BootsnAll Travel Network



Mendoza and Santiago

May 2nd, 2006

Plaza España in Mendoza 
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.

I didn´t get a photo of the skeleton fucking the woman so this will have to do instead
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.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Little Switzerland

April 17th, 2006

Swiss Alps 

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!

Lovely Lakes
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.

Children´s entertainers hang out here
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…

Tags: , , , ,

Glaciers, fjords etc

April 12th, 2006

Perito Moreno glacier 

Spent close to a week in El Calafate, the highlight of which was seeing the Perito Moreno glacier in the national park. It´s a huge monster of a glacier and very impressive, though we didn´t hang around for too long indulging in the local sport of ice watching due to the rain starting. Luckily we had a hire car so we took off when the weather turned and drove around the rubble roads to see more of the park, which was pretty spectacular in itself. Other than that the time in El Calafate was pretty chilled out, waiting around to take the Navimag ferry.

The Navimag is an old cargo ship converted to take cargo as well as passengers, and was due to leave from back in Puerto Natales over on the Chilean side of the border. Rather than hang around that oddball town again we took a bus back the same day as the ferry was due to leave, only to find it was delayed for a day due to bad weather. Another day in Royston Vasey it was then, woohoo!

The ferry finally departed with it´s passengers (some human, some animal) and we´ve just spent the last four days sailing up through the Chilean fjords in Patagonia (Patagonia as a region covers both Argentina and Chile hence all the hopping back and forth across the border). The weather wasn´t the best, but managed to see seals and dolphins swimming by along the way, and what could be seen of the scenery was pretty impressive. One day we had to leave the fjords and go out around the coast on the Pacific ocean, which meant a rough ride but it added some exitement to the trip, though those puking might not agree.

Shipwreck as seen off the Navimag

The last night provided entertainment in the form of bingo followed by a disco, a tragic comedy every bit as bad as it sounds, but it was at least amusing. After a rude awakening the next day to get us off the boat we struggled into the Chilean port town of Purto Montt. Christ, what a shithole, Puerto Natales – all is forgiven. A few hours to kill in this place and then onto a bus, back across the border to the civilisation of Argentina. Now in a town called Bariloche which is set on a lakeside with plenty of activities to keep us amused. Going to stay here at least until monday when the Easter holiday weekend finishes, then head north and leave behind this beautiful land of Patagonia.

Gwyn, is that spare Flickr account still going begging? I´ve used up my allowance on the free one so can´t add anymore photos until the start of next month.

Tags: , , , , ,

Trekking through Chilean Patagonia

March 31st, 2006

Middle of nowhere 
A Patagonian road sign savvy to current trends in Latin American politics

After a tedious sixteen hour bus ride across bleak landscapes, dealing with border controls, a short ferry ride and stopping at every nowhere outpost en-route for food we finally made it into Puerto Natales, a very weird little port town on the Chilean side of Patagonia. It was not the best introduction to Chile, and when I went to find my mate Adam who I´d met back in Ushuaia, I found him on the verge of mental breakdown from arriving in the town a couple days earlier. Honestly, it was all a little bit too like Royston Vasey for my liking.

We made our plans for hiking in the Torres del Paine national park the very same day, got everything booked and ensured his mental well-being by heading off early the next morning. We had four beautul days of trekking and camping in one the most beautiful places I´ve ever been. We saw glaciers of blue ice, snow-capped mountains with the strangest formations and lakes of the brightest most unearthly blue. I can say little else right now as we only returned last night and got on a bus to get the hell out of Puerto Natales first thing this morning, so the brain is not firing on all cylinders right now.

We´re back on the Argentinian side again now in a place called Calafate, and should be here for close to a week, so my next objective (after getting thoroughly pissed for Adams birthday tonight) is to try to sort out getting photos back on here as they tell the story of these places so much better than I can.

At long last, some photos (more being added to previous entries in the coming week):

The brooding beauty of Glacier Grey (Torres del Paine)
Day 1: The brooding beauty of Glacier Grey (Torres del Paine)

 

Lake Pehoe 
Day 2: The weird blue waters of Lake Pehoe (Torres del Paine)

 

View of Valley Frances in Torres del Paine
Day 2: View of Valley Frances (Torres del Paine)

 

View from camp Italiano 
Day 2: View from Camp Italiano (Torres del Paine)

 

Near the end of the trek
Day 3: Lake near the final campsite (Torres del Paine)

 

The Towers
Day 4: View of the towers on the final day (Torres del Paine)

Tags: , , , ,

Tierra del Fuego

March 25th, 2006

Ushuaia proved to be a nice place to, quite literally, chill out; the temperature was pretty similar to what you´d be experiencing in the UK at this time of year. It made for quite a contrast to the hot weather and beach time I´ve had of late.

Wednesday I climbed the hardest trekking trail in the Tierra del Fuego national park, in my nice new pair of hiking boots bought the previous day – nothing like easing yourself into these things. This and the fact that I´d not done anything trek-wise since Guatemala at the end of last year meant I was a broken man by the end of the day, hobbling back down in agony and exhaustion. It started uphill through the woods for a couple hours, then across some fairly flat peat bogs and then back to a fierce uphill climb up the scree slopes to the peak, but the breath-taking views of the valleys and lakes from the top were well worth it.

Tierra del Fuego
View from half way up the mountain (Tierra del Fuego)

The next day I felt like an old man struggling downstairs, so I took it easy with a boat ride down the Beagle Channel, which connects the Atlantic with the Pacific oceans. Although the trip was supposed to be about cheacking out the cormorants, fat lazy sea lions and some light house, I actually enjoyed the view of the Andean mountains from the water more. The next day I took a trip to the local aquarium, which was all very nice, and at times rather freaky, but ultimately more like the sort of aquarium you´d expect to find on Craggy Island.

Fat Sea Lion
Another hard day at the office

Tags: , , , , ,

To the end of the earth

March 21st, 2006

Uruguay was just the tonic I needed. I visited the picturesque town of Colonia, just across the river from Buenos Aires for four days. Historically it was the port the Portuguese used for smuggling into Buenos Aires and it retains a beautiful colonial feel to it with cobbled streets and colourful buildings, just the place to chill out after the partying madness of Bs As.

Dining car outside El Drugstore restaurant in Colonia
Dining car on the cobbled streets outside El Drugstore restaurant in Colonia

There´s a certain friendly vibe to this place where the car drivers stop for you to cross (there´s no traffic lights, they´re just happy to stop) and everyone walks around with their flask of hot water and their cups of mate (pronounced ma-tay), a herbal tea with which they´re all obsessed, just like the Argentinians.

I intended to visit Montevideo for a day at the end of the week but having got up to find it raining I decided against a wet miserable day in the city and instead settled into an afternoon of playing cards and drinking wine with a few of the others in the hostel,  eventually sorting out a BBQ and party for most of the other guests in the evening.

Friday saw me back on the ferry to Buenos Aires where I arrived into the thick it with paddy´s day kicking off. Bs As has something like the fifth largest Irish community outside of Ireland, and it seemed like half of them were in the hostel, needless to say it was destined to be a heavy session from the off! Red wine was not the ideal way to start the day but what the hell, we moved onto the area with the irish pubs later and then eventualy out into the street which had been cordoned off for the cellebrations.

Saturday night I headed down to the big Sonar Sound festival, where the people who organise the big electronic/multimedia music festival in Barcelona each year were holding a one off night in Buenos Aires. Highlights were Plaid, a french band called Calder (a bit Death in Vegas with a Joy Division bent), DJ Yoda (gone up quite a lot in my estimation as he´s certainly developed his audio/visual skills beyond his early student mashup stuff) and finally the headline set from Laurent Garnier which was a stormer. Come 8am we found ourselves in a club that caters to the sunday morning crowd to finish ourselves off in style with the sun shining onto the terrace while we danced facing a view of the bay outside. It was a blinding weekend all in all and a very apt way to wave goodbye to the party capital that is Buenos Aires.

Yesterday I got a cheap flight down to the very south of Argentina, the sourthern-most city in the world called Ushuaia, right down on the tip of Patagonia – looking at a world map I´m finding it hard to contemplate I´m right down here. The area is called Tierra Del Fuego, translated as the land of fire from back when the early explorers sailed by and saw the fires lit by the indigenous people. These were the days before they cared to land and take over the place in the usual colonial style. Today the place is a ski resort when in season (which unfortunately it isn´t) but it´s also the jumping off point for trips to Antarctica, as well as a national park for trekking and boat rides around the icey waters to cheack out the wildlife.

View of Ushuaia 
View of Ushuaia

This place is one hell of a contrast to where I´ve been up to now, and the area promises to be a lot more natural beauty and healthy trekking than the mental partying that preceded it in Brazil and Buenos Aires.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Falling down

March 13th, 2006

All is going well, I have a flight down to the southern-most city of South America, and indeed the world, booked for next monday, I´ve researched my short trip to Uruguay this week and just need to go to the ferry company office to book a ticket.

**Rant Alert**
All I initially want is the ferry timetable so that I can decide what time to leave and which to take – fast/slow, expensive/cheap etc. You would think they would save a lot of time posting this crucial information on the wall of the office, or having flyers available to pick up, but oh no, that would be too easy.

So I take a ticket and sit down waiting for my number. I sit there wondering calmly what it would be like for someone who didn´t want to book a ticket today and simply wanted the timetable as they´d still have to wait in line. Bing bong, 70 flashes up. I´m 17 away, this may take a while, never mind I have plenty of time.

Bing bong, bing bong, bing bong – my eyelids are getting heavy. Quite a few numbers fly through as people appear to have left and not waited, how could they miss this thrilling ride of a lifetime? Still not close though. After about 50 minutes I start listening to this american family attempting to book tickets at the desk in front while squabling amongst themselves. Bing bong, bing bong. I look round and I´ve missed my number by one. How long did they wait for Mr 87? Not bloody long I can tell you. The fuckers!!

I´ve spent ages waiting, can´t get a timetable, and then they bore me into missing my number. Bollocks! I grab another number and sit down again. The seat I pick is jinxed, some workman wants me to move so he can get to the window display, at this point Michael Douglas in Falling Down appears in my head – I think I´m going to go postal!

I´ve been used to countries where everything takes ages and often doesn´t work at all and that hasn´t bothered me, but I guess the european veneer of Buenos Aires has lulled me into thinking that things might be run well here. Not at Buquebus, they´re number one, they´re the only one, so why try harder!

Anyway, I got through the next 50 minute wait, didn´t go postal, got my ticket and all is set for Uruguay. My mental shotgun has been put back in it´s box again, I think I just need a holiday 🙂

 

Tags: , , , ,

Buenos Fucking A!

March 12th, 2006

Having crossed the border into Argentina last weekend, I came to realise what all the fuss was about with the waterfalls. I think I previously described them as ´nice´or something, but from the Argentinian side they were stunning. Lots of trails around the forest surrounding them, and a look down into the big falls called the Devils Throat made for a beautiful day. Hard to describe but one of these days I´ll find an internet cafe that´ll allow me to sort out some photos for these pages to give an idea, just don´t hold your breath.

Waterfalls at Iguazu
Finally, here´s a photo of the waterfalls at Iguazu

Well since then I´ve been in Buenos Aires, and it´s one hell of a city. You have to adjust your body clock to eat at around 10pm (or later) then a bar for a couple drinks before going to the clubs at around 2am. I´ve made it to breakfast quite a few times, but only because we´ve still been up from the night before.

It´s not all nocturnal hedonism mind you; I found myself caught up in an anti-corruption protest one day, got lost (and creeped-out) in the big cemetary where Eva Peron is buried on another, and today we´re off to a big football match, Boca Juniors vs. Quilmes. Two football matches in just over a month, what´s going on?

Planning to escape this city for a few days next week (before it kills me) and take the ferry over to Uruguay, before heading back here next weekend.

Tags: , , ,

Dam engineers with hard hats and hard-ons

March 4th, 2006

After the rude awaking on monday morning, thankfully the day got better. The night saw most of the hostel turning up at a local carnival party, somewhere between a free party and a redneck ho-down, but an excellent night dancing around in the dirt to DJs and a samba band, what a way to see out the carnival!

The next day I had to escape before the endless partying killed me, so I took an overnight bus over to the Iguaçu falls and spent the day sleeping and recovering while it pissed it down outside.

Today I came up smiling and was even up before breakfast started at 7:30am – now there´s a first (and realistically a last).

The Brazillian side of the falls are located in a corner of Brazil referred to as the three frontiers as it borders both Paraguay and Argentina. In the morning I went to see the Brazillian side of the falls, very nice they were too, and could see across to Argentina on the other side.

In the afternoon I went down to see the Itaipu hydroelectric dam, one of the biggest this and largest that etc and also claimed to be one of the seven modern wonders of the world. After half an hour of cheesy corporate promo video, telling us how wonderfull it all was and what a good job they´d made of it, we jumped on a bus and headed for the dam. A photo opportunity missed was of the large sign greeting us on the roadside as we approached: “Welcome – prepare to be excited!!!” with a photo of a man with a big smile, not unlike the election signs that are plaguing Mexico at the moment (and which it would seem Gwyn has a hand in). I can assure you, I was wetting myself!

The commentary over the bus speakers helpfully informed us with such interesting stats like the amount of concrete poured in each day was equivalent to a 22 and a half storey building, the amount of steel used could build 319 slightly small Eiffel towers etc. – you get the idea. All of this was interspersed with synthesized lounge jazz music, which is perfect when looking at all this industrial shit. This is obviously where Ministry went wrong. Well by this point I couldn´t contain myself as I tried stiffling the laughter. The German engineer types were not amused.

On the journey back through town I passed the border to Paraguay, where lots of people got on with bags full of cheap electronics as the Brazillian government taxes technology at around 100%. So effectively I`d seen three countries in the same day, which is all very clever but ultimately pointless, but good all the same.

Crossed the border over to Argentina today and will go to see the falls from this side tomorrow, then get the bus down to Buenos Aires, which promises to be one of those places I´m going to get stuck for quite some time, looking forward to it.

Tags: , , ,

Bear with a sore head

February 27th, 2006

Carnival has been madness. It started kicking off last friday after midnight and still hasn’t finished, I think it runs until tomorrow or wednesday. Jesus this is hard work partying so hard, but I guess I can think of worse jobs. We’ve been to a big parade in the city, parties on the local beach, parades in the local town, samba bands and so on and so on…

However, I think it caught up with me today when I was rudely awoken (with a hangover) by a group of people being shown the dorm room, like some tour group passing through, one of whom was talking at the top of their irritating voice while I was asleep. I woke up and barked ‘who the fuck are you’ and then watched the loud mouth run out the room like a scared rabbit – this is my guide on how to make friends! Oh well fuck’em. I’ve had hardly any bad days like that since being away, despite the number of hangovers, but I put it down to not having to be somewhere like work, life is easy, no stress, how can you get pissed off when you’re having so much fun!

The days here on this island have been lazy, hanging out on the beach, travelling around the big lakes, eating, sleeping, drinking. We’ve had a really good crew of people here in the hostel which has made it all the better, but people are gradually leaving and being replaced (though not sure if the person who’s head I bit off this morning is staying) so it feels like time to move on. Tomorrow I’m heading off to the massive waterfalls at Iguazu, on the Argentinian border, so that should be a bit more chilled out for a few days before I make my way down to Buenes Aires.

I’ve been informed that it’s been snowing again in Bristol, so to all you lucky people back home, I hope you’re having fun and enjoying the cold while I sit here in a pair of shorts. I do receive occasional one word emails from people back home with comments like git and bastard, which is fair enough, but at least I’m a warm suntanned git.

 

Tags: , , ,