Buenos Aires & Uruguay

The buses in Argentina are in a league of their own. Brazil has great fleets – better than any other bus I have ever come across – Argentina companies are literally unbelievable. The journey from Iguazu falls to Buenos Aires was about 20 hours and easily the best trip I have ever experienced. The hardest thing was choosing which company.

I took a middle of the range bus option and it was insanely good. There is a foot rest at the left of this picture which folded down over my bag against the chair and laid back an enormous amount. They left precisely on time at 4pm and waiting on our seats were sealed blankets and pillows – the seats reclined back so far it was practically a bed with the foot rest down (but the top of the range buses are actually beds!!!). They showed 2 movies, one in Spanish, one in English, then offered us whisky on the rocks before dinner.

Dinner was served on a tray at our seats which consisted of a large serving of spinach and ricotta pie with steamed chicken and salsa and a variety of cold things (crackers, ham, cheese, olives, bread, cake..) Then they offered sparkling wine and ‘good night’ biscuits. The lights went out and I slept soundly until 7am when, once again, I admired the beautiful scenery. It was a double decker bus and I had the very front seat upstairs – perfect unspoilt outlook! We had a cold breakfast, crackers, jam, quiche, muffin, biscuit and coffee and of course, arrived on time. Most definitely better than any flight or other form of transport I have ever been on. It was like business class in a plane. I am excited to catch another. :-)


I stayed in San Telmo, the oldest neighbourhood in Buenos Aires (BA). I found BA to be a really colourful, vibrant city with impressive artwork (graffiti) on many of the streets. They really pride themselves on being a cultured art city – especially de fence street where all the artists get together on a Sunday morning and ‘design’.

On Saturday a small group of us caught the train to Tigre, a cool coastal town North of BA. On the way up, the sweetest old man joined the train and played his accordion and gave a lovely short speech on life and love – basically do what makes you happy or life will pass you by (in English and Spanish!!). No doubt speaking from experience. The local guy we were with said it was a pretty rare thing which made it that bit more special. To top of the day in Tigre, we stumbled across Ronald MacDonald doing fancy tricks and entertaining the crowd in Spanish – really funny to watch.


The deeper I travel in South America, the more I am confronted with hardship and a big part of why I am in this continent. After spending so much time in bus terminals and regularly getting approached by beggars, I now take with me bunches of bananas or whatever fruit I can find to hand out. Most are grateful but others still want money.

After spending a few great days in Buenos Aires, I decided to take a trip to Uruguay.

URUGUAY


I generally like to spend a minimum of 2 or 3 weeks in each country to get a feel for their culture, so I debated for some time whether to make the boat trip for a quick visit over to Uruguay from Argentina. After hearing so many wonderful reports, I decided to go and really pleased I did.

Colonia de Sacramento is a quaint little town with a real colonial style as the name suggests. It is such a peaceful, quiet place that had a really wonderful feel about it. Just like a country town or little fishing village, locals were friendly and respectful, even though the place they call home is constantly swarming with strangers. Every street was cobble stone paved, with lazy looking but well-kept cars and old men gossiping with cigarettes burning to their fingers. I loved it so much I even caught myself walking around with a smile without even meaning too – I only noticed because everyone was smiling at me and saying hello – it is contagious. It is such a safe, quiet town I wish I had more time here.


The ferry ride over from Buenos Aires was extremely comfortable and steady. My stomach does not fare well in rough seas so I was grateful. I took the slow ferry (3 hrs) and we had the same boat for both journeys. It was 4 storeys high with a spacious outdoor deck, large café and duty free. It was an early morning trip and although a busy time, there were enough spare seats for travellers to fold up the arms and stretch out over 4 chairs if they wanted.

There are many beaches spotted all the way up the coast – and apparently quite nice closer to the capital but after travelling through Brazil, I didn’t find the ones in this town very impressive.

Uruguay had won a soccer game the day I arrived so they had a colourful street parade.

I have decided to cut my Argentina and Chile part of the trip short so I can get back to Lima and spend a very simple Christmas with the kids. I can’t wait!!!!
I am starting to get a taste for their unusual coffees and like Italy, they insist on serving water with their coffee, or in some places (especially Argentina) instead choose to serve orange cordial. Interesting combination.


One morning while making some enquiries on local charity organisations, I got talking to a Columbian man who was also staying at the hostel. He introduced himself as Andres and after chatting for some time I mentioned my desire to travel to Columbia to check out the need for assistance in local communities. It turns out that his mum works with a struggling community through a local NGO. Even though the charity closes down over the time I am hoping to visit, we exchanged information in the hope we are still able to meet in January. I can’t believe the number of like-minded people and contacts I have made travelling through SA. I’m excited!!

Missing my family...

Yesterday (Sunday 4th) was a day full of mixed emotions. I received the worst news a family member can here on the other side of the world. I also received possibly the best news I have had on this trip so far.

I called my parents on Sunday morning (Sun night in Aust) to say hi when they told me that not 10 min before, they received the news that my brother, Daniel, had been in a serious motor bike accident. They sounded awful and my heart fell through the floor. He was on a dirt bike in the country and had been airlifted to Royal Adelaide hospital.

I have since found out that he cracked 3 vertebrae and damaged his face pretty badly chipping all his front teeth but is in a stable condition. He was extremely lucky to escape damage to his spinal cord. I spoke to him this morning and he is in good spirits. They are confident he will make a full recovery. I have never been so close to jumping on the first plane back home. We can breathe again.

It was such an unusual day. I also received wonderful word from Dr Maggie in Saikeri (Kenya) that she now has a roof on her new home and building progress is going extremely well. This was made possible by the generous $500 donation a lady in Australia made (who wishes not to be named). I have never met her but she made contact with me after reading the blogs I posted last year and then this year when I stayed with Maggie and shared word that she was building her own home.

After so many years of selfless dedication to others, she had finally been able to save enough money to get a bank loan (hard and rare in Kenya unless you are white, already own a home or have a government job) to build a house. I was sooooo excited for Maggie. She has such an amazing story, most of which I only learnt this year – recent tragedies in her family.

Maggie is the only member of her family who has a stable paying job so she takes it upon herself to support her entire extended family, including her brother who had to have extremely expensive emergency surgery after getting hit my a matatu. She is not one to share her life woes – you would honestly never know, but I asked. The money she had for her home went to her brothers surgery. I didn’t think it was possible, but I love her even more. She is one amazing lady. Honest and pure, again rare in Kenya.

Tonight I am getting an overnight bus to wonderful wine city of Mendoza in central west of Argentina. It is also close to the Andes (mountain region) – hoping I have the opportunity to do some hiking!

Missing my family more than ever.

Iguazu Falls

Truly one of the most amazing wonders in the world!

I arrived by overnight bus from Sao Paulo to Foz do Iguazu in Brazil. Jeff caught a flight back to Australia on Tuesday and I headed directly to the bus station.


The falls can be observed from 2 countries, Brazil and Argentina - I visited the falls on the Brazilian side. I dropped off my luggage at the hostel and headed straight for the falls just in time for the Park’s opening. I was told to allow 2-3 hours. I was addicted and stayed the entire day!


It really is every bit as stunning as the reports suggest. There is no feeling like standing on that platform knowing you are in the middle 1.3 million litres of water cascading around you every second, it was so powerful. If you dared venture out you inevitably got soaked through – it was loud with such intense mist yet so gentle it was soooo invigorating!!! I let out a teeny squeal once or twice without even meaning to – pure delight. I felt so alive it was fantastic.


It’s cruel once you’ve seen the beauty first hand, how disappointing you feel the photos have reflected your experience. It’s a cliché but I am not sure any picture I have ever seen has done the magnificence of the falls justice.


I had planned to also visit the Argentina side of the falls (75% of the falls are there) as I heard they were more beautiful. But I was happy with what I had experienced in Brazil and didn’t see the need so decided to explore Paraguay for the day instead. It was a short 30 min drive to the border and they didn’t’ even check passports. It was a cool day just wandering through the streets and watching the locals. I wasn’t’ sure how safe it was so I didn’t risk taking my camera.


I left Brazil knowing that I will return one day. It was a month of holiday and relaxation, although I did do some research on impoverishment and met a couple of people involved in charity work that I would love to come back and visit in that capacity. I was shocked to learn the level of hardship in Rio and that Brazil has the second highest level of Leprosy to India in the world.


Walking through the favela’s (slums) in Rio was a stark contrast to the rest of the city now known as one of the most expensive city in the world to live in. A whopping 16 million people in Brazil live in extreme poverty – most of it being in the North East, just above where I travelled. I will visit them one day.

Formula 1 Grand Prix

Wow, AMAZING week. The experience of the Sao Paulo F1 GP is one Jeff and I find difficult to put into words. It was simply amazing. They predicted storms and it threatened to rain all day but the atmosphere, the people the weather, the track, the beers all of it was excellent.


The power of the cars literally shook me to the core. Standing up against the fence directly above the track was unbelievable. I actually think I stopped breathing for the first lap or 2 – the feeling of the adrenalin pumping through my body will stay with me for a long time. It is one more experience I am grateful to have and one I certainly would have missed out on if Jeff hadn’t suggested the idea 8 months ago!!! Great idea!


For someone who has never really been into car racing, I was addicted to the track, I couldn’t’ take my eyes from the tarmac. Having very little idea of F1 (the drivers, teams, track rules, qualifying etc) Jeff had his work cut out for him.


Slowly, slowly he introduced me to the world of F1 racing and I crammed as much as I could in and I even surprised myself knowing every top driver and all the teams as they screamed around the track. It was a little harder keeping track once they started lapping drivers – but it was entertaining trying to work over a couple of beers enjoying the atmosphere.


The grand stand was jam packed with passionate Brazilians. They hollered and cheered every time Filipe Massa and Bruno Senna (and Barrichello) went around. The only driver they really disliked was Hamilton so you can imagine the cheers when he went out!!! I didn’t know what had happened. We had one of the cheaper seats for the 3 days and we could see an unbelievable amount of the track.



No surprises that the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix mid-March 2012 is high on our agenda. GO WEBBER!!!!!

Sao Paulo

We arrived in the pouring rain and the forecast for the F1 is wet and stormy weather. But we can’t stop smiling – just thrilled to be here, wet or dry!!

On the flight over we were given plain crackers – I was in the mood for a little vegemite, and so happened to have some in my bag, so I cracked it open (thanks Mum) and stunk the aircraft out. Yummo!



The first night we arrived it was late, so we opted for a hotel close to the airport with a free shuttle. The next day, the weather was pretty bleak so we decided not to venture too far. The reception staff kindly informed us that we could watch movies in the hotel, so we went down to the local video store to hire a DVD (Senna). Unfortunately we couldn’t hire as we’re not ‘locals’. Being a movie about the Formula 1 (Ayrton Senna), we (I was) were desperate to see it so they gracefully put it on the store system and we stood there crook necked for 100 min watching the film. Despite most of it being in Portuguese, it was worth it. Oh boy are we excited!!

On the way to our next hotel that Jeff organised months ago (closer to the race), we tried to take photos of the pretty impressive city but every direction was a mass of tall buildings – we didn’t’ know which part was the city – we guess it all was. Crazy big – the entire population of Australia is almost in this one city. The view from our hotel on the 12 floor is really pretty. There are a lot of bridges here and each are surprisingly unique and stunning, especially at night.



About 3 hours ago we went to pick up our race tickets – WOOFREAKINGHOOOO!!!! Thankful they included earplugs in our pack! Qualifying tomorrow and race on Sunday – will be at both and can’t wait!

Pipa

No fancy bars, flash restaurants or expensive suits here. It is the perfect lazy fishing town we were hoping for. The road from Natal to Pipa was like driving through North Queensland with hectares of Sugar Cane lining the road.

We took a local bus that took 2 hours and the Manager of the Natal hotel offered to drive us free of charge to the station. Unbelievably nice people – we tried to pay him but he refused to accept. Jeff comments every day on how incredibly friendly the people are here and I wholeheartedly agree. We could be paying our bill at a bar or getting out of a taxi we negotiated a cheaper price for and they will still shake our hands. We will miss this place.

Yesterday was Jeff’s birthday and we spent the day lounging by the pool, watching movies in our air-conditioned room and had dinner in the coolest little restaurant on the beach. It was dark but the sound of the ocean was very prevalent. We waddled our way back suitably stuffed. We won’t dare weigh ourselves – it’s not only our luggage that has gained a few pounds this trip. :-)


The hotel we stayed in for 6 nights in Pipa was nothing short of spectacular. We managed to get a deal that gave us more than 60% off the normal room rate AND had breakfast included. It was every bit as beautiful as the pictures on the website. We really did have to pry ourselves from the pools each day to check out the beach and town.

Breakfast was like nothing I have ever experienced! Every morning we spent an average of 2 hours there – around 9 we started with fresh fruit and glass of juice, half an hour later we had something hot (eggs, sausages or steak and onions) and toast then their local delicacies (chicken or ham/chs/tom filled pastries and quiche like things) then coffee and cake (there were an average of 7 to choose from!) not to mention the abundance of cookies and bite sized sweet treats in independent jars dotted around the 3 large tables of food. I couldn’t’ help but think of the possible waste each day and what the food could have done for others.


After breakfast, the toughest decision of the day was deciding which pool to swim at – yeah there were 2 to choose from. It was pretty over the top.

On Sunday Jeff went for a wander into town and walked to a point where he went for a swim and got within 20 metres of dolphins swimming. Very cool experience.

The weekends are like walking through a night club in the main street. There is music and people are quite overwhelming. The PERFECT place for 20ish year olds. Jeff’s hoping to bring his sons here one day soon – I think he’d be crazy not to. Speaking of perfect we found the greatest little bar in town we went to a few times before dinner – awesome drinks, bar staff (yum!!) and the best list of reggae music I have heard.


We spent most nights lounging in the hammock drinking wine or vodka and listening (and singing) to music - the photo of my feet was my common afternoon/evening view.

For the epitome of luxury on a backpackers budget in one of the prettiest coasts we have seen, it cost us less than $60 each per night. If only we could stop time and stay longer!!!! I loved Pipa.

The closest thing I have come to comparing these stunning parts of paradise is the Sunshine Coast. I do miss home, but not ready to come back just yet…….

Natal

Natal is a bigger city than we expected. Flying in at night was big, bright and comfortably warm. Our flight was rather delayed so we arrived at our hotel around 1.30am - the friendly reception chap who spoke not a word of English was waiting for us.

Although we could not see it, we could hear the ocean. It was beautiful. We set our alarm in time for the last 10 min of breakfast then made our way into town for a look around.

The town of Natal is pretty unimpressive - first impressions were not great. Months before getting to Brazil and ever since arriving we have heard amazing reviews about this place and Pipa. And when you make it down to the beach, you realise why. It really is stunning.

Just like Rio, the beach is graced with a wide, friendly pedestrian path - also used by motorcyclists, but they are quick to swerve past you. :-) They are littered with colourful market stalls run by such friendly people, that don't push sales, you want to buy from them all. I still can’t believe I did this – but today I bought a pair of those teeny Brazilian bikini sets with briefs aren’t quite a g-string but may as well be – to be clear I bought them for the top which is pretty cool and I have a pair of shorts that can be worn in the water. Unlike other bare backsides EVERYWHERE over here - mine will never see the light of day.

On our second night, it was a super balmy evening so we took ourselves down to the beach and went for a midnight swim – the sea was rough but warm and wonderful.

Looking forward to Pipa we have heard sooooo much about.