Uruguay

It´s on the coast between Brasil and Argentina for those of you who don´t know. We headed here direct from Buenos Aires.

A Small History Lesson

We headed to Colonia del Sacremento. A tourist town chock full of history. It was originally established in 1680 as a neutral territory between the feuding Portuguese (Brasil) and Spanish (Argentina), both of who were busy discovering/colonizing the world. This town was fought over for centuries and changed hands 9 times. As a result, the town has been built and destroyed many times, but what is left is quite amazing. Eventually the Spanish won, probably due to their allegiance with England.

Anyway, it´s a cool little town with cobbled streets and a lot of very old buildings, with both Portuguese and Spanish influence.

Bella on the original City Gates, complete with drawbridge and canon. The town is built on a penninsular and this stone wall went across the pennisular to protect its residents.

A typical street and portuguese house.

A street leading up to the Basilica.

We were lucky enough to have a local guide in this city. Sabrina, a girl Benson (Bella´s brother) met when he was here about 18 months ago. She took us out on the town and introduced us to the local drink, mate (ma-teh). A herbal drink that the Uruguayans drink all day. Walking down the street, driving in the car, shopping. Always with a mate in one hand and their thermos tucked under their arm.

We then decided to head up the Western border. Uruguay is known for it´s beaches up the eastern coastline. With us deciding to travel in the middle of Winter, we decided to skip the East and head up the West. We headed to some small towns and get a change of scene from Buenos Aires. We definitely got off the gringo trail, as there were no hostels, and we stayed in some kooky old hotels, complete with pink satin bedspreads with matching curtains. We ended up spending 10 days in Uruguay. A good change and a worthwhile experience, although I would recommend travelling in Summer.

From a small town in Uruguay, we decided it was time to head to Iguazu Falls. One of the major 'to do's' in South America. We managed to have an alignment of the planets. With numerous stories of travel being notoriously time-consuming we were sceptical of what buses we would get and how long we would be spending in bus terminals. In 20 hours, we ended up travelling over 1200kms, via 3 buses, in 2 countries, with 15 hours on a bus. All with no planning. I love it when things work.

Next, Cataratas del Iguazu (Iguazu Falls)!!!!!

2 weeks in Buenos Aires

Our travels started well with a 2 hour delay at Sydney International Airport, which is surprisingly small after you go through customs. Although this did give me time to reflect about the great origin win the night before with a great choke by NSW and some Lockyer brilliance. It ended up taking about 23 hours door to door, from Sydney to BsAs. Needless to say we slept for the first couple of days once we arrived. The 12 hour flight from Auckland to BsAs was particularly painful but rewarding with clear skies for the last 2 hours allowing us to see the snow capped Andes.

It´s freaking cold in Argentina at this time of year. Two weeks earlier we had been enjoying 30 degree maximums in North QLD, in the first couple of days here, we had a cold snap and it was 4 degrees at 11.30am, with a maximum of about 6. We´ve sort of adjusted to it now but have ruled out exploring any further South, such as Patagonia.


BsAs is a great city to explore on foot. There´s an endless supply of plazas (parks) to explore, all with amazing buildings surrounding them and some significant historical occasion. We spend most of the time on the streets with our heads up looking at all of the buildings. Alternatively, once you find a nice plaza, you then find a good cafe. Cafe con crema con 3 medialunas (Short black with cream and 3 glazed croissants) for about $2 aussie is great for passing time.


Bella at a typical street corner in El Centro (the CBD).


We´re think we´ve just about seen enough of BsAs. We´ve done the touristy things such as Recoleta Cemetary (dead rich people), Cominito in La Boca (colourful buildings), weekend markets in San Telmo and Recoleta, gardens (managed to find a gum tree in the botanical gardens) and plazas (complete with obligatory statues with some guy on a horse). But we´ve also found some not so touristy stuff as well.

....................................................La Boca

A gum tree in the Botanical Garden

We´ve also had a very cultural two weeks with language course (Bella´s excelling, i´m lagging), Tango shows, live bands, art galleries, museums, cinema and even an opera. Although it does have to be said that our cinema experience was Pirate De Caribe (Pirates of the Carrebean) although we did have spanish subtitles. The opera was in an amazing theatre, we bought the second cheapest seats that cost us all of $8 aussie each. We were basically at roof level (5 levels up), on bench seats, in the dark. But it was good, even though we had very limited idea of the story line, with the opera in Italian with Spanish subtitles on a screen, although it was a fairly typical story of lost love. We saw a Tango show at Cafe Tortoni, one of the oldest in BsAs. A cool little show with 3 piece band (acordian, piano and double bass) and some live vocals.

Tango in Plaza Dorrego en San Telmo

We are now at our third hostel in 3 weeks. We´ve had a varied experience to say the least. The first was party orientated and full of English/Irish who wanted to drink each night away in some overpriced club. The second was at the other end and full of local South Americans studying/working. However the trend seems to be emerging. Don´t believe everything (maybe anything) you read on their website, don´t expect the internet to work and be grateful of breakfast, if and when you get it. On the food side of things Argentina has lived up to what we told. Pretty much every restaurant/eartery serves the same. Lots of meat (cooked on a parilla which is a BBQ), pizza and pasta. We´ve also discovered some local favourites that are great; choripan (chorizo sausage in a bun), super panchos (hot dogs for about 60c), dulce de leche (sweetened condensed milk but more condensed and more sweet and eaten with everything), facturas (pastries, Bella´s favourite), and i could go on.

There are also lots of other things i will remember BsAs for. Really wide roads, one way streets, lots of buses (all terrible drivers), dogs and dog walkers, street protests, obligatory horse statues, good food, great entertainment, cranky hostel owners (the second one).

...............................................Plaza Italia

Okay, I think thats about it. We´re heading of to a new city and new country in a few days. We´re just heading to Uruguay for a few days before we head up to Iguazu.

Hasta Leuga.