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Peering down from above,,, Rio
Made the top 7 in Man Made Wonders!Finally, finally, yes, here it is. The last installment of our travelblog that covers the end of our fabulous journey, and will also cover what happened next!
We know we've been back now for almost 9 months, and we've been getting hassle of family and friends to finish the final chapter. So apologies for not completing it sooner, but here goes!
Argentina So the last time we left you it was the scariest landing we’ve ever had. The 3 attempts trying to get down was starting to get a bit nerve racking, but there were lots of cheers for the pilot as the plane touched down safe in the Argentine capital of
Buenos Aires (BA). Also with a large Argentine guy shaking Kev’s hand saying something in Spanish along with the international sign for ‘thank god we didn’t crash’ which was well observed.
Here in BA we spent 4 days trying out the local cuisine, which mostly consisted of meat, meat, or cheese for you vegetarians. This was very much a chill out place for us after the travelling and trekking through Peru. We had a bit of difficulty with the language, the locals speak Spanish, but with
an Italian accent, very odd. Highlights were walking around the local handicraft and antique markets of San Telmo, visiting the vibrant area of La Boca with the cafes and restaurants and Tango dancers strutting around the boards. It’s also has the Boca Juniors football team (where Diego ‘cheat’ Maradona started his career). Although the Argentinean footie season hadn’t yet started so no big game there. We also visited the sarcophagus of Eva Peron the infamous wife of the president from the 40’s.
Leaving BA we had a 20 hour bus ride up to the Argentine/Brazil border. Being old hats of this length of journey it seemed pretty quick that we arrived in
Puerto Iguazu. A small tropical town right on the border of Brazil, but also of Paraguay. The 3 countries all within a short row boat of each other. The hostel we stayed was probably the friendliest we stayed in, the owner was excellent and we were soon sorted to head to the UNESCO heritage site of
Iguazu Falls. Our superlatives truly do run out here, so much water over so many rocks. Amazing. Hopefully the pics do it some justice. The boat trip we did around the
falls also included an ‘under’ the falls element, which kinda took us by surprise, so after spending about 10 seconds fully under one of the falls the only dry bits left were inside the dry bag we had. An hour later and most things dried out we headed to the largest part of the falls that form the ‘Devils Throat’. Larger than Niagra Falls, some great pics and another drenching by the spray later. We also saw a Cayman, terrapins and a fabulous Toucan in the tree tops.
Brazil Next day we had the very short trip over the border into our final country, Brazil! In the town of
‘Foz De Iguacu’ we headed out to the Brazilian side of the waterfall. First though a trip to the local bird park. Not normally a highlight, but we saw so many great birds, Toucans, Parrots, Flamingos and even the odd 18 foot Python. Onto the river and there are not so many falls on this side, but it provided a much better panorama of the Argentine side of the falls. Didn’t get drenched this time!
On our last day in the area we headed to the local Itapu Dam.
After the 'in waterfall' boat trip
Spot the only dry patch,,,, there isn't one! Kev in geek heaven with all the immense machinery, Maria appreciating the size of it but was all a bit “Dam’d” out by the end of it. The worlds largest dam for ouput, 5th largest in size in the world. Enough of the stats, it was great, everything was supersized. We got to wear bob the builder orange hats and even had to wear face masks (swine flu) inside the place. We also got to nab a bonus country here. The Dam stretches between Brazil and Paraguay, although we didn’t get a passport stamp we did step foot there. Bonus country!!
From Foz De Iguacu our last big bus ride. A 16 hour journey up to
Sao Paulo. The last and probably the worst due to a beautiful family who argued or sung pretty much through all of it. So glad to get off, but still had to wait whilst they took off their 24 bags.
Sao Paulo is great. We’d heard so many dodgy things about it, but we found the nice area (Villa Madelena), where there were lots of restaurants, bars and furniture shops oddly! We really enjoyed our few days here, it was warmer for
The Devils Throat
just a little bit of water one and everyone was really friendly. Especially the extrovert hostel manager Tulio who drew lovely maps for us to walk around the city and kept showing us his antique funky furniture. Only 3 times did we hear the china came from his Gran. His maps turned out not to be too good though and we never did find the interactive museum.
A trip to the local park provided a real ‘Baywatch’ moment. So many good looking people jogging, walking or skating through the park. 6 pack bruts strutting with their girlfriends and,,,, Chihuahuas! What was with the miniature dogs?? Very odd sight. It was here we realised that we neither understood nor could speak any Portuguese. Ordering food was a bit of a lottery and Maria was never quite sure what she was about to eat.
A short 6 hour bus to
Rio de Janeiro, our last place! We’d booked to stay at the Mango Tree, a really cute hostel in Ipanema town. A block from the beach and in the shopping area too. A day trip out to the town and around provided a pretty good insight into the city. The huge forest in the middle of
Argentine Toilets
The ladies was down near the Wild Boar toilets city is where you find the 4th wonder of the world, ‘Christ the Redeamer’ as well as places to jump off the mountain, with a hanglider (we just watched the crazy people). We also got to a famous local artist who tiles one of the local stairwells, sounds odd, but very impressive, with tiles from all around the world. Our last day was spent walking along Copacabana beach drinking beer and soaking up the sun.
Reminicising about the 6 months our highlights were: the elephant ride, food and beaches in Thailand; tubing in Laos; Halong Bay boat tour in Vietnam; the temples of Angkor Wat; the fantastic snorkelling in Malaysia; the wonders of Oz and the breath taking scenery and proposals in New Zealand. The amount of Pisco and dogs in Chile (Spud); the salt flats and altitude of Bolivia; the Inka Trail, Macchu Picchu and the Condors in Peru, and finally the last couple of weeks mentioned above.
Great Britain The flight home from Rio to
London was pretty uneventful. Only when we landed at Heathrow did it start to settle in we were back. Terminal 5 is nice, though it still took 30 mins for
Iquazo Bird Park
Not sure who is posing more? Kev’s bag to finally come through. A long tube ride and train back to Beckenham later we arrived at Vik and Robs new house. A great evening catching up with them, Aimee, Michael, Laura and David, Isobel and new addition Daisy, it was excellent. (Especially the cheesecake Laura!) Finally next day we headed back to
Norwich our new home town, managing to avoid the train strikes and turning up on the first day of the new footie season. Great, apart from the 7-1 drubbing by Colchester. Kev’s parents met us at the same point in the station that they had left us 180 days ago. We had arrived both a bit browner, a bit warmer, a bit thinner and just a little bit wiser.
Well this is the final blog for our ‘just popping out’ adventure. It’s been a tremendous journey, one that we can’t quite believe is now finished. Thanks to everyone for your comments, words of wisdom and general all round support you’ve given us. We’ve really enjoyed keeping the blog and it will give us something great to look back on. Though apologies its taken a bit of time to finish the last one off!!!
Some more of the locals
the lesser spotted great stripped, erm,,, buttefly Now back in the UK we've since found a house, moved in, Maria has a job and we are now planning the wedding for next year. Many people have asked what food did we miss, what luxury, what thing were we looking forward to. Honestly the only things we missed were (corney bit here) our friends and our families. Oh and maybe beans on toast.
Until the next time and hope to see you all soon for the 3000 photo slide show!
Maria and Kev
PS: 9 months later and Norwich won the league,, not bad after such a bad start!
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Jon Field
non-member comment
So when is the wedding??
Looks like you had a fabulous honeymoon, all you need now is the wedding ! Lots of love Jon & Bridget