Montevideo,Uruguay
7. december 2019, Uruguay ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Montevideo to Puerto Madryn. Viking Jupiter. At Sea. Day 1
This morning we had a quick breakfast and then down to the Star Lounge for a lecture on the “History of Argentina” by Dr. Mark Callaghan.
Before Europeans came to Argentina it was thinly populated. In the Northwest people grew crops such as potatoes and squash. They sometimes lived in walled towns and they used metal and made pottery. However, most of the indigenous people lived by hunting animals and gathering plants. They continued their hunter-gatherer lifestyle until the late 19th century.
Europeans arrived in what is now Argentina in the 16th century. In 1516 Juan de Solis reached the River Plata but he was killed by the natives. He was followed by Sebastian Cabot who reached the River Plata area in 1526. Then in 1536 Pedro de Mendoza led an expedition to the area and he built a fort. However, the Spaniards were forced to withdraw by hostile natives. Nevertheless, later in the 16th century several towns were founded in the Northwest of what is now Argentina. Buenos Aires was founded in 1580 to give access to the sea. Yet the southern part of Argentina was left in the hands of the natives. Finally, in 1776 a new Viceroy of the River Plata was formed with Buenos Aires as its capital.
In 1806 the British captured Buenos Aires but they were forced to withdraw. In 1807 they attacked the city again, but they were repelled. Nevertheless, links between Argentina and Spain weakened in the early 19th century especially after 1808 when Napoleon forced the Spanish king to abdicate and made his own brother king of Spain. Finally, on 25 May 1810 the Viceroy was deposed, and a junta took control of Argentina. However, the junta did not break all links with Spain until 1816. The United Provinces of the River Plata was declared on 9 July 1816.This date is celebrated each year as Independence Day.
Argentina in the 19th Century
At first the United Provinces consisted of what is now Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. However, the new state was bitterly divided between unitarists who wanted a strong central government and federalists who wanted a loose federation of provinces. Eventually in the 1820s the new state broke up. Bolivia became independent in 1825 and Uruguay was created as a buffer state between Argentina and Brazil in 1828. In 1835 General Juan Manuel de Rosas became dictator of Argentina. He was a federalist but ironically, he introduced a strong (and repressive) central government. However, Rosas eventually alienated many people in the provinces and in 1852 a rebellion removed him from power.
The first railroad in Argentina was built in 1857. It was followed by many others. By 1900 there were over 10,000 miles of railroad in Argentina and by 1912 over 20,000 miles. The railways made it much easier to transport produce to the coast for export. Argentina exported meat, wool and grain and by 1900 she was the richest country in South America. Meanwhile the population of Argentina boomed partly due to immigrants from Spain and Italy. By the end of the century the population of Argentina was about 4 million.
Argentina in the 20th Century
In the 1920s Argentina was the 7th richest country in the world. However, Argentina, like the rest of the world, was affected by the Wall Street Crash. In 1930 the army staged a coup and General Jose F. Uriburu became president of Argentina. Another election was held in 1937. Despite many accusations of electoral fraud Roberto Ortiz became president Ill health forced Ortiz to hand over power to Castillo in 1940. In 1943 the army staged another coup. After the 1943 coup Juan Peron gradually emerged as leader. In 1946 he was elected president. Peron introduced a number of welfare measures and nationalized industries. Peron was re-elected in 1951 but he gradually lost support. In 1955 a revolution called the Revolution of Liberation forced Peron to flee abroad.
In January 1944 Argentina severed diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan. Finally, on 27 March 1945 Argentina declared war on Germany. Several short-lived governments followed. In 1958 Arturo Frondizi was elected president of Argentina but the military removed him, in 1962. More elections were held in 1963 and Dr. Arturo Illia became president. The military removed him in 1966. The military dictatorship did not bring peace. In May 1969 rioting broke out in Cordoba. The unrest spread throughout Argentina. Meanwhile inflation raged.
In 1973 the army allowed more elections and the Peronists (supporters of Peron) won. A Peronist called Hector Campora became president. Peron then returned from exile and Campora resigned to make way for him. More elections were held in September 1973 and Peron became president. However, Peron died in 1974 and his widow Isabel Peron (Evita) took power. Under her rule inflation and unrest continued. Finally, in March 1976 the army seized power again.
Argentina then suffered a brutal military dictatorship during which thousands of people 'disappeared' during a 'dirty war'. Meanwhile inflation continued to rage, and Argentina became heavily indebted. In the early 1980s, despite the repression protests spread across Argentina. To try and divert people's minds from their problems the junta invaded the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982. However, the war turned into a disaster when the British quickly recaptured the islands.
Meanwhile the Argentinean economy was in dire straits. Eventually the junta allowed elections in October 1983. Raul Alfonsin took office on 13 December 1983. Alfonsin was unable to solve the problem of hyperinflation in Argentina despite austerity plans introduced in 1985 and 1987. In 1989 Alfonsin handed over power peacefully to the next elected president Carlos Saul Menem. During the 1990s Menem managed to curb inflation and he privatized industry.
Argentina in the 21st Century
In 2001-2002 Argentina suffered a severe recession. However, the economy then grew strongly for a few years. Today the economy of Argentina is growing steadily.
Meanwhile in October 2007 Cristina Kirchner became the first elected woman president of Argentina. Then in 2015 Mauricio Macri was elected president.
Government raises interest rates dramatically in an effort to shore up the tumbling value of the peso currency.
2019 October - Peronist candidate Alberto Fernández wins the presidential election, becoming the first challenger to oust a sitting Argentinean president. He was sworn into power December 10, 2019 and is taking a strong stance on improving the economy. So far everything going in right direction.
Lee then did her deck walking and we had lunch at the pool grill. Don had booked himself to go to a wine tasting in the afternoon, which he enjoyed. Lee did laundry and rested. We went to the Star Theatre to hear Lou Thieblemont’s lecture “Exploring the Cosmos” -The history of Astronomy.
This was a very low key day. We had dinner and went to the Star Theatre for an Abba Songbook presentation by the Jupiter Vocalists.
An interesting Nautical Term was in our newsletter. Blind Eye. In 1801,during the Battle of Copenhagen, Admiral Nelson deliberately held his telescope up to his blind eye so that he would not see the flag signal from the commander to stop the bombardment. Nelson won. Turning a “Blind Eye” means to “intentionally ignore”Læs mere
Montevideo,Uruguay
6. december 2019, Uruguay ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Montevideo,Uruguay
6. december 2019, Uruguay ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Montevideo, Uruguay
6. december 2019, Uruguay ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
Viking Jupiter. 2 Tours Booked
Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, is a major city along the Montevideo Bay. Population of Uruguay is 3 million people and Montevideo is one and a half million. It revolves around the Plaza de la Independencia, once home to a Spanish citadel. This plaza leads to Ciudad Vieja (the old town), with art deco buildings, colonial homes and landmarks including the towering Palacio Salvo and neoclassical performance hall Solís Theatre. The southernmost capital city in the Americas, Montevideo is situated on the southern coast of the country, on the northeastern bank of the Río de la Plata.
Montevideo enjoys a scenic setting on the estuary waters of the Plata River. The Portuguese were the first to settle here hoping to give them a strategic advantage near the open ocean. Between 1680 and 1683, Portugal founded the city of Colonia do Sacramento in the region across the bay from Buenos Aires. Within its walls some of the most impressive colonial era buildings were built, from the Parliamentary Legislative Council building to the stunning Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral. The wall has long since disappeared, but the character of old Montevideo remains. Downtown amid modern skyscrapers, historic neo classical and art deco architecture provide more glimpses into the city’s past, and in the barrio (district) of Carrasco, picturesque private residences recall the posh neighbourhood’s days as a seaside resort.
This Portuguese city met with no resistance from the Spanish, already established in Buenos Aires, until 22 November 1723, Field Marshal Manuel de Freitas da Fonseca of Portugal built the Montevieu Fort. A Spanish expedition was sent from Buenos Aires and on 22 January 1724, the Spanish forced the Portuguese to abandon the location and started populating the city. It passed between Spain, Portugal, Britain and France over a period of 100 or so years. It became economically important in the mid 1800’s. During the May Revolution of 1810 and the subsequent uprising of the provinces of Rio de la Plata, the Spanish colonial government moved to Montevideo. During that year and the next, Uruguayan revolutionary José Gervasio Artigas 1764-1850 united with others from Buenos Aires against Spain. He was considered the liberator of Montevideo and became their hero.
In the morning we took A Panorama Tour of Montevideo with our guide Julio.
This was a bus tour starting at the Independencia Plaza, that separates Ciudad Vieja (Old Town) from downtown Montevideo, with the Gateway of The Citadel on one side and the beginning of 18 de Julio Avenue on the other. July 18, celebrates the first constitution in 1830. In the center, the Artigas Monument dominates the perspective, Artigas' remains are kept in an underground Mausoleum, opened in 1977, beneath his monument. We wandered around the square for about a half hour and then bused out to see the Legislative Council, an impressive building made of national marble. It is considered to be one of the most attractive parliamentary buildings in the world. Parliament has 80 senators 160 representatives, a president for 5 years who cannot be re-elected until out of office for five years.
We continued to Batlle Ordonez Park (Batlle is spelled correctly!) where we saw the La Carreta Monument. The Carreta was the traditional Uruguayan way to transport in the early days. The sculptor made the moulds in Uruguay but took them to Italy to be cast in bronze. Mussolini wanted to keep it, but the sculptor said no and brought it back to Uruguay.
We continued on to see the Centenario Stadium, built between 1929 and 1930 to host the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup, as well as to commemorate the centennial of Uruguay's first constitution. The normal capacity is 60,235, but the record attendance in 1930 was 79,987 (Uruguay vs-Yugoslavia). On our way back to the ship we drove along the upscale beach neighbourhood of Pocitos, a long stretch of palm tree- lined beaches lapped by the Plata River. We passed many upscale hotels and high-rises as we returned to port.
We hurried back for a quick lunch and then set out again for a 3-hour walking tour of Old Town (Ciudad Vieja) Montevideo. Our Guide was Santiago a teacher on a 3-month summer break. We were bussed to Independencia Plaza again to start our tour. Our guide led us to Palacio Salvo, the site was bought by the Salvo brothers.
The building was originally intended to be a hotel, but this plan didn't work out, and it has since been occupied by a mixture of offices and private residences. It was the tallest building in Latin America for a brief period.
While walking along the sidewalk looking at all the cast iron sculptures, Don posed with one like a piano player. Unfortunately, he moved forward and hit his shin on a part that stuck out. Ouch!! From there we crossed the plaza to see the monument to Uruguayan revolutionary José Gervasio Artigas. We went down into the Mausoleum, it was very beautifully done in marble. Our guide took us by several buildings that had sculptures in their main lobbies and one that had a number of photos of times in the past. We continued on foot to the Teatro Solis, Uruguay's most important and renowned theatre. It opened in 1856, designed by the Italian architect Carlo Zucchi, they claim it has excellent acoustics, probably not as good as Teatro Colon ,Buenos Aries.
We passed through the Gateway of The Citadel, the last of the existing walls of the old Fortress, to the cobbled streets in Old Town that were closed to vehicles. We continued through the Gateway of The Citadel, the last of the existing walls of the old Fortress, to the cobbled streets in Old Town that were closed to vehicles. We passed many street vendors with their tables filled with everything you could imagine, for sale. We continued on to Plaza de la Constitution also known as Plaza Matriz, the oldest plaza in Montevideo. It is located in the first part of the city that was built. We saw a lovely fountain monument and toured the interior of the 18th century Metropolitan Cathedral. At Zabala Square we learned that in 1878, during the dictatorship of Colonel Lorenzo Latorre, it was decided to demolish the old fort and build a public square in its place. The most important landmark in the square is the equestrian statue of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, who founded Montevideo in 1724. We entered the Taranco Palace, erected on the site of Montevideo's first theatre in the historical centre of the city which had been built in 1793. The Taranco Ortiz family commissioned the construction of the building in 1907 and it was completed in 1910. In 1943 the Uruguayan state purchased the residence and part of the furniture and gained access to its works of art, but it wasn't until 1972 that it became a museum, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
We headed back to the ship noting the largest Uruguayan bank, opened in 1896. Our last stop was at the Mercado del Puerto. This building, constructed from steel, is one of Uruguay’s main attractions. It’s located in the older part of the city, right across from the port of Montevideo, and it was originally a market for fruit, vegetables, and meat. Today, it’s still called the “Harbor Market,” but there aren’t quite as many stalls and stands. Instead, it hosts a good range of restaurants with counters facing in towards the barbecue, where people can sit and enjoy one of Uruguay’s most traditional dishes: asado, which consists of a barbecue including all types of meat, sausages, and organ meats. A really interesting market and we would have liked to stay and enjoy the smells and ambiance, but our bus was waiting to take us back to the ship.
It was a beautiful evening as we left from the port. There were lots of people out on the breakwater fishing and enjoying the sun.
At 6:30 we went to a lecture by Dr Richard Bates about the making of South America. He started 4.6 billion years ago and followed through all the Eras and periods.
Precambrian Era, 4.6B -540 Million yrs. From the Big Bang era to the start of the lands forming and shifting. The only multicellular life forms at the end of this were in the oceans and included some groups that have survived until the present: jellyfishes and segmented worm
Palaeozoic Era, 540 - 251 Million. Cambria Period, 540-489 Million. Ordovician Period, 488-359 million. Devonia Period, 416-359 million. This is when a lot of the subduction of ocean basins and mountain building took place. Carboniferous Period, 359-299 million. Some trees starting to grow but South America was still in the ice age. Permian Period, 299-251 Million. Some animals evolving but It ended in the largest mass extinction the Earth has ever known. The emerging supercontinent of Pangaea presented severe extremes of climate and environment due to its vast size. The south was cold and arid, with much of the region frozen under ice caps.
Mesozoic Era, 251 Million- 65 Million.
Triassic Period, 251 M -202 Million. It followed the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period and was a time when life outside of the oceans began to diversify.
Jurassic Period, 202-146 Million The supercontinent Pangaea split apart. The northern half, known as Laurentia, was splitting into landmasses that would eventually form North America and Eurasia, opening basins for the central Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico
Cretacious Period, 146-65 Million. Antarctic moves south. Aconcagua subduction and highest mountain in South America formed in Argentina
Cenzoic Era, 65 Million -0 Million
Paleogene Period, 65-23 Million. The Americas joined Antarctica over the South Pole. Australia separated from Antarctica, India crashed into Asia creating the Himalayan Mountains, Antarctica was covered by glaciers, Sea levels were low.
Neogene Period, 23 Million to Present - a time when the continents continued to crash into each other. Italy moved north into Europe raising the Alps. Spain crashed into France to form the Pyrenees. The Rocky Mountains and the Andes Mountains formed in North and South America during this time.
It was a fascinating lecture and really well presented. We left and continued on into dinner and then a stroll around the ship and off to bed.Læs mere
Buenos Aires, Argentina Viking Jupiter
5. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
Buenos Aires. Viking Jupiter Rest Day on ship
After a bit of a late-night last night at the opera we were slow getting off the mark this morning. In fact, we barely made it in time for breakfast before they closed the restaurant. There was a complimentary skin analysis, 20-minute session, “take a moment to get to know your skin better”. Lee decided to go and while they did do an analysis on her skin; it was pretty well a sales pitch for products that would help moisturize your skin; you’d think we’d know by now! There were several included tours of Buenos Aires that we could have taken but having spent several days there, we had already done all of them.
We took a fair amount of time to wander around the ship and get to know it better, including finding the laundry room which is quite well equipped. Lee did a couple of loads of laundry as it wasn’t very busy.
We thought there might be an “anchors away” celebration on deck so we went up with cocktails in hand but there was no celebration. Additionally, the ship was late in leaving due to traffic in the shipping channel, so we headed down to our pre-arranged dinner at one of the premium restaurants called the Chef’s Table. The menu there was a pre-set, five course “Xiang” Dinner that was a mixture of Asian cultural foods, with 5 wine pairings and it was delicious.
After dinner we went to the Star Theatre to see a magician, Greg Moreland, perform. He was very good and very humorous. We wandered around a bit more, had a drink in one of the common areas and listened to a classical string duet. It was a great day to just chill out on the ship after a very busy couple of weeks. We finally packed it in for the night around 11:00.Læs mere
Buenos Aires to Viking Jupiter
4. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Japanese Garden. Transfer to Pier to board Viking Jupiter. Opera, Tales of Hoffman
We woke up at 6:00 had a relaxed breakfast and finished packing in preparation to boarding the Viking Jupiter later in the afternoon.
We stored our luggage at the hotel and took a taxi to the Japanese gardens of Buenos Aires, located in the neighborhood of Palermo. It was built by the members of Japanese immigrants, and its inauguration was held on May 15, 1967, when the current Emperor of Japan, Akihito, visited the city with his wife, while he was still a prince. The garden was meant as a token of appreciation by the Japanese community to the country that gave them refuge. The garden is run by the Argentine-Japanese Cultural Foundation, with the aim of providing entertainment and culture expansion.
The elements of this beautiful garden have strong symbolic meanings. All elements seek harmony and balance, essential building blocks in the Japanese culture. One of the first things we saw was the Japanese Wishing Tree. People make special origami notes and leave “wishing” messages in various ways, for hope for the future of the earth
The bridges represent routes that embody the formation of ideals. One of them has a curved form to represent that it is a difficult journey. It is named Puente de Dios, which means Way to Paradise. The Bright and Beautiful Garden is one of the most peaceful and relaxing areas. It has a wide variety of plants and native trees like the Palo Borracho and Tipani. The Tipani is a beautiful rosewood tree and it was in full bloom with brilliant yellow flowers. The plants and vegetation include an extensive variety of Japanese plants like the Sakura or Cherry, Azalea and Acer Palmatum. Another main attraction is a lake with large carp and their golden colors draw a lot of attention. In the middle of the garden you can see figures of a man and a woman, dressed in samurai style, traditional of Japan.
We then took a taxi to the Teatro Colon for our guided tour. When we were about 4 blocks away the cab driver said there was a demonstration and that he wouldn’t go any closer so we should get out and walk. I paid the driver, and all seemed fine and then he went a bit crazy. He told me that I had given him a fake 200 pesos. This was the same bill I had received as change from the driver who took us to the Gardens. I apologized and gave him two $100.00-peso bills and we departed. The walk was more like 6 blocks, but we were able to make it to the theatre in time for our tour
Our guide’s name at the theatre was Collette and she was very good at giving us lots of history and taking us around the theatre and showing us the areas where they had left the walls as they were before the renovation. Both the plaster and the wood were almost black from the smoking of patrons. To strip everything back they had to use putty knives and scrape off layer by layer.
We started our tour of the opera house and learned that the basement is way bigger than the main floor footprint and actually goes underneath some of the side roads. All of the materials were brought to Argentina from Europe and various countries and were represented in different ways, so they call the architecture eclectic. We went into a couple of the theatre boxes and wondered where we would be sitting when we came back to for the Opera that night. We learned about the widow’s boxes that were totally behind black curtains so they couldn’t be seen nor could they see, but they could hear the music. The Colón Opera Theatre operated for its first venues from 1857 until 1888, after which the building was closed for the construction of a new house. Finally, the new improved house opened on May 25th, 1908 with a performance of Aïda. In the beginning, the theatre recruited opera companies from other countries, but as of 1925 it had its own permanent companies (orchestra, ballet and choir) and its own production workshops, which have allowed the theatre to organise its own performances since the 1930s, funded by the city budget.
In 2000, the theatre's decline became clear and plans were made for massive renovations. After the start of the restoration in 2005, the theatre had to be closed from October 2006 to May 24, 2010. Finally, the Teatro Colón boasted a building restored to all its original glory, complete with air-conditioning which cost dearly in order to maintain its perfect acoustics. Our guide pointed out how they were able to put all the air conditioning under the floors rather than the ceilings.
We were so happy to have seen the inside before we went to the production. We took a taxi home and I paid the driver the 200 Pesos that we owed him, and it happened again. The driver said that the 200 pesos bill was counterfeit. I then gave him a 500-peso bill and he gave me back change. We went into the hotel and then the driver came running into the lobby of the hotel and went crazy, yelling at us. The director of customer care for the hotel was there and asked what the problem was. The driver told her that I hadn’t paid him. I said I gave him 500.00 pesos, but when I checked out my money, I realized that when he had given me change for the 500.00, he had not taken out the 200.00 that was owed to him. What a mess. Don tore up the fake 200.00 pesos and I gave him a good 200.00 and finally everyone settled down. We walked down to the bank and took out some more pesos and when we returned Hector was there to take us to the ship.
When we arrived at the terminal there were hundreds of people lined up and we thought that we would be in line for hours. A Viking representative came up to us and for the next 15 minutes we felt like we were royalty. Our luggage was whisked away, and we were then led from one area to another through the masses of people inside the terminal until we finally reached the customs where again we were whisked through. The whole process took 15 minutes at the most. We were told that the masses were waiting to board the Costa Line ship, also in port. Were we ever glad we weren’t with them!
We were shown to our room and we headed up to the 7th deck for a quick lunch. We did a quick tour of the ship and found out what we needed to do to go back into town for the Opera that night. at that point our luggage had not been delivered and we were worried that it might not show up in time for us to get properly dressed and more importantly, to get the tickets out of my bag! Well everything worked out, I had time to press some clothes and we headed out again to take the shuttle bus back to the terminal and then grab a taxi back to the theatre. We arrived in lots of time and walked to Café Colon, a block away, for a glass of wine and light supper.
Back to the theatre, we found our box which was better than we could ever have hoped for. We were the first to arrive at the box and so we picked the best of the 6 seats that were in our box. Another couple arrived, he was from Los Angeles and she was from Chile. Finally, a 3rd couple arrived, and they were from England. Their seats really were not good at all, we felt badly but we were not about to give ours up.
The Opera was the Tales of Hoffman a fantasy written by Jules Barbier and music written by Jacques Offenbach. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in October 1880, four months before the premiere.
It is a story about Hoffman and his three fantasy loves. The first a mechanical doll, the second the daughter of a good friend and the third a madame of reputation. He feels these are the 3 sides of his girlfriend Stella. Quite a journey of make believe. There was one piece of music that runs through the story which was pleasing but the rest was not great. Don wanted to leave after 2 acts but stayed on my account and I was happy he did. We left the theatre around 12:00pm expecting to catch a cab right outside but any that were there were all taken. We walked about 4 blocks in a chilling breeze and finally found one, but he had no idea where we wanted to go. We ditched him and then finally, we found another who was able to understand us and returned us to Terminal 4. We took the shuttle back to the ship and then walked around the very quiet floors getting a feel for the location of things and finally returned to our room 5072 to finish unpacking. We were looking forward to having a sleep in.Læs mere
Buenos Aires, Argentina
3. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Buenos Aires. Tour: Fiesta Gaucho Barbeque and show at Estancia Santa Susana Hotel: Loisuites /Recoleta. Guide: Marianne. Driver: Felix
Marianne was late to pick us up because the traffic was apparently very bad. On the bus to the “ranch” there were only 8 people. On the way we saw one of the famous landmarks in Buenos Aires, the Floralis Generica, a 105-foot wide mechanised giant silver flower, which blooms anew every day. But not today; it had broken down and was awaiting corrective service. Designed and paid for by Argentina architect Eduardo Catalano, it has been a striking city landmark since it opened in 2002. Marianne played Spanish music on the sound system and we loved it but other people on the bus were happy when she turned it off.
After ¾ hour of driving we arrived at Estancia Santa Susana, we were surprised there were very few people there. We learned that there were several busses coming from the ships in port today. We were treated to empanadas- the best we have had on our whole trip and our choice of wine or juice. We wandered around outside and were disappointed to find that it was not a real working ranch. We went in to see the great setup for lunch and decided we didn’t want to ride the horses that were available, but just for fun, would go on the horse drawn cart. As we got down from the cart it started to sprinkle so we went to see the barbecues and wandered through their Gaucho shop. Don bought a leather hat to replace the Aussie hat that he left in the bottom of the hot tub last year and then we were seated for lunch. There was beer, water and wine on the table as much as you wanted. First, they served an assortment of different types of salads, about five different bowls in all. Then came the heavy-duty stuff; sausages, blood sausage, chicken, roast beef, ribeye steak and virtually all, (well except for the blood sausage,) were terrific. For dessert, they served a delicious creme caramel. For the show they had a couple demonstrate the tango and then the samba. Another group sang some traditional songs. The guitar player was excellent. Next, a male dancer came out and did several “Gaucho dances” with bolos (ropes used by the Gauchos to round up the cattle). They then played some more popular songs and invited everyone up to dance.
Once lunch and the entertainment were finished, the rain had fortunately stopped, and we proceeded to the viewing area of the corral where Gauchos demonstrated their horse handling skills. The first of which was their ability to ride their own horse and control groups of other horses. Those other horses were clearly well-trained, but they were able to separate them into three separate groups, bring them to a stop and have them standstill for quite a period. The most fun part was the Rings contest, as in rings that you wear on your fingers. These rings were loosely tied to strings hanging down from a horizontal beam, think of the cross bar on a football goal post. The ring on the end of the string would be approximately 10 feet above ground. The riders on horseback carry a short stick in one hand, and the objective is for the gauchos, galloping at full speed toward the hanging rings, to skewer/catch one of the rings on their stick. It’s quite a task given that they’re riding at full blast and bouncing around a little bit but one of the riders did particularly well. Each time a rider got a ring, they brought their horse over to the side rail, picked out a lady in the audience and gave her the ring, then leaned over the rail and gave her a kiss. It was a fantastic accomplishment. The whole day was lovely even if we did have some inclement cool weather.
The bus ride back was by a different route almost all on highways and was quite fast and smooth. Because of traffic we left the bus and walked several blocks towards the hotel. On the way, we bought some wine for onboard the ship that we board tomorrow. We went down to the fitness area. Each of us had a sauna in separate quarters, and as we were very tired afterwards, decided to eat in the hotel. Don had rack of lamb and Lee had pumpkin soup and Caesar salad. Back in the room at 9:45. Hurray an early night!Læs mere
Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The boat ride was quite delightful following an inland water route back to Buenos Aires. Along both sides there were beautiful, well-maintained homes with expansive lawns and gardens. It made for a relaxing trip. We passed a house totally enclosed in glass. It was the former residence, from 1855 until his death in 1888, of Domingo Sarmiento, the 7th President of Argentina. It is now a National Historic Monument. This area is used by families for weekends, vacations and retirement from the city.
The skyline of Buenos Aires was impressive as we approached our landing spot. Once at the dock, to our surprise, our arranged guide was nowhere to be found. After several attempts to reach him, we finally just got a cab back to the hotel.
The concierge at our hotel, recommended a lovely restaurant for dinner just a short walk away. It was called Fervor and was a great recommendation!Læs mere
Buenos Aires, Argentina
2. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Buenos Aires City Tour. Hotel Loisuites Recoleta. Guide: Hector
Hector picked us up and we walked three blocks to the Recoleta Cemetery. Considered to be one of the most unusual cemeteries in the world, the site was declared the city’s first official public burial place in 1822. It is completely unlike a normal cemetery because the majority of the people are not buried in the ground, but in above ground in mausoleums. The tradition is to bury additional family members on top of the last body buried, normally 6 per unit.
Occupying 4 city blocks, or about 14 acres, it is located on a hill in the lovely neighborhood of Recoleta You almost need a map at the entrance because the cemetery contains no less than 6,400 mausoleums. Each one is unique, constructed in a wide assortment of architectural styles –there is everything from Greek temples to miniature Baroque cathedrals. We even saw one monument that had both a cross and a menorah. It is a showcase of the times when important and wealthy families built incredible “monuments “, in various styles depending on their religious beliefs or lifestyle. And one of the most famous Argentinians is, of course, Evita (Eva Peron). We took a picture of her monument.
After the cemetery tour we drove downtown, and Hector showed us the Plaza del Mayo. We needed some more Pesos, so Hector took us to a big bank, Santander, but once again, the machines were out of money, so we had to go to a different bank across the Plaza.
We visited the Cathedral de la Cuidad de Buenos Aires located overlooking the Plaza de Mayo. Built in 1580 the Cathedral has been destroyed, rebuilt and modified many times, the latest renovation being the Italian mosaic floor completed in 2010.
Inside the Cathedral, we saw a Mausoleum containing the remains of General José de San Martín which were brought from France in 1880. The black sarcophagus is guarded by three life-size female figures that represent Argentina, Chile and Peru, three of the regions freed by the General. The mausoleum also has the remains of Generals Juan Gregorio de las Heras and Tomás Guido, as well as those of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence. It was guarded by two military guards that remain on duty for two hours each. Just as we were leaving, we saw the actual changing of the guards. We then went to see the lovely pink Presidential Palace, Casa Rosada, at the end of the Plaza, built in 1882. It was from the balcony here that Juan and Eva Perón addressed their supporters through the years of 1940’s to 50’s. It was in 1951 that Eva famously addressed the throngs of impassioned supporters, packed into Plaza de Mayo, who wanted her to become their president.
Hector pointed out the white scarves painted on the Plaza walkway. He told us about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a movement of Argentine mothers who campaigned for their children who had "disappeared" during the military dictatorship. They have been pursuing the government for answers since 1977. Every Thursday a group of women wearing white scarves parade around the Plaza.
Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with wide, tree lined streets. The population is 3mil. but including the surrounding areas it mushrooms to 16mil.The buildings are massive, mostly built in the Spanish colonial style. Many of the glorious old homes have become residences for various embassies. Argentina has free education including university plus free medical services.
The main street is named 9 de Julio Avenue, named after the date of Argentina’s independence July 9th, 1815. It is reputed to be the widest street in the world, at 110 metres wide with up to seven lanes in each direction. They stagger work hours each day to help with traffic.
After our city tour, Hector suggested we take about a 45-minute break where we could have lunch or take our own tour of La Boca, a neighbourhood known for its artists, colourful houses and bars. We grabbed some empanadas to save for later and chose to walk around the area. Lots of people posing for money to do the tango or pose with you for a photo opportunity. Some of the women were quite seductive and persistent. Lee saw some jewelry made from the national pink stone of Argentina, called Rhodochrosite, and bought two necklaces for Lilah and Callie.
We then headed for the starting point for our bus and boat tour of the Tigre Delta but realised that we had completely mixed up our starting point. Fortunately, the solution was a six-dollar taxicab ride back to the Hotel. It gave us plenty of time to be picked up to start our next tour. It was a very bumpy ride to where we would board the river boat. We stopped in the city of Martinez at the river where there were lots of people fishing. The next stop was in the City of Isidro, a very affluent suburb of Buenos Aires, at The Cathedral Isidro built in 1898.
Our guide said that the Tigre river was the widest in the world, but that depends on definitions. The Amazon is generally considered the widest. She also told us that the official National sport of Argentina was not football(soccer) as might be expected but rather Pato. It is a rather bizarre game as outlined below.
Pato is Spanish for “duck”, as early games used a live duck inside a basket. The playing field would often stretch the distance between neighboring estancias (ranches). The first team to reach its own casco (ranch house) with the duck would be declared the winner. It became a very violent game both for the duck and because of knife fights. In the 1930’s new rules were formed and in 1953 Juan Peron declared it Argentina’s national sport. Modern day Pato is played with two four-member teams riding on horses, they fight for possession of a ball which has six conveniently sized handles, and score by throwing the ball through a vertically positioned ring located atop 7.9 ft high pole. A closed net holds the ball after a goal is scored. The winner is the team with most goals scored after regulation time (six 8-minute "periods").Læs mere
Buenos Aires, Argentina
1. december 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires. Hotel: Loisuites Recoleta
We were picked up at about 6:45am for a half hour drive to the airport. The plane left from Iguazu at 8:45am. It was a relatively easy check in and a short two-hour flight to get to Buenos Aires. Once again, we were met at the baggage claim area by our new guide, Florence. She was totally delightful, very animated and gave us so much information. She could not have been more helpful. Even when we got back to the hotel, she sat down with us and gave us more information about things we could do, where we could go, where we shouldn’t go and gave us a list of important phone numbers in case something went wrong. Florence told us that there are over 23,000 cabs in Buenos Aires, and they are ridiculously cheap. I think the most we paid to get into the downtown areas of the city, a 15- or 20-minute ride was the equivalent of six dollars.
We were finally able to check in to our junior suite in the LOI suites hotel. It was a very spacious room with a mini kitchen. Before setting out we decided to book a five-hour boat tour the next day that started at 1:30pm. However, we had a tour booked for the full morning and we’re wondering whether we would have time to make it for the boat tour. With some difficulty we finally reached our next morning guide, Hector and he said that he could drop us off where the afternoon tour began. In good time.
We headed out by a cab to a Sunday flea market and it’s a good thing we decided to take a cab because it was much further away than we thought. It started off a bit slow because we were in the wrong spot, but we finally found the market which was quite large. It was a gigantic flea market arranged by different categories like art, crafts, antiques, jewelry, glass etc. We decided to keep walking for what seemed like forever, down to the river canal boardwalk. We walked along to see a ship tied up in the canal and then started to make our way back to visit the opera house and have a tour. It was a bit confusing as we got our landmark Obelisks mixed up. We wandered around Plaza de Mayo with the "May Monument" in the centre, we learned later that this was not considered an obelisk. We wanted The Obelisco de Buenos Aires, a national historic monument, located in the Plaza de la República which was several blocks further on. Finally, we arrived quite tired only to find that out the Teatre Colon tour closed at 5 o’clock and we were 20 minutes late.
We took a cab back to the hotel had a snooze to get ready for an 8 o’clock pick up to take us to a special dinner and tango show downtown at a venue called La Ventana in the San Telmo area. It was a glorious old building decked out very lavishly. For dinner we had a choice of two appetizers, four main courses and three or four desserts. Lee and I both opted for the steak and it was outrageously large, and we could not possibly eat all of it, but it was perfectly cooked and well presented. We also were given a complimentary bottle of red wine. The show started at 10 o’clock, it was one of the most amazing shows we’ve ever seen. The physicality, the dancing, the costumes and the music were fantastic. The tables were close together and right beside us was a couple from Innsbruck Austria and we struck up very pleasant conversation, their English was excellent. Our driver picked us up right on schedule at 12 o’clock and drove us back to the hotel. Not long to bed.Læs mere
Iguazu Falls, Argentina
30. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C
Iguazu Falls, Argentina
30. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Iguazu Falls, Argentina
30. november 2019, Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian Side Guide: Israel Hotel; Amerian Portal del Iguazu, Argentina
Today we took what was called the Great Adventure Tour. Israel met us at the hotel with his driver and we headed to the National Iguazu Park on the Argentinian side. He suggested that we walk to the second train stop so we didn’t have to stand in line at the first station. When we were walking, Israel pointed out many different trees and plants and we realized that he was a very knowledgeable guide. Not far along we saw one very stupid lady with young children, who was feeding a Coati (like a raccoon) and petting it. Israel told her she should not do that but she continued anyways. We visited the Interpretation Center to learn about the biodiversity of the jungle and the culture and history of the surrounding area. We boarded the Ecological Forest Tram to the Garganta del Diable (Devil’s Throat) Station and then the Cataratas Station, which took us to the hiking trails at the top of the falls. The tram train ride from start to finish was 3 km.
On our walk to the Devils Throat Falls there was a sign that warned us that on this hike, we would get very wet and we certainly did. As far as wildlife along the way is concerned, we only saw a few birds such as Egrets and Kingfishers. We also saw sucker fish and tilapia in the rivers.
Each bridge that we walked over crossed a different part of just one of the many rivers that continued on to be its own waterfall. Just as we were starting our walk, I saw a poster showing all the different kinds of fish in the area. The ugliest one, a Dorado, was the one that I had last night for dinner which tasted delicious, but good thing I didn’t see it before.
The bridge that we walked out on was one and a half kilometers, one way. When we got to the end we went out on a platform and got totally drenched but it was worth it to get so close to the falls. On the way back we saw a great big turtle, perhaps about 2 feet across. Unfortunately, it was underneath the bridge so we couldn’t get a picture. Further along the trails we came to another part of the falls that they had, believe it or not, named Cormorant Falls. There are two walkways, the Upper and the Lower. The upper trail is a kilometer and a half long and then we continued on to do the Lower trail which was 1.4 km one way.
Israel told us that his father was a guide in the national Park and his mother did some guiding as well, but they were now retired. In Argentina the women retire at age 60 and the men retire at age 65.
We saw a big spider and the web is so strong that it captures things like dragonflies and sometimes even small birds. In some countries they use the web of those spiders to build bullet proof vests and our guide Israel thought that it might be in, you guessed it, Israel. The walk back on the lower route was essentially walking through the jungle maybe 15 feet above ground level and along the way, Israel was pointing out all kinds of flowers, trees and fruits. On a busy day they can get up to 6000 people to the park in one day.
After the morning hikes we had time for a quick lunch of empanadas and Don was so tired that he had a Coke to get some sugar. We then got on an open truck that took us to the next part of our adventure namely, a speedboat to the bottom of the falls. I think there were 20 people per boat. The trip up to the falls was exciting enough but once we actually got there, we knew it was going to get even more exciting. The driver played with us a little bit by getting closer and closer to the falls and then turned around and went back to a fairly calm area. We thought that was great and we would then head back. Not so, he then turned the boat around and into the falls we went, literally into the falls. The water was pounding down everywhere knocking off people’s glasses and hats. Everybody was yelling and screaming, cheering and laughing and you couldn’t see a thing because there was so much water. We were all as wet as if you jumped in a lake fully clothed, even though most of us were wearing rain gear.
Fortunately, before we got on the boat, they gave us a dry bag to put store backpacks and any valuables and they worked quite well. Lee, as well as many others, took a change of clothing so she could change into something dry before our trip back home. I didn’t and was quite cool on the way home. We re-boarded the truck and headed back to the starting point. The narrator on the truck said this was a very poor time to see any wildlife but that the previous truck had seen a Toucan, but I suspect it was just to keep our attention.
We arrived back at the pickup spot, met Israel and headed back to the hotel. Lee tried to get some money out of a banking machine at the park entrance but, it turned out that the machine was out of money which Israel said happens quite frequently. We continued back towards our hotel and found another machine that did have money.
Once back at the hotel we were pretty tired. I changed into my bathing suit and headed down to the pool to get a drink for both of us. While I was waiting for Lee, I met up with the tour group from the United States and we had a lot of fun and conversation. By the time Lee arrived, it had started to lightning and thunder with very light rain, so we moved under cover.
We decided not to waste any opportunities by sitting around so we went to another fabulous restaurant noted for its steak. They had fun Argentinean entertainment of singing and dancing. And one way or another, the owner gave us a complementary bottle of wine to take with us. The restaurant’s name was El Quincho.Læs mere
Iguazu Falls, Brazil
29. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Rio to Iguazu Falls, Brazil
29. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
. Rio to Iguazu Falls Brazilian Side. Guide Israel Hotel Amerian Portal del Iguazu,Argentina
The alarm went off at 4:15am, neither of us got much sleep. Up and packed and down waiting for Rodrigo by 5:15am. This morning he brought his wife with him and she drove. Don told her she was a much better driver than Rodrigo and we all had a good laugh. Not much traffic so we made it there in half an hour. We said our fond goodbyes; he was so good to us. We checked in, paid for our luggage and had time to have a fruit salad cup. Our plane departed at 7:05am and we were only served cookies and a drink enroute.
We landed at 9:20 at the Foz do Iguazu airport where we met our guide, Israel, and his driver. We loaded our luggage and headed off for a drive through the Iguazu National Park. Vehicles are not allowed to go faster than 45 Km per hour to protect the animals from being hit. We drove for about an hour before we reached the location where we would enter the trail that would take us on a mile-long hike above the lower Iguazu River to see the series of 275 individual cascading falls on the Argentina side, that ended at the Devil’s Throat.
Iguazu Falls are on the Iguazu River, on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. Together, they make up the largest waterfall in the world. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the heart of the city of Curitiba in one of the southern provinces of Brazil, Parana. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil; however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil. The name "Iguazú" comes from the Guarani or Tupi words "y" meaning "water", and "ûasú "[waˈsu], meaning "big". [Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.
In Argentina Jose Gregorio Lezama was the first owner of this land and, considering them of barely no value, sold them at a public auction using a sign that read “rainforest area surrounded by many waterfalls”.
The following owner, Domingo Ayarragaray, developed it a bit further by building a hotel and roads so that visitors could see the waterfalls, and he also exploited local wood resources until President Hipólito Yrigoyen's Argentinian Government acquired the land and declared it a national park. With one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world, the Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian side was the second Brazilian National Park to be created in 1939. This part of the largest remaining Atlantic Forest of southern Brazil, protects a rich biodiversity, consisting of representative species of the Brazilian fauna and flora, some of which are threatened with extinction, such as jaguar, puma, broad-snouted caiman, purple parrot, harpy eagle as well as many other species of great value and scientific interest. The park protects the entire basin of Floriano river, an affluent of the Iguaçu River.
The total area of the park is over 1000 hectares, around 300 kilometres are natural borders by rivers and falls between Brazil and Argentina and comprise a total of 600 hectares of protected areas. Both countries maintain this equally. The rest of the park is 400 hectares of primeval forests.
The Iguazu Falls in Brazil extend a semicircular front of 2,700 meters long. The view is amazing. 800 meters are on the Brazilian side and 1,900 meters on the Argentine side. They are composed of a variable number of falls ranging between 150 and 270 meters. The falls have names like Floriano, Deodoro, Benjamin Constant, but the most famous is the Devil’s Throat Falls. The Devil's Throat canyon is 90 m wide and 80 m deep. Right of this canyon, another part of the river forms 160-200 individual falls, which merge into a single front during flood stage. The width of the total falls is 2.7 kilometers.
A comparison of the three largest falls in the world:
Iguazu Falls - 82 metres high and 2700 metres wide,
Victoria Falls Africa - 108 metres high and 1708 metres wide,
Niagara Falls - 51 metres high and 1203 metres wide.
In terms of flow rate, Iguazu is 62,000 cu ft/second. (The Amazon is 7,400,000cu ft/second)
Israel lead us along the path and right from the start we could see walls of falls pouring over the cliffs. As we walked along, we began to get an idea of just how vast the area was. There were lots of colourful butterflies among the rainforest trees and some even came and landed on us. About halfway along the path there was a snack bar and we bought enough to keep us going for the afternoon. We saw several Coatis near the snack bar looking for handouts or crumbs dropped. They are very much like our raccoons and are scroungers around people. Because I was taking so many pictures, we took quite a long time to reach the Devil’s Throat Falls at the end. We stood on the jut out areas marvelling at the pounding of the water right in front of us, getting well dampened by the mist. We took our time taking in all the impact of the water pouring over and then took an elevator to an observation deck for a spectacular panoramic view of the falls. We walked back up to where our car and driver were waiting, to take us on the rest of our journey.
We crossed the border from Brazil to Argentina and made our way to our hotel. We checked in and went down to see if we could find something for a late lunch. We were shown out to a patio and ordered a light lunch with lemonade. It was lovely to sit in the shade and talk about all we had seen at the falls. We found out that there was a tour group staying at the hotel and would be taking over most of the dining room for dinner. We decided to find out where else we could eat and were given the name of a restaurant, Boca Mora, that we could walk to very easily. The weather was perfect for a dinner outside overlooking the Iguazu river. We ordered a fish dish that was very good. Near the end of our meal a band set up in a park just across the water and we just sat and enjoyed our wine and music. A pleasant stroll back along the quiet streets and right to bed.Læs mere
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
After dinner we were taken to Teatro Lebron for what turned out to be a spectacular show called Ginga Tropical, described as “A multicultural show that combines a variety of Brazilian dances developed from African rhythms via the slave trade and from the natives that lived in Brazil before colonization.” It was very energetic and colourful and lasted 2 hours. After the show, Rodrigo picked us up at 11.30 pm and drove us back to our hotel. He will be back early tomorrow to take us to the airport.Læs mere
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
28. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Rio de Janeiro. Hotel Arena Copacabana.. Guide: Rayol
Weather today is about 26° with the possibility of rain in the afternoon. Yesterday the temperature got up to 30°.
We started the day with a lovely breakfast in the hotel. We were picked up at 9:00am by Rayol, our guide for today. Rayol is pronounced Hayol because the Portuguese pronounce the letter R as H (eg. “hestaurant”).
We drove downtown to the district of Santa Teresa to see the famous Selarón tiled steps. In 1990 he began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house. At first, neighbours mocked him for his choice of colours as he covered the steps in fragments of blue, green and yellow tiles – the colours of the Brazilian flag. It started out as a side-project to his main passion, painting, but soon became an obsession. He found he was constantly out of money, so Selarón sold paintings to fund his work. It was long and exhausting work, but he continued and eventually covered the entire set of steps in tiles, ceramics and mirrors. Originally, tiles for the work were scavenged from various construction sites and piles of urban waste found on the Rio streets. There are 215 steps measuring 125 metres long which are covered in over 2000 tiles collected from over 60 countries around the world. No sooner than one section of the steps were 'finished', Selarón started work on another section, constantly changing it so that it was an ever evolving piece of art. Selarón considered the work as "never complete" and claimed that "This crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death", He died January 10, 2013, at the age of 65.
Rayol made it a lot of fun by giving us a challenge over a bottle of water. If we could find a tile for Toronto or even Canada, he would give us a bottle of water and if we couldn’t find one, we would give him one. Well we found about 15 from Canada and even one from Toronto so we won. He was quite surprised about the one from Toronto as he didn’t know it was there. Funny, I don’t remember getting our bottle of water!
Next stop was a visit to the Metropolitan Cathedral. The Cathedral was designed by Edgar de Oliveira da Fonseca in a modern style based on the Mayan architectural style of pyramids and built between 1964 and 1979.The New Cathedral, as it is sometimes called, is in the center of the city. It is conical in shape with an internal width of 96 metres (315 ft) and an overall height of 75 metres (246 ft). Inside, the area measures 8,000 square meters, which gives it a seating capacity of 5000 seats and standing room for 20,000 people. The cathedral's four gorgeous rectangular stained-glass windows soar 64 metres (210 ft) from floor to ceiling. It looks like it’s made of concrete in a cone shape and every little cell is a ventilation cell.
From there we walked to the Santa Theresa Tram station and at 20 Real per person, (approximately $4.00 USD). We got onto a replica of a 32-person tram. It started off going across an old aqueduct called The Arches of Lapa, a series of 42 Roman style arches built in the 18th century to improve water distribution. Today it serves to connect two transit stations. That was the smooth part. From there it continues, jolting side to side with many sudden stops on rails set in cobblestones all uphill for about 6 km. And then it turns around and comes back! It was a bit like a one-hour bumper car experience but very interesting. The route travelled along the side of steep cliffs lined with expensive houses many of them sadly blemished with graffiti. There were many stops along the way to let passengers on and off.
Once back at the starting point, we walked between the Petrobras building (a petroleum company) and a bank, and Rayol said that the best place to meet a husband or wife was on the bridge that went between the two buildings. He said all you had to do is go there during lunch time and just smile.
We walked around through a market selling clothing and some souvenirs. Then we continued through the downtown shopping area where the streets are closed to traffic.
We stopped for lunch at the Confeitaria Columbo which was founded in 1894 by Portuguese immigrants Joaquim Borges de Meireles and Manuel José Lebrão. Its architecture, inspired by the European cafes, was representative of Rio de Janeiro's belle époque. Between 1912 and 1918, the interior halls were renovated with an Art Nouveau flair, with large crystal mirrors brought from Antwerp, framed by rosewood trim friezes. The interior wooden furniture was carved at the same time by the artisan Antonio Borsoi. In 1922, its facilities were expanded with the construction of a second floor with a tearoom. An opening in the ceiling of the ground floor allows you to see through to the skylight of the tearoom, decorated with stained glass. It is reputed to be one of the 10 most beautiful cafés in the world. Currently, the second floor houses the restaurant Cristóvão. We ate on the main floor in the cafeteria area surrounded by floor to ceiling mirrors. It was gorgeous in the extreme and packed with people.
From there we continued walking through busy narrow streets and more open streets lined with majestic old buildings in both good and bad condition. We walked by the very modern looking Museum of Tomorrow after which we wandered along a wide promenade by the ocean and admired some spectacular mural art by an artist named Kobra. A long hustle back to the car still parked at the Cathedral where we started our tour. It started to rain as we returned to our hotel. Good timing.
After our tour with Rayol, we put our feet up and had a brief snooze and both then worked on our respective days of tours. Rodrigo picked us up at 7:30 pm and took us to another Churrasco restaurant There was an extensive buffet of appetizers, salads, cheeses, sushi, and fish. As we were just settling in, the waiters started coming around with their swords of meat. They were all encouraging us to try their specialty. We met an American family, who were stationed in Rio with the armed services, who were out celebrating their Thanksgiving. We also met 3 young fellows from the British Royal Navy that had just come in from the Falkland Islands.Læs mere
Second full day in Rio de Janeiro
27. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
First full day of touring Rio de Janeiro
27. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
Rio de Janeiro. Hotel:Arena Copacabana
Guide: Rodrigo Quintello
What a wonderful day we had! We rose with the alarm at 7:00am after a really good sleep, had a very filling breakfast and were ready when Rodrigo met us in the lobby at 10:00. We liked him right off the bat and decided we would ask him if he would be our guide for the next day. Unfortunately, he had a tour for the next 4 days, but he got in touch with the office to try and find someone else for us.
Our first tour was to take a train up Corcovado Hill 2,300 ft. above sea level, to see the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Hill. The train took about half an hour rising from the base to a halfway point and then continued up the hill through the Tijuca Rain Forest National Park, overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro. On arrival, we walked up the 240 steps to the base of the statue and were pleased that we could do this without breathing problems. A breathtaking view from all sides! Lots of people were standing with their arms wide open, copying the form of the statue, to have their pictures taken. Lots more lying on the ground looking up so they could get the entire statue in their viewfinder because of its height. We were so lucky because it was a clear blue sky, and everything below was very easy to see.
The statue of Christ is done in art Deco style, created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built by Brazilian engineer Hector da Silva Costa, in collaboration with French engineer Albert Caquot, Romanian sculptor Gheorghe Leonida fashioned the face in France. It is made of reinforced concrete clad in a mosaic of thousands of triangular, white, soapstone tiles. Constructed between 1922 and 1931, the statue is 30 metres high, with a base 8-metres. The arms stretch 28 metres wide. The statue weighs 635 metric tons. A symbol of Christianity across the world, the statue has also become a cultural icon of both Rio de Janeiro and Brazil and is listed as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.
Rodrigo took us around to all sides of the Corcovado Hill and talked about all the points of view we could see of the city. The number of beaches is amazing. Flamengo Beach, Botafogo Beach, Leme Beach, Copacabana Beach, Diablo Beach, Aproador Beach, Ipanema Beach, Leblon Beach. We could see the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, the racetrack, and Sugarloaf Mountain. It was spectacular!
On the way back down, we saw lots of Jackfruit trees bearing a sweet tasting custardy type of fruit that can weigh up to 100 lbs. One tree can bear up to 200 fruit in a year. It is used as a dessert or for making custards and in baking.
We returned to the car and drove along the coastline and stopped at Leblon beach right at the end of the series of beaches. We got out and walked along looking back at Ipanema beach. We then continued along to Ipanema and stopped for lunch at a Barbeque restaurant called Carretao. This was a typical Brazilian barbeque lunch. The whole “event” is orchestrated by two head waiters who relay directions to the servers, all wearing earbuds, as to which customers are ready for additional meat. We were given coasters the said Yes -green and Red - No. When we turned the coaster to green a server came around with a meat skewered sword and a significant knife to carve off some meat. The first sword was chicken so a whole breast was served to each of us! Yikes, it is going to be a long lunch! The meat was delicious, crispy skin and tender moist meat inside. We quickly turned our coasters to No and enjoyed our chicken. The next meat served was beef, and then lamb and then steak and then pork. We also had side dishes of fried bananas, garlic bread, fried polenta, and other items, we were not sure what they were but very tasty. We never did get to the salad bar as there was way too much food. What an experience. When we said we had had enough they still brought a dish of the best vanilla ice cream. We were stuffed. Collingwood, this would be a great restaurant!
From the restaurant we drove back to the Urca district home of a military site, to board the cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain. The cable car went up in two stages. We got off at the first stop and wandered around and even saw a helipad for people wanting to take even more spectacular sightseeing rides. We saw the very first cable car and the man who started it Mr. Augusto Ferreiro Ramos. Started in 1912 it ran until 1972 when the cars were retired, and new ones were put in place. The area was very relaxed so we could take our time and lots of pictures and enjoy the beautiful weather. From Urca Hill, we continued in a second cable-car to the top of Sugarloaf which rises 395 meters above sea level and offers a 360-degree view of the entire city including Botafogo and Copacabana Beaches, the Christ Statue on Corcovado Mountain, and downtown Rio de Janeiro. Here Rodrigo suggested that we take our time and walk around on our own for about an hour. We walked down about 5 or 6 levels and found a lookout to a Fort below on Guanabara Bay. The size of Guanabara Bay makes it the second largest in Brazil, but the depth of the bay, by sheer volume, makes it not only the deepest natural bay in Brazil, but the deepest in the world!
The name Rio de Janeiro was given to the city in 1565.It comes from when Portuguese navigators who arrived on January 1, 1502 mistook the entrance of the Guanabara Bay for the mouth of a river (rio is the Portuguese word for “river” and janeiro the word for “January
We then walked back up almost to the top where we sat at an outdoor café and enjoyed some lemonade. The temperature was about 32 degrees C.
We descended by the 2 cable cars back to the parking lot and headed back to our hotel. On the way Rodrigo wanted us to see the residential area of Urca. We drove up and down several streets. There were many houses up for sale. Rodrigo explained that the houses were historical and on very valuable land. The owners wanted their money out, but no one could afford to buy them and fix them up. There is a sea wall that runs along the shoreline of Guanabara Bay and the residents of the area congregate there to visit and watch life go by. In the bay was a statue of Sao Pedro do Mar the patron saint of boaters. He showed us a lovely small church in the area and then we returned to the hotel.
We had an hour-long rest and then headed out to a famous bar/ restaurant in the Ipanema area called, Vinícius Piano Bar, a restaurant and a show bar for those who really like Bossa Nova. It was opened in 1977 and in 1989 it was opened with a show by Carlos Lira. It was then that the bar became known as the Bossa Nova Temple. We had a wonderful dinner sitting out on the restaurant’s verandah.Læs mere
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
26. november 2019, Brasilien ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C
Rio de Janeiro First Day. Hotel: Arena Copacabana
When we came out from the baggage area, we expected to see a driver, holding a sign with our name, waiting for us. There was no one. We called the number and found out that they had somehow missed the message that we were coming in a day early. Everything sorted itself out and we were soon picked up and delivered to the hotel. On the way to the hotel we saw Sugarloaf Mountain, the Cristo Blanco and the sensational beaches.
We were checked in fairly quickly. The clerk came from Iceland and we were his first customer. We settled into our room and then quickly headed out to walk the Copacabana beach. It was a lovely afternoon and we just relaxed and strolled along. Lots of very buff fellows and mostly bikini clad girls (although not all should have been wearing them). We returned to the hotel and had a refreshing regional drink called Leblon, on the rooftop overlooking the Copacabana beach. Down for a shower and an hour snooze. We decided to have dinner in the hotel- a very bland Caesar salad full of unexpected chicken. Don had Crab croquettes and Lee had Pappardelle with shrimp. Portions very large so we didn’t do justice to the meal. After dinner, we took a brief walk along the Avenida Atlantica, which separated the hotel from Copacabana beach and saw many groups on the beach playing various forms of volleyball and football. We returned to the hotel and prepared for bed.Læs mere