Paddy in the Big Apple @ #BoDzBeeTzZ!

Showing posts with label Travel North Argentina. Show all posts

Showing posts with label Travel North Argentina. Show all posts

Carnival Gualeguaychu Argentina

Every Saturday for two months Gualeguaychu in the province of Entre Rios celebrates carnival ('carnaval' in Spanish). I tried to see this last year but it was rained out not once but twice :-(( but we went on Saturday and the weather was well behaved this time.

A three hour bus ride from Buenos Aires gets you to the small spread out town of Gualeguaychu (pronounced Wally-wy-chu). The Carnival takes place on Saturday night but there are plenty of riverside beaches with bars and cafes to head to during the day.

Well enough of the tourism pitch and now for some photos. I have a terrible habit of cutting people heads off in photos as you're about to see.

Tags: .Carnival Carnaval Gualeguaychu Argentina..

If you like what you've read, why not subscribe to updates click here

.
.

Boo-A-Hoo!

Saturday was to be the last big night for Carnival 2008 in Gualeguaychu. Every Saturday for 2 months, the place goes crazy with a parade of scantily clad dancers in traditional carnival costume, watched by thousands of people, partying till the wee hours. The festival basically involves women wearing no more than 30 sq. cm of glittery transparent material, gyrating their hips in a provocative manner, to the deafening sound of carnival music being blasted from a massive truck full of speakers, while throngs of onlookers watch,drool and drink on the sidelines. All good clean fun, to be sure, to be sure!

The town, situated on a river was fairly small and despite the frequent rain showers, there was a good buzz around the place in anticipation of a long fun night ahead. There was a big beach party to get things warmed up beforehand which was completely packed with young ladies being ogled and cheered at by older men. I only ogled, no cheering, honest! Half an hour before the official kickoff (10.30pm) of the main event we got the news the party was postponed for a day due to rain. Despite this setback, it was a fun night and a short visit to the casino brought some respite and a small profit. The following day brought more rain and more bad news. The last day of Carnival 2008 was officially canceled due to wet weather! Sob sob, boo hoo!
It was a tad disappointing but an enjoyable experience nevertheless.

Gualeguaychu Carnival, Argentina

Photo: Carnival Fun

Tomorrow, I'm off to the last day of carnival in these there parts in Gualeguaychu Carnival, Argentina with the missus and some friends. I went to carnival in Trinidad & Tobago a few years ago and it was an absolute blast. It was a 'lads only trip' and we got kitted out with costumes and took part in the parade. Before you ask, NO, you can't see photos (one is above & no I'm not in it). The missus just went to the carnival in Bahia, Brazil 2008 (chick only trip!), which is supposed to be better than Rio according to carnival veterans. I won't be able to read, comment on blogs for a wee while but hope to post the occasional mobile phone post to the blog so keep watching and I'll catch you on the other side.

Suckin' Face in Pinamar

Five hours down the coast from Buenos Aires, lies the laid back beach resort of Pinamar. We went for the weekend to see what it had it offer and because this is high summer season, it was busy,busy, busy! We were lucky to be able to stay with friends right on the beach front.

It seems as though, if you're not a teenager, then you probably don't belong here. There are throngs of kids who takeover the beach during the day and then the majority of the nightlife scene is also geared towards the young folk. It's quite normal here for thirteen to sixteen year olds to be out till the wee hours, a.) because it's safe and b.) the kids here for the most part, are not into drinking or other vices although recent news reports suggest that's changing.

It would be difficult to see this being possible back in Europe or USA, with the drug/lager lout mentality of kids today. It's hard not to feel old as you pass the clubs at midnight, with queue's of teenie-boppers round the block. When I was their age, I was lucky if I got to go to a school disco and even then, the nuns and priests (Sister Concepta and Father Feely) would be doing the rounds of the dance floor, making sure bodily contact was kept to an absolute minimum. Kissing was grounds for ex-communication. Here it's a different story. They're suckin' face at any given opportunity, street corners, parks, bars (is nowhere sacred?!).

Where I'm from, P.D.A's (public displays of affection) are culturally frowned upon and proper order too. The last thing I want to see as I'm walking down the street, is a hoard of prepubescent teenagers playing tonsil hockey. They should be rounded up like stray dogs and locked in bible study for a day. I've always found religion to be a great deterrent, like being grounded only worse. I mean which is scarier?

A.) Stay in your room - ok fine!
B.) Go to Mass! - No, No, anything but that!
That'll teach ya to keep your tongue in YOUR mouth, not hers!

In Pinamar, the ol' foggies like me are relegated to the cafe's for a quite chat and a game of dominoes, as the kids stomp it up at the clubs. Because this is the Atlantic coast, the water is damn cold and its windy a lot of the time, so in conclusion, I'm not a big fan of the place or scene. It's almost 10pm so I'm off to bed to with me cardigan and slippers and a cup o' hot cocoa.

Back to B.A.

A wee 24 hour delay due to the snow and I headed back to Buenos Aires via Miami. It was a relatively ‘hitch’ free journey and I left at 4pm NY time and arrived as scheduled at 7am B.A. time. It was great to see New York again, albeit briefly. It was slightly strange to go from cold and snow to hot and humid since most of my previous experiences have usually been the other way round i.e. cold Xmas to the warmer climes of a vacation. This time it was heading for base camp Buenos Aires, which had 40 degree celcius for much of the previous week.

There is something strange and unfamiliar about seeing Christmas trees, Santa’s and advertisements plugging the holiday but people wearing shorts / tee-shirts, literally on the back of seeing snow in New York. It is a novelty however, to plan a trip to the beach resort of Mar Del Plata for a few days before the official Xmas holidays begin.

The big question right now is can we survive without air con in our apartment or will the experiences on the buses have acclimatised us to the extreme heat?

Back to Buenos Aires & Trip Recap

We looked at the guide book for the highlights on route from Iguazú back to Buenos Aires but compared to what we’d already seen, they were few and far between, so we decided to finish on the high note of the falls and head straight back to the capital.

We got on a ‘cama’ (bed) bus which is supposed to be the most comfortable with DVD’s, fully reclining seats and a steward to serve meals including wine. This was going to stand us in good stead, considering the 18 hour journey ahead. However, it wasn’t long until we noticed the air-con wasn’t working properly and everybody was shifting around in their seats in sweaty discomfort.

To make a long story short, despite numerous protests and a near riot onboard and despite being promised the air-con would be fixed or we’d get a change of bus, we had to endure the 18 hours with no air-con in hot, humid, stifling conditions, but, we made it. They say what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger and after more than five weeks on the road and more than six thousand Kms on the clock as the crow flies and closer to nine thousand Kms on those winding roads, crossing five international borders (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil), it was good to be back in B.A. and more importantly, off long distance buses (for a while).

In retrospect, much of the north of Argentina (where we spent most of the trip) is still very under developed for tourism which is both a blessing and curse. It’s much cheaper than visiting the south of Argentina (Bariloche, Patagonia etc) which is almost over developed and in my opinion over priced. The diversity of the scenery in the north is immense and spectacular. The people in the north seem somewhat reserved and in some cases detached. It’s almost as if they haven’t made the connection that their Porteño and southern cousins definitely have and that is happy tourists equals more tourists equals better economy. If you’re coming here with pounds, euros or dollars, then your money will go a long way and your only problem will be allocating enough time to see as much as possible. Anyway, although the road trip may be over, but the adventure continues, so stay tuned.

Journey	Kms
Buenos Aires to Cordoba	641
Cordoba to San Juan	413
San Juan to Mendoza	152
Mendoza to Vilparaiso	260
Vilparaiso to Mendoza	260
Mendoza to San Juan	152
San Juan to Tucuman	616
Tucuman to Salta	226
Salta to Villazon	573
Villazon to Potosi	379
Potosi to Sucre	78
Sucre to Santa Cruz	302
Santa Cruz to Asuncion	873
Asuncion to Foz	311
Foz to Buenos Aires	1075

Total Distance as the crow flies	6311

Iguazú Falls (Brazil & Argentina)

Four hours east of Ascunción, three countries meet (Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina) with 3 border towns, literally minutes apart from each other and all in close proximity to the widest waterfalls in the world, the Iguazú Falls, which is a serious contender for one of the 'wonders of the world'.

Ciudad del Esté in Paraguay is a smelly, congested market town where you can buy anything from an apple to an Apple MAC computer. Visitors (mostly day trippers) from Brazil and Argentina, arrive in droves to buy and sell. Beware, as lots of the merchandise is fake, especially the electronics, perfume and clothes. You can use any of the three currencies of these countries in shops, restaurants buses and taxis etc in addition to dollars and euros.

You only have to cross a bridge to go from Paraguay (Ciudad del Esté) to Brazil (Fóz de Iguazú a.k.a Fóz). Fóz is a well develeloped commercial centre and from here you can visit the panoramic Brazilian view of the Iguazu falls (cataratas) which many people say has the best photo opportunities. We did a boat trip to the base of a thundering waterfall which is highly recommended.

Twenty minutes from Foz you can cross over to Argentina (Puerto Iguazú) which is smaller and less developed than its Brazilian neighbour. From Puerto Iguazu its about 30 minutes to the Argentine side of the falls, where you have by far, the better perspective / experience of the sheer gargantuan size of the Iguazú falls. You can take two walking circuits (upper and lower) which will take you above and below some of the most impressive cascades in the world and also provide excellent photo ops with rainbows almost guaranteed.

You need to resign yourself to the fact you are going to get wet, whether its the boat trip or the walk out to the viewing point for the highlight which is 'The Garganta del Diablo' (Devils Throat) where several waterfalls collide into one huge gushing cascade, but it's absolutely worth it. No trip to Argentina or indeed South America is complete until you've seen Iguazú.

La Quiaca, The Final Frontier

It´s difficult to say anything positive about this most northerly border town of La Quiaca or its Bolivian neighbouring town of Villazón (10 minutes walk across the border) , in fact the term ´areshole in the middle of nowhere´comes to mind for both of them.

La Quiaca has practically no commercial enterprise, except for hotels, since everybody just takes the 10 minute walk across the border to Bolivia because its significantly cheaper.

The situation reminds me of a previous trip to Ciudad del Este on the border of Paraguay and Argentina and Brazil where you cross the border on a regular local bus. Some guy hopped on and gave everyone on the bus a carton of 200 cigarettes. The customs guy hops on and checks that nobody is bring anything dodgy or over the allowance. In this instance he happened to pick on my brother Ian´s back pack and poked it with a big knife as he said ´open it. Unfortunately for the boder guard Ians dirty laundry was on top and a waft of sweaty socks that would make a grown man cry, filled the bus. The guard simultaneously shouted ´CLOSE IT, CLOSE IT!´as he made a hasty exit stage left off the bus. As soon as he left the guy collected his cigarettes off everyone and was on his merry way.

Iruya

3 hours west of Humuauca on yet another winding, dusty, mega bumpy, unpaved road is the village of Iruya, set in a valley and surrounded by huge mountains. We had a flat tyre about 45 minutes into the journey but luckily that was fixed in jig time.

The journey winds up one side of a mountain thru barren, desolate and yet captivating scenery and then back down the other side into a beautiful valley with massive plateaus of green fields with some agriculture which seem eerily out of place given the relative remoteness.

Iruya is really only worth a day trip unless you plan to go to the plateaus, so we just spent half a day there and had lunch. There´s a slightly unusual setup for cafes/restaurants in these more remote parts. The eateries tend to be just someones house with a few tables piled into a small room. There´s rarely a menu, so you just have to ask what´s on offer and that tends to be simple fare like empanadas, salad and of course beer (phew!). Although it´s never expensive, I´m a bit dubious about the bill since it´s delivered verbally in total with no receipt or breakdown and always rounds up to a nice even number. The more touristy you look the bigger that even number becomes. No receipt means no audit trail and hence no tax for them to pay. If you do ask for a bill, that takes 10 minutes or more as they scurry around trying to make the sum of the parts fit the total but miraculaously (hint of sarcasm) it always does!

Tilcara & Humauaca

You can definitely feel the altitude in these parts. Any sort of exercise leaves you a bit ligt headed. Every time the bus stops for a break, everybody body spits out their cocoa leaves like spittin' bakky in a cowboy movie.
The small town of Tilcara has pre-Incan ruins of a fortress now restored but not as impressive as Quilmes ruins. One hour north is another small town called Humauaca which was almost completely closed when we arrived, due to a public holiday but we eventually found a place to stay for the night.
The holiday was for 'All Souls Day' or 'Day of the Dead' where the locals parade thru the streets and bring flowers to the cemetaries and lay out food for the souls of dead relatives. It's believed that the souls that haven't yet made it to heaven can pass thru the pearly gates on this day.
It's so dry and arid here that there is dust evrywhere. One minute you're walking down the street and it's perfectly calm. The next minute the wind picks up and in a flurry, you're baptised in dust from head to toe. You can even feel your nose tingle with amount dust you're inhaling.

Pumamarca

East of the Salinas Grandes is the small village of Pumamarca and the descent into the village from over 4,000 metres is absolutely spectacular. Trivia fact: Much of the landscape appears in Lord of the Rings. (so it wasn't all New Zealand)

Pumamarca itself is pretty small and the locals will try and flog their wares (llama skin, gaunaco skin, in hats, gloves, scarves etc). The local specialty is llama meat which tasted like tender beef and its really good.

When you are ascending and descending this type of altitude quickly, the locals recommend you chew cocoa leaves, so we decided to give it a try and it definitely seemed to work as we had very limited symptoms of altitude sickness. If you'd like to get a idea of cocoa leaves are like, then for the taste, try chewing some leaves from the garden and for the buzz, wash it down with an espresso (repeat as required).

Salta & the Salinas Grandes

1500kms from Buenos Aires is the historic capital of Salta. There are numerous interesting buildings including the neoclassical Iglesia San Francisco. There are several notable scenic excursions close by such as the 'train to the clouds' (tren a las nubes) which unfortunately is closed for restoration until 2008, but you can take almost the same route by car, since the road criss crosses the railway line and the scenery is pretty good.
North of the train/car route to the clouds is the huge salt flats of Salinas Grandes where you can traverse tracks to the center of the flats and see where the salt is extracted from rectangles dug into the ground and piled into mounds.
I don't think I'll be applying for a job here however as they pay the workers 40 pesos per tonne of salt extracted and many of the workers eventually go blind from exposure to the harsh elements of sun, wind, salt and dust.

Cafayate to Cachi

It was only nine pesos for the two and a half hour bus journey to Angastaco but in 35 celcius heat in a rickety old rust bucket of a bus with no air conditioning and on an unpaved road, it sure was no picnic.
The potential to hitch a ride was slim to none so we had to go door to door with anybody who had a car outside and ask if they could drive us the 3 hours to Cachi. Eventually we haggled a ride for 3 of us for 120 pesos in a small car with no AC, so had the windows open. This part of the country is incredibly dry and we got completed covered in dust which was whipped up on the dirt road by what looked like mini tornadoes.
Our journey was made all the more exciting by the fact that our driver was falling asleep and was chewing ferociously on cocoa leaves to give himself a wee boost. This was a tad unsettling considering we were going around cliff hanger hairpin bends, but the scenery was fantastic.

Wine Ice Cream

We had a very chilled out day today after hiking around in blistering heat yesterday. The locals recommened we try the 'helado de vino' which comes in both red and white (cabernet y torrontés) wine flavour (more like a sorbet) and is pretty damn good. That set the tone for the rest of the day as we went on to visit a couple more bodegas and sampled some really good 2003 cabernet sauvignon) at Domingo Hermanas winery and brought a few bottles back to hostel
for further research. Tomorrow we continue on to Angastaco and will need to hitch a ride north to Cachi as there is no public transport but the scenery is supposed to be out of this world.

Cafayate

Cafayate is a pleasant small town where I would strongly recommend the extremely laid back Hosteria Rustik, where the super friendly owner Walter can take up for 4 people on a 5 hour afternoon tour of the surrounding region 'Quebrada de Cafayate' for 35 pesos. This trip has spectacular photo opportunities (similar but surpassing Bryce Canyon in the States) and from a scenery perspective, the highlight of the trip so far.
As luck would have it, there are also numerous wineries (bodegas) in this part of the country, as the altitude and climate are ideal especially for the malbec grape. Pietri Marini malbec 2004 was particularly good with the local speciality of roast goat (cabrito) and the first day in ages I didn't eat steak. The wife of the current president Cristina Kirchner has just been announced as the new president so not much likely to change on the political front.

Quilmes

We hopped off the bus in Amaicha and by a stroke of luck we were approached by a local called Sebastian Pastrana (www. sumajpacha.com Tel 54 (03892) 421433 who runs a native tour of the Quilmes ruins. You can do the tacky touristy tour from other outfits but it was extremely interesting getting the local insight into what continues to be a tragic situation.
The 'Machu Pichu-esk' ruins (much of which have been restored) date from the 9th century A.D. but the inhabitants were brutally conquered and then scattered by the Spanish in the 17th century, after resisting capture for 130 years and only a fraction of the original population of 5000 were able to remain and settle in the area.
Most of the artifacts including mummies were pilfered and sold to private collections during the military dictatorship in the 1970's.
Worse was to come however as the gangster X-president Menem privatized the ruins (making himself and his cronies a nice tidy profit as usual) with the result that the local descendants get nothing from what is actually their land. A court case to retrieve their land is ongoing but with most of the judicial system in the pockets of the politicains, the outlook is far from positive.

Cerca Tafí del Valle

Tafí del Valle is a small (touristy) town nestled in a valley and has several interesting day trips close by (see below).
Last nights highlight certainly wasn't the food but as we sat out for a beer at dusk and saw a gaucho in full tradional garb, meander down the main street on his horse, completely ossified drunk and swaying back n' forth in the saddle. How he did'nt end up arse backways on the street is still a mystery.
We visited Esatncia Las Carerras which is reknowned for its cheese production and El Mollar where you find Los Menhires (ancient standing stones). Quilmes (no, not the beer) the pre-Incan ruins are next on the itinery. Speaking of beer, they have some impressive local beers here (cervezas arteseñales) like the microbrewries in the States which are really good and a welcome respite from the otherwise bland popular brands like Norte.

Tucumán

After an overnight bus, we arrived at Tucamán at 9am and after the double espresso kick started my brain into gear we went exploring. Due to several bad hair days, brought on by sleeping on buses and extreme heat, I decided to get my hair chopped and the hairdresser went full throttle with the scissors, so I don't think I'll have any styling probs with the bit that's left.
Tucaman is where they signed the declaration of independence from Spain in 1916 and there are several interesting buildings around the main square (Plaza Indepedencia) including Casa de Gobierno (Government House) where no less than the Governers own interpretor gave us a personal guided tour in English. She recounted being mocked by a barman in Dublin for drinking Coke at the bar (proper order too!) Since everything closes from 1 to 4pm for siesta we headed on to the small town of Tafí del Valle (105 kms north) where we'll spend the next few days and more importantly, finally take a shower!

Parque Ischigualasto & Talampaya

Both of these national parks are impressive in their own right and within a few hours of each other. Parque Ischigualasto (a.k.a. Valley of the moon) has unusual non earth-like landscapes and is renowned for dinasaur fossils - best light/photos in the p.m.
Parque Talampaya which was privatised by the gangster X - president Memem (who and makes Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern look like Mother Teresa) has massive sheer red cliffs & strange rock formations & rock drawings thousands of years old. - best light/photos in the a.m.
Based on the quotes we'd been given for entrance fees etc, we calculated we had just about enough for lunch and would probably find an atm or pay the entrance or lunch by credit card. We thought WRONG! After entrance fees, we ended up with 5 pesos to spare and no way to get lunch or more importantly, to the next destination, Villa Union, 70kms north, so we had to plead with the park rangers to give us a freebie lift, which thankfully (although against reglations, blah, blah, blah!) they did. As I write this, we are on route to Rioja city and then on to the Province of Tucaman (400kms north).

San Juan & Around

There isn't too much going on San Juan to be honest (ok - it's a dead loss really). The only positive spin I can put on it is we did sample some champagne in a pretty cool winery in Zonda (15kms south west) which is built into a cave apparently for optimal storage temperatures and one of only three in the world of this type.
4 hours north we reached Ville Fertíl where we stayed in a great place called Hostería Ville Fertíl (they are renowned for roast kid in the resaturant) on top of a hill overlooking town and a lake. The only downside was some school kids tour camping below doing some kind of really bad Argie karaoke at full pitch. If I had a grenade, I would've been seriously tempted to lob one. Where is Simon Cowell when you need him?!!!

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

© Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2012

Back to TOP