Round the world in 150 days (mas o menos..)

Leaving South America...

This time tomorrow I´ll be on a plane to Madrid, where I will stay for a few days before taking part on a 7 day ¨English Town¨¨ program to help some spaniards improve their English conversational skills, in exchange for free accomodation and food :)

Hard to believe that I´ve been in SA for almost 6 months.. All I can say is that it´s a huge continent and there´s so much I haven´t seen yet! South America is such a inspiring place which draws people from all over the world, and despite our fear of being away from home or travelling solo, shows us country after country of real natural beauty, grand landscapes and welcoming people who go out of their way to help you. I´ve been surprised time after time about how safe and easy it is to travel around here.. for example, I was a little uncertain before going to Bolivia, but upon reaching there I found a place of warm, gentle people, intriguing landscapes (such as the pampas jungle and immense salt lakes..) and unbelievably cheap prices. Well the latter helps a backpacker a lot.. it´s almost impossible not to like a beautiful place where you can afford to do just about everything and eat whatever you want.. Of course the reason that the country is cheap is because it´s a third world country where the majority live on very little income, and it´s very sad to see the difference between the haves and havenots, but hopefully things will improve little by little.. Many backpackers volunteer in orphanages or other NGO´s (Non-government organisations) in South America, trying to do their bit to change things. I wish I did as well, but perhaps I can the next time around. Though many people try to help, I heard it is sometimes quite difficult for NGOs to make any significant change because of government bureaucracy, unclear goals, inadequate planning and lack of continuinity in projects (ie. when one volunteer finishes his/ her term the project stops as well). I guess it sounds a bit like a normal company really.. minus the financial incentive to make things work but plus the will to do good...

Anyway, here are some highlights from my last few weeks...

- doing a whale watching cruise and seeing many Southern Right whales at Penisula Valdes, and also saw many huge and lazy sea elephants who lie on the beach and do nothing except flap their arms once in a while.. they look so still on the beach that at first we thought they were dead!

- hanging out with wonderful friends and searching for tango in Buenos Aires... my friend from Australia showed me her favourite tango club (aka milonga in La Vitura) in Buenos Aires on my first night there, and from then on I was hooked. I watched a couple of wonderful tango music performances with friends from my hostel, but each time we thought there would be dancing and it turned out to be purely music.. until finally one night, we were determined to see a proper tango show contrary to warnings from the hostel staff that tango shows are purely for tourists, and that locals just go to the ¨¨milonga¨ to dance. Well, we went to one recommended by one hostel staff, which also turns out to be the cheapest, and it was horrendous.. with lots of bad acting and half hearted dancing and singing. The host spent the last half hour of program going around the room and asking guests at each table where they were from. Fortunately we finished our search on a fun note on our last night in BA, by taking a tango dancing class in a atmospheric milonga called La Catedral...

- watching the waterfalls at Iguazu Falls from both Argentinian side and the Brazilian side.. the waterfalls were absolutely spectacular, thanks to the recent rain in Brazil. Even earlier this month there had not been much water at the falls, until the last few weeks, so I was very lucky to see it just now. It more than exceeded any expectations I have, and it´s hard to describe how beautiful they are, so wait for the photos! Oh, I also got to shower in those waterfalls, as part of a fast boat trip experience that noone warned me about...

- going on a slum (favela) tour in Rio today. Brazil is one of the countries that has the biggest disparity between the rich and the poor, and in Rio a significant proportion (i think between 10 to 20%) live in areas known as ¨favela¨, ie. the slum.. The tour despells our notion what a slum look like by showing us two slums (one with 60,000 people and one with 3,000) where people seem to live normally and have all the facilities at their disposal, ie. banks, churches, schools and shops. The areas have grown alot over the years, and a few who live there have succeeded in their businesses and become middle class. The areas were mostly controlled by drug dealers, but it was pretty much a if you don´t bother them then they wont bother you¨¨ type of system. It was very safe going with a tour, and surprisingly some of the most expensive schools and wealthy neighbourhoods are located right next to or facing the slum areas.

Anyway, sorry for rambling on, hope i´m not boring you guys too much... Been in Brazil for a few days and internet´s more expensive here so i haven´t used it much, but i wanna write and say hi before leaving South America. It feels very strange to leave after spending such a long time here and not knowing when I can come back. Oh well, perhaps the lure of shopping in Buenos Aires will prove too strong to resist..

posted by Susan @ 2:17 PM