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Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Foz do Iguacu (BRASIL) - Puerto Iguazu (ARGENTINA) - Big Water


Foz do Iguacu (Brasil) - Puerto Iguazu (Argentina)
04 JUNE - 06 JUNE 2015


We spent a couple of days getting to Foz do Iguacu from Havana. The first night was via a stop in Cartagena and the second was a stop back in Lima. After a couple of jumps we touched down at Foz do Iguacu/Cataratas international airport on the afternoon of 04 JUNE.

Havana had somehow felt like the apex of our journey. Even though our scheduled traveling time was for three months and 04 JUNE essentially marked the '1 month to go point', somehow the slip across the continent to 'the other side' felt like the halfway mark.

This attempt was actually my third try to get here. Back in 2010 I had turned back from travelling South America due to a pilfered wallet, and in 2012 I actually had flights booked from Buenos Aires. On that occasion I left a credit card in a hungry ATM on the back streets of Montevideo (Uruguay), thus denying me access to funds. So whilst I had the flight available I had not much else to support me had I arrived on terra firma in Puerto Iguazu

So lets call this third time lucky. 


Iguazu Falls - Argentina / Brazil

Entrance to the Argentina side  - 260 pesos - Parque Nacional Iguazu

 Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

 Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

For our time in Foz do Iguacu we actually stayed in a pretty cool hostel. Hostels are generally a role of the dice, some are good, some aren't, some draw randoms from the oddest, weirdest part of the cosmos, and others are just cool. Che Lagarto Hostel in Foz do Iguacu was the latter. Clean, spacious, great staff and a bit of a sanctuary. I don't know if they still do this now but when I was there they were providing free caipirinhas to guests between 6pm & 7pm each evening That was all the invitation we needed. Once the clock hit 6:01pm we were already a caipirnha down and our hand was reaching out for delivery of the second. Thank you Che Largaro! Thank you.

Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

Parque Nacional  Iguazu - Argentina

Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

Parque Nacional Iguazu


We commenced our discovery of the falls with a visit to the Argentinian side on day one - it felt kind of nice to be back in my 'self adopted country'. From memory we jumped on a small tour provided through the hostel, so I don't remember the cost exactly. I did note however that there was no formal border crossing as such, so no real stress for travelers if wanting to move between the two parks.

Note to travelers also, whilst the Argentine side has access to 'more of the falls', the more impressive views are from the Brazilian side. If you had to chose one side and had limited time then I'd say do the Brazilian side, although from the Argentine side you'll be able to get up close and personal with the falls.

The walkways here are essentially above the falls, or rather, set on top of the waterfalls edge. So after covering a few trails and with a short train ride within the park you actually get to traverse the Superior Iguazu River, above the falls, then walk across to San Martin island on your way to the Devil's throat. There's specifics that I may have missed there but what I can tell you, as clear now as it was then, is that there's a ferocity and power to the vantage point you get on this side. The sheer magnitude and volume of water kind of takes you by surprise. I mean, you can hear the roar of the falls a long time before getting to the falls proper but that intensity is surprising. On average 1500 cubic mtrs of water flow over the falls every second and depending on the time of season that can actually increase to 13.000 per second when the rains have swung into gear - apparently the size of five Olympic pools every second, that's simply a staggering number.

The area span/width of the falls in 2.7kms and when you stand at the edge of the Devil's throat then you're looking at that water fall away some 80mtrs into a milky abyss that also throws up a permanent mist cloud, the associated bonus of which can throw up some inspiring rainbows when the sunlight hits it.

 Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina
Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina


Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

What you get on the Argentine side is something ferocious & brutal, a little like the famed Latin temperament. On the Brazilian side its more samba & show, there are sweeping views of the cataracts where you can get a chance to dance and play with the falls. From here you can also take boat rides that will literally roll you in and out of the base of some of the falls. Fair warning too, the crappy little raincoats that they provide before getting on the boat will serve as just an irritation. They offer absolutely no protection other than making you look like a bit of a dumbass in photos. My suggestion, either where a Hazmat suit or strip to the bare essentials - it's like taking a bath in a washing machine, hell of a lot of fun but no place for the aquaphobic.

Parque Nacional Iguazu - Argentina

 Parque Nacional do Iguacu - Brazil

Parque Nacional do Iguacu - Brazil

Parque Nacional do Iguacu - Brazil

Parque Nacional do Iguacu - Brasil


Somewhat of a different treat in this area, especially for a person like me, is access to the triple contingent border. After our visit to the falls on our first day we were able to go to view the triple border between Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay. For political and factual accuracy, the border representation actually resides well inside Argentina whilst the actual border is at the intersection of the Rio Parana & Rio Iguazu, or even more accurately, in the middle of the Rio Parana. No matter, from where you're standing you can probably take a good guess as to where it is, and the photo you can take is kind of cool.

Iguazu falls rightly takes its places amongst the new 7 natural wonders of the world. Visually intoxicating and insta-freakin'-gramable, don't miss it!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Sydney - Your Saturday best - 7 years of sin and sensation (part 2)

Sydney (Australia)
26 April 2013

In the last few weeks I've taken to scheming once again, scheming and hatching plans. And why is that you ask? Because I'm restless, because 'wanderlust' for me is more than a word and is about as integral to my daily living requirements as caffeine, fibre and vitamin D. Sometimes I don't even understand how some of these plans present themselves in my mostly occupied mind, take the 'Osaka whimsy' for example. I was sitting at home reading the paper one Sunday morning, beams of sunlight from a beautiful April morning cutting strips across the pages of print in my hands and then BAM-O! In a flash of either genius, insanity or perhaps both I just thought 'Osaka!..yeah, I think there's good food there, maybe I should go!' ...and that was it! Sometimes the want of my own discovery is as simple as a flash of inspiration and a heavy dose of perserverence in order to be able to get me there. So Osaka? A place that is probably everything that I never knew that I wanted! And also a story that is waiting to be written another day because it's on standby, moments waiting to be lived out a few months away from where we are now, and this entry on the contrary is part of a series dedicated to the last 7 years.
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Today I'm starting off my trip down travel lane with  a nod of the the head to those lengthy journeys where it was 'better to travel hopefully than to arrive'. An idiom that I've kindly borrowed which suggests that sometimes the process of travel should be enjoyed in equal equivalence to, or perhaps even with more anticipation than that which exists for the arrival at your chosen destination.
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The top 5 '...ummm, how did you get there?'
This top 5 is dedicated to those journeys where brain cells were forever lost, sanity was checked at the counter never to be seen again and patience was erased from the turbid sea of resilience by the subtle brush strokes of time.
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1. La Paz (Bolivia) to Buenos Aires (Argentina) - 2010 - Overland bus (60hrs) - You read that duration correctly by the way! It was 2.5 days locked into the one seat on the same bus. Intermittent stops made only for 20min refreshment breaks and an achingly long lunch stop somewhere in Northern Argentina in the final 12hr stretch. But how you ask? But why even? All pertinent questions, so let me answer them below.
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Back in 2010 I'd taken an extended break from everything and was living out an age old dream of mine which was to travel South America with no planned agenda, just to take it as it presented itself, but then came the WildRover Hostel 'incident' which can be read here - You've got what you're worth and also here - Shaken not stirred - La Paz to Buenos Aires, it was a 'happening' where my wallet was ever so elegantly lifted from my bag whilst I was out of the room and without going into those specifics let me fill you in on what happened next.
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I had decided to take the cheapest  travel option back to Buenos Aires as I the wallet lifting escapade meant that I was preparing to head back home. The cheapest option out of La Paz to BA was a $100USD bus ride through the wilds of the altiplano, into Northern Argentina and then south east to Buenos Aires on the Rio de la Plata.
Somewhere between La Paz and the border - high on the altiplano - Bolivia
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Now bus rides don't harm me, I can switch off my internal systems and dose away those bland and boring hours on the road quite easily. In instances where mere mortals tend to 'lose the plot' I'm happily off in my slumber world, oblivious to anything but the creation of images and dreams that meld with the relentless hum of tyres on bitumen and the relentless rocking of the transporation chariot. On this trip however I broke down, I became 'one of those' people that get overwhelmed by cabin fever and there was nothing that I could do to reign in the internal carnage.
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What broke me however was not the 3hrs in took to cross the border at Villazon, the same one that I had walked across a month earlier in under 10mins, nor was it the 14yr old kid that kept leaning on my shoulder right through the second night trying to find a comfortable position for his head, nor was it the constant police stops in Argentina and requests for me to produce my passport every few hours, BUT, what flipped me out was the fact that our scheduled time of arrival was meant to be 10hrs earlier than when we actually arrived AND the fact that it felt as if the speed that we were doing from the border all the way down to Buenos Aires was never more than 40kph! I absolutely lost my shit!!! I started hitting windows, hitting seats, swearing out loud every now and then, there was just nothing to control that internal fury of being locked up in this tin can without knowing when the end would appear.

Rainy day in Buenos Aires - Argentina
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2. Gibbon Experience - Bokeo Province - near Huay Xai (Laos) - 2009 - Huay Xai is a two street town that lies on the Lao bank of the Mekong  which itself acts as the Lao/Thai border in the north-west part of the country. Getting there by road or water is a long proposition, so we elected to fly in from Vientiane, a 2.5hr flight with 'Air Maybe' from the capital - Air Maybe - The Gibbon Experience. From Huay Xai it was then a 2-3hr right on the back of a truck to a small village outpost that was overun with chickens, stray cows and all other things related to this particular version of the 'Lao farming Disneyland', and then to get to the 'huts in the sky' it was a 6hr walk across the smoke and haze riddled jungles of the remote Bokeo province.


'Air Maybe' - safely on the ground Huay Xai - Lao PDR
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This place is fairly remote. I mean if you sustained a serious injury whilst out in the jungle then you would be in a fair amount of trouble. Getting back to the small town of Huay Xai was difficult enough but needing to be evacuated anywhere else? Well, thankfully it didn't occur, we all survived our food poisoning with Lao parasites that we'll carry for life and we'll remember a journey into the back of nowhere.
The two street town of Huay Xai - Lao PDR
Our ride - bounced from pillar to post - Bokeo Province - Lao PDR
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3. Sydney (Australia) to  Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) - 2011 - (48hrs) - I know that there's a direct way to get to South America from Sydney, I know that flying across the Pacific from Sydney is the DIRECT route and is probably something like 20hrs faster than the route we actually took, but, by the time JJ, Jet and myself had all gotten on the same page to attacking Rio for NYE the prices of direct flights were hovering in the $5K range and flights from Sydney to Dubai to Sao Paulo were in the $2700 vicinity. Do the maths on that! That's $115 per hour saved, or $115 per hour for the pain transference of not paying the additional $2300. Honestly I was ok with not having to pay the additional sum. So we busted out of Sydney on Christmas Eve, had Christmas drinks in Dubai 14hrs later, had an odd Christmas Dinner in Sao Paulo 14hrs after that and then  jumped a 4hr bus ride from Sao Paulo to Rio the following day. It was 'the long way' and then some but it did the job when it came to value - Hitting up Sampa

Dubai to Sao Paulo - only 14hrs to go! Dubai International Airport - United Arab Emirates
'Merry Freakin' Christmas Jet!!' - Frichot crashed out in the lobby of our hotel after suffering 28hrs of air travel trauma - we still had the Sao Paulo to Rio bus ride the next day! - Sao Paulo - Brasil
 
4. Stockholm (Sweden)  to Belgrade (Serbia) - 2010 - (28hrs) -  This ride was one of the most epic pieces of driving 'endurance' that I have ever been part of and had the good fortune to witness first hand. I'm not entirely sure whether it was the intention from the start or whether the competitive spirit of my cousin (Big V) just overtook all his good sense about what a 'comfortable' amount of time driving through Europe would account to but we commenced our journey from Stockholm after an afternoon/night out drinking with a friend  of the family- Gumball Rally (Part 2)We woke up the next morning at somewhere touching 4am with dry mouths and the stench of whiskey still oozing from our pores but still harnessed the will and requisite insanity to point our vehicle south with the full intention of cutting the great continent of Europe in two.

We exited Stockholm at 5am on day one. In those next 28hrs we cut through the countries of Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and then finally Serbia. At a little after 9am the next day, with my cousin only having taken a 90min power nap on the backstreets of Slovakia we cruised into Belgrade triumphant, with trumpets blowing, marching bands out on parade and our car parked proudly at its destination in Topcider.

Sunset on the road - 'somewhere in Denmark'

Great Belt bridge near Odense - Denmark
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5. San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina) to Sucre (Bolivia) - (30hrs) - For some reason this ride even now feels like a haze of early morning stops, blurry faces and the metaphorical transience of movement. I recall making port in places such as JuJuy, Villazon (and a ram shackled hostel that had a view into a mechanics workshop) and then a 5am arrival in the quaint town of Sucre which had us arriving to our hostel several hours prior to the time that out hostel could actually accommodate us and thus we find ourselves sprawled out on the couches in the common room until suitable beds were found.

Morning stop near JuJuy Argentina - It's 4am, you just 'gotta drink' after 16hrs in the saddle

The Bolivian border town of Villazon

The top 5 - 'Best sunsets'
I love an aesthetically pleasing view and additionally I adore the glorious wash of colours that comes with a sunset that decides to paint itself over the canvas that is the view that I'm appreciating. The shots below are the best sunsets I've witnessed during my travels thus far. Hopefully the shots do these places a little bit of justice.
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1. Porto Bay Hotel - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) - 2012
Porto Bay hotel - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

Porto Bay hotel - Copacabana - Rio de Janeiro - Brasil
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2. View from Tanjia restaurant - (Marrakech) - Morocco - 2010

Marrakech - Morocco

Marrakech - Morocco



3. The dunes of Dubai - (United Arab Emirates) - 2012

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

Dubai - United Arab Emirates

4.On the beach in Mazatlan - (Mexico) - 2011

Mazatlan - Mexico

Mazatlan - Mexico
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5. View from the Eiffel tower - Paris - (France) - 2010
Paris - France

Paris - France



Top 5 - 'You're a little bit of an idiot aren't you?'

These stories are dedicated to some of those moments where hindsight would have been the advantageous card to have been pulled from the deck prior to the moment of impact, but they are also moments where the value of the story in the present far outweighs any of the consequences suffered at the time.


1. Dicing with Yuma - 'That's the jaw of a puma around my knee right now isn't it!?' - Parque Ambue Ari - (Bolivia) - 2010 - This one takes out the title purely for the fact that there were moments of blinding flashes in my head when I thought that my being was going to be terminated on the jungle floors of the Bolivian Amazon! I always laugh when I read this entry - 3:10 Express from Yuma - because I remember the speed at which my brain was processing information regarding 'the situation' and the conversation that it was engaged in with itself in those few moments when puma jaw enveloped human leg. Reflecting on it now its quite hilarious but I recall that at the time I was doing an express sanity check that followed some logical pattern akin to the below conversation, i.e.,

Brain: Question to Henry - 'This is real, is it not?'

Henry: Answer to Brain - 'F**k, the flipped out b*tch has her mouth around my knee and is ripping into my leg with her claws! I think it's freakin' real!!!'


Brain: Follow up question - 'Huh...interesting'. Additional question. You do realise that wild animals like this can kill people, right?'


Henry: Answer to Brain - 'Yeah bro, I'm onto that caper as of right now!'


Brain: Response to Henry - 'OK, best of luck with that, I'm checking out now!'


Henry: Response to Brain - 'Ah brain, hello!? Hello!!!??!?'


When my brain checked out during that experience then I realised that there was the potential for there to be much carnage. I can only thank Ms Puma that on this day her 'moody b*tch dial' was on low otherwise you may not be reading any of this!

Big jaw, sharp teeth...around my LEG!!!!! Parque Ambue Ari - Bolivia

That's right, you eat that chicken and leave me the hell alone!


2. Smuggling goods out of a jail - San Pedro prison - La Paz - (Bolivia) - 2010 - You'll start to see a pattern with my stay in Bolivia, am just calling that out up front. Initially made globally famous by a little write up in the Lonely Planet guide for Bolivia some years back and by the name of the book from which the title of my blog entry was borrowed - Marching Powder - San Pedro prison is somewhat of an oddity. Prisoners of San Pedro pay for the privilege of staying within their walls and paying rentals on their pieces of real estate depending upon where in the prison they are located. The place operates like a small closed economy, shops, restaurants, gyms, hair dresses etc, all being operated by prisoners for prisons, within the prison. It's an interesting set up, which additionally allows for visits by tourists such as myself to help sustain and grow their little enterprises. Their main form of income by the way is not from the payment that 'we tourists' make as our 'safety assurance' on entry but rather the sell ingof cocaine base which is made in the prison.

So, the additional part of the story now logically follows. You reach the end of your tour and you're taken to a small-ish room away from all other inmates. The guide  then poses the following question, 'Would you like anything else'? It doesn't take a Nobel prize laureate to work out what this tienda  is wanting to offload. My cohorts and I quickly look at each other and just nod, 'sure' we say collectively. OK, so how many times in your life will you rack up lines inside the joint? For me I sincerely hope it's just the one time! There is more to the story however...

...Preparing to make our departure the question is then posed on whether we would enjoy taking any goods out of the prison, you know, for our own entertainment purposes. Several members of my group do so. My mind still active at this point declines the invitation but realises that it's now part of a group of people that are smuggling drugs out of a jail!.....'Ahhh F*cksicle!'...Now I don't know how many tourists get busted doing this, obviously this method is well accepted at the prison and tolerated within reason, but what happens if the guards decide to do a search? What's the bribe to be paid? What's the penalty? Can you actually get busted for taking drugs out of San Pedro? Who's backdoor bitch will I become if I stay inside? These were all questions that thankfully did not require any answering other than evening scrutiny and discussion of the event upon our successful exit.


3. Mountain biking the 'Death Road'- La Paz - (Bolivia) - 2010 -  Do you have that annoying and nagging sensation that perhaps the altitude in La Paz played a little with my ability to make rational life choices? Another unique Bolivian experience involved mountain biking down the notorious 'Death Road'. It should be known that this is the 'little boulevard' where at one point during the 80's they were clocking something close to 600 deaths per year and averaging 2 bus loses a month into the Coroico valley. These days traffic is mostly from those oddballs such as myself that feel the need to freewheel the 32kms of the Death Road and live to tell the tale,although, with that said, there was as of November 2010 (33) biking fatalities on the road. I've also included a link to the blog entry here if you want to have a read - El camino de la muerte

My little dice with the Death Road came from the relative weight of speed that I assigned to the portion of the road that I was on and the fact that rain in the previous days had turned section of the camino into mud pits. I realised how treacherous the road was 'if you weren't paying attention' when I crossed up my mountain bike prior to a turn in the road and stared into a 50mtr drop that would have had me headbutting forest floor at 100kph! Not so bad considering drop in some places are known to be 600mtrs!

The cruise before the storm - outside of La Paz - Bolivia

'The Balcony' on the Death Road - Yungas Rd - Bolivia


4. Here, have a phone, and let me pay you to take it from me! - Marrakech - (Morocco) - 2008 - Oh brother, if  this wasn't the screenplay to a C-grade horror movie then it should have been. Actually it was the exact script lifted from 'what not to do' when encountered in the exact same situation.

So I'd just taken a 6hr  ride down from Fes to Marrakech on a relatively comfortable train. The only problem being that it was 50 degrees outside and the air conditioning on the train was losing its will to live, so it was warm and the stench of Moroccan man sweat was starting to pervade all cornices of the carriage. Encountering direct sunlight and the furnace of Marrakech was a completely different proposition after the travails of the train adventure. Thankfully Marrakech presented a dry heat but it was pushing the 50 mark on the day that I arrived. I jumped a taxi from the station and took a ride to where my riad was located. Somewhere 'near' my riad the driver stopped, grunted and pointed me to 'somewhere' down the street. The entries that relate to this exercise in stupidity can be accessed here Marrakech and here Marrakech C.S.I. The short of it is that I asked a 'random' passer by for assistance to my accommodation, this opportunist then assisted himself to my mobile phone, 100 dirhams and walked away from me without me so much as blinking. I still recall this guy walking to the end of the alley where he'd directed me, turning left and then me thinking at that moment 'Ahh f*ck! He's got my mobile hasn't he? He's not coming back either, is he? And I still don't know where my accommodation is!? I'm just a rip roaring mong right about now!'

Back alleys of Marrakech - Morocco

5. Entering Mexico without acquiring a visa - Tijuana - (Mexico) - 2011 - Now this isn't exactly as dumb as it sounds. The Mexico/US border is fairly liquid in terms of allow foreigners to pass through without a visa, well, from the Mexican perspective anyway. The deal is that if you want to stay in TJ then ok, there's no visa required but for escapades further into Mexico you'll need one. At the time Jet and I entered Mexico we thought we would only be staying in TJ and then making our way back into the US and then across it, funds put pay to that. Thr residual affect of not acquiring the needed visa at the border gave rise to a spectacular sequence of event at the airport in Mexico City which had us waving goodbye to our flight to Los Angeles as we picked up our offloaded luggage from the flight on the tarmac. Again, it's one of those days/nights when on reflection you just have to laugh but at the time, man did it suck balls!!! This entry for it is amusing I think, check it out - The Project



No skateboarding across the border! Remember that! - Tijuana - Mexico

That's the border exit! Turn right and walk 5mtrs and you have yourself good 'ole Mexican tacos! Of course that's exactly what you're looking for after you've crossed - Tijuana - Mexico