Hi Everyone,
Well it has been a while since you heard from us. We have been very active since Christmas and continue to have an excellent time.
We have reached the "edge of the world" (as they call it), the bottom of the continent, Ushuaia. It has been an exciting adventure with numerous highlights mixed with a multitude of long overnight bus rides and consecutive nights at bus stations.
We left you last at Christmas. At that point we had lots of sun and beaches. We enjoyed the peninsula of Buzios for a few days with picnic lunches on the beach for both our Christmas days.
After a few days spent in a lovely colonial town called Paraty (about 5 hours south of Rio) where we continued to enjoy the beaches we headed over to an island called Ilha Grande We left 2008 in style with a speed boat excursion around the island. A little taste of luxury … there were only eight of us on the boat. We saw in the New Year on the beach under a cloud of smoke from the fireworks. It was a really lovely day and evening.
Well it has been a while since you heard from us. We have been very active since Christmas and continue to have an excellent time.
We have reached the "edge of the world" (as they call it), the bottom of the continent, Ushuaia. It has been an exciting adventure with numerous highlights mixed with a multitude of long overnight bus rides and consecutive nights at bus stations.
We left you last at Christmas. At that point we had lots of sun and beaches. We enjoyed the peninsula of Buzios for a few days with picnic lunches on the beach for both our Christmas days.
After a few days spent in a lovely colonial town called Paraty (about 5 hours south of Rio) where we continued to enjoy the beaches we headed over to an island called Ilha Grande We left 2008 in style with a speed boat excursion around the island. A little taste of luxury … there were only eight of us on the boat. We saw in the New Year on the beach under a cloud of smoke from the fireworks. It was a really lovely day and evening.
We had numerous reality checks of the "real backpackers life" as we entered the New Year with eight of the first ten nights of the year spent on overnight buses or at bus stations!!
We headed across to Iguacu Falls on the Brazilian side. The place is just electrifying! We spent Marcus's birthday at the Brazilian side where we got a majestic overview of the falls and the following day headed over to the Argentine side where we were able to get a lot closer. The view overlooking 'Devils Throat' was just incredible – it was memorising just watching the amount of water tumbling across, the rainbows and butterflies just added to its charm.
From here we headed back across country first to Puerto Alegre for a day stop on route to Montevideo in Uruguay. With us arriving in the middle of peak season and not having accommodation booked we were pretty much left on the street so decided to live at the bus station for four nights and did excursions from there. We headed to Punta del Diablo and Punta del Este, both beaches but with major contrasts as well as spending some time in Montevideo before heading to Colonia del Sacrimento and on to Argentina. Punta del Diablo was an alternative place with sandy streets and a chilled out vibe while Punta del Este is where all the Brazilians and Argentines holiday for their summer … high rises and a swarming town (a mini Gold Coast).
We took the boat across to Buenos Aires in Argentina from Uruguay. We loved Buenos Aires, it was so welcoming to be in a cosmopolitan city again (I never thought I would say something like that). We spent four days there taking in all it had to offer, from an amazing cemetery where Evita was laid to rest to the area of La Boca – a colourful mix of tin and wooden buildings.
Once we left Buenos Aires we headed for Patagonia and haven't looked back since. It is such an amazing place with so much on offer considering the mass of desert and nothing that you pass through on long, long, long bus rides. The amounts of nothing compete with that of the Australian outback!
We spent time in Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes where we were able to get our first glimpse of wildlife. The sea lions and the penguins were the highlights not to mention the armadillos. From here it was into the heart of Patagonia and we spent about a week around the area of El Calafate and El Chalten.
We enjoyed Perito Moreno Glacier and took a wonderful boat excursion out on Lago Argentina where along with cruising passed massive ice bergs (a taste of what is to come), we were able to witness some amazing sights of glaciers. We spent a few days walking in the Las Glaciars National Park (averaging about 35km per day – which was not a bad effort).
The weather was a little temperamental but at points throughout the time there we got sightings of all the highlights.From here we arrived in Ushuaia where we are currently waiting for our boat to Antarctica J. We are really looking forward to this trip and promise to be in touch again with all the details once we are back from the ice!
We have updated our site … check out the new photos if you get a chance http://www.travel.rameke.com/.
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