Yes we were almost scammed!

As every big city has its downsides, also BA is famous for its thieves and scams which especially tourists has to bare. Also for us this happened already the first day in the city…

We had heard that there are clever thieves in the city who attack especially the travelers with their backpacks and luckily we were aware of this while it happened to us! When we just had arrived to the city and were looking for our hostel on the main street during the day, one local guy came to tell us that a bird has pooped on the back of my bag. As soon as he said that he can help to clean it if I just take my bag down we knew immediately that this was a scam! We said politely no and kept walking. However, this man didn’t give up so easily and he started to follow us! When we found our hostel and went inside we thought that now we are safe but no! This man came inside and was still looking for us! Luckily there was a security man on the door to who we said about the guy and he went after him but the man had already left. So we were lucky enough that we didn’t lose anything but we had heard that there are many travelers that have lost everything when they have let the person to start cleaning their bags.

Another thief we encountered on our last day in the city in the subway. We had to take the subway during the morning rush hour so the cabin was full of people. While standing with our backpacks on the back and trying to stay still while the crammed subway was moving, I noticed that a man next to me had covered his hand with his shirt and put the shirt over my purse. I already felt that he was trying to open the zip of my purse but again, lucky me, I noticed it on time and stopped him from stealing my stuff! It was quite uncomfortable journey in the end when we knew that a thief was standing next to us but there was nothing we could do about it…

Even after these incidents we are still positive about travelling and we know that we can't hide the fact that we look like tourists and there always will be people who will try to fool us. Never knows what will happen but as long as we are aware of the things around us we should be fine. 

Tourists in the big city - we still love BA!

Tango steps in Buenos Aires

When we first arrived to Buenos Aires, we were shocked of the weather – it was not that warm anymore! We actually had to dig out our jeans and jackets from the bottom of the backpacks which we weren't thinking of needing until Bolivia. Also being scammed on our first day (read the story above) we were quite suspicious about the city. However, after couple of days the sun was shining again and the more we explore the different areas of the city the more we felt in love with this beautiful place.

(Pink House - One of the main attractions in BA)

In BA we first stayed in the famous party hostel called Milhouse which is almost an attraction itself while all the travelers stay there at some point of their visit in the city and also all the locals know it! That weekend also happened to have St. Patrick’s day and the whole hostel had the green theme including the color of the beer. We met some cool travelers from all over the world but after that weekend we wanted to see the city more from the local point of view and therefore changed the hostels into couchcsurfing.

(Girls with their host in BA)

We ended up having an amazing host who made us feel very welcome at his home and showed us his favorite places in the city. And there is so much to see in the city! We spent our days wondering in the cemetery of Recoleta, which was like a little city with amazing graves of the richest of BA, shopping in the antique markets of San Telmo, watching tango in the picturesque La Boca, having picnics in the green parks of the city and visiting the famous balcony of the Pink house from the Evita movie. And of course we had to try the well-known Argentinian tango and went for a couple of dance classes to learn the basic steps. Even tought it was not that simple to learn but it was fun anyways! 

 

(The colourful houses of La Boca and tango on the street)

BA is a city that lives at night and that was something that we had to learn as well. This didn’t only mean about partying but also eating dinner really late. The typical time schedule for a night out was dinner around 10-12pm, drinking at someone’s home or in a bar until 2pm and after that go to a club until 6-7am! It was pretty hard to get used to this kind of lifestyle but we managed it fine in the end.

(Getting ready for the night of BA...)

During our stay in the city we got to know many locals who were all so friendly and nice people and we made many new friends to keep in touch with. BA was such an amazing city that we both felt like we could live there for a while so we are sure that both of us will come back there at some point…

 (Our local friend Maxi)

Not so successful shopping trip to Paraguay

The last day in Puerto Iguazu we still had one whole day time to kill before our night bus to Buenos Aires and we decided to visit Paraguya as the city of Ciudad del Este was just one hour away by bus. We also had heard that the city is good for shopping which we couldn't really imagine about Paraguay so we wanted to give it a go. However, of course the trip there and crossing the border was not that simple again as it was supposed to be and the whole trip caused us more stress than joy. 

When we actually got to the side of Paraguya, straight away we could see lots of shopping malls, small markets and advertisements for international products.This was not that kind of Paraguay we had imagined at all! As we didn't have a map of the city, we wanted to take the bus until the last stop, which was the bus terminal, in able to catch the bus back to Argentina from the right place. However, what we didn't realize was that the bus terminal locates on the outskirts of the city and that it was too far away to walk back to the center. Luckily we were not the only tourists who did the same mistake and took the same bus embarrased straight back to the center.

After loosing precious shopping time with the hasseling of the busses in the end we had only about an hour shopping time in the city. But actually after checking the firsts shops we realized that it was more than enough because shopping there was again pretty disappointing. The only good thing about shopping there was that we could use the rest of the reals we had left from Brazil as almost all the shops accepted any currency from their neighboring countries. 

As we had the night bus to catch that evening we were pretty worried how to get back to the town in Argentina as the bus trip earlier was such a big hassle. Also the fact that the city didn’t really have actual bus stops we weren't really sure where we could hop on to the bus. After watching the locals getting into the busses we figured out that we just had to wait on the side of the main street to look for the right bus and wave for the bus and hope that the bus will stop to pick us up. So when we finally saw our bus, it stopped on the middle of the road and we ran to get inside because we definitely didn't want to miss this bus! In all this hurry I almost was run by a scooter as we hadn't got used to the fact that the drives here won’t give away to the pedestrians at all… Lucky me nothing happened and we made it safely back to Argentina and caught our bus to Buenos Aires on time.

Night bus to Buenos Aires, that was a comfy one!

Long way to Buenos Aires, 20 hours sitting in a bus...

Iguazu falls - The first stop in Argentina

After travelling 3 weeks in Brazil, we were ready to leave this beautiful country of samba and head to search for the rhythms of tango in Argentina! Our first stop in Argentina was a small town called Puerto Iguazu which is famous from one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. However, before entering to this small town we had to somehow figure out how to get from the town in Brazilian side to the Argentinian side and after travelling for 15 hours by uncomfortable bus the night before and sleeping only couple of hours, crossing the border was not that simple thing to do. This mission included 4 different busrides, queuing twice to get stamps on our passports from both sides of the border and lots of waiting and miscommunication. After surviving to Argentina we still had one more problem to be solved - to find a place to stay. So there we were again walking with our backpacks on the hottest time of the day with no energy left at all, trying to find a cheap place to stay and when we finally found a bed for the night, we couldn't be happier to relax the rest of the day.

So the next day we were full of energy and wanted to devote the whole day for the famous falls. The visit to the Iguazu falls turned out to be really expensive but it was definitely worth it! The national park itself was so huge that there was even a small train running around the park and many hike trails which had smaller waterfalls in every corner. The best part of the whole day was definitely a speed boat ride under the falls where we got totally wet but were laughing the whole time we spent on the boat.  

Partying in Florianopolis

After Sao Paulo we were looking forward to go to a place with a beach so we had quite high expectations for Florianopolis. But of course for our luck it started to rain as soon as we got to the town… And not just some rain but actually so heavy rain that the streets were flooding like crazy…

In a small place like that there’s not much to do if it’s raining – expect drinking! And because it was also a Saturday night the hostel had put on a nice little party for us. We also had an organized transport to a night club and it wasn’t just a normal bus but actual party bus with disco lights, good music and people dancing on the floor and even on the seats! It was a crazy party!

After partying until sunrise we were happy that the next day was sunny and we could relax on the beautiful beach just next to our hostel. After catching the sun again we were ready to head to the inland towards the border of Brazil and Argentina!