So Long South America

It is unfortunately our last day in South America. We could definitely have spent much more time here and will hopefully be able to return in the future to see some of the places we missed, and revisit some of the places we loved.

Our time spent in Colombia has been amazing. Cartagena was a very interesting city divided into 3 distinct parts: the beautiful old town, the trendy and modern Bocagrande, and a much scruffier area that seems to be in complete contrast with the others. When we weren't wandering the streets of the old town, we were discovering some interesting places outside of Cartagena.

We visited the nearby mud volcano and had quite the mud bath. You climb up to the top of the volcano and pay people to hold your camera (and take some epic photos), give you massages, and eventually rinse you off in a little swampy area nearby - note: by rinse, I mean accosted by buckets of water while trying to keep swampy water away from your mouth and eyes.  Then you find your bathing suit has been stealthily removed for further washing...really a great experience though- we felt like total kids playing in the mud!

We also visited the Rosario islands and Playa Blanca. We had the most delicious fish of our lives on the beach (in fact all of the food here is amazing) and enjoyed swimming in the Caribbean sea afterwards.

After Cartagena, we took the bus to Medellin. The countryside was incredible and we passed through many small towns along the way. It seemed that every house we saw no matter how basic had an open, welcoming door, and lovely blinking Christmas lights.

Medellin was a great city to visit. They have so many free tourist attractions and interesting cultural sites. Our favorite places were the Botero museum, Parque Explora (where we again embraced our inner child), and the cable car ride up over the city which was conveniently part of the metro system. From Medellin we took a day trip to Guatape and El Penol. Guatape was a very colorful town with animals, vehicles, and geometric signs popping out from all the building walls. There is a huge rock in El Penol that you can climb to see a beautiful view of the reservoir below. Definitely worth the day trip! 

We are now in Bogota and have been exploring La Candelaria (old town) and the more ritzier, not to mention safer, northern zones of the city. We went to the police museum here, and had a great tour by a young local completing his mandatory military service. We learned more about the Pablo Escobar cartel and saw a few of his confiscated possesions (some old guns, and a desk with hidden drawers,etc). We were also taken to a weapons room filled with various sized guns, swords, and cannons. To our surprise, we also found a Mounties uniform among some international police artifacts.

City of God

We spent about a week in Rio and we really loved the city. We didn't have great weather every day (side note - forecasts are highly inaccurate here) but when it is sunny it may be the most beautiful city in the world. We managed to get a couple of clear days which we took advantage of to go and see the Sugar Loaf mountain, Christ the Redeemer, and take some walks along the famous beaches. Rio was such an interesting city to see with a huge divide between rich and poor. Looking over the city you see beaches, jungle, and high rises mixed in with favelas climbing up almost every mountain in sight. We opted against a favela tour but we heard that they were very interesting and different than you might expect. There is even a McDonald's in the largest favela of the city, and one of our hostel staff said he met a young guy from Vancouver living at the top of one favela just for the cheap rent!

 

There are definitely some areas you would want to be careful in but luckily we made it through the city without any mishaps. We stayed in Ipanema and felt very safe in the neighborhood even after dark. We heard that most of the beautiful, young Cariocas strive to live in this area of the city and it's not hard to imagine why. Walk a couple blocks one way and you hit a gorgeous beach, walk the other way and you hit a nice lake in the city with a botanical garden. On our first night in town they had a big celebration on the lake and lit a floating Christmas tree while setting off fireworks behind it. Hard to believe it is getting close to Christmas while we are in this part of the world! Another highlight from the city was a night out in Lapa listening to some live samba music with some more caipirinhas! They are just so hard to resist!

Ipanema and the Lagoa

Found some monkeys while hiking the Sugar Loaf

After a 24 hour flight journey, we made it to Colombia - sin Adam's backpack. Luckily the airline found it the day after and has just sent it to the hostel.  The jury is still out on whether anything is missing! (Update: nothing is missing.)

Spaceship Cathedral..

Copacabana Beach

View of Copacabana beach from the Sugar Loaf

Summertime and the Livin´s Easy

We have had a few requests to write another post (I believe one such request referred to us as "lazy" but I must have misheard...) and I suppose it has been a while since our last update.

The remainder of our time in Buenos Aires was great and it was nice to have a couple of weeks in such a beautiful and entertaining city. We went to two different tango shows during our time there (birthday present from a loving boyfriend).  Our first tango show was at Señor tango and was quite the production with incredibly talented dancers, singers, and even a couple of horses on stage.  Our second show was at Taconeando. The show was much more intimate and also very impressive. We were seated very close to the stage and it was hard to take our eyes off the dancers for even a second. Again, Paula was pulled up on stage for a little tango dancing at the end of the show (can't seem to break that tradition).

 

We were happy to find that there was a world cup qualifier between Argentina and Bolivia while we were in town and were immediately on the search for some tickets and the opportunity to watch Messi play. Bolivia played surprisingly well and tied the game (to the disappointment of many Argentinean fans in our popular section - we are now very well rehearsed in some of the less polite Spanish vocabulary).

We did a couple of day trips from Buenos Aires: taking in the cities of Tigre (north of BA), and Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay). Colonia was a beautiful city to stroll around in but I think one of the highlights of our trip there was the ferry ride. We were witness to some sort of flash mob choir battle between an Argentinean (maybe?) and Venezuelan choir. The two choirs took turns singing songs before eventually singing a song together. Another highlight were the tasty chivitos that we had for lunch.

We had a bit of an unfortunate experience on our last day in Buenos Aires on our way to the bus station that I think would best be described in letter form:

Dear Mr and/or Mrs "mustard-scammer",

I must applaud you on your little stunt the other day. The unidentifiable blackish-green substance that we found splattered all over our pants was the perfect accent to our outfits. The frangrant vinegar smell that accompanied it was surely appreciated by the fellow passengers on our 17 hour bus ride. Although you did not manage to steal anything of ours, your timing was impeccable. Muchas gracias, besos!

Looking (and smelling) our absolute finest, we arrived in Puerto Iguazu ready to chase some waterfalls. We saw the Argentinean side first and were incredibly impressed with the park. The pictures will do more justice than any description we could possibly offer. On our second day we went to the Brazilian side for a more panoramic view of the falls. Unfortunately we had a very rainy day at the falls which was followed by a 24 hour bus ride from Foz do Iguazu - Sao Paolo - Paraty leaving us both with a cold.

A highlight from our bus ride was our absolute confusion when the bus came to a complete stop and random passengers would begin collecting money from everyone to give to our driver (two seperate times throughout the ride). When money was requested from us we told them that we didn't understand and they simply laughed at us foreigners and moved along. We later learned that many people buy cheap undeclared goods in Paraguay to sell in Sao Paolo.  When returning to Sao Paolo, bus passengers rally together to collect a bribe large enough for the police to look the other way when crossing inspection points. Welcome to Brazil!

 

In all fairness, our first impression of Brazil is that the people are incredibly friendly. They are very patient with our extremely limited Portuguese and always ready to chat and have a good time. We hear that Colombians are the most friendly people in South America, but it is hard to believe they could out-do the Brazilaians. I guess we shall find out in a few weeks time!

We are now in Paraty and enjoying some beach time accompanied by caipirinhas. I knew we would like our hostel when they offered us some free cachaca at check-in. We spent yesterday in Trindade about 40 min from town. It is truly paradise on the beaches there - turquoise waters, white sand, and lush jungle all around you. I only wish we had more time in the area, but Rio seems to be calling our names!

Wine Country

Yes, we are finally in wine country.  Forget Peru and Bolivia and their beer offerings, we arrived in Argentina ready to drink wine, wine, and more wine (and then some steak with our wine). 

Our first stop was Mendoza.  In 4 days we managed to try 35 different types of wine.  We thought we may be wined-out after such a feat but it was not to be so.  Our first day in Mendoza we signed up for an asado (Argentinean barbeque) at our hostel.  It was a very nice welcome to Argentina.  Our server/bbq master Roberto brought out chorizo and then cut after cut of steak, each one more delicious and tender than the last.  I´m not sure that we have ever eaten so much beef in our lives.  There was also free-flowing wine which never hurts.  Our second day we went to Maipu to rent bikes and do a self-guided winery tour.  We managed to hit a few different wineries and were quite pleased with all of the wines we tried.  When we finished our tour we rushed back to Mendoza for a futbol match.  We sat in the ¨popular¨ section with the hard-core Mendoza Godoy Cruz fans so it was quite the experience.  Luckily the home team tied up the game in the last 10 minutes so the fans weren´t too crazy after the game! 

Lunch break by the vineyard. Salami sandwiches... yum yum yum.

Paula getting her pat-down before the game. She looked like more of a threat .

On my wonderful and intelligent sister Andrea´s recommendation, we also did a guided wine tour in Lujan de Cuyo with Ampora Wine Tours.  It was quite a magical day - we tried 18 different types of mid-to-top shelf wines and had a gourmet 5 course meal with a wine pairing for each dish.  Needless to say, we were very ready for a nap when we got back to the hostel!

Lunch. The Argentine hot dog aka Super Pancho.

A much needed trim. 

After Mendoza, we headed to Cordoba for a few days.  It was a really beautiful city to stroll around in and they had a great artisans market on Sunday evening.  From Cordoba we did a day trip to Villa General Belgrano - a small German village.  It was quite interesting to arrive in a small town in Argentina filled with wooden buildings, signs, and German souveneirs.  We took our pick of the many German restaurants in town and had some Goulash and Bratwurst for lunch before heading back to Cordoba.

Our next stop was Rosario on the river Parana.  Although I wouldn´t call the river itself beautiful, it had a nice beach in the north part of town with very soft sand.  We spent a nice day at the beach and were amazed at how many people around us had mate in hand.  Argentineans really do love their mate (as do we now that we have been enlightened)!  There was also a huge cultural and food festival on in Rosario while we were there.  Our last night we wondered around the different booths of food and watched various cultural dances from Brazil to Syria.

We are now in Buenos Aires for a couple of weeks and it feels quite nice to relax in one place for a while.  We visited some markets in San Telmo and Palermo yesterday, and had without a doubt the best steak of our lives at Des Nivel along with the chorizo, grilled provolone and flan. We went to Recoleta today and wandered around the cemetary with Eva Peron´s grave.  We plan to take in a few tango shows while we are here and hopefully a couple more futbol matches.  You´ll hear from us again soon!