The start of Voyage 3.1 – red wine, rump steaks and ransacked bags

Our stop at home was very brief, a chance to catch up with a few people and change our clothes and bags! This leg is going to be slightly shorter than we had originally intended but this means that we will be in constant hot weather so it is a good opportunity to downsize the bags!

We flew direct to Santiago, Chile, landing on a Sunday morning, we headed to our apartment and after a quick Power Nap and a shower we headed straight out to explore the city. This was our third time in Santiago, having first visited in 2014, then again in 2018, so it was a chance to revisit some favourite places and to refine our backpacking feet after a very easy time in Thailand.

Our first stop was Santa Lucia, a popular hill in the middle of the city with a lovely view. It was a very hot climb but worth it when we reached the top. The following day we visited the General Cemetery, this is a huge area and has lots of interesting graves, with mausoleums dedicated to various groups such as the police and fire brigade. There is also an area for children’s graves which is also brightly decorated with toys. We have heard from previous visits about the tradition of parents to leave invitations to birthday parties on the other children’s graves and the thought of this always makes me emotional each time we visit.

After this we headed to a famous restaurant and had a massive plate of La Chorrilana, a traditional Chilean dish consisting of chips, fried onions, meat and fried eggs. It’s delicious and we washed it down with a Terramoto cocktail – a strong drink of wine, grenadine all topped with pineapple ice cream! It’s so named as Terramoto means earthquake and you’re meant to feel the earth shake after you’ve drunk it!

The following day was spent at San Cristobel hill, this is a very special place to us as it’s actually where we got engaged in 2018. We decided to walk rather than take the cable car or funicular and it’s safe two hours later when we eventually reached the top, we regretted our decision! There is a gorgeous view of the city from the top though and it was lovely to go back.

We caught a bus to Mendoza, a trip which takes you through the Andes. The trip involves some stunning scenery as you zig zag your way to the top. The border of Chile and Argentina is actually at the top of the Andes and we saw a lot of that border point as we were there for four hours! This is the longest that we’ve ever spent at a border point. There were strikes in Argentina that day and we think that may have had something to do with it. We actually got through the passport check really quickly, it was waiting for the bag check that took so long. By the time our turn came the bus driver whipped out a cup, everyone chucked a few pesos in and we were underway pretty quickly! We were grateful to eventually arrive in our hostel just in time for a free wine hour!

Mendoza is famous for its wine, and there are over 1000 wineries in the region, so it would be rude not to do a wine tour. We arranged one through our hostel where we visited three vineyards and sampled 10 different wines. By the end they were all starting to merge into one! The majority were red as the region is famous for its Malbec, but there were a couple of whites thrown in as well as a fizzy red. It was a fun afternoon, learning more about the wines, how to store and how to serve them properly at room temperature. For example, did you know that they recommend you refrigerate your red for 15 minutes just prior to serving to bring it to the correct temperature? We also visited an olive oil factory and learnt how olive oil was made. When we visited Mendoza in 2014 we had taken part in a tour that involved cycling between vineyards but it seems that is no longer offered as a separate tour unless you want to pay $200. You can hire a bike yourself and do a self-guided tour which we would have like to have done but Mendoza was experiencing a heatwave when we were there and cycling and drinking alcohol in 37 degrees heat didn’t seem like a sensible option!

Mendoza has clearly undergone a lot of renovations and improvements since we were last there. The bus station no longer felt sketchy and was a lot more modern, even the beautiful plazas seemed even more beautiful. It’s a lovely city with wide streets and lots of plazas and we thoroughly enjoyed our brief stop here.

It was then time for a night bus to Buenos Aires. Buses in South America are generally really comfy and I’ve always been able to sleep well on them and the one to Buenos Aires was no exception. We arrived around 9am and headed straight to our hotel to drop our bags. Upon arrival at the hotel I realised that the bag padlocks on my bag were missing. On the walk to the hotel I’d also noticed that my straps were no longer done up as I had left them and I commented to Joey that was strange. I immediately knew that someone to had broken into my bag. I opened the bag and could see that my cosmetic bags had been opened. I was devastated. We have backpacked for almost two years in total and this is the first time that something like this has happened.

When you’re backpacking you don’t have a lot of belongings and your bag is your home so this honestly felt like a violation of privacy and as though I had been burgled. Someone had broken into my bag and gone through all my belongings. All they found was my dirty laundry and some tampons so they will have gone away feeling disappointed but I can’t tell you how upset I felt. I think I cried for at least an hour, threatened to get on the next flight home and basically had a breakdown in the hotel lobby.

I did eventually manage to calm down and go and enjoy Buenos Aires but it did put a dampener on Argentina, which was a real shame as it’s a country we love so much. The Argentinian economy is doing really badly at the moment and they have suffered massive inflation, to the point that half the country is in poverty so I can only put it down to some desperate person thinking my padlocked bag must hold something special in it. Maybe there’s a lesson there – if you padlock your bag it looks appealing? Joey’s bag, unpadlocked and containing our camera was untouched!

We had a good walk around the city revisiting our old haunts such as The Pink House and the Recoleta cemetery. This is where Evita’s grave is and we were shocked to arrive and discover that for the last two years they have been charging an entrance fee! The cemetery is much smaller than the one in Santiago and is home to a few famous graves such as Evita and many presidents.

There is also a statue of a woman in her wedding dress and her dog which is our favourite, and I love to take a picture of Joey standing next to her! This grave is of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak who sadly died in an avalanche in Austria.

Our other favourite thing to do in Buenos Aires (other than eat steak and drink wine) is to visit the El Ateneo bookstore. This used to be a theatre and is still styled as such. It’s a beautiful building and worth a stop.

We also really enjoy visiting Cafe Tortoni, this is an art deco style cafe and they serve cider in champagne glasses here, but we decided at 13,000 pesos (£13) we wouldn’t be partaking this time when we could buy the same bottle in a shop for 2,000 pesos!

It was nice to be back in Chile and Argentina, these countries hold very special memories for us as we started our backpacking adventures in Buenos Aires in 2014 and we don’t get to go back that often. We had planned to spend 7 weeks exploring Patagonia, northern Argentina and Paraguay but as I mentioned earlier we have had to change our plans and shorten this leg but we will be back to do this and I can’t wait! I will not let one bad experience mar our time here and I will not let it put me off returning.