Last few days in Argentina & Observations

We are now approaching the end of our time in Argentina and are getting ready to head into Bolivia (tomorrow at midnight). We spent one last day in Mendoza where we made the most of the free wine and were even given a little bottle as a present when we left the hostel. We then had a long bus journey to Salta which is in the north and have spent the day looking around the town. Salta is very different to the other parts of Argentina we have seen - it seems a lot more indigenous and quite a bit poorer. We have been told to expect a culture shock when we enter Bolivia and I think Salta may have been good preparation for this.
Before we cross into what many people have told us is ´the true South America´, I would like to just record a few of my thoughts and observations on Brazil and Argentina.

Brazil
We only visited the south west so I am not in a position to comment on Brazil as a whole, however  everywhere we went was quite different. If any Brazilians happen to read this, please realise that what follows is just an assortment of my own superifical observations gleaned from staying a couple of weeks in your country - please do not be offended!

Communication was difficult as most people spoke neither Spanish nor English but we got by on a mixture of the two.
Rio was the most beautiful city I have ever visited in terms of breathtaking landscapes and overall setting. It is better than you see in the movies -  standing on Ipanema beach with those famous mountains in the background whilst the sun was setting is an experience that will stay ingrained in my memories forever - it was an unforgettable start to our round the world trip.
Another thing I would like to mention about Rio is that fact that it was not as dangerous or scary as I had imagined. I had built up a terrifying image in my mind thanks to documentaries and films like city of God but in the end it turned out to be nothing like I had imagined. Maybe this was thanks to the great hostel we stayed in or maybe it was just down to luck and being careful but I would definitely go back there again.
One of my favourite experiences in Rio was visiting the Rochina favella because the favellas are such a big part of life in Rio and I am glad we didn´t miss out on seeing them just because some people regard it as voyeuristic tourism.
Iguazu and Floripa were both beautiful places and one thing I do want to mention, although insignificant to most people, is how impressed I was by the standard of the public toilets. On the whole they were on par with those in the UK.
We travelled some large distances in Brazil and what we saw in between towns tended to be sparse, dry landscapes with poor clusters of towns that mostly consisted of tin shacks and stray dogs on the loose.
Unfortunately we did not meet many real Brazilians, but those we did meet were extremely friendly, with one of the hostel owners actually giving us a hug when we checked out.
Finally I will comment on Brazilian food. We only really ate one true Brazilian meal in the hostel in Iguazu that was made up of beans, rice, salad and mince. It was really nice. The rest of the time we were overwhelmed by the choice of snacks available - ham and cheese sandwhich, ham pasty, cheese pasty, cheese sandwhich, ham and cheese pasty or sometimes there was even a bit of chicken or ´frango´thrown into the mix e.g. chicken kiev with ham and cheese in the middle of the chicken.
Overall, my favourite things about Brazil in the end were probably the samba music, the people and the laid back way of life.

Argentina
 Well what can I say about wonderful, vast, diverse Argentina? Let me firstly start with the highly anticipated Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires
An outstanding city that did not disappoint. In terms of safety, I know I said Rio felt safer than I had imagined but it was by no means on a par with BA. BA is a city that never sleeps and I felt safe wondering about the buzzing streets at all hours of the night. The restaurants don´t start to fill up until 10pm and nobody goes clubbing before 1am or returns home before 6am. There is so much variety in terms of places to eat, things to see, museums to visits, protests to get involved in. The history and politics are also fascinating and as cheesy as it sounds, you feel like you are walking through history in the making every day in Buenos Aires. During the time we were there we witnessed so many protests, celebrations, dancing in the streets... we even saw a movie being filmed. I loved the European feel to the city as well as the variety of food available and how cosmopolitan it felt. I am really glad we spent a full week there because there was so much to get involved in.
  
Landscapes
Wow. Definitely the most breathtaking landscapes I have ever witnessed. From enormous advancing glaciers, to awe inspiring waterfalls and lakes so blue they looked like they had been dyed! I cannot choose my favourite natural wonder but I would say that the day hiking around the mountains of el Chalten is pretty hard to beat. Every five minutes I had to stop and pinch myself and think, wow, now this is what you call being alive. At some points during that hike it felt like we were the only three people left on the planet, right at the end of the world.
  
People
The people in the South spoke English a lot better than I had expected and I would not count this as a positive as it meant I did not get to practice my Spanish much. Everyone we met was very passionate about politics.

Food
I would not be upset if I never at another steak again in my life. We have kind of overdone it here in Argentina with the asados (BBQs) to the point where I have been waking up in the middle of the night with meat sweats. The empanadas are delicious.
  
Culture
Not much of a culture here to speak of. Very similar to Europe, with some places in the south (e.g. Bariloche) having a Swiss feel to them, and others having a very french or Italian feel to them. We tried the mate that everyone here is so obsessed with drinking and it was extremely bitter and not something I would drink again. The buildings and shops are so different in the south compared to the north - in the south they are a lot more modern and the towns feel a lot richer, although at the bus stations, and in the public toilets, you can still tell that you are in a developing country.
  
Communication
The Argentinian dialect is extremely hard to understand; I hope that it gets easier further north.
  
Overall, I have really enjoyed the last 3 weeks in Argentina and I feel like we have had a good glimpse of the country in that short time, having travelled from north to south and back up again. The natural landscapes, the wine and the people have all been fantastic and it has been like one long holiday, however, it has not felt like ´real travelling´. I guess I am about to get the culture shock of my life in the next few days if I am to believe the stories fellow travellers have told me. From ladies who go to the toilet in the middle of the street to buses where the bus isn´t really full unless it is holding 3 times it´s intended capacity. Bolivia should be interesting!

Florianópolis

After an 18 hour coach journey, avoiding a crashed tanker and being subjected to a police drugs raid at 2am, we finally arrived in Florianópolis. We then had to catch two local buses in the heat, got lost, and finally found our hostel. Florianopolis was recommended to us by Jemma's brother and we more or less came here based on this recommendation, plus the fact that Jemma liked the Greek sounding name and we needed to break up our journey to Uruguay. So far, I wouldnt say i'm too taken. Maybe its because its a beach town and I'm not really a beach person (I lived on a beach for 3 months and only went in the sea about 3 times) or maybe its due to all the mad barking dogs that roam the streets. Don't get me wrong, its OK, plus we are in a really nice hostel which we have all to ourselves - we have a 9 bed dorm all to ourselves and its really clean with friendly owners. Plus they have wifi, so as sad as it sounds, we had a quiet night last night watching X factor on youtube. I don't miss the UK AT ALL (apart from my family and friends) but I do like to see who's gone through to the judges houses. Tonight we are treating ourselves to a meal out, because it actually doesn't cost that much more than cooking for ourselves. Brazil is an expensive country in relation to its Latin American neighbours. I am so looking forward to getting into the Spanish speaking areas where I will actually be able to understand what everyone is saying!

Our 9 bed dorm that we had all to ourselves

Foz do Iguaçu

Today we visited Iguazu falls on the Brazilian side. It was breathtaking. We have met some really nice people in the hostel from various countries - South Africa, Holland, Germany, England... so we all got the bus together to the falls and spent the day there. I wasn't expecting much, but I hoped that after a 24 hour bus journey it would be worth it and it really was. The photos just don't do it justice. We have booked to stay another 2 nights in this hostel and will be cooking dinner tonight with our new friends. It will make a nice change to eating bread, ham and cheese!

24 hour bus journey from Rio to Foz do Iguaçu

We have just arrived at Iguazu Falls after a 24 hour bus journey. I think I underestimated the actual amount of travelling involved in travelling! Brazil is huge and it's been annoying not being able to communicate properly - I have just been using a mixture of Spanish and English to get by. We caught the bus from Rio bus station yesterday at 1.30 and arrived here today at 1.30. The seats on the bus are actually quite comfy but the air-conditioning is intense and the bus smelt of the Paris underground. Also, all Brazilians seem to eat is ham and cheese which means we have been having cheese pasties for breakfast, dinner and tea - not the healthiest start to the trip. On our way here we stopped briefly in Sao Paulo. It took more than 2 hours to drive through the whole city - it is without a doubt the biggest city I have ever come across in my life. Anyway, we are now in a lovely chilled hostel and Jemma is relaxing by the pool as I type, with Bob Marley playing in the background. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Brazilian side of the falls.

p.s Jemma wanted me to add - the population of the Favela we visited yesterday is the same as the whole of Cardiff!

Rio days 3 & 4

It's now our third day in Rio and I think we can both say it has definitely surpassed our expectations.
The hostel we are in (Lighthouse) is so lovely - we are glad we took the recommendation off Jemma's brother.
The hostel is the smallest I have ever stayed in but this is good because it means we know everyone here and the staff are so friendly, one of whom is German, which made me very happy :)

'A monkey in the wild'

Yesterday we went to sugarloaf mountain and that more or less took up the full day. We travelled to the bottom by bus and the guy who works in our hostel (Enrique, like Iglesias) had told us we could trek up the first peak on foot through the rainforest, so we wanted to give this a go. We made our way along a little trail through the natural park, and Jemma was delighted to see her first ever 'monkey in the wild'. However, after about 40 mins of walking we came accross a sign telling us we couldnt go any further unless we had a guide so we decided to walk back and get the cable car all the way to the top.


The views from the cable car were outstanding, as were the views from the first peak. When we got to the first peak we treated ourselves to our first caipirinha before getting the next cable car to the second peak.

Well, it was so windy at the top, it was impossible to enjoy the views and I was very annoyed, when Jemma, who had borrowed my headscarf for the day, let it blow off her head down the mountain! Luckily some work men half way down caught it and we got it back lol. I then stalked a German tour around for a few minutes to get the history and the background info to Sugarloaf.

View from the first peak

After Sugarloaf, we got a bus to copacabana beach but were too scared to stay there for too long after all the horror stories we had heard. The guy in our hostel told us about one tourist who was kidnapped at knifepoint and taken off to a favela (the slums of Rio) and then taken round various cash points and made to withdraw all of his money. Anyway, we were scared and the sun was starting to set, so we sped walked our way back to our hostel. When we got back we went out to try and find some cheap food and then went back to the hostel. We have met some really nice people already including a kiwi called Aiden who is here to volunteer and live in a favela.

Today (Thursday) was probably my best day in Rio. We headed off to the selaron steps in the morning (made famous by various films and music videos - e.g. snoop dogg and farel).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MQhk53ayeI

We saw the guy who made the steps and took a few photos.

On the Selaron steps

After this, we had a dilemma, because I really wanted to go and visit a favela but Jemma did not.
The reason for this is that some people have strong views about visiting favelas - its a kind of voyeuristic tourism - rich people visiting where poor people live as if its disney land. Both of us don't really agree with this in theory, however, curiosity got the better of me, and I persuaded Jemma to take a tour to Rochina, which is meant to be the nicest favela in Rio. We paid to go on a tour, which is meant to put money back into the favela community and works on projects with the locals, building schools and daycare centres etc. Anyway, it was such an interesting experience, I am really glad we went for it. At the start of the tour, you have to get on the back of a motorbike with a random man from the favela who drives you up to the top of the mountain. This was without a doubt the scariest experience of my life and the closest to death I have ever come. The bikes race eachother to the top, you don't have a helmet and as you drive up, there are various cars and vans speeding around the corner. Once at the top, we went on a guided tour of the favela (slums) and heard all about how the community is run (ruled by the drug lords). We were told when we could and couldn't take pictures and warned not to take any pictures of the men holding the AK47 guns or of the druglords. There were wild dogs and cats running around, which made me thankful I had paid for a rabies jab and little kids playing samba. It was a terrifying but brilliant experience and I am really glad we did it. But our mums should know - we wont be doing anything that risky again. 

Jemma making friends with the locals

View of part of Rochina

Tomorrow is our last day in Rio and we are catching a bus at midday that will take us to Iguazu falls. The journey is 24hours so I'd better get off the netbook now and charge it for the journey. I think we might watch City of God on the coach to remind us of our stay in Rio :) 


(p.s I have added some more photos to the album on facebook  that I posted the link for the other day).


Oh and i also bought a lovely pair of havaianas. I hope I will still have them by the end of the trip!

Rio de Janeiro

Well, our rtw has gotten off to a fantastic start!  We arrived in Rio late last night after a longish flight (11 hours) which we spent watching all the new releases (Bridesmades etc).

So the flight went quite quickly and we had a taxi waiting for us at the airport which was organised by the hostel. The windows of the taxi were all blacked out and the car was unmarked. It turns out that all cars in Rio have blacked out windows -for safety reasons. I was actually not as scared as I thought I would be, driving in through Rio at 10.30 pm in an unmarked taxi with blacked out windows.

We got to our hostel which is on this little gated off street with a load of other hostels and its in the part of the city that is meant to be a bit safer (Ipanema).

We got up early today because neither of us could sleep and wanted to explore the city. We had a nice big free breakfast off the hostel and then headed out for a walk around the city. We went to Ipanema beach and then around the big lake. Then we went to Christ the Redeemer! It was hot today in Rio so the sun was glaring behind the statue. We took a train up the hill which was cool - a samba band got on and played and there were some fantastic views from the top. 

After that, we took a bus back to the beach to watch the sunset (sun set is very early her - 5.30 pm!). Unfortunately, I have already lost my hat - which is annoying, because anyone who knows me will know how long it takes to find a hat that fits my head! Also, Jemma already has blisters off her tevas sandals so will have to bandage her feet up tomorrow or walk around in walking boots.

Overall, we are both very happy with the start to our trip - after quite a stressful lead up to the trip, its nice to finally be out here, living the backpacker lifestyle! :)


I have added more photos of our trip so far here: (mum, click the orange/ blue bit below)


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