Ed the Gaucho

Yesterday we had another brilliant day out this time pretending to be Gauchos thanks to Wedding Gift Number 17 and the lovely Auntie Jean.

We were picked up by Luciano a local who owns an estancia here in southern Patagonia. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side. We arrived to have traditional Mate tea, which I felt tastes like a really really strong green tea, I loved it. It also has a special type of Caffeine that really gives you a kick. Argentines drink Mate all the time, maybe that’s how they can go out for dinner at 11pm and manage to get up for work the next day? Traditionally it is served in a small bowl like cup and drank through a straw as inside is a load of mate leaves and a small amount of water.

Enjoying my Mate

After this we saddled up the horses, I asked for the calmest one, Pluma (Feather) as I am by no means confident on or near horses and away we went with Ed on Rubio (Ruby). I had five layers of clothes on but it was freezing and then the rain came. It was bitter cold and it was a shame that the view wasn’t very visible due to the rain and mist but in the distance you could just about make out the snow capped mountains. We had a giggle, the horses were amazing and views that we could see were spectacular but the weather got the better of us and the walk was cut short, which just allowed more time to eat steak in Luciano’s small horse shed. It was absolutely delicious and a good way to get warm again!

Getting soaked but happy!

It’s Easter Sunday today and we are having a lazy catch up day-hence the writing. Off out for a walk and hopefully some nice food then tomorrow we head off on a very long day trip back to Chile to viist Torres Del Paine National Park. We have everything crossed it will be good enough weather to get some good views.....

Happy Easter from Mr and Mrs Ross x

Cold and Colder

Another long over night bus journey took us to our most southern (and coldest) destination of El Calafate. After a fairly lazy week or so we packed up our week here with tours.
So on Easter Friday when you were all enjoying balmy weather and munching on Easter Eggs Ed and I went off to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. After loving Franz Josef in New Zealand we were both really excited to see this glacier. We decided to save our money and just view the glacier this time rather than climb on it (which having spoken to unhappy others that have paid the extortionate fee to walk on the ice was the right thing to do). So a massive thank you to Moochie for wedding gift number 16!
We took a bus to the entrance to the national park and then jumped on a boat, the weather was freezing, not helped with the rain and drizzle but the view was spectactular. The boat got up really close to the glacier and we stayed out for as long as our frozen bodies would let us. After the boat trip we took a walk around the ‘balconies’ which give amazing viewpoints out to different sides of the glacier. It’s such a wonderful time to be travelling in Argentina as it is Autumn here and the trees are turning their beautiful shades of yellow and reds, it looked so special against the icy blues of the glacier. It really was spectacular, Perito Moreno moves at 2 metres a day so as the afternoon comes round and the sun warms the ice pieces break off, we were lucky enough to catch a couple of chunks fall off and the noises from the breaking and cracking is superb. It really was a wonderful day. The weather literally changed every fifteen minutes, from cloudy and sleety, to beautiful bright blue skies, to mist and fog but it all added to the mystery and awe of the place.

Mr and Mrs on the top of the boat, glacier behind us

Amazing sight and sounds

Hablar Gallese?

Next up was the Welsh towns. In the mid 1800s Welsh settlers came to Patagonia on the promise of good farmland, i’m not sure the dry arid conditions of Patagonia are quite what they anticipated but they came in their thousands. Trevelin was our first visit just south of El Bolson followed by Gaiman and Trelew on the east coast. Each of the towns are rather small and we may have overestimated how much time we would need in each but they had wonderful regional museums with lots of artefacts and relics from the original settlers, Trevelin was cold like Bolson and Bariloche but it was lovely to go east to Trelew and Gaiman were we could wear t-shirts again and soak up some sun.
The most fun experience of these towns was going to a traditional Welsh Tea House, lost at home now but a key part of the Welsh towns here. The problem was on arrival for our lunch, they really only do traditional tea, so I had to explain to the waiter that we only wanted one serving as Ed doesn’t drink tea and I cannot eat cake. So I enjoyed the best cup of tea I have had in four months and Ed enjoyed a gigantic platter of cakes, scone and bread and jam! It was strange to be surrounded by signs in Welsh and Welsh flags everywhere, so far away from home.

Ed in his Trevelin Tshirt from Wales, in Trevelin in Patagonia!

The absolute most amazing thing I have ever seen in a museum,

a tea cup with a protector for your moustache,

I need to find me one of these for my Cava Cup hire business!!

An Adventure

Scenery on one of the many bus trips, brilliant!

Moving south from Bariloche we took in a handful of smaller towns, El Bolson-marketed here as a hippie village but to be honest it just had a pretty cute artisan market and some good restaurants and the Welsh towns of Trevelin, Gaiman and Trelew.

Our most ridiculous and fun day came in El Bolson. There is a sculptured wood here where local artists have carved characters and sculptures out of tree stumps, you can take a taxi there and back but it was recommended to us to taxi there and walk back. The weather was really chilly and there had been a fresh dump of snow over night so we knew it would be cold but went for it anyhow. After a 45 minute taxi ride up an insanely steep mountain with twisty windy roads we jumped out and walked a further 45 mins in light snow to the top of the mountain where the sculpture forest was. It was cold but it was nice to see the artwork. We started strolling down avoiding the scary looking bulls wandering around until we got back to the carpark where we had been dropped off. We stopped for a banana and some drink each before heading down further. A girl at our hostel had advised me not to take the road the taxi took up and that in fact there was a little path that cut through each bend in the road making the route down quicker and easier. We spotted the path and headed on our way, slowly the path disappeared so we’d spot a little one off it, follow that and then return to the original path again each time. The girl had said if we got lost we could easily spot the road again and just return to it but the road never came into sight.

After two hours of slow walking down-slippery and steep-we came to a stream, at this point we realised we really had taken the wrong path. We had a stream to our right and were tempted to just follow that down as we figured it had to take the most direct route down but unfortunately there was just no path near it, we carried on for another 20 minutes or so as Ed thought he had found a new path, at this point I was thinking we were going to end up getting lost in the bloody woods and spending the night there. My main worry was that a) we only had a banana to see us through and half a bottle of water and b) that we had been to a museum highlighting the local wildlife of Patagonia and Pumas are their scary neighbours....
Eventually after a bit of a panic and close to tears we decided to double back on ourselves and go back the way we came all the way to the top in order to find the road and simply follow that down. It was nudging 4pm and we knew we had to get moving to get out of the wood/path before dark at around 6.30pm.
By some sort of miracle-I think fear- we got up the hill in the same time we took coming down, there were a few times Ed literally pushed me up as this is the most exercise we had done in 4 months, and we are talking steep hills so for both of us our legs were like jelly. Two thirds of the way up we could see a car go past in the distance and this gave us the energy to get to the top, knowing that we were on the right path (as in the one we took down not the proper path!) We got to the top of the path and celebrated with a banana and a giggle, easy now, we just had the massive hill to climb down but at least it was on a road and we could just follow that. An hour into the walk down we were so lucky that a local man came past in his very new white pickup truck and offered us a lift back to the town. The car journey took another half an hour so we are so relieved he picked us up. Although we were pretty dirty and stinky so he may not have been so relieved. We got back into town about 8ish so if he hadn’t taken us we wouldn’t have been back til gone ten.

We laugh about it now, but at the time we were both a bit worried but even in that moment we didn’t squabble or get angry. I guess we both knew if we were going to get stuck we’d most like to get stuck with each other!? Although I may have made a quiet comment that either of the other Mr Rosses probably would have got us out a bit faster ; )

Celebrating at the top (the first time) for our wonderful friends enagagement ; )

Buses, Views and Policia!

Next up was an epic 19 hour bus journey south to Bariloche. I was hesitantly optimistic as the bus to Mendoza had been brilliant but knew 19hours would be a trial. We set off packed up with rice cakes and cheese and sandwiches for Ed and do you know, it was a really very comfortable journey. Two films both in English helped the journey go quickly, we’d paid to get the best seats on the bus which were comfy 140degree recliners, the toilet was functioning and relatively bearable, all in all it was a fab experience.
Just I was thinking how wonderful the experience was the bus pulled up at a Police check point. A nice police lady jumped on and checked everyone’s passports, all was fine and the next thing we knew Ed and I were being told to gather all our things and come with them.... no one explained what was going on and they pretended not to understand or be able to reply in Spanish. My thoughts were that maybe someone at the bus terminal had put something in our bags and Ed was panicking that it was a chance to bribe the Brits, worried about how to bargain in Spanish and just how much they were going to ask us for.
We got escorted to their office where they proceeded to unroll and nose around in every single pocket and part of our rucksacks. I tell you, I’m not travelling with dirty laundry again! After going through every part of our bags, getting excited at a packet of plasters-trying to explain those in pidgin Spanish was fun-they realised we had nothing of interest and let us go. Very strange I asked again what they were looking for and this time they bothered to respond and said it was a routine check, the bus conductor said maybe the sniffer dogs had found something. We put it down to Ed’s ratty bag, remember the rat in Thailand that chewed Ed’s bag to get to his hidden dairy milk buttons? Maybe our bags looked a bit tatty and they thought we were hiding something.

Anyway, off we went again and we arrived to a very chilly Bariloche. It was really exciting to head to Patagonia, this is where Ed’s dad spent much of his youth and we were excited to see his homeland. This is also where the weather we had anticipated kicked in so it was on with the jumpers, hats, gloves and scarves all while you folks are twittering on about the hot weather you were having!

Me doing some postcard writing in the main Plaza of Bariloche.

Bariloche is a really beautiful town, set right on a lake with snow dusted mountains in the distance. It is Argentina’s lake district and the area is dotted with gorgeous blue lakes. We spent the first couple of days sleeping, eating and mooching around town, but I soon got itchy feet and we stepped up the visit a notch or two with a visit to the local museum and a couple of hikes. The best walk took us on a ski-chair lift to an amazing viewpoint. We said it was the most amazing view we’ve had all trip. Overlooking snowcapped mountains, lakes, beautiful autumn trees, two young eagles were swooping and playing and we are pretty sure we saw Condors over in the distance.

Fabulous views from the top of a mountain over Argentina's Lake District


Hopefully by now you are understanding the miniscule portions and massive variety that Argentine food offers?

South America, the last leg of the trip

An eleven hour flight took us to Santiago de Chile. We hadn’t read up much so didn’t know what to expect but we’d booked into a hostel in a nice area of town for two nights. Only problem was I’d managed to forget that Chile is behind NZ by about a day so while we may have left on the evening of the 31st, this did not mean that we would arrive on the 1st of course it meant we arrived on the 31st! Unfortunately I only realised this on the plane so there wasn’t a lot I could do about it and unfortunately for Ed it wasn’t an April Fools.
Luckily for us the hostel had a space so they changed the rooms around and we were all sorted. No one speaks English here so we are getting by on my pidgin Spanish. Having not slept at all on the flight - can anyone sleep in economy?? We grabbed a couple of hours to feel more human and then just went to a local restaurant for a local dinner – Mexican-local ish??

Day two we explored the city centre and a couple of their museums. The weather here is really lovely, we had anticipated cold and were prepped with jumpers and rain jackets but in Santiago I mostly wore dresses and Ed shorts, it was a nice surprise to be basking in some sunshine.
Santiago is a pretty nice city, very nice in comparison to many South American capitals. We discovered a super cool area stuffed with bars and restaurants that night and had a fun time trying out the national cocktail ‘Pisco Sour’ and local beef.

Steak, Chile style

After another chilled out day in Santiago we grabbed our first bus of this leg to Argentina. Buses in Argie are SO much better than Thai buses, comfy seats, food and drink included and most importantly, films! A very twisty windy route took us up and around the Andes that separate Chile from Argentina and we crossed the border into the Fatherland. On arrival into Mendoza-the wine capital of South America-we strolled to our hostel with our bags on our back, problem was we arrived at a very swanky looking hotel. Turns out there is a Hostel International (where we booked into) and a Hotel International (where we currently stood) we wandered in just in case we hadn’t made a mistake but on the Concierge’s demands of a voucher and a slight grimace at our rucksacked selves we realised we were in the wrong spot. Half an hour more of walking in the warm midday sun led us to our hostel, the correct one. It’s never a good sign, we have decided, if your hostel is painted a ridiculous bright colour. This Orange monstrosity was clean enough but full of really young ‘travellers’ that don’t seem to travel the world just travel the worlds hostels, hanging out in the communal areas all the time and playing on Facebook!

Anyhow, Mendoza is a really nice city and was a great introduction to Argentina, we scoped out town and booked ourselves into a wine tour. There were budget ones we could do on a bike but we chose a more expensive one that took you to further away vineyards in a comfortable bus. The guys on our tour were lovely, a couple of grandparents from America, a young swiss couple, us and a gal from San Francisco. We had a really good day and an excellent long 5 course lunch with matching wines thanks to Wedding gift number 15 thanks to the gorgeous bridesmaids and also Nathan, Mari and Isabel. It was great to try some delicious Malbecs and the speciality here of Torrontes- a really beautiful white wine. At one of the vineyards we were lucky enough to see them working with the grapes as it is harvest time, handpicking out the bad grapes and bugs before it all goes into a machine to get rid of the stems. Having got somewhat squiffy at the New Zealand tour I tried to pace myself a little more in Mendoza and it worked, I just loved all the wines ; ) We have researched how many bottles you can bring back to the UK so if we are staying with you while homeless in the UK you may be lucky enough to try some. Assuming I don’t quaff it all!

Yey, arrival into Argentina!


Ed does some beer tasting in Mendoza!

Don't worry they were 'taster' size glasses!

Steak, Argie style- it must have been at least 2 inches thick.

Needless to say I couldn't manage it all

Wine tour with snow covered Andes just behind us. Big thanks to Meli, Zoe, Hannah, Nathan, Mari and Isabel xx

New Zealand

Wow, so we are now in Argentina having spent three weeks in New Zealand and a couple of days in Santiago, Chile. Clearly we’ve been having way too much fun to write! Highlights of New Zealand are many and include, a fab walk in Abel Tasman National Park, a fun night with friends Jj and Marcus in their amazing house near Nelson, each Saturday involved a trip to the local farmers market to pick up supplies and then a rugby game in the evening, not sure how Ed managed it be we ‘coincidently’ ended up in a town with a match each weekend, amazing!

Ed super happy to be at yet another rugby match

The best experience for me for the whole time in NZ had to be the Franz Josef glacier. Ed had been before but was keen to show me how amazing it was. So Wedding gift number 10 (huge thank you to Mike and Sarah) saw us take a scenic helicopter ride up to the glacier –most amazing scenery and I managed to ride shotgun next to the pilot both times. Then we had 2/3 hours hiking on the ice, we got some spikes which simply strapped to the bottom of your boots and away we went, it took a while to get used to the ice, you have to really stomp to get good grip on the ice but once we’d mastered the aggressive cowboyesque march we were on our way. The guide took ten of us on a walk about and we climbed down into a cave and climbed along a canyon. The blues were so incredible I have never seen anything like it. Very excited now to see Perito Moreno in Argentina to compare, I have a new found respect for ice and mountains, not least because I managed to fall into a well! As we were climbing through the ice canyon I managed to put a foot slightly wrong and fell into about 3 feet of ice water, bloody chilly!! Oh well, all fun!

Not the best outfit choice but with only one pair of trousers, things are limited!

Moments before the big fall and one very very wet leg.

Ed climbing deep into the cave.

Driving around New Zealand is spectacular, the scenery is so grand so extreme and beautiful. We likened it to Wales but it’s like Wales on drugs, all beautiful rolling hills or snow topped mountains and lakes an aqua blue I have never seen before.

Some of the nicest scenery was around Queenstown and we had an awesome time on the river there thanks to Neil and wedding gift no.11. Jet boating. We were lucky enough to be on the “Most exciting Jet boat ride in the World”. Fantastic, an exhilarating 30 minutes going at a ridiculous speed in a canyon, we got soaked but it was exhilarating and to be honest we’d had a lovely meal out the night before (with the obligatory vino to accompany it) and so it was a good hangover cure!

Wedding gift number 12 – massive thank you to the Chapmans and the Amos - was a rainy and misty trip to Milford Sound. The day previous it had been clear blue skies but we caught it on a wet and grey day but it all adds to the atmosphere and the waterfalls were in their element.

Gorgeous Milford Sound

Ed manages to 'find himself' in a coffee table book in Auckland!

Another big highlight was our first proper wine tour, we’ve done a couple in Oz and NZ already but this one we took a proper organised mini bus and visited 6 winerys (I think it was six it all got a bit hazy towards the end!) So a ‘iachi da’ to Sion and Ellie (wedding gift 13-not unlucky for us) for the glorious pinot noir, chardonnay, Sav blanc, merlot, Riesling (NZ risesling rocks btw) and a German sounding wine beginning with G that tastes like Turkish delight-an acquired taste.

Ed’s highlight would probably be an evening tour we took to see penguins, courtesy of Paul and Katie and gift no.14. A fun evening where we visited blue and yellow crested penguin colonies, it was fun to watch them waddle to shore to their homes and fight some rabbits on the way, ok there wasn’t much fighting going on but still.

A penguin but not the ones we saw on the tour!

All in all New Zealand passed by in gorgeous scenery, fantastic wine, beautiful weather (on the whole), rugby games, local markets, pit stops at waterfalls, lunch and picnics on beaches, in woods and by lakes it was perfect and probably our favourite time away so far. We were utterly relaxed and enjoyed every second of it. The last two days were a blissful relax on the Coromandel Peninsular which I cannot recommend enough. It was bliss, desolate beaches, islands that have a very similar look to Thailand, beautiful weather, really nice people and it was the most perfect way to end our trip to New Zealand.