We fell for Iguazu Falls (and landed safely on a 400g steak)

After our exursion to Rapa Nui we arrived safely back to Santiago where we had delightful suprise ... Our English friends were in town! We ate, we drank, and we were merry. From Santiago we had the mission of booting across Argentina so we can arrive to Brazil before our Visa´s expiry. But of course we didn´t want take a grueling 60hr bus ride so we made a few stops along the way. A fun filled 8 days spent in Wine and Steak Country. And so it begins ...

Mendoza is a quaint little city. And by little, we mean 600,000 people. Our hostel had an all the amenities that we needed. ... as much red wine as you can drink. Unfortunately, our stay was much too short to enjoy the full potential of the wine. But we will be returning mid-Jan so we can assure you, the wine hasn´t seen the last of our stomaches. In Mendoza, we got our first taste of Argentinean beef. Said to be world renowned, the steaks didn´t dissapoint. 600g steak (the size of your face) is big enough to fill the biggest person. And take our word for it, everyone there is fat and 4 days away from a heart attack.

From Mendoza we headed east to Rossario. We chose to go for the `lonely plant`reviews of the beaches and beach activity. However the beach is really just a fjord where frieghters go through the many ports throughout Rossario. The brown, sludgy water is anything but appealing. Lisa got a wierd blue stain on her calf after 5 min wading in the water that didn´t dissapear to 2 days. Imagine a giant blue pen exploding on your leg. The water situation was even more dissapointing than you may think because a refreshing dip would have been a nice change from the 47 degree heat.

While walking around Rossario we came across a world food carnival/exhibit. Canada wasn´t there. Neither was America. Or the UK. So by world we mean unusual countries such as Romania, Iran, Syrah, Almania, along with all the South American countries that randomly only offered Italian Food. To Kevin´s great dissapointment only one beer was offered amongst all the stands. Argentiean Chopp.

From Rossario we took a 16hr bus ride to Puerto Iguazu. Welcome to the land of Malaria and Yellow Fever. Puerto is hot and humid and bug infested. We finally broke out the mosquito net and managed to steer clear of the cockroaches running around the bathroom. The first full day we had, we spent at the falls. Unbelievable. The thunderous roar of the 275 waterfalls pounding 20 feets away is indescribable. We took a boat trip underneath the falls and a 4x4 tour in the jungle where we saw a real live Toucan. He pooped fruit loops. Kevin ate them.

Day 2:
We took a day trip to Brazil to see the Brazil side of Iguazu. It was just as beautiful but in a different way. Instead of looking either up or down at the falls, you saw the whole Panaramic scene. Leroy loved it. We also made a brief stop in Paraguay to see the Itaipu, one of the world´s largest dams. In Lisa´s opinion, it was dumb. Damn dumb.

From here to took what was supposed to be a 20hr bus ride to Rio but with traffic it ended up being 24. Kevin´s knees were cramping but the ride was particularily rough on Lisa as she has a rule not to pee on busses.

In Rio we stayed in the famous Copacabana Beach. Thongs galore. And the men reading this might think it is wonderful, but the thoughts of delight quickly turn to disgust when you see the cellulite-y rippling asses of 50 year old fat chicks and 60 year old beer gutted wrinkly old men in their thong equivilant. Banana Hammocks. We have to add, this isn´t just on the beach. It´s shopping downtown, at McDonalds, and at the market ... rain, sleet, snow or hail. Just like the mailman.

We spent 1 full day doing the `tourist` thing. We visited Jesus. Lisa wanted to hug him but was dissapointed that she couldn´t because he towered 38m above her. We watched a futbal match but the fans were more exciting than the game. We also attempted to party like the locals. We went into a degenerate part of town where the famous `street parties`are held. It´s basically hundreds of people getting drunk in the street. The whole area smells of pee and it´s target place for muggings. (we found out the next morning that 3 people from our hostel got robbed at knife point all on separate occasions.) Mom´s, don´t worry. We were with a big group of people so we were fine.

We also visited the Santa Teresa Mosaic Stairs by artist Jorge Selaron. It has taken him 18 years and to quote him "This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death." It´s an everchanging stair way of tiles from around the world that people send to him as a contribution to his, indeed, crazy dream. (Note the picture where he sneaks up behind Kevin for a photo op)

Now, it´s time to Party in Paraty.

Pics ran out of time continue later...

We had time to post only a few pics on here. 2 min left before the internet cafe c loses so we will give you fun stories later.

Current Crib Score - Kevin at 5541, Lisa at 5422


Kevin with the crazy tile man who started making this walkway 18 yrs ago and is yet to finish.

Futbal match in Rio Brazil, Botafogo vs Aletico

Iguazu Panaramic view

Lisa staring out at the falls

38m High Jesus wants to hug us ...

...and Leroy aswell

...but his main job is to watch over Rio

Now this fine specimen of human is posing with (if you look closley at the bottom two tiles over on both sides) fine ¨canadian¨ art work made in vancouver.

Iguazu falls

No bunnies on Easter Island...

So.... Before we embarked on our little journey we had to get to the departure gate. This should seem simple enough. We are told to go to the International gate, but being a domestic flight she points to the domestic departure zone. We found our gate number, wandered on down to find our gate and saw it was on the other side of the glass doors. We mutually decieded to do some shopping to waste some time (since we have 3 hours until our flight leaves). We return to our gate with about a hour until our flight leaves...... The doors, to our asmazment are locked,

¨Kevin, I told you we should have went through the doors to our gate first¨

¨Its fine lisa, just sit down and they will open the doors, the plane wont leave without us¨ (as lisa paces back and forth looking in astonishment at the locked doors, trying to figure out the password to the security panel and open the door... (Just imagine a locked up puppy trying to escape a fenced off yard and you will be seeing what Kevin is witnessing) all along Kevin is re-ashering Lisa that it will be fine, when the plane crew shows up they will open the door for us, or let us on the plane through this gate since they connect). Finnally out of frustration Lisa sits down, and is upset that Kevin is not concerned at the fact we may miss our flight, But all is settled down after the stewerts and stewertes show up, and Lisa is re-ashered that the other side of the glass doors are for international destinations only.

The awful paragraph above was written by Kevin and Kevin alone. I am sure that was made evident by all the horrendous spelling errors and terrible grammatical content. That, my friends, was his version. The following is mine.

I always like to see my gate before we head into the Duty Free just for my own peace of mind. It´s narotic, yes, but it´s what I prefer to do. This way, if we get tied up with something and lose track of time, we can haul ass to our appointed gate without any problems. So when Kevin made me simply glance at Gate 21A through closed glass doors instead of walking directly to the gate itself, I was a little annoyed that he didn´t allow me to be me ... but I accepted it because he was so excited and in a hurry to find a big bag of gummy candy. Sure enough we go back to the doors and try to open them, and yes, they were locked. We were at Gate 21B instead of 21A and there was no way in and no staff to answer any questions. Plus, we were informed by our check in clerk that we were to be boarding an International Flight but Gate 21B is in the Domestic Flight section. In addition to all of this, the signs posted in our section showed that it would be boarding rows 1-28 only, and we were in row 32. So, you can imagine my slight frusteration when it appeared as if we were stuck at the wrong gate. These feelings subsided when I looked at the television and saw our flight number appear on the screens of both Gates 21A and 21B. At no point was I afraid that we would miss our flight. It´s just that when all the signs you originally see seem to prove that you are in the wrong section and the right section is just behind some doors, the average person would get a tad bit irritated. Kevin´s laughter was in no way constructive. Yes, he reassured me that we would get on the plane (and that we did) but he also reassured me that the doors would be open. And they never were, were they Kevin?

Once again words cannot describe the sights we were witness to. Arrival to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was unlike any other airplane landing we´ve had. The runway stretches from one side of the island to the next. And since it´s 3700km from the coast of Chile, all you see is the vast ocean. So when you are preparing to land, you can´t see the island and it´s looks like you are heading straight into the water. The triangle shaped island is only 117 square km. (with 25km from furthest point to furthest point) and a mere 3900 inhabitants. We were greeted at the gate by our hostel staff who put leighs around our necks and welcomed us with open arms and a friendly smile.

We spent the first 3 days bootin´around on a scooter we rented for cheap and checked out most of the ancient head statues (maoi). If you haven´t heard about Easter Island, google it. Some of the heads are only 2 feets tall and stuck in the ground, about to tip over. Others were put on platforms and towered over us at 23 meters high. It was just so amazing to be in the presence of such immense mysterious statues. In fact, the mystery is so deep that even the musuem admits to having no idea what went on here thousands of years ago. In all the write ups, the post script included ¨Remember, these are merely theories. There hasn´t been evough evidence to conclude these as facts¨

On one of the days, we discovered a magificent beach so we decided to return the next day with swim suits and snorkel gear. The beach had rows upon rows of towering palm trees, wild horses roaming free and white white sand with sparking tourqoise water. Kevin saw a pufferfish. He was very excited.

On our last full day, we took an 8hr hike to see a row of 7 maoi standing in a row looking out to sea as well as the highest peak on the island. It is a strange sensation to be able to stand on top of an extint volcano and see water 360 degrees around with no other land in sight. Along our hike we saw the most wild horses we´ve ever seen. Hundreds of them roamed the rolling country side we were hiking and when you got back to the main roads crazy bull-cows blocked the streets so that you couldn´t pass. Kevin honked at them with the scooter horn which proved un-successfull and Lisa was terrified they would charge.

We saw lots of crazy fruits on Rapu Nui as well. In our journeys we stumbled across a huge pineapple plantation, our hostel was home to many papaya and banana trees and at Anakena Beach we managed to break open a coconut. It took a lot of effort smashing it against rocks and sticks but we finally broke through and had a nibble of the disgusting white fleshy stuff inside.

When we left, the hostel didn´t want to take pesos for some reason so they charged up $40USD more (same price as a night spent) to accept pesos instead of american dollars. She kept insisiting the dollar amount was higher too. Kevin argued with them and said we were only paying the proper amount of $100,000 pesos and that was that. We headed into town to do some last minute shopping then came back where the clerk was waiting with the internet loaded to a page showing the most recent currency exchange. She was right, the dollar randomly flucuated. We were wrong and in all fairness should have paid the extra. But the woman simply said ¨It´s no problem, you´ve paid enough ... I just wanted to show you, that´s all¨ Then she called us a taxi so we could get to the airport and then draped free maoi head necklaces around our necks. This just goes to show how care free and innocently pleasant the Rapa Nui people are. Not at all like the rest of the continent we´ve seen thus far.

Misc photos

Black with white stripes or white with black stripes ?

I need to clean your teeth

Evil pumpkin

say ¨Zooooo¨

Leroy peering over the Andes... This Lion really gets around

Santiago

Santiago skyline

Snow White is on a dwarf hunt

Lisa running from the Dwarves after Humpty Dumpty took her guns away

The Polar bear killing a defensless bucket

Lisa trying to avoid the mustashe

Kevin Likes it

Volcanic caves in Pucon

Lisa at the top of the world

Bright Lights, Big City

Our last few days in Pucon were wonderful. After we had a taste of adventure from canyoning and canopying, we our fulfill our craving by going into the deep reaches of an active volcano exploring the hardened lava passageways and mountain biking to a billiant lake 20km outside the city. However, the biking didn´t really go as planned. Of course. About 15km outside of Pucon, Lisa´s bike chain snapped while going up a hill. No biggie. We´ll just whip out our handy dandy fanny pack of tools that were given to us and we´ll back on the bikes in a jiffy. As we pull the fanny pack out and peer inside we remember the conversation Kevin had with the rental company. ¨You will be fine¨he said, ¨as long as you don´t break a chain.¨ Dammit. So we sat on the side of the road and hitchhiked our way back. (Sorry Mum)

This brings us to our last day. The volcano in Pucon is a rather large tourist attraction with groups hiking it every day. Kevin, unfortunately, gracefully bows out of this endeaver as his foot just won´t be able to bend to the off camber terrain. So Lisa wakes up at 6am with ice pick and crampons in tow and heads out without Kevin. We started hiking at 8am and reached the crater at noon. The hike was moderate, only grueling during the last 20 min when it was solid ice and 60 degrees inclined. But the view of the crater and the Andes backdrop was well worth the trek. You couldnt see lava but you can see smoke billowing out and hear the waves of liquid magma below. To get down the mountain you strap on the butt patch provided by the company and slide on your ass using the ice pick as a break. Of course the butt patches are so well worn that by arse was wet and numb by the end but once again, totally worth it.

Lisa shows up at the hostel excited to talk about her day only to find a drunk Kevin half awake on the couch with a 26 of vodka and big bottle of orange juice next to him. We can talk about the hike later. But at least Kevin ankle was still in tact.

SAAANTIAGO. ¨A whales vagina.¨

The 10hour bus ride we splurge and take first class all the way. Lisa is cheap and was reluctant at first. Ïf there are any children crammed in our first class cabin, I will be very upset, Kevin.¨ ¨Don´t worry Lisa, they don´t put kids in first class on an overnight trip¨ 25 minutes into the trip screaming children arrive waking Lisa from her peacfull slumber. Of course they sit behind us and kick our seats until Kevin grabs a kids foot and throws it away, all the while glaring evily at the parents. Stupid Kids.

Halloween is in 2 days and it being one of Lisa´s favorite holiday, we deem it mandatory to spend our first 2 days in Santiago in search for costumes. It´s hard to do as Halloween is so new here.
We finally find Snow White and a pumpkin shirt for Kevin and we´re set. Now we have time to enjoy the city. Kevin, loving his city tours, books a double decker bus for us and we set off to explore Santiago in style. We realize the tour goes by the local zoo so of course we jump off the bus to check out Lions and Tigers and Bears .. oh my! ... And the most dangerous predator of all, El poco blanco canadiense señorita. (The small white Canadian girl - maneater)

Halloween was good times. We had a BBQ and met lots of travellers. However, everyone was in costume so with the mixture of masks and litre beers, it was hard to say who was who when all of us, hungover, were lying by the pool the next morning.

Tommorrow, we fly to Easter Island!!