Bogota

We arrived in Bogota at about 1:30 in the morning after piecing together a free ride, a por puesto (mini-bus), and a bus from Rio Claro. Once again, we were at altitude accompanied by a constant drizzle...brrr! One more cold stop before heading to the much anticipated Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia.

First shocking impression aside, Bogota has turned out to be a really enjoyable city. While you don't want to be walking around late at night, during the day it's a bustling center for business, university students, tourists and everyone in between. There's loads to look at given the interesting mix of architecture ranging from ultra-modern to colonial. The free museums and the many cafès, parks, and plazas yielded a wonderful way to spend a couple days.

Yesterday, we made our way around a few of the museums...the Military Museum, Museo del Oro, and the National Police Museum. We found the latter to be the most impressive. It had rooms featuring their anti-narcotic, anti-kidnapping, and anti-guerrilla forces. There was also an entire floor dedicated to the drama of Pablo Escobar, the Medellin drug cartel, the Cali drug cartel and how the police force finally took them down. There was even a ceramic roof tile soaked with Pablo Escobar's blood.

Last night, we took a ride up the teleferico to Cerro de Monserrate, a mountain bordering the city. We were able to catch a clear view of the city's lights and rub elbows with Colombia's high class over a couple drinks at a swanky, pianist accompanied restaurant.

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria "El Doctor"

Rio Claro

On our way from Medellin to Bogota we decided to make a brief stop at El Rufugio Rio Claro. We were hoping to see some of Colombia's coffee zone, but unfortunately it was further south than we had time for this trip. While Rio Claro didn't have much in the way of coffee plantations, the refugio was in a killer location in the middle of the rainforest. To top it all off, our room had a close-up view of the jungle...well, I guess it was more like the jungle came right into our room.

Our first day there, we walked the river trail passing a cave called El Templo del Tiempo (The Temple of Time) and a couple different beaches. We played around a bit floating in the river's currents, but didn't attempt to cross it because there was a streak of umph in this river.

That night, there was a consistent downpour. Beside sleeping to the sound of rain in the rainforest, we were stoked because the second morning we were hoping to do a little river rafting. Get this...$10 US for two hours! When we awoke the river was moving much faster than the day before. While the rapids weren't crazy (probably only a level 2 at most), our driver was. Instead of steering the boat away from low-hanging trees, we would head straight for them. There were at least two times that my helmet came in handy preventing brain damage.

Unfortunately, we weren't aware that the first weekend in May is a national Colombian holiday. The refugio was booked full and our hopes for a second night there were quickly shot down. We hit the road to Bogota, but were pleasantly pleased with our experience in the Colombian jungle.

Medellin

First thing that comes to mind when the city Medellin is mentioned... Pablo Escobar, right? While we did know that Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia, we weren't exactly sure what to expect...maybe guerillas, maybe drug cartels, who knows?

Well, upon arrival it was confirmed that Medellin isn't on any lists of most charming cities in the world...let alone in Colombia. We started our search for a hotel in the city center. Turns out all of the hotels in the area rent rooms by the hour and most of them even have prostitutes in the front doorway ready to do business...gives one stop shop a whole new meaning, eh? Anyhoo, we were able to find a decent, clean, prostitute-free hotel to park our backpacks for a couple days.

I guess the highlights of Medellin would be the Museo Antioquia and it's surrounding plaza (both adorned with tons of Botero works), the metrocable (the city's public transport system includes cable cars), and most importantly its ultra-friendly citizens. Most people we met were pumped that we were giving Colombia and especially Medellin a looksee. I guess I can see where they were coming from because we didn't see any other foreign travelers while in Medellin.

Playa Blanca...Does it get any sweeter?

After spending the majority of this trip in and around the mountains, we arrived to Venezuela and Columbia dreaming of beautiful Caribbean beaches. We got lucky with Venezuela in Morocoy and were hoping that Columbia would be able to compete. Tayrona was beautiful, but we thought we would press our luck and look for a tropical beach near Cartagena.

We found it!!

We spent a day talking with the tour office and haggling with boat operators trying to figure out the best way to get to Playa Blanca on Isla Baru from Cartagena. In the end, we boarded a tour boat that sailed through Islas del Rosario and made an afternoon stop in Playa Blanca. Given our negative experience at La Boquilla, we wanted to have a way out if we found the place to be completely dodgy.

Luckily, plan B was completely unnecessary...Playa Blanca was absolutely what we had been looking for! Crystal clear water and a long white sand beach bordered by shady palm trees. All of this tropical beauty was topped off with palm huts to hang our sleeping bags aka hammocks. We were even more pumped when we found a place that let us tie our hammocks up and gave us a place to store our bags just as long as we ate our meals at their restaurant (surprisingly at a super reasonable price).

We settled into a daily routine ultra-fast. Wake up when it starts to get too hot to sleep, breakfast, swimsuit and sunblock up, walk the distance of the beach, settle into our books in the shade during the really hot part of the day, one last swim (otherwise known as a shower) before the sun got too low, sunset beers, dinner, back to the hammock.

We ended up spending 5 days on the island and would have spent more had we come prepared with more money, clothes, and most importantly shampoo and conditioner. Probably best we ran out of money or we might have scratched Medellin and Bogota.

Estamos en Cartagena

We spent the day exploring Old Town and then checked out a fishing town called La Boquilla. Some douche bags tried to charge us over $20 U.S. dollars for 4 beers. We threw 10,000 pesos at them (the equivilant of $5 U.S.) and walked away. Tomorrow, we plan to go to Playa Blanca and Las Islas del Rosario. We're really hoping to find a chilled out spot with a good beach...maybe even descent snorkeling...keeping our fingers crossed!

Parque Nacional Tayrona

We spent about a week in Venezuela and decided we needed to move on because the cost of living was well beyond our means. In a two day journy from Tucacas, we crossed the boarder and landed in Santa Marta via Maracaibo, Venezuela and Maicao, Columbia.

While in Santa Marta, we were able to witness a cruise ship make port and over-run Santa Marta. Now, we see why Latinos seem to think it's super easy to charge tourists an exhuberant amount higher than what a product is worth.

Anyhoo, after piddling around Santa Marta and Taganga for a few days we made our way to Parque Nacional Tayrona...named after the indigenious Tayrona Indians. Supposudly, this place is home to some of Columbia's most beautiful beaches.

After a short jeep ride and a 45 minute hike from the park's entrance we arrived at Arrecifes beach. While it's prohibited to swim here because of dangerous ocean currents, we did find a great place to park our backpacks and hang our hammocks.

We walked about 20 minutes further to a beach called La Piscina. We figure this place got its' name from the rock wall formed about 300 meters off the shore...both of us were not exactly sure where these huge rocks came from...maybe some volcanic activity. It's actually a very cool natural phenomenon...these huge rocks form a type of barrier reef which make this beach relatively calm compared to the surrounding beaches.

Another 20 minutes further was Cabo San Juan...a popular camping spot for hippie backpackers. We could totally see why. Apart from the fact we're in Colombia and any form of authority was left at the park entrance, this part of the park rented hammocks in a hut on a bluff overlooking two sides of the point...what a view! We hung out here until it looked like the sun was heading home for the evening...and we decided to do the same...back to Arricifes.

On our walk back through the palm groves we witnessed a pastel tropical sunset accompanied by an almost full moon rise. Life was good...

Colombia...con mucho gusto!

Cayo Sombrero aka Lake Havascrew

We made our way safe and sound from Caracas to Tucacas via Maracay, Venezuela. Socialist propoganda, black marketed U.S. dollars, and inflated prices aside, Venezuela seemed much like any other third-world-esqe latin american country. That was until we found ourselves on Cayo Sombrero in Parque Nacional Morocoy...

We had befriended a group of three Californians traveling through Venezuela the previous day and had decided to pool our funds for a lancha (small boat) out to one of the supposedly more beautiful islands off the Venezuelan coast. While we knew it was popular among national tourists we had no idea what lay ahead.

When we arrived in the morning we were greeted by beautiful, palm shaded, crystal clear, tranquil waters. To top it all off, we thought we had found a part of the island that would remain mostly untouched for the day.

As the morning wore on, more and more wealthy Venezuelans pulled up in their boats. By noon, the beach which we thought would be our own little tropical paradise looked like "The Channel" at Lake Havasu...nobody was topless, but there were loads of beautiful latinas romping around in their g-strings accompanied by blasting regaetone.

We actually really enjoyed seeing how the more wealthy end of the spectrum lives. One of the Californians we had met was a medical student volunteering in Merida, Venezuela. To our surprise, he informed us that breast augmentations and nose jobs were the most common surgeries in Venezuela.

I guess after traveling on the lower end of the socio-economic scale for the last 6 months, it's easy to forget that there's always a more affluent side of the coin.

Venezuela...a la orden!

We flew from Santiago, Chile to Caracas, Venezuela via Lima, Peru. We ened up getting bumped from our connecting flight in Lima because a bird flew into the plane's engine. Good news - got to spend the night at the Sheraton all expenses paid and we both got a $300 voucher for Taca. On top of being spoiled for a day, we were able to fly first class from Lima to Caracas...WooHoo!

This is one way to keep people from parking here...

Valdivia, Chile

Gone Fishin'

The good thing about Pucón, Chile...a river runs through it. After a day of cycling through Pucón and it's surrounding area we decided to scratch a hike up to the crater of Volcan Villarica and take this opportunity to try our hand at fly fishing. Our guide warned us that it wouldn't be likely to catch any fish our first time out, but, nonetheless, we decided we wanted to give it a shot.

We woke up early and geared up in our waders...personally, I found this to be the most exciting part. Hugo, our guide, thought we would have a better chance at catching something while trolling down the river. He set us up to troll while we were enroute to the spots where we would actually fly fish. On the way to the first fly fishing spot I caught a baby arco iris trout. The day was off to a great start.

We stopped a little way down the river and Hugo instructed us on the proper form of fly fishing. Surprisingly, we caught on (no pun intended) pretty quickly. The nice part about fly fishing is that the motion of the pole and line while standing in the river is totally meditative...we weren't worried about whether or not we would catch a fish.

After a bit of practice, we hopped back in the boat and headed to another fly fishing spot. This time while enroute, Brandon caught a full size rainbow trout. What can we say...lady luck was on our side.

At our second stop, we fine tuned our fly fishing technique by using longer lines. Apparently, Brandon really had the hang of it because he reeled in ANOTHER full size trout. We didn't get a chance to figure out what kind of trout it was because it jumped off the hook right before we could get it in the net.

Total fish count for the morning...five. I think we've found another hobby.

We're going going, back back, to Chile Chile

We saw Harmony and Ryan off at the Mendoza airport hopped a bus to Santiago, Chile. From there, up to Valparaiso and then back down to Patagonia.

Tasting in Maipu

Finally, the Semana Santa (week before Easter) rush was over and we were able to make our way to Mendoza to see where all of this delicious wine was being produced. We ended up staying in a posada about 30 minutes outside of the city of Mendoza in a town called Maipu. This was a much welcomed change from busy Buenos Aires. The posada was a great find...14 hectacres owned by a helpful Belgium guy and his girlfriend, complete with a small vineyard, olive orchard, and guard dog named Tommy.

Our first full day in town, we decided to rent bicycles and taste at a few of the local family run wineries...by the way, there are tons! The ride was beautiful and each stop had something different to offer.

The first bodega (spanish for winery) showed us the old facilities from where they made wine back in the day.

The second bodega was a French owned and had been revived after 30 years of abandonment. The sommelier here was very educational and the wine was fantastic...apparently, the French have a knack for this kind of thing.

Our last tasting stop for the day was the Tapaus distillery. The actual building and facililty we absolutely gorgeous! It was interesting to see that no part of the grape goes unused. After the wineries are done with the skins and seeds, the distilleries used these parts to make their product...liquor. After the tour, we also were able to try a bit of grappa (a popular liquor down here) and some other flavored liquors.

After a full ride and an afternoon of wine and liquor, it was time to get some lunch. We cycled back towards our posada and had lunch at Domaine Du Mont. This was a beautiful colonial house just recently purchased by a Canadian family. The food was great and Harmony was finally able to get a taste of that purple drink.



While cycling was fun, we wanted to get our taste buds on more wines. Hence, we rented a car the second day so that we could cover more ground and visit more bodegas. We made an effort to taste at a couple of the larger wine producers in the area (i.e. Norton), but unforntunately reservations were required. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because instead of being herded around in a large group, we were able to visit more family run wineries and get spoiled with personalized tours and tastings. We were even able to help label and seal a couple bottles of wine at a small artisan winery. I think we all agreed that the smaller bodegas were much more beautiful and it was a pleasure to taste great wines at a ridiculously low price. To top it off most are only available in the region if not only sold from the bodega.

That evening we had an appointment to ride some horses with Cesar the gaucho. Once again, we hadn't had time to squeeze in food with tasting so we stopped by the market and grabbed some snacks and beer for a pre-horseride tailgate. Cesar turned out to be a great guy and we had a wonderful ride through wine vineyards and down a riverbed while watching the sunset. Not a bad way to finish up a great day!


The following day was to be our last with Harmony and Ryan. We decided we could all use a little R & R after a seriously jam-packed two weeks. A day at the Termas Cacheuta hit the spot. The facility was complete with massages, mud, lunch buffet, and thermal pools all situated in a canyon overlooking the beautiful Rio Mendoza.



It's going to be hard to get back on the backpacker trail after being spoiled with great food, wine, and especially great friends for the last two weeks.

The Matt & Erin Bodega

Mendoza, Argentina

Tango, Futbol, Steak, & Wine!

After two weeks exploring Patagonia, we found ourselves back in Buenos Aires with yet another great experience to look forward to. Our friends from home, Harmony and Ryan, were coming to travel with us for two full weeks...and when I say full, I mean FULL!

We started with three nights in Buenos Aires...not wasting a second of our time there. The morning Harmony and Ryan arrived they hit the ground running. We walked through the artist market in San Telmo, clicked some pictures of the revolutionary Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada (Argentina's version of the White House), feasted on empanadas, squeezed in a cat nap, and were off to try some of Argentina's famous steak and wine.

The following day we all decided there were two things we absolutely needed to see before leaving Buenos Aires...a tango show and a futbol game. Thinking we were on it...we bought a newspaper and found a tango show that would be taking place that night. After an afternoon of cashing traveler's checks, shopping, walking down the widest street in the world, and a celebratory St. Patrick's day beer on the sidewalk, we cleaned ourselves up and headed to the show. Unfortunately, the place looked pretty closed up when we arrived. A man in the restaurant across the street let us know that the place was only open on the weekends...oops I guess we should've called.

We didn't give up that easily though. We stopped into a nearby hotel and asked what other options we had to see a tango show. Armed with a map and showtimes, we stopped for and headed over to Cafè Tortoni to see a show. I guess we didn't keep a very good eye on the clock because we didn't get there until almost midnight and the last show of the night was almost over. All the doorman could offer us was a flyer with a phone number and to try again tomorrow.

The next day, we decided not to take any risks so we found a website online that had all of the up-to-date tango show information in Buenos Aires. Being the cheapskates we are, we were pumped to find a free show at the Recoleta Cultural Center that evening. After another day of checking out Buenos Aires and the Evita Peron museum, we wondered into the cultural center about an hour prior to the show. The lady at the information desk confirmed there was a show that evening so we decided to kill some time with a cheese and meat "tabla" and a bottle (or two) of wine. We were stoked when we found out that in addition to snacks we had stumbled upon a DJ spinning a mix of tango and electronic music in the plaza.

We returned to the cultural center to, finally, get a glimpse of a tango show. When we walked into the room it looked a bit strange for tango. It was two women on stage singing accompanied by a solo accordian player. It quickly became apparent that the name of the musical group had the word "tango" in it and that's how they were able to advertise on the tango website.

We cut our losses and headed back to Cafe Tortoni hoping we could get into a show seeing as how we were planning on leaving Buenos Aires to head for Mendoza the next day. We were greeted by the same doorman we had talked to the night before. Unfortunately, his response was the same...all shows were full call the number on the card to make a reservation for the next night. Luckily, one of the managers heard our reaction to this (not pleased) and came over to let us know we could get on the standy by list in case of any cancellations.

We had yet another drink in the cafe while we waited and, luckily, there was a cancellation and we were FINALLY able to get into a tango show. It was totally worth it! It was probably extra cool to us because we'd been trying to find a tango show for two days. You can't come to Buenos Aires without seeing some tango.

The next morning we figured we would hop on a plane to Mendoza...without reservations. When we arrived to the airport we realized that the week before Easter is a HUGE vacation time for Latinos and all the flights to Mendoza or any town close were booked until Easter Sunday. After a short-lived plan to catch the ferry over to Uruguay for a few days...boats booked full as well...we rented a car and drove out to the coast...Pinamar to be exact.


The first day yeilded great weather and we were able to spend some time at the beach. The following days were a bit more chilly, but we considered ourselves lucky because Buenos Aires was being hit by horrible weather...tornado included. Even though the beach wasn't on our original itinerary, we ended up having a nice, relaxing time...eating, shopping, and drinking wine. Brandon and Ryan even tried their hands at parilla...the Argentina's form of BBQ.


We planned to come back to Buenos Aires on Easter Sunday because we still had to complete our second objective...to attend a futbol game and the majority of games take place on Sundays. We rolled back in to BA just in the nick of time. A Boca Juniors game was starting at 4pm and we had about two hours to find a room, get to the stadium, and buy tickets.

We had been warned by the information office that it wasn't in our best interest to buy the cheap tickets in the "popular" section because tourists tend to walk out of these areas with lighter pockets. The only problem was that when we arrived to the box office and, finally, made a decision as to where we wanted to sit, the "popular" section was our only option. The man at the ticket window ensured us that we would be fine so we took his word (with a small grain of salt) and went for it.

We were glad that things worked out the way they did. The "popular" section was great! With standing room only, the crowd was energetic, but not out of control...thank goodness Boca Juniors was winning. There was another "popular" section at the opposite end of the field which looked a bit more rowdy...band and banners included. The fans cheered and sang different chants the entire game.

The only part that got a little bit dicey was the end. We thought we would beat the crowd by leaving just before the end of the game. We made our way over to the exit tunnel to find that the cops weren't letting anybody out. Turns out, they were keeping all of the Bocas Juniors fans in the stadium until the opposing team's fans were gone. Reason being, the opposition was seated in the tier above us and had been spitting and throwing drinks on people the whole game. I guess the cops wanted to give them time to run :)

It was a bit unnerving while we waited for the police to open the gates because you never know how a locked-up crowd will react. We probably waited for about 45 minutes until our section was the last to be released from the stadium. Fortunately, everybody behaved and we exited smoothly.


Our first week in and around Buenos Aires with Harmony and Ryan was action packed.

Whoa...get out the way!

The Moreno Glacier...making waves.

Moreno Glacier

Our last stop in southern Patagonia was El Calafate and the Moreno Glacier.

Wonder what the world's biggest ice cube tray looks like? At 30 kilometers long, this glacier gives you a quick crash course in the sheer power of mother nature.

We watched from platforms across from the end of the glacier. At 5 kilometers across and an average on 60 meters above the water level (170 meters below) this ice field is among the only glaciers that in continually growing.

As we sat and watched, this movement was very obvious. The glacier creaked and moaned continuously. Every so often a relatively small chunk would fall off followed by the thunderous
crash when it hit the water. When I say small chunk, at least the size of a car or school bus.

We were in exactly the right place at the right time (camera ready) to witness, front and center, the fall of a massive chunck about the size of a high-rise building. Actually, it was almost like the demolition of a high-rise building...looked like it happened in slow motion, but with explosive force. We estimated the resulting shore pound was probaly 6-8 ft high.

Now, we kinda get the idea of how tsunami is formed.

Definitely understand how Torres del PAINe got its name

After Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, we took a bus up to Puerto Natales, Chile, via the Strait of Magellan (14 hours). From here, we planned to get back on the trail and backpack trough Torres del Paine National Park.

As you've read, all of the multiple day hikes we had done up to this point were guided AND we never had to carry EVERYTHING we needed. After assessing the situation in Puerto Natales, we decided it was time to give the whole ball of wax a shot. We rented camping gear (tent, sleeping bags, stove), shopped for the most filling yet lightest food possible, and decided to do the "W" trail in five days.

The morning we were to catch the bus to the national park we woke up to the unwelcomed sound of consistent rain. From the research we had done the previous day we had found out that like much of South America the weather in Torres del Paine can change like "that" ("that" being a snap of the fingers). We were hoping that this theory would work in our favor and yeild sun by the time we started hiking.

We arrived to the park about three hours later and the rain persisted. We waited for the catamaran that would take us to our starting point bracing ourselves for 5 days of wetness.

Miraculously, after the short half hour boat ride the rain stopped. We continued holding our breath for the first hour or so after it had stopped. Then, finally, the sun made its premier appearance for the day. AND the goodness didn't stop there...it continued to stay dry for the next two days!

In our first two days we hiked up and down the first line of the "W"...by the way, it's a cursive "W". In the first 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) we were introduced to spectacular views of glacier-covered mountains, iceberg filled turquoise lakes, and the seemingly neverending Glacier Grey. While the scenery was worth every step, we were wondering how our bodies were going to handle another three full days of walking...the dogs were barking.

The third day we were able to leave our big backpacks at camp while we hiked up the Valle Frances and back. While we were hiking up the valley we were lucky enough to see one big avalanche and few smaller avalanches...all from a safe distance. The absense of the extra weight was nice for a while, we still had to come back to pack up camp, put on our backs, and hit the trail for the next camp. Thankfully, we only had to walk 2 hours until we reached our goal for the day.
While setting up our tent we struck up a conversation with a couple of Americans from Colorado. Turns out, they got bored one day and decided it would be a good idea to hike from the equator in Ecuador to the end of South America...through the Andes mountain range. After 22 months of walking, they should be completing their stroll in about 2 months. They have a killer website...check it out...we've posted a link on the sidebar.

The fourth day we woke up to a steady rain, but luckily it was pretty light. We hiked from 9:30am to about 5pm when arrived in our last camp at the end of the "W". The selling point for making it this far was a 45 minute hike to see the actual Torres del Paine up close and personal for sunrise.

That night was freezing cold. We woke up at 6am to scramble up a bunch of boulders to see the sunrise reflect on the Torres. Unfortunately, on the way up it looked like the clouds would be too thick for the sun to break through.

Luckily, we were wrong. The clouds actually seemed to enhance the colors of the sunrise. For just about three minutes, the Torres del Paine glowed bright orange! Absolutely magnificent! I think we even briefly forgot how much our feet and legs were hurting for a second.

After the show ended, we were faced with the reality that we had to get ourselves back down the mountain. Fortunately, gravity was on our side and it only took us 2 hours.

Overall, we hiked roughly 90 kilometers (55.9 miles) in five days. We celebrated the successful finish of our first "real" backpacking experience with a few cold beers while laying in the grass at the bus stop.

Still aren't quite sure how it got the name Tierra del Fuego...in English, Land of Fire

We arrived in Ushuaia to the harsh realization that our skin had grown quite thin due to that last month and a half in tropical climates. We piled on almost every piece of clothing we owned and set out to get familiar with the "southernmost city in the world".

Our first day down south we checked out the town of Ushuaia and the surrounding Beagle Channel. It definitely had that "way out there" feeling. Ushuaia was initially founded as a penal colony...I'm guessing because any inmate would freeze to death or die of exposure if he attempted to escape.

The next day we decided we'd go for a hike the the nearby Parque National Tierra del Fuego. The weather was cooperative and we were able to enjoy a beautiful fall day at the end of the continent. This was a great warm up for both our legs and the camera for the upcoming 5 day hike in Torres del Paine, Chile.

Back in Argentina...Buenos Aires to be exact

After a great experience in Uruguay, we're back in Argentina. Same great country...fun new city. Thus far, Buenos Aires seems like a happening place...tango dancers, delicious food, a serious place for shopping. Tomorrow morning we fly down to Ushuaia to check out the end of the continent and Tierra del Fuego. But don't fear, we'll be back in BA in a couple weeks to see what else this city has to offer AND we'll be meeting up with our friends Harmony and Ryan.

Colonia del Sacramento

We cruised down the coast from Punta del Diablo hoping to find some more nice beaches. Unfortunately, the nice weather took a turn in the opposite direction. We passed through the beach towns of La Poloma and Punta del Este, but the rain and crappy weather continued. We decided to thrown in our beach towels and make our way to the city.

The city we ended up in, Colonia del Sacramento an old smugglers port, actually turned out to be a nice place to relax before crossing the Rio de Plata to the big city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Catching Up on our Rays and Rest in Punta del Diablo

From Montevideo, we made our way up to the northeast coast of Uruguay...a town called Punta del Diablo. It was EXACTLY what the doctor ordered...dirt roads, small cottages, great rock walking, and sprawling beaches. Believe it or not, the weather cooperated with us as well.

We found a bugalow just up the hill from the beach in a great little complex. We had a small kitchen where we cooked our own meals. This was great for two reasons...number one, we were able to get back within our budget. Number two, we knew the food would be cooked sanitarily so we could avoid another bout of food poisening.

We stayed for four nights and were blessed with great weather the first three days. We worked on our tans, explored the beaches, and finished our books.

On our second night, the owners (Mario and Leah) prepared a parilla (BBQ in Uruguay and Argentina) for some of their friends that were vacationing from Argentina and Montevideo. After we finished our dinner, we cruised over to chat and ended up being fed drinks and BBQ until about 2am. Not only was it a great time...it was a perfect opportunity to get our spanish back on track.

After lots of talk about the traditional drink, Yerba Mate, everyone decided we absolutely needed to give it a shot. So the next morning they welcomed us into the social world of mate and explained all of the ettiquite and traditions involved. It was great, instead of making you feel like a "poser" for drinking the traditionally Uruguayan and Argentine drink, they love the fact that you want to try out part of their culture. We both agree that Uruguayans are, by far, the most genuinely friendly people we've met along the way.

Even the owner's dog, Cookie, gave us a tour of the beach and, on our last day, saw us safely off on our bus to La Poloma.

Onto Uruguay

After taking a serious beating in Brazil...both our wallets and our bodies...we decided it was time to commence exploration of Uruguay. So far, seems mellow and we're back within our budget. Not to mention, it's really nice to be able to communicate a bit more extensively again.

S-S-S-Salvador aka Bahía

Our hotel was just across the street from Bahía's oldest fort, Forte de Santo Antônio de Barra. By the way, a very nice place to watch the sunset.

Just on the other side of the bay lies a cool-lookin' lighthouse. If you look closely, there's a cable line from the end of the point into the water. Both of us agreed this would make for a killer zip line!

The cultural center of Salvador is known as Pelourino (portuguese for whipping post). This area used to be a major center for trade in the north of Brazil...slave trade not excluded, hence the name. All that aside, it's an area of capoeira (a Brazilian form of martial arts), cobble stone streets, and beautiful, colorful colonial buildings.

The Real Amazon River

After parting ways with Kirk, we hopped a plane up to Manaus. According to people that we had met along the way, Manaus and its surrounding area were "not to be a missed". We jumped onto a bus to get from the airport into the center of town. As we came into the city Brandon and I both found ourselves wondering if we were in the right Manaus. Our first impression of Manaus was a dingy, ill-kept port city. We were hoping that we just hadn't hit the nice part. After we found a hotel and wandered a bit we came to the conclusion that the advice we were given was WAY OFF.

We shook off this let down and reminded ourselves that we had come to Manaus in order to hop on a boat and ride the length of the Amazon River. Four days from Manaus to Belem...the end of the Amazon. We headed down the the dock to see what our options were. Once again, not exactly what we expected.

Yes, we DID know that river travel was the primary mode of transportation in this region. Yes, we DID expect to buy a hammock space as our passage. No, we didn't know that we couldn't catch a boat to Belem until Wednesday...we would have to spend 3 days in the "lovely" city of Manaus. No, we weren't exactly prepared for the amount of people they smash onto these boats.

After speaking with a couple touts and captains we took an evening to evaluate our options. Long story short, we decided to catch a boat to Santarém (two days travel from Manaus) on what we determined to be one of the more seaworthy passenger vessels. Another contributing factor was that the boat to Santarém left Manaus the very next day. We thought we'd give river travel a two day trial run and decide how we would get ourselves out of the jungle from there...boat or plane.

When we bought our tickets at about 9am the 110 foot boat was relatively empty. We figured we should have plenty of room for our hammocks. When we returned two hours later ready to board, we witnessed a much different scene...the boat was PACKED! Full capacity...250 people. There weren't even two hammock hooks together. Keep in mind that the hooks are only about a foot apart. After we sized up our surrounding and settled in we thought that maybe two days was the better course of action.

Once under way, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of comfort. Even while constantly bumping into our neighbors, the oversized hammocks provided an illusion of sufficient personal space. The weather also held up pretty well. There were only a couple hard rain showers over the two days so we were able to stay dry.

We got plenty of rest and reading done in the two days to Santarém. Given that everybody's baggage is on deck, our maine concern was robbery, but we were able to walk away with all of our belongings. By the time we arrived to port we were thinking that another two days on a boat to Belem would actually be a nice way to relax.

From Santarém we decided to head to a small town called Altar do Ciao, but were postponed when I came down with the stomach flu. Not surprised considering the volume of people on the boat and that there was only one set of dishes at mealtime that was rinsed and wiped in between groups of twenty. Two days later I was able to make the short 1 hour bus trip, but was still feeling fragile.

Altar do Ciao ended up being a perfect place to recuperate. It's an Amazon tributary just west of Santarém. The coolest part of the town is a sandbar that separates a lake from the river. During the wet season the sandbar with its white sand beaches disappear. Luckily, there was still plenty of sand above the river level when we arrived.

For Valentine's day we found an abandoned hut on the sandbar and hung up our hammocks. Thank goodness we had some shade because the sun was INTENSE. We enjoyed the day reading and by the evening I was feeling much better.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped to catch a bite to eat...the first since I had come down with the flu. Nothing special, but it did the trick and it felt good to finally have food in my stomach.

Both Brandon and I woke up in the middle of the night with a solid case of food poisening...what luck? Given the state of our health we voted down two more days on a boat and hopped on a plane to Salvador on the north coast.

Sugar Loaf

Before saying goodbye to Kirk, we decided we should do one last touristy thing. End result, we joined the crowds and took a cable car up to the Pao de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf in english). We were fortunate enough to get a semi-decent weather hence intermittent views of Rio de Janeiro. There were even points when the clouds ducked down enough to see the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer peeking out from the top of his mountain.

Recovery on Ilha Grande

After thouroughly enjoying Carnaval in Rio we had to get out of there. Unlike other, more traditional, Catholic locations, Carnaval in Rio doesn't end on Ash Wednesday. It keeps going through the following weekend!

We needed a change of pace in order to get ourselves back to 100%. On Thurday, we caught a bus/ferry combination from Rio and landed on Ilha Grande. First impressions were good! The area around the pier reminded us of a smaller, tropical version of Avalon, Catalina.

Ilha Grande is just one of many islands in the bay about 3 hours south of Rio de Janeiro, but it supposedly houses some of Brazil's most beautiful beaches. There is an extensive network or hiking trails to get to the majority of beaches, but there are quite a few that are only accessable by boat.

Friday, was Brandon's 28th birthday and the sun, FINALLY, decided to make an appearance. We celebrated by spending the day at a beach called Lopes Mendes...some say that this is THE most beautiful beach in Brazil. To get there, we took a 45 minute boat ride and then hiked another half hour on rain soaked trails. It was quite a bit slippery in parts. Only armed with Havaianas and our agility, we traversed some serious mud holes. There was sufficient evidence that not everybody makes it our with both of their flip flops, but those who conquered the mud hole were rewarded with a fine white sand beach.

We spent the day working on our tans and checking out the scene. When the clouds rolled in we decided to call it a day. We headed back, cleaned ourselves up, and had a birthday feast of some delicious gourmet pizza.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRANDON!

Carnaval in Rio

Whoa...where do I begin?

I guess the best point would be when Kirk finally met up with us. After a flight delay in Dallas due to a bird in the engine of the plane that was supposed to take off in front of his, Kirk missed his connecting flight from Miami to Rio. Luckily, the attendant at the airpot booted somebody off of the last flight from Miami to Rio for that day. The story ended happily when he landed in Rio just a couple hours behind schedule. Only bummer was that the weather took a slight digger and we transitioned from sun to off-and-on showers.

From there, we didn't waste much time finding the party. Initially, we were just going out to have some lunch, couple drinks, and a walk-around. Before we knew it, we were dead center in the middle of a "banda" by the beach. A "banda" is, basically, a block party revolving around a float filled with musicians and a parade of people following the music. Caranaval here, seems like a great excuse for everybody to dress up...young, old, and transvestite. It's quite a sight.

We followed the "banda" until it dispersed close to sunset. We walked over to a point at the end of Ipanema and Leblon beaches and caught the sunset while enjoying a couple caipiroskas. Kirk took a little adventure down a storm drain while looking for a suitable "bathroom". He made it back up okay using all fours...we made sure he showered.

That night we headed back out in Ipanema to join the homosexual masses. We neglected to note in our research that Ipanema is the gay mecca during Carnaval. We mingle with some friendly characters, but we mostly did a lot of looking. The scene was pretty crazy. These boys and girls were letting loose in a serious way. All of us were hit on by at least one member of the same sex that evening...flattering, but no thanks.

We had high hopes that the sun would peek out the next day, but no such luck. After nursing our fragileness we popped over to Copacabana beach to check out the scene...hopefully, a little more hetero. It was actually mellow compared to the party we stumbled upon the previous day. Thank goodness because little did we know what lay ahead for us that night.

When someone thinks of Carnaval in Rio, I'm pretty sure the first thing that comes to mind is half-naked women dressed in extravegant, glittering costumes leading a huge procession of drummers and dressed-up samba dancers down the street. This part of Carnaval is called Sambòdromo. It's a stadium with a stretch of road 1 km long soley dedicated to Carnaval and it's famous samba parades. Here's a quick tutorial on how it works...

There are multiple Samba Schools in and around Rio de Janeiro. These schools spend the entire year preparing their processions...themes, costumes, bands, etc. Believe me, no expense is spared. Carnaval is the "big dance"...all of the Samba Schools compete for the title of the best in the city. Sambódromo is where all of this takes place. The first Samba School begins at about 8pm and the processions keep going until the sun comes up. It's curiously similar to any sporting event. There are fans and supporters...you can even buy t-shirts to show which school you're rooting for. There are vendors set up all around the stadium selling beer and food. The party extends all-the-way around the stadium much like a tailgate party.

We decided against purchasing tickets to enter the stadium because they were EXPENSIVE! Taking the cheap way out, we wandered over to the staging area where the multitudes of dancers lined up for the parade. IT WAS SO COOL! Everyone was so pumped to share their experience with us. They jumped at the opportunity to be in photos and a lot of them even let us try on their headpieces...which were actually pretty figgin heavy. I don't know how they Samba for a kilometer with these things on.

We stayed in the staging area until the very last school left for their turn in the Sambódromo...it was about 6 in the morning. From there we wandered back over to the food stalls and the party was still in full-effect.

We, finally, decided to call it a night when dawn was on the horizon. We never would've noticed how late it was had it not started to get brighter. There were gobs of people still dancing in the streets when we headed to the bus stop to catch a ride back to Ipanema.

So how do you follow a night like that? We weren't exactly sure either, but the following night was the Tuesday before lent...there had to be something great going on.

After a couple beers and a little research in Ipanema, we found ourselves at a HUGE party at the base of the Lapa Arches. How great...sightseeing and celebrating at the same time. There was a free concert set up and thousands of people dancing and wandering the streets. We enjoyed the world's strongest caiprioskas as well as our new favorite Brazilian hot dogs filled with EVERYTHING...they even put a quail egg on top!

After a few hours of taking in the scene at Lapa we decided to make our way back to Ipanema. We took the most GNARLY bus ride to date. The doors opened up and we were presented with a bus full of people still enjoying the party. The driver was a maniac, but luckily everyone in the bus was too busy socializing to notice. Note: the bus ride from Ipanema to Lapa took about a half hour. On the way back, it only took 9 minutes!

We had a nightcap at a party on the beach in Ipanema and then called it. Our livers had had enough. I can see now why Carnaval in Brazil is a once-in-a-lifetime experience...it would be physically impossible to do it twice.

Greetings from Ipanema!!

We have finally arrived to Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Waiting for our friend, Kirk, to come and join us for Carnival. Working on our tans...it has been over two months since we have seen an ocean. So far, seems like we are going to love Brazil.

We're Back in the Tropics!

After checking out Iguazu Falls we crossed into Brazil...24 hours on two buses. Stoked to be here! While Portuguese is presenting a new challenge, the weather is warm and the drinks are cold!