Week 5 - Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Punta Del Diablo (Argentina & Uruguay)

The 17 hour bus to Buenos Aires was long but pretty uneventful. The border crossing at Posadas was straight forward, compared to the pile of paperwork the Paraguayans had to fill in our British passports were like golden tickets.

We arrived in BA after lunch and after finally finding the underground station we found the hostel we'd booked in to, an old colonial house in the centre of town. Tired from the journey (Rhys is absolutely rubbish at sleeping on buses) we spent the day exploring the area around the hostel and chilling.

The next day we ventured into the city. About 20 minutes out we reached the cathedral, ready to take a photo I looked down and saw my bag was unzipped and my wallet missing, luckily they only got about £30 and my cash card so not the end of the world. An hour later, cash card cancelled, padlock bought for my bag and a new purse, we headed out again. We wondered around San Telmo most of the afternoon, an area with antique markets, boutique shops and cafes and restaurants spilling out on to the street with tango dancers to entertain you while you ate. At 5pm we headed over to the Evita museum to meet some friends from Seattle. A guided tour later and a bit more knowledgeable about Evita (Rhys's favourite part were the shoes and handbags) we went for a beer then back to the hostel.

Our last day in Buenos Aires we went for a long walk around the docks and the nature reserve then decided to trek over to Caminito in Boca. Boca is not a great area, lots of council blocks and really run down, home to the Boca Juniors it's a bit like walking through Tottenham, not high on many tourists agenda. Caminito on the other hand is like Camden, a pedestrianised street with brightly coloured buildings, tango dancers on every corner and craft stalls and bars and restaurants filling the streets. We stayed for a drink before busing back to the hostel to rest our weary legs.

Sunday we were up and out of the hostel early to catch a ferry to Uruguay. Montevideo, the capital is a relatively small town with not a whole lot to see. We wondered down to the port market where there are smart asado restaurants (BBQ's) everywhere, deciding at £7-£8 each it was too expensive we cut back to the main street and ended up in Macdonalds (Rhys's choice obviously) paying the same price. After lunch we headed to the Artigas memorial in the main square, a big sculpture for the guy who fought for Uruguay's independence where you can go underneath and see his tomb, guarded at all times by two guards in full uniform, very weird. A tiny art gallery and a museum with a stuffed dog later and we were done with Montevideo and the next day headed to Punta del Diablo 4.5 hours east along the coast.

Supposedly a hippy beach resort (or so the Rough Guide tells me) the town was far more built up than we expected. We checked into a really nice hostel, Hostel De La Viuda with a pool table, swimming pool and watch tower and wondered down to the beach. By 9pm we were in bed watching a movie.

Obelisco, Buenos Aires

The watchtower, Hostel de la Viuda, Punta del Diablo

Caminito, Buenos Aires

Week 4 - Laguna Blanca, El Roble, Encarnacion (Paraguay)

We left Laguna Blanca on the back of a motorbike trailer and waited by the side of the road for the bus back to Santa Rosa for over an hour in the 38 degree heat, love South American time. Another bus ride and 3 hours later we were in Concepcion. After being told that the bus to Belen, our destination, can take a different route through town each day and is difficult to track down we opted for a cab. Northern Paraguay feels a lot poorer than the south, only the main roads are paved (where we’d have a motorway at home) and everywhere else is dirt tracks.

We arrived at Ganja El Roble, a working farm early evening in time to meet the baby tapir (Fifi), the parrot (Gotti), the monkey, toucan, tortoises and anaconda. We were the only guests at the ranch, the owner, Dirk-Peter a real life Crocodile Dundee informed us that they’d only had 3 other guests in the last 2 months as a lot of governments are warning travellers away from Paraguay because of the political situation. We played with the tapir and the parrot, walked with the grounds keeper Chris while he fed the fish in the lakes, ate dinner with Peter and his family (all dinner is sourced from the farm) and went to bed.

The next morning we attempted the 5km walk to the river, took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end. Having walked enough in the heat we turned around and went fishing with Peter’s oldest son in one of the lakes on the farm instead. The first time Rhys has ever fished. We caught 23 fish between us. Then the storms started and carried on until lunchtime the following day. We sat in the gardens reading (Ceri, you’d be proud, Rhys has read 3 books here already!) and learning about Paraguay’s history – very turbulent and bloody, the War of the Triple Alliance from 1864 to 1870 ended the lives of 80% of the population that mixed with the influx of Europeans seeking El Dorado and the Chaco War of the 1930’s means that Paraguayan people have a real mixed heritage and look far more European than in other South American countries I’ve been to.

Another 2 couples turned up at the ranch over the next day and on our 3rd day, when we were due to leave, the weather was nice enough for Peter to take us all out in his boat tubing on the River Ypane. It was so serene and peaceful, you can’t see any buildings at all from the river, just toucans and monkeys. A stop for lunch and a camp fire later, after 6 hours we were out of the river and heading back to the farm on the back of Peter’s pick up truck.

We stayed one more day at the ranch, partly because we’d fallen in love with the tapir, partly because the home cooked food was so good and partly because it worked out cheaper as we could get a lift in to Concepcion on the Monday when Peter did the school run. The last day we borrowed the boys bikes and rode into Belen, the closest town – absolutely nothing there but was a nice ride along the dirt track.

Monday was spent on a bus back to Asuncion where we spent the night back at El Jardin debating our next move. Having looked at the maps and the bus timetables going back to Brazil seemed out of the way so we continued south to Encarnacion for a night. The following day we booked our bus tickets to Buenos Aires then caught the slowest bus you have ever seen to the nearby Jesuit Missions at Trinidad. We were the only people at the Missions when we got there and is was really tranquil wondering around the cloisters and the church, no info in English was a shame as neither of us know that much about the Jesuits but all the same, the ruins seem to be the only attraction Paraguay has set up for Tourists so it seemed rude to miss it!

Wednesday night we boarded the bus to Buenos Aires.

Rhys and Gotti, El Roble.

Rhys fishing, El Roble.

Rhys and Fifi, El Roble.

Tubing, El Roble.

Bike Ride, El Roble.

Jesuit ruins, Encarnacion.

Week 3 - Ciudad Del Este, Asuncion, Laguna Blanca (Paraguay)

Our night in Ciudad Del Este was interrupted at 3am when Rhys discovered a Shar-Pei in the courtyard and decided it would be a great idea to entice him in the room, after shoving him back out again (the dog, not Rhys) he spent the next hour trying to break down the door, we left quickly the next day before they saw the damage and boarded a bus for Asuncion, the capital.

Two facts about Ciudad del Este for you, one it's one of the biggest mafia run towns in the world and two, Paraguay used to have three main cities, Conception, Asuncion and Encarnacion named for the conception, assumption and incarnation of Christ, when they built the 4th city in the 1960's there were no names left so after a lot of debate they chose 'City of the East', creative hey.

The hostel in Asuncion was brilliant, El Jardin. Run by a Swedish guy, Tomas, and his wife it’s set around a courtyard with fruit trees and lanterns and everything is so clean and fresh, the showers were unbeatable. The first night we just slept and the second day walked in to town to see the sites. Paraguay isn’t really set up for tourists, and even less so for those that only speak a few words of Spanish. The Presidential Palace based on Versailles and the Panteon dos Heroes were nice enough as was the random museum of spinning tops and feathers but after two hours we’d exhausted the guidebooks suggestions. Back at the hostel we got talking to some other travellers and headed to the Britannia pub, a British themed pub owned by Germans, where it happened to be Oktoberfest. A few 2 ½ litre beer taps later (a bargain at £5) and some tequilas we went back to the hostel.

As the hostel was so peaceful and a little haven we were happy to just chill and chat to the other travellers and Tomas the owner. That evening Tomas was going to a centenary, friendly game for his football team, one of the two biggest teams in Paraguay, Club Cerro Porteno against Boca Junior so we tagged along. A great experience, fireworks and flares in the stadiums (I say stadium loosely) and more flags and banners than you can throw a stick at. That night was a return to the Britannia.

Another quiet day followed. We ventured out long enough to visit the cemetery which in a roman catholic country I had imagined would be really ornate but was actually just creepy as some of them had been broken in to and you could see the skeletons, urgh.

Having spent 4 nights in Asuncion and recharged we decided to head north to Laguna Blanca. First was a 6 hour bus ride to Santa Rosa where when we arrived the last bus to the lake had already left. After walking all 200m of the main street we decided to get a cab the last 30km. An hour later down a dirt track and we arrived at the ranch. The lake was beautiful and serene, perfectly clear and so clean it was pumped into the taps to drink. There was a white sand beach, 3 other visitors, an eco station and a million bugs. Eating dinner was an event trying to dodge the dive bombing beetles. That night brought an incredible electric storm that went on all night, our room didn’t have glass windows just shutters and the wind and the rain came howling in.

We spent the next day on the beach and exploring the reserve and as the other guests had left we had the place to ourselves. That night we sat on the beach watching the stars. Back at our room we spotted a massive spider and slept with the light on so we could keep an eye on it.

The next day we headed further north.

 Cerro Porteno football game in Asuncion.

View from our room, Laguna Blanca.

El Jardin Hostel, Asuncion.

Laguna Blanca.

Waiting for a bus to leave Laguna Blanca.

Week 2 - Paraty, Foz do Iguacu, Ciudad Del Este (Brazil & Paraguay)

On our last full day in Paraty we decided to go kayaking around the bay and into the mangroves with a guide. It was more of a sprint than a relaxing paddle but we did see thousands of colourful crabs in the mangroves that the guide told us had eaten a man alive but a year ago... (!?!) Issues The sun was out and I had burnt legs to prove it and the sea was so warm it was like being in a jacuzzi.

The following morning we were up early and packed and headed to the bus station across town for our journey to Foz. The first step was a luxurious 5.5 hour bus to Sao Paulo (a dive of a city) followed by a hideous, less than luxurious 15.5 hour bus to Foz. We slept for a couple of hours and watched more episodes of Suits than is healthy in one sitting and were relatively with it when the bus pulled in. We lamely got a cab to the hotel/ American style motel, having booked one online the day before as the 9 bed dorm, with triple bunks, in Paraty were pretty bad and after the journey we knew a private with a comfy bed would be called for (plus after a bit of research it turned out the hotel was cheaper than any of the hostels in town). Turned out it was a decent place with a pool and a kitchen, just around the corner from the local bus terminal. The temperature in Foz was atleast 10 degrees C hotter than it had been at the coast so we spent the day catching up on sleep, wondering into town, eating kilo's of ice cream and ended it with a swim in the bath temperature pool at dusk.

The first full day in Foz we headed to Iguacu Falls (the Brazilian side, like the west side but not so gangster). It was baking. The falls were immense, so loud and powerful. We took a ridiculous amount of photos and Rhys made friends with a ridiculous amount of butterflies (and by friends I mean he kept poking them until they'd sit on his hand and he could walk about with them). After the falls we stopped at the bird sanctuary where Rhys was a little bit excited to meet a toucan and didn't even swear once when one pooed on him (but was disappointed he didn't see one drinking Guinness).

Day 2 in Foz we went to the Itaipu hydroelectric dam. Lots of facts and massive turbines for instance the dam supplies 90% of the electric in Paraguay and 17% of Brazil's and building it took 380 times the amount of steel in the Eiffel Tower and 8 times the excavation of the Eurotunnel - oh yes, we're fact geeks.

This morning we left Foz on the bus to the Paraguayan border, customs was relaxed to say the least, some guy asked us in Spanish how long we were staying for, didn't understand the English answer, gave us the thumbs up and sent us through. We spent a couple of hours wondering the streets to find Rhys the best deal on headphones since he broke his (and his emergency pair) already and came back to the hotel in the pouring rain with a bottle of £5 cranberry vodka that is going down a treat. Heading north tomorrow to Asuncion.

 Iguaca Falls.

 Iguacu Falls.

 Butterflies at Iguacu Falls.

 Rhys happy to spot a Toucan.

 Itaipu dam.

 Ciudad del Este.

Week 1 - Rio, Ilha Grande, Paraty (Brazil)

And so it begins...

Luckily we had our 3 bits of bad luck before we'd even left the UK (wrong train ticket, bus booked for wrong day and issues with our Brazil visa, as in not having one) so our trip since we landed has been pretty relaxed. Our first 3 nights in Rio were spent at a really cute hostel on the outskirts of the Vidigal favela with views of the sea from our bunk.
 
After the standard tourist trip to Corcovado for Christ the Redeemer (camera at the ready, camera battery less prepared...) we spent most of the time walking along Ipanema and Copacobana drinking coconuts, watching the beach volleyball (Rhys is a little saddened that the beaches are not full of gorgeous girls in thongs) and trying to get our body clocks onto South American time. The guy living next door to the hostel took us up through the favela to a view point with amazing views of Rio, mostly obscured by cloud with the odd 10 seconds of clear sky.
 
Ready to get out of the city and having checked the weather forecast for sun we set out for a bus and ferry to Ilha Grande, a beautiful tropical island about 150km south of Rio with cobbled streets and trails into the forest to hidden coves. We checked in to a hostel at the back of the town in the jungle and headed in to town for dinner. We spent the next 2 days doing 12km hikes each side of town, first to a waterfall and aqueduct and then the following day to beaches. Rhys had his first glimpse of wild monkeys but as they sounded like ferocious dogs and were in the trees directly above us we didn't hang around to watch them.
 
We left Ilha Grande yesterday taking the ferry back to the mainland and a local bus on to Paraty, a UNESCO town full of white buildings with brightly coloured doors and window frames and checked in to a hostel on the beach. Dinner was BBQ pizza (!?!) and a thousand caipirihas. Today we've explored the town and searched for a bar showing the Spurs game and failing. After ice cream by the kilo (and yes, Rhys bought nearly a kilo, with rainbow sprinkles) we've come back to the hostel to chill. Here for another 2 nights, maybe kayaking tomorrow, preparing ourselves for a dreaded 20+ hour journey to Foz via Sao Paulo...

Rhys in the Vidigal Favela, Rio.

 Praia Palmas, Ilha Grande.

 Paraty old town.