Losing it in Latin America

 
Plaza España in Mendoza

I spent my last couple days in Argentina in the heart of wine country in a place called Mendoza, in the east of Argentina level with Buenos Aires. It was a very beautiful and comfortable cosmopolitan place with a massive park area out one side of town, and plenty of opportunities for watching life go by on the many pavement cafes. However, as I`ve spent so much time in Argentina by now I felt the itch to move on. Argentina has been a very easy place to travel through and spend time in, but due this and it`s European feel I felt I needed a change and needed to start pushing on towards Bolivia.

Before Bolivia however, I had some unfinished business with Chile. Jody and Steve, a couple of dodgy northerners I`d met previously were there already so I headed over to Santiago to meet them. After only seeing remote backwater towns in Patagonian Chile, I needed to see what it`s capital could offer. It didn`t disappoint!

I arrived friday night and was immediately sucked into the Santiago nightlife scene. Staying in Bellavista, a somewhat bohemian area frequented by artists, musicians and general freaks proved a good move, as it not only offered close proximity to the centre, but also a wide range of restaurants, cafes and fairly dodgy bars. The combination of a good alternative music scene and a good hostel (Bellevista Hostel) meant I was ineveitably going to get stuck here.

On friday we drank in a couple bars before hitting a club called Batuta, which was a fairly small club with a live band on stage giving way to a DJ playing a good range of indie, punk and alternative rock later on. Saturday this was topped by a club out in the Barrio Brasil district called Blondie. Descending into this medieval subterranean castle type place we found a pretty hardcore techno DJ trying to demolish the foundations of the room below. The boys we`d dragged there were not impressed. However once we`d negotiated the gurners and went through another tunnel it opened out into the main room, which was huge. Another live band was playing to a packed house of a couple thousand people. Once again the DJs after the band played a similar mix of music to the previous night, so that combined with the local drink of Pisco (dodgy spirit) and cola called Piscola – I kid you not, everyone was happy. Sunday morning daylight awaited outside.

It could be said that my time in Santiago was not exactly a cultural feast, but I consider getting to know the city and it`s nightlife fairly essential cultural elements of a place. Midweek was taken a little easier before my final blowout night on the following friday where we went out to a club miles out of town called Aeropuerto for it`s grand opening night. Good music, many bars, lasers and skantily-clad dancers etc – a wonderful but messy night.

A female Kraftwerk cover band – popular with Chilean amputee fetishists apparently

There`s a definite alternative feel to Santiago, where in Buenos Aires people played it very cool and trendy and the clubs were generally dance music, Santiago had a more rock-orientated scene where black is the in colour (black is the new black) and the artwork around town was certianly subversive, twisted or both. I get the impression that after years of oppresion from Pinochets`dictatorship, the people are letting go and expressing themselves to the maximum. It makes for a very vibrant city, one which is often overlooked by travellers who stay for a day after a connecting flight there, but that`s their loss.

I`ve finally dragged myself away though, and after a 24 hour bus ride (I can feel the envy from you all the way over here) I`ve now landed in a place called San Pedro de Atacama, a little dustbowl town on the edge of the Atacama, the driest desert on earth. I`ve hooked up with an aussie couple and tomorrow we`re heading off on a tour across the salt plains  into Bolivia, before arrving in Uyuni, Bolivia on Friday. Today I`m eating dust, tomorrow I guess it`ll be salt. Mmmm.

 

Bariloche (San Carlos de Bariloche to give it it´s full title) in the north of Argentinian Patagonia is a beautiful small city in the mold of a Swiss Alpine village, located next to the huge lake Perito Moreno. Many of the buildings are built in a wooden chalet style and the area is host to many activities for the outward-bound, as well as a fair number of inward bound too (translates as good nightlife)!

Thursday Mick and myself took mountain bikes out for the day to cycle around several of the lakes that make up the seven lakes district here. Once we´d negotiated the dodgy main road we hit the dirt tracks to discover beautiful tree-lined lakes and mountains. Lunchtime we stopped for a beer in the small village of Colonia Suiza, which as the name suggests is a Swiss colony here in Argentina. Who´da thunk it!

View of the lakes from the mountain top

We took a chairlift up to the top of one of the mountains and took in the 360 degrees panoramic view over much of the seven lakes district – photo to follow in a few days. After clocking up around 60km on the bikes I was pretty saddle-sore but a fantastic day all the same, and made it back before dark just in time for happy hour 🙂

Saturday we gave a second chance to a band who had not impressed us first time around earlier in the week. Le Gran 7, who bill themselves as a ska band had been a bit more jazz funk on wednesday, but come saturday in the more suitable venue with a good crowd they came up with the goods and left us baying for more. The night was topped off for me by meeting an Argentinian girl, who thankfully is an English teacher so the conversation was not along the lines of “me gusta this, no me gusta that” as it had been in Mexico, much to Gwyns amusement.

Come Easter sunday we thought it only right and proper as good god-fearing people to go and see some dodgy punk bands. The first couple were suitably untalented and painfull/amusing at times, but it came good with the headline band Los Magios, who had a drummer that could keep in time and a singer who wasn´t tone deaf.

An interesting marketing ploy in Bariloche – popular hangout of ´children´s´ entertainers´

This was a fine way to say goodbye to my two consistant travel companians of late, Adam and Mick, who now head back to Buenos Aires, while I head on north to Mendoza in the heart of the wine region tomorrow. The Patagonian adventure has sadly come to an end, but it´s been a great time that will stand out in my travel memories.

Onwards and upwards…

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