Pantanal - May 2012

Upon advice from one of our Intreipid Tour Leaders, Manny, We stayed at the Pousada Santa Clara, in the Pantanal, for three nights. Our accommodation was "camping" aka hammocks, and was so deliciously remote that we had to hitch on the back of trucks to get there.

 

Each morning started the same; being woken by the dawn chorus, a couple of sun salutations, a brisk shower and some stale bread rolls. However, each day was filled with different activities (and hammock-nap intermissions).

Horse riding.

Spotted - Deer, Giant anteater.

Bush Walk.

Spotted - Capuchin monkeys, Armadillo, Maccaws, Toucans,

 

Boat Trip.

Spotted - Cayman, Stalk, Heron, Eagles, Iguanas, Giant otters, Capybara, Vultures.

Pirahna Fishing.

Spotted - Pirahnas.

 

Spotlight Safari.

Spotted - Foxes, Ocelot.

Bonito - Dive bombs in the Rio do Plata

 Just as a wee addidtion to the previous post. This is an actual place where I actually was! Can you beleive it?! I can't.

Bonito - May 2012

I really need to quit complaining about these long bus journeys, but seriously, 21 hours, 2 taxis and three buses later we (finally!) arrived in Bonito.
Literally meaning "beautiful", Bonito is really living up to it's name. We got in about 2pm and were greeted by our friendly hostel crew from Catarino's Guest House. After showering and exploding the contents of our backpacks everywhere, we wondered into the main street to find hire bikes. Out of luck unfortunately; a total of zero bikes available, so we settled for ice-cream.
As of pen to paper writing this, it's the day after that - and what a day!!
We feasted on breakfast (of chocolate cake with sprinkles) then left the hostel at 8am. 54kms later we arrived at Rio del Plata (the silver river). I don't quite have the words to descibe this place, so I'll borrow my mate Louis'... "I see skies of blue, clouds of white, bright blessed days, dark sacred night, and I think to myself, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD".
I have never seen water to clear in my life. Usually I have a strange fear of snorkeling, and just being underwater in general, but something about the fearlessness of the fish I was surrounded by, and the crystal clear waters we were in together, I felt comfortable and in awe at the same time.
Right up there with white-water rafting & sandboarding, snorkeling in Rio del Plata has been one of my favourite things about this continent.
I didn't ever want to leave.

Iguassu Falls (part 2 of 2) - Brazil

Across the border, hostel located, bus to National Park jumped on.
The Brazilian side was very different. No crowds of slow-moving tourists, really nice buses which drop you off at various attractions, and full fancy souvenier shops.

The 1st view was of the Argentine side, but further away, so really panoramic. Less walking on the Brazilian side, and the view of the devils throat (although more than beautiful) was a little less "breathtaking" but hilariously pacifier-taking. A little girl dropped her dummy down, yeah that amused me. Less coaties too.

We sort of felt like fitting another attraction in, so we ventured over to the Parques des Aves (bird park). We saw marmosets, flamingoes, Macaws, snakes eating bunnies whole (?!?!?!!) not to mention half a dozen jerk toucans. One jerk toucan bit me on the arm.

The bird park was awesome! Such a rad welcome to Brazil.
What could possibly go wrong on a day with waterfalls, rainbows & toucans? You may ask. I nailed myself on the way home from dinner. Walking, walking, walking, ON THE GROUND! I've really cripppled my leg, and my knee is still bleeding. What a clumsy guy.

Iguassu Falls (1 of 2) - Argentina

Keeping accounts of my travels regularly is prooving to be a task I'm just not staying on to of. So, I'm trying a different tactic. As of writing these words it's the 5th of May, and I'm on a bus from Foz do Iguasu to Bonito (after 2 bus changes). The plan is to write my account of recent adventures now, and transfer ink to screen once I've caught up on my blog. If you're reading this on screen, then well done to me! I win! Now, I guess you want to read about those adventures then, no?

Rory, Jason, Craig, the swiss couple from the hostel and I all travelled from Salto to Puerto Iguazu together. From Salto you can see Argentina, but with our massive backpacks (and customs) we couldn't very well swim across, so we took a "Ferry". It was no interislander that's for sure, but it did the trick. A horrendously long walk later, we got to a bus which took us to Puerto Iguazu. Actually, I should have saved the word 'horrendous' to describe the bus ride. Overnight bus ride of terrors (not nightmares, because that would imply I actually got any sleep!).

Once we arrived, found a hostel, found breakfast and drank coffee, we all jumped on a local bus to the National Park.

The Argentine view of the waterfalls was really awesome! We started at the lower track which took us to the base of the falls and San Martin, the island at the base. San Martin was unreal, we saw butt-loads of armadillos, digging their little holes, scurrying around for insects with their little faces - highlight! We saw a tonne of vultures too, but I think they're kinda gross, so whatever. Vultures. The upper level of the falls was wicked too, standing at the top looking down at the masses of water crashing to the rocks is a really sobering sight.

I kinda wanted to throw a coatie down to see what would happen... but, ya know how it is... I guess throwing furry critters down the largest waterfalls is frowned upon. Speaking of coaties, those little bastards were everywhere. They're so bold. When I was reading trip advisor reviews about Iguazu Falls one review said "lemurs attacked my milkshake". I couldn't have said it better myself, real Shakespearian stuff, that.

(this is coaties)

The last fall we visited was Gargantum del Diablo (the devils throat). No words. It was like looking down into some sci-fi time warp/ space warp/ water warp. Like if you fell down there you'd end up in a different world entirely. I wouldn't be surprised.....

Rory and I took an "eco-tour" boat back to the entrance of the park. Pretty sleep deprived, all we did was eat ice-cream when we got back to the town. Best sleep of my life. Nothing was going to disturb the sweet slumber.

The following morning we caught the 9.30am bus to Brazil.
TO BE CONTINUED......

Salto - May 2012

For a border town, Salto is pretty cool. We stayed here for 2 days, 1 of which was a public holiday (May day). We met some really cool people at our hostel, Jason (USA), Craig (UK), Amy (Aus) among others. We spent all day lounging around at the thermal pools and all night eating alphabet soup and drinking beers. Pruned and bloated; a fabulous combo.

Hot Pools.

The next day we went to explore the town and Rory bought me an anchor charm for my bracelet. My collection is coming along nicely!

Rory playing with the puppies at the border of Uruguay & Argentina.

Punte Del Este - April 2012

Don't be fooled by these pictures of Punte Del Este, the sky may look calm and beautiful, but the weather was HORRENDOUS. It poured down the entire time, and our hostel was a dive. Bad travelling decision. Stay away from Punte Del Este in the winter-time. What a hole.

Montevideo - April 2012

From Buenos Aires, it's really easy to jump across the pond to Uruguay. A short ferry ride will take you to Colonia, Uruguay, where you can stay (it's supposed to be very pretty) or jump on a transfer bus to Montevideo - which is what we did. There is 2 options for the ferry, the 1 hour speed ferry which is more expensive, and the 3 hour leisurely cruise ferry which is cheaper. Obviously, we took the cheaper option, because we're tight, and don't have jobs. WRONG! Turns out it was a long weekend and every single person in the entire of Buenos Aires was on the same ferry. It was supposed to set sail at 9am, we didn't even leave the dock till 11am because of the customs queue, and although we were supposed to land in Montevideo in the early afternoon and make the most of our half day there, instead we arrived at like 6 pm! Not really enough time to get to know a city.
So once we got to Montevideo we caught a taxi (after a failed bus catching atempt) to our hostel. Our hostel wasn't exactly in the central city, it was out somewhere near the coast. So once we'd checked in we literally dumped our stuff and set off for dinner - our tummies were rumbling! We came across a mall, where we ate McDonalds wraps and snickers McFlurries, then we bought tickets for the screening of "Los Vengadores' (The Avengers) which was luckily in English with Spanish substitles.

So that was our visit to Montevideo, Maccas, Movies, and very little else.
We booked bus tickets to Punte Del Este for the following day (midday) so set off in the morning and that was that.

The only photo I took of Montevideo - at the cinema with our 3D glasses on.

Buenos Aires - April 2012

Our flight out of South America, to North America is from Bs As. So we know this will not be our only visit to the city, thus, we weren't too upset at not being there over a Sunday (when the San Telmo markets are), and just took the time to chill out and regroup, come up with an idea of where to next.

We stayed in San Telmo which is the oldest suburb in Bs As, with old cobbled streets lined with a mixture between bohemian cafes and clothing shops, and old antiques markets and junk stores.

The rooftop dining area in our hostel.

We didn't really do much, to be honest. Just wandered around perusing many-an-antique stall, and I bought a Black Sabbath t-shirt, which is the best thing of life ever. One of the days we walked all the way from San Telmo to Palermo! To give an idea of how long that is, I just google mapsed the suggested walking route, and it says it should take 2 hours and 48 minutes, it's a 13.7km distance. Our insanity was not pre-planned, it was due to the Subte (underground subway system) being on strike. Jerk workers! Get back to work, and quit yer striking! Make me walk 2 hours and 48 minutes, why I outta ramblerambleramble...

Once we got to Palermo we filled our faces with platefulls of Hare Krishna, tightened our laces, browsed some shops, and took off back to San Telmo.

Now, I've been vegetarian for just over 3 years now, and bar a slither (or 2) of ham on xmas day, have kept to this pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. But who am I, and who is my vegetarianism, to say no to a big, fat, juicy, pink, tender, delicious, flavour-infused, hunk of steak when in Argentina? Who?! No-one that's who. So Rory and I searched trip-advisor for what was possibly the most expensive and highly rated steak-house in the whole of Argentina. We came up with La Brigada in San Telmo. Definitely worth breaking vegetarianism over (unlike that guinea pig in Peru!). It was the most delicious steak ever, and check out the size of the beast......

Rorys steak was the size of sugarloaf mountain!

The menus were made of fluffy cow butt "branded" with the La Brigada logo, the knives were as sharp as shark teeth and restaurant was decorated with loads of random sporting memorabilia. Most excellent choice indeed.

Can't wait to come back to Bs As to check out the San Telmo market, and next time we're here, Sam and Irene will be too! Yay!

Cordoba - April 2012

Our bus from Salta to Cordoba was 11 hours, and to be honest I don't really remember the ride, so it can't have been too bad.
We stayed at a hostel called 'The Link' and I do remember that, because it's the only hostel I've ever recommended to someone. The link was an awesome hostel, we arrived at 8am, stayed one night, then left at 11pm the next day - so we only had one night in the hostel, but I reckon if we hadn't had already booked our bus outta there, we would have defo stayed on another night. The hostel was ridiculously friendly, offered free Spanish lessons in the mornings, and low price home cooked meals and drinks in the evenings. Alot of hostels we stayed at could learn a thing or 2 about friendliness and cleaniless from The Link.

The first day we just dumped our bags at the hostel and went out to explore the city. Cordoba is really big, but we walked from one end to the other, and everywhere in between.
It finally felt like we were in civilisation, with McDonalds' and Nike stores, where we were used to seeing roadside llama wool socks and hand-woven wallets stalls, and I'm not going to lie... we did eat at maccas. However, as I don't eat meat I casually ordered a McNifica sin carne (ie: without the meat patty). Apparently a hilarious order, as the guy behind the counter proceeded to loose his shit. He stopped all employees from what they were doing to tell them of the hilarity of my order, and soon enough the whole restaurant was in histyrics. But, I was hungry, so continued with my order "con papas fritas y coca cola" (with fries and coke) to which to wise guy behind me in the line piped up "sin gas?! jajajajaja!!!!" (without the gas - referring to the coke, obvs). I didn't order with a side of JERK now, did I? Aaaanyway... I got what I ordered, and it was bloody delicious! So.... yeah.
After the maccas ordeal we wondered towards what looked on the map to be a big park area. Turned out to be totally dodgy and empty, bar a handful of young houligans, so we went to the zoo. Sorry, I meant to say, the pathetic excuse for a zoo. It was kinda sad to go to that zoo actually, and alot of animals were solo in their enclosures, and the panther was being really agressive, but on the plus side there was this deer which kept picking sticks up in his mouth.

We went on a day trip the next day, out to the place where Che Guevara lived for the younger part of his childhood (Alta Gracia), there is a museum there now and it was supposed to be interesting. Wasn't really.

We went back into Cordoba was dinner with the hostel crew where we learnt a new card game which we immediately forgot, and ate soup(ish) lentil stuff which was nicer than I am making it sound. 11pm and off to Bs As!

Salta - April 2012

Welcome to Argentina!

We had a couple of days in Salta, upon recommendation from Manny, however in hindsight this may have been half a day too long.
There isn't a whole lot to do here, but this did not stop us from entertaining ourselves whilst avoiding museums and Cathedrals.

We walked to the Salta cable car, which took us up to a nice garden/waterfall area which looked over the city. Very picturesque.

Then went in search of a famous Argentinian steak (for Rory - I went with the fish option) and vino tinto that not only blew our backpackers budget, but our stomachs, as neither of us could finish the meal.

 The following day we had a bus ride at 11pm so spent all day wandering around the city. Not a whole lot to do unless you're interested in museums and catherdrals, but nice to relax after some full on travelling over the past month.

Re-grouped, refreshed, and relaxed we took an overnight bus to Cordoba on one of the most comfortable overnight buses ever. This bus rivalled business class - I'd know. The company was Balut, and the class was coche carma. Literally slept till we woke up in Cordoba! Win.

San Pedro, Chile - April 2012

We arrived to San Pedro off the tour of the Salt Flats, with one other couple we'd met on the tour.
We walked into the town with our highly fashionable backpacks in tow, and hunted down a couple of hostels to settle into.
Now, the plan was to leave for Argentina the following day, however, due to a couple of set backs this was not possible. 1) The only open cash machine took mastercard, not visa! 2) there were no buses till Thursday (2 days time). However stressfull this felt at the time, it was meant to be, because we really fell for San Pedro.

On day 2 (after managing to get some cash) we went on a tour of the Valle de la Luna - Valley of the Moon. Named so, because the landscape was truely moon-like.
We explored caves, sand dunes, peaks with amazing landscape, and watched the sunset on a lovely Chilean day.

Our experience of Chile was proof that everything happens for a reason, even when you can't see it straight away.

Uyuni and Salt Flats - April 2012

Despite being our very first venture without Intrepid, I'm not going to lie. We cheated.
You see, our trip was 36 days, but there was a connecting trip which Natalie, Callum, Priya, Paul, Sharon and a new chick named Kirsten were on. This trip conveniently went to Uyuni and did a salt flats tour, and we conveniently followed them.
We had to catch a bus to Oruro then a train to Uyuni, which got in at 2am. The train ride was nothing short of horrendous! The seats we had faced backwards, did not recline and were right next to the door to the dining carriage. The tracks were super rickety and every so often a gush of freezing cold air would hit us as people went to and from the dining cart, not to mention everyone elses seats did recline, so Natalie was in my lap the whole way. Not that I blame her for one minute, I would have done the same. From what we've heard from other travellers, the bus ride is worse, so.... what ya gon' do?
Aaaaanyway, luckily our hostel was close and amazing, and comfortable, and clean, and welcoming. We were glad to rest our heads for a few hours.

The next day we walked to the hotel the others were staying in and headed off to the largest salt flats in the world, which doubles as the worlds largest lithium deposit. Facts. We rode on the roof of the 4wd and messed around taking touristy photos with the salt flats, such as the one below. (although, many more!).

Oh, and speaking of taking tourist photos, I forgot to mention that before the salt flats, we stopped off at a train graveyard and mucked about there for a while too, here's a pic I took of Rory & Natalie. Totes my favourite. These guys, I'm telling ya.



The tour was 3 days, and we ended in San Pedro in Chile. It was awesome! Despite the fact I was "violently" ill, it was really cool. We stopped off at heaps of wicked places, with some amazing scenery like I've never seen before. We saw a valley of rocks, flamingoes-a-plenty, climbable rocks, tree-shaped rocks, lagoons in blue, green and pink (!), and drove completely off-road past some flat topped mountains whilst belting out hits of the 80's such as Eye of the Tiger, and Borderline. Yep, I subjected the whole car load to my iPod.

We stayed at some pretty basic places. Zero elecricity, hot water and the like. If I hadn't been so ill it wouldn't have been so bad. But seriously, I contracted all of the illnesses all of the time.

On the last day we woke up at 4am to go to see the early morning guisers going off, and sit in natural hot pools while the sun rose - flamingoes adjacent.

Then we said our final farewell to our Intrepid crew and transferred to Chile.

If you're ever in these necks of the woods, do not miss out on this! It was one of the highlights without a doubt.

La Paz - April 2012

Before crossing the border into Bolivia, we all took a vote to skip Copacabana and drive straight through to La Paz, giving us a total of 5 days there. Best decision ever, as it turns out La Paz is my favourite place in all of South America!

We visited the Witches Markets, with their llama feotus' hanging on the shop-fronts, the electronics area which sold Dr. Dre monster beats for US$30!!!, many drinking holes, and I bought a sun and moon, or should I say sol y luna for my charm bracelet.

Day one we went downhill mountain biking down 'death road' the most dangerous road in the world, seriously, click this link, it's not even funny - the driver died in this accident! I didn't really enjoy the cycling as much as I thought I would to be honest. The morning at the top is snowing and freeeezing, and the whole way down is bumpbumpbumpbump and my butt and gripping hands got so sore. However, I'm so glad I did it, It was something... different...

I did alot of shopping in La Paz. Little finger puppets for Zeke, and a llama wool jumper, some llama beanies for Paige, Bella & Abby, and some silver earring for Mum (which, by the way I wear the matching ring for - I love it) Everything was so cheap, I wish I'd bought more! Especially jewellery.

We did spend alot of the days in bed nursing mild hangovers. We found the most amazing bar in the world called 'La Luna' which we spent more than a couple of hours a night in. The barman (Max - see pics) looked like a cross between Mick Jagger, Keith Richards & Iggy Pop. A delightful trio of handsome men! As it turns out, he is highly intellectual poet and teacher who works bar for the romantic aspect of it, or so he'd have us beleive. But seriously, I had alot of time for Max, and after a few nights I think we really grew on him too. haha!

The last night with the tour group was so sad, but also so EPIC! Not naming any names (Callum) but the last to drag their arses into the hostel was at 11am the following day! I was a more respectable 7am. Poor Brett had to catch his flight at 6am hahaha....
36 day Intrepid tour from Quito to La Paz is over. What will I do without these guys?!

L to R - Richard, Priya, Me, Rory, Paul, Sharon, Max, Natalie, Gary, Manny (standing), Andrea, Brett & Callum.

Lake Titicaca - April 2012

We started our visit to Lake Titicaca from Puno. Puno is a very small town, and there was not alot to do there. Luckily we didn't have to bum around trying to entertain ourselves, because soon enough we were off to tour Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,820m above sea level. We all took tuk-tuk's to the port of the lake, where we boarded a small speed(?) boat and set off. Joseph, our local guide was very informative, if not a little close-eyed. hah! We had been out for perhaps 30 minutes when the boat putted out and we had to transfer. Typically, Callum left yet ANOTHER pair of sunnies behind. I believe the count at this point is 4. We stopped at Taquile Island for lunch, where I bought a woollen cat headband, and took a stroll around the rest of the island to digest.

That evening we had a local homestay with a family near the Lake. Turns out, our "family" was 3 kids who's parents were AWOL so were running the place. It was pretty cool, our abode was a mudbrick house and the kitchen was a little fire on the floor. It does not get more basic than this. We spent the evening playing card games with the kids (who, can I just say are the biggest cheaters ever) and eating a really massive and delicious meal that the eldest of the children had whipped up for us. The night was cold, and for warmth we were provided boiled water inside coke bottles, to place at our feet in bed. Did the trick!

The morning was spent harvesting potatoes, feeding worms to chickens & devouring pancakes. Unfortunately Royo, the 8yr old boy had to go to school, and that was our queue to set off again. But before we did, we took a whole bunch of polaroid photos and gifted them to the kids. They were both exstatic, and a bit confused as to how the photos were made. I found that really funny actually, seeing as they knew exactly what the little digital camera was - how backwards!

 We spent the rest of the day touring the floating Uros islands, learning how the islands were made and trying local "bananas" which was just the inside of reeds.
Back to Puno for the night, for a dancing show with dinner. Day 32 of a 36 day tour, time goes so fast.

Cuzco (take 2) April 2012

Luckily I got a second chance at enjoying Cusco. Doubley lucky, the hostel that Intrepid uses in Cusco for the 'basix' tours was booked out and we got an UPGRADE! After a big long snooze the second thing on my mind was a deep tissue massage. So, while Rory Callum & Gary went to the English Pub to watch the football, I treated myself to a well deserved (I think!) rub-down. Other than some fine dining and relaxing we really did not do much of anything in Cusco, but I certainly had more appreciation now that I wasn't puking all over the place.
With the fact we are leaving the tour shortly in the forefront of our minds, we took some time to map out the 2nd half of our South American trip, the solo part. Pretty happy with the itinery we came up with, but scared as hell to be in this alone soon... I don't wanna leave all these awesome people we've been travelling with!!