The rest of Victoria

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Despite our best intentions for our four weeks in Victoria, we found ourselves struggling with keeping to our diet. It wasn’t that we were being terribly bad – most of our meals were still strictly by the rules – but we found ourselves wanting those little extras, especially if we went out. Like the time we went to Fisherman’s Wharf, and ended up having fish and chips.

We had a couple of times that we went out to eat, and whilst we picked fairly well-behaved things, there was just that added temptation to have some yam fries, or for Nic to have a naughty sauce on his pasta.

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

And then there was the fact that the weather was glorious the whole time we were there, so one day we gave in to having an ice cream, and another we succumbed to sitting in a pub garden with a bottle of wine.

This was still all incredibly well behaved compared with our old way of life, but it was still too many bad things to achieve the weight loss we were aiming for.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

One thing that we knew that we weren’t even planning to try to resist, was our favourite Nanaimo bar.

I’ll talk more about these in a later post, but for now, a Nanaimo bar is a very tasty, but very naughty cake, and when we were here last time, we discovered them in a bakery that was on our route home, so we’d often pop in to grab one – peanut butter for Nic and mint for me.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

So one day, we headed up to the bakery, ready to get our treat, only to discover that the location was now a building site. I think Nic may actually have let out a small howl of disappointment! Not to be deterred though, I figured that as this was a pretty popular bakery, there was a reasonable chance that it may have relocated, and luckily, this was right, and we managed to find it just a little further along from its old spot. They didn’t have any mint ones though, so I resisted any alternatives on this occasion, but Nic got his peanut butter one, and was very happy.

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Aside from that, we pootled about a bit.  We looked in on some of the live music for the jazz festival including going along to a show one night. That was OK, albeit nothing spectacular. We checked out the Canada day celebrations, which despite this being a big deal because it is the 150^th anniversary of the confederation of Canada, were a bit disappointing. The fireworks were good in the evening though.

Willows Beach, Victoria

We also took the bus out to Estevan Avenue, one day. We got off in Oak Bay Avenue, and walked the rest of the way up, so by the time we got there we felt virtuous enough to allow ourselves a few extra syns with our reasonably healthy lunch at The Village. Then we wandered along to the beach and back, and gave in to having a tiny cupcake. Feeling a bit guilty about that, we decided to make up for it by walking all the way back, which took about an hour. That got the steps up on the Fitbits!

Estevan Avenue, Victoria

I'm not sure that Estevan Avenue is really worth a trip on its own, but it could certainly be done in conjunction with the Oak Bay area for a good day out.

So overall, Victoria was a pleasant place to have spent four weeks in the sunshine, but it ended up being a bit of a “neither/nor” place. We didn’t go completely mad, and revert to our old ways of eating and drinking whatever we liked, but neither had we managed to stick strictly to our regime. In the end, we lost some weight while we were here, but not as much as we should have done, especially when we knew what was coming up next….

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Canada Day Celebrations, Victoria

Out to Canada

Port Renfrew

After our brief sojourn back in the UK, we were soon heading off again, this time to Canada. We had a flight from Heathrow at a sensible time, so we didn’t have to be getting up at silly o’clock to get there.

Mind you, it did cause a bit of confusion, as for some reason, when Nic booked our accommodation, he had got it in his head that we were on an overnight flight, so our hotel near the airport was booked for the night after we arrived in Vancouver, and our Airbnb in Victoria was booked from the night after that. Thankfully, he realised this shortly before we left, and was able to change the hotel date for Vancouver, and booked us into a hostel for our first night in Victoria on the Friday.

Port Renfrew

We arrived safely in Canada, and had a nice easy bus – ferry – bus journey over to Vancouver Island the next day. We had booked a nice little Airbnb flat in Chinatown, and we soon got ourselves signed up to the local gym and even to a yoga studio, where we cold drop in for whatever classes we wanted. Within a few days, we had filled our fridge with healthy and diet friendly foods, and so we were all set for the next stint in our weight loss campaign. Little did we know then, that things weren’t going to go quite to plan, but we’ll come to that later.

Port Renfrew

We didn’t really have any great plans for Victoria, as we’d done most of the touristy bits that we were interested in last time around. In any case, we were going to the gym most days, and all that buying, chopping and cooking of vegetables seemed to take up an inordinately large amount of our time. I seriously wonder how we ever found time to go to work – but then I guess that’s why we had ended up always eating quick, unhealthy meals and going out for dinner so often.

A seal with its looted fish, Port Renfrew

What we did have planned, was a day out on Sunday with Jen and Gav, a British couple that we had met in our hostel in Puerto Varas, Chile, earlier in the year. It had worked out nicely that we had been able to coincide our time so that we could meet up again here. Mind you, we were missing the real superstar of this family, as Ruby The Landy, whose adventures are being written about in the Land Rover magazine The Landy, was still boxed up in a crate her way here from Santiago.

A seal with its looted fish, Port Renfrew

 With no Ruby, Jen and Gav had hired a much less colourful vehicle, and so Gav drove us all out to Port Renfrew. It took a bit longer that we’d thought, so we ended up just having lunch there and wandering along the pier for a bit, before we needed to drive back again.

It was a pleasant place to visit though, and we rather enjoyed watching the seals in the little harbour; they were quite happily taking advantage of the remnants of the fish that were discarded into the water after the fishermen had finished filleting them on the dock.

A seal, Port Renfrew

We nearly had a problem on the way back, as we needed to fill up with fuel, but there weren’t exactly a lot of petrol stations around. We spotted a sign for gas, and followed it to what seemed to be a dry dock and RV park. We were a little doubtful, but sure enough, we found a huge vat of fuel, and someone willing to sell it. It was then we realised that we were lucky that we had left when we did, and they were due to close at 5pm, which was only five minutes away. Phew!

It was great to catch up with the two of them again, and while we didn’t do anything very adventurous, we certainly talked a lot.

Port Renfrew

A seal looks horrified as it drops its fish, Port Renfrew

Quick change in the UK ...

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (pic from Wikipedia)

After our five months in South America, we did a quick return to the UK. We only had a couple of weeks, so it was a bit of a flying visit to family and a quick stay in London, but we managed to get done what we needed to.


That included a bit of shopping for new clothes in smaller sizes, in particular, gym and running gear, that we would be taking to Canada.



Despite the expected slowdown in Argentina, During our time in South America, I had managed to lose 2 stone 13 pounds (which for non-UK people is 41 pounds or 19kg) and Nic had done even better at 4 stone (56 pounds or 25kg).

So while I still have a long way to go to get to my target, I was still pretty pleased, and there was a noticeable difference. Nic had of course got much closer to his goal already, and the effect was probably best described by the fact that when his mum first saw him, her response was an exclamation of "Oh my God!"

We didn't fit in too much during the fortnight, but aside from family, a couple of friends, and shopping, we did get in a visit ton the theatre. We had booked tickets for the last night of Don Juan in Soho, staring David Tennant. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also went along to an exhibition at the British Museum. We didn't have time to look around the rest of it, so we'll have to go back again sometime, and this time also take some photos of the impressive inside of the building.

The exhibition we saw was Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave. It was about the work of Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai - though he went by various other names during his lifetime - whose best known work is Under the Wave off Kanagawa, and is of a huge, frothy, blue wave, with Mount Fuji in the background. It is one of those pieces that you may never have heard of, but you would probably recognise.

It isn't a painting though. It is actually, in my opinion, more remarkable for being a woodblock print. What this means is that Hokusai did the initial drawing, but then a specialist woodcarver had to use it as an outline to create wooden blocks that would then be inked and printed. It is all a highly skilled process, but very effective.

The exhibition contained many other pieces by this prolific artist, and was well worth going to see. We found his work really interesting and enjoyable, but I'm afraid I still like the classic The Great Wave, the best.

A visit to the Feria de Matadores

Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

One thing that we had meant to go to previously, but hadn't got around to, was the Feria de Matadores. This Gaucho market is held in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, about a forty minute bus ride out of the centre.

There are lots of market stalls, some of which are very generic, but others have some good authentic goods, including mate cups and bombillas, and some - though not as many as we had expected - gaucho related items. There were certainly a lot of knives on sale.

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

There are also food stalls, where we had a few more decent empanadas, but you could also get other traditional fare like locra, and there are a couple of nice old fashioned places to eat.


The locals enjoy the market, with live music and traditional dancing in the square, which generally draws a small crowds of onlookers, and a few hapless tourists may be tempted to join in.

Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

But the main reason that we had come along was to enjoy the spectacle of the corrida de sortija, a gaucho sport that involves galloping your horse along and trying to collect a small ring, that is dangling at about head height, on a little stick.

We watched this for quite a while, and it is clearly not easy at all. Most people failed, either missing the ring altogether, knocking it off, or managing to collect it, only to drop it afterwards. But some did get it, and trotted back, proudly showing off the ring.

Child's play? Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

They start them early at this sport, and we saw a kid of about twelve, (maybe, I'm lousy at judging ages,) and another that can't have been older than two, having a go at a lowered ring.

What is nice about this market and the corrida de sortija, is that whilst there are obviously tourists here, being a bit further out of town, the numbers are rather less than at San Telmo for example. Of course the vendors are used to visitors, and cater to them, but this is predominantly an event for local people.

Starting them young at the Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

There were comparatively few people watching the gauchos tilting for their rings, and it was evident that they were doing this for themselves, not to entertain a crowd. In our eyes, that made this a very worthwhile trip out of the centre.

 

Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Success! Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Success! Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Success! Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Success! Corrida de sortija, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Mate cups and bombillas, Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Feria de Matadores, Buenos Aires

Back in Buenos Aires ...

Soda siphons at San Telmo market

From Rosario, we took the bus to Buenos Aires, and then a cab on to our Airbnb place in our usual neighbourhood, Palermo.

Being back here was always going to be a risk for our diets, but we love the city, so it was a risk worth taking, and anyway, we had to come here to catch our plane home.

We did mitigate the risk by joining the local gym, and getting ourselves along there at least four times a week.

Café Bar Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo

As it was to turn out, our time here wasn't too bad, and we may even have lost a pound or so. It helped that, much to our disappointment, our favourite little dulce de leche cake shop had closed down.


We also strictly limited our intake of ice cream and wine, and ate plenty of lovely steak. The latter at least, was no hardship!

We did give in to a few empanadas though, including our favourite ones from last time, the fried ones from L'Escondida. They didn't let us down, they were still delicious. Some others that we really enjoyed here were from La Cocina, which is a lovely traditional place, but really quite tiny.

Buenos Aires

And then there was a more unusual, but incredibly tasty, lamb version, in a place in San Telmo, called El Banco Rojo. They also had a really excellent burger. I'd had no intention of having a burger, but when I saw the ones being delivered to other customers, I succumbed; I didn't regret it at all!

We didn't only eat while we were here though. We did quite a lot of walking around, not necessarily to anywhere in particular, just to get some extra exercise in to burn off those empanadas.

Whilst in San Telmo, we popped along to the market there. We had been there previously, and had loved some of the stuff on the stalls, so we were fully expecting to fill up the remaining space in our rucksacks with nice things.

Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be that many stalls around this time, and so we only ended up buying one of the lovely old coloured glass soda siphons that we had admired last time around, but had to resist because they were too heavy to carry around or post back.

Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires

We also took a guided tour around Palacio Paz, which was the private mansion of the very wealthy founder of La Prensa newspaper, Jose C Paz. He commissioned a French architect called Louis Henri Sortais to design it, and had most of the materials imported from Europe.


It is said to be the largest private home ever built in Argentina, and some suggest that Paz had ambitions to become President, and intended to use this as a place where he could entertain and impress important dignitaries.

However, Paz never actually got to live here. The work started in 1902, but wasn't completed until 1914, two years after Paz died.

Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires

The family did move in, but even that was short-lived, as the financial difficulties of the 1930s led them to sell the building to the Military Officer's Association, which now uses it as their clubhouse.

They offer guided tours in Spanish or English, where you can see the main parts of the elaborately decorated house. The tours are good, with lots if interesting facts, but much of the decoration isn't really to my taste. It is an interesting visit if you have spare time, but probably not a priority otherwise.

Fortabat Art Collection, Buenos Aires

We even managed a quite cultural outing to the Fortabat Art Collection. It was opened by the Chairperson of the second largest cement manufacturer in Argentina, María Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, using a portion of her vast personal art collection. There is a lot by Argentine artists, as well as international names, including an Andy Warhol portrait of the owner.

Fortabat Art Collection, Buenos Aires

It wasn't quite what we had expected from the write up, and most of it we wouldn't have considered hanging on our wall if you'd given it to us free, but it made a change from the usual stuff you find in many galleries.

We did quite like some of the rather whacky pieces on the top floor, although we were a little dubious about whether the artist was being a bit cheeky in the way he was rehashing a lot of other artists work.

We may not have done a lot here this time, but it was a great way to end our trip to Chile and Argentina. But first we have one last post, for our trip out to the Feria de Mataderos.

Fortabat Art Collection, Buenos Aires

Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires

Palacio Paz, Buenos Aires