one more little stone

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Day 273 Buenos Aires 4 November 2012

Today we spent the day exploring Buenos Aires. We started off with the Sunday artisanal market in our barrio, San Telmo, where we found our Argentinean souvenir, a beautiful miniature of the typical colorful houses.

We were lucky enough to find the Casa Rosa open, the governmental building where among others Evita Peron had her office.

This is the president's private elevator, to be used by nobody else. We can only picture what a luxury that would be.

Then we continued along Puerto Modero and bought our ferry tickets to Uruguay. Next stop was the art museum where we waited in a long line for about an hour to get to the front door.

To our dismay, when we reached the door the lights literally went out in the museum and everybody had to go out! We walked a bit around in the neighborhood, and had some empanadas but when dusk fell the mosquitoes were ferocious and their attacks were just too much so we jumped into a taxi and returned to our hotel.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Day 272 Arrive in Buenos Aires 3 November 2012

After the long bus ride (in which Ana slept through a huge thunder and lightning storm- to the amusement and shock of Martijn) we finally arrived in Buenos Aires and took a taxi to our tango themed hotel. It was not quite clear to us why the dancers are bugs or aliens, maybe one of BA’s secrets exposed?

After lunch and relaxing the afternoon away we set out to have a late dinner in Puerto Madero, a trendy urban planning district. We decided to make a date out of it and went to the Franken*weenie 3D movie afterward. At 1AM, when we got out of the movie theater, the streets were much more filled with people than they had been at 9PM, the porteños like the nightlife!

Day 271 Travelling Day to Buenos Aires. 2 November 2012

After checking out we hung out at the local mall waiting for the longest bus ride so far in our trip, 20 hours to Buenos Aires (there is a restroom on the bus so it is a direct drive/no stops).

Fortunately the bus was quite luxurious with lounge chairs comfortable enough to read or sleep.

We were also treated to champagne as a night cap (yes, we look tired because we are, we had been on the bus for 8 hours already!)

Day 270 An Upgrade and a Hike 1 November 2012

We had to move to a different hotel this morning since our previous place was fully booked and we wanted to stay an extra day. We found a very modern apartment with an incredible view!

After buying our bus ticket to Buenos Aires and having lunch we took the bus to Llao Llao, where we hiked part of the Circuito Chico, for a 16 km/10 miles roundtrip, taking us trough some amazing vistas. After walking for 4 hours we had to run to catch the bus back to town!

Day 269 Halloween in Bariloche 31 October 2012

Today we spent exploring the charming town of Bariloche, walking around in very windy conditions, visiting the San Carlos de Bariloche Cathedral and adjacent town square, and getting a treat at RapaNui Chocolate house.

In the evening we settled at our little apartment, ate an homemade dinner and watched the Halloween movie classic Hocus Pocus on the internet.

Day 268 Travel Day to Bariloche 30 October 2012

Today we spent most of the day in the bus from Puerto Montt to Bariloche in Argentina. We had to eat all of our fruit before crossing the border!

After a climb up the mountain we rested a bit in our apartment and then headed out for a walk around town.

We had dinner at a Parilla restaurant for some great Argentinean beef and a mountain of mashed potatoes.

Day 267 Chiloe Island 29 October 2012

Today we took an excursion to Chiloe Island, which is approximately the a third of the size of the Netherlands. In order to get to the island we had to take a 30 minute ferry.

The theme of the excursion was churches and mythology. This fellow, El Trauco, appears in the erotic dreams of many virgins luring them into the forest and is said to be responsible for many otherwise unexplained pregnancies!

We visited the city of Ancud where Fuerto Real San Antonio, the last standing Spanish fort in America, is preserved.

In Castro, the capital of the island we visited the most beautiful church of the tour, the Cathedral of Castro, which is an Unesco World Heritage site. The interior is beautiful woodwork.