Off the Beaten Track

From Rio until Buenos Aires I was traveling solo after parting ways with Sarah, Tom, Michelle, and Megan. My overall plan was to make it to Buenos Aires by April 14 (about 7 days) to meet up with the second organized tour I just recently signed up for. From Rio I went south to Curitiba, then Torres (a little surfing town further down the coast, photo above), and finally to Montevideo before reaching Buenos Aires. All told I was in transit for over 40 hours in that week - a lot of moving around for me.

Curitiba is known for its green design, but I can't say I stayed there long enough to take in many of the sights. Torres was the highlight for this stretch, wish I could have stayed longer. A really chilled out town that seemed to have the perfect wave to learn how to surf, although I never tried. Montevideo was a strange experience for me after arriving from Torres on an overnight bus at 7am on a Sunday morning. The streets were deserted and it made for a strange walking tour of the city.

Rio de Janeiro

When first reading about Rio I began to have some trepidations of going there, just because of the reputation for crime in the city and it being so much worse than other cities.  I'm happy to say that after being there my impressions of this wonderful city have changed and I had no more problems than the other big cities I've been to in South America (Santiago and Buenos Aires).  That is to say I've had no problems.

My time in Rio was pretty packed over the 6 days I was there and not a lot of time was spent sunning on the beach - mainly due to the fact that it rained every day I was there.  Highlights: Favela tour, Cristo Redentor, Football Match (Flamenco Vs. Vasco), Lapa (going out and the colourful steps), and the beach of course.

I think the top thing for me in the city was the touring one of the Favelas.  This favela (Rocinha) is the largest in the country housing 200,000 people in one square km.  Ther are over 750 of these favela communities in Rio alone and it houses some 20% of the city.  It was an amazing experience to tour through the streets and alleys really opening my eyes to the community within the slums.

Iguazu Falls

Simply put, these are the most spectacular falls I've ever seen.  One picture doesn't really do it justice, nor would several.  The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometres.  We saw the falls from both sides (Argentina & Brazil) and you get two very different perspectives from either side.  In Argentina, the trails and bridges are more extensive and it's like a zoomed-in perspective, while on the Brazil side it's more panoramic.  We got up early for one of the days we were there to beat the crowds, but only for a couple of hours before we were pushing our way to the rails for the best picture.