Colonia is a very small town really, but very convenient from Buenos Aires, and a lovely wee spot for a couple of days. The old part of the town is all windy narrow little picure-perfect streets, often cobblestoned with the crazyiest cobbles I've ever seen, all completely irregular and misshapen.
Our great little hostel had free bikes, so again we took a day to explore the local environs. We rode out to Real de San Carlos, about 10km along the coast from the town, which has a huge sporting and entertainment complex built back in the early 1900's, but is mostly run down now. It has a very impressive bullring though, now in partial ruins, but you can easily crawl through a gap in the fence, and into and around the ring itself, which was really cool (very Galdiator-esque). We also rode out to check out the plush new five-star Sheraton Hotel, and relaxed in the huge lobby there for a bit, before riding back along the coast and watching a couple of local racehorses being exercised in the sea - Uruguay is quite horse-mad apparently.
So after a few days just chilling out (and updating this blog on the hostel´s free internet, a feature of more and more hostels it seems, a sign of the times I suppose), and relaxing in the laid back town it was back on a local bus for the 2 hour bus ride to the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Hang gliding in Rio, as you do.
As a wee interlude in the blog I thought I´d skip ahead a wee bit to where we are at this very moment, Rio in Brazil, and link to an uploaded video of Sarah hang gliding (it was kind of an early birthday pressie): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-564801963204048726&hl=en
And while I´m at it I thought I´d put up a short video from Iguasu Falls too (probably the single most amazing nature wonder I´ve ever seen):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8457912740244198219&hl=en
By the way, this little video is only a tiny part of the whole Falls system, and I´ve loads more, but only had time to upload this one video.
And while I´m at it I thought I´d put up a short video from Iguasu Falls too (probably the single most amazing nature wonder I´ve ever seen):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8457912740244198219&hl=en
By the way, this little video is only a tiny part of the whole Falls system, and I´ve loads more, but only had time to upload this one video.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Buenos Aires
We ended up staying 9 nights in Buenos Aires, another huge metropolis, but once again one that has millions of cool bars and restaurants, although like Santiago they tend to be quite spread out across a number of little ´villages´, a bit like maybe Rathmines or Ranelagh at home, kinda! We would have left a couple of days earlier, but we ran into a long weekend, and it might have proved difficult to get accommodation in our next port of call, Colonia in Uruguay, as apparently it's very popular with Argentinian tourists at the weekends. I didn't mind at all though really, as I really like Buenos Aires, or BsAs as it's often abbreviated.
But staying longer in Buenos Aires meant more time to see the huge number of sights around the city, and of course to sample more of the great restaurants and bars. Most of the cool bars could be straight from Paris or Spain I suppose, but the atmosphere everywhere is great, as socialising seems to be a big part of life here.
It also meant that we could meet up again with a local guy we met one night in an Irish bar, Sebastian (he was wearing a Rangers soccer jersey, so of course I had to set him straight!). The locals tend to head out on the town very late, so the Irish bar actually had the most life and buzz to it when we were strolling about early in the night, i.e. about 10pm. After meeting Sebastian, the night turned into a bit of a bender, getting back to our hotel (Hotel Espana) eventually at about 7am.
A couple of days later when we returned to the hotel there was a package waiting for us. At first I just thought it was fresh towels or bed sheets or something, but when I checked properly it turned out to be a freshly baked cake. Obviously we thought there was some mistake so Sarah checked with the guy on reception, but it was definitely for us, and after a bit of broken Spanish and sign language it turned out to be from Sebastian (although there was no note). It turned out that he had gone to a party the night before and had baked 2 cakes, 1 for the party and 1 for us - now how friendly is that!?
We arranged to meet up with Sebastian a few days later and he took us on a bit of a walking tour of the city, showing us a couple of cool places not even mentioned in either of our guidebooks. He also brought mate (pronounced mah-tay), which is the national drink of quite a few South American countries and you see people drinking it all over the place, especially in Uruguay, although weirdly you can´t order it in any of the cafes or bars. It´s basically a kind of bitter tea, but was really cool for us to try it with Sebastian, as it´s such an important part of South American culture, but you really need to hook up with a local to try it. I thought it was nice straight away, although Sarah didn´t take to it really (even with lots of sweetner added).
The next time we met Sebastian he brought us out of the centre on a local bus to his favorite local restaurant, a parrilla, which is one of the national styles of Argentine cooking - basically a big BBQ or wood fired grill with lots and lots of meat. It was great food of course and the atmosphere was great (although Sebastian thought it was kinda quite). He also snook off and paid the whole bill before we were even presented with it, which was rather cheeky, but was warmly appreciated of course.
We returned the favour a few days later in a nice restaurant in San Telmo (recommended by Enda´s Tracy in fact). We´d spent that Sunday morning visiting the San Telmo street market, which was more impressive, and bigger, than I was expecting, and then we hired bikes for a few hours. We met up with Sebastian again after a bit of a logistical mix up and toured around the parklands that buffer the city from the sea front, and then he took us on a bit of a cycle tour around the city (including popping into a cool art musuem for a quick look, although I got to introduce Sebastian to the Philippe Stark designed hotel, the Faena Hotel, that I'd read about somewhere. It is really impressive, although the bar is ridiculously expensive - A$33 for a small local beer that is normally A$5 (that's like paying over Euro 30 for a Guinness in Dublin)).
We finally said goodbye to Sebastian later that day. He´d been incredibly generous every time we met him, but saying goodbye he actually gave us his mate cup and the silver straw, a cool Reservoir Dogs postcard (Sebastian is a huge movie buff) and a mad photo of the huge tattoo across his whole back! Hopefully we´ll get the chance to return all his great hospitality if he ever gets to Ireland.
A city the size of Buenos Aires has lots of great restaurants of course, but Casa Cruz on Uriarte, in the posh Palermo district of the city, was probably the best meal I've had on the entire trip so far. The place had a brilliant atmosphere, and although it was very upper class it wasn't too snooty or anything (waiters were all wearing smart uniforms, but most of them were wearing sneakers and jeans under their formal aprons). We had cocktails at the bar before being seated, a starter to share, I ordered lobster (not a whole one, but still plenty), while Sarah had the rabbit and a bottle of lovely Argentine wine, all top-notch grub and all for about Euro80 - amazing!
Earlier that same day we'd checked out one of the fanciest hotels in the city (Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt), and it was extremely stuck-up - Sarah felt very annoyed when we left, as all the staff seemed to be looking her up and down (we did look quite out of place in our backpacker touristy clothes), but she was made to feel very uncomfortable indeed. It was weird actually, as I felt quite uncomfortable too, which was probably the first time that's ever happened - I think it's the first time I've encountered a place that is completely over the top in terms of it's snobby-ness, and I didn´t think the hotel was particularly amazing in any regard either.
So anyway, most of our time in Buenos Aires was spent strolling around the city (or getting the odd local bus or metro), and exploring the many museums, gallerys, churches, plazas, etc. We saw a couple of tango demonstrations on the streets of the more touristy places (like Caminito and San Telmo), and did a cool tour of the Boca Junior soccer stadium. The stadium was a bit rundown really, but it's such a famous club (mostly because of Maradona, whose image is all over the area, but also Gabriel Batistuta), and it was quite cool to get a tour of the pitch, press room, changing rooms, etc.
So when we finally left the city it was a quick taxi ride to the swish new ferry port and a short 3 hour boat trip across the Rio de la Plata to the lovely old town of Colonia in Uruguay.
But staying longer in Buenos Aires meant more time to see the huge number of sights around the city, and of course to sample more of the great restaurants and bars. Most of the cool bars could be straight from Paris or Spain I suppose, but the atmosphere everywhere is great, as socialising seems to be a big part of life here.
It also meant that we could meet up again with a local guy we met one night in an Irish bar, Sebastian (he was wearing a Rangers soccer jersey, so of course I had to set him straight!). The locals tend to head out on the town very late, so the Irish bar actually had the most life and buzz to it when we were strolling about early in the night, i.e. about 10pm. After meeting Sebastian, the night turned into a bit of a bender, getting back to our hotel (Hotel Espana) eventually at about 7am.
A couple of days later when we returned to the hotel there was a package waiting for us. At first I just thought it was fresh towels or bed sheets or something, but when I checked properly it turned out to be a freshly baked cake. Obviously we thought there was some mistake so Sarah checked with the guy on reception, but it was definitely for us, and after a bit of broken Spanish and sign language it turned out to be from Sebastian (although there was no note). It turned out that he had gone to a party the night before and had baked 2 cakes, 1 for the party and 1 for us - now how friendly is that!?
We arranged to meet up with Sebastian a few days later and he took us on a bit of a walking tour of the city, showing us a couple of cool places not even mentioned in either of our guidebooks. He also brought mate (pronounced mah-tay), which is the national drink of quite a few South American countries and you see people drinking it all over the place, especially in Uruguay, although weirdly you can´t order it in any of the cafes or bars. It´s basically a kind of bitter tea, but was really cool for us to try it with Sebastian, as it´s such an important part of South American culture, but you really need to hook up with a local to try it. I thought it was nice straight away, although Sarah didn´t take to it really (even with lots of sweetner added).
The next time we met Sebastian he brought us out of the centre on a local bus to his favorite local restaurant, a parrilla, which is one of the national styles of Argentine cooking - basically a big BBQ or wood fired grill with lots and lots of meat. It was great food of course and the atmosphere was great (although Sebastian thought it was kinda quite). He also snook off and paid the whole bill before we were even presented with it, which was rather cheeky, but was warmly appreciated of course.
We returned the favour a few days later in a nice restaurant in San Telmo (recommended by Enda´s Tracy in fact). We´d spent that Sunday morning visiting the San Telmo street market, which was more impressive, and bigger, than I was expecting, and then we hired bikes for a few hours. We met up with Sebastian again after a bit of a logistical mix up and toured around the parklands that buffer the city from the sea front, and then he took us on a bit of a cycle tour around the city (including popping into a cool art musuem for a quick look, although I got to introduce Sebastian to the Philippe Stark designed hotel, the Faena Hotel, that I'd read about somewhere. It is really impressive, although the bar is ridiculously expensive - A$33 for a small local beer that is normally A$5 (that's like paying over Euro 30 for a Guinness in Dublin)).
We finally said goodbye to Sebastian later that day. He´d been incredibly generous every time we met him, but saying goodbye he actually gave us his mate cup and the silver straw, a cool Reservoir Dogs postcard (Sebastian is a huge movie buff) and a mad photo of the huge tattoo across his whole back! Hopefully we´ll get the chance to return all his great hospitality if he ever gets to Ireland.
A city the size of Buenos Aires has lots of great restaurants of course, but Casa Cruz on Uriarte, in the posh Palermo district of the city, was probably the best meal I've had on the entire trip so far. The place had a brilliant atmosphere, and although it was very upper class it wasn't too snooty or anything (waiters were all wearing smart uniforms, but most of them were wearing sneakers and jeans under their formal aprons). We had cocktails at the bar before being seated, a starter to share, I ordered lobster (not a whole one, but still plenty), while Sarah had the rabbit and a bottle of lovely Argentine wine, all top-notch grub and all for about Euro80 - amazing!
Earlier that same day we'd checked out one of the fanciest hotels in the city (Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt), and it was extremely stuck-up - Sarah felt very annoyed when we left, as all the staff seemed to be looking her up and down (we did look quite out of place in our backpacker touristy clothes), but she was made to feel very uncomfortable indeed. It was weird actually, as I felt quite uncomfortable too, which was probably the first time that's ever happened - I think it's the first time I've encountered a place that is completely over the top in terms of it's snobby-ness, and I didn´t think the hotel was particularly amazing in any regard either.
So anyway, most of our time in Buenos Aires was spent strolling around the city (or getting the odd local bus or metro), and exploring the many museums, gallerys, churches, plazas, etc. We saw a couple of tango demonstrations on the streets of the more touristy places (like Caminito and San Telmo), and did a cool tour of the Boca Junior soccer stadium. The stadium was a bit rundown really, but it's such a famous club (mostly because of Maradona, whose image is all over the area, but also Gabriel Batistuta), and it was quite cool to get a tour of the pitch, press room, changing rooms, etc.
So when we finally left the city it was a quick taxi ride to the swish new ferry port and a short 3 hour boat trip across the Rio de la Plata to the lovely old town of Colonia in Uruguay.
Mendoza
The bus journey from Santiago to Mendoza needs, by necessity, to cross the mighty Andes - the worlds second highest mountain range. It was a stunning bus journey I have to say, and made all the more enjoyable by the bus being very modern and comfortable, and the roads were in great condition (a big contrast to the only big bus journey I did with Hanno on my last visit to South America - it was a pretty horrible 36-hour trip from Santiago to Bolivia on a clapped out banger of a bus).
The customs stop at the Chile-Argentine border was at a high pass in the mountains, and we got the chance to walk about for a bit in the snow and have a little snowball fight. The scenery all around us was magnificent (including fleeting views of the mightiest of the Andean mountains, Aconcagua), and I was really regretting not having the opportunity to go snowboarding, as the season wasn't due to begin for a couple of weeks yet.
So arriving in Mendoza city, we tried to ignore the usual touts and we just headed to the nearest hostel (although we were kind of 'assisted' by this 'auld guy with no English that we thought was just chancing his arm by looking for money for showing us the way, but who turned out to really work for the hostel, and didn't look for any money in the end!). Yet again it turned out to be the best deal in town (amongst all the places we subsequently checked out anyway), and so we ended up staying 4 nights.
Again, Mendoza is another town I really like, although not as much as Santiago. We stuffed our faces repeatedly at all-you-can-eat places that had brilliant food (they are quite common here), strolled about as usual (the modern art gallery was particularly impressive), we had a 1-hour tour of the large city gardens (in Spanish!), followed by a nice stroll around the artifical lake with numerous rowers rowing about, as they tend to do (apparently the lake irrigates the entire park, which was all man-made on desert soil, or something).
One of the days we took a day trip to the local vineyards, about a 1-hour local bus journey away. After walking to the first vineyard and having just one tasting, we hired bikes and cycled to the main town centre for some lunch on the pleasant square. Then we headed off to check out a few more vineyards, but only one was open, and again we only had one tasting (although the girl was great, and gave us a pretty informative private tour of the winery). Another day we got another local bus to the famous Argentine vineyard of Concha y Toro (Mr. Mullins' favorite apparently), and had a nice relaxed tour of their operation, followed by a tasting and then we just relaxed in their nicely done wine bar (as all the poor tour group people got herded back on their bus).
So having 'done' Mendoza and a couple of it's main wine regions it was time to hit the capital, Buenos Aires.
The customs stop at the Chile-Argentine border was at a high pass in the mountains, and we got the chance to walk about for a bit in the snow and have a little snowball fight. The scenery all around us was magnificent (including fleeting views of the mightiest of the Andean mountains, Aconcagua), and I was really regretting not having the opportunity to go snowboarding, as the season wasn't due to begin for a couple of weeks yet.
So arriving in Mendoza city, we tried to ignore the usual touts and we just headed to the nearest hostel (although we were kind of 'assisted' by this 'auld guy with no English that we thought was just chancing his arm by looking for money for showing us the way, but who turned out to really work for the hostel, and didn't look for any money in the end!). Yet again it turned out to be the best deal in town (amongst all the places we subsequently checked out anyway), and so we ended up staying 4 nights.
Again, Mendoza is another town I really like, although not as much as Santiago. We stuffed our faces repeatedly at all-you-can-eat places that had brilliant food (they are quite common here), strolled about as usual (the modern art gallery was particularly impressive), we had a 1-hour tour of the large city gardens (in Spanish!), followed by a nice stroll around the artifical lake with numerous rowers rowing about, as they tend to do (apparently the lake irrigates the entire park, which was all man-made on desert soil, or something).
One of the days we took a day trip to the local vineyards, about a 1-hour local bus journey away. After walking to the first vineyard and having just one tasting, we hired bikes and cycled to the main town centre for some lunch on the pleasant square. Then we headed off to check out a few more vineyards, but only one was open, and again we only had one tasting (although the girl was great, and gave us a pretty informative private tour of the winery). Another day we got another local bus to the famous Argentine vineyard of Concha y Toro (Mr. Mullins' favorite apparently), and had a nice relaxed tour of their operation, followed by a tasting and then we just relaxed in their nicely done wine bar (as all the poor tour group people got herded back on their bus).
So having 'done' Mendoza and a couple of it's main wine regions it was time to hit the capital, Buenos Aires.
Santiago
So we arrived nice and early in Santiago, and after having to take a wee wander to find Sarah's rucksack (someone had removed it from the carousel), we ignored the usual taxi hustlers outside arrivals, I got out some local money from an ATM and we hopped on the local bus to the city. From there we hopped on the metro (which is brilliant in Santiago, although often very crowded), for a couple of stops and then checked in to our cosy hostel.
At first, as usual when you arrive in a new country, you have no idea what a good price is for things, so initially I thought our room was quite expensive, but the place was lovely, so we took it for the first night. It turned out to be a fantastically good price in fact, as every other place we checked out was significantly more expensive, and nowhere nearly as good a location. This was all very convenient, because we ended up staying there for the best part of two weeks.
Most of this time was to allow Sarah to complete a 6 day beginners course in Spanish, consisting of an intensive 20 hours. Again we were in low season, but of course that provides many advantages - in this case, very small class sizes for Sarah, often having the teacher all to herself - i.e. private lessons.
Each night we'd eat out and stroll around, and I really liked Santiago - it has a brilliantly lively feel to it, with loads of funky restaurants and bars, and everyone seems to eat out too, which was something missing in many places we'd visited. All the food we had was great, although we did both have a bit of tummy-trouble for one night after eating in one of the city's better restaurants (only the second time for the whole trip so far, the other time being Kenya).
When Sarah was in classes I'd stroll about the city, checking out the museums, galleries, parks and hills (including going up the cable car to San Cristobal Hill which I'd done with Hanno 8 years ago, and which has great views over the whole city and the snowcapped Andes mountains).
One of the afternoons, as I was having a wee rest and a read of the guidebook in the huge main cathedral, the place started to fill up, and then a big 'show' started (I had no idea what was going on, it all being in Spanish). Basically about 300 priests walked two abreast up along the length of the church and congregated on the ´stage´, followed shortly thereafter by a procession of the big-wigs, including what I assume was the bishop or arch-bishop, who was all very grand, solemn and very important-looking of course. Then what seemed a fairly typical catholic mass kicked off and I left shortly after, not understanding a word of what was going on. But I was strongly struck by the pomp and ceremony, the solemn self-importance of it all, and especially the fact that not a single women was involved in the entire procession - something just felt very wrong and sexist to me about that single fact. The choir singing before and during all this was truly mesmerising though, so it wasn't all bad!
When Sarah's course was finished we had a day trip to the coastal town of Valparaiso. It's a funny town really, as the Lonely Planet rightly points out. Downtown is grim and grimmy, and not a little threatening, especially at night. But up in the neighbouring hills (where we stayed for one night), was a really charming district with brilliant little higgledy-piggedly streets and lots of individualistic cafes, bars and restaurants - and of course great views of the town below and the sea.
But we only decided to stay the one night, as the town is quite small, and you can walk around it quite quickly. So the next day we got the local bus to the next town up the coast, Vina del Mar. This is Valparaiso's much cleaner and greener neightbour, but of course it lacks the distinctive character of the the former's hill districts.
We spent the morning and early afternoon strolling around pretty Vina del Mar, checking out some of the lovely gardens, the impressively modern casino and hotel, a restored colonial house (in a very opulent French style, but disgustingly gaudy and ostentatous I thought - how did people actually feel 'superior' living in these places back in the day?).
When we got back to Valparaiso we headed back up to the main hill district for a fancy lunch at a highly recommended restaurant run by a 'mad' French guy. The city is littered with loads of cool old lifts and funiculars to help people get up the many hills, and so of course we took the funicular. The restaurant was packed, and we had to wait a few minutes in the short queue outside, but we were soon seated. It actually turned out to be another disappointment really, but apparently the chef is notorious for experimentation, and maybe we just happened to arrived for one of his not-so-successful experiments.
Strolling back to the bus station to get our bus back to Santiago we passed a place the guidebook highly recommended, and after peeking my head in the door, I was mighty disappointed we hadn't had lunch there instead of the French place - it too was packed, but seemed to have a fantastic atmosphere and a completely mental interior decorator - loads of glass shelves packed with trival and tacky bits and bobs.
I also took a wee detour to check out one of the more usual escalators in the town, the Polonia. You pay your few cents and walk through a long horizontal tunnel to a lift, which then ascends straight up (I think all the other escalators move up steep slopes), straight up through the solid rock of the hill, and then up through a square tower. You get out at the top of the tower to great views, and walk along a gangway to the hill district itself. It seemed a rather run-down area (well, very run-down in fact), and so we didn't linger long before walking straight back down the hill to where we'd started, and then straight to the bus station to head back to Santiago.
Next morning we got to bus to Argentina - first stop, the wine region of Mendoza.
At first, as usual when you arrive in a new country, you have no idea what a good price is for things, so initially I thought our room was quite expensive, but the place was lovely, so we took it for the first night. It turned out to be a fantastically good price in fact, as every other place we checked out was significantly more expensive, and nowhere nearly as good a location. This was all very convenient, because we ended up staying there for the best part of two weeks.
Most of this time was to allow Sarah to complete a 6 day beginners course in Spanish, consisting of an intensive 20 hours. Again we were in low season, but of course that provides many advantages - in this case, very small class sizes for Sarah, often having the teacher all to herself - i.e. private lessons.
Each night we'd eat out and stroll around, and I really liked Santiago - it has a brilliantly lively feel to it, with loads of funky restaurants and bars, and everyone seems to eat out too, which was something missing in many places we'd visited. All the food we had was great, although we did both have a bit of tummy-trouble for one night after eating in one of the city's better restaurants (only the second time for the whole trip so far, the other time being Kenya).
When Sarah was in classes I'd stroll about the city, checking out the museums, galleries, parks and hills (including going up the cable car to San Cristobal Hill which I'd done with Hanno 8 years ago, and which has great views over the whole city and the snowcapped Andes mountains).
One of the afternoons, as I was having a wee rest and a read of the guidebook in the huge main cathedral, the place started to fill up, and then a big 'show' started (I had no idea what was going on, it all being in Spanish). Basically about 300 priests walked two abreast up along the length of the church and congregated on the ´stage´, followed shortly thereafter by a procession of the big-wigs, including what I assume was the bishop or arch-bishop, who was all very grand, solemn and very important-looking of course. Then what seemed a fairly typical catholic mass kicked off and I left shortly after, not understanding a word of what was going on. But I was strongly struck by the pomp and ceremony, the solemn self-importance of it all, and especially the fact that not a single women was involved in the entire procession - something just felt very wrong and sexist to me about that single fact. The choir singing before and during all this was truly mesmerising though, so it wasn't all bad!
When Sarah's course was finished we had a day trip to the coastal town of Valparaiso. It's a funny town really, as the Lonely Planet rightly points out. Downtown is grim and grimmy, and not a little threatening, especially at night. But up in the neighbouring hills (where we stayed for one night), was a really charming district with brilliant little higgledy-piggedly streets and lots of individualistic cafes, bars and restaurants - and of course great views of the town below and the sea.
But we only decided to stay the one night, as the town is quite small, and you can walk around it quite quickly. So the next day we got the local bus to the next town up the coast, Vina del Mar. This is Valparaiso's much cleaner and greener neightbour, but of course it lacks the distinctive character of the the former's hill districts.
We spent the morning and early afternoon strolling around pretty Vina del Mar, checking out some of the lovely gardens, the impressively modern casino and hotel, a restored colonial house (in a very opulent French style, but disgustingly gaudy and ostentatous I thought - how did people actually feel 'superior' living in these places back in the day?).
When we got back to Valparaiso we headed back up to the main hill district for a fancy lunch at a highly recommended restaurant run by a 'mad' French guy. The city is littered with loads of cool old lifts and funiculars to help people get up the many hills, and so of course we took the funicular. The restaurant was packed, and we had to wait a few minutes in the short queue outside, but we were soon seated. It actually turned out to be another disappointment really, but apparently the chef is notorious for experimentation, and maybe we just happened to arrived for one of his not-so-successful experiments.
Strolling back to the bus station to get our bus back to Santiago we passed a place the guidebook highly recommended, and after peeking my head in the door, I was mighty disappointed we hadn't had lunch there instead of the French place - it too was packed, but seemed to have a fantastic atmosphere and a completely mental interior decorator - loads of glass shelves packed with trival and tacky bits and bobs.
I also took a wee detour to check out one of the more usual escalators in the town, the Polonia. You pay your few cents and walk through a long horizontal tunnel to a lift, which then ascends straight up (I think all the other escalators move up steep slopes), straight up through the solid rock of the hill, and then up through a square tower. You get out at the top of the tower to great views, and walk along a gangway to the hill district itself. It seemed a rather run-down area (well, very run-down in fact), and so we didn't linger long before walking straight back down the hill to where we'd started, and then straight to the bus station to head back to Santiago.
Next morning we got to bus to Argentina - first stop, the wine region of Mendoza.
Auckland
So we only had a couple of days in Auckland before our three month holiday visas ran out. After a rather exhausive trail of the hostels looking for somewhere that would allow us to stay in our van, we eventually found a place, but on a wickedly sloping road. After a fair bit of deliberation we decided to give it a go, and in fact it turned out grand. We were in a nice part of the city too.
Didn't do too much over our two days - strolled about one day, popping into the impressive National Musuem, and watched the cultural show. I saw the same show the last time I was in Auckland, but as I remember it was free then, and much more impressive. Maybe it was because it was low season, and there were very few people for the show, but for the big finale, the Haka, they only had three lads, and so had to flesh out the performance with the three ladies. Needless to say, this wasn't anything like as impressive as the last time I saw it, as then they had a full complement of big, scary, imposing looking warrior dudes. Ah well, the rest of the museum was good.
We checked out the landmark Auckland tower of course, the SkyTower. Didn't bother paying to go up it though, as we'd had great city views the day before from the top of Mount Eden (which has a pretty cool, albeit small, extinct volcanic crater). Didn't bother with the sky jump thing either, as it looked a bit tame really. I thought the SkyWalk thing looked pretty cool though - trust the New Zealanders to come up with that one (given that there have been similar observation towers all over Europe for many decades).
I was looking forward to some pretty fine dining in Auckland, and we'd taken note of two places that were highly recommended by the in-flight magazine on our way to New Zealand. One of them, Satya, an Indian restaurant, turned out to be literally two doors down from the van rental company's office, so we went there for a big lunch after dropping our van back (the guy there was brilliant - he immediately gave me a refund for getting our first puncture repaired, said no problem about our lost picnic table, and various other bits and pieces - it was great to get to experience a genuine ´no quibbles´customer service). But the restaurant was quite disappointing really, and we were the only customers for lunch.
The second recommended place was a disappointment too - Live Fish on the harbour waterfront. It was an expensive place, although pretty cool in that they select a live fish from their tanks and they present it to you before preparing and cooking it. But the place was pretty grim really (although popularly patronised by local Chinese), as it's a working fish market during the day.
We got a bit of a scare on the morning we were due to fly out of Auckland though, as Sarah noticed that the van had another puncture (making one puncture at the start of the trip, and one at the very end). After a bit of a panic, I rang the rental company to see if they'd pick it up, but they couldn't do that, we'd have to sort it out ourselves. The big problem seemed to be the mad slope of the road that the van was parked on - but with a bit of help from the hostel owner guy (forcing some broken paving stones under the tyres to prevent a roll-back once I'd jacked up the van), I managed to change the wheel. The rental company were good too, in that they didn't require us to have the puncture repaired before dropping the van back, so that meant we weren't in a mad panicky rush to get the van back (they shut for the day at midday, it being low season now).
So after lunch we strolled back to the hostel and waited for our pre-booked taxi. It arrived on time, but then the driver refused to accept the booking voucher I had paid for and received from the New Zealand tourist office (iSite) the day before (he claimed his company didn't deal with the iSite booking system). After a bit of arguing I had to pay him again, otherwise he was going to just leave us there. At the airport I explained the situation at the iSite office there, and they accepted their mistake, and told me they'd refund my credit card (they didn't, but after 3 or 4 e-mails they finally did process my refund!).
Other than those minor annoyances, everything else went swimmingly, and the flight to Santiago in Chile was really smooth. We finally got individual TV screens in the seat in front (the first time on this trip), so after watching a few movies I conked out for a good bit. Originally we had four seats to just the two of us, and we could have probably slept quite well, but then a girl moved into the far seat and so I was all scrunched up. The independent American movie Juno, by the way, was brilliant, I'm looking forward to seeing it again.
So after a very pleasant flight we arrived in Santiago in the late morning.
Didn't do too much over our two days - strolled about one day, popping into the impressive National Musuem, and watched the cultural show. I saw the same show the last time I was in Auckland, but as I remember it was free then, and much more impressive. Maybe it was because it was low season, and there were very few people for the show, but for the big finale, the Haka, they only had three lads, and so had to flesh out the performance with the three ladies. Needless to say, this wasn't anything like as impressive as the last time I saw it, as then they had a full complement of big, scary, imposing looking warrior dudes. Ah well, the rest of the museum was good.
We checked out the landmark Auckland tower of course, the SkyTower. Didn't bother paying to go up it though, as we'd had great city views the day before from the top of Mount Eden (which has a pretty cool, albeit small, extinct volcanic crater). Didn't bother with the sky jump thing either, as it looked a bit tame really. I thought the SkyWalk thing looked pretty cool though - trust the New Zealanders to come up with that one (given that there have been similar observation towers all over Europe for many decades).
I was looking forward to some pretty fine dining in Auckland, and we'd taken note of two places that were highly recommended by the in-flight magazine on our way to New Zealand. One of them, Satya, an Indian restaurant, turned out to be literally two doors down from the van rental company's office, so we went there for a big lunch after dropping our van back (the guy there was brilliant - he immediately gave me a refund for getting our first puncture repaired, said no problem about our lost picnic table, and various other bits and pieces - it was great to get to experience a genuine ´no quibbles´customer service). But the restaurant was quite disappointing really, and we were the only customers for lunch.
The second recommended place was a disappointment too - Live Fish on the harbour waterfront. It was an expensive place, although pretty cool in that they select a live fish from their tanks and they present it to you before preparing and cooking it. But the place was pretty grim really (although popularly patronised by local Chinese), as it's a working fish market during the day.
We got a bit of a scare on the morning we were due to fly out of Auckland though, as Sarah noticed that the van had another puncture (making one puncture at the start of the trip, and one at the very end). After a bit of a panic, I rang the rental company to see if they'd pick it up, but they couldn't do that, we'd have to sort it out ourselves. The big problem seemed to be the mad slope of the road that the van was parked on - but with a bit of help from the hostel owner guy (forcing some broken paving stones under the tyres to prevent a roll-back once I'd jacked up the van), I managed to change the wheel. The rental company were good too, in that they didn't require us to have the puncture repaired before dropping the van back, so that meant we weren't in a mad panicky rush to get the van back (they shut for the day at midday, it being low season now).
So after lunch we strolled back to the hostel and waited for our pre-booked taxi. It arrived on time, but then the driver refused to accept the booking voucher I had paid for and received from the New Zealand tourist office (iSite) the day before (he claimed his company didn't deal with the iSite booking system). After a bit of arguing I had to pay him again, otherwise he was going to just leave us there. At the airport I explained the situation at the iSite office there, and they accepted their mistake, and told me they'd refund my credit card (they didn't, but after 3 or 4 e-mails they finally did process my refund!).
Other than those minor annoyances, everything else went swimmingly, and the flight to Santiago in Chile was really smooth. We finally got individual TV screens in the seat in front (the first time on this trip), so after watching a few movies I conked out for a good bit. Originally we had four seats to just the two of us, and we could have probably slept quite well, but then a girl moved into the far seat and so I was all scrunched up. The independent American movie Juno, by the way, was brilliant, I'm looking forward to seeing it again.
So after a very pleasant flight we arrived in Santiago in the late morning.
Rotorua
So after a bit of a dodgey detour we get to Rotorua (I wanted to take a more scenic route rather than the direct route, but then realised we were quite low on fuel, but of course we just about made it!). First stop was a petrol station of course, and as soon as I open the door of the van I was struck by the strong smell of sulphur - the whole town is built in a terrifically active thermal area - a city centre park and even some of the town gutters have steam pouring from them, it's mad!
A quick trip to the local tourist office shattered my hopes of reliving one of the highlights of my last trip to New Zealand - the scree run down the inner rim of a volcanic crater. Apparently, due to damage caused by uncontrolled access, your only allowed do it now as part of an orgnaised tour group. Needless to say, I consider the thought of tour groups as rather repulsive, so I just give up on the idea (although I reckon if we'd had more time to spare we could have just made our own way out there and just done it regardless, like I did last time - but anyway, it's just a pity Sarah didn't get to experience it).
I cooked the last of the Thai curries for New Zealand that night and the next day we just did the guidebook's walking tour of the city. After the walk we visited the famous Polynesian Spa (where I'd been with Hanno, Keith and Bebhinn last time). The spa has been updated since my last visit, but I seem to remember the pools being hotter. Anyway, after a good 'auld soak we rushed up for dinner at the fancy Bistro 1284 restaurant, apparently the best in the city - and mighty impressive it was too.
We contemplated staying another night in Rotorua, but that would have left us very tight on time in Auckland, so reluctantly we left and heading up North to our final destination after 3 months in New Zealand, Auckland.
A quick trip to the local tourist office shattered my hopes of reliving one of the highlights of my last trip to New Zealand - the scree run down the inner rim of a volcanic crater. Apparently, due to damage caused by uncontrolled access, your only allowed do it now as part of an orgnaised tour group. Needless to say, I consider the thought of tour groups as rather repulsive, so I just give up on the idea (although I reckon if we'd had more time to spare we could have just made our own way out there and just done it regardless, like I did last time - but anyway, it's just a pity Sarah didn't get to experience it).
I cooked the last of the Thai curries for New Zealand that night and the next day we just did the guidebook's walking tour of the city. After the walk we visited the famous Polynesian Spa (where I'd been with Hanno, Keith and Bebhinn last time). The spa has been updated since my last visit, but I seem to remember the pools being hotter. Anyway, after a good 'auld soak we rushed up for dinner at the fancy Bistro 1284 restaurant, apparently the best in the city - and mighty impressive it was too.
We contemplated staying another night in Rotorua, but that would have left us very tight on time in Auckland, so reluctantly we left and heading up North to our final destination after 3 months in New Zealand, Auckland.
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