Hello all my dear family and friends, how are you enjoying this new year? Ruby and I are still having quite the blast, yet I would like to start off this blog by send our thoughts to all those suffering in the queensland floods, it doesnt seem right that you should be going through such a hard time while we are over here enjoying ourselves.
On a happier note, we have been very busy drinking in the sights of chile, argentina, and uruguy, where we are at this current moment. it is pouring down with rain ironically, so im taking some time outto update.
We left you on New Years Day, which was spent by doing pretty much absolutely nothing except basking in the glory of the volcano and our own hangovers.
The next day we were supposed to be climbing this same volcano, but alas, when we woke up that morning the weather was absolutely terrible, so the company wouldnt take us up. We were all very dissapointed, yet every cloud has a silver lining, which i shall explain now. We wandered in to Pucon town to see if there were any hikes available, as we were all feeling pretty lazy after the last couple of days, and we found a tour that would take us around to do two different hikes and finish at the hot springs. So we set off to the first hike, which was around a lovely little group of waterfalls. We were told it was a circuit track, yet Ruby, Tim, Vicki and I soon found out that it was actually only one way, and had to hike all the way back. We didnt mind though it was very pretty scenary and nice to get some exercise. The next hike was to a particularly large waterfall, we couldnt fit it in one whole picture frame, it was that huge!!! Ruby also provided us with much entertainment by having a major stack, slipping off a log and falling ass first into the bushes. We were all very concerned at first, but as soon as we heard her roaring with laughter, we thought it ok to take compromising pictures of her.
Finally, our guide took us to the natural thermal baths, which were lovely, very authentic looking and warm, where we chilled out for a couple of hours in the shadow of the valley. So it turned out to be a good day after all.
However, once we arrived back to the hostel, we found out that there had been a massive earthquake not too far from where we were, about 6.9! Everyone who had stayed at the hostel was telling us about it, yet we had been blissfully unaware the whole time!! Apparently you cant feel earthquakes at the thermal baths, talk about oblivious!! Thankfully no one was injured, yet we still had to contact home cos apparently it was a big enough deal to make the news. Ruby was quite annoyed actually, as she always happens to sleep through earthquakes, but as it turns out it was probably a good thing we didnt go up the volcano after all! It seems that everything happens for a reason....
The next day we headed even further down (hooray says Ruby) to the costal town of Pueto Viares (and by costal I mean lake costal not beach coastal, but it was still cool). It is a very cute fishin town that was populated by many german immigrants back in the day, so a lot of the architechture and even food is in german style (our hostess was even a german lady who spoke perfect spanish but hardly any english). We arrived quite late after a long bus ride, so we decided to take it easy, have lunch and wander around. Ruby and I went to one of the heritage listed houses which was very pretty and the church, before retirning to our hotel for a lovely dinner of pudding, dulch de leche ( my new staple food, its pretty much a tub of caramel), and the warner brothers channel. What? we cant be fun and touristy all the time! haha
The next day we decided to try and do the volcano thing again, this time with much greater results. First we were taken by our lovely guide Marcella to some lovely waterfalls, and then to the volcano. It was really cloudy, but we ended up getting some great views of the snow capped peaks and the surrounding forest it was very cool.
Soon it was time to say goodbye to Pueto Vares, some of us more hungover than others, and head back into Argentina, where the food is better and the men are more respectable (HOORAY!). We took a rather long, rather windy and very pretty bus trip to Bariloche, another quaint European style town on the shores of the Lake District. We were very excited because we had been told alot about this town, especially in regards to their chocolate...om nom nom nom. We arrived to beautiful sunshine and blue skies in the afternoon, and once we had sorted out our Argentinean money, went for a delicious steak dinch (thats not quite lunch but not quite dinner for those playing at home). We then decided to have some helado (que creepy tim voice), ie. ICECREAM from this amazing dessert shop that was set up something like a supermarket, but for sweets only. The portion sizes were meals in themselves, so e all ate soooo much icecream, it was quite ridiculous, but too delicious to leave anything behind.
Another cool thing about Argentina is that it doesnt get dark until about 9:30 10, so some of us decided to go for a walk down to the lake and watch the sunset. It was so pretty, the whole sky was just lit up with pinks and yellows and oranges, I havent seen anything like it in quite a while. We were all pretty tired, so Ruby and I called it quits while the boys went out for a drink and headed back to the hotel.
The next day was great fun, we got up reasonably early so that we could get lots of stuff in (theres quite a bit to see and do for such a tiny town.) First we headed up to the cable cars to get a proper view of the great lake, which was really quite amazing, the photos we took can’t really do it justice. Ruby and I frolicked around on the swing bridge, Ruby posed with a lot of wooden statues and there was a lot of “thats what she said” going around (its kind of become our motto for this part of the trip haha). We headed back down for some lunch, but got side tracked by an amazing chocolate shape, remeniscent of Willy Wonkas chocolate factory. It was freaking cool, and there were so many good chocolates, mint, dolce de leche, bailys (mmm creamy beige), its safe to say the females went a little crazy in there, for really, chocolate is the perfect subsitute for everything, am I right ladies (or can I get a hells yeah? Haha) We did also get proper lunch, from this really good takeaway empanada place, which are not shy of using large amounts of blue cheese (much to my delight and Rubys dismay) om nom nom nom. Then it was time to go kayaking!! We got picked up from our hotel and taken to a smaller but equally beautiful lake behind the mountains. It was so much fun, except my poor little chicken wings of arms got quite tired as I am not used to using them, well at all really haha! But it was lovely, the water was so clear and blue and so serene, and I had a great time. A few of us were quite damp however when we got back, especially poor Kym who had a bit of an awkward stack ( oh, I would also like to add that we had now introduced awkward turtle to England, New Zealand, Ireland, and Perth! Soon it will take over the world muhahaha). It was also really warm, so we decided it would be cool to go swimming. The boys did not hesitate, yet Ruby and I were both rather skeptical of the temperature of the water, but hey, when were we going to be there again? Unfortunatly, as soon as Ruby indicated that she was going in, Corry decided it would be fun to give her a big wet hug (not as dirty as it sounds), yet little did they know that our new friend Mike from Bath was behind them and threw them straight into the water, sunglasses and all. It was quite hilarious! I luckily escaped detection and dived in on my own accord, but the water was SO cold, it almost winded me! It was really fun though, and we headed back to the hotel very damp and in high spirits.
That night we decided it would be fun to experience some of the Bariloche night life, so we went out to a small bar for happy hour Cuba Libres (like rum and coke, but much nicer in my opinion). Ruby, Kym, Vicki and I had had our eyes on the numerous fondue signs around the town, so we left the others around dinner time to overindulge ourselves with both cheese and chocolate fondue! OH MY GOD!!! All the problems of the world could be solved if people would just sit down and eat fondue together, it was unbelievablely delicious. They even had little fried potatoe balls and little cocktail sausages for the cheese fondue, it was so rich, but safe to say we were very very satisfied. If gluttony really is a sin, then well were all going to hell.
Once we had recovered from our gorging session we meet the others again down by the lake to watch the sunset again, which was even more beautiful than the last. Then we headed back to the bar we were at before, and then to an irish pub which served Stella (hooray! Normal sized beer haha), and then out for a bit of a dance. It was a fun night.
The next day were a little bit drowsy, but there was plently of stuff to do still. We went to another chocolate shop called Mammushka; this one was really cute too, it had a russian theme with lots of beautiful little Russian Dolls everywhere. I was pretty choclated out, but I had to buy this adorable little dolce de leche Kangaroo, it was so sweet and really tasty. Ruby and I then went to wander around the bookstores and get some empanadas for lunch, yet Ruby struck out with the empanadas again because they gave her the wrong ones. Empanada fail .
Then it was time to get on another 20 hour overnight bus to ...Buenos Aires!!! Our guide gave us the chance to upgrade to first class, yet some of us, including Ruby and I thought it too much money so we just went regular, which was still fine, we got hot meals and everything. We had to stop for about half and hour so our air conditioning could get fixed, but that was ok it gave us a chance to stretch our legs and pass on another legacy to England and Perth....the nutbush!! I thought it was a universal dance but apparently not even people from Western Australia know about it! Clearly they havent been to enough weddings or 50th birthday parties. Safe to say we got a fair amount of strange looks from the locals, but we were so delerious with exhaustion we were past the point of caring.
We arrived in beautiful Buenos Aires around lunch time, and already you could tell you were in a pretty special city, or at least the area that we were in. It had been raining so the air was incredibly humid and our hotel, although entitled Hotel Splendid, was not all that splendid really, but compared to some of the accomidation we had had, it was fine. There was too much to do to spend much time in the hotel anyway, and really, if I could sleep on the floor of a tent without a pillow on the inca trail, I could sleep in a slightly stuffy, slightly small hotel room with a blocked toilet. The kiwis were in the room next to us, but they had an extra gift in their room, a birds nest with two eggs in it. Only in Buenos Aires.
We ventured out to have a look at the main square, and then headed to lunch at a downtown cafe. There were a lot of protest banners around near the government house, because apparently the Argentinians arent really happy with their new government. After lunch we took a tour of the government house, which is this beautiful old building painted coral pink (hence the name Casa de Rosa), and is where they still have meetings and adresses when the president comes to buenos aires. There was a lot of history in that house, and although we couldnt really understand any of it, it was really pretty and interesting to look at; they even let us stand on the balcony where Eva Peron ie. Evita gave her famous speech. I am ashamed to say I dont know a lot about her, apart from the musical and the fact that Madonna somehow managed to play her, and the song “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”, which we sang a lot while we were there, but she seems to be a very important figure in the history of Buenos Aires and Argentina, so I will have to read up on her when I get home, or at least see the movie.
That night was one of the best dinners out weve had this whole trip, becuase our guide organised for us to do a Tango Lesson, have dinner and see a Tango Show at one of the best tango clubs in the city. The Tango Lesson was so much fun, it was very basic but we had such a blast trying to learn, doing our tango poses and practicing our Tango faces...rubyand corry really got into it as you can see below, whereas I was a little bit unco because i couldnt stop laughing. I dont know about you, but i can definatly see some blue steel in corry’s face. But yes, our teacher Alejandro was really cool, and we got to see him dance properly later in the show.
Dinner was amazing, we got empanadas, steak (you can never have enough of argentinean steak) and this huge brownie for desert. And lots of red wine, of course. But the real highlight was the tango show; now that was unbelievable. All the dancers were brilliant, the choregraphy was amazing and all the costumes were really pretty, it was just so cool! They invited some of us up to dance, but Ruby and I just sat on the side lines and took photos, not daring to step foot on any dancefloor after what we had seen. It totally made me want to start dancing again. From this night alone, a few of us decided that we are going to move to Buenos Aires and start our own tango show, aptly named Gringo Tango. Its going to be a comedy show, with dancing by the lovely Vickie and the dashing Corry, accompaniment by me, Ruby, Aoife, Kym and Tim. I think itll take off splendidly, don’t you?
We were on a high after the show, so we decided to head out for a bit, we found some cider called Victoria, so Vicki bought that for herself, but Ruby and I decided to get some sleep and left early so we could get up early for the next day; sight seeing in Buenos Aires!
We decided that because there was so much to see, we would take the tourist bus around the city and learn about all the places we were seeing. It was a really good way to see the city, we got to sit up on the open roof and we had earphones that told us all about the different monuments, buildings and famous streets and areas. I noticed that most of the Buenos Aires architecture has a very heavy european influence, even though Ive never been to Europe, but I’m sure Ruby would agree; it is a gorgeous city, I could defiantly live here in some point of my life. We stayed on the bus right until the 11th stop, where we got off for some lunch and went to the Museo de Bella Artes, which in English means the Museum of Beautiful Art. It was a really great museum, they had works from contemporary Argentinean artists to European artists to pre Colombian and 17th century spanish artists, I could have spent ages in there. But the boys were getting pretty arted out after about an hour, so once we had seen everything we headed out to the Cemetery. Now this place was not what you traditionally imagine when you think of cemetery, this place was like a miniature city of huge tombs and mausoleums of some of the most famous and important figures in Argentine history. We spent quite a while wandering around, and saw where Eva Peron is buried with her family (again, wish I knew more about her.) It was actually pretty cool, as far as graveyards go, although I did notice a large number of stray cats wandering around or sunning themselves on the graves, which I though was an interesting omen.
After that we were pretty pooped, so we got on the bus and headed back to the main square. Ruby and I decided that we would go check out the huge flea market that is held in the streets of Buenos Aires on Sunday. We were a little skeptical at first, given our previous expreience with flea and black markets, but it was a really good one, it was a combination of an antiques market and a handicraft market, except alot more accessible as it was all lined up on the streets! It was almost 10 blocks long, and we found some really interesting and cool stuff there, but we could do the whole thing because we had to be back to have our last dinner with the rest of the people on our tour.
Now that was interesting to say the least. We went out for dinner with Lupe and the rest of our group to this tourist restaurant in San Telmo, and had a very nice meal and said goodbye to some new friends, which is never fun. Ruby and I had to go back to the hotel to pick up Aoife and Kym, who handt come out with us for dinner, which was fine, and then we decided we would head out to experience some of the famous Buenos Aires night life. According to our guide, Sunday night is gaynight in BA, which we were fine with, but some of the boys were a little worried about (you know how straight men can be sometimes). So Lupe took us to this club called Amerika, which was rather expensive and the boys were still not very keen on, so we decided to go somewhere else. It was all a bit dramatic, for reasons I dont really need to put on this blog (if you want to know you can ask me when I get home, but its really just gossip), but after a confusing taxi ride and thanks to Aoife and Kyms friend (I’m Old) Greg we made it to another area which had lots of bars and clubs, and proceeded to have an awesome but a very late night! There is something really magical about driving through the streets of Buenos Aires as the sun is rising though.
The next day we had to power on despite our little to no sleep, for there was still so much we wanted to do. Ruby had not been to bed that night, thanks to speed (dont stress, its an energy drink they have here, very similar to red bull except much stronger), so she came and got me up and we went out with Vicki and Mike to get....McDonalds. Shameful, yes, but we needed some comfort food, and it was really just what the doctor ordered. Thankyou McNuggets, you are one of my many staple foods, along with dulce de leche, cheese and steak.
From there, we got back on the yellow tourist bus and headed to La Boca. We had a chance meeting with the boys on the bus so we all headed there together, all slightly nursing some sort of hangover, yet the bright colours of the immigrant town picked us right up! It was all so bright and cheerful, not like anywhere I had ever seen. We decided to rest our already weary feet at a small cafe on the side of the street, and there we were treated to yet another excellent dance show, I think it was flamenco this time, and then, of course, some more tango. We could not get enough of Argentinean tango. It was lovely just to sit and appreciate the colourful lively atmosphere, a good cure for a bad hangover.
This was also when our new friend Mike from Bath, who had somehow been roped into buying Ruby a very large number of ponies, a jetski, or Daniel Radcliffe, through the power of her death stare. This of course was all in jest, yet while we were looking at the souvenir shops he had managed to find a knitted pony finger puppet, AND believe it or not, a finger puppet that looks exactly like Harry Potter. Dont ask me how he managed to find one in the middle of the bohemian district of Buenos Aires, but needless to say we were both extremely impressed. You are massively awesome Mike from Bath.
From here we said goodbye to Tim and Corry and got back on the bus to go and see the National Library. To our disappointment, it was closed for the holidays but on the plus side we got to see the monument to Evita close up, and Ruby got in an extra hours nap before dinner. I, unfortunately, could not sleep, so I went for a walk through the town, and found by accident these two amazing second hand bookstores (any book nerds tuning in? If so, imagine rare and old books on Collins street, except with more books in about five different languages, all smelling deliciously old and extremely cheap.) I could not believe my luck when I found an old English copy of Oscar Wilde’s collection of plays, which I have discovered are brilliant. Ok, I’m sorry, Ill stop boring you now.
That night we met our new tour guide Caterina, who so far has been great! She is from the Netherlands, yet she can speak fluent Spanish, and is a lot more regimented than our last tour guide, which in some ways is good! She forgave us for being sleep deprived and rather unresponsive, and took us out for our last supper of delicious Argentinean steak. *cue sobbing* it was delicious, a great way to send off our time in Argentina. I can still safely say that it is my favourite country in South America, and I am sure I shall end up there again in the course of my life time. I am certain of it.
The next day we bid farewell to dear BA, (Argentina did not cry for us, but we did a lot of crying for Argentina. Or pining at least) got on boat and sailed for Uruguay! We were not really sure what to expect of it, I was thinking something more along the lines of Peru, but we were pleasantly surprised by our first stop Colonia. This is a small river side town full of old buildings, hotels, shops and reataurants, it is a definatle tourist hub, yet we still enjoyed wandering around the cobblestoned streets, and had lunch in this adorable cafe that was confusingly named The Drugstore. I still don’t get it, but it was really great, lovely food and men serenading us with their brilliant guitar skills. We wandered down past the lighthouse to the coast, only to see a great storm rolling over the horizon. We thought we could outrun it, and so continued to frolick around taking photos of the pretty shore, before slowly heading back into town, when out of nowhere it began to pour with rain. For those of you who know Ruby well, this didn’t bother her at all, but I think Vickie was less than impressed that we made her walk through the pouring rain back to our hotel. Luckily, the kiwis had rented a golf buggie for the afternoon, and very gentlemanly came and picked us up and took us back to the hotel! It was so much fun riding around in the rain, but we were glad to be warm and dry at our hotel.
By now Im sure youre properly overloaded with info, so Im going to leave the next instalment to Ruby. Sorry its been such a long time coming, it wont be long till we can tell you these stories in person!!
Much love to all
Sally xoxox
