LindyBear

Warning – Mum and Dad…. don’t read this next blog – trust me!!

And so on to La Paz, capital of Bolivia (according to some!!) Loads to do in La Paz but after weeks of talking and debate, our first stop was San Pedro prison. This is a functioning real prison which apparently is more like a little town, with restaurants, shoe shines, stalls, even hairdressers, situated right in the heart of La Paz.

Doesn’t look like a prison, does it?? It’s a biggie on the backpacker list as it’s just a case of bribing the guards and paying a prisoner some protection money to have a look around inside there. I know, I know, it’s sounds soooooo strange and stupid AND completely tempting fate to pay to get INTO a south american prison but many the traveller has been in and out of there unscathed. Believe it or not, people have paid a little extra to stay the night – now that would be a bit much for me!!!

Anyway myself and Phil decided to head to the plaza right outside the prison. Supposedly you only had to hang around there for a few minutes before being approached and in you go. Unfortunately for us, the governer of the prison changed a few days before we arrived and it was complete lock down. No go.

We furtively hung around and tried to look a bit dodgy yet approachable but nothing was happening. Then we tried the direct approach, went to the gate and attempted to charm the guard a little but other than a quick photo, he was having none of it. 

Nobody got in for the few days we were there. Sooooooooo disappointing. Boo to it 🙁 Cocaine is allegedly produced in the prison too which might also explain the lock out. If anyone is interested in more info on San Pedro, check out the book Marching Powder which will be a good insight into the workings of this prison.

Decided I couldn’t visit La Paz without cycling down the most dangerous road in the world, thus known due to the cars, bikes, trucks and buses which have gone off the steep cliffs of this narrow meandering road…….

……..hence the name, Death Road. These days there is a new road so there isn’t as much traffic to contend with when you’re plummeting down on a mountain bike. We headed off early in the morning and climbed to just under 5000 metres above sea level into the snow…..

Spectacular or what – it almost looks fake!! We got our bikes and started the 4000+ metre BUMPY journey downhill to the jungle. I can honestly say I’ve never been so scared in my entire life!!! That includes the bungee jump, sky dive, etc. This was petrifying!!! My teeth were chattering in my mouth – probably should have clamped them shut but I was too flipping scared!! The road was mainly covered in really rough gravel and was totally uneven so you basically hung on for dear life (literally) and hoped you didn’t end up going over the edge……..

SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. I must be mad. This is not for the faint-hearted!! The scenery was amazing on the way down – when I was brave enough to look!

By the way I wore leggings which came down to here…..

….that’s me on the right. The four inches or so of skin between the leggings and my runners was exposed and I got 80 mossie bites within 5 minutes!!! 80!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooooo unfair!! Didn’t even feel it happen. Bloody mossie bast*rds! The war is on and I’m dreading the Amazon next week. Boo 🙁

But as always, I digress. I’m really glad I did the bike ride but I don’t think I’ve ever had so much adrenaline pump through my body!!!! Felt I was well within my rights to wear this cheesy tee-shirt with pride………

Totally knackered after, so much so I couldn’t face the long awaited Indian food we had talked about for weeks. Neither could I accept the vindeloo challenge – damn it!! So would have kicked ass.

Next day I strolled around La Paz, had to buy some girlie things which you couldn’t get for love nor money anywhere else in Bolivia. La Paz isn’t the prettiest of cities, especially if you stay right in the centre, but it does have the odd nice building like this Cathedral…….

……still looks, ahem! Nuff said. That said there are some great views of La Paz as you are coming into the city. Checked out the Witches Market, which was a lot smaller than I had imagined but yes they hadpotions, miracle cures and the shrivelled foetuses of Llamas, etc.

The guide books say that the witches are pretty scary and in fact they kinda were. You wouldn’t be messing with these ladies!! Happened across this great shop/fortune-tellers and asked if I could take a photos of these masks……

……she firmly said ONE PICTURE only, which is all I intended to take, but still I have to admit I gulped, took a quick snap and pretty much legged it!!

Had a couple of folks join the group so we celebrated that night, our last night in La Paz and in Bolivia……

Next stop Peru and the Inca Trek is creeping up very quickly now……. which is possibly more scary than the bike ride!!!!

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157616429169828/

Next stop was Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4060 metres above sea level. Again the altitude nausea set in so we all chewed on coca leaves like there was no tomorrow. Potosi has a strange feel to it. The city itself is quite pretty in parts…..

…..but is shadowed by Cerro Rico, a stripey mountain where silver was mined for many years. These days miners still work long, long days to extract minerals. I think there is an underlying feeling of hard work and sadness due to the incredible 8 million miners whose lives have been snatched by Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) since 1545. We got a chance to don our wellies…….

……..and check out the mine itself but first stopped at the miners market along the way……..

……….to buy coca leaves (they mush up the coca leaves, put them to side of their mouth and by the time they dissolve they know their working shift is over – neat!!), 97% alcohol (to be explained later), cigarettes and biscuits for the miners families. We also got to buy dynamite to give to the first class minors. Our guide kindly let us blow up a stick of it before we went into the mines!!!! Excellent!! Who in the right mind would give me dynamite????

The mines themselves are a death trap…..

….. so hard to believe that they are not mapped and it seems that no one knows what going on in different parts of the mine at any one time so it is a catastrophe waiting to happen. We didn’t go that far down, maybe 10 or 15 metres deep but we went a few kilometres in and got to live the experience, for a little while anyway. Such a tough life though, even in the present day the life expectancy for a miner is 35!!

The miners also worship, Tio, the devil, who is said to protect them. Every week they offer coca leaves, cigarettes and 97% alcohol (pure alcohol in exchange for pure minerals) at the shrines of Tio.

We did the same and of course the paddy here had to drink some of the alcohol – shudder!! Thankfully the rest I left at the shrine. This mine is only one example of the sadness that exists in Bolivia and of the huge divide between rich and poor.

Had a little explore around Potosi that afternoon and that night we surprised Simon (spent days whispering and convincing him to celebrate his birthday later on in the trip!!) for his big 3-0!!!

Had a great night……..

……..ending with Lindy’s extreme uncontrollable giggles – on the way to the pub, all the way home, brushing my teeth, getting into bed, etc, etc, etc. Not sure why I’ve started with the giggling….hmmmmm.

Anyhoo the next stop was Uyuni and the Salt Flats. The Salt Flats and Lake Titicaca are the remains of a sea that existed in this area of Bolivia. I can honestly say I’ve never been somewhere so striking in my life! My day started kinda weirdly with requesting a spin on a unicycle but I had to get up on this guy’s shoulders first…..

…….scary or what?! Managed to pedal a little by myself but I think I’m not coordinated enough and felt much safer with my feet back on terra firma!!

Headed off to the Salt Flats after that but first stopped at a train cemetery where we played around for a while……

…….. then it was off to a market and museum. Of course EVERYTHING is made of salt. The buildings, tables, chairs, beds, sculptures, souvenirs, etc, etc. 

Salar de Uyuni are about 12,000 square miles and are the remains of a sea which went all the way up to Lake Titicaca. The flats, Lake Titicaca and Lake Poopo are the remains of this sea. Of course it looks more like snow fields today which makes the scenery spectacular but also makes lots of fun trick shots possible……

……come on Lindy, don’t lag behind 🙂 Now I have to subject you to some of my favourite photos from here, such as this……

and this…….

and this……. 

AND this……

When we got bored of doing trick shots, we generally just jumped around like kids in the snow….

Such a fun day……

and if you’re not bored to bits already, there are so many more great photos on my flickr site. 

So we finished our day crunchy with salt and recovered in the Salt hotel where we took in a nice sunset…….

…..and also celebrated Ali’s birthday over a nice traditional Bolivian meal…….

After a night in the hotel (with no electricity) I had expected that I’d be itching to get back to civilisation but I was surprisingly calm. We headed off to Fish Island, which is an island in the salt flats shaped like a fish but is in fact covered in enormous cacti……

Climbed to the top of the island and took in the great views of Salar de Uyuni.

Of all I’ve seen so far on my travels, this was one of my highlights.

The landscape here is just amazing and completely mesmerising.

Had a stroll across the flats with some atmospheric Massive Attack on my ipod and found that I was pretty relaxed for the second time in as many weeks.

You know you’ve found somewhere really special when you try to burn the image into your brain and when you don’t want to leave. Had a blast for the two days on the Salt Flats and remained completely impressed with Bolivia as we prepared to leave for Peru.

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615907763869/    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157616188432796/

And so after a couple of boarder crossings (still think those town are so so strange) we moved into Bolivia by way of taxis circa 1980!

I’m not quite sure what I expected from Bolivia, in fact I don’t think I had any expectations at all. Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America but let me tell you this, it has been fan-feckin-tastic so far!!!!

Our first stop was Santa Cruz and after me forcing Susie to drink tap water, ha, ha, ha…… (hasn´t killed me since I arrived in Asia!!)

……..and dinner in an Irish pub (the old reliable, but damn it they had run out of Irish stew!! Boo), a few of these innocent girlies (including me!)……

…..decided to head off to a (male) strip club!! Kinda a spur of the moment thing and not really my scene but it turned out to be really funny!! One of the strippers, Tony, was talking to me about his kids before the show started. So I did find it a little surreal when he was gyrating in front of me an hour later!!

Eeeeeeuuuuuukkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the first time since I can remember I felt embarrassed, cringe….. Very funny night though, followed by a horribly early start. Took a flight to Sucre and got to see some amazing scenery as we flew in…..

…….just beautiful 🙂 Sucre lies about 2800 metres above sea level so altitude sickness is kinda common. Altitude sickness and a hangover is particularly disorientating, especially when you get hum-dingers like I´ve developed this year – must be old age 🙂 Anyhoo Sucre is just lovely, the only problem is there is too much to do there!!! You can go motor-cross biking, mountain biking, trekking and heaps more. Headed to Tarabuco market, which was about 70km outta town. Yet more great scenery on the way……

…….It was fiesta time there so there was a real buzz about the place and packs of people everywhere. It´s a really old style village where the people still wear traditional clothing……

…….and of course there were locals dressed up for the fiesta also.

We strolled around the market and there were loadsa stalls with nice knits and jewellery………

……….so I got to so a bit of bargaining with the locals which I just love!! Difficult though as my spanish is quite limited but they speak a different language anyway!! I maintain that 95% of a conversation can be carried out with body language and a calculator!! (oh dear, that sounds really bad doesn’t it??! I mean it with total innocence I assure you! 🙂 ) It was a pretty long and hot day, the altitude is weird, you get tired and out of breath from doing the tiniest of tasks! Makes you feel really weak and unfit, not good omens for the upcoming trek in Peru!!!!

Headed back to Sucre as the following day was set to be a big one!! Myself, Julie (after some persuasion) Lyn and Phil decided to go paragliding. I was interested in this to see how it would compare to bungee jumping and sky diving. I also was thinking the scenery would be spectacular as we are so high up travelling through Bolivia. So we set off early the following morning…..

……Julie was dead nervous but I knew she’d love it. Lyn was a little nervous too but retaining her composure nicely. Phil had done handgliding before so was all good and I was trying to stop myself falling asleep (as I mentioned before I think I fall asleep when I get nervous!?) I wanted to get myself nice and nervous because I reckon you get a better adrenaline kick afterwards. We trucked up a big mountain for about an hour, enjoying the views along the way….

We also met this lady……

…….and gave her a lift to save her wallking the miles and miles (and miles) she does every day!!! Finally we reached our spot and Julie was up first to get it over with and she ended up loving it. She was expecting a bit drop off the mountain but you really just run off the mountain and glide away. Lyn had a bit of a rough take off so I did get a little nervous by the time my turn was up which was all good. All went great though, just run a couple of strides and away you go……… 

It is kinda freaky though as you literally run off a mountain so you do need to lose the nerve a little and just go with it. I’m getting better at that too, don’t know whether it’s bravery or stupidity 🙂 

 (Have a video of my paraglide but having a few technical difficulties so will paste the link in at a later date)

Paragliding is amazing though because you keep getting these rushes from it as the thermals catch and drop you. The thermals were particularly good for my jump and I ended up going really high…..

…..resulting in loads of stomach flips. Excellent, I likey 🙂 Amazing rush and I think I’d rate it second to a sky dive but better than a bungee in the way that you keep getting rushes over and over.

The scenery was amazing too, honestly Bolivia, and indeed South America in general, is just amazing in that respect. The landscape is so dramatic and the sky here is just different somehow – my obsession with the sky here continues….

Great day had by the four of us……

……..and we headed back down the mountain enjoying the views….

……and the curious glances from the locals. Headed out for a few drinks on our last night in Sucre and a good old night……….

……..The following morning I had a pedicure – what a treat!!! Headed over to see Casa de la Liberdad……

……a beautifully preserved house whose furniture, strangely, is kept in a museum in the city centre. Hmmm weird?! Still though a really beautiful castle with many different types of architecture but it still blends together somehow…..

Headed back into the city for a wander…….(check out my very fashionable sunglasses marks!!!)

……and a browse around the markets, the potato is big here in Bolivia…..

………which pleases me as it reminds me of home and it’s real potato as opposed to the powdered crap in Brazil – bleugh!

That ended our time and Sucre and we headed off to Potosi that afternoon but as I sat on the bus, I kept thinking just how impressed I am with Bolivia 🙂

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615528947216/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615521002131/

Yes it happened, for the first time in a long, long time, I relaxed!!! Can you believe it??? 🙂 This relaxed thing is really, really goooood! So here’s how it happened. Took a bus from Paraguay back into Brazil. It was a pretty long journey and they cram people on to the buses, picking them up around every corner and a lot of people end up standing. Believe it or not I ended up holding a little girl (about 1.5 – 2ft old) for a few hours. Anyone who knows me will know that I’m not a kiddie person so that is kinda a big deal!! I just felt sorry for her as there were soooooo many people on the bus at that time and she was getting squished.

Anyhoo, we finally reached Bonito, Brazil and I got into a hammock for a laze and then it happened, I totally chillaxed. I mean proper total chill out, again if you know me well, you know I´m not able to relax – EVER). It’s a weird yet wonderful feeling, I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. (Can’t believe people are capable of this on a regular basis) Had a few hours of me-time and it was amazing.

Bonito is a nice town and there including snorkelling, scuba diving and much more. I opted for a day at the natural swimming pools which was just lovely.

Just swam and chilled all day. Didn’t quite get my relaxy thing going as much but a great day nonetheless. Have to mention that there are butterflies EVERYWHERE in Brazil…….

…….and they land on you, it’s kinda nice but ticklish!!

Yeah I think I like Bonito, I also ran into Cork boy Darren who I’ve met in random place all around south america, small world, huh? Had a fun night out there too, making idiots out of ourselves……

……..hmmmmm, not so sure the tiger look is that flattering!! The following day we headed off to the Pantanal, a grassland basin in Brazil with loads of wildlife. Lambs to the slaughter, mossie-wise, we did get eaten alive. One of the girls got 80 bites!!!! Had to take drastic measures…..

……but fear not, despite looking like a moron, I still got eaten alive. Please, please, please don’t the let the Amazon be as bad. These mossies were particularly vicious and took a liking to our faces – grrrrrrrrrrr!

Started off with a boat trip and saw a few caimans but to be honest the Aussie crocs would kick their asses!! Went for a swim in their teritory but they don’t view us as a food source so we survived unscathed. Still though, it’s a little unnerving to swim in muddy, silty waters where you can’t see if they’re sneaking up on you!! Also saw the Jabiru birds which are the symbol of the Pantanal.

Got eaten alive that night, naturally and had an early start the following morning. Spent the day at a “farm”, horse-riding, walking and some more lounging around in hammocks. Good day, saw some jabirus, caiman, armidillos and many more. One of the guides also caught a caiman and had a way of chilling him out into a meditative state almost, so I got to rub his belly!!! Headed back to the ranch for dinner and saw a beautiful sunset on the journey back, sweet!

Went piranha fishing the following morning, good fun dispite the vicious mossies!! Managed to catch two of them……

…..and they cooked them off for us after…….. (Hayley & Ruth)

………. Tasty little guys too 🙂 but labour intensive!! (oh and yes I did wake up about ten mins before this pic was taken – sleepy cat 🙂 )

So that pretty much ended my time in Brazil. Now heading for Bolivia which I´m really excited about.

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615093767745/   http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615167085708/

Foz deIguassu or Iguassu Falls is a big highlight in South America and I was pretty excited about it but was just hoping that it wasn’t going to be over hyped like some of these biggies can be. Did the Brazilian side of the falls on the first day but stopped on the way to see a bird park. Now apart from my love of penguins, I’m not massively into birds but it was a good way to see the inhabitants of the falls national park. The tucans are just gorgeous birds, their beaks are so vibrant, they actually look fake – even in real life!!!

Their beaks almost look 2-dimensional. They are not shy either, one of them had a piece of fabric stuck on the teeth of his beak and he was chasing our feet so we would stand on it to remove it. Weird huh? Clever clogs though, but myself, Lis and Lynn valued our toes too much because, damn, that beak would definitely snap one or two off!!! Loads more to see in the bird park, including fish, turtles and fabulously coloured parrots. (Parrots kinda give me the willies though!!)

We moved on to the main event and the Brazilian side of the falls is accessed through a 1.5km trail. God it was hot, we looked like we had been under the falls within the first five minutes!! Mmmmmmmm sweaty! A very nice walk though which afforded great views of the falls along the way….

…….how often do you get to see something like this, ahhhhh just perfect! Eventually you walk down to platforms over the water from which you view (and hear) the thunderous falls in all their glory. People keep saying it must be hard to impress me after what I’ve seen on my travels up until now but this was definitely a highlight for me. The falls are awesome, and when I say that I mean awesome in a way that I was in absolute and utter awe of them, not just as a throwaway remark. Mighty, roaring, soaking us with mist, which was just the refreshment needed by then.

It was amazing, honestly i don’t think I’ve experienced nature on such a grand and powerful scale. (check out this very shaky video to give you an idea Iguassu Falls, Brazilian video – and no I wasn’t hungover!!) I really don’t have the words to describe it properly but standing in front of the falls makes you feel so small but also so so lucky to see them 🙂

We stayed, got drenched and watched for ages and you know you’ve witnessed something great when it’s hard to leave it behind.

Everyone says that you should view the falls from both the Brazilian side and the Argentinian side so the following day we headed across the boarder to Argentina. The falls are quite different on this side…..

I’m not sure how but I guess you get to see them more up close, the Brazil side seems to show the overall magnitude of them. They are still massive and dramatic on the Argy side though, it’s hard to describe the difference. Anyhoo we got to walk on some great trails and took a speed boat right under the pounding water which was loadsa fun. Wanted it to last much longer. You also got to see just how massive and powerful the falls are!!

Between us all I reckon we took a billion pictures and videos 🙂 (Check this one out Devil’s Throat, Foz, Argentina ) No mean feat when the falls are spraying the crap out of your camera!!!

That night we went to a Latin American dance show, which was very impressive, we got to see everything from salsa to tango to samba……

and a good few laughs in between 🙂 Plenty of pics and videos on my flickr site for the boys to oogle 🙂

The following day we moved into Paraguay. Big changes when you cross the boarder, moving from one of the richest countries in South America to one of the poorest. Our destination was Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. When I think of the capital cities I’ve seen around the world, I think of sprawling cities with high rises and the poorer areas on the outskirts. Asuncion is a little different, it’s relatively small and there is very little wealth there. People work hard for the little money they earn. The slums are pretty much right in the city but we didn’t take pictures, well I don’t think it’s very nice to photograph people in that way. There was also a matter of a militant with a machine gun who didn’t take too kindly to us even looking at this area!!

Asuncion isn’t the most exciting place in the world I must admit. I strolled around the market and there was a lot of leather goods and also the mandatory mate cups. Mate tea is taken even more seriously here than in Argentina. We did a little city tour (led by me of all people!!) and had a look at some of the government buildings. This is Palacio de Gobierno……

…… which looks completely at odds with the shanty town a couple of hundred metres away. We also strolled past this Plaza…..

….. something tells me that Juan could have been a Cork baby 🙂 We also visited Catedral Metropolitana and the oldest building in Asuncion, Casa de la Independcia, built in 1772 and where Paraguay declared it’s independence in 1811. We finished up our walk on Plaza de los Heroes and visited Pantheon de los Heroes where some of Paraguay’s political figures are buried. I can’t say that I’d highly recommend Asuncion as the most exciting travel destination but it was interesting to see the differences between it and it’s wealthier neighbour Brazil. It also had interest for me as a school friend lived there for a few months about a decade ago so I tried to imagine what it would have been like then.

I also assisted with keeping Asuncion litter free……..

…….it’s not every day you see your name on a rubbish bin, I’m not really sure how to take that to be honest!! 🙂 We headed out for a nice meal in a Spanish restaurant. This is (Alissa) Lis, Lynn, Jeanette and myself……

……. we had a good old night, listening to some live Peruvian music in a local bar. By the way never let your camera disappear into this lady’s hands or else you’ll get many of these photos…..

…..Brilliant 🙂

Sin e on sceal, more photos on 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614873506129/  http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614910276625/   http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157615093654789/

So we headed down to Paraty, a lovely town on the coast of Brazil. We stayed in a fab place by the beach and I took a stroll into the old town which is quite touristy but very nice. Cuty little shops and art galleries. Some really nice jewellery to be purchased but I resisted. Me soooooo goooooood!! Met this guy but he didn’t say much 🙂 

The old town there is very pretty and is designed to flood with water in the evenings so it cleans the pavement stones. Can render you a little stranded though………

…….especially if you’re trying to avoid treading in water submerged horse poo!!! Ah well you gotta plunge in I guess?!

Had a few home-made Caiprihinas (brazilian cocktails) that night, thanks to Lynn and my berocca to assist with crushing the limes……

And a good old natter with Jeannette, Lynn and Alissa before we headed off to the pub with the rest of the crew. The following day a big bunch of us headed off on a boat trip which was just the right medicine to recover from Carnival in Rio. Lovely chillaxing day visiting some of the islands around the bay.

A few nice refreshing swims in the (surprisingly) not too cold sea. Isn’t this the best photo, love these guys!!!

Another few drinks that night and it was off to Sao Paulo the following morning. Sao Paulo is such a sprawl of a city, huge population. Sprawling Sao Paulo Video It’s not the prettiest city but there’s a lot going on there. Myself, Jeannette, Lynn & Alissa went for most fantastic sushi dinner in the Japanese quarter. This is definitely the  best sushi I’ve ever had!! Gorgeous hand rolled pieces….

…it was 10 euro for 15 of these bad boys so we couldn’t even finish it out! The following morning we went to a local market near where we were staying in the gay area. From there we headed to the MASP (Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo) which had some great paintings including some from Picasso, Van Gogh, Renoir and my favourite, Monet.

We did a fair bit of walking around and ended up at the Benedito Calixto, an antiques market, well some of the stuff had questionable antique status (or maybe I’m now old enough to remember things that qualify as antiques – oh dear god!!!) but it was interesting nonetheless. Finished off the evening with a visit to The Edifico Italia Bar which is one of the taller buildings in Sao Paulo. Gave great views of Sao Paulo…..

Although myself and Alissa had to admit that the view was far more appealing when it got dark!! Still though we felt very posh having a couple of drinks there. In my wisedom(!) decided to get my hair cut afterwards. Ended up being shorter on one side than the other and not in a fashionable way I assure you!!!! Ah crap!!

So with my fantastic new haircut, we headed for Curitiba the next day and managed to get myself tresses in somewhat symmetrical order again 🙂 Headed for the historical centre which is very pretty….

…..had a bite to eat, a few scoops and some good live music. Checked out the botanical gardens the next day, saw a few red-eyed turtles in the lake…….

……..and the famous glass house which I liked a lot…

chillaxed and sunbaked (which I have to stop because I look about 40 these days – can someone please buy me a facelift when I get home, pretty, pretty please….?) before getting a night bus to Iguassu. Much, much, much prefer the night bus, it kills me to be travelling during the day, it feels like such a waste. Alissa kindly gave me a sleeping tablet and I slept for about 11 hours – best night’s sleep in months – sweeeeeeeet.

Stay tuned for Iguassu Falls, but for now more photos on these links http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614571025457/   http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614641775395/   http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614641828475/

He is pretty impressive I must say, it was a little hazy up there but still great views of Rio to be had.

It’s funny though because the line goes that he is meant to be watching over and protecting the inhabitants and you just think that is just a nice notion. Actually though, Rio is pretty lowlying with mountains around so you do get glimpses of him all over the city which I really liked.

So, as I said, I met up with Ros and her two friends, Anna and Gai- Lanne. We wandered off to a street party which was lots of fun.

Music, people dancing the samba in the most outrageous of costumes – and we hadn’t even got to Sambadromo yet!!

As soon as one street party winds down, you just wander another few streets away and run into another. So much fun J The street parties start around midday and just run for as long as people will party. I didn’t realise that this would be everywhere, I thought the main events were in Sambodrome but you have just as much fun at street parties. Street Party Video

Sunday arrived and we had our tickets for Sambadrome.

Thought I’d take it easy for that afternoon as a night in Sambodromo lasts about 12 hours, as in til 6 or 7 in the morning. So my only agenda was to hit the ATM but of course I met a street party on my way and ended up there with some locals for a couple of hours. Anyway we got our masks on….. 

……and off to Sambodrome we headed and whatever expectations I had were blown out of the water. Myself and Ros kept saying how unbelievable it was all night 🙂

There are seven schools competing each night and it takes about 40 minutes for one school to pass you. The general trend is 5 groups of 100 or sometimes 200 dancers, each group in a different costume. Then there is usually a huge float with more dancers. Carnival Video

This happens 3 or 4 times more and then finally the band pass through. We were sitting in sector 13 which is right at the end of Sambodrome and it was great as all the dancers come over to dance in front of this stand, before exiting the stadium.

Honestly, there is so much effort, such detailed costumes, of every colour and design, from weird to wonderful, to sublime, to beautiful, to outrageous, to wild……

……with dancers of all shapes, sizes and ages but there underlying spirit of it is fun, fun fun!!! You can see why they have it at night though, as it is so warm and most of the costumes are really thick and heavy and tricky to get out of……….. 🙂

We were like kids at Christmas and it exceeded all our expecations. Wonderful, marvelous, awesome. I must have taken a million pictures and videos so please, please do check them out. We watched and danced the samba (I think a little better than tango anyway) until the sun came over Corcovado………

(see I told you he watches everything)……..

…….and headed off through the nearby streets to see big mounds of the various costumes being baby sat by minders. Fantastic night and I think I will be trying to get those samba songs (one song plays continuously for each school) out of my head for a while J

Headed off to Ipenema beach the following day to expeience some Brazilian beach culture. Now I was a bit apprehensive about getting out my lumps and bumps in Rio as I presumed all the ladies would have perfect bodies in their little dental floss bikinis. Now there is a little of that but, sorry boys, it’s generally all shapes and sizes in dental floss bikinis regardless – shudder!! The beaches are really packed, you can’t even see the water, there’s so many people.

Again I didn’t see hear or see any lurking people waiting to prey on tourists, just groups of friends, families and people-watchers enjoying the sunshine. And the people watching was most interesting I have to say, quite an experience even though the beach was waaaay too packed for me. Rio is so densely populated, I guess they are just used to it but honestly it was difficult not to walk on anyone on the way to the water.

Met up with Darren from Cork (who I met in Chile) that night and we had good old catch up over dinner.

We couldn’t understand the menu all the well so we just blindly ordered and it turned out all good. The food has improved greatly since Argentina, much more choice, balanced meals and great fruit from the amazon. I will surely turn into an Amazonian acai berry – yum!! Such a treat to get fruit and veg after Argentina. Apart from the fruit, it’s still a largely unhealthy diet but at least there’s a bit more choice!!

Also had to check out the famous Copacabana beach, again totally packed with people……..

Nice to have a snooze in the sun. I’m getting much better at falling asleep. Oh and weird, was in the Atlantic ocean again…..hmmmmm back over to pacific for a while I think!!

So now I’m back on a tour, which I booked when I was back in Asia. In a way, I’d prefer to be on my own just because I’m running in the last part of my journey and if I like somewhere I’d like to stay an extra day or the opposite. I’m also not a fan because I know once it’s over, I’ll only have 6 weeks or so to go!!!! Still though, there are many pluses, transport and accommodation are looked after so you don’t have to think about that, so it’s like being on holidays. Also my group are great and, I have met great people when I was on my own but having a group around for 6 weeks will allow us to really get to know each other.

That’s it for now, more photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614198532227/  and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614199361897/

and he led me to my doom with these litre beers which you had to drink pretty quick or they went warm. Fun night and a nice way to get to know the group.

The next day a couple of us did a walking/history tour offered my the hostel. Our guide was a university student who gave us the political/economic low-down and boy was it interesting. A very engaging guy who really knew his stuff and if you can hold my attention on these topics, you must be good J We strolled by a lot of the buildings each with it’s own piece of history and we also visited the Evita Museum.

Eva (Evita) Peron is a goddess over here and from what I gather, she was like the Oprah of that era, you know, an actress/charity founder/one name entity that crosses all the boundaries, even into the political arena, pushing for women to get an identity card and a vote. It was a very interesting afternoon.

Much to the disgust of my loved ones at home, stating I knew NOTHING about football, I headed off to see a Boca Juniors match that evening with some of the crew. Okay so maybe I know nothing about football but this experience for me was more about the people watching. Football is like religion here. We got stood on, sweated on, squished into the stand with avid fans of all ages. They sing for the entire match, check it out – Boca Juniors

The game itself was little slow, not such an important one so the Juniors scored and relaxed but not the fans, they cheered and booed and sang like it was the world cup final and by god you had to sing with them I might mention that we didn’t even sit in the crazy fan area where football really is a case of life or death. Really funny though, many fans are in the stands 90 mins before the game, the real crazy one arrive about ten mins before, push away anyone sitting in “their” seats and proceed to shout, sing and bounce around for a couple of hours. It was a long and sweaty night and we were pretty filthy coming back but such a good experience.

The following day I dragged Gavin/Billy to Palermo to walk through the botanical gardens and parks and it was like another totally different world again in Buenos Aires.

Huge open parks with lakes and fountains and dogs being walked/baby-sat. Man was it hot though and we walked for a while (well miles and miles according to Gavin!) Saw some interesting things on the way though. 

I supposewe did lose our way a little but eventually we got to Ricoletta Cemetery. Very interesting place and we stumbled across a funeral there, which I’d say doesn’t happen much these days with the cemetery being so full and that. We were a little surprised about how unimpressive Evita’s grave was though, there were a lot more outrageous but hey I guess they spent the money shipping her around the world before finally laying her to rest 🙂 This one was pretty awesome though……

We went for a nice steak dinner that night and then myself, Chris, Paul and Gavin went to meet some local Argentine girls who showed us the spots in Palermo Soho. Bit of a late one but good fun, we got to laugh at Gavin and Belin partaking in a dance off hosted by a ladyboy!!!

Oh come on Chris, smile……

…..much better 🙂

Managed to tear myself out of the bed and headed to the Caminito area in La Boca with Paul. It’s such a lovely area, originally inhabited by Italians, I’m sure you’ve all seen pics of these really cuty painted houses. It’s a really poor neighbourhood and tourism is probably the only thing that brings money there.

These days it’s quite touristy and most of the houses are now museums or shops. There’s still some nice artwork to be bought on the street and we stopped for a drink at a tango restaurant. Tango Restaurant We even got an impromptu tango lesson, lots of fun, apart from flip flops and me being half a foot taller than the guy! I hardly buy anything at all while I’m travelling, I’ve been so, so good, especially in Buenos Aires where there are gorgeous dresses for cheap-cheap. I did fall for this beautiful hand-painted mask which was to be for Carnival.

This guy had really lovely stuff and myself and Paul had some fun trying things on. I also have his website as he does ship things if anyone is interested.

We had a big old BBQ in the hostel that night, which was good fun and I’m really gonna miss this bunch of people. It’s so good when a group gels like that.

Continuing on the theme of tango, I had got to my last night and still hadn’t gone for a tango lesson. So we headed for a Milonga, which is basically a more informal type of lesson. You can get up and sit down whenever you want. It was great, held in this huge, well kinda barn actually. Loads of old furniture and great paintings.

The wooden floor was worn down from all the dancing during years, god I love seeing things like that. The Milonga is also good as the locals go there and get up to dance as they please. Some great moves from the some of the most unlikely looking candidates, in some cases. Seasoned Tango-ers We did our best with the dancing, I kinda think the more you concentrate the worse you get!! Amateur Tango Also trying to tango in flip flops and/or splinters isn’t the easiest but I don’t have any heels so that’s the way it has to be. I’ve said it to loads of people though, when you’re in Patagonia, you can rent hiking boots so why can’t you rent heels when you go to the cities!! You heard it here first people, I claim all royalties!!

Have to again mention the great people I met at the hostel here, all good craic. Funny though first impressions do really matter because Chris told me afterwards that when he saw me first he thought I wouldn’t talk to anyway and honestly I was just wrecked tired and trying to wake up!! Anyhoo he got his story straight soon enough.

Also want to mention my hostel, which was recommended by Nicole who told me to make sure I stayed in the dome on the roof. These are my room mates Emily and Miriam, lovely, lovely girlies.

We shared a gorgeous spacious room away from everything with stars on the ceiling and a machine who emitted a kinda hippie smell – yeah, yeah I think I am a hippie. It’s funny though because Nicole told me to stay there and on my last night I met Andreas who we figured out met Nicole and Stefan just after I left them in Ushuaia. She told him to stay there too. So it’s not just Cork that’s a small world, it’s all over!! Kinda like that though 🙂 The hostel was also part of an old building with one of those tiny evelvators where you have to pull the doors across, again – loving it!!

And so I sadly and reluctantly left Buenos Aires, it’s now my top destination that I would have liked to spend more time at. Still though I can’t really complain as I’m off to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614078023790/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614194081435/

P.S. If you’ve actually read this far down, I’m sorry, the next one will be shorter I promise……

It just felt like I would never get there. It seemed like the longest bus journey EVER!!! Left El Calafate at 3am. We had to exit Argentina and enter Chile so that was 2 boarder crossings. Then we had to get a ferry to cross the Magellan strait over to Tierra del Fuego……

and then another 2 boarder crossings to get back into Argentina. These boarders crossing are killing me and my passport, I try to get them to stamp a tiny little corner which sometimes works but sometimes they get the hump and stamp in the middle of a new page!! Even though the scenery was great for the last hour or so on the bus,  I couldn’t wait to get off it, plus my legs were swollen out like tree trunks – boo to it 🙁

Finally arrived at 10pm and crashed for the night and the following day I decided to take a little bus tour around Ushuaia in this cuty little bus…..

It even has a bar downstairs. It was bloody freezing though, shiver!! Ushiaia is lovely as it is surrounded by mountains……

has glaciers and a fab national park. Apart from it being the end of the world and the gateway to the Antartic, there’s actually a lot to do here, you could easily spend a week, especially if you rented a car for a day or two. Later on I met up with Stefan and Nicole.

The following morning myself and Stefan headed for the Prison Museum……..

which basically has everything the other museums have and more, just in case you’re planning to visit. It was really interesting, everything from the ships that sailed here, to the history of Ushusia, to aviation, to art galleries, to the Antartic, of course the history of the prison itself, and prisons around world, even Kilmainham jail got a mention….

Myself and Stefan had to laugh at some of it though. One of the first exhibitions rooms details a note from Charles Darwin who described the inhabitants as sturdy on top, broad shoulders, long bodies but shorter skinny legs. He stated that at first he thought they were the “missing link” which myself and Stefan thought was just awful!!! We had to laugh though and hope that something has got lost in translation as we are talking about only over a hundred years ago!!

It was interesting to read the history of some of the prisoners and we wondered just how cold and miserable it was there in the winter time.

The weather here is okay during the day when the sun comes out but god does it get cold when it’s cloudy and all your warm clothes are in the laundry!!! Anyhoo I digress as always. Back in the museum, we were also amused by one of the letters written by a political prisoner. He told of how all his possessions were taken from him, his clothes, his books and then he even went on to say “they even took my mate cup”. Mate is a type of tea which is really popular in South America. The cup is a small wooden/metal bowl where the tea leaves and hot water are placed and then there is matching straw. 

The Argentinians bring their mate cups everywhere, on the buses or even walking along street – in case they meet some friends and a mate session is required!! It’s very social and one mate cup is shared in a group. I’ve taken up on a couple of mate sessions with the locals on bus rides and as this is considered somewhat of an honour, it’s been kinda nice – even though you have to pick the tea leaves out of your teeth after!! 🙂 Anyway we had to laugh at the indignance that this was taken from the prisoner. I’d say the books would have kept him entertained longer!!

We strolled through the museum and there is so much there, we couldn’t take it all in. We got our “end of the world” stamps in our passports and then we had a stroll around town.

In the afternoon, we headed off to see some Penguins accessed through a huge estancia. The penguins are fascinating and I took a heap of photos and videos which you can see on my flickr site. We literally landed on the beach and they were everywhere!!

They weren’t really bothered by us, they were more concerned with themselves. I thought they would be quite energetic but no they kinda save themselves (for what I’m not sure!!)

We strolled around the island and you could watch them for hours.

I took some videos too, these are my favourites Penguin 1  Penguin 2 and Penguin 3 Penguins waddling is just the best!!

So as I said they are not as active as you would expect. Some of them were waddling around but mostly they just started to stretch and flap their wings and you thought they were just about to do something energetic but mostly they just flopped forward for a rest….

The young penguins are funny too as they are covered in brown fluffy feathers – which they try to shed but they really just look like they’ve been caught in a pillow fight.

Awww just look at him!!! Penguins pick a mate and when we were there it was obviously tea-time because they were calling out for each other. Sounds a bit like a donkey?! Check it out….Penguin-Donkey

Afterwards we headed back to the city and decided to go out on the town. Now I came to the end of the world to find that there were not one but two Irish bars – The Dublin Pub and The Galway Bar. There was no Cork bar though – disappointing. Anyway I didn’t come all the ways down here for an Irish bar so we headed out to a local nightclub and had a good night.

So that ended my time with Stefan and Nicola who were staying on a few days but as for me, well it’s off to Buenos Aires!!!!

More photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157613868814408/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindybear/sets/72157614077928900/