Impressions of South America, February 9 – 23, 2010

IMPRESSIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA
February 9 – 23, 2010

On February 9, 2010, my friend, Nancy Cobb from Illinios, and I left for Rio de Janiero, Brazil, where we boarded the Insignia, part of the Oceania Cruise Line. Earlier in the year I had been asked to be the keynote speaker at a CEO’s conference in Uruguay, and soon after that was booked, the University of Kansas advertised a “Samba Rhythms” cruise on Oceania down the east coast of South America. It seemed like the perfect prelude to my speaking event, so Nancy and I signed up, only to find out two months before we left that the conference had to be cancelled due to the economy. However, we both had committed to the trip, so we forged ahead!

We were very disappointed in Rio except for the lovely parks around Sugar Loaf Mountain and the awesome Christ the Redeemer statue (Corcovado), one of the seven wonders of the modern world, which overlooks the city. We took cable cars to get to both places and had lovely views of the city.

However, it is a dirty, crime-infested city with more graffiti than I have seen anywhere in the world. We all wondered HOW they would ever get the city ready for the Olympics. We did enjoy seeing the beaches, especially Ipanema and Copacabana, and the songs kept running through our heads the whole time we were in Rio! We saw hang gliders and the most amazing sand sculptures as we drove past the beaches. “The Brazilian Bus with Barbara’s Logo!”

One thing we noticed throughout South America was that people seemed very comfortable in their own skins. We giggled, however, at all the people, both men and women, wearing bikinis who really shouldn’t have been! (At least I was not in that group, having never worn a bikini in my life! 😉

We were treated to a traditional Churrascaria lunch –waiters came to the tables with beef, chicken, and pork on very long skewers.

Although we were there just at the start of Carnival, we only saw a few floats being finished. Carnival is very different from Mari Gras. The floats are sponsored by clubs (I bought one of the special club shirts created to go with the theme of their float) and they are all in a competitive race for large prizes. The floats can’t be “powered” so they are literally carried by hundreds of people. The parades are in coliseums and quite costly to attend. Carnival started the day we left, so we were disappointed not to have been able to experience that; however, we heard from the natives that it was very wild for the four days it lasts, so perhaps it was a blessing that we had to move on.

We then stopped at several beaches along the coast of Brazil:

Buzios – Lovely costal town that Bridget Bardot made famous (her get away)
We took a schooner trip to swim and snorkel but were disappointed not to see a single fish. it was nice, however, to swim in the cool water in the 100-degree heat (Brazil was having quite a heat wave the whole time we were there). Once we finished swimming, there was a cute little town to browse in. There are lots of little islands there (360) so pirates were plentiful at one time….we found lots of pirate trinkets for the grandchildren!

Ilha Grande – We took a taxi boat to a nice, unpopulated beach for more swimming. It is an area known for their many bird species.

Parati Island – We took another schooner trip and finally got some snorkeling and more swimming.

This is a beautiful scenic Island, lovely houses nestled in the mountains. The town is a very old cobblestone community – lots of cute little shops and art work..but very hot out!

Santos (near Sao Paulo) This was an interesting city – we visited the coffee museum where all the coffee trading used to take place, beaches and the aquarium.

We also went to the soccer stadium where Pele played. One of the displays had his first soccer ball –one that his mother made for him out of socks since they were very poor.

Itajal – Atlantic Forest above Camboriu
We took cable cars to the mountaintop to walk through the forest on an eco trail – the guide shared much interesting information about the rain forest. On the other side of the trail was an amusement park with many fun rides—quite a contrast between nature and high tech entertainment! Then we took the cable car down the other side to the beach. It was Carnival day so it was packed with wall-to-wall bodies – hundreds of colorful beach umbrellas.

One of the best things about the trip was the beautiful ship, the extraordinary food, and the excellent service. We were fortunate (we decided because of our charm 😉 to be able to dine in the two nicest restaurants four times when the “allowance” was only once each per stateroom. Our favorite thing which was served around the pool was called a “Mango Fusion,” a smoothie made from fresh mango juice, white tea, and crushed ice. We had at least two or three a day! 😉

Our favorite place, besides Buenos Aires, was Punta del Esta, Uruguay. This is a beautiful, sparkling clean “hot spot” – a famous South American seaside resort area known as “the St Tropez of South America.” It is famous for film festivals, conferences, mansions, gardens, and interesting architecture. We enjoyed the huge hand sculpture on the beach and even saw an Apple Computer store during our short shopping time there!

We stopped at two wonderful art museums – first, the Ralli Museum which is privately owned and has world famous artists on display. The second art museum called Casapueblo was built by Carlos Vilaro to house his private collection. It’s a pure white Spanish castle he designed and built on the ocean. He is famous for his colorful murals which can be found in buildings and parks all over the world. He celebrates the sun and women in his work, and we smiled when we heard he has been married numerous times! We were fortunate that he was there that day (at age 82 he still works every day), so he agreed to sign the small prints we bought. To our surprise, they said that this town was the second most likely place for Americans to retire –we decided it had to be South Americans as we certainly did not know anyone who had retired there!

Montevideo
Although it is supposed to be another hot spot we were unimpressed – not too much to see – long beaches, quaint old homes, a few statues, bit of history from WWII but really a rather boring city.

Finally, we arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for three days. Nancy and I had been there three years ago when we traveled to Antarctica and both fell in love with this beautiful walking city of parks and interesting cultural neighborhoods. Since we had seen many of the tourist sites previously, we spent much of our time shopping (surprise! ;-), both on Florida Street as well as at the weekend craft fair near the Art Museum. My bags were overweight to begin with, so I was forced to exercise more caution than usual, but we still found many bargains! The peso is nearly 4 to one dollar, so prices were very cheap.

One of the highlights was stopping for lunch at a little neighborhood café. We each had a lovely steak, chips, empanadas, and a bottle of Malbec wine, all for $26. They are known for their beef, leather, and the Malbec wine, so when I bought a leather jacket, we had partaken of all of the Argentinian specialties!

The most interesting tour we took in BA was the Tigre River Cruise.

About 3000 people live on tiny islands around the city that can only be reached by boat. Most of the houses are on stilts, and it is a fascinating lifestyle as they are totally dependent on the water for all their needs. They are serviced by grocery boats, police boats, garbage boats, and even an ambulance boat. We saw every kind of home from shacks to quite beautiful resorts and found we could buy a home there for about $60,000 US. They even had schools, reachable only by boat. Our Guide said that nothing had changed there since the 1920’s. It’s hard to believe their way of life but I guess it’s also a great weekend “get away” place for the people from bustling BA. It’s also close to a very lovely area known for its crewing teams and clubs We also spent part of a day at the BA zoo which is situated right in the middle of the city. It was almost completely empty, but perhaps this was because it was a Monday. We got some fun animal shots!

The final night in BA we went to a fabulous Tango show. Somehow, we were lucky enough to be invited to the VIP lounge and the most special dancers. The Tango has a long history in Argentina and is one of the most seductive and sexy dances there is. We all, especially the men, enjoyed the beautiful, but skimpy costumes.

One of the cast was a Gaucho (Spanish cowboy) who used bolos in a very unique way. They served us Argentinean wine and even invited some of us to dance with them at the end of the show. It was a wonderful finale to our trip!

I would definitely go back to Punta del Esta and Buenos Aires, but I would not recommend this cruise to anyone who was not a beach person. I would, however, recommend Oceania and am looking forward to a Mediterranean Cruise with them in the future.