Location: El Calafate, Southern Patagonia, Argentina (though not far from Chile)
Puerto Madryn: whales, penguins, dolphins, elephant seals, celebrity spotting and a cup of tea.
Barriloche: glorious lakes and snow capped mountains
El Calafate: stunning glaciars
Chaltén: trekking in rugged mountains near to Fitz Roy
After Buenos Aires we went to Puerto Madryn, on the Atlantic coast, the starting point for trips to Peninsula Valdez. This is one of the most diverse and important areas for marine life on the continent, and now is the right time of year to see it.
The first trip was to the peninsula itself, with the main draw being whales. But before we got to see them we stopped at a couple of places on the way. Elephant seals are massive, by any measure. Up to 4 tonnes. So named because of a trunk like nose, there is a real resemblance to elephants especially when they yawn. It is an easy life being a dominant, male elephant seal. Very little activity, chasing off the odd intruding male whilst watching over your harem of 20+ females. With such body weight it is hard to be elegant when shuffling to and from the sea. Normally they require a pause, maybe to get their breath back, after about 10 "paces". Invariably they just then slump forward as if it has all suddenly become a little too much effort. We´ve also seen some who just can´t be bothered to lift their head when moving and have ploughed a furrow in the shingle with their face.
At the moment there are pups in the groups on the shore, they are suckled for about 40 days and then left to fend for themselves. Of course this is nature, not a controlled, zoo-environment, and there was a group of giant petrels picking at the floating corpse of a pup, as it was rolled around by the surf.
The next stop was to see a small colony of Magellan penguins, but more of them later.
Then is was the whales, the main point of the day. Southern right whales are found in the New Gulf, the southern gulf of the Peninsula Valdez, since this is a sheltered area that is suitable for giving birth. There are now no more mating groups, which, opposite to the elephant seals, have one female and many males all jostling for position. But there are calves, and there were amazing to watch. There were a huge number of whales in the gulf, almost wherever you look on the horizon you can see tails silouhetted against the sky. I wasn´t quite sure just how close the boat would be able to get to them. The answer is very close. They were swimming right beside us and under us. The females are about 12-15m long, and it is a little surreal to see an animal that large. Even the calves are probably 7-8m long.
On the drive around the peninsula we even saw some armadillos. The last time I saw one of those it was on my plate in Guatemala!
The following day we had a trip south to the largest easily accessible colony of Magellan penguins, larger colonies presumably exist in Antarctica.
There was not a huge amount of movement from them, since they are currently incubating eggs. The odd one or two was heading off to, or back from, the sea, to swap duties with his/her partner. When watching penguins it is hard not to think of them as little people. They are slightly comical and ungainly when walking anyway. But watching them stagger down a shingle beach was like watching minature, drunk aristocrats tottering home after a party, like something out of a novel by Evelyn Waugh.
They have nests a long way from the beach, and 1km is a long waddle to get home after going out for lunch. They dig holes to keep the eggs partially protected, from the sun mainly since there is always one of them on guard. The coast was very beautiful, with clear blue water lapping at rugged shorelines.
Also that day we had a trip out to see dolphins. Small, black and white ones that look as though they are the product of a genetic experiment to breed orcas with dolphins. They playfully followed the boat around, we were without company for no longer than a few minutes.
Previously, in Northern Argentina, we had passed through a place called Tafi del Valle, which is not one of Argentina`s Welsh colonies. But on the way back to Puerto Madryn we did stop at such a Welsh village, Gaiman. In the late part of the 19th century, encouraged by economic aid from the Argentine government, they settled in Patagonia. They may have been fleeing to ensure the survival of their culture, after being oppressed by the English, or it could be that they were trying to avoid paying taxes. I suppose which version you believe depends on where you natural sympathies lie.
One of the gastronomic highlights of the last few months was to be found in a little Welsh tea shop, owed and run by the grand-daughter of one of the original settlers. A decent cup of tea, the first since London, and a very generous plateful of home made cakes, plus scones, home made bread and home made jam. Just lke the Sunday evenings from my childhood, and just as good. So we stuffed our faces and dranks pints of tea until sated. Very memorable, and enough of a reminder to make us miss England a little.
Another long couple of bus journeys got us to Barriloche, a sweet little town on the shores of a beautiful lake, with views all the way across to the mountains on the opposite shore. Or that is what it is like on a good day. When we arrived it was snowing, heavy, thick, wet snow. Very un spring-like. Fortunately the next couple of days we had some great weather, clear skies and sun (though still bitterly cold). There is some great walking to be done round here, there are many lakes all surrounded by snowy mountains. Forests reach down to the water, but you can get above the tree line, and on one day the snow line, for some amazing views. The mountains are littered with huge chunks of granite, left by the last ice age. Many are the size of large cars, some the size of small houses. This is some of the most amazing mountain scenery we have seen.
We then hopped on a plane to get to El Calafate, 2hr flight rather than sit on a bus for about 36 hours. This is glaciar country, and the National Park hosts more than 300 of them. The most accessible and commonly visited is Perito Moreno. We have seen glaciars in Peru, and even skied on them in Europe, but this was a "classic" glaciar. A huge sheet of ice, about 5km by 30km, stretching down to a lake, with the front face periodically falling into the lake. The upper surface is about 50-70m above the water, and the ice reaces down to the lake bed, 120-170m below the surface. The sound of massive pieces of ice shearing from the face is so much louder than you would expect. And the splash has to be seen to be believed. This is the reason why this glaciar is a tourist destination: you are almost guaranteed to see large pieces falling from it. We saw some massive lumps split off and just happening to be looking the right way at the time. So much of the time you are gazing at part of it, and by the time you hear the sound, or notice some movement you have missed it fall and just see the huge wave spread out from the base. The compacted ice refracts light is such a way to give it that pale, yet vivid blue hue. The lakes formed by glacial flows have a suspension of fine matter in them, and so appear a milky turquoise, glorious on a sunny day. This glaciar is one of the best things we have seen in the last 5 months, and that is an accolade that is becoming harder to bestow as we progress.
El Calafate is also the starting point for trips to Chaltén and the surrounding mountains. This town only exists to provide for trekkers and climbers, and the location is amazing. The huge granite towers of Fitz Roy dominate the skyline. The area here is much more rugged than in Bariloche, not quite as picture-postcard, but impressive. We had a couple of good walks of 5 & 7hrs, but the snow blowing down from the mountains meant that the jagged peaks were not visible. That is until the last day, when we saw them when leaving on an early bus. A bit disappointing to have been thwarted by the weather, but we have been lucky elsewhere, so you have to take the rough with the smooth. They say you can get all four seasons in one day here (much like Centre Court in that respect then) but we only really saw the tail end of spring.
Now that we are quite far south it has been nice to have some longer evenings, which we missed during the European summer since we were too near to the equator. Next stop is over the border in Chile.
In May 2004 Phillippa and I resigned from our jobs to set off on a year long grand tour. This will be updated sporadically and will serve as a permanent record of what should be an extremely memorable year. Of course, it also keeps us in touch with those of you back in the UK, and enables you to follow our progress.
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Sunday, October 31, 2004
Sunday, October 17, 2004
El Rio Plata
Location: Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay
A bit more on Buenos Aires, another World Cup Qualifier, and a trip to Montevideo in Uruguay.
Buenos Aires
I said before that BsAs has a very European feel to it, it`s what all people who come here say. But it also has a latin side that sits incongruously on top. In all the big cities we have been to we have seen a lot of poverty. But it is slightly less expected here, where there are broad, sweeping, tree-lined avenues that lead from one grand building to another; where there are designer shops, with all the major labels represented; where people dress well; where most of the city is not dirty and crowded; where there are smart cafes and smart cars; where there is a decent and clean underground system.
In a city like La Paz, where there a markets on the pavements and there is a clear "developing world" aspect to the city, you expect to see a lot of poverty. And you do. So it has been quite shocking to see the after effects of the peso crisis of a few years ago. In some parts of the city, near to the hotels and shopping areas, there are many people pushing shopping trolleys filled with what appear to be worthless bits of rubbish. Every pile of bin bags has someone rooting through it, searching for anything of value.
It would have been very interesting to have been here 5 years ago, to see how things have changed. We have not really spoken to anyone about their country`s slide from being the richest place in South America, it`s a hard subject to broach. There are frequent demonstrations, both weekends we have been here. It is hard to tell exactly what their cause is, there are the usual suspects, the rent-a-mob with red banner adorned with pictures of Lenin. Much the same as the Socialist Workers who seem to be omnipresent in the UK (perhaps with the exception of the pro-hunting demos?!). There is graffiti daubed on walls with the IMF as the target, and for those who have read Globalisation and Its Discontents by Stiglitz, former big cheese in the IMF, then it is clear why they are the target.
On the subject of speach, a word on their accents. We learnt in Ecuador, where (apparently) they have very clear pronunciation, the equivalent of "BBC English". Here in Argentina they have an accent that does cause us problems. All the y and ll becomes more of a sh. So here it sounds like everybody is trying to do an impression of Sean Connery trying to shhpeak Shhpanishh.
Goooooooooooooool Argentina!!!!!!!!!
More football. After seeing Ecuador beat Colombia for the first time in ages back in May, there is now another round of World Cup qualifiers. But you all know that because you were probably busy watching us beat Wales and Azerbajhan. We haven`t managed to get the timing right with a Brazil match, but seeing Argentina is clearly the next best thing. The match against their "brother" country, Uruguay, doesn`t hold quite the appeal of a clash with Brazil or Colombia, and Uruguay are not the force they once were, but there is a certain local rivally that still makes it quite a big game.
It was held at the River Plate stadium, a capacity of about 80,000 and there were probably about 65,000 there. Argentina walked into a 3-0 halftime lead, and eventually ran out winners 4-2. Class prevalied, and even 4-2 was flattering to Uruguay. Not quite the spectacle I had expected, not much torn paper fluttering through the air, not many bog rolls diving towards the pitch, but it still had that latin feel. Not as constantly noisy as the game we saw at the Maracana in Rio, but a great event at a great stadium.
It is of course hard for any England fan to support Argentina, for ahost of reasons, but we did and were glad to do so. We had hoped to finish the day, after the football in the afternoon, with a curry. We had found an indian restaurant in BsAs and Saturday night was the ideal time to try it. Unfortunately they were shut! Saturday night! So we had to have a wonderful slab of fillet steak instead, which was very tasty, but we`d been looking forward to a curry for about 3 months! We did manage to have a Thai meal the first day we got to BsAs, which was also something that had been long anticipated. The food here is very good, as it was in Rio, but it would be nice to have a little more variety, with SE Asian and Indian food top of the list.
We took a city tour, to get to see a few places we might not otherwise have seen. La Boca, home to Boca Juniors football club, is also home to the old docks and the birthplace of tango, originally a dance between men who worked in the docks. It was only after the tango received recognition in London and Paris, 30 years afetr its birth, that it became accepted by the middle and upper classes in Argentina. La Boca is also famous for brightly coloured houses, the tradition having been started when they were painted with the leftovers of the paints used for ships.
Part of the old town has markets and tango dancing in the streets on Sunday. A touch touristy, but a very pleasant few hours nonetheless. The flea market had lots of old coins, banknotes (in particular those from the old regime in Iraq were prominently on show) and a lot of stamps. Given the passion for football here there is a set of stamps to commerate every World Cup, and every time they won the trophy too. A set dedicated to Maradona`s team of 1986, including some of huis first "wonder goal" against England. I was going to ask whether they had any stamps showing the "hand of God" incident, but thought better of it.
Uruguay
The day after the football we set off to Uruguay. Montevideo is, like Asuncion, a capital with the feel of a large town. Sadly the first day we were there it was a bank holiday, so nearly everything was shut. So there was nothing else for it but a couple of trips to the cinema, with a cheap haircut (80p) in between to fill the gap. (The 80p haircut is slightly uneven, and I`m still wondering whether to let Phillippa at it with the scissors on my Swiss army penknife. She`s quite keen but this is potentially the most risky thing I`ve done since we left the UK.)
The following day it was tanking down with rain, but that didn`t put us off having a wander round. A pleasant place, but not a huge amount of great note to recommend. The Mercado del Puerto is an old iron structure (similar to Smithfield market) that now contains lots of restaurants. Of course, they all offer very good steaks, so we had another big slab of meat and a bottle of Uruguayan wine.
A whole day of fairly heavy rain seemed a bit odd to us. Aside from some rainy days in the rainforest it has only rained on a handful of ocasions. A bit of drizzle in Rio, some snow in southern Bolivia and in Peru and the rest of the last 5 months has been dry. Yes, every day has been dry. I`m sure that those of you in the UK can´t lay say that for the last 5 months.
Colonia del Sacremento is the other place that the boats from BsAs go to, in addition to direct to Montevideo. A delightful small town, quite sleepy, aside from the cars with massive stereo systems that circle round the centre with propaganda for their chosen political party, the presidential elections are in about 2 weeks. Strangely these elections are not getting as much coverage as the election. We`ve managed to catch more of the election coverage than we ever would have done at home, the odd place we stay in has CNN or BBC World. We even saw the first debats, the VP debate and the final debate, though the last one was simultaneously dubbed into Spanish. In fact we have (obviously) seen more TV in the last 5 months than in the last 4 years! But I digress.
Colonia has a picture-postcard perfect old quarter, on the headland, with cobbled streets, pavement cafés and a lighthouse, which offers excellent views of the town. For anyone going to BsAs I would highly recommend a couple of days in Colonia. Of course we had a couple of decent 4cm thick slabs of steak here too.
It was a bit disappointing not to get to see the countryside at an estancia or ranch. We looked into it but it is not the tourist season here and it didn`t seem that easy to organise, and we only had a few days in Montevideo. Uruguay was well worth a week, but it is not the sort of place that you would come all the way from Europe for. It does mean that I`ve now been to all the countries that have won the World Cup!
We left Uruguay and are now leaving BsAs tonight, heading south. No more big cities now in South America, back to the countryside, trekking and to seeing some of the amazing flora and fauna here.
A bit more on Buenos Aires, another World Cup Qualifier, and a trip to Montevideo in Uruguay.
Buenos Aires
I said before that BsAs has a very European feel to it, it`s what all people who come here say. But it also has a latin side that sits incongruously on top. In all the big cities we have been to we have seen a lot of poverty. But it is slightly less expected here, where there are broad, sweeping, tree-lined avenues that lead from one grand building to another; where there are designer shops, with all the major labels represented; where people dress well; where most of the city is not dirty and crowded; where there are smart cafes and smart cars; where there is a decent and clean underground system.
In a city like La Paz, where there a markets on the pavements and there is a clear "developing world" aspect to the city, you expect to see a lot of poverty. And you do. So it has been quite shocking to see the after effects of the peso crisis of a few years ago. In some parts of the city, near to the hotels and shopping areas, there are many people pushing shopping trolleys filled with what appear to be worthless bits of rubbish. Every pile of bin bags has someone rooting through it, searching for anything of value.
It would have been very interesting to have been here 5 years ago, to see how things have changed. We have not really spoken to anyone about their country`s slide from being the richest place in South America, it`s a hard subject to broach. There are frequent demonstrations, both weekends we have been here. It is hard to tell exactly what their cause is, there are the usual suspects, the rent-a-mob with red banner adorned with pictures of Lenin. Much the same as the Socialist Workers who seem to be omnipresent in the UK (perhaps with the exception of the pro-hunting demos?!). There is graffiti daubed on walls with the IMF as the target, and for those who have read Globalisation and Its Discontents by Stiglitz, former big cheese in the IMF, then it is clear why they are the target.
On the subject of speach, a word on their accents. We learnt in Ecuador, where (apparently) they have very clear pronunciation, the equivalent of "BBC English". Here in Argentina they have an accent that does cause us problems. All the y and ll becomes more of a sh. So here it sounds like everybody is trying to do an impression of Sean Connery trying to shhpeak Shhpanishh.
Goooooooooooooool Argentina!!!!!!!!!
More football. After seeing Ecuador beat Colombia for the first time in ages back in May, there is now another round of World Cup qualifiers. But you all know that because you were probably busy watching us beat Wales and Azerbajhan. We haven`t managed to get the timing right with a Brazil match, but seeing Argentina is clearly the next best thing. The match against their "brother" country, Uruguay, doesn`t hold quite the appeal of a clash with Brazil or Colombia, and Uruguay are not the force they once were, but there is a certain local rivally that still makes it quite a big game.
It was held at the River Plate stadium, a capacity of about 80,000 and there were probably about 65,000 there. Argentina walked into a 3-0 halftime lead, and eventually ran out winners 4-2. Class prevalied, and even 4-2 was flattering to Uruguay. Not quite the spectacle I had expected, not much torn paper fluttering through the air, not many bog rolls diving towards the pitch, but it still had that latin feel. Not as constantly noisy as the game we saw at the Maracana in Rio, but a great event at a great stadium.
It is of course hard for any England fan to support Argentina, for ahost of reasons, but we did and were glad to do so. We had hoped to finish the day, after the football in the afternoon, with a curry. We had found an indian restaurant in BsAs and Saturday night was the ideal time to try it. Unfortunately they were shut! Saturday night! So we had to have a wonderful slab of fillet steak instead, which was very tasty, but we`d been looking forward to a curry for about 3 months! We did manage to have a Thai meal the first day we got to BsAs, which was also something that had been long anticipated. The food here is very good, as it was in Rio, but it would be nice to have a little more variety, with SE Asian and Indian food top of the list.
We took a city tour, to get to see a few places we might not otherwise have seen. La Boca, home to Boca Juniors football club, is also home to the old docks and the birthplace of tango, originally a dance between men who worked in the docks. It was only after the tango received recognition in London and Paris, 30 years afetr its birth, that it became accepted by the middle and upper classes in Argentina. La Boca is also famous for brightly coloured houses, the tradition having been started when they were painted with the leftovers of the paints used for ships.
Part of the old town has markets and tango dancing in the streets on Sunday. A touch touristy, but a very pleasant few hours nonetheless. The flea market had lots of old coins, banknotes (in particular those from the old regime in Iraq were prominently on show) and a lot of stamps. Given the passion for football here there is a set of stamps to commerate every World Cup, and every time they won the trophy too. A set dedicated to Maradona`s team of 1986, including some of huis first "wonder goal" against England. I was going to ask whether they had any stamps showing the "hand of God" incident, but thought better of it.
Uruguay
The day after the football we set off to Uruguay. Montevideo is, like Asuncion, a capital with the feel of a large town. Sadly the first day we were there it was a bank holiday, so nearly everything was shut. So there was nothing else for it but a couple of trips to the cinema, with a cheap haircut (80p) in between to fill the gap. (The 80p haircut is slightly uneven, and I`m still wondering whether to let Phillippa at it with the scissors on my Swiss army penknife. She`s quite keen but this is potentially the most risky thing I`ve done since we left the UK.)
The following day it was tanking down with rain, but that didn`t put us off having a wander round. A pleasant place, but not a huge amount of great note to recommend. The Mercado del Puerto is an old iron structure (similar to Smithfield market) that now contains lots of restaurants. Of course, they all offer very good steaks, so we had another big slab of meat and a bottle of Uruguayan wine.
A whole day of fairly heavy rain seemed a bit odd to us. Aside from some rainy days in the rainforest it has only rained on a handful of ocasions. A bit of drizzle in Rio, some snow in southern Bolivia and in Peru and the rest of the last 5 months has been dry. Yes, every day has been dry. I`m sure that those of you in the UK can´t lay say that for the last 5 months.
Colonia del Sacremento is the other place that the boats from BsAs go to, in addition to direct to Montevideo. A delightful small town, quite sleepy, aside from the cars with massive stereo systems that circle round the centre with propaganda for their chosen political party, the presidential elections are in about 2 weeks. Strangely these elections are not getting as much coverage as the election. We`ve managed to catch more of the election coverage than we ever would have done at home, the odd place we stay in has CNN or BBC World. We even saw the first debats, the VP debate and the final debate, though the last one was simultaneously dubbed into Spanish. In fact we have (obviously) seen more TV in the last 5 months than in the last 4 years! But I digress.
Colonia has a picture-postcard perfect old quarter, on the headland, with cobbled streets, pavement cafés and a lighthouse, which offers excellent views of the town. For anyone going to BsAs I would highly recommend a couple of days in Colonia. Of course we had a couple of decent 4cm thick slabs of steak here too.
It was a bit disappointing not to get to see the countryside at an estancia or ranch. We looked into it but it is not the tourist season here and it didn`t seem that easy to organise, and we only had a few days in Montevideo. Uruguay was well worth a week, but it is not the sort of place that you would come all the way from Europe for. It does mean that I`ve now been to all the countries that have won the World Cup!
We left Uruguay and are now leaving BsAs tonight, heading south. No more big cities now in South America, back to the countryside, trekking and to seeing some of the amazing flora and fauna here.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Yet more vineyards
Location: Buenos Aires
Continuing the boozers`tour with some wine in Mendoza, then onto to Buenos Aires, and an update on the infamous kidnap story.
Last time I left you it was before an overnight bus to Mendoza, which actually passed off OK. The long distance buses here (and in Chile & Peru) have been very good, far better than National Express in the UK, often even the cheap ones on the long routes are Semi-cama, which have reasonable leg room and OK reclining seats. Certainly much more comfortable than flying. So it has not been as bad, spending all these hours on buses, as I had anticipated. Anyway, 15 hours on a bus is certainly preferable to 15 hours in the office.
Although the vineyards we went to in Cafayate, on our cycle tour of the region, were beautiful they were small scale, one producing just 20,000 bottles a year. Mendoza is the big wine region of Argentina, so we had to go an explore here too. The books say it is a bit of an effort to get to the vineyards by local bus but this is not really true, and by about 11am we were sipping our first tastings of the day. The vineyards in the Mendoza region are not as attractive as those in the north. They are large scale operations, without the beautiful backdrop of mountains and countryside, some are near to the Mendoza Industrial estate on the edge of town.
We visited 3 places, had a very nice, long lunch and spent an afternoon with 2 great Americans, who have done pretty much the same route as us in the same time. We were talking about trekking in Peru, after comparing tales of climing Huaya Potosi, when they said that they had heard that there had been some problems near Huayhuash in early July.
"Ahh, funny you should say that, it was us..."
There were stories circulating around the backpackers that we had had all our clothes taken, not sure whether they thought that we had walked off the mountain in boots and boxer shorts. They had heard most of the details, mostly reasonably accurately too.
Then on 1 October I received an email from the British doctor who lives in Peru, our translator during our time under guard on top of the mountain pass. On 27 September, 4 Israelis, in their 20s, were attacked by 4-6 bandits in exactly the same area as we were. Reports suggest that one was shot dead, though some rumours say all 4 have been killed. It is said that all, including the Peruvian staff, were very bady injured and all needed hospital treatment.
So perhaps we were luckier than we appreciated at the time. Or maybe, after 3 years of military training, the Israelis decided not to "collaborate" as fully as we did and tried to be heroes. Maybe the fact that repeatedly assured us that we would not be shot was not just idle scare tactics but was based on the premise that they saw such action as a very possible option available to them.
The kids here seem to have slightly, to our eyes, uniforms. White lab-coats. Or brown lab-coats. This applies for ages between about 6 and 14. So sometimes on a local bus a mass of kids descends and it looks like a convention for under-age doctors (or school caretakers, or mini Arkwright impersonators, "G-g-g-g-get your c-cloth, G-g-granville").
Buenos Aires
Another fairly chunky bus journey from Mendoza, this was scheduled to be about 15hrs. Sadly, due to mechanical problems, we sat in a layby from about 1am to 5am, meaning it ended up being just short of a 20hr trip. We had the foresight to book the deluxe seats, which was a good thing. But the promise of an evening meal and breakfast were not kept to, so it was a long time without food. Luckily we had stuffed our faces that afternoon at another tenedor libre, all-you-can-eat place. We´ve seen some fairly rubbish films on buses over the last few months, and for this journey we had a Steve Martin film that we hadn`t even heard of, possibly a straight to video candidate. And whereas most films have been subtitled, this was dubbed. The dodgy DVD had a soundtrack that started at about 50% missing and ended up at about 90% missing. But this was a great relief, not only because of the language, but because they had the volume so high that even with ear plugs in it was too loud. Without ear plugs there would have been blood trickling from our ears.
BsAs itself seems, from the couple of days we have had so far to be very pleasant. As people say, it is very European, the view from our hotel balcony could almost be of a boulevard in Paris, and a whole host of the important municipal buildings appear to be heavily influenced by French styles. Lots of very attractive parks dotted throughout the city. The old docks area has been tarted up, in much the same way as it has in towns and cities in the UK. Nice apartments and decent restaurants.
We have a few more days here, including a concert at the main opera house (wrong season for opera) and then on Saturday is another big World Cup 2006 qualifier, Argentina at home to neighbours Uruguay.
Continuing the boozers`tour with some wine in Mendoza, then onto to Buenos Aires, and an update on the infamous kidnap story.
Last time I left you it was before an overnight bus to Mendoza, which actually passed off OK. The long distance buses here (and in Chile & Peru) have been very good, far better than National Express in the UK, often even the cheap ones on the long routes are Semi-cama, which have reasonable leg room and OK reclining seats. Certainly much more comfortable than flying. So it has not been as bad, spending all these hours on buses, as I had anticipated. Anyway, 15 hours on a bus is certainly preferable to 15 hours in the office.
Although the vineyards we went to in Cafayate, on our cycle tour of the region, were beautiful they were small scale, one producing just 20,000 bottles a year. Mendoza is the big wine region of Argentina, so we had to go an explore here too. The books say it is a bit of an effort to get to the vineyards by local bus but this is not really true, and by about 11am we were sipping our first tastings of the day. The vineyards in the Mendoza region are not as attractive as those in the north. They are large scale operations, without the beautiful backdrop of mountains and countryside, some are near to the Mendoza Industrial estate on the edge of town.
We visited 3 places, had a very nice, long lunch and spent an afternoon with 2 great Americans, who have done pretty much the same route as us in the same time. We were talking about trekking in Peru, after comparing tales of climing Huaya Potosi, when they said that they had heard that there had been some problems near Huayhuash in early July.
"Ahh, funny you should say that, it was us..."
There were stories circulating around the backpackers that we had had all our clothes taken, not sure whether they thought that we had walked off the mountain in boots and boxer shorts. They had heard most of the details, mostly reasonably accurately too.
Then on 1 October I received an email from the British doctor who lives in Peru, our translator during our time under guard on top of the mountain pass. On 27 September, 4 Israelis, in their 20s, were attacked by 4-6 bandits in exactly the same area as we were. Reports suggest that one was shot dead, though some rumours say all 4 have been killed. It is said that all, including the Peruvian staff, were very bady injured and all needed hospital treatment.
So perhaps we were luckier than we appreciated at the time. Or maybe, after 3 years of military training, the Israelis decided not to "collaborate" as fully as we did and tried to be heroes. Maybe the fact that repeatedly assured us that we would not be shot was not just idle scare tactics but was based on the premise that they saw such action as a very possible option available to them.
The kids here seem to have slightly, to our eyes, uniforms. White lab-coats. Or brown lab-coats. This applies for ages between about 6 and 14. So sometimes on a local bus a mass of kids descends and it looks like a convention for under-age doctors (or school caretakers, or mini Arkwright impersonators, "G-g-g-g-get your c-cloth, G-g-granville").
Buenos Aires
Another fairly chunky bus journey from Mendoza, this was scheduled to be about 15hrs. Sadly, due to mechanical problems, we sat in a layby from about 1am to 5am, meaning it ended up being just short of a 20hr trip. We had the foresight to book the deluxe seats, which was a good thing. But the promise of an evening meal and breakfast were not kept to, so it was a long time without food. Luckily we had stuffed our faces that afternoon at another tenedor libre, all-you-can-eat place. We´ve seen some fairly rubbish films on buses over the last few months, and for this journey we had a Steve Martin film that we hadn`t even heard of, possibly a straight to video candidate. And whereas most films have been subtitled, this was dubbed. The dodgy DVD had a soundtrack that started at about 50% missing and ended up at about 90% missing. But this was a great relief, not only because of the language, but because they had the volume so high that even with ear plugs in it was too loud. Without ear plugs there would have been blood trickling from our ears.
BsAs itself seems, from the couple of days we have had so far to be very pleasant. As people say, it is very European, the view from our hotel balcony could almost be of a boulevard in Paris, and a whole host of the important municipal buildings appear to be heavily influenced by French styles. Lots of very attractive parks dotted throughout the city. The old docks area has been tarted up, in much the same way as it has in towns and cities in the UK. Nice apartments and decent restaurants.
We have a few more days here, including a concert at the main opera house (wrong season for opera) and then on Saturday is another big World Cup 2006 qualifier, Argentina at home to neighbours Uruguay.
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