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?)