The Trip Home and the Aftermath

Our first flight from BA to Santiago was running about 15 minutes late, so we literally had to run from the gate to gate at Santiago airport to board our plane to Auckland, and then they confiscated our booze off us! (even though we had been told it would be OK in BA - what a rip!) - so lesson learnt, only buy Duty Free at your final destination (oh well, at least it hadn't cost us much). So then it was on the plane and finally on our way home.

We didn't sleep as well on the way home as what we had on the way there, so we arrived at Auckland at 0400 pretty tired. It was very weird hearing English again, and especially hearing the Kiwi accent - I literally wanted to crack up laughing, thinking to myself (Oh my God, do I sound like that?" We also kept trying to speak Spanish to people (like at Duty Free and at Immigration) and got some very strange looks, before we remembered to speak English (that was pretty funny)!

We hung out at the International Terminal until about 0545, and then walked over to Domestic to check in for our flight back to Napier. It was very fresh outside, only 11 C, so we were freezing. We landed in Napier at 0800, and the pilot announced that it was only 3 C outside (and we thought we were cold in Auckland). Just after we got off the plane Nic turned up to pick us up, and take us home (finally!).

Possum ran under the house when we got home and it took a couple of hours for her to come inside, and then she completely ignored us for a while. But by early afternoon, she was all cuddles again.

It was very weird being home again, and I definitely suffered from culture shock for the first few days (trying to speak Spanish to people, noticing the Kiwi accent, looking the wrong way when crossing the road, etc) and I really noticed the difference between the places we had visited and home. It was kinda like I expected to arrive back and it still be the middle of March, but I've somehow travelled forward in time and now it is nearly the middle of the year.

But all in all, we wouldn't have passed up this trip for anything. We had such a great, eye-opening, exhilarating time. We have seen so many wonderful sights, ticked lots of things off our "Must Do" List, and met some of the most gorgeous, lovely, fun people along the way. We found SA to be incredibly safe (unlike some of the stories we had heard), and we would definitely love to go back some day if and when the opportunity presents itself.

Our Last Day in South America!

Tuesday 6th May

Today is our final day in South America :-(

So we decided just to wander around the central city, soaking up the atmosphere for the final time. We tried to visit some museums, but they were either closed for renovations (like Teatro Colon for instance - which I was especially gutted about) or just closed for the day. So we did some final souvenir shopping (and picked up a 1kg can of dulce de leche to bring home for me!), and then wandered around taking photos at Plaza de Mayo, the cathedral and some other cool buildings and stuff. By this stage our feet were starting to get quite sore (as we had done a lot of walking over the previous few days) so we decided to go and find some coffee and decent cake (which is harder than you think in this city of pastries and alfajores).

We stumbled on a great little place called "Cafe Florida" on Calle Tucuman (just past Calle Florida), where we found a huge selection of yummy looking cakes - we had dark choc brownie/mud cake and a cake that was a cross between a cake, mousse and cheesecake - very sweet, but oh so good!. I have been craving cake ever since we got back from Iguazu, so mow my craving has been well and truly satisfied.

We walked back to the hostal at 1700 and re-packed and collected all our gear together for the trip home. We got to the airport just after 1800, and then it took 40mins to check in (god knows what was taking them so long, the queue wasn't even that long). We bought six bottles of spirits at duty-free (only cost us about NZ$66!) and then sat around waiting to board.

Colonia, Uruguay

Monday 5th May

Today's Lesson - Session Two on how to visit a country in 4 hours......

After getting up at 0800, we headed out in search of brekkie and came across a fab little cafe called Madera Seca just behind Galeria Pacifico on Calle Viamonte, where we had cafe con leche, medialunas, and wholemeal toast with jam and some kind of fresh cultured dairy spread (that was like a cross between cream cheese and sour cream, but very yummy) - all for Arg$15!

With our appetites satisfied (at least for a few hours) we began walking towards the river delta area (where the ferry terminal is located) - Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is quite similar to Ahuriri in many ways, as it used to be the main port for BA, and then was neglected for many years before being restored to its former glory and is now home to lots of restaurants, offices and apartments. The old port consisted of 4 docks which were segregated by locks which can be opened and closed to allow the passage of boats. On the city side the docks are lined with fantastic old, red brick buildings which used to be huge grain stores, but have now been restored and house many restaurants and apartments (the ambiance of the area is only let down by the "Hooters" bar in the middle). Across the other side of the river are huge skyscrapers filled with offices and more apartments. The contrast between the two sides of the river was quite striking - old vs new.

We walked back to the ferry terminal at about 1030 and went through check-in and immigration (Argentinian and Uruguayan immigration were both together making it very easy), and then boarded the ferry at 1120. Unfortunately the smog over the delta was pretty bad, so we didn't really get to see much of the view on the trip over which was a shame. We docked at Colonia at 1300 and headed in the direction of the historic neighbourhood to find some lunch and wander around.

Barrio Historico was gorgeous with all the colonial buildings, plane trees lining the streets and colourful wisteria and bougainvilleas climbing all over the place. Uruguay was invaded by both the Portuguese and Spanish, so it was interesting to see the contrast in architectural style between the different eras. We saw the old city gate and boundary wall, several fortifications, a monastery and lots of historic houses.

On the way back to the ferry we had delicious ice cream at a heladeria - dulce de leche with choc chips and vanilla with caramel and biscuit pieces. Uruguay is known for its fabulous dairy products - and this was definitely some of the best ice cream we had in SA. We got back to BA in the dark at about 1900 and walked back to the hostal.

We decided to go back to La Casona del Nonno for our celebratory final dinner in SA, as the food was so good last time we were there. We ordered a paradilla of Patagonaian Lamb with Provencal seasoning and potatoes (and a bottle of red wine). The lamb was so tender, and full of flavour - just delicious. And of course the meal wouldn't be complete without dessert, so we both ordered the Volcan Chocolate (and I ended up finishing off Andrew's too!). All in all a fabulous end to a fabulous day.

Buenos Aires - Day 2 - San Telmo, La Boca, Recoleta

Sunday 4th May






















Today we ventured out to San Telmo and La Boca (in the south of the city), then caught a bus back up to Recoleta later in the afternoon.

We walked from our hostal down Calle Florida towards Plaza de Mayo and then on towards the crafts and antiques markets in San Telmo. San Telmo is known as the artists district, and so there are loads of antique shops and a huge antiques market on the weekends, along with art and craft stalls filling numerous side streets. We spent about two hours wandering around the markets and shops and watching tango dancers strut their stuff.

After a cheap, simple lunch at a small old cafe we continued to walk towards Parque Lezama where we found even more craft stalls. After a quick look around there we caught a bus to La Boca and the old artists district of La Caminito. La Boca is one of the poorer neighbourhoods in BA, and the first thing that hits you is the awful smell coming from the stagnant water in the port. We were walking along beside the river and saw that there were lots of police about, and then noticed a large group of people that had gathered up ahead of us. We still haven't worked out whether it was a protest or whether it was the opposition supporters for the Boca Juniors game - but it was all pretty peaceful anyway.

we continued on another couple of blocks to La Caminito, which is an area of a few blocks where all the buildings have been painted in bright colours. It originally started off as an artists district, but now it is really more of a tourist attraction, but it looked pretty stunning anyway, as you can see from the photos above. We had a pretty fun time wandering around the restaurants and bars and watching more tango dancers and taking lots of photos.

We then caught a bus back up to the north side of central BA to Plaza San Martin (near the main bus and train station - Retiro). We had a bit of a wander around there, and then walked towards Recoleta - one of the most upmarket suburbs in BA and famous for its cemetery (which was what we were going to see). Recoleta was a complete contrast to La Boca with very flash apartment buildings (that looked like 5-star hotels), and lots of embassies and ambassadors residences. The cemetery is surrounded by a large park, which turns into a huge market on the weekends, so we spent a while wandering around and bought a cool mate and bomb (mate = tea cup made out of a dried gourd, and bomb = the straw that is used to drink mate). Mate is very popular in BA and we saw lots of people wandering around with a thermos of hot water under one arm and their mate in their hand, sucking away.

Next stop was Recoleta cemetery, which was absolutely fascinating, but a little weird and creepy at the same time. It is known as the city within a city, which actually is very apt, as most of the crypts are at least 3m high, and do look like mini buildings. Only the elite of BA society are buried here, so everything is very flash, with most of the crypts being made out of marble or onyx. Eva Peron is also buried here in her family crypt. The crypt itself is fairly non-descript, but it is adorned with flowers (the only crypt I saw that actually had flowers on), and was constantly surrounded by people, hence not that hard to find.

Buenos Aires - Day 1 - Tigre Delta

Saturday 3rd May

After brekkie we walked about 30mins over to the river delta side of the city and visited the ferry terminal to book our tickets to Colonia, Uruguay for tomorrow. The ferry cost us Arg$360 (about NZ$160), so pretty expensive - but the trip was so worth it.

On the way back to the central city we stopped off at Galeria Pacifico (an upscale shopping mall) to have a look around and find some lunch. It is a very flash mall, complete with indoor fountain and frescoes on the ceiling, and very up-market, high-end stores - so we felt a little out of place in our traveller's clothes. The main point of our visit was to go to the food court and find some lunch, so we headed down the marble staircase, and into a huge array of yummy lunch options (everything from burgers to gourmet Japanese food was on offer). We ended up sharing a rustic, but good hot beef roll and fries, and then it was time to hot foot it back towards central BA to meet up with our tour guide for our tour of the Tigre Delta.

The Tigre Delta is 35 km north of BA city, and is basically a river delta that used to produce much of the fresh fruit and vegetables for the BA region, but it now a weekend and holiday haven for the BA upper-classes. Our tour guide - Gladys - looked like she was stuck in an 80's time warp (big glasses, old-fashioned pants suit and lovely purple cable-knitted jersey), but was lovely and a wonderful guide and spoke fluent English and Portuguese (as well as Spanish of course). There was about 15 in our group and Andrew and I were the only ones who spoke English (the others spoke Spanish and Portuguese). We started off in a bus which took us north through the city and into the leafy outer suburbs. We then stopped and got on the Tren de la Costa (the Coast Train), for a short trip (all of 20 mins - woohoo!) to the Tigre station. We then re-joined the bus and toured around the Puerto de Frutas (the Port of Fruits), which is famous for its large market selling almost anything from food to household goods to crafts and plants and garden supplies (Tigre is renowned for its plant nurseries). Then we drove around to the Rio Tigre, where we departed on a boat cruise of the Delta.

It was fascinating cruising around the Delta and seeing all the holiday houses (most kinda equivalent to NZ baches), with each house having it's own little jetty, and it was obvious there was a bit of competition to see who could make their jetty look the best. Like wealthy NZer's own a bach at the beach, wealthy Portenos own a house on the Delta where they come on weekends and holidays to escape the city. So, needless to say some of the houses were very flash, while in other areas were the locals still live some of the housing was very basic. There are no roads or bridges around the Delta, so everyone gets around by boat, and there is a supermarket boat, a school bus boat, a hospital boat and taxi boats.

The area is very picturesque, despite the muddy red/brown water, and appeared to be quite laid back and relaxed. Definitely a nice place to chill out for a while. Back in BA city, we went to La Casona del Nonno (just down the road on Calle Lavalle) for dinner and I had fabulous ravioli, and Andrew had spicy "Hellfire Chicken" - and then came the best dessert I've had in SA - Volcan Chocolate - a fudgy choc pud, with liquid choc in the centre with vanilla ice cream and choc sce - yummmm! We'll be coming back here again me thinks.

Iguazu Falls - Day 3 - Foz de Iguacu, Brazil

Friday 2nd May

Today's Lesson.....How to Visit a Country in Four Hours.

We made a very quick visit to Brazil this morning before flying back to BA this afternoon.

We caught a bus over the border to Foz de Iguacu (the falls town on the Brazillian side), and then another bus out to the falls, and got there at 0900. We then had to catch one of the park buses out to the start of the track. The advantage of coming to Brazil to view the falls is that you get to see them all at once (as you are on the opposite side of the river, looking across at them). We got to the first viewing point after about 5 mins walking, and WOW - what an awesome view, there are just so many waterfalls (about 75 altogether). Unfortunately we didn't have as much time as we would have liked on this side (due to getting delayed on the way to Iguazu), so all we had time for was a few quick photos and videos and then it was back on the bus to Argentina, and out to the airport for our flight back to BA.

We got back to Puerto Iguazu at 1130 - exactly four hours after we had left(!), and headed out to the airport at lunchtime. We discovered yet more flight issues when we got to the airport. Because we had missed our flight to Iguazu, bl**dy LAN had cancelled the rest of our reservations! (although somehow our tickets still existed?? - I have no idea how it all works). So it was lucky that the flight was half-empty, or we wouldn't have got back to BA either. So, back in BA, I spent about 15 mins on the phone sorting out our flights home and ensuring that our reservations were re-confirmed. That done we took a taxi to our new hostal "O'Rei" on Calle Lavalle, which is in Retiro - much closer to the centre of the city and has much more night life. The hostal (again) looks like it is stuck in a bit of a 60's time-warp (our room has a lovely baby blue and tan colour scheme going on - nice!) but other than that the location is great and the service has been fab.

We then set out to book a tour to take us to the Tigre Delta tomorrow (a river plains area north of BA). That done, we wandered around the shops for a while and finally managed to get some money out of an ATM (after a couple rejected our card), and found that we can only withdraw A$500 max (which is like NZ$220) which doesn't go far around here, so it looks like we are going to be racking up the bank fees.

We went to a Paradilla called "El Gaucho" for dinner (who have touts dressed up as Gauchos out on the streets enticing you in) and had a huge plate of grilled baby goat in 'special' sauce. It was so flavoursome and tender, but my goodness it was so much meat! After dinner we walked up the street and stumbled on a bit of a night market with musicians and stalls set up in the middle of the peatonal (pedestrian street) selling all kinds of stuff, from socks to scarves to arts and crafts. We also saw our first tango dancers - the old dude had the moves!

Puerto Iguazu - Day 2 - Iguazu Falls!

Thursday 1st May

Today we went to see Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side - they were very impressive, and then the weather turned to crap! It is a national holiday here today, so we were expecting the falls to get pretty busy, hence we decided to get there as early as possible for the best views.

We were at the falls by 0800, when the park opened, so we were among the first in for the day which was cool as it meant we got to see some of the falls with very few people around (by 1100 there were people everywhere, even though the weather was bad). The first trail we walked took us around the top of the falls, so we got great views of all the water going over the edge and looking down into all the spray. It was so quiet at the tops of the falls right up until you got within a couple of meters of the edge. If you had been on the river, you wouldn't even know you were coming up to the falls until it was too late to do anything about it! The power of the falls was absolutely amazing, the spray from some of them rose back up above the tops of the falls.

After the Superior Circuit we walked down to the Inferior Circuit and got our first view of "Gargantan del Diablo" (The Devil's Throat) the largest and most powerful of the falls - it was very, very cool! At the bottom of the path we caught a boat over to Isla San Martin, where we walked to another couple of lookouts. One of the lookouts is in the middle of a vulture roosting area, so that was interesting being surrounded by big, UGLY birds. One of the lookouts is also directly opposite a long line of falls, so we got pretty up close and personal with the water (but not as close as later on.....).

After our visit to the island, we decided to go on a speedboat ride around and up to the falls. We were given a waterproof bag to put all our gear in, and a life jacket, and then we were off with a boat load of other people. The ride started off pretty gently, zooming around the base of the falls to get some good photo opportunities. Then the guide said to put our cameras away, and next thing we know, he has backed the boat up and is heading full tilt into the falls! Needless to say we got absolutely soaked (including very wet arses, as the seats filled up with water), but it was exhilarating to feel the power of all that water.

The weather had been pretty overcast all day, and just as we got back to the dock, we heard thunder and saw lightning, and not long after it started raining. Luckily at this point it was only light, so our clothes had mostly dried out by the time it really started pelting down. After a quick stop for lunch, we caught the little train to the top of Garganta. On the way it really started raining, and so we got soaked on the 2.2km walk on a boardwalk over the river to the tops of the falls. We were gutted that the weather had turned to crap, as it meant we didn't stay as long as we would have liked, and we headed home just after 1500. But it was good to get back to the hostal and have a nice warm shower and get into some dry clothes.

On the way home from dinner we stopped in at the Heladaria (ice cream shop) next door and bought a large tub of ice cream each - equivalent to about 4 or 5 scoops each! But the ice cream headache was worth it, cos it tasted yummy (especially my Dulce de Leche ice cream - can you tell I'm a little bit obsessed with Dulce de Leche yet?)

Puerto Iguazu - Day 1

Wednesday 30th April

We had to get up at 0600 to be at Aeroparque by 0730 - but here is where things started to go wrong! When we went to check-in, we were told that our flight had been cancelled and we should have been on the flight which had just left! This was even though we had checked our flight times the previous week and were told everything was OK. They also had no seats left on any other flights that day, so could only put us on stand-by. So, really our only option to get there today was to go and try and get a ticket with Aerolineas Argentina (the airline we really didn't want to fly with, you will see why below).

So we managed to get tickets with Aerolineas for US$406(!) for both of us and got put on a flight for 1000. We thought "awesome", we're even gonna get there sooner than we originally planned - ha, ha, ha, what a joke that was. 1000 came and went, and we found that our flight had been delayed until 1030. We started boarding just before 1030, and had to get on a bus to take us out to our plane. The bus got out to the plane, and then one of the air hostesses came out and said we had to go back to the terminal! So, we sat around at the terminal for a bit longer wondering what on earth is going on. But made friends with a gay couple from Hawaii, who we later saw everywhere in Iguazu, who were absolutely hilarious, but so lovely. Finally at 1115, we get yet another boarding call, and get bussed out to a different plane, and actually get on board. We took off at 1145 (only 1 3/4 hours late - which is apparently pretty good for Aerolineas), and we are on our way to Iguazu!

We landed in Iguazu at 1345, after the pilot took a detour directly over Iguazu falls - boy that was a pretty cool experience, a sight-seeing flight over the falls in a big jet! But our bad luck wasn't over yet........we got inside the terminal and went to the baggage collection area, only to find most of the luggage was still in BA! Luckily my bag turned up, but Andrew's didn't. So then we had to queue to fill in a claim form (along with everyone else from the flight). We found out that the luggage was supposed to be coming on the next flight at 1500, and by the time we had filled out the form and everything, it was 1430, so we just decided to hand around and wait for it, rather than trust Aerolineas to deliver it to our hostel. So, by 1530 we had been reunited with all our luggage, and were on the way into Puerto Iguazu.

We stayed at Hosteria San Fernando, which is in a good location right opposite the bus station, but appears to have been stuck in a 60's time-warp (but hey - it was cheap). After dropping off our gear, we spent the next couple of hours wandering around the central part of town. One of the things that surprised me was the abundance of small deli type shops (some with attached cafe) that sold all sorts of imported and locally produced deli food - olive oil, olives, salami, cheese, wine, etc, and all beautifully presented. We even stumbled across a small food market surrounded by stalls selling all this good food (which we haven't seen since we left NZ), where you could pick a selection of nibbles and sit down in the courtyard and munch away while drinking a nice glass of wine. Andrew also found what looks like the South American version of "V", so he was well excited (but we discovered later that it tastes nothing like NZ "V").

We also found a really well-stocked mini-mercado (small supermarket) across the road, with an excellent bakery next door, so we bought a whole lot of yummy stuff for lunch at the falls tomorrow. We went to "Gusto del Litoral" for dinner, which was about 5 mins walk from the hostal, and the food was surprisingly good. Andrew had veal and I had pork with an apple and passion fruit sauce (it was the sauce which made it really good), and a decent bottle of Syrah. Then it was home to bed, ready for an early start in the morning to get to the falls.

Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires

Tuesday 29th April

Today we spent most of the day trying to get to Buenos Aires. Our flight was supposed to be at 1045, but on the way to the airport at 0900 - it started raining........and then came the thunder and lightning, and before we knew it we were in the midst of a pretty good storm. Oh well, nothing to do but sit and wait it out. Now, airports are not on my list of favourite places to be stuck at the best of times, and unfortunately Santa Cruz airport is fairly small, and thus lacks the distractions of copious amounts of duty free shopping, so we got very bored, very quickly, and basically sat reading our books for the next couple of hours - apart from when we saw Phil Keoghan (of Amazing Race fame) waiting for a plane too - now we are wondering if the Amazing Race was in town - that would be cool!

We finally took off at 1245, during a gap in the storm, and landed in BA at 1715. Flying over Argentina was completely different to many of the other places we have flown - for a start it was pretty flat. The agriculture also looked a lot more organised/westernised. It definitely looks more like a first world country. We are staying tonight at El Hostal de Granados in Sam Telmo (the artists/antiques barrio in BA) before flying to Puerto Iguazu in the morning. We had dinner at El Desnivel which is a Paradilla (Grill) Restaurant, where they serve huge chunks of steak which have been cooked over a wood-fired grill. Paradilla and red wine are the food that Argentina is famous for, so of course we had to partake in both. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pretty cool, very relaxed and laid-back, but still excellent service. The servings were huge, and the whole meal only cost us A$81 = NZ$32.

Santa Cruz

Monday 28th April

I got up early and went for a walk around town, while Andrew had a bit of a sleep in. I found some great art and handicraft shops (and bought more souvenirs of course) and found out some info on Biocentro Guembe - a reserve outside of Santa Cruz that we want to go to this afternoon. I met Andrew back at the hotel at 1000 and we walked to Los Pozos, the huge general market for Santa Cruz. Again, you can basically buy anything you want here - as long as you know where to look. The things on offer were pretty much the same as all the other big cities we have been in, so after wandering around for a while we decided to head back into the centre of the city to find some lunch.

First we stopped at Alexander's coffee (yes, the same cafe chain as in La Paz - oh yeah, good coffee!) and had coffee, then went to a restaurant called Su Salud for a fantastic local lunch (finally, we found decent "local" food in Bolivia). The restaurant was absolutely packed with locals and we only got a seat because a lovely lady invited us to sit with her. The food was so good, and so cheap (B/35 = NZ$6 got us both soup, mains and juice). We had vegetable soup, maracuya (passion fruit) juice and Garbanzo (chickpea) stew with brown rice and salad.

After lunch we caught a taxi out to Biocentro Guembe, which is a reserve/research facility that also caters for tourists with walking trails, cabins, swimming pools, cafe/restaurants, sports, horse riding, kayaking, fishing etc (so kinda like a resort really I guess). Our taxi driver didn't really seem to know where he was going, but we got there eventually. We went on a tour of the reserve and got to see the lab where they do research on butterflies, ants, termites, birds, spiders, snakes and other random stuff, and then got to meet some tortoises, see the butterfly house (with so many beautiful butterflies), and the huge bird enclosure (with a very cool Toucan), as well as a tour of the walking trails etc. We also came across three red and blue Macaws hanging out in a tree, so got some great shots of those too. We then decided it was time for a nice relaxing swim in the pools to cool off before heading back to town. The swim was so good, it was nice to feel cool again, after being hot and sticky for the last day and a half.

We had a great dinner at a German-run pub - La Casona. We both had Bife de Lomo (a thick cut of loin) which was perfectly cooked med-rare, with lots of fried onions, sauteed potatoes with garlic and herbs, and fresh veges (and of course we had dessert - crepes with dulce de leche and ice cream). Tomorrow we have our flight to Buenos Aires, and then we will be on the countdown to the end of our trip (sob, sob :-( ).

Sucre Day 3 and Flight to Santa Cruz

Sunday 27th April

We spent the morning wandering around Sucre including a stop for yummy breakfast at Joyride cafe, and then we wandered down to Parque Bolivar to check out what was happening - kids buzzing around in cool little motorised cars it turned out, which made Andrew wish he was a little kid again! Again, we noticed the weird phenomenom of the bottoms of all the tree trunks painted white - every tree in all the major parks in all the big cities we have been in have their trunks painted - why, we have no idea, but it sure does look funny!

At 1330 we caught a taxi out to the airport (a VERY small airport for supposedly the second most important city in the country, even smaller than Napier airport), and took a flight to Santa Cruz at 1630. The airport in Santa Cruz is quite a way outside the city so it was about 1830 by the time we got to our hotel in the city centre. Being Sunday night, not much was open, so our options were pretty limited for dinner. We settled for some OK food at a fairly expensive cafe on the corner of the plaza, and then went to Picolo's (across the road from our hotel and like Valentine's Restaurant on drugs) for dessert - ummm, yum choc mud cake!

After dinner we came across an art gallery which had a really good photography exhibition on. There were several photographers with photos from the past year showing flooding (and the results of) in the Amazon Basin demonstrations in Sucre and Santa Cruz, general people photos and even a few rally cars!

It is very muggy and hot here in Santa Cruz (duh - we're in the Amazon Basin now!) so we are constantly slick with sweat - ummmm, yummy (not).

Apologies for the Transmission Delays

Well, we are now home and recovering from jet-lag and culture shock.

We kinda ran out of time during our last week to post on the blog - we were so busy trying to cram as many experiences in as possible. So anyway, here is our last week or so...........

Sucre - Day 2

Saturday 26th April

We had a very cool day. We visited two museums, the first was the Textile and Ethnographic museum run by a foundation called ASUR. The foundation was set up to preserve the ancient methods of weaving in the indigenous communities around the Sucre region. They have set up many workshops in rural communities where women (and some men) make weavings using traditional methods, and then they are sold through ASUR at the museum shop and other outlets, with the profits being used to train more weavers.

Anyway, the museum was absolutely fantastic. It had a combination of ancient (1600-odd years old) to modern day weavings from several different ethnic groups from around the region. They also had english translations for all the explanations (which was really helpful). It was fascinating to learn how the weaving is done and how it has evolved from 1,000´s of years ago to the present day, and to learn about the differences between the weavings of the different ethnic groups. We purchased two weavings so you´ll all be able to see how cool they are when we get home – it´s like each time you look at them you discover something new in them.

In the afternoon we went and visited the Museum Charcas, which has collections of contemporary art (i.e. more religous paintings), and colonial furniture. But the best bit was their achaeological collection, which consisted of a cool collection of tools, household implements and weapons from Pre-Incan cultures and a huge ceramics collection from several different ethnic groups from around the region covering the last 3,500 or so years. It was fascinating to see the progression of design and decoration of the ceramics, and how different they were in each area.

Sucre - Day 1

Friday 25th April

We had a good sleep-in this morning and didn´t get out of bed until 10am! Alter brekkie at a café on the main plaza (Plaza 24 De Mayo). It was 1200 by the time we had finished brekkie, and all the museums and a lot of the shops etc shut between 1200-1230 & 1400-1500, so we went and found an Internet café and update our blog and check emails etc.

We then decided to go and visit the central market, where you can buy pretty much anything under the sun – if you know where to go. The fruit and vege stalls were pretty cool, such a variety, but not a lot that we didn´t recognise - and so cheap. There is also a meat and fish market (minus any form of refrigeration), a household goods market, and a clothing market. We also wandered around the few Artesania shops that there are here (no where near as many as the other cities we have been in). Sucre is known for it´s yummy chocs, so of course we had to sample them. We bought 8 chocs for B/8 (NZ$1.25) - and they were sooooo good, but very rich.

We wandered around the city a bit more, and late afternoon headed back to to hostal for a rest before dinner. We went to a fab cafe for tea, called Biblio Cafe. I had the yummiest crepes with ice cream and choc sauce for dessert!

A day in Potosi

Thursday 24 April

I was keen to do a tour of the silver mines while in Potosi, which was something Michelle was not at all keen on doing - she´s somewhat claustrophopic. After arriving at our hostel at 2:30am I was having a hard time deciding if I could be bothered getting up early enough to do the tour. I did manage to drag myself out of bed in time to have a quick breakfast and dash off to a tour agency, and I was very glad that I did.

All of the mine tours are guided by ex-miners. Our guide had spent a reletively short five years in the mines before becoming a guide. Fortunately his English was very good, he gave a great idea overview of the different systems the miners work under, and what they prefer. The conditions are pretty harrowing, we only spent a couple of hours in the mines, and that was more than enough. Upon entering the mine, which has been worked for about 500 years, I was thinking it wasn´t too bad, and that Michelle may have found it ok after all. The first level was reasonably cool, the air wasn´t too dusty and the tunnel was plently big enough. As soon as we started to descend to level two I realised I was wrong, the tunnel descending down was a tight awkward passage, leading to tight, hot tunnels thick with dust. Breathing became difficult through the bandana I´d bought to keep the dust out.

The miners used dynamite to blast the ore, shovelled it by hand into trolleys that ran on rails, which they then halled by hand to vertical shafts. They dumped the two tonne loads onto the floor, shovelled into rubber buckets that were winched up the shafts by electric winches. Four miners managed 400 tonnes of ore a day. In the past it took 40 miners to mine 200 tonnes a day without the trolleys and winches, carrying the ore in sacks on their backs. Ironically they see these advances as great progress.

One of the guys in another group asked about the fatality rate in the mines - and apparently it´s about 60 mining related deaths per year, about 40 of which are from lung damage due to the dust. He was told that on a per-person basis they have fewer accidents per year than other mining operations throughout the world. I don´t think that´s particularly relevant as so many people are exposed to the risk, especially compared to the rate of ore the extracted - also their accident reporting´s probably not to the same standard as those of operations in developed nations. (Bolivia is consider "third world" by the way). They also don´t employ mining engineers, they have the attitude that they´ve been mining for more than 500 years, so they know what they´re doing better than anyone else!

Anyway, to demonstrate their dedication to health and safety we had a bit of a play with dynamite at the end of the mine tour, the guides lit the stuff, ran off to a safe distance, dropped the dynamite and ran back. The fuses took about ten minutes to burn, and their ability to judge the timing well was demonstated by the bit of video I captured - their countdown was accurate to a few seconds.

Michelle had a rather frustrating morning trying to sort out bus tickets for us - she spent most of the morning walking around trying to find the bus terminal, hindered in the process by misdirections given by the locals.

I will eventually update this post with a couple of video clips if I can, but that probably won´t happen 'til I get back home, which really is that far off...

Salar de Uyuni - Day 2

Wednesday 23rd April

We got up early (0545) to go and match the sunrise over the Salar. All was going fine until our guide manager to get the jeep stuck! Goodness knows how he managed to get it stuck, but we turned around and he had the back wheels buried up to the axles. So he spent the next two hours digging it out – major bummer, as we hadn´t had any brekkie and were starving!

We finally got back to the Salt hotel at 0900, and had a very quick brekkie and then packed up the jeep and travelled to Isla Incahuasi (or Fish Island to the tourists). This is basically a small island in the middle of the Salar covered in cactuses. We had a wander around for an hour and then had lunch and travelled to a volcano on the other side of the Salar. This was a pretty cool looking volcano, which still erupts every 3 years or so. There was a village at the bottom with Incan ruins etc, and people still farming the Incan terraces. There was also a salt lake where we saw some Flamingoes – very awesome!

We then travelled a few hours back to Uyuni where we arrived at 1700. We had already bought tickets on a bus to Potosí that night leaving at 1900 (so we didn´t have to spend any more time there than we had to). We dropped our bags off at the bus office and went and had pizza for dinner – one thing Uyuni can do right – bloody good pizza! The bus to Potosí on the other hand was a different story – it was a public bus (no tourist busses run from Uyuni to Potosí), there was very little leg room, and it smelled bad – Andrew said it was one of the worst seven hour periods of his life, as he was very uncomfortable.
We finally got in to Potosí at 0230, and caught a taxi to our hostal (Hotal Felimar) where we collapsed into bed.

Salar de Uyuni - Day 1

Tuesday 22nd April

Arrived in Uyuni at 0730. The trip from La Paz wasn´t too bad, I slept pretty well, and even Andrew manager some sleep! The whole point of comino to this one horse town was to go on a 2-day tour of the famous Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats of Uyuni).

We wandered around the various tour agencies trying to find a 2-day tour, but most don´t do them. We eventually found a couple of private tours and chose to go with Andes SALT Expeditions for US$200. So basically it was just us and our spanish-only speaking guide – Evid for 2 days.

We left Uyuni at 1030 and stopped just out of town at the train cemetry – basically just a whole lot of rusting locomotives that have had anything of value stripped off them, but a cool place to take photos none the less. Then it was off to Colchani, a salt processing village on the edge of the Salar. When the salt is harvested it is still damp, so they dry it out over a fire, and then grind it up, put it in bags and send it all over South America.

About 10 minutes from Colchani is the Salar itself, which is just amazing – white as far as the eye can see. Here there are people harvesting the salt. They mark out a square in the salt and then shovel a tic layer of salt into a pile in the middle where it is left for a few days for as much water as posible to drain out and then it is shovelled onto the back of a truck and taken to Colchani for processing.

The Salar used to be connected to the sea millions of years ago, and then was blocked off by tetonic plate activity. So all the water dried out, leaving all the salt behind in the soil. Each year during the rainy season (Dec – Feb) the whole Salar (2000 sq km) is covered in 20com of water, and this solubilises some of the salt and when the water dries out the salt is left behind on top of the soil.

From there we visited a Salt Hotel, where everything is made out of salt – even the tables and chairs, where we had lunch. Then we travelled to Atulcha where there is another (much nicer) Salt Hotel where we stayed. We also visite dan area call the Galaxias Caves, and Cactus Corales. Again, these areas were under water many millions of years ago, and algae formed beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites in the caves which then fossilised – the colours were pretty cool. There are also cactuses which have had coral grow on them and then fossilise. We also visited a cave where 90 Chullpa (local indigenous people) mummies where found buried and a museum displaying some of the mummies – a bit weird but very interesting.

I made a couple of new friends with a couple of the young boys at the hotel. I gave them colouring pencils and balloons, and they drew me pictures and wanted me to help them practice their maths. We also taught them how to make squealing sounds with the balloons, and how to rub the balloon on your hair to make it stick up – they thought it was pretty cool!

La Paz - Day 4 and the 10 Hour Bus Trip to Uyuni

Monday 21st April

As we had planned to go mtbing on Sunday we had arranged our bus ticket to Uyuni for Monday night, so we had a spare day in La Paz. We visited the AeroSur office to try and rearrange our flights so we could come back to La Paz at the weekend to do the mtbing trip, but it was going to cost US$400, so we decided that was a bit too much Money, and the time schedule was really tight – so we were both pretty bummed that we aren´t going to get to do the Death Road L

However, we did finally manage to visit some Museums. We visited the Archaeological Museum which was very interesting and had a good display of pre-Incan ceramics from the islands in Lake Titicaca – which interestingly showed some Asian influence. We also visited the Museum of the Church of San Francisco which was very cool, as we got to see all parts of the church including the choir stalls, and even got to clima the tower to see the view from the roof. We also got to see the cloisters, where there are many religous paintings and some displays of how the monks lived their daily lives (including wine and pisco sour making). We also visited the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore which had an interesting display of textiles from all over the region from various eras. There was also a very cool display of carnaval headresses and costumes, from the last 100 years – they were so elaborate and detailed, quite amazing. Next was a display of headresses and costumes entirely made out of bird feathers. Again, they were very detailed and some of the headresses were HUGE, but I hate to think how many birds were killed to make them all. They also had another good exhibition of ceramics from the different cultures in the region, from ancient history until colonial times.

And of course we had the obligatory coffee and cake at Alexander´s during the day as well.

We met Anna and Dave at Yusseff´s for our Last Supper. It has been so cool to catch up with them, and yet weird too cos we aren´t in NZ. We have spent loads of time with them while we have been here, and they have been fab, taking us lots of cool places and especially knowing the best places to get great food! It was so good to see some familiar faces at this point of our trip, and can´t wait to see them again when they come home.

After dinner we had to go collect our bags from ABH and then match the 9pm bus to Uyuni (10 hrs – oh joy!). We went with a company called Todo Turismo, and they were really good - highly recommended.

Photos:
1) Pottery artifact.
2) A Mummy - burial techniques of the Incan, and pre-Incan cultures resulted in well preserved mummies, and they're quite common in museums throughout South America.
3) A skull - well born people had their skull shape modified by fixing boards to the head from a young age. Such a skull shape was a sign of status.