Welcome to our final blog post. Since we’ve traveled most of Argentina, crossed the planet, and commenced life back at home in Australia, this is going to be a big one, hopefully it will bring the story to an end.
On a balmy Saturday evening Heather and I awaited the family in the arrivals hall of the International Buenos Aires airport. The familia emerged and there began our Argentine adventure together, we jumped in our pre booked taxis and headed downtown to their vacation rental for some empanadas and salty pizza for dinner.
The next day we rose and joined the familia in their apartment for some Medialunas, Dulce de Leche and Mate. Then we went for a wander through the local barrio, Recoleta. We visited the beautiful Recoleta Cemetery and the amazing hippy markets in Plaza Francia then dropped into La Biela for a cerveza
Afterwards we visited the Recoleta Cultural Centre to check out the sculptures, graffiti and some rather odd paintings, then headed to La Rambla for a Lomito.
Figuring it best to take it easy that night we decided to cook en La Casa. Being a family dinner in Argentina there was only was only one choice, Asado. So we headed down to the supermercado and purchased a few cuts of Beef, Chorizos, Morcillas and Pan de Asado. On the 12th floor it was relatively windy so my Parrilla was about as hot as the sun, I had to keep the lid closed in order to suffocate the fuel otherwise the entire thing would ignite and incinerate the food. By the time the food was cooked just about everybody except Heather and I had fallen asleep so after a quick and very meaty dinner and a bowl of Helado, we walked the troops home in the dark.
Afterwards we visited the Recoleta Cultural Centre to check out the sculptures, graffiti and some rather odd paintings, then headed to La Rambla for a Lomito.
Figuring it best to take it easy that night we decided to cook en La Casa. Being a family dinner in Argentina there was only was only one choice, Asado. So we headed down to the supermercado and purchased a few cuts of Beef, Chorizos, Morcillas and Pan de Asado. On the 12th floor it was relatively windy so my Parrilla was about as hot as the sun, I had to keep the lid closed in order to suffocate the fuel otherwise the entire thing would ignite and incinerate the food. By the time the food was cooked just about everybody except Heather and I had fallen asleep so after a quick and very meaty dinner and a bowl of Helado, we walked the troops home in the dark.
The next day was a Monday, taking advantage of the slight slower pace of a weekday, we jumped onto the Buenos Aires City Yellow Bus Tour. The bus is a double decker open top, it takes it very slow and gives an decent run down of the various attractions around the city, it's a decent way to explore the city with little physical exertion. We rode through to Caminito in La Boca and checked out the tourist scene, drank a cerveza and did some souvenir shopping. That night, Rodi for dinner!!! Everybody had giant steaks and papas fritas, vino and cerveza.
The following day everybody was still completely knackered so we headed to Alto Palermo to check out the shopping scene. Paez were purchased, McDonalds was eaten and then it was back to La Casa to rest. Then we visited a few interesting spots including the Law school and Floralis Generica, which opens in the morning and closes at night.
The next day on Wednesday, we all had breakfast at le pain, except Rosanne, who had a huge breakfast. Then we went to Malba to check out an art exhibition.
The next day it was just the youngsters running amok around BA city, we had a rough idea of were we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, but didn't realise that it was going to be by far the hottest day of all. We went for a tour of the beautiful Teatro Colon before heading to Calle Florida for was serious shopping. Then, a brisk walk to Palacio Barolo in the heat for another tour. The views on top were amazing, this is the only place in the city where you can see a 360 degree panorama of BA. Later that day we headed to Cumana and I got drunk on a giant Empanada, see picture below.
The next day we rose early in some slightly stormy weather and jumped on a ferry to Colonia del Sacremento in Uruguay. Plenty of photo ops here and we enjoyed driving around the Unesco World Heritage Town in our little golf buggies. After a decent, but long awaited lunch, a drive along the coast, a visit to an abandoned stadium and a series of 'cute' photos, we jumped on the ferry and headed back to Argentina.
The following day was a good one, Hippy markets again for shopping and the amazing Fueza Bruta with the youngsters that night. This was perhaps the highlight of my entire experience in Argentina. If you have the opportunity to go, do not miss this show, it's cray.
The following day was a Sunday so we headed to the San Telmo antiques markets and wandered around the stalls full of amazing wondrous items from the past and watched the pickpockets going about their daily duties. Then we crossed the street into Puerto Madero to enjoy lunch at Siga la Vaca (Follow the Cow), an all you can eat Argentine Asado restaurant. Then we crossed back into San Telmo and following the markets as far as the eye the could see, all the way up to Casa Rosada in San Nicholas, before catching a couple of taxis home to get an early night and prepare to travel the country.
So the next day we got up early, carried all belongings to our apartment, grabbed our single piece of carry on luggage each and headed to the domestic airport, just a 15 minute taxi away. We jetted off into Patagonia and arrived in El Calefate where we checked into a lodge and wandered into the nice little town in search of dinner. Food that night was definitely a treat at Pura Vida Resto Bar, where we were each presented with giant pies. Acoustic music and homestyle dining led to the late evening, when we departed at 10pm the sun was only just setting.
The following day the younglings headed out in search of a bus ride to the Perito Moreno Glacier, we ended up hiring a car for $40 instead. We stopped off at the Glaciarium before heading all the way into the national park to Perito Moreno.
The views were stunning and amazing, and were equaled only by the sound of the creaking, crashing and smashing glacier. Nothing was more exciting than seeing a large 1-2 tonne piece of ice breaking off and crashing into the water below. After traversing all walkways and and wandering back to the carpark, we headed back to El Calefate for dinner and sleep to prepare for an eight hour boat ride to three glaciers the following day.
This time the group headed out in full force early in the morning. Only to board a boat that was completely packed to the brim with tourists. None of us got a seat next each other but we still enjoyed the trip to the three giant glaciers, and past one tiny glacier. It was freezing cold but the views were spectacular. That night we had dinner out and took an early night to prepare for a trip to the end of the world the following day.
So up early and off we went in our taxis to the airport for our one and only flight with Aerolinias Argentinas to Ushuaia. Typically, it was delayed by roughly 5 hours. We eventually set off and landed in the evening amidst some pretty spectacular views of Tierra Del Fuego. Dos taxis again and we arrived in out awesome centrally located, but very hot apartment in Ushuaia. Dinner was decent with four of us sharing a giant picada.
The following day we hired a couple of cars and headed into the Tierra Del Fuego National Park. We journeyed, stopping occasionally all the way to the end of the Panamerican Highway. More views, photos and, after an odd reminder of the Bamboo forest in Kyoto, we went in search of Beavers. We separated and waited a long time but experienced no Beaver sightings. Then we went to find Andrew and Rosanne, figured they got lost and went searching for them. Eventually we finally found them and THEY had seen a beaver!!! Heather and Di ran off to their spot of sighting and waited approx 5 minutes before seeing a Beaver themselves. Lucky they got a photo and video so we didn't all miss out. On the way back to Ushuaia we spotted a giant red fox.
The next morning the familia stayed in la casa whilst Heather, Di and I headed for a drive out the other side of town into the mountains. There we did some off the beaten track hikes, saw a real authentic beaver colony, but no beavers and experienced plenty of breathtaking views whilst driving on wildy dangerous windy roads. We stopped by to take a panorama and met a friendly Ushuaian guy selling little wooden figurines. As it turns out he has a brother who lives in Albany, Western Australia, which, if you don't already know, is the small city I grew up in over 12500kms away. What are the chances?!?! We then went to fuel up the car, made friends with a caterpillar called Wayra, and returned the car to meet with the others for a bit to eat. Then we separated again, Andrew, Rosanne and Stew to check out the local Museos, and Heb, Di, Jus and I headed up into the mountain behind the city to find a geocache. Unfortunately, we had to log a 'did not find' as the geocache has been misplaced, but the views of the city were spectacular, and we definitely worked off all of those churros, of which we promptly purchased 2 dozen more.
The next day we said goodbye to the end of the world and headed to Iguazu, a town that sits at the boarder of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. We stayed in a beautiful little hotel with a pool, as it was 35 degrees upwards and very humid. We visited the intersection of the 3 countries and went to some local olive markets before having dinner in a random purple restaurant. The following day we jumped on a bus and headed to Iguazu Falls. We saw the falls, monkeys, giant fish, a snake, beautiful vegetation and lots of other tourists. We went on a boat that went under the falls, got soaked and then wandered around the falls some more before enjoyed an empanada or two, and taking a slow boat back down to base. Iguazu was a truly incredible experience that you should not miss when visiting Argentina, see photos below.
After Iguazu falls we headed back to BA to catch a night sleep in our apartment for heading to Mendoza to begin the final leg of our journey. After touching down in Mendoza we taxied to the Mendoza bus terminal and jumped on a bus to Santiago in Chile. Possibly one of the best scenic bus rides in the world, but a long one, we arrived approximately 12 hours later (4 hours late) at our Apartment in Chile for a quick dinner and supply run before heading to bed. The next day we checked out a few of the sights in Chile, did some geocaching, some eating, some drinking of Pisco Sour and some shopping at some nice markets. That night we had Chinese for dinner, the restaurant was possibly the most elaborately decorated place I had ever seen, unfortunately the food was pretty average. The next day we jumped back on a bus to Mendoza, knowing that just a day earlier a bus on the same route crashed, exploded on impact and 50 people lost their lives. Even though we waited hour at the border crossing, we arrived back in Argentina after only 7.5 hours, around one hour or so late this time.
That night we arrived at the house we rented in Coria de Chacras, Mendoza which was 2 storey, had a pool and a giant backyard and was located within the Mendoza wine circuit. After a very warm welcome by the owner, the others had a rest whilst Heather, Di and I headed into town to pick up a bunch of Lomitos which were truly amazing. I'll never understand how they get steak to be so tender.
The next day we headed down to a relatively new, but amazing winery called Salentine. There we enjoyed a very delicious lunch and their most expensive bottle of Malbec ($30). We then went on their Winery tour and tasting where we tried a few of their other wines and especially enjoyed Diane's piano performance in their amazing cellar where once a year they hold a concert since it has such excellent acoustics. Funnily enough, we went to see a movie at the Spanish film festival recently and part of it was filmed at this exact winery.
We then went out separate ways for a bit, but strangely had lunch at the exact same place... then Stew, Jus, Andrew and Rosanne headed back to la casa, whilst Heather, Di and I headed to Norton for an amazing tour of the oldest winery in Mendoza and tasted their Malbec at 3 difference stages of production.
The following day we headed into Mendoza city for the first time, Heather and I visited Juan Martin at her company's office in Mendoza whilst the others settled for some ice-cream nearby. Then Heather, Di, Jus and I headed to a natural hot water spring day spa called Cachueta (recommend reccomend! Go go!). We sat around in the various temperature pools all morning, before headed up to have all you can eat Asado for lunch, then headed back for more lazing in the pools. Then we all lathered up in mud, dried out, washed it all off, lazed more in the pools, mudded up again, dried, washed off again, lazed some more in the pools, then rushed to the airport all completely burnt to a crisp. What a good day!
Our last day in BA consisted of a bit of shopping, birthday lunch for Di at Pani, packing, and seeing the family off to the airport. It was a sad day. But just because our holiday around the country was over, it didn't mean we could relax.
We had a bit over a week to pack, do all final shopping, clean up, say goodbye to friends, and move back to Australia. So all that week was spent with me working on my final assignment for a unit and heading around town in search of various items. Heather and I both got a custom made leather jacket. We enjoyed some amazing dinners with some amazing friends, said goodbye to Heather's work buddies, had a milkshake date and hunted down all the bottles of Malbec that I wanted to bring home.
On our last day we said goodbye to our apartment and our street and our beautiful neighbourhood, and drove all the way out to the international airport with all of our stuff, litres of Malbec, numerous jars of Dulce de Leche and piles of Alfajores. We arrived in Santiago airport, headed straight for a Qantas affiliated lounged and I settled in to finished my final assignment. After ten hours of drinking soft drinks, coffee, writing and eating from the snack bar, we headed up and boarded our flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Many hours later, we arrived and smiled at those beautiful, almost Australian accents of the staff in Auckland airport. We stopped in at the qantas lounge to brush out teeth and drink some orange juice, and awkwardly said 'gracias' to the lady at the desk as we left, not really remembering how to communicate in English. Then we boarded a flight to Sydney, our final fight on LAN and arrived in Australia. The end of our journey was nigh, but not over yet. We stopped into the Qantas lounge again to have a much need shower, breakfast, and to brush our teeth, again, at this point it just felt like we had been eating constantly for the last 35 hours. Our flight to Perth was delayed due to a 'hot plane', but eventually we boarded a Qantas plane to Perth where the flight hosts were all blokey 40-50 year old men that said things like 'need another lamb mate' and 'i'm all ouda chicken' in hilariously cliched Australian accents, almost as if to welcome us back. We finally arrived in Perth after approximately 40ish hours in transit, Hebs parents picked us up (thanks) and we headed, as if magnetically, to Gordon Street Garage for a BLT (having been deprived of real bacon for so long). We then headed to our temporary accommodation, thanks to Heathers company, and caught up on some much needed sleep.
Thanks so much for reading our blog, this is the final post. We had a surprisingly large amount of viewers over the last year even though this was mainly just to keep family and friends updated on our movements, so it looks like our story reached a bunch of people from all over the world. We just want to say thanks again, if you ever do something similar, we definitely recommend you write a blog and include lots of photos to document the experience, it's a great way to keep track of things, share your experience with friends and family and keep hold of those memories yourself.
The next day on Wednesday, we all had breakfast at le pain, except Rosanne, who had a huge breakfast. Then we went to Malba to check out an art exhibition.
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| Di with a sculpture that looks like diarrhoea |
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The next day we rose early in some slightly stormy weather and jumped on a ferry to Colonia del Sacremento in Uruguay. Plenty of photo ops here and we enjoyed driving around the Unesco World Heritage Town in our little golf buggies. After a decent, but long awaited lunch, a drive along the coast, a visit to an abandoned stadium and a series of 'cute' photos, we jumped on the ferry and headed back to Argentina.
The following day was a good one, Hippy markets again for shopping and the amazing Fueza Bruta with the youngsters that night. This was perhaps the highlight of my entire experience in Argentina. If you have the opportunity to go, do not miss this show, it's cray.
The following day was a Sunday so we headed to the San Telmo antiques markets and wandered around the stalls full of amazing wondrous items from the past and watched the pickpockets going about their daily duties. Then we crossed the street into Puerto Madero to enjoy lunch at Siga la Vaca (Follow the Cow), an all you can eat Argentine Asado restaurant. Then we crossed back into San Telmo and following the markets as far as the eye the could see, all the way up to Casa Rosada in San Nicholas, before catching a couple of taxis home to get an early night and prepare to travel the country.
So the next day we got up early, carried all belongings to our apartment, grabbed our single piece of carry on luggage each and headed to the domestic airport, just a 15 minute taxi away. We jetted off into Patagonia and arrived in El Calefate where we checked into a lodge and wandered into the nice little town in search of dinner. Food that night was definitely a treat at Pura Vida Resto Bar, where we were each presented with giant pies. Acoustic music and homestyle dining led to the late evening, when we departed at 10pm the sun was only just setting.
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| Heather and I love making new doggy friends, this one liked attacking moving cars |
The following day the younglings headed out in search of a bus ride to the Perito Moreno Glacier, we ended up hiring a car for $40 instead. We stopped off at the Glaciarium before heading all the way into the national park to Perito Moreno.
The views were stunning and amazing, and were equaled only by the sound of the creaking, crashing and smashing glacier. Nothing was more exciting than seeing a large 1-2 tonne piece of ice breaking off and crashing into the water below. After traversing all walkways and and wandering back to the carpark, we headed back to El Calefate for dinner and sleep to prepare for an eight hour boat ride to three glaciers the following day.
This time the group headed out in full force early in the morning. Only to board a boat that was completely packed to the brim with tourists. None of us got a seat next each other but we still enjoyed the trip to the three giant glaciers, and past one tiny glacier. It was freezing cold but the views were spectacular. That night we had dinner out and took an early night to prepare for a trip to the end of the world the following day.
So up early and off we went in our taxis to the airport for our one and only flight with Aerolinias Argentinas to Ushuaia. Typically, it was delayed by roughly 5 hours. We eventually set off and landed in the evening amidst some pretty spectacular views of Tierra Del Fuego. Dos taxis again and we arrived in out awesome centrally located, but very hot apartment in Ushuaia. Dinner was decent with four of us sharing a giant picada.
The following day we hired a couple of cars and headed into the Tierra Del Fuego National Park. We journeyed, stopping occasionally all the way to the end of the Panamerican Highway. More views, photos and, after an odd reminder of the Bamboo forest in Kyoto, we went in search of Beavers. We separated and waited a long time but experienced no Beaver sightings. Then we went to find Andrew and Rosanne, figured they got lost and went searching for them. Eventually we finally found them and THEY had seen a beaver!!! Heather and Di ran off to their spot of sighting and waited approx 5 minutes before seeing a Beaver themselves. Lucky they got a photo and video so we didn't all miss out. On the way back to Ushuaia we spotted a giant red fox.
The next morning the familia stayed in la casa whilst Heather, Di and I headed for a drive out the other side of town into the mountains. There we did some off the beaten track hikes, saw a real authentic beaver colony, but no beavers and experienced plenty of breathtaking views whilst driving on wildy dangerous windy roads. We stopped by to take a panorama and met a friendly Ushuaian guy selling little wooden figurines. As it turns out he has a brother who lives in Albany, Western Australia, which, if you don't already know, is the small city I grew up in over 12500kms away. What are the chances?!?! We then went to fuel up the car, made friends with a caterpillar called Wayra, and returned the car to meet with the others for a bit to eat. Then we separated again, Andrew, Rosanne and Stew to check out the local Museos, and Heb, Di, Jus and I headed up into the mountain behind the city to find a geocache. Unfortunately, we had to log a 'did not find' as the geocache has been misplaced, but the views of the city were spectacular, and we definitely worked off all of those churros, of which we promptly purchased 2 dozen more.
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| Wayra |
After Iguazu falls we headed back to BA to catch a night sleep in our apartment for heading to Mendoza to begin the final leg of our journey. After touching down in Mendoza we taxied to the Mendoza bus terminal and jumped on a bus to Santiago in Chile. Possibly one of the best scenic bus rides in the world, but a long one, we arrived approximately 12 hours later (4 hours late) at our Apartment in Chile for a quick dinner and supply run before heading to bed. The next day we checked out a few of the sights in Chile, did some geocaching, some eating, some drinking of Pisco Sour and some shopping at some nice markets. That night we had Chinese for dinner, the restaurant was possibly the most elaborately decorated place I had ever seen, unfortunately the food was pretty average. The next day we jumped back on a bus to Mendoza, knowing that just a day earlier a bus on the same route crashed, exploded on impact and 50 people lost their lives. Even though we waited hour at the border crossing, we arrived back in Argentina after only 7.5 hours, around one hour or so late this time.
That night we arrived at the house we rented in Coria de Chacras, Mendoza which was 2 storey, had a pool and a giant backyard and was located within the Mendoza wine circuit. After a very warm welcome by the owner, the others had a rest whilst Heather, Di and I headed into town to pick up a bunch of Lomitos which were truly amazing. I'll never understand how they get steak to be so tender.
The next day we headed down to a relatively new, but amazing winery called Salentine. There we enjoyed a very delicious lunch and their most expensive bottle of Malbec ($30). We then went on their Winery tour and tasting where we tried a few of their other wines and especially enjoyed Diane's piano performance in their amazing cellar where once a year they hold a concert since it has such excellent acoustics. Funnily enough, we went to see a movie at the Spanish film festival recently and part of it was filmed at this exact winery.
We then went out separate ways for a bit, but strangely had lunch at the exact same place... then Stew, Jus, Andrew and Rosanne headed back to la casa, whilst Heather, Di and I headed to Norton for an amazing tour of the oldest winery in Mendoza and tasted their Malbec at 3 difference stages of production.
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| Di eating the same food from the same place that the others had lunch earlier |
Our last day in BA consisted of a bit of shopping, birthday lunch for Di at Pani, packing, and seeing the family off to the airport. It was a sad day. But just because our holiday around the country was over, it didn't mean we could relax.
We had a bit over a week to pack, do all final shopping, clean up, say goodbye to friends, and move back to Australia. So all that week was spent with me working on my final assignment for a unit and heading around town in search of various items. Heather and I both got a custom made leather jacket. We enjoyed some amazing dinners with some amazing friends, said goodbye to Heather's work buddies, had a milkshake date and hunted down all the bottles of Malbec that I wanted to bring home.
On our last day we said goodbye to our apartment and our street and our beautiful neighbourhood, and drove all the way out to the international airport with all of our stuff, litres of Malbec, numerous jars of Dulce de Leche and piles of Alfajores. We arrived in Santiago airport, headed straight for a Qantas affiliated lounged and I settled in to finished my final assignment. After ten hours of drinking soft drinks, coffee, writing and eating from the snack bar, we headed up and boarded our flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Many hours later, we arrived and smiled at those beautiful, almost Australian accents of the staff in Auckland airport. We stopped in at the qantas lounge to brush out teeth and drink some orange juice, and awkwardly said 'gracias' to the lady at the desk as we left, not really remembering how to communicate in English. Then we boarded a flight to Sydney, our final fight on LAN and arrived in Australia. The end of our journey was nigh, but not over yet. We stopped into the Qantas lounge again to have a much need shower, breakfast, and to brush our teeth, again, at this point it just felt like we had been eating constantly for the last 35 hours. Our flight to Perth was delayed due to a 'hot plane', but eventually we boarded a Qantas plane to Perth where the flight hosts were all blokey 40-50 year old men that said things like 'need another lamb mate' and 'i'm all ouda chicken' in hilariously cliched Australian accents, almost as if to welcome us back. We finally arrived in Perth after approximately 40ish hours in transit, Hebs parents picked us up (thanks) and we headed, as if magnetically, to Gordon Street Garage for a BLT (having been deprived of real bacon for so long). We then headed to our temporary accommodation, thanks to Heathers company, and caught up on some much needed sleep.
Thanks so much for reading our blog, this is the final post. We had a surprisingly large amount of viewers over the last year even though this was mainly just to keep family and friends updated on our movements, so it looks like our story reached a bunch of people from all over the world. We just want to say thanks again, if you ever do something similar, we definitely recommend you write a blog and include lots of photos to document the experience, it's a great way to keep track of things, share your experience with friends and family and keep hold of those memories yourself.
Love hebsnosc xoxo
