different to Michael Jackson if he tried, but you have to bear in mind that there is no music here from past about 1985 – so the kids in Ushuaia probably still think Michael Jackson is still black. We also met a friendly and interesting couple from Columbia, a couple of Aussies who seemed to spend their entire time in a chocolate shop and saw nothing of the scenery, and some funny northerners in their late 50s traveling around South America for 2 months with not one word of Spanish, but with backpacks and a guide book, turning up to places saying "what's to do 'ere then?".
A quick note on the food in this part of the world - Patagonian lamb is the speciality. Very different from either English or NZ lamb. It is leaner as the sheep seem to enjoy more exercise here andthe taste is sublime - almost gamey in its intensity. All restaurants cook the lamb in the same way - splaying the lamb carcass into a star-jump type formation and cook over an open fire to give delicious juicy and tasty meat. This combined with great steaks, and venison gives a wondeful meal - especially when there are many "eat as much as you can" places. A perfect Atkins diet place.
Our final port of call in Argentina before another spell in Chile was El Calafate in the south, a bleak, shack-town largely built on the tourist industry. We flew here to avoid a 30 hour bus trip (bus fatigue is really setting in now) and the landscape between Bariloche and here is very desolate, barren and rugged. El Calafate is the base for exploring a the magnificent glaciars of Argentina - some of the biggest in the world. We visited the Perito Moreno glaciar - probably the most famous glaciar in the world. This was one of the most spectacular sights I have seen on our travels so far. It is one of the best natural wonders in South America. This huge glaciar measures 30km by 5km in width. It flows from 2 points higher up the mountain into one huge glacial flow that makes its way slowly into Lago Argentina. It is 60m high above the lake and stretches to the bottom of the lake, a further 120m below. It advances 2m every day, but 2m also shears from the front face every day. This is one of the reasons Perito Moreno is so famous as the spectacle ofwatching and hearing this shearing is amazing. We saw several large hunks of ice tear and plunge into the icy waters below creating dynamite-like explosions, but when one entire 60m block ripped from the glaciar to hit the water, the waves created were enormous. The ice is blue and the more compacted it is the bluer it appears. The turquoise lake is covered with wind-sculpted icebergs in whites, pale and deep blues. Even with the cold and wind, it was difficult to tear ourselves away from the magnificence of this spectacle.
The other major attraction of this area is the Fitz Roy national park - 4 hours away near, to El Chalten. We hiked around the beautiful national park for a couple of full days. One day we had mild blizzard conditions so were unable to see the huge spires of the Fitz Roy massif, but we did see more glaciars, milky-turquiose glacial lakes and snowy mountains. The second day was clearer and we saw the granite towers stretching through atmospheric clouds, too steep for the snow to stick to. The weather in this part of Argentina is very unpredictable and it is possible to experience all 4 seasons in 1 day. It is very windy and cold, but great rosy cheek weather. Annoyingly, the day that we left was the most perfect day with a wonderful red sunrise and cristal clear views of all the towers of rock. Superb views, but we will have more of an opportunity to see this kind of scenery in Torres del Paine in the next few days.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Both sides of the Rio Plata
And so to Buenos Aires; the big, bustling, vibrant capital city of Argentina - a few hours later than planned due to another bus break-down in the middle of the night. We hadn't heard a bad word said about the place so were really looking forward to our stay here. BA has about 3 million people living in the centre of the city and 9 million around it, so it is a huge place. It is without a shadow of a doubt the most attractive capital city in South America. Very European - in fact - although it doesn't feel like Paris, it looks remarkably similar - the reaction to anti-Spanish feeling following independence led to a big rush in the 19th century to build in a non-Spanish style in the capital. There are a lot of official French-style buildings with bulging, oversized, grey roofs, grand statues of military heroes on horseback and ornate facades. Lovely parks and tree-lined avenues. Some great restaurants, the most magnificent opera house I have ever seen and culture coming out of its ears.
This was probably one of the last places we will have a chance to go to a concert or the opera, so we made sure we did both. We saw a good Beethoven and Brahms concert at the opera house, and followed up the following weekend with La Traviata at BA's second theatre. The opera house is just beautiful - large but very elegant with six tiers of red and gold stretching up to a wonderfully decorative ceiling. If it had the Covent Garden makeover it would be surely the best opera house in the world.
Of course - when in BA, you must eat steak and drink red wine. Thank god for the advent of half bottles of wine, otherwise meals may have just merged into one long steak and wine fest - lovely, but a shame to miss out on a lot of the sights here. The steaks were pretty good as a whole, but even here they overdo the steaks - we asked for everything rare, but it came back medium rare at absolute best. Still can't complain - for USD5 you can get a very good hunk of rump that will keep you going for 2 meals!
We spent a day walking by the docks (Puerto Madero) - recently redeveloped by a British company - so the area looks very like the Shad Thames part of London - lots of cool restaurants and bars looking out onto the now unused waterways of the previously busy docks. We visited Recoleta - the posh part of town, with designer shops and a village green feel about the centre. The Recoleta cemetery is where Eva Peron is burried in the Duarte family mauseleum so we took a walk through here. It was not somewhere high on my list of places to go in BA but very glad that we did. Every mauseleum is built to be the size of a small house, some are grotesquely ornate, some like miniature temples, some very sombre in black granite - all with an upstairs and downstairs section complete with coffins. Definitely had the feel of the New Orleans cemetery in Diamonds are Forever - you felt like someone was going to conk you on the head around any corner. Well worth a visit if you go to BA.
A pleasant afternoon was spent in the other posh part of BA called Palermo which contains lots of wondeful parklands, Japanese gardens, botanic gardens and an interesting Latin American art museum. Our final day was spent mooching around San Telmo - a very SoHo, NY part of town with many antique shops, an atmospheric market with tango dancers and music, and eclectic galleries.
We also saw the two most famous football stadiums in Argentina and some of the best in the world. La Bombonera is the home to Boca Juniors (Maradona’s old club) and is in one of the roughest parts of town – La Boca. Famous for its dangerous edge at night but more positively for its colourful, corrugated iron houses each painted a different bright colour from that of its neighbour (although in reality these only occupy about 2 streets). The houses around the Bombonera are painted in the team colours of blue and yellow – true dedicated supporters. Nick has tried to suggest a claret and blue facade to our flat, but that is a big no go.
El Monmental is the stadium for River Plate, the country’s second biggest team, and we were lucky enough to go and see Argentina vs Uruguay play there in a world cup qualifier. It is one of the best stadiums I have ever been to, holding about 80,000 fans and hosting an entertaning match resulting in Argentina winning 4-2 over Uruguay.
One thing that most people don’t mention about BA which seemed so obvious is the vast number of homeless people here. After the economic crisis of 2000 many people lost their jobs and their homes. There is almost a subterranian population in BA that you see rarely during the day but who populate the streets at night pushing trolleys and sifting through piles of rubbish for food or things they can sell. There are entire families, old women, young boys, all sorting through other people's cast outs for something they can live on. Another shocking contrast in Argentina – one moment you think you are in a European capital, then next you are most definitely in SA. The middle classes here have become very vocal in their protestations about the state of the country and BA in particular. A lot of them lost a big proportion of their savings when Argentina defaulted on IMF loans so they are still angry at both the IMF and the government, but they are also increasingly worried about the fast rising crime levels in BA. We have seen protests throughout South America, but those in BA seem to be very well organised and incredibly regular. There seem to be protests near the main square every day, and we saw 2 big marches through the city while we were here. There is also a huge amount of grafitti on or near the Congress building and in the main plaza which would be startling if seen in London, but the local council cannot clean it off quick enough before the next lot is sprayed on.
A short ferry ride across the Rio Plata from BA and you are in Uruguay. What do you know about Uruguay....mmm....I’m waiting... Well, sadly or amusingly, for most Brits the most famous place in Uruguay is probably Fray Bentos – the town in the west of the country famous for producing meat pies to sell in British supermarkets for men who don’t know how to cook. Other than this Uruguay is famous for gauchos, mate tea (most men seem to walk around with cup, straw and thermos flask clutched to their chest), winning the World Cup twice, some of the best beaches in SA, estancias and steaks – purportedly even better than those in Argentina.
We started in Montevieo – relatively calm compared to BA with only 1.5 million people (in a country with only 3.5 million. We badly timed our visit arriving on a Sunday, then with Monday having most museums closed for the day we had little to do after a good walk round so ended up at the cinema. I never thought we would get desperate enough to see Anaconda 2, but we did. Mildly entertaining to try to work out who was going to be the next person of the expedition to get eaten by the fast moving hungry anacondas, but bizarrely the loud, annoying, trying-to-be-funny-in-a-dumb-way American guy survived the whole film – sorry if I have ruined it for you! I thing I will be washing my hair when Anaconda 3 comes out.
Once everything reopened we visited the old town, the gaucho museum and the history museum. Britain owned Montevideo during 1806-1807 as we tried to weaken the Spanish by launching a successful attack on Montevideo and an unsuccessful one on BA. Although we were removed fairly promptly the attacks showed the Argentinians that the Spanish were able to be defeated and considerably contributed to the rise up of the population against the Spanish rule and eventual independence.
The best place to eat in Montevideo is the market in the old town where lots of restaurants are set up in and around a lovely market building, each with a grill and BBQ full of sausages, steaks, chicken and a vast array of intestines. We skipped the intestines and went straight for the steak and red wine option which, once again, was delicious.
Following this we were ready to head for Colonia – a small town, west of Montevideo, on the Rio Plata. The countryside between the two places is lush green and dotted with many cows and little settlements - a lot poorer looking than those in Argentina, with only wooden shacks and tin roofs. Only 22,000 people live here in Colonia and it is a lovely, relaxing place to take a few coastal walks, climb the lighthouse, and chill out in the local restarants. The old part of the town is simly beautiful - by day it is great to sip a coffee in a cafe and watch the locals go about their business while we play cards, and by night it is wonderful to sit under a starlit sky in an ancient plaza eating yet another fine steak. A good break before going back to BA for one more day.
Uruguay had some of the nicest hotels we have stayed in on our travels - and probably the most expensive too, but worth it for a change. The first had a bath – a bath, a bath, my kingdom for a bath....why is it only the English (and the odd Uruguayan) that appreciate the gorgeousness of the bath. The second hotel had a hairdryer – I haven’t seen one of these for over 5 months so this was very exciting and I blow dried my hair into a frenzy for 3 days which has probably got to last another 7 months.
More updates in 2-3 weeks as we move further south through Argentina.
This was probably one of the last places we will have a chance to go to a concert or the opera, so we made sure we did both. We saw a good Beethoven and Brahms concert at the opera house, and followed up the following weekend with La Traviata at BA's second theatre. The opera house is just beautiful - large but very elegant with six tiers of red and gold stretching up to a wonderfully decorative ceiling. If it had the Covent Garden makeover it would be surely the best opera house in the world.
Of course - when in BA, you must eat steak and drink red wine. Thank god for the advent of half bottles of wine, otherwise meals may have just merged into one long steak and wine fest - lovely, but a shame to miss out on a lot of the sights here. The steaks were pretty good as a whole, but even here they overdo the steaks - we asked for everything rare, but it came back medium rare at absolute best. Still can't complain - for USD5 you can get a very good hunk of rump that will keep you going for 2 meals!
We spent a day walking by the docks (Puerto Madero) - recently redeveloped by a British company - so the area looks very like the Shad Thames part of London - lots of cool restaurants and bars looking out onto the now unused waterways of the previously busy docks. We visited Recoleta - the posh part of town, with designer shops and a village green feel about the centre. The Recoleta cemetery is where Eva Peron is burried in the Duarte family mauseleum so we took a walk through here. It was not somewhere high on my list of places to go in BA but very glad that we did. Every mauseleum is built to be the size of a small house, some are grotesquely ornate, some like miniature temples, some very sombre in black granite - all with an upstairs and downstairs section complete with coffins. Definitely had the feel of the New Orleans cemetery in Diamonds are Forever - you felt like someone was going to conk you on the head around any corner. Well worth a visit if you go to BA.
A pleasant afternoon was spent in the other posh part of BA called Palermo which contains lots of wondeful parklands, Japanese gardens, botanic gardens and an interesting Latin American art museum. Our final day was spent mooching around San Telmo - a very SoHo, NY part of town with many antique shops, an atmospheric market with tango dancers and music, and eclectic galleries.
We also saw the two most famous football stadiums in Argentina and some of the best in the world. La Bombonera is the home to Boca Juniors (Maradona’s old club) and is in one of the roughest parts of town – La Boca. Famous for its dangerous edge at night but more positively for its colourful, corrugated iron houses each painted a different bright colour from that of its neighbour (although in reality these only occupy about 2 streets). The houses around the Bombonera are painted in the team colours of blue and yellow – true dedicated supporters. Nick has tried to suggest a claret and blue facade to our flat, but that is a big no go.
El Monmental is the stadium for River Plate, the country’s second biggest team, and we were lucky enough to go and see Argentina vs Uruguay play there in a world cup qualifier. It is one of the best stadiums I have ever been to, holding about 80,000 fans and hosting an entertaning match resulting in Argentina winning 4-2 over Uruguay.
One thing that most people don’t mention about BA which seemed so obvious is the vast number of homeless people here. After the economic crisis of 2000 many people lost their jobs and their homes. There is almost a subterranian population in BA that you see rarely during the day but who populate the streets at night pushing trolleys and sifting through piles of rubbish for food or things they can sell. There are entire families, old women, young boys, all sorting through other people's cast outs for something they can live on. Another shocking contrast in Argentina – one moment you think you are in a European capital, then next you are most definitely in SA. The middle classes here have become very vocal in their protestations about the state of the country and BA in particular. A lot of them lost a big proportion of their savings when Argentina defaulted on IMF loans so they are still angry at both the IMF and the government, but they are also increasingly worried about the fast rising crime levels in BA. We have seen protests throughout South America, but those in BA seem to be very well organised and incredibly regular. There seem to be protests near the main square every day, and we saw 2 big marches through the city while we were here. There is also a huge amount of grafitti on or near the Congress building and in the main plaza which would be startling if seen in London, but the local council cannot clean it off quick enough before the next lot is sprayed on.
A short ferry ride across the Rio Plata from BA and you are in Uruguay. What do you know about Uruguay....mmm....I’m waiting... Well, sadly or amusingly, for most Brits the most famous place in Uruguay is probably Fray Bentos – the town in the west of the country famous for producing meat pies to sell in British supermarkets for men who don’t know how to cook. Other than this Uruguay is famous for gauchos, mate tea (most men seem to walk around with cup, straw and thermos flask clutched to their chest), winning the World Cup twice, some of the best beaches in SA, estancias and steaks – purportedly even better than those in Argentina.
We started in Montevieo – relatively calm compared to BA with only 1.5 million people (in a country with only 3.5 million. We badly timed our visit arriving on a Sunday, then with Monday having most museums closed for the day we had little to do after a good walk round so ended up at the cinema. I never thought we would get desperate enough to see Anaconda 2, but we did. Mildly entertaining to try to work out who was going to be the next person of the expedition to get eaten by the fast moving hungry anacondas, but bizarrely the loud, annoying, trying-to-be-funny-in-a-dumb-way American guy survived the whole film – sorry if I have ruined it for you! I thing I will be washing my hair when Anaconda 3 comes out.
Once everything reopened we visited the old town, the gaucho museum and the history museum. Britain owned Montevideo during 1806-1807 as we tried to weaken the Spanish by launching a successful attack on Montevideo and an unsuccessful one on BA. Although we were removed fairly promptly the attacks showed the Argentinians that the Spanish were able to be defeated and considerably contributed to the rise up of the population against the Spanish rule and eventual independence.
The best place to eat in Montevideo is the market in the old town where lots of restaurants are set up in and around a lovely market building, each with a grill and BBQ full of sausages, steaks, chicken and a vast array of intestines. We skipped the intestines and went straight for the steak and red wine option which, once again, was delicious.
Following this we were ready to head for Colonia – a small town, west of Montevideo, on the Rio Plata. The countryside between the two places is lush green and dotted with many cows and little settlements - a lot poorer looking than those in Argentina, with only wooden shacks and tin roofs. Only 22,000 people live here in Colonia and it is a lovely, relaxing place to take a few coastal walks, climb the lighthouse, and chill out in the local restarants. The old part of the town is simly beautiful - by day it is great to sip a coffee in a cafe and watch the locals go about their business while we play cards, and by night it is wonderful to sit under a starlit sky in an ancient plaza eating yet another fine steak. A good break before going back to BA for one more day.
Uruguay had some of the nicest hotels we have stayed in on our travels - and probably the most expensive too, but worth it for a change. The first had a bath – a bath, a bath, my kingdom for a bath....why is it only the English (and the odd Uruguayan) that appreciate the gorgeousness of the bath. The second hotel had a hairdryer – I haven’t seen one of these for over 5 months so this was very exciting and I blow dried my hair into a frenzy for 3 days which has probably got to last another 7 months.
More updates in 2-3 weeks as we move further south through Argentina.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
North west Argentina
The border crossing into Argentina from Paraguy was not a good omen. It was the dodgiest of all those I have ever made. We had to hang around immigration surrounded by tens of horrible looking pick pockets for over an hour, trying to carefully guard our bags and make sure that they went back safely on the bus. Lots of them came up offering advise on where to hand our passports and what to do with our bags, asking what seats we had on the bus and where we were going. They had nothing to do with immigration and it is pretty surprising that they are allowed to operate in such an open fashion. It felt like we were the carrion for the surrounding vultures.
The bus journey through north eastern Argentina down to Resistencia was interrupted many times by drugs checks - this is the most frequently used drug route in Argentina - but the police didn't seem too effective - just walking up and down the bus looking authoritative. They certainly didn't put off the guy behind us who had stuffed his stash between the seats that Nick was sitting on at the time of one of the searches - he came to get it back after the last check. Fortunately the police didn't search too hard.
Another wierd thing about the journey was that the first sign we saw on getting into Argentina was one stating "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" - the Falklands are Argentinian. We had noticed in Iguazu that all the maps of Argentina include the Falklands on them as if they are claiming them regardless of whether they actually possess them or not. A couple of people we have seen have been sporting little wrist bands stating the same message, and the number of places called Las Malvinas is ridiculous - from schools, to streets to airports. It seems to be a national obsession. Have been trying to prepare my arguments in Spanish should we run into a debate about the war - don't mention the war! - but so far we have not had to face this. Wish I had a few Union Jack stickers with me to append to all maps that I see with Malvinas (Arg) on them.
Our first hopping off point in Argentina was Resistencia - a hot and energetic city in the north east - or so the guide book said, although the energy of the place was rather lethargic until around 6pm when the whole town's inhabitants seemed to descend upon the centre to eat, drink and be merry in big family groups. A decent place to spend a couple of days sorting ourselves out, but not a lot to do there. We tried to get to a national park nearish by, but this part of Argentina seems to receive so few tourists that it is not really set up for tourist services and it was to prove too time consuming to go there.
We left, instead, for Salta - a big but attractive town in the northwest, situated near the Andes and containing wonderful examples of colonial architecture, good restarants, an atmospheric market and a cable car up to the mountains to survey the views.
Salta is a good starting point for various trips out to the small, friendly, picturesque villages in this Andean region. We first went to Cachi for 2-3 days - a village of about 7,000 people - a cute plaza and white-washed one-storey houses. The beauty of Cachi is it's surrounding countryside - big mountains, some snow topped, huge candelabra cacti - some as big as 6m in height, lush oases containing even smaller settlements, and dramatic craggy rock formations. We spent our time here walking through these sights, meeting school children who were keen to show off their knowledge of English (being able to count to 10), relaxing in the balmy evenings with a glass or three of the local brew.
The next little town on our trip was Cafayate - slightly bigger, but not much, than Cachi. We arrived in time for a lunchtime festival in the main plaza celebrating quinua - a wheat-type-cous cous - type thing which is only grown in Bolivia. We had tried some in Bolivia and northern Chile and it is delicious - especially with a glass of local wine, sunning ourselves on a bench watching the world pass by - little old ladies sneaking an extra glass of vino, all the children crowding round the cake table (although Nick did his best to push them out of the way!), and some local dancing. All a great intoduction to what was probably my very favourite place on our trip so far. Cafayate is famous in Argentina for bodegas and for the stunning scenery. I think we made the most of both. We hired mountain bikes for a couple of days and spent a day touring some bodegas sampling the local wines and being shown round the operations there. One we visited was totally manual and organic and the 5 employees of the bodega did everything needed to make the wine by hand, producing 20,000 bottles per year. Of particular note were the torrontes - a fruity, white wine only made in this part of Agentina, and some good Malbec - Cabernets. Not sure what has happened to my tollerance for alcohol - Liz, you would be shocked - but half a bottle of wine is plenty! Visiting the bodegas has the additional advantage that they are all situated beautifully giving stunning vistas as you sip away.
Our second day of cycling was a lot more energetic. We got a bus out 50km from Cafayate to cycle through the Corbrada de Concha all the way back to town. The Corbrada is a spectacular red canyon with it's red rock formations having been carved out over time by the weather. The road back to town is relatively free from traffic which was good as I spent most of the time gawping at the scenery in awe resulting in me swaying all over the place (no - I had been wine free so far that day!). We took loads of photos - just as you thought you'd reached the best bit, another amazing sight confronted us around the very next corner. There were ampitheatres carved out of the rock that you could walk into and admire, sharp, jagged formations, scenes of startling colours - clay reds, browns, creams, greys, lush green trees, sandy river banks and crisp clear blue streams. By the end of this little jaunt, I was utterly exhausted - perhaps a little stupid to cycle further than I have probably ever cycled before, at 1800m and in a very hot climate in the middle of the day. I thought I was getting heat stroke towards the end of it all, but after taking on a lot of water I was able to confront some more wine that evening - phew!
The journey south to Mendoza was not too bad, just very long, taking about a day and a half in all - with waiting time. Some great scenery on the way there, but it did all just drag a little too much. Mendoza is the most famous area in Argentina for wine and is where most of the Argie wine that you can buy in England comes from. It is a sizeable town, but doesn't seem so as it is very leafy and low-rise. It has a number of good restaurants, but lacks the charm of the wonderful towns and villages we stayed in further north. Also there is some noticeable poverty here which is strangely more shocking here than in countries like Bolivia and Ecuador where it is all too evident. Here the contrast between the normal, average person and poor is stark. In Bolivia, the vast majority are below the poverty line, so there is no contrast that you see as a tourist, but here the majority of the population are middle class, and seeing a dirty, unkempt boy begging for money in the clean, well-kept streets of Mendoza, or a preganant girl twirling a baton for a few cents in front of stopped traffic is more of a shock.
On our first full day here we got out to the vineyards about 15km from Mendoza in a place called the Maipu valley. The best vineyard to visit is La Rural with a museum about the way they started the vineyards in Argentina and how they used to harvest the grapes, a good tour of the grounds and some tasting - although in this part of Argentina, they seem to only let you taste the "tourist" wines, and you can't taste any of the wine you might be more interested in buying. We met an American couple here who had done a lot of the same things as us in SA and were really good fun. Spent the rest of the day with them, visiting a few more vineyards, tasting more wine and enjoying a long, delicious lunch of local cured hams, cheeses and chorizo. The vineyards here are not as wonderfully situated as those near Cafayate and are all on a far bigger scale as well. Not as quaint, friendly and attractive, but still well worth a visit.
After a day pottering round the city itself and feeding ourselves into a stupour at a tenedor libre (literally - free fork - or eat as much as you can), we decided that we needed to walk off some of this excellent food and headed into the Andes for a day trek. Having seen the snow capped cordillera every day that we were in Mendoza, we were a little unlucky on the day that we chose to go trekking as it was the only day that was cloudy. But the views were still good and the air as fresh as can be. Having said I wouldn't get out of bed for any mountain less than 6,000m after scaling Huayna Potosi, I broke my word and we climbed a little hill of 3,500m. Good to get back on the mountains again and so nice to be near the Andes - definitely my favourite part of SA.
The north-west is an area of Argentina not frequented much by tourists as there are so many other famous and wonderful sights to see in this huge country, but we have had some of the best times on our trip here. It is beautiful, totally unspoilt, incredibly friendly and one of the only parts of Argentina with any real indiginous population. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone thinking of visiting this country.
Just a slight digression back to the subject of our kidnapping back in Peru. Firstly, the Americans we met in Mendoza had been in Huaraz in the northen Andes about the same time that we were there and were telling us they had heard this story about 6 tourists being kidnapped at gunpoint - when we told them it was us, they nearly fell off their chairs! But a lot more disturbingly - we had an email from the English guy we were kidnapped with who works in Lima. He told us that just recently 4 Israelis were kidnapped at exactly the same point of the Huayhuash circuit that we were, by 4-6 kidnappers. One of them was killed and the other 3 plus their local guides were badly injured - some are in hospital. This is hugely disturbing and very upsetting - for one, the thought of the Israelis and their guides, and also the thought of how incredibly lucky we were, and how serious the situation we were in really was. We don't know if these were the same men who held us, but if the Israelis were not as cooperative as we were, and maybe tried some of their national service stuff on them, I could see the same men who caught us may have used the guns they wielded around. I hope this sparks the local, apathetic police into some kind of action. They couldn't have cared less about what happened to us, but this is now really a very serious matter.
We also heard from our trekking guide in Mendoza that an Argentinian guy died attempting to climb Huayna Potosi (the 6,088m peak we climbed in Bolivia) shortly after we had climbed it - so all a bit strange at times here.
The bus journey through north eastern Argentina down to Resistencia was interrupted many times by drugs checks - this is the most frequently used drug route in Argentina - but the police didn't seem too effective - just walking up and down the bus looking authoritative. They certainly didn't put off the guy behind us who had stuffed his stash between the seats that Nick was sitting on at the time of one of the searches - he came to get it back after the last check. Fortunately the police didn't search too hard.
Another wierd thing about the journey was that the first sign we saw on getting into Argentina was one stating "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" - the Falklands are Argentinian. We had noticed in Iguazu that all the maps of Argentina include the Falklands on them as if they are claiming them regardless of whether they actually possess them or not. A couple of people we have seen have been sporting little wrist bands stating the same message, and the number of places called Las Malvinas is ridiculous - from schools, to streets to airports. It seems to be a national obsession. Have been trying to prepare my arguments in Spanish should we run into a debate about the war - don't mention the war! - but so far we have not had to face this. Wish I had a few Union Jack stickers with me to append to all maps that I see with Malvinas (Arg) on them.
Our first hopping off point in Argentina was Resistencia - a hot and energetic city in the north east - or so the guide book said, although the energy of the place was rather lethargic until around 6pm when the whole town's inhabitants seemed to descend upon the centre to eat, drink and be merry in big family groups. A decent place to spend a couple of days sorting ourselves out, but not a lot to do there. We tried to get to a national park nearish by, but this part of Argentina seems to receive so few tourists that it is not really set up for tourist services and it was to prove too time consuming to go there.
We left, instead, for Salta - a big but attractive town in the northwest, situated near the Andes and containing wonderful examples of colonial architecture, good restarants, an atmospheric market and a cable car up to the mountains to survey the views.
Salta is a good starting point for various trips out to the small, friendly, picturesque villages in this Andean region. We first went to Cachi for 2-3 days - a village of about 7,000 people - a cute plaza and white-washed one-storey houses. The beauty of Cachi is it's surrounding countryside - big mountains, some snow topped, huge candelabra cacti - some as big as 6m in height, lush oases containing even smaller settlements, and dramatic craggy rock formations. We spent our time here walking through these sights, meeting school children who were keen to show off their knowledge of English (being able to count to 10), relaxing in the balmy evenings with a glass or three of the local brew.
The next little town on our trip was Cafayate - slightly bigger, but not much, than Cachi. We arrived in time for a lunchtime festival in the main plaza celebrating quinua - a wheat-type-cous cous - type thing which is only grown in Bolivia. We had tried some in Bolivia and northern Chile and it is delicious - especially with a glass of local wine, sunning ourselves on a bench watching the world pass by - little old ladies sneaking an extra glass of vino, all the children crowding round the cake table (although Nick did his best to push them out of the way!), and some local dancing. All a great intoduction to what was probably my very favourite place on our trip so far. Cafayate is famous in Argentina for bodegas and for the stunning scenery. I think we made the most of both. We hired mountain bikes for a couple of days and spent a day touring some bodegas sampling the local wines and being shown round the operations there. One we visited was totally manual and organic and the 5 employees of the bodega did everything needed to make the wine by hand, producing 20,000 bottles per year. Of particular note were the torrontes - a fruity, white wine only made in this part of Agentina, and some good Malbec - Cabernets. Not sure what has happened to my tollerance for alcohol - Liz, you would be shocked - but half a bottle of wine is plenty! Visiting the bodegas has the additional advantage that they are all situated beautifully giving stunning vistas as you sip away.
Our second day of cycling was a lot more energetic. We got a bus out 50km from Cafayate to cycle through the Corbrada de Concha all the way back to town. The Corbrada is a spectacular red canyon with it's red rock formations having been carved out over time by the weather. The road back to town is relatively free from traffic which was good as I spent most of the time gawping at the scenery in awe resulting in me swaying all over the place (no - I had been wine free so far that day!). We took loads of photos - just as you thought you'd reached the best bit, another amazing sight confronted us around the very next corner. There were ampitheatres carved out of the rock that you could walk into and admire, sharp, jagged formations, scenes of startling colours - clay reds, browns, creams, greys, lush green trees, sandy river banks and crisp clear blue streams. By the end of this little jaunt, I was utterly exhausted - perhaps a little stupid to cycle further than I have probably ever cycled before, at 1800m and in a very hot climate in the middle of the day. I thought I was getting heat stroke towards the end of it all, but after taking on a lot of water I was able to confront some more wine that evening - phew!
The journey south to Mendoza was not too bad, just very long, taking about a day and a half in all - with waiting time. Some great scenery on the way there, but it did all just drag a little too much. Mendoza is the most famous area in Argentina for wine and is where most of the Argie wine that you can buy in England comes from. It is a sizeable town, but doesn't seem so as it is very leafy and low-rise. It has a number of good restaurants, but lacks the charm of the wonderful towns and villages we stayed in further north. Also there is some noticeable poverty here which is strangely more shocking here than in countries like Bolivia and Ecuador where it is all too evident. Here the contrast between the normal, average person and poor is stark. In Bolivia, the vast majority are below the poverty line, so there is no contrast that you see as a tourist, but here the majority of the population are middle class, and seeing a dirty, unkempt boy begging for money in the clean, well-kept streets of Mendoza, or a preganant girl twirling a baton for a few cents in front of stopped traffic is more of a shock.
On our first full day here we got out to the vineyards about 15km from Mendoza in a place called the Maipu valley. The best vineyard to visit is La Rural with a museum about the way they started the vineyards in Argentina and how they used to harvest the grapes, a good tour of the grounds and some tasting - although in this part of Argentina, they seem to only let you taste the "tourist" wines, and you can't taste any of the wine you might be more interested in buying. We met an American couple here who had done a lot of the same things as us in SA and were really good fun. Spent the rest of the day with them, visiting a few more vineyards, tasting more wine and enjoying a long, delicious lunch of local cured hams, cheeses and chorizo. The vineyards here are not as wonderfully situated as those near Cafayate and are all on a far bigger scale as well. Not as quaint, friendly and attractive, but still well worth a visit.
After a day pottering round the city itself and feeding ourselves into a stupour at a tenedor libre (literally - free fork - or eat as much as you can), we decided that we needed to walk off some of this excellent food and headed into the Andes for a day trek. Having seen the snow capped cordillera every day that we were in Mendoza, we were a little unlucky on the day that we chose to go trekking as it was the only day that was cloudy. But the views were still good and the air as fresh as can be. Having said I wouldn't get out of bed for any mountain less than 6,000m after scaling Huayna Potosi, I broke my word and we climbed a little hill of 3,500m. Good to get back on the mountains again and so nice to be near the Andes - definitely my favourite part of SA.
The north-west is an area of Argentina not frequented much by tourists as there are so many other famous and wonderful sights to see in this huge country, but we have had some of the best times on our trip here. It is beautiful, totally unspoilt, incredibly friendly and one of the only parts of Argentina with any real indiginous population. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone thinking of visiting this country.
Just a slight digression back to the subject of our kidnapping back in Peru. Firstly, the Americans we met in Mendoza had been in Huaraz in the northen Andes about the same time that we were there and were telling us they had heard this story about 6 tourists being kidnapped at gunpoint - when we told them it was us, they nearly fell off their chairs! But a lot more disturbingly - we had an email from the English guy we were kidnapped with who works in Lima. He told us that just recently 4 Israelis were kidnapped at exactly the same point of the Huayhuash circuit that we were, by 4-6 kidnappers. One of them was killed and the other 3 plus their local guides were badly injured - some are in hospital. This is hugely disturbing and very upsetting - for one, the thought of the Israelis and their guides, and also the thought of how incredibly lucky we were, and how serious the situation we were in really was. We don't know if these were the same men who held us, but if the Israelis were not as cooperative as we were, and maybe tried some of their national service stuff on them, I could see the same men who caught us may have used the guns they wielded around. I hope this sparks the local, apathetic police into some kind of action. They couldn't have cared less about what happened to us, but this is now really a very serious matter.
We also heard from our trekking guide in Mendoza that an Argentinian guy died attempting to climb Huayna Potosi (the 6,088m peak we climbed in Bolivia) shortly after we had climbed it - so all a bit strange at times here.
