Exploring South America 2017: A bit of Brazil from Rio to Foz do Iguacu

It was almost a full day to travel from snowy Alberta to Brazil.  With a stop in Calgary (great experience with the new terminal and with American customs) and then in Houston for dinner, I arrived in the early morning to start exploring South America.

Looking at the map before leaving for Rio de Janeiro, I thought that it was a shame that we were only doing a tiny bit of Brazil.  Of course, once you are on the ground you are reminded how huge Brazil is (almost the size of the United States).  It’s 2500 km from Rio to Buenos Aires if you go the short way and we did a detour west into the Pantanal (almost to the border with Paraguay) so there were lots of long travel days in the three weeks.  Straddling the Equator, Brazil’s weather is hot and humid.  Arriving in late summer, the wet season was beginning – so hot and even more humid – and every sunny day was a blessing. 

My time in Brazil divides nicely between the week in Rio de Janiero for Carnival and then the adventures with Gus (the Dragoman truck) as we traveled toward the Argentine border for the next two weeks. We actually were doing a “mirror trip” with Gus’s sister truck, Amber all the way to Buenos Aires so we were often doing things together.

Coming into Rio, it was fascinating to look for the “same same different” between Brazil and other places I’ve visited.  The favelas climbing the hills with houses built of whatever was available and with creative wiring had a lot of similarity to the buildings in Asia – even built in similar manner with bricks and stucco. These were mixed, however with state of the art high rises and freeways with hundreds of vehicles.  I soon came to realize that Brazil can compete with first world countries for education, technology and income (at least for the privileged upper class). And for this small town girl, Rio de Janiero’s 13 million people were pretty overwhelming.

Brazil has an interesting mixture of races.  During the time of the initial settlement in the 1500s, the Catholic priests encouraged intermarriage between the whites and the local native population as well as with the black slaves (quite different than in North America).  The elite are as likely to have the appearance of blacks or aboriginals as dwellers of the favelas are to be fair and look like their Portuguese ancestors.  The word is that “all are equal”.  The concept of special treatment for aboriginal populations doesn’t exist because there is no distinct population.

Rio de Janiero for Carnival (22.56.13S  43.10.31W)

I’d done my research before leaving home so had booked a food tour as well as a city walking tour and had tentative arrangements to visit favela Rochina.  This gave me a chance to get my bearings, find the Metro, and practice my smile and point Portuguese. 

 

These interesting things open up to become a beautiful flower

Yup.  Higher end apartment with palm trees growing on the roof top.

Grafitti (street art) was everywhere

Building dressed up as a book shelf

Food tour Eat Rio.
We stopped in for "the Best Caparinas in Rio" about 10:00

Watched this being painted

Escadaria Selardon
Got to check out these cool steps not once but twice

As these became famous, people started sending ceramic tiles from home
.  Yup, Canada is well represented.

The story about this, is it was painted in early 2013
 (just before the artist committed suicide in a rather dramatic fashion)
and it is seen that he "predicted" the results of the semi finals against Germany.
 1 Sun (Brazil) and 7 Boats (Germany)

Jaca (jackfruit) similar to Durian

The peppers were so beautifully displayed.
The owner was delighted to pose for a photo 

Our guide explaining about cashews.  We ate the fruit.
The seed takes a  lot of preparation involving fire to
burn off the toxins related to cyanide.

Cocoa

Watching my personal key being cut at the base of the steps.
Watch for it on my weaving.

Rules about grafitti.
"Official" ones, like this one which is of a very important local, are not to be "tagged" or painted over.
Same thing in Buenos Aires.  Grafitti in South America is way more than kids defacing property.

Favelas - kinda like the Jellybean houses of Newfoundland

The home of the artist of the Selardon steps.
He doused himself with turpentine and set himself a light on the steps outside his home.
He had always said that the steps were his life work and would only end with his death.

Favela construction methods

Michael Jackson's "They don't really care about us" was filmed in this favela.
This wee one was having a great time cleaning the deck while his big brother(s) were playing soccer.

Two days later, Dragoman’s Carnival package started and my roomie for the week, Colby, arrived from the UK.  She’s this incredible bundle of energy that was determined to experience everything despite bringing a nasty cold with her from home.  We experienced the huge Copacabana bloco (200,000 partyers with nary an angry word or thought) then bumped into the local Flamengo bloco which was way more fun and intimate.  One night at the Sambadrome was sufficient for me – seats weren’t the best and I wish I had known more about the parades before going. Each samba school has their own followers (who learn the song a year in advance and sing it out at full volume) and the dancers, floats and drummers all have a structured meaning and purpose.  I also headed up to the Cristos monument by bus with a couple of fellow travelers and then had enough nerve to take the bus out to Parque Lago for the day (where I bumped into another medium sized bloco centered around to Botanical Gardens).

Me and Tom Jobin in Ipanema

The best corn ever on Copacabana as the bloco was wearing down

Leaders of the Flamenco bloco that we bumped into.

These guys were waiting at the bus stop (no doubt on the way to a bloco) and wanted to take a photo with me.
 Sadly my bus arrived, but they posed as I was on the step.

Entering the sambadrome, we got handed handfulls of female condoms

More grafitti in Favela Rochina

Copacabana beach

I was just standing quietly in the huge crowd and these vendors turned around and gestured that they wanted me to take their photo.  Still can't believe wall to wall people, gallons of alcohol and other substances and no pushing, shoving or violence.

Sambadrome.  Catherine from Manchester and my roomie Colbie

 Here's some of the sights from the Sambadrome.  I was taking photos at extreme zoom for my wee Canon, so please forgive the blur- which I like to think as part of the art.

Flamengo Beach near our hotel.
The fellow had been tossing the ball into the water for the dog to chase.
  After a while, to dog got bored and let his person go get his own ball!!
 I remember this with our old dog Stout, too.

Parque Lage.  The local nick name means Christo's armpit cause that is where it is.

Yup, an 18th century British castle.  Created for the original owners.

And an aquarium

Our guide for Rochina favela.  His day job was as a DJ

"Only in Rio do the poor people get the best views
and the rich people live in the valleys"

This is one of the favelas that have been "taken over" by the police and are fairly safe.
This process was started less than ten years ago by the first female police chief.
New meaning to community policing.

Zezhina, the "owner" of the favela tour.  Part American.  Delightfully bizzare.

Our guide's wrist tatoo.  The Islamic writing refers to the power of music.

Coffee for the trip

Great time was had, but it was time to get out of the big city. In reality, we traveled along the main roads through an assortment of large towns and through farming areas.  Even our “bush camp” was at a local petrol station (with basic bathrooms and showers)because all the land is fenced and privately owned.

Paraty (23.12.26 S 44.43.4 W)

Dorms on the beach.  A great boat trip with stops to swim followed by the mother of all storms.  When it rains here, it is like the weather gods dump a huge bucket of water all at once.  Thankfully, my bag kept my camera and iphone dry – several members of our group were not so lucky.  I also found the Correios (Post office) and did a bit of retail therapy.

If you own your own island, why not build your own castle?

Back at our hostel with the rain still pouring down

I have a magnet hand painted by this street artist.

"going for a ride"

Interesting.  In front of the heritage church,
this fellow with chains in hand was talking to the crowds and inviting them to take pictures.
I think it was a discussion of the slave past.

The underside of the tile roof in an artist loft.  

Reward to those of us who were early to the bus on leaving day. I learned that leaving before daylight was pretty usual when sunrise happens about 8:00

Brotas (22.17.19S 48.38.5W)

First camping with Rhea (our tent) and Lorna (my tentie).  Rhea, like all the tents, is old and needed some repairs the first night so she could be set up.  Since then, we’ve scrounged enough tent pegs, made a few more repairs, and constantly praise and groom Rhea.  She shows her appreciation by being waterproof, warm on cold nights and snuggles willingly into her bag for her roof ride between campsites.

On route.  This crazy over the top petrol station

Moth posing for photo

Fazenda San Francisco in the Pantanal (20.5.11S 56.36.52W 130 meters)

North and west we traveled to explore the temperate rainforest of the Pantanal.  Fazendas were originally established to grow rice and cattle as well as sheep.  Of course, when you take off the original vegetation, you discover that the land is poor and you can’t grow as much as you thought you could. The heat makes cattle very difficult to raise.  Many of the fazendas discovered that ecotourism was a much better way to make a living.  I never got bored of the quantities of animals who didn’t seem afraid of us visitors.

Capybaras became almost common

Rhea.  Ranchers encourage them to hang around because they eat snakes.

We were told that deer were uncommon,
but we saw them every day we were out.

Jesus bird - because they seem to walk on water

I'm sure this was reminding me to wear insect repellent. :)

Burrowing owl just posing.

Not sure if this is cheating,
The top pole was actually a bird feeder and at different times of day,
 different flocks would show up.

The day before, this local guide was the driver and only spoke Portuguese to the "official" local guide.  This day, with no official guide, he was allowed to speak English and was a wealth of knowledge about the area, the animals, the fazenda.  Apparently, he taught himself English so he could understand the biologists and learn more about the area!!! His wife was the boat driver on our Piranha fishing trip and he came along to help her.

Mate cup and straw.  The rest of the decore would fit into any Alberta ranch.

Typical gaucho saddle

And working boots

Cows.  They imported Brahmas from India (white ones) because they can tolerate the heat and the poor feed.  Then "Montanya" were imported from the UK for better meat quality and interbred.  They all looked skin and bones and generally unhappy.

Heading out to fish for Piranha

And Caimen - Alligators

This piranha had been dead for about half an hour, but still reflexively bit the stem when put in his mouth.

And the other reason for fishing for piranhas is to put them on a long pole...

...as an offering to the eagles to come closer to the boat for photos,

Our last night, we had a traditional barbecue preceded by local dancing and music.  I smiled because anybody from home would have fit right in with the two step dancing, even if the words to the music were in Portuguese.  The traditional dress was blue jeans, boots and a wide brimmed hat.  What fascinated me, though, were the colourful sashes that were worn by the ladies that looked just like the Metis sashes from Canada. With my point and smile Portuguese, supplemented by the excellent English of one of the local guides, I learned that these sashes are woven of cotton thread (cotton is grown in Brazil) with traditional patterns and colours (so loom woven not finger woven) but that they also serve a useful purpose.  The gauchos wear them under the shirt to support the core while doing the heavy ranching chores (and they were traditionally made for them by their wives/mothers/sisters/girlfriends).  The ladies wear them for special occasions to show off their work.  They are called Paraguay straps and are now usually made by the local Guarani.  By luck, the artisan’s market at Foz had a lady who made them.

Our room name was "Guapo" which apparently means beautiful woman"

View from the loo.  Guys bathroom had a snake showing just before we left.

Bonito (21.7.22S 56.30.6W 400 meters elevation)

Hostel in a tourist town.  The day snorkelling down the Rio da Prata was great fun.  The waterproof case I put my camera in for the trip down the river was not as waterproof as I had thought.  My wee Canon that survived the dust storm in Dunhuang seems to have forgiven me for the dunking, but has become more temperamental.

Local church

Phone booths are called "Oie" which is slang for Hi.

Getting ready to snorkel the river

Trust me, we were having a good time

Retail therapy

And of course, in a tourist town you can find great food, and a wealth of retail therapy.  Amongst other things, I broke down and bought a pair of Havaianas at the last stop before the border.  And left my Aussie jandals behind.

Foz do Iguacu (25.36.17 S 54.31.29W 210 meters)

We stayed at a hostel on the Brazil side and visited both sides of the falls.  Most of us stayed in tents but for some reason I deserted Rhea and opted for an upgrade to a dorm room.  Sorry, Rhea, I promise to not do this again.

The border between Argentina and Brazil runs through the falls – each side maintains their own national park in unique and different ways and the name is also slightly different (Foz do Iguacu in Brazil and Cataratas del Iguazu in Argentina).  It took a bit of workaround to avoid the thousands of tourists, but the views were stellar.  Yup, three times the water flow of Niagra.  Also, this is the waterfall in The Mission.

Coati (Argentina) or Qatil (Brazil).  Cute.
Nasty little fellows that will attack you for food.

Just a reminder that things aren't always so peaceful.
Major war in the 1800's saw Paraguay lose this area.
This is a memorial to a local guard who lost his life in 1969 to "insurgents"

A bit of colour

And the monkeys were outside the cafe for photos (and treats) at noon

Evidence of how high the water comes in the right season

I stopped to talk to Erin and she pointed out the alligator she was watching.
I took this photo,  but I think this is a rock, not the alligator!

Flocks of butterflies

The lady who hand wove my Paraguay strap

A side trip on the Brazil side was to the bird park – actually a rescue sanctuary for a myriad of birds as well as some fish, a few anacondas, cool butterflies and even two Australian cassowaries.

Check this photo carefully.
There was actually a mirror at the back of the enclosure, so not nearly as many flamingos as you think,
The dot of blue in the back left is actually me taking a selfie :)

The best poor Canon could do with a cool black butterfly on a blowing leaf.

Anaconda

Two anacondas were wrapped around this pile of wood.
No fence between us and them.

The "guard"would occasionally spray them with water

I have no idea why there were two cassowaries here

Leaving Foz and entering Argentina (our first border crossing) showed Team Gus’ true style and you can read about it here.  Next stop Buenos Aires.

Exploring South America 2017: Traveling with Team Gus

Yup, Gus carries everything AND the kitchen sink.

For almost two months from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Santiago, Chili, I’m traveling with 20 fascinating people from around the world as well as a well traveled Dragoman Truck named Gus.  After our last overland trips in 2014, I knew that the folks you travel with can make or break the experience.  Trucks or crew can be grumpy, weather can be lousy, drives can be long and boring, but if you are sharing the adventure with interesting people, then that is what you will remember.

Team Gus has 4 “kids” (they smile when us oldies say this and then occasionally give back with a “yes mum” when we get out of line), three of whom are seasoned travelers. There are three couples with a variety of skills and travel experiences.  In the middle are three guys and five ladies and then the “oldies” – which would be me and our oldest gentleman at 69 who puts us all to shame with his ability to pitch in and do whatever is happening.

My home for the next two months is a tent named Rhea (which is a Patagonian ostrich that people encourage to hang around the fazenda because they eat snakes and rodents) and my tentie is another LW –Lorna from the UK who has worked and traveled around the world for the last thirteen years.  Rhea, like all our tents, is showing her age.  When we got her, her front zip needed fixing, and the straps that attach her to the A frame are wearing.  Tent pegs are rusty and we could do with a few more, but Rhea has the most important waterproofness absolutely perfect – especially with Lorna directing the setup.

The thing that I noticed right away was that everybody pitches in to do what is needed – no shirking and saying it is someone else’s job. Whether it is setting up or taking down, there seems to always be someone to get the job done.  If someone is having a down day, or is homesick, there is someone to listen.  Even the folks with no overlanding experience are learning about tents and bush wees. There’s a great set of knowledge and experience on board.  And, if any of my Odyssey fellow travelers are reading this, there is narry a Twat to be had.

It’s been a great month so far and I’m going to be sad when we break up in Santiago.

The story of the beautiful sunset

Team Gus is summed up perfectly with our departure from Foz du Iguacu (Brazil) and arrival in a rather glampy bush camp inside Argentina.

For our time in Foz, I upgraded to a hostel room.  I woke up about 4:30 on our leaving day to the crash of lightening and the sound of wind and pouring rain.  My first thought was to get up, pack and then go out to help the team take down tents and get ready to leave.  Coming out the door, the first thing I saw was this huge man in boxers and a pair of havaianas lugging laundry under the roof – “don’t know who this belongs to, but I caught it as it was blowing away” – as he headed out to do whatever was needed.  As I came under the roof, there was a brigade taking down tents, folding them and getting them bagged.  Soon there were folks dragging gear and two huge guys in boxers and sandals dragging tents under the roof to be dismantled.  With five minutes to go before leaving time (and not yet sunrise) we were packed and quite pumped.  One of the guys announced “OK, everybody who is wet, go get into the hot showers” and another discovered that our sister truck, Amber, had hot water so we all went over to get coffee or tea and notice that they were all dry and under cover and miserable about the weather (while we were quite pumped).  Our crew arrived late and quite surprised that we were ready to go.

This whole process started with the two youngest girls, who were awakened by the first crack of lightening, decided that they were NOT going to get any of their gear wet, packed, dropped it under the roof, headed out to pull tent pegs and drag their tent under the roof to dismantle it there.  All before the first drop of rain. Leadership on Team Gus is coming from all directions.

Border crossing is always an iffy proposition and Brazil to Argentina was very iffy – wrong paper work from head office meant that we passed through quite simply while Gus had to wait.  And wait.  And wait. For the two or so hours, it was relive the great teamwork of packing up, border yoga, visiting with everyone passing through and discovering the little snack shop just over the border.

Trip notes said that we were heading to a bush camp somewhere between the border and Buenos Aires.  The funny thing was that nobody was bemoaning setting up soggy tents in the middle of nowhere, but just remembering the funny events of the morning. To our delight, “bush camp” was actually at a closed waterpark/hotel/camping complex with friendly staff and a liquor shop.  Imagine a “bush camp” with toilets and hot showers that were freshly cleaned for us when we arrived!  Some even upgraded to beds, but I’ve decided to stick with Rhea til Santiago. We were all pretty pumped to set up soaking wet tents (we used mops and brooms to remove water from the floors) and have them dry before bed time.

Rhea drying out in the sunshine at our "bush glamp".
 Her rain coat spent a couple of hours over a barbecue drying, too.

And then, just as supper was getting ready, there was this stellar sunset over the abandoned  pool.  Best.  Day.  Ever.

Group photo with the sea lions near Puerto Madryn

Puerto Moreno Glacier in Argentina

Duckman and his chicks.

First view of Torres del Paine

Mirador (view point) Torres del Paine.
More about this stunning hike later.

S 22.56.13 W 43.10.30. Getting to Rio de Janeiro. From -11 and freezing rain to a cool and sunny +30

Lots of people have asked if I was excited about traveling solo for five months through South America.  As the day to leave got closer, I found myself repeating the words we heard often while traveling through south Asia –“same same but different”.

I knew the things I needed to do and knew who could help me with the details.  I didn’t need to buy any clothes or kit, just pack what I had.  So, most of the worry and stress I remember from last time didn’t happen.  On the other hand, I’ve never traveled solo and the idea of doing exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it was on one hand liberating, but also very different.

In the past, we’ve always traveled in spring/summer/fall to an area with very similar weather – yes, we spent most of a year in hot equatorial climate, but we started in Istanbul in early spring.  This time, I left home with a spring coat over a fleece jumper and was quite cool with the -11 and a bit of wind.  Twenty four hours later, I arrived in Rio de Janeiro on a lovely cool morning at +26 which peaked at +30.

It was also fascinating how different the trip was.  I've learned (thanks to Nicole from Goway Travel) that if I start my international travel in Grande Prairie, the cost difference is almost nothing and you get to check two bags!  It made it worth taking a chance on Air Canada being on time and not losing my luggage.  Catching United Airlines in Calgary was a series of encounters with friendly staff asking if I needed help – Calgary seems to have put help at every possible spot in the new international terminal where there might be some confusion.  I was prepared for a long challenging process through customs given the current political events in America, but other than needing to take off my boots (and then put them back on again), it was all smiles and friendliness.  The agent asked (after me saying that I was only transiting Houston) if I spoke Portuguese with a smile as he waved me along.  The plane was bilingual (Spanish and English) and once I arrived in Houston, the accents were Spanish or Portuguese – don’t tell me that the US is not a country of immigrants.

Leaving Grande Prairie

A wee herd of bison in Calgary

Kati's advice about Pappadeaux at the Houston Airport was excellent.

And now I am in Rio de Janeiro for two days on my own before joining the Dragoman tour for the next 19 weeks.  I’ve discovered that even in the tourist areas (including the airport), most people speak Portuguese only with perhaps a basic understanding of English, so I shall be polishing up my pointing and smiling skills.  Of course I got crazy lost walking out to explore the area – thought North was South, all the streets curve and have names not numbers.  But I found the Metro, got back to my hotel, checked the iphone compass and headed out in the right direction to find the beach.  And checked out a cool cafe which specialized in food from northern Brazil.  About ten spots at a counter that were constantly full as I had my tacaca (an interestingly spicy soup with shrimp so fresh that they may have still been swimming yesterday) and sucre – a smoothy like fruit drink that was excellent.  No room for the acai – which apparently is a speciality so a repeat is in the future.

Almost there

There are these great maps posted to help you on your way
(once you figure out which way is north)

Tomorrow, a food tour (thanks to Lou and Luke for pointing out how much fun it is to eat local) then the next day out to Santa Theresa which is an artisty neighbourhood.  Then Carnival.  Next week, we head out of this crazy big city and get to check out the natural beauty of Brazil.