Aarti n Hemals South American Safari

After a short 7 hr bus ride from Santiago, we got to Mendoza on the 29th of Feb. We got there in the afternoon, and met up with our traveller friends from California whom we have been bumping into all over South America. We found out that Mendoza was celebrating its birthday that weekend, and there were some festivals happening so went to the park, got distracted by our hunger, and by the time we finished our dinner, there was a show going on, but it was impossible to get in as the place was packed out. It did look quite spectacular from the outside, but there was a concert happening at the same place the next evening and we were determined to make that one.

We did a tour of some wineyards (bodegas) the next day on bikes. Aarti and I were on a tandem bike since she can´t ride one, and boy was it hard work. We visited a couple of bodegas, got a tour at one of them and some wine tasting at both of them, and had lunch at another place with more wine.... Cycling can be thirsty work!!

That evening, we did manage to see the concert, and at midnight they had a special fireworks display to celebrate Mendoza´s birthday.

We had a lazy day the next day, and went to the park in the afternoon, with a picnic of wine, bread and olives, and didn´t do too much either the following day apart from eating some nice food and having nice wines.

We visited another Bodega (Familia Zuccardi) the next day where we would get a full tour of the winery, how the wine is made from start to finish, pick some grapes and more importantly, wine tasting and a big lunch with all the wine you can drink. It was a brilliant day, and the tour was very insightful into wine making - we tasted some nice wines, and drank lots during lunch which was massive!! I suffered the next day with a bloated stomach and spent the whole day inside watching TV, while Aarti braved another wine tasting session in town - this time it was some boutique wines from small wineries she was tasting.

We left for Cordoba that evening, but did not like the place too much and the weather didn´t help so we only spent one night there. We did manage to go see Che Guevara´s childhood home which has now been converted into a museum. That was quite interesting as we got to saw his famous motorbike, lots of pictures, some letters he had written to Fidel Castro, his family etc...

We left Cordoba for Salta which is in northern Argentina and our last stop in Argentina. Salta is also where we found a different Argentina - more Andean in culture than Argentinian. We did a 2 day tour where we saw the famous countryside around Salta with its hills, gorges, and drove up along a spectacular railway line, which was a good way to experience the dramatic landscape. The railway line is considered to be an extraordinary feat of engineering and took over 20 years to build and climbs 3000 metres through rocky terrain of a steep gorge. The train has not been working for 2 years, so we did the trip by road which runs mostly alongside the railway line. We stayed overnight at Purmamarca, a small village with a stunning setting at the foot of a mountain stripped with 7 colours. Unfortunately, pictures don´t do any justice at all. The next day, we visited a few towns, saw some ruins and a mueseum and a church and made our way back to Salta.

Tomorrow we are off to Bolivia - and we are very excited to go back to an Andean country after spending the last 3 months in more developed countries.... and its going to help with our budget as well as it seems to be running out of control after Brazil & Argentina.

After leaving BA, we made our way down the east coast to Puerto Madryn, where the highlight was seeing sea lions in Peninsula Valdes and getting close to penguins in Punta Tombo.

We made a day trip to each of the places. On the trip to Peninsula Valdes, we saw sea lions and a few penguins from afar. The trip to Punta Tombo was much better where there were at least 500,000 penguins, and you could walk around them.
We also took a boat trip and saw a few dolphins - they were quite playful and liked swimming near the boat, or showing off by diving in and out of the water. On our way back we stopped off at a Welsh tea house to have high tea. Puerto Madryn is also where the first Welsh travellers settled, the tea house culture seems to have stayed.

After spending a few days at Puerto Madryn, we made our way down to El Calafate, which would be the southern most point of our travels. El calafate is a purely tourist town which exists so people can go see the Perito Moreno glacier. This glacier is one of the few which is not shrinking and can be seen quite close up. We were supposed to take a tour which included walking on the glacier, but chose a wrong tour and instead had to make do with watching the glacier from the view point. We also took the boat option where we sailed pretty close to the glacier and saw a few ice breaks - was quite amazing.

Then we made our way to Bariloche, which is in the lake district - took us 3 busses and 34 hours to get there from Calafate - our longest trip yet. We must have spent over 500 to 600 hours on the busses so far. Bariloche is a pretty town situated on the steep and wooded shore of Late Nahuel Huapi.We spent a few days there walking round the country side, I did some rafting on one day while Aarti visited the lakes on a day tour and generally chilled out.

From there, it was onto Pucon in Chile for some volcano climbing for me. This was going to be a pretty difficult climb - the day before the climb we were given out equipment - crampons, gators, icepick, helmet, waterproofs etc... And due to a really harsh summer, we were going to start the climb at 4.00 in the morning with the target of reaching the top by 10.00am at the latest, as otherwise the top got abit dangerous with falling rocks. About a week previously, there had been a narrow escape and they weren{t taking any chances. Obviously it didnt help that I hadnt done any trekking at all since November, and had been enjoying the fine steaks and wines for the last few weeks. The first hour was extremely tough for me as my body tried to adjust to the increased physical activity which it had not been used to for some time - but I slowly settle down and it got less painful, but more difficult as the gradient of the volcano increased. We would take breaks every 40-50 minutes and it was after the last break before the top where I got a bad side strain and couldn´t continue any more. I think it had to do with the way I sat down during the break, and it was extremely disappointing not to continue to the top.

We took a nightbus that day to Santiago where we walked aroung the city for a couple of days, the highlight being going to a really nice Indian restaurant to satisfy out indian food cravings.

From there it was on to Mendoza in Argentina - the wine country.

After spending a week in Rio, we headed to Campo Grande from where we would take a 3 day tour to see the Pantanal. The Pantanal is a large flat area of wetlands, fed by rivers and a great place to see animals - mainly birds. After the 18 hr bus ride, we reached Campo Grrande at 9.30am and started on the tour which began pretty much straight away. We were going to the Pantanal at the wrong time as it was the wet season, and its very hard to spot animals with the lands flooded. But we didn´t have a choice due to time constraints.

The first day was spent getting to our lodge, which involved a 5 hr bus ride and an hour by an open air jeep to the lodge.

The next day, we spent a bone crunching, mosquito bitting 2 hours on the jeep to get to the spot from where we would do a 2 hour walk through the jungle. The walk was ok, as we spent most of our time trying not to step on the thousands of red ants, spraying ourselves with mosquito repellent every 5 minutes and looking for birds and animals. We stopped for lunch and then did another shorter walk just slightly furthur away.

On Day 2, we did a boat trip in the morning up a river and then a ride on mules in the afternoon. Didn´t see too many animals.

Day 3 we did Piranha fishing in the morning. I finally managed to catch one after 2 hours of fishing. Then in the afternoon, we left for Campo Grande and got there in the evening. Although the trip was good, it would have been better if we had gone at the end of the wet season where we would have been able to more animals.

After chilling out for a day at Campo Grande, we took the night bus to Foz Iguazu - the Brazilian side of the falls. From the Brazilian side, you get to see the Panoramic views of the falls while you can go right up close to the falls from the Argentinian side. The falls were breathtaking, and as there are more than 200 different falls, you can spend a few hours looking at them. We spent 4 hours on the Brazilian side before taking a bus to the Argentinian side to spend the night there.

The next day we did the Argentinian side - it was a brillian experience. First off, we took a ride iin a speedboat and got right up close to the falls - and got thoroughly soaked in the process!! Then we spent the rest of the day walking around the falls, with some walkways taking you literally over the falls, and the best one being the devils throat. In the evening, I had my first taste of the brilliant Argentinian beef - it was beautiful, all 400 grams of it (I had eaten a fish, Surubi - a local speciality the previous night) Most places serve pastas and Aarti will be alternating between that and Pizzas in Argentina. A change from Pizzas and rice and beans in Brazil. All very healthy!

We took a night bus to Buenos Aires the following day - in Cama suite!! This is equivalent to First Class on a plane with a flat bed, wines, nice food, plenty of snacks served throughout the journey.

We stayed in San Telmo, an old part of town in BA. We stayed there for a week, just going round town, saw a tango show, horse racing at a nearby town, met up with some travellers we had met in Ecuador and enjoyed the great food and wines.

We also went to see an Argentinian carnival - its obviously not on par with the Rio one with only 3 groups taking part - and inferior dancing and choreography as compared to the rehearsals we saw in Rio, but their floats were pretty amazing and we got seats in the front row which made it more fun as the dancers would come over to us to pose for pictures.

We went to a football match at River stadium in Palermo - River Plate vs Gymnasia. We had to take a tour, as tickets were hard to come by - and its abit more risky seating with the fans than other countries so we had some VIP seats. The whole atmosphere was different, and the football was very European style. The only player on the field I could recognize was Ariel Ortega who plays for River. We also took a tour to see the Boca Juniors stadium which is a much more compact stadium and would provide much better atmosphere.

We went to stay at an estancia for one night near BA 2 days ago. It was a really nice place to chill out, ride on horses, swim etc... Unfortunately, they are quite expensive too so we only spent 1 night there. There are better ones where you can see how the gaucho life is but this one was geared towards a quiet stay.

Tonight we are off to Puerto Madryn where we hope to see some whales and penguins.

More laters.