Ultimos quince dias

The last 15 days were a bit hectic. After Chili I went back to Buenos Aires to greet some people and realised that I didn't have much time left to get to Rio de Janeiro and that it still was a looong way (more than 2000km) ! I wasn't going to make carnaval in Rio so I looked for the next best thing or even BETTER. Gualeguaychu !!! Carnaval in Argentina! El carnaval del pais !!! Every weekend starting in January until beginning of March this little town north of Bs As is swamped with the young in-crowd partying all day and a Rio-like show on saturday evening. It was fun Just enjoy the pictures.

After the carnaval I left for Uruguay. I allways thought that I would like Uruguay a little bit better because it is smaller than Argentina but I was wrong. I like Punta del Este though which is one of the fanciest summer resorts in South America as it was nice and calm. I also liked very much the colonial heritage of Colonial del Sacramento but the capital Montevideo was really ugly. It just felt like Brussels and reminded me why I never wanted to live there and preferred staying in the village.

I had to rush to Brazil. From Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro I had 41 hours to spend in buses. Ouch! Buses weren't as comfortable as in Argentina but they were almost empty so I could have the two chairs all by myself. I had one stop in Porto Alegre for six hours. People in Brazil are more diverse from black to blond European style. For some reason I could be Brazilian too and they started talking to me everywhere: in shops, public transport even asking me for directions. Help! They talked so quick and I couldn't really understand it. They gazed at me when I tried to respond in spanish or english.

The people watching in Porto Alegre was nice but the girls are on average not as beautiful as in Argentina. Meaning I didn't ran into Adriana Lima or Alessandra Ambrosio which was disappointing. I only had 1.5 day to spend in Rio and chose for a quick as much as I can plan visiting Copacabana, Ipanema, the Christ, the center and watching a Flamengo game in the famous Maracana stadium. Unfortunately they played a small club and the stadium was only filled 1/8th. I prefer going to Boca !!!!

On the way back i had 12 hours to spend in Washington DC and i did a quick tour there as well with a visit inside the Capitol in the room of the congress but they just went into recess(ion), a walk through the Smithsonian Institute which are all free museums spending almost 2 hours in the Aircraft and Aeronautic museum and of course a little stop at the White House. All marble and government offices from where they try to rule the world... Impressive, clean but without a soul...