Mendoza

Arrived into Mendoza and found ourselves a great little place called Hotel Alexander, swayed by the loveliness of the owners and the fact it was named after my brother (and Rob - work that one out!) we booked in for the next few nights. We spent the first day in the city trying in vain to find a 'Gaucho experience' to take us off into the Pampas on horseback for a few nights; after admitting defeat on this one we consoled ourselves by booking a wine tour and just a days worth in the saddle.

We were picked up the next day from our hotel and ferried out to the vineyards on the outskirts of Mendoza to be shown the intricacies of wine making and more importantly to sample some of the vino! Being the only English speakers on our tour we ended up with our own private guides and the chance to guzzle as much of the produce as possible. We also visited an Olive oil producer and a small business which produced liqueurs disguised as innocent products such as chocolate sauce and dulce de leche, when if fact they were highly dangerous, alcoholic demons! Apologies for the lack of photographs from the first couple of days in Mendoza, but the extreme heat obviously effected the performance of the chief photographer.

Sunday in Mendoza was quiet and spent exploring a small corner of the city's General San Martin park, which is as big as New York's Central Park; as well as sampling some of the glorious ice cream we found.

Monday bought renewed activity and we set off for another day on horseback. We were driven out into the Pampas to a ranch where we were given our horses and set off at a leisurely pace. The main event of the morning, however, was the opportunity to finally sample Mate (remember the tea from Uruguay, also popular in Argentina?) This is how its supposed to be done, passed around and shared amongst a group of friends; I found it rather bitter but Dave enjoyed it and declared himself a Mate convert.

We rode on for a while after the tea break and eventually arrived back at the ranch for a lunch of Asado (BBQ meat) and red wine, perfect.

Back in the saddle after lunch and time to tackle some more difficult terrain, steep hills and uneven ground and a full on gallop at the end of the trek which evoked a scream of 'shit, no, stop!' from me.

Our last day in Mendoza and we thought we should capture some of the picturesque squares of the city on camera so we set off with that in mind. There are 4 corners of the city and each one has different square in which people can gather in case of another earthquake ( the last one bought Mendoza crashing down around their ears in 1861). We started in the central Plaza Independencia and made our way out to Italia, followed by Espana which was intricately decorated with beautiful tiles. Very difficult to do it justice on camera so you'll have to make do with a picture of me in front of a monument instead!

Plaza San Martin was next and lastly Plaza Chile with this very tempting fountain in the centre, we resisted the urge to dive in and escaped from the heat to the shade of a bar for a refreshing beer.

Time to wave goodbye to our lovely hosts at Hotel Alexander the next day and jump on our last South American bus to Santiago, Chile.

Bariloche

After the inner city delights of BA it was time to head over to mountains and lakes of Bariloche. We booked ourselves onto a swanky bus for some more creature comforts - no scrimping for us! An added bonus to the journey was a game of bingo from which I won a lovely bottle of Chardonnay...sweet!...or should that be...dry!

Bariloche is desperately trying to be an alpine village. To be fair it does it quite well. A lot of chalet style houses and more chocolate shops you than you can shake a hiking stick at! It does having some slopes available during their winter but I don't think I will be flying here specially for the white stuff any time soon.

We took it easy the first day but were soon eager for some exercise. It was decided we would cycle around "Circuito Chico" which snakes through some stunning scenery around Lake Moreno and Lake Nahuel Huapi. I don't think there was one flat section which made it quite an exciting ride. We stopped for a hot chocolate and brownie at Colonia Suiza (swiss colony - for the non Spanish speakers ;-P) promptly undoing all the good work we had done!

As I said the scenery was amazing. The weather was great but a little chilly. On some of the downhill sections the fingers nearly froze to the handle bars. If we hadn't had to return the bikes that day we would have been tempted to see more of the area on two wheels.

Next day we took a cable car ride up to Cerro Otto - a lookout point with rotating restaurant. Apparently we could have walked up but only found that out once we had reached the top. Again, stupendous views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. It was still chilly so had to dig out the silly Peruvian hat - comfort over style is my new motto! We avoided the hordes of tourists in the revolving eatery and instead opted for a short hike up to another peak with a packed lunch (Yes, G&C we too can do budget!)

We only had three days in Bariloche but could have spent many more. The area is beautiful and virtually untouched. The fact we only a few days here may have been a blessing in disguise as we managed to scoff some more Argentinian steak on two separate occasions. The first being bife de chorizo (nothing do with the sausage) and the second bife de lomo all washed down with some lovely red wine! The trout fishing is also meant to be superb, unfortunately a little over our budget, definitely a place to stick on the future holiday list - along with about 50 others!

Buenos Aires and New Year

We crossed the Rio Plata and stepped onto Argentinian soil for the second time during our trip. A short taxi journey into Buenos Aires and we arrived at our swanky hotel in the Almagro district, the birthplace of many famous tangos apparently! Our stay didn't start off too well when my cash card got eaten by an ATM and Dave got charged for money he never received from the machine; our first problems of this kind though so can't complain too hard.

Spent our first day in BA meeting up with friends we had made in other far flung places and exploring the up market neighbourhood of Palermo; with fancy boutiques, hip bars and comfortable coffee shops; I thought I'd found heaven.

Evita was on the agenda the next morning, you really can't come to Buenos Aires and not visit her grave; it is still adorned with flowers, bought here by her adoring Argentinian public.

Another must do was ticked of the list that night when we made our way to the Carlos Gardel tango show. We enjoyed a juicy steak, free flowing wine and the amazing talents of the tango dancers; unfortunately we have no decent photos as flash was forbidden.

Another day, another walking tour around this fantastic city; Wednesday 30th December and we headed to the central part of the city. We started in Plaza San Martin and discovered the impressive Torre de los Ingleses, a tower given to Argentina by Britain to commemorate its independence from Spain back in the 1800s; somewhat ironically as we crossed the road we found the memorial to the fallen from the Islas Malvinas (Falklands to you and me) conflict. We lowered our voices and tried to appear less English, had a quick look and scuttled off before the soldiers on guard duty got a whiff of Los Ingleses.

We crossed the 12 lane 9 Julio Avenue, gazing up at the obelisk monument in the middle and made our way to the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace on the Plaza de Mayo. The balconies are where Evita made her famous appearances and the square in front, where political protests are often held.

New Years Eve in Buenos Aires was fantastic; we were invited to a party at a hostel by our Austrian friends from the Pantanal, Stefan and Enrique. We enjoyed a meal of barbequed lamb up on the roof terrace before watching Buenos Aires erupt into the night sky to welcome in 2010.

We drank lots of beer,
laughed lots and lots and
and at around 2am made our way to a club for some dancing. We finally stumbled home at around 5am and only reappeared on New Years day due to the promise of seeing the Dakar rally contestants leave the city centre.

We joined the cheering crowds on the city streets to watch the bikes, quads, cars and eventually the huge trucks set off on the first stage of the famous rally.

On the 2nd January we left Buenos Aires via a much less exciting mode of transport, another bus!

Colonia and Christmas

Arrived in Colonia del Sacramento on 23rd December and checked into the very cosy Posada del Flor. The Posada is on the banks of the River Plata and a stones throw from the cobblestone streets of the barrio historico, designated a world heritage site.

Spent our first afternoon exploring the small town and enjoying the views over the river to Buenos Aires as we ate our lunch. Dave was still suffering with the lurgy he picked up back in Punta del Diablo so we returned to the hotel to relax on the roof terrace, me with a glass of wine, Dave with flu tablets and cough medicine.

We awoke on Christmas Eve to torrential rain and a fairly hefty storm and hoped that this didn't mean an end to our hopes for a sunny and hot Christmas. Amused ourselves during the wet weather trying to master the art of Mate (pronounced Marr-tey) drinking; Mate is a herbal tea which is an obsession here in Uruguay. It is unusual to see any person walking down the street without their mate cup in hand and a thermos tucked under their arm. There is a very specific way to arrange the mate leaves in the gourd (cup especially for the tea) and then how to put the bombilla (metal straw for drinking the tea through) is a whole skill in itself! Thankfully the storm abated after lunch and we left the Mate lesson behind and ventured back into the town to enjoy the beautiful streets of Colonia.

Christmas Eve here in Uruguay is when everyone enjoys their main Christmas meal and celebrations; the restaurants were full of festive family groups and at midnight the skies exploded with fireworks to welcome in Christmas day. This year our Christmas gift was a gorgeously sunny and warm day when we awoke on the 25th. We decided to hire some bikes and cycle along to the beaches which are on the shores of the Rio Plata and just on the outskirts of Colonia. Enjoyed a few hours on the bikes and then chilled out in the sun on the beach. On our return to the town we enjoyed a Christmas beer in one of the river front establishments;the sun was beating down and it felt very strange to be hunting out shade from the sun on Christmas day.

We chose a lovely open air restaurant for our Christmas meal and enjoyed a mountain of barbequed lamb washed down with a not too shabby bottle of red. A very different Christmas day, but a very lovely one!

Boxing day morning bought another window shaking storm and an excuse to watch some English Boxing Day football, unfortunately Stoke didn't manage to deliver a late Christmas present. The afternoon bought clear skies our way once more and we made our way to the old lighthouse in the middle of the historical quarter. Dave clambered to the top to take some birds eye photographs of this picturesque town.

Our relaxing Christmas stay came to an end the next day and we climbed aboard the seacat to cross the Rio Plata and head for the lights of Buenos Aires.