The last day

Saturday 30 November
We packed ready to leave  and left our luggage in reception while we went to visit a shopping mall in Leblon Beach.  It was a very upmarket affair with doormen at the entrance opening doors for the shoppers and hailing taxis for them.  The Christmas decorations are everywhere now, on the hotel walls, in the streets and in the shops.

  There were a few reasonable priced shops but mostly  the big price tag names like Armani and Burberry, so we weren't tempted to buy much as we were down to our last few reals. We spent them on coffee and empanaos, a bit like a small pasty.
The weather had turned on this last day and there was heavy mist and it was a bit grey, though still 27 degrees.

Ipanima beach from the shopping mall

The plan was to finish our blogs and have a meal out before being picked up at 8 o' clock to go to the airport.  The problem was that it had started to rain and neither Lynn nor I could get a signal from the hotel's Wifi so we watched Saturday Night Fever on the TV instead.
We said good bye to Rio in the rain and headed for the airport.  I have loved every thing about Brazil but I have to say that at the airport they have made an art form out of queuing.  It's a bit like the lines at Disneyland for the most popular rides.  My cold was in full flow, literally and I had lost my voice so I was not in the best of moods.  I can't imagine how they are going to cope with the crowds arriving for the World Cup, let alone the Olympics.  Our guide said that there is massive investment in the infrastructure and we did see lots of building going on.  But it seems that corruption in high places means that everything gets done slowly and cosst the people three times more than it should.  Alex suggested that to jump the biggest queue I should do what a Brazilian would do and ask for a wheelchair.  However I didn't feel that having a cold and losing my voice qualified me for invalid status.  That said the flight left on time and now we just wanted to get home.
It has been a wonderful holiday, so many highlights.  The great weather, the culture and history of Argentina, the natural grandeur of Iguazu Falls and the spectacular sights of Rio, the fun dancing at the samba and tango clubs and the warmth, friendliness and excellent service from the local people.  Even the loos are spotless and this is important to us ladies, the only exception to this was in MacDonalds where we nipped in in desperation.
So thank you for all the laughs, Lynn.  I will always remember the dressing up at the Sambadrome, the drenching on the boat ride and the massive cocktails and their consequences.
                                                                     The End

Good bye Rio

                   

               Look out for our next adventures in Borneo in March 2014!

Beach and posh frocks

Friday ?
Today is our last full day and we were free to do what we wanted.  

The hotels Christmas tree has gone up and is lovely.

After yesterday's marathon sightseeing we thought a relaxing time on Copacabana Beach would fit the bill.  The sand is fine and light coloured and there were lots of people taking advantage of it.  But hardly anyone in the water.  That's because the bay is washed by currents coming up from the Antarctic.  Think Blackpool but colder.
 There were lots of sellers of just about everything but they were not pushy or a nuisance.  There were  sellers of pareos, bikinis, jewellery, tablecloths, rugs, hammocks, paintings, books, sun creams,, Arab food (?), ice creams, fruit, king prawn kebabs with a courtesy diarrhoea tablet, cashew nuts, popcorn, coconuts and lots of others I can't remember.  

There were also lots of ladies in tiny thongs who probably shouldn't have been

It was strange weather as suddenly a bank of white mist, travelling really fast would sweep across filling the whole sky so you couldn't see the hotel across the road, let alone Sugar Loaf Mountain..
Then it cleared just as fast but left a narrow low lying swathe against the mountain.

Lynn went to sunbathe round the pool and do her blog and I had a walk down to the Fort.  It looked interesting but there were no guides in English or Spanish so I was non the wiser about it all.  However as a pensioner, I got in free and I have to say that the soldier in the photo had a very toy town uniform on.

In the evening, we walked the length of the promenade looking for the Copacabana Palace Hotel, which has an interesting history.  It's a magnificent 5star place built in the 20's. It's the place the rich and famous stayed.  When the owner died he left it to his playboy son who worked his way through his inheritance until he was penniless.  At the age of 85 he became a tour guide.  We had a very expensive cocktail which to be honest was nothing special so we made sure we ate every last cashew and olive to get our money's worth

.  Another fantastic meal, a walk back along the prom passing through the evening market.  Many of the restaurants and bars had live music and it was a very lively place to be.
I have had a cold for a couple of days now, don't know where that came from so I called in at a pharmacy for some night nurse or similar.  Not many people speak English or even Spanish here so I acted out my various symptoms to a very bemused assistant..

Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain and much more.

I think it may be Friday.

We had an early start as there was so much to see and also to do as much as possible before it got too hot.  Alex, our thin version of George a looney but with bigger teeth, guide collected us at 8am.  We skipped the champagne at breakfast as the novelty had worn off.  Our first stop was Christ the Redeemer statue which we had to access by funicular railway.

   The statue is on a mountain which isn't really a mountain as it is a gigantic outcrop of rock, called the Corcovado which means the hunchback but it is also called the Englishmans hill because so many English were involved in the building of the funicular railway.  The Mayor said that the city needed a radio mast but the people objected that it would spoil the natural beauty so someone had the idea of enclosing the mast in a statue.  The church chipped in with money to fund the statue.  It was constructed by a Polish architect in 1926 but the head and hands were brought from France and assembled in situ. It's made of sandstone to resist cracking by the rain and the heat.   It has a definite Art Deco look and is extraordinarily beautiful but you do have to have your photo taken with it so excuse our mugs on it. 

 Various interesting facts - a German has jumped off the right hand, some boys from São Paulo grafittied the base, the police went to get them and their families and they had to come back and clean it off, there is a beautiful small chapel under the statue but mainly the views are breathtaking for 360 degrees.

The lagoon

Sugar Loaf Mountain

View towards the beaches

From there we went on to Sugar Loaf Mountain.  

Again this is an outcrop of rock which when the conquistadors sailed in looked to them like an upside down cone of sugar they made in Portugal, especially as it was covered in guano so it looked white then.  It's not white anymore because of the decline in seabirds living on it.  There are two cable cars to ride up to one mountain and then over to Sugar Loaf.

 The first men to stand on it a hundred years ago had to climb up.  Then the cable cars were constructed by the French and the Italians.  The James Bond film Moonraker was partly filmed here.  Again the views are stunning.

  We were so lucky with the weather as, although it was hot 93 degrees in old money, it was clear and there was a lovely breeze.  There are very tame and cute little marmoset monkeys in the trees up there. Alex told us that if they find fruit up there they burrow into it and eat there way through it till it's all gone.  They won't leave it in case another monkey comes along and takes it

A marmoset

Waiting for the jack fruit to fall

It was hot by now so we went on a ride around the city with Alex giving us a commentary.  The conquistadors had settled in Rio because it has a very sheltered harbour which fact looks like it it is linked to the Atlantic Ocean by a river but it is simply a very narrow opening. They called it therefore Rio (river) Janeiro (January) after the date they landed.  It has three beaches - Copacabana, 6 kms long with imported sand and a promenade made in a snake like mosaic with stones imported from Portugal, Ipanima , which of course has a song about a girl named after it and Leblon.  It also has a lagoon.  Before Brazil was a republic it had two emperors from Portugal.  The second one went to a party on a nearby island and when he came back, the republicans had seized power.  He retired to his summer house in Pedropolis and was happy to stay there but they sent him back to Portugal.  Sadly the Portuguese wouldn't have him so he ended his days in Paris. On the promenade and here and there in the city you can see three red circles which symbolise the joining of the three ethnic groups in Brazil, the Europeans, the natives and the slaves from Africa.

 We saw the new cathedral which is just like a giant beehive but has wonderful stained glass windows on three sides. 

 we stopped at a street made up of steep steps.  It is completely covered in tiles, mostly red. 

 There was an artist called Selvaron who fell in love with a woman, making her pregnant but she died before the baby could be born.  He was so distraught that he started putting bits of tiles on the steps of this street.  People started coming to see it and he began to sell little paintings and making money.  The local gangs moved in and tried to extort money from him.  When he replied, Over my dead body, they took him at his word, killed him set fire to his body and left it at the foot of the steps.  This was only a year ago.  On all his paintings, Selvaron always drew himself with his lovers pregnant body but his own head.

The downtown area in Rio is much like other cities with tall buildings but it seemed to me that there is quite a lot of grafitti.  The streets are busy and there are lots of modern shops but it has a completely different feel to Buenos Aries, more vibrant, less restrained and sophisticated.  We stopped off for a ice cream  in a vintage patissereie, very similar to the tango club, with huge carved framed mirrors and mosaic floors.

Our last stop was the Sambadrome.  It was specially built for the first division teams which usually represent a local church or favela.  It's like a wide street with raked seating on each side and the top seats command up to 600 dollars. Lynn and I couldn't resist and donned costumes for a samba fest of our own.

Our last stop was a favela.  Very densly packed chaotic self build on steep slopes where the poor live.  However they are putting in lifts up the side of the mountains to help the residents to get about.  About 90 % are law abiding and have jobs and it is now not politically correct to say favela (ghetto). They are now called communities. 

One of the favelas tumbling down the mountainside.

A street in the favela

In the evening, we went into a bustling restaurant on the promenade where we mulled over our choice of meal with a cuprihaina(?) and crushed fruit.  I had strawberry and Lynn had lime, it was just a tumbler of neat Brazilian rum with fruit and ice.  We did not make the same mistake as last night and only ordered one starter and one main and we couldn't even finish that.

Flying down to Rio

HIs it Wednesday?
Have lost track of date sorry.  Not much happened until we arrived in Rio.  Airport, 2 hour flight, Waggon Wheel biscuits, transfer to hotel.  The hotel is right on Copacabana beach and our room has a side view of the beach.  

It has recently be reopened after a complete refurbishment and is lovely.  We were met in the lobby like royalty with champagne and everyone smiling and saying welcome to Rio.  We had a little rest and then showered ready for a meal out.  Round the corner on the promenade we found a great fish place, no one spoke English but there was a bit of English on the menu.  Of course we forgot about the huge portions you get here and ordered far too much.  We were in a bit of a hurry as we had decided to repeat our successful tango outing by going to a samba club.  It was downtown in the cultural district and turned out to be another dancing mecca.

  It was on three floors with an atrium in the middle looking down on the dance floor.  So you could watch the dancers.  What you do, is tell the cashier at the door your name and she gives you a food and drinks list.  When you order a drink or food, the waiter marks it off on your card and you pay when you leave.  The tables round the dance floor were already taken so we asked for our guide's friend, Naudo, who brought out a special little table for us with a good view 

  Only two or three couples were dancing at that point but the traditional samba looked very exciting.  We had been told to look out for an 80 year old black guy in a white suit, hat and shoes as he was always there and a terrific dancer.  We did see him but he wasn't dancing.  He had earphones in and looked pensive.  It seems that the Brazilian League final was on that night and the local team, Flamengo, was tipped to win. When the floor filled up a bit more, Lynn and I got up and did the nearest thing we could to a samba, basically waggling your bottom a lot.  There were two live bands but local samba music consists of long, largely tuneless, shouty lyrics to loud drum beating with a bit of pipes thrown in.  But the locals all seemed to know the words.
We took turns to have a wander round the other floors.  I took some photos with my mobile but of course they are stuck there till I get it fixed.  Will ask Lynn for some of hers.  We learned later that the building used to be a shop selling old things but not as old as antiques.  They didn't do very well so they arranged all the items as decoration, cleared the floor and turned it into a samba club.its very popular every night and had it not been for the football we probably wouldn't have got in.  Each are of each floor is decorated in a different way, banks of old radios, sewing machines, old fashioned pharmacy bottles, life size cartoon statues of black slave women.  

 on level three there was an open air walkway into the next building with a extra dance floor.
We had a great night and of course I could not restrain Lynn from chatting up a huge Brazilian man who did not speak English and did not want to dance but she managed to get him on the floor, to dance of course.  Taxi ride back and we could see and hear fireworks, chanting and black and red shirts everywhere.  Flamengo had won.  Muito bom!

Here is me crying for Argentina at Evitas' s mausoleum.  I couldn't help it.

Wet, Wet, Wet.

Tuesday 26 November
I seem to have got yesterday's date wrong, the post "Waterfalls" should have read Monday. Not surprising as I have lost track of time.  I haven't seen the news on the TV or newspaper since I left the UK.
Today was our chance to see Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side so we went down to breakfast ready for a quick off.  Breakfast was magnificent as expected and I could not resist having the complimentary champagne. 

 

We had booked the boat and jungle safari with our Argentine guide but she had written out the voucher wrongly and we had to pay all over again, not happy about that as it made a big hole in our reals.  We climbed into a little train for a ride through the forest down to the boat embarkation area.  The guide gave us some info on the local flora and fauna and said that she had seen a leopard last week. We walked the last kilometre keeping a look out for the leopard but no luck.  But the butterflies of all colours and sizes were everywhere again.  At the embarkation dock we were told that we would get wet and so should leave all our belongings in a locker.  It was not advisable to take a camera with you.  Well of course, we thought, that's because they want you to buy the photos they take so I took my phone and Lynn her camera wrapped up in nylon macs.  We wore our swimwear.  Hers me preparing to get wet

The ride in a speed boat up the river was exhilarating, plenty of spray and bobbing about.  As we approached the main area of the falls, the driver slowed down so we could take photos if we wanted to, which we did.  

Then he revved up and we pushed through the rapids towards the falls.  Only he didn't stop.  We went straight into them.  It was like massive continuous bucket of water was tipped over your head.  There was a good 4 inches of water in the boat sloshing round our feet and we looked like drowned rats.  I had to close my eyes as the force of the water made my eyes water.  We exited the waterfall, turned round and went back in.  What with the crashing of the water, Lynn screaming,  me closing my eyes, water up my nose, I half thought I had fallen in.  But it was thrilling.  After another dousing, the driver turned back downstream.  Even those who were completely covered by the long, hooded plastic coats they had bought at the embarkation point, were wet through underneath ....and so were my phone and Lynn's camera. So although we have photos we can't get act them at the moment. As a precaution, we bought the DVD and CD taken by one of the boatmen.  It will be great to relive the ride when we are back in cold weather back home.
We spent the afternoon at the pool.  The loungers were cushioned and the pool boys attentive.  Every so often they came round with perfumed, ice cold face flannels to cool you down.  Then they brought fruit kebabs and finally a little glass of gazpacho. Very civilised.  

After a while I fancied a walk so we set off down the paths towards the Brazilian side of the falls. 

This is the view from our hotel

 From the Argentinian side, you can get close up but cannot see it all, on the Brazilian side you can see the whole breadth of the falls but it's too wide to get on to one photo.

This is the fall that we sailed under.

  We watched a boat approach the falls as we had done and disappear several times into the down pouring and mist of the falls. Lynn had walked enough and went back to the hotel to continue her work on her tan, while I continued to the end of the waterfall trail.  Eventually I came to an observation tower which gave a fabulous view over the falls but you got covered with spray because of the direction of the wind.  So I was got wet again.

Photo from the top of the observation tower.

Photo from half way up the observation tower.

Back at the hotel, it seemed that Christmas had materialised overnight.  The tree had gone up, festive cushions were decorating every sofa, there was a wreath over the fireplace and a life size Santa Claus doll standing next to it.  Seems wrong in this heat.

Not sure about Santa's tank top.

Waterfalls

A very early start to fly to Iguazu so we roused ourselves at 5.30 am.  Bleary eyed and a reduced breakfast and and a twenty minute ride to a different airport in Buenos Aires.  Oh no, the flight was Demorado -delayed so I asked the check in lady how long, she said it wasn't delayed.  I pointed out the departures board and got a shrug so no idea whether we had a wait or not. Well it turned out to be fairly on time which was good as there wasn't much to do at the airport.  Only a short flight but we were served a breakfast of 3 Waggon Wheel type biscuits, I've had better.

We were met by a guide who took us straight to the Argentine side of the Falls.  They are one of the three biggest falls in the world and the biggest in terms of breadth - two and half kms across.  It was a bus ride, kiddy train ride and 30 minute walk to get there in the Iguazu national park but spectacular.  

No need to describe them just look at these selected photos.  Our first view was of the Devil's Throat where the river Iguazu crashes down massively.  If you try to look at the falling water close up, your eyes become disorientated and you feel dizzy and the roar is so loud you can't hear anything else.

The Argentine side showing some of the span

From below the Bossetti Falls

Part of the Devil's Throat

Close up to the Devil's Throat

As for the wild life, we saw in no particular order, capuchin monkeys, coaties, which are a bit like raccoons and something of a pest as they hang around the picnic areas looking for scraps

An armadillo, 

Great big, poisonous caterpillars

big lizards

A huge catfish

All sorts of exotic birds and butterflies everywhere

We did three walks to see the various falls from above them and then below so we were walking for a couple of hours.  Did I say it was 34 degrees? The guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out the wild busy lizziies and begonias as well as the native trees.  It's a sub tropical area as they often get showers, it's also very lush.

Wild busy lizzies

At the end of the tour we were literally exhausted with the heat and the jungle trek so we were keen to get to our 5 star hotel on the Brazilian side of the falls.  We could see it occasionally from the Argentine side, perched on a hill in the forest but we had a 30 minute journey over the bridge over the Iguazu River which separates the two counties.  In the distance we could also see Paraguay. We finally arrived at our hotel Las Cataratas which is a pink and white colonial style group of buildings.

  Our room is not huge but fabulously appointed and the forest view is lovely.  I opened the window and could hear the roar of the falls in the distance, just like being at home with the M25.  As we were looking a bit as if we had been round Romford Market on a hot day, we showered in the luxurious walk in shower where you can sit if you prefer and put our best frocks on.  A couple of mojitos later on the veranda,we headed for the barbecue restaurant by the pool. 

It was a barbecue and grill buffet with a big choice of gourmet dishes.  I tried some heart of palm with shrimp which I have never had before.  I learned later that it takes 10 years for that particular palm to grow big enough to harvest the heart of the bark. But then it grows again. After a wander round the hotel admiring the orchid arrangements we headed up to our room.

Lynn incognito

  Because we are in the heart of the forest, there is no light pollution so the skies are incredibly clear with big fireflies darting about and the whole garden area is lit with those new flameless flickering candles.  In the room, I popped on my complimentary Havaianas and started on my blog.  Am having difficulty moving the photos on my phone over to my iPad and similarly the video I have taken of the falls so I will publish them another time.