Rio de Janerio – a fantastic end to our trip

Leaving Argentina a day later than planned due to a bout of food poisoning we headed by long haul bus (22 hours) to the magical city of Rio de Janerio.

Arriving in Santa Teresa where we had pre-booked a hostel, we were pleased to find that it was a really cool old part of the city with lots of character and really good transport links including a very old rustic tram.

Don’t look down! The view from the tram where the local kids hang off the sides for a free ride

Our first full day in Rio we awoke to brilliant blue skies and sunshine so we headed to the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, which certainly lived up to expectations. The huge stretches of sand curved around the bay with high rise buildings stretching as far as the eye could see. The beautiful people of Brazil were busy sunning themselves both on the beach and whilst exercising on the allotted bike/roller-blading/ jogging  pavement running alongside the beach.

Yes, even the oldies got their bodies out

The sea was refreshingly cool so we took a dip, unlike many of the locals who preferred to stay in the sun to maximize their tans. Marc decided that the Brazilian girls were far more attractive than the Argentinian ones which was clear for all to see with their tiny thong-clad bottoms! The men weren’t bad either, although a little too aware of themselves for my taste. It doesn’t matter whether you are big or small, young or old, ALL Brazilian women without exception wear thong bikinis.

There was even some surf and some pretty decent surfers and bodyboarders

We cruised around the city using the various forms of transport which were all relatively cheap compared to everything else in Rio. Eating out was particularly expensive, even compared to London.

Beatles and camper vans were a common sight.

We wandered the city admiring the buildings which were an architectural mix of old and new, and were quite breathtakingly beautiful.

A paradise island just off the coast of Rio?

The city was so lively and fun, parties non-stop and the people really friendly for such a large place. We did see lots of very poor homeless people even though we didn’t venture into any of the furvelas (Brazillian slums). As a tourist you can pay to do a tour of a furvela but we felt like we would be treating the people that lived there like animals in a zoo if we did a tour.

One day we visited the beautiful Christ the Redeemer where we had fantastic views of the whole city. We didn’t go up to Sugarloaf mountain but did admire the view of it from here.

Admiring the views

Sugarloaf mountain shrouded in cloud

The owner of the hostel where we stayed was an English guy so we ended up having a couple of nights drinking the local specialty with him; the famous and very pungent (as Marc was to discover) Caphrini.

Breakfast on the balcony

We’d love to head back to Rio again one day, it’s such a cool city, but next time we’ll do it with money.

This is our last blog post as we are now back in Austria staying with Marc’s family and head back to England next week.

Our journey was amazing, something we will never, ever forget. We learnt so much about the culture, history, languages and religions of the countries we visited, not to mention a lot about ourselves, including how easily we take for granted some of the things we don’t even regard as luxuries in life such as a good clean bed and a shower with hot water.

We visited museums, galleries, religious monuments, war sites, mountains, lakes, seas, national parks and cities.

We went trekking in the snow and through the jungle, scuba-diving with fish as large as us, mountain biking down ‘death’ roads, surfing, whale-watching, kayaking, horse riding, paragliding, white-water rafting and elephant trekking, to name but a few of our adventures. And of course we got married!

We ate foods from all over the world and are hoping to recreate some of the better meals now we are home; Marc has a great food diary.

Now we just need to edit the thousands of photographs we took and bore all of our friends and family with them.

Thanks to all of those that viewed the blog and kept in touch whilst we were away; it was always so fantastic to hear from home. Hope to see you all soon.

The Rinagls

Argentinean muscle

Driving across the Andes from Chile into Argentina, the temperature plunged and we were in awe of the  surrounding snow capped peaks. The bus driver seemed to aim for the far corner of the hairpin bends as we ascended, seemingly only to turn sharply at the very last moment to avoid a terminal plunge over the edge.  He was loving the roads, but being up top on the double decker gave us an all too clear view of what was going on.

The winding roads of the Andes

We survived and made our penultimate land boarder crossing into Argentina and onto Mendoza. Driving in across the wine region, it bared no comparison to other wine areas we had previously visited. Very arid, flat and quite desolate. Not a place I would imagine you could grow grapes but we passed row after row of vines – we found out later that they actually flooded the vines every 15 days, which is how they were able to grow – sustainable these days?!

We found a really luxurious place to stay near the park. It was a hostel but the kitchen was big and spotless, so I was looking forward to getting some local produce and get cooking.  Butchers selling beef fillet for 35 peso/kg (about 6 quid!) so I now have lots of tried and tested recipes for beef tenderloin! Argentina seems very civilized compared to the rest of South America and there were lots of things that reminded us of home.

After a day looking around town, we met some like minded alcoholics in the hostel and arranged a bike and wine tour of the area – a well tried and tested combination.

Do you have any full suspension bikes?

The Malbec was much nicer than we expected. Trying the young and aged was interesting and we met a nice lady in the Di Tomassi winery that really knew her stuff and she gave us an extra white to try too. They make a lot of olive oil as well as red wine and balsamic vinegar which is of excellent quality.

After a few tastings and some homemade lasagna, we were hooked on Malbec and making our way back rather slower than when we started off.

After Mendoza, we continued east to Cordoba, a big city with a real student feel to it. Lots of bars and snacky places to eat, surrounded by modern sculptures and old colonial architecture.

One day we traveled outside the city to Alta Gracia where Che Guevara grew up, and visited the house he lived in with his family, which has been converted into a small museum. It was fascinating to read about his life, his travels and his ambitions.

We had to try some of the local BBQ food in the city as we had a few recommendations for good restaurants. We ordered a mixed grill, and that is exactly what you get. It should have been called ‘guess the animal organ’ grill, but apart from the lower intestine it all tasted good. Argentina is not for vegetarians.

From Cordoba we initially planned to head to Rosario, but booking accommodation was proving to be a problem; unlike everywhere else we'd been in South America we had just turned up and found accommodation on the spot, Argentina was not like this. We left it too late and so changed out plans and headed south to Buenos Aires and once we arrived there we were glad we made it down that far. 

BA is a huge place with the of hustle and bustle of a capital city, segmented into smaller areas all with their own appeal. We arrived in the rain after our bus broke down on the way. This Argentinean bus driver seem to have a short attention span (with us anyway) and no one would tell us what was going on and we nearly left on the replacement bus without our bags – they made it this far; not going to loose them here of all places!

Assume the position

We stayed in the San Telmo area of BA, which was full of restaurants, nice bars and a few artesan shops. One day we even saw live Tango being performed in one of the squares. On Sunday there is a market and it got quite busy.........

Mothers for justice – 20 years of campaigning for information about their missing children

City cemetery, where the high society of BA are laid to rest including Eva Peron (Evita). It was a stunning day and the crypts were quite beautiful. Strange that a cemetery should be such a tourist attraction.

BA was a nice place to be for a few days but pollution like any big city was pretty bad and we were looking forward to heading north to the lush forests and waterfalls of Iguazu in the north, near the Brazil and Paraguay boarder. We had a 19 hour bus journey ahead of us so decided to go in style and book a 'full service’ bus, which had flat beds, hot food and most importantly, wine! We had an aperitif of the local spirit, Fernet, and after our supper they brought round some bubbly, we couldn’t appear rude could we.

After 19 hours we arrived in Iguazu and could instantly feel the temperature difference. It was warm again and you could smell the greenery in the air. The town of Puerto Iguazu was pretty touristy but had a certain laid back charm to it. There is only one reason to come here and that was to see the waterfalls, which did not disappoint.

Little rascals

Ahh, it’s a butterfly…

Looking at the ‘Devil’s throat’ for too long, made you feel dizzy

Our final post for Brazil is coming soon................................

A short trip to Chile

Leaving La Paz we flew to the entirely different Santiago in Chile. Santiago is a big modern city surrounded by the dramatic snow-capped Andes. Whilst there we had hoped to get some skiing in but unfortunately the snow coverage wasn’t good enough so instead we spent a few days exploring the city with Jason (Marc’s work friend from London) and his girlfriend Helen.

Santiago and the Andes; a pretty awesome contrast

Hanging out with Helen

It was great to meet up with some friends so we spent a lot of our time eating, drinking excessive amounts of the fabulous local carminere and the odd pisco sour, and exchanging travelling stories.

The fabulous fish market

Jason & Helen and our fish feast; Helen had the biggest mussels we’d ever seen

Leaving Santiago we headed to the coastal town of Valparaiso, Chile’s principal port and naval base. We stayed in the Cerro Conception area which is a really pretty part of town with brightly coloured buildings and lots of bars and restaurants.

After a number of happy hour cocktails one evening we emptied a restaurant because of our raucous debate; anybody who knows Jason will understand that this is inevitable. 

Happy hour cocktails and cats; I now have the name ‘crazy cat lady’

Jason was getting a little too much

Police patrol on the beach in Vina del Mar

Working off the cocktails

At this point we changed our plans slightly and decided not to fly to Buenos Aires but to travel across into Argentina by land therefore stopping off in the famous wine province of Mendoza. We bid our goodbyes to Jason and Helen and off we went. 

I want to get high, so high.

Arriving in La Paz, Bolivia at 4,000m was quite a shock to the system after being at sea level in Colombia. We arrived in the cool, crisp mountain air and had a feeling this would be a completely new experience. Driving from the airport we passed the top of the city which was an amazing sight with the whole city seemingly sitting in a huge crater surrounded by massive mountain peaks.















La Paz felt like it had been in a time warp.

La Paz was a good place to base ourselves for a number of activities including mountain biking, hiking and general outdoors stuff, and Marc could not wait to get on a bike again and go for a ride; it had been too long according to him!

I also enjoyed the local witches markets where I bought some very cheap and colourful souvenirs.

The good luck charms in the witches market

Dried llama fetus which bring good luck if buried beneath your front door step (I didn't buy one of those)

We headed by bus to Copacabana  which sits on the stunning Lake Titicaca. We did some hiking on the beautiful Isla Del Sol, breathing in the very clean crisp air and admiring the views of the mountains of Bolivia and Peru.

Copacabana

Hiking on the Isla Del Sol

Heading back to La Paz we booked ourselves on one of the mountain bike tours of the famous 'Death Road'. Widely referred to as the worlds most dangerous road, its a rough, narrow track chiseled out of near-vertical mountainsides and was until recently used as a main traffic through fare. Fortunately for us (and my nerves) it isn't used frequently by cars anymore as a new, safer road has been built.

So, off we went starting at 4700m above sea level and descending over 3500m in the course of four hours. Starting at the top it was cold and at times there was freezing fog blocking our views of the steep drop offs a matter of metres from our feet. When the fog lifted the views were amazing and the air warmer.

Looking like pros!

This picture doesn't really convey the sheer drop (or the look of horror on my face!)

A reality check seen too many times on the way down

I felt a huge sense of relief at the end of the trip, although Marc didn't really find it very thrilling at all!

After the thrill of the Death Road we hung around in La Paz and went to the Museo de la Coca which helped us understand the importance of the production of coca in Bolivia and how it was used in the past to keep people working long hours in the mines. The indigenous people still chew it today and it is legal to purchase and chew in Bolivia and Peru. We both tried some and could see why it was used as a medical anesthetic as the side of our mouths went numb.

Bolivia is full of surprises; we went to an event called Cholita Wrestling where traditionally dressed indigenous women wrestle (and I use that term loosely) with lycra-clad men and children; it really has to be seen to be believed.

Next up was a tour to the Salar de Uyuni and Reserva Eduardo Avaroa. We headed south by train which was a very relaxing experience and started our tour of the salt plains in a 4WD with four other Europeans.

The salt plains were a pretty awesome sight and stretched as far as the eye could see.

We stopped at a cactus island in the middle of the salt plains

Spot the Marc!

That night we stayed in a salt hotel where the building, tables and chairs, and even the beds were made from salt.

The following day we visited numerous beautiful lagoons filled with flamingos and stinky sulphur. We also saw herds of very cute and cuddly looking llamas.

I wanted to take one home with me

Flamingos & Lagunas

The bomb proof Toyota Land Cruisers

The inspiration for some of the works of Salvador Dali

So we had ended our time in Bolivia and it was now time to head further south and start our coast to coast overland travel from Valparaiso in Chile to Rio in Brazil. Lots more miles to cover so keep a look out for the next post soon.