Well I arrived in Uruguay with no problems whatsoever. I caught the boat from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento. It took 3 hours and was pretty uneventful. Although at the customs (which is on the Argentina side, there appears to be nothing on the Uruguay side!) I got stamped into Uruguay before I got my exit stamp for Argentina - that was about as exciting as it got! But it has to be the easiest boarder crossing I have ever done - certainly beats going from Vietnam to Cambodia!!
I made my way to the hostel and then had a walk around the town. It turned out that Colonia is a very nice little town, which the Portuguese and Spanish fought about for years. It also houses the oldest church in Uruguay (thats your new fact for the day!). I went up the lighthouse and got a good view of the town. I later found out at night that it is in fact still a functioning lighthouse. They apparently earn a little bit of money during the day when it isn´t in use - so I think that has to be the first functioning lighthouse I have ever been in - yeah!!!
I also happened to walk across a small festival the town was having. Lots and lots of children were dressed up and parading through the streets, some on 'floats' (a car with all its doors open and blaring music!), others dancing down the street. I have no idea what the festival was in aid of though, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves!! I then passed by the local school, which appeared to be where everyone from the festival had ended up and they were now doing a sort of dancing competition. It was obviously of a high standard as they were dancing to such tunes as ´hey mickey your so fine´and ´i'm a barbie girl´!!! (the latter was repeated at least 3 times in 10 minutes!). I quickly moved on as it was doing my head in!
The next day I spent the morning seeing the rest of the town I had missed, which included the museums, which were really random. One had a very small room of tiles (?), another housed a bunch of rocks, all looked the same (I think they were some sort of weapon used in ancient times - this is pure guess work as I couldn´t read any of the Spanish!!). And another had a bunch of maps which made no sense whatsoever! Either way the whole thing cost me about 30p so I wasn´t complaining!
In the afternoon I caught a bus to Montevideo which is the capital of Uruguay. I had a walk down the main street there and came another festival/parade (is there something in the air?). This was on a much larger scale and people were dressed up in very fancy costumes with their faces painted. Again it involved quite a few cars blaring different kinds of music or people banging drums very loudly. I watched this for a while as it was quite intriguing. In the evening I went out to dinner with some people I had met at the hostel. We had a good time and ate some local cuisine - hotdogs in a bun covered with melted cheese and golf sauce (tomato ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together!)
The following day I wandered around Montevideo and visited the flea market where they were selling dogs, cats, birds, fish and a lot of cr*p. I managed to get away without buying anything, although to be honest that wasn´t hard! I also didn´t come across anymore parades - it appears that literally nothing is done on a Sunday!
On the Monday I made my way back to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This time the crossing wasn't as easy on the way in. It turned out I was missing a piece of paper which I should have recieved when I came into Uruguay and that immigration required so that I could leave the country. I had no recollection of ever getting this piece of paper, and after being passed around the immigration officers and me going through my bags to prove I didn't have it, they eventually let me through without it - obviously it wasn't that important after all!!
I have to say I do love being a 'Gringo' in this place. When arriving in Buenos Aires, we had to go through customs. But there was this guy who was standing inbetween two corridors and most people were going down the left corridor, but he waved me into the right one. I was a bit worried as I thought that me not having this piece of paper was now going to be a problem. But actually the corridor led straight outside, avoiding customs entirely!! All other foreign looking people came out the same way. Clearly us 'gringoes' are of no trouble whatsoever and won't be carrying anything dangerous!! I wasn't complaining!!
So I have now been in Buenos Aires for the last couple of days and I have been trying to see the sights that I have yet to see! Yesterday I visited dead people!! There are a couple of cemetries in the city which apparently are not to be missed, so I thought why not. The first one had Eva Peron's grave and the other one had the creator of the Tango. Personally, it wasn't that exciting, but at one of the graveyards, they have roads passing inbetween the graves, so you can literally fling the flowers out from the window of your car onto the grave!! (At least that was what I was imagining!!).
The Argentinians have been very interesting the last couple of days. There have been quite a few protests happening (their history is amazing, what these people have been through is shocking - their own army bombed their parliament building!!). So at the moment the umeployed are protesting around the city and there are tons of police with riot gear and the biggest police vehicles ever - with guns on top!! There are also barracades everywhere - especially around the HSBC building which I found out today was because 6 years ago during their economic recession the HSBC let armed police into its building and they went up to the 2nd floor where they shot dead a protestor on the street. Since then whenever there is a protest they have to put huge metal barracades around the building as it is a target for angry protestors! Its the only bank in Buenos Aires that has constant police protection. So this has all been very exciting. So far no violence has happened, but a lot of the protestors are carrying long pieces of wood with them - kind of like walking sticks but more nasty looking!
Anyway, there is no need for you guys to worry, I am off to Ecuador tomorrow. Thats if the flight manages to leave. Apparently the flights have been seriously delayed recently as the baggage handlers are protesting as well (it seems everyone protests around here!!). So hopefully I will leave on time, but my bag may not be joining me!!
Where I have been...
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Argentina
Well I made it safe and well to Buenos Aires and met up with Fay. During the day we went shopping (the thing to do in BsAs). Buenos Aires is a lovely city and has a very European feel to it. Also the weather was great so for the first time in 2 months I was back in my summer clothes - yeah!! In the evening we went to Club 69 which is an experience!! Its a club that puts on a drag show which is very colourful, but means there are lots of weird and crazy looking people wandering around! Despite this I did not have the best experience here. I owed Fay a drink so she decided she wanted a cocktail and I thought I would join her. So I went up to the bar and bought us both a cocktail costing 15 pesos each (It is really odd here, you have to pay for your drink at the till and then take your receipt to the barman who then makes your drink). I did just that and was then told by the barman that they didn´t have the ingredients for the drink (Its the beginning of the night and they have already run out of ingredients!!). So I told him that we would like to change out drink order. But to do this we had to go back to the lady at the till!!!!!! This was already getting stupid! So I went back to her to discover that in fact she had only put one drink on my receipt, not two as I had paid for. She refused to believe that she had made the mistake and that she had charged me twice - despite my change proving it!! I argued with her and the bar man for 10 minutes - I lost as only 1 in every 10 words I spoke was Spanish!! In the end I gave up and settled for the fact that she charged me twice for one drink!
Now I would have been alright if it wasn´t for what happened when we got a taxi home. When paying for the taxi, I gave him a 20 pesos note. He returned it to me saying ´fake fake´. I looked at the note and compared it to another 20 and indeed it was a fake. Guess where I had got it from - that stupid bl**dy women at the bar in Club 69!! Oh how I hate her now!! So in fact I had now paid 50 pesos for a 15 pesos drink - what a rip off. I have since tried to pass the note on, but it is very obviously a fake so no one wants it (and before you guys say how stupid I was to accept it, it was very dark in the club).
I must also mention the hostel we were staying in - Milhouse. Fay, who had been at the hostel longer than me and she had said to one of our friends, that people at Milhouse seem to have a lot of very loud sex here. No joke, when you use the bathrooms you can here people screaming their heads off... It actually turns out that the hostel is situated right next to a porn cinema!! I have to say it makes a change to listening to people singing in the shower!!
Anyway, the next day Fay and I made our way to Iguazu Falls which is on the boarder of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We took an overnight bus which turned out to be freezing (we were still dressed in our summer clothes and did not expect the bus to feel like the North Pole!! We arrived at Puerto Iguazu in the morning, checked into our hostel and then immediately jumped on a bus to Brazil. You can see the falls from both sides, and as it is quicker to get around the Brazilian side we decided to do that first.
We got officially stamped out of Argentina, but when going through the Brazilian immigration the bus seemed to fail to stop - hmmmm. It eventually let us off outside some hotel where we were to catch the next bus to the falls. Although we were still thinking about the fact that we were not legally in the country, we decided it was best to ignore this and just continue onto the falls!! The falls was spectacular, and the sound was deafening - what more can you say. I took loads and loads of photos (so if any of you are bored when I am home and fancy looking at 200 plus photos of falling water then I would be happy to show you!!). On the way back to Argentina, the same happened again. The bus failed to stop at the Brazilian end and we just got stamped back into Argentina - so we didn´t have to do any explaining. And, despite spending a day in Brazil, I do not have the stamp in my passport to prove it :-( Although, we got away scot free, there was one guy on our bus who had entered Brazil via Rio and therefore had no exit stamp - he is going to have a few problems when he wants to re-enter!!
The next day we got up really early to visit the Argentinian side of the falls. And I have to say it was completely worth it. In my opinion, the Argentinian side is much better. You get a lot closer to the falls, there are tons more walks and you get far more varied perspectives of the falls. It was a beautiful day so we just walked around the park and had a great time. In the evening I had to say goodbye to Fay for the last time. She was heading back to BsAs to fly back to Australia. I was heading onto Salta, which is in the very North of Argentina to meet up with Marc and Emma.
I got on to the bus and sat down in my seat. This was going to be a very long journey - 28 hours in total and I had to change buses at one point. During the night the bus was stopped a total of 3 times by guardes who got on the bus and demanded to see our official papers (apparently they are making sure none of us are drug smugglers or wanted!). This did not help the sleeping situation! And then at 2am in the morning (while I was still attempting, unsuccessfully to sleep) I was disturbed by the waiter who said I was sitting in the wrong seat and the guy who was supposed to be in my seat in fact wanted to sit in it. I thought this was ludicrous and produced my ticket which indeed did state that I was in the wrong seat! Turned out I had sat in the seat that I was supposed to sit in on the next bus I was going to take!! I managed to persuade the guy to take my seat so I didn´t have to move! Then at 6am in the morning, when the bus was just about pulling into the garage station it packed up!! They kept trying and trying to turn it on but it was having non of it. So for 2 hours we sat there, waiting and waiting and every so often being vigorously vibrated while they tried to start the engine (so no more sleep was to be had!!). As I didn´t speak spanish I had to guess why we weren´t going anywhere. I kept seeing a guy running to and from the petrol station with a canister, I therefore guessed that we must have run out of petrol literally 5 meters from the pump - what are the chances!! Anyway, eventually we managed to set off again and we just made it in time for my connecting bus to Salta from Tucuman. I arrived at Salta at 1am in the morning and Emma and Marc where there to meet me. They had very kindly stayed up so that I wouldn´t be lost in a new town in the middle of the night :-)
Salta is a lovely place, although it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We spent the day shopping through the artisan markets, which were excellent - I bought quite a bit of stuff that I didn´t need!! They have so many odd things there, including mugs made out of cows hoofs and bracelets made out of llama´s toe nails!! (anyone fancy those for xmas???). Unfortunately Emma had to leave the next day for Seattle, USA as a friend of hers needed her. So that left Marc and I to investigate the rest of the city for the next couple of days. It turned out there was a religious festival going on so we got caught up in that which was rather exciting. For 2 days before the festival, huge groups of people kept arriving in the city who had come from the surrounding villages/regions. Some had walked for over 2 days to get there! Some wore colourful clothes and came in traditional costume! Others just made lots of noise and set off loads of fireworks! For the finale the town celebrated by setting off the air raid sirens for an hour (they are very load and now I have a feeling what it was like during the World Wars - not nice!)
I do have to mention the lady at the hostel we were staying at. She, for some reason took a disliking to me, I think she thought I was stupid or something - anyway, this became very obvious after one day when I asked for my room key. I then asked her ´how do you say it?´ (I am still learning my numbers and keep getting 14 and 15 mixed up). So she says without missing a beat ´fourteen´!! I just look at her and said ´I know that, how do you say it in Spanish?´. Marc thought the whole thing hilarious!!
After the festival Marc and I did a couple of day trips around the area. We got to see some cute little villages, huge coloured mountains, a huge salt plains and tons of huge cactus's. We did a little wine tasting and shopped at more artisan markets. All very enjoyable. I then had to leave Salta and head back to BsAs where I met up with Caroline and Peter from Austria who I had met in Santiago while attempting to learn Spanish! In the evening we went to a tango show which was OK. Although it was more amusing watching the old man in front of us groping his lady friend (did they not realise they were in public!!).
The next day we went shopping, but then decided that since we were in a city of beautiful people we should attempt to make ourselves look less like scrubby backpackers so we went off for haircuts and manicures - all very nice and civilized!!
It was then time for me to say goodbye to Caro and Peter as I was to go onto Uruguay...
Now I would have been alright if it wasn´t for what happened when we got a taxi home. When paying for the taxi, I gave him a 20 pesos note. He returned it to me saying ´fake fake´. I looked at the note and compared it to another 20 and indeed it was a fake. Guess where I had got it from - that stupid bl**dy women at the bar in Club 69!! Oh how I hate her now!! So in fact I had now paid 50 pesos for a 15 pesos drink - what a rip off. I have since tried to pass the note on, but it is very obviously a fake so no one wants it (and before you guys say how stupid I was to accept it, it was very dark in the club).
I must also mention the hostel we were staying in - Milhouse. Fay, who had been at the hostel longer than me and she had said to one of our friends, that people at Milhouse seem to have a lot of very loud sex here. No joke, when you use the bathrooms you can here people screaming their heads off... It actually turns out that the hostel is situated right next to a porn cinema!! I have to say it makes a change to listening to people singing in the shower!!
Anyway, the next day Fay and I made our way to Iguazu Falls which is on the boarder of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We took an overnight bus which turned out to be freezing (we were still dressed in our summer clothes and did not expect the bus to feel like the North Pole!! We arrived at Puerto Iguazu in the morning, checked into our hostel and then immediately jumped on a bus to Brazil. You can see the falls from both sides, and as it is quicker to get around the Brazilian side we decided to do that first.
We got officially stamped out of Argentina, but when going through the Brazilian immigration the bus seemed to fail to stop - hmmmm. It eventually let us off outside some hotel where we were to catch the next bus to the falls. Although we were still thinking about the fact that we were not legally in the country, we decided it was best to ignore this and just continue onto the falls!! The falls was spectacular, and the sound was deafening - what more can you say. I took loads and loads of photos (so if any of you are bored when I am home and fancy looking at 200 plus photos of falling water then I would be happy to show you!!). On the way back to Argentina, the same happened again. The bus failed to stop at the Brazilian end and we just got stamped back into Argentina - so we didn´t have to do any explaining. And, despite spending a day in Brazil, I do not have the stamp in my passport to prove it :-( Although, we got away scot free, there was one guy on our bus who had entered Brazil via Rio and therefore had no exit stamp - he is going to have a few problems when he wants to re-enter!!
The next day we got up really early to visit the Argentinian side of the falls. And I have to say it was completely worth it. In my opinion, the Argentinian side is much better. You get a lot closer to the falls, there are tons more walks and you get far more varied perspectives of the falls. It was a beautiful day so we just walked around the park and had a great time. In the evening I had to say goodbye to Fay for the last time. She was heading back to BsAs to fly back to Australia. I was heading onto Salta, which is in the very North of Argentina to meet up with Marc and Emma.
I got on to the bus and sat down in my seat. This was going to be a very long journey - 28 hours in total and I had to change buses at one point. During the night the bus was stopped a total of 3 times by guardes who got on the bus and demanded to see our official papers (apparently they are making sure none of us are drug smugglers or wanted!). This did not help the sleeping situation! And then at 2am in the morning (while I was still attempting, unsuccessfully to sleep) I was disturbed by the waiter who said I was sitting in the wrong seat and the guy who was supposed to be in my seat in fact wanted to sit in it. I thought this was ludicrous and produced my ticket which indeed did state that I was in the wrong seat! Turned out I had sat in the seat that I was supposed to sit in on the next bus I was going to take!! I managed to persuade the guy to take my seat so I didn´t have to move! Then at 6am in the morning, when the bus was just about pulling into the garage station it packed up!! They kept trying and trying to turn it on but it was having non of it. So for 2 hours we sat there, waiting and waiting and every so often being vigorously vibrated while they tried to start the engine (so no more sleep was to be had!!). As I didn´t speak spanish I had to guess why we weren´t going anywhere. I kept seeing a guy running to and from the petrol station with a canister, I therefore guessed that we must have run out of petrol literally 5 meters from the pump - what are the chances!! Anyway, eventually we managed to set off again and we just made it in time for my connecting bus to Salta from Tucuman. I arrived at Salta at 1am in the morning and Emma and Marc where there to meet me. They had very kindly stayed up so that I wouldn´t be lost in a new town in the middle of the night :-)
Salta is a lovely place, although it is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We spent the day shopping through the artisan markets, which were excellent - I bought quite a bit of stuff that I didn´t need!! They have so many odd things there, including mugs made out of cows hoofs and bracelets made out of llama´s toe nails!! (anyone fancy those for xmas???). Unfortunately Emma had to leave the next day for Seattle, USA as a friend of hers needed her. So that left Marc and I to investigate the rest of the city for the next couple of days. It turned out there was a religious festival going on so we got caught up in that which was rather exciting. For 2 days before the festival, huge groups of people kept arriving in the city who had come from the surrounding villages/regions. Some had walked for over 2 days to get there! Some wore colourful clothes and came in traditional costume! Others just made lots of noise and set off loads of fireworks! For the finale the town celebrated by setting off the air raid sirens for an hour (they are very load and now I have a feeling what it was like during the World Wars - not nice!)
I do have to mention the lady at the hostel we were staying at. She, for some reason took a disliking to me, I think she thought I was stupid or something - anyway, this became very obvious after one day when I asked for my room key. I then asked her ´how do you say it?´ (I am still learning my numbers and keep getting 14 and 15 mixed up). So she says without missing a beat ´fourteen´!! I just look at her and said ´I know that, how do you say it in Spanish?´. Marc thought the whole thing hilarious!!
After the festival Marc and I did a couple of day trips around the area. We got to see some cute little villages, huge coloured mountains, a huge salt plains and tons of huge cactus's. We did a little wine tasting and shopped at more artisan markets. All very enjoyable. I then had to leave Salta and head back to BsAs where I met up with Caroline and Peter from Austria who I had met in Santiago while attempting to learn Spanish! In the evening we went to a tango show which was OK. Although it was more amusing watching the old man in front of us groping his lady friend (did they not realise they were in public!!).
The next day we went shopping, but then decided that since we were in a city of beautiful people we should attempt to make ourselves look less like scrubby backpackers so we went off for haircuts and manicures - all very nice and civilized!!
It was then time for me to say goodbye to Caro and Peter as I was to go onto Uruguay...
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The rest of Patagonia
Well Fay and I managed to keep each other occupied for the 4 days we were waiting for the boat to leave. On the Sunday, we checked out and made our way to the port (which basically consists of one jetty!) where we checked it before midday as that was what we were told to do. We were then expecting to board the boat at 2pm and leave by 4pm. We, once again, were in for a surprise. It turned out that the boat wasn´t actually leaving till the following morning at 6am and we were boarding at 9pm - so we had another day to kill!! The weather was really bad - lots of wind and rain - so we made our way to the smartest hotel in town as it was warm, clean and a place we would never normally go. After 5 hours, 2 jugs of hot chocolate (costing us GBP2.00), we moved to Indigo (the only smart bar in town) and consumed a couple of very nice Pisco cocktails. We then proceded to the only pizza joint in town where we met up with Fay´s friend Johnny who was also waiting for the boat. Eventually 9pm arrives and we get to finally board the boat. The boat is actually a cargo ship, not a cruise liner (unfortunately), but we knew this already. Fay and I were sharing a cabin, which was slightly on the cramped side but would surfice for the trip.
We then had the usual introduction in Spanish about safety, rules etc, then came the English version (which seemed to finish a lot quicker than the Spanish version - either it takes longer to say things in Spanish or we didn´t get told everything - I´m betting on the latter!!). We then all settled down for the evening to watch a movie and then to bed. Surprisingly enough I didn´t get any sleep due to the fact it was incredibly noisey as they were loading the boat all night!! Everything went quiet at 5am for half an hour and then all hell let loose. The boat went into full swing for departure and at 6am we were off - finally!!
Our days on the boat were not that exciting. We would get up for brekkie at 8.30am, watch a movie, have lunch, watch another movie, have dinner, watch another movie and then bed. In between we would pop outside, take a look at the view (which on the first two days wasn´t that great as it was cloudy and sometimes wet!!) or play lots and lots of cards! We did have some lovely people on board - although there were only 15 of us tourists on a boat which can carry 180 - so we had lots of room. But we were sharing the boat with lots of lorry loads of cows, horses and one dog which we could hear but never saw (even on the open sea you can´t get away from the dogs in Chile!!).
On the second day we left the protection of the islands and hit the open sea at 1pm. The boat suddenly began to toss around quite dramatically for the next 12 hours. Several of the passangers did not take this too well and spent most of the day getting to know the toilet!! Suprisingly enough, I did not feel sick at all. So the few of us who were fine, played cards and watch a movie. At dinner time only about 5 people turned up (soup was not served for once) and we all attempted to eat spag bog without throwing it around the canteen! Not an easy feat when you only have two hands and you have to hold your fork, glass of water, plate and tray all at once!!
On the third day the clouds gave way to the sun and the views were amazing. The sunset was gorgeous and it really made the boat trip worth while. It was definitely a great way to see parts of Patagonia that you would not normally have the opportunity to see.
On the final night we all realised we all had quite a bit of alcohol left over so we spent most of the time trying to consume it. Fay and I hadn´t got that much alcohol compared to some others. A group of 4 people had brought in 16 litres of wine between them and 3 bottles of spirits. Due to the fact that they had spent most of the second day being sick they had a lot of alcohol to consume (although they did successfully lose 2 bottles when the boat tossing started as they had just left them on the table and they promptley slid off and smashed all over the floor!).
We arrived in Puerto Montt at 2am in the morning, although luckily we didn´t have to leave the boat until 8am. Although that didn´t make much difference as once again they spent the night unloading the boat which meant no sleep for moi!!
So at 8.30am we left the boat (we had to wait for some of the French guys to get ready) and made our way to the bus station. Two people Fay and I had met on the boat, Marc and Emma who were from England and were travelling around South America were headed the same direciton as us. So we all got on a bus to Bariloche in Argentina - I had finally left Chile - It has only taken me 5 weeks!
Once in Bariloche, we found a hostel and then went for a walk around town before heading out for dinner. We went to a great restaurant were they serve so much meat (I never knew there were so many different parts of a cow you could eat!). It all tasted great.
The next day we spent looking around the town, doing shopping and in my case trying to send stuff home as I seemed to have collected a lot of cr*p again!! Bariloche was a lovely little town which is famous for its chocolate. Mix it with Dulce de Leche (which is condensed milk boiled) which is what they sell by the bucket load in Argentina and you have a great combination!!
The following day did not start well. We were all heading on a bus to El Bolson on a bus at 7am in the morning and getting a taxi from the hostel at 6.30am to get there on time. Fay and I were relying on my phone to wake us up. But this didn´t quite happen - it sort of went like this:
Fay: Sara, its 6.30am
Sara: No, its not, its 5.30am, my mobile says so.....
Sara: Oh Sh*t, I forgot to change the time when we left Chile!
We both lept out of bed, shoved everything in our bags and got downstairs (all in 5 minutes).
Poor Emma and Marc were sitting downstairs waiting for us. They didn´t know which room we were in so couldn´t wake us up! Luckily we made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare - few!!
We got to El Bolson at 9pm to discover that the market which we had specifically gotten there early for didn´t start till 11pm - some of us weren´t too happy about this! We found a hostel to check into which was up in the mountains. It was actually closed as it was out of season but they couldn´t resist 4 tourists so opened it up for us!! We had a lovely day in El Bolson, eating ice-cream, shopping at the craft fair and walking around the town. In the evening I made dinner for everyone at the hostel.
The next day Emma and Marc left to go to Buenos Aires. So Fay convinced me to go for a walk up the mountain to see Bosque Tallado which is a ´shady grove of about 30 figures carved from logs,´ plonked on a mountain! We started to walk up the road to the mountain and on the way we met some Argentinian guys who were doing the same. The four of us managed to hitch a lift to the end of the road with an Argentinan couple, thankfully as that part of the walk alone would have taken us 3 hours. We then had to walk another hour to see the sculptures. It was slightly harder than we originally thought. It turned out the pathways were all covered in snow/ice and neither of us were wearing the proper clothes. Fay was in a skirt and I was wearing shoes with no grip. I had huge problems trying to stay upright and not slide back down the mountain. After 45 mins we stopped for lunch and took in the amazing view. As we finished packing up and Fay had just zipped up her bag, it suddenly decided to slide down the mountain. I looked on in horror as Fay just sat there watching her bag. Luckily it stopped just before it went over the top and would never have been seen again!! She slowly made her way down and retrieved it - that was close!!
Anyway, we then made out way up to the sculptures, which were pretty cool, although some of them were covered with snow so you didn´t get to see all of them properly.
We then decided to walk a bit further up the mountain to the house/hostel, I only made it another 5 minutes before I decided to not go any further as my shoes were useless and I couldn´t get any grip. So I waited (what I thought would be 30 minutes) for her to climb their and then come back. 2 hours passed and she didn´t come back. I was very worried something had happened to her. I scrambled up the mountain - ending up on my face a few times and eventually made it to the house. There I met the two Argentinan guys that we had met at the beginning of our walk who said that Fay had gone up to the top of the mountain and that that would take a couple hours. I was slightly anxious because she was on her own, the snow was 3 feet deep plus in some areas and I needed to catch a night bus which was leaving in 3 hours and it was going to take us that long to get down the mountain! After another 30 mins she turned up safe and sound and we made out way down the mountiain. I spent half the time sliding down on my arse as I just couldn´t stand upright, but it was lots of fun! We managed to get down the mountain in time for my bus and I then set off to Puerto Madryn.
I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 7.30am, checked into my hostel and was expecting to chill out as I hadn´t slept on the bus. But I had booked to do a tour for the following day and there was a space to go on it in 15 minutes. I quickly put my stuff into the locker and jumped on the bus.Our first stop was one of the beaches on the way to the peninsular. The Southern Right Whales come so close to the shore as it is really deep there. We saw about 3 mothers with their calves playing around - it was awesome!! We then jumped back into the minibus and headed out to the peninsula. On the way we passed the island which inspired the drawing in ´The Little Prince´of the snake that swallowed the Elephant - the island really did look like the picture!!
We then boarded a boat and set off to see more Whales. We spent an hour out in the Bay and got to see loads more Whales. Some were breeching which was excellent. The sounds they made was amazing and the whole experience was great. Finally I have managed to see some whales after 20 months of traveling!!
Afterwards we drove further into the Peninsular and stopped off at another beach where we got to see Elephant Seals. They are really big, but at the moment they seemed to be conserving their energy as apparently the mating season will be starting shortly!!!
As we were driving around, we would stop occasionally and look at the wildlife. We saw an armidillo, their version of the emu, horses, a really odd looking hare thing as well as lots of sheep. At one point we had stopped to look at an emu, when our guide got off the bus. We were all wondering why until we saw the little lamb beside the bus. The lamb immediately mistook our guide for his mother and ran over to him in delight. Everytime he moved it would run after him. It was really funny. We eventually found its real Mum, but every time the guide tried to take the lamb over the mum would run away. It also didn´t help that the lamb kept running towards our guide and not its real mum. Eventually our guide put the lamb as near to its real mum as poss and legged it into the bus. We quickly drove off, with the lamb in pursuit!! Fortunately its poor little legs couldn´t keep up so it gave up, but its Mum did go after it this time!!
The following day I stayed in town and walked to the end of the pier to watch some more Whales. There were loads about and I ended up watching them for 2 1/2 hours!! They came really close to the pier which was amazing. At one point 5 of them decided to come and play right next to where I was standing :-) I can´t believe there are so many whales here and they are literally on the doorstep!!
Today I am heading to Buenos Aires on another night bus. I love the buses here, they are so comfortable. The seats are huge and there is a waiter on board to serve you your meals and drinks!! I am absolutely loving Argentina :-)
Right now I am going to head back to the pier and take one last look at the whales - yeah :-)
We then had the usual introduction in Spanish about safety, rules etc, then came the English version (which seemed to finish a lot quicker than the Spanish version - either it takes longer to say things in Spanish or we didn´t get told everything - I´m betting on the latter!!). We then all settled down for the evening to watch a movie and then to bed. Surprisingly enough I didn´t get any sleep due to the fact it was incredibly noisey as they were loading the boat all night!! Everything went quiet at 5am for half an hour and then all hell let loose. The boat went into full swing for departure and at 6am we were off - finally!!
Our days on the boat were not that exciting. We would get up for brekkie at 8.30am, watch a movie, have lunch, watch another movie, have dinner, watch another movie and then bed. In between we would pop outside, take a look at the view (which on the first two days wasn´t that great as it was cloudy and sometimes wet!!) or play lots and lots of cards! We did have some lovely people on board - although there were only 15 of us tourists on a boat which can carry 180 - so we had lots of room. But we were sharing the boat with lots of lorry loads of cows, horses and one dog which we could hear but never saw (even on the open sea you can´t get away from the dogs in Chile!!).
On the second day we left the protection of the islands and hit the open sea at 1pm. The boat suddenly began to toss around quite dramatically for the next 12 hours. Several of the passangers did not take this too well and spent most of the day getting to know the toilet!! Suprisingly enough, I did not feel sick at all. So the few of us who were fine, played cards and watch a movie. At dinner time only about 5 people turned up (soup was not served for once) and we all attempted to eat spag bog without throwing it around the canteen! Not an easy feat when you only have two hands and you have to hold your fork, glass of water, plate and tray all at once!!
On the third day the clouds gave way to the sun and the views were amazing. The sunset was gorgeous and it really made the boat trip worth while. It was definitely a great way to see parts of Patagonia that you would not normally have the opportunity to see.
On the final night we all realised we all had quite a bit of alcohol left over so we spent most of the time trying to consume it. Fay and I hadn´t got that much alcohol compared to some others. A group of 4 people had brought in 16 litres of wine between them and 3 bottles of spirits. Due to the fact that they had spent most of the second day being sick they had a lot of alcohol to consume (although they did successfully lose 2 bottles when the boat tossing started as they had just left them on the table and they promptley slid off and smashed all over the floor!).
We arrived in Puerto Montt at 2am in the morning, although luckily we didn´t have to leave the boat until 8am. Although that didn´t make much difference as once again they spent the night unloading the boat which meant no sleep for moi!!
So at 8.30am we left the boat (we had to wait for some of the French guys to get ready) and made our way to the bus station. Two people Fay and I had met on the boat, Marc and Emma who were from England and were travelling around South America were headed the same direciton as us. So we all got on a bus to Bariloche in Argentina - I had finally left Chile - It has only taken me 5 weeks!
Once in Bariloche, we found a hostel and then went for a walk around town before heading out for dinner. We went to a great restaurant were they serve so much meat (I never knew there were so many different parts of a cow you could eat!). It all tasted great.
The next day we spent looking around the town, doing shopping and in my case trying to send stuff home as I seemed to have collected a lot of cr*p again!! Bariloche was a lovely little town which is famous for its chocolate. Mix it with Dulce de Leche (which is condensed milk boiled) which is what they sell by the bucket load in Argentina and you have a great combination!!
The following day did not start well. We were all heading on a bus to El Bolson on a bus at 7am in the morning and getting a taxi from the hostel at 6.30am to get there on time. Fay and I were relying on my phone to wake us up. But this didn´t quite happen - it sort of went like this:
Fay: Sara, its 6.30am
Sara: No, its not, its 5.30am, my mobile says so.....
Sara: Oh Sh*t, I forgot to change the time when we left Chile!
We both lept out of bed, shoved everything in our bags and got downstairs (all in 5 minutes).
Poor Emma and Marc were sitting downstairs waiting for us. They didn´t know which room we were in so couldn´t wake us up! Luckily we made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare - few!!
We got to El Bolson at 9pm to discover that the market which we had specifically gotten there early for didn´t start till 11pm - some of us weren´t too happy about this! We found a hostel to check into which was up in the mountains. It was actually closed as it was out of season but they couldn´t resist 4 tourists so opened it up for us!! We had a lovely day in El Bolson, eating ice-cream, shopping at the craft fair and walking around the town. In the evening I made dinner for everyone at the hostel.
The next day Emma and Marc left to go to Buenos Aires. So Fay convinced me to go for a walk up the mountain to see Bosque Tallado which is a ´shady grove of about 30 figures carved from logs,´ plonked on a mountain! We started to walk up the road to the mountain and on the way we met some Argentinian guys who were doing the same. The four of us managed to hitch a lift to the end of the road with an Argentinan couple, thankfully as that part of the walk alone would have taken us 3 hours. We then had to walk another hour to see the sculptures. It was slightly harder than we originally thought. It turned out the pathways were all covered in snow/ice and neither of us were wearing the proper clothes. Fay was in a skirt and I was wearing shoes with no grip. I had huge problems trying to stay upright and not slide back down the mountain. After 45 mins we stopped for lunch and took in the amazing view. As we finished packing up and Fay had just zipped up her bag, it suddenly decided to slide down the mountain. I looked on in horror as Fay just sat there watching her bag. Luckily it stopped just before it went over the top and would never have been seen again!! She slowly made her way down and retrieved it - that was close!!
Anyway, we then made out way up to the sculptures, which were pretty cool, although some of them were covered with snow so you didn´t get to see all of them properly.
We then decided to walk a bit further up the mountain to the house/hostel, I only made it another 5 minutes before I decided to not go any further as my shoes were useless and I couldn´t get any grip. So I waited (what I thought would be 30 minutes) for her to climb their and then come back. 2 hours passed and she didn´t come back. I was very worried something had happened to her. I scrambled up the mountain - ending up on my face a few times and eventually made it to the house. There I met the two Argentinan guys that we had met at the beginning of our walk who said that Fay had gone up to the top of the mountain and that that would take a couple hours. I was slightly anxious because she was on her own, the snow was 3 feet deep plus in some areas and I needed to catch a night bus which was leaving in 3 hours and it was going to take us that long to get down the mountain! After another 30 mins she turned up safe and sound and we made out way down the mountiain. I spent half the time sliding down on my arse as I just couldn´t stand upright, but it was lots of fun! We managed to get down the mountain in time for my bus and I then set off to Puerto Madryn.
I arrived in Puerto Madryn at 7.30am, checked into my hostel and was expecting to chill out as I hadn´t slept on the bus. But I had booked to do a tour for the following day and there was a space to go on it in 15 minutes. I quickly put my stuff into the locker and jumped on the bus.Our first stop was one of the beaches on the way to the peninsular. The Southern Right Whales come so close to the shore as it is really deep there. We saw about 3 mothers with their calves playing around - it was awesome!! We then jumped back into the minibus and headed out to the peninsula. On the way we passed the island which inspired the drawing in ´The Little Prince´of the snake that swallowed the Elephant - the island really did look like the picture!!
We then boarded a boat and set off to see more Whales. We spent an hour out in the Bay and got to see loads more Whales. Some were breeching which was excellent. The sounds they made was amazing and the whole experience was great. Finally I have managed to see some whales after 20 months of traveling!!
Afterwards we drove further into the Peninsular and stopped off at another beach where we got to see Elephant Seals. They are really big, but at the moment they seemed to be conserving their energy as apparently the mating season will be starting shortly!!!
As we were driving around, we would stop occasionally and look at the wildlife. We saw an armidillo, their version of the emu, horses, a really odd looking hare thing as well as lots of sheep. At one point we had stopped to look at an emu, when our guide got off the bus. We were all wondering why until we saw the little lamb beside the bus. The lamb immediately mistook our guide for his mother and ran over to him in delight. Everytime he moved it would run after him. It was really funny. We eventually found its real Mum, but every time the guide tried to take the lamb over the mum would run away. It also didn´t help that the lamb kept running towards our guide and not its real mum. Eventually our guide put the lamb as near to its real mum as poss and legged it into the bus. We quickly drove off, with the lamb in pursuit!! Fortunately its poor little legs couldn´t keep up so it gave up, but its Mum did go after it this time!!
The following day I stayed in town and walked to the end of the pier to watch some more Whales. There were loads about and I ended up watching them for 2 1/2 hours!! They came really close to the pier which was amazing. At one point 5 of them decided to come and play right next to where I was standing :-) I can´t believe there are so many whales here and they are literally on the doorstep!!
Today I am heading to Buenos Aires on another night bus. I love the buses here, they are so comfortable. The seats are huge and there is a waiter on board to serve you your meals and drinks!! I am absolutely loving Argentina :-)
Right now I am going to head back to the pier and take one last look at the whales - yeah :-)
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