It´s midnight on a Sunday, thirst strikes, what ya gonna do? Head to the nearby Mcdonalds of course. After finding the main restaurant was closed, we did what any self respecting drinker of drinks would do and got in line (amongst the cars...a lot of cars) at the drive thru.
There was a snag, however. The damnable Portuguese spoken by the drive thru attendant was (to us) unintelligble. As was our attempts at spanish to him (duh) and it was all just a big mess. Here´s a transcript:
Me: Ola, 2 coca colas.
McDonalds guy: [something in Portuguese]
Me: Como?
McDonals guy: [something in Portuguese]
Me: Sim
(when in doubt I always agree to whatever Im being asked)
McDonalds guy: [something in Portuguese}
Me: Sim
mcdonalds guy: [repeats first statement]
Me: uuuuh...perdon, no voces portugues
mcdonalds guy stares blanky
as do I
mcdonalds guy: something in portuguese
mcdonalds guy gets up and leaves for 2 minutes
there are cars waiting behind us in the queue
mcdonalds guy returns
mcdonalds guy: something in portuguese
me: sim, 2 coca colas
mcdonalds guy: 8 reais por favor
me: sim, todo.
pause
me: Cuanto es?
mcdonalds guy: 8 reais por favor.
despicable
we´re back where we started over 4 and a half months ago
all for 2 cokes
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Iguazu Falls
From Asuncion we got the most sweltering little bus for the sweatiest 6 hours of my life to Encarnacion, close to the border with Argentina. A few days spent here was pleasant, though still very hot, and the coolest thing we saw were the huge ruins of the Jesuit mission of Trinidad. Hopping over the border to Argentina, we arrived that evening at Puerto Iguazu, home to the mighty Iguazu Falls!
So awesome they form the border of two nations, we spent a day exploring the falls from Argentina, which included getting a boat underneath one of the falls, being bitten by mosquitos, seeing a hell of a lot of butterflies and lizards, and generally having a jolly good time. The next day we hopped over the border into Brasil, the final country of our 5 month stroll around South America, and enjoyed the panoramic view of the falls from the other side of the river, as well as the biggest buffet ever.
Awesomeo.
A slight change of subject, I present to you the joy of travelling:
Returning to the dorm last night, tired and and weary, I go to get in my bed, only to discover upon closer inspection (it was dark) that there was a man in it. Not just any man, a fat sweaty cockney twat of a man, litres of sweat streaming down his sticky flab and onto my sheets and pillow. What the hell he was doing in there I have no idea. The bed was free upon our arrival, I´d put the sheets on there, my stuff was on top of it and in the locker underneath...but oh no he´d moved all that! I stood in silence for a few minutes getting progessively angrier and nearly woke him up and shouted at him but my tiredness/cowardice got the better of me and I went and got some clean sheets and found another bed some place.
BUT DIDNT SLEEP BECAUSE THIS FAT SWEATY DICK WAS SNORING.
(apologies for old photos Im a cheater)
So awesome they form the border of two nations, we spent a day exploring the falls from Argentina, which included getting a boat underneath one of the falls, being bitten by mosquitos, seeing a hell of a lot of butterflies and lizards, and generally having a jolly good time. The next day we hopped over the border into Brasil, the final country of our 5 month stroll around South America, and enjoyed the panoramic view of the falls from the other side of the river, as well as the biggest buffet ever.
Awesomeo.
A slight change of subject, I present to you the joy of travelling:
Returning to the dorm last night, tired and and weary, I go to get in my bed, only to discover upon closer inspection (it was dark) that there was a man in it. Not just any man, a fat sweaty cockney twat of a man, litres of sweat streaming down his sticky flab and onto my sheets and pillow. What the hell he was doing in there I have no idea. The bed was free upon our arrival, I´d put the sheets on there, my stuff was on top of it and in the locker underneath...but oh no he´d moved all that! I stood in silence for a few minutes getting progessively angrier and nearly woke him up and shouted at him but my tiredness/cowardice got the better of me and I went and got some clean sheets and found another bed some place.
BUT DIDNT SLEEP BECAUSE THIS FAT SWEATY DICK WAS SNORING.
(apologies for old photos Im a cheater)
Monday, 23 November 2009
Good morning Paraguay!
Q: How do you lose your body weight in sweat by just standing still?
A: PARAGUAY!
We crossed from Argentina into Paraguay at around 8:00am Sunday, and guess what? Paraguay is the hottest country ever. It was hot at 8:00am and continued to get hot and never really relented. Sure, other places have been hot (y´know, like the DESERT), but Paraguay is like sitting in an oven in the middle of the desert. Very hot indeed.
So after our night bus from Salta (not exactly a cold place itself) to the border town of Clorinda, we got a taxi to the frontier, spoke with some border officials on the Argentine side who made us play my charango otherwise they said we couldn´t cross. Passport duties had to be taken care of on the other side of the international bridge, so we duly walked across.
Upon reaching passport control at the other side, the Argentine immigration officer took a flick through our passports and declared there was a problem. Apparently we were missing an Argentine entry stamp somewhere and were illegally in the country. Now, this wasn´t the case, and we slowly went through every single stamp in our passport with him over and over ("entrada Argentina...salida Argentina...entrada Chile...salida Chile..." and still he found fault. Couldn´t work out whether the problem was that one of Steve´s Argentine entry stamps was not in order, or if in going to Ushuaia we had entered and left Argentina several times in one day, coupled with the fact that a week later we went to Uruguay for only one day, thus confusing the immigration officer. Whatever the case, he wasn´t having any of it and just kept shaking his head. Eventually, he typed some stuff into his computer (I´m supposing they actually have a database of all this to keep tabs on folk), and came back with some fresh exit stamps for our passports.
Yeah, take that.
So we bargained with a taxi driver and managed to half the price of a taxi from the border 40km to Asuncion, crossing the Rio Paraguay on the way. Sweating a lot.
Asuncion is a very strange city indeed. Very small, it doesn´t feel like the capital of a nation. As we arrived to one of the main plazas in the centre of town, everything was completely deserted. Exploring later yielded few people as well. But the small and compact centre is pretty nice, with mostly victorian buildings and a small presidential palace, a small national monument (the Panteon de los Heroes), and small plazas (Plaza Uruguaya, Plaza de los Heroes and Plaza del Comidas).
So far, people have been very friendly here. Tourism really hasn´t taken off in Paraguay at all, our hotel (no hostels or backpacker accommodation) is empty, and people are eager to talk to you. So it´s nice.
And, seeing as Paraguay is a kind of forgotten corner of South America, here´s some things I learned:
Upon independence from Buenos Aires and Spain, one of Paraguay´s first dictators was a paranoid man named Dr Francia. Fearing assasination, he declared that all buildings must be under a certain height so that his guards could spot would-be assassins. This means other than a few modern sky scrapers, all the older buildings in Asuncion are remarkably low.
In the 1860s, the dictator Francisco Lopez, believing himself to be the Napoleon of South America, felt threatened and declared war on Brasil. Now this is a silly move considering Paraguay´s tiny size compared to Brasil, but what happened next was even worse. Argentina wouldn´t let Paraguay move its troops through the Misiones province to get to Brasil, so Lopez declared war on them as well. And, Uruguay, apparently wanting to get in on the laugh allied Brasil and Argentina as well. So take a look at a map if you´re not familiar, and try working out the sense of Paraguay fighting with Brasil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Almost half the population was killed in this war (the war of the triple alliance), and that figure includes children as young as 12, who were enlisted when reserves ran low.
Construction of the presidential palace was even finished by child labourers, because there were simply no adults.
In the 1930s Paraguay also warred with Bolivia over the inhospitable wilderness of The Chaco, which divides the two countries.
has a fairly fascinating history, does paraguay.
and it´s also very hot. about 45 degrees.
A: PARAGUAY!
We crossed from Argentina into Paraguay at around 8:00am Sunday, and guess what? Paraguay is the hottest country ever. It was hot at 8:00am and continued to get hot and never really relented. Sure, other places have been hot (y´know, like the DESERT), but Paraguay is like sitting in an oven in the middle of the desert. Very hot indeed.
So after our night bus from Salta (not exactly a cold place itself) to the border town of Clorinda, we got a taxi to the frontier, spoke with some border officials on the Argentine side who made us play my charango otherwise they said we couldn´t cross. Passport duties had to be taken care of on the other side of the international bridge, so we duly walked across.
Upon reaching passport control at the other side, the Argentine immigration officer took a flick through our passports and declared there was a problem. Apparently we were missing an Argentine entry stamp somewhere and were illegally in the country. Now, this wasn´t the case, and we slowly went through every single stamp in our passport with him over and over ("entrada Argentina...salida Argentina...entrada Chile...salida Chile..." and still he found fault. Couldn´t work out whether the problem was that one of Steve´s Argentine entry stamps was not in order, or if in going to Ushuaia we had entered and left Argentina several times in one day, coupled with the fact that a week later we went to Uruguay for only one day, thus confusing the immigration officer. Whatever the case, he wasn´t having any of it and just kept shaking his head. Eventually, he typed some stuff into his computer (I´m supposing they actually have a database of all this to keep tabs on folk), and came back with some fresh exit stamps for our passports.
Yeah, take that.
So we bargained with a taxi driver and managed to half the price of a taxi from the border 40km to Asuncion, crossing the Rio Paraguay on the way. Sweating a lot.
Asuncion is a very strange city indeed. Very small, it doesn´t feel like the capital of a nation. As we arrived to one of the main plazas in the centre of town, everything was completely deserted. Exploring later yielded few people as well. But the small and compact centre is pretty nice, with mostly victorian buildings and a small presidential palace, a small national monument (the Panteon de los Heroes), and small plazas (Plaza Uruguaya, Plaza de los Heroes and Plaza del Comidas).
So far, people have been very friendly here. Tourism really hasn´t taken off in Paraguay at all, our hotel (no hostels or backpacker accommodation) is empty, and people are eager to talk to you. So it´s nice.
And, seeing as Paraguay is a kind of forgotten corner of South America, here´s some things I learned:
Upon independence from Buenos Aires and Spain, one of Paraguay´s first dictators was a paranoid man named Dr Francia. Fearing assasination, he declared that all buildings must be under a certain height so that his guards could spot would-be assassins. This means other than a few modern sky scrapers, all the older buildings in Asuncion are remarkably low.
In the 1860s, the dictator Francisco Lopez, believing himself to be the Napoleon of South America, felt threatened and declared war on Brasil. Now this is a silly move considering Paraguay´s tiny size compared to Brasil, but what happened next was even worse. Argentina wouldn´t let Paraguay move its troops through the Misiones province to get to Brasil, so Lopez declared war on them as well. And, Uruguay, apparently wanting to get in on the laugh allied Brasil and Argentina as well. So take a look at a map if you´re not familiar, and try working out the sense of Paraguay fighting with Brasil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Almost half the population was killed in this war (the war of the triple alliance), and that figure includes children as young as 12, who were enlisted when reserves ran low.
Construction of the presidential palace was even finished by child labourers, because there were simply no adults.
In the 1930s Paraguay also warred with Bolivia over the inhospitable wilderness of The Chaco, which divides the two countries.
has a fairly fascinating history, does paraguay.
and it´s also very hot. about 45 degrees.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Salta
We arrived in Salta at around 8.00 Thursday morning. Upon leaving the air conditioned bus terminal, one thing was certain: Salta is very very hot.
Salta´s main attraction is the natural beauty of the surrounding area - desert, cacti, salt flats, multi coloured mountains and the like. We´d already been within 200 miles of the area 2 months or so ago, in Bolivia and Chile, and had seen all these kinds of things before, so we decided to be a bit different.
Taking the teleferico up the mountain overlooking the city, we found it to be packed with school kids on a trip. They took it upon themselves to be very friendly and ask us to translate things from Spanish into English. Yes, that´s right, I can successfully communicate on (almost) the same level with a Spanish speaking child.
More psychic exploration of the city with needles. And chorizo and mash for dinner. And an improvised arctic roll.
For today? Horse riding around the area with some gauchos, as well as a massive asado and some mate at their estancia (ranch), AND an epic England vs Argentina game of table football (lucky the little plastic players don´t have hands, right?).
And tomorrow?
Tomorrow we go to Paraguay.
Salta´s main attraction is the natural beauty of the surrounding area - desert, cacti, salt flats, multi coloured mountains and the like. We´d already been within 200 miles of the area 2 months or so ago, in Bolivia and Chile, and had seen all these kinds of things before, so we decided to be a bit different.
Taking the teleferico up the mountain overlooking the city, we found it to be packed with school kids on a trip. They took it upon themselves to be very friendly and ask us to translate things from Spanish into English. Yes, that´s right, I can successfully communicate on (almost) the same level with a Spanish speaking child.
More psychic exploration of the city with needles. And chorizo and mash for dinner. And an improvised arctic roll.
For today? Horse riding around the area with some gauchos, as well as a massive asado and some mate at their estancia (ranch), AND an epic England vs Argentina game of table football (lucky the little plastic players don´t have hands, right?).
And tomorrow?
Tomorrow we go to Paraguay.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
No skydiving for us
The weather was bad this morning as well. Hooray for getting money back and not jumping out of airborne vehicles.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Cordoba
It´s very hot here. We got up very early this morning to go sky diving, arrived at the airfield, had the training, but were then told it was too windy and we couldn´t do it. Ah well, we´ll jump out of a plane at 2500 metres tomorrow morning instead.
Friday, 13 November 2009
Gracias por todo
Claudia, Francis and Melody,
If you´re reading this, we´d just like to say thank you very much once again for what has been a fantastic time in Buenos Aires, in no small part due to your amazing hospitality and generosity. We both feel that we´re so lucky and are incredibly grateful for everything you have done for us. Thanks also to Gustavo for a wonderful asado and ice cream in Palermo.
It was great to see you all again.
Francis, see you at Heathrow airport in a month. Everyone else, I´m sure it won´t be too long.
THANK YOU!
Gareth and Steve
(2 de los hermanos en las capas)
If you´re reading this, we´d just like to say thank you very much once again for what has been a fantastic time in Buenos Aires, in no small part due to your amazing hospitality and generosity. We both feel that we´re so lucky and are incredibly grateful for everything you have done for us. Thanks also to Gustavo for a wonderful asado and ice cream in Palermo.
It was great to see you all again.
Francis, see you at Heathrow airport in a month. Everyone else, I´m sure it won´t be too long.
THANK YOU!
Gareth and Steve
(2 de los hermanos en las capas)
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