Latin American Journey's end - Santiago, Mendoza & Valparaiso

After docking in Punta Arenas, 38 hours after leaving Puerto Williams, we spend a day catching up on the sleep we missed before taking a flight a few thousand kilometres back up the continent to the Chilean capital, Santiago. Being left with only one week before we took our flight out of the continent across to New Zealand we still had a few final things we wanted to squeeze in…

We spent a few days in Santiago, a really attractive clean city, sat just to the western edge of one the highest sections of the Andes, where numerous peaks tower almost 7000m above the city (Santiago only being about 300m above sea level) - really putting into perspective the enormity of the Andes. We have been at a few places during this trip where we were surrounded by mountains over 6000m, though we have generally been at about 4000m ourselves, so are only ever looking up at something that is approximately 2000m higher than where we were. Staring up at close proximity to something that is almost 7000m’s higher than where you stand however, is pretty humbling.

The surrounding areas are Vineyard country, though instead of taking a vineyard tour around Santiago we crossed the Andes back into Argentina to visit the Argentine wine capital of Mendoza. The border crossing back into Argentina takes you over the mountains, past a couple of Chilean ski resorts, an Argentinian Ski resort, past the highest peak in the Andes called Aconcagua stading 6986 meters above sea level and down into the flat lands to Mendoza.

Mendoza is essentially a desert town, sat on the eastern edge of the Andes - though thanks to an efficient irrigation system that was put in place by the original settlers it is now an abundance of greenery & life not normally associated with a desert. It is also partly due to this irrigation system that the area can produce around 90% of all the wine Argentina produces, the main grape being the red Malbec. One of the main ways that travellers take a tour of the vineyards is by hiring a bike & cycling from one to the other. Though due to the fact we only had 1 full day in Mendoza, it was about 30 degrees C, & we wanted to put more effort in the drinking than the cycling, we splashed out on a chauffeured tour with a small group of 4 others around 4 exclusive smaller vineyards with a cellar tour & tasting at each, an English speaking guide & a 5 course meal complete with the appropriate wine accompaniment for each course…nice.

Mendoza has a really nice feel to it - a nice mix of Latin & European influence, a vibrant, clean & safe atmosphere & on first impressions possibly one of our favourite Argentine cities - a bit of a shame we left it until the end of the trip & only 2 nights to spend here.

Crossing back over the Andes for one final time back into Chile we headed to the coastal city of Valparaiso - an old port city that was once the capital, now essentially a picturesque bohemian place with multi coloured corrugated iron buildings sat precariously on the coastal hillsides, with old tram elevators from the early 1900's built into the hills taking you up. Unfortunately just a fleeting visit of 1 night, but nice to see before we headed off.

So now after a fantastic 7 months in Central & South America we are at the end of this stage, we now move on to the next leg of the journey in New Zealand. Latin America is definitely somewhere we will be back to in the future though…

Patagonia Pt. 3 - Journey to the 'End of the World' - Ushuaia & Puerto Williams

From Torres Del Paine we made our way further south yet again, across the Magallane Straits into Tierre Del Fuego (Land of Fire), heading for the Argentine city of Ushuaia - the southernmost city of the world. The whole area is owned in part by Argentina and in part by Chile and offers all the landscapes one could want to see... glaciers, lush woodland and a dramatic coastline. As we rounded the mountain range that sits to the northern edge of the city, the Bay of Ushuaia came into view just as the sun was setting over the city. Through the scattered cloud the sunset acted as a spotlight over the Bay of Ushuaia & the Beagle Channel, announcing a landmark stage of the trip for us. From staring at a map on the wall in our front room at home thinking what a bloody long way away Ushuaia was to actually pulling into town, felt like quite an achievement.


Ushuaia makes quite a big deal of it’s ‘Fin Del Mundo’ (End of the world) status, & whilst there is no denying the remoteness of the place - it is actually a remarkably well equipped & modern city. Ushuaia was originally established as a penal colony and so we took a tour around the old prison that was built by the convicts themselves and opened in 1902. The prison was intended for repeat offenders and serious criminals but among the convicts was supposedly the infamous Tango crooner, Carlos Gardel. One area of the prison is now used to house a museum on the history of the prison and Ushuaia as well as a couple of art galleries but it has largly been left unrestored. The prison used to hold 600 prisoners, 800 in its peak but was only designed to house 380 in single cells. It closed in 1947.

While in Ushuaia we took a sail boat out across the Beagle Channel to a Sea-Lion & Cormorant colony - very nice but seriously cold sitting out on the deck of the boat with the cold Antarctic wind blowing in. The original natives from Tierre Del Fuego (the Yamana), apparently used to walk around naked the entire time, just covering themselves in sea lion fat to be a little more water resistant - that sort of cold weather attire evens puts your average Geordie to shame!




We took a hike around the Tierre Del Fuego National Park, created in 1960, of which only a very small part is open to the public along the shoreline and few small hikes wihtin the park. It stretches 60 km north of the Beagle channel along the Chilean border.

We only realised the full extent of the ill feeling between Argentina & Chile over Patagonian territory disputes when we tried to organise a boat 60kms across the Beagle Channel to the Chilean town of Puerto Williams -which ended up taking us several days. We eventually managed to pay a boat an extortionate amount of money along with 4 other people to take the journey - Argentina clearly aiming amaking as difficult as possible for tourists to get across there.

Puerto Williams is essentially a Chilean Naval Base town, is further south than Ushuaia & actually should lay claim to the ’Fin Del Mundo’ title, as it is the southernmost inhabited town in the world - it just doesn’t go on about it. It certainly has a more remote feel about it than Ushuaia as horses & cows freely roam around the town finding food in any property they stumble into, plenty of wrecked boats line its shores & the towns 2000 inhabitants regularly run out of basic supplies - being entirely dependent on a once weekly cargo ship that arrives from the Chilean city of Punta Arenas (the nearest Chilean city) after a 38 hour journey, loaded with the towns needs for another week.

It was for this cargo ship that we had made the trip over to Puerto Williams, as along with 10 others we each paid about £100 to board the ship for it’s return leg from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas, along the Beagle Channel & up through the Magallane Straits.





This was a total no frills journey, the ship only had 4 beds, all of which were occupied - so we spent the 38 hours in a basic chair. Having already done our fair share of long distance journeys, we decided to go armed with a few bottles of wine to increase our chances of getting some sleep - also helping to increase our popularity with the rest of our fellow shipmates! Along the Beagle Channel we sailed past 4 or 5 glaciers, coming down off the Darwin mountain range, straight down into the channel, had Albatross & Dolphins travelling alongside us & once again experienced every variation of weather imaginable. Whilst 38 hours in a basic chair on a no frills cargo ship is not something we are looking to repeat in any particular hurry, it was a great adventure & quite a fitting finale to an incredible 5 weeks in Patagonia.

Patagonia Pt.2 - Perito Moreno, Fitz Roy & Torres Del Paine

El Calafate is a small town on the shores of Lago Argentino, quite a quaint place in its own right, though primarily in existence these days to serve as a hub for a couple of key tourist attractions - in particular the incredible Perito Moreno Glacier, located about 80km away in the ‘Los Glaciares National Park‘. This immense Glacier is 30km long, 5km wide, towering some 60m above the water with a further 120 meters below the surface of the lake. What makes it so exceptional aside from it sheer size & beauty, is the fact that it is constantly advancing - up to 2 m per day, as opposed to most other glaciers around the world that are currently retreating. Huge icebergs are constantly calved from the front of the glacier, crashing into the water below creating a continual natural spectacle.

We booked a trip that involved some trekking on the glacier with the aid of crampons: firstly we walked around the manmade walkways at the face of the glacier, taking in the panoramic views of the glacier, then taking a boat across the lake getting up close to the front of the glacier (obviously avoiding the constant falling chunks of ice the size of our boat) and then spent a couple of hours trekking on the ice avoiding the many crevasses and sinkholes, witnessing some of the purest bright blue colourings within the ice & topping it off with a glass of whiskey complete with ice chipped straight from the glacier…..nice.

After Perito Moreno we moved on a few hours through the Patagonian wilderness to the small town of El Chalten - a place only established during the 1980’s due to the influx of people wanting to hike in Fitz Roy Mountain range that it sits at the foot of, not to mention the political reason for Argentina to claim the land & create a town before neighbouring Chile did - the ongoing dispute over Patgonian territory being one of the biggest bones of contention between the two nations these days. El Chalten only has a population of approximately 1800, & only installed its first & only ATM during late 2008. Prior to that, a nominated resident would collect everyones bank cards and pin numbers and make the trip to El Calafate once a week to get cash out for everyone... now thats putting your trust in someone!

Being part of the Southern Continental Ice field & Los Glaciers national Park, the area has some of the most stunning scenery and it is all accessible within a day hike from El Chalten. We did a few day hikes (in preparation for the 4 day trek we had coming up through the Torres del Paine National Park further south in Patagonia), through beautiful woodland, watching insane Magallenic woodpeckers nearly knock themselves out banging the trees so hard.... past the foot of glaciers taking in the views of the Fitz Roy Massif and Cerro Torre - some of the highest peaks in the area and were not disappointed with the views… well once it had stopped snowing and the sun came out anyway!

Back in El Calafate, we opt to indulge in the ‘Patagonian Lamb’ as a treat…. a whole lamb, split down the middle with legs splayed out on a type of crucifix, slow roasted (all day) over burning logs. After being advised to only order 1 main meal between 2, the banquet that came out did not disappoint… 3 different joints of meat on a hot plate with roasted vegetables…. Easily the best lamb we have ever tasted!

The next day, 5 hours on a bus through a never ending bleak landscape, we crossed the border into Chile to the town of Puerto Natales the gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park.

Puerto Natales is a very cold & bleak Patagonian outpost, the two main highlights of the town itself we found to be the hostel we stayed at - ‘Patagonia Adventura‘ - run by a very friendly & helpful couple who helped us plan the logistics for our 4 day trek through the Torres Del Paine National Park, & a coffee shop that specialises in all variety of hot chocolates & all manner of chocolate based delights called La Dulceria…we’re putting on a bit of weight in Argentina & Chile by the way!

So after a couple of days waiting for the weather to clear up a little in Puerto Natales, we made our way out to the Torres Del Paine National Park to spend the next 4 days trekking around the ’W-route’. Fortunately the park is well equipped with mountain refuges at various convenient intervals during the route, saving us from the pain of camping. As it turned out the refuges weren’t even like the basic mountain refuges we had in mind, but at least 2 of them were as well equipped as hotels - the only difference being all the beds were in dorms.

The park itself is hailed as the finest National Park on the entire continent, & from what we saw we’d be inclined to agree. It is a mass of glaciers, ice bergs, turquoise lakes, windswept forests, huge granite towers that drive up vertically 3000 meters out of the ground, a set of peaks known as the ’Cuernos’ - or ‘Horns’ in English, due to their resemblance of their unusual shape, coupled with their distinctive two tone black tops & lighter coloured base, combining to make for a very unique & striking landscape. During the 4 days we experienced all four seasons of weather conditions - a couple of days of sunshine, a little rain, the unbelievable winds that Patagonia is famed for & even 3 inches of snow on the ground one morning.

Just to touch on the wind again for a moment - it really is like nothing else we have experienced before, it almost always blows from west to east, coming in off the huge expanse of the Southern Pacific Ocean without any land mass to obstruct its force until it hits Patagonia. It is the main reason why this area down at the southern tip of the continent is so synonymous with tales of ship wrecks. 95% of all trees in Patagonia are either bent over in a left to right direction or completely devastated due to it’s power. There are more dead trees & snapped trunks in Patagonia than anywhere else certainly we have ever seen, & it can make for quite an apocalyptic landscape.

On the second night of the trek we were upgraded from the dorm room we had booked to our own private log cabin, which initially seemed like a real result, we quickly started having second thoughts when the wind picked up so ferociously during the night that it felt like the rather flimsy log cabin was going to get blown away - literally the whole room including the bed would move when each gust would hit. It was quite an unnerving experience, the log cabin was sat on the shore of a lake, & as the wind was gusting you could hear it approaching ferociously across the water, we were bracing ourselves for impact every time the gust made it’s way off the lake onto the land & came crashing into our cabin with terrifying force. We’ve never wished for a wind ‘off switch’ more than we were that night. The only benefit of being kept awake all night by the wind, was that we were awake to see the sunrise, our cabin being at the foot of the eastern side of the Cuernos peaks, the sunrise cast a dusky orange pink glow across the entire face of the peaks - of which we could get some nice photos without actually having to get out of bed…small mercies & all that!

The four day trek around Torres Del Paine was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far, it was nice to be able to do it in the Patagonian spring time as well as there were far fewer people on the trails than during the peak summer season - we only passed a handful of other people on the trail each day so we were really able to appreciate the remoteness of the place of the magnitude of the landscape - unforgettable.

Patagonia Pt. 1 - The Lake District

We flew from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, a town known as the ’Gateway to Patagonia’ in the Argentine Lake District - a place similar to something between our own Lake District at home & certain elements of the Canadian Rockies. We were immediately introduced to the highly changeable Patagonian weather with a dose of snow & freezing winds - very different to the weather we had left behind in Buenos Aires only 2 hours earlier.

Bariloche is the largest town in this area, situated on the shore of lake Nahuel Huapi with beautiful views out across the Andes. The town itself is very much like a European Alpine resort in appearance & acts as the main town for the largest Argentine ski resort, Cerro Catedral - at this time of the season pretty much closed except for a couple of runs on the very top of the mountain, but which the bus loads of kids from BA were still seeming to enjoy. There are many small souvenir shops, boutiques, local micro breweries and lots of chocolate shops for which it is famous for all over Argentina.

The best way to make the most of Bariloche & the surrounding area is with a car, so after a couple of days in town we hired a car for a week to explore the area. We spent a day travelling around the ‘Circuito Grande’ also known as the ‘7 Lakes circuit’ within the Nahuel Huapi National Park that encircles Bariloche - (during which Claire‘s camera inexplicably decided to completely stop working, conveniently just out of warranty as well…you can imagine our surprise!?!);

We took another day taking in the ‘chico circuit’ or ‘small circuit’ which takes you through some of the early European colony areas & is also where some of the most panoramic views in Argentina can be enjoyed;

A few days were spent on tour south of Bariloche along Route 40 to El Bolson, a small ‘hippy’ town famous for its artesian beers, crafts fair and a woodland area called ‘Bosque Tallado’. Bosque Tallado is a forest that burned down a few years ago that has been brought back to life by local artists, who have sculpted pieces of work out of the burned trees and logs;

The last few days were spent in Esquel, famous for the Old Patagonian Express narrow gauge Steam locomotive that still runs weekly, and driving through the Los Alerces National Park where we met an Argentine couple (Gaston & Laura) that invited us to sit and join them in one of the main Argentine traditions by the shores of a lake, drinking ‘Mate’ - a herbal drink shared from one cup through a metal straw, which is far more popular than Coffee or Tea in Argentina. We ended up giving them a lift back to El Bolson, as the weather turned bad and their camping intentions quickly vanished. We rounded the week off with a trip to see a unique phenomenon… a black glacier. Glacier Tronador is black in the lower sections due to it running down the flanks of an extinct volcano, & hence the ice collects a huge amount of volcanic sediment, colouring the lower half of the glacier black & grey.

When enquiring about buses to our next destination, El Calafate, we were surprised to learn that it involved a 40 hour bus journey predominantly on an unpaved road… not really fancying that we booked ourselves a 1 hour flight with Aerolineas Argentina. When we arrived at the airport the following morning, we were told the flight was cancelled - much to the annoyance of many of the passengers, but with us not having work or an agenda to keep to and being cheapskate travellers now, we were more interested in what they were offering in terms of compensation….which turned out to be a night in a 5* hotel in Bariloche, seats on the next plane out the following morning, dinner at a nice restaurant in town and breakfast the following morning - all in all not a bad deal…TUI, take note!

After one of the best nights sleep and food we had experienced in a while we made our way down to El Calafate, though not quite with Aerolineas Argentina - the company we had originally booked with, but with a chartered plane from the Argentine Air Force - something of a no frills affair, but quite amusing all the same. The skies were completely clear during the flight and the views on the way down to El Calafate made the cost of the flight worthwhile in itself. Flying down the Eastern edge of the Andes, to our left we had the vast Patagonian steppe and a multitude of lakes of varying colours, to our right the ‘Los Glaciares National Park’ with perfect views over the Andes, the Fitz Roy mountain range and the whole Southern Continental Icefield, the 3rd largest ice mass in the world, after those of Antarctica and Greenland.

Argentina Part 1 - North & Central, 23 - 34 Degrees South

We crossed the border from Chile into the North Western corner of Argentina, heading for the city of Salta - which sits pretty much right on top of the Tropic of Cancer, taking us out of the tropical region we have been in since arriving in Mexico City back in April.

Like any self respecting visitors to Argentina, our first port of call after dropping our bags at our hostel was a steak house. Slightly bewildered by the wide array of cuts of meat on offer on the menu, we decided to go with the waiters recommendation of the ‘Parilla’, accompanied of course with a couple of bottles of red wine from the nearby Cafayate vineyards. The Parilla as it turns out, is a hot grill plate that is presented to the table filled with various cuts of the meat - including steak, chicken, sausages and ….intestines and offal…not entirely all to our liking, but the actual meat elements were superb! First Argentine steak lesson learnt.

As it turned out it was some sort of bank holiday weekend and a lot of Argentines from Buenos Aires had come up to Salta for a long weekend break, turning what is apparently usually quite a sleepy city into a pretty lively hive of activity…well, in the afternoons and evening at least, Argentines don’t really have anything to do with the mornings, particularly at weekends. The Argentines are apparently always up for a party and it was quite amusing to see almost as many people in their 60’s as there were people in their 20’s still out until the bars closed up at about 6am.

We sampled some more steak while in Salta, going for a safer bet of a more traditional fillet and rump cuts - which were unbelievably good - cooked to absolute perfection and enormous to boot. Usually you couldn’t eat such a huge slab of meat, but when it is cooked this well is this succulent you could go on eating it all night. The wine here is also a total revelation to us Brits, so used to paying a ridiculous premium on a bottle of wine in a restaurant vs. what you would pay in the supermarket - because over here the price in the restaurant is pretty much the same as the supermarket. Often we have found that a bottle of decent wine in a restaurant is roughly the same price as two beers.

Salta has a really nice feel to it, nice architecture, a cable car up one of the surrounding hillsides for views over the city and very friendly locals - always trying to strike up a conversation. We were still with our Mexican friend Antonio at this point and his fluent Spanish came in handy on a number of occasions, due to yet more regional dialect difficulties we were experiencing here…Argentine Spanish is very different to all of the rest of Latin America - again, just as we thought we were making some head way with the language, another curve ball is thrown at us!


Our plan was to hire a car from Salta and drive ourselves the couple of thousand kilometers south east across Argentina to Buenos Aires, though the cost turned out to be prohibitive, so instead we took another 12 hour bus down to Argentina’s second city, Cordoba. Antonio on the other hand opted for the 20 hour bus direct to Buenos Aires, as he was on a bit of a tighter time frame than us, having a PhD in genetics to get back for in Oxford…it’s always good to travel with our intellectual equals!?! ;-)

In Cordoba we really started to feel the European way and influence that Argentine cities are famous for and funnily enough it had that certain ‘2nd city’ feel about it that Birmingham has. While here we took a bus out to the small town of Alta Gracia, a little suburb where Che Guevara grew up, his old family home now having been converted into the National Che Guevara museum. Che Guevara is one of the three key Argentine National heroes alongside Maradona and Eva Peron, images of the three of them are everywhere. Wandering around his old family home, now adorned with artefacts from his childhood, his infamous Motorcycle Diaries era & his revolutionary guerrilla activities in Cuba, the Congo and Bolivia, made for a really fascinating day - free entry as well, which is always a bonus for us fare dodging travellers…

After a few nights in Cordoba sampling yet more of the fine steak and red wine selection on offer, we headed further south east on our final stop before reaching Buenos Aires, the city of Rosario.

Rosario is famous for two things as far as we can tell, one of which is that it was the birthplace of Che Guevara and the other is it is the site of the Argentine Independence monument, the ‘Monument A La Bandera’ - which features on the 10 Peso note. After making a visit to La Bandera and to yet another Che Guevara statue, we made our way on to Buenos Aires.

There is a saying that goes - ‘Argentina is a nation of Italians, who speak Spanish, dress like they are French and think they are British'.  Whilst this is obviously not strictly true, it does give some indication how strong the European influence is here - nowhere more so than in Buenos Aires.

We decided to base ourselves in the Barrio (district) of San Telmo, known for it’s artistic community, street markets, antique shops, traditional café culture and street Tango performances…oh, and an inordinate amount of dog shit over every pavement - someone needs to introduce the pooper scooper to Buenos Aires, SOON! Oh yes, and bags of rubbish (which is not unique to San Telmo, it is BA wide) - every night the entire city put their rubbish bags out on the street, the dogs and homeless people (of which there are also an awful lot of in BA) tear all the bags open, taking out anything of interest, whether it be food scraps or plastic bottles etc, that can be recycled for cash, leaving the debris scattered all over the street. Throughout the night - every night, a team of rubbish collectors and road sweepers scour every street in the city and clear up the mess, making things nice and tidy again for the following morning…apart from the dog shit, obviously. Something tells me the City Council’s refuse collection policy is not exactly top of their agenda - there is surely a very simple, better way than this though!

That said, San Telmo is actually a really nice area. It is one of the oldest Barrio’s in the city, full of classic European influenced architecture and cobbled streets. If you can take your eyes off the pavement long enough to not get a boot caked in dog shit and look up, the buildings are really quite ornate and intricate. Every weekend they have an art, craft and antique market in the streets of San Telmo, centred around Plaza Dorrago, with live Tango performances and street musicians bringing the place to life. After spending the day browsing the markets and taking in some of the café culture at a place called El Federal,

which serves excellent food and drink at low budget traveller friendly prices, and at the weekends a succession of local singers make an appearance performing acapella versions of classic Latin songs, we hooked up with some friends again and headed out to the Barrio of La Boca to take in a professional Tango show.

 La Boca is the area of the city where Tango was originally invented and the show we went to see - simply named ‘La Boca Tango’ started in an open air theatre set, light heartedly telling the story of how Tango came about in the first half of the 20th Century. The show then moves into a cabaret club, where the group of live musicians and singers provide a soundtrack for the dancers, who put on an amazing show for the best part of 2 hours. The musicians and vocalists are a show in themselves, guys in their 60’s who have clearly been doing something similar to this all their lives, all virtuosos in their own right, the lead instrument of the band being the squeeze box accordion player. The dancers were absolutely first rate as well. We were expecting a sort of slow and sultry Tango throughout the show and whilst there was elements of this, there were also some really fast paced technical dancing, made to look completely effortless by the dancers who barely broke a sweat.

The La Boca barrio is not only the birthplace of Tango, but also home to the infamous football club, Boca Juniors - the Argentine working class majorities team of choice and former club of Maradona. So on the Sunday afternoon a group of us went along to ‘La Bombanero’ stadium to watch Boca Juniors vs. Godoy Cruz. Argentina’s international reputation as a football crazy country is well deserved and going to see a match between one of the big clubs - namely either Boca Juniors or River Plate, is as much about watching the crowd as it is watching the game (particularly if like us, your not exactly ‘football crazy’ yourself) and the crowd didn’t disappoint. The goal mouth ends of the stadium are still standing room only and we were in the opposite end to the main hardcore Boca Jrs supporters - known as ‘Jugando 12’, or ‘The 12th Player’ - and had a prime position to watch the constant stream of banners, ribbons, fireworks, flares, drumming and singing that goes on during the match. Fans are allowed to freely scale the fences within the stadium to hang up their banners, any opposition banners being removed by the home supporters as quickly as they are put up.

The match itself was really entertaining, far fewer instances of pathetic diving and dirty tackling than you see in your average European game, we were lucky enough to see 5 goals - though unfortunately Boca Jrs were on the loosing end of a 3-2 score line.

Buenos Aires is no exception when it comes to the Argentine tradition of starting things late, most bars don’t get going until at least midnight and most restaurants don’t start filling up until around 10.30pm. However, one thing that is at complete odds to this tradition has turned out to be one of the hottest tickets on the Buenos Aires nightlife scene, takes place every Monday night between 7-10pm and is called ‘La Bomba Del Tiempo’ (Time Bomb). When we turned up at about 6.30pm with the group of people we were hanging out with, the queue was literally around two blocks to get in. A few thousand people turn up to a place in the North of the city called the Konex Centre, a disused industrial warehouse, with what must’ve once been the lorry loading bay now converted into an open air concert venue, with a huge steel staircase coming down from the adjacent buildings into the centre of the courtyard acting as a stage. The show itself is 3 hours of a group of around 15 top class percussionists, creating improvisational rhythms from the instructions of a series of ‘conductors’, somehow managing to communicate their rhythm patterns to the percussionists to perform. Intermittently other musicians are brought out to join them, such as guitarists and trumpet players, who improvise along to the rhythms - all combining to create a pretty amazing live show. It feels like being at a festival largely due to the fact it’s open air and the few thousand people there are all going crazy - then at 10pm it’s all over for another week and the hordes of people spill out onto the streets looking for the next place to head onto. Definitely one of the best, most atmospheric live gigs we have been to in a long time - for anyone in BA on a Monday night it is an absolute must.

We spent the next week in BA in a whirlwind of constant activity day and night - visiting some of the many art galleries dotted around the city, taking in some of the key sights such as the Obelisk, Avenida 9th July (reportedly the widest Avenue in the world with 16 lanes), the ultra Parisian Avenida 1st Mayo, La Palacio Rosario - or Pink Palace (which contrary to how it sounds, is not a huge gay club), but the Presidential Palace from who’s balconies the likes of Eva and Juan Peron delivered their speeches to the masses.

We went to another gig to see the Swedish group Loney Dear, strolling through the many parks and markets of Palermo and Recoletta, taking in the dockside of Puerto Madero - an area very reminiscent of both Liverpool’s Victoria Docks and the London Docklands, visiting the Recolleta Cemetery - a mini city within the city of huge

above ground tombs where Argentina’s rich and famous are buried, including it’s most famous resident - Evita Peron, visiting La Caminito in La Boca - the streets of brightly coloured corrugated iron buildings around the old port area, sampling many of BA’s restaurants and bars and generally spending way too much money!… not to mention constantly dodging dog shit - actually getting quite good at it by now I might add!

After all this activity, along with contending with the Buenos Aires subway system, which although is very cheap and simple to navigate, during the week makes London’s Central line look positively empty. People literally launch themselves off the platforms into the carriages as soon as the doors open to force their way onto the trains due to the level of overcrowding, we decided to take a break from city life and took a flight up to the border area between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay to visit the Iguassu Falls.

It’s very difficult to put the Iguassu Falls into any sort of words, but if just think of pretty much every superlative you can come up with you won’t be far off getting some idea of the absolute grandiose enormity of this incredible natural spectacle. The name ’Iguassu’ is apparently an old native word meaning ’big water’ annd big water there certainly is. We visited the Falls from two sides over two days, the Brazilian side on day one, crossing back into the Argentine side on the second day.

From the Brazilian side you get the wide panoramic views of the Falls that appear on most of the images of Iguassu and from the Argentine side you are able to get up much closer to some of the 275 waterfalls that make up the area. From the Argentine side you really experience the absolute power of the water, with boardwalks constructed so you can walk right across the fall area of the water.

The largest waterfall within Iguassu is known as ‘La Gargantua Del Diablo’ - or ‘Throat of the Devil’ and from the Argentine side there is a boardwalk that takes you out about 1.5km from the riverbank right to the edge of the area where the ground drops away and it really is an incredible experience. You feel strangely compelled to get a dingy and float off the edge, though clearly you wouldn’t stand a chance under the weight of this sort of force!

The whole area is a natural park stretching far wider than just the confines of the river and the falls. 

The surrounding jungles are full of Toucans, Racoons and many other mammals and birds. Quite how they ever get any sleep with the constant thundering of the water going on 24/7 is beyond us though...!

After about 4 days we returned to Buenos Aires, coinciding with Leanne, and the Irish girls’ - Ruth & Sue, arrival in the city. It was good to catch up and exchange stories over a few too many glass of the local tipple, Fernet Branca - slightly medicinal & Jagermeister like in taste. Of course, it also gives a nasty hangover, mixing nicely with the constant boom of the Buenos Aires traffic the following morning… so we made our way over to La Boca - which is only a hop skip and a jump over several piles of dog shit and a few rubbish bags from San Telmo, in search of some respite from the noise.

It’s always nice to return to a place once you have spent a little time getting to know your way around. Wandering around La Boca and the plazas and cobbled streets of San Telmo things were really starting to feel familiar (which is nice for the perpetual hobo’s that we have become!) - while at the same time always discovering another new restaurant, shop, café or bar that we hadn’t noticed before. Defensa street on a sunny afternoon with all it’s shabby charm, independent clothes shops, antique record stores and tiny art galleries feels a lot like the quintessential image of ‘swinging London’ in the ‘60s - naturally with a distinctly Latin flavour all mixed in as well.


We spent the rest of the weekend exploring some more of the night life options around Buenos Aires - managing to mistake a karaoke bar for what we thought looked from the outside like a good club. Some of the BA locals (or Porteno’s as they are known) were actually dancing to karaoke renditions - so we decided to do a group rendition of ‘Sweet Child ‘O Mine’ - the DJ thinking it would be amusing to change the song to Genesis’ ‘I Can’t Dance’ halfway through. Needless to say, our efforts were more than enough to stop the locals dancing anyway!

We topped our Buenos Aires experience off with one last steak meal - and as it turned out we really had saved the best ‘til last. A restaurant called ’La Cabrera’ in the Palermo district. Seven of us went along and under the guidance of the waiter, ordered 4 dishes off the menu which proved to be more than enough food to go around. The steaks were 600g joints of beef, cooked to perfection right through. Obviously all this was washed down with yet more fine red wine, and all came in at about £11 each - bargain!

Next stop - Patagonia...

A brief introduction to Chile - The Atacama Desert

After 3 days driving solidly off road through Uyuni, crossing the border into Chile the first simple pleasure to enjoy was the welcome return of a paved road. Descending down the Western edge of the Andes a couple of thousand meters into the Chilean Atacama desert oasis town of San Pedro de Atacama, it became more & more apparent that we were well & truely leaving the wilds of Bolivia behind. Good quality modern cars & buses make there way through the streets, as oppose to the old heaps of junk in Bolivia & immediately you notice the difference in the general appearance of the people as well. The majority of the Bolivian population are of indigenous descent, & as such have a very native Indian style appearance, whereas Chileans have a much more European appearance. Over the last few months as we have moved from Ecuador into Peru & then on into Bolivia, it has taken a couple of days to really pick up the feel of the new country as there are so many similarities in some respects between them. Though straight away upon entering Chile you know you are unmistakably in a different place.

San Pedro De Atacama is a very nice, laid back oasis town on the edge of what is reportedly the driest place on the planet - the Atacama Desert. Rainfall averages about 10mm's a year here & humidity levels never exceed 10% - a far cry from Colombia & Central America where the humidity levels were regularly in excess of 90%. The wind blows through Atacama regularly at up to 70mph (Spetember apparently being the windiest month...great timing on our behalf!), & with the desert wind whipping up sand & dust & pelting you with it it can be a little uncomfortable at times. Though bizarrely in amongst all this apparent inhospitability things here actually seem to function pretty well. The showers in our hostel for example were about the best we have had yet on the whole trip - albeit with huge signs everywhere about keeping them brief due to the obvious water shortage, internet connections were as good as back home (something that was a real problem in Bolivia) & all the restuarants we ate in actually managed to serve good quality food that was served at the same time - quite a novelty after a couple of months of watching each other take our turns in eating our meals.

Whilst here we were still with the 2 blokes from our Uyuni group - Antonio (Mex/Eng) & Timo (Swiss), & after a day of relaxing we took a ride out to the Valle de la Luna (valley of the moon) just a couple of km's outside of San Pedro, an area of unbelievable desert landscape so named obviously due to its resemblance to the surface of the moon due to strange geologic formations & wind sculpted shapes. It's here that it is thought the controversial US moon landing photos were actually taken rather than the moon itself, & countless film producers have used the location as the set for films based on other planets. We stayed out on top of a dune to watch the sunset, & how the colours of the Andes in the distance change as the light fades. Desert sunsets are probably winning the award for most dramatic sunsets so far, as both the Atacama & Huacachina in Peru have both been pretty incredible.

That night Chile were playing Brazil in a World Cup qualifier game, so the four of us went along with a Chilean & Japanese guy we had met to watch the game. The typical South American passion for football was alive & well in the bar we watched the game - & in the face of stiff Brazilian opposision Chile put up a brave fight, though ended up losing 4-2. It was all taken in good spirits however, as none of the Chileans really expected to beat Brazil anyway, so the partying continued & we ended up playing cards with a group of Chileans back at someones house until dawn.

Nothing much happens in San Pedro particularly quickly, there is such a laid back pace to the place that you can't help but get in sync with it. So we spent another couple of days doing very little other than eating, drinking & sleeping. Antonio & I snapping out of it one afternoon & hiring a couple of bikes out & heading off for a ride in the desert (its not all sand, so it's not as hard as it may sound), off to an old desert fortress built into the side of a dune & exploring a pretty impressive cave, before riding onto a place where there was a labyrinth of tight gulleys in amongst towering stone & sand formations. We managed to scramble our way up top of one of them where we were rewarded with some amazing views over the desert.

A few days here in the Atacama Desert was a great addition to the previous few days spent around Uyuni in Bolivia - it feels like we had just spent a week on Mars or something!