The Travels Of The RJs

Top Three’s Moments Machu Picchu, Peru Tango, Le Catedral, Buenos Aires, Argentina Corcovdo & Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Hostels Chillhouse, Buenos Aires Cabana Copa, Rio de Janeiro Andes Hostel,  Santiago   Breakfasts Backpackers House Hostel, Paraty Hotel Rwanda, Lima PataPata, Valparaiso   Meals Café Clasica y Moderna, Buenos Aires Casino Social J Cruz, Valparaiso Temperante, Rio de Janeiro   Backpackers Alex, Salt Flats Jaykar, Salt Flats Mia & Effy, Foz du Iguaçu & Rio de Janeiro   Desserts Chocolate Fudge Balls, Paraty Dylan, Buenos Aires Wayki Trek cake, somewhere near Machu Picchu   Drinking Holes Café Utopia, Santiago Beachside, Paraty Mr Hugo’s, Mendoza   Hostel Hosts Kevin, Cabana Copa, Rio de Janeiro Antoine, Chillhouse, Buenos Aires Matty, Che Legarto, Paraty   Snacks Saltenas, La Paz Empanadas, Look Bakery, Buenos Aires Coconut, Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro   If you ever go to... Buenos Aires Eat: At Clasi...

  The Runway Towards O Cristo Once the uncomfortable f eeling from Buzios left the veins   like a   warm black river, we returned to  Rio with the consummate ease of the seasoned sailors that we had become. On return to our hostel we were heckled by two teenage troublemakers, who shouted out ´Hey Luigi and Gary!´. It was none other than two upstarts that we had adopted in Foz do Iguazu that we named Effy and Mia (to compliment their  Skins  generation repertoire), who in turn greeted us with the monikers that they believed to be most suitable for us. Every Friday night, the Central district of Lapa is renown for the street party that they host, and as the entire hostel were joining in on the festivities we couldn´t shy away from the event, even though a packet of Oreos and hot milk before an early night was always more preferable. After a few experimental drinks of $5 Riel Vodka (around £2 for the litre - classy stuff), lime and Pepsi light (it was on ...

Rio do Janeiro, BRA to Santiago, CHL to Auckland, NZ to Sydney, AUS Sunday 1st August 2010 and beyond One last açaí drink on Copacabana beach (which I still want to like more than I actually do) as we wait for the bus to take me to the airport. An emotional drawn out farewell, well actually, we have to run to catch the bus as it doesn’t spot us flagging it down. Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo flight is fine – very short on an almost empty plane. It fills up for the next leg to Santiago . Flight again fine.  And then the troubles begin…we’re told the flight from   Santiago to Auckland which should leave in 90 minutes is cancelled due to “bad weather” which later becomes “technical issues.” A plane full worth of people are bussed into Santiago city centre, to a Crown Plaza hotel.  With the rescheduled flight for midday the next day it is in effect a 12 hour delay. Collection for this midday flight is at 7am in the morning – a full five hours before. Of course we don...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Saturday 31st July 2010 W ake up, slightly groggy to my last full day in Rio in expectant anticipation of two tourist heavyweights – “Jesus on a hill” (quote, Mia) and a trip to a local football match at the Maracanã .  Firstly we need tickets and as tickets can’t be bought online or in the three hours leading up to the kick off we venture to the club itself in Flamengo where we queue for an hour in the sun, get quoted extortionate prices – 80 Reais (£29.80) rather than the 20 Reais (£7.45) we end up paying, then fail to find the bus stop or even route to be able to get to Christ the Redeemer. So by 2pm we’re back at the hostel still not having achieved much.  Inauspicious start. Things pick up for what turns out to be one of the best few hours of the trip: After trekking to Corcovado by bus and two minibuses we’re rewarded by incredible views over the city including back over Sugar Loaf Mountain and of course the imperious 38m high statue itself wh...

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Friday 30th July 2010 Post brekkie, including banana smoothies I leave Krish and head for a Favela Tour with others from the hostel. 20 minutes from Copacabana on a hillside over looking one of the most affluent neighbourhoods is Rocinha – the largest favela in Rio with an estimated population of 200,000 people which is doubling every 10 years.  At the bottom we each get on the back of a taxi motorbike –  taking little insult of being picked last: all the drivers perhaps understandably preferring a girl on the back of their bike – and race to the top. Initial impressions are that it looks surprisingly developed – shops, bars like many streets anywhere.  With our guide we spend the next three hours descending amongst the high sided narrow alleyways stopping off at a gallery, a bakery, the community centre and for impromptu chats with the locals (by the guide, not us). The road we came up on is in fact one of only three roads in the favela (one way ...

  The Whole Sordid Buzios Bunch 6:12pm and we arrived in Rio , the final leg of the adventure, one where the walls would hopefully collapse on me at the close of this year long fiasco. Through the heavily blacked out windows of the taxi cab it was difficult to make out the exhalations of the city, passing white washed amphitheatres and graffitied derelict buildings adding political slogans and caricatures to concrete. Our first night was spent at  El Misti hostel  in Botafogo - enough time for us to watch Fluminese gather an entertaining stalemate with Botafogo in a crowded bar where we ate a sizzling plate of chicken strips and spicy chorizo sausage before returning to our three storey bunk beds, swaying violently with every passing snore. Going coco-loco on Ipanema (muscles not shown) For the morning check out I wheeled rollerpig past the bear sized yet placid German Shepherd hostel guard dog towards Copacabana and our new hostel,  CabanCopa  (see what they di...