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is the Amazon (Cuyabena)
11.05.15
Yay! The Amazon! It was one of my main ‘to do’s’ whilst in South America and I’m so glad I did it. Nic didn’t want to go so I left her in Montanita/Baños and met up with Marc in Quito (a lovely Mancunian we met in Santiago). We used www.happygringo.com for this tour and found them quite helpful - they sent us several different options of tours in our price range and we ended up booking the 4D/3N Samona Lodge tour for $220, an amazing price for an Amazon tour.
Hola!
So let the adventure begin...
Arriving in Lago Agrio by overnight bus from Quito we tried to use the map Happy Gringo provided to walk to the ‘close by’ hotel meeting point from the bus station, however the map missed out several key roads and proved to be completely wrong so we ended up taking a taxi. It was another 2 hour bus ride to the river and then a 2 hour boat ride to Samona Lodge. A long day of travels, but the boat ride was worth it as the animal spotting began instantly.
Trendsetters...
Our guide, Clyde, was able to answer most of our questions. I had a sneaky suspicion he made up a couple of facts but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. We also had Aurora, a true Amazonian lady with an amazing taste in fashion. Although she couldn't speak a word of English we bonded over grass bracelet making, Marc discovering that he had a natural flair for this hand-craft.
Our Group
Our group consisted of an Asian-American couple, two German ‘friends’ - Marc was convinced the guy wanted more, and an older American couple with their two 18 year old nephews. The American family were nice enough, but on the 2nd night I had a conversation with the two nephews about guns in America and one proceeded to tell me proudly about all the creatures (e.g ‘gators and ‘coons) he has shot in his hometown in Oklahoma. I was especially horrified to hear that he shoots turtles when they pop their heads up in ponds. He was oblivious to my disgust and when asked why he did it he laughingly explained that it was just to pass the time. I’m usually a very tolerant person but that just takes the cake, its also ridiculous to think that he was visiting the Cuyabena nature reserve when he has such a blatant disregard for any animal.
RANT OVER
Quick Itinerary:
Sunset over the lake
Day 1:
After the long first day of travel we headed out to a large lake to cool off and watch the sun set. I never thought I would be jumping into an Amazonian lake containing anacondas, pink dolphins, caimans and that weird fish that swims up your urethra when you pee, but there I was! Once the sun had set we went caiman hunting and then back to the lodge for dinner. Prior to leaving for the swim, this conversation took place:
“Hey Marc, did you shut the door to our room?”
“Course Anne, I’m not an idiot”.
However, Marc had left the door open so we had a wee visitor in our bathroom in the form of a bat. Whilst Marc stood there like a knob head I had to use a sarong to guide the bat out of the room.
Our wee visitor
Caiman spotting
Day 2:
Consisted of a long but beautiful hike through the rainforest and a shorter night walk with Clyde and Aurora pointing out different flora and fauna. Clyde proving to be an expert animal caller, fooling a mother caiman into thinking that her baby was calling her.
The lovely Aurora
So the natives bite leaves to create maps of the surrounding area, I wasn’t convinced
This palm tree actually walks around the rainforest
Monkey Business
Day 3:
Third day we visited an Amazonian tribe and learnt how to make Yuca ‘bread’ eaten with a ridiculously hot chilli paste. A football game was arranged with the locals and a little girl came up and proceeded to smother a little chick with love in front of us. She even put it in her mouth. I would be impressed if that chick is still alive. We also visited a shaman who tried to cure a tourists back pain by brushing thistles all over his lower back. The skin came up in welts and I doubt that his back pain was cured.
Having a ‘grate’ time...LOL
The hobbit & chick murderer
Too cool for games
The Shaman doin’ his ting
Day 4:
We were supposed to go early morning bird watching but unfortunately it was raining heavily so we had our breakfast and got ready to leave.
Our lodge in the RAINforest
Creatures we saw:
Saki Monkey
Red Howler Monkey
Spider Monkey
Pygmy Marmoset (a.k.a Pocket Monkey)
Some other monkey that the guide named ‘Goalie Monkey’ but I can’t verify that on Google. He may have been making this up.
Sloth (Main animal I wanted to see!)
Pink Dolphins
Caiman
Tree Frog
Anaconda!!
Giant Cricket
Banana Spider
Scorpion Spider
Ants that tasted like lemon
Tarantula
Bloody huge cockroaches...uggggh
Tiny bats that camouflage on trees
Blue Morpho butterfly
Many Banded Toucan
Snakecatcher
Red capped wood pecker
Fly Catcher
Hoatzin (a.k.a Stinky Turkey
Anaconda
Baby Caiman
Banana Spider
Tarantula
Scorpion Spider - Looks like the one in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class in Harry Potter!
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is Huacachina
18.04.15
The desert oasis of Huacachina is a pretty strange place, with all the buildings (i.e hostals/restaurants) centred around the lagoon, and its continued existence is basically fuelled only by tourism. We arrived in the early afternoon from Lima and could tell that this was a place where backpackers came to drink (a lot)…there wasn’t much else to do after an afternoon dune buggy/sand board. This was further confirmed within an hour of us arriving by a drunk 19 year old English child screaming at his friend for advising an erroneous early bus departure resulting in him missing out on his nap time, and another sweaty, glassy eyed Isle of Mann native, which is not part of the United Kingdom, but a country in its own right…we have a flag and everything, checking out every woman and complementing one lucky lady on her beautiful bikini bottoms - not her top, just her bottoms??? Both had been drinking together for 24 hours straight. We were lucky enough to have the latter stay in our dorm room where he proceeded to sleep with no pants on. Lets just say the concept of man-scaping is yet to reach the Isle of Mann.
On to bigger & better things though: We were hustled into signing up to our hostels dune buggy/sand boarding session which lasts for 2 hours. So at 4.30pm we eagerly climbed into the back of a dune buggy with 7 Japanese Ultimate tourists. Prior to the tour I was most worried about sand boarding than the actual dune buggy drive, but these drivers are maniacs! The sand dunes are ridiculously huge and they drive up and over them at full speed. I felt like I was on a roller coaster but with the added terror of having no tracks to follow; you would arrive at the top of a dune with no knowledge of what was on the other side, be thrown up out of your seat, over the crest of the dune, and slammed back down to find yourself hurtling down a nearly 90 degree angle - it made perfect sense why these dune buggies had massive roll cages. I’d say this is more risky than biking down Death Road, but after the initial shock, it was just as much fun!
Something out of a Dali painting
Hola!
That small black dot is the drivers insane dog who followed us the whole way around the dunes.
Sand boarding was fun too, but our driver wouldn't let us go down the dunes standing up, so we sped down them head first on our stomachs. This was probably a blessing in disguise as I can’t snowboard let alone sandboard, but Nic was a little disappointed. Even in this ‘safer’ position one of the Japanese Ultimate tourists wiped out on the last and biggest sand dune which was pretty funny (don’t worry he was fine).
Precarious parking
True to our initial judgement we ended up having quite a wild night out ending in Nic having her bag & phone stolen. The next day was not pleasant for her, having to sit hungover in a police station for most of it.
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is the Inca Trail & Machu Picchu
08.04.15
Ah, the time had come for us to complete the #1 thing to do in South America according to every travel blog ever. I’ve got to be honest here, I was a bit sick of talking about Machu Picchu by the time we got to Cusco. Once you're in South America it seems like everyone has ‘been there, done that’ and you're a bit like why the fuck am I doing the same thing as everyone else. However, I’m glad I had booked the traditional Inca Trail prior to my inner cynic rearing her ugly head as it was fantastic and will gladly jump onboard the Inca Trail band wagon to sing its praises.
We picked Peru Treks to take us on the Inca Trail and the actual trek with the company was great, however the customer service and communication from Peru Treks left much to be desired - there was a change in itinerary that they neglected to tell us about until the day before the trek.
This change in itinerary meant that we had to camp at a base camp the night before the trek started. In the end this worked in our favour as we completed the majority of the climb to Dead Woman’s pass during the 1st day rather than the 2nd day - my legs would have staged a rebellion otherwise. The whole trek was pretty tough going and no one warned us about how many stairs there are, damn those Inca’s! The incredible views and feeling of accomplishment beats the crap out of every last one of those gruelling stairs though.
We were in luck too, we had a lovely group to trek with and the guides David and Eddie were really good guys.
Machu Picchu itself is full of tourists, for a small reprieve take the 15 minute walk to the Inca bridge.
I’m keeping this one short as I don’t think you need a word for word description of this experience plus I’m at a north Peruvian beach and want to go for a swim. So go and do it yourself but make sure to pack a very fashionable poncho.
Day 1.
HOLA!
Day 2.
Top of Dead Woman’s Pass
Chaski History 101 with Professor Eddie.
Day 3.
David and the Chaski’s
Death Stairs, I hate you
Standard Tourist
Day 4.
Ma, Look! bromeliads and begonias
Inca Bridge
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is Death Road, La Paz
28.03.15
So, this was a terrifying surprise. At no time in our ‘planning’ did Nic and I discuss mountain biking down the Death Road. I think that’s what made it all the more amazing as we had no real expectations for this tour, other than certain death from hurtling off a sheer cliff top. But from our arrival in La Paz it was one of the 3 most talked about things to do in La Paz - the other two being Cholita’s wrestling and Route 36, so we were inclined to see what all the fuss was about. And I’m glad we did!
We went with the company Vertigo as it was the cheapest of 3 (others were Gravity & Altitude) that seemed to have a good safety record (my life is only worth 450 bolivianos). The lady told us to be ready for 8.30am the next day, and true to South American logic there was a knock on our door at 7.30am. Ah-neeeeee, Neeeh-coh-lah, Bike Tooo-ahhh. So with 2 minutes to get ready, we were bundled into a bus and delivered to the top of the ‘New’ Death road to be given our sweet biking kits & complete a 20 min training session with our guide Kenneth. Then we were off, speeding down the steep inclines of asphalt to get a feel for the bikes. This was already 1st class pant-shitting territory.
Trousers that fit perfectly
The Gremlin isn’t so sure
‘New’ Death Road
Once we were ‘experts’ of the asphalt it was time for the Death Road proper. The modern road was swapped for a mix of gravel and large smooth rocks and a very moist, foggy environment - as you can imagine this was the perfect condition for braking before plummeting head first to your death off the side of the road. No worries though….we had helmets and knee pads HAH!
Okay I’m making it sound far worse than it actually was, I had SO much fun and its been one of the highlights of my trip so far. The views up there (once the fog lifts) are incredible, I stopped a few times to take in and appreciate my surroundings - which I think a lot of people forget to do. The adrenaline rush is addictive, I gradually got faster and faster gaining confidence as I went…which also turned out to be a bit dangerous as I skidded out a few times at the end and almost lost control - Nic can vouch for this. Our group did well though, no one crashed or fell off the side. I can’t say the same about a guy in our dorm room who crashed, broke his arm and had surgery in a La Paz hospital. Hows the cast treating you Gar?
True professional
Pant-shitting territory
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is San Pedro de Atacama
18.03.15
Okay so I´ve jumped a bit because I´m so behind on this blog (surprise surprise) but hopèfully this will keep Mum happy :D. I´ll catch up on the other stuff later OKAY MUM!?
Hopped on an overnight bus in Salta, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. During the ride to SP de A, I experienced my first taste of altitude sickness, waking up several times during the night feeling exhausted, short of breath and a bit nauseous - although I attributed the latter to the large Argentine steak I ate for dinner the night before. Wise old Google told me otherwise. This was not the last I would see of altitude sickness UGH!
Anyway, altitude sickness aside the views heading into SP de A were unbelieveable. It was so refreshing to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. The landscape was a Mars like desert of hazy ochre hues with a scattering of green where brave plants were daring to grow. This was set against powdered sugar mountain peaks, and forboding grey storm clouds which were intent on proving that the Atacama desert was, in fact, not the driest desert in the world.
Walking to our hostel in San Pedro
SP de A town itself is nothing special, small and dusty, its very much a tourist town - you can see the money from the local tours being poured back into the town. Its cute for now but I won´t be surprised if in a few years time there are larger scale resorts popping up.
San Pedro de Atacama Cemetery
Walked around the town and booked our 3 day tour to Salar de Uyuni on the first day we were there. Didn`t do much more as we were both completely knackered. I ended up in bed at about 7pm!
The next day we had two tours booked. The first was to see the Geysers del Tatio (departing at 4.30am - YUCK) but it was cancelled due to the apparent shit weather (it was sunny in the morning!!) so instead walked to Pukara de Quitor, ruins of an old fortress built on a hill top 3km away from San Pedro town. The second tour was to the Valle de la Luna and Valle de la Muerte. Theres no point describing what these two areas were like, no words or photos can capture entirely the feeling you get from these natural wonders (this will be an ongoing theme) - so get off your asses and go see it yourselves!
At the time we went there was an unusual presence of static electricity in some of the higher areas. The result of which was that our hair stood on end and when you held your hands up they emitted a weird buzzing sound. Our guide Eric had a miniture freak out whenever we put our hands up because he thought we´d get struck by lightening. In all his years as a guide he had never seen anything like this. His theory behind this occurance was the unusual mix of thunderstorms, humidity and salt. Which sounds about right, it was pretty awesome whatever it was!
The crazy yodelling German looking even crazier with electrified hair
Valle de la Luna (Moon Valley)
The three Maria´s
Valle de la Muerte (Death Valley)
Sunset at Valle de la Muerte
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Is La Paloma
Day 1.
It was my turn to drive the two hours to La Paloma. So I put on a brave face and hopped in the drivers seat, I feel like I coped well with driving on the opposite side of the road (no flat tyres by crashing into curbs or parking in garage exits and causing traffic jams like Spain :D). However, it became clear that Nic did not appreciate my defensive driving tactics of swerving around the large pot holes in the road, as after the drive she quietly disappeared off to lie down with a faint greenish tinge on her face. Sorry Nic!
I was feeling good (for now…) so went for a walk and checked out the beaches. The beaches are…surprise surprise…beautiful, and the waters great for surfing although when we were there the water was relatively calm. There must’ve been a storm prior to our arrival though as there were millions of broken mussel shells on the shore line turning parts of the beaches into an Uruguayan version of fire walking, it was quite funny to watch beach goers gingerly tread over them to get to the water. There were still so many families lapping up the late afternoon sun at 5pm and the smell of torta fritas (fried bread) was strong on the breeze. La Paloma is much more family orientated compared to the drunken youths of Punta del Diablo. We had decided to stay at a place called La Balconada beach hostel as it was just behind a sand dune right on La Balconada beach. The owner was a very tanned long haired surfer dude that had a very penetrating stare, when he looked at you it was as if he was saying ‘Why the f*** are you making me take time out of my busy surfing schedule to run this hostel for you’. He actually turned out to be quite nice, I think it may just have been because he didn’t now much English and as we, the two stupid unilingual travellers, didn’t know Spanish or Portuguese there was a severe lack of communication, resulting a menacing stare.
La Balconada beach has a sharp drop when you enter the water so you have to be careful when you get out - the retreating water has a strong current that can get ya. We witnessed an old lady being pulled out of the water by the life guards as she wasn’t strong enough to get out herself. She would have had some lovely sand grazed knees for souvenirs.
It was the last day of Carnaval when we arrived and to celebrate this it seemed that the standard thing to do in La Paloma was to throw water bombs at anything that moves. We had to have cat-like reflexes walking to a restaurant for dinner as any car could be hiding up to 6 Uruguayan children with armfuls of bombs at the ready. One little shit got me on the shoulder - I’m sure I would’ve been knocked out if it was any higher, he had a bloody good arm on him!
The photo doesn’t quite cut it - I promise the sunset was amazing!
Day 2.
So, once Carnaval’s over La Paloma becomes a ghost town. It was like there was a town evacuation overnight and no on told us. This was okay though as we were now safe from the aforementioned little shits.
We headed up to the one ‘sight’ thats recommended one Trip advisor - the lighthouse! Which takes a very pretty picture. Strolled around the town and discovered an amazing bookshop that has a ridiculous amount of books on sale - pity they were all in Spanish! Lay on the beach a bit, and cooked our own pasta for dinner.
Day 3.
I woke up feeling very funny. Lets just say my stomach was not my friend, and I’m blaming the home cooked dinner. I can’t really say for sure but I think I didn’t wash my basil properly. It was quite a rainy day so we decided to drive to La Pedrera which is another surfer time about 40 mins away. Really cute. I would definitely recommend a visit. By then I was feeling really bad so we drove back and I slept the day away. Ah well - it was raining anyway.
Looking & feeling awful
La Pedrera in the rain
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is Punta del Diablo
I want this to be mainly photos so I'll try do a quick summary, coz a picture is worth 1000 words innit?
Fell off the bus in Punta del Este feeling a bit worse for wear. Had a quick cafe con leche then picked up the rental car. Nic bravely drove the first leg of our road trip to Punta del Diablo.
Uruguay is so similar to NZ, travelling through the countryside reminded me of driving to the Coromandel and the beaches are similar to the West Coast surf beaches minus the black sand. I immediately felt relaxed and comfortable. To add to the similarities, theres Toi Toi growing everywhere which I stupidly assumed was only a plant native to NZ.
Punta del Diablo itself is a small hippie town/surfers haven. All the houses are small, mismatched and colourful. The roads aren't sealed (which caused us a bit of strife getting the car stuck in a sand bank upon arrival - Muchos Gracias to the helpful señor who helped me push the car out) and the market-stall lined 'main' road leading down to the beach has darkly tanned bearded hippie's selling the standard handmade wares - jewellery, head scarves, jewellery, leather sandals, jewellery, sarongs, jewellery.
We had arrived during Carnaval so the hostel prices were ridiculous, but that couldn't be helped and the beaches were filled with South American youths ready to 'make party', drinking on the beach till late (encouraged by the beach bars dotted along all the shoreline). There was a lovely feeling of comraderie between all the groups, chirping to each other in Spanish/Portuguese.
We had one 'big' night at a bar called Primata, which played very cheesy music and provided very good people watching entertainment. On the way back to the hostel the main road was filled with people and the Carnaval drummers were out in force. I think its worth saying that for Valentines Day the hostel put on a traffic light party which me and Nic regretfully did not attend. Hah.
Other than that night, we've had such an amazingly lazy time.
Playa del Rivero, where the hostel was.
Playa de Los Pescadores
Playa Grande
The Gremlin gets a tattoo
Stayed in two hostels - El Diablo Tranquilo (right on the beach - great if you have no car) & Hostel El Nagual, the latter being the more welcoming of the two.
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is Ilha de Santa Catarina
Getting to the hostel in 35 degree heat using two public buses and climbing a hill as we missed the correct stop after another overnight bus was definitely not ideal (although only $3 Real - bargain!), but it did let us get a glimpse of the capital city Florianopolis. Hazy dark green mountains give way to low rise hotels in pastel shades that look as if the architects were fans of the game Tetris. Its a beautiful look, but I was glad when we moved out of the city centre into the greener area of Lagoa de Conceicao. Our hostel (Backpackers Sunset) was on top of a big hill with beautiful views overlooking the Lagoa.
Views from the hostel
After we checked in Nic left to have a swim at the beach but I put myself in a time out and stayed at the hostel. I needed to call HSBC to unblock my bank cards which was stressing me out, this + lack of sleep + heat = a not so happy Anne. Lets see how much the phone bill will be for calling the UK to unblock those bad boys!
After that the free Caipirinha's helped ALOT and that evening we headed out with some of the hostel crew to a 'house' that was playing Samba and Reggae.
Amazingly I escaped from a hangover the next day. Nic, on the other hand, had the hangover from hell - this probably wasn't helped by the dudes selling Caipirinha's out the back of their car outside the Samba house. So we thought it best to take it easy and laze on Praia Mole (beach) all day. This resulted in both of us getting ridiculously burnt and my face looking like a tomato - it was a great look. Mum, I promise I wore sunscreen!
Praia Mole
There was a thunder storm that night which was amazing to watch from the hostel bar, you could see the bright flashes of forked lighting all across the lagoon, this helped to reduce the humidity in the air. PHEW. This also brought everyone inside the restaurant so a table seat was prized property. We managed to get seated next to the hostel owners friend and he bought us a pizza to share which was absolutely lovely of him. Brazilian's are all so friendly! Nic was still nursing her hangover so I headed out to another bar chaperoned by three lovely Irish gents that we met the night before. An Australian made his country proud by getting his ass out in the van on the way to the bar (anyone surprised?) and I ended the night by sleeping outside under the trees on a duvet - miraculously attracting no mosquitos!!
Praia Joaquina was on the next days agenda (after faffing about trying to decide how we'd get to Uruguay). The water was a perfect temperature - just cold enough to be refreshing, but I didn't stay in long because there were SO many jelly fish, you could see them being carried in by the waves.
The Gremlins Factoid of the day: Jellyfish are the only animal that have the potential to be immortal. True Story...look it up.
Walking over the sand dunes to Praia Joaquina
Another storm was brewing so we trekked back to the hostel with a quick detour to check out the lagoon beach.
The Gremlin is clearly excited about the lagoon
The next day was concentrating on getting to the bus station in time to pick up a 16 hour over night bus ticket to Punta del Este to pick up a rental car for the Uruguay road trip (yay!).
Mmmm perfect bus seats next to the WC. #buslolz
In conclusion: Praia Mole and Joaquina are beautiful surf beaches but are two of the busier beaches on the island, I'd like to go back and have a proper explore around Ilha de Santa Catarina and check out the smaller secluded beaches. It'd be nice if we had hired a car or scooters and spent a couple weeks exploring but we've saved that for Uruguay - which I'm super excited about!
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is the Falls
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is Iguazu/Iguacu Falls
GUYS! These falls are unbelievable. Standing next to the Devil’s Throat made me feel so insignificant. Mother nature is a beast. I ain’t taking her on. Hopefully these photos spur you to come and see for yourself.
Day 1. Argentine side
Day 2. Brazilian side
SO, If you've decided to go I'd say this:
Take a packed lunch so you can have a picnic wherever you want.
Try not to go when its 35 degrees (I can honestly say that I have never sweated so much as when I visited the Brazilian side...this was in the shade too).
Don't wear high heels/make up...yes there was a lady who did. I saw her later walking around in bare feet and her make up was sliding off her face like melting butter on a hot pancake.
If you only have time for one side, do the Argentine side!
If you have time make sure you do the 3.5km Sendero Macuco trail to the Arrechea waterfall (Argentine side). You can have a swim and get away from the crowds.
Arrechea waterfall:
#argentina#brasil#iguazu#iguacu#iguazu falls#iguacu falls#waterfall#sendero macuco#nature#south america
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is Tango
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is Buenos Aires
Day 1.
Well, after an average at best Alitalia overnight flight I flew into Buenos Aires having not slept a wink. Stupidly, I started reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series and couldn’t put the first one down. I’m now obsessed with burly red-headed Scottish men from the 1740’s Highlands (WTF?). Also made two plane friends and enjoyed a bit of head wind turbulence.
Flying into Buenos Aires at 9 in the morning is amazing. The city is slowly waking up with a few taxis speeding round the gridded streets. The low rise flats stacked next to one another and the pink & yellow hues of the old buildings are beautiful in the morning sun. I was so excited!!!
Got off the plane and was immediately confronted with a large customs line + no air con which could have quite easily resulted in a not so excited Anne. But I thought you know what..who cares? I’m in Buenos Aires and not in freezing cold London, let me sweat! This attitude also led me to get a taxi rather than a bus to the hostel, bit more expensive though! $447 compared to $150ARS. Get me out of these jeans ASAP.
Stayed in the America del Sur hostel in the San Telmo barrio. It’s a good hostel, ticks all the boxes.
I found Nic and we headed out to change my US$ to ARS$ on Florida St. This is the place to go to change you money using the Blue Dolar (a much higher rate than the standard currency exchange). It feels like your about to do a drug deal, random men yell at you ‘Cambio, Cambio’ ,’Change, change’ so you ask them what their rate is. Make sure you check the Blue Dolar rate on twitter before you head there so you can haggle as they will try for a lower rate if you seem like a stupid tourist. My rate was 1USD - 13.2ARS, compared to the standard rate of 1USD - 8.6ARS.
Since Nic had been here for a week she became my unofficial tour guide. We went to the famous Tortoni Cafe & the Recoleta Cemetery where Evita’s body is. Both were beautiful places which I’d recommend anyone to go to. The cemetery is huge and similar to the one in Paris, full of stone mausoleums. But where there are areas in the Paris one that have fallen into disrepair, Recoleta is well kept and cared for.
Cementerio de la Recoleta
And my first day in Argentina would not be complete without eating a steak! We headed out to dinner at the Gran Parilla del Plata, San Telmo. The rib eye steak I ordered was ridiculous! I’m not a huge meat eater and this was maaaasssive (couldn’t eat it all) but really tasty! This was washed down with half a bottle of Malbec. Obviously the night ended with me slipping into a very deep meat coma.
Too...much...food....
Day 2.
I woke up surprisingly refreshed from my meat coma - thought I might have a heart attack in the middle of the night.
The morning excitement was the Great Lock Debacle of 2015. A German dude in our room had forgotten the code to his padlock (which he had set the night before…who does that?), LUCKILY an English guy had a Swiss army knife which he was super excited to use. He got all sweaty using the metal saw, but it worked. I don't think I’ve ever seen anyone use any tools from a Swiss army knife until today. Because of this, I deemed it a blog worthy tale.
Me & Nic needed a proper coffee after the above ‘craziness’ so headed to Defensa to find the San Telmo Mercado, an indoor market of mainly antiques but has some fruit/meat stalls. BA locals wake up late, and the majority of the market stalls weren’t open when we arrived at about 11am. But Coffee Town was! This is a little stall in the middle of the market which makes some tasty flat whites.
San Telmo Merchado
From there we walked to La Boca, which we later found out was frowned upon as the neighbourhoods around La Boca are deemed as dangerous. I feel more worried when I’m walking home in East London on a Friday night. Just keep your wits about you and don’t dress in cargo pants and a bum bag and you’ll be fine! We even met a 3 toothed man on the way back, who didn’t know a word of English, but we managed to have a conversation with. He told us to watch out for our bags. See…no one would look out for you like that in London!
Street art we were looking at when the 3 toothed man arrived.
La Boca itself is the famous brightly coloured town on the docks. It is an absolute tourist trap, but also a must see as the buildings make for a good photo. The locals used the old paint from the ship yards on their houses so thats why they are all different colours!
La Boca
On a side note, I have a lot of stray dog photos on my camera. There are SO MANY in BA.
After a quick lunch at Lumio, we walked up to Puerto Medera, which I didn’t find very interesting. It’s one of the newer areas of BA with expensive shops + hotels, theres an architecturally designed bridge which I should of found out the name of but it wasn’t something that I was too interested in. I was more interested in trying to order a coffee from McDonalds in Spanish. I thought I was going well until she responded with something which turned out to be ‘Do I want chocolate or cinnamon?’ OH..errr no?
TANGO!
We booked this through the hostel for $750ARS…which we thought was a bit pricey, but you can’t go to Buenos Aires and not see a Tango show right? This also included a 3 course dinner (not the best meal I’ve had) and free flowing wine, so I can’t complain to much can I.
I am so glad we went. Both of us were sitting there with our mouths open in awe of these talented Tango dancers. I’m not a dancer (as everyone knows!) but I can appreciate it, and this was beautiful! I lost track of time, but I think they danced for about 1.5 hours. Anyway, I can’t really describe how good it is, all I can say is that you should go if you are ever in Buenos Aires!
The Gremlin enjoying the Tango
Day 3.
Massive walking day today. Got up, had brekkie at the hostel and headed to the barrio of Palermo. If I were to live in BA, this is where I’d live. It has wide tree lined streets, with cute cafes, book shops and boutiques. The buildings still look a bit run down but that adds to the charm. Nic was tour guide again and took me to a cafe called Ninina, which was set up in a beautiful airy space with large front windows. You can watch the bakers at work through another large window at the back. We stopped at a few different places through out Palermo. Its just a great place to walk around, grab a coffee and take in the street sights. From there we headed down past the Zoo to the MALBA. Lay in the park next door for a while and trekked back towards the subway station Retiro. we severely misjudged the distance of this and almost collapsed from exhaustion by the time we got back to the hostel (okay slight exaggeration) at 5.30pm.
I had booked a vegetarian ‘closed door restaurant’ for dinner called Jueves a la Mesa. A very interesting concept where someone opens up their house for a night as a restaurant for a few strangers. I thought this would be a good way to get to know a few people in Buenos Aires as the drunken occupants at the hostel were not looking too appealing. I was also craving vegetables. We turned up at 8.30pm and was met at the door by our host Meghan, an expat American. There were 12 of us for dinner, 3 Aussies, 5 Americans, 1 Austrian, 1 Scot and me & Nic. The meal was Indonesian themed, with Curried Carrot soup, Gado Gado Salad, Nasi Goring and Homemade chocolate and fresh fruit. I’m definitely trying to make the Gado Gado salad, it was soon good. The night was a good one, with us ending up going out for a few drinks afterward with the 3 Aussies, Simon, Pia and Jake + Stuart and Anne (OMG another Anne in this world). I’d highly recommend doing something like that if your in BA. Everyone is there for the same reasons, and the conversation flowed easily.
Day 4.
Not a super exciting day, went and changed money again and bought some sunnies/sandals (I promise these are important purchases!).
Bounty Haledo mmmmhmmmmm
Checked out of the hostel and hopped on a coach at 6.45pm to Iguazu Falls. This coach is luxurious. Its a 20 hour ride and you get two meals and a Semi-Cama bed which is a semi reclinable chair.
The Gremlin guarding the bags.
The luxurious bus selfie.
Day 5.
I had an relatively good sleep on this coach. We’ve got 2 hours to go to get to Iguazu, and I’m up to speed on this blog. #winning.
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is it!!!
Here we go. The day has finally arrived. I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight. If anyone flies to Buenos Aires from London I recommend flying out at 16.25 on a Monday from Heathrow...getting there, from the tube to sitting at the gate was a dream - no stress at all. Fingers crosses Alitalia doesn't dole out a stitch up, last time I flew with them my friends bag was left in at Heathrow and we were without a tent for a festival!
This week has been huge. Saying goodbye to everyone is a big job. I'll miss you guys...you know who you are! But I'll be back in a flash. Ready for Glasto.
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is a loose itinerary...
Give or take a few locations, this is the general idea!
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is counting down...
36 days to go!
Flights, hostel in Buenos Aires and the Inca trail in April are booked. What else is there to do?
Heaps...
Cancel the gym (already done this mentally)
Move all my stuff out of my room
Find someone to take my room
Buy a waterproof camera
Buy headphones
Finish my macbook cover
Finish a long overdue painting for my new niece and send it to her
Continue to research where to go in South America
Learn Spanish
Actually in looking at the above its not gonna be too hard is it?
Except for the last one! ahahaha that is definitely not going to happen. The only Spanish that has stuck in my head is Hermano courtesy of Gob/Arrested Development.
Loose itinerary to come soon.
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