Hmmm...

So, I was walking around downtown Buenos Aires the other day ... and all of a sudden I came up on a collection of some interesting artwork. I have no idea what it does (or is supposed to) represent, but this sign sits near the sculptures:


It probably tells us everything we need to know, but sadly my 22 iPod lessons of Spanish have not gotten me even closer to being able to understand it, so would anybody care to volunteer to translate?

And scattered all around this sign were all these guys:

Says something about the French, I presume. Good, bad, or just metallic?

No flights scheduled today...

Beware of angry crocodiles, with a few screws (loose?) in its mouth

And if the croc didn't do it for you, then maybe you'll like the dinosaur better

These guys seem to be outside of a museum of some sorts - abstract art I hope? Just down the street, in a city park, I also found this statue:

This one didn't even have a Spanish-language signtp try and explain the artist's thoughts on the UN...

So, hmmm, there sure are a few odd things lurking around this city...

Carnival!

No, no, I haven´t forgotten about the reason I went to Brazil, even though there have been two blog posts about Brazil since. The main point of going to Rio at the end of February was, of course, the amazing spectacle that is Carnival. It, honestly, is almost impossible to describe - it is unlike absolutely anything I have ever witnessed before. Welcoming in the New Millenium on the strip in Las Vegas was crazy. I´ve never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I hear it´s quite insane. I don´t even know what else I can try comparing it too, but none of it comes close, I´m certain of that.

The city is filled with people. I don´t know what it´s like normally, but the public transportation system was clearly staining - we´d regularly have to stand in line for 20 minutes just to get a ticket for the subway. And the subway just takes you to the party. Whether it´s a block party marching and singing through the streets:

Bloco in Ipanema beach

or a beach with not quite enough room for everyone there

Ipanema´s crowded

But once the sun sets, the party really kicks into gear

Lapa, an area full of bars, restaurants, and night clubs is now so full of people (all the way through the night) that the clubs literally spill right into the street. No pictures here, sadly, as Lapa is also not particularly safe, so you don´t bring anything you don´t want stolen, so my camera would stay behind every time.

But that´s all merely the prelude. The weekend comes and the Sambadromo kicks into full gear with all the Samba schools marching through all night long, featuring their outrageous costumes and amazing floats, all while the whole crowd sings and dances in tune with the performers:







Having a good time in the stands...

But words don´t really do the whole thing justice, so you should really just look at the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2018834&id=1046387715&l=88afa

And I´m free...

Free falling? Well, not quite, free-gliding? It´s one of those things you should do in Rio - take a ride up (in some sort of a very rickety contraption) to the top of Pedra Bonita mountain, then run full speed off the edge of the cliff! Right, with a hang glider strapped to you. Bungy jumping? check! Sky diving? check. Obviously, hang-gliding in Rio was meant to be... so Cyrus and I - by the way, for anyone wondering, when I got back from Antarctica, I had no idea Cyrus was in Rio either... and he apparently had no idea Carnival was coming... but if anyone is remotely surprised to find Cyrus randomly appearing at some remote part of the globe obviously don´t know him very well - so Cyrus and I caught a cab to Pedra Bonita on our last day in Rio (before heading of to Iguazu, see below) and figured we´d try a little gliding. The cab drivers in Rio seem to be notoriously clueless about where they are going, so I suppose I should be glad that our driver did know the way to the mountain, but clearly did not know that you need to go down to the bottom first to recruit yourself a pilot - he just took us straight to the top. That´s ok, after 30 minutes of watching and deliberating, we caught a ride back down the mountain in what was basically a dune buggy:



Soon enough, I was back at the top and gettnig ready to run off the ramp pictured here at full speed:

Cyrus thought better of paying a lot of money to run off a cliff and stayed on the beach

And very shortly thereafter, we were in the air! Running off the edge of the cliff is actually quite easy - just try to make sure you don´t get tangled up with your pilot. Once in the air, you are just floating down quite gently back to ground, the whole flight only takes about 10 minutes, and I got all the way to the 5 minute mark before starting to feel a little bored and asking if the thing can go faster (yes!) or make any sharp turns (no... boo!)

Looking down at the beach - note the other glider below us, they are all taking off one right after the other

and looking off in a distance at some surrounding mountains

Pretty soon we were skimming just above the perfect white sands at the beach and coming in (rather quickly, I thought) for a landing, but slowing down quite gracefully right before touching down. All in all, it really isn´t so much about the adrenaline rush here, it´s just a really cool way to get a new and different perspective on the Rio surroundings.

And I´m free... free... gliding through the air...

And the following day, we climbed onto our bus and headed South, away from the beach, to Iguazu.

A few sights in Rio (other than the general insanity of Carnival... pictures coming, I promise!):

Santo Cristo towering over the city. It was the only day I was in Rio where it was even a little cloudy. We did meet Sasha and Dasha (from Moscow) while waiting in line.

Sugar Loaf mountain and the cable car that leads up to it

The view out onto the ocean from the top of Sugar Loaf

A monument... that probably symbolizes something important at the bottom of Sugar Loaf. Not actually all that interesting, but...

if you look closely at the bottom right... you´ll find this Brazilian princess doing some modeling by the monument. No idea who she is or what was going on, but I wasn´t going to pass it up without getting a picture!

Yesterday was one of those days.

Yesterday was one of those days that you hope you have when you set out on a new adventure.  It was day two for Alex and I at Iguazu Falls.  The day before we had arrived on the Brazilian side at after a 24 hour bus ride which stopped and woke us up every hour during the trip.  We fell out of the bus at noon and ran right into Sasha & Dasha a couple from Moscow who we (thanks largely to Alex's Russian skills) had made friends with in Rio.  They were both pretty awesome and since they knew our bus got in soon they decided to wait for us.  We all caught up on our trip there and had a little meal while wondering around the town of Foz de Iguazu.  However since we were on a timeline and they wanted to get into a tour group for the falls we split up and headed strait to the falls while they headed off to find a hotel and book a tour.  

Alex and I arrived at the Brazilian side of the falls around two.   We had decided to catch the Brazilian side the same day and head over to Argentina later so that we could catch the Argentinean side first thing the next morning.  But we weren't really prepared for the size of the falls and our first view of them just took our breath away. 

We walked a trail down as far as we could go and ended up on a platform on the Brazilian side with a pretty spectacular view of the falls.  I think both of us were thinking that it couldn't really get any better.  

We there for several hours until we decided we'd pushed it enough and headed back to town to catch a cab to Argentina.  Yes you can actually cross the border in a cab...  We had heard all along that the Argentinean side was prettier than the Brazilian side but we hadn't expected what we found the next day.  The first peak was as spectacular as anything we'd seen on the Brazilian side and it just continued to get better.

We walked about 2km down to the bottom of the falls where we were able to take a boat out to an island in the middle of the falls area which allowed us some spectacular views.

In addition to the spectacular views I was able to go swimming in the river out in front of the falls where some small fish attacked me for a minute or so and then let me alone.  Guess I needed a shower..  Once we finished with the island we hopped in another boat that drove us up under the falls.  Obviously Alex wasn't willing to sacrifice his camera to get those shots and really getting pummeled by water while fun couldn't possibly be a good shot anyway.  The boat was awesome we got to go all around the falls and then driver kept diving us head first into the falls while the passengers kept shouting "Again" in spanish.    All around it was a pretty spectacular day.  I'm nice and red in the aftermath and now that I'm in Buenos Aires I'm wishing I could have spent more time there.  Though we did get to see everything there was to see I think given more time I would have happily gone back for day three.

We ended up with some pretty spectacular pictures and I still feel like we didn't do a good job of capturing everything we could have but it's impossible to capture something like the falls well.  They are just too monumentally large but yesterday will always be a spectacular memory.  Alex had to talk me into abandoning Rio and going with him to the falls and I can't say how happy I am that I decided to join him in his trip.  They were worth every bit of the 24 hour bus ride to get there.  Now I'm in San Telmo, Buenos Aires which is a beautiful old colonial area in Buenos Aires.  Alex will catch up with me in a few days but I hopped a flight here to maximize my travel time.  Hopefully I'll find something equally worthy to write about soon.

Антарктида

This is Copacabana beach. In Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. Packed with tourists for Carnival. I have been here for three days now, and the average temperature has been 29 degrees (yes, Celsius), with plenty of humidity. So perhaps you'll understand why it's taken me some time to finally get the Antarctica post together. You know, that continent when the warm summer temperatures barely creep above freezing...

Anyway, the blog still lives, even if there haven't been any updates in much too long. My excuse is Rio. Lott, I hear, injured his shoulder again in the mean time. Anyway, the remote part of the world without internet access, this time, was
Back to Antarctica - and that is the post title, in case you are not up on your Cyrillic - appropriate too because I traveled from Russia all the way to the end of the world (Ushuaia, Argentina prides itself on being the Southernmost city in the world), just to meet a whole ship full of Russians - our cruise was to be aboard the Akademik Ioffe, a Russian research vessel, leased to Quark expeditions, along with a full Russian crew and staff (Russia doesn't focus on research quite so much any more...).

The Ioffe, chilling in the icy waters near Antarctica

So, on February 3rd, Oliver and I joined the other 100 passengers on board, and off we sailed, heading South across the Drake passage towards Antarctica. And the ship would be our home for the next two weeks, coming back to Ushuaia on the 16th. Pictures speak louder than words, of course, so, if you haven't seen these yet, you should definitely have a look: Antarctica photo album.

The best I can really add here is a few thoughts and highlights from the trip:
- Our expedition was called 'Crossing the Circle,' as in the Antarctic Circle. This is a much longer way South than most ships go, and getting that far South you really need the weather to cooperate. Well, the weather more than obliged for us - the crew kept talking about how this was one of the best 10 day stretches of weather they had ever seen down there. The Drake Passage, however, which you have to sail across (for a full three days if you want to steam all the way down past the circle) is a different story entirely. It's generally considered the roughest stretch of waters anywhere on the planet... We were once again told that what we got was really quite calm. And the ship has some pretty amazing stabilizing features. No matter, being out there for three days wasn't a whole lot of fun! On the way down, I survived without any pills, on the way back, I decided to try the 'Better living through chemistry' that the ship's doctor was preaching... and am glad to report that it works.

Crossing the circle produced a celebration on the bow, and our first sightings of lots of icebergs.

- On to Day 5, near Horseshoe island, being further South that most of the Quark staff had ever traveled (good weather!). The day before, the 15 of us that had signed up for kayaking got our first lecture and basic safety tips. Included in that was trivia like Louise had never had anybody go in on her watch. Christine had had but two. Most of us, including me, had had some kayaking experience prior to Antarctica, and the kayaks were quite stable. So, with all that as a background, quite obviously, I got into my kayak down by Horseshoe island, paddled out for some 30 seconds away from our zodiacs, and then jerked around sharply to try and catch a glimpse of a large chunk of a nearby iceberg falling off... And over went the kayak. So, it took me 30 seconds to break Louise's perfect safety record! So, in summary, I've been swimming some hundred miles South of the Antarctic Circle. For the record, the water is quite cold, but the dry suit does its job quite admirably. I got back out, changed gloves, got right back in, and had a great time paddling. Culminating with a pair of humpback whales coming right up to us.

The reward for getting back in: humpbacks swim right up to us...

Animals are everywhere down by Antarctica - a variety of whales, penguins, seals, and birds. Along the way, we got to hear what the whaling and sealing industries have done to the populations... It's quite sad, really (Blue whales, for example have gone down from over 100,000 to about 5,000!). And apparently, the only worthwhile byproduct of a whale was oil, that would be used to light street lamps in places like London. The biggest point of all this was that we saw lots of whales on the trip, but I can't even begin to imagine what things would have been like a 100 years ago. The other animal we saw lots of was the leopard seal. This is a mean looking creature! Granted, he spends the vast majority of his time sleeping, but it sure looks like it could do a lot of damage if provoked.



The penguins (and we saw three types heading North: Adelie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap) are hilarious. Graceful they are not. But falling down and getting right back up seems alright. The do appear to be excellent swimmers though (note the leopard seal above...), but for whatever reason (navigation?), they will constantly jump out of the water as they're moving along:



On Day 7, we got to go camping. This really just involves a sleeping bag and a waterproof bivy sack. Some 40 odd passengers went and three members of the kitchen staff. The Quark staff sent three people with us, but they didn't exactly seem excited to go. Perhaps something about having to carry out all the 'toilet remains' back to the ship afterwards... As for those of us camping? It was quite fun - sufficiently comfortable, and not at all cold. And up early enough that morning for a beautiful sunrise:



Two days later, we finally got to land on the mainland in Neko harbor:

There's a lot more to say here, but I don't want to make this too long, so I'll end with one last observation: there were a little over 100 passengers on board. These had to be some of the most interesting, well traveled people I had ever met. These were [mostly, there were a few of us bucking the trend] not backpackers - these are more of what backpackers become when they grow up, assuming they have the time and the means to keep traveling. The majority of the people here had been to each of the seven continents now. Doris had been to 132 countries. After two weeks there, I've decided that the standard trips that get to qualify as 'trips of a lifetime' should be Antarctica, African safari, Galapagos, and trekking in Nepal. You can make an arguement for Easter island, Arctic cruises, and the trans-Siberian too, but those seemed a bit second tier... The number of people on this cruise who've done some of these (and often all of them) was fairly astounding.

Three Dutch passengers representing the rest of the passengers here.