Puerto Iguazu, Missiones, Argentina

I was trying in vain to find a little clip of "La cucaracha" to stick up here to illustrate my next post. A cheerful little song it is and not many people who don´t speak Spanish know what the word cucaracha means. I know it only too well having gotten a little more familiar than I´d like with a can of Baygon and a worried expression. Cucaracha is Spanish for cockroach and Baygon a very deadly chemical spray used to kill them. I had to sleep in a miasma of the stuff last night after a horrible incident with about 4 cockroaches of about 4cm x 2cm. I know what you´re going to say - well they´re not dangerous, and they´re not, unlike the Black Widows that also live here but they´re not at all nice to have scuttle under your feet while you´re going to the toilet and I´ve been very happy to not have any incidents the whole time I´ve been here til now. There was also a cute little yellow lizard in our room and it was he who let us in on the possible hiding palace of the mass of cockroaches I suspect to have been living in our ceiling. There were about 6 or 7 in the bathroom when we awoke. Time to move. Luckily the other wildlife in our hostel consists of Hummingbirds, cute birds and teeny ants which, though they bite, don´t scare me :)So apart from that Argentina (though we`re about 1 mile from the border with Brazil) is great! Cheap cheap food and good too (much better than Brazil), lunch for 3 Euro and Main course and drinks in a fancy restaurant for about 5! The waterfalls on this side are more impressive too - a lot closer which I hope to illustrate in photos if I can get them to upload! The park was also full of large butterflies and lots of them. I do happen to be afraid of butterflies too so yesterday was really rather stressful for me on the insect front. On the upside I now consider the beetles and things we get at home to be rather puny in comparison to the behemoths you get here. Everything has its upsides!
Next stop Asuncion, Paraguay. Technically I´ve been in 3 different countries in the past 3 to 4 days. When we visted Itaipu, the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, (whihc I´m sure now I´ve probably mentioned)half is in Paraguay and half in Brazil. Soon we will be returning. Techinically I´ve passed in and out of Argentina 3 times though because of our visit to the "largest duty free shop in the world" in the neutral zone between the two border controls. If it´s the largest in the world then I think Dublin must be excluded from the privilege of being part of planet earth. It was pretty nice though and they had sour skittles whihc unfortuantely included watermelon sweets that actually tasted like watermelon. Not good. When we told our kind of tour guide, Luis, about us going to Paraguay he asked "really?" with a look of incredulity. After the third time I began to wonder whayt was awaiting us on the other side of the border? Monsters? Aliens? Some sort of mind exploding ultra bureaucracy which would cause us to sleep in the border control station for 2 nights while we awawit passport processing. I don´t know and only time wil tell. I´ve heard it´s poorer than many South American countries but I´m sure it´s not the void in space that people seem to amke it out to be. I´ll report so that others will not have to tremble in fear at the insensitivities of influential tropical tour guides.
I was hoping´d get the chance to update this a little more often so I wouldn´t forget my experiences but such is life, large chunks of Rio are slipping from my mind now only to be revitalised later so I may wish to stick them in if they feel relevant or if it´s a story I wanted to put in but forget, like the brownide we got in Rio but I´d forgotten. The largest brownie I´ve ever seen in my life with a mountian of icecream on top. All in all it would´ve been about 15 cm tall easily. Ah the food here really is a sight to behold. I haven´t been to a parilla yet and I´m not sure if I will. If you don´t know what it is it is easily explained. One obtains an animal and cracks it down along its breastbone, pulls it out like a fan and roasts it on its back. A full one. Rather unpleasant to behold but at least Argentinians aren´t afraid to see exactly what they´re eating.
I think I´ll have to leave it there for the moment for all else escapes me. Spanish I am finding easier than Portuguese too. Hang on I´m thinking of more stuff to say! This somehow reminds me of Mate. Mate is the natinal drink here in Argentina. It´s made from a herb called yerba into which one adds hot water and drinks it through a metal strawlike thing. Yerba is very high in caffeine and mate tastes a bit like tea that been sitting around for a long time but quite nice really. It´s also *very* high in caffeine. When our hostel guy told us it was like red bull he wasn´t kidding. Fun stuff. Being able to say bueno and not be joking is rather fun too. The Mask is also actually funny in Spanish! It just seems to suit the way it should be acted :). This reminds me a bit of the announcer in Rio airport who sounded like he should´ve been in a 70s game show. I tried to recoed him but to no avail. Never have I so wanted to visit Vitoria, I don´t even know where it is! His relaxing voice could make me take a plane to anywhere :) Ha.
Right well that´s that for now. Buenos Noches!

Foz do Iguazu - Parana - Brazil

It´s been rather the while since I´ve posted and I´d say once I get the pics up they´ll tell the story of what I´ve been doing better than this will. Well I´ve been pretty busy since last time I posted what with family being over and moving town and so on. Rio is behind us now but I´ve resolved to go back soon if not just to see the Swiss town and the sloth recuperation centre! At the moment we´re at Foz do Iguacu on the Brazilian, Argentinian and Paraguayan borders. We´re constantly being tempted to "Visite o Paraguay e compre na Mona Lisa" (Visit Paraguay and buy the Mona Lisa). The veracity of the goal of this request is dubious to me but I do hope to pop over for a bit anyway to see how it is. The falls are pretty amazing, taller than Niagara and wider than the Vistoria falls. The border between Argentina and Brazil cuts the river and the falls with the lion´s share on the Argentinian side though the view from here is pretty damn good. We´ll explore the Argentinian side in the nexy while and say goodbye to Brazil. I can´t believe I´ve been here a month! I think I´ll really miss it, though not the caipirinha´s, they must be much better drinkers herethan me, I find them very very strong though I can imagine a few people I know liking the sugar cane spirit, cachaca :). Not many minutes remain in my internet access so I must be brief. In Rio we went hanggliding which was fantastic and has made me want to join a club in Ireland. Yesterday we wne to a bird park and had some toucan sit about 50cm away from us aswell as seeing little raccoon thingies which were really cute and lots of very cute lizards! I even managaed to get very close to a big butterfly and not get too scared. I also went to a German town high in the mountains in Rio de Janeiro state for Easter Sunday and had some lovely melted chocolate with marshmellow. It was a bit surreal, so alpine but with palm trees! We also lost a travel companion. Not literally, she went back to England. Goodbye Christine, I´ll be visiting soon, especially for those scones!Saw some serious waves on Ipanema, must´ve been 15 ft tall! You´d be jealous, Edel.Went to see a match at the Maracana which felt smaller than I thought but was impeccably clean. The match was good too! :)Well I must away now but I´ll update again soon! Boa Noite!

Rio - day three... New Pics.

It´s day three of near constant rain. It´s starting to become a bit of a downer. Apparently it´s due to last til Thursday. Today´s Saturday. Urrrrgh. Anyhow gives me an opportunity to put up new pics - have a look. Reports will be better once weather lifts! A bientot.

I has forgets! Itzacon.

I forgot to say hi to everyone at Itzacon and hope everything went great!! I´m sure it was a resounding success!

Rio - Diamonds are a girl´s best friend

Well I never thought I´d be trying on diamond rings and being given coffee in a large jewellery emporium but apparently this is the kind of thing that tourists (dressed in vest tops and three quarter length trousers and brandishing backpacks) can do here in Rio. We decided to go down to the jewellery museum (Amsterdam Sauer and H Stern maybe see a few gemstones, some old rings, that kind of thing only to be brought around by a personal guide, sat down and served drinks and shown a lot of different, very valuable and very precious gemstones set in various bits of jewellery made from gold. I felt distinctly out of place (though the place was full of similarly clad, similarly touristy people) but we were all treated with perfect respect and it seemed that they didn´t mind when we decided not to buy the 8000 US dollar solid sapphire watch they were displaying. Some were inlaid with emerald and diamonds too.... I have learned that diamonds are the same all over and we were informed that they would be the same price as diamonds in Europe and encouraged to look at the indigenous (context?) gems instead; sapphire, emerald, opal, topaz, citrine.. the list went on. I mut say I felt a bit guilty in a way because part of the tour included watching people working on the jewellery, cutting, setting and all that malarkey. I don´t know how much they earn but I know they don´t get the full value of every 4000 dollar worth diamond they fashion into jewellery. I´m well aware that the same is true of so much manufacture but given that there is a higher level of poverty here (and that Brazil seems to have more mineral wealth than all of Europe and most likely a lot of other places). I feel maybe the miners are a bit hard done by. Perhaps it´s some socialist (not sure if that´s the right word) impulse that´s not really justified but anyhow. Maybe I just don´t like being put in the same box (easily and understandably done) as the unbelievably arrogant and obnoxious tourists that frequent the place treating the employees like slaves. That probably is it actually. Anyway, back to the shinies.
They also offered us free transport (the entry was free) to our hotel whether we bought something or not. It was rather fun trying all the fancy gems on and looking at the 3 foot tall sculptures of parrots, toucans and eagles made of precious gemstones and gold. Chunks of amethyst are just stuck willy nilly outside shops here - I found a huge one in a church for no apparent reason and one outside a hotel. It´s really amazing. I have always liked the shinies so it´s fun to see them lying around all over the place!
Please excuse the cheesy title by the way but I couldn´t resist. Let´s see what tomorrow brings.

Rio - Walk back from beach update

On my way back from Copacabana beach I saw a middle acged to elderly lady eating a pastry (fair enough) and holding a small cactus in her other hand. This, of course is not a particularly unusual acitivity nor deviant but something in the combination and the not-really-there look in her eyes gave me cause to take note. Strange place. Saw a postwoman asleep on the street the other day too. Homeless people, sure, strange place for a job endowed person to take a nap though! Hallo to Dee in cold , wet and windy Cork by the way!

Rio de Janeiro - intro post

Finally, I have made it to one of my dream destinations in the world, Rio! Bit disappointing to find it´s pronounced Hee-oh but apart from that I love it!! Looking up apartments for the fun of it and discovered you can buy a 3 bed apartment with internet, washing machine about 200 metres from Copacabana beach for about 300k euro. I can´t actually buy a house in the village where I´m from in Offaly for that much anymore. Holy shit, if you´ll pardon my French. It´s a very attractive prospect I´m telling you. Rio has an average temp of about 25 degrees all year round and lovely sunshine. I think it barely ever rains and when it does it´s only for a few days at a time and then it´s over! The place we´re staying is equally nice, a kind of apartment building/hostel/hotel with a little park outside where little kids play and people bring their tiny dogs. Tiny dogs are extremely prevalent here in Rio, I even saw a tiny version of a tiny dog yesterday, though they also have Huskies which are sooooo cuuuute. aww.
We went to pay old Cristo a visit day before yesterday - he´s been summoning clouds to prevent our picture taking from below. It was rather intersting to have a cloud advance on you and watch planes fly and eagles circle under you. I must say. Cristo´s on his perch at 700m altitude, pretty impressive.
The fact that the city is dotted with such mountains, about 4 miles of beautiful beach (maybe more) and a huge tropical rainforest between the beaches and the centre is impressive in itself! It has a great transport system and seems pretty affluent. I really really like it here, as you may have guessed! If only I´d been around for Carnaval! The samba schools are closed for a bit of shuteye after the party and so we can only watch and not join in on a show. I´d prob feel a bit self conscious anyway but it would´ve been nice to try.
This is truly a change from Brasilia. I enjoyed it for the time I was there but the feeling of extreme danger while trying to get from one place to another and the concrete really gets to one. Actually it´s probably better I was in such a place before here so I could appreciate it.
Despite the fact that I´m not ususally interested in soccer I can´t wait to go to the Maracana either (I thought the biggest stadium in the world, but apparently only one of according to wikipedia, damn!). I´m not sure whether to support Fluminense, Botafogo or Flamengo :)
They have a mountain called the Sugarloaf here too, so I don´t feel to far from home. More to follow, should be here for another week and a half or so, and I´ll need it!

Evidence

Please ignore this post - it is the result of some photobucket wrangling! I´m in the process of getting facebook albums to work. Go have a look on facebook from time to time, I hope to be able to upload very soon. God, this photo business is hard work.

POSTSCRIPT - Facebook is also proving annoyingly difficult, revert to Photobucket, if it asks for a password go to my facebook page - it´s written on my profile page

Brasilia, Distrito Federal

Brasilia is more than anything a strange strange place. There will be pictures now because I'm changing to a different site that works and you'll see what I mean. Despite the fact that an address can be SHS 401 Bl.A Casa 201 it can be very difficult to navigate. Actually now that I've written it down it sounds really difficult - it's logical but involves north south coordinates as well as west and east and the street numbers refer to what's between the streets rather than the streets themselves - prob a good idea but difficult for someone from the land of streets that were made like that because they used to be the thoroughfare for cows. I love Brasilia, it's like constantly being in a 70s scifi movie. Buildings like giant white igloos or bowls, huge open spaces and streets only identifiable by number. It has its beauteous bits though - the sactuario Dom Bosco, I think is incredibly beautiful, a cube completely covered in blue and clear stained glass to look like the night sky! Being a pedestrian is not easy however as I think the crossings number single digits on miles of roadway and the smaller roads are 4 lanes across. We crossed something akin to a super motorway Irish standards - 2x6 lanes of traffic and managed to survive somehow. I must say there's something to be said for having a hotel district, shop district (they even have a sports club district and the districts aint small) etc.m it made finding a place to say very easy and somewhere to eat equally so. I like it but I don't think I could live here - the sheen would diminish. That and even though it is new (opened as the capital in 1960, freshly built after only 3 years of construction) it's rather run down in a lot of places which really takes away from the clean design (also very ugly in places, ah the 60s, Irish university buildings a go go). So have very much enjoyed this place - next stop Rio, or He-oh as they pronounce it here. I think it'll be very different. A bientot mes chéries!