Friday, January 16, 2009

Me in Antarctica


Here we are sailing amongst the icebergs. Notice I am wearing a t shirt, the weather was beautiful and as you can see the water is calm. It was great.

Quick summary

  • 3 years
  • 2 employers
  • 17 countries - worked in 9 of them. (OK maybe a little illegally!)
  • 14 of these were in 2008 alone!
  • 4 continents in 2008 too, Asia, Australia, South America and Antarctica
  • 3 passports!
  • 1 hardy backpack!
  • 1 dead laptop
  • loads and loads of new friends

The end

The final leg of our journey was a return trip to BA so we could get the flight home.
We had one final day exploring and eating our last Argentinian steak.

We arrived back in Sydney to a beautiful day, but our adventures didn't stop there. We gave our bags to Andrew to take home for us, and we took the train. We got to Sutherland and Jo called her car dealer to say we were on the train station and heading to get the car. He said it is at Sutherland, so we picked up her brand new Subaru there and drove it home.

So that is all, I hope you have enjoyed the blogs and the photos. Till next time...this is Rosemary signing off.

Christ the Redeemer & Sugarloaf

You are probably familiar with this statue, it is the one you see everytime they have pictures of Rio, the one of Christ with his arms extended looking over the city.

He is 38m tall and sits on a hill that is 750m high. He can be seen from many parts of the city. We got there on a cog railway, which was cool, and as he is so high the fog comes and goes, so it makes it a bit surreal looking.

We also went up Sugarloaf mountain that has a cable car that has been there 100 years! The view over the city from there too, is great.

The rest of the time we spent at the beach...as you do!

Hanggliding in Rio

Ever since we saw The Amazing Race episode where they went to Rio and hangglided we have wanted to do that.

It was awesome we soared down off the mountain, over the houses out to see for a bit, had a great view up and down the coast and finally landed on the beach. Sweet!

Percy even went, but he had to stay in the pocket of my flying suit.

Rio de Janerio - Brazil

We finally crossed into Brazil and got to Rio. We are staying at Copacabana beach. So now I have those 2 stupid songs stuck in my head...you know the ones

I go to Rio de Janerio....la la la ...dancing and romancing...

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl....
At the Copa, Copacabana, the hottest spot south of Havana...

So Rio is great, we love the beach, the weather is great and there is food that is not steak!

Tourist advice - what to wear on the beach

All the guide books in Rio tell you that it is a crime ridden city and how you have to be careful...but the best piece of advice we found in a pamphlet was how to dress for the beach.

This is as close as I can remember to what it said...

You must go to a swim wear shop and buy yourself a Brazilian style outfit.
Ladies - you need a bikini - a medium size triangle will be sufficient
Men - wide sided speedos (the ones you would never see in Australia)

If you do not dress like this you risk looking like a gringo, or worse still a tourist! (I am not making this up)

Not that we didn't stand out anyway as we were wearing hats...not a clothing item the Brazilians are familiar with!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

3 countries...one day

Most of you will know that I am keeping a country count of sorts, and on Jan 3 we added 2 more countries in just one day. I think I am up to about 57 now, but I met a man who told me he had over 80...long way to go.

So we started in Iguassu Falls, Argentina, crossed to Brazil, then straight to Paraguay. Here we saw a really big dam called Itaipu. It is the world's largest hydroelectric plant. Then they took us shopping in a market. Apparently the Argentines like to shop here as they have a 40% tax on electrical goods, so get stuff cheap in Paraguay.

A huge buffet lunch was provided...more steak...

Then finally back to Brazil, where we got to see Iguassu Falls from their angle. Then back to Argentina. Great day.

Barely clothed

No not me, the local women. If you read my other post about fashion, you will recall that I said they wear impossibly tight jeans.

Well, having spent 2 days wandering around Iguassu Falls, I have also discovered that it is fine to walk around in your g string bikini or very tight, very short shorts. The men are no better, all their shorts appear to be 2 sizes too small.

I feel very overdressed in my longish shorts and a t shirt...but at least I am not sunburnt!

Photos

Don't forget you can check out the full range of photos at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/geeijo/ATour?authkey=WJNj10y4Cic#

I like Argentinian wine

Jo at a nice winery called Nanni. We got the best bottle here.

I used to be a wine snob...only good Aussie stuff for me. Not that I am much of a wine judge!



I have been converted to Argentinian wine, they make a Malbec which is there signature wine, and it is really nice, and so so cheap. It is possible to get a good bottle for about $8 Aud. Lucky as red goes well with all the steak we are eating.



So we have done the rounds of a couple of wineries, they charge for tasting and a tour in most places, but I have found it interesting to learn about wine making, as the Australian wineries I have been to don't do tours. We went touring in 2 places, Cafayate and Mendoza. Though we didn't get to see much in Mendoza as it was NYE and most of the places were closed. The olive place was open though and they had some great oil, I even bought some to take home.

Desert trekking

Jo and Rosemary on the salt plain

Going over the pass at 4895m

Nico and Rosemary go exploring in a canyon


are we lost?



A big cactus.



When we were in Salta, northern Argentina, we hired a man called Nico and his 4WD and he took us off into the desert for an adventure.

We went up canyons, over a pass that was 4895m high, through the desert, past loads of cactus plants...did you know that they don't flower until they are 50 years old? We saw a 7 coloured mountain, which was kinda cool and lots of condors.
The highlight for me was the salt plain. Really interesting patterns that the salt makes, and it was really salty. No wonder Argentinians like salt on their food, they have plenty of it.

Iguassu Falls

Ok, they are big...really big!

We have been there 3 times, once on the Brazilian side and twice on Argentinian side.

There is so much to do, walks at all levels to see the falls from below, half way up and from the top and from an island. We also did a walk out to a small fall where we could go swimming. The water was freezing though, but I still got in.

The falls themselves are much bigger than I expected. There are 2 different big falls and we saw the small one first and were a bit sort of...is this it? Then we saw the big one and went ...oh wow, this is awesome!

There is a huge volume of water going over falls and really it is too spectacular to try and describe.

We decided on the get wet option which involved going in a boat under the smaller of the falls, the spray was awesome and we got totally drenched.