Chile - Santiago

We left Argentina today and flew to Chile. We were not quite sure what to expect with Santiago and have been really pleasantly surprised. 

Santiago is a city of 9 million people but is extremely clean and seemingly ordered. Everyone is so friendly even though our Spanish is ... well... pretty much non existent! Our hotel is in the old centre which is very pretty with some beautiful buildings which we wandered around this evening.

Argentina - Buenos Aires

Today we went on the second free walking tour that BA Free Tours offers. This one explored Avenue de Mayo and spoke more about the history and political side of Argentina as at either end of the Ave are the National Congress and Government House. We learnt about Argentina’s Independence and it’s ride to democracy from the dictatorship that was in power during the late 70’s - early 80’s. It was a very interesting couple of hours which was followed by a coffee and snack in one of the oldest cafe’s in Buenos Aires that has been open since 1858.

Tonight we splurged and went to dinner with a Tango show. We felt a little underdressed in our jeans but enjoyed it just the same. We had our own booth table and were treated to a spectacular 3 course meal and wine which was finished off with a marvellous show. The skill in the dancers was quite spectacular. We were dropped home a little before 1am very happy but quite sleepy :-).

Argentina - Buenos Aires

Another good sleep last night was followed by another morning of waking up a little earlier than we would have liked however we needed to get up and go exploring this beautiful city again.

This morning we boarded the BA hop on-hop off bus to try to get a broader perspective of the lay out of this large city. Our first stop was the historic, colourful suburb of La Boca. La Boca was originally settled and built by Italian immigrants and today is both an artist colony and a working class neighbourhood. The main streets are brightly coloured and very cool. La Boca is also the home to the La Bombonera Stadium which is the home of the Boca Juniors, BA’s favourite soccer team. We next explored Port Madera which was traditionally the trade port for Buenos Aires but has now been developed into apartments and restaurants which reminded us both of Melbourne. After this we stayed on the bus for the remaining sections, travelling through Recoleta and Retiro. Recoleta's cemetery is where the famous Eva (Evita) Peron is buried.

This afternoon we did a walking tour with BA free tours. It was great. The tour took us through Recoleta and Retiro showing us the aristocratic side of BA. We learnt that the reason BA is so European in appearance is because the palaces (which are now embassies) were built by European families who imported all the materials from Europe! There were some other important sites as well, for example, the site of the old Israeli Embassy which is now a memorial site as it was bombed in a terrorist attack, and the Falklands War memorial.

Tonight, for dinner, we walked to an awesome steakhouse, La Brigada, which was recommended by our tour guide from this afternoon. Jack had a T-bone which was the size of his plate and Brii had an Eye fillet that she struggled to finish. The steak was so tender the waiters were literally cutting it with a spoon! It was a delicious meal!

Argentina - Buenos Aires

We both woke early this morning, far earlier than we planned - Doh! But we both did have great sleeps so we  went out to explore this new city and try to decide how we would spend our next few days.

We walked into the city centre and explored the area and its pedestrianised streets. After lunch we made our way back to the hotel to relax and rest as we were both still a little tired. 

Tonight we enjoyed a dinner at a local restaurant and then another early night.

Argentina - Buenos Aires

After a very short sleep we returned to the Johannesburg Airport and boarded our flight to Buenos Aires. The flight was over 11h and well, what can you say about an 11h flight?!

We eventually made it to our hotel in the centre of Beunos Aires after we had some issues with our transfer not showing up. This combined with a significant language barrier and extreme tiredness made for a fun introduction to Argentina. Thankfully, even though Spanish is very different to Italian, most people here can understand a little Italian and probably more than they can English, so the Italian is paying off again :-).

Our hotel is located only a short walk from the very centre of BA which is awesome and extremely convenient. We managed to find a cafe that was willing to serve us dinner at 7pm (instead of the local eating time of 9pm) so we could call it a day and got to bed.

Rwanda - Kigali

Up early this morning to leave Ruhengeri bound for Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. 

We arrived in Kigali around 9am and went straight to the Genocide Museum. The Genocide Museum is a memorial to the horrific genocide that occurred in Rwanda from April to July 1994. It was a well presented museum which told the awful truth about the lead up to the genocide, the genocide itself, and the aftermath, as well as giving a brief history of the other horrific genocides from around the world including Cambodia, Germany, and others. Unfortunately we had to get to the airport so we only had limited time however we were able to experience most of it and definitely shed a few tears, especially in the “Children’s Room” which gave a short account of many children whose shocking fate was known. A heart wrenching experience but an important one which was definitely worth the early morning.

The teary morning ended with some sad goodbyes to our dear friends that had shared the last 40-60 days with us.

Our afternoon was spent in transit between Kigali and Johannesburg with a 4h stopover in Nairobi. We finally arrived in Jo’burg at midnight and made our way to our hotel for a short sleep and a shower.

Rwanda - Ruhengeri

Well, the day finally arrived! We got to see the Gorilla’s today and wow, was it worth it!!

We woke up early and made our way to Volcanoes National Park where the Mountain Gorilla’s are known to reside. There are only 700 Gorilla’s left in the wild but thankfully secondary to a cessation of illegal poaching and careful tracking and research this population is slowly increasing. In Volcanoes National Park there are 13 families, 8 of which are tracked for tourists and 5 are monitored for research. Our trekking group of 8 were given the family named Bwenge. This beautiful family had 11 members including 3 babies, a Blackback, and a large Silverback who was the dominant male in the group - he was awesome! We trekked for an hour and a half through quite thick rainforest with our guides and porters cutting the path with machete’s before we found them. But, when we did it was awesome! We watched the family from a short distance for over an hour, the adults in the group slept for most of the time with some intermittent inquisitive looks and one small charge from one of the mothers, but the babies provided lots of entertainment. They were so inquisitive, playful, cute, and very funny. At the end of the hour the Silverback made some noises to wake the rest up which was very awesome to see and hear. They all rose from their morning slumber and moved around to find some food. An absolutely amazing experience!

On return to our campsite we wandered into town to explore Ruhengeri centre which was a typical African town with a crazy local market full of everything from second hand clothing, electrical appliances, to meat, and fruit and veg. We then finished off a fabulous day with a fantastic group dinner in a local African restaurant.