The Paris of the South

Buenos Aires is known around the world as "The Paris of the South," and the nickname couldn't be more true. The city is such a change after four months across the bay from Rio de Janeiro. Buenos Aires was once a thriving port city that welcomed many European immigrants. During its glory days, it was home to many affluent people and beautiful European style architecture. Today it is a bustling city that has still managed to hold onto its charm. And that's just what it is...charming. The city is really big into the Paris-like cafe culture. Everywhere you turn there's a quaint little cafe always full of Porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) enjoying a cappachino or espresso. The downtown center still maintains a big city feel, which reminds us of New York. Rio just didn't have this aspect, although it is bigger than Buenos Aires. I think that we just like how European B.A. seems, and somehow it makes us feel more at home. The architecture here is just beautiful, many of the old buildings are beautiful tributes to Buenos Aires' once glorious past. From the churches and old monuments to simple apartments, the old buildings definitely stand in deep contrast to the practical new office buildings.

A Casa Rosada--government house

Another thing we really enjoy about Beunos Aires is the price. The Argentine economy collapsed in 2001 making our exchange rate from the U.S. dollar mighty pretty. We thought that we were getting a great deal in Rio at a 1 to 2 exhange (that's one U.S. dollar for 2 reais). In Argentina, we get 1 U.S. dollar to 3 pesos. Marvelous! So we have been enjoying the city on the cheap...which we definitely need at the end of the trip. We can go out to dinner and really do it up: apps, huge steaks (Argentina prides itself on it's high quality beef), desserts, and lots of wine for about 10 U.S. dollars per person. Argentina is a wine country and one can buy a very nice bottle at any local restaurant or shop for about 12 or 15 pesos (that's less than 5 bucks guys ;) ) So as you can imagine, we've been enjoying ourselves thoroughly.

The nightlife in Buenos Aires is also something not to miss. The Portenos are night owls, late to rise, VERY late to bed. Just going out to dinner, the restaurants don't fill up until at least 10:30 p.m. A simple dinner can easily last until 1:00 in the morning! One night Stefan and I, our Kiwi friends Angela and Silas, and our friend Elaine from Australia, all decided to make our own pub crawl around a huge square of nothing but pubs and restauarnts in an area called Palermo. We actually made it to 8 bars then ended up at some super crowded dance club unable to move. That kind of put an end to the night, but we figured 8 bars and a club is definitley an accomplishment :).

Bar number six...I think ;)

One thing everyone should see in Buenos Aires is some tango. Tango has made a huge comeback in the city, and there are tons of restuarants and cafes that offer a Tango show with dinner. In fact, B.A. has a whole area of the city dedicated to Tango. La Boca, a small, dingy suburb of B.A., located near the river has an old area called Caminito. Walking into Caminito is like stepping into another world. In an effort to save money on paint, the original residents of the area would simply paint their houses with the leftovers from painting their boats. The area is full of brightly colored buildings mostly made from sheet metal (more leftover boat materials, I believe). The name "Caminito"comes from a famous Tango dance, and the area is just brimming with markets selling all kinds of Tango paraphenalia.

Stefan's new friend...a HUGE guy in Caminito dressed as a gaucho (cowboy). He'd let you take a pic with him for one peso. We think he might actually be taller than Zach :)

Two tango dancers giving a show at a restaurant last night.

For our last afternoon in Buenos Aires, we checked out the Matederos Fair, which takes place every Sunday. It was a huge area full of vedors selling all kinds of handmade Argentine goods. For children, there were Shetland pony and even Llama rides, and lots of traditional music and dancing. For lunch, there was fresh grilled meats, churros with chocolate and homemade wine. Tons of fun!

And now, here we are sitting in our hostel, waiting for our ride to the airport. Hard to believe our trip is finally at an end. :( But we are sooo excited to be going home! And we are looking forward to some nice warm weather! It's winter here and COLD!! It's been in the upper 40's and we were not prepared! For those of you that look at our blog, I'll be putting up some more pics this week that never made their way to the blog before...if you guys are interested. There are lots of great ones that we never did actually write about.

So, we will be home tomorrow afternoon!! Look forward to seeing everyone!

"Poor Niagara!"

When the world was ruled by M'Boy, the snake-god, the caigangues used to live by Iguaçu river. Igobi, the chieftain, had a daughter called Naipi, who was so beautiful that the waters of the river stopped each time she looked at her reflection in the water. Because of her beauty, Naipi was consecrated to god M'Boy, and she began to live within his cult. Meanwhile, a young warrior called Tarobá, saw Naipi and fell in love with her. On the day she was supposed to be sacrificed, Tarobá ran away with Naipi in a canoe. When M'Boy realized what had happened, he got angry and penetrated the land, making a huge cleft, and creating a giant waterfall. The waters enveloped the canoe and the runaway lovers. Naipi was transformed into a rock in the middle of the waterfall, where she is forever pummeled by the turbulent waters. Tarobá became a palm tree at the edge of the abyss, forever condemned to witness the fate of his lover. Beneath that palm tree, there is a cave, under the Devil's Throat, where the vengeful monster watches his victims forever.

Hello everyone! We are now officially on the last leg of our trip...taking a lovely vacation before our return to the United States. This past weekend we visited the state of Paraná, in the south of Brazil, to see the famous cataratas (waterfalls) in Foz do Iguaçu. Being some of the largest waterfalls in the world, it is said that Eleanor Roosevelt exclaimed upon seeing them, "Poor Niagara!"

Unfortunately, the area is in the midst of a severe drought and the falls are lower than they've been since the 1970s. This has caused a good deal of the smaller falls to temporarily dry up. The river has become so dry that you could actually walk across a good deal of it. We asked at our hostel about boat tours that take you to the bottom of the falls and were given this info: the average flow rate of the river is about 1200 cubic meters of water. In order for the boat to run, the rate must be at least 600 cubic meters. As of this weekend, the rate was just under 300 cubic meters of water. So sad! This means we will definitely have to plan another trip to the cataratas during the rainy season (December or January is when they are at their fullest).

These dry cliffs are usually huge falls!

The VERY dry river.

However, don't let this little setback fool you...the falls were still maravilhoso! We arrived in Foz after our lovely 23 hour bus ride from Rio...yawn, and got right to it. On Saturday, we visited the
Brazilian side of the falls (they are shared by Brazil and Argentina, with the Iguaçu River being right on the border). The national park features a very nice walking trail around the falls, which ends at the biggest, the Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat). This fall is still raging and extremely beautiful. After working up an apetite exploring the falls, the park has a restaurant area right on the river, from which you can see the tops of the falls.

No, these aren't postcards! Pretty gorgeous, huh?

On Sunday we did the Argentine side of the falls, which offers views from the top, looking down. Unfortunately, a lot of these views were from falls that are dry at the moment, and we ended up liking the Brazilian side better. However, the view from the top of the Devil's Throat was amazing. You couldn't even see the bottom, there was so much water!

Garganta del Diablo

We met several people from our hostel in Foz that were tons of fun to hang out with and Saturday night we all went on a little outing to a local churrascuria (Brazilian BBQ), which was a great time. I think it was slightly stressful to the waiter having a table of 10, being two Irish, one Brit, three Mexicans, two Kiwis (New Zealanders) and two Americans...and me being the only one amongst us that spoke Portuguese! The couple from New Zealand we've gotten to know particularly well, as they also traveled with us by bus here to Buenos Aires and we have dinner plans for tomorrow night. They have just finished a year long cycle tour of South America, in which they actually rode 6,363+ miles through South America, beginning on the Southermost tip of Argentina.

Fun in the hostel--Silas from New Zealand and Amelia from England.

Which brings us to Argentina. We arrived this morning, after another 20 hours on a bus through the Argentine countryside. So far the city is gorgeous and sooo cheap! More to come soon!

Ilha Grande

Now don't get me wrong, I love being in Niteroi/Rio, but I will be the first to admit that it is a stereotypical "Big City." It is noisy 24/7, it is dirty, it can even be quite smelly. We needed a vacation from this vacation.

Looking around, I would never have guessed that just three hours away was Rio's polar opposite, Ilha Grande.


The trip was a breeze. We left early Thursday morning and, three hours later we were in Angra dos Reis waiting for the boat to Ilha Grande. When we left, we really had no idea what we were about to see. We had heard that it was beautiful, there were no cars, and everyone was a tourist. The stories could not be more true!



When we arrived we were swarmed by hotel owners wanting us to stay with them. Deciding beforehand that we wanted to look around first, we kindly fought our way through the crowd and started looking for a place to stay.

We found a place quite easily and since it was late we decided to grab some dinner and relax. We had big plans for the following day so we both needed our beauty rest. For dinner we had an island specialty, fish and bananas. Jess loved it. I personally don't like the idea of mixing fish and fruit, but I'll admit, it wasn't terrible. =)

After dinner is when the real party began. I made a b-line for the poussada (hotel) where I suffered the wrath of some very angry virus/food poisoning. Most of my night was spend paying homage to the porcelain gods, netting me about two hours of sleep total.

The next morning was slightly better, but I felt awful. I had no energy and couldn't move around without getting nauseous. We had to cancel our plans for the day so I could try to get better. No worries though, we tacked an extra day onto the end of the trip to make up for it.

Saturday morning, I was feeling much better. We woke up early and decided to take a boat to Lopes Mendes, a nearby beach. I use the term "nearby" loosely, as it was about an hour and a half away. Since there are no cars on the island, the places of interest are connected by hiking trails. Most of the trails are pretty intense, so most people take a boat to where they want to go. For example, Lopes Mendes can be reached by hiking three hours or by taking a boat for one hour then hiking the last 30 minutes. We opted for the boat.

The boat ride was pretty relaxing. It was a warm day and there were very few clouds in the sky. My only complaint was that the boat was sooooo slow. I think I could have swam there faster. (I later decided this is a feature not a bug. As all the boats on the island were super slow). When we arrived we were greeted by a solitary bar at the docks and a trailhead to Lopes Mendes.

Nothing like a hike straight up to get the blood going!


I, of course, forgot my shades and was therefore blind most of the day.


The beach was nice and the day consisted of your average beach time activities. Relaxing, getting some sun (or if you are me, looking for shade), and eating. The real excitement was waiting for us on Sunday.

Saturday night, we were walking through town and saw a place that offered scuba diving trips. At first we didn't give it much thought because neither of us are certified divers. Then we though to ask if they offered anything for people who have never been diving. To our surprise, they did! They offered a "Batismo" or "Baptism" dive for beginners. After thinking about it for a few hours we decided to give it a go.

Bright and early Sunday morning (9AM to be exact) we met with the dive crew and headed out to our dive spot. The dive location was a two hour boat trip to the ocean side of the island. Jess and I were the only "newbies" to go on the trip. Our companions consisted of two dive masters and three experienced divers.

The dive was really cool! It's different than how I always imagined when I saw divers on TV, etc. Things I never really thought about before:

1) Wetsuits are terribly uncomfortable.
2) Scuba gear is HEAVY!
3) Despite being heavy, you have to wear a weighted belt to let you sink.
3) Being underwater and breathing from a tube is not natural!

My first instinct when I went under was strangely paradoxical. I knew in my head that I have a limited supply of oxygen in a tank on my back. Yet, for some reason my natural response was to breathe this limited supply of air as quickly as possible. I wasn't panicking, but I wanted to breath like it. It took a few minutes to steady my breathing and I was never able to calm down as much as the diver master I was with. I managed to used three times more air from my tank than he did before we surfaced.

Being underwater is neat. You feel weightless, and have 360 degrees of mobility. I think it is something I could enjoy with a little more practice. This being my first dive, I was so concerned with my gear that I didn't notice much else around me. All and all, I think I did pretty well down there.


After we returned the locals had set up everything for a festival of sorts. There were bamboo booths set up selling local foods/snacks and the main street was packed with people. Upon closer inspection we saw a group of young people performing Capoeira demonstrations. It was pretty neat and the guys were really good. (Remember the movie Only The Strong?)


Afterwards, the locals put on a dance presentation. It was a skit/dance in the style of Brazilian square dancing. It is similar in appearance to American square dancing but less organized and without a caller. The dancing was entertaining but the real amazing part was the duration. This group of 30+ junior high school aged children danced for almost two hours non-stop. I honestly don't know how they kept from collapsing from exhaustion. I broke a sweat early on just watching.


By the end of the presentation it was quite late. We headed back to the Poussada for a good nights sleep and to prepare for Monday. On the books was a snorkeling trip to two different locations on the island and a visit to another nearby beach. Sounds like fun!

Monday morning was cloudy and quite cool. There was a strong wind and the clouds were pretty dark, but far away so no worries. We grabbed our snorkeling gear, boarded the boat and headed towards our first destination. The trip started off great, swimfins and mask in hand and 80's American rock blaring on the boat. We arrived at the Lagoa Azul (Blue Lagoon) about 10 minutes before the rain. It was FREEZING! The water around the island is quite cool and with the sun being gone and the wind blowing it is borderline miserable.

Jess went for a swim. After seeing her face when she resurfaced, I decided to hang out on the boat. The stay at the Lagoa Azul was quite short, probably because everyone could feel the pneumonia setting in.

The rest of the trip was pretty much a bust. With the wind and the rain no one really wanted to go for a swim. We still visited each location on the list but did not stay long. Despite the rain and the cold it was still fun.

After the boat returned, it was time for us to return to the city. We showered, grabbed our gear and headed home.

To sum it all up, our vacation away from vacation was pretty relaxing. I have never been anywhere like Ilha Grande. It was like the set of a movie..total paradise. If anyone reading this ever makes it down this way, you have to go there. They speak more English than in Rio so don't worry about that. Just go, it's great!

Oh yeah, some pics --> HERE.

A Sad Day for Brazil

Just a little update:

Brazil lost to France yesterday 1-0 in the World Cup. So, we're out of the competition much earlier than we were hoping for. Unfortunately, I think this means that Cup Fever here may be coming to an end. It was definitely fun while it lasted...the entire city has been green and yellow for weeks (Brazil's colors) and everything stopped for their games. It was like having the superbowl every couple of days. No school, no work, stores would close. (Yeah, I know, the fact that I got to miss a bunch of class did play a little into my own personal cup fever, but I really wanted Brazil to win too!) When Brazil scored a goal you could here the entire city screaming and shaking, horns blaring, and LOTS of fireworks. One friend described it as sounding like an air raid going off over the city. Anyway, France just had an incredible game yesterday and we could harldly get within 10 feet of their goal. Sadness.

So, I believe it's time to hang up our Ronaldinho jerseys and wait till next time. We've already been informed that now we have to cheer for Portugal to win...guess that Portuguese heritage still shines through in a pinch. =)