Arrived in Buenos Aires at around 8am after a 13 hours bus ride, the ride was pretty comfortable and I slept pretty well on the bus.

Food on the bus

Got to Milhouse Hostel by subway. The hostel is located at the city center. Took a short tour organized by the hostel to Recoleta which is a historical site and the richest place in Buenos Aires. We visited a few museums and a famous cemetery in Recoleta for the rich and famous Cementerio de Recoleta. Evita was burried at this place.

Floralis Generica (the metal flower will close its petals at night)

Met up with Laura and her family for dinner. Haven’t seen Laura since college and it’s wonderful to see her and her family since they just have a new 5 months old baby boy. They brought me to an Argentinean/Chinese place for dinner.

Argentineans usually have dinner around 9.30pm-10pm so at 8pm, the restaurant is still empty.

Had trouble withdrawing money from HSBC ATM using my HSBC debit card. Tried a couple of branches and finally went to the main branch and spoke with a manager but she just asked me to call the US HSBC. Instead, I tried my HSBC card at a Citi ATM next door and have no problem taking out cash. I went back to the manager showed her the receipt but she acted like she does’t understand english. But at least I know the problem is not with my card.

Walked around Once area which is a diverse neighborhood with people from other parts of south america. Buenos Aires is one of the richer country in South America so people from other areas come here to make a better living.

Just spent the next few days walking around the city. Buenos Aires province has a population of around 14 millions and the city has around 3 millions people. It’s around 12 miles from north south and 11 miles from east to west so the city is not very big. There are a few famous neighborhood such as San Telmo (with some colonial houses), La Boca(a working class neighborhood with some colorful buildings, Boca Junior’s stadium is located here, Palemo (hip residential neighborhood with some restaurants and shops) and the city center.
[mappress]

Florida street (a popular street to go shopping)

Pink House which is located at Plaza de Mayo

has been the center of political upheaval, vehement protests, and national celebrations over the years and there are protest in front of Casa Rosada (Pink house) almost daily. The pink house is the official seat of the executive branch of the Government of Argentina and it’s at the balcony of the pink house where Evita rallied the Argentinean people)
Casa Rosada

There are a lot of fake money in Buenos Aires and I heard someone withdrew fake money from the ATM. There is a sign at the hostel on how to identify fake money.

Laura and Alle brought me to a ShangDong restaurant for dinner the next day.

Mendoza is full of extreme sports, such as water rafting, skiing, snowboarding…There are many shops selling all kinds of equipments for extreme sports.

Whitney (a snowboard instructor from Cali) from my hostel talked me into trying out paragliding and she managed to get us a good price for 195 Argentinean pesos, around $50.

We took a jeep up to the hills.

View from the window

Argentinean kid in the trunk

Getting ready

Then Jump!

In the air..

Paragliding clip
Paragliding short clip

Then took a 13 hours bus ($250 pesos, $65) to Buenos Aires at 7.15pm. The bus ride is pretty comfy, with wine, food and the chair can even go all the way down, just like a bed.

Mendoza produces around 70% of Argentine wine. Took a local bus to the suburb of Mendoza where the wineries are located.

Met 2 other asians (Dan and Davy) on the street and surprisingly they are from New York too. Haven’t seen a lot of asians so far and we went to rent a bike at Mr. Hugo ($25 argentine pesos,around $7) for the day and biked for around 18km.

We stopped by 3 wineries, did a little wine tour and tasting. Dan which is a wine enthusiast mentioned that argentine wine for the same price (15-80pesos, $4-$20) is in better quality over the french and grabbed a few bottles back.

Alvaro sent me to the bus station, he is such a great host for the passed 2 days

Left Santiago after lunch
Complemento (A chilean favourite)

and took a 7 hours bus ride (8800 chilean pesos, around $16)
passing through the Andes Mountain and the view is incredible.
Andes mountain

Short Clip of the Andes
[mappress]
Arrived at Mendoza around 10pm. Met some australians and shared a cab to my hostel. The time here is one hour faster than Santiago.

Valparaiso which is also a UNESCO heritage site and Vina Del Mar is around 1.5 hours drive away from Santiago.
Both Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar are close by each other, 15 minutes drive away
Valparaiso is a port city and Vina Del Mar is more of a place with beach resorts and newer buildings

[mappress]
Grab lunch at a seafood restaurant

Cerviche

Crab Cake

Valparaiso at night

Went to the casino at Vina Del Mar at night, then head back home.

Empanadas for lunch (950 pesos each, around $2 each and it’s huge)

Took a funicular to Cerro San Cristobal which is one of the highest peak and have a big statue of Virgin Mary at the top.

View from Cerro San Cristobal is pretty nice. We can see the whole city with the Andes Mountain as a background.

Went to the post office after that to mail some postcards. On the way, met Jonathan from the same hostel. Walked around the city and hang out for a little bit.

I have contacted Alvaro about couch surfing and finally we planned to meet up at Manuel Montt station at 9.30pm ish. Alvaro has a nice apartment and a good couch to surf.

Couch

Victor dropped by and we went to a hip bar called Grand Central. Then moved to another club called House of Glass. Seems like in Chile, the party only starts after 2am and there is still a long line at 3am to get in.

Walked around the city today and the weather is pretty cold.

Ate at Vegas Market again..there’s where the locals eat

Pollo with rice (chicken with rice, soup, salad 1000 pesos around $2)

Walked around the city with Jon.

Went to Plaza De Armas

Museu National

Chilean Stock Exchange

Climbed up Santa Lucia

Chilean party
Constitution night club clip

At Bellavista HostelArrived at Santiago airport at 4.30am. Took a shuttle bus to the hostel ($10) since a cab cost arond $25.
The weather in Santiago is pretty chilly since it’s still winter here.
[mappress]
Hostel Bellavista

Met some crazy Americans at the hostel and hang out around santiago together. Surprisingly, there are 2 person from Astoria in the group.
Lunch at the local market

Cazuelas

Bellavista area

Art Museum

Seafood

With Ali G

Santiago Subway

1 liter beer in Santiago

Abbie wants to be in the blog too
Abbie, Ali G and Josh fish tool?

Video
At Bellavista Hostel

Walked around the city and visited Plaza de Bolívar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolívar_Square

and Gold Museum.

Walked from La Candeleria to Calle 70 which is like walking from Chinatown to 70 street, only that the blocks in Bogota is further away and the road is polluted from the public bus.

Met Vanesa for lunch. Vanesa had Ajiaco and I had Bandeja Paisa. Both are famous Colombian food

Bandeja Paisa

Public Phone in Bogota

Yes, you can’t carry gun on the bus

Northern Bogota is pretty different from the middle or southern party. The financial sector is at around calle 70
Stock Exchange

and the hip and happening place is at Calle 87 “Zona Rasa” area. There are many bodyguards around Zona Rasa area because the wealthy Bogotans here are afraid of being kidnapped.

Colombian style burger at their fast food joint

My flight to Santiago is at 9.40pm and I was a little late for my flight. Got into a cab and met a crazy driver. He mentioned about F1 racing, Pablo Montoya, fast and furious, go karting and drove like crazy

Met a few travelers from London and Ireland at the hostel and tagged along with them visiting the salt mine at Zipaquira which is 1.5 hours north of Bogota.
[mappress]
Took the Transmilenio (1500 colombian pesos) which is like a bus running on a subway track to Porte Del Norte (north station) then took a local bus (3200 pesos) to the salt mine.

Zipaquira is a small town

and there is a famous cathedral underground the salt mine.

With the crew

Colombian Coffee…