Brrrr Brazil

After an intimidatingly hot and humid couple of days at the edge of Argentina, Brazil has been freezing from the word go. Even the dogs wear little jumpers. Not what I expected of Brazil at all, I can tell you. We got the bus across the border from Puerto Iguazu to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, and the first thing I noticed was a horse-drawn cart for day-t0-day use. In fact, it all seemed really different from Argentina. Probably the cold weather that made us feel that way. Our stay in Foz wasn't that eventful so I won't bore you with it. We were stupid enough not to take the hostel up on their offer to pick us up from the station (I didn't realise they'd made that offer!) so we suffered an hour and a half uphill trek for about 4km to find it. I'm also ill at the moment so was not a happy Charlotte. Especially as I fell over in the middle of crossing the road, and my knees weren't strong enough to let me get up on my own! The hostel was full of the same English gap year kids as we'd seen in Puerto Iguazu, and we met a Scottish couple who spent the night feeding us horror stories about Peru. Thanks for the warnings, guys! That and a little sausage dog wearing a different jumper each day. That's about the sum of it.

So yesterday we got on one of these famous Brazilian long-distance buses (10 hour, so relatively short) and shivered through to the other side of the country to Curitiba. (I say famous because Brazilian buses are known for being of a very high standard and pretty comfortable. A nice change from the Megabus!) The drive was actually beautiful after we made it out of the Foz area. Trees and hills and all those things. Plus sunshine eventually. A giant Jesus or Mary towering over each village, and more weirdly, some grannies playing in a park. Upon closer inspection it turned out there was fitness equipment there built out of the same materials as the kiddies play bit, but what it looked like was a play park for old ladies.

Apparently Curitiba is the coldest city in Brazil, which we can believe, but it's very beautiful. We met up with our next lovely couchsurfing hosts - Leticia, a lingerie entrepreneur, and her boyfriend Guilherme, a doctor. Today they took us out to lunch with Guilherme's family to a place Paul is particularly fond of - an all you can eat buffet with Lots Of Meat. Waiters come to the table with cuts of meat on sticks and you just take what you want. And there's a whole load of other delights too. Paul was in 7th heaven. We also had pasta in sweet sauces which was a new one. Like chocolate and banana, and coconut and milk. And of course various things with Dulce de Leche. Like the Argentinians they're a big fan of that. Made a nice change from the dreaded rice and beans which we had on our first night. I believe tonight we are going to experience some Brazilian music so more on that to come I'm sure.

That's about all for now - my head is filled with porridge so I'm sure Paul will come up with something I've missed. Mmmm porridge. That would be good right now. And some whisky, for the medicinal properties of course.

Iguazú...zú, zú, zú!

Up to now we've managed to avoid the tourist bubble but we're now in a place where that's impossible. If you've ever played "Curse of Monkey Island" or "Escape from Monkey Island" then you'll know that there's a couple of points where Guybrush Threepwood gets stuck in a tourist trap. Well, that's what Puerto Iguazú feels like. Everywhere you look there's people selling cute necklaces for you to buy or groovy bars for you to dance in or charming restaurants for you dining pleasure.

We're staying in the Marco Pollo Inn which is quite a decent place. It's sort of open plan, even with an open air kitchen which is something I've never encountered before. Iguazu National Park itself feels a lot like the Eden project. It's doing a good thing but it does it amidst fast food stalls, ice cream etc etc. None of this can detract from the sheer beauty of the falls though. I have never seen anything like it and I have never seen as much water in all my life. We took a load of photos which you can see on Flickr but the simply don't do it justice. One day you'll have to come here for yourself and see it. There's mad racoons who try and nick your lunch but we managed to escape them

An Argentinian style pizza was the result of our kitchen/supermarket efforts this evening and tomorrow we bid farewell to Argentina and head to Brazil where we are staing with two more Couchsurfers before the big Hathaway family reunion in Rio de Janiero. It's all still to come and you'll only read about it here so keep following!

Love to all.

Exotic

After Paul's epic last post I thought I'd keep this comparatively short and simple.
The last day in Buenos Aires was a blast. Celina took us back to her school and we entertained a couple more classes. We also met their dance teacher, who is involved with this RSCDS and partly responsible for continuing the intriguing culture of Scottish dance lessons in schools in Buenos Aires. The kids were fantastic and it really made our trip to have the opportunity to meet them and do some dances and songs with them. They also gave us a sticker with the school badge on it for our fiddle cases. Hurrah!

To make a good day even better, Celina took us to the best pizza place in town (according to her) - Argentina is very proud of its pizza and it is a beautiful thing to behold. We then had a last wander around, before shooting up to the 28th floor of her dad's office building to see an amazing sunset over the city. You'd had to be there, I suppose. A photograph could not do it justice. On the way home we happened upon a Tango club (well, it had to happen sometime), and Celina talked Paul and I into doing a lesson. Suffice to say we were awful. We'd been avoiding Tango up until this point, because most of the stuff you encounter in Buenos Aires is staged tourist trap type thing. We've been told that Tango is a bit like ceilidh - something old people do, and something young people are just getting into, but certainly not quite something that most people are genuinely interested in. But this was great. There were about 3 other couples, and 2 smiley men trying to explain to us what to do, in a huge room with a nice roof. And some coffee. For some reason both Paul and I have succumbed to drinking coffee. Not sure what it's doing for my caffeine intolerence, but it feels very south american.

Thank you for having us, Celina!

Today we hopped on a plane and flew to Iguazu, on the border with Brazil and Paraguay. It couldn't be more different from BA. While Buenos Aires felt quite European with all its French architecture, Iguazu is exotic. As we landed there was forest as far as the eye could see (the rest of Argentina seemed to be pretty flat and empty), and it was hot (Buenos Aires was warm in the sunshine, but still quite wintery). There were exotic trees everywhere with actual fruit actually hanging from the branches (normally seen going squidgy and wrinkly in a British supermarket). The roads are dusty and red, the houses are short (compared to skyscrapers, anyway), and women carry their shopping in round baskets on their heads. Lizards, coconuts, humidity, you get the picture. We decided to take it easy to get ourselves used to the heat (ok, it was only about 26 degrees but that's a lot for pastey Brits), and went to see the border point between the 3 countries. It was divided up by the biggest river I've ever seen (although I'm sure there's bigger to come), and it was nice to see Brazil just across the way. We'll be coming to you soon!

Aside from that, we've had some adventures in an outdoor kitchen and stared longingly at the hostel swimming pool. Tomorrow, the waterfall.

Things that seem particularly Argentinian:
Coffee and cake - they do this a bit like the Swedes. We didn't realise you were supposed to have this meal so you could last until dinner at 9. We went very hungry.

Stupid meal times - see above. My stomach has just decided to give up and not expect food any more.

Great beef

Amazing pizza

Yerba mate - everyone has their own cup to drink it out of that only they use, so that things are kept the way they like it.

Tourist tango

Empanadas - look a bit like Cornish pasties

Sweet potato jam - comes in lots of flavours like vanilla and chocolate, tastes a bit like apple sauce, and comes in a slab which looks like rough jelly

Dulce de leche - Argentinians have a very sweet tooth

Cats - strays everywhere. It's like one big cat zoo

Balconies

Dog shite - everywhere, ahhh!

Tiny bread

Street signs sponsered by big companies, like American Express

Beef, Bagpipes and Bairns

They're from the streets of Aberdeen and the small border town

The Hebridean Islands and all the country round
They travelled to a new land and they sing a different song, but
There is no mistaking where they're from

Yes, no sooner had we arrived at our hostel when we were sitting down to an Argentinian beef BBQ next to a guy from Dumfries. They get everywhere these Scots! We were also joined by three young guys from London and an elderly American man who soon pointed out that one of the Londoners (who said his name was Freddie) was the double of Freddie Highmore of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "August Rush" fame. Freddie mumbled and looked a bit concerned when this was brought to everyone's attention so we just left the subject there. We're pretty sure it was though. Anyhow, the beef and the sausages were fantastic and after our epic journey having food that wasn't out of a plastic carton was very much appreciated. Needless to say, after that we collapsed unconcious.

The next morning we ditched our luggage in the basement of the hostel and went out to see where we'd landed. Buenos Aires is a city of contrasts with some stunning architechture mixed in with some real crap. It's a great place to wander around and we managed to find the Congress Building and the "Casa Rosada" or "Pink House" where the EYG bag had it's first airing. There are loads of squares or "Plaza" to wander in so we had a supermarket adventure (always a highlight) and had a picnic in one of them. Later in the day we headed to our first Couchsurfers, Marina and Andres who live West of the centre of BA in a beautiful house with 5 cats (three queens and one tom) and a crazy dog. I made friends with one of the queens and commented on how outgoing and freindly she was to be told that was because she was in heat. Oh well, I'm sure we'll always be friends. Marina and Andres were quite extraordinarily welcoming and very helpful in answering all our questions about BA and Argentina including "how do you cross the road without dying?" to which the answer was, "good question". We made them a spaghetti bolognese as a thanks for having us.

Yet another Scottish connection was discovered wandering Buenos Aires when we heard the sound of the bagpipes somewhere in the distance. Being so used to hearing it we didn't really notice until we had a "huh!?" moment and followed the sound. We discovered an Argentinian Piper so we made him the subject of our first video. When he discovered Charlotte dabbled in piping he let her have a shot of his Argentinian bagpipes, a really nice chap. He turned up later when we were watching a clown show and asked if he could have my Folksoc hoodie but unfortunately, it's the only one I have with me and I don't want to part with it.

We had heard about this fantastic cemetary in BA so after Breakfast we decided to pay it a visit. Cemetaries have always been places I've enjoyed visiting as they tell you so much about how people lived and what their atitudes to death were. Suffice to say, I've ever visited one like this. Glynis and Sooz would have been in their element. It is in effect, a city of dead people. There are streets and streets of cryps, many of which are like small churches with an alter at the top (chairs, tables etc.) and the coffins downstairs. Some of them have the coffins on the top level in which case you cn look through the doors (mostly glass) and peer in at the. A most bizarre experience!

That evening Marina and Andres took us to a BBQ restaurant with two of their friends. We were brought sausages, black pudding, various forms of offal (including small intestine and brain) and plenty Argentinian red wine before the main course of steak and a rack of beef arrived (Charlotte's face was a picture when she realised that we'd only had the starter). It was the best steak I have ever tasted and was so much cheaper than anything you'd get in the UK. Marina and Andres' friends were less confident about speaking English than they were and were there partly to practice. As the evening went on confidence grew, more wine was taken and by the end of it no-one was really speaking any recognisable language. Back at the house ice cream was eaten, we played some tunes and Charlotte dnaced the Gay Gordon's with Andres around the living room. An amazing evening and a HUGE, HUGE thanks to Marina and Andres, their cats and their dog for having us. Incidently, this is a city of cats. Just about every square and park has a colony of them and the cemetary was full of cats, each of which was dubbed "Greyfriar's Pussy".

We left after brunch the next morning to meet our next Couchsurfer Celina, who is a bundle of fun and energy living in the centre of BA. She took us on a wander round the Sunday market in San Telmo, one of the oldest parts of the city and we took in the sites, smells and ate some of the sugared nuts that are prepared on just about every street corner. It was giant and went on for streets and streets.

Celina is a teacher at the primary school Fundacion Nuestra Señora De La Merced in the centre of BA and bizarely enough, her kids have been learning some Scottish dancing. We'd agreed to go in and play for them, talk about Scotland and sing a couple of songs. When we arrived, it was a wee girl's 9th birthday so happy birthday was sung (the kids in Spanish and us in English) before the barrage of questions in a mixture of Spanish and Enlish; "What is your favourite colour?", "how old are you?" (asked beautifully in English by one young chap and "do you have horses and carts in Scotland?". I sang them a song about Elephants before we headed down to their hall where we taught them a simplified strip the willow and they showed us how they'd learnt the Flying Scotsman. I played and they stayed exactly to time with no instructions, remarkable. They also showed us some Argentinian dancing including a waltz which had them bowing to each other. I couldn't imagine Scottish kids doing it with such grace. We left after a rendition of the Jeely Piece Song which the kids thought was highly amusing when they found out that it was all about sandwiches.

That afternoon we took a tour (albeit in Spanish!) around the congess building which has a gorgeous debating chamber and a very impressive library. It was interesting to hear all the questions the others on the tour were asking. It was clearly their congressso they were keen to find out about what they were paying for.

Our meal for Celina that evening was a Scottish classic, scampi with chips and peas followed by shortbread. As I don't speak Spanish, I mistakenly bought self raising flour so the shortbread was a little more like cake than I'd planned but still very edible.

That epic brings us to this morning. We now have a Flickr account where we'll be putting all our photos. There's loads there of the cemetary and various view around BA so be sure to check it out. Love to all.

Planes planes planes!

So it seems like we've been travelling for 48 hours, though I'm so confused by the time zones that I can't be sure of that. Plus my watch has developed a very amusing habit of getting stuck on the hour sometimes... not boding well for the future.
Highlight of being on so many long-haul flights has been seeing what new and exciting meal gourmet gateway will give us. My stomach is so confused with the amount of main meals it's had at odd times. Best by far was some weird concoction of different flavoured scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning (haven't eaten since and the clock says it's 8.15) - they were with chillies, tomatoes, and some bean paste (which Paul didn't complain about) with cheese. Served slightly warm and soggy in a metal container.
Landing in Mexico City, by the way, was unbelievable. Don't know what time it was, but it was dark so there were thousands of lights as far as the eye could see, punctuated by black patches of hillsandthings. The lights were a bit weird to look at, as so many of them were skyscrapers so they had this 3D sort of effect. Still have no idea what Mexico City actually looks like! When we finally made it to Buenos Aires (oh, how I'm growing to love customs and immigration queues - we've already done 3) we spent about 2 hours trying to work out how to get a bus and how to get change for it. Then realised the journey was going to take 2 hours because it wasn't particularly direct. No matter, we got an interesting insight into the outskirts of the city, and were ambushed by some guy trying to sell chocolate bars to passengers on the bus. (Can you imagine a Lothian Bus response to that? The driver would shout and swear whilst everyone else would pretend they couldn't see the vendor.)
Anyway, we're here now in a great youth hostel resembling an MC Escher house and awaiting a promised BBQ where will have Lots Of Meat and Half A Bottle Of Wine each. Much needed.
Ta ta for now!

And they're off!

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who turned up at the Rev to see us off. It was fab to see you all and the burger I had was one of the best (a big thanks to A+G for buying us dinner and transporting us to the bus station). A sing through of the "Ramblin Rover" seemed the appropriate way to signal our departure and then we left to catch the red-eye bus to London. Since then it's still pretty red-eyed with a tube in London to Heathrow then a 7 hour flight to New York. We're currently in the departures awaiting our flight to Mexico then Buenos Aires. It's all feeling a bit strange - almost like a dream at the moment, especially when so little sleep has been had. I'm feeling sad that we're not seeing New York yet as looking out to the city it looks fab. All to come though!

Not much to report on flights. The on demand entertainment on our BA London-New Yor flight was very impressive. I watched the Simpsons, The Thick of It, Bill Bailey and the movie Invivtus, which I highly recommend. Morgan Freeman is a legend and it makes me want to meet him and Nelson Mandlea.

Anyhow, lots more flying to come before we start properly. I'll post again from Buenos Aires but not until we've had some sleep...

Love to all.

Ethno Scotland

This past week, instead of making last minute preparations for the big trip, Paul and I have been taking part in the musical force of nature that is Ethno Scotland. Many thanks to all the organisers, and everyone who turned up - we had a fantastic time! For anyone who's interested, Ethno Scotland involved 30 musicians from 12 countries all over the world, sharing music from the various countries' traditions and culminating in a series of fantastic concerts at the end of the week. We also got to spend a nice relaxing time on the beautiful shores of Loch Goil and even managed to fit in a bit of sailing and kayaking. Looking forward to an even bigger and better Ethno next year, and we'll miss all you people who we met this time!

http://www.internever.com/ethno/

Tonight we'll be taking the night bus down to London, ready to catch a plane to Buenos Aires (via New York and Mexico) tomorrow morning. Here we come!