I reached Buenos Aires, the Paris of South America in the
morning of D336 where I crashed in BA Stop Hostel. This day was spent wandering
around the centre crossing Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world.
The following day (D337) I explored the interesting sights
of Palermo and Recoleta. In Palermo I paid a visit to interesting and
informative Museo Evita.
Continuing through green parks to the world famous bourgeois
Recoleta Cemetery dating back to 1822. This is more like a Disneyland cemetery
filled with curious tourist strolling around the fancy and some impressive
mausoleums of the Argentine rich. In the evening I met up with Nico and his
friends to savour a proper Argentine parrilla dinner.
The exploration of the multifaceted metropolis continued on
D338 by exploring the vibrant working class neighbourhood of La Boca. This is
famous for the Boca Juniors football club and colourful houses.
Later on
strolled around Plaza de Mayo admiring the old buildings and the huge Casa
Rosada (Pink House) aka Argentine Presidential House.
The adventure continued in the heat to Puerto Madero, the
docklands of Buenos Aires filled with luxuries yachts and restaurants.
Buenos Aires, the city of tango is almost a must to have an
activity related to this passionate dance. So I visited the Museo del Tango
just beside the world famous Café Tortini.
In the evening we celebrated Nico’s birthday with delicious
food, good wine followed by a visit to the local night finishing the night at four in the next morning.
Due to the heavy head the next day (D339) only essential
errands around the hostel were on my list. I had the luck to witness a large
group of screaming Justin Bieber fans awaiting for this skinny stick to appear on
Avenida 9 Julio.
Sundays in Buenos Aires means visiting the antique / art
market in San Telmo. That it was exactly what I did on D340 checking a tons of
creative and unique pieces of arts.
In the afternoon enjoyed a Viennese Café at Café Tortini,
the oldest coffeehouse in Argentina. As this is also presents numerous cultural
and artistic shows I decided to watch a tango shows in the evening.
Early next morning of D341, I said goodbye to this amazing
capital catching the three hour boat across the Rio del Plata to Colonia del
Sacramento, Uruguay.
For three hours I visited Colonia, a small but pretty
colonial town on the other side of Rio de Plata filled with old houses built on
cobblestones streets.
In the afternoon took the bus to Montevideo arriving around
nine in the evening and checking into El Viajero in Ciudad Viejo.
For couple of hours the next morning (D342) I wandered
around the old part of the city passing by some old building; admiring Mercado
de Puerto, a market filled with meat restaurants and ending up on Plaza del
Independencia at which corner stands the 26 storey Palacio Salvo once the
tallest building in South America.
Montevideo is a the southernmost capital in
South America surrounded by 22 kms of promenade along the Rio de Plata. It has a
feel of a smaller town than a big capital. In my opinion, the Italian heritage
is more visible including the machismo than in Argentina.
In the afternoon I got on the bus to Chuy, a town bordering
Brazil at 322 kms north east of Montevideo. The road was following the coast line
a few kilometres inland passing through flat fields covered with scattered patches of
trees with dense crowns. Despite sad misty sky the warm colours persisted in
the surrounding landscape.
I reached Chuy at around seven in the evening and I was
recommended by the kind and helpful tourist information lady to stay overnight
at the Etnico Hostel, the only hostel on the Uruguayan side. This is a border
town on one side is the Uruguayan Chuy and the other side is the Brazilian Chui
with the wide Avenida Internacional
separating them. The Uruguayan side has numerous duty free shops whereas on the
other side one can only see supermarkets after supermarkets. Weird! For dinner
I sampled for the first time the famous Uruguayan chivito al pan, a calorie bomb
sandwich with beef steak, bacon, eggs, a lettuce leaf, onions, mayo. Yummy!
The wet D343 started early and spent 11 hours travelling from
Chuy to Tacuarembo through gauncho country. There are no direct buses to Tacuarembo
so I needed to change buses in Treinta y Tres and in Melo. I thought this was
remote area and expected small villages around here but instead I found modern
big-ish towns. The drive was through green flat fields filled with scattered
ranches, patches of forests and running rivers. I reached my final destination
of the day in the early hours of the evening settling in at a family run
hospedaje.
This was followed by a chilled day (D344) wandering around
this small town.
The early morning of D345 I took a bus to intersection of
Ruta 26 with Ruta 3 to continue to Salto. From here I exited Uruguay and
crossed the Rio Uruguay by boat to Concordia, Argentina.
I was hoping to catch a bus to Posadas but unfortunately
there were departures only in the evening so I had no choice just waste time. So I
set to explore this pretty town wandering its streets admiring the open air
museum that consisted of huge old photographs displayed on the walls of old
warehouses, metal artwork placed in green areas.
Next I people watched on the shore of the Rio Uruguay while
they were swimming, fishing, jogging or working out.
In the evening I got on the bus to travel 12 hours to Puerto
Iguazu. The next morning (D346) upon my arrival I checked into Timbo Posada
hostel. Later on I paid a visit to the world famous Parque Nacional de Iguaza
to be amazed by the numerous cataracts. The only thing I can say that it is no surprise
that it is considered one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. It is just
stunning!!
The entrance also includes several free showers on the way J especially at the
Salto Bocetti.
Early of D347 I said my final goodbye to Argentina (for now)
and headed to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. This city is famous with mainly
Argentines and Brazilians who come here to shop around in its tax free shopping
malls. For me it was a transit point to Encarnacion. The one and half hour I stayed here it was not eventless at
all. I tried to withdraw money from my credit card and half into the process
the Itau ATM machine froze and it did not want to release my card. For at least 20
minutes I was running around like a headless chicken to find somebody to
re-start the machine. When a guy appeared I learned that this was not the first
time when it happened. Usually it re-starts itself and it would release the card. Lucky me!!! Not a dull moment in our life J!!
Finally arrived in Encarnacion passing the terracotta land of
Paraguay; sampling on the way the famous chipa aka warm manioc cheese bread and
being transferred into another bus as the one we started with broke down.
My
first impression of this country is that I am back in a real South American
country with some dodgy buses that allows all kind of street sellers to get on
the bus, homeless people and the mestizo features are re-appearing. I
realized I missed this and it is a nice way to finish my trip. Argentina and
Chile look more manicured and European than the others. Not that I dislike the latter one!
As it was Sunday Encarnacion was like a ghost town. After
settling in Hotel Itaupu I set to wander around. First I washed my feet on the
beach of the Rio Parana facing the skyscrapers of the Argentine twin city
Posadas that was packed with relaxing Paraguayans. Then ascended to the most interesting
Plaza de Armas divided into smaller sub-parks dedicated to different minorities
living in the city.
I woke up to rain the following morning (D348) deciding to
chill until it eases off and then I caught the bus to the Trinidad famous for its well-preserved Jesuit reduccion aka settlement. This is one of
the least visited UNESCO heritages visited. Tranquillity and good Zen reined
this place which time to time was disturbed by the chirping of different exotic
birds.
Also here I could spot and admire a small owl only at two arms’ length
from me staring at me and not sure to fled or just stay cool. Eventually it
decided to flee to my disappointment!
Next I ventured into visiting another ruin located only at
12 kms away in Jesus. I was hoping that an inter-communal bus would show up as I
was told but it unfortunately it did not. This only proved how genuine and considerate the Paraguayan are. Just standing in the bus station with two other
backpackers a van stopped and offered us a ride for free without us actually
flagging them down.
These ruins were smaller, almost completely reconstructed
but not as impressive as its bigger brother in Trinidad.
The surrounding
countryside and the special afternoon light made this place magical. On our way
back we stopped again in the bus station to catch the last bus going to
Trinidad. Again a nice girl working for the ruins stopped, got out of her
car and said let’s go. Another Good Samaritan when you least expected! I was
totally awed by the generosity and empathy of the people.
D349 travelled to Asuncion, the capital of this small and
pretty country and in the same time my last capital during this trip. I was
pleasantly surprised by the tranquillity and easy-goingness of this city. Here
I checked into the highly recommended family run Posada da Silva owned by a
cute elderly lady.
My first full day (D350) I spent wandering around the small
but compact older part of this tranquil capital checking out the beautiful
Panteon de los Heroes continuing to the Palacio de los Lopez and the colourful
old houses of Manzana de Riviera.
To mark the memory of this amazing one year of Americanism I
popped into Teju Jagua Tattoo parlour in Asuncion and had my first ever tattoo
on D351.
My last day in the chilled out Asuncion I spent visiting the
Cemeterio de la Recoleta who has the rest place of Eliza Lynch, the Irish first lady of
Paraguay from the end of XIX century.
D353 I said goodbye to this extremely calm and laid back country of Paraguay continuing to Rio de Janeiro, my last destination in South
America.
