Buenos Aires (again)

I arrived in Buenos Aires early on Friday afternoon, with a couple of days to spare before my flight home on Monday. I decided to return to the hostel that I stayed at when I was here at the start of my trip, and I was quite impressed that when I arrived, the hostel owner immediately recognised me (although he didn't remember my name). Unfortunately it hasn't been as much as fun here as it was last time, but I guess that would have been a bit much to expect. Anyway I'm glad I've had this weekend in Buenos Aires, because I didn't spend very long here back in April, and I've had the chance to see a few more parts of the city that I didn't have time to see first time round.

On Saturday morning I went for a walk around La Boca, which is a slightly rough working-class neighbourhood that begins just a few blocks from my hostel. I didn't go to La Boca last time I was here because I'd been warned that it was dangerous, and I didn't particularly want to take any risks. However, having been to plenty of dangerous places in the past six months without anything bad happening at all, I decided I'd take my chances this time, and of course it was fine.

Firstly I went for a look at La Bombonera Stadium, the home of Boca Juniors, which was one of Diego Maradona's teams during his playing career. I was just about able to catch a glimpse of the pitch through the fence. I then continued to El Caminito, which is La Boca's most famous street, with its colourful painted metal houses and its craft fair. Predictably enough it was extremely touristy, with tango dancers and even a Diego Maradona impersonator willing to pose with you for a photo, for a small fee.

In the afternoon I caught the metro to Recoleta, which is the complete opposite of La Boca - it's one of Buenos Aires' most exclusive neighbourhoods. I began my visit at Recoleta Cemetery, which is the resting place of many of the rich and powerful of Buenos Aires. It contains literally thousands of tombs, all of them above ground, which are laid out in blocks like a small town - here and here you can see a couple of the cemetery's 'streets'. The cemetery's most famous resident is probably Eva Perón (aka Evita); her tomb was one of the more modest ones, and this is one of the plaques on the vault. Some of the tombs are extremely grand, for example this one belonging to Dorrego-Ortiz Basualdo, but the weirdest one was definitely that of the poet Carlos Guido Spano (below), which resembled a pile of rocks with a couple of trees growing out of it.

After spending an hour or two wandering around the cemetery, I went to see the nearby Floralis Genérica, which is a giant mechanical sculpture of a flower. Every evening at sunset the flower's petals close up, and at sunrise they open again, taking twenty minutes to complete the transformation each time. Unfortunately the flower was quite stationary the whole time I was there though. It was such a beautiful afternoon that I couldn't resist lying down in the sun on the grass next to the sculpture (it's a tough life travelling), and there I stayed until it started to get chilly, at which point I went for a look around the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts). I was surprised at what a good museum it was too, with works by artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Manet and Degas, as well as a version of The Kiss by Rodin.

This morning (Sunday) I caught the metro to Palermo, another smart Buenos Aires district, and I went for walk around Palermo Viejo, which is the oldest part of the neighbourhood. It was mainly posh boutiques and bars, and not particularly interesting, so I don't have a lot to report. After lunch I returned to San Telmo, which is the neighbourhood in which I'm staying. There was a huge crafts and antique market going on there all afternoon, both in San Telmo's main square and all the way along Defensa, which is the main road running north-south through San Telmo. This was the view along Defensa - it was full of people for as far as I could see. After spending a couple of hours walking around the market (and buying nothing), I spent the rest of my final afternoon in Parque Lezama (below).

That almost brings an end to my South America blog, but it's not quite over yet, because I plan to publish one final post when I get back to the UK on Tuesday.

Itaipu Dam and Iguazu Falls

I arrived in Ciudad del Este on Monday afternoon, and I made a bad mistake with my choice of hotel. I decided to stay in Hotel El Caribeño because it was the cheapest hotel listed in Lonely Planet, and since I was only going to be there for one night, I didn't care if it was a bit grim. However, I discovered when I arrived that the hotel had been transformed - the rooms had been renovated, with brand new beds, bathrooms, TVs and air conditioning units. The price had also been transformed, to almost double what it was before the renovation. I reluctantly paid the money, as it was still cheaper than anything else nearby, but what I didn't realise at that point was that the renovation of the hotel was only partially complete.

The workmen had obviously stopped their hammering and drilling while I checked in, but they soon restarted - it carried on until 9pm, and then started again at 6am the following day. At one point there was a builder inside my room drilling holes in the floor to fix a door stop; while he was doing this, I was sitting on my bed watching television (although I couldn't hear the television because of the noise), and the owner's young son was standing in the doorway, staring at me. I wasn't really expecting that!

The reason I stayed the night in Ciudad del Este was to go for a tour of the Itaipu Dam, so the following morning I got up early to go there (it's difficult to sleep when someone's drilling a hole in the wall outside your room). The dam is the second largest electricity generating plant in the world (after the Three Gorges Dam), and was built in the 1970s and 1980s across the Paraná River, on the border between Brazil and Paraguay.

Before the free tour began, we were treated to a short propaganda film telling us how great it all is, with lots of impressive facts and figures (the dam is as high as a 65-storey building; the steel used in its construction could build 380 Eiffel Towers; 15 times as much concrete was used as as during the construction of the Channel Tunnel, etc.). The film completely failed to mention any of the negative impacts of the dam's construction, for example that 10,000 families living next to the river lost their homes, and that the Guaíra Falls, the world's largest waterfall by volume, were completely drowned by the reservoir that formed behind the dam.

We then went by bus to a viewpoint where I took a couple of photos of the dam (here and here), and then the bus drove us across the top of the dam, from where we could see the reservoir. To be honest I found it all a bit underwhelming - sure, it was a big dam, but I couldn't see anything happening at all. In the promotional photos, the gates in the first of my photos are open, with water gushing out of them, and that would have given an idea of the power of the water. However, I think those gates are only opened during the wet season to stop the reservoir from overflowing, and at this time of year almost all of the water flows through the turbines, which obviously you can't see. I did read today that it's possible to go on a special tour that includes a visit to the production building and command centre, etc., but that tour wasn't being advertised when I was there.

After I returned from the tour I had a quick look around Ciduad del Este, which was enough to tell me that it's a pretty awful place. The city is one of the largest tax-free commerce zones in the world, so most of the activity revolves around shopping. The city contains dozens of shopping centres, and along the main road is a manic market that gets more and more frenetic the closer you get to the border with Brazil. So I quickly made my escape to Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil, and I've spent the last two days visiting Iguazu Falls - yesterday I went to the Argentinian side, and this morning I went to the Brazilian side.

Unfortunately Iguazu Falls is a massive tourist trap, with coach-load after coach-load of tourists pouring into the place and clogging up the walkways (I know I'm not exactly helping matters). It's true that the falls are one of the most amazing sights on the planet, but it does reduce the enjoyment a bit when you have to fight your way past hundreds of other people just to see it (it was a lot worse on the Argentinian side than on the Brazilian side). This couldn't have been more different from Angel Falls, which is so remote that it receives a tiny fraction of the number of Iguazu's visitors, and where the only viewing platform is a slippery rock.

Anyway I tried my best to put all that to the back of my mind and enjoy the falls, which were spectacular. On the Argentinian side, I began my visit at the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), which is probably the most impressive of all of the 275 waterfalls (I don't know how they counted them). I also took a video, which you can see below.

I then walked around the Upper Circuit, from where I got a good idea of the extent of the falls, and where I also saw some of them close up, such as Salto San Martin. Afterwards I went round the Lower Circuit, where there were also good views of the whole of the falls (below), as well as of Salto Dos Hermanos (Two Brothers Waterfall).

I returned from my visit to the Argentinian side of the falls to discover that someone had stolen my copy of Lonely Planet South America from beside my bed in my dorm. I'm not particularly bothered, because I only have three days left in Brazil, and I have a separate Lonely Planet book for Argentina and Uruguay, but it is a bit of a nuisance. On the positive side, it was a heavy book, and it means I now have one less thing to carry around with me.

This morning I went to the Brazilian side of the falls, which gives a completely different perspective. Here is a general view of the falls, and here is a close-up of Salto Rivadavia (with Salto Tres Mosqueteros and Salto Dos Mosqueteros in front of it). I then walked along the trail to get a view of Garganta del Diablo from the opposite side (photos here and here). I also took another video, which you can see below.

And finally here is a nice picture of a rainbow over the falls!

I'm catching the bus to Florianópolis this evening, to spend my penultimate South American weekend on Ilha de Santa Catarina. The weather forecast is terrible though, so it might not be such a great plan.

Salta

On Sunday evening I arrived in Salta, which is another big city, and the most touristed spot in north-west Argentina. I decided to stay in the Youth Hostel Terra Oculta because it's close to the bus station, but unfortunately that's about all it has to recommend it. I probably should have moved elsewhere on Monday, but in the end I didn't.

On Monday I saw some of the sights of Salta, including the Catedral and the Iglesia San Francisco. I also went on a trip on a cable car up to the top of the nearby Cerro San Bernando, from which there were some great views of Salta.

On Tuesday I decided to go on an organised tour to Cachi, which is a small town about fifty miles to the south-west of Salta. I wasn't too happy when I saw that almost all of the other people on the tour were middle-aged Argentinian couples (plus there was one young couple from Sutton Coldfield), but the trip was actually a lot of fun. The road to Cachi is known as the Cuesta del Obispo (Bishop's Slope), and it's a windy one. Here's a picture of me alongside it at an altitude of about 3500m. We saw a few condors along the way, and I also got my first glimpse of the high Andes.

During lunch we were talking about my trip, and one of the Argentinian ladies advised me strongly not to go to Bolivia - she said it's dirty, there are too many flies, the food's terrible, the people are unfriendly, and there are thieves everywhere. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well I'm going to go anyway, and I'll make up my own mind.

On the way back from Cachi we passed through the Parque Nacional Los Cardones, which contains thousands of cardons (a type of cactus). Here's a photo of me next to one of the bigger ones.

We hit a delay a bit further down the road, because a lorry pulling a trailer had got itself wedged against the rock face, completely blocking the road. After the driver had spent about half an hour scraping the trailer back and forth against the rock, they eventually managed to free it by hammering off chunks of rock with a chisel.

In the evening I went for a meal and then for a few beers in the hostel's rooftop bar with Ethan (a Canadian student) and Ben (an Australian civil servant), who I met in my dorm. Ethan had just got the bus down from Bolivia that day, and he said he'd had a great time there, so I think I'm more inclined to listen to his opinion.

Today I had a fairly relaxed day. In the morning I went to the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana, which is one of Argentina's top museums. Their big exhibit is the mummified bodies of three sacrificed Inca children, who were found in 1999, perfectly preserved at the peak of the Llullaillaco volcano. Sadly I have no photos, because I wasn't allowed to take any.

Since I've been in Argentina, I've been living largely off empanadas, which are bit like a small Cornish pasty or calzone, although apparently they're Spanish in origin. Here's a picture of my lunch today.

This is way too many empanadas to eat at one sitting (and I'd already eaten one by this point). This is because the waitress misheard my order, causing me to end up with nine instead of six (and in fact five would have been enough). I kept the rest, so it will probably be empanadas for dinner again tonight.

This is my last post from Argentina, because tomorrow I'm catching an early bus to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile.

Cafayate

On Friday evening I arrived in Cafayate, which is a small town known for its wine (it's Argentina's number two wine production centre after Mendoza). I made a good choice of hostel this time - I stayed at Hostel El Balcón, which is named after its balcony (or roof terrace) with a view. On the first night I met some people in the hostel, and we decided to go out to get some wine ice cream, which Cafayate is also famous for. I chose the cabernet, and some of the others went for the torrentés, but to be honest both of them tasted pretty awful - I don't think wine and ice cream are meant to go together.

Unfortunately the wine tasting tour I mentioned in my last post didn't go ahead. The reason we were given was that the vineyards are closed on Saturday, but I think you could call that a blatant lie, because the opening times are displayed at the tourist information centre, and the vineyards are clearly open every day. I think the real reason was that not enough people had signed up for the tour, and I don't know why they didn't just say that!

The good news is that there were enough takers for the canyon hike in the Quebrada de Cafayate on Saturday afternoon, so that did go ahead. The canyon is pretty spectacular, but the photos don't really do it justice.

There are a few more photos in my April 2010 album. There are some interesting rock formations, including one that looks a bit like a train and one that looks like a toad. For some reason the guide also made each of us jump in the air (photo here). Unfortunately the weather wasn't too great on Saturday, but at the last minute the sun did come out, creating a nice sunset.

Then on Sunday I went to Quilmes, which is a ruined pre-Incan city about 35 miles south of Cafayate. I went with Lisa, who's an American girl I met at the hostel. Lisa is fluent in Spanish, having worked for the last two years in Chile and Argentina, which came in very helpful. We could have got a taxi to the ruins, which would have cost AR$120 (£20) and given us only one hour there, but in the interests of saving money, we chose a more complicated route. We got a public bus to the Quilmes turn-off, from where we got a ride on the back of a beaten-up Ford pickup truck the last 3 miles to the ruins. This photo shows one of the views we got of Quilmes.

There are some more photos here and here. After spending a couple of hours there, the next problem was how to get back to Cafayate. Luckily, Lisa soon managed to sweet-talk us a lift with a Brazilian man in a 4x4. She wasn't going back to Cafayate, so we dropped her off at the turn-off, and then I got a free ride all the way back to Cafayate. The Brazilian man's name was Wilson, and it turned out that he spoke fluent English and had two sons living in London, so we had plenty to talk about on the way back.

I arrived in Cafayate in time to catch my bus to Salta, which is my last destination in Argentina before I head to Chile.

Tafí del Valle

This will be just a short post about the day I spent in Tafí del Valle, a small town in the hills near Tucumán.

I arrived around lunchtime yesterday, and in the afternoon I went on a short steep hike up the nearest hill, Cerro Pelado (which I think means Bare Hill). There were some great views from the top, including this one of the town.

And here you'll find a photo of me at the top of the hill.

That's about all I have to report from Tafí, but I'll just mention that I met a German couple in the hostel, who told me that they'd been travelling for five months, and that they'd spent the whole of that time in Argentina and Chile. I think that goes to show how much there is to see in Argentina, but which I won't have time to see on this trip, because my time in Argentina is already almost at an end.

I've now moved on to my next destination, which is Cafayate. Tomorrow I'm going on a wine tasting tour (in the morning!) followed by a canyon hike in the afternoon, of which more in my next post.

Tucumán

I had a second day in Córdoba on Monday, and I then caught an overnight bus to Tucumán, which is another big city in north-west Argentina. I decided I was a bit tired of busy city-centre hostels, so I'm staying in a hostel called Casa Calchaquí, which is in a small town called Yerba Buena, about five miles west of Tucumán. I've even got a private room for the first time, and it's about a million times more relaxing here than at that crazy hostel in Córdoba, as you can see.

However, that was yesterday, because at about 9pm last night there was a massive thunderstorm, which in the space of an hour turned the roads into rivers, and soaked me as I went out to get some dinner. As a result the temperature has plummeted, and today it's hardly got above 15C, whereas yesterday it was 28C.

In retrospect it was probably a mistake to stay at this hostel, because although it's very pleasant, there's hardly anyone else staying here, and it's made me feel quite isolated, stuck out here in a modern suburb of Tucumán, a long bus ride from town, and with nothing here except for a few expensive restaurants. Lesson learned, from now on I'll stick to the crazy town-centre hostels.

Anyway, while the sun was shining yesterday I did get a chance to see some of the sights of Tucumán, including the Catedral, the Casa de Gobierno and the Casa de la Independencia, which is Argentina's equivalent of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Tomorrow I head into the mountains for the first time, starting in Tafí del Valle.

Córdoba

I arrived in Córdoba yesterday after a 10-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. I'm not so impressed with the hostel this time - there seem to be only two showers in the whole place (which has about 50 beds), and the breakfast this morning was almost non-existent. However, they did put on an excellent 'asado' last night, and most of the guests in the hostel turned up for it. An asado is an Argentine-style barbecue, and I have never seen so much meat being cooked in my life.

I spent today looking around Córdoba. There are a lot of historic buildings to look at, including the Iglesia Catedral (below) and the Parroquia Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de los Capuchinos with its missing steeple. I also had a look around the Palacio Ferrerya art museum.



I think my Spanish is gradually improving. I'm having to use it quite a lot, and I'm OK with saying simple phrases, but the difficult thing is understanding what they say back to you. I managed to have a conversation of sorts with the friendly Argentinian man sitting next to me on the bus from Buenos Aires yesterday - when I told him I was travelling around South America for six months, he asked me if I was a missionary, which I thought was a surprising thing to ask.

By the way, I've created a Google map to show the route I'm taking. To see it, just follow the link on the right hand side of the main blog page. I'll try to mark every hostel I stay at.

Buenos Aires part 2

Yesterday I got up early to go on a day trip from Buenos Aires to Tigre, which is about an hour north of BA by train. I went with Surbhi and Eamonn, who are an American doctor and an Irish teaching advisor that I met at my hostel. The interesting thing about Tigre is the delta region that surrounds it - it's a bit like Venice, in that it's criss-crossed by rivers, and the only way to get around is by boat. Here's a pic of Surbhi and Eamonn at Tigre, and below is another of me and Surbhi.

After we got back from Tigre, a group of us met to drink a couple of bottles of Malbec, and we then went out to dinner at a local steak restaurant. There were six of us - Surbhi, Eamonn, two Brazilians called Eduardo and Sandra, me, and a crazy American called Jed, who told us that he's travelling around the world on the proceeds of a law suit that he won against his former employers, who sacked him when he told them he'd been diagnosed with colon cancer. Without asking any of us, Jed proceeded to order two US$100 bottles of wine (the most expensive on the menu by about a factor of six). In fairness to him, he did pay for the wine when the bill came, but he wouldn't have been very popular otherwise. After the meal we went to a tango show, eventually returning to the hostel at about 3am.

Today I had a more low key day, due to utter exhaustion. In the morning I went for a walk around San Telmo with Surbhi until she had to go to the airport to catch her flight back to New York. Then in the afternoon I walked around Buenos Aires for a couple of hours - there are a few pics I took here, here and below.

Tomorrow I leave Buenos Aires for Córdoba.

Buenos Aires days 1 & 2

I've had a couple of days to explore Buenos Aires now, and from what I've seen so far it's a great place. I've put some photos in my April 2010 album. Yesterday I wandered around the Microcentro, and saw the Plaza de Mayo, the Casa Rosada and the Obelisco. I also watched some tango dancing at Avenida Florida.

This morning I wandered over to Puerto Madero and had a look around the Costanera Sur nature reserve. I then got the subway over to Palermo, where among other things I saw the Hipódromo Argentino, Buenos Aires's horse racing track.

I've also had my first experience of some anti-British sentiment. Yesterday I was sitting in the park when I was approached by man, who, when he realised I was British, started talking to me about English football. It was obvious by this point that he wanted money, and when I refused to give him any, his response was "F**k England!", and he stormed off shouting something about Las Malvinas, aka the Falkland Islands.

I haven't been feeling too great since I got here, so I came home early this afternoon, just in time in fact to watch Man Utd lose to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on TV - I can't believe they lost from 3-0 up! However, on the positive side I took a couple of Imodium when I got in, and I'm now feeling a whole lot better.

Tonight I'm meeting up with a couple of girls that I met at breakfast this morning - I think the plan is to go and buy some fresh pasta and a few other ingredients, and cook a meal in the hostel kitchen, washed down with some Argentinian vino tinto.

Cardiff to Buenos Aires

So here it is, the first post in my South America blog, at the start of what I hope will be a six month trip around the continent. I've just arrived at my hostel in Buenos Aires after a mere 28 hour trip from the UK. I'm exhausted and in need of a shower, but I can't check into my room for another hour, so I'm taking the opportunity to start off my blog.

I'm staying for four nights at the Sandanzas Cultural Hostel, which is a friendly place in San Telmo, not far from the centre of Buenos Aires. I haven't even ventured outside yet, so I think I'll report back once I've seen a bit of the city. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the weather's great - blue skies and about 22C.

I thought I'd finish this post with a picture of me setting off from Cardiff Central station yesterday.

I'll try to recreate this photo in six months' time, in a before-and-after style, and see if anyone can tell the difference.