The World is my Travelogue

Yeah Yeah I havn’t posted for ages, so sue me!!

The posts are looking a tad boring without pictures so here ya go, a post full of pics from the places we visited in Argentina!

We visited both the Argentine & Brazilian side of the falls on consecutive days. The 2 hours spent at the Brazilian side was our first glimpse of the falls, the Brazilian side gives you an awesome panoramic view of the falls, although I don’t think I would’ve wanted to stay for too much longer on this side. The next day we spent the whole day at the Argentine side of the falls and could have easily spent another half a day there, there are so many trails to walk – both under and over the waterfalls it is truly amazing!

Well like I said I can even begin to describe how amazing the Igauzu falls are, photos don’t do them justice. So here’s the next best thing to being there;

One of our videos of the Iguazu Falls - this isn’t all of the falls either!!

(I was trying to embed the video into the post but it seems you can’t do that with photobucket and i’m too lazy to upload it to youtube at the moment.)

Add this to you list of must see places!!

 After around 17 hours on a bus we made it to Puerto Iguazu, a much welcomed changed from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires.

Whilst I imagine that Puerto Iguazu is not quiet as sleepy during peak season I’m glad we made it there when we did. Hardly any tourists meant that we could have our pick of accommodation and that prices were pretty reasonable.  And we had amazing weather around 30degrees Celsius the whole time we were there – I would highly recommend going in September to anyone! 

We arrived around 11am so headed straight across the road from the bus station to the ‘tourist office’ and said they spoke English on their sign, I was weary that it would proberly be a tourist trap but pretty much just went there to find directions to the hostel we had decided to look at, which consequently didn’t look very nice so we went back to the info centre where ‘hans’ (We decided to name him this, can’t remember his name – although he did become our friendly face around town for the duration of our stay) had told us earlier that he knew of a place that was bigger and newer that would be the same price as the hostel we were thinking of staying at. 

We ended us going to this place he had recommended and were pleasantly surprised, for $100AP over 3 nights – for 4 nights you could have got it for $90AP per night, we got a kind of apartment with a double and single bed in one room with tv with cable and aircon then in the other room was a set of bunks, fridge and table and chairs with our own balcony and bathroom with shower, I think breakfast is included too but we were up pretty early everyday and didn’t know where it was served so didn’t bother.

Once we had settled in to our apartment and eaten we decided to take the walk to ‘Tres Fronteras’, which is pretty much the argentine lookout where you can see the rivers that separate Argentina from Brazil & Paraguay. There were a few people down here trying to sell there ‘wares’ to foreigners, or kids asking for some of our coca cola, but nothing too imposing or threatening. I think they are doing up a café down there as well but it wasn’t open when we were there, maybe it’s a seasonal thing as we only saw 1 other couple when we were there and a couple of families heading down there on our walk home.

The shopping hours in Puerto Iguazu really threw me coming from Buenos Aires but I began to really like it once I had figured it out! They open around 9am in the morning then close around 1pm and reopen at 4-5pm closing again around 8-10pm. I guess what’s the point of being open in the middle of the day when there is no one around to buy anything? And it proberly getting unbearably hot there in the summer I imagine too.

From the bus station you can get a return trip to the Cataratas – or waterfalls for $10AP which seemed to leave approx every half an hour from both the bus station and returning from the falls.

I honestly couldn’t even begin to describe the Iguazu Falls!!!! – I will attempt to in the next post though.  

Well a few weeks later and I am finally starting to write up the first of around 5-6 blog posts about our three weeks in Argentina!

I know I wrote on the boards I was going to do all the posts this week but its Friday now so I’m thinking this is most likely going to be the only post going up this week

So as you can see by the title this post is obviously going to be a general one about Buenos Aires, we spent a week here in an apartment in Recoleta and then 2 days a hotel in Palermo.

We looked around the Recoleta Cemetery on our first day – it is nothing like the cemeteries back at home! They are kind of like tombs and its like a small village there are so many of them! Some of the statues around the Cemetery are amazing and would have taken so much work to make them! Some of the ‘tombs’ you could see inside them and see coffins which was kind of eerie. The cemetery is free to enter and is open until 6pm at night and would be my number one must see in Buenos Aires.

Downtown – I don’t even know where to begin! If your from a place with not many people you will proberly have the same reaction as us – get the hell out of there! So many people everywhere, people attempting to sell you anything and everything, none of them seemed to be things that anyone would ever need either! Either way make sure you at least check out the Obelisk, Florida Street & Galleria Pacifica – sorry if I spelt anything wrong I don’t have all our memento’s with me to confirm the spelling of anything!

If you get sick and tired of downtown make your way to Plaza Mayo which is located right in front of the Parliament house – the pink house! Its nice and quiet here compared to downtown and there’s plenty to look at. First just have a rest in Plaza Mayo then take a look at the parliament house, then there’s a church that looks like a Greek coliseum.

From Plaza Mayo it’s not far to Puerto Madero, although I would recommend splitting these trips up into a couple of days. At Puerto Madero just wander slowly along the first couple of docks, actually I think they are the 3^rd and 4^th on the map – they are the ones closest to the Buquebus Terminal or the opposite end to the Casino (One of those should be on your map!) Take your pick from any of the places to have a drink and or lunch. Then make your way to the ecological reserve and have a wander around before heading back to your accommodation.

On one of our last days in Buenos Aires on our first week we decided to take the Buenos Aires Bus Tour which was $25 peso per person but has a duration of 24 hours and you can get on and off the bus as many times as you like in that 24 hours. If you don’t have a lot of time in Buenos Aires I would definitely recommend this as it goes to all the major tourist highlights such as the ones I’ve already mentioned as well as San Telmo & La Boca, buses run past each stop approx every 30 minutes so you can get off at a stop and have a look around then get back on the next bus. The whole trip if you don’t get off takes approx 2 hours & 45 minutes!

Whew I think this is long enough for now!

Lame Header I know but too bad, write your own post if you want it to be better!!

Crapola only 7 1/2 days till we head off to Argentina! So the past few months have consisted of getting the little bits and pieces that we need ready as well as researching some of the things we may want to do and places we want to go, getting our immunisations & almost having a heart attack at the doctors bill!

So pretty much this is the plan;

27/8/09 Wanganui > Auckland > Santiago > Buenos Aires all up including waiting time at the airports this trip will take just over 25hours, ouch! Considering a long trip to us is the 3 hour flight over to OZ!

We have an apartment booked through Reynolds Propiedades for the first week in Buenos Aires, heres hoping they are a good company & the apartment is located where they say it is & actually looks something like the pictures!

The plan is to lax out in Buenos Aires with day trips to Tigre & Colonia in Uruguay over the first week, hopefully taking one of the free walking tours that I have heard are pretty good.

Next we take on the overnight buse which sound like pure hell, however I have been told that the argentinean buses are pretty darn good so we shall see - this will take us to Iguazu where we will make trips to the Iguazu Falls, hopefully both the Argentinean & Brazilian Sides, some Jetsuit ruins, possibly the Wanda mines & also to the Itaipu Dam.

Then the plan is to either spend a couple of days in lower Brazil, head to Rosario or perhaps check out the Ibera Marshes? We will decide when we get there.

Mar Del Plata will be our next stop to spend a few days just relaxing, checking out the Formula one museum & who knows what else before we head back to Buenos Aires ready to take our flight home on the 18/8/09, arriving back in Auckland at 4.00AM in the morning on the 20/08/09.

Are you excited for us yet? I don’t really care cas I am!!!

The next post should be from Argentina, unless I get lazy & just update when we get back, which is quiet likely!

Now for a picture since its gets a bit boring looking @ blogs without them, taken from google, link under pic.

http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:dx9749wHfuCvGM:http://www.journalism.ku.edu/academics/buenos-aires.jpg

Well we now have just under 4 months until we head out on our 13ish hour flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina!!

 This may seem like a long time but considering I am finishing up my degree, have to organise what we are doing, attend some motor racing, learn some spanish etc it isn’t really all that long!

So far we are thinking of staying in Buenos Aires for 7 nights (Possibly renting an apartment, I have found a few for around $200USD for the week - so need to look into what kind of areas these are in and if they are ‘to good to be true’ or not.) While we are here we are thinking of doing a 1 day trip to Colonia de Sacremento in Uruguay, and possibly to El Tigre, although I havn’t looked into whether or not this can be done in a day easily.

We are then thinking of taking the overnight bus to Peurto Iguazu (I Spell that wrong everytime btw!), and staying there for 4-5 nights - from here we want at least 1 full day exploring the waterfalls, a day to head out to the Itaipu Dam & a day for the Jesuit Ruins - the rest of the time we will just relax or use as another day to check out the waterfalls - this is partly in case we get bad weather as I would hate to not be able to explore properly then have to leave the next day!

We are then thinking of heading to Rosario for 3-4 days - although we might skip this out we are not sure yet - need to do some more research! 

Next we will head out to Mar Del Plata for 3-4 days - 1 day will be taken up going to the Formula 1 museum (We can’t go on a trip without attending something motorsport related!) and the other couple just exploring what is on offer as we prefer smaller places to huge cities.

Then we will make our way back to Buenos Aires for a couple of days before our flight home.

So there we go, a sort of itinerary - I need to do some more research, but at the same time I don’t want to try and plan everything, need to leave somethings unplanned and just see what happens when we get there!

I’m still not sure about the money situation regarding Argentinean Peso’s vs United States Dollars. I think we will take a little bit of each but lean more towards having more Peso than Dollars due to the exchange rate and perhaps we would get a better deal paying in the local currency? But once again I need to do some research and have a chat with people that live there and find out which would be better in the long run.

Thats it from me… 3 months 3 weeks and counting! 

So its official now! I have purchase tickets to Argentina this August/September for 3 weeks!!!!

This will be the first time I have been out of the Country other than to Australia so I am Super Excited!! Now we just have to get onto the planning and deciding exactly what we want to see and where we want to go! I wish we were able to spend longer and explore more of South America especially when the tickets were so cheap!! If your from NZ if you get in before the 30 April 2009 you can get flights for $913NZD Return from Auckland > Buenos Aires & around the same price to Santiago & Rio de Janerio as well, what a bargain!!

The next couple of posts are likely to be about the planning & preparation for this trip. This will be my present to myself for completing my degree (June 2009). :):)

I did a 1 day Great Ocean Road Tour with Bunyip who have buses that seat approx 24 people departing around 7.30am and arriving back at your accomodations between 8-9pm with a stop for dinner (at your expense) and a number of stops along the way - they also provide you with everything you need to make a sandwhich or 2 for your lunch. The tour cost $95AUD for the whole day.

The first stop was at Bells beach - a world reknowned surfing beach - just up the road before you turn into the carpark have a look out the side of the bus where there are trees and grass and see if you can spot any wild kangaroo’s!! Our driver spotted some here and pulled over for us to get out and look!

Our bus also pulled over at another small settlement where we got out for a short while and saw Koalas in the wild as well as cockatoos & other birds.

Once we got to the 12 Apostles we learned that there are actually only 11 as 1 fell down a few years back and you can only actually see 7 from the viewing point or the road.

From here you can take 10minute scenic flights around the apostles for approx $60AUD. I didn’t do the flight but I imagine it would be pretty amazing!

A word of warning, there are no shops/cafe’s or anything at the National Park!! Although there are toilets!

Down the road from the 12 apostles is the London Bridge - it got its name because it used to be joined to the land and had another hole in it making it look like the London Bridge, not that many years ago it collapsed and two people were stranded out on the part you see in the photo - they had to be airlifted off! Luckily noone was injured during the collapse.

After Brisbane I flew to Melbourne for 4 days, the weather was pretty average a lot of the time but I still really enjoyed Melbourne and would love to go back again!

Melbourne seems like an amazing city, it is quiet spread out although there are ALOT of people if you aren’t used to big cities. I did feel safe the whole time I was there (Solo Female) and would love to go back to explore for longer.

Flinders Street Station must be seen - it is an amazing old building even if the colour is quiet discusting!

There are plenty of places to wander around in Melbourne and the City Circle Tram & the City Tourist Bus’s make it unnecessary to pay for any public transport other than from the airport to the city centre and if you want to head out to St Kilda (Reccomended although I only quickly went on the tram and never got off as it was pouring down with rain - this would be a must see for next time I go back).

If you have any questions feel free to PM me. You can find me on the TPunk Boards! 

Check out these pics from my 4 days in Melbourne…

Then check out my day on the Great Ocean Road…

Well I have been incredibly lazy and not updated this blog in ages! And I have had a trip since I last updated so there are no excuses! So here we go a post about Brisbane, Australia.

I lived in Brisbane for a while when I was a baby so I don’t remember it but I did feel compelled to visit there for this reason. And since I missed out on seeing Brissy when we went to OZ last year it had to be done this time round.

I got the train from Gold Coast (Helensvale) to Brisbane - which cost me $8.80 -Bargain for nearly an hours ride, considering it cost me something like $14 to get to the airport from Central Station which took like 15 minutes!

If you are staying somewhere in town I reccomend making sure you get off at Central station rather than Roma street where a lot of other people get off as it seems to be closer to the center of town.

Brisbane CBD is really easy to get around and I never used Public Transport or any form of transport other than my legs except for a ride on the City Cat which was pretty cheap and the bus trip up to Mt Cootha. (Which I did on the same day so got a daily pass $6-7 for Zone 1 and got my bus ride and trips on the city cat inclusive).

Instead of taking a river cruise I reccomend getting a day pass for the City Cat $6-7 which means you can jump on and off as often as you like, this takes you from the CBD to the University and everywhere in between and heading in the other direction it takes you all the way down to Apollo Road. Its nice being able just to sit back and relax rather than walking around and for this price you can sit on it all day if you really feel like it.

I mentioned that I went up to Mt-Cootha - definately recommended although the weather was not good when I went I imagine it would be pretty spectacular on a nice day or at night time! You can get a bus out here from Adelaide Street (Stop 40)-Bus number 471 will get you there, it also stops at the Botanic Gardens at the bottom of Mt-Cootha if you are interested in them.

Another must do in Brisbane is wander along Southbank - from the CBD just walk towards the river and over the bridge then hang a left once you get over the bridge. I walked around here both when It was incredibly busy on a saturday afternoon and also on a monday morning when there was hardly anyone around, its lovely to have a walk around and take some photos when there is hardly anyone there and then stop and have some pancakes at one of the cafe’s for breakfast. Make sure you look all around not just at the man made beaches?, try and find the Nepalese peace pagoda - having never seen anything like it before it was awesome to see and it is set in the trees so it is truley peaceful!

The Brisbane CBD is great to walk around and even at night I felt comfortable enough sticking to the main pedestrian street (Queen Street)- there are two internet cafe’s along here that are open 24hours one on the right hand side and one on the left both down the river end of Queen Street. When you are facing the river the one on the RHS is the cheapest but doesnt have as many computers so fills up quickly.

I was also surprised at the price of going to the Movies in Brisbane, I think it was about $12 for an adult which is pretty reasonable, considering going in a bigger city in NZ will cost you at least $15.

I stayed at the Base Hotel Embassy in an 8Bed Female Dorm - this was my first ever stay in dorms, to be honest I thought it was a bit dirty the floors needed a decent vaccum and there was talk that a couple of people had been bitten by bed bugs in one of the other rooms. Other than that the staff were friendly there was internet and it was in possibly the best location as it was quiet enough but right in the center of town.

All in all I think you need at least 2 full days to give Brisbane a good look around, although i’m sure others will tell you to take longer - if your in a rush 2 days is plenty. Spend a day at Mt-Cootha/Riding the City Cat (Stopping along the way to save your legs). Spend another day wandering around Southbank and the CBD.

Then head to Melbourne…!