Thewesternprovinceblog

A 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 history nerd travelling The New World. ¿What could possibly go wrong? Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa 🇦🇷

recent posts

about

A 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 history nerd travelling The New World. ¿What could possibly go wrong? Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa 🇦🇷 in 🇨🇴

  • At The Gates of Patagonia

    Hola todos! Today I have finally reached what is considered the edge of Patagonia! I am currently in a lovely little town in the mountains called Pucón. I didn’t plan to come here as I didn’t even know about this place but my guide back in Valparaiso really recommended I come here and I’m glad I took her advice with this one as this place is a lovely hidden gem in the mountains.

    So what’s there to do here? Well there are lots of hikes and hot springs you can visit and that is exactly what I plan to do over the next few days though my first proper day here I did not do all that much as firstly the weather was crap and I had to get myself geared up for going out in this. By that I mean buying a brolly, gloves and a beany hat. I also really needed to do laundry too. Had planed to sort that out in Concepción but nowhere was open for that as it was a holiday in Chile I’ve later learned.

    Pucón as I mentioned is a pretty and laid back kind of place. Honestly it doesn’t feel like your in south America here but more like you could be in Northern Europe or maybe Canada or those little US states north of New York to give an idea of the look of the place. While doing my admin I had a decent look round I like the style of this place.

    There is also a huge snow covered volcano here but you can’t see it with all the fog about which is a bit of a shame. Anyway I’ve decided I will stay here until Saturday, maybe a little longer before hitting the road to Puerto Montt and then heading back into Argentina for the final stretch to Trevelin. 

    The next few blogs will be about the places around Pucón.

  • A Rather Boring Pit Stop – Concepción – General update blog

    Hola todos. I was debating whether or not to do a blog on this leg as on the way south I had a brief 2 night pit stop in a city called Concepción but nothing much really happened there and there was nothing going on of note. Concepción is a new fairly ugly modern city and I didn’t do much at all while I was here, just get some rest after the quick exit from Santiago and Valparaíso. I did plan to do this hike up to a mirador while here but when I was about to go the weather had other 

    Being this far south in early May is like the same as being in late October back in the UK or northern Europe, temperature on average has dropped to around 12 degrees in the day with it going down to single digits in the night. We are also seeing lots of Dartmoor esque weather – heavy drizzle of the kind where you just get soaked after 5-10 minutes out in it with it looking to get colder and wetter the further south we go. Often there is also lots of Silent Hill style fog outside both at day and night. It really does feel like a journey to the end of the world now.

    It’s been a long road and Patagonia feels so close yet still so far away but this journey is almost complete. As I write this blog post I am on a bus south heading to a little place in the mountains that is considered ‘The Gateway to Patagonia’. We will cover this on the next installment.

    I have to say keeping up this blog for the last 8 months has been somewhat tedious along with the final travel legs especially as we get near the end but I have a feeling it will all be worth it once we finally reach the finish line which shouldn’t be more than a week or 2 away now.

    Anyways not much else to say at this point but thank you for your continued support all those who have followed this mad Journey. 

    Stay tuned for the next one when we finally enter Patagonia 🇨🇱🇦🇷 and onto the final stretch to the fabled lands of Ar Wladfa 🇦🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇦🇷

  • The Colored streets of Valparaíso

    Hola todos! After my hurried exit from Santiago I decided to stay in a small town near Valparaíso by the name of Viña del Mar. This place wasn’t much to write about but it was only 10 minutes on the colectivo to Valparaíso.

    So off I went to Valparaíso and again booked onto one of those free walking tours. Where the tour. Starts in the lower town it’s a bit grotty and looks rough but meeting up with the guide she explained all the lower town used to be ocean back in the day so nobody lives down here really. With that started turns out it was only me booked today so kind of get a private tour.

    As we start heading up the hills I chat to my guide, she us actually French and moved here 2 years ago after falling in love with the place on her own backpacking trip. Was interesting to chat about that while I told her what I was doing as well. She actually gave me some good recommendations for Chilean Patagonia too which I am now days away from after nearly 8 months on the road!!

    Now on to Valparaíso, this is a purely European style city as it was quite late to develop into a major port. Valparaíso became the main port of Chile from 1810 and by the 1830s it was a coastal boom town with most of its growth coming from European settlers namely British. French, Italian and German colonists. Because of this the city has a very diverse mixture of European style buildings in the style of what quarter was settled by whom. 

    In among all this classic architecture can be found loads of small streets completely lined with street art, all of it drawn by hand with pencils and pen so it takes ages but almost all the artists are local here. It’s impossible to remember what every painting means but the overall gist of it was it was a subtle act of rebellion during the Pinoche era and has since become a means of freedom of expression in the modern days. Many of the murals are of a political nature representating some event or someone who ‘disappeared’ during the Pinoche regime.

    What else to note? Valparaíso isn’t the biggest port here anymore though it still is the second largest port and also is where the Chilean Navy is headquartered, despite this the towns economy very much depends on tourism and when COVID hit much of the money got wiped out. My guide told me it’s only now starting to pick up but the city has a bad reputation as during that time things got quite dangerous here but it is slowly recovering these days. In the lower town I can see why it had that reputation though in the upper levels there was quite a tight sense of community there where it looked like everyone knew everyone. 

    We came to the end of this tour and I hanged about for a bit and had some lunch there. I did consider moving over and staying there for a day or 2 but decided no, better to keep moving and put some more distance between me and Santiago. Also sooner we reach Patagonia sooner we can slow down again.

    So now I am on my way to Concepción, a city halfway between here and the entrance to Patagonia. It will be a short stay there before we effectively reach the ‘Gates of Patagonia’

    If anything interesting happens will be sure to mention on the next installment.

  • A Brief Stay In Santiago de Chile

    Hola todos. This one will cover our short stay in Santiago before heading to the coast and carrying on south.

    After last nights fun and games on arrival it was time to do the usual thing, of booking onto a walking tour of the city. So off I go to the meeting place in Plaza de Armas, i meet up with them a little early and go have a look inside the grand cathedral in the centre of the city. After this the rest of the group arrives.

    On the tour they explain the history of Santiago from it’s founding by Pedro Valdivia in 1541 through to the dictatorship under Pinoche to modern times.

    The construction of Santiago is a big mix of modern and historic as the city has seen many earthquakes over the years being on one of the most sensitive points where the South American and Nazca plates meet. The city has been destroyed twice by earthquakes, first in 1610 then another in 1960, today the country is better prepared for them but in those times they were not.

    Walking through the city we come to a district built in the style of 1900s New York named ‘Barrio New York’ which was from the Golden age of Chile in the late 19th century when they made massive money of selling saltpeter, used at the time to make gunpowder, most of this also coming from the Antofagasta región which they taken by force from Peru and Bolivia in the Pacific war of 1879-84. It’s that war which is why Bolivia does not have a coastline today. Barrio New York did look impressive.

    Finally that tour reached the Chilean presidential House where they explained the Pinoche era. In 1973 Pinoche came to power through coup and stayed in power till 1990. In the park outside the presidential House you can still see markings on the trees and nearby houses from the bullet holes from the coup. Today there is still a lot of division in Chile over the Pinoche era. They told us twice in recent years they tried to change the Constitution of Chile but twice they couldn’t come to an agreement. So Chiles constitution today is still the one from the dictatorship. It’s caused a whole load of social issues in the country which are too much to talk about on here but if I remember correctly part of the reason they don’t have universal health care here is because of this constitution not being able to be changed. 

    The tour ended at a place called Santa Lucia which was an interesting little castle on a hill which was a big fort to defend the city built in the aftermath of the Independence wars. I went up there and it has a great view of the whole city. 

    Now for the end of this I had planned to head to Valparaíso for a few days after my initial 3 nights here were done. My original plan was to come back to Santiago for a bit after but to skip over the details I had a major falling out with one of my friends back from Córdoba who was coming here, it would mean we couldn’t hang out as a group anymore so following that I decided my best move was to keep heading south from Valparaíso. Sucks but it’s a reminder about how quickly a throwaway comment can ruin relationships. Oh well. 

    Next blog we get immersed into the street art of Valparaíso.

  • The Crossing Into Chile 🇨🇱

    Hola todos! First one for the Chile leg.

    Having chilled in Mendoza for a bit after the vino tours it was soon time to head for Chile. It was an early start out of Mendoza leaving on an 8am bus for the border. We are out on time and it’s a pretty relaxed ride to the border, pro tip if you ever do this route sit on the right hand side as that gives the best views of the mountains. Speaking of the mountains there are lots of them and many of them covered in snow on the tops – a reminder that we need to be getting a shift on to getting to Patagonia before the snows come into the mountain passes. 

    After some nice mountain views we ascend up into the pass to Los Liberadores Border crossing. Border crossing was pretty easy going though Chile is very strict with bringing outside foods of certain types into the country which you have to fill out a SAG customs form and they scan your bags at the border crossings. Still it was pretty easy and the whole process took about 5 minutes and we were soon back on the bus and on our way.

    Descending from the mountains into Chile the roads are pretty mental with lots of twists and turns and huge mountains. Yeah this would be impassable if it snowed.

    Soon after that we drop down into the valley where Santiago de Chile sits. Overall this part of Chile is quite barren and arid. Soon we pull into Santiago and my first impression is the city looks Sovietic all the tower blocks everywhere and seems ugly from where the bus pulls us into.

    Next is getting to the gaff which turns out to be q bit of a nightmare as Chile has a different currency and I didn’t get any in advance. In the bus station I have a nightmare trying to get cash out of the ATMs with 2 machine I use going out of order but thankfully they didn’t swallow my card – needed cash for thr Metro but as couldn’t get cash out I ended up booking an Uber instead. I have the Uber drop me off to a cash point near my gaff which thankfully works and I am soon checked in okay.

    Next up is getting basics sorted. The place I’m in has a fridge so I decide to go and get some tinnies along with water and other basic supplies. This turns out to be a complete side quest in itself as in Santiago only 2 supermarket chains sell beer. Long story short I end up spending the next hour walking through about 10 mini markets and 3 supermercados looking for tins until I eventually message my friend Andy about that “Lider express is the one” and turns out there was one next to me 5 minutes away but I walked 40 in the opposite direction. Doh 🤦‍♂️. 

    Eventually we get there get some cans food and water sorted then go back to the gaff for some well earned rest. I then go back out later and have a look round but there doesn’t seem to be much in my area. Unfortunately not a great first impression.

    Next installment we explore Santiago, fall out with friends and make a hasty escape to the coast!

  • When in Mendoza we drink wine 🍷

    video here:

    Hola todos! Was a bit unsure of how to put this one together since there was way too many vinos and interesting bits to put in 20 slides so here’s a short video montage of everything we did on this vino tour.

    So I booked a vino tour with this company called @Viajes_y_diseño which consisted of a visit to 3 wineries and an olive oil factory. This tour costed about £18 but was well worth the money. It is an afternoon tour that runs from 14:00 to 20:00. So off we go to the first Winery, @Familia Cecchin, here we had a brief tour of the vineyards and then a quick look at the machinery they used to crush the grapes and ferment the vino on an industrial scale. Also an interesting note to take was this first Winery was fully organic, as in no chemicals were used in the the process of growing the grapes, one of only a handful of fully organic wineries out of Mendoza’s some 1000 wineries.

    Then we got to tasting where we had 4 generous samples one orange wine. 2 reds, a Malbec and a Cabernet Sauvignon and one white. Each sample was about half what a normal glass of vino would be so to say generous is an understatement.

    Next we moved on to winery number 2, a more industrial winery by the name of @Casacorbel.bodegon when you get here your first given 2 Rosé wines to try, just as generous as the first place in samples we were given. We then are shown round the place and get brought to Giant old wine barrels which you can actually go inside. At this point it’s another 4 vino samples of different red wines. Safe to say everyone is a little tipsy after that.

    Next it is the olive oil plantation and factory which I forget the name of but it was interesting, in a similar sense to how things were back on the coffee plantations it is a laborious process which also is time constrained as they can only harvest in certain times of the year and the harvest has to be done fairly quickly. To extract the olive oil they use machinery and fill up large silos with the stuff. From what I remember it has to be kept at a certain temperature while they extract but would have to double check on that. After the factory tour we’re given samples of different strength oils to try with some bread. Was interesting visit and glad they didn’t drag this part out too much.

    After this was the final Winery which was more of a museum, again didn’t get the name of this one but we are shown round the wine cellars before being given another load of wine to taste, I think about 5 other different vinos.

    All in all I would say it was an excellent tour well worth the money, if you ask me you probably get that much worth of Vino! 

    The rest of my time in Mendoza was spent not doing a whole lot besides sorting some admin out for the next bunch of onward travel. The next blog will take us into Chile 🇨🇱 and onto the final stretch before Patagonia.

    Gallery below:

  • Mendoza – Argentina’s Vino country 🍷

    Hola todos! First of 2 blogs for Mendoza.

    So after our last few days in Córdoba I have a somewhat early start for my bus to Mendoza being up at 0630. I get myself down to the terminal and we are soon off but I am feeling a little worse for wear like a head cold is coming in. Ayayay! 

    The ride down takes about 9.5 hours and is largely uneventful – a lot of Argentina is flatlands as far as the eye can see so not that much to see until you hit the Andes again.

    So skipping over the bus journey I arrive at Mendoza about 18:00 then get myself checked in and go for a look round. There are some pretty parks here and the city has a chill vibe. I have some dinner in this Bodegón, a family owned restaurant where they serve traditional grub here. I find a nice Irish bar as well and have a few gentle pints then turn in.

    Next day its time for the obligatory walking tour. Still feeling rough I opt for the afternoon slot. It is a small group, being myself this German girl and our guide, we go off exploring those plazas I had a brief look around before, during which time all these deep grates and gaps in the street are explained; Mendoza is actually situated in the middle of a desert and all of its water comes from melting snows on top of the Andes during the spring. The entire city and the smaller towns around it are covered by an intricate irrigation system. This is also how they are able to keep the wineries watered. This process was taught to the local Huarpe people’s over 500 years ago by the Incas – the Incas never ruled Mendoza but the Incan empire did stretch as far down as Santiago Chile just over the other side of the mountains here. Interesting but you have to watch your step here. Health and safety would be all over this back home!

    After wrapping up the walking tour I learned there was a language exchange on at that Irish pub I went to the other night so decided to go there. Unfortunately most of the people there were Canadian expats so not much Spanish was spoken but as is the nature of these things they can be hit and miss. Es lo que hay!

    Next installment we will do a deep dive into the wineries of Mendoza 🍷

  • Good times and Boggin’ weather ⛈️

    So for our second Córdoba blog we begin at half past 4pm on our second day here where I meet up with new best friends Brad and Andy to jump on this second free walking tour. We meet up then soon after the guide shows up and we start the tour of Nueva Córdoba – the cool new part of town.

    We start by walking around by the metropolitan art museum, this underground museum which has a glass roof which you can walk over. It’s a also a soundproofed area which means it blocks out outside noise in this context so sounds within are louder. They apparently used to have raves on this roof but stopped them after a few panels started cracking. I wonder why.

    We move on to Parque Sarmiento which is a huge park which has lots to see though we only end up seeing a small part of it as at this point the Welsh tap once again caught up with us and a massive downpour started happening. Also none of us had a brolly so we all got quite wet walking back towards the centre where we stop at this coffee shop but during this time the weather gets worse and we all get completely drenched walking back towards the final stop. It is at this point we all decide to bail on the tour, pay the guide lady a fiver each then what do we do? Well we all end up going to a pub of course! So yes the next few hours are spent drinking and drying off. Eventually we go back to our favourite bar, Antares before calling it a night. 

    At this point Brad leaves us as he is heading to some places South for a bit but is heading to Mendoza and says he will catch me there in a few days. Meanwhile the next 2 days end up being a similar thing to how this went, bogging weather not doing much in the day then meeting up with Andy for food and drinks in the night. Fast forward another 3 or 4 days and it’s time to move on to Mendoza.

    Yeah that pretty much sums up Córdoba, a chill city and probably very fun if your a student here (there’s 6 uni’s here) but as a foreigner it was cool but a bit on the boring side I found as once you do the tours and a few museums not much else to see here besides bar hopping in the night which is exactly what Andy and Me end up doing. It has been also difficult to connect with the locals so far in Argentina compared to Bolivia, this is another place where everyone is in their own closed groups and it is hard to break into that on your own. Good job we met those fellas otherwise it would have been a much more boring leg.

    Oh well onwards to Mendoza!

  • Córdoba – Arrival, old town and new friends

    Hola todos! It’s been a while since the last blog post hasn’t it? I wish I had some big story to tell behind the delay but there really hasn’t been that much happening worth writing about happening on this Córdoba leg. It can roughly be summed up as doing a few walking tours, bad weather and a lot of drinking with these new pals I met. Nevertheless let’s run through how our stay here went.

    So firstly I arrived got out of the bus station and walked to my gaff. I booked a nice little Airbnb in the centre of town smack bang between the trendy part and the old town. The place was nice and also on the 9th floor of this building which had shall we say a very interesting lift – you push the button and it starts moving without the usual delay. It is also a bit on the claustrophobic side so good fun.

    My first night is pretty uneventful so the usual thing go out have some dinner then do a bit of bar hopping, end up in a place called Antares where I end up making friends with one of the local piss pots which was a good laugh. After that I turned in for a fairly early one after a 10 hour travel day.

    Next morning it was down into the old town for the obligatory walking tour. This was interesting as our guide showed us the Jesuit buildings and the cathedral and also another place which has a rather dark past from the days of the dictatorships here. Let’s just say if went in here back in the day you probably weren’t coming out – the regimes learned a lot of their torture techniques from the Nazis (and probably a few of them were in the regimes too!). It was a sobering experience to say the least. What was next? We seen some underground Jesuit built crypts. Apparently there are a lot more underground which is why Córdoba isn’t going to be having a subway anytime soon.

    At the end of the walking tour we finish at a pretty decent restaurant and I end up having lunch with these 2 English lads. Meet new best friends Andy and Brad, both were pretty interesting. Andy has been sort of nomading this last year teaching online and right now is based mainly in Santiago de Chile, which I am headed to after Mendoza so said we will catch up. Brad the other chap is doing a similar thing to me and is on week 3 of his own 5/6 month trip. He will be passing through some of the places I did in Bolivia and Peru, I gave him some recommendations as we lunched and had a few beers.

    The guide we were with mentioned a second evening walking tour of the new part of the city but we never did this today as we spend the afternoon drinking and watching footy. We all end up having an early one that first proper day in town. We agreed however to meet up the next day and do that evening walking tour which ends up being quite an event but that we will cover on the next one. Ciao ciao por ahora!

  • Things to do in Termas de Río Hondo

    Hola todos! So on the way to Córdoba i stopped at a sleepy little place called Termas de Río Hondo, this place is a little hot springs town halfway between there and Salta. I decided to spend 2 nights here to see what the place was like.

    I get there after the 7 hour bus ride and promptly walk over to my gaff usual story sling the bags in shower up go have a look round and as expected there is not much going on here, I find 2 things to note in the town centre, the first is the public pool, take a walk there and turns out of the two pools there only one of them is in use which is rather small but I decide okay I can come back here and have a swim tomorrow.

    Next I’m looking round and find a casino hotel. With nothing much else to let’s go in and waste a tenner or 2. In we go and hit the slots and it looks like half the town is here, and that’s not a lot of people, mostly old folks I would guess the median age here is around 55 or so. I play the slots for a bit spend an hour there not making or losing and real money then go out to eat and have a drink, time goes by and it’s time to turn in.

    The next day ends up being a bit of a wasted one. The weather is a bit crap wandering round town drizzly but muggy, I go to that pool but decide I can’t really be assed for this and see what else is about. There is another dino park on the edge of town but it was closed. There is also a classic car museum but that’s way out of town and would have needed to have taken a taxi over there. I end up deciding not to bother with this either and just grab a brew and make my plans to get gone tomorrow, book my bus and a place to stay then by now its mid afternoon so back to the gaff, chill for a  bit and wait out the crap weather. 

    Later I head out do the same thing as last night and end up having an early one. Waiting for the bus the next morning I get chatting to this older lady who tells me that I hit this place at the wrong time, apparently in May there’s lots of fiesta here as there’s an annual event here but sadly I have to be pushing on to Patagonia so couldn’t be coming back through for that.

    Despite a delay we are soon on our way to Córdoba. What will the RNG roll us here I wonder……

    https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZV73EEczt/?igsh=azJoZ2lmbHU3ZXNu