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Published: June 28th 2009
Next stop - after a very slack border crossing in which we didn't even have our bags checked - was back into Argentina. We got the bus to Salta for a couple of days relaxing and some slightly (for one person in particular, not mentioning any names) wild nights. After Renee had sobered up long enough to get on another bus, we had a 20 hour trip to Iguazu, where we met up with Rod. In Iguazu we encountered torrential rain, but the soaking we received was well worth it to see the spectacular Iguazu falls, the fifth largest waterfalls in the world. They're absolutely monstrous (sorry, my camera doesn't even begin to do them justice) and seem to pop up out of nowhere. The area around the falls was also nice for just wandering around and spotting wildlife, including the elusive toucan which we've been searching for, for about a month.
After Iguazu Rod and I went ahead to Sao Paulo in Brazil, while the others had an extra day in Iguazu to sort out their Brazilian visas. After a very strange bus ride, with countless stops and some suspicious characters who looked like they were planning to hijack
the bus, we made it to Sao Paulo, the third largest city in the world. There, we had a day of walking around a very busy, very overpopulated city, trying to fight through the crowds. It was really interesting to see, but definitely not a place I'd like to live: far too many people, far too many high-rise buildings and the small problem of my non-existent Portuguese.
After Sao Paulo, Rod and I met up with the girls again and had five days in Rio. Highlights include:
- Staying in a very swanky apartment apartment which Rod (who spoiled us enormously!!!) hired for a few days - not bad for backpackers! Thanks Rod.
- Hitting the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema and seeing some of the hideous fashion - no words to describe it.
- Visiting the big Jesus - Christo Redentor - who overlooks Rio. He is absolutely enormous! Probably the best thing about the day was seeing dozens of Hell's Angels bikies making the pilgrimage to the big J.C. There seemed to be some sort of worldwide Hell's Angels convention in Rio while we were there - we couldn't go anyway without seeing them. I did
fail in the mission (to pick one of them up) which Tucky set me though.
- Getting the cable car up Sugar Loaf mountain. Unfortunately it was only open to the half way mark due to maintenance, but we still got a pretty spectacular view over Rio.
- Going to a football match at the world's biggest stadium, Maracana, which holds 200,000 people. Even though it wasn't a big crowd we got a pretty good idea of how crazy and energetic the supporters can be and we were very pleased that our newly adopted team, Flamengo, beat Internacional 4-0.
- Doing some fantastic dancing and teaching the locals our best moves at a bar in Ipanema. I think Rod's 'Fast-forward Running Man' took the cake.
- Street party one night in the suburb of Lapa. Every Friday night they close off a street for a party with music, drinks and stores all up the road.
- Getting to say 'oi' to people and it not being rude. 'Oi' is Brazilian (Portuguese) for hello. Took a while to get used to that.
- The only real lowlight was missing out on a hanggliding trip over Rio - apparently it wasn't windy
enough...not sure why you'd need wind to go hanggliding.
P.S. More photos for this blog to follow once I can get a computer to work...
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