Archive | February, 2013

Where to pick up…?

28 Feb

Ok, so, as expected, my blogging frequency has waned. No surprise, given since my last post I have: survived Rio Carnaval (not for lack of trying!); said goodbye to some cool new mates (The Australians); waved hello to some new ones (all those in Florianopolis); had some beautiful sun-drenched beach time; enjoyed some awesome nights out – in spite of my inappropriate footwear (obviously fights are a common feature amongst Havaiana wearers. Luckily due to being friends with a VIP in the form of übercool Rob, we were allowed in anyway); have visited the stunning falls at Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil and seen ´the overview´, as it`s often referred to; left there and crossed the border, relatively hassle-free; enjoyed the unexpected company of two (more) Melbournites and learnt lots about Taoist theory… over red wine and Quilmas, of course; and culminated yesterday with a whirlwind, yet exceptional, tour of the falls on the Argentine side at Puerto Iguazu. Never quite seen anything like it in terms of having something so built up in your head through pictures, reputation and other people´s highlights and STILL have it take your breath away in such a fashion. And I loved that it continued throughout the day, even having started with the climax and worked our way backwards (for time reasons). Had 12 minutes of screaming and laughter with a speedboat under the falls, but the Devil´s Throat goes down as possibly the best thing I`ve seen/done/heard/experienced so far on my trip. I think.

Now what? Well, I arrived in Buenos Aires this morning after the best bus ride I`ve had so far. In terms of comfort and sleepability. A good start, as for once I arrived at my hostel and didn`t need to shower and go straight to bed for four hours! A brief shower sufficed.

Staying at the cutest hostel, called Ayres Porteños, in San Telmo. I decided to have a break from the most popular ´party´places, as while great for meeting people and making friends (thank you to all so far), I fancied a change of pace and reckon BA itself will offer enough of that without having to be sleeping amongst it as well.

The place is tango-themed, with funky kitsch Argentine murals and artwork all over the walls and really high ceilings and boho style decor. I will post pics, eventually, maybe, probably when I get home.

Been for a wander around the city, feeling very out of place when I inadvertently strode through the central business district wearing denim shorts, flip flops and carrying a daypack. Imagined what I would look like wandering through the City at home like this and had to smile at my state of looking just-a-bit-ridiculous.

Had an awesome slice of pizza (thanks Michael!) and ALMOST found the cojones to stand among the locals at the front counter, but bottled it as a) needed to read Lonely Planet and figured I was less conspicuous (for irony = see previous par) if I sat at a table and b) three weeks in Brazil feeling like a complete ´tard has rendered my Spanish in need of some work again.

The funny thing is that I was saying to my darling Omar the other day, Brazil I found a bit of a struggle. Don`t get me wrong, and I have had the most amazing time in Rio and Floripa, but I take full responsibility for trying too hard to make it amazing.

I forced extra budget – in both time and money – at Rio/Carnaval/Florianopolis and found the first real times of stress, combined with lapses in both confidence and judgement. That said, I also came over a bit of a learning curve about myself, the way I`ve been (and would like to be) travelling, heard some home truths I probably needed, heard some incredible compliments I wasn`t expecting and have arrived in Buenos Aires feeling like I`ve passed the halfway point and am stronger, more focused and more positive in a number of different ways.

As such, when I return to Brazil for Part Dos (I fly home from Rio in two months´time), I think I´ll have a better time of it.

Tomorrow I am doing a cycle tour of the city. I am also looking into horsey things (lessons/Gaucho time/polo) and hopefully catching up with some friends made in Mendoza before heading south to Patagonia for some serious nature time.

But we`ll see what happens…

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Her name is Rio…

16 Feb

I always feel like I´ve left it a tad long between posts, then realise it´s been about a week. The time here is weird. It flies by, but at the same time you get a lot done and a few days can seem like a week. Can´t really explain it better than that.

So, where to pick up. I should probably credit someone at this stage. Mr Ara… my dear friend, tour guide (often against his will!), a ´traductor´ (translator), teacher, incredible talent, film editor, music appreciator, doting father, lots of fun, and I will repeat again a very dear friend indeed. Thank you for showing me Santiago in style.

Post Chile, I buckled on costs over Rio Carnaval. I kept going back and forth as to whether I should fork out or not, and came to the conclusion that as I had made it all the way here, may as well do it properly.

So, thanks to The Australians, I managed to find my way into the parade, joining the samba school Traduçia (I think. We´ve struggled with the pronunciation of pretty much EVERYTHING since getting here. Why did no one warn me how hard Portuguese was?!?!) to take part in the parade on Saturday night. It was AWESOME. The costumes were shockingly made, but looked incredible for about the first hour, I´d lost half of mine and was resorting to staple guns from the guys building the float, safety pins, and the kindness of a homeless lady with a few fingers missing to stitch on one of my plastic turquiose shells to help keep it together. This was BEFORE we´d even paraded. Just read  that back and realised there was a sentence I never thought I´d be writing in this blog!

So, having spent about, ooh, 15 minutes listening to the song (which we couldn´t understand) and looking up ´how to samba in 4 minutes´ on YouTube just before we left the apartment, we obviously well prepared. But we rocked it. Sunday night we went to watch the parade again and having been both participant and spectator I can honestly say I enjoyed them equally.

Missed Fat Boy Slim (we were too tired and had sort feet after parading all night – bloody knackering!), tried determinedly to get to Bob Sinclar on Sunday night, but was a lost cause, and Monday we were going to get tickets to Ritchie Hawtin but decided to let Rio throw fun at us in its own way rather than try and chase it down.

It worked. Had the best nights once we´d stopped trying to find/meet/arrange things with people or places and just go with it.

I´m now heading to Florionapolis tonight to see some beautiful beaches that are less packed and crazy than these.

I bid farewell to my Australians this week who are heading home, luckily managed to meet up with Ella and Kate (from my Arequipa/Titicaca/La Paz stint) last night and ate the most incredible all you can eat buffet. WORLD OF PAIN afterwards but amazing. For about 20 quid. I am turning into a fatty. Just what you want when you´re in a bikini all day.

Ah well. Another churro for me then…

Odd… or should that be ‘impar’?

1 Feb

So, where was I?

Oh yes, Sucre, Potosi, Uyuni… twas my birthday. On a bus. Having gained a bitch of a hangover for an old bird, due to losing spectacularly at cards – some game called Chancho, Vas! – the previous night to Tom and a bunch of Argentinians. And Camilo, the Colombian.

Next day, having arrived to the border on a bus that housed the most ANNOYING Austrian girl (sorry Thomas!) who I was about to spend the next 8 hours with, I thought it might have been the journey from hell. It was saved by Janelle, Chris and Chris – hereafter known as The Australians – who I thought instantly would be pretty sound people. And I was right, hence my continuing my journey (and thanked them for rescuing my birthday), with them to San Pedro de Atacama (sandboarding rocks!), Salta (only there a day, but looked pretty nice for a first stop), then down to Mendoza.

Argentina provided a trip around the three wineries – Vistalta, Achaval Ferrer and Septima (esteemed, boutique, huge production), an insight into the semi-ritualistic mate-drinking with the Argentinians, a very odd experience at a nightclub that seemingly looked like it used to be an amusement park (Paul, reminded me a bit of the zoo in Ibiza we went to!), an asado – or BBQ – that provided the best meat I’ve ever tasted (so far!) and some new friends. Oh, and a serious ice cream addiction!! Some Argentine girls on the bus warned me I was about to get very fat, being in Argentina, and I can see why!

So, Santiago. What can I say? Beautiful city. Some gorgeous artsy areas, and very keen to educate myself in the ways of Chilean literature having been to Pablo Neruda’s house – La Chascona, which apparently means ‘crazy hair’ and my latest friends have decided that is my new name (the cheek! ;o) ) – who looks like he was a bit of a nutjob, but a genius one at that. May head over to Valpo or Vina del Mar/Isla Negra at some point before Wed when I head off again.

Met some very cool people at my hostel. A couple of guys, independently of each other, were part way through riding around the world on motorbikes – one from Colorado, one from Widnes, another from Oxford – and had a very cool attitude to things, and rid me of my guilt about following my FOMO and heading to Rio next week, in spite of it being so the opposite of the logical way around!

Have decided just to extend my trip. As people keep reminding me, there are two things that are important when travelling. Time, and money. And having seen how some people are managing their budgets over here, I really could stretch mine a lot further if I wanted/needed to. As Fletch-of-the-cool-tattoos said, ‘It’s only money. You can always find more.’ So I’ll be back later than March 1st. Been here two months and only just scratching the surface really! But now need to start factoring weather into things as well, as summer will be moving out by the end of Feb most likely, especially in the south.

And still not managed my vineyard/horseback adventure, so if I can’t find one this weekend then I’ll need to scratch that from my (rather fluid) To Do list.

That’s pretty much brought things up to date, ‘stuff’-wise. Mind is still open, heart still pure, body still in one piece and all that!

Oh, and Finally getting a tan, but sadly it’s limited to my arms, chest and upper back! Need some beach action!

Big love xx