Today I write from the rooftop terrace of my hostel in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. Saying a sleepy farewell to my mum in the early hours of the
morning, I sent her out into this busy city alone, where hopefully she managed
to brave the city's terrifying 'Joni Mitchell' playing taxi drivers, and make her
way to the airport - and her return flight to Australia. We've spent the past
month travelling together through Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay - meeting up
with old friends, making new friends, and most importantly, proving to my now
50 year old mother that flying is not in fact as scary as she has always
thought, and contrary to her popular belief, Google Images is not always the best way to see the
world!!!
Amanda and James - Gang
Unfortunately our month of travel contained many a public holiday
(and some days when certain government offices just decided it was a public
holiday to get an extra few days off...), and with a Brazilian visa for myself
proving almost as elusive as the African Leopard, it was certainly an
interesting month! It also turns out the Christmas/NY season is not necessarily
the best time to visit South America, with many locals leaving their towns to
escape the tourists, and many tourists leaving towns due to the lack of
locals... a vicious cycle which I've concluded is intentionally put in place to
allow the locals who do stay more time to remind tourists of the dire state of
the local economy... again.
As with many countries I have visited around the world, the
economy of all three of these countries has been a popular topic of
conversation - usually brought up by a local who insists their country is the
worst place to live in the WHOLE world, while they drag away on their second
packet of durries for the day, before explaining how badly they need a break
from their stressful retail job... where they no doubt manage to somehow fit
three-hours of real work into a nine-hour shift. Customer service has been a
particularly entertaining/frustrating aspect of our trip, and while many of our
conversations ended with us subjected to yet another story of financial
hardship, and the poor employment rates, coming across service that would even
rate as 'poor' in Australia has been a rarity (I will mention Sao Paulo was a
pleasant surprise!). Yesterday, after waiting in a checkout line that would
have the Woolworths Facebook page in meltdown with complaints, I even thought I
was going to get a smile from a checkout girl! Of course, she saved her
country's reputation just in time - sneakily turning that positive lip movement
into a casual yawn, before proceeding to chew her gum while scanning our
purchases - a task which she treated as a real inconvenience!
It's certainly been an eye opening month of travel, with a great
deal of waiting around and wasting time (all those people who told me Brazilian
buses are the best in the world - you're fools!), and while not everything went
to plan, we did at least get the opportunity to see many unexpected, unsavoury
and downright weird people and places along the way!
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Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, also claims to be South
America’s second largest city (I quoted this about Lima in my last entry!), and
with a population of almost 13 million, it might just be! Located on the shores
of the Rio del la Plata, the city’s
downtown area is a crowded, polluted, run-down and vandalised humidicrib of
sweat producing disgustingness – and don’t just take my word for it… ask my
mother how she felt! The massive city is divided into 48 barrios, or districts, and fortunately the city does get a lot
nicer once you leave the downtown area.
Our first day was spent quite lazily
exploring the Recoleta neighbourhood
and it’s famous cemetery, before making our way across the city to try out our
skills at ordering vegetarian food in Spanish (we started well, and things
drastically deteriorated as our month went on!), before exploring the streets
of the city’s San Telmo district.
Recoleta Cemetery
While both still recovering from our flights, and my night spent
on the airport floor, there was never any intention to push ourselves too hard
in Buenos Aires, and we spent the next couple of days checking out the city
from the top of a very touristy hop-on, hop-off bus of the city, stopping in
the quirky, bohemian La Boca Italian
district for lunch, and exploring the city’s very flash, clean and well
presented Puerto Madero development –
a great contrast to the city centre! A walking tour of the downtown area
highlighted the many economic and social issues the city faces today, and gave
us a bit of an understanding of the country’s history, the Spanish and British
invasions, ‘The Dirty War’ which saw over 30,000 people ‘disappear’ in the
1970’s and early 1980’s, and the history of Argentina’s favourite political
‘celebrity’, Evita Perón.
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Buenos Aires
Leaving Buenos Aires behind, our ‘real’ adventure began with what
I was assured would be a beautiful, clean and comfortable 15 hour overnight bus
ride to Puerto Iguazu, home to South America’s famous Iguassu Falls. I don’t want to harp on too much about public
transport in South America, but I will say – it sucks. Having heard numerous
wonderful stories from fellow travellers about the quality, service and
reliability of buses in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, I had gone into this
part of my journey with great expectations – and with the exception of one
company in Brazil’s south, I was disappointed each and every time. Late
departures, cancelled services, late arrivals, drivers smoking on-board,
overflowing toilets, old buses, broken seats… the list goes on… and on… and on.
Add to this the exorbitant cost of bus travel on this continent (you can fly
Adelaide to Melbourne for the same price as a bumpy, uncomfortable and delayed
eight-hour bus ride!), and you end up with two VERY unhappy Australian
travellers!
However, while our first long-distance bus ride left much to be
desired, we soon forgot all about the negatives of travel, as I ticked off yet
another of the world’s famous falls, with Iguassu. With a width of 2.7km, a
longest drop of 82m, and an average flow of 1.3 million litres per second, the
275 separate falls which make up Iguassu are absolutely spectacular! Far more
impressive than Victoria Falls in Africa, and just up there with Morialta, the falls
are a tourist drawcard, with impressive look-outs hanging over the edge of the
cascading water, jet-boats which take you into the waterfall itself, and
countless walking paths and suspended walkways. While both the Argentinean and
Brazilian side are set up for mass tourism, the Argentinean side offers a much
better experience - and I would argue view - and we spent a full day exploring
the area.
Our time in Puerto Iguazu ended up dragging on quite a bit longer
than anticipated, however with Christmas Day spent eating bread and cheese, and
a quick day-trip across the border into Brazil (it only we could have stayed
longer!) to see the falls from the other side, and the impressive Parque das Aves, we just managed to stop ourselves going stir-crazy. It turns out I
should have appreciated what I had in Buenos Aires – the humidity and heat in
Puerto Iguazu can only possibly be described using words which are not
appropriate for this family environment – and I can say without any doubt that
while the falls were spectacular, the weather was by far the most horrific I
have come across to date.
With the promise of slightly more pleasant weather, and my visa
finally coming through, we had yet another horrid overnight bus journey as we
made our way to meet up with my friend Carolina, in Sao Paulo. You may remember
Carolina from my time in India, and almost ten months after sharing an entertaining
night train cabin with a local Punjabi family, Carolina had kindly invited us
to stay with her and her family in the southern hemisphere’s BIGGEST city
(hopefully this fact is right!).
Sweaty, tired and stinking like stale smoke and overflowing bus
toilet, we arrived four hours late into Sao Paulo, where we were met by
Carolina’s sister Fabiana, and parents Sueli and Paulo. Enthusiastically
whisked away, we were driven through the city with tour-guide Paulo providing a
running commentary of every building, street and shop passed, while we learnt
all about the history of Sao Paulo, the city’s upcoming New Years Eve
celebrations, and life in South America’s busiest city.
Meeting up with Carolina for lunch, we were incredibly relieved to
head back to her house for a shower and siesta,
before heading out for drinks later in the evening. Up early for breakfast the
next morning, we met friends Patricia, Camila and Vera, before taking on the
crowds at the city’s super-exciting ‘geniune-hreplica’
markets (Michael Kors fakes from mum’s ‘miga’
for only $10… bargain!). With streets, alleyways and markets filled with
everything from golden Brazilian grass
and moustache shaped flesh-tunnels,
to deep fried prawns and the amazing cashew fruit, the markets were a
ridiculous, busy and entertaining adventure – just remind me never to go
shopping with five women!!!
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| Sueli, best BBQ cook! |
Leaving the hustle and bustle behind, our last night with Carolina
was spent at her beautiful family home in Sao Paulo’s suburbs. Warmly welcomed
with a cold Cerveza, we spent the
afternoon relaxing in the beautiful gardens (they have actual sloths in the
trees - actual ones!!!), reminiscing on travels in India, travels in
Australia, and the past ten months of adventure. Fortunately for us, Brazilians
celebrate Christmas up til the 6th of January, and while we had
thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas dinner of bread and cheese, we were spoilt
with a late Christmas Dinner, before some quality family time on the couch watching
Portuguese soap opera’s - it turns out you don’t need to know the language to
work out what is going on!
Our next morning was spent exploring the local lake, and beautiful
community in which Carolina’s family live. Well rested, well fed, entertained
and still keenly on the lookout for a sloth, we were soon on our way back to
the city centre to say farewell to Carolina, as we made our way to Curitiba – and
you guessed it… another disappointing bus ride!!!
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