Two Days in Rio….

  Sailing into Guanabara Bay at dawn on a clear day has got to be the most spectacular arrival into any of the world’s great ports.  The sun’s rays turn the clouds pink and make the city glitter as they bounce off glass-sided high-rises.  The city slowly comes to life as ferries begin crossing to and from Niteroi on the far side. Planes take off and land at Santos Dumont airport. The Brazilian Navy base may be full or nearly empty but there is almost always a submarine in dry dock. 

Day 1:  A walking tour from the cruise ship terminal through old Rio into modern Rio takes us past Carmen Miranda’s house, the Candelaria church, which was hosting a university graduation mass,and into the large central plaza that is a melange of old and new. The colonial Sao Francisco da Penetencia church on the knoll overlooking the plaza is worth a visit, then on to Rio’s super-modern cathedral, after passing the Petro Bras HQ.  From the cathedral it’s another 15 minutes to Los Arcos, the surviving aqueduct from colonial times.  

      

At lunch time a buffet restaurant, where you pay for what you put on your plate, beckons and provides a filling, healthy repast.  

Los Arcos

After lunch, a car, driver and guide appear and sweep us off to Rocinha, one of the favelas that has been pacified—which means that the drug dealers and guns have been largely cleaned out and there is a permanent police presence. Our guide, the excellent Martha Vasconcellos, must be trained and licensed to enter Rocinha (in addition to her license as a tour guide) and we also had an escort from the community, another requirement.  

 

Walking into Rocinha is walking into another world. Houses are stacked; the system is that family #1 builds their house on the ground floor; family #2 buys the air rights to build on top, and so on up to a maximum of five families. The roof is the common area, for laundry, a kid’s bathing pool, or just hanging out on a hot Rio afternoon.  This is a real community: shops, barbers, a house with an Afro-Brazilian religious priestess—identifiable by the frog and other figures in the window. No pictures allowed here. Elsewhere two young men treat us to an improvised at-hand-drum samba concert while a toddler struts his stuff. 

Toward the end of the 3-hour tour we find a small grocery/snack bar and collapse for some liquid refreshment. Three neighbourhood boys approach us and we find out they are all in school, and all have aspirations that will take them beyond the favela.  We leave exhausted and inspired. 

Dinner checked another item off our bucket list: La Garota de Ipanema where Tom Jobim got the inspiration for “The Girl from Ipanema” five decades ago. While waiting, three capoeira buskers took over the street and I raced outside in time to catch one in mid-air. Back inside, we both had fish dishes. David opted for bacalão, a traditional cod dish originally from Portugal. I chose a fish stew with tomatoes and green peppers. Truly one of the best meals we’ve had in Latin America.

Day 2: The best time to visit Corcovado—Christ the Redeemer—which we had seen coming into Guanabara Bay—is early morning. The bus-tour crowds haven’t arrived, which means a pleasant trip up to the top on the funicular—tram—without feeling like you are in a sardine can, and the city, spread out before you, glows.  

From Corcovado the next stop is Pão de Açucar—Sugar Loaf—for more stunning views of Rio and the bay.  Large gondolas run from the terminal a kilometer away diagonally up to the summit, affording 360° views of Botafogo Bay, Flamengo, Copacabana and further on, Ipanema. 

In the afternoon we choose one of the beach-side restaurants located near the sidewalk on Copacabana beach and chill out for a couple hours.  No one suggests that we need to move along; Brazilians are unfamiliar with the concept of turning tables every 90 minutes. 

In the evening a Samba Show introduces us to the rich variety of music and dances that have developed and evolved in Brazil through the cross-pollination of African-indigenous and European cultures. It is loud, colourful and worth the price of admission.  A fitting end to a visit that left us wanting more.

UnKolorDistinto: Valparaiso’s Brilliant Street Artists

As urban graffiti has increasingly metamorphosed into street art--some of it on a level with Picasso and Miro--Valparaiso, Chile has emerged as one of the world's most notable centres for this genre, which ranges from the dramatic to the whimsical. In 2013 the city hosted an international competition, which drew artists from Latin America and Europe, and the art is still visible in the Cerro Polanco neighbourhood.

Valpo's best known street artists are Sammy Espinosa—Jeksy—and Cynthia Aguilera—Cines—partners in art and in life, who began tagging (a stylized signature, usually in one colour) in 1996 and throw-ups (usually a one-colour outline and a second fill colour) two years later. They were children when they began painting on walls—undesired graffiti makers. Twenty years later they have acquired university degrees and major commissions for public art from the city of Valparaiso.  

In 2000 Valparaiso’s city government began sponsoring them and the artists haven’t looked back. Today their signature, UnKolorDistinto, and their art graces the walls of public and private buildings in this port city—and increasingly in other towns and cities from San Pedro de Atacama in the north to Chiloé in the south. 

During this past winter Sammy and Cynthia completed their largest commission yet—the side of a ten-storey apartment building in Valpo. The process of creating “Solsticio de Invierno”  can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln6SUhYv4rw&feature=youtu.be and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj48J-mBLvI. The finished work is on the right:  

Enjoying a finished work is a delight.  Watching Sammy and Cynthia create a mural with only their imaginations—no preliminary drawings—and several cans of spray paint is a singular experience.  We arrived at a small house on the Escalera Caracoles, near the Ascensor Reina Victoria and Lucas Square where, in December 2013, they covered the walls of the surrounding plaza with larger-than-life murals that vibrate with colour and life. 

The artists had previously painted a mural—that they didn’t like and didn’t want to be photographed in front of—on the right front wall of the house.  While painting over the offending art, the house’s owner appeared and wanted to know what they were doing.  Seems Sammy and Cynthia had neglected to get her permission to paint the first time and she was not happy.  A five-minute negotiation ensued, at the end of which the artists had permission to paint a new mural on one condition:  This was late January and they could paint anything they wanted, as often as they wanted, until the end of February. Then they had to paint a mural with colours and a theme that she approved. 

With that, we all went to lunch. Two hours later we gathered in front of the little house. The tan base paint had dried so Sammy and Cynthia set out their spray paint cans—specially formulated for street art—and set to work.  

They quickly drew guidelines around which their picture would develop then, using only five colours, created a female and male head, the latter sideways, with clearly indigenous inspiration—right down to the vocal symbol that Sammy painted at the end, flowing from the man’s to the woman’s mouth—a symbol evocative of the speech symbols in Mayan and Aztec codexes.   Or perhaps it is the man’s tongue….

 

The last touch was to tag the painting—with a small change. Instead of “Un Kolor Distinto” Sammy decided to go with “Un Kolor Diferente.”  Twenty-four minutes from start to finish.  

Since that January day Sammy and Cynthia have painted this same wall at least three times and the results can be seen on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/unkolordistinto.  Presumably, the last time was what the owner wanted. 

Walking tours of Valparaiso's street art are offered by Al Ramirez, who is also a certified sommelier and leads tours to some of Chile's best wineries.  Tours can be arranged ahead of arrival by writing to: Info@ValparaisoWineTours.com

 

LOS ESTEROS DEL IBERÁ – Corrientes Province, Argentina

Lake Iberá

The vast marshland, lakes and floating islands of the Esteros del Iberá occupy a significant percentage of Corrientes province in north eastern Argentina.  “Iberá” means “brilliant waters” in Guarani—and Lake Iberá certainly lives up to its name.

I learned about the Esteros from my contact at the car rental agency in Buenos Aires, then followed it up with an on-line search for a place to stay.  After reviewing a few options David and I selected the Irupé Lodge in the village of Carlos Pellegrini, right in the middle of the Esteros.  Our contact warned us, when we told her we would be driving down from Iguazú Falls, that the last 140 km. were not paved and would slow us down.  That proved to be an understatement. 

Itakva Restaurant, Posadas

After lunch in Posadas, located on the Paraná River directly across from Encarnación, Paraguay, we headed west and drove right past the turn-off; there was no indication that the dirt road was Route 41.  After a conversation at a police station further on we turned around, found the road again, and headed south.  It was not only unpaved, it was powder, no gravel.  David remarked more than once as we ploughed through a couple drifts that it was a really good thing it wasn’t raining, else we would have been stuck.  We rolled into Pellegrini at 18:00, roughly three hours after our planned arrival time and too late for the afternoon bird tour on the lake.  

Met at the door by Facundo, the manager, we were ushered into the large, modern-rustic, and welcoming reception area, which also includes a sitting area and the dining room.  We were offered drinks, which we happily accepted, then shown to our room—one half of a cottage, built over a marsh area. The suite was huge, with large bath and deck overlooking the marsh and lake.  Before the evening was over we decided we would stay an extra night and cancelled our reservation at an estancia outside Buenos Aires where we had planned to spend the last night before arriving in BA.  Irupé was the most relaxing place we had seen in a very long time.

   

Dinner and all the meals that followed were 5-star.  The owner is a chef and works with the two cooks to prepare innovative and delicious menus based almost entirely on local produce.  There are no TV or radios in the lodge or the rooms, so the entire world could blow up and we would not have known it.  What a treat!!  Exhausted, we retired early so we could arise and enjoy the early morning boat tour on the lake, together with a walking tour of an area that is home to a family of howler monkeys, and is located near the park rangers’ HQ and visitors’ centre.   We were lucky to see several normally shy howlers perched on branches a few metres above us. 

The boat tour around the floating islands and edges of the lake lasted almost two hours and brought us up close and personal with a wonderful array of wildlife: caimans (the South American alligator), Capybaras—the world’s largest rodent, and an amazing variety of water and land birds.  If you are a birder, add this spot to your “bucket list.”

 Back to the lodge for lunch, then an afternoon tour of Pellegrini in a carro, with Nené, a priest in an earlier life, who has a charming wife and several horses.  Now, we were surprised when Nené arrived because “carro” means “car” in Central America.  In South America,  “carro” is a horse-drawn cart. Nené showed us the sights of Pellegrini, the house where the oldest resident lives, the central part, named for Gen. José de San Martín, the great Argentine liberator, and the cemetery.  What could be interesting about a village cemetery, you might ask.  Well, political parties define people in these parts, so many of the tombs are painted or covered with coloured tiles that reflect the political party to which its inhabitant belonged.  The most interesting was a pair of tombs, husband and wife, in different colours.  

After that, a dinner that made us linger much longer than usual at table, then another early night.  

The next morning two other guests and I were off for a day with a gaucho family in Uguay, about a 45 minute drive from Pellegrini.  There was horse-riding involved and David opted out.  We arrived at the home of Ramon “Chacho” Ojeda, his wife Mercedes, and their three daughters, mounted up and headed into the countryside.  The first stop was at the home of Eustacio Gonzalez, an 83-year old who looks years younger and has resisted his children’s entreaties to move to one of his several houses in Buenos Aires.  Chacho told us that Don Eustacio did try it, but moved back to Uguay within two weeks.  

 Uguay is not a town in any real sense.  It is an area with 95 inhabitants, all living on farms, that has an elementary school and a clinic.  Chacho has 31 hectares, 7 horses, 4 cows, and 23 sheep. In 2011 he bought a black face sheep to introduce a new strain because the black face has more meat.  He plans to expand his herd in the coming years.

Next stop was Chacho’s mother-in-law, Victoriana, who was born on her farm and has lived here her entire life.  She greeted us with mate, the traditional Argentine tea, fried bread, and crackers.  She is a weaver and we saw her loom, spinning wheels—one made from the base of an old sewing machine—an ancient iron, and wool shears, made about a century ago by England’s Sheffield.  In this part of the world, Victoriana is well off: she has 76 hectares, 56 cows, 6 horses, and 90 sheep.  Her husband died a few years ago, so Chacho, Mercedes, and a grandson help her run the ranch.  

 

The ride out and back was easy and, to my great surprise, my legs and I didn’t suffer any after-effects from three hours on horse-back.  Going and returning we were treated to the sight of South American Great Rheas eating among the cattle, burrowing owls, and the South American vizcacha, another, smaller rodent that lives in burrows. 

 We arrived back at the lodge in time for the afternoon bird tour by boat to a different part of Lake Iberá.  More birds, caimans, and a brief sighting of a marsh deer made this a completely different experience from the morning tour. Before dinner a great white egret landed on the lawn and proceeded to devour a just-caught fish, which mesmerized me for almost half an hour. It began with a pristine beak and ended needing a bath. 

Three days after arriving, we packed our bags and headed south.  On the way we stopped to visit the main shrine to one of Argentina’s popular saints, Gaucho Gil.  Now, by “popular saint” I do not mean one of the usual Catholic saints whose names are familiar. I am talking about ordinary people who, in death, achieved status as a “saint” in the eyes of the people. Gaucho Gil was born in Mercedes, 90 minutes south of Carlos Pellegrini, achieved a reputation as a 19^th century Robin Hood—stealing from the rich to give to the poor—and was ultimately killed for his efforts.  Along roadsides throughout north eastern Argentina and elsewhere in the country, red flags signal a GG shrine.  We have encountered them in Chubút, on our drive out to the Peninsula Valdez, and in Mendoza.