Rio...dispelling the myth

We arrived in Rio on Sunday morning after our last long bus journey (only a 6 hour one left and then we're done with buses!) which was even longer than expected due to a huge tailback and a 'technical difficulty' with the door which occured in the middle of the night. Having had two recomendations to stay at The Mango Tree hostel in Ipanema (just one block from the beach), we were really looking forward to our stay there. Unfortunately we have been really disappointed with the hostel. Our minature room is damp and smells it! The humidity has been stifling and with no AC, a pretty inefficient fan and unable to open our windows due to the fear of the dreaded Dengue mosquito, we've been suffering a little.

Rio itself is a really interesting city. We're staying in the more 'upmarket' Ipanema beach area and have done a fair bit of exploring both here and along the infamous Copacabana beach. Both beaches have their fair share of 'Brazilian bikini' clad women and speedo adorned men who strut and preen themselves only too aware of the passing audience and enjoying every minute of it. At the weekend and on public holidays (of which there seem to be many - would you believe that St. George's Day is a public holiday here!) the beachside road is closed and the lycra clad, body-concious residents of the city match their running shoes with their swim wear and pound the streets in the middle-of-the-day heat.

Today we joined a tour of the 'Favellas' of Rio de Janeiro. Steeped in mystery these 'shanty town' like neighbourhoods are beyond the law and governed by the all powerful drug barons and thier large gangs. Assured that as a result these tend to be some of the safer regions within the city (virtually no muggings or robberies take place here as the presence of the police is so unwanted) we walked the alley ways, met local artists and visited a community school. It was a fascinating insight into life in the infamous favellas. Our guide, Alfredo was warmly greeted by name on every street corner and our presence seemed truly welcomed. The local government of Rio doesn't like tourists to visit districts like these as it doesn't portray the kind of image that they want outsiders to have of the city. The residents of the favellas and the company which organised the tour feel differently though. They encourage these kinds of tours which demonstrate real life and dispell the myths surrounding the lives of the people living there. Tourists inevitably bring money which is sorely needed by the poorest neighbourhoods of this city (where the minimum wage is bearly $300 a month). The community school that we visited today is supported by the tour company for 75% of its funding and local artists are able to sell thier work directly to the tourists, cutting out the middle men and thus support their families. Having watched the movie 'City of God' we were expecting the favellas to be a much more frightening places than those we visited today. Although I'm sure that for the police and those who get on the wrong side of the ruling gangs, these districts are dangerous and life can be short, many thousands of happy and peaceful Brazilians life thier day to day lives here without trouble. Therefore for us I guess the tour had the desired effect...the myth was dispelled.

We have now entered our final week in South Ameica and tomorrow we head north to a beach resort called Buzios. The weather report is promising sunshine and the hostel looks lovely (fingers crossed it will prove to be). Maybe I will finally get to the beach and will come home with my Brazilian tan.

Here's hoping!

Pro tennis and rain at the beach in Brazil

With the final (and easiest) border crossing by land under our belts, we have made it into Brazil - the final country in our South American odyssey. Our crossing from Puerto Iguazu in Argentina to Foz de Iguaçu in Brazil, just 30 minutes away by car, was uneventful compared with our previous day's journey to the falls and we had made it to the door of our hostel by lunchtime. Unfortunately the weather had really changed overnight and by the time we arrived, the rain was coming down by the bucket load and we were pretty much confined to the hostel for the afternoon. Hostel Bambu was not a bad place to be confined however. On arrival they invited us to join them for a communal lunch which was delicious and the staff couldn't have been more friendly or helpful for the duration of our stay.

The following evening we caught an overnight bus to Florianopolis which is the main city on the island of Santa Catarina in Southern Brazil. As we emerged from the station, bleary eyed from lack of sleep and keen to get to our lovely hostel we were greeted for the first time on our journey with a sign bearing our name. I don't know how many times we've exited a bus station or airport and made our weary way past the tens of signs bearing the names of those lucky people who've arranged transfers to their accommodation and wished that we were one of them! This time we were and it felt great.

Our host drove us the half an hour or so to our guest house (Pousada do Atoba) at the beach of Praia do Santinho and it was lovely to sit back in a car and not have to think about which bus to get etc. We arrived at the lovely guest house which is only a couple of minutes walk to the beach and were offered breakfast and able to check into our room straight away. This place is lovely. The hosts are helpful and friendly, the beach is beautiful and almost deserted and best of all we arrived to find out that there is a pro tennis tournament on all week in the resort down the road. We have spent our first couple of days enjoying the tennis (including a televised match between Gustavo Kuerten, who won the French Open a few years ago, and a Colombian player last night), running on the beach (trying to get back into shape) and generally relaxing. Unfortunately we woke to torrential rain this morning which hasn't relented all day. We've spent today making the most of our laptop by watching DVDs, catching up on what's happening in the world and hoping that the sun shines tomorrow.

After more than four months improving our Spanish to the point where we were more than just getting by, our short time in Brazil so far has already proved to be linguistically challenging. We are assured that Spanish and Portuguese have many similarities but our unaccustomed ears can't pick them out. We had forgotten what it feels like to arrive in a place so ill-equipped that we can't even greet our hosts or thank them in their own language. This final country will certainly prove a challenge but I feel that our short time here may just wet our appetite to return and see it at greater leisure.


We have been particularly moved by two stories in the news recently: the first being the horrific bus crash in Ecuador which killed several young British women and the second being the death of a British woman at Iguazu Falls in Argentina on the very day that we visited. These stories are particularly close to home and our hearts go out to the families and friends effected while we reflect on our wonderful journey and appreciate how fragile life is.

Una aventura en Iguazu

Waterfalls, butterflies, a road block and the Argentinian army...

We arrived from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu by plane yesterday afternoon and checked into our hostel (where we have a private ensuite double with air conditioning for $22 US a night!). After exploring the town yesterday afternoon (it didn't take long) we were looking forward to a day at Iguazu Falls today. We got up early as we'd been warned about a demonstration that is taking place here which has been partially blocking the main road to the falls and airport. We boarded a bus at the airport and began making our way out of town slowing to a complete stop as we approached the blockade (if my Spanish is correct, the demonstration is about schooling and social welfare etc) where we waited (thankful of the air conditioning on the bus) for about 15 minutes. Eventually our driver got out to investigate further only to return and tell us that if we wanted to continue to the falls we'd have to cross the blockade on foot and try to get transport on the other side.

We are only here for one day so it was now or never for us to see the waterfalls. We've heard so many great things about them that we weren't about to let a little demonstration get in our way! We managed to cross the blockade as there weren't too many protesters and all the passengers crossed at the same time which left them a bit short handed (it didn't go without notice though and we weren't very popular). And...without a clue about how far it was to the entrance of the national park, we began to walk! We were walking with a couple of girls we'd met on the bus and were offered rides by a couple of taxis who were quoting extortionate fares (attempting to capitalise on our predicament I'm sure) we which laughed at and continued walking...and walking, and walking!

Eventually we decided that the park might be further than any of us had previously thought and attempted to flag down any of the few cars that passed. Thinking it a bit of a joke we stuck out our thumbs and waved our arms as an Argentinian Army truck passed us. To our shock and delight, the truck slowed to a stop on the other side of the road and the men dressed in fatigues gestured for us to climb in (no easy feat as the Unimog truck is a long way from the ground!). The very kind military men proceeded to drive us about 10km along the road at which point they had to turn off in another direction - a short but interesting ride nestled amongst the artillery and food supplies stocked in their truck. The road sign at this point suggested that we still had a further 7km to the park entrance and the temperature was rising steadily (to 32 degrees with very high humidity as we're in rain forest territory). We began to walk but were confident from our first hitching experience and decided to try our luck again. Having been passed by several cars (not able to get through the blockade much of the traffic had u-turned) we were beginning to worry about how long it might take us to walk the full 7km when a man pulled over at the side of the road. He offered us a lift (we clearly looked like four hot, tired and very nonthreatening tourists) in his air-conditioned car right to the entrance of the park and wouldn't accept a penny in payment (it's so nice and unusual to have an experience like that - if only there were more people like him in the world).

Feeling pretty proud of ourselves for making it all the way to the falls without paying a penny extra, we said goodbye to our travelling companions and began our visit to the falls. This is one of those occasions when the hype really doesn't spoil the reality - Iguazu Falls is breathtakingly beautiful and jaw droppingly huge! We made our way around the various trails on offer but weren't able to do the boat rides (would you believe, the boat company staff were on strike!) which was a shame as I just wanted to get closer and closer to the water and spray. The park is also famous for a host of wildlife including an enormous variety of butterflies. It's safe to say that I've never seen anything quite like the butterflies here - there are so many...large, tiny, beautifully coloured. They swarm around you in certain areas and land on your hands, bags and even heads!

Knowing that our journey back to town might be an eventful one, we left the park in the early afternoon in search of transport. There were buses leaving the park and going as far as the back end of the traffic jam at the blockade, so we jumped on the first one and made our way there. It was about 1.5 kilometre walk uphill (in the searing mid afternoon heat) from where the bus dropped us to the blockade itself but this time there were many more people and absolutely no way through. Simon tried but was told and shown that there was no way he was going to be allowed to pass! We had to wait until they decided to let pedestrians through (and some had waited for 6 hours on the road). Thankfully our wait was only about 45 minutes at which time they raised the barriers enough to let us through (if we moved fast) to the other side where we found a bus to bring us back to town.

All in all a good (and very eventful) day out. Tomorrow we head across the border to Brazil where we will spend a day and a half exploring the Brazilian side of Iguazu falls and then on to the beach.

Happy Birthday Mum

We hope you have a wonderful birthday mum. We'll be thinking of you and we're looking forward to celebrating with you when we get home (soon).

xxx

Football and Tango in Beautiful Buenos Aires

Since the very beginning of this trip (4 months ago now) I've been really looking forward to our stay in Buenos Aires. Everyone who's been here seems to return in love with this city and I couldn't wait to get here to find out what they were raving about. I must admit, I've come away also in love! Described in books as the 'Amercian Paris', Buenos Aires is a wonderful melting pot of cosmopolitan city life and eclectic, bohemian neighbourhoods begging to be explored. We arrived after an overnight bus trip (this time on a completely flat bed) from Mendoza and checked into our hostel in the bohemian 'antique quarter' of the city called San Telmo. It was a Saturday morning and the coffee shops and antiques stores were beginning to open as we made our way towards the main square in the area where we sat and drank coffee amongst the throng of local stall traders setting up for the day. The San Telmo area is famous for it's Sunday antiques market and numerous antiques stores lining the streets. Throughout the day it filled with serious antiques buyers and many tourists browsing the bric a brac stalls and crafts. I indulged my shopping fetish by purchasing some hand designed and made clothes which will be perfect as we continue our travels in hotter climes (no longer any need for the thermals and gortex!).

The next five days in the capital went by really quickly as we packed in as much sight seeing and exploring as we could manage. On our first evening we signed ourselves up for a local football match between the well known Boca Juniors and another BA team. This was the first football match I've ever been to and although I won't be giving up my rugby season ticket in favour of the round ball, I did enjoy it. The Boca fans are notorious in their volume and abuse of the opposition - they didn't disappoint (I wouldn't have wanted to play for the opposition) as things were thrown on to the pitch and general abuse was hurled at the players! I was very glad to have picked up a Boca shirt on the way to the stadium and we all joined in heartily with the singing (not sure what we were actually saying), whistling and clapping - there was no mistaking our allegiance.

On another of the nights we went to a Tango dinner show. Very touristy I know but we couldn't resist. The tango dancing on the streets is wonderful but the dancing and singing at the show was just amazing. As devout Strictly Come Dancing fans, we were both keen to see a Flavia/Vincent style Argentine tango in all its glory and the show lived up to our high expectations with plenty of leg flicking and drama. Walking around the streets in Buenos Aires it is hard not to be drawn in by the artists, dancers and musicians who jostle for space (both physical space and silence) to demonstrate their particular art. On Sunday in San Telmo we came across an amazing classical guitarist playing flamenco style music with enormous passion. We were enthralled for quite a while as was the rest of the huge crowd he'd drawn. It's impossible to be bored in Buenos Aires.

Our remaining days in BA were spent visiting wonderful art galleries, strolling around the varied neighbourhoods, wandering through the infamous cemetary in Recoleta (home to Eva Peron's (Evita) grave), eating delicious steak and bizarrely meeting up with friends (it really is a small world). We randomly bumped in to a couple who'd been on our Antarctic cruise and had a good chat with them. The following morning we received a message at our hostel saying that another couple from the cruise were in the city and would like to meet for lunch, which was lovely. We also met up with Elisa (and her sister) who we'd had the pleasure of meeting while we stayed at Estancia Despedida on Tierra del Fuego. She's studying in BA and we met up for delicious ice-cream and a catch up.

All in all we had a wonderful time. Five days and nights is just not long enough in this intoxicating city (although our wallets would take a hit if we stayed any longer - resisting the fabulous shopping was exceptionally challenging!). We both agree that we'd love to come back, and I for one can't wait.

Wine and birthdays in Mendoza

After a one night stop-over in Santiago on returning from Easter Island, we hopped on yet another bus to take us on the eight hour journey across the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Hailed as the wine capital of the country it seemed like the perfect place to celebrate my birthday and we'd agreed to meet up with Lou (who we met on the Navimag ferry) whose birthday is the day before mine. We were quite excited about the hostel we'd booked as the website looked fantastic and it boasted a pool and a wine bar on site. However, as with many things in South America, it was not quite as we'd imagined and although beautiful from the outside, was lacking in character and cleanliness on the inside. The town was far larger than we'd expected, a city rather than a Provencal village but its parks and tree lined avenues were very pretty and there were plenty of activities on offer.

On Lou's birthday we signed ourselves up for a full day's wine tasting culminating in a lunch of local produce at the final winery. We were collected at 9am (a little early for wine if you ask me!) and visited 3 wineries and a liquor distillery. We were guided around and shown the wine making process and then able to taste a white and red wine at each (we all agreed that it would have been far better to be given wines of varying varieties to compare, with a little more instruction involved as this was very much geared towards a quick taste and then back on the bus). At the final (very small) winery we arrived to find a table heavily laden with local meats, cheeses, breads and all sorts of other delicious things for us to enjoy (along with free flowing red wine to wash it down). It was a picture perfect setting and the food was absolutely delicious - a great way to end the tour.

The following day (my birthday) we went horse riding which was wonderful. We rode up into the mountains with perfect weather, great horses, mate tasting and an authentic gaucho - what more could a girl want! Lou's excellent spanish enabled her to find out all about the fascinating life of a gaucho and relay it back to me while we rode through the low Andes wishing only that we could stay longer. That evening we went to a wonderful restaurant in Mendoza where we tucked into delicious steak and the best red wine we've tasted so far. Even though I wasn't at home to celebrate with friends and family, I've got to admit it wasn't a bad way to spend a birthday!

From Mendoza the next stop is Buenos Aires where we will spend five days and nights. We're both really excited about this part of the trip as we've heard such great things about the city. I'll update again from there.

A little bit of Polynesia

After the worst bus journey of the trip so far (overnight to Santiago with a stomach virus that saw me unable to keep down food or water for 24 hours) and a full day and night in bed missing out on the beautiful weather in Chile's capital, we boarded a plane bound for the tiny island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island or Isla de Pascua) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. Rapa Nui is an overseas territory of Chile and besides Spanish being the main language, we couldn't have felt further away from South America. Famous for its large monumental statues called Moai, Rapa Nui is a world heritage site which entices people with its mysterious history and culture.

We flew in from Santiago (a 5 hour flight) landing at night on the tiny airstrip which literally spans the width of one end of the island - coming in very low over the water to touch down and being only metres from the ocean on the opposite side of the island when the plane finally slows down enough to turn around. We were greeted by our hostel owner, Bicky, with flower garlands as we left the airport and treated to passion fruit cocktails when we got back to our cabins by the sea - a very good start to a relaxing few days.

The following morning and feeling much better, we rented a car for the day to explore the triangular island. Being only 24km long and 12km wide, we only needed a day to visit all of the major historical and picturesque sites. The weather was beautiful and choosing to opt out of the standard guided tours we managed to avoid all of the big groups as we visited the Moai around the island, getting them for the most part to ourselves. These strange guardians of the island stand for the most part facing in towards the island with their backs towards the sea, protecting the land and its people. Only a quarter of the statues carved were installed, while nearly half still remain in the quarry or Moai 'nursery' at Rano Raraku and the rest elsewhere on the island, probably on their way to their final locations.

One of the most impressive sights is the row of 15 Moai (the most standing together) which have been restored at Ahu Tongariki (Ahu being the stone platform on which the Moai are erected). All slightly different in size and detail they were re-erected between 1992 ad 1995 and stand in front of the quarry used to carve all of the Moai on the island.

After our first day's exploration we spent a further two days and three nights making the most of what the tiny island of Rapa Nui has to offer. We visited the picture perfect beach of Anakena, watched the entrancing Rapa Nui ballet (traditional polynesian dancing and music), enjoyed a traditional meal cooked in an umu (earth oven) where the food is buried under ground on top of hot coals and covered with banana leaves and I went horse riding.

We left in the island with shell necklaces presented to us by Bicky, our host, having had a wonderful time. Rapa Nui may be tiny and very remote, but it was well worth the effort to get there.