Friday, February 24, 2012

Day 252 to 253 - Home

Rio De Janeiro to Home (via Dubai)

The flight home was in two stages, Rio to Dubai, then Dubai to home, with a stopover of 12 hours or so where we stayed at the Premier Inn to get some decent rest (that's where we had stayed in Dubai on the way over). As far as long plane trips go it wasn't too bad, except we'd already seen the better selections from the in flight entertainment on the way over!

So that's pretty much it for our Excellent Multinational Adventure ...... the year didn't quite pan out the way we'd hoped, but we did manage to finish off at Carnaval in Rio as we had planned, visiting 25 countries along the way.


Our list of photo links is almost up to date now, we should have South America up in the next couple of days, then this blog will go on hold until the next trip, wherever that will be. We've already been discussing where else we can travel to - we didn't get to Greece, or New York, or Central America as we'd planned for this trip, between us we've seen 6 of the 7 wonders of the world, we've never been to Japan, even though we had visas we couldn't get to Syria, we didn't get to Israel, or Scandinavia .... so there's a lot to see yet! 





Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Day 251 - Last day in Rio!

Rio De Janeiro - Ibis Hotel


Today's plan was to head to Santa Teresa, a suburb on a hill near the centre of town. We had read about the tram that goes there, so we went to the tram station to find it was closed. We thought it was because of Carnaval, but we later discovered that six people had died last year when the tram rolled and the line had been closed ever since.

We then tried to get a taxi, but the driver wouldn't take us and told us to walk there - so we did. Getting to the base of the hill was easy, but there was a long climb up the winding road to the top of the hill. Of course, we passed a street party on the way as well!

We walked back to the hotel, went out for dinner - we finally managed to find a decent restaurant near our hotel on our last night in Rio - and then back to the hotel to pack for the long trip home.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Day 250 - Beatles in Brazil

Rio De Janeiro - Ibis Hotel

Our late night last night needed a sleep in, but once we finally managed to get up we decided to attend one of Rio's famous street parties, Sargento Pimienta - or in English "Sergeant Pepper" - a Beatles themed street party.

We thought we knew where it was, so we hopped on the Metro and disembarked at what we thought was the closest station. An hour and a half later, after walking along a very nice, but suspiciously empty path along the waterfront opposite the Rio Yacht Club, with views of Sugarloaf, we finally spotted the edges of what must have been the party crowd.

The party was huge - thousands of people were there, all dressed in their Carnaval attire (we had our wigs but had removed them because of the heat), drinking and dancing (mainly drinking) to the strains of Beatles tunes played by a Brazilian band on top of a truck. We stayed there for a while, listening to some of the strange pronounciation of Beatles lyrics, before deciding to leave and head for Copacabana (via the nearest station to the street parties - which meant we had walked three metro stops from where we had originally got off!).

We sat by the beach and had a drink (yes, more caipirinhas), then back to Centro and a restaurant near our hotel for dinner.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Day 249 - Parade time

Rio De Janeiro - Ibis Hotel

Today we hopped on the southbound train and decided to follow the crowds. Everyone got off at Ipanema and headed for the beach, so we did too, stopping off at the Sunday "Hippy Market", which was really just another tourist market. Everything here was quite expensive and noone was particularly interested in serving or bargaining.

The beach was packed, never before have we seen a beach so crowded, it was difficult to see a patch of sand (or pale skin for that matter). We walked the stretch from Ipanema to Copacabana, stopping for lunch beachside on the way before heading back to our hotel for an attempt at a nap, as tonight is our night to visit the Sambadrome, the event goes all night, starting at 9pm and finishing around 6am.

We walked to the Sambadrome, there were plenty of police everywhere so we felt completely safe. Talking to other people in the stands, we found some of them had horrid trips of over two hours trying to get there so we were lucky we were close enough to walk.

There are six samba schools on each night and they perform for 80 minutes each with an interval between each group, and each school has 8 floats with thousands of participants, the floats vary from being massively  over the top to more ordinary.  Every school is started with a fireworks display, the money spent on the whole extravaganza is mind boggling!

To our surprise the dancers came in all shapes, sizes and ages, as well as the types of dancers you'd expect, all decked out in their amazing costumes, there were also older and less fit people who did little more than walk around waving their hands in the air, and some that looked like old ladies who'd just come from church.

Initially the spectacle was amazing, the colours, sound and movement creating a magnificent display, and some of the floats were incredible, but after sitting through about four schools it all started to blend in together, and the musical theme for each school is a single song repeated over and over and over and over and over and over ...... so after about 5 hours or so, at 2.45am we decided we had seen enough and walked back to our hotel, alongside some of the performers still in their costumes. On the way back, we had to make our way  through a very large crowd of possibly gay men, based on the numbers of male couples making out all over the place .....

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Day 249 - Redeemed

Rio De Janeiro - Ibis Hotel

Off to see the famous Christ the Redemeer statue this morning. It is massive, 30 meters high and can be seen from many parts of Rio looking down over the city. We started off with the metro, then a bus to get to the train that goes up the mountain to the statue. We arrived at the train at 9:30am to find a sign saying the next available train was 11.20 - you have to be joking! Standing around the entrance were taxi and mini van drivers hassling for your business so we took a mini bus to the next stop. From here we had to buy our tickets for the statue and get on another bus to go to the lifts and then finally take some escalators to the top. By now there were many tour groups and our early start had turned into quite a marathon of travel. The views from the top were extraordinary giving a really good idea of the layout of Rio with the bays, mountains and islands.

The statue is as amazing as you would expect, it must have been such a huge feat to have it built and erected all those years ago.

We then caught the train to Copacabana, we were feeling a little left out because almost everyone was dressed up in some way, so we each purchased a bright wig, which made us blend in with everyone else rather than than the opposite!

Copacabana was more of what we expected with beach side bars and restaurants on both sides of the road, so we walked along the promenade along with thousands of other people, and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun and dinner by the beach, before taking in the huge street party near our hotel, we later read in the news that 2.2 million people had attended the party that day, with only a handful of public urination arrests (but obviously not enough, because by the end of the day it was smelling pretty bad in some areas, and you had to be careful where you stepped!)

Friday, February 17, 2012

Day 248 - I go to Rio

Salvador to Rio de Janeiro - Ibis Hotel

We arrived at our hotel at 6am so were very lucky that we could check in so early. After a nap we headed off to pick up our tickets for Carnaval. They have a strange system where the only way to collect your tickets is to line up at the office, needless to say it was very busy and the set up quite crazy but eventually we had our very, very expensive pieces of paper in our hands.

After depositing them in our safe we decided to walk to the Sambadrome, where the parade is held to check out whether it was feasible to walk there on our own. Everyone hears so many crazy stories re safety and muggings so we are always on high alert to try not to put ourselves in tricky situations. Walking down the street three men walked towards Mike split to each side as one said "mi amigo", and went for M's shirt pocket - which was empty - lesson learned from Zambia!

We arrived at the Sambadrome to find lots of people working on the set up and absolutely no security! We wandered through Section 9 where our seats were to be, then walked onto the runway, walking the full length to the end, bizarre!! It's difficult to imagine any other place where you could enter a major event site two days before.

From there we caught the train to Impanema and walked along the beach front, it was a little dissapointing as the buildings facing the beach were very old ugly highrises, not the bars and restaurants we had expected, these were all a few blocks back.
We caught the metro back to where we were staying, and visited the Rio De Janeiro Cathedral, which from the outside looks nothing like a church. After that we headed out for a dinner, but every single restaurant in the downtown area that we wanted to go to was shut at 8pm on a Friday night! In desperation we ended up eating at our hotel, though if we had gone further afield (e.g. to the beach area) we could have found something..

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Day 247 - A lazy beach day

Salvador - Mar Brasil Hotel

As Carnival in Salvador commenced today, our room at La Villa Francaise had been reserved before we made our booking, so we moved to a new hotel on the beach near Farol Itapua, which was also near the airport, as we were flying to Rio very early the next morning.

The atmosphere here was totally different to Barra - no crowds, just a nice beach with beach umbrellas, and stands where drinks and food were available. We walked along the beach for a while, and almost went for a swim, but by the time we returned to the hotel, changed into our bathers, and returned to the beach it had become overcast and the water wasn't as inviting as is had been when the sun was beating down.

We spent some time on the beach drinking caipirinhas, then a little more time by the hotel pool, before trying to get some sleep for our very early morning flight (3am).

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Day 246 - A small taste of Carnival

Salvador - La Villa Francoise

We explored more of the area around out hotel today, taking a walk further along the beach, and to the nearby fort. The street was a hive of activity, as Carnival officially starts in Salvador tomorrow, so stands were being constructed in preparation.

In the evening we headed back into Pelourinho to see a traditional dance show, we arrived early so we sat in the square drinking caipirinhas as the sun went down.The dance show was OK, it managed to hold our attention for an hour or so, but we've both decided that we probably don't need to see any more traditional dance shows - ever!

We took the bus back to Barra, but progress slowed to a crawl as it came to a huge street party. As we were walking distance from our hotel, we hopped out of the bus and made our way through the crowd, past groups of people dancing, drinking, singing, and just having lots of fun, we had no idea this was going to happen tonight, but it gives us a bit of an idea of what to expect in Rio.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Day 245 - On the buses

Salvador - La Villa Francoise

Our hosts at our hostel gave us a rundown after breakfast on what to see and how to get around Salvador, so today we tackled the local buses, made a little more difficult than usual as we didn't have a map.

We were hoping to stop at the local market first, but although we asked the bus driver to let us know when we arrived, we ended up going too far. A little confused we left the bus, decided to skip the market and we walked the rest of the way to the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim. This was an interesting church - the outside fence was covered with coloured wish ribbons, and inside it had a room where people would leave letters, prayers,  photos and even replicas of body parts as offerings to help the recovery of a loved one from sickness.

We braved the buses again, this time hopping off at the market we had planned to visit earlier, but of course it was closing by this time so we didn't look around. Back on the bus to Mercado Modelo in middle of town, a quick lunch and some souvenir shopping, then onto the elevator to take us up to the historic centre. .

The old town (Pelourinho) had cobblestone streets, churches, squares, and old restored buildings - and this also meant there were lots of tourists and lots of souvenir shops (which of course K couldn't resist). There was also a lot of work going on setting up seating and stages for Salvador's Carnival which was to start on Friday.

We finished the day back in Barra where our hostel was, we walked along the waterfront and had dinner looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 244 - Just travelling

Manaus to Salvador - La Villa Francoise

Another day of travelling, Brazil is a large country so flying is the preferred option, of course with flying a lot of time is wasted waiting around at airports. This was a two stage flight, stopping briefly in Brasilia before continuing to Salvador, and we finally arrived at our pousada around 10pm.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Day 243 - Back to civilisation

Manaus - Go Inn

The last day of our jungle trek and another boat trip, this time to visit a local family to see their two room house (which sleeps 9 people), and see how they prepare the locally grown crops for their own use. The family sleep in hammocks in one room while the other room is the kitchen area. We were able to try some of the fruit grown at the house, learn about how cyanide is removed from the manioca root that is part of their staple diet, and also endure the screams of one of our fellow travellers who stepped on an ants nest.

We were due to head back to Manaus after lunch (which included the piranhas we caught yesterday, though the fish were so small and thin that once they were cooked all that was left was skin and bones!), however we were delayed as the dirt road that we travelled on to get there was washed out, which meant a different route back. We boarded a very large boat with an upper deck and chairs for our two hour ride back along the Amazon, before jumping into a van for a while, then another boat ride past the meeting of the waters (as rain poured onto K via the side window) and finally back to our hotel in Manaus.

Overall the weather was much more pleasant in the jungle than in Manaus, as the rain helped to keep the temperature down, and plenty of deet also meant that we survived with only a few insect bites, only time will tell whether our anti malaria meds were worth taking - but they haven't failed us yet in any of our other trips..

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Day 242 - Up close with some critters

Somewhere near Manaus - Ararinha Jungle Lodge

Our next day on the Amazon started with a 3 hour jungle trek. We got on well with the others in our group, we all enjoyed learning about how to survive in the Amazon by using the various plants for food, water and medicine - we were able to eat brazil nuts and chicle, and drank from water vines. We found a wasp nest and couple of tarantulas, but we had no luck with snakes, a group the previous day had found a boa constrictor that they had all taken turns in wearing about their neck, K was quite relieved our group couldn't find one!


We arrived back very hot, just before the rain came pouring down. After lunch we headed off down the Amazon again to try our luck at piranha fishing. We hadn't been there long when K caught one, very small but with very mean teeth! After trying quite a few different spots on the river, M also snared one, between the 10 people on our boat we caught 8 fish before we headed back to the lodge for dinner.

After dinner we took the the boats again, this time to hunt for caimans, which are very similar to alligators. Our guide shone his torch into the grass lining the river banks, looking for the telltale reflections of a caiman's eyes. He finally nabbed an 11 month old caiman about a metre long. After learning about it's characteristics we were then all given the opportunity to touch, hold and pose with the poor terrified creature before he was released back into the water.

After our adventures with some of the scarier inhabitants of the Amazon we spent the rest of the evening drinking capirinhas at the jungle lodge while trading stories with the other interesting guests from different parts of the world.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 241 - To the not so dark depths of the Amazon

Manaus to somewhere on the Amazon - Ararinha Jungle Hotel

The first day of our Amazon trip started with a tour of the fish market at the port, it was interesting as the fish were so different to anything we are used to and many of them are so huge. From there we caught a small boat, stopping off at The Meeting of the Waters. This is where the Rio Negro and the Amazon meet, but because of differences in temperature, speed and density the rivers appear to travel side by side and don't mix. Although it was pouring rain we managed to see this unusual sight, the darker Rio Negro alongside the sandy coloured Amazon.

After the boat trip we were taken in vans along a muddy road to the next boat, as it had been raining the road was in a pretty bad state. We watched the van in front do a 180 trying to stay on the road, our trip wasn't quite as much fun as our van had more people and the luggage and the weight helped it stay on the road better. The final boat then took us along the Amazon for an hour or so to our jungle lodge, fortunately the rain had stopped by this time.

In the afternoon we boarded the boat again to take a cruise along the Amazon to look for animals, we found a couple of sloths, plus the famous pink dolphins and some not so famous grey dolphins. There was a bit of bird life as well - egrets, hawks, vultures, jacanas, and macaws high above us travelling in pairs.

The area was lightly inhabited, there were houses on stilts built to stay above the flood waters, floating houses, and boats regularly passing by during our search.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Day 240 - Where did all these tourists come from?

Manaus - Go Inn

Our Amazon trip doesn't start until tomorrow, so we spent another day seeing the sights of Manaus.

We started off with a tour of the opera house, when we arrived it was very quiet, but within about 10 minutes three large groups of tourists arrived, a surprise as we'd seen very few around town the day before.

It turned out a cruise ship had just arrived in port, as we learnt from an English couple. The tour was OK, the interior of the opera house was very nice, and though it was quite European in style, the ballroom was painted with jungle scenes (leopards, birds, etc.).

We then walked down to the dock area, spent some time sitting at a lunch place by the very dark looking river (Manaus is situated on the Rio Negro, just a few kilometres upstream from where it joins the Rio Solimoes to form the Amazon), then wandered around the the port area a bit more (though we weren't able to make it onto the cruise ship to have a look around).

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Day 239 - To the Amazon

Sao Paulo to Manaus - Go Inn

Our flight for Manaus was due to leave at 4.30am, so after some discussion with the hotel receptionist (who first said we should leave for the airport at 11pm), we eventually decided on a 1.30am pick up. The taxi took us down many dark, deserted streets of Sao Paulo - K was quite relieved to get to the airport. Of course we were way  too early as it only took 40 minutes at that time of the night so we settled in for a long wait at the airport.

The plane was almost empty, and we arrived at Manaus in very foggy conditions. As we met the driver from our Amazon tour company we heard an announcement that the airport was closed for all takeoff and landing - we had just made it in time! We arrived at our hotel at 7.15am, to be told we couldn't check in until 2pm, not fun after being up all night, but luckily they found us a room by 9.45.

After a few hours rest we met with a tour guide from the company we were going into the Amazon with. Quite a strange meeting as it lasted for 40 minutes but we didn't really discuss much - pickup times, brief outline of the itinerary - it could have been over much quicker.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the streets of humid Manaus, for some reason parts of it reminded both of us of India with its many street stalls, loads of people and very poor footpaths. The rain came down very heavily at one stage, but only for a short time, something we may experience when we head to the Amazon.

Some of the old buildings in Manaus were quite grand, reminders of the days of the rubber plantations and the large amount of money it brought Manaus, especially the old opera house which was located in a very nice square just near our hotel. 

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Day 238 - The city with no advertising

Sao Paulo - Bela Cintra Flats

Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities in the world with a population of about 20 million but there are two things that are very noticeable when you arrive. Firstly the lack of advertising anywhere as they had decided it had taken over the city so they had it banned it - something European countries could learn from with so many of their beautiful buildings desecrated by huge billboards. The second interesting observation is the amount of helicopters in the sky. Apparently Sao Paulo has the highest amount of helicopters in any city of the world, executives use them like taxis to go between meetings and their homes in the outer suburbs because of the traffic problems and also fear of kidnapping.

We caught the metro to the Latin American Monument, stumbling across an exhibition of a famous Brazilian painter, Candido Portinari. We walked in to the hall to see all these people posing in front of huge ceiling high paintings, and we wondered what the fuss was about. We later learned that they were the paintings done for the entrance hall of the UN General Assembly, only now exhibited in Brazil for the first time.

From there we took the metro to the Sao Bento monastery, and then to the area called Libertade, which was an area heavily populated by Japanese immigrants, then taking it easy for the rest of the day as we had a flight scheduled for very early the next morning.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Day 237 - We missed all of the action!

Curitba to Sao Paulo - Bela Cintra Flats

At breakfast the next morning the TV news and paper was full of the drama and violence that started at the pre-carnival celebration at 9pm last night - that's right we missed it by about half an hour! The police had gone in throwing tear gas grenades into the crowd and there were pictures of them standing over people with guns drawn.

We had a very easy 6 hour bus ride to Sao Paulo. The mountain scenery was very similar to what we had seen on the train the day before, the jungle is so amazingly dense the effort that must have been required all those years ago to build the road and railways must have been incredible. Once again we were struck by the heat in Sao Paulo as we walked around town, and lack of air conditioning in our hotel didn't help!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Day 236 - Pre-Carnival in Curitiba

Curitiba - San Martin Hotel

Today we were ready for the famed train ride through the jungle and the mountains having seen the amazing pictures of the trip and the breathtaking course the train takes on the side of the mountain.

Our carriage was full of holidaying Brazilians, the excellent and very attentive guide explained to us that as the Brazilian economy had started to grow locals were starting to travel more. By the excited behaviour of the family in front of us this was obviously a long anticipated trip for them. The trip was nice with a few good views, the guide was very helpful, explaining that there were jaguars, pumas and sloths in the very dense jungle we were travelling through - not that we were going to see any!

Unfortunately the trip was not as breathtaking as expected but this didn't stop the locals excitedly snapping up all the merchandise that was flogged throughout the carriage, the majority brought T- shirts for the whole family plus a pair of DVD's.

We arrived in the very pretty, tropical town of Morrettes for lunch and spent two hours wandering around (though we almost collapsed in the 40+ degree heat) before catching the bus back to Curitiba - a 4 hour train ride to get there, a 90 minute bus ride back.

As we had to get up early the next morning we thought we would head out and explore the town for a while before having an early drink and then dinner. We had just crossed the street near our hotel when a police car came around the corner (almost on two wheels) at top speed and missed a girl by a whisker as she jumped out of the way - quite unbelievable stuff, everyone who was watching thought she was a goner!

When we arrived at the square we walked to last night we were shocked to find thousands of people enjoying a big street party (five thousand or so we later learned) at Curitiba's Pre-Carnival celebration - once again the things you find when you go walking. As it seemed the only open restaurants in town were in the middle of this party, we headed back into the quieter part of town only to find once again that every single place was closed. We walked back to the party managing to get a table at a German restaurant until about 8.30pm when we walked back to our hotel.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Day 235 - We arrived in Brazil to find it was closed

Foz do Iguacu to Curitiba - San Martin Hotel

Mainly traveling today as we caught the plane into Curitiba and after checking into our hotel walked to the railway station to collect our tickets for the following day's trip on the Sierra Verde train.

We were really surprised to find the city basically all shuttered up, it was about 6pm on a Saturday night and everything we walked past was closed. We headed out to find somewhere for dinner and started getting a little desperate as restaurant after restaurant were all shut.

After inadvertently walking through what appeared to be the red light district we found a square in part of the old town with bars full of people and a few restaurants - the only area in town open. Walking home after dinner (back through the red light district where a strange fellow took a liking to K!) we came across a very amateurish breakdancing competition being held on the tiles on the footpath outside the shopping centre next to our hotel, it is amazing what you stumble across when walking in a strange city after dark.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Day 234 - A "lesson" in foreign exchange

Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) to Foz do Iguacu (Brazil) - Florenca Hotel

Our very helpful hotel owner had persuaded us to get a taxi across the border to Brazil (rather than take the bus), so we were picked up at 10am. It looked like it was going to work out well - the taxi driver took care of the interactions at each side of the border, all we had to do was relax in the back seat, we didn't need to leave the car or fill in any paperwork.

Once across the border, we needed to get some Brazilan cash, so even though we wanted to go to an ATM, the driver insisted on taking us to an exchange office, all the while telling us about the exchange rates, the differences between commercial and official rates, why we shouldn't use the banks, etc.

M changed his remaining Argentinian Pesos into Brazilian Reals, then we were driven to downtown Foz Do Iguacu (supposedly the closest ATM). After that we were taken to our hotel, we dropped off our luggage, and the driver took us the rest of the way to the falls, dropping us at the nearby bird park. We ended up paying for the original trip across the border (the price of which had miraculously increased over what our hotel told us), plus the trip into Foz and back again. We later found that there was an ATM at the entrance to
the falls ....!

The bird park was interesting, we were able to get up close to toucans and some huge macaws, it was a pleasant couple of hours spent. We then walked down to the entrance to the falls, the facilities on the Brazilian side of the falls were a lot more modern compared with the Argentinian side. Yesterday there was a slow old train to get into and around the park, today we had huge airconditioned buses, with recorded messages telling us abut all the other activities we could do in the park.

On the Argentinean side you are much closer to most of the falls and Devil's Throat, on the Brazilian side you get a good panoramic view of multiple falls at once, and a different perspective of the Devil's Throat. We think the Argentinian side was better, but you do need to visit both sides to get a full appreciation.

Back to the hotel, which wasn't far from the falls, but a long way from town, where we relaxed by the pool for the rest of the day.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Day 233 - Jungle, heat and waterfalls

Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu - Royal Iguazu Hotel

We flew out very early this morning, our destination was Puerto Iguazu, where we were to visit the Argentinean side of Iguazu Falls. The weather was very humid, and very very hot. We caught the public bus to the falls, hopped on the rickety old train that to take us into the park, and then headed straight to the boat ride, wanting to do that first. It was a great choice, it was extremely hot, so the drenching we received when we were taken under some of the falls was just what we needed to cool down.

We then walked the lower and upper trails to the various vantage points along the falls, our wet clothing keeping us cooler. We did both the upper and lower trails, which covered views from the top and the base of the falls. After that another train ride to Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), the most amazing part of the falls
where tons of water rushes into what appears to be a giant hole - truly an amazing sight.

It took us while to get back to our hotel between the return train trips and bus rides. We were pretty hot by the time we got back, so we had a swim in the pool to cool down, then headed out to a a parilla for more steak!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Day 233 - Last look around

Final day in Buenos Aires, so this morning we visited the neighborhood of San Telmo, one of the oldest parts of town and known for its antique shops. It was pretty warm by the time we arrived, not all of the shops had opened (a good thing according to M). Interesting selection of antiques, and strangely a lot of Chinese and Japanese figurines, not what we expected.

Another short visit to La Boca and El Camino, then a walk back through town to our hotel, visiting some more bookshops and trying some of the famous Argentinean helado (ice cream) on the way.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Day 232 - BsAs: City of book shops

After a sweet breakfast where M filled up on medialuna (basically croissants with a sweet glaze), alfahores (shortbread with sweet caramel filling, sometimes coated with chocolate), and coffee, we headed out for the day. Another overcast rainy day, but this time we were prepared, even with the rain it is much better walking and sight seeing weather than the heat of Sunday.

First stop was El Ateneo, a famous bookshop that was originally an old theatre. It is a beautiful building and very interesting with the balconies all being used to house books. K bought 3 novels in Spanish for $30, a bargain compared to books back home. BA has bookshops everywhere, very noticeable since they are so thin on the ground in Australia. We wandered around the famous Florida Street and had lunch by the river (some Argentinean delicacies - K had an empanada, M had ice cream!).

Dinner that evening was steak once more - we'll see how many steaks we can eat in a row before we need a change (not many Indian or Thai restaurants here), at the moment we're pretty happy with the national dishes of this country!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 231 - "Free" walking tour day

Buenos Aires - Icaro Suites

After enjoying the free walking tours in Europe, this morning we joined a large group to learn more about the history of Buenos Aires. The city of Monday was nothing like the Sunday city, incredibly noisy, lots of traffic and bustling with people. The weather had also changed, we had expected another very warm day and dressed accordingly, but instead the rain came down. This is the rainy season so hopefully we have learnt our lesson and won't venture out without an umbrella again. The walking tour was ok, maybe not the best we have been on, but still worth going on. We toured the central area of the city, visiting the various squares, monuments and other places of interest, getting a feel for Argentinian history and culture along the way.


At 5pm we joined the afternoon tour. As they explained it we would call it an evening tour but they do things differently in Argentina!. This tour covered an area on the edge of the city centre, starting near the Falklands War Memorial and then through some of the more affluent areas of the city with its old palaces, grand houses and embassies. On this tour the guide was excellent, she explained lots of political history and information about BsAs and its people, she was very informative and entertaining, a tour well worth taking. They work on a tips only basis and it is a good way to learn about the city you are visiting.

This evening we were up for a nice big Argentinean steak, we had plenty of restaurants to choose from close to our hotel.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Day 230 - Hop on, hop off, hop on, hop off

Buenos Aires - Icaro Suites

We woke up to a hot Sunday in Buenos Aires and decided to do something that in all our travels we had never done before - take one of those hop on, hop off double decker tourist buses. We first disembarked at Caminito in La Boca, the well known brightly painted section of town. It is quite a small area of only a couple of blocks and obviously all about the tourists. It was full of tourist shops, restaurants with tango dancers out the front and tourist stalls. It didn't take us long to decide we had seen enough and time to jump on the bus again, M tried to persuade K to demonstrate her tango skills but without success.


Next stop was the Puerto Madero which was a very new area quite like our Docklands in Melbourne - new buildings, expensive restaurants, and very quiet. After lunch and a long wait for the next bus we headed to Recoleta for our next stop. It was very busy with a weekend crafts market and by now the temperature had soared. After taking in the second oldest church in Buenos Aires we found the famous Recoleta cemetery - there aren't many cities in the world where the number one tourist attraction is the local cemetery! However this isn't any normal cemetery, as well as being the place where Eva Peron is buried it is a still working cemetery with amazing, massive, ornate mausoleums.

Then back on the bus to complete the circuit, this managed to take up the whole day. As it was Sunday the city was very quiet all day, nearly everything was closed and there was hardly any traffic. We had read that no one goes out for dinner before 8.30pm so we headed back to the hotel for a while, however jet lag caught up with us and the next thing we knew it was morning, that Argentinian steak will have to wait another night!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Day 229 - To a new continent

Dubai to Buenos Aires - Icaro Suites

The only thing that can be said about today is it is a very long trip! Getting out of bed at 4.30am in Dubai and reaching our hotel in Buenos Aires at 10.30pm equals 26 hours of traveling. Breaking the trip in Dubai was a good idea, it would have been tough traveling straight through without a stopover.

A side note regarding the map - we've only included destinations that are part of our holiday, so even though the map shows us going from Paris to Dubai, we really went Paris to home (via Abu Dhabi) to Dubai.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Day 228 - The final stretch begins

Dubai - Premier Inn

You may be wondering .... why hasn't this blog been updated for so long? (though we're sure you're not, after all only one person contacted us to find out why we stopped at Paris back in October!). Without going into too much detail, we unexpectedly had to head back home for a while, but we're now back into traveling mode to end our trip as originally planned by traveling to South America and the grand finale at Carnival in Rio.

We're going the long way round to and from Sth America via Dubai, with a short stopover to rest and do some sightseeing. We arrived in Dubai early Friday morning, had a few hours rest at our hotel then caught the metro in see the sights.

Dubai seems to be a city of malls - so that's where we headed first. First stop was Emirates Mall, a look around didn't reveal much of note - just another huge collections of shops really. The indoor skiing centre was interesting to look at from the outside, but we didn't think it was worth a visit inside.

We wanted to visit the beach and see the Burj Al Arab (the sail shaped building) so we left the mall and walked down towards the beach. It was another one of those deceptive map situations - it didn't look that far on the map, but ended up taking a while, fortunately it was a pleasant sunny day.

We made it to the entry gate of the building, but weren't allowed in as you need a reservation to eat there, so we walked further along to the public beach, where we saw a mix of girls in bikinis, and fully clothed people in muslim attire, quite a combination.

We caught a taxi from a nearby hotel back to the mall, hopped on the metro and headed to the Dubai Mall (site of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa). We spent a little while there, then decided to head to our next destination before it got too late. Getting off at a nearby metro stop, we managed to find our way through the very Indian neighbourhood to reach the very quiet Bastakiya district. By this time it was dark, so although we were a little dubious about entering as it seemed deserted, we found some beautifully lit buildings amongst the few open restuarants and stalls.

Back to the Dubai Mall for dinner, after which we saw the entertaining fountain show in the outdoor waterfront area, with Burj Khalifi in the background. Back on a very crowded metro to our hotel, to get some sleep before our early flight the next morning.