Cafayate is located in the Calchaqui Valley, about 183km away south of Salta, and famous for its wine production. I booked myself into a day tour which departed at about 7.30am and brought us back about 5.30pm.
The road to Cafayate goes through the Quebrada de las Concas, a series of capricious and rock formations with some amazing view points.
Some views from Quebrada Las de Conchas
The moment I got into Salta, my first reaction was “WOAH! It is really hot here!”. For a moment I felt like I was in a desert with the dry heat!
It took me a while to settle down and also to avoid the heat, before deciding to head out to explore the city.
It’s another nice perfect and hot day, as I pack my bags and get ready to head to the Argentina side of the Iguaçu Falls, before being dropped off at the hostel in Puerto Iguaçu (Argentina). A group of 11 of us from the hostel were going there today, and Iguaçu Falls is one place which is not so enjoyable when visiting alone, especially when there are so many good photo opportunities!
In addition, we also took the jungle + boat ride on the Argentina side which took approximately 1.5hour to complete.
Wow! The weather is hot here! Total contrast from the weather in the other parts of Brazil I had been in for the last 1 week.
As I will only be spending a night in Foz do Iguaçu, I quickly dropped my stuff shortly after arriving and headed out towards the Iguaçu Falls. Entrance fee wasn’t cheap, but it is definitely a MUST SEE in Brazil.
It was absolutely stunning and magnificent! Words alone can’t describe the view, and there was a really well laid out path to walk and view the falls.
Leonardo took some time out from work this afternoon and drove me to Mirante do Moro da Cruz, a hill in the middle of Florianopolis, to get a good birds-eye-view of the city.
He subsequently dropped me of at the centro to visit some sights while he headed back home to work.
The downtown area of Florianopolis is a rather compact town filled with repetitive shops selling similar items, as well as a couple of churches and a market (Mercado Publico Municipal), which I felt was the most interesting to visit in the whole downtown.
Leonardo brought me out to a Samba Club last night in a quaint little house near a fishing village, and boy was it crowded for a Sunday night! Cars lined the street for miles around, and when we got into the club, it was packed!
This is also probably the cheapest bar that I had gone to since arriving in Brazil, with a cover charge of BRL10.00 and caipirinha at BRL5.00 per glass!
We squeezed our way through to the outside area on the other end of the entrance, where we could get a good view of the band, which played really good samba music when we were there.
We headed to the southern part of the island to do some trekking, as Leandro (Leonardo’s brother) and his friend Selyo will be heading to Bolivia and Peru and will be trekking Macchu Picchu.
It was a fairly easy trail as most of the route was paved, and with some steep terrains. The view though was absolutely picturesque as we climbed the hill and got to see the Atlantic Ocean during the trek.
I arrived in Florianopolis and headed to Leonardo’s house. The moment I got into the house I was WOW-ed! It was a penthouse, with a large area split over two floors and with great panoramic sea view.
“So sorry, I can’t believe I locked you out last night.” Melissa said to me when she stepped into the house at noon, shortly after I had woken up.
She continued “I must have been really tired and went to sleep and I remembered I was dreaming of different bells ringing. And after a while my actual conscience started processing and I wondered if it was real. So I walked out and open the door and saw you sitting on the floor”.
After 5 hours bus ride, we arrived in Sao Paulo at 5am in the morning. It was cold!!! It was too early to go to our friends’ place at that hour, so we spent the next 5 hours at the bus terminal and tried to get some additional sleep.
We left the bus terminal at about 11am and my first impression of Sao Paulo as we left the terminal.. It’s so city-city!!! Lots of buildings, highways, cars, fog etc. Not sure if I am going to like this city…
Aliang and I separated ways half way to head towards our respective friends’ house, and not knowing if we may meet again over the next few months, we said our goodbyes and exchanged well wishes.
Met up with my friend Melissa and subsequently went to the largest park in Sao Paulo – Parque de Ibirapuera. It is a huge park and even though I spent about an hour walking around the park, I still did not completely finish walking the whole place.
One can also almost get lost here! Nevertheless, it is a really pleasant place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a large lake in the middle and lots of tracks for joggers and cyclists.
I headed towards Paulista Avenue, the famed street in Sao Paulo, and it just emphasised further my initial impression of the city. 
Spotted a few rhinos though… Of course not real ones, but rather life-size with painted bodies, and it seems like there are many of such rhinos scattered across the city.
My next stop, Liberdade. Liberdade is supposed to be the so called Japanese district and this is probably the only place that I have found so far that makes me like Sao Paulo, and that is because there are many Asian food markets here! I heard that Sao Paulo is the city with the highest number of Japanese population living outside of Japan, and it is probably for this reason that there are a number of Asian markets here, with about 50% of the store carrying Japanese products.
Things are not cheap though, but if I were staying more days, I would probably have bought some Asian ingredients and do my own cooking. Nevertheless I still managed to buy something Asian here for my dinner – Korean Shin Ramyon! Yippee!
It is nice to have some Asian food after much time, even if it is instant noodles. Hot and spicy and perfect for a cold day!
Aliang and I decided that we will leave Paraty on a 11.30pm bus tonight, so that we can be in Sao Paulo in the morning. It had started raining since late afternoon, and it didn’t look like the rain is going to be stopping anytime soon.
So we packed our bags and got geared up for the wet weather to catch the bus from Matheus’ place to the bus terminal. For the first time I am carrying my backpack on my shoulders (I had been using the wheels over the last 2.5months!), as the road from Matheus place to the main road was not suitable for the wheels and I also needed to protect my bag from getting wet!
I left Stefano's house at 7.45am to catch the 8.07am train to the airport, which later required switching to an airport shuttle from T2 ...
