FOZ DO IGUAÇU, BRAZIL--Argentinian Side

The Argentinian side of the waterfalls was even more amazing than the Brazilian side... From the Brazilian side you were able to get a panaromic view of all of them but from the Argentinian side you got more of an upclose and personal look and feel... I also went with three other people from the hostel in a boat that takes you directly under the falls, which was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!!!!! There is said to be over 275 waterfalls and about 80% of them are on the Argentinian side whereas only 20% are on the Brazilian side!!! They are so beautiful, and I would reccommend that anyone who has the chance should go... Now I have to go to see Niagara Falls when I get home to compare, but I´m sure that these ones will blow Niagara out of the water!!! Hehehe!!!

FOZ DO IGUAÇU, BRAZIL--Brazilian Side

WOW!!!!!!!!! Another absolutely amazing place!!! After a 9 hour overnight busride from Curitiba, I arrived in Foz do Iguaçu... The hostel that I was staying at had organized a trip to the Brazilian side of the waterfalls (cataratas), so I went with three other people staying at the hostel which allowed us to capture the moment together... They are huge and sooooooooooo beautiful... After we were done viewing the falls, we went to have lunch, and an animal that looks somewhat like a raccoon decided that it wanted to get up on the table and steal my french fries... Hehehe!!! Then he took the hamburger from these people sitting next to us!!! Bastard!!! Hehehe!!! It was actually pretty funny!!! There is nothing else like these waterfalls!!!!!!!! :)

Un Mundo Entero is Back up and Running

Un Mundo Entero is back up and running as of May 2nd, 2007... As many of you know, my camera was stolen in Buenos Aires, and I was only able to buy a new one on Saturday when I was in Sao Paulo... Take a look below are the 4 new entries that I just posted!!! I just got to Foz do Iguassu (where there are these amazing waterfalls) after a 9 hour overnight busride from Curitiba... I´ll post more pictures as I take them!!! :) ENJOY!!! :)

CURITIBA, BRAZIL

Since Tuesday was a holiday, nobody had work, so Maure, Diogo, and I got up and went to see a few sights around Curitiba in the morning and then met up with Diogo´s parents and brother at an Italian restaurant for lunch and visited some more sights after lunch... Curitiba has a lot of parks so we visited many parks as well as the Botanical Gardens and a university that is for people who study the environment and nature and is in the middle of the woods... It felt like we were walking through a rainforest when we went to see the university... Diogo´s parents were extremely nice to have us and were VERY welcoming and sooooooooooo sweet!!!!!!!!! :)

Flight Drama Getting to Curitiba, Brazil

Diogo had come up to Sao Paulo for the weekend, and Maure, Diogo, and I had spoken about flying back down to Curitiba with Diogo if we were able to find a cheap flight... On Sunday morning Maure called me and told me that she found tickets for us to fly to Curitiba on Sunday night on the same flight as Diogo for about $50USD, so I told her to book them and I would pack my bags... We went to the BBQ and then drove directly to the airport in Sao Paulo since our flight was at about 11pm... As we were waiting in the airport, we heard an announcement saying that the Curitiba airport was closed because it was cloudy so we would have to fly into another airport about 100km or so away from Curitiba and take a bus the rest of the way... It was very frustrating, but we just ended up laughing!!! As we were getting off the plane, Diogo and Maure heard someone talking on the phone to someone who said that a plane had just landed at the airport in Curitiba, so we have NO IDEA what happened... Welcome to South America!!! We eventually made it to Curitiba at about 2am!!!

BBQ Near Sao Paulo

On Sunday morning, Maure and Diogo came to pick me up to go to a BBQ near a beach that was about 1 1/2 hours from Sao Paulo... One of their friends parents has a beach house there, and it is common for Brazilians to have beach houses on top of their regular house in a city... We had a BBQ there since Tuesday was Labor Day and they didn´t have work and many people didn´t have work on Monday either, so that made an excuse for the Brazilians to throw a party... Hehehe!!! It was lots of fun and I met yet more people and two of Maure and Diogo´s bestfriends who have been together for about 9 years and Diogo and Maure have been together for about 8 years... LONG TIME!!! Maure and Diogo are getting married next year!!!!!!!!!! YEA!!!!!!! :)

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL

After the awful camera theft, I got to Sao Paulo, Brazil and went on Saturday with my friend, Maure, and her boyfriend, Diogo, to this very cheap place that sells different types of electronics for the most part... It´s said that they don´t pay taxes to sell these items so it´s illegal for them to sell but not for me to buy... :) I got a really good deal, so I bought a new camera which is the beginning to a new stage of my life... On Saturday was also my friend, Alex´s, birthday so we went to a bar near his house to celebrate... Since he goes to that bar all the time they named a sandwich after him... His last name is Xavier so they named the sandwich Xavier... Hehehe!!! Maure, Diogo, and Diogo´s sister, Mariana, left the bar a little earlier but since I was staying at Alex´s apartment, I stayed at the bar with them until about 12:30am or something like that... There were also a lot of Alex´s friends there and his girlfriend, Cinthia. who he lives with... It was a really good time!!!

Colectivo Crisis

Well, unfortunately after more than two months travelling to various countries around the world (some first world and some third world), today it ended up happening to ME... I got robbed on the colectivo (public bus)... My camera ended up getting stolen from right under my nose, so therefore I want to let everyone know that I won´t be able to post pictures on my blog for a few days until I figure out what I am going to do... I am going to buy another one, probably when I get to Brazil, but it might not be for a few days so hang tight... I want everyone to know that I AM OK although I feel very violated... Let me tell you all briefly what happened!!! I arrived back at the port in Buenos Aires at about 12:45pm from Uruguay and I went to take bus #152 to my friend´s apartment... I had my backpack in the front of me but unfortunately I had my camera hanging down to the left side of me so that it wasn´t pushing against my stomach from the weight of my backpack... All of a sudden I looked down and I felt my camera pouch and it was completely empty... Of course I got all worked up and went off on this woman standing next to me who ended up getting off at the next stop, and I pushed her as she was getting off the bus... At that point I told the bus driver to stop and I went up to her and yelled at her even more and I told her to open her bag... She wouldn´t open it and she said let´s go to the police... We went to a supermarket where there are security guards but no police and they said that they couldn´t look in her bag and that we had to go to the police... She ended up opening her bag for me to see but of course nothing was in it since she was the one who suggested that we go to see the police... To this minute I still don´t know if it was her or if she was in on it or if it was her at all, and I now know that I will NEVER know, but I still feel like my space was violated and now most of the pictures are gone.... Sorry, but this means that you won´t get to see too many pictures of Buenos Aires, Argentina or of Colonia, Uruguay when I get home!!! Just the ones that are already on my blog... I hope that you understand the situation and how it happened!!! Thank God I still have the two other chips that I have already used and the chip in the camera that was stolen only had 300 pictures on it more or less and I had already downloaded some of them onto my friends computer, but it´s more the act of it happening to me than anything else... I am so happy that my friend, Carol, was here to talk to and to calm me down, but it is still VERY upsetting for me... I will let you know when everything is resolved but hang tight for now...... Despite my camera being stolen, Buenos Aires is still an absolutely amazing city and soooooooo beautiful... It just has some thiefs like any other city in the world although they´re much more common in this part of the world unfortunately!!! Wish me luck with the rest of my travels!!! :)

COLONIA DE SACRAMENTO, URUGUAY

On Tuesday, I took the fast ferry from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay... Based on advice from my friend in Buenos Aires, she told me that I only really needed a day or even just a few hours in Colonia, so I decided to only come for the night instead of two nights... It's a very beautiful town with stones making up most of the roads and sidewalks and it's right on the Rio de la Plata which separates Argentina and Uruguay, so it allows for some beautiful views... I walked around and went to the Barrio Historico and the Plaza Mayor and some parks (some with fountains), which were absolutely beautiful!!! I happened to make friends with some of the dogs around town so I was followed for some time by them as well so I didn't feel COMPLETELY alone... Hehehe!!! I am about to take the ferry back to Buenos Aires to spend my last two days there before heading to Brazil on Friday... South America is AMAZING!!!

Tango Show and Night Out in Buenos Aires

Although it was raining and has been raining for a few days now, we worked up enough courage to go to a Tango Show and then out to a club called Living until the wee hours of the morning... It was a lot of fun and I managed to get some culture in by listening to Tango music, which is the main dance and music of Argentina... The people who went out were Carol, Diego, Juan, Paola, and me!!! Buenos Aires is an absolutely amazing city and so beautiful... Last night I went to bed at about 6am!!! No wonder why I slept until about 2:30pm today!!! Hehehe!!! I'll post more pictures of the actual city soon!!!

Flight Drama

On Friday, I woke up early to take the bus from Los Heroes bus stop (about 2 blocks from my hostel) to go to the airport... I got to the airport and checked in and they told me that my flight to Buenos Aires was going to leave from Gate 17... All was fine until all of a sudden the gate was changed to Gate 20... The departure time was fast approaching and there still was no plane to be seen at the gate... They were giving us information as they received it but then I looked up on the screen at the gate and it said that the flight had been CANCELLED!!!!! Everyone got in line to get their tickets changed for the next flight... When I got up to the front of the line I asked what had happened and why the flight had been cancelled and they said that there was a strike in Argentina, so all of the flights that were supposed to leave Argentina couldn't leave... All of the flights that were already in Santiago could fly out, so I ended up getting onto flight LA 443 that was said to leave at 2:30pm, but that flight was also delayed until 2:50pm but at least the plane was there so I had hope that it was going to leave... I was supposed to meet my friend in Buenos Aires in a particular area of the city (not at the airport) at 6:30pm, so I was starting to get a little bit worried... I called her when I got to the airport and got my luggage, and we decided that she was going to come to my hostel to meet me there... I took a taxi from the airport to the hostel and she was there waiting for me... Despite a long day of airports for not a long flight (only 1 1/2 hours), it turned out to have a happy ending!!!!

My Last Night in Santiago, Chile

My last night in Santiago, Chile was a big party... I met three Brazilian guys at breakfast at the hostel on Thursday morning, and then they went to do their thing during the day and I went to explore the city on my own... I came back to the hostel at night and then went to get something quick to eat and was planning on just coming back to the hostel to relax since I had to get up fairly early on Friday morning to go to the airport.... When I came back to the hostel, they were in the lobby and invited me to go with them to explore more of the city, so of course I accepted their offer and went with them... They knew a guy who was Brazilian but lives in Santiago now, so he took us around the city in his car... Since it was my last night, and we all know that Brazlians LOVE to party, they wanted to throw me a little bit of a party as my send off so we got some Cacique Rum and some Coke at the Super Market and came back to the hostel to get the party started... I ended up going to sleep at about 3am!!!! GREAT PARTY!!! It was a great time, and I really hope to keep in contact with them because they were all very nice guys and also gave me some tips on Brazil!!! :)

SANTIAGO, CHILE

The day before yesterday, I flew from Auckland, New Zealand to Santiago, Chile arriving yesterday because of the time differnce... It was a long trip although it didn't feel that long because I had a very nice Colombian woman sitting next to me who lives in Brisbane, Australia and was going home to visit her family... I also talked to a guy from Bolivia as we were waiting in line in Auckland to get on the flight because he commented on the patches on my backpack referring to how many places I have travelled to... As everyone knows, I am a friendly person and was smiling to everyone I made eye contact with, so as I was waiting to get on the bus to take me into town to my hostel, a Mexican guy, Javier, came up to me smiling and we started talking... He also happened to be sitting directly behind me on the flight... He didn't know where to buy the tickets for the bus, so I told him where he had to go to buy them... He was just going to be in Santiago for one night before flying up to Mexico (he's from Veracruz) to visit his family since he is now living in Sydney, Australia... He ended up staying at the same hostel as I am, so we went out to check out the city last night, which was lots of fun to do together since neither one of us had ever been to Chile before much less to Santiago!!! Then I woke up today and had breakfast at the hostel, which is included as well as the internet in the cost of the room, and walked around the city since tomorrow I fly to Buenos Aires to see Carol!!!!!!!!! I'll be back in Santiago at the end of May, most likely, hopefully experiencing Chile with Keilah and Jenny!!!!!!! :)

Santiago, Chile Immigration--NO PROBLEM!!!

Throughout the days prior to arriving in South America (Chile being the first stop), I was comtemplating what I was going to tell Chilean Immigration when I presented my Italian passport to them with no stamps in it... I came up with a plan to just explain that I was going to be using it because it was easier in South America since Italians don´t need visas to enter these countries and Americans DO need visas to enter Brazil... Well, I didn´t need to explain any of that to them because they just opened it up, asked me how long I was going to be in Chile for, took my entry form, and STAMPED my passport............ On top of not only having zero problems getting into South America with my Italian passport, I also saved myself $100USD that Americans have to pay to the Chileans upon entering the country........ GO ME!!! Hehehe!!! THERE WAS NOT EVEN THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF A PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!! No more stresses!!!!!!!!! :)

Times Zones

As I am in yet another time zone (the same as Boston), I thought that I should keep track of the different time changes from Boston!!!

England: 5 hours ahead
Sweden: 6 hours ahead
Dubai: Before Day Lights Savings Time- 9 hours ahead, After Day Lights Savings Time- 8 hours ahead
India: 10 1/2 hours ahead
Hong Kong: 12 hours ahead
Japan: 13 hours ahead
Australia: 14 hours ahead
New Zealand: 16 hours ahead
Chile: Same time as Boston
Argentina: 1 hour ahead
Uruguay: 1 hour ahead
Brazil: 1 hour ahead
Mexico: 1 hour behind

Wow!!! I think that I got them all!!! Crazy to think that I have been in so many different time zones... Now that I am in Chile, at least I am in the same time zone as Boston but not for long............ :)