Before I start, I'd like to say a big thanks to Alex and Anna for setting up this blog for me (you guys are the best and I do really appreciate it). As you can see I've not really been very good at posting, but I have made a vow to change this NOW! So from now on please expect some updates from me on a regular basis. If I don't please feel free to send me some abuse via email, facebook or whatever medium you feel is appropriate!
I have been on the road now for about a month and a half and during this time I have travelled from the east coast of Brazil (Salvador) down the coast to Rio de Janiero for the infamous Carnaval, then across to the border of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina to the Iguassu falls (check out my fb pics). After that I made my way to Buenos Aires, Argentina then embarked on a 2 week tour of Patagonia (southern Argentina and Chile) where it was very cold and windy and where I completed lots of lovely activities such as seeing a glacier, smelly sea lions, some lovely penguins and hiking up some steep mountains. I then went back to Buenos Aires for a few days before arriving in Mendoza where I am right now.
I'll probably post more specifically on the places that I have been to recently but here are a few bullet points on what I have seen/learnt on my travels so far.
1. (This is for the ladies) Brazillian men are BEAUTIFUL, I am sure you have already gathered that but I am just confirming the rumours that you may have heard.
2. If you ever get on a bus in Rio make sure you get a seat (this is especially true if you are under 5ft 5). This is because Rio bus drivers seem to think they are Lewis Hamilton and you will be thrown left, right and centre around the bus and the chances of injury are very high.
3. Make sure you take out uneven amounts of money from the cash machine in Argentina and Brazil. Nobody has any change in these places, and if you go to a supermarket and give them a big note you might just get sweets back as change instead of the coins you were expecting.
4. When you give your dirty clothes to your hostel for them to be laundered, don't just take their word for it when they say the clothes will be back in two hours. I had to leave a whole bunch of my clothes in Paraty, Brazil because I had a 2am bus to Sao Paulo booked and the hostel's promise that the clothes would be back in 2 hours actually turned out to be 18 hours (I eventually got my clothes back 3 weeks later but I had to live without pajamas, a towel, a bikini and most of my dresses!).
5. If you are ever in a Macdonald's in Argentina, ask for a Big Mac meal. It is not listed on the menu boards and is half the price of all the other meals. I heard this is something to do with Argentina wanting its inflation rate to be much lower than it actually is according to the Big Mac index. Anyway, it means a cheap meal for me!
6. Don't drink too many cocktails (or any drinks at all) the night before a bike and winery tour. I unfortunately had a terrible hangover and when I turned up to the first winery, the smell of fermenting grapes just hit me and.. well.. you can imagine what happened next. I then actually just "tasted" the wines given to me instead of drinking them like my original intention! I also didn't buy any bottles of wine, even they were dirt cheap because I truly believed that I would ever drink again. Now looking back I am kicking myself, so seriously, don't drink before a wine tour. Oh, and riding a bike in the heat on an empty stomach and with a pounding headache is also not very fun.
7. Running off a cliff is not that scary (I had to do it for the paragliding I booked. I think next stop is a sky dive.. who knows?).
8. Sea lions smell really badly.
That's it for now, but I will definitely keep you guys updated on what I am up to!
Ciao (thanks again to Anna and Alex) x
