Don’t Cry For Me Argentina

After our visit to Iguazu Falls, to both the Brazilian and Argentinian side. We popped over the border from where we were staying in Brazil to Paraguay, before later heading back across to Argentina that day to start our travels there.

Paraguay was a crazy experience. The city Ciduad del Este is the nearest one from the Brazilian border and is where Brazillians and probably Argentinians go to stock up on cheap goods.

We drew out half a million Paraguian currency which was about £10. We had a few things we wanted to try find and thought it would be quite fun trying to spend our little bit of currency in the markets…It wasn’t! As soon as we stepped off the bus we were harassed by about 10 guys shouting random places at us to buy a bus ticket to. Even when we went into the bus terminal to try get a cheaper bus ticket to Argentina the people behind the counters from each bus company were shouting to get us to buy from them – very uncomfortable! Safe to say we didn’t bother in the end and just stuck with our original plan of getting the bus straight from Brazil.

The harassment in the bus station was only the start and it got worse! Obviously I stand out as a foreigner anywhere in South America (Kyle just blends in anywhere!) so Paraguay was no different. They smelt money and every stall we walked past people would shout things at us (obviously we didn’t understand) and then they’d follow us down the street!

I made the mistake of taking interest in what a guy was selling and ended up buying a memory card for my GoPro thinking it was an absolute bargain… It was for a fake memory card! No wonder the guy and all his mates ran down the street trying to sell me all sorts of other stuff! Socks seemed to be the most popular thing people were selling. Never seen so many socks (apart from on the floor in Primark maybe)

We didn’t have any passport / police checks when we crossed the border, as they don’t want to turn people away who will be spending money. On the way back out, however, the police came onto the bus and checked how much people had bought. This guy got away though…

An interesting few hours that we will definitely remember! After that it was back to the calm in Brazil and then to Argentina to start our travels there.

We had planned to get the bus to Buenos Aires from Puerto Iguazu that night – just across the border from Brazil but was unable to get any money out and ended up missing the bus we planned to get. Not only that but we missed the first half of the Germany v Brazil game and missed 5 of the goals! We were left without any money overnight so had to use our loose bit of change to eat and be able to sit in a bar to watch the second half of the game! Luckily our cards were fixed the day after so we could pay the hostel we stayed at.

We did manage to get on the bus the next day. We arranged it for after the Argentina game has finished (a theme throughout the World Cup) though as it went to extra time we missed the penalties! We had our first experience of Argentina buses and went in a 2nd class bus, only because this was the only one leaving after the game! It was the best and worst thing we could have done. The bus was spacious – my legs couldn’t even reach the seat infront when I had it all the way back, comfortable and we even got a waiter giving us food and drinks. But after that standard bus we won’t want to slum it on a 3rd class bus again!

28 hours later and refreshed from a surprisingly good sleep on a bus, we arrived in Buenos Aires for four nights. We didn’t really know too much about the city but knew it was a place we had to visit. A free walking tour was a great way to see the city and get shown around by a local. I’m not usually a fan of walking or organised tours but it was great. The guide made it really interesting. There was a bit of an awkward moment when we were at the Falklands memorial and he got out a speaker to play the commentary of the goals Maradona scored against England… He apologised to us afterwards!

After the walking tour the group stayed together and went to a Parilla (an Argentinian grill/steak place). We ordered platters of meat to share, so was looking forward to getting some of the famous Argentinian steak so you can imagine our faces when intestines and testicles came out that! Had to wait another week to get good quality steak!

We were lucky to time being in Buenos Aires for the World Cup final. Just like in Brazil you knew it was game day as soon as you woke up – cars beeping, horns and vuvuzelas were all you could hear. After a morning at a huge Sunday market in San Telmo, we headed to one of the main part in the centre where we had heard the game would be shown. It was packed and the atmosphere was great… However it got to kick off time and the game still wasn’t on the big screens yet! All those people and the game wasn’t even getting shown, only on South America would police let literally thousands of people stand waiting to watch it knowing it wouldn’t be on!

There was a mass rush to get out and find somewhere with the game on, which with that many people and everywhere already full was a big mission. We were about to head back to the hostel to watch it until we saw a queue of people waiting to get into what looked like a dingy basement. We found the tickets you needed on the floor and went in, it turned out to be a club and we had to pay to get in. Worth it to not miss anymore of the game! Not quite the atmosphere we would have got in a packed square but was still good… Until they lost! Never seen so many crying men. The atmosphere outside after was good, everyone was chanting just like before the game but we had a bad feeling it would turn nasty so headed back straight away. Very glad we did by the time we got back it was on the news that there was riots in the same place we had been waiting to watch the game! Annoying as we had planned to try again at going for a good steak (we had a mediocre steak another night) and having one big last night but instead had to stay in the hostel.

Hangover free we got on our next bus to head South for a whole 40 hours! We had almost decided against it as it wasn’t cheap to get to our next stop but glad we decided to carry on. We got on a Cama bus which is technically the third class so obviously wasn’t as nice as the other but we still got meals and better seats than anywhere else in the world. The whole second day I got travel sick and it was one of the lows of our travels. We said never again would we do that long on a bus! 24 hours is our limit now unless we have no other options.

46 hours, 2 buses later and a 2 hour stopover later we arrived at our destination – El calafate to see the Perito Moreno glacier which made every single minute on the bus and the cost worth it!

5 minutes into the boat ride to get close to the glacier, we heard a huge noise and could see a big chunk of ice fall off literally 200 metres in front of us. It was incredible and that alone made it worth it. Everyone started clapping and cheering after the big crash into the water.

After the boat ride we walked around the rest of the national park to see different viewpoints of the glaciers. The weather had cleared up at this point so the views were even more spectacular. The noises were just as impressive, every few minutes you’d hear a huge noise of ice breaking some from a far and some close. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience and a highlight of our travels.

We stayed an extra day in El Calafate as travelling spontaneously meant the bus we wanted to get to our next stop, Bariloche was full so we had to wait a day later.

Bariloche is a great little ski town which apart from skiing was out of season for most of the things it’s famous for – hiking, kayaking and the lakes. We decided against skiing here as it was too expensive, so instead we went on a hike up one of the little mountains. There was a gondola to get up so was pretty pleased with myself for hiking up instead. The views from the top were great and on a par with the views we had seen in Whistler/Vancouver.

The town of San Carlos De Bariloche was really nice. We spent a lot of time in the rustic pubs enjoying pints of proper beer and ales and getting free samples in the many chocolate shops! On our last night in Argentina, I finally got the steak I’d been waiting for! Could definitely leave for Chile happy now.

Going through customs in Chile was an interesting experience. We had to take all our stuff off the bus (could you have guessed we got another bus?!) and instead of putting them through a scanner we just had to leave them on the side. A sniffer dog then jumped over all the bags and found what he’d been looking for… A bag of food and a wooden ornament! Chile are really strict on fruit, veg, meat and wooden products that come into the country. So the guy with a gun didn’t get asked any questions but the women with a tiny wooden gift did – a strange process but we got our Chilean stamps in our passports and continued our journey to Puerto Varas.

We have four stops planned in Chile then will be going across to Bolivia, Peru and then maybe Ecuador and Colombia. More on Chile in the next blog.