During the last few weeks I've been a furious traveller, desperately cramming in as much excitement as possible, hence being rather slack in the blog upkeep department! But Argentina was most lovely, here's a quick roundup of the places I've been.
Salta
After a little wine tasting I returned back to town where there was some big parade going on, some sort of dance competition because group after group of costumed young people formed blocks, streaming past for hours. There were also floats with giant flamingos, some drag queens and giant puppets too, a really festive atmosphere. I left at midnight but it was still all going strong. Another night in Salta I checked out a pena, a dinnershow with beautiful dancers and music which was quite impressive, too.
Iguazu
A 24-hour bus ride from Salta was the Argentinian town of Puerto Iguazu, gateway to the majestic Iguazu Falls. Arriving back to the subtropical warmth after so long in the mountains was heavenly and I spent some quality time in hammocks and by the hostel pool, before heading out the next day to explore the falls area.
Words can't really describe what it was like. Mind=blown.
There are several walking trails by which you can explore the area, and when I arrived in the morning I set off on the upper trail. When I reached the end I could see most of the falls in front of me. A huge expanse of water pouring furiously over the side, forming a huge spray...it was amazing. I had the lookout to myself for a good 20 minutes too which was awesome, I got to just sit and take it all in. After that I went on a little boat trip from downstream and saw the entire falls from the bottom, at which point I choked up and cried a little because it was so beautiful! It was a sunny day to there were rainbows everywhere in the spray. The boat took us underneath the falling water which was just fun, everyone got saturated. When that finished I explored the lower trails, walking all the through the forest which had all of these butterflies flitting everywhere. My favourite was one called the 88 butterfly, because on its wings there are spirals of black and white with a little black 88 in the middle, and on the outside a bright royal blue and red which looked purple in flight. The lower trail had a few little spots where you could sit in the shade and admire small sections of the falls, which I did, watching the sunbeams break through the forest canopy, truly tranquil.
Finally it was up to the major attraction (another) Devil's throat, where the falls form a kind of u-shaped cauldron, clouds of mist everywhere. Pretty darn huge and powerful and awe-inspiring. I got to see it again that night when I went back for the full moon tour of the falls. The walk out to that point by moonlight was beautiful - you take a boardwalk which crosses the huge river for around a kilometer, so the light was reflecting off the water everywhere, and then seeing the falls again by the full moon was lovely. Such a special place, definitely one of my highlights of my trip!
Buenos Aires
By this point in the trip with 2 weeks to go, I was really looking to cram in as much activity as humanly possible, so Buenos Aires was kind of exhausting! My first night I went and checked out a tango show which was quite impressive, both for the dancing and the music. The next day was a little sightseeing about the Palermo area, then that night there was a party at the hostel followed by a busload of us heading to a club called Pacha, where I danced my heart out to some semi decent techno housey stuff til the wee hours, great fun! The next day I checked out the San Telmo markets with some lovely girls from my dorm (from Newcastle! The one in England though:) and had a quiet one. Which was a good idea because I sucked the life out of the next three nights! I met up with an old travel-friend from Rio on Monday night at Club Severino, then on Tuesday ended up at Hype (kind of a good name because the hip hop wasn't great), and a pubcrawl followed by Rumi on Wednesday. I know, what a crazy little nutbag. I did manage to fit in some sightseeing, too! I checked out the streets of the Ricoleta cemetery, a place with elaborate mausoleums, if kind of creepy (looking through the windows to coffins was weird, this Buffy fan half expected Spike to emerge from one of the crypts!) I saw Eva Peron's resting place while there. I also went to the Museum of Latin American Art which had some cool stuff including this art/science exhibition with potatoes hooked up to electrodes arranged in a clever artistic way. I saw the Japanese gardens and also did a Street Art walking tour. That was one of my favourite things actually, some of the work was incredible. A lot of it is legal (people asking for murals on their businesses and stuff) so the artists get to take their time and create spectacular things. But its still got its roots in the graffiti culture, so its impermanent and kind of ownerless with people adding to /painting over each others works as time goes on. But what can be achieved with just spray paint was quite amazing.
Mendoza
Despite overdoing it in BA I hit the ground running in Mendoza. I arrived in the morning after a nightbus, had breakfast then did a city tour. After lunch and a little rest I joined a dozen others from the hostel for some sunset horse riding. It was great, riding through the scrubland in the hills outside the city, to the top of a mountain where we overlooked a whole big stretching plain, then finishing up at a little ranch where we had wine and delicious asado (BBQ). After dinner we all sat around the fire and listened to some folk music as sung by one of the gauchos, some sweet tunes by another tourist, followed by louder and louder singalong songs, dancing and general merriment! The fun continued after arriving back to town, where I went to a club and danced to a local band, and had a generally enjoyable and sweet night. The next day I should have just rested but decided to do a wine tour in the afternoon! Well, it was the main reason I had gone to Mendoza and would be my only chance as the wineries don't open Sundays. So I dragged myself out, tasted several nice wines and even bought a few, then slept in the bus on the way home. Sunday I was rested and ready to take one last hike in the South American countryside, climbing a small mountain outside town. The views were beautiful and so was the company. After the hike it was a lazy Sunday afternoon, laying on the grass in one of Mendoza's many beautiful parks, I had a really great day.
After Mendoza I travelled to Santiago. Man was that bus trip spectacular, crossing the Andes! I had less than 2 days in Santiago and it was freezing and raining so I didn't get to do much. I did take a great walking tour so saw a bit of the city which I liked, having a good chat about Chilean history and the current student movement with the young guide Carolina.
So conclude my South American adventures! Well not really because I loved the place so so much, I will be going back, probably in 2014:) I don't even know how to sum up my time there, except to say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening experience in a thousand different ways. I saw so many beautiful things, met so many awesome people... quite possibly the best 6 months of my life!
