JaceMH

The bus from Santiago only took 2 hours to arrive to the city of Valparaíso. Along the way, we passed a number of coastal wineries, reminding me of some of the CA southern coast wineries near Santa Barbara. Valparaíso was a sight to see. A city built on hills, destroyed and rebuilt after earthquakes and tsunamis. Similar to Pucon, we passed tsunami escape route signs. Chile, land of natural disasters! We took a short local bus ride then walked up a steep hill to our hostel. A beautiful remodeled Victorian house, our private room had 15 foot vaulted ceilings, crown moulding throughout, and lots of natural light. Once we put our stuff down, the receptionist (who reminded me a lot of my Spanish friend Pascual, with his laid back attitude, goofy demeanor, and love of climbing), ... read more

Coming from Bariloche, we had to change buses in San Martin de los Andes, Argentina, in order to cross the border and arrive to Pucon. We got fortunate not to get stuck there and were able to snag a pair of the few remaining seats. The 6 hour ride was smooth enough, except for the border crossing which was located at the base of the imposing Lanin Volcano. The process was more strict than we expected. They take their agriculture very seriously; all of our bags were unloaded and scanned, and we had to declare any raw foods. Fortunately they didn´t toss the pizza or stirfry we had made the night prior but they did take a couple delicious Fuji apples. Fruitless, we got back on the bus and continued down a dirt/volcanic ash road for ... read more

Our bus from Floripa left us on the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. The hostel we booked was on the Argentinian side, and we soon found out the process of crossing from one side to the other was not a quick one. Somehow we struggled to find the bus stop where the transfer would pick us up. After wandering around for a half hour with our front and back packs on we found it, directly across the street from the bus terminal. Once we arrived to the Brazilian border, we had to get off the bus to receive our exit stamps. After waiting through the line, we had to wait for another transfer bus to pass in order to continue. During this moment I found that I´d lost the ticket stubs and we had to pay ... read more

On arrival to São Paulo, we were impressed by the enormous size of the bus station, but the metro and transit system were surpisingly easy and non-hectic. My old roommate from Barcelona, Mariana, lived towards the end of one of the metro lines and picked us up as soon as she got off work, around 5 pm. Mariana greeted us with the warmest welcome ever, and opened her home to us. She gave us her room and bed to make our own, with the condition that she could come in the morning to get ready for work. Since both Chloe and I expected to sleep on the couch or on the living room floor, this was above and beyond her duty. She gave us towels for a shower while she began to prepare dinner. Once we ... read more

We received a warm welcome upon arrival to Rio de Janeiro. Erika, an amiga from my Barcelona days, came to pick us up and drove us back to her mom´s apartment, where she set us up in her own room while she would sleep in her sister´s room. Her mom fixed us some leftover dinner of frutas del mar and rice, and we were told to make ourselves at home and help ourselves to anything in the fridge. Amazing hospitality, and we thanked them profusely. The next morning we were up by 7, and out the door by 8 to drive to a small locals beach down the coast 45 minutes. But as it was Carnaval and the majority of people were on vacation from work, the normally exclusive local surfer beach was packed with people ... read more