Uruguay’s White Palace on the Atlantic
We were first tipped off about this enchantingly eccentric palace tucked away in the corners of the Atlantic Ocean by a fellow couch surfing buddy of ours, Paula.
Read MoreLa Boca: Tango with the Boca Juniors Trophies
Vibrant colored homes are everywhere in La Boca, making it a perfect place for a day-trip stroll. As we walked down Caminito street, a pedestrian street rich in artists selling their paintings, tango performances, and restaurants we managed to stop and take a couple pictures.
Read MoreIguazu Falls: Victoria’s Rival and home to millions of butterflies!
When we got to our hostel in Puerto Iguazu there was fair amount of buzz surrounding a global online poll that allows online voters to choose the new Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Click here to cast your vote New 7 Wonders of Nature, deadline 11/11/11. 28 Finalists were selected. Iguazu Falls made the cut while Victoria Falls, the only water fall on of the original Seven Natural Wonders of the World did not. I had been to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side last year and it was nothing short of spectacular. So for Iguazu to beat Vic Falls out of the running in a global popularity contest gave me a very strong indication that I was in for a very special treat. Iguazu Falls is a part of the natural border between Argentina and Brazil and can be visited on both international sides. Deciding which side to see it is a traveler’s nightmare so most travelers see it from both sides. But US citizens beware, we are required to have a Brazilian visa to enter Brazil, so if you don’t already have one like Ben and I did you might want evaluate if dropping an extra $140/person is worth it. Here’s a quick break down of what to expect, the Brazil’s side is for viewing and the Argentina side is for adventure. There are approximately 275 separate falls, the most impressive being the horseshoe shaped Garganta del Diablo or in English Devil’s Throat. To get a panoramic view of all this water falling activity, the Brazil side offers the best all-inclusive view. But to get closer to the action and to explore the surrounding subtropical jungle and wild life the Iguazu National Park on the Argentina side blows the Brazilian side away and still offers stunning views. The park offers two trails that visitors can take, the upper trail and the lower trail. The upper trail is the shorter trail that takes you to the top of the falls where you witness the calm of the Iguazu River abruptly open up into a furious sinkhole. The lower trail is longer winding through the jungle it takes you right up to the bottom of the falls. There’s also a tour company that operates out of the park called Iguazu Jungles that offers rafting trips, jungle tours, and boats to the falls, kind of like Niagara’s Maid of the Mist except in speed boats! We were going to do the Nautica Adventure, which is the 12 min speedboat tour. But the tour was shut down because 2 weeks earlier they had a fatal accident killing two passengers. The park’s open-air passenger tram to the upper and lower trails would have been nothing special except that it was swarmed with thousands and thousands of butterflies. It was dream like. Some would even fly along the tram for a few seconds before falling behind. We then walked along the upper trail that was a series of catwalks and observations decks that zigzagged through the river and surrounding jungle giving one a “walking on water” experience. Butterflies were plentiful here as well and not shy, landing on your out stretched hand if you stood still. There were also plenty of exotic birds perched on near by tree branches, close enough to get clear pictures. As we approached Devil Throat, we saw the remains of one catwalk that had been in destroyed by the power of the river in a flood years ago. And then we saw…Iguazu. When we were leaving the falls, we saw a butterfly tornado, which was alittle difficult...
Read MoreCountry Numero Dos turned Tres Disasters for Ben
Our passports had just been stamped to exist Brazil, but instead of taking us to Immigration to get our entry stamp for Argentina, our bus dropped all of us off at a random connivence store. Ok. As we wondered what was happening, Ben decided to pull out his laptop to pass the time away. As soon as he powered it up we both noticed a gigantic crack on his monitor in the shape of a leaf. One of our very heavy Lonely Planet guides had hit his laptop in his pack. Why didn’t we just put all of those Lonely Planet guides on our Kindle, will we ever learn. Poor Ben. His 10″ monitor was small enough as it was. What was he suppose to do…then we both thought salvation in “Ciudad del Este”. Cuidad del Este is the second largest city in Paraguay and it’s most profitable. Located just 30 minutes from Argentina’s Iguazu Falls by bus. In Cuidad del Este the black market is legal meaning it’s like a Duty Free store except it’s a city! There are no taxes on any of the goods, making it shopping paradise and making Paraguay an Electronics Mecca. Both Argentina and Brazil have outrageously high taxes on electronics and imports, which makes buying electronics and other “luxury” item extremely expensive. It’s pretty ridiculous imagine a $500 Canon Power Shot camera or a $30,000 Ford Focus. So we figured we’d have more luck getting Ben a cheap laptop in Cuidad del Este than anywhere else. We heard that the immigration policy was relaxed in the lawless Cuidad del Este, which was good news since we did not apply for a Paraguay visa while we were in the States and as US citizens were required to have one. After reading about immigration officers extorting Americans without visas, we decided to ask around. One of our hostel mates, Regina, told us that she had signed up for a ROA Tour that was to go to Cuidad del Este for an hour of shopping. She too was an US citizen who did not have Paraguay visa so we decided to use Regina as our illegal boarder hoping guinea pig, if she didn’t get stopped we would take the same tour tomorrow. In the meantime, we walked to the out skirts of Puerto Iguazu, the Argentina city where the Iguazu Falls are located, to La Triple Frontera. La Tiple Frontera is a beautiful spot where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge and where the natural borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil intersect. We decided to take a short-cut and walk across a small park on our way back. All of a sudden Ben started freaking out, hoping on one foot holding his other foot in his hand, his face twisted with pain, screaming at the top of his lungs that he was going to die. As I frantically looked for the First Aid kit that we wisely carry in our daypack, he was sputtering something about a fire ant and how his foot was going to fall off. I practically bit my lip off to hold back laughter. Ben was not having the best of days and I didn’t want to get backhanded by a fire ant infested flip-flop. When we got back to our hostel, we were informed by Regina that she had no problem sneaking into Paraguay as part of a tour to Ciudad del Este. So we decided to book the tour and get some additional cash out of the ATM. That’s when Ben’s debt card was ate by an ATM machine,...
Read MoreThe streets are on fire in Montevideo
Leah and I went out for a walk down the main street of Montevideo, Uruguay which was full of food and magazine stands, clothes shops, fancy old buildings and vibrant parks. It was a great end to a day of sightseeing. And to top everything off, we saw an amazing street preformance! Three girls were playing with fire. They had torches, fireballs on strings, fans, and hula-hoops! It was really amazing. One girl was twirlling a hula-hoop of fire with one leg! She was doing a one arm handstand, and had a ring of fire hula-hoop on one leg and then on the single arm that held her up another ring of fire! what? All that and they never burned their armpit hair. Blahht. Here is an amazing picture of their performance. My favorite picture from our trip...
Read MoreParaty, the old city, both beautiful and dangerous.
Visiting one of Brazil’s oldest Portuguese cities can be made into a fun and easy day trip from Ubatuba that is well worth it. Paraty is an absolutely charming city adorn with white colonial buildings lining cobblestone streets dotted with pink flower blossoms. It honest to god feels like you are walking in a vibrant scratch and sniff oil painting. However if you’re in high heels, not recommended for cobblestone street walking, or just don’t feel like huffing it, you can take in the city’s picturesque views by way of water taxis or horse drawn buggies since there are no cars allowed in the Historic District… strict. Ben and I went after Carnival, during the offseason. We enjoyed having the colonial city mostly to ourselves. Even though not all the shops were open, the ones that were, were more then enthusiastic to have us wander in. Our favorite shop being a canned peppers and spirits vendor that gave us free shots of cachaca! Cachaca is a distilled alcoholic beverage produced in Brazil and made from sugar cane. Cachaca IS THE very potent and secret ingredient in caipirinhas, the official cocktail of Brazil. However to truly experience Paraty’s uniqueness and rich culture, I would have loved to have visited during one of one of the city’s many festivals. Paraty is known around the world for their colorful traditional rituals, both patriotic and religious, where the locals make ornate carpets out of colored dust and flower pedals, pretty. Since Paraty is located in Ilha Grade Bay, it is a great place to stay while visiting the area’s beautiful beaches, remote islands, tiny coves, and cachoeiras (waterfalls). There are scheduled jeep jungle tours of the area’s highlights but Ben and I being budget-minded travelers decided to do our own tour and rent bikes. After a very long three-hour uphill bike ride with only rudimentary map of the cachoeiras, we made to the Tobogan Fall. This waterfall is unique because you can actually slide down it like you would a water park slide! What, what! Ben and I slide down the waterfall together… awww!!! But disaster stuck, when Ben’s hand that was holding his waterproof camera hit a rock and he dropped his camera! Footage and camera lost but what an adventure! Lesson learned though, always tightly secure your camera before descending down waterfalls. After that the weather stopped cooperating with us. We were forced to move on without visiting Trinadage, a well hidden but near by beach community that was highly recommended by locals and famous for it’s own waterfall, “The Rock that Swallows”. Seeing that we only scratched the surface with this visit, it’s safe to say we will be...
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