Food

On our first night in Rio we were taken to a Rodizio, a very popular style of restaurant in Brazil. This is where you pay a set price and you get a salad buffet while the waiters walk around with skewers of various grilled meats which they carve onto your plate. They keep coming around until you can’t eat any more. We had been to one in Spain and another in London and as you can imagine, this is Ross’ favourite type of restaurant so he was very excited to go to this one. The restaurant didn’t disappoint. The salad bar was delicious and the meat cooked to perfection.

Another type of restaurant popular in Brazil is a buffet where you pay for your food by weight. These restaurants varied in quality but we did go to a really nice one serving grilled meats, salads, fish and even sushi.

Our guide also introduced us to Açaí. A berry which is mixed with ice to make a refreshing drink. It is usually mixed with another fruit like banana or strawberry and granola. We had this for lunch every day. They also have something called guarana which is a natural energy source. It is one of the ingredients in Red Bull but in Brazil you have it alone with no chemical additives. This is very popular in Brazil and you can find varieties of it everywhere. It tastes way better than Red Bull.

The Beaches

While in Rio we stayed in Ipanema which is supposedly safer than other places in Rio and it has a really nice beach. Our hotel was only two blocks away which was very convenient. It was so hot while we were there, the temperatures were over 30 degrees every day and very humid so going to the beach was a nice way to cool down. There were people on the beach every day but it wasn’t too crowded. A lot of them seemed to be locals. The water was nice but in some areas, there was lots of rubbish either floating around or washed up on the beach which was a shame.

Football Match

Football is obviously the most popular sport in Brazil so we couldn’t leave without going to a match. We got tickets for what we were told was the equivalent of the Championship League in England where the top teams from South America play each other. The game was between Flamengo (a local team from Rio) and Universidad Catholica de Chile (a Chilean team). The tour group supported the local team but our guide, being from Chile, supported the Chileans.  We kept this pretty quiet as we were sitting in the home team seats. This was one of the first games of the season and the stadium was mostly empty apart from the section that we sat in. We arrived about half an hour early for the game and shortly after we found our seats, the crowd stood up and started singing songs to the beat of a few drummers in the crowd. Despite it being 30 degrees and humid with no wind, they jumped up and down, clapping and waving their arms around in unison while cheering for their team. The enthusiasm was amazing! The team hadn’t even come out yet.

As the game grew nearer, the seats around us filled up and people started waving around massive red and black flags (the team colours). When the players finally came out onto the pitch, the crowd let off red fireworks creating lots of smoke and all you could see were people cheering in the red haze. They actually had fireworks that were shooting out like the ones you normally put in the ground. We were glad not to be too close to those sections with the fireworks.

The cheering and drumming continued for the entire game. Not a single person sat down until half time. The Flamengo team scored near the beginning of the match and the cheers were so loud that it hurt my ears. There weren’t even that many people at the game but it sounded louder than I’ve heard at a sold out football match in England. The Flamengo team ended up winning 2 to 0. The actual game was a bit sloppy. A lot of mistakes were made and there were very few shots on net. Ross and I were surprised to hear that these were actually top teams but we guessed that all of the really good players get drafted by the European teams. The crowd was definitely more interesting than the game itself. They put English football fans to shame.

The Sites

The quickest and easiest way to see the sights in Rio is to join a tour so this is what we did. Our first stop was the Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro located at the centre of the city. The building is shaped like a cone and doesn’t look like a cathedral at all from the outside but inside there are beautiful floor to ceiling stained glass windows. The crucifix hanging from the ceiling almost looks like it’s floating.

From the cathedral, we drove to the famous Escadaria Selarón. These are some steps that were covered in tiles by a local artist in the 90’s because he didn’t like the look of them. He eventually covered all of the steps in colourful tiles, some representing various countries. The steps have since become a tourist attraction.

The next stop was the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer. The statue is on a hill overlooking the city and it’s the most popular tourist attraction in Rio so it was very busy. We struggled to get a photo with no one in it.

The final stop was the Sugarloaf, a mountain named after the shape of traditional refined loaf sugar. Two cable cars take you to the top and it is the only place where you can safely watch the sunset over Rio which was spectacular.

Rio was our final stop on our 9-month trip around the world. It was a great ending to a trip of a lifetime that neither of us will ever forget. We are already planning our next adventure… Stay tuned!

Paraty is a preserved Portuguese colonial town located on the coast of Brazil in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The old town was very charming with its cobblestone street lined with white walls and painted doorways and windows. There are supposedly a few nearby beaches that are nice, unfortunately, it rained for the entire time that we were there so there wasn’t much to do apart from walk around town and try cachaça, a spirit derived from sugar cane which is used to make caipirinha’s.

Ilha Grande

From Paraty, we caught a local bus to the coast to catch our ferry boat to Ilha Grande (which translates to Big Island… how original ). The bus ride was an adventure of its own. The bus driver drove like a maniac through the narrow winding streets on the way and anytime there was a stop, he would slam on the brakes. We finally arrived at the coastal town of Angra where we boarded our “ferry boat”. We then waited for an hour and a half for the boat to leave. As more and more people got on, we realised that the boat wasn’t going to leave until it was at full capacity. We were lucky to get one when we did because the late comers had to stand for the one and a half hour ride to the island.

The island is known for its tropical beaches and rugged landscape. The entire island is protected as it contains remnants of Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest which is home to many species of plants and animals, including some that are endangered. There are many beaches around the island that can only be reached by boat or by hiking through the rainforest and development is limited so there are only small local run hotels. We only had one day here and the options were to hike through the rainforest in over 30 degree heat for six hours to visit one of the beaches or spend the day on a boat, cruising around the island, snorkelling and a BBQ on board with unlimited caipirinha’s. So we went on the boat cruise and spent the afternoon practicing our diving skills off the side of the boat.

The next day we went back to the mainland by ferry and onto a bus heading for Rio!

The sunrise also gave us the opportunity to try out our new camera. We had to be careful with our Nikon DSLR’s in Brazil as we didn’t want to stand out to thieves so the small camera came in handy.

We’d been told that across the border from Brazil was a massive shopping city called Ciudad del Este where you could get a electronics cheap. Being on the lookout for a new point-and-shoot camera we’d hoped we could find the Canon S90 there. After doing some research online before heading across, we’d found out that it’s not just a shopping city for cheap electronic goods, but for absolutely everything including guns and drugs. They even offered a service to smuggle the goods back over the border for you. So you can pop across, buy an AK47, 50 kg’s of marijuana and they’d deliver to your hotel room back in Brazil. Now that’s what I call service!

Instead of trying to find those places, we stuck to the electronics part of town and went searching for our camera. We quickly realised that whilst it’s cheap for South America everything is about the same price you’d pay in the US. This is still a lot cheaper than the UK so it was good value for us.

After 2 hours of searching, we eventually found a shop that had our camera model in stock and a couple of minutes later we were the proud owners of a new Canon S90.

As markets go, the place was huge. It wasn’t just one shopping centre, but a whole city of them that went on as far as the eye could see. It actually put all the big markets we’d been to across Asia to shame.

Afterwards we were back in Brazil waiting for our 24-hour bus ride to Paraty.

Brazilian Side

The next day, we came back to the Brazilian side to see the falls. The Brazilian side is known to have more panoramic views. I couldn’t help comparing the falls to those in Niagara and I definitely prefer Iguassu. The main reason being that it is surrounded by a national park which has been protected from developers so it has been left in its natural environment as opposed to being surrounded by casinos and hotels. That, and it was a lot bigger and more spectacular.

There are many wooden walkways built around the falls so that you can get different perspectives and one even takes you right in front where you can feel the spray of the water. The place was packed with tourists, most of them locals. We later found out that it was a holiday weekend in Brazil for Carnival.

After visiting the falls we went for a helicopter ride over them. This was my first time in a helicopter so it was pretty exciting and the views were amazing!

Argentinean Side

The next day we visited the Argentinean side of the falls. This side has more walkways and trails around the falls. We saw two toucans fly over us on the way in but didn’t have time to take a photo and hopped that we would see more but unfortunately they are very difficult to spot.

We had the option on this side to do a speed boat trip around the falls. We thought it sounded like fun and decided to go with a few others from our group. This also included a short jungle safari on the way. It started to rain just as we jumped on the open air truck so we weren’t able to see much at all. We then changed into our bathing suits for the boat ride as we were told that everyone gets wet. As we were waiting for the boat to arrive, it started to pore down and by the time we got on the boat we were already soaked. It continued to rain for our entire ride and even got worse as we approached the falls. When they finally drove the boat in front of the falls, we weren’t sure if we were feeling the spray from the falls or the rain. Water was coming from all directions. All we could do was laugh at the situation. We couldn’t believe that people were still pulling out their cameras for pictures.

Afterwards we went into a snack bar for shelter and after about an hour, the rain stopped and the sun came out so we started our walk along the path around the falls. The first thing that we noticed on the path were all the butterflies. They were everywhere and there were all different. I was determined to get a photo of one of them. Here are the two that I managed to sneak up to.

There were a lot less people on this side of the falls which was nice. We also saw some interesting looking birds which I later found out are called Plush-crested Jays.

It was the last day of Carnival and it is not only celebrated in Rio but all over Brazil so there was a small Samba school competition going on in Foz de Iguazu in Brazil. Carnival usually consists of a parade of Samba schools competing which turns into a big street party. Unfortunately, our tour leader got the time wrong and we arrived too late for the Samba parade but there was a concert after the parade and everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves.

In order to get to the party, we had crossed over to the Brazilian side and since we were only there for the evening we didn’t get a stamp on our passport. There seems to be a process set up for tourists crossing over so that you don’t get a stamp until you actually enter Brazil for good, i.e. more than a few hours. (The Argentineans don’t have a process in place so I now have a passport full of Argentina stamps from all the times we went back and forth over the border). The condition is that the driver fills out a form with all of the names and passport numbers of the people crossing and at the end of the day, he takes the same group back over to the other side, handing this form in to immigration.

So our guide had arranged for our driver to pick us up from the Carnival at 2am to take us back to our hotel. It started to pour down rain just before the meeting time and when we got to the meeting point, the driver wasn’t there. The only shelter that we could find was a small snack bar on the side of the road with an awning that barely covered us. We waited there with the group for an hour thinking that maybe the driver got confused with the time change between Brazil and Argentina (Brazil was still on daylight savings time) and was going to show up at 3am instead. As 3am approached and the rain was poring down even worse, we started to think he wasn’t going to show and tried to figure out what to do. We couldn’t get cabs to the border as we didn’t have any Brazil stamps in our passport and none of us spoke Portuguese so we wouldn’t be able to explain the situation to the customs person. As more and more dodgy people started to crowd under the snack bar awning, glaring at the girls, we decided to get cabs to a nearby hotel. (We remembered the name of the hotel that we were supposed to stay at before they moved us to the Argentinean hotel.) The receptionist there was very nice and allowed us to stay while we tried to contact the tour company to ask them to call the driver. After a few calls back and forth and a few more hours of waiting, we were told to just go to the border and try to explain our case. It was 5am at this point and we were exhausted. Luckily, the guy at the border spoke English and allowed us to go through. We finally got back to our hotel and after two hours sleep, we had to get up again in time check out. We later found out that the driver had fallen asleep!

Our 24-hour bus ride to Paraty in Brazil wasn’t leaving until the evening so we had to option to spend the day across the border in Paraguay for some shopping.

The ferry from BA took us to a small town called Colonia. The ferry itself was a bit strange. It actually had its own lounge singer and this was at 10am in the morning.

Colonia is appropriately named as it’s an old Colonial town on the coast.  There isn’t much to do there but the old town is very picturesque with lots of cafes and restaurants by the sea. We were only there for a day so we took the chance to hire buggies and drive around for the afternoon. The buggies were these little cars that looked like massive roll cages and had a small engine in the back. On the open road we got it up to about 50 km/h which is not bad. We drove to the beach for look, but at seeing the colour of the water we decided against it. Colonia is at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata river which runs into the Atlantic and the winds and tides stir up them mud and silt making the water turn a cloudy brown colour.

After driving round the old town for a little bit, we returned the buggies and went out for dinner. As usual we’d looked at all the local postcards to get ideas for photographs, and the only thing we could find were sunsets, so Ross took the camera with us to try to capture the sunset ourselves. The photos he got were spectacular.

Montevideo

The next day, we were off early to get a bus down to Montevideo the capital of Uruguay. The city is also on the coast but has similar coloured water to Colonia so swimming was out of the question. We rented bikes instead and went for a ride along the 20km beach front track.

Nine people in our group rented bikes and we set off. After about 5kms we managed to lose one person and despite riding back to where we last saw her, she was nowhere to be found. About this same time, the pedal on my bike fell off. So we had to walk the bike around looking for a repair shop and eventually found a little hole in the wall place. Despite being on his lunch break, the guy fixed my pedal.

Heading back to the group, Louise, the missing girl, still hadn’t been found, so the group split in two, some heading back to try and find her with the rest of us heading onto the end of the trail.

Shortly after getting to the end of the track and turning around, Ross’s back tire popped and he was left searching around for a taxi who’d take his bike back to the hotel. Another member of our group was pretty tired and feeling ill from the sun and heat so she offered to take the bike back for us. After eventually finding a taxi we were off back to the hotel. When we got back we found out that Louise’s bike also had problems and she had stopped to get it fixed. So after 1/3 of the bikes hired fell apart, we decided to be much more careful in future before accepting a bike rental.

Having exhausted everything there is to do in Montevideo (not much as it turns out) we started our bus trip to Iguassu Falls. Due to bus connections, and a 24 hour bus ride, we stopped for a night in a small town called Salto. 

Our bus wasn’t until 5pm the next day and the only thing to do in Salto is visit a small water park with a couple of waterslides and hot springs. The warm water was a bit uncomfortable in the 32 degree heat but we eventually got used to it. Ross spent the entire time going down two of the slides and trying to find faster ways to get down. Afterwards we were off on our 18-hour bus journey to Iguassu Falls.

Buenos Aires

On our first day we were free to do whatever we wanted, and since we didn’t get a chance last time we were in BA, we decided to visit La Recoleta Cemetery. It is famous for housing the graves of some of the most influential and important Argentineans, Eva Perón being the most well-known. It was designed by a French engineer and is laid out in sections like city blocks, full of mausoleums. Some were in very good condition while others were falling apart. It was a rainy and overcast day but this was actually perfect for visiting the cemetery.

Here are a few of our favourite pics:

In the evening, we planned to meet up with the group to watch the Superbowl. For dinner Ross and I recommended our favourite restaurant in BA, Desnivel. We had been there twice the last time we were in BA. The filet steak was just as good as Gaucho’s in London but a fraction of the price.

Afterwards we headed to a bar to watch the Saints win the Superbowl which have become our team since seeing them at an NFL game in London.

The next day we left Argentina and were on a ferry to Uruguay.

 

Click on the map to view a larger interactive map.

The next morning Ross got up early to take some photos of the   birds that were circling the boat.

Shortly after breakfast, we heard the anchor go down so we knew that we must have reached a landing spot. An announcement came on telling us that we had had anchored near a group of islands called Islas Diego Ramirez.

Islas Diego Ramirez

The islands are located in the southernmost extreme of Chile about 100 km southwest of Cape Horn. There is a meteorological station on one of the islands which we contacted but we couldn’t get permission to land. The staff were told that they could do a zodiac cruise around the island to take photos (at least this is what they understood with their limited Spanish). So we hopped onto the zodiacs and cruised around the island, all the while keeping out of sight of the Chilean base so as not to upset them.

The crew were very excited about seeing the island up close as they had never visited the site before. The island was different from the ones that we had seen previously. It had very steep hills covered in long green grass which was blowing in the wind creating a wave effect. The island was surrounded by a this seaweed which looked kind of like thick green noodles floating at the surface and moving with the incoming waves (this also made it hard for the zodiac to navigate).

Not only was the terrain different but the island was bursting with wildlife! There was a colony of Rock Hopper Penguins walking along the steep rocks at the base of the island which was a penguin species that we hadn’t seen before. They are a funny looking penguin with red eyes and a bit of yellow hair on either side of their head.

There were groups of South American Fur Seals and their pups sitting along the rocky shore which we also hadn’t seen previously. Even some of the expedition staff were excited to see them as they hadn’t come across them before either.

Someone also spotted a single Magellanic Penguin amongst the Rock Hoppers which was a bit odd as they normally don’t like the steep rocky hills and are usually found in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands. We thought it must be lost.

Along the steep hills there were nests of Black-browed Albatross, Grey-headed Albatross and Southern Giant Petrels. We got a few shots of the petrels taking off in the water.

There were also small birds flying around our boat and occasionally landing on people’s heads. They seemed to like mine and the guy beside me and kept coming back to us.

As we cruised around the island, we suddenly came across loads of seals swimming around the boat. This was the first time that we had seen so many swimming and we were very excited. Like swimming penguins, seals swimming are very hard to capture since you don’t know when they are going to jump up. Photographing them on a moving zodiac was also a challenge. We took over 1200 photos on the cruise that day and a lot of them were of water and only a few good ones.

We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon going through the photos while we were on our way to Cape Horn.

Cape Horn

Cape Horn is an island on the southern tip of South America. For many years it was used as a shipping route but was very hazardous due to the strong winds and massive waves around the island. There is no longer a need for ships to round the horn but it is still known as a major challenge and they say that if you round the Horn you can put one foot on the table in the company of sailors. If you sail around it, you can put two feet up.

Since it was such a nice day and the seas were relatively calm, the expedition staff decided that we would round Cape Horn. Apparently, they have rarely been able to see the island as clearly as we did that day.

After dinner, we went out to try to capture our last sunset on the  boat.

The next day, Ross got up early to take some photos of the sunrise as we approached Ushuaia.

At breakfast we took a picture of our table. We seemed to keep the same group for most of the trip. Despite the fact that there were only six place settings, we were always squeezing in a few more (much to the dismay of the serving staff ).

After breakfast, it was goodbyes all round as we left the ship and Ross and I were already thinking about our next trip to Antarctica!

Well normally when they name things there is always an element of marketing involved. Just think of Eric the Viking and the naming of Greenland or Wood Green in London. Well, when they named Paradise Harbour they really weren’t exaggerating. We got up and after some quick photos and an even quicker breakfast, we went into Zodiacs to land and go for a walk up to the view point.

All around the water was still creating a mirror effect and with high mountains all around it was sometimes hard to tell if you were looking at the real thing or its reflection. After grouping at the Argentine research base (yes, somebody gets to live there! at least during the summer months) we started up to the view point.

After a brief climb we were at the top and it wasn’t disappointing. Here are some of our favourite photos including a 360 degree panorama (click on the photo for a better view).

Since it’s easier and quicker get get down a snowy hill on your bum that’s exactly what the whole group did! In our group was a 77 year old who was celebrating his birthday that day. After he led the sliding, a few people who were trying to find excuses not to do it, suddenly found none with the phrase, “Well if a 77 year old can do it, I guess I’ve got no excuse.” Debra and I just hope that we are still as adventurous at 77!

After that it was back to the Zodiacs for a cruise around the harbour. Luckily for us we were on Howards zodiac as after a few minutes he said, “Who’d like to walk on a iceberg?” As usual, Debra and I were the first volunteers. So for my third time and Debra’s second, we jumped onto an iceberg in the middle of the harbour for another paparazzi style photo shoot.

We continued cruising around looking at the glaciers and icebergs, and even found one with a Weddell Seal.

We were sad to go back to the boat as it meant leaving Paradise Harbour but we were going to get to cruise down the Gerlache Straight on the way out.

Gerlache Straight

For the first time since being in Antarctica we actually had sunshine for more than 2 seconds! So it was quite special to see all the icebergs lit up in the sunlight.

The straight was full of more icebergs. The following are our favourite shots.

As we were nearing the end of the straight, we spotted a humpback whale close to the boat (we’d actually seen quite a few pods of Minke whales throughout the straight but weren’t able to stop to get better photos of them). This time the captain swung the boat around to follow it. I’ve still got no idea how he did it but he got the boat to the exact point where the whale came up. People on the bridge say he jumped with joy when it happened and we managed to get some spectacular shots of it breaching and finally showing us its tail of the way down.

After the straight we started to head north to cross the Drake once again and leave Antarctic waters for the last time. There was actually another Zodiac cruise planned, but due to the weather in the open ocean it had to be cancelled.