Sunny Santiago

Flying across to Santiago, we crossed the Andes by air, passing over the highest peak in the Americas, Aconagua (6,913m).  

Arriving in Santiago we were greeted with hazy skies due to the heat, we are approaching autumn here and the temperature is still around 30 degrees.

On checking in to another lovely hotel (Thanks to Dan, Lynn, Rich, Ritchie, Beccie, Tim, Uncle Ronnie, Auntie Mia, Nadia & Marc), we went out for a wander to see some of the city.  More street art to be seen here, including a bizarre wall filled with toys/junk and then painted.  Very odd, we turned a corner and it was just there!

We went up to the top of the hill in the centre of the city using the funicular railway. Despite the haze, the views of the city ringed by mountains were impressive, Andy was very impressed that the mountains were so close, the ski trails were visible even from afar and without the snow.

Andy had read about so etching he was interested in visiting in Santiago, they are called Cafe con Piernas, or 'Leg Cafe's'. The premise is that there are no seats, only bars where you can stand and drink your tea/coffee, and the walls are covered with mirrors.  This is to allow surreptitious, and sometimes not, admiration of the legs of the girls serving, who are all in short, tight skirts, and high heels.  These are very common in certain areas of the city, and there are even a couple of chains.  There are also the seedier versions, but these are less obvious. These cafés are a bit odd, they contradict Chile's traditionally quite conservative culture, but you can find them everywhere in central SNtiago if you know where to look.

On searching for one of these cafés, which can be found particularly around the Plaza de Armas area, Andy decided he had changed his mind and no longer wanted to go in.  Thirst (and curiosity) eventually own out and we popped in for a drink.  I get big wife points.  

That afternoon we left the city and drove out to the Concha y Toro vineyard, one of the most renowned in Chile, they farm over 8,700 hectares across the country (including some in Mendoza, Argentina, just the other side of the Andes).  They produce a huge variety of different wines, including the Casillero de Diablo brand, which is one of my favourites at home.  The weather was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, a lovely day for a vineyard tour :)

First we saw the old manor house, with its sculptured garden which reminded me quite a bit of the garden at Nonsuch Palace.  From there we moved to the vineyard itself. Where they have a tasting area - a selection of vines for every type of wine that they produce.  We were invited to taste the grapes, and although we couldn't discern any types of wine from a particular grape, it was so interesting tasting the difference between them all! Andy got stuck into the Malbec vine whereas I sampled a fair few of the Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc varieties!

Visiting the cellars we learned all about the process, and the different varieties, including a tasting if 3 of their wines.  Two of these were blended, they had a very different taste to them - the White was a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, and Pinot Blanc. Mother red was a bland of something really nice, can't remember!  We were also give a taste if one of their reserve wines.  Before heading back to Santiago we went into the attached winery and tried a full glass each, I had a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc which was perfect for a sunny day, and Andy tried one of the reserve Camenere reds.  

Another early morning today, as we are on the move again.  'm writing this from a plane somewhere over the Pacific, en route to Easter Island for a taste of hybrid Polynesian/Chilean culture.  The plane was delayed for 3 hours due to meteorological conditions, and the flight is 5 hours, so it has already been a long day.  We are so excited to get there and see the Moai.

Hello Buenos Aires!!

Arriving back in Buenos Aires was a little bittersweet, we had waved goodbye to the beautiful mountains of the Andes and the crisp mountain air, exchanging them for high rise buildings and sticky humidity; time too to say goodbye to the friends we had made in our trip around Patagonia as we all split up for different ongoing destinations.  This was the start of the next part of our travels, going it alone for a few weeks.

We had yet another last night dinner, on the lovely Ash's recommendation - she didn't steer us wrong once in 2 weeks, the food and wine has been a real treat. We then moved out of the centre of the city with its noisy narrow streets and made for the suburban district of Palermo for a few days, an awesome area with wide tree lined streets, street art on every corner, and a real cafe culture.  Thanks to Pete and Jo for our wedding gift of an upgraded hotel in Palermo; we found a real gem which was up there as one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed in.

Rather than enjoying the weather and relaxing on our first day back in the city, we unfortunately spent the majority of the day trawling the streets in search of a new camera lens due to my clumsiness on the boat in the Beagle Channel.  Buenos Aires has specialist shops all in similar areas, the challenge was to find 'camera street', no small feat as it turned out.  We eventually found a tiny shop with hundreds of lenses, and walked out of there with the Sigma 18-250mm macro lens for a giddying multiple of the price that it would have been at home.  That is a lesson I will likely not need to learn again - replacing things is possible, but we definitely take for granted how easily and cheaply we can source high end goods in the UK.  All clouds have a silver lining though, the old lens is still usable for the time being, and we now have an extended zoom which I have no doubt will come in useful when we reach the Galápagos Islands in a few weeks :)

Coincidentally, two of our friends from the tour were staying just around the corner from our hotel, so we spent some more time with them over the next couple of days.  This included me going out with the girls for dinner.  Andy had decided not to bother that night, but changed his mind fairly rapidly when I showed him a picture of the amazing burger I had found... There was an article in the window claiming that this was one of the best burgers in the world.  On seeing that when I got home, Andy went out and got himself one too... He is not known for being able to resist a burger (To the extent that he has already booked our tickets for the Burger Challenge Final in London for the day after we get home!).

We bit the bullet on the next day and boarded the hop on hop off bus to tour around the city and see the sights.  Given the last time I ventured into one of these I ended up in A&E from falling down the stairs we were a little nervous of a repeat performance but I'm pleased to report that this passed without incident! The city is so big, with the areas that we wanted to visit so far apart, that the bus seemed the best option.  

We went into the Recoleta Cemetery, a 14 acre site filled with a staggering 4,691 vaults, in the centre of the city.  Many of the tombs are immaculate, with intricate carving and varying styles; many more have fallen into a state of disrepair, with windows smashed, or skylights broken, showering dust and debris onto the coffins inside.  We saw several where the plants in the cemetery had grown through the skylights/doors, making them look desolate and forgotten.  We followed the well trodden path to the Familia Duarte tomb, final resting place of Eva Peron, and took the obligatory pictures.  Although this tomb is beautiful, and naturally better cared for than most others as the 'main attraction', there are others which are far grander and more imposing. Evita is still renowned in Argentine culture, she is considered an icon.

From the Recoleta the next highlight of the tour was La Boca,  colourful area a little out of town, famed for its brightly coloured buildings, street tango, and La Bombonera, the home of the Boca Juniors football team. The stadium didn't quite make UK Premiere league standards...

We wandered these streets for an hour or so, marvelling at the colours, the slightly odd tree decorations which seem to be prevalent in Buenos Aires, and absorbing the lively atmosphere.  Andy was particularly impressed (or not) with the Maradonna impersonator who was wandering around muttering 'Diego, Diego).

We enjoyed one final 'last night' dinner with our friends from Patagonia on our last night in Buenos Aires, this involved the six of us digging in to a combined total of around 2.4kg of meat (mostly steak), with the consensus being that this was far and away the best steak we had ever tasted.  

The giant knife wasn't really needed - steak was like butter!

Following it up with Crepes con Dulce de Leche (I'm an addict), and the bill being delivered with a lollipop tree for us to help ourselves, we then set out into the night to experience some late night drinking Palermo style.   The upshot of this was that Andy and I made it back to the hotel at about 4.30am, with a 7.30am taxi booked to take us to the airport to depart for Santiago.  Not one of our finest moments, to say we were a bit dusty (still drunk) was an understatement. The lovely Tarelle dragged herself out of bed from down the road and came to wave us off. My lull note that Andy has looked better...

One thing we definitely learned from that experience, is that travelling when hungover on 2 hours sleep is not advise able! When will we learn...

Beagles and Albatrosses...

The Beagle Channel is named after the HMS Beagle, the ship that discovered it in the early 1800's.  The HMS Beagle was named after the type of dogs favoured by the royal family at the time, so these days it would be called the Corgi Channel. Love a bit of English eccentricity.

Captain Tigger driving the boat

We went on a boat trip to the lighthouse at the end of the earth, through the Beagle Channel.  The trip consisted of some of the most breathtaking views we have ever seen, the water was very still, and the only noise when the boat stopped was that of the sea birds flying around.  

Lighthouse at the End of the Earth

It was only when we went out into the channel, that we could really appreciate the size and scope of the mountains surrounding Ushuaia.  Having had very different scenery on the way across the border from Chile, the Andes were back in full view. 

We saw penguins, sea lions and lots of seabirds on the trip, but the best were definitely the Albatross.  The birds were all gorging on the sardines in the channel, but when the boat approached they all wanted to be elsewhere.  The Albatross literally runs along the water until it can take off, they reminded me of something as I was watching them, and it was only when I realised what it was that I knew they definitely were Albatross - the way they ran across the water looked exactly like Orville the Albatross in The Disney movie The Rescuers!  One of them kept trying to fly away, and in the end had to take the tactical decision to void its lunch of sardines so that it wasn't too fat to run... Not the most pleasant sight - interesting to see how much they could eat though!

Albatross

One downside of the boat trip was clumsy kat striking again - I dropped the camera on the lens and smashed the housing... Not ideal 2 weeks into the trip. It seems to now be working, and after a very long day trying to find a camera shop we have since got a new, contingency lens - so fingers crossed that will all be fine.

So this trip was on valentines day, and full marks go to Andy for getting our tour leader to go and get me a valentines day card - we'd agreed not to bother as we were travelling so that was a nice surprise.  Andy of course didn't make a fuss about this at all - I'm never going to hear the end of it!!  Lovely Ash had arranged a valentines day drinks party for us, you'll see from the pictures that we were all getting into it :)

The next day we went up yet another mountain, this time by chair lift. Now I don't really do chair lifts having never been skiing - you'll see from the picture that I was not particularly happy on the way up! We hiked up to a snowfield which felt odd on such a hot day, and then up to a panoramic viewpoint of Ushuaia - again, amazing.  The views just kept getting better.

Andy on the snow field

Ushuaia shipwreck

On walking through the hotel that afternoon I saw my tour leader Ben from the last time I was in South America, in 2005.  Ben was in Ushuaia to join one of the Antarctic cruises, which many of us were very tempted to jump onto as we were so close.  It was very random to see him, of all places for our paths to cross I don't think I'd have expected the end of the earth! 

Our last night was at yet another amazing restaurant, where bottles of Malbec cost $7, and the steaks are incredible.  It was a great last night before heading back to Buenos Aires.

Our last morning involved a search for the sign approving we were at the end of the earth. 30 minutes looking for it and then we finally found it - it was visible from our hotel. Oh dear!!

The flight later that morning treated us to hands down the best views we have ever had from a plane (although Andy thinks Fiji equals it). The pictures speak for themselves... It was unbelievable.