Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Buquebus Ferry Terminal

On Thursday morning we took a taxi to the Buquebus Ferry Terminal and boarded a ferry to Uruguay. Even though we had opted for the cheaper slow ferry, it only took us 3 hours to reach Colonia del Sacramento. As we were moving across the Río de la Plata it felt like an actual, physical, weight fell off my shoulders. Colonia is a very small town of just 22,700 inhabitants and the interesting part of town, the UNESCO World Heritage Barrio Histórico, is even smaller. We only stayed there for 2 days and there is really not too much that I can say about it. Colonia is just about the cutest little town you have ever seen. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 as a smugglers port, but fell into Spanish hands in 1762. The Barrio Histórico is a maze of winding, cobblestoned streets, ruins, historic homes, leafy plazas and quiet restaurants tucked away underneath piles of flowering plants. It oozes tranquility. Every moment of the day feels like it is siesta. There is always jazz playing somewhere. It is unbelievably pretty. It is the perfect place to linger over a bottle of wine. So that´s what we did. The difference between Colonia and Buenos Aires could not have been bigger.


Paseo de San Gabriel


Bastión de San Miguel


Calle de los Suspiros


Convento de San Francisco and Faro (Lighthouse)


overlooking the Río de la Plata from the Lighthouse


Puerto Viejo (Old Port)


Iglesia Matriz


Plaza de Armas


El Drugstore

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires is a city that I expected to love and wanted to like, but now that I'm here, I don't love it and I don't like it - not one bit.

I already told you that Buenos Aires is big, but what makes it worse, is that it's incredibly difficult to get around town. Trains don't go where I need them to go, nor does the Subte (Buenos Aires' subway system). You practically need a degree in Cryptology to understand the city's intricate bus system. Taxis are expensive. No matter where you're going or what time of day it is, it always seems like rush hour. Porteños (Buenos Aires' inhabitants) are dangerous, if not downright crazy, drivers, so it's best not to bike or walk anywhere. You are constantly surrounded by car horns and exhaust fumes. The city is dirty - there is dog poop everywhere and trash never seems to be picked up, instead decaying in the city's heat and humidity after the cartoneros (Buenos Aires' 'garbage recycles', which is a euphemism for the homeless) have scoured through it. Porteños are not the nicest of people at first glance - they're often rude and appear to think very highly of themselves (and very lowly of you).

The city has two distinct faces: beautiful and ugly; rich and poor; happy and depressing. In one neighborhood I would feel uncomfortable and underdressed amongst the well-dressed and fashionable Porteños, while in another neighborhood I was afraid to wear my engagement ring for fear of being mugged in broad daylight. One moment you are walking in the cutest little side street, and the next you find yourself on a busy and ugly avenue.

This city tires me, wears me down, drains me, turns my mood sour and makes me sad. After the beauty and tranquility of empty Patagonia it is just too much.

It took us almost three days to find our bearings. When we did, we decided that we simply didn't have the energy to go sightseeing very much. Usually, we enjoy taking a free walking tour, but the idea of voluntarily going downtown was too much for me to bear (we had been there already on our second day in Buenos Aires to buy our boat tickets to Uruguay and I had no desire to return to that madness). Instead we tried to embrace the city's duality by visiting two very different neighborhoods.

First, we went to La Boca, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, which was built by working-class Italian immigrants from Genoa. We came to see its famous Caminito, a small street lined with colorful buildings. This was the only place in town I've seen that was not covered in trash and dog poop, but it did have a lot of touristy bars, restaurants and shops. Our guidebook warns not to wander outside of this little touristy area, so after we had walked through the Caminito, we went straight back.





Our next stop was Recoleta, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, which is strewn with grand apartment buildings, expensive designer shops and hip restaurants. We came here to see the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta. This cemetery is like a city in itself, a city of death. The country's elite rest here in elaborate stone and marble structures fancier than some of the city's houses. Here we also saw Evita's grave.





The contrast between the two neighborhoods could not have been bigger and there is beauty in this duality.

Most of the time, however, we stayed in Palermo, which is the neighborhood where our hostel is. Palermo is small, has tree-lined streets, quiet parks and an abundance of nice cafés, tea houses and restaurants. This is where we spent most of our time - drinking coffee and visiting as many Asian restaurants as we could find.







My favorite thing about Buenos Aires, however, were the many paseoperros (professional dog walkers) in Palermo.



Needless to say, I won't be sad to leave this town tomorrow. I can't wait to go to Uruguay!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Argentinian Patagonia

We are getting ready to go to Buenos Aires. Did you know that while Santiago has almost 5 million inhabitants, and New York about 8 million, Buenos Aires houses a staggering number of 13 million people? I didn´t. I just read it in our guidebook. At 4 PM we will board yet another night bus that should deliver us to this cosmopolitan metropolis tomorrow morning. I wish I had brought my high heels.



Meanwhile, we have been enjoying an intermezzo between desolate Tierra del Fuego and overflowing Buenos Aires: Argentinian Patagonia on the Atlantic coast. We have been staying in Puerto Madryn - a small coastal town conveniently situated between Ushuaia and Buenos Aires. We found a small, family-run hostel that we mostly had to ourselves. But there was another reason we decided to come here. Puerto Madryn lies exactly between two nature reserves: Reserva Faunística Península Valdés and Punta Tombo.

We visited Punta Tombo first. We did this by rental car, because the idea of spending another day on a full tour bus with a group of other tourists didn´t appeal to us very much. We rented a small, red Volkswagen and drove ourselves to the nature reserve. Punta Tombo has the largest penguin colony outside of Antartica. Between September and April thousands of Magellanic penguins breed here. When we arrived, the majority of the colony had already left the nature reserve in favor of the Atlantic ocean, but there were still many penguins to spot. The great thing about this nature reserve is that you walk through the colony and can get really close to the penguins. And penguins are just so cute - it´s hard not to cuddle them when they walk up to you and tilt their head, as if to figure you out. The weather was also working in our favor so we had an amazing day.





Before returning to Puerto Madryn we decided to make a quick stop in Gaiman, a small town in rural Patagonia. Many Welsh people settled in Gaiman, so driving into town is quite a shock, since everything looks so European. We came here to visit one of the many famous Welsh tea houses for unlimited tea and pastries. We arrived quite annoyed with each other, for we had just had that classic argument about how Jochem can´t drive a car, and how I can´t read a map (I believe that we called it even in the end). However, when we entered the tea house, we were so overwhelmed by the Alice-in-Wonderland-ness of it all that we couldn´t help but giggle. Here we were: sweaty, wearing hiking boots and carrying a Lonely Planet, in a world where everyone was dressed in their finest, sipping tea elegantly, while being served by old ladies in black-and-white costumes. It was surreal. We stuffed ourselves with English tea and fatty, sugary pastries until we almost burst and then took the leftovers home. Needless to say, we didn´t need dinner after that.





The next day we drove our rental car to Reserva Faunística Península Valdés. There are many places to visit on this peninsula, all teeming with wildlife, but we drove straight to Punta Norte because this is where orcas are sometimes spotted. We have seen a lot of aquatic wildlife already, but orcas are difficult to find. The nice lady who welcomed us at the entrance to the peninsula warned us that the orca season was almost over, that they´re difficult to see, that there was a north wind today that would make it virtually impossible. But we are nothing if not stubborn so we went to Punta Norte anyway. We planted ourselves in the sand near a group of sea lions and waited. Tour bus after tour bus came and left and we continued to wait while scanning the ocean. Orcas hunt during high tide, which, in this case, could mean anytime between 2 and 8 PM. We waited for 2 hours when we finally saw them: a group of elusive, wild orcas swimming close to shore! We followed them until they disappeared behind another bay. We waited for 2 more hours, hoping that they would come back to hunt the sea lions, but they didn´t. That was a shame, but on the other hand, I didn´t have to see an innocent sea lion puppy being eaten either. So we drove to Caleta Valdés to admire the fat elephant seals sleeping on the beach and then we went home. It was a great day!





Our time in Argentina is almost over. Stay tuned for tales of Buenos Aires!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Jochem and I are quickly finding out just how BIG South America really is. There are so many things to see, so many things to do, and so many places worthy of a visit that we´ve been rushing through it, which is not the best way to do it, I admit. We´ve only seen a very small fraction of the huge area that encompasses Patagonia, but already we´ve seen so much and done so much that it´s sometimes difficult to remember. But let´s start at the beginning.

After a few hours delay, we finally boarded our Navimag ferry on Friday afternoon, which took us from Puerto Montt in the Lakes District to Puerto Natales in Patagonia in 3 nights and 4 days. On board we found out that we had been extremely lucky in the assignment of our bed bunks - while most of our fellow budget travellers, who also couldn´t afford or didn´t wish to pay for a private hut, had to sleep in the hallway next to the toilets, we had our own little corner next to a wall. This meant that it was just the two of us in that corner and that we had a window! Usually, only first class passengers get a window, so we were very pleased. Life on board was kind of dull, but it did encourage us to crawl onto a couch with a cup of tea and a good book. We were constantly surrounded by the most amazing scenery, including fjords and glaciers.


Chile´s fjords


Iceberg Glacier

On Monday evening it was time to get off the boat. The first thing that we noticed about Puerto Natales was how cold it was. Luckily, we quickly found accommodation downtown.


about to get off the ferry and onto very cold Puerto Natales

The next day we had to switch to another hostel because the hostel of our first choice had been booked up. After we made the move, we took some time to explore Puerto Natales, which was surprisingly nice. It´s a really small town in the midst of the giant that is Patagonia and it had everything that I wanted at that moment - cute houses in pastel colors, a beautiful port overlooking the glacial valley, real coffee served with just the right amount of full fat milk, a vegetarian restaurant and an authentic Italian restaurant with a real pizza oven. HALLELUJAH!!!


Puerto Natales


enjoying a cup of coffee at El Living

There´s a lot to do in the area, but we decided on two things. On Wednesday we went horseback riding with gauchos on top of Mirador Dorotea, a big hill just outside Puerto Natales overlooking the glacial valley. Jochem and I are really enjoying horseback riding. I used to do it all the time as a kid - I even took lessons and participated in competitions, until I fell off a horse and was afraid to get back up. Jochem hadn´t ridden a single horse until this trip, but he´s actually really good at it and I´m also finding that I´m getting better and better each time. We hope to take horseback riding lessons when we get home. We share many passions together - food, travel, hiking, and it´s great to find a new one to add to the list. I had a good connection with my horse and the views were amazing.


Mirador Dorotea


Mirador Dorotea

The next day we went on one of those cookie-cutter one-day bus trips to Torres del Paine National Park. Having come all the way to Puerto Natales we didn´t want to miss it, but we didn´t feel like preparing for one of the many epic multi-day hiking trips either, plus: we felt that we didn´t have the time and had to keep moving. This was ideal then. We actually saw a lot, including the famous ´torres,´ a waterfall, ice bergs and the Grey Glacier. There was also a lot of wildlife to spot. We saw guanacos (a type of llama related to the camel, which is an animal typical of Patagonia), Patagonian ostriches, a fox and an Andean condor - the biggest bird in the world. All day we were surrounded by the grand and majestic outdoors of Patagonia. I guess I finally see what all the fuss is about!


Torres del Paine National Park


in front of the torres (´towers´) that gave Torrel del Paine National Park its name

The next day already we left Puerto Natales, got on a bus and 12 hours later we arrived in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world in the area of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. We had left Chile at last (it only took us 40 days)! Ushuaia is advertised everywhere as being the end of the world, which, technically, is not exactly true. The road that brings you to Ushuaia keeps going into Tierro del Fuego National Park and south of Ushuaia lies an island called Isla Navarino, which belongs to Chile, where there is a small settlement of 2500 people at Puerto Williams. But it does feel like the end of the world, even though the city itself is much bigger than Puerto Natales. While Puerto Natales is small and cosy and filled to the brim with adventurers, here there are a lot of young backpackers partying their days and nights away - not exactly my scene, or maybe it´s just our hostel that we´ve been unlucky with this time. The food remains great, though. While Chilean Patagonia has a lot of German immigrants, Argentina has a lot of Italian ones, which explains the way the Argentinians speak Spanish, but also accounts for a lot of Italian restaurants. There is nothing that this girl loves more than a plate of homemade Italian food, and with the Argentinians, who seems to love nothing more than a piece of dead cow, this works out perfectly!


Ushuaia

Only a small part of Tierra del Fuego National Park is actually open to the public, and since we were blessed with some amazing weather (which we heard is uncommon for the region), we decided on a boat trip through the Beagle Channel instead. This turned out to be the best choice, for we enjoyed the many charms of the Beagle Channel while being able to see some more amazing wildlife, including cormorants, albatrosses, penguins, an elephant seal, sea lions, fur seals and, miraculously, whales.


Beagle Channel


Beagle Channel


Beagle Channel

I can only imagine what kind of wildlife Antarctica has to offer when I can see this kind of wildlife right outside Ushuaia. And imagination it will remain, because although we were tempted to go for the last-minute 3900 US dollar per person offer, we eventually decided against it. We decided that since we still have 3 more months to go in this world trip, and need to start building our life from scratch when we get home, and have student debts to pay off come January 2013, and want to get married and want to keep travelling, that maybe going for this offer was not the best idea.


Ushuaia

Instead, we bought outrageously expensive bus tickets from Ushuaia to Puerto Madryn. To be fair, we had been warned and we do get driven around for more than 1500 kilometers (the fact that we will then still be in Patagonia should give you an indication of what I´m talking about when I say ¨South America is really BIG¨). The bus leaves tomorrow morning at 5 AM and arrives in Río Gallegos at 5 PM. After a 3-hour wait we board bus # 2 that will take 16 hours to drive to Puerto Madryn, where we will arrive at 1 PM the next day. I know what you´re thinking - that´s crazy talk! And, indeed, this gruelling 32-hour bus ride makes our longest bus ride thus far (from Alice Springs to Adelaide in 21 hours) look like child´s play. Flying is not an option, unfortunately, because it´s even more expensive than the bus. We´re still rushing because now we kind of want to get out of Argentina quickly and head for some of the cheaper countries on the continent. But we didn´t want to miss Puerto Madryn - it´s just the right season to spot penguins and, if we´re really, very lucky, ORCAS!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Isla Grande de Chiloé, Chile

We had a week to kill. Our initial plan was to stay in Santiago for a couple of days after our friends had left and then take the boat from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales on February 24. Unfortunately, there were no more dorm beds available on that trip, so we decided to postpone it by one week. We took an overnight bus from Santiago to Puerto Montt where we arrived on Friday morning.


Puerto Montt

I don´t like Puerto Montt. It´s cold, wet and grey - a stark contrast to warm, sunny and colorful Santiago. The city has nothing to offer tourists and is clearly nothing more but a departure point for travel into Patagonia. There was a lot of German colonization in this area so there is a lot of German food, which is not something I care for. Our homestay was nice enough, but was run by two very stern, God-fearing and, quite frankly, intimidating old ladies. I couldn´t wait to get out of there, so the very next day we took a bus to Castro, the capital of Isla Grande de Chiloé, just 4 hours from Puerto Montt by bus and ferry.


on the ferry between mainland Chile and Chiloé

Chiloé is a beautiful island. It feels like a whole different world from the mainland of Chile. It is rough and very few people live there. Tourism is just getting started so you´re often on your own. Although most of the time it was also cold, wet and grey, it possesses a certain charm that Puerto Montt lacks. However, I must admit that we were also very lucky staying at the Palafito Hostel, which was like a home away from home. Palafitos are typical Chiloé houses made of wood and built on stilts overlooking the water and our hostel was one of these palafito houses.


Castro


our hostel in dark yellow


Castro

We walked around Castro a couple of times to enjoy the cute palafito houses, funky yellow and lavender church and beautiful colors of the outdoors - Chiloé reminds me of mint and chocolate chip ice cream because the trees and plants have this beautiful mint green color and are dotted with patches of chocolate brown mud. Most of the time, though, we stayed inside to enjoy the view from our very own palafito house while warming up next to the fire. Except for this one time when we embarked on an epic full day horseback ride with our guide Christian. He drove us from Castro, on the east coast of the island, to Cucao, on the west coast. From Cucao we rode our very stubborn horses in full gallop over the beach in Chiloé National Park and onto Point Pirulil. This Bridge of Souls is a sacred place from where, according to folklore, a dead person´s soul departs for the afterlife - kind of like Cape Reinga on the North Island of New Zealand, I imagine. It was a magical place and I was very surprised when Jochem took me there, went down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. Of course I said YES!


Jochem on Kurri and I on Sayem in Chiloé National Park


Chiloé National Park


Christian, Jochem and I in front of the Bridge of Souls


I DO!


my beautiful engagement ring


Point Pirulil

After having spent such a wonderful time on Chiloé, it depresses me even more to be back in Puerto Montt, but we had to get back early to confirm our trip with Navimag and arrange a few things before we leave tomorrow at 2 PM. What depresses me the most about Puerto Montt is the lack of decent food. In general, though, I am very disappointed in Chilean food. Almost everything is processed and chemically altered in some way. For example, after having been in Chile for almost a month, I haven´t been able to find normal yoghurt - every single item of yoghurt in Chile, it seems, is not yoghurt, but milk with added gelatin to give it that yoghurt-like texture. As a vegetarian I don´t eat gelatin, so no yoghurt for me. Or take juice. In Chile, juice is not actually juice, but sugary syrup with added milk or water. I haven´t been able to find normal juice in all my time here. What is UP people?! Moreover, most foods are fried. Food is either too salty, or tasteless. I´ve had better food on budget flights. It´s so bad, in fact, that I´d rather cook myself than try to find a nutritional meal in town. I can make a better meal out of raw ingredients without a use of a kitchen than the restaurants in Puerto Montt can. Chileans truly believe that a hot dog, undoubtedly processed with leftover meat, served inside a white bread bun, topped with processed guacamole (although I hesitate to use that word), is a perfectly acceptable meal come breakfast, lunch or dinner. I just do NOT understand any of that or why no one cares. Of course, the fact that we are vegetarians makes everything harder, although I must underline that, judging by my friends´ experiences, who are not vegetarians, that meat and fish dishes are usually not any better. I often reminisce about our time in South East Asia, where people who have almost nothing are able to prepare the most delicious, often vegetarian, meals for absolutely no money. Thinking about it makes me wish I was there now. I know that my standards of food are high, but I can´t help that. In other words, I can´t wait to leave this godforsaken place, which has turned one of my greatest passions (FOOD!) into an impossible task.


Puerto Montt

Our trip should be a great diversion, though. It´s the most popular boat trip in South America and it´s easy to see why - it´s a 4-day cruise through Chilean Patagonia past fjords and glaciers. Once in Puerto Natales we hope to visit Torres del Paine National Park, or what is left of it after the latest fire. Sorry to be ending on such a negative note, but it really makes me so sad. I think I´ll go back to our room, crawl in bed, have a cup of herbal tea, and talk to Jochem about our upcoming nuptials, because that always brings a smile to my face!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!