Chile & Argentina
Being in Rukungiri means the internet is much harder to come by, so it's been a while since we've blogged, and probably will be a while before we do again. But, we haven't described the end our our South American adventures yet, so here they are!
After flying down to Santiago from Quito in Ecuador on the 21st (a good 2 weeks ago now), we caught a bus straight way to Valparaiso, a town 90 minutes from Santiago on Chile's coast. Note to those flying into Santiago – Aussie's are hit with a US$60 arrival tax. Pretty exhausted from flying and not sleeping much, we crashed at our hostel for good few hours. Valparaiso has around 300 000 people, so it's no coastal village, but we found it quite charming. We enjoyed catching a funicular up to Bellavista and walking around its surrounding neighbourhoods, with quaint cafes, interesting architecture, great views and odd graphiti. Chile's probably the most expensive South American country we visited, so we opted for cheap dinner; shopped at a supermarket and made pasta at the hostel.
More exploring the following day, before catching a bus back to Santiago in order to catch another bus to Mendoza (Argentina). So far we'd been mightily impressed with their bus services, but then a small nightmare involving 1 bus leaving without us, the bus we did catch breaking down half way back to Santiago, getting lost when they delivered us back to a different bus terminal than we expected and our printed internet receipt for the next ticket not being good enough for their liking. Thankfully the bus driver himself accepted it, and we finally were on our way! Their buses are pretty luxurious, with big comfy leather seats that recline, meals & snacks and movies. We managed to sleep ok (it was an overnight bus), and after being interrupted at 2am for the Argentinian border crossing, we arrived in Mendoza on Saturday morning.
Mendoza is famous for being in the middle of a wine producing region, and Argentina is famous for its amazing steaks, so that was all that we set out to achieve while we were there. We had a pretty chilled time the first 2 days; eating out, walking around the city, exploring parks, avoiding the street scam artists (the same deal as the guys in Venice for those of you that know), and celebrated ANZAC day with a quiet (1L) beer. We went out for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant one night, after which we could tick off both of our goals. Argentinian steak = very, very good.
On the Monday we checked out of the hostel and caught a bus 45 minutes away to a wine area, where we hired bikes and cycled from winery to winery. As well as tasting a number of wines we also visited another place that made liquors, condiments, chocolate & olive oil, all of which we sampled. We probably cycled 20 km along nice flat roads, though avenues of trees lining roads that are flanked by vineyards, surrounded by snow capped mountains. Picturesque indeed!
As it turned out, it was a good thing we headed back when we did; we were sitting in a restaurant, had just finished our meal when I happened to notice that the clock on the wall was an hour later than mine. Turns out Argentina's an hour ahead of Chile, and after 3 days of being there, no one had pointed it out, and we had no reason to notice! So instead of being an hour early for the bus, we were 5 minutes.
Bus to Buenos Aires was very similar to the previous one, although about 14 hours long. BA probably rates as my favourite big city we've visited so far. It reminded me of Sydney lots (in good ways), with lots of parks, giant old buildings and statues. They have crazy roads though, 14 or more lanes of traffic which is quadruple carriage way (if that's what you call it). Makes crossing the road a whole new experience!
Over the 3 days we spent there we explored a lot of the city on foot, or caught the metro for A$0.30 a trip :-P The hostel we were at had bikes for free rental so we braved the previously mentioned roads and set off exploring. We ended up in the huge nature reserve that lies between the city and the Atlantic, and cycled our way around that, joined by sweaty, hairy, shirtless Argentinan men jogging on their lunch break – delightful!
We also kept seeming to end up walking down Florida Ave, a big pedestrian mall with stacks of street vendors and artists. My pick of the street artists was a headless man (major points for effect, I haven't seen it before – see photo), although I think Nik may have preferred the Tango demonstrations. Also enjoyed the best value-for-money buffet ever, a Parilla (BBQ grill) with huge salad, side dish and desert bar, complete with self-serve ice-cream freezer. Yes, I am putting on weight :-)
The morning of our departure I went cycling again, this time by myself. I went way up through the North of the city, finding little suburbs that had quite a modern European feel to them. Along through parks, up around the zoo, Plaza de Italia and around the famous cemetery which seemed to be shut when I was there.
Another overnight bus took us back to Santiago, where we only had 1 night before we flew out to Uganda. We packed it in though; a funicular up the top of the hill to see all of Santiago and its smog spread out before us, squeezing in with all the uni students grabbing a beer on a Friday evening, cooking dinner and enjoying a bottle of wine, and then a great “free” 4 hour walking tour of the city the next day. The tour was pretty good, definitely recommend it for anyone visiting Santiago. Being May Day and therefore a public holiday, everything was shut and the city empty, except for the Plaza de Almas, which was packed with security because half the Chiliean parliament seemed to be attending a church service.
So that takes us up to our journey to Entebbe, which was a journey indeed. 13 hours to Madrid, 2 hour stop over, 2 hours to London, 4 hour stop over, 8 hours to Entebbe, where we met Enoch (our host for the next 3 weeks) and an 8 hour bus ride to Rukengiri. More about Uganda later, but safe to say it's amazing, we're busy and loving it!
Blessings,
Alex
Valparaiso - Chile
Great to hear from you! :). K xo
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