Santa Teresa and Lapa

Enchanting Santa Teresa sits overlooking the bright lights of Lapa and Centro. This charasmatic neighbourhood was once home to some of Brazil´s finest artists and creative minds. There are still tiny art studios dotted around as well as random, unusual art sculptures in the street, and every wall space is covered in interesting, colourful graffiti.

The winding cobbled streets are lined with incredibly beautiful coloured houses, each one unique. Parts of the neighbourhood have become run-down and faded, and seem abandoned but some of these crumbling buildings are the most charming in Santa Teresa. The old yellow trams cross over the cobbles whilst people hang onto the sides and VW Beetles and Campervans dodge them.

Lapa sits just below the stunningly beautiful architecture of Santa Teresa. Lapa is a bright, busy bustling neighbourhood and quite a contrast to peaceful Santa Teresa. Lapa is famous for the vibrant samba clubs and the beautiful Lapa steps.

The Lapa steps have been designed by an artist that actually lives in one of the coloured houses that line his masterpiece. Hundreds of interesting designed tiles and colourful mosaics have been used in this unique, bizarre creation.

Whilst trying to find a good samba club in Lapa, we stumbled across a lovely cobbled street full of samba bars set in old houses with grand balconies overlooking the street. This is exactly what I expected from Rio´s nightlife but in such an unexpected area. Maybe Lapa isn´t just about the bright lights and seedy bars.

Rio De Janerio

Rio De Janerio, the heart of Brazil and some may say the heart of South America. My first and most important stop in this vibrant city was the almighty Cristo Rendentor that overlooks the city. As I looked up at the towering figure of Christ the Redeemer, with the sun glowing behind him, I was even more impressed than I had expected to be. The 360 degree view of the city from under this looming statue were an unexpected bonus. The only unfortunate aspect of this incredible site was that I had to share this experience with 150 other tourists, making it slightly less special than I had hoped.

I have been overly excited about viewing Rio De Janerio and Cristo Redentor from the magnificent Sugarloaf Mountain, and we were about to do it as the sunset over the city. After two short, but very steep cable car rides, I was delighted to arrive at the tip of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Overlooking Copacabana beach surrounded by mountains at sunset, I was speechless at how beautiful the city was. As I looked over at Cristo Redentor on the opposite side of the city I was amazed at how mountainous and lush Rio is.

After an incredible sunset, we were lucky enough to descend back into the city with an amazing view of bustling Rio at nightfall.

Sao Paulo

The monstrous city of Sao Paulo is a place of extreme contrast. Elegant Portugese architecture squashed between towering skyscrapers; pink blossom covered trees line graffiti-covered streets; homeless people lay sleeping at the doors of designer stores.

My good friend and housemate, Nikki, has flown out to Sao Paulo to join me on my Brazilian adventure for the next five weeks. After a couple of Brahma beers, a Brazilian band and a jet-lagged sleep, we woke up enthusiastic about exploring one of South America´s most ´´dangerous´´ cities. We started at Repulica square in downtown whích could have easily been mistaken for a homeless shelter given the amount of people that sleepily line this grand sqaure. Whilst appreciating the unfortunately graffiti-covered European architecture we stumbled across the finacial district of Sao Paulo; a small but very pretty square surrounded by tall elegant buildings, each one a bank. The most interesting and beautiful banking district I have visited. We later made our way to the city park along with many cyclists, runners and roller-skaters. It is a wonderful escape from Sao Paulo´s overly polluted city, but the looming skyscrapers are still in sight just incase you need reminding where you are.

Montevideo, Uruguay

I woke up to a beautifully sunny day in Montevideo, excited about exploring this supposedly enchanting city. I´m staying in Cuidad Vieja, the old town so I thought I would start my day at Plaza Independancia and work my way through the city. I was expecting the city, particularly the old town, to be crammed full of beautiful architecture and wonderful sights, however my expectations were very wrong. The city was full of concrete blocks and uninspiring buildings. I felt a desperate need to escape this disappointingly dull city. Luckily, Montevideo has a grassy promanade, 10 minutes from the centre, that follows the coast for 8 kilometres. With palm trees to my left, the glistening ocean to my right and the sun shining above, it was the perfect escape from the grey city centre.

I stumbled accross Parque Rodo, a rather large park full of swan covered lakes, fountains, statues and more palm trees than you could possibley count. It was a charming little place and a worth while detour.

I wanted to visit Punto Carretas, an old prison that has been converted into a shopping centre. I thought it might be a point of interest-yet again I was wrong! I hastily made my way to Feria Villa Biarritz, a highly recommended market set around the plaza of Villa Biarritz. From a distance the market looked small and unimpressive, however, this is not thecase once inside the market and it is easy to get lost amongst the hustle and bustle. The feria mainly consists of clothes, shoes and jewlery but nothing particularly original. The most interesting section of this market was dedicated to sweet-smelling tropical fruits, home-made jams and cheese. It certainly lacked the artistic flair and vibrant atmosphere that Buenos Aires San Telmo market always has on offer!

Escuela de Español

One of my main aims for this South American adventure was to learn the wonderful langauge of español, or at least attempt to. So, I signed up to a two week Spanish class at BAbel Spanish school in central Buenos Aires. Luckily there would only be two of us in the class, myself and Laure-Helen, a lovely french girl I had met at my hostel. It was four hours a day, five days a week so I knew it would be intense but I expected results. Day 1 at Spanish school and I left with an enormus headache but quite a lot of vocabulary and useful phrases. However, I worried that I would spend the next two weeks with a permenant headache! Day 3 at BAbel and I was confident to try my spanglish with anyone who was willing to listen, in bars, cafes, museums... And I found the Argentinian people to be very patient with my spanglish and passionate about helping me to learn. By the end of the week the class had become less of a four hour lesson and more of a four hour (rather challenging) chat with friends. After two weeks, my spanish partner and I decided to stay for another week as we had made amazing progress and the classes had become a fun part of our daily routine. Now unfortunately I have to leave Buenos Aires and all the fantastic teachers at BAbel, to put my spanish into practice in the real world! Thank you to Milagros, Daniella and Gonzales for your support, enthusiasm and much needed patience. Heres hoping I dont forget it all in Portugese speaking Brazil!

Plaza De Mayo

Plaza De Mayo for many years has been crowded with Argentinians awaiting presidential speeches or overrun with demonstrations. This is home to the great Casa Rosada where Eva Peron stood at the balcony to speak to thousands of her adoring people, and it is still the centre of political life in Buenos Aires.  One of the most significant events that occurs on  this small square is Madres de Plazo De Mayo. These are the mothers of children who disappeared without any explanation during the miltary dictatorship  from 1976-1983. The mother´s gather together every Thursday from 3.30pm to march the Plaza de Mayo whilst calling out the names of every child that disappeared during the ´dirty war´. It is incredible to witness these courageous woman still with hope and high spirits, however it is harrowing to listen to the names of so many missing children being called.

Los Barrios of Buenos Aires

San Telmo is, in my opinion, the heart of Buenos Aires. The narrow cobbled streets, European style architecture and the multiple antique shops, grand cafes and tiny boutiques make this a very interesting neighbourhood to explore.

 San Telmo is clearly the arts centre of Buenos Aires which is evident not only in the numerous art galleries that line the street but in the people you meet here. Street entertainers, photographers, artists and of course the multiple musicians that occupy space along the alleyways. Every type of music can be found here from live tango music to 8 piece bongo bands to my favourite to date; the old lady playing bottletops with chopsticks.

Cheerfully colourful La Boca, with its interesting coloured houses and antique shops has unfortunately become over run with tourists, touts and tango dancers. Luckily, the first time I visited this little neightbourhood it was calm and quiet with just a few artists and musicians amongst the multi-coloured old shanty houses.

However, it is easy to stumble across the wrong side La Boca, where you will find a very different view of this little barrio that is not so welcoming or colourful. Mis amigos and I soon realised why the tourists tend to stick to one particular area of this neightbourhood!

A Day With Eva Peron

Bizarrely one the biggest tourist attractions in Buenos Aires is Recoletta cemetery, where you will find the grave of the great Eva Peron. The cemetery is made up of tiny alleyways and graves as big as houses making it look like a small but very spooky city. It is surprisingly quiet considering that it is right in the centre of bustling Recoletta.

Each grave is very unique and very beautiful. It is easy to forget the purpose of the place as you wonder around the small, peaceful alleyways amongst the incredible structures. It's only until you get an unwanted glimpse inside the buildings that you remember what an eeire place you are in. Eva Peron's grave is the only grave in the cemetery that is surrounded by flowers, which shows how loved she was and still is. The most bizarre part of the cemetery is that the grave next to Eva Peron's is 'for sale'.

After visiting the grave of Eva Peron, I wanted to learn more about the life of Evita and why she was so adored by the Argentinian people. I made my way to the very informative Evita Museum in Palermo. Eva Peron fought for the rights of the working class people in Argentina, so I was interested to learn about the projects that she had implemented within the country, many of which are still running successfully today. Eva Perons enpowering speeches often encouraged the importance of passion, courage, respect and patriotism. I think these key words are reflected in the people of Argentina today.

Asado, Mate and Music

Mate is the national drink of the Argentinians and they drink it day and night! So I thought it was only right to go to a mate tasting night at our hostel. Mate is made from herbs and hot water and served in a special cup usually made from animal skin, and is drank through a metal straw. The green herbs float to the top of the cup making it look and smell rather potent. Thankfully it is served with sugar-coated totilla frittas, a type of sweet flat bread, because the mate is really strong and bitter tasting. Quite an aquired taste! The most important thing to remember when drink mate is, NEVER move the straw! And as always it was accompanied with live music, so it was a nice chilled atmosphere.

 As well as mate, the Argentinians are well known for their love of steak. So its no surprise that a typical Friday evening involves an asado, a traditional Argentinan BBQ. There was an asado on the rooftop of the hostel so of course i went along to see what was so special about Argentinan BBQs. It involves lots and lots of delicious steak, even more wine and a fun, family atmosphere. And of course, more muic in the form of a live band.

Tango Time

Tango is the national dance of Argentina and much loved by the local Argentines. It would be a crime not to see a tango show whilst in  Buenos Aires, so I went to Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the city. Its a rather grand cafe with tango shows taking place in the basement each night. Its a very small, dimly lit stone cellar with a very intimate atmosphere. My expectations of a tango show were, one woman, one man dancing to tango music. My expectations were wrong! A tango show in Argentina consists of numerous dancers, a storyline, a musical narrator and a five piece band. The dancers were incredible and I was amazed at how fast paced the dance was. Some of the dance moves could rival an olympic gymnastic and how the women managed to spin and jump in 8 inch heels is beyond my understanding. The story line was rather difficult to follow as it was in spanish and my spanish skills arent quite good enough just yet but I managed to get the jist of it.  It was an interesting, but quite unusual show, the dancers were amazing to watch but it was not quite what I was expecting from Cafe Tortoni. I would like to see some more traditional tango, so maybe I will have to search the city for just one man, one woman dancing to tango music.

La Bomba De Tiempo

When the girls from my hostel asked me if I wanted to go La Bomba De Tiempo with them of course I said, yes! And then I said what is La Bomba De Tiempo?? I soon found out that La Bomba De Tiempo is a group of 14 very talented, very energetic argentine musicians playing bongo drums. They were playing at Konnex, an old converted warehouse just out of the city. It was full of local argentines ready to party. There was a real vibrant atmosphere as the conductor energetically jumped around the stage and everyone danced salsa-style to this very funky not-so-traditional music. It was a true fiesta!
(videos and photos to follow!)

Buenos Aires; first impressions

As the plane touched down at Buenos Aires airport I felt a sense of relief and excitement that I had finally arrived in this wonderful country. As the pilot announced that it was a very cold -3 degrees, I began to feel slightly nervous about my lack of Spanish skills. I have spent the past few months attempting to learn the basics, but is that really enough to get myself around this country for the next few weeks?

After a long and much needed sleep I awoke energetic and excited to explore the city. I made my way to the infamous San Telmo Sunday Market, set down the cobbled streets of the San Telmo neighbourhood. The Market is surrounded by classical churches, art galleries, antique shops and old European style cafe, making it a very interesting and slightly bizarre setting for a market. You can find hand made jewelry, hand woven hats, multi-coloured scarves, leather bags and more gold, silver and shiny objects than Aladdin's cave. All hand made, all unique and all very tempting to buy. Of course amongst it all there are photos, books and memorabilia of their hero Che, shirts, scarves, hats and badges of their beloved football team, and music, art and photos of their much loved tango.

















The street sellers are as interesting as the goods they sell. Young Argentinians who look like they've been travelling all their lives, old woman dancing to tango music behind their stalls and young children bargaining with their customers for "10 more pesos".

The Argentinian love for music is clear as the locals dance through the Market listening to traditional live bands, old men in sombreros strumming a guitar and Latino versions of the White Stripes. All through the Market you can smell the sweet treats of donuts, popcorn covered caramel apples and tasty empanadas. Men riding bikes selling bread from their baskets and women selling cafe from their trolleys.

San Telmo is certainly a unique and bizarre traditional Market and a perfect introduction to this charismatic city.

Stuck in Washington DC

I have spent the past 12 months dreaming about being in beautiful Buenos Aires so, you can imagine my excitment when I arrived at San Francisco airport ready to board my Buenos Aires bound flight. You can also imagine my disappointment when I discovered that my flight had been cancelled due to the ash clouds from a volcano in neighbouring country Chile. I was told to get a flight to Washington DC and get the next available flight ot Buenos Aries. I frantically ran through San Francisco airport only to discover when I reached the gate that the flight had been overbooked. So, was I to remain in San Francisco airport awaiting my flight? Or was i going to Washington DC to await my flight there?

After a long and grim wait at the gate, I found out that I was one of the ''lucky'' passengers that would be boarding the flight to Washington. Five hours, no in-flight entertainment, no in-flight meal and I finally arrived in the capital of the US of A, where I was told that the next flight to Buenos Aries was 10am the following morning. United airlines being the five star airline that they are, offered no compensation, advice or kind words on the matter.

I checked myself into the airport hotel costing rather more than my daily $25 traveller budget, in the hope that I would sleep off some of my Hong Kong-San Fran jeltlag and prepare myself for another depressing 12 hour flight with United Airlines. As nice as it was to stay in a clean air-conditioned room, king-sized bed, cinema-sized TV and a bathroom larger than my entire apartment, I was hoping to spend my second night of my travels in a fun-filled, spanish speaking Argentinian hostel. Here's hoping thats where I spend my next night...

28 hours in San Francisco

San Francisco, the city of free-love, flower power, artistic expression and rainbow flags. It is home to a diverse, multi-cultural, artsy, alternative crowd. A city where anything goes and no-one judges. It is a vibrant city with something interesting to look at at every turn, and a perfet place to people watch.

I started my day in sunny San Francisco at union square which is jam-packed full of art, photography and music and surrounded by theatres, art galleries and studios. I took a walk along the hilly streets, past the cable cars and stumbled across China Town. It's like a bigger version of Hong Kong's Stanley market. More jade and gold than a buddhist temple and more tacky souvenirs than Wan Chai. Pashminas, chinese lanterns, buddha statues, dim sum restuarants, lucky charms and mah jong all combine to make this busy neighbourhood.


I moved through the clean streets of super-friendly San Fran and up to Fishermans Wharf which is an Americanised version of a very tacky but fun-filled seaside town. The bay is packed with popcorn sellers, hot dog stands, street performers and touts selling ''the best boat trips ever'' to Alcatraz. After a long walk along the marina I finally came to a point where I could see Golden Gate Bridge. As magnificent as all the photos tell it to be.

This interesting, fun, diverse city has certainly lived up to it's reputation and my high expectations. I think I may be back...