Costa Rica - Arenal, Monvteverde, Manuel Antonio, Corcovado

Summary

• Swimming in the hot springs from the Arenal Volcano
• Zip lines through the forrest canopy and rapelling waterfalls in Monteverde
• Saw a Sloth in Manuel Antonio
• Corcovado has 2.5% of the world's biodiversity!

Arenal/La Fortuna
La Fortuna was an incredibly beautiful place and the best thing was the amazing hot springs at the base of the Volcano Arenal. We spent hours swimming in the springs and drinking cocktails at the swim up bar (the best Pina Colada!). The pools range in temperature from cold through to 67 degrees! We were there in the evening so it was a great way to relax.

Infront of Arenal volcano on our hike

Monteverde
The town of Monteverde is tiny and many of the roads are bumpy dirt tracks which makes for an interesting journey into and out of the mountainous area. The main thing to do here is to take a zip line tour of the forrest canopy. I was all brave about it when we were booking the tour. Pay an additional $5 to "superman" the last zip line? Sure, why not! When the time came to actually be attached to the wire at my back I nearly chickened out but, I'm proud to say I did the 1km superman zip line which passes at a height of 800m above a gully! Ok, so maybe I closed my eyes for most of it but at least I did it right?!?



Putting my life in Mark's hand (look at his guns) - literally



Mark coming into land after his superman
(you can see some of the cable in the distance)

While in Monteverde we also decided to do a waterfall rapel tour which battered us around a bit but was amazing! One of the best things we've done. It was basically abseiling down a waterfall which was really difficult. Mark was like spiderman jumping down one of the tallest falls (40m) rather than doing the tiny step by tiny step like I did. At one point I lost my footing and had one foot above me, one below and no idea what to do. Mark's response to my cry of "I'm stuck".....sympathy? No. suggestions of possible alternatives? No he yelled down "just think!". I managed to get out of it with a cut elbow and bruised hip.

Me at the top of the largest waterfall we rapelled

Spiderman Mark rapelling the 40m waterfall

Manuel Antonio
Our couple of days by the beach was very cool but, not the nicest beach we have been too. I guess we're just spoilt with Aussie and Thai beaches.

We stayed at a gorgeous little place 5 mins from the beach near the Manuel Antonio national park. We saw a lot of wildlife there including a Sloth moving in slow motion (as they do). I was very excited about that! Unfortunately, my pictures are pretty bad as it was quite far away and my camera zoom wasn't strong enough but you get the idea.....

Corcovado
Home to 2.5% of the world's biodiversity and the site of Jurrasic Park, we were really excited to visit Corcovado. We stayed in this gorgeous little lodge nestled on the side of a mountain, 800m (steep) walk from the beach. The cabins were very cute, open on 3 sides with only mesh to keep out the creepy crawlies.
We spent a couple of days here. We went snorkelling at Cano Island and were lucky enough to see dolphins on the way. Again, I was like a little kid, so excited to see wild dolphins for the first time!
Despite swimming not being a skill or strength of his, Mark did get in the water. Quite impressive as we were out in fairly deep water which was a bit choppy due to stormy weather. Some of the fish we saw snorkelling reminded me of Finding Nemo.
We also hiked through the national park and saw more wildlife. On our final walk from the lodge to the boat which would take us back to civilisation we finally spotted a Capuchin monkey which we had been hearing from our cabin for a day or so but hadn't been lucky enough to spot.

Corcovado national park

Our cabin

Panama & bee sting #2

I was so happy to arrive in Panama purely for the warmer weather. Panama suprised me a bit, it's a really international city with lots of skyscrapers. It reminded me of Hong Kong a bit, with the blend of some old world charm but lots of new development.

Our main reason for visiting Panama was to see the canal but we spent the first day shopping as Panama has a lot of shopping malls and the prices were quite reasonable. I still wasn't feeling well so this was my idea of therapy.......

We did end up seeing the canal and were lucky enough to be there to see a few small ships move through the first part of Miraflores locks. The whole process of watching the boats come up into the lock and raising the water level takes a good hour or so and, while we were waiting, I got stung by a wasp! Seems like karma got me for laughing at Mark and his bee sting (Smiling - MK). Subborn me was determined to see the boats move through before I sat down and had a sook about my sting.

The canal was very impressive! I'm glad I suffered through my wasp sting to see it. (Suffered!! Nothing in comparison to my swollen ear. Now that was pain! - MK)

Boats being prepared to move through the locks

The locks before the boats have been lifted.

The same locks after. The water level must be equal for the lock to open

Bogota

Summary

• Bogota is really cold
• Safer here than in Rio - weird!

Bogota overview
The first thing that I noticed about Bogota was the cold. Due to it's elevation the temperature hovers around 17 degrees year round. Couple that with pretty frequent showers and I got a shock to the system which resulted in a pretty bad throat infection. Boo hoo for me, yes - I know.

The original plan was to visit outside of Bogota but things didn't fall into place so all we saw was Bogota and a nearby village called Zipaquira where there is an underground church in a salt mine. The main square in the city is beautiful and surrounded by lovely Spanish architecture. Bogota is a blend of old world and modernisation.

Overlooking the city is the church of Monserrate which is perched high on a mountain. Luckily for us the cloud cleared while we were up there visiting and we got some amazing views of the city.

Monseratte church

 

Black Jesus statue at Monseratte church.
Thought to possess special powers. (Yeah thats right!! - MK)



The view of Bogota city from the church.
Note the jacket - it was freezing!

A typical Bogota street - very pretty!

Bolivar square

Security
Most people's first question about Colombia (as mine was) is about security. Is it safe? In our short time there we felt pretty safe. There is a lot of police everywhere and also special tourist police. They are incredibly helpful and friendly (helping us with directions when we got lost).
The one scuffle we saw (involving a kitchen knife) was quickly dealt with by police and army (unlike the first fight in Rio which the police watched with mild indifference). All in all, I felt safer in Bogota than in Rio.


Who needs pepper spray, when you can rock out an uzi submachine gun.

The people were also really friendly with a couple of random people coming up to help us in the street and saying "First time to Bogota? Welcome!". Given the history of the counrty, the people go out of their way to be friendly.

Accommodation challenges....
Most interestingly in Bogota we stayed in three different places. At first we were staying in a hostel because we had stayed in a budget hotel in Rio and wanted to get our budget back on track - big mistake! The hostel was noisy because the room we had was next to the common area (yes, we are party poopers). Also, during this stay we confirmed our earlier suspicion that shared bathrooms are really not for us anymore. There's something about having to wait in line to pee which irritates us (and tinea potential - MK). But the biggest concern we had was the security of our stuff in the room as the lock was, well, it looked like a padlock from Kmart on a door that could have easily been pushed in. Given we are flashpacking it, we thought it better to move on.

Paying a little extra to stay at a budget hotel was no biggy but a budget hotel in Bogota where tourism is truly in it's infancy didn't work out so well.
Advertisement:                                                        Actual
- Double room                                       Very spacious room with double bed (tick)  
- free wi-fi                                              Only on the first three floors of the hotel (they put us on the 6th)
- cable tv                                               Only in Spanish (not so good if you dropped out of school - MK)
- hot water                                             Only a trickle of hot water (so technically they didn't lie)
- all day american breakfast.                   Being forced hamburgers for dinner and declined breakfast on 
                                                                morning #1. On morning #2 we were given a refund of $10,000 
                                                                pesos to buy breakfast.

Poor customer service and no hot water moved us on.......luckily it was to a beautiful 4 star apartment as I had a pretty severe throat infection by this time and barely left the apartment.

Personally, I was pleased to leave Bogota and head back to the warmer weather.

When my baby smiles at me I got to Rio.......de Janeiro......

Summary

• Ever wondered where all the budgie-smugglers went? Go to Rio!
• Can't escape Carnival in Rio - we had an amazing ride on the tram from Santa Teresa
• Christ the Redeemer was covered by clouds most of the time but we did get to see it

Copacobana and Ipanema
Of course the first thing to do in Rio is go to the beach. After hiring a couple of chairs and an umbrella we claimed a piece of Copacobana beach. It was beautiful and full of people, mostly tanning and exercising but it was great to see.
If you ever wondered where all the budgie smugglers went, just head to a beach in Rio. The disturbing thing being that they are worn by young and old.......the women's swimmers were equally skimpy but that was as expected. We were a little disturbed to see pre-teens in g-strings......anyways, each to their own. I was, of course, the most covered up person on the beach on account of my sun protection obsession and milk bottle skin......

Santa Teresa
The tram to Santa Teresa is the best 60 cents you'll spend in Rio. Sata Teresa is a beautiful old part of the city high on the hill above the city. It's so pretty and notorious for the artists and intellectuals of the city. We had a lovely lunch at a funky little cafe where our sandwiches were served on plates made from melted wine bottles - very cool.
The tram down the hill was hilarious. We heard the tram coming before we saw it on account of the mass of people on the tram singing and chanting. Evidently they had been at Carnival all night and at the after party which was passed on the way to the tram in the morning. Mark and I grabbed what space we could - me standing in between two Brazilian women who were lovely and Mark hanging onto the side of the tram. The group chanted and sang all the way back down to the terminal - crazy.

Christ the Redeemer
The most famous site in Rio is, of course, Christ the Redeemer. Unfortuantely, it was so cloudy most of the time we were in Rio that we couldn't really see Christo Redento. Luckily, the day we went up sugar loaf mountain (the vantage point from which  most pics are taken) as well as the day we went up Corvocado to see the monument, the cloud cleared and we were able to see Him and get a few shots. Just like all the pictures (although slightly smaller than I imagined).

Other
I have to mention that I finally did some shopping in Rio which resulted in 4 new pairs of Havaianna's........sounds completely crazy when you think it'll be winter when we get home. Oh well!!!

Brazil - Curitiba and Sao Paulo

Summary

• Took the jungle train in Curitiba - very cool
• Mark got stung by a bee
• Explored Sao Paulo's "little Japan"

Curitiba
Our next destination after Foz do Iguacu was Curitiba which is the capital of the same state (Parana). This was a short stop mainly to take the Serra Verde Jungle train but included the "bee sting" incident. For anyone not on facebook, Mark was stung by a bee and suffered a sore (and very swollen) ear.
The jungle train line is Curitiba-Morretes. Morretes is a tiny town which relies heavily on the tourism from the jungle train.

The bee sting incident
We took a walk around the town once we arrived as we had time to kill before the train ride back to Curitiba. After looking through a lovely little old church we were walking down a street when mark was 'attacked' by a bee. Not sure quite what happened but he was not happy and we got out of there pronto! Unfortunately, another guy was also stung (also on the ear?!?) a few minutes after Mark was. I swear if I wasn't so worried about him it would have been pretty funny. Mark being attacked by something I couldn't see and running away up the street. I'm happy to report that his ear is now ok but the swelling stayed for a good 4-5 days!

The jungle train was pretty cool but you had to practically hang out the window to get nice pictures. I'm not good with heights at the best of times so I left Mark to it.

Sao Paulo
From Curitiba we went to Sao Paulo which is the 3rd largest city in the world! It was huge! We spent a little bit of time in a suburb called Liberdade which is "little Japan". Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan on account o fthe number of immigrants who initially came to Brazil for coffee farming after the abolishment of slavery in the late 1800s. There is a very interesting museum about the immigration of Japanese to Brazil. We were very very sad to learn about the earthquake and tsunami the day after we spent time in this area. :-(

Iguazu falls & Itaipu dam

Summary

• Iguazu falls - incredible!!!
• Itaipu dam - huge and very interesting. One of the seven wonders of the modern world

Iguazu falls
Okay so Iguazu falls seriously deserves a post all to itself........incredible! That's all I can say. I don't know where to start.....we visited the Argentine side first and spent a full day walking through the park. The first trail took us to an area called the Devil's throat. The volume of water falls through that area is huge and the spray back off the falls is like rain so we had to cover our cameras.
Taking the upper trail we were able to walk across the top of some of the less intense falls. Still, the volume of water is unbelievable. I won't bore with details but will let the pictures speak for themselves.
One thing we did which was great was a boat ride into the falls......literally into the falls. At one point the boat goes underneath the falls and you feel like Indiana Jones. It was insane!

Photos from Argentinian side


The devil's throat







On the bus in Puerto Iguassu going to Brazil

Photos from Brazilian side

The boat ride into the falls (see from Brazil)

Itaipu dam
From Foz do Iguacu we also visited Itaipu dam which is one of the largest hydroelectricity plants in the world and one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It is a owned and run jointly by Brazil and Paraguay and sits on the border of these countries.
After taking a local bus out to the dam we wanted to take the special tour. Unfortunately there were dress requirements and I didn't pass on account of my shorts.....I felt like I was being turned away from a nightclub! Luckily, I was able to buy leggings at the gift shop and take the tour.
The tour included the spillway (which, luckily for us, was open), the concrete dam (there are three dams - concrete, rock and earth) and the interal workings of the dam. It was quite facinating and quite a feat of engineering. We had no idea about it before we came here but it was defiantely worth a visit.

The spillway

The concrete dam

View from the top of the dam

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Uruguay and beyond....

Summary

• Finished Spanish school - yay!
• Visited Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay (Love, love, love Colonia)
• Made it to Puerto Iguazu (via Rosario) and heading to the falls tomorrow (can't wait!)

Spanish School
So, I've finished Spanish school - yay! I got a certificate and everything so I am feeling very proud. Maybe I'll stash it with my other valued certificates (brownie membership, aquaswim cert and my degree...). Anyways, it's a shame that my spanish is still pretty poor but at least I tried.....
Mark decided to do some voluntary work instead of finishing Spanish school (very noble of him I think) so he spent a couple of days packing food parcels for poor neighbourhoods.

Estancia
On our final day in Buenos Aires we took a tour out to an Estancia to see the famous Argentinian cowboys - Gaucho. It was pretty cool and I even rode a horse......wel, it was more like a pony ride you take when you're five but I was sitting on a horse while it walked around so I call that horse-riding.....

Uruguay
We visited Colonia del Sacremento and Montevideo in Uruguay after leaving Buenos Aires. Taking the ferry across to Colonia from BsAs was fun and something different for us as we hadn't crossed borders by sea before. I loved Colonia!!! I think it's my fave place so far. A coastal town which was so laid back and very very pretty. Defiantely worth a visit for anyone who gets to BsAs.

Unfortunately we had bad weather in Montevideo and I was feeling a bit unwell one of the days so we didn't get to see/do much. One thing we did do is fix a lock on the lock fountain in the new part of town. According to the plaque this means we'll always be together :-) .......yes, I am that lame!!!

Argentina - final destinations
Back in Argentina we went to Rosario for a couple of days. This is the place where the Argentinian flag was first raised back in the 1500's. It's also the birthplace of Che Guevera! Cute little city but very quiet and all the main things to see can be done in a day. We left on our second day and have just arrived in Puerto Iguazu (after taking an overnight bus). I'm so excited to see the falls tomorrow!!!

Will post again soon. Miss you all!!