We have seen Jesus!

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We have made it in to South America. We landed in Buenos Aires and spent 2 days trying to find stuff to do. Other than the balcony where Evita made her famous speech and where she is buried we didnt find much to do. It didnt help that it was a public holiday so the whole town seemed to be shopping and not doing much else!

So we moved north to Uruguay, to the capital Montevideo and wondered ´what are we going to do for 2 days?.....hummmm were not quite getting this continent! Like Buenos Aires there was lots of old buildings to wonder around which look about half a day. So we watched the Americans off a big cruise ship wondering around the market. The market was more like a car boot sale as they were selling silve cutlary and odd number plates! One interesting thing that is typical Uraguayian is they are constantly sucking on the end of a hollow spoon standing up in a cup filled with green bitter tea leaves called mate. In the other hand is a thermas as they refill it with hot water constantly! Very strange. To pass the time we looked up and found the Scout HQ, and they were very friendly.

We moved on to Florianopolis in Brazil. Here we tried to check in to an HI hostel where we found that it was carnival time, a public holiday, and the dorm price was approx 30 pounds. We didnt bother, but for interest we looked in the Ibis Hotel and the room price with ensuite was 20pounds pp! Haha. However, there is nothing to see in this town either, Russ asked the tourist information and he sugessted we go and see a 100 year old tree...... We decided to move on that night, so left our bags in storage and looked around the town for few hours and then waited in the bus terminal. All shops and museums in town were closed but we did see some of the floats all ready for the procesion that evening.

So another night bus, this was the second night running we had spent on a bus. At 6am we arrived in Sao Paulo. We spent the morning sleeping on the sofa in the bar area of a hostel before we could check in. Then we discovered that last night was the main carnival night and we had spent in on a bus! opps. We spent 3 days in Sao Paulo. The first 2 days being a public holiday we went around the market and ppl still shop, Ave Paulina which is the busiest street in Brazil, not busy as nobody around. A Haviana shop where you could design your own pair....but it was shut. On the 3rd day all was open so we walked around the central area and saw all the old buildings, theatres and a big park where ppl were using the outdoor gym equipment.

Then on to Rio where the carnival hadnt yet finished. Phew we managed to see a Blocos-street party on our last night there as everything seemed to be against us seeing the parades. We tried to get to the Sambadroma which is a street with permenent tiered seating as they have 13 carnivals a year. When we got the bus there it was diverted around the busy streets so we missed it. We tried getting to another blocos, found the street but nothing happening! We did see Jesus looking down from the hill, one afternoon we got the train (having waited 3hrs for it) up to him and saw the views of the town, beaches, favelas and the pollution. We got the cable cars up Sugar Loaf mountain and saw the views from a different angle. We went down to Copacabana and Ipanema Beach where more is less. The older and larger you are in Brazil the more you let hang out, and nobody seems to care...nasty! We went to the final of local league football, Botafogo (the area where we were staying therefore supporting ) vs Vasco. We were sittng in the Vasco end and Russ was shouting football ab se in English, thankfully nobody could understand him. We won 2-0, 2 men got sent off. There were flares, fireworks, baloons, giant flags and lots of very passionate fans. This was the last football match in Macarena Stadium as they are now doing it up for the final of the world cup 2014, and the olympics in 2016.

We then did a 23hr bus ride to Foz Do Iguazu, to see the falls. We spent one day on the Argentinian side where we had much closer views of the 60 waterfalls all in a line. It was amazing to see. The only down side being that it was raining so when we walked out 1.1km on a steel bridge we got soaked but we were able to see the Devils Throat which is the main waterfall. Today we went to the Brazilian side where the view is different. We didnt get so close but saw the overall layout of the waterfalls. There is one bridge that took us right in to the spray and the mist, so even thou it was a nice sunny day we got soaked just the same!

Were leaving tomorrow on another night bus to Campo Grande, and from there we plan to negotiage a tour in to the Pantanales and see anacondas, pirannahs, giant anteaters and crocs 😊

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