Chelle and Ben's Adventures of 2010

Hello lovely people!

We are in the grey and miserable capital of Peru, Lima, and it is our last day in South America! 5 months of traveling has flown by in a blur of mountains, lakes, villages, towns, shopping, ruins, museums, cafes, bars, new people and lots and lots and lots and lots of buses! We fly out to the Dominican Republic tomorrow morning, where we will spend 2 weeks with friends and sipping pina coladas by the beach!

We still need to blog abour our experiences in Bolivia and Peru, however we haven't had the time to sit and write so this is a blog with a difference..... few words to read, just videos to watch! So, make a cuppa and enjoy our shaky, home video recordings of some of our various adventures and favourite spots over the past 5 months in South America! Below each video is a little description of the recording. And sorry in advance about some of the embarrassing commentary..... some very cringe worthy moments that should give you a laugh; unfortunately we don't have the technology to re-record over it!

Hope you enjoy!

Chelle and Ben

We spent an adventurous 3 days in the Amazon Basin in Bolivia, where we cruised down the river with alligators, went fishing for piranha, and hunting for an anaconda. This encounter with two alligators left Chelle a little shaky and Ben very amused!

We woke up at 4:00am for the long hike up in the dark to watch "Las Torres" turn red in the rising morning sun. It was FREEZING, and Ben and I had forgotten to pack head lights so we had to rely on the lights of our other trekkers to show the path! The climb up was unbelievably difficult, and in the end we were taking 2 steps up then resting, 2 more, then another quick rest! But it was all worth it to experience an incredibly beautiful moment.

Panoramic view of Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side

This was a fun day! We spent the day exploring the massive Salt Flats of Bolivia, where salt shimmers under the sun for as far as the eye can see. Ben took this video of the sunset on our way back into the town of Uyuni.

Toucan's dinner time at the bird park in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil....banana, yummmmm!

Watch for Ben being pushed back by the police baton as he celebrates the winning goal with the fans! Meanwhile as I was recording I was pushed off my chair by fans surging forward to jump in the aisles which explains the shaky recording!

This was a great moment, knowing that we were almost at the end of our 4 day trek in Torres del Paine National Park, Patagonia, and that a soft, comfy bed and hot shower awaited us back in town!

This one is Ben's pick (thanks Ben!). No illusions about my fitness level here! Those hills were hard work!

El Chalten, in Argentina Patagonia, has some of the most stunning scenery and day hikes that we have experienced so far in South America. We spent 3 days hiking around here and loved it! Ignore my spanish as I attempt to say the local name for the park, muy terrible!

What a hot butt in those sexy mining overalls! Our budget was looking grim so Ben put me to work in the mines of Potosi for the day! We are 3 levels underground in this video, and as you can see we needed to watch every step for open pits, and be on guard for the loaded trolleys that would thunder past. The air was thick with dust, and it was stuffy and hot. The experience gave us a little insight into how hard life in the mines is.

We didn't tell our mums about this one until afterwards! The Death Road is a down hill, narrow, dirt, cliff hugging road with 1000 metre drops into the mist below. It is a popular adventure tourism activity in Bolivia for the crazy "gringos". We were aware of the danger and rode the 5 hour descent carefully, although it was pretty hairy when the clouds closed in around us and we were riding through mist and rain. This is a short video of Ben taking off on the Death Road ( He is in yellow).

Chelle riding down the hill on the Death Road, Bolivia.

This is obviously another pick of Ben's which makes me both cringe and laugh to watch. Notice how Ben has picked ones where he looks fit and strong, but the ones of me tend to be my least flattering moments..... hmmmm, Ben, interesting, interesting! If anyone has watched the other ones of me climbing one may conclude that I don't like climbing mountains much! Actually, when we are climbing at normal altitude levels it is fine, it is just that my asthmatic lungs have a fit each time we climb in the "sky" at high altitudes ( sounds like excuses excuses I know!). Ben on the other hand is a mountain goat!

We visited the Pisac markets, which are 1 hour out of Cusco in the Sacred Valley, for some serious shopping time! We weren't disappointed and as a result we have just had to send home a 11kg package of all our goodies! This video tries to capture the colour and vibrancy of the markets.

Parati
1st and 2nd April

Parati is a beach town located on a tropical slice of the South East coast of Brazil, known as the Green Coast. The green coast is where the Atlantic jungle meets pristine, powdery white beaches, and is spectacularly beautiful (especially the men, but obviously none as handsome as Ben!). Parati has an old, historical colonial town centre that dates back to the 18th century, with romantic cobbled alleyways, and beautiful white washed old homes and cathedrals. It has a vibrant night life, where street performers entertain family crowds and live music pours out of the cafes and restaurants. Ben and I found a great music cafe and spent our 2 nights in Parati listening to local music until the early hours of the morning. We also spent a great day on a boat and snorkel trip around the islands. Parati, and Brazil in general, was exorbitantly expensive and our 2 nights out in Parati cost us more than if we were in Sydney- not good for our backpacker budget! Actually our entire 3 weeks in Brazil cost us almost as much as a month and a half in Chile and Argentina. Ouch!

Our day out on the boat in Parati

Diving off the top deck of the boat

It took me about 10 minutes of false starts and then one big hysterical scream to face my fear of hights and jump off the top deck!

A beautiful day out on a Parati boat trip

Streets of Parati at dusk

Street night life in Parati

The music cafe in Parati, where we spent our 2 nights with great food and great music

Ilha Grande
3rd April – 8th April (6 days)

Ilha Grande is a tropical island 3 hours off the coast of Rio. It was meant to be a quick 2 day island stop for some Brazilian fun and sun, but tropical rains and floods meant we stayed for 6! The beach for the first 2 days was great, although slightly depressing to see all the beautiful tanned bodies in skimpy, g-string style bikinis! I swear I saw people put on their sunglasses when I walked down the beach (cue the song “Blinded by the light”!). Even the men are into the “less is best” approach to swim wear, and seem to have Barbie’s Ken as their aspiration for fashion and fitness! I have never seen such tight, fluro budgie smugglers on men of all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of “hairiness”! Brazilian beaches are where it is OK to let it all hang out. And before you ask – yes, Ben stuck to good old Aussie board shorts!

Sunny days on Ilha Grande, before the rains came!

1,2,3 Cheese! On our snorkel trip.

Brazilian boat party and BBQ!

Having a hard day on the water!

We had a garishly green beach front hostel room for our first few days on the island, made bearable by the beautiful views over the bay. However by the end of the second day our beach holiday came to a sudden end as torrential rains set in. By the 3rd day the unpaved, dirt laneways of Ilha Grande were flooded with knee-deep, murky brown water, and the seas were too rough to cross meaning that we were stuck on the island. Suddenly we were swimming in the streets and not the ocean. Not quite the tropical holiday we had signed up for!

Our little green beach house

View from our beach cottage

And the rain sets in....

Stormy seas

Tropical beach in a tropical storm on Ilha Grande

At least there was lots of fresh drinking water!

The rain forced us to have some serious R&R time, and we spent our days eating, watching the European championship soccer (the boredom converted me to a bogan soccer fan, and Ben was endlessly amused with my chants such as “You play like a girl!”, and "You must be blind” – both learnt from my Dad during AFL games, ta Dad!- and my additional personal one..... “Take your shirt off!”!), eating, learning how to play Chess , eating, swinging in hammocks reading, eating, playing cards, eating, and some more eating! At this rate I won’t be walking down the aisle but waddling!!

Making the most of rainy days- swinging in hammocks and reading.

The garden of our cute hostel up in the hills

Stree night life on Ilha Grande

Enjoying the famous Brazilian Caprihini Cocktail

Rio
9th April – 15th April (6 nights / 7 days)

Rio, wow, what a city!! We thought Buenos Aires was the city that never sleeps and then we came to Rio! The colour, energy and vibrancy of the city are contagious. Life is spicier in Rio. However with that comes more danger and a city that is super friendly and entertaining on the outside, but difficult to get to know and feel truly comfortable in. Rio is HUGE, and we called it the jungle city, as there are literally hills and patches of jungle spread throughout the city. Suburbs and “favelas” (poor, slum like areas of towns) are built up into the sides of hills, which is why the recent landslides triggered by the torrential rains were so devastating. The view from Sugarloaf mountain captures the size and beauty of Rio:

View of Rio at night from the Sugar Loaf mountain

The famous Copacabana Beach lit up at night

The sun setting over beautiful Rio

More sun set over Rio

We stayed for our first night in the “boho” area of Rio (Santa Theresa and Lapa), although quickly came to the realisation that the word “boho” means grungy, gritty and dangerous at night! Within 5 minutes of arriving to our hill side hostel 2 girls came bursting in through the front door in tears and visibly shaken. They had just been held up at knife point (machetes no less) 5 minutes down the road from the hostel. We heard many other similar stories about the area that night and decided to play it safe and move to the more upmarket and “trendy” Ipanema beach the next morning (Our 10 bed dorm room also smelt of pee which made the decision to move a very easy one!). However before we moved we made sure we enjoyed the cute cobbled stone streets, art houses and cafes of Santa Theresa, as well as the grungy street art and famous stairway of Lapa.

A Santa Theresa Delight!

The view from the hill of Santa Theresa

The famous colourful Lapa Stairs created by an eccentric artist who collects tiles from around the world and uses them in his stairway design.

An Australian tile in the Lapa Stairway

Selaron - the eccentric and dedicated artist

The grungy streets of Lapa

We checked into our new hostel and again ended up in a 10 bed dorm room, the only affordable accommodation in Rio going around! Luckily there were only 2 other guys sharing the room with us, so it wasn’t full of too many smelly backpackers! The hardest part about staying in dorms is getting used to the bunk beds. Ben learnt the hard way to be careful on the top bunk with a magnificent fall backwards off the top bunk onto the single bed below. I watched it happen in slow motion and think that he may have a career in the world of stunt men! Luckily that bed was there as otherwise I would have been picking up pieces of Ben.

Life in a 10 bed dorm room... at least it didn't smell of pee!

Ipanema Beach

Ipanema Beach

Rio for us was a lot of partying with a lot of great people. We caught up with some great Aussie friends we met travelling, Luke and Tori, and had a fantastic night out at a market . The market was in a massive stadium full of bars, restaurants, various stages with live music and Samba dancing, and the usual market stalls of clothes, foods etc. Ben and I mixed together our salsa and tango classes to dance with the locals to the live band. We may have looked a bit special but we danced our feet off and had a lot of fun!

Making the best Caprihini's in Rio!

Luke, Tori, Ben and I out on a Rio night

Live music at the markets

A night out in Rio wouldn’t be complete without guns or a fight, and so there was a bit of adventure as we left the market. As we were heading out we saw a massive crowd of people come running towards us, obviously trying to escape something. Immediately I thought “BULLS! RUN!” (we had been watching a short video about the running of the bulls earlier in the night). However the “bull” turned out to be a crazed man wielding a metal chair trying to bash another man with it. Unfortunately he was lashing out so wildly that he was hitting innocent people as he charged through the crowds, hence the rush of people towards us trying to escape. Instinctually without even knowing what was happening Tori and I dove off the path and took cover, while the boys tried to do the same but didn’t quite make it in time, and copped a side swipe with the chair. They were lucky compared to the poor guy who literally dove out of the way onto a flaming BBQ grill stomach first. As soon as the chair wielding mad man had passed we were out of there and in a taxi straight back to the safety and comfort of our 10 bed dorm!

We had another colourful night out at a soccer match- always entertaining with the passionate chanting, hysterical cheering and colourful banners, not to mention the home made fireworks going off randomly! We saw up close how the police man-handle people, as a rush of excited fans, Ben included of course, all jumped into the aisles to celebrate the winning goal, and within seconds the police had their batons out and were using them quite forcibly to push people back into their chairs. We had a police escort as we left the stadium to guide us through any post-match fights that may have broken out, however the crowd was relatively peaceful as they left and we reached our tour mini-van without any further excitement.

Hanging with the boys at the soccer!

Fireworks go off at the soccer match

Getting into the competitive spirit!

At the soccer

After the soccer match we had one of those random travel experiences where our guide said that he was going into the favela that night and did we want to come with him. Of course Ben and I were the first to say “YES!”, and we ended up on an “unofficial” tour of South America’s largest favela (poor area), called Rocinha, with 5 other “Gringos” (foreigners). The favela is controlled by the drug lords and their gang of thousands of mostly teenage soldiers, who are armed with the latest AK47 machine guns and bazookas (better equipped than the local police). Our guide asked permission for us to enter the favela and pass through safely (he teaches English at a community school in the favela) however even with the knowledge that we had permission to be there it was hard not to be terrified when I saw the teenage soldiers leaning casually on their AK47’s, or cradling a bazooka in their laps.

A sneaky shot of street life in the favela

Our guide told us that life in the favela is controlled by the drug gang and rules are imposed with the threat of shooting (e.g. If someone in the favela causes trouble for the community they will be shot). We climbed to the top of the hill that Rocinha is built on and enjoyed the night view of Rio, while I jumped each time a motorbike sped past with a teenage soldier on patrol. It was an unforgettable Rio experience that gave us a brief glimpse of life in the favela, and we were struck by the strong sense of community between the people, the constant music blaring out from every street corner (it’s 24/7/365 partying) and how happy and friendly most people were to us as we passed through. However I was relieved when we safely passed through a police check point at the bottom of the hill that marked the border of the drug gang’s power and the entrance back into the police’s area of control.

The Rio night scene from the hill in the favela

Other Rio highlights were:

• Samba Class! Ben and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to learn some basic Samba moves. We had a private 1 hour lesson that involved dancing with a fire hydrant! A hard dance style to pick up compared to salsa and tango.

Our very patient Samba teacher

Ben working on his new Samba moves

• City walking tour: We spent a day walking around the city centre, stopping for coffee and cake in one of Rio’s famous cafe institutions, and sitting in on a parliamentary debate (random!)

Our impromptu excursion to the Brazilian Parliment

Mmmmmm, coffee and cake heaven in a Rio cafe!

• Ipanema beach and the beach markets: Ipanema beach is beautiful, laid back and trendy, and reminded us a bit of Manly beach back at home; a city beach full of cafes and bars but not as built up as Bondi. It is framed by mountains, and packed with volley ball games and beach vendors selling sarongs, jewellery and coconut juice up and down the beach. It is a great beach for surfing and Ben and Luke gave it a go, although spent more time trying to stay alive in the strong currents than catching waves! The markets were also worth a visit, very colourful and a great spot to pick up some skimpy beach wear to fit in with the locals!

Ipanema Beach Markets

Tasting the street food at the Ipanema Beach Markets

Shake those coconuts!

The boys surfing at Ipanema Beach

• Copacabana beach and night markets: “I’m at the COPA....copacabannnaaa.....”. It was great being able to walk along this world famous, massive beach, and see it all lit up at night, packed with bars and some great night markets. We couldn’t stop singing “I’m at the copa....copacabana!”. It was more obviously touristy and felt edgier than the laid back Ipanema Beach.

Copacabana at night

Copacabana night markets

An artist engraving our names on a single piece of rice at the Copacabana night markets

Bonito
April 16th- April 18th ( 2 nights / 3 days).

After more than a week in shared dorm room accommodation with a shared bathroom we have never been so happy to check into our own private room with our own bathroom! I am so over dorm rooms- been there and done that enough times in previous backpacking trips thank you very much! I also feel like I am over meeting new people, but that will pass as we have more down time and I can re-charge the social butterfly battery.

Bonito is part of the Brazilian Pantanal area- famous for its’ wildlife, and in Bonito’s case its’ underwater life. We spent an incredible day snorkelling down the Rio del Plata, a shallow and crystal clear river that winds through Pantanal farm land. For most of our snorkel trip the river was only 1 metre deep and incredibly you could see 50 metres ahead which meant that we were really up close and personal with a huge range of tropical fish. There were fish of all colours and size, some of them as big as my torso, and I was worried that they might mistake my legs for food! We floated the final 600 metres down the river under a canopy of trees with monkeys playing overhead, in a blissful state of relaxation that stayed with us for our entire stay in Bonito.

The international snorkel team!

Fish fish swimming in the water

Chelle the snorkeler

Ben the snorkeler

King of the river

Chelle trying to swim against the powerful underwater spring

The next day we visited the picturesque Blue Lake Cave (see photos), and then rode bikes out to the local river. The river should have been relaxing except that I am dating a man who thought that it would be HILARIOUS if he threw fish food into the river in the exact spot where I was nervously swimming. I was nervously swimming because there were so many fish in the river, and I was scared that they would try to nibble me. So, when Ben threw the fish food into the river it isn’t an exaggeration to say that there where hundreds of medium sized fish who went into a feeding frenzy around me, including nibbling ME!! I became hysterical, and screamed at Ben “GET ME OUT OF HERE” (as well as other stuff that I can’t repeat in the blog!!). Ben’s face quickly turned from that of a practical joker enjoying his laugh, to one of shock as he realised that the joke had backfired. I had to swim out of the swarm of frenzied fish, and had them nibble me and flap their slimy fins against me as I got out of the river. I didn’t talk to Ben for the rest of the day! (Well at least for 30 minutes anyway!)

Jumping fish

Imagine this scene times 100 as hungry fish went into a feeding frenzy around me....BEN!

The Blue Lagoon Cave

Blue Lagoon Cave

Ready for the cave tour!

So amigos, thank you for reading and all your comments! We are actually in Peru now and Ben will write the next update about our incredible month in Bolivia.

Lots of love to all,

Chelle and Ben

San Ignacious Mini: Jesuit Mission Ruins
23- 25th March ( 2 days)

After a sleepless and uneventful night on another long bus journey we arrived to the quiet river town of Posadas. It’s funny on the bus, because I will see a young-in-love couple cuddling up to each other, and whispering sweet nothings in each other’s ears during the trip, and think to myself “Oh, how cute”. Then I reflect on Ben and I, and our own whispers into each other’s ears that usually go something like this:

“ Beeennn, you’re on my side of the seat, get over” ( Seat space was fought over constantly during long, squishy family car trips in my childhood and it seems I haven’t forgotten the territorial instinct to slap and scratch to defend my rightful seat space!)

“Ouch! You stepped on my foot again, are you doing that on purpose?!! (Imagine Ben giving me a very accusatory look with raised eye brows at 2am in the morning)”, or my favourite...

“(subtle sniffing of the air and a disgusted look on Ben’s face followed by the question) Chelle, did you fart again? That’s not human!” (and then he pretends not to know me even though I am sitting right next to him, which usually makes me declare loudly “I love you honey!”).

Sometimes we will try to play a travel game, that usually ends in accusations of cheating (again, memories of my childhood flash before my eyes) but all in all the bus trips aren't that bad and I enjoy the time they provide for reflecting and listening to my favourite tunes.

Another long bus ride!

When we finally arrived in Posadas we were completely exhausted from the bus journey and as soon as we checked in we were fast asleep, not waking until 1:30pm. I go into slight panic mode when it is afternoon and we haven’t done or seen anything for the day, and I start flapping around packing day packs, grabbing maps and making sure we have sun cream, water, and all the other necessities. Ben on the other hand has fully embraced the Spanish “mañana- mañana” attitude towards time. Recently, a friend we met travelling said “Chelle is the co-ordinator of the trip isn’t she”, to which Ben replied, “Yes, if I was co-ordinating we’d still be in Chile”, haha!!

We ambled ( walking is too strong a word to use given the heat and humidity!) into the small town centre of Posadas and surprisingly found a restaurant that had a vegetarian menu, from which we ordered a delicious soy burger and salad. It is usually difficult to find quality vegetarian food (or ‘pescatarian’ as we are confused vegetarians who eat fish!) , as most places only offer the choice of greasy, plastic cheese covered pizza or pasta- they love their pizza and pasta in Argentina. Refreshed by a healthy lunch and a strong coffee each we caught the local bus out to the San Ignacious Jesuit ruins.

The ruins are 400 years old, and are listed as a Unesco World Heritage site. Upon entering the site we were immediately aware of a peaceful and meditative energy, with a ghostly air of mystery about the ruins, as if hiding the secrets of the Utopian society that lived there. The ghostly aspect was enhanced by the night sound and light tour we did: an impressive display of virtual actors, lights, music and voice to recreate what life may have been like in the missions.

San Ignacious Mini, Jesuit Ruins: The doors to the main temple

San Ignacious Mini, Jesuit Ruins: Living Quarters (each family had one small room)

There was even a jail as part of the mission and look who I found in it!!

San Ignacious Mini, Jesuit Ruins: This gnarled tree is said to have a Stone Heart, as it has completely engulfed and grown around a stone pillar that was part of the mission complex

We had a guided tour around the site which was a great way to have our questions answered and appreciate the history of the mission

San Ignacious Mini, Jesuit Ruins

San Ignacious Mini, Jesuit Ruins

The setting sun over the ruins

Virtual actors recreate life on the mission during a spectacular night show

The mission lit up at night

At its peak the mission was home to 5000 Guarani Indians, who, led only by 2 Jesuit priests at any given time, relinquished their nomadic and polygamous jungle lifestyle and culture, for a Christian, monogamous life on the mission. It is fascinating that so many thousands of Guarani Indians freely accepted and willingly sought life on the numerous jungle missions that dotted the Brazilian / Argentinian border area at the time. Force was not used in the conversions, rather it was often the chief of the various Guarani tribes who led their tribal group to the relative safety of the mission, for slave traders were targeting the Guarani people and chiefs saw the missions as a place of safety for their people. Sadly, in reality, the missions were regularly raided by the Portuguese slave traders, providing a concentrated gathering of Guarani people for them to kidnap and use on their plantations in Brazil.

There are many other reasons that life on the missions was attractive, however in order to avoid this becoming a historical essay I will leave that for you to read more about if you desire (Or watch the movie “The Mission” for a Hollywood recreation!) The readings on the Jesuit missions are fascinating, and many books debate whether they were a social utopia, an early form of communism or cultural imperialism.

We really enjoyed our time at the ruins, and even tried to cross into Paraguay to visit some more ruin sights, however here we encountered our first corrupt border experience! We rocked up to the border with our passport, although with no Paraguayan visa as we had been told Aussies didn’t need one to visit the ruin sights for the day. We were met by a plump, balding, heavily sweating man at the border, who told us through a slimy smile that we indeed did require a visa, which would usually cost us $45 US each, however he was willing to - *wink wink* - let us cross over for the bargain price of just $45 for the 2 of us if we paid him in cash now. Despite his kind and generous offer we declined, and caught the returning bus for the 10 minute ride back into Posadas, where the biggest spider we have ever seen was waiting for us on our floor. We think this is the cousin of the spider that inspired the movie “Arachnophobia”! It was as big as our hand, black, hairy and UGLY!

It mightn't look so big in this photo but wait until you see it in zoom!

An unsuccessful visit to Paraguay

Iguazu Falls: Argentinian and Brazilian side
25th March – 31st March ( 6 days: 4 sight seeing and 2 toilet days!)

The most exciting part of arriving into Puerto Iguazu was that it was only a 5 hour bus trip to get there. Ben and I have calculated that by the time we reached Iguazu falls we had spent 130 hours on buses travelling, and in the weeks since then (when I am writing this) we have done a further 80 hours (bringing our total travel time so far on buses to nearly 9 days! 9 days of our life spent on a bus!). We are wondering if we can add “Successful Bus Traveller” to our CV’s, and list the attributes of such a position as:

• Flexible: willing to go with the flow (i.e. happy to hang around the road side when the bus breaks down, to accept that a “Direct Bus” stops to collect new passengers every 30 minutes, and to pee in the bushes by the road side when the toilets are too feral to use).
• Adaptable: able to adapt to the different bus environments and bus people ( i.e. successfully ignoring the male, early 20-something year old backpackers who ride in the bus with their shirts off because the AC is broken...unless they have a shapely, tanned six pack in which case I find ignoring becomes quite difficult!)
• Patient: willing to calmly accept things that I cannot change (i.e. not clobbering the man behind me who snores like a freight train for the entire bus trip, depriving me of any semblance of sleep even though I am wearing my Dad’s gift of industrial strength ear plugs)
• Creative: able to use minimal resources to achieve a desired outcome (i.e. contorting my body into strange and unnatural positions to steal a few minutes of sleep here and there before waking up with a dead arm or tingling toes, a sure sign that some part of my yogi-like body is oxygen deprived).

So , it is with these fine attributes that we have developed through the endless bus travel that we arrived in Puerto Iguazu, full of anticipation at seeing Iguazu Falls, where 275 separate waterfalls thunderously plunge 80 metres down into a turbulent brown, Amazonian -like river.

Despite our excitement at seeing the falls that we had talked about so much, we weren’t to make it to see them on the first day. Not because of some tummy upset, or tiredness, or a strike (which had stopped others from seeing them).No, none of these rational things stopped us from going straight out to one of the world’s most incredible natural wonders. Instead, it was a SOCCER game. Yes, that’s right, soccer! On our way out to the waterfalls Ben saw that the Boca vs. River soccer game was being shown on big screen live at one of the local bars. He stopped dead in his tracks, and looked at me with big blue puppy dog eyes. My first reaction was “No WAY buddy!”, but somehow 15 minutes later we were both sitting with a beer and pizza, watching the blockbuster Argentinian soccer match of the year. Those puppy dog eyes are more effective than I thought!

Ben captivated by the soccer while the falls await!

It is hard to describe Iguazu Falls without being clichéd (as soon as someone writes that you know it is always going to be clichéd!). In my diary (which I rely on to write these blogs weeks after the events) I wrote: “ Jumping rainbows, tropical butterflies, thunderous noise, plunging cascades, turbulent brown water, rocks and palm trees, magical and powerful”, and I think those words capture the incredible experience of seeing such raw, natural beauty up close and personal.

As we approached the first look out where we would catch our very first glimpse of the falls, I said to Ben “ Are you ready for it?”!. There are some places on our trip that we had talked and dreamed about back home, in between moving houses 3 times in 3 months, getting engaged and finishing work! Iguazu Falls was definitely one of them. To be there was to be living a dream that we had created back in Sydney. And it couldn’t have been more perfect.

We started with the upper circuit which gave us a view of the falls looking down, and led us along a jungle path where monkeys were playing in the trees, butterflies danced around us, and cute little Coati Mundi's (see picture below) scampered across the path in front of us. From up here the view is captured in these photos:

Our first glimpse of Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls

Seeing the falls from the Argentinian side gave a completely different perspective compared to the view from the Brazilian side.

Looking down over one of the falls

There are so many butterflies of all different vibrant colours

Playful monkeys swung in the trees above us as we walked around the upper circuit

A Coati Mundi trying to pick his moment to cross the path on the Upper Circuit

I love this shot of Ben's - butterfly with the falls in the background.

Enjoying the view from the Argentinian side

Beautiful butterflies abound at the falls

After the Upper Circuit we stopped to refresh from the intense humidity and heat that had sweat cascading down our bodies. Never much of a coke drinker, we relied on coke to replace the constant energy being lost through the sweat. At our stop we encountered some furry, and not so timid, little animal friends:

Caught having a lazy moment!

Begging raccoons at a cafe in the park: They would jump on tables and steal sandwiches right out of the hands of unsuspecting tourists!

Starting the lower circuit

During the lower circuit we became drenched with the spray from the falls, and so we didn’t even notice that it had started to drizzle. We decided to catch the speed boat that took you out under the falls. It was great fun, but because I wear contacts most days, the force of the water meant that I couldn’t open my eyes for fear of my contacts being washed out. I spent the trip squealing with delight at being under the falls, and shouting to Ben “Can you see anything. What does it look like?!!!”. We were able to take a few early photos from the boat trip before getting to close to the falls, which show a bit of the experience:

Uo close at the falls: viewing platform on the lower circuit.

Absolutely soaked after going out to the falls viewing platform!

Sexy in a bright orange life jacket!

Getting up close on the boat

A quick snapshot from the boat before going further into the falls.

After the boat trip we caught the little train out to the Gargantas del Diablo (or “The Devils Throat”). This was a devil’s moment- tormentful, fearful, massive and powerful –as the fierce water exploded into spray, but then hopeful and beautiful rainbows bounced above the water as it plunged down from the high rapids. It was a memory that I will never forget, standing there above such a powerful force: one of those moments that you want to bottle up and keep stored forever. We came home, absolutely drenched from the falls, and ended a great day with chats to our families that left us happy for the night.

The long, hot walk out to the Devil's throat takes you over the brown river.

A rainbow being swallowed up by the Devil's Throat

Chelle contemplating the power and beauty at the Gargantas del Diablo (or “The Devils Throat”).

A rainbow over the Gargantas del Diablo (or “The Devils Throat”).

Unfortunately, at some stage during the day we must have both eaten or drunk something dodgy that left us with traveller’s tummy for the next few days. We returned to the park the next day to do the Macuco Walk, but sadly I have to admit that the best part was when we reached the end and both of us slept by the creek for an hour, before working up the energy to return! It was a great trail to do for wild-life watching though, and we were entertained by monkeys jumping in the braches overhead, and played “Guess the animal” as little creatures scampered across the path in the far distance ahead. We made a sorrowfully border crossing into Brazil that afternoon, and spent out first few days in Brazil taking turns rushing to the toilet!

The Macuco Trail weaved through dense jungle and was full of beautiful birds, cheeky monkeys, and lots of mozzies!

Views from the Macuco Trail

Passing out by the creek on the Macuco Trail

A sorry sight! Ben crossing the border into Brazil sick as a dog.

Once that was out of our system we visited the Brazilian side of the waterfalls. It was everything the Argentinian side was and more. It offered a more panoramic view of the falls, and had a fantastic walkway out over the falls where you really felt a part of it all, standing above one of the falls and seeing the brown water rush beneath you before plunging down the rock face. It was definitely worthwhile visiting the falls from both the Argentinian and the Brazilian side.

Panoramic view from the Brazilian side

Iguazu Falls

The walkway over the water and to the edge of some falls on the Brazilian side

Ben and the falls

Distant view of the falls from the Brazilian side

Ben having one of those travel moments at the falls

The Devils Throat from the Brazilian side

Looking down over the walkway and seeing all the mist from the falls

We ended out time in the Iguazu area with a visit to the Bird Park, where we spent the day talking with Toucans, playing with parrots, and admiring the flamingos! All in all, another fabulous South American Adventure.

Ben having a serious word to the button-eating parrot!

Chelle smiling nervously!

Bird Park

Bird Park

Ben and Mr Toucan!

Who can? Toucan!

My favourite- the elegant flamingos.

Bird Park

2 parrots at play on the ground

Bird Park

Bird Park

Bird Park

Lots of love, Chelle and Ben

Hello beautiful, attractive and intelligent blog readers!

Shall we tango? Yes? Of course!

This is a little bit of a long blog, covering Rosario and Buenos Aires. The last part goes into detail about a local soccer derby I went to so for those that have their eyes roll over when it comes to sport - you can probably get save some of your moments on earth by skipping that section.

But enough about that - let's get into it!

Rosario and the Simple Pleasures
March 8th to March 11th (3 days)

From Mendoza we headed West – “Go west!” - to Rosario, about 4 hours out of BA. It was a 14 hour bus ride and I nary slept a wink, and Chelle had a few hours at best so we arrived pretty spacey – something we are becoming accustomed to. Rosario had been recommended to us by travellers in Mendoza as a good chilled place to spend a few days, and it certainly lived up to that reputation.

Rosario has some historical sights to see, including Che Guevara’s place of birth and the national monument; but it’s not a place that relies on history or natural beauty to bring in the visitors. Instead it relies on some simple pleasures: great food, music and shopping – most of them offered all at once in the multi-purpose shops. Chelle and I had decided to do a quick detox in Rosario (which lasted a FULL 24 hours!) and it felt like Rosario was playing the role of the temptress, with an ice cream store, pizzeria or boutique chocolate and wine store to be found on pretty much every corner. Damn you Rosario! You’re the devil on our shoulder!

Most of our time was spent in Rosario wandering the streets and discovering a few gems along the way, including a vego restaurant way out yonder, an art gallery reconstructed from old silos, a microbrewery with tasting selections and our favourite: a music cafe a 5 min walk from our hostel, where you could sit at tables, relax, order great meals and get good quality live music played to you.

Yes – we did it tough in Rosario.

Not sure if this is a good or bad sale!

Streets of Rosario

Historic monument of Rosario

Chelle gazing out from the monument, most likely daydreaming of Rosario ice cream

Birthplace of Che Guevara - at least that's what the sign told us

Rosario arts museum

Chelle showing her artistic expression in the Rosario art gallery

And ... Ben's showing his artistic impression :-))

Rosario's ice cream shops could only be resisted by Chelle for so long!

An aficionado doing some beer tasting in Rosario microbrewery

I've got the Argentinian blues!

Music cafe in Rosario

Buenos Aires the Land of Tango
March 12th to March 23rd (11 days)

From Rosario it was off to Buenos Aires (BA)! Less than a 4 hour bus trip too – i.e. just down the road. In planning our world trip BA had been one of the places we were really looking forward to - a place rich in culture, history and entertainment; and of course – the home of the tango! *insert clap and sound of feet tapping passionately on floor*

Unfortunately our enthusiasm for BA had been slightly dampened by horror stories we had heard along the way: people getting held up at gunpoint at 10am, robbed in the parks, pick-pocketed, fake money, etc. And after what had happened in Mendoza, we were on high alert arriving into BA – in fact I would have described us as PARANOID. Tiny Argentinian girls would run past and we’d be like, “Who’s that?! What does she want?? Hmmm, does she look dodgy to you??” and we’d grab our bags tighter.

Fortunately our paranoia quickly subsided, and though one can always be unlucky, if you keep your wits about you there is nothing to be afraid of in BA.

So with that said, onto the highlights tour!

Day 1-2:
We arrived in the evening to BA and decided to take it easy. Our entertainment that night consisted of seeing how much we could eat at a Vegetarian all-you-can-eat place without exploding, something we have vowed never to try again (food 1; humans: 0). Stick to those pay-by-weight places.

Vego all you can eat baby!

Vego self-service in BA, we ate it compulsively!

The next day brought our first foray to the micro-center (i.e. “CBD”) of BA, including a crossing of the 12 lane highway that is 9 De Julio - a stark illustration that we were no longer in Patagonia.

The 12 lane 9 de Julio - the widest road in the world??

The micro-center is a hive of activity, plenty of shops and the usual touristy allures but nothing much that interested us travelers-on-a-budget (or deluding-ourselves-we’re-on-a-budget). What did end up sucking us in though was the open-air tourist bus. Yes, it’s true – we did one.

BA is a city of many personalities in each of its districts, and is actually a great city to see via an open air bus. Plus you get to wear headphones that make you look like a DJ – doesn’t get better than that.

Look - a tourist map on a tourist bus!

DJ Benrama on the open-air bus

Here’s some of our observations and experiences of BA’s districts as we passed them by:

Micro-center: full of historical buildings, statues and grand architecture, also now serves as a bustling CBD area complete with both locals selling their wares on the street to shops that could be in any city’s CBD

BA architecture

BA architecture

Mothers of Plaza De Mayo memorial to the disappeared due to Argentinian dictatorship (1976-83)

BA architecture

La Boca: dangerous in its side streets and touristy full of tango and colour in its main ones. We embraced our tourist-side (we were, after all, open-air-busing it) and stopped in La Boca for lunch, some sangria and a tango show. The couple doing the tango clearly had a knack for picking talent from a crowd and asked me come up for an impromptu performance.

Mural and sculpture at the entrance to La Boca

The colours of La Boca

The colours of La Boca

Sangria time!

Tango at a La Boca restaurant

Treating the crowd to one of my trademark tango moves

Mural in La Boca

San Telmo: gritty and with crime problems historical, San Telmo is one of the places to be for night life, music and clubs. Plenty of great places to eat; also home to the famous Sunday markets – more on that shortly.

Palermo: an up-market version of San Telmo, plenty of great places to eat, many on the very swanky end. Safer than San Telmo, and we called it home for 4 nights at the Chill Hostel.

Decadent desert in Palermo

Red wine risotto, mmmm

Splashing out on dinner in Palermo

Goats cheese and fig jam entree, with other assorted goodies

Dinner with Ads and George in Palermo

The bus tour took most of the day, and walking back home in the evening Chelle and I came across a place with a Tango class sign on the door. We had been talking about doing a Tango lesson – “when in Rome” - so thought, “why not ask if these guys do them.” They looked like a local type of setup – perfect. The guy who greeted us quickly recognized we were non-locals with dodgy Spanish skills and broke into fluent English – also perfect. There was to be a tango class there that night in about an hour – SOLD!

Chelle and I got into our best tango gear (thongs and street shoes) and turned up relieved to see that we were not the only Tango-virgins there - plenty of nervous shuffles going on. The place was a small hall type of setup selling drinks and snacks in the back corner and with an open floor made for dancing. We were split into groups of beginners and non-beginners and it was time to TANGO!

Chelle and I did Salsa back in Australia, which I really sucked at but persevered with and ended up enjoying. Salsa is more structured with the 7-step as it’s centerpiece. Tango is more of an impromptu type of dance, with basic moves, yes, but reliant on two people physically leaning against each other almost locked in straight from the waist up and responding and moving to the music. It’s very dramatic. It’s also - pretty damn intimate! You get swapped partners in class and you are literally leaning closely with chests pressed against another person you have not met before. You also are practically whispering into their ear your heads are so close together. Suffice to say – my single brothers reading this blog – get yourselves to a Tango class pronto!

After the lesson the venue had a Friday-night special: music and open-floor Tango. We got a drink and sat down to watch and enjoy as the professionals took over the floor, that was, until some first time amateurs could not resist and decided to get up and show them how’s it done – welcome Ben and Chelle! We did our best to avoid knocking other couples over (only JUST succeeding) and I can’t say what we were doing was exactly Tango, but we had good fun and a laugh and were there tango-ing in front of people after one lesson – a good true BA experience!

Sorry we don’t have any photos to share, it was an experience only moment. Here’s roughly what we looked like if you want to picture it:

Ben and Chelle doing the tango in Buenos Aires

Day 3-7:

The next 5 days in BA were spent mostly exploring the city by foot during the day and going out at night for dinner or a show. By the end of it we really felt like we had got to know BA as a city, and we LOVED it!

Here’s the highlights tour:

Markets, markets markets: BA loves its markets, and like much of South America, no pavement space is to be wasted in trying to spruik something. There are official markets however and we first visited the Recoleta markets and then the big daddy of markets: San Telmo. We walked San Telmo markets for no less than 6 hours, hardly stopping at any stall for more than a brief moment and still couldn’t get to see it all! Street performers and artists had come out to play and there were people everywhere.

Jazz in the markets

Fresh OJ at the Recoleta markets!

Tango in the streets of Recoleta

BBQ at San Telmo - Argentinians love their meat!

San Telmo markets & random guy

Chelle caught in a brief moment of not market shopping

The crowds of San Telmo markets

A local sits with his possesions as a tourist enters the frame - one of my favourite pics of the trip

Cafe Columbia! :-))

Pupeteer at San Telmo markets

We finished the markets with a visit to one of the famous café’s in the area, Plaza Dorrego, and then met up with our friends Ads and George for dinner and beers in San Telmo square, surrounded by Tango going late into the night. It was then onto Puerto Madero, known for its many fine restaurants along the water. But it was Sunday night (which is always quiet) and we were a little rowdy and might not have been too popular with the romantic dinner crowd, so we made our own fun.

Plaza Dorrego Bar (San Telmo plaza)

Chelle lost in a moment at Plaza Dorrego Bar (San Telmo plaza)

Tango in the square at San Telmo

Walking along Puerto Madero

Chelle and George putting on a show outside their favourite restaurant!

I am just a cute innocent girl I could do no wrong

La Recoleta Cemetery: cemeteries are not usually high on the priority list to visit in a city but this is one exception. Set in Recoleta the rather originally named La Recoleta cemetery is a place where the who’s who of BA and Argentina came to be buried, with the extravagance of your burial plot symbolic of how rich and successful your family was – or how much you wanted to “one-up” the Jones’. Eva Perron is buried in this cemetery as is the previous President and many before him.

It’s a fascinating place to walk through, and contains 100’s of cemetery sites. Individuals or whole families are buried in each site and people have to buy not only land in the cemetery but pay ongoing rental there as well. Going through the cemetery Chelle and I talked about what the working class of BA must think about such a cemetery with its extravagance and wealth. There’s more money in one of those graves than most people will see in their lifetime. It’s almost like the rich are preserving and highlighting the socio-economic divide even in their death.

Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta cemetery

Eva Peron's grave site

Grave of a former President

RIP Dr Jesus (yes there was a last name)

Drumming La Bomba style! Every Monday in BA at the cultural centre there’s a drumming concert called La Bamba de Tiempo where 15 or so drummers get together for a 2 hour performance in various styles and generally with a special guest from locally or around the world joining them for the last hour. Before the main concert starts a group of amateurs first perform some improvised routines including drums, shakers, symbols and other percussion. People take turns to be the conductor using some type of code to control the group that we couldn’t decipher, and people rotate around the instruments. Each conducter brings his own energy and style and the drumming talent is incredible – you can tell they have the beats and rhythms in their blood.

The main concert was more of a classic show, and Chelle and I were right up the front centre stage until our ears could handle no more. The crowd was your hip, hop and happening BA crowd, hippies and the young and trendy hanging out. Felt a little bit like a Byron Bay Blues festival crowd, and the number of joints being smoked would have made Bobby Marley proud!

The pre-warm up at La Bomba

The pre-warm up at La Bomba

The main perfomers at La Bomba de Tiempo

Proof we were at at La Bomba de Tiempo

Art, cafes and culture: in the micro-center is one of BA’s most famous cafes, Tortoni’s. Historically it was home to some of the city’s finest artists and thinkers, many of whom are remembered with paintings and drawings that line the café (strangely we are not yet up there). Next door is the tango museum which details the history of tango from its roots to modern day art-form.

BA also houses a fine art museum with an impressive collection of classical paintings, including works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Rembrant, Monet and Mayonnaise (cue Jack Handy). We also discovered a local artist Xul Solar whose paintings were fully of colour and movement and won the inaugural Chelle and Ben Buenos Aires Art Prize.

Next on the cultural tour was the Eva Perron museum, detailed her extraordinary life and rise in the political landscape of BA. Highly recommended googling for more information on a woman who had such a dramatic impact on the people of Argentina and was so well loved by the working class.

No experience of BA night life would be complete with some great food and live music. This meant the hard work of visiting Jazz clubs and eating dinners with goats cheese and fig jam – we did this just for you, our dear blog readers! No need to thank us!

Admiring a work in the modern arts museum in Recoleta (or perhaps staring blankly)

Ben attempting to deciper Spanish in the tango museum

It takes two ...

BA tango museum hall-of-fame

Chelle in cafe heaven

Tortoni's cafe

Eva Peron museum

Thelonius Jazz Club

Colonia

We had planned to stay in BA for one week and it ended up being a week and half before we left, so we had to make the tough decision not to go to Uruguay at large – in particular, Montevideo. As a consolation we still had time to fit in a day trip to Colonia.

Colonia is a 3 hour one-way boat trip from BA and is a historical city lined with cobblestone roads that make for an enjoyable walking tour, including the fort, museums, churches and the lighthouse. It has a artistic feel to it as a town and is lined with some of the best arts and crafts shops we have found in South America - probably a good thing we had run out of Uruguaian cash by then. The food is also fantastic, with plenty of fish options given that it’s a coastal town.

Some might call Colonia a tourist trap, and it does make for an expensive day trip – but hey we had fun. And we got an impromptu dance show on the boat on the way home – what more could you want?

The charm of Colonia

Captions welcome

Chelle and the lighthouse

Cobblestone streets of Colonia

Might have problem with the rego on this one

Local Uruguayan desert, some sort of cake, ice cream and chocolate combination - VERY healthy!

Colonia sunset

Cheap entertainment on the boat back from Colonia

The crazy tribal fight masqueraded as a soccer game: Boca vs River

WARNING: long story of a soccer game coming up!

The time in BA was coming to an end *cue tears* but we’d held out another day for one primary reason: the local Boca vs River soccer game. Sport must always remain the number one priority of an Aussie male! This is one of the fiercest sporting rivalries in the world, only happening a few times a year; and seeing it in Boca stadium ranks as one of the great football experiences you can have. It’s much more than a football game to Boca and River fans, this is about history and identity as well. River is known as the richer, elite football club (“booooooooooo”) while Boca is the working class club (“Boca! Boca! Boca!). Both have huge fan bases in BA, with Boca being slightly larger. This was a home Boca game so I knew which way the cookie crumbled.

The ticket to the game costs the locals only about AUD $10, but it’s impossible to get as a tourist unless you go through a tour that adds a zero and then some to the price. Chelle decided to opt out of the game as we were planning to go in Brazil as well, so it was off I went for the big day out – what could possibly go wrong!

Firstly, it started raining. And not just sprinkling, POURING down. I’d come well prepared for this in shorts and a t-shirt, and waited for the bus to the game huddled under shelter. The bus takes you there at 11am even though the game doesn’t start till 3pm, so we were all hoping it was a passing shower and we’d be right by kick-off.

One hour later we turn up to the queue to get into the stadium and it’s still pelting down rain. A smart guy was selling poncho’s at the entrance and most of us tourists frantically grabbed one and preserved the last bit of dryness we had. Even garbage bags were going for a premium! The queue to the game is something to be seen, it goes for about 500metres even hours before the game, as there is no reserved seating and it’s first in best dressed. In the queue the Boca chants start and people are jumping up and down and generally going crazy. Us tourists were as well, even if we had no idea what we were chanting! (Most likely: “watch the gringos dance! Watch the gringos dance!”)

Waiting in line in the rain

Poncho saves the day! Did they have to give me pink though?! That's River colours

Police in force at the game

We waited in torrential rain for about an hour before finally getting into the stadium, only to find that our area was already completely packed out. There’s no seating, just standing, and to get even a clear view of the game requires pushing your way through local Boca fans like you’d push your way through a mosh pit. Fine if it’s a Jack Johnson concert; not so inviting when it’s crazy Boca fans.

The few of us that did decide to push through for a better view saw about 10 rows of prime seating right at the front of our grandstand area near the pitch. And it was all empty! Uh hah! How smart are we to see that!!! As we headed towards them we were told something along the lines of, “go sit there if you want, but, be prepared to be peed on for the next 80 minutes!” Hmmmm – let me weigh that one up!

See the River fans are quarantined to one part of the stadium, which was right above where we were standing. And because the River fans can’t stand the Boca fans – or vice-versa – they urinate and defacate and throw it into the Boca crowd during the game. Yep – that’s right! Flying pee and poo coming your way! You’d think being a home game that Boca organizers might have at least let the Boca fans and tourists enjoy such fun behavior but instead they are the ones getting done.

River fan (young kid) throwing urine on the Boca crowd - I was just out of his range!

Given this, of course nobody sits within reaching distance of the River grandstand (apart from some brave souls who stand there with umbrellas – that’s commitment for the team) which has the net effect of squashing up the Boca crowd even further. It was wall-to-wall as it was with about an hour to go. By the time it reached kick-off you were squashed between at least two people and likely had your arms leaning on another person’s shoulder with the other stuck in the crowd. Mosh pit is the right description.

It’s an incredible spectacle at the Boca stadium as you are waiting for the game to start. There’s consistent chanting (apart from the “ole” bits we “rhubarbed” our way through), jumping up and down, Boca coloured balloons and paper confetti being thrown everywhere. It’s sensory overload and you can’t help but get caught up in it! And then a giant Boca team flag gets gradually rolled out over one end of the crowd – opposite us – and swayed from side to side. Before another flag appears over the top of it, and both giant flags sway side to side. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before at a sporting event; you can feel the passion and intensity in the stadium.

Three amigos at the soccer

Boca vs River crowd going crazy with the streamers

The blue balloons fill the stadium

The crazy crowd end of the stadium

Go Boca, go Boca, go Boca!

Boca stadium, alive and waiting for the players to arrive

The Boca crowd brings out flag #2

Finally it came time for kick-off, and a giant roar came around the crowd. One of the Boca strikers was to become the all-time leading Boca scorer if he got a goal and we were hoping to see it and be a part of it because it would have been WILD. The fans are crazy without the game even starting let alone an epic goal like that being scored! I had even planned a giant Australian “raaaarrrrrrrrrrr!” to mark the occasion.

And the players arrive, the streamers go crazy and the chants start up!

As the teams kicked off the soccer ball stopped dead on the pitch – not a good sign. Players were sliding everywhere and the ball would hit dead patches consistently as they dribbled it around. It didn’t make for great football and after about 5 minutes the players all got together in the middle of the ground, started talking and agreed that, sure enough, just our luck – the game was to be cancelled!

With the pent up energy around the crowd this was not a good thing and we were told to expect fights to break out. Us tourists stuck together like lemmings and started heading out of the stadium. No-one was allowed to leave straight away as the River fans were given a brief window to leave the stadium and escape without getting seriously hurt. One of their routes of escape however was underneath a section of the grandstand we walked past on our way out. I started to video some of the mutual profanities and gestures going on between the fans (“You suck really bad, sir” and things like that) and as I did I started seeing things thrown into the River fans. It was chunks of the stadium that had been ripped off! Chunks of stadium cement.

Then, in my periphery I’ve seen someone rip a wooden door off the stadium and pick it up. I’m videoing from the side and as I pan around I hear one of the tourists yell “no way!” and see through the lens this door plummeting towards the River fans below. The guy had thrown the bloody door off the balcony! A group of River fans hadn’t seen it and I’ve watched the door come flying towards them thinking they are surely going to get fatally injured, and thankfully, just where the door was thrown there was a tree with a branch sticking out that the River fans walked under. The door hit the branch and gave just enough time for the fans to scatter. It was MADNESS! This was not a football game going on, it was a tribal fight!

Note: I'll try to upload a photo on this later.

Suffice to say us tourists sheepishly exited the stadium, slightly on edge. Didn’t help either being holed up for 30 minutes to make it safe for us. But we got out alive - and we may not have seen a football game, but we’d certainly got a taste of the Boca vs River experience. Can’t say I’ll be rushing back for another game any time soon – but I’ll keep the memories.

And with that rather dramatic day our BA stay had come to an end. Next stop –the mighty Iguazu falls!

Till then, take care
Love Ben and Chelle

p.s. Misc shots from BA

Top of the chill house hostel - just chillin

Buenos Aires subway

Chelle hanging with the local nuts guy - captions welcome

Chelle pratically inhaling those sugar coated nuts - they are gooood

Buenos Aires flower sculpture, near Recoleta - designed by a local Argentine sculpter (Catalano)

Buenos Aires school of engineering

Mendoza
February 28th – March 7th ( 1 week)

Hello amigos! I should be greeting you in Portuguese given that we are now in Brazil, however seeing as we have been hit with a “delightful” bout of travellers’ diarreah, we haven’t left our room since yesterday afternoon and so haven't had a chance to learn any Portugese yet. Poor Ben has been hit harder- he had such a high fever overnight that a wet face cloth almost sizzled when I put it on. His fever broke this morning but he is still pretty sick now, and is really wishing that we had booked a room with our own private bathroom instead of the shared bathroom that we have. Ben's forever an optomist and despite being as sick as I have seen him, he says that on the plus side, he has lost a few kilos in 24 hours and is quite happy that his holiday belly is shrinking! Don't worry Bronwyn, I am looking after him and it should be out of his system in the next 24 hours, poor thing.

So, blog-wise we are up to recording our time in Mendoza, heart of the wine country in Argentina. We spent 1 week here, not because of all the great wine, but because it was Wine Festival time and the city was in a fun fiesta mood. Also, we were staying in a place (“Chimbas Suites”) that had such a chilled out, friendly atmosphere with great people, a pool and Moroccan inspired garden courtyard area to spend lazy afternoons reading, and it became just to hard to move on from here quickly! We embraced the South American siesta during our time here, and would have a 2hour nap in the afternoon- a break from all the hard relaxing by the pool!!

The main restaurant area in downtown Mendoza

Eating well in Mendoza: Our daily vegetarian feast

Relaxing at Chimbas Suites

The highlights of our time in Mendoza:

• Bike riding around Maipu vineyards: We met up wtih Ads and George again, and the 4 of us hired bikes for the day to explore the vineyards. We thought we would be riding on little country paths, through sleepy wine country, but instead found ourselves riding alongside trucks and cars on a potholed, dusty main road! It was a great day full of fun that started with a visit to an Olive Plantation, where we learnt all about how olive oil is made, and got to taste some olives and sun dried tomatoes at the end of our tour, mmmm, delicious! So delicious that we bought a massive tub of olives and jar of sundried tomatoes, and then overdosed on them over the next few days and haven’t really been able to eat olives since!!

Enjoying the olive farm tour

Inside the old olive oil factory

The modern production system for olive oil

Sampling the olives, mmmm!

One of the quieter roads on our bike riding experience

From the olive farm we went onto the boutique family run vineyard “Familia Di Thomosa”. We had a scrumptious lunch of spinach cannelloni with blue cheese sauce and a pumpkin and feta quiche in their courtyard restaurant set amongst the vines. We discovered a new variation of white wine called a “Torrontes”, a distinctive Argentinian fruity, dry white wine. Served chilled on a summer’s day, it was the perfect accompaniment to our meal, and has since become a favourite. The best part of that delicious meal was the tiramisu desert. It was by far the most amazing tiramisu that George and I have ever tasted, so moist and the perfect blend of coffee and Tia Maria, my mouth waters at the memory! We now describe tiramisu deserts as “It was yum, but it wasn’t Thomosa”!

Familia Di Thomosa winery

Our gourmet lunch

The old wine vats

More of the underground cellar

The barrels where they age the wine

A serious wine tasting moment: observe the colour, swirl the wine to determine its body, appreciate the aroma and the drink!

We spent the rest of the day visiting another vineyard, and a place that specialised in chocolate and liquor. The boys were brave (or stupid?!) enough to try their home made absinthe, and while they didn’t go blind from the experience, they won’t be repeating it in a hurry!!

Lighting the absinthe soaked cube of sugar

1,2,3 down goes the absinthe

Wine tasting

Enjoying a fine Malbec with friends!

The girls!

• Italian Night Festival: As part of the Wine Festival, the Italian community had a wine and food night market in one of the open aired plazas. Ben and I ate “vegetarian” home made ravioli, which turned out to be spinach and ricotta ravioli with a meat Bolognese sauce! We did our best to scrape some of the sauce off, although I did have quite a few mouthfuls before realising it was meat and I have to say “damn it tasted good!”. This scared me, and made me worried that I may actually like the taste of meat, however the moment has passed and there has been no more accidental sampling of meat sauces!! We bought a home made wine from one of the stalls, and one cup knocked our socks off! It was cheap, strong and nasty, and obviously a favourite with the locals!

• Beauty Queen street parade and a pick pocket: As part of the festival a Harvest Queen is elected. There were about 20 young hopefuls, and on the Friday night they had a massive street parade, where the beauty queens sat on over-the-top floats, throwing down apples and grapes to the thousands of people crowded on the street. Unfortunately the crowds were a pick pocketers dream, and sure enough as we were walking home at the end of a night, a young man started to push up against me, drumming on my back and making me feel really uncomfortable. I told Ben, who was in front of me in the chain of people weaving a way through the masses to get home, and Ben turned to look at who was harassing me. As he was distracted another man on the side of Ben reached in and took his wallet, which had his credit cards in it and a small amount of cash. A classic distract and steal moment, which all happened within 5 seconds. We felt pretty stupid for falling for it, but we knew that it would happen at some point during our time in Sth America.

Cardboard cut outs of the Beauty Queens lined the streets so that people could vote for their favourite! I had to drag Ben away!

A Harvest Queen hopeful

More beauty queens on big floats! Watch out for the flying apples!

• Fun on the hill top: For the concluding night of the festival there was an extravaganza of fireworks, singers, dancers, comedians, magicians etc, performing in a massive arena. Instead of buying tickets, we went and sat on one of the hills surrounding the stadium and enjoyed the spectacular from there. We went with friends from the hostel, Bobby and Sy, but by the end of the night our little gang had expanded and we had made great friends with a local family who were sitting next to us.

Bobby's moment of fame: Being interviewed by the local TV crew.

The boys! Ben, Bobby and Sy

My two favourite little new friends!

Our view of the extravaganza! We had more fun on the hill top than we did watching the show!

The hill top gang!

And so our time in Mendoza came to an end with another long, over night bus trip to Rosario. Ben will pick up from here and write about this lovely city and then the captivating Buenos Aires (when he is feeling better!)

Lots of love, Chelle and Ben

p.s.. Feel free to comment cause then we know people are reading!