Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Mexico City D.F ...More than I expected...Teotihuacan...Pre Aztec City...

Bellas ArtesWe arrived in Mexico City, D.F at 11 am...We flew Mexicana de Aviacion, which turned out to be a nice airline, with its service and punctuality. We found a hotel at one of the airport booths, took a prepaid taxi to the downtown and started our adventure in Mexico City. We paid 165 Pesos for the taxi, which seemed a lot cheaper than other countries to us. The hotel was a little gloomy, dark and cold, but we decided to spend just the night there and find another hotel for the following days. Our hotel was conveniently located close to Zocalo which is the main square of Mexico City and there were lots of five star hotels around our hotel. After relaxing a little bit, we took a walk outside and the first impression we got was how green and neat the city was...The American restaurant chains, Starbucks, fast food places and the ZocaloMexican Spanish looked very American to me, which gave me some feeling of convenience after all...We walked on the main street to Zocalo, saw the impressive Fine Arts Palace, Post Office, Casa de Azulejos (The Tiled Pavillion), the Cathedral and huge Zocalo Square. I had imagined Zocalo like Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain somehow, but Zocalo is huge and there is traffic around its edges. There are government buildings and shops surrounding the square and is a little park in the middle of it, as well as a temporary Nomad Exhibition. The weather was not hot, it was pretty nice, like 20-22 C but I had worn my shorts. I drew attention to the fact that the Mexican men were looking at my legs and throwing me "piropos", like sweet, unharmful words...Tiled PalaceThis was never happened in other parts of our trip, so I thought Mexico was one of the most conservative, almost the most conservative country among the others...The people's appearance was very much like Turkish people, with a little barriga(balcony, belly), bigote(moustache), rather dark skin complexion and medium built body size...I hardly saw any ladies wearing mini skirts, as opposed to Brasil or Argentina...However, it felt like home after all...

After getting a little orientation,we decided to eat inside the Tiled Pavillion and enjoyed the setting of the restaurant Sanbourne, which is a chain of restaurants. I had some fajitas which were very delicious. Statue in Mexico CityI paid about 100 pesos for a huge plate and coke,which seemed to be a more reasonable country than Brasil or Chile. Later we walked around the area, saw the Templo Mayor, which was an Aztec Sanctuary. The cafes and shops looked very cozy, the streets looked very clean and neat...I think for a huge metropolis like Mexico City D.F (distrito federal, pop.25 million greater Mexico City), the maintenance was noteworthy. I had always imagined Mexico City to be dirty, chaotic, messy and grey, though it was not what I encountered! After the first walk around the city, we walked back from the street leading to our hotel, had a delicious Starbucks Caramelatte and headed back home. My new friends in Mexico CityIn the evening, I went out to look for an internet cafe and saw the real Mexican people selling street food for 15 pesos, which were all to die for!!! Fajitas, burritos, delicious....Hmmm...After receiving a few more "piropos"(see above), decided to find an internet cafe. At 7 pm, the sun was down already, most of the places were shut and even the prostitutes were hanging around the streets. I asked one lady standing on the corner about the internet cafe and thanks to her, I found it. (it was impossible to find the place without a good direction). They usually charge 1 USD(10 pesos) for an hour and the connection speed is pleasant. The TV in the room was funny, it did not have buttons and we could only get 5 channels, which were all Mexican Soap Channels.(telenovelas). We decided to crash as we were very tired after our long flight from Rio...We had found another hotel (Hotel Lafayette) for the other nights and were going to move there the next day...

The next day, we dropped our stuff at the new hotel and bought a city tour of Mexico City with Turibus Company at a cost of 100 pesos(10 USD). They have a double decker bus and multi language guided headphone tour. We saw almost all the parts of Mexico City,the area where only the international businesses Sushi feastare, the art nouveau district, where the ritzy live, the residential parts, the area where the embassies are located...All in one was a very good idea...After the tour finished, we could continue with the same bus towards the south, which is outside the city to see the rest of this metropolis. We had an hour, so we had a delicious street fajita for 20 pesos with the drink and had a gelato as the topping. I also had some sushi! The bus came and we saw the rest of the city, in 3 hours. In the evening, we enjoyed the cable TV and more central location...

The following day, we decided to go to Teotihuacan but while we were enjoying our delicious breakfast at XochimilcoVips, which is another restaurant chain, we missed the bus! The idea was to go and visit Xochimilco, which is famous for its colorful tiny boats and slow pace boat rides with the mariachis. Most of the tour groups have their lunches on the boat, but we took a 40 min tour, just to have an idea. To get to Xochimilco, we took the metro until the last station and took the light metro (tren ligero) to get to Embarcadero, which is the last station to get to Xochimilco. MariachisWe haggled the price and have a quiet ride, until the mariachis insisted on playing our favorite songs. We gave them 2o pesos and had pictures instead!!! To me, they looked like Romans, the musician gypsies in Turkey. It was quite enjoyable. The rest of the day, we went to Frida Kahlo's museum and walked around the more artistic districts. Frida's MuseumNearby the museum of Frida, we saw a mall to have a nice late lunch and had spicy fajitas to die for!!! The food is sooo good here! After having some coffee and looking around, we went to TAPO, which is the huge bus terminal of Mexico City to purchase our ticket to San Cristobal de Las Casas. We paid 800 pesos (80 USD!!!) for a silly bus, as this is the general price level for bus travels in Mexico. Later, we spent the night quietly, watching TV.


Next day was Teotihuacan. We bought a trip from Turibus to Teotihuacan for 450 pesos(45 USD) for a full day tour. Our guide was a Mayan descendant young girl. She first took us to the Sanctuary of Mary of Guadalupe, which is a very important shrine for the Mexicans and all the Christians. Later we arrived in Teotihuacan. It is a 1 hour 30 minute-drive from Mexico City. The most impressive building of the site was the huge Temple of Sun, with its 70 m.(210 ft) height. There is also a Temple of Moon, several masks that one can see, the areas where they sacrificed people and animals, the towers where they observed the planets...The site was small, but our guide said the population was about 200,000 people!Teotihuacan, Temple of Sun It was an insane number for such a small area. The temple was constructed by Pre Aztec people, but nothing is known how and when it was constructed. The architecture was impressive and the size was spectacular. Later, we had a regular buffet lunch and came back to the city at about 4:30 pm. Our bus was at 8:30 pm, so after spending some time around, we took the bus. The bus was not very comfortable, was definitely not like the other buses we took but we arrived in the destination. The city we arrived was the base of the Zapatistas!


Next chapter> San Cristobal de las Casas

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Salvador: The city of a beatiful blend of the people...Rio de Janeiro:The vibrant,energetic and rich face of Brazil

Barra,SalvadorOur flight to Salvador was at 1:30 am! Gero had taken us to the airport quite early, so quietly waited for the flight time. It was our 3rd TAM flight, actually we did not have much expectations from TAM Air but it resulted to be an excellent airline. The flight left right on time for Salvador via Rio de Janeiro. We had purchased a Brazilian TAM Airpass which allowed us to fly 4 flights for only 560 USD, with all the taxes included! There are two hours difference between Sao Paulo and Manaus, so we changed our time, however very interestingly Salvador was 3 hours back of Manaus, even though it was on the more east then west!!! We arrived in Salvador and headed to our hotel, Ibis Rio Vermelho on a taxi cab. Our hotel was just on the beachfront, Peluorinho Old City, Salvadorby Rio Vermelho district and it was on promotion. We loved our hotel, took some rest after the long flight, took our stuff to the laundry and walked around...We had 3 days in Salvador, so we took it easy. The next day, we bought a city bus tour to the historic center of Pelurinho, the areas of Barra, the lighthouse, Mercado Modelo, the elevator, Bomfim Church Area and the greater Salvador. It was very beautiful, especially the Afro-Brasilian people and the Mercado Area were just cheerful. The lady who did my hairThe tour made a stop before the Bomfim church for the best ice cream in town, so after I fueled up with a great chocolate ice cream, I was able to catch the great sunset from the top of the elevator, overlooking the bay of Bahia. I had some trocitos to my hair, though it is quite short, she did quite a good job. I took a colectivo back home to the hotel. The city is full of young vibrant people, the bars and cafes are just full,Mercado Modelo fresh tropical fruit juices are available everywhere, people are of a great mix, ladies have big butts but they don´t care about what they wear, everybody wear flip flops etc...They have a nice music culture too, due to the great blend of people...

The next day,we just took it easy, had rest and went to the airport for our flight to Rio de Janeiro. Rio has a population of 11 million people, which 5 million of them live in the city center. Upon arrival to Rio de Janeiro, we took a city bus which took us to the city for only 6,5 Reais...(Real Auto Bus).The ride was quite comfy and it took about Hippi Market at Ipanema1 hour! We had arrived there on a Saturday, so the beachfront was pretty busy. When we arrived in Rio, it took quite ugly, there were lots of meaningless brown buildings, a smell of sewage and signs of poverty everywhere until we reached the real ¨Centro¨ of the city. I realized that the streets were very nice and clean. The city is basically divided into two as centro and the beachfront but they are quite intertwined in the daily life.Centro, Rio de Janeiro The bus dropped us after Copacabana, at Ipanema, which is one of the most beautiful beaches of Rio. We looked for a hotel for some 15 minutes until we see the great hotel of Vermont in front of us! The hotel had cable TV and breakfast for like 65 USD per person...Brazil was the most expensive country during our tour so far, so for some splurge, we paid that much, though the hotel was very pleasantly located which was well worth the money we paid...First thing we did was to eat at the restaurant where the famous song ¨The girl from Ipanema¨ was composed. The food was very good but we could not get the honky ponky fiery sizzling meat like our Italian table neighbors! We took a walk and had our first day in Rio...

Rio from Pao de AcucarThe next day, we thought spending the day on the beach would be a great idea, so we had some good breakfast and went to the beach Posto 9. We got some water, our beach towels, some 10 reais and headed to the beach, as we were continuously warned to be alarmed against the pickpocketers and local gangs. It was soo packed, we rented a parasol(umbrella) and left our tired bodies to the treatment of the sun! However, as the sun was very very generous to us and we were not very careful about the time of the day and sun lotion, we got burnt at the end of the day!!! We got so much burnt that we became all red and had hard time sleeping that Pao de Acucarnight!!! If it´is Rio´s sun, beware!!!! We also went to the Sunday Hippi Market at Ipanema to see the artesanias, rhe handicrafts...

We decided to buy a book for our Central America tour, so we took a local bus to the center. As Lonely Planet suggested, we found the bookshop and bought the book. Then we decided to go to Pao De Acucar (Sugar Loaf) Hill which was 395 mts. high from the city. We waited for bus number 107 on the wrong spot about 15 mins, then we walked to the right spot and went View from Corcovado Hillto the cable car entrance. They charge 35 Reais for the ride to Pao de Acucar and you change the cable cars twice. It was full of American cruise ship passengers who were very excited about being there!!! The view from the top of the hill was spectacular and I understand why this place was that famous...After Pao de Acucar, we came down decided to have a visit to Santa Teresa, which is the artistic and bohemian part of the town. It was pretty colorful and lovely, so we walked down the Santa Teresa Hill. In the evening, we spent the night quietly...

We spent the last day in Rio separately as I decided to climb onto the Christ Redentor, which was chosen as one of the new 7 wonders of the world. I took the bus to the Corcovado, and took the train Christ Redentor at Corcovado Hillto the top of Corcorvado Hill, which has an elevation of 760 mts. I had a picture taken there and took some great pics from the top of the hill...On the way back, I took a local bus back home. We had a flight at 22:30 to Mexico City the very same night, so we spent a little time on the internet and took the Real Auto Bus to the airport for our American Airlines flight to Miami and changed over to Mexicana. However, AA got some delay and we missed our direct flight at 7:00, so they put us to the flight at 8:00 which was flying via Cancun!! It was nice to see Cancun´s airport before Mexico City...We arrived in Mexico City at 11:30, but at least safe and sound...

Rio´s rich houses and favelas on the same frameBrazil was the last country in our trip to South America. As of 13th of February, we were leaving the continent with all the good memories, hard journeys and the beauties in our pockets...I knew that I would always want to come back here, hoped to come back here with my whole heart...

Next chapter: Giant metropolis of Mexico City, DF, mariachis, Corona, tequila, tacos, fajitas, quesadillas, frijoles...Oh, I got excited:))))

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Amazon women conquered Amazonia! Manaus, Jungle, Rain and...

It was so humid and hot when we arrived in Manaus...David took us to the office for us to do the payment to Gero´s Amazon Tours. (www.amazongerotours.com - Gero Mesquita). We paid about 340 USD per person for a 3 day 2 night jungle tour with airport transfers, all the activities,water and meals included. David arranged a hotel for us, just for one night. Parrot in ManausWe had a quiet day, spent most of it in a air conditioned internet cafe, found some buffet lunch place for our lunch and had a quiet evening by doing our little bag for the Amazons. Manaus is the capital of that state, has a population of 2,5 million people but it was a gloomy, ugly and boring city. We were recommended to bring a good insect repellent with deet, a raincoat, s swimsuit in case we wanted to swim in the river,a headlamp or a torch, a water container Rio Solimoes and Rio Negroto get the water from the large water bottles and good walking shoes with good grip as well as some flip flops for the tours around the rivers when it rained.

Gero, who is the owner of the company and Joshua who was our guide came to pick us up in the morning and took us to the first harbor where we were going to see the two different colored rivers which did not mix together.(rio solomoes and rio negro). There are several high speed boats as well as ferries to cross to the other side to continue the road from Manaus to the west. Quiet AmazonWe took one of the high speed boats with Joshua and crossed to the other side. Two rivers never mix because of the current and the density of the waters. After that, a minivan met us to take us to the deep heart of the jungle. We drove about 1 hour to get to the little port. A primitive boat appeared after half an hour and took us to the Araianiha Jungle Lodge. The lodge was beautiful, it was all green, there were pink lovely flowers and of course lovely mosquitos!!! We had a nice lunch with our guide Joshua and got to know him a little. Our Jungle LodgeHe is 23, originally is from Bomfim, British Guineia (Brazilian border), guiding for some 5 years, speaks very good English, was born in the jungle and apparently he knows the jungle like the palm of his hand...He fell in love with a Norwegian girl who studies in Denmark and is dreaming of moving to Denmark to live with her...We liked him, he was very nice and friendly to us...Then I took a little swim in the river and it started to rain! The plan was to take a ride on the boat around the area and we did it. However, the time period we were visiting there was the rainy season, so Joshua said it would rain the whole afternoon and it would be hard to see the animals like pink dolphins and sloths (lazy animals). We did the ride anyway, could not see much but at least got some idea about the area. Sunrise in AmazonWhen it started to rain cats and dogs, we went to the house of the guy who operated the boat. They were so welcoming and nice to us. I chatted with the little 10 year old boy who was just at 1st grade at the school! When it got better, we went back to the boat.. It was all green and reflections of the green on the water, so I was very happy... We came back to the hotel all wet, changed our clothes, had our dinner chatting with Joshua and went to bed. Our room had mosquito nets, it was all wooden and soo humid-smelly. We went to bed early as we were a little wet and tired. Family Visit in Amazon

The next day, we woke up, had our breakfast and saw the rainy day again...Joshua brought the idea to do the family visits that day. We visited the family of the guy who was working for Gero, they were living in small tiny wooden houses where there was no real furniture or anything like our houses. I gave them evil eyes, we chatted a little and went to see how some sort of flour from a plant is produced. Flour making width=240 height=180It is a yellow and poisonous plant, but during the process, they take the poison out of the plant, put it onto the fire, let the vapor go and use it to make pancakes and to cook. The men doing that were all suntanned and they were doing it in huge containers, just for their own family! It was pretty interesting...In the afternoon, two girls from Sao Paulo came to the jungle lodge. They were nice, we met them during lunch. In the afternoon, we went to catch Piranhas. We had wooden primitive baits, Piranha huntit was raining like crazy and we were trying to catch priranhas!!! It was sooo funny. I tried so hard, soo hard that I was able to catch one piranha as to save our pride! After the dinner, we went to see the caymans, like alligators. Joshua caught a baby cayman, we all had pictures with it. It looked so innocent, but he told us that when they grow older, they can eat a cow!!! Therefore, I understood that even a baby cayman was dangerous!!!

Baby caymanThe next day, we woke up very early on the morning to see the sunset and the pink dolphins. Then we went to the jungle walk which lasted about 3,5 hours. We saw frogs, spiders, bugs, interesting plants and trees in the deep jungle, lots of mosquitos and insects, some birds and fish which were hatching their eggs by making some funny sounds. The walk was interesting but we were all bitten by insects and mosquitos...After all, we had conquered the Amazons!!!

In the afternoon, when it was raining cats and dogs again, we took the boat back and came back to Manaus.Spider in the jungleIt was time to move onto a different adventure, so we said goodbye to Gero who very kindly took us to the airport, boarded our midnight flight to Salvador via Rio. It was such a big big change...

Next chapter: Salvador...The city of a marvelous blend of people!!!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Bemvindo a Brasil...Sao Paolo...

I had brought a Lonely Planet Brazilian Portuegese mini dictionary. I placed it into my little backpack. Our flight was in the afternoon, so we took the Manuel Tienda Leon bus to Ezeiza International Airport. TAM (reads TINNN) received our bags quickly, we did the last shoppings, spent all our Argentinian pesos and boarded the airplane. We liked the service, the plane took off right on time, they gave us a nice dinner and it arrived on the right time. During the day, we coincidentally had found a great deal at Novotel, which is a French Accor Group hotel, so when we arrived in Sao Paolo, we just took a taxi to Novotel. Our night out in Sao Paulo with EvandroWe paid 75 Reais for the cab, which was a sign of an expensive country after the other Spanish speaking cheaper brothers. (75 reais is about 42 USD). We arrived in our great hotel, opened our bags in our room which was on 24th floor(!) and called our friend Evandro, whom we met in Uyuni Salt Flat Safari. Evandro came to pick us up for going to a nice bar in an hour time, the place was packed with young people...We had caipirinha and caipirinska there, which were both excellent drinks (second one is made with vodka which was our favorite). Evandro had brought a friend, so we chatted all the evening. Omelette on the rice and potato mountainPortuegese and Spanish are very similar, but the Portugese pronunciation is much more different, so it is hard to understand Portugese for me...However, Evandro´s friend spoke Spanish...At the end of the night, we had a great sleep in our great room...I felt like I would love this country, though I only saw a little bit of it...

The next day, we went out to do our city tour. However, we needed some fuel for this. Therefore, we went out of the hotel and decided to find a nice place to have a breakfast. Sao Paulo CentroWe saw a place which was selling ¨salgados¨ with ´suco´...Salgados is sort of flaky pastry, made of dough and filled with ham and cheese. Piril had some pizza, juice and salgado where I chose some pan con queso (cheesy bread) and decided to have some omelette. They brought me an omelette which is well enough for two persons with a huge ham-rice mountain as garnish... It was horrifying, so had a litlle bit of it and just took a picture!!! After feeding me with some coffee, we walked around the important parts of Sao Paulo. The favorite part of the city was Mercado Mercado Municipal Sao PauloMunicipal, where you can have the legendary huge sandwich ´mortadella´. It is huge, dough filled with tens of layers of ham and cheese inside...We had a slice, I saw funny tropical fruits and great breads. We had a great fruit salad with some mortadella, got our dinner as mozzarella sandwich and some mortadella and finished the city tour Bread and mortadella in Mercado Municipalby going to a nice museum of art. The city looked ugly, it is a giant city with its 17 million population, mainly industry and business...There were lots of homeless people sleeping on the streets, the city was grey and lacked a character unlike Buenos Aires or Santiago. Every city has its charm, though Sao Paulo gave us a feeling of loneliness, sorrow and a sense of being lost. We had a nice cup of coffee at a niceMortadella sandwich area of the town, given some cheerful hats for the carnaval and spent the evening quietly in our hotel room. We had only one day in Sao Paulo, the next day was our journey to Amazon!!!

In the morning, we woke up, had some breakfast and took the hotel cab to the Guarulhos Airport for 85 Reais (10 Reais extra when taking the cab from the hotel!). Everything went smoothly, we took our flight to Manaus, which arrived at noon in Manaus. A guy from the travel agency (Gero´s Amazon Tours) called David came to pick us up and took us to our hotel...We were sooo excited to go to Amazons, even though our tour was going to be a touristy, easy going familiarization tour...

Next chapter: Our conquest of the Amazons...

Monday, February 11, 2008

Bariloche...A little Switzerland with its chalet houses and chocolates to die for...

Main Square of BarilocheMy flight for Bariloche was at noon...Piril had decided not to come with me, as she wanted to enjoy more of Buenos Aires. I was not feeling very well, my left chin had become huge, I had a continuous headache and tiredness...However, I decided to go, not to burn my ticket and see Bariloche. I took my Aerolineas Argentinas flight which took 2 hours 15 mins to get to Bariloche. Chocolates to die forThe weather was very sunny and nice, I just took a taxi cab to the city center, found a very cozy hotel for 35 USD per night and went out to walk around, after leaving my stuff there. I just walked a little bit to the main square to get some map and information at Tourism Info Board. My first impression was Bariloche´s being a rich, pretty and popular holiday resort for the Argentinians due to its natural beauty and country style wooden buildings. The main center was little, there was only one main street which was full of chocolate shops (the most famous one was called "Turista"), souvenir shops and cozy cafes as well as lots of pharmacies and supermarkets. BarilocheI walked around the main street, watched (just watched!) the pastry shop windows, bought a t-shirt saying "Born to be free", had a lovely lunch and bought a ticket for a boat tour for Isla Victoria on the Lake near Bariloche. Then I took the bus for Colonia Suiza to get to know the Swiss looking touristic area and came back to the hotel. I had a terrible headache after all, feeling tired, so I just went to sleep...

The next day, I woke up very early, had a quick breakfast and took the city bus for the harbor to take the boat. The harbor was very lovely, the nature was beautiful and the weather was great. The boat left at 8:30, I met some Argentinians on the boat and an Argentinian gentleman who had a Turkey hat on his head. Sr Horacio and meHe was a judge and been to Turkey with his daughter to whom was proposed by a Turkish Kurdish waiter:)))) He was from Bariloche and going to Isla Victoria for a BBQ party with his friends...We arrived first in to Bosque Arrayanes to have a short hike inside the forest. It was a dense and pretty nature. Then we took the boat again and reached Isla Victoria. The island was beautiful, great nature, nice beach, the mixture of green, blue, yellow and brown from the trees. Bariloche, Isla VictoriaI hiked slowly almost the whole day, laid down the beach, soaked my feet into the lake, as it was sooo cold...in short had a lazy day in nature. We came back at about 5 pm, I took the bus back home and jumped to another bus for Colonia Suiza, the Swiss Village. However, I just spent 15 minutes there, ran out of batteries and hopped on the last bus heading back to the "centro". I was not able to eat dinner in the evening due to my swollen chin. I took some painkiller and went to bed...

Isla Victoria, BarilocheThe next morning, I had missed the breakfast as I overslept! I was going to take a bus for Buenos Aires, which would take 18 hours, however it was a "bus cama", meaning fully reclining wide seats with meal services. Isla Victoria, BarilocheI took a taxi for the bus terminal, the bus left at 12:00 (Via Bariloche) and it was sooo comfy. I had all my meals as my chin was ok, watched all the moves on board and had a good night sleep. The bus arrived in BsAs at 6:15 am but I waited half an hour to get a taxi cab. I came back to our usual hotel in Buenos Aires, tried not to wake Piril up and made my backpack as we were heading towards São Paulo/Brazil that day.

We had our breakfast, checked out from the hotel and took the taxi cab for Ezeiza International Airport on the 31st of January, 2008. Finally, we were leaving the Spanish speaking part of Latin America and a new adventure in Brazil was waiting for us: Portugese!!! We checked in to our TAM flight from BsAs to São Paulo, the plane looked very comfy and ...Bemvindo a Brasil!

Next chapter is BRASIL!!!! Agua de coco, pão de quiejo, carnaval and big bottoms!!!