High, Dry, and a pinch of Salt

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Wednesday, February 13.

After 17 hours on the bus, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama around 1:00 pm. The scenery on the way in was like something out of a sci-fi movie about another planet. The landscape was so dry and red it looked like we were driving over another world.  As Michelle and Bryan had already booked a hostel (and we hadn't, because that's not our style) we decided to follow them to their hostel to see if they had extra space.  After walking around trying to find it for a half hour, we bit the bullet and got a cab to take us there.  There was no space for us there, but we did find another hostel just down the street and booked there for 2 nights.

We walked into the surprisingly, very touristy town and had a delicious burger platter and Chilean salad for lunch, and then went to look for a tour into the salt flats.  We found one almost immediately, as there were at least 6 different companies doing the 3 day tour.  We chose the one that left on the day we wanted; the 15th.

We retired to our rooms for a siesta, and a few hours later met up for dinner.  The tour operator had told us not to eat meat the next day, as we would be heading up to an altitude of close to 5000m, and a belly full of meat wouldn't be the best idea.  As such, we decided to have a nice steak dinner that night to satisfy our carnivore cravings.  The steak was a little thin and overcooked, but it did the trick.

We went back to our hostel, and before bed, downloaded no less than 15 movies off Bryan and Michelle's MacBook, and watched half of Star Trek before passing out.

Thursday, February 14; Happy Birthday Diana, and Happy Valentine's Day to All!

We woke up early-ish, and decided to put in some blog time, as we had been getting a little neglectful.  After that we went into town for lunch, but stopped on the way at a nice fruit market to stock up for our trip the next day.  We did some more stock-shopping and bought two 5L jugs of water, and various snacks, and then headed to the same restaurant as the day before for lunch where we had monstrous chicken and beef sandwiches.

We dropped off our shopping bags at the hostel and discovered that a few friends we had made at the hostel had decided to rent a car for the day to do a DIY tour of the area surrounding San Pedro. We offered to give them a bit of money to tag along, and they openly accepted.  So the four of us met them just outside of the town, and packed into the backseat of the pickup.

Our first stop was the Flamingo reserve, which was an hour or so drive from San Pedro.  It was a vast landscape of crystallised salt with a red lagoon in the middle, where the flamingos fed on red algae.  After spending a half hour there, we drove along to our second stop, another lagoon.  There wasn't much to write home about there, and we were in a bit of a rush, as we wanted to make it to the "valley of the moon" before the sunset.  After taking a few pictures, we rushed off to the valley of the moon, and made it there just as the park was closing.  It was a huge bummer as the valley was the main attraction of the excursion, but we made the most of it by snapping a few pictures of the sunset, and whatever we could see from the outside of the park.

We were back at our hostels by 8:30 pm and had a light noodle soup dinner as advised by out tour coordinator. While we were eating, we did some research on our altitude medication as we would be taking them for the first time that evening in preparation for our quick 2000m ascent the following day.

While packing up our bags and getting ready for bed, we got busy chatting with our room mates, two separate mixed Australian/German couples, about the tour and what we can expect from exploring Bolivia. One of the couples had already been to Bolivia and filled us in on how crazy it was there from the drunk drivers, to the very dangerous drinking water and fruit, to broken down trains and cheap Hotels for $10 a night. The other couple was going on the same tour of the Atacama Desert as us, but with a different company, and they said they had heard about a double decker head-on collision in north Bolivia the previous night where 15 people had died! All this excitement and anxiety made our sleep a little uneasy, especially with the side effects of altitude pills (like ringing of the ears, tingling hands and feet and nausea) setting in.



Friday, February 15.

Somehow, we managed to get a little bit of shut eye before our 7:15am alarm went off. We grabbed all of our belongings and headed to Mama Tierra's where our tour pickup was. We were taken to Chilean customs right away for our exit stamps, before we began our quick and intense drive up the mountains. We stopped several times on the way for pictures of the volcano, ostriches, Llama's and Alpaca's. An hour later we were at an altitude of 4300m, and eating breakfast at the Bolivian border. The air up there was significantly cooler than it was down in San Pedro, but thankfully the sun was still shinning and keeping us warm. Interestingly, though, we were the only people wearing shorts and sandals, and got "they must be Canadian" comments from other travellers.

After we were successfully stamped into our 8th country we were suppose to hop into the Bolivian jeeps that were going to take us the rest of the way, but they were no where to be found! When they finally arrived 45 minutes late, 6 Canadians (us, Winnipeg and Nick and Alex from Quebec) threw our bags on top of the jeep and watched our driver tarp and tie them up. We introduced ourselves to Martin, our driver, and we immediately came up with the name TEAM CANADA for our jeep. As we started our trek, we didn’t waist any time before we began questioning Martin about his age, how long he’d been taking tours out, and whether or not he enjoys drinking while driving! He eased our minds right away by telling us he’d been working with the company for 3 years, telling us to wear our seat belts at all times and he assured us that he only drank Tequila once in a while on his nights off.

We started off with a slow pace on the bumpy unpaved road following behind our sister tour jeep. Within the next 2 hours the weather went from hot and dry to cold and wet with hail and even some snow with muddy deposits on the terrain. We stopped at a scenic lagoon, and took a dip in a natural hot spring pool just as the hail was turning into rain. The hot water mixed with the altitude of over 4500m got us all a little dizzy but David took it the hardest as his face went completely white and he almost fainted right there in front of us. A little bit of cool air and water brought him quickly back to life though thankfully, and we were able to head to our next destination. We stopped to see these huge hot pockets in the ground called geysers, where heat from the earth literally shoots out of the ground in the form of steam. It was something out of this world that none of us had ever seen before.

Our last stop was at our accommodations for the night, where we were served a late lunch of salad, hot dogs and mashed potatoes. Almost right after they cleared our plates they came out with Coca tea and cookies. Coca tea is the traditional tea they make out of the Coca plant and it is said to help with the side effects of being at such a high altitude.  The boys played poker while Michelle coloured with the kids and Alice caught up on some reading. A few hours later they brought out hot veggie soup and pasta for dinner.

Being that we were at 4900m altitude now, we waited for it to get dark enough before we layered up all our warm clothes and headed out in the 0 degree weather to see the best stars we had seen yet on our trip. Dave played with the camera settings and got some great(ish) shots of the milky way! We didn’t last out there very long due to the cold so we soon curled up to watch a movie. But this was no ordinary movie, as we co-ordinated laptops with Bryan and Michelle to watch the movie "Ted" on two screens with surround sound!  We actually managed to watch the whole movie this time.

Saturday, February 16.

Martin knocked on our door to wake us up at 7am. Brian was in excruciating pelvic pain as he had decided not to take his altitude pills the night before. We were all very worried about him because he was curled up in a ball and was asking for a doctor or a helicopter  and telling us it felt like his intestines were going to burst! We quickly gave him an altitude pill and let him relax for about an hour for the pill to settle while we ate breakfast and packed up. Martin suggested we get him in the car and get going because our next destination was significantly lower in altitude and hoped it would make him feel better.

We stopped at another red lagoon full of flamingos, this time with a beautiful mountainous backdrop. We snapped thousands (hundreds) of pictures while Brian spent his time lying down in the front seat of the jeep. Then we drove into a national park and around the lagoon for a better view. The weather was much warmer and clearer despite the fact that we were still up at 4500m. We continued snapping photo’s of the gorgeous scenery while poor Brian this time was getting sick on the side of the road.


Our next stop was at a collection of some amazing, tall rock formations in the middle of the desert. We climbed the rocks and took some funny pictures. Dave thought it would be a good idea to follow one of the Quebecers and jumped down from a really high rock, slipped and hurt his behind pretty nicely. Thankfully he’s a trooper and he was alright. Again, we had descended our altitude quite a bit and by the time we made it back to the jeep, good ‘ol Brian was back to life!
After another 3 or 4 scenic stops and lunch we made it to our accommodations before dark. This time we were given private rooms, and a gourmet roasted chicken dinner with a bottle of wine!


Sunday, February 17.

This time we were woken by Martin at 6:00 am, and we had to try a few times to get Bryan and Michelle out of bed.  We had a quick breakfast of yogurt, cereal, and some sort of cake, quickly packed up the jeep, and were on the road just before 7:00.  As the engine started, a large hoard of flies decided to wake up, and come out of the vents right on top of Alice and Michelle.  The next few hours were a mixture of driving, swatting, napping, and bracing ourselves as Martin yelled "Ariba" each time we went over a bump.

We stopped just outside the town "Uyuni" to check out what was called the "Train Cemetery", which was aptly named, as it had hundreds of old rusting trains.  We stayed for 20 min or so, snapped some more pictures, and headed on our way to our final destination of the tour; the Uyuni Salt Flats!  This final leg of the journey took about an hour and a half, including a stop at a local market where we used the washroom (hole in the ground, literally) and bought Bolivian Chuchkahs like woven finger puppets.

The salt flats were just as we expected; Amazing!  Being that it was the rainy season, some parts of the flats were flooded, but we drove through for a km or two until we were through the pools.  The truck dropped us off, and drove on for a little, as they prepared lunch.   We stood in awe for a while as we looked at endless expanse of salt; 11 m deep and 1200 square km.  After being in awe for a bit, we decided we would take some of the cheesy pictures that everyone does at the salt flats.  They were a little difficult to co-ordinate, as the reflection of the sun off the white made it hard to see the camera, but we managed to snap a few gems. 

We walked over the jeep and had a homemade (jeep-made) chicken schnitzel lunch with pasta and veggies.  We took some more pics, and the frenchies suggested we walk back to the end of the flats, and we all thought it was a good idea.  35 minutes later, though, it seemed like we hadn't made any progress, and luckily Martin had the foresight to let us walk a bit before leaving, and thus picked us up on the way.

We got dropped off in the town of Uyuni, said goodbye to Martin, gave him a nice tip, and an awkward hug (Dave).  We walked around and tried to find a hostel, which wasn't too difficult as there were many around, and ended up in a "Hotel" for $10.  We said goodbye to the French Canadians, and met up later with Michelle and Bryan for lunch at a Mexican/Italian restaurant.

Later we met up with Michelle and Bryan once again and went to the "Extreme Fun Pub" (actual name).  En route we walked through the last day of some Bolivian Carnival, and were sprayed in the face, hair, and back by teenage Bolivians with silly string.  The extreme fun pub was just that, with novelty drinking glasses, and drinking games on the tables.  We ran into our old dorm-mates from San Pedro, who also thoroughly enjoyed their salt flat trip, and we ended off the evening by ordering way too much pizza.

As always, thanks for watching and tune in for more adventures!
With love from the Salt Flats,
D'Alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lazy Days in Chile

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Friday, February 08

 

We woke up to the sweet smell of something delicious and ran downstairs to check out what was going on in the kitchen. There was the housemaid cooking up a storm and serving everyone individually like we were in a 5 star hotel or something. We sat down and she poured us coffees, a glass of orange juice each and brought us a fruit and yogurt salad to hold us over until our personal batch of dolce de leche (a very popular caramel flavored spread here in South America) crepes were ready. They were delicious and we thanked her several times thinking how did we score such an awesome place!

 

Playa Del Sol

We had to change rooms in the same house though which we didn’t mind because we were changing from a shared room of 6 people to our own private with a TV!!!! Even more over budget, but we figured it’d been 2 months on the road, and we’re starting to feel effects, so we may as well spoil ourselves a bit. By the time we were all settled again it was 12:30, so we headed out for an afternoon at the Playa del Sol.

 

As we walked along the boardwalk we saw a hill full of villas in the distance, tons of people, restaurants near the beach and artists carving things in the sand for chump change. It was a hot sunny day and after only a few minutes after we found a place to lay out our towels we were ready to jump into the water but it was much too cold and the waves were quite high. So we settled for a couple of splashes and decided to complete another Spanish lesson from our book to help us forget about the heat. Just when we were learning how to say things around the dining room table (like spoon, fork, knife, plate) we saw a guy with a Chi tattoo set his towel down fairly close to us. We yelled out “Ma Shlomech!”. He came right over and started spewing out a conversation in Hebrew and both looked at each other and laughed and told him we could understand but we wanted to let him know we were Jewish too. In Spanglish and a little broken Hebrew we managed to tell him we were from Canada and we were enjoying our time there, and were able to understand that he was from Chile but originally Israeli and he loved it there too.

 

By 5pm we were ready to head back for lunch (everybody eats super late in these parts of the world) We decided to take full advantage of out flat screen tv and watched movie after movie on the English movie network while taking turns falling asleep. By 10 we realized we were starting to get hungry and decided we would come out of hibernation.

 

At first we walked around aimlessly, still completely drained from having done nothing at all. We soon came across a crafts fair on the main street so we decided to check it out. We circled around the aisles looking at  the Chilean signature crafts. As we made our way to the exit we say many delicious desert stands but nothing to satisfy our hungry bellies, so we kept walking. We walked over a big bridge and noticed the streets were alive with so many people off in the distance, there was a big Ferris wheel and a carnival set up around it. As we were making our way over we saw people eating these huge sandwiches that reminded us of the crazy chorizo’s we had in Uruguay. We got closer to see what the hype was about and sure enough, a lady was selling a Mexican/Chilean hybrid version of them! She called them Churraccos and a told us it was a signature Chilean food. The sandwich was on a fluffy bun with thinly sliced grilled beef, topped with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, guacamole, mayo, ketchup and a spicy cilantro salsa. They were amazing and we were instantly full, even though we only shared one sandwich. We thanked the lady, said “ciao” and headed down the Queen street-like streets toward the carnival.

 

It took us a while to get there as we had to zig zag down the streets because there were only cross walks for pedestrians on one side, which we found very strange but we finally made it and it was a sight to see. The place was full of flashing lights, food vendors, rides, stray dogs, games and it was crawling with people, mostly children even though it was past 12am! As we started our stroll around the grounds we noticed that the games had prizes that consisted of liquor bottles, chocolate, huge bouncing balls and very odd chuchkah’s. We passed by a mini roller coaster, 2 merry-go-rounds, the big ferris wheel and they even had a mock of the “Drop Zone” at Canada’s Wonderland only this one was 10x smaller a drop. There were even ladies playing a weird version of bingo, using corn kernels to stamp out their numbers. It turned out to be a very interesting and fun evening.

 

Saturday February 09, Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

 

We woke up at 9:30am and were greeted with another delicious breakfast at the B & B. This time it was grilled cheese and hot dogs! (David’s favorite). The sky was completely overcast so the beach was out of the question. We had to check out of our rooms today though and do some bus hunting for our next destination anyway.

 

We set out for the city centre to the bus terminal and found out they didn’t have any buses available leaving for San Pedro de Atacama (our next destination) until Tuesday! What a bummer, it was the first time we couldn't get a bus leaving for exactly where we wanted on the same day. We quickly figured out plan B and settled for tickets to La Serena, another beach town on the way. We figured we would spend the 2 days there, and book the Tuesday bus from there ahead of time. In the end we were happier with plan B as there were a lot of things to see and do in San Pedro and we were still in lazy mode. In addition it would break up the long 30 hour bus ride into two 15 hour ones. So, win, win, all around. After buying the tickets we went across the street to the mini mall to muck around for a bit. There, we found a Chilean version of Lowes/Home Depot called “Sodimac”. You should’ve seen Dave’s eyes light up, so we went in to do some research on how the Chileans go about doing there reno shopping.  Let’s just say there level of standards on finishes looked like they were right out of the 80’s!

 

After doing a quick walk around the rest of the mall we decided to head back to the B&B for lunch and got busy chatting with a couple from Argentina. We had seen them in passing the past 2 days we were there, but because they didn’t speak any English our conversations with them pretty much consisted of “Hi” and “Bye”. We started off forcing out our Spanglish and thankfully Claudia was able to pick up very few English words, but we were having a really tough time. So, we broke out our lap tops! Us on a Spanish translator, and them on an English one, and we managed to spend the next 4 hours in a very funny but real conversation. It was one of the most intriguing and challenging afternoons we’ve had yet!

 

By 9pm we realized that we only had 2 hours to grab dinner and to walk back to the bus terminal. So we grabbed our bags and the 4 of us set out for dinner. With our lap tops put away, we had no idea how would communicated over dinner but somehow we made it work. We were sad when it came time to say goodbye but we exchanged information and promised to keep in touch. We hugged them goodbye and almost ran to the terminal to make it our bus for 11:30pm.

 

 

 

Sunday, February 10

 

It was a long bus ride, but we arrived in La Serena by 6 am. We had absolutely no plans or reservations ahead of us so we slept on the floor of the terminal until 8. We remembered one of the guys at the B&B telling us how wonderful a place called Valle de Elqui was, and since  there were signs all over the terminal promoting it, we decided to see how much a bus ticket would cost. There was a bus leaving in only a half an hour and it was only $8 a person so we bought tickets and waited for the next bus to arrive. When it did, it was nothing fancy, it was more like the collective chicken busses we grew to love in Nicaragua but we didn’t mind.

 

The drive to Elqui was 2 hours (as opposed to the half hour we'd been promised) but it was full of beautiful scenery that only Dave can tell you about because Alice continued sleeping the whole way there. Elqui is a valley in between the Andes mountains where they have many wine and pisco vineyard and breathtaking views. Pisco is the traditional Chilean alcohol made of fermented grapes (kind of like tsuike, for all the Romanian readers). When we arrived to town we checked into the first hostel we saw, and lucked out as they placed us in a cabana like room in the back right beside there outdoor pool!

 

We walked down the peaceful, old fashioned streets and found a patio with a great view of the mountains to have breakfast.  We opted for the supreme breakfast which consisted of coffee, freshly squeezed melon juice, eggs and tostada’s. When we were done with breakfast we headed back to the hostel and said we’d rest our eyes for just a few minutes. Next thing we knew it was 4pm and we slept the whole day away!

 

When we were finally able to gather up some energy we took a walk around the town and picked up some groceries for dinner. Dave cooked us a delicious chorizo pasta with the slim pickings that we found at the mini marts in the tiny little town. We found ourselves lying down reading and before you know it nodding off again but not for long. We were determined to see the stars as we had heard they were impeccable in the valley. It was so clear we could make out the milky way and many constellations. We played cards outside and had a few beers before we yet again, set out for more sleep.

 

Just as we were closing our eyes we heard the roosters start roosting and it was only 11pm! The entire night was a cycle of roosters roosting, followed by dogs barking, followed by bells ringing. We were up most of the night.

 

Monday, February 11

 

Despite the lack of sleep, we were up by 9am and eating our complimentary breakfast of eggs and tea. We figured we’d have another lazy day of reading and relaxing by the pool and that’s exactly how the day went. At 5pm the hostel was serving panqueques (Pancakes) with dolce de leche (obviously) and berry fruits. We figured we’d each order our own because we can’t ever pass up free food and next thing you knew they were asking us for $4 each per plate! We got caught in the scam but it was so delicious that we couldn’t get upset. After a couple of hours we headed into the small town of only 4 streets and settled on avocado hot dogs. We brought a couple of beers back to the hostel and went to bed before 11pm. Just as we were getting comfortable and closing our eyes we heard a rooster start cock-a-doodle-doing, starting a chain reaction among it’s friends, once again. We managed to sleep a little more than the night before, but not by much.

 

Tuesday, February 12

 

We still managed to wake up for breakfast by 10am, checked out, and walked to the bus stop where the buses back to La Serena waiting for us and we were able to leave right away. The ride was about 2 and half hours this time, but we made it back to civilization. We had 5 hours to kill, so we headed to the Mall Plaza to walk around, and managed to find, as always, a McDonalds :).

 

When we got back to the terminal we still had an hour and half to wait for our bus. We relaxed on the lawn and read for a bit, then went to catch our bus.  As we approached the bus, Dave was poked in the Canadian flag and asked "Are you guys Canadian?".  We answered yes, of course, and were introduced to Bryan and Michelle from Winnipeg. They were excited to finally meet some fellow Canadians as they had been out for 10 months out of their year of travelling and hadn’t met too many. We were mutually excited as we hadn’t met any fellow travellers doing the full year trip like ourselves. We spent the hour and a half (the amount of time our bus was late) comparing stories and bombarding them with questions about all the countries that they had already scene.  When the bus finally arrived we were well on our way for our 17 hour trip to San Pedro de Atacama, the driest place on earth. Strangely though,  we were a little nervous as we had heard that there was a big storm there the past few days and the desert was flooded. We had heard that many trips through the desert were cancelled.  We would have to hope for the best.

 

Thanks and with love from another long bus,

D'Alice

 

 

 

Moving along to Chile

Saturday Feb. 02


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We had a late wake up in Bariloche, Patagonia - Argentina after our crazy late night out dancing the night away until almost 5am. Along with that was a missed crepe breakfast and had HUGE hangovers. We managed to find some coffee, thank goodness (even though surprisingly, we've managed to go days and days without it in the past), before we got the energy to heat up our leftover pasta from the night before. Greg from Vancouver joined us for our tasty lunch and already had a plan for us for the day. He was up early with no residual effects from the night before and had already done some research on a 4 hour hike up the mountains.


Canadian Greg!

Before we could even think about our low energy levels, we were already on the 1 hr. local bus out of town to the trail. We got off the bus one stop too late and had to back track a bit, but we finally made it to the start of the trailhead and began the VERY steep trek up to the first panoramic point called Rocha Negro (Black Rock). As soon as we started the hike, our dehydration set in and we realized how crazy we were for even thinking about hiking on a day like today. It took us only 15 sweaty minutes in the heat to get to a small look-out point and the view was already breathtaking. Alice was ready to throw in the towel as she was satisfied with the view and was complaining of a headache in her eye. But we pushed ourselves to keep on going. The steepness of the climb didn't let up even a little bit for the entire hour up to Roca Negro, but somehow we made it and it was well worth it. We reached the rest stop, which was a little restaurant consisting of 8 tables, made of raw wood. We dropped down on the porch and looked out to the perfect view of the Andes Mountains and the Nahuel Lake in front of them.

There, were downed a bottle of water each and had granola snacks and apples. 25 minutes later the boys were getting their gear all ready for the next leg of the hike and Alice was tapping out. "Sorry guys" she said "you guys are going to have to go on without me on this one". So, Dave and Greg set out on their own. Alice laid down and figured she would spend the next 4 hours lying in the sun and taking in the scenery while the guys courageously finished the mission. Only 45 minutes went by and she was starting to get really annoyed of trying to ward off the gigantic black flies that were swarming around her, and wishing she had put on some sunscreen in the morning. Next thing you know, she hears the boys voices in the distance. The boys made it 3/4 up to the next view point and threw in the towel as well! Alice was so happy to see them and was secretly relieved that she wasn't the only one who was a quitter. This hike was officially an adventure unfit for a recovery day. So, we spent the rest of the afternoon eating snacks and getting to know "Maaike" a woman originally from Amsterdam that worked and lived at the rest stop with her Argentinian fiancée.

At 6:30pm we said goodbye to Maaike and started our descent down the mountain. Thankfully we had more energy for the way down and it wasn't as treacherous as the way up, so we made it down in no time reached the bus stop early for our bus. When we got back to the Tango Inn we hit the hot showers and napped for 2 hours. We woke up famished and decided to take the quick walk back to the Pizza Libre (all you can eat pizza) for round 2! We stayed there for awhile and watched a local soccer game between Argentina and Columbia and went right back to bed shortly after that.

Sunday, February 03

Believe it or not, (sarcasm) we had another late wake up and missed breakfast again. Dave ran to the bank with Greg to try to take out more of the money we owed him and Alice lazed around at the Inn. When the boys got back we walked Greg to the bus terminal as he was leaving for Chile and we purchased our own tickets for Osorno, Chile for the following day, as we had a free fourth night's stay at Tango. We wished Greg a safe trip and stopped at the grocery store on our way back for sandwiches and soup and spent the rest of the afternoon blogging and napping. When we woke up at 7pm we decided to take the 45 minute walk into town and be bad girls and boys and get McDonald's as our usual "breaking the diet binge". We quickly headed back to Tango just in time to make it for the super bowl on the big screen TV.

Next thing you know, Greg shows up again at 10pm and he didn't look happy. He had lost his passport somewhere in between Argentina and Chile and got refused at the Chilean border and sent back on a bus to Bariloche! Poor Greg, his trip just wasn't making anything run smoothly for him. It was another late night before we went to sleep.

Monday, February 04

It was an early wake up, as our bus for Osorno was leaving at 7:30am. Of course, David was worried about crossing the border again even after spending a good amount of time working on yet another impeccable fake itinerary the previous day. We all had to get off the bus at the Argentinian border for our exit stamps. They had a security dog  jump onto the to sniff up and down the aisles, then the dog jumped into the luggage container and hopped around sniffing everybody's bags. After everyone's belongings had passed the test, we all piled back on the bus for another hour before we had to do it all over again at the Chilean customs.

This time we had to line up our purses and carry-on bags for a round of dog sniffing and they actually took all of our luggage off the bus and lined them up on long tables for the dog to get a better whiff. An Asian guy on our bus had a bag of apples in luggage that the dog went crazy over. It was illegal to bring any fruits, vegetables or meat over the border and they were confiscated. It was a good thing that we ate our apples and got rid of the evidence on the way before we got there! Once we were clear again we got back on the bus for the last 2 hours of the trip.

We arrived 2 hours late and quickly booked an ongoing bus ticket to Santiago (the capital of Chile) for 6:30. Since we had 4 hours to kill, we walked around exploring the town of Osorno and settled down on a patio at a café for some lunch and a much needed Spanish lesson that we had been putting off since we started our adventure. We pulled out our "Learn Spanish in 15 minutes" book that our old friend Huw donated to us back in Nicaragua and spent 2 hours testing each other on some basic terms. After lunch we walked over to Chile's version of a Walmart called "Lider" walking up and down every aisle to kill the last 2 hours of our layover. We stocked up on snacks for the bus.

When the bus arrived a few minutes late, it was already full of passengers coming from a previous destination. We threw our bags into the luggage container and hopped into the best seats we've gotten thus far, the 2 most anterior seats on a double decker coach! Unfortunately however, unlike the previous freezing cold bus experiences, this bus was boiling hot, recirculating the same humid air through the air vents. It took us a few minutes to get used to the temperature and we quickly started to enjoy the first few hours with our first class view of the roads and jamming to our Ipod. We eventually fell asleep for a short while and woke up to the same familiar arctic air conditioning we were used to and it kept us up almost the entire night.

Tuesday, February 05

At 6:00am we arrived at the Santiago terminal and it was still pitch black (or pitch dark as Natalie would say it). We hadn't done our homework ahead of time and had no place to stay lined up so we decided to wait until the sun came up and the internet café opened before we made our next move. We found a place just a subway ride away and enjoyed the very organized and easy to follow metro system that took us there.

We checked into Andes hostel and dropped off our bags and sent out a safety update to the family before setting out to explore the big city. Just around the corner from our hostel was our first stop called Castillo Hidalgo, a big old castle that was now a big tourist attraction. We climbed up hundreds of stairs to get to the top and got a great view of the very smoggy city. We could only faintly see the outline of the Andes mountains surrounding the city due to the amount of pollution. After the Castillo we walked down the pedestrian walk filled with shops, restaurants and merchants selling crafts. We stopped at a restaurant called Schopdog for some scrambled eggs, coffee and freshly squeezed raspberry juice (yum!). The food instantly made us tired, so we headed to the Plaza de Armas (an old political square) before we headed back to our rooms for a much needed 4 hour nap.

When we woke up we took showers and set out for round 2 of our exploration. We walked an hour down Providencia (the main street) to the Costera Mall. It was an interesting walk with a lot of wonderful cultural things to see along the way. We stopped for some food along the way and when we made it to the mall we were pleasantly surprised as it was the biggest mall we had ever seen! It was 6 floors full of stores, a whole floor designated to fast food and restaurants, and the top floor for the movie theatre. Although still under construction, we had heard that the mall, when finished, will be the second largest building in all South America.  We walked up to the top level to do one of our favorite things; Watch a movie! 

 

We watched Django with Spanish subtitles,  and although it was a new and modern movie theatre, the tickets cost only $3 each!. After, walked back to the hostel, and ended up getting a little lost at 1:30 a.m.  So we asked a local guy for directions, and he was kind enough to offer us a ride.  Tentatively, we got in his car, but he ended up being quite nice, and we arrived back at our hostel around 2:00.

Wednesday, February 6.

We woke up a bit late, and missed the hostel's breakfast period.  It was going to be another lazy day, as we were still a bit tired from our most recent long distance bus.  We went for a little walk to try to find breakfast/lunch, and stopped at the government palace along the way.  As we didn't find anything that was in our budget, we decided to hop on the subway and head back to the super mall.   We had a food court lunch, and walked around the mall a little bit, before spending the remainder of the afternoon at another one of our favourite places; Starbucks.  We made a happy birthday video for our friend and travel partner Cheff, and jumped on the subway to get back to the hostel.  We had another nap, and went downstairs for the hostel's complimentary pasta and wine dinner where we met some new friends and spent the rest of the evening hanging out in and around our hostel.

Thursday, February 7.

We managed to wake up for breakfast, which turned out to one of the better hostel breakfasts we had had to date, with eggs, toast, coffee, and cereal.  We spent the morning blogging, and repacking our backpacks, as we had a bus to catch later that day.  We jumped on the subway again, and arrived at the bus terminal with enough time to buy a ticket to our next destination; Vina del Mar.

Thankfully, this bus ride lasted only about 2 and a half hours, and we arrived mid afternoon.  We searched out a particular hostel, "Jaguar", that had been recommended to us by one of our hostelmates in Santiago.  We found it, and discovered that it was and "over the budget" bed and breakfast, but decided to splurge a little and book for two nights. 

After settling in, we walked around and saw the town, and then got some groceries to make some cheap meals for dinner, and for lunch the next day.  After dinner, we found out that some people at Jaguar were having a big backyard asado party, so we hung out and were treated to free meat samplings, electronic music, and good company.  We also spent an hour and 8 minutes "Skyping" our best pal Mitch, which was an interesting conversation, as he didn't have a microphone, but could still hear us.  Thus, he would write down his questions and answers, and was also dancing around to the electronic music. 

Stay tuned for more adventures, and thanks for reading!
With love from the Mar,
D'Alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uruguay to Patagonia, Adios Cheffina :(

Sunday, January 27


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We woke up just in time for another hostel breakfast consisting of... Cereal, bread, and bad coffee, but it was better than nothing, and free, so we couldn't complain.  Our goal was to get to Cabo Polonio by the end of the day, so our first mission was to make arrangements to get there.  We put on our beach gear, as we would be spending any spare time at "Playa Brava" before we had to get on the bus.  We walked to the bus station and inquired as to the best way to get to Cabo Polonio.  There was a direct bus at 5:00 pm, but that would mean that we didn't arrive there until close to 9:00 pm, and we didn't want to do that.  So what we decided was to take a local bus to a town called San Carlos, which was an hour away, and catch a 4:00 bus from there, which would bring us to our destination earlier. 



D'Alice at the big hand

We got to the beach around 1:00 pm, and it was definitely the best beach we had been to thus far in our travels.  It also had a very large statue of a half hand sticking out of the sand, which we found to be interesting, and spent awhile taking cheesy pictures with it.  It was a very hot and sunny day, and despite wearing pretty heavy sunscreen, Jeff and Adina both got pretty badly burned, in the hour and a half we spent there.

Super-Jeep

We walked back to our hostel, grabbed our stuff, and made it to the bus stop right on time to catch the local bus we needed to go to San Carlos for our transfer.  We arrived in San Carlos about an hour later, and were dropped right in the middle of what seemed to be a ghost town.  There was no one else around with the exception of the bus driver, and a few people who also worked for the bus company, as this was the end of the line for that bus route.  We asked where we could pick up the bus to Cabo Polonio, and after much hand talking, Alice managed to get one of the guys to draw us a little map of where to go. We weren't expecting to have a 12 block walk with our backpacks, and being that it was a very hot day, this walk would take it's toll.  We made it to the bus terminal, though, and had just enough time to down a huge schnitzel sandwich before boarding the bus to Cabo Polonio.

We made it to Cabo Polonio just after 7:00 pm, but it was still very hot and light outside. We got tickets for the final leg of our journey; a nauseating and bumpy drive over the sand dunes in huge 4x4s.  We finally made it into the town just before 8:00 pm, and walked right into the first hostel we saw and got a room.  The town itself was exactly as was described to us by Magic Mike a few days earlier; Very quaint, quiet, filled with hippie type travelers and with limited electricity, if any.  We threw down our bags and ran outside (after Dave locked the keys in the room and had to get the hostel keeper to let us in again) just in time to see the sun setting on one side of the peninsula, and moon rising on the other.  We also made friends with some local women named Anna and Georgina, one of whom spoke English, and neither of whom could pronounce Jeff's name.  Thus, for the rest of the trip (and maybe his life), he would be known as "Cheff".  We also managed to pick up a straggler named Carlos, who spoke no English at all, and just decided to join us out for dinner as we left the hostel.



We had fried fish balls and pizza over candlelight for dinner, and ended off the evening at a local shack/bar called Lobo for drinks.  There we were also treated to a candle-lit experience and we all enjoyed the rustic style very much.  There were local musicians who took turns playing fiddles, guitars, and drums for us, and after each was done would walk around the small bar with their hats open looking for compensation, which we provided happily. Cheff got lots of laughs as the girls tried to teach him to roll his r's, and he tried to make jokes (bromas) en espanol.  We got back to the hostel feeling happy with our decision to come to such an interesting place, and turned in for bed around 2:00 am.

Monday, January 28.

After sleeping for a whole hour, we were all woken up by a hoard of vicous mosquitos.  They were everywhere and ready for attack. Alice counted 25 of them on the ceiling alone and noticed that they looked "healthy", and had obviously been pretty good hunters.  We all tossed and turned for hours (the lower bunks where Cheff and Dave were sleeping were notably more vulnerable than the uppers where the girls were), but despite our best efforts were not able to get back to sleep.  Eventually we decided to open the window and try to shoo out as many as possible, but also to no avail.  We eventually did manage to get to sleep for an hour or so from 7:00-8:00, probably just because of the exhaustion.

We got out of mosquito hell just after 8:00, and took a walk over to the point of the peninsula, where we were told we could see sea lions (or sea wolves, as the Spanish translation would say).  We rounded the first corner, and saw that there were a ton of them on a rock island off in the distance.  We were disappointed though, as they were too far away to get a good look.  We kept walking in disappointment towards a lighthouse that we decided we'd like to climb, and as we turned the last corner towards the lighthouse, we saw about a hundred more sea lions that were no more than 100 m away!  Excited, we ran over to the closest view point, and watched the sea lions for about a half hour as they slid down the rocks into the water, swim and waddled their way back up the rocks, and what appeared to be play fight amongst one another.

Satisfied, we walked over to the lighthouse to climb up, but were informed that it wouldn't open until 3:00.  So we went and had a grocery store sandwich for lunch, and Dave and Alice went to the beach while Cheff and Adina wanted to go over to a local shack that had a Canadian flag, to investigate.  An hour or so later, Cheff and Adina met us at the beach, and reported that the owner was a half Canadian half Uruguayan named "The Condor" who spent half his time in Cabo Polonio, and the other half in Georgetown, Ontario.  After hanging out for a bit on the beach, we went back to the lighthouse.

It only took us 5 minutes or so to climb up the 140 steps of the lighthouse, and it took Dave about 2 seconds to be reminded of how terrified of heights he still was.  It was worth the view, though, as the lighthouse provided a 360 degree vista of Cabo Polonio and the surrounding area.  We walked back down after taking a few pictures, and Dave vowed never to do that again, but we shall see if that holds true.  We walked back to the hostel, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in the shade, as we waited for another huge 4x4 to take us back across the sand dunes.  This time, Dave and Cheff decided to take the upper level ride, which was no more comfortable, but provided better views.

We caught a 5 pm bus to Montevideo, the Capital city of Uruguay, and arrived there around 10:30 pm.  We had McDonalds at the bus station (yes, D'Alice's diet had officially gone way out the window at this point) and took a taxi to our hostel from there.  We got there close to midnight, and we were the only guests in what was a new and large hostel that was under renovation.  Once we were settled in "Cheff" surprised by pulling out a travel board game called "Catch Phrase", which we played until about 3:00 am then went to sleep.

Tuesday, January 29.

We had another late wake-up, and another hostel style breakfast with toast and jam, only this time the coffee was instant and a bit more bearable.  We decided to try to make it a cheap day, and made our own walking tour of the city.  It took a few hours to get from where our hostel was located, to the "old city", but was well worth it.  The old city consisted of lots of old architecture, and pedestrian only streets with many street merchants selling their crafts.  We stopped for a banana break, a hot dog break, and a few water breaks, as it was another very hot and sunny day.  On the (long) way back to the hostel, we stopped at a crafts store and bought colored string, as Alice wanted to make bracelets as a project for the many bus hours that were to come. 

When we got back to the hostel, it was close to 6:00 pm, and we had nap/internet time for a few hours before going out to dinner.  As it was going to be the last dinner that the four of us had together, we decided to go out for a nice steak/asado treat, and this time D'Alice picked up the tab, as an early birthday/thank you gift for both Cheff and Adina.

We got back to the hostel well after midnight, but decided to play Kings (a popular drinking game with cards) as we had a half bottle of vodka to finish.  We managed to get pretty Borracho (drunk) and piss off the new German couple who were now the only other guests in the hostel.  We set our alarm for 6:00 am, as we had an early ferry to catch back to Buenos Aires, and went to sleep around 2:30.

Wednesday, January 30.

We woke up after pressing snooze twice, quickly packed, and got a taxi to the bus station to catch our 7:00 am bus that was to take us back to the ferry port in Colonia.  We grabbed a few snacks at the ferry port, and managed to get back to Buenos Aires around 11:30 am (local time, as we had to turn our watches back 1 hour).  We asked at the ferry port where a good mall was, as we thought that would be a nice way to spend the afternoon and grab a bite to eat.  We were directed to a place called "Buenos Aires Design", and caught a cab. 

When we got to "Buenos Aires Design", we discovered that it was not actually a mall, but a collection of furniture stores.  We chalked that one up the language barrier.  A little frustrated and hungry, we walked around the furniture mall looking for a place to eat, or as Cheff tried to explain in Spanish "Where eat Cameras?".  We walked past a few expensive looking places, and decided not to go in, and just as we were about to take a taxi to a different part of town, saw a Starbucks!  As we love Starbucks coffee, and had not had any thus far on our adventure, we decided that would be a great place to spend the afternoon (they also had a great outdoor patio).  So we drank coffee, found street burgers, and chilled there for the duration of the afternoon.  We also found out that we were very close to a popular Mausoleum (where "Evita" was buried) which was a top 5 tourist destination on the Buenos Aires list, so Cheff, Adina, and Dave walked over to check it out while Alice stayed with the bags and had internet/relaxation time.

We left the Starbucks around 3:00 pm, as Cheff and Adina had a plane to catch, and D'Alice had to get to the bus station to get to their next destination.  We said goodbye with hugs outside the cab at the bus station, and thanked them for sharing such an amazing week with us.  After the cab left, we cursed them a bit for completely ruining our diet, but it was well worth it. 

We compared prices and times for our next bus trip; to Bariloche in Patagonia.  It turned out that all the busses cost around 800 pesos per person (about $160) and were 21 hour trips.  We chose one that left at 8:00 pm that night, and spent 4 hours hanging out in bus station reading, bracelet stringing, and making mini crossword puzzles for each other while mentally preparing for another long bus trip.

The bus left right on time, and we were treated to an airplane style dinner, before popping Gravols and passing out around 11:00 pm.

Thursday, January 31.

We slept pretty well through the night on the bus and woke up in time for a small jam and cracker breakfast provided by the bus company. We spent the rest of the morning working on our bracelets, reading and falling in and out of sleep. After our stop for lunch we were pretty awake and excited that we were nearing our destination. The last 2 and a half hours of the long trip we enjoyed the breathtaking scenery of the Andes mountains and the Nahuel Lake. By the time we arrived in Bariloche it was 8pm, much later than we anticipated. We didn't have a place to stay yet, but were directed 300 meters down the main street by another traveler to a place called Tango Inn.

Just as we started our walk 2 stray dogs that whom we had named "scruffy" and "limpy" started following us, and they were very sweet and made sure we got to the Tango safe and sound. As we were checking in, a guy saw our Canadian patches on our bags as he was walking down the stairs and yelled out "Canadians!!!". Dave turned around and said "where?" and we all started laughing as he obviously was referring to us. He introduced himself as Greg from Vancouver, and asked us if we had eaten dinner yet. We hadn't and we were starving, so we dropped off our stuff and let him lead us into the touristy city centre for some food.

When we were walking out of the hostel, Scruffy and Limpy were right there waiting for us, and the accompanied us for our entire walk into town. It was a long walk, but we there was so much to see as the town was full of people, stores, restaurants, bars. It reminded us of a ski town and that it very well would be come winter time, as it was the #1 ski destination for South America. By the time dinner was over and we made it back to Tango it was late, so we spent about an hour hanging out in the backyard where we met two Argentinian girls named Rosario and Julietta. We laughed over our Spanglish and their broken English and then went to bed.

Friday, February 01.

We woke up at about 9am and made it downstairs in time for a dolce de leche crepe breakfast which we thoroughly enjoyed. Greg was also downstairs and filled us in on his travels, trials,  and tribulations in Brazil, and how he had gotten his wallet, cards and all stolen on the beach. To make a long story short, the bank was supposed to send him temporary cards while still in Brazil and failed on two attempts, and only got him a temp card 3 weeks later. Greg was having a really hard time taking money out without this card so we offered to help him out. He sent us an online email money transfer and in turn we said we would take out some money for him.



We set out for the town again, and stopped for lunch at a local restaurant that was offering "Pizza Libre" (all you can eat pizza) for 25 pesos ($5) a head. This was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. After we filled our bellies, we took the scenic route by the Nahuel Lake into town in search of a bank. We stopped to take some pictures on the way.  4 banks and 1 hour later we were still moneyless. The banks in Argentina were not working in our favor. Not only were they all closed between the hours of 1-5pm for siesta, but they were also not recognizing our Canadian cards. Eventually we found a bank that allowed us to withdraw a minimal amount, though it wouldn't be enough for us to share, let alone pay Greg back in full, but it would hold us over for the rest of the day. When we got back to the hostel, took long naps, and didn't wake up until almost 10pm. We set out to the grocery store to grab food for a home made pasta dinner with a guacamole appetizer and had a nice little dinner party with beer and wine.

After dinner we met up with our Argentinian friends Rosario and Julietta, and shared cabs into town to Tango's sister bar for some free drinks. The bar had a DJ set up in the corner playing Electronic music even though it supposed to be disco night and their flyer had advertised that they would be playing 80's and 90's music. So, after our drinks were done we headed down to the street to an Irish Pub for a change of scenery. After a few drinks and a few hours we said goodbye to our friends, walked all the way back to Tango in the wee hours of the morning. At first, we were a little nervous, being that it was 4:30 am and the streets were pretty empty.  However, we ended up being accompanied by a pack of 6 largish stray dogs that made sure we got back safely.

 As always, thanks for keeping up with us, and stay tuned for more exciting adventures!
With love from Patagonia,
D'Alice (and Scruffy and Limpy)

 

Hola Amigos! Cheffina in Argentina!

Monday, January 21

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We arrived at the Cartagena bus station around 7:00 PM, after sharing a cab ride with some new friends from Germany.  One of them, Raphael, told us to look him up when we got there and he would show us around, and maybe even let us stay with him.  We waited for our 8:00 bus to Bogota, and practiced our Spanish by telling different merchants that we didn't want any sandles or sunglasses.



 

Our bus left right on time, and it wasn't even 10 minutes before we were stopped by the Colombian police for a search.  We all passed.  There isn't much to say really, about a 21 hour bus ride, beyond the facts that; It was freezing cold (the A/C was cranked up to the maximum), it was kinda boring (reading was making us both nauseas), movies are less interesting when they’re being shown in a language you don't understand, and Gravol actually helps you sleep for quite a long time.

 

Tuesday, January 22

 

We stopped at 5:30 am for gas, and got out to stretch our legs. We made one more stop at 11:30, where we had a bus stop sandwich and fruit for lunch.  The movies today were the dubbed versions of Final Destination 4, a Dolphin’s Tale, and one random one called Lottoman.

 

We arrived literally right on time, as we were told it would be a 21 hour bus, and we timed it.  Bogota wasn’t a particularily nice city to drive through, and it was a little chillier than what we had become used to, being that it is in the mountains.  We got off the bus and flagged down a taxi, and asked how much it would be to get to the airport.  He told us that it would be 12,000 Colombian Pesos (about $6), but as we had learned never to accept the first priced offered, we tried bargaining down to 10,000.  He wasn’t budging, however, and he did seem pretty nice, so we hopped in.  It turned out that his name was Lois, and his English was excellent.  He said he had made some friends in Canada after spending time with habitat for humanity, and he invited us over for an assado dinner (barbeque).  We politely declined, but told him if we were ever back in Bogota, we would look him up.

 

 

When we arrived at the airport Alice swore all that she kept getting wafts of something that smelled like garbage and kept on smelling herself and everything around her. David couldn't smell a thing and we weren't sure if she was going crazy or not. Either way, we were surprised to see how new and modern the airport was.  Some parts were still under construction, which would unfortunately play into the amount of sleep we were to get later on.  We sat down at "Kokoriko's", one of the airport restaurants ready to order dinner, and there Alice was again, smelling herself and everything insight. Sure enough we finally realized that she wasn't imagining things at all, the entire front of her bag was soaking wet and we realized it must have been sitting in garbage juice on the entire bus ride from Cartagena. She was completely grossed out and ran straight to the bathroom to wash off the bag and whatever else was effected. When she returned, we shared a 1/2 chicken and roasted potatoes (3 very small roasted potatoes) for dinner, and had a random midnight snack of cheese, deli meat, and fruit on a skewer.  We settled into our accommodations; the airport benches.  The two of us slept for a combined 8 hours, 6 of which went to Alice.

 

Wednesday, January 23

 

We had breakfast at 6:00 am at a nice (but expensive) café called “crepes and waffles”.  Alice had scrambled eggs with something that resembled a hybrid of beans and corn, and Dave had “huevos rancheros”.  We checked into our flight 3 hours early (out of the sheer boredom of sitting in the airport for 15 hours already), and did some duty free shopping, and had a wrap and fruit cup for lunch.  Our flight, which was supposed to leave at 12:00, didn't board until 12:30.  Once we got on the plane, we sat there for an additional hour, as there was some conspicuous looking baggage that the police were inverstigating.  Obviously our initial reaction was that someone had planted drugs in OUR bags, and we would end up in a Colombian prison, but we were soon reassured that all was clear for takeoff.

 

We met a few Aussie backpackers and got to chatting.  We asked them if they had paid the “reciprocity tax” that Canadians, Aussies, and U.S. citizens had to pay before entering Argentina, and they said they hadn't.  It said specifically on the internet that this tax must be paid and a receipt printed before entering the country, or else entry would be denied.  They didn't seem to be too worried, though.

 

We arrived in Buenos Aires around 10:00 pm, and saw the Aussies discussing the tax with the customs agent, and then being escorted away to another room.  We never saw them again, so we can only hope that this other room was a place for them to pay the tax, and not an exit out of the country.  We had to change some American money in Argentian pesos, so we went into the airport “farmacia” and found the Dettol soap that Dr. K had recommended to us in an earlier blog.  We took our pesos, soap, and bags, and headed to the bus stop.
 

 

We had read on the internet that the bus we needed was the “Ocho” (8), and that it would take about 2 hours to get to our Hostel and friends Jeff and Adina.  What the internet didn't tell us was that we needed exact change to get on the bus.  So we missed the first bus.  Alice waited with the bags while Dave ran back to the airport to make change.  Unfotunately, the 1 peso and 2 peso coins that were required were pretty rare, as no one (the farmacia, mcdonalds, the taxi stand, and 2 convenience stores) would give any away.  Frustrated, Dave ran back to the bus station to find out that they had missed another bus!  We decided that we would just beg the next bus driver to let us pay with the bills we had.  When we tried this 20 minutes later, the bus driver was not having it.  Fortunately, though, we found a friendly lady who happened to have enough change to help us out. 

 

The internet was correct, as it took us 2 hours to get to the hostel, but at least we got to see some of the city via bus.  We arrived just before 1:00 am, and went to our room where we were greeted by Jeff, Adina, and a few presents from home.

 

After a much needed shower ( and an actual hot one, for once), we were going to go out and have a bite to eat, but the guy at the front desk of the hostel told us it wasn't the nicest area to be walking around in the middle of the night.  So we decided to eat what little provisions we had left; broken crackers, peanut butter, and almonds, and went to sleep

 

Thursday, January 24

 

We had cereal, bread, and some nasty coffee for breakfast, all of which provided complimentarily by the hostel.  We had seen on the hostel bulletin board that there was a “historic walking tour” of the city at 11:00, and decided that would be a nice way to spend the first part of the day.  It was a sunny day, and a balmy 40 degrees!  We learned a bit of the history of Buenos Aires, mainly the neighbourhoods of San Telmo and Boca, and drank a lot of water.  After the walking tour, we had lunch with Jeff, Adina, and two guys; Chris from the U.S. and Tony from Australia, that we had met on the walking tour.  We had chicken, ravioli, and empanadas at a local café, and learned quickly that Argentina was not going to be as cheap as the other countries that we had visited so far.

 

After lunch, we walked back to the hostel, and after taking a quick break, decided to continue the walking tour on our own, and went to see more sights and monuments around the city.  By the time we had gotten back to the hostel it was close to 7:00pm and we were ready for another hot shower and quick cat nap.

 

For dinner, on Chris’ recommendation, we went to a restaurant called “El Federale” that specialized in “Piscada”.  We were served large platters of cheese, deli meats, sausage, bread and crackers, and it was all quite delicious.  The price here was pretty reasonable, as the four of us stuffed our faces and drank 2 bottles of (cheap) wine for a grand total of $50.  We ended up getting back to the hostel around 1:00 am and went to sleep soon after that.

 

Friday, January 25

 

We had the same complimentary breakfast as had been served to us the day before, and the coffee was no better.  As we all had a bit of a food and wine hangover, it was a bit of a slow morning.  We also had to change hostels, as the one we were staying at was booked up for that night, and we hadn't had anything else booked. Thankfully, there was another nice one just around the corner, and they had space.  So we moved our bags over to our new accommodations, and went over to speak to a travel agent, “Magic Mike”, who Jeff had rather resourcefully become friends with the day before.

 

We told Magic Mike that we had no money to offer him for prearranged tours, but wanted some inspiration on what to do next on our travels.  Naturally, he seemed not to like us much after that, but was still pretty helpful.  He suggested, after discussing many options, that we go to Uruguay and see a place called “Cabo Polonia”, in Uruguay.  We decided that was the thing to do, and thanked him for his time.

 

We wanted to go see a neighbourhood called “El Tigre” that afternoon, which required taking a train from the “Retiro” station.  After stopping for a quick lunch on Chile blvd, we hopped on a bus to the train station, but not before having to once again make exact change for the bus.  Thankfully, Jeff is a little more resourceful than Dave or Alice when it comes to these things, and made quick work of the mission.  When we got to Retiro station, we met a nice local guy named Thomas, who told us he’d show us the way to the Le Tigre train.

 

When we got to the turnstyle to enter the train station, we asked Thomas “how much does the train cost?”, and he said “This much....” and walked right through the turnstyle, without paying, right in front of a police officer.  So naturally, we followed suit, and he informed us that no one really pays for the train in Buenos Aires.  Interesting. 

 

The train took just over an hour, and we got to see a bit of the city on the way.  We arrived to a lovely riverside community just outside the city that reminded us of something you’d see in Venice.  We walked around, and visited a local casino, where we got a crash course in the game of craps thanks to Jeff.  On the way back, we couldn't help but stop by McDonalds, for a snack of a triple bacon cheeseburger, and junior McChicken sandwich.

 

 

We didn't get back until late again, which meant another 10:00 dinner.  This time, we went to an Asado restaurant, where we had different cuts of steak, sausages, and French fries.  For those who have been following our diet progress, please note that this was obviously turning out to be a bad week.  We asked for the bill, and the waiter, Javier (who had greeted us with hugs and kisses initially) told us that a “friend” had taken care of it.  It turned out that the friend was none other than Jeff himself, who said that it would be an early birthday present for us.  We turned on a Netflix movie, and this time made it about a quarter of the way through the movie before falling asleep.

 

Saturday, January 26.

 

We woke up a little later than usual, as things seem to go pretty late in Argentina, and for breakfast we had the now very common cereal, bread, and bad coffee.  At one point during breakfast, Jeff asked, "What time is it?".  This was a natural question to ask, being that we had a ferry to Uruguay for that morning, and had to be at the ferry port for 10:50.  Dave looked at his watch and replied "9:30", and all were satisfied with the amount of time needed to make it to the ferry.  We continued being lazy for a while, and were finishing our breakfast, when we decided to randomly ask someone else what time it was, to which the reply was "10:45".  We thought of how the last hour and 15 minutes could have possibly passed by so quickly, but soon after realized that it was in fact Dave's watch that hadn't been set to the correct time.  The next 20 minutes were pretty intense as we packed, called a taxi, printed our ferry tickets, and in the case of Dave, apologized profusely. 

The taxi arrived at 11:10 (real time), and we tried to inform him the best we could that we were incredibly late for our check in.  He must have understood, because he started driving away while Alice had one leg in the car and the door still open.  He yelled something in Spanish that none of us understood, and were all very stressed for the next 25 min.  Thankfully, we arrived at the ferry station just as our ferry was boarding, and all was well.  The ferry was pretty quick, lasting just over an hour, and we arrived in Uruguay just after 1:00. 

We arrived to a beautiful sunny day, and as we left the ferry port, glimmering in the parking lot we saw two shiny dune buggies!  We inquired inside the port as to how much they would be to rent, and we were told they would only be $12/hour.  This was an opportunity we would not pass up, as we had some time to kill before our bus left to Montevideo.  We were starving, however, so we decided to eat before renting the buggies.  We walked over to an outdoor café and ate the most ridiculous sandwiches we'd ever had.  They were called "Parrillas", and consisted of sausage, fried egg, mushrooms, cheese, French fries, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, hot peppers, spicy mayo, mayo, ketchup, olives, and mustard, in no particular order.  The picture doesn't do the sandwiches justice.



After stuffing ourselves, we went back to rent the dune buggies, and spent the next 56 minutes racing around the streets of Colonia, driving along the coast, and almost getting run over by busses. We got back just on time to catch our bus to Montevideo, which took 3 hours, and immediately got onto another bus to Punta del Este.  We arrived in Punta del Este (Which can best be described as Miami meets South America) at around 11:00, and walked around the streets looking for a hostel.  We didn't find one until after midnight, and ended up having to pay the ridiculous sum of $30 per person for dorm beds.  We weren't in the mood to argue, though, as we had had a very long, but fun, day.  We grabbed take out pizza from "El Horno's", and spent the rest of the night relaxing on hammocks.

Thanks again to everyone for keeping up with us,
With love from Miami, Uruguay (Punta del Este),
D'Alice