Puerto Iguazú

My visit to Puerto Iguazú was an impromptu one, I hadn't even heard of it before arriving in Argentina! Suffice to say, looking back I'd have been gutted to have missed it, definitely a highlight of my trip.

Puerto Iguazú itself is a small town next to the Iguazú waterfalls national park. The Iguazú falls are situated between Brazil and Argentina. Part of the river that actually divides Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. From a point in you can actually see all three countries:


In this picture I'm standing in Argentina, Paraguay is to the left of the river, Brazil to the right.

But back to the falls. From the Argentina side you see the falls close up. I spent 2 days exploring this side. It was certainly far and away the most spectacular natural sight I have seen in my whole trip and that's saying something!










In the park itself there were several fantastic treks as well as a speedboat ride into the falls themselves... It was damp...

On my third day in Puerto Iguazú I took a trip across to the Brazilian side of the river to get a different perspective of the falls. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great but I still managed to walk the main trail and get a couple of pics:







The pictures say it all. I'm fairly sure as natural wonders go. The Iguazú falls will take some topping!! A big thanks to those in Buenos Aires that recommended them!!

The next stop is Salta (where I am now as you know from the rafting pics) update to follow, hopefully in the next day or so....

Montevideo

I'd love to say that I decided to visit Montevideo in Uruguay to see a more chilled out version of Buenos Aires with more welcoming people.... Buy in truth I went just because I found out that the oldest derby in South America between Penarol and Nacional as taking place that weekend.

The Penarol National derby is notoriously crazy (check out this link: http://www.thefootballramble.com/dwhof/entrant/penarol-v-nacional)
But more of that later...

First up being a cheapskate I took a ferry and bus combination from BA that took 5 hours rather than the 2 hour direct route. I was pleasantly surprised, at first, to discover the bus part of the journey (after the 3 hour ferry across the River Plate) had wifi so I could listen to Spurs V Blackpool. Effing load of Sh*te etc etc...

Anyway I arrived in Montevideo and took pleasant stroll to my hotel. On arriving I found out that getting a ticket to the match would involve a trip to the national stadium which is... Next to the bloody bus station!

Touted ticket purchased (£25, 10 times face value) I spent a day exploring the city.

I really enjoyed the place. Nice simple colonial architecture but with pleasant tree lined streets and squares. The night life was limited but good fun, an added bonus.

So match day... I headed to the stadium wondering if my touted generic ticket would work. It did, I was in the Nacional end (70000 people attendance) and had a great time. The match finished 1 - 0 to my new South American team Nacional. Good times all round.

I passed the next day wandering the streets of Montevideo in the pleasant sun. A really nice diversion on my trip !

Photos from Salta

I've gone all out of sync, with Blogs about Uruguay and Iguazu still to do, but in the mean time heres some photos from rafting today in Salta:

https://picasaweb.google.com/tumbridge/RaftingInSalta#

I'll catch up soon honest....

(Massive congratulations to Martin and Dawn on their engagement while I'm on...)

Buenos Aires

So after an entire day of travelling from KL to Singapore to Buenos Aires I arrived at... Er... Exactly the same time as I set off, which definitely did some funny things to my head for a few days.

That said I actually felt just about alive on arriving at my (absolutely fantastic) hostel in BA. Having settled in I made all the important enquiries, where can I get food, laundry done and most important of all how do I get tickets to local football matches....
It turned out Boca Juniors were playing Independiente that very evening and the hostel were running a ticket plus beer and food trip to the match. Well it would be rude not to I thought!!!

It was I great evening all round. The atmosphere in the old style terracing at the La Bombonera was great (although tempered a little by being all tourists in the area I was in). The match itself, a 1 - 1 draw was not quite the quality I had expected but a fantastic experience none the less:



The evening itself was also good fun with much free beer in a local Boca bar. It was also great to meet a nice bunch of people on my first night in South America.

After much recovery, from the flight not the drinking, I spent the next couple of days exploring BA. Taking in a walking tour of the central colonial areas and visiting Evita's family mausoleum.
As well as catching the odd random protest. Apparently there is over 700 per year in BA, eat your heart out London!!




The nightlife in BA is supposed to be legendary but I found it strange. People in South America don't seem to go out until very late and by late I mean that bars still empty at midnight will suddenly start filling up at half 1 - 2! I struggled to cope with this concept!

After a few days wandering. I decided to make a trip to Uruguay for the weekend (which I'll talk about in my next post) before coming back to BA for one last night before heading North.

My last day in BA was probably my favourite. I decided to walk to the working class La Boca district, against much worried advice from the staff in my hostel, who seemed to follow the belief that a working class area means inevitable robbery. Although the area was run down, it was a fascinating view of a different side of BA. I also took in a stadium tour of La Bombonera, including their really interesting football museum and even managed to catch a free Tango show at a street restaurant in the more touristy (who arrived by bus obviously) artist enclave area of La Boca.

It was a shame really that I spent my last 2 hours in BA watching Man City v Spurs when I could have spent more time in La Boca. I never learn

Next stop Puerto Iguazú via A brief stop in Uruguay... I bet you can't wait

Sydney

Sydney is by far the most expensive place I've ever been!!!!

Now I've got that out of the way... I stopped in Sydney for 6 days without any real plan for my stay.
My hand was forced slightly by the poor weather (cold and wet) so I spent my whole time in the city itself.

I spent most of the 6 days exploring on foot. Making use of a multi entry ticket valid in 10 of the city's museums and historic buildings. They were very interesting but I won't list them all here... That said I was surprised how historical and quite how pretty Sydney was.My highlights mainly came about just through strolling around the different districts.







I was staying in a typical city backpacker hostel, which seemed to be full of stag do's... So I didn't spend too much time hanging around there! In fact most of the bars I found in central Sydney were either typical after work pubs, backpacker pubs... Or bizarrely pub come bookies. All of them were ridiculously expensive.

I did find one great bar after a bit of research, that had live BA da on every night... I went there 4 of my nights in Sydney! Sadly it was closing down the week after I moved on. A real shame




I shouldn't forget to mention my surreal night watching the Royal Wedding in Circular Quay with another Brit and a couple of pro Monarchy Aussies. In what became an increasing drunken night, I was interviewed twice by Aussie TV before it all decended into shambolic singing of Jerusalem...

I also managed to increase my football match attendances to 3 continents by going to a match in the New South Wales league. The match APIA Tigers vs Sydney Olympic, was in fact a match between two historic clubs representing Sydney's Italian and Greek communities respectively. The clubs have long histories and a long local rivalry and as such the attendance was in the higher hundreds. The barman also brought me a beer, top afternoon!

After a brief spell of civilisation, back on the travels again. Next stop Buenos Aires...

See you there

KL

I only expected to have one night in Kuala Lumpur before I had to catch a train to Singapore, but the lack of trains and cheap cost of flights left me with two nights.

As well as getting heavily rained on I did the usual exploring of museums and colonial buildings.

The highlight though was on the Saturday evening I was on t'internet looking for somewhere to watch the Spurs game when I saw a tweet from the Malaysia Spurs AGM. To cut a long story short, I went along met done great people, was interviewed on camera and had a great night with some loyal Spurs fans







My interview is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcxBYSlaCcA (for reference of course)

Bagan & Yangon

The train to Bagan we certainly the best and most comfortable journey I had in Myanmar, but to be honest that's not saying much! The amount the train bumped up and down on the rails, I was sure we were going to derail at any moment!!!

I met a lovely Dutch couple on the train who told me about a hotel they had booked, with free train station pick up and a swimming pool for only $15!!! Suffice to say I joined them in the pick up! Definitely the best place I've stayed so far on my trip!!

The gutting thing was due to a lack of buses back to Yangon (water bloody festival... I'll elaborate later) I only had a day and a half I'm Bagan.

Bus booked (more to come later on that) I hired a horse and cart to take me around the main temples of Bagan

To add some context, Bagan as a historical area covers over 40 sq km with over 4000 temples and stupas in the boundaries!

I really am struggling to describe the sheer scale and magnificence of Bagan. The only comparison in Angkor, which although has many more impressive sights is far less staggering in scale.

For the next half day before I had to head back to Yangon I relaxed by the pool... A first on the trip!!

Again because the water festival had just finished it turned out that all the buses were full for the next week. The only option I had for getting back to Yangon was to sit on a plastic stool in the solar of the bus... It turned out I wasn't the only one to have taken this option, the bus was rammed full. The 14 hour journey was without doubt, the worst in my life!!!!

Back in Yangon I had a day to explore the now open city and a fantastic place it is. Suddenly full of life with bars and restaurants spilling onto the surrounding streets. Definitely one of my favourite cities I visited Asia.

All in all I found Myanmar amazing experience. I managed to avoid paying all government fees bar the departure tax and met some absolutely amazing people. Anyone considering a visit I would highly recommend it!