Olá and bem-vindos to our blog! We are the seven travelers (in Portuguese: os sete viajantes) - Anna, Austin, Casey, Gavin, James, Jeff, and Lauren - who will be posting about our experiences in Brazil and Argentina in June 2014. It started out as an idea to go to the World Cup and snowballed into a journey of four stops and 19 days from June 9 to June 27. We leave ten days from today.
Each of the four place we're traveling to (Salvador, Foz do Iguaçu, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia) is very different from the others. We start in the north and will work our way south, and as such, the average temperature will decrease with each stop (76, 62, 53, and 35 deg. F, respectively) and we will have to be creative while trying to pack light - particularly since it's the Southern Hemisphere winter!
Salvador, Brazil - The site of our World Cup game and the city with the most African heritage in Brazil. Our game will be Spain vs. Netherlands (the last Cup's final!) on June 13. We got super lucky with our lottery draw, having chosen the city but not knowing the teams that would be playing until after booking our flights. We will be staying by the beach in Lauro de Freitas for several days and then right at the tip of the peninsula downtown for the last two days.
Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil and Puerto Iguazu, Argentina - Two towns by the Iguazu Falls, a massive complex of waterfalls that straddles the Brazil/Argentina border. It is the second largest waterfall in the world by annual volume after Niagara. We will spend two days on each side.
Buenos Aires, Argentina - "The Paris of South America". Argentina's largest city and the fourth largest in South America. We hear great things and are excited to learn more about its history/culture and see if perhaps it takes seven to tango. We will be here three days.
Ushuaia, Argentina - In Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. In fact, Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, and we will be arriving on June 21 - their shortest day of the year. We hope to take advantage of the 7 1/2 hours of daylight each day to hike, ski, and explore this unique little town, and possibly even cross into Chile for a day. Can't wait for the five days we will spend down here.
More detailed posts will of course follow. We plan to spread blog writing duties amongst the seven of us to keep our followers regularly posted but not require too much time from any of us individually. Until then some of us will be stressing about packing and all of us will be getting amped for this incredible trip with an incredible group of seven friends. Vamos!
