Current Places I've Visited

I've checked off another continent since the last update, so here's the latest version of my 'visited countries' list. Only 88% of the world left to visit...


visited 27 states (12%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Day 110: Last Tango in Buenos Aires

This final epistle is being written on the way to the airport in Buenos Aires so it may only get sent after we are safely back on Australian soil. Sixteen weeks seems like a long time, but it really has flown by. And we somehow managed to survive the experience without killing ourselves or each other - bonus!

In our last week on the continent, we headed north-west from Buenos Aires, first to Cordoba, then further north to Salta.

Cordoba used to be the capital city of Argentina until it was moved to Buenos Aires some time ago. Now, it is a bit of a university city. We liked the feel of the place - friendly people, nice weather, and lots of sleepy little towns nearby. We visited one called Jesus Maria which has an old Jesuit mission where they used to grow and sell wine to raise funds for their university in Cordoba after the Catholic church cut off funding. David was very impressed with their water engineering capabilities, as always.

Salta was another long bus ride north. It is even more relaxed, less built up, and contained a cool museum with another frozen ice maiden - a 16-year old girl sacrificed on the top of a volcano about 600 years ago. She has been amazingly well preserved by the freezing conditions. As David said, her skin looked better than ours.

After Salta, we headed back to Buenos Aires via another 19-hour bus. We have calculated that on this trip we have done 15 overnight busses, as well as several other long day busses, meaning that of our 16 weeks in South America, about three were spent in transit between one point
and another.

Anyway, after a short day in BA (our fourth visit, for those keeping score) we jumped on a ferry and added our final country to the list.

Uruguy is a one-hour boat ride from Buenos Aires. We went to a sleepy little town called Colonia. It was passed between the Spanish and Portugues several times, then claimed by Brazil for several years, before finally Uruguy became an independant country and things settled down a bit. There is little Portuguese left in the language, but there are some old buildings around the place, mixed in with some Spanish and more modern architecture. Definitely worth visiting if you have a spare day in BA.

On the ferry we met a British woman who has been studying Tango for three years in BA. She gave us some tips for seeing some good local dancing, so the next night we headed out at about 1am to Salon Canning for a milonga. This is essentially a public dance hall, tango style, with a large square dance floor in the centre of the room, and tables crowded around the sides. Through the night, the floor is filled with couples, generally looking somber and pensive (this is tango, after all), punctuated by several great performances by individual professional couples.

Having been warned in no uncertain terms by our British friend to stay off the dance floor under all circumstances, even if approached by attractive young women (an event which unfortunately did not come to pass), we instead decided to have a lesson instead. The next evening we headed to the National Academy of Tango and got a three-hour lesson for 15 Argentine Pesos (about AU$6). when we arrived, there were about 7 guys and two girls. Que pasa?

Anyway, our teacher was a pro, and managed to teach us a few steps without resorting to any single-gender partners (a couple of extra ladies arrived late, and the guys got to take breaks). As to the quality of the dancing I will not comment, but not too many toes were stood on.

Today, we return to Australia, flying over Antarctica on the way. It has been a pleasure having you all on board, and we hope you have enjoyed the ride. We certainly did. Until the next epic journey, we will bid you adeu.

Hasta luego,

Los Davides

Day 102: The end of the world

We are down to one week and change left on The Trip. The last week was spent in Patagonia, in the southernmost part of South America.

Getting there from Buenos Aieres is either a 50+ bus ride or a 2 hour plane ride. Given the time remaining to us, we took the latter option (we even got to earn frequent flyer points!).

The first stop was El Calafate. Apparently, the calafate plant has a berry which was used to seal between the planks of wooden boats, back in the day. Now, the town serves as a transport hub for the area, as well as providing access to the spectacular Perito Moreno glacier.

The glacier is a massive sheet of moving blue-tinged ice, about 5km wide at the base, 32km long, and ranging from 40m to 60m high (about 20 stories!), all of which is moving downhill at a rate of 2m per day. The whole time we were there we could hear loud cracking noises, sometimes accompanied by a chunk of ice falling away from the edge of the glacier, into the surrounding lake. The best were at the beginning and end of our stay, when two house-sized blocks ripped themselves off into a slow, melty death, much to the delight of everyone in attendance.

The next day we headed up north a little to El Chalten, home of the Fitz Roy, a unique-looking peak which was not conquered until a decade after Everest. Being the avid mountain climbers we are, we decided not to attempt the summit this time. We did, however, do a couple of less
techical hikes.

Note: Contrary to the impression you may have gotten based on the number of treks we have done on this trip (at least 6 at last count), we are not actally big fans of the activity. However, if you come to South America they pretty much come with the territory. If on the other hand you do like hiking, go and book your tickets now!

Anyway, the first day we did a 6-hour warmup trek to Lago Torre (Tower Lake). Once we got there, we both agreed that the view from the lookout a hour-and-a-half earlier was actually much better. But Dave took the opportunity to strip down to his boxers and a t-shirt and attempt to ride an undersized iceberg anyway, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

The next day we set out for Lago de los Tres (Lake of the Three. Three what or who, we never established). This one was about 8 hours, but much harder, mostly due to the long, steep hill you have to climb at the end. It jumps up 400m over about 2km, which kind of sucks after doing the same height over the previous 6km. Not to mention the intermittent rain and strong, gusty wind. Ah, hiking - gotta love it.

Anyway, we finally made it to the top, to discover that, as suspected, Fitz Roy was covered in cloud. Shortly after, we further discovered that the clouds were in fact full of snow, which they then proceeded to release upon us. Still, snow is better than rain, so in many ways this was an improvement anyway.

We headed back to El Calafate the next day, and from there did an 18-hour tour of the Torres del Paine national park, in neighbouring Chile. This park really deserved more time than that, particularly if you are a hiker, but: a) we didn't have time, and b) we are not hikers. Instead, we spent about 12 hours on the bus, 4 hours in the park, and 2 hours in the Argentine and Chilean border control offices. Still, it was worth the trip, particularly for Dave Cohen, who got to see over 30 condors - his favourite bird - in one spot!

The next day we flew into Ushuaia. Famous mostly for being at the bottom end of the world, it also serves as a departure point for travellers heading towards the real bottom of the world - Antarctica. We had a quick check to see if any cheap last-minute tickets were on the go, which there were, but only if you consider US$4,000 to be cheap. Unfortunately, it wouldn't quite fit into our budget this time...

Instead, we caught a shorter (and much more economical) boat ride down the Beagle Channel, spotting some interesting landscapes and animals, including cormorants, sea lions and penguines. Those little guys might waddle around on land, but they're pretty zippy under water.

We rounded out our Ushaia visit with yet another hike (only a couple of hours this time), a visit to the Maritime Museum, and attending a local church service. Fun!

The next day we caught a plane back to Buenos Aires, then a bus straight out of town to Cordoba, in the central north of Argentina. We are here until tomorrow, then head to Salta (probably).

In any case, that about wraps it up for this round. Only one or two more to go, I'm afraid.

Hasta luego!

Los Davides

Day 93, Part 2: Las playas, los carnavales, y las cataratas

(Note: due to an accidental button-push, this update is now in two parts.)

The remainder of our stay in Salvador mainly consisted of various periods of trying and failing to stay awake until catching our flight to Rio de Janeiro later that morning.

Rio was our third, and best carnaval experience. This may have been aided by the fact that we were able to hang out with some friends who could take us around to the good places. Not to mention that they had also arranged accommodation for our three nights in town, a fact we were now extremely grateful for.

After crashing out for a couple of hours, we headed out to a bloco, Rio-style. As in Salvador, it was a big truck with speakers and a live band, but this one was open to whoever wanted to go, and had a much better vibe.

The next day, we attempted to visit the 30-metre tall statue of Jesus, but getting tickets for the train to the top of the hill that day turned out to be impossible, so we headed to the 'Sugarloaf', a big chunk of rock sticking out of the coastline with a great view of the city.

After seeing some of the famous Samba Parade on TV, we decided to see if we could get in the next night to see it live. Eventually we found somewhere which had some available. Tickets go for up to AU $700 each, or much more than that if you get a private box, but we snagged some in the public section for a fraction of that.

The Samba Parade is actually a competition between 12 different samba schools. Over two nights each school dances their way down a 1.5km strip, lined by grandstands. Each school takes up to an hour and a half each, and has thousands of people, so each night starts at about 9pm and finishes at around 6am. Most people pay to join in, and mostly wear large, colourful costumes, shuffling down the strip, and paying a few hundred dollars each to buy their costumes. The various blocks of costumed performers are punctuated by huge floats with more skilled performers. And the whole time, the unique song for each school is being sung on a loop by the tireless musicians, and occasionally by the crowd.

We ended up bailing during the second-last school, at around 3am, and made it home by about 4. All in all, a fun night out.

Over the next couple of days we saw bit more of Rio, and finally made it to see Jesus (which is a pretty impressive statue). On the 25th, we finally got in a swim at Copacobana, said goodbye to our friends, and headed to the airport. Our destination:

Word 3: Las cataratas
Definition: The waterfalls

The Iguasu Falls are located at the corner of three countries: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The former two have the views of the falls, no doubt much to the chagrin of Paraguay. It worked out well for us, since for some reason Australians require a visa to get into Paraguay, and we didn't have one.

The first day, we visited the Brazilian side. For the most part, this turned out to be less impressive than we had expected, but it was still pretty. Snr. Cohen decided to take a hellicopter ride at the end of the day, and enjoyed himself thoroughly - his fist one ever, apparently. At the end of the day, we skipped over the border into Argentina, and just like that our time in Brazil was over. It was a little bit odd to be back in a Spanish-speaking country again, and we are still working on excorcising the smattering of Portuguese we picked up From our vocabulary.

The Argentinian side of the Falls turned out to be much more impressive. First we visited the Gargatua del Diablo (Throat of the Devil), which has a huge amount of water flowing over it. Next was the Circuito Superior (Upper Circuit), which goes over the top of the smaller, but longer string of falls, then the Circuito Inferior (Lower Circuit), which provided views from the bottom of the falls.

At the river, we hopped on a speedboat, which took us for a short tour of the falls, and then right under on of the biggest - twice! It was a blast! Hopefully the video will make it onto YouTube for general consumpion at some point.

That night we hopped on an overnight bus to Buenos Aires. We caught a tango show last night, which was fun. Andrew headed off to back to the States tonight, and tomorrow Los Dos Davides are back on their own, flying down to Patagonia, in the southernmost part of the continent. It is going to be a bit chilly, we fear...

Well, now it is time for dinner, so for now, hasta luego!

Los Davides (plus one)

Day 93, Part 1: Las playas, los carnivales, y las cataratas

Well, the end of our epic journey is rapidly approaching. In a little over two weeks, we will be back in Buenos Aires hopping aboard a flight back to Sydney. Time flies...

Anyway, today's update has a short Spanish lesson.

Word 1: Las playas
Definition: The beaches

In the last update, we were in Jericoacoara, awaiting the impending arrival of my brother Andrew (from Australia, via New Zealand, LA, Atlanta, Recife and Fortaleza - urg...). We managed to meet him successfully, and we've been travelling together since then. In fact, he is about to jump on a plane back to the States, joining a cruise ship to Mexico for his class reunion. Don't you wish you were in his class?

Anyway, we chilled out successfully in Jeri for another couple of days, managing to squeeze in a couple of swims and a game of soccer on the beach with some of the locals (our team won, believe it or not). Once we had fully relaxed, it was time to jump back on a long bus
ride, this time heading for...

Word 2: Los carnivales
Definition: The carnivals

Our first carnaval experience was in a town called Olinda, just north of the larger city of Recife, in north-eastern Brazil. Olinda has a nice historical centre, and a very friendly carnival. We were there for three days leading up to the official start of carnaval, and each night the vibe of the town was getting more and more excited. There were several street parades, and one in particular with a group about 20 drummers, 20 percussionists, and 20 dancers, all of whom happened to be female (this fact did not effect our bias whatsoever). And each night there was a free concert, mostly made up of musicians in their 50's (or later). Apparently the good Carnival music has been around for a while...

Next, we pulled what we now refer to as 'The Salvador Stunt'. We were going to be in Salvador for the first official night of Carnaval, but we didn't have any accommodation booked, partly because it was expensive, and partly because we had a couple of contacts who we hoped would hook us up. This didn't end up working out, so we decided to revert to our uni days and attempt an all-nighter.

Unfortunately, it turned out that we didn't really like the Salvador style of Carnaval, which seems to consist of rock bands perched on top of big trucks which are about 80% loud-speaker, all at 110% volume. These 'blocos' move around a loop, followed by people who have paid up to AU$1,000 for the priviledge of owning a brightly coloured t-shirt (the same as their fellow bloco members), surrounded by a large rope around the truck and the followers, and watched by people on ground-level (known as 'popcorn') and others perched high in balconies in the surrounding buildings.

After a couple of hours of being popcorn, we decided to cut our losses and worked on killing time in other creative ways. Our primary strategy was 24-hour fast-food restaurants. First, we hit Subway, but discovered that the special Carnaval prices were too much for us. On the way out, we bumped into a guy who was offering massages for 1 Real (about AU$0.67) per minute. We weren't really interested in a massage, but still had about 12 hours to kill, so we chatted with him for about an hour or so, after which we felt kind of obligated to actually pay for his time. A really good ten-minute massage each later, we were feeling relaxed and refreshed, and ready for the next stage of the plan: McDonalds.

We arrived, made the obligatory bathroom stop, and ordered a meal. Three hours later, we were running out of conversation points and started noticing that there were less and less people in the restaurant. It turns out that contrary to our earlier impression from a Portuguese-speaking attendant, the main restaurant was in fact NOT open for 24 hours.

For lack of a better place to go, and encouraged by the rain now falling outside, we decided to see how long we could stay inside before we were kicked out by an irate staff member. Our strategy involved not leaving our seats, and avoiding eye contact with all employees. The drive-through stayed open, so several staff stuck around, and so did we. At about 2am, the manager started removing the tables from the room, often having to snap them off the rusted bolts that were holding them onto the floor.

This seemed like a somewhat odd thing to be doing, but we stuck around anyway, until we were sitting at pretty much the only table still standing.

Deciding that our options were fairly limited at this point, we finally gave up our table to the wrecking crew. The staff turned out to me pretty friendly, and the manager even gave us a quick samba lesson (conclusion: Brazilians are good, we suck), and we moved on - back to Subway.