Paranagua & Ihla do Mel - Brazil

From Floripa the plan was to head north 2 hours to the town of Itajai. It's tourist card being one of the best beach super clubs in the world. Tanaglia and the famed ocean sunrise was going to be special. But sadly, Saturday night at Warung wasn't to be!

The recent news of floods in Brazil will have alerted you to the fact that the SE has been getting a ton of rain - so much so that our bus crawled along roads blocked by landslides and the heavy rain storms made going outside pretty impossible. So, instead of a glam night among Brazils glitaratzi at Warung, we ended up with a matress on the floor at an old nursery school (don't ask!) and headed on from grey Itajai early the next morning with the heavens still opening. If the sun had been shining, it would have been a different story but as it was, we headed on towards Ihla do Mel - the honey island - with the promise of a little piece of paradise.

Thankfully it was as sweet as its name suggests! On route we spent the night in the pretty colonial town of Paranagua. Tropical and on a mangrovey delta, Paranagua serves as port town for transporting cotton & oil among other things, as well as running boats to take tourists to Ihla do Mel. Being a Friday night, everything was shut down - this tends to be the way with weekends in Brazil - but a little shop on the back street rustled us up a couple of yummy sarnies fit for hungry travellers.

Next morning all we had to do was cross the street from the hostel and hop on the ferry to the island. Ihla do Mel is a beautiful hilly tropical island thats a rare jem of unspoilt tourist territory without even a single car. It has two main settlements north and south - but not quick enough to jump off at the first pier, we accidently ended up at the southern tip in Encantadas. Still, synchronosity worked to our favour and we ended up at Pedro's hostel where we set up our tent and stayed very happily put for the week.

Just a minutes walk from the beach, with a big grassy lawn dotted with palm trees, it's the perfect spot. We could walk from one end of the island to the other along the beaches in an hour or catch a little boat which we did to see the sunset on the ocean one evening. The northern beaches of Grande and Farol had perfect beach breaks, the nice little girl friendly waves rolling in made surfing fun. The island wasn't short of nice simple food and drink: we tucked into tropical fruit, learnt the secret to making the perfect Ciaparinha from Pedro; found a great bbq shack run by a salt of the earth family who were massive Rolling Stones fans, serving us up tasty chicken and fresh bread each night and I also discovered a new divine dish of acai (a national snack it's a divine combo of the Amazonian berries mixed with ice to make a sorbet & topped off with granola and banana).

We met a lovely crowd of people - including Pedro, Alvarez and Paula who ran the hostel Ecologico - aswell as other Argentinians and Brazilian vacationers. I also had an education in the world of Chinese Shiatsu - swapping Shiatsu sessions on the beach in return for a surfing lesson with Argentinean Shiatsu master Carlos. Carlos it has to be said was on another planet but some of the most interesting people are.

Ihla do Mel is one of those places where the days just dissapear. We could easily have stayed for longer, life there is just so beauitfully simple. If we should want to go back to the honey island, Pedro has offered us to look after his hostel while he goes off travelling for a while. We can most definately think of worse ideas!

Happy Camping: Santa Catarina - Brazil

Ahhhhh life under canvas... ain't it grand!

We checked into a lovely camping spot on Laguna Conceicao a large inland lake on the island of Florianopolis and found the perfect little pitch. Surrounded by banana plants, and ontop of lush sandy grass this was a sweet spot indeed.

On the island we spent many lovely afternoons checking out the waves on Pria Mole and Joaquina, soaking up the sun and testing the water. On our first afternoon we were treated to a Fernet session on the beach, a lovely Argentinian couple took us along with their coolbox to share their massive glass of the Argentine national drink - Fernet / Coke and loads of ice - we had such a great time!

Somedays the weather wasn't great but it was always hot, and camping life revolved around a constant session of bbq's and beers with our new found friends from Brasil and Argentina. The Brasilans love there beer, which is great - cause so do I. Even better they love it for elevenses.... whilst getting the bbq fired up with some smokey beef ribs and pork belly. The Brasilian way of cooking involves slowly cooking the meat for a few hours on a 'speto' (like a big fork) and then pulling them off and cutting it into small bite sized bits.

It's totally delicious.... if a little bad for you. We made great friends with the chef (Richardo) his wife and their mates, many a day was spent downing beers and talking a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese and total rubbish!
We also got treated to wonderful pizza made by Blanca and her husband from Argentina, they were travelling with their nephew which was addicted to playing UNO and could go to sleep anywhere - including under the bbq and on plastic chairs - priceless!

We also got treated to the Brasilian classic - the Caiparina.... gallons of it.... which always brought out the best in me, including dancing on tables and singing 'I wanna be a billlionaire'.....fine moments indeed. If they all come to London for the Olympics we have to 'Roll out the barrels of fun' down some eastend boozers with them... anyone up for it?

Carnival - Samba Floripa! Brazil

Rio carnival is famous world over but every single town and city all over Brazil goes carnival mad in March. We were lucky enough to find out about Floripa's samba band warm-up gig for Rio carnival and join the party by the lake. There were so many people there to support the band, the dancers shook their bodies like nothing you've seen before - from pros, to kids to grannies - and the atmosphere was truely carnival.

There must have been about 80 people in the band; it was the real deal! Everyone was so proud of their band and the crowd was clapping, dancing and singing. Our dancing shoes got a good work out and by the end of the night we knew the chorus to the bands anthem about the 'magic island'. We were given a handout with the words!

We might not be around for carnival proper but it's really cool to be here for the build up. Check out this clip of the band kicking off the night...

Life's a beach in Brazil! Santa Catarina - Brazil

The border crossing into Brazil was a big one for us - it marked the final stamp in our America Latina adventure. We can't believe it is the last of 18 countries in 18 months!

Brazil not only brings with it a new culture, but a new lingo. We've since realised that Portugese is nothing like Spanish - whatever people may tell you! People may well understand Spanish when you speak but you probably won't get much of what's coming back.

Still, not to worry, the Brazil plan is just to hug the tropical coast all the way up from Floranopolis, through Parana, past Sao Paulo (stopping at islands on the way), through to Rio and up to the state of Bahia - all sun, sea and surfin'! Sure we'll pick up some of the lingo along the way!

The border crossing took 24 hours, 5 busses, dinner in the not so pretty Porto Alegre and we arrived in Ilha (island) de Santa Catarina in time for sunrise the next morning. Santa Catarina is a provence but also the island which is often confusingly refered to by tourists as just Floranopolis, infact this is the islands capital. From here you can get the bus to anyone of the islands beautiful beaches - all 42 of them!

Excited to finally be on the island home to some of Brazils most famous surf and surfers, we caught the bus to the east where we were promised long beaches and the best waves. Again, being Jan it was hard to come by accomadation on the beach, so after an unlucky stop at Joaquina ('the' beach) we headed back inland a couple of km's to stay on the lake - Lagoa da Conceicao. Here we found a gem of a campsite.

After some bargain hunting, I bought my first short board - made in Brazil like everything here! At least the walk back up to Joaquina beach, road cutting through the sanddunes, was pretty good for keeping fit in the 30 degree heat (though there were good busses that take you from beach-to-beach). I soon found out that surfing on a short board was a whole new game. I had thought about this but I hadn't fully appreciated just how tricky it is to get on up. I don't hail coordination as one of my strongest attributes, and I would say riding a shortboard is all about just that! Longboards are like boats in comparison. Luckily after a couple of days and almost giving up hope, on route to the beach I stopped for a chat with a guardian angel of surfing in the form of Chilean Francisco. Somehow Francisco must have realised that his words of wisdom weren't helping all so much and turned up at the beach. After a couple of hours of hurling me down huge waves, some good banter and a splattering of bruises, I was - kind of - riding some waves, had mastered the duck dive and felt pretty happy. I owed Fransisco a fruit smoothy on the beach after that - what a lovely guy. Since then, i'd love to say the progress has been as rapido, but lets just say I'm having fun trying!

The east side of the island was also home to countless other beautiful beaches, especially Praia Mole (listed in the lonely planet as the gay beach). It was a stunning stretch of ocean, relaxed but not as good for people watching as you might expect. Praia Barra de Logoa on the otherhand had a party vibe, with awesome Ciaparinha bars on wheels working the beaches and little bars playing out Samba and Cumbia! We jumped in the car with our fellow campers, Celeste & Alex and spent a great afternoon at the beach drinking Fernet & Coke (Argentinians!) from the ice box and chatting spanglish.

Campsite Lagoa de Conceicao was full of lovely Brazilian and Argentinian people and when it rained (which it did every day, heavily) there wasn't much more to do than whip up a caparinha (in the big group cup!), cook up a Charrasco (bbq) with new friends and be merry...  

Punta del Diablo - Uruguay

I'd simply describe Diablo as like a huge festival on the beach. Bohemian and creative, things seemed to go on 24\7 in Diablo. Evening circus shows on the beach, random jam seasons in peoples front gardens, tango on the streets, impromtue house parties, food stalls with tons of yummy treats, and camping out made it feel like we were at a festival.
 

Jumping off the bus and straight into the main street, we spotted a hostel right away with some girls pitching a tent out front. Quick to see the opportunity, we asked if we could do the same and got ourselves a lovely little place to stay 2-mins from the beach. Admitedly, not condusive to a good nights sleep but it was cool to be in the hussle and bustle for a couple of days. We ended up meeting lots of people from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay on their Jan vacations (people more our ages, rather than the OAPs of del Este!)

The first night we shared some freshly cooked Paella, watched the sunset and sang along to an impromtue guitar jam in the little bar down on the beach. Traditionally a fishing village, we were able to whip up some pretty delicious seafood concoctions of our own whilst in Diablo.

The hostels hammocks were perfect for whiling away the time and the beach for tanathons kept us busy. In Jan Diablo seemed to be all about relaxing, taking things as they come and enjoying whatever random event happens to be going on - so that's just what we did!



Punta del Este - Uruguay

Wax it, tan it, tone it and shake it at the beach is the mantra of Punta del Este! Known to be the playground to the rich and famous of South America, we were suprised to find that fellow Brits Ronnie Wood and Amy Winehouse were also in town. Sadly, we weren't invited to their private villa gig in the hills and we didn't get a glimpse of the celebs - apart from in the morning paper! Still, we shouldn't think that our choice accomadation Camping San Rafeal would be the favourite hang-out of Amy or Ron.


January is a month long holiday for most in this part of the world, and so prices for everything shoot through the roof so camping it was. It's Punta's main money making season and the beaches around Punta and La Barra (very cool neighbourhood at the other end of town) were full of the rich and very beautiful who own or rent houses that sit empty the rest of the year. A tax haven and rumoured to be a good place to put what might be considered dodgy money, you can imagine the type of villas on show. Bars are sponsored by Citi or HSBC, it's a bit wierd to be honest. Everyone looks amazing and it is exercise mad. Whether jogging, cycling, surfing - everyone is honing and toning that beach body. Hanging out at the beach we got chatting to one of these glam families from BA who were picture perfect and lovely with it.

 Back in Camping San Rafeal, things were not so ritzy but fab all the same. Arriving late in the day, the pineforest campsite was packed and we ended up pitching up on solid ground amongst the motor-homers. This actually turned out to be a blessing, our neighbours were old-timers who had spent Jan in San Rafeal for around the last 20 years! Not only were these people amazingly friendly but they could not do enough for us. Maybe they felt sorry for us in our tiny tent, whilst they had virtual homes on wheels (some even had gardens with flower beds and a lawn). Our Brazilian neighbours insisted on setting us up with a table, complete with table cloth and umbrella. Whilst Ronnie (not Wood!) and his family from Montevideo insisted we borrow his prized bikes to get around town. The next evening a team of people came from across the way to set us up lighting, when it rained we were invited in to the old couples place next door, the next day we had bbq offerings, Luis even drove us to the bus station on departure (was he a F1 driver, a wine specialist, a space cadet? After a wine or two, B'sA's Luis had some good chat!). We can honestly say that we have never been so touched by the kindness and generosity of people that had been complete strangers - an inspiration to us all. We ended up making alot of trips to the bakers for thank-you gifts!
So, equipped with wheels courtesy of Ronnie and onl a 5-minute cycle from glam La Barra, we were free to explore Punta. On a rainy day - it rained a lot - we cycled about 15kms around the point to check out the swanky yacht club where we saw these huge sealions playing and hanging out.

On a beautiful sunny day we cycled 10kms up coast and found a beautiful stretch of deserted golden sand to top up the tans. Luckily this paradise had a little shack selling yummy sarnies and cold drinks, perfect for making a holiday rum!


Another day we hung out at the beaches of La Barra, including Bikini Beach and mingled with the 'beautiful people'. It has to be one of the best people watching places in the world. I sat there cringing as the boys next to us tried to chat up some modelesque girls with some really bad lines. You can understand why Punta del Este is so popular though, it is just mile upon mile of absolutely perfect beaches and ocean.

We thought Punta was going to be all-night parties for us, but it ended up being quite the opposite. There wasn't any flyer action or even Ibiza-esque beach bars open into the night to encourage us to go raving. Maybe all the nightime mischief goes on in the villas or maybe we were just too relaxed to go looking for a fiesta. In the end, it was the people at the camp that made Punta so memorable. We left feeling very relaxed, tanned and healthy and with some great memories of new friends made.

Buenos Aires Te Amo - Argentina

It took only 3 weeks and I am in love. We set up home in the old arty barrio of San Telmo, once affluent (before some nasty fever cleared the neighbourhood), swanky now resides in designer-clad Recoleta and Palermo instead. But crumbling San Telmo is a special place, with it's antique parades, coffee shop corners, cobbled streets and Sunday Feria (quite possibly my favourite place in the world). With Linda and Tony with us, we sure worked our way around BA's culinary offerings and did all the things a good tourist should do and discovered lots of jems that were not in the guide book.

We had two little roof top apartments at the top of funky Ostinatto - a great hostel but with a self-bought alcohol ban that got us into trouble! Christmas day itself was spent supping champagne or 'contraban' as we ended up calling it, opening little gifts and tucking into an Asado, as only good Argentinians would! Being a family day, the whole city was in lock down but we did invite ourselves to PAX's bar for a beer and to say hi to Franziska who was working. Christmas Eve however was seen in with a roof top party and fireworks and poppers being unleashed from every balcony and roof top in sight. We'd never seen anything like it, it was so lovely to look out over the roof tops of the city and see in Christmas day with such a bang (excuse the pun)! Linda went to town with Christmas morning, wrapping sweet little gifts, popping open the bubbles and she even bought a mini Christmas tree and pud from home. Drinking from our 50's champagne glasses bought at San Telmo market, we were a little tipsy on the 'pink' before 10am! Pete cooked up a storm on the grill and we caught some sunshine on the roof top. January being sweltering, it took some will power not to run back into the aircon. Derek on the other hand, the resident roof top tortoise, was a dedictaed sunbather.

New Years Eve was again a family occassion, no wild parties thrown like in London or NYC. It was actually hard to find a restuarant that was going to be open and that didn't quadruple its prices. Again, Linda and Tony came up trumps with an old-school Argentinian canteen type restuarant near Avenida Julio. It was a set menu where you could select your starter, main and pud. It was only after the lovely waitress cleared our starter plates and asked if we wanted anymore, did we realise it was pretty much 'all you could eat'... and drink. I think I probably got a bit over excited with the icecream sundee desert, I only ate one but by normal sized standards, it was probably 4! We saw in the new year toasting a glass of cider (don't ask!) and champagne to follow. Pan Dulce (sweet bread) is the traditional toasting accompaniment, and so we had to eat more pudding!!! We left feeling pretty full and pretty happy. We set off home to join the party on the roof at the hostel for a couple of rums and a dance. 1st of Jan was spent the usual way, as it is world over, recovering from the night before. BA was hosting the start of the Dakar Rally - BA to Chile - so we joined the rest of the families down near the Obilisco to catch some of the action.

We packed so much in to our time in BA, that I couldn't possibly write about it all. You'll have to wait until we are home and I go on, and on, and on, about how much I want to live in BA. In all seriousness, with an apartment in San  Telmo setting you back a tenth of a flat in London, we're thinking Winters in BA might not be such a bad idea!

If we were asked to recommend the top things to do in BA to a friend we would say you shouldn't miss the following:
GraffitiMundo - BA has such a unique street art scene, walls (any wall!) are your canvas. After wondering who was behind this beautiful art that we constantly photographed, we took this brilliant tour to find out more!
Evita Museum - You can't understand BA until you know about Eva Peron. Madonna is still a contencious topic.
Day at the races - Palermo race track, join the cheering crowds down by the track and make a bet. The polo season had just finished, so that'll have to wait until the next trip!
Tigre - Only an hour from BA on the train (and only 0.30$) Tigre feels a million miles away. We took a beautiful boat trip through the delta and had lunch at one of the old rowing club houses.
Bomba del Tiempo - The most amazing percussion group. They play at an outdoor venue that feels a bit like the Trumen Brewary in East London, and it's absolutely packed with people dancing to the beat. It felt like we were at a mini festival, plastic beer cups in hand and finding a spot to dance. We met up with Franziska and friends and also Andrea, an Argentinian girl we knew from Columbia - small continent!
San Telmo Ferria - I went 4 times to this Sunday market. Yes 4! You could never tire of it, its just full of so many cool and beautiful things. I actually couldn't be happier than wondering along Avenida Defensa and through the plazas on market day. Full of street performers and tango dancing, it's just so happy. I also made some Christmas purchases of some 1950's French frames which I am going to get lenses put into when I am home, some handpainted signs for our house (where ever that is!), the mini Tango shoes for Linda were adorable and some unique old original ads I got for Pete for Christmas (from 50's Pan American Airlines 'fabulouso' ad to Toddy hot cholocate which we'd lived off in Patagonia). There's a pattern emerging, this market is stuck in the 50's and it's brilliant.
Club 69 - The Christmas party was wild, the only night club we frequented in BA with Franziska and co, this camp show is one of a kind. We had a fab night.
Shopping - The shopping is brilliant in BA. I found a favourite shop, Rhapsodia, a beautiful boho shop with everything made in Argentina. I even bought a little white number for a certain future wedding!
Tango lessons - I am excited, I actually can dance. Having convinced myself I have 2 right feet (me and arobics, no no no!) I found that I could tango, sort of. Joining in the tango lessons run at the hostel, I learnt the basics of tango. Unfortunately Pete had decided a siesta time was more important, so I was left to learn this lovers dance with a random, and not entirely beautiful man from Belgium. But seeing as I picked him up at the bar one minute before the class, it was very very nice of him to be my partner at all. Learning a bit of tango definately gave me appreciation for the incredible dancers you see all over BA.
Parque Ecologica - Down near the docks, the park is set next to the Rio Plata and was perfect for my morning runs. With distance marked running tracks and maps, I wish London had one. One time I did manage to go 'off course' and got encouraged along by another runner, this guy ran for Argentina and I ended up running 8 miles that morning... whilst trying to speak espanol!
La Boca - Home to Boca Juniours, La Boca is the dock area also famed for it's colourful houses that migrant workers painted with the leftovers from the boat yards. To be honest, nice to see but way too touristy. We all thought it was a bit of a wierd place, still quite poor, still on the edge of BA but with lots of tacky tourist offerings.

MAMBA - Like in the rest of BA, the modern art museum wasn't run of the mill, it was really impressive. There was no 'hmmm, line on a blank canvas... interesting' art. Loved it.

Tango at Tortoni - The oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo is something of an institution. Some would say avoid it as it is too touristy, but being a lover of cafes, I was keen to go see it. In doing so, I discovered their small little theatre at the back and this is how we ended up watching a tango show all together on our last night together in BA. The music was beautiful and the dancing very showy, it was a smooth operation but we loved it. Especially me and Linda, we even got the CD! Eek! It was a brilliant end to our time in BA, one last tango and all that!

Seeing as a lot of our time in BA revolved around food, I feel I should talk about all the incredible meals that Tony and Linda treated us too (those hotpants might need to retire for a while!) but we just had too many to even start. With 15 days together in BA, that'd make 30 amazing meals out. On a couple of occasions, we had old travelling buddies to join us too which was lovely. We had a lot of steak of course but the restuarant scene in BA is vast so all meals were different, all delicious. With restuarants not really getting going until 10pm, a siesta became the norm. As Tony said, it shows you are sympathetic with the culture, a perfect excuse. I was head of breakfasts, being cheif fruit chopper and juice squeezer. Whilst Linda got up hours before me, to buy the fruit. With so many bakeries on every street in BA, it was hard not to get into the crossant 'media luna' (half moon) craze too.

Leaving BA and the parents was sad, we had been utterly spoilt and life was soon to return to tents, the bus and cooking!!! Still, we had a lovely time with Linda and Tony, found a city loved and were heading beach-bound on the ferry to Uruguay. As they say in BA as a response to everything... Dale (Lets do it/cool!)