hello world
right now i am sitting in a cafe in santa cruz, bolivia, with a band playing not so much in the background but more full on. but it's nice... south america has rhythm damn it! everywhere!
so let me bring you up to date... we left south africa for sao paulo in brazil. we had looked for the cheapest flight and found it, but unfortunately that flight was via doha. so instead of flying nine or so hours to sao paulo we flew eleven hours to doha and then fourteen hours to our final destination. that was hard work indeed! flying just sucks out all your energy. but at least with qatar we added an extra country to our list (it's not cheating if you had a beer in a country).
so i'll try and give you a quick run through cause we have loads of pictures and that's all you want anyway.
we landed in sao paulo which is hell of an expensive place, especially if your backpacking on a budget. so we only stayed there two days had a walk and contacted ana picasso, a friend of mine i know from my time in egypt with sinai divers. but before we flew to montevideo in uruguay i did in fact, being in bazil and all buy my first pair of non-fake havaianas... there affordable in sao paulo!
we arrived in montevideo after being on a flight with one of the survivors of the famous plane crash in the andes (you might know the movie "alive"). so i'd say statistically it was the safest anyone could travel... i mean... who has two plane crashes??
ana banana picked us up from the airport and hooked us up with a awesome cheap place to stay. cause she was working we spent the week hanging around in montevideo, before we left for colonia on the weekend. we were a awesome group... ana, mati, caro, bonda and mr. dee. we had an awesome time in this little old colonial town. simply great. and it was so nice to see ana again and catch up after two years or so.
but that had to end, which meant that ana, mati and caro had to head back to montevideo cause they had to work on monday, and bonda and me took a ferry to buenos aires... so argentina was the next stop.
we spent a few days in buenos aires. it's quite a cool city, though also expensive. we stayed in the "barrio" called palermo. an arty place with loads of boutiques, bars, restaurants and, and, and....
we also had a few long walks through the city, crossed the widest road in the world (+/- 100 meters with something like 16 lanes) and visited evita's grave. quite an impressive cemetery i must say.
then we moved on to puerto iguazu, the home of the famous iguazu waterfalls. we stayed a few nights, wanting to spend two days in the national park surrounding the waterfalls. but it was not really like jungles and stuff in asia. it was all very touristy and there were nice walkways and so on. but nevertheless, the waterfalls are absolutely mind blowing!!! anyhow, one day is more than enough and we ended up having a "day off" and just chilled and played cards.
after that we took a bus to posadas where we crossed to border to encarnacion in paraguay. just next to this town there is a place called trinidad, the best preserved jesuit ruins in the wold and one of the least visited unesco thingies. i quite liked it... again, i like said, i like walking around old stuff.
encarnacion its self is a strange town however... we found there were so many shoe and clothes shops but no restaurants or supermarkets. might be cause it's just over the argentinian border and they just come to shop cheap and get us dollars (can't get those in argentina).
after that we took a bus to asuncion, paraguay's capital, only to spend a night there in order to take another bus to santa cruz in bolivia. there is really not much to do in paraguay. well there is, but it's simply not accessible without your own transportation... and a portable kitchen... and a tent... and a guide... and a weeks supply of food... and lots of money and god knows what... and we don't have that stuff.
the bus ride to santa cruz was fun. that was ironic. it sucked. big time.
it took us almost 26 hours to get there in a bus that stank of shit and we had a bust tire on the way and we where suppose to get three meals... breakfast was 2 cookies and a small juice box. the other two meals sucked :-)
we arrived in santa cruz where we crashed for the night at a random place. since it was was not a very nice random place we moved the next day to a hotel called hotel sarah... DON'T GO THERE!
it is the lonely planets "pick"... but there is a fucking idiot working there. he offered us a 3 days / 2 nights tour to the near by ambrosi park for 300 bolivianos each (bit less that 50 us$), including accommodation, activities and breakfast (all meals actually but we settled for breakfast). cheap and great deal we thought (we had read that tours can be that cheap in bolivia and mostly awesome). we booked it and it actually was awesome. we drove up to this place, stayed in a guys house (house guy) and the guy from the hotel (hotel guy) came along. we visited old inca ruins, beautiful waterfalls and on the third day climbed up the hills/mountains around the laguna vulvcanico. we also met two swiss girls who joined us most of the time. was fun spending time with them and the two "guides" invited them to come along. so far all good... but on the last day, just before we were going to leave for santa cruz, the hotel guy presented us a bill for additional 700 bolivianos (110 us$) PER DAY... making a total of 2100 bolivianos... oh and 50 extra for his wife who drove us to the bus station in santa cruz. what a fucking asshole! we had a splendid time, were about to give both of them a big tip for an awesome and cheap trip and then that. i was shocked and honestly didn't know what i should say... but bonda stepped up and give the guys shit. it turned out the hotel guy had screwed over the house guy too and we refused to pay, went back to santa cruz (only hotel guy, bonda and dee) and took our stuff we had left in the hotel an fucked off. i will most certainly inform the lonely planet about that! fucker thought we'd give in and pay him. but no way amigo! if anything had been true he wouldn't of just let us walk off... oh, and he wanted money from the two swiss girls too after INVITING them. what a dick!
but we won, didn't pay and are now in a far nicer place with a damn pool. but no bad feelings... was nice until the last few hours... and like i said: we won. boom.
we've been moving quite fast in south america... and will keep up the speed. there is so much more to see.
so i say thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures, while in my background the band it still playing nice music and i order one more cuba libre. life is good!
love
bonda and dee
havaianas in sao paulo
montevideo with ana banana picaso. bessos from us!
the shit you can buy at these markets...
cemetery in montevideo
colonia with bonda, caro, ana and mati (left to right)
this somehow reminds me of hangover part 347
THE BOSS!!!!
and this reminds me of the beatles.... don't know why....
maybe cause we all live in a yellow submarine
awesome shot bonda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
buenos aires... in the middle of whe widest street
in buenos aires there is everything... from meat...
... to guns...
... and big willies :-)
evita's cemetery...
and her grave...
iguazu waterfalls and park... freaking awesome
trinidad, the jesuit ruins in paraguay
JESUS IS BACK.... oh no... it's just the dude...
our awesome bus ride... tire kaputt...
santa cruz....
our very nice bit strange tour.... bitter ending...
ther are many photos of both of us for a change... hotel guy insisted... haha
this is us two, natalia, regula and house guy
thats all.... but wait... here are some grafitties and street art i saw around south america so far
right now i am sitting in a cafe in santa cruz, bolivia, with a band playing not so much in the background but more full on. but it's nice... south america has rhythm damn it! everywhere!
so let me bring you up to date... we left south africa for sao paulo in brazil. we had looked for the cheapest flight and found it, but unfortunately that flight was via doha. so instead of flying nine or so hours to sao paulo we flew eleven hours to doha and then fourteen hours to our final destination. that was hard work indeed! flying just sucks out all your energy. but at least with qatar we added an extra country to our list (it's not cheating if you had a beer in a country).
so i'll try and give you a quick run through cause we have loads of pictures and that's all you want anyway.
we landed in sao paulo which is hell of an expensive place, especially if your backpacking on a budget. so we only stayed there two days had a walk and contacted ana picasso, a friend of mine i know from my time in egypt with sinai divers. but before we flew to montevideo in uruguay i did in fact, being in bazil and all buy my first pair of non-fake havaianas... there affordable in sao paulo!
we arrived in montevideo after being on a flight with one of the survivors of the famous plane crash in the andes (you might know the movie "alive"). so i'd say statistically it was the safest anyone could travel... i mean... who has two plane crashes??
ana banana picked us up from the airport and hooked us up with a awesome cheap place to stay. cause she was working we spent the week hanging around in montevideo, before we left for colonia on the weekend. we were a awesome group... ana, mati, caro, bonda and mr. dee. we had an awesome time in this little old colonial town. simply great. and it was so nice to see ana again and catch up after two years or so.
but that had to end, which meant that ana, mati and caro had to head back to montevideo cause they had to work on monday, and bonda and me took a ferry to buenos aires... so argentina was the next stop.
we spent a few days in buenos aires. it's quite a cool city, though also expensive. we stayed in the "barrio" called palermo. an arty place with loads of boutiques, bars, restaurants and, and, and....
we also had a few long walks through the city, crossed the widest road in the world (+/- 100 meters with something like 16 lanes) and visited evita's grave. quite an impressive cemetery i must say.
then we moved on to puerto iguazu, the home of the famous iguazu waterfalls. we stayed a few nights, wanting to spend two days in the national park surrounding the waterfalls. but it was not really like jungles and stuff in asia. it was all very touristy and there were nice walkways and so on. but nevertheless, the waterfalls are absolutely mind blowing!!! anyhow, one day is more than enough and we ended up having a "day off" and just chilled and played cards.
after that we took a bus to posadas where we crossed to border to encarnacion in paraguay. just next to this town there is a place called trinidad, the best preserved jesuit ruins in the wold and one of the least visited unesco thingies. i quite liked it... again, i like said, i like walking around old stuff.
encarnacion its self is a strange town however... we found there were so many shoe and clothes shops but no restaurants or supermarkets. might be cause it's just over the argentinian border and they just come to shop cheap and get us dollars (can't get those in argentina).
after that we took a bus to asuncion, paraguay's capital, only to spend a night there in order to take another bus to santa cruz in bolivia. there is really not much to do in paraguay. well there is, but it's simply not accessible without your own transportation... and a portable kitchen... and a tent... and a guide... and a weeks supply of food... and lots of money and god knows what... and we don't have that stuff.
the bus ride to santa cruz was fun. that was ironic. it sucked. big time.
it took us almost 26 hours to get there in a bus that stank of shit and we had a bust tire on the way and we where suppose to get three meals... breakfast was 2 cookies and a small juice box. the other two meals sucked :-)
we arrived in santa cruz where we crashed for the night at a random place. since it was was not a very nice random place we moved the next day to a hotel called hotel sarah... DON'T GO THERE!
it is the lonely planets "pick"... but there is a fucking idiot working there. he offered us a 3 days / 2 nights tour to the near by ambrosi park for 300 bolivianos each (bit less that 50 us$), including accommodation, activities and breakfast (all meals actually but we settled for breakfast). cheap and great deal we thought (we had read that tours can be that cheap in bolivia and mostly awesome). we booked it and it actually was awesome. we drove up to this place, stayed in a guys house (house guy) and the guy from the hotel (hotel guy) came along. we visited old inca ruins, beautiful waterfalls and on the third day climbed up the hills/mountains around the laguna vulvcanico. we also met two swiss girls who joined us most of the time. was fun spending time with them and the two "guides" invited them to come along. so far all good... but on the last day, just before we were going to leave for santa cruz, the hotel guy presented us a bill for additional 700 bolivianos (110 us$) PER DAY... making a total of 2100 bolivianos... oh and 50 extra for his wife who drove us to the bus station in santa cruz. what a fucking asshole! we had a splendid time, were about to give both of them a big tip for an awesome and cheap trip and then that. i was shocked and honestly didn't know what i should say... but bonda stepped up and give the guys shit. it turned out the hotel guy had screwed over the house guy too and we refused to pay, went back to santa cruz (only hotel guy, bonda and dee) and took our stuff we had left in the hotel an fucked off. i will most certainly inform the lonely planet about that! fucker thought we'd give in and pay him. but no way amigo! if anything had been true he wouldn't of just let us walk off... oh, and he wanted money from the two swiss girls too after INVITING them. what a dick!
but we won, didn't pay and are now in a far nicer place with a damn pool. but no bad feelings... was nice until the last few hours... and like i said: we won. boom.
we've been moving quite fast in south america... and will keep up the speed. there is so much more to see.
so i say thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures, while in my background the band it still playing nice music and i order one more cuba libre. life is good!
love
bonda and dee
havaianas in sao paulo
montevideo with ana banana picaso. bessos from us!
cemetery in montevideo
colonia with bonda, caro, ana and mati (left to right)
this somehow reminds me of hangover part 347
THE BOSS!!!!
and this reminds me of the beatles.... don't know why....
maybe cause we all live in a yellow submarine
awesome shot bonda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
buenos aires... in the middle of whe widest street
in buenos aires there is everything... from meat...
... to guns...
... and big willies :-)
evita's cemetery...
and her grave...
iguazu waterfalls and park... freaking awesome
trinidad, the jesuit ruins in paraguay
JESUS IS BACK.... oh no... it's just the dude...
our awesome bus ride... tire kaputt...
santa cruz....
our very nice bit strange tour.... bitter ending...
ther are many photos of both of us for a change... hotel guy insisted... haha
this is us two, natalia, regula and house guy
thats all.... but wait... here are some grafitties and street art i saw around south america so far
