Florianópolis (March 27-31)

So let’s take this back a tad. When we were in Buenos Aires staying at a party backpacker hostel called Milhouse, David spotted a girl he thought he recognized from University… after awkwardly going up to her he realized it was her and we ended up hanging out with her and her Brazilian boyfriend Renan. Katie lived with Renan in Florianopolis before having her visa expire and an unwilling embassy to let her return. They had to vacation to Argentina to hang out… CRAZY! Anyways, we were told that we HAD to stop by Renan’s place when we arrived on the island.  Katie warned us that he would be incredibly hospitable and boy was she right!

Upon yet another night bus we arrived in Floripa. We gave Renan a call and within 20mins he was at the bus station to pick us up. He gave us a little tour on our drive in and pointed out some of the must see beaches out of the 42 that were on the island!!! We were so pumped. He took us to Praie Canasviera on our first stop for some must try beach food! The first was mozzarella covered in oregano and toasted on a portable bbq!! Can I get a yummmmmm? Next was corn on a stick, we weren’t so impressed with this, definitely not as good as Taber corn. Then there was David’s favorite, CHORRIPAN! Basically a hot dog… Dave had about 5!

 After stuffing our faces yet again, Renan took us to his place to get settled in. He was so cute and set up a nice little room for us with all the amenities. He made us feel completely at home so much that we didn’t want to leave! After unpacking and getting changed we headed to one of Renan’s favorite beaches so he could get his surf on. The beach was called Praie Brava and was absolutely gorgeous. Only problem was that there was no surf.  Didn’t matter though because Renan had some mate prepared so we climbed up on the rocks up to the point and enjoyed the sunset. It was such a good evening. 

We found out that Renan was a chef and had recently started a sushi delivery company. He ended up having to prepare a bunch that night so we tagged along and got to learn how to make a bunch of different roles. We also ate about 90% of everything we made so I guess we weren’t that much help! It was some of the best sushi I’ve ever had! So fresh and delicious!!!!

Unfortunately the rest of the time that we spent on the island it rained but we still got to visit tons of beaches. We bussed it south one day to Barra Lagoa where we had a nice breaky and then bought some sweet havaianas. We ended up wanting to check out a beach nearby and thought we could short cut it through some sand dunes… turns out the shortcut turned in to 40 days and 40 nights in the desert!!! It was sooo hot for the first time that day we kept walking in circles… The beach sounded sooo close… for about 2hrs! We finally found it though, Praie da Jaoquina and it was well worth it for the 10mins before it rained!!!! And when I say rained, I mean torrential downpoured!!! It was 3pm when we arrived at the bus station and were told that the next bus would arrive at 5:30pm! We decided to run to a hotel and try to call a cab. Finally one came and we got back to Renan’s place safe and sound.  Renan leant us his car for the following days which was a heck of a lot faster than the bus and we were able to check out a few more beaches, Praie dos Igleses and Praie Brava again… They were really nice!

On our last night there, Renan insisted on preparing a traditional Brazilian Barbeque. It was amazing!!! A whole lot of meat prepared on a fire bbq with a ton of caiparinas! Sooo good!

We were really sad to leave Renan’s place but opted for better weather in Rio! We’ll have to go back to visit him sometime soon!

Who needs Niagra???? Iguazu Falls!!!!! (March 25-26)

Traveling and staying hostels opens up a whole new world of stories and information about different destinations, tours and things to do… Some good, some really bad!!  One of those places that we’d heard nothing but good things about was Iguazu Falls.  Even people who we had met who never get excited for anything we raving about this place!!  Clearly it couldn’t be missed!!

After yet another overnight bus we arrived in the city of Foz do Iquazu.  Getting a bit pressed for time these days we decided to let a tour agency line up everything for us: our hostel, the tours, and even our departing bus ride for the next day to Florianopolis.  Things are sure easy if you’re willing to pay a slight bit more!!

Within a few hours of arriving we were on our way to see the waterfalls from the Brazilian side.   The river and waterfall are the border between Brazil and Argentina.  Standing on the Brazil side, you are actually looking at the falls on the Argentina.  The border to Paraguay is also only a few miles away, which is why the area is called the ‘Triple Frontier,’ where the 3 countries meet.   We were expecting to be absolutely blown away, and we were certainly not disappointed.  All of the incredible stories we heard from others were not even close to doing the fall justice!!  The amount of water pouring over the cliffs was amazing and the falls continued for as far as you can see.   Some areas had several skinny falls, others had several falls one after the other like steps, and others were massive powerful falls like Niagara.  I’ve never been to Niagara and Dawne was only there when she was younger, but I don’t really think it could compare to this at all!!  People told us when we go to Niagara we’ll wonder what all the people are there for.

We spent the afternoon just walking along the path overlooking the falls, gazing in disbelief at what we were seeing.  Both of us agreed that this was the most beautiful thing we’d ever seen!!  At the end of the path is the largest portion of water fall called “Garganta de Diablo’ (the Devil’s Throat) which is where the main part of the river spills over with tremendous force.  It was incredible to see how high the water was spraying when it hit the bottom.  It created a heavy mist that was refreshing for everyone seeing as the temperature was well over 30 degrees and crazy humid!! We even got to walk out on a catwalk to stand just a few meters from where all the water crashes down!!  Dawne finally dragged me away from the walls and we headed back into town for a dip in the pool.

With the Brazil side now complete, we headed to the Argentinian side of the falls on day 2.  We went with an organized group for this side of the falls and had a lot of fun with the others from the hostel who we had met the night before.  (They were more Australians and they attempted to explain the game of Cricket to us, much like the previous other dozen Australians or New Zealanders before them.  We still have no idea!!).  The Argentine side of the falls brought a truly different aspect than the Brazilian side.  On the Brazil side you get to see all the falls from across the river, giving you a great panoramic view and a grand overview of all the falls.  On the Argentine side you get to go up close with the falls.  The trail consists of wooden catwalks that actually take you right up to the edge of the falls, looking straight down from the top.  It’s really tough to say which side was better, but doing both is a must for anyone going there.   If there was 3 or 4 sides, I’d probably do them all.  Seriously, this place is soooo amazing!!!  The pictures may be great, but they don't even begin to capture the magic of the falls!!!!  I wish we never had to leave !!!!

Chain of Love (March 21st - 24th)

Chain of Love is an organization founded in 1993 by a fellow named Ken Bayer and his wife, Jerilyn.  Chain of Love is devoted  to helping children in need to get back on their feet, rescuing them from hopeless or other abusive situations.  They are then welcomed into one of nine families where they are given every opportunity to live a normal life. The homes are each independent with a hard working mother, a father that has a day job, 9 brothers and sisters plus any fraternal children the parents might have.  

Upon arriving at the community David and I were told that we would be staying in the family homes. This was the first time they had tried this out as usually they get big groups of people coming to help out and they are set up in dorm style type rooms. We were pumped that we got to get a full experience living right in the homes. David was staying in a university house with a man named Nelson. He became David’s Pai and was also known as the best chef in Brazil! I swear we gained 20 pounds forcing 2^nds and 3^rds even though we were about to explode!

 I got to stay next door in Fabi and Marco’s home. I shared a room with 4 little girls one of which was my little angel (Taiara) because she spoke English and I knew no Portuguese!!! Her schedule was crazy! We would stay up chatting until 1 or 2 in the morning, she would then wake up for school at 6am, come home from school around 11am, eat some lunch and then take off again to an Admin training course until 11pm!!! I think she was probably happy when I left so she could finally sleep again!  She moved to Chain of Love when she was six with her brother and last year her brother started hanging out with a bad crowd and ran away from their home. She has been worried sick since he’s left.

Our first job was to plant a hedge of trees between two houses and 15mins in we had about 20 helpers! The job then probably took us 3hrs longer than it should have but it was a blast hanging out with all the kids! The boys would do flips off of the houses and grab a soccer ball and juggle for 10 mins straight! The girls would take our camera and take glamour shots! It was so much fun! You would have never known that any of these children lived in foster homes or had a tough start on life.

They were all sincerely happy and even though they knew no English would make us laugh non stop! We played soccer with the kids on the first night and were blown away by their skills!!!

The next day we were put on a painting task and were told that taking the kids on as helpers was probably not a good idea. Too bad David and I are bad at telling the kiddlets to go away because before we knew it, the youngest of the group, Alex, stepped right into the paint can! Hahaha made quite a mess when he pulled his foot out and started walking until I had time to whip him up into my arms!!!

David wasn’t too impressed and made me distract the kids. I thought it would be a good idea to let them all write their names on the walls where we hadn’t started painting until, until we later realized how hard it was to cover the names with the paint, it only took a few extra coats… OPPS! Either way after two long days of painting we got it all done and it looks great!

In between working hard we also had plenty of time to spend with the kids, families and other volunteers and workers (especially Rev. Chris Kidd who helped us organize everything, Thanks so much Chris!!).  Really everyone there is very amazing and committed to the cause.  It was so much fun to sit in the evenings with Nelson, Fabi, Marco and the kids trying to communicate, pulling words from Portuguese, Spanish and English… but usually figuring things out in the end.  The one night they even prepared a special Brazilian BBQ for us, and wow was it incredible.  I can’t recall the last time I had meat that tender!!!!  And the kids….  What more could be said?  So much fun, so loving and most of all soooo happy despite their tramatic pasts!!  Truly a testament to the work being done by Chain of Love!

During our stay, David and I decided to become sponsers to two of the children and were excited to find out that they were both kids we had spent a ton of time with. We are sponsoring a little boy named Ezaquel and one of my roomates, Ellen. We were blown away when we read the profiles of the children, almost in tears finding out about their tough pasts. I had just finished reading a book that reminded me exactly of Ezaquel’s past. It wasn’t something that happens in real life. When you see his beautiful little smile you would have never known though. We got really attached to the little ones and can’t wait until we can come back again to visit them.

If you are interested in learning more about the organization, or checking out the children and their stories, just follow the link! http://www.chainoflove.org/ 

Hey, Hey Uruguay! A week of beaches!!

We left Buenos Aires hoping to find a quiet little beach town to spend a few days and away from the crowds of people, traffic and big buildings.  We had heard that Uruguay was just the place from plenty of travellers.  We packed up our ever growing backpacks and boarded the short ferry ride that would take us from Buenos Aires to the city of Colonial, just north of Montevideo (the Uruguayan capital).  The ferry, which had its own border officials, was perhaps the most civilized thing either of us had seen since we started travelling.  It was kinda nice to see some organization!

We only stayed in Colonial long enough to catch a bus to Punta del Este, a few more hours up the coast.  As we arrived to Punta del Este all we saw plenty of tall buildings on the horizon which looked like a massive business center, but when we got there, we soon realized all the buildings were high end apartments and vacation properties for the South American elite.  GREAT!  Another big, expensive city… Not exactly what we were looking for.  It was actually a really nice place, but a bit much for us after BA.  We stayed 1 night spent some time at the beach and the hostel pool and departed the next day to a much quieter place called Cabo Polonio.

When I say much quieter, I mean much much much quieter, like they don’t have running water or power there quieter!!!  It was a nice change. The town is located on a beautiful point surrounded by the ocean on 3 sides.  No buses  go to this place because there are actually no roads.  The only way in is to get off along the highway and take one of the local truck transports in where you sit in benches on the back or on the roof and navigate the 20 minute rough desert pathway to the town.  We got there well after dark with no reservations and no idea where we were going.  The ride in under the stars was really cool, especially when we were driving towards the town on the beach.  The moonlight on the waves was pretty awesome.  We thought we were in tough to find a place, until we talked to the other guys on the transfer.  They said their friend had a vacation house there and told them they could stay there, but they weren’t sure where it was or what it looked like.  Their friend was nice enough to draw them a sketch of the house on a napkin!!!  Haha, nice!  They were just told to ask around the town for a well-known fisherman named Juan Pablo and he would have the keys and take them to the place.  Sounds like fun at 9:30pm in the dark with no lights!  Not sure what ever happened to those guys? 

Lucky for us we were able to easily find a place to spend a couple of nights.  We stayed at a small place right along the ocean! It wasn’t the nicest place ever, but waking up in the morning and walking out the door and being on the beach was pretty fantastic.   Unfortunately the weather wasn’t amazing for us, but it was still a great place to chill out for a couple of days.   The one side of the point was rocks where sea lions hung out during the day, and a beautiful light house lit up the night.  It was an amazing place to sit in the evening and listen to the waves crash against the rocks with incredible force!   

 The town was really cool too!  No streets, no addresses, just a bunch of small shacks strewn haphazardly across the point with sand trails all over the place weaving between the buildings.  It looked like a bit of a hippie/squatter town with no planning.  The people we’re very friendly as well and a couple of guys we met even offered to give us a ride to our next destination (they had to go to the bank anyways).  It was pretty sweet not having to line up any busses or transportation!!  The one guy was living in Vancouver, but visiting his wife’s family who was from Uruguay.  They chatted non-stop on the way to Punta del Diablo and dropped us off right in the center of town!!! Perfect!!!

In Punta del Diablo we were pretty excited to have found a really nice room with a private kitchen!!  Definitely a first for us so far!!!  With the nice new kitchen we figured it would be appropriate to visit the store a pick up some things for dinner.  At the checkout a guy from Argentina started talking to us and asked us where we were staying and how much it was.  He was amazed when we told him how much we were paying at the hostel (we thought it was a good deal).  He invited us to come with him to check out the cabanas where he and his girlfriend were staying.  The places were pretty awesome and apparently half the price we were paying at the hostel. He walked us over to a restaurant to meet the guy who owned the place and to check to see if the other units were available, which they were!!!  We told the man that we would stay there the next 2 nights, but we going to stay at the hostel the 1^st night because we had already paid.  To our surprise the guy told us that since the place was empty anyways, we could just stay there the 1^st night for free, and he would even drive our baggage from the hostel to his cabanas!!  What a great guy!! And what a nice place to stay!!

Punta del Este is another small beach town, which they say used to be like Cabo Polonio, but had grown a lot over the past few years with tourism and as a result had a few more restaurants, shops, and places to stay (and power!)  It was a short walk to the beach from our little place and we spent most of our time there.  The waves were pretty good so we decided to rent boogie boards from the hostel we had paid for nothing!!  Haha!!!  Boogie boarding was sooo much fun and we both got the hang of it pretty well by the end of the day.  It’s sure a lot easier than surfing!!!

We also had a great time getting to know our new neighbours (Mariano and Sol, the Argentinian couple) during the evenings.  We made pizza for them one night and in return they spoiled us with a traditional Argentinian ‘asado’ (bbq).  We had a ton of fun learning the proper cooking and fire making techniques, but when it came time to eat we were a little nervous to say the least!!  Not because we didn’t think Mariano was a good cook, but because an Argentinian asado consists of many different parts of the cow. 

Not sure what everything was, but we know for sure that one part was intestines!!  I can’t believe Dawne actually ate it!!! And with a smile and a big “Mmmmm” too!!!  Haha.  It wasn’t that bad, but definitely not great!   Luckily we had some bold red wine to wash it down!!  The couple also thought it was pretty funny to watch us eat the new things.  The next day we said our good-byes to the beach, the cabana and our new friends and hopped on a bus to the border town of Chuy where we would switch buses and carry on to Brasil.

Happy Feet!!! (Oooops, was supposed to be before the BA post!!)

Gosh, we’re so behind in blogs it’s not even funny… guess we’re gotten too caught up having fun that we’ve abandoned the strenuous hours of hard work it takes to jot one of these down but considering I’m sitting in a hammock in a private cabana that we’ve rented in the woods, I guess I have no excuse!

Well, I’ll take it back a few weeks to when we arrived in Puerto Madryn, the sea lion and penguin capital of the world!!! (not really but added that  for dramatic effect) David had talked non-stop about this little town and as I had done no previous research on this little gem, I just went along with all his excitement. When we arrived I was thoughrouly impressed with his pick! It was my job to line up a hostel for our arrival and I really lucked out, picking the best hostel on our trip yet! It was called, La Tosca and the owner was fantastic! He learnt everyone’s name right away and started explaining what there was to see in the area. He had designed a full brochure about the must see’s and had a power point presentation showing pictures of the wildlife and sights.  We were so impressed that we ran out to rent a car to start our adventure! I should note here that we were travelling with our dutch friend, Corne and an English mate we had met on out 50hr bus ride from Bariloche, Christian!

The following morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to a wonderful surprise of freshly baked cakes for breakfast! After getting our sugar fill we started our journey to Punta Norte where we saw hundreds of sea lions and were on the watch for Orcas!

  There were tons of little cubs and it was a blast watching them run up and down the beach, for sure more graceful in the water! Unfortunately we didn’t spot any Killer Whales which was a big bummer… Oh well, guess now we just have more of an excuse to make our way to Van to check em out! We then headed up the coast to Caleta Valdes to check out a penguin hang out. These little guys were taking shelter from the wind and had come up the hill and were standing right in front of us! I was really impressed with their yoga breathing as they made these crazy mating calls! After making fun of how silly they looked walking around, we jumped back in the car and headed to a small town 20mins away called, Puerto Piramide for some helados!

The following day consisted of tons of road trip games, a HUGE penguin colony, called Punta Tombo, where we saw millions all clustered around us (this is the 2^nd largest Peinguin colony in the world with the 1^st being Antartica!!!), more road trip games, more sea lions, the alphabet game, a car load of people napping as David drove, more helados, a trip to another port town to check out pink striped dolphins only to learn that we had missed the last boat and a trip back to Puerto Madryn! It was a great day!

On day 3 of our adventure, we booked David and my first dive outside the course! I was soooo scared! As soon as we arrived at the shop the dive master calmed me down by telling me that Patagonia was the most difficult place to dive in the world!!!! I was so very close to  dropping the tank right there but seeing how it’s me, I refused to let Dave be braver, so I grabbed the gear and followed him to the boat to ride off to our first destination. Before our dive we headed out to a tiny sea lion island where we would be able to snorkel with the massive animals! As we pulled up, we noticed about 50 seals and lions on the beach. The leader of the pack was about 500 pounds and as soon as we saw him, everyone on the boat thought twice about jumping in! The instructor got us all set up though and basically pushed us in!!!

As soon as we got into the water, the beasts all followed suit and jumped in as well! It was amazing!!! We were swimming in 5ft deep water at parts and the seals would swim right under you! They were so beautiful! It sure makes you realize how much humans don’t belong in water when you see these huge creatures flowing every which way beside you! They were really playful and curious and would come right up to you and then dart away! It was nuts! After spending about 45mins in the freezing cold water we jumped back in the boat and made our way to the next destination. 

The first dive we had chosen to do was a ship wreck, in 22 degree water, at a depth of 30mtrs, with a visibility of 5mtrs!! I was shaking before I even got into the water! I made the dive master hold my hand the whole way down and felt a lot better once I caught glimpse of the boat! It was so cool! The visibility was a whole lot better once you got down as well and you could see the entire boat covered with mussels and algae that now made the walls of the pirate ship. There were fish swimming in and out of the windows of the boat which was really cool to see! After Christine, David and I had made a circuit of the boat the dive master took us to the top of the ship and asked if we wanted to go in… We haven’t been trained in entereing ships yet so this wasn’t really aloud but we all took him up on it and swam right in! It was dark and gloomy and really creepy! We swam back out and by the time I had swam out I was at 50bars of air, which is the minimum before having to ascent. Apparently, my fear hadn’t left me because I had breathed 2 times faster than the rest of the group! After a safe ascent and trip back to Puerto Madryn David and I packed our bags for our 18hr bus ride to Buenos Aires.