Brazil pt. 1

I feel like I've been in Brazil for so long. It's been a month and a half of beaches, sun and just a few English-style downpours and I can't say it's been anything but great. I'm very close to the end of my trip now (hence the fact I remembered I actually have a huge blog post to write) and though I feel pretty ready to come home, I have a lot of amazing places in Brazil to tell you about. I also want to apologise for the lack of photos- this is due to a combination of being lazy and also not wanting to take my camera out to the many beaches I've been to so as not to get sand in the lens. 

My first stop in Brazil was in Foz do Iguacu, where most people go see the other side of the Iguazu Falls that I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately timings meant that I had to skip the Brazilian side, so my only experience with Foz was in the bus station. It wasn't the most pleasant experience either; angry-looking armed police men with sniffer dogs came round the station and arrested two separate people, I couldn't get any money out meaning I had no Brazilian currency and my bus was delayed an hour. Nevertheless, eventually my bus turned up and off I went to Florianopolis. Floripa, as the locals call it, is a lovely place- however my time there also had a stressful start as I still couldn't get any money out of the ATMs and I knew my hostel was ages away, leaving me a bit worried about how I was going to get there. In the end I plucked up the courage to ask three friendly-looking fellow travellers if they happened to be heading the same way. Luckily they were and offered to lend me money for my share of the taxi! Travel karma is a very real thing I think. Once I arrived at my hostel in Barra da Lagoa, a good 40 minutes away (Floripa is huge), I started to relax. Barra is a chilled beach town with a good mix of tourists and locals, and my first hostel there (Barra Beach Club) basically overlooks its own private beach. The only problem is that Barra doesn't have any cash machines either and the closest place, Lagoa, can be reached by a bus, which sits in traffic for an hour, or by a 30 minute speedboat. At this point my lack of money was becoming a big problem so I opted for the boat; I think this is definitely the better option as you get to see kids playing in the river, other people waving at you from their own private boats and as you head across the sea you're surrounded by people kite-surfing as well as various other water sports that I don't know the name of. Anyway, I finally managed to get money out at a proper bank and could finally stop worrying. I stayed in Barra for about a week, not doing too much to be honest, just enjoying the sun and the caipirinhas. If you're not familiar with them, they're Brazil's favourite cocktail made from an alarming amount of sugar, limes and a liquor called Cachaca. They're delicious but deadly, especially when the street vendors sell pints of them for the equivalent of £1.50. One day I also joined a guy from my hostel in a hike across to another beach, Praia Mole, which he described as a nice walk away. Instead it was like trekking through the jungle- the beauty of Brazil is in the fact that every city seems like it's just been plonked down between masses of dense jungle and forest. This sometimes makes it hard to get around but it's certainly a lot more visually pleasing to drive through than the dull stretches of land that Argentina has. We also headed to a daytime pool party at a club called P12. I'm not really up on my DJs but Robin Schulz played a set and I'm pretty sure he's fairly famous (do I sound cool yet?) and we had such a good day dancing and drinking in the sun, watching wealthy Brazilians flaunting their plastic-surgery-enhanced bodies. When I say flaunt I really mean it- the girls all wear thong bikinis and the men all wear, for lack of a better term, 'budgie smugglers'. I almost feel like a prude wearing my high waisted bikini! 

The rest of our nights in Floripa were pretty fun too. Every night you can go down to the beach to watch teams from all over Brazil playing football, which ordinarily I wouldn't really choose to watch but seeing them play in the sand was pretty impressive! Otherwise there are always local musicians and bands playing music in the streets which was pretty cool too. Later on in the evening we often headed over to the private beach to chill on the rocks with a bottle of rum, where there also tended to be musicians sat around entertaining the crowds. However on one such night I got a bit carried away watching the waves coming in and out, so much so that unfortunately one of my sandals got washed out to sea. Luckily Havaiana flip flops are really cheap in Brazil- problem solved! 

After Floripa I decided to head on to São Paulo with a few others that I'd met at various points on the trip- two of the guys I actually met for the first time in Quito, Ecuador so they probably win as my longest running friends I keep bumping into on the way! I had my worries about São Paulo as a lot of people say it's really dodgy but yet again word of mouth was proven wrong. We stayed in a hostel in the Vila Madalena part of town which is the more bohemian young area, so I suppose it probably did feel safer than other parts of the city would have. 

São Paulo also doesn't have as many well known attractions as other big cities and is more known for the nightlife; however one day a few of us went for a wander to the grafitti alleys near the hostel which were pretty cool to see.

The next day Alexia & I also did the free walking tour around the downtown area. Unfortunately we both felt it was a bit too long and the history and architecture of São Paulo not quite gripping enough to impress us too much, but we did find out about the municipal market where we later went to eat enormous ham sandwiches. I also got given a free bag of mixed olives, peppers and garlic by one stall owner- I tried to pay him but he just pointed at my face and said 'linda' which means beautiful so I just went with it! 

Something I did find odd about São Paulo was that it has the highest Japanese population outside of Japan, meaning there are Japanese restaurants everywhere. Unfortunately I don't eat fish so sushi is lost on me but everyone else seemed to enjoy their food! I won't lie, it wasn't my favourite city ever but nowhere near as bad as I'd heard from others. After a few nights there I headed to Paraty, meeting Jack at the bus station after his solo trip to Iguazu. 

When we arrived it was absolutely pissing it down- South America is currently experiencing what they refer to as the 'El Nino' phenomenon. Every 5 years (I think) for some reason the weather during summer is a lot more overcast and rainy than every other year. I haven't done much research into why this is but it was pretty annoying for a few weeks! Our hostel in Paraty was right across the road from a popular but small beach and 10 minutes walk from the lovely old town area, all cobbled streets and street vendors selling their crafts to the crowds of tourists. Paraty was very chilled for us, partly because the weather wasn't the best and partly because we were sort of killing time before eventually getting to Rio for Carnaval. Still we had a good time relaxing by the beach with a few beers. One day we did venture to a nearby town called Trinidade- unfortunately El Niño hit again and the weather wasn't the best for a beach day which is a shame as it seemed like a cool little town. We also discovered an amazing Thai restaurant in Paraty simply called Thai Brasil- we were both craving something resembling curry and this place did not disappoint. After months of being disappointed by things claiming to be spicy but being anything but, this restaurant was a godsend and I'd highly recommend it.

After Paraty came Ilha Grande, an island (would you believe it) about 40 minutes boat ride off the coast. The only way I can describe my first impression is that it felt like arriving at Jurassic World. The whole island is covered in dense jungle with just a few restaurants and buildings dotted along near the pier. There are mountains covered in mist in the distance and just walking 5 minutes to our hostel we spotted little monkeys running along the power cables above us. It turns out this is pretty common in Brazil as we saw them loads in Rio too; I think they're kind of the equivalent of squirrels in England. 

Ilha Grande has loads of different beaches that you can either get taxi boats or trek to. On our first full day we just went for a short walk to find a nearby beach. Unfortunately the weather had also been a bit rubbish in IG for the last few days meaning that the whole walk I was convinced I was going to end up falling in the mud. We made it there eventually and found a sunbathing pig there so it was definitely worth the mud-filled walk. 

We also went to a beach called Lopes Mendes. Again, this involved another terrifying walk- the trails are all pretty steep, slippery and impossible to navigate in flip flops. Jack got a lot of entertainment from watching me struggle down the pathways, holding on to vines and branches to steady myself, muttering swear words under my breath and hating him for making me go. Lucky for him the beach itself was really beautiful, probably the nicest beach I've ever been to! 

Our nights in Ilha Grande were spent drinking cachaca and rum on the beach with others from our hostel- one of the good things about Brazil is that drinking on the streets is perfectly legal, meaning a night out can be extremely cheap! Although I did wake up one morning with half of one of my big toe nails hanging off and not much recollection of how it happened..

We left Ilha Grande after 5 nights, accompanied by Luke, an English guy we met in the hostel and another girl who we met on the boat back to shore who was also heading to Rio. We bought our bus tickets and waited for the bus- a few buses pulled up but the guy working there told us ours was the next one. 25 minutes later the same guy then put into google translate 'that was your bus, do you want a car there?', leaving us all a bit confused and annoyed. He walked off then two minutes later pulled up in a van, gesturing for us to get in the back. Still a bit confused we all piled in the back of his little van and off we went. I was the only one with a 'seat' (a spare tyre) which I was quite grateful for as the other three were clinging to the walls; drivers in South America are absolutely nuts and this guy was no exception. About 40 minutes later we finally arrived at our destination- a service station where the bus was waiting for us to catch up to them. I have to give them credit, although the mistake itself was annoying, at least they put in the effort to sort it out! Anyway, after another hour and a half spent snoozing we finally arrived in Rio and bought tickets to our final destination of the day, Buzios. 

Buzios is a popular holiday destination a bit further north from Rio. It has 21 beaches and is apparently famous for being Brigitte Bardos' favourite place- they even have a street named after her.

This post is already incredibly long and to be honest this was another place where we just chilled out for a week, visiting different beaches every day or just enjoying the hostel pool with some homemade caipirinhas. We met some great people there- one hilarious Aussie guy called Andrew, and two lovely Argentinian girls who went spent most of our days with.

In the evenings I'd cook big family meals for the group and one night Luke even made the whole hostel an apple crumble! If you ever find yourself in Buzios I'd totally recommend Lagoa Beach hostel- really cool staff and a great atmosphere which feels a lot more like someone's home than just another hostel. 

I think Rio deserves a post all of its own so I'm going to leave this one here- I'll do my best to have everything finished before I leave Brazil this Friday! 

Cider throwing and torn up calendars

So at the end of my last post I dropped the bombshell that unfortunately Jack managed to get bed bugs in Córdoba. This, of course, meant that our first port of call in Buenos Aires was to rid him of his infestation. Luckily our hostel was experienced in this department (I know it's gross but I have met lots of people so far who have had this problem!) and they offered to fumigate his whole bag for him for free. They didn't do his shoes though and we met someone who said they decided to boil their shoes when they got bed bugs, just in case. I tried my hardest to convince Jack to boil his trainers in the kitchen but he flat out refused for some reason. 

Moving on, bed bug free, Buenos Aires was a really cool place. We spent 2 weeks there in the end and I really enjoyed my time in the city. It has so many different sorts of areas- we started off in a hostel called Milhouse Hipo which was quite close to a cool area called San Telmo. That whole area seemed really Parisian to me in the architecture and the general vibe it had- lots of shops selling vintage clothes and old records, little cafes and cool graffiti on the walls.

 We found one of our favourite bars there too- it was called La Puerta Roja (the red door) where we spent a good few hours a few days in a row. They also did pretty great nachos which always helps me like a place! The good steaks also continued in Buenos Aires- I don't know why but somehow Argentinians really know how to do a great steak, and for so much cheaper than at home! I think English steak may be ruined for me forever.

On the second week in BA the three of us plus a couple other fellow English travellers, Neil & Kira, decided to rent an airbnb flat together. It was the week of Christmas so we though it might be nice to have our own space to cook a proper dinner. We moved to an area of town called Palermo which was meant to be the up-and-coming part of town with lots of bars, restaurants and clubs. I really liked that part of town and could definitely see myself living there- especially as we discovered a great little burger place (simply called Burger Joint) that I'm still dreaming of now a few weeks on! 

I admit that for a few days leading up to Christmas I hadn't really been feeling myself. I was feeling homesick while all my friends were having festive gatherings, seeing my mum put up the Christmas tree (I sat on Skype and watched her do it for 3 whole hours) and just generally missing the build up that comes with the western world. In hindsight it was quite refreshing though to not hear the same songs every day since November 1st. Our Christmas in the flat was really lovely! In true Argentinian style we bought a beef joint, bought some muffin tins to make Yorkshire puddings in and made a huge pile of pigs in blankets. We stocked up on cheap bubbly and played all the Christmas songs we were missing from home all day. And, just to make everyone at home jealous of our 28 degree heat Christmas Day, we went out to the local park while the food was cooking to chill and kick Jacks new secret Santa football around. We rounded our day off with a few hundred games of our favourite card game, cambio, as sadly we were lacking a trivial pursuit board which is my family's usual Christmas game of choice. I had a really great day with my temporary little travelling family and I know that next year I'll appreciate my return to 'normal' festivities even more because of it. 

Another cool thing we  did in BA was going to see a show called La Bomba de Tiempo, a big drum show on Monday nights in a sort of old warehouse. It goes on for a couple of hours and is really impressive- I think the highlight was when an electric cello was brought on- something I never thought I'd say. We spent a good couple of hours having a dance about and I'd highly recommend it if you ever visit. 

Originally we thought we'd stay in Buenos for New Years too but after doing a bit of research the five of us decided to head over to Uruguay for the festivities. It's really easy to get there by ferry- it only takes about an hour and a half. The city you dock in is called Sacramento Del Colonia; we had a few days to kill until NYE so we spent a couple of nights there first. There isn't too much there really and the sea is a pretty unappealing brown colour, though we did find a nice bar (with air con, it was constantly 30 degrees) which served pitchers of gin and tonic to while away a few hours in! Unfortunately our hostel wasn't that great either and after a night being serenaded until 3am by another group of travellers who were trying and failing to play the trumpet, I think we were all very ready to travel a couple more hours to Montevideo. 

I'm not sure what I expected of Uruguay to be honest- people doing this general route don't say much about it and I imagine people skip it a lot of the time. I can say I'm so happy we decided to spend NYE there because I imagine it'll be one of the most memorable I'll ever have. First of all during the day it's tradition for office workers to take to the streets, ripping up their old calendars and agendas, leaving the streets littered with numbered confetti. The next tradition; everyone takes to the streets in the daytime with the cheapest possible bottles of cider and literally drenches each other in it. We heard about this and kind of didn't expect it to be quite as ridiculous as it sounds. We headed towards the old part of town and started seeing people looking pretty wet. We saw people starting to throw the cider, and sometimes water, down from their balconies overlooking the streets. Then we turned a corner and two guys with huge buckets (luckily filled with water) apparently took a liking to me and absolutely soaked me through. After that it was carnage. We bought our own bottles, found the main procession of people dancing around to a big drum band and got stuck in- as you can see from the photos...

After a while we decided to try find a street party that a local had told Jack about. We found it eventually, after a quick McDonalds pit stop (don't judge me), and the party continued. Hundreds of people were in one cordoned off street dancing along to blaring music, every so often being sprayed with hose pipes from the bars along the street. It was so much fun; a year ago when I was wondering where on earth I'd be in another year I don't think I expected that to be the answer. 

Later on, sufficiently sticky from drying cider, we headed back to our hostel to shower and join the bbq they were hosting there. Unfortunately the staff took about 4 hours to get all the bbq ready so we were sat around for a long time which was a bit disappointing, but we just about finished eating in time to run down to the sea front for the countdown to 2016. We watched fireworks going off in every direction as we sang a pathetically bad version of Auld Langs Syne, then shouted "Feliz Año!" to anyone and any car that happened to be passing. All in all, my start to 2016 was better than I could've imagined and I'm hoping it has set the bar high for the rest of the year to come! 

The day after New Year's Day (which was spent doing not much but eating all the carbs ever) we got the bus over to Punta del Este, a beach a few hours away. The beach was lovely and I felt very happy to be there on the 2nd of January enjoying the sunshine- however we also encountered the age old problem of 5 Brits going to the beach; extreme sunburn. I promise I actually used my factor 55 sunscreen, but somehow I ended up with the worst sunburn on my back I've had in years. Carrying a rucksack on sunburn really isn't fun. 

The next day Kira, Neil and I split off along with 3 guys from Lancashire to get the ferry back to BA as we wanted to fly up to the Argentinian side of Iguazu falls. The ferry was fine and we spent the day in an all-you-can-eat steak restaurant but unfortunately the flight wasn't meant to be. When you book that many flights, buses and hostels online it's not a surprise that at some point you choose the wrong day..

To cut a long story short, we ended up getting a bus up to Iguazu in the end so we arrived the next day instead, meaning I didn't have time to do both sides of the falls which is what I had intended to do. I'm choosing to believe the people who say that the Argentinian side of the falls is better because that's the side I decided to go see as I heard you can spend much logger there and get much closer to the waterfalls. 

Words and photos could never do Iguazu Falls justice. I know waterfalls may not sound that exciting, but t's probably one of the best things I've seen on my trip. If I remember correctly there are actually about 250 waterfalls in the whole area, but the most famous one is the Devils Throat- this is the one you can get right up next to and believe me when I say you get very very wet doing so. 

There are a few trails to do in the park too in order to see the other waterfalls- these were also really impressive, however there were a few times I was questioning the safety of the walkways over the falls.. 

Later on in the day after the falls it was time to head to my next and (probably) final country; Brazil. A quick taxi ride with a lovely old Argentinian man who sang Engelbert Humperdink to me for the duration of the journey and I was over the border and waiting for my bus. 

I think this post is quite long enough for now so I'll leave it there! Hasta luega chicos!