Days 101+102: To Puerto Iguazú

The bus ride from Cordoba to Puerto Iguazú took about 22 hours. There wasn't a lot I could do, except read (a lot), sleep (a lot, too) and watch the on-board movie. The movie was in Spanish without subtitles, but to my great surprise I understood enough to actually follow the story. True, it was a rather simple comedy, but still, I hadn't expected this :-)

In Puerto Iguazú, I explored the city for a bit. There is not much to see, except for the place where you get to see Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina all in one glance:



To the right is Brazil, Paraguay is to the left, and the bottom is Argentina. So now I can say "I have seen Brazil," without actually having set foot into the country :-)

Day 100: Cordoba

It is amazing how many completely different catholic churches there are in Cordoba - especially considering that the city is only 400 years old. Have a look at some of them:

Basílica de la Merced





Catedral





Iglesia de Santa Catalina



Iglesia de Santa Teresa



Iglesia del Sagrado Corazón



Iglesia de San Francisco



Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús





Jesuit quarter



I do hope that I got the names right for all of them ;-)

Of course, I didn't look exclusively at churches all day long. I also visited two art museums, a natural sciences museum and Parque Sarmiento. In the park, there is a monument dedicated to Cordoba, erected for Argentina's 200th birthday. It consists of 200 big rings, one for each year, and each inscribed with the most important events in that year.



I really like the playful atmosphere of the monument. It invites to explore Cordoba's history by walking through it rather than by studying history books.

From what I've seen today, Cordoba certainly seems like a very livable city - though I'm not sure it is possible to tell after only one day. In fact, that's what I thought of each of the three major cities I've seen in South America so far - Buenos Aires, Santiago and Cordoba. I'm already curious about the cities further north :-)

Day 99: Wineries around Mendoza

I got on another night bus today, going to Cordoba at 10 pm. I therefore had an entire day to do a tour of some of the wineries near Mendoza.

What many people do is take a bus to Maipu, rent a bike, and then go from winery to winery until they can't drive straight anymore. For this reason, I guess, they built cycleways along the route ;-)

This picture shows my bike (and some others). Also, pay attention to how they spell "Bienvenidos." The region abounds with wine-drinking related puns like this.



The first winery I visited was La Rural. They offer a free tour, museum, and wine tasting, so just about everyone goes there. Unfortunately, the tour was in Spanish and the guide spoke super fast, so I only understood maybe half of it.



The wine at the end of the tour was pretty good, in my opinion. Malbec is the most-grown grape in this region.



Almost next door to La Rural is a place that produces olive oil. They offer a tasting including various olive oils, olive pastes, mustard, jams, chocolates and liqueurs. Very, very tasty!

Next was Trapiche, another winery offering a tour and tasting (but not for free). The tasting included a white wine (not my favorite), and two rather expensive cabernet sauvignons (also not my favorites; maybe I'm not the cabernet sauvignon type?)



As I got back on my bike and rode down the next street, I was stopped by the tourist police. The owner of the bike rental had explained that they were there for our safety, not to make us pay fines for drinking & driving. So I was somewhat surprised at being stopped; as it turns out, however, they only wanted to warn me from going down that street because there had been thefts in that area.

So I chose the main street to continue instead, and arrived at Tempus Alba a short while later. They had a short self-guided tour which was good - more than two long wine tours a day are not really necessary ;-) I tasted three of their wines: Malbec, Shiraz and Tempranillo. All three were very good, and the vineyard views from their terrace were excellent as well.



The wineries close around 6 pm; so the last one I was able to squeeze in was Viña el Cerno. Probably the smallest and friendliest of the ones I visited. And also the one with the best wine (or maybe I was already too drunk to know better?) Anyway, this is the winner:



Its smell reminded me of whiskey - which is always a good sign. Unfortunately, they only produce 9000 bottles annually, and only sell it locally... Seems like I'll have to come back some day ;-)

Day 98: The High Andes

Today I chose to join a tour again. I could have done it on my own, but I felt so exhausted and unwilling to plan that a tour was the only option to get anything done ;-)

So, the tour went to the high Andes. I learned that there are three levels of mountains in the Andes: the foothills, the frontal hills, and the primary hills, from lowest to highest altitude. The foothills actually run out close to Mendoza, so I guess further south there are only two levels left.

Our first stop was an artificial lake in the foothills:



Close to the lake, we stopped to look at this rock formation - very aptly called pregnant woman.



Close to the end of our trip we came across this brightly colored natural bridge called Puente del Inca (though the inca didn't have anything to do with it). The ruins on the other side are the remains of a luxury hotel built in the 1940s that were destroyed by an avalanche in the sixties.



After the economical crisis in Argentina at the beginning of the new millennium, the number of tourists visiting and crossing the bridge climbed to more than 1000 per day, so that the government decided in 2005 to close the bridge to keep it from being damaged.

Close to the bridge, there is a big handicraft market. The unique souvenir are random items that have been left in the mineral-rich water for about a month - enough time to give them the color of the bridge.



Our last stop was the natural park surrounding Cerro Aconcagua. With almost 7000m, Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the world outside of Asia. The weather was gorgeous, and we got some really beautiful views of Aconcagua. This is the peak reflected in Lago Espejo - the mirror lake:



... and on its own:



Looking back from the viewpoint, there was this lake with gorgeously colored mountains in the back:



On the way back to Mendoza, we stopped somewhere in the frontal hills for lunch. Instead of eating inside, I say outside marveling at these wonderful red and green mountains:



According to the guide, the colors come from various elements within the stone: red is iron oxide, green is copper... and I forgot about the rest of the colors ;-)

I had no idea that the Andes are so colorful - I'm really glad that I did this tour and got to see all of it!

Day 97: Mendoza

I spent the day planning, calling home and booking stuff. For example, I found out that I need to book accommodation for carnival NOW, or better yet, yesterday. I'm going to be in Oruro, Bolivia for carnival!

The one museum I wanted to visit while exploring Mendoza was closed - as it turns out, it was Monday... I don't know how often I've already lost track of the date and/or day of week ;-)

Day 96: Still in Valparaíso

Four days in Valparaíso are too much for my taste. So today I escaped three times: first to the water, doing a harbor cruise; second, to Viña del Mar, the nearby beach paradise; and third, with a night bus to Mendoza.

The fare for the harbor cruise was well-invested money. I got to see sea lions enjoying the sun on a buoy:



Nice views of Valparaíso:



And a closeup view of a huge container shop being unloaded:



I was fascinated by the logistics behind this. For each and every container that the cranes pulled off the ship, an empty truck showed up just in time to pick it up and drive it away. And of course, the dimensions of the ship and the cranes were impressive as well. I've never been on such a huge ship - except in computer games... I remember one where the task was to sink one of them. Not an easy task, I can tell you ;-)

Another sight I got to see were pelicans.



How they dive into the water headfirst is really amazing to observe.



After that, Viña del Mar was just your typical tourist trap. How do you know you've entered a tourist trap? When you haven't seen a single horse carriage in the entire country, and suddenly there are tons of highly polished ones ;-)



I usually like night buses. The sleep isn't as good as in a bed, of course, but you save a lot of time, and money for one night's accommodation. This one, however, wasn't such a good idea: it involved a border crossing. So we had to get out of the bus in the middle of the night (around 5am) and queue for more than an hour to get our passports stamped. I have no idea why this took so long... but I was too tired to investigate ;-)

Day 95: Tricksters in Valparaíso

Have you ever noticed how the cashier in a supermarket will often ask a question that is somehow related to your purchase? In my experience, they ask one of two questions: either "would you like a bag?", or "do you participate in our bonus program?". In both cases a safe standard answer - just in case you don't fully understand the language they're speaking - is no. Today I finally figured out that the cashiers in Chile ask another question: "would you like to donate your small change to the firefighters?". The answer to this would obviously be yes - supporting firefighters is good anyway, and lugging around one-peso-coins (worth about 0.15 euro cents) isn't really worth the effort. So with this realization, there is no safe standard answer anymore. I'll have to listen to supermarket cashiers from here on out ;-)

In all the time traveling through Argentina and Chile, I was never molested by hustlers or beggars - a welcome change after all the hustling in Cuba. However, this changed today when two old women tried to extract money from me. I'm actually kind of embarrassed my behavior and how easily I fell for their scam.

But let me tell you how. So I was sitting around somewhere in the shade reading, when an old wrinkly lady approached me asking for money. I said no, of course. Then another woman came along, taking my hand, looking at the lines in the palm, mumbling something about my life, and asking for my name. She then said I should put a bill in my hand and make a wish. I was reluctant at first, but she insisted and so I thought I'd play along and see what happens. So I put money in my hand, made a fist and a wish, she mumbled something, made some possibly religious gestures, and then asked for the money. I denied. Then, I don't remember exactly how the situation evolved - maybe my memory is blocked by my embarrassment at myself, or something. But she ended up making me extract more money out of my wallet which then somehow ended up in her hands. She then dabbed at it with a small wooden stick, poured some water over it and spat at it - and suddenly only a soggy mess of grey ex-paper was visible in her hands. She tried to convince me that this was all that remained of my two bright blue Chilean bills. For a moment I almost believed her - but then I thought that Chilean money didn't seem flimsy enough to be totally discolored by a bit of water and spit - and that the soggy mass in her hand looked suspiciously like newspaper. So I asked her to return my money. She didn't, of course. For a minute or so, I tried to figure out what she actually wanted from me at this point. She kept going on about the milk for her baby she has in her breast. As I couldn't make any sense of that, but wanted my money back pronto, I grabbed her hands and succeeded in parting her from the wooden stick, thinking that maybe she hid the money in there. Unfortunately, the stick was solid, but it seems that way I wrestled control of the situation from her and she started shifting stuff around in her hands nervously. That's when I caught a glimpse of something bright blue, and a second later I held my now soggy wet bills in my hand again. I quickly checked that my bag hadn't been compromised while I was occupied, then threw the stick back at her and left.

Afterwards, although nothing had really happened and although there hadn't been a large amount of money at stake, I felt flustered. So what can I learn from this? Certainly something like "Don't take out money if you don't intend to purchase anything." But also this: tricksters don't expect firm opposition. You win when they lose control of the situation, so be firm, loud, and interfere physically if need be.

Day 94: Valparaíso

I'll admit I was a bit skeptical about Valparaíso yesterday. I was also tired and exhausted and that is never a good state to explore a new city in. Today I discovered that Valparaíso is indeed very, very charming.

Valparaíso is built on several hills overlooking the bay, so there are excellent views from the hilltops (that would be even more excellent if the weather was sunny).



Climbing the hills, however, isn't all that nice. When I think about it, neither is coming down. Apparently, Valparaíso's inhabitants thought so too and built a number of public elevators. Most of them were constructed around 1900 - and are still running today!



Exploring the colorful streets of Valparaíso is a lot of fun. This is partly because - due to the hills - the city doesn't follow the typical square grid layout you find in so many South American cities. Instead of knowing what to expect at every corner, Valparaíso has tons of hidden passages and stairwells to explore; dead end streets; views suddenly opening up; and colorfully painted houses, streets and doorways at every turn.









Even the trash cans are painted here :-)

Day 93: Valparaíso

I arrived in Valparaíso around 1pm, after only two hours in the bus from Santiago.

The entire city is a world cultural heritage site, and it is also considered Chile's cultural capital. I haven't seen enough of it yet to be any judge on whether it deserves these titles or not.

My first impression is that it is a strange mix of gorgeous colorful buildings - and ruins.







When you think about the city's history, this isn't really surprising: it went from Chile's most important port to insignificance with the opening of the Panama canal, and then was struck by a few earthquakes.

I'm already curious to see how the rest of the city was affected by all this.

Day 92: Sightseeing in Santiago

I realized yesterday it's been weeks since I've been to a good museum. So I decided to visit a bunch today.

I started off with Santiago's cathedral, however, just because it was on the way to the first real museum. Like so many places of worship, the cathedral is grand and richly decorated. I don't quite get why they dump so much money into these places, but they're nonetheless nice to look at:



Next to the cathedral is the post office. Beautiful building, isn't it?



My first museum was the museum of national history. The exhibition rooms were ordered from past to present and gave a nice overview of Chilean history - for those capable of and willing to read lots of Spanish. But even from only reading parts of it, I learned a lot. The exhibits were very nicely done as well, and included Salvador Allende's glasses that broke when he shot himself.

The next museum on my way was the contemporary art museum (MAC). The building that houses both this museum and the museum of fine arts is really beautiful, both inside and out (but I kinda forgot to photograph the outside).



MAC had several ingenious interactive installations, and I spent quite some time there just playing around. One of my favorites was a dark room where you could move laser-generated "curtains" by walking through them or by trying to put your hands through - all of it accompanied by a blowing-wind-soundtrack. I just love all the great ideas artists have :-)

After that, the museum of fine arts didn't seem all that special anymore ;-)

After all these museums (which unfortunately didn't include the museum for precolumbian art which will be reopened in 2013), I walked up to Cerro Santa Lucía, a small hill offering city views and some nice gates and fountains on the way back down:

Day 91: Santiago

I heard many bad things about Santiago before I came. Things like ugly, boring, just another city, etc. So I was quite surprised to discover today that Santiago is actually a very nice city!

I hopped on to the open-top tourist bus you can find in a lot of cities nowadays. I think it's a pretty good way to get an introduction to a city: you get a glimpse of all the major sights and neighborhoods, along with some explanations, and even convenient transportation to the more remote places. Unfortunately, taking pictures out of a bus rarely works out, so I only have some from where I actually got off the bus.

My first stop was Parque Arauco, a huge mall.



There, I somehow felt the need to indulge in western fast food: Taco Bell, Starbucks, Krapfen, donuts. I stopped short of the pretzels because I was already too full ;-)



My next stop was Parque Metropolitano with its massive statue of the Immaculate Conception overlooking Santiago.



The views from up there are really amazing. The city just stretches on and on until the horizon.



About 6.5 million people live in Santiago - that's 40% of all Chilenos! Imagine Berlin having 32 million inhabitants, that would be the same ratio for Germany. No wonder that huge stretches of Chile are so empty ;-)

Here's another view of Santiago, with me in front of it: