Emerald Coast of Brazil and Buenos Aires Argentina

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Rick says here´s our latest fairly exciting blog entry. I hope you´re not getting really bored of all these lovely pics and long descriptive text of all the ace places we´ve been to while you´re shivering in the cold English winter. And if you are, I´m sorry about that but hey what can you do at least you{ll have a traditional British Christmas instead of no Christmas at all. More on that on the next blog!

Becky says Hola amigos!

Hope you are all feeling nice and Christmassy and getting wrecked at Christmas parties!

We are writing this from Buenos Aires, where we are now fully fledged independent travellers, with no back up of a tour bus and leader to rely on!

The last two stops of our truck tour were Paratay, a fishing village on the Atlantic coast of Brazil on the way to Rio, which has now become quite touristy and is full of nice cobbled streets etc. It is the hopping off point for all the tropical islands off the coast of Brazil, and we did a cruise on an old style clipper boat thing, swanning off to a tropical island paradise, dropping anchor, diving off to swin to a deserted beach, then swimming / snorkelling back and doing the same again! It was great fun, I swam through a shoal of fish when snorkelling and got a bit freaked out to feel the little critters against my legs! We also were swimming in the mist of a sudden short tropical downpour which was pretty cool. Of course we got very sunburned in the style of Blackpool tourists! Also found a Thai restaurant which was my highlight as no Thai or Chinese food for two months and we were really missing it!

After Paratay we travelled up to Rio, we arrived in pouring rain but the weather cleared up and it was scorchio after the first day. Went up SugarLoaf mountain the first evening to see the sun set, then embarked upon a good few days of mahem as every night seemed to be someone from the trip´s last night, and of course it would be rude not to see them off in style. I can´t even look at a caipirinha at the moment!

We also (of course) went up Corcovado, which means ´hunchback´, the mountain atop of which sits Christ the Redeemer, who looks down over the city and is a pretty amazing sight. Wicked views of Rio to be had up there, and it helped us to get our bearings of the various areas of the city and their own beaches. Copacabana is pretty cool, definitely the hottest spot north of Havana, and we joined the beautiful people in Ipanema for dinner and many, many drinks one night too. Also checked out Lapa which apparently is the cool spot for drinking, and visited Santa Theresa, an area perched on one of Rio´s verdant mountains, where all the artists and other long haired hippes hang out. Pretty cool as you visit it via an extremely ramshackle old trolley car.

Also went to see a footie game. Unfortunately the famous Maracana stadium was closed for renovations as it was worse than wembley. But went to Vasco de Gama´s ground (World Club Champions when they knocked Man U out along the way). It was Romario´s last ever game at the ripe old age of 40 where he scored 2 goals and missed loads more. The fans were absolutely bonkers but it wasn´t very scary compared to Upton Park!

We left Rio by bus as, for some reason, our ticket wouldn´t let us fly out of Rio to Buenos Aires so we had to take a 6-hour bus ride down to Sao Paulo, arriving at 2am and had to wait in the check in area till 7am as the god damn airport was completely closed! Rick got out his kip mat for a snooze in the style of a tramp which was a funny sight.

BA is a wicked city, not too much in the way of sights (just the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace where Evita addressed her crowds) and a cool obelisk, however its real appel is in the character of its various districts. San Telmo is a cobbled region where all the artists and tango dancers hang out, we visited on a Sunday when there is an antiques market, there were lots of cafes around leafy squares from which we did some people watching and saw some tango. La Boca is a bit ´grittier´ as this is a less wealthy district, we visited on match day for Boca Juniors and it was a bit bonkers. This area is centred around the old port and there are lots of brightly coloured houses, where the people in the old days used corrugated iron for their walls and then painted it with left over paint from the ships.

Recoleta is where the rich hang out, and there is a cool cemetary there where those who made it in life are buried in massive sarcophagai; Evita is buried here.

The best bit for me, however, was visiting one of BA´s oldest cafes, which was all faded grandeur, swishy red curtains, marble floors and pillars and tarnished chandeliers, not for the tango show (which was excellent) but because the place sold cider! YEEEEHHHAAA! How sophisticated we looked surrounded by BA´s finest citizens and supping pints of would-be scrumpy!

We are leaving BA tomorrow to get a boat over to Uraguay; we´re planning to visit a couple of old colonial towns, a surfing mecca and MonteVideo. Will be interesting as we are going it alone now!

Ciao!

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