Adios Argentina, Hola Chile!

Chilean people are very affectionate. And by affectionate I mean gross public displays of affection EVERYWHERE! Seriously you can't walk through a park or a bus station or ... Just trust me on this. It's just a bit much ok?!"

I was walking back to my hostel the other night in Santiago & I'm sure people were having sex in the park. 

The most excitement I got that night was when I was electrocuted at the hostel. True story. 

But wait ... There's much more to fill you in on. 

So I finished my 3 weeks in Argentina. After I left Salta I spent 2 amazing days in Cordoba. 

Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina but it doesn't feel like it. It's cultural & the people are lovely & the architecture is amazing. 

I finally went tango-ing. Well I went to a lesson & I hated it. It was all in Spanish & then we had to pair up & of course I get stuck dancing with a girl & I'm being "the boy". After a bit I just lost enthusiasm. Partner dancing does not come easy to me. Anything where I have to touch someone's hands is pretty much going to make me uncomfortable. 

I learned the hard way that nachos in Argentina is not the same as Canada. Nachos in Argentina is a plate of corn chips with a small bowl of nasty melted cheese on the side. Such a disappointment. 

My final Argentinian destination was Mendoza. I was looking forward to drinking some wine & chilling out. 

After almost 3 weeks traveling through the country it wasn't until I was in Mendoza that I finally felt clean! I suspect this feeling won't last long. 

I met an amazing girl in my room in Mendoza. I was sitting on the floor combing my hair & we were sharing stories & it was right then that I realized I was meant to be in Mendoza if even just to meet her. 

I went on a wine bike tour. Yes. Sounds dangerous. But I have to say I was a little disappointed with the wines. I think being Australian I'm spoilt. 

And then I left Argentina. I left the women wearing platform shoes & the cheap food & the crazy traffic & the broken sidewalks & I crossed the border. 

Santiago is gorgeous. It's a big cosmopolitan city. And it's not cheap either. After Argentina it was a bit of a shock. I had to lessen the amount of icecreams & milkshakes I'd eaten as they weren't as cheap.

I spent some time learning of the dictatorship of Chile & the people who were killed. I feel like I'll have lots of reading up to do when I get back home. 

I took myself off to Valparaiso for the day. A town on the coast where all the houses are layered up the hills & are all different colours. 

I had a mini travelers breakdown that day. I wept & wept behind my sunglasses & then I pulled it together & bought myself a present. 

I met some Australian girls at my hostel, 2 of them from Perth & one of them born in the same hospital as me. We went out for Chilean food, I ate razor clams with cheese, I probably wouldn't eat them again ;)

And then I got on a bus for 24 hours. I knew it was going to be bad & it was. 

I think there's something wrong with my bottom. It hurts to sit for long periods. And I mean HURTS. So 24 hours is really a bit much for this girl. But I won't have any more 24 hour bus trips for the rest of my travels. 

I arrived in San Pedro de Attacama this morning. It's the desert. It's remote & it's beautiful & odd all at the same time. In a couple of days I cross the Bolivian border & travel through the desert for 3 days. Apparently I will see amazing sights. But I feel like I've seen a lifetime of amazing-ness already that I just don't know how it can get better. 

Canadian rock, llama & $23 shoes

Did I ever tell you the story about when I bought a rock?

So I was traveling through Canada & was all the way up in the Yukon. Getting there was an adventure in itself. I think it was a 2 day bus ride & then I caught a tiny plane (I always refer to it as the silver bullet of death) before I arrived in Dawson City. It's a mining town & somewhat touristy in the summer months. I had just missed summer by 2 weeks. 

I was staying in a hostel across the river that you caught a barge across. The hostel was rustic. Log cabins & fire pits galore. When I arrived there was 1 other person there. And he was leaving that day. There was no heat in the rooms. Nothing but a few blankets for warmth & no electricity. I lasted only by using every blanket in my cabin & keeping a steady supply of tea lights lit. The bathroom was an out house & I would put all my clothes on at night to run there & hope that a stray bear wouldn't eat me. 

Anyway. Apparently the area is known for dinosaur era stuff. And one day I was looking in a store & the guy was telling me about the rock, about how old it was. Dated back to blah blah blah. 

Anyway. I bought it. 

I have never put that rock on display. It is still wrapped in the paper bag it came in. And when I open it the stench is disgusting. I can only assume from the millions of dinosaur feet that have trampled on it. 

Needless to say I learnt my lesson about buying things while traveling. 

When I travel now I don't really get the urge to buy things for myself. My gifts are the moments I get to experience & memories as well as photos. 

That being said I bought myself a little something in buenos aires :)

Tonight I leave Salta. In the north. I am about to experience my third overnight bus in 2 weeks & I have more to come. 

Salta is a cute town. I took some day tours to small villages which was eye opening & the sights along the way were gorgeous. Salta is all luscious & green & the clouds are low. But a few hours out & it's hot & sunny & the green mountains turn to red rock which has been eroded by the wind.  

In one of the villages we stopped at I ate llama for lunch. I figured that a few days before I had fed a llama so I may as well eat one. *shrug* it was ok. Quite tender I guess. Although part way through I looked up & said "is this like eating a horse?".

I have met some people along the way & had some interesting conversations. One morning over breakfast, a German girl was telling me about her dating woes. She told me that men online seemed to not tell the truth about how high they are. (I love it when Germans speak English). I almost spat out my croissant because I couldn't believe that men in Germany lie about their height too!

I've been traveling for 2 weeks & it still feels like I just started. I'm tired every single day but I still have so much to see & I'm itching to move on to Chile in a few days. 

I realize that although I'm excited about my travel through Bolivia in a few weeks, I'm actually really super nervous about it. But I'm trying to focus on right now. And I guess I'll worry about Bolivia when I get there because I have lots to see before then. 

I can only hope that my $23 sneakers last until the end of the trip because they're already looking a bit sorry 😄

Hold your head up ... moving on

So I was sitting in a bus, ready for a 15 hour journey from BA to Iguaza Falls, and all I wanted to do was cry. My time in BA was over and I was happy to be moving on.  But with change comes fear.

I got to the Central Bus Station only to find it about as busy as an airport.  People everywhere and someone speaking very loud and fast spanish over the loud speaker.  I had no idea what to do and no one seemed to speak english but I managed to get a few words of something sensible from a nice woman in a chocolate shop.

Long story short, I got on the bus.  I was sitting in a very comfortable seat.  And as the bus left I shed a few tears.  What a stupid gringo I was.  What idiot comes to South America without knowing a lick of spanish?  What the hell was I doing here?

Some music came on the loud speaker.  I found it odd that it was white 90s music.  I smiled but still felt sad.  And then I found myself humming along to the Eurythmics ... hold your head up ... movin on ...  Sweet dreams are made of this ... Now I don't know what the song is meant to be about - if it's about sex I'll be really disappointed.  Anyway, it stuck in my mind and I felt like for that moment it was my theme song.

You can do this girl!
So what if you don't know spanish!
Do it!
Do it!
DOOO ITTT!
(ok so I got a little pushy with myself right near the end).

Not long after this they started playing Elton John and I was busy watching nighttime BA out my window.  I saw my first South American prostitutes hanging around dodgy roads and I saw a man on a scooter with 2 people on the seat after him and one tiny child perched on the seat in front.

My bus trip to Iguaza Falls was actually pretty great.  I had paid a bit extra to get a comfy seat, and it was as big as a business class seat on an airplane.  It reclined and had a foot rest and it is probably the best bus ride I've ever taken.  And I've taken a lot in my time.  They even fed me!  I was so excited when I got a tray of food that I started shoveling it in my mouth before I realised I was also getting hot food!!!  HOT FOOD ON A BUS!  I tucked my crackers and cookies in my bag for another time.

So here I am in Puerto Iguazu.  Today I took the bus out to the falls and walked all the scenic routes.  It was an amazing experience to see something so huge and beautiful and wet!  The spray from the main part of the falls was crazy and everyone was soaked and wiping off cameras.

I saw monkeys playing in trees, they threw berries at me.  And I saw these weird possum like animals.  Oh so cute looking but with teeth and claws that can really hurt.  One of them stole my lunch and everyone who saw it laughed so hard.  And I just grimaced and thought about how much I really wanted that lunch.

Tomorrow I take another bus, this time for 24 hours, to get to Salta.  Thankfully it's cooler there because IF is about 40 degrees celcius and I'm sweating through my pants.

I have met some lovely people.  I talked to some strangers yesterday and they shared their mate (mar-te) with me.  It's a kind of tea which they drink cold up here.  Everyone walks around with a cup full of the green tea and then a water cooler which they use to constantly fill up the cup.  It has a metal straw (and you know how much I love straws!).  They generally just have one cup and they pass it around to everyone.  I tried not to think about hygeine as I sipped from the straw but it was a nice taste and the people were very kind to share with me.

I am enjoying not just the travel but the opportunity to stop and rest.  Yesterday I ate ice cream and then bought a beer from the local supermercardo and sat out the front and people watched.  And then on my way back to the hostel a man wolf whistled at me.  I looked around to see who he was whistling at but he was looking at me.  It's silly but it made me smile.

Until next time ... S.

América del sur - the beginning

Hola!

I am writing this from Palermo, Buenos Aires.
How did I get to Buenos Aires?  Well that´s a long story.
But I got to Palermo by taking the subway (subte) and then a bus.  My new Swedish friend, Sarah, and I were helped by an Argentinian girl, Paola, as we were lost and didn´t understand where we were or why the subte had stopped and what to do.
On the bus Paola asked me if I knew what Palermo was like.  I replied that I didn´t but what did she think it was like.  She said to me ... it is full of people who are (she paused here trying to find the right word) ... trying to be something they are not.
Ohhhh, I replied ... hipsters!
SI Exactly.

I have been in Argentina for 5 days and each day brings new excitement and adventures.  Unfortunately it doesn´t bring new clothes and I have been wearing the same shorts for 5 days in a row now.  By my second day I had sunburn and I am covered in mosquito bites, I haven´t had a peaceful nights sleep since I arrived thanks to the men snoring in my dorm room at the hostel, but frankly I am having the greatest time regardless.

Last night I sat on the roof top patio at the hostel.  There is a bar and the girl behind it had never even opened a bottle of wine before.  She poured me and my friend 2 HUGE plastic cups full of cold malbec wine which only cost 20 pesos each ($2.50USD).  And we sat under the stars looking at the huge beautiful building across the road.  In such a big city there was so much silence and I filled it with funny stories to make Sarah laugh.

This is just the start of my trip.  I have over 7 weeks left to travel through parts of South America and Cuba.  Tomorrow night I will leave BA and travel on a bus to Iguazu Falls, they are bigger than Niagara and border both Argentina and Brazil.  BA has been a blast but I am looking forward to getting out of the city.

On my second day here I took a bike tour around the city.  It has been a highlight for me so far.  We dodged busses and taxis and crazy BA traffic.  I almost ran someone over and I am sure I came very close to being hit by cars.  The tour took us through touristy parts of town but also the very quiet ones.  Children lined up on the side of the road to hi5 us as we road past.  And I thought to myself how I felt like I was in a movie.

I visited the cemetery to visit Evita Peron´s grave and to take photos of amazing mausoleums.  I wandered around snapping photos shocked at how extravagant they were.  There were stray cats living in the cemetery and I sat and chatted to an ear-less one for a while.  Though I am not sure if he understood my english.

I am hoping that my Spanish improves rapidly.  And by improves, I mean, I really hope I learn some spanish.  I have picked up words and a few phrases but I struggle to remember them.  I practice things in my head but when I go to use them my mouth forgets how to work and I end up looking as stupid as I feel.

I know I haven´t answered the question of how I got to Argentina.  Itś a long story of hope and heartache.  It´s a part of my life that I don´t want to think about right now.  Instead I shall eat empanadas and walk in the sun.  I may even tango!¿