Day 17
When we woke up it was raining and, considering the previous day´s exertions, we decided to treat ourselves to a day slobbing in front of the hostel tv.
This did give me some much needed time to reflect on my impressions of Argentina so far. Firstly, Argentina is the most European country I´ve ever been to outside Europe. Whilst Sydney, Hong Kong, Israel etc. seem
to follow the American model, Argentina appears more Mediterranean; a cross between a Greek Island and the south of France. Secondly, Argentina is still rather bitter about the Falklands. There is a map of Argentina in the hostel and not only does it say the Falklands are owned by Argentina not the UK, it even renames the capital city; Port Stanley is thus Puerto Argentino. Thirdly, and linked to the above two, Argentina is a very proud country and sees itself very much as part of the (European) first world. Perhaps rightly so. It has been at various points in its history one of the richest few economies in the world and excels in art, literature etc.
I believe though that the heart of a country´s character can be discerned from within its supermarkets and, with our budgets gradually getting more and more streched, we have begun to spend rather a lot of time browsing their aisles. Centrally, Argentineans love their cows. The entire meat counter is given over to beef. It is touch to find even fresh chicken, let alone the holy grail that is fish. After having checked out near to seven different supermarkets I have come to conclude that Argentineans simply don´t eat the stuff. As for the sweet stuff, whole aisles are also dedicated to dulce de leche (which incidentally also infuses every sweet and savoury dish from breakfast through to dinner) and counter upon counter display the most elaborate cream and meringue cake creations all sold for a pittance (for instance a 12-person tiramasu costing just over a pound). Quite usefully, fruit is sold ready-to-eat (i.e. the avocados and peaches are perfectly ripe, which makes a great change from the tradition in England of waiting 2 weeks for your Tesco´s mango to get soft). Finally, pregnant women get to queue-jump at the check-out. While I applaud the sentiment, I did spend 45 minutes the other day cursing womankind as one pregnant lady after another wobbled merrily past me in the line. There were literally dozens. I tell you, Argentina does not need to worry about population stagnation or increasing dependency ratios!
Day 18
Waking up long before dawn we said goodbye to our lovely hostel and grabbed the 7 hour bus across the border into Santiago, the capital of Chile. The bus ride was an event in itself as it took us high up into the Andes, weaving inbetween cloud-covered peaks and greenish-blue lakes.
The amazing vistas gave a suitably dramatic background to our sad realisation that no food was allowed to pass the border into Chile. You could almost see the tears in the girls´ eyes as we had to bin our beloved packets of biscuits, adored cereal bars and highly necessary tic-tacs.
Arriving into boiling hot Santiago, we headed straight to our new hostel´s pool and jacuzzi. This hostel occupied an old mansion house and had impressively high stuccoed ceilings, wide corridors and more lounges than Heathrow.
Day 19
After beginning the day with a run round Santiago´s parks, we spent the afternoon seeing the city´s sights. Josie as ever managed ´accidentally´ to bring us to Santiago´s law courts, whilst I dragged us to the Congress building. The museum of Pre-Colombian art was unfortunately closed, but I do query the decision to rent the basement out to an adult cinema,
We visited Pablo Neruda´s house, with Tom being particularly impressed by the local intellectual graffiti;
We then climbed a couple of hills, each affording spectacular views of the city. Santiago is situated in a bowl, utterly surrounding by the snowy peaks of the Andes. The pictures do not really do justice to just how breath-taking the city looked from above;
For dinner we treated ourselves to a visit to Santiago´s oldest cafe, the charming Confiteria Torres. Photos of the presidents, writers and artists who had dined there graced the walls and I´m sure a photo of the four of us will soon be added to the list. To start, Tom had a beef consomme to start and the girls Pil-Pil shrimps;
Seeing my dismay that the kitchens had run out of Pumpkin soup, the chef specially prepared an alternative spinach soup for me which I can honestly say without any hyperbole was the best soup ever made;
For the main courses we had some classic Chilean dishes. I had a conger eel baked in butter, salt and pepper, with a light cream sauce of picarocos and shallots. This was my first time tasting eel and it didn´t disappoint. It looked like fish and had a texture in between that of cod and squid.
Day 20
Got a bus back to Mendoza and spent the afternoon sunbathing. We are about to get another bus now to take us to Cordoba
No comments:
Post a Comment