twelve countries twelve months

After a couple of weeks of what has felt like a lot of faffing about, backtracking south from Brazil and briefly popping into Uruguay, we were both really excited to finally get to Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, at the very southern tip of South America. 

We had both become restless of lounging around on endless beaches and were ready for the spectacular glacial mountain scenery of Patagonia and thought we were ready for the cold weather that brought with it.  However, we were a little unprepared for just how cold Ushuaia was.  When we got caught in a snow storm on our first day we thought perhaps we had arrived back in England by mistake! 

Glacial Landscape, Ushuaia

We dusted off our trekking shoes and headed into Tierra del Fuego National Park for our first glimpse of the amazing Patagonian scenery, and we weren’t disappointed.  However the highlight of our stay in Ushuaia came the next day.  Ushuaia bills itself as the most southern city in the world – but even that wasn’t enough for us.  We jumped on a boat and headed even further south out onto the Beagle Channel.  We were really lucky to have a clear and sunny day and loved the views - the snow-capped mountains seemed to completely surround us, but then I guess we were almost in Antarctica!  Our boat took us around lots of small islands spotting various penguin like birds, sea lions and Ushuaia’s famous lighthouse. 

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Beagle Channel, Ushuaia

Ushuaia

Bridges Island, Ushuaia

Sea Lions

Beagle Channel, Ushuaia

Rachel at the lighthouse

The lighthouse, Ushuaia

Sea lions

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Posted in travel
Tags: argentina, glacier, mountains, patagonia, trekking, wildlife

We have just spent the most relaxing ten days of our trip so far in and around Salvador in the north of Brazil.  The relative pricing structures of Brazils transport infrastructure left us with an impossible decision; should we get to Salvador on a 30 hour bus, or for the same price take a 2 hour flight ?!  We got off the plane and found a city full of music, dance, colour and finally somewhere with some decent spicy food!

Salvador

Terreiro de Jesus, Salvador

Salvador

The centre of Salvador has an amazing atmosphere, completely different to elsewhere in Brazil.  There were street artists performing Capoeira, samba drummers in the cobbled squares, and endless live music in the open air restaurants.  In amongst it all were women in traditional dress serving acaraje (a tasty snack of peeled brown beans and dried shrimp) and men with polystyrene cool boxes over their shoulder selling cheap ice cold beer.

Getting out of the city we moved inland to Lençois where we messed around jumping into rivers, swimming under waterfalls and exploring impressive caves.  Feeling in danger of being too active we headed to the beautiful beaches of Arembepe and Imbassai on the Linha Verde noth of Salvador.  There we lounged around eating more acaraje and drinking more ice cold beer.

Messing about on the river!

Lençois

Stalagtites, Lençois

Underground river, Lençois

Lençois village

Arembepe beach

Lunch in the river, Imbassai

Imbassai beach

Imbassai

Posted in travel
Tags: beach, brazil, waterfalls

“If you see someone appear with a machine gun then don´t take their photo.” These were the first words we heard from our guide when we went to visit a favela (Rio’s version of a shanty town where one in four of Rio’s residents are said to live). The second thing he said was “See that guy behind me in the black shorts with the walkie talkie, he is a drug dealer.” After that tense start we managed to pass through the favela unscathed though, getting a good insight as to how its occupants live. Like most of the 1024 favelas in Rio, the one we visited was built on a hill. We rode to the top of the favela on the back of a motorbike then walked down through the mismash of houses.

Inside the favela

Favela

Within an hour of arriving in Rio we hated the place! Fresh from a 19 hour overnight bus we headed to the taxi stand, but convinced we were being offered an overpriced tourist rate, decided to get a bus to our hostel instead. It wasn’t until a bit later that we realised we had no idea how to get to our hostel by bus, and before we knew it we were wandering aimlessly around downtown Rio. Tired, hungry, carrying all our bags in near 40ºC heat. It was when the sweat started dripping down the outside of my trousers that my hate feelings towards Rio really kicked in!

However, two days later, when we drinking caipirinhas on Copacabana beach, having admired the spectacular setting of the city from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain, I decided I had been a bit harsh on the place!

Enjoying a caipirinha

View from Sugar loaf

Rio from above

Our trip up Sugar loaf

Not really!

Overlooking Copacabana

At the top of Sugar loaf mountain

No visit to Rio de Janeiro would be complete without checking out the 38m Christ the Redeemer statue which looks out over the city from the top of the 710m peak of Corcovado. We also found plenty of time to stroll along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches and of course swim in the sea.

Christ the Redeemer

Ipanema beach

Posted in travel
Tags: beach, brazil

Iguazu Falls

Rach has been laughing at me all trip saying that the only four things that I like to see during travelling are waterfalls, squares, hills and views! She is definitely right about the waterfalls though – I can’t get enough of them, so I was really happy when I got to spend two whole days checking out Iguazu falls.

Rob full of excitement on the way to the falls

Eleanor Roosevelt is rumoured to have said “Poor Niagara” when she first saw Iguazu falls and she wasn’t wrong. Their size, power and even noise are staggering and the volume and flow rate of water is incredible. Here are some numbers for you:

• Number of drops 275
• Height of longest drop 82 m
• Length of falls 2.7km
• Flow rate 6,500 m³/s

The falls are on the Argentina-Brazil border and can be viewed from both sides. Argentina came first, where you can walk right in amongst the different falls. It was amazing to get so close to the water and every corner seemed to bring an even more impressive view.

The next day was Brazil’s turn, where you get a grand overview of the falls, and can also walk out to a platform in the middle of the river and get an excellent view of the highlight – the semi-circular Garganta de Diablo (Devils Throat). The power of the water here was overwhelming – just the spray was enough to get us soaked.

Close up

Grand overview

Impressive flow rate!

Rach on the Brazilian side

Iguazu

Garganta de Diablo

Pretty butterfly

Iguazu

There were some cool old photos in the Brazilian visitor center taken before Iguazu falls became a tourist attraction. They show people perched dangerously on rocks above and beside the falls, and people swimming under them. I did take my trunks with me, but apparently swimming isn’t allowed any more!

Iguaza falls in action

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Posted in travel
Tags: argentina, brazil, waterfalls

Wherever you were, whoever you were with and whatever you did we hope you had a good Christmas and new year.  We were in Buenos Aires where we rented an apartment for the week.  It was great – we could unpack all our clothes, fill up our own fridge, and relax on our own sofa.

Enjoying a kitchen without other peoples dirty pots and pans!

We decided a turkey dinner didn´t quite fit with the heat and humidity of Buenos Aires so instead we chilled ourselves a bottle of champagne and headed out on a christmas picnic.  On boxing day we kept up the christmas spirit  with a trip to the cinema to watch Scrooge in digital 3D.  Unfortunately in our excitement we forgot to check the language and had to sit through the entire film in Spanish – at least the 3D special effects were good!

We used the normal void between Christmas and new year to explore the city.

Puerto Madero

Plaza de Mayo

Street art, San Telmo

Antiques, San Telmo market

Browsing at San Telmo antiques market

Floralis Generica (The petals even close at night!)

Evita´s Grave, Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Impressive graves at Recoleta Cemetery

Madres de Plaza de Mayo

I had hoped to watch some futbol while in Argentina but unfortunately the season finished in mid December so I had to be happy with just a tour of the Boca Juniors stadium (Maradona´s old club).  Rach didn´t understand the passion and history involved, so mumbling something about not paying good money to look at an empty stadium, went off for a wander around the colourful streets of La Boca instead!

Boca Juniors stadium

Colourful La Boca

La Boca

On New Years Eve we splashed out on a nice restaurant and wined and dined our way into 2010.  We hope you have all enjoyed the blog so far, please keep the comments coming and we will see you later this year!

Going out for new year

Posted in travel
Tags: argentina, market

Since arriving in Argentina our diet has taken a bit of a pounding. In addition to all the steak, red wine, empanadas, dulce de leche, great ice cream …. that we have been consuming, we have had to introduce a fourth meal time, in the late afternoon, so we can make it through to the crazily late Argentinian dinner time without getting hungry.  (A considerable turnaround for Rach, who was trying to get us to cut back to one meal a day only a few months ago!)

We made the most of the Argentinian wine by cycling around several of the bodegas in the Cafayate and Mendoza regions and sampling their harvest. In Cafayate a chilled glass of Torrontes was excellent and Mendoza was overflowing with great Malbec.  In fact we had to limit our visits as we couldn´t stop buying bottles to take away with us.  Rach had only just thrown away a load of clothes in order to make her ruc-sac lighter and wasn´t to impressed when I suggested the extra room could be used for our surplus wine supplies!

Gateway to the wines, Cafayate

Bodega El Esteco, Cafayate

Old oak barrels

Inside the bodega, Mendoza

The bottling process

Cycling the wineries

Cheers!

Taking a  break from the booze we headed out to the stunning Quebrada de Cafayate - a sandstone gorge (or is it canyon?!) with several distinctive and colourful landforms.  Obviously after a hard day in the Quebrada there was only one way to relax – a steak dinner and a bottle of red! (and yes the steak is as good as everyone says!)  

Quebrada de Cafayte

Garganta Del Diablo

The amazing orange rock up close

Me at the Quebrada

Posted in travel
Tags: argentina, canyon, cycling, wine

We could almost taste the thick juicy steaks and fine red wine of Argentina, but we weren´t quite done with Bolivia yet.  We had one last thing we wanted to do, and it turned out to be a highlight, not only of Bolivia, but of our entire trip.  We joined forces with some new friends from all around the world: New Zealand, Israel, Harlow and Stansted, and spent four days in a jeep touring the rural south-west corner of Bolivia.  The landscape lord threw everything he had at us: rocky canyons, baron deserts, green lakes, red lakes, toxic lakes, natural hot springs, bubbling mud geysers, smoking volcanos and even a glimpse of a tornado, until we reached the highlight – the vast salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni.

Rocky canyon

Flamingos in the mirror!

Laguna Verde

Friends at Laguna Verde

Geyser

Laguna Colorado

Laguna Colorado

Having a sit down at Laguna Colorado

Rock forest

Climbing the rock forest!

Driving through the desert

Flamingos

Smoking volcano

Deserted Laguna

Sunrise over Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni

Our drivers were amazing, driving for up to eight hours each day, through sometimes featureless landscape, without getting lost.  They didn´t even get angry when we asked them to drive for an extra three hours on the first day, although they got their own back by serving us dinner at almost midnight following a long period of strange hammering sounds in the kitchen!  They even kept us moving on the day of the Bolivian general election, when no-one was meant to travel at all.  We did have to get up really early and drive off-road over a railway to avoid the police check points!

The Salar de Uyuni was formed when Lago Ballivián dried up 40,000 years ago and is now the largest salt flats in the world at 12,000 km².  It is estimated to contain ten billion tons of salt, of which 25,000 are extracted each year.  None of this is exported though- which doesn´t surprise me as I have seen first hand how much salt they use in all their food!  Apart from providing Bolivians with all their salt needs it also provides excellent opportunities for funny photos:

Eating out of the palm of my hand

Hitting the bottle

Walking on water

Left hanging

Under the thumb

Crushed

I´m gonna drop it

Balancing act

We all walk on water

Jump, jump, jump around

Posted in travel
Tags: bolivia, lakes, volcano