The Amazon--Part 1

Amazonia, the basin of the Amazon River and its tributaries, is critical not only to South America, but to the entire world. Some statistics:

1) Amazonia consists of the Amazon River and its 1500 tributaries. 17 of those tributaries are longer than the Mississippi River. Together, the Amazon and its tributaries total 50,000 miles of waterways.

2) Amazonia covers 2.7 million square miles—40% of South America. It encompasses parts of Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Ecuador.

3) Amazonia contains 20% of the water in rivers of the world and creates 20% of the world’s oxygen.

4) More water flows through the Amazon than through the next 10 largest rivers combined.

5) 500 billion cubic feet of water flow into the Atlantic Ocean from the Amazon every day. The flow for one day would provide enough water for New York City for 9 years. So much water flows into the ocean that it remains fresh for 125 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.

6) The amount of sediment carried into the ocean each day would fill 270,000 10-ton dump trucks. Over time, that sediment has created Marajo Island, which is the size of Switzerland. The sediment causes the water to be a café au lait color.

Is the Amazon the longest river in the world? There seems to be disagreement here. National Geographic insists the longest river is the Nile, which is about 4000 miles long. But Jacque Cousteau’s foundation has traced the Amazon to a glacier in Peru, which would make it a few miles longer. It remains a mystery….

The River is deep enough that ocean-going vehicles can reach Iquitos Peru. We’re in Manaus, which is 1000 miles in and Iquitos is 1000 miles further.

Where does the water come from? There are 3 types of tributaries:

1) Brown rivers. These rivers come from glaciers in the Andes Mountains and the brown color comes from the sediment created by the glaciers moving along the mountains.

2) Blue rivers. These rivers come from mountains that have no glaciers, so they look essentially clear.

3) Black Rivers. These rivers provide the purest water and flow through lower elevations, where there is much vegetation that increases the tannins in the water, making it appear black.

Much of Amazonia is a rain forest that receives 150-180 inches of rain a year. The Amazon River itself flows roughly along the equator and has very little variation in temperature—it’s always hot and humid! There are two seasons, the dry and the wet. The wet is from December to May and the dry from June to November.  In the wet season the water in the river rises a few inches every day. We’ve heard different estimates, but the current depth of the river is 35-40 feet above what it was in November. This means buildings must be built on higher ground, or on stilts or they float on a raft. Picture 1 shows a small farm near Santarem. The water has risen to the point that livestock and people have been moved to higher ground. Vegetation survives in the water and forests appear to “float”. Picture 2 shows a village on stilts near Manaus. On some houses you can see that the water line has risen into the house. Picture 3 shows a floating house, which was built on a raft and is tied to the shore.

Traffic is by boat. Picture 4 shows a school bus that transports children from remote villages to a central school. Other than in the larger cities, there are few roads and many of those become impassable in the rainy season.

One of our stops was in the Anavilhanas Archipelago—the largest group of islands in a fresh body of water. We visited the Ariau Jungle Hotel, which has 5 miles of boardwalks above the water. Picture 5 shows what the jungle looks like closer to the canopy. That same day we also took a canoe into a “floating forest” and hiked through a section of the forest that was above the water line, seeing some amazing vegetation. (Picture 6).

Floating through the forest allowed us to see some of the small villages. Picture 7 shows a typical house. Interestingly, they may have shutters to cover the windows, but there is no glass or screens—and there are lots of insects and animals that we would not want crawling into our house! In most there is no plumbing or electricity. Some houses have generators and it’s interesting to see a house like this with a satellite dish. The river is the water source. If it’s a “brown river” you need to let the sediment settle to the bottom before using. Bathing is done in the river.

From Manaus we took a boat to the “Meeting of the Waters”. Manaus is where the Rio Negro (a black river) and Rio Solim’fes (a brown river) meet to form the Amazon. Picture 8 shows how the 2 rivers, with very distinct colors, run side by side for about 12 miles. The reasons they don’t mix immediately:

1) The Rio Negro comes from Columbia and the Rio Solim’fes comes from the Andes and the Rio Negro is several degrees warmer and flows slower due to lesser elevation changes.

2) The Rio Negro has a low PH, which makes it acidic, while the Rio Solim’fes has a higher PH, making it neutral.

We then visited the January Ecologic park, where we walked through the jungle to a lake where the giant water lilies grow (Victoria amazonica). Picture 9 shows both the pads and some blossoms. The pads grow to 6 feet wide and are an amazing site. Picture 10 shows a pad beginning to unfurl.

Following the walk, we canoed through another floating forest, as you can see in Picture 11.  Picture 12 shows a Ceiba Tree, the sacred (and largest) tree in the rainforest. These can grow to 200+ feet high and be flooded for 6 months of the year and survive. You can see the water mark on the trunk of the tree—and remember, we’re already 3 months into the rainy season! Interestingly. This is also a “communications tree”. By pounding on the trunk, you get the effect of a drum, which can be heard for miles.

Needless to say, it has been one amazing experience after another. Today we’ll tour Manaus and we’ll try to post some pictures tomorrow. Then it’s 4 days sailing back out to the Atlantic Ocean and, I’m sure many more great pictures!

Wandering Up Brazil's East Coast

Since leaving Rio 10 days ago, we have made several stops along the east coast of Brazil. It’s not real touristy; some of the places lack an infrastructure; but all are gearing up for the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016. Picture 1 is a map with our stops circled.

Our first stop after Rio was in Armacao Dos Buzios, which is a resort area near Rio, where Cariocas (Rio inhabitants) go to their beach homes. We wandered the town in search of a haircut for Rick. We always enjoy rising to this challenge when abroad and it’s always fun trying to communicate what he wants done. Fortunately, cutting his hair is not much of challenge, so I just point to the clippers, pass my hand over his head like I’m holding them and make a buzzing sound. 15 minutes later we left, paying the equivalent of $10, which included a very generous 30% tip!

We then wondered up the coast to Vitoria and Vila Vehla, which are 2 adjacent cities of about a million people. We visited the Convent da Penha, which was built in 1558, sits way above the city and provides an amazing view of the city below (picture 2).  The Chapel contains a very famous picture of the Virgin Mary (The Lady of the Rock) and the faithful climb the hill on their knees on Easter Sunday to worship it.  We then visited an Artisan cooperative where pottery is made to serve their famous Capixaba dishes. These “stews” were originally made by slaves, who took whatever food their owners didn’t finish, combined it in a ceramic pot and slowly cooked it. Today these are largely fish and seafood stews. The ceramic pots (panelas) are made by hand by a group of women at the cooperative and then fired in an open flame, as shown in Picture 3. After firing, they’re dipped in a liquid made by soaking mangrove tree bark in the water from a nearby polluted-looking stream, which waterproofs the pot for cooking the stew. Given the weight of the huge pot and the questionable final soaking, there will not be one in the Hubers’ luggage!

Our next stop was Salvador de Bahia, the original capital of Brazil, which was discovered in 1501 by Amerigo Vespucci. This area is the heart of Afro-Brazil culture and it was interesting to learn that there are many more Candomble (voodoo) houses, then there are Catholic churches—and there are 365 churches! It is not uncommon for families to practice both voodoo and Catholicism. Our guide told us that the people prefer to be called Negros because “Black” is the color of an object and should not be used to describe a person. He further explained that the African culture has been kept alive here, whereas it has disappeared in America. There are “houses” (Benin House, Mozambique House, Nigeria House, etc.) where individuals may go to check their ancestry. Picture 4 shows the original slave market, along with some of the other brightly-colored houses that make up Old Town. Like the Spaniards in other parts of South America, the Portuguese established large churches here, decorated with much gold leaf, as shown in Picture 5. This was a fascinating visit and we learned much of the history of this part of the world.

In the new part of town, we saw the brand-new football stadium that’s being built for the World Cup next year. Interestingly, all new stadiums only seat 55,000, rather than the 80,000 that used to be allowed. We were told the Federation that makes up rules for football hopes this will reduce injuries from riots! Of course, the exception is the monster stadium in Rio, where the finals will be held. It originally held 180,000 seats, but is being rebuilt to only hold 83,000, in the interest of safety.

Moving on, we next visited Recife, which is struggling to become a tourist town, but hasn’t quite made it! What’s most interesting here is that in this area of the coast, you are closer to Africa than to the western edge of Brazil. (Brazil is a really big country, the size of the contiguous 48 states.) Locals often call Recife the “Venice of Brazil” because of its canals and bridges, but we’re not buying it!  It does have some lovely architecture (and a new football stadium) that is being fixed up for he World Cup. Picture 6 shows one of these “spruced up” parts of town.

Brazil is known for it’s cachaca—a rum-like drink made from distilled sugar cane liquid. We were told that regular rum is distilled from molasses, but that doesn’t explain white rum…. Anyway, we tried cachaca mixed with limejuice and A LOT of sugar and it’s quite tasty!

Our final stop along the coast was Natal, where we had a great time sailing over the dunes in a dune buggy.  We went up great, tall dunes, slid down the dunes sideways and then drove along the beach, often in the water. We even managed a ferry ride in our dune buggy, as we crossed the bay. The remaining pictures show some of the great views we experienced.

We’re now enjoying 2 relaxing days at sea, with lectures on the Amazon. This morning we crossed the equator at 7:42. Our ship desalinates water for use on board and today is our last day adding water. Once we enter the Amazon we are on water conservation restrictions--not taking water on or discharging waste. It will be interesting to see what happens for the next 10 days--we could be a smelly lot! Tomorrow morning we arrive in Macapa, at the mouth of the Amazon, where we pick up our pilot to take us into the Amazon.  We will go in as far as Manaus, which will take 4 days. This, of course, was the reason for choosing this trip. Hope we’ll have lots to tell about as we get into the jungle!

Rio de Janeiro

What a great city. It is so beautiful and full of such energy that you just want to Samba down the street in a very brief bikini. (Not this body, but we saw a lot of them!) Our ship spent 2 days in Rio and we packed as much as we could into our time.

On the down side, the traffic and lines are horrendous. It is hard to imagine that this city is about to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. To put it succinctly, is this city ready for the world stage, when you can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet in public restrooms????!!!!

Last year on the blog we told you Sydney had the most beautiful harbor to sail into in the world. That may still be true, but Rio is a close second. The harbor is surrounded by these leaning gumdrop-shaped granite hills that were forced up as the Earth’s plates shifted. We sailed into the harbor at sunrise, when the fog hadn’t been burned off and it provided an eerie sensation, as you can see in Picture 1. As we passed by, the fog lifted from Corcovado and the Christ the Redeemer Statue came into view, as you can see in picture 2.

On our first morning we visited Sugar Loaf and traveled by cable car to the top for wonderful views of Rio. Sugar Loaf is one of those “gumdrop mountains” (1293 feet), which stands above Guanabara Bay. Picture 3 shows Sugar Loaf from the shore.

We also visited the Cathedral Metropolitana, which is one of the newest and most interesting cathedrals we’ve seen. It’s not really beautiful, but it’s spectacular. It reminded us of an ancient Mayan temple. Picture 4 shows the exterior. Inside, the ceiling rises to a little over 200 feet and 4 beautiful stained glass windows reach to the ceiling, where skylights in the shape of a cross, let in the sunshine, as you can see in Picture 5. There was an interesting Crucifix, which included Mary and Joseph on either side of the cross, but otherwise it was very plain.

In the afternoon we visited Ipanema (“Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking….”—once in your head that song stays for a long time!). Picture 6 shows the wall-to-wall bodies that occupy the beach on the weekend.  Interestingly, our guide told us that there are no nude beaches in Rio because they are much too conservative! You’ll notice that most womens’ bathing suits are either thongs or “cheekies” (whether they look good in them or not!). Picture 7 shows Copacabana on Monday—crowds are a little thinner!

On our way back to the ship we took a quick side trip to see the Sambadrome (Picture 8). This is where Carnaval occurs (BTW Carnaval means “goodbye meat”—carne vale). There are also street fairs that occur during this time preceding Lent, but what Rio is known for are the Samba Club competitions that occur here. For 3 nights, the different Samba Clubs put on their individual shows as they march down the almost-half-mile distance between the 2 rows of seats (seating 30,000). On the fourth night, those winning prizes on the first 3 nights compete again and the best Samba Club is crowned. The tickets are pricey and the show typically lasts for a loud 4 hours and even though there are seats, everyone stands for the entire time. Rumor has it, alcohol may be involved….

On our second day we headed out to Corcovado (the mountain name, which means hunchback) and the Christ the Redeemer statue. The height of Corcovado is 2329 feet and is the highest mountain in the area. You reach the statue level by cog railway and then enjoy the views from top. Picture 9 shows you the view of Sugar Loaf and Guanabara Bay from the top.

The Christ the Redeemer statue (Picture 10) sits at the top of Corcovado and can be seen from almost everywhere in Rio (Picture 11). It is 124 feet tall, made of reinforced concrete and was designed by a French architect. The statue was paid for by the Catholic Church and was completed in 1931. At precisely 7:00 PM, on October 12 of that year, the statue was to be lit by Marconi sending a signal from Italy. Being in the middle of a rainforest, it rains a lot here and it started raining October 9 and did not stop. Someone suggested postponing the lighting, but the Church didn’t want to do that because October 12 is a feast day for the Virgin Mary. At 6:00 PM, people started leaving their homes with umbrellas to, hopefully see a little light from the statue). And then a miracle occurred. At 6:30 PM, a strong wind suddenly blew in from the ocean, the rain stopped and the clouds cleared and by 7:00 all could see the statue lit.

We sailed away from Rio after dark and the city in lights is spectacular. 

Mendoza and Buenos Aires

We were afraid that the rest of Argentina would be a “let down” after the amazing Iguassu Falls, but it didn’t disappoint. We spent 3 days in Mendoza and 2 days in Buenos Aires.

Our favorite wine is Malbec and we went to the heart of Argentina’s wine country—Mendoza—to sample it (along with a lot of other varieties). In all, we sampled 23 wines during our 3 days. The first picture is the Malbec that was our favorite. The winery was brand new, although they have been using part of it for a few years. One amazing thing about Mendoza’s wineries is that they usually have an amazing view of the Andes, as you can see in picture 2. Picture 3 was taken at Kaiken Winery and shows how they were cloning grape plants. One of the tendrils is allowed to grow long enough to reach the ground and is buried. The little yellow bags show, where the new shoot is detached from the old plant and is starting to develop on its own. This winery was also interesting because they trellised the vines high enough that we could walk below them. Picture 4 is our lunch at Cava de Cana Wine Restaurant. It included at least 30 items that typical Argentines would have for their meal. It was very good!

One of our days in Mendoza we drove into the Andes to see Aconcagua—the tallest mountain in the Americas at 22,841 feet. Pictures 5 and 6 show mountain scenery along the way. It’s very different from the Chilean side, which is much greener. We visited the Inca Bridge (picture 7), which was formed when glaciers covered the area, while warmer mineral springs ran below the glacier. As we approached Aconcagua, clouds covered the peak, but as we arrived at the National Park and hiked to the viewpoint, a very fierce wind blew the clouds away and provided us with a clear view of the peak, as you can see in picture 8.

Back in Buenos Aires we spent time touring the city. We made the obligatory trek to Recoleta Cemetery (picture 9) where we saw Eva Peron’s family crypt (the Duartes). We didn’t realize that she died in her early 30s, Juan left the country and went to Spain. He returned in the 70s with a new wife, who became the Vice President after his second time to be president. It’s hard to visit Argentina without singing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” The cemetery is worth the trip, just to see the how extravagant the family crypts are.

Also in Buenos Aires, we visited La Boca—the port where emigrants entered Argentina in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It was originally an area of colorful corrugated metal houses. As you can see (picture 10), it has become a trendy neighborhood of restaurants and shops. When we were here 7 or 8 years ago, it was still a sleepy neighborhood, but not any more.

On our second Buenos Aires day we drove out into the pampas area to visit an estancia. Originally, this was an Estancia of 1000 acres and the source of some of Argentina’s famous beef. Today, that Estancia was subdivided and the one we visited was only 100 acres and has become kind of like a dude ranch. They fixed a tremendous BBQ lunch as you can see in picture 11. I know—not very vegetarian. But part of traveling is sampling the local cuisine. It was excellent!

We are now onboard our ship and spent today in Montevideo. Since we visited here last fall, we didn’t take any tours. We just walked around the center of town and admired the beautiful, but tired, architecture.

Next report from Brazil!

Iguassu Falls

There are a few places on Earth that we have been overwhelmed by the beauty of what we have seen.  We still gaze in awe when we walk up to the edge of the Grand Canyon, for example. We have added Iguassu Falls to that list. Niagara Falls is baby stuff in comparison. Iguassu seems to go on forever and the falls are created by rainwater draining into a river that is only about 5 feet deep.

We spent one full day exploring the Argentine side of the falls—at water level in a boat, along the edge at the top and, after a short train ride and a 1 km hike, to the edge of the Devil’s Throat. As you will see, we were SOAKED as we experienced the falls from the water. On our second morning, we visited the Brazilian side of the falls and saw everything from an entirely different perspective.

Words cannot adequately describe….

Itinerary for South America, Part 2

The bags are packed! Our itinerary is below. We'll update once the excitement starts.

Itinerary
Date	Location	Arrive/Depart
2/24	RDU-Miami	AA 1293 lve 06:55 arr 09:10
	Miami-Buenos Aires (EZE)	AA 999 lve 10:45 arr 21:40
	Legado Mitico Hotel
2/25	Buenos Aires (AEP) to Iguassu	AR 1734 lve 15:55 arr 17:40
	Hotel Das Cataratas
	Iguassu Park (Brazil)
2/26	Iguassu National Park (Argentina) Tour
2/27	Iguassu-Buenos Aires (AEP)	AR 1737 lve 14:30 arr 16:20
	Buenos Aires (AEP)-Mendoza	AR 1410 lve 17:20 arr 19:10
	Finca Adalgisa Hotel, Vineyard & Winery Mendoza
2/28	Full day Lujan Maipu Wineries tour
	Lunch Cava de Cano
	Dinner Florentino Bistro 8:30
3/1	Full day Andes tour with picnic lunch
	Dinner Azafran 8:30
3/2	Full day Valle de Uco wineries tour
	Lunch Andeluna
3/3	Mendoza-Buenos Aires	AR 1411 lve 9:30 arr 11:02
	Legado Mitico Hotel
	Half day tour--Southern BA
3/4	Full day tour to Estancia Candelaria del Monte
3/5	Half day tour--Northern BA
	Transfer to port
	Depart Buenos Aires on Seabourn Sojourn	16:00
3/6	Montevideo, Uruguay	06:00-18:00
3/7	At Sea
3/8	At Sea
3/9	Parati, Brazil	12:00-20:00
	Gold Trail Safari 13:00 4 hrs
3/10	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	08:00-24:00
	Sugar Loaf and Rio Highlights 9:00 4 hrs
3/11	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	00:00-19:30
	Corcovado & Christ the Redeemer 8:30  4 hrs
3/12	Armacao dos Buizios, Brazil	08:00-18:00
3/13	Vitoria, Brazil	08:00-18:00
	Vila Vehlah & Vitoria  8:30 5.25 hrs
3/14	At sea
3/15	Salvador de Bahia, Brazil	08:00-18:00
	Historic Salvador 8:30 3.75 hrs
3/16	At sea
3/17	Recife, Brazil	12:00-23:00
	Catamaran & Cachaca Carvalheira Factory 9:00 3.5 hrs
3/18	Natal, Brazil	07:00-14:00
	Natal Dune Buggy Adventure 8:00 5 hrs
3/19	At sea
3/20	Cross the equator, At sea
3/21	Cruising the Amazon River
3/22	Santarem, Brazil	12:00-23:00
	Meeting of the Waters 12:30 3.75 hrs
3/23	Cruising the Amazon River
3/24	Anavilhanas, Brazil	07:00-23:59
	The Ariau Jungle Tower 8:30 4.25 hrs.
	Exploring the Jungle by Native Canoe 14:00, 2.75 hrs
3/25	Manaus, Brazil	07:00-24:00
	Meeting of the Waters 13:00 4 hrs
3/26	Manaus, Brazil	00:00-17:00
	Manaus City Tour 13:00 3.5 hrs
3/27	Parintins, Brazil	12:00-20:00
	Parintins by Tricycle 12:30 2 hrs (no reservation yet)
	Boi Bumba Show 16:30 1.5 hrs
3/28	Santarem, Brazil	09:00-23:00
	Santa Lucia Arboretum 10:00, 4 hrs
3/29	Curua Una, Brazil	08:00-17:00
	Pacoval Village, 8:30 4.25 hrs
3/30	Cross the equator, at sea
3/31	At Sea
4/1	Devil's Island, French Guina	07:00-13:00
4/2	At Sea
4/3	Bridgetown, Barbados	08:00-18:00
	Bridgetown by Segway (8:30 3 hrs) or Catamaran Turtle Encounter (9:15 5 hrs) (no reservation yet)
4/4	Terre-de-Haut, Guadelupe	10:00-18:00
4/5	Gustavia, St. Barts	08:00-18:00
	Discover St. Barts with Lunch (Virtuoso tour)
4/6	Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke BVI	07:00-14:00
	Catamaran Sailing & Snorkel (8:30 3.5 hrs) or Treasure Island: Norman Island Snorkeling (8:45 3 hrs) (No reservation yet)
4/7	At Sea
4/8	At Sea
4/9	Arrive Ft. Lauderdale FL	7:00
	FLL to RDU	SW 735 lve 12:45 arr 14:55