Bariloche - Argentinian Lake District - 17th - 21st January

Sunday 17th January (My wonderful husband's birthday!)
We arrived on the bus around 10am waking up to a glorious view of the Argentinian lake District, framed by the snow capped Andes. We stayed at Hostel 1004, which was a recommendation from another backpacker we met in Rio, what a fantastic place it was! The hostel is on the 10th floor of the tallest building in Bariloche centre and looks out over the Lake Nahuel Huapi. Our room was beautiful and airy with the same spectacular view!

We spent the morning exploring the town and planning our activities for the next few days, in the afternoon took a walk along the lake and went for a birthday drink! We bought a few bottles of good (and unbelievably cheap) red wine and some tapas style nibbles for dinner and settled down in the lovely common area with several other backpackers. Later in the evening the hostel staff treated us to some live music, mainly celtic tunes and a special rendition of 'Happy Birthday' for Señor Henderson!

The next morning we headed off to hire bikes and cycle round the Ciruit Chiquito. This is a 30km loop which takes you through the Nahuel Huapi National Park, provided some great vistas of the areas en route. The circuit turned out to be fairly, no make that VERY, hilly and it wasn't long before Mrs Henderson lost her sense of humour about the whole thing! However, we had started so we would finish. It was worth it in the end though and the views, beautiful weather and wildlife soon won Lynne over. We arrived back at the hostel a bit weary but with a sense of achievement, a great opener to our Patagonian adventure. We spent the evening in the hostel exchanging stories of our day with other guests over some wine and risotto - a great end to the day.

Tuesday morning was spent hunting down some fresh local fish and practising our spanish in some of the local shops. We had arranged to go kayaking in the afternoon and were collected after lunch with the rest of the group. There were 10 of us in total on the trip accompanied by two instructors. As it was quite windy we set off from a more sheltered lake (Lake Moreno) to ease us into it. We had a two man canoe, David went in the back, taking charge of steering (probably a good idea given Lynne's sense of direction) and Lynne took the place up front. The kayaking was great fun and with the windy conditions gave us a bit of a workout! We got back quite late and enjoyed some more banter with some of the hostel guests.

On Wednesday we made our way to the 17.7km point to do a short but very steep walk up to the top of EL Campanario, a spot which is rated by National Geographic in the top ten views of the world. It was quite a tough trail up the mountain but luckily doesn't take too long and we were rewarded with a panoramic view of the beautiful crystal clear blue lakes and lagoons and mountains. We picnic-ed at the top taking in the sight for as long as possible then headed back down the trail. In the evening we bought some steaks to cook ourselves (ridiculously cheap) and of course a bottle of red wine to accompany them, delicious!

An early morning bus will take us on the next leg of our journey to Puerto Montt where we catch the three day ferry trip to Puerto Natales.

Buenos Aires Part Dos

We took the ferry across the water to BA and arrived at our around midnight. We stayed in the Hostel Suites, Obelisk in Central this time instead of San Telmo. The hostel is really cool, its basically split into individual apartments each sharing a kitchen and bathroom. The bar area is really busy and lively, although unfortunately for us on our arrival night it happened to be full of loud, drunken, shirt-off Argentinians and Americans!

Thursday we went to Palermo visiting the beautiful wide avenues and grassy green park areas. We later went into trendy central Palermo where we stopped in a cobbled square for a Stella Artois in the sunlight! In the evening we took advantage of a free meal from the hostel (which turned out to be a shoe leather piece of meat and rice!) and a few more beers, then went to a late showing of Sherlock Holmes at the cinema to take in the last English film we'll probably see for a while.

Friday we walked from central down to San Telmo and Boca, stopping off at a deli to use our new found Spanish to order some delicious salame and cheese for lunch en route for just £1 all in! We had a great time wondering around taking in the architecture and amazing artwork on the buildings. David was pretty excited about getting in a game of chess from the locals in one of the parks famous for this, however we couldn't find anyone brave enough to take him on, only a table full of hobos trading white lightening!

We spent the afternoon walking (actually crawling in the sweltering heat) around the natural reserve in Puerto Maderno which was beautiful and a hidden gem in an otherwise crowded cosmopolitan city.

In the evening we met up with friends, Amy and Ben to attend a tango show called La Ventana in San Telmo, the show was fantastic, the food was great (half a cow each for main course!) and the company was even better. After the show we hit the bars (we are BRITISH, of course!) we traded wedding tips and travelling stories until the wee hours! It was a great night although the morning after proved a tough one as we had to get up and out by 11am!

So now we are off on the bus to Bariloche excited by the prospect of fresh air, mountains and the great outdoors!
Ciao!

Montevideo Monday 14th Dec 2009 - 12th January 2010!!

This blog entry recaps on the above period and gives a general update as to what we've been up to based in Montevideo.

We started college on Monday 14th Dec at “Academia Uruguay” and were really impressed with the college. We were assigned Gaston as our teacher and for the first week we were the only ones in the class. They have a fairly set curriculum and we started to work through their syllabus book 1. Gaston is a fairly animated character and very difficult to understand, apparently some of the Uruguayans who visit the college struggle to understand him!! The first week flew by and we appeared to progress well, although we found ourselves exhausted and moaning about the homework soon enough. College this week was between 09:30 – 13:30 meaning we were out and free by the hottest part of the day – and hot it was!! A typical day that week involved us heading home for lunch and then heading down to either Punta Carretas or Pocitos (favoured) beaches to siesta in the sun before returning to the flat for dinner and wine and the odd trip to the bars.

By the first weekend, we were looking forward to two days off and celebrated by enjoying a few drinks out on the town in Ciudad Vieja and a few longer runs down by the Rambla; we have been fairly discliplined with the running, alternating between a gentle jog and a David's training run which has us doing all the kind of exercises expected in a football training session warm-up – much to the pleasure of the 'mate' swilling locals who tend to shout and encourage us (we think!) as not many people here tend to take advantage of this fantastic rambla to run.

By the end of the weekend we had become fully accustomed to having our own flat again with the fridge filled and enjoying a routine of cooking with no smelly dread-locked travellers in the kitchen! The flat is great although a few mornings it's hard to sleep when the market on the road outside being set up from 4am!! Also, the local bar (Bar Sarandi) tends to be frequented by various local characters and seems to go on until the last of them runs out money or falls asleep!!
The second week was a four day week, with 5 hours a day (!) due to Friday (Christmas Day) being a holiday and that we were joined by another student – Bjorn, from Germany. It was a good laugh with Bjorn, who we quickly realised was just as keen on having a laugh with us as he was about learning the lingo! The week passed by quickly but was tiring with the additional hour each day and Gaston not easing up on the homework! (Lynne and David don't need to point out that we are quite geeky and wouldn't dream of turning up to lesson without having completed it!). By the end of the week it was evident that much to his disgust David was clearly bottom of he class and crying out for some numbers and no more Spanish! Lynne on the other hand was clearly top of the class and Gaston's favourite! The afternoons this week remained hot and so we frequented the beaches once more.

Christmas Eve however was rainy, we decided to head down to the Mercado del Puerto after enjoying it for Lynne's Birthday....it was quite different this time!! By the time we had left college at 14:30, the streets were filled with locals wandering the streets drunk on Roldo's and swilling it freely in the streets; by the time we got to the Mercado the area was crammed with the drunken mass singing along to live music and throwing cider in the air over any unfortunate bystanders who happened to get too close. The meal was as good as last time and afterwards we headed back to the flat as the streets emptied – we later found out that after drinking the afternoon away everyone goes back to their families where they dine and relax before setting off fireworks at midnight. This was quite spectacular, we enjoyed some wine on our roof terrace watching the 360 degree firework display. It seemed every plaza, house were setting fireworks off, even those in the streets were setting off rockets.

Christmas day was relaxed, with the morning spent cooking Christmas Dinner. Limited by the produce on offer here we opted for roast chicken, roast potatoes, homemade onion and herb stuffing, sweet potato mash, broccolli, carrots & sweetcorn topped off with proper gravy (no oxo!!) and a few bottles of local red wine. It turned out great and we enjoyed raising a glass of wine with the family over the webcam!

Shannon (from Canada) joined us in the class for the third week, which again consisted of 5 hours a day with Friday being New Years day. The weather didn't quite live up to the first two weeks, so afternoons & evenings were spent between the beach, parks and socialising with the other students at college.

We brought in the New Year by having a group of the students round to our flat for drinks and food before once again taking in an impressive fireworks display at midnight which was followed by a trip to the bars/clubs of Ciudad Vieja which only opened at 1am. They seem to have many strange customs here, the drinking of Mate being numero uno, but another noted is that on New Year's Eve before they all go out and get drunk at midday they rip up their used diaries as well as all office paper that relates to the year and throw it out their windows and onto the streets! The streets were littered with paper on every street in town, it was quite strange! What would be called a security nightmare in the UK!!

On New Years day we relaxed by the coast and on the 2nd we headed to the Bodega Bouza Winery in the countryside of Montevideo. This is an experimental vineyard only recently opened and prides itself on quality over quantity. The scenery was as beautifu as the weather and we thoroughly enjoyed a break from the city. We had a tour of the facilities followed by a wine tasting session. We tasted 4 wines consisting of pure Tannat (a grape favoured in Uruguay)., Merlot and combinations of the two. Needless to say we say we enjoyed the wine tasting and look forward to more of the same in Argentina.

On the Sunday we explored some new areas of the city including a trip to Estadio Centenario – which is the Country's National Football stadium, the same one where they won the first ever World Cup in 1930. It got David thinking of how great it's going to be when England win the 2010 Cup!

The final week in college started with a painful Monday. We were joined by two new girls, a Finnish girl who was pleasant enough and a German lady who was possibly the most annoying person we have ever met. She just wouldn't shut up!! Following a brief complaint and a day of deep breaths and counting to ten we had Gaston to ourselves once more from Tues – Fri. We covered loads of material in this week at a fast pace, so much so that it's going to take some time to revisit it all. The weather once again picked up and with class finishing at 13:30 we were once again unleashed onto the beaches. We enjoyed a few nights out with some of the other students which left us very tired in college trying to survive on only a few hours sleep! For the Friday we prepared a hand made card for Gaston as a thank you which he got quite sentimental about!

We then took a bus to Punta Del Este which is 2 hours down the coast and is the Monte Carlo of South America where all the wealthy and famous go for the summer break. We booked a B&B just out of town and after settling in headed into town (the peninsula) to meet with Ida (Ian's wife's best buddy from San Francisco). We went for dinner with her before making our way home about 1:30am being tired after the week at college – for Ida however and most of Punta Del Este, this is the beginning of the night when they start to go out clubbing. The typical day there appears to be: clubbing from 1am – 9am, sleep until 5pm, beach for a few hours before grabbing a power nap from 7pm – 10pm after which they go out for dinner and then back to the club!! A ritual we may have sampled if we had a few nights there, but we were to head down the coast to Punta Del Diablo the following evening and so opted for a fairly early rise, hiring bikes and exploring the city & coast on wheels! In short, the day took a twist after we realised somewhere on the bike tour that David's wallet was missing! So the day then went as follows: a visit to our first South American police station, a trip back to see Ida – our Guardian Angel who saved us with a cash advance – as with no cash we couldn't pay for our last night's accommodation or any food! We were touched by the generosity of not only Ida but also the local Uruguayans and visiting Argentinians who couldn't do enough to help. The B&B owners were very kind to us and in light of the situation allowed us to camp for free in their back garden (we had the tent as were planning to camp in Punta Del Diablo) and gave us breakfast in the morning. After a negative response from the police that morning and having been able to change our bus tickets (and receive practically a 90% refund for those missed and cancelled – thank you kind women at COT buses!!) we headed back to Montevideo a day early as that is where our remaining bank cards and money are!

With only Monday & Tuesday left in Montevideo, we started getting ready to leave. We had some positive news on Tuesday when the hostel in Punta Del Este informed us that my wallet had been found and handed back in with all the money intact!! Amazing, not sure that would happen in London!! A bit late for the bank cards that have already been cancelled but nice to have back. We picked it up from some Argentinian Girls who were travelling back to Montevideo that evening. That afternoon we also enjoyed our final run down the Rambla, notching up 10km and then heading out to a Tango Club with Bjorn, Shannon and a few others. This was basically someone's house that has been converted into a Milonga which stays open until the last person goes home – Lynne impressed with her first Tango lesson!

So our Montevideo / Uruguay adventure comes to an end as we take the BuqueBus Ferry back across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires.

Saturday – Lynne Henderson's Birthday!! With college starting on Monday we had the whole weekend to explore the city and to find a suitable venue to celebrate a very special birthday! The morning took us around Ciudad Vieja and the weekend Flea markets before we walked down the coastal Promenade (the Rambla) right round to Playa Ramirez (our nearest beach 2km away) and then to the Punta Carretas district and more importantly its shopping mall; this area is a very smart residential area with tree lined avenues and based around a decent amount of greenery on the coast. A very disciplined Mrs Henderson left the mall with no shopping bags except for lots of carrier bags from the supermarket which meant a taxi was required to get us back home!

At this point we were very hungry and so headed for Lynne's Birthday meal at the Mercado del Puerto. This is an old Iron market which houses many Uruguayan steak / barbeque houses, the place was alive with music, locals and the bars were bustling!! We read that the steaks here are obscenely large and so once we had selected the restaurant where we'd eat (i.e. being the first one we could find a table at – the place was heaving) we ordered one Lomo to share with some fries and a salad. Not as cheap as Argentina, but just, if not more amazing! We proceeded to have one of the most enjoyable meals we have ever had, not only due to the quality of the food but the general buzz of the place; after the meal we moved to one of the bars also indoors to supp back a few more drinks amongst the locals who were mostly pie-eyed by 5:30pm!! It was just like being in London on a Saturday! It didn't take long for us to find the reason for this...Roldo's; a Uruguayan sweet cider, £2 a bottle and 10.5%. The Market closed shortly after and so we headed out onto the street with the rest of the crowd where we witnessed a small carnival with a procession of African Drumming bands circling the market with massive flags denoting the groups filling the immediate area. There were people dancing in the streets and the music was brilliant. We saw the last 3 groups of who knows how many and then before we knew it, up pop a local band onto a temporary stage next to us who proceeded to play a type of upbeat Latino reggae (best description we can come up with). The streets were filled with people dancing off the effects of several bottles of Roldo's and of course it didn't take long before Mrs H was throwing some of her own Birthday shapes in the mosh area! Once the set was over we dispersed with the rest of the crowd into the surrounding streets before deciding to head home for a relaxing evening in the apartment. Considering there was no plan to the day, it proved to be so much fun, befitting of the occasion, and a day that has convinced us that we want to stay in the city at the weekends.

Sunday: Having read of a large Sunday Market in the Centro district we headed there for lunchtime and found a huge market where you could buy anything there, including some extremely cute puppies and kittens!! The whole place was fairly manic and so after an hour of browsing we decided to cut loose and head to the beach in the Pocitos district. This is a decent sized beach with white soft sand; a place we will definitely be visiting more often! David was a bit puzzled to find that the locals here tend to opt for swim shorts rather than speedos, but it didn't stop him being true to the speedo tan lines!

We walked back from the beach, all 8km of the way and thoroughly enjoyed witnessing the local way of life; so far we can identify that the Uruguayan (well the Montevideo) culture is based around, mate, boozy Saturdays, lie-ins (the streets in the morning are dead!), fishing and family. All down the coast, which is either beach, grassy park areas or fishing clubs the area is packed with families, couples or group of friends sat on deck chairs or the path wall supping mate whilst the men (usually) fish. The evening was relaxed to ensure we were fresh and ready to begin our college course in the morning.