Paraty

So we had driven out of the Pantanal, then bussed back to Campo Grande, then bussed overnight to São Paulo where we were assured buses left every hour to Paraty. We arrived to the São Paulo bus terminal around noon and navigated two subways to the correct terminal (Sao Paulo has a population of about nineteen million so their bus station is as big as most airports!) only to find we had to wait until 4pm for our next bus. By the time we arrived to our hostel in Paraty at 11 pm we were desperate for the shower, a burger, laundry service, and finally bed.


We woke up feeling much better, but unfortunately it was a cloudy day. We enjoyed a great breakfast at the hostel where we heard some people talking about going kayaking so we decided to join in on that! It was so nice to be out on the water, and it was probably best we weren't baking in the sun. We first kayaked to a little island where we stopped for a swim on a quiet beach, and to enjoy the amazing scenery. The greenery is so beautiful in brazil! Next we went through a mangrove which was neat looking and had little tree crabs everywhere!! Unfortunately it was also a great place for mosquitoes and flies and I am now paying for it in itchiness. We continued on for a while, Lisa and I were quite in unison paddling (3 months side by side have made us so in sync everyone has begun asking if we are sisters!!) so it was easy, and so nice and peaceful. We stopped for a nice lunch and then our guide told us it was time to go for a mud bath! We were surprised that as we walked along the beach all the sudden the sand just stopped and clay started! We waded into the clay, it felt so odd at first! A bit slimy and like sinking mud, but once you got sitting in it it was awesome! It felt really cool to be submerged in, and it was fun to roll around and try and swim in, you couldn't help but giggle at the feeling and at how silly we all looked! After we rinsed ourselves off (mostly) we got back in the kayaks and paddled back home. A great way to spend a rainy day :) That evening we went out for dinner with some hostelmates and had an interesting dinner. Pretty hard to order at an Arabic restaurant with a Portuguese menu! Haha, it was a decent meal though and nice company.


Next day we got up and did a wander through the small city to see the historic centre. It is very colonial and pretty, and the stone streets were neat, though hard to walk on they're so uneven. Close to the water thousands of crabs have holes between the stones in the road, they're so cute! We left Paraty after lunch to head to the tropical island Ilha Grande!

-Court

The Pantanal - December 4-7

After leaving the Brazillian Iguazu Falls we navigated two city busses successfully to get us to the bus terminal. This is quite a feat considering we don't know a word of Portuguese- it makes us realize we actually knew a decent bit of Spanish now that we can't use it! We got to the bus terminal and were disappointed to find there was no ATM nor money exchange- since we had crossed the border that morning we had searched desperately for a way to get Brazilian Reals, but between my daily limit, Lisa's non working debit card, and no exchanges, we were stuck with only 150 Reals between us. So we hopped on our bus heading to 'Dourados,' a town we had never heard of and one that is not in our lonely planet guide book, with the plan to get a bus there to Bonito. We arrived to Dourados at 3am to find again, no source of money, and nothing to do but wait on a bench for the ticket office to open. Of course once it did, the tickets to Bonito were cash only, and not a soul around at 6am spoke English to help us find funds so we had to change our plans. Tickets to Campo Grande accepted credit card, so we had to make the decision to skip Bonito (and unfortunately miss out on snorkeling and cave diving), and head straight to Campo Grande instead. Another restless bus ride and we made it to Campo Grande and managed to arrange a hostel that even came and picked us up from the terminal. We were thankful to get there, have a room to ourselves, and some time to get organized. We spent the day (with the help of the kind Rodrigo at the hostel) trying to figure out Lisa's non working debit, then our tour of the Pantanal, and then we managed to book pretty much the rest of our trip so as to avoid more stress like the past couple days had caused. We may not be the best figure-it-out-as-you-go type backpackers, yet :P

On a brighter note, we had a relaxing evening and a good night sleep so things were great again as we headed off in the morning for our three day tour of the Brazilian Pantanal! The Pantanal is a massive jungle/wetland area with tons of wildlife. We drove in a van for a few hours, and then piled into the box of a truck and went another couple hours. As we got further and further down the bumpy dirt road the scenery got more and more amazing. It was similar to the jungle, extremely green and lush, but quite flat and much more tropical than we have seen so far. We appreciated the wind whipping past us as the Brazilian sun was beating down quite strong as we drove along. We rushed past palm trees, and greeny blue lagoons which, once we slowed down, we realized were full of caymans (small alligators), exotic birds, capybaras, deer and lizards! It was a very exciting drive in! Finally we arrived at the river, Rio Paraguay, where we took a small ferry across and reached our lodge. A nice big house where we had an air conditioned dorm (yay) with the 5 others on the tour, and awesome scenery, lounge area, pool table etc. Our guide Carlos met us and showed us around and assured us the river was safe to swim in, so we all changed and went for a dunk before dinner.

After dinner was our first activity, a night time boat ride. We piled in a little tin boat with a bunch of flashlights. There were so many stars out! Caymen eyes glow red when hit by the flashlight. We spotted our first one about 5m from where we were swimming earlier, which is when Carlos told us that there are caymen and piranhas throughout the entire river, yet still claimed its perfectly safe to swim in! We drove up the river for about a half hour and saw hundreds of caymens on the bank and swimming beside the boat. Very eerie to spot just the red eyes watching you in the pitch black! They are very slinky when they slide under the water hidden from sight. We also saw some jumping fish but none actually jumped in the boat.

The next morning we got up at 6 for a quick breakfast before heading out on our anaconda hunt! We boated up the Rio Paraguay a ways, stopping to take pictures of caymen and birds, then went up the Rio Negra a ways before stopping the boat. We waded through a small swamp (which is scary when you can't see the bottom and you know you're in anaconda territory!) and got to a beautiful lake with horses grazing around it and thousands of birds. The colors in the pantanal are so vibrant, the lime green grass rippling in the wind as far as you can see and the bright blue sky are stunning. We hunted for about an hour around the lake but couldn't scare up any anacondas (which Court was okay with). The scenery was well worth the walk anyways!

Back at the lodge we had an afternoon siesta where everyone napped in our room for an hour. The hot sun really tires you out quickly! After lunch it was time for piranha fishing. Our rods were long bamboo poles with fishing line and a hook attached. For bait we had raw chicken skin. Apparently Canadians know how to fish because we both pulled out three piranhas right away while the boys struggled to catch their first one. Piranhas really do have sharp teeth! We each helped Carlos descale and clean the piranhas. They have very fine scales and are not slimy at all but almost smooth. A little less scary looking than we were expecting until you open their jaws! They definitely have big teeth!

Back at the lodge we grabbed a cold beer and jumped in the river to cool off (yes, the pirranha infested river). The water is so warm though its almost a bathtub! We killed time until dinner when we ate our piranhas. There is not a lot of meat on them! The small amount we did have was good- white meat. That night we grabbed some beers from a nearby store and we enjoyed some pool and chatted with our group.

In the morning after packing up our bags we took the speedboat across the river to where the truck was waiting. We drove about an hour to our first stop which was a nature walk through the forest. We saw some black howler monkeys, macaws and lots of termite nests! Our next stop was lunch where we had an hour to kill lying in some hammocks while lunch was made. Then we just went to the "bus stop" where we waited a very long time in the hot sun for our van to take us back to Campo Grande. We got to the bus terminal at 8pm which left us just enough time to 'freshen up' with wet wipes before getting on our 8:30 overnight bus to São Paulo.

-Court and Lisa

Iguazu Falls

December 2nd
Well we had a lovely bus ride from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu (the Argentina side of the falls)! We decided to upgrade to the nicer seats for the long ride which were nice and big and reclined 160 degrees! We got served a snack, beverage, dinner and wine, tea with cookies, and even champagne at 11:00 pm! That's a lot nicer than most flights you get!

We got to Puerto Iguazu in the morning and after a quick stop at the tourist information booth we set off to find a hostel since we hadn't booked ahead. 10 meters down the road we were dripping with sweat. It was SO humid! Once we finally found a hostel, we couldn't check in yet so instead of showering we had a quick jump in the pool, and immediately headed off to see the the Argentinian Iguazu Falls! We caught a bus to the park, where you just pay your entrance fee and then explore on your own. Fueled up with some empanadas and then we started by hopping on the train that drops you off to walk down a big bridge over the river, which was about a km long and had really cool scenery. The river was shallow here so it looked a lot like wetlands. The bridge brings you to a lookout of the 'Garganta del Diablo' fall (the Devils Throat). It's the biggest one, and it was totally breathtaking. Unfortunately, the sky opened up and a thunderstorm started as soon as we started taking pictures! Ah well, we were wet from sweat anyways, it was almost nice to cool off haha. We headed back on the train and then started the 'lower circuit' trail. It was a nice hike through the jungle, with a bit of wildlife along the way, like coati, monkeys, lizards, iguanas and even a tucan! The trail brought us past two more beautiful waterfalls, Lanusse and Alvar Nunez. They were gorgeous but we hurried along and made it in the nick of time to get the boat across to San Martin Island. The island had a nice beach and we hiked up to all the different lookouts on it, it's cool to see falls you were just standing beside, from the other angle. A quick boat ride back and we finished the lower circuit off. We then got a little turned around in attempts to get to the upper trail, but that's okay, saw more of the park that way like the lighthouse and hotel. We eventually got onto the 'upper circuit' trail. Again, more hiking through the forest, and then six or seven more lookouts of falls, these lookouts were up almost on top of the falls looking down, a whole different vantage point than the lower circuit. Some of the falls on this trail were: Dos Hermanos, Chico, Bossetti, Adan y Eva, Gpeque Bernabe Mendez, and Mbigua. After the lower circuit, we had pretty much covered it all, and in about 4 hours only! We got on the bus back exhausted from the long night of bussing and then the long day of waking, grabbed some dinner on the way back to the hostel, had a quick swim and went to bed excited to see more the next day!

December 3rd
This morning was a little hectic running around trying to book tickets and hostels for the next leg of our journey, and figuring out how to get across the Argentina-Brazil border properly. But we managed to do both and by 10:30 we were off for Brazil! It was another very humid day. Once at the falls we stored our backpacks in a locker at the entrance and figured out how to get to the bus terminal in Brazil at the end of the day. To get closer to the falls we took a 15 minute bus and then started the "Path to the Falls" trail. From even a few feet down the trail we could tell it was going to be amazing views! It was really cool to see the same waterfalls as yesterday but this time from a distance. It was much easier to appreciate just how big they are! We stopped a lot along the trail to take pictures and admire the view. The real highlight was at the end of the trail where a boardwalk takes you right out to the edge of a waterfall liking straight into the Devils Throat. It was more than 180 degree view of the immense falls. Definitely breath taking! After admiring them for quite some time we took an elevator up to a viewpoint of the falls. After that it was back to collect our bags. We successfully navigated two city buses to get us to the bus terminal with plenty of time to spare. Off to our next destination - the Pantanal!

-Lisa and Court

Pictures
1-Brazil
2-Argentina
3-Argentina
4-Brazil
5-Argentina
6-Brazil
7-Brazil

Mendoza - November 19-24

November 19
Our bus ride and the border crossing to Argentina went smoothly from Santiago. On the way we drove through the Andes mountains which was really stunning scenery. After them it was flat desert for a while then bright green vineyards on the last stretch. We had a very pleasant morning looking out the window! In Mendoza we are staying in the Monkey Hostel which is a block from the main square of town and is really funky. We did some grocery shopping in the afternoon and a quick walk around town then planned the various activities we want to do here!

November 20
Today we explored Mendoza. One of the tourist info offices has a rooftop terrace viewpoint that we really enjoyed. The city is very green with lots of trees planted along the streets. It's quite dry here so there are open channels running alongside the trees with water for them. It's also really hot here! 35 degrees from about 9am to 7 pm. A lot different from the temperatures we've had the past month from being at high altitude. After lunch we walked to San Martin park. San Martin is the general that led Argentinas army in their fight to be independent from Spain (that they won) so there are a lot of tributes to him around. The park was a lot bigger than we expected from the map so our little excursion turned into 4 hours of walking in the hot sun! The park was very beautiful though and had a nice lookout and a manmade lake which made it worth it. We also found an amazing gelato store a few blocks from our hostel that I'm sure we will visit daily! We made our own dinner, which we have nick-named Viajes Pasta or "travelling pasta" because we both agree its not something we would have thought to have at home! Pasta, pesto, onion, lime, tomatoes, avocado, cheese, cucumber and canned tuna is what usually goes in it! We'll try it on our families when we get home and see if its actually good or not ;) At night we went out to a bar with one of the staff members as they were having a free drink promotion night, and we found a couple friends from Santiago there too :)

November 21
Today was our biking wine tour. We ended up getting a private tour because no one else booked for that day. Our guide Damion, was really cool and we had a great day with him. We drove a half hour outside of Mendoza to Maipu which is the wine district that has 1200 different wineries. Our first stop after we had picked up our Mr. Hugo's bikes was a chocolate, liqueur, and olive oil factory. It was as good as it sounds! We got to taste test a few treats from each category. They also make absynth, 65% and 85%, but we thought 11am was too early to try any of that, so we got more nice flavoured liquor instead :) Next stop was a funky beer garden where we had home brewed blonde and red beers, chips, pizza and empanadas. Apparently you have to make a good "base" before you test wines. I was just full though!

After that we had a 15 minute bike ride to our first vineyard. We got a tour of the winery which was neat because its so old, they don't actually distill wine at that location anymore since it has been declared a Argentinian national historic site. The winery has been run by the same family since the 1800s. For our tasting we had sauvignon blanc, torrentes (my favorite), Malbec (the famous Argentinian wine) and a desert wine. I thought we would just get a sip of each but each of the wineries would give you half a glass! The next winery was much more modern and has only been open five years. Their vineyard looked different as the west side of all the rows of grapes were covered with mesh to protect them from the sun during the hottest part of the day, and from the hail. We were also told that instead of planting new trees every five years these guys cut the plant off at the root and transplant a piece of stem onto it. This way the plant uses the existing root system and it only takes a year to get a full grown plant. For the tasting we got to choose 3 of 8 wines to try so Court and I each chose different ones so we could try more. We both liked all the whites but not really the reds. We had to bike a little faster to our last winery as a storm was starting. This was another old family winery. Our favorite wine from here was a sparkling torrentes that we liked so much we bought two bottles! By the time we left it was really starting to storm and we could hear a lot of "booming" sounds. Our guide told us that when there is a storm the government pays to fly planes through the clouds and shoot bombs into them to try and disperse them. Wine making is the primary economic activity of the area so a hail storm would be devestating!

We got back to the hostel around 7 and decided it was a good night to go hunt down an Argentinian steak. We went to a fancy restaurant and had a lovely date of wine and steak. Argentinian steaks really are amazing! Definitely one of the best I've ever had!

November 22
Up early again this morning for our Andean mountain excursion. We started out just Court and I with our guide Jose again but at our first stop at a lake we were joined by a really nice couple from Seattle. It was nice to have more company for the long drive. After a two hour drive we stopped at the famous Incan Bridge which is a natural formation of salts over a river. Beautiful orange and red colors. We didn't stay long except to take some pictures and then headed to a nice buffet lunch. By this time we were back to only about a km away from the Chilean border. Our last stop, the one we booked the tour for, was Aconcagua National Park. Outside of the Himalayas, Aconcagua is the worlds tallest mountain. It certainly is impressive! All of the Andes mountains are though. Very jagged with beautiful red colors covered by just a thin layer of greenery. We hiked about two hours to get closer to the base of Aconcagua from where we could really see how massive it is. There is a huge glacier in the south side we were facing that hangs down 400m. It takes about 15 days to summit, but unfortunately quite a few trekkers do not make it. We visited the graveyard for mountain climbers at the entrance of the park. About 10 people die per year climbing Aconcagua; we were quite happy just seeing it from afar!

November 23
Today was a lazy day getting caught up with various things. At 4:30 we left to go to the soccer game (called futbol here). It was a second division game between the Mendoza team and an away team. We just went for the atmosphere though. The fans here are crazy! The stadium was buzzing with energy, singing, yelling, jumping and dancing the entire game. Even though the Mendoza team lost the fans kept cheering the whole 90 minutes! I think my favorite part was the musicality rather than the actual soccer! We got back to the hostel just in time to join in on the Asado they were hosting which is an Argetinian BBQ. I have never been so full in my life. The meal started off with bread and salad, followed by 6 courses of different cuts or types of meat and then a round of roasted vegetables. What a feast - each course was better and better! We tried blood sausage which has a nice flavor but the texture and appearance detects from it a bit! We went to bed very full and content.

November 24
This morning we did a bit of shopping then went out for a nice lunch before catching our bus to Buenos Aires in the early afternoon.

After such a busy pace of travelling it was nice to unpack our bags for a few days and get to know the city. Mendoza is a really beautiful city with lots of green space and nice plazas to spend time in. We also both really likes our hostel, mostly because of the really nice staff that we got to know. We could have easily stayed longer! But Buenos Aires is calling us :)

-Lisa

Buenos Aires

Sunday, November 25

Arrived in massive Buenos Aires in the morning and made our way to our hostel the Milhouse (which we have now renamed Madhouse). Our delirium from the 14 hour bus ride made it so we didn't realize for quite some time that the hostel we just checked into was not the one we had intended on booking. It's a two part hostel and our girlfriend Hannah was at the other one, but it turned out okay, only three blocks (including the widest intersection in the world-18 lanes) between us! We had breakfast and showered and got our groceries while waiting to check in. When we finally did get our room at 2 we were surprised to find all our new roommates asleep! We quickly caught on that this place is basically nocturnal because of the night life! We silently and in the dark dropped our stuff off and then headed to an antiques market we heard about in the San Telmo district of town. As we were walking we bumped into a girl, Emma, that has been at two other hostels we have been, the backpacking world is so small! The three of us enjoyed walking up and down all the booths, it was a massive market, with so much different unique stuff, and plenty of stores on the street to check out too! Once satisfied we had seen every knick knack possible we headed back. That night a friend we met in Santiago, Raj (yes, like Big Bang theory), invited us out to a "electric tango" show that a local friend of his was taking him too! It was really neat, and we were excited we got to experience a totally local bar, we were definately the only tourists there! The show included a singer, pianist, two cellos, violinists, and five accordions! Super interesting mix! The show hasn't started until 12, so we got back pretty late and hit the hay tired from the long day!

Monday, November 26

Today we went with a group from the hostel out to the Palermo district to go shopping! There are blocks and blocks of outlet stores there. Lisa managed to get a shirt, but for the most part we found it all too expensive, so we spent much of our time at a cafe with Emma :) We got back to the hostel, made some dinner and then were just thinking we would have a nap to rest up for this crazy nightlife we kept hearing about, when we learned there was a must see drumming show on- in 15 minutes! We frantically got ready (challenging with roommates still asleep around you!) and just as we were running out the door another new roommate, Dieter, came in so we convinced him to join us and off we went to La Bomba del Tiempo! We got to the CC Konex centre and found a packed outdoor area with a stage and a beer gardens. We were excited to find our friends Emma and Hannah were both there too, among other friendly faces! The show was so great, there was at least a dozen drummers, and they played some awesome music and we enjoyed some beers and dancing with everyone, it was a great atmosphere! Once that wrapped up we all headed back to the other hostel for the nightly party at the bar there! It was a lot of fun meeting tons of other travellers and everyone went out to a club (the hostel suggests one each night) to continue the dancing. We were shocked when we decided to leave and walked out into the sunshine!!! I had no idea it was already 6am! A McDonalds breakfast later, we were finally in bed by 7:30, and now we finally understood why our roomies slept all day!

Tuesday, November 27

Slept. We finally dragged ourselves out of bed because we were going to our friends Murray and Alissa's apartment that they were renting here for dinner. We were excited to see them (and Hannah) again because we hadn't seen them since we finished the tour in La Paz. It was great to catch up on each others travels and reminisce and we laughed a great deal. They treated us to some lovely cheese and bread and cracker appies, and homemade pizza, and we brought a pie for desert, and there was plenty of Argentinian wine to go around! All in all, a very nice night!

Wednesday, November 28

Lisa and I navigated the bus system back to the Palermo district to check out more of the sights there. We wandered through the park and garden and bumped into an Australian couple from the hostel so basically just wandered and chatted with them. We then trekked on to another district, Recoletta, which is sort of the ritzy area. We headed to the main attraction there, the cemetery. It was massive, and has a lot of rich/important Argentians buried there like military men, politicians, doctors, stars, etc., including the notorious Evita. I couldn't believe the architecture- such grand intricate impressive tombs and you could even look into some and see the caskets! It felt like walking around an eerie, mini city. We made our way back, and were quite exhausted from a long afternoon of walking, but returned to a message from Hannah about dinner plans so we had another frantic rush to get ready. We went with Raj, Hannah, and a few others out to a fancy popular restaurant La Cabrera to treat ourselves to some nice Argentian steak. It was a delicious meal and we had a really nice time together, we were surprised to find out it was 1:30 am already by the time we got into the cab to head back! I'm not sure what it is about this city that makes the nights fly by! We went back to the hostel and joined in the party there, an headed out to a club again.

Thursday, November 29

Despite being out so late (or early I guess technically), we dragged ourselves out of bed in time for breakfast and headed out on a walking tour of the La Boca district. This is the poorer part of town, it's next to a port and has all the brightly coloured houses that you always see in photos of BA. First we got a tour of the Boca futbol stadium, and the guide talked a lot about how crazy and passionate Argentinians are about futbol, as we got a glimpse of in Mendoza! We then had lunch which included a tango show while you ate. Then we went to Camito* street to get some photos of all the bright houses and grafiti and quickly shop the art market. When we got back there was again no time to nap we had to rush to meet up with Hannah and Alissa and Murray to go out to a tango night thing the hostel offered. We got taken to a restaurant where we got a nice dinner which we enjoyed while meeting all the other people who came. Then it was time for our tango lesson! It was an absolute whoot (the unlimited wine that was included helped)! We got taught the basic box step first, then a figure eight type step and then the finale pose, including your 'tango' face. The instructor was great and quite funny. He would show the girls a step and we'd practice, then the guys' turn (while we laughed and took pictures), then he would hit the music and the guys would grab a girl and attempt a couple times before he yelled to switch partners. It was good fun and we all 'passed' haha, we have a certificate to proof it. We were rewarded with dessert and then the actual show began. It was a kind of tango through the ages theme and it was so impressive, such a passionate dance. After we went back it was another party at the hostel, but we managed to get to bed before the sun came up this time!

Friday, November 30

We finally got a couple hours this day where we weren't rushing around which was nice. We spent the morning planning our next move (Iguazu Falls) and then made a nice lunch. We headed back to the San Telmo area to so some more shopping and Lisa and I both were successful, much to my overflowing backpacks dismay. We hung out with our finally awake roommates while getting ready (in our new clothes, yay) for the hostel party which was big since it was an anniversary of the hostel. All the staff put on a funny little skit which was cute. We had fun partying there and it was nice to see some friends who we met in Santiago had arrived there as well :) We went to the club with everyone but didn't last long, it was a massive massive club, impossible to find your friends when you get split up, and it was a bit overwhelming so we called it quits.

Saturday, December 1st (ahhhhhh, can't believe it's December already!)

We had to get up and check out and then just lounged around the hostel until our bus at 2pm. We are currently on our way to Iguazu falls which is a 18 hour trip, but we are getting there in style! We opted for the slightly better seats, so we are currently relaxing, watching movies, and have been spoiled with a snack, a full dinner, and free wine and champagne!! Also probably going to get more sleep on this bus than we got all week in crazy fun Buenos Aires!

- Court :)