Tango town

From Iguazu Falls, we flew to Buenos Aires, our final stop in South America. Our flight proved to be fortuitously timed, landing minutes after midnight on 25 November. We heard later that just hours after landing, the airline we'd flown, Transportes Aéreos del Mercosur (part of the LAN network), went on strike. Phew! Buenos Aires, or BA as the locals call it, is a fascinating place. It’s unlike any other city we’ve seen in South America. It looks and feels like a classic European city with architecture reminiscent of Paris and Prague. 

We spent our first full day in town wandering the streets and soaking up the experience. This included a stroll down Florida, a pedestrianized street extending all the way into Plaza de Mayo, the historic hub of Buenos Aires. Imagine if you can a narrow boulevard lined with block after block of European-style colonial buildings, punctuated at intervals by wrought iron balcony balustrades, curved canvas awnings and eye-catching carved stone window casings and doorway pillars. 

Plaza de Mayo and its surrounding streets were filled with yet more colonial colour and character. The plaza itself is home to an array of impressive Government buildings, including the Casa Rosada, a pink-hued stone building that houses the Argentine President's office. Nearby the cupola-crowned Congresso Nacional, otherwise known as the national parliament, towers over the equally expansive, tree-lined Plaza del Congreso. 

However, these dramatic public buildings weren’t the only thing that gave the Microcentro district such memorable charm. For example, given its role as the nation’s political heart, it was no surprise when we stumbled upon a colourful protest march heading from Plaza de Mayo to Plaza de Congreso. If Google’s translator is correct, this rowdy, colourful crowd was calling for more liberal abortion rights. Equally, large and fragrant Jacaranda trees in full bloom added to the area's colourful tapestry.

While on our way into town, we took a brief detour as far as Avenida 9 de Julio to view El Obelisco. This 67.5-metre-high white obelisk is considered one of the city's iconic landmarks. It was erected in Plaza de la República to mark the fourth centenary of the city's founding in 1936. I was thrilled to finally see it with my own eyes. Although I must admit, the aerial images you see online are far more dramatic than a ground-level view.

As expected, there was plenty of street art to admire wherever we went.  Some of its rather sombre including an equestrian statue of Julio Argentino Roca, who served as the nation's president from 1880 to 1886. During his tenure, he was ultimately responsible for the extermination of more than 20,000 Mapuche Indians. He and his horse stand astride an austere plinth in the middle of an intersection, a block or so diagonally south of Plaza de Mayo. 

On a lighter note, I found time to get up close and personal with a couple of Tango Dancers we encountered on Defensa Street in San Telmo, a wonderfully old and atmospheric residential district. San Telmo reminded me of the side streets I've wandered in Barcelona, Paris and Rome. Streets filled with iconic old buildings, ornate stone churches, locals shopping in cluttered, nondescript stores staffed by friendly staff everyone knows.

We spent the following day walking through the Retiro historical district, located to the north of our hotel, before heading towards the harbour. Highlights along the way included an impressive monument to General José de San Martín, renowned as the liberator of Argentina. This impressive edifice was created in 1862 by French sculptor Louis Joseph Daumas. It was the first equestrian statue in the city (and I attest to the fact that they've installed plenty more equine edifices since then).

Between 1813 and 1818, San Martín led crucial moments in the fight for independence, defeating Spanish troops at the Battle of San Lorenzo, reorganising the Army of the North, becoming Governor of Cuyo, and creating the Army of the Andes, which he led across the mountains into Chile to liberate the neighbouring country from Spanish rule, before moving north to liberate Peru in 1820.

We finished our walking tour in the harbour districts of La Boca and Puerto Madero. La Boca is traditionally the city's poor district and is known for its alleys with colorful houses. Although highlights for us included the boat locks in Puerto Madero, where the lock gates provide road access to the coast. We arrived just in time to watch the harbour access gate swing open. An impressive water view of the city's post-modern Opera Bay nightclub also caught our eye. As you can see, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Sydney Opera House.

Without a doubt, compared to elsewhere in South America, the people in Buenos Aires were better dressed and the street buskers earned their keep performing world-class Tango routines. We’d encounter a least one dancing couple any time we walked a few blocks from our hotel. We subsequently learned there were several professional dancing schools operating in the immediate area. 

Apparently, you can book yourself a lesson or two. We certainly saw plenty of brochures to this effect on offer in our hotel room and in the lobby downstairs. Although it’d be fair to say we weren’t keen to embarrass ourselves after seeing so many incredibly slick street performances.

Instead, to cap off our last full night on the continent, we shouted ourselves tickets to the best Tango show in town. It was held in a small, intimate venue inside the Faena Hotel, called Rojo Tango. Much to our delight we were seated at a small table, just metres from the stage (you can get a feel for the venue from the image published on its website below). 

The show was stunning. Incredible live musicians and cabaret singers, plus dancing duos who simply took our breath away. It was the perfect way to farewell our time in South America.

Where is Jeremy Irons?

Let me tell you more about our time in Brazil. Perhaps the easiest place to start is the two days we spent at Iguazu Falls. The falls were simply spectacular! Beyond words. 

Our first encounter came on the Brazil side where we booked a 15-minute helicopter flight over the Falls. This gave us a terrific overview of the area and prepared us for two days of memorable sights and sounds. Once our flight was done we headed to the panoramic Brazilian falls viewing track.

I will say this, if we ever return to the falls we're definitely staying at Hotel das Cataratas. This hotel sits in the heart of Iguazu National Park. It was clear from the air that your room is literally spitting distance away from the thundering water. Nice!

The walking track followed the river gorge towards the falls. Each turn revealed a new perspective of the falls and the churning river below, each view more spectacular than the last. Then, just when we thought it couldn't get any better we came upon the Salto Santa Maria walkway. This zig-zagging elevated catwalk took us out into the very heart of the Brazilian falls themselves. The spray soaked us within seconds, the sound was deafening and the wall of water surrounding us was beyond description. That's Garry giving us a wave in the photo above. A magic moment indeed.

That same day we also visited a nearby bird park. The first few aviaries of rather average birds made us think this was a tourist-cheap affair. However, we then moved on to a series of giant walk-through enclosures packed with the most stunning birdlife I´ve ever seen. We literally had beautiful Toucans sitting beside us on the pathway, while Macaws flew by in a whirlwind of colour.

The following day we visited the Argentine side of the falls. The perspective here is completely different. So much so that you feel as if you´re visiting a totally different location. Here we took jet boat rides to the base of the fall themselves. We tipped our boat driver so that he'd give us a couple of extra sights and a few extra plunges into the falls themselves. We were totally soaked by the end of the experience. The rest of the day was spent wandering the various walking tracks around the Falls National Park.

At every turn you expected Jeremy Irons to wander past, reliving dramatic moments from the movie, "The Mission". Sadly, no Hollywood stars were sighted, although I did spot a rather large lizard harassing an American couple. A B-grade remake of "Godzilla" perhaps?

One final anecdote about our time at the Falls. As our tour progressed some of us on tour grew tired of the tour guide's uninspiring restaurant choices. In particular, he seemed to have an obsessive predilection for pizza and steak, rather than any local cuisine. 

On our last night in Iguazu Garry and I had finally had enough. After our guide announced that we were off to yet another pizzeria we staged a mutiny. We hadn’t travelled halfway across the globe to spend a week eating pizza. We walked out of his chosen venue and went searching for another. Much to our amusement, several members of the group caught wind of our plans and came with us.  

After wandering the streets for 10-15 minutes we came across a bustling restaurant more than willing to accommodate a large, walk-in group. We ultimately enjoyed a surprisingly tasty meal at a long table in a semi-private alcove at the back of the restaurant.

It's border time

Foz do Iguaçu is a Brazilian frontier town on the Iguazu River, upstream from Iguazu Falls. The town is linked via a single bridge to Argentina and its own frontier town of Puerto Iguazú. Foz do Iguaçu was our base for 2.5 days while we explored the falls and their surroundings. While the falls are the town's best-known attraction, we also took time out to visit two other significant sites.

The first was Itaipu Dam, the largest hydroelectric plant in the world. The dam straddles the Parana River, linking Brazil and Paraguay. It's a massive concrete structure more than 196 metres high and two kilometres in length. The installed generation capacity is 14GW, with 20 generating units of 700MW each. In the year 2000, it supplied 95% of the energy consumed by Paraguay and 24% of that consumed by Brazil. We're talking big!

As part of our visit, we took a bus tour that drove on to the dam itself. This meant that we briefly crossed into Paraguay for ten minutes or so - but never left the bus. This has to be the shortest trip I've ever made to another country. In 2004, I recall spending at least 15 minutes in North Korea when I visited the DMZ north of Seoul. At the time we crossed the Korean border by simply walking to the opposite side of a table placed inside the UN armistice hut.

The second unusual attraction near Foz do Iguaçu is the tri-border area. Here you're able to stand at a junction where the Parana River meets the Iguazu River and see three nations simultaneously; Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. On the banks of the river, each nation has erected an obelisk painted in the national colors of the country in which it resides.

It's not often you can stand in one spot and see another nation in front of you. I can now say that while I've never been to Paraguay, I've seen it firsthand. I also recall seeing Albania from a boat in 1990 and Israel from my hotel room in Jordan last year. I'm beginning to think I should start a list of such nations, alongside my "visited" list. At last count, the visited list of countries reached 45, excluding brief excursions like Paraguay.

Argentina is on the left and Paraguay, the right river bank

So much for the neighbourhood. Let's talk about the Falls!

Post modern metropolis

Curitiba was our next stop enroute from San Paulo to Iguazu Falls. This city is the regional capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It rarely features in tour brochures as it has no significant tourist sights of note. However, despite such shortcomings, it made for a most interesting and somewhat unexpected diversion.

Unlike most of Brazil (or Latin America for that matter) Curitiba is a model of modern urban planning. Despite being home to more than three million people, it has the look and feel of a smaller urban centre. The streets are wide, green and clean. Quaint parks are scattered throughout the city, many consisting of tidy, creative landscaping. The buildings are modern and clearly designed to complement each other. It has an efficient and accessible public transport system (consisting of long-bending buses with ten wheels).

Surprisingly, despite the stunning urban planning, the city's old town has been carefully preserved as a safe, clean pedestrian mall. This in turn is one of several people-friendly malls throughout the city centre. We had coffee one morning in a cafe that wouldn't have looked out of place in Eastern Sydney. It certainly would have looked out of place in the rest of Brazil.

Urban Activist, Bill McKibben describes the city best when he says "I have never been any place like it." The contrast between Curitiba and other Brazilian cities is stark. So much so that at times we thought we'd stumbled onto a movie set or a carefully crafted village scene at Disney's Epcot Centre. The modern beauty and efficiency were truly impressive and wonderfully refreshing after weeks on dusty South American roads. At times I could even see myself making a home here. It's a truly livable city!

To get to the Falls we caught the night bus from Curitiba. In a country where air travel is still a relative luxury, long-distance travel is generally conducted using buses. However, these are no ordinary buses. Each is equipped with large reclining seats in a style not too dissimilar to those in the pointy end of a Boeing 747.

As a result, our 12-hour journey was literally completed in business-class luxury, while never being more than a few metres above the ground. Following a sound night's sleep we arrived at Iguazu Falls shortly after dawn.

San Paulo

Almost ten years ago now, Kinselas, a popular bar in Sydney briefly closed its doors. The bar's new owners gutted the joint, transforming it into a trendy minimalist water hole. Upon reopening, its signature drink became the Caiprioska. What a wonderful beverage. It's the perfect cure for scurvy, and its preparation is the ultimate workout routine for any barman.

In Brazil, Garry and I soon discovered that Kinselas had simply been cashing in on the nation's favourite drink. The Brazilian national drink is the Caipirinha. It's made from a sugar cane alcohol called Cachaca, which is mixed liberally with crushed limes and palm sugar, and then shaken over ice. If you substitute the Cachaca for Vodka, you've created a Caiprioska.

However, unlike Kinselas, the correct method for making this drink in Brazil requires the barman to pour vodka into your glass until someone suggests he stop! It took us a few drinks in San Paulo to learn this ritual. Needless to say, those first few cocktails were potent, to say the least. We both agree it’s the perfect drink-mixing procedure for anyone who’s just completed a Rio cab ride, or a hair-raising drive to San Paulo. But I digress.

Our minivan journey to Sao Paulo involved another driver in training for the Grand Prix. Along the way, our route included a steep and winding mountain pass. Shortly after traversing the summit, we encountered an overturned truck on a downhill hairpin corner. Much to our relief, the gruesome accident encouraged our driver to ease off the pedal as we continued descending. However, his lead foot, and traffic weaving antics, returned in force when we reached the local motorway.

Sao Paulo is huge. We spent our first evening in town at Bar do Terraço, a classy piano bar at the top of the 46-story Edifício Itália office building. Thanks to some savvy tipping by our tour guide, we secured a couple of cosy window seats. We ordered, you guessed it, the national drink and toasted our near death experience. As we drank, we took in a stunning urban skyline that spread as far as the eye could see in every direction.

The following day was spent exploring the city. In the morning we took a walking tour with our guide through several city neighbourhoods. Highlights on our walking tour included a visit to Catedral Metropolitana de Nossa Senhora da Assunção e São Paulo, also known as the See Cathedral. It’s the largest Catholic Church in the city. It’s also relatively new having only been consecrated in 1964.

The stained-glass windows in the cathedral were a fascinating mix of biblical references and pictorial validation of the catholic church’s divine right to rule. For example, one window depicts a bare-chested Francisco de Mello Palheta riding triumphally into town carrying a potted coffee plant bursting with ripe red berries. We were surprised to learn that coffee isn't an indigenous plant. It was actually brought to South America from Africa by Francisco in 1727.

The cathedral sits on the southwestern edge of Praça da Sé, a plaza long considered the centre of San Paulo. The distance for all roads passing through São Paulo is measured from here. In the middle of the plaza is a statue of José de Anchieta (1534–1597). He was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Brazil in the second half of the 16th century and is credited as one of the founders of São Paulo, in 1554, and Rio de Janeiro, in 1565.

It would be fair to say that San Paulo wasn't a particularly attractive city.  However, it does offer a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new no matter where you turn.  One moment we'd spot an old and decaying colonial building, while around the next corner, we'd encounter a surprisingly stark and modernist structure or a decaying and relatively new building. Perhaps no building captured this essence better than the final stop on our walking tour, MASP, The Art Museum of Sao Paulo. It's an elevated glass cuboid suspended in the air on four vibrant red pillars.

Once our walking tour was done we left the group to do our own thing at the local Zoo. We'd chosen the Zoo in the hope of seeing a range of uniquely South American fauna. However, it proved rather disappointing. Many of the enclosures were small, barren, and not all appealing for either the animals or their human visitors.

After stopping in San Paulo for two nights, our Brazillan road trip continued inland to the post-modern city of Cubitia. After the chaos and decay of San Paulo, this next destination was a real surprise.