Adios Buenos Aires….bring on the South

So after exploring Buenos Aires by foot even Andrew’s legs were tired. I think we have pretty much walked through every touristy suburb and even a few not so touristy suburbs.

We spoilt ourselves with a dinner and tango show which we really enjoyed. It was quite fun putting on something a little smarter but I did feel a little strange wearing my sandals with my little black dress ;). There are tango dancers on every street corner. Very inspiring and just wish I had longer legs… (Emily…this would be perfect for you)

 

 

 

Necropolis where Evita is "supposed" to be resting...

Inside one of the tombs...Andrew got creative with his photogrophy and managed to get the camera lens inside...a bit spooky for me

We had a wonderful few days touring the city of the tango. From visiting the Necropolis (see the photo’s) where Evita is supposed to be resting in the fancy neighbourhood of Recoleta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leather goods in the market... notice the leather face masks and no we did not buy one he he

 

We explored the Sunday market in San Telmo (which was my favourite…. and Andrew very patiently watched me oogle at all the chandeliers and leather jackets etc) with beautiful cobbled streets and antique shops everywhere, to La Boca where we saw the La Bocca stadium and examined the brightly painted corrugated metal buildings. We were also quite surprised at the poverty and the state of some of the houses.

We then walked all the way to Puerto Madero (the new up and coming fancy area in the old harbour) and watched all the skateboarders and rollerbladers whizz by. We had a yummy supper on the water’s edge and Andrew was amazed when I ordered and drank my first full draft (Trace.. you should be proud)…. like I said earlier… we had walked a really long way.

Loading the bike in BA and getting ready to start the journey

On Monday Andrew headed off to the airport with a key to the silver steed and great hopes. I got a little nervous when I heard he had left the airport without the map but true to form he arrived with a huge smile. We loaded the bike and were ready to start only to be greeted by a thunderstorm. We waited for the rain to subside and did our first hundred kilometres with absolute elation to be on our way.

So for the next few days we drove South and managed to cover a large amount of distance. The bike is really amazing and we can feel the power that it has compared to the Dakar (the Dakar is the bike we did the Africa trip on, It was a 650 CC and this bike is a 1200CC). It really helped when we needed to overtake truck after truck in one section. This eastern section has lots of farmlands and lots of open space. It reminded us quite a bit of home.

Filling the bike on route

Just as well that we have GPS...

Gray foxes on the Valdes peninsula

Our first live experience of an armadillo

We headed all the way down to the Valdes peninsula. This is supposed to be one of the best places to view sea life and we were really excited. After driving about 200km of dirt road (rippio in Spanish) we had only seen a few sea lions (6), quite a few seals, some magellanic penguins and no elephant seals. (I got a bit confused with the translation and was expecting to find an elephant park …. until I realised that this would be quite impossible and read the tourist book and found out it was elephant seals ). What we did see though was some gray foxes, some guanacos and 2 armadillos which was superb. Camping was fun but what we did misunderstand was that the showers were only open at 7pm…. so we ended up trying to get clean using a towel and a basin which is never easy, but then another yummy Argentinian steak made everything better.

Riding the ripio on Peninsula Valdes

The riding definitely takes some sort of “riding fitness” which Andrew naturally has and I have been working on. It is quite something cutting right back to basics again and not having much luxury. Andy has luckily let me have an afternoon of R and R and after painting my toenails and washing my hair I am ready to hit the road again.

Tomorrow we are heading to Sarmiento which is a South African colony in the middle of Argentinia so hopefully we will hear a bit of Afrikaans….

Till the next post….thanks again for all the comments and we love hearing from you.