Last Post

 

Hi, welcome to the travelling blog of our tour through South America.

I wasn't that great at the end of this tour - but we made it home and all was well in the end.... but that's why there's an abrupt end to the blog.

The blog's back to front: daft really - but it's because the latest post is first which has a logic - so to read it in order you have to zip to the end and work your way forwards. If you really really want to do that, good luck.... or you could read it backwards, which is how I read the newspaper.

Enjoy

Sue & Geoff

Carnival! - A Week in Rio

At the end of a brilliant but exhausting adventure, we've given ourselves a week in Rio to relax: idiots!

First, the Carnival!

We have a great seat to watch the carnival processions from the competing samba schools but nothing, that's NOTHING can prepare us for this. The processions start at 9.30 pm and we tough it out until the last procession at 6am... all the while watching unbelievable costumes, floats and a seething mass of participants, all to a pounding, incessant samba beat. The pics just can't convey this experience but here goes...

And a short video might help..
Movie Clip from our stand

Before the carnival, we arrange a personal tour of a favela despite the tour advice being NOT to...
...we get a lift on motorbikes to the highest favela and really begin to see how these basic communities work. Our guide is keen to publicise the project to provide work and bring investment; she enthuses about a previous visit by Charles and Camilla and the classroom that his charity provided.

We also make a fascinating visit to Selarón's Steps, the never-ending life work of the Chilean artist Jorge Selarón:
Info Here

And, of course, we visit the usual sites:

Recognise this?

Rio from Sugar Loaf mountain

Sugar Loaf Mountain from the cable car

And the last thing to be done is to spend a couple of days relaxing (at last!) on Copacabana beach... We get a free upgrade to a hotel right on the beach with free sun loungers on the beach... and we really make use of these at the end of a wonderful but exhausting tour.

Well, when I say relax..
Copacabana Beach Fun

Falling for Iguazú

One of those heart stopping moments again..

We spend two nights here in the Argentinian town of Iguazú to see the falls from the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. Our first view is from Brazil and it's breath-taking. We've seen some fantastic falls in Zimbabwe and Iceland but these are something else! The sheer volume of water, the noise, the drop... We really do have to catch our breath on seeing this.

While the best view is from Brazil, the Argentinian side, for us, was the biggest thrill. The walkways are quite something... we were able to walk right to the edge of some of the falls, obviously getting drenched at times. To put this in perspective, we walked well over a kilometre across the Iguazú river on the walkway before we actually reached the falls themselves; it was slightly disconcerting to pass parts of the walkway that had collapsed in a flood last year. All seemed well constructed and organised though.

Life on the edge...
Iguazú Falls from the Top

Beautiful Buenos Aires

Here we are at last, following in the footsteps of Sam, our travelling daughter. I knew it was a mistake to comment on the great weather we've been having though. At least it's warm rain here.

This city throbs with passion and chaos; the never-ending protests on Plaza de Mayo, the street tango dancers and the edgy, crazy atmosphere in La Boca.

On our last day here we catch the hop on hop off bus to try and capture the feel of the different city communities; impossible on one day of course but the best we can do. It proves to be a brilliant day. Anyway, perhaps the images below might convey a little of the BA flavour...

Plaza de Mayo

Crazy La Boca

Pope Francis, local hero

La Boca

Living in La Boca

In contrast..

Beautiful buildings, beautiful shopping..

Sophisticated dockside development

Flor Floralis.. Mechanised flower sculpture

Here rests Eva Perón

...and this is the balcony from which she spoke to the adoring crowds:

Tango!
Well, there are the street tango dancers which give the city its unique flavour and there are the wonderful balletic tango shows.. like nowhere else on earth. Both are part of this city.

On the Street  (link)

Buenos Aires at play on Sunday

Mad markets in San Telmo

Street Blues in San Telmo (link)

China Town

There's much, much more to be had from this vibrant city... but we're worn out and out of time; off to Iguazú tomorrow. We've said fond farewells to our travelling companions as we split up from here. A great bunch. It's also very sad to leave Argentina proper - Iguazú is something entirely different I think: let's see...
Later at the airport...
Well, we're now experiencing the downside of the Argentinian industrial unrest ourselves. Is our flight cancelled or delayed?? Air traffic controllers and ground staff strike we are told. No info.  Hundreds of confused people being very patient indeed... Ah! Just as I wrote that, almost everyone starts clapping in unison. Let's look on this as a learning experience...

A note on weather

We seem to be taking unseasonably good weather around with us - all the guides have commented on it.

We just missed chaos in Chile:

Chile El Niño video

Fingers crossed for the rest of the trip...

Ushuaia: Fin del Mundo

The end of the earth....

Town Motto:
"Ushuaia, fin del mundo, principio de todo"  
"Ushuaia, end of the world, beginning of everything"

There is a real sense that this is a frontier town. The houses are mainly constructed from fairly basic materials with 'tin' roofs but, occasionally, a beautifully constructed home sprouts up in an otherwise unremarkable street.

You get the sense that life might be hard here but successful businesses abound. The government's tax breaks help keep businesses working and wages relatively high, attracting workers.

Not sure about social life down here but young guys in old cars with lowered front suspension cruise through the centre of town in the early evening with the shades on, music blaring through open windows.

Fascinating Place.

On the Falklands (Islas Malvinas) issue (port entrance notice) :

Official sign outside the port:

Have to say, we've found the locals helpful and cheerful though our limited contacts.... apart from the truly awful service in the hotel bar and restaurant, that is.... and other groups seem to get OK service... maybe we're  all getting paranoid.  Great receptionists though.

The main street, San Martin 

Murals celerbrating the indigenous people who inhabited southern Patagonia prior to European intervention:

The local college...

The tourist economy... Cruise ships feed the expensive shops in the main street.

The railway originally laid to transport materials to build the prison as part of the penal colony is now used for tourism access into the National Park. Beautifully restored steam engines operate the line.

We sailed the Beagle Channel (which links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans) on a trip of 140km, seeing seals, seabirds and penguins.

While on this trip we stop to photograph penguins - but look what we find: they look like King Penguins to me:

A reminder that the channel presents some hazards for shipping:

More info: Wikipedia Link

Off to sample more local cuisine... then off to Buenos Aires tomorrow, so the trip takes on a very different feel from now on.