Curious Illustration

Musings of a thoughtful nomad through a lens, a pen and a keystroke

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The way to get around this city is up and down a series of stairs if you want the work out or rickety funiculars (like elevators) that the locals swear are completely safe even though the loud noises coming out of them convey a different message. Once up in the hills and in the designated tourist area the views are incredible.

Walking through the streets you have a front row viewing of some of the best street art of Latin America. A bit of a sore subject for locals as not all are keen on the murals but as a visitor it was a feast for the eyes and added to the offbeat charm of the city.

Here we attempted our first collectivo after a few pisco sours. A random experience where you hail a cab from a spot on a particular road (how you know this I am not sure but we seemed to get lucky) you don’t need to say where you are going (again I am not sure how you know which one to get on the route you need but again we got lucky) and you share the cab with other people going on the same route, on this occasion our driver took pity on us slightly tiddly gringos and dropped us off at our door. More than likely concerned that we could not fend for ourselves amongst the rogues but if you know me and my scrappy doo heart, I had this, we were fine ;) 

Although it has a dubious reputation I felt completely comfortable in Valparaiso and it’s creative allure.

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Described as a wonderful mess, we arrived in the port town of Valparaiso after a short 2 hour bus ride from Santiago, our 3rd stop in Chile after our little stint on Easter Island.

Rumour has it that the famous poet Pablo Neruda housed his mistress here and drew much inspiration from the eccentric city lovingly characterising it in his writings, 'Valparaíso, how absurd you are…you haven't combed your hair, you've never had time to get dressed, life has always surprised you.'

The influence of Europe on the once affluent city is still visible in the dilapidated buildings and architecture worked into the 45 cerros (hills) the city was built into. Valparaiso has had a visibly hard time, taking a  beating from earthquakes and the panama canal opening taking with it the wealthy europeans, it is now a notoriously unsafe city full of drunks and rogues. 

Personally I found the atmosphere lively and bright and have a soft spot for drunk creatives!

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Santiago is a lively city full of:

 - An array of hot dog joints.

- Coffee houses that mask the terrible taste by being served by pretty young ladies in considerably short skirts. 

(establishments commonly known as “coffee with legs”) 

- A significant number of stray dogs which are well fed and dressed in a variety of cute dog attire. 

- Mannequins with serious bootays promoting jeans tailored for the hour glass figure like that of the Kardashians. (strange thing to notice, I know)

We arrived here one bag lighter (thankfully nothing important), except our warm jackets that would have been useful in the cold early morning at border control, and unfortunately spent our first night regretting our choice of dinner. For me it lasted the whole of the next day particularly when we tried to enter the fish section of the local mercado, bleh! Having only just got the hang of a small amount of numbers in Spanish, only going into double digits, my hard work was scuppered as the Chileans work in thousands and they talk fast, almost mumbling at times. I was once again at the start of my journey into the Spanish language.

Even though we started off with a few hiccups I had an immediate connection with Santiago and liked it a lot. We did a tour of the city which was great. We got a summary of the history, pointers on places to see and where to eat and a taste of our first pisco sour which is a little strong for 10am in the morning but we weren't the only ones so hey ho! We ventured into the pre-Colombian museum and the viewing points of Cerro San Lucia and Cerro San Cristobal. We of course tried the highly recommended local cuisine, the Italian hotdog. You can’t see it in the picture because it is smothered in avocado (as are most things) but it has a little tomato and mayo on there too. Having had our fill of cheese based or sweet coated food we were grateful for the variety even if that was only in the form of a hotdog! 

We climbed to the top of San Cristobal where I lit a candle for my gran who I am sure would have lost her shit that I quit a stable job to go travelling but hopefully is looking down on me proud that I had the courage to do something for me, courage she always inspired as one of the bravest people I know.

Situated in a valley surrounded by the Andes, the viewpoints are unfortunately almost always covered by smog. We were told that the best time is after a rain which we did not get lucky with but we waited it out and got a glimpse of the mountain range which is something special so I can only imagine what it must be like in its full glory.

Although another city, Santiago is special. I have come to realise that you can’t go on other people’s opinions because travel is so personal that you have to assess all the info you have to hand and make an informed decision for yourself but for me, I heart Santiago.

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Alta Montaña - Mt Aconcagua - Mendoza

After Arriving in Mendoza we spent a day exploring this little alpine town of Malbec, opting to spend the next day on a high altitude tour into the Andes. 

The scenery and colours are unbelievable and we got our first taste of how altitude makes the heart beat that little bit faster and breathing that little bit harder. 

Our first stop with its panoramic viewpoints was the Potrerillos Dam. The early morning sun made it hard to see the dam fully but on our way back in the late afternoon you saw the deep teal blue of the water against the mountains which reminded me a lot of the scenery in Queenstown.

After some great photo opportunities we jumped back in the minibus with only us and 1 other as the english speaking contingency of the group. I admire the guides that do tours in both English and Spanish, this is no easy task.

Back on the road again taking in the ever changing rock formations and varying mountain ranges every turn presented a new photo opportunity.

We arrived in a little town called Ushpallata where 7years in Tibet was filmed. I am not sure why but I was very excited about this stop. I don’t know what exactly I expected but, to my disappointment, it transpired to be a rundown little town with loud dance music blaring out of megaphones. I did not get it. Apparently the scenery is just like that of Nepal and it worked out cheaper and easier for it to be filmed in Argentina but even after that explanation I still don’t get it. Maybe further out it got prettier and exuded more of a tranquil feel unfortunately I did not experience it.

Next stop was Los Penitentes ski resort nestled in the mountains.  Not what I expected and not comparable to European skiing from what I could tell but this resort has 27 tracks which cover 60,000 meters with steep slopes. We were of course out of season but went up the ski lift anyway for some magnificent views.

After our little excursion up the mountain we headed to Puente del Inca, an interesting calcareous ochre formation over the thermal waters of the Las Cuevas River. 

In 1965, the hotel installations that used these thermal waters were destroyed by an avalanche leaving just the remains and prompting the government to preserve what is left of the Inca bridge so now no one is allowed to use the thermal waters. 

Native people say that these waters have healing properties due to the great amount of sulphur they contain and in the markets surrounding the bridge you are able to get any item you wish coated in sulphur for a fee. Not believing in the healing powers of sulphur in the same way as the natives, I opted out of getting my trainers dipped and coated with an ochre finish! 

Mount Aconcagua is the highest mountain, outside of Asia, at 6,961 metres high. We caught a glimpse of it at the view point from the Aconcagua National Park and while we were just shown highlights we did not get to do any actual trekking of which I am very pleased about. This would be serious stuff and even now, after everything, I am not sure I would be ready for that.

High above the the tunnel to the Chilean border on Route 7 is a statue of Christ the Redeemer of the Andes. When I say high above, I mean 3,832 meters that our little minibus diligently made it’s way up to the top of. The  tour guide jokingly announced that it was the driver’s first time up the narrow and windy road … it was only sort of funny ;) 

Once we were up at the top we had to throw on any extra layers we had because it was freezing and the wind was strong!! It was amazing to be so high up with the Argentine flag on one side and the Chilean one on the other clearly showing the border. Unbeknown to us, in a days time, we would be stuck at this border control in the early hours of the morning in the freezing cold. It amounted to only a couple of hours and could have been much worse as we have heard stories of people getting stuck for days because of landslides and snow so I guess there is always a silver lining if you are looking for it.

After this trip it’s impossible not to come to the conclusion that the Andes are magnificent and the varying landscapes sometimes makes it feel other worldly.

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Cordoba was the next stop on our Argentinian route and probably the most interesting for me. This time a slightly longer journey so we decided to save money on accommodation and do an *overnight bus. This would turn out to be the recipe for most of our travelling in Argentina but not always as uneventful or as smooth.

Argentina’s second largest city is a distinct mix of old and new. A vibrant centre full of trendy hipster bars and cafes as well as a complex history found in the Jesuit ruins and cathedrals or chilling museums like that of the Museo de la Memoria. This museum piqued my interest because it occupies the original space used as the detention and torture centre of suspected political opponents of the Argentinian dictatorship of the 1970′s. The walls outside and in are covered with quite harrowing photographs of people that are still missing 30 years on and it just so happened that the few days we were there, there was a concert to commemorate these missing persons. 

I was told that one thing Argentinians really know how to do … is protest. I understood this first hand during our visit to Cordoba. We passed many passive protests during the day concerning Las Malvinas (Falkland Islands) but as we headed through the streets to the trendy area for a bite to eat, far too early for South American standards even though the sun was almost set, we happened across a much more lively crowd banging drums and shouting in a much less passive way. It was hard to understand what was going on at first because there were also festivities around the commemorative concert going on but as we walked further into the crowds following the deep thud of the drums I noticed that there had been garbage cans turned over and the rubbish set alight in the middle of the street, we then also started to notice spray paint on the walls and periodically shop windows smashed out but mostly only MacDonald’s stores. I am not sure exactly what it was all about as some of the messages seemed to be against monsanto, capitalism and also abortion. There were many police on hand so nothing seemed to get too out of control but it did make my little legs move that much faster and a cold beer  that little bit more more enjoyable to calm the nerves.

At this point Greg and I still hadn’t got into the South American rhythm, basically things really only get going around 11pm or maybe even later. For me I would either be T totalled by then or asleep at the table but Cordoba really is a vibrant city that’s a little bit of a cheeky chappy so you can’t help yourself but get involved. 

Here we stayed in a lovely apartment through Airbnb just a  little bit outside of the centre. When you read reviews to help you choose somewhere to stay a lot of people write the phrase, “The apartment / room/ area was great, for South American standards”. You only really start to understand what that means when you have been here a little while ... or maybe you have the topless man next door, peering over his windowless and mostly wallless apartment above hollering something at you. Or you dodge the cab driver when crossing the road and notice he has no bonnet to his car, or perhaps you become concerned about the the young girl on the back of a scooter holding her helmet in her hand while her boyfriend rides particularly close to the bonnetless cab. I did not think I would get used to the chaos but somehow it’s a sort of familiar security blanket to me now!

There are day tours outside of the city that take you to large estancias and Jesuit blocks but because everything turned out to be pricier than expected we decided to just chill in our pretty apartment and save ourselves for Mendoza, the home of Malbec and gateway to the Andes.

A side note on overnight buses; these take a lot out of you so give yourself more time in a place to recover. While you may save money on accommodation if you arrive at 5am you invariably have to store your luggage somewhere and end up hanging around until check in in the afternoon, by then you feel slightly delirious with the lack of sleep and for me I don’t take much in nor do I enjoy it. When you are planning be realistic about what is actually achievable so you can enjoy it. 

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Returning to Buenos Aires after our 5hour delayed flight from Iguazu falls, we made our amended bus booking by the skin of our teeth. Our first bus experience in South America turned out to be a reasonably straight forward one... Victory for the Gringos!

We arrived very late in Rosario and felt that 3km’s is not that far to walk with all our luggage... ahem, turns out it is! I have now learnt that preserving budget is futile at midnight, just hail the damn cab. Thankfully we had already pre-booked our hostel so we did not need to wander around looking for a place that late at night but my gratitude ended when I realised that the bathroom / shower room description turned out to be a shower head that was positioned almost directly over the sink and toilet. This was one of my least favourite hostels but by no means the worst. If they don’t show you pictures that usually means it’s bad, real bad.

Rosario is an interesting little city. It is the birthplace of Che Guevera, Lionel Messi, the Argentine flag and some were even so bold as to say gelato ... A bit of a modest bunch really! We wandered the streets, saw Che’s apartment block, walked passed Messi’s pub and went to the top of the flag monument.

Here we had our first asado (braai / barbecue) I indulged in the blood sausage which is just like black pudding but I was not brave enough to try the innards even though the smelt positively delicious. I did try the famed steak and milanese but for me the food did not tick any boxes really until I tasted the empanadas from La Baska. These were mini domes of heaven.

What I did crave at times was good coffee but it was as elusive as granary bread. I tried my best to be open minded but lost all hope when I was presented with a “standard cappuccino” that unbeknown to me had about a centimetre of chocolate syrup at the bottom of it ... I mean that’s just not right.

As with all cities you only need a couple of days. I think we spent too long here (3days) but we were still finding our groove and settling in to a travelling rhythm.

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From Buenos Aires we flew to Iguazu falls, our 2nd stop, opting out of a 24hour bus ride as our introduction into the transport system. 

As we stepped out of the very small airport we were assaulted by the humidity. I immediately regretted that I had strapped myself into to my back pack with my hoody still on. We have been to a lot of hot places on our travels but by this point this was definitely the hottest. 

Upon arrival I realised that I had not even considered how we would get to our hostel assuming it would be like most airports where you can just grab a cab when exiting. This assumption was only partly correct and excluded consideration of any extortionate costs. You basically have 2 options, you either pay a large amount for a cab or a slightly less large amount for a shared van. We eventually clubbed together with some other travellers to get a cab which worked out a bit easier on the budget. 

Once we were on our way to the little town centre, followed by a convoy of butterflies showing off their elegant patterns and vivid colours, I got the distinct sense that I was about to experience something spectacular.

We spent 2nights and 3days here so that we could see the falls from both the Argentinian and Brazilian side. If you can do both I would highly recommend it. On our first full day we caught one of the early morning buses to the Argentinian entry of Iguazu. As one of the first groups to enter the park we decided to head straight to Garganta del Diablo (the Devil’s Throat) before it got too busy. To get there you have to catch a train, walk through the jungle and navigate a myriad of steel mesh bridges allowing you to walk over the fiercely strong current of the Iguazu river. To be honest no matter how I describe my experience nothing will prepare you for the heart pounding power and vastness that presents itself to you. This is a bigass waterfall and you are there, standing over it looking down into the white abyss below feeling the power of its force resonate through your entire body. It is simply incredible.

You really do need a whole day to explore all facets of the falls. There are so many of them and so many different viewing points, all of which are incredibly impressive. In addition to this you get up close and personal with many butterflies, some exotic birds and for me, the most awkward of these encounters were with the Coati’s (the raccoon looking critter) There are signs everywhere telling you not to feed or pet them and visuals of body parts with gashes on them from attacks dotted all over the place. It would be fine to heed this advice and stay away from them if only they were not such bold bastards. They can smell food a mile away and if you pop your bag on the floor or even on a table they have no shame muscling in, in groups, to see what is on offer. The worst part is no matter how much you “shoo”, clap your hands or even stomp your feet they just stare at you with an expression similar to, “Oh no you didn’t …”

On the 2nd day we again caught the early morning bus to view the falls from the Brazilian side. Border control was straightforward and fast and strangely the bus is cheaper to Brazil even though it is longer. The Brazil entrance to the falls is much more grand and developed and you can see that a lot of money has been invested into this which is nice in some ways but it also loses the rawness that the Argentine side has. This is not a full day affair and there is not that much to do here but I would recommend it because this is where you get the true perspective of the scale of the falls, I mean there are supposedly 257 individual falls! You need to see them from a distance to stand a chance of taking it all in and of course isn’t a picture that little bit better with a rainbow in it. This is where you get the rainbow money shot.

This is classed as a natural wonder and it lives up to the title. Pachamama is awesome.

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It seems so long ago now that we landed in Buenos Aires with a bit of a bump back into reality of what city life actually entails. After spending days on end surrounded by nature and at times being the only 2 people on the road, I found myself making grand statements about how much of a towny I absolutely must be but once we were catapulted into a bustling metropolis after going back in time to start our afternoon all over again, to say it was a shock to the system is an understatement.

Unfortunately Buenos Aires was a bit of a daze of jet lag and acclimatisation and an accelerated education on the most basic of words, not even phrases, in Spanish to get by. Standing in front of a shopkeeper not having a scooby how to ask for a coffee gave me an indication of what it may have been like to be a toddler just learning to form words with your mouth. For some reason no matter how many times I practiced the most common phrases in private, in public I became a mute smiling constantly, blushing intensely while gesturing wildly hoping for the best.

During our stay we managed to cover the recommended highlights like plaza de mayo with the pink palace, San Telmo market bright and lively and full of treats for the eyes and ears. La Recoleta cemetery which is eerily beautiful and La Boca known for its colourful streets which, for the record, do not cater for anyone with mobility issues. You have to dodge broken cement blocks, scale large steps and tree trunks and maneuver round stray dogs, and their poop. (There are lots of stray dogs in most of the cities we visited in South America.) We were also privy to a bit of Tango in the street which was a nice touch.

Here in BA I started a short love affair with Havanna alfajores, a traditional sweet of Argentina. I consider it a short affair because when you start every morning off with dulce de leche spread (like nutella but caramel flavoured) on white bread or a syrupy medialunas  (like a croissant but much sweeter) you find yourself craving bran flakes, brown bread or even vegetables instead. Eating anything remotely healthy was like finding gold and by the end of our 20 days there really was such a thing as “too sweet” (even for me the fudging loving, toffee scoffing, cookie dough sweetness longing gal I am)

From here we braved our first flight with notoriously unreliable LAN and our first long haul bus which was a small victory in our South American education. While the bus system is very well run and is the only *affordable way for longer term travellers to get around knowing which bus company to use, buying a bus ticket and knowing where to catch said bus from proved much more of a challenge.

*Something that surprised us both was how much more expensive everything turned out to be since we had created our daily budget in early 2015. It seems that a change in parliament at the end of 2015 resulted in a price increase of between 30-40%! I like to think of myself as quite thrifty at times (equally as extravagant too) but this considerable jump in costs did put a strain on managing our daily budget. (Well that and all the adrenalin excursions we insisted upon in my beloved Queenstown!)

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A few snaps along the Southern Scenic Route.

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We visited both the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers and unfortunately none of the pictures I have taken do them justice or provide enough of a perspective of the sheer size of them. I can vouch that they are pretty impressive up close in person!

The thing I found most unusual about visiting these glaciers was the tropical setting in both surroundings and warm weather, well that and perhaps feeling like there may be a T-rex lurking somewhere in the distance.

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Queenstown is the queen of hearts

My fickle heart fell in love with this Alpine town as it seems to for most of the places I have had the privilege of visiting.

This was definitely my favourite stop on our road trip around the South Island, not least because I found the courage to hurl myself off a 43m high bridge or scoffed an all famous Fergberger (remember Ferg loves you!) before the prowling seagulls could get a look in. 

Lets not forget the jetboating down Shotover canyon that the Royals (yes the Prince and Princess) did only a year before us (I was actually more impressed that they had Ryan Reynolds and Alanis Morisette in their hall of fame and of course some of the Vampire Diary crew!) or the luge wars at the top of the Gondola ride.

Everyone seems to be so upbeat and happy here and it’s not hard to see why surrounded by teal waters and chocolate dusted mountain ranges, craft beer and outdoor adrenalin activities to satisfy all the “cool kids”.

I will return, one day, with lots of money to enjoy it just as much all over again! I would probably give myself more time to explore the neighbouring towns too.(Arrowtown, Frankton and Wanaka)

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Climbing 1,578 metres to the top of Roy’s peak was very challenging physically even though this is considered an easy climb. We managed to complete this in 4.5hours which is not bad going especially as the steep hills going up were much harder on the knees going down and they advise that you should allow 6-7hours for it.

We met a lot of colourful characters on the way up and down to take our mind off of the intensity of the climb. 

On the way up there was the wild French girl that asked us to take a photo of her standing on the steep edge of a cliff face while she jumped around carelessly trying to get an interesting action shot (I did ask Greg later what he would have done if she had fallen down the cliff face because I am not sure I would have been a good enough person to go after her) there was the young hipster couple blasting techno from a speaker attached to their backpack (the same techno that Greg was sure kept him up the night before ;) ) The husband and wife duo that were arguing only a couple of hundred metres up with the wife already refusing to carry on (we met them on the way down again so I was pleased to see that the wife had come around but they still had a long way to go!)

On the way down we saw a lot of jandals (NZ word for flip flops) which is unadvisable on the gravelly parts. Questionable luminous outfits although much more interesting than just beige. The dejected young girls carrying a large chunk of wood presumably to help them, like a walking stick, instead it looked like it made things more challenging (this set me into a fit of giggles as I was certain they would not make the next 100metres) but the weirdest part was passing a person trying to do this climb backwards (there are no words for this …)

This was a total adventure and an amazing feeling to get to the top and see all the spectacular views.

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Majestic Milford Sound

We had to wait out 3 full days of rain in Te Anau which resulted in much more blog activity with all the “free” wifi I had access to.

A lot more craft beer was consumed to help with the frustration of my wifi woes (which I fully expect to be worse in some spots in South America) and I found the home of pie. The pies were so good here that I committed to much longer and tougher runs along the lake front so that I could enjoy said pies ;)

The wait was worth it and on a sunny but icy cold Monday morning we set off while the sun was still rising to take in the wonders of the road to Milford Sound. 

We were dwarfed by enormous mountains casting shadows and light in the most magical way. Fully understanding the inspiration for parts of New Zealand as a setting for Lord of the Rings and with landscape like this as a muse, I was once again humbled and awed by mother nature.

You are advised to allow about 2 hours to get to Milford Sound from Te Anau  partly because the roads are winding and hilly but also because there is so much to see along the way. We stopped as often as we could and above was a shot from the mirror lakes and below is a stop just before you enter an eerily long pitch black tunnel that has been carved through the mountain to get through to the other side.

Once we arrived at the boat terminal and checked in with about only 10minutes to go (a few too many pictures me thinks ) we were stopped in our tracks by the below view waiting to board our boat, I mean come on, look at that! From this point on the views just got more impressive which unfortunately I could not always capture it in my shots but have it locked away in the memory banks with so many other gorgeous moments. 

We were greeted onboard by a very excited crew because the day of our cruise was the first day of clear skies and sunshine in 5 days and this seems to be a rarity, as we were told, often ... just how lucky we were! As well as the clear skies we were treated to a number of extra temporary waterfalls, as well as the established ones and subsequently a number of beautiful rainbows because of all the rain that they had recently had.

During the cruise there is a running commentary of really interesting information on the history and current affairs of Milford Sound. I learnt that Milford sound is actually a fjord, and has been named incorrectly because the area was carved out by a Glacier and not a river. The water is so pure and clean you can drink it straight from the waterfalls (which we did, it was ice cold and so yummy) Lush rain forests cling precariously to the cliff faces and because of all the rainfall can easily lose their grip causing tree avalanches into the sound.

A fun part of the excursion was the nose of the boat being guided under Stirling falls welcoming passengers to don a rain coat in the mythical hope that by submerging yourself in the waterfall you would wake up the following day looking 10 years younger. (I obviously exude youthful exuberance so I stayed behind and took the snapshots of the very cold faces ;) )

We passed a spot called seal island which is home to a number of New Zealand Fur seals, taken out onto the Tasman Sea and on the way back to land we had a parting shot of a Glacier at the top of one of the mountains.

I highly recommend this as a must see spot if you are travelling the South Island of New Zealand. I am so grateful that we were lucky enough to have it on a perfectly clear day to see it in all its majestic beauty!

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Taieri Gorge Railway in Dunedin offers some of the world's most scenic landscape throughout Central Otago, including the famous Taieri Gorge.

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Exploring the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin, the scenery, like most of this trip was out of this world. We drove round the winding roads taking in as much as I could without motion sickness getting the better of me.

One of the few stops we made was to walk across some private farmland in search of Allans beach which was tucked away and as it opened up I could not help but gasp in delight as we came face to face with sea lions, just chilling in the sand trying to get comfortable. 

On the morning of our departure we stopped by Tunnel beach and again we were not disappointed especially with the morning sun still breaking through the clouds.

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