Well, by this point we'd been travelling for nearly 11 months and had come to regard ourselves as pretty experienced travellers as we'd managed to get by without any major mishaps - but was it really wise to turn up in one of the world's most dangerous cities without the address of our hostel??? The answer to that we found out was No!
It meant an hour driving around Rio in a cab with a driver who was starting to get pissed off and in the end just pulled over and looked like he was going to cry! Luckily at this point we were only a few doors up from the hostel - someone must have been watching over us :)
We were relieved to eventually check in. But we thought we'd been driving for so long we'd ended up back in Australia!!!! I kid you not! Australia must have been empty as 85% of the folk staying at the hostel were Aussies.
So on that basis we'd say Brazilians are at the top of the partying league, followed closely by the Aussies! Although Brazilians are hard to beat - they can only be described as close to crazy!!! They can party on buses, trains, beaches, and in the street pretty much 24/7 for a week!!!
And the Sambadrome has to be the most colourful party of them all - 2x nights, 12x Samba schools, 100's of dancers, and 1000's of spectators - oh yes, and lots of half naked Brazilian ladies shaking their booty!!!
But with any good party comes a really bad hangover and this is where Rio's darker side comes to the fore. As the week progressed it seemed the locals were starting to loose it a little - feeling rough, getting paranoid, running out of cash and picking fights :( Unfortunately some of the folk at the hostel came out worse because of this as they were robbed - we were really lucky not to be!
And when we took a walking tour through one of the Favelas we realised Rio is one scary place! The poverty there is pretty extreme and the Mafia are the boys in charge - we guessed they were the one's on the motorbikes with the guns!! You're supposed to be okay when on the tour as the Mafia have given their approval, but there's no way you can go into a Favela on your own - there were some really mean looking dudes who looked like they really didn't want ANY Gringos on their patch!
During the tour we were told by our guide that Adriano (famous Brazilian footballer), still has a house in the Favela and parties with the Mafia every Sunday! I suppose it doesn't matter how rich you are - you still want to keep the Mafia on side!
So that was it !!!!! .......the party's OVER!! .... and we were heading home :(
AN AMAZING END TO AN AMAZING YEAR!!!!
(Although, perhaps its not quite the end just yet? We still have a night in the Mal Maison to look forward to for our anniversary on the 21st of March! This will take us full circle back to the start! We'll be thinking about you all and the good times we had when we were there last year :)
p.s. Don't forget we've still got some Aussie photos & 3 months in South America to show you. I'll be posting these in the next couple of weeks - something to keep me amused while I'm getting over being back at work :(
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Tuesday 2 March 2010
30/11/09 - 07/12/09 & 10/01/10 - 11/02/10, Argentina
We first arrived in Argentina way back at the end of November but we were only able to stay a week before we had to pop back to Chile. We must have been impressed though as we came back on the 10th of January for another month! Maybe it was the tasty food and drink which enticed us back ...... hot chocolate ..... fondue ...... steak ...... fast food trout! (beats the McD Hamburgers we've been consuming elsewhere) ...... and of course the Vino Tinto :)
Talking of "el vino", I'm not one to ever condone "drinking & driving" but "Mr Hugo's Cycling Wine Tour" in Mendoza was a highlight ....... 2x rickety bikes, 10x miles of cycling, 6x refreshment stops (at conveniently located Wineries), 1x police escort and 6x hours later we were wobbling home!!!
Don't worry, the police escort was after only one glass! And it was very amusing when the police officer jumped into his car, switched on the blue flashing light and drove round the roundabout the wrong way - there was nothing for it but for us to dutifully follow as it was all just to help us find the next winery :)
It was also quite ironic when we found out that Mr Hugo has a party in his garden every night at 6.00pm. But he's not intimidated by the fact that his clients have been spending the day sampling some of the best Vino Argentina can offer - he just serves up some "vinegar" which I think he may have brewed himself. To be fair, I didn't see any backpackers knocking it back - he knows his market well !!!
Oh, there was one downside to the whole thing - we think we now know a bit about wine :( ....... "if its not been aged in oak it's a young wine and it isn't going to be so good......."
Now our return visit to Argentina was a totally different experience! We rented an apartment in Buenos Aires and put our feet up for a while. This turned out to be a very good call as we had a chance to relearn the old unused skills of cleaning up after ourselves, cooking, shopping, and as we were in South America emptying the "jobby pot" (don't worry, this was only toilet paper but trust me that was bad enough :().
But it meant we could also indulge in a bit of entertaining when Suzi & Eric came to stay. How cool was that!! - we had a great time seeing old friends, having barbies, drinking more Vino and catching up on all the news from back home.
They then headed off on a jet plane to places where us skint backpackers can only dream of :( We were also giving them a head start so our 24 hour bus had time to catch up! Sadly though it wasn't long before it was also time for us to leave Buenos Aires, which was no easy task as it's a really chilled out city with a very enjoyable cafe culture :)
When we caught up with S&E again we spent another crazy few days at Iguazu where we gawped at the magnificent Falls (much more impressive than Niagra), walked across them, round them and got totally, completely, and utterly soaked on the boat which went under them!
We had been prepared for getting a little wet on this occasion, although we hadn't realised quite how much. However, it was amusing to see how others had prepared themselves. In response to the sign which said "there is a constant drizzle when up close to the Falls so we advise you to wear a raincoat" - was it really necessary for the old guy to walk about all day in just a pair of speedos?????? (still having flashbacks from that sight!). And maybe the blue shower cap that the Japanese bloke wore on the boat wasn't really worth it - he must have ended up being drenched from the ear down!!
So alas this takes us up to when we had only 7 days left!!! ....... saying that, at this stage we hadn't quite realised what we'd saved for last - we were really going to be going out on a high :)
Talking of "el vino", I'm not one to ever condone "drinking & driving" but "Mr Hugo's Cycling Wine Tour" in Mendoza was a highlight ....... 2x rickety bikes, 10x miles of cycling, 6x refreshment stops (at conveniently located Wineries), 1x police escort and 6x hours later we were wobbling home!!!
Don't worry, the police escort was after only one glass! And it was very amusing when the police officer jumped into his car, switched on the blue flashing light and drove round the roundabout the wrong way - there was nothing for it but for us to dutifully follow as it was all just to help us find the next winery :)
It was also quite ironic when we found out that Mr Hugo has a party in his garden every night at 6.00pm. But he's not intimidated by the fact that his clients have been spending the day sampling some of the best Vino Argentina can offer - he just serves up some "vinegar" which I think he may have brewed himself. To be fair, I didn't see any backpackers knocking it back - he knows his market well !!!
Oh, there was one downside to the whole thing - we think we now know a bit about wine :( ....... "if its not been aged in oak it's a young wine and it isn't going to be so good......."
Now our return visit to Argentina was a totally different experience! We rented an apartment in Buenos Aires and put our feet up for a while. This turned out to be a very good call as we had a chance to relearn the old unused skills of cleaning up after ourselves, cooking, shopping, and as we were in South America emptying the "jobby pot" (don't worry, this was only toilet paper but trust me that was bad enough :().
But it meant we could also indulge in a bit of entertaining when Suzi & Eric came to stay. How cool was that!! - we had a great time seeing old friends, having barbies, drinking more Vino and catching up on all the news from back home.
They then headed off on a jet plane to places where us skint backpackers can only dream of :( We were also giving them a head start so our 24 hour bus had time to catch up! Sadly though it wasn't long before it was also time for us to leave Buenos Aires, which was no easy task as it's a really chilled out city with a very enjoyable cafe culture :)
When we caught up with S&E again we spent another crazy few days at Iguazu where we gawped at the magnificent Falls (much more impressive than Niagra), walked across them, round them and got totally, completely, and utterly soaked on the boat which went under them!
We had been prepared for getting a little wet on this occasion, although we hadn't realised quite how much. However, it was amusing to see how others had prepared themselves. In response to the sign which said "there is a constant drizzle when up close to the Falls so we advise you to wear a raincoat" - was it really necessary for the old guy to walk about all day in just a pair of speedos?????? (still having flashbacks from that sight!). And maybe the blue shower cap that the Japanese bloke wore on the boat wasn't really worth it - he must have ended up being drenched from the ear down!!
So alas this takes us up to when we had only 7 days left!!! ....... saying that, at this stage we hadn't quite realised what we'd saved for last - we were really going to be going out on a high :)
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