tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35111811562923119522024-03-14T04:32:31.559-07:00Sally on TourSallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-70787399217649528892012-03-24T16:42:00.000-07:002012-03-24T16:42:14.609-07:00Cities that nearly touch the skyDay 30-32 Cities that nearly touch the sky (Potosi and La Paz)<br />
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Potosi is the highest city in the world at a little over 4000m. The route there took us through beautiful mountain landscapes which in parts were notably greener with huge cacti (like in cowboy cartoons) and some trees, although it was mostly scrub land! We even passed some marshy land that was lush with green grass and had cows on it - the first I have seen for a while! Mind you, it wasn't that green as there were sand dunes behind!<br />
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When we got to Potosi I had a wander around town. We went up the tower of one of the old churches and had a good view over the town. It is a nice place with clear evidence of its wealthy past. Potosi was founded by the Spanish when silver was found there. At some point, it was apparently the richest city in the world. Most of the silver has gone now - the vast majority went to Spain in the 16th,17th and 18th centuries. There is still some silver there - about 8 years ago a miner who had worked there for over 30 years found a 6m seam of pure silver and is now the richest man in Potosi!</div>
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The next morning a few of us decided to go on a tour of the Old Mint. The mint in Potosi was one of the most important in the world and they made silver coins for the Spanish until Bolivia won its independence. They then made Bolivian Coins until the 1970s.</div>
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The Bolivian women are very interesting - a high proportion stil wear the tradional out fits with pleated skirts and bowler or other hats. I did not like to take photos of them, but still managed to sneak a few!</div>
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In the afternoon 4 of us went on a tour of the mine which still operates, even though there is very little silver there, there are many other minerals such as lead, zinc and tin. We had been warned that the conditions were pretty bad, but it was worse than I had imagined!</div>
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In colonial times, the Spanish used the indigenous peoples to work in the mines as slaves. T ensure they worked hard they taught them about the devil and put a statue of the devil in the mine to remind them to work hard. The peole, however, worked out that the devil was the enemy of Catholics and so they came to see him as a friend believing that he would determine whether they would make good finds. Apparently, they miners still give gifts to El Tio (uncle) every Friday to ensure their next week is successful!<br />
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The miners also worship Pachu Mama - mother earth who owns the mine and looks after their health; and then of course, they worship God and Jesus<br />
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Miner at work</div>
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Entrance to the mine behind us!</td></tr>
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That night we took a night bus to La Paz. Bolivian buses are built for short Bolivians and so this was rather less comfortable than the Argentinian night buses we had taken before! We drove through the night, and then I awoke early to hear lots of busy talking. It turned out there was a road block, with burning tyres becasue there was a demonstration against a recent 50% rise in bus fares. The bus stopped and we had to get off. We ended up walking about 8 or 10km (estimates vary) (more than 2 hours) through the demonstrations and road blocks carrying our luggage. there was no danger to us as the demonstration was against the bus companies and people smiled as we went through, though they seemed amused at our inconvenience! I noticed that many of the women were just sitting in groups chatting and were spinning wool or knitting while they talked! We managed to meet up with our transfer that was supposed to take us from the bus station to our hotel and got there safely. It was tiring to walk that far with our luggage, but quite an adventure and quite a welcome to La Paz!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking through the road block</td></tr>
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Once we were fed and showered I ventured out onto the streets of La Paz. The witches market was near our hotel - they sell herbs, potions, incantations and other more dodgy things (dried llama foetuses) to solve problems!! </div>
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A few of us also went up to Killi Killi, a look out point over the city. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at about 3600m. It sits in a bowl and is built up the steep sides of the mountains. It is surrounded by hills and mountains, inlcuding a snow covered one that is over 6000m high (which you can see shrouded in cloud in the photo below). <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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La Paz is a very busy crazy sort of city - there are buses and cars everywhere, the pavements are quite broken up so you have to watch your feet in order not to fall over and crossing roads is challenging! Having said that it also has some quite attractive squares and grand colonial buildings. It has a good feel about it!</div>
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</div>SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-64608571261244924442012-03-24T15:09:00.003-07:002012-03-24T15:13:52.351-07:00High and Dry in Chile and Bolivia (2)Days 22-28 <strong>High and Dry in Chile and Bolivia</strong> (Countries 4 and 5) - part 2<br />
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The next morning we got up early and prepared for our desert crossing. We got a bus up to the Bolivian Border where we met our 4 wheel drive transport ad drivers for the crossing. Apparently the border sometimes randomly is not open and this then entails a 10 hour drive round to the next crossing point, so you can imagine our relief when we saw that the crossing was open. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading up to the Altiplana and the Bolivian Border</td></tr>
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We met our two drivers with their Toyota Landcruisers who promptly disapperead under one of the vehicles and spent about 45 minutes dry-sealing something .... a little concerning. We soon learned however, that every time we stopped they were checking and fixing things! Once they were ready we loaded up the cars with all our main luggage, water, spare fuel etc on the roof and everything else inside. We had to take all our own water, food and toilet roll for our 3 days journey! We even had our own cook called Lily, who was our driver, Pablo's wife. She fed us extremely well for the whole journey which was great. Once we were loaded we set off on dirt tracks through desert terrain that kept changing ...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;">Green Lagoon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green Lagoon</td></tr>
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Our first stop was the Green Lagoon at 4600m (15,000ft) - it really was bright green - because of the minerals (high concentration of lead, copper and sulphur) in it and surrounded by snow capped mountains and volcanoes, including Licancabur (5960m, 19,000ft).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloured Lagoon</td></tr>
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Our next stop was our lunch stop at the Coloured Lagoon - a beautiful blue with a natural hot pool in which we relaxed for a while after lunch.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the hot pool</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Better get out of the way ....</td></tr>
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Our last stop for the day was at a place where there was lots of geological activity with steaming vents and bubbling mud pools.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset from the hostal</td></tr>
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From there we want to out hostal. It was very basic, but was clean and had flushing toilets! Once the sun went down the temperature dropped rapidly and it got really quite cold. I slept in my thermals, a fleece and my socks in a sleeping bag underneath 4 blankets and was comfortably warm!</div>
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A few of the team were feeling the effects of altitude and were feeling not very well, quite headachy and absolutely exhausted. The local brew to deal with altitude sickness is Coca Tea which is really quite nice!</div>
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Next morning we were up early, loaded the vehicles and were off again. This time our first stop was at the Red Lagoon (4278m), which was very red from the minerals in it. It also had loads of flamingos - not something I expected at that altitude.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Lagoon and Flamingos</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Red Lagoon</td></tr>
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Our next stop was at the Valley of the Rocks - an area full of enormous rocks that have been hewn by the wind into all sorts of interesting shapes. Goodness knows how they got there, but one can only assume they were fired out of a volcano at some time long in the past!</div>
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Our final stop of the day was at a beautiful Blue Lagoon with more flamingos and perfect reflections - stunning!</div>
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Throughout the trip it has been very dry - not surprising as it is the Atacama Desert - so there has been very little signs of greenery or plant life, Accordingly we did not see much animal life either. By the lakes there were the flamingos, small dipper type birds and some ducks. On the land all we saw were llamas and vicunas (like smaller, slightly less wooly llamas)! </div>
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It is a strange and harsh place, but nonetheless very beautiful. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our vehicles and our tracks ...</td></tr>
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Again we packed the vehicles early in the morning and set off into the desert again. This was our final day of the desert crossing.<br />
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Our first stop was at a strange place where there was a train 'graveyard'! There were lots of old rusting steam trains apparently abandoned there in the 1950s. Apparently trains used to be the main mode of transporting minerals to the coast for export, but with modernisation, the old trains became redundant and stopped being used.</div>
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From there we went onto the Salars de Uyuni - the Salt Flats. This is an area of 12,500m2 of salt flat. it was originally sea and then with geological movements of tectonic plates, it bcame a lake which evaporated and formed the salt flats. Becasue they are perfectly flat and perfectly white and there is nothing to give perspective it is possible to take some wierd and interesting photographs that play tricks with the eyes! (We didn't quite get them all perfectly right.)</div>
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Needless to say, they also make salt on the flats - 5000kg per day all dug, dried, prepared and bagged by hand, only bringing in about 1300 Bolivianas (130 pounds) per day! The buildings by the salt flats are also made of salt - salt blocks - the only wood is for door frames and doors and window frames!</div>
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When we had finished playing with our cameras, we went to the town on Uyuni - a very strange one-horse town. It felt good however, as it was down at 3600m and the hotel had hot showers!! It was here that we said goodbye to Pablo and Lily - you can see that Bolivians are generally very small and I felt very tall!!</div>
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I loved the desert crossing, but it was also good to be back in some form of civilisation!</div>SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-4670308020460599452012-03-24T13:45:00.001-07:002012-03-24T13:48:09.001-07:00High and Dry in Chile and BoliviaDays 22-28 <strong>High and Dry in Chile and Bolivia</strong> (Countries 4 and 5) - part 1<br />
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This is the start of a new phase of my trip and a new group. This is a smaller group - 9 of us. We are heading up high in altitutde and into the Atacama Desert.</div>
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We started with a flight from Buenos Aires to Salta in northern Argentina, Salta is a pleasant town with, it seemed, a diproportionate number of churches, including one with the tallest spire in South America. It also has a cable car up a hill which gives spectacular views over Salta and the Lerma Valley. </div>
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I also visited the archeological Museum as Salta has the mummies/ bodies of the three children found at an altitude of 6700m on the Llullailaco volcano. They were from Inca times and had been sacrificed - all rather grusome but the climate kept the bodies, the textiles and the sacred objects buried with them almost perfectly preserved. The Museum only shows one at a time and they are still kept at low temperatures so it was pretty chilly!.</div>
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When we got there we visited a vinyard and had a wine tasting. They have to grow special grapes that can withstand the cool temperatures that they get at night. The grapes were to be ready to be picked in about 3 weeks time.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flooded Road</td></tr>
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After lunch we set off for home - the weather had been cloudy, but nothing worse. About half way home we came across a raging torrent flowing across our road and a queue of cars that felt it was unsafe to cross. Clearly it had rained somewhere in the mountains. We waited a while and then a big bus went through safely and following that, the cars and vans followed. I have to say it was quite tense in the van for the dew seconds it took to cross the water!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Pedro di Atacama - early morning</td></tr>
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The next day we got the bus to San Pedro to Atacama, crossing the border into Chile and climbing to 2440m (about 7,900ft), though to get there we went over a pass at 4600m! We arrived late in the afternoon. San Pedro is a pleasant little town with single story adobe walled houses. Its income is almost entirely tourist derived and so it is well set up for tourists. </div>
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That night we had a great outing to an observatory where we learned about the stars and constellations and then looked at various heavenly bodies through telescopes. It's so high and clear, you can see SO much! The best was seeing Saturn and all its rings. The milky way was just spectacular - so many stars and many of the constellations are different from what we can see in the northern hemisphere.</div>
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In the distance we were surrounded by snow capped volcanoes, most of which looked like Mount Fuji in Hokusai paintings! The largest is Licancabul at 5940m! I found I was aware of our altitude as I found myself getting quite breathless walking up even gentle slopes!</div>
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From there we went to another place called the Valley of the Moon that is largely white bacause of the salt that comes out of the rocks. We even saw salt crystal caves!</div>
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The desert landscape is really wierd and harsh, but at the same time stunning and impressive.</div>
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</div>SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-17033019886774811442012-03-10T17:39:00.000-08:002012-03-24T13:46:24.210-07:00Buenos Aires<br />
Day 16 to 21 Buenos Aires<br />
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I have a few days here in Buenos Aires before I set off on my next tour. I am enjoying the luxury of a nicer hotel and having a room to myself!!<br />
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On the first day, a few of us went on the hop on hop-off city tour bus. It was a good way to have an overview of the highlights of the city, although it was quite slow as the traffic here is very bad. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Caminita</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Cafe Tortoni</td></tr>
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We went to an area called La Caminita in La Boca where all the houses are painted very brightly and there is a big focus on the Tango. Many of the restaurants have tango demonstrations going on outside. One day I went to the Cafe Tortoni, an old traditional cafe - which also does tango demonstrations, for coffee and Churros - an Argentinian (and Spanish) specialty. In fact, I have come across tango demonstrations just going on in the street all over the city! It is an amazing dance - so sensual!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ponte des Mujers (Women´s bridge)</td></tr>
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One morning I went down to the port area which has the old ware- houses done up with nice shops and restaurants. There is a rather lovely foot-bridge there, designed by Calatrava, Called the Ponte des Mujers (the Women´s bridge) which is supposed to signify two people dancing the tango. <br />
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I went to the amazing Recoleta Cemetry where many famous and/or rich Argentinians are buried, including Eva Peron (warmly called Evita by everyone here). I had not realised that she died of cancer when she was about 32. The cemetry is quite wierd as each person or family has their own little building in which they are buried so it is like lots of streets of small houses except they are houses for the dead!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eva Peron´s grave</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evita is a real heroine here</td></tr>
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Buenos Aires has many amazing buildings both, old and new and they are clearly very proud of its architecture.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">La Casa Rosada</td></tr>
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I went to the Casa Rosada - the Pink House, that is the Presidential Palace. Outside in the square there are various demonstrations (plackards) including one about the Falklands. The Casa Rosada is quite an interesting place with many photos and paintings of important Argentinian people. The ones I recognised were Eva Peron, Maradona, Mercedes Sosa and Cesar Milstein - (you can look them up if you don´t know who they are!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;">Torre de Los Ingles </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><br /></td></tr>
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Renamed Torre Monumental since the Falklands War! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Scottish contingent</td></tr>
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I came across a festival to celebrate all the nationalities of people who live in Buenos Aires with food stalls and people in national dress from them all. I am sure there were at least 50 nationalities represented, including Scotland! I enjoyed tasting food from a number of places and watching the parade - vintage open top cars with a girl in the back in National costume of the country!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bolivian dancers</td></tr>
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Sunday is market day here and there are many markets all over the city. I went to one of the most popular which is mixture of antiques and a tourist craft market. It was very enjoyable to sit in a cafe in the sun watching the world go by.<br />
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Because I was to be here for quite a few days on my own I had arranged, before I left UK to go do a cultural tour´´focussing on Argentinian food. One afternoon I had a cooking lesson and wine tasting. I made<br />
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Cipacitos Correntinos (small cheesy bread rolls), empanadas de Humita (fresh corn pies/ pasties), Carbonada de Criolla (beef stew with peaches) and panqueques de dulce de latte (dulce de latte pancakes) which we then ate with a different wine for each course! Argentinian wine is extremely good - especially the reds, but all of the wines we tasted were excellent - a fizzy wine, 2 reds (Malbec and Barolo) and a sweet wine.<br />
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The next day I was taken to a ´foundation´ (a sort of charity) called Caminita Abierto where they look after children who are abandoned by their parents. They can go there at any age from five until they are eighteen. They are given somewhere to live, food and as well as going to school, are trained in cooking, farming and building, to set them up to look after themselves as adults. The people who run this place fund it by running a restaurant which is self sufficient in food from the farm! I spent the day with them helping in the kitchen making bread, gnocchi and tortilla chips! No one spok much English so it was good to practice my Spanish! A tour group from Canada came while I was there and their guide spoke English, hence my understanding of some of the basic set up! It was an unusual day, but I really enjoyed it and came away with a bag of rolls that I had made and a gift of a pot of honey from the farm!<br />
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Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Buenos Aires - it is a lovely city. It has quite a European feel - and is sometimes called the Paris of South America. I am however, ready to move on. Next stop Salta in Northern Argentina and Bolivia ......<br />
<br />SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-60890295316910717852012-03-10T17:30:00.000-08:002012-03-24T13:46:59.123-07:00Argentina and UruguayDay 10 to 15 Countries 2 and 3 Argentina and Uruguay<br />
To Buenos Aires<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eadie offering me Mate</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tasting Mate - very bitter</td></tr>
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From Iguassu Falls we went south west to a ranch in a village called El Dorado. It was run by a woman, called Eadie whose grand-parents from New Zealand and the UK had settled in Argentina in 1908. The soil there is completely red and the area with this soil (called Missiones) is the only place that can grow Yerba. Yerba is a tree that is used to make Mate a kind of tea that it would seem all Argentinians drink. It is always served in a special cup with a metal straw with a seive at the bottom. Eadie told us stories about growing up on the ranch and gave us lunch. </div>
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We then went horse riding and saw some of the lands. They now grow pine trees and keep cattle, rather than Yerba.</div>
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We have been travelling entirly by public bus which to date have been very comfortable. To get to the farm from the town we went on a brilliant rickety old bus which added to the experience.<br />
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We stayed the night in a town called San Ignazio di Mini a place known for its ruins of a Jesuit village. The Jesuits seemed to find a way of living with the local Guarani people that gave mutual benefits. The Jesuits converted the people and the people were protected from Portuguese and Spanish slave dealers. The ruins are really interesting.<br />
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In the afternoon, some of us went Kyaking on the river Parana. The river is really wide and forms the border with Paraguay. The river flows very slowly and languidly and it was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon, enjoying the lush green scenery.<br />
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From there we took an overnight bus to a place called Concordia on the banks of the river Uruguay and crossed the next morning into Uruguay, stopping in the town of Salto. This was a very pleasant little town with thermal baths. We went there in the afternoon, but the weather was so hot we did not really want to sit in hot baths!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Posing with a low voltage light bulb!!</td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TagF1T5TCU8/T1qq4RfmCpI/AAAAAAAAAj8/VdqiA6QlaXE/s1600/P3040072.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TagF1T5TCU8/T1qq4RfmCpI/AAAAAAAAAj8/VdqiA6QlaXE/s200/P3040072.JPG" width="200" /></a>That evening was the Salto Carnaval - not sure why it was at a different time than everywhere else. It was a really fun afair - nothing extravagant like Rio - but a fun local event. It started at 11pm and (apparently) went on till 4pm, but I was in bed long before then!<br />
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From Salto we went on to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. it seems like a pleasant city, but we were there on a Sunday and virtually everything was closed. It made the city feel a little like a film set. the old market was open though as it was full of tradional restaurants where locals seemed to go to eat Sunday lunch. The local fare is very meaty with lots of beef and pork on flaming grills. In the afternoon we went to the beach and watched a Pan-America´s beach handball championship which happened to be going on there.<br />
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Looking at the map of Uruguay, I noticed that one of the cities is called Fray Bentos- presumably the place the company was named after!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our hotel</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">River Plate (rather muddy)</td></tr>
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Our last stop in Uruguay was a beautiful, rather small colonial town called Colonia di Sacrimento on the banks of the Rio Plato (River Plate).<br />
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This is a lovely gentle place with lots of historic buildings including an old light house and some interesting shops and restaurants. <br />
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I could happily have spent a few more days here, however, we had to move on and the next morning we caught a ferry across the river (about 30 or 40 miles) to Buenos Aires and the end of our tour.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our last group dinner</td></tr>
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<br />SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-45425632688427057992012-03-10T17:22:00.000-08:002012-03-24T13:47:20.589-07:00Iguassu Falls<br />
Day 6-9 To Iguassu Falls<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Su1S_Ew3Sp4/T0v8-toKo6I/AAAAAAAAAKI/6Ipm3H-tA6g/s1600/P2260039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Su1S_Ew3Sp4/T0v8-toKo6I/AAAAAAAAAKI/6Ipm3H-tA6g/s200/P2260039.JPG" width="150" /></a>We left Sao Paolo to go to a town called Curitiba - Another travel day with a long bus journey on a remarkably comfortable bus. It seems that travelling long distances by bus is common practice here and they are all amazingly comfortable with fantastic leg room, and reclining seats. Again the scenery was beautiful with lush, tree covered hills, banana plantations and meandering rivers.<br />
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We arrived in Curitiba in the afternoon. It was cooler as it is at an altitude of 900m. Apparently from a quality of living perspective this is considered to be one of the best places to live in Brazil. It is a pleasant place, but nothing very exciting going on there. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Devil´s Throat from above</td></tr>
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From there we had an overnight bus journey to Foz di Iguassu, the town closes to the Brazilian side of the Iguassu falls. I treated myself to a helicopter trip over the falls which was very exciting.<br />
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The falls are really amazing - the longest curtain of water of any falls in the world. The main part is called the Devil´s Throat as it almost closes into a circle down which the water thunders.<br />
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Apparently we saw the falls at relatively low water as there has been a drought in northern Argentina - I cannot imagine what it would be like at full flood!<br />
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Before we went to the falls we also a visited a bird park and saw many of the exotic birds that are found in these parts. My favourites are the Toucans!</div>
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Finally we visited the falls and saw them from every angle - fantastic!!<br />
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In the evening we went to a show with all the different music and dances from different countries in South America. It was a bit cheesy, but was also very interesting to see (and hear) the differences. For example Paraguayan music always involved a small harp!<br />
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We crossed the border early the next morning and spent the whole day at the Argentinian side of the falls. They are even more spectacular from this side. The highlight of the day was a boat trip under the falls - so much fun - so wet!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the boats under the falls</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of our group on the boat - before ......</td></tr>
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<br />SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-76737755838324822072012-02-25T15:37:00.000-08:002012-03-24T13:47:55.090-07:00Brazil - From Rio to Iguassu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Days 1-5 Country no 1 - Brazil<br />
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Ariived in Rio early in the morning - the journey into town passed shanty towns, commercial docks and really posh places. I noticed vultures wheeling around and sitting on lamp-posts as we would expect to see sea-gulls. I only had that day in Rio and so charges around the main sites: - <br />
Christ the Redeemer - it is truly stunning - the scale is phenomenal - they definitely should not put one on Primrose Hill! It would never be as good and if on the same scale would dwarf the hill!<br />
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From there I walked along Ipanema and Copacobana beaches. The bays are clearly stunning but being the last day of Caranaval and with Rio having 2million visitors during Carnaval, the beaches were packed with bodies -people recovering from seriously hard partying and others continuing with the hard partying!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from Sugar Loaf Mountain</td></tr>
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Finally I went up Sugar Loaf Mountain on the cable car - the views from there are stunning and really shows off Rio at its best.<br />
In the evening I went out to one of the street parties near my hotel - so many people having fun and a lot of alcohol, but all very amicable and jolly - it was amazing but would have been more fun if I had been with other people ....<br />
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The next day, having met my group for the week we set off to the bus station and onto a local bus to Paraty. The buses are amazingly comfortable and bode well for the next few weeks .....<br />
There are currently 18 in the group, but a few leave after the fast week. It is nearly all girls with 3 blokes in the group and our tour leader. Most of the group are australian and between 18 and 26 but there are a few others to add to the diversity!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the bays where we swam</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beach at Paraty</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paraty in flood</td></tr>
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Paraty is a really beautiful Potuguese Colonial Town - very cobbly streets that flood once a month at high tide. The buildings are painted in multiple colours - very pleasant. Today we went on a boat tour around the coast and to a few of the islands off the coast - really beautiful and very relaxing. We saw dolphins around the boat which was great. <br />
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We have now moved Sao Paolo, the biggest city in the world / southern hemisphere - depending on who you listen to. Apparently 20 million people live here. It is huge and amazingly busy. Today I went with a couple of the others to the main art museum - what a fantastic collection they have - though mainly European art - Monet, Picasso, Rodin etc etc. We then went up the tallest building in Sao Paolo - the views were great - sky scrapers as far as the eye can see. Apparently Sao Paolo has the largest fleet of helicopters in the world as that is how business men get around - it takes so long by any other means!! Finally I went to the Municipal Market. I love the way that all the food is displayed so magnificently - fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat, fish, olive oil, cakes - everything.<br />
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Now back at the hotel and trying to sort the technology .......SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3511181156292311952.post-11323192233254674142012-02-12T14:31:00.000-08:002012-02-12T14:31:59.156-08:00Preparing to go<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwdAggxncgjeIbHEHskOArksef5F_XoPQ99q10VkS0YrUGIY8_m9eJfW1bwH9yKmK_k93R2gALVKt3RrIwU1rVU_6LQyrEyZQaJGlq8-z0ghx8-sUf-exlRn0GNVHzmLX0rH03L1U1x2J/s1600/P3140021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAwdAggxncgjeIbHEHskOArksef5F_XoPQ99q10VkS0YrUGIY8_m9eJfW1bwH9yKmK_k93R2gALVKt3RrIwU1rVU_6LQyrEyZQaJGlq8-z0ghx8-sUf-exlRn0GNVHzmLX0rH03L1U1x2J/s320/P3140021.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Trying to set up all the technology I need to allow me to stay in touch with you while I am away .....SallyB on Tourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14458424726821701117noreply@blogger.com0