Wet and Wild

As we're nearing the end of our trip some tough calls had to be made. The first of these was getting ourselves to Iguazu Falls, a 36 hours trip, including two back-to-back overnight buses, covering the 2,000km distance in one go, arghhh!

We arrived in Puetro Iguazu in the early morning. It was already hot and humid. As we stepped off the bus it hit us like a fan forced oven. I was sweating without movement......

After our recent disappointments due to bad weather we decided we'd head straight out to the falls given the current conditions were above average. We dumped our bags at the hostel, put on our swimmers (with clothes on top) and jumped onto the local bus (it was only 2 pesos vs the taxi option for 100pesos).

The first thing you notice as you approach the falls is the noise, the rumbling of water descending the 80metres and smashing into the river below. The next is the feel, the spray starts to sprinkling across your face as you head toward the edge. And then it's the visual, seeing the water glide over the top of the falls getting transformed into a twisted cloud of vapor, bouncing as high as the falls themselves. It's an epic experience.

The lookouts are accessed via walkways, suspended above the rushing water, given you amazing access to the best vantage points. It's an impressive engineering job. Once we'd seen the falls from above it was time to view them from the front.

A boat tour, how lovely.....no, how crazy! We headed down river to the launching point, as we walked we kept passing other tourists who'd just returned from their boat trip, soaking wet with smiles from ear to ear. We paid our money, we stripped down to our swimmers, got issued our lifevest and boarded the massive rubber ducky with twin 250hp outboard motors. And off we went into the water falls. The captain skillfully drove us towards the falls, with the motors on full throttle we moved into the impact zone, the boat getting smashed with water, bouncing over the waves, it was great fun (and a little scary).

After the boat ride we'd seen it all, we strolled back across the walkways toward the park entrance and with about 500m to the covered bus stop the heaven's opened and we're soaked again. We just made it.

The next morning was spend lounging beside the pool at the hostel (an old casino covered into accomodation) and then back on a bus in the afternoon, next stop Buenos Aires.

The first lookout - some serious power

covered in spray

The falls from one of the walkways

Just some of the 2.7km of falls

On route to the boats

One last photo before we head into the falls

You can see the other boats under the spray

still soaked to the skin

It's not about the bike

From the Atlantic coast we headed West into the Andes mountains. The journey itself was pretty spectacular with the road winding long the valley floor, passing snow covered mountains and deep blue lakes. Let me just say it now, the buses in Argentina are an absolute pleasure (especially compared with the crap we've endured in the rest of South America). We took the "Cama" option (that's 'bed' in Spanish), the seats are like business class on a airplane and you meals (and wine)!

First stop was the alpine town of Bariloche, sitting along side Lago Nahuel Huapi and surrounded by a number of ski resorts. In winter the town is heaving with skiers and boarders but in summer it takes on a more laid back vibe (much like any other ski town). Our first afternoon was spent scoping out town and planning the next few days. We stayed at Hostel 1004, on the 10th floor of an apartment building, the views were sublime.

Our first adventure was the famous "Circuito chico", a 25km bicycle tour around the lakes and forest. We thought to ourselves "25kms, that's nothing, should be sweet". Well, once we got underway we discovered it was a little more hilly than we'd expected (not mentioned in the guidebooks). It ended up being pretty tough work but well worth it.

We woke the next morning feeling a bit tender, which was good timing for me as the Wallabies game (against Scotland) was being shown on TV but we lost 9-8, arghhh, which meant Victoria had to endure a pretty grumpy husband for the rest of the day.

The next day need to be more active as we had dinner at the local parrilla (Argentina steak house) and polished off half a cow and a bottle of Malbec. So, we hiked to the top of the local ski mountain. The views from the top were incredible, there's nothing quite like lakes and mountains.

We'd now overdosed on lakes and mountain vistas. So, we took an overnight bus North to Mendoza, the 'wine' capital of Argentina. It's a beautiful city, enjoying wide tree covered streets and plenty of green space, but once you've done the standard "walked around the old town" there really isn't too much else to do. So, the next day we headed out to Maipu, the wine growing region on the edge of Mendoza, for our bicycle wine tasting tour. We picked up some wheels from "Mr Hugo", an old guy who offers free wine at the end of your tour, and off we went in search of wine!

It was a fun day but not quite what we expected. The tour was actually just us cycling down a semi-main road (B-road in UK) stopping at the various wineries which offered tastings. it wasn't quite the same as the picturesque image we'd developed in our heads. Nevertheless, we made it five wineries, ranging from boutique labels (around 70,000 bottles per year) to the massive Trapiche operation (over 5 million annually). Although, after the first couple of glasses it all tasted the same.......

So, after a little over a week of mountains and boozing it was time for something special, next stop Puerto Iguazu.

Mountains, lakes, Victoria, Justin

Rollin' on my sweet ride

Dos águilas (Two eagles)

The view of Bariloche from our hostel room (seriously)

About half way around the Curcuito Chico

At the lunch spot

Victoria crusin' on our wine tour

Outside our favourite winery "Tommaso"

"mmmm, has this been aged in American oak?"

In the nerve centre

Glacier threat to Bolivia capital

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8394324.stm

Fears are growing for the future of water supplies in one of Latin America's fastest-growing urban areas - Bolivia's sprawling city of La Paz.

A whale of a time

Our next stop was Puerto Madryn, for some whale watching, after another 24hr overnight bus trip. We arrived in the afternoon with enough time to book our tour for the next day. The tours head out to the Pennisula Valdes, which is a protected animal reserve where Southern Right Whales come every year to give birth to their young, before heading south to Antarctica in December to feed on krill. We weren't sure what to expect as we'd heard you might (or might NOT) see any whale on the tour but we were blown away.

Our boat tour took us into the bay and immediately we came across a mother and calf (it was feeding time). Unfortunately they swam away from the boat, so we left them in search of more action. Before long we found a inquisitive and playful calf, about 4 months old and already 10 metres long. It was spashing its flippers (apparently signalling to its mother), showing us its tail and then it came within a metre of the boat. It swam underneath and around the boat for about half an hour, and as it swam off it jumped out of the water (called breaching) about 3 times into the distance. A perfect tour they say when it comes to whale watching. We were absolutely stunned with how many whales were in the bay, we could see lots of them also in the distance. A very special place.

After a short lunch stop, we continued north up the coast and spied on some baby elephant seals, not very interesting as they lay on the beach and did not move. We were hoping to see an Orca (Killer Whale) jump out of the water and feast on one of the seals but no such luck (Justin was very disappointed). We also visited a colony of Magellanic penguins, most of them sitting on their eggs waiting for them to hatch, we saw two tiny penguins no bigger than about 8cm´s tall, very cute.

What a day, we hit the jackpot. Another unforgettable experience.

The whale watching Boat

The whale calf showing off for the crowd


That's a flipper

(and yes, my camera lens now has dirt on the inside of the lens)


Some tail action

The calf breaching, just amazing

Excited about the whale show

Elephant seals (fat, lazy and stupid)


A couple of penguins (very cute)

.........and busting some moves

Going, going, gone to Patagonia

So, after a great weekend in Buenos Aires, and a sad farewell to Alicia, we jumped on a plane to Patagonia, landing in the town of El Calafate. What a shock it was getting off the plane, it was only about 5 degrees with a pretty nasty wind chill factor. We checked into our hostel, booked a tour for the following day and went out for dinner. We went to a Parrilla restaurant called 'Don Pichon' overlooking the lake (with snow capped mountains in the background). A beautiful setting to polish off a kilogram of meat washed down with a local Malbec. NB; Patagonian lamb is by far the best lamb we've tasted, check out the photo below for how it's cooked!

The next morning we were on the bus at 8am to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, just spectacular. We had a little rain in the morning but it didn't ruin the day as the clouds help to highlight the cracks in the glacier. We took a boat trip to the southern face of the glacier, getting within about 200 metres. The glacier is huge, it measures 30km long, 5km wide and 60m high. A funny story on the boat, as you can imagine everyone is trying to get the best vantage point for their photos, well at one point an old lady almost pushed Justin overboard trying to improve her spot, which had plenty of the other passengers quite amused and the old lady just stood in front of us, oblivious of what had happened. After the boat trip we headed to the north face of the glacier, across the long boardwalk which ran along the side of the glacier. We could heard the glacier constantly cracking, but as the guide said to us, by the time you hear the cracking, the ice has already fallen. We didn't see much ice action unfortunately.

The following day we headed to El Chalten, a 4 hour bus ride from El Calafate, a base for hiking the local mountain range, which includes Fitz Roy and the Torre. We arrived on a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, so the mountains were out in their glory, absolutely spectacular scenery. We planned to climb to the base of Fitz Roy the follwing day, but we woke to rain. Lucky for Justin Australia was playing rugby so we hung out in the hostel for the morning. In the afternoon we walked up to the mirador (lookout) in hope of a sighting of Fitz Roy again, but no joy, we would try again the next day.

We were up early the following day to cover the 25km walk we'd planned. This time we were going, rain, hail or shine. It was almost sunny, the clouds had lifted, however a single cloud sat on top of the Fitz Roy all day, so again no perfect sighting. Our walk took us past an amazing glacier, a few lakes and to base camp overlooking the valley and a frozen lake. There were a few snow flakes as we reached to base camp, a sign that more clouds were moving in, so we headed back to town quick smart.

Overall, an unforgettable experience in Patagonia, what an incredible place.

Aproaching the glacier

The glaicer from the boat

And from the viewing platform

(yes, i have dust inside the lens of my camera)

The Fitz Roy (the shark fin shape on the right)

and Cerro Torre (It's the pointy mountain on the left side)

One of the glaciers below the Fitz Roy

The lunch spot

The lake below the base of Fitz Roy (in the clouds, again)

Don't cry for me Argentina

We made it to Argentina, the last country on our tour of South America, and it's arrived quickly (we can't believe we're already on the home stretch). Our month in Argentina started with a weekend in Buenos Aires (that's BA for short) and what a place to start. After months of travelling (and sometimes 'battling') through the rest of South Amercia, BA was a pleasure, it's almost like a European city (it's was like being in Barcelona). Of course, BA does have a dangerous side but it's well hidden from the nicer downtown areas.

We arrived around midday on a Saturday and headed straight to Palermo. It's the Notting Hill of BA, north of the centro, with plenty of cafes and boutique shops. The girls felt right at home. Our first meal was lunch, enjoying a massive steak and a couple of bottle of vino tinto. Now we'd really arrived in Argentina. The rest of the day we walked off the lunch, just window shopping.

Saturday night was a boomer. We'd pulled together a formidable crew of animals, including; Simon and Trish (Aussie mates from London, in BA for the weekend, on their own world tour) , our Florianopolis crew Omid and Paul and we still had Alicia with us. Fortunately, one of Simon's Argy mates had organised us a VIP table at the 'Asia de Cuba' club in BA. We arrived at 11pm, I think the sun was coming up when we departed, and the rest is a blur. Needless to say, Sunday was a write off.

Monday was much more productive. We took a bicycle tour around the older parts of BA, through San Telmo, Boca and downtown. The tour also took us passed the infamous Boca Juniors stadium 'La Bombonera' ( translated as 'the chocolate box'). Dinner was another steak and bottle of red wine, again, it was lovely! On Tuesday we checked out the Recoleta Cemetery, home to some of the most influential and important (dead) Argentinians. It's rather ostentatious and a little creepy but worth seeing.

Tuesday night was our 'La Cabrera' dinner, and we're still talking about it. The restaurant is one of the hundreds of steak houses in BA but this place was special. It could be one of the best steak i've ever had, which is a massive call, I know. I had the 'Bife de Lomo', an 800 gram filet steak which melted in my mouth, just awesome. And yes, i finished it all. It was also our last dinner with Alicia, Omid and Paul as we were all going our seperate ways on Wednesday. So, a fitting end to a great couple of weeks with the crew.

Wednesday we said goodbye to Alicia and headed to the airport. Our next stop was Patagonia.

There's a Nike store in Palermo

The P12 crew back together again

Victoria, Trish and Poo (aka: Simon)

Tori and Omid in the saddle

Omid, Alicia and Paul in San Telmo main square

(where the yellow fever plague started in the 19th Century)

Victoria in Boca

Meat, meat, meat (and Pedro)

Happy snaps from Brasil

Check out our photos from Brasil, just click on the link (no log in required)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=justindiddams&target=ALBUM&id=5407323174525894081&authkey=Gv1sRgCM2H8IHK0I3PpAE&feat=email

(NB: I've downloaded 'pixresizer' which means uploading photos takes 5 minutes NOT 5 hours, this would have been very helpful about 3 months ago......)

Florianopolis....a touch of paradise

Another overnight bus and we were in Florianopoils. The trip itself was pretty uneventful, although Alicia wasn't too happy being stuck next to a 'smelly' man (who climbed over her each time the bus stopped, every 4 hours). We were staying near a beach called Praia Mole, at a hostel called Sunset Backpackers. It was one of the nicest settings, for a hostel, that we've seen on our travels. The place was perched at the top of a hill overlooking a massive lagoon, with a sweeping balcony and the sun shining, it was welcome to paradise! We booked two private rooms as Princess Alicia wanted her own room, fortunately both our rooms had little balconies overlooking the lake, so what a perfect setting for some relaxation.

We arrived on a Sunday of a long weekend, and on the Monday there was a big party at a club called P12 located at Jurere Beach, it's run by the same mob as Pacha. We weren´t too sure what to expect but decided to go, and aren´t we glad we did. The club had a massive swimming pool surrounded by white sun lounges, a huge dancefloor and plenty of bars. And as the place filled up with the local gliterati it started to crank up. We were there with a couple of guys from our hostel, Paul from Sydney and Omid for London. Justin was happy to have some 'man friends' after hanging out with Hannah, Alicia and me for the last two weeks. So, the drinks started flowing at 1pm and didn´t stop all day. The day went by in a blurr, definitely a highlight! Tuesday was basically a right off, although we did make it down to the beach.

And the rest of the week was 'mucho relaxo', spending most days at the beach. Our local beach 'Praia Mole' was only a 5 minute walk down the hill, a nice little beach with a few cafes but nothing too serious. Apparently it's also the local gay beach, although we had no confirmed sightings (they must have been hiding at the nudest beach just over the rocks). The other beach we enjoyed was Joaquina Beach, about a half an hour walk away, this is the local surf beach which spans some kilometres, it reminded us of Australian beaches.

Our nights were pretty casual, enjoying a few beers (and caipirinha) on the balcony at sunset followed by dinner at the hostel. Our low key approach was also partly driven by the cost of going out in Brasil. The prices in restuarants, bars and nightclubs are almost on par with some European holiday resorts. And we're travelling on the British Peso (previous know as the Pound).

A relaxing week in paradise was great preparation for the chaos of our next stop, a weekend in Buenos Aires.

The view at breakfast from the Sunset backpackers

Sunset from our private balcony


The girls enjoying the sun at P12

The happy couple (pool side)

Hitting the pool


The team (early days)


Smashing up the D-floor (much later)

Celebrity blogger - Hannah Diddams - My week in Rio

I didn’t know what to expect as my taxi pulled up in front of the apartment in Ipanema Beach. Justin and Tori had been on the road for months – would they be different? My first thought was how much they had changed but after spending a week with my brother and his wife I was reassured to see that they were the same as ever under those layers of South American grim and beard (Justin anyway).

The first thing I noticed about the married couple was how thin they both are. The Diddams’ (yes Tors you are one of us now!) are not known for our slender frames but all that hauling of backpacks and dysentery must be working for them. They look great! Behind Justin’s ginger beard lies a very thin and prominent jaw line.

Our week consisted of healthy eating, sunshine (not enough of it though) and exercise. Yes, you heard right. Most days began running along the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema or around the Lagoon. After feasting on a healthy breakfast of fresh Papaya and bran (again, very healthy) we would head down to the beach. Tori and Justin looked a couple of hippies with their Peruvian hessian bags slung across their tanned bods. Definitely in stark contract to the somewhat pasty New Yorker stood beside them.

On the beach, it felt like Jonny D had been reincarnated as Justin lounged about ordering beers and snacks from the local vendors. These guys pace up along the beach selling their wares - everything from Bikinis to jewellery, beers to fried cheese on coals. The beach is definitely where Rio shines her best, as the clouds hover over the mountains behind and the Atlantic brings in a cool breeze.

Sadly the rains came for several days during the middle of the week, which forced us to leave the beach and get cultural. These trips included visiting the old colonial-style village of Santa Teresa and riding he tram back to hustle and bustle of the main business ‘Centro’. We passed the hours drinking coffees and beers and hearing all the amazing stories from J + Ts excellent adventures through South America.

Another afternoon we headed to the 'Rosina' favela, one of the famous favelas of Rio. This close-up and somewhat sanitised look into life in the Favela was an interesting intersection of touristic voyeurism and a Favela PR mission – we did not see any drugs, guns or crime. The only people we did see where the ”foot solider” with walkie talkies that called in our arrival into the Favela.

Whilst on the surface it appeared that Justin and Tori had become the hippy-loving Gandhis of South America, it was comforting to see the old habits never die. The hippy lifestyle did not extend far enough to food and booze. One evening we went for dinner at a Churrascaria restaurant. This marathon of meat eating began with the tastiest beef on a long metal skewer sliced off straight onto our plates. This we washed down with delicious red wine. We were given these little circular disks with green 'Go' on one side and red “stop” on the other. Believe me, by the end we made sure the disk was turned to “stop” as we could not handle another round of salted beef. Suffice to say that night we all had some crazy 'meat' dreams!

It was a very special week of catching up and swapping stories. I loved hearing the all the details of their travels. They seem to have taken to the backpacker life and I get the sense that this will not be the last adventure Justin and Victoria (and possible plus one?!!) will embark on in the future. And as for me…. It’s back to New York to dream of Caipirinhas in the sun for another day!

Lots of love, Hannah

We´re going to Rio.....de Janiero

We finally arrived in Rio de Janiero on a Friday after our 2 day trek from Bolivia to Brasil, which had turned into a 'planes, trains and automobiles' mission (well, it was a bus not a train but pretty tough going). And expectations were running high. Rio would be our first taste of 'quasi' western civilisation in 3 months and we had some international visitors arriving, Hannah (my sister from New York) and Alicia (our mate from London). So, Victoria and I set about finding some suitable accomodation for these working girls taking a break from the hustle and bustle. We found a two bedroom apartment in Ipanema, one block from the beach, and right in the middle of the action.

And then there was three - Hannah arrived around midday on Saturday, we moved in the apartment, grabbed some lunch and headed straight for the beach. I'd say we had a 'semi-relaxing' day at the beach, as we were joined by a couple of thousand Brasilians and suffered the constant hounding of various 'beach sellers' offering everything from beers, ice tea, prawns on a stick, jewellery, rugs to cooked cheese (yes, cheese, and it was awesome). That night we decided to have a relatively quite night as Han had just arrived. We got home around 3am (opps), after plenty of drinks, a vigorous search for the local kebab shop and Victoria shouting 'hola' to all the street cleaners, classic stuff.

After a few days at the beach we decided it was time for some cultural activities, and the forecast was for rain from Tuesday to Thursday. We took a taxi into the centro, had a look around downtown and checked out the old neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, with it's cobled street and old tramway, it was all interesting stuff. That night we had dinner at the local churrascaria (it's one of those famous 'all you can eat' barbeque restuarants in Rio). What a meal, we tore that place up, there was so much meat! About half way thru my meal I suffered from a mild case of 'meat sweats', it was just to much protein.

On the Wednesday it was more culture. We went on a 'favela tour', a guided walk thru one of the 'safer' favelas in Rio (a favela is a shanty town in Brasil). What an eye opening experience, with the majority of people living in some tough conditions. The worst we encountered was the occasional menacing looking teenager, interestingly, most people we encounter were reasonably cheerful, although we did take the 'gringo' route through the favela. Later that evening we had our first taste of Samba, attending a 'carnival' practice session for the Salgueiro suburb of Rio (winner of 2009 carnival), the hall had over 100 drummers and another 500 people singing and dancing, they rocked the place.

And then there was four - Alicia arrived on Thursday night, we had a couple of drinks to catch up but nothing crazy. We woke Friday morning to blue sky! It was time to hit the 'Corcovado', the massive Jesus statue sitting above Rio. However, by the time we reached the statue some light cloud had come in obsuring the statue and the view of Rio, slightly disappointing but that's travelling. So, to ease our woes we headed to the beach for the rest of the day, enjoying the sun, a few beers and the cooked cheese, awesome. On Friday night we had our last dinner with Hannah (departing Saturday) and our first with Alicia in a nice little restaurant in Ipanema. After dinner we jumped in a taxi to Lapa (home to samba clubs and discotheques), our first stop was the 'Rio Scenarium' a multi-level club, needless to say, it ended up being quite a large night.

We woke up on Saturday, hung...... We hit the beach for a few hours, then cleaned the apartment and it was time to depart. And that was Rio. Next stop Florianopolis.

The girls rollin' on Copacobana beach

Meat, meat, meat and more meat! (check the waiter, what a prowler)

The view from the top of our favela tour

Salgueiro carnival rehearsal

Justin's Angels !

The view was promising on route to Jesus statue.........

......and then clouds at the top, arghhh