Fresh air taxi

After our "escapade" with the law, we were left at a bus stop waiting to get to Salinas.



We caught the first form of "public" transport that would take us there which was a collectivo (pretty much a shared taxi but a in this case a shared ute).



There was a school girl waiting for the truck as well. When it arrived, the people sitting in the front made some room for Gwen as they saw she had the baby.



I went around the back with the school girl to climb onto the back. It covered so I only realised how full it was once I saw inside. There were 4 men already inside as well as a schoolboy. Also there were 2 crates of what looked like tofu but I presume was a cheese.



The girl climbed inside and sat on the rear edge of the trailer. I couldn't do the same as there was someone in the way. I assumed they might make some room for me but the truck started to roll off.



So I did what I could only do. Hop onto the bumper and hang on for the ride!

Luckily I didn't have to stay in that spot for the entire ride. Just for 15 minutes and then I was able to half sit inside and eventually get all the way in once the men got out - some old farmers that were playing a drinking game while they waited to get home!

A brief encounter with the law

We've spent the last few days in Guaranda - a small town located in the highlands.



It's not really a touristy town but we had to come here to visit the village of Salinas, further up the mountain!



Salinas is a village located high up in the mountains at an elevation of 3500 metres. Our plan was to catch the bus up there but we didn't know the exact location to catch the bus in Guaranda. We started looking for it in the main square but a local women there suggested to go to the main bus station as catching it in the square would be too complicated for us.



On our way there, some police officers stopped us and requested to see our passports. We were both cautious about this but figured it was OK as there were two of them in uniforms, one was a woman, and they had gotten out of a police truck.



So we showed them our passports. They enquired as to where we were going, informed us that the bus leaves from the square only. But requested us to get in their truck as they wanted to take some photos first (we didn't quite understand what they wanted to take a picture of). They told us they would get us to the bus afterwards and reassured it was all ok.



We hesitantly got into the truck and they drove to the police station. The woman officer jumped out with our passports, ran in and then returned to the truck quickly. She had grabbed her phone and used that as we drove onwards to take pictures of our passports.

Rather then taking us back into town, they drove us down the road towards Salinas hoping they'd overtake the necessary bus so we could get on board. It was actually quite pleasant in the end.



After it was clear they weren't going to find a bus on the drive, they dropped us off at the split in the road where one path is the road to Salinas and told us we can hail the bus.



The thing that topped the whole experience off is once we got out, the woman officer asked if she could have a photo with us!! I think we were the only tourists she had ever seen!!

Montañita

So back when we were in Buenos Aires, we decided to scrap our original itinerary and head up north to a warmer climate.



I thought it would be nice to stay put for a little while learning Spanish, ideally by the beach. After a bit of research, we found Montañita in Ecuador as the best option.



It was a big effort to get there. There weren't any direct flights to the nearest city Guayaquil from where we were in Uruguay. So we ended up taking 3 flights and a 3 hour transfer to get to the town. But it was nice to hit 25+ degree temperatures and even nicer to be by the ocean!



The town itself was ok. A little too much a young party town with lots of young twenty somethings looking to party all week long.



We stayed in the Cabañas owned by the school we registered with. It was a really nice environment as they had a pool and lots of tropical plants making the garden area a lot cooler then outside.



School was tough but quite good. I still think my Spanish is crap but there is definitely an improvement. School did get fun when my classmate started talking about wanting to kill the school intern - who she'd been seeing - because he was sleeping with another student who she was friends with! The atmosphere in the Cabañas wasn't the same after this happened.



The best thing about staying there was taking Aatya swimming almost daily in the swimming pool. It felt at the end she was back to the level she reached at the end of her swimming classes. I just hope she doesn't forget everything again in the next 3 months.



We discovered as well that Aatya is scared of the ocean. Maybe it's a natural thing to be scared of it but she would cry every time we tried to put her down to get her feet wet.



We've left Montañita and probably at the right time. We spent 2 weeks there all up and it was starting to feel past its expiry date. I guess when you visit the same restaurant 3 times, it's time to go.



Here are some of pics including a really fantastic sunset!

Breathing is under-rated!

I guess what goes around comes around. After we got our accommodation upgraded in Colonia, our Airbnb accommodation in Montevideo turned out to be ... unsuitable.

The place was nice enough - our host was an artist and her home was very bohemian. However, after the first night, I woke up sneezing, runny nose and, worst of all, heavy wheezing! It was only after having a shower, changing clothes and most importantly, getting out of the house did I feel better.

We were catching an early morning flight the next morning and according to (website), Montevideo airport is great to sleep in. So we decided to forgo the nights accommodation and slum the evening in the airport before we hit sunnier and warmer Ecuador.

Kimchi in Montevideo?!?

Only been travelling for 3 weeks and already had enough of the South American food (vegetarian food here is pretty poor)!

So when we passed by a Korean restaurant on the bus to our Montevideo accommodation, both of us thought the same thing! Dinner tonight!!

And it was worth it. They not only had proper Korean dishes, they also served us large "side dishes" in authentic Korean style!

Well worth it in Montevideo!

Colonia del Sacramento

Is it wrong to use your baby for upgrades?

We arrived in the little town of Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay by catching ferry from BA. The town's old centre is a UNESCO world heritage site and it is quite cute but extremely small!

After we disembarked from the ferry, we walked to the hostel we had pre booked a room only to find out they don't allow children (even babies).

However, they were happy to upgrade us to their (much nicer) sister B&B down the road! I should mention I was looking to book the B&B except I took too long to decide and the price rose to be out of our budget! They even put out a travel cot for Aatya!!

Colonia itself is so small, we were pretty much done with the town in about 2 hours!

Buenos Aires

It'd been a little over a week since we've left Buenos Aires and I've been quite bad at getting around to blogging so best to put something down!



I thought I'd just put my highlights down followed by the "lowlights" -



Highlights



- Taking tango dance classes with a baby strapped into the sling. It made everyone notice us and treat us warmly even if we were not very good. The best place we took lessons was in a ballroom owned by a retired dancer/teacher who taught a whole bunch of celebrities (Bill Clinton & Julio Iglesias for example) in the past.

- Going to a vegetarian supper club in BA. This is here as I was pretty tired of eating bad pizza and bad pasta every day. A lot of people from BA (porteños) have Italian heritage but they don't make Italian food like the Italians! The supper club was run by an American ex pat and she made delicious Mexican food! She also owns and runs a yoga studio and I think we might have met every expat yoga instructor in BA!



- Visiting a vintage camera shop in BA! Was full of different retro cameras and the owner loved talking about them. It just made me feel lucky to be living in London as the stuff in BA was not cheap!

- Learning Spanish. Well I wouldn't say I learnt much as we took private classes and Gwen is at a higher level in her Spanish then I am. It was more revision and stuff that went over my head. But it was nice being able to speak with a local and funding out more about the country. Oh and for anyone thinking about learning Spanish in South America, do not do it in BA. They have their own version of Spanish that is a bit Italian mafia inspired but is completely useless outside of BA.



- Gaining the confidence to "EC" Aatya on the street and realising it's no big deal. If you don't know what I mean by EC, here's a link - http://godiaperfree.com

This is me holding her after her first street EC

- Weaning Aatya in BA and being pleasantly surprised she'll eat anything and everything off your plate!



- Figuring out the bus system in BA! It requires a guide on how to use it !!



Lowlights

- This is a big one - it was pretty cold and rainy in BA and having left the sunshine of London and New York made us feel a bit miserable. That's the reason we decided to scrap our original plans and get up north.

This is me holding her above a fan heater



- Money in Argentina is hard to deal with. They recently changed the "currency controlling" laws but the banks still limit how much money you can withdraw. Made things hard!