Our trip deviated a bit from the straight line as we flew from La Paz to Santiago where we had a brief city tour and yet another excellent meal in our hotel and then we flew right across the continent to Brazil (Rio De Janiero) for our three day visit. It certainly was vastly different from the rest of our fairly diverse visit to South America. Our Sofitel Hotel was located opposite Copacabana Beach and adjacent to Ipanema Beach and that may set the tone. On our first morning we went by open jeep to the large statue of Christ the Redeemer on the top of a high mountain in the middle of the city. The statue was erected in 1931 to celebrate the independence of Brazil and was jointly sponsored by the government and the Roman Catholic Church which of course is nominally strong in this country. The trip up the hill in the fresh air was lovely although the actual statue had little significance. On our descent, we went to a jewellery factory and then in the evening to a meal in a rather interesting restaurant called Marius and thence to a cabaret where scantily clad female dancers and athletic male ones performed rather amazing acts.
Towards the end of the evening, the MC in multiple languages welcomed us all and then a series of national songs was played. Representatives of the various countries obligingly went on stage and for the most part, danced rhythmically or simply waved their arms enthusiastically. I suppose it is natural that it was the extroverts who went forward in this way. When it was Australia’s turn, Waltzing Matilda was played and Jack, always keen to uphold his country’s honour, leapt forward taking Daryl with him. We have a photo which I will scan of the two of them, arms on each others’ shoulders, belting out our song. It’s a pity Les Patterson wasn’t there. He would have completed a trio admirably.
The next day, a trip up the cable car for another panoramic view of Rio was followed by a visit to the scene of the annual Rio de Janeiro Carnival. To our surprise, we learned that this takes place in a rectangular stadium where spectators can watch over three days a parade that covers 800 metres and lasts for 11 hours, starting at 7 pm. There are 6 main groups that perform and each group has up to 80 minutes of performance in that time. We saw some of the costumes that had been worn and some took the opportunity to dress up in them. I retrained myself.
We moved on to lunch in a beautiful Art Nouveau restaurant that has been in Rio since the 1890’s. Wonderful décor but being trouped in to join the already large crowd took the gloss of it a bit for me. I think I am wearying of being shepherded everywhere although our tour guides and especially Mick our tour director have done an admirable job.
That night after a walk to Ipanema beach and to the markets with our crew, Jack and I had a meal alone in an Italian restaurant. It was a pleasant break from non stop large scale eating. Tony and Chris and Lorraine and Daryl all took pizza in their rooms.
One of the things that had made Brazil different from the other countries was the fact that it had gained its independence from Portugal by comparatively peaceful means. After being defeated by Napoleon, the Portuguese king moved the throne to Brazil and later Brazil was declared a separate Portuguese Empire, ruled by the son of the Portuguese king. The transition to Independence was less tumultuous than in Spanish speaking countries and as a result there was less evidence of revolution. The relationship between Portugal and Brazil was a much more harmonious one.
However despite its seeming affluence, Rio still had its favellas (“shanty towns”). We were offered two sets of thoughts about this. One saw the favellas as impoverished and with poor facilities, hot beds of crime, dominated by drug barons and crooks; the other saw it as the grass roots of RIO society where the cariocas (local people) lived in seemingly rough housing but were actually very proud of their roots and were protected by the drug lords who saw them as family. Some of theses favellas were very big (250000 inhabitants) and they had one entrance to their commune which actually extended very far up into the hills around RIO. The entrance was guarded and no one had easy access, including the police.
The following morning saw us flying from Rio to the Iguaçu Falls where we stayed in an old style hotel called Los Cataratas. Before settling in to the hotel we all trooped down to the edge of the Iguaçu River where we travelled in Zodiacs through the wild waters below the falls. Not surprisingly we were drenched, not the least because our pilot skillfully manoeuvred the boat (3 times) to take us underneath the tumultuous fall of water. As it had been raining for the previous 20 days, the volume of water was most impressive. The colour unfortunately was no so attractive at the normally clear water had stirred up a lot of mud. Nevertheless the adventure provoked a lot of squeals and shrieks and was certainly fun. After dinner in the restaurant that night, a lot of us gathered in the piano bar and when the pianist took a break, we prevailed on Faith to take his place. A lot of singing and general skylarking made it a pleasant and relaxing night.
Early the next morning we packed our bags again and went by bus across the border to see the Argentinean side of the falls. We took off our Portuguese caps and donned Spanish speaking ones.
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