Tuesday 31 January 2012
Empanada por favor!
I seem to be recieving my blog reminders again, so its time to type up another one! I´m glad many of you liked my first entry. My head got quite swollen after all the great feedback, but don´t worry it quickly deflated after seeing myself in the mirror in my bathing suit after how many Empanada´s I ate in Buenos Aires.
Amanda and I enjoyed our last few days together in Bariloche. We shopped, had chocolate and participated in a 30 km (thankfully shorter than originally planned) bike ride around Circuito Chico. The bike ride took us 6 hours. This has been my favourite activity so far. It was difficult to bike through the mountains, but the beautiful views and the fresh lakes to jump in to were well worth it. And I can´t forget the bike rental shop gave us chocolate at the end of our route! Later that night I met a guy at the hostel who told me he saw me walking my bike uphill on the route (how embarassing). He claimed I looked tired and we got talking about how we don´t have hills where I´m from in Canada. This surprised him greatly, and he told me that he heard that Canadians live underground to avoid the cold.. I exlpained to him that it is cold, but most people in Canada manage to live better than the average rabbit.
Circuito Chico
I left Bariloche at noon on January 23rd for an overnight bus ride to Buenos Aires. The bus was excellent, especially after a young waiter took extra liking to me and gave me luxury treatment. I sucessfully checked in to Millhouse hostel which lies just off of Avenida 9 de Julio. It is common in South America for streets to be named after dates - 9th of July being Argentina´s independence day. This Avenue is particularly interesting because it occupies an entire city block. On either side runs an express way connecting the south and north sides of the city, and
in the middle are monuments and greenspace. Originally, this grotestly large boulevard seemed very interesting to me, but soon became my nemisis as I inconveniently never seemed to be on the side of the boulevard that I needed to be..
My first day in Buenos Aires was great. I caught the subway went to Palermo, an artsy district of B.A. There were many shops, restaurants, bars and like in true Argentine fashion nothing seemed to be open. I then ventured over to the Botanical Gardens and then to Museo Eva
Peron (Evita Museum). This was excellent. It was very interesting to see her story told from the Argentine side, viewed as a very passionate but controversial leader. That night I was the
first night I got to see what brings most travellers to Buenos Aires- parties. My Millhouse hostel was one of two a couple blocks apart. This hostel had 6 floors with about 8 dorms per floor, mostly filled with Aussies. Each night one of the two hostels had a joint party with my favourite part, happy hour!
My second day I ventured to Ave Florida a vehicle-free street filled with shops and people then over to the beautiful mall of Galleria Pacifico. This mall had tile floors and a gorgeously painted ceiling. After strolling around for a few hours I hoped back on the subway and down to Palarmo area again to see the Japanese gardens. Buenos Aires has a lot of greenspace for such a large city, with most streets shaded by old trees. The architecture of the old buildings is
spectacular as well.
January 26th Colin Parsons joined me in Buenos Aires. He arrived early afternoon after a long flight from Winnipeg. Him and I wondered around Palermo area and through some of the parks. When we got back to the hostel we our roomies. 3 other Canadians from Vancouver and
¨Aussie Lee¨. All of our roomates had just arrived that day to South America. Colin and I ventured down to happy hour which would be exceptionally busy because as we were explained, it was Australia Day in Australia. The patriotism of the Aussies in our hostel only seemed to feed off each other, making for a pretty job night! As we entered the drink line we met 2 solo travellers from the other hostel. Jakob Jakobsen (honestly) from Denmark and ¨Aussie Jaime¨. Later, Lee would join us as well and the group of us partied together all night.
The next morning, after waking up slowly we learnt that Lee at the end of the night found a great Empanada place near our hostel. So for the first of many visits, we ventured over for lunch. That afternoon Lee, Colin and I visited the gritty, colorful area of La Boca. We saw the tango, the pro soccer stadium and vibrantly colorful buildings. On the way home from La Boca, we picked up more Empanadas. That night we attended the usual hostel party, where Colin has discovered a new love - Quilmes beer.
La Boca
Colin and I decided to visit Roceleta Cemetery the next day. Actually, we planned to visit the Urban Eco Reserves we had heard such good things about. But, after my bad navigations we ended up in the opposite direction. Fortunately, we were near Roceleta Cemetery. This is a massive cemetery in Buenos Aires I had planned to visit. Colin was not so wild about this visit, I believe his words were ¨this is just creepy¨. I promised him we could stop for Empanadas on the way back. I have since been contemplating keeping a blog of all the strange things I drag Colin to and his reactions. I found the cemetery to be very interesting. That night Colin, Lee and I decided to upgrade from our usual cuisine of Argentina. Colin had been talking about Argentinean steak since he landed, so that was what we were going to find. He claimed it was better than any of the steak back home, so our adventure was a success! We later met with Jakob Jakobsen and got our first taste of Buenos Aires night life. The hostel sets up shuttles to go from the parties to a designated bar, a fun, safe way to experience the nightlife.
Sunday was our last day in Buenos Aires. Colin, Lee and I wondered around San Telmo market. This is a famous market in Buenos Aires that is only on sundays. It is known for its antiques. Although no one bought anything, we enjoyed the atmosphere. The three of us went out for our last Empanda together. We hung out at our hostel that night with our other Canadian roomies and played cards. Our Canadian roomies are on the same path as Colin and I until Carnaval. We all left the next morning for Montevideo, Uruguay. Colin and I boarded a ferry at 8 am the next morning. We had an hour on the ferry and 3 on a bus to land us in Montevideo, where we met the other canadians. Montevideo was loud, stinky, and dirty - I joked that
it is just like my travel partner. Speaking of dirty and smelly, I decided to do laundry in Montevideo. I took all of mine, and some of Colin´s clothes to a laundry mat by our hostel. We explained to the woman working there that we needed our clothes back that day because we had a bus out at 10 am the next morning. She agreed that they would be ready by close, 7 pm. Colin and I returned to pick up our belongings at 630, only to find the laundry mat closed. We were very confused and a bit paniced, because if Montevideo was anything like Argentina this place may not be open again until next month! We had no choice but wait and return again in the morning. Montevideo was definitely not my favourite, but we made the best of it. We spent the day on the beach and played a spanish version of Pictograma at the hostel that night with our Canadian group and some Chilean travellers. We returned to find a closed laundry mat again the next morning. Now we were a bit panicked, as I had been wearing my beach wrap as a shirt for the previous 18 hours. Luckily, the other Canadian travellers were on the same route as us that day and departing a bit later, so they agreed to pick up our things. Although relieved we would be getting our things back, I was slightly disappointed that I no longer could justify buying a new wardrobe.
Colin and I arrived by bus to Punta del Este in the afternoon. This is a beautiful, posh beach city. We are staying about 400m from a massive beach just outside the city. We spent the day on the beach where we met Aussie Jamie from Millhouse hostel and returned back to our hostel
to find the Canadians with our laundry!! We plan to stay here for a couple nights, then off to another beach town a bit more remote, Punta del Diablo.
Time for happy hour, ciao for now!!
Amanda and I enjoyed our last few days together in Bariloche. We shopped, had chocolate and participated in a 30 km (thankfully shorter than originally planned) bike ride around Circuito Chico. The bike ride took us 6 hours. This has been my favourite activity so far. It was difficult to bike through the mountains, but the beautiful views and the fresh lakes to jump in to were well worth it. And I can´t forget the bike rental shop gave us chocolate at the end of our route! Later that night I met a guy at the hostel who told me he saw me walking my bike uphill on the route (how embarassing). He claimed I looked tired and we got talking about how we don´t have hills where I´m from in Canada. This surprised him greatly, and he told me that he heard that Canadians live underground to avoid the cold.. I exlpained to him that it is cold, but most people in Canada manage to live better than the average rabbit.
Circuito Chico
I left Bariloche at noon on January 23rd for an overnight bus ride to Buenos Aires. The bus was excellent, especially after a young waiter took extra liking to me and gave me luxury treatment. I sucessfully checked in to Millhouse hostel which lies just off of Avenida 9 de Julio. It is common in South America for streets to be named after dates - 9th of July being Argentina´s independence day. This Avenue is particularly interesting because it occupies an entire city block. On either side runs an express way connecting the south and north sides of the city, and
in the middle are monuments and greenspace. Originally, this grotestly large boulevard seemed very interesting to me, but soon became my nemisis as I inconveniently never seemed to be on the side of the boulevard that I needed to be..
My first day in Buenos Aires was great. I caught the subway went to Palermo, an artsy district of B.A. There were many shops, restaurants, bars and like in true Argentine fashion nothing seemed to be open. I then ventured over to the Botanical Gardens and then to Museo Eva
Peron (Evita Museum). This was excellent. It was very interesting to see her story told from the Argentine side, viewed as a very passionate but controversial leader. That night I was the
first night I got to see what brings most travellers to Buenos Aires- parties. My Millhouse hostel was one of two a couple blocks apart. This hostel had 6 floors with about 8 dorms per floor, mostly filled with Aussies. Each night one of the two hostels had a joint party with my favourite part, happy hour!
My second day I ventured to Ave Florida a vehicle-free street filled with shops and people then over to the beautiful mall of Galleria Pacifico. This mall had tile floors and a gorgeously painted ceiling. After strolling around for a few hours I hoped back on the subway and down to Palarmo area again to see the Japanese gardens. Buenos Aires has a lot of greenspace for such a large city, with most streets shaded by old trees. The architecture of the old buildings is
spectacular as well.
January 26th Colin Parsons joined me in Buenos Aires. He arrived early afternoon after a long flight from Winnipeg. Him and I wondered around Palermo area and through some of the parks. When we got back to the hostel we our roomies. 3 other Canadians from Vancouver and
¨Aussie Lee¨. All of our roomates had just arrived that day to South America. Colin and I ventured down to happy hour which would be exceptionally busy because as we were explained, it was Australia Day in Australia. The patriotism of the Aussies in our hostel only seemed to feed off each other, making for a pretty job night! As we entered the drink line we met 2 solo travellers from the other hostel. Jakob Jakobsen (honestly) from Denmark and ¨Aussie Jaime¨. Later, Lee would join us as well and the group of us partied together all night.
The next morning, after waking up slowly we learnt that Lee at the end of the night found a great Empanada place near our hostel. So for the first of many visits, we ventured over for lunch. That afternoon Lee, Colin and I visited the gritty, colorful area of La Boca. We saw the tango, the pro soccer stadium and vibrantly colorful buildings. On the way home from La Boca, we picked up more Empanadas. That night we attended the usual hostel party, where Colin has discovered a new love - Quilmes beer.
La Boca
Colin and I decided to visit Roceleta Cemetery the next day. Actually, we planned to visit the Urban Eco Reserves we had heard such good things about. But, after my bad navigations we ended up in the opposite direction. Fortunately, we were near Roceleta Cemetery. This is a massive cemetery in Buenos Aires I had planned to visit. Colin was not so wild about this visit, I believe his words were ¨this is just creepy¨. I promised him we could stop for Empanadas on the way back. I have since been contemplating keeping a blog of all the strange things I drag Colin to and his reactions. I found the cemetery to be very interesting. That night Colin, Lee and I decided to upgrade from our usual cuisine of Argentina. Colin had been talking about Argentinean steak since he landed, so that was what we were going to find. He claimed it was better than any of the steak back home, so our adventure was a success! We later met with Jakob Jakobsen and got our first taste of Buenos Aires night life. The hostel sets up shuttles to go from the parties to a designated bar, a fun, safe way to experience the nightlife.
Sunday was our last day in Buenos Aires. Colin, Lee and I wondered around San Telmo market. This is a famous market in Buenos Aires that is only on sundays. It is known for its antiques. Although no one bought anything, we enjoyed the atmosphere. The three of us went out for our last Empanda together. We hung out at our hostel that night with our other Canadian roomies and played cards. Our Canadian roomies are on the same path as Colin and I until Carnaval. We all left the next morning for Montevideo, Uruguay. Colin and I boarded a ferry at 8 am the next morning. We had an hour on the ferry and 3 on a bus to land us in Montevideo, where we met the other canadians. Montevideo was loud, stinky, and dirty - I joked that
it is just like my travel partner. Speaking of dirty and smelly, I decided to do laundry in Montevideo. I took all of mine, and some of Colin´s clothes to a laundry mat by our hostel. We explained to the woman working there that we needed our clothes back that day because we had a bus out at 10 am the next morning. She agreed that they would be ready by close, 7 pm. Colin and I returned to pick up our belongings at 630, only to find the laundry mat closed. We were very confused and a bit paniced, because if Montevideo was anything like Argentina this place may not be open again until next month! We had no choice but wait and return again in the morning. Montevideo was definitely not my favourite, but we made the best of it. We spent the day on the beach and played a spanish version of Pictograma at the hostel that night with our Canadian group and some Chilean travellers. We returned to find a closed laundry mat again the next morning. Now we were a bit panicked, as I had been wearing my beach wrap as a shirt for the previous 18 hours. Luckily, the other Canadian travellers were on the same route as us that day and departing a bit later, so they agreed to pick up our things. Although relieved we would be getting our things back, I was slightly disappointed that I no longer could justify buying a new wardrobe.
Colin and I arrived by bus to Punta del Este in the afternoon. This is a beautiful, posh beach city. We are staying about 400m from a massive beach just outside the city. We spent the day on the beach where we met Aussie Jamie from Millhouse hostel and returned back to our hostel
to find the Canadians with our laundry!! We plan to stay here for a couple nights, then off to another beach town a bit more remote, Punta del Diablo.
Time for happy hour, ciao for now!!
Friday 20 January 2012
Ola from South America!!
Yesterday it was brought to my attention by three different sources that I am yet to submit any sort of bog entry.. Who would have thought I would have three different people wanting to read this thing?! Prior to leaving, I promised my Grandma Harri that I would keep this blog while I travelled for the next six months throughout South America. I trust that I am now in the “dog house” for my lack of entries but am still convinced they will be the only ones who religiously follow. So... sorry Grandma!
January 4th, I left on an overnight flight to Santiago, Chile only stop being Toronto. When I landed in Toronto it was announced that the flight to Santiago would be slightly delayed. I got to the terminal only to find out that the plane need repairing and it would further be delayed about 2 more hours. It was now mid night at the air port. The flight was large as it was supposed to land in Santiago, then on the Buenos Aires. Later, we were told that the plane could not be fixed and we were assigned a new plane that needed to be boarded ASAP or out flight would be cancelled. Finally around 2:30 am we were on our way! The flight was direct, about 10 hours of travel.
I landed in sunny Santiago in the afternoon and hopped in to a van on route the Passi residence where I met my friend Amanda. Amanda has been in South America since mid October, spending the majority of her time in Peru. She travelled to Chile to meet her friend- the Passi family, who graciously took me in as well. Stepping foot out of the airport was shocking. It was about 33 degrees that day and very humid. The drive to the Passi's was very interesting. We drove through the slums and I noticed that Santiago had smog hanging over the city. Later it was explained that the smog gets trapped over the city by the mountains and gets much worse in the winter. There is a river that runs through the city that is very brown with banks covered in garbage. Stray dogs in which I refuse to make friends with are very common in Chile as well.
The Passi’s house was beautiful. The floors were tiled, and the doors were large round frames. Amanda and I had rooms in the back detached from the rest of the house. In order to get a hot shower I had to turn on carbon monoxide and light a burner in the washroom. We’ll just say showers were limited in Santiago due to the my fear of blowing us up. Some of the family friends came over that night and introduced us to fanta (orange) and beer- this is common for Chileans to drink. At that point I started to wonder about the Chileans – why would anyone want to dilute beer? My skepticism was soon relaxed once I saw the size of the beer bottles, 1.5 litres!! It is common for Chileans to share a bottle (or more) over dinner. That night the father took us for a ride around Santiago and when I commented on how nice the roads were he explained that the freeways have all been developed within the last 4 years. They are comparable to the American freeways. However, the same can not be said that the Chilean driver’s.. Apparently some will still reverse out of exits when they realize they taking wrong one – yikes!!
Chilean and Argentinean cities are all developed around Plazas. The next day we got up to visit Plaza de Armes. This is the main Plaza in Santiago. There are many smaller ones as well, which are vibrant at night. After touring around, we went to a Chilean restaurant with the family. This restaurant was particularly interesting because it didn’t have a sign anywhere on the building. It was in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. It was extremely large and apparently always full of people. Before every Chilean meal food is brought to the table, often its bread and salsa type toppings. At this Chilean restaurant, they made corn and potato patties served with a spicy sauce and fresh salsa… At that moment, I fell in love with Chilean food. This love would continue for the rest of my time there. Most dishes are made with corn, often mashed. Copper is the largest industry here. There is copper in the jewelry and all over the markets, as well as stands of goods made from copper that provide a nice blinding reflection as you drive by them on the side of the road.
The rest of the day we toured BellaVista. This is a common tourist area also filled with locals. It has a more traditional look to the neighbourhood. The sidewalks are filled with patios where everyone is sitting across from someone splitting a 1.5 litre bottle of Cristal (Chilean beer – cheap too!). We walked towards the mountains to Pablo Neruda’s house. He won the Noble Peace Prize for Literature. As I continued to travel throughout Chile I realized how influential he was and still is.
Our last day in Santiago Amanda and I went back to BellaVista market to look around before catching an afternoon bus to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. These are sister cities, Valparaiso being an older, more preserved look, where Vina is flooded in the summer with the city slickers of Santiago and tourists looking for a beach getaway. We met Jill Enns and her boyfriend Mike Renaud in Vina later that night. Jill and Mike had just arrived in from Peru to rent an apartment in Vina for the next 4 nights with us. We toured Vina and Valparaiso, and enjoyed the extremely warm weather and beautiful beaches. Valparaiso is famous for a clock made from flowers in a garden. It was very pretty. The highlight was definitely the day trip to Zapallar. This is a ritzy beach town where wealthy Chileans spend their summers. Zapallar is only an hour from Vina, but when we read online that it is too expensive to stay overnight we opted for a day trip to the beach and bus back to Vina for the night. The weather was beautiful all of these days- it was good to be at the ocean!
Zapallar
Zapallar
Although the weather was hot, Chileans still opt to wear pants and shoes all the time. No wonder North American’s stick out so much! Another strange thing we noticed in Chile is that Canada Dry Ginger Ale is extremely popular. Often it will be stocked on the shelves of stores even when there are no other imported drinks. When you tell someone we are from Canada they always respond with “OH! Canada Dry!!!” … yes??? And another one of my favourites is telling people we are from Winnipeg. “Weeney-peg??” yep! That’s the one! Weeney-peg!
We went out one night and tested out Pisco sours in Chile. We had to get to the bottom of a Peruvian/Chilean debate over who actually makes Pisco. This is a very strong alcohol made from grapes. I will have to try it when I go to Peru, but I sure got a good taste of the Chilean drink! We spent the next few days at other beach towns along the coast (Algorrobo and El Quisco) before heading back to in Santiago. Jill and Mike flew home after about a week and Amanda and I hopped a bus to Mendoza, Argentina!! The drive was supposed to be 6 hours through the windy roads of the Andes, but it became more like 10. We arrived in Mendoza at 11 pm where the temperature was still 28 degrees and extremely humid. In Chile, it cools down a lot at night, but just a short ride in the Andes and you are in a desert where the temperature only changes 6 degrees at night.
Mendoza is in wine country. Amanda and I toured two wineries the next day and an Olive oil factory. On our wine tour we learnt that Mendoza produces 70% of Argentina’s wine, many of the higher end wines are not even used for export. We also learnt about the city’s very interesting water system developed long ago. Because Mendoza is in the desert, they built trenches along the sides of the roads used to irrigate their vegetation. As new developers looked at ways to adopt a more modern system of irrigation, they found that the previous way was still best. A large damn was built outside the city to release the water in to the trenches when needed.
We spent a few more days in Mendoza, walking and walking and walking.. So much that both of Amanda’s sandals fell apart! This conveniently happened on a Sunday, as we found out that stores are not opened in Argentina on Sundays. Actually, stores in Argentina also close between 2-5:30pm everyday as well.. Yet the reason for such slow growth is still uncertain in this economy??
Amanda and I decided to catch a 17 hour bus south from Mendoza to Bariloche. Bariloche is the gateway to Patagonia, lying in the lake district. There are so many activities to do here. Most people stay here for over a week. Hiking is most the popular attraction, as well as other activities like rafting, biking, and climbing. Amanda and I are staying in a great hostel with a beautiful view of one of the lakes. We have met many people in our hostel because you get free dinner with your rental fee.. sweet! Everyone eats together, so it’s a great way to meet people. The town of Bariloche has a Banff feel to it. We have learnt and experienced that this town is the chocolate capital of Argentina! There are so many chocolate and ice cream shops here, thank goodness the town is full of activities that help justify our indulgences!!
Bariloche Hike
Bariloche Hike
We have gone on two hikes. One short hike over looking many lakes and one full day hike to Tronador! Tronador lies within the National park. We saw a black glacier (one of only two in the world) and a beautiful glacier waterfall in the mountains.
Tronador
We will be renting bikes tomorrow to bike 60 km around the lake, then I’m sure we will visit our favourite ice cream shop afterwards. The weather is still nice here. Today is the first day there has been an over cast, but it is still very warm. I will be in Bariloche until Monday, January 23rd when Amanda and I will split as I will catch a 26-hour bus to Buenos Aires and she will travel back to Chile. Buenos Aires is been the destination that travelers rave about. I am excited to see what is in store for me there as I wait for Colin Parsons to fly in a couple days after my arrival. Colin and I will travel together for about two months… or until he gets sick of me!
Tronador
We will be renting bikes tomorrow to bike 60 km around the lake, then I’m sure we will visit our favourite ice cream shop afterwards. The weather is still nice here. Today is the first day there has been an over cast, but it is still very warm. I will be in Bariloche until Monday, January 23rd when Amanda and I will split as I will catch a 26-hour bus to Buenos Aires and she will travel back to Chile. Buenos Aires is been the destination that travelers rave about. I am excited to see what is in store for me there as I wait for Colin Parsons to fly in a couple days after my arrival. Colin and I will travel together for about two months… or until he gets sick of me!
Hope everyone is doing well! Ciao!
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