Uruguay, Iguacu Falls & Florianopolis - 4 July to 16th July
Following the unintended no sleep night in BA I hastily packed my bags and headed for the port to catch my boat to Colonia, Uruguay. It took an hour to cross the water where the Rio Uruguay meets the Atlantic. I passed out amongst the masses of Argentines and Uruguayans heading for holidays or home.
URUGUAY
Colonia and Buenos Aires are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of mayhem. Perfect for sightseeing and recovery time, Colonia is a tiny port town, fought over by the Portuguese and the Spanish for over 100 years. Cobbled streets, old old houses, a lighthouse built on the ruins of a convent, a ghostly gate & wall and hundreds of dogs who made it their goal to follow us everywhere on our short visit. If we went into a museum they waited outside, if we sat down for lunch they laid beside us, weirdly though they wouldn’t walk through the gate to the city – we suspected ghosts from the past were to blame. In the afternoon we took a bus to Montevideo, capital of Uruguay. Mercado Centrale for lunch - on arrival it looked like a derelict building and upon entry it still looked like a derelict building!! There was hardly anyone there and certainly no tourists!! Still there was a small restaurant out the back with a huge amount of meat on an open fire. We ate a massive pile of expertly cooked different cuts between the2 of us for 11quid. I didn´t even have to ask for it juicy - they KNOW how to eat beef!! Also of interest was a trip to the Estadio Centenario, scene of the first ever World Cup Final in 1930. VIVA URUGUAY!!
IGUACU FALLS
We took an overnight bus straight to Iguacu Falls. Incredible. The Rio Iguacu widens at the site of the falls and so they extend 2.7km creating 275 falls of varying sizes, the largest 82metres tall. In total the water flow is larger than Niagara. At first glimpse it blew me away and it only got better. The Argentine side offers an up close and personal experience, with walks along the top literally feet away from millions of gallons of pouring water and soaking you in the spray. We jumped on a boat ride out into the rapids created by the colossal San Martin falls, and got drenched while a waterfall poured on top of us. The most incredible part was the Devils Throat – 700metres long, 150metres wide, 82 metres high - it looks as though someone has pulled the plug on Earth and everything is being sucked into the abyss below. You can´t see the bottom because of the spray, and the sound of the water is astonishing. See the videos I just uploaded! From the Brazil side you get a terrific panoramic view and at one point are surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls – it is like nothing I have ever seen.
FLORIANOPOLIS – SANTA CATARINA
I made my way to Florianopolis capital of the state of Santa Catarina on a rickety overnight bus which bounced me into oblivion for 14hrs. There I met my friend Steve from home for a relaxing few days in his house overlooking Lake Conceicao – one of two on the island. He had arranged a car which happened to have f**k all functionality in the electronics department so we had no idea about simple necessities such as speed or petrol levels. Driving around the island we checked out pretty much every beach, road and lookout – they have some fantastic ones here – my only regret is that I didn’t come in summer when it wouldn’t have been sub-zero at night! On the last day we drove south, parked the car on the beach and went for a look on the beach. When we returned the car wouldn’t start – clearly a petrol problem because of the pointless dashboard not telling us it was empty! We trekked the 2.5km along to the nearest town, sat down for lunch and LUCKILY managed to persuade a local to get us some petrol and take us back to the car. UNLUCKILY, the guy was a maniac and owned a rapid 250cc motorbike. Being the smaller of the two of us, I jumped on the back of the death trap in my shorts carrying a bottle of petrol while the guy took off and raced at 125km/hr to the car – I´ve seen a lot this year and I honestly thought this was the end. Luckily I managed to hang on as he took the corners like Valentino Rossi and all I ended up with was a severely bruised ass as he refused to slow down for speed bumps! I returned with the car to find Steve chilling out with lunch overlooking the relaxed beach – thanks mate!!!
I´m going to leave it there for now as I´m probably boring you. The next blog which I will try to do shortly will be on Rio de Janeiro and the Pantanal which is where I am now.
Until then, take care.
Will
PS – for those of you who were looking forward to an end to these blogs expecting me back on the 15h Aug….I´m staying here for a few more months, so you will have to put up with this crap for a bit longer!! Haha!!