Santiago, Take 2

We have come full circle. Two months ago, we arrived in Santiago where we stayed in a wonderful hostel called Don Santiago. Now, here we are again. But this time, we are not looking forward to our South American adventures; we are reflecting on them. And, of course, we are still taking advantage of our time here.

We arrived late Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, after another great breakfast, we made our way out of the city by metro (their subway system) to the second largest vineyard in the world. Actually, where we were was only one piece of an international system of vineyards, all owned and run by Concha y Toro. There are wine tours through agencies, but our hostel guy says they are no good because they rip off the tourists. They charge $35.000 pesos per person. But if you go straight to the place, they only charge $9.000 pesos. So that plus a couple metro tickets (which is super cheap) and a $3.000 taxi ride each way, we definitely saved money. Our tour guide was hilarious. We learned a lot about wine, and we got to taste some pretty delicious reds. She gave us a taste of their newest collection, Devil's Collection, which of course it's delicious. One of the wines we tried they sell in Costco, so we'll be taking advantage of that. But it's probably cheaper here. The only downside was that it is winter here, so no grapes to try. Some other time.

For dinner, we were craving pasta, so we went to a highly recommended spot for some delicious lasagna and spaghetti. Yum.

Friday was our last day in Chile. We got up early for our last shower before being home (in 2 days) and to pack our stuff with the wine we bought. After breakfast we headed out to the market for the last time. We didn't find a guitar, but we did get a couple of other things. A friend told us that his biggest regret about his visit to South America was not getting the souvenirs that he wanted. We will not make that mistake. We then headed over to meet our friend Fran for lunch. We ate at a Peruvian place. Delicious food. Tanya and Karis accidentally ate each other's meals, but they still enjoyed it. The pisco sours helped.

In the afternoon we took a cab to the airport where we flew to Lima, then Los Angeles, where we are hanging out for about 7-8 more hours. Our travels for now have come to an end, but our blog will continue. We'll talk about things we learned, stuff we needed and didn't need, and eventually get up all the videos we took but couldn't download on the road. Stay with us!

Buenos Aires, Take 2

We got to our hotel late in the evening. When we got there, we scheduled a trip through our hotel to go to Tigre for the day. After making a plan for the next two days, we went sweetly to sleep.

We woke up to the sound of booming thunder and torrential downpour. We canceled our trip to Tigre and slept in. When we finally got up and moving, we headed to get breakfast. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a convenience store and for snacks and wine, just to try it. We had planned to go see more of the city, but we got a late start to that because we were drinking wine all day. Argentina wine is delicious, by the way. I don't remember what kind it was, just that it was red and in a cool bottle, which were the only two reasons we chose that particular one.

Anyway, we finally got going. There is one restaurant that we really wanted to try, but we couldn't find it in our first go around in the city. This time, we were determined, and we were successful. Unfortunately, it doesn't open until 8PM, and it was only about 530. We were too late to tour the famous theater. So pretty much we just wandered around the city for a couple of hours. We stopped at one place and got beer and a snack, which killed some time. Finally, we headed over to Chan Chan. We got there at like, 810. It's a pretty small place, but there were already people there. We got a seat, fortunately, because not long after we arrived, the place was full and there was a line out the door. Karis got the duck and Tanya got the rabbit. It is possible that our meals were farm fresh, because it took an hour for our food to come. But it was delicious. Worth the wait. And the best part? In US dollars, our meals together cost a little more than $20. Unbelievable.

The next day, we did go to Tigre. They picked us up from our hotel around 9AM.  We drove around the city getting others, then we were switched to another bus. The tour guide was nice and spoke in very slow Spanish, so even Karis was able to pick up on quite a bit of what she was saying. Tanya, of course, did fine, translating the rest. Everyone keeps complementing her on her Spanish.

Our first stop was a small town called San Isidro. The only thing we did there, really, was shop around at a small market and see their pretty plaza. Then we drove into Tigre, which is a town through which three rivers run. It's really a beautiful place. The water is brown because of all the sedement. We bought our tickets for the ferry and boarded. Basically we just rode up the Rio Tigre and then back. But it was beautiful. There are side rivers and lots of homes. Many rich people have houses on Tigre. It's easy to see why.

When we returned to Buenos Aires, we made sure to stop at the crepe place around the corner. We got a free crepe because we tagged ourselves in a photo for them on Facebook. After enjoying our spoils, we got our bags, and mostly because we didn't know what else to do with all our luggage, we headed to the airport a little early. It turned out to be a lot early, though, as our flight was delayed. Our playing cards have served us well this trip. But we did make it to Santiago. Aerolines Argentina is comfortable with good seats, but both of our flights with them were over an hour later than scheduled. But whatever. Time for wine.

Uruguay

We finally arrived in Colonia, Uruguay around 11AM.  It's a really small town, so no taxis were necessary. We walked a short distance over to the bus station where we bought our tickets for the afternoon and stored our bags. We then walked into town. It's really beautiful - even people who live in Montevideo agree that it's a really nice little town. There are lots of old buildings and everything seems to look like it was meant to be photographed. We visited the market, of course, and found some cool treasures there. There isn't a ton to do here unless you're staying for a couple of nights and want to do day trips in the area. We just don't have the time, unfortunately, to spend more than a few hours in Colonia.

We caught a bus at 430 to Montevideo, the big city. Saturday night was not so bustling. We went to eat on all but empty streets in a restaurant with only 2 other people in it. And on Sunday everything is closed in the city. So really, we just saw plazas and the beach and a couple little restaurants that were open and a market. The market was more like a flea market for locals. People set up their own tables or blankets and set out their antiques or whatever they want to sell, like an enormous collective garage sale. There wasn't a ton there for us. On Sunday night we did go to the beach to see the sunset. Our hostel lady said it is a popular place, and she was right. All the people who were not at work because everything was closed were there to watch the sunset over, in her words, "the river or ocean, nobody knows." One of the coolest things we saw in Uruguay was wild parakeets. Tons of them. And they were really loud and in large groups. And they hate eagles.

Monday we headed back to the bus station, back to Colonia, then back on a ferry, and back to Argentina.  Were we to do Uruguay again, we'd probably skip Montevideo, or go on a week day, and spend more time in the smaller towns like Colonia. It is a beautiful country, though. Very green, a good place for a farm. We were there in the winter, and it was warm, though humid, but not super hot. Summers are probably really hot, though.