Foreword
This is a very long blog, so make sure you are comfortable, and in my defense i haven´t written one for a week so there was a lot to say. Enjoy...
I’ll start with the main event Sambadromo, which is the massive parade where people wear amazing costumes and follow elaborate floats down a road for all to admire. And dance the samba of course. It was so impressive. Just the size of the floats and the detail and colours were incredible and the stamina of the dancers because even though the show was from 8pm till 7am it was hot the whole time we were just sweating watching from the stands but they had to dance for 1.5 hours in massive heavy costumes. We did see a few people faint. It was interesting how often we assume we were watching girls dance then realized it was a guy. They all wear dresses and heaps of makeup so it’s hard to differentiate. It was an amazing experience made our time in Rio well worth it.
Rio was fun but exhausting, filled with cool experiences and difficult ones. We had the usual language barriers which resulted in us paying 27 Reais for our laundry (approx 23NZD). A guy from our hostel had a gun pointed at him when trying to buy tickets to Sambadromo from a scalper. There was a drug raid at the markets (we were not there, just heard about it) two hostels were taken over by gangs with guns and grenades and every safe was forced open. Crazy stuff was happening and yet we never came across it ourselves thankfully. We actually felt surprisingly safe wherever we went and the only people who came up to us were beggars, who although are very persistent, didn’t seem dangerous. In fact my concern to my safety while in Rio was that I might be crushed by our ridiculously unstable bed. And it was a very real concern as it had already happened twice before we arrived and then on the day before we left our mate Joe from Adelaide, told us that a bed had crashed down on his head while he was sleeping, he had a big red mark on his forehead. His mate Nathan had panicked because being top bunk that had crashed down he had thrown himself off thinking he had killed his mate. And that’s quite a height to fall from so he was in a bit of pain too. When we left Joe was asleep on the couch so I hope he didn’t have a concussion. But the amazing thing is the lack of concern from the hostel, the beds kept collapsing and yet they were not willing to do anything to fix it. Although we had a great time at our hostel it was just because of the people we met, the hostel itself was crap.
But onto the fun stuff. On the second night we went on a boat party organized by the hostel. It was fully catered and an open bar. It was so much fun. We went sailing around the bays of Rio could see Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer as well as other mountains and islands. The views were gorgeous, the drinks were very strong and we having an amazing time. Then the boat anchored in a bay and we jumped off the side and went for a swim, the water was warm and we even managed to jump off the second storey of the boat once (before someone banned everyone from doing it :p) Then we were up the front of the boat and the dance floor dancing while the sun went down, and we even managed to get in a second swim before it got dark. Once it was dark the skyscrapers were lit up all along the beach and Christ the redeemer was lit up on the hill. When I realised we were almost back at the port I was disappointed because I had been having such an awesome time.
The next day we went up to see Christ the Redeemer. It was cool to know that in most places in Rio you can see the statue. I expected it to be a bit bigger but in saying that I’ll still admit that it’s massive. It was an incredibly hot day and we bussed out there and as soon as we stepped off the bus a man was offering us a deal to be driven up the mountain rather than take the train, we checked the train out and found the mans offer was cheaper and he was with a legitimate company so we took him up on the offer. It was cool cos it meant we got to see the statue from a helipad at 610 metres before driving up to the statue itself at 710m. When we got up there we were found it a tad ridiculous that you can either take stairs or an escalator the get up to the statue, we picked stairs because it felt more respectable but i´ll admit we took the escalator down because it was a novelty. The statue was awesome but the heat was intense so we stayed up there for all of 5mins, took a few photos and got out of there. On the way home we found a great café that sold juice and crepes and had a delicious lunch.
That evening we went to a block party which wasn´t as exciting as we had hoped, basically there were just music playing and people dancing in the streets. Anthea and I went for a walk around to see what was going on and we were disappointed to see that there wasn´t even a band, just a DJ! But we did see the most gorgeous little brazilian boy wearing a tarzan outfit, with a little blonde haired girl, both about 2 and the girl was trying to get the boy to dance but he would not oblige. It was soo cute. The block party ended early so we wandered down the beach and saw a few street performers and then checked out the night markets and found a few bargains, although generally the markets were more expensive so we tried to hold off on buying heaps as they will be cheaper in Bolivia.
The next morning we went to the Ipanema markets which also had some good stuff, I bought a coin purse and a bracelet. That afternnon we just napped and got organized and then went to sambadrome. I´ve already talked about that so i´ll just mention that we stuck out the whole thing which a lot of people don´t manage. And by the end we had a lot of energy again and it was less packed so we were dancing and trying to copy the moves of the real dancers. It was hilarious. We taxied back and went to the beach before getting back to the hostel at 8am just in time for breakfast and then went to bed. Woke up aroud 3 and tried to go to the Sugarloaf Mountain cable car for the sunset but by the time we got orgainised we realized it would be too late so we just went to ipenema beach and watched it from there. It was still very pretty. That evening we just hung out and drank at the hostel and chatted with the other backpackers because we were still very tired from Sambadromo, but we were still up til 4am and I ended up waking at 8 so was still running on almost no sleep.
This was our last day and also Claire´s birthday so we had planned on going to get manicures and pedicures because they´re so cheap but as it was a public holiday they weren´t open. So we went to the Botanical gardens with this guy british Johnny. The gardens were beautiful especially the palm tree lined pathways. That evening us girls, Johnny, Marcel, Mira and Sheena all went up to Sugarloaf, and we timed it better this time. Half of us walked up and the other half took the cable car. I chose walking and it was tough but I saw monkies!! So that made it worth it. For the second stretch we all took the cable car and the view was amazing. There wasn´t much of a sunset cos it was cloudy but we saw an awesome lightning storm which in some ways was better.
We headed back just before we got rained on and went out for dinner to celebrate Claire´s birthday. Then had a few drinks at the hostel before heading out to a street party. I decided to stay home cos I had gotten sick and was feeling pretty crap and we were leaving for Ilha Grande at 4am the next morning so wanted to get a couple of hours sleep. So woke up feeling like i had never slept, got ready and went down to wait for the txi who was late. When he arrived it seemed he had no handbrake so the car would start rolling when he tried to put our packs in the back. Then half way through our journey to the bus station we heard a bang and we had a flat tyre. He got out and inspected it, confirmed it was indeed flat and then got back in and carried on driving. He wasn´t exactly driving very slowly and the sound of the tyre got louder and louder and a strong smell of rubber was coming through the windows. We were considering telling him to stop the car but we realised that its 5am and were in the middle of nowhere in Rio so we´re better off in this crazy cab ride. People on the road were staring at us as we bumped along but we managed to get to the bus station without any further accidents. The tyre was ripped to shreds, but the guy just took out our bags and carried on his way. With all these delays we had missed our bus but we hadn´t pre booked so it didn´t really matter and we caught the next one. From lack of sleep and claire feeling a bit hungover we were in fairly low spirits and in desperate need of a bed. But instead we had a 2 hour winding bus ride, a three hour wait on the port, a 40min ferry ride, a walk uphill in the intense midday heat and then finally we were at our hostel but we were drenched in sweat so had to shower before getting into bed. Although its now day 3 of Ilha Grande, i´ll end this blog now cos its already ridiculously long and start a new one soon.
Thanks for sticking it out til the end :)
Ciao!
28 February, 2009
26 February, 2009
Rio
sorry guys, i wrote a massive blog but the stupid woman at the internet cafe logged me out when i still had 15mins left so i lost it all and now i have to go catch a ferry. Theres been so many public holidays here that its hard to get the internet. If theres internet on the island i~m heading to i~ll write it again there. How frustrating.
20 February, 2009
Here are a few more because i can only get 5 to a blog. we´ve taken more photos since then but i´ll leave anthea to upload some to.
So i´m a bit behind on blogging because i~ve hardly seen the internet in the last 5 days, i´ve been in the middle of Brazil, in the Pantanal Wetlands. Other then the mosquitos it was a fantastic experience. The mosquitos were unavoidable, i don´t think they ever got word that they´re not meant to like deet cos they´ll bite you anyway, my last count was 60 bites. i think Katrina is worse, anthea has quite a few but hers aren´t itchy and for some reason they didn´t touch claire.
When we first got to Pantanal i was a bit apprehensive cos it was incredibly hot and humid and we´d been travelling for about 21hours so we were exhausted, no one spoke english and we were going to be sleeping in hammocks for four nights. However there was nothing to worry about, later that evening we met our guide Levy who spoke english (as well as about 5 other languages) was really cool and he explained how to camp worked. There are 2 woman at the camps who spend all their time just cooking and cleaning, couldn´t believe how hard they worked and that night we had a massive meal, there was rice, noodles, a beef stew, veges and salads, we were starving so it was all amazing, Every lunch and dinner we had approximately the same food but they´d usually add one new thing and we didn´t care cos it was good food and it was the best we had eaten since we arrived in south america,. After dinner we went to bed and getting to sleep in a hammock was not an issue at all, i was out within 5mins and slept right through. the bedroom was really cool, it was above the dining area and was just a room filled with hammocks, its hard to describe but i might upload a photo at some point.
Our first activity in Pantanal was a boat ride through a muddy looking river, we saw a lot of species of birds and heaps of caymans (crocodiles) then after about 20mins we beached up and Levi suggested we go for a swim, we assumed he was kidding cos the water is full of caymans and piranhas but he wasn´t so we decided that he must believe its safe enough and we got in. and it was fine, every once in a while you´d feel something touch you and recoil but then you just tell yourself its a log. After getting out one of the Aussies showed us his bleeding toe and thumb, he had 2 piranha bites and they´re pretty vicious. apparently once they smell blood it attracts more hence why he got 2 bites. So turns out it wasn´t particularly safe but we avoided injury.
We headed back to the lodge and each day between the morning and afternoon activity we have time to relax and do our own thing which for us was napping in the outdoor hammocks. It´s so relaxing but that day the heat was extreme, and we just couldn´t cool down or stop sweating. We didn´t know how we would cope with our afternoon horseride in that heat but fortunately it clouded over just as we headed out. Unfortunately thaty cloud turned into a storm and we got saturated, it was actually a welcome relief after that heat. A lightning bolt cracked right near us and our guide horse freaked, although the horse, Chocolate was loco, as our guide put it. all the other horses behaved. i had a great horse, when ever there was room in front of him or we were lagging behind he would break into a trot, i´d never gone faster than walking on a horse so it was soo much fun!! i managed to get right to the front of the group. the rain didn´t last long and by the time we reached the stables it was over. that evening we played card games with a bunch of australians and then went for a night safari to see if we could find any wildlife. Levy promised us we´d either see everything or nothing, and we were closer to everything. We we in a truck with seats up the back and we saw 5 foxes, a family of Capyvaras and hundreds of caymans, as levy shone the torch over a lake we just saw thousands of yellow eyes shining in the darkness, it was crazy!! also saw some deer and bird as well as general farm animals. Next day we went on the same safari trip but in daylight but this time it was less fun as we didn´t see anything and it was pouring with rain. Levy decided to ride in the cab with the driver rather than face the elements up the back with us. Poor Matt, one of the australians, was wearing just jeans and a t shirt and he looked so cold wet and miserable. we pulled over after about 40mins of driving and decided to walk into the forest to find some wildlife, we had to walk silently as to not scare anything away and we saw 2 armadillos and male and female howler monkies. It was awesome, especially seeing everynight at camp we can hear the howler monkies across the river and they make such a bizarre and creepy noise. but we could nver see them. On the way out we found the bones of a cow in the forest, Levy said a snake would have bitten the cow and killed it then the vultures picked the bones clean.
we headed back to camp and said farewell to our aussie mates, it sucked that they were leaving cos the newest arrivals were all english and mainly kept to themselves. Didn´t matter though cos we all got on well with all the guides and ended up having an awesome night! For 10 reais (about 8NZD) we bought a bottle of cashasa (local spirit) and big wolf made us a massive cocktail in a bucket! he used 3/4 of the bottle and it was really potent! We shared it between us and then the guys taught us how to dance. It was really cool that all the locals know how to dance, they are taught in their tribes when they are young. Paulo got a bit frustrated with me as I had no natural ability so it took me a while to work out the moves but i got there eventually. it was such a hot night, so everyone was a bit sweaty but we had learnt to ignore it. It was really awesome dancing away to portugese music. and then we played pool, i partnered with Carlos, and i had been a intimidated by him previously cos he´s a big guy and people had been saying he´s not a nice guide, but that was crap cos once i started talking to him he was so lovely. We made a good pool team and I played quite well, we won a few games. Overall it was a great night and us 4 girls got on really well with the guides after that. Oh also that day Levy made us each a necklace which he was really talented at.
On the final day we went piranha fishing, Claire caught two, Katrina ne, and i caught one plus another fish with was really tiny. the caymans came right up to the bank where we were fishing cos they wanted the piranhas and they managed to get a couple we threw back cos we didn~t want to eat the,]m. then we literally walked 10 metres up stream of where we were fishing and went swimming. it was kinda scarily but very refreshing and i was just keen to get under water to avoid mosquitos which i considered to be more of a threat than piranhas. After Anthea and Levy got out of the water, levy threw his fishing line in the water right where we were swimming and pulled out a piranha so we were definately surrounded by them, i´m just glad the water isn´t clear. Levy told Anthea that piranhas always swim in schools of between 140 and 2000 and a group of 2000 could devour a cow in about a minute, so i~m hoping we were only amonst 140. Either way we came out unscathed. that afternoon we took heaps of photos with all the guides in the hammocks and said goodbye then packed up out stuff and sadly lelft the camp.
As we were driving away i saw a cayman on it back, clearly dead, and about 5 vultures surrounding it. so after a 40min drive we were on the main road and the mozzies were worse than ever we just couldn´t get away from them. about 20mins later our minibus arrived and we had a very bumpy trip back to Campo Grande, from there we had 2 hours to arrange a pickup, shower eat dinner and find food for the bus, which was very hard, then we started our 26hour journey which was meant to be 24 but our bus driver kept stopping for reasons we didn´t understand, We were in sao Paulo for 2.5 hours when it should have only been about 20mins, someone threw up in the bus, we slept on and off overall it wasn´t much fun. All the clothes in our pack are dirty and/or wet and so we were feeling pretty crap by the time we arrived in rio. because we were late our pickup had left but thanks to an incredibly nice guy who spoke english we managed to call the hostel and get our driver to come back. my first impression of Ro was that it smelt nasty but i was happy cos far in the distance i could see Christ the redeemer. After 35 hours of travel we had finally reached our destination. But the hostel wasn´t quite as we expected it looked smaller and we down a narrow little street. I got into a big argument with the guy at the hostel cos he was saying he didn´t have my booking, i managed to win that argument and then we were shown our room which went through a different groups room which means climbing over their stuff and we found the bed weren´t so much bunks but just three beds precariously balanced on top of each other. i was on the top bunk above claire and every time the bunk moved i was worried the thing would collaspe and crush claire. fortunately this was not the case and later we discovered they have a rod going through the legs which makes it more secure but not ideal.
This morning at the hostel after my ice cold shower we went down to an amazing spread for breakfast, it was all free and we felt the breakfast really redeemed what otherwise felt like a crap hostel. The hostel also looks alot nicer in daylight.
We still haven´t really seen Rio, just the laundromat and the internet cafe but were going out to explore now.
Man that was hard work, there is no way i~m spellchecking it. I feel like i´ve missed so much, i´m sure my next blog will be shorter.
Luv Nicky
13 February, 2009
Puerto Iguazu
Hey Guys,
I am just stupidly hot right now, i´m in an internet cafe and its like 35deg in here, and its worse outside with the humidity. I was planning on uploading all the photos from our day at the falls but the computers are just soo incredibly slow so it will just have to wait.
So our last day in Buenos Aires was fairly uneventful, we packed up our gear and left it at the hostel, Katrina wanted to see a few museums and Claire and I walked Anthea to her Mundo Jurasica event that she was looking forward too. Claire and i wandered around and found an art gallery butit was very odd, it was just thirty variations on the same theme-tiny plastic toy babys brightly coloured and ramdomly scattered in a frame. some were tied together with rope, some just glued on,. some stuck between pages of books, some amongst sellophane etc.
Claire believed it was a message about abortion and artificial insemination, i just thought they guy wanted to be random.
We picked up Anthea and we took the subway to a mall that Lonely Planet claims has an awesome roof. on our way in it started to drizzle and that felt quite nice after all the heat we´ve had. the roof was quite pretty but nothing too spectacular, and the mall itself felt very fancy and expensive. upon leaving we discovered the skies had opened up and it was absolutely pouring down, we were all just wearing singlets and shorts/skirts so we though ah well nothing for it and just started walking to the subway. by the time we got there some 5 blocks later we all looked liked drowned rats. but it was quite fun.
We subwayed back to the hostel to meet Katrina then prepared for our trip to the bus station which was definately less fun. We were trying hard not to get our packs wet and we weren´t entirely sure where the bus station was but we found it eventually. It was quite stressful and we were running a bit late. but we were greeted with the most amazing 2 storey bus. the seats reclined to 180degrees, with blankets and pillows. Anthea and i sat sat up the top and Katrina and Claire were down the bottom. we were served lollies, followed by drinked (wine, beer whiskey or soft drinks) then little cheese and olive sticks, which i politely declined. then dinner of rice and ham, a pastry parcel, cheese and crackers, breadroll a sponge with dulce de leche (caramel) filling. (which is huge in argentina-they even use it as a breakfast spread!) and this was followed by second dinner and more drinks. this time a hot chicken and veges meal. Later in the evening we were given champagne and little cakes. We also watched two movies on our personal screens, In her shoes and another i forget. Only problem was the sound was just a bit too quiet and the subtitles were Spanish. It was so crazy, we almost felt like we didn´t belong cos it was too fancy :p
But that is where it stopped being enjoyable for me. When everyone decided to go to sleep and i just couldn´t do it. The bed was comfy, i wasn´t too hot or too cold, the earplugs blocked the engine noise but i just couldn´t sleep. i sort of dozed a bit and the last time i remember looking at the clock it was 5.30 and then i finally fell asleep. But by some ridiculous rule they served breakfast at 6.30!! which meant i got a total of 1 hour sleep. It was still dark outside and there was a massive lightning storm that lit up the sky every few mins. I could hardly stomach breakfast that early and then everyone else fell back asleep but once again i couldn´t do it. I was not impressed. and then i started feeling car sick (or bus sick if you wish) i think the top storey swayed more but i did not feel good so just looked out the window for the last 2 hours.
We finally arrived and the rain became soo heavy we couldn´t hear each other in the bus station. So we decided to leave the falls for the next day and stay in iguazu for 2 nights. which worked out well cos i got to catch up on some sleep and relax for a while, plus the falls require a full day to complete them.
Which brings me to today. The falls were absolutely spectacular!! i was really looking forward to seeing them and i wasn´t disappointed. in the morning it was very misty and we were worried about obscurred views but when we arrived at the national park the sun started peaking out and the rest of the day was clear skys and super hot. Dam i´m running out of time so i´ll have to be quick on descriing this and may come back to it more later.
It was a perfect day, we saw GARGANTA salta first which was to be written in capitals because its just so huge. The immensity of the water and height of the fall and distance they spread out over were awe inspiring, probably the most amazing natural sight i´ve seen. you couldn´t even see to the bottom because the mist from the crashing falls was so thick. From there we did the upper and lower walkways, and there were just so many falls, and so many beautiful views, everytime we though it couldn´t get better it did!! we even got a boat ride the the island in the middle of the falls and swam in the water, i didn´t have my togs but i jumped in anyway, i couldn´t pass up the opportunity to swim in such a stunning setting and little fish swam all around us. I was amazed at how close we could get the the falls with the boardwalks-some you would get wet just standing next to them from the spray of mist.
I would love to descride it in more depth but i will just mention the final part of our day, a boat ride to the base of the falls, we went right under the falls and it was soo much fun, we got absolutely drenched and it was fantastic. the we went further down the river over rapids and the final part was a 4WD ride through the jumgle which wasn´t as exciting but still cool. I took like 100 photos today but i´ll have to upload them some other time.
Wow i'm so incredibly lucky, my computer shut down after writing this massive blog but i just found it in my drafts!! I'm soo relieved.
Well that's it from me, Goodnight!
I am just stupidly hot right now, i´m in an internet cafe and its like 35deg in here, and its worse outside with the humidity. I was planning on uploading all the photos from our day at the falls but the computers are just soo incredibly slow so it will just have to wait.
So our last day in Buenos Aires was fairly uneventful, we packed up our gear and left it at the hostel, Katrina wanted to see a few museums and Claire and I walked Anthea to her Mundo Jurasica event that she was looking forward too. Claire and i wandered around and found an art gallery butit was very odd, it was just thirty variations on the same theme-tiny plastic toy babys brightly coloured and ramdomly scattered in a frame. some were tied together with rope, some just glued on,. some stuck between pages of books, some amongst sellophane etc.
Claire believed it was a message about abortion and artificial insemination, i just thought they guy wanted to be random.
We picked up Anthea and we took the subway to a mall that Lonely Planet claims has an awesome roof. on our way in it started to drizzle and that felt quite nice after all the heat we´ve had. the roof was quite pretty but nothing too spectacular, and the mall itself felt very fancy and expensive. upon leaving we discovered the skies had opened up and it was absolutely pouring down, we were all just wearing singlets and shorts/skirts so we though ah well nothing for it and just started walking to the subway. by the time we got there some 5 blocks later we all looked liked drowned rats. but it was quite fun.
We subwayed back to the hostel to meet Katrina then prepared for our trip to the bus station which was definately less fun. We were trying hard not to get our packs wet and we weren´t entirely sure where the bus station was but we found it eventually. It was quite stressful and we were running a bit late. but we were greeted with the most amazing 2 storey bus. the seats reclined to 180degrees, with blankets and pillows. Anthea and i sat sat up the top and Katrina and Claire were down the bottom. we were served lollies, followed by drinked (wine, beer whiskey or soft drinks) then little cheese and olive sticks, which i politely declined. then dinner of rice and ham, a pastry parcel, cheese and crackers, breadroll a sponge with dulce de leche (caramel) filling. (which is huge in argentina-they even use it as a breakfast spread!) and this was followed by second dinner and more drinks. this time a hot chicken and veges meal. Later in the evening we were given champagne and little cakes. We also watched two movies on our personal screens, In her shoes and another i forget. Only problem was the sound was just a bit too quiet and the subtitles were Spanish. It was so crazy, we almost felt like we didn´t belong cos it was too fancy :p
But that is where it stopped being enjoyable for me. When everyone decided to go to sleep and i just couldn´t do it. The bed was comfy, i wasn´t too hot or too cold, the earplugs blocked the engine noise but i just couldn´t sleep. i sort of dozed a bit and the last time i remember looking at the clock it was 5.30 and then i finally fell asleep. But by some ridiculous rule they served breakfast at 6.30!! which meant i got a total of 1 hour sleep. It was still dark outside and there was a massive lightning storm that lit up the sky every few mins. I could hardly stomach breakfast that early and then everyone else fell back asleep but once again i couldn´t do it. I was not impressed. and then i started feeling car sick (or bus sick if you wish) i think the top storey swayed more but i did not feel good so just looked out the window for the last 2 hours.
We finally arrived and the rain became soo heavy we couldn´t hear each other in the bus station. So we decided to leave the falls for the next day and stay in iguazu for 2 nights. which worked out well cos i got to catch up on some sleep and relax for a while, plus the falls require a full day to complete them.
Which brings me to today. The falls were absolutely spectacular!! i was really looking forward to seeing them and i wasn´t disappointed. in the morning it was very misty and we were worried about obscurred views but when we arrived at the national park the sun started peaking out and the rest of the day was clear skys and super hot. Dam i´m running out of time so i´ll have to be quick on descriing this and may come back to it more later.
It was a perfect day, we saw GARGANTA salta first which was to be written in capitals because its just so huge. The immensity of the water and height of the fall and distance they spread out over were awe inspiring, probably the most amazing natural sight i´ve seen. you couldn´t even see to the bottom because the mist from the crashing falls was so thick. From there we did the upper and lower walkways, and there were just so many falls, and so many beautiful views, everytime we though it couldn´t get better it did!! we even got a boat ride the the island in the middle of the falls and swam in the water, i didn´t have my togs but i jumped in anyway, i couldn´t pass up the opportunity to swim in such a stunning setting and little fish swam all around us. I was amazed at how close we could get the the falls with the boardwalks-some you would get wet just standing next to them from the spray of mist.
I would love to descride it in more depth but i will just mention the final part of our day, a boat ride to the base of the falls, we went right under the falls and it was soo much fun, we got absolutely drenched and it was fantastic. the we went further down the river over rapids and the final part was a 4WD ride through the jumgle which wasn´t as exciting but still cool. I took like 100 photos today but i´ll have to upload them some other time.
Wow i'm so incredibly lucky, my computer shut down after writing this massive blog but i just found it in my drafts!! I'm soo relieved.
Well that's it from me, Goodnight!
11 February, 2009
last blog from Buenos Aires
hi everyone!
I foget what the last thing i wrote about was and i can´t be bothered checking now so i will just tell you about yesterday. It started out as an average day, we had aimed to leave the hostel at 9 and were out by 10.30, which is a definite improvement on our usual 12pm. We had quite an effort trying to catch our first bus, we managed to hail one down but they would only accept coins and we mainly had notes. so we rode to the next stop got off again and went to some local shops to try and get change. this was easier said than done as most shops had signs that said no coins! so eventually we found an internet cafe who understood what we were saying enough to change our $5 note, we found a new bus and we were on our way. It was a long bus ride to La Boca and i definitely prefer the subways but there was no subway to La Boca. We had been looking forward to seeing this suburb because its quite famous but it ended up being quite disappointing, it felt like a little tourist town, all the walls were painted bright colours which is what La Boca is famous for but the place was filled with people dressed in tango outfits wanting people to take their photo, they weren´t dancing they were just dressed up and they wanted people to pay them for a photo, everything that you could take a photo of cost about 3 peso and people were all asking you to come eat at their restaurant, the area also smelt quite nasty and the entire area was only a small block, i had expected it to be smaller. Every few mins another massive tourist bus would pull up and the whole place felt tacky. when walking down a nearby street a dump truck filled with old animal carcesses drove past which explained the nasty smell.
So we left that area pretty quickly and we back into the square, and there were police men everywhere wearing full body protection and shields, and had massive metal walls, and as we walked further we could see in the distance a huge protest about to start, I¨m not sure what they were protesting as I couldn´t read the signs and we decided not to go any closer. we also wen´t into a large cathedral which was quite impressive. even though it was only 3pm we were all exhautsted so we decided just to head back to the hostel for a while and relax.
That evening Claire, Anthea, Moa and I went to a drumming show called La Bomba, and it was so amazing. I´m not usually a fan of drumming but these guys were so talented and it was all improvised, they would just follow the conducters cues but it sounded so cool. the area itself was very funky, it was outdoor but it was enclosed by walls and had random posters al over the walls of old people at the beach. the show went for 2 hours and i didn´t want it to end! Moa took some photos cos i didn´t bring my camera but hopefully i will get a copy from her.
Anyway Anthea wants the comp now so I´ll leave it at that, today is our last day in BA and tonight we take a night bus to Iguazu falls, I´m really looking forward to seeing these falls.
Must go!
Ciao
I foget what the last thing i wrote about was and i can´t be bothered checking now so i will just tell you about yesterday. It started out as an average day, we had aimed to leave the hostel at 9 and were out by 10.30, which is a definite improvement on our usual 12pm. We had quite an effort trying to catch our first bus, we managed to hail one down but they would only accept coins and we mainly had notes. so we rode to the next stop got off again and went to some local shops to try and get change. this was easier said than done as most shops had signs that said no coins! so eventually we found an internet cafe who understood what we were saying enough to change our $5 note, we found a new bus and we were on our way. It was a long bus ride to La Boca and i definitely prefer the subways but there was no subway to La Boca. We had been looking forward to seeing this suburb because its quite famous but it ended up being quite disappointing, it felt like a little tourist town, all the walls were painted bright colours which is what La Boca is famous for but the place was filled with people dressed in tango outfits wanting people to take their photo, they weren´t dancing they were just dressed up and they wanted people to pay them for a photo, everything that you could take a photo of cost about 3 peso and people were all asking you to come eat at their restaurant, the area also smelt quite nasty and the entire area was only a small block, i had expected it to be smaller. Every few mins another massive tourist bus would pull up and the whole place felt tacky. when walking down a nearby street a dump truck filled with old animal carcesses drove past which explained the nasty smell.
So we left that area pretty quickly and we back into the square, and there were police men everywhere wearing full body protection and shields, and had massive metal walls, and as we walked further we could see in the distance a huge protest about to start, I¨m not sure what they were protesting as I couldn´t read the signs and we decided not to go any closer. we also wen´t into a large cathedral which was quite impressive. even though it was only 3pm we were all exhautsted so we decided just to head back to the hostel for a while and relax.
That evening Claire, Anthea, Moa and I went to a drumming show called La Bomba, and it was so amazing. I´m not usually a fan of drumming but these guys were so talented and it was all improvised, they would just follow the conducters cues but it sounded so cool. the area itself was very funky, it was outdoor but it was enclosed by walls and had random posters al over the walls of old people at the beach. the show went for 2 hours and i didn´t want it to end! Moa took some photos cos i didn´t bring my camera but hopefully i will get a copy from her.
Anyway Anthea wants the comp now so I´ll leave it at that, today is our last day in BA and tonight we take a night bus to Iguazu falls, I´m really looking forward to seeing these falls.
Must go!
Ciao
09 February, 2009
Photos
This is a pic of Katrina and Claire collapsing in the shade after an entire day of walking around the markets, church and cemetary. and behind them is the giant metal flower.
here are the beautiful displays in the church, this is the main one but there were many more along the walls
And finally this is the awesome Tango band, they sounded BEautiful!
The violinist in green was also part of our tango show the night before. There is something about an accordian that makes tango sound so fantastic,
These are the tango dancers in the antique market square. they were very good but we had to wait for 30mins to wait for them to start performing so were sick of sitting of hard dirty ground after that.
The tango show was great even though it cost us more than we had expected so we had to put together all the money we had to pay for it and only just had enough for a taxi home. but it was well worth it but we had to watch sadly as other people bought delicious looking desserts. The show was a mix of slap stick comedy (alot of which went over our head with the language barrier) classic tango dancing which i love as well as performances from the band, singing, and a man who did traditonal indian drumming and something I can´t quite describe, similar to tap dancing but with piece of string with something hard at the end which hit the floor creating a beat, i can´t explain but was very impressive.
Here is one tomb picked from hundred of amazing tombs to show how extravegant they are. It would be about 7-8metres high i would guess.markets
Hola amigos and amigas.
I´m kinda exhausted so i may keep this short although then again i tend to say that and then end up writing an essay. The hostel has 2 computers with internet now so we are making the most of it.
Today was fantastic, very cultural and really felt like the buenos Airies expereince we were looking for. we took the subway to plaza de Mayo and walked toard a square that had an antique market. What we didn´t realise was that for the 8 or so blocks between plaza de mayo and the square was a massive street market. It was fantastic, so many thing to tempt us and everywhere we went they were playing music, dancing and performing. we saw about 4 bands, countless solo musicians, a cute old man who danced the tango by himself who Claire and Anthea adored, regular tango dancers, a woman playing the digereedoo (i think she was lost) and a puppeteer. the streets was cobblestone, the buildings were old and beautiful, everyone spoke spanish, the weather was hot, the delicious smell of roasting peanut was in the air and it all made for an excellent atmostphere. we spent all day at the market and once we reached the square there was another couple doing a tango performamce so we sat and watched them for a while too then went to get icecream. my favourite performance was a full band comprising of 4 acordian players, 3 violinists, a pianist, a bass player and a chello player, they sounded so good i could have listened for hours. but everytime we were nearby they were always just finishing but i finally got to hear a full song.
Claire katrina and our swedish friend Moa (not sure if that´s how to spell it) stayed in town to watch a circus act but anthea and i were too tired so we decided to chill at the hostel for a while. It´s so hot here that it can be hard work walking around in the sun all day.
And as an added bonus i have finally uploaded some photos to the computer!! So i will add those to a blog now
I´m kinda exhausted so i may keep this short although then again i tend to say that and then end up writing an essay. The hostel has 2 computers with internet now so we are making the most of it.
Today was fantastic, very cultural and really felt like the buenos Airies expereince we were looking for. we took the subway to plaza de Mayo and walked toard a square that had an antique market. What we didn´t realise was that for the 8 or so blocks between plaza de mayo and the square was a massive street market. It was fantastic, so many thing to tempt us and everywhere we went they were playing music, dancing and performing. we saw about 4 bands, countless solo musicians, a cute old man who danced the tango by himself who Claire and Anthea adored, regular tango dancers, a woman playing the digereedoo (i think she was lost) and a puppeteer. the streets was cobblestone, the buildings were old and beautiful, everyone spoke spanish, the weather was hot, the delicious smell of roasting peanut was in the air and it all made for an excellent atmostphere. we spent all day at the market and once we reached the square there was another couple doing a tango performamce so we sat and watched them for a while too then went to get icecream. my favourite performance was a full band comprising of 4 acordian players, 3 violinists, a pianist, a bass player and a chello player, they sounded so good i could have listened for hours. but everytime we were nearby they were always just finishing but i finally got to hear a full song.
Claire katrina and our swedish friend Moa (not sure if that´s how to spell it) stayed in town to watch a circus act but anthea and i were too tired so we decided to chill at the hostel for a while. It´s so hot here that it can be hard work walking around in the sun all day.
And as an added bonus i have finally uploaded some photos to the computer!! So i will add those to a blog now
08 February, 2009
Recoleta Cemetary
Hey all,
Check it out, two entries in one day, i just thought i should make the most of the free computer and some free time. We´ve had a great day today, although we started a bit later than we had hoped. We took the subway to Recoleta, which is a fairly touristy area of Buenos Aires. And there are just so many interesting buildings even as you are just walking down random streets. We were walking from the subway and to the markets and there was this beautiful old brick building, it kinda looked like it was falling apart but it was so impressive in its size and structure, it´s hard to describe but i think i have a photo.
We thought we might be lost and were about to consult a map to work out where the cemetary was when we saw dozens of statues and crosses over a very high wall so we figured we had found it and just needed to find a way in. On our way around we found the market so we explored that first and at first it didn´t look too big but every time we went around a corner we found more stalls and it seemed to be endless. Anthea and i bought a dress each and katrina and claire both bought bags, they bought a few other things. We walked past an old church and it was amazing inside, behind the alter was a massive display (for lack of a religious word to describe it) in the centre was the crucifix and it had borders made of gold and statues around it. Again i took photos so i may eventually load them onto my blog. on the side walls all the way up to the alter were similar displays. We also went into the cloisters which had a great view overlooking the cemetary.
after the church we were hungry and tired and 4 mangled bananas provided little relief so we went and found a restaurant for lunch. After a delicious pizza we head to the cemetary which was incredible. seemed to be unlimited pathways leading to amazing tombs with elborate stone carvings and statues. i felt like i could have wandered around there for hours ( although my feet were starting to ache) it was a bizarre feeling wandering around, there were many stray cats hanging around and many tombs had windows so you could see all the coffins stacked on the shelves and they would have a stairway leading underground but i´m not sure what´s down there. We also found a room with hundred of broken and empty old coffins stacked against the wall, the smell in there was horrible and quite disturbing when you think about whats causing the smell and i was wondering why would these coffins even be in there? We also saw Evita´s grave which was a massive tourist attraction, we had to get in line to see it and it was just hidden away and not very impressive compared to some of the other structures we had seen. we eventually left there and wandered down to an impressive building we had seen in the distance earlier which turned out to be a university, then to a absolutely massive metal statue of what i believe was a flower then we lay down on the grass from pure exhaustion.
Now we´re back at the hostel but we will be heading out again later for a tango show which I´m very much looking forward to, anyway i better go and let someone else use the internet
Adios!
Check it out, two entries in one day, i just thought i should make the most of the free computer and some free time. We´ve had a great day today, although we started a bit later than we had hoped. We took the subway to Recoleta, which is a fairly touristy area of Buenos Aires. And there are just so many interesting buildings even as you are just walking down random streets. We were walking from the subway and to the markets and there was this beautiful old brick building, it kinda looked like it was falling apart but it was so impressive in its size and structure, it´s hard to describe but i think i have a photo.
We thought we might be lost and were about to consult a map to work out where the cemetary was when we saw dozens of statues and crosses over a very high wall so we figured we had found it and just needed to find a way in. On our way around we found the market so we explored that first and at first it didn´t look too big but every time we went around a corner we found more stalls and it seemed to be endless. Anthea and i bought a dress each and katrina and claire both bought bags, they bought a few other things. We walked past an old church and it was amazing inside, behind the alter was a massive display (for lack of a religious word to describe it) in the centre was the crucifix and it had borders made of gold and statues around it. Again i took photos so i may eventually load them onto my blog. on the side walls all the way up to the alter were similar displays. We also went into the cloisters which had a great view overlooking the cemetary.
after the church we were hungry and tired and 4 mangled bananas provided little relief so we went and found a restaurant for lunch. After a delicious pizza we head to the cemetary which was incredible. seemed to be unlimited pathways leading to amazing tombs with elborate stone carvings and statues. i felt like i could have wandered around there for hours ( although my feet were starting to ache) it was a bizarre feeling wandering around, there were many stray cats hanging around and many tombs had windows so you could see all the coffins stacked on the shelves and they would have a stairway leading underground but i´m not sure what´s down there. We also found a room with hundred of broken and empty old coffins stacked against the wall, the smell in there was horrible and quite disturbing when you think about whats causing the smell and i was wondering why would these coffins even be in there? We also saw Evita´s grave which was a massive tourist attraction, we had to get in line to see it and it was just hidden away and not very impressive compared to some of the other structures we had seen. we eventually left there and wandered down to an impressive building we had seen in the distance earlier which turned out to be a university, then to a absolutely massive metal statue of what i believe was a flower then we lay down on the grass from pure exhaustion.
Now we´re back at the hostel but we will be heading out again later for a tango show which I´m very much looking forward to, anyway i better go and let someone else use the internet
Adios!
Buenos Aires
Hola!
First of all let me say navigating a spanish computer and keyboard is tricky so i apologise for any typos.
My flight to buenos aires was surprisingly pleasant i managed to get in the first row of the economy section which meant over a metre of leg room, 2 windows and a really hot brazilian guy sitting next to me who was really easy to talk to. I think the gods were smiling down on me. So although i didn´t get a wink of sleep my entire trip and the plane food was crap, (no surprise there) I still had a nice flight. Flying over south america i was suprised to how flat and incredibly dry and empty argentina was, however when flying to Buenos Aires it was amazing, such a massive city with so many buetiful and huge houses and right next to that were small falling apart houses in the slums. When i arrived at the airport the girls weren´t there but fortunately they had emailed me to tell me they were on their way.
So far we have wandered around the city seen some of the sights, had a dinner out, been grocery shopping and wandered the gardens.
It´s hard work and often frustrating when everything is in spanish and everyone speaks spanish, fortunately through using a few key words and a bit of mime we can usually communcate and a lot of people speak english. Claire and Katrina are getting good at spanish but i´m still struggling.
Anyway we are heading out now to see a very old cemetary so i need to cut this short.
hope you are all well!
First of all let me say navigating a spanish computer and keyboard is tricky so i apologise for any typos.
My flight to buenos aires was surprisingly pleasant i managed to get in the first row of the economy section which meant over a metre of leg room, 2 windows and a really hot brazilian guy sitting next to me who was really easy to talk to. I think the gods were smiling down on me. So although i didn´t get a wink of sleep my entire trip and the plane food was crap, (no surprise there) I still had a nice flight. Flying over south america i was suprised to how flat and incredibly dry and empty argentina was, however when flying to Buenos Aires it was amazing, such a massive city with so many buetiful and huge houses and right next to that were small falling apart houses in the slums. When i arrived at the airport the girls weren´t there but fortunately they had emailed me to tell me they were on their way.
So far we have wandered around the city seen some of the sights, had a dinner out, been grocery shopping and wandered the gardens.
It´s hard work and often frustrating when everything is in spanish and everyone speaks spanish, fortunately through using a few key words and a bit of mime we can usually communcate and a lot of people speak english. Claire and Katrina are getting good at spanish but i´m still struggling.
Anyway we are heading out now to see a very old cemetary so i need to cut this short.
hope you are all well!
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