BA to Rio - Road to carnaval

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Into a big smoke after 7 weeks in tourist towns and camping in random places. On the first day we went to Boca stadium, home of the Boca Juniors soccer team, for a look and then around the area of Boca where tango dancers were dancing in the streets trying to suck money from the gringos as we walked through cafes and markets.

That night was a boys night out in the city. We went to a couple of seedy joints where we were overcharged for drinks and people tried to scam money out of us, so we went for a quick feed on empanadas (pastries filled with meat) and after about 3 hours of people trying to rip us off we went and met up with the girls in an Irish pub. The booze was taking affect on us all and we got kicked out for having a popcorn fight so we went around the corner and drank some more at an all-hours, outdoor café until 7:00am. Then stupidly several of us decided to catch the ferry over to Uruguay to get another stamp in our passports.



Colonia, Uruguay - So with no sleep for about 24hrs, a belly full of booze and bar snacks and a US$70 return ticket we jumped on the fast ferry (1hr) to Colonia, Uruguay. The town was very nice and chilled out and nothing like the hustle and bustle of BA. Some of the group went shopping while I went to the beach with Anna and slept under a palm tree in the beautiful white sand. We went for a couple of swims in the river which looked more like a sea cos you couldn’t see the other side and then walked around town before catching the ferry back to get a good night’s sleep.



The last day was a shopping day and then we lost some more passengers and gained a group that were coming partying with us to Rio.

Camping heading north, Argentina - The next 4 days we headed north towards Iguaçu, camping in mosquito country again. On the way we checked out some Jesuit ruins and spent each afternoon swimming in the pools or rivers closest to the camping grounds and having some quiet drinks.



Iguaçu Falls, Argentina and Brazil - On the Argentinean side we caught a speed boat which took us up the river towards the falls where we took photos. They then advised us to put our cameras into dry sacks because we would be going closer. We all expected to get a little damp from the spray of the falls but we had no idea that they would take us right up the falls where we got saturated. A couple more dunks under the world’s largest falls and then they dropped us off so we could walk around the falls and dry off. We spent the rest of the day in the 42°C heat walking through the forest, checking out the falls from different viewpoints while dozens of different butterflies floated around us and a caiman (South American crocodile) or two swam under us.



Just as I was nailing the basics of Spanish, we crossed into Brazil and where we had to start speaking Portuguese. It is a lot harder than Spanish because the pronunciation is a lot different than how the words are spelt.

The first day in Brazil we went to a bird park next to the falls, full of Amazonian birds including toucans and macaws. I’m not much of an ornithologist but I liked the park a lot. We then checked out the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu Falls to get a different perspective. While there we saw some coatimundi which are like raccoons but with long noses. We were warned not to let them come up to us cos some carry rabies. Then another day chilling out in Foz do Iguaçu before we left towards Rio with less than a week until Carnaval.



Paraty, Brazil - In the small colonial town on the coast we had our last nights of camping of the 3½ month trip. The town was the last stop before Rio and all the overland trucks were there gearing up for the big party. There were 200-300 overlanders in town and much alcohol was consumed. The first day we got on a sloop with the passengers from three other trucks and sailed around the bays in the area. Sas made up a caipiroska punch in a chilly bin and we spent all day drinking that, laying in the sun and swimming in the sea when the boat stopped in several bays. It was a very relaxing day with a lot of sunburn and drunken antics.