Hola amigos
Hope all is well
Firstly, you may have heard on the grapevine that I have got engaged after just 3 and 1/2 weeks of meeting Ohlivia in Argentina and I can confirm that this it true. Of course, it does feel a bit weird after such a short time of knowing her but what can I say ... it was love at first sight!
Nah only kidding but I wanted your attention for the email on Argentina!
Currently I am writing from the Chilean city of Vina Del Mar after travelling over the Andes yesterday. As its been nearly two months since my last correspondence let me recap on what has been going on. I left Brazil a couple of days before my birthday so that I could celebrate with style in Bolivia. Once again I met up with Mariela and chums in La Paz and we spent a good week getting drunk and visting places I did not manage to get around to seeing during my last spell there including La Paz´s poor attempt at a zoo; bears chewing on coke bottles, king cobra displays with cracked glass panels and kids hand feeding pringles to the chimps was just some of the higlights. Just before I flew to Cordoba, Argentina I went to a two day rock concert in La Paz and saw the infamous ´Cumbia Kings´, the unforgetable ´Molotov´´and the eight time Brit winners ´Attaque 77´ ... hey, but at least a pint of beer was only 0.17p!
I arrived in Cordoba on 11/10/05. Cordoba was a very quaint, leafy student city and had (I can now confirm) the most beautiful people on the planet. With my eyes constantly spoiled by all the eye candy my legs did want to move on ... but move on I did. Three days after arriving in Cordoba I found myself in Rosario which was again a quaint, leafy student town with slightly less-beautiful people. However my goal was to get to Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas so I went straight there.
I arrived in Buenos Aires on the day (unknown to me) that Boca were playing River Plate (a bit like Man Utd Vs Man City or Arsenal Vs Spurs) so the streets, shops and cafes were devoid of life. At this point I decided to travel to the neighbouring country of Uruguay for a few days and come back to Buenos Aires when there were a few more people around.
The next day I boarded a ferry which two hours later arrived at the Uruguain capital of Montevideo. I must say I was not too impressed by this city which seemed rather drab and shabby. It was the dinner that night that confirmed my continuation to the neighbouring city of Colonia. The restaurant itself looked clean but after digging up various bugs in my salad and then watching with startled eyes as a chef turned, grabbed a rather large cockroach off the wall and hastily threw its wriggling body into the coals (above which my steak was being grilled) that I knew I had made one of the worst culinary choices of my life.
Colonia however was a gem of a city. I recall sitting at a cafe watching the sun set whilst cars from the 40s rotted slowly away on the cobbled streets and thinking to myself that this was the perfect place to retire. I spent a couple of dayswandering the streets of Colonia before I headed back to the hedonistic hostal in Buneos Aires.
When I returned to Buenos Aires I felt like a student again and spent most days nursing a hangover (from the effects of Fernet) and most nights partying until 4 in the morning. Of course I did spend some time flitting through the cultural delights of Buneos Aires including various museums, the hugely grand cemetry and other important buildings (Evitas balcony, the monolith etc.). At this point let me just confirm that the best thing about Argentina (other than the women) were the steaks (and in Patagonia, the lamb). One night in BA, whilst out with a couple of lads from the hostal, I ate the biggest and best steak I had ever seen. The restaurant itself was a parilla which I belive translates as "eat as much meat as you can possibly force down". The steak itself was served by a Roy Walker (geezer from Catchphrase) lookalike and weighed approx 2 kilos with bloody flesh still crawling in the middle. Thankfully the good man bought me a personal heater to cook the centre of the meat but boy it was good ... and only cost a few quid!
After partying hard in BA I made my way by bus (thankfully they were pretty good throughout Argentina as I spent a few 18hr journeys on them) to Mar del Plata. Mar del Plata was pretty disappointing as I was expecting a fun beach resort but got a grey washed out Brighton instead. That day several ´Boston´ banks had been bombed with red paint in expectation of Bush´s visit and the atmopshere was bordering on violence. I only spent a night here at a hostal whose staff seemed to be a collection of extras from Cocoon before getting a bus down to Viedma.
Viedma (and its neighbouring city Patagne) were pleasant enough and full of bright green parks and rowers racing with each other on the river but my real target was the fabled area of Patagonia. After spending a couple of days in Viedma I took a bus to Puerto Madryn ... and from this point on Argentina became touristy. Puerto Madryn is most famous for its marine life especially whale watching. A day after arriving at Puerto Madryn I booked myself onto a tour to a peninsula near the city full of sea lions, penguins and whales. However the next day I was told that the port had been closed due to high winds so I was not able to see the big boys in action and had to put up with some gargantuam elephant sea lions (look like rather large slugs) and some cute waddling penguins. Feeling dismayed at not seeing whales (especially when everyone is showing you pics on their digital cameras of these creatures) I decided on having a Welsh tea at a town called Gaiman, originaly founded by our leek munching neighbours. The cup of tea and tasty scones certainly hit the spot (being only my second cuppa in half year) and I decided to make a move to the snowy lands of Patagonia.
The following day I took a flight from Trelew to Ushuaia, the Southern most city in the world. Ushuaia was orginally a penal colony (you have to feel sorry for the prisoners sent here) and is now a tourist mecca surrounded by the snow capped mountains of the Andes. The days here seemed to last forever as the sun set at around half ten at night and the light was always very soft and great for photography. During my days at Ushuaia I spent time on a boat that travelled the Beagle channel which stopped at islands crammed full of many varities of sea birds and sealions. I also spent one day on a 10k trek with some German pals through a national park that resembled a back dop from a Tim Burton film (Sleepy Hollow meets Blair Witch).
From Ushuaia I took a 15 hour bus to the Southern Chilean city of Puerto Natales. Puerto Natales itself is simply a stop so hikers can reach the beautiful scenery of Torres de Paine (a Chilean national park). Torres de Paine consisted of idyllic Andes, deep blue lagoons and a large beach with floating icebergs ... one of the last things you expect to see on a beach. It was however bitterly bitterly cold and nearly lost my little finger through frost bite. From Puerto Natales I took a another butt numbingly long bus trip back to Argentina, more specifically El Calafate.
El Calafate certainly held one of the higlights of Patagonia ... the Moreno glacier. Moreno is a glacier over 15 storeys high that is constantly moving (around 2 mtrs a day) and thus large chunks of ice break off and fall into the surrounding river. I watched with awe as tons of ice break off and smashed into the frozen river, a fantastic natural phenomena.
From El Calafate I caught a flight out of Patagonia to the town of Bariloche (located in Argentinas lake district). After disembarking the plane I almost believed I had been warped to Austria. Consisting of chocolate shops, icy cold blue lakes, an abundance of pine trees and St Bernards with tacky whisky barrels strapped to their collars, Bariloche was not the stereotypical picture of a South American town. I spent my time here hiking though beuatiful trails (getting lost with a ´fiery´ French girl) and kayaking in the lakes.
Originally from Bariloche I intended to take a bus across the Andes and travel North up through Chile however I decided to stay in Argentina and took a 12 hr bus to Mendoza (on the same latitude as Santiago). Mendoza has streets lined with beech trees, good weather, nice parks but dodgy hostals ... especially when some blighter stole 100s of pound worth of currency from my room mates! The wine here was however top notch and I spent one day on a tour around various atmospheric wineries getting tipsy on tasters.
After spending a few days in Mendoza I took a bus through the Andes and here I am writing this email.
Overall I can say that I really enjoyed Argentina. From basking in the sun up North to watching ice bergs float by down South, Argentina kept providing visual highlights. Not only was the food the best in South America but the people were very friendly indeed (with the one exception being in a shop where I was booed by the customers after England won 3-2). Of course I took many 100s of pictures in this country but these shall be developed once I return to good old blighty. In fact I would like to display my pictures one night where people can buy prints with a percentage going to charity ... location yet to be decided.
I now only have a couple of weeks before I head back to the reality of Christmas in London (6/12/05) and hope to see many of you then.
Take it easy,
James
ps - remember you can check earlier stories by going to http://a_jew_in_peru.blog.co.uk