Sun, Steak, Sushi & Other Stuff I'll Miss About Buenos Aires

Tomorrow - St. Patrick's Day, not insignificantly - I'm moving to Ireland. With it, I'm swapping Buenos Aires's Puente de la Mujer bridge for Dublin's Samuel Beckett; Malbec for Guinness (bleurrgh) and 30˚C sunshine for 5˚C sideways rain ... Can you tell I'm slightly apprehensive?

Spot the difference - Puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires (top) and the Samuel Beckett bridge in Dublin (bottom)

I've lapped up my last bit of sunshine, nuzzled down a final few steaks at the likes of La Cabrera, had my last few bites of South American sushi at Sipan Palermitano and I'm about to spend my last night as a resident of beautiful Palermo Hollywood. It's fair to say I'll miss this place, so here's a little list of just a few of the things I'm sad to say goodbye to...

1. Steak (bife de chorizo, bife de lomo, La Cabrera, Miranda, El Obrero, to name but a few)

2. Sushi (Osaka, Tô, Sipan, Green Eat)

3. Sunshine (sunrise, sunset, scorching heat, all day, every day...)

4. Speakeasy bars (Frank's, 878, Oasis Clubhouse... shame I didn't get to sample more of them)

5. Street art (Dorrego area, Palermo Hollywood)

6. Wine (Malbec, Mendoza...)

7. Havanna (coffee, alfajores, Havannets...)

8. Running in the Bosques de Palermo (lazy Palermo Sundays, the Buenos Aires marathon, 10k runs in the park)

9. Shopping in Palermo Soho (too many places to name, and all way too expensive...)

10. Brunch (Oui Oui, Miranda, Olsen)

Steak. Just one of the many things I'll miss

And a few things I won't...

1. The subte (people attempting to pickpocket me on the subte/ getting squashed into someone's sweaty armpit on the subte/ the subte breaking down and not letting me off)

2. Getting lost (in the rain/ on the wrong side of the train tracks/ on streets with no street signs)

3. The oppressive heat of my apartment with its tragic lack of air conditioning (the only relief being the ceiling fan that looks so decrepit I have to sleep with one eye open to avoid getting my head chopped off mid-slumber)


4. Getting hissed and panted at by pervy businessmen and pervy workmen (on the way to work/ on the subte/ at conferences/ in interviews...)

5. Going out late (and eating dinner no earlier than 11pm/ not being able to go to a bar before 3am/ being out past 12 on a school night). Roll on 6pm dinners and 11pm pub closes!


Yep, this is it. Buenos Aires, I'll miss you.

Ceviche, Sours and Scams in Santiago and Valpo

Chile, the most European country of South America - that's what I'd always read. Isabel Allende, whose books I read as a teenager, had described Santiago as being like London, the people bustling around in business suits, always on time and always polite. So I hardly expect to be scammed the moment I arrive in Santiago, but that's exactly what happens.

It's my first time ever in Chile, after a decade or so of South American stays, so I'm really excited about getting to know a new country. Perhaps it's because of this excitement and false sense of security about Chile that I completely uncharacteristically let my guard down and decide to follow the man who says "Taxi?" as soon as I step out of the arrival gates. There's no sign of the official taxi stand and he is holding an official sign, so I presume it'll be ok. 

As the taxi man leads me out into a car park and makes me wait a moment for a non-standard-looking taxi to pull up beside me, I begin to have my reservations, but I already feel committed. As soon as I'm in the car and listening to the driver 'negotiating' a price with his boss over the phone, I know something is up. But with my lack of confidence with Chilean Spanish and my complete absence of research into a typical taxi price to the centre, I'm powerless to argue. 

We pull up at Hostel Los Andes and he charges me 35,000 pesos. That's about £45. I pay it, because I have to. I then check into the hostel and gingerly ask the staff what a typical fare from the airport would be, and my heart sinks when he tells me it's 12,000 to 18,000 pesos. Not a penny more. That'll certainly teach me...

Hostel Los Andes is a really cool backpackers' hostel on Monjitas, right next to the Bellas Artes subway stop. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Santiago as it's a great place to meet people with a colourful social area and it's five minutes' walk from the main square, Plaza de Armas.

Mural outside Bellas Artes station and opposite Hostel Los Andes

Fortunately, I have a friend in Santiago, so no sooner have I arrived than I am treated to splendid views of the Plaza de Armas from his perfectly located apartment balcony. 

Plaza de Armas from above

Next up, he takes me on a hike up to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal, a big hill 300m above Santiago with views over the entire city. It's the second-highest point in Santiago, after Cerro Renca. Usually, I'm told, it's smoggy and difficult to see the view, but on certain days you can see the mountains. I don't think we've done too badly.

We stop at the top to look at the statue of the Virgin Mary and sup a typical drink called Mote con Huesillo - it's a liquid made of cooked, dried peaches and stewed corn. Very sweet and not exactly my cup of tea, but interesting all the same!

View from the top of Cerro San Cristóbal

After half an hour of people-watching (the top of Cerro San Cristóbal is a great spot for young couples seeking to make out away from their parents' homes!), we take the funicular railcar back down to the bottom of the mountain and head for an evening of pisco sours - the very typical Chilean alcoholic drink (originally from Peru, though the two countries argue over who invented it) made of pisco, lime, syrup and egg whites. In Buenos Aires, they're drunk from a cocktail glass but in Chile, it seems, it's champagne glasses all the way!

On Saturday, I intend to get up early to catch a bus to Valparaíso but in reality end up getting up so late as to have to wait an hour for a coach as the whole of Santiago attempts to decamp to the coast for the weekend. I make friends with a guy from the hostel and we make this trip together, which is handy as I intend to get the last bus back in the evening and could do with some company.

The first shock of Valparaíso - affectionately known as Valpo - is it's COLD. We leave Santiago wearing beach clothes because it's boiling hot, and on the coast it's about 15 degrees colder and everyone is wearing coats. I feel like a tool. 

We go straight to the market on Av. Uruguay con Brasil, as my friend has recommended this for a fish lunch. The market isn't quite what we expected - full of cats and dogs just roaming around and sitting among the fruit and veg (I'm fine with this but thousands wouldn't be!). Upstairs is the restaurant level and we're immediately bombarded with offers from different restaurants for their set-menu lunches.

Inside the market - how many cats can you see?!

We have a very standard, pretty unsatisfying fish lunch and then are wholly and utterly scammed with the price on paying the bill. Once again, I've let my guard down in Chile - the scamming capital of South America, it seems - and I will definitely not do it again!

After about an hour of confusedly walking around a very run-down, dilapidated area of Valparaíso and feeling extremely shortchanged, we eventually take a street-side elevator and wind up in the right part of down, amid beautiful winding streets lined with pretty, colourful houses, cute little coffee shops and views over the city. This part of Valpo is well-worth a visit, but I don't think I'd ever need to spend more than a day here.

Dogs in Valparaíso

Finally, determined to see as much of Chile as possible in two days, the pair of us jump on a rickety bus to Viña del Mar, just up the coast. Again, we don't really know where to go, so we just wander along the beach before settling down for a dinner of ceviche, lemon pie and a few more pisco sours.

My first Chilean ceviche

On my final day back in Santiago, I set out for a bit of exploration and wander around a few of the main tourist attractions - the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucía park, where President Sebastian Piñera is currently doing a speech, so I have to wait an hour to enter, and the Museo de Bellas Artes. 

Cerro Santa Lucía

My final stop is lunch, with a glass of Carmenere wine, before I head to the airport - this time in a pre-booked taxi with the fare agreed in advance. Chile, you will NOT scam me again!

Time for one last pisco sour? Actually, I had a coffee. - bar in Santiago airport

The Overnight Bingo Bus to Mendoza

Coach travel in Argentina is simply genius.

After a few days at work after the Uruguay trip, B and I head off on another long weekend bank-holiday trip to wine heaven, aka Mendoza. Instead of getting the plane, we get a coach with Andesmar for about half the price. We opt for the most expensive first class tickets at about £75 return, still much cheaper than flying and well worth it for the dinner, wine (!), breakfast and entertainment.

I've been on overnight buses in Brazil before, but the Argie experience is second to none. You get a fully reclining, huge comfy seat with a curtain for privacy from your neighbours, a full, hot dinner (ours is roast chicken) with a glass of wine and/or champagne, and a very simple breakfast (of mostly biscuits and coffee with disgusting powdered milk). But the best bit is that each coach trip launches off with a game of bingo in which the entire coach participates - simply genius! Our wannabe compere-come-comedian bus entertainer/waiter etc reads out little jokes with every number as B and I try to recognise and scratch off all the numbers on our little card. We don't win, but we do have a hilarious old time in the process and it certainly makes the first half hour of the 13-hour trip go faster!

We just about manage to get a good night's sleep in our comfy coach seats and arrive in Mendoza bus station at 08:45 on the dot - Andesmar coaches are certainly more punctual than BQB Lineas Aereas.

We stay at Hostel Lao, a lovely, friendly little hostel with a fantastic outdoor pool area.

The pool at Hostel Lao

Our double room has a big bathroom and plenty of space and the hostel feels very safe and secure. The owners Mike and Celeste and the rest of the staff are super-helpful with their tourist recommendations, even drawing some directions onto a map for us to follow. 

For our first day, we take a bicycle wine tour around some of the main wineries, including the small and friendly Pulmary and the much larger Alta Vista. Lunch is a huge plate of antipasti with wine tasting at Pulmary as we slowly work ourselves into a lunchtime drunken stupor.

Antipasti at Pulmary

We just about manage to ride our bikes after lunch to get ourselves to Chocolateria A La Antigua, where the hostess is hell-bent on making us try every chutney in the shop. The place makes homemade chocolate liqueurs of every single variety, and jars of dulce de leche with whisky and hazelnut. Ordinarily I would jump at the chance to try everything in sight, but we're still so full from lunch that we can only manage a few mouthfuls of dulce de leche, a chocolate-cherry liqueur each and some flavoured artisan dark chocolate. (So, actually, quite a lot, then...) 

Dulce de leche at Chocolateria A La Antigua

The hostess is so friendly and insists on us leaving without even paying the full amount for the tasting, despite our total willingness to pay in full. 

Finally we go to Alta Vista, the biggest of the wineries, and take a tour of the huge vats of wine and the cellars stocked with hundreds of bottles of Mendozan red. 

Grapes at Alta Vista

Our first night in Mendoza, we discover there's a wine festival in the centre, so we spend the evening trying out a few different types. I'm a little surprised to find there are some interesting bright pink bottles with phallic designs made specially for women at the festival - I can't imagine these selling all that well, although you never know, right?

Strange Mendoza women's wine

The pink wine bottles aren't the only strange thing about Mendoza. Dotted around the city, there are also fountains with deep red/pink water. I can only assume it's supposed to look like wine, but it ends up looking a lot more like blood and is a little freaky and tacky! 

A Mendoza wine fountain by night

We also try out Malbec and vanilla-flavoured ice cream, which is surprisingly good - creamy and rich like vanilla but with a bitter, alcoholic after-taste. Perfect for enjoying in the shade of the extremely hot sunshine with a mid-afternoon coffee!

Malbec and vanilla ice cream

We spend Friday and Saturday night at the lovely Hostel Lao and by Sunday evening we're back on the overnight bus, departing Mendoza station at 20:15 on the dot, just like clockwork. I must say, I'm pretty impressed with Andesmar and I will be travelling with them again very soon indeed!
 

Coffee and Classic Cars in Colonia

On our way back to Buenos Aires from Punta del Este, we make the natural stop in Colonia del Sacramento, a little town on the coast just an hour or so by ferry from Buenos Aires.

It's my second visit to Colonia after visiting in 2008, but it's well worth the trip as it breaks up the return from Punta and it's a pretty little place to spend an afternoon. (You don't need more than a few hours in Colonia). 

If Punta del Este was like a step back in time, Colonia is even more so. It's the oldest town in Uruguay, so says Wikipedia, and is renowned for its beautiful, quaint, historic quarter. The place is also full of beat-up classic cars and reminds me a lot of Havana, Cuba - a forgotten, dilapidated old town with so much charm.

Classic cars of Colonia

The good thing is the historic quarter is reachable via a 10-minute walk from the ferry port and you can walk pretty much everywhere in the town. We spend the afternoon wandering around the old town, taking in the views of the River Plate and stopping for coffee and ice-cream in a quiet café. 

A rather 'overgrown' automobile...

Finally we settle into a restaurant with a great riverside view. Unfortunately, because of its location, it's very touristy and the food is terrible, but at least we get to spend our last evening in Uruguay watching the sunset over the River Plate before our 21:30 ferry back to the Argentine capital. 

Rio de la Plata at sunset

Trip along the Delta

On Saturday afternoon we pay a trip to Tigre, 35km north of the capital in Buenos Aires province. I went to Tigre on a tourist train called the Tren de la Costa in 2007 the first time I visited Argentina, so we look up how to get there. We find out we can catch a train from Retiro near the Microcentro and change at Mitre before getting the coast train all the way to Delta, so we head to Retiro in a taxi.

Inside the huge and confusing Retiro station, we work out which queue we need to be in and wait before speaking to a ticket officer, who sells us a ticket for 2 pesos - unbelievably cheap. However, there's some problem with the train to Mitre and we can't actually get to the station to board the Tren de la Costa, so we eventually decide to get the train straight to Tigre from Retiro.

Unfortunately, the train suffers huge delays and it takes us two hours in a hot, sweaty carriage with no available seats before we eventually reach Tigre. I am convinced I can find my way to the Puerto de Frutos, the main market area from which all the boats along the Delta depart, but it turns out we've arrived at a different station from the one I came to in 2007 and I get us both lost. When will I learn?!

Half an hour and a trip to the tourist information office later, we arrive at the Puerto de Frutos, which has shops and stalls selling everything from wicker baskets to trinkets and lampshades. There are also coffee shops, cafés and restaurants. It's a scorching hot day and the whole of Tigre is absolutely heaving with people.

We pay for a boat trip with NatVenture and jump into a small vessel with a box of empanadas - small, fried, meat pasties - from a stall for lunch. We spend the next hour and a half travelling up and down the incredible Delta - a network of waterways amid marshland.

I am absolutely amazed by this place! The water is murky but apparently it's clean, as we see families, dogs and children bathing, swimming and frolicking in the Delta, with others sunbathing and picnicking happily on the riverbanks. 

Bathers in the Delta

There are speedboats, houses on stilts, hotels, a school and even colonial mansions on either side of the waterway and you can even stay here for a little holiday break.

A speedboat on the Delta

Our little boat takes us down a narrower waterway surrounded by weeds so that we can witness the wildlife, flora and fauna up close. The trip is a real eye-opener.

We finish up with a piece of brownie cake and a coffee in a little café before finding out way back to Delta station for the Tren de la Costa. The train dumps us at Olivos, where we discover an enormous antique market that only opens on certain days of the week. We have to get a taxi back to Palermo from Olivos and there's a little time to relax before dinner.

I had never been on the Delta before and it's definitely going to be one of my top recommendations for things to do in Buenos Aires!