Paraty

It´s so beautiful here - lovely beach, rows of white wash houses, with brightly coloured doors and window frames, and streets that are less cobbled than bouldered. It´s quiet, which is nice after the madness of Sao Paulo, and exactly what I need with little over a week to go. There´s been a good crowd in the hostel although most have left now. I stayed an extra day because its so nice and, quite frankly, I´m a lazy git.
On my first night here we had a boat party and was drinking calparinas until the early hours. The Brazilian national drink is a mix of their own spirit, limes and a ridiculous amount of sugar. It´s nice as the lime cancels out the sugar´s sweetness, but I´m not sure how this isn´t a nation of diabetics.

The good, the bad and the bohemian

I have been wandering around downtown Sao Paulo - or Sampa as its known - today and dont really know how to start to describe it. The city is elegant in parts, but mostly shabby, the people are generally friendly, but can appear quite menacing - whether or not thats just the reputation putting ideas in my head its hard to say, but I would not return after dark.
This is the first ethnically diverse place I have been in South America. As well as the Latinos, there are a lot of Asians, Caucasians and Blacks, which is refreshing. The city has a history of being a home to immigrants and is known as the gateway to Brazil. Its very poor, with a lot of tramps and street sleepers and people searching through the bins for whatever they can find. However there is practically no begging. Its strange how poverty manifests itself differently in different places.
In contrast to the city centre, the area I am staying in is safe, fun and friendly. There are more bars than you can shake a stick at and they were all so full last night people were queuing to get in and there was music blaring out of every corner. Its more of a place to live than visit, but I can imagine it being a lot of fun.
I have two more nights here than I head to Paraty and Ille Grande - I think thats what they are called - before completing my trip in Rio.

Brazil and big ol´ Sao Paulo...

... because that´s how it feels, big. It´s huge and I wonder if I´ve ever been somewhere this big, maybe Tokyo. First impressions are it seems to be a tough city, and you need your wits about you, but a lot of people have been genuinely nice already. I´m spending three nights here in the Vila Madalane region, which is supposed to be quite bohemian and certainly has a lot of bars and restaurants, but it is still surrounded by high-rises in every direction.
Whenever I arrive somewhere I try to get from the airport to the hostel the cheapest way possible, avoiding shuttle buses and taxis which are expensive. In this case it meant taking one urban bus, three underground trains, and then walking a mile - it is certainly one way to see the city. I´m about to head out for some food, then maybe I´ll siesta - a nice South American habit - then maybe return out to see what´s really on offer.

Igazu

Just returned from the magnificent Iguazu Falls, the Brazilian side today after the Argentinian side yesterday. I almost never got here after struggling to make myself understood at the bus stop in Corrientes. If you ever come out to Argentina, you have to pronounce Iguazu as IguaZU, not IgUAzu a la Reeves and Mortimer in Shooting Stars.
The Argentinian side puts you right in among the waterfalls. There seem to be hundreds and it is a full day walking around seeing them from different viewpoints. I got a boat which took us right underneath Diable Canyon, getting absolutely soaked. Today, and Brazil, is a little more removed but provides the best pics. I met a Swiss brother and sister, the girl of whom had been before and was disappointed there wasn´t more water (she´d been before), apparently it´s been a bit dry here of late, but as you can see from the pics there was more than a drop or two to go round.
Iguazu is very touristy and more full of families, tour groups and the elderly, than backpackers, which inevitably makes it somewhat duller. There are also mosquitoes here with dengue, which everyone seems very concerned about. Get bit once you suffer a kind of bad flu, which knocks you out for two weeks. Get bit twice you die. I have some mosquito repellent so hopefully will be OK.
The animals in the pictures are corlis. They´re about the size of cats and have faces like the Wombles from Wimbledon. You´re not supposed to feed them but inevitably as they are cute people do. I didn´t, I shooed it away with a chair, hands one paws nil

The Corrientes blunder

I´m in Corrientes, which is very nice but without hostel accommodation. I´m staying in a cheap hotel in a room which looks like it was painted to resemble a prison cell. There is a window with no shutter looking onto the glass door of the bathroom so I think people can see me shower, which pretty much completes the illusion. It´s as if they´re saying, Ýou´ve opted to stay in the cheapest room in Corrientes and we are not going to let you forget it.´
The place itself is very nice. Again with the faded colonial beauty which seems to characterise Argentina, but I´ve headed east and am no longer surrounded by desert - still hot though. Apparently this is one of Argentina´s oldest cities and a focal point for early battles between the native Indians and invading Spanish. Which reminds me, I never mentioned by the change in ethnicity is quite noticible from where people are quite light-skinned and European looking in Buenos Aires to north-west Argentina where they look a lot like the Peruvians of Cusco, like Native Americans. I know it doesn´t matter a jot, but it´s worth noting, and maybe indicates something about how little people migrate within the country, even though there is the reported BA-pull factor.
On the bus over I sat next to a female soldier (think that´s what she said). Soldiers can be seen patrolling the streets of most Argentinian towns and cities, though not in a threatening way. Anyway she was very nice and friendly and shared her food and blanket. I kept things platonic though, couldn´t help thinking one false move and I might have seen the inside of a real Argentinian cell.

North-West Argentina

Life is ticking along quite nicely, I´ve been trawling up the north-west of Argentina, from Tucuman where I blogged last, to the small town of Cafayate and the last couple of days have been spent in Salta.
In Cafayate, I rented a bike and rode around the countryside, trying and failing to find a waterfall. The area is beautiful, with the outskirts of the Andean range full of multicoloured rocks, cactus and waterfalls. It´s hot though and the bike was a devil to ride at times. Cafayate is surrounded by wineries and the wine is delicious.
Salta is a beautiful city, a capital for the region with great buildings and the usual splattering of parks and plazas. Argentinian cities are among the greenest I have visited. They also have a very interesting museum here dedicated to three child mummies found buried in a dorment volcano by the Incas, whose empire just about stretched this far east. The children were sacrificed and one of the mummies is on display. I have been staying in something of a party hostel and the couple of days here have been more dedicated to having fun than anything too serious.
Incidentally, one thing I have noticed, is all the children in this part of Argentina wear long white coats to school - they look like little doctors wandering around.
Anyway, I´m off to Corrientes in a few hours, for one night, then it´s up to Iguazu.

I am the traveller, and I ride and I ride

I wanted to blog about travelling in general, this strange transient state which occasionally leads me to wake up in the morning and wonder where the hell I am. I just travelled more than 12 hours to get to Tucaman - a nice, if not outstanding, Argentinian city. I´ll be here for less than 24 hours before heading to Cafayate, where apparently there are canyons and where I have two days pencilled in. I´m not a hardcore traveller, I don´t hitchhike and since Japan have always booked hostels ahead, for the shameful reason that it is easier. But I think I have the spirit of a traveller, I like looking around a rickety bus and realising I am the only English-speaker, and then trying and failing to communicate with locals. I simply like arriving somewhere new, and often I prefer it if its somewhere unremarkable as that generally means it is less touristy and more representative of the real country, whichever one it is I am in at that time. My feet are always dirty and my sleep is so random I sometimes feel like an insomniac wondering around in a daze. Sometimes I feel like butter spread over too much toast (OK, I stole that line from a hobbit, but he stole my precious), other times it makes you feel really alive.

I guess that´s a pretty rambling and incoherent summary, but I hope it provides some kind of insight (many of you I know have travelled yourselves). The pics are of Tucaman.

Mendoza and the Andes

Wow, it´s insanely hot today. I´ve got another nightbus in a couple of hours and should arrive in Tucuman tomorrow morning. Nightbuses are good because they save on a night´s accommodation costs, but they´re not a lot of fun, with food that tastes like cardboard and (British/American) music of the mullet-power ballard variety. (Although, I cannot currently talk as I´ve not had mine cut since a misunderstanding in a Chinese hairdressers left me bald).

Anyway, when you first arrive in Mendoza it is distinctly unimpressive. It does not even seem to have the Latin pulse of Buenos Aires and other South American cities. But it more than makes up for it by being on the doorstep of the Andes, with trekking, rafting and skiing all available, and by having great wine, fine steaks and the world´s greatest ice cream - no exaggeration.

The Andes are fantastic, huge and barren. I flew over them between Argentina and Chile after the cruise through Patagonia and it was like looking down on a different planet. We went right up to Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Americas, but thankfully did not climb it - I´m still recovering from the Inca Trail.

Argentina is a funny place. Both here and Buenos Aires almost feel like continental Europe, but there´s a poverty that is almost hidden, like they´re trying to pretend it does not exist. One of Mendoza´s main characteristics (apart from five stunning plazas, one incredible park, and streets lined with endless sycamore trees) is the many pavement cafes - like I said it´s very hot here, strictly speaking it´s in a desert. When you sit there in the evening you are plagued by child beggars, which is very sad, and actually reminds me of the likes of India and Cambodia, the poorest places I have visited.

I have Andes pictures for you and will post them next chance I get, as this computer won´t appear to let me.

Last tango in Buenos Aires

This is a flying post, a blogette if you will, just to let you know I am fine and McLovin Buenos Aires, which is a grand old city, a bit European, but faded and slightly rustic. I am staying near the Plaza de Mayo, where the presidents residence is, a Pink House no less, I said it was a bit European. Last night I went to watch the tango with a Columbian girl I met in Peru, she has now gone to Uruguay, and in a few hours I head to Mendoza. The tango was good, thankfully not too long. BA gets a bad rap for being dangerous, but seems fine to me, probably famous last words.
As a footnote, I am in Mendoza now, after a long overnight bus journey. Tomorrow I have an Andes trip, it´s only one day long, and then I head further north.
Incidentally, I now plan to be back in the UK just hours before May 11, now why does that date ring a bell...

Saturday night Lima

I´m blogging before heading out to see what the Peruvian capital has to offer on a Saturday night. I´ve got a day and a half here before an early morning flight to Buenos Aires. I´m planning to blitz the northern half of Argentina in around three weeks - going from BA, as the Yanks call it, to Mendoza, hitting a few towns on the way to Salta, then looping round to Iguazu and the falls, before going back to BA.
I had intended to ignore my flight from BA to Sao Paulo and travel overland but, amazingly, the airlines would either charge me $120, or cancel my remaining flights. Surely these are my flights and it is up to me what I do with them - apparently not.
I don´t have a definite plan for Brazil yet, but seeing as I fly into Sao Paulo and out of Rio, it is likely to be concentrated in that south-east corner. (How many times have I said this but I would like to come back and do South America properly (or southern India, Laos, big chunks of China and Japan, Australia´s Great Barrier Reef and Ayres Rock). One of the things about travelling is that whenever you leave a place there are always places you wished you´d seen, and some you´d like to see again.
Northern America could turn into little more than a stopover, so I could be back in Blighty in less than two months, but don´t start planning the welcome home party just yet!