Lions and Tigers and Bears...

(Started writing this in Mendoza, Argentina finished and typed up in New Zealand.)

Patagonia has definitely spoilt us for wildlife and spectacular landscapes so New Zealand has a hard act to follow (it's doing pretty well so far!).

Whale watching was amazing and it was brilliant at Punta Tomba where we were surrounded by thousands of penguins without a chocolate bar in sight.

All of that seems ages ago now as we have since been to 'The End of the World' (Ushuaia at the tip of South America) and back through Argentina and criss-crossed into Chile.

The climate as well as the landscape has been pretty varied and I am pleased to say that I am currently 'de-layered' and am wearing shorts, a vest top and flip-flops whilst sitting in the sunshine. It's a good job I brought so many clothes with me as layering up is the best way to keep warm; especially when you have few - if any winter clothes with you!

If there was a toy doll called 'Nicole Doll' then over the past few weeks you would definitely would have been able to buy 'Outdoors Nicole' (rather than the usual 'Party Nicole') only she would not come as well equipped as 'Outdoors Barbie' who comes with walking boots!

We can now lay claim to seeing the 7th most beautiful view in the world as we went to the top of 'Cerro Campanario' in Bariloche.



Bariloche is in Argentina's lake district and has stunning scenery of lush forests, mountains and lakes obviously.



From Bariloche we caught another bus and this time we crossed over into Chile for more than just a few hours. Our first stop was Pucon, where we hung around for days and days waiting for the weather to be good enough to climb the volcano 'Volcan Villarica'. To fill this time we hung around (literally in a hammock chair) the wooden house we were staying in, complete with wooden stove fires for heating and hostel dog Negra.

The start of our time in Chile was indeed chilly and therefore the natural hot springs 'Termas Los Pozones' were very welcome indeed! And barginous at 3 quid 50 each when we had them more or less all to ourselves.



Ohhhh it was just like stepping into a hot bath....well a massive hot bath outside with rocks rounds the edge and sand underfoot and a river running by....

We eventually did our long awaited volcano climb, yes although I had been undecided I did it too but definitely won't be doing one again, even if I do look really cool in all my climbing gear.



We had all the proper gear provided, crampons, the full works! The climb was all on snow and it was tough I tell ya! Actually I think it could be described as 'character building'. After all that hard work we didn't make it even high enough to see the summit but I didn't care cos it was time for the best bit...sliding down on the snow on your bum! Or as we call it 'Bum Skiing'



I hear there was snow in the UK in October, if you get some more I can really see this new sport taking off, I plan to launch it on the big hill in Mill Hill park, no need for the orange sledge now.

After the volcano climb ordeal I can firmly say that I am far more suited to sipping cocktails in the sunshine as we did in the port city of Valapariso up on the hillside at Hotel Brighton.



It was 2-4-1 Happy Hour so it was definitely in the budget.



And it fell under part of the cultural experience as we drank Pisco Sours which are made with the Chilean spirit Pisco, lemon and icing sugar. A very nice sherbet if you ask me!

Further alcohol consumption was required (it's a hard life) when we went back through the Andes to the Argentine wine region of Mendoza. Once we had gathered enough change for the bus, which is a complete challenge as no one wants to give you change in Argentina and you can't get on the bus without it as there is a machine which only takes coins! We visited a winery and had an interesting and informative tour (and more importantly free) with a glass of vinto tino to taste at the end. Very nice but unfortunately not in the budget for us to buy.

A trip to Mendoza zoo for 1 pound 80 was cheap as chips. Though quite upsetting and sometime scary as well quite good all at the same time. I am complete contradicting myself but before I go on to tell you a bit about the zoo I must say they have a huge variety of animals (lions, tigers, bears, seals, horses, goats, armadillos,monkeys, birds) which I suppose is good for the public there as they wouldn't get to see them otherwise. Also I got to see my 1st polar bear which was cool.



I won't go into too much detail but a lot of the animals' enclosures were too small for them, especially the tigers, who were beautiful but sadly paced their cages.

The zoo is based on a hill so you walk up it and it snakes back round with all the enclosures. The baboon enclosure was on the hillside and packed with baboons of all sizes and they made such a noise! Some of them were having fights and chasing after each other and basically there were too many of them in there. This little one had escaped (!!) and went to pick up an empty coke bottle but dropped it and then couldn't work out to get back in. And then the Argentine people were feeding the baboons through the fence! Needless to say there weren't many people working there, I didn't see any zoo keeps as sorts, apart from 3 blokes walking around in uniforms who seemed more like maintenance men really. It was sad and weird, I said that I would write to the WWF about it but I'm yet to do that. I'll put it down as an experience...

Our last stop in South America was Santiago where we stayed at a cool hostel called 'La Casa Roja' and had a good BBQ and Halloween party. This Irish dude looked just like The Joker,scary stuff, he had the hair for it.

Went up a few big hills and got some great views of the city.



Its huge! Its pretty impressive how the city is surrounded by mountains. But Santiago is not my favourite capital city in the world.

Now in New Zealand with more things to write about but not enough time for that now. It's good though and was refreshing when we arrived to be able to read everything as it's not all in Spanish. Met up with Dave in Auckland on our first night, hardly recognised him, which was fun. Have hired a car and are on the road.

Gotta go, come on you Gunners!

Nic x

Mount Fitz Roy

Argentina. We´ve been here three and a half weeks and I haven't written a word about it yet.

Puerto Iguazú is the place to stay when visiting the Argentinian side of the falls, and very little else, although you can see both Paraguay and Brazil from the hill overlooking the town, where the Rio Iguazu meets the Rio Parana. And this was as close as we got to Paraguay (it's on the left, Brazil's on the right):




Our week in Buenos Aires was spent just walking around the different neighbourhoods. In brief, as Nicole's already written about them, they are: Microcentro (the commercial district); San Telmo (arty and bohemian); Palermo (lots of parks and open space); Puerto Madero (previously derelict, now being redeveloped - think Docklands...or Glasgow´s GEAR project as Mr Bee would say); La Boca (very colourful, but pretty scummy away from the main streets) and Recoleta (most famous for its cemetary). Anyone who´s anyone in Argentine history and politics is buried here. And as well as that, they also have a road named after them in every single Argentinian town, which means the road names are identical, in every single Argentian town. Sarmiento, Roca, San Martin, Yrigoyen...they´re the British version of Station or London Road - you find them in every town.

And seeing as we've had no picture of it yet, this is La Boca:



We took a day trip up the coast from there to Tigre, which caters for Buenos Aires´yacht owners and yacht oglers (though very few yacht rockers). To get there we took what I think was our first train of this trip (yes I´ve kept a list of all the different types of transport and yes I am that sad) and throughout the whole journey (and back) various people would walk up and down each carriage selling pretty much anything - in no particular order: scissors, plastic yellow tablecloths, socks, chewing gum, sheets of stickers, flashing lighters, hairbands and phonecards were all on display Del Boy style. Furthermore, for every single item there was at least one buyer in our carriage alone, which goes to prove that you can pretty much sell anything to people, regardless of whether they need it or not.



Be careful what you eat, and try not to drink the tap water. Two guidelines that most Brits would try to follow when travelling abroad. The tap water is apparently drinkable in Argentina, but we´ve still been drinking plenty of it bottled. Our lunch most days has been bread rolls filled with either packets of meat or chees. Usually you´d expect those two foods to come in seperate packets, for obvious reasons, but not so on one occasion:



The meat-in-cheese was bettered only by what we found in one of our ever-so-safe bottles of water - some sort of insect curled up dead at the bottom:



Suffice to say, I ate all the cheese, but we decided to leave the rest of water.

Argentina is divided up into numerous provinces. These provinces each have teir own police forces which like to stop vehicles at various checkpoints within their province. In the north our coach was stopped and searched for any trace of drugs coming over the border from Brazil or Paraguay. In the south, I think they just do it to fill their day. On one journey, in the space of 24 hours, our coach was stopped at four times, three of which were by the same provincial police force. Fair enough if it was going to be a quick five minute stop like they managed up north, but when it takes half an hour each time to write down the details of all passengers on board, it starts to get a bit tedious.



We spent a few days in El Calafate to see firstly the Perito Moreno Glacier and secondly the fantastically named Mount Fitz Roy. The glacier is huge, and for those of you who were't listening in Mr McKay's geography lessons, it's one of the only advancing glaciers in the world, meaning that huge chunks of ice fall from the front as you're standing there watching.



Mount Fitz Roy (or Cerro Chaltén) meanwhile is the highest peak in this section of the Andes, so we spent a day climbing it (or at least just hiking nearby). This is as near as we got:



And now for the Attenborough bit (David not Richard). We've seen so much wildlife here we could probably have made our own episode of Planet Earth. Penguins, whales, seals, sea lions, porpoises, guanacos, coatis, monkeys, rheas, cormorants, vultures, woodpeckers, too many gulls, loads of butterflies, a thousand horses, a million cows, a billion sheep...and an armadillo. About two thirds of the way down the country, on the Atlantic Coast, is a national park called Peninsula Valdes and this is where we saw the vast majority of what's listed above. It was our first missed bus of the trip that originally meant we couldn't actually get to the peninsular, but this turned out to be a blessing as it mant we had to hire a car (it was a Chevy '99, how bizarre). That way we could get to see as much of it as we liked.

The Southern Right Whale comes down to the warm waters of the bays either side of the peninsula to breed and give birth. They weren't in a particularly playful mood, so unfortunately I wasn't able to get that iconic Patagonian postcard shot of their tail fin before they go back under, but they swam close enough to the boat (and the coast) nonetheless. Excuse the uneven horizon, the boat was moving somewhat.




As for the penguins, we've now visited three colonies while we've been here, so I'm all penguined out. The biggest of colony is in Punta Tombo, it's the largest nesting ground of Magellanic Penguins on the continent. There were penguins...everywhere, I kid you not. As far as my little eyes could see, half a million of them. And only one of them tried to attack me.




The only breeding colony of Southern Elephant Seals in South America is on the peninsula...



...while Punta Loma is home to a sea lion rookery.



The porpoises meanwhile (Nicole assures me that's what they were) we spotted all the way down south, when we were crossing the Magellan Strait to Tierra Del Fuego.



For those couple of hours we were in Chile, before we passed back into Argentina again on our route to Ushuaia and the end of the worls, which is where I'm writing this from. It's nowhere near as cold as I expected it to be, even up on the mountains in the snow, but then again, it's nowhere near anything really.



Foz do Iguaçu to Ushuaia via Puerto Iguazú, Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, Puerto Pirámides, Punta Tombo, Rio Gallegos, El Calafate and El Chaltén - 3962 miles

Beefed Up

This was written a week ago so sorry that its a little out of date!

28/09/2008

Buenos Aires is a buzzing, lively city apart from on a wet Sunday afternoon like today. Similarly to Puerto Iguazu most places are shut on a Sunday, that includes lots of bars and restaurants which proves havock when you are wandering around in the pouring rain trying to find somewhere to have a beer in.

After 20 minutes or more of walking we´ve finally found our place but the Boca Juniors have not been playing as well as they were on Tuesday when we went to see them play. (The score currently stands at 3-1 as I write with 15 mins to go - the mood in this cafe bar has changed somehwat since Boca Juniors went 1-0 up!)



Our visit to La Bombonera stadium home of Maradona´s club Boca Juniors cost just 3 quid 60 and we were rewarded with 4 home goals, 2 at our end and a great atmosphere. As well as being able to say I have watched lads hurdle barbed wire fencing on a mission to put up their giant team banners at a football match, I was also a proud spectator of a woman changing her child´s nappy in the stands. If you see this happening to Jack Wilshere at the Emirates do let me know.

If you ever come to Buenos Aires, here´s a tip when crossing the roads: the green man (well white man in this case) does not mean it is safe to cross, it means cross the road as if you were crossing somewhere other than a predestrian crossing because the cars are just gonna keep on coming!! This is more for when they come round a corner than when they are straight on but beware. Although crossing the road is a couple hassle here and more often a pain in the arse there is a complete sense of achievement when you make it across a whole 11 lane road without stopping.

Talking of achievement, no I didn´t eat a hamburger without throwing up - have stayed well clear of them - Fitz and I do now have offical recognision of one of our achievements in Buenos Aires.

Oh yes we have learn to Tango in the city where it was born and have certifcates to prove it.

Although the funny thing is we weren´t expecting the tango lesson! We arrived at the venue of our tango show and thought for our 30 quid we got the show, transfers, dinner and drinks. We were lead into a room whch I thought was going to be a bar area (wishful thinking) but no, it was a dance studio! We were the first to arrive and told not too look so scared! Ha ha. It was actually really enjoyable and we look forward to appearing on next year´s series of Strictly Come Dancing ( can´t believe I am missing that show I love it!)

Photo - tango show

Armed with a list of things to see and do in Buenos Aires, we have been kept rather busy but in a relaxed kinda way. Everyday has involved quite a lot of walking / strolling which tires your legs out - well mine are pretty tired.

Highlights have in included partcipating in the Buenos Aires cafe culture by sitting in a square in San Telmo having drinks and chilling reading the paper. San Telmo with its cobbled streets is a bohemian part of the city, full of second hand and antique shops. When we sat in the square it was a warm sunny day, there were lots of cafes and tables and charis with people sat round the edge selling their wares, there were plenty of pigeons and people dancing the tango, as I write this is makes me think this was quite picturesque!



San Telmo differs completely to Recoleta, the more upmarket part of Buenos Aires and is where you will find "Cementerio de la Recoleta" which is a must see. This cementry is where the Argentine elite rest, families pay fortunes to have extravgent tombs here which are pretty impressive.




Evita rests where which is still to some wealthy Argentines digust as she did not come from a rich family. But give the gril a break, her embalmed boday has been to South America, Milan, Madrid and back before resting in Recoleta, worthy of a Kit Kat if you ask me.



Talking of Cats there are loads of them in the cemetary




Although we have seen loads of stray dogs in Argentina, it is clear we are amongst a nation dog-lovers - so watch where you step!! Especially in the trendy Palmero area which as well as having a good choice of shops, there are lots of parks and gardens to escape from the traffic in.

Food wise we certainly have not been going hungry! True to form the Argentines have served us up giant slabs of steak to get our teeth into. Their portions here are massive, I´m sure I have put on about a stone! We went to a recommended restaurant for dinner the other night with Chris and Delphine (who Fitz knows from home and were on holiday in Argentina, nice to see some friendly faces!), where we had the most suculent steak ever with chips for about 7 pounds, what a bargin.



If you´re a veggie there are options for you but I think it would be a missed oportunity as there is just meat meat meat here and its soooo good.



Before we left Buenos Aires we visted the area of Boca with its colourful buildings and we tried Mate which is Argentina's equvilent to Britain´s nice cup of tea (oh how I would love a cup of tea right now!)



We´re now in Puerto Madyrn in Patagonia about to leave here to go further south but I think I need to leave what we´ve been up to here for my next installement! Its very exciting but you´ll have to waiting.

Putting this up now with no photos because of time restraints etc. but the should follow shortly!

Nicole

Driving iss crazy

Computers aren't as quick, nor internet access so freely available, hence why it's been over a week since this was last updated.

"In Brazil it is easier to fly than to drive...I fly better than I drive". So said Alex, one of our hang gliding pilots, as he drove us up to Pedra Bonita which overlooks Rio. And he was right. Some of the driving here is crazy. The other morning we drove past people helping a driver out of their overturned car. Flying - or hang gliding rather - certainly seems safer...once you get past the whole idea that you're running off the edge of a hill and hoping that you're going to float.




We left Rio and caught a coach (with more legroom than you'd find in the backseat of a Bentley) to a small port down the coast called Angra dos Reis. From there, after a seagull had left it's mark on Div, we took a ferry (more of a yacht really) to an almost secluded island called Ilha Grande. The weather was kind to us for the two days we were there (around 34 degrees) so we did very little other than walk fropm deserted beach to deserted beach, sunbathing in between.



Last Saturday we took a ferry (and it was more of a ferry this time) back to Angra. After the most unsatisfying burger ever, with Nicole and I heading on to Paraty, Div and Greg left us to go back to Rio, as they were flying home (those trains won't drive themselves). With them went our only hopes of capturing any brilliant images of the landscape and scenery (Div) or of being able to take anymore reflection-in-the-aviator-shades photos (Greg), so apologies for the dip in quality from here on in. Less than an hour after they'd left, and just after the comedy sketch that was Nicole attempting to get through the turnstile barrier on the bus with her rucksack on, I was fortunate (if you can call it that) to see that burger again, as she also threw up on the bus. I'm not sure who was most surprised - Nicole, or the little lady lucky enough to be sitting in the seat next to her. But we got to Paraty eventually, and it was well worth the journey (though maybe not for the little lady). It's an old colonial town, with sections of all the buildings painted in different colours and cobblerd streets that flood when the tide comes in.



Simon, the owner of the pousada we were staying at, was English, and looked kind of like Ben Kingsley's character in Sexy Beast. In fact though, he was about as far removed from that persona as you can get, and seemed to really enjoy having English speaking guests staying there, as they usually hosted Brazilians. It gave him a chance to chat to us in his native tongue about all kinds of stuff, such as all Brazilians acting like big kids (they love to just randomly shout at each other), times when he had or hadn't got mugged (once at gunpoint, another when a group kids found no money on him, and in return had to buy him a beer), and what he missed or didn't miss about Britain (jazz music / rap music).

It's currently election time in Brazil, so the TV is full of party political broadcasts, and the streets are full of processions of cars and motorbikes, with waving flags and beeping horns. If a party tried tactics like that back home, the opposition would have a carbon footprint field day.


We chose what was probably the wettest day up until then to take a schooner boat trip around the bay. When the rain stopped and they dropped the anchor, the islands and water were beautiful, but as soon as we were on the move again and the heavens opened, it suddenly got very damp and cold. The fact that Paraty receives just one and a half tv channels, neither of which have a weather report, didn't particularly help.




Our coach to São Paulo was evenb better than the last. In-coach radio, encompassing MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) and smooth 80's UK pop, plus Weekend at Bernie's on in-coach DVD, which surprisingly I'd never seen. Although for some reason they decided to dub it into Portugese, and then add English subtitles. I didn't really understand that one. São Paulo itself was very big, busy, and a bit of a hole (at least in the bits we went through), so we only stayed there a night.


For our final leg across Brazil we took another coach (I see a pattern emerging) for 15 hours to Foz do Iguaçu and the Argentinian border. On our last coach the average age of passengers was about 25. On this one it was about twice that, and they were twice as rowdy. Simon was right, they are just big kids.


Rio de Janeiro to Foz do Iguaçu via Angra dos Reis, Paraty and São Paulo - 1089 miles

Don't cry for me, there's enough water in Argentina as it is

Hey, so its been well over a week since I wrote on this blog thingy, sorry for the delay - I know how much you are looking forward to the next installment! Also apologies if what I and Fitz write about overlaps, but I guess that way you get the female and male version of events or the truth and the exaggerated?!

At the moment am still a little damp from our soaking at the Iguassu falls, it was our second day there and unfortunately today we were soaked but the rain rather than the watefalls themselves but I'll get on that later! (Though I'm sure some of you are pleased to hear we haven't been sunning ourselves the whole time!!)

We left Rio last week for the Island 'Ilha Grande', not much to report there apart from stunning beaches and a nice lady who owned the hostel who cooked everyone dinner.







Oh and we met some English and Irish people (there's loads of Irish Travelling it seems) and played drinking games and went to a club ( though Fitz didn't make it to the club - cough - lightweight).

I left Ihla Grande with a massive hangover, surrived the ferry back to the main land by sleeping the whole way but struggled on the bus to Paraty. We also bid farewell to Greg and Div as it was beans a clock. (In joke)

Paraty is a very pretty colonial town with white buildings and cobbled streets which are prone to flooding, we discovered this for ourselves when we got surrounded by sea water whilst looking at a church.




There are lots of little shops and nice restaurants in Paraty so we ate quite well, with a tasty good value lunch of fish in shrimp sauce and at night had dinner by candlelight at a place on the beach.

The hostel we stayed in was more of a hotel and was lovely, we had the full works; ensuite, TV, aircon, fridge stocked with beer, yummy breakfast - I fear we have been spoilt as nowhere else since matches up!

We also did a boat trip around the surrounding islands and got rather wet, not just from swimming but because it rainned! Oh well.




From Paraty we travelled by bus to Saó Paulo and stayed overnight. We caught the metro, which was nice and clean, to our hotel. That's all I have to say about Saó Paulo as we didn't see much of it at all as we didn't stayed in a particularly nice neighbourhood and didn't have a guide book so were confined to our room.

We took a 15 hour bus - which is really a coach with lots of leg room and seats that go really far back - to Foz Igacu (Brasilian spelling of Iguassu) with lots of mad Brasillian people. For those of you that don't know, the Iguassu river forms the boarder between Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay and the waterfalls are between Brasil and Argentina. We're now at Puerto Iguazu (Argentinian spelling of Iguassu) in Argentina as its cheaper than visiting on the Brasil side! (Fitz is now fed up of me asking him how to spell Iguassu in 3 different languages)

So yesterday we went to visit the Iguassu falls and they didn't dissapoint, they are absolutely stunning, a complete must see. When Eleanor Roosevelt (remember her from GCSE history Ally?!) went there she is to have said "Poor Niagara" so you get the picture! (We took tons of photos) There are lots of different trails which take you above and below the falls, you can go round anyway you want but if you start at the top its best apparently so that's what we did. Like lots of other vistors we did the boat trip which takes you up to the falls and got completely drenched which was fun, I had a wet bum for the rest of day. The top half of me was dry though so I know that my waterproof works.



We saved the biggest waterfall till the end of the day 'Garganta Del Diablo' - The Devils Throat which is breathtaking. It is spectacular, completely awesome, the walkway takes you right up to the edge of it and you can look down. As you stand there getting covered in its spray you can appriecate its shear volume, power and beauty. It's so loud! We took a short video of it so hopefully we can get to post that on here.





We went back to the falls for a second day today as its half price on your second day so we did a trail we didn't get round to yesterday. Today we got soaked to the bone cos it rainned and rainned and rainned. Fitz has done a good job of hanging everything around our room to dry in time for tomorrows 18 hour bus trip to Beunos Aires. This time we get full beds so should sleep OK.




Righty ho, I hope you didn't fall asleep through all that! Or maybe you just scrolled to the photos?
Hope alls well. I keep having weird dreams about being at home - like last night I dream I was still at work and there was a tiger in a cage in the office which was our new boss' (not sure if it was Dominic or not - the boss not the tiger) which got out and attacked me! I told Jo about it but our boss wouldn't get rid of it! Ha ha - how random. Think it has something to do with seeing 2 tigers in changes being driven around the town here to 'attract' people to the circus...



Oh yeah and the other day we went to this animal place and saw endangered birds and animals and it came with a tour guide all for a fiver. Bargain!



Right, am really gonna sign off now!

Take Care
Lots of love
Nicole
xxx