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Published: March 22nd 2006
I should start off this blog by dedicating it to Gav, who, out of all those who have come down to meet us has probably received the best picture of what we do. Whether that is a good thing or not, well, I don´t know. It is probably best to break this blog up into a play by play starting in Rio, and then discussing the next week where we covered close to 5000 kilometers.
Rio, March 8th: Gav´s arrival.
Today was a big day for us as both Jord and I were looking forward to meeting ol bear wilson, and of course, getting the hell out of Rio. Don´t get me wrong, it is a nice city, but by the end of our stay there, we had spent nearly two weeks in Rio - too long for my liking. So at noon we headed to Shinanigans where we had set the meeting place and unfortunately Jord and I had drank far too much the night before. Jord had to run back to the hostel to burp so I went off alone. It was a great moment catching Gav on the street with his little day back and wearing jeans in 30 degree weather. It really made me realize how much we had acclimatized. The rest of the day was spent fighting our hangovers, watching a Flamingo football game and enjoying some final moments at Carretao. Luckily our room in the hostel had air conditioning so we had a decent sleep.
March 9th - 11th: Paraty
The morning of the 9th we took an air conditioned coach to the bus station for about a dollar. It was basically a grey hound bus for public transit and since the common folk cant afford to pay an extra 50 cents for that bus instead of the regular bus, we pretty much had it all to ourselves. Arrived at the bus station and as luck would have it we got a ticket for a bus that was leaving in 20 minutes and six hours later we were in Paraty.
Now Paraty itself has some really nice parts to it. The downtown area so to speak, is all spanish colonial style buildings with all the fancy boutiques and restaurants you could ask for. Top it off with cobble stone streets and the ocean right next store and you have quite the little romantic get-a-way. Unfortunately for me I had caught a cold from Jordan that he had caught from one of the vancouverites visiting during Carnival. It is the only way I can explain a runny nose in 30 plus degree weather. Back to paraty, on the 10th we went on a boat trip to some secluded beaches and islands where we got to snorkely with the fish and basically just dick around all day. Snorkeling just does not seeem right, not being able to breathe under water and all, and I realize that i really, really miss scuba diving now.
After a day we were kind of regretting going to Paraty and we did try to leave that night, but it was not until the 11th that we left for Sao Paulo.
11th - 12th: Buses.
We figure we had to be in Buenos Aires by the 14th so we needed to get as close as we could as quickly as we could. It seems to be the way of the trip so far that we can just show up at a bus station and grab a bus to a next destination. We showed up in Sao Paulo at 7:30pm and before we knew it we were on another bus headed to the Falls that left at 8pm. While our plans to go to Uruguay were thwarted, I was happy to find out from Jas that we did not really miss much.
19 hours of busing later, and we were at Foz do Iguazu.
The Falls:
We did not have much time to view the falls as we had booked a bus to BUenos Aires for the 13th so that we could get to Buenos Aires by the 14th. Now the falls, the park, is not exactly small and the guide basically laughed at us when we told him we had to leave the park in 3 hours to catch a bus, but we managed to do it, and all of it somehow. We basically did everything short of running from place to place. I am not going to say much about the falls because basically the amount of tourism and tourist infrastructure that they have set up kind of ruined it for me. Zodiac boats everywhere and metal catwalks taking you everywhere you could want to go. I dont want to say that it ruined the beauty of the place, but it did come fairly close.
Buenos Aires:
Well, what can I say, time is running out so I will make it quick: Best steak ever, all night drinking and so far, my favourite city of the trip. Unfortunately we could not stay the second night because we had to hop on our 37 hour bus ride to Rio Gallegos, where we then caught a 4 hour bus ride to El Calafate meeting the Mouse and Dorris. I will have to do an update of our hikes later.
Hats off to Gav who did not complain once even though we were on a bus almost everyday he was here.
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Gav
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It was great
Well despite being in transit for a good chunk of my trip it was great all the same Ry. Really glad I could meet up with you guys (really miss you guys *single tear*). Even though there were a lot of buses I'm glad I got to see Buenos Aires and how you guys travel. It is an awesome city and I'd love to see more of it. Good to hear the day and a half long bus ride didn't end up killing you guys.