Happy Monday - Talca, Chile to Auckland, New Zealand

Morning chaps,

Last week we headed north to Santiago, our final stop in South America. We arrived on Tuesday with the plan of relaxing and chilling out ahead of our flight to NZ. And we did just that! We stayed in probably one of the best hostels we've come across on our travels so far. A super clean house called Magic House run by a sweet lovely couple who constantly go out of their way to make your stay comfortable. It was also a great place to meet fellow travellers as we met so many interesting, friendly people during our four night stay.

On the first day we just wandered around the old part of the city, Barrio Belavista...

Rachel at the top of a hill

Its really common to see performers run out in front of cars during a red light to try and get some tips. These guys were a particular favourite! 

The next day we teamed up with a girl from our hostel and went off to find The Museum of Memories and Human Rights, a really well thought out and moving exhibition detailing the terrible years during the Pinochet regime in Chile...

Naturally we could not take pictures inside the museum, so here is the exterior

After these intense two and a half hours, we walked around central Santiago, found a beautiful park, bought some cake from a street vendor and experienced this diverse and beautiful city.

Santiago train station

Historic monument, skyscraper and mountains...what a city!

Street art in the making

After more wandering we headed over to Barrio Belavista for a scrumptious supper and red wine on a roof top, perfect end to the perfectly touristy day...

Well earned platters!

On out last day in wonderful Santiago, we decided to check out the poet Pablo Neruda's house. We must admit that we did not really know much about him, but we now know that he had a great life and an AMAZING house, a rabbit warren of interesting rooms, decorated with objects from his travels and love of the sea. We also bought one of his books of poetry, so we'll let you know how that goes...no pictures allowed inside the house I'm afraid, but the outside was just as interesting...

Artwork he had commissioned 

After our cultured morning we had a picnic in Park Forestal... And some great ice cream, pineapple and ginger!

The next day we killed time until our flight to New Zealand!!!

The weeks highlights:

Best food: Our platter in Barrio Bellavista was just what the doctor ordered, empanadas, steak and some healthy greens, pineapple and ginger ice cream in parque Forestal and a mince and cheese pie in Auckland! Yay to flat whites being back in our lives!!

Love Monday Funday: Once again our quest for a Monday Funday was hindered by the need to travel, but it certainly felt very special indeed to spend our Monday arriving in Auckland and having a long leisurely breakfast with great coffee. Also after three long months, I finally got a hair cut!

Number of hours on a bus: 3

Number of hours on a plane: 13

Number of awesome coffees: 4

Have a great week everyone, tomorrow we pick up our campervan, exciting!

Lisa and Rach xx

Happy Monday - Puerto Madryn, Argentina to Talca, Chile

Good morning,

Okay so where did we leave you last week, oh yes we had been watching whales in Puerto Madryn. From there we took a long 13 hour bus journey to the west of Argentina and to the foot of the Andes. First stop, El Bolson which was a little hippy town surrounded by beautiful mountains.

A perfect place to unwind, stroll through the artisanal market and get put on to live local radio for simply mentioning that your British! Clearly a quiet news day!

A couple of hours of driving through a snowstorm and we were in Bariloche.

Bariloche very much has an Alpine feel about it, snowy with wooden chalets and it had plenty of places to go wandering. 

Central square

We went for a great snowy walk along Peninsula Lloa Lloa, eventually reaching an awesome viewpoint of the lakes and mountains.

We were slightly nervous of getting stuck as southern border crossings between Argentina and Chile can often close due to snowfall and so next we made our move and luckily it went as planned and by mid-afternoon we were in Valdivia, Chile. A large town with a couple of universities along a misty river on the west coast of Chile. 

View from our first hostel 

We visited the market, a vibrant array of fruit and vegetables with all kinds of fish lined up. Outside in the river there were loads of sea lions, mostly on the slightly chubby side if we're honest as they grazed on the fish discards from the market.

Valdivia also had some great bars with a good beer selection, I guess due to the university students and the German influence on the town... so we of course sampled a couple before heading north to Talca.

The weeks highlights:

Best view: It's all about the snow-capped mountains in the Lake District this week, and so it has to be the view of the lakes and the Andes on our snowy walk.

Best food: We had a great cheese fondue in Bariloche and some raw meat on toast with gherkins and a LOT of lemon in a German/Chilian cafe. 

Love Monday funday

We travelled to Talca as a bit of a stopover on the way to Santiago. For our love Monday funday we decided to hire a little apartment for the night, cook risotto and drink some local Chilean wine- basically it was all about recreating some home comfort after over 3 months away. Probably doesn't sound all that exciting but it was lovely. 

Number of hours on a bus: 23.5

Number of borders crossed: 1

Number of live radio broadcasts: 1

Colin has also been having a great time and is loving the snow!

Hope you have a great week, or weekend is probably more apt! Next Monday our post will come to you from New Zealand! 

Much love,

Lisa and Rach xx

Happy Monday - Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn, Argentina

Afternoon folks!

We arrived in Buenos Aires late last Monday night and after a quick beer in the hostel we hit the hay in preparation for a day of exploring!

Once we got our bearings we set off the next morning to find out what all of the fuss was about. The first thing we wanted to see was a book shop called El Ateneo, which was originally a theatre before it was turned into the most beautiful book shop...

After this we wandered around taking in the sights of BA and came to realise just how big the city is! 

We visited the famous La Recoleta cemetary, which is basically a maze of ornate tombs, a place where BA's elite classes chose as there final resting place, a mix of crumbling forgotten graves and shiny new ones...

At the end of our first day we sought out two of the things that Argentina is famed for, steak and wine! And we were not disappointed, some of the best steak and wine we have ever had!

We had already decided that we wanted to visit the theatre when we were in BA and we were lucky enough to watch the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra which was such a wonderful experience...beautiful music in a beautiful setting...

After a few days of city life we needed to plan our next move. We had always planned to visit Patagonia during our time in Argentina. It's famed for its Welsh community who settled there during the late 19th and early 20th century. Argentina is a big country so we decided that in the interest of saving time we would fly down from BA to Puerto Madryn. On our first day we went to Gaimen a small town with Welsh tea houses. After 3 months on the road, we have started to miss a few home comforts, so visiting a tea house and eating masses of home made cake and good tea was very welcome!! We were a bit disappointed that there we no welsh cakes, but they probably wouldn't have been as good as Rachel's nanna's anyway! It was a but surreal as it felt just like being in Wales but with a spanish twist! Rachel even got to speak welsh to a local chap, which made her very happy indeed!

The Welsh tea house in Gaiman

Tea and cake!!

Our next stop is El Bolson, 12 hours away from Puerto Madryn as we begin our climb north to Santiago ahead of our flight to New Zealand on the 26th July...

The weeks highlights:

Best view: Even though we only managed to get standing tickets for the Orchestra in BA, it was still a fantastic feast for the eyes and we had a great view of the performance and of the theatre.

Best Food:

Bit of a shortlist this week... We had some great food in BA, big portions of steak with Malbec of course - the best being in San Telmo. We also ate at some great health bars as we needed to mix some greens into our largely protein diet. Not forgetting all that cake and lovely bara menyn in Gaiman.

Lesson learnt: Who knew that sea lions could climb up steps?! 

Love Monday Funday: Another reason that we wanted to visit Puerto Madryn in Patagonia is that this time of year it's a great spot for whale watching. On Monday after a great tip off about a near by beach we headed down just after high tide and were amazed by how close the southern right whales came to the shore...not great photos though, sorry, the better ones are yet to be taken off Rachel's camera.

Hours on a bus: 4

Hours on a plane: 2.5

Number of whales spotted: 8-10 roughly!

Have a great week!

Love Lisa and Rach xx

 

Happy Monday - Salta, Argentina to Buenos Aires, Argentina

Morning folks!

After we left you last week we headed 4 hours south to the beautiful town of Cafayate. What a journey ... Beautiful burnt orange mountains folded into great shapes. Here we explored the surrounding countryside and of course, the wine! On our first morning we headed down to a local goat farm where we had a brief tour and explanation of the farm and its produce. At the end of the tour we of course had to buy some of the goats cheese along with some chutney and a bottle of red! After a lazy lunch in the sun we explored little more of the town.

On the way to the farm

Lunch is served!

We had a great time celebrating my birthday in Cafayate. We decided to splurge and stay in a really beautiful hotel overlooking vineyards and mountains! During the day we visited a local vineyard and had a private tour and tasting session, followed by the most amazing picnic in their gardens.....

Piatelli vineyard 

My gorgeous birthday picnic

And dessert!

Surprise birthday cake with Spanish happy birthday chorus 

Wine with the picnic of course!!

We finished off the day by dolling ourselves up an heading out for THE best steak in the hotel restaurant! Very food and wine filled day!

Hotel balcony

The next day we made our way back to our humble hostel, and we were both suffering a tad from birthday blues! It was our last day in Cafayate so naturally we drank some more wine and ate some more cheese and witnessed the town go wild as Argentina won at the football and made their way into the semi-finals.

After being ill last week our relaxing time in Cafayate really helped to perk us up, but we were now ready for a slightly faster pace of life. On Sunday morning we got up super early to catch a bus to Tucuman for a brief stop over where we ate a huge amount of cake. It's a nice town with friendly people and good coffee but it really only served as a stop off for our next location....we were super excited on Monday evening as we headed to the airport...next stop Buenos Aires!!!

But we'll tell you all about that next time....

The weeks highlights:

Best View: The view from my birthday picnic over the vineyard gardens and mountains was just perfect. The sun was shining, the wine was good, the company was outstanding!!!

Picture doesn't really do it justice

Best food: Amazing steak, fab Malbec and lots of great picnic food!

Cooked to perfection

Lesson learnt: Do not agree to have your icecream covered in melted chocolate, sounds like a great idea, but the reality is ending up with ice cream covered shoes.

Love Monday Funday: Ok, so a flight is not all that exciting to write about, but Monday we decided to splash out on flights to Buenos Aires! A city we were just so excited to get to we just couldn't bear to wait another 20 hours on a bus! (Who knew that Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world?!)

Number of hours on a bus: 10

Number of hours in a taxi: 3

Number of hours on a plane: 1.45

Have a great weekend chaps

Love Lisa and Rach xx