We’ve made it to Ushuaia – also called the Fin del Mundo (the end of the world). The name makes sense when you see it on a map. It sits at the base of South America’s curly tail – further south than Australia and New Zealand, and close to Antarctica’s north-bound tendril.

Our plane was crowded with people who looked just like us – hiking packs, Kathmandu and Colombia-branded gear, hiking boots. We left Ushuaia’s wood-beamed airport to a brisk, summery 10 degrees or so.

So started the enormous contrast to the northern supercities we’ve been exploring. This city is small, and ringed with snow-capped mountains – some reflected in the waters of the Beagle Channel. The architecture in the town is multi-coloured and distinctly chalet-style.

During our afternoon strolls, I became obsessed with photographing all the amazing flowers popping up in the grass and in people’s gardens. There’s also amazing street art and knitted colourful decorations adorning the railings near the sailing dock.

But most distinctive impression is just how exposed you are to the sky here. While grey, it stretches dramatically from mountain to mountain. It feels so refreshing to be somewhere so – extensive.

We have so many seeds of ideas for our time here, but we haven’t planted them yet. I look forward to seeing how it unfolds.

VRPS

[Ushuaia]

Whereas our first few days in Buenos Aires a week ago (only a week ago!) were characterised by quietness, today we found the busiest areas of the city – La Boca and the Sunday markets at San Telmo.

La Boca is one of those suburbs where around ever corner you think you’ve found the most colourful sight and you want to capture it – and then you turn the next corner … It is not a rich area, but it’s vivid and lively and packed with tourists in a way we haven’t seen in BA to date. It’s also bursting with pride for the local football team and where it’s not all the colours of the rainbow, the area, including its stadium and all of its public walls, is donned proudly in blue and yellow.

We visited La Boca’s modern art gallery, PROA, to see Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s exhibit ‘surge’ (which apparently is a word both in English and Spanish, but has different connotations in each, according to the gallery notes).

For the rest of the afternoon, we wandering around the sprawling Sunday antique markets in San Telmo, probably not even seeing half of the 2.2km (or so) of them. In amongst the stalls were performers – musicians and puppeteers, drumming groups, Charlie Chaplin lookalikes and a man dressed as if the wind was blowing strongly at his coat and his tie.

Our lunch/dinner was at another parrilla – Gran Parrilla del Plata – for more steak, a chorizo sausage and a delicious salad. I’ve probably had my iron intake for the year sorted and I can safely adopt vegetarianism.

I asked Dan what his favourite things about BA were and he said:

• The street art
• The parks and the trees (I’ll add that my favourite park is San Martin)
• Our 1880 parrilla meal (though he said that before we were served at the Gran Parrilla so maybe they’re on par?)
• PROA
• Wandering through the markets listening to musicians and watching street performers

It’s quite unbelievable to think that we’ve only been away a week. Amongst all we’ve done, I’ve somehow found enough quiet hours to finish the first book in the Game of Thrones series.

Our hearts break to daily read news from home about the bushfires and we hope to hear that the land and the communities are given a chance to start recovering soon.

VRPS

[Buenos Aires]

We’re back to Buenos Aires. Today featured two Argentinian must-dos: dining at a parrilla and dancing tango. Tick and tick.

Dan has picked the most exquisite Airbnb for our next two nights. It’s an 19th century townhouse filled with antiques and art, with naked stairs leading to a loft-style second floor.

We chose the restaurant ‘1880’ for lunch because it’s close by, but it didn’t disappoint. We shared a half size of ‘bife de chorizo’ and a sirloin – which were still enormous – paired with a Malbec. It was all delicious.

We headed to the dance school La Maleva for an intimate first tango class with beautiful teachers Jorge and Katrin. There were only four others in the class, one of whom had 15 years’ experience dancing tango. For an hour and a half, our teachers had us practising the basics of stance, connection and walking. It’s such a subtle dance, which is in part so elegant because the partners mirror one another in so many steps. It’s extremely smooth – at least when watching. I was too busy focusing on my posture, pressure and steps to nail the smoothness. The teachers were incredible and other classmates were lovely to get to know and I’d recommend the class to anyone visiting BA.

Coming back to BA has actually been really lovely – I don’t think I’ll get to experience the feeling of returning to a place I know too many times this year. It feels familiar and easy – we know the basic layout, when to catch a cab, uber, metro or the bus, how to cross the road and read the traffic lights. We’ve done so much exploring that we get to relax and just pick out the few things we’re keen to do before our early Monday Ushuaia flight.

And I’m enjoying the Spanish immersion. While I still don’t feel like I can say much (especially if asked a question – I’m a deer in the headlights) but what I’m reading and hearing keeps getting reinforced everyday. Enormous thanks to Dan for his patient translations.

VRPS

[Buenos Aires]

Dan and I don’t have the best luck when it comes to finding places in the evening. In Seoul last year, we located about four different dance socials all around town which were all closed before we found one open. Clearly not learning our lesson, tonight we followed my guide book’s recommended local secrets to find the best jazz club, Plaza Mateo and another place closed. While our expectations were largely dashed, Montevideo delivered in the things we didn’t expect, like a fountain loaded with locks. Not just lots of locks. Thousands, bulging like some rusty horror movie monster made of romantic optimism.

But let’s rewind. Here’s some views from the top of Colonia’s lighthouse, which I made a mad dash for before our bus to Montevideo:

Soon after arriving in Montevideo, we acquired rental bikes (the ones that brake when you back peddle!) and took to the city’s sprawling seaside esplanade, called the Rambla. The water is still Brisbane-brown, but it’s more active than further upstream, crashing against the sea wall and then folding back on itself. It reminds me of St Kilda in Melbourne, and the palm trees of Los Angeles. Yet the city can’t be described as a mix of the two because it’s so extremely Latin American – from the mate-sipping people inhabiting the seaside and the green spaces to the parrillas y las empanadas. And this city is also full of incredible street art.

We joined half a walking tour, then continued exploring the Rambla and the old town, including the exquisite Plaza Independencia with the majestic and unusual Palacio Salvo.

There’s so much more I want to share but I’m sure I’m exceeding my (soft) word limit. Highlights include an 11/10 falafel burger for dinner and all the incredible colonial architecture. Time to rest our weary legs.

VRPS

[Montevideo]

Before I begin, please allow me to paint a quick word portrait of my husband. We’re on the road around the Plaza de toros Real de San Carlos in Colónia, Uruguay. We’ve pulled our bike over to the side as Dan’s struck up a conversation with a construction worker who is part of the team restoring the former bull fighting stadium (into an arts precinct). He won’t let us in to look around because it’s dangerous, but Dan’s got him telling a rapid-fire story about the history of the building and the restoration. I pick up bits and pieces of the conversation – lots of mentions of Buenos Aires, the ground is 50 meters wide – but Dan understands it all and he’s listening, enraptured, with a smile across his face in the golden hour of twilight, his body draped across the bike frame. That’s my portrait. I hope it captures my husband’s enormous talent with language, his curiosity and the ease with which he connects with people. I wish I could have taken a photo without ruining the moment for both of them, but maybe it wouldn’t have captured as much as these palabras.

We’re in Colonia, having taken the (reasonably quick) boat across the brown river (feels more like the sea) between Argentina and Uruguay.

It’s a small town on a peninsular, and from the main road, you can often look down side streets in both directions that finish at the river. The old town has cobbled streets, quaint houses and gorgeous trees and flowers sprouting everywhere. It feels like a postcard. The old convent now abuts the lighthouse, which we are yet to climb. It’s crawling with tourists, who are always in your perfectly-framed photos taking their own photos.

Instead, we explored the river shore, where grass grows right up to the river banks (which feels unusual because the river really feels like the sea, as the other side is beyond the horizon) and the mud is a thick, dark grey.

In the afternoon, we took off to the Plaza de toros, part on foot, and then by bike. The journey took us around the stunning bay over twilight and sunset. People were outside relaxing on the nature strip beside the bay in droves.

This place is around twice as expensive as Argentina so we went to the shops for dinner – empanadas. Notable? A lack of green vege. Please send me pictures of broccoli.

VRPS

[Colonia]

New Years’ Day in BA starts slowly and then slowly warms, like a cake in the oven. At first, I thought that we were at serious danger of going hungry because everything was closed. But slowly doors opened and food smells started wafting.

Today was our bike-around-the-place day! We took off towards the beautiful green gardens in the Retiro area – most of which had their gates closed but it was a pleasant view from around the edges. A few hours in, Dan got a flat tire. I won’t bore you with the story, but I’d think recommend reconsidering renting bikes on a day of the year where all your repair options within a reasonable radius are closed.

We explored the Puerto Madero area further, including the long esplanade by the edge of the Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur where we indulged in lunch and joined the Colombians for a few salsa dances.

The trees in this city are spectacular.

We’re off to Uruguay tomorrow!

VRPS

[Buenos Aires]

Happy 2020 to our treasured family and friends. We hope you’ve had a lovely New Years and made some optimistic resolutions.

You know how you’re not in the best place to choose food while hungry? I’m not sure whether writing while super tired is the best idea, but I’ll try not to let it flavour my words too much. My body still has no consistent concept of what time zone it’s trying to commit to, so everything is a bit all over the place.

Today we embarked on a long free walking tour of the city, winding around Buenos Aires’ striking architecture while our guide shared a snapshot of the city’s history and features. It was a great tour, and I’d recommend it highly.

Otherwise, we’ve found it a strange time to visit BA. It’s quiet, as many people have left the city over New Years. NYE is treated like a public holiday so things we were hoping to do were closed. Yet the parrillas (grill restaurants) were open and the line to get in spilled over the pavement. For lunch we tried to get into one – two – three and then finally gave up. Another day.

Yet this quiet city well and truly gathered for New Years Eve. We met all the inhabitants of the city in Puerto Madero – the district around the river – for a crowded welcoming of the new year. The city fireworks were supplemented with hours of people’s private fireworks, lit in the crowd. Festive – but loose.

These two happy souls wish you a happy new year

VRPS

[Buenos Aires]

We didn’t mean to sleep in until 1 pm. But we did. While this goes some way towards resetting our body clock, it also means that we get some late-night energy, which is particularly useful in a city whose dance scenes barely begin until 11 pm.

In brief, today we had lunch/dinner near us in trendy Palermo before metro adventures to the CBD and San Telmo. The day featured a lot of rain, more empanadas, and a delicious steak baguette. It finished with us briefly joining a salsa/bachata social and then watching a tango social.

Things that met/exceeded my expectations of BA:

• Steak is delicious
• Red wine is delicious

Things I didn’t expect from BA:

• The tango socials are so formulaic and structured – there’s jazz-club style seating and a high ratio of watchers to dancers
• Greenery everywhere – creeping vines, leafy trees lining the streets, flowering trees held up by wires
• The street art is pervasive and amazing
• The people are so kind! Cheers to the multiple police people who helped us with finding a local SIM card
• The pavements are so slippery

VRPS

[Buenos Aires]

First impression was

Immigration officer

Being kissed on cheek.

Side of the highway

All the people picnicking

Set up on the grass.

Empanadas, beef

And chicken are delicious

Will go back for more.

[Buenos Aires]

I’m writing from Brisbane airport, with a heart full of love for our family, friends and our city. It’s been a glorious, cup-filling period leading up to our departure date and I’ve never felt more connected to Brisbane.

But the transition has started now. We’re going from Brisbane to away. We’ve got head phones, eye masks, movies, books, podcasts and pillows for a most luxurious 17 hours. And I get to spend that time contemplating what it will be like to arrive in Latin America and start my Spanish-speaking (well, listening and reading for a while) journey. I think I’m going to enjoy the almost sensory-deprivation (except for the plane noise) of that time before all the sensations of Buenos Aires.

I’ll write soon with much more interesting tales (mostly about steak).

VRPS