Sonia's Place, Rio de Janeiro

Tripadvisor.com/Sonia's Bed Breakfast

At first I have to say I LOVE RIO, it is such a great city! And one reason I enjoyed Rio so much was Sonia. She lives in a penthouse apartment in the center of the Copacabana neighbourhood, three blocks from the beach. She is a fabulous host and has a great taste in furniture. If you stay at her place you get a lot of valuable advices and a feeling how it actually is to live in this beautiful city.
Be quick if you plan to go to Rio, she only rents out two rooms.

Our room!

Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro

The Jardim Botânico in Rio is famous for its orchids and palm alleys. Besides gazing at the lovely flowers you can also buy dozens of different orchids. Almost every Brazilian had at least one plant in hand leaving the park. 

An other thing which stood out was that this seems to be the place for a photo shoot. So many pregnant women (and bored husbands) with photographer and assistant holding some reflector to adjust the lighting or spare props, usually a stuffed animal...

I loved the big bamboo they had around and also the giant trees. But the main attraction in my opinion was the long alley lined with palm trees. The trees were gigantic, see for your self!

Weekend market, San Telmo Buenos Aires

San Telmo, Buenos Aires

Every sunday is a huge market along the Defensa street in the San Telmo area. All kinde of market stalls sell all kine of things. The origin of the market is on the Plaza Dorego, the heart and origin of the market. You can buy antiques and watch the professionals performing argentinian tango. This is the place to be on sunday!

La Fundamental, San Telmo - Buenos Aires

Pasaje Giuffra 370, San Telmo 

In the center of San Telmo you find this ultimate hat shop. They have classics like the original panama or classical argentinean hat as well vintage and fancy unique models. Most of them are hand made and of very high quality but still affordable.

The shop is open everyday from 1pm to 7pm except wednesday and saturday. 

PAUL, Palermo - Buenos Aires

pauldeco.com
Gorriti 4865, Palermo - Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires has so many beautiful shops and boutiques, espacaly in the Palermo and San Telmo district. So I decided to post a selection of my personal highlights and start with PAUL.
PAUL Franch Gallery is a beautiful home decor shop in the middle of Palermo. They sell furniture, decoration articles, soaps, wine, cloths, accessories and other things you just easily fall in love with. Just a nice place to get some inspiration!

Granja El Roble (11.04.2014 - 15.04.2014)

www.paraguay.ch

In Belen, 20km east of Concepcion lies the Granja El Roble. Run by Peter from Germany together with his Paraguayan wife and their three kids. Besides some chickens, pigs & cows from his earlier days as a milk producer Peter has giant fish ponds for Tilapia, Surubí & Pacu. But the main income are the cabañas, the restaurant and the entrance to his little zoo. By word of mouth it came to be known that he has a heart for discarded pets and hurt animals, so they end up in his place. When we visited him he had a blind Anaconda (probably run over), a discarded howler monkey (became too aggressive), different parrots and doves, a Screamer bird (evil creature), a Toucan and best of all a Tapir as his guests!

A stay at El Roble is always full board, meaning three meals a day which you eat together with the family on one long table. You can relax in the garden, in the pool or one of the hammocks. You can gaze at the fish in their aquariums or in the koi pond. Play with the various pets or follow the Tapir around the house. In the morning they drive the kids to school, so you can tag along and have a look around Concepcion. We visited the tiny (and rund down) museum, which nevertheless welcomed us heartily and showed us around, free of charge. 

The main "attraction" is Peter itself. After twenty years in Paraguay he has always a tale to tell or a documentary (about the country or in which he helped/participated) to show off. 

From Concepcion leaves a boat once a week to plough up north with the possibility to cross into Brazil later. Since having heard of this opportunity we (okok, I) wanted to take this route. Sadly the catholic nature of latin america made this impossible, on new years eve and easter the boat doesn't run =/

So we headed north-east by bus to the border of Brazil, wanting to reach Bonito...

LOVE IT!

Stellarium - Planetarium for your computer

stellarium.org

When we visited the star gazing facility in Chile, our guide showed us different views of the sky above us with Stellarium.
This is a free and open source application, available for all mayor platforms (Windows, Mac & Linux) and in dozens of languages which enables you to travel in space and time to have a look at the stars.

By entering a location you can see what kind of stars to expect, which constellations are visible & much more. You can see in real time how satellites pass and stars wander or hurry it up by pressing fast forward.
But you can also travel back and forward in time. Want to know which kind of stars are visible on the 17. of April 2017 in Reykjavik, Iceland? Or on the 1. of July in 1394 in Lae, Papua New Guinea? No problem!

The application can of course much more than most of us will ever need. There are many differen plugins and scripts available, from following the path of the sund during the year, demonstrating lunar eclipses, displaying Super Novas to sending digital commands to your telescope tracker.

All in all it is a beautiful piece of software which everybody with a slight interest in the world above us should at least try. Its free, so nothing to lose ;)

View from Concepcion with enabled constellation lines, labels and artwork.

Blue Market

Because of the financial situation in Argentina you can get a better exchange rate on the street than the official rate issued by the government. This so called blue market operates in a kind of grey area. Officially it isn't allowed but the police turns a blind eye to it. We've seen arbolitos (literally little trees) shouting for cambio (exchange) in front of policemen.
There are different websites and twitter accounts which inform about the daily blue rate, even local newspapers print it next to the official one!

All this started after the peso lost a lot of its value as a consequence of the poor economy. People being afraid of loosing their savings started frantically buying USD. This led the government to rationing the amount of dollars a person can obtain to prevent the drain of money "out of the country".
Lately the government tried to defuse the situation by allowing argentinians to have a bank account in dollars. For this account they can buy certain amount of dollars at the official rate but have to pay a 30% tax the moment they withdraw it (other people told me this tax expires after one year).

After our debacle in Venezuela we came prepared to Argentina. We had a fair amount of peso chileno and dollars to exchange.
As the golden times (at least for us foreigners where we would get twice the amount on the blue market) are over we ended up exchanging our money the tourist way on Calle Florida.
What we didn't know before is that you get better rates for higher denominations. Which means bills of 50 and 100 USD would fetch close to the price advertised. Everywhere else in the world it is a hassle to cash in bills higher than 20$ so we didn't bring any. We still got 10.50 per dollar when the price on twitter was at 10.90 and the official rate was at 7.90.
There are some misprinted new 100 Peso bills in circulation which certain places don't accept, so make sure you get old ones or know how to spot them!

PRO TIP: Bring big dollar bills to Argentina!

Laura Hartwig, Santa Cruz

laurahartwig.cl

If you like to visit a wine yard which is close to Santa Cruz, Laura Hartwig it is. This lovely family run company produces wine in the second generation and exports it all over the word. Nevertheless it could maintain its charm as a little wine yard.
The tour starts with a ride on horse and carriage trough the yard followed with a tour trough the production and the wine cellar. Rounded up with a wine tasting at the end.
This tour cost around 15USD.

Mistura, La Paz

Calle Santiago No.163

It is almost impossible to find beautiful shops in La Paz. Which makes you even more appreciate this boutique. The presentation and the assortment is inspiring especially in a city like la Paz.

They sell bolivian handcrafts (but in a modern way), alpaca cloths (also for children), accessories, natural skin care products, gourmet products, jewellery and beautiful hat's for a bargain. I still regtet i didn't buy one!

San Pedro Market, Cusco

Tupac Amaru, Cusco 

This market has everything from clothes, accessories, fruits, vegetables, meat, cheese, bread, delicious fruit juice, food stalls and much more. A perfect place to have lunch peruvian style and way cheaper then all the posh restaurants around the main plaza.

L'atelier by Grid, Cusco

latelierbygrid.com

At l'atelier by Grid is a beautiful shop run by Grid herself, a likeable french Girl. She sell vintage cloths/ accessories and self made jewellery. I found my perfect Peru souvenir, a neckless with an old peruvian coin. Her atelier is part of the shop and she is always able to consider special requests.

My souvenir from Peru

La Boheme, Cusco

labohemecusco.com

If you ever head a good french crepe, you will definitely know the difference between a crepe and a real crepe. And who knows that better then the french? In Cusco you find a chance to get a real one in this little creperia run by a very friendly french guy. He offers sweet and salty ones, the filling is up to you. And don't miss to try one of the fresh, delicious teas!

Street food, Santa Cruz Galapagos

Calle de los Quioscos, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador

In the center of the main island Santa Cruz are many opportunities to have dinner. The most popular street is the Avenida Charles Darwin along the coast. Most of the restaurants on this street offer good western food although a little pricey.
A better and way cheaper option to eat fresh seafood is at Calle de los Quioscos. This street is closed for traffic in the evening and every little restaurant provides a few tables. It works like a food-court, so order were ever you want.

Flea Market, Bogota

Calle 120/Carrera 5 | Usaquen Village, Bogota, Colombia

Every sunday is the flea market in this residential neighbourhood with lots of colonial charm. A nice area to spend a relaxed sunday and buying jewellery, crafts, foods, clothes, souvenirs and much more. In the same area are plenty of different nice cafes, bars and restaurants.

The easiest way to get there (or elsewhere in Bogota) is by taxi. The system is very simple and user friendly - they all have to drive with the taximeter. Insist on it or get out of the cab again. Normally they have in the pocket behind the driver seat a list with all the rates.

Posada La Casita, Ciudad Bolivar

posada-la-casita.com

In the heart of Venezuela, near the "small" town of Ciudad Bolivar, you will find the Posada La Casita witch is run by Peter Rothfuss and his wife Maria.
Peter, also called "El Aleman" has his own world in a green park including pool and a little zoo. He offers rooms or free standing "casitas" all with air con, privat bathroom and hot water. A room costs 25$ and a cabin 32$, he accepts transaction or you can pay cash in bolivar, dollar or euro.
The place is a 20 minutes drive away from the center but he has a shuttle service twice a day and will pick you up if you give him a call.
Peter also has his own travel agency named Gekko Tours and an airplane to Canaima. He has the best connections and fair prices. If you plan to go to Salto Angel he is your guy!

Casa Nuratti & Gato Blanco, Panama City

casanuratti.com

In the beautiful old part of the City is Casa Nuratti, a hotel / restaurant / bar. The two Italien guys who own this place have excellent taste in interior design. If you like to spent a little more (around 100$ a night) this is a well located and beautiful choice.

On the rooftop you will finde the lovely Gato Blanco bar. They have a good selection of wine, skyline view including a nice breeze. At some evenings a jazz band performs. All in all a really relaxed and peaceful place to enjoy a drink in good company!

Cafe Casa Sucre, Panama City

casasucrecoffeehouse.com

Cafe Casa Sucre is a relaxed place in a beautiful renovated colonial building. They serve delicious coffee and breakfast. If you stay at a place with bad wifi you will find good wifi at this place in a comfortable, nice environment.

Hostal Refugio del Rio, Boquete

refugiodelrio.com

The lovely town of Boquete, wich lays one hour bus ride from David, is on 1200 meter above sea. A green authentic village from where on you can do many different hiking tours. One of the best places to stay is Hostal Refugio del Rio. Like the name says there is a small river right next to the house and an idillic garden with a hot jacuzzi - perfect to relax.

They offer dorm beds, privat rooms in the main house and bungalows in the garden. On there website are all prices listet including pictures from every room & bungalow. In town are two good sorted supermarkets and the kitchen in the hostal is pretty well equipped. If you plan to stay there, make a reservation in advanced as it is often fully booked.

Restaurante Bocart, Bocas del Toro

bocartrestaurant.com

If you ever go to Bocas del Toro, plan a visit at restaurant Bocart!
This nice relatively new little restaurant is close to the center of Bocas at the main drinking and food mile. The team at Bocart is very friendly, attentive and it is obviously that they love good and creative food.

A main course costs around 11-15$ and is worth every penny! They always offer different daily specials which is for sure a good choice.

"Amuse-bouche"