Rio Day 2 and the End of the Essence Tour

Jim here: Before talking about our next day,  I want to share  a few thoughts about this beautiful city. Like most of our fellow tour group partners, we had heard a lot of bad things about the crime and grime of Rio. We were all uniformly amazed at how green and friendly the city is. There are miles of beautiful green belts along the coast, lots of trees and tropical foliage , and people walking and exercising all over the place. The whole experience was unexpectedly lovely. True, there are the shanty towns or favelas, but if you don’t want to go into those neighborhoods, you certainly don’t have to. We could all think of parts of our hometowns that we probably wouldn’t venture into either. I don’t  think it is any different in Rio.

Stacy here: While Rio is a beautiful city, there is a lot of stuff that just doesn’t work like it should, from education to transportation to public construction.  I have to confess that I am really alarmed by being in a place where you have to be so hyper-vigilant all the time the time that you can’t even wear your wedding band or watch out in public.  Moreover, unlike in many parts of the world, where there are “safe” areas, citizens in Rio, no matter their socio-economic status, live all on top of each other. not only does the crime and other problems of the Undoubtedly, when we return, we are supposed to visit a favela, and get a much more unbiased view of the societal issues here, but for me, the fact that on a daily basis, you are confronted with the sad reality that the country of Brazil is failing its people makes this a sad city for me.  Enough editorializing; on to the trip …

Our second day in Rio started with a boat tour of the harbor. We also hadn’t realized how big the commercial waterfront is in Rio. Everyone knows about the famous beaches, but there is also a vibrant and historical bay and harbor with many interesting sights. We saw the entry to the bay where a hundred years ago,they used to pull heavy chains across the opening to keep out unwanted ships. The harbor is also home to the modern Brazilian navy and coast guard.

iFormer Imperial Palace

Planes landing at the Rio city airport

After our harbor cruise, we had a light lunch at a local museum and then headed for the cable car that takes you to the top of Sugarloaf mountain. The mountain got its name from the pyramid-shaped bags of sugar the Portugese used to export from the region. They were shaped that way to maximize the amount of cargo and minimize wasted space. The cable car trip to the top was quick and very scenic. Unfortunately, we didn’t have nearly as fine weather as we had had the day before so the pictures were not as spectacular.

Monkeys on Sugar Loaf

View from the top of Sugar Loaf back towards copacabana Beach

View of Guanabara Bay from Sugar Loaf

Christ the Redeemer from Sugar Loaf

This was also our last day with Mark and our Essence of South America tour group, so we had our farewell reception that evening. What a great group of folks! It was a large group of almost 40 so we took a while all getting to know each other but by the end we all felt like old friends. We were very fortunate to have such a wonderful group to share our Essence of South America adventure.

“Portuguese” sidewalks in front of our hotel on Ipanema Beach.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will fly to Santiago to meet our friend Rebecca and then Friday we will take the short flight over the Andes to the wine country of Mendoza Argentina.

Rio de Janeiro

Our first day in Rio started with an early rise so we could beat the cruise ship traffic to Corcovado – site of the iconic “Christ The Redeemer” (Cristo Redentor) statue. You get to the top of the mountain by taking a Swiss-made railroad car up a very steep track. I think this had to be the steepest railway I had ever been on that wasn’t pulled by a cable. Once we got to the top, we were rewarded with some spectacular views. This is one of those places you see on every travel show about Rio, but like most things, it is totally different when you see it in person.

 

Cristo Redentor

We got some great pictures and the vantage point gives you a very clear idea of how the City is laid out. We could easily see Ipanema Beach, where our hotel is located, as well as Cocacabana Beach where we will come back to stay on our Brazil trip in a few weeks.

Sugarloaf Mountain and Guanabara Bay

Copacabana Beach

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas & Ipanema Beach

After the visit to Corcovado, we went to downtown Rio and saw the main cathedral. This is a very modern building made from reinforced concrete and shaped like a huge cone. Whether you like the architecture or not it is an impressive building.

For lunch, we went to Colombo’s Pasteleria, which is an institution in downtown Rio, having been built in the 1890s.  They serve a fabulous buffet lunch, and killer pastries, but possibly the best part of the meal is the Art Noveau interior.

After lunch downtown, we headed to Samba City.  We had never heard of Samba City, which looks a lot like a Hollywood movie studio backlot, and is where all the major samba clubs construct their floats and make their costumes.

The samba clubs also rehearse their Carnaval acts and the dances are practiced for the Carnaval celebration. Even though Carnaval was just the week before, planning is already underway for Carnaval 2016.

Our plucky tour group TOTALLY got into learning all about Carnaval, down to trying on costumes, learning to samba dance, and having a drumming lesson!

The main part of Carnival is centered around a competition between the 12 best samba clubs (or schools, as they are sometimes called) that goes on for 5 days. The Carnival parade lasts an hour and twenty minutes, and goes down a half-mile long corridor of viewing stands called the Samba-drome. It is a huge orchestrated, big-money, professional event. Totally different from what what we had imagined.

At Samba City, each of the clubs has a huge 4-story warehouse where they build their floats, which are every bit as elaborate (or more so) as Rose Parade floats. They also  sew hundreds of costumes each year. Each club has something like 3-4,000 people in their parade, and every one of them has a big costume, tied into the samba club’s story theme for that year. Each club selects a theme in consultation with their corporate sponsor and the budget for each of the 12 clubs is $3-5 million per club!

We got a great tour of the facility along with a Samba lesson and a chance to try our hands at being an ad-hoc Samba drum band. I have to say though, giving a bunch of white people drums is not always a pretty thing!

Stacy and I finished off our day in Rio by going across the street and spending an hour or so on the famous Ipanema Beach, watching the sun slowly sink behind the mountains. Not a bad day at all!

 

Iguazu Falls

There are some days in a long trip that really stand out. Today was one of them. Iguazu Falls is a very special place. The falls straddle the Argentina/Brazil border. We stayed at the Sheraton on the Argentina side, and had a room overlooking the falls in the distance. The view from our room was fantastic! Our day started early with us meeting our guide, Rodrigo, at the hotel. He took us on a hike of about 1 kilometer out to the upper trail. We walked above some of the most beautiful falls I have ever seen, but this was only the appetizer. Next we took a 1.5 kilometer walk out to the Garganta del Diablo (the “throat of the devil”) and this was the Big One! Over one million liters of water a second going over this baby. They had a catwalk that took us out over the precipice and the spray from hundreds of feet below would catch the wind and blow back and soak everyone. Tauck had a photographer there who took our picture. The sound of the water was absolutely deafening! It was great! After our second hike we made a stop for lunch and then took another 1.5 kilometer hike (these were adding up) to the lower trail. This was the bottom of the falls we had been to first this morning. After lunch it was time to get really up close and personal with these giant waterfalls. We booked a jungle excursion and boat ride at the base of the falls. The drive through the jungle in a truck didn’t amount to much, but the boat ride was totally worth the price of admission!   They loaded us into these big zodiac-style boats, and we blasted up the rapids toward the falls. We circled around the bases of the falls, and felt the power of the water thundering just a few yards away. This gave us a chance to take some fabulous pictures. Then we got the “cameras away” instruction and we loaded everything into water proof bags they had issued us and we were on our way into the base of the falls! Our boat captain skillfully took us right to the edge of where the water was falling. Only a couple of feet more and the boat would have been swamped. The amount of water washing over us was incredible. You could barely breathe with all the water in the air. It was a total rush! The next day on our way to the airport in Brazil, we got a chance to see the falls from the Brazilian side. On that side, there were views that weren’t visible from the Argentinian side but in Brazil they didn’t have the elaborate system of walkways that let you see the falls (above and below) from up close. We did get a chance to walk out on a walkway and get a different perspective on the Devil’s Throat (and a little spray in the process). The border crossing into Brazil was easy. Our tour guide was able to take everyone’s passports in and have them processed on both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian side, so we didn’t even have to leave the air-conditioned bus. With that little chore out of the way we were off to the airport and headed to Rio de Janeiro.

Buenos Aires, Part 3 AKA Leather Addiction

Since this Thursday was our third time back to Buenos Aires, we decided to break away from our tour group on the first day since they were going to visit La Boca and Plaza de Mayo which we had already seen twice. We slept in (surprise, surprise) and set out to the shopping district (again, did you see this coming?).

Our first stop was to re-visit Bettina Ricci. Stacy decided that she like her first custom-made leather coat so much she needed another. So she ordered one in a delicious off-white color which contrasted nicely with the first one which was in the same style but in black. That being done, we stopped in a few more leather shops to look at handbags, and then we walked over to 9 de Julio to the Cafe Tortoni where we met the tour group for lunch and had our group picture taken.

In the afternoon Stacy found an acrylic nail salon (no easy task down here as we have discovered) to have her nails redone and she also bought the long-sought-after tango shoes. I just hung out in the room and rested.

That night we went to a different tango show that was really good. This one was the Carlos Gardel show, which is one of the best in town.

The next day, Friday the 20th, we visited the Teatro Colon, the large opera house in Buenos Aires. It is truly an impressive structure. It was built in an age were competition with Europe was intense. All of the materials were imported from Europe. Nothing from Argentina was used. It seems like a strange concept now but back then all the opera singers were from Europe and they were desperate to attract the top talent so they build the most European theater they could afford.

Teatro Colon

Teatro Colon

We had this afternoon free so Stacy and I caught a taxi over to the Palermo SoHo neighborhood we had liked so much the last visit. We had an nice lunch and (you guessed it) shopped for more leather. We think this might be a nice area for us to look for a VRBO when we come back to BA on our own.

The next day was Saturday and after another visit to the Recoleta Cemetery (where Stacy stalked cats), we went to the Buenos Aires Rose Garden.

After that, it was off to the airport to fly to Iguazu Falls.  This is the view awaiting us when we checked into the hotel.

Llao Llao Resort

Tuesday was a much needed free day. As I suggested I might, I staked out a lounge chair at the pool and spent the majority of the day just sitting there and reading my detective novel and enjoying the stunning alpine views. After sitting and updating our blog online, Stacy made a spa appointment and had a massage overlooking the lake. It was a fine day.

 

We also had a tango lesson by the incredibly talented Guillermina and Gustavo.  

We had a very nice dinner in the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant to finish off a lovely day. This resort was so nice it is on the short list of places we would like to visit again on our next trip to South America!

Wednesday, we were off again, but before we left Bariloche, we took a trip up the Campanario chair lift to one of the highest peaks in the area. Great photo ops were there for all and we had our picture taken by a photographer working the site. 

On the way to the airport we stopped in the actual town of Bariloche and I have to say we were a bit disappointed. It had much more of a city feel to it. We were expecting something much smaller and more charming, but you never know until you visit. 

Our flight to BA was delayed so we didn’t get out of Bariloche until after 5:30 and we had a late arrival back in Buenos Aires. This was our third time to the city on our trip. It was starting to feel like home, particularly when we introduced our travel companions to the wonderful “Caballeros de Cocktels” (the great bartenders at The Brick Hotel).  

Bariloche

Monday we headed over the Andes Mountains to Bariloche, often called the Switzerland of Argentina.

The bus took us through some beautiful alpine forest, and we saw the aftermath of one of the volcanic eruptions that occurred in 2011. This was quite a large event , yet no one in our group (us included) could recall hearing about it. The ash covered the forest and obscured the sun for so long that the trees couldn’t photosynthesize and many of them died. There was a layer of sandy ash over a foot thick left on the floor of the forest and they had a big controversy about whether to clean it up or leave it.

 

The controversial decision was made to use water jets to scour miles and miles of forest floor to was out the ash. The scientists are still debating whether this ended up causing more harm than good.

Since we were leaving Chile and heading into Argentina we had to cross the border again. The top of the Andes is basically the border between Chile and Argentina in this area.  It was a similar process as we had last time further south. There were two checkpoints, one leaving Chile and another several miles away to enter Argentina. Once again we had some issues with the Argentine reciprocity forms for some in the group (at least it wasn’t us this time) but we finally got it straightened out and were on our way again.

Our next stop was for lunch at  local restaurant followed by a boat trip across lake Nahuel Huapi to Parque Nacional Arreyanes for a hike through the forest. The trip across the lake took an hour and a half and  we viewed a forest of a special kind of myrtle tree that only grow in two places in the world; New Zealand and this part of Argentina.

Lake Nahuel Huapi

Parque Arreyanes

Myrtle Trees

Peter & Kitty feeding the gulls

Then we got back on the boat to Puerto Panuelo which is the dock right next to our hotel, the luxurious Llao Llao (pronounced schow schow) Resort. The weather was splendid and we sat out on the deck and soaked up the sun as we motored across the water.

The Llao Llao was built on the outskirts of the town of Bariloche as a resort for the very wealthy in the early part of the 20th century. During one of the military juntas it was closed down and it fell into disrepair. Once democracy was restored the hotel was renovated by the national park service and restored to its original glory. Recently it has been sold to private operators who seem to be taking excellent care of the property. It reminded Stacy and me of the Broadmore in Colorado Springs except it has a more woodsy look to it with exposed log walls and high arching wood beam ceilings. The resort has a full 18 hole golf course, spa and a beautiful infinity pool. Our next day is a free day to enjoy the resort and I have my eye on that pool!

Patagonia, Me Amo!

Today we left Santiago for the northern part of Chilean Patagonia. We flew into Puerto Montt, which is a huge port and seafaring town about an hour and a half flight south from Santiago. What a difference!  It looked like Seattle with all the trees and bays.  We had lunch in a darling restaurant with beautiful gardens called Kiel’s overlooking the bay.

After lunch we headed to the craft and fish market in Puerto Montt. Huge mussels for sale everywhere. The craft market was more trinkets than crafts. But, you could buy a llama sweater made out of llama.  We wandered the three block length of the thing and all the guys were back in the bus first complaining about what a waste of time it was. The ladies had a different take on it. Oh well!

We headed down the road a bit and arrived at our destination for the night, Las Cumbres in Puerto Varas. The hotel was a large alpine-style building overlooking Lago Llanquihue (pronounced kind of like “Yankee Way”). This is a local resort town with lots of water sports and a trail head for backpackers headed to the mountains (mostly volcanoes) that surround the area. The views were breathtaking. We wandered around the town a bit and returned to the hotel’s outdoor deck overlooking the lake for a cocktail before dinner.

Travel days are tough, but this was a very nice one and we got to see a lot of beautiful scenery as we worked our way toward Bariloche.

Santiago City Tour

Our first full day of touring in Santiago got off to a rough start. Our bus picked us up from the hotel to take us around the city and then to see the changing of the guard at the office of the president known as La Moneda. We got about four blocks from the hotel when something serious broke in the engine compartment. It felt like we got rear ended. Everyone was OK and we got off the bus. Our quick-witted tour guide and tour director came up with a great work-around. They had us walk a few blocks to the Metro station and loaded the whole group on to the subway and we were on our way downtown to see the ceremony. It all worked great and we arrived in plenty of time to see the horses, marching bands and soldiers in full regalia. Interestingly, a woman officer headed up one of the honor guard units. This would have been unheard of a few years ago! What a difference having a woman president can make!

A replacement bus met us after the ceremony and we headed out to the countryside to visit the De Martino Winery. De Martino arranged a wine tasting, Pisco Sour demonstration and a fabulous barbecue lunch with all the fixin’s.

Clay Pots to age wine

Pisco Sour Demonstration

Asado lunch

After lunch we headed back to the City to see some of the sights we missed in the morning for lack of a bus. When we got to Plaza de Armas we were detoured because of a bomb threat at one of the government buildings. It turned out go be a false alarm but added to the excitement of the day.

We headed back to the hotel and realized it was Valentines Day. We hadn’t made any special plans because we were told they didn’t really celebrate that holiday in Santiago. They were wrong! We couldn’t get into any restaurants so we had a nice little romantic wine and appetizer dinner in the hotel bar. We liked it.

Back to Santiago

It’s Jim writing again. Stacy said I had to start writing again since she did all of Antarctica. So here goes….

After leaving Ushuaia, Tauck took us out for a great group lunch at an Argentine barbecue restaurant near the BA airport. Despite the odd location, the food was really good and it was a nice chance for the whole group to say their goodbyes before we all went our separate ways. Stacy and I went back to our BA hotel for the night before boarding a flight the next morning (Thursday the 12th for those of you playing along at home) for Santiago.

We were booked to stay at the Ritz-Carlton in the Las Condes neighborhood of Santiago. Las Condes is a very nice, safe, modern neighborhood west of the city center with lots of restaurants within walking distance. Friday was a free day for us before our Tauck “Essence of South America” tour reception that evening, so we decided to take a day trip to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. We talked to the concierge at the Ritz and booked a private tour that included a stop at a winery in the Casablanca Valley.

Our tour guide, Ernesto, and our driver, Sergio, picked us up at 9:00 am and we were off for the coast. Valparaiso is a coastal city about two hours west of Santiago and you drive through a couple of agricultural valleys to get there.

Wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley

 

Our first stop was at the Bodegas RE winery. Bodegas RE is about “reinvention, revealing and recreating” wines. They specialized in blends of Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, two at a time. They also do some of their fermentation in clay vessels with minimal storage in wood barrels. The wine was tasty if a bit acidic.

After our wine tasting and tour, we got back on the road and headed to the twin cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. The later is newer and the smaller of the two. We had lunch at a cool restaurant called Castelo del Mar that was perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Good food and even better views.

After lunch we headed into old Valparaiso and visited Pablo Neruda’s home. Valparaiso is a port city built almost entirely on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It is quite challenging to get around on the narrow winding roads. In many places, there are little funicular railway elevators to take people up and down the hills. We had a chance to walk around in the old neighborhoods. The area seems to be coming back, but many years of neglect have taken their toll. Fortunately, the fires we had heard so much about on our news programs had not decimated the city as Stacy and I had feared. The damage seemed to be limited to some of the shanty towns on the perimeter of the city, leaving most of the city core unscathed.

We napped on the long drive back to the Ritz and had a nice dinner at a local restaurant within walking distance of the hotel.

Cruising the Weddell Sea (our last day in Antarctica)

What an exceptional day it has been!!! Even though we were awakened with the news that the sea ice had again come in so close to shore that we would not be able to land at Penguin Point, we were instructed to load the Zodiacs for cruising among the icebergs of the Weddell Sea. The day was unbelievably calm and even slightly sunny. Almost immediately, we found some Adélie penguins close by on the icebergs, and then both leopard seals and Weddell seals resting on the ice.  It is an incredible adventure just to be able to get into the Weddell Sea, as the sea ice is frequently so think and the icebergs so numerous that many of the crew and naturalists have never even made it this far.  In fact, Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, sunk in the Weddell Sea. All around us, small flocks of Adélies frolic in the ocean.

After returning briefly to the ship, our captain makes a grand announcement: we are going to be allowed to go onto one of the giant tabular icebergs, and drink a champagne toast.  Virtually everyone on board loaded up the Zodiacs, and clambered onto the ice mass.  The scene was one of happy pandemonium, as it has been over three years since the ship has been able to perform this maneuver!  Words can’t accurately describe how bizarrely cool it was to be standing on an iceberg in the middle of nowhere drinking a glass of champagne. Cheers!

Jim doing an imitation of a Macaroni Penguin (check out the hair tufts!)

Can’t we take just one home?!!!

Alison, Rob & Melisa

Lance & Abbie

Simmy and Pardeep

Our Captain channeling Leonardo di Caprio from Titanic

However, the excitement for the day was not over yet.  We spent the rest of the day cruising around the Weddell Sea, and shortly thereafter, we had our first sighting of Orcas.  We slowly followed several pods around while they were feeding, and we saw numerous fur seals, leopard seals and Weddell seals out sunning on the icebergs.  I am TOTALLY missing my camera, as I can’t get any good shots of the orcas! However, the tabular icebergs alone were absolutely magnificent, as they are utterly flat on top (like the mesas of the American Southwest) and some of them are miles long. We saw at least one which was over 20 kilometres (12 miles) long. Sometimes they are about 40 metres tall (above water). Because it was such a still and partially sunny day, the light playing on these icebergs was stunning.

Finally, we regretfully headed back for the Drake Passage as the sun was setting. We toasted our Antarctic adventure with cocktails made glacial ice likely at least 1,000 years old. Wish us a balmy trip back (not very likely), and we’ll check in again when we hit Buenos Aires.

Ciao!