Jamesandellie's Blog

Happy Christmas to you all!! Christmas this year will be a little strange for us what with the 40 degree heat, the bbq lunch by the pool and of course no family – but we intend to celebrate with our new friends for the next couple of days. We’ll be thinking about you all at home in the snow and hoping that you all have a great Christmas too and that Santa brings you everything you want!

Feliz Navidad a todos! and below is a little present to you all…

Arrived into Cordoba at about half 5, just as the sun was rising – turns out that 5 and a half hours was too short for an overnight bus. Managed to just about wake up with some breakfast at the bus station before braving the journey to our hostel. Turned up to discover that the forecast for the day was 40 C, and the temperature at 9am was already over 30, so we promptly went back to bed and hid from the sun all day. Finally decided to brave the heat in the evening when it was back down to a slightly more bearable 30 again and found that everyone was out doing their Christmas shopping in the lovely pedestrianised area in the city centre. Very surreal having Christmas in the heat! Spent the evening people watching around the main square and eating tasty ice cream to cool down, although we didn’t manage to find any milongas so we still haven’t made it to a proper tango show yet.

The next day the weather broke and was much cooler, although unfortunately quite rainy. Spent the day wandering around the city only to discover that most of the museums were actually shut for renovation but we did manage to visit some impressive churches and get a look at some of the city’s nice old architecture. In the evening we made our way to the more bohemian end of town for a nice relaxing cup of mate, my first, and very tasty too (although the huge dose of caffeine made me feel a bit funny) and then had a wander round the weekend arts and crafts fair which was all very nice. That evening Kirstie and I decided we’d do something cultural and go and watch Last Tango in Paris at the cine-theatre, Ellie opted out fearing it would all be in Spanish – fortunately for us it was in French and was a really great film! In search of some more culture we then headed out with everyone from the hostel for a dub-step night in an old warehouse nightclub which was great fun. Unfortunetly that meant the next day was almost a complete write off as Argentine nightlife only starts after midnight and doesn’t finish till 6 or 7! Luckily it was a Sunday and it was raining again so we didn’t miss out on much!

Feeling much better the next day we set off into the Sierra (mountain ranges) that stretches out from Cordoba to the South. First stop was the village of Villa General Belgrano, via a scenic drive through the mountains and lakes. The village looks like something from the German Alps, probably because it was founded by Germans who’d been sunk off the coast of Uruguay during WW2. Had an explore of the quaint little main street with its chalet style shops and restaurants then set up camp in a nice peaceful location on the edge of town. After a siesta, and once the weather had cooled a bit, we did a bit more exploring along the riverside walk and up in the top of the town which gave some beautiful views to the mountains eitherside. Sampled some traditional German hot dogs and beer for dinner and watched the world go by, befriended a lot of stray dogs and noticed that nearly every woman in the town was pregnant!!

Woke up the next morning to A LOT of complaining from the girls about camping – too cold, too uncomfortable, too many ants, too many goats in the toilets etc, etc – so we left the campsite pretty quickly and headed off to Los Reartes instead upon the recommendation of the nice campsite owner. Turned up to find a tiny old village with some very friendly, if a little eccentric people (think League of Gentleman…) beside a stunning riverside setting. Had a nice picnic and a siesta and just about managed to have a swim in the two inch deep river – at least it cooled us off as the weather has switched back from cool and rainy to exceedingly hot again, even up in the mountains. After a very relaxing day by the river we headed back to Cordoba past some more beautiful mountain scenery and some more rivers and lakes. Back to the same friendly hostel (Palenque) for a chilled night with our hostel friends and plenty of travel story swapping.

Our last day in Cordoba turned out to be insanely hot again but this time we decided to brave the heat and see all the things we hadn’t yet seen, starting with the Rememberance Museum in the main square, an old prison dating from the military dictatorship of the 70′s where political prisoners were kept, tortured and killed. This has now been turned into a touching display of pictures, artefacts and memorials to the missing, all housed in the old cells. An interesting display as we hadn’t really encountered anything to do with the dictatorship despite it being quite recent, unfortunately it was all in Spanish which meant we didn’t understand everything, but certainly enough (with the help of the history section of our guidebooks) to get the picture. After a brief visit of the cathedral I left the girls to eat ice cream and people watch in the main square while I headed off in search of the park and some more nice buildings. The buildings were worth the trip, some of the old architecture here is really impressive, but the park was a bit of a let down, the highlight being the giant Christmas tree with giant Christmas present in the middle of the roundabout – until I stumbled across some people carrying banners and banging drums, a fairly common occurence in Argentina! I followed them and discovered hundreds more people with banners and drums having a massive fiesta outside the national courts – and lots more pictures from the memorial museum. It was only later that I discovered that they were celebrating the outcome of the trial of the ex-military dictator, Jorge Videla, who had just been sentenced to life (for the second time) for his war-crimes back in the 70′s. The fiesta was quite amazing, everyone was dancing, singing, waving flags and banging drums as loud as they possibly could – clearly a very passionate outpouring of sentiment – shame I didn’t understand any of the chants they were singing, but I still felt very lucky to witness such an amazing event. All that was left for us to do was pack up our bags, say our adioses and head off on yet another overnight bus towards Mendoza.

Arrived in Rosario around lunchtime after a nice comfy bus trip, but still feeling pretty tired. Found ourselves a nice hostel and then headed out to find some lunch, by which time I crashed and had to go back for a siesta while the girls went for a wander down to the waterfront. Had a very chilled evening in the hostel to prepare ourselves for some cultural sightseeing the next day. We started off walking through the city centre down the main pedestrian shopping street with some more nice colonial buildings, evetually ending up at the cathedral which was much more impressive inside than out. Got a history lesson from some nice man, most of which I didn’t understand but he did show us an ancient crypt which had something to do with coronation and the flag… Behind the cathedral was the monument to the national flag, which was created here in Rosario and may well have also had something to do with the crypt. Apparently the main reason to visit Rosario, not quite sure why, it is just a big statue with a load of flags round it, but very patriotic anyway. Much nicer was the walk along the riverfront along the old railway lines and old warehouses, some of which has been re-developed into some lovely cafes, art exhibitions, walkways etc and some of which has been left as it was for the squatters – perhaps they ran out of money halfway down? Had lunch in an old signal house then carried on up past the old railway station into the old town where there really wasn’t much to see at all, although the city is very attractive and seems very liveable, the people here are even more lovely and chilled out than Buenos Aires.

In the evening we went out for some more culture – a little bit stranger than normal – at the planetarium. At first glance it seemend closed, but luckily I found a side entrance so we got to go and look through a telescope at the moon, which was amazing. Then we got chatting to the guy, who as it turned out wanted to practise his English, who decided to show us Jupiter and 3 of its moons and the orion nebula too which was really amazing, as well as answering lots of our questions about the solar system – to the point where he looked like he might explode from the effort of talking so much English, as hard as I was trying to practise my Spanish!

The next day we decided that we’d seen the highlights of Rosario’s culture so we headed for the beach on an island in the river about 10 minutes away, via a picinc in a park by the riverfront. Who’d have thought that a city so far from the sea could have such a beautiful beach so close by and apparently there are plenty more in the vicinity. Spent the day mainly avoiding the really strong sun under the trees – although Kirstie managed some nice sunburn patches! Even managed a swim in the not-too-polluted river to cool off and made friends with yet another friendly Rosarino who wanted to practise her English. Another great day in another great city, like a mini-version of Buenos Aires but with more accessible beaches and even friendlier people! Off to Cordoba on an overnight bus tonight which should be fun, only 6 hours this time….

Having been woken up nice and early by another enormous storm in Ituzaingo (we were later informed by Mike and Miranda that they had 15cm of rain over a couple of days – good for the reserve at least) we set off on another long bus journey, this time only 6 hours to Iguazu falls. We’re starting to realise just how big Argentina is and how ambitious going from one end to the other (via everywhere in between) might be, but we’ll give it a damn good go anyway. By the time we arrived it was far too late to go the waterfalls so we lazed around by the pool in our hostel and waited for Kirstie, Charlotte and Liz (from our course) to come back. Went out that evening for a lovely meal with the girls and some new American friends to a restaurant that overlooked the Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay border on either side of the river

The next day we were up early (well we would’ve been had our alarm not failed) to try and see the whole park in one day. Started off on the lower circuit which gives panoramic views across the falls, we could hear the water from the path for a while before we could actual see it, before we finally got a glimpse of the falls. The pictures can’t really do it justice, it is immense. Stopped off at a few smaller side waterfalls (still much bigger than the average waterfall) and took some nice slow shutter shots, although it was really far to bright to try that. Eventually we made our way round to an amazing panoramic view of the big waterfall, or series of waterfalls which really are incredible. We watched the tour boats driving in and out of the spray, it doesn’t look like they go very close in but we were assured by the girls that it feels like you’re right in the middle of it because of all the spray! We skipped the boat trip to save on time and money (and because we’d driven under a waterfall in Milford Sound anyway) and carried on to get a soaking ourselves from a platform under a huge waterfall.

Met the girls and the Americans for lunch, by which point the weather had changed to stormy so I was now wet and a bit cold, not something particularly common in the tropics! After our pinic we carried on to the upper level of the falls, first stop the amazing Garganta de Diabla, the one in all the pictures! Despite getting completely soaked again this was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done, standing at the edge of the huge horseshoe waterfall which is so powerfull that it creates so much spray you can’t actually see most of it, but you can certainly hear it anyway. Even more amazing was the little birds that seemed to live in the cliffs around the waterfall and were diving into the spray clouds like something out of Avatar! Now thoroughly soaked and even more cold we headed back across the walkways over the river and back on to the little train to the top of the waterfalls we had stood under earlier for some more amazing panoramic views and some close-ups of the bigger waterfalls (excluding Garganta de Diabla which is incredibly big). The falls don’t actually seem that high but the width and the sheer amount of water that pours over them (probably helped by all the rain) is incredible to watch – in fact we decided that it probably wouldn’t be the drop that killed you if you jumped off, but the power of the water sucking you under, so if you did it in full scuba gear you would probably survive….

After that amazing experience we headed back to the hostel for a nice home-cooked meal (as we realised eating out all the time was soon going to become incredibly expensive) and a nice relaxing evening. The next day we had planned to go to the Brazilian side to get some more panoramic views but this was rained off (and apparently the Argentine side is much better anyway) so we’ll have to find another way to get the Brazilian stamp in the passport – Rio for carnival possibly… An absolutely incredible experience in any case! Said our goodbyes to the Liz and Charlotte and headed off on a 20 hour bus back down to Rosario with Kirstie for the next leg of our trip.

We started off our adventure, at the very kind invitation of some family friends Mike and Miranda, in the small village of La Luisa, in the heart of gaucho country, a couple of hours outside of Buenos Aires, we even spotted our first gaucho from the bus whilst driving through San Antonio de Areco, the traditional Argentine gaucho town. The change in pace of life (and air quality) was very apparent, as we settled in at their beautiful countryside estancia with a tour of the property and the farm they are building up around it and then another trip out to the local parilla for yet more delicious Argentine steak and a first taste of morcilla (black pudding sausages). Spent the next couple of days admiring the beautiful settings, relaxing by the pool, breathing in the clean air and wildlife watching by the lake where we spotted our first coypu, among other plentiful birdlife.

Feeling fully relaxed and cleansed we set off with Luis (one of Mike and Miranda’s employees) on a ten hour drive up to the Esteros del Ibera while Mike and Miranda flew their plane up. Unfortunately for Luis we were rubbish company and spent most of the time asleep or struggling to come up with coherent Spanish to start a conversation, but eventually we made it up to Rincon del Socorro in the heart of the vast nature reserve, the most beautiful and relaxing place we’ve ever been to (miles from any civilisation) and absolutely full of wildlife. Even in the grounds of the hotel there were dozens of capybaras, rheas and other birds of all types – most of the capybaras had made their home on the private airstrip which could make for an interesting landing attempt! The first night, after a lovely dinner, we went on a night time safari round the grounds of the hotel where we spotted more capybaras, foxes, armadillos, skunks, chinchillas (including an albino one) and deer. Very early start the next morning to head out on to the nearby lake, via some birdwatching stops along the road. Yet more birds awaited at the lake, in their thousands – far too many species to try and remember, especially as we were told most of the names in Spanish, but the best ones were the eagles, vultures, kingfishers, humming birds, southern screamers along with the caymans which were much more exciting for me! Got some half decent photos of the wildlife too which was nice

After a good 3 hours out on the water spotting all kinds of wildlife we headed back and left the Rincon del Socorro, which again I’d highly recommend if you can ever find it! Luis again very kindly drove us up through the dirt roads of the national park (yet again we spent most of the time asleep) to Mike and Miranda’s own reserve, Estancia Don Luis, which is nearing completion and looks like it will be very impressive when finished. We met our very own gaucho friend, Gomez, who runs the Estancia and the surrounding reserve and who took us on a guided tour to see the animals. The whole reserve is suffering from a bit of a drought so the usual very wet marshes were bone dry and made it quite easy to walk around. Gomez the expert animal spotter managed to find us some Howler monkeys in the trees near the house, yet more birds, lots of animal tracks which he identified in Spanish (and we eventually managed to work out most of them!) and plenty more caymans! Watched the sunset and chilled out in the beautiful surroundings listening to all of the birds and tried our best to talk to Gomez, who was proudly showing off his photos taken by the hidden cameras and trying to teach us the animals names in Spanish! As the housing isn’t quite finished yet we set off back into Ituzaingo, the nearest town about 40 kms away for the evening, for a lovely relaxing dinner. The next day the rains finally came and they came in style as storm after storm swept through and treated us to apocalyptic style thunder, lightning and rain. We spent most of the day trying to teach Ellie Spanish and Luis English, with varying degrees of success, whilst the town was busy getting flooded! Went out for one final meal in Ituzaingo to say thank you to Mike, Miranda and Luis for their kindness and fantastic hospitality before heading off early the next day towards Iguazu. If anyone is interested in getting involved with their trust or checking out the reserve the website is http://www.collett-trust.org – a very worthwhile project in a truly amazing area! (Photos can be found on my snapfish or facebook, I might get round to uploading some of the best on here eventually….)

Time to start up the blog again, albeit a bit late! So we finished our CELTA course which took place over 4 weeks in Belgrano, a very nice district of Buenos Aires, and involved a lot of blood sweat and tears! We still had time for a bit of fun with our coursemates, one of whom we lived with in Casa Diego (named in honour of Diego, our friendly landlord (complete with granny, aunty and dog!), our delightful bedsit! Anyway, now that we are fully qualified teachers we thought we’d take the opportunity to get back on the road and do some travelling until we finally run out of money and are forced into looking for a job!

We started off by looking around the city we’d been living in for the past month but hadn’t actually seen much of due to our spending every waking minute planning lessons or writing essays. The last evening of our course we all went out and celebrated at Anna’s flat which meant that the first day of freedom was not as productive as it could have been, although we did eventually drag ourselves to the city centre for a look around Plaza de Mayo and then on to La Boca district – once we’d found some change for the bus, which you’d think would be fairly easy, but not in Buenos Aires because there is a severe change shortage and no one wants to give theirs up so they have change for the bus!! Anyway, eventually we made it after convincing some maxi-kiosco owners to part with a few pesos worth of coins! We started off our tour of the “dangerous” neighbourhood at the famous Boca Juniors football stadium, La Bombonera, which was quite exciting for me, less so for Kirstie and Ellie! Next stop was the heart of the district (well the tourist bit anyway) with all the coloured houses, tango dancers, cafes and the usual accompaniment of people trying to sell you just about anything they can think of – there was even Maradona’s ‘twin’ who was posing for photos! Had a nice wander round in the sunshine and took lots of pictures of the colourful houses and sat down for a beer to watch some tango dancing. Finished up with a nice stroll along the waterfront before finding our bus home (again not as simple as it should have been!). No sign of any of the ‘dangerous’ neighbourhood it’s supposed to be, although i’m sure its not advisable to wander out of the main tourist areas.

The next day we decided to make the most of our last day in Buenos Aires and head out early to Recoleta Cemetery, the Argentine equivalent of Pere LaChaise in Paris and the resting place of Evita among plenty of other famous Argentinians (most of whom we know because the metro stops and roads are named after them, but have know idea what they are famous for!). The graves were amazing, like mini houses, and some of the richer people even had statues and special plaques! Spent about an hour wandering round admiring the crypts and wondering who everyone was before it started to get too hot so we made our way back through Recoleta to find a bus (we remembered our change today) down to Puerto Madero to meet Matt and Kirstie for lunch. BA’s answer to the London Docklands, Puerto Madero is a really nice harbour area which has been renovated into lots of nice cafes and bars and makes a really nice relaxing afternoon stroll along the waterfront, where there is also a bit of a breeze so its not unbearably hot. Once we’d walked the length of the waterfront we made our way into San Telmo, the hippy district, where the Sunday street markets and entertainment were in full flow. Mainly just a collection of junk and antiques which kept Ellie happy, although the Tango dancers and Brazilian drumming band were also pretty cool. After a quick look round the market we spent most of the afternoon sitting in the shade drinking beer and watching the world go by, which is a great past-time in Buenos Aires! We finished off the day with a farewell meal with all our coursemates in Palermo at a Parilla (steakhouse), where we finally got some really decent Argentinean steak! Packed up our grotty bedsit and said goodbye to Buenos Aires, quite sad as it really is a beautiful place and we’ve made some great friends, both local and gringos, so hopefully we’ll be back one day soon…. but for now, time to get back on the open road!

A few things we thought we should add about Buenos Aires: The portenos (BA locals) are very friendly (and everywhere else in Argentina), the ice cream is amazing, some of the colonial architechture is easily as good as in Paris or Barcelona or anywhere else, the people talk very fast, everybody has a dog but everybody also has a tiny flat and has to employ someone to walk their dog during the day, the dog-walkers are awesome – unemployed people who have a group of dogs to walk, sometimes up to 20 dogs! there is a LOT of dog poo on the pavements, the bus and metro system is great and very extensive and easy to use once you get your head round it (as long as you have the correct change, otherwise its a nightmare), the parillas are awesome (as they are everywhere else we’ve been so far), the nightlife is great fun – although nothing starts until after midnight at the earliest, apparently the milongas (tango dances) are great – but we haven’t made it to one yet. All in all its a great city and we’d love to go back and work there one day!

(for anyone interested in doing a CELTA course, we’d highly recommend International House http://www.international-house.com.ar – very professional and great fun)