Buenos Aires a retrospective....

Yet again I have left it too long between blogs so we're running a little behind on 'the story so far', it'll only take a little while to catch up so here goes....

In just a few days Buenos Aires has become my second favourite city in the world (I am not yet tired of life and so London retains the top spot).

I have to say that I love everything about BA, it's a really atmospheric city one that I am enjoying just 'being' in if that makes any sense. It is of course a city and so there have been no 'Fitzroy' moments here but there is something about it, particularly in and around the area in which we stayed. As with all cities the closer you get to the centre the more cars and people there are but the whole of Palermo, not just Soho has interesting cobbled side streets, beautiful old buildings and some amazing graffiti which I think, as I did with Valparaiso completely adds to its charm.

Wonderful street art is everywhere

Our apartment in Palermo Soho was the perfect base for us, we were surrounded by the coolest cafes, bars, restaurants and boutique clothes stores; it's possible to keep yourself fully occupied without even leaving the district to see some of the sights of BA, however we did.....

El Ateneo is a chain of bookstores; some of you will know that I absolutuley love killing time in a bookshop (can't recommend Daunts on Marylebone High Street highly enough) which is increasingly difficult to do in England since the clever people at Amazon made book buying so easy online, however bookshops seem to be something of a phenomenon in BA. El Ateneo Grand Splendid on Santa Fe is definitely worth a visit as it's in an old and beautiful building that used to be a theatre. The majority of the books are as you might expect in Spanish so we popped in to have a quick look around the building but only minimal book browsing was done.

Having visited Recoleta cemetery we then visited the Evita museum to find out a little more about her, the museum is small and in the main is a display of her dresses and shoes with some video footage of her speaking and of her funeral. Portenos (the term used to refer to people from BA) seem to be split on the topic of Evita as to whether was she a force for good or not.... The information available in the museum didn't really help me to form a strong view though from what I saw I would suggest that she was incredibly self indulgent. Something that I hadn't realised was that she died so young, she was only 33.

We visited San Telmo on what felt like the hottest day ever, we visited La Casa Rosada (The Pink Palace) famous for being the platform from which Evita addressed Argentina and then we sat in a lovely plaza watching a couple dancing the Argentinian Tango, the music and the dancing evokes thoughts of days gone by, made all the more so as the music was being played on an old 8-track.....

The 'Pink Palace'

A very provocative dance

We also went to Tigre; we took the Tren de la Costa which, following an attempted scam by the lady selling tickets (accused us of taking our $AR100 bill back - which of course we hadn't), took us past some beautiful properties where I imagine the super rich live, dropped us in Tigre which was incredibly busy as it's peak season in Argentina. There wasn't all that much to see in Tigre but it's the place to take a boat down the river to Tres Bocas which we did. As with almost every day we've had so far the weather was perfect and whilst all of the waterways in the delta were busy with tourists boats and locals alike, it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. We had an asado for lunch a very traditional meal of several different meats (different cuts of steak, chicken, chorizo and black pudding) served on a mini hot plate at your table.

En route to Tres Bocas

We definitely ate well in BA, my favourite meals were at Osaka a Japanese/Peruvian fusion restaurant (not as unusual a combination as you might imagine) and I Latina which is a 'closed door' restaurant, a model which is increasingly popular in BA - I misunderstood the description thinking that it was the same as a pop up restaurant but it isn't. A closed door restaurant offers a set menu anything from 5 to 10 courses and it's necessary to book in advance as they don't accept passing customers. I Latina is run by two brothers from Colombia one cooks and one is front of house, in just a year they have made it to number one on TripAdvisor and having now tasted the food I'm not at all surprised, it was delicious.

It was so nice having a base for more than just a couple of days and I can't describe the pleasure that can be derived from being able to completely unpack a rucksack and to put clothes in to a wardrobe, a small and simple pleasure.

So, as I said no 'Fitzroy' moments but a definite moment or two of wondering if I could (with ever so slightly improved Spanish!) live in this city and after nine days I have to say that yes, BA is definitely my kind of city.

Raine x

I think I may up sticks and move here......

On the 26th, after a stop over in Puerto Natales, we did our final border crossing from Chile to El Calafate in Argentina to take a flight to Buenos Aires (thanks to Marc & John - without your very generous birthday present we would have been doing a 36 hour bus journey, with it we were able to fly to BA in just three - thank you x).

I had read a lot about Buenos Aires (BA), I am after all a city chick and from what I'd read I suspected that I might like it, but I was wrong - I LOVE it!

We have rented an apartment in the coolest part of the city, Palermo Soho. For anyone who's been to New York it feels a lot like the Meat Packing district, full of fabulous restaurants, cafes, bars and chic boutiques.

Our first couple of days in the city were spent finding our feet and having some down time, just pottering (I love that term). 

Yesterday we visited Recoletta, famous for being the home of the cemetery where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried. Whilst it's a complete contrast to the natural beauty we have experienced in both Chile and Argentina over the past three weeks I have to say that I thought the cemetery was strangely beautiful.

Throughout Latin America they celebrate All Souls Day (aka The day of the dead) taking gifts and flowers to the graves of their loved ones, the indigenous communities take a feast to the grave side and family members take time to honour their dead. We were in Ecuador for All Souls Day and I remember seeing the gifts and flowers on the graves in all of the cemeteries that we passed.

I don't get the impression that All Souls Day was much of an event at Recoletta cemetery. 

A high wall protects the city of the dead that is Recoletta cemetery but despite it's height you can see an assortment of aged stone cherubs, angels and weeping widows peering over the top.

What were, I imagine, once fabulously ornate mausoleums marking what must have been a golden age in Argentinas history are now in varying states of decay, many of them with broken windows, exposed coffins and cobweb covered doors, it's like a silent theatre. 

The state of the tombs adds to the 'romance' of the place but left me feeling sad that they lie apparently forgotten by all but those tourists keen to see the final resting place of Evita who lies embalmed beneath tonnes of reinforced concrete to protect her from body snatchers and desecraters.

One of many plaques on Evita's tomb

Raine x

Silly silly people

Torres del Paine has very strict rules about the use of camping stoves and fires in the park and here's why......

In the past seven years two individual tourists have been responsible for destroying 285km2 of the beautiful forestland that makes up the Torres del Paine National Park.

It was incredibly sad to walk through the parts of of the park that had been so badly damaged by the stupidity of man!

Raine x

Grey Glaciar

The walk to the Grey Glaciar was an additional walk that we decided to do once we'd completed the W Trek. It was an extra 11km and it was my favourite walk of the five days, very few people walk all the way to the Glaciar, opting to view it from the mirador (view point) which is quite some distance away and which means that they only need to walk for four days.

It was quite a tough walk, we had to go up and down two 'ladders' made of scaffolding and cross one very wobbly bridge but it was so worth it. We only saw a handful of people the whole day and the views of the Glaciar were incredible.

It's a long way up or down which ever way you look at it.

Icebergs ahead....

The colours were ever changing

We walked along side the Glaciar through the glaciated valley which was stunning. The light kept changing through the day which made the Glaciar appear white initially and then all different shades of blue until looking back on it on our return journey it appeared to be electric blue.

Awe inspiring!

Raine x 

I am sooo glad we're not camping....

I woke up at about 3am to the sound of a gale force wind and looked out of the window at the campsite to see several people trying to secure their tents.....

After breakfast we set off for Refugio Grey, the final stop of our trek. The weather was amazing, we had the strongest winds that I've ever experienced (if you want to see what I mean by strong let me know and I'll send you the video).

Abs successfully staying on her feet!

The sun doesn't always shine on us.....

The wind made the walk harder than it should be but it also made it the funniest day, Abs and I laughed like children the whole way to Refugio Grey - recording weather forecasts, pretending we were skydiving and generally just trying to stay standing up.


They were right about the four seasons, all we're waiting on now is snow!

Raine x

Valle del Frances

After two incredibly hot days the weather broke over night and from about 3am it was absolutely teaming down with rain and that was to be the shape of the day- rain and lots of it.

We set off at 8:30 with the best waterproofs we could manage which for me was my fluorescent pink 'mac in a sac', a pair of shorts and a black bin liner tied round my rucksack - it's the same as not wearing Lycra when you ride a bike - it keeps people's expectations low if you don't look like a pro.....

Today was to be our longest walk through the Valle del Frances which on a sunny day would have offered up the most incredible views and whilst we've been lucky on pretty much every other day of our trip today was not our day.

After a night of torrential rain our first challenge was to cross a river that was flowing down hill, fast. There was a group trying to cross at the bottom close to the path but we decided we would have a better chance further up stream and, with the help of a lovely Belgian couple we'd met, successfully navigated the crossing with only wet toes to show for it - being that much further up stream meant we went 'off piste' for about 20 minutes but it did mean that we didn't fall into the river, unlike the group further down who all fell in waist deep......

With the weather as it was we knew that we wouldn't get to see any of the Valle del Frances but with so much time on our hands we continued with the walk, for the exercise if nothing else.

We got to the Refugio Paine Grande much earlier than expected and were able to shower and dry off in front of a wood burning stove with a glass of red wine.....

Dinner was a variation on the same theme, soup followed by turkey followed by a very sweet pudding followed by bed!

Raine x

The walk to Refugio Los Cuernos

After an early breakfast at 7:30 (ok, an earlyish breakfast, I am on holiday remember) we set off on our second day, headed to Refugio Los Cuernos. 

It was a scorching hot day and we had just short of 20km to cover but we had plenty of time, there was less elevation on the second day and so the walking was relatively easy and we took it slowly really taking time to appreciate the beautiful scenery that we were walking through, hills, valleys and lakes. The weather in Torres del Paine is incredibly unpredictable and we'd been warned, in spite of the exceptionally hot weather in Puerto Natales, to expect to see all four seasons on our trek, so far so good, we've only experienced summer.

Beautiful views all around

Mum, do you know what these are?

Some of the cloud formations are incredible

The walk is estimated to take about 10 hours but we made it to Cuernos for a late afternoon beer which was followed by a dinner not dissimilar to the night before, chicken and turkey seem to be the staples here.

Raine x