Russ and Sue's Americas Tour

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1 July

Caught plane at 8pm from BA to Santiago in Chile. Had a two hour stopover before the long haul flight of 18 hours to Sydney. This ends our trip of Central and South America!!!

 

Have loved it all, very sad to be finished and have to find work again - booo!!! Best countries of the trip were Mexico, Gautemala, Nicaragua, Peru and Bolivia.

8 June until 30 June

Very relaxing time in the city. The World Cup has started and as we have Cable we can watch most games and then go to the pub for the important ones. The timing is brilliant here, games start at 10am and finish at 6pm. Also have been roaming different parts of the city, visited Constitution, Boca, the Ecological Park and waterfront. Found great bargain clothes and shoes too, so both of us will update our wardrobes over the next three weeks. Been cooking alot of tasty soups and salads for dinner. Some days it rains so have joined a gym for $2 a day including aerobics classes and use of all machines. Have watched 2 for 1 movies in the centre for $2 each aswell. Watched some free tango dancing in San Telmo square. Eaten at lots of all you can eat parrillas, so much meat, salad, chinese food and very tasty. The weeks will fly by but we have plenty to keep us occupied.

 

 

30 May

Caught the bus at 12pm to cross the border at Fray Bentos and enter Uruguay. All formalities went smoothly without even leaving the bus. Ended up in a wee town called Mercedes. Lovely town on the River but unfortunately it was pissing it down, so had a very gloomy feleling. Not much to see or do and a few dodgy looking street urchins hanging around begging for money, made sure I had nothing in my pockets this time!! Hard to find a hotel but ended up in a very old colonial building which was freezing, had to get extra blankets for the night. Had a wee walk around before hitting a parrilla at 7pm for a juicy fat steak but when you order its just steak so had to order two side salads. These were funny as I ordered a potato sald wheich was just potatoes and Sue ordered an onion salad, which you guessed it was just onions!! ANyway totally yummy and we were both full for $4 each. Strange restaurant all the other punters were single old men. I reckoned none of them could cook so this was their meal out for the day!! Extremely cold night!!

 

31 May

Got up pretty ealry and the sun was shining to warm us up again. Caught bus to Colonia, only 2 hours down the road. What a beautiful place, definitely the highlight of Uruguay (would suggest going anywhere else except here and Carmelo, the rest is pretty boring or way too expensivbe for what you get). By the name, this place is the oldest colonial town in Urugauy and quite a find really. Had a quick walk around before utilising our kitchen and cooking a huge beef rib each with a rice slad for dinner. So nice to have a kitchen again. Bought just under a kilo of meat for $2.50.

 

1 June

Our great hotel came with free internet and free bikes too. So today we decided to use the bikes to explore all the sights. Took off up the coast to Real de San Carlos, which is an old entertainment centre for the rich community of Buenos Aires. This bloke invested US$1.5million in 1905 into a casino, a colossuem (bull ring) and a race course. Today it sits abandoned and only the race course is used. Bull fighting was outlawed in 1917 and the govt started to tax the boats with hoards of people arriving from BA to use the casino, so it too went out of business. Looked like a cool place, the casino was huge but now only squatters occupy it!!

I thought of maybe joining them......After there it was off to explore the beaches and the coast, well set up for free camping and BBQ´s (if only we still had the van). Biked back into town and looked around the shops. After a wee break decided to do the walking tour of the town as recommended in the Lonely Planet and it didnt dissapoint. It took us into the historic centre, seeing the lighthouse, draw bridge, batallion wall and canons. Also bought one ticket that let us into 6 different museums that showed history of the Sapnish and Portuguese invading and colonising the place. One museum had a history of different species found in Colonia, it had amazing dinosur bones found in the area and a huge tortoise shell from the prehistoric times, plus piranhas and other nastys that were found in the river. Out the back they had a whole set of hump back whale bones from 1984 when it was washed up on the beach. Pretty cool.....Had a nother massive steak for dinner and loads of veggies. Watched an amazing sunset from the waterfront and strolled aorund the quaint harbour.

 

2 June

Rained today all afternoon but managed to earlier get another bike ride in. This time we cycled around for 2 hours on the outskirts of the town and then rode 10-15km out of town into the farming region. Got cahsed by dogs again and couldnt find any shops to buy a coffee but had a great ride anyway. Once it started to rain, used internet and watched some TV. Then headed out and bought a shopping bag full of veggies for $1 and cooked up a mean stir fry. Really nice and good not to have meat for once. These people eat loads of the stuff, its soo hard not to follow their lead!! Nice relaxing evening reading.

 

3 June (one week till World Cup)

Got up late and at 12pm caught bus to Montevideo, Still raining today. Got there after 3 hours. This place has no cheap hotels and the ones that it does have are all very old and dirty, looks like the sheets and covers on the beds are from when the places first opened. Huge difference in prices too between good and bad. So found a half decent place but wasnt clean as there were alot of cockroaches in the room. The city is just another city, nothing special, pretty dissapointing really, had a long walk round. The only highlight was a huge warehouse down the waterfront filled with steakhouses and bars, it had a beerfest feeling to it and was full of drunk locals. Great place but because of the seedy area its in, it has to close before nightfall!!! But as we are both not drinking at the moment, we looked and left.

 

4 June

Checked out of Hotel and decided to start to head back to Argentina, the next few places along the coast are beach towns (not quite the right weather for us). So had a brief look aorund the shopping areas to try and enhance our wardrobes but again way more expensive than Argentina. Will leave shopping until back in BA. Couldnt catch bus to Punte Del Este so headed back along coast to Carmelo, a 4 hour bus ride. Glad we did as this little town rocks, found great hotel with Cable TV and private bathroom. Walked down the riverfront and found a animal sanctuary open the public, had these weird animals that look like huge guinea pigs called Garpinchu´s!!! Cute as.....also had llamas, Emus, an otter and Flamingoes!!! Bought some pellets to feed them all with. On our walk took us past the yacht club, some more dogs decided to lead the way for us, we nicknamed one Peggy as it walked on only 3 legs but thats what ya get when you chase cars, scooters and bark at horses......dogs will never learn, not this one anyway!!! Great riverbank full of BBq areas and boat moorings and there is a ferry back to BA from here. We than watched some great movies in the evening.

 

5 June

Today we hired bicycles from the tourist office and took off aorund town, went back to animal park to take photos this time. Again we had a pack of dogs lead us and bark at us, quite unnerving but you cant outrun them they just keep coming back for more. Rode for 2 hours here there and everywhere taking photos of the beaches and the yachts etc. Spied a gym for tomorrow that only costs $2 per day for use of all the equipment for all day. Will defo take advantage of that. Will chill out here for as long as we can without getting bored and then head back to BA for shopping and to get into the world cup atmosphere and partying!!!

 

6 June

Up at 9am and down the local gym for a 2 hour session of aerobics and weights, felt good to be back at a gym. Also played some video games and then went for a walk down the waterfront to feed our pack of stray dogs that keep on following us. Nice day for it. Had a another great salad meal from the bakery/cafe. Very chilled day after our exercise regime.

 

7 June

Chilled out until 2pm, had our last walk down the waterfront and to visit the animal farm before catching the ferry to Buenos Aires. Great ride up the River Plata and only took two and a half hours to get to Tigre, which is a nice wee fishing port with an Amusement park. The fare also included a bus ride to the centro of BA. Found a different hotel this time with Cable TV and Bathroom included. Also the hotel has a kitchen.

 

 

 

 

21 May had our last night out in BA with Darren.  Saw 2 movies and went to a flash all you can eat Parilla.  It was great, they bring you whatever you want so we all ate loads of meat! mmm, they serve it nicely pink too.  There was Tango in the square outside our window so we had a culture filled sleep.

 

22 May said Farewell to Dazza, hes off to the warmer shores of Rome. We caught the bus to Rosario.  Rosarios a pretty big city where Che Guerra was born.  it was quite hard to find a hotel, they were either full or really posh and way too expensive.  We finally found a great within budget one right by the water.  It was a bit of a fire hazard with naked flam heaters blasting in the hallway and no window in our room!  but it was nice other than that.  We had a bit of a look round, these cities are all blending into one!

 

23 May, We went to see Che's house, we found the street but the house wasnt marked in any way so we werent sure which was his so we looked hard at them all, we have definately seen Che's house. We went for a massive walk along the river, it was lovely.  We saw fishing clubs, RSL type clubs and a few trendy bars, a designer shopping mall selling only Chanel and D&G type clothes. Too posh for the likes of us! we saw the victoria bridge too. The riverside is very pretty.  We popped back to town and went to a veggie restaurant for dinner.  It was really fab. We ate loads and then had to run home as it all went straight through us! We eat pretty early as they have the biggest siesta in the world here, lazy bstards! from 12 til 4 everythings closed, well... its not really consistant, sometimes its from 4 til 8, but things close down here during some stage of the day, it can be really inconvienient for us who arnt used to it.

 

24th I organised Big Day Out City Tour.We went to the flag monument, it was nice with a burning flame and a tower overlooking the city but we couldnt get up the tower as they couldnt break my 100 note... Next on the list a ferry ride to the island in the middle of the lake.  We caught a bus to the pier to find that the ferrys wernt running today, finally we bussed back to see the amazing museum of stuffed animals.... it was closed for renovations so my day was a disaster!  we had a good day though, we walked by the river again and both found some great clothes to buy.  i found a great hoody, it was small and i broke it trying to fit it over my head! oops!  it made a big RIPPP sounds and everybody looked at me. the guy in the shop asked me if i still wanted to buy it!  i did buy it, luckily i wanted it tho... it sewed it up good as a bought one.  Had a picnic dinner overlooking the river.

 

25th off to Santa Fe, a nice small town.  It a public holiday the day we arrived so it was deserted!  Nothing was open at all.  We had a bit of trouble finding a hotel again, we finally found a really crappy one.  Nothing to do but buy wine and cards and while away the evening.  We did manage to do a bit of exploring too though, found a club that looked great but never made it back in the evening, they dont open til midnight-2am and we were asleep by then.

 

26th moved to a really nice hotel, did some shopping, walked around the lovely lake and watched cable. Just chilled really, Argentina is lovely so its easy to just cruise around not doing much, walking around and looking at the sights and shops.

 

27th Bad wether so we watched alot of telly, we walked twice around the lake today, yay! played spacies and watched more tv. Then Russ went to the bathroom and soon called out "theres a scorpian in here" I thought maybe it was just a bug, weve seen a few weird looking bugs here but sure enough, it was a scorpian!! ahhhhh! All nippers and stinging tail!  really nasty looking thing.  It walked really slowly though thank god so we were able to squash it with my boot. It didnt die easily and we had to pulverise it.  We both got the heebie geebies after that and kept worrying that there might be more and not wanting to walk around the room in bare feet!   but no more were seen.  It was a bit weird, i didnt think scorpians lived in towns...

 

28th  We caught the bus to Parana which is described in the guide book as a peaceful small town, much smaller than Santa Fe.  When we got there it was huge!  way bigger than Santa Fe!  it had skyscapers!  nup, weve had enought cities and want a chamge of scene so we got the next bus out of there to a place called Gauleguaychu.  Yay!  good call.  Its the border town to Uraguay but insted of being the usual seedy dodgy personalityless bordertown, its really lovely.  It has a river and fake beaches, a massive park and is nice and small.  We had real trouble finding a hotel, finally settled for quite an expensive one but great value so we have decided to just enjoy it.

 

29th  We had a great day today, we tried to look at the shops but siesta strikes again and they closed just as we arrived.  So we explored the massive park.  Its lovely, horses roaming free, a laguna, a few campervans for us to look at and talk about the pros and cons, we even made friends with a pack of crazy wild dogs.  One chased cars and one ripped my sandle off my foot and broke it. We booked bus tickets to Mercedes, Uraguay.  Cant wait!

12 May

Up at 7am to catch bus to LA Rioja, managed to see 3 movies this time on board. La Rioja is a small town with no high rises and a very nice atmosphere. Took us a while to find the hostel but it came wth cable TV and had an outside kitchen. So had to buy two big juicy steaks again and cook them up for a lovely dinner with salad. Had an early night too. SUe got pretty drunk and tried to cook sausages at 11pm, but there was no gas left, she somehow lost the sausages and the owner steered her away from the cooker. All very funny.

 

13 May

A very lazy day just looking around town and chilling out watching cable movies.

 

14 May

After our two relaxing days with not alot ot do, we caught bus to Mendoza, bus was great again, it played Englsh movies and then to top it off we played a game of bingo on board too. Sue and I were 3 numbers from winning the bottle of wine - cant win em all!! At the bus station in Mendoza we were touted and driven to a great hotel right near the thick of things. Chea place again with cable TV and right next to a Carrefour shopping mall for all our needs. Had a nice chicken dinner in one of the many parks and basked in the sun. It is now getting into the low season and winter here but the days are still 20 degrees plus. Waqtched a desperate Housewifes marathon cable.

 

15 May

Did my city tour today, visited a Mercado central, looked at all the clothes shops and went for a walk in the Mendoza sports park, which has everything to offer including horse riding, golf, tennis courts etc, beautiful place. Then at 2pm we hit the all you can eat tenedor Libre. We have never seen anything like it, for $3 its all you can eat meat, pork, ribs, sausages, kebabs, throat and intestines if you lke that kind of stuff. Plus sald bar, pasta, quiches and a dessert bar too. Totally awesome, the best smorgasboard in the world. Totally stuffed ourselves and then had another walk to let it all go down.

 

16 May

Hired bikes today and did another 4 hour tour of the the town. Pretty mad place to ride on the road, so ended up riding on the footpaths wich were wide enough to handle us and the pedestrians, luckily. Went back to the sports park and cycled almost every inch of it, around the lake and the fountains. Treid to go in the zoo but was told by a very grumpy woman, we couldnt go in with the bikes and she wouldnt look after them either. We decided she was the Grinch that stole Xmas, sour cow!! So instead bked up the hill to the lookout, great views of the mountain range!!! Also biked back down very fast around the winding roads. Great fun. Returned bikes and I fell asleep exhausted for 3 hours before having dinner in another one of the parks.

 

17 May

Decided to have the tenedor libre again as it was soo good the first time, manged to eat even more meat this time but smaller plates of the salead that accompained it. Yummy again, stayed there for nearly 2 hours, slowly trying every dish. Ten we caught te night bus to Buenos Aires at 6pm.

 

18 May

Great 14 hours in the bus, had the front row seats, so got amazing views of the scenery and no on to bother us either. Arrived at 8am in BA and it was raining. First impressions were not the greatest of the city, it is huge, bigger than London as there are so many high rises and banks etc. Lots of it looks a bit like London in the banking areas. Walked down to the canals, very nice but looked a wee bit gloomy cos of the weather. Then we found the pedestrain centre which is full f shops, restaurants and cinemas. Great place. Did a bit of clothes shopping and bought a nice jumper. Also watched two movies in a row for $2. Saw Final Destination 3 and The Hills have eyes. Both scary movies. Emailed our mate Darren to find out where he was staying. Then turned up back at the hotel to find him sitting there having a beer.

 

19 May

Got up at 10am and went for another walk of the city, down the waterfront again as the weather was much better, saw all the designer cows that seem to be following us around the world. Then we hit the movies again and saw Mission Impossible 3 - good movie!!! Met up again with Darren after the film and bought some beers and wine. Then it was a huge bender in town, went to about 10 varying bars, from a Jazz Bar to a Piano bar and a few local drinking dens too. Got very drunk and made tits of ourselves in most places. Even nearly got into a fight with a 15 year old because e tried to rob us by putting his hand in my pocket (again). So i stepped over to smash the little git but a big ARgentinian stopped me and said its not worth it. Just aswell really as we were all pretty mad as all of us have been robbed on this trip at some stage. Probably would of seriously hurt the little guy. Anyway went back for a few more drinks after that. At the end of the night we all staggered home and the gate was locked to the hotel. So I climbed over it to find out that Darren could use his key to unlock it. Very funny!! Got in about 4am.

 

20 May

Slept nealy all day, Sue made alot of soup for her to eat. Finally got up about 4pm as did Darren then the both of us went for all you eat Pizza for $3 to starve off the hangover. Pizza was great and managed to get thru 5 between us. Saw all the street performers in the ecentre of town on our way back home. In bed by 10pm and had a very long ear plugged sleep. Were going to attempt to go clubing but will leave that until we come back to BA next month. But have sussed out some good ones!!!

 

 

 

4 May

Finally said our goodbyes to Tom the Pom, lovely lad but he is off on a different route to us. Will see him again in Brisbane!! Caught the bus to Tilcara only 45km down the road from Humahuaca. Great little town still in Wild West territory. Once setlled in we visited the Pucara ruins, which is a fortress nestled on a imprentable hill as there are steep hills and cactuses all round. Had some great views of the valley and red rocks etc. Whole place has been nealy restored and it dtaes back to BC times. Got to see over 1000 cactuses of varying species too. Also visited the local art gallery and an Inca Museum which had two petrified mummies on display......ummm weird!!! The museum also had preserved human bones and the skulls that had been flattened by the incas with boards tied around the foreheads, like they used to do, god knows why??? Some cool pots and weapons in there too. Tilcara has loads of crafts to offer in the main square, so had a nosey thru them also.

 

5 May

Today we decided to go out on a whim and visit Purmamarca as suggested by a lovley Argentinian women we met. So cuaght local bus there 20km down the road. Another great little cowboy town with more arts and crafts on offer, surrounded by huge red rocks and more canyons. Went on a wee 3km walk around the canyon which also looped around the town. Different types of rock formations here or minerals as some of the huge rocks were blue and green for a change!!! After that little excursion we climbed another hillside to get great views of all the surrounds, it didnt dissapoint. Once all puffed out from the walking we caught the bus back to as far as Maimara, then hiked the extra 8km home. Walk was great thru the rural part of town, so lots of farmland and on dis used railtracks. We even manged to find a lettuce and a pumpkin on the way home for part of dinner. Lovely walk. At home made an awesome salad for dinner than bought some Diego Maradonna wine, a big mistake, it didnt agree with me at all and made me miss the toilet in a voilent way, had to throw yet another set of pants away!!

 

6 May

Bussed to Salta at 12pm after a lye in. Great scenery on the way, got to Salta, a great little city but fully efficient and not too busy. Managed to score the top florr roof room of this hostal and had the whole roof garden etc to ourselves. Really quiant and cute. Place also had a kitchen so made stir fey veggies for dinner and chilled out playing cards.

 

7 May

Had a great walking day again. Walked to the base of Cerro Negra in anticipation of walking up it to the summit. At the bottom though there was a old car 500 mile rally on with the cars on display. It was nice to see some old Jags, MGB´s, Ferraris and Fiats for once.Then we hiked the 1070 steps to the top. Great park full of kids stuff and shops and a few restaurants. We then caught the Gondola down, a pretty hairy ride as its quite a high one!!! Booked our ticket onto Cafayete then walked thru the park past the pond and a few food stalls. For dinner we found a butcher that sold us three big fat juicy steaks for $2. Sue used her special marinte recipe on them and they were perfecto with more stir fry veggies. Meat is soo dam cheap here!!! Spoke to some poms that had been to Easter Island and saw some great photos, its defo a must on our next trip to South America, totally beautiful and mind blowing the statues etc.

 

8 May

Bummed around the town in the morning using internet and cooking breakfast before getting on tthe bus to Cafayete. Argentina takes its siesta very seriously just like Spain, nothing is open between 2pm and 5pm, this can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. Anyway Cafayete is back in huge canyon territory again and is a tiny village with only 1000 or so people. Good for us as its low season, so everything was really cheap. Tried their famous wine ice cream, totally delicious and pretty potent too. Chilled out again ready for sightseeing tomorrow.

 

9 May

Today we bought supplies before siesta time and for our walk. Then headed up into the hillside for a 4 hour round trip walk thru canyons etc. First bit of road passed by vineyards and walnut trees, so stocked up on nuts and visited a winery. The winery was a boutique bodega that only sold to resturants and special wine shops.  Only made 1000 bottles per year, all very manual but they made beautiful white wine, we tasted all their wines but the red was really ropey. All bottles only cost $3 each, so had to buy one!! Vineyard was a beautiful old place in stunning surrounds. Carried on the walk up the River Colorado for another hour or so, then found a nice shady area to have a picnic and re-vitalise. Hiked back to the village, picking more walnuts on the way.......crafty wee people!! Had a great big salad for dinner accompained by the newly acquired wine.

 

10 May

Didnt want to go to Tucuman but its the only way to get down to Mendoza, oh well. Booked ticket for 6am tomorrow morning. Ouch...... then at 3pm we decided seeing though it is our last day in this wine region, we should visit the rest of the wineries. So walked a 5km circle visiting 3 wineries and tasting over 10 different wines and eating the local goats cheese. Ended up buying three bottles from 2 of the wineries, all three came to $6 in total, a bargain. 2 red and one white this time. These wineries were the real deal big ines that produces over 1000 bottles per day and loads of different types. Again great places. really old colonial style with shitloads of grapevines. Got home and bought two fat cigars, made guacamole to accompany the wine and played cards, eating, smoking and drinking the night away.

 

11 May

Payed for it this morning, almost missed our bus in a drunken stupor, woke up at 5.50am with 10 minutes left to cath the bus. Oh deary me......I rammed everything into our bags while Sue ran down the road to stop the bus from leaving. We made it with little time to spare as the bus top was only a 5 min walk away. I then thought I had left the camera behind so had to make the bus stop again so I could check the hotel room. Nothing there as I had already packed it in my backpack but forgot in my hazy state. Phew.....So relaxed and enjoyed the journey after that. Scenery has now changed completely to valleys of lush forests and streams, a nice change to the wild west!! Got to Tucuman 7 hours later. Its an old shitty city with nothing to offer but breaks up the journey to Mendoza, which is still over 10 hours away. Tried to find a cheap hotle in the city and the first one we tried was a brothel, very funny, the lady owner apologised and sent us on our way!! Finally found an old hotel with an even older owner. Looks like he has been with the hotel since it was built in the 1920´s and hasnt left it since. We also booked the first ticket out of here in the morning for 8am to La Rioja. Sounds much better is in the right direction.