Ohhhhh the good life how I have missed you

We had been looking forward to our arrival in Rio for a really long time, even before we left Toronto really for a number of reasons. The allure of exploring such an amazing tropical city, jumping head first into Carnival in the biggest celebration in the world, soaking up the sun on any number of Rio's amazing beaches - all of these things for sure, but the other reason we were looking so forward to it was because we had booked 5 days at the luxurious Sheraton Resort directly on one of Rio's most famous beaches. After spending many weeks sharing hostel accommodations with an random array of strangers we were really looking forward to a taste of the good life again. How do people that have quit their jobs to travel around the world for 1 year afford 5 blissful days and nights at the Sheraton during Carnival you might ask? The answer is POINTS!!!!  One of the perks of my previous work routine of spending 4 days/3 nights a week living in a hotel in various US cities was that I collected massive quantity of hotel points - enough to become a platinum starwood member. This allowed us to get 5 completely free nights (other than a whole bunch of points) at the Sheraton in Leblon beach, one of the only hotels in Rio that is directly on the beach and no set behind the road, during Carnival. Jealous yet?? 

View from our room at the Sheraton

Private beach at our hotel

Looking at the hotel from the beach

Upon arrival we found out that we actually would have been upgraded to a top floor suite, but I had requested 2 double beds and they only had king beds up there - DAMN YOU KAIT AND J.J!! Just kidding, our room was still amazing, high floor, ocean view, champagne on ice waiting for us.....all the perks. So we made the Sheraton our how home for 5 days and spent our days lounging by the pool/beach all day and partying for Carnival all night. Somehow it seems that backpacking should be rougher than this lol. 

Champagne waiting on ice.... thank you Sheraton!

Lounging by the beach

Lounging by the pool

Jonny tanning in his new shorts

By the time we arrived and got settled in our room it was around 8pm and we were all pretty beat from the travel. We were going to try and hit one of the Carnival parties that night but given our long day or travel and Jonny's injury (see update from Iguazu falls for all the details) we decided that we would go out for a nice dinner instead and then hit the Carnival street parties the following day. We decided to try a Brazilian steak house that the hotel concierge recommended and it was quite the experience. 

On our way out to dinner - from  our balcony

First off the restaurant comes to pick you up in a Van and then drove us for approximately 10mins, through all kinds of Rio neighbourhoods both rich and poor, until we arrived at the place. We were a little uneasy at first since it was pretty empty (it was about 10:15pm....apparently they don't eat as late as B.A) and it looked like it had a pretty touristy look to it, but the food was UNREAL. The way a Brazilian steakhouse works is you sit at a table and the servers come around with every kind and cut of meat imaginable on a massive spear and just cut pieces off directly onto your place. They will do this forever until you eventually wave the white flag and lay your napkin on your plate. I am pretty sure we each must of have about 10 to 12 different pieces of amazing meat. Oh and did I mention that there is also a massive buffet that comes along with it that has salad, cheese, pasta and sushi........just in case a massive plate of meat isn't enough for you. Needless to say after dinner we were all quite full and hit the sack for a luxurious nights sleep in our Sheraton beds before hitting the streets for Carnival the next day!


OOO_Talia 

Iguazu Falls you are so Beautiful...... but it just wasn't our day together

Our trip to Iguazu falls started with a 20+ hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to the small town of Puerto Iguazu.  The buses in Argentina have been suprisingly quite comfortable so we were not to concerned with our impending journey. We had set it up so that we would ride overnight in order to arrive in Iguazu around 9am the next day, check into our hostel and then book it to the falls themselves as we only had the 1 day to see them.  Unfortunately our bus departing for Iguazu was about 3 hours late getting away from B.A and as we stood on the bus platform hot, confused and asking anyone around for info on the bus (there were not annnocements, no employees giving out info on the bus etc), perhaps Jonny and I should have taken that to be forshadowing that our journey to Iguazu falls was not going to be quite as seemless as the rest of our travels have been so far. 


The ride itself was pretty uneventful and by the time we arrived, got our bags, found the hostel and got checked in it was about 1130am so we were a little behind schedule. We all decided to drop our stuff and do a quick change in order to get to get a bus to the falls by around noon giving us still a good few hours there before the park closed. Somehow in my rush to get ready I ended up almost chocking to death on toothpaste, to which Jonny have to come running down the hall to my rescue. It look me a little while to recover and finally be able to breath again but when I finally did the 4 of us headed to the bus. Jonny had already been feeling under the weather so by the time we got on the bus we were already a bit battered but so excited to see the falls - and trust me they did not disappoint!


After about 25 mins we arrived at Iguazu Falls on the Argentina side and the views were absolutely breathtaking. I don't think that it is even possible for me to describe the mixture of the view of the falls together with the sound of the water crashing down over them. These falls absolutely but Niagara Falls to shame. The falls actually border Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, each offering different view points of the falls. Unfortunately given travel schedules we were only able to see them from the Argentina side but apparently that is supposed to be where you get the most views. 


Once inside we hopped on the trolley that takes you towards the Devil's throat - the largest part of the falls - after about a 1km walk you reach the spot. Since we knew our time was limited we headed straight to the main event. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Unfortunately as we were walking towards the Devil's throat we realized that our stupid little point and shoot camera (the only one we have left ever since some soul-less bastard in Mendoza stole our DSLR - still bitter at this person) was on its last bar of battery despite the fact that we had charged it just the day before.  Because of this our photo's from the falls are very limited which was utterly disappointed. But no worries, we captured a few and then we just captured the rest with our eyes. 

Walkway on the way to Devil's Throat 

First view of the Falls at Devils Throat

Another view of the devils throat

After finishing up at the devil's throat we headed back to some of the other trails that take you around other parts of the falls both above and below. There are some amazing spots along these trails and I really wish I could put into words how amazing they are. Ever time you round a corner and catch a glimpse you think it can't get any better and then you go around only to be blown away again. 

View from the lower look out right before the camera died

Cedric enjoying the falls (photo credit Kait Haynes)

Finally around 530 we were headed to our last view point of the falls. A spot that is off to the side of one of the smaller falls but so close to them that you can soaked from the mist that it sends off. I went right up close to the falls to get a cool down from some of the water (it was close to 40 degrees that day) and Jonny and J.J were hanging back a bit admiring the view. Somehow as they were doing this Jonny dropped his oakley sunglasses over the railing down onto the ground below - which was basically about 10ft of heavily forested ledge before the slope drops off. It was about a 6 ft drop off the railing and so Jonny decided that he should jump over the railing to rescue his sunglasses. None of this I was aware of as I was still off getting misted. I turned around and started walking back only to see Jonny dropping back onto the path from the railing and then him and J.J starting to scramble and reach for the bags. As I got closer I realized Jonny had a massive amount of blood rolling down his legs. As we went to go over the railing it caught it on one of the brackets and tore a chunk out of his left about 5inches long. Needless to say they were scrambling to get the first aid kit out of J.J's bag. Upon seeing the blood Kait and I ran back to see what was going on. Luckily standing beside us was a super nice woman, who in the little English that she spoke ask us if we need help and that her husband is a paramedic who was also there. She called her husband over and we quickly jumped in to help. It got it cleaned up and bandaged up and then informed Jonny that he needed to head to the medical building to get 5 stitches. We were pretty deep into the trail at this point so it took us about 20 mins to walk back to the main area where we flagged down someone who worked there and asked where the medical building was. They took us all there in their very mini ambulance where we greeted the doctor...... who spoke not 1 word of English and worked in a medical building that looked like they maybe do stitches once a year. 

Ambulance ride at the Falls (photo credit Kait Haynes)

Given that blood and doctors are not really my thing J.J headed in with Jonny while the doctor stitched him up. Somehow in between their no Spanish and the doctors no English they were able to communicate and figure out that he had given him a prescription for antibiotics and pain killers and that he has to keep the stitches for 10 days. Unfortunately for Jonny we were headed to Carnival in Rio the very next day so he will have this injury all through carnival, our beach time in Rio and our for our entire stay at the luxury Sheraton Rio that has a pool overlooking the ocean. Moral of this story...... bad decisions end in bad consequences lol.  And that was the end of our day at Iguazu falls


We headed back to the hostel a little bruised and battered from the day but still blown away by the sights. If going to Iguzu falls is not our your wishlist of travel spots..... you should add it!! Luckily (well for some of us at least) our hostel had a very large pool where 3 of us spend the rest of the evening lounging before our flight the next day. Up next we are off to Rio for CARNIVAL!!!!!!!

OOO_Talia 

Our final days in Buenos Aires - La Boca, A big flower, and one more night on the town

As our time in Buenos Aires was starting to wind down we had done most of the typical tourist things we wanted to do but had saved one, touring through the working class neighbourhood of La Boca. Since it is notorious as being a pretty rough neighbourhood that you need to stick to the main streets while walking in we decided to take the walking tour offered by our hostel to see the area. Little did we know when we were getting ready to leave that morning that we were actually going to see another must see sight while in Argentina - A protest. Filled with military tanks, water canons and tear gas. 
As we all headed our with our tour guide, a cute little Argentinian girl, and headed up to the main street 9 de Julio right around from our hostel we stumbled upon a massive and violent protest underway. By the time we got to the intersection the army was already there with tanks trying to break up the protest and the protesters had started to throw rocks, bricks etc at the police and army. Our guide quickly got our group to tour around and quickly head back to the hostel, but Kait and I, along with many others could not resist trying to snap a few quick shots before heading back. The boys were not to keen on this idea and were telling us to leave now. The army had already started to us the water cannons on the protesters and very quickly it turned to tear gas. Now we were not directly in the spray since we did not actually go into the protest (we wanted pics but were not stupid), but tear gas spreads FAST. Within seconds on the spray going on the protesters everyone on this very, very busy street started running. Even those just there going about their daily business. It was about 2 blocks for us to get safely back into the hostel but the tear gas lingered all the way there so most of us on the tour were suffering the effects.  Just as Jonny was about to go wash his burning eyes out with water there was a girl there checking in who had just finished her stint in the Israeli army who told us the worse thing you can do is put water on it as it spreads the tear gas.  Finally after about 30mins the effects started to go away. 

the scene as we arrived at the intersection

protesters set up in the intersection 

The army rolling in

police getting things under control 

After 2 more attempts to leave for our walking tour only to be pushed back because of the protest the police finally got the crowd contained and we were able to leave and catch our bus to La Boca. La Boca is a really cool area where all the houses are painted different colours. The story goes that given the neighbourhoods history as the main port in Buenos Aires, which has now been moved to Puerto Madera, it was where most immigrants arrived way back in the day. Since most of them where very poor, and this was (and still is) a very poor working class area, people did not have money to get paint for their houses so they used to ask the ships for whatever spare paint they had so they could paint, even if they had to use multiple colours. Over time they have chosen to maintain this tradition and use even more bright and vibrant colours. Our walking tour also included a tour inside the Bombaniero, La Boca Juniors stadium. It was pretty amazing to see the place in the daylight without the hoards of screaming hooligans. It was also amazing to hear the history of the team, which has been in La Boca since the '20s or '30s and hear about how much passion the people of La Boca and B.A in general have for the team. It is really crazy how die-hard they are for their team. 

approaching La Boca stadium

the field from the inside

attempting to jump over like the hooligans do

colourful art in La Boca

Since tourists have to stick to a couple of main blocks, there are lots of tourist things to see on those blocks, people doing the tango for money, stands selling souvenirs, little paintings that you can stick your head in to take pics, cafes offering local favorites, etc. Jonny and I broke away from the tour for a bit and sat down to share a Milanese Sandwich. Something that we had discovered when we were here earlier in the week before the soccer game. After a few hours in La Boca the group headed back to the hostel. 

Soccer spirit even on the doors

Colourful scenes in La Boca

Typical place in La Boca

La Caminito - Tourist centre of La Boca 

Tango in La Boca

Jonny and Talia trying our best Tango moves

Since today was valentine's day we Jonny and I decided to go out for dinner just the two of us and we headed back to Palermo. We decided not to go for the traditional steak dinner that you would normally do while in Argentina since we have already done that a few times and found this amazing Indian fusion place called Quimbombo. Just earlier that day Jonny had been saying how much he was craving hummus and falafel - both of which they had on the menu! We dinned, shared another bottle of Mendoza wine and headed home. By this point the temperature in B.A had creep up to the near 40's and we had zero air conditioning in our 8 bed door so I decided to take to sleeping on the floor directly under the fan. 


The next day was pretty much our last day in B.A since we had booked an overnight bus to Iguazu falls leave the next afternoon so we decided we were going to take full advantage and get one more night out on the town in before leaving. Since we had learned over our time in B.A that if you want to have any chance of lasting the night you had to take it easy during the day Jonny and decided to do that. We spent the day doing one more walk through Recoletta. We went to check out this old theatre that had been converted into a book store - very beautiful. And then we went to check out the massive metal flower that an artist had donated to the city. The flower was in a great park so we spend a few hours there just reading and napping in the shade before heading home to get ready for the night out. 

inside the theatre transformed into a library

View from the stacks

the law school building before you get to the flower

first view of the flower

Flower from another perspective

Jonny and Cedric reading in the park

one last stop at the flower

Our plan for our last night was the same as the first, hit the hostel party until 2am and then club Kika afterwards. But this time we knew how to pace ourselves to make it so around midnight we got ready and headed down to the hostel bar, grabbed a few vodka redbulls and watched the dance floor make-outs commence. Around 230 we headed to Kika - this is the kind of club that we typically would not be caught dead in while in Toronto, two dance floors, overpriced drinks, strobe lights, etc - but when in Rome.  The music was not so great for the first little while and after a couple drinks we were going to start heading  back when when our new fav South American song came on! Some spanish song by Micheal Telo so we spend another half hour tearing up the dance floor. By this point Jonny and turned into Jombie (the drunk zombie version of himself) so we hopped in a cab home. The cabbie, although he did not speak any English quickly took a liking to us and joined into our cab dance party, that jonny was falling asleep during because he was Jombied so our cabbied came up with these lyrics, that he kept repeating to a techno beat "Jonny, Jonny What the Fuck, Jonny what the fuck" so we all joined in of course keeping up the techno beats. We made this guy drop us off at Ryko's for one last Pancho stop before we all hit the bed. And I hit the floor again. It was so damn hot there!
Buenos Aires you definitely showed us a great time........ Until we meet again.

La Bamba at Konex

You would never believe that a 15 minute cab to no specific hood on an early Monday PM would lead to by far the most culturally rich, South American experiences we have had to date. I mean, Mondays are usually shit or used for further needed weekend recovery. 
The music of the country  (in this case city) gather together to collaborate in what at first glance looks lke a gorified yet spectated drum circle (so already, this must be good). That first impression quickly redeems itself (faster than Lloyd when he exchanged the dog-mobile for the scooter) shortly after you walk into the old abandonned olive oil factory.
What was once the shipping and receiving area is now the home; more like the gathering place for the 2,500+ La Bamba crowd every monday night. Mixed with locals and gringos, everyone comes for one reason.. to dance and party. All you have to do is watch, listen and react to an inprov-band consisting of only percussion based (sometimes homemade) instruments.... One dude even just cut a tree trunk in-half, drilled a few holes through it and called it a day.


The 3hr session is lead by a composer who directs and improvised sound to create what feels like an an always uplifting and downright epic drum song... this blows away Garth's rehearsal in the music store ("I like... to play"). This amazing sound captures every history lesson, political demonstration (PS. We saw one.. it was epic and we got tear gassed), every unique neighborhood, resto-bar, speak-easy and dance club's essence (wow.. what a sentence).


After your 3rd litre of Quillmes, all self-conscience bones have been oiled up and greased (it didnt take me even a beer and Talia maybe 1) into a limp but controlled dance to the rhythmic beats.. think hippies-ska-hiphop-mosh.
To me, its how BA really expresses its true self. All band members and crowd from different pockets of this amazing city have their own natural tune and rhythm. But here, its one true, consistent sound... 


These beats I keep talking about... They were the beats of La Bamba Di Tiempo at The Konex.

arriving at the Konex in the middle of nowhere

grabbing some 1 litre beers before the show

Cedric Joined us at the Konex

the crowd as the show was starting

night time view of the Konex

the band on the drums

the whole Bamba crew

What do you do when you accidentally find yourself at a Gay Bar in Buenos Aires....... DANCE!

By Saturday in Buenos Aires we were starting to get our barrings in the city and getting in step with the pace of the city. So on Saturday we got rolling at about noon and Jonny and I headed out to the neighborhood of Palermo, which we absolutely feel in love with, think like Queen West in Toronto, but with a few extra upscale restaurants thrown in. We had already heard really good things about the area so we were pretty pumped to go, and Saturdays there is an open air market filled with Artisans selling their own jewellery, clothing, etc (which I took full advantage of).  

By the time we arrived in Palermo around 12:30-1pm, the market was only just starting to get set up........ they really do move at a different pace here, in Canada weekend markets would be wrapping up by this time.  So we spent the day wandering around the market grabbing food at a few great spots and hitting the shops. Although I did most of the shopping Jonny had the biggest score of the day and found himself a new short short bathing suit - wait for the pics you will not be disappointed - they come complete with a sail boat print right out of an '80s country club.  

Shopping in Palermo

One find that we have to highlight is this amazing little cafe that we went to called Libros Del Pasaje. Jonny had read about it on the same coffee blog that we found the amazing coffee spot in La Paz. It is this cute little cafe buried in the back of an independent book store that was the most charming spot we have been to yet, it even had hand written menus. We relaxed there with coffees, he had a bagel and I had a ham and cheese tostado (like a mini sandwich) and we read Spanish magazines for over an hour. 

Enjoying Spanish Glamour 

the quaint setting inside

The view from the street

Around 7pm we headed back to the hostel to start getting ready for the night. We were trying to pace ourselves right because we knew we were going to try and hit city hard tonight in true Buenos Aires style and make it dancing until 6am.  Around 10pm we headed back to Palermo with Kait and J.J. to meet up with our Kiwi friends at a great Parilla Restaurant, Don Jolio's, for a big Argentinian steak dinner.  And feast we did, we all had beef in some form or another, mashed potatoes, veggies, a couple bottles of wine and all for the around $40 each Canadian. After dinner the boys headed outside for some cigars that Pete, our kiwi friend, had bought earlier in the day and we ladies stayed inside finishing our wine. Before we knew it it was 2am and we were the last ones there.  


At 2am we decided that we would head to a bar to grab a few drinks before we hit a club for the night dance. I had heard about this little speak easy bar called 878 - indicating its address (for those that don't know a speak easy is a hidden bar with no sign or anything that usually looks like nothing from the outside). So we headed out to walk a few blocks to try and find this place and somehow along the way I had gotten in my head that it was 879, so when we pulled up to 879 and the door was covered with cobwebs I thought we had be steered wrong. Luckily Jonny spotted and really random man standing across the very deserted street wearing a tie and asked me if it could be 878, since that was the address he was standing in front of. I hesitated for a second and then the guy in the tie said "you looking for bar?" - Found it!! The place was great! A little hidden gem that even had a hidden room in the bar. The waitress escorted us there and we each had a few cocktails over the next few hours. 

Inside the back room of 878

The hidden gem for the evening

Suddenly we realized that it was almost 5am so we decided it was time to go DANCING! Rachel and Pete decided to call it a night, so the 4 of us jumped in a cab and asked the driver to take us to the Roxy!! This was a club that we had read about online that sounded pretty good, and was one of the only ones that claimed to play rock and hip-hop and not just electronic music so we decided it was the one for us. After about 10min cab (now 5am) ride we pulled up and walked to the front and the door man informed is that they were no longer letting anyone in since they stop serving drinks at 530. After a little pleading, offering to pay a little extra and telling him we were Canadian and only here for the night the bouncer caved and let us come in, and even let us in free of charge! Just as we were walking up the ramp to the sweaty dance floor the bouncer grabbed Kait by the arm and whispered in her ear "It's Gay night".  We all looked around, and he definitely was not kidding. Oooooooops. It didn't say that about the Roxy on line. We all had a good laugh and realized how badly we stuck out as the only straight people in the bar, in our only bar-ish back packing clothes, and without out any of that South American rhythm in our dance moves. We grabbed a few beers and the bar and jumped right into the dance floor and stayed there until 6am. After which we hopped a taxi home and watched the sun come out from outside the window of our cab. 

Sunrise cab ride home

Sunrising over the square near our hostel

At the time when we were there I just thought of it as a funny story, but as I was reflecting on the night the next day I was kinda happy that we had gotten to see it.  I was amazed to see in South America, where there are still a number of 3rd world countries and culture and customs that are still heavily based on religion that people were able to be open about their sexuality and in Buenos Aires a least, gay people where not forced into the shadows. 


All and all in ended up being a great night which resulted in a very slow moving Sunday morning. The 4 of us finally got going around 230pm and headed back to the area of San Telmo. We started out by quickly beelining to a restaurant and gave across this amazing little spot tucked away in a back alley called Pasaje Solar. We all had some amazing Italian food and shared a bottle of Mendoza wine to help cure our hangovers.  Sunday is an amazing day in San Telmo all the streets get closed down and it just becomes a massive street market filled with thousands of people. I am talking like 20 blocks of anything you could ever want, antiques, souvenirs, street food, art, leather goods, street performers, etc. I could go on and on about want what you can see there. Even with our hangovers were wandered around San Telmo for hours.  After which we headed home, made our our dinner and called it a night. Early. 

The patio at Solar Pasaje

Gentleman entertaining in San Telmo

Out front of Pasaje Solar

Interesting finds in the market

Antique spray bottles - they had these everywhere

A little cheese in San Telmo