Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a seaside town. Reaching there, we managed to stumbled into the 2nd level of the local market and had a fabulous lunch of fried fish and a pot of shellfish. Staying upon the steep hillside B&B The Yellow House was quite nice as our room overlook the whole town of Valparaiso. We had to take the

Ascension to go up the slopes as it is so steep.

Fish in batter.

Overdose of shellfishes

Gorgeous view from our room

Boatload of squids

Sea urchins

Santiago, Chile

Reading Lonely Planet is a travelling hazard as we thought we're going to be mugged everywhere. It's not too bad as long as we walked along the main road. After travelling for a month, we succumbed and went to an Indian restaurant to get some chilli fix. The spicyness level of 1-4 and we chose 3, and paid the price for it. Really spicy!

USD8 for the bismati rice. Had super-spicy veg and flamed lamb leg Yumyum... total damage USD60.

In Santiago, we went for a Free Tour of the city. The tour guide is very humourous and the best story is about the coffee culture. They have a coffee chain called Cafe Caribe and the waitresses wore short skirts to attract customers. Along came another chain called New Cafe Caribe and they have waitresses wearing bikinis. Sometimes they have Happy minute when the manager locked the door and the waitresses remove their bikinis and dance on the tables. Of course we did not go to the New Cafe Caribe for coffee..sigh.

President's Office

Pork knuckles, lasted us 3 meals.

Crab cake

Santiago Plaza de Armas

Perito Moreno Glacier

Woke up and feeling lazy in the morning. we still need to finalise our booking to El Calafate. We can either go today or tomorrow, depending on the weather, so no hurry. But then we decided perhaps we should set off today, to give ourselves 2 full days in El Calafate just in case weather is bad and we can change the mini-trekking day. Oh no, we are supposed to check-out at 1030am and it is already 10am now. Rush over to the tour agent to let her know we are still on the trip and will come back with cash to pay her. So off we go in a mad rush to gather our stuff and check-out with the grumpy looking counter staff who wasn’t sympathetic about extending the check out time. Weighing out the cost to book through the tour agent or go independent, the crunch is, to pay in pesos means drawing 7 times from the ATM which has a limit of $1000 and charges a convenient fee of 17+ peso each withdrawal. That does not seem money-wise. We explored other options like paying in USD, but exchange rate quoted by tour agent was bad. So we went looking for a money changer, and were pleasantly surprised to know that they can offer us a better rate if we come back at 4pm (the time when the bank closes). Black market? But we venture further along the street, and found a Western Union (thanks to this kind soul from the hotel) which gave us a bonus rate. In total we gain some USD200 by choosing Western Union! The leg-work paid off. Rush back to the tour agent to pay and print our vouchers and grab some lunch to bring along and hail a cab to the airport just in the nick of time.

Calafate is the coldest place that I flew into. Going out of the airport and before getting into the bus, I’m like already been frozen solid. I wish that I have more insulation, both inside and outside body. When we reached our hostel, I’m so glad that the room is heated, but the bathroom is not and going to shower is an agony.

Excitement of Day 1 of our visit to the glacier started even before we reach the glacier. On the road along the highway, we saw a raptor with a European rabbit in its talon…..fresh kill…nice! The leaves on the trees turned an impressive reddish tinge as autumn is upon us. The snow-capped mountains with the reddish trees make a very pretty sight.

On the 1^st lookout point the glacier did not seem so big until we saw the catamaran going beside it. The glacier is 60m high and 8km wide. Still not so impressive. We then boarded the catamaran and sail to within 300m of the glacier, then the immense size of the glacier is upon us. As the sunlight hits the glacier, it glows a beautiful bluish tinge. It is a magnificent sight, and we were totally awe by the view. Then came a loud cracking boom, and we saw huge column of ice crashing into the lake.

Coming back on land, we went to the balcony overlooking the glacier. There are walkways to various balconies overlooking the glacier and we took our lunch there and kept a lookout for ice calving. The cracking of the ice and the loud collapsing boom of the ice calving is just so exciting.

Next day, we went to the glacier again but this time we went trekking on the ice. We rode the catamaran to the side of the lake and put on crampons to go trekking on the ice. The view while walking on the glacier is totally different from viewing it from the catamaran. We took a 2-hour trek around the glacier and ended with the guide giving each of us a glass of whiskey with glacier ice that is older than the whiskey.

Caracara got an European hare

Our packed lunch

Guide putting on crampons for the ladies.

Crampons

Whiskey with glacier ice!

Buenos Aires - La Boca, Recoleta Cemetery and Treatro Colon

La Boca is a very old neighbourhood which has many Italian immigrants eons ago. Houses are mainly wooden, and protected by corrugated zinc sheets. The poor immigrants would go to the shipyards to get the leftover paints from the workers to paint their houses and these resulted in bright vibrant colours, which they are still doing it today.

In front of Boca Juniors stadium, there are stars mosaics on the floor and the most prominent on is of Diego Maradona…wow… and then I recognized Gabriel Bastituta also. Inside the Boca Juniour museum we saw the jeyseys which was worn by Maradona, and all the trophies that they have won over the years.

Jeyseys in oval frame were worn by Maradona when he was scrawny

Early morning, we went of in search of the Recoleta cemetery in the middle of town. From afar, we could see the statutes. Entering the cemetery, it is a peaceful feeling and not scary at all. There are many people here as everyone is looking for a particular tomb. We look at the information board but did not see the name we were looking for. And so we wander aimlessly and hope for the best. We saw many tombs before I turn a corner and saw many bouquets of flowers in front of a tomb. There it is…tomb of Eva Peron. The famous musical composed by Andrew Lyolds Webb, Evita Don’t Cry For Me Argentina was wriiten on her life story. It was her anniversary (of something) 2 days ago and many people had placed flowers at her tomb. And she died in 1952, shows how much Argentinians still love her.

Treatro Colon is grand threater with huge columns built from hues of marble and stain glass. Great composers like Beethoven and Mozart stands proudly casted in marble and steel. The golden hall is like a palace with sky high ceilings decorated with ornaments of musical instruments. It is simply luxurious. Wonder how much went into building this grand dame. Tickets to concerts don’t come cheap either. We tiptoe into the main theater where the performing orchestra is practicing. It has great acoustics and the music is so clear.