We flew from Buones Aires to Santiago de Chile for only a 2 day stopover before crossing over to New Zealand. Our flight brought us over the Andes and we had spectacular views out of the windows. The size of the mountains and its formation are breath taking. We had the late afternoon sun shining over the clouds and on top of the glaciers and peaks.
After taking a airport shuttle bus to the city we soon found a Hostal for our stay. It was not in the center of the city and after settling in, we walked to explore a part of Santiago.
The next day we went into the city center to look at the big public buildings and the modern architecture next to each other. The city offers big pedestrian shopping arcades with many trees to protect against the sun and heat. For lunch we went to the "Central Mercado" where a lot of restaurants are situated. Every server tried to get us into their section. A huge variety of different fishes and seafood was on offer and displayed. After we finally decided on a restaurant we ordered one ceviche, a seafood dish and a fish dish. The ceviche was dissapointing but the other two dishes were delicious and big.
The afternoon made it unbearable to stay in the city. It was very hot and we still felt exhausted from Buenos Aires. So after a coffee and a cake from a bakery in town we walked back to the hostel were we had a quite evening.
The next morning we kept busy with organize things until it was time to take the bus back to the Airport to continue our trip across the Pazific to reach New Zealand. A 12 hour flight. But we lost the 1st of February and reached Auckland on the 2nd of February.
After our relaxing time at the Yoga Park, we finally arrived back in Buenos Aires. With all the tips we got from other travelers we knew we had two busy days ahead of us and we were excited. We stayed at the Sandanzas hostel in the San Telmo area, the staff was absolute amazing, however I did not like the location too much.
After we dropped our bags we walked to the harbor area called Puerto Madero and were surprised how modern the area was.
Here we also saw the first tango dancers on the street. We both were impressed and it was so much fun to watch.
Slowly the city turned from dusk into nightlife and we passed the Casada Rosada at the Plaza de Mayo, were Evita had her speech on the balcony. However she was not there for us to give us a speech...
Argentina is full of art and expressive people, on street stands you can buy great ideas made into art or you can see amazing graffiti on walls. There are small arcades full of different artists and their products.
That night we also walked passed the Obelissco at the Plaza de la Republican before we had dinner at the Palermo area. We had our first "Parilla" (Argentinean BBQ), we got so much meat until we just couldn't fit anything inside ourselves anymore. We saw a lot of party goers passing our table, all nicely dressed up. We were in our usual kaki colored outdoory, backpacker cloth and did not feel like going into a fancy club. By the time we finished dinner and our last bottle of tasty Malbec, it was already late. The night bus and a stroll brought us back to the hostel.
The next morning we crawled out of bed to enjoy the free breakfast at the hostel and it was really worth it. We had some extra coffee to have the energy for a full day of city sightseeing! We also met Boland from Turkey, who joint us for the day.
We started off at the Recoleta area were we walked pass a park with this huge sculpture. The name is Floralis Generica and the petals open in the morning and close at night. It can be found at the United Nation Square.
We just continued to walk around town and found so many amazing photo motives that we could not stop taking pictures.
Buenos Aires is a beautiful city however in some occasions you are reminded that also there is poverty.
We slowly proceeded to our main target the Cementerio de la Recoleta. It is like a miniature city within a city. There you can see amazing graves and sculptures and can walk for hours in the small alleys and look for Eva Padrons grave. Have you found it?!
Boland was busy trying his new photo camera out and we even lost him in this maze and only found him at the exit.
Robert knocked at every door in the hope for a refreshing beer. He only found coffins and urns. So he sticked to the water bottle.
After the cemetery we took a bus to La Boca. It is safe there at the touristy area, but if you walk a few wrong streets, it is not so safe anymore. But not to worry it is not hard to see were the touristy area is finished or be found.
We went there in the late afternoon and the stands started to close, we didn't mind as it meant it was not that busy anymore.
Even Robert had the chance to pose as a Tango dancer. But be aware nothing is for free and Dollars are expected.
It looks very touristy and almost like it was placed there and that is what we did not like so much. But it was fun to take pictures, even if you just go there shortly, walk the three streets, take pictures and take the bus to your next destination. The public transport in BA is very cheap and good!
We saw more tango, but why would you have two restaurants with tango and blasting music just opposite of each other! To catch tourists?
In the evening we went to a club called "Cathedral de Tango", to watch "normal" people dance Tango. Unfortunately we missed the lessons at 21:00, but the club was individual and really cool. We had a drink and just enjoyed watching other people dance tango, whilst sweating doing nothing. After a night full of Aussie snoring and being thankful to British Airways once again for ear plugs, we once again had our alarm on early to catch the great breakfast and have look at the antique market before saying goodbye to this great country.
Every Sunday there is a antique market at San Telmo. It is really fun to stroll through the stands and see the many curious things. Unfortunately we had not enough time as we had to catch the bus to the airport that would take 2 hours. We heard in the afternoon there would be more tango performances and other street performers, which we missed.
It was hard to say goodbye to Buenos Aires and Argentina, but I know for sure it is an "Auf Wiedersehen". We enjoyed the country and especially the people so much. If I would have the chance I would live there for a while.
For more pictures see the following link: Buenos Aires
While traveling in Peru we met a girl from the US called Hanna who was raving about a volunteering place outside Buenos Aires where they offer free Yoga. It was easy to find in the Internet and our initial plan was to stay for one week, but through some problems with buses we were only able to stay for 4 days.
When we arrived in Buenos Aires we had to take a bus to the Plaza de Misere, another bus for one hour outside of the city and a taxi to get there. Also find more information on their web page:
There are more Eco Yoga places around the world even one in Berlin. We paid US$ 20.00 per person per day, the longer you stay the cheaper it gets. The price included accommodation, Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner. At 11:00 you could join for meditation and in the afternoon at 16:30 they offered Yoga. Also After dinner you could join for a movie at the movie house. We mostly watched social critical movies.
The volunteering was mostly weeding and garden work, but also helping in the kitchen, painting signs, any kind of handy work and once a week you can learn how to make mosaic. Robert together with a team of French, build a bench.
Every morning you would start working at 6:00 am until 8:00 am, then there is a breakfast break and continue working until 10:45 am. The rest of time is your free time where you can join activities or have your own plans.
The community at the Eco Yoga were followers of the Hare Krishna religion. They were not on top of you to convert everybody to their believes, but once a week the spiritual leader invites everybody to join him to ask questions about the religion. The get together is not mandatory, but we went as we are open to any believe and it was a way to learn something new.
On the last morning it was possible for us to join a ceremony at 5:00 am in the temple with some of the followers. It was mostly chanting and saying thank you to the five elements. The music was catchy and the lyrics like hieroglyphs to us. (hare hare...) They also had a holy plant that was blessed.
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna. Krishna, Krishna. Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama. Rama, Rama. Hare, Hare.
When you become a Hare Krishna you automatically become a vegetarian, as they believe in not hurting animals. As the modern society also not allows animals to live a worthy live they also don't eat eggs or milk products. That meant for us that all the meals they cooked for us were vegan. We really enjoyed the food a lot and there was always enough for a second or third helping. A farmer close by sold great milk products like: natural yoghurt, chocolate milk and cheese. Guests were allowed to purchase the products and add it to their food. We decided to live vegan for the 4 days. The food was always very fresh, as most came from the own organic garden and very colorful at the same time.
After four days we had a different body feeling and I hope we can do something similar in Asia for longer.
We also met great people and it was fun just to hang out and talk. Heather really stayed in my memories, she is extremely talented and I wished I would have had more time with her, as I believe I could have learnt a lot from her. Her Yoga skills were amazing. She also has a web page:
After another long ride in a bus we arrived in Puerto Madryn. It was a lot colder then in Bariloche here at the sea. Unfortunately we were late 4 weeks as the wales which are here in the bays to feed and rise their babies. They are so comfortable in their surrounding that they come up to 10 meters close to the shore. We heard that up to 1400 wales are in the bays. We didn't have the pleasure to see them anymore.
We camped on a campground a little outside of town close to the beach. We went to buy some meat and wine for a BBQ that night. It was raining when we started our fire and the table neighbors offered their already existing fire pit to get us going faster... A nice family we chatted for a while with. I sent a request for our last trip of our bus ticket, only to find out that we didn't have any trips left. As I was very certain we still had one trip left I sent an email to them, requesting a fast investigation of our situation. As it was afternoon, I didn't hear anything back. I had to wait for the next day. As we wanted to leave to BA the next day, I hoped that everything still would work out for us.
As the close by peninsula is a heaven for wildlife, we took a tour next day to the wild reserve. We had a very friendly and knowledgeable guide with us on the small tour. So we started our search for wildlife.
With Chrisy's good eyes and a lot of luck we found some very soon!
Chrisy was able to capture one and hold on tide to it. As we heard there is more to see, we proceeded searching.
Next to the road we saw this small family. The kids were as curious as we were. Mum just thought of dinner and knew that they were in a safe distance and we are not allows to hunt them.
It is the time of the year were the beaches are full of new born life. Many seal babies started with their first explorations in the colony. Whilst the alpha male was busy showing off and fighting other intruding males off, the females were sleeping and trying to get any bit of warmth into their bodies.
I was very excited about other creatures we found nestlings and with their latest arrivals to the family. They are very relaxed and don't mind to be close to humans and being captured on film!
I could have sat there the entire day and watched them. They are so cute. There were probably 100 penguins. Further south is a colony with approximately 1million at that time. Our guide was great with explaining us a lot about the animals and the history of the peninsula. As it had a dark history we can be lucky we still saw the seals. They have been hunted for a long time and slaughtered by the thousands on a daily basis. It's fat was once used to keep the lamps in BA burning in the night time. It must have stunk like hell in those days.
We had an afternoon tea in a small village and tried to hear back from our bus agency. As we had problems to find Internet it was always a quest for connection. We ended up returning to the city and still haven't heard back. So I finally called them, after finding out the correct number. I tried the day before already several times to call them, but had a wrong number. I talked to a lady and she promised me that we would get contacted by email until the end of the day. This meant for us that we had to stay for another night, but also that we had to stay around an Internet connection to hear back from them. It was a nerve racking time. After two more calls we finally heard back from them saying that they made a mistake and we were able to book our last trip. As it was already to late for that day we booked for the following day. However, as we only could choose a time after 24hrs, it was far beyond the time we wished for. So I made a booking and wanted to call them in the morning in hope they could change the time for us. A little relieved about being able to use our already spent moony for the last leg of our trip, we went back and put our tent back up. Next mornings call was successful and we got booked on a executive bus (fancy...) for the afternoon departure. Finally we were able to get closer to our joga retreat we've been looking forward to for such a long time. Unfortunately with a shorter time available then hoped.
