Back in Rio – Last days, Last post!

by Lynn, posted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Arrived back at around 1500, after an uneventful morning flight from Buenos Aires, at the Windsor Califórnia Hotel on Copacabana. A low grey cloud base shrouded Rio, silhouetting the frigate birds swooping in the sky as we drove in from the airport. I kept my thin jumper on as it was definitely chilly at 19C.

Settled into our room and decided on a treat restaurant tonight, Michelin star, but of the three chosen, all were closed tonight, Monday 😦 . Hotel has recommended Iraja Gastro, a Brazilian Mediterranean restaurant as a substitute. An excellent recommendation as it turned out, small portions with amazing flavours. My favourite was the starter of beef carpaccio over fois gras, with an anchovy cream sauce, served with a salad, the only picture that came out was the salad! I then had slipper lobster for main course. David had the Burrata with thinly sliced tomatoes followed by a gourmet burger which looked and tasted superb. Again we were very restrained and had just a glass each of Brazilian Merlot with a mango and passion fruit sorbet for dessert. A wonderful evening to end a magical holiday.

A good nights sleep, awoke to a better day than expected weather wise, still grey but no rain. Paid to extend the room until 7pm as flight back to London not until 22.00.

Visited a local upscale shopping centre Rio du Sul. Bought some Havana’s, but otherwise nothing much else that we can’t buy at better prices in London. Weather improved in the afternoon so took a stroll along the beach, before last preparations for the long haul back to London tonight and onwards to Singapore on Sunday. Stopped for some drinks and snacks and people watched on the beach. A couple of chancers passed by tapping a drum and attempting to sing, people were paying them to move on, they were that bad, it was more like a comedy act! Sadly the sea is quite polluted at most of the beaches or have dangerous currents, so whilst you can sit on the beach and enjoy the Breeze, swimming is not advisable.

It’s been an amazing adventure and we have seen and experienced many things. Especially gratifying is having organised the entire trip ourselves, allowing room to add on various extras as the mood took us. Nothing untoward happened, nothing threatening, although I am a great believer at all times to look confident and walk with purpose, which I think helps. However it also tends to encourage people, especially in travel zones, airports and the like, to stop you to ask directions, questions etc. as you look like you should know, happens to me all the time.

Looking forward to home cooked meals, getting back to regular exercise classes and of course a wonderful family Christmas. We have our son, Jonathan, daughter, Charlotte plus boyfriend, my mother and some really close family friends for Christmas Day lunch. January we have David’s youngest sister Lesley and husband staying for a few days en route to Australia. No peace for the wicked 🤣. Starting to plan another big trip for 2021 now. We only get back to Singapore on December 9th, so apologies, suspect skipping Christmas cards, but will get better organised next year!

Writing the blog has also meant we are able to look back and reflect on our travels and hopefully help others considering a similar journey. Any questions please get in touch.

Sunday in Buenos Aires

by Lynn, posted in Buenos Aires, Atgentina

Decided to walk to the famous market at Ricoleta, about 4km stroll along tree lined streets with a light breeze, blue skies and 24C.

The market was fun, about 200 stalls of various crafts including a lot of jewellery, mostly silver and enamel, pottery pieces, mate pots for their local brew, decorative glass. The market finished close to the large cemetery we had visited previously, featuring Eva Peron’s family mausoleum. We had the obligatory Beer at cafe biers. We bought a bamboo necklace from one chap who insisted we also take his picture to show who had crafted the item.. We walked about 14km in all.

On the way back, both of us having taken slightly different routes, we met at a street corner bar In Palermo and watched the passing people. There is a lot of poverty, currently about a third of the population, due to the currency crisis. Two children saw a table had left half their nachos and asked to finish it, which was granted. The waiter at the bar brought more out for them which was a wonderful gesture. However the waiter noticed one of our phones was on the table and he told us not to leave it exposed. With poverty comes increased crime, mostly from desperation. We have bought a lot of packets of tissues that people sell in desperation to get some cash to buy food. In other areas of Argentina you do see many abandoned new builds, many empty new properties and in BA quite a number of people sleeping rough. It’s a very sad situation that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Enjoyed our last dinner in Argentina at a restaurant nearby our Hotel. A shared huge rib eye steak, salad and slightly too many glasses of Malbec. Met a fun couple at the next table who live in Surrey, even found we knew someone in common and even more coincidentally they have a son living on the same stretch of beach as Charlotte in Sydney. Heading back to Rio, early Monday morning to connect with our flight to London on Tuesday. Argentina has been amazing.

Exploring Colonia & Tango in BA

by Lynn, posted in Buenos Aires, Atgentina, Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Good rest, bed a tad soft for me due to a rather thick mattress topper. For Hesk he slept a solid 9 hours. Breakfast the best yet, so much so we won’t need lunch.

Colonia del Sacramento, the old part, is relatively small. We only changed US$10 in order to pay the small entrance fee to the limited but interesting museums. Really only need a couple of hours to see everything. However chilling in the pretty Hotel garden overlooking the river, sipping wine and beer, is a pleasant way to relax before our boat trip back to Buenos Aires.

Having toured this well preserved World Heritage site we headed back to our hotel gardens to relax prior to taking the ferry back. It was a hot balmy afternoon.

Thankfully the ferry was almost to time. Really don’t bother with paying any extra for business class! The crossing is only an hour. Taxis were available at the port but no queuing system, which meant no taxi willing to take you anywhere on a meter. So we had to negotiate a fixed price, basically double the normal rate, still only around US$11 for a 30 minute ride. The Mine Hotel had returned all our stored luggage and returned laundry to our new room.

After a refreshing shower, we headed off for a drink and a snack prior to being collected at 21.30 for a Tango Show at Cafe de los Angelitos, also recommended by Lonely Planet. We had opted for just the show and no dinner, a good call as didn’t look great and the extra charge was huge. Even our hotel had agreed, don’t do the dinner. We paid US$60 cash per head for the show, an extra $10 if paying by credit card which also meant payment in Pesos at their exchange rate. Add another US$30 a head for dinner, cash or a total of US$110 per head if paying by CC, somewhat overpriced in our opinion. We were offered a starter or desert with the $60 ticket plus wine and water. The desert was a tiny pavlova, 2 inches diameter, that was OK or we could have had 2 empanadas (like a small Cornish pastie). The wine was not great, but the water sufficed! The show entertaining, basically demonstrating Tango from the 1920’s onwards, with some songs being blasted out in between. The dancers were very skilled and fun to watch. However we have been told of a park that we should visit on Sunday at 19.00 to watch more spontaneous and almost certainly less touristy dancing. In the end it was quite an exhausting day as we only got into bed at around 1 am. Must be getting old😂

Colonia del Sacramento

by Lynn, posted in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

Today, Friday we took an overnight detour into Uruguay, to the World Heritage site of Colonia del Sacramento, 50km across the great estuary of the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires. Traffic was pretty bad from our hotel to the port and it took 40 minutes but we arrived with an hour and ten minutes to spare. Check in was easy and we had paid for the business class ticket as was on offer for a few dollars more. Upon reflection wouldn’t bother with that as really not a great advantage, Passport control, one booth, two blonde women side by side, one was for Argentina, the other Uruguay, so stamped out and in, within a matter of seconds. We only took backpacks (I know impressed right, me traveling super light), so on arrival just had to put all bags through a X-ray machine for customs control.

The walk from the ferry to the old city was only about 300 metres. We booked at the hotel Charco within the old town. A small boutique hotel of only eight en-suite rooms, delightful, highly recommended. Having checked in felt the need for a light snack and some liquid refreshment, fizzy water for me and amber liquid for Hesk. Despite the weather App telling us it was sunny, a large dark cloud was approaching from the west. Moments later a massive ‘summer storm’, as the locals called it, descended. What a wind, was quite something. We all raced in to a more sheltered area but chaos ensued. I left David settling the bill and raced to our room. I was very cold and we have no jumpers. The room had robes so having switched off the aircon, opened the shutters and wrapped myself up. David was an age, the young lady suggested he pay by credit card now as he would pay no tax of 18%. If he added it to the room, tax would be applied. However as he pointed out on payment the Amex tab showed tax was applied. She said later when it goes through it will come off – will let you know! Looked this up, it applies to foreigners. Apparently with Amex a refund of around 18% will show on your credit card, but if you use Visa, it’s applied straight away. The thought is to encourage Argentine’s to come to Uruguay and help them out a bit as their currency is so weak compared to that of Uruguay.

Having taken advantage of the inclement weather to take a rest in this delightful hotel, one of us completely sparko, we stirred ourselves. The rain having cleared we explored Colonia before dinner. A pretty 17th century heritage village that has morphed beautifully into modern day Colonia. Masses of Portuguese influence in evidence and that of course of the eventual conquering Spanish. Many serious Photographers lined key spots along the river wall monitoring a rather glorious sunset that displayed many different colours over about an hour and a half.

We enjoyed a light dinner at the hotels bistro and only a couple of glasses of wine. Feeling a tad bit drained at the end of a busy day on the move, hoping for a good nights sleep!

Buenos Aires

by Lynn, posted in Buenos Aires, Atgentina

Thursday. Returning to BA, achieved another bid upgrade from Puerto Madryn. Another inflight delight for lunch, a very odd, flat, no crusts sandwiches and some nuts, no booze. Had a run in with AVIS as the chap inspecting our massively already scratched and battered car with 53 thousand miles on the clock, declared a new mark that they would charge us for! We have full cover through an annual car hire insurance with AIG, so will let them fight it, but seriously!

Weather fabulous, dry heat, 28C and NO WIND. Had a wander and a little shop in BA around the Palermo district, not forgetting a few drinks to quench our thirst at one of the many bars littering the delightful streets, currently adorned with a glorious mass of Jacaranda blossom. Didn’t manage a brilliant picture but these trees are everywhere. The only other place I have seen them is in Sydney.

Last night we dined at one of the best restaurants So far on this trip. Located in the Palermo district, Crizia is most expensive meal yet and still was less than US$150 – said to be one of the top restaurants in the country. Pictures doesn’t do it justice. The oysters, 6 natural, 6 lightly cooked with parmesan, lime and truffle oil, both sublime, David had braised Patagonian lamb with various accompanying vegetables and sauces and I had suckling pork, again with a fabulous array of the prettiest vegetables and sauces. We shared one of the best creme brûlée I have ever eaten, served with poached pears. All washed down with an excellent Patagonian Pinot Noir. Really good service too!

Puerto Madryn – Punta Loma & Playa Parana

by Lynn, posted in Patagonia

Picked up a huge amount of laundry after a good breakfast (yes!!, got soft boiled eggs using Google translate). A very late start, but we knew it was a local visit of no more than 20km. A short drive took us along tarmac roads, then the expected gravel road to a Punta Lomo, where a ranger told us no charge and encouraged us to enjoy watching the sea lions. Yesterday we saw elephant seals. There was a large type of binoculars to hand but required 2 pesos, fortunately I had some buried deep in my bag. We have one small pair with us but it would certainly be worth investing in really good binoculars for this trip.

‘Seals have short, stubby front feet and generally scoot along land on their bellies. Sea lions, on the other hand, have elongated front flippers that help propel them through the water and allow them to “walk” on land’

We enjoyed watching them and the Rock Shags nesting on the face of the cliff, for some time before moving on. The wind was howling. We were covered in dusty sand. Yesterday, said to be unusual, as no wind. We had been incredibly lucky, as today I doubt the whale spotting boats would be operating. We drove further down the coast and took a long stroll. Once protected by the cliffs, the warmth of the sun made us strip off our layers.

Enjoyed a late lunch with a bowl of mussels with garlic and chips. By 4pm we were really tired and decided the last few days were catching up with us, so headed back to the hotel for a rest and general catch up on emails etc. In the evening we dinned at a brilliant restaurant called En Mis Fuegos, about 4 km from our hotel. Thursday we leave to return to Buenos Aires, a one hour, fifty minute flight.

Peninsula Valdes

by Lynn, posted in Patagonia

Tuesday, bit of a late start. Dropped laundry at a local launderette and set off to find the wild life. It’s quite a drive of just flat sandy scrub nothingness in every direction! About an hour and fifteen minutes on good roads to the main park entrance, paid $850 pesos each and $120 pesos for the car – currently around US$30 total. Fifteen minutes later we stopped at the excellent park visitors centre. Well worth the stop, interesting local history and great advice from one of the rangers about where to go and what to do.

Another thirty minutes and we arrived at Puerto Pyramidies. A small town in the middle of nowhere that originally was founded by salt miners and whale hunters. These days primarily appears to thrive on the tourist industry, taking people out on small vessels to watch whales in what is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

After a brief snack we headed of out in the Bay to find the Southern right Whales that migrate each year between July & December to this area to breed and then head South again to Antarctica. We were fortunate to spot 3 sets of Mother & Calf and managed a few photos, but it was really the spectacle of being within a few metres of these magnificent creatures that kept us enthralled. A school of dusky dolphins Mesmerised us for five minutes darting around the boat, we were told this was rare. We returned to shore after about 90 mins.

Having befriended two young European ladies on their travels, we agreed they could join us for the 2 hour ride to see Penguins, Elephant Seals and hopefully Orcas on the far east side of the Peninsular. So having been told the best time to see these Orcas would be at high tide (7pm that evening), we set off. It was 100 km of hard driving on gravel roads but the reward at the end was worth it. More Magellanic Penguins and a very large colony of Elephant Seals from large Alpha males to many small pups. It was a long and dusty ride, alert to the odd Guanaco crossing our path, we started spotting them and other wildlife as we trundled on across the massive flat land mass of desert scrub and big skies.

At one main visitor area close to a huge population of elephant seals, we stopped for a loo break, hot chocolate and snacks. We were down to our last pesos but the cafe owner said he was happy to take dollars. Offered us a terrible rate but when he eyed my 100 dollar note, said he would be happy to change all of it at 60 pesos a dollar – a fair rate. I mentioned that I had another hundred if he was interested, beaming he agreed and rushed off to find the cash. As mentioned it’s super tough for the Argentines as their currency is so weak and unstable. Through the banks they can only buy US$200 a month.

One of the girls with us, Ronja, from Germany had an amazing camera, she very kindly sent us a few pictures from our day trip, you can probably guess which are hers 😦 Her real job is in film production. Ronja was staying in Peninsula Valdes so we dropped her there on the way backbone Puerto Madryn. Laila, from Switzerland (a social worker, working with disabled children) was staying in town, so we dropped her back at her hostel. An interesting young lady who loves traveling and had a host of interesting info to share. We finally made it back to our hotel at around 22.00. We were exhausted and slept like logs but not before the obligatory glass of Malbec at the bar!

Puerto Madryn

by Lynn, posted in Patagonia

Left Ushuaia on a spectacular takeoff Monday morning to Trelew, which is about an hours drive from Puerto Madryn. First time we have been on a commercial flight where they boarded everyone by 10.10 and whilst the scheduled time of departure was 10.55 and we left at 10.30. Got an upgrade again too!

Arriving early at 12.30, picked up a hire car and with some advice from the AVIS guy we decided, rather than head to the hotel where check in was at 3pm, we would go to Punta Tombo, a Magellanic penguin colony, about 2 hours drive south from the airport.

Utterly totally amazing! After a 100 km drive ( 22km on gravel) we arrived at the Punta Tombo Penguin colony. A structured path of about 3km stretched before us with little penguins everywhere, approximately 1.2 million of them. Nesting season. Mixed in with these little guys, who seemed totally unfazed by human visitors were Guanacoes, members of the Lama family, armadillos and various bird life.. Apparently the penguins can move as fast as 50km an hour on the ground, but saw no evidence of that. They also swim up to 600km in search of food. Once the eggs are laid, dad sits on them for 42 days, whilst mum is tasked with providing the food. We witness fornicating penguins, those sitting on eggs and indeed some newly hatched chicks. These national Parks are so well organised, maintained and ensure that wildlife comes first, it’s very impressive.

After we had seen Penguins from just about every angle, we headed to Puerto Madryn probably somewhat faster than we should have done, getting to the hotel at around 7pm in 2 hours, a journey that should take a good while longer. The last 22 kilometres to/from the penguins, is a good dirt track road and the rest is tarmac, better in some areas than others. Checked into the very acceptable Hotel Territorio on the seafront with lovely views of the Bay. We followed the lonely planet advice and booked a beachside restaurant for dinner. Nothing special but we were hungry and so we endured some overcooked fish, ok Chicken Milanese but very nice wines. Long day ended with us crashing at 1030 exhausted!

Tierra del Fuego

by Lynn, posted in Patagonia

Weather forecast was sadly correct as we awoke to rain and a low grey cloud base and 9C. With only one full day in Ushuaia, the plan was always to explore the National Park of Tierra del Fuego, sadly not as much walking as we would have liked, but thankfully we had hired a car. Even with full wet kit, the few walking looked pretty miserable.

After a very enjoyable breakfast we set off in the car. Entrance to the park is only a 30 minute car ride. Two tickets 1120 peso around US$20. There are a number of walks that had it been dry would have been very rewarding. Whilst the forest around us was lapping up the water, glowing an ever more vibrant green, the snow clad mountains were shrouded in clouds, though we had an occasional glimpse of slate grey rock and snow towering above us.

A brief wander on a board walk to the furthest point on the South American mainland, Puerto Arias, also called Fin del Mundo – end of the world, in what was now drizzle. Our water resistant coats and an umbrella worked reasonably well!

At 3pm we collected 2 tickets for a brief two and a half hour catamaran cruise within the Beagle Channel to view some of the local wild life. Good news the sun had made an appearance, things were looking up, as the weather forecasters had predicted. This however means the threat of heavy snow from around 02.00 is looking very likely. A tad bit of a concern, as our AVIS, very basic Chevrolet Joy, doesn’t look like it will perform too well in snowy conditions, plus you should see the steep meandering road we need to exit the hotel that is perched on a precipice overlooking Ushuaia. Had a quick burger at a Lonely Planet recommended cafe. Back to the catamaran, thankfully about 60 pax in what otherwise holds 150 people.

As we departed the port, the sun shone, the sky became blue and there was no wind. The Beagle Channel was completely flat, only irritated by the various boats that transversed its waters.. Everywhere we looked there were birds of all different shades and sizes, perhaps with the Cormorants dominating the scene. Apparently part of the pelican species and not as you may imagine of the penguin family, despite looking like small Penguins when grounded, they fly! We also saw a nesting Chilean Skue and all manner of others.

Fully recommend our hotel – Arakur is fabulous, can get good deals through Expedia, amazing views, great rooms with outstanding views. Can’t be doing with going down to town tonight so eating here again!

Late addition 22.51 and a shot looking out over the city from our room, magic, mountains silhouetted in the background and the sun setting!

Last day in El Calafate & our journey to Ushuaia, the worlds southern most city.

by Lynn, posted in Uncategorized

So our day began in a very relaxed fashion with a leisurely breakfast before checking out and heading to the bird sanctuary on the shores of Lake Argentina just a few kilometres from our Hotel. What a wonderful experience. An area of several sq km around two or three lakes with more than 100 species of birds. We did our best to spot as many as we could but impossible to collate the viewings in such a short time. The area is a collection of beach, wetlands, lake and scrub with a 2 km strictly restricted path running through with many hides for sustained watching. We paid our entrance fee at the sanctuary ranger hut and set off. Within minutes we were struggling to keep count of the different species. Our main objective was to get close to the pink flamingos but quite soon many other species captivated our interest. Of particular attraction were a small group of Chimango’s ( local birds of prey) who had made a kill and the were fighting over their prey, Another fascinating specie was the spectacled tyrant characterised by its white ringed eyes, giving it its name. Finally of course we got within about 25 metres of about a dozen pink flamingos with their beaks almost permanently immersed in the lake bed feeding and very occasionally coming up for air and spreading their wings exposing bright red feathers under their wings contrasting with their outer pink plumage. Just incredible. For the first time we saw the mountains reflected in the lake providing an even more amazing backdrop. Soon it was time to head off to town to fill up the rentalcar tank in readiness for our return to El Calafate airport for our short one hour flight to Ushuaia.

The flight was on time fairly full and uneventful until we started our descent into Ushuaia. The pilot had warned us that it was “a bit windy” but we soon realised that with the plane being quite severely buffeted that this was going to be no ordinary landing. An extremely fast landing, with amazing views either side of the surrounding mountains and the Beagle Channel, saw us touch down with quite a bump, few white knuckles and a spontaneous round of relieved applause from the passengers. W www welcome to Ushuaia! After a bit of delay waiting for a free parking slot we disembarked into 50 km/hr winds and a short walk to the terminal. After further delay with baggage delivery we were in our car rental and headed to our hotel, clearly visible on the escarpment high above the city. This Hotel has been our luxury on this trip. Wonderful to get into a 5 star room, shower and get dressed up for dinner in the Hotel restaurant. It did not disappoint, we enjoyed a superb blue cheese, frisk almonds & pear salad for starter followed by the most sublime fresh local trout with a delicious salad of fennel orange potato bacon lime and parsley. We chose to share a dessert of vanilla creme brûlée with fresh local berries and a single macchiato each to finish. The accompanying wines were a glass each of crisp and fresh Mendoza Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of superb Mendoza Pinot Noir providing a perfect accompaniment to a fantastic meal. The sunset from the restaurant at 10 pm just capped the evening. We are so lucky! Tomorrow Tierra del Fuego!