Brazil
Rio de Janeiro:
After a very unpleasant journey from La Paz, our first day in Rio consisted of catching up on our sleep and recovering from some dodgy Empanadas (pasty-like snacks) eaten in Lima airport. Feeling better the next day we took the cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain and took in the amazing views of Rio on what was a hot clear day. We also met our first Scots of the trip, an oil-worker who was in Rio to get married and his mum and dad who were over for the wedding. His future wife was also there and having seen her, I can only assume that he must have an unbelievable personality.
We stayed in Rio for a week and that week included lazy days lying on Copacabana beach, sun-bathing and watching the unbelievably skilled futvolei games, taking a tour of one of the favellas (organised obviously, we didn’t just stumble into it), going to the Maracana to watch a Flamengo game (amazing stadium but was not even half-full so atmosphere was disappointing), visiting the Vasco de Gama stadium and also trying the local, delicious Caiprinhas (traditional very-strong cocktail) in the hostel. We also met up with Paul Tod, a brother of one of Joan’s friends Merrick, who stays in Rio. We watched the Champions League final with him and many beers later he took us to a Samba club and managed to persuade the bouncers that our bank cards were valid forms of I.D. He’s a top man and hopefully we’ll catch up with him when he makes his annual trip to Scotland in December.
São Paulo:
After Rio we started to head south and the first stop was São Paolo. It’s an enormous city and is more of an industrial, business centre. To give you an idea of its size, it’s estimated that 3 million people ride the Metro, every day! While there, we went to the National Football museum which is in the Pacaembu (Corinthians stadium), went up the Banespa building which offers good views of the city and attended the São Paolo derby between São Paolo and Palmeiras at the Morumbi (the second largest stadium in Brazil). Again, we expected a big crowd and a good atmosphere but were disappointed as the stadium was only a quarter full.
Attempting to cross a road during rush hour in São Paolo is rather tricky to say the least. Our record was 15 minutes waiting for an opportunity to cross. Judging by the guy who managed to cross in less than 30 seconds, it really pays to get tanked up before attempting it.
Curitiba:
Really only a stop-off on the way to Iguazu, we stayed a night in Curitiba. There’s not an awful lot to see and do here but we took the bus tour which stopped at quite a cool museum and went up the Tv Tower to get a view of the city. We decided to seek out a German-style pub/restaurant mentioned in the guide book and having eventually found it, feasted on Bratwurst and had a couple of German style beers to celebrate Germany’s Eurovision victory earlier that night! The overriding memory of Curitiba, however, is of the receptionist in the hostel who was the most rude, unhelpful cow we’ve come across on the whole trip.
Foz do Iguaçu:
We arrived in Foz do Iguaçu quite late at night and I discovered that I had booked the wrong hostel. There were 2 hostels with the same name listed, one in the town and one several kms out of town but closer to the actual waterfalls. After an expensive taxi-ride we got to the hostel (which was actually really nice!) and were told that a trip to the falls was organised for the next day. It was going to the Argentinian side of the falls which we had been told got you closer to the falls than on the Brazilian side, where a more panoramic view was offered. So next day we crossed the border (stopping for an hilarious, wacky photo on the border-line!) and entered the national park. Technically this should be filed under Argentina as it took place there but we were staying the night in Brazil so I’m classifying it as such!
If you ever get the chance to visit the Iguazu Falls, then I cannot recommend them enough, it was amazing. From the views of the smaller falls to being taken in a boat under some of the falls (and getting totally soaked) to the incredible viewpoint at the Devil’s Throat where the largest waterfall cascades over the edge, it was a fantastic day. So much so that we decided we didn’t need to see the Brazilian side the next day and would instead cross the border again to Argentina and head to Buenos Aires.
Argentina:
Buenos Aires:
We arrived in Buenos Aires with a sense of urgency to get the major tourist attraction visiting done within the space of a week. This was because it was just over a week until the start of World Cup 2010, and with 3 games a day, touristy time would be limited. In that first week we walked all over Buenos Aires city centre, taking in the lovely river-side Puerto Madeiro area, the obelisk, the Plaza de Mayo and the extremely cool but strange cemetery at La Recoleta with open tombs allowing viewing of coffins. We also managed a couple of stadium visits, taking a tour of both La Bombonera (Boca Jrs ground) and La Monumental (River Plate and national stadium).
On the 11th June all tourist visitation was halted and we took up residence along with the local jakes in the park at San Martin, where a big screen was showing all the games. That day also happened to coincide with a minor birthday of mine so after watching the first 2 games, we treated ourselves to a slap-up meal in a local steak-house. Now, if you’ve never heard about Argentinian steaks then they’re rumoured to be the best in the world. After having sampled them, I would totally agree with that! We feasted on a huge chunk of prime beef, cooked to perfection and as thick as a door-step. A few beers rounded off an excellent day.
We soon go into a routine: up about quarter past 8 to watch the first game of the day in the hostel and have breakfast, shower either at half-time or after, watch second game in park then lunch of either home-made ham and cheese sandwich, a “Plate of the Day” from our favourite Buenos Aires restaurant La Replica or a couple of slices of Mozzarella pizza from Guerrin pizza restaurant and then back to the park for the last game – good times! We also met and made friends with more people in that hostel than we did anywhere else, which meant a few boozy nights out!
Before leaving Buenos Aires we managed a trip to La Plata, a little town an hour away with an amazing cathedral, and a trip to Avellaneda for another couple of stadium visits. Avellaneda is home to both Independiente and Racing, right across the road from each other. We were only allowed into Racing’s ground, however, so screw Independiente! We also learned from the Racing groundsman that Racing defeated Celtic in the first ever World Club Championship in 1967 – interesting, eh?!
And then, before we knew it, it was time to leave Argentina. The World Cup had seriously dented our sight-seeing but we had made lots of friends, both with fellow backpackers in the hostel and also with the San Martin park jakes who had let us share the brand new 250 inch flat screen tv that had been installed temporarily in their front room. We wished we could have found time to travel south to Patagonia or west to Mendoza (scene of Scotland’s greatest ever goal) but that would have meant missing too many games, and that was never going to happen!
Uruguay:
Uruguay is easily accessible from Buenos Aires so we decided to add another country to our list of those visited and took the ferry across the River Plate to Colonia de Sacremento, a sleepy little town 3 hours bus journey away from the capital Montevideo. After a few hours walking round the old town we headed for Montevideo and after checking into our hostel late in the evening and hungry, we found a little restaurant that did take-away pizza. We had both devoured a couple of slices before Ally dropped half of it on the pavement and we had the tough decision to make of whether we could lower ourselves to eating pizza from the ground while a homeless man eyed them up from across the street. Well he did indeed receive some of our pizza, but not before we had eaten a couple of soiled slices. We were really hungry, ok!
Next day, we managed to catch another World Cup game involving a country that we were visiting when Uruguay took on Mexico. The result meant that Uruguay qualified and there were jubilant celebrations on the streets, much more passionate than we’d encountered in Argentina. Montevideo is quite small, and seems to operate at a much slower pace than Buenos Aires, and so for the rest of the day we ambled around the old part of town where all the interesting places are to be found, and also managed a trip to the Estadio Centenario, the scene of the first ever World Cup Final, before catching the ferry back to Buenos Aires.
Chile:
Santiago:
After a stressful trip to the gate in Buenos Aires airport, through the most ridiculously under-staffed and disorganised Immigration Control we’ve experienced, we finally took off for Chile and after a scenic flight over the Andes we landed in Santiago. On the bus from the airport we began to realise what an amazing location Santiago was to be found in, with the stunning backdrop of the Andes visible everywhere you went in the city.
Our first full day in Santiago coincided with Chile’s last group game which we watched on a big screen in the main square along with thousands of passionate Chileans. The 2-1 loss to Spain was forgotten, due to their resultant qualification from the group, and the party was really on. Thousands of people lined the streets, shops were closed, people hung from their balconies and the chant of “CHI-CHI-CHI, LE-LE-LE, VIVA CHILE!” rang out from everywhere. It was an incredible thing to see and I’d like to be able to witness such a thing in Scotland if we ever manage to reach another World Cup!
We again picked a very sociable hostel and made friends with quite a few folk including a group of English lads with whom we watched their national team being humbled by German. I managed to conceal my joy at the result reasonably well but I don’t think the same could be said of Ally! The next day we Chileans crashed out to Brazil and so the party scenes of the previous round were destined not be repeated.
We did manage some touristy things while in Chile, mainly because the later rounds of the World Cup had cut down the number of games. Travelling up the funicular to Cerro San Cristibal was a particular highlight, the top of the hill giving a great view of both the city and the surrounding snow-capped mountains. Our attempts at stadium visits were thwarted however, the national stadium being closed to the public due to building work and the Colo Colo stadium only open to the public at weekends. Our scant consolation was viewing a Colo Colo training session through the wire surrounding the pitch!
Valparaiso/Vina del Mar:
As we were only in Chile for under a week, we could not see much of the country outside of Santiago. However, 3 hours north on the bus lies the port town of Valparaiso and 15 minutes from there is the beachside town of Vina del Mar, so we took a trip there, staying the night in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a interesting town, built on a hillside and dominated by the busy port, it has multiple funiculars which are used by the locals to get up and down the steep hillsides and by tourists to get better views of the harbour. Vina del Mar is more of a standard beach town, nice enough but fairly uninteresting. Its said that Europeans always prefer Valparaiso whereas Brazilians are much more partial to Vina del Mar!
And that was it. An eye-opening, fun-packed 2 and a half months in South America were over and it was time to fly to Auckland (losing a whole day during the flight while crossing the international date line!) and the relative security of an English-speaking country!
Graham
Foz do Iguaçu: http://picasaweb.
Buenos Aires: http://picasaweb.
Colonia del Sacramento: http://picasaweb.
Valparaiso/Vina del Mar: http://picasaweb.google.
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