La Sirena, Chile

We arrived in La Sirena in a bit of a nipply morning. Like a good backpacker would, we decided to walk to the hostel of our choice. And ofcourse, we had problems finding it. Come on South America, put street signs up. Rompiers mis polottas! After a while we finally find it annnnnd they don´t have room. So we opted for a different and cheapre one that was super legit. And we got to watch Chilean TV in the room. Always good for laughs. Things were looking up.

After a nap we decided to check out the town and see what there is to do in La Sirena. There are two cool tours you can do in La Sirena: Isla Damas and the Elqui Valley tour. The Isla Damas are a trio of islands that is jam packed with wildlife. I´m talking penguins, dolphins, condors and tons of different birds. The Elqui Valley is a spiritual valley that is notorious for UFO´s, olive ranches and where pisco sour originated. Yes Julio, the Chileans patented it first, so I don´t want to hear a peep out of you.

That night we decided to check out the nightlife of La Sirena. I´m not sure if all the attractive girls were hiding that night but we definitely didn´t see any that night. Accidentally going to a gay club to start out didn´t help either. Note to self, check out the bar for about 5 minutes before ordering a pitcher. Maybe that´s why everybody was staring at us when we walked in. After drinking that pitcher in record time we check out a nightclub. Nothing to write home about there either. We practiced our Spanish atleast. I swear, that´s the only reason we talked to those girls. Finally, we decided to cut our loses and call it a night.

The next day we slept in and missed the bus for the tour. We had to book it and catch a local bus and eventually catch up with the tour. Once we caught up we headed towards the actual Elqui Valley. It is chalked full fruit and olive orchards and tons of pisco vineyards. Pisco is a hard alcohol that is the national drink of Chile. It is made from very sweet grapes. The sweeter the grape, the better the pisco. We checked out a nice little town in Elqui Valley that had a museum of Gabriela Mistral, a famous poetess that pioneered women rights in Chile. It had some interesting insight in Chilean history. All that Chilean history really made a guy hungry, so we headed for lunch and then took a peak at a pisco brewing factory. We learned how pisco is made and we got to try some. Wooo! That 80% pisco really wakes you up. What a great way to finish the tour.

We weren´t able to go to Isla Damas the next day because the rift was to hard and the coast guard decided to close the dock. We decided to hit up the beach instead. La Sirena had some nice beaches along its coast. It´s a long walk but you get to watch dogs barking at hub caps along the way. This definitely makes the walk worth it. Seriously though, I don´t know what they put in the garbage that the dogs eat there. They are loco! Another dog dug up this quarter full bottle of Pepsi and was freaking out. It would scratch and dig at it and run around. So of course I grab the bottle and throw it towards the ocean. Then the dog would grab it and bring it back. I´m like ¨sweet¨ get to play fetch with a stray dog. About an hour later we take some photos of the sunset with the nearby lighthouse and head back to catch our bus. And this time, neither of us are tipsy...

...but seriously, the one thing I´m never going to forget about Chile is the dogs...

Santiago/Valpraiso, Chile

So we jump off the bus with a English couple we met on the bus that has learned zero Spanish in three months of being in South America (Don´t ask me how). It´s time to do the routinely find a hostel in the middle of the night. After a couple hours trying to find this one hostel that wasn´t clever enough to put a sign on the building where they are located (Ya I know, crazy idea) we finally find a bed.

The next morning set out to check out the town. We were situated in the Plaza de Armas which is the central area of a Chilean or Peruvian city that has the town hall and other important government buildings. It´s usually one of the most scenic areas of the city with beautiful historical buildings and statues. After checking that out we headed out to the viewpoint of the city. Santiago is nice city surrounded by mountains. A great chance to get some nice photos and an even greater chance for our American friend to get photos with Flat Stanley. I think this is an American thing. After we hit up the San Christobal statue in the middle of a high park. We took a scenic gondola up and were able to catch the sunrise. Very scenic, very nice. About 20 photos later we decided to take the long route down the hill. One thing I have to say about Santiago is there are tons of stray dogs kicking around. Don´t get me wrong, there are tons of stray dogs in other South American cities as well. These ones are different. Allow me to explain. The Chilean dogs have some deep hate against hub caps. They can´t help themselves but to chase cars and bark directly beside the front hub cap of the car. Oh, but it´s not just cars, it´s also motorbikes too. This one guy had to kick the dog in the head to get it out of the way. Long story short, very amusing.

Matt (My Australian friend) and I then hit up his old host family for a free dinner. You can imagine how hard he had to twist my arm to come along. Matt started his trip in Santiago for three weeks with the host family to learn Spanish. They are a very nice warm family. I can imagine how people learn Spanish so fast through these programs. You are pretty much only speaking Spanish with them. It´s a complete crash course. I got some free dinner and some good Spanish practice. Bonus!

The next day I decided to hit up Valpraiso with my American friend for the day. I´d say Valpraiso has a much better feel then Santiago. It is much less urbanized and is right by the beach. Many of it´s buildings are Bohemian style with tons of houses sprawled on the hills. Surprise surprise, we head straight for the coast. First thing we see there is a group of 5 sea lions sprawled on a cement pad in the ocean. These guys were looking for trouble. They were barking at the birds in the above rafters. They were getting so frustrated they started slapping eachother. Naturally I waited for a fight to break out but they were just bluffing. Sea lions, all bark and no bite.

We then preceded along the coast towards Vina del Mar. Vina del Mar is a famous Chilean beach/area that is adjacent to Valpraiso. It´s a very nice walk towards Vina del Mar and the beach is self is quite nice especially for a city beach. We stuck around to catch some rays but didn´t have much time beacuse we had to head back to catch the bus. I came back to find my wasted Australian friend. Haha, atleast one of us had to be tipsy for the bus.

Next stop, La Serena!

Mendoza, Argentina

After passing out the bus that almost never happened we arrived in Mendoza at night. Before we even got to the hostel we were offered drugs. Word to those that are keen, wear a watch. They ask you what time it is and then ask if you want weed or cocaine. Oh, and walk around dark parks a lot.

The next day we decided to check out the city and all the plazas. Mendoza is a chill city in the mountains that is surrounded by hundreds of wineries and vineyards. People can do tons of different treks outside of Mendoza but the main appeal is to rent a bike and bike to winery to winery. We did this the next day and oh man, it was a blast. We went with five other Americans. We rented the bikes from the infamous Hugo. If you go to Mendoza, go there. We first went to the Wine museum to learn about the process of making the different wines. We sampled some grapes and tasted some of the wines. I wanted to smash the grapes with my feet like I saw on TV but they didn't let me. APPARENTLY they have machines for that now. Pffff!

Next we went to the famous winery called Trepeche. Every thing was very nice and state of the art. The wine was amazing too. Probably the best wine I've tasted. Sure beats those $5 bottles of Canadian wine. We tried a fruity red wine, a dry rosa and sharp tasting white wine. I like the white wine the best. But, my favourite part about Trepeche is they accepted my fake $100 bill. 2 down, 1 to go!

After, we checked out the chocolate tour. They had all types of chocolates and chocolate drinks. They even had absinthe! We tried tons of different chocolates and washed it down with absinthe. We then headed back to Hugo's place for some empanadas and apparently we get free wine with our dirt cheap empanadas. We definitely took advantage. The wine was going down easier than the empanadas. Once the wine supply was dry we headed back to make some pasta. After we hit the town to check out the bars. It was a pretty fun night. I even managed to get a personal tango lesson from an English girl.

The next day we hopped on a bus to Santiago, Chile. We were a little earlier this time but not by much, haha...

Buenos Aires, Part 2

That Monday we met up with Cole's local friend and checked out the park in Palermo. It's a huge park with nice scenery in the nicest part of town. But this wasn't your run-of-the-mill Argentinian park, it actually had a bunch people playing hockey! In Argentina? You bet, they were pretty decent too. They all had Canadian equipment which was pretty funny. Anyways, watch out Team Canada!

The next day we decided to finally check out the infamous Lujan Zoo. The reason we traveled over an hour and a half wasn't just to see a bunch exotic animals. We actually got to get into the cages with the animals. That's what I'm talking about! We started with the monkeys. The workers got us to sit on some hay facing away from the monkeys. The workers then grabbed some leaves for the monkeys to eat. Once the monkeys got a little curious they came down, jumped on our heads and shoulders and grabbed their food. These little guys were super curious grabbing our hair, picking at our ears and one almost stole our Austrian friends' waterbottle while we were distracted. After was the tigers which are a liiitle bit more dangerous the monkeys. Peter petted the Tiger while it was lying down. Once our Austrian friend came up to the tiger it got up and started rubbing it head against Peter's leg. Awwwww! It's like a big cat. We also got to get in the cage with the King of the Jungle. This lion was huge. It was laying on the picnic table which looked small in comparison to the lion. If that lion had any wrong impulses and we would have been lunch. We also got in the cages with llamas, female lions, some birds and rode an elephant and camel. Overall, it was definitely worth the trip!

Wednesday was pretty chill with a little sightseeing. I spent most of the time preparing for the interview the next day which got re-scheduled for the next Monday. Uhh! On Thursday I showed Craig and Peter La Boca and then decided to get lost for a bit instead of catching the bus. That night, the plan was to party till 3am and then get the football tickets for the Argentina vs Venezuala game. We managed to get the tickets but I conveniently passed out in my bed before 3am. Oh my! How embarassing! Thanks Pete and Craig. I owe you one.

On Friday we checked out the shopping district and got some sick Argentinian Tshirts and some presents. We went back to Crobar that night and had an awesome night. We even remembered eveything. Bonus!

Finally Saturday came and we got to see Maradona's first game coaching. It was a huge deal in the media because the man Argentina considers God is now heading the team. Ofcourse we didn't take people's advice and show up early. We showed up late and could not find the correct gate. So, we ran from the subway to the staduim and then we ran around the stadium twice because non of the workers know how to read our ticket. By the time we got in there we were well prepared if Maradona wanted to send us in. Argentina had all their superstars that game and they really put it to the Venezualans. They smashed them 4-0. After we met up with my lovely Argentinian friend Luli. We all had some delicious pizza and shared some hilarious stories. And wouldn't you know it she covered the bill. Argentinians are just too nice...

That night we hit up Pascha again and we were not going to let the locals get off easy with their standardized dance. Haha, ya we did!

After another party till 8am night, Sunday was a recovery day. We met up with Luli again in her neighbourhood. She showed us the beach/field area by the "widest river in the world" otherwise known as the ocean. For some reason Argentinians haven't realized this. Anyways, this is where a lot of people chill out during the weekend. We all grabbed some slushies and talked about life and what our true purpose is.

On Monday Craig and Pete left. I met up with my other lovely Argentinian friend Sofi. She took me to her house introduced me to her friends and fed me. What else could I ask for.....mmmmm maybe some cake. Bam! There was some cake. And good cake too! I heard it's the best in Argentina. After catching up and listening to some interesting remix Argentinian music (What was it called again?), I was off to buy some bus tickets.

Matt arrived that night because we had bus tickets for 5am. So, we planned to party then catch the bus. This was quite the eventful night. So I go to Milhouse where the party was and I see someone who looks really familiar. It's Robin from Commerce at UVic. Ya, pretty random. She was in South America for a couple weeks and happened to be staying at the same hostel. So we're having a great time and the next thing I know it, it's 430am! I bust it back to the other hostel and grab my bags. Matt has to grab his bags from the other hostel after being busy in the washroom for a bit. He's taking forever and it's getting very close to 5am. So I assumed he got his own taxi and took off. Conveniently, the taxi decides to do the old loop da loop when I'm crunched for time. Then I realize I have no cash on me. So he drops me off at a bank machine and I pull out some money. So he quickly drives to the bus. It turns out all three 100 peso bills were fake! The cabby doesn't take any of them and I ask him why the hell he brought me to the hocus pocus bank. The bus has already left so I jump out of the cab grab my bags and run after the bus. The bus stops at a red light and I pound on the window to open the door. Thank God he opened the door. Matt is astonished I actually caught the bus. He barely got on too because I had both tickets. So somehow we managed to catch this elusive bus for Mendoza. Annnnnd I had a beer in my pocket! That helped me forget about the three fake bills for about 5 minutes...

Buenos Aires, Part 1

After a sobering bus ride (Yes, pun intended) we arrived one of the favourite cities amongst backpackers, Buenos Aires. After a hop skip and a jump we checked into the party extradinaire hostel Milhouse. Hostel Inn, eat your heart out! There are almost 200 people there every night and another full hostel of people that go to each Monday and Thursday night party. We arrived for the Monday night party and man, that was one hell of a start.

We started off checking out the plaza close to the hostel. There is some very nice architecture around Buenos Aires. It has a very European feel. In fact, I thought I was back in Madrid when I stepped out of the subway. The people look like Spaniards, the buildings have an old European influence and everyone there tries to act European too.

The Tuesday was St.Patty´s day. You´re probably thinking, oh big deal, St.Patty´s day in South America? Well it´s a huge deal there. They block off over 10 blocks in the Irish area of the city for a huge street party. Feeling the Irish in ourselves we set out to get some sweet green costumes. So of course we got matching green shorts and white tshirts for people to write on pub crawl style. This was a great way to meet people. We arrived to the street party a bit late. People were Irish drunk by this point. Guys were climbing the light posts and sitting on the lights. Sometimes three at a time would do that. Before we knew it a cop tried to grab a guy climbing the pole and all shit broke loose. His friends through heavy beer bottles at the cops and everybody panicked and ran throwing more beer bottles at the masses. It was full-out mayhem. Beer bottles were flying everywhere, people were getting mashed over the head, guys were falling off the poles and surprise surprise, we all lost eachother. But we did survive the riot. After trying to get into a bar I found my Australian friend Matt who got slapped in the face by a bum for walking over his carpet. Haha, don´t worry he was OK.

The next day we did a little more sightseeing and I helped Julio find a camera. We decided to take her easy that night in light of a big party coming up the next day at Milhouse.

The next day we did the Boca tour hosted by the hostel. This the poorer community that is home to the famous Boca Junior team the Maradona played for. The Boca fans are said to be the craziest fans in Argentina. All the houses in the area have the Bohemian look with the houses painted all sorts of colours. This because the residents couldn´t afford paint out of the stores so they used the leftover paint from the rich. Gotta do what you gotta do. We checked out the Boca Junior Museum and went inside the stadium.

That night was another huge hostel party. After our prohibition party in the room we checked it out and went to a big club called Club 69. This one was a little different than the other clubs. It had a huge stage in the front with transvestite dancers and breakdancers to crazy flips and spins. Can´t say I saw that one coming but it was pretty entertaining...the break dancers that is!

On Friday we checked out Ricoletta. According to the lady there it is the third most important cemetary in the world. It is a cemetary for all the famous and important people of Argentina´s history. The biggest name being Evita (Remember that Madonna movie way back then?). She was one of the most famous Argenitnian presidents. She was a huge influence on women´s rights and did a lot of great things for Argentina. There was even a line up to take picture´s of her grave. You go girl!

That night we decided to check out a pub crawl around Buenos Aires. We heard a lot of good things about this pub crawl but tonight was not the night to go. I´ve seen more girls in a men´s locker room. So we decided to take advantage of the hour open bar and make the best of the night. The drinking didn´t slow down after the open bar thanks to our Irish friend. The memory was a little sparse after that...

The next day we met up with Cole´s local friend to check out El Tigre. El Tigre is a city outside Buenos Aires´s huge river. They claim it´s the widest river in the world. River or ocean? Who knows. We rented a row boat to hit up the island in the middle of the river. There people can swim, play volleyball, soccer or just soak up the rays. We did all of the above. The locals say the water is clean. The water might be brown because it´s shallow but that doesn´t explain the floating pieces in the water. Ok, I guess I´m spoiled because I´m Canadian.

That night we went to a famous club called Pascha. Pascha is a famous chain of clubs that is situated in party cities around the world. It was a pretty amazing place with an incredible DJ. But I think I was the only one not on E. Everybody had shades on and were out of it. And all the Argentinians did the exact same dance. They call it the ¨Handing out the cards¨. I call it wiping your ass with a towel. Ask me to demonstrate if you´re interested in knowing. All in all, a wicked club that definitely deserved another trip.

The next day Peter and Craig arrived from Iguazu Falls. As soon as I saw them we all headed to the local championship between Riverplate and San Martin. The stadium was huge with over 65,000 fans. It was really cool to feel the atmosphere of the game. It isn´t the same watching it on TV. The first half started slow with a week goal by the away team, San Martin. The second half had a lot more action. Halfway through the second half the Riverplate player scored a nice goal to tie it up. At the last minute in injury time the was a foul in the box that lead to a penalty shot. You could´ve cut the tension with a knife. Alas, the Riverplate player scored and everyone just went crazy. I could literally feel the stadium shake. You have to see the video´s we took. Wow! Goosebump moment for sure. After the cheers finally settled down and we tried to leave, we had to wait 40 minutes because they couldn´t get the San Martin fans to leave. They were rioting and ripping out seats. Huh? Guess I´m glad we didn´t go for the cheap seats on the San Martin side, haha...

Cordoba, Argentina

After a bus ride that felt longer than it should´ve been (Damn you ravioli!) we made it to Argentina´s second largest city. But as soon as we got there, we left to go to the outskirts of the city to a place called Salle se puedes. This little town´s name is literally translated ¨Get out if you can¨. You could imagine how nice it is.

We were staying with Julio´s Aunt and Uncle. It´s a very tranquil area that has a modest neighborhood. In other words, good for our travel budget. That night, we checked out the nightlife in the adjacent neighborhood that had a few bars. To sum it up you´d be lucky to find a girl over 18. I don´t know what it is there but I think the baby boomer population in Cordoba is between the ages of 15-18 in Cordoba right now. Good for some, not my first choice...

The next day we checked out salle se puedes for a bit, ate some terrible ham pizza and I topped it off with a hair cut. Good thing Julio was there, otherwise I would´ve left with and Argentinian mullet. We were planning on hitting the town hard that night. We ended up going to a crazy place called Inferno. If you end going to Cordoba, go to this place. It´s this rad open air discoteque that is covered with dancefloors and bars. And you won´t believe this, some of the people even speak English. Good for some...definitely good for us.

The last day we planned to do an all nighter because our bus left at 5am. We decided to check out the sites in Cordoba as well. We saw the university that is situated downtown and the scenic shopping district. I even got myself a nice matte cup. Check and check...

The all-nighter ended up being more eating food then partying but we did meet some nice Argentinians. Cole more than anyone, hehe. After we pryed him away we managed to catch our bus. So if you have to ask, yes we pretty much just partied in Cordoba. BUT, I did get an Argentinian cup in Cordoba...so I did do something else....

Iguazu Falls, Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina

After a comfortable 22 hr bus ride I was ready to see some water at the mercy of gravity. We wasted not time. We dropped off our bags and hit the bus for the Falls on the Brazilian side. When we got there we were greeted with an amazing view of the falls. The further we walked down the better and the more of the falls you could see. When they said Iguazu Falls is the largest area of falls in the world...it really is the largest area of falls in the world.

Towards the bottom there´s Devil´s throat. This is a long paddock where you can walk over the pools of the falls and get a close view of the falls. Amazing! After the falls we headed to cross the border to Argentina. The taxi driver was even nice enough to stop on the point that Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet. We got dropped off by the infamous ¨Hostel Inn¨ that everybody raves about. We were pretty amazed when we got there. It was like a hostel resort. Let´s see...they had a giant pool, hige bar, beach volleyball courts, soccer pitches, ping pong and pool tables, cabins and a total capacity of well over 200 beds. Oh, and it´s full every night. So you could imagine we were a bit excited. Well, turns out we accidentally booked the quieter sister hostel in town. Ya, we were pretty choked but we managed to book it for the last night.

The next day we hit the Argentinian side of the falls which covers the majority of the Falls. The Argentinian side shows more of the history of the Falls and offers more wildlife as well. It is part of the Rainforest ya know. We came into the Argentinian side thinking it might be bigger but the Brazilian def would have the best views. Well, we were wrong. There were parts of Iguazu Falls we didn´t even see from the Brazilian side. It pretty much takes the whole day to check it all out. There are no shortage of water falls on that side. Oh and word of advice, make sure to hit the lavatory before you hit the Falls. You won´t last long in the Falls even if you have to go a little bit...

So if the Falls weren´t enough for you, you get to see a lot of cool animals! There are these little pests that are just like racoons called coatis. These lil guys will eat anything and will stop at nothing to get you food. They will try to climb your leg, search your backpack, knock over your food on the table, do a little song and dance to distract you...anything! In other words, a lot of lunch time entertainment at the least. I also saw a lot of different species of birds. No Tucan Sams though. They hang up high up on the trees and stay away from the noise. You have to be lucky to see one of those. But we did see a gator! He was just under the walking bridge taking a nap. Man, was he unhappy to see us. We didn´t let him nap long. Hey, sometimes its fun to be a stereotypical tourist. After, a good 5-6 hours of walking around we were waterfalled-out and headed back.

That night was one of the infamous BBQ´s at Hostel Inn. Imagine over 200 ppl chowing down on all you can eat meat and Caipirina´s. After, people got pretty tipsy the hostel started a Carnaval show. It had one guy performer and two women Carnaval dancers. After they put on a there Carnaval escapade they brought in guys from the audience for a dance-off. I don´t know if I have to say but of course, yours truly, Julio Monzon won the dance contest. Man did he get one hell of a prize. He was sitting on the one Carnaval girl´s lap and the other one was giving him a ´cheeky´dance. Then the dancing girl grabs his hand and starts dancing with him. You can imagine where his attention was focused. While he was doing this the girl switches with the guy on the chair. The dancing girl sits Julio down and continues to dance. The second girl slowly moves in front of him but Julio doesn´t clue in. The dancing girl gives him a kiss and then the ´person´behind him gives him a kiss. I´ve never seen Julio jump so high in my life. He was gone faster than the guy could ask for his number...Jooliooooo....