Rosario 19th-23rd Jan

Arrived in Rosario in the afternoon of the 19th Jan. Really cool city (second largest in Argentina), which is situated next to huge river. Quite interestingly river splits in several places, and comes back together later on, which results in loads of islands being situated along its course. Some of the islands have been beautified with beach sand, to create kind of river beaches which the Rosario folk can enjoy. The river however is a very muddy river, so it wasnt on our big list of priorities to go swimming in it!
We spent 4 nights in Rosario - and highlights were: - People watching in on the promendade over looking the river over a few glasses of wine - Going out with some fab peoples, to a awesome reggae bar, then to rather interesting clubs... Alarmingly we were directed to a club which was heaving, but with a whole bunch of teeny bops, literally 13-18 year olds trying to get in..we switched clubs, but were still horrified to see some really really young kids out on the lash! IN my DAY, we wouldnt DARE! Hmmphh! - Watching the sunrise after a long night out, all on my own - on the river bank, and contemplating life..or suicide? Hahaha no just life, it was spectacular..Orange Red Pink glissening over the river...Just superb!
Some pics of Rosario below:

 Choosing our Salads....peanuts denote the items we have translated and liked - hard to remember what everything is!!

 Building we stayed in

 Sunrise!!

 Unfortunately camera died before sun actually rose!

 Peanuts on the old menu again

 HEY HO! Or Ho's in our case?

 Our fellow hostel folks...

 Site seeing - looking really really black!

Naughty diablos!

- and undoubetly the biggest highlight was on the last day going SKY DIVING!! Yes, from 3kms I threw myself out of a plane attached to a another dude... We waited all day, as we went with abig bunch of people, and chose to go last. Bit of a random day waiting in the middle of nowhere..Kind of like the town in Texas Chainsaw Massacre...with like wheat fields all around, few houses then this dusty little town?! NERVOUS! Anyway, we found a nice restaurant (randomly it has a Spa & Hotel in the middle of town) and had a rather tasty lunch. The girls (Hannah & Nicola) went in the first trip, and I watched them making their way back down to earth, whooping and screaming along the way when they were parachuting. I went with another guy, and my quite hunky instructor introduced himself. I was then strapped in and tumbled into a small rickety plane, and we took off for our accent! It was about 5.30pm so the sun was starting to set and the views were amazing over the land and river tributaries. A pretty bumpy ride, but my instructor Sebastien delighted in comforting me with the occasional cuddle - you are literally tightly strapped to each other, so Heavens knows how uncomfortable guys must be? Sebastien definitely took a shining to me and seemed to be nuzzling in ALOT closer then the other dude and his instructor! No harm done though, because by this stage I was close to hyperventilation, and wasnt focusing on anything other than what I was about to do. We got to the right height..the door was swung open, gushing wind, terrified eyes, then other 2 dudes get sucked out, I am terrified, we mover to the edge, countdown begins and WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO! Into the air, 200kms an hour... 20-30 seconds freefall, then the parachute kicks in...and we drift gently down. What a RUSH!!! Absolutely amazing, and the views are indescribable! A definite highlight of the whole trip! We eventually headed back home, after a long sweaty 2 hour bus journey and settled in for a quite night before we headed off again to Buenos Aires the next day. A short 4 hour bus journey from Rosario. A nice 4 days spent, an amazing sky dive and another city ticked off in my itinerary! Next up BA...more news to come! Gypsy....signing out! Whoop whoop!  Pics below of my sky diving!!

 Looking delighted....and DEAD

 terrified...

 still terrified...

 getting the hang of it....

whooah NO...terrified again...

Iguacu Falls 18th-21st Jan

on the Sunday the 18th, said a sad but ready farewell to Floripa. I decided to continue travelling with the 2 Welsh girls, Hannah & Nicola - and the next planned destination was Iguacu Falls. The last 2 days in Florianopolis were plagued with a a series of unfortunate happenings.. Nicola lost her camera and got her wallet stolen, and I smacked my chin and then also had a cock up with my laundry - which left all my white clothes ruined, despite the fact that I gave CLEAR instructions and even seperated my colours into 2 bags!! I lost the plot and stormed off to reception on the morning of checkout, and cut sick at the poor duty manager who was only too apologetic. I also complained about the room that girls had been in, as they had been some sort of booking error - and with the Hostel being fully booked they were forced into staying in something that resembled a hobbit hole come kidnapping storage area... And not for the cheapest price either! The very nice owner after a lengthy chat gave us a massive discount on our stay! I didnt pay a penny (as a gesture of apology for getting my clothes ruined!) and the girls paid half price! So every dark cloud has a silver lining as they say! I couch surfed for free, then got to stay in a swanky hostel for free too!! WOOHOO!
After a sweaty couple of local bus trips we eventually set off for a fun-filled 18 hour bus adventure.
The bus left at 5pm, and the arrival time in Igaucu was about 8 or 9am the next morning. Buses do recline, so its not completely bad - plus that coupled with a fabulous sleeping tablet means that journeys are about 100% better than could be unaided by medication! I had the good fortune of sitting next to a rather pervy and annoyingly ¨chatty man¨ who even though I told several times I didnt speak portuguese insisted on trying to have conversations with me. He had this delighted/psychotic grin on his face the whole time too and at one stage I did wonder if drugging myself was kind of like a woman going to a bar and willingly spiking her own drink for shits and giggles.. Anyhoo - he eventually fell asleep and for fear I might actually commit suicide out of shear boredom, I caved in and had my sleeping tab.
I slept for at least 8 or 9 hours and woke up the next morning not far from our destination. What bliss! Plus I hadnt been sexually moleste, which too was a fantastic outcome. Pleased all round!
We got a cab, headed over the border into the Argentinian side and made our way to our club med style hostel, which was huge and even had wonderful large pool. With the heat pushing 35 plus degrees, it was a God send. We mooched around the hostel for a few hours, then headed beack over to the Brazilian side to explore Brazils side of the falls - which we were told shouldnt take longer than half a day.
It was spectacular, the size of it was all pretty mind blowing and we thoroughly enjoyed it. That eve, we went out for a delicious dinner - had probably the best BBQ Chicken skewer thing I have ever tasted, it had amazing thick slices of bacon on too and was purely sublime. We then retreated to our hostel to pass out in our food comas.
After a good night sleep in the well air-conditioned room we headed back out to do the Argentinian side of the falls - which was far more of a whole day experience. Again the weather was swelteringly hot, but it was actually quite nice to just be in the sun after a rather rainy few days in Floripa! We spent the whole day doing various walks to different view points and had a fantastic day. We saved the best views for last, and ended the day with the utterly mind blowing sight of the devils throat - the heaviest part of the falls which just super amazing! Awesome day, and far more enjoyable than I had imagined.
That eve, we headed back to the hostel ready to have a good few glasses of wine after our long, adventurous and hot day. 5 bottles later, we were all in the pool, guffawing around attempting to do a 3 person tower. Heaven only knows why we thought that one of us would be able to hold the weight of the other 2 in some Cirque du Soleil manner, but we were of course convinced at that time we could succeed! Attempting (and bitterly failing) our 3 man tower had us entertained (and probably a good few other people) for a good hr. Of course in between attempting our tower we screeched, laughed hysterically, whooped, frolicked about and caused general disturbance. We had started the evening with other people from the hostel, but sure as hell by the end of the eve we noticed that slowly people were retreating from our rowdy company until eventually we were by ourselves. All good things come to an end, and we got back to our room sopping wet, and crashed out. In my hastiness to get into bed, I must have forgotten to put my pajamas on, and woke up spread eagled on my bed in just my bikini bottoms - which wouldnt have been a problem, except we had a new room mate..A guy..Great.
Anyway, we packed up all our stuff and headed off to the next destination - Rosario in Aregentina. Another 19 hour bus journey but at least this time, on a very luxurious bus, which has seats much the same as the ones in first class flights. You can basically lie down,you get food, drinks, blankets and even pillows! What a novelty!
Had a blast in Iguacu - in great company laughing about all manner or things. One of the best things about travelling is the people you meet, and I have been lucky to have already met a great bunch of folks.
The girls I met and have travelled with have had me in stitches for most of the time swapping stories about travelling and life in general. 2 of my favourite travel stories of thiers...1 about the time they were supposed to head to Salvador Brazil, from Peru and accidentally got flights to EL SALVADOR in Central America instead.. a mere 10 hour flight away and 4 countries astray of their original planned destination!!!!The second being the time one of the attempted to introduce herself to some Bolivians in Spanish... See in your Spanish phrase book - the word LLAMA/S is denoted as meaning NAME.. "cómo te llamas" is apparently "whats your name".. All very good, and kind of like a more formal way of introducing yourself. The pronunciation, is supposed to be something like YAMAR, but LLAMA as we all know is also the weird looking native south american goat/mini camel. Now in Portuguese my "my name is..." is; Meu nome e SARAH, so combine that with what you THINK is the Spanish word for name, plus a mispronouncing the word and you have an interesting question/statement! Long story short a mispronounced word later, and fast forward to a very confused translated conversation between Nicola and a Bolivian guy she met out in a bar, which went something like this:

Nicola: "My Llama is Nicola!"
Confused Bolivian: You have a Llama? Called Nicola?
(Nicola, like many people, when not understood - merely repeats the question several times, but more loudly and slower, just adding to the confusion)
Nicola: MY LLLAMAA IS NICOLAAAA!!
Bolivian guy: "You are a Llama called Nicola?!

This went on for some time, until eventually both lost enthusiasm and retreated! Hahahahaha - needless to say we know affectionately call Nicola our little Llama.

More news to follow!
Gypsy..signing out!

Freeloading, Floripa and epic Fails.. 9th-14th Jan

Sooooo...
After checking out of Tucano House, feeling a little worse for wear (got nasty flu!), I headed off to go stay with my Global Freeloading host - on a different part of the island. With the advance of people desiring to travel, and do so on the cheap there have been the invention of networking websites such as globalfreeloaders.com and also couchsurfing.com. These websites basically connect people willing to either stay at peoples houses for free all over the world, or host people for free from all over the world. Its massively popular, and even though it sounds too good to be true - it really does exist. I stayed with a guy named David, who works from his computer in Brazil, he literally lives ON the beach, in a stunning location. A place called Praia de Matadeiro, down South on the Island. I was in serious need of rest, and the quieter side of the island was very welcoming to my desire to just chill out! I was scheduled to stay for 3 days, first day was knocked out with the flu - literally lay in bed and read, or sat on the porch, staring vacantly at the sea. Following day weather was a little better, and I went for a walk, had an awesome lunch and again just chilled out reading a book. On my final day there - the weather was spectacular, spent the whole day just lying on the beach and swimming. David works online during the day, so pretty much just entertained myself during the day, and then in the eve's we chatted about all manner of topics! It was actually really nice, I needed some recharge and reflection time!
I then decided to head back up North on the island, to meet up with the girls I had stayed with earlier on. They were checked into a fantastic beach side hostel - see: http://www.barrabeachclub.com/home.html
A much more chilled vibe, then Tucanos but still an awesome place. First night there just went for lovely dinner, then came back and chilled out. Went to bed pretty early, as still not yet 100% recovered from the flu bug..
Next day, awoke to glorious blue sky's and decided to hit the beach. Hostel we are in has free surf boards and beach gear, so we decided to try our hands at "surfing"...Novel idea.
About 15 mins into my surfing trial, I had an epic FAIL, face planted hit my chin and felt a little dizzy after. Didnt think much of it, until I noticed the blood droplets on the surfboard whilst I was sitting on it...
Turns out, when face planting, I hit my chin - and had a nice little split underneath it.
I headed to the lifeguard tower to get some assistance, and in universal sign language they explained I needed stitches... So I headed off to the local medical centre qhich was a mere 15 mins away where I was greeted by a team of receptionists who didnt speak a word of English!
After several minutes of them babbling to me in Portuguese, I burst into tears of frustration, at which point they called a doctor..who of course was amazingly good looking. By this stage I of course was trying to stop crying, which always results in me making weird SNORKING, HICCUPING, GULPING type noises, with a big fat white pad of guaze stuck on my chin, blotchy face, bits of seaweed in my hair etc - basically looking like a complete TWAT of course.. This all made me want to cry even more, and it was vicious moment in life I tell you!
Anyhoo doctor explained they couldnt do stitches there because they were too busy...GREAT and gave me directions to another medical centre. What an ARSEHOLE! Dont you have pity on a damsel in DISTRESS!?! Pffft - sticking to my "you might be good looking but your an ARSEHOLE" type sentiment. So I left feeling neglected, idiotic and hideous with directions to another medical centre.
I went home, examined the little wound and decided a DIY route of fixing the problem was more in order. So a quick call to Daddy, who is of course the worlds BESTEST DIY person, and I got some brief decriptions on how to super glue yourself fixed!
I headed down to the store, got some super glue, and got one of the dudes at the hostel to help me, and we just glued the wound back together!
Hey presto! She is healed! Not sure how the scar will be - but its on the underneath of my chin, and its not that big anyway! I did mope around for a few hours feeling sorry for myself afterwards though - its not easy being banged up abroad with no shoulders to cry on!!
That eve just chilled out after a delicious BBQ at the hostel, had a few beers then went to bed.
Today I am just chilling out, heading off to Iguacu Falls tomorrow with 2 of the girls I have met travelling. Hannah and Nicola (Welshies), and thereafter will be hitting Argentina for a while.
Have met loads of great people, had an absolute blast, eaten delicious food, drank amazing caiparinhas (brazilian cocktail of cachaca, lime and sugar)and really enjoyed my time in Brazil. Its an amazing place, and the vibe is captivating!
Gypsy Regdelp signout out from another adventure!
xoxo

Florianopolis - Tucano House 3rd Jan to 9th Jan

So left Sampa on a rainy day with the 3 girls met in Sao Paulo. Did the overnight bus, and arrived to beautiful Florpia on the 3rd Jan
Arrived at our great hostel - called Tucano house www.tucanohouse.com and were promptly invited to a pool party by the folks running the hostel. Each day activities get arranged for the guests and luckily for us we arrived on one of the first sunny days in a while!
Pool party is basically an outdoorsy type club called P12 - with pools, areas for lounging, sofas, chairs and outside bars, music playing etc. Great - when sun is shining of course! Its sitatuated right on the beach, and so attendees have the luxury of either chilling on the beach, or around the pool! It was awesome!See: www.parador12.com.br
We spent the day chilling out on the beach with our fellow backpackers - awesome mix of fun people, from all corners of the globe - plus lots of brazilians. Night time hit and we went back into the pool area and just had an awesome night of swimming, dancing, laughing, drinking and general partying. Met loads of cool people, and it was an absolute blast! The club is pretty swish, and even had the odd guest arriving by helicopter. Women on the beach/at the pool in Brazil wear practically nothing, and I dont even think normal bikini bottoms are for sale here - the fullest butt cover is something which resembles a childs bikini. All women: short/tall/thin/fat/curvy, wear thongs/g-strings or something slightly larger than a g-string - its fabulous I say! I am scouting for the perfect brazilian bikini of my own... At the club we saw some seriously stunning woman, and as a western girl I must admit I felt hideous!!! But throughout the day I kept on devouring nuggets of philosophical quotes likes - "beauty is only skin deep, beauty is the eye of the beholder etc"...however by the end of the day, fuelled by more alcohol my thinking went a little wayward, and I just kept on saying to myself that the prettiest girls with the sexiest butts, pumped up breasts and luscious long hair were definitely air-headed sluts. Sluts. So there. You might be the stunning - but you're a slut. That made me feel better temporarily, but what really numbed the pain from being in the class of flawed Western fatties with shit butts, no boobs and a gifted with no sense of dance rythmn - was the delicious caiparihnas which I drank recklessly! Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and our hostel Host eventually rounded us all up like cattle and shunted is back into the bus home! It certainly was an awesome day though - what a nice welcome to Floripa!
For the days that followed at Tucano house, the party vibe certainly stayed..daytimes were filled with activities such as beach going, island trips, hikes etc and nights were filled with partying. I stayed at Tucano house for 6 days in total - in that 6 days, I went to the pool party twice, went to a beach party on another, a house party at the hostel owners place and on the last eve went to an awesome bar which had a Samba Band playing, and everyone dancing...dancing amazingly!!! It was great to watch and after a bit (read: 6 caiparinhas) of dutch courage even tried a bit of Samba myself.. I had quite a few willing teachers!
The Island is quite huge, like 560km in circumfrance - so there is SO much to do. Anyway - had to say a fond farewell to my fellow Tucanos and set off for my next adventure...Staying at a couch surfing host - AKA a guy I met on an online website dedicated to connecting travellers world wide where you get to stay at people's house for free!
So I set off with some vague directions to stay with an American dude who lives here on another part of the island, who had agreed to host me for 3 days!
More stories to follow!
Gypsy - signing out!
xoxoxo

Sampa!

Well writing from a very rainy beautiful Florianopolis, Santa Catarina Island in Brazil!! Its been a while since I wrote, and from my last blogpost I have been spending some quality time with my family back in Port Elizabeth South Africa!My first Christmas home in 7 years and it was absolutely delightful.
Anyway - I am off again and I arrived in Sao Paulo on the 29th Dec. I arrived in the afternoon after a very comfortable flight from Johannesburg. The aeroplane wasnt full at all and I had a whole row of seats to stretch over. Was supposed to make my way to Rio for NYE but after looking at the expense of it, and realizing I might not actually be able to find buses going through, I decided to just stay put in Sao Paulo for a few days before heading off.
From the airport I got a bus to my hostel. Not many people speak English at all - so my universal sign language skills are definitely coming in handy. People seem to be pretty friendly though, and the bus driver very nicely dropped me quite close to the hostel, which was a little out of his normal route. As soon as I got off the bus too, there was a guy asking me if I needed help, judging by the backpack on me and the map in my hand I think its kind of obvious I am a gringa!
Hostel I was staying in is a nice recently renovated house. Its pretty funky and the people working there are lovely too. Randomly there was another South African guy staying at the hostel, but there were mostly Brazilians staying there. Its conveniently located in a central place, and the neighborhood is probably one of the nicer ones in Sao Paulo. On my second day in the hostel some more girls checked in, 2 Welsh lasses, and a Brit and I landed up befriending them. We all spent NYE together and had a real laugh. There was a BBQ, or Churrasco as they say in Portuguese, at the hostel and really close to the hostel, there was a massive street party on a famous stret in Sao Paulo called Avenida Paulista. So we stayed at the hostel, where there was a load of others also, had quite a few drinks (read: got plastered) then headed out to the street party. It was pouring with rain, but the atmosphere was pretty festive. There was a massive stage with Brazilian bands playing, everyone dancing in the street etc. After getting completely drenched for a while, we decided to head back to the hostel where we watched the fireworks and festivities from the roof terrace. We all then jumped in a cab and headed off to a huge club. The queue to get in was MASSIVE, and although 2 of the girls were determined to get in, and decided to fight it out, myself and one of the other girls couldnt stomach the thought of having to wait for like an hour to get it. It was about 3am by this stage anyway, so we called it a night. I was probably not in the best state to go clubbing so it was definitely a blessing in disguise that I didn't go in!! The 2 girls that did go out, came back at 11am the next day so kudos to them for being bloody crazy!
Spent the 1st of Jan, mooching around the hostel very hungover. Watched movies, ate like a pig...normal hungover activities.
Following day, we were all planning on leaving Sao Paulo, and all planning on heading the same way. Decided to get a night bus to Florianopolis, which was leaving at like 11pm on the 2nd Jan. Not wanting to waste a day doing nothing, we set off to do a walk through the city centre and some sights... Well we can definitely confirm that Sao Paulo is not the most touristy destination in the world. Basically saw some churches, monuments, beggars and graffiti and buildings..hahahahah amazing.
We went out for a few beers that eve, and made our way to the station. The bus station is huge, but quite easy to navigate. Managed to get on the right bus, with some asking around, and set off on a very comfortable luxury bus. We all took sleeping tabs, and woke up the following morning in my current destination.
We booked into a very cool looking hostel on the island of Santa Catarina, a nicely the weather was fantastic when we arrived, a nice change to Sao Paulo.
Got a cab to hostel and literally as we arrived we were invited to a beach party. Spent yesterday on a gorgeous beach, in front of this huge outdoor pool/beachy nightclub, and as the sun set - we all headed into the club. The club is called P12 and its super awesome, its basically a marquee set up, with pools, loungers and decks all over the place. Reminded me of being in Vegas, at the pool parties we had there...
There were loads of buff men, and scantily clad amazing looking woman dancing around - everyone in bikinis etc. Being blonde, I dont really stand out as there is a huge German population here down South, so only when I open my mouth do I get found out! We were in quite a large group and had a fantastic time. Spent a major part of the evening fending off some very eager Brazilian men - who were pawing at me like needy kittens... I tell you, they get 20 points for effort. Of course when I say I am from South Africa, it seems to encourage them so its really just a case of calling upon some of the men in our group to come save me occasionally. Its all pretty harmless though, and of course very flattering, so paw away men! We came back late last night and went for a bite before heading to bed. The hostel is really amazing, the people I met are awesome, its super fun here and I love the beach....
I think I might be here for a while..
Gypsy Regdelp signing out...