On Sunday, we crossed over the border into Argentina. Crossing it overland involved 3 bus journeys, two quick duck-ins to immigration, a couple of stamps on our passports and a switch from ´obrigada´ (thank you in Portuguese) to ´gracias´ (Spanish) all in 90 minutes! We were staying two nights in Puerto Iguazu, a small town close to the Falls.
On Monday, we visited the Iguazu Falls from the Argentine side. It had been a couple of days since we visited them on the Brazilian side and we were excited in anticipation of seeing the natural wonder once again. From this Argentine side, we got close up to some of the individual falls that make up the 275-strong Iguazu Falls. Trails led us to the crashing pools of water from the falls above, across seemingly calm rivers just before they plunged over the edge, and also to walks above the Falls, seeing churning rapids beneath our very feet.
The highlight was getting up close to the Diablo del Garganto (Devil´s throat). One of the biggest individual falls in Iguazu, nothing prepared us for the stupendous view. The deafening roar of water was unbelievable, and we could barely make out the bottom for it was covered in mist and spray thrown up from the Falls.
It was definitely worth the 2nd visit and we'd recommend you try and see this amazing natural wonder at some point in your life.
After a gruelling 25 hour busy journey (yes, 25 houra!!), from Rio through the lush green and rolling landscapes of Brazil, we finally arrived in the town of Foz do Iguaçu, tired and keen to get a good night's sleep.
It's here that we were to be treated to one of the biggest waterfalls (or more accurately 'collection of waterfalls') in the world - 275 to be exact. I held Niagara Falls in high esteem but was preparing to have it replaced by these Falls. Legend has it that the Falls were created by a god who tried to stop the escape of a young couple in love, of whom the woman was to be offered to the Rio River as a sacrifice. A much more boring explanation involves plate tectonics and lava flows.
The combined views of all the waterfalls that were teased in to view as we walked our trail, got better and better until we reached the horseshoe-styled Falls where we could stick our hands out and literally touch the water. Navita and I got soaked at several points along our day's hike but it was well worth it.
As expected, the views were phenomenal. Brown water turning to white as it crashed down thunderously over the cliff faces. The small power boats being taken out in to the falls (from the Argentine side) looked like wet fun. All we could see, for as far as we could look, was waterfalls upon waterfalls... truly magnificent.
Sunday Feb 14th - Valentine's day kind of passed us by... we were more concerned with readying ourselves for the world-famous Rio Carnaval parade in the purpose-built 750m long Sambodromo. The Parade originally started on the streets but as the crowds and floats grew bigger and more fantastic each year, finally Rio had to make it a ticketed event and build the stadium just for it.
A bit of background about the Carnaval: it's a tournament between the 12 best samba schools in Rio; 6 parade each night on the Sunday and Monday before Ash Wednesday each year, followed by the Champion's parade the following weekend. Each parade takes about 1.5 hours from start to finish, with the first school starting at 9pm. You do the math... we were in for a long (but fun!) night. The judging is fierce and often contested; judges mark each school's parade on 10 different criteria, ranging from theme to costume to song. On the night we went, the line up included the 2009 winner, the eventual 2010 winner and the favourite from the past 5 years... so we knew it was going to be a spectacular show!
A fellow hosteller had tipped us off with how to get cheap tickets for the Sunday night parade. Together with Stephen (Alkesh´s friend from Uni), we navigated our way through the crowded grand stands to take our seats in sector 13; it was about 10pm. We caught the last few floats of the first samba school.
Some of you may have seen carnival parades in the past, perhaps even footage on TV from Rio's famous parades. But honestly, being in the 80,000 strong audience (all boisterously singing and cheering on their favourites) with the spectacle taking place right in front of you - it truly was amazing. Forget the basic cheap tacky floats; these floats were intricately engineered featuring different platforms, fountains, swings and moving pieces (with the strength to support many samba dancers strutting their stuff), all decorated beautifully with sequins, jewels and feathers. In between the floats, there were setsof 100 dancers to represent the theme or tell the story - they moved in unison all dressed in the most exquisite costumes. We heard on TV that each costume cost thousands to make and that each Samba school's parade would include thousands of dancers - it was clearly a HUGE undertaking and something that the Samba schools took great pride in.
We watched the following 5 samba schools parade through the Sambodromo - taking us right up to dawn at 6am. Some were better than others but even the 'worst' ones were still utterly brilliant. Clearly the crowds around us had their favourites, some cheering with banners and flags. Our programme featured words to sing along with each parade - I tried my best to keep up with the Portuguese and sing in tune! 1 samba school really did stand out for us: Unidos da Tijuca. They hadn't won since the 1930s so clearly had something to prove. Their parade mystified the audiences with their magic, superheroes tribute and acrobatics. The opening sequence featured 6 couples dancing, who magically changed their outfits several times in succession just with the swoosh of a drape... the video shows it best. They then had Michael Jackson performing, and a 2nd float showed Batmans flying down and Spidermans crawling up buildings. The crowd erupted with cheers and whistles - clearly Tijuca school had entertained the masses... but were they good enough to win?
A few days later, the results announced Unidos da Tijuca as the winners of the 2010 Rio Carnaval parade. We really enjoyed the show and are so glad we managed to fit it in to our itinerary - a fabulous treat!
P.S. lots more pics on Picasa web album so remember to click on any pic above and then scroll through.
P.P.S. Also, all of these videos are available in HD - play the video in full screen and then select the video quality.
We got a 2nd taste of Rio's Carnival street parties close to our hostel - this one was livelier and attracted a younger crowd. No samba drums on this one, just a ghetto blaster booming out of the back of a van. Lots of fun!
On Friday, we attempted a walking tour around Centro - the city centre - but the heat stopped us in our tracks after barely 30 mins. We did manage to take in a square that surprisingly commemorated Mahatma Gandhi, not sure what the connection to Brazil was, but still a proud moment all the same. Also we saw the Parisien-styled Teatro Municipal, a rather grand (and somewhat out-of-place) building compared against the backdrop of all the cement towers.
From there, we headed up to Santa Teresa. Set a top a hill, the only way up was via a rickety old streetcar. The Brazilians took it as an opportunity to play "how-many-people-can-we-fit-on-this-streetcar"! I've decided to keep a list of crazy journey encountered on this 6 month trip - this was the first on the list. It was at Santa Teresa, where we stumbled upon yet another street party in the making. This was one of the biggest ones in Rio. We found ourselves a nice bar overlooking the carnival parade where camped out and watched the world go by for a few hours whilst things got started. When the parade came along, it was a mix of styles from the 2 previous street parties we'd already seen: both big, colourful, loud and very drunken.
Here's a pic of our fellow hostellers before we all went out together on Saturday night.
Well, a few words can sum up our time in Rio de Janiero. Hot hot and hot! We are averaging 35 to 37 degrees in the day time and it's taken some time getting used to it. Having said that it's still been much too hot to cram in the activities that we'd gotten so used to doing in a single day when we were in US.
So far we've managed a lazy day in the hostel followed by a trip to the beach after 6pm! The sun was on it's way down but that gave a chance to get to Copacabana beach and relax to read our books followed by some delicious beach-side Caiparinhas whilst watching some volley ballers do their thing.
On Satuday we happened upon a Carnival related procession which started in a town square in Ipanema and moved onto the beach closing the roads down in the process. It was a good example of the spirit the carnival brings and it was still a week away before the main famous procession! There were hoards of drummers and a huge sound system float which got the locals all charged and jumping up and down to traditional Carnival tunes. Great to see how such a simple set up can get the crowds so rallied up and enjoying themselves - the locals have a lot of passion for the Carnival period (basically 5 days of non stop partying!).
On Monday we made it to our first main tourist attraction the 40m tall Jesus statue called Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcavados mountain - this is the famous view many of you will have seen in films / postcards. After a sweaty bus journey and a short ride on the mountain furnicular train, we reached the Christ statue with his open arms welcoming all to Rio. The 'arms out' gesture was also a representation of the holy cross. At roughly 5pm the statue provided a welcome shade under which we able to take in Rio and surrounding landscapes in it's entirity. What a vista! We could see across all the major landmarks, the Atlantic ocean, the cruise liners, a lagoon, a football stadium to name a few.
We've settled into our simple hostel accomodation. During our first few nights, we pretty much had the dorm to ourselves so got used to the privacy however since Thursday / Friday, all the dorms in the hostel have filled up. It's good to meet other travellers all doing some combination of sights / routes across Brazil and South America. We've swapped stories and advice and generally there is good comeraderie amongst all. There's several Brits (from as close to home as Chiswick and Putney no less!), Japanese, American, Dutch and Belgian! We all went out together last night to take in some live music and dance Samba style - again all part of the Rio carnival festivities.
We're patiently working our way around the language barrier, each day being slightly easier than the last and is being helped by the easy going locals and Navi and I quizzing each other from our make shift phrase book ripped out of our Lonely Planet guide book.
On Wednesday we took the bus to the base of Sugar Loaf mountain, so called due to it's resemblance to a mound of unrefined sugar. We met Stephen, a friend from university, and went up the 2-stage cable cars to enjoy the sunset. The ever changing mountainous and lush tropical landscape in front of us at this viewpoint was spectacular at dusk and at night when the city was illuminated and shimmering with light from the favelas high up! We'd managed to truly relax and take in the surroundings before heading into Copacabana to eat at the popular restaurant concept of paying for what you eat by weight.
*** can't resist but include my celebrity spotting wonder - Boyz II Men at L.A. airport and Leo Di Caprio at the Ceasars Palace hotel.***
Our last stop in US was the LAS VEGAS - the playground for adults with all its excesses (drink, food, gambling - and "other"!!). It really is a sight to behold and this blog post won't capture the scale and flamboyance of it all.
Our hotel lay just north of the strip but only a 15min walk in to the heart of the big and glitzy hotels. But hotels aren't just hotels here... no no no, they have to have at least 3 of the following: themes, big architechtural feats (think pyramids and mini cities), free shows to entice the passing crowds, immediate ground entrances to casinos, luxury shops and grand theatres for the world-class acts. I mean where else could we take in the heights of Eiffel Tower, get a roller coaster round NYC and hang out inside a pyramid whilst playing on the slots. Unbelievable.
Alkesh and I did have a flutter on the slot machines, but only because we knew how to work the system... play $1 gradually on 1-5 cent machines, waiting for a waitress to pass by and offer us free drinks. We really did well on this... ah the life of budget back packer travellers!
The great fountain display at the Bilagio
The major tour highlight was a day trip to visit the Grand Canyon. 5 hours on the coach each way didn't manage to dampen the awesome-ness of the Canyon. We visited the South Rim - further away but famed for the widest and deepest parts of the Canyon. The rock had a characteristic red hue and the magnificent vistas from the top rim's edge were amazing. Check out Alkesh's Discovery Channel-esque panoramic footage.
Another highlight was seeing Lance Burton (world famouse master magician) perform a magic extravaganza on stage. We were spell bound by the suspension / disappearing tricks as well as confounding slight of hand tricks. A true treat.
We've really enjoyed the east coast trip of USA... it's with a little apprehension that we leave the familiar behind and move on to South America. But there's of course a lot to look forward to. Stay tuned...
