Video of Garganta del Diablo, Argentina side
Video from the Brazil side
Join us on our adventure as we travel the world!
March 30, 2011
March 27, 2011
Salta and Iguacu
After leaving Bolivia we spent around 4 days in Salta in northern Argentina. The city was around halfway to Iguacu Falls which was our next planned destination. Rather than spend 40 or more hours on a bus at one time, we figured it would be good to break up the trip with a stop here in Salta for a few days. Salta and the surrounding area is quite a beautiful area of Argentina. The bus ride from the Bolivian border was quite special. We saw beautiful small mountains that had multiple colors of rock surfaces. It was quite striking to see.
The city of Salta was very nice as well. It is quite a big city and very modern compared to Bolivia. We also noticed the drastic price differences. In Bolivia we had pretty much gotten back on track with our budget, but Salta was at least 2 or 3 times more expensive, and after only 4 days the budget was back off track.
While in Salta we took the opportunity to visit a ranch and do some horseback riding. The place we went to was awesome. The ranch was around an hour’s drive out of the city in farm country. There were a lot of tobacco fields everywhere and we got to ride the horses around the fields and through rivers and down peaceful country roads. Neither Joh, nor I have ever ridden on a horse so it was pretty special for us. We both really enjoyed it right from the start and started dreaming about starting our own horse farm and enjoying the gaucho (argentine name for “cowboy”) life. After the ride we were treated to one of the best meals ever. While we were gone they had been roasting meats over a fire and been cooking up all sorts of great vegetables and spicy side dishes. The owner of the farm walked around the table handing out steaks, ribs, and sausages and we ate as much as we could. I found out that it is very difficult to refuse just one more steak and I ended up eating around 5 steaks and even more sausages and other really delicious food. It was one of the best meals of my life and certainly the best steaks I’ve had in Argentina – and that’s saying something.
Salta also had a lot of parks and cool-looking buildings so it was a great city for walking around. There was a big hill/mountain on the outskirts of the city which we hiked up and we had a great view of the surrounding area.
On Monday we left Salta on a 24 hour bus-ride to Puerto Iguacu. This being Argentina, the bus was spectacular and we had some great first-class seats and we watched movies and got fed meals. The bus ride went very smoothly and before we knew it we had arrived. Stepping off the bus in Iguacu it was immediately obvious that we had entered a different climate. It was really nice and hot and humid. The weather was really effected by the nearby rainforest.
We wasted a day waiting for our Brazilian visas to be processed and then spent 2 days exploring the falls. Iguacu Falls are one of the biggest waterfalls on earth and they are absolutely breathtaking. There are hundreds of waterfalls all within one small area of around one or two square kilometers. The Iguacu river also happens to be the border between three countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. We spent the first day on the Argentina side and explored both the falls and the national park. The falls were amazing of course and we got some great pictures even though it rained for most of the morning. The park has a number of hiking trails that all have stopping points where you get some really great views of the falls. It is pretty much impossible to get the entire falls in one picture. You need to walk all around to get different viewpoints of the different parts. On the second day we crossed the border into Brazil an explored Brazil's side of the falls. They also have a National park with a lot of trails an even more great views. Although both sides are great, the Brazilian side gives you a wider view of the falls. On the Argentine side you see the falls from up on the top of the falls, but from Brazil you can see it from the other side. They also have some walkways that allow you to get right up close into the middle of the river. On one of the walkways you were sounded by over 300 degrees of waterfalls. It was quite the experience. You just stand there and you are absolutely in awe and it is literally unbelievable how beautiful it is. We will of course show you some photos but they will hardly suffice to explain it.
After seeing the falls for a few days, It’s time to move on again. We booked another 24 hour bus to leave from Iguacu Falls to go to Rio de Janerio. Rio is pretty high on our list of must-see places in South America, so we’re pretty excited. We can’t wait to hang out on Copacabana beach and check out Sugarloaf mountain. Based on our research, the city is extremely expensive, so it’s likely that we’ll only be there for 2 or 3 days but we’ll try make the most of it.
After Rio, we’ll likely work our way north via the Brazilian coast, but we don’t really have anything or anywhere planned yet. Brazil is so big that it will be a little difficult to see a lot of it. It looks like we’ll end up with a few 40 hour bus trips or some plane trips so we’ll have to plan it carefully and not completely blow our budget.
We’ve also come across another hurdle now, and that is Portuguese. We’ve put in a lot of effort here in the last two or three months to learn Spanish and we’re going to have to put that on hold for the next little while. Obviously we’ll need Spanish again when we just back to the west to visit Peru and the other countries. We’ve been told a few times that Spanish and Portuguese are very similar, but so far it has been pretty much impossible to understand a single word in Portuguese. I think they only are similar if you are a native Spanish speaker. To us they are worlds apart. I’m not sure how much effort we’ll put into learning Portuguese – we’ll only need it for a couple weeks. We’ll see. We’ll try get by with English/Spanish and if that doesn’t work there’s always the point and grunt version of speaking which pretty much everybody can slightly understand.
The city of Salta was very nice as well. It is quite a big city and very modern compared to Bolivia. We also noticed the drastic price differences. In Bolivia we had pretty much gotten back on track with our budget, but Salta was at least 2 or 3 times more expensive, and after only 4 days the budget was back off track.
While in Salta we took the opportunity to visit a ranch and do some horseback riding. The place we went to was awesome. The ranch was around an hour’s drive out of the city in farm country. There were a lot of tobacco fields everywhere and we got to ride the horses around the fields and through rivers and down peaceful country roads. Neither Joh, nor I have ever ridden on a horse so it was pretty special for us. We both really enjoyed it right from the start and started dreaming about starting our own horse farm and enjoying the gaucho (argentine name for “cowboy”) life. After the ride we were treated to one of the best meals ever. While we were gone they had been roasting meats over a fire and been cooking up all sorts of great vegetables and spicy side dishes. The owner of the farm walked around the table handing out steaks, ribs, and sausages and we ate as much as we could. I found out that it is very difficult to refuse just one more steak and I ended up eating around 5 steaks and even more sausages and other really delicious food. It was one of the best meals of my life and certainly the best steaks I’ve had in Argentina – and that’s saying something.
Salta also had a lot of parks and cool-looking buildings so it was a great city for walking around. There was a big hill/mountain on the outskirts of the city which we hiked up and we had a great view of the surrounding area.
On Monday we left Salta on a 24 hour bus-ride to Puerto Iguacu. This being Argentina, the bus was spectacular and we had some great first-class seats and we watched movies and got fed meals. The bus ride went very smoothly and before we knew it we had arrived. Stepping off the bus in Iguacu it was immediately obvious that we had entered a different climate. It was really nice and hot and humid. The weather was really effected by the nearby rainforest.
We wasted a day waiting for our Brazilian visas to be processed and then spent 2 days exploring the falls. Iguacu Falls are one of the biggest waterfalls on earth and they are absolutely breathtaking. There are hundreds of waterfalls all within one small area of around one or two square kilometers. The Iguacu river also happens to be the border between three countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. We spent the first day on the Argentina side and explored both the falls and the national park. The falls were amazing of course and we got some great pictures even though it rained for most of the morning. The park has a number of hiking trails that all have stopping points where you get some really great views of the falls. It is pretty much impossible to get the entire falls in one picture. You need to walk all around to get different viewpoints of the different parts. On the second day we crossed the border into Brazil an explored Brazil's side of the falls. They also have a National park with a lot of trails an even more great views. Although both sides are great, the Brazilian side gives you a wider view of the falls. On the Argentine side you see the falls from up on the top of the falls, but from Brazil you can see it from the other side. They also have some walkways that allow you to get right up close into the middle of the river. On one of the walkways you were sounded by over 300 degrees of waterfalls. It was quite the experience. You just stand there and you are absolutely in awe and it is literally unbelievable how beautiful it is. We will of course show you some photos but they will hardly suffice to explain it.
After seeing the falls for a few days, It’s time to move on again. We booked another 24 hour bus to leave from Iguacu Falls to go to Rio de Janerio. Rio is pretty high on our list of must-see places in South America, so we’re pretty excited. We can’t wait to hang out on Copacabana beach and check out Sugarloaf mountain. Based on our research, the city is extremely expensive, so it’s likely that we’ll only be there for 2 or 3 days but we’ll try make the most of it.
After Rio, we’ll likely work our way north via the Brazilian coast, but we don’t really have anything or anywhere planned yet. Brazil is so big that it will be a little difficult to see a lot of it. It looks like we’ll end up with a few 40 hour bus trips or some plane trips so we’ll have to plan it carefully and not completely blow our budget.
We’ve also come across another hurdle now, and that is Portuguese. We’ve put in a lot of effort here in the last two or three months to learn Spanish and we’re going to have to put that on hold for the next little while. Obviously we’ll need Spanish again when we just back to the west to visit Peru and the other countries. We’ve been told a few times that Spanish and Portuguese are very similar, but so far it has been pretty much impossible to understand a single word in Portuguese. I think they only are similar if you are a native Spanish speaker. To us they are worlds apart. I’m not sure how much effort we’ll put into learning Portuguese – we’ll only need it for a couple weeks. We’ll see. We’ll try get by with English/Spanish and if that doesn’t work there’s always the point and grunt version of speaking which pretty much everybody can slightly understand.
March 19, 2011
Pictures from Bolivia
Hey everyone,
Here are the pictures from Sucre, Carnaval and Potosi. If anyone is interested in the mines, there is actually a documentary called the Devil's Miner that explains all about the life of a miner. You would probably find this online and not at your local blockbuster:)
Enjoy:)
Here are the pictures from Sucre, Carnaval and Potosi. If anyone is interested in the mines, there is actually a documentary called the Devil's Miner that explains all about the life of a miner. You would probably find this online and not at your local blockbuster:)
Enjoy:)
 |
| Blog - Sucre, Bolivia |
 |
| Blog - Carnaval 2011 Oruro |
 |
| Potosi Mines, Bolivia - Blog |
March 17, 2011
Carnival, Potosi, and Buses
Sorry it's been a while since the last post guys. I figure it's time for another update when you start getting emails from your mom with the subject "Where are you guys?????". Yes, that's five question marks - better write another update pronto.
Since last blog update we've been up to quite a bit. We've completed our Spanish lessons, experienced Carnival, visited Potosi, and we've moved on out of Sucre with plans of starting towards Brazil. Right now, we're in our hostel in Salta, Argentina which is more or less half way back to our planned starting point of Brazil - Iguazu Falls. We plan on staying here in Salta for the rest of the week and heading out to Iguazu on Monday.
We just finished a marathon bus trip that took us from Sucre Bolivia to here in Salta via 3 different buses in 24 hours. The overnight bus through Bolivia to the border town of Villazon was pretty bad. Halfway through the trip, the roads turned into dirt paths with more potholes than you can possibly imagine. The bus itself was quite bad as well. It was at least 20 or 30 years old, and it rattled and shook like crazy making horrendous noises all night long. Night buses are something that the budget traveller is supposed to love and embrace. You get to skip out on paying for lodging for the night, so you get to save a few bucks. As usual, the idea sounds great while planning, but when it's time to do it, it ends up being a nightmare. You get on the bus with intentions of falling asleep and waking up in the next city. Unfortunately, you've forgotten to anticipate a number of things. First of all, the seat you were planning on sleeping in, has a number of spots where the metal frame jabs you right at the base of your spine. Then you notice that there is approximately 2 millimeters of space available between your knees and the seat in front of you. Forget all hopes of slouching in the seat at all. Then, for the first hour or two of the ride, you keep your eyes peeled on the guy on the seat ahead of you waiting for him to attempt to recline his seat. As soon as he goes for the lever, you jam your knees into the back of the seat and push hard. Nine times out of ten he will give up and consider the seat broken and not bother trying again. Occasionally however, you can miss-time it (or he'll try again later) and before you know it the seat is reclined all the way down and you are left squashed into your seat with nothing but bruised kneecaps to look forward to. If you are one of those people with a few space inches of space between your knees and the seat, you may think that you've got no problems. This extra space gives you all kinds of different options when it comes to seating positions. You can slouch down, curl up, lie on your side, ...whatever. The problem is that none of those positions are remotely comfortable for more than 2 or 3 minutes, so you still won't be able to sleep. You can try really hard however, but inevitably, as soon as you are close to getting asleep, one of the following will always happen: The bus driver will turn the lights on for no apparently reason, the person behind you will start playing a radio with really weird obnoxious music, the bus will swerve or brake suddenly, or the worst - you realize you have to pee and there is no bathroom on the bus and you know the driver isn't stopping for another 4 hours. So you just grin and bear it. You sit quietly and hope morning comes quickly. You constantly guess at the time and then realize hours later that it is still not even 3:00, even though you originally thought that it had to be getting close to 5:00.
Wow that is a lot of complaining about bus rides. I should mention that the buses on the other side of the border - on the Argentina side were much better. Still no way to spend a night but it's manageable. I'm sure there will be at least another 200 hours of bus riding coming up in the remainder of this trip, so I'd better get used to it.
Two weekends ago, Joh and I took a trip to Oruro (7 hour Bolivian bus ride) to experience Carnival. Carnival is a huge festive event celebrated in many parts of South America. You no doubt have heard of the big party in Rio, but Carnival is celebrated in many cities. We thought about going to Rio but we were warned of the high prices and lack of accommodations, so we opted for the Bolivian version instead. We heard that Sucre didn't really have much going on, so after speaking to our Spanish teachers about it, they suggested we go to Oruro, which was supposedly one of the best places to see the celebrations. We went with a busload of other tourists and stayed in a basement lined with around 50 mattress for everyone to sleep on. We watched the parades of costumed dancers and marching bands. The parades started at 8 in the morning and went until 3am for 2 days in a row. Carnival and the dances, costumes, and songs mean a lot to the Bolivian people and there were thousands of participants. Many Bolivians belong to these traditional clubs that organize these dances and parades. It was quite something to see - although watching it all day was a little much. The other side of Carnival was the water fights. Everywhere you walked you were in constant danger of being sprayed by water. Little kids were running around with water guns and water balloons. You could purchase spray cans full of foam that you could use to cover people with. There was no escaping it. Within minutes of getting close to the parade route you were soaking wet and covered in foam. We had a really good time at Carnival, but it was really nice to get back to our home in Sucre to rest afterwards.
We also visited another town a few hours away from Sucre called Potosi. Potosi is famous for its silver mines. We went to the mines and were able to walk around down the mine shafts to see what it was like. The workers that work in the mines there have it really tough. They earn very little money and work very hard in very poor conditions. It was quite the eye-opener for us. We were able to walk down into the mines hundreds of meters below the surface and crawl around in small caves and speak to the miners. It was very difficult to walk around (especially if you're tall like I am) as the ceilings of the caves were quite low in most of the areas. The miners there are also quite superstitious. They have a number of rituals that they perform in hopes of staying safe and getting lucky. Going to the mines was quite the experience and we're glad we did it.
Well that's it for now. I'm running on empty here after pulling an all-nighter on the bus last night, so it's time to sleep. We'll post here on the blog again soon. Probably after Iguazu. Hopefully this week Joh will also post some pictures from the last month or so .
We hope and pray all is well with every one of you. Take care.
Since last blog update we've been up to quite a bit. We've completed our Spanish lessons, experienced Carnival, visited Potosi, and we've moved on out of Sucre with plans of starting towards Brazil. Right now, we're in our hostel in Salta, Argentina which is more or less half way back to our planned starting point of Brazil - Iguazu Falls. We plan on staying here in Salta for the rest of the week and heading out to Iguazu on Monday.
We just finished a marathon bus trip that took us from Sucre Bolivia to here in Salta via 3 different buses in 24 hours. The overnight bus through Bolivia to the border town of Villazon was pretty bad. Halfway through the trip, the roads turned into dirt paths with more potholes than you can possibly imagine. The bus itself was quite bad as well. It was at least 20 or 30 years old, and it rattled and shook like crazy making horrendous noises all night long. Night buses are something that the budget traveller is supposed to love and embrace. You get to skip out on paying for lodging for the night, so you get to save a few bucks. As usual, the idea sounds great while planning, but when it's time to do it, it ends up being a nightmare. You get on the bus with intentions of falling asleep and waking up in the next city. Unfortunately, you've forgotten to anticipate a number of things. First of all, the seat you were planning on sleeping in, has a number of spots where the metal frame jabs you right at the base of your spine. Then you notice that there is approximately 2 millimeters of space available between your knees and the seat in front of you. Forget all hopes of slouching in the seat at all. Then, for the first hour or two of the ride, you keep your eyes peeled on the guy on the seat ahead of you waiting for him to attempt to recline his seat. As soon as he goes for the lever, you jam your knees into the back of the seat and push hard. Nine times out of ten he will give up and consider the seat broken and not bother trying again. Occasionally however, you can miss-time it (or he'll try again later) and before you know it the seat is reclined all the way down and you are left squashed into your seat with nothing but bruised kneecaps to look forward to. If you are one of those people with a few space inches of space between your knees and the seat, you may think that you've got no problems. This extra space gives you all kinds of different options when it comes to seating positions. You can slouch down, curl up, lie on your side, ...whatever. The problem is that none of those positions are remotely comfortable for more than 2 or 3 minutes, so you still won't be able to sleep. You can try really hard however, but inevitably, as soon as you are close to getting asleep, one of the following will always happen: The bus driver will turn the lights on for no apparently reason, the person behind you will start playing a radio with really weird obnoxious music, the bus will swerve or brake suddenly, or the worst - you realize you have to pee and there is no bathroom on the bus and you know the driver isn't stopping for another 4 hours. So you just grin and bear it. You sit quietly and hope morning comes quickly. You constantly guess at the time and then realize hours later that it is still not even 3:00, even though you originally thought that it had to be getting close to 5:00.
Wow that is a lot of complaining about bus rides. I should mention that the buses on the other side of the border - on the Argentina side were much better. Still no way to spend a night but it's manageable. I'm sure there will be at least another 200 hours of bus riding coming up in the remainder of this trip, so I'd better get used to it.
Two weekends ago, Joh and I took a trip to Oruro (7 hour Bolivian bus ride) to experience Carnival. Carnival is a huge festive event celebrated in many parts of South America. You no doubt have heard of the big party in Rio, but Carnival is celebrated in many cities. We thought about going to Rio but we were warned of the high prices and lack of accommodations, so we opted for the Bolivian version instead. We heard that Sucre didn't really have much going on, so after speaking to our Spanish teachers about it, they suggested we go to Oruro, which was supposedly one of the best places to see the celebrations. We went with a busload of other tourists and stayed in a basement lined with around 50 mattress for everyone to sleep on. We watched the parades of costumed dancers and marching bands. The parades started at 8 in the morning and went until 3am for 2 days in a row. Carnival and the dances, costumes, and songs mean a lot to the Bolivian people and there were thousands of participants. Many Bolivians belong to these traditional clubs that organize these dances and parades. It was quite something to see - although watching it all day was a little much. The other side of Carnival was the water fights. Everywhere you walked you were in constant danger of being sprayed by water. Little kids were running around with water guns and water balloons. You could purchase spray cans full of foam that you could use to cover people with. There was no escaping it. Within minutes of getting close to the parade route you were soaking wet and covered in foam. We had a really good time at Carnival, but it was really nice to get back to our home in Sucre to rest afterwards.
We also visited another town a few hours away from Sucre called Potosi. Potosi is famous for its silver mines. We went to the mines and were able to walk around down the mine shafts to see what it was like. The workers that work in the mines there have it really tough. They earn very little money and work very hard in very poor conditions. It was quite the eye-opener for us. We were able to walk down into the mines hundreds of meters below the surface and crawl around in small caves and speak to the miners. It was very difficult to walk around (especially if you're tall like I am) as the ceilings of the caves were quite low in most of the areas. The miners there are also quite superstitious. They have a number of rituals that they perform in hopes of staying safe and getting lucky. Going to the mines was quite the experience and we're glad we did it.
Well that's it for now. I'm running on empty here after pulling an all-nighter on the bus last night, so it's time to sleep. We'll post here on the blog again soon. Probably after Iguazu. Hopefully this week Joh will also post some pictures from the last month or so .
We hope and pray all is well with every one of you. Take care.