Simon Miller

I'm a television producer living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I like eating burgers, roller coasters, swimming (I go every day), technology (especially Macs), cooking and getting e-mails. Drop me a line or ask me something! These are my own views, not those of the BBC.

[simonkmiller]

I’ve moved

Hi, I’ve decided to move back to Wordpress as blogging using Tumblr was just becoming a bit too restrictive for me when handling images etc...

So, I’ve re-directed all my old Tumblr posts to my new site, but if you want to keep up to date with me, visit simonssite.com or you can add my RSS feed here.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 15

The last day of my trip really! Tomorrow would be spent flying back to Rio and then waiting for my flight home. I got up bright and early to try and make the most of the day and headed out - once more - into a Buenos Aires that was beautifully sunny.

First stop was breakfast - so just to ensure I’d tried the local McDonald’s version I headed to a nice looking one near my hotel.

The breakfast options were pretty limited - cafes here for breakfast seem to serve croissants, or ham and cheese croissants or ham and cheese toasted sandwiches, and that was kind of the options in McDonald’s too. I went for egg, bacon and cheese on a Portuguese style roll.

I’d noticed when I got up that the internet on my phone had stopped working, so before I headed back to the hotel to grab my stuff for the day out, I popped along to a branch of the phone operator I’d been using - Personal. The first branch I found on a map had closed, so I headed to the next one.

Firstly I waited for someone to check the data settings on my phone and pop them all in - I was pretty sure that wasn’t the problem though as it had worked fine up until now.

Then I got seen by a really friendly lady who spoke great English - result! She told me that sometimes it just cuts off if you don’t have any credit - so she called for me and got a 9 peso (about 65p) emergency credit on the phone, and told me not to bother paying it. Which was nice! That seemed to do the trick. I also pointed out that the internet gets INCREDIBLY slow once you use more than 30MB, and she said that’s just the way it is here because wifi’s pretty freely available.

After heading back to the hotel to grab my stuff and write my blog, I headed off to the Palermo area of the city. I didn’t really have any plans - I’d just read it was a nice area to wander around with cool shops. So, I picked a place for lunch at random out of my guide book, jumped on the metro, and after a 20 minute walk in the heat, I arrived at Arevalito - a small cafe which apparently did healthy food.

This time I was determined not to get a burger so ordered a salad - the first time I’d seen a plate of vegetables in ages! It was delicious. Look at all those veggies!

After lunch - washed down with a glass of home made lemonade with mint - I wandered around Palermo’s streets. They held a mixture of small boutiques that had been built in buildings that had previously been houses, and stores like Converse and Adidas.

It was really pleasant strolling around. It was kind of a like a nicer version of Covent Garden in London - but without the tat! People dined in lovely looked cafes and restaurants, while musicians played in the streets. It was just a lovely atmosphere and vibe, and I just wished I’d managed to get there earlier in the day.

There was also loads of really cool street art.

This one was my favourite.

And another one!

Strolling around, I noticed something I’d become quite familiar with by now - Freddo! And I couldn’t resist. It was too hot to not have an ice cream!

This time I sneaked a pic of the menu. The sundaes looked amazing, but I went for a small cup this time (after learning my mistake with a large cone the previous day), and ordered what I thought was a topping of chocolate chips. Flavour wise I went for lemon and dulche du leche with brownie pieces.

Obviously I got something wrong with the ordering as with my ice cream I got a bag of chocolate chips :( The queue was enormous too - so it took a while before I could sit down and enjoy my ice cream. People were buying enormous tubs to take home.

I threw the rest of the chocolate chips away by the way.

I’d spent so long just soaking up the sunshine and atmosphere that it was now about 4.30pm, and there was one other place I wanted to visit - so I did another 20 minute walk to Museo Evita.

Learning a bit about her from the bike tour I did, and also seeing her grave had made me want to find out a bit more about her and her husband, Peron. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum, but I did manage to sneak one when there wasn’t a security guard around.

Great eh? Sorry about that! 

The museum was split over two levels, in a house that had previously been a womens’ home Eva Peron had set up. They had loads of displays of her documents (like her marriage certificate) and clothes and jewellery, and it was interesting. There was also a fair about of information in English, but it didn’t go into the kind of detail I’d been hoping for. It was all about her - which is fair enough, it’s her museum! But I’d been keen to find out more about that whole period in Argentina.

I think I might have to rent the movie. Santiago from the bike tour said it’s pretty accurate, so I’ll take that as a recommendation!

Wandering back into Palermo’s main thoroughfare, Avenue Santa Fe, I passed Buenos Aires’ botanical gardens. I didn’t go in, but I did stop to watch a load of old men playing chess. Cool!

Then I spotted Alto Palermo - one of the city’s biggest malls so thought I’d pop in for a look.

It was really nice - much nicer and more normal than the ones I’d been to in Rio. I picked up a phone case for my sister, but still didn’t see anything I wanted to buy!

I jumped back on the metro - I had to be up at 3am, and still had to finish my packing. But at the same time, I kind of wanted a nice meal to celebrate the end of my trip. Looking at the restaurants in my guide book for the area my hotel was in, Retiro, one stood out - called El Federal.

I tracked it down, and after struggling with an enormously heavy door, stepped inside.

It was immediately clear this was a posh fancy restaurant that took food seriously. I was given a menu and almost got up and left, but then I thought - what the hell, it’s my last night, time to treat myself!

There were groups in for dinner, but also other people on their own, which made me feel less self-conscious. For a starter I had a trio of empanadas - one with cheese, spring onion and sweetcorn, one with beef, and one with lamb and fresh mushrooms. They came with a little glass of very spicy rococo sauce. 

They were the best empanadas I’ve had on my trip - little fluffy parcels of pastry with really tasty fillings.

Then it was time for the main - I ordered the house speciality - slow cooked lamb with malbec and merquen sauce (I need to look those up) accompanied by baby carrots, mushrooms, and a rocket salad.

It was enormous. Those Argentinian portions! But delicious. All in all my meal came to about £35 (I didn’t have alcohol seeing as I had an early start the next morning and a long two days of travelling). I think that’s great value, and it would have cost much more in London, so do check it out if you’re ever in BA.

After settling the bill I headed back down Suipacha one last time to my hotel. I’d really enjoyed my stay there - the staff were lovely and really helpful and attentive...

And the room was just brilliant - it wasn’t particularly expensive, so it is great value. I only wish I’d spotted the room’s own sauna (just to the left of the shower there) in time to try it out!

It was about 10.30pm by the time I got back to my hotel, so I quickly packed, read for about two minutes and set my alarm for 3am. I’d done over 26,000 steps today, and was only going to get about three and a half hours sleep. Tomorrow I’d be heading home - via a twelve hour layover in Rio...

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 14

The sun was blazing in the sky when I woke up on Thursday morning. The forecast was about 24º but it felt waaaay hotter than that. I headed to Starbucks to get my coffee fix and wrote my blog (I’d got a bit behind!) before heading out to explore the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires. I’d read Recoleta and Palermo were the best neighbourhoods to visit if you only had a short time in the city, so I thought I’d spend a day in each.

Buenos Aires’ wide avenues are pretty amazing - they’re really long and very wide - enough for about seventeen lanes of traffic! Can’t really imagine that in London.

After walking for about 25 minutes through Recoleta’s leafy well-to-do streets and seeing lots of dog walkers (one with about ten dogs!) I arrived at the first stop of the day - Cementerio de la Recoleta - or Recoleta Cemetery. It’s the city’s top sight, which is pretty weird when you think about it. The entrance looked impressive.

The cemetery’s been named as one of the top five in the world apparently, and was created in 1822. It’s jam-packed with fancy and ornate mausoleums and is really peaceful and quiet.

The cemetery offers tours in English at 11am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I arrived just in time. That’s our guide below. There were loads of tourists in the cemetery and school groups milling around - a lot of Argentina’s history can be found here.

The tour lady took us around and explained where important people in Argentina’s past were buried, who they were and where they came from. She also explained how the cemetery came into being. While some mausoleums were well looked after....

Others had fallen into disrepair - she explained that a lot of younger family members no longer care about the state of their relatives tombs. There were also some really brand new modern looking ones - it was a real hotchpotch of different styles.

Probably the most famous person buried here is Eva Peron - I’d be finding out more about her on Friday, but there was a big queue to see her tomb. People come and place flowers there every day. Two American tourists took selfies here - not sure what the selfie etiquette at a grave is?!

As we walked around, our guide told us that there can be around 18 people buried in any mausoleum. Access is through steps inside, and bodies are usually buried on two levels - one about 5 metres deep and one around 2.5 metres below the surface. If you looked in some of the structures you could see the stairs down to where the coffins are kept. 

Although the cemetery’s full now (and the main one for Buenos Aires is about 25 minutes away from the city centre), families do occasionally sell plots and cremate any remains. Depending on their location in the cemetery, plots can go for $US 45,000. Apparently it’s all done by word of mouth - and the cemetery caretakers know everything.

It was absolutely scorching walking around, and by the time the tour was over (I think it took about two hours) I was absolutely frazzled and feeling very sunburnt, even though I’d put sunscreen on.

After a quick wander into a mall, I headed for lunch to a place I’d read about in a guide book - although confusingly they called it Natural Deli while the sign said “Go in!”

Inside, it was like a deli selling some food, and a cafe. I had the seat on the right, which I very quickly learnt wasn’t the coolest spot as the sun came beating through the glass above me.

I’d read the restaurant did great salads and wraps, so to be healthy I ordered the chicken sandwich. This was what turned up...

It was massive! I couldn’t finish it - and it was yet another burger!

Walking back along the street to the centre of Palermo, I saw an ice cream shop and couldn’t resist. Freddos are all over Buenos Aires, and they make delicious ice cream. I had a chocolate and dulche de leche combo, but it started to melt before I’d even left the shop and was soon running down my arm, so it was a bit of a race to eat it.

It was delicious though.

Walking around, I was kind of following a neighbourhood walk map in my copy of Lonely Planet - and headed to Buenos Aires Design, which is like a mall for house stuff. I thought I might pick up some cool thing for my flat as a souvenir. It didn’t look promising from the outside (although I think I went in the back).

It was kind of meh, very high end kitchen shops and stuff so I didn’t get anything in there. Next on my walk was the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - an art gallery for a bit of culture. It has works from all over the world, including by Monet, Renoir and Toulouse Lautrec. 

I didn’t spent too much time in it to be honest, as there didn’t seem to be any English information, but it was a way to escape the heat outside and I did see this grim sculpture.

A five minute walk away was Floralis Genérica, a cool sculpture which opens up during the day. It was enormous.

A quick walk past the School of Law....

And I was back by the cemetery, after trying to enter the Centro Cultural Recoleta (mentioned in Lonely Planet) but finding out it was closed until 7pm. I was outside the church which started Recoleta Cemetery (and is right beside it).

I popped my head in...

By now, I was absolutely knackered. I’m not sure whether it was the sun, or the effects of my bike ride the day before, but all I wanted to do was go to bed. It had been a nice day wandering around, but I felt like I’d walked miles, and apart from the cemetery, I felt I really hadn’t seen that much.

A quick hop to Carrefour to grab a sandwich for dinner (no energy to go out!) and I was back in the hotel watching the rest of the DVD I’d borrowed before I nodded off. The next day would be my last in a city which I’d really come to enjoy.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 13

Wednesday was an action packed day in Buenos Aires! More than I expected. Based on the recommendation of a couple I’d met on the Eat Rio food tour, I’d booked a tour with Biking Buenos Aires. I booked the “Heart of the City” tour, and was really looking forward to it. I hopped on the metro and turned up at their offices at 11am, only to find out that everyone else due to take the tour had cancelled, and I was the only person taking part.

I wasn’t sure how that was going to pan out - it was a bit weird thinking I’d be spending the day with just a stranger as my guide, but actually it worked out well.

I hadn’t been on a bike in forever, so was a bit wobbly setting off, but soon got the hang of it!

We set off from the district of San Telmo, and our first stop was a local park. Here, Santiago, my guide explained how the city was formed. There was a cool looking Russian church across the road.

After that we headed into La Boca - and stopped off to look at the stadium of Boca Juniors - I think they’re probably the country’s most popular football team? Santiago explained how the stadium was always planned to be in the shape of a boat, but how they didn’t get permission to extend it, so it just looks like a half boat now. Apparently fans are fierce - and have been known in the past to throw live chickens at an opposing team!

Then we headed to Caminito, a really cool street and square where an artist in 1954 started painting buildings in really bright colours. That’s been kept up, and all the buildings are bold.

It’s an area where a lot of artists live now, so they had lots of little stalls selling paintings. I bought one which cost just about 70 pesos (about £5). I thought it would be a little cool reminder of my time in Buenos Aires.

Santiago looked after my bikes and gave me 20 minutes to walk around the area. There were a lot of tourists there, and people dressed as tango dancers wanting money to have your photo taken with them, but I declined! I got some cool photos.

Cycling on, we passed a big road construction project. Here Santiago explained about Argentina’s disappeared. It’s really shocking. He told me that when the dictatorship was running in the country between around 1976 and 1983, they ‘disappeared’ 30,000 people suspected of being communists. Where the construction project was running, they’d found some evidence of bodies, so had stopped it until archaeological work was finished. Pregnant women who were disappeared were kept alive until they had their babies, so today there are lots of children of the disappeared. 

This site was close to the Ministry of Defence where presumably everything was all planned. It was very sobering.

After seeing some of the old Buenos Aires, we headed on to the new - a redeveloped dock area called Puerto Madero. It was a complete contrast from the area we’d just visited, and was full of shiny new buildings - it reminded me a bit of Canary Wharf but without the big skyscrapers.

Cycling through the Ecological Gardens I was beginning to feel the effects of the sun - it was SO hot! In a good way though. We rode through the gardens, and stopped of at a beach where loads of school kids were chilling out. No sand though!

Then it was time for lunch. There was a street by the river with loads of little food stalls, so Santiago took me to one of those for a traditional Buenos Aires sandwich - a bondiola.

Santiago told me the traditional version has ham and fried egg on it as well as pork, so I went all in. It was absolutely enormous!

I was totally stuffed after that, but managed to get on my bike and keep pedalling. We stopped at a bridge by the Ministry of Defence and Santiago filled me in on the Argentinian economic crisis. It sounded absolutely unbelievable. Basically in 2001, the economy crashed, and everyone was limited to withdrawing 300 pesos a week for their family to live off. Today that’s only about £20! People started bartering - swapping books for tomato ketchup and so on. Protests took place in the main city square, and apparently the President flew off at the time and moved into Shakira’s house! Yes Shakira the pop star - who his son was dating. 

The country also went through five presidents in four days. I find it amazing that some place that seems so civilised has such a crazy history.

Moving on, we headed to another park where we saw a statue of Peron - he’s controversial in Argentina, and I need to do a bit more reading about him, but this statue’s only three weeks old.

Then we headed to Plaza de Mayo - where the pink Presidential palace is. Apparently on Saturdays you can get right into the Presidential office, but I won’t be here, so I’ll miss out on that.

Santiago pointed out a cathedral across the square that looked more like a library or law court, and recommended I take a wander to explore inside.

It was pretty spectacular.

By now I was beginning to feel my derriere aching a bit from the saddle! After grabbing a couple more photos of the square, the tour was done.

I’d really enjoyed it - and got a good bit of exercise - we’d cycled around 20km! Though it had been ages since I’d been on a bike, it was fun - cycling’s a great way to get around Buenos Aires, and there’s loads of cycle paths with bumpers to protect you from the traffic. I’d definitely recommend the tour if you find yourself in BA.

I got a picture of me on the bike with my helmet on, but I look ridiculous, so I’m not posting it!

After catching the metro back to the hotel, I wandered around and went to a bakery called Pani for a spot of dinner. It was a great spot - and the staff spoke English and were really friendly - giving me tips on what to see over my last couple of days in the city. I had a burger :(

While I was having dinner, I started Googling one thing I knew I couldn’t leave Buenos Aires without seeing - the tango. I wanted to avoid a touristy type place or show though, and go where the real locals go - called a milonga.

I found a great website which listed the top 10 in BA, and found one called Malta Milonga that had a live orchestra playing once a week - on a Wednesday! Perfect, so although I was knackered from my bike ride, I headed back to the hotel for a quick shower and took a cab back to San Telmo. Weirdly the place was on the same street as Biking Buenos Aires. I made it there for 10.20pm, having read it was best to get there for a seat by 10.30pm.

Outside it didn’t look like anything special!

You could easily walk right by. I took the two flights of stairs, and paid my 100 pesos, grabbed a beer, and waited for the action to begin. The orchestra were meant to come on at 11pm, but it turned out to be more like 11.40.  The room had slowly filled up with all kinds of people - old, young, groups of mates, singles.

Then the orchestra took to the stage. It was amazing to watch. There seemed to be no barriers at all to who danced with who - old men asked young girls up, men danced with men. Some people you could tell were brilliant, others maybe not so good, but it was still just really interesting to watch. 

It’s obvious people take the Tango really seriously here. While they were laughing while dancing, it’s a big part of life. There was a great friendly atmosphere in the room, and everyone just seemed to be enjoying themselves.

After the orchestra finished, professionals took to the floor, and they were amazing. It kind of made me wish I could do to the tango.

After a couple more beers, I left at around 1.30am and headed back to my hotel - by this point absolutely exhausted, but it had been a great day seeing the city.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 12

Tuesday was a bit of a non-event day for me - it was more about getting back to Buenos Aires after my short stay in Puerto Madryn. My flight wasn’t until 3pm which left me quite a while in the town, but not enough time annoyingly to go out and see the whales at Peninsula Valdes. I really could have done with one less day in Rio and another day to do that. So anyway, today’s post is a bit boring sorry!

When I looked out my hotel window, I saw not only was it another gorgeous day, but also that a massive cruise ship had arrived in town.

With five hours to kill before I had to leave for the airport, I wandered back in to town and headed to Havanna in Puerto Madryn’s modest shopping mall for a coffee and bit of breakfast and to catch up on e-mails.

Once inside, I discovered it looked as if half the cruise ship had decided to decamp there too. It was loud and noisy with American tourists.

After writing a postcard for my niece and nephew, I got out of there pretty quickly, and headed for a wander around town. In between the shops and small restaurants you’d find the occasional pretty looking building.

And random looking window displays like this one - apologies for the reflection here!

The place really did seem a bit overrun with tourists, and it gave the place a very different feel from the day before, when there hadn’t been a cruise ship in town. I guess it’s good for the town though.

There really aren’t that many things to see in Puerto Madryn - I headed to the museum...

...but it was closed. 

I had a very slow wander back to my hotel and had a look at tree sculptures that I think had been done by locals along the main road.

Amazingly I had managed to kill four hours just wandering around and having my coffee. So heading back to the hotel, I took one last look out to sea, hoping to spot a whale, but no joy.

I grabbed my belongings and called a taxi to the airport. Weirdly although the taxi driver didn’t speak English, he did speak French, so we chatted all the way to the airport. I asked him about the stray dogs I’d seen around town, but he said that most of them actually had homes, and just went wandering about during the day. He was a pretty cool taxi driver - but it was very strange all of a sudden speaking French in Argentina!

After about a fifteen minute driver, we arrived at Puerto Madryn’s airport (actually called El Tehuelche Airport). It was still absolutely scorching.

I was back on Andes Líneas Aéreas, so checked in.

This time my boarding pass was printed! I walked up and down the airport for an hour, and bought a couple of souvenirs from the small shop before boarding.

It looked like the same plane as my trip down to Patagonia.

The flight was non-eventful again really, nothing amazing, but nothing really to complain about apart from the ancient dirty seats!

I was back in Buenos Aires, and checked in to my hotel - it really is a perfect spot for me - the room’s enormous, and it’s pretty centrally located in Retiro. That’s a business district in Buenos Aires, but it’s still got enough going on.

It was only about 6pm when I checked in again, but I was absolutely exhausted for some reason. So I walked down to the local supermarket, bought a chicken sandwich and packet of crisps and borrowed a DVD from the hotel’s library and chilled out. About half way through the movie I was beginning to drift off, so I just switched the lights off and went to sleep.

Definitely not the most exciting day of my trip, but I was going to make up for that by doing loads the next day.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 11

It was another beautifully sunny morning when I got up on Monday after a decent night’s sleep. I grabbed a quick coffee in the hotel, before waiting to board my bus to Punta Tombo. I was pretty excited - the main reason I’d flown down to Puerto Madryn was to see some wildlife. Unfortunately I just didn’t have time to do two excursions. Otherwise, I would have gone whale watching too nearby, but that’s a day long trip, as was my visit to Punta Tombo.

I was a bit worried my tour bus wouldn’t turn up after the shenanigans yesterday, but lo and behold it did, and soon we were on our way, after a quick stop off in Trelew, another town near Puerto Madryn. It was a two and a half hour trip, which seemed VERY LONG, but that gives you an idea of how remote the place is.

En route, our guide Laura gave us a bit of background about where we would be going.

The view out the window for the whole time looked like this....

Totally barren! Finally, we arrived - after spending the last twenty minutes rattling down a dust track. Laura bought our tickets to enter the reserve, we climbed off the bus, and started walking.

Punto Tombo’s a 3km long peninsula which is home to the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world. 500,000 of them to be precise! (According to the internet). Every September they migrate from Southern Brazil right down to Argentina to come on land, lay their eggs and wait for them to hatch. So my timing was perfect (although if I’d come later in November I’d have seen some chicks).

It wasn’t long before we had our first encounter! (Below). Laura had told us on the bus that if a penguin’s waiting to cross the path, it’ll stand there forever unless you stop and let it cross - it just can’t work out what’s going on. So we let it pass :) I thought that was very polite of the penguins to wait for us to stop!

There were literally penguins everywhere - some in holes in the ground protecting their nests.

Others were making their way down to the sea...

....where they went for a swim. Apparently while one parent’s looking after the nest, the other goes off fishing for food, and then they swap over.

It was a beautiful area - and really, really hot - I thought penguins only liked the cold! But it was really ferociously windy - so windy in fact I didn’t notice that I’d got completely sunburnt on the two hour round trip along the path. You really felt like you were at the end of the earth, there was just nothing to see apart from scrubland.

It was just really cool to see wild penguins up close going about their stuff.

I don’t know if this one was protecting its egg or just having a little lie down in the sun.

After we did the tour, we headed to the visitor centre for a spot of lunch - it was really well designed - hidden really in a sunken spot.

I just grabbed a quick empanada or three, as I wasn’t that hungry, but everyone else seemed to be there forever. That’s our guide Laura on the left.

While everyone finished their meal I went off for a look around the exhibit. It was really well done inside and looked modern and new, but unfortunately not that much of it was in English, so although I wanted to find out more about the penguins I couldn’t really :(

After being at Punto Tombo for just three hours, it was time to get back on the bus for the two and a half hour journey back to Puerto Madryn. This time though as well as stopping off in Trelew, we had to stop off at the airport there too to drop people off, so it took like nearly three hours. 

As we were driving out the reserve, we did see some other wild animals though... these which are related to alpacas...

...and also Laura spotted an armadillo when we stopped to look at the animals above. I followed her glance, and just caught a glimpse of it scurrying off. That was a cool way to end the trip!

I slept for the first hour on the bus - it just felt like we were taking forever, but then I read my book, and before I knew it we were back. After a quick shower, I headed out to dinner. After last night’s Mexican I fancied someplace more traditional, so using a combination of Trip Advisor and Foursquare, narrowed it down to three places. A lot of restaurants on the main tourist street had reviews saying stuff like “Yeah I got a beetle in my salad” etc. so be warned!

Nicolas at reception recommended a place called Macacha - one of the places on my list, as his relative worked there.

It was situated five blocks from my hotel - in the opposite direction of all the touristy shops and restaurants - which I took to be a good sign. 

This was a real locals’ restaurant, and I was glad I’d gone. It was full of families and groups of mates out for dinner (photo below taken before they arrived!)

The gorgeous waitress didn’t speak any English (but kept speaking to me in Spanish anyway) but thanks to the power of the camera feature of Google Translate I was able to decipher the menu. I ordered soup of the day (learning from the massive starter portion error last night) which I understood from the waitress to be cauliflower, but then she came back and said there was none left (I think). I asked for carrot which I thought was the other option, but she just repeated it slowly and looked confused. Anyway, I did have soup, and it was carrot, and it was delicious.

And again it was a large portion. For my main I went traditional, asking for a steak with chips (it was the only remotely Argentinian thing I could see on the menu really) - after checking with the waitress it wasn’t ‘grande’ or massive - and while it was big, I managed to finish it this time!

It had been a really long day, and I was beginning to feel the effects of the sun. I was keen to get back to the hotel and get to sleep, but on leaving the restaurant spotted something a bit weird. Can you tell what they’re doing?

It was two teenagers using white tape to mark out a pedestrian crossing on the street. I really can’t work out what that was about - some local safety campaign maybe? Just up the road their mates were doing the same thing.

Anyway, that was the end of my evening - unfortunately it was about 11pm by now, and check out was at 10am (a bit early!) so I wasn’t going to get a lie in.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 10

Sunday morning saw yet another early start, and another flight. I’d spotted a  Starbucks just around the corner from my Buenos Aires hotel the previous night so thought I’d head there for a big coffee to wake me up, but it was closed. Probably because it’s a business type area I’m staying in, and it was Sunday, so I just had a coffee in my room before checking out and hailing a cab back to the airport.

This time it was no Oneworld airline. There was only one operator flying to where I wanted to go, and it had been a bit of a pain to book. But eventually I’d succeeded, so I went off and checked in for my Andes Aerolinas flight.

They’re a small airline but I was still surprised to get a hand written boarding pass!

Before heading to the gate I grabbed a rather sad lukewarm ham and cheese croissant. Definitely not the best meal I’ve had on my trip! Finally it was time to board.

The aircraft was an MD80 - I.e. Old!

Inside it looked at least 30 years old. It still had no smoking signs! I was a bit nervous but it was actually ok - even if the cockpit door was open for most of the flight! And even they did a snack box!

About an hour and a half later, we touched down at one of the smallest airports I’ve been to - Puerto Madryn in Patagonia.

This was very different from Buenos Aires. The taxi driver on the way in to town explained only 5,000 people used to live in the town before an aluminum plant opened. Now it’s home to around 100,000 people. It looked barren - and remote.

My hotel was actually ok - and had the most modern looking lift display I’ve ever seen. Animated background and everything!

After dumping my bag I walked along in to the town’s centre which only took me about ten minutes. I needed to book a tour the next day, and was worried none of the agencies would be open on a Sunday but the tourist information office soon pointed me in the right direction.

I arrived at Alora Viaggio and was greeted by an elderly Iady sitting watching YouTube videos. “Ingeles no problem!” she said.

I explained I wanted a trip to Punto Tombo - it’s around a two hour drive, so you need to go on an organised tour. She then pulled out a map and started speaking in high speed Spanish as she pointed out destinations on a map - everywhere apart from Punto Tombo. If English wasn’t a problem for her, Cantonese isn’t for me.

Eventually I got what I wanted - a day trip to Punto Tombo with a stop off on the way back to see some sea lions. Sounded good! I paid my 800 pesos after confirming the tour would definitely be in English and strolled back to my hotel.

En route I saw some schoolgirls doing a traditional dance display and also a Puerto Madryn landmark - a Welsh lady. Apparently in 1865 more than 150 Welsh people landed in the town to establish a community where they could speak their language and practice their faith free from the English government. I didn’t see any obviously Welsh real people though.

I headed back to my hotel and had a two hour snooze and was just getting ready to head out for dinner when my phone rang. It was reception to say that my tour operator was on the line and there was NOT a tour in English available the next day.

GRRR! I headed to reception and was put on the phone to the lady who didn’t really seem to understand what I was saying so I kind of gave up and said I’d try to arrange another tour. Which the receptionist managed to do for me in two minutes. Then he called back the original agency and told them I was cancelling, but they apparently started offering all other kinds of tours. He said they seemed very confused so it was probably just as well I didn’t go with them!

He’d asked how I’d get my money back and there wasn’t any reply to that so off I headed waaaay back along the street again to try and get my money of the YouTube watching lady.

Thankfully she waved me in and handed my cash over before waving me off with a cheery Ciao!

The only upside to this was that I managed to get some decent shots of the sun setting off the town’s beach. There may not be much going on in Puerto Madryn but it did have a nice feel about it - everywhere I looked kids were playing in parks while their parents chatted and took it easy.

Did I speak to soon though? I was crossing the road when a police car squealed up and out jumped a load of mean looking policemen who stood in a line just in front of the beach facing the main road.

My taxi driver had told me his football team Boca Juniors were playing a big game that day and if they won I should expect to see some celebrations. There was a bit of noisy flag waving out of car windows all of a sudden, so I presume the cops were just keeping an eye on the festivities!

Back at my hotel - again - I did a bit of googling and found a decent looking restaurant which the receptionist confirmed was good - a Mexican called “El Paso”. (That’s the name of the restaurant, not the receptionist. He wasn’t Mexican either.)

I went in at about 8.30 and was the only person there, just confirming most people don't eat out until much later. To start I ordered "potatoes stuffed with chicken and cheese” presuming it would be like loaded potato skins. No. What turned up was a bowl the size of my head. As a starter.

Inside that was boiled potatoes, loads of chicken and a bit of cheese. It was waaaay to much considering I’d also ordered a main! Argentinan portions are very generous.

When my burrito came, it was enormous as well, taking up the whole plate. And it was a big plate.

It looks a weird colour there but it was just the light affecting my camera. I managed about half of it. It wasn’t authentically Mexican tasting but it was ok!

Totally stuffed I headed back to the hotel. It was 10.30pm and there were still kids with their parents playing in the park opposite! One good thing about my original tour being cancelled was that my new one had a start time of 9.30 instead of 7.30 - meaning I’d get a bit more of a lie in in the morning! I was just glad I’d got the tour sorted - it was the whole reason I’d come to Puerto Madryn.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 9

After a good night’s rest, I was up early on Saturday. I had a flight to catch later in the afternoon, but had a couple of things I wanted to do first.

Leaving the hotel at about 8.30, I walked across to see the same falls I saw yesterday in Argentina from the Brazilian park. The hotel’s location really is perfect - a minute’s walk across the road and I was at the start of the one trail.

The guide books were right when they said it’s worth spending more time on the Argentinian side of the falls. There’s much more to do and see in the Argentinian park, and everything seems organised a bit better. I think it also helped that I’d had really good weather the day before. When I got to the “Devil’s Throat” in Brazil I really couldn’t see that much as the picture below shows!

I also didn’t see any animals! Though I was early, none of the food places were open yet, although you could take a very creaky and ancient looking lift up for a bird’s eye view of the falls. 

There are a lot of steps down to reach the falls in Brazil but luckily you don’t need to worry about climbing them on the way back! I found a road at street level which had me back at the hotel after a 15 minute walk. The whole walk had only taken me about 45 minutes which meant I’d made it back to the hotel in time for breakfast. Yay!

Those potato rösti cakes were like a piece of heaven. That’s not lasagne by the way, it was a kind of chicken pie. 

After checking out and booking a hotel driver to take me to the airport later, I caught the shuttle bus down to the park entrance and walked the short distance to the last thing I wanted to see in Iguassu - the Bird Park, or Parque das Aves. It was the one other attraction in the area that seemed genuinely worth seeing (I’m not including that dodgy looking wax museum Amy was advertising at the airport).

The park was great. They had loads of interesting information on not only the birds but the conservation work they did. A lot of the birds had been rescued, which just made me sad. Apparently poaching is a big issue in the rainforests in the parks. There was a massive area just for parrots and it was weird just to see them flying over your head!

I managed to walk around in an hour, but you could easily double that and take more time.

The coolest things I saw was the toucans - it was really great getting up so close to them! Although I read they eat baby birds which put me off them a bit - not so friendly now, eh?

The park also has a butterfly section. I was walking through that when all of a sudden a wee girl screamed at me and her Dad stopped me from walking any further. A butterfly had landed right on my shoe - thankfully I didn’t crush it!

There was also a big caiman. I had to look that up. It’s a kind of alligator but they only grow to half the size of an American alligator.

I made my way back to the hotel and took one last look at the falls....

....before getting in the car to take me to the airport in Argentina. When the hotel driver and I passed the tourist shop I’d got my pesos in the other day, he told me they did the best coffee in the area. Two minutes later we were circling back to get some. It was alright!

This time I made sure we stopped at Brazilian immigration control so I could get an exit stamp in my visa.

And soon we were crossing the border into Argentina again.

The small airport at Cataratas Del Iguazu was weird looking - I thought it looked more like council offices than an airport.

After going through security, you entered a room with a closed off door. Then after what seemed like an eternal wait that door opened and you were in another room with a closed door. Where you waited again. Finally though, I boarded the LAN flight to Buenos Aires.

And there was another snack box! Which hit the spot for lunch.

The flight was absolutely fine. One old lady sitting next to me did get up and walk to the toilet at the back of the plane two minutes before landing, but she never came back. So either she was in there when we landed or a stewardess stopped her and made her sit down at the back!

My first impressions of Buenos Aires - from the taxi from the airport - is that it’s a stunning city. It looks really European and has a cool vibe and beautiful architecture.

After checking in at my hotel, I headed off to try and get an Argentian Sim. The hotel staff had told me to try a shopping mall called Galerias Pacifico. It was open until 10pm! There’s definitely more of a late night culture here, and apparently people don’t go out for dinner (including families) until about 9pm.

Inside the mall was just as impressive as from the outside. I didn’t have any luck getting a Sim there though.

Eventually I picked one up in a convenience store. By now ravenous, yes....

But it’s only my second time there on my entire trip! I had a hot pepper chicken burger.

Then I headed back to the hotel to try and sort my Sim out. It was definitely not as easy as in Brazil. It took two calls to activate it (which the receptionist kindly did for me), but then I had to create an account online, top the card up, and then buy an Internet pack, before working out you needed to put the internet settings in your phone manually. Finding them took at least half an hour by itself. Still for £4 I had Internet on the go for a week (although allowances here are really stingy, the speed gets throttled if you used more than 30mb in a day).

Finally I crawled into bed and read for a bit before dozing off. I had to head back to the same airport I’d just flown in to in the morning for yet another flight. But I was already looking forward to having some time to chill out in the city on my return from what I’d seen so far.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 8

So, today was my day of exploring the falls of Iguassu. You can access them from both Brazil and Argentina, but I’d read the Argentinian side was more impressive, and worth spending longer at.

After a quick breakfast, I got the shuttle bus back to the park exit and a taxi was waiting. The driver would take me across the border to Argentina, to the national park, drop me off and collect me - so a two hour round trip for around £40. 

But there was some stress involved... first I needed Argentinian Pesos. There’s apparently an ATM at the park, but sometimes it’s not working. So reluctantly, I agreed that the taxi driver would take me to an currency exchange place near the border. I just got the feeling I was gonna get ripped off BIG TIME!

The hotel’s ATM wasn’t working, so I went to one at the Brazilian park entrance to get money out to change. My card wouldn’t work in any of them. So then I tried my American Express card, which worked, but which meant I was getting charged interest and a foreign fee, unlike my other card. Grrr!

Then I tried calling my first bank to find out why my card wouldn’t work, but my phone didn’t work. So I had to call the phone company. They said they’d done something and it should now work, but it didn’t. So I got more stressed. Finally I just switched to my UK sim, called my bank, and they told me my card should be working fine, before I got cut off. 

Brilliant! We travelled on to a souvenir shop which had a foreign exchange counter (GRRR). Whether I was being ripped off or not, I actually got a better rate than the official one. It turned out they were using the ‘black market’ exchange rate for pesos, which although I’m sure I wasn’t getting a great rate for the black market, it wasn’t as bad as the official rate!

Crossing the border, I’d read I had to get my passport stamped to say I’d left Brazil or I could get fined on the way back in. But the driver refused to listen to stop, telling me it wasn’t needed. 

I’m not gonna lie, the whole palaver was a bit stressful, so I was relieved to at last arrive at the park.

Hooray! After buying a ticket for about £17, I arranged for my taxi man to meet me at 4pm and headed inside. Literally the first thing I saw was one of these.

A coati. They look pretty friendly right? Except apparently they’re not - they’ll bite and try to pinch food from you. I saw literally hundreds of them at the park though - and a lot of them were hanging around food areas.

I checked out a stall offering boat rides under the falls (or near them anyway) and after chatting with them, decided not to book a ride there and then, but to wait until I’d explored the park a bit more so I knew what time I’d be able to take one.

I headed along a short path to the Central Station in the park - it’s where a toy-like train takes you up to the path to The Devil’s Throat (dramatic name!)

The train was packed! But it was a chilled out ride. I even saw a wild toucan, but didn’t get my camera out in time.

About fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the Devil’s Throat train station, and I started walking. Quickly as I wanted to make sure I had to time to do that boat ride! You basically walk over lots of metal bridges across water...

For what seems like forever. And it doesn’t seem either like there are any waterfalls anywhere near you! And also though it may not look it, it was very, very hot. But still, it was a pleasant enough walk, and I was beginning to forget all my cash / phone drama from earlier!

Finally, I arrived at The Devil’s Throat itself - the top of the waterfalls. And it was amazing.

They are just ENORMOUS. It’s just totally breath-taking, and I don’t think a photo can do it justice really. The roar of all the water is deafening.

What really surprised me is there were loads of birds flying right beside the falls. I learnt later (thanks to a documentary on my TV in the hotel!) that they’re swifts. The swifts basically live on the cliffs right beside the falls, and the water helps keep them free of pests. They make their nests there, and their babies are born in cracks in the cliffs. I thought that was pretty amazing really!

I got my photo taken by a friendly fellow tourist - you can see how wet it was around the falls!

Doesn’t that lady beside me look delighted with being in the photo with me! She sayin’ “Get me out of this photo with him!”

I was in a mad panic by this point as my phone said it was 1.40pm and I’d been told the latest boat trip I could take to meet my taxi driver at the right time was 2.40pm. However, it was only 12.40 as my phone hadn’t switched over to Argentinian time. Hooray! I caught the train back down to the centre of the park, and grabbed lunch. Everything in the park’s a bit of a rip off, there’s very little choice - basically empanadas or weirdly Subway. I took the more authentic option....

There’s two trails in the park apart from the one to the Devil’s Throat - Circuito Inferior or Circuito Superior. Weirdly, the Inferior is the longest and best, so off I trekked. It wasn’t long before I had another amazing view of the falls.

It was just awe-inspiring. Finally, I reached the point where you boarded the boat trip. There were a couple of different options you could take, but I chose the shorter, cheaper one, that does one trip past the falls for photos and then another one for a soakin’. It lasted about twelve minutes and cost about £24.

No-one was standing up to take photos, so I didn’t - didn’t want to rock the boat (ahem). A couple of minutes later, and we were told to put all our stuff in the dry bags they’d given us, and we roared right into the falls you see on the right. They weren’t the big massive ones, but we still all got absolutely drenched. It was good fun, but I was completely soaked through to the skin. Thankfully it didn’t take too long to dry off in the sun.

After that, it was time to head back to meet my taxi driver. On the way I spotted some lizardy type things. 

Two different species! 

I’d really had an amazing day out. I met my taxi driver, and we headed back across the border to Brazil.

Yes his windscreen was filthy. Immigration wasn’t a problem as we just drove right through without stopping. Hmmm!

I was hoping to get some pool time in when I got to the hotel, but it was teeming down with rain, so I went for a quick sauna before heading to the restaurant for dinner. It was the same amazing buffet, so I was quite happy with that!

I went back to my room, and started packing - I’d be leaving Iguassu - and Brazil - behind the next day, but I’d still squeeze a bit more in before I left.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 7

I honestly can’t believe I’ve been in South America a week already! Weirdly, in some ways it feels like I only arrived yesterday, in others it feels like I’ve been here forever (that’s a good feeling!)

I was up way too early on Thursday morning, as I had a flight to catch. I took one last walk onto Copacabana beach, still a bit annoyed I hadn’t had the weather to enjoy it or even sit on it. The weather that morning hadn’t improved at all...

Still stunning, but a bit gloomy!

I had a very quick breakfast in the hotel before checking out and negotiating who was going to take me to the airport. That’s the one thing I would say isn’t brilliant here - every hotel seems to have its own drivers who they’ll suggest to take you anywhere, but it comes at a vastly inflated price. I was quoted almost double the price of a normal taxi to go to the airport, so I opted for the latter.

Soon we were flying along the motorway to the airport. I hadn’t really noticed anything on the way into Rio as it had been dark when I arrived, but this time I just noticed how horrific the traffic was coming the other way. It was literally queued all the way into the city as we sped in the opposite direction. I’d hate to be stuck in that every morning!

Arriving at the airport, I checked in, and went through security. Waaaay too early. Rio’s main airport is in the middle of having a lot of work done to it, having been taken over by a consortium that in part includes the operators of Singapore’s amazing airport. But that work is in its very early stages, meaning that there is practically nothing to do in the airport once you get through security - a couple (literally) of shops and three snack places.

As you can see it’s just a load of gates and that’s about it. I had an hour and a half, so just wandered up and down repeatedly until my flight was called to board.

I was flying on TAM - a Oneworld airline, which meant I got to enjoy priority boarding etc, but unfortunately there’s no lounge for domestic flights in Rio. The flight was great - about two hours long, the crew were nice, and you got a little snack as well...

Finally if you’d downloaded their app, you could stream movies and TV shows to your own device. I didn’t know about that until I was on board, so none of that for me. I just watched The Jinx on my iPad (highly recommend that show).

Two hours after taking off, we were touching down in the next destination of my trip - Foz Do Iguaçu, a city on the border with Argentina.

It was scorchio!

Really like sun-splitting-the-pavement roasting. Walking in the terminal I was greeted by who else but of course Amy Winehouse.

She was advertising a waxwork museum (please go and look at that link and see who’s on their home page) along with the Pope and Johnny Depp, but that wasn’t what I was in the town to see. Foz Do Igaçu’s home to Cataratas Do Iguaçu, a national park which is home to Iguazu Falls - a series of waterfalls, but some of which are 82 metres high. They’ve been named one of the modern seven wonders of the world.

I hailed a taxi from outside the airport, and headed for my hotel. I’ve splurged a bit on this one - it’s the only hotel actually in the Brazilian national park. Ten minutes in the taxi, and I’d arrived at the entrance to the park.

That’s as far as taxis or cars are allowed to go. I had to wait for the hotel’s shuttle bus to come and collect me - but there was coffee to keep me going while I waited. A short while later I was at the hotel.

It’s lovely. Really gorgeous, and a bit like old school safari inside. On checking in, I was told that due to a cancellation I could upgrade to a room with a view of the falls. Meh I thought, but then on the other hand I thought well I am only here once. So I did it. 

That is really not a bad view! After a quick spot of lunch I thought I’d make the most of the lovely weather, and do absolutely nothing but lie at the pool and finish my book.

It was just brilliant - totally relaxing and chilled out, and attendants came round with flavoured water and fresh fruit. I spent a good couple of hours like that.

Then I grabbed my camera and quickly scooted across the road from the hotel to get a couple of shots of the falls. I’d be doing more exploring over the next two days but thought it might just be my only chance to catch them at sunset, which is what I did (although I was there way too early, got bored, and probably missed the later part of the sunset).

After that, I headed off to dinner which was a brilliant buffet. Including roasted potato stuffed with sausage. Whoever thought of that needs a medal!

I think I’ve probably got the carb balance all wrong there but what the hell, I’m on holiday.

A glass of vino later, and I was in bed. Hopefully the weather tomorrow would be just as good so I could top up my tan!

[simonkmiller]

Brazil / Argentina - Day 6

Wednesday started out with a big win for me, only to go downhill from there with a series of fails. (This is a long post sorry as I did quite a lot today!)

First thing I had to do in the morning was get some laundry done. I had five days washing to do, and a quick look at the hotel price list saw that five sets of underwear and five tops would basically cost me £52 to get cleaned. No way was I paying that! So Google to the rescue. It turned out there was a laundry literally 30 seconds from my hotel. And lo and behold...

(Lavanderia in the pic) - £10 all in for pickup later in the day. A fifth of the hotel’s cost! I left a tip on Foursquare for any future visitors needing their dirty laundry washed.

Onwards and upwards! Today was my last full day in Rio. If the weather had played ball, and the sun had been shining, I probably would have headed to the beach, but it was grey, and while hot, overcast. So instead, I thought I’d head someplace hopefully lush and cool - Rio’s Jardim Botanico, or Botanical Gardens.

A 20 minute taxi ride later, and I was there. There’s a pretty dry visitors centre, and then after a token entry fee, you’re free to wander around.

It was actually really quiet and relaxing - a welcome break from the bustle of Copacabana. There was a map pointing out various bits of interest, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to follow the map, and the list of features wasn’t very user friendly if you weren’t of the green fingered type. It wasn’t long before I saw a bit of local wildlife.

Monkeys! I love monkeys. Anyway that was as close as I could get to one with my camera, but it was still pretty cool. Then I spent an hour just wandering around the gardens and getting some pics.

To be honest there wasn’t much colour - maybe that’s because it’s so hot here, but there were a LOT of trees. I have like a million pictures of trees.

Having read my guidebook to see what else was in the area I read about a nice café in a nearby local park (Parque Lage) which sounded amazing. So off I trotted - thinking I’d just walk as it didn’t look far. And it wasn’t - only 20 minutes walk, but let me tell ya, in the heat, that is a LONG way. I was drenched (yes, in sweat) by the time I got there, but I’m glad I made it - there was a building nestled just inside the park which just looked stunning.

Round the side of the building, I saw a little café sign so sat down and had a fairly average sandwich from a really grumpy woman at a handcart who wouldn’t smile back at me. Then I decided to explore inside the building. And that’s when I found...

Everyone sitting in a lovely café with delicious looking salads and sandwiches. The one the guide book had obviously been talking about. Fail number one of the day! I was gutted! Still I guess I should have looked inside first. There were also modern art exhibits in the building, and an in-house artist working away. I just thought the whole place looked really dramatic - it would be a great setting for part of a film. (I’m sure someone’s actually thought of that and already done it).

With a bit of time to kill before I picked up my laundry, I hopped in a cab to the nearest metro station and took a train into Centro - the city centre of Rio. And I wish I’d gone there earlier. There was a real buzz and vibe about it and it looked like a modern city (but with touches of amazing old architecture). If I had my time again, I'd have gone to Centro instead of Ipanema, which I didn’t find particularly impressive apart from the beach.

I headed to what's been rated the third best thing to do in Rio on Trip Advisor (so I figured it must be pretty amazing.) The Theatro Municipal or Municipal (that’s a guess) Theatre.

Looks pretty amazing from the outside! After eventually finding the entrance (not the front, or round the right, but actually round to the left) I saw a tour coming out, and asked when the next one was. That’s when I was told as it was a holiday in Rio, that was the last tour of the day, and they were closing now to prepare for a show in the evening. Fail number two!

Undefeated, I headed to this place...

Confeitaria Colombo. It’s basically an amazing old school cafe.

Inside was beautiful - you felt you were in Paris or Vienna rather than slap bang in chaotic Rio. I grabbed a coffee and a strawberry and cheese (like cream cheese) tart and then headed back to pick up my laundry.

That successfully collected, I jumped in another cab and headed to Pão de Açúcar - or Sugarloaf Mountain. Seeing as I’d already seen decent views of Rio from Christ the Redeemer, I thought I’d visit Sugarloaf at sunset to try and get some good pictures.

The good thing about visiting at that time of day (it was around 6pm when I arrived at the base) is that it was dead. So there’s a wee tip! I walked straight up to the ticket counter and then straight up on to the first cable car. There’s then a five minute walk to the next cable car to take you to the top of Sugarloaf. The views were good from this level...

So I couldn’t wait to get to the top and see the real deal - particularly at sunset. After a short wait, we boarded the next cable car. As we did, all of a sudden the top of the mountain became shrouded in fog. Meaning that when we all arrived at the top, this was the view that greeted us.

Absolutely nothing. I was gutted! I waited around for half an hour to see if it would clear, but there was no joy. So there wasn’t any point in waiting. I was really disappointed. I’d left it ‘til my last day in Rio thinking it would be a highlight, but it was definitely a low point for me! Third fail of the day (’though not my fault.)

I took some pictures on the way down again (there was no mist at mid-level), but they weren’t what I’d been hoping to get.

Still at least I got a good selfie I guess...

After that very disappointing trip (and note there’s no mist around the top in that shot which was just five minutes before I got on the final cable car!) I jumped in a cab and headed for dinner - to a restaurant that Tom from the food tour the day before had recommended. Galeto Sat’s in Copacabana.

As you can see it’s not a big place, and inside it’s basic...

But that’s not the point. It’s famed for it’s roast chicken - popular in Rio, and this place is meant to be one of the best. Take a look at these little birds!

I had Galeto Complet - which was basically a chicken with rice, egg in some kind of flour, and chips. I think you are actually meant to get that to share between two people, but it was under £10 and I couldn’t be bothered ordering a half chicken and all the sides (I’d read that was the way to do it). You can order a chicken as a meal with all the sides, but not the half chicken. This is what it looked like.

It doesn’t look the tastiest right? But it was. The chicken was beautiful - it was plain, simple food, perfectly done (didn’t think the chips were amazing though). I’m not sure I even ate half, but it was still great value for money. I did make a small mini fail here though - apparently broccoli rice is the thing to try, and I completely forgot about that.

Dinner done, by now it was getting really late, and I had to be up early the next morning. I jumped in my final cab of the day and headed back to my hotel to unpack my laundry and then pack my bag for my next stop.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil/Argentina - Day 5

Well I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling like a brand new person. So good, really, that it made me realise I hadn’t been quite right the day before either. Feeling refreshed, I got up and deciding to skip the enormous (and therefore tempting) buffet breakfast (you’ll understand why in a minute), and just headed to Starbucks for a coffee. Everywhere here seems to serve coffee with milk or espresso and no long black coffees. I’m sure they do, I just haven’t worked out how to ask for it. So that’s why I went to Starbucks - this one just under a ten minute stroll from my hotel.

As you can see from the picture, it’s definitely nothing special! It has a permanent security guard by the door, but also it has these....

There’s a Brazilian restaurant in Dallas my family and I (note the grammar there Dad) sometimes go to, so I recognised these straight away. They’re little cheesy bread rolls - although they’re made with a special kind of flour which makes them kind of chewy and delicious. In Brazil they’re a common breakfast food apparently, so obviously I had to have one - heated! It was just the right size for a wee bite in the morning.

After sitting there and writing yesterday’s blog, I headed back to the hotel and hailed a taxi to Lapa - an area quite near Santa Teresa, where I started my trip to Rio. It was about 11.30 and I headed straight to a restaurant - a meeting point for the food tour I was going to spend the day doing. 

It was a pretty cool place - like stepping back in time, and apparently it’s kind of been left untouched since the sixties. I was there to take part in an Eat Rio Food Tour - something I’d booked long before I’d left Belfast. I’d found it on Trip Advisor, where it gets rave reviews, and I’ve got to say having done it now I can understand why! We were met by our guide Tom, who’s originally from England. After a quick snack and drink, we headed out in to the heat, and took a stroll through the streets of Lapa. Although I’d set foot in the area before, when I visited the tiled staircase, I hadn’t really wandered much further. 

Tom stopped and explained loads about the area and the street art, which is literally everywhere...

Everyone just kind of seems to take it for granted! Every house and building is covered in graffiti or a mural (some of it better than others).

Walking around, for the first time I felt like I was actually seeing the real side to Rio - people just going about their every day business, school kids on their lunch break, everyone just getting on with life. Straight away that made the tour seem like a really good idea - in less than an hour I was getting away from the tourist traps and going places I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about the places we stopped on the tour, as I don’t want to give anything away for people reading this that might do the tour at some point, also I don’t think it’s fair. So (missing out some bits here) we ended up at a food market. It was very different from a food market at home.

Yeah that’s raw chicken just sitting out in the heat. Not sure about that really.

Tom took us around the stalls, let us sample some more snacks, and showed us a stall where they make raw sugar cane juice.

The machine looked lethal! After that we sampled some fruit, and it was all stuff I’d never seen before, never mind tasted. There was only one that got an almost unanimous thumbs down - a cashew apple (it’s what cashew nuts grow from). It was absolutely revolting. It was like spongy tongue.

Coming out of the market, we headed to a tiny restaurant where Tom told us we’d get a taste of Amazonian food.

Again, it was someplace I wouldn’t even think of stepping into or visiting, but it’s well known in the city for being authentic. We had a bowl of soup, which I thought was delicious. It had a leaf in it which really makes your mouth tingle, which was a very weird but not unpleasant experience!

Looks harmless, but it isn’t! (Well it is really but it’ll make your mouth tingle).

After we stopped in a little square for some more fruit and a very strong spirit that made your whole mouth tingle (again, must be an Amazonian thing) we headed to our final stop of the day. A really nice restaurant.

I had one of these, and immediately felt tipsy. The restaurant had made it with fruit Tom had purchased from the market, which i thought was really cool.

Then over some beers and chat, we all sat down to the final meal of the day.

I’d really loved the tour - everyone else was really pleasant, and it was a really fun but informative way to spent the afternoon (actually a bit longer than that). Tom was very funny, and also just seemed to genuinely want to help people see the places in Rio tourists don’t usually bother going to see. He also asked if anyone needed any tips on anything which was really handy (see tomorrow’s blog).

Finally, in another first - and something I should have done ages ago but didn’t) I took the Metro!

I’d been under the impression that it didn’t go a) anywhere near my hotel and b) anywhere you’d want to go. Both of these turned out to be untrue. It’s cheap - at about 50p a trip, and you can go far. So that’s the first thing I’d recommend about Rio - check out the metro. Secondly, is do the Eat Rio Food Tour - seriously - even if you’re not into food, you’ll get a lot out of it. But do it early on in your stay, as you’ll learn stuff you wish you’d known when you arrived (like me).

Obviously no need for any kind of dinner last night, so I downloaded another episode of River (I love it) and then headed to bed.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil/Argentina - Days 3 and 4

So the more astute amongst you will have notice I didn’t post yesterday. Basically I spent all day Sunday being sick. It was grim. I blame that cheap sushi! Or actually the two glasses of wine I had in the hotel bar. I just lay in my darkened hotel room all day, only getting up to vomit. I curled up in bed and managed in between drifting off to sleep to watch Home Alone in Portuguese (which I could follow) and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (didn’t have a clue what was going on). I just felt really terrible. So it was either food poisoning from the sushi or the water in my frosted wine glass wasn’t quite right. Either way it wasn’t pleasant. 

At around 6pm I did manage to venture out - I just wanted some chocolate milk to line my stomach. And - lo and behold - I think I managed to find the worst supermarket in the world!

This is just around the corner from my hotel. Basically anything you want, there’s just an empty space on the shelf where it should be. They don’t even have fresh milk. Only UHT stuff. Anyway, I did manage to find one carton of chocolate (UHT obvs) milk and joined the queue. There were three people in front of me, and twenty minutes later I was still in the queue, feeling like I was going to pass out. Just before I got served (thinking I was being smart in keeping it frozen ‘till the last minute) I ran out the line to get an ice cream bar - I fancied something soothing and cold. By the time I’d paid, the ice cream bar was a pile of mushy goo in its wrapper. It did make me think supermarkets really aren’t that bad at home!

The amazing thing was that while the queues were enormous, there were only two checkouts open, and staff just wandering about looking absolutely nonchalant. GRRRR!

Anyway I went back to my hotel room, threw my ice cream in the bin and went to sleep. I was worried having slept all day I wouldn’t sleep - but that wasn’t a problem.

Day Four

So, having lost a day, I was determined to make the most of my next day in Rio. I was up at 6am (!) and headed to the deserted Copacabana beach across the road from my hotel. I managed to get some pretty good shots.

It’s really an amazing time to be at the beach - the exact opposite of during the day when it’s crowded and hectic. And there’s no denying it’s spectacular. The promenade beside the beach was dotted with people heading to work and walking their dogs.

After having a couple of pieces of fruit (being cautious!) from the hotel’s buffet breakfast, I hailed a car from the hotel to take me to Cosme Velho. I was going to see Rio’s famous Christ the Redeemer statue, and read it was best to get there early to avoid the crowds. There’s a couple of options to get up the mountain, but I decided to take the tram as it seemed a bit more exciting than getting a van up (and less strenuous than walking).

I’d read the ticket office opened at 8am, so was there by about 7.40am, and there were just a couple of people in front of me. Eventually I got my ticket, only to discover that the first tram didn’t actually depart until 8.40am. And there wasn’t much to do but wait.

Eventually, we boarded, and by now I was glad I’d arrived early. The tram filled up quickly and people were left waiting for the next one. I’d read the best place to sit on the tram was the right hand side (actually facing backwards), and that was right - in between the thick vegetation you got an occasional glimpse of an incredible view of the city.

Finally, I was at the top. I must admit I was still feeling a bit rough, and wished I’d maybe left it a day or two to let me recover from my sickness, as I don’t feel I really appreciated it properly, but it was still amazing. It’s just ENORMOUS.

There’s like a walkway around the statue itself, and you get some amazing views of Rio. It was a bit cloudy (and the clouds can ruin the view, you are that high up) but the scene was still pretty incredible - Rio’s natural setting is beautiful.

Even though I was on the first tram up to the statue, I still thought it was busy enough! So I’d definitely recommend going in the morning - and the earlier the better. People are taking selfies literally all over the place.

I must confess I took some too, but I also took photos for people and got them to take some of me in return. The magic of Photoshop meant I was able to get rid of the crowds! I actually spotted a tiny chapel inside the base of the statue, which I bet most people miss. But you weren’t allowed to take photos in it.

I had a wander around after that, and browsed the usual tacky souvenir stalls, before catching the tram back down to ground level.

After quickly heading to my hotel room, I decided I’d walk to Ipanema - it’s another beach about 20 minutes from Copacabana on foot, but also apparently one of the best shopping areas. So I thought I’d go for a wander and soak up the atmosphere.

Ipanema Beach is as stunning as Copacabana really - I’m definitely planning on going back once I’m feeling better.

I walked along the main street, before heading to a little bakery I’d read about for lunch.

I ordered a little sandwich as again I was being very careful food wise, and really didn’t feel that hungry. It was quite nice, but it took a very long time to come.

After that I just wandered the streets.

I didn’t really see any shops that looked that interesting, and I’d read my guidebook so was looking in the right places. 

I did find a cool beachwear shop for guys, but didn’t buy anything.

I walked back to my hotel, and by this point was beginning to feel exhausted. I decided to call it a day and caught up on some British TV and ordered a snack from room service. Hopefully when I woke up in the morning I’d be feeling completely back to normal!

[simonkmiller]

Brazil/Argentina - Day 2

Ok, so firstly apologies for the lack of photos on yesterday’s post - they’re there now. Basically the wifi in my hotel for the last couple of days was dreadful, so while I thought they’d all uploaded they hadn’t.

So, on to my second day in Rio, and I apologise in advance. This is going to be a) very boring and b) very Western, as I really didn’t do very much at all.

I was up pretty early, but having had the best night’s sleep in a long time - I blame the Cachaça and vino last night, but although I woke up hangover free, I did unfortunately have very itchy insect bites on my leg, neck and elbow. Not sure when I got those. I headed back to the cafe where I had lunch yesterday, and grabbed a coffee. I also managed to get a shot inside as well - this is what it looked like. They had a Brazilian breakfast buffet going on but I managed to resist.

After that I headed back to the hotel for 70 lengths of the pool before going back to my room and packing everything up. After standing on a chair to check I’d emptied the safe and banging my head on the safe door not once but twice (very sore) I checked out and got the hotel’s driver to take me on to my next location - Copacabana.

I had a good chat with the driver on the way down about what I should do over the next couple of days, and was soon at my new hotel. I got a glass of sparkling wine on checking in (nice!) but my room wasn’t ready yet, so I decided to go and grab lunch. I walked one street back from Copacabana beach and went to that well known Brazilian style restaurant...

Ya, I couldn’t help it, after a bit of culture shock in Santa Teresa, I guess I just wanted something familiar :( There were three people in front of me, and I think I must have waited about fifteen minutes to be served. I’m getting the vague jist that things never move quickly here.

Weirdly I encountered a bit of a language barrier ordering, as I thought it would be pretty straightforward, but I eventually got my food. They do fries with bacon and cheese on them but I resisted that. 

It was nearly time for my room to be ready, but I spotted a TIM mobile phone store and headed there. I’d heard they do a great SIM for visitors to Brazil for about 50 brazilian real with free internet for a week. I know it sounds daft, but I was really beginning to miss not Googling and using google maps when I was out and about, so after fifteen minutes in the shop, I walked out with my SIM.

This is what the main shopping street in Copacabana looks like. Everything again feels a bit rough and ready!

Getting back to the hotel, I checked in to my room and it’s lovely. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I will do over the next couple of days. I then spent at least 45 minutes messing around with this dual SIM card case I’d bought for my phone which involved sticking SIM cards on to a flexible circuit board, bending bits of it, trying to insert it in to my phone and then getting both SIMs recognised (I told you this was not an interesting day). Finally I got it working. Then I headed up to the roof of the hotel, and wow... what a view.

It’s right on Copacabana beach, which I can see out my room as well. It’s pretty breathtaking. Although weirdly, taking that photo, I got for the first time what I think is vertigo. I just got a bit of the heebie jeebies, and I’m not sure why! I think it could be due to my Auckland sky tower jump earlier this year. 

Anyway, I had planned to go to the beach in the afternoon, but with the sky cloudy and it not particularly warm, I decided to do another very Western thing and go shopping. The driver from Santa Teresa had suggested it would be a good idea to visit a mall today, as tomorrow the shops only open at 3pm. So I hailed an Uber and caught a ride to Village Mall in Barra da Tijuca - about 35 minutes away. I’d picked this mall based on his recommendation and because it had an Apple store, so I thought it would have decent shops.

It did have decent shops, but none I could afford. It was obviously very high end - Louis Vuitton, Prada and the like. And the stuff in the Apple store was REALLY expensive. Apparently there’s a really high import duty on electronics here, so there were no bargains to be had!

Nice if you could afford it I guess, but I couldn’t, so I just did a quick lap and then decided to move on. I knew there was a big mall which was a bit more ‘normal’ just a five minute drive away, so I hailed a taxi to Barra Shopping. The ride was interesting. The driver told me he didn’t know any English but he did know enough to ask if I preferred women with normal behinds or big behinds! (Normal thanks very much).

Barra Shopping is ENORMOUS. It’s like a city. It’s got to be about three times the size of Bluewater. But look! Look what it has!

C&A! I haven’t seen one of those in decades! Anyhow, I spent the next hour or so getting completely lost in the place. Every time you turned a corner the mall split in two - if you walked down one section you then came out into another massive new section. Like this.

It’s just enormous to the point it’s a bit overwhelming. And the shops weren’t amazing either. I decided to chill out a bit and go for another typically Brazilian experience.

Me and my family have a thing about Starbucks you see. Anyway, after that I was beginning to get a bit peckish. To give you an idea of the scale of the place, I saw at least five different McDonald’s. In the one mall. None of the food offerings looked great, but I did spy a big queue at a sushi place. So yeah, I went there...

Weirdly the only kind of sushi they had all looked the same and was either salmon or trout. 

It was very average, but it did kind of hit the spot. And for about £5, I couldn’t really complain. By then I was kind of wanting to find the exit where I came in and get going. It was all just a bit mental. I caught a taxi back to the hotel, and by now it was about 9.30. I headed up to the rooftop again to write this and have a glass of vino, but had to move from a table at the edge because again I felt a bit jittery. God knows what I’ll be like using the infinity pool tomorrow morning!

So my day can probably be summed up by swimming, McDonald’s, Sim card, shopping and sushi. Not very exciting, but I am planning on doing a walk from Copacabana to Ipanema tomorrow and back, which’ll hopefully be a bit more ‘of the city’! Today was quite chilled out though which is exactly what I was in the mood for.

[simonkmiller]

Brazil/Argentina-Day1

I’ve been really lucky this year to visit loads of different countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Australia, New Zealand, the US, and Denmark, but I’m off now for my big trip of the year, and thought I’d do what I usually do when I go off for a couple of weeks, and keep a bit of a blog. I use it to look back and remember where I’ve been and what I’ve done really, so if you’re reading this, no pressure to keep checking it out! And I literally list what I’ve done each day as a reminder, so it can be long.

I was so tempted to go back to Japan again this year, having been for the last two years, but I decided to go someplace a bit different - and after being dissuaded against visiting India, plumped for South America. My two and a half weeks will see me visit Rio in Brazil, then Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina, before heading to Buenos Aires with a quick stop in Patagonia.

So yesterday at 4am, after eventually falling asleep at about 1am, I got up and flew to Heathrow for my connecting flight to Rio de Janiero. The flight was about eleven hours, and actually pretty relaxing - until my entertainment screen broke an hour and a half before landing as I was getting in to “The Affair”. But apart from that it was good, and the food was decent too.

I’d done a bit of research on Rio, so I wasn’t surprised when coming through the arrival doors at the airport to be greeted by literally hoardes of taxi drivers all begging to take me in to the city. Instead, I headed to the local taxi co-operative desk and bought a pre-paid voucher to take me to my first stop - Santa Teresa. The taxi journey was a real eye opener. I arrived at 9pm at night, and the city was bustling - I flew past little all night supermarkets which literally looked like holes in walls. Crowds stood outside tiny bars as my taxi sped up into the hills.

I decided to splurge a bit for my first two nights in Rio, opting to stay at the Hotel Santa Teresa up in the hills of Rio. I wanted someplace I could (hopefully) switch off and just laze about a bit. After checking in I was shown to my room which was calming and lovely. A quick glass of vino in the hotel bar, and I was in bed.

After a coffee in the morning to get myself going, I headed out to explore the neighbourhood. Santa Teresa’s bordered by favelas, and it’s certainly got a bit of a rough and tumble feel. The hotel I’m staying at was apparently robbed at gunpoint in 2011, and it’s obvious they take security seriously. The hotel is ‘guarded’ by a huge metal door. So stepping onto the streets, I wasn’t quite sure what I was letting myself in for. It’s an area populated by Rio’s artists, and you can see evidence of that everywhere - there’s graffiti, and bits of art, as well as artists’ studios and shops dotted along every street. I walked for twenty minutes past the tram stop to my first sight seeing port of call.

En route I caught my first glimpse of Sugarloaf Mountain - and it’s pretty incredible looking. The sheer size and crowded nature of Rio was also apparent.

Escadaria Selarón’s 215 tiled steps were created by a Chilean-born artist, and were pretty amazing. There was a really friendly vibe amongst tourists stopping for their picture and stall holders who offered to get your photo printed on a tile in ten minutes (I declined). 

After climbing all 215 stairs, I then walked to the next spot on my list. I say walked, but struggled would be more correct - while the stairs weren’t a problem, the hill you have to walk up to get back from them was. It was like vertical - and there’s lots of streets like that in Santa Teresa. I don’t mind saying I actually had to stop half way up and sit down for five minutes - maybe I’m getting old!

By the time I reached Parque Das Ruínas I was drenched. In sweat. It was very, very hot. The Parque itself is a bit of a weird attraction. It’s not really a park as much as home to a derelict building that used to belong to a Brazilian heiress. Now it’s really just a lot of walls with some art and new staircases placed inside, but the real prize is at the top - with again stunning views of Rio, Sugarloaf Mountain, and a favela.

After that I headed next door to the Museu Chácara Do Céu. It’s the former mansion of art collector Raymond Ottoni de Castro Maya apparently, and housed his collection of art along with some other pieces and period furniture. It was interesting, but really just took five minutes to walk around.

Then, I walked back into the centre of Santa Tereza...

...and stopped off for a spot of lunch in Cafe do Alto - I went traditional with black bean and shredded beef soup, and then had a sandwich which to be honest wouldn’t have looked out of place in Belfast.

After that, it was time for a bit of lazing around. I went to the pool back in the hotel and promptly fell fast asleep. I blame the hills!

After waking up and doing a bit of poolside reading, I had quick shower and headed out to dinner. Aprazível is situated a seven minute walk from the hotel, and it felt very lazy getting a car there, but I was glad I did, as even the car struggled to get up to its hillside location.

If you’re ever in Rio, I’d definitely recommend this restaurant. The atmosphere and location are just amazing. You get in a lift to go down to the venue which is literally built into the side of a cliff, then eat in a little wooden treehouse. The views are incredible, and the food is beautiful - if a bit on the expensive side.

To drink, I ordered a Caipirinha de Café Apravzível - Cachaça, lime, and cold-brewed coffee. I swear I took two sips and felt absolutely hammered. And the glass was massive, so I kind of sipped at it throughout the meal. It was strong stuff.

To eat, I had an Escondidinho - a little pie with parsnip puree, shredded sun dried beef and melted Parmesan. Next up was Galinhada Calpira - Free range chicken and Minas Gerais sausage rice with plantain and chilli jam. Feeling a bit squiffy I also decided to have brazil nut ice cream. The meal was really delicious - and the atmosphere truly special. If I had a girlfriend I’d be taking there all the time if I lived in Brazil!

After dinner, it was another car journey back to the hotel, where I’m now writing this over a glass of Sauvignon. Hopefully when I read it back in the morning it’ll all make sense! Tomorrow, I leave Santa Teresa, and move to Copacabana, which’ll be my base for the next five nights.

[simonkmiller]

Hey vegetables long time no see!

[simonkmiller]

Fresh pasta