Beaches, Carnival, Football and a cow´s bit

The customs man made us empty our pockets and rucksack to find the bit of paper we were given when we entered Uruguay. He wasn't worried about the 30$ fine we would have to pay, he just didn´t want to have to fill the paperwork with his hangover from ´mucho, mucho cerveza´. He was so pissed off when we finally convinced him that we (i.e. Marilyn) had really lost it

We had travelled along the beaches in Uruguay. Punta Del Este is one of the smartest resorts in South America and is horrible. Miles of high rise apartments, chain restaurants and traffic everywhere. Though for some reason it has the greatest concentration of Lotus 7s I have seen
La Paloma on the other hand is heaven. A small town on a peniisular about a mile long and half a mile wide. At the point there are beautiful lava rocks, to one side a lagoon and on the other surfing beaches

Supposedly Uruguay has good carnival but we found it all a bit under whelming. 3 one hour sessions of very noisy dance, singing and comedy - this goes on every night in a Montevideo stadium for a month All a bit tedious but every one else was loving it


Back in Buenos Aires we went to see Boca Juniors play. We had everything flares, crazy goals, a sending off and the game stopped for a while. Every time the player tried to take a corner he would get showered with missiles and fireworks. Eventually they solved the problem by getting the riot police to create a shelter over his head with their riot shields

You can have a meat dish that includes just about every part of a cows innards. Most of it is surprisingly delicious but this thing that looked like (and may have been) a cows arse. It was disgusting.

The good and bad in Buenos Aires and Iguazu

We ended up staying in a private house in Buenos Aires. As in most SA houses it was secured like a prison . Before leaving we had to lock all the internal doors before securing the door into the internal courtyard by locking it and pulling a metal concertina door shut (like the sort you get in old lifts). Securing this with a heavy metal bar. We repeated this (with another concertina door) for the entry into the front yard. The front yard was surrounded by a 3m high wall topped with glass. The door to the street was a massive, solid steel affair higher than the wall. To shut it you had to really slam it shut and then double lock it. They also had a dog.
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Locking the place up was OK but when we returned at about 7 we couldn´t unlock the steel street door. Eventually I decided that I had to climb up the wall next door and over the door. Having got to the top two things happened. The dog, that had been quite friendly decided I was burglar and started growling in a very threatening manner and Marilyn unlocked the door that started to swing open with me on the top. I managed to jump down without getting squashed and bravely let Marilyn go in first to placate the dog. All the time this went on the neighbours sat on their porches watching us quite unconcerned. So much for BA neighbourhood watch!

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When we went out again we successfully went through the locking process but had couldn´t shut the outer steel door. It didn't fit properly and I had to keep slamming it as hard as I could. This wasn`t made any easier by the dog who had decided he wanted to come out with us. Eventually the inevitable happened and his head got into the gap just has as the door slammed on it. Very nasty but it got him out of the way and the next time the door shut. We had walked about 4 blocks when the vision of the owners coming back to find a dying dog with a crushed skull was enough for us to turn back and check on him. Of course the door wouldn't unlock and we had to repeat the opening saga before we could get in and find the dog. He looked a bit crestfallen but was at least wagging his tail. Strangely enough I was his best friend after this and he would follow me all over the house.

Good - BA full of the coolest people on the planet, and me and Marilyn. The city with everything including tango, Carnival and 3 new Siberian tiger cubs

Bad - Sore throats caused by the traffic pollution.
Good - The brave grandmothers of the Plaza who have maintained their silent protest vigil. The military dictatorship killed thousands of mothers and fathers. Their children were adopted by the very people who murdered them their parents. The grandmothers of these children have spent 30 years trying to find them.
Bad - Its a bit over touristy, with postcards, tee shirts and tourist tat on sale. It may have lost some of its impact and this makes it easier for the Government to ignore them.
Good - Iguazu falls against the jungle backdrop are truly magnificent and the power of the water is awesome. Getting soaked on a boat under the falls

Bad - Its so over commercialised that the sense of wonder is lost. Walk ways, open top coaches, souvenir stores, restaurants. They have even allowed two large hotels to be built in the national park, visible from the falls and there is the constant noise from helicopter trips from the Brazilian side

Bad - Deciding to buy an expensive package from BA to the falls and being stuck in a grotty hotel

Good - Going to a casino because there was nothing to do in the hotel and winning $530, enough to pay for the trip. The slot paid out so many coins that they had to refill it twice - heaven!!

Good - Doing 3 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay) and 4 borders in an hour by local bus. We went to Ciudad el Este in Paraguay. The guide books make it sound like the wild west because it is the centre for smuggled black market goods. The Lying Planet says ´get out before 5pm when the stalls shut and the town takes on a sinister air´. It was actually a friendly, peculiar but poor place. Market stalls line both sides of the main streets selling just about everything at amazingly low prices. In the midst of all this was a single high rise store containing every designer brand you have ever heard of including Steinway pianos. Tour groups are taken through the mean streets by coach to this store and then bussed safely straight out again.

Bad - Re-reading the guide book and realising that we should have got our passports stamped at every border - we only had an Argentina exit stamp - Marilyn spent the whole day worrying about how we where going to get back. In the event we got out the way we got in, on a local bus with the driver waving at his border mates as he drove straight through

Next stop Uruguay



Argentenian security, this equipment has been secured by a large chain but it included a bolt cutter!!

Eating and drinking in South America

Mendoza is a lovely vibrant town surrounded by mountains and is Argentina´s wine capital. It has perfect wine growing conditions apart from the hail storms. Every afternoon, when we were there, dark clouds would form and a plane would fly into them and cause loud explosionz. A good hail storm destroys a whole seasons crop so the planes seed the clouds with ice rockets to ensure only small harmelss hail falls

We are suffering a bit in a country that makes some of the worlds best wines and 4 pounds gives you the pick of the wine list. It is almost impossible to buy wine by the glass so you are forced to drink it by the bottle.

We have spent the equivalent of 24 days on buses. The worst was the local Peruvian bus that didnt stop for 6 hours and the floor was swimming in pee. The best was the Suite bus we have just taken from Mendoza to Buenes Aires. Our seats folded down into proper beds with blankets and pillows. Half an hour into the journey we where served a hot snacks and a glass of sherry. This was followed by a 3 course hot meal, unlimited wine, then coffee with a choice of liquers










Throughout the trip we have had two bad meals and they really stand out as being super digusting. One meal was in a fast food joint situated between the bus and train stations in Santiago, the other was called Rock Chicken. So we got what we deserved. All the rest have varied from good to fantastic.

In the poorer countries the meals are simple but made from delicious ingrediants. Did you know there are over 4000 varieties of potatoe in SA - they can be the most tasty part of a meal.

Chile and Peru have some superb sea food. In Argentina the biggest problem is eating too much meat. Whether from cow, sheep or goat it is superb. Apparently when the Spaniards came their cows escaped and thrived on the Pampas. They are still left to run wild so we are getting wild organic steaks.

Best food and drink

• Cerveche - Raw fish and shell fish marinated in line juice in Peru


• Sea food empanadas (like cornish pasties),


• Sea food soup and conger eal in Con Con Chile
• All you can eat Parrillas in Ushuaia Argentina

• Pisco Sour in Pisco Elqui where they grow the Pisco grapes



• Micro breweries especially the one in Baraloche that had 8 different types of english beers



• Meat empenadas and fresh orange juice from the street sellers in La Paz Bolivia



• Any wine in Mendoza



• Any of the meals on the Antarctic trip
  
  

End of the world and the stories of two girls

Tony Blair being interviewed by the police got about the same coverage here as confirmation that the world as we know it will end in the next couple of generations!!

This trip has bought home just what a marvelous, interconnected and fragile world this is (a few years ago the valley in the picture was filled by a massive glacier) . Everywhere we have been is experiencing unusual weather patterns and we have seen the damage being done by man on both the big and small scale. Even relatively benign tourism harms what we have come to see, whether it is the introduction of alien species or the ever widening of paths on popular treks.

We have also seen the remains of vast civilisations that must have thought that nothing could hurt their world. The Inkas can´t have known that those first Spanish boats were going to lead to the decimation of their whole culture and population in less than 100 years. And I bet the tribes on Easter Island thought that they had so much wood that it would last for ever. Within 100 years the last of them, including the king, were carted off on a couple of boats as slaves. A complex culture lost for ever, the only thing left was the Moais.

I fear we are no different and that we will keep bickering over religion, trade (and cash for honours) and ignore the very real danger we all face.
Defuncta Correa

In the middle of a desert a cluster of stalls, restaurants and even a hotel has sprung up. All because of a girl who probably never existed.

During the 1800 civil wars Deolinda followed her sickly concript husband´s battalion on foot carrying food, water and her baby son. When her meagre supplies ran out she died in the deserts of San Juan. Some time later passing mule traders found her son was still nursing at the dead womans breast. This was just the first of a series of miracles attributed to Deolinda and the creation of the shrine of Defuncta (literally defuct) Correa on the hill where her body was susposedly found

Devoties leave gifts in exchange for her supenatural favours. The hill is now covered with eloborate models of homes, bits of cars, and pictures of happy families. In the 17 shrines built to house particlar favours there are models of lorries, real bits of factory equipment, hair pieces, umbilical cords and wedding dresses. Even gold discs from successful performers and complete cars including a 1920s Ford and a 1930s Mercedies Benz.

When we where there 100s of peeople where paying trubute, kneeling before a model of Deolinda and leaving yet more gifts ( the minimum seems to be a bottle of water and some food). It´s a remarkable place, with a very weird atmosphere, made even more impressive because belief in Deolinda is activily discouraged by the Catholic Church and the State. Still it is one of the most important beliefs in Argentina and roadside shrines to Deolinda can be seen all over the country.

Juanita

500 years ago a girl child was selected, by the Inkas, because of her perfection - intelligent with a beautiful blemish free body. She was trained for years for the great honour that was going to be bestowed on her - to be sacrified to the mountain god at the top of one of the biggest monutains in South America. She was only 13 when she was taken to the moutain by the high priests. Close to the summit 4 younger children where sacrifieced and left in shallow graves. Juanita was taken right to the top. It is diffcult to image what it was like climbing at 6000m in the freezing cold and oxygen starved air knowing what was going to happen at the top. She was dressed in the finest cerimonial robes but allowed to carry a doll , some personal jewellery and her bag that at some stage she had mended with neat little stiches. This beautiful girl was given a drug and some beer then killed with a single blow to the head. Her body quickly covered in snow and froze.

In the 199os a nearby volcano erupted and melted the ice and her body and goods where recovered all in perfect condition. Juanita is now in a musuem in Ariquipa. She is kept frozen in a case and looks as if she is just sleeping. Her skin, hair and clothes are the same as the day she died. You can see just how beautful, young and innocent she was. Seeing Juanita and her personal things was one of the most moving things we have seen on this trip and we are not alone. We keep meeting people who seem to have to talk about seeing her.