RiriandClivey

06/03-07/03: Cordoba / Alta Gracia Was time for us to move on and we said good-bye to B.A to pursue our travel up north. We stopped for a couple of days in Cordoba, second biggest city of Argentina and famous for its universities. A lot of personalities, women and men have been studying here. It is a modern city rich in culture and historical heritage. Been declared the South American Capital of Culture since 2006. We visited Alta Gracia - a little town situated only 30 min away from Cordoba as it has been home to the Guevara de la Sierra Family from 1935 to 1943. The Guevara family were seeking a better location for Ernesto´s (Che Guevara's) asthma and Alta Gracia was famous for its dry wholesome air. Despite his asthma , Ernesto (Che) was ... read more

20/02 to 05/03: Buenos Aires Incredible architecture, massive avenues, great street art, each quarter has his own little gem: - Palermo: Soho fueled with Tango clubs, bars ad restaurant, clothes shop - San Telmo: famous for its Sunday street market and antiques shops - La Boca: Caminito for the colourful old typical houses and the football stadium - Centro: for its shopping mall and typical parilla and empanadas restaurant - Puerto Madeiro: new modern style building and the port. Nice park - Retiro: the cemetary Ricoleta for Eva Peron and other celeb, museums. B.A does have a look similar to Paris. A lot is happening in B.A at night and it is easy to go with the flow and going out all night. We meet some great people who help us to improve our poor spanish, ... read more

15-02 to 17-02: Foz do Iguacu Based on recommendation we visited the Dam: Itaipu - created in 1974 and finsihed in 2004. On the border of Brazil and Paraguay, this colossal beast of contemporary engineering ranked among the seven wonders of the modern world. It is One river, Two nations and One dream. Generating clean renewable energy and promoting self-sustainable development, but also conserving the environment, researching new technologies and improving peolple's lives. Today, Itaipu's installed capacity is 14 thousand Megawatts. It is 20 turbine units turning out 700 MW each - half for Paraguay half for Brazil. Paraguay does sell 50% back to Brazil. Only one of them supply electricity to a 2.5 million household city. Around Itaipu, Universities for social responsibility, renewable energy and eco-system, corporate governance, environmental issues are still being... read more

05-02 to 10-02 : Rio de Janeiro Rio is in places a very pretty city and in some places it looks like a bomb site... We arrived 3 days before Carnaval to be able to visit the city prior to Carnaval madness.... However the flow of people in the street and the Carnaval atmosphere was already in full flow...! We went to see the famous Corcovado: it is an impressive piece of Art Deco Style this Christ the Redeemer, Portuguese Cristo Redentor, colossal statue of Jesus Christ at the summit of Mount Corcovado. It was completed in 1931 and stands 98 feet (30 metres) tall, its horizontally outstretched arms spanning 92 feet (28 metres). The statue, made of reinforced concrete clad in a mosaic of thousands of triangular soapstone tiles, sits on a square stone pedestal ... read more

24 to 25-12-12 : Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city The town still kept some old architecture from the French colonialism but not much left. Saigon is now a big city and promote skyscrapper and investments. The town is divided in districts. We embraced the atmosphere of the city during the festive period of Christmas, full of expat and tourists wondering in this busy city. Lots of motorbikes, scooters, electric bikes in the streets. There is a lot of little alleyway full of little shops, restaurants and hotels. We learned very quickly the best way to cross the road amongst the hundreds of scooters was to walk slow and steady across the road and allow the scooters to avoid you, as opposed to you trying avoid the scooters, sounds crazy but that's the way it works... ... read more