Surf n Turf

Seeing as we have been rather lax updating this blog here is a quick update on where we have been and what we have been up too in the last 2 months!

Iguazu Falls in the far North Eastern tip of Argentina next to Brazil and Paraguay. One word incredible!

Back to Buenos Aires where we were robbed at the bus station, then had to hang around for almost two weeks to get everything replaced - passports, credit cards, cameras, you name it they stole it.

At last we escaped BA by flying to El Calafate in Patagonia, saw the Perito Moreno glaciar up close and personal and summited our first mountain in Argentina (Cerro Cristal).

On to El Chalten a mere 3 hours from Calafate to walk round Cerro Torre and Mount Fitz Roy then back to Calafate for few more days.

Bus across the Chilean border to Puerto Natales before spending 5 days trekking with full packs around the Torres del Paine National Park. Including a crack of dawn start to see the famous Torres themselves - sadly it was raining and then snowing but we did see dawn in the mountains.

Next stop was Punta Arenas (also in Chile) to see 175 000 Magellinic Penguins on an island in the straits of Magellene.

Then accross the straits to Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego, where we spent a considerable time chilling out but also saw some sealions in the Beagle Channel, visited the Martial glaciar (tiny but the views of the city were fantastic) and finally summited Cerro Guanaco in Tierra del Fuego national park! Not to forget I also celebrated my 32nd birthday in the southern most city in the world!

Finally to San Carlos de Bariloche via two planes one of which was straight out of Indiana Jones! In Bariloche we sampled the most amazing chocolate and ice cream I have ever tasted! Hired a car and cruised round Lago Traful in the seven lakes and went up in cable car and a chairlift to see Cerro Catedral and Monte Tronador (an extinct volcano) Pictures to follow!

News Years eve got off to a flying start when we retreated to the balcony of the dorm to drink fine wine and smoke uncommonly good cigars!

We were only tempted up to the hostel party after the stroke of midnight when we ran out of wine and went seeking further refreshment! Shortly afterwards we found somebodys trimmed dreadlocks tapped to a wall which we promptly removed and used as fake mustaches to much hillarity!

On New Years day with virtually everything closed in the city we made are way down to the district of San Telmo. There we finally found some open resturants and spent the next four hours chilling out drinking sangria (at least I did Rawz had decided to start a month of abstinence that day) with a couple of Aussies we had met at the hostel. The rest of the evening was spent drinking at the hostel which not unexpectedly had the end result of a rather unpleasant hangover the following day!

You can find more photos featuring cigar smoking and dreadlock mustaches by following the links below:

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Argentina/New%20Year%20in%20Buenos%20Aires/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Argentina/Buenos%20Aires%20at%20New%20Year/

We took the boat from Buenos Aires across the River Plate to the small town of Colonia del Sacremento in Uruguay. Colonia turned out to be a beautiful sleepy town with tree lined streets and a very relaxed pace of life which we would get very used during our time in Uruguay. We spent our time wandering the streets soaking in the atmosphere and being entertained by some of the very old cars which still seemed to be used. Although we did spot one car which whilst still technically on the road was actually being used as a giant plant pot! Also saw an old Landrover in which the original seats had been replaced with plastic garden chairs! We checked out the beaches close to town but as we were still technically on the river we were not tempted to more than paddle in the water.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Uruguay/Colonia%20del%20Sacremento/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Uruguay/Colonia%20del%20Sacremento/

After a few days we decided that we needed to spend some time by a proper beach and to that end we head by bus through Montevideo to La Paloma. La Paloma was an even sleepier town and it was here that we started our 1st of what would become 13 consecutive days swimming in the sea (although in La Paloma the water was really rather chilly). The time not spent actually on the beach we spent enjoying the sun and some very good Uruguayan wines.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Uruguay/La%20Paloma/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Uruguay/La%20Paloma/

Our final destination in Uruguay was the surf town of Punta del Diablo (even sleepier than La Paloma which we hadn´t thought possible) not far from the Brazilian border on the Atlantic coast. Here we managed to rent an apartment by the beach and spent Christmas swimming in the ocean using the bbq which came with the apartment and generally taking it very easy.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Uruguay/Punta%20del%20Diablo/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Uruguay/Punta%20del%20Diablo/

On Boxing day we headed back to La Paloma for a couple more days before heading back to BA for New Year.

So as you may have noticed we have been rather rubbish at updating the blog recently. So here is a quick summary of where we have been and what we have been doing over the last 3 weeks or so.

La Paz, Bolivia

Travelled from Copacobana to La Paz and spent a few days mooching about the shops and being mildly disgusted at the dried Llama foetus´s you could buy in the witch´s market! Also managed to get exceeding drunk at the hostel bar where they served gin and tonic by the pint mug - ouch!

For photos see:
MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Bolivia/La%20Paz/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Bolivia/La%20Paz/

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Caught a 12 hour overnight bus from La Paz to the town of Uyuni, wins the award for most uncomfortable bus journey so far due to the bumpy nature of the roads!

As soon as we arrived at Uyuni we set off on our tour of the salt flats nearby. There were seven of us (eight including the driver) all crammed into a toyota land cruiser - we had to take turns in the very back as it was so uncomortable!

First stop were the salt flats themselves the scale of which is breath taking, as far as the eye can see it is flat white salt with the sun beating down on you.

Next was the Isla Incahuasi an island that rears up out of the salt flats which is covered in huge cacti many of which are more than 500 years old! The night was spent in a hostel made entirely from blocks of salt with sand on the floor.

Early the next day we left the salt flats behind to visit several lagoons with volcanoes and the Chilean border in the distance. The night was spent by a red lagoon dotted with numerous flamingos in a hostel run by the unfriendliest person we have met so far.

The final day of the tour was another early start to visit some geysers followed by a dip in some local hot springs the rest of the day was spent heading back to Uyuni to catch an overnight train to the Argentine border.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Bolivia/Salar%20de%20Uyuni/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Bolivia/Salar%20de%20Uyuni/

Salta, Argentina

Having had to catch two buses from the border we finally arrived in Salta on a Friday night therefore shortly after checking in to our hostel we headed out for the evening! At this point we were still travelling with 3 of the people we had met on the Uyuni trip plus an Irish doctor we had met at the border it was not an early night!

Whilst in Salta we also had our first Argentine asado (bbq) and having met some people interested in a road trip to the vineyards nearby we arranged to hire a car and left the very next day.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Argentina/Salta/

Road Trip to Cafayate and Cachi

Having never driven a right hand drive car or driven on the right hand side of the road it was an easy decision to allow Sean (an American we met in Salta) to drive us out of the city as I would probably have crashed the car after 50 yards! We travelled past some incredible scenery (see links to photos for proof) before arriving in Cafayate and after a swift lunch we headed straight to the nearest Bodega to sample the local wine which included a fabulous white wine made from torrontes grapes (mmm buttery water). We bought a few bottles as well and the five of us then proceeded to drink most of them that evening!

The next day we headed to the town of Cachi over some very rocky roads that soon blew out one of the tires, so after a quick tyre change we crawled the rest of the way to Cachi. Grabbed some lunch and wandered round trying to work out why it is such a popular destination from Salta.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Argentina/Road%20Trip%20to%20Cafayate%20and%20Cachi/
RW - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Argentina/Road%20Trip%20to%20Cafayate%20and%20Cachi/

Cordoba, Argentina

Stopped of for a few days in Cordoba on our way to Buenos Aires. However we didn´t pick a great time to go, arrived bright and early on a Sunday morning got a taxi to the hostel (or in this case two taxis and they had no boot space, much confusion) went for a wander round the city to discover that virtually everything was closed! No prob we thought everything will be open the next day- how wrong we were; it was a bank holiday and everything was closed again!

We left Cordoba the very next day!

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Argentina/Cordoba/

Buenos Aires, Argentina

After another overnight bus journey (during which there was a spectacular storm) we arrived in Buenos Aires. Whilst in Buenos Aires we spent some time wandering around the shops and then headed to the Recoleta cemetary to look at the mauselems of the rich and famous. Spent only a couple of days in Buenos Aires before decidng to head to Uruguay to chill out on the beaches there.

MT - http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Argentina/Buenos%20Aires%20and%20Recoleta%20Cemetary/

So we finally made it to Copacabana and spent some time chilling out with Danny, Chipa and Jody.

Sadly due to time constraints Danny and Jody had to head to La Paz the next day we then spent the rest of the day walking to and the chilling out on a white sand beach (Playa Blanca) not far from Copacabana. Rawz had been persuaded to take his guitar with him however after a short time walking in the baking sun he soon started to regret his decision!

Once at the beach Rawz and I went swimming in Lake Titicaca much to Chipas disgust as the water was much to cold for him!

The next day after some discussion Rawz and I moved hostels (the hostel we were staying was basic to say the least). We went to a place called La Cupula (if anyone is ever in Copacabana I would heartily recommend it), it was probably the nicest hostel we have stayed in so far with superb views of Copacabana.

Having had a couple of mediocre meals in Copacabana we found an Italian restaurant run by a young Italian couple where the menu was limited but the food was fantastic, we had the best ravioli either of us had ever had before!

The rest of the time in Copacabana was spent chilling out and enjoying the beautiful weather. We went back to Playa Blanca again, although this time we decided to hire a couple of bikes (absolute rubbish) and cycle there. Riding bikes which at best could be described as basic and at worse as deathtraps (only about 2 gears each and very very dodgy brakes) was something of a new experience for both of us however arriving at the beach and discovering we were the only people there did kind of make up for it!

For pictures of Copacabana see our photobucket albums at:
M http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Bolivia/Copacabana/
R http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/RW/Peru/Copacabana%20and%20Isla%20del%20Sol/

Our penultimate day in Copacabana was taken up with a boat trip to Isla del Sol the site of the main Incan creation myth. We walked the length of the island but somehow managed to miss the Incan ruins on the island! However having already spent a number of hours walking beneath the baking sun we decided that we really couldn´t be bother to go back and look for them and enjoyed a cool beer instead!

For photos see: M http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd7/trip35/Bolivia/Isla%20del%20Sol/

We realised as we left the hostel a couple of days later quite how much stuff we are currently carrying with us, see the evidence below!

Next stop La Paz.