2. South to Buenos Aires

South to Buenos Aires

The sun dips below Corcovado Mountain taking today's temperature down to 30C. Humidity lingers at 50 percent. Passengers, excited about the cruise that lies ahead, are still sweating from the Brazilian heat wave. Are they ready for the mystery voyage: sharing 20 days with 1,000 strangers?

Captain Strazicic, our vessel's commander, is as cool as a cucumber as he directs his crew and the harbour personnel to separate us from the dock for an on-time departure.

dockside view

The photo above, which I tweaked a whole lot to bring up detail in the fading light, is busy and needs description:

The sun is setting behind the left shoulder of Jesus the redeemer. The hilltop housing (right centre) is the favela slum, juxtaposed with the high tech office building (left). Our ship is reflected in the lower left windows. Large indigenous Brazilian faces on a dockside warehouse - artwork commissioned for the 2016 Olympics - please the cruise-ship passengers, three of whom stand with their backs to the ship's rail. What are they looking at?

It is dark now. As we head through the harbour channel to the open sea another ship comes in to take our berth. Some passengers are dining below. Joanne is preparing for our late sitting, and I am out on deck capturing precious things with my camera. 

ships in the night

The lovely lady is alone with her thoughts.

I am drawn into the romance of the scene. 

The light is seriously gone. Should I or shouldn't I?  

I can't help myself. She is frozen in her own time, 

long enough for me to fiddle

with my camera settings.

I don't get her name.

red sky at night, sailors' delight

It was a hot night, and the first of many captivating sunsets to come.







On the way to Buenos Aires we stopped for a day at Ilha Grande, a semi-tropical island - no photos from there, then a day at Santos, port city, about 90 minutes by bus to São Paulo. We were advised by a friend who had been there that we may want to give São Paulo a miss.  We were not that keen on mingling with 17 million people in the third largest city in the world. 

The haze was unappealing

We chose instead  to stay on board that day, basking in the sun in the surreal world of service deluxe on deck 14.

We met some nice people who did one of the big pricy shore excursions and wished they hadn't. 

All the South American ports were shared by
cargo ships and cruise ships alike

The thing about cruise ships is that they often have to tie up to industrial docks. Any old sailor will tell you that the port is usually the worst part of a city - dirty, scuzzy, old worn down, and often dangerous.

But the grunge and the roughness is generally well-considered by our shipping line. Security is extreme, safety is assured. The to and fro of shore excursions are typically, nice coaches - cocoons on wheels, hosted by the informative patter of local guides.

 The port of Santos' population 
is almost half a million people

We happen to come from Vancouver, where the cruise ships berth in rather beautiful, if not, stunning surroundings.

TIP for viewing photos:
There is more in the photos than
can be displayed in this format.
Click on a photo to enlarge it then
return to the page by clicking on
the left arrow of your browser.

The next photos, I promise, are the worst images you will see in this blog. I was not going to use them, but the world is not all about beauty, and after all, I'm not doing an ad for cruising.

The left and right of this favela, this urban shanty town, is book-ended by deep-sea shipping docks for dry bulk freighters, huge container ships, & tankers.

There are 21 people in the water and on the shore,
from babies & toddlers, small children & teenagers

 to parents & grandparents.

As we look down from our $600 million dollar ship upon the favela, this is what they see - close and looming high above.

Us and them

 See the boy in shorts standing on the pile of rubble?

In all fairness, there are some nice things to see and do in Santos. Two shore excursions were titled, Highlights of Santos. But why would a hundred cruise ships a year park so close to these people? 

DISCLAIMER: being a cruise-ship-tourist-for-a-day in these places can surely be unfair for a city. Images of all kinds are a magnet for me and my camera. The editorializing is just me shooting from the lip.

Tonight we will be leaving Brazilian waters. It will be our last meal where we will have to pay a $25 (US) Brazilian surcharge on our table wine. What is the government doing with all that money?

GREETINGS FROM THE POPE 

in Buenos Aires

Pope Francis is from Buenos Aires, 
though this may not be his effigy 

We booked a Buenos Aires city tour online at home before we left. Our guide for this inexpensive excursion, Hernan, was everything you would want in a guide: punctual, friendly, educated and informative, a good sense of humour, accommodating (more on that, below).

I have captured some of  new city Buenos Aires and old city Buenos Aires.  Just like every other world centre, we see urban slum and decay mixed together with business towers of metal and glass. 

Clearly, BA is on the list of cities with impressive world class architectural and engineering landscapes. The juxtapositions of poverty and wealth, the spread of rich and poor, however, seems just a little a little more pronounced in South America than in North America and Europe. 

BA has a very European look and feel

Plaza de Mayo

The Metropolitan Cathedral overlooks Plaza de Mayo.

Mausoleum of national hero San Martin 
in the Metropolitan Cathedral

The Mausoleum in the church includes three life-size female statues that stand guard over the remains of Argentina's national hero, General Jose de San Martin who freed Argentina, Chile, and Peru from the Spanish Empire (circa 1818).

The Argentinian guards stood as wooden soldiers but they were very much alive. Close up I could see the perspiration on their faces. This guard nodded at me, very imperceptibly with maybe a millimetre of head and eye movement, just enough to advise me that I must remove my hat when entering the sacred chamber. He did that very graciously about three times while I was milling around, slack-jawed, marvelling at the space, until I finally realized that he was trying to communicate with me. I felt almost embarrassed.

Try that body language on someone: see how small a movement you can make to get them to do something. Don't move your eyebrows.

...oooOooo...

next post is More Buenos Aires

Joanne friending in the BANOS

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing 

1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro

This trip was a step into the deep end of travel that for us is usually by land in familiar countries where we are comfortable with the local languages. The southern Atlantic and Pacific are, indeed, deep and cold oceans, even in the summer months of December and January—our winter. The voyage took us to the "end of the world". This very special trip was far more tame than it was wild. After all, we were in the lap of luxury on a rather high-end cruise; we did not venture all that far from shore; we made new friends. Despite the fantasy world of the cruise ship, we richly experienced the good, the nearly bad, and the seriously ugly: our kind of travel, after all.

offering of the coconut water at Copacabana

Here is a brief blog to share some of our travel experiences through photographs and text. As usual, do not expect a commercial travelogue, do anticipate some editorializing, and maybe some goofiness.


Getting to Rio de Janeiro on three planes was 22 hrs of terrible: Vancouver-Minneapolis-Atlanta-Rio. We arrived as zombies early morning pre check-in time at hotel, sleepless, and humourless. But the mind soon scratches out that dark whose-stupid-idea-was-this cloud, and the fun began.

Once rested, fed, rested more, then stripped down for the 36 degrees C and 60% humidity it was time to jump in the lake/ocean. 

Joanne stole a picture of the old man and the sea, well, the oldest man on the beach, anyway, as he staggered out of the south Atlantic surf, refreshed and ready for showtime.

Q: Wad in da coconut?
A: Funny juice in da coconut
Das wad in da coconut
Jo in da coconut
Gary in da coconut
Wanna drink mo coconut
Gary gon coconut
Coco crazzeee
Nut!

We walked around to shop for wine, beer, snacks, and to meet our guide for two days, Fernando. (Candy, many thx for the recommendation). What a guy. Did so much touring with Fernando, including meals in local establishments where you won't find a tourist, beating the lineups at the famous hot spots, shopping with the locals, commentaries on current affairs, both cultural and political, and a momentous late dinner out with him and his wonderful wife, Valerie.

Dinner was at 2200, that's 10 pm. "When in Rio ... "

We ordered the specialty of the restaurant—pintado, a (large) freshwater fish found in the rivers of South America.

The fish was grilled and served on skewers, not a delicate meat, but very tasty. Do a search on pintado and you will see a type of very large catfish. 

TIP for viewing photos

There is more in the photos than
can be displayed in this format.
Click on a photo to enlarge it then
return to the page by clicking on
the left arrow of your browser.

Christ the Redeemer on the peak 
of Corcovado Mountain

On the peak of the 700 metre Corcovado Mountain stands  the famous landmark statue of Christ the Redeemer. From the city, you drive through the jungle-like Tijuca National Park and snake up the hill to parking, elevators, escalators and stairs, all of which are accessible through the souvenir shop. 

This "modern wonder of the world" was erected in 1931.  Sculpture and engineering by French and Brazilian collaboration. 

View of Sugarloaf and Guanabara Bay 
from Christ the Redeemer

The view is awesome—on a clear day. We were lucky with the weather.  Often in this sub-tropical climate the robed man is obscured in cloud.

Rio's outer harbour and Sugarloaf

My filtering and tweaking of the photographs helped reveal what is seen here. Over most of the city there is a yellowy blanket of befouled air. This is typical of big cities on hot days when the wind is not blowing—Paris, Los Angeles, Vancouver ...

Standing 30 metres tall, blessed art thou all

Rio's geography is truly amazing. Sugarloaf Mountain is most unusual. What a natural tourist attraction. Do not go up there if you are afraid of heights. One can really feel the rush of vertigo at the top.

Sugarloaf cable car

Below, is Copacabana Beach. 

The water is remarkably clear and clean, as is the sand. 

And it is warm(ish) for bathing!

Copacabana Beach from Sugarloaf

Ipanema Beach is around the point, top right. 

Copacabana

Our hotel was a block from the beach. Zoom in on the photo (above) and you will see long dark lines in the sand extending from the street to where the people are lounging. 

The cool damp path

These are soaker hoses that leak  water onto the scorching sand creating a narrow wet patch to walk along. From where they end, the burning soles of your feet send you goose stepping to the waves.

Walking along the wet zone of the beach requires a heads up be-prepared-to-duck-deek-kick readiness. This is one of Brazil's main football training grounds. Very impressive!

Soccer balls are always flying on Copacabana Beach

Favela Rocinha at Christ's backside

This favela—a shanty town that developed into an urban slum—is one of many poor and rough neighbourhoods in Rio. Surely, Christ the Redeemer blesses these citizens too, though his back is to them. 

Rio was our first experience of Latin American cities with serious infrastructure problems. On the drive from the airport to our hotel we passed many abandoned shells of buildings. Some are multilevel concrete structures where construction stopped several years ago because of lack of funding. These concrete skeletons loom large.   Someone's investment gone bad? Somebody's dream became a nightmare? Embarrassment for governments at all levels.

Street food on Ladeira Santa Tereza

Near the corner of heartache & crime
 

We never felt unsafe in Fernando's company. He ordered our food. They speak Portuguese in Brazil, right? And little English. He brought us the national high-test cocktail— caipirinha—with sugar cane liquor, lime, ice).    

Caipirinha = happy tranquilizer. 

The word for thank you is obrigado (roll the rrr).

Pedestrians on any street in old Rio must frequently have eyes down to avoid a twisted ankle, or worse. Broken or missing pavers, collapsed sidewalks, loose stones—they are ever-present, so watch your step.

Typical rat-nest street wiring

 

 

Street art in old Rio is intricate, messy, political, scary, beautiful,  and more or less  out of control. 

Brazil has the greatest number of practising Catholics in the world.

The gilded chapel at the Mosteiro de Sao Bento, Benedictine Monastery (1590) is jaw-dropping. We have seen much Catholic architecture in the western world but nothing like this. 

The gilded chapel

Santa Joanna was equally impressed.

The ship departs at 1900. Gotta go!

www.noordinaryseaman.com for more photography and writing