Unfortunately, we only had time for the capital city, Buenos Aires – famous for being the birthplace of the Tango...
Buenos Aires is also famous for having the world's largest (widest) street. If I recall correctly, it is 20 lanes wide, and takes usually three "walking man" pedestrian light cycles to cross.
If any of you are of a certain age, you may recall the 1982 Falklands war where Argentina grew impatient with Britain's handing over of the Falkland islands, and so cobbled together a rather ill conceived invasion – which cost them dearly: many dead, military hardware destroyed, and Britian now refusing to follow through with the handover. Anyway, there is a permanent honor guard present at the Falklands war memorial in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires is interesting and seems a peaceful place to live if this picture tells the story
The city has a beauty despite its decay and is a bit like a living museum. Everything was once new and beautiful, but the clocks seems to have stopped in Buenos Aries and the city definitely shows its age.
We only had a few days in Buenos Aires, and soon we were on a flight to Brazil
... where we met up with our friend Carlyle who used to work with me in Edmonton.
He lives in the very attractive city of Curitiba, full of parks and green spaces, and this botanical garden
Following our visit with Carlyle we were off to a few of Brazil's better known cities – next stop: the megalopolis of Sao Paulo, home to 11 million citizens, and half of the nation's G.D.P. For all its size we found there wasn't all that much to see and do, actually. I think the hilight was the MASP (Museum of Art, Sao Paulo):
We didn't stay long in Sao Paulo, and soon we were back to our old tricks of taking buses, but wow – the buses in Brazil were awesome. In just six short and comfortable hours we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. The first thing we wanted to experience was Christ the Redeemer, the enormous concrete Jesus statue on the mountain top. Our timing was bad as the entire structure is currently covered in scaffolding so a crew can spend three months cleaning the it. So, this is all we managed for a photo of it:
However, the view from the mountain top was great. We could easily see across the Ipanema beach district to Rio's other recognizable icon, Sugarloaf mountain.
The next day we made our way over to Sugarloaf, and boarded the cable-car for a ride to the summit.
From here we got a view back to Christ the Redeemer.
We also went to several of Rio's grand buildings, such as St. Paul's cathedral
and the government's parliament building
The weather had begun to turn, but despite that who could resist a walk along the Copacabana beach? We saw a group playing, um, “headball?” - not sure what's it's called, actually. They were really talented...
It was around then that the rain really started coming down, and didn't let up for well over a day and at times was intense. Which led to the flooding in Rio that you probably heard about in the news...
The incessant precipitation eventually caused mud slides in some hill side slums, and last I heard the death toll was over 250! In the days following the rains the sea was violent and we were warned not to go into the water. Here's what the waves looked like at the normally docile Ipanema beach:
We had a (tame) close call of our own in Rio where we ended up on the winning side of an attempted robbery. No – it was nothing dangerous, but a kid tried to seal our camera. A few days after these rains we decided to have a nice lunch outside at a sidewalk cafe. I set my camera down on an unoccupied chair beside me and soon the waiter came out with a simple velcro loop. He put it through the camera's wrist strap and fastened it around the arm of the chair. Not long after, while my back was turned, a young man ran past our table and grabbed the camera, but the velcro held firm, and the camera clattered back onto the chair. He went for a second grab, but again came up empty handed and he then decided to flee. However, some good citizens hearing my shouts as he ran stopped him in the street. The camera was not damaged, and more importantly was still in our possession. And what did this young man get for his trouble? Amanda felt sorry for him and gave him the remainder of her lunch as she thought he looked hungry. I was pretty mad at him at first, but all's well that ends well.
Fortunately our remaining time in Rio was far less dramatic than floods, mud slides, and petty crime. We did a bit more sight seeing, such as the metropolitan cathedral. It's striking looking outside...
... and cavernous inside ...
and went straight to the Galapagos islands.
This is where Charles Darwin visited in 1831 and began to develop his theory of evolution.
The Galapagos are famous for the fragile ecosystems it plays host to, and the fearless animals present there. There are few, if any, predators on the islands, so the animals living there have very little fear of humans approaching, and you can get quite close without distressing them. Knowing this would really be something to see, we played a risky game of “find the best last minute deal” and booked a room on this boat (the Queen Beatriz) for about half price the night before it sailed...
Check out the boat's captain...
The Galapagos animals were stunning. Of particular note was this famous fellow...
This is Lonesome George, and he is the very last of this subspecies. There are no females of his type, so it was sort of sad to acknowledge that we were witnessing the extinction of a species – mostly due to human interference.
One curious thing we came across on the islands was the "pirates post office". Back in the pirate days, boats would stop at the Galapagos for the abundant fresh water at its springs, and to stock up on giant tortoises (like Lonesome George) as they would remain alive for many weeks without food, and thus supply the ships with fresh meat. Anyway, ships that stopped would drop off mail in this barrel...
and then sort through the letters already in the barrel. There was an unwritten rule that if the route of your intended journey would take you near any of the addresses listed on the envelopes in the barrel, you were to deliver them, knowing that others would do the same for you. The tradition lives on, and tourists from around the globe leave mail in the barrel for other tourists to deliver. We found a couple addressed to people in Calgary, and so next time we are in the city, we'll try to deliver them.
But the highlight of the Galapagos was certainly the wildlife that calls this area home. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
All too quickly our time in the Galapagos came to an end and we returned to Ecuador's capital city, Quito, which is just 20 km for the equator, so a day trip was necessary...
Also, Quito is where we met up with Stuart and Anita. They were just finishing their one-year long honeymoon. In fact, it was their wedding in Australia which was the catalyst for our year long trip. However, being much tougher than us, they have spent their year cycling around South America. Now that's impressive! Here we all are together enjoying the natural hot springs in Papallacta (about a two hour drive out of Quito)
And that was it for Ecuador. We get on a plane tomorrow and head for Lima, Peru where more friends and adventures await...
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