Archive for the ‘Brazil’ Category
At our bed & breakfast in Valparaíso, Chile, we heard an interesting story about a group of French wine producers visiting the Chilean wine regions. When they were explaining that they were not on holiday but there to find out why French wine is losing so much market share to Chilean wine, an English guy, who overheard it, said: “Excuse me for overhearing but I have a simple explanation for that. When I’m in the supermarket with a bottle of Chilean wine in one hand and a, probably a little more expensive, bottle of French in the other, I’ll know that the French wine may be better but the Chilean one has an attractive label which tells where it’s from, what grape it is made of and the sort of food I can drink it with. All the information I need while the French label tells me nothing. So why pay more for a wine you know nothing about?”. When asked why the French wine producers won’t change their labels, they said: “We can’t. It’s French wine…”.
Compared to Amazon city Manaus, Brasilia is quite the opposite. Brazil’s capital city is very new (since 1960) and was planned and developed in 1956 with Lúcio Costa as the principal urban planner and Oscar Niemeyer as the principal architect. Looking from above, the main part’s shape resembles an airplane. Many of the interesting buildings are from Niemeyer’s hand and since most of them are far apart, it’s not much fun to walk around. The best way to see them is to go on a city tour. We did that on our first day there, after we went to the Dutch embassy to pick up my new passport (to replace the old one which was basically full). I can highly recommend getting a new passport abroad as the waiting times are non-existent and the costs are the same as at home. And the new one shows as issuer the Consul General in Rio de Janeiro. How cool is that! The tour was fun and the incredibly blue sky with the occasional white cloud made for some great photo shooting.
After a little over one month (more than we originally had planned) in Brazil it was time to move on. In this case; back to Argentina! We had skipped Córdoba and the Mendoza wine region before but we didn’t want to miss it. In Córdoba we thought we had a good deal by booking a room in a hostel with, so we thought, our own bath room. Oops.. Shared facilities only and we are not quite used to that. But, no problem, it was only gonna be for a couple of days and the people were very very nice. Albeit very very disorganized. A promise to take us to a gaucho festival some 50 kms up the road, never materialized. First because it was going to rain (it never did, blue skies only) and second because no car was available at the last minute (uuhhh guys, ever heard of planning ahead???). Never mind. José, one of the owners, tried to make up for it by taking us into town on what must have been the weirdest city tour we ever had. Oh well. Ten points for trying!
From Córdoba we took the bus (a 10 hour drive) to Mendoza. Make mental note: next time take the overnight bus as the scenery is quite boring and never changes. The thunderstorms we hit along the way were actually amazing. We managed to live on the wrong time in Mendoza for about 3 days (they’re one hour behind Córdoba) which we only realized when we were one hour early for our wine tour.. Mendoza city is nice but small (and luckily not as hot as Córdoba) so you want to spend most of your time there where it matters: wine country! We decided to book a tour to the Uco Valley which is a little further away than most other valleys but very interesting as it is the newest one (some wineries are still being built) and the one where the latest in wine making techniques are being used. We visited three wineries, one of which was the Salentein Bodega, a large Dutch owned bodega. The ultra modern architecture and the use of local materials with the Andes as backdrop makes this a very very beautiful place. We also visited a smaller bodega and another larger one where we had a very nice lunch. All with, of course, some excellent wines. A small detail which made the tour an even better experience was that the tour guide, a young Argentinian woman, spoke perfect English with a very British accent.
One bus trip that you should only do during day time is the one from Mendoza into Chile (or the other way around of course). You cross the Andes and the views are sometimes stunning. It should take around 7 hours but in reality of course it doesn’t. Apparently it is ‘normal’ that you have to wait for a couple of hours at the border crossing. In our case we had to wait for 5 hours… Pffff. And why? We still do not completely get it but the whole process of Argentine & Chilean immigration and customs must be one of the most poorly organized and inefficient ones we have seen anywhere in the world. We heard it can get even worse if there’s a holiday on either side of the border. We arrived shortly after 10 pm at our B&B ( The Yellow House ) in Valparaíso and apparently too late to get something to eat anywhere nearby. Luckily Martin, the owner, was able to knock up a nice dinner for us in no time, free of charge! It’s not the first time this happened with guests arriving from Mendoza, he said.. Valparaíso used to be a booming port as it was the most important port for ships rounding Cape Horn. That all ended shortly after the Panama Canal was opened (in 1914) and the decline of the city doesn’t appear to have stopped since. UNESCO declared parts of the centre and the famous funiculars a World Heritage Site in 2003 in an attempt to preserve the historic quarter. We did a very interesting and fun city tour with Michael, the “German pirate”, who took us to places no commercial tour guide would ever take you. He showed us the insides of private homes and businesses, including a very old liquor factory. Oh, and the ladies accompanying us were fun too; two Americans (65+) who were about to embark on a cruise ship for up to 6 weeks to work as Bridge (the card game) teachers! Wow. Hats off..
Before continuing North we wanted to get to know the Chilean wine region as well. Santiago is right in the middle of the Maipo wine region but we thought it would be fun to rent a car and drive a bit further South to the Colchagua Valley. Having made no reservations at any of the wineries we just drove up to one (Viu Manent) to have a great lunch and by chance ended up at bodega Montgras for a very nice and interesting tour. After checking in to our hotel in Santa Cruz, we walked around town in search of a good place to eat. Again by chance we ended up at Viña la Posada just in time to watch the sun set behind the mountains, slowly making the vineyards change in color, while we enjoyed a drink (Pisco Sour) on their terrace..
In onze bed & breakfast in Valparaíso, Chili, hoorden we een interessant verhaal over een groep Franse wijnmakers die de Chileense wijngebieden aan het bezoeken waren. Toen ze uitlegden dat ze niet op vakantie waren maar hier om te achterhalen waarom de Franse wijnen zoveel marktaandeel aan het verliezen zijn aan Chileense wijnen zei een Engelsman, die het toevallig hoorde: “Sorry voor het meeluisteren maar ik heb daar een eenvoudige uitleg voor. Als ik in de supermarkt sta met een fles Chileense wijn in de ene hand en een fles, waarschijnlijk iets duurdere, Franse in de andere, dan weet ik dat de Franse mogelijk beter is. Maar de Chileense heeft een aantrekkelijk etiket dat me zegt waar het vandaan komt, van welke druif het gemaakt is en met welk voedsel ik het goed kan drinken. Alle informatie die ik nodig heb terwijl het Franse etiket me niks zegt. Dus waarom zou ik meer betalen voor een wijn waar ik niks van af weet?”. Op de vraag waarom de Franse wijnmakers hun etiketten niet gewoon aanpassen, antwoordden ze: “Dat kan niet. Het is Franse wijn…”.
English summary: the past two weeks have flown by very rapidly. Erwin managed to stand on his kite surf board for all of 2 seconds after the last day of his course, but both his teacher and he claim this is due to a lack of wind. Sure, babe. During our stay at the Tiwa resort in the Amazon we had a very full program of jungle & river tours in the area. We now know how to fish for piranhas (Erwin caught 5 which made him king of the boat) and more importantly, how to survive when you’re lost in the jungle! Unless you bring a full bag of supplies (including bullets, batteries and steel wool), we found that it’s best not to get lost in the jungle. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Thea and Wil after 5 days at Tiwa. Our 1 day in Manaus did not do much to cheer us up after that, apart from the Amazon Theatre the city is seriously ugly.
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Ons weekje strand met zijn vieren in Cumbuco is razendsnel voorbijgegaan. Ik heb Erwin ongeveer 2 meter zien kitesurfen maar niet meer dan dat, want helaas was er ook op de laatste dag te weinig wind om een kerel van “90″ kilo uit het water omhoog te trekken. Na een volle week luieren werd het in het amazonegebied hard werken! De eerste avond konden we nog rustig onder het genot van een caipirinhaatje naar een tropische stortbui kijken, maar de dagen erop hadden we een vol programma.
De eerste ochtendwandeling stond voor half zeven gepland, en toen was het al enorm warm en vochtig. Tijdens het boottochtje naar de ‘encontra das aguas’ konden we gelukkig weer een klein beetje afkoelen. Op die plek komen de Rio Negro en de Rio Solimoës samen, en vanaf dat moment heet de rivier eigenlijk pas de Amazone. En dan is het nog maar 1500 kilometer naar de Atlantische Oceaan! Het samenkomen van de rivieren is wel een grappig gezicht: de Solimoës is namelijk lichtbruin van kleur (want heel modderig) en de Rio Negro is donkerbruin. Omdat beide rivieren heel verschillende stroomsnelheden hebben, duurt het stroomafwaarts een hele tijd voor dat dat water lekker gemengd is, en zie je dus een mooie scheidslijn in het water. Vanuit een vliegtuig kun je die nog beter zien, zoals we gemerkt hebben toen we weer weggingen. (read more)
A very very happy new year to everyone! New year’s day was the day we were ‘en route’ for exactly one whole year. And what a year it has been! It’s been fantastic and it’s going to be hard to ever top it, if at all possible. The bad news is that the end is nearing. The good news is that we still have 3 more months to go…
Salvador is the 3rd largest city in Brazil with roughly 3 million people living in its metropolitan area. A big city with big city problems that used to be Brazil’s capital in the time of sugar cane and tobacco plantations, slave trade and diamond mining. The main tourist attractions are a small area with cute old colonial buildings, the Pelourinho, and some of the beaches. As a tourist you want to stay in those areas as everywhere else is considered unsafe. After a couple of days of exploring Pelourinho and its cute streets it’s nice to take a cab to one of the beaches and visit the old fort (where we learned how the Dutch tried to take over a couple of times) and watch how Brazilians spend their days on the beach.
From Salvador we flew to Recife and went on to Olinda. Again a town with a cute old centre with lots of colorful colonial buildings. A favorite place for Brazilians to visit (and party) as well as it was absolutely packed at night during the weekend with food (tapioca) and drinks (excellent caipirinhas!) widely availabale at the food stalls.
After a couple of days in Olinda it was time to move on to Fortaleza and its beach town Cumbuco where we met with my mom again. It was so nice albeit a bit strange to see each other again after we said goodbye some 5 months ago in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We are staying together in a nice, small resort near the beach this week so we have a lot of time for catching up. We decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve on one of the beaches in Fortaleza (with nearly 1 million other people) where a number of concerts of famous Brazilian artists and a large fireworks display were staged. A fun experience but unfortunately it was not all that easy to find a place to eat (Pizza Hut) or score any decent bubbly (sidra, cheap cider)…
There’s not much to do in Cumbuco but still a lot of tourists come here, especially from Europe, because the area is famous for its warm sea water and strong, constant winds and thus… kite surfing! Having done a lot of wind surfing (albeit a long time ago), kite surfing was always one of those things I had to try one day. Being here for 8 days there were no more excuses so I started a 4 day course. The wind hasn’t been all that good for beginners so after 3 days I’m able to control the kite in the water and do my body drags, but I haven’t been on a board yet. Tomorrow is our last day here but the forecast is good so I’m sure I’ll be able to surf a few meters. 
My instructor is Brazilian and speaks English with a heavy Portuguese accent (they tend to pronounce some d’s and t’s as ‘ch’ as in ‘check’) so he constantly says things like “Starch the kiche in the winch and gech on the boarch”…
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Een heel gelukkig nieuwjaar gewenst aan iedereen! Op nieuwjaarsdag waren we precies 1 jaar onderweg. En wat voor een jaar! 2008 was geweldig en het zal moeilijk worden om dit jaar (of ooit) nog beter te laten zijn. Het slechte nieuws is dat het einde van de trip dichtbij begint te komen. Maar het goede nieuws is dat we nog 3 maanden hebben! (read more)
Boy, did we learn a lot in these past few days! I guess you can summarize it all with: if you rent a car in Brazil, get a navigation system, but here’s the long version. Last sunday we flew from Rio to Salvador, in Brazil’s North East. Hertz had a little Fiesta waiting for us which we wanted to drive that same afternoon to Cachoeira, some 100 km and a 2 hour drive away. If only! Unfortunately we didn’t get a road map with the car, but we thought we could make it using our memory of the little map in the Lonely Planet. Not… we went 180 degrees wrong straight from the airport and only found out after 20 kms or so.
By that time we realized that a road map could be a real asset, so we tried to get one at a gas station. And guess what? In Brazil they don’t have these little shops at gas stations that sell stuff-that-could-come-in-handy-in-a-car, they only sell candy! After a few stops we finally found our map, we saw where we were and got stuck in traffic on the right road. With the map in hand, we thought we could take a shortcut and shave off 20kms and hopefully lose the traffic. Wrong! It had gotten dark by now (not only is Salvador further east than Rio but for some reason it’s also an hour earlier, and it gets dark at 18.30. Not ideal if you’re only landing at 17.15…) and the roads are not well lit. And a scale of 1 cm = 14 km is just not good enough to get through the Brazilian villages on the way. And what seems a single road on the map, is in fact not one road at all. And road signs are considered an unneccesary luxury around here. And if you ask someone directions, you get a long story in Portuguese that you don’t understand, and the arm movements and sparse ‘lefts’ and ‘rights’ that you do get are not enough to find the right way at once… (read more)
Zo, wij hebben veel dingen geleerd de afgelopen dagen! Ik denk dat je het zou kunnen samenvatten met: als je in Brazilië een auto huurt, huur er dan meteen een navigatiesysteem bij, maar hier komt de lange versie. Vanuit Rio vlogen we afgelopen zondag naar Salvador, in het noordoosten van Brazilië. Hertz had hier een fiesta´tje voor ons klaarstaan waarmee we nog dezelfde middag naar Cachoeira wilden rijden, een afstand van 100 km en een uurtje of twee rijden. If only! We kregen helaas geen wegenkaart bij de auto maar we dachten dat we het met onze herinnering aan het kleine kaartje in de Lonely Planet ook wel zouden redden. Niet dus, we reden 180 graden verkeerd vanaf het vliegveld en kwamen daar pas na een kilometer of 20 achter.
Tegen die tijd hadden we door dat een wegenkaart wel handig zou zijn, dus die probeerden we bij een benzinestation te scoren. Wat blijkt nu? In Brazilië hebben ze bij benzinestations niet van die handige winkeltjes met nuttige-dingen-voor-in-een-auto, hier verkopen ze alleen maar snoep! Enfin, een paar stops later hadden we een kaart gevonden, zagen we hoe fout we zaten en kwamen we op de juiste weg vast te zitten in het verkeer. Met de kaart durfden we wel een shortcut te nemen die ons een kilometertje of 20 zou besparen en ons hopelijk uit de drukte zou brengen. Stom! Het was inmiddels donker (niet alleen ligt Salvador verder naar het oosten dan Rio maar het is er gek genoeg ook een uur vroeger, en dus om half zeven donker. Niet handig als je pas om 17.15 uur landt…) en de wegen zijn niet bepaald geweldig verlicht. En een schaal van 1cm = 14km is niet goed genoeg om je door Braziliaanse dorpjes te leiden. En wat 1 weg lijkt op de kaart, is dat in feite helemaal niet. En bewegwijzering, dat vinden ze hier maar overbodige luxe. En als je de weg vraagt, krijg je een lang verhaal in het Portugees dat je niet verstaat, en de armbewegingen en schaarse ‘linksen’ of ‘rechtsen’ die je wel verstaat zijn niet voldoende om je in een keer de juiste kant in te sturen… (read more)
Rio de Janeiro is a city of 7 million people and that’s small compared to the 17 million souls of São Paulo. Around 20 percent of these people live in slums or favelas as they are called here. Normally the richer areas are up on the hills but here it’s the other way around; the favelas are perched up on the mountains and the beach areas are where the upper and middle classes live. Some of the larger favelas are completely lawless and ruled by organized crime. Powerful drug gangs have full control and do not allow any other crimes, like theft and mugging, to take place in their territory. This makes favelas, according to some, a lot safer place to be in than anywhere else in Rio. Taking a favela tour is a good way to see the other side of a city like Rio and learn that it’s not just a place where the police are in constant war with drug lords but also a place where normal people are trying to live a normal life…
The Argentinean side of the Iguazu falls are great, too. You can walk all the way up to the top of the enormous Garganta del Diablo or Devil’s Throat waterfall. Very impressive. After having spent a day on the Brazilian side and one on the Argentinean side, we have seen the falls from nearly every possible angle. It’s fantastic and it’s fun getting wet but we feel we have had enough of waterfalls for a while. So, on we went to São Paulo! Now that is one big city.. Unfortunately it doesn’t have any nice landmarks and it’s one of the unsafest cities in the world (it is now legally allowed and recommended to slowly drive through red lights at night in an effort to put an end to the ever increasing number of car-jackings and red-light robberies) so we decided to spend only one full day there. Despite the miserable weather it was fun seeing some of the old centre and watching ‘Sampa’ getting in the Christmas mood.
From São Paulo we took the 6 hour bus to Rio. It’s cheap and reasonably comfortable but not a very exciting ride. In Rio we had booked a hotel in Copacabana, right on the ocean boulevard. It’s a safe area and it would be so easy to go to the beach. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been so good and even Copacabana isn’t much fun when it rains.. But we have kept ourself pretty busy; our first day was put to good use by going to the Dutch Consulate to request a new passport. Why? Simple; my passport is completely full. There’s no space left for any more stamps, let alone a visa for Cuba which we will need soon.. And we expect to encounter many more stamp-happy immigration officers. Thanks to some help from our friend-at-foreign-affairs Carola, that went really smoothly. Since then we have visited the old centre with a lot of colonial buildings and possibly the ugliest cathedral in the world, the artisan area of Santa Teresa with its cute cobble stone streets and old tram, walked all the way from Copacabana to Ipanema and Leblon where we also went to see the movie “Madagascar 2″ (we like to move it! Go see it, it’s even better than the first movie) and when the weather cleared up a little bit we went up the Pão de Açucar or Sugar Loaf hill for some views of the city.
One of the highlights for me was a visit to the Sambódromo, the famous street where the yearly samba school competition is held at carnaval. Each samba school is allowed to have a few technical rehearsals there to practice for the big event. Even though it’s nowhere nearly as nice as the real thing it’s a good way to sample some of Rio’s carnaval spirit.. We saw the Salgueiro school (2nd place last year) and even for this practice session, we counted around 2000 people in their parade! And we have met the carnaval’s king, queen and princess of 2009! Our last full day was busy: we started with the favela tour in the morning which was very nice and interesting. It’s safe (please do not photograph in that direction because there will be drug deals going on and the dealers don’t like to be on film) and it’s an opportunity to sponsor some of the support projects. Unfortunately it was raining most of the time so we couldn’t admire some of the great views. But, very very luckily, later that day it cleared up and we felt it was a good (and probably last) opportunity to go to Corcovado and climb up to the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue for the real views of the city. And it was worth it! It’s fun to finally stand under the magnificent statue that we (sometimes) could see from our hotel window, high above the city. But the views are absolutely (absolutamente) fantastic!
Don’t you hate it when this song keeps popping up in your head which isn’t even really about the place you are visiting? No, Barry Manilow’s ‘Copacabana’ is not about Rio’s famous beach but about some night club in New York. Astrud Gilberto’s ‘Girl from Ipanema’ really is about Ipanema but is not as catchy..
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Rio de Janeiro telt 7 miljoen inwoners en dat maakt het een kleine stad in vergelijking met São Paulo, waar maar liefst 17 miljoen mensen wonen. Ongeveer 20 procent van de bevolking leeft in sloppenwijken of favelas zoals ze hier genoemd worden. Normaal gesproken liggen de rijkere delen van steden in de heuvels boven het centrum, maar hier is het andersom: de favelas liggen tegen de vele heuvels in de stad aan geplakt en de middenklasse en de rijken wonen beneden bij het strand. Sommige grotere favelas zijn compleet wetteloos en worden geregeerd door de georganiseerde misdaad. Machtige drugsbendes hebben de volledige controle en staan geen andere misdaden toe in hun gebied, zoals diefstal en berovingen. Volgens sommigen zijn de favelas dan ook veel veiliger dan andere gebieden in Rio. Een favelatoer is een mooie manier om de andere kant van een stad als Rio te zien en om te leren dat het niet alleen maar een oorlogszone is waar politie en drugsbendes elkaar bestrijden maar ook een plaats waar normale mensen proberen om een normaal leven te leiden… (Read more)
English summary: If Uruguay wasn’t so easily reached by boat from Buenos Aires, we probably never would have made it there. We did though and enjoyed among other things the rather weird mausoleum for ‘liberator’ Jose Artigas, and the cobble-stoned streets in the very cute Unesco World Heritage site of Colonia del Sacramento.
After a quick stop-over in Buenos Aires, we flew to Puerto Iguazu yesterday. It’s the Argentinean gateway to the famous falls, that we visited today on the other, Brazilian side. Spectacular! And tomorrow, when we’ll visit the Argentinean side of the falls, should be even better. Another site famous thanks to water and gravity is the Itaipu dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant. Situated on the border of the two countries, it fulfills approximately 90% of Paraguay’s power needs and 20% of Brazil’s. Now that’s power! Our first few hours in Brazil gave Erwin high expectations for the rest of our visit there (a month, starting the day after tomorrow), because apparently Brazilian women are far prettier than Argentinean women…
Nadat de Spanjaarden en wat aanhangende Europeanen de autochtone bevolking van Zuid-Amerika zo’n beetje compleet hadden uitgemoord, besloten hun nakomelingen een paar honderd jaar later dat de Spanjaarden eigenlijk de bad guys waren. Ben ik de enige die dat een beetje raar vindt? In ieder geval heeft tegenwoordig zo’n beetje ieder Zuid-Amerikaans land daarom een volksheld in de persoon van de generaal wiens leger de Spaanse Spanjaarden versloeg. De Uruguayaanse held heet Artigas. Hij wordt niet alleen vereerd met een standbeeld op het onvermijdelijke onafhankelijkheidsplein in de hoofdstad Montevideo, maar hij heeft ook een heus mausoleum. Dat is een bizarre plek: een grote kale betonnen ruimte onder het plein, zwart marmeren vloer, met op de muren wat ‘fast facts’ in grote letters en in het midden een geel uitgelichte urn met – nemen wij aan – zijn resten. Volgens mij is het een van de weinige mausolea ter wereld die jaren zeventig design verkozen hebben boven faux-Grieks. Niet mooi, wel bijzonder!
De rest van Montevideo is ook best aardig om een dagje in rond te wandelen. We waren vooraf niet van plan om Uruguay te bezoeken, maar we lazen in onze reisgids dat je er vanuit Buenos Aires in een paar uurtjes over de Rio Plata heen kon varen. En bovendien bleek dat je nog sneller kon terugvaren vanuit Colonia del Sacramento, 175 km verder naar het westen en een Unesco World Heritage site. Dat was voldoende motivatie om in een dag of vier een paar Uruguyaanse paspoortstempels te gaan halen. Montevideo is duidelijk armer dan Buenos Aires, maar tussen de bouwvallen door zie je hier en daar wel heel bijzondere architectuur. En het ligt prachtig op een punt in het water, waardoor het kilometers lange boulevards heeft. Helaas heeft de gemeente kennelijk geen geld voor een paar knappe palmbomen want het geheel oogt wel heel erg kaal, maar je ziet de potentie. (read more)
