Exploring South America with Pauline
Swimming with pink dolphins in the Rio de Negro in the Amazon.
Well this blog has started a bit late as I am now in Rio de Janeiro, so we will see how it goes. As I have no idea quite what I am doing, you will be sharing the errors with me as we go along. I'll probably backtrack a bit - meaning although I have begun this blog today I'll try and go back where I started and share with you some of my travels and my thoughts.
17 March 2013 - Rio de Janeiro
These are marmosets, really cute little creatures, whose ears remind me of koalas. I saw them up at Sugar Loaf Mountain. I spent a lot of time there. In fact got on Sugar Loaf at around 1.30 pm and left at nearly 6.00 pm. You get to the very top of the mountain in two stages - one mountain first via a cable car and here you can walk around and explore different pathways or have a drink at one of the cafes. You then have to take another cable car to the very top. When I did this I thought of Table Mountain in Cape Town (keep wanting to write Table Top!) but I have to say I felt that the second cable car ride was more dramatic than Table Mountain. In fact you felt you were going into the side of the mountain - and I did close my eyes briefly. It was here at the top of the mountain that I saw the Marmosets. There were a few small trails running off of the main area at the top of the mountain, and wandering down one of these and following a pathway which led to a dead end, I was lucky enough to see first one Marmoset and then many more, including a baby one.
Marmosets
One of the continuing joys of travelling is the friendliness of people. Queuing for Sugar Loaf I got chatting (well his son Christoph translated mostly) with a friendly Mexican Enrico and his son Christoph. He was obviously an affluent Mexican because he was retired and he had been doing quite a lot of travel with not only Christoph but his other children. This had included Europe but more recently Russia, with which he was most impressed.
Enrico
Later through minimum words but lots of use of sign language I spent a few minutes 'chatting' with a nice Brazilian family. This was when I had just spotted the marmosets. The young son spotted a baby marmoset and I took a picture but I think it will be a case of spotting the wood for the trees! I think worth attaching a pic of these 'bonito' (beautiful) children.
'Bonito' children
18 March 2013 - Rio de Janeiro
Today visited Santa Teresa a suburb of Rio. Quite an interesting place - cobbled stones, some really amazing old buildings of great character but many of them needing renovation. It is an area that can be explored safely in the daytime but not at nighttime. In fact you have to take care where you travel at night in Rio but I have found so far that I feel much safer here than in Salvador for example. In fact, the the Lonely Planet said that if you were going to be mugged anywhere in Brazil it would be in Salvador. So that is one hurdle I have overcome!
An interesting aside is that Ronald Biggs a member of the gang that carried out the 'British great train robbery' lived in Santa Teresa.
Near to Santa Teresa are these steps which a resident of Chile decided that he would decorate with tiles - not all of which are from Brazil but there are many from various countries of the world, including Australia and its friend across the Tasman, New Zealand. The one above is a 'take' on the Favelas in Rio. These are very poor areas and in the past many were run by criminals and some probably still are (as they tile above implies) but many are being cleaned up and some can be visited by tourists through an organised tour. A friend of mine currently in Rio did a tour and she felt like I thought I would, uncomfortable about being there as a tourist and in particular in taking pics. I guess it could be seen as somewhat voyeristic.
19 March 2013 - Rio de Janeiro
A bit rainy and great today, so not really the ideal day to visit Corcovado where the statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) is located and towers majestically over Rio. It has come to symbolise not just Rio but Brazil.
The 'naff' photo of the day!
It really is a very small world. This photo of Pauline being the quintessential tourist was taken by a girl who is living in Redland, Bristol (!) and who was travelling with her friend from Swindon!
View from the 'Reedeemer'
View from the 'Reedeemer'
The 30-m tall statue was designed by Brazilian Heitor da Silva Costa, who drew
inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci's famous study of the human body. The statue
was hauled up the mountain in pieces and constructed over a number of years.
The tram ride up to the statue was quite interesting and lasted longer than I had imagined - about some 20 mins. The climb was steep and the tram took it slowly, stopping when another tram came down the from the top of Corcovado. I was rather surprised to discover there
were small platforms in some parts where the tram stopped and a few people
got on. This is not, I guess, totally surprising as Corcovao is surrounded by the
Parque Nacional da Tijuca and so of course the area is explored by walkers.
Also I hadn't expected the few houses I saw - and it was interesting to see hat appeared to be the renovation of a large derelict mansion into a hotel (if my reading of the Portuguese was correct). what appears to be the
renovation of what was a grand mansion into (according to the sign, if my limited
understanding of Portuguese is correct, a hotel).
Also a troop of musicians got onto the train at one stop and entertained the passengers - one of them getting up one passenger in the aisle to dance and then displaying his own samba or salsa talents!
I enjoyed the views from the top of Corcovado but I think I enjoyed myself more on Sugar Loaf Mountain. The better weather had a lot to do with it,but I felt as you got to the top of Sugar Loaf in two stages it gave you more area to explore and I also enjoyed seeing the Marmosets there. Although there were supposed to be animals at Corcovado I saw none - but they were probably keeping themselves dry. One tip for those who might visit Corcovado is that if you are a member of the YHA then you get a discount - that is as long as you take your membership card.
Another tip is to purchase your ticket online. When I got to Corcovado at 12:00 I discovered the next tram ride up the mountain was two hours later. So what you do of course is head for the nearest cafe. Finding a cafe that sells good coffee is a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack. And if you like Lattes than bad luck, as this coffee does not appear to be popular here - though you might score a cappuccino from time to time. The square at the bottom of Corcovado had lots of people - mainly tourists milling about, a chemist which also sold crisps etc and ice creams but there was mot much else. However, there was one small cafe which apart from tourists seemed to cater for the locals. As I had some time to wait I tried out a local delicacy...don't ask me what it was called or exactly what it was but it appeared to be potato in breadcrumbs with spiced chicken in the middle. Whatever it was it was quite good. As for the coffee...well I managed to get a white coffee but it was pretty sweet - so I scored plenty of energy for the day.
Today I took the bus to and from Corcovado, whereas to Sugar Loaf I had taken taxis. Two because when I got down from the top I went to see my New Zealand friend at her hotel. But there is a real sense of satisfaction when you get the local bus and manage (despite lack of Portuguese) to get where you want to ...although on the return trip I got a bit concerned because the bus stopped and everyone got off. It turned out to be a mechanical problem - but if you use that old adage in case of doubt ask - I found out that the next bus would take me back to Leblon where I am staying, albeit it turned out (or at least it felt) a longer route, but it could just have been the traffic that made it seem further.
The pavements in Rio are not paved with gold but many are paved with mosaics
But in Rio I 'struck gold' because I am lucky enough to be staying in Leblon - probably if not the nicest, then one of the best beachside suburbs. It is just up from Ipanema and north of that is Cococabana, which is a 15 to 20 minute bus ride away, depending on traffic. But better still, I am staying with a special friend and his partner who are not only the nicest people but the best hosts personified. Additionally they are great and interesting company and so are their friends.
Although in my travels so far I've met a lot of ice and friendly people, I was really looking forward to arriving in Rio and being with people I knew. Staying at their lovely home I have been thoroughly spoilt - G&Ts on a night, good wine and food, my own bathroom and clothes laundered for me! When you are travelling and you realise you have used up that emergency pair of knickers you begin to really get excited about being able to get clothes washed! And I am not the only one....it's been a subject of discussion with other travellers. So already I am appreciating those small things we take for granted! So to my lovely two friends in Rio - thanks heaps for everything and for making me smell nicer!
23 March 2013 - En route to Iguazu Falls
So goodbye Rio. From the plane looking down at Iguazu reminded me a little of English - lush green countryside. Therefore I felt really at home. Also although I really liked Rio it was good to be out of the city and in a smaller place and Puerto Iguazu where I stayed (on the Argentinian side) is quite small and has a nice friendly atmosphere. Silvio, the tour guide representative who picked me up from the airport advised that Puerto was quite safe. Of course nowhere is perfectly safe but for me the insecurity in Brazil was one of its downsides. So for the first time since I began my travels I could put on my watch again.....Mind you nobody is likely to want to pinch it - its dowsing in the toilet pan (that happened in Manaus - I still have to catch up on this) really didn't do it much good. I'd bought it especially for travelling, so at $9.99 it wasn't built to last, so the glue from the strap started peeling away. I got this stuck in San Salvador...but it didn't last, so then I got the youth hostel to staple it for me. After which one of the small straps to keep the strap in place has broken. But for $9.99 I guess you can't complain because at least despite its time in the pan it is still going......
2 April 2013, Valparaiso
Saw Kerry off at the bus stop as she was travelling back to Santiago and will be flying off to Brazil tomorrow.
Ashley, a very nice Spanish-speaking American girl, whose mother is Bolivian invited me to go on a boat tour of the harbour of Valparaiso with her (I'd mentioned to her I was interested in doing this).
When we first turned up there was not enough people around to go on a collectivo boat tour (the boat owners wait until a certain number of people want to do a trip). One boat owner was trying to persuade us to go on a private trip, which would have been silly as the cost was 6,000 pesos compared to 2,000 for the public trip. And frankly once I'd done the tour, the highlight of which was seeing a number of sea lions swimming in the water or sunning themselves on rocks and jetties - there would have bee no point in paying 4,000 more for seeing the same things. Although you could see the hills or 'cerros' as they are known of Valparaiso from the boat, it's not really that scenic, with the ugly high-rise buildings also of the lower town. You really needed to have a zoom to capture the magic of the cerros of Valparaiso. And then perhaps you still would not have done that...It is probably more about being in the cerros and walking around and discovering what is around the next corner. Dinner was leftover night....drinking the leftover white wine and eating the brie from the previous night.
3 April 2013 - Santiago
A big gap since last I wrote....Time passes so fast and it is hard at times to sit down on night and write. Today travelled back to Santiago from Valpariso. Caught the bus from the square near to the hostel and then the coach back to Santiago. Not brilliant at map reading at all, but if you just always ask people in the end, it all works out. Although along the way I have found that some people probably don't know where you want to go but give you directions anyway, so it always pays to ask more than once person. My cold has made me a bit tired so after catching the metro from the bus station when I arrived at the Hostel Paris-Londres (and my old room) I felt pretty shattered, so slept for nearly two hours. After this I decided I'd try and make the free tours4tips walking tour. And that's the great thing about Santiago metro, I had left it pretty fine but in about 20 minutes had caught two trains and made the meeting point for the tour. I'd already seen a number of areas prior but what I found most interesting was what I discovered about the Barrio Paris-Londres where I am staying. I had noticed brass plaques with names and ages in the pavement outside a building but hadn't known what it meant. Many were people in their early 20s. I discovered during the tour that the rather nice old building had in fact for one year been a place of torture under the Pinochet dictatorship. In that one year 96 people were killed in the building - including two pregnant women and others were tortured. When people in the area realised what was going on in the building it was closed, although the torture undoubtedly continued but elsewhere. The tour guide also pointed out that one plaque was for a 16 year old boy....
Following the tour I was rather boring I went back to Bellavista but I DID try a local dish, which comprised of creamed corn, beef, chicken, egg (although I only found the white), raisins and olives. It was not bad but the raisins made it a little too sweet for me. However, had another pisco sour...and that really could knock your socks off. A few of those and you'd be off the wall.
4 April 2013
Thought I had better not forget to write that the tour guide asked me if the earthquake today at around 4:00am had woken me. I didn't know about it, so obviously not. Quakes are not uncommon here and I had glanced at the instructions in my room on how to deal with such an event, some of which is:
'If the quake is not strong, calm, will soon end'
'If the earthquake is strong, keep calm and forward (?hmm?). Sharpen the focus to avoid risks'.
I really like the Paris-Londres hotel where I am staying, and as this is my second visit (and I have room 40 again) I feel quite at home. It has lots of character, old furniture and wooding flooring and a feeling of faded glamour.
This morning a film crew were setting up, obviously in for the long haul, with an outside broadcast van and coffee and biscuits available. The focus was a prop of an English telephone box. If I could speak Spanish, I would have asked what it was about! The only obvious link is the area's name - Paris-London!?
Although in my travels so far I've met a lot of ice and friendly people, I was really looking forward to arriving in Rio and being with people I knew. Staying at their lovely home I have been thoroughly spoilt - G&Ts on a night, good wine and food, my own bathroom and clothes laundered for me! When you are travelling and you realise you have used up that emergency pair of knickers you begin to really get excited about being able to get clothes washed! And I am not the only one....it's been a subject of discussion with other travellers. So already I am appreciating those small things we take for granted! So to my lovely two friends in Rio - thanks heaps for everything and for making me smell nicer!
23 March 2013 - En route to Iguazu Falls
So goodbye Rio. From the plane looking down at Iguazu reminded me a little of English - lush green countryside. Therefore I felt really at home. Also although I really liked Rio it was good to be out of the city and in a smaller place and Puerto Iguazu where I stayed (on the Argentinian side) is quite small and has a nice friendly atmosphere. Silvio, the tour guide representative who picked me up from the airport advised that Puerto was quite safe. Of course nowhere is perfectly safe but for me the insecurity in Brazil was one of its downsides. So for the first time since I began my travels I could put on my watch again.....Mind you nobody is likely to want to pinch it - its dowsing in the toilet pan (that happened in Manaus - I still have to catch up on this) really didn't do it much good. I'd bought it especially for travelling, so at $9.99 it wasn't built to last, so the glue from the strap started peeling away. I got this stuck in San Salvador...but it didn't last, so then I got the youth hostel to staple it for me. After which one of the small straps to keep the strap in place has broken. But for $9.99 I guess you can't complain because at least despite its time in the pan it is still going......
2 April 2013, Valparaiso
Saw Kerry off at the bus stop as she was travelling back to Santiago and will be flying off to Brazil tomorrow.
Ashley, a very nice Spanish-speaking American girl, whose mother is Bolivian invited me to go on a boat tour of the harbour of Valparaiso with her (I'd mentioned to her I was interested in doing this).
When we first turned up there was not enough people around to go on a collectivo boat tour (the boat owners wait until a certain number of people want to do a trip). One boat owner was trying to persuade us to go on a private trip, which would have been silly as the cost was 6,000 pesos compared to 2,000 for the public trip. And frankly once I'd done the tour, the highlight of which was seeing a number of sea lions swimming in the water or sunning themselves on rocks and jetties - there would have bee no point in paying 4,000 more for seeing the same things. Although you could see the hills or 'cerros' as they are known of Valparaiso from the boat, it's not really that scenic, with the ugly high-rise buildings also of the lower town. You really needed to have a zoom to capture the magic of the cerros of Valparaiso. And then perhaps you still would not have done that...It is probably more about being in the cerros and walking around and discovering what is around the next corner. Dinner was leftover night....drinking the leftover white wine and eating the brie from the previous night.
3 April 2013 - Santiago
A big gap since last I wrote....Time passes so fast and it is hard at times to sit down on night and write. Today travelled back to Santiago from Valpariso. Caught the bus from the square near to the hostel and then the coach back to Santiago. Not brilliant at map reading at all, but if you just always ask people in the end, it all works out. Although along the way I have found that some people probably don't know where you want to go but give you directions anyway, so it always pays to ask more than once person. My cold has made me a bit tired so after catching the metro from the bus station when I arrived at the Hostel Paris-Londres (and my old room) I felt pretty shattered, so slept for nearly two hours. After this I decided I'd try and make the free tours4tips walking tour. And that's the great thing about Santiago metro, I had left it pretty fine but in about 20 minutes had caught two trains and made the meeting point for the tour. I'd already seen a number of areas prior but what I found most interesting was what I discovered about the Barrio Paris-Londres where I am staying. I had noticed brass plaques with names and ages in the pavement outside a building but hadn't known what it meant. Many were people in their early 20s. I discovered during the tour that the rather nice old building had in fact for one year been a place of torture under the Pinochet dictatorship. In that one year 96 people were killed in the building - including two pregnant women and others were tortured. When people in the area realised what was going on in the building it was closed, although the torture undoubtedly continued but elsewhere. The tour guide also pointed out that one plaque was for a 16 year old boy....
Following the tour I was rather boring I went back to Bellavista but I DID try a local dish, which comprised of creamed corn, beef, chicken, egg (although I only found the white), raisins and olives. It was not bad but the raisins made it a little too sweet for me. However, had another pisco sour...and that really could knock your socks off. A few of those and you'd be off the wall.
4 April 2013
Weather cooling down a lot. Now Autumn in Chile and it felt like it this morning I persevered with my shorts (always bearing in mind laundry..) but wore a warm top and jacket today, as I took a trip to the Andes. Well if I was stupid enough both times when I flew over them not to have my camera to hand to take a pic - and as the mountains won't come to me, I needed to go to them! As you can imagine pretty winding roads to get to where we were going - which was really to get as high up as we could - which is where they have skiing. The highlight of the day had to be that I saw a number of Condors. The guide said sometimes you might not be lucky and he suspected the reason a number were gathering on one roof was probably because they were sharing some food - such as a dead rat.
Thought I had better not forget to write that the tour guide asked me if the earthquake today at around 4:00am had woken me. I didn't know about it, so obviously not. Quakes are not uncommon here and I had glanced at the instructions in my room on how to deal with such an event, some of which is:
'If the quake is not strong, calm, will soon end'
'If the earthquake is strong, keep calm and forward (?hmm?). Sharpen the focus to avoid risks'.
I really like the Paris-Londres hotel where I am staying, and as this is my second visit (and I have room 40 again) I feel quite at home. It has lots of character, old furniture and wooding flooring and a feeling of faded glamour.
This morning a film crew were setting up, obviously in for the long haul, with an outside broadcast van and coffee and biscuits available. The focus was a prop of an English telephone box. If I could speak Spanish, I would have asked what it was about! The only obvious link is the area's name - Paris-London!?
Beginning to think I may not have quite enough warm clothing for Bolivia but don't want to buy too much yet. However, decided an extra pair of warm socks would probably be a good thing and managed to buy a Chilean designed or Peruvian design pair of socks. Only one size...so hopefully will fit.
Some of the stray dogs do get some good road sense. One dog went to go across the road and realised quickly that traffic was moving - and quite close to her. She reversed and waited with people at the traffic lights until they started crossing the road and she did too.
I wanted to cut down a bit on the cost for a meal tonight (ha!)...and saw what could be described as an old (and a bit tatty) 'diner'. Chose from the picture - 2 eggs, chips and what appeared to be a pork chop. Out came a mound of chips topped by onions and eggs and with what I think was steak on the side. The steak was a bit tough and I gave up on it as I wasn't enjoying it greatly...and there was obviously no way I could eat the mountain of chips. Well, I thought, at least it shouldn't cost much, and it ended up being the most expensive meal to date! After all that stodge (which was perhaps medicinal for my cold), I needed some good food, so bought an apple from a market stall.
