Paraty - Brazil

Paraty is an old colonial town on the coast of brazil. It grew to importance in the 1800s when it became the main shipping port for gold on the way to Portugal. Then once gold became scarce, shipping switched to coffee, but this died off with the abolishment of slavery in the 1880s. Today Paraty is a pretty cobblestone (minor boulders) street town, free of cars, however if would be too rough to drive through anyway. From here you can board boats and explore the surrounding jungle islands,and beautiful beaches.We spent 4 nights here living in a small room just out of the centre, 3 days of which rained! We however enjoyed this town, good street food including these awesome cake trolleys that are wheeled around through the streets. Our neighbour and the guy managing the flat Jorge, was a great host, took us out for drinks ($1.30 cans), and showed us how to Samba which has become popular with the youth. He has moved to Paraty to set up an adventure tour company, after being inspired after travelling for years through NZ and Aus. He is also a adventure racer, having even raced a few Aussie races such as AROC 24hr. Random...On the last day is finally cleared up a little so we got a chance to hop on a tour boat out to some of the beaches around the peninsular.

Iguazú Falls

We arrive at Puerto Iguazú at 10am 24th Jan, only 2.5 hrs late.. Making it a nice almost 20hr trip, but the bus was comfortable, next time we will sit a little further away from the toilets..Iguazú Falls are situated in the north of Argentina and the river is the boarder between Argentina and Brazil, with Paraguay not too far away. This enables viewing the falls from both countries, however we only viewed it from the Argentinean side. The falls are a world heritage site and are made up of 275 different falls across 2.3km.The afternoon after arriving we caught a bus to check out the upper falls which included the Devil's Throat at the very head, where almost a 500m wide river falls away into a gorge 50m wide, dropping 70 m. No need to trek for days through the jungle to see this, you just board the mini train at the entrance and then head out along some quality board walks over the top of the river. When you walk up to the top viewing platform which sits right on the edge, it is a truly breath taking moment as you feel as though the world is collapsing in on itself. Worth the trip!We then wandered back through the hoards of tourists, all surprisingly Argentinean and Brazilians, not many Aussies, Japs, or Yanks.The following day we headed back out in the morning to see the falls from the bottom, the same just this time looking up, and you get wetter. Before leaving we did the short walk back to the main centre along a path through the jungle, seeing heaps of parakeets, but unfortunately we didn't see any cute little jaguar or puma cubs, caiman, or monkeys, which all can be found... Although some rarer than others.

Buenos Aires

Arrived in BsAs on Wednesday 18th January. We booked a room through Airbnb in the southern part of the city in Barracus which is about 8km from the centre. We have been staying in a 2 bedroom flat with Pomi the father of the owner of the flat. Pomi speaks no English and we speak about the same Spanish. He likes to talk and we like to nod and say sí... It's the perfect relationship...

The first day we headed out to see some of the sights, first walked to the near by neighbourhood of La Boca. La Boca is a very poor part of town next to the old docks where the Italiano's immigrated to. The small touristy part of town is brightly painted which is a bit of a gimme to attract hoards of buses.

Boca Juniors Fútbol team resides nearby, made famous by Diego Maradona.

From here we survived our first local bus experience. The buses hammer though the narrow streets, overtaking cars and racing each other. It is an extremely efficient way to travel, and there are about a thousand buses and hour. NSW state government could learn a thing or two.

The architecture throughout the city is amazing. Rivalling grand European cities. And the food is both cheap and great.

Another outing we headed to Recoleta cemetery. The cemetery for the rich and famous created in 1822. Mausoleums cost the families thousands of $$ each year and are an architectural free for all. The most famous tomb being Eva (Evita) Perón.