Chile

Santiago, Chile
==================
The trip from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago in Chile crossed the Andes. The border crossing was very chaotic, with many people travelling as it was just before the New Year. It took about 3 hours to clear immigration, but the wait was worth it on the ascent down the Andes to Santiago.

New Year's Eve
===================
We were lucky enough to be staying in a 25 storey apartment complex in the centre of town. We were able to get onto the roof of the building for the New Year's Eve fireworks that were taking place about 2 blocks from where we were. They lasted about half an hour or so, and we could see and hear parties continuing in our building throughout the night.

Museum of Memory and Human Rights
============================
The ex-President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, was one of Augusto Pinochet's many victims. Although she survived his prison camp, many thousands didn't. Just before she left office in 2010, she was the driving force behind a new museum in Santiago - the Museum of Memory Human Rights. This documents the coup against Salvador Allende on September 11th, 1973, the aftermath of the coup, the prison camps, the disappeared, and the search for justice. It's a great memorial to all those who suffered during the dictatorship.

The miners
=======================
Chile is famous for its mines - copper in particular. We spent half a day in a city called Copiapo, near where the Chilean Mining Incident happened in 2010, where 33 miners spent 69 days underground before being rescued. We met a taxi-driver who had worked in that mine before that incident. He told us the work was hard and that he's too old for it now, but that for many people the salaries offered are relatively high by Chilean standards. On the way to the Atacama Desert in the north, where there are lots of mines, we were in buses with lots of miners on their way to work. They got off at various stages of the journey and were picked up in trucks - off to start another stint underground.

The Atacama Desert
===========================
The Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world. We travelled for about 7 hours through the desert and saw nothing but hard sand plains - it was one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen. Desert scenes in films do no justice to the real thing! The reason for our journey through the desert was to get to a place called San Pedro de Atacama which is a small town on the Chilean/Argentinian/ Bolivian border. We wanted to take a stargazing tour with a French Astrologist that is located there. He owns an ELT (extremely large telescope), as he calls it. San Pedro de Atacama gets 360 clear sky nights per year and is one of the best places in the world to see the stars and planets in all of their glory, however, as Murphy’s Law would have it we arrived during a full moon and we brought the clouds with us so the notice on the door spelt it out......All tours cancelled!!!

Geysers
==========
All was not lost when our stargazing tour was cancelled - it gave us the opportunity to take an early morning tour to see the highest geysers in the world at 4,300 metres above sea level. With the landscape having received a battering from the rain the evening before, we set off in a transit van on a fairly hair raising journey to the geyser fields. What a sight to behold at 6.30am - steam gushing high into the sky from bubbling pools of water surrounded by snow covered mountains with wandering llambas spread about the place - and the temperature at minus ten. The power of nature is something else! We both felt a little woozy from the altitude as we ate our geyser cooked boiled eggs and drank our naturally warmed chocolate milk. We finished it all off by taking a dip in the thermal spring - it's a tough life!

Argentina

The Iguacu Falls
=========================
The Iguacu Falls is on the border with Argentina and Brazil and we spent two days here, one on each side. You get much nearer the water on the Argentinean side, so this was definitely our favourite. There are about 275 falls dropping about 80- metres, with the highlight being a fall called the Devil's Throat - where about 1.8 million litres of water falls every second.

Buenos Aires
========================
We ended up in Buenos Aires for a week in an area called San Telmo, south of the city centre. San Telmo was a great spot - full of colourful little streets, cafes and restaurants. The area is famous for its Sunday market - although this fell on Christmas Day the market was still in full swing. The area had a real bohemian feel to it and even though we had a wander around Recoleta and Palermo we always ended up coming back to the old reliable San Telmo.

Steak for Christmas Dinner
===========================
There was very little build up to Christmas in Argentina. At midnight, however, the fireworks started. Even the police across from our hostel got in on the act - letting their sirens go on for about 20 minutes and ignoring all the illegal fireworks exploding all around them. The Chinese shopkeeper below us forgot that there was a second level to the building when he started letting of his fireworks - we were lucky to come out of it safely as we watched from above.....On Christmas Day, we had planned a Tango Show followed by a Christmas Dinner of steak. Although we never got to a show, the Christmas Dinner more than made up for it.

Boca Juniors
======================
San Telmo borders an area called La Boca, which was the first port of call for many European immigrants in the last century. La Boca is now most famous for its football team - Boca Juniors. Boca is the team of most of Buenos Aires now, with plenty of the restaurants and bars having Boca memorabilia on the walls. Diego Maradona played for Boca at the beginning and the end of his career, and there are still many murals of him around the stadium where Boca plays.

Cycling in the wineries
===========================
After Buenos Aires, we took a 15 hour journey to Mendoza, in the West of Argentina. Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina, and is one of the nine Global Network great wine capitals  of the world. Nearly all of Argentina's wine is produced here. We rented out the bikes, got a map and cycled around to different wineries where we were given tours and tasting sessions - One of our more enjoyable days so far.

Transport in Argentina
============================
The buses in Brazil and Argentina are great. There are three general levels of long distance bus - the semi-cama (or half-bed), the cama (bed) and the premium cama. There are only three seats per row in the cama and premium cama giving very wide seats and lots of leg room. You can also recline the seat half way back (cama) or fully back (premium cama) without disturbing the person next to you. Food and blankets are provided, and there is also a coffee machine on board as well.

Brazil

Rain in Rio
===============

We arrived in Rio after a pleasant 20 hour journey. Rio has supposedly 10 million people, in a country of about 191 million. Rio - the city they call "La Ciudad Maravillosa" was drizzly and cloudy, but still fine for us to wear T-shirts. The views overlooking the city from the Sugar Loaf were better than from "Cristo Redentor" - Christ the Redeemer.

Melee on La Copacabana
====================
The Copacabana is a 3km stretch of sand where many of Brazil's top footballers were first spotted. All roads in Rio lead to the Copacabana - every second bus ends up there. We were there on a Saturday - and the local league was in full swing. They mark out probably 10 or so three-quarter size pitches and the games are played all day. We sat down to watch a match and a fight broke out. Within 2 minutes, guards arrived from all corners of the beach with guns. The shouting and pushing continued for about 15 minutes, then the match continued and the guards went away.

Corinthians - The Champions
====================
Corinthians are the new Brazilian football champions. The won the league in the last game of the season. We were watching the game in an area of Rio called Flamengo - another famous football team. After the game was over, the guy at the next table, Maurizio heard our accents and started singing "Whiskey you're the Devil" - a song we think the Clancy brothers wrote. Fair play to Maurizio - he knew every word of every verse.

Wrong turn in Rio
====================

Convinced we knew our way from the Sugarloaf to the Copacabana we made the decision to walk....this was the first test for our relationship on the trip! We ended up climbing a mountain in over 30 degree heat in a pair of flip flops, no water and no end in sight...Challenging to say the least. Needless to say when we made it to the Holy Grail we even felt a little proud of our achievement...but we both agreed that we'd take a bus next time!

Chocolate cake for breakfast
====================
In August 2007, Karen met a Brazilian student - David. Despite his poor English (and it was very poor at the time), David was insistent that the Brazilians ate chocolate cake for breakfast. Three years later, David was proved correct - the Brazilians do indeed eat chocolate cake for breakfast. We met David and Marianna in Sao Paulo for a great night, and they brought us to a Samba Carnival rehearsal organised by the Corinthians football team - 100 people plus banging the drums with backup dancers and spectators.

The long and windy road to Pantanal
==============================
After a hectic few days in the party city of Rio it was time to take a time out in the beach/arty/hippy resort of Paraty. Visions of beach side huts, hammocks and coconut drinks faded when we asked for directions to our posada - a type of bed and breakfast....the taxi man smiled a wide smile and made sure to tell us it was going to cost us 20 Real (about 9 euros) to get there because it was very, very  far away. His smile sporadically turned into a giggle as he continued to tell us in his pigeon English that there are no shops close by.....no restaurants close by.....no bars close by!!!! We arrived to find that the taxi man had painted a very glum picture of a place that we ended up have four of the most relaxing days of our lives in.

With Patricia in Sao Paulo
====================
Patricia, a friend of Kathy from Sunway, put us up for a few days in Sao Paulo in the most amazing apartment right on the 'Grafton Street' of Sao Paulo. During our time with her we experienced rubbing shoulders, chests and every body part imaginable with the Brazilian families that came to Avenida Paulista to have a look at the Christmas decorations, over crowed bakeries, outstanding views of the city from her brother's penthouse apartment on a full stomach of his new bride's four cheese pasta, a sweaty room full of people dancing the folha (a type of salsa from the North of Brazil) and a bar called striker's with the unusual combination of Samba music and mixed martial arts in the background! There really is something for everybody in Sao Paulo - the fourth biggest city in the world.

Bargaining for a Christmas Tree
==========================
Patricia was so good to us, we had to get her the present she wanted...a Christmas tree. We went into a shopping centre in Sao Paulo and were directed and re-directed here, there and everywhere...but there was still no sign of a tree. Until eventually, we saw a tree in a shop tucked away on the second floor of the centre. In a mixture of English, Spanish and Portuguese, we tried to ask them where we could buy a tree. Next thing, they were wrapping it up in 2 bags for us. We didn't really know what was going on, but any questions on price, or even what was going on, were dismissed. The bill came for the tree - and a fine tree it was. 28 reals. About 12 euros. Happy days.

Up in the Mountains
===================
From Sao Paulo, we headed to Campos do Jordao - a mountainous area about 3 hours from the madness of the city. We stayed with Alex and Lu and their children Hugo and Dante. They made us feel completely at ease and we lived a typical Brazilian family life for a few days. Campos is a winter getaway for the Paulistas (people from Sao Paulo). It's probably one of the most liveable places in Brazil with a big European influence on the city architecture. We had a great cultural night on our last night there, with Alex on ukulele, Fionn on guitar and Karen and Lu singing like there's no tomorrow. Alex and Lu have great musical taste - they even have a 1988 Hothouse Flowers LP.

The first all-nighter
====================
In area size, Ireland is about 250 times smaller than South America. So, when we headed on a 19 hour bus journey from Campos do Jordao to Foz do Iguacu in Brazil, it was probably a bit like going from Howth to Dun Laoghaire.
The trip was fine. The long distance buses in Brazil have lots of space between the seats, and you can recline to your heart's content without disturbing the person behind you. The buses stop every 4 hours or so for about 20 minutes, so you can get some food or stretch the legs. We reckon this will be the longest trip we'll do, though - 19 hours on a bus is long enough.