*on the road and el calafate

the day in a bus to calafate that we condemned to be ´wasted´turned out to be another day that proved that people are incredible here! the bus driver and the azafat (steward) invited us for coffee and sandwiches to their house in rio gallegos (as we had to wait at the station for the bus to el calafate) and they even let me sit at the driver´s seat and open the bus door with a secret knob! and then once we got to the station it turned out that our friends eduardo and graziella had been waiting for us for 3 hours at the station as they knew we were passing by! we saw the photos eduardo took the last time we stayed with them and they are amazing! we do look like a bit like top models :)

in el calafate we saw perito moreno glaciar - huge amount of beautiful white and blue ice aurrounded by the mountains - so so much ice! i wont say more just look at the photos ...

*jeszcze na koncu swiata - ushuaia i punta arenas

co jeszcze mozna robic na koncu swiata w ushuai?
- mozna wejsc na mini lodowiec i obetrzec sobie kostki
- trzeba pojechac do przepieknego parku tierra del fuego i tam sie powloczyc po plazach i gorkach
- mozna tez zostac zaproszonym na koncert lokalnego zespolu rocka progresywnego (tak sie okreslaja sami artysci) gdzie panowie wystepuja w pozyczonych spodniczkach albo z naga klata
- trzeba tez koniecznie isc szlakiem ¨tunel´ i po drodze mozna sie napic wody z rzeki lezac na brzuchu jak pies, przeprawic sie na boso przez lodowaty strunien, zjesc pasozyta z drzewa ktory sie nazwywa chleb indian (tylko jak sa z wami lokalni i wiedza co robia!) i mozna tez tam polezec w stokrotkach i zostac wkreconym w sesje jogi na nadmorskiej polanie

po tym wszystkim co mozna i trzeba zobaczyc i zrobic w ushuai mozna sobie odpuscic wizyte w punta arenas ( w chile) gdzie nas zagnala w sumie tylko chec zobaczenia pingwinow (ktore sa nota bene przeslodziaste). ale jak sie juz tam zajedzie to trzeba pojsc na ryneczek i zobaczyc czy aby nie ma jakiegos show (my sie zalapalysmy na super tango-balet) i koniecznie na szczescie pocalowac stope pomnika Ona. co warto sobie odpuscic to marnowanie polowy dnia na kupienie biletow zeby sie z punta arena wydostac! mialysmy wrazenie ze bierzemy udzial w jakiejsc chorej grze firm przewozowych w stylu : kto bardziej sfrajeruje turyste ktory chce kupic bilet. odsylali nas od ulicy do ulicy bo tu nie sprezdaja, tu jest sjesta a tu nie ma biletow... ale w koncu nam sie udalo i ruszamy do el calafate.

*at the end of the world - rio gallegos, ushuaia and tierra del fuego

we spent 2 days in rio gallegos with eduardo, graziella and their sons. rio gallegos is not the most exciting of locations (when eduardo took us for a sightseeing ride around town he was pointing out a post office, a 100 years old church, a school and ...that would be it). it was graziella and eduardo who turned out to be the main attraction :) we were chatting for hours, the asado (home bbq) that they made was absolutely mniamy ( i was caught red handed picking up meat from the grill when i thought no one was waching and this is me saying - not a huge meat lover). and eduardo being a photographer took professional photos of two of us (have no fear my friends! all the items of clothing remained on). it is so weird how all of the suddent because of aga´s blue eyes and my more and more blond hair we became models . but hey, that´s the end of the world! ah, i just remembered: there is another attraction in rio gallegos - river gallegos itsefl - beautiful!
we took a bus from rio gallegos to ushuaia. it was 8 hours delayed coz of all the border crossing mess(noone seemed to be to surprised or conscerned), on the way we crossed the magellan strait (very windy) and God knows how i created a little kindergarten around my seat :) was fun for a while but then i got bored and sleepy. i guess by no means it is time to have kids yet, you cant get bored and sleepy around your own kids - there are there forever!
anyhow we finally made it to ushuaia in the middle of the night and didnt want to call lucia and augustina (our hosts) at this mad time, people were saying that with no bookings we wont be able to get a place to sleep, it was freezing cold and we were so tired... grrr.. there is even no bus nor train station and we didnt have a map of the city.. it all didnt look promising but the taxi driver knew of a place with beds so when we made it to the hotel and got to our beds and noticed that the room has a view (!!!)at ushuaia bay and the mountanis and all the city lights i was so happy and excited that i couldnt fall asleep. again, we were so so lucky :)
the atmosphere is ushuaia is very much like ´the northen exposure´( przystanek alaska) maybe a bit more people in trekking shoes and goretex jackets. and we start recognizing the same tourist faces on the street or in the buses.
when we finally made it to luica and augustina´s house (the best house design ever, i took pictures from every possible angle to get my future architect to design something similar) we went for a hike to tierra del fuego national park and it was all so beatiful. and today we climed a mini glacier.
tomorrow we want to see the pinguins and on wednesday we are gonna make our way back north to punta arenas in chile.
take care all and write to me, im dying for some gossip from home!

*lekcja cierpliwosci dla podrozujacych po patagonii

panowie ktorzy nas rano zaprosili na mate okazali sie przefajni. zaprosili nas jeszcze na kolacje ( wlasnorecznie zlowiona i przyzadzona ryba) i odwiezli nas na dworzec autobusowy. nie wiem skad to sie w ludziach bierze taka bezinteresownosc. samych takich spotykamy az nam sie chwilami nie chce wierzyc. dzien spedzilysmy zalegajac na trawie w parku, robiac zdejcia dziwacznym rozwiazaniom urbanistycznym bahia blanca, zaznajamiajac sie z bezdomnymi psami i kupujac buty ( tenisowki za 30 zlotych, nie moglam pogardzic!). a wiec milo.

pozdozowanie autobusami po patagoni to zupelnie inna sprawa. spedzilysmy wlasnie poltora dnia w zamieszaniu i kurzu. autobusy sie spozniaja po pare godzin. sprzedaja wiecej biletow niz jest miejsc. nikt nic nie wie a ty siedzisz i czekasz na zakurzonej stacji. i tak jak na poczatku mowilam adze: ´spokojnie, nigdzie nam sie nie spieszy´ to po paru godzinach jak kierowca kolejnego autobsu nam powiedzial ze nas nie wezmie i ze mamy czekac na ´pinguino´ - firme co to sie nazywa pingwin i to ona nas wezmie to tez mi sie podnioslo glos i fuknelam na pana : ´no hay el bus ! no hay pinguino´ ( nie ma autobusu! nie ma pingwina! ) i jak tak sobie teraz mysle ze tak nieladnie nafukalam na pana ze nie ma pingwina na tej zakurzonej stacjii gdzies na koncu swiata to mi troche wstyd. okropnie tak nie moc sie wyslowic i jedyne co byc w stanie powiedzic to to ze nie ma pingina!

w koncu jednak podjechal pingwin i zabral nas do rio gallegos. po drodze zobaczylam chyba wiecej gwiazd na niebie niz kiedykolwiek i tak symetryczny i genialny wschod slonca ze ach! a w rio gallegos zatrzymalysmy sie u przemilej rodziny i pozwolili nam zrobic pranie w pralce :) udalo nam sie kupic bilety do ushuai na jutro.
sciskam kochani, papatki.

*sierra de la ventana & bahia balnca

we left buenos aires and spent 2 days in a lovely village of sierra de la ventana. we climed little mountais (or rather rocky hills) - we finally stopped cursing the trekking shoes in our backpacks! swam in the swimming holes (something like natural pools in the middle of the rivers), got baddly sun burnt and chilled in the dusty bars by the road. we went to church and it was really cool to see old ladies huging and kissing at the end on the mass. and the church was full of scouts who were camping nearby. we spent saturday night in a small bar by the road just watching families coming in trucks and on motorbikes to have a beer or the local equivalent of sprite. we planned to stay in a hostel but when we got to sierra it turned out that it had been closed a while ago, so we stayed in some b&b (which seemed like from `misery´ movie based on stephen king´s book. but the senor was nothing like the crazy lady.
we left with the evening bus, got to bahia blanca and found out there is no buses to rio gallegos until the next night. so we got the tickets and found a hotel (agian no hostels here, it does not seem to be a very popular backpackets destination). everyone is warning us that it is much peligroso (dangerous, doggy) so we got a taxi to a hotel ( with carpets on the walls and shower just over the loo). nothing too pleasant. but... in the morning at breakfast we met 3 really cool middle aged argentinias with a teenage son travelling around on motorbikes and they offered us mate! so we have already had our first real local mate sip! whooo!
tonight we are gonna take a bus to rio gallegos, keep your fingers crossed it´s over 30 hours travelling...hasta luego!

*tango i zwyczaje randkowe tubylcow

jak na wizyte w buenos aires przystalo udalysmy sie z naszym znajomym juanem do klubu salsy i tanga. ( swoja droga jest to dosyc zabawne gdy wszyscy dookola maja na imie jak z latino telenoweli - jose, ricardo, juliana etc.)
tango jest niesamowite! salsa tez fajna ale to juz nie to. troche nam bylo glupio tanczyc na boso (bo przeciez ani nie w japonkach ani nie w buciorach trekingowych, a na tym konczy sie wybor w naszej garderobie, fi by pewnie zalamala raczki...) nie udalo nam sie za wiele podlapac poza podstawowym krokiem, a w dodatku wszystkie instrukcje byly po hiszapnsku wiec my tylko tak co nie co. ale jak nauczyciele zatanczyli pod koniec to ach... chyba sie bede musiala tu na jakis czas przeprowadzic bo tez tak chce! mowi nam tu juan ze na poczatku tango tanczyli tylko mezczyzni w portowej dzielnicy la boca, ile bym dala zeby to zobaczyc! ale to pewnie bylo ze sto lat temu.
z bardziej wspolczesnych ciekowostek to wypytalysmy juana o randkowe zwyczaje tubylcow i podpatrzylysmy sobie (bez autopsjii poki co) co nie co w klubach i na ulicy. podobno jest tu 6 razy wiecej kobiet niz mezczyzn (musze to gdzies sprawdzic bo sie wydaje az niemozliwe) dlatego tez faceci probuja udezac do kazdej po kolei dziewojii i jak jedna ich odrzuci to sa zawsze inne ryby w oceanie (i tu to powodzenie wydaje sie jeszcze bardziej na miejscu niz w europie). to stawia dziweczyny w takiej se sytuacji.
co jeszcze ciekawe, to tu chlopak za wszystko placi. i nie ma ze raz ty raz on, albo ze po polowie czy kazdy za siebie. a ze dla przecietnego chlopaka to restauracje, kino, wycieczki, prezencki do ogromny wydatek i nie kazdego stac na taka inwestycje, chlopaki ponoc duzo chodza do prostytutek bo to kosztuje taniej niz miec dziewczyne! ciekawe swoja droga tak podgladac zwyczaje tubycow :) ciakwe ile w tym prawdy a ile uogolniania. bedziemy kontynuowac badania.
ostatnie popoludnie w buenos spedzilysmy w parku w palermo (po drodze jeszcze bylsymsy z basia (michala kuzynka) na cmentarzu recoleta i na fantastycznych lodach dulce con leche). park pelen biegajacych, cwiczacych, na rowerach i wrotkach i w kajakach portenos ( tak mowia na buenos airesczykow). mowi sie ze argetynczycy lubia milo spedzac czas i mamy to jak na obrazku.
ruszamy na poludnie do sierra de la ventana - polazic po skalkach i gorkach i pokapac sie w tzw. naturalnych dziurach do plywania - jak to wyglada taka dziura to sie ciagle zastanawiamy.
sciskam wszystkich serdecznie, ciao!

*buenos aires

buenos aires we likey :)
we are staying with a great guy, who agnes found through the hospitality club. little excentric but so much fun to be around. full of loco stories. we are having endless conversations and laughs... and he is taking us out dancing and eating! what else can you expect! whooo!
we´ve been here for a few days now , saw everything that a tourist needs to see (microcentro, san telmo, la boca, palermo and recoleta), tried the food, danced away, hm... could easily move in here. it´s full of parks and open air bars, cafes and restaurants.
the only thing maybe that a european woman would have to get used to is the constant attention from men.
they just stare at you, whistle, send kisses and all that! and once they notice that there are 2 exotic girls not just 1 they simply dont know where to look, lol! i am still at the mental stage: ´let them look there is no harm´ but i can imagine it can be quite annoying to have this much attenion daily.
oh and we got robbed from our water! by a 5-year-old. quite surreal.
we could probably stay here for weeks but time to go south, patagonia here come chicas exoticas ;)

*foz de igauzu- brazylia (o! nauczylam sie dodawac zdjecia)

*wodospady igazu

kochani, jestesmy w buenos aires, ale po drodze spedzilysmy jeszcze troche czasu nad wodospadami iguazu na granicy brazylii i argentyny (tak nam bylo szkoda wyjezdzac z brazylii, chyba to troche zle poplanowalysmy, trzeba bylo dluzej tam zostac, no ale coz, nastepnym razem - bo juz planujemy nastepny raz).
wodospady byly przefantastyczne! tyle wody i to spadajacej ze wszad z tak sila to ja nigdzie nie widzialam. i to wszystko otoczone soczysta zielenia lasu tropitalnego. robi niesamowite wrazenie. tak jak wszyscy mowia argentyska strona jest bardzie spektakularna ale brazylijska tez jest przepiekna. co chwile sie czlowiek zastanawia czy to jest aby prawdziwe. i wszedzie motiloki i jakies stwory podobne do borsokow.
w foz de iguazu zaleglam przy basenie hostelowym a potem z nowo zapoznanym towarzystwem basenowym udalismy sie do lokalnego baru. sklad imrezy basenowej nastepujacy: 3 troche fegmatycznych dunczykow, nowozency z brazyli ktorzy wlasnie sie przeniesli na poludnie zeby otworzyc biznes oparty na sprowadzaniu gier komputerowych z paragwaju i sprzedazy w brazylii, 3 nauczycieli (biologia, geografia i historia) z sao paulo spedzajacy w foz wakacje, brytyjczyk powoli zawijajacy sie spowrotem do europy, peruwianka konczaca studia w brazyli i moi. przefajne towarzystwo. gwozdziem programu bylo jak jeden z brazylijczykow udzielal dunczykom rad w sprawie kobiet,) ale potem kazali mi odplynac, nie wiem jakie sekrety omawiali...
w nastepnym odcinku .... buenos aires

*parati - cont.

just to finish off the restaurant story, we ordedred some juice but when the waiter brought a bill it was 3 times as high as we had expected and we did not even have that much, coz we try to carry as little as possible.so we left all the money we had (few reales was missing) and quitely sneaked away... how embarassing! but we could not face explaining the suituation to the waiter .... so i guess the lesson of today is that some restaurants charge you huge cover charges and you need to check it in advance .
after parati we took a bus to sao paulo and from ther to foz de iguazu. in sao paulo we meet a lovely couple in their sixties and they told us that they have been married for 40 years and are still in love, they also said that we are pretty and blessed us with a sign of a cross for the way. or at least we think that this is all the said coz they had no english and we have no portugese. somehow we still amange to get by :)
next stop iguazu !

*parati and trinidade

we have just managed to leave parati (spelled with Y or I as aparently some time ago they wanted to reform the language and get rid of some letters such as: Y, W and K, which did not really work so now both versions are in use now- so i am told) and are heading to foz de iguazu via sao paulo.
in parati we booked a hostel which turned out to be located just next to a huge mud slide and as it kept raining and raining we freaked out a bit and moved to a pousada (kind of b&b) coz my mum would not forgive me such a stupidity - being killed by a mud slide. funny how being in your mid twenties your mum´s voice is your consciesness.
parati is a lovely little colonial town - full of portugese-style little white houses with colourful frames and doors oh, and a few churches separete for the freed slaves, mulatos and the whites. unesco says it is the most perfect example of the portugese colonial architecure in brazil. so there you go. apart from that it is very muddy at this time of the year.
we also took a local bus to the beach in trinidade and witnesed and epileptic attack and a brave woman saving the guy! it happen that he was sitting just next to us and when they needed something to put between his teeth they took my head scarf. when the bus took a detour and we left the poor guy in the hospital they get me the scarf covered with vomit and saliva back! so i put it on the seat where they guy was sitting so noone would sit there as it was full of the same liquids... this raised a commotion among the passangers and they were shouting somethin (God knows what as we don´t know the lanaguage). finally someone started shouting ´window , window!´ ahhhh, they wanted us to through the scarf through the window! once i did so there was clapping and praising... we do stick out here....
after the lovely afternonn on the beach we had another adenture in a restaurant... we just wanted some juice to sit down and plan our next steps and found a nice restaurant with a girl playing a guitar and singin bossa novas (lovely) and .... need to run my time is out promise to finish soon

*rio ciag dalszy

ku wielkiemu smutkowi opuscilysmy wczoraj rio...
zdazylsmy jeszcze wjechac na sugar loaf i zlapac nisamowita panorame miasta w ciagu dnia (bo ze wzgoza cristo odkupiciela widzialysmy miasto tylko noca). marcello oprowadzil nas po centro w niedziele - nic specjalnego, podobno jest ciekawsze w ciagu tygodnia jak sa ludzie, ale znal tyle opowiesci ze w sumie nawet puste ulice wydawal sie ciekawe. mam nadzieje ze nie wpuszcze ich jednym uchem a nie wypuszcze drugim, zeby nie bylo ze tak samo gupie wyjedziemy co zesmy przyjechaly ;) wjechalismy starym tramwajem na santa teresa (aga i marcello zwisali po bokach tramwaju podobnie jak polowa pasazerow!). mi na sama mysl o tym stopy zaczely sie slizgac w japonkach od potu i przykladnie zajelam miejsce W WAGONIE a nie ZWISAWSZY OBOK. ale byla jazda :) potem jeszcze poszlismy na schody selarona - koles z chile ktory wyklada schody kafelkami z calego swiata i mowi ze bedzie slawniejszy od gaudeigo i michala aniola, no zobaczymy. calkiem ekscentryczna osobowosc a schody sa niesamowite. wieczor spedzismy z anna i marchello w barze sambowym na Lapa, probujac imitowac sambowe kroki cariocas i znow ociekajac potem. pot jest niejako motywem przewijajacym sie przez wszystkie watki naszej opowiesci...
jeszcze raz spotkalysmy sie ze znajomymi strazakami holendreskimi. aaaa! i przezylam podobno cos na ksztalt szoku toksycznego! lezalam w lozku, nie moglam zasnac, flaki mi sie w brzuchu przewalaly i bylam zlana (doslownie) zimnym potem- na spiworze jedna wielka spocona plama. dodatkowo spanikowalam ze jestem daleko od domu i ze jak cos sie stanie to jestem taaaak daleko. ale w koncu mi przeszlo i zasnelam a rano obudzilam sie jak nowa. jeden ze strazakow mowi ze tez tak kiedys mial i ze to ponoc cialo chce sie czym predzewj pozbyc jakiejs bakteri a wypocenie jest najszybsza droga. i w sumie jak mysle o ilosci sokow owowcowych ktore ostatnio wypilam z owocow ktorych nidgy wczesaniej nie widzialam to se mysle ze pewnie mial racje.
nie sadzilam ze az tak mi sie tu spodoba, ludzie sa fantastyczni! tylko mam troche niedosyt i wrazenie ze widzialysmy tylko jedna strone rio, ale do favelas (slumsow) zaden turysta o zdrowym umysle sam sie nie zapusci, mozna jechac na wycieczke z przewodnikiem ale to jakos nie wydalo nam sie wlasciwe placic i jechac na wycieczke po ludzkiej biedocie i nieszczesciu. brazylia jest ponoc jednym z krajow gdzie najbardzij widac nierownosci spoleczne. z jednej strony jest to osma najwieksza gospodarka swiata ale 50% bogactw nalezy do 10% spoleczenstwa. favele leza czesto pare krokow od chronionych apartamentow bobaczy z asfaltu. i to bogata elita z asfaltu kupuje narkotyki od ugogich ludzi ze wzgorz. a jak dostawa narkotykow przyjezdza do faveli albo jak policja sie zbliza - choc nie zapuszcza sie tam zbyt czesto - to puszczaja fajerwerki - taki znak umowny.
otworzyli drogi na poludnie wiec ruszamy do parati. (byly zamkniete z powodu osowania sie ziemi ze wzgorz, te osowy zabily juz kilkadziesiat osob, glownie w okolicy ilha grande. jak pada deszcz to ziemia sie osowa z gor i bloto nieszczy wszystko co napotka na drodze, lacznie z ludzkimi istnieniami).

nastepny odcinek po angiesku, zeby bylo spawiedliwie.

sciskam mocno kochani :)

*feliz ano novo!

feliz ano novo!

all my dear espanoles, you would laugh your heads off if you heard me trying to speak a mixture of spanish, portuguese and a sign language :) but people here are so warm and friendly that we do manage to communicate somehow. i did not expect anything like it.

the reveillion at copacabama beach was amazing, with the most amazing fireworks (mental note: stop saying 'amazing') and hundreds of thousands people dressed in white throwing flowers to the see for the godess of lemanja . it was just so so different to see all the families together, people with their kids sleeping in their arms, old fat ladies dancing samba and all the shades of human race welcoming the new year together. we went with agnieszka's friend marchello and a spanish-portuguese couple and we all seemed to get along stright away. the guy we are staying with is also great and so laid back (why would you not be laid back if you live here?)

today we spent the whole day queuing to see cristo redentor and maybe an hour actually hanging around him. we got sun burnt and when we finally made it to the top of the corcovado it was dark so the view was not quite what we expected. still it was beatiful to see this 10- million-people city all lit up ( lights from "people of the hills"as favelians are called shining next to the lights of 'people of the asphalt'). while i was snoozing waiting for our turn to take a train to the top of the hill agnes met 2 dutch guys and we hanged out with them in the local bar (saying bar here i mean a plastic table on a street under a tree, with beer sold from a little cart)

tomorrow we are gonna see the centro and santa teresa and all the other touristic places, but only the ones that do not require queueing, as we can imagine the second day with the same scenario... (belive it or not but just this morning i was talking to marcus about the endless lines in the communist times and here i got it! pure karma i guess)

take care darlings (or maybe just : take care darling as i will be the only one reading this when i am an old lady ;:)

the next episode of latino beza will be in polish, so everyone is happy :)