Mr Methane is alive and well and living in Cusco

So we got to Cusco after a pretty comfortable journey and met up with Mr Methane - sorry Gary - and Malka (my cousin and his Peruvian wife) at their place for some PG Tips! Marvellous! With their help we managed to get a great deal on a hostel and moved in to get a few hours rest before hitting the sights for a day or two. It was a bit of a strange one as it was a departure from the normal "traveller" towns that we had been in - lots of package tourists although apparently only about half of those normally there at this time of year due to the World Cup. I hate to think what its normally like...

So it was that Gary had a few ideas up his sleeve for what to do - a bike trip, a bit of walking and even a possible walk around Ausengate (with some passes over 5000m!). Wheeze.

Anyway before all that it was off to Machu Pichhu. After falling over several times in the train station after being told the cost of getting there we bought our tickets and got ready for the next day. An early start was a bit of a shock and for the cost of the train ($70 each for a 4 hour journey - heh! this is Peru!) we thought we would have a nice heated carriage - but no. Backpacker class doesnt stretch to that I guess, although the $500 first class service may just. Anyway we got another good deal on the hotel through Gary and spent a day around Aguas Calientes before yet another early (5am) start to catch the sun rise. Now we were warned about "dumb arsed yanks" by Dave Headworth and he was right. I´m just glad we didnt spend four days on the Inca Trail with them too - there could have been trouble... The site itself is amazing and the sun rise thing is "awesome man"´. Apparently it beats the 4th of July fireworks but hey - whatever...! We took the train back that day expecting a relaxing evening but Gary had arranged a load of people to come round and meet us. Oh dear. Anyway Loz was wiped and went to bed but I went round to be greeted by a "slightly" drunk group who dragged me off to some birthday party for someones mum. Well it would have been rude not to go and they were amazingly hospitable and free with their Cuba Libres... Still I did have to leave my fleece there until the next day after failing to win it back in an arm wrestle with the host! Oh yeah and then there was the white tie incident - but thats another story...

So with a bit of a hangover we managed to watch the world cup final (in a French restaurant) and the next day organised some bikes for a trip to god knows where. And so it was that we put the bikes on a bus, then a taxi to get to some pass (oh yeah we had no map) at about 4500m from where it was all "downhill" (some of which was downhill in an uphill sort of way according to Lorraine) for "25km" - well 45km infact - to a village called Paukatambo. What a great ride. Now Paukatambo is where they hold a legendary 5 day fiesta which we were a bit early for (fortunately or otherwise depending on how legendary the drinking stint really is I guess). It has to be the cheapest hostel so far at 5 Soles (80p) a bed and it was pretty basic - ie no water (not good after 45km of dust), but pretty good for the price! It is a town of few gringos indeed. The idea was to go from here to the jungle but as it turns out Gary´s negotiations for lifts on various banana trucks etc proved to be fruitless - boom boom. So next morning we started the day in a local cafe with a large argument about what constitutes an egg or chip sandwich for breakfast and why it should cost us gringos more than the full breakfast which the locals had. It was time (well time for Gary anyhow) to organise another taxi to take us back to the top of the pass (we didnt fancy the bus of which two had apparently gone off the road in the last week - its a pretty deep gorge - whats all this "worlds most dangerous road" in La Paz malarky). So with that we cycled back to Cusco (well with the help of another bus). Another great day of cycling.

Getting back that night it was apparent that I had managed to catch some sort of lurgy. Now heres a warning. Be very careful with health sections of guide books. I spent a short time reading this and with the particular symptoms I had, I managed to convince myself that I had Cholera.... Anyway I didnt and it didnt stop us going for another walk on Saturday with Gary, Malka and James (a friend of theirs from La Paz). The scenery was amazing just outside the city and thankfully it was downhill as the stomach thing kicked in nicely! We even managed to get verbally abused in Quechua by some bloke who couldnt stand up after consuming a little too much chicha. Which was nice.

So sparing the gory details, a few days of bed and relaxation were required before finally booking a bus ticket out of town to Puno and Lake Titicaca. It was great to see Gary and Malka and they sorted us out royally and here is a bit of a plug for their business (www.escapedtoperu.com) - check it out for those souvenirs...

MOOOONKEY - Johnny Vegas would be proud

After probably one of the worst bus journeys so far - I could have punched the driver - we made it to Nasca in one piece - un poco cansado.

Tout city! "Taxi, you want taxi, hostel, I have hostel" - "no gracias, no gracias, no gracias" etc... Then when you get followed for blocks down the road it all gets a bit boring. Even more so when some guy follows you to the roof terrace of the hostel to sell you a tour. Anyway we managed to find a good place to stay and get a plane flight that afternoon (not with the roof guy).

The book says that the plane does many tight turns and don´t eat beforehand and so of course we did. After getting into the little 3 seater we took off over the desert and got our first view of the lines - It really is amazing although you do have to be close on top to see the geoglyphs. There are also an incredible number of geometric shapes and straight lines which criss-cross the floor of the desert as well as the figures. Well, as you may have guessed, the monkey was a hit along with lots of the main figures that you see. Its only a short 30 minute vomit inducing flight but well worth it. We managed to get to a lecture on the lines last night and a museum today which has made some more sense to the whole thing (a major theory is that its water related - how interesting!). Overall another great couple of days and worth doing more than just the flight here. Now its a short wait before heading to Cusco at 8pm on a lovely 14 hour bus journey.

More soon!

Coca is it

Well we have finally hit Peru and will have to travel like a whirling dervish to see what we want to see in the time that we have. Still its been fun so far and here´s to finishing off in style.

We entered Tacna in Peru from northern Chile on a little one carriaged wooden train travelling slowly through the desert at a grand speed of 30mph for 1 1/2 hours. A bit more interesting than the bus though. As we left the train we queued for immigration. On getting to the door Loz decided to go to the loo and as I went through and got my bags searched by the agricultural guys the immigration official - uhhh - disappeared... So when Loz got back there was no-one to stamp her passport!! The agricultural guy then helpfully said come back at 4pm - it was 10am! A good start as we needed to get on a bus to get to Arequipa later that morning. Anyway the 5 foot tall station master came to our rescue and got the immigration guy to return - what a nice man he was (although the immigration guy was a bit gruff and charged 5 Soles for the privilege). So at 12pm we got on a bus and made our way through some more desert.

We arrived in Arequipa and got a reasonably!? priced taxi into town after not quite as much hassle as we thought. In fact there was much more hassle in the first bus station in Tacna (No I don´t want to buy some cigarettes, I dont need you to get a get a bus ticket for me, no I dont want that llama etc). It had been easy in Argentina and Chile! After not getting a reply from the first hostel we ended up in one just off the square - a huge room with great views. What a great city it is. Amazing location and really interesting architecturally. However at 2500m it does take your breath away for a day or two after being at sea level for so long and does interfere with your smoking habits!

Our introduction however was some massive and noisy parade which took place all day Sunday mostly outside our room. This of course interfered with the football and got a bit annoying...We both managed to pick up a bit of a bug and so spent the odd day or two just sleeping and getting over that. Still we managed to get to quite a few of the sites in town before heading off to the Colca Canyon for a couple of days. As time was short we decided to go on a tour which was US$20 each for two days and accomodation for one night. At this price we weren´t sure what to expect but it turned out to be great. The guide (Mayda) was great and really interesting, the driver (Luis) was good fun and didn´t crash, and the others in the van (four Canadians, two Brazilians and two yanks) were good fun. It was quite a change to do a tour like this and actually we really enjoyed it. It does however take you over a pass at 4700m which makes your head go a bit weird. Mayda´s instructions on how to chew Coca leaves was a great tip and so yes - Coca really is it... It makes an amazing difference and I don´t really see why it´s illegal in Chile and Argentina (where we did need it a couple of times!). So we now have a bag with us! It doesn´t taste that nice though...

Anyway after getting to the town of Chivay and having a great lunch we had a walk to some burial sites up in the hills and finished off in the thermal baths up the road under the stars which was just great. We even went to a restaurant with a Peña Folklorica in the evening for the full tourist experience with the ubiquitous pan pipes and some traditional dancing - yes we did get up to make a tit of ourselves but only after a bit of persuasion... Chris and Michelle (two of the Canadians) needed less encouragement.

Getting up at 5am is not much fun but it was worth it for the drive and walk to see condors at close quarters in an upper part of the canyon. Now, I´m a bit sceptical about seeing these things, but when the condors finally got up at 9.30 it was an amazing sight. We had seen them before in Chile and Argentina but they were in your face here - amazing. Then it was back down the valley passing through a few villages (some with kids out in the road dancing for tips) and the amazing pre-colonial terracing that fills this valley, which at its deepest is quite spectacular. So after more food and watching Argentina lose on penalties (oops - although not so funny now - was the ref on saturday Argentinian?) we headed back to Arequipa for a few beers and cocktails. A great couple of days.

Saturday brought the football and we shall not say anything else here. Then it was a night bus to Nasca.

To Chile and beyond

So here we are back in Northern Chile prior to our final push north and east! As you may have guessed our plans have changed once again and we are going to go to Peru first! This is partly to see Jules´cousin in Cusco who he hasn´t seen for 20 odd years but it makes more sense now since our flight is back from Buenos Aires in August and travelling north then south is probably more sensible.

Well we wanted to check out Chile a bit more as it had been a bit dissapointing overall so far. So to see the best of the country we decided that since we had been in several working ports (always known for their "interesting night life") we would go to a mining town containing the largest open cast copper mine in the world! So after a great trip across the Atacama Desert the town (Calama) was pretty grim! You know its bad when you can find no bars without "entertainment" and the best place to eat is the Schopdog hot dog bar! However the idea was not as silly as all that as we wanted to see the mine at Chucicamata (well I did anyhow!) - and what a place - its bonkers! Its also getting bigger and should be an even more amazing sight in 10 years time. The tour itself was a little short and we turned up about 4 or 5 hours too early (thanks lonely planet) but worthwhile none the less.

Anyway after a brief stay there a night bus out took us to Iquique on the (west!) coast... And here it it - a really nice city in northern Chile. Very historic with many wooden buildings, lots of history and a great coastline with some amazing surf. All this at the foot of some massive sand dunes on the very edge of the desert. All this area was built on Nitrate money. We decided that it was time for more car hire and so we took a car for a couple of days to tour the area. Lots to see around here and we visited Humberstone - a nitrate mine ghost town - amazing place, the Giant of Atacam, loads of Geoglyphs at Picados, the Oasis town of Pica ( a bit of a one horse town without the horse, but amazing home made alfajores from a hatch in some old boys house), Pisagua - a madly located town on the cast north of Iquique (with an equally mad history) and a few other spots on the way. Car hire is the way to go!

But tomorrow from here its to Arica on the border for a day or two (and the footie)and then Peru! Stay tooned...

A rash decision

So it was that we managed to spend the next few days in Salta in luxury watching the beginning of the world cup and the rash that I had developed. It needed a trip to the docs and his assistant "Mrs Lisa" and some antihistamine pills to get rid of it (the doc kept reassuring me that I wasnt goind to die, laughing and slapping me on the back!). Anyhow it turns out its an allergic reaction to something. One of the guys suggested an allergic reaction to "Dulche de Leche" which could be possible - anyone know an accurate figure for sugar consumption in S America? This second doctor was after a trip to the hospital and a consultation with a couple of "doctors" or Laurel and Hardy as we like to call them. Anyhow it seems to be dissapearing now and there was bound to be something along the line I guess.

So apart from that - there is very little to say about the time there except that we waited for Argentinas first game of the World Cup(and cooked a few roasts - with yorkshire puddings - yum!). Of course Argentina won and the town went crazy with a blockade of the square and cars around the town with flags, horns etc etc etc... Jesus - it was only the Ivory Coast! Commentary is a bit biased here I must admit and you can catch one of 4 to 5 replays a days of each match. We needed to escape though and head out of any area where they chant "Argentina, Argentina, Argentina..." constantly (and you thought that Inngerland, Inngerland, Inngerland was boring enough).

So without further ado it was a bus back across the Jama pass and the salt flats to northern Chile.

He´s a lady...

The title may not make much sense to most but hey someone somewhere understands it - sorry!

A Chevvy Corsa Classic it was! Yeap the choice of the boy racer was the one for us. Four rucksacks, a bag of snacks and a bit of music to help us on the way and we were off. And so it was - north up the Quebrada de Humahuaca after a couple of stops for a look at a rather enormous concrete Christ and lunch next to one of the numerous roadside shrines to Gaucho Gil. After a further stop at a hillside cemetry and a small cafe in Tilcara we made our way over the tropic of Capricorn to the little town of Humahuaca at about 3000m above sea level. It was at this point that we wished that we had had the Coca tea like Paul and Natalie... We drove up and down for a bit and finally settled into a great adobe built hostel and popped to the local shop (shed) to get some food.

After a good nights sleep it was an earlish start to drive up to the town of Iruya over a 4000m pass and 50 odd km along some nice rough roads (oh and up the bed of a running river - poor car - oh well its only a hire car). The town itself was pretty interesting but the drive was spectacular. On leaving the village we gave a lift to a 10 year old girl who was hitching back from school. We managed to scare the crap out of her with our pigeon spanish and when she asked where we were from it was tempting to say Mars but we restrained ourselves. Europa sufficed... Anyway I think she may have got out earlier than expected! We managed to get some meat for a great asado that night (after a bit of negotiation with several butchers in the market) and retired after some more vino.

The altitude did seem to have an effect on us (was it the vino?) and a few light heads were had all round. Just about the right time to take a 4200m pass to the saltflats then. Its a long way up the hill but worth it and a sneek preview of those in Bolivia for us. The usual photos at saltflats were taken...

Well from there a long drive to a nice sugar producing region. If anyone has ever been to Lincolnshire you will understand the apprehension. We got lost in a little town along the way and even got our own Police escort to the town limits! After an unintentional tour of the sugar plant and a close encounter between the bottom of the car and a sleeping policemen (I think they call them sleeping donkeys here!), we checked into a cheapish hotel and got our heads down before heading to some "cloud forest" in Parque Nacional Calilegua. Waking up to the smell of sick (sorry sugar processing) we decided to make a move sooner rather than later. The forest was great and had loads of bird life and the odd mammal. The river walk proved a bit tricky though and some of us got rather wet feet but all in all a good day out! We made our way back to Salta after a refined lunch in "La Shell" (it´s a bistro in the local petrol filling station - these are actually really good and it was packed out) we made our way back to Salta dropped the car and drank a few beers to complete the circle.

We stayed a night in a Residencial run by 3 ageing Witches of Eastwick and moved the next day to a swishish Apart Hotel which we got for another bargain price. We invited Paul and Natalie around on the Tuesday before they left for Cordoba and had a full English breakfast (for the the first time - nice!). It was sad to say goodbye after a few days as it was a great week or so with them.

Cafayate and Salta (finally)

So after inadvertently participating in the Independence Day parade we checked into a great little hostel in Cafayate which even had a small wood burner in the room - good for those chilly mountain nights - and a great patio to relax on and sip wine from the surrounding vineyards.

In addition to the vineyards which are, of course, always interesting, we also visited the Quebrada de Cafayate. This is an amazing canyon type place with all sorts of rocks formed into weird shapes and amphitheatres and stuff. It was all pretty impressive but by this time we were starting to get really frustrated with having to book "excursions" everywhere, so it was good news that we met up with a couple of Belgians at the hostel who´d hired a car and offered us a lift to the Quilmes Ruins the next day. The Quilmes people built a huge settlement and fort in the mountains just south of Cafayate. Only about 20% of it has been uncovered but it´s really impressive and we climbed right up the mountain to the chief´s house and then all round the fortresses.

The whole car thing inspired us and, when we bumped into Paul & Natalie again (an English couple who we´d met in Tafi), a plan began to form. We all caught the bus to Salta on the same day and from there hired a car for 4 days and hit the road...

Hit the north

Sunday 21st May saw us arrive in Tucuman. We spent a couple of days here (in the Hotel Bristol - hoorah) sorting out what we were going to do from this point. Sunday morning was dead but this soon changed with the promotion of Club Athletico San Martin from the Third to Second division. Its obviously not happended in a while and the town went mad! It was quite amusing to watch everyone running anticlockwise around the Plaza, climbing lamposts, letting off fireworks and blowing their horns wildly.

Not much else went on here though. A trip to the cinema (a throw back to the 50s with added power cut) to see El Codigo Da Vinci. Argentinans subtitle their films so this was good choice seeing as much of it is in French and Latin with spanish subtitles replacing the original English ones - Doh! A visit to the Casa de la Indepencia was pretty interesting though - this being where the Argentinan Declaration of Independence was signed.

From Tucuman a trip to Tafi del Valle (is it Welsh?) took us through some great mountain scenery to 2000m but boy was it cold! We stayed in a nice hostel on the edge of town and managed to get a walk in to the next village about 18km down the valley past an amazing cemetry at the foothills of a 3500m peak.

And now the road has taken us to here - Cafayate. Yeap the blog is finally up to date. Its May 25th (Independence Day) and a public holiday here in Argentina. Its a big day but unfortunately we missed the parade this morning which was just finishing when the bus arrived. We did however contribute to it by walking the wrong way up the street with our rucksacks following a guy who was taking us to his hostel as the tail end of the parade came in the opposite direction - bloody Gringos! Good job I got rid of the Karrimor Union Jack type badge on my rucksack otherwise there could have been trouble! The trip across the mountains was incredible however - cacti a plenty...

So from here its north (no, really) and we are now only 2 hours from Salta! A couple more weeks in northern Argentina and Chile and then Bolivia beckons, however - watch this space!

Big Water...

Having returned back to Argentina and after a days shopping! we jumped on another night bus to the Paraguay/Brazil/Argentinian border for Iguazú (A native word meaning Big Water) and the waterfalls. We decided to stay on the Argentinian side in Puerto Iguazú and in looking for somewhere to stay we managed to wander through the gates of the ´Peter Pan´ hostel. What were we thinking? Actually it was cheap and really pretty nice with an outdoor cooking area and a good room. The only problem was we were too lazy to cook while we were there.

After a day wandering around the town and staring across to the other border posts across the river gorge we headed out early on Monday to the falls. It was a hot sunny day and well what can we say - the falls are seriously impressive. We managed to spend a full day walking around just on the Argentinian side at all the different viewing platforms before finishing the day at the ´Devils Mouth´ which really was amazing! Jules tried to calculate the flow rate of water but he lost his bucket and stopwatch.

We met up with a couple of Irish folks in the hostel who we went out for a beer with (funny that) and managed to meet up with some other folks from Brighton and Coventry who we were to meet up with again a couple of days later in Posadas.

Posadas was to be a short stop over on our way to Salta and Jujuy. However we stopped off at an abandonded Jesuit mission on the way through at San Ignacio. It was here that we met Bob and Barbara an ´older´ Aussie couple (better be careful here cause they have the address of this blog!!) who were spending 3 weeks or so in South America. It was really nice to meet up with them and they ended up heading to Posadas too. We got talking about the Esteros de Iberá which are wetlands close to Posadas with a similar abundance and diversity of wildlife as the Pantanal in Brazil. So with that a plan was hatched to try and get a trip together. The tourist office was very helpful as ever and he gave us a few pieces of paper with numbers on for us to ring. He of course couldnt ring from there as his phone was for ´internal use only´ in an office of 2 people! Anyway we found a really helpful guy who booked our trip and we were scheduled for the next day which was great. The rest of the day was spent watching the European Cup Final and drinking Quilmes with the guys from Brighton and Coventry who we had met at Iguazú.

We set off for the Esteros de Iberá at 6am the following morning and spent a few hours in a 4x4 speeding along sandy roads with darkening clouds appearing. The place was pretty amazing with a wild and diverse range of birds, mammals and caiman along with some really great flora. The boat trip out to the wetlands was unfortunatelty cut short due to the impending thunderstorm but impressive all the same. The storm did arrive with some impact and nearly hit the adobe hut we were eating lunch in at the time. We had a bit of a walk in the nearby jungle in the afternoon to look for monkeys but they were hiding from the storm too - although we did catch sight of a few huddled together high in the branches. After some lovely tea and cake! we headed off again south to Mercedes along a now very wet and slidy road encountering quite a few Gauchos herding cattle as we went. We left Bob and Barbara at the bus station after a really nice day, a great pizza and probably the worst toilets I have seen in a cafe so far. They headed to Buenos Aires and us to Presidente Roque Saenz Peña for some ´hot springs´.

An interesting place is Saenz Peña, a sugar growing area in the Chaco (a bit like East Anglia 30 years ago). Not really a great deal going on other than a lot of staring. I dont think they get many ´outsiders´ in them there parts. Anyhow the spa facility is actually pretty good (and very cheap) although it did remind me a bit of the scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest where the nurse says ´its medication time...´ through the microphone - yes they did have a very similar PA system in place. We left after a day for Tucumán.

Who canned all the pies?

Well the whistlestop trip to Uruguay started on 7th May with a little overnight bus trip from Rosario to Montevideo via Fray Bentos (yeap - who made all the pies). This little town was a source of frustration later in the week as Jules tried in vain to get a visit to the old factory. It seems that they dont run a special shuttle service for us pie lovers and visiting on a bus any other way means that you have to stay overnight. Arrrggghh.

Anyway we arrived early on Monday morning after finally getting our arses into gear and booking a hotel in advance. We soon realised that we had managed to end up in the one country in South America that has banned smoking in enclosed spaces - What is going on!! However a nice bus station and a plentiful supply of sugary breakfast goods which we have come to expect. After catching a bus into town we thought that it may be tricky to find the hotel. It proved very easy to find after all as it was two doors down from the strip club and next door to the sex shop. So after a bit of a shower we headed off to get some lunch in the old market by the docks. Quite a place and full of every meat delight that you could imagine as long as it ended up on a grill everyone was happy. Fantastic! We had a bit of a wander after lunch through the old town and managed to find some ´interesting´ locals (and a bar which displayed a full size axe on the outside wall as its advertising!) so we headed back to the main tourist bit fairly swiftly.

Montevideo was a bit dissapointing really - just another big city - but its likely tobe one of those cities which is a grower. We did take a trip to the theatre for a tour however and got some tickets to see some Italian Jazz. Nice. Actually it was really good and we managed to get some good food in too which is always a bonus.

So after a couple of days here we moved west along the coast to Colonia del Sacramento which is on the Rio del Plata opposite Buenos Aires. An historic Portugese/Spanish/English/loads of others port and a UNESCO world heritage site. We booked into a really nice cheap hostel and set about exploring the old town. A great change from the hustle of the city and a great little place to spend a few days. We even managed to cook a couple of times in the ´fully equipped´ kitchen in the hostel. Well fully equipped for one person with a hankering for small one pot meals anyhow. We did managed to eat out well again in a place with some crazy waiter who kept running out of the door screaming "Pasta de la Mama, Pasta de la Mama, open for dinner. You come, you don´t come" down the street and changing his ridiculous collection of hats every 15 minutes. To be fair he did point us to some great food although why we were in there after seeing the episodes of hollering I´m not sure...

Anyway a good few days and after abandoning the dream of seeing a pie canning factory we took the Buquebus ferry back to Buenos Aires. Lorraine was most dischuffed however that there was no outside area on the boat. Those Porteños don´t need to look around at the scenery they prefer the chaos in the duty free shop. Spend spend spend!

Go East

A Sunday night bus trip took us from Mendoza to Rosario. We didnt really know what to expect from Rosario except that it was supposed to be the "perfect Argentinian city" according to Lonely Planet. Could they have got it right!? Well actually they did almost... Plenty of Cafes, galleries and museums with a lively city atmosphere all on an historic river front - sounds familiar huh... Arriving on a Monday which was a public holiday it seemed pretty damn quiet. After finding a "flash" hotel for 20 quid a night (actually it was pretty good and had a pool and sauna which no one else used all week - private facilities - nice!) we went for a wander. It wasnt long before the caretaker was ushering us into the historic Spanish Club and showing us around at 9 in the morning. An amazing old building which we were looking at from the outside before he came out and gestured us in for a private tour. This sort of thing seemed to happen throughout the week. There arent that many tourists (especially from outside of Argentina) and so people were genuinely interested. It was a bit of a holiday in the middle of the trip really. Just taking in what a city had to offer without actively seeking anything.

We did do a bike tour of the city with a guy called Sebastien who worked in a cafe we were having a drink in. He came up to us and did a sort of "psst - wanna bike tour" type thing. Anyway it turns out he has bought a couple of bikes and was starting to do these tours. It was cheap, he did like to talk (but not much about the city) and it was a good few hours out.

The rest of the week we tried to find museums and galleries which were open (harder than it sounds), took a trip on the river to look at the islands of the River Parana and sampled a few of the many cafes on offer.

What a great place to spend a few days and it was time to leave for pastures new and so why not go to Uruguay for a few days.

"(We were only) 24 hours from Salta"

So after our little bus trip we ended up in Mendoza at the end of April - in "the land of plenty" (except accommodation...). After much searching we finally found a bed for the night in an old converted kitchen - but it was cheap! The next morning we moved to a new hostel which was really nice with a great garden for chilling out and drinking the local vino (as I say land of plenty!). However they only had four nights available and we thought that we may be doing stuff around there for a while. What we didn’t really know (stupid us) was that it was yet another holiday weekend and that the reason they were full was that the whole town was in fact full that weekend, yeap - actually full. We spent half a day looking for anything from hostels to 4 star hotels!

There isn’t much to tell about our time in Mendoza really! It’s a bit of a gringo trap and the town is nice enough but it´s tricky to get out into the high Andes without paying a fortune to a guide and in particular at that time of year when many of the multi day hikes don’t happen. We did however do a wine tour just outside town which was great. We hired some bikes after getting a bus to Maipu and then cycled our way around a few Bodegas and a fancy deli type place where we went for lunch in the gardens with a Belgian guy we met on the way round (not famous). What a ridiculous place it was really. They gave us a quick tour where they showed how they packed jars of roasted peppers by hand – and not just by hand but by a woman with a spoon putting each one carefully in a jar and inserting almonds at strategic depths in the jar – unbelievable. They are selling them to Harrods so look out for “Almacen del Sur” next time you do your weekly grocery shop…

Apart from that it was time for a bit of culture – a few museums, art galleries and a bit of classical music darling. But of course this being Argentina the galleries were generally closed or the exhibits falling down or roped off in the museums – which was nice. The music was good though, especially for the over enthusiastic 20 stone violinist who looked like he either had fleas or was going to keel over with a heart attack at any time.

Our original plan from here was to head to Salta and stay on the west. Things never remain a plan for long however and we therefore decided to go east again after getting “bored” of mountain scenery.....

Parque Provincial Payunia

"My Precccious....."

What a Malargue (or nu nu nu nu nineteen)

Well the idea of going on a 60km bike ride was a great one but unfortunately the huge thunderstorns that decended on Bariloche that day meant some time spent in a few more cafes (Eggs and Bacon for the first time in 2 months - yum!)and at the tobacconist buying the local Argentine tobacco (Fumanchu!! dont ask us why). We decided to leave but there were no buses to Mendoza for a few days and so a Plan B was required quickly... San Martin De Los Andes on a bus trip via the Siete Lagos - which was nice! SM de los Andes was a really nice little town and few tourists out of season. The hostel was great and we decided to have a treat of some good food. Lorraine however managed to order something equivalent to a Beatles album (Rubber Soul) although my steak was sufficiently bloody...

So after a few goes at trying to find a sensible place to go from SM de los Andes we decided on Malargue. The bus office was especially helpful here and we got invited to sit down in a little office while the old boy sorted out our next trip. We thought he may even invite us back to his for maté but no. The bus trip did however involve two changes one of which was at 3 in the morning in San Rafael, although the bus station cafe was showing Terminator 3 which passed a few hours before the next bus at 6am. There is always plenty of sugar and sweet pastries to keep you going in Argentina!

Well arriving in Malargue at 9am seemed fine and after the glorious Lonely Planet´s description of abundant and cheap accommodation we thought that we were quids in. Of course we have now learnt to take the over enthusiastic banter with which they write with a large pinch of salt... After checking out a darkened room in a hotel with an open drain in the shower (18 quid a night), a small hotel with another darkened room where Lorraine stamped on the dog, a hostel which made an Argentine police cell look an attractive option and a load of other places, we found a cabaña 4 hours later. Of course the tourist office were really helped out in all of this!? Anyway the cabaña was great and the guy really friendly - he even reduced the price for us without too much effort. Having looked through the visitors book we were however the first ´ingleses´ to stay in 6 years!

Malargue is a bit of strange little oil industry service town but around it is some amazing scenery in the Parque Provincial Payunia with the highest concentration of volcanic cones in the world (800). The only way to get around is by 4x4 so we booked a tour for the next day with Karen Travel (never met Karen though). The tour was great and we shared the trip with 3 Argentines who spoke little English which went well with our Spanish and much maté was consumed during the day. Lorraine stupidly let slip that I was a geologist and people then seemed to be asking me questions (including the guide) to which I had no answer. Still bullshit is an art in geology so it wasnt too bad... An amazing place and well recommended. We were so impressed we booked another tour to some caves the next day (Caverna de las Brujas). The same driver turned up and it turns out his grandfather discovered the caves! They were amazing and it would have been a UK Health & Safety inspectors nightmare which made it more fun really. It turned out that 2 young Alaskans on the same tour had stayed in the rather luxurious hotel with the open drain and spent that afternoon throwing up. Strangley they seemed to rave about how good the food was in the hotel bar - each to their own...

Malargue is an interesting place but boy do they have some vicious mozis. Waking up with 19 bites to the forehead makes you feel (and look) a bit stupid (it wasn´t us who left the window open however). So after a few days, time to hit the road again for Mendoza in a 5 hour minibus trip.

A sailors' life for me

We are back on dry land now and enjoying the end of the summer/beginning of Autumn here in Bariloche.

Waiting for the boat in Puerto Natales was a very cold and windy experience spent mostly looking out of Café windows. It’s a bit scary when the staff start to recognise you as you walk in the door… After a short delay due to ridiculously rough seas we finally managed to get on the Navimag on Friday night, spending the night in port before sailing out on Saturday. We were sharing a (very small) cabin with a South African couple which was good although Johan managed to get his wallet nicked on the first night aboard with the equivalent of about 1000 quid in it! Not a good start and quite rightly there were a little dischuffed. Setting sail on Saturday morning the weather looked great for all of an hour and then the rain returned with avengeance for the rest of the four night trip! The Navimag is basically a cargo ferry with space for about 200 tourists so the common areas are pretty small but lively. Not too much to do and people seem to cart on extraordinary volumes of wine and beer for the journey – very little of which leaves the boat in the original containers! It was possible however to buy “Pisco Sour” from the bar man “Mr Pollo” – yeap Mr Chicken it was! This seemed to get announced every hour or so even after they had advised everyone not to drink on the rough open sea section…

Food is provided “canteen style” and was surprisingly good apart from the corn pudding – a bizarre sweet lasagne type thing with what looked like leftovers from the previous few days. They have an “open bridge” policy on the boat which was fantastic so you can see all of what’s going on. When the passage through the fjords gets really narrow loads of people descend to watch what’s happening while the Captain has a tendency to plays some weird harmonic versions of “Bridge over troubled waters” or “the theme from titanic” on the stereo on the bridge whilst barking directions to the guy steering the boat! Surreal indeed.

It was a great opportunity to meet a load of decent folk though and we seem to have been bumping in to many of them since here back in Argentina. The views were not as good as they could have been due to the low cloud although that made it all the more eerie. We saw quite a few seal lions and a few dolphins and quite a bit of whale spray although only one of them breached the surface. Apparently the week before they saw 3 blue whales – although you know how tours exaggerate these things! We even managed to get a short trip to Puerto Eden – a very remote community in the fjords of a couple of hundred or so mostly native peoples. It rains virtually every day and they get 6-8m of rain a year – hmmmmm.

The trip across the open sea was an interesting one – the crew convinced everyone it was calm and for one we were pretty glad they didn’t have the 7m swells they had on the way down! The 3m that we had meant 14 hours in bed rolling from one side to another although the seasickness pills seemed to knock most people out.

The Navimag rounded of with a night of Patagonian Bingo and a party… Yeap that’s right Patagonian Bingo! It all starts with flashing lights and “Eye of the Tiger” blaring away. After three wet days onboard everyone was very much up for a bit of bingo and there was much jollity all round!

Overall it was a shame about the weather but hey worth doing we think.

After getting to Puerto Montt on Tuesday morning it was time to move back east across the Andes to escape the rain, wet weather and expense of Chile. After staggering to the bus station we finally managed to buy a couple of tickets to Bariloche – they don’t make buying bus tickets very easy here sometimes. We also met Sandra and Regis, a French couple whom we had met at a hostel in Puerto Madryn a month before. Thanks to them we managed to get to stay in this place – http://www.lamoradahostel.com/la_morada_english.html for about 12 quid a night - and that’s where we have been since. So the longer we stay the more we save is how we look at it!. How lazy is that – although we have the excuse of Semana Santa and the fact that this holiday week for Argentineans means little to no spaces on buses or accommodation in town. Who needs to do anything when you stay in a place like this though and anyhow I think one walk in five days is pretty good going. A holiday within a holiday indeed. Its bizarre how you get on the little travel circuit in this part of the world and the first night we were here we knew 6 of the 15 or so people staying from various places – all of whom seemed to stay a little longer than they were originally anticipating. Time to move into town tomorrow for a 60km bike circuit around the southern edge of the lake and then time to hit the north and even out of Argentina/Peru. Suppose we have to start thinking again about where we go from here – like everyone else north away from the approaching winter seems like the sensible option! Right, its sunny outside so must go and look at the view again but more soon.

P.S. The blog seems to be playing up but the Perito Moreno Glacier pic is accessible if you look at the April Archive page – don’t ask me I don’t understand it either!

At the Perito Moreno Glacier

It´s big innit...

Southern Exposure

Well its been some time since the last update but here is whats been happening...

We spent some time doing a second language school in Ushuaia which was great. A really good teacher and good atmosphere - v different to Cordoba. Stayed in a B&B attached to the school with a manic Belgian (not sure whether he was famous or not). It was disapointing to hear though that he didn´t know the phrase "... here come the Belgians..." from Jeux Sans Frontier! The guy who ran the place, Exequiel or "Señor X" as we could never remember his name, along with much of Argentina was a huge Benny Hill fan!! Bizarre indeed. He was desperatley trying to teach us Spanish so we taught him "Gert lush" and "Aright me luvver" as a bit of Bristolian culture. I dont thing he believed us though... Ushuaia is a great place and we ended up spending nearly two weeks there in the end. Jules managed to bump into someone who he worked with at the EA in cardiff in the old prison museum. Strange huh. We only spent a day or so trekking in the national park but it was fun. To be honest its not that big anyhow and we needed to get a shuffle on... The Queen Mary 2 was in the port while we were there which was pretty impressive against the backdrop of the Beagle Channel. Been meeting some interesting people on the way which has been fun.

It took ages to sort out getting away but we flew from there to El Calafate for the Perito Moreno glacier. We took the budget LADE flight option which was an interesting experience. Seems like a cushy job being an air stewardess on there - no safety announcement etc but a good chance for them to catch up on their magazine reading... The glacier was amazing. Just massive and bits really do seem to fall off all the time creating a huge amount of noise. When stuff isnt falling off it creaks and groans which is very surreal... We only stayed a couple of nights in El Calafate before heading back into Chile to trek in the Torres Del Paine national park. The border crossing was quite amusing with some old boys on the bus who seemed to think it was their right to go straight to the front of the queue. One ringleader with the other (all very short and hairy guys!) following on crocodile style.

Been staying at Nicos hostel in Puerto Natales before and after the national park trip. We got picked up on Sunday by the bus and waved off by the woman from the hostel. We thought it was just us but it seems that all the owners were waving off their "siblings". The park was pretty amazing although we only managed to get in 4 days. Although 3 days of constant horizontal rain and snow was probably enough in a very small tent (it was the same size as yours Greg and Andrea!). We were utterly soaked by the time we left yesterday but it really is pretty amazing. We didnt managed to do the whole "W" route as we didnt fancy sleeping above the snow line... Quite a few people were doing it including a scouser who managed to break into a toilet block at a closed Refugio on the last night to sleep after breaking his tent in the wind! As one Aussie said "Yeah and he probably nicked the loo roll too!" (sorry Greg and Jo...). Mind you a tent was probably a good option to avoid the rats in some of the huts! Well we were due to go from here on the Navimag today from Natales to Puerto Montt but its been delayed due to 8m swells on the sothward journey - so maybe a wait is a good idea. Looking forwaward to an enforced stay in one place. Lots more has happened I´m sure but time to go now and sort stuff. More soon.

Very quick update

Hi all. Everthing good but no time to do an update today as trying to get everything sorted for a 4 day trek in Torres Del Paines national park tomorrow. Big update when we get back hopefully. Lots going on... If people place messages it would be good to get their email address so we can reply directly as its tricky to do it here. Whats happening in blighty??

Cheers all
L&J
x

What were we saying about the British winter...

OK, well that comment certainly turned itself around and bit us on the proverbial...

From Puerto Madryn we travelled 18 hours south to Rio Gallegos - the gateway to Tierra del Fuego. Unfortunately the gate was shut when we arrived - no buses south for 2 days - so we decided to pop into Chile for a bit, as you do. We stayed in Punta Arenas for a couple of days, which was long enough to realise that Chile´s really expensive so we may not be hanging around there for too long. Also we got our first rain since we were in Buenos Aires and went from lugging tons of clothes around in sweltering heat to wearing everything we have with us.

We´re now back in Argentina having crossed the Magellan Straight to Tierra del Fuego and Ushuaia. It was a 12 hour bus journey and this place is certainly remote, but the setting is amazing and from endless kilometers of dry flat plains further north the mountains rise and lakes and forest appear.

There was a snow storm as we crossed the ridge to arrive into Ushuaia and it was snowing yesterday at sea level as we sipped beer and wine at a fantastic microbrewery with amazing views across the Beagle Channel (Thanks Anne-Marie!!).

Well, it looks like snow again and we´re about to go hiking on a glacier - surely not a sensible move. Will keep you all posted when we return from the blizzard.......

Who eat all the Empanadas?

Well not us yet - but hey are they good or what.

Well we have moved on a bit since the last post. Moved from Cordoba to the Sierras de Cordoba for a few days which was a great change from the heat and busyness of the city. We stayed up in Villa General Belgrano which was founded by a group of ex-German sailors whose boat was sunk during WWII... Anyone see the irony here? It's a very surreal sort of place which looks like a German Alpine ski village at 30 degrees C selling German beer, chocs and cakes. Stayed in a great little place with a very friendly woman who did homemade breakfasts which were fantastic. Oh and it had a pool in the garden. All for the price of a hostel room... A day trip out to the very hot La Cumbricita and some very cold swimming holes was just the ticket. Well then it was time for a double onslaught of pretty sleepless overnight bus trips via Bahia Blanca (nice zoo!!!???) for the journey into Patagonia. Thank god for those showers in bus stations. We are currently in the most northerly part at Puerto Madryn close to Peninsula Valdes. It's where the Welsh first settled so plenty of Stereophonics in the bars - no really... A really great little place on the coast which looks a bit like blackpool or Weston S Mare but has a bit of a vibe of Tofino. Very relaxed and easy going sorts live here. So from here we go east for a few days to Puerto Piramides once the weekend crowds have left and a day trip to some welsh speaking places tomorrow - Boyo. Time then to try and pick up a penguin or two on the peninsula I suggest - well other than the dead one we saw on the beach last night! Tasty though. Time to go pick up the washing now so once more into the heat. Luuuverly - how's the winter over in blighty!!