Rioooooooooo

Over the past 3 months of travelling, everyone I have met who has been going in the opposite direction to me has ranted and raved about how amazing Rio is so we decided to leave an entire week to spend their at the end of the trip and I can safely say that it 100% lived up to expectation. The only blip was that the weather wasn't quite as beautiful as we had hoped but it didn't stop us doing anything.
I was slightly worried about how our hostel was going to turn out as it was in a not very popular area and had available space when we were booking the night before, unlike most places! However, I was very pleasantly surprised when we turned up and it was spotlessly clean, simple but spacious and clean rooms, a well-equipped kitchen, hot showers and good wifi and having now been here for 7 nights it almost feels like home.
On our first morning we went on a tour of the second largest favela (slum) in Rio. It was definitely an eye opener and I was shocked by the close conditions that everyone was living in and also horrified by the stigma that surrounds the favela and how water and electricity and rubbish companies won't provide their services to all the homes, just those along the main street. It was definitely changed my view of what a slum is like as the people of the favela are a community just like any other area in the city, if not more so as they are drawn together by their lack of money. I found it very clever that in the school system they have the first 5 hours of the day for Primary school level children, then 5 hours in the afternoon for secondary kids and then 5 hours in the evening for college age and adults to learn making as much use of time and space as possible. There were also various initiatives set up to entertain the kids whilst they weren't in school such as a graffiti school to encourage people to express their emotion through art and try and squash the stereotype that favela people are any different or worse than normal people. We were also given a little performance and dancing lesson in Capoeira which is like a dancing martial arts with all sorts of back flips and handstands and things. The guys doing it were all volunteers about my age and they teach the martial arts as a form of self defense and self respect to the local children in the afternoons when they aren't in school. They attempted to teach us some of the dance and also some samba steps but it was pretty unsuccessful, we were much better at doing the clapping and singing sounds to accompany their dancing. I loved the whole thing because I really enjoy seeing the true culture of a country like that rather than the pretend culture that we often see as tourists travelling around. In the afternoon we headed to the praia (portuguese for beach) and strolled along the beach front of Ipanema and then the infamous Copacabana beach and got rather wind swept along as the clouds came in. That night we headed 'out on the town' with a group of other people from our hostel which was great fun especially as the night started with samba in the club and there were a few guys there teaching people. I can tell you, I cannot samba to save my life as there is too much coordination of moving feet and hip wiggling and hand movement all at the same time...but that doesn't stop me trying. In the club that night there was also an artist who was doing neon, swirly, sparkly face paint on people for free so obviously I jumped at the opportunity and felt like I was a carnival girl for the rest of the night.
I woke up the next morning and the face paint was still perfectly intact on the right side of my face so I was very sad to take it off when I showered! Friday was a beautiful, clear blue-skied day in Rio so we took advantage of that and headed up to visit Jesus on the hill. There's not much to say about this day apart from that we spent most of the day stood around in extremely long queues which I think were particularly bad because it had been rainy for the last couple of days and was due to be wet again over the weekend so everyone was making the most of the clear day. We eventually made it to the top having queued for a bus to the bus ticket office, then a bus to the ticket office, then to buy the ticket, then to catch another bus up to the actual statue. It was so worth all the waiting around though as being up there stood by one of the Wonders of the World was amazing and the views over Rio from so high were incredible. It was very entertaining squeezing through the crowds of people at the top as there were numerous people laying on their back on the floor trying to get pictures of others in front of the enormous white statue of Christ the Redeemer. Once we had descended (yet more queues) we headed straight for the Sugarloaf which is a mountain jutting out into the sea from which you can see pretty much all of Rio. Our plan had been to get up there for sunset, however, this was also everyone else's plan so we didn't actually make it up on the cable car until after it was dark due to more excessive queues but it was still beautiful to see the shining lights of Rio de Janeiro during the night. It being Friday night, we obviously had to go out for Round 2 in Rio to the famous Lapa district which is where all the parties happen at the weekend. It was basically one big massive party in the street with people everywhere buying alcohol from little men walking around selling bottles of whatever you wanted - mainly vodka and energy drink - accompanied by music from the surrounding bars and clubs. We had bought a ticket for the Lapa Loca club which was so much fun, again starting the evening with a bit of samba and a live Brazilian funk band who were awesome. We also bumped in to one of the guys who had given as the dance show in the favela so he continued to try and teach us to dance, unsuccessfully which was highlighted when a girl came up to me and said 'are you English' and when I told her I was, she said should could tell by my dancing - how embarrassing! By the end of the night we were exhausted from all the hip wiggling and had absolutely filthy feet from being stood on in flip flops so caught the bus home at 4 am.
Saturday was a cloudier day again so we headed back to Lapa to visit the 'Lapa steps' which are a load of stone steps that have been decorated with red, green and blue tiles for the main part and then 2000 artistically painted tiles from over 60 different countries. The effect was amazing and I particularly loved the imperfection of it with the rugged, uneven edges of the tiles and different sized steps...it just seemed to complete the image. We then headed to Jardim Botanico (the botanical gardens), which are apparently the most diverse in the world, to enjoy a bit of nature. I particularly enjoyed the orchid garden and the cactus greenhouses with all the oddly shaped plants. By the time we had finished wandering around the gardens we were dead on our feet so decided to head back to the hostel and have a little snooze for a couple of hours to re-energise ourselves for another night out. Round 3 involved going to another hostel in Ipanema to meet 2 guys that we had met on the first night who worked there and live in Rio so know loads of things to do. We sat and chatted away with them there for a couple of hours over a few caipirinhas, mainly talking about Carnival which Phoebe and I have now made a pact that we are going to come back for together in the searingly hot Brazilian summer and learning that the Brazilians say 'facey-bookey' for facebook and 'Bradgey-Pitgey' for Brad Pitt which had me in hysterics! We then headed out with them to the same club that we went to on Thursday night as this time it was free entry (because Lucas and Gaspa knew the owner) and free drinks all night. The only downside was that the music was rubbish so we stayed for about an hour and then left to go to another bar in Copacabana - where I witnessed an entertaining but pretty violent brawl between 2 drunk girls - and stood outside sipping on beers until my tired legs could handle it no longer and we headed for home.
Sunday was a designated shopping day as again the weather wasn't great so we headed firstly to Ipanema where they have a big Sunday hippy market and spent a couple of hours browsing there, buying a few things for ourselves, including the stereotypical 'I love Rio' top, and some presents. We had a quick lunch at a cafe that had been recommended to us by Gaspa and relished in drinking chai tea (a very Indian thing). We then headed for copacabana on a havaiana hunt however things shut early as it was a sunday so we were unsuccessful on that front. Decided to take a night off on Sunday night so went out for dinner to a kebab place (which are actually more like burritos here) and then came back for a much needed early night and longer than 5 hours sleep.
Monday was a slightly nicer day so we continued our havaiana flip flop hunt, much more successfully...so much so that I am now 7 pairs richer - not all for me, I promise! We then spent the afternoon on the beach before grabbing a McDonalds and heading back to the hostel to prepare for Round 4 in Rio, the boat party. Again, we went with a group of people from our hostel down to the marina and boarded the boat which had a bar at one ended, then a dance floor, then a thin walkway along to the front and a chilling out area (which turned into a 'passed out area'). For the first hour it was free drinks for ladies (this kind of thing happens a lot here, free or significantly cheaper stuff for girls, a little bit sexist but it works in my favour so I don't mind) and then we spent the rest of the night dancing/swaying around on the dance floor. There were moments where the boat was swaying a lot, even though it didn't move very much resulting in people littering the floor. The lights of the shore line were beautiful to see from out in the bay on the boat and it was generally a really good night and great way to spend our last night in Rio together.
Had a very lazy day yesterday as Phoebe was flying home in the afternoon so we spent the morning slobbing about and packing her stuff off then said a tearful goodbye as she headed for the airport and I headed to the beach. Lay on the beach for a couple of hours until a woman came over and started ranting at me in Portuguese. I repeatedly told her in my limited Portuguese that I didn't understand and didn't speak her language and just as I thought she was leaving she grabbed my anklet and yanked it from around my ankle, then walked off. I was feeling very shakey so quickly pulled on my clothes, grabbed my clothes and walked away whilst some guy try to make her give it back to me, I really wasn't that bothered and just wanted her to leave but I had no way of saying that. It definitely shook me up a bit but I am just grateful she only chose to take my 20p Indian anklet rather than my kindle which I had in my hand. After that altercation I headed back to the hostel and chilled out for the rest of the evening for an early night.
I am currently finishing up packing my stuff (for the last time, that I am not sorry about!) at the hostel and will head off to the airport in 2 hours which is absolutely crazy and I cannot believe that it is finally time to go home for good - it definitely hasn't sunk in yet! The things I am most excited for back home are seeing my family, friends and doggy, sleeping in my own bed, using a proper towel rather than a travel one, being able to throw toilet paper down the toilet rather than put it in a bin, not living out of a backpack unpacking and repacking every couple of days, having more variety in clothes to wear rather than just the 3 shorts, 1 pair of leggings and 4 tops I have left and of course my mummy's cooking!
I have had the most amazing 3 months travelling around South America, visiting 6 different countries and meeting so many lovely people along the way who I have shared great memories with (particularly all the inspiring volunteers in Lima, my aunty Ali, Catherine and Vicki in Bolivia, Gordon, Lucas and Sophie and Sam who let me latch on to them for over 2 weeks and finally Phoebe who flew out to join me for the last 3 weeks and has been the best travelling companion). It has been the perfect end to an amazing year of adventures having covered 3 different continents, 8 different countries in a total of 9 months. As much as I am sad for this year to end, I am also so excited to head up to Manchester in September and enjoy the new experience of being a medical student for the next 5 years....
I hope you have enjoyed reading my gap yah blog over the last year. See you soon England!!!!
Loads of love xxxxxxx

Heaven on Earth

SO we arrived, after the last of the bus journeys in delightfully warm Sao Paulo. Our first experience of the city was catching the very busy metro with all our´heavy bags so that wasn´t a particularly warm welcome, especially when we got to the first hostel who to find they were full already...but thankfully they rang across to another one who had space for us 2 little English gals. Once at the hostel we hung out all our wet stuff from the previous day at Iguazu and then headed out for a delicious afternoon tea of brioche, nutella and thick hot chocolate - it was heaven on a plate. We then carried on to Sau Paulo´s infamous Batman Alley which is basically a thin, windy road with walls on either side which are all completely covered in graffiti/street art. I was in awe of the artwork (particularly as I am so no artistically talented) and just loved all the different colours and patterns and pictures that people had used to  display their messages and feelings on the walls. My favourite ones were a pair of massive green eyes on the side of a building which were scarily life like and so details, and a tree that had been painted very extravagantly in multi colours and was beautiful.
Whilst walking through the streets it was difficult not to notice the thousand of white VW campervans lining the streets (and of course I wanted to buy them all) and we saw one guy spray painting famous peoples faces in different colours on to his camper - I wanted it!! When I returned from our stroll, I discovered that my bag of smelly, wet, dirty laundry was missing from the end of my bed and it contained a few tops, some underwear, 2 cardigans and all my trousers that weren´t leggings. I have no idea where they went and I asked around loads but they never turned up and I can only assume either someone thought it was a bag of rubbish and my beloved, thread-bare clothes are in a bin somewhere or someone decided they had got lucky and decided to steal them (if it´s the later its quite entertaining that they just got smelly, very worn clothes) but on the positive side I now dont have to wrestle with my bag every time a pack it to fit everything in. That night we had a decidedly non-exotic meal and then flopped into bed to recover from the night bus.
The next day we opted to do a self-guided walking tour of Sao Paulo which included a big cathedral, a bustling market street, a monastery, a fancy theatre, going up to the top of a building for views over the city, and most importantly; ice cream. The weather in SP was much warmer than Argentina which was lovely but it was still fairly overcast. I am also finding it harder to travel in Brazil as I have to adapt to not understanding the language which is very strange after 11 weeks in spanish speaking countries and understanding most things and being able to communicate with others, to coming here where everything people say is complete gobble-dee-gook. The signs I can kind of understand because a lot of the words look similar to the ones in Spanish but when they speak Portuguese I am lost.
Next day we jumped on a bus to the beautiful beach resort of Paraty. This town is stunningly quaint with uneven cobbled streets - it actually hurt to walk - and multi coloured, wooden beamed buildings with cute bridges over the canal and gorgeous views out into the bay and outlying islands. We had been recommended to go on a day boat trip which is exactly what we did spending the next 7 hours on a little boat bobbing around the islands and white sand beaches and being loaded up with free caipirinhas stopping off to swim in the sparkling clear blue water with the fishies. For any Twilight fans, we swam off the same island that Bella and Edward go to on their honeymoon - yes be jealous! It was safe to say that by the end of the day, having been steadily slurping caipirinhas since midday we were exhausted and a little sun kissed (or in Phoebe´s case a little pink). We feasted on the BBQ that our hostel did on Saturday nights and then crashed into bed after our exhausting day of sunbathing, swimming, dancing, jumping off rocks and feeding monkeys - its a tough life, eh?!
I woke up (not deliberately) to see the sunrise over the bay in the morning which was incredible with a lovely orange glow and I loved the peacefulness of walking along the beach at 7 am with barely anyone else about. I had another of my 'Oh my gosh, I'm actually here in Brazil on my gap year, this is amazing' moments. We had a lazy morning flopping about in the sun after consuming a large breakfast on the beach before catching our transfer to the gorgeous Ilha Grande (google it!).
This is an island 50 mins boat ride from the mainland and I can safely say I have never visited anywhere so idyllic in my life. If you were to google 'beautiful beaches' then pictures of this island would come up with perfect white sand beaches and impeccably clear waters with a perfectly blue sky to complete it. We were staying in a very cute little 'eco hostel' run by a mother and son and she really did act like a mumma and made us feel so welcome that we ended up staying an extra night than planned.
For our first day on the island we decided to get up early(ish) and hike to 'the worlds most beautiful beach' called Lopes Mendes. This walk would have been perfectly easy had it not all been steep up hill or down hill, walking along a path covered with enormous roots and slippery stones, in the boiling heat of the jungley island. It was a challenge but we persevered and, boy, was it worth it when we made it, 2 and a quarter hours later, to the magnificent beach - I'm running out of adjectives here! Headed straight into the sea to cool down and wash off at least the top layer of sweat from the walk and then spent the rest of the day sprawled out in the glorious sunshine on the sand that felt like snow when you walked on it. Funnily enough, we opted out of walking back again so caught a very bumpy boat back - there are no cars on the island, adding to the heavenliness.
The following day we booked a boat trip to various lagoons and beaches around the island. We were able to snorkel and admire the fish (although they weren't particularly exciting fish) with the hope of seeing turtles but sadly they didn't turn up for us. And bouncing about on the boat soaking up the rays with my hair flowing behind me - you can just imagine it, cant you?! As the afternoon drew on, the weather came with it and the wind got up and the clouds came over making it much chillier. Just as we pulled back into the port it began to drizzle so we scurries back to our hostel, via the supermarket, and then holes up there for the rest of the afternoon journal writing, reading and cooking pasta + tomato sauce + tinned sausages....Jamie Oliver eat your heart out!
Next morning it was still raining (sad face) so we took that as our queue to leave the paradise that is Ilha Grande and head onwards and upwards to the bright lights of Rioooooooooo!!
I'm a week behind so I head home tomorrow which is absolutely crazy, these last 13 weeks have past in a complete world wind and I am going to miss the thrill of travelling and moving onto a new place every couple of days but I am equally looking forward to a bit more variety in clothes, my own bed and of course being reunited with my family, friends, dog and BED.
Besos xxxxxx

Soggy bottoms

So we left for Uruguay on a boat that crossed the water between the 2 countries and landed in Colonia and then caught a bus from there to the capital, Montevideo. Our first impression of Uruguay was a lot of fields which was later confirmed by a tour guide who told us that the population of cows in the country is 4x the population of people so there is a lot of countryside! The next impression was the incredibly fancy bus terminal that we arrived at...it was a full blown shopping centre and had everything you could possibly need.
We then caught a local bus from there to our hostel which was rather a challenge seeing as the bus was heaving and there was 5 of us all with a big bag on our backs and a small bag on our fronts, the amount of times my boots (hanging off my bag) almost got trapped in the doors is uncountable! Eventually got to our hostel (chosen for its funny name; Willy Fogg) and unloaded our stuff - I am very sick bow of trudging around with my backpack and living out of it. Sophie, Phoebe and I cooked ourselves a gourmet dish of pasta, tomato sauce and brocolli accompanied by some vino tinto...twas delicious! Later in the evening we went for a leisurely stroll along the seaside promenade (or rambla in Spanish) and took in the sights and particularly smells which were mainly fish, dog poo and marijuana as it is legal here. The next morning we got up and went on a walking tour of the historic part of Montevideo. We had a brilliant tour guide who told us lots of interesting things about Uruguayan history (did you know that there are zero native Uruguayans left because the various invaders wiped them out?!). We saw various pretty buildings, an English church, the gate from the original city boundaries and admired the promenade in daylight. We finished our tour at the Port Market which is a large food market with basically everyone selling amazing barbeque. We chose one such restaurant and sat at a bar watching our meat being cooked in front of us on the open, boiling hot grill - it was awesome!! The meat tasted amazing, even better for having been cooked in front of ours and we all came away decidedly stuffed. On our walking tour we had met a group of Brazilian students so in the evening we went to meet them for some drinks on the beach and then went on the fun fair which was hilarious.
During this time Phoebe and I had been doing some research into the easiest and cheapest way to get up to Iguazu Falls from Montevideo, which is very complicated. We had the option of paying £20 to go back to BA, spend the night there and then catch the 18 hour bus up at an extortionate price, or try and work our way up in Uruguay, cross the border somewhere further north and then buy a still expensive bus ticket to iguazu. In the end, we headed back to BA as the other option would have meant an 18 hour lay over in a bus terminal, and only saved us £10 so the next day we headed back to my beloved BA, not that we really saw any of it! Spent the night in a hostel there and then the next day got up early to book a bus up to Iguazu. Sophie, Lucas and Sam had opted to fly up to iguazu from BA so it was there that we sadly parted ways :(
The bus journey was surprisingly alright and I managed to sleep pretty well, although arriving in Puerto Iguazu in the pouring rain was not such a pleasure. Especially seeing as its the first rain I've seen in over a month. We opted to leave our bags in the bus terminal and catch a bus straight to the park to see the infamous Cataratas de Iguazu.
I have no words to describe how amazing it was to walk around a corner and see our first view of the enormous falls through the sodden trees. And then each time is we got closer, the view just got better and better. There was one point where there was a platform jutting out, extremely close to one of the bits of the falls which we went and stood on and got even more drenched than we already were by the rain.
We then took a boat ride,
which was only 12mins long but felt like a lot longer! We had to pop all our bags into waterproof dry bags and then the boat basically took us right under 3 different parts of the waterfall. The first bit was just a little one, although there was still plenty of spray, then we went around the corner where the water was a lot choppier and we were rolling all over the place and drove into an enormous amount of spray and water and wind and who knows what else. The last part was driving into the largest, strongest part of the falls where we drove close to it and I physically couldn't keep my eyes open due to the sheer force of the water and spray coming at me. I was completely overwhelmed by the quantity and strength of the masses of orangey water rolling down off the cliff towards our little boat in the river below. Its safe to say there was not a bone in my body that was dry after that but it was so much fun so I didn't really care (or at least not until later when I started to get cold!). Then next trail that we walked was along the tops of the waterfalls that we had just been under and by this point the sun had sort of come out meaning there were beautiful rainbows over many of the different parts of the falls just adding to the spectacularness (is that a word?) of the falls. A little train then took us up to a board walk to La Garganta del Diablo (the Devils Throat). We walked 2km along this board walking, over the raging river - it amazes me that those bridges survive the force of the water and I have no idea how they could ever have built them in the first place?! We made it to the top of the Devils Throat where we couldn't actually see much of the falls because there was so much spray coming off them but we could experience the mass of water swirling around us and gushing over the edge! After this we headed back to the hostel, a soggy mess to freshen up and cook ourselves some dinner (our new money saving strategy!)
Next day we wandered around the small town of Puerto De Iguazu and then jumped (not literally, that ain't happening with all those bags) onto a bus across the border into country number 6....Brazil! We got stranded at immigration because most of the others on the bus were Brazilian so didn't need to stop so they dropped us off and then told us to catch the next bus in 20mins. Well in true south american style the next bus didn't show up for another 45mins so we just sat and enjoyed the sunshine whilst waiting. Eventually a bus came along to pick us up and we were taken to Foz do Iguacu. Found our lovely hostel which is called 'Tetris container hostel' as it is entirely made out of multicoloured shipping containers which was a really cool set up, particularly sleeping in one! That night there was an enormous thunderstorm and we woke up the next morning to a very wet world! But we decided to brace it and head to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls anyway. Its safe to say we were drenched before we even saw the falls, making the mistake of sitting on the top, open deck of the bus as soon as the heavens opened! It then continued to rain for pretty much the whole time we were there, but I guess once you're wet, and we couldn't really get much wetter. The view from this side was just as beautiful and much more panoramic, and again we were able to walk on a board walk into the middle of the river although I genuinely thought I was going to be blown away as it was so windy. Thankfully when we reached the closest point to the falls where there was just a wall of falling, orange water the rain had stopped so we were able to take a few snaps there. We quickly headed back to the hostel to cook a nice warm lunch and dry ourselves up before catching my last night bus of my travels to, hopefully, more sunny Sao Paulo....

Fallen in Love

I have fallen, hook line and sinker, in love with the beautiful city of Buenos Aires! From the moment I arrived I knew it would be a good few days here and it would live up to my high expectations set by others. It was made even better by being joined by my old friend Phoebe from home who flew out to BA to join me on the last 3 weeks on my adventure (how crazy thats its only 3 weeks left :o). I was also very happy that with her she brought English tea bags, digestives, Maryland cookies, peanut butter and a new deodorant... She knows how to make me happy :) we also re-met up with Lucas and Sam (from the salt flats and Chile) in our hostel in BA as they had arrived earlier that morning from Santiago, so we were now a team of 5 taking on the Argentinian capital!
Our first night was very much influenced by Argentina being in the final of the Cops America which was all dreadfully exciting and we watched the match in our hostel with lots of others. In my opinion the game was rather disappointing as it was very evenly matched so there were no goals in the game or in extra time and it ended up going to penalty shoot outs and unfortunately Argentina lost :(
You'll be pleased to know that this didn't shoot us down, we headed to the adjoining hostel for a party Argentinian style, which let's just say involved a lot of drinking and dancing and was A LOT of fun!
The next morning, feeling a little bit worse for wear, we headed to the infamous San Telmo where they have an enormous Sunday market, and as it conveniently happened to be Sunday it felt wrong not to go. The best way to describe it would be an argentinian tinted Camden market, about 10 blocks long with stalls selling anything and everything and an awful lot of cool looking, useless tat - and thats the sort of thing I love so I spent a long time perusing all the little stalls and enjoying the music provided by bands playing on the street. It was such a lovely atmosphere :) having exhausted our shopping potential and with an extremely bored Sam (he hates markets, as he kept reminding us) we wandered back to the hostel, passing the 'cambio' men who are doing the illegal dollar exchange on the street.
That evening we treated ourselves to the bestest meal ever. A few of us had been specifically recommended a restaurant in the Palermo district by various other travellers along the way. This restaurant is known firstly for being a steak place and secondly for having a happy hour from 7-8 every night. This meant that we weren't allowed in the place until 7, we then had to order, eat and pay our bill by 8 in order to get 40% off the meat. Now talking about meat, there is no way for me to describe the incredible steak that we were served; it was completely melt in your mouth and like nothing I have ever nor will ever eat again in my life - it truly made me feel sorry for vegetarians. I didn't even need a steak knife to cut it, just your standard butter knife. Of course, we accompanied the 'to die for' meal with a bottle of Argentinian wine and chips, not that we needed them...we virtually had to be rolled back down the street we were so full and yet our happy contentedness powered us along.
The next morning, to walk off my food baby, 4 of us (Sam was in bed nursing a hangover) went for a walking tour around the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, which is the fancy, aristocratic area. There were all sorts of grand buildings and we also saw a funky, multicoloured, wavy bridge, the beautiful law school and a really cool, large metal flower which opens in the day and closes at night. We also visited the mesmerising but slightly eery cemetery which is where all the aristocratic people from the city, and country wide, are buried and each grave is ornately decorated with a stone or marble building with various intricacies to individualise it. Included in these tombs is the grave of Evita Peron, a female icon in Argentina and internationally for her work with ythe poor and lower classes.
That evening we were given a true Argentine experience. We paid (a rather large sum) to appreciate the tango culture. Firstly, we had a tango lesson which was hilarious. Our instructor just taught us one simple step and then the tango pose and face and then we got to practice what we'd learnt with a being of the opposite gender. It was so entertaining seeing how hard everyone was concentrating, and I almost preferred watching than doing it myself (not being a natural dancer) especially when the tango face was whipped out. Having sort of learned how to tango we went and had another delicious steak dinner, with a salad starter (still a treat to have salad) and brownie dessert and mucho vino. The dessert was also accompanied by a tango performance by 3 scarcely clad women and 3 suited gentlemen. The show was incredible and j was completely in awe of how quickly they could all move their legs and the heights to which the women's legs reached! I left the show with a spring in my step and a wiggle in my hip and headed to the hostel for another night of partying which ended in a club that was a lot of fun. The 30 minute walk back at 5am was not so good but we made up for it when we made it back by having a midnight feast of peanut butter and banana sandwiches sat in a little circle on the floor in the middle of our dormitory - I felt very sorry for our fellow roommates!
Made ourselves get up the next morning to visit La Boca which is where the immigrant community in BA used to live and is incredibly colourful. All the buildings are painted in blocks of multicolour giving the whole area a very cheery, up beat feel. We saw a particular house where 30 families used to live, each family in a tiny little 2.5m by 2.5m room which have now been turned into souvenir stalls. We rushed (I mean literally ran) back for a cooking lesson in how to make empanadas - for those of you this is like a Cornish pasty with a Spanish touch - and also had a lite competition to make the most creative empanada. I am very unimaginative so made a wine bottle and glass as it SAS simple but some of the artistically talented made a turtle, with a spinach leaf shell, a hedgehog and the winner was a 'despicable me' minion made out of empanada, eating an empanada. It was well worth the free T-shirt as a prize! I also got to try 'mate' (pronounced matt-eh) which is an extremely popular drink here...everyone walls around with their specific maté cup, specialised filter straw and flask of hot water. The flavour is provided by a herb called 'sherba' and I was really keen to try it, sadly I found it revolting and don't intend to drink it again but I'm glad I got to try. And I still bought myself a cool cup as a souvenir!
Next morning was an earlier start to get ourselves to the port to catch a boat over to Uruguay...just for another stamp on the passport, although I am very sad to be leaving BA. It is a place I will definitely be back to in the future, and I know there is so much I haven't seen!
Mucho amor xxx

Riding and wining

The transit into Argentina was smooth again, a little more complicated with a bit more of a thorough check, and they even had sniffer dogs, but that seems to be the theme that the more developed the country I'm going into, the more security there is. The bus journey wasn't too painful either, there were films being shown, I read my lonely planet, wrote my blog, gazed out the window and shnoozed.
Just the 20min walk from the bus station to our hostel made me love Argentina instantly. It was 8 o'clock on a Sunday evening and the streets were buzzing with families in the parks and food vendors lined the sides of the road smelling all sorts of yummy food. We made it to our hostel, checked in and then when straight back out again to find some food! We found a nice little restaurant where we could finally have some argentinian wine - probably the cheapest thing on the menu - and fill our stomachs having snacked on rubbish all day.
In Argentina, American dollars are worth a lot of money so they have a system with the 'blue dollar' which is where you can exchange your dollars for Argentinian pesos at a better exchange rate than the one banks give you. I had been told about this in advance so had got lots of dollars and was able to get a rate of 1 dollar to 13.35 pesos rather than 9 pesos, making the dollar almost equal to the pound for which I can get 14 pesos...so it was a great deal, even if a little tiny bit illegal!
On Monday we went up the cable car to a mountain at the side of salta and enjoyed that view, and then walked back down grabbing a steak sandwich on the way. I then caught a bus an hour and a half outside of Salta to a ranch that a friend had put me in contact with. When I first got there KT was very confusing because I had managed to find the farm and it was all open but I couldn't find anyone there! Eventually after half an hour I found someone working in a back room who showed me to my room and got me settled. K then spent the evening reading in the sunshine and eating a delicious, home made goats cheese salad. The next morning I wandered around the farm, introducing myself to the chickens, dogs, cats and goats before meeting Carlos, the owner, and arranging to ride some horseys.
I went for a morning and afternoon ride which were both absolutely lovely. It made me so happy to be back sat on a horse, particularly riding through the Argentinian countryside. I also loved the fact that I was riding in my primark plimsolls, leggings and no hat...none of the fancy equipment we have to use back home. We rode to a beautiful lake with mountains in the background, admired the view and then rode back. In between rides I sat in the glorious sunshine and read for hours which was so perfectly relaxing and just what I needed. That night there was an Argentina vs Paraguay football match in the Copa America so I watched that with the family, and it was dead exciting because they won 6-1 meaning Argentina are in the final on Saturday night!
The next day they had a big school group coming to visit the farm so I tagged along with them to learn about them the goat milking and with their visit to the tobacco and archeology museum before going for a little walk down the old train track and spending the rest of the day reading in the sun. I then got a lift from one of Carlos' sons back into Salta and met up with Sophie back at our original hostel. We made some veg pasta and then headed back to the bus terminal to catch our 19 hour bus down to Mendoza, the home of VINO!
The bus was actually surprisingly okay, there was a bit of drama near the beginning where we had to change buses but once that was sorted I managed to sleep almost straight through until 9am, made easier by having a double seat and waking up to find Sophie asleep flat on the floor at the feet of her chair which was very entertaining. I then dozed for another 2 hours and easily entertained myself until we arrived in Mendoza.
We walked what felt like miles from the bus station to our chosen hostel, particularly with the front and back backpacks! But we did eventually arrive, settled in and then went to find some pasta sauce and cheese, and of course a bottle of wine to accompany our pasta left from the previous night. We were also provided with free wine by the hotel, although they wouldn't let us do the Thursday night wine tasting because we hadn't told them early enough - sad face. Our pasta and wine was deliciously perfect though.
The main thing to say about Friday was the breakfast. Words cannot describe how goof it was, hands down the best hostel breakfast I've had and you have no ides how much that means when you've been travelling for 9 weeks and most hostel breakfasts are a bit of bread and jam and horrid coffer. This breakfast was a buffet with; orange juice, nice coffee, hot choc, orange slices, hard boiled eggs, sugar-coated croissants, fluffy bread, and incredible dolce de leche and banana crepes...it made me so happy. Having stocked ourselves up for the day Sophie and I headed out into Mendoza to find a wine tour. We didn't find a tour as such but a lovely woman explained to us how we could do a self directed tour, so thats just what we did.
We caught a local bus 40mins out of town to Maipu where there are loads of vineyards and bodegas. We walked to find a wine museum and tasting place. We payed our AR$90 (£6.30) for a tour, which is was a little horrified at, and it was a fairly interesting tour although all in Spanish making it a little harder. We then got to my favourite bit, the tasting section where we were given 2 glasses of different red wines to swirl, sniff and savour, both of which were delicious. The other people on our tour then, thankfully, informed us that we could trade our AR$90 ticket for bottles or more tastings of wine. I jumped at this opportunity and bought a similar red to the one we had tried and then a white, and only had to pay an extra AR$5 so it was a great deal and we came out very merry. Walked ourselves back to the main road where we found a much needed baño and some food before catching the bus back to Mendoza. Once back in the city we grabbed our bags from the hostel and headed for the bus station again to catch our 14 hour night bus on to Buenos Aires....

Silver, salt and sand

My next stop was Sucre, which I reached on an 11 hour overnight bus, arriving at 7am. I had learned from my trusty lonely planet guide book that on a Sundays there is a market about 2 hours outside of Sucre so I headed straight there, leaving my big bag at a hostel, on a combi which is a minivan full of locals. I spent a couple of hours walking around the market, bargaining on prices and enjoying the atmosphere with a fresh orange juice before heading back to Sucre. I sat in the central plaza soaking up the sun before finding a late lunch and then deciding to move on from Sucre as although it is a beautiful town, there wasn't much there and I felt like I had seen enough - one of the joys of travelling alone. I found a bus to my next stop, Potosi and rocked up there at 8 o'clock, exhausted and dirty so got straight in the beautifully hot and powerful shower. Thankfully, the others in my dorm were very friendly and we were all going on a mine tour together the next day. The mine tour started with getting us all kitted up in protective clothing, wellies, a helmet with a light attached to it and a scald for my nose and mouth. We then walked around town in this ridiculous attire, getting multiple gunny looks from the locals, to reach the miners market where we were prompted to buy juice, coca leaves and sticks of dynamite as gifts for the miners. We then drove up to the entrance of the mines for a quite photo and wee stop and then we went into the darkness.
It was a very strange sensation being inside the mines as it was very dark, dusty and clammy and we were wading through a couple of inches of orange liquid which I was later informed was oxidised rock that had dripped off. I banged my head hundreds of times as I was busy looking at where my feet were going and then the ceiling would suddenly get lower and I would walk into it, I was very grateful for the helmet. We did quite a lot of climbing up and down slippery rocks which I was mildly terrified about falling on, especially buried so deep inside the mountain. There was also a couple of times when our coca leaf chewing guide (he had the most disgustingly large was of leaves balled in his cheek which oozed green liquid and made him very hard to understand) would point out a pool of water which would be 25m deep and would gently recommend not falling in there. One of the things j found strangest was that it was still a working mine and we kept coming across and chatting to the miners working down there to gather sulphur, lead and tin...sadly all the silver ran out loooong time ago! By the end of the tour I was feeling quote claustrophobic and there was very close, smelly and dusty so I was quite relieved to get out again into the light and its safe to say I am very glad I am not a miner by trade. Once we got back into potosi a few of us went out for lunch and then spent the afternoon showering and packing. I managed to persuade Gordon, a 19 year old Canadian, to come with me to Uyuni on the bus that night as buses are so much nicer when you are with others. So we arrived in freezing, bleak uyuni at 10.30pm, stumbled to a hostel and crashed!
We had to get up early the next morning to find ourselves a 3 day tour of the salt flats, of which every other shop was selling so it wasn't too hard. It was just a matter of finding the best deal, which in the end was £65 for 3 days taking us to Chile...not too shabby!
Our tour took off at 10.30am, when we met the others who would be joining us. Lucas and Sam, best friends from Devon, Sophie, Lucas's older sister, a Swede with an Australian accent called Marcus and Mahani, a Chilean. Our first stop was the Train Cemetry which is next to the old train line to Chile which is no longer in use, so when the trains failed they dumped them here. So it is literally like a graveyard filled with old, rusty falling apart trains with tourists clambering all of them. I found it quite eery having those train giants abandoned in the middle of the desert
but it was really cool to be able to climb on them. We then headed off in the other direction towards the infamous Salar De Uyuni, the salt flats! We took some pictures standing on little lumps of salt amongst the vast flatness surrounding us and our only Spanish speaking guide, Vladimir, explained to us how the salt is all in hexagonal shapes because in the summer, when it rains, the entire plane floods and then when the eater evaporates it does so in hexagonal shapes. We ate lunch in a salt restaurant where the tables, chairs and walls were all made out of blocks of salt making it a little chilly but pretty cool. After lunch we drove deeper into the salt and stopped randomly for photo time. Here we took gazillions of photos messing around with the perspective of the flatness; someone stepping on a group of us, someone sat on us, people sat on an apple, being chased by dinosaurs (plastic ones), holding each other up and spelling out words with pur bodies as the sun got lower. We also visited an island which was covered in cacti that apparently only grow 1cm per year! We watched the sun go down on the flats and it suddenly got absolutely freezing and then we headed to our salt hotel for the night where even the beds were made out of salt but thankfully with a mattress and multiple blankets too. I piled on all my layers to try and stay warm and filled myself with hot tea whilst we sat getting to know each other before dinner. Played a couple of hands of cards after dinner until it was just too cold and the only place i wanted to be was snuggled up in my bed, so that's where I went and it was much warmer there!
The next morning, many of us were all...I woke up and immediately threw up and a fee of the others and very upset tummies so we were a bit slow to get going, which our driver was very angry about. However, the morning red sky was beautiful! It was probably the best day for us to be ill because the day involved a lot of driving with stops to get out and admire the views, so we were not required to be active. We stopped at multiple stunning lakes with views of 3 or more different active volcanoes, visited the rock tree which is a rock in the shape of a tree in the desert which looks like that as it has been carved from the sand in high winds. Our final stop was the Laguna Colorado which is red (although it looked more purple to me) due to the plankton under the surface and was covered with pretty pink flamingoes :) by the end of the day I was feeling much better but still didn't want to tempt fate by eating much, but we didn't spend much time hanging around when we got to the hotel as it was apparently the coldest night of the year and was going to get down to -15°c! We had an early wake up call the following morning, getting up at 4.30am at which point it was -8°c bbbrrrr! I was sick again that morning, but thankfully the others were all better. I was distracted from feeling ill by visiting geysers which were massively strong, hot funnels of steam coming out of the earth. We warmed ourselves up by jumping through the steam funnel, which was so forceful it blew off my hat, even though it smelt of eggy farts (sulphur) and we watched our guide put a bottle of water in the flow and bounce around uncontrollably! He then showed us the active, bubbling volcanoes which went up to 150°c which were awesome to see. As the sun started to come up we drove to the thermal baths which was a pool of naturally hot water. Really quickly stripped into a bikini and jumped from the -5° outside to the +38° inside which was a hard transition but was beautiful once I was used to it. It made me feel so much better and it was great to be properly warm for the first time in a while, although I still wasn't quite brave enough to join the others with their 7am beers. Watching the sun come up through the steam of the bath was stunning and we were gutted when Vladimir announced it was time to get out, mainly because the outside air was so freezing.
On the way to the Chilean border we passed a few more scenic spots, although the whole of this area is incredibly beautiful, and some lovely lakes where we took some group photos before the majority of us got on a bus headed into Chile, and Marcus went back to Uyuni. The transit into Chile was very easy, we just had to fill out a form and when we got to the immigration office in San Pedro (theres nothing actually at the border) we got a couple of stamps, they checked we didn't have any Bolivian fruit or veg and then waved us through. We stayed together as the group of 6 of us in San Pedro De Atacama and found a lovely hostel which gave us a better deal for staying 3 nights and taking up a whole dorm, even with the deal everything here is very expensive! We spent the rest of that day relaxing in the sunshine (it was so nice that it was so warm) and exploring the beautiful, sandy streets of San Pedro. It was also heaven to have a shower even if it did say everywhere to be conservative with water as we were apparently in the driest desert in the world! The boys treated us to dinner that night cooking us a 'veg omelette' although it more turned into scrambled egg and veg but it was still delicious - and cheap! In the morning, we made banana pancakes which were an incredible start to the day and I contributed my pot of Marmite brought all the way from to have with the amazingly soft, fluffy, not sweet, fresh bread, aaaahh you have no idea how good it all was! We even found a dollop of maple syrup in the cupboard each, which made the Canadian very happy ;)
For the day 4 of us hired a bike to cycle to the valley of death and valley of the the moon. The cycle to the valley of death was only a couple of kilometres but it nearly killed me because the majority of it was cycling through deep sand, up hill which you can't actually do! So we ended up pushing most of the way, but it was still very scenic. Sam, unfortunately, had to turn back as he had a bad cold so it was too much for him. Having descended back down the road from the valley which was much more fun and pretty similar to death road, although you had the added fear of potentially running into a deep bit of sand and completely losing control, we cycled to the Valle De La Luna, so called because it looks like you're on the moon - and it actually does! On our cycle, we passed Gordon who had decided to walk and we saw some of the most incredible vistas. Popped into some salt caves along the way and walked through a canyon where all the rocks were making cracking/ticking sounds around us in the heat which was very eery! After the caves the cycle became bumpier and more uphill, much to our disgust, so we carried on another 5 km and then decided to climb up to a ridge where you could pretty much see the whole crated, white, moony valley. I felt like Neil Armstrong but with a very achey bottom! We painfully mounted our bikes again and cycled the 13km thankfully mostly downhill, back to San Pedro and arrived incredibly stiff and with the sorest bums in town! But it felt good to have cycled 30km during the day :)
Sophie and I were hoping to go on a stargazing tour with massive telescopes - and hot chocolate included - but sadly although the day had been beautifully warm and sunny, there was too much high cloud to do the tour so we missed out because on the next night the moon was going to be too big and bright, sadly.
Had an extremely and appropriately lazy Saturday morning, with more banana pancakes, fluffy bread, coffee and even some added fruit juice before venturing out to book buses for the next day - Sam and Lucas down to Santiago (where Mahani had already gone) and Sophie, Gordon and I on to Salta in Argentina. That afternoon we went on a tour to the Laguna Cejar which is a lake in the middle of the desert that is very, very, very, very salty. This means that when we got in to swim in it, you cannot physically sink, its even hard to push your head below to surface.
It was also a strange sensation because the top foot or so of water was freezing cold but everything under that was really warm. So my chest, upper arms and neck were permanently freezing but everything under that was amazingly warm...this made bobbing about in the water bearable for the 45mins we were in there but you certainly didn't want to let your legs drift up to the surface too, which is what they naturally wanted to do. Once we had got out and desalted, we visit the 'Ojos De salar' (eyes of the desert) which were 2 little round pools in ground and then on to an absolutely stunningly clear and still lake where I had an incredible view of the Andes, almost more clearly reflected in the lake and we finished there with a Pisco Sour at 'sunset' although there was too much cloud to really see the sunset until just as we were leaving when the sky turned a vivid pink!
The next morning, I said farewell to Sam and Lucas, who we will probably see again down in Buenos Aires, and settled in for our 11 hour bus journey into Argentina.
I am almost afraid and very disappointed in myself to say that although we made ourselves brilliant food, we had 3 very sober nights in Chile so didn't even get to have any Chilean wine, supposedly the best in the world - don't hate me, I will make up for it Argentina....
Love all around xxx