You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two

After journeying through Brazil illegally we passed checkpoint after checkpoint and finally arrived in Argentina at Puerto De Iguaçu where we got to see the outstanding falls again but from the Argentinean side this time. The main difference is the amount you can see you are up more close and personal this side of things where as from Brazil you get a more overall perspective of the sheer size of it all and you can also see quite a few individual falls. This is not a place to come if you do not want to get wet because going to the devils throat simply drenches you. From this point you get quite a good idea of the amount and power of the water coming off these waterfalls. Due to the power you could not see the bottom as it kicked up masses of spray so you could only see a quarter of the height.

‘When in Rome…..do as the Romans do’ so the first meal in Argentina had to be their famous steak and believe me when I tell you that it is the best meat that you will ever taste compliment this with another famous aspect wine and you are well on your way to becoming an Argentinean. Steak is also very cheap in the supermarkets with two succulent sirloins costing only two pounds, the same goes for the wine with a cheap bottle of their wine costing about the same but in the UK this would go for ten times that amount…..we were in Jane’s heaven.

We got a bus from Puerto De Iguaçu which was complete luxury where we were even served Champagne on the bus, Jane prior to this commented how she didn’t like Champagne but as soon as the waiter came over asking if we wanted any naughty sauce I have never seen anyone shout YES so quickly. So you don’t really like it eh Jane?

I got the dates wrong when I got to Buenos Aires and this is because when I organised my couch surfing the emails were sent just after midnight meaning that the date on my watch clicked over creating us a day out of sync. So not to worry Xmas in BA shouldn’t be too busy. I was wrong, it took 4 hours of walking around with our heavy backpacks navigating buses, aggressive drunks and fatigue to finally find a place for one night and once we got settled a beer was deserved.

The next day we ventured into Recoletta one of the districts in BA to spend three nights at our host Ornella. Ornella was very helpful and an amazing host cooking us dinner and taking us to parties. While we are on the subject of drinking and going out apart from that Jane is a bad influence on me in Argentina it is completely different to back home for instance back home on a Saturday night you would go out around seven and come back maybe at twelve but in Buenos Aires you don’t eat dinner till ten and then head to a club at three in the morning.

Pick pockets are very common in BA with most people wearing their backpacks on their front so with this I was extra cautious and this paid off. Whilst on a packed tube on the way to some tourist sight during rush hour I had a short fat man try and dip into my pocket unlucky for him I was too clever holding my wallet but I could feel him lifting my ripped and battered map from my pocket with it inching ever so slowly further and further from my pocket, I confronted him with a glare and some over the top words which he probably didn’t understand, I did want to smack him one but resisted to try and find some police but alas there was no presence in the subte! After this I had a whole mixture of feelings ranging from anger to feeling that I had won and beaten the skilled con artist!

There is a money shortage in Buenos Aires meaning that people hoard coins so that they can use the public transport as the buses do not accept notes, this can cause a major pain as no shop or person wants to give you the coins. With this coin shortage it probably wasn’t the best of ideas to play as much pool as we did where we had a running game with Jane winning 20 to 7 but before you judge this score thinking that I have been given the beating of my life if it was the best of 10 I would of won and I seriously believe there is cheating evolved with rules being made up as and when it suited Jane best…..writing this on a bus and Jane comments that ‘this statement is a load of rubbish’ so I have put her side in and I will let you all decide.

We had Christmas in Buenos Aires where we went to a party organised on the internet in a park in the district of Palermo, it was different and fun, getting home was an event having to walk in excess of 40 blocks! Christmas day we made beef stew where we cooked for 10 people in the hostel.

You can not talk about Argentina without talking about the quality of the women, never before have I seen so many good looking women who right there and then I would take back home in one place it goes to show what good food and good weather can do. The weather in this city was around the 30-40 regions but felt a lot hotter with the humidity and the lack of air running through our hostel.

Some of the highlights that we had seen in the two weeks in this hot and busy city were:

Caminito – this is a street in the rough and poor district of La Boca where all the houses are coloured, this attracts many tourtists thus there is a wealth of cafes and restaurants all with tango shows and lessons.

La Tiempo Bumba – this is a lot like ‘Stomp’ in the west end it’s basically a drum show every Monday night.

Metal flower – this metallic flower opens and closes with the sun rise and set.

Recoletta Cemetery – this cemetery is not like your ordinary run of the mill this is full or ornate mausoleums containing some of Argentina’s premier elite such as the famous Eva Peron.

So there you have it my time in Argentina has come to an end and with that my time with Feargal. The next stop is Uruguay where again I will be saying goodbye to some more people.

Travelling Takes Its Toll Charge

The first thing that I noticed when I arrived in Asuncion was the kindness and friendliness of the people, the cab drivers would handle our bags even after our attempts to sway them not to and they would open the doors for the lady in the group which was a considerable change from the rudeness of Santa Cruz. Asuncion was once the historic centre of government for the Spanish colonies of Rio De La Plata but declined in importance with the founding of Buenos Aires. The city is laid out in the familiar grid system which is a leftover from the days of the paranoid despot Dr Francia who, convinced of plots to kill him declared that buildings has to be short enough to see if any would be assassins were on the roof tops whilst riding his horse and with this the destruction of any colonial building that didn’t fit this mandate. Asuncion is peppered with some very interesting buildings but like a lot of this capital its upkeep has been limited at best with much of the pavement crumbling away but despite this instantly we could see we were in a more developed country than the last few, just simple things like car show rooms and supermarkets make that little difference. One thing that I have got to like is sachets of powdered flavour that you add to your water to give it the desired fruit taste, they sell these in all manor of fruit combinations.

Our hostel room was one of the worst I have been in, it was very very dirty and due to the style of the beds being boxed in with timber lifting up the mattress was like looking at the insect enclosure at London Zoo so only one night was needed at this place for Jane and I, Feargal on the other hand had a cleaner room and chose to stay whilst we changed just one block away to a slightly more clean abode.

There is not an awful lot to see in this capital city so we wandered around the Plaza de los Heroes a lively and vibrant place with many a market trader trying to sell all manner of hand-made goods. We also visited the waterfront and Plaza de la Independencia and the palace which was the most well kept part of the city. Still throughout this city we were always greeted with smiles and when we were lost or required some assistance people were more than willing to help us and I think this is because Paraguay for some reason is not really on the ‘gringo trail’ its much less touristic than all the other countries in the continent.

On our last night Feargal got robbed again with his first time being in Costa Rica (knife point) with the attacker actually being paid off with $2 which was actually haggled down but this time the scoundrel when presenting his knife to Ferg got a surprise when Feargal bolted like his disobedient horse in Tupiza with his assailant only grabbing his headphones and ripping them from the iPod so all in all he has only lost circa $10. I mentioned to Feargal that on his third time his hat trick he might be able to keep the knife or some sort of memento.

My new travel partner and I left Feargal in Asuncion and we headed on the bus to Ciudad Del Este. This place was a shock to the system with it being a hustling bustling place with many currencies changing hand due to its location bordering two other countries and being a Mecca for duty free electrical items. Folk from Argentina and Brazil flock to this place to purchase all manner of items with duvets and blankets strangley being the main items people were lumbering across the border, I say strange because this place was sweltering hot so what they need a 15 tog duvet in plus thirty degree heat beats me.

Jane wanted an iPod touch so we waited for this place to start our search. It didn’t take long for hoards to approach us telling us they had the cheapest electrical goods and once in the shop the game begins trying to haggle the price down but if this is the cheapest place in SA I don’t want to see the most expensive as we were quoted on an 8 gigabyte iPod $270 which in all cases is more expensive than England which I informed him then this guy got really irate and told me to get the fu*k back to England then. The only stall I was vaguely interested in was the weapons stall with asps, knifes, tasers, batons and knuckle dusters but due to the increased airport security I decided against this, thanks a bunch Bin Ladin. Saying this America is now renowned for its over the top airport security but Jane got through Heathrow and Miami airport with a knife in her hand luggage but my pot of hair gel over 100ml has to be confiscated and destroyed.

Sited 20km north of the city is one of the 7 modern wonders of the world the Itaipu Hydroelectric Project which now thanks to the ………… in China is the second biggest in the world, this dam is part owned by Paraguay and Brazil with construction taking some twenty years. This behemoth can generate 75,000GWh worth of energy per year which provides 20% of Brazil’s energy and 80% of Paraguay’s. We drove onto the dam but due to the torrential rain and lighting it was too dangerous to leave the tour bus. On the upside it was all free.

Another reason people come to Cidudad Del Este is its location to Argentina and Brazil especially in relation to Iguaçu Falls. Before I talk about our action packed day visiting three countries I will tell you why the falls are so special.

The falls are formed by the Rio Iguaçu which has its source near Curitiba. Starting at an altitude if 1,300m, the river snakes westward, picking up tributaries and increasing in size and power fuming its 1200km journey. About 15km before joining the Rio Parana the Iguaçu broadens out, then plunges over an 80 meter high cliff in 275 separate falls that extend nearly 3km across the river. These falls can be seen from both sides, the Argentinean and the Brazilian.

From Ciudad we popped over the Friendship bridge bypassing what could have been a 4 hour queue and once we hit the front put on our ‘Gringo Stupido’* faces and they stamped our passports and let us into Brazil. From here we struggled to find somewhere to change up money into their currency (Real) so we could get the bus another problem was that they no longer spoke Spanish instead it was Portuguese, I say a problem but Spanish has been a problem for me so in all reality its been the same problem continent wide. Once we ironed out all the problems we got to the falls and from this side you get a better overall view that allows you to appreciate the scale of the falls. I was in awe of how powerful and beautiful the falls were even though I was quite stressed throughout this day generally due to Jane’s relaxed approach to travelling but this is fuelled more by the fact that I can not speak to the locals and ask questions so I always have to get Jane to ask. One stressful incident does stand out where we were queuing to take a photo but this Spanish idiot pushes in front to which I push back in front but lose out on prime position on the platform but instead have his friend telling me in Spanish to move out the way of the photo to which I blurt out famous English gestures at him but with us both having limited skills of the others language I could not tell him what I really thought of him.

Paraguay – Brazil – Paraguay – Brazil (illegally) – Argentina. The following was our route into Argentina and technically according to my passport I have not left Paraguay. This is because I did not get the exit stamp and I didn’t get an entry or exit the second time I ventured into Brazil and this is because we were on the last bus and figured the bus driver would not wait for such trivial things as immigration so essentially we were illegal immigrants in Brazil, if it had been England we would have been given a council house, benefits and work the instant we crossed the border illegally.

I am now in Argentina the worlds most meat loving country in the world travelling with a vegetarian. Not much really to forewarn you about here apart from seeing the falls from this side and spending the Christmas period in Buenos Aires.

Take A Bow Bolivia You Have Blown Me Away

South America compared to Asia is staggeringly more difficult to strike up any sort of friendship and travel with people for a prolonged period of time and the reason for this is that there are so many routes to be taken with most countries bordering at least 2 different countries with Bolivia bordering no less than 5. This complication means that peoples gringo trail are always normally completely different where as in Asia people either go clockwise or anti-clockwise around the golden triangle. Fortunately for me I can be quite charming and persuasive so I convinced someone to completely change their journey from Bolivia-Argentina to Bolivia-Paraguay-Argentina. Welcome Jane to the ever growing band of misfit pilgrims on the journey to Buenos Aires for Christmas where most of the gang who are actually still travelling will meet up……we hope.

After leaving the picturesque town of Sucre we headed on a 15h+ bus towards Samaipata which is a very tranquil town nestled in a valley surrounded by rugged forest covered mountains. The town was very small but had some great character and reminded me partly of some of the villages in Goa India due to its tropical scenery. So after two months at altitude we have finally started to descend so its goodbye to dry chapped lips goodbye to poor pint pouring skills and goodbye to being out of breath going up one flight of stairs but hello to sweating like a pig every time you venture outside!

From Samaipata we ventured to El Fuerte a pre-Hispanic ceremonial site that is built on a great sandstone rock with over 50 Inca ruins, not quite as impressive as Machu Pitcchu by any means but still worth a look.

Our main aim was to reach the Parque Nacional Amboro which is part of the Amazon Basin but to do this we needed to catch two buses one to Santa Cruz and then a collectvio to Buena Vista at the northern part of the park. Once in Bueno Vista it was quite difficult to organise anything but luckily with Feargals Spanish we succeeded and then we were off on a two day trek of the jungle where some of my highlights were swinging on a real jungle vine Tarzan style, diving into rock pools to cool off, climbing up a tree strangler and getting my friends who cannot swim to swim to a gorgeous waterfall and stand under it. This they said was their first waterfall experience and where else better to experience it but then I remembered all the beautiful waterfalls that litter Australia which I think were much more spectacular!

Two days in the Jungle eating one shitty cheese sandwich some crisps and some peanuts and being eaten alive by mozzies I was more than ready to hit Santa Cruz which is the economic powerhouse of Bolivia and it shows as soon as you get into the city centre with designer shops selling everything from Louis Vitton to Diesel with more items priced in Dollars rather than Bolivianos. The women here are also quite a few notches up on the beauty scale than the rest of the country but with this comes the rudeness with a lot of the locals being quite rude also their accent does not help as they miss out the letter ‘S’ in every word so Buenos Dias (Good Morning) becomes Bueno Dia and at speed it becomes even harder to understand what the hell they are saying. My highlight here was the pet toucan at our hostel that would hop around and cause mischief among the other travellers.

Bolivia has become my favourite country so far as it has endless things to see and do and the diversity of the country is really out of this world, you can go from Lake Titicaca to a bustling capital to a rainforest to salt flats to a desert to alitiplano to mountains to picturesque towns to badlands and all of this at dirt cheap prices.

I am on a 30 hour bus to Paraguay as I write this meaning that my next blog will be Paraguay based. This is where the Gringo Trail ends for most people so watch this space as it could get interesting. Highlights that my whistle stop tour of Paraguay will be Asuncion (Capital) Ciudad De Este where the electronic black market is and the second biggest dam in the world!

Add below in address bar to see the video so far of South America!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYDClSA5ug


Finally some half decent wi-fi so here are photos from Bolivia: