Buenos Aires (second time)

Coming back to Buenos Aires felt like meeting an old friend. When we left Buenos Aires we felt like we're going into the unknown. We were sure that we'll come back after two months of rice and bread diet in Peru and Bolivia after spending the tine in the worst hostels. Well, as you dedicated readers know, that wasn't exactly what happened. On our last stay in La Paz the food and the hostel were so good that we didn't even want to leave. However, we felt great when we landed, after a long and tiring night that we spent on the benches in Lima's airport and on the plane, that had to land and wait 3 hours in Cordoba, because of the fog over Buenos Aires.
But old friends forgive, and even the long bus (hour and a half through the inner city) from the airport to our hostel didn't ruin the fun of the reunion.
We went back to Lime house hostel where we stayed during our first visit. We didn't spend a lot of time in hostel and headed to the Sunday market in San Thelmo. On the way we passed a parade. The people of Buenos Aires like to march or celebrate, and this time it was child's day combined with the celebration of Bolivia's independence day that was the day before. The market was especially happy, this time, because there was yet another parade on the market's main street. This parade belonged to the clubs of the drummers and Samba dancers of the happy city. We thought we are going back to Argentina, and found ourselves in Brazil again! That was a real fun. On the second day we completed the “must-do's” of Buenos Aires. We walked through the trendy neighborhood Palermo, saw the Botanical garden, took a peek at the animals of the zoo from outside and were very happy to see at least one animal that we didn't see during our trip to South America, a giraffe.
We had a quick visit in the Japanese gardens before we crossed the city to get to the real attraction of the day: the weekly music concert of “La bomba del tiempo”. The stage was located in a large hangar, and on it were a group of 14 drummers with every possible percussion. From time to time they were accompanied by a trumpet player and a Brazilian singer and guitarist, that was the special guest of the evening. The first sounds removed any doubt that might have been about the strange collection of instruments. The next two hours were a wild party of music that switched between jazz, Samba and dance music. Time flew and we were so into the music that it seemed only few minutes passed before the show ended. If you are in Buenos Aires, plan it so you'll be there on Monday and don't miss the show.
Early next morning we met Anna, Lilya's friend, that came all the way from Santiago, Chile to see us (22 hours by bus!). We visited the Caminito, the famous coloured street in the notorious neighbourhood “ La Boca”. The Caminito area is very touristy and not that interesting, so we spent there only a short time and wanted to walk to Porto Madero where the trendy meat restaurants are located.
Soon after we started walking, no more than 5 minutes walking from the touristy area of El Caminito, the atmosphere changed completely. The street became abandoned and even though it was morning, it looked scary. An old woman, that left her home with her grandson told us to go back and take the bus. 5 minutes walk on the way back and the environment changed again. Don't be fooled by the large boulevards and the celebrations of Buenos Aires. This city has its dark side and it can be as close as 5 minutes walk.
We ate at “La Bistek”, an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant, that was really good. It took us more than an hour to walk from there to the shopping street Florida, because we left the restaurant almost twice as heavy as we entered.
We spent the rest of the day doing shopping. On the next morning we said goodbye to Anna and took the cab to the airport.
It was hard to say goodbye to this great continent that gave us such a great time, but after 4 hours of flight we already flew over the Pacific ocean on the way to Australia. We waved to the imperial penguin when we flew over the South Pole, on our way.
The next post will be from a new continent.

Tip 1: If you slept during the post and missed this tip, we'll write it again: don't miss the show of "La bomba del tiempo". It is every Monday on 3131 Sarmiento st. at 19:30.
Tip 2: The lunch deal at "la bistek" on the weekdays is really good. Be there around mid-day.

Pictures

Pictures from our second visit to Buenos Aires and from the music concert "La bomba del tiempo" are online:

La Paz

Some people love it, some really don't, one thing is sure, its name is misleading. La Paz means "The Peace", but there is nothing peaceful about it. Most parts of the city resemble a third world market. Everywhere you go there are Cholas (traditional looking women) selling something. Most of the streets are informal markets, but in addition to that there is one big official market that sprawls over few dozens of blocks. It reminded us the market of Istanbul. There is a street for every purpose. A street for knits, a street for underwear, a street for plumbing... you just need to find the one you need. Since we love markets we also loved La Paz.
In the center of the city there is a witch market. In those few streets you can buy all kinds of witchcraft, potions, gifts for Pachamama and dried alpaca's babies or even embryos. We didn't bother to ask what is it good for, it was too creepy. In this area you can find most of the cheep hostels. The prices begin with about 3 dollars for a person, but those places are really bad. After spending few nights in various places we found the perfect place for us. It was an old and red colonial house with internal patio full with climbing plants, and more important with real hot water all day long.
Surprisingly enough, in La Paz we had few very good culinary experiences. But Bolivian cuisine can not take credit for that. We were so frightened by other travelers and didn't have any free time to get sick in, that we decided to skip the local street food (which made Lilya very sad) and eat only in touristic places. And there are few really good ones, as you can see in the tips. The prices in those places are much higher than street food (about 5 dollars for the main course), but that way you can be sure all the food was washed with purified water, and the meat met a refrigerator at least once in its life.

General tip: You should be aware to the fact that La Paz can also be dangerous. Try to stay in the center, in places with a lot of people. Beware of fake policemen, fake tourists, fake money and fake taxi drivers.
Tip 1: Marrakech (Jimenes 774, near Santa Cruz st.)- A great, but very small, Moroccan restaurant. Their Couscous del la casa with lamb is wonderful.
Tip 2: In plaza San Fransisco there is an old colonial building right on the corner. On its left side (when facing the building) there is an elevator that can take you to the 7th flour, which is also a roof. On that roof there is a very cheep but very good cafe and a great view on the main square. The name is Campaniero... or something like that.
Tip 3: Thai Palace (Linares 947) is a really good Thai/Indian/Japanese restaurant.
Tip 4: Sol y Luna (at the corner of Murillo and Cochabamba). The place belongs to a Dutch guy. They serve very good authentic food from all over the world (except from Bolivia).
Tip 5: There are a lot of good places to eat in Sagarnaga street. Two of them are really recommended: the "100% Natural" has great breakfasts. The Cuban restaurant "Sabor de Cuba" is a restaurant that you just can´t miss! They make great Cuban food. Try the dish that is called "Ropa Viejo" (old clothes)
Tip 6: The best hostel we've been in Bolivia. Blanquita on Santa Cruz st., 20 meters below Jimenes st.
Tip 7: On the corner of Sagarnaga and Illampu there is a really good tailor that makes repairs for everything: shoos, clothes, backpacks, backpack covers, whatever you need...

Pictures

Pictures from La-Paz and from the flight back to Lima are now online:

Rurranabaque - the jungles and the Pampas - part 2

For the first part of the post about the jungles, click here.

Since the Pampas tour was much more popular than the jungles, we had to join a group. We went to a company that looked more or less professional and was quite recommended by others. Apparently this company worked a lot with Israeli travelers and their representative was very happy to inform us that he had a group of 6 very nice Israeli girls we could join. He was very surprised to hear that we preferred a more mixed group rather than all Israeli group. We had to wait for that mixed group for one more day, which most of it we spent in Oscar's pool, another Israeli colonial postal. It was located on a hill above Rurrenabaque and had a great view over the town and the river and also an Israeli music and Hebrew speaking owner. The regular way to get there, or anywhere in town, is by motortaxies, which can be quite extreme on the unpaved roads. There are almost no cars there. Only later we discovered that this wasn't the only pool in town, but that was the most popular among Israelis.

The next morning, after another sleepless night (see Tip 6 in the first part of this post), we met our new group. There was one Colombian\American girl, Becky, with whom we shared our cabin later on, a German couple Julia and Nicolay and 4 Czech guys, Lenka, Margarita, Michael and Michaela (I hope I got it right) that we got to know only on the last day. Big groups tend to be more closed to people from outside. It took us three hours drive in a jeep on a very bumpy road to get, all covered with a thick dust layer, to the river where we waited for our boat and more important for our guide. Negro, that was his nickname, was much older and more experienced than the other guides. He was a guide there for the last 20 years. The fact that on his first years only Israelis came to the Pampas caused him to learn Hebrew and, at least that what he said, to grow a lot of grey hair. After he found out that we are Israelis, he started shouting in Hebrew instead of talking, since he was sure that this was the only way we communicate. Taking into account most of the Israelis we met in South America, you can't really blame him for that.

Our boat was a 20 meter canoe with pairs of chairs along it, when Negro is driving it from the back. That way everyone gets to see an angle wide enough.

In the Pampas all you do is seat inside the boat and take pictures of all the animals seating on the riverbank, and there is so much to see! There are hundreds of alligators lying by the river, some with their mouth open, as if they are waiting for the prey to enter it. There are many turtles seating on brunches inside the water, leaning one on the back of the other, as if they are dancing. There are lots of different types of water birds seating on trees close to the river. Cormorants seating with their wings spread in order to dry them after another dive session. Curious and very cute Capibaras (the largest rodent in the world) watching us as we pass. The whole experience looks a bit like a "drive-through". There are few boats just like ours going up/down the river, one after the other, stopping next to another animal, waiting that all the tourists picture it from every possible angle.

Our campground was very different from the one we had in the jungles. Maybe it's because it was meant for 10 times more people. The food wasn't great either. But there were monkeys... Behind the cabins there was an area were the cooks threw away the leftovers. Naturally, all the monkeys from the area came to eat there 3 times a day... Not very eco-friendly, but that gave Oren a great opportunity to take lots of pictures from really close, and it allowed the monkeys to get to know SEMPA.

On the second morning we went searching for Anacondas. Usually they hide inside swamps. The deeper the swamp, the bigger the Anaconda. We went to a very shallow swamp. In order to walk inside the swamp, we had to wear rubber boots. The swamp was so dense that my boot got stuck inside, while my foot continued on, what made my sock change from white to black. After about 40 exhausting minutes in the swamp, and after almost stepping on a medium size alligator, Negro found a small Anaconda, just 3 meters long. He grabbed it by its tail and brought it to a place where everyone could see. Then the poor snake wasn't left alone until every tourist took a picture of himself holding its tail. At some point I was sorry we found it in the first place. The only thing that was asked by the guides was to touch the snake only after "washing" the hands in the swamp, so our smell wouldn't stick to their skin.

Since we found the Anaconda so quickly, we had some spare time so we went swimming in the river, not far from the alligators, that showed no interest in us. The water was quite brownish, so we came out dirtier than we came in.

After lunch we went fishing for piranhas, in order to do that we sailed on a smaller river. On the way there we stopped few times to watch the strange pink dolphins that swum next to us. Not like regular dolphins these showed very little interest in us.

During all our stay there, our heads were high in the trees, looking for sloths, but our eyes didn't stand a chance when compared to Negro's hawk-eyes. In the middle of the sailing he stopped the boat and shouted "Atslan!" (A sloth in Hebrew). The sloth was on the top of the 40 meter tree that was far from the riverbank. It was so small that we had to take a full zoom picture in order to see if it was actually a sloth. I wasn't that excited since Chelsea took the championship. After few minutes Oren spotted another sloth on the same tree. According to Negro, it is really rear to see two sloths on the same tree, it must have been the mating season. Few hundreds meters after that we saw another sloth, much closer this time. Three different sloths in less than half an hour! From that point on everything looked pinker to me. The grey skies became sunny, the alligators smiled at us from the riverbanks and the Capibaras waved with their ears and tails. When we finally got to the fishing part I was already walking on clouds. Actually it should be called Piranhas feeding and not fishing. We used fresh meat as a bait/food for the fish. Since the fish saw that we are inexperienced gringos (foreigners), they ate most of the meat without getting caught. I managed to catch two very small fish, so small I had to release them back. All together, the weight of the meat that was spent as a bait was greater than the weight of the fish that was caught. In the evening we had the fish for dinner, good thing we had other dishes as well.

The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise and after breakfast went to take pictures of the same animals over and over again. In addition to all the "regular" animals, we also saw a monkey hunting and then trying to eat a big snake. Unfortunately, because of all the audience, the monkey accidentally dropped the snake back to the water, and was left without lunch. Then we said goodbye to Negro and had another "joyful" ride back to Rurrenabaque, where we spent another sleepless night, and then flew back to La Paz.

At the beginning of the first part of the post, I mentioned that I wanted to see wild Aras flying free over the jungle. I didn't write about that, but don't worry, we saw plenty of them. Aras, or Macaus as they called in South America, mate for life, that is why they always fly in pairs. We never saw a Macau flying alone. That makes seeing them alone in captivity even sadder. At some point I even saw 10 couples of Macaus flying over the Tuichi River. So as you can see I have accomplished all I planned just on time.