Bolivia

This is taken in Chile, just a few hundred meters from the border to Bolivia. Its at about 4200 meters if i remember correctly. It was quite funny to turn off the asphalt road we were on at the time. The driver pointed further down the road and said that was the road to Argentina. Then he turned off the road down this barely visible track and said, "This is the road to Bolivia".






This is somewhere on the Altiplano, it doesnt really do it justice. The landscape and colors are amazing, definately one of the most beautiful places i have been. It is really windy and very cold at night though.











The salt flats of Uyuni. They are covered with a thin layer of water this time of year, and thus reflect everything like a mirror. It is a spectacular sight. It is the biggest in the world of its kind, but due to the water we werent able to go fast enough to really explore it. In the dry season you can drive on it like a proper road, so its possible to go further.








Another one of the salt flats.















We werent alone on the flats. These two girls were busy looking at the pictures they´d taken.
I thought it a good moment to take a picture of them:)











On the road from Uyuni to Potosi. It is one of the worst roads i have ever been on. It doesnt really show here, but a trip supposed to take 6 hours took almost 10. The flat only took about 20 minutes. Its hard to see here, but the tire they´re putting on is actually much larger than the flat one. They removed a few parts of the break system to make up for it. That´s using your head.








The train comes here twice a day, so its quite safe to nap.














We´re off to the silver mine in Potosi. First we have to stop and buy the miners some gifts. Coca leaves, alcohol and dynamite. Those bags are full of Coca.
Read more about the mine on wikipedia :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potos%C3%AD










I bought a stick of dynamite as a gift. It was only 10 Bolivianos, which is less than one Euro.
We spent the better part of two hours walking and climbing around the mine. Its not made for tall people, and the work is extremely hard.
The miners are divided into 3 classes. The 3rd class miners do the dirty work and earn 50 Bolivianos a day. The 2nd class handle the explosives and drilling, while the 1st class generally oversees the work and owns the equipment. A lot of children also work here, i saw some which cant have been older than 7.





She´s not a miner, but she works separating the minerals from the piles of rocks the miners bring up. She´s 77 years old and loooves her Coca. Spry as a mountain goat, she jumped and half ran down to the road below.

It´s true, "More beer for more friends"!

A handy 5 litres of friendly beer for those special moments.

Buenos Aires

The Capitol building, modelled after its American counterpart. It is very nice, and hard to get a picture of due to the fence behind right behind me. Hope i'll get a better picture of the real thing when i go to DC in March.













From the Necropolis in La Recoleta (the richest part of BA). This is a cemetary for the rich and famous, and is full of tombs and sarcophagi trying to overgo eachother in their opulence. In short, it's a pissing contest for the dead. It feels very weird to walk around here, specially if you go early before all the tourists arrive. I was pretty appalled by the whole thing, some of these graves are bigger than houses and must have cost more than most people earn in a lifetime. With all the rich people lying here, you'd think they would have enough money to care for the place. Nope, they have the gall to ask tourists for donations and to buy maps and stuff. Guess that's how one becomes rich in the first place, by spending other peoples' money.







Another one of the "graves". Can you believe the hubris of some people?




















Rows upon rows of little death boxes. Sell your car and your house, and you might afford one too.

















This one is obviously modelled on The Tardis of Doctor Who fame. I like the modifications to the original design, lets in more light and gives it a nice modern look. Cudo's to the dead guy for brightening up my day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardis














For the footie fans. I didn't go to the stadium on purpose, it was on the way to the harbor so i stopped by to have a look. There was even a look-a-like of Maradona walking around on the next street trying to stiff tourists for a picture.
He didn't fool me, he didn't look at all like he'd done a few kilo's of cocaine over the years.

The amazing Iguassu

After an almost 25 hour bus ride from Rio, i am now in Iguassu falls. There are actually two cities here, one on the Brazilian side called Foz do Iguacu, and one on the Argentinian side called Puerto Iguazu. I´ve spent a few days in both, and seen the falls from both sides. They are truly spectacular, and the pictures do not do them justice.


A part of the falls seen from the Brazilian side.
See the little boat down in the left corner? I took one of those rides, and they take you under the waterfalls. It`s all very touristy, but it was fun anyway.











The "Devils throat". I took a lot of pictures of this from different angles and positions, but they`re all foam and spray so it´s hard to see how insanely cool it really is. On the Argentinian side there is a platform up on the left which let´s you see right down the falls. You are literally standing on top of it, being sprayed by cascades of water. Great stuff:)






More falls, this time from the Argentinian side. The Brazilian side gives a great overview, while the other side is more "hands on water in your face". The Argentinian side is also much more elaborate and takes almost a whole day to see it all. They even have a small choo-choo train to take you to the different parts. With the queuing and all, it was actually faster to walk.








El Cocodrilo! Not too big, but it was chilling under a bridge so I had to take a shot of it. Some children were spitting on its head to make it move. I wanted to throw one of them over the edge, but i hear that sort of thing is frowned upon here.









I was walking to the bus station after having lunch when this trailer was taking a turn too fast. Its whole right side ripped open and spilled out a few tons of paper. Now you know how traffic jams start...










I also visited the Itaipu dam just cause it´s here and it´s the biggest of its kind in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu

It has 20 of these generators, and half the power of one of these is enough to supply Paraguay with 95% of its electricity needs. The rest goes to Brazil and supplies about 23% of its needs (these are numbers from the tour, Wikipedia says differently). It produces 1400MW, which is a bunch. Certainly enough to charge your phone and keep the AC on at the same time. Notice my flashy shoes, flip-flops aren´t allowed so i got to borrow some extremely warm workshoes. The hat i would´ve worn anyways, just because:)



Humans on the right, snakes on the left. They actually have a program to teach snakes to read signs here. It´s good to know the entrance fee is put to good use.

Fun signs aren`t so funny without the pictures...

Saw some more funny signs on the road, but unfortunately i didn`t get any pics of them. You gotta wonder if those brazilians have a sense of humor, or if they just don`t understand english that well. I think it`s a bit of both:)


Love Time Hotel - Hotel in Catete in Rio. Wonder if it`s possible to rent by the hour? The place actually looked kinda nice though.

Fire Nights Motel - This was on the road, so there weren`t alot of other buildings around. Maybe they supply the fire themselves?

Wimpy Combustion - Probably won`t be a big hit outside Brazil

Fatalsurf - Neither will this brand i believe. Don`t know if they just sell clothes or equipment as well, but i might buy a t-shirt just for fun. Kinda like the cigarette packs with skulls on them, except with pictures of surfing accidents and things like "Surfing can kill!" , "Saltwater in your lungs may impair breathing, damage your health and cause premature death" or "Coral reefs can be really really sharp"

It's the new year and I am way overdue for an update. Basically i've been hanging around in Rio for a good three weeks now, just so i didn't have to travel during the holidays. It can get pretty hectic, specially if you don't speak the local language. I've done some of the touristy things, and my impression of Rio is that it's a little overrated. The beaches are very crowded, noisy and sometimes so dirty i didn't want to swim. It all depends on where you go though, as there are nicer beaches if you want to spend alot of time getting there (i don't, not being a beach person). It's also quite expensive here, specially during the holidays when they jack up the prices. The city itself isn't that bad, it certainly has it's charms here and there. If you have a lot of money to spend, Rio is a nice place. For those who don't, well...tough...

Here's the mandatory jebus pic of the Corcovado statue (Christ the Redeemer). It's huge and it was very crowded on Christmas day.

Here he is again from the back, a little cooler with the sun for a head me thinks:)

Here's Botafogo where i've spent most of my time. The pointy hill is Sugarloaf Hill which has a nice view if you take the cablecar to the top. Imagine it just like this, only from the other side since i'm too lazy to upload more pictures:)

Here's the Rocinha favela (favela means ghetto) in Rio viewed from the top. It has about 200.000 inhabitants, and it's the largest of Rio's (and also Latin America's) 750 favelas. In contrast, the highrises at the bottom is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Rio, an apartment there can cost $5m USD. A house in the favela will run you 5.000-50.000USD depending on the standard (yes, they do have standards, even here:)

Life in the favela. I was told this is actually a cousin and his uncle taking a bath. Cousin on the left, apparently uncle gets to bathe first.

While these guys were playing for change, five mean looking guys walked right past us. The first one had an assault rifle, the second was carrying two handguns (in his hands, not holstered). Third came the bling'ed out druglord, fourth another guard with two handguns out, and last another one with an assault rifle. They just nodded at us while they walked by, and i didn't feel threatened at all, but i'm sure that would've changed if i had tried to take their photo. A little further down we came to the "Line of death" which is a wall where the drugrunners usually make their stand against the police. Fun times....