Buenos Aires - you are one classy bird

We spent 4 days in Buenos Aires, but I have decided that I could quite happily stay there in an apartment with a sweet balcony for a month – it is delightful.

Tango dancing in the street....that's how they roll

Buenos Aires is a vibrant, cultural city full of beautiful buildings, cobbled streets (not so charming when you’ve been walking on them all day), tango dancing, the smell of meat wafting around, mountains of history and delicious little caramel peanuts from the peanut man on every corner. It has an old-fashioned charm to it – feels like it should be seen through the eye of a black and white lens.

On Sunday we walked to the beautiful suburb of San Telmo, to go to the famous Plaza Dorrego market. I do love a good market, and these were out of control… the street was blocked off for about 2km, all filled with market stalls! (Mum – it was full of antiques and vintage goodies, I’ve taken some special photos just for you. I don’t think anyone else will be interested in my chandelier photos…). Overwhelmed by choice, all I ended up buying was a steak sandwich for lunch. And some caramel peanuts.



Squillions of people at the markets



Lunch. Moooo.

 

Lost tourist. Somebody teach that girl how to read a map

Those Argentinians are onto a good thing with their body clock and working hours… siesta time? Yes please! On our first night in BA we went out for dinner at 10.30pm, feeling rather smug that we were capable of eating out late too. Our restaurant was packed full of people, including lots of old people and kids. By 11.00pm I was yawning into my plate and it was home time – the 6 year old opposite me was ordering dessert.

We officially discovered the Best Pizza Of Our Lives at a place called Pizzaria Guerrian. Unfortunately no pics… this place was all about serious eating, with no time for mucking around. The pizza was 5 peso a slice ($1.25AUD), and was eaten standing up at a counter. Muzzarella is highly recommended. Also recommended to speak clearly when ordering an Empanada, otherwise you might end up with Napoliatana pizza. Fail.

We headed to the famous suburb of La Boca, on the dodgy side of town. In keeping with Melbourne tradition, we fare evaded on the bus.... the Argentinians have this weird thing about not giving up their coins (they are in short supply) so it's near impossible to get coins for the bus. Boca was bright and colourful, and chocca full of people with cameras and police - those darn tourists.

Err.... famous soccer player who hit a ball with his hand (?). And Mike.

We did lots of walking around and taking photos of buildings, which I’m sure won’t be a crowd pleaser so I’ll keep those to myself. Oh, and meat. We ate it, yes we did.

I am writing this on a bus, and it’s a swirling winter wonderland outside – so much snow! And so much ash cloud residue, but that’s not quite as pretty. Stupid volcano (I’m still harbouring resentment from having 167 of my flights cancelled when it erupted in June).

Special shout out to Mank and Han on the exciting engagement news! We are so very happy and excited for you.

Adios amigos x

Uruguay (ew you are)

Hi there

So I know our last post said we were in Argentina...but this is mostly gonna be about Uruguay...if you don't quite get this, check a map, turns out they're kinda close.

After a few days in Puerto Iguazu we bussed 5 hours south to a small (read poky and a little desolate) town called San Ignacio De Mini which is famous for some Jesuit ruins.  The Jesuits were missionaries that bonded with the locals when they came over and from what I can gather they were quite into music...this is not really a factual blog (sorry Tim)...anyway, the ruins were quite cool:

Yas doing her best impression of a ruin

The Jesuits were obviously short spanish men...probably with luscious hair and an unbounded confidence to whisper sweet nothings to unknown ladies as they walk past in the street...also note the knock off AB's top picked up for $40

After San Ignacio we decided that we were ready for another monster bus trip so we left our hostel and spent the next 32 hours on 3 different busses, bus stations and a ferry before arriving in Montevideo (Uruguay).  Yas has perfected the art of sleeping on a bus (I don't hate her for this, because hate is such a strong word) whereas I was reduced to the floor (deck) of the ferry:

Montevideo is cool. Not sure why.  It's Marbo...it's the vibe of it all.

Up until we hit Montevideo we had been quite disappointed with the food we had come across so far.  Anything prepared for you (and not too expensive) had been fried within an inch of its life and fresh vegies in the supermarkets were not the norm...then we found the Disco supermarket chain.  Yas almost had tears in her eyes as she gazed open mouthed at the produce department.  We love disco.

But cooking for yourself all the time doesn't really emerse you in the culture of a place and Uruguay is famous for one thing when it comes to food - MEAT.  Their version of a grill (Asado or Parilla) is incredible.  One spot in particular is a must do for all carnivorous humans, Puerto Mercado.  It is basically an old railway station that has 15 or so grill restaurants everywhere...there must be 100 juicy animals grilling at any one time in this meat mecca...ok I'm dribbling on the keyboard:



These are the fellas you want cooking your bbq, awesome guys

I chose to put the before picture of our lunch on the blog...the after pic is both disgusting (we ate a lot) and humiliating (we didn't finish)...we overordered badly and ended up taking the salad home.  We didn't eat any meat for two days afterward.  I'd do it again.

In an attempt to assuage our meat guilts we rented bikes and tiki toured round Montevideo. The weirdest thing we saw was a spot near the lighthouse where about 40 seemingly domestic cats were just hanging out:

Cat lady

From Montevideo we headed to a hostel we had read about called El Galope run by Monica and Miguel (and their dog Tupac).  They run a farm based hostel just out of Colonia.  Our stay there was awesome, we got fondue, semi nudey sauna's with the owner (fully nudey with the German guy who was the only other guest...) a fire in the bedroom and got to ride (sit on) their horses...neato.  Fully recommend this place if you are ever in the vicinity:

Fondue with Monica and the New Yawkers

feeding time

Gaucho Yas and Tupac...the horses name is unrepeatable

Yeah, he didn't feel like moving too much

El Galope recharged our batteries before hitting Buenos Aires, on the way back to the ferry we took in the historic town of Colonia.  It is old.

Right now we are in the snow in a place called Bariloche in the south of Argentina.  In between we have spent a bit of time in Buenos Aires and a little hippy town called El Bolson.  But that's for another entry.  Will try and get that up soon.

Hope everyone is doing great, and don't worry about the AB's, the loss was a tactical move to entice more Aussies over to the World Cup and snap up those leftover tickets...nothing more.

Muchos gracias

Mike and Yas

Brazil - bums, beaches and buses

Ola! Voce fala Ingles? Non....Ah sh*t...do you know charades?

This is how many of our conversations in Brazil have gone for us, it probably had something to do with the fact we learnt all our Portuguese on the flight over!

We are now in Puerto Iguacu in Argentina (Spanish speaking) and thought it was about time to update and let you all in on what we've been up to in Brazil.

Rio

When we landed in Rio we got pretty excited by the view out the plane window, the whole coastline between Sao Paulo and Rio was littered with white beaches and islands everywhere and seeing Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city was postcard perfect. We had booked a hostel late and ended up in a 12 bed dorm, pretty hilarious when we walked in and found the bunks stacked 3 high and no room to put our bags down.

I was lucky enough to get the penthouse bunk next to the window while Yas got to slum it in the basement.  Those stairs are not easy to scale after a few caipirinha's (a white spirit speciality of Brazil which they ingeniously mix with....just cut limes and sugar...packed a punch!).  Just out of shot is a very large Italian man sleeping in just his jocks and snoring...Francisco was a legend though.

Other than the "cosy" quarters though it was a pretty sweet hostel with great people and close to Copacabana Beach.

Rio is wicked because there is always something going on. We had a great time heading to the beaches, walking round the historic areas, going to a football match to watch Ronaldhino be treated like a deity, heading to Lapa for a friday night out and generally relaxing. Here are a few pics so you can see for yourself:

A view of Rio from up in a suburb called Santa Theresa. The toy of choice for the kids was kites...didn't let me have a go though.

Way to block the view Yas

The end result of 10 failed selfie shots. The stairs we are on are really cool. There are about 6 or 7 flights that a Chilean artist started tiling in 1993 and he is still adding and remodelling them everyday. 

Doesn't matter what you look like, if you are Brasilian (or in Brazil) you pose for photos like you own the beach!

Yas hasn't quite got the Miss Universe poses down yet...luckily she's still pretty cute

Bums

Ipanema Beach - just a few people out and about

 At the Copa, Copacabana
The hottest spot north of Havana
At the Copa, Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion

Thanks Barry Manilow

After 5 days of beautiful sunshine we waited until our last day to catch the train and see Christo Redentor...he was in a meeting with the big guy upstairs

It gave Yas a chance to show off her tan though.

Ilhe Grande


After the hustle and bustle of the big city we thought we would check out one of those islands we had seen on the way up to Rio and caught a bus and ferry to Ilhe Grande which is about 3 hours south of Rio on the coast (note the facts there Tim).

The island was beautiful and fairly quiet in the low season and after a day of nothing much (read "rain") we hiked for a couple of hours round the island to have a look at some of the beaches and work on the tan a little more. Yep...it was pretty stressful.

Yas went for a classic pose

I chose something a little more unconventional

By this time we were really starting to get into the swing of this whole relaxing thing...

Pretty easy to relax in such a beautiful spot

Not so easy when your boat driver thinks he is Tarzan

Paraty

A little further down the coast is an awesome wee historic town called Paraty with cool cobbled streets and amazing beaches and islands all around too. So off we went for a couple of days.

That's it! Now say "all I want is World Peace"

Foz De Iguacu

From Paraty we wanted to get to Iguacu, which meant a 7 hour bus to Sao Paulo and then a 16 hour bus to Foz De Iguacu, only problem was the bus company's (only 2) that go to Iguacu had no ticket agents in Paraty and there is no such thing as online booking in Brazil (a bit frustrating for those of us that don't really plan ahead that much). We got into Sao Paulo at 7pm and were told (in our stunted sign language) that the tickets for Iguacu were all sold out (crap) but we could try catching 2 metro trains to another bus station and asking another company...a bit of panic later and one extremely helpful lady on the train who jabbered away in Portuguese and kept saying "San Francisco"...we managed to get tickets and get on a bus. By the time we got off we had been on the road for 26 hours. But the falls are worth it.

　
Things that will stick in my mind about Brazil:

Flesh - doesn't matter what shape, colour, age or bum size...flaunt it! I have never seen so many bums, big, small, cottage cheese or geriatric. Also, if you have spent many hours in the gym (or on the beach) working on your muscles, it is perfectly acceptable to spend 20 mins standing and oiling your biceps and abs up...so I did.

Football - it's everywhere and everyone is goooood at it! I feel really sorry for the unco kid at school;

Bus drivers - they are mad. If there was a Formula 1 for public transport Brazil would take out the bus classification hands down (I imagine that China and Japan would battle it out for train supremecy and the Botswana would put in a good showing in the donkey race); and

Expensey! - not sure how the average Brasilian affords what is being charged for supermarket goods and public services etc. We burned a bit of cash in Brazil (worth it of course) but glad to be on the Peso now.

Right, this has gone on too long but now you know what we've been doing...what's going on with you? We love getting emails from everyone so keep them coming in. I hear it is a bit of a pain trying to leave a comment on here (Mum tried for 25 minutes to set up an account but couldn't quite grasp it...can somebody make sure she hasn't hurt herself?).

Next is Argentina and a bit of Uruguay, will post again soonish.

Much love
Mike and Yazzy

PS:

Ankit - I hope you enjoyed the sleeveless shot of me (it was for you specially).

Reg - enough facts?

Coops and G - we are planning on doing a weeks spanish course in BA from about the 22nd, where are you two gonna be?

Johnny - top work on that Ironman.

Al and JP - Hebblesworth and the team?

Sparkles - keep shining.

Burpa - waiting to hear the news that you have a dog, cat and baby on the way.

Mitchells - any advice for North East Argy?

Ma and Pa - love you lots, hope the snow is good and we will skype soon (Deb you too!)