Colonia de Sacremento.

The last stop on our brief Uruguayan excursion was Colonia de Sacramento. This is a UNESCO world heritage site on the banks of the Rio Plata which was originally set up by the Portuguese to smuggle things into Buenos Aires. It's main function has changed a bit since then but people still flood across from buenos aires on a regular basis with Several ferries a day crossing the river.


Colonia is now more of a holiday location with many people from Montevideo and Buenos Aires owning the beautiful river front properties. The other reason the Argentinians were apparently flocking there was because in Uruguay you can withdraw dollars, which is now impossible across the river (driving the exchange rate sky high) the downside being that the queues at the cash points are usually long and people tend to spend at least 10 minutes in the booth (we waited an hour in a queue of 5 people!). At the time this seemed pretty crazy but for reasons I will cover in my next blog it now makes sense.

Montevideo, it's a long way from Iguassu

So, we're in Uruguay! No idea why, I guess we fancied another couple of passport stamps and trying out a different mode of transport.

Whoever said it was better to travel than arrive has never tried getting to Montevideo from Iguassu. It was not a great deal of fun, it involved an 18 hour bus to Buenos Aires (which arrived at 6:30am) followed by a ferry the following morning at 9.

Now had we been less panicky travellers we could have tried to get from the bus station to the ferry port on the same day, but our tickets indicated that we should be at the dock 2 hours before departure as that is when boarding starts.

Iguassu and the moon on a stick (ok maybe everything but the moon!)

After Rio we flew (I know what you are thinking about budget but this was less than 80 US dollars each) to our second and final brazilian stop, foz do iguaçu or the iguassu falls.

The falls sit near the Paraguayan, argentinian and brazilian border with the latter two countries sharing the falls (80% are on Argentinian land and 20% are on Brazilian turf)

They are massive, to see them properly takes at least a day and a half, and we were told that you have to view them from both sides, on the Argentinian side you get really up close and personal with the falls, there is also a solid 8 or 9 km walk to see all of the separate waterfalls where as in Brasil you can see pretty much the whole falls from one vantage point. On both sides you are going to get wet, if you take a speed boat to get a closer look (i would recommend it) you are going to get completely drenched so take a spare set of clothes or stuff that dries quickly (at least you dear reader are forewarned, we just got soaked and had to live with it).

On the tourist trail in Rio

As our time in Rio was short we decided to spend one day on an organised tour which covered most of the major tourist attractions. We spent 150 real each (a budget blowing 50 pounds) to go to see "Christ the redeemer", Santa Teressa, the tiled Selaron steps and sugar loaf mountain (or rather Rio from sugar loaf mountain) over the course of an afternoon. Entry to Christ and the sugar loaf comes to around 75 real and this was covered in the price so the other 75 went on a tour guide and the minibus which drove us around all day.

Whether this expense was necessary or not is debatable as the bus service in Rio (once you get the hang of it) is excellent and at a set price of 3 real a trip, not particularly expensive. I doubt you could cover all 4 things in 1 day on public transport though.

The biggest problem with deciding to do a tour is that you only get a set period of time at each of the places and both sugar loaf and Christ are susceptible to being ruined by cloud.

When my baby smiles at me...

I go to Rio, de Janeiro (if, like me, this means nothing to you watch this you tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCYxTg6svXg ). When my fiancée started singing this at me while in the immigration queue at Rio airport I though he was doing a really bad job of singing something I should recognise but actually she was doing a fairly decent impression of the guy on the piano in that video (good luck getting it out of your head, it has stayed with me for days)

Our arrival in Rio was a mixed emotions kinda thing, we were sad to be leaving Colombia and also sad because we only have 4 weeks left of our trip, however the prospect of seeing Rio was something we were looking forward to, despite the fact that it is one of the more costly destinations we planned on visiting.

We chose to stay for 4 nights in the Bohemian Santa Terresa district, which is set in the hillside overlooking the Centro business district, the lively Lapa area which is where much of the partying takes place at the weekend an Rio's funky modern concrete cathederal (which lights up with all sorts of neon colours ay night). Sadly although we arrived on a Saturday because the flight was an overnight one from Colombia we only got 2 hours sleep on the plane and so failed to make the most of the Lapa nightlife, although we did make it as far as Nuevo Chapela, a Lapa restaurant focusing on traditional Brazilian dishes.

Crepes, waffles and the final days in Colombia

We really have loved Colombia. The cities have had a very modernised, more developed feel than much of South America, for me one of the few downsides was the fact that on the northern coast a hot water tap is seen as unnecessary. Now I accept that the temperature is 35 degrees pretty much every day, but stepping into a freezing shower, although refreshing, isn't something I want to be forced into. It is not as if a big black tank on the roof (let alone a couple of simple solar panels) would not be hot in seconds.

This one pretty minor gripe aside the northern coast has a great outdoorsy feel, as I said in a previous blog lots of the squares and streets fill up at night with people eating and drinking, most restaurants also have outdoor seating areas which get pretty crowded at night.

Playa Blanca and the meaning of everything

Cartagena is one of the few places in South America I think I could probably spend a year or two living in. The city has a nice friendly vibe despite the fact it is a bit touristy. In the evenings several of the squares fill up with people drinking store bought beers and vendors selling all sorts of food (everything from kebabs and burrito wraps to sweet coconut cake dessert) and drinks to save you walking back to the beer shops.

There are also a number of guys in the streets who have cousins or an uncle in the Uk, Australia, America or wherever you are from, who will get you "everything" you could want. This ranges from helping you organise trips, finding restaurants, arranging massages, selling you drugs and organising a prostitute (I only know this because one guy felt the need to explain what "everything" was despite me telling him I understood what he was implying). Obviously you will pay a heavy premium for such services which we found out when our friend Mike used one of these guys book his trip to Playa Blanca beach he paid 10000 pesos more than we did for the same trip!

Playa Blanca is on one of the Rosario islands and the boat out there should be 30000, with an extra 12000 pesos required or entry to the national park. You can also pay another 10000 to have lunch included although this is not strictly necessary as everywhere there offers you lunch for that price once you arrive (it is not a reservation required kinda place)