After a long 5 months travelling without seeing family, it
was with great excitement that we met Ross at the Salta Airport, and some
surprise that he actually arrived at all. We eased him into the joys of
travelling with a cramped 6 bed dorm and a couple of big nights at the hostel,
with plenty of cheap empanadas and pasta. Despite the onset of man flu, he took
the first week in his stride.
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| Salta main square |
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| Ross enjoying a plate full of empanadas - 5 of the approximately 120 we ate the first week in Argentina. I wish I was joking. |
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| The mighty Renault Clio tackling the dirt |
We then hired our mighty 3 door Renault Clio and
headed to a local ranch to check out how they do things in Argentina. We
decided a day trip was more in our budget, after they quoted us $800 for one
night’s accommodation (perhaps Gates Goats needs to diversify into robbing
tourists??). So we tottered out in the Clio and were given a tour of the amazing
homestead, the crops and the dorpers. Much to our surprise, we ran into another
Aussie who worked at the farm and spoke fluent Spanish with the most cracking
Aussie accent I have ever heard. The day ended a little awkwardly when one of
the owners asked us if we intended to invest – I would have thought the sight
of 3 scummy backpackers in a Renault Clio may have answered that question but
apparently not.
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| Checking out chia seeds. At $10,000 a bag they weren't dropping many |
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| Ross giving a demonstration of something... don't ask me what |
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| Ross taking some lessons from the polo-playing vet we met at the farm |
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| Meat. So much meat. |
We continued southward and saw some amazing scenery before
arriving in Cafayate. Tom and I tried some great wines and then had dinner in a
restaurant full of primary school children, which was just fabulous (if you enjoy
screaming kids, like I do). The next day we took the Clio off-roading and
headed to Cachi. The scenery was awesome, as was our lunch stop in a tiny town
called Molinos where they clearly never see tourists as we had a whole family watch
us eat our lunch. Backpackers eat sandwiches too guys, jeez.
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| Tom trying not to break an ankle climbing down from the Devil's Throat |
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| Searching for cacti |
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| Family shot at the Ampitheatre |
Once we returned the mighty Clio, it was time to hop on a monster 24 hour bus ride to Iguassu Falls. We decided the best way to tackle
the journey would be to go out the night before and get approximately 1 hour of
sleep. Worked a treat! The bus company decided the R-rated film ‘Apocolypto’
would be a suitable film to lull the kids on the bus to sleep – surprisingly
enough, it didn’t work. However, the highlight was probably an in-depth
discussion with our travel buddy Jill about what type of meat we had been
served on the bus for dinner (we couldn’t come to a consensus). The bus ride
was completely worth it once we got to the Falls – the most spectacular sight I
think we have seen on our travels. Incredible.
We crossed the border to check out the Falls from the
Brazilian side and soon realised our hostel was full of weirdos. We endured
conversations with an American girl about fistulas over breakfast (if you don’t
know what they are, I do not recommend Googling it – especially while you are
eating) and an American guy who insisted on sitting within everyone’s personal
space and calling Ross ‘Rosco’ (they were, in fact, BFFs – Ross just didn’t
know it yet). We then hopped on a flight
to Rio de Janiero and a week of absolute madness began.
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| Getting a little wet on our boat trip under the falls |
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| Photos don't do it justice! |
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| Ross with the super friendly, rabies carrying Coatis at Iguassu. |
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| Enjoying a wine and cheese plate in the Puerto Iguazu markets with our travel buddy Jill |
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| Panoramic view of the falls |
Our hostel in Rio was fantastic, almost too fantastic… 6
nights of partying with amazing people and no sleep whatsoever. Apart from the
partying, we did actually do some sightseeing. We went to Copacabana beach,
where watching Ross and Tom’s facial expressions at the ladies who probably
shouldn’t be wearing g-string bikinis was more entertaining than the beach itself.
We checked out the views Rio from Sugarloaf mountain, the Sunday markets, and of course Christ
the Redeemer. We also survived a visit to a favela (the name for the slums of
Rio), which wasn’t anywhere near as nerve racking as we thought it would be
(except for the motorbike taxi ride there – Ross nearly pooed himself). We
visited a creche for local pre-school kids and tried not to
get in the way. We also caught up with our friend William that we met way back
in St Petersburg for lunch and a beer by the sea – awesome bloke!
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| Tom standing next to his statue in Rio. Who knew they were such fans of his? |
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| Sugarloaf mountain |
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| Sunday beer and snacks with William |
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| This monstrosity is actually a Catholic cathedral. We guessed power plant. |
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| Some hungry bubs at the creche we visited in the favela |
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| Sun setting over Rio - view from Sugarloaf mountain |
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| Two very seedy individuals trying to re hydrate |
For our entire stay in Rio there was a film crew at the hostel filming a reality TV show about life in hostels... lucky us. This meant being locked out of certain rooms while they were filming, having private conversations interrupted by giant boom mikes, turning music off, and just being a general pain in the ass. They hosted a Valentines Day party at the hostel (12 June in Brazil, not 14 February) where we were bribed with beer to participate in a 'speed dating' scene where I speed dated not only my own husband but my brother. Awks.
After 6 long days and looking like we had just crawled out of a bin, we stumbled
into the Rio airport and were definitely the worst looking passengers Emirates
have ever accepted onto a flight. We arrived in Buenos Aires, to stay with our
friend Michael we met on the Inca Trail, and enjoyed our first decent night’s
sleep in weeks.We said goodbye to Rosso, which our livers were thankful for
but the rest of us wasn’t. Great 3 weeks! More to come on Argentina Part 2
soon….
