Day 199 – Not quite 200 days
Today we took a bus from our seaside village of Taganga to the airport in Baranquilla about 2 hours away. Security made me empty my entire bag, which was a pain in the arse (but kept amusing by the lady security guard (in what Erin refers to as a porn star costume – tight blue uniform) practising her terrible English on me), otherwise the trip was fairly uneventful.
In a ploy to avoid the question ‘What was your favourite part?’, or similar upon our eventual return, we decided to use today’s post to give some of our South American highlights and lowlights, because there was no favourite part! (In a good way)
Favourite animal
Mimi the pet Capybara at El Roble in Paraguay, a guinea pig the size of a Labrador with personality and gender issues.
Worst Bus Ride
Cuzco to Nazca – it was freezing cold and the driver spent the entire night driving like a hooligan, throwing us from side to side and even out of our seats when it was supposed to be a night bus we could sleep on!
Favourite Wines
Matt – Torrontes, a white wine grape variety, an Argentinean specialty.
Erin – Malbec, a red wine grape that tastes awful if grown in France (“mal” means bad!) but in grown in Argentina gives you a nice light but tasty red.
Disappointing Food
Argentinean pizza, thick soggy bread with way too much cheese and way too little of anything else.
Best Stay
The Pfirter residence in suburban residence, it even comes with a de facto mum!
Worst Stay
Our second hostel in El Chalten, it was over crowded, infested with bed bugs and we couldn’t escape because it rained non-stop the whole time we were there and there was not another bed available in town (but they had a bulldog, so that obscured many of the evils in Erin’s mind!).
Nicest People
Colombians actually stop and talk with you because they are interested, not like in Peru and Ecuador where they stop because they want to rip you off.
Biggest Rip-off
The train to Machu Picchu, forty something dollars for a one-hour train ride because they know they’ve got you by the balls.
Most Adrenaline Inducing Event
Being awoken at 3:30am to the fifth largest earthquake in recorded history.
Sickest (not hungover)
Erin – only a few days in seven months sick ain’t bad, but having to spend Hanneke’s birthday sitting on the loo was a drag.
Matt – managing to be sick on an eight seater aircraft without anyone noticing!
Deceptive Bus Tout Award
Pretty much every company in Ecuador qualified for this one, but special mention to the guy in Guayaquil who went out of his way to lie.
Hardest Place to Escape
The Pfirter residence took the cake for longest stay, but as far intending to stay for one day but staying for a week La Balconada Hostel at La Paloma in Uruguay wins. An honourable mention going to Salento in the Colombia’s Coffee District, we started with two nights and stayed a week when we really didn’t have a week to spare in our last month here.
Best Sushi
Misaki restaurant in Lima with Anna - fresh sashimi, tasty classics, interesting beer and great company all for $20!
Best Indian
El Bistro in Cartagena (run by Germans!).
Coldest Place
Patagonia in general, the wind never stopped, but most specifically El Chalten which was just down right miserable, no wonder nobody bothered living there until last decade…
Hottest Place
Cartagena, we Melbournites just can’t cope with the humidity.
Favourite Cocktail
Caipiraña – rum, sugar and lemon, plus it’s usually the cheapest thing on the cocktail list!
Most Annoying Touts
Cuzco hands down.
Most Diverse Country
Bolivia, such a variety in a neat little package: huge mountains, deep jungle, strong indigenous culture, big cities, small towns, vast salt flats… shame the Chileans stole their coastline!
Best ‘Alias’
Highest Altitude Reached
5,000m on the South-West Circuit Tour in Bolivia, and we didn’t have to walk a step.
Favourite Organised Tour
Nemo II in the Galapagos.
Best Buses
Argentina – big comfy “semi cama” (half bed) seats that go all the way back and even have seat belts.
Worst Buses
Bolivia – as long as the bus had wheels, we took it. The rest was a luxury. Even if the bus was decent – the so called roads weren’t!
Most restraint shown
Matt – not punching any number of touts hassling us in Peru.
Erin – not hitting the night manager of Residencial Hellwig with the phone when he called the hotel’s owner instead of the police when we got burgled.
Best Beer
Chile’s Kunstmann was probably the winner in this category with their Unfiltered Ale. Honourable mention to the Red Ale at the Bogotá Brewing Company.
Most Difficult Day
Day 2 of the Torres del Paine Circuit, a very long day walking in the wind and rain with the speco scenery yet to come and not even a dry comfy bed to look forward to.
Best Surprise Photo Op
An overburdened dog walker in Buenos Aires.
Finally Some Nerd Highlights:
This is what you see when you zoom in on some of the places we have visited using Google Maps (click on the links below to bring up the maps in a new window):
- Iguazú Falls
- Perito Moreno Glacier
- Tupiza and the South West Circuit
- Machu Picchu
- Huacachina
____________________________________________________________
We touched down in Fort Lauderdale on time late afternoon. To our surprise we had a fairly simple run through US customs and immigration, though I still wouldn’t call it a friendly reception.
We’d booked a hotel via one of the online bidding sites, it was cheap so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. The shuttle bus took a while to come, but it saved us a taxi fare at least, and we were pleasantly surprised to find our suite with a small office, powder room and two televisions.
For dinner we walked across to a nearby restaurant strip. The huge cars, massive roads and loud accents all seemed rather strange after so long away. But there was plenty of Spanish all around us to help ease the culture shock.
We decided against the ‘Bahamian Dolphin’, thought we guessed it probably wasn’t real dolphin!
No comments:
Post a Comment