So today our days in South America come to a close. It was a little strange to get up and go to breakfast and not see anyone that we knew. And we didnīt see anyone that we knew all day long.
I had looked up some stores in my guidebook and we set out to find some of them this morning. It was 82 degrees and humid by 10 am this morning! The first store no longer existed, the second store was too expensive, and the third store ended up being a winner. I got a couple things there and then we walked around and browsed some of the stores.
We were far away from our hotel and planned to do the jewelry store thing that Jason and Molly had done a few days before in order to get a free ride to the hotel. So we walked in front of the store and a guy in a suit started talking to us about the jewelry store upstairs. He said it was cheaper than the store that we planned to go to so we followed him upstairs and were assigned a lady to help us. She walked us around the case and it had some of the largest pieces of jewelry that I had ever seen for sale. I just kept moving and she then asked which color I wanted to see. So I suggested a color and then they started pulling out all of this stuff from under the cases. They had jewelry everywhere! The pieces that they were pulling for me were not at all for me so I suggested a multi-color pendant. She came up with something that I really liked and I tried it on. Then they brought over another pendant and I liked it even more. She told me the price and I didnīt act too interested but kept the necklace on. After a bit she said that she needed to go talk to someone else to see if she could bring the price down, just like going to a car dealer! Anyway, they did bring the price down a bit and I bought just the pendant and not the necklace. It is a small silver gold pendant with 9 little gemstones in it. And we got a free car ride back to the hotel in the nicest car that I have ridden in during our entire stay in South America ;)
We dropped our shopping bags at the hotel and then went down the street for lunch. We found another souvenir shop and bought a couple things and then used an ATM to get money for the cab ride to the airport. Now weīre using the internet cafe a bit before calling a cab.
So what were some of my favorite things?
Waterfalls, hang-gliding, penguins, scenery, and seeing a couple new countries.
What foods did I like?
Brazilian barbecue, Dulce de leche (caramel), empanadas, Argentine steak, and for Jason - Calafate berries
The first leg of our journey was really good and we enjoyed travelling with Molly, Trent and Krystal. I think that we did a pretty good job of pre-planning flights and hotels and we found plenty of things to do. The second part of the journey was also good. Most of the hotels on the tour were normal hotels. One of the hotels was small and cozy with only 20 rooms. It didnīt have a restaurant or bar which upset some tour members but it did have a continental breakfast. I did like travelling with a smaller number of people than the typical tour with 40+ people though I could do either type of tour again.
Ciao!