Pampas Tour

Our second instalment of the Amazon basin was a three day tour of the Pampas, which are the lower wetlands, which can only be navigated by motor canoe. After three days of trekking and fighting our way through the jungle, it was nice to be chauffeured around on our personal canoe through narrow canals in the marshes, spotting far more wildlife than we'd seen in the jungle.

On our first day, we sailed to our camp which was built over water on a number of narrow decks and huts. Alligators and caiman regularly hung around our camp, hoping for food; it was pretty creepy to get up in the morning for breakfast and see a 4 metre long alligator lurking right beneath your feet in the swamp!

Our hut above the swamp

Our guide was absolutely hilarious and kept referring to himself as 'el jefe' (the boss), saying he only came on tours when a really special group was involved. We were flattered but I'm pretty sure this was a lie - I think he just liked to refer to himself as the one in charge! He was a great guide though, we saw so much wildlife in those three days. One afternoon we saw a group of howler monkeys, and he told us that one male howler can have up to 8 female partners at one time.

'Mucho hanky panky for him, must be great life, no?' he said, and grinned at us, clearly incredibly amused by the idea of monkey sex. We were more entertained by the use of the words 'hanky panky' coming out of a Bolivian tour guide's mouth.

Crocodile Dundee

That night it rained and rained and rained some more. It was absolutely chucking it down, relentlessly, for about 9 hours. It meant we couldn't go out that morning because we would have been soaked before we'd even reversed the canoe away from camp, so we just had to sit in our rooms and wait until it stopped.

When it did we sailed up river a bit to a huge swampy field where we hunted for anacondas! We were wearing wellies, which was just as well as the water nearly came up to my knees. Sadly we didn't see any anacondas, but Josh had lovely squelchy feet from the experience as his wellies both had holes in the soles!

We tried our hand at piranha fishing again but as before, had no luck. I'm far too impatient for fishing; sitting around watching a piece of string in the water and trying to get excited when your bait gets eaten right off the hook just doesn't do it for me!

Our experience in the pampas allowed us to see so much more wildlife than in the jungle: all in all we saw monkeys, sloths, parrots, toucans, turtles, snakes, caiman, alligators, and dolphins (which we actually swam in the river with! Or near, I should say; it's not Sea World, they're still wild animals.) It was a fantastic three days, and despite the hundreds of mosquito bites we accumulated - and 'hundreds' is no exaggeration either, I looked like I had measles - it was worth it. Plus now I can say I've been to the Amazon!

Relaxing

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

As many of you may know, I'm not what people would call an 'outdoorsy' kind of person. In fact, I really like it indoors, away from rain and wind and generally where it's more comfortable. But when we had the opportunity to visit the Amazon basin in Bolivia for just under a week, I couldn't really say no; how often does the chance to visit the Amazon come along?! We decided to do a three day jungle tour, and a three day pampas tour, which is through the lower wetlands, and has to be done entirely by boat.

We'd been advised to fly there by almost everyone we spoke to, as the town of Rurrenabaque is really far from La Paz by bus. Sadly we did not take this advice, and organised a private people carrier to take the six of us doing the tour together, thinking this would be fine. 'It take 12 hours to get there, don't worry' the company assured us. 'We pick you up at 2pm, get there by 2am, you go sleep and wake up for tour at 8am - perfect.'

It did sound perfect. Unfortunately it was not. We called them when they didn't show up by 2.30 and were eventually picked up an hour later. Apparently they lost the piece of paper with our hostel's address on so had no way of finding us. The journey was along a road as dangerous as Death Road, and since it gets dark at 6.30pm, we did nearly the whole thing at night. It was awful.

The road was only just wide enough for one car at points, but it's the main thoroughfare between La Paz and the jungle, where a lot of produce and food comes from, so huge great trucks are driving along in both directions, which causes ridiculous traffic jams, and a lot of reckless driving when people try to overtake these slow vehicles. We were honestly afraid for our lives. After about 6 hours we came across a huge queue of stationary traffic and it turned out there had been a landslide onto the road. We waited there for 20 minutes while people tried to clear a way, and when our driver came back from helping (we weren't allowed out of the car), he told us a man had just been killed by a falling rock. We were stunned - if our car had been 200 metres forward, it could have been one of us. And yet our driver was so casual about it that we could tell this was an all too regular occurrence for the Bolivians who drive this route multiple times a week, which was a pretty shocking and sad realisation for us.

We eventually reached Rurre at 6.30am, 4.5 hours after we expected - it had taken us nearly 16 hours to travel 400km (250 miles).

No room at the inn

Our tour started at 8.30am so there was no time for bed. We showered at the hostel we were meant to stay at, had some breakfast, and set out for the jungle. It started with a 3 hour boat ride up rover to our camp, which was in the middle of the 'selva' (jungle in Spanish). We had lunch and were assigned cabins, then set off for a three hour trek through the jungle with our guide. He had been raised in a small community in the selva, so knew the enormous jungle like the back of his hand - we on the other hand, would have got lost 5 minutes after leaving camp. He showed us different plants and trees that had medicinal uses - this one cures kidney pains, that one helps ease arthritis... It was really interesting seeing how much the jungle is used by people like him and his family, they literally live off it, relying off it entirely for food, water, and their health. We saw a couple of toucans and parrots too, but we were making too much noise to see any animals.

Our jungle cabin

That night our guide did a ritual to pachamama (mother earth) to pray for good weather and a happy tour for us visiting his home. It involved us sitting around him in a semi-circle, with him in the middle facing out, in front of a hole in the ground with an animal skull in. He lit three cigarettes and placed them standing up in the ground around the skull, where they slowly burned down. The ritual involved A LOT of cigarettes in fact, with him chain smoking and blowing smoke into the hole while chanting to pachamama. He threw rice in the hole, then passed it round the circle and we all had to throw a bit of rice in too. Then the same happened with salt. Then I was asked to take the skull away, and put it behind our circle. He then lit another cigarette, put it in his mouth backwards and beckoned to us one by one to kneel in front of him. He blessed us, and blew smoke over our heads from inside his mouth from the back-to-front cigarette - I was amazed he didn't burn his tongue. It was really cool to watch though, and afterwards we all sat under the stars in contemplation.

The next day we went on a longer hike in the morning, and saw a herd of wild pigs - they were so smelly. They've been known to attack humans, kill and eat them, so we had to stay really quiet and still. There were about 30 or 40 of them, the biggest ones being about the same size as a Labrador. After that we returned to camp, had lunch then went piranha fishing in the river. It was not a success for any of us, plus it was really hot so we went swimming in the river instead! Much nicer. (These piranhas don't eat people FYI). Our guide caught one, which josh was instructed to hold but he somehow managed to let go of it in a fast flowing bit of the river, so one of the boys jumped in fully clothes to catch it. We didn't trust josh with holding important things after that!

That night the others went on a nighttime jungle hike but I opted out - i'd been warned that pretty much the only thing you're guaranteed to see is enormous spiders, which is not my cup of tea, to say the least! They came back after about an hour and had apparently seen one of the most deadly spiders in the world - one bite and 15 minutes later, you're dead. Was not at all sorry to have missed it!

Our third and final day was spent making jungle jewellery - I sanded a ring out of a sawn off part of a small coconut-type thing, which you then polish in a combination of mud and ash to get shiny.

We headed back downstream to Rurre that afternoon, dirty exhausted and probably very smelly after many wonderful hours of crashing through the dense, humid, sweaty rainforest. A shower was very necessary for all of us!

Jungle camp

The World's Most Dangerous Road

Death Road is named this way for a reason; before an alternative road was opened in 2007, approximately 200-300 people died each year on this road, which is less than 50 miles long. The road itself, and road is a generous term at best, is a maximum of 3 metres wide, and is built into the side of a mountain, with a sheer drop to your left the whole way down.

And I decided it was a good idea to mountain bike down it last week!

Given that I haven't got on a bike for about 18 months, maybe this particular journey wasn't the best way to start up a long abandoned hobby again but it was a bit too late to turn back once I'd got to the top of the 4900m mountain where the road begins. So really, the only way was down.

The first part of the road is tarmac - this is part of the new 'alternative to Death Road' road, and was about a quarter of our journey. It was 9am, we were 5 kilometres above sea level and even with my six layers on I was freezing. And that was before the downhill zoom!

It started to rain on the tarmac road, and the bikes don't have front mud guards so the tyre was handily spraying a stream of water directly into my eyes, which is not what you want when you're whizzing down a road named for it fatalities. My fingers were gripped so hard on the brakes that I think they froze in that position for a while (it certainly felt cold enough anyway) but we made it down that first stretch with only a few problems: 1) I was chased by about 8 dogs at one point, and they were almost under my tyres so I though I might crash; and 2) my back tyre fell off the edge of the cliff at one point and it was only my quick reflexes that saved me by braking super hard! And this wasn't even on the official Death Road bit yet! (Breathe mum, I'm OK).

Death Road itself is now closed to traffic, so the only people you meet on your way down are fellow cyclists, motorcyclists or the minibuses that accompany each bike tour in case anyone gets cold feet and wants to ride down the easy way, inside a vehicle. No-one is allowed back up via that route so at least the minibuses don't have to worry about trying to pass another vehicle on a road barely wide enough for one (this is how most of the accidents happened, by buses trying to pass each other - one might lose balance and topple off).

The ride is 63km in total, and we stopped a few times for a snack and drinks, which are vital for survival. The views out across the valleys were amazing, although a little scary when you see just how high up you are, and how steep the drop to your left is. About halfway down my wrists had seized up and I was finding it very painful to grip the brakes. On gentler stretches I had to let go of the brakes a bit and wiggle my fingers to see if I really had lost all sensation in them. It was hard work. Also the gears were broken on my bike so on the parts where you had to pedal, I always got left WAY behind the rest of the group cos I couldn't pedal hard enough to keep up!

But I didn't finish last! And I survived! At the bottom I got off my bike and pretty much fell to the floor in exhaustion. I was so bruised and stiff and sore the next few days but it was worth it. I made it down the world's most dangerous road! I don't think I'll be getting back on a mountain bike any time soon though...

Salar de Uyuni

Imagine standing in the middle of nowhere and the only thing you can see is miles and miles of white stretching out in front of you. In the far far distance there are mountains and volcanoes, but really all there is is whiteness. That's exactly what it's like at Salar de Uyuni, the salt flats in southern Bolivia. The sky was bright blue, there were a few clouds but they were the fluffy kind, like the ones you drew as a child. It's an awesome sight!

We took a three day tour from the town of Uyuni, in a jeep with two of the American and English guys we met in Paraguay, plus another couple we met that morning in our 4x4, who were from France and Korea. Our driver was a Bolivian guy who'd been doing tours of the salt flats for 8 years; he was also to be our guide and cook for the three days too.

The first day we saw the Salar (salt flats) which apparently used to be flooded and possibly a part of an ocean, but the water is long gone and it just left a big salt desert in its place. The boys in our jeep decided to go streaking across the flats, conpletely butt naked! It was hilarious seeing four very white bottoms running away from you; they all had great tan lines from their swimming trunks. A lot of people stopped, stared, and then proceeded to take photos! So there are lots of gringos out there with a picture of Josh's bum!

We had llama chops and quinoa for lunch, two staples in the Bolivian diet. Quinoa is grown everywhere and they export most of it to the US and Europe because we've just decided how 'fashionable' it is to eat! Both were really tasty, although the Korean girl refused to eat the llama, because there was a live llama grazing nearby to where we were eating and she couldn't bring herself to eat its cousin. Naturally, that thought had never even crossed my mind while I was chomping away!

There are areas of the Salar that are still a little bit flooded at certain times of the year. Because the land is so flat, and the water is so clear, it turns the ground into a huge mirror. It's a bit trippy, as you're looking at a mountain in the distance and right below it is a perfect reflection upside down. It's absolutely amazing to look at though.

Reflection

That night we stayed in a hotel entirely made of salt; the bricks, the tables and chairs, even the bed! We played cards and then when the lights were turned off (electricity and running water is rationed in a lot of Bolivia) the boys climbed the mountain behind our hostel in the dark. This mountain was absolutely covered in cacti, some were over ten feet tall, so I opted for bed instead!

Mountain in the mirror

The next day we spent a lot of time in the car, driving to various lakes and through a lot of mountain scenery. We saw loads of wild flamingos which was pretty cool! The altitude in places was as high as 5000 metres above sea level and you really feel it; I had a mild but constant headache for the whole tour. You also need to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated as the sun I really strong (I managed to burn my whole face on day one, so I was REALLY red for a few days after; the photos aren't pretty). The trouble with drinking lots of water when you're driving through the middle of nowhere for hours at a time, is there are obviously no toilets. Nature pees became very frequent, but the land is so dry that there are hardly any 'private' places to go, as there are no trees or bushes! So I had to make the boys swear to look the other way, leg it into the distance and attempt to hide behind a small shrub to maintain a very small amount of dignity! So ladylike.

Mountain scenery

That night we stayed at a very basic hostel next to a bright red lake. We went for a walk up a hill that looks over the lake to get a good view, but it was freezing and so windy and we didn't stay up there for long.

That night we played cards in the dining room of the hostel, but a very rude grumpy Austrian lady came out of her room and shouted at us for keeping everyone in the hotel awake and told us 'this isn't a casino!' We politely pointed out that it was only 8.30pm and we hadn't realised anyone had gone to bed yet! She shouted at us an hour later too, at which point Josh told her that if she was really bothered by the noise, why didn't she shut her bedroom door, as it had been wide open all that time and all the rooms backed onto the dining room. It was almost like she just wanted an excuse to pick a fight! She walked off in a huff and according to some girls we'd made friends with that were sleeping in her dorm, she kept insulting us in German to her poor husband, who was really nice.

The final day we left the hotel by 5.30am to watch the sunrise over the mountains. We went to some geysers which smelt very eggy, then we went to some natural hot springs and spent an hour warming up in them; it had been so hard to drag ourselves out of bed that morning as the hotel was freezing. Josh and I slept under seven blankets! Most of day three was spent driving as we had gone so far from Uyuni by this point that we were nearly in Chile. It was a fairly uneventful day, although we stopped by some big rocks which we had a bit of a climb on. We overtook the jeep that the grumpy Austrian lady was in at one point, and two of the boys mooned out of the jeep windows which our driver was very unhappy about!

All in all it was a really fun trip, with some incredible sights and scenery, plus more llama herds than I ever thought I'd see, even in Bolivia. I have my llama wool jumper, hat and gloves now too, so I stand out as a tourist more than ever! Result.

Windy mountain roads

Road Trip - Argentina styleeey!

'Let's hire a car and drive around the north of Argentina for a few days!'

This is always the best way to make impromptu plans, someone throws an idea out there and the other one says, 'yeah why not!'

So we did, we hired a little Chevrolet corsa or something and drove south from Salta, to Argentinian wine country. It was incredible; the landscape in the north of Argentina is amazing because there are so many mountains and deserts and rolling hills, so the view changes dramatically every ten mins or so. We drove to the top of one mountain which put us at 4000m above sea level!

As you can imagine, doing wine tasting in a vineyard on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere in Argentina is an awesome experience. We were walked round the factory where they process all the grapes they grow, produce and bottle all the wine, then box it up for exportation. The area we were in, Cafayate, is famous for its Torrontes wine, which is white and fairly new to the game in comparison to grapes like Pinot grigio and Sauvignon blanc. It's also delicious, I recommend that you try some, and chances are it'll come from the region we were in too! It only grown in four places, three of which are in Argentina, and one in Chile.

I was so ill the three days we were there unfortunately. I caught some sort of coldy/fluey virus and felt absolutely awful (forced myself out of bed for all the wine tasting though, obviously). I didn't even drive the car we hired because the roads were all on cliff faces and I was sneezing so much that I was afraid I'd close my eyes are the wrong second and drive us off the side!

We had an incredible three days, came away with a lot of wine to keep us going, and were very pleased with our little adventure! We had a slightly unfortunate incident the day after we got back however, as we left our camera with all the hundreds of amazing photos on in Salta, and when we called the hostel from our first stop in Bolivia, they checked the room for us and said it wasn't in there :( so some lucky bugger has themselves a nice new camera, complete with all our snaps of northern Argentina, the bastard. Luckily they are the only pics we lost as I backed up all the others a few days before, but it hardly softened the blow. I got one pic on my iPod, which is where I am writing this post, so I'll post it below so you can see a very poor example of some of the stunning views that we saw. This photo does not do it justice!

Oh well, onwards and upwards, and on to Bolivia baby!

Paraguay

I haven't written in quite a while, and once you get out of the habit of writing after each place or event, it's hard to get back into it again!

So after Iguazu Falls, we went to Encarnacion, a city in southern Paraguay. Paraguay is basically only travelled by about 1% of backpackers in South America (that might be a made up statistic but judging from the very few people we met there, and have spoken to about going, it's fairly accurate). It rained a lot in Encarnacion so we didn't do much, but it seems there wasn't much to do anyway. There is a Unesco World Heritage site nearby of some Jesuit ruins, which quite frankly, we could have done without seeing. They were literally a few fallen down walls with signs like 'this was where the head priest lived' or 'this was the store room for the missionaries corn'. Thrilling stuff.

We then headed to the capital Asuncion thinking it might be a bit more exciting. Unfortunately, it wasn't. However, we did meet up with three guys who had stated in our hostel in Encarnacion so we had a lot of fun in the evenings playing drinking games and cooking epic BBQs but we could have done that anywhere really! We ended up staying for an extra day because the other guys were going to a big football match between the two major Asuncion teams and Josh said we should stay for it. I didn't really care either way but we thought it would be cool to see a match while in South America so we stayed. What a waste of time. We walked to the stadium the next afternoon, but when we got there, it was completely empty. We asked the security guard what was going on and all he said was, 'cancelled'. Great.

Oh well, I have a Paraguay stamp in my passport now, which very few people can claim!

Las Cataratas do Iguaçu

So, casually went to visit one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world the other day. Las cataratas do Iguaçu, or Iguassu Falls in English, are a series of many many waterfalls which straddle the Brazilian-Argentine border, and quite frankly, they´re bloody spectacular. (Have a look here: http://tiaraintransit.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/devils_throat_iguassu_falls_argentina.jpg )

They were incredible, I was absolutely awestruck by how enormous they were, and how many of them there were too. You can visit the falls from both countries, and you get a different experience from each side. The Brazilian side is more like a panoramic view of all the falls in a row, and there was one bit where you´re so close to one of the waterfalls that you get absolutely drenched. It was so fun!

Then we crossed to Argentina the day after, and went to see the falls from that side. There, you´re kind of above them, and you get to walk out on a fairly rickety brige so you´re standing abve them, looking right down onto them, which is incredible, although made my knees feel a bit funny!

Now we´re in a little town in Northern Argentina called Posadas, where there is nothing to do if it rains, as we found out! Tomorrow we cross to Paraguay, and are going for an adventure through a very un-travelled country, which I`m very excited for!

More Rio, Salvador and a taste of paradise

We leave Brazil in three days, and as much as this country is an absolute BURN money-wise, I'm going to miss it so much; I've loved it so much more than Argentina and Uruguay. I've said it before but I really wish they spoke spanish here because I want to be an Anglo-Brazilian and live here!! And since I already speak un poco de espanol it would make life a lot easier.

So, last time I blogged, I was despairing about the poverty in Rio, and how it seems to be pointedly ignored by anyone who isnt suffering from it. Well, I'm not going to take back my words because I was very moved, and not in a good way, by the troubles in the otherwise amazing city, but I am going to add to my thoughts: I am by no means denying that there is a HUGE distinction between rich and poor in Brazil (because its no different anywhere else in this country - there is an enormous gap) but maybe I was unfortunate to see some very bad situations that made me react in a way that maybe others would be shocked to hear of about Rio. Seeing the police attack those children is a terrible part of life there, but I think things arent quite as bad as they first appeared. People are poor everywhere, that's the hard truth, and in retrospect I think I reacted very emotionally to a problem that is not as bad as it seemed at the time. Having said that, if I could do something to help anyone who is even half as worse off as some of those we encountered, I would. Poverty comes to a whole new level in South America to anything I've encountered anywhere else in the world.

Moving on, we just spent the past week in Bahia, a state in the north-ish part of Brazil. We came to Salvador first; an awesome city with an incredible afro-brazilian culture. It was the biggest slave port in the Americas at one point, hence the lasting African culture, and its been really interesting for Josh, with his family being from Ghana, to see the similarities in lifestyle. It rained a lot here our first few days so we didn't get to leave our hostel for very long, but we managed to catch an awesome live music festival with samba bands, and dancing in the streets. Every Tuesday night there is a big street party right by our hostel, and we saw a live reggae band (incredible) and a huge room filled with people samba dancing, drinking cocktails made at little stalls in the street, and eating kebabs barbecued off little braziers on the pavement. It was so much fun!

On Wednesday,  we went to an island near Salvador called Boipeba. I say 'near' but to get there we had to take a bus, a ferry, another bus and another boat! Worth it though, because I've actually seen a glimpse of paradise now. It was gorgeous! White beaches, turquoise water, hammocks swaying in the breeze... you get the idea. We stayed in a tiny little pousada, which is basically a b&b, and we had fresh mangoes and papaya for breakfast everyday, it was amazing. When the tide went out in the middle of the day, you could swim across to another uninhabited island, and sunbathe there for a while, but the tides change very quickly so you have to keep an eye out or you could end up marooned! The island had no cars, and so few lights on at night that we lay on the beach and could see more stars than I ever knew were visible to the naked eye; you could actually see the Milky Way!

We came back to Salvador yesterday to collect our bags that we had been lucky enough to leave at our hostel while we were in Boipeba. Tomorrow we fly to Iguaçu Falls, huge waterfalls that straddle the border of Brazil and Argentina.  Its supposed to be beautiful, so that's taking the sting out of leaving Brazil a bit. Cant believe its been two months already, time is flying by! Bring on the next three I say...

Rio de Janiero: A Tale of Two Cities

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times, here in Rio. Brazil is prospering more than ever before, and all eyes will be on this country for the next few years, as it is hosting the World Cup in 2014, and the Olympics in 2016. The city of Rio is a flurry of activity, and you can see progress, albeit slow progress, everywhere you look, preparing for these events.

However, lurking in the shadow of these grand occurrences is an underlying problem that Rio will find difficult to hide once the world looks their way more closely: the rampant crime and poverty that is being determinedly ignored while the wealthy prosper.

Of course, this is a tale as old as time; citizens of a developing country don´t all benefit from the strengthening economy; not everyone can grow richer at the same time. However, the level of poverty in a city that is pouring billions into two international sporting events is a terrible thing.

When we first arrived in Rio, our bus from the airport to the hostel took us past a favella (a Brazilian slum or shantytown). These favellas sprung up all over cities much the same as the ghettos in the US and Europe did, back when the cities were newer, and people were looking for a fresh start in a flourishing place, hoping to pursue success and wealth. Of course, an overwhelming majority of these people never accomplished the success they dreamed of, and it is the ancestors of these people, plus many more that wished for the same thing since then, that now occupy the favellas of Rio, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, etc. The communities are normally built in areas of the city which the wealthy have shunned, such as on steep hills (Rio is very mountainous). They are overcrowded, the building are in terrible shape, and the streets are filthy with rubbish and waste. Some people have constructed tents for themselves out of bin bags, and that is where they call home. When we drove past this particular favella, I couldnt help but look; these people are suffering so much, and yet the majority carry out their daily tasks with a cheerful attitude. It made me want to cry. We then drove maybe only 3 or 4 minutes more before passing an enormous church, very newly renovated from the shiny look of it, covered in gold and marble. And that made me feel worse. Rich and poor; successful and suffering; live but a stones throw away from each other, rubbing shoulders, yet never quite coming into contact with one another.

Later that night, we went out in an area of the city called Lapa, which is quite a bohemian neighbourhood, for a street party. After about an hour, we were suddenly surrounded by police officers, armed to the teeth, rushing past us to a spot only 50 metres away. We turned to watch (how could you not?) and I was half expecting to see someone with a gun, or a brawl, or God knows what. But no, the threat that required a dozen or more armed police officers to rush together for, was a group of twenty five or so children, between the ages of 10 and 15. According to a Brazilian boy we were with, these kids stole from crowds to buy drugs. But from the way they were being attached, assaulted, and hauled around by grown men with guns, you´d think they were the drug lords themselves. They were lined up along the wall and patted down. If any resisted, or tried to run, they were thrown to the floor or against a concrete wall. And they were just children!

I understand, they were breaking the law, and the police obviously have to be seen doing something about the problem of these drugged up kids, but throwing them around and essentially just abusing their power over them is hardly going to make them change their ways. All it does is increase then tension between the police and the people in the favellas; they see the police as as much of a target to hate as the wealthy people outside of the slums. The problem doesn´t lie in the fact that some kids are doing drugs and must be stopped, the problem started way before then, when these children were brought up in such poverty that drugs seemed like a better option to them than anything else. Can you imagine what it must be like to be addicted to drugs and being so desperate to score, at any age, let alone 10 years old? And Brazil is so corrupt that I would bet anything at all that the very same police officers beating up these children are being bribed to look the other way by the men high up in the drug dens. In fact, I´d put my life on it.

Sometimes we walk past someone sleeping in the street and I get an overwhelming urge to give them all my money. Of course this is not sensible, and it´s always better to give a homeless person a drink or some food than money, as chances are they will not spend the money you give them on something that will help them. And yet who am I to judge what´s ´good´for them? I don´t have to sleep under a piece of cardboard, I don´t know what it´s like to not eat for a week; who am I to tell them not to drink or take drugs, if that´s the only pleasure they get from life? It´s just so sad. And truth be told, even if all the money that´s going towards the World Cup and Olympics was not being spent on these things, chances are it still wouldn´t be put towards helping the millions of people that need it.

And it´s such a shame because I still love this city. It´s beautiful both architecturally, and in the natural landscape. Built on the beach, and surrounded by tropical islands, it is an incredible place to explore. Josh and I spent today just wondering around, going nowhere in particular but stopping to look at everything. We went up to the Christ the Redeemer statue the other day, with stunning views over the whole city; we caught the final parade of Carnaval 2013 on Saurday night, and saw all the floats and costumes and samba dancers; we went up Sugarloaf Mountain at sunset and watched as Rio turned its lights on in the darkness... It´s such a exciting, exotic, colourful, lively place. The areas of Ipanema and Copacabana are thriving, full of tourists and rich Brazilians, with beautiful men and women strolling around like they own the place. (Perhaps they do?) But there´s so much wrong with it, too many people suffering wherever you look, that you feel guilty for enjoying yourself too much.

I have loved and hated Rio. It´s opened my eyes to the state Brazil is in, and I hope hope hope that as it becomes a bigger player on the world stage, as the 8th strongest economy in the world now, that it takes a look at where the money and aid is really needed, and tries to better itself socially, as it has now managed economically. Rio is a beautiful place, but it needs to stop basking in the attention of the world, and focus on the more pressing issues at home.

Brazil take 1: Rio Grande do Sul

I love Brazil.

I don't think I've ever been anywhere hotter than Porto Alegre. The heat we experiened in our first few days was ridiculous, we couldn't move it was so hot. It's actually the humidity that gets you, not the heat itself, but still. We have been staying at our friend Fernanda's house, a girl we met in Albuquerque on our year abroad. It's so good to have friends from all over the world because you have an excuse to travel so you can go visit them!

Her family have been so welcoming, and we have been very spoilt this past 10 days and behaving not at all like real backpackers. Her mum absolutely point blank refuses to let us help in either preparing the meals, or washing up afterwards, insisting that we are guests, which is very polite considering we've been here for 10 days and before last Wednesday,  she didnt know us from Adam, whoever he may be. Her brother is on his summer holiday from uni at the mo, so he's been our tour guide while Fernanda has been at work.

We went to her beach house at the weekend, and met her huge family, who all talk at once, shouting over each other, and don't stop to listen. It made me feel very at home - if anyone has ever met the Fernback side of my family, you'll understand :) Unfortunately it rained all weekend, but we still managed to eat almost an entire herd of cows on Sunday when her dad cooked churrasco, which is Brazilian bbq. It was delish, although a bit overdone for my taste. People in South America cook their steaks to well-done, and I'm more of a 'eat it while it's still mooing' kind of girl. We also went on a quad bike on the sand dunes at the beach, and aside from a minor capsize where the bike somehow ended up on top of us, it was so much fun!

We were unlucky with weather again this week, when we went to the little mountain town of Gramado, which looks like a village in the Alps. All the architecture is very German/Swiss, and makes you feel a bit like  you're in the Sound of Music, minus the spontaneous bursting into song. It rained a lot there too, but was very hot and stuffy when we came back to Porto Alegre again, so maybe it was a sign that we shouldn't have stopped being freeloaders? Who knows.

Today we are heading further north to the state of Santa Catarina, to a beach town called Garopaba. This is where we will be spending Carnival, Brazil's most (in)famous festival. Am very very excited! We'll still be with Fernanda,  as well as her boyfriend and some of their friends. Apparently the plan is to spend all day on the beach, eat churrasco and drink caipirinhas (Brazilian cocktails) all eve, and party all night.... sounds good to me!

The trouble with buses

"How long does it take to get to Punta del Diablo?" Josh asked the lady who we bought our bus tickets from.

"Una hora o algo," she replied. One hour or something.

We were moving on from La Paloma, a small beach town which had not stopped raining for the two days we were there. Punta del Diablo was forecast to have better weather, and it was going to be Lucas and Eliana's last weekend in Uruguay before heading back to London, so we decided to see what a new place had to offer.

Obviously, we were expecting to get there after about an hour, as directed by the lady at the bus terminal. Unfortunately, 'one hour or something' doesn't mean what we had expected. In fact, the journey took just under 3 hours in the end!

This was not the first, and by no means the last, in a series of bus company representatives having no clue of what was going on. Josh had asked one woman how long it took to get from one town to the next, having just bought the tickets from her, and she cheerfully told him, "I have no idea!"

We had a nice, if uneventful, weekend Punta del D, and decided to extend our trip there by a few more days after Lucas and Eliana left. We moved to a different, cheaper (but way better) hostel, and decided to take a walk round the huge National Park about 10 mins up the road on Monday. Ten mins by bus that is.

We set out at 10.30am, having asked the driver if this was the bus that went to La Fortaleza (the fort, a big landmark in the park). He nodded, we climbed aboard and waited for him to shout out the destination once we stopped, as is custom in Uruguay. Sadly, our driver was a grumpy old man, and although he stopped in many, many places, he didnt shout out where we were. We'd been looking out for a fort, and so far had not seen one, but aftrr about 25 mins Josh asked the driver when we'd get there, having been assured by our hostel owner that it was no further than a 10 minute drive.

The driver said something in very fast Spanish, and refused to speak any slower when asked. I specifically asked him if this was the stop for la fortaleza and he said yes, pointed at a shop on the side of the road, kicked us off the bus and sped off.

We were 16km north of where he said we were.

After waiting just under an hour, another bus driver took pity on us and let us ride with him for free, as far as the National Park entrance. The fort itself was a 5km walk from the entrance, and it was sweltering, but we decided to brave the burning heat and set off. When we finally got there, after a nearly 3.5 hour journey altogether, we were told that the fort is closed on Mondays, and that we had to turn around and walk back again. Fantastic.

That was our last day in Uruguay. Much as I'd loved it, I was very ready to move on! We bought our bus tickets to Porto Alegre in Southern
Brazil through our hostel, and the instructions were simple: get a local bus to the border town, wait at immigration for the bus from Montevideo to stop, get on that and go to Brazil.

The local bus took us right to the border, even though we'd asked to be dropped at the immigration building (when will we learn?!). We had to get a taxi back to immigration and passport control, where we were told to sit and wait outside because 'we are not a bus ticket agency'. Our hostel owner hadnt actually given us the tickets himself, telling us a woman would meet us at passport control with them. It all sounded very dodgy but eventually the woman showed, and gave us our tickets. She then happily informed us that the bus would be coming through at 'about 12' and left. It was 10pm, we'd been there since just after 9. The bus actually came at 1.15am, four hours after we had arrived!

All in all, it was a bloody nightmare. Border towns are notoriously dangerous anyway, and we weren't even allowed to sit inside the building with all our stuff. The temperature had dropped to about 15○C so it was quite chilly, and all we could do was wait.

Thankfully we are now at our friend Fernanda's house, a Brazilian girl we met on our year abroad in New Mexico. We're staying with her and her family for about a week, then heading north with her and her friends for Carnival next weekend, so excited!

Urugusy was lovely, but definitely got the feel we'd outstayed our welcome.

Uruguay

It's raining.

This is my second week in Uruguay, and so far it has been lovely. Our first stop, after the freezing cold night bus from Rosario, was the capital city of Montevideo. The city has a population of about 1.5million, and is right on the coast, with a huge beach just metres from the offices and restaurants. We stayed in an apartment for a few days, then moved to a hostel for one more night before heading out.

We pretty much went to the beach everyday; the sun is ridiculously intense here and I'm having to reapply my factor 30 suncream very frequently but have somehow avoided burning (except my scalp which is very pink). Josh's friend Lucas from London is here, with his sister, as their dad lives in Uruguay, so we've been seeing a lot of them.

After Montevideo, we went to the small town of Colonia Sacramento. It has cobbled streets, and claims to have the oldest church in the country, so we had a look around at the old ruins and few sights it had to offer, but it only took us half a day! It was a really pretty place though, and our hostel was a nice place to spend the evenings meeting other travellers.

We are now in Punta del Este, the most popular beach resort in South American. Obviously it's currently Summer here, so the normally quiet town is overflowing with visitors from all over Latin America; our hostel is full of Brazilians and Argentinians. Lucas and his family are here too, so we've all been going to the beach together in the day, and drinking together at night!

Today is potentially our last day here though; it's an expensive place, even if you buy food from the supermarket and cook at the hostel, so we might move further along the coast to one of the smaller, less touristy resorts like Cabo Polonio or Barra de Valizas. Then we're spending the weekend in Punta del Diablo which is meant to be a fun party town, before heading to Brazil next week! Very excited!

Un poco mas...

Josh is sleeping so I thought I'd take advantage of the time and write a quick update.

On Tuesday, we took a trip to the hospital to see what the Argentinean healthcare system is like. I've had a kidney infection of sorts for about 10 days but kept ignoring it (very sensible) until it was actually giving me backpain, and Josh insisted we see a doctor as my method of 'pretend it's not there and drink lots of water' was pretty ineffective. Healthcare is free for all in Argentina, whether you are a citizen or just a visitor, but they don't take appointments, so you just show up at the hospital and it's a first come first served system.

The nearest hospital was only a ten minute walk from our hostal in Rosario, so we headed over early Tuesday morn. Josh spoke to the guy on reception and we were directed to the clinic for non-emergency patients, only to find there had been a 'fault' (their word) and there were no doctors there. All day. Yep, no doctors at the doctors surgery! They told us to come back the next day, but I was feeling pretty crappy by this point so we went to another hospital a bit further away.

We only had to wait about 20 minutes, which is really good for a walk-in clinic, and the doctor was really excited to practise her English. I was poked and prodded and asked questions, and then she gave me the sacred prescription for antibiotics! I was very excited by this point as I felt awful. We walked over to the pharmacy and handed over the prescription.

You know how normally when you go to get a prescription, they take about 5-10 mins to prepare it etc? Not in Argentina apparently! The woman at the front desk literally just reached under her table, pulled out the antibiotics and handed them over, not even in a box or bag! Feeling much better already, have to take them for a week though to be sure.

Last night (Wednesday) we left our wonderful hostel in Rosario to head to Uruguay. The bus to Montevideo was 10 hours, but we had the semi-cama seats again so we were expecting to just sleep most of the night.

That was the plan anyway.

It was freezing. Not chilly, not cold, but freezing. I sat there shivering uncontrollably and feeling pretty miserable, until we got to the border at about 5am. We got off the bus and asked the driver to turn the temperature up, which he did, but just by 1 degree. I hadn't managed to sleep at all at this point, and josh had only managed a few hours, so we had to beg to be allowed access to our bags in the hold, so we could get towels out to use as blankets. The woman who was the equivalent of an air hostess had a go at Josh for holding up the journey! He was like, it's freezing upstairs, I don't care how long it takes, I need a hoody!

We were allowed to our bags, and I got some socks and a towel to cover me, and thankfully managed to get an hour or two of sleep before we arrived in Montevideo, but it was a really miserable journey overall. I'd worn jeans and a hoody cos I was expecting it to be cool, but this took the A.C. to a new level!

We're now staying in a little apartment in Montevideo until Monday, then we might go to the beach resorts, or to another city. Who knows! It's lovely and sunny, about 28 degrees (which is 84 fahrenheit I think) so we''ll probably go for a walk along the beach this afternoon! Such a hard life :)

More from Argentina

I'm already getting bad about writing this!

We left our hostel in Buenos Aires on the 2nd and moved up the road to an apartment belonging to a friend called Nico, who we met on a night out. Nico is from a suburb of BA, and really kindly offered us a place to stay for a few more days in the city for free, so he coukd show us around some more, with another friend we made called Martina, who goes to uni with Nico.

We dropped off our enormous backpacks at his place, then headed north to San Isidro which is the town Nico grew up in. It was quite a small place, and obviously a very wealthy area, all the houses were huge and the restaurants looked super posh! We sat on the riverfront and drank maté, Argentina's favourite beverage. I'm growing to really like it!

We stayed for two nights at Nico's, then headed 4.5 hours north to a city called Rosario. Our bus was an hour late to arrive, but we'd bought tickets for 'semi-cama' seats which means they recline really far back and are pretty comfy, so at least the journey wasn't too bad.

Our hostel here is really nice. Everyone gets introduced to everyone else by the owner when you first arrive, and there's a huge garden where everyone congregates in the evenings. There are a few English couples here, as well as many other nationalities, and it's a very social place. We had a huge BBQ on the second night, with the best steak we could buy at the butchers. Argentina is a pretty expensive place to travel but there are two things you can buy here for very cheap: wine and beef. Could be a lot worse!

Yesterday we took a boat across the river to a beach on an island, and spent the afternoon sunbathing, but it wasn't that nice a beach and we probably wont bother going back. The river water is technically clean enough to swim in but its quite grey/brown, and it doesn't look particularly appealing!

We're planning to stay at this hostel for another few days, then get on a 12 hour overnight bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Not so excited about the long journey, but we're getting semi-cama again so it hopefully won't be too bad! 

New Year

Our first day of this new year was disappointing to say the least.

Feeling fairly rough around the edges, we struggled out of bed at about 2pm and set off to find something to eat, namely Macdonalds. Josh was feeling particularly fragile, and needed food fast. Unfortunately, fate was against us because it was closed! Closed on new years day, we were outraged; this would never happen in London! In fact, it turned out most places were shut for the day, so we kept walking until we came across a little cafe that was open.

I wish we hadn't gone.

We sat down and the waiter took his sweet time bringing us a menu. We ordered some drinks which were brought to us fairly promptly, although Josh ordered his with ice which was apparently too much to ask for. We then ordered our food, milanesa de pollo, and mashed potatoes. For those of you that don't know, milanesa de pollo is a chicken breast bashed til it's really thin, breaded and fried, basically a chicken escalope. It really shouldn't take too long to prepare.

We waited for over 30 minutes for our food. Most of the restaurant were given their lunch before us, even if they had arrived after us. Josh eventually asked the guy where our food was and it became very clear that he hadn't put our order in. It eventually came after about 40 minutes, with no apologies or anything. The damn food was lukewarm! It had clearly been microwaved, and not well. I couldn't finish mine, it would not have tasted good even if it had been hot.

Feeling very disappointed considering it had cost us $20, we headed back to our hostel, and discovered on our way that MacDonalds had opened in the mean time!

This evening, we tried a different place (obviously) and it was yet another let down. Note to travellers: Chinese food in Argentina is gross. Instead of noodles, they had used spaghetti! The meat was disgusting, the spring rolls were actually filled with beef that tasted similar to a Cornish pasty, and everything was so greasy. I don't really like Chinese at the best of times, but this may have put me off for life. The best bit of the meal was the salad!

So we have been thoroughly underwhelmed on this first day of 2013. Our night last night was ok; we watched fireworks over the harbour with some girls from Ireland, Brazil and Germany, then went to meet Josh's Swedish friend and his sister at an outdoor street party. We left pretty early though, and got lost on our walk home too.

All in all, it's been a bit of an anticlimax. We're seeing two friends we made last week tomorrow, who are both from Buenos Aires, so that should be fun. The girl, Martina, took us to a suburb of BA on Sunday called Tigre, which was really pretty. We sat by the river and drank maté, a popular drink in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, kind of like really strong green tea. It was a lovely day, so hopefully tomorrow will be too, and will make up for our crap day today!