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Published: March 16th 2008
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Easter Island
A wild coast line It was a fantastic start to our time in South America, as we enjoyed three world class attractions in our first three or so weeks on the continent - Easter Island, the Rio Carnaval and Iguazu.
Easter Island is now known as Rapa Nui by its inhabitants, but one of its early Polynesian names was ´Te pito o te henua´ or "The Navel/Bellybutton of the World", so-called because of its isolated position in the southern hemisphere. The island is part of Chile and lies 3,600 km off the west coast of South America, and over 2,000km from the nearest inhabited landmass, Pitcairn island (a British Overseas Territory where in 1790, the mutineers of the Bounty and their Tahitian companions settled). Easter Island is famous for stone statues, or moai, built to honour the islanders´ ancestors.
Our arrival on Rapa Nui marked the start of six months of travelling through Spanish-speaking countries, notwithstanding a couple of weeks in Portuguese-speaking Brazil and English-speaking Belize. Initial signs on the language front were not good when our efforts to buy what we thought was a tub of soft cheese left us ´enjoying´ bread and butter (mantequilla, as we now know) for lunch!
Easter Island
Rano Kau, a lake in the crater of the extinct volcano The disappointing diet aside, we spent two great (& exhausting!) days exploring the island by bicycle, visiting the majority of the sights, including the volcanoes of Rano Kau and Rano Raraku. We were also very fortunate to be there for the first night of the Tapati Rapa Nui festival, a celebration of island culture.
The island was fascinating, the scenery wonderful and the locals really friendly.
We would have loved an extra night or two there. We did get to spend a few hours longer than planned due to a delay in our outbound flight, which meant a late arrival in Santiago. This late arrival and a very early scheduled departure the next morning for Rio meant we decided to bed down at the airport (alongside a number of locals and fellow travellers).
We were a little tired by the time we landed in Rio, and less than impressed when our pre-arranged transport failed to show. However, we arrived at the Sheraton (a wonderful Christmas/birthday present to us from my mum and dad), and our first bit of genuine luxury in many months - although I could have done without the bathroom scales, which showed I´d put
Easter Island
Ahu Tongariki, 15 Moai line up along the largest ahu (platform) built! on almost 10kg since leaving the UK!
Our arrival in Rio coincided with the 2008 Carnaval. Prior to our arrival, our knowledge of the event was limited to the glitzy images on TV, but we found there is more to it than we´d expected.
On both the Sunday and Monday night preceding Ash Wednesday, six samba schools parade in the Sambodrome, a venue purpose-built in 1984 (although the first records of Carnaval date back to the early 18th century, with the first formal samba school formed in 1928). Schools are an association of people from the same neighbourhood, often from the favelas or shanty towns, and comprise 3,000 - 5,000 performers. The schools provide jobs for many members of the community in the production of costumes and floats, and also because a handful of the performers are professional dancers (although the vast majority are amateurs - not that you would know it).
The schools each have 60-75 minutes to samba the length of the parade route, and are marked by a team of judges in numerous categories, including theme, harmony, flagbearer, floats and costumes. The best six schools over the two nights compete again the following week-end,
Easter Island
Moai plus one at Rano Raraku! whilst the worst school is ´relegated´.
Our night at Carnaval was simply amazing!!! I can´t do justice to the colours, sounds or atmosphere.
We had left the hotel early to ensure we could see the entire show, but were delayed for two hours by an impromptu street party! By the time we arrived, at about 10.30pm, the first school was just finishing its routine, but the remaining five schools were superb (with four of them making it through to the final the following week-end). The (very) occasional trip to Tiger-Tiger aside, I´m not often found swaying my hips into the small hours, but it was only when the last school finished their routine shortly before 6am that Sarah and I retired to the hotel, breakfast and bed.
Unfortunately, persistent rain meant we saw little of Rio during the rest of our stay, a street party and a wind-swept Copacabana aside. Given the foul weather, we changed our plans and travelled south to the attractive colonial town of Paraty, which lies on the Costa Verde (green coast), before heading back towards Rio for a week-long stay on Ilha Grande, Brazil´s third largest island, home to lush tropical rainforest
Easter Island
A painful mode of transport for the inexperienced! and some of the finest beaches on the continent, including beautiful Lopes Mendes.
Both destinations required us to communicate in sign language and some very basic Portuguese, as English is not widely spoken, especially in Paraty: even at tourist information, where Sarah was handed the phone so she could talk to an English speaking local when we tried to obtain some information on the sights in the area.
Our lack of Portuguese wasn´t much of a hindrance, as the locals were invariably very friendly. Many of the restaurants were self-service, where you pay by weight, so we were able to order without having to translate a menu. As well as ´per kilo´restaurants, we also discovered that ´per kilo´ice-cream palours were very popùlar with the locals (and with us!). With Sarah giving up chocolate for lent, ice-cream and dulce de leche (the toffee-like substance you get from heating condensed milk) soon became mainstays of our diet!
After our days on the coast, it was time to head inland, with a 36 hour journey to Iguazu.
We spent two days at the falls, viewing them from both the Brazilian and Argentinian side. The falls are strung out along
Rio De Janeiro
Copacabana in the rain! the rim of a crescent-shaped cliff about 2.7 km long, with some 275 individual cascades and plummet up to 80 metres. Whilst not the world´s tallest or most voluminous waterfalls, they are certainly one of the world´s most spectacular (according to www.world-waterfalls.com, the 4th most spectacular to be precise!!).
Whilst the Brazilian side provides the grand overview, the Argentinian side allows a closer look at much of the falls. The jungle setting is also splendid, although very humid. Our day on the Argentine side ended slightly embarrasingly when, on our return to the bus station in the border town of Puerto Iguazu, our attempts to find out about buses the following morning to the small town of San Ignacio Mini were thwarted by an air-freshener wielding employee. Having been liberally sprayed (the woman concerned made little effort to conceal the fact that it was us she was freshening) we moved on!
We did make it to San Ignacio Mini, the site of a former Jesuit mission, the following morning, and from there continued the Argentine leg of our adventures . . . in the meantime, here are Sarah´s favourite photos from those first three and a bit weeks.
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