Ok, I am finally updating my blog detailing the first half of our travels through south america, and a quick stop in the States. Basically, I will tell you about the trip through these photos and a few videos (i am moving up in the world)My trip basically began with me returning home for a very short stint for Luke and Meghan's wedding (bottom right photo). Awesome to see so many people, spend time with my family and head up to NY to see my brother where we endulged in crocodile sushi (my new favorite food, sushi that is) and the most expensive beer at 11:00 in the morning in Manhatten with Ross. Got to celebrate a late Christmas with my family and I am pretty sure I dominated in the gift giving.
I flew back from the states basically straight to Buenos Aires to meet up with my roomates Brian, Katy and Molly (Lauren was back in the states). We spent about 5 days there where we saw Eva Peron's (sp?) grave (photo #1), a Boca vs. River soccer match (one of the biggest rivalries in sports in the world (photo #2)), ate some amzing BBQ and learned some tango at the same time (photo #3) and visited the Boca soccer stadium (photo #4).
From Buenos Aires we took a ferry to Uruguay to the town of Colonia (no photos of that) for the day before we moved on to Montevideo. To sum up Montevideo, it has a decent beach, I got sick for a day and a half and don't waste your time there. So moving along...RIO
Rio is amazing. Perhaps the only south american city that I have seen so far that is worth spending any real touristy time in (in my opinion the beauty of south american lies outside the cities).
The second picture in the second row in many ways sums up the beaty of Rio. There you have the beach, which lines pretty much the entire city, with rolling hills in the background basically covered in rainforests (all within the city proper). It is really a city where its beauty and richness contrasts with the extreme poverty as shown in the first picture of the third row with the Favelas (sp?) which a communities within the city where the poorest people lived in extremely crammed spaces with apartments stacked on top of eachother and drug lords running them. they are a world in and of themselves and are run by themselves. for expample, only 2 police officers exist in one Favela of 600,000 people and the two officers are not allowed to leave a little shack that was designated for them. We went up to the Christ statue with a great view of the city, saw a soccer game in the largest stadium in south america (third video below) and of course went to the Samba Drome to see the Carnival Parade. The parade began at 8:00 in the evening and didnt end til 6:00 in the morning (first video). Of course we also went out and partied our share during Carnival including being led around by our crazy hostel owner in torrential downpours still drinking a nearly pure vodka drink. We also spent a night watching the Gay Parade, and Molly even snuck into it for that picture (2nd row, third pic). We played the game, 'guess if that is a man or a woman' at the parade. I would easily go back to Rio, Carnival or not. It has everything there.
From Rio we went to the Falls de Iguacu (second video). They are one of the seven wonder of the world and are just unbelievably beautiful. We had perfect weather the entire time too (last two pictures row three). We took a boatride up to the falls (you can see one of the boats in the second pic). From there we also took a day trip to see Itaipu Dam, one of the seven engineering marvels, as i think it is the largest dam in the world right now until china finishes theirs (first pic bottom row).
From Iguacu we bussed it back to Buenos for one more day until we spent the night in the airport to catch our early morning flight back to Santiago to rest up for the second leg of our trip...
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