Opinion – in general the trip to Little Galapagos was a nice way to start the day but we didn’t really see much in the way of wildlife but the cliff engravings and the guide talks on the ancient history made it worth while.
Our adventures in Paracas ended with a dawn call for the trip out to Little Galapagos. The night before hadn’t gone on too well, the local Paracas chapter of the moped Hells Angels had been drag racing outside our hotel window, often chased my kids in a Tuk Tuk.
We met our fellow adventurers in reception and made our way over to the quay and boarded a high speed boat to head out to the remote islands. With a title like Little Galapagos, real name Isla de Sangayan we were looking forward to seeing iguanas and weird looking birds.
We ended up sat beside Helen and Glen from Liverpool, like many people we met, their original trip was booked for 2019 but it was postponed by Covid, and then when that cleared there was an uprising in Peru and military action which made the country too dangerous to visit, so it isn’t just us that is unlucky with this stuff. Helen and Glen appear later in this story as part of a great night later, along with John from Raynes Park, who seemed to be everywhere!
The speed boat ploughed across the sea for at least 90 minutes and our guide introduced us to some incredible historical civilisations that were reputed to live here.
One of the problems with history in Central and South American is that none of the civilisations developed a method of writing, it highlighted how lucky European and Middle Eastern civilisations were that the Ancient Egyptians and other civilisation had a written language.
There were cliff carvings of people and creatures that provided intriguing insights into a talented civilisation, there is even evidence from skeletons that they had knowledge and understanding of the human brain were able to undertake medical procedures on the brain, but more about ancient civilisations when we get to the Nazca lines later.
We toured the remote islands and saw plenty of birds and a few colonies of mating seals, but no exciting giant iguanas or sea turtles, so all round it was a bit of a disappointment but it was a very pleasant boat ride to pre-empt the next stage of our tour, the drive to Huacachina
If Little Galapagos was a little bit disappointing, we were about to find out that Huacachina was most definitely not, but in the way we had a stop off at another remote, desolate but beautiful park for a coastal view.
Back on to the bus for the next few hours to Ica, the big city just before we turned off for Huacachina. As the 3 day trip had a packed itinerary, we hadn’t really got across the detail of each stop, other than to know that we were about to visit an oasis in this desolate landscape.
We landed back in Buenos Aries for our second visit of the South American adventure. The first visit only lasted about 15 hours but we did manage to get in a tour of the main sights before heading to the airport, so we were looking for something different on this visit.
The trip up from Ushuaia using Flybondi had been surprisingly incident free. After our previous experiences, we were relieved the find the flight on time and we landed in Buenos Aries on schedule, tired but with the evening to look forward to.
We then encountered the Howard Johnson hotel chain, in particular, their hotel naming convention. Now I get the need for branding and consistency but do the hotels have to have almost the exact same name?
Howard Johnson Hotels
So after a long day we got an Uber from the airport to Howard Johnson by Wyndham Buenos Aries, which it turns out is hidden away in a shopping mall. After walking around in circles trying to find it, we finally found the hidden entrance, waited 10 minutes while a couple of other customers faffed about before it was our turn.
The receptionist looked at our reservation and laughed, “You have the wrong hotel”, firstly I didn’t like having to wait anyway, but when he chose to laugh it really did agitate me so I let Wooksie deal with it. It was the first time the pace of our South American adventure started to catch up with us.
Turned out we were at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Plaza Buenos Aries Florida, when we should have been at Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima, a mile away, a simple mistake to make I’m sure you will agree, and in fact, a naming convention almost designed to cause trouble for innocent customers.
So, we called another Uber for 4 persons, and the driver turned up in a VW Up which is hardly a 4 seater. It patently wasn’t big enough to take us and our bags comfortably but I wasn’t giving in that easy, we then had a stand off as he wanted to cancel the trip but after another very dirty look from me we piled into the car with two big bags on our laps, and finally we made it to Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima. We then discovered that Buenos Aries shuts down on a Sunday night, so there was no big night out for us so a light dinner and a good night’s kip.
Culture options.
For this trip to Buenos Aries we wanted something a bit different, we had already done the city tour so wanted to see a different side of the city. Wooksie was adamant that she wanted to experience the traditions of Tango, we had touched on it in Boca, so we decided we would go to a see a Tango show. We also had time in the day for something else so we decided to do the tour of the street art in Palermo, and in particular the Soho district.
In the morning, we went for a stroll in the spring sunshine around the parks and the around Porteno backstreets, was good to feel the sun again after Patagonia and Ushuaia in particular.
We are not particularly arty, in fact, not arty at all, so the walking tour of the street art was a bit left field for us, but it turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip. We had a really nice, paced walk around the back streets of this famous suburb and you could really feel the buzz, I would imagine nights out in that area would be a lot of fun, there was even an Irish pub.
Street art in Palermo
The street art itself was brilliant. If we had wandered around the streets ourselves, we would have missed so much, not just the art but all the history and buildings that make up the area. Bright vibrant colours on all the walls, apparently vandalism is defined as someone who damages someone else’s art.
Nearly all the walls had artwork on them, from artists all over the world who had come here to leave their mark. I now know the history of graffiti, not to be mistaken for murals of course. It was difficult to really capture all the vibrant colours in the photos as there were so many of them, so I created this video to capture them all.
The time flew by with a great tour guide and interesting company in the group, but before we knew it, we had to bail out and head back to the hotel for our big night out at the Porteno Tango show a few blocks from our hotel.
We got ourselves ready in our least scruffy T shirt and jeans for our big night out. Just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango (at 745 pm) I received an email from Antonio Jungle Trekking that said our accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it poured cold water on our evening at the Tango, you can read the full story in our Cautionary Tale blog.
Wooksie started to come to terms with possible unravelling or Jungle Trek in Manaus and at least started talking to me again in rather clipped phrases, one of the terms she used sounded similar to anchor.
A night at the Tango
Thankfully, our arrival at the Porteno Theatre went without a hitch, the booking was all in place so no problems to navigate, the welcome was warm, and we were directed to our dining table which had a great view of the stage.
We then found ourselves in the company of another English couple touring South America in the wake of the BBC Race Round the World, exactly the same as us. So, we had much to talk about, and tales to tell of our adventures and experiences and the pre-show dinner and drinks just flew by.
A word on the dinner, the food at the theatre was as good as anything we had enjoyed at restaurants and the Merlot was really good quality, it was relatively expensive but was good value for money.
In the UK we don’t really do show things, it’s not really us but this was a great experience. The whole Tango experience was different to what we expected, the dancing was more akin to what I would have expected in Paris with café culture scenes. I think we were expecting Flamenco dancing, which we now realise is associated with Brazil 😊.
Even though the Tango is associated with Argentina, it clearly has its origins in France and Italy with other European influences, a bit like the whole of Argentina really. So, this was the last act in our Argentina adventure as the next day we headed to Brazil to continue our adventure.
We had a wonderful time in Argentina and I’ve documented the little surprises about the country and what to expect if you decide to come here.
The pictures tell part of the Tango story, but I put them all together to make a little video of the night, which I hope you will enjoy.
After 2 weeks travelling the length and breadth of Argentina, we discovered a few things we didn’t expect, here is a quick summary for those planning a visit.
Buenos Aires is an amazingly beautiful city. It would be one of the most attractive capitals if it was in Europe. Big French and Italian influence come through loud in clear as you move around. I am sure that the grid system was great when it was first installed, now it is a well-established gridlock. The suburbs of La Boca and Palermo Soho are not to be missed.
Italian influence. Speaking Spanish I was fully expecting it a lot of Spanish culture, but it is much more Italian. All over the country the local’s area speaking Spanish with an Italian accent, it is very noticeable when they speak English as well.
British music – wherever you go in Argentina, you will find 80s and 90s Britpop playing. The thing that is weird is that it all the songs are cover versions of the tunes by alternative singers, I suspect this may be to get around music licensing laws.
Lovely People – happy, friendly and lots speak enough English to get by. In fact, there is a lot more British influence than they realise. They also don’t like using shower gel, it is clearly a big luxury in that part of the world.
Stunning scenery – we have also concluded once you have seen one mountain you have seen them all, even if it is in mystical Patagonia. We have some really beautiful places, but it is also rugged and wild, the Argentinian side of the Andes is barren desert as the mountains take the rain. Unlike Europe, there are no foothills that build up to the range, it goes from flat desert to mountains very suddenly.
Vaping – basically they don’t, there are still a few smokers around, but vaping is non-existent.
Cash and credit cards – getting cash out of the ATMs is really expensive, minimum £8 service charge and often a lot more. I also found using credit cards online is hard work as UK cards seemed to assume I was a fraudster.
Internal Flights – the country is huge, so air travel is essential, but it is expensive and more unreliable than we were expecting. We had a very bad start with FlyBondi, but after that most flights were at least on the same day, but always late.
Cost of living – it is pretty much the same prices as the UK, steak and Malbec is a bit cheaper but not massive. All their menus are digital as the prices are always rising.
Homosexuality – Argentina is one of the most permissive countries from that perspective, they were the first to have same sex marriage, we even saw a gay pride march in Ushuaia, they all looked a bit nippy.
Ushuaia is that last bit of civilisation before you get to Antarctica, the tourist industry calls it the end of the world, and it certainly is the end of the road, the pan American Highway 3 starts or ends here depending on which way you are heading.
Ushuaia is a wild and windswept place surrounded by towering snow covered mountains all around it, with the Beagle Channel separating Argentina with Chile just across the straights. Coming into land was a bit of an experience with a 70mph wind behind us and no sign of land until you hit the runway, in our case, with a bit of a bump.
We had a nice little place called Hotel Austral the room even had a heated floor to keep us warm, and it was no coincidence that our hotel was located next to the Dubliner Irish Bar, this seemed a great idea until they all piled out at 2am singing.
I’ve now been to the most southerly point of 5 of the 7 continents and this is without doubt the wildest, Cape Horn is on an island about 50 miles away on one of the myriads of islands they provide the barrier between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, Antarctica is about 800 miles south and there are winds that reach 150mph.
Ushuaia is the capital of the Malvinas, part of which includes the Falkland Islands, so we were not too sure how Brits would be greeted in this area. However, we had no need to be concerned as the locals were very friendly and welcoming, that having been said, I wouldn’t advise wearing a Union Jack t shirt and we left our England rugby bobble hats at home. The war is basically a subject to be left alone and generations tend to move on.
Ushuaia has found it’s way into the global tourist industry by virtue of building a cruise liner port that is the stop off for trips to the Antarctic, it has also built an amazing airport on a spur of land that juts out into the Beagle Channel and is very exposed to the elements.
The end of November is the start of their summer, and it is cold and windswept, so it is difficult to imagine how desolate it must be in the winter. It is a major skiing centre, nearly all the shops are dedicated to skiing and outdoor sports, but the Argentinian skiers must be hardy souls as this is the equivalent of skiing in the Arctic, like the Norwegians!
Ushuaia is basically one long waterfront, which has been adapted to cope with cruise visitors near the key. Unlike Mediterranean cruise ports, there is no bargain gold or watches shops, a few souvenirs are about it. The cruise clientele coming through are made of hardier stuff as they are on their way to Antarctica.
It is also home to a very dull museum and a Hard Rock Cafe, that wasn’t exactly bouncing either.
Running parallel to the waterfront is the main shopping street, another very long street with all the shops interspersed with coffee and cake shops, eating to stay warm seems to be the local pastime.
There is a notable lack of bars anywhere. Apart from our local Irish Bar we only found one other proper bar, and that was our old favourite from El Calafate the Patagonian Brewing Company again.
We worked out that, due to its location, it was almost certainly the most southerly bar in the Americas, so we grabbed the table in the window, which made it the most southerly table, and had a beer to celebrate drinking in the most southerly, place and followed up with more beers and a lamb burger to fully celebrate reaching the end of our journey south.
To be honest, there isn’t much to do in Ushuaia other than walk along the waterfront and get a few photos. We visited a museum that was utterly boring and reflected a history of hard labour as a penal colony and the indigenous people who were largely wiped out by the arrival of the Europeans and their ailments.
There is a poignant reminder of the Falklands War, with images of the Argentinian troops occupying the islands. For me, it was very sad to see the images of young conscripts, brave and totally ill equipped on a mission to regain what they saw as their national territory. The problem was that the British naval forces, supported by some of the best paratroopers and commandoes in the world were on their way to reclaim it, so there was only ever going to be one outcome.
The main trips are the Beagle Channel and the Tierra Del Fuego national park, which I will cover in a separate blog.
Trekking capital of Argentina, but where do we start?
This was a difficult trip to work out. El Chalten is known as the trekking capital of Patagonia, but I found it difficult to find an organised trip that went somewhere. The answer I had been seeking became quite straight forward when I arrived as there are no organised treks. The very helpful receptionist, Mattheus in our hotel explained that all the treks are well marked out so there is no need for a guide.
Being in a foreign land, we didn’t really fancy wandering off into the Patagonian mountains in search of a good time on our own, but in truth, it was that simple. All the treks leave from the same car park, and you can choose the route you to take, ranging from an 8km return to a look out over Mt Fitzroy or much longer treks to the various refuges on the mountain where you can restock on provisions and spend the night.
Knowing what I know now, I would not have done it the way we did I would have taken the bus, stayed overnight, and given myself 8 hours to enjoy the trek and the mountains. This is what a lot of the guidance says, and it was our plan, but the guidance also glorifies El Chalten, which to be honest is a bit of a one horse town and there is no reason to be there other than a hike or trek.
We are also out of season, so I suspect in the high season there will be more group treks available to see the main sights and lakes up in the region. We were dithering over what to do when I spotted a one day excursion from El Calafate which included a couple of guided treks with a company called South Road, which seemed to solve the problem. It involved a transfer up to El Chalten, a picnic pack, and 4 hours free time to do a hike.
At this point, their organiser called Liam intervened. The evening before he sent us joining instructions that involved a 630am start rather than an 8am as we had expected, plus links to organise a visitor’s visas to Chile and a ticket for the national park. This was an exciting development as we hadn’t realised we were going to Chile. After 2 hours of pain on websites with no English translations, plus battles with our credit cards who were reluctant to fund the trip, we finally had the necessary documentation ready to go. As the clock hit midnight, we hit the pillow looking forward what was now only 5 hours kip.
Next morning we were up and ready for the tour, and in reception for 6.15 am and annoyed the breakfast lady by making a dawn raid on her croissants and coffee. She actually chased me out of the dining room at one point. At 630am we were ready to go, time ticked on, 645, 700, 715 still no bus. I contacted the tour company and discovered a moron named Liam had sent us the wrong details and the bus would be with us at 745 for an 8am departure – FFS. Thanks Liam, that was 3.5 hours of my life, or in fact sleep that day, that I will never get back.
They even failed that target time, and the bus turned up sometime after 8am, I didn’t really notice as I’d lost consciousness with frustration. Eventually we got on a magnificent looking off road bus and had a bouncy 3 hours’ drive up the famous M40, which is part of the Panamerican highway and runs along the Patagonian range and into Bolivia.
We arrived in El Chalten about midday, and if ever there was a one horse town this is it. You arrive out of the desert and joined the main street which ends at the car park where the trails start, along the road there is procession of single story coffee shops and gift shops that don’t really grab your attention.
At the end of the street is a canyon with a milky glacial river, and through that canyon blew freezing cold winds and there was even a flurry of sleet to greet us, it was bitter.
So, we piled on the trekking gear, and within 20 minutes we were stripped down to our t-shirts, that is how quickly the temperature was changing.
With 4 hours to play with, our hike options were limited so we headed for Cerro Torre in the hope of seeing Mt Fitzroy and the massive glacier. We also hoped to get to Largo Capri, but the hiking was pretty tough with lots of ups and downs, so we settled for the lookout.
The weather and visibility were changing all the time and occasionally supported by icy rain when closer to El Chalten and that valley. Whilst we sat eating our picnic overlooking the valley, we were lucky enough to get a break in the mist and clouds and caught a glimpse of the two most spectacular views.
Mt Fitzroy suddenly appeared to our right, with a brief view straight to the peak, and then a break in the clouds along the valley exposed another massive glacier 10km in the distance.
It was then back to meet the coach. The courier, Sandra, had warned everyone that the coach would leave at 1530 on the dot, and definitely no later than 1545 (already a compromise). Not surprisingly the coach didn’t leave at any of these times, in fact, we were stood by the coach in the freezing rain until gone 1600, at which point Sandra and the lunch brigade appeared from the restaurant, and after the various pickupss, we were well on our way 1 hour late.
We got back to El Calafette at 7pm, roughly 13 hours after our journey started and we had a 4 hour hike, so you can see why there are probably better options.
So, there we have it, we have done the trekking capital of Patagonia and did a hike to prove our credentials, now it is time to head south and the freezing seas of Antarctica and give some appropriate feedback to South Road.
