Back in relatively familiar territory, always a nice feeling. We spent our last few reais on more pao do queijo and a trip to the toilet at the bus station (not the best, not the worst either) then joined the pile of backpackers at the bus stop marked "Argentina". Minibus arrived a bit later and we all piled on then all had to pile off at the Brazilian side of the border again. Border proceedings took no time at all but then we had a very long wait for another bus, several going past and just waving as they cruised on by. Got a bit ridiculous but eventually got a bus to the Argentinian side, feeling very thankful we'd chosen to leave Curitiba on the earlier bus as it was already getting a little close to our next departure time. Customs on this side was a bit more rigorous than it had been on the way out, xray'd our bags. Didn't seem concerned about my mini bananas though. Arrived back in Puerto Iguazu with time to spare so decided to wander down to see the friendly folk at Hostel Bambu, left our bags there while we went in hunt of icecream for breakfast and actually found a place that was open to our surprise - Delish! Then hopped on the next bus bound for Cordoba. We were sat in the second row so had a reasonable view. Were stopped several times by highway patrol type people who came on (once with a dog even) and had to show our passports and other people got what seemed to be full on interrogations. Later on it started to rain and got really really scarily windy at one point with eerie lighting which slowed us down even further. Had a good view of the beautiful sunset accompanied by fork lightning flashes. Also a good view of the bus drivers terrifying overtaking tactics. Yikes. The road was very narrow, no margin of error allowed for or you're in the grass. Dinner, which was the most monotonous i've seen, pretty much all white - various bready snacks, rice and stringy meat, was served really late as we were well behind schedule, so at that stage we probably would've eaten anything which was just as well. Slept pretty well and arrived in Cordoba mid-morning, an hour and a half later than scheduled.
Decided to check out a modern art gallery first (after a breakfast of the remaining pao do queijo in a little unpretty park). Walked through the big park on the way there, past the zoo, a bright green river and an amusement park. Saw a budgerigar in the WILD (like sitting on the path in front of us). Then got a little lost. Then found again. Then found the art gallery which was really interesting and deliciously air conditioned. Spent ages there before trying to get lunch at a place listed in lonely planet but it was just closed so went somewhere else and got a selection of empanadas (not quite the ones we ordered tho). As we were leaving the art gallery we were witness to a cellphone robbery, a guy on a motorbike just rode up onto the pavement at a corner and quick as a flash the guy standing there was suddenly empty handed. Happened so fast. After lunch we succeeded in finding the post office next and sent all our postcards finally since we finished writing them at lunch. Not cheap and most boring stamps ever. Then wandered around town - there's a large pedestrian only area which is way nicer to walk around but the shops are all fairly generic and boring. Except for the whiteware/appliance store that was pumping out Supre-esque music, both in style and volume. Bizarre. Got plenty of Grido icecream and ate it in a plaza where we then sat for quite a while before trying for some dinner. On the way to the restaurant we'd decided to go to there was a street display for people who had been killed or disappeared during a particularly black time in the history of the area with their photos strung up everywhere - lots had been young students. Stopped for a while to watch a pretty incredible street artist do his stuff, very impressive and wanted to buy a couple but didn't have enough pesos so were gonna try in american dollars but the ones we wanted got snapped up before we figured out the conversion. Got to the restaurant and it too was closed, next place we tried was closed as well and walked past a third closed vege place before seriously contemplating a dinner of supermarket wine but the last place to try was open so spent our last few pesos on tabouleh, eggplant and baklava at a nice middle eastern place that gave us complimentary pita bread and water.
Got to the bus station to discover our 10pm bus was going to be at least 3 hours late. Managed to speak the most spanish at one time that i think i had so far this trip to explain to the girl at the little internet cafe our predicament of needing to let the friend that was going to meet us in santiago know about the delay but having nada pesos to pay to do so and got myself 5 free minutes! Then wiled away the hours playing cards and finding open bathrooms. Bus finally arrived at 2am and managed to switch seats so that jon and i could sit next to each other rather than on separate levels of the double decker. This bus was a cama bus so dinner was pretty flash and even had a wide selection of beverages to accompany it. Woke up to a gorgeous sunrise, went through mendoza then entered the andes again. Chile border crossing again, much less harrowing when you'd done it before. Then slept pretty much until we were almost at the bus station in Santiago where there were friendly faces to meet us! Got ushered through the Santiago subway system and arrived at daniela's lovely, cosy, pet friendly (3 cats - one a tiny kitten called zeus - and 4 dogs, mostly daschunds). Showered then had a really yummy supper (heaps of fresh fruit) with all the fam as Daniela's sister was leaving to live in BsAs the very next day. Were going to go out to either a friends place or to a well known authentic-y bar for a drink that sounded really really delicious but wound up getting some pisco and beer and staying in.
On saturday we walked around a nearby massive street market where you can actually buy anything, including the kitchen sink!! I saw one! Didn't buy anything at all really, only some local drink that is made of a sweet juice made from dried peaches and some sort of grain a bit like barley maybe. It was super cold which was the best cos it was a scorcher. Oh also got ice blocks again because of the extreme heat. And an unusual fruit that i can't remember the name of that i thought was delicious but had loads of really hard little seeds. Then went home and blobbed cos it was too hot to do anything except drink freshly blended icy melon smoothies.
When it got to be a more manageable heat we went for a big bikeride nearly into town and stopped in a bohemian type neighbourhood for a traditional lunch/dinner that was pretty much beef, onions and fried eggs served on chips! Then went for a drink at a place that brews its own beer then serves it with liqueurs/spirits added to it so you can order beer with a shot of tequila or cherry liqueur or whatever added in! Quite nice actually.
That evening we were supposed to go to some show but it had already finished by the time we'd biked home so a few of Daniela's friends came over then we went over to another friends place to hang out. Later on we went to get a Completo which i had been looking forward to trying. Basically it's an american hotdog but it's huge and has every dressing imaginable on top, most of which ended up down the front of my dress!! We ended up staying the night at that friend's place then went to catch the bus home in the morning but Jon hadn't brought his bip! card with him so it was a slow walk home in the heat. Stopped to get some water on the way (they only had carbonated stuff which is worse than no water i reckon when you're thirsty) then closer to home we stopped at somebody's house-come-cafe and tried a chilean empanada (much bigger than in argentina) and some corn thing that was wrapped in the husks and steamed - yummy.
Back home we got all packed up and ready to go then headed into town with Daniela and Ruben. The idea was to drop our packs at the cafe of friends of Daniela's then explore for a couple of hours before heading to the airport but being a sunday the cafe was closed so we had no choice but to cart them with us on a quick trip up the cable car (rode with another kiwi!) to the hill with a virgin mary this time and a view of Santiago (pretty smoggy) and more cold peach-cereal drink. Next stop was for a filling lunch of churrasco in town next door to the place Daniela actually wanted to take us which was closed. Then we caught the bus to airport with muchas gracias to Ruben as we didn't have enough cash left and no time to find an atm before the bus would leave and we were cutting it fine for Jon's flight already. Got to the airport to discover that Jon's flight was delayed anyway! I couldn't check in for mine for a while yet so looked around the airport and found a place to sit for a wee while before we were off back to NZ.
The girl i had met briefly in Iguazu that was heading to NZ on the same day as me was in fact on my flight and ended up right behind me in the check-in line! Sat beside first one then another guy from Uruguay on the plane who were going to spend the year in NZ. They switched so the very tall one could have the emergency exit seats with more leg room. Got my bag fully searched by the friendly nz customs officers cos they wanted to rinse my boots which i'd packed right at the bottom. Then on to chch after a nap where nana was waiting to meet me :D
Did have a quick subconscious look for a bin for the toilet paper at Radbrook St like i'd wondered if i might. Went for a swim and back to the airport in the afternoon to meet Jon a swap flight stories. The End.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
The Penultimate
On friday morning (27/02?) Jon and I went for one last walk along the beach before we had to pack up and catch a ride with Andrea and Christian into the nearby town to get on a bus for Porto Alegre. Had opted to spend the weekend there instead of trying to get to Rio/Ilha Grande to see the Ibells as we were fast running out of both time and money. Managed to get a touch sunburnt at the beach despite fairly good attempts at protecting myself. Arrived in P.A. an hour late to a waiting Mathias! Bussed back to his neat apartment in ...insert suburb here... Ordered pizza for dinner then went up to the roof for a night view of the city while we waited for it to arrive. Very pretty. The pizza arrived in the most giant pizza box i'd ever seen, and had the most giant pizza i'd ever seen inside it as well. Even had a cheese stuffed crust and 4 different toppings including a chocolate/strawberry/mozzarella section!! Forgot to say the menu had had at least 70 different toppings to choose from. Drank some beer with our pizza then headed out to one of Mathias' fave nightlife spots. Unfortunately they were trying something new that night and the music was not that great, and it was super hot though apparently it always is, so we ended up leaving pretty early, earlier than Mathias thought he'd ever left that kinda thing. Got free jelly shots though. Went home and watched bjork music videos to counteract the bad music running round in our heads.
The following day we were going to go for a cheap but highly recommended buffet lunch but as we had only about 1 Real left we needed to quickly stop at an atm first. About 2 hours and a tour of all the atms in the wider area we still only had about 1 Real, rumbling tums and not much of an afternoon left at our disposal. So to make the most of what was left we hopped on a series of about 4 buses to get to Mathias' favourite spot in town, the brand new art gallery on the bank of the river with a view back to downtown (which sticks out on a little peninsula bit). Had a look round inside (in reverse order), the most interesting artwork is probably the architecture of the place itself which i think has been quite controversial. I liked it. Very white. And cool (good escape from outside). Afterward we got drinks from the cafe and sat outside watching the river with all the other fashionable people :p. Went to a giant supermarket after to try for a feed but the rest of Porto Alegre had decided to do the same thing, as soon as we saw the lines we made a beeline for the exit just in time to catch the sunset as we walked back along the river bank.
Bussed and walked back to the apartment, found an ATM on the way back that actually spat money out when it was asked to! (charged us an extra 8 reais for the privilege) Ate the other half of the pizza and pao do queijo with goiabada (made from guava) and mixed up the ingredients for mousse da maracuja (passionfruit mousse). Later a couple of Mathias' friends came over then we headed out to another rock club type venue where, once we got in, we stayed until it was light outside! Once again extremely hot in there but had fun dancing around. The place itself was kind of like an old house with many small connecting rooms upstairs and basement/dancefloor downstairs. Got home after 7 and tried to sleep (thank god for those shutters that block out every bit of light), when we came to again we packed a picnic and headed to the big park where everyone goes on sunday to sip mate/chimahao as it's called in this country. Very pleasant. Before going to catch our bus back to Curitiba we admired the daylight view from the roof then bid mathias farewell at the station.
Arrived early to Curitiba so had to hang around the station for a while before Thali's brother arrived as our chaperone. Accompanied him to go get a new licence, what a waste of time - if we'd ever imagined that would take more than 2 hours we definitely would've opted to go straight home. Anyway finally got back to Thali's a bit grumpy and exhausted and then had to organise getting to santiago as we'd left it to the last moment again (actually thali did pretty much all the organising being fluent in portuguese n all). Turned out all the direct buses were sold out so we ended up with a 3 bus epic combo trip that gave us a day in Cordoba leaving the following evening. Was too hot to do much the rest of the day besides nap and eat beans and rice. In the evening we went with Thali to her university and had a look around. Most notable features were a lovely little chapel (it's a catholic uni) and an incredible library. The central stairwell was fully enclosed by 3 storeys of beautiful, fascinating stained glass windows. Amazing. Went back the next day to take photos even. After Thali had finished classes we went to a middle eastern takeaway joint for juice and tasty nibbles. 50c for a mini pizza type thing - bargain. The following day, our last in Curitiba, was also stinking stinking hot. Thali cooked a yummy lunch again then later in the day we went back to the large park we'd seen the week before and dawdled and drank freshly extracted sugar cane juice and hoped to see alligators but didn't. Back to Thali's for a bread and cheese and cake dinner then picked up the 20 pao do queijo we'd ordered for the bus trips and went to see the botanic gardens briefly at sunset. Accompanied Thali to uni again for a short time until we had to go catch our bus! Woke up the following morning in foz do iguacu again, one bus down!
The following day we were going to go for a cheap but highly recommended buffet lunch but as we had only about 1 Real left we needed to quickly stop at an atm first. About 2 hours and a tour of all the atms in the wider area we still only had about 1 Real, rumbling tums and not much of an afternoon left at our disposal. So to make the most of what was left we hopped on a series of about 4 buses to get to Mathias' favourite spot in town, the brand new art gallery on the bank of the river with a view back to downtown (which sticks out on a little peninsula bit). Had a look round inside (in reverse order), the most interesting artwork is probably the architecture of the place itself which i think has been quite controversial. I liked it. Very white. And cool (good escape from outside). Afterward we got drinks from the cafe and sat outside watching the river with all the other fashionable people :p. Went to a giant supermarket after to try for a feed but the rest of Porto Alegre had decided to do the same thing, as soon as we saw the lines we made a beeline for the exit just in time to catch the sunset as we walked back along the river bank.
Bussed and walked back to the apartment, found an ATM on the way back that actually spat money out when it was asked to! (charged us an extra 8 reais for the privilege) Ate the other half of the pizza and pao do queijo with goiabada (made from guava) and mixed up the ingredients for mousse da maracuja (passionfruit mousse). Later a couple of Mathias' friends came over then we headed out to another rock club type venue where, once we got in, we stayed until it was light outside! Once again extremely hot in there but had fun dancing around. The place itself was kind of like an old house with many small connecting rooms upstairs and basement/dancefloor downstairs. Got home after 7 and tried to sleep (thank god for those shutters that block out every bit of light), when we came to again we packed a picnic and headed to the big park where everyone goes on sunday to sip mate/chimahao as it's called in this country. Very pleasant. Before going to catch our bus back to Curitiba we admired the daylight view from the roof then bid mathias farewell at the station.
Arrived early to Curitiba so had to hang around the station for a while before Thali's brother arrived as our chaperone. Accompanied him to go get a new licence, what a waste of time - if we'd ever imagined that would take more than 2 hours we definitely would've opted to go straight home. Anyway finally got back to Thali's a bit grumpy and exhausted and then had to organise getting to santiago as we'd left it to the last moment again (actually thali did pretty much all the organising being fluent in portuguese n all). Turned out all the direct buses were sold out so we ended up with a 3 bus epic combo trip that gave us a day in Cordoba leaving the following evening. Was too hot to do much the rest of the day besides nap and eat beans and rice. In the evening we went with Thali to her university and had a look around. Most notable features were a lovely little chapel (it's a catholic uni) and an incredible library. The central stairwell was fully enclosed by 3 storeys of beautiful, fascinating stained glass windows. Amazing. Went back the next day to take photos even. After Thali had finished classes we went to a middle eastern takeaway joint for juice and tasty nibbles. 50c for a mini pizza type thing - bargain. The following day, our last in Curitiba, was also stinking stinking hot. Thali cooked a yummy lunch again then later in the day we went back to the large park we'd seen the week before and dawdled and drank freshly extracted sugar cane juice and hoped to see alligators but didn't. Back to Thali's for a bread and cheese and cake dinner then picked up the 20 pao do queijo we'd ordered for the bus trips and went to see the botanic gardens briefly at sunset. Accompanied Thali to uni again for a short time until we had to go catch our bus! Woke up the following morning in foz do iguacu again, one bus down!
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Missing Verano! lluvia lluvia lluvia...
As predicted I'm sitting back at 2 Hertnon St listening to the rain and wearing almost all my alpaca typing this. Boo. :p
Where'd i leave off? We arrived early in the morning in Curitiba and were found by a Thali not long after! (Thali=Thaline=friend from finland days) She took us back to her house/apartment in Agua Verde where she lives with her parents and brother - it's commonplace for kids to live at home while they're at university there, unless they go to another city for uni i suppose - via a bakery and put on a delicious typical Brazilian breakfast of bread with cream cheese spread, several varieties of cheese, freshly squeezed passionfruit juice and our first taste of pao do queijo which i totally fell head over heals in love with (definitely best when it's fresh we discovered later though).
Then it was off on Thali's ticky-tour of the city. Started out in the historic heart of town where it was once just a small cobblestone village. Had a look at an exhibition on the history of curitiba in showing in the cultural centre. Drove through downtown. Looked at the "eye museum" designed by the famous brazilian architect who also designed the whole capital, Brasilia. Didn't go inside though. Wicked ramp for skateboarding if you're so inclined, though i doubt you'd get away with it for long. Then to a theatre made all of steel wires, next to which is a natural amphitheatre that has had some big names play at it but is not currently accessible to keep it beautiful. Then to a beautiful park (one of curitiba's many) with a view of that area of the city. There we drank Guarana and saw some people filming for a popular car show. Next we climbed the tv tower that has a viewing platform with a 360 degree view of the place (actually took the lift, don't think you could climb up). Stopped at a small nature(?) university in a very tranquil spot briefly before heading back into town for lunch at an all you can eat Churrascoria (sp?). Incredible. They had a huge salad bar and a sushi bar where you filled up your plate then as you were sitting at the table the waiters would come round with the different cuts of hot meat on big skewers along with many other dishes (lots of cheesy pasta) and you could choose to have what you wanted. Crazy, was pretty glad to be there with locals! After lunch thali had to run a few errandy type things so we saw a bit more of the city that way along with another very large park area that's pretty popular i think. Also saw many of the famous(-in-brazil) Curitiba buses/bus stops - big transparent tubes above the sidewalk, if you stay in the tube when you change buses you don't have to pay twice. Then we dropped the male at home to snooze and thali and i went to the salon (as big as a BIG department store where they do everything related to body-beauty, apparently 300 people can be getting a manicure at the same time) to get beach ready very inexpensively. Resisted getting a $5 full manicure even though it's a very brasilian thing to do i'm told, every week. Thali then dropped me off at home as she was going food shopping for carnaval which lasted over 3 hours and meant she didn't go to class (her classes are from 7-11pm! A lot of people do internships in Brazil while they study so you can do classes at very flexible times). Had a very late dinner, and even then we didn't really need it we'd eaten that much at lunch. Curitiba is a lovely city from what we've seen. It's very easy to find places to escape the feel of being in a city of several million people entirely, lots of trees and parks. Thali said that it is illegal to cut down any trees there, except in your own back yard and even then it sounded like there were maybe rules about that too.
Early morning friday morning as we were off to the beach!! The beach that was a 5 or so hour drive away. Our driver Carol picked us up and off we went. Brazil is a beautiful country to drive through, though i kept falling asleep. Drove down the coast of the Atlantic. Stopped on the outskirts of Florianopolis for lunch (another buffet :p this time you only got one chance to fill your plate though) then carried on a little way further south to the small beachside settlement of Praia do Rosa, complete with potholed dirt roads and big nightclubs. Spent a long evening at the rental company while Thali and Carol tried to sort out the house we were staying at as the one they'd booked turned out to be a whole lot dingier than the photos and info on the net suggested but the owner wouldn't give back the deposit. Trying times, we got free fries and a free phonecall home out of it though! Ended up going to a much smaller but cleaner/nicer place that was closer to the beach as well but only had 3 double beds when there was going to be 12 of us arriving altogether. Enough floor space for everyone in the end. Enough mozzies to go round too. The weekend was super hot, went to the beach in the afternoons (wasn't game/stupid enough to join the brazilians in the heat of the day/burning sun). It was a beautiful surf beach with the softest white sand but cold cold water. Packed because of carnaval - umbrellas as far as the eye could see just about - which also meant the single narrow road in and out was at gridlock at times as all the hot young things insisted on driving their hot little hatchbacks to the beach that had to be in easy walking distance of almost everywhere.
The next few days the weather wasn't so amicable. Got rained off the beach on every attempt. Once there was a huge wind gust before the rain that sent several umbrellas flying along with clothes, hats etc. Those dirt roads turned to mud roads then to rivers. The tap, shower and toilet water went brown. We played a lot of cards and read books and drank beer and caiparinha and some yummy condensed milk alcoholic smoothie. Also ate A LOT of delicious food mostly made by thali. Eating fried flour is a bit strange though. And Brigadeiro which i personally don't think can count as food. And Açai which is delish. Went for a walk and saw a little owl. Discovered Morrison Camping Bar (a rock/blues bar) and tried to go there on 2 occasions but neither time was it open. Others payed much too much to go to the flash nightclubs and listen to horrible music. Went to the nearby town one day for a quick look round. Thali tried to get us to Florianopolis for a day but it never eventuated. And that was pretty much our carnaval!
Where'd i leave off? We arrived early in the morning in Curitiba and were found by a Thali not long after! (Thali=Thaline=friend from finland days) She took us back to her house/apartment in Agua Verde where she lives with her parents and brother - it's commonplace for kids to live at home while they're at university there, unless they go to another city for uni i suppose - via a bakery and put on a delicious typical Brazilian breakfast of bread with cream cheese spread, several varieties of cheese, freshly squeezed passionfruit juice and our first taste of pao do queijo which i totally fell head over heals in love with (definitely best when it's fresh we discovered later though).
Then it was off on Thali's ticky-tour of the city. Started out in the historic heart of town where it was once just a small cobblestone village. Had a look at an exhibition on the history of curitiba in showing in the cultural centre. Drove through downtown. Looked at the "eye museum" designed by the famous brazilian architect who also designed the whole capital, Brasilia. Didn't go inside though. Wicked ramp for skateboarding if you're so inclined, though i doubt you'd get away with it for long. Then to a theatre made all of steel wires, next to which is a natural amphitheatre that has had some big names play at it but is not currently accessible to keep it beautiful. Then to a beautiful park (one of curitiba's many) with a view of that area of the city. There we drank Guarana and saw some people filming for a popular car show. Next we climbed the tv tower that has a viewing platform with a 360 degree view of the place (actually took the lift, don't think you could climb up). Stopped at a small nature(?) university in a very tranquil spot briefly before heading back into town for lunch at an all you can eat Churrascoria (sp?). Incredible. They had a huge salad bar and a sushi bar where you filled up your plate then as you were sitting at the table the waiters would come round with the different cuts of hot meat on big skewers along with many other dishes (lots of cheesy pasta) and you could choose to have what you wanted. Crazy, was pretty glad to be there with locals! After lunch thali had to run a few errandy type things so we saw a bit more of the city that way along with another very large park area that's pretty popular i think. Also saw many of the famous(-in-brazil) Curitiba buses/bus stops - big transparent tubes above the sidewalk, if you stay in the tube when you change buses you don't have to pay twice. Then we dropped the male at home to snooze and thali and i went to the salon (as big as a BIG department store where they do everything related to body-beauty, apparently 300 people can be getting a manicure at the same time) to get beach ready very inexpensively. Resisted getting a $5 full manicure even though it's a very brasilian thing to do i'm told, every week. Thali then dropped me off at home as she was going food shopping for carnaval which lasted over 3 hours and meant she didn't go to class (her classes are from 7-11pm! A lot of people do internships in Brazil while they study so you can do classes at very flexible times). Had a very late dinner, and even then we didn't really need it we'd eaten that much at lunch. Curitiba is a lovely city from what we've seen. It's very easy to find places to escape the feel of being in a city of several million people entirely, lots of trees and parks. Thali said that it is illegal to cut down any trees there, except in your own back yard and even then it sounded like there were maybe rules about that too.
Early morning friday morning as we were off to the beach!! The beach that was a 5 or so hour drive away. Our driver Carol picked us up and off we went. Brazil is a beautiful country to drive through, though i kept falling asleep. Drove down the coast of the Atlantic. Stopped on the outskirts of Florianopolis for lunch (another buffet :p this time you only got one chance to fill your plate though) then carried on a little way further south to the small beachside settlement of Praia do Rosa, complete with potholed dirt roads and big nightclubs. Spent a long evening at the rental company while Thali and Carol tried to sort out the house we were staying at as the one they'd booked turned out to be a whole lot dingier than the photos and info on the net suggested but the owner wouldn't give back the deposit. Trying times, we got free fries and a free phonecall home out of it though! Ended up going to a much smaller but cleaner/nicer place that was closer to the beach as well but only had 3 double beds when there was going to be 12 of us arriving altogether. Enough floor space for everyone in the end. Enough mozzies to go round too. The weekend was super hot, went to the beach in the afternoons (wasn't game/stupid enough to join the brazilians in the heat of the day/burning sun). It was a beautiful surf beach with the softest white sand but cold cold water. Packed because of carnaval - umbrellas as far as the eye could see just about - which also meant the single narrow road in and out was at gridlock at times as all the hot young things insisted on driving their hot little hatchbacks to the beach that had to be in easy walking distance of almost everywhere.
The next few days the weather wasn't so amicable. Got rained off the beach on every attempt. Once there was a huge wind gust before the rain that sent several umbrellas flying along with clothes, hats etc. Those dirt roads turned to mud roads then to rivers. The tap, shower and toilet water went brown. We played a lot of cards and read books and drank beer and caiparinha and some yummy condensed milk alcoholic smoothie. Also ate A LOT of delicious food mostly made by thali. Eating fried flour is a bit strange though. And Brigadeiro which i personally don't think can count as food. And Açai which is delish. Went for a walk and saw a little owl. Discovered Morrison Camping Bar (a rock/blues bar) and tried to go there on 2 occasions but neither time was it open. Others payed much too much to go to the flash nightclubs and listen to horrible music. Went to the nearby town one day for a quick look round. Thali tried to get us to Florianopolis for a day but it never eventuated. And that was pretty much our carnaval!
Monday, 2 March 2009
Birthday, Bus, Brilliance and Brasil without a middle
So didn't even get up to the country we've currently been in for almost 2 weeks already and are about to leave last time... but back to my black friday birthday:
My 24th birthday was spent in Buenos Aires. Natasha got back to BsAs from Iguazú that day as well so we had half arranged to meet. First order of the day however was finding the US embassy for jon to get more pages put in his passport as the first step to getting a visa for Brasil. Got there to find we were just too late for the morning appointment times so we'd have to come back that afternoon. Second on our to do list was getting bus tickets for the following day - this didn't get ticked off that day. Instead we went into town to an artisan alley where i had seen a belt i really liked weeks before in the vain hope that nobody else had taken such a liking to it. Turns out they hadn't so i am now the proud owner of a beautiful leather belt :D Next up we went Natasha hunting, back to the hostel we stayed at on our first nights in BA. Got a bday/haven't seen you for a while hug and made plans that involved cake and wine for later. Then Jon and i went to a vegetarian all you can eat buffet in a beautiful mall on florida st. Apparently the place is run by nuns or something - either way it was delicious and we both ate til bursting point. Afterward we had to lug our heavy stomachs back onto the subway to waddle as fast as we were able in the extreme heat back to the embassy. Made it there with only 2 mins to spare and thankfully they let Jon in. Next on the agenda was cake shopping! Found an incredible chocolate mousse and dulce de leche cake at the bakery a few doors down from the hostel where everything looks divine. Managed to then take it on the subway at friday rush hour without it getting destroyed back to hostal granados where natasha and alanna were waiting on the roof with many a bottle of red wine and a broken candle that had previously been shaped like a 4 (the 2 for 24 came from it being in two pieces so it was broken for good reason, though i'd much rather just be 4). And that's where we spent until valentines day, many more hostel residents came to join the "party" and met more aquarians than statistics should've allowed for! The plan was to go out someplace but it never happened, bussed home in the wee hours instead.
Valentines day we were to leave BA again, this time for puerto iguazú (despite it being natasha, kirby and alanna's last night in south america, may have missed a biggie). Packed up our belongings and went to retiro in search of bus tickets which we got third time lucky, always a bit of a stressful experience. Then spent the afternoon with natasha eating empanadas and icecream until it was time to leave. Caught the Expreso Tigre Iguazu 19 hour best dinner ever (even had vege option :O) followed by close to worst breakfast ever (crackers?) overnighter up to the heat of the north. Arrived sunday afternoon with no place to stay and high hopes to stay at Hostel Inn that we'd heard many good things about but was also very popular so definitely booked out. They suggested Hostel Bambu to us though, a small hostel, just getting started, still building in fact, with the loveliest staff imaginable, good music and bunks with our names on them. No swimming pool but one a block away that we were free to use - and we did. It's stinking hot up there. Stinking. The staff suggested we walk up to the three frontiers - where the corners of argentina, brasil and paraguay all meet separated by the river - to watch the sunset so we took them up on that. Came back through town and went to get some dinner, really tasty complimentary nibbles but the meal itself was a bit disappointing (the vegetarian options were very limiting). However for pudding we had to get the super cheap super tasty icecream we'd heard so much about, and it didn't disappoint! You're really spoiled for choice there actually, must have the highest heladeria per capita ratio of anywhere. Also, motorbikes are by far the transportation of choice here.
Monday was kind of a nothing day as we spent til early afternoon trying to sort out bits and pieces for jon's visa application then just missed handing it in as they closed at a very leisurely 2pm. Didn't have time to go to any of the falls. Think we went to the swimming pool again - it was pretty much obligatory - and got info about the falls for the following day. So tuesday was devoted to the argentinian side of Iguazú falls (after handing in visa applications and a trip to the bank - they close at an altogether lazy 1pm)! Headed slowly (hindered by trains and lines as weren't there super early) up to the end viewpoint first where you're right up close to the massive thundering falls at Garganta del Diablo. Then decided to do the boat trip next where you get soaked under one of the falls, sooo much fun. Had hoped to get over to the island after that for a swim and more views of waterfalls but didn't realise the line was gonna be so long. The last boat over was 3.30pm and we would definitely have been in the next boat after that, had there been one. So just missed out, which meant we decided instead to go along the trail that not many tourists do to get to the only other swimming spot (cos it was hot hot hot). Had our packed lunch accompanied by quite the panoramic postcard view and walked along the upper circuit to see waterfalls from above with rainbows then managed to find the beginning of the 3km track. Walked about as fast as we could along there as we didn't have a lot of time until the park closed. Found a small swimming hole under a narrow but very tall and quite powerful/painful to stand under waterfall, only 4 other people were there. Had a quick swim (was very shallow) to cool off, slipped on a rock climbing down from under the waterfall which later gave me a very impressive bruise on my backside, power walked back to the park to get there in time to catch the bus back to town. Back in town we went for more icecream with the israeli girls staying in our dorm, Aviv and Atar. Yum! Also in town we saw a big group of "kids" who were maybe practicing for some street parade, or maybe thats just what they do on tuesday nights, playing drums and dancing real cool.
On wednesday we planned to go to Brasil! Got up early and went to get jon's visa - approved! so tried to go for celebratory icecream, turns out they don't open til 12 so we stuck around for that (so worth it!) then caught the bus to the border, did the easiest customs yet then had to wait a while for another bus of the same company to come through again as we were too cheap to pay twice :p Hostel Bambu argentina had arranged our bus tickets to curitiba to be at hostel bambu brasil so went there paid for the tickets, dropped off our bag and went to catch the last couple of hours of the park on the Brasil side where you get awesome panoramic views of all the falls, beautiful. Met a spanish guy Ruben on the bus and walked round with him. When we got up to the end it started pouring with rain, and i really mean pouring. It had been soooo hot just before that we were more than happy to let ourselves get soaked (not that we had much choice, coulda run for cover but would probably still have got fairly well soaked). Back to the hostel for a shower and our hosts from argentina had crossed the border too! They instructed us on how to get to our bus for curitiba though we only managed to find the station by luck. We were arguing about whether to ask the driver to let us off at Rodoviaria or just hope to see it ourselves when a guy in front of us interrupted to say that it was pretty much right there. No way would we have seen it if it wasn't for him! So we had made it to brasil and now were in for another nights "sleep" on a bus.
One of the coolest things about Iguazú and Iguaçu for me was all the animals we saw: a turtle, lizards - many small ones and one really big one, plenty of coatis (no idea what this could be in english if anything different, we have a picture), lotsa big spiders including a tarantula that i held, two toucans, two monkeys in a tree, millipede, giant ants and i mean giant, a deer that seemed a bit outta place and some weird pig-rat without a tail in the forest that no-one can tell me what it was by my description..
So now we're about to leave brasil tomorrow on an epic 3 day bus excursion from curitiba to santiago chile as all the slightly shorter 2 day direct buses were fully booked by the time we got around to organising it i.e. this morning, so won't get to update this and fill in the rather large gaps for awhile, maybe not even til we're back in nz. Middle brasil will just have to wait. It rained a lot anyway.
My 24th birthday was spent in Buenos Aires. Natasha got back to BsAs from Iguazú that day as well so we had half arranged to meet. First order of the day however was finding the US embassy for jon to get more pages put in his passport as the first step to getting a visa for Brasil. Got there to find we were just too late for the morning appointment times so we'd have to come back that afternoon. Second on our to do list was getting bus tickets for the following day - this didn't get ticked off that day. Instead we went into town to an artisan alley where i had seen a belt i really liked weeks before in the vain hope that nobody else had taken such a liking to it. Turns out they hadn't so i am now the proud owner of a beautiful leather belt :D Next up we went Natasha hunting, back to the hostel we stayed at on our first nights in BA. Got a bday/haven't seen you for a while hug and made plans that involved cake and wine for later. Then Jon and i went to a vegetarian all you can eat buffet in a beautiful mall on florida st. Apparently the place is run by nuns or something - either way it was delicious and we both ate til bursting point. Afterward we had to lug our heavy stomachs back onto the subway to waddle as fast as we were able in the extreme heat back to the embassy. Made it there with only 2 mins to spare and thankfully they let Jon in. Next on the agenda was cake shopping! Found an incredible chocolate mousse and dulce de leche cake at the bakery a few doors down from the hostel where everything looks divine. Managed to then take it on the subway at friday rush hour without it getting destroyed back to hostal granados where natasha and alanna were waiting on the roof with many a bottle of red wine and a broken candle that had previously been shaped like a 4 (the 2 for 24 came from it being in two pieces so it was broken for good reason, though i'd much rather just be 4). And that's where we spent until valentines day, many more hostel residents came to join the "party" and met more aquarians than statistics should've allowed for! The plan was to go out someplace but it never happened, bussed home in the wee hours instead.
Valentines day we were to leave BA again, this time for puerto iguazú (despite it being natasha, kirby and alanna's last night in south america, may have missed a biggie). Packed up our belongings and went to retiro in search of bus tickets which we got third time lucky, always a bit of a stressful experience. Then spent the afternoon with natasha eating empanadas and icecream until it was time to leave. Caught the Expreso Tigre Iguazu 19 hour best dinner ever (even had vege option :O) followed by close to worst breakfast ever (crackers?) overnighter up to the heat of the north. Arrived sunday afternoon with no place to stay and high hopes to stay at Hostel Inn that we'd heard many good things about but was also very popular so definitely booked out. They suggested Hostel Bambu to us though, a small hostel, just getting started, still building in fact, with the loveliest staff imaginable, good music and bunks with our names on them. No swimming pool but one a block away that we were free to use - and we did. It's stinking hot up there. Stinking. The staff suggested we walk up to the three frontiers - where the corners of argentina, brasil and paraguay all meet separated by the river - to watch the sunset so we took them up on that. Came back through town and went to get some dinner, really tasty complimentary nibbles but the meal itself was a bit disappointing (the vegetarian options were very limiting). However for pudding we had to get the super cheap super tasty icecream we'd heard so much about, and it didn't disappoint! You're really spoiled for choice there actually, must have the highest heladeria per capita ratio of anywhere. Also, motorbikes are by far the transportation of choice here.
Monday was kind of a nothing day as we spent til early afternoon trying to sort out bits and pieces for jon's visa application then just missed handing it in as they closed at a very leisurely 2pm. Didn't have time to go to any of the falls. Think we went to the swimming pool again - it was pretty much obligatory - and got info about the falls for the following day. So tuesday was devoted to the argentinian side of Iguazú falls (after handing in visa applications and a trip to the bank - they close at an altogether lazy 1pm)! Headed slowly (hindered by trains and lines as weren't there super early) up to the end viewpoint first where you're right up close to the massive thundering falls at Garganta del Diablo. Then decided to do the boat trip next where you get soaked under one of the falls, sooo much fun. Had hoped to get over to the island after that for a swim and more views of waterfalls but didn't realise the line was gonna be so long. The last boat over was 3.30pm and we would definitely have been in the next boat after that, had there been one. So just missed out, which meant we decided instead to go along the trail that not many tourists do to get to the only other swimming spot (cos it was hot hot hot). Had our packed lunch accompanied by quite the panoramic postcard view and walked along the upper circuit to see waterfalls from above with rainbows then managed to find the beginning of the 3km track. Walked about as fast as we could along there as we didn't have a lot of time until the park closed. Found a small swimming hole under a narrow but very tall and quite powerful/painful to stand under waterfall, only 4 other people were there. Had a quick swim (was very shallow) to cool off, slipped on a rock climbing down from under the waterfall which later gave me a very impressive bruise on my backside, power walked back to the park to get there in time to catch the bus back to town. Back in town we went for more icecream with the israeli girls staying in our dorm, Aviv and Atar. Yum! Also in town we saw a big group of "kids" who were maybe practicing for some street parade, or maybe thats just what they do on tuesday nights, playing drums and dancing real cool.
On wednesday we planned to go to Brasil! Got up early and went to get jon's visa - approved! so tried to go for celebratory icecream, turns out they don't open til 12 so we stuck around for that (so worth it!) then caught the bus to the border, did the easiest customs yet then had to wait a while for another bus of the same company to come through again as we were too cheap to pay twice :p Hostel Bambu argentina had arranged our bus tickets to curitiba to be at hostel bambu brasil so went there paid for the tickets, dropped off our bag and went to catch the last couple of hours of the park on the Brasil side where you get awesome panoramic views of all the falls, beautiful. Met a spanish guy Ruben on the bus and walked round with him. When we got up to the end it started pouring with rain, and i really mean pouring. It had been soooo hot just before that we were more than happy to let ourselves get soaked (not that we had much choice, coulda run for cover but would probably still have got fairly well soaked). Back to the hostel for a shower and our hosts from argentina had crossed the border too! They instructed us on how to get to our bus for curitiba though we only managed to find the station by luck. We were arguing about whether to ask the driver to let us off at Rodoviaria or just hope to see it ourselves when a guy in front of us interrupted to say that it was pretty much right there. No way would we have seen it if it wasn't for him! So we had made it to brasil and now were in for another nights "sleep" on a bus.
One of the coolest things about Iguazú and Iguaçu for me was all the animals we saw: a turtle, lizards - many small ones and one really big one, plenty of coatis (no idea what this could be in english if anything different, we have a picture), lotsa big spiders including a tarantula that i held, two toucans, two monkeys in a tree, millipede, giant ants and i mean giant, a deer that seemed a bit outta place and some weird pig-rat without a tail in the forest that no-one can tell me what it was by my description..
So now we're about to leave brasil tomorrow on an epic 3 day bus excursion from curitiba to santiago chile as all the slightly shorter 2 day direct buses were fully booked by the time we got around to organising it i.e. this morning, so won't get to update this and fill in the rather large gaps for awhile, maybe not even til we're back in nz. Middle brasil will just have to wait. It rained a lot anyway.
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