Matt and Becky’s Mini Adventure

Our route around Chile, Argentina and our brief trip in to Brazil. August to September 2009.

I think you can appreciate the fact that we were a little confused when we touched down in Santiago after a ten and a half hour flight, five hours before we’d even taken off! Uhm…me to…flight left Auckland at 1650 on Friday, just over ten hours later we touch down in Santiago at 1210 the same day!?! The flight with Lan Chile was one of the best. The plane must have been brand new with ultra comfy seats and the best in flight entertainment. With this and a couple of sleeping pills we were there in no time.

I’d sorted out another Couchsurfing host in the hope I could restore Becky’s faith in the project. Unfortunately he was at work until 2000 so we had to entertain ourselves for the afternoon. When we finally met our host, Patrick, he turned out to be the nicest guy, extremely hospitable and easy-going and just the person to show us a bit of life in the city and that there were some amazing Couchsurfing hosts out there. Strangely we had a mutual friend in Houston…a very small world indeed! Arriving at his flat, all we felt like doing was crashing but Patrick’s energy was soon transferred and off we went on a late night trip (late bearing in mind we’d just got off an overnight flight and not slept properly in two days) to a tapas restaurant which served the most delicious food, including possibly the best white chocolate cheesecake ever! You HAVE to check out Pata Negra if you ever find yourself in Santiago. The following night we were taken to a fancy dress party hosted by the Language School we had signed up to attend for the following two weeks. We were completely unprepared, although Patrick was not…. he spent the evening dressed in a toga and once suitably intoxicated, took to flashing vehicles and trying to get stray dogs (that is not a metaphor) onto the bus and back to the flat. We left Patricks suffering from sleep deprivation, but thoroughly entertained by our first few days in the city and hopefully having made a friend for life.

We did our best to get thoroughly lost crossing the city on the super cheap metro & bus and after walking a couple of miles further than we needed to with our heavy backpacks we arrived at our homestay arranged by the language school. We were going to be based in the same place for a full two weeks! This is double the amount of time we had spent in a single place for over a year!!! Adriana and Felipe were lovely and there apartment was really, really nice. Although on the 15th floor the Chileans don’t seemed to have discovered double glazing yet and it was pretty noisy 24 hours a day. For reference; noisy enough that you couldn’t hear the TV with the window open. They were lovely and fortunately for us spoke amazing English! It was whilst staying with them that at 4am on the 18th August 2009 we discovered that Becky was pregnant! I know, why 4am, but if you gotta pee you gotta pee. Needless to say that was the end of sleep for that night and a few after that, as we discussed our options and got very excited and scared about the big decisions that were now required. We decided we would head home a little earlier than planned in order to find work and be in a developed, English speaking country for the three month scan. I invested a stupid amount of time into trying to find a job for when I returned home and Becky fired off one application and got it! It was a shame to miss out on the elevated Salt Plains and animal sanctuary in the remote Jungles of Bolivia but probably not the best place to be whilst in your first trimester.

Phillipe and Adriana with family (Spanish Lesson Homestay). The impressive view of Santiago by night from Patrick's roof.

Unfortunately the inadequately named ‘morning sickness’ kicked in around this time and impacted on the rest of our time in South America. We spent two weeks living with Phillipe and Adriana whilst we studied with the lovely people at Escuela Fronteras. Our Spanish was virtually non-existent when we arrived and although over the two weeks we picked up a lot, we have failed to use it enough and so it’s pretty much back to where we started! However, if you were ever looking for a Language School in Santiago we would recommend them without hesitation. Some of the friendliest people we met on our trip and we still keep in touch now.

As mentioned, the plans for the remainder of our trip altered after finding out that Becky was pregnant. We brought forward our return to the UK and instead of journeying north into Bolivia, we took a bus across the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. A region famous for its wine, sadly not fully appreciated by both of us, although, at 40p a litre the Argentinians also produce the worlds cheapest beer (Matt fact not necessarily true),  which helped with the wife’s morning sickness…well, for me at least . After a fairly unproductive day in Mendoza, we continued on another overnight bus to Cordoba. This turned out to be just another dirty, polluted city which didn’t really inspire us an Becky felt incredibly nauseous, so we spent most of the day figuring out the best way to spend our last three weeks. We came up with the plan of getting to Buenos Aires and jumping on a plane down to the most southern city in the world, Ushuaisa. Spend a few days there and then get on another plane to El Calafate to see the remarkable Perito Merino Glacier and then the complete the triangle by flying back to Buenos Aires before starting our journey north into Brazil. This took a little time to sort out but now we had a plan and a purpose which felt good. The following day we jumped on another night bus, this time to Buenos Aires and then transferred directly to the domestic airport for the first of our three flights.

We had a lovely time in Ushuaia and were really lucky with the weather. We arrived in a snowstorm to a back drop of the Beagle Channel and snow-covered mountains, a beautiful sight and then the following days when we were out enjoying the scenery the clouds cleared and we were told this was the first time they had seen blue skies in months. We treated ourselves to a stay in the most luxurious hotel we could afford and generally blew the remainder of our budget undertaking all the usual activities you do whilst pregnant…dog sledging and skidoo riding (high powered, fast, snow mobiles) but I guess if you can skydive whilst pregnant…We also did some more cautious sight seeing with a great afternoon spent cruising the Beagle Channel by boat, riding an old steam train to The End of The World and taking a days private guided tour up to the lakes and local villages surrounding Ushuaia. Three days passed really quickly and we were sad to leave the most comfortable place we had stayed in over a year but it was not all bad as we were off to El Calafte to continue our whistle stop tour of Patagonia.

Us on dog sleigh in the beautiful mountains around Ushaia, Argentina.

El Calafate is in the middle of nowhere! Flying in, with views for tens of miles in every direction, the landscape is bare. Looking on a map its apparent there isn’t anything else for hundreds of miles around it.  The new airport has purely been built to bring in the phenomenal number of tourists who come to stare in awe at the amazing Perito Merino Glacier. One hundred square miles of ice with a front over 3 miles wide and an average height above the water of 75 meters, it is an impressive site to say the least. We stood and watched it for hours, listening to the ice creak as it constantly moves and then every so ofetn a large chunk of ice falls off the front of the glacier and a mini tidal wave spreads across the lake accompanied by the ‘boom’ generated from the impact with the water. Obviously, after four hours of watching the glacier and shooting over one hundred pictures of mini collapses, my camera battery dies moments before the biggest ice fall of the day when a whole section dramtically seperated from the main glacier and thundered into the lake. Gutted! There are also some very cool tours you can do which enable you to walk on and explore the glacier by foot. Unfortunately this was not an activity they would let pregnant people do (hence our four wait at the glacier front) so maybe a very good reason to go back one day. Would recommend a visit to anyone who happens to be ‘passing’.

The Perito Merino Glacier, Argentina.

Back in Buenos Aires we spent time exploring on foot, seeing the different areas and architecture, and completing more job applications…I am happy to say that after some atrocious Argentinian cuisine (Ushuaia excluded) my faith was restored and I could return home singing their praises after we splashed out on a good quality restaurant and enjoyed the nicest bit of beef I think I’ve ever had. Due to our appalling Spanish we managed to order enough food for four which I washed down with a great bottle of Malbec but the outcome was a substantially increased heart rate as my body struggled to process the cow I had just eaten! We could easily have spent more time in Buenos Aires as it is a very attractive city, although our hostel left a lot to be desired. Our room could only be accessed through a communal dorm and there were invariably people in there sleeping at all hours of the day. We would stumble around in the dark trying to unlock our door, then we’d have to repeat the process in reverse when you wanted to go the bathroom as this was back out in the hall. Due to poor plumbing, low standards of hygiene and housekeeping and the walk through a dark communal dorm room, the bathroom was only a place you went in emergencies. Our room wasn’t a lot better, with two old dirty bunk beds, boarded windows and bare floors, none of which had been cleaned in my lifetime, it’s only plus was we had the room to ourselves. Definitely the worse place we had stayed since India and even competed with some of those.

We took a 16 hour overnight bus up to Puerto Iguazu on the Brazilian border to visit the very impressive Iguazu Falls from the Argentine side. Sixteen hours on a bus normally isn’t that appealing but one things the Argentinians have got right is the different levels of comfort they offer on their buses (similar to India with it’s trains, Argentina has at least six different classes to choose from and over 50 different bus companies). This is probably because they know how shite their roads are and covering a distance it would take an hour in most other countries takes four in Argentina. However, the buses were amazing. Had this been the beginning of our trip I think we have been more budget conscious and travelled in one of the lowest classes…but it wasn’t! So out with the credit card and the best seat we can get please. On this 16 hour journey this was a fully reclining seat (180 degrees into a bed) which included a personal TV with a choice of films, waiter service with complimentary food and drink and a toilet that was a lot nicer than our last hostel! Travelling on buses here was something you looked forward to.

We arrived at Iguaza just before lunch and after a pretty reasonable nights sleep we decided to dump our bags at a hostel and head straight for the falls. We spent about four hours exploring the falls which wasn’t quite enough time as they are huge! With 275 falls concentrated in a 1.5 mile stretch of river, it’s an impressive sight! We took a speed boat ride to the base of the falls where these crazy drivers get as close as they can simply to drench the screaming tourists. This was another activity you weren’t meant to do when pregnant…oops.

One section of the impressive Iguazu Falls. You can just see the speed boat on the way back from the base of the falls in the bottom left hand corner.

The following day we took another bus across the border and up to Sao Paulo to visit Becky’s friend Michelle and her family. Sao Paulo is vast and in order to get across the city from the bus station to Michelle’s, we took the Metro. Unfortunately we arrived at rush hour and the Metro was very busy. The train was full and I honestly thought you could not fit anymore people on. Then we came into a station where there were people fifteen deep on the platform waiting to board. I thought to myself they’d just wait for the next train as this one is full. I was even more surprised therefore when the doors opened and it was the strongest scrum I have ever been against. We were literally picked up off of our feet and driven across the carriage an jammed into position as people literally fought to squeeze on. Pinned in position still with our massive backpacks on adrenaline going, several stops later a lot people disembarked and the train went back to full, not bursting. A scary experience but again one that we survived and can exaggerate further and further for years to come! We made it to Michelle’s without being mugged, pick-pocketed or conned and stayed with her for a couple of days, meeting her son Matteo for the first time and very briefly her husband Charles.  By this time we were so close to the final leg home that we were a little preoccupied, but we got some relaxation time in and had a lovely couple of days until Becky managed to pick up a bug (probably following a swim in the not-so-clean pool) and so unfortunately she finished the trip feeling rubbish and I panicked about the her and the baby.

After a bumpy & sleepless ride home at the back of the plane, we arrived home to the UK to a tedious wait at the baggage carousel (brightened up by getting to watch a guy get dragged off by customs) whilst they went through all our bags on the plane. Finally two and a half hours after landing we made it through to arrivals where we were greeted in one of the nicest ways possible, Mum and Dad complete with banner!!! It’s good to be back!

Arriving back at Heathrow after a mammoth year to the nicest greeting you could wish for!

We’d like to say a very big thank you to all of you who have been reading our mammoth blog and keeping up with our adventures, especially to those of you who left messages, as they entertained us and kept us going when we were far from home. I think a special thank you is necessary to Graham who hasn’t missed a blog yet and who’s messages made us smile as he followed our Mini Adventure!

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