Rio to Quito. Simple?

So, flying from Rio to Quito, a fairly simple exercice... After dozens of failed attempts at booking the damn flight(s) I finally had a booking reference number, and therefore, a seat on a plane to get to Quito...

The 03.00 flight from Rio to Panama was cancelled less than an hour before take-off; a good start to the day. The scheduled 09.00 flight to Sao Paulo turned out not to exist; in fact there are no flights that leave Rio at 09.00 on a Saturday. Ended up being put on to a flight to Buenos Aires, which was meant to stop in Sao Paulo´s Guarulhos airport, but was then diverted to Santos Dumont instead. Got a bus back to the right airport, and then tried to check in again for my flight to Panama... The flight was then delayed by four hours, meaning that (in theory) I would miss my connecting flight. About two hours from Panama they told us that we might be diverted to Costa Rica becuase apparently there is a hurricane heading in the direction of Panama... although did actually end up in Tocumen afterall. Fortunately the Quito flight was also delayed , so I didn´t miss that one. Relieved to finally be sitting on the plane to Quito, I got chucked off the plane becuase there was someone else (who spoke better Spanish) with the same seat number... but then someone from business class got chucked off too becuase he was too drunk, so I got his seat - score! - next to an au pair with two screaming smelly six month old twins - less good. Arrived at my hostel at 03.30 to (obviously) find the door locked and nobody at reception... but knocking (banging) on the door for long enough woke the owner up and she let me in. Then I went to sleep.

Brazil

From Foz do Iguacu (via an unplanned day in Sao Paulo) it was off to Paraty. I arrived on the last day of the Festival da Pinga de Paraty (which turned out to be a rum festival, rather than a penguin party...) Fifteen somber guitars were followed bt a geriatric in a nice orange number accomanied by white leggins danced around the stage for a couple of hours, quite bizarre, but helped by the caipirinhas...

Next stop Rio de Janeiro... although somehow not quite right to arrive in Rio inside a very rainy grey cloud; Pao de Acucar was totally invisible from only a hundred metres away, and Copacobana beach was empty! Soon found out that there is plenty to do in rainy Rio, and explored the streets of Copacobana, bars of Ipanema and samba clubs of Lapa. Also learned that posh business men can disrupt last-night-in-Rio plans, and hire out the entire Pao de Acucar!

On my last day in Rio the sun decided to show its face, so ended up doing all the touristy Rio things in a day: Pao de Acucar, Christo Redentor, Santa Teresa, Copacobana... An amazing day =)

Iguazu Falls

Niagra; check. Victoria; check. Iguazu; check. All impressive, all different, and all worth the overnight buses to get to them...

The Iguazu falls are at the border of Argentina and Brazil, and can been viewed from each side. From Brazil there is an impressive panorama of the falls which cascade over the edge of Argentina as far as the eye can see... and then from the Brazilian you get up close (very close, and totally drenched in a speed boat) to the cataratas...

Buenos Aires

So, everyone raves about BA (of the Argentinian variety rather than the flying sort), so I went to find out for myslef... Everything about BA is big: the parrillas, wine glasses, sixteen lane roads, architecture, cemetry, football, tango, shops, rain, parks and more; oh, and the bus station has 175 platforms. So basically there is something (and a lot of it) for everyone. The city also seems to exist in its own time zone: dinner at 22.00, go out after midnight, and return home after dawn... all good =) Recoleta was unexpectedly ornate, La Boca colourful (despite the rain), the tango mind boggling, and the architecture just impressive.

While I was there also popped across to Uragauy for the day. Ferry (worthy of cruise liner status, unlike the one to Zanzibar) across the water, and then a day wandering the quaint streets of Colonia de Sacramento...

The Little Prince

I ventured out to the Valdes Peninsular in the hope of seeing a whale; or maybe two. With personal assurance that there would be whales at this time of year, I risked the extra two overnight buses, and it was totally worth it! The Southern Rights came within about 10m of the beach, and later on they were right up agains the boat. At any time could see three or four whales, and knew where another dozen or so were submereged just below the surface... On the boat for just over an hour, but could have stayed there all day watching the whales splash and play in the ocean.

Next was a beach (supposed to be) covered in elefante seals... but there were only about a dozen of the huge things. Far more interesting were the handful of dolphins leaping in the river eastury. On the drive back, passed Isla de los Pájaros, which supposedly inspired the first image in "The Little Prince".

*s*n*o*w*

Fair enough, it snows in Patagonia and the tops of the Andes, but not in Santiago! It didn´t stop snowing all night, and by the morning the city and Andes were totally white... and all the passes through the Andes were closed.

That meant a 1000km trip south to Orsorno, but it turned out alright in the end... The Lake District scenery crossing the Andes to Bariloche was awesome - snow drifts twice the height of the double decker bus, forests, lakes, rocky mountains and an amazing sunrise after a very long overnight bus...

Too much snow closed the lifts at Catedral, an ironic start to a day of skiing in Bariloche, but a couple of hours later it was all go with knee deep powder after the metre of fresh snow overnight...

Atacama Desert

First stop San Pedro de Atacama. Almost set a record for the worst sunrise and sunset seen in one day, but the latter turned out alright in the end. After a 03.45 start, and two hours of horrendous road to El Tatio Gysers it got light, no sunrise, just gradually got a bit lighter. As a result the gysers didn´t get very excited, and thus remained bubbling puddles of sulphuric water with the odd spurt of steam to liven things up. Next stop was the hotsprings (read very small stream with tepid water and lots of mud), and then to a small village with four residents, eleven houses and a church. The journey back was interrupted only by numerous photo stops for cactus (singluar), llama (singular), and motion sickness (plural). Trekked up to moon valley for sunset, which looked to be a total anticlimax, but just as the sun hit the horizon the sky lit up in some pretty amazing colours.

Two days of driving through the Atacama followed. Scenery is amazing. Rock, sand, mountains and absolutely nothing alive (or dead). Total nothingness. Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, a random statue of a massive hand emerging from the ground and lots, lots, lots more nothingness.

Next stop Pan de Azucar. Love it. No people. No houses. No traffic. Nothing. Just big rocks, waves and untouched beach. Spent the afternoon sitting out on a big rock (until I almost got stranded and waded back in to the beach), searching for shells, and wandering along the beach. Clear turquoise water crashing over the rocks and amazing sunset over the Pacific. Next morning went out on a boat to Isla de Azucar to see sealions and (a handful of) the three million strong colony of penguins.

Spent a couple of days in La Serena; half beach resort, half colonial old town. No prizes for working out which half was preferable. After an early morning dip in the ice cold Pacific, it was time to head inland to Vicuña and a Pisco distillery. Spent the night at an observatory looking through a massive telescope in an attmept to see more than just the increasingly familiar Southern Cross.

From there it was time to head all the way down to Santiago and work out where to go next......