Street art and Architecture in the city

As you might expect from a city established by European settlers the architecture is grand and impressive. Many nationalities have made their mark over the years reflecting the changing tastes and fashions. When Argentina declared independence from Spain in 1816 the porteños rejected Spanish culture and with it the architecture of their former governors. Italian Renaissance, German, French, Art Deco and even Roman architectural styles can be seen throughout the city. Unfortunately many of the buildings are looking tired and in need of restoration, a sign of the difficult times Argentina has had in the past. Fortunately their economy is improving so hopefully the buildings will be returned to their former glory as some of them are stunning.

The first is Palacio del Congreso which you many notice shows many similarities to the Capitol building in Washington DC which inspired its design.

This a one of the lovely houses in Palermo. Many foreign embassies are based in this area.

I really loved this next building. Its called Palacio de Las Aguas Corrientes (Palace of the running water) opened in 1894. Amazingly this beautiful building, decorated with Wedgewood tiles shipped from England was built to house 12 giant tanks to distribute water to the city. Got to love the architects in the Victorian era. Now it’s home to the public offices of the water board and a small museum.

The grid system of Buenos Aires and taxis and high rise apartments of Palermo reminded me a little of New York.

Images of Evita can be found throughout the city.

As well as architecture the parks and busy streets of Buenos Aires are decorated with sculptures and street art.

Rodin’s The Thinker contemplates the day in front of the Congresional building.

This incredible sculpture called Floralis Genérica was designed by the architect Eduardo Catalano in 2002. It is solar-powered an the enormous metallic petals open to the sun at dawn and delicately close at dusk.

The following are some of the great murals I saw in the city, mostly from San Telmo and La Boca.

This last one is not technically art, just a group of door bells to an old apartment block we passed but I just loved it and had to take a photo.

Day at the zoo

One sunny day in Palermo we decided to visit the zoo. The main draw was to see some native South American animals, as well as the usual suspects of elephants, lions and monkeys.

The zoo itself is attractive to look at. Within the enclosures are structures designed to look like buildings native to where the animals are from. An Indian temple in the elephant enclosure, African hut for the zebra etc. Unfortunately less thought seems to have been made for the animals own homes.

Their enclosures are mostly too small, tired and in desperate need of renovation. Some of the behaviour of the animals would make a psychologist nervous, showing how cooped up some of the animals feel. The bears showed tragic signs of repetitive behaviour, endlessly circling their enclosure.

It was so sad to see and made it difficult to enjoy the visit. I hope that things improve quickly as such an old fashioned zoo doesn’t belong in a modern city such as Buenos Aires.

Luckily the native animals seemed more at home in their environment. Maybe to staff were more experienced in caring for them?

Anyway here are a few photos of the animals we saw:

The cute rabbit/wallaby like animal below is a Patagonian Mara (close relative of the Guinea pig and 4th largest rodent in the world) which roamed freely around the zoo

The next guys are Guanacos- a South American camelid found in the Antiplano region of Peru and Boliva and Patagonia (including Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego).

Obviously we saw Llamas who were were very friendly and happy to eat the good pellets you could buy in the zoo

The lovely fella below is an appropriately named spiral horned antelope

City of the dead – Cementario de la Recoleta

One of the most recommended places to visit in Buenos Aires is the Cementerio de la Recoleta. It was certainly one of the highlights of our time in the capital.

This huge cemetery (55,000 sq meters) was the first public burial ground in the city and was consecrated in 1882. It is more like a small town than a traditional cemetery with 4800 tombs crowded like terrace houses within the space. Some of the tombs and mausoleums are almost big enough to be houses and more than one storey high. They are arranged in a maze of passageways, almost like streets and at the entrance you are given a map in order to find your way around.

Most of the rich, famous and notable citizens of Buenos Aires’ past are buried here including the boxing legend Luis Angel Firpo, 19th- century president Domingo Sarmiento and twice-president Hipólito Yrigoyen. The most famous of all the residents is Eva Perón whose simple tomb (marked by her family name of Duarte) is regularly visited as a kind of pilgrimage to those who still mourn her early death.

The cemetery is incredibly beautiful and varied. Some tombs are very plain, humbly decorated with simply the name of those buried there. Others are decorated more elaborately. Stained glass windows, statues, grand style statements such as pyramids and reproductions of grand buildings highlight the wealth or importance of their deceased residents.

There are many architectural styles present from art nouveau to neo-Gothic and the tombs vary widely in their state of repair. Unfortunately some are very neglected, their walls crumbling away to almost unbury those coffins stored within. Luckily there is a conservation programme in place to try to restore those tombs in most need of repair.

The day we visited was intermittently sunny and cloudy, not the best conditions for photography. In spite of that I took a few snaps during our visit. Here are some of them:

Road to Iguaçu

We a bit of sadness we left the lovely Casalegre Art Villa. A somewhat crazy taxi driver drove us to the airport accompanied by The Verve on the radio. We then boarded our first internal flight of the trip and said goodbye to the wonderful Rio de Janiero. The flight itself was straight forward if a little bumpy. Slightly unnerving was that they use seat cushions rather than life jackets in cases of emergency landing water. Fortunately we never needed to use them and landed safely.

Our next port of call was a town called Foz de Iguaçu to see the Brazilian side of the famous waterfalls the town is named after. After landing we waited for a local bus into town and saw a beautiful sunset.

As was typical for Brazilian buses we had to negotiate an onboard turnstile. We only just squeezed through with our rucksacks.

Once off the bus we walked a few blocks in the dark to our hostel for the night. After the hospitality and homeliness Casalegre The Green House Hostel was a bit disappointing. Our room was tired, shabby and the bed huge and hard like a slab of granite. Still we were only staying one night.

The hostel did have a nice pool that would have been welcome if we were staying longer.

The choice of restaurants in the area was limited so we headed to the supermarket and Jon whipped up a nice pasta dish whilst sipping a beer.

The next morning we were very excited to be getting our first glimpse at Iguaçu falls. We jumped on the bus which was full of tourists and staff on their way to work at the park. A helpful man gave us a map and info about the boat trips under the falls. Unfortunately our budget didn’t stretch to the boat but the map showed the walkways by the falls which seemed to get close to the action.

As the bus bumped along we got chatting to a young Brazilan seeing the falls for the first time and an Israeli traveller called Tomer. He was making his way up from Patagonia, and like many young Israelis traveling after his National service and before studying at University. He was friendly and easy going so we decided to see the falls together.

After paying our entrance fee we jumped on a park bus and headed to the beginning of the walking trail that follows the Brazilian side of the falls. Moments later we would get our first glimpse through the trees…

Christ the Redeemer – Part 1

For our first day in Rio we decided to visit the most famous resident. He is a well known figure in these parts and looks out over the city like a guardian angel. To the locals he is known simply as Cristo Redentor. To us he is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, The statue of Christ the Redeemer.

You can see him on top of Corcovado (hunchback mountain) from most of the city but visiting him was slightly tricky.

Due to the limited public transport in Santa Teresa we decided to walk down the hill through the tumbling cobbled streets to catch a local bus. On our way we passed a bustling market in Glória and bought some provisions. Being a Sunday the streets were teeming with people enjoying the sunshine. We wandered to the bay, Enseada Glória and followed to costal path along to the beach. The Praia do Flamengo was our first introduction to the perfect white Brazilian sands. Beach volley ball and football were being played in front of the spectacular back drop of Sugarloaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar). Such a perfect setting!

The main costal ring road is traffic free on a Sunday. Bikes, roller blades and feet made the most of this empty stretch of Tarmac hugging the coastline.

We carried on wandering through the districts of Catete and Flamengo soaking up the sun, meeting locals proudly introducing us to their dogs; until we reached Largo de Machado. We were hoping to catch a bus to Corcovado but it was tricker than we’d imagined.

Rio buses are an enigma to foreigners. The stops are almost secretive, no signs to tell you what number bus picks up there, no route maps etc. After 10 mins of trying to guess which one to take a kindly local guessed where we were headed and helped us out. How did she know we were tourists? 😉

Once we paid the ticket inspector 2.75 Brazilian Reale (about £1), passed through the tiny turnstile (yes, a turnstile on a bus!) we headed up the hill through Laranjeiras to Cosme Velho.

At the entrance to the National park where the mountain and statue are (Parque Nacional da Tijuca) the queue was huge, the wait for the next train was 2 hours and the temperature was climbing past 30 degrees. Touts outside tried to persuade us to take a taxi with them but after chatting with a staff member we managed to get two spaces on a train leaving within the hour.

It was definitely worth the wait to go up on the old cog-driven train. It dates back to 1884 and makes the climb to the top of the 704m (2310ft) mountain in 20 minutes.

The journey was incredible. We passed through dense rainforest teeming with wildlife. Birds, crickets, frogs and other creatures could be heard during our assent. Every now and then we got a glimpse of the bay far below as we climbed through the clouds.

Finally we made it to the top. From the station we had the option of using an escalator (!) or climbing the 220 steps to the top which we did.

Rio de Janiero – Casalegre

After a long day getting here (6am start, 11 hour flight, bed at 2am) we woke to bright sunshine.

We are staying in a lovely hotel in a gorgeous old building in an area of Rio called Santa Teresa. The hotel is called Casalegre Art Vila and as it’s name gives away it is as much an art gallery as hotel. It’s full of bright and colourful paintings by local artists and holds regular exhibitions ( one the night we arrived).

Our room is light and airy and overlooks the courtyard below where breakfast is served.

After filling up (including eating delicious homemade mango jam) we headed down the hill towards the bay to get out first sight of sugar loaf mountain before visiting Rio’s most famous resident.

Packing

Hmm packing, one of my favourite and least favourite parts of planning a trip. I kinda like it as it appeals to my planning gene – figuring out what to take, organising my belongings (very geeky I know!). Plus it’s a perfect opportunity to go shopping for those last minute, oh so necessary items 😉

Plus a normal holiday usually involves a high quota of sunshine so summer clothes are easy to pack as they take up little space.

Not this time… South America has been posing some tricky packing issues. We are going from the humid 35 degree high of Rio to windy, rainy and possibly sub zero Patagonia, then heading north to sunnier climes in Chile and Peru. Throw in an Amazon trip and the high desert chill of the Atacama and the salt flats in Bolvia and you can see the challenge. Plus I’m a girly type of girl (Barcelona trip a great example!) and have to be able to carry what I take in my rucksac so packing required some careful thought.

After lots of research (the Internet makes it far too easy to get a little obsessed, damn it!) I decided to buy a smaller rucksac, 35 litres to be exact. Sounds crazy I know but in all reality the most important thing was that I can actually carry it. Then I just had make sure everything fitted in.

Here is the evidence…

This is everything I’m taking with me.

This is everything stuffed and organised into to various bags to make it easier to pack.

And this is the finished result!

As you can see I’m pretty chuffed it all fits.

Not to forget Jon of course who had even more issues as he is taking his fancy camera equipment with him – DSLR, 3 lenses, tripod and iPad. So he hasn’t packed quite as lightly.

Well we are now ready to go. The flat is cleaned, we’ve checked in online and off to the airport we go.

Getting ready

As you know me and Jon are getting ready to head off on our trip to South America (in 6 days time!). I have started this blog to keep in touch with you all while we are away. I’m hoping it use it as a travel diary to record our adventures.

I will be uploading photos too, not fancy DSLR ones, but hopefully some fun iPhone snaps so you can can follow us on our journey in Latin America.

Now back to the mammoth task of packing….