We arrived in Cordoba to a deluge of rain and found our hotel (following a minor arguement over fitting the kitebag in a taxi). We spent the next 4 days flitting between shopping, milling around and eating. My mum and nan were in Cordoba so it was a good chance to check out some nice restaurants and a chance to learn some useful family history regarding the haunts of my grandparents.
We made a trip to Alta Gracia and the teenage home of Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. His old house is a little museum which had some interesting information and good photos. We did have some minor stress as the bus station was quite far from the centre of town and the museum. Sarah did not believe I could find our way back to the house (we did).
Sarah had her heart set on Paragliding which was supposed to be very good in a village 80k from the city centre. We borrowed a car from a family friend and set off with mum and nan in tow. We drove past Dique San Roque, which I remembered from my childhood, on our way to La Cumbre. The final destination was a nice town in which we had lunch and had its own Christ the Redeemer statue. We tried to get to the paragliding spot but had to abort about 10k in as the route probably required something more rugged than a citroen c3. On our way back we stopped at a paragliding school to discover that the 20knot winds pretty much excluded any chance of paragliding.
The drive back gave me a chance to experience rush hour traffic in a city well kwnown for its driving 'standards'. There were one or two close moments and the obligatory wrong turn as my mum tried to relay directions from our friend via mobile.
Our coach journey back to BA was not entirely uneventful. It took us right through the heartland of the farmers strike. After 14 hours and 3 long stops (I was contemplating stealing a motorbike) we made it back to BA at 2am. The remise journey from Retiro bus station might as well involved a submarine as the rain was bouncing 3ft off the road and several trees had blown over.
In BA we went down to the coast and had yet more meals. I went kitesurfing in the river at Peru Beach and had a pretty good session. Sarah remained unconvinced about the water quality (as of May '08 I'm still not blind!) . We did some more shopping and I started my dental work extravaganza.
It was discovered that a dentist was a) easier to find and b) cheaper than the UK. So I booked myself in and had an exam and clean... unfortunately I needed 6 fillings... just goes to show that 7 years without a dentist is probably a bad idea.
We decided to head to the beach and try and get some kitesurfing. It turned out the wind would probably be better in Argentina than in Uruguay so we booked a bus to Pinamar. I had been to the resort as a child and I think it was definately changed. There was a massive beach and we managed to get a session in on the first day! Unfortunately that was pretty much it for useable wind. We tried to get to Punta Rasa which was further north but the car rental place was closed. We did manage to rent bikes and ride to Carilo which was really really nice. Massive houses set in dunes with pine trees. The walk back along the beach allowed Sarah to see if the bike was waterproof as she got caught in the wash.
The flat we stayed in was nice and had a TV and kitchen etc.. lucky really as the resort was pretty much closed out of season. Finding a resurant was more luck than judgement. We did have some nice meals at the weekends. There were some fishermen that stopped on the beach each day to gut the fish they had caught. We bought two corvinos (like a bass) and cooked them up at home awesome meal for about 2 pounds.
Getting back to BA on the coach we stopped just outside my nans flat, which was nice. For the last 3 days we ate some more and shopped & I had my 6 fillings in 2 days woohoo!
Our journey back to the UK was fun....we were worried that we would have a short changeover in Sau Paulo but I think the flight times were changed as we had over an hour. The relief at this part of the journey was contradicted by the arival at Madrid. We had to transfer to the massive new terminal 4. It was more like a shopping centre, this turned out to be a good thing as our flight was delayed 3 hours. We go onto our plane and then after a half hour wait we were told to get off as the lane had a technical fault. After some milling and some more food we were loaded onto another aircraft. Again we had to wait as we had lost our landing slot at heathrow. We did eventually get to heathrow. Here we were greeted by an enourmous queue at immigration...it was fun... but at least our luggage was ready (and amazingly present) when we got through to baggage reclaim. The tube journey back to Holloway was enough for us to realise that London wasn't really the place we wanted to be. Oh well.. Norway beckoned!!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Rodeo & Barreal
Rodeo was cool for a few days; super nice Argentines at the hostel who sorted us out with food and an asado, cool cat called Maui and a couple of sessions on the reservoir. Ok so the sessions were short, there was only an hour or so between no wind and 40 knots, but we both managed to get out blasting across the turquoise water. If only we had something smaller than a 9 metre! Rest of the time we spent sunbathing, listening to some tunes at the little bar and watching the awesome windsurfers.
From Rodeo we struck out for Barreal (for the second time). We seemed to be lucky with the weather as the day we left it was raining lots. The drive down through the mountains and then up the Calingasta valley was impressive with the greeney blue river, and orange canyon. When we got to Barreal it took a while for us to find the hotel. We checked in and had a good lunch of fine wine, fiambres and salad.
After a night of mosquito killing we headed out to the mudflat and parque Leoncito. The place was huge and windy and empty. Determined to get good photos for an article we set about blowing up the 9m Instinct light. Without a pump this was a bit difficult but we got there in the end and managed to get some cool photos with the Andes in the background. We were both gutted we didnt have a board, or even a buggy would have been great. Steve then tried some speed runs in the car to see just how big it really was.
In the afternoon we went up to the observatory in the national parque and tried to spot some pumas in the undergrowth. The leaflet we got when we went in said if we did encounter one out walking, we shouldnt run but should wave our arms above our heads, unfortunately we didnt see any.
From Barreal we went back to San Juan and dropped off the car, we had one night there then a whole day to kill until we got the bus to Cordoba.
From Rodeo we struck out for Barreal (for the second time). We seemed to be lucky with the weather as the day we left it was raining lots. The drive down through the mountains and then up the Calingasta valley was impressive with the greeney blue river, and orange canyon. When we got to Barreal it took a while for us to find the hotel. We checked in and had a good lunch of fine wine, fiambres and salad.
After a night of mosquito killing we headed out to the mudflat and parque Leoncito. The place was huge and windy and empty. Determined to get good photos for an article we set about blowing up the 9m Instinct light. Without a pump this was a bit difficult but we got there in the end and managed to get some cool photos with the Andes in the background. We were both gutted we didnt have a board, or even a buggy would have been great. Steve then tried some speed runs in the car to see just how big it really was.
In the afternoon we went up to the observatory in the national parque and tried to spot some pumas in the undergrowth. The leaflet we got when we went in said if we did encounter one out walking, we shouldnt run but should wave our arms above our heads, unfortunately we didnt see any.
From Barreal we went back to San Juan and dropped off the car, we had one night there then a whole day to kill until we got the bus to Cordoba.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
More Argentina
So...back to Bariloche. After the rafting we spent a couple more days there chilling out. Did some bike riding (once we found the rental place, first time we walked straight past because we were arguing about mortgages!!!! why???), saw some more of the mountains and drank more beer.
We then got the night bus to Mendoza. First experience of a longer bus ride in Argentina was great. The 18 hours or so flew by in our reclining seats, we watched three films, played bingo for a bottle of wine and were even given dinner and breakfast, what more do you need? when we got off we shared a taxi (well jumped in the back of a pick-up) with tim and just from the hostel and agreed to meet up in the evening.
The day was spent sorting out a hire car for our trip to San Juan, seeing the sights in Mendoza and eating. Next day we met-up with just and tim to do the bike and wine tour. Great concept, you get a bus out to the vineyard area in Maipu, hire a rubbish bike and then cycle round all the different vineyards sampling the wares. We went to a good 5/6 different vineyards, tried lots of wine and had some good food at a little italin vineyard. The more expensive wines were deffo for sure the nicest. After the tour we took a quick power nap then headed out on the town.
Next day was an earlyish start, we weren´t too hungover, which was good considering stevo was driving. We picked up our hire car and headed out of the town without hitting anything. The route we planned to take went up towards San Juan and then through the mountains the Barreal. The lonely planet that was published in 2005 did say that the road we planned to take would be closing because of a new hydroelectric dam, however, the map we brought had it marked so we chose to ignore the information. Bad move, after taking a few wrong turns we discovered the road was definately closed. Probably why the local I had asked for directions had looked at me kind of funny. We decided to abort and spend the night in San Juan then go straight to Rodeo.
This turned out to be quite lucky as the hostel we were planning to stay at in Rodeo was fully booked when we had been planning to go because of a windsurfing contest. Rodeo itself was pretty awesome place, up in the mountains in the desert / cordillera, it´s a reservoir of turquoise blue water with a back-drop of the Andes. Pretty much everyday the wind goes absolutely mental in the afternoon, we´re talking 40-60 knots!
We then got the night bus to Mendoza. First experience of a longer bus ride in Argentina was great. The 18 hours or so flew by in our reclining seats, we watched three films, played bingo for a bottle of wine and were even given dinner and breakfast, what more do you need? when we got off we shared a taxi (well jumped in the back of a pick-up) with tim and just from the hostel and agreed to meet up in the evening.
The day was spent sorting out a hire car for our trip to San Juan, seeing the sights in Mendoza and eating. Next day we met-up with just and tim to do the bike and wine tour. Great concept, you get a bus out to the vineyard area in Maipu, hire a rubbish bike and then cycle round all the different vineyards sampling the wares. We went to a good 5/6 different vineyards, tried lots of wine and had some good food at a little italin vineyard. The more expensive wines were deffo for sure the nicest. After the tour we took a quick power nap then headed out on the town.
Next day was an earlyish start, we weren´t too hungover, which was good considering stevo was driving. We picked up our hire car and headed out of the town without hitting anything. The route we planned to take went up towards San Juan and then through the mountains the Barreal. The lonely planet that was published in 2005 did say that the road we planned to take would be closing because of a new hydroelectric dam, however, the map we brought had it marked so we chose to ignore the information. Bad move, after taking a few wrong turns we discovered the road was definately closed. Probably why the local I had asked for directions had looked at me kind of funny. We decided to abort and spend the night in San Juan then go straight to Rodeo.
This turned out to be quite lucky as the hostel we were planning to stay at in Rodeo was fully booked when we had been planning to go because of a windsurfing contest. Rodeo itself was pretty awesome place, up in the mountains in the desert / cordillera, it´s a reservoir of turquoise blue water with a back-drop of the Andes. Pretty much everyday the wind goes absolutely mental in the afternoon, we´re talking 40-60 knots!
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