Author: Colin Clark
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The Argentine Experience
One thing we were both really keen on doing whilst we were in Buenos Aires was to get our hands dirty with some Argentine cooking. Francesca had found a great, relatively new experience, called, somewhat appropriately, The Argentine Experience. On 29th July, we got dressed up and decided to jump in a cab from our…
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The Port City: Part 1
Portenos are, in Spanish, people who are from or who live in a port city. The residents of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires have been calling themselves portenos since the end of the 19th Century. It is often said that these portenos are arrogant, and abrasive; distinguishing themselves from everybody else as they live ‘in…
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Mesopotamia: The Land Between Rivers
We arrived by boat to Argentina on the 19th July, crossing the Rio Uruguay by passenger ferry in the afternoon. We had been stamped out of Uruguay by an unconcerned official, and we were seen off by the perpetually annoying stray dogs that were simply everywhere you turned in Uruguay. A 40 minute boat trip…
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Colonia
After a four hour bus journey on the 10th July we reached Colonia del Sacramento on the Rio de la Plata (translated into English as River Plate, but incorrectly – it is more correct to say Silver River – named after the abundance of fish). This place was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 to…
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The Southernmost Capital
Our third couch surfing experience together was in Montevideo on July 6th 2013, a capital city whose name had inspired me to travel in the first place. Knowing nothing of the city, I always knew I must go there and find out what it was like, so Montevideo is in part what inspired me to…
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Brazil’s New Capital
Our bus journey to Porto Alegre was marked, disappointingly, by a fat man sitting in front of us who not only reclined both chairs to their fullest position, but was also being very spiteful. We think he had sat in our space when he bought a ticket at the bus itself. However, they issued him…
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Water Water Everywhere
We arrived in Foz do Iguaçu on the 6th June after a very long 2 bus journeys from Bonito via Dourados. Our second bus broke down on the way, so the whole thing took longer than expected – almost a whole 24 hours! Still, a lot cheaper than flying, so it is still worth going…
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Manaus: Paris Of The Tropics
Manaus is another rubber-boom town, much the same as Belem, but it is the state capital of Amazonas; the largest state in Brazil. Bordering Venezuela, Columbia and Peru, Amazonas holds within it a large majority of the Amazon basin, and the river Amazon itself. Named by the Spanish adventurer/conquistador Francisco de Orellana in 1541 after…
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Juma Reserve / Iguana Tours
After a short flight from Santarem to Manaus we arrived in the morning of the 4th May to be picked up from the airport. We had arranged a jungle tour with Iguana Turismo which included airport pickup to our hotel, transport to a jungle lodge, and all activities and food thrown in. A driver was…
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The Jungle
We arrived at the smallest airport I have ever been to on the morning of the 26th April 2013. The weather had been reported to be pretty bad at this time (rainy season in the Amazon region is from December to June), and we expected the worst. There were clouds, dark, and thunderous – some…