Friday Smirk

The boys pointing out a couple of the many holes in the Genesis myth, it never ceases to amaze me that so many people think that this story is actually true, like some (real) episode of the Flintstones..

New Continents - Part 8

 

There was a lot of wildlife to see in the area surrounding the falls, we must have seen at least half a dozen different species of lizard but there were also wonderfully colourful birds, reptiles of all kinds, insects and even monkeys, we were told by our guide that there was a programme going on in the park to protect and nurture a group of Jaguar although despite looking hopefully we didn't see any. I snapped this little fella (above) on the Brazilian side but pretty much everywhere you looked you could find something interesting.

On the Argentinian side of the falls the walks were split into lower, middle and upper and the granddaddy of them all "Mirante da Garganta do Diablo" or the "Devils Throat" is accessible via a little tourist train and a 2km walkway. We did all of them and each had a different set of spectacles to see. On the lower trail you were mainly alongside the falls or adjacent to the bottom of them (thankfully not under them!) and mainly in the jungle itself, the main attraction here was the wildlife, so many species of birds, insects and plants too many to count! Anyway see the photo below for one of the more common mammals that we saw, a possum like critter that seemed completely oblivious to our presence..

The middle trail featured mainly the smaller cascades and you could get alongside and above some of these, great views and an impressive 3-4km walk. The upper trail was the big one, it led to the biggest cascade of all and after a one kilometer walk across the main upper river itself you came to a viewing platform that allowed a spectacular view into the "throat" of the devil, I snapped this little video sequence of what it was like although you can't see too much detail because of all the spray however you can see several of the little swallow birds that fly around in front of the fall and the ever present rainbow that seems to frame the whole thing, an amazing experience.

After the natural spectacle that is Iguazu we could have quite happily ended the holiday there but there was more. The next day we headed back to the airport and jumped on a plane back to the city, a final four day farewell to the continent and a chance to sample the delights of the capital city, Buenos Aires bound we packed our cases once more..

Bowie

 

We went to London last weekend and visited the David Bowie exhibition at the V&A (East) Located in Hackney Wick it's essentially a huge warehouse full of cultural and artistic treasures (see above), it felt to me a bit like that last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark of the Covenant is being stored in some vast US government warehouse, I reckon the holy grail is in there somewhere!

Anyway, the Bowie section was quite small, just one room, but a real treasure trove. It featured a lot of outfits and costumes as well as instruments and song lyrics (hand written) both from him as a solo artist and also when he collaborated with others. I particularly liked the little semi-political notes that he used to write to himself, he was quite forward thinking, especially around things like the emergence of digital technology. 

All in all a great little exhibition, we spent at least an hour or so reminiscing about the 70s and 80s! Afterwards we met our Son at a pub in Hackney and had a good old catch up with him, a lovely day.

New Continents - Part 7

 

The penultimate stop of our South American tour, Iguazu, famous for having the largest waterfall in the world (by width). Located on the Southern edge of Brazil and the Northern edge of Argentina plus (for good measure) the Eastern edge of Paraguay, Iguazu has long been famed for it's falls (discovered in 1541), at 2700m wide it's more than twice as wide as Niagara with 50% more flow rate than Victoria, a true wonder of natural world.

We arrived in the afternoon after a 90 minute flight from Salta and checked into our hotel on the Argentinian side of the falls, the view from the hotel was stunning, a panorama of part of the falls with a real tropical feel to the place which was quite unspoiled (unlike Niagara) as the whole area was a designated national park. We settled into our accommodation and had an early dinner in readiness for a trip to Brazil the next day.

At 7am our guide picked us up from the hotel and we bused it across the border and into Brazil, unknown to us at the time we discovered that it was a public holiday in Brazil and (thanks to Trump's tariffs) the prices in Paraguay for things like iPhones were 30% cheaper than in Argentina or Brazil, suffice to say the queues to cross between the various countries were huge! Luckily we could skip them being in a tourist vehicle but we were glad that we made an early start! On the Brazilian side of the falls we walked along the 2km tourist trail that lead down to the main cascade, it gave a wonderful overview of the falls, apparently it's the best side to see the falls from a distance but if you want to get in among the water proper, the Argentinian side is better. Anyway, it was spectacular and the raised platforms at the end of the walkway gave a great view of several cascades and as well as getting soaking wet allowed you to get quite close to the action (see below)

At the end of the Brazilian trail the path passed to the side of one of the falls, at this point you could stretch your arm out and touch the water, we lingered there for a while and noticed that there were small back birds flying around in front of the face. Every now and again one of these birds would dart into the flow of water itself and disappear! Apparently these swallows nest behind the water and are quite happy to fly through the cascade to reach their young, it was amazing how they weren't swept away as the force of water falling was tremendous, I shot a little video in an attempt to capture this but it was tricky to predict when they would fly into the water, however I think I caught a few (see below)

We completed our Brazilian expedition around lunchtime and headed back to Argentina where we regrouped over lunch and planned our exploration of the "Argentinian side", see the next part..

New Continents - Part 6

 

In this leg of  our grand South American tour we landed in a place called Salta, it's in the North of Argentina near borders with Chile and Bolivia, it's a subtropical highland climate, meaning it's very dry most of the time except in the rainy season (Dec-Mar) when it experiences large thunder storms. The altitude in the city is around 1200 metres and the sun during the day is pretty intense; like Santiago it's kind of in a bowl surrounded by mountains which means the heat of the day lingers well into the evenings.

Our hotel was right in the centre of town and ideally placed for exploring the many old buildings, parks, churches, markets and museums in the city. Our rooms felt very "Spanish" in style in fact the whole city looks very Spanish, not at all like the more "European" style metropolises to the South. We arrived in the early evening and didn't really need food so we took advantage of our "welcome bottle of wine" (a lovely high-altitude Malbec) some cheese and bread then turned in early in readiness for a big trip the following day, we were visiting some high altitude salt flats.

The following morning we were greeted by our guide for the day and we got into a mini-bus with some fellow tourists and headed out for the mountains. The place we were visiting was called Salinas Grandes where due to altitude, sunshine and wind there are huge salt flats (as far as the eye can see) Every winter the flats fill with water and then over the long dry summer they crystalize into hard rock-salt for mile after mile which is then harvested to extract Salt (and Lithium which ends up in batteries). To get to them we had to drive over several mountain passes, one of which was 4170m high, we stopped there for photos, I think this is the highest I've ever been without being in an aircraft, the air was pretty thin and without any acclimatization it was prudent not to linger too long!

When we got to the flats we all got out and had a wander around, the UV being reflected from the salt was brutal, like snow almost all the radiation bounces off the salt and straight up into your eyes, sunglasses were essential and we couldn't stay there more more than 30 minutes or so without taking refuge in the mini-bus! In the photo above you can see a panorama of the flats and next to it a close up of how the crystals look underfoot, an amazing place, very alien, almost like being on another planet!

On the way back from the flats we stopped off at a little village called "Purmamarca", it was a welcome stop and chance to take a look round the local craft markets nestled between the mud buildings and to grab a hot meal for lunch! 

It was a fascinating place, set at an altitude of 2400m and shadowed by a fabulous striated rock formation called the "seven colours" I snapped a picture of one of the streets in Purmamarca (left) and the coloured rocks (right) In the middle was my lunch, Llama stew, yes it had to be done. I did enquire what wine to have with Llama but the waiter just gave me a bottle of beer, which was probably for the best at that altitude! Amusingly I enquired of ChatGPT later when back at the hotel and the response was "A full bodied Malbec, if you're going to eat Llama then you might as well have a wine that spits back!" Actually it tasted fine, very much like lamb..

The next day, and back in Salta we decided to explore the city. The first stop was the museum of high altitude archeology, this was one of the highlights of visiting the region. Inside the museum are the "Children of Llullaillaco", Inca children who were sacrificed over 500 years ago atop the Llullaillaco volcano (22,057ft) The children (of high status) were drugged with alcohol and coca (we know this because of analysis of their hair), then taken to the top of the mountain where they were entombed, alive. 

The children obviously died, probably of the temperature (it's -20 Celsius up there!) and due to the intense cold and dry atmosphere were perfectly preserved, their bodies were discovered in 1999 by archeologists and bought back down to a lab in Salta where they continue to be preserved in a specially designed de-humidified cold-store. Only one child is on display at any one time and photography is prohibited so here's a stock photo of the child that we saw.

It's a small boy (El Nino), around 4-5 years old who was buried along with two slightly older girls. I must say that the state of preservation was amazing, you could see individual hairs on the skin and manicured finger nails, all on a person that took his last breath when England was living under the Tudors!

Later in the afternoon we took a cable car up to the top of one of the smaller hills surrounding the city and took a light lunch while gazing down at the incredible view, I snapped a picture (see below) but these "pano" pictures never really do the landscape justice.

It was our last day in Salta, the following morning we would be heading back to the airport and a shuttle flight to our next destination, however, we did have one last meal in the city (see below) It was delicious and like most places in South America very cheap compared with home, the steaks were tender and tasty and the high-altitude wine was intense and flavoursome (note the cute little empanadas!).

We loved Salta a fascinating place with a rich history, we could easily have stayed longer but the Jungle was calling..

Cheesy Poems

 The cheesy'est poem I've ever seen, great work by Brian...

Upside Down?

 The family in this house have their Christmas tree upside down, or do they? :) 

New Continents - Part 5

 

So, after a quick flight back over the Andes we landed in Mendoza, Argentina and met up with our driver who took us to our accommodation for the next few days. Mendoza is both a city and a region, it's mainly a desert area (it rains very little there) but has good water supplies due to it's proximity to the high Andes and the snow melt every year, this makes the region very suitable for growing grapes. The largest crop of the region is wine but they also have vast acres turned over to fruit trees, various nuts and vegetables, farming is big business here.

We were staying in a "Wine Lodge" which is essentially a bunch of pre-fabricated buildings nestled among the vines with a central restaurant/admin building that you walk to in the morning for breakfast and in the evening for dinner (think high end holiday camp). In the picture above you can see the view from our bedroom, a small swimming pool (complete with large toads!), some vines and the majestic Andes mountains, it was quite a hypnotic and relaxing place to stay! The restaurant was only a few hundred metres away and had a really cool underground wine cellar with some 20,000 bottles, it was visible through glass panels in the floor of the bar area (see below) but later on in the stay we got the official tour!

Our schedule was fairly relaxed in Mendoza as our lodge was around 90 minutes drive from the city itself and in the middle of nowhere, so our options were limited, however, wine tasting was very much on the agenda and we visited several producers in the surrounding area over the couple of days that we were there.

First place we visited was Clos de Los Siete, a vast estate made up of several large producers with their own production facilities. The idea here is that each producer has their own separate business but every year they collaborate (best of the best) and produce a single wine. The whole thing was the brain child of a famous French wine consultant called Michel Rolland who made his name in the 80s in Bordeaux around the trend for stronger more fruit forward styles that caught the eye of the powerful US critic Robert Parker at the time. Anyway his vineyard here produces some of the best (IMO) wines of the region, some of which we got to try in probably the most spectacular tasting room I've ever seen!

This is his collaboration (blended) wine, it's not hugely expensive (around the £20 mark) and widely available in the UK, for example you can buy it in Waitrose!

Anyway, we turned up at the estate mid-morning and picked up our tour guide who gave us the story of the "Siete" (seven in Spanish) families involved in the collaboration. Then we jumped into the van and headed up to the first stop which was a rather grand looking group of buildings on the summit of a hill in front of us. Upon arrival we walked around to the main entrance and was greeted by a rather cute looking little Owl, apparently the Owl family live in a burrow just by the main entrance and are so well established that several of the wines have "Owl themed" names! I snapped a quick picture of the little bird just before we went into the building for our tour (see below)

I've been on many vineyard/winery tours in my life and they all follow a similar theme, a quick look at some stainless steel tanks, then some wooden barrels followed by a cellar full of bottles at which point everyone is eager to taste the actual wine. This one was pretty much on point so I won't dwell on it too much suffice to say that the location was totally spectacular with sweeping vistas of snow capped mountains and featureless desert, a real treat for the senses!

This (above) is the kind of thing I mean, imagine having this view to look at every day.. Anyway here I am in the tasting room contemplating the meaning of life and looking forward to getting stuck into tasting some of Mendoza's finest (see below).

Two of these wines were so good that I bought a couple of bottles at the shop on the way out to take back to our "lodge" and consume later that evening, watching the sun set over the Andes with an eclectic cheese platter and some delicious empanadas, life doesn't get much better...

As hinted, here's a picture (above) of the wine cellar under our restaurant, if only I had one of these back home. On a totally un-wine related topic, at breakfast we were treated to a brief viewing of a rather familiar little animal (see below), wild Guinea Pigs, it's South America, of course they have Guinea Pigs, this wasn't Peru however and the kitchen staff didn't rush out to catch the little critters to have for supper!

Wine gods satisfied we spent our last day in Mendoza touring around yet more wineries, sampling some delicious Malbecs, Cabernets, Chardonnays and Cabernet Franc based wines, at the end of it all we bid farewell to the vines and headed back to the airport and our next port of call up in the wilds of the North of Argentina and a city called "Salta"..

Friday Smirk

 The boys pointing out that what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander..

New Continents - Part 4

 

On our last day in Santiago we explored the city, one stop I particularly enjoyed was the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, housed in an 1805 building it featured exhibits of indigenous art and craft from pre-Columbian times, i.e. before America was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus. I knew very little about the native groups in South America prior to European colonisation, about the only culture I'd ever read about or seen on TV was the Aztecs but they only occupied the North of the continent with just a small foothold in what is now Chile. There were many and varies cultures that evolved on the continent and this museum attempted to cover most of them, in some detail, many stories and artefacts from ancient times were presented and the whole experience left me feeling like I knew practically zero about the history of the place, it was an eye-opener!

Some example pre-Columbian artefacts, they somehow reminded me of Japanese Samurai figures.

Modern Chilean art was mainly on display on the sides of the buildings in the form of street art and much like Valparaiso there were some splendid exampled in Santiago, the picture below shows an example of this from the Bellavista district.

On our last evening in the city we had dinner at a restaurant a friend had recommended to me, called "Bocanariz" it's more or less a wine bar that serves food but more fine dining than steak and chips. The wine list was epic and exclusively Chilean wines (which was fine by me!) and the food was unusual and delicious, I snapped a picture of the starters for our table of four, those little Cornish Pasties in the middle are called Empanadas and you can find them all over South America, these were of particularly good quality.

I had a rather unusual dish, essentially a Conger Eel and Clam stew, the eel tasted much like a firm cod fillet but the overall taste was very much like a more spicy version of fish soup, v. tasty! (see below)

Food gods satisfied we headed back to our hotel for an early start the next day, we were off to wine country and back over the mountains to Argentina!

Stinky

 

I tried a new beer from Elusive at the weekend, called "Shibuya" it was a pale ale saturated in Mosaic and Krush hops. Weighing in at a sensible 4.5% this beer was absolutely stinking (in a good way) Mosaic hops tend to be quite fragrant and this was a perfect example of the craft, dank blueberries and citrus for days, so flavoursome and so easy to drink, another winner for Andy Parker and crew!

New Continents - Part 3

 

Day two in Santiago, I snapped this picture just before we headed out for the day on a tour of Valparaiso, which is a port city of historical note on the Pacific Ocean, around 120km from Santiago. The photo shows the "Gran Torre Santiago", the tallest building in South America (as opposed to Latin America, there's a taller one in Mexico) it's 300m tall and was built in 2014, you can see it from pretty much everywhere in the city. The construction is particularly ambitious since, being on the Pacific "ring of fire", means that  Chile is very prone to earthquakes, the last one in Santiago was a 3.9 magnitude quake in October 2025 and they get around 50+ events every year here! You can also see some of the bigger mountains surrounding the city in this shot.

In the photo above is Valparaiso port and bay, the city was founded in 1536 by Spanish explorers and later in 1578 was attacked by Francis Drake in his ship the Golden Hind, however the city grew to prominence in the 19th century as sailing ships stopped here after rounding South America via the Straights of Magellan and Cape Horn. The golden era of the city came around the 1850's when supplies were needed by ships heading up to the California gold rush, it became a major sea port at this time and many people from all over Europe came to make their fortunes. This can be seen in the architecture of the place, it's a mix of new and old like most cities but some of the old buildings look like they could have been lifted directly from Paris, London, Bavaria or even Florence.

In the photo above is a monument to the Heroes of Iquique, an important naval battle between the forces of Chile and Peru in 1879, below the monument is a crypt that contains the remains of senior figures who died in the battles. Note the very "French" looking Government building behind the monument, this is typical of the city, such a mixture of building styles, so far from their origins. During it's golden era the city was known as "Little San Francisco", I can understand why as it sprawls out over several steep hills that lead down to the coast and the port. Like San Francisco the city suffers from earth quakes, being near the Peru-Chile Trench it is vulnerable, a big quake struck in 1906, estimated at 8.2 it killed over 3000 people and the city had to be substantially re-built. 

The golden era of the city came to a crashing end in 1914 when the Panama canal opened, ships no longer needed to risk the long and dangerous rounding of "the Horn" and trade in the port declined sharply and wealthy trading families left for Santiago and richer pickings. By the early 1990s much of the unique heritage had been lost and many people had given up on the city however, in the mid-90s a grassroots preservation movement blossomed and communities of artists took up residence in the run-down labyrinth of cobbled streets.

The city is well known now as a haven for street artists, musicians and writers the walls of most of the buildings are covered in art, much of it very high quality and political in nature (featuring Elon Musk and Donald Trump). These artists use these walls as advertisements for their work, many have gone on to be commissioned to do larger or more prestigious works in cities around the world. I've stitched together a few examples to illustrate this, see below.

We stopped for lunch in Valparaiso and went to a local restaurant suggested by our guide, it was amazing, a panoramic view of the city and bay with beautifully presented food, excellent wine and so, so cheap! We had three courses and drinks for around £20 a head, I had a really tasty fresh ceviche (we were by the seaside after all!) with avocado (see below)

On the way back from the coast we had to drive through the Casablanca Valley, this is a well known wine growing region and so we couldn't resist stopping off for a little afternoon wine tasting (our guide was driving!) We visited a producer called "Re" who specialised in fermenting  their wines in large concrete foudres rather than stainless steel tanks, there were some interesting blends on offer, both red and white. Having worked our way through a flight of wines and having walked around 10k in Valparaiso everyone was keen for a little knap in the van, it took an hour or so to get back to Santiago, just in time for a shower and change of clothes then out for a few beers at Honest Mike's (renamed by us to "Magic Mike's") then dinner!

Our last day in Santiago loomed, we wanted to explore the city, do a few select museums and then dine at a recommend restaurant that specialised in Chilean wines, it was another jam-packed day, more in the next part.

New Continents - Part 2

 

Our first leg of the tour was to Chile and the capital city of that country, Santiago. The flight across Argentina and the Andes mountains from Buenos Aires took just over two hours and the whole thing was done with the seat belt sign illuminated! Apparently this is in the top handful of most "turbulent" flights in the world, although we were lucky and didn't really experience a single serious bump! Anyway, it was a crystal clear day and the views of the mountains were spectacular, I was fortunate enough to have a window seat, it was slightly disconcerting as some of those peaks seemed to be level to or even above the altitude of the aircraft! (see below)

In this shot you can see the famous "Aconcagua" peak (in the background) it's the highest mountain on the American continent and entire Western and Southern Hemispheres, at 7000 metres it's a beast of a hill! Around three people a year die climbing this mountain and I heard from someone who has climbed it that when she did it there was a dead body visible on the trail up to the summit, serious stuff! 

Luckily our passage of the Andes was uneventful and we landed in Santiago in the early afternoon, greeted by blue skies and bright sunshine. After picking up our luggage we made our way to our hotel in the Lastarria district, not the posh part of town, but one with a good reputation for bars and restaurants being close to the main University. Check in done we unpacked our bags and headed straight out to explore our new neighbourhood!

Santiago is in a bowl, surrounded by mountains, on the edge of our district is a park with an old Spanish fort on a hill. We climbed the hill and this is the view from the top (above), the taller of the peaks were behind me but even in Summer there's still plenty of snow on top of them.

Of course I couldn't come this far across the world without seeking out some local brews and we lucked out finding a rather unlikely named bar called "El Honesto Mike" just around the corner from our accommodation. We were slightly skeptical at first but this little bar turned out to be a diamond in the rough, the beers were varied and spectacularly good, as tasty as you could find in any European city! I opted for a pint of "Micro Dosis" a session pale made by the "Hasta Pronto Brewing Co" in Santiago with American hops, all the tropical fruits and depth of flavour you could want and delightfully chilled in the searing Southern Hemisphere heat. 

Our first day in the city had been a success, flights on time, no lost bags a clean and tidy hotel and great local craft beer! After a tasty (and incredibly cheap) meal in a local restaurant and a couple of beers we turned in for an early night, we had a busy schedule the next day and an early start!