South America!!
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| Tarantula |
After having spent a year and a half in Asia and Australasia it was time for a new continent South America! We plan to drive up the East coast!
Leaving Australia we knew we were going to have a huge journey ahead of us with lots of hours on air planes. We were not sure how we would all cope, me with my long legs and Lili being Lili!
Our first leg was Sydney to Bangkok then 19 hours stopover, which meant sleep a Thai massage and a bit of relaxing then we did Bangkok to Dubai and a 6 hour layover in their airport, managed to find a couple of reclining chairs which helped, but not much and then 16 hours to Rio de Janeiro 1 hour stop then 2 hours to Buenos Aires. To be honest it was pretty good all considered, we flew with Emirates and their air planes were good and their in flight entertainment was very good. They kept giving Lili kiddy's bags on every flight so we had more luggage to handle by the end!
On arriving at Buenos Aires and heading into down town, I felt myself feeling at home, everything looked like a Spanish city, the roads, the people, the buildings. We had organised accommodation in Buenos Aires and stayed in the house of a young Argentinian guy named Leandro. He was a great host and made us feel welcome, he and his friends gave me an introduction into Fernet and Cola, the favourite local cocktail. most of all we were able to just relax and try to readjust our bodies to a completely different time zone. 16 hours difference from Australian time, it was the first time I had really ever experienced Jet leg, I had always laughed off the idea as absurd or overrated but having now experienced it, you do feel like shit for a few days, bit like the living dead.
Buenos Aires, what were we there for? Well it was where the airport was, after that not much... It looked like a mixture of Paris with high sided buildings and flat grey roofs and every Spanish city that I've seen. The parks were pretty impressive, big and well maintained with organised kids games. The people were friendly but seemed to be quite fearful and certainly fed up with politics and finances. The Peso has taken quite a beating in recent years and inflation is high. There exists two currency exchange rates, the official rate and the blue rate. Basically if you change Dollars to Peso with the official rate you get 8 peso for each Dollar if you walk down town Buenos Aires to a street named Florida you will hear 100s of people saying cambio, these guys will give you an exchange rate of about 12.5 peso for each Dollar, which is a huge difference. It is illegal but nobody seems to care, I even went to one office where they are set'up almost like a bank, they even have a police man standing outside. I was concerned he might be there to entrap stupid tourists, but after consulting with a local shop vendor was reassured he was just there for security... Apparently all the cops are corrupt...! We stayed for a few nights at a couch surfing place with a nice man named Mario and made the decision to head to our friends to Resistencia, which is in the far north of central Argentina. The last time we had taken a bus had been in India, so when they said it was a sleeping bus I did not expect too much, however it was to date the best service on a coach that I have ever received, proper seats that fully recline to flat position, and champagne plus food service!! Very impressed, still did not sleep that much, but not their fault.
Arriving into Resistencia we were met by friends that we had first met in Malaysia when staying at Arafats farm. Vicky and Manu introduced us to their family and friends in Resistencia, the first thing we did was have a massive BBQ. The meat was piled high and the wine flowed well. South Americans eat a lot of meat!! Far more than in any other country that I've been to. The weather in Resistencia was hot and humid and most of the day was spent chilling out and relaxing waiting for the heat to reduce in the evening. Most activity is restricted to early morning and early evening. After a week in Resistencia we decided to go to Paraguay to buy a van so that we could head up through the continent, we spent our last few days staying in the house of Gustavo and Andres, Lili especially had fun with Gustavo who enjoyed making her various disguises and dresses.
Paraguay
Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay and only a short distance to the nearest Argentinian border. The city infrastructure is pretty bad, years of dereliction mean that the roads are all in bad shape. We stayed in an open house community which was great and close to the centre of town. We took collectivos (buses) everywhere and went looking for a van.. it is a bit like a needle in a hay stack, Asuncion is spread out and unless you know the areas you lose time, but we found passengers on buses and the drivers to be extremely helpful and point us in the right direction and stop at the right place, our first day was cut short by heavy rainfall evidently it was rainy season in Paraguay as it rained pretty much everyday in February that we were there, sometimes with the rain so heavy that the streets were flooded.
Cities and Lili are difficult, we want to do things like look for a van, she wants to do other things, she does not want to hold hands, the roads are busy and dangerous, it was very hot, we were losing patience... we were walking close to the house where we were staying and found our van! A VW Kombi! We both liked it! Its a classic only time will tell whether we bought it for sentimental reasons or sound travel reasons.
After having bought the van and visited a Notary who will do all the paperwork, which could take months!, we headed to a farm 70 km out of Asuncion. Back to a basic house with thatched roof and open sides and picking up weeds and other farming activities.. The wildlife is diverse with porcupines and tarantulas and humming birds all seen at the farm plus numerous other birds, butterflies, fish and other insects... and plenty of rain and sun.
The van meanwhile was in the garage having some repairs replacements and cosmetic surgery, all the things needed to make it our home on wheels.
