It's good to have a goal....

First full day of our first visit to Rio de Janeiro - we are only here for 3 nights to drop some of our bags for storage and try and get some papers from the Spanish consulate in case we have to head there before march 29th - so we are exploring the north of the city and the old centre. When we come back for carneval we will be down south in Copacabana...

Anyway, after a few hour walking around and along our first Brazilian beach, we've finally stopped at a bar/cafe/restaurant and the paper tablecloths have a beer counter printed on them - chopp is a draft beer. And the counter goes to 90 :-)

We have a few hours, but it could get messy....

Iguazu Falls

... Is one of the most spectacular sights we have seen on our travels so far. It makes Niagara Falls look like a poor relation in comparison. With around 280 drops (depending on the time of year) and a width of 2.7km/1.7 miles, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil and falls can be seen from both sides. We spent 2 days on the Argentina side and did most of the walks/hikes to see the upper and lower falls, and here are just a few photos:

The next day we drove across the border into Brazil and spent the day at the falls. Here is the view from that side:

 

 

 These sights are going to take some beating

Argentina

After a very interesting 6 hour drive across the Andes - including 30 curves/hairpin beds (they were numbered) and a relaxed border crossing, we arrived in Mendoza around 3pm on New year's Eve to find almost everything closed for 'fiesta'. Our host drove us around the town in an attempt to find somewhere open to buy groceries as we couldn't bring fresh food across the border. We eventually found a very small corner shop so were able to buy a few essentials.  Later, trying to find a restaurant that was open was also fun. Luckily, we managed to find a top end restaurant (Josefina) that had just had a cancellation so we got the last table. A tasting menu of 2 appetisers, 3 starters, a main course and 3 desserts with complementing wines and live music to dance the night away to (well, I did) meant a good night was had by all.

Everything was closed again on New year's day so it was nice to walk around the quiet city. 

The following day we visited a number of wineries but unfortunately they wouldn't let us in without a reservation so we didn't get to taste the Malbec that the region is famous for. Not a concept we've come across before. 

Time to head across the country towards Buenos Aires. First stop - Rio Cuarto.  Not really much to say about the overnight stop. We had a walk around the main square to stretch our legs before dinner

Next stop - Cordoba which was far more interesting as its known for its Spanish colonial architecture

And its memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives during the Malvinas (or should I say Falklands) war 

Final stop before the capital - Rosario. The city is is a major port city in Argentina, 300 km up the Paraná River from the capital, Buenos Aires. The National Flag Memorial, a massive riverside complex featuring an obelisk, commemorates the historic first raising of the national flag during Argentina's 19th-century War of Independence. 

Then on to the capital - Buenos Aires. The name can be translated as "fair winds" and the city is known for its eclectic European architecture.  It is also often referred to as the "Paris of South America" with its wide, tree lined boulevards.
Buenos Aires is the seat of the Roman Catholic church in Argentina and the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis in 2013. The cathedral isn't much to look at from the outside, but inside its beautiful.

The port of Buenos Aires is one of the busiest in South America. The Rio de la Plata connects the port to north-east Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay and as a result, is the distribution hub for a vast area of the south-eastern region of the continent. 

There are a large number of landscaped parks and squares as well as the eclectic architecture. At this part of the city we could have been in Canary Wharf, London

We visited La Recoleta Cemetery just to see the tombs. It contains the graves of many notable people including presidents of Argentina and Eva Peron.

Floralis Generica is a sculpture made of steel and aluminium created in 2002 and was designed to move. The petals open with the light and close at sunset. Its quite a feat of engineering considering it weighs 18 tons and is 23m high.

We left Buenos Aires and headed north, a three day drive stopping at Concordia and Posadas on the way to Puerto Iguazu and the famous falls.

See my next blog for more on Iguazu Falls

Once again we are reduced II

So we've managed to come down from a Suzuki full of stuff to 3 proper bags plus a coupe.of carry ons - and mine only really contains our pillows. Mr Pink and my carry on will stay in Rio for storage from next weekend until we fly back. After all, I'll only need my thongs for the beach...

Once again we are reduced..

To backpackers. El Burrito Gordo, the Suzuki formerly known as Max the towed warrior, has gone to start his new life in Paraguay. 

We arranged the sale via a Facebook group in September when we first brought him m down to south America, and with only a last minute 2 day postponement by mutual agreement as the buyer was waiting on some paperwork, it actually all went to plan. We exited Argentina this morning, got stamps in our passports for Brazil but no-one asked us about the car so no paperwork there, and picked them up at the airport this evening after they flew in from Copenhagen. 

They are now on route to Asuncion , and we will take the overnight bus to Sao Paulo tomorrow night. With all our luggage - we have arranged to go on to Rio next and leave the extra bags with our cold weather stuff with our air BnB host for carneval. Then a couple of weeks on the beach somewhere, a few bus and internal flights around Brazil before the chaos that will be carneval, and preparing to fly to Frankfurt to buy a pickup. And he shall be called Brian.....

Am I a sick man?

I asked Maria the question: can crispy bananas in a dessert be considered the equivalent of crispy bacon in just about anything else? Even a salad? Her answer indicated that I may have a perception problem or, more likely, withdrawal symptoms....

Easter Island

or Rapa Nui as it's called by the locals, was a 5 hour flight (just over 3,500km/2,100 miles) from Santiago.

It is believed that the island's Polynesian inhabitants arrived on Easter Island sometime near 1200 AD. The name 'Easter Island ' came from the day of discovery on Easter Sunday by the first European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on April 5th, 1722. The island's official Spanish name is Isla de Pascua, which translates to Easter Island.

The afternoon we arrived, and to stretch our legs, we hiked up an extinct volcano to see the crater and visit the historic remains of the town of Orongo. 

Kevin and I decided to take the road back down and after about an hour, the heavens opened. We hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck and couldn't have gotten any wetter if we had tried. We stayed in the capital Hanga Roa which is more like a small town than a city.

There are over 900 Moai on the island, but only a quarter of the statues were installed and many are still in the quarry where they were carved. Most have been "toppled down" i.e. pushed over and face planted into the ground during many conflicts between various indigenous tribes. A few Ahu's or platforms have now been restored. The following day, our host took us on a tour to a cave and to the historic site of Ahu Akivi to see 7 Moai, each one is 16ft/4.8m high. Moai statues were considered by the early people of Rapa Nui as their ancestors that were believed to be the reincarnation of important kings or leaders of their clans. The Moais were erected to protect and bring prosperity to their clan and village. Ahu Akivi is also known as a celestial observatory that was set up around the 16th century. They directly face sunset during the spring equinox and have their backs to the sunrise during the autumn equinox. 

The red stone used to carve the Pukao, the hat/hair seen on some of the Moai.

On our last day, we did a full day tour of the island seeing many historic sites where Moai had been pushed over,

The quarry where the statues had been carved

and finally to the restored platform of 15 Moai at Tongariki. Each statue is at least 9m tall and all were swept 200m inland by the tsunami created by the 1960 Chilean earthquake - the largest on record at a magnitude 9.5. All the moai here face sunset during Summer Solstice.

We visited a number of other places on the island but for me, seeing the Moai was magical.

It was interesting to hear the stories and history, especially from a local and descendant of one of the 12 clans.

We then headed back to Santiago to spend a few more days exploring the city before saying goodbye to Chile and starting the long drive on winding roads across the Andes and into Argentina on New Year's eve.