Blogs from South America - page 4846

Tuesday 27th December Sat in the departure lounge waiting for my flight to Rio de Janeiro. It´s sat outside, a beautiful big jumbo. And what an ordeal just getting this far! First, BA had to prove how British they are by having the longest queue in the world... ever, volume 3, disc 2... Then, the ´plane is at gate 25, the very last, farthest gate in all of terminal 4. Nice. Ah well, hopefully soon we´ll be up, up and away! Wednesday 28th December On the way to Rio the ´plane stops to drop some people off in Sao Paulo. On the flight in, all i could think was ¨FU*K ME, what a big-arsed fu*king city¨! It is HUGE. High rises as far as the eye can see, and probably beyond! Then we make the short ... read more

Ciudad del Este in Paraguay is within a half an hour bus ride from Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, where we spent the night. From what I've read, the city supposed to be a chaotic little town, lively with many markets and duty free goods, which are big here in South America. On top of that, Ciudad del Este is famous to be the most corrupt city in the continent. Many Brazilians and Argentines go to Ciudad del Este to find some goodies, which considered very cheap compared to its counterparts in Foz or Puerto Iguazú. That is very nice and generous description of the city. The downfall of the situation is that many criminals are walking freely here, assuming that you have a lot of duty free goodies and eventually would mug you (which mostly happening ... read more

22nd December 2005 We caught the morning bus from Bariloche to Osorno. We had planned to go to Valdivia but to get there it would have meant Andy and I going on seperate buses on different days as they were so full, running upto Christmas. Therefore as Osorno was described in the guidebook as a transport ´hub´ and in the right direction we headed off there. We arrived in Osorno at 1pm and found that the next bus to our desired destination was a night bus leaving at 11pm. So we booked our bus tickets and headed off to see the sights of Osorno. Which we soon found out wasn´t alot unless we wanted to get a taxi and head out of town. Osorno seems to herald from the concrete era and the most notable piece ... read more

Our first visit to Argentina, we saw the towns of San Telmo, ....... We watched Tango, tasted the bitter matte (that EVERYONe drinks) We then ventured to Uruguary, hit 2 cities...... read more

Getting up this morning in Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, we proceed our journey to Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil, with the intention of staying there for the night. Immigration wasn't a problem, and the next thing we knew, we are in Brazil. Foz is so much bigger than its Argentine counterpart of Puerto Iguazú, and a lot more things going on. It feels like a real city, not just a hungry town of tourist's money. Several tall buildings that serve as hotels are spotted, and streets are wide and nicer. Foz is a very diverse city; not just latino/a faces; from what I've read, back in the 50s and 60s, the Brazilian government allowed and accepted many immigrants from all around the world to Brazilian citizenship, and put them in Foz. Many muslims and Asians, along with ... read more

After a stinky 15 hour bus ride from Nazca we arrived in Gringolandia AKA Cuzco (the only seats left were the ones right by the toilet) We have been looking forward to getting back to the fresh mountain air and were greated at the bus station by a man who claimed he was from the hostel, and had been asked to pick us up by our new amigos Kerry and Scott. This basically meant we got a free ride to the Hostal and then got attacked with a full throttle sales pitch! It turned out that Scott and Kerry had booked some tours with this agent and mentioned we were turning up. Seeing as it is the low season business can be hard to come by they took the oppurtunity and pounced! We broke free after ... read more

Wow! this week is our last sprint. Going from turkey to suitcase - christmas wrapping to where is my passport. I will not be surprised if I find a drumb stick in my suitcase and that someone got an oversize bikini in the Christmas gift exchange. ... read more

we are now in bariloche but the pictures are from pucon. some pictures are from bariloche and around, some are of a one day track we did but most of them are from pucon.... read more