Port & Pasteis in Portugal

We rattled into Portugal on the overnight train from Madrid with our ever growing backpacks (current weigh in was at 20 odd kilos each) and jumped straight into the tourist traps of Lisbon.

Our first walking tour, with an Austrian guide in the middle of Portugal, was extremely entertaining and we learnt about the tumultuous history with apocalyptic earthquakes, powerful leaders, hated Kings and of course the best cafes, shops and views in town. A day trip out to the famously sweet Belem was deliciously good due to the more-ish Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Custard Tarts) that had us going back for 2nds and wishing our belts could fit in 3rds (even snuck into our top 5 Foodie list).

From Lisbon, we journeyed north to the very charming Porto. As we enjoyed a fresh seafood meal with a signature glass of port gazing out at the sunset across the river, we agreed that the beautiful historical terraces truly deserved their UNESCO listing. Porto (and Portugal) have a beautiful understated charm.

Until more radventures,

Scott and Sara

 Traditional wall in Lisbon with fado style tiles

 Terracotta roofs of Lisbon

Crunchy pastry + Sweet warm custard = A delicious Portuguese Tart!

 Eating with the locals - DIY cooked meat on a hot stone. Scrumptuous.

 The ruins of an earthquake struck monastry in Lisbon

 Looking back at historical Porto

A traditional 6 meat sandwhich in Porto, aka francesinha

A glass of port in Porto - very sophisticated!

Morocco Madness

It is impossible not to get hypnotised by Morocco's enchanting self. Straight off the plane we had a glimpse of our time to come... Serious haggling! Moroccans are passionate about giving you an "almost free" price which breaks every backpackers budget. In the souks and narrow lanes we lost ourselves amongst the smells, sights and sounds of Marrakech. We filled plate after plate with rich tagines, grilled meats, snail soups and cous cous; our cups overflowed with the golden liquid of frothy sweet mint tea.

We journeyed a little out of Marrakech to find out more about a Berber village and Ourika waterfalls. After rocking the Kazbah there was some marvelling at the Sultan's Palace, which was followed by weaving trips through the bustling medina. These mainly entailed trying to avoid the snake charmers (unsuccessful - they practically threw the snake at Scott), transvestite belly dancers and rabies infested monkeys, but we always managed to make a beeline for the freshly squeezed juices, cheap and delicious grilled meats and more hot sweet tea. As the days went by, we warmed to the unique way of the Moroccan people and with our honed bargaining skills snapped up a few treasures.

 "It's only a water snake. They don't bite" said the snake charmer

Interesting snail soup 

Our Tea Man 

One of the Palaces 

Bustling Markets

Spicy Meat Skewers

The Americas: Oh My Gawd Food Moments

Since food is such a highlight of our travels, we have collated a list of moments where our taste-buds have been blown away by delectable and tantalising flavours. We also have a running top 5 global food orgasmic moments in a list on the right, which we will keep updated throughout our Radventure. 


The Top Five:


1 - Eight Plate Degustation at El Baqueano (San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
2 - La Caberera Steaks (Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
3 - Freddo Ice Cream (San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
4 - Mexican at La Vaca Mu (Tapachula, Mexico)
5 - Cafe Gitane Baked Eggs (New York, USA)

Other Noteworthy Mentions:

- Empanadas (Puerto Iguazu, Argentina) 
- Quesadilla's (Tapachula, Mexico)

- FriOreo (Tapachula, Mexico)

- Lomo Saltado Spaghetti (Puno, Peru)

- Churros (Mexico City, Mexico)

- Calabresa aka Sausage & Onion (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

- Fresh Coconuts (Rio De Janerio, Brazil)

- Banana Dulce de Leche Liqueur (Mendoza, Argentina)

- Cab Sav Utopia 2006 (Mendoza, Argentina)

- Roasted Plaintains (Otavalo Markets, Ecuador)

- Persicco Coconut Ice Cream (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

- Don Julio's Parrilla (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

One of the eight plates at El Baqueano - Alligator Gyoza

Scott at Freddo's getting suck into the 1/4L goodness 

Delicious El Australiano at La Vaca Mu!

Every mouth full of these empanadas is a flavour explosion!

Its scary the Peruvians can make a good pasta

The yellow liquor is the tasty one... the other not so much

Keep eating good food kids,

Scara

The ABBA Experience

A is for Argentina!
We finally arrived in Argentina after a very round the loop flight path from Quito. Have you ever been on a flight for only 35 minutes, dropped half the passengers off (while you stayed on the plane) and then just kept on flying? Very odd.


Puerto Iguazu was our first destination, of course to marvel in the stupendous Iguazu Falls. The water, ever so calmy streams down the river, and then suddenly the earth falls away and it roars down into the Devils Throat. Every so often there is a huge spray of water from the mouth of the falls and everyone gets soaked!

The roaring Devil`s Throat! 

Some more waterfalls...

 

And a pretty rainbow!

In Puerto Iguazu we were also successful in getting a Brazilian visa! Yay! And sampling the first of many delicious empanadas and gigantic ice-creams. It was also the beginning of many long bus trips!

A very happy man with his Brazilian visa!

B is for Brazil
Visa in hand, we crossed the boarder bound for the bum bearing beach of Copacabana in Rio De Janeiro. It delivered! We have never seen so much cellulite in our lives! There were definitely a good share of Brazilian Beauties, but there should be full brief bikinis for grandmas. There was no bum bearing for Scara though! We said a little pray as we stood under Cristo Redentor to help digest the kilos and kilos of meat we were consuming.

Hydrating on Copacabana Beach 

 

Also hydrating on Copacabana Beach, local style

Cristo Redentor spreading the love to Rio

As U2 descended on Sao Paulo with all its fans, so did we. It made finding accommodation extremely difficult; it was such a hassle settling for a hotel instead of a dorm for a couple of days! The city is much bigger than Rio, so we had lots to explore. We visited the Football museum, practically a shrine to Brazilian soccer legends; in quite the spectacular setting under the stadium. Sara not quite being sick of markets yet, we meandered through a few, always titillating the tastebuds with more empanadas, African influenced dishes and tempura type pancakes. We flashed through Brazil, with the hope of one day going back for more.

Tasty tempura pancake 

An art exhibition we stumbled across with an entire wall of post-it notes!

B is for Bolivia
We went back to Bolivia for part 2. It sounds like a bit of a round about trip, but some how it all made sense to us. Well Bolivia pulled out all it's tricks, including the entire country blockading every major entry point in and out of it's major cities. It made for interesting bus journeys, as we walked through blockades to swap buses and continue our travels. We visited a number of small towns along the way to our major destination of the Salt Flats, including Cochabamba, Sucre and Potosi; each having it's own unique charm. We joined a Frenchman, Englishman (its starting to sound like a joke...) and German woman  for a 3 day jeep guided tour through the bumpy terrain  of the south west Bolivia. We saw an ever changing landscape including the stunning Salt Flat sprayed with the water effects of wet season, red dessert, coloured lagoons, volcanos puffing smoke, train graveyard, the Valley of the Rocks and the Rock Tree, geysers, flamingos and wild llamas. At times it was simply breath taking.

Jumping for joy 

Getting squashed!... like some of Sara's ridiculous jokes

 Salt mounds at the flats

Sun burnt salt cracking 

It looked like it would go on forever

The train grave yard

 Sara on top of a huge rock in the Valley of the Rocks

Taking in the unbelievable setting 

Stunning nature

Scott being all arty and stuff....

Mars - the red desert

A is for Argentina (again!)
Not quite experiencing the Argentinian way of life to the fullest quite enough the first time, we went straight to Mendoza; wine country! The Argentinas can make a very fine drop as we discovered. So we hired some bikes and peddled our way through a few boutique vineyards. Pretty soon we were very happy cyclist and sharing the narrow roads with shonky Argentinean drivers. Great way to see it all and favorite saying for the day was 'beautiful part of the world'.

Photographic evidence that Sara can ride a bike 

Wine tasting!

Our final city in the Americas was Buenos Aires. We were really looking forward to settling into a city for a few days and celebrate the end of our South American Radventure. Buenos Aires did not disappoint! We choose a beautiful part of the city to base ourselves and enjoyed the very trendy European cafe culture of Palermo. The wide tree lined streets and trendy shops had Sara zig zagging down every street with constant 'Ohhh that's pretty!' 


The luxury of 5 days in one place meant we had many lazy mornings, which often ended in going to a delicious bakery to devour some tasty empanadas. Highlights of BA would definitely include sipping a bottle of Mendoza wine in the beautiful parks around Palermo, getting caught up in the passion of the locals at a futbol match, finding some very funky pieces of art at the San Telmo street market, listening to a street Orchestra (again at San Telmo), watching some street tango, soaking up the small but impressive art museums all around BA, the strange stroll through the Recoleta cemetery (along with hundreds of other tourists, which makes the experience even weirder) and an interesting wander through downtown which takes you from the green palace to the pink house (very colourful in a number of ways!)

May I have this dance? 

 San Telmo Markets - reminds me of Rozelle Markets without an awesome coffee stand!

A little music at San Telmo Markets 

Goooooooooooooooooaaaaaallll!!!!!!!

Happy hour in the park

Possibly the biggest highlight for us in Buenos Aires, however, has been the delicious food we have been able to enjoy! Apart from the mouth watering aforementioned empanadas, we made a daily pilgrimage to amazing ice cream shops all around BA to purchase a 1/4 kilo tub filled with ever changing, but always scrumptious flavours of ice cream (these included Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Suisse, Chocolate Persicco, Frutilla, Frambuesa, Dulce de Leche, Americano, Menta Granizada, Coco del Crema, Cookies & Cream, Banana Split, the list goes on .... )

Ice-cream!

The other delectable delight we have enjoyed daily that melts in your mouth has been the Buenos Aires steaks. Nightly dinner trips to many of the phenomenal surrounding parrillas has meant many meals with unbeatable steaks cooked to perfection that ooze juicy flavour and another bout of meat sweats for Scott.

Mmmmm... tasty!

Ciao for now, 

Scara

Ecuador

Ecuador was a wild card which has exceeded expectations. A must see destination for any South American adventure. We were awed by the spectacular landscape, as we stayed slightly off the beaten track.

We wondered the Old Town of Quito which is a UNESCO world heritage site, blending Spanish and indigenous elements into its spectacular cityscape. And battled the bustling restaurant and party goers of the New Town. But the real beauty of the country was waiting outside the urban capital.

We went to Otavalo markets, 2 hours north of Quito, to bargain our way through the largest market in South America. It was a bazar of bright pinks, blues, greens and yellows. The array of stripy pants was unfathomable. We quickly wondered through the Fruit and Meat market, which was filled with a not so fragrant butcher aroma. We tried to blend in with the locals as we munched on roasted plantains, cold corn kernels and delicious blackberry pies. We stayed 4km out of town at La Luna; with it's picture perfect views of Volcano Cotacachi, the town and lake.

Stunning view from the lodge

Flavours of the market

Corn, corn and more corn!

Colourful textiles

Next we put on our cargo pants, gum boots and heavy duty insect repellant bound for the Amazon basin. As we were shown to our cabin at the Shangrilla Ecolodge, we both froze as we took in an unimaginable birds eye view of the jungle. Have we paid enough to stay here? As the river gently splashed down stream and the butterflies danced through the trees, every fiber in our bodies relaxed as we chilled in a hammock watching the sunset through the mountains. It was magical.

Chillaxing in the hammock

Soaking up a sunset

Incredible views from our cabin

It wasn't all siestas in the sunshine. We learnt all about the medicinal, constructional, nutritional and recreational (aka hallucinogenic) purposes of many Amazonian plants. We even tried a few delicious and not so delicious fruits and creatures - rain fruit, guava, lemon ants, tomato de arbole and surprisingly the favorite, lava from a local palm tree. We visited an Amazonian community (they had a Boa Constrictor snake as a pet!), rode a tube downriver, climbed cascading waterfalls, slide down natural rock waterslides, trekked past snakes, Congo ants and spider monkeys... And then, most importantly, we went back to the hammock! This experience will go down on record as one of the highlights!

Enjoying a local delicacy, palm tree larvae

One of the many beautiful waterfalls

Quick shower

Tomb Raider

Keep it real kids,
Scara