Sunday 21 August – Sylvia

There was a cold change overnight. Apparently these happen from time to time when the winds blow straight up from Patagonia and temperatures drop for three days, in this case down from the high 30’s into the mid-teens. We had planned a 5:45am canoe outing this morning but due to the high winds were awarded a lie-in instead.

At 8am, after admiring the numerous colourful birds around the lodge, we headed off for a boat trip on the Pixin River. It was very peaceful and the birdlife was abundant. Roger is becoming an accomplished wildlife photographer and particularly enjoys capturing birds in flight. He takes some very good shots, but for every great shot there are several deletes, a task he leaves up to me.

At one point the boatman pulled the boat up to the bank and led the way to a tree where we spotted a particularly intriguing bird, the great potoo, an extremely well-camouflaged bird that looks just like a tree branch and seems to sit largely motionless waiting for insects to fly near enough for it to catch.

We passed two neotropic river otter. Unlike the giant otter we had seen before these are solitary animals and generally much harder to spot. Twice we  saw small groups of howler monkeys in trees near the river. We also passed a green iguana trying out his gymnastics moves at the top of a tree.

 

There is another, much larger, lodge nearby and we rode past, noting the many people queuing up for their boat rides. We also had the opportunity to climb up a large observation tower, on this occasion no bird or animal sightings but some great views over the surrounding area.

Our boatman had come prepared with a small bag of fish. In one area of the river some of the birds have become used to the boatmen throwing the fish out for them to catch while us tourists try to photograph them. He tried this trick with kingfishers, terns and hawks.

 

When we got back to the lodge we wandered over and climbed up the viewing platform next to the jabiru stork’s nest and got great views of the fledglings inside. Two hyacinth macaws played in a tree nearby.

  

After a restful afternoon we started the long trip back to Cuiaba to catch our flight to Campo-Grande in the south of the Pantanal. Along the Transpantaneira Highway we saw many of the same species we had seen on the way in, including more roseate spoonbills. It was sad to see in one area about eight dead caiman with their tails cut off. Apparently it is likely some of the locals from Pocone had killed them over the weekend as the tail is the best part for eating. While there were still plenty of caiman around it is illegal to kill caiman and it was sad to see so many dead bodies in one area.

We were joined for the drive to Cuiaba by another guide who was quite cynical about Brazil in general. We had previously been told that the law banning hunting in 1967 was because caiman were nearing extinction. He said it was because there had been a military coup in 1965 and the government didn’t want people to have guns. Regardless of the reason, it has certainly helped to turn around the caiman population.

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Monday 21 August

Our guide, Caro, picked us up at 7am. The parts of Campo Grande we saw as we drove southwest out of town looked very tidy. With wide streets and lots of new looking factories it looked like a very prosperous city.

The first hundred and fifty kilometres of our journey we drove alongside large cropping farms. Periodically on the road side were groups of shacks, pretty much constructed out of secondhand timber and other discarded materials.

Caro informed us that these were people from the Movement Without Land. These people believe they have the right to take land that is not being used and live on it. Apparently they often take farmer’s land and squat on it. This results in the farmers getting quite upset and sometimes ends up in a gunfight. Some politicians have supported this movement and at times the government has given them land. As they haven’t had the skills or cash to productively farm the land this has ended badly.

At the end of the cropping area, which had been flat, we dropped down into some rolling country with grassy fields and lots of trees. This is cattle country. They run cattle that originated in India here. Nelore cattle with their fat filled humps are good at surviving the dry, food-scarce winters and wet summers. They will graze in water covered fields in the day and sleep on the dry ground in the forest at night.

Arriving at Jardim we dropped our bags at Hotel Victoria and headed to Buraco das Araras, or Macaw Sinkhole. This is a sink hole around a 100m deep with vertical sides and around a 130m across. Two caiman live in the bottom and have done so for about 25 years. They breed every now and then but then eat the young.

 

This hole is home to the red and green macaw (that’s one bird). With their bright red and blue colours they are quite nice to watch fly around the hole area and even more fun to photograph. Its hard to believe these are all the same make of bird.

   

We spotted an azara’s agouti near the hole.

And a seldom seen small billed tinamou.

We took lunch at a local farm come tourist centre, which Sylvia will inform you all about in tomorrows episode.

We spent a couple more hours at the sink hole in the late afternoon watching the birds doing there afternoon flybys.

For dinner we went to a local plastic chaired restaurant for some picainu beef which was so tasty it can’t have come from these local Indian cattle.

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Tuesday 23 August – Sylvia

This morning we opted not to visit the macaws again. I think Roger has just about had enough of birds now! This meant a much appreciated lie-in. We left Jardim around 9am and headed for Recanto Ecológico Río da Prata, a large ranch that has turned to tourism. This is the same place we had lunch yesterday. The ranch is huge but have set aside some 350 hectares for ecology. Within this space they have a number of natural springs. Along with six others we signed our lives away, donned some unflattering wetsuits and booties and headed off on the back of a truck.

After a roughly 2km trek through some native bush (an interesting experience in a wetsuit and booties!) we arrived at the springs. The water is amazingly clear and there are about 50 species of fish including the famed dorado (tiger fish) and the giant pacu, which only eats fruits and is apparently delicious. We were able to snorkel around the springs and then float downstream until we reached the Rio da Prata. This river is usually also clear but today was cloudy, likely due to some rains upstream. A short boat ride took us back to the truck, passing a troop of capuchin monkeys who crossed over the river on a branch right above us.

 

After lunch back at the ranch we jumped back in the car for our three hour drive to Poussada Aguape, where we will stay for the next two nights. We had only just left when we came across a giant anteater right near the road. Unfortunately I had forgotten the message that they have very poor eyesight but great smell and hearing and it headed off when I slammed the car door. Not to be daunted, Caro had spotted another in the field behind so we climbed through the fence and made our way through the farmland, eventually getting very close to the second anteater. They are certainly very interesting looking animals, walking on their long claws folded up. By the time we reached the poussada we had seen 15 anteater including two babies on their mother’s backs.

At one point we had stopped to try and get closer to one with a baby on its back when right in front of us we saw an armadillo. Roger had headed off to photograph the anteater and Caro and I got quite close to the armadillo which eventually headed into its hole and proceeded to dig, throwing up great clods of dirt.

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Wednesday 23 August

We jumped up on the back of a small truck with seats. First stop was a camp beside the Aquidauana River to see some South American coati which roamed around the camp.

We then headed through a farm gate into a paddock. This place is a cattle farm which runs the tourist business in conjunction with its farm. This is probably the best form of conservation as suddenly wild game such as puma are ensured survival as the value of the odd calf they kill is by far offset by the value of the tourist dollar. This farm went into tourism in 1989, it has been in the same family for 150 years. The 2200 hector property runs 1600 cattle, 70 horses, plus a bunch of tourists.

One of the biggest  killers of cattle and horses are the Brazilian lancehead snake; only small it strikes the animal in the head while it is grazing.

Soon we spotted some collaerd peccary grazing in some brush.

As i was returning from photographing them a collared anteater was spotted heading into the bush. The driver went in to the bush heading him of as we waited by his scrub tunnel.  It is quite unusual to see these out in the day.

Next we spotted a pampas deer under a paratudo tree (everything tree). This produces various medicines from its bark flowers and trunk.

Cowboys feed salt to the cows in troughs made from the piyva Tree.

Cattle are managed and driven by cowboys on horseback.

Fence posts here are mostly made from Aroeira Tree and last in the ground a hundred years. The tree is now protected.

A crab eating fox was cleaning up the remains of a dead cow. This is the only place where I have seen foxes so unafraid of humans. I am told no-one bothers with chickens around here.

A jabiru stork landed beside us in the paddock. These things amuse me with their three meter wing span; in comparison to other birds they’re like comparing a piper cub with an A380.

They even have Taranaki gates (or are they Panantal gates) here. Caro is great at leaping of the back of the truck to open and close them.

There is a feral pig here that was introduced during  the war between Paraguay and Brazil from 1864 to 1870. The Paraguayan army brought them for tucker when they invaded trying to claim the Pantanal. When finally beaten back with the help of the indigenous local population, who were good horsemen, they left the pigs behind. Locals are allowed to hunt these.

We spotted a few birds we had not seen before.

Arriving back at the Poussada (lodge) Aguape we had a stroll around the leaf raked grounds. All the animals are pretty friendly here.

The afternoon revealed a nine-banded armadillo, who scuttled off down a hole to hide from us.

We discovered the biggest predator the giant anteater and other game has are cars and trucks. We have seen a number of dead animals on the roadside in the past couple of days.

Later in the day we went back to the campground and saw some white lipped peccaries.

A local fisherman gave us a piranha to have a look at. With its small sharp toothed mouth one could imagine a slow quite uncomfortable end being pulled apart by a bunch of these little buggers.

The sky is orange as we head back to the lodge for our final dinner. Caro our guide has been outstanding. Suddenly our stint in the Pantanal is nearly over as tomorrow we fly out to Sao Paulo.

 

 

Monday 15 August – Sylvia

We had an extremely early start with a 5am pick up from the hotel this morning. All went fairly smoothly with our flights from Rio to Brasilia and on to Cuiaba, where we were met by our guide for the next few days, Lucy.

Cuiaba is a small dusty city of roughly 600 thousand people out in the middle of Brazil. We headed out of town on the main highway that runs from Sao Paulo in Brazil all the way to Lima in Peru. After some time we turned off, heading to Pocone, the gateway to the Pantanal, where we stopped for a Brazilian style buffet lunch – think a very rough version of a Brazilian Churasco restaurant. The signs depicting male and female toilets were fairly self-explanatory.

  

We then left the sealed road behind and started the roughly three hour drive on the Trans-Pantaneira Highway to South Wild Pantanal Lodge where we will stay for the night. This area is a large flood plain and many of the bridges are being repaired and/or rebuilt but the road is generally in good condition. It is fairly flat and scrubby, punctuated with the occasional bright yellow or pink tree. We also pass several large, well-kept farms. Despite the traffic being fairly sparse, it is enough to paint the foliage up to 5m on either side of the road with a thick coat of fine, dull, brown dust.

We stopped often to look at a wide variety of birds as well as green iguana, capybara, pampas deer, marsh deer and South American coati. An over-abundance of caiman wallowed within striking distance of several very game birds, occasionally creating a bit of a ruckus. The large jabiru stork is impressive as is the rhea but I think our favourite birds were the roseate spoonbills, the female a dusky pink and the male pink with scarlet on his wings.

At the lodge there are young jabiru storks in a nest right nearby. We also saw toco toucans in a tree right outside our door and capybara grazing on the lawn.

After a few brief moments to unpack we headed off for a walk and then a wait in a hide, hoping to see ocelot. We spotted a couple of howler monkeys high in a nearby tree and several more birds but unfortunately the ocelot didn’t show today.

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Tuesday 16 August

We hit the road on the back of a truck with seats for game watching for our three-plus hour journey to the Cuiaba River. We stopped numerous times to look at wildlife. At this time of year, with the hot season approaching, waterways are drying up so the game congregate in the pools that are left. Caiman congregated in their hundreds in some pools sharing the water with birds and fish.

The road was dirt with rickety wooden bridges in various stares of repair.

We stopped at one point to look at a bird and heard loud screaming. Looking through the scrub into a pool Giant Otters were making this noise.

A pair ok Hyacinth Macaws were kissing in a tree.

Just up the road a very rare tayra shot across the road.

Later a neotropical river otter crossed the road.

We saw many different birds.

Arriving at Port Jofre, we boarded a small boat with Lucy, our guide, and Juninio, the boatman. Thirty minutes up the river we arrived at the Jaguar Suites, our floating lodge for the next few days.

After lunch and a short rest we again boarded our small boat heading up river. Caiman lined the river bank and floated along mid-river with just their eyes and head protruding; as the boat got really close they slipped quietly away.

We rounded corner to see three boats stopped and all cameras aimed toward the right bank. Geoff, a 10 year old Jaguar, had been spotted. As we watched he hunted the river bank. (All jaguars’ spots are different and in order to track and monitor the jaguar are named – roughly 150 individuals have been identified in this area over the last 10+ years).

More boats arrived, one with a big camera and another with seats and camera mounts for the long lenses.

Soon there were seventeen boats waiting for Geoff to make a kill as he hunted the shoreline. There were several attempts where we heard a loud splash and thrashing around in the long river grass. Each time the caiman or capybaras escaped. At one point Geoff stood poised on the rivers edge for sometime, then bounded across the shallows onto a caiman. When the water subsided the caiman was gone

We left the other boats to it and cruised on around the maze of rivers. We passed hundreds of caiman and the odd capybara at the water’s edge.

We then came across another boat with cameras pointed to the bank. On the bank lay Bianca, our second jaguar sighting today.

We moved on around the river through a side water full of caiman, then out to the main river channel.

Soon the driver spotted two more jaguar.The light was fading as we moved closer. The mother (we think) on the right moved off. The cub sat there and with the aid of the flash we got some good shots. The cub had a wound just above its back leg, we are told probably a Bot Fly infection.

As we headed back along the river a fiery red sun was setting

Back at the Lodge there was great excitement. After a study of our photos it was decided that we had spotted a never seen before jaguar. This apparently gives us naming rights.

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Wednesday 17 August – Sylvia

The mornings start early here. We were off after breakfast for our first 4-hour boat jaunt by 7am. We spotted the hapless Geoff not far from camp, still trying unsuccessfully to hunt. He must be getting hungry by now. After trying on one river bank, he decided he might have more luck on the other side and proceeded to swim across the river right in front of us. Jaguars are clearly strong swimmers as despite the current and the onlookers he made it across in no time.

We headed on down the river passing all the usual suspects. We came across a very noisy Giant Otter. Growing up to 2m in length, they live in family groups and communicate a lot. This one had become separated from the rest of his small group and kept up a horrible squealing noise until he was reunited with them.

 

As we were heading back we came across a couple of Brown Capuchins in a tree. They are certainly cute although apparently also quite vicious.

Jeff was still hunting as we passed by on our way back for lunch, and still being watched by numerous boats. I really hope he catches something while we are all having our lunch break.

Heading back out on the water at 2pm we came across a much larger family of nine Giant Otters, fishing in the reeds along the side of the river. They make quite a sound crunching through the armoured catfish and are really fun to watch as they are very active and interactive with each other. They often pop their heads up to take a good look at us but seem totally unperturbed by our presence.

Our route this afternoon took us down several smaller, narrower waterways. Several times we hit the bottom as the water got shallower eventually having to turn around and back-track. Caiman continue to be a ubiquitous presence and we saw several large families of Cabybara including a large group swimming.

 

I can only guess the Jeff was successful in his hunting and was happily chowing down as there was no sign of him, or any other jaguar, this afternoon.

After some discussion today Roger and I finally agreed on names for the previously unnamed jaguar we found yesterday. There are quite a few rules – simple names that the guides can say, need to reference gender (so need to provide both a male and female name until gender can be determined) etc. Given that this trip started out as an add-on to watching Kirstie at the Olympics we felt it only fitting that if the cub is a female it should be called Kirstie, however the local boatmen had difficulty with that so we landed on Beka. And if it is a male we have decided to call it Roger – he is not quite sure how he feels about the idea of having “a large pussy named after him”!

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Thursday  18 August

Bang on 7am Lucy, our guide, Juninio, our driver, and Suzanne, who is the resident biologist, were waiting in the boat.

 The South Wild Jaguar Suites floating lodge is situated just up the Piquiri River. We headed down to the junction of the Cuiaba River turning right up stream. First stop was to take a look at Mick Jaguar sitting on the river bank. With a bunch of observer boats looking on he soon wandered into the jungle, I presume looking for Jerry Jaguar.

A few hundred meters up river, Geoff the Jaguar was strutting his stuff up the river bank.  After a brief stop we carried on up the river taking in the scenery. There are lots or red flowered trees in which fire ants live symbiotically.

We passed some skimmer birds with chicks, which they rapidly tried to hide in the sand as we approached.

We cut down a small channel until we bottomed out before heading back. Mid-morning we hit caiman alley, as we have started to call it.

We spotted a green iguana on the bank. With its long tail and bright colours it stood out.

It was here I had the chance to have a close encounter with a caiman. The driver had brought the boat up to the bank so I could photograph the iguana. The boat drifted along a bit and a caiman laying on the bank edge just stayed put, apart from giving a hiss when we were less than a meter away he stayed put. They reckon there are about ten million of these in the Pantantal; the population has recovered since the banning of all hunting of any game in Brazil in 1967. Prior to that a million or so a year went into hand bags and shoes.

With this guy being so close I was able to see him/her clearly. Apparently you have to stick your fingers in its slits to find its sex organ and define the sex – we decided he/she may not like that. The teeth are designed just to catch from front or side, food is not really chewed but swallowed whole or in large chunks. It was good to to see the thick scales on body and feet close up.

Unlike a crocodile these guys get up high on all four legs and walk rather than waddle.

 

Cruising back down the river we spotted a roadside hawk who looked on curiously as I took his pic.

Cocoi herons space themselves at almost regular intervals along the river bank as though keeping watch.

We arrive back at the lodge at 11am and head out again at 2pm. I asked if it were possible to go for a stroll in the jungle. “No chance” was the answer “too many Jaguars”. The swimming question was one I didn’t need to ask. Caiman don’t generally attack people but you might step on one, then there are piranha, not to mention the sharp teeth of the giant otter. The lodge and the boat are the only safe places to be.

We took a cruise up the Piquiri river. Apart from a bunch of vultures on the first corner and the odd capybara there wasn’t much doing.

We headed back down and up the Cuiaba. A few kms up there was a bunch of boats watching Jaguar Maxime who was asleep back in the bush. Eventually he got up and wandered off into the jungle. The boats spread out up and down the river. Eventually we were flat out down stream turning up into the Three Brothers River.

A couple of kms up the river the boats were congregating again. Maxime had walked cross-country a few hundred meters. We had traveled several kilometres by river to reach the same spot. These rivers really snake their way through the land. Maxime lay down behind some vines on the river bank for all to see.

As the boats rocked up we were amused by the variety of anchors. In actual fact we did not see one real anchor. The most common were engine crank shafts; the others all varied. There were many more.

Maxime gave a good yawn then got up and moved upstream a hundred or so meters. Anchors were raised the boats moved anchors dropped again.

There were two boats from the National Geographic on the scene, one with a remote controlled video camera mounted in such a way that as the boat rocked the camera stayed still. The camera man told us they had been on the river for two weeks and were staying until the end of September filming jaguar. Another boat had a big remote controlled camera on an arm counterbalanced with gym weights.

Maxime moved a couple more times before the light started to fade and it was time to head back to the lodge.  When these last pictures were taken he was only 25 yards away, not at all bothered by all the onlookers.

    

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Friday 19 August – Sylvia

The morning here started a bit overcast but otherwise pleasant. A leisurely boat ride this morning took us past giant otter, several families of capybara, caiman and plenty of bird life. At one stage we came across the flotilla of boats that indicate a jaguar is nearby but we had missed it as it had just disappeared back into the scrub.

 

We wound our way down a different river system and came out at a large property with a very well-kept homestead including several residences for the workers; apparently it belongs to some wealthy bigwig farmer from near here.

This afternoon we headed off up the Piquiri River and soon bumped into another family of giant otter. After watching them we continued on and came across a large troop of brown capuchins. They had been drinking at the river but rapidly scarpered up the trees as we neared.

We turned back, heading for the Cuiaba River and came across the most amazing sighting – a huge yellow anaconda was on a sand bar, heading slowly towards the water. A sunbittern was displaying and clicking its beak, clearly agitated by the snake’s presence. This seemed a bit like taking a pocket-knife to a gunfight. Sunbitterns are amazing birds and twitchers try for years to get photos of them displaying and here we were with one and an anaconda to boot (at least 2m long). Lucy has been guiding here for 4 years and this was only her second anaconda. Eventually the anaconda made it past the bird to the water and we thought it was all over but then the bittern headed up to a bush and continued clacking its beak. With the binoculars we could see a second anaconda in the bushes trying to make its way to the water, but the bird was too much for it and it retreated into the bush. In this case it seems the pocket-knife won!

We headed off up the Cuiaba River where a jaguar and two cubs had been spotted but again arrived too late. After meandering our way around a few smaller rivers, with plenty of caiman and different birds we headed back. Rounding a bend we saw all the boats lined up again and between them and us a jaguar swimming across the river. We only had a brief viewing as it disappeared into scrub again once it reached the other side but it was a fitting end to a fantastic afternoon.

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Saturday 20 August

At seven am, bags packed and in the boat, we went for our final trip up river.

Caiman were mainly in the water with just eyes protruding and slipping beneath the surface as we approached.  A bunch of otters played alongside the riverbank screaming at each other when one got separated.

Soon we headed down stream to Porto Jofre to meet the truck. There are is quite a bit of activity here with several house boats, hotels and even an air strip.

A few hundred meters down the road some people had spotted a Jaguar across the river. The boatman was called on the radio and picked us up at a little jetty. We raced across the river by which time the Jaguar was gone.

Back on the truck some hyacinth macaws did a fly past as if to send us off.

A tiger rat snake lay on the road, a caracara standing near by as though challenging the snake.

We drove 150km across the flats recrossing the rickety bridges, slowing and often waiting for the dust to settle as oncoming vehicles passed us.

It’s hard to believe that by February this scrubby hinterland will be submerged in water, most of the road impassable.

Some locals were netting small fish in a pool, apparently used as bait to catch larger fish.

We stopped to look at, and photograph more birds.

Three and a half hours later we arrived back at the South Wild Pantanal Lodge to be greeted by capybaras grazing on the lawn.

After lunch we took a slow stroll with Lucy alongside the river and into the forest. It was great to be able to stretch our legs after four days in and on a boat. We spotted a tegu lizard who did his best to hide in the undergrowth.

Lucy pointed out various insects and plants including a close look at some carrot-scented termites who had built their mound in a tree.

At around 5pm we settled into a hide. Lucy had gone back to the camp to get water leaving Sylvia and i waiting just in case an ocelot appeared. A few minutes we later saw the shape of an agouti through the scrub coming along the track. It stopped and froze just before the clearing, then took off in fright. A minute of so later the first ocelot appeared.

It was soon scared off by people coming along the track but later reappeared to be scared off again by Lucy and some other people coming to the hide.

Some raw chicken was put out and soon another ocelot appeared, had a feed and retreated to the scrub.

Now dark, a light was turned on and a third one appeared, not even deterred by the flash of cameras.

It is very rare for people to see these cats in the wild; South Wild has done a great job in habituating these elusive animals.

Friday 12 August 

We opted for a late start having not settled in to the hotel Fasano until 2am. We took a stroll down Ipanema Beach and around the corner to the Sheraton Hotel where we had to pick up our Olympic cycling tickets. The NZ Olympics lounge has a set up there where family members of athletes, or in our case athletes that were in the running but didn’t quite get there.

Rio, with its granite mountains rising almost vertically in various shapes up to 700m and its long white sand beaches, makes for a spectacular scene.

There are lots of police and military people on the streets. Security is taken really seriously during the games. We have to go through a metal detector and bags through X-ray every time we enter our hotel. Makes one wonder if Bin Laden had shares in the company that makes these things.

The beach is quiet today as strong winds and rain have kept the crowds away.

Later in the afternoon Ilana, a local woman who we had met in NZ last year, comes to join us at the hotel.  We head up to the roof top bar with views up and down Ipanema Beach and out to sea. It’s a nice place to spend the evening.

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Saturday 13 August – Sylvia

Rio looked even better this morning under a cloudless blue sky. After a leisurely start we wandered along the other end of Ipanema beach. At the far end we came across an outdoor gym area where a number of topless local men worked out with concrete weights.

  

We wandered further around to Copacabana – more scantily clad people in all shapes and sizes thronged the beach. We visited the Copacabana Fort, completed in 1914 to defend Rio. They had some pretty large canons and we were able to walk through underneath to see all the mechanics of how they worked. It was deactivated in 1987 and is now home to the Army Historical Museum.

   

It was then time to head to the Olympic Park area to watch the NZ women’s team pursuit team in their bronze medal race. Despite all the noise in the media we have been extremely impressed with Rio’s execution of the games. Our trip to the Olympic Stadium area was very efficient. First by underground metro and then BRT (bus rapid transit). Everything ran like clockwork. We didn’t even have to queue at security at the games venue itself. There must be thousands of people employed to support the games, from the significant police and military presence, who all seem very friendly, to the people at the games area whose job seems to be to get everyone excited to be here. Some of the infrastructure has not yet been completed in a permanent form – the overbridge from the BRT to the Olympic Park and the top seating area in the velodrome were both temporary scaffolding constructions but both worked well.

 

In reality, watching the cycling at the Olympic Games was really no different to watching any other cycling we have been to, albeit we did see a fairly exciting gold medal race in the women’s team pursuit with Great Britain breaking the world record by over 2 seconds. Unfortunately NZ were beaten by Canada for bronze.

 

We reversed our route back to the hotel. You get a sense of how big Rio is. Despite everything running smoothly and efficiently it still took about an hour and a half of travelling each way.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed some of Mariana and Michael’s cheese (from Buenos Aires), massages and a couple drinks on the rooftop bar before calling it a day.

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Sunday 14 August

Our guide, Rita, picked us up at 1030 and we headed to the oldest railway line in Brazil. Built in 1884 this funicular runs up the 700m high granite outcrop to the Corcovado. Rio seems to be really good at moving people. Every seat is filled in the two carriages and the next load is waiting in a room near by. Twenty minutes or so later we are at the top. The area around the statue is packed with people, some lying down on mats to get a picture of the statue. Finished in 1931 at 31 meters high it’s quite a spectacle.

The views from here are even more spectacular. There is a bit of smog around in spite if it being a clear blue sky day. Condors soared in front of us floating on the rising air.

   

We trained back to the bottom and then drove along a ridge line with views out over parts of the city. They really know how to stack houses in around here. Favelas (illegally built houses) are plentiful here stacked together usually on the side of a mountain.

We took a stroll down the Convent stairway at Santa Teresa, created and still a work in progress by Selaron, a Chilean bloke who came there and started sticking up a few mosaic tiles and by the looks of it has got quite carried away.

From a derelict house that had speakers blurting out a weird noise we looked down on an old aqueduct, now used as a railway bridge, and a pyramid shaped  cathedral.

We then headed for the cable car up to Sugarloaf, a 400m high hill. Above the base of the cable car three climbers were ascending the rock face.

There were large but fast moving queues at the cable car. The first took us to up to the first hill, once again with great views around the city. The next car took us to Sugarloaf, with more spectacular views over the many beaches.  Olympic yachting was taking place out at sea

 

We were lucky to have our guide Rita as we would have certainly not seen all this in a day on our own. The distances here are quite deceptive with everywhere being further than it looks. Rita was also able to bypass some of the massive queues.

Mico monkeys played in a tree as we were about to catch the cable car down.

Monday 8 August

Crossing the coast into Chile revealed beautiful green paddocks rising up into grassy hills. With the snow capped Andes in the distance and clear blue sky’s it’s quite stunning.

Smog surrounded Santiago as the Boeing 787 landed, applying full brakes, I presume to get an early exit from the runway.  We walked off the plane, down a few corridors and straight onto the waiting Boeing 767 for our flight to Buenos Aires. The trip across the Andes was stunning to say the least. These snow covered mountains extend to the north and south, on this clear day beyond the horizons.

The trip from the airport to the hotel took us through an interesting part of town with what seem to be standard unfinished houses on one side of the road and ten to fifteen story old apartments on the other. The thirty kilometre trip took aver an hour.

The Four Seasons Hotel is quite flash. The room has doors that open up into the bathroom.

We took a stroll down to the El Mirasol restaurant for a very tasty eye fillet steak. This place with acoustic tiles on the ceiling and lots of waiters always at the ready is a great place to enjoy an Argentinian steak.

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Tuesday 9 August

Sylvia headed off to work. I took a stroll heading northwest through the town. As I  left the hotel there was a heavy police and military presence with guys donning body armour. I asked a porter what was going down. “The Australians are coming” was the answer.

 

Not far up the road is La Recoleta. This is a cemetery full of tombs. It’s quite unique as with many of the tombs one can look through the windows or in some cases just bars and see the coffins inside. Some are in disrepair. It was looking in one of these I realised that they go down below the ground with six or eight coffins stacked on top of each other with a steep stairway leading down to the bottom. Originated in November 1822 as the city’s  first public cemetery, the fifty two thousand square metre site has 4800 tombs. Evita Peron lies here along with many famous people.

  
 

Next was a brief stop at a large columned building with a grand foyer that turned out to be the university. ” No photos allowed”, I was told by a friendly security guard after taking a couple.

Across the road is the Museo National de Bellas Artes, with art ranging from naked people to things I did not understand. One room had a large rug on the floor with some broken lights on it like they had fallen from the ceiling.  The next had photos of people with dots over their faces and a couple of ladders in the centre of the room. I wandered in thinking “well that’s art”. A guy stopped me and said its not open yet we are setting it up. Oops those ladders were serving a purpose!!

The roads here are really wide with up to six lanes going in one direction.

Heading northwest iI wandered through continuous parks for several kilometres, passing a Zoo, a Planaterio, tennis courts, several small lakes, and a large officious brick building with an outer wrought iron and an inner brick fence that looked like a military complex but turned out to be the sewerage treatment plant.

As I passed the second statue of a horse-mounted hero, who had obviously at some point had a hand in either conquering or saving this land, I wondered how the statue makers are going to get on portraying our current prime minister, in my opinion probably the best we have ever had. He rode into town in a BMW.

As I crossed the rail overbridge an aircraft flew low overhead on approach to land at the airport almost in the centre of town. A little to the east on the water front is Parque De La Memoria. I think a memorial to those who lost there lives to various bad regimes who have ruled here in the past. A statue stands in the water not far from the shore to represent those whose bodies were dumped here. After a coffee and a glass of wine at a Bahamas over looking the River Plate I followed the shoreline back towards the city.

Fishing is popular here with dozens of people lined up along the sea wall casting into the sea. Some rods have bells on them to alert the sometimes sleeping owners that something is on the line. I never did see anyone catch anything. Food carts along the way seemed to be doing good business.

   

As I got closer to the city it became more industrial. Men worked on the footpath installing fibre-optic cable which they pulled through by hand using a nylon line. As I closed on the port area some guys had a footpath BBQ going with a rather large chunk of meat on it.

 

Large trucks rumbled down the road and the footpath became nonexistent. I had to get either over, under or round the end of the railway lines to get back to the hotel. I headed down an industrial road towards the rail line. After rounding a few corners I was suddenly in the villas (slums) as they are called here (pronounced veejas). Buildings are literally stacked up under the motorway, built of various materials amongst a maze of wires to distribute the stolen electricity to the shacks, many built with stolen materials on stolen land. They were quite intriguing.

 

Kids played and looked up in amazement as a gringo wandered into there domain. Dogs growled and barked but not just at me. The map had indicated what looked like a path up onto the motorway and over the railway lines. This was not to be. Committed now, the what had been narrow concrete lanes now turned to mud. Young men hung around gazing at and discussing this stupid gringo with flash camera in hand. It was not the time or place to stop and put the camera in my pack. Committed and with a purpose I pushed on. Each group that looked at me received a big smile and a loud “ola”, one of my five Spanish words. Some tried to engage with me but I waved and pushed on. The sun was behind me so I stayed in the sunlight to watch any shadows closing on me. Soon a single shadow was closing so I stepped aside turned and put my hand out to shake this young man’s hand. Taken aback he shook my hand then walked alongside me attempting to engage in conversation. Soon there was an alley on the left. I indicated I was going that way and he carried on after spotting the three cops there.

Passing the cops I turned left into a dead-end alley. Two old guys looked at me with surprise as I stuffed my camera into my back pack. We had a conversation without understanding a word each other said but I was sure they were telling me I shouldn’t be there.  An old guy and three young blokes rounded the corner into the alley indicating I should come with them. I looked at the two old guys who nodded their heads. I followed as they led the way back to the police.

Two policemen and a policewoman escorted me the rest of the way down the mud alley to the main road. As we parted and I shook their hands thanking then using the remainder of my Spanish words one said pointing back down the ally “very dangerous”. At the end of the day no matter where in the world one goes most people are pretty good.

On arriving back at the hotel the app in my phone said I had walked 28ks for the day.

At 830pm Michael and Mariana picked us up and took to Rio de la Plata. This was the old port area which has been transformed into restaurants and bars. We had first met last year in Salvador so it was great to catch up and share a meal together. They have started making cheese on Michael’s mothers farm where they go in the weekends.

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Wednesday 10 August

I took a stroll down to Rio de la Plato, where we had dinner last night, and booked a ferry to Colonia, across the river in Uruguay. With some time to spare I strolled down the canal. The ever present Buenos Aries smog hung in the background. Puente de la Mujer  (Woman’s Bridge) is a hive of activity with police blocking both ends. Apparently Greenpeace are quite strung up over some issue and have attached themselves to the rigging and are trying to unveil a banner. This is a really neat area with nice looking apartment blocks on the east side and the old port buildings turned into restaurants and offices on the west. The old restored cranes watch over the area.

I was looking forward to the trip across the River Plate, famous for a great naval battle in December 1939  in which the HMNZS Achilles, along with two British Ships, helped disable the German battle ship Admiral Graf Spee,  which was later scuttled off Uruguay. Unfortunately the ferry was strictly stay inside only with very dirty windows.

An hour later I stepped onto Uruguayan soil. Colonia is a pleasant clean town with a wide main street. I strolled through the town onto a hill overlooking the Rivera, a resort area.

Strolling across the back of town I came across the local army base. While I was taking a couple of photos a rather well fed corporal invited me in for a look. In the compound a company of new soldiers were learning to march.

I had time for a beer at a bar in the main street before it was time to catch the ferry back. An hour and a half on the ground in Uruguay hardly counts as a visit.

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Thursday  11 August

Ave 9 de Julio is a huge boulevard that runs through the centre of town. Several kilometres long, it has a dedicated bus road down the middle with almost nonstop bus shelters. There is a big memorial in the middle. Evia Perion features on a building at the end. Dog walking is a big deal here – packs of up to ten dogs of all different breeds are connected on leads surrounding the handler. There was even a dog run in a local park.

 

It’s protest day today and many unions are out with drums, banners and fire crackers trying to get their point across.

At the end of the boulevard I turned right and strolled through various parts of the town eventually reaching La Boca and El Caminito. Situated on the edge of the canal, this area is quite attractive with colourful buildings and markets.

 

Camera safely in my pack I strolled back up the edge of the canal which looked a bit rough. A motorway bridge here was designed so the whole centre span lifts up to let ships through. There is another big structure next to it but I am not sure what that is for.

A bit further on there were a few new Villas built under the motorway.

Eventually I arrived at the Pink Palace where the president hangs out but which is more famous for the speech Eva Peron gave from the balcony in October 1951 to a million people. I’m not quite sure how they packed them in as the square is not exactly huge. The police had erected steel barricades around the palace as the protesters were here in force.

  

From there a stroll through the narrow streets of down town took me through a park back to the hotel.

  

I stopped in at a local restaurant where the outside seats were all taken. I asked a chap occupying a table if he minded if I joined him. “As long as you don’t mind cigar smoke” he said as he puffed on his Cohiba. “Not at all” I replied as I sat down taking a Montecristo from my pack. Miguel was soon joined by Marcelo and Antonio. We had a great chat about the city and country.

Argentina has had a bit of a rough run for the last hundred years with lots of bad or  corrupt leaders.  Inflation in over the past year has been over 40% but is slowly coming down. In the past famous for its beef exports, soya beans came on the scene and with direct drilling took over the cattle market. Fences were removed as farmers switched to soya. Recently that market dropped and with fences gone it is making it hard to switch back to beef.

All too soon the afternoon was over and I was meeting Sylvia at the airport for our flight to Rio.