Me and my new spikes

Still alive, and lots to share. I just got back north from the incredible Patagonia region of Southern Argentina and Chile.

The days were spent hiking, camping, climbing and meeting many local Argentinians and foreign travellers. The weather has been perfect, no clouds, and the view.... senfuckinsational... Just look behind me, check out that magnificient peak. And guess what... There are many, many, many more.

I was truely blown away by Patagonia. And I will be uploading photos and sharing them with you.

Ushuaia

Today is my last day in Ushuaia. Despite the weather which has been wet and windy, I still had a blast here. I mean, being so far South (1,188 km from Antarctica), what else can you expect but shitty weather?

My only grip with the town is that trying to sell the "Fin del Mundo" or "End of the world" title may get a little dry. Calling itself the Southern most city in the world is more to the point... But I am guessing the "Fin del Mundo" title is an idea from the past (pre 1600's), when this was considered to be the end of the world. It was remote and inhospitable.

Nowadays, I am told the population of Ushuaia is at a healthy 64,000. There is a bit of a construction boom in town, with houses and roads stretching out as far as the flat land allows. I guess it can be a bit of a worry in terms of environmental concern. But hey who am I to judge? The city is still bless with beautiful snow capped mountains, pristine lakes and a beautiful bay.

I would love to return in 25 years time like my Argentinian dorm mate, to see how much this city will change!

Antarctica Tourism Office

Being in the Southern most city in the world, I decided to visit their Antarctica Tourist Office.

I wanted to find out more about the ice continent. The office had a load of broaches on Antarctica, postcard for sell, play-stamps to add to your passport, and a giant TV with a film which shows tourist what they would expect to see on a cruise. For me this is the next best thing to getting on one! LOL! And maaan... The scenery is amazing! Floating ice bergs, gigantic glaciers, blinding white snow, colourful sun sets and tons of animals; seals, sea lions, whales, penguins and many species of birds. They also reveal some interesting information for me, such as last year 30,000 tourist visited the ice continent. 30,000 visitors!!!

There are many departure to the ice continent from Ushuaia at this time of the year. In fact, we are right in the middle of cruising season as it runs from November to March. Today, there is a boat called the "Explorer" docked and about to depart for Antarctica. I see a bunch of oldies in town today too and for sure they disembarked from the "Explorer" earlier.

Being a mere 1188 km away, Ushuaia *is* the number 1 departure point for Antarctica, accounting for 83% of total departures. The rest? As the photo shows... New Zealand is 2200 km away, Australia is 2600 km away and South Africa is 4200 km away.

So, I had to find out the cost! I visited a "Last Minute Deal" travel agency to get the price. And so on the 31st Jan the boat "Polaris" is leaving on a 10 days cruise, whilst on the 5th Feb the boat "Andrea" leaves. The cost is 4500 USD, or 4150 USD if I paid in cash.

It is so easy, I tell myself... To just say "Lets do something fuckin' crazy!", or "Why not? It's only money!"

"Fin del Mundo" aka "The end of the world"

If you buy into the hype! Regardless, I am in Ushuaia! A mere 3000 km from Buenos Aires, and it is the Southern most city in the world!

I arrived in Ushuaia at 9pm last night, completely zombied out after a seriously daunting 32 hours of bus ride!

But seriously, God must be looking after me. As I arrived at peak tourist season, at night, without accommodation booked. But I manage to find one hostel with one bed left to crash out. I cannot tell you how happy I felt that everything worked out!

My first impression of this remote place? It is simply breath taking! Looking around me I am surrounded one side by snow capped hills, and the other is the port overlooking the Beagle Channel. This is where Antarctic cruise leave from and it takes 2 days of sailing to get down there. That is, if you have a spare 4500 - 15000 USD! I have already met people at the hostel whom are setting out for a cruise. In fact, I enquired about cruises today, and the 4,500 USD price tag is the discounted price for a 10 days cruise. From the agencies comment books it seems like nobody came away unsatisfied! So anybody wants to donate to me to make this trip? hah!

Ushuaia is also not as small as I thought. It is a pretty well developed place, with lots of tourist shops, restaurants and nightclubs. And today there is a massive cruise ship docked off the pier. Still, it still doesn't rid it of the frontier town feeling, thanks to the surrounding terrain of snow capped mountains and icy sea.

The other cool thing about being so far south is that the daylight goes on forever! When I hit the sack at midnight last night it was still light outside!

I am excited to have made it so far south. As it meant I have bus my way from tip to tip in the entire continent. It is nuts to even think about it but I have done it! :)

Crossing the Magellan Strait

The sheeps in the foreground are taken onboard the ferry that I am on. There are lots of sheep ranch out here, as the locals love lamb as much as we do back home. :b

... And here we go... Crossing the Magellan Strait to get me to Tierra del Fuego, aka Fire Island, one of the last stop for adventurers on their way to Antartica.

Moving south and killer bus journeys...

Just want to say that southern Argentina is bleak, windswept and empty. Unlike our pristine green and mountainous South Island.

This is the impression I got so far anywhere. I am currently in Puerto Madryn, a coastal town with it's origin settled by the Welsh back in the 1800's. It is now a pretty successful town for tourism as it is their version of our Kaikoura. Tourist flock here to see whales, dolphins, penguins and seals.

But I came here to see traditional Walsh cottages and to eat cakes instead. So yesterday me and some English backpackers visited Gaiman (which we reckon sounds more like Gay-man), a town settled by the Welsh in 1860's. It is one of those quaint places with lots of Welsh signs, and anyone who knows Welsh knows that they have the longest word in the Guinness Book World of Record so the signs are well long and sounds funny! They have some old brick cottages and nice Churches. But we were there mainly for the 3pm high noon tea. We got served unlimited Welsh tea, cakes of all sorts (apple crumble, lemon cakes, cheese cakes, sweet chocolate cakes...) and bread with home made jam. It was without doubt the best kind of desert for me: Unlimited, a wide selection and all so very delicious! And to prove her Welsh heritage the owner of the tea house can say that longest word in that big book of records! LOL!

We manage to roll out of Gay-town afterwards with a full tummy, and only had salad for dinner. :b

Epic bus rides should be the title, not killer bus journeys... As anybody whom travelled by buses in Argentina will know that the buses here rocks! They have great seats, clean toilets, serves HOT food at meal time, play English movies, and have bingo on board to entertain (plus a bottle of wine for the winner!).

But it is still epic! From Buenos Aires I took a 19 hours bus ride down to Puerto Madryn. And it will be another 32+ hours before I reach the southern most city in the world - Ushuaia. Yes, that place is a mere 3,000 km away from Buenos Aires. And I plan to get there in the next 2-3 days.

So wish me luck y'all! :)

Vitaliza!

Vitalise!

I almost cried when I saw our little green can halfway around the world.

I went looking as soon as I reached Argentina. And guess what? I am happy to tell you that they are EVERYWHERE! As I am only at a small border town called Posada and they were sold in most corner stores I visited!

Hooray for V!!! Hooray for Frucor!!!

And for your info, they are sold at 3 Argentine Pesos, approx 1USD. :)

Made it to BA!!!

I am here! Finally at Buenos Aires! The city I most look forward to seeing besides Rio!

But the heat, omg the heat! I arrived on a day when the temperature sore to 41 degrees. FORTY ONE DEGREES!!! I could hardly move in this heat, and when I visited the central, I along with everyone else, moved from shades to shades.

The heat was so stifling, that I could hardly sleep last night. Unfortunately my hostel (Garden House Hostel) does not have air con, and the poor fan could hardly cool us down. It was still frickin steaming at 12 midnight! So my bed, along with everyone else's in my dorm, felt like a super heated hot towel upon lying down upon it. It felt like the sun has spent the whole day baking it to this temperature!

So, today in BA, I am hoping for cooler weather, or even some welcome Auckland rain! :b

Argentina Border Crossing

Sweet sweet sweet!

No issues at all... Left Encarnacion this morning for Posada in Argentina. The first thing that I chat about with my immigration officer was... Nuava Zelanda rugby suxxx porque Argentina Puma es Numero Uno!

I am sure you can guess what it meant! ;)

Drinking "mate"

It is nothing quite like seeing a hot chick walking on the streets in the middle of the night carrying a mug with it's metal straw similar to the one I am holding and a flask of "mate" on the streets of Paraguay.

How could one not laugh when they are not used to the culture? :D

For those who are wondering... Mate is basically a tea brewed in hot water filled with other goodness like herbs and roots, before serving in a social setting with mates refilling and passing that mug around. It is also the national drink of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.

I must say, after getting my first taste of "mate" from friendly locals, I found it to taste similar to Chinese tea! They fill the flask up with cold or hot water depending on the climate. In my case I drank it cold and it was very refreshing in the 38 degree heat.

So I guess this culture and custom is not dissimilar to Chinese in China, carrying a bottle of thermal flask and a glass to ferry their precious tea back and forth from social to business gatherings!

For more info on mate check wiki.

Paraguay Recycling

Now if even a 3rd world country like Paraguay can offer something as clear cut as this in recycling, why can't we do the same back in NZ? Time to kick our government's ass on this issue me thinks!

How do I spend all that money?

That is exactly the dilemma I am having right now... I am only in Paraguay for 3 days, and have exchange a shit load of Brazilian Reals for Paraguay Guaranis. I have spent it on a lavish dinner, sight seeing and having my own room for the night. I have never been in this predicament before, and am hoping to be so when I get to my final week in Buenos Aires! :b

Also, Paraguay and Colombia can follow Venezuela's example in removing the last 3 zero's from their currency (though only started in January). It is nuts especially when South Americans refer to 3 zero's as millions. So 1 thousand in English is 1 million in Spanish. How confusing is that!

I also forgot to mention, that Paraguay is the second poorest country in South America after Bolivia. Which is why everything is dirt cheap here! :)

Jesuit Ruins of Trinidad & Jesus

So I am finally here! Term by LP as the "least visited UNESCO site in the world", so I was disappointed to find other people there. LOL!

Just kidding. But there weren't many tourist on a Sunday afternoon at both Trinidad and Jesus. I could count the local tourist with two hands. So that statement may be true! :)

I came here to visit these Jesuit ruins. The Jesuit are a bunch of missionaries whom came over to this part of the world in the 17th and 18th century. They left their mark in Paraguay and Argentina with some massive city ruins. However it is all left to rot now, as the missionaries were kicked out by the Spanish back in the 17th Century. They were kicked out because they did such a good job in protecting the local indigenous people from exploitation (ie slave trade) from the colonist.

These city ruins includes cathedrals, colleagues, houses for the indigenous people, houses for the priest, bell towers and cemeteries. All are missing roof and some walls, but I was quite impress with how well preserved it all is. As in most other 3rd world countries ruins like these without protection would have allowed the locals to reuse the materials for to construct their own houses.

Brazilian`s answer to V

Yes, they call this drink Kuat, and it taste almost better then the green V that I have come to know and love. Well... actually, I think it taste better as I have been drinking this all throughout Brazil. It has less of a sugery and fizzy taste then the green V.

BUT... in saying that, the red V is still my favorite drink in the world and I am expecting my ex-boss Al to have a couple of boxes ready for me to collect when I return! ;)

Paraguay Border

Made it! I cross the Paraguay border this arvo from Brazil. It all went smoothly, until I was told that I need a VISA to enter Paraguay! Oh dear.... Luckily, the friendly Paraguay Custom officer told me I could get a 5 days transit visa for 30USD or 60 Reals. So I thank my lucky star and cough up the moolah!

The border town of Ciudad de Este is NUTS! It is a duty free town and is known for it`s electronic goods. So today being Saturday as well, there were a ton of Brazilians and Argentinians in town shopping for a deal. You see them all, crossing back to Brazil carrying various electronic goods like cameras, speaker systems and LCD screens.

So since I am not looking for nuthin, I took the bus south west to Encarnación, to check out what Lonelyplanet terms as the least visited UNESCO site in the world!

Also, I tucked into a delecious Jap dinner tonight. Eating maki and katsu chicken at a Japanese restaurant call Hiroshima. The last Jap outing for me was at Ken in La Paz 5 long months ago!!!

Iguazu Falls

Instead of posting photos of this amazing waterfall. I decided to take a video clip and let you see for yourself the sheer size and power of this waterfall.

The Iguazu Falls borders Brazil and Argentina, and consist of a whopping 275 waterfalls along 2.7 km of the Iguazu river. The video is taken from the Brazilian side, as it is here that you get an overrall picture of the mighty falls. The part of the video where it goes all misty is the Garganta del Diablo or known as the Devil`s Throat. It is accessable from the Argentinian side (alongside most of the other impressive falls) and seeing it is amazing to walk right into it. As you are almost surrounded by waterfalls (all 260 degrees of it according to Wiki!), at 150 metres wide and 700 metres long, it kicks ass to be in the midst of it!

So unlike Angel Falls with it`s sheer height, Iguazu Falls impress with it`s width! For more info on this amazing fall, check Wiki or the World Heritage Site List.

Goodbye Rio

What a fantastic city Rio has been. I think it will be very hard to top this city. And trust me, I have visited a lot of cities!!!

The setting, the people, the landscape and the parties must certainly make Rio one of the most sought after travel destination in the world. You can see it too, with numerous hotels and so many international tourist.

On New Years day, the city put on an incredible show. The beaches were packed with patrons, rich and poor, black and white, from all over the world. The Brazilians of course partied the hardest. And come 12am fireworks were shot off numerous barges parked on the water, and it went on for 20 minutes. Whilst the 8 big cruises parked off shore join in the fun too with their spot lights. There were stages put up on all the main beaches in Rio, with all sorts of music played from Samba, bossanova to electronic music featuring top name DJs (Above and Beyond, Astrix, Yahel, Infected Mushroom for those wondering!!!).

And on New Years day, the crowd return to the beach, this time to relax and recover under another beautiful sunny day. For me, these 9 days in Rio have been perfect. I met some great people, ate great food, stayed at a great hostel (´cept for the camera business!) and saw many beautiful sights.

I do intend to return to Rio, as there are so much more that I haven´t done.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE!!!

KFC Brazil Style

You know how much I love KFC! Everywhere I have traveled I have seen the local´s take on it. And here we have the Brazilian version.

For 9.95 Reals (5.50USD) you get 2 pieces of chicken, chips, rice, black beans and *maniac* flour... LOL actually it is called manioc flour, used by Brazilians in almost every kind of cooking. In case you are wondering, the manioc flour is the yellow flaky stuff you see on the bottom left hand corner of my plate.

Also notice how the portion are served in a proper plate with proper cutleries? Why don´t we do this back home??? It all adds up to a tasty dish.

rūzu sokkusu

Well not quite the Japanese loose socks style, but omg this lady has taken dressing dogs up to a new level. And I have not seen this until arriving in Brazil. Parnell mums take note!!!

Also of interest, Brazil is second only to America when it comes to pet ownership. I just hope not all of them are C R A Z Y like this lady!

Stolen items

My iPod and camera got stolen out of my locked backpack in my dorm. The shitty thing is that it was only my backpack that got searched, with all my contents spilling out. The thief manage to pull the zip open whilst the bag was locked, and manage to fit his hands through and looked about. Everyone elses bags was not touched.

However, the thief did me a favour really as it was my broken camera. And it is missing both the memory card and the battery. LOL!