Our hippie hideaway

After our not-so-inspiring stays in Montevideo and Colonia, we headed off to Cabo Polonio, hoping the hippie little beach settlement would be a great ending to our time in Uruguay.  And we weren't disappointed.

After a 4 hour bus from Montevideo and a 20 minute ride over the sand in a crazy truck type thing, we arrived.  There were a couple of hostels and a hotel, but we wanted to rent a little bach/hut.  The only thing was, we didn't know how.  We'd read that the local stores/markets would have signs up for places for rent so we went off in search of them.  We didn't find any signs, but a guy at the store saw us with our packs and asked if we needed a place to stay.  So after some negotiation we ended up with our very own little hut for the next 8 days.  Rather expensive (about $50 a night) but we spent bugger all on other stuff while were there. It had solar power and a water tank so it was more luxurious than we were expecting, but it was still a feeling of getting away from it all.  And so began our hippie retreat of lazing around outside on the 'day bed', reading, swimming, walking and sleeping.  Not a bad way to spend a week.

Our hut

The MC Duo

Uruguay is the second smallest country in South America (by area), and we really had no idea what it had to offer.  But being the intrepid travellers we are, we didn't hesitate in finding out.

We ended up spending a week in the capital, Montevideo, but that was mainly because we were waiting for Kurt's Brazil visa.  Three days would definitely be more than enough time to see it all.  We therefore had plenty of time to check out the city and make a day trip to the nearby town of Colonia.  We were staying in a hostel by the port, so it was only a short walk to the historic part of the city known as Ciudad Vieja (Old City).  There are also some cool buildings near the main plaza, a real mixture of old and new.  

One evening we borrowed a couple of bikes from the hostel and rode down by the waterfront, coming across some sort of festival/tradition.  People were walking into the water and floating what looked like little boats made out of cardboard or polystyrene.  No idea what is was all about, but there were thousands of people around.  

We were also lucky enough to go along to a local carnival event one night, as one of the guys working at the hostel offered to take us with him, his girlfriend and his niece.  It was a competition of local performers singing and dancing in different styles.  The costumes and make up were pretty impressive, and there was one group in particular that we both liked over all the others.  They had a Pirates of the Caribbean kind of look to them and they were a crowd favourite too.  It was a really good night, and the guy's hyperactive 6 year old niece was yelling out all the English words and phrases she knew, as well as singing some Abba for us.  The poor girl has already been corrupted. 

Meanwhile, it was a rather tense couple of days as we waited to find out if Kurt's visa for Brazil had been approved.  We had to show proof of exit and entry travel details, so we printed some fake flights and used that.  We thought they'd just look at them and tick a box, but the woman kept the printout which made us worry.  Our 'reservation' was only valid for 24 hours because of course we hadn't actually paid for it, so we had to hope like hell that if she was going to check the reservation she'd do so before lunch the next day.  As it turned out, the new grey hairs we got were unnecessary, as Kurt's visa was approved.  Phew!

Our day trip was to a town called Colonia, about 3 hours from Montevideo.  It's a popular tourist spot and is a quaint little town with winding cobbled streets overlooking a river.  It even has a lighthouse with a gorgeous 360 degree view.  We spent a couple of hours wandering around snapping away along with the hundreds of other tourists, but we ended up changing to an earlier bus back to the capital.  Clearly we're productive tourists - we get shit done fast.

So as you might have picked up on, we weren't overly impressed with these two cities.  We didn't dislike them, we just weren't fussed either way.  Plus, things were a lot more expensive than we were expecting which is never a good thing.  We were, however, holding out hope that the next place in Uruguay would change our opinion - Cabo Polonio. 

Wine, painting and architecture (wow, we sound old)

When in Argentina it would be rude not to go to the famous wine region of Mendoza and sample the local vino.  And we'd hate to be rude, so off to Mendoza we went.

The main attraction is obviously all the wineries about 15km out of town, so we planned on hiring bikes and riding around them all getting sozzled and trying not to fall off/get hit by cars.  But we got talking to Nick, Jess and Jake, 3 Americans who were staying at the hostel, and they'd decided to drive around the wineries so we were welcome to join them.  Sounded good to us.  Nick spoke Spanish so he sweet talked an information centre girl into circling all the free wineries on the map for us which was helpful until we lost the map.  We ended up going to 2 wineries - one flash one where we paid for a tour and tasting of 3 wines, and one where the tour was free but we opted to skip it and sneakily join onto a group who'd just finished in order to get the free tasting.  Genius.  

We finished off at an olive oil factory where they also made tapenades, sweet marmalades, liquers and chocolate.  And we got to taste them all.  By then most places were closing so we headed back to the hostel to cook an asado and drink lots of beer.  Perfect end to a great day.

After about 3 days we decided to move on.  We'd checked out and as we were leaving Kurt got talking to the hostel owner about our plans to try and get some work at a hostel in Cordoba.  He'd just bought the place a month earlier and had a lot of work he wanted done, so he said he'd be happy for us to stay in exchange for working there.  So we unpacked our bags and that was home for the next 4 weeks or so.  We had two main jobs - looking after the hostel when the others weren't there which was really just letting people in and answering the phone, and painting.  And we did a pretty good job at painting if I do say so myself.  

Cristian, the owner, was pretty generous as he organised free Spanish lessons for us and also a tour of the mountains which is the other tourist thing to do in Mendoza.  But it was shit so we were glad we didn't have to pay for it because we would've been really pissed off if we'd forked out $45 each.  We had initially said we'd stay until early February, but we realised we'd need more time to go through Cordoba and Uruguay before we were due in Brazil, so we headed off at the end of January.  Thanks for having us Mendoza.

Our last stop in Argentina (for now) was Cordoba.  It was quite a nice city so we spent 4 days just chilling out, wandering around checking out the sights which was mainly architecture.  

We attempted to go to a natural science museum several times over a couple of days, but it was closed due to electricity problems.  Bugger.  Our other less than successful outing was to the nearby town of Alta Gracia, which is where Che Guevara lived as a child.  His old childhood home is now a museum so we wanted to check it out.  We'd read online that it cost about $5 to get in, however that wasn't even close.  Try closer to $20.  Inflation's a bitch huh?  We couldn't justify spending $40 for a museum that was literally just a house, so we got some nice photos of the outside.  

We did hit the jackpot at the biggest asado restaurant in Argentina - it would've seated about 1,000 and had a river running through it.  No shit.  And it was an all you can eat buffet of awesome asado meats, freshly cooked pasta to order, and tray after tray of every food you can imagine.  Oh, and there was a separate dessert buffet station too.  All for only about $13.  That's what I'm talking about.

Orphans Christmas and New Years

When we started our trip we had no idea where we'd be or who we'd be spending our first South American Christmas or New Year's celebrations with.  But as it so happened, a friend of Kurt's from home and his girlfriend were in a town not far from Buenos Aires for a month, so we decided to join them in an orphan's festive season.  And it was pretty bloody festive, that's for sure!

Nice and early on Christmas Eve we packed a bag and left the farm to go back into Buenos Aires, where we then got a bus to a place called San Antonio de Areco, to the hostel Jimmy and Ash were staying at that their Aussie mate Sal runs with her Argentinian husband (recently married) Felipe.  It ended up taking us about 5 hours to get there, but we were rewarded after a hot and sweaty walk to the hostel by a cool and inviting pool that had just been filled that morning.  Perfect timing.  And the perfect accompaniment?  Ice cold beer of course.  And that was pretty much how we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening - swimming and drinking and enjoying the sun.  Jimmy and Ash had a dinner to go to so we amused ourselves by drinking a nice concoction of vodka and Speed (an energy drink, before you all freak out) and slowly pouring the rest of the bottle of vodka into a watermelon.  

Because that's what you do on Christmas Eve.  Well, when you're alone in South America that is!  Jimmy and Ash got back at about midnight and we thought it only appropriate to stay up drinking until the sun came up.  And build a fire.  Not a bad start to the festivities!

Christmas Day was basically the same - a lazy day of drinking and swimming.  We'd also made a big damper at the farm to make damper dip for the occasion, and it turned out awesomely.  

A whole lot better than the vodka watermelon, that's for sure.  We decided it was time for some refreshing alcohol infused fruit in the afternoon, so carved the beast up.  However, each bite was like a punch in the face - and not in a good way.  All vodka and no watermelon goodness.  Never fear, the potent watermelon was put to good use the following weekend.

Boxing Day was a late start and spent lazing around the pool again.  Kurt and Jimmy jumped on bikes and went in search of a delicious hunk of meat for an asado (Argentinian style BBQ), but after about an hour Keryn and Ash were wondering if they should be worried.  Then they remembered that the guys were both hammered so would be handling the bikes with professional ease.  Their search was unsuccessful but they returned in one piece.  More or less.

The next weekend we made the journey back to San Antonio for New Years celebrations, but it was slightly shorter this time as we were already in Buenos Aires after leaving the farm.  We arrived at lunchtime and didn't waste any time in cracking open a cold one.  The rest of the day was spent in much the same way as Christmas - drinking, swimming and enjoying the sun while things were being prepared for the Mexican themed party that night.  People started to show up and it was rammed by 10pm.  Kurt and Jimmy had thought ahead and purchased fireworks and cigars to welcome the new year in, Ash had made a pinata for everyone to bash the shit out of and the vodka soaked watermelon was added to a bucket of punch which everyone smashed back.  The rest of the night passed in a blur of music, booze and pyromania, and one by one we crashed out.

New Years Day was another late start and some were more hungover than others, but thankfully that passed.  It started with a beer in our hand and ended with a beer in our hand.  We just want to say a massive thanks again to Jimmy, Ash, Sal and Felipe for an awesome couple of weekends.  

Welcome to WWOOFing

You hear about a lot of different ways to work, volunteer or save money while travellling, but one thing that we'd both heard of and Kurt had wanted to do for years, was WWOOFing.  It's a worldwide organisation, but is operated separately in each country - you simply register and pay a small fee for whatever country you want to do it in, and you receive a registration number and contact details for all the farms listed in that country.  We decided to try our first experience in Argentina, so when we were down in Patagonia we applied for a few farms that interested us in the Buenos Aires area, as that's where we were heading next.  Of the three we contacted we got two replies - one had no availability when we wanted, but the second was happy to take us.  The farm was called "La Farfalla" ("The Butterfly" in Italian) and it interested us because it said they were an organic farm with sheep, chickens, a pig and bees, and they were also building a house out of natural materials.  So, after a few days in Buenos Aires we headed out to the farm.

"La Farfalla" is just outside a little town called Canuelas, a couple of hours southwest of BA.  It's not far, but in order to get there we had to navigate our way via subway, train, local bus then a short walk.  Thankfully their directions were good so we had no problems.  We arrived at about midday and they were just serving up lunch so we had our first taste of macrobiotic food, which is what we lived on while we were there.  Neither of us had any idea what to expect, but were both pleasantly surprised by the variety and flavours of the food they cooked for us.  After being introduced to the people who lived there - Matias, Mariana and Juan Pablo, plus Barbara, an English WWOOFer who was leaving in a couple of days - we were shown around the farm and given a tent to set up for our accommodation.  

For the first few days we would generally work with one of them so they could show us how things were done.  Keryn also worked for a day with Barbara on building a wall in the new house, and it was the highlight of the whole experience for her.  

The shit pit

I mean, who wouldn't enjoy shovelling sloppy horse shit to make natural cement (along with sand and straw) then slapping it on with your hands?  It's like being a kid again and making mud patties in the garden, but with actual shit.  Brilliant.  Unfortunately, that was the only day either of us got to do any natural building which was a big disappointment.  We were there for about 2 weeks and for the majority of the time Keryn's tasks were feeding the chickens twice a day, mowing the lawns and watering everything which took about 3 hours a day.  And Kurt used his plumbing skills to fix their sewage pipe, tried to do a better job at putting in a wooden deck than the terrible job they'd already done, and laid a concrete slab with almost no help until he demanded it.  

So for him, there was pretty much nothing organic or farming about his jobs.  He also discovered that the Argentinians have a very unique way of doing things - as slowly and with as much difficulty as possible.  Needless to say, his patience was sorely tested on several occasions.

So, while they were nice enough people and we enjoyed our introduction to macrobiotic food, it didn't turn out to be what we were expecting, or maybe hoping for.  Apart from Keryn's day of building a wall in the house, we didn't really learn any other organic farming skills about planting/maintaining fruit and veges, or raising animals or bees.  Here's hoping next time will be better, wherever that may be.

BA is simply Bloody Awesome!

After about 40 hours on the bus going through some pretty barren, desolate landscape, we finally made it to the big smoke - Buenos Aires. We arrived at Retiro bus station which is so massive it's almost like an airport terminal - there are 75 platforms and about 200 ticket booths, and thousands of people. Needless to say, we made a quick escape.

Public transport in BA is really good. They have a subway system and millions of public buses, all for ridiculously cheap - the subway costs about 25 cents regardless of how far you travel, and the bus is only slightly more. The only drawback with the buses is that you have to pay with coins, and there is a serious shortage of one peso coins in the whole country so people guard them with their life. No coins = no travel unless you have a pre-paid card.

BA is a great city and we both liked it a lot more than Santiago. It's one of those places you could see yourself living (not that we're going to). The hostel we stayed at was recommended by a mate (thanks Jimmy) and it was in an area called San Telmo which is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in BA and is also the bohemian part of the city with an artesan market every Sunday. It's popular for its colonial architecture, art galleries, antique stores, pubs and restaurants so there was always plenty of people around, both tourists and locals. 

One of the things we wanted to check out was the ecological reserve which covers a massive 865 acres. It was about a 30min walk from San Telmo, across the river and through a nice area called Puerto Madero.  However, when we got there we discovered it's closed on Mondays. Of course. Never fear, there was a consolation prize in store for us that soon made us get over our disappointment.

Lined up one after another along the path around the outside of the reserve are endless parilla food carts which serve meat, meat and more meat.  Things like choripan (chorizo on bread), hamburgers and our personal favourite, bondiola. We walked almost to the end of the line before choosing a cart called Mi Sueno (My Dream), and man did we choose well. The bondiola is a foot long piece of french bread filled with slices of juicy barbequed beef, which you are then free to load up with the multitude of salads and condiments on offer. 

All for just over $3. It totally shits all over Subway, I can tell you that much. It was so good in fact that we went to the very same cart three days in a row to eat the exact same thing.  Talk about loyal customers!

A popular tourist spot is in the neighbourhood of La Boca, where there is a pedestrian street called Caminito with bright multi-coloured houses.  A lot of Italian immigrants settled in this neigbourhood and worked in the port, and one of their old traditions was to paint the outside of their homes with the leftover paint from the shipyard as nothing else was available or affordable. Who knew this would end up being a major tourist hotspot?  

There's also a debate that tango music was born in this neighbourhood, so there are lots of street performers, tango dancers and musicians entertaining the throngs of tourists. Another drawcard in La Boca is La Bombonera stadium which is home to the Boca Juniors, one of the world's best known football (soccer) clubs. We didn't make it there though. There's a lot of scaremongering about tourists visiting La Boca, as it's known to be a poor and dangerous neighbourhood. Tourists are therefore warned not to stray from the Caminito area or to take a direct route to the stadium.  They also say to get a taxi there and back, but we took a local bus and found it perfectly safe. We wouldn't walk around at night or go wandering around the suburban streets, but that's just common sense which is the case with so many things while travelling - if you believed everything that was written you'd never go anywhere or do anything for fear of being robbed, murdered or kidnapped by druglords and that's no way to live.

Another morning we did a walking tour of the city, which took in some of the main streets and sights in the downtown area.  We met near the Congress building and of course there was not one, but two separate protests going on, complete with sound bombs.  The Argentinians love a good protest and apparently there's one pretty much every day.  Good on them, because at least they're passionate and it seems to get things done in a lot of cases. Our tour guide had perfect English which made it a lot easier, but she was so happy and enthusiastic you could be forgiven for thinking she'd stolen some Ritalin off her little brother that morning. Unfortunately the weather was pretty shit that day, so it was raining off and on for the entire 2.5 hours.  Of course most people were dressed for 30 degree weather, so it was a bit bloody cold at times. It didn't stop us doing the tour though, so we still managed to see everything. 

 

Congress building

La Casa Rosada

The main sights of the city we saw were the Casa Rosada (Pink House - and yes, it's actually pink), which is the presidential palace.  Not that the president actually lives there.  It's probably most famous for the balcony scene from the movie Evita. Good old Madonna stealing the show from the president and years of history. Casa Rosada is located in Plaza de Mayo, which was another stop on the tour. It's the main square in downtown BA and is also a hotspot for protests, including the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Since 1977 they've gathered there every week with signs and pictures of their children who were 'disappeared' by the military during the military dictatorship. Their symbol of a headscarf is painted in a circle around the plaza, so they've still got a large presence. 

After the walking tour we met up with Kayla, who had also made the epic bus ride up from Punta Arenas. We had all good intentions of going back to the ecological reserve, but the rain pissed all over that plan. So, we did the only natural alternative - went to the pub.

We also visited Recoleta Cemetery, which is where many famous Argentinians are buried, including Eva Peron.  It's like a little town with tree-lined main walkways and street after street of elaborate mausoleums.  A lot are made out of marble, and at times it looked like we were walking down a high end shopping street, not a cemetery. There are over 4,500 vaults so maps are available to navigate around the cemetery, but of course we chose to just roam randomly.  Despite being quite small and inconspicuous and down a side lane, we still managed to find Eva Peron's grave - the large group of Japanese tourists snapping pics was a bit of a give away.  

Evita's grave

Hangin with Happy Feet in Patagonia

After debating how far south we were going to go in South America, we'd ruled out Ushuaia in Argentina as we'd been told by a few travellers not to bother as it was expensive and not worth the long bus ride. Besides, most people only bother going there to say they've been to the southern most town in the world. What those poor ignorant people don't realise, however, is that there's a place in Chile called Puerto Williams that's further south than Ushuaia. So they can only say they almost went to the southern most point in the world. Idiots. We decided we'd go as far as Punta Arenas, Chile, before making the massive trek back up to Buenos Aires.

There's not really much to do in Punta Arenas except for visiting the penguin colonies or doing some duty free shopping in a ridiculously massive shopping zone. Like good tourists, we opted for the penguin colony. There are a couple to choose from, but we wanted to go to the main one, Monumento Natural Los Pinguinos, which is on Magdalena Island in the Strait of Magellan. Because of bad weather we had to wait 2 days to book our ferry trip out to the island, but it was well worth the wait. The ferry left at 5pm and we had brilliant sunshine for the first time in the 3 days we'd been there.  It took about 2.5 hours on the ferry, and just as we were approaching the island you could see little flashes of black and white swimming around in the water. We had an hour to walk around the island, getting up close and personal with the cute little buggers. The walkway is roped off, but the penguins often walk across the path in front of you, so you can get a real good look at them. There are about 60,000 breeding pairs of the Magellanic penguin on the island, and we even spotted some little chicks hiding out in their nests with protective mums and dads. There are only so many photos you can take of penguins though, so an hour was enough to get some good shots. 

Having checked out the penguins and drunk some Chilean red wine (only top shelf of course - 1.5 litres for about $4), we were ready to leave Punta Arenas for the epic bus ride up to Buenos Aires.