A Zoo with a Difference

Despite being in Buenos Aires (or BA as its known to the hip young travellers on the scene) for 2 days, we haven't actually seen much of the city yet.

After deciding to live a little crazily and dip into the "black market" to exchange some US$ for Argentine Pesos with a little lady on the third floor of our hostel, we took a day trip to a zoo about an hour out of the city. 

The trip began with us, and our Israeli roommate, trying to find the underground bus station not far from our hostel. Once we got there we started getting hassled by a local shouting in Spanish at us. Luckily there were some nice Brazilian people who were able to speak Spanish and English so translated his words for us as well as warn us about accepting advice off strangers. We were told there were no buses leaving from the station for another 2 hours. The local man continued to talk Spanish at us and point at maps. Although we finally got rid of him, we still decided to take his advice and go to a nearby park to see if we could get another bus. It turns out he was in fact trying to help us, and we did catch a bus to the zoo.

Lujan zoo was quite a strange place. We were dropped off at the end of a dirt track where there a women was waiting to sell us tickets. Once we got inside, it didn't really seem like a zoo, it felt more like a petting zoo for farm yard animals. There were geese, ducks and dogs everywhere. And then, just around a corner was an enclosure with tigers. We queued up, watching each person step into the confined space with this normally  dangerous animal. And then it was our turn. The tiger was on a bench and we were directed behind it for pictures. We went through the same process with a number of animals, including white tigers, lions, cubs, elephants and a brown bear. It was a pretty surreal experience getting that close to these sort of animals. We were convinced that they must be drugged until we me an American lady who had been going there for 10 years with animal rights people and ensured us it was all legit.

Our evening was spent at the hostel enjoying a communal BBQ. Here we met plenty of people, including a lot of Israelis and two Canadians, and spent the evening eating various meat (not Emily, who had numerous grilled vegetables), eggy potato salad and bread. Emily also managed to consume a bottle of white wine to compliment her veg. 

Argentina

On monday we went to the Argentinian side of the falls which was a more close up look at the waterfalls. It was so humid it was exhausting walking around. We had a 1km walk to the top of the falls, but it was definitely worth it. The water was so powerful there aren't really words to describe it.

We went on a shorter walk to see other smaller waterfalls which was nice. We saw a few more racoon bears which are actually called coatis.

We had a simple dinner of pizza and salad and chilled out by the pool.

We were booked onto a 7pm bus journey to buenos aires the next day. So spent the day walking around the town of Foz Do Iguaçu. The bus journey was quite enjoyable as the served food and champagne. The seats reclined into beds and they gave us blankets and pillows.

We've just arrived in Buenos Aires and are going to explore :-)

Iguaçu falls

We survived the night without being eaten by cockroaches. The hostel serve beans, sausages and scrambled egg for breakfast along with fruit and cake, which we've realised is what everyone eats for breakfast here.
We found the bus stop to the falls which took what seemed like forever as it was full of sweaty tourists, but was more like 20 minutes.
The falls were massively impressive and were worth last nights horrendous events. Our lunch bag got attacked by a racoon bear (I don't know what its actually called!) Which added some excitement to the walk around the falls. We walked out onto a viewing platform and up a viewing tower for even better views.
The hostel even has a boxer puppy who is really cute but also teething which isn't so cute!
Tomorrow we're going to cross the border and see it from the Argentinian side!

Curitiba and cockroaches

We spent a day in curitiba, which is a uni city with not a huge amount there. The hostel we stayed at, knock knock hostel, was amazing. Definitely the best we've stayed in so far. The rooms were spacious,  clean and they put fluffy blankets on the beds. They also had sky and dvds for us to watch which was nice. Its the only hostel I've been sad to leave so far.
We ate lunch at a burger place called Madero, which Lonley Planet recommended. The food was so tasty and we managed to sit out in the sun which was lovely.

Today has been horrendous. We left the hostel at 9 to get to the bus station. We booked onto a 10 o clock train to go to Foz Do Iguaçu which was supposed to get in at 9pm which was a long journey but it wasnt too bad. We arrived at Iguaçu at 9.40 and tried to withdraw some cash for a taxi as the buses had stopped. The atm wouldn't accept our cards. The map in the lonely planet guide showed it was only 700m or so, so we decided to walk with all our luggage in the humid night. Oh and it was thunder and lightning too. We set off and got to some cross roads where none of the street names were on our map. A man on a motorbike pulled up and pointed us in the right direction. As much as we had learnt about stranger danger, we weren't in a position to turn away help. We carried on walking getting further and further away from the bus station. Eventually we saw more and more shops and we were hopeful the end was in sight. Just as we were getting positive about our late night hike, a Portuguese local started asking us where we were going and if we needed any help. We told him we had a hostel booked and didnt need help, but he strode off insisting we follow. It was apparent he didnt speak english. He was going the same way as us so we didnt have alot of choice. We walked for so many blocks until we came to a hotel where he got an English receptionist to ask us to pay him 10 to take us to our hostel. We explained our situation and left as quickly as possible. After over an hour of walking we found the hostel and checked in. It was looking great with a pool, bar and cooked breakfast. When I saw a cockroach in the shower I just wanted to get on a plane home. 14 hours travelling in the heat was not fun. One bit. Luckily we have a 20 hour bus journey on Tueaday. Yay...

São Paulo

Today we went on a free walking tour around the city centre and saw all the important buildings like city hall, the cathedral and other landmarks. It was pretty fun, but really hot. There were loads of people selling stuff on the streets like headphones and staplers...very random!  Sâo Paulo is ridiculously big. We went up a building to the 41st floor and all you could see was high rise buildings for miles and miles! Its the biggest city in the southern hemisphere and has a population of about 30 million (I think!)

The hostel we're staying in is pretty fun,  although we had to move rooms as the first room we were in we shared with 4 english boys who had been there a week. When we got back this afternoon it was being fumigated because it smelt so bad. The hostel also has a little dog called Gringo, he's pretty cute! 

Tomorrow we have another 6 hour bus journey to Curitiba. Luckily we've kind of sussed out the metro system and know how to get there :-)

Boating fun

We spent yesterday on a boat trip seeing all the local beaches and swimming in the sea which was actually pretty warm! It was five hours long and so relaxing. Definitely worth doing! 
There was torrential rain in the evening almost flooding the hostel,  but luckily it stopped in time for us to all cook our dinners (the kitchen was outside!) And chill out before our next bus journey which was today to Sâo Paulo. Buses are pretty cheap here, it cost us £12ish for a 6 hour bus ride. We were expecting something like a wilts and dorset treat, but it was a great coach with reclining seats and foot rests! Very fancy!

We had the best pizza for dinner and can see why são paulo is famous for it! Now for an evening of chilling out at the bar :-)

Paraty

After spending 5/6 hours on a bus along the coast,  we arrived in Paraty in tropical rain. We checked into the hostel where we're staying in a 20 bed dorm with only one fan. It didnt look too great last night. Especially after a wet walk into the centre to find a tiny supermarket. We had a pasta dinner and went to bed. It felt like the next two days were going to drag considering it was supposed to rain all the days.
However, I woke up feeling positive as we ate our breakfast on the beach. After a midday wander through the town, it all seemed alot better. The streets have the biggest cobbles and the town is filled with little tourist shops, boutiques and restaurants.
We had a chilled afternoon researching where to stay in sao paulo. Having dinner out was so nice after a week of plain pasta. We found a restaurant with live music and a good atmosphere. The Brazillian duo played Elvis, Bob Marley and Jason Mraz. The food tasted amazing. At night Paraty looks even better with tables filling the lit up streets and music coming  out restaurants.
Tomorrow we're going on a boat trip to snorkel and swim :-)