Rio de Janeiro

I am in Rio now. Well it's been quite a while since my last post. Mainly because I haven't been doing too many touristic activities. Also, over the last two days I have been having troubles uploading my pictures. I do not have anything exciting to report but I will post some pictures I have taken here over the last week. Rio is a beautiful city.

Fran (Francesco Barillaro)and Nany, have been kind enough to let me crash at their place while I am here. He lives in a burrow of Rio called Santa Teresa. It's quite a beautiful area, full of artists, quaint restaurants, pubs, and many old homes, many of which have been converted into apartments.


Fran's the man


A room with a view

I suppose the only thing I can really do is explain how I have spent the last week here. Let's see...

Saturday, the 22nd: Fran plays soccer on Saturday so Nany and Carol took Mike and I to a local surfers beach, Grumari. We met up with Fran for lunch and that night we went to a bar called Melt.


First Beach we went to... wait, there's no beach.


I think my white skin scared the people away.

Sunday, the 23rd: Did someone say beach? This time it was Ipanema. Nany was baby sitting Maria, which for some reason I have no pictures of her. However, I was the only one besides Nany which she allowed to carry her. Fran tried and made her cry! I also bought my first pair of Havianas.


Right near da beach... boeeeeey!

Monday, 24th: Corcovado and the Christ statue. Instead of paying R$15 each we decided to walk up.


View from Corcovado


Camera stand off

Tuesday, 25th: Hey don't they have beaches in Rio... maybe I should check one out while I am here. It's amazing that I can go to the beach for three entire days and come out just as white as I started. After the beach, Fran took us to a Brazilian BBQ. It's an all-you-can-eat for R$20 which includes salad, sushi, deli meats... oh and people come around with platters of piping hot meat and cut a portion off for you at the table.


Beach Feet

Wednesday, 26th: No Beach?!?! Instead Mike and I ventured off to a local park, Parque do Largo. A very beautiful park complete with old mansion, castle turret, caves, aquarium and waterfalls.


Humid


Turret

Thursday, 27th: In an attempt to know Rio better I decide to follow the LP Guide's walking tour of downtown. However, not wanting to take the entire book with me I wrote down the important street names and sites. We did not find half of them.


A Cathedral?!?


Teh Libary!1!

Friday, 28th: Did almost nothing during the day. At night I went to the burrow of Lapa. There you drink on the street, buying beer off vendors while you hop from bar to bar. Good times.

Saturday, 29th: Apparently, I could not be woken up so everyone headed off to watch Fran play soccer and left me behind. sniffle. Did nothing because I did not feel like site seeing in the rain.

Today I am taking a tour of Santa Teresa. Will probably post that either tonight or tomorrow. Should be some nice pictures.

Iguaçu Falls

So leaving Buenos Aires I headed for the Puerto Iguazu and the boarder. Within 30 minutes of being in P. Iquazu I had my Brazilian Visa. That's right... It only took them 15 minutes to process my visa application and I was on my way. Instead of spending a night in Argentina I jumped on a bus for Brazil. First stop, Foz do Iguaçu. Iguazu, or Igauçu, depending on which side of the border you are on, is a large group of waterfalls that straddle the Argentina-Brazil border. However, before I could see the falls I had to meet up with Mike, who was flying in from Rio the following day.


Together Again

The day after, Mike and I headed to the Brazilian side of the falls. They are supposed to be the less impressive side so we decided to do them first. Also, we went out drinking the night before so getting up early and heading to Argentina wasn't likely. There we were warned of the rabid raccoons that stalked the area. Raccoons in South America? My ass! They were some brown coati looking things, not raccoons by far. The Brazilian side of the falls only took about 2 hours to explore, not too impressive.


Our racoons can kick your racoons' asses!!


Mike and Stephanie... at least I think it was Stephanie


Mike loves Rainbows!

The following day, today, we managed to get ourselves on a tour to the Argentinean side. This side is supposed to be far more impressive because the majority of the falls lay on this side. In Brazil you can only see the largest fall, the Devil's Throat. Yup, probably the third Devil's Throat I have seen in South America. Apparently he gets around. The tour took all day, however, do to the fact that it was the dry season, many of the minor falls were either mere trickles or dried out all together. However, the view of the Devil's Throat was far superior. I actually took a movie of the falls, much more impressive than the pictures, but have no idea how to host it on Blogger, so no movie for you.


The Splendor


Devil's Throat


I finally have someone to take pictures of!


Downstream


Always celebrate a successful tour with a drink.

Besides all the natural beauty of the falls, there were also some amusing signs... at least I think they are amusing... THEY ARE AMUSING.


Do not feed the animals hamburgers!


The railings are NOT for limbo.


Do not teleport into falling rocks.


Please do not hump the railings.


Absolutely no dancing in the park.


That means on the stairs too.

Well now I am off the Rio to visit Mike's brother... my last stop on this trip.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

A Night In Buenos Aires

Well, it's just past 4 o'clock here in the afternoon and I have yet to go to sleep from last night. It all started by making plans to go out with a couple of locals whom I met a week previous. So Erika, Rosi and I met for pizza at the typical hour of 11:00PM. We had plans to go to the NiceTo Discotheque where we had met the week before, however, it was far too early to go the club. No one shows up before 2:00AM. So instead we head to a bar, around 12:30AM where for the first time on my travels I ordered a Manhattan and they didn't screw it up.

After thoroughly enjoying my drink we paid the bill and headed to the club at an unusually early hour, 1:30AM. NiceTo, which also has the second name Club 69 for reasons beyond me, is apparently the only good place on Thursday nights. It consists of two bars, which for reason I believe only exists to annoy people, you have to pay for your drinks in a different place than you get them. Not an extremely large club it is almost all dance floor, with a upper level that is for VIPs. There is also a stage where shows are preformed. Last night on stage there was a couple sessions from what appeared to be a B-Boy dance troupe. These sessions were broken up by what i can only describe as an all male burlesqueesque KISS airband. Again, no idea. The night at the club was a typical night; drinking, dancing, and laughing at the really, really drunk guy who can barely stand up.

However, before I reached the club I was supposed to go to a bank machine as my funds were running low. So when I reached my last two pesos I was feeling kinda bummed. However, my friends decided to treat me to a few drinks, thanks. By the end of the night Rosi managed to wave down a one of the VIPs to dance with her. At the closing of the club, 7:00AM, the four of us decided to go for coffee. Leaving the club I instinctively went to hail a cab. However, VIP stopped me stating that he drove to the club, pointing in the direction of his automobile. As I turned to look I saw he was pointing a quite a nice and relatively new Audi... this man had money.

edit: I forgot to mention at one point of the night a straw managed to jump into my eye, or the other way around I'm not sure. Anyhow, I think I scratched my cornea because everytime I blink it feels like something is in my eye. However, since my vision wasn't impaired I'm sure it'll heal itself.

We went for coffee and those disgusting ham and cheese thin bread sandwiches with no crusts thingys everyone eats here. After about an hour VIP asks if we want to take his boat out for a spin. ¡OF COURSE WE DID! We all piled back into the Audi and headed for his boat. After about 45 minutes of driving we arrived at the marina. The boat was forklifted out of the pleasure craft storage hanger and we all got in. The plan was to go his families house out on some island but we didn't have enough gas. So instead we did a little tour of the proximate area and then VIP decided it was time for a nap in the middle of the river. Not much of a problem but the time is now around 11:00AM and Erika has to work tonight at 9:00PM. After the three of us made enough subtle noises to wake him up, we headed back to the marina. After this it was decided that we were going to his house, decided by the driver, Mr. VIP of course. I had the idea that I wasn't getting to bed anytime soon.

edit: I forgot to mention that the boat stalled every 10 minutes and required about 5 minutes to get it started again.

We arrived at his house, quite outside the main area of Buenos Aires, and he decided to take another nap. For some reason, at some point, I decided to take a look in my wallet. ¡CRAP! ¿Where the hell is my bank card?. After some serious thinking, well not too serious, I have been up for over 24 hours at this point, I deduced that I must have, in typical Keith fashion, left it in the last bank machine I used. Well, here's the current situation. Keith has 2 pesos in his pocket, has no bank card, has a paid for a bus ticket to the Brazilian border for Sunday night, and the only possible place it may be is at a bank that closes for the weekend in two hours. We explain the situation to VIP and he agrees that it is time to leave. We pile back in the Audi and head off...

To a restaurant about 5 minutes away. He jumps out and goes inside to order food. I now have only 1 hour and 15 minutes before I am royally screwed. Oh have I forgot to mention that everyone, but me of course, speaks Spanish. So Erika attempts to tell me she will lend me 200 pesos, and that I should take a taxi back into town. ¿The money? I can pay here back tomorrow. ¡Thanks Erkia! So after some consideration, cause at this point I thought it was a lost cause, I accept the money and hail a cab.

I ask the taxi driver to take me to my hostel so I can pick up ID that I will probably need to claim my card. He tells me the ride will cost me 60 pesos and take around half an hour, mas o menus. On the way he decided to ask for directions from a toll-booth attendant. Half an hour later, only 30 minutes left, we reach the edge of downtown Buenos Aires. I now have no time to go to the hostel and still make it to the bank. I tell the taxi driver the new address, to which he promptly rolls down his window and asks the neighboring car how to get there. CRAP again. Mid-day traffic, 30 minutes left, and a taxi driver who doesn't know how to get to a address about 20 minutes away involving a lot of turns, due to the 1-way street system here.

I decide the subway would be faster than this baffoon and redirect him once again to the closest Subte station. I jump up out of the cab a block away and run to the station, buy my ticket and head for the station next to the bank. With 10 minutes left I reach the bank. After talking to three people and using a torn photocopy of my passport as ID I got back my bank card. ¡OLE! I left the bank around 3:15PM and made my way back to the hostel.

And here I am... probably one of the more interesting nights I have had down here. There was drinking, dancing, new characters, expensive cars, coffee, high speed boating, narcolepsy, adventure, long distance cab rides, subway chases, and don't forget the ever present language barrier.

Well, that's my story. Apparently it's one of the English chaps in the hostel's birthday today. I gotta get some sleep... sounds like it may be a long night.

Life and Death

So I have attempted to do some sight seeing in Buenos Aires. The main problem is knowing where to go. The LP guide, aka the book of lies, recommends various burrows of Buenos Aires to visit, but when I get there I have no idea where to go or what to see. So far I have managed to go to the Zoo, the botanical gardens, and the Recoletta Cemetery.

The first stop was the zoo. Why the zoo? Because I didn't know where else to go... the Eva Peron museum does not interest me in the least. The zoo was actually quite nice, and it was so far the only green space in Argentina that wasn't filled with people making out. Something to do with everyone lives with their parents so they go to parks to make out. Anyhow, back to the zoo, pronounced sue in Argentina. They had lions, and tigers and bears, OH MY!. sorry. All the cages seemed quite small but I guess that is the case for most zoos. One cool thing was you could feed all the herbivores. But describing a zoo is a little pointless, so here are some pictures.


Wannabe Beavers


Glub Glub


Hip-hop-anonymous?


My Fellow Canadians

On another day I made my was to the Recoletta Cemetery. This is where are the rich Argentinean families are buried. This is also the resting place of Eva Peron, however, here tomb is nothing really interesting so I have no pictures of that. And yes Sarah, there were some flowers there. Over all, the cemetery is quite impressive. Many of the tombs span multiple generation, some have fallen into disrepair, and others are still kept immaculate. All the entrances lead to underground burial areas. Everything above ground is just for show.


The Witch-king of Angmar


Reflecting on death


Ever watchful


He was a humble man...


The taller your tombstone, the less distance to heaven.

Last but not least I visited the Botanical Gardens. The the former places, the gardens were easily identifiable on my tourist map... as well as close to a subway station. Not much to say about them, there was various forms of plants and stuff. Oh yeah, and there were cats... lots of cats.


Lady of the Lake


Did I mention the cats?


Plants of the non-stone-throwing variety.

Well that's it. Big City, not much to take pictures of. Still haven't rented that bike yet. I was going to tomorrow, but I have to go back to the Brazilian Consulate because they wanted proof that I was even going to Brazil. Apparently the fact that my flight home departs from Brazil isn't good enough. They need my bus ticket to Brazil. See everyone in 3 weeks!

Cordoba... The Boozingest Place on Earth

It has been quite a while since I last made an update. Not because of laziness, well a little because of laziness, but mostly, it is impossible to find a computer with both a USB port and running windows XP. Without this combination I cannot upload pictures to the computer. So once again comes a boring, pictureless update.

So I last left off in Mendoza. I never did end up visiting those wineries. Mostly just hung around the city. Soon after the last update I left Mendoza and made my way to Cordoba. Cordoba is a university town, and thus there are a lot of young people and a lot of drinking. I myself started of on the first day, heading to none other than Costa Cañada. I found out that a cañada is one of those drainage canals that you see in LA and places like that (for more information, rent Terminator 2 from your local video rental store). The next day I again visited Costa Cañada... well it's the only place open on Monday and Tuesdays.

Wednesday I managed to pull myself together and make my way to Alta Gracia. This small town used to be where the Argentinean Oligarchy summered. It was where the family of Ernesto Che Guevara spent there summers also. The house that the family normally rented has been turned into a museum, mainly focused on Che's youth. Apparently he did a lot more than make those t-shirts of himself you see everywhere. That night I headed back to Cordoba and the night life.


Inside the House of Che

One day I took the bus out to the main Universidad de Cordoba campus. The university seems to be centralized around the medical program. After checking the map I made my was to the Inst.de Biol. Celular. To my dismay, I think it was the oldest, smallest, most graffitied building on the campus. After much exploring I eventually found a modern biology building. However, no genetic labs. Also, in Argentina, they will not allow a visitor access to building containing the labs. I was hoping to do a little poster recon.


Piece of Crap

A few days later I managed to make a day trip to the city of La Falda. Yes, yes, the same La Falda that is home to Universidad de Morons... or in english Moron University. One of the probably worst universities to see on a resume, well next to University Wiener, in Lima, Peru. La Falda is a big summer resort town for Argentineans, and therefore, in mid-winter, everything was closed. I walked 30 minutes to The Lake of Ducks. However, by ducks I think they meant geese, and by lake they meant a 4 by 8 concrete pool. No matter, there was still the miniature train museum, mentioned in the LP Guide of course. Nope... only open on Weekends. Oh well... back to Cordoba!!


No trains for me


Moron University

I eventually was able to sober up long enough to decide to get out of Cordoba. I bought a ticket to Buenos Aires and 10 hours later I was here. Personally I think I preferred Cordoba. Buenos Aires is so big and there is no real centralization of anything. In Cordoba they had the pedestrian streets where you did your shopping, the plazas where you had your coffee, restaurant and bar streets. Everything was easy to find. The one club I did go to here cost me $15 pesos in a taxi to get there (about a 15-20 minute drive). So far I have done some foot exploring. Today I went to the zoo. Tomorrow I have plans with some locals I met to go to Recoleta, which I think is a richer area of town that contains a graveyard where all the rich and important people are buried... like Evita and so forth. Also I have plans to rent a bike and visit a wildlife refuge nearby.

Okay that is all for now... maybe if I do find a computer I will update the last two blogs with pictures and the like.

Mendoza

Nothing really to report, just thought I would check in. So I have made my way from Cafayate to Mendoza. I haven't really done much here in the three days I have been here. I was forced to take a sleeping bus to get here because it was the only bus that ran between Tucaman and Mendoza at night. It was quite an experience. Seats that convert to completely horizontal beds, free wine and drinks, two full meals... all for only a 12 hour bus ride.

However, I ended up sleeping with my head too close to the window and arrived in Mendoza with a nasty sore throat. The following day it turned into a full blow sinus cold. Sinus Cold plus High Altitude Tour equals No Bueno. While I did get to see the highest mountain outside the Himalayas and a natural bridge crated by hot spring sediment, I think I broke my right ear. Upon returning from the tour my ear would not equalize with the ambient pressure no matter how hard I tried. Currently it is okay unless I tilt my head forward, then it feels like it is plugged with water. Hopefully it will fix itself?


I'm a sucker for sunrises


Sunrise with a vicuña


Snowmen? In South America?


Natural Bridge

Sorry, no pictures today. They are not worth the time it takes to upload them. I think I will be here for a couple more days. I am taking the day off to watch the Argentina game and let myself recover a little more. Then I may rent a bike and go visit some Bodegas... "say it with me now, BO-DE-GA". No, not that kind of Bodega, Bodegas are what they call wineries in Argentina, and Mendoza is wine city. I can visit more than six with less than 12 kms of biking.

I am a little ahead of schedule now so I have to make some additional plans on where to visit. But first I have to watch Argentina beat Mexico... cyas


Post Football Celebration

Beautiful Argentina

Well from my last update you should know I am in Argentina. I spent a couple days relaxing in Salta. I didn't accomplish much in Salta in the terms of a travelliing tourist, however, I did enjoy the ability to get proper coffee. I almost went mad having to drink the Nescafe instant crap in both Peru and Bolivia. So Salta is a quite cheap and beautiful city, full of friendly and beautiful people.


Salta From Above


Putting the God back in gaudy

Leaving Salta, Gerrome and I headed for Cachi, a little town three hours south of Salta. There I visited some unexcavated ruins. In otherwords a series of crumbled walls... not impressive at all. However, luckly that night was holiday for a guacho (cowboy), who was an important general in the war for Argentinian independance. The festival ws quite nice, filled with traditional northern dress and dancing.


North Argentina! C'mon and raise up.

The next day we left for Cafayate. This was my planned destination after Salta, but I'm glad I made the detour to Catchi. There is so much to do in Cafayate... too much to do! I went on a tour to two local wineries and a goat cheese factory...


¡Agentinians drink wine by the barrel!

Hiked to a river valley, but didn't have enough time to reach the waterfall...


You can touch but don't drink

And went on a valley tour/hike of various natural rock formations.


Devil's Throat

I still have some ruins I would like to visit, the largest and oldest in Argentina, and a tour of the local sand dunes on ATVs. I don't know if I'll have time for both though as I plan to leave tomorrow. I'm not sure where but I want to hit as many villages between Salta and Mendoza as possible.

After that I think it will be straight to Buenos Aires by July 9th. I turns out both the World Cup final and Argentina's Independance Day are on July 9th. I can only imagine the party in Argentina makes it to the finals... but with the way they have been playing it is not impossible. GO ARGENTINA!!!