Christmas Vacation of a Lifetime: Stop 3: Mighty Iguaçu

 

The definitive photo of Iguaçu Falls: a tour boat goes into the spray

The trip of a lifetime, 1997 edition, continued on to one of the greatest natural wonders of the world: Iguaçu Falls. Iguaçu straddles the river border between Brazil and Argentina (where, in term, is misspelled "Iguazu" on the Argentine side).

After five days (and nights!) in Rio de Janeiro, it was time to jet off to the Foz de Iguaçu airport. My hotel was luxury accommodations: the Hotel das Cataratas.

The Hotel das Cataratas was (probably still is) a luxurious and isolated hotel. It is located on park land within walking distance of the falls.

How close?

Very close.

The hotel was quite nice, as I said, and, oddly enough as I thought at the time, it was packed with Brits. The most common species of European tourist in Rio was German. In fact, at one store, the clerk came up to and starting speaking in German, assuming I was Alemão since the number of English-speaking tourists in Rio was comparatively lower than the German-speakers. (And in Asuncion, I believe I was the lone tourist that spoke any language other than Spanish.)

There were walkways over the Iguazu River to take in the mighty falls.

Here's me posing on one of the walkways, Iguaçu over my shoulder.

Well, a much younger, thinner me.

I had two nights at the Hotel das Cataratas. Two nights really means "one day" when you factor in transportation. So for the one full day, I signed up for a "jungle cruise."

This is the jungle.

We were transported through this on the way to the boat, which was fairly small, maybe eight or so passengers, me being one.

 

And soon we were cruising on the Iguazu River to the falls. We got wet. There's a whole lot of water cascading over that cascade.

Then it was back to the luxury hotel. There was some interesting South American wildlife on the hotel grounds. I believe this fellow (or gal, I didn't check the undercarriage) is a coatimundi:

And this would be an aww-so-cute coatimundi baby:

And this might be a caiman.

I didn't get any closer to check.

Christmas Vacation of a Lifetime: Stop 2: Rio de Janeiro

Standing on a beach. Staring at the sea.

After a three-day visit to Paraguay, it was on to the whole reason for visiting Brazil: Rio de Janeiro.

Corcovado in the background. Oh how lovely. Wait, no. It's Sugarloaf, a.k.a. Pão de Açúcar.

This was my first trip out of the country on my own. It was only my second time outside of the United States after my high school Spanish class trip to Spain in 1976. (I'm not counting Canada because, really, going to Canada is not really like visiting a foreign country, let's be real.)

It was overcast and not all that hot on my first day in town, which was weird since this was late December and the start of the South American summer. 

Here are two lifeguards towering over the beach high atop that guard tower:

Rio de Janeiro in 1997 was an absolutely amazing place. This was not a place to go to check off sights to see on a list. This was a place to go for the express purpose of experiencing Rio.

And Rio is all about the beaches. Rio culture is beach culture. I was staying at a hotel a couple of blocks inland from the world-renowned crescent-shaped Copacabana beach.

Fitness equipment on the beach! And always in use,

This is Pão de Açúcar. Make sure you nasalize the vowel sound in "pão." If you don't nasalize it, you inadvertently repeat the most hilarious joke in all of Brazilian Portuguese.

I can tell this is Sugarloaf, Pão de Açúcar, because it is rock. Corcovado -- oh how lovely -- is green. There both tall mountains overlooking the Rio harbor, but the color is the tell. Well, that and the giant statue of Christ at the top of Corcovado.

A church I passed along the way:

The way of what I don't remember.

And I believe this is O Monumento Nacional aos Mortos da Segunda Guerra Mundial, the monument to Brazil's WWII dead.  This is in the Flamengo neighborhood,

Again, this is the sight to see:

Crescent-shaped Copacabana as viewed from where?

The top of Pão de Açúcar, properly pronounced with a nasal vowel. I took the cable car (actually, a series of cable cars) to the top to have a look-see.

I never made it to the top of Corcovado (oh how lovely). I know. Only two non-beach sights to see and five days to see 'em and I saved Corcovado for my "next trip" to Rio.

Sadly, after 23 years, there's been no "next trip."

This is Arpoador Beach. Harpooner's beach. It's Rio's surf beach:

No waves like that at placid Copacabana.

Now, let's move on over to Ipanema.

It was a nicer beach than the Copacabana, in my opinion. More upscale, which is totally my scene.

The beachfront fitness equipment was in better shape.

And here's a game of futvolei. It's beach volleyball, with a twist. This being a soccer-mad country, this is volleyball with the futbol-inspired addition of being hands-free. Head or feet? Use 'em. Hands? As verboten as in futbol.

Apparently this was the "muscle beach" section of Ipanema:

Again, this being the era of film photography, I did not take a ton of pictures despite five amazing days in Rio. We will conclude with Ana Paula and João (I hope I am getting his name right).

These were close friends of the wife of an attorney with whom I worked at the time of this trip. They helped show me Rio. Obrigado, meus amigos do Rio. Obrigado.

Christmas Vacation of a Lifetime: Stop 1: Asuncion, Paraguay

Government building and statue. You want details? It's been over two decades

Everybody has a different dream vacation. Ever since my youth, my dream vacation was to spend Christmas on a beach in Brazil. It's the reason I studied Portuguese for a year in college. In 1997, I decided to make the dream into a reality. After several months of planning ... remember this is pre-internet so I had to hire a professional travel agent to make all the arrangements ... after several months of boning up on my Portuguese ... I decided to do it.

So here I am. December 1997. In Asuncion, Paraguay. Close enough!

I had about two and a half weeks set aside. The one essential was Christmas Day ... beach ... Brazil. Logistically, I needed to be back in Las Vegas a few days before New Year's Eve because airfares to Las Vegas skyrocketed close to New Year's. I had thought if I was going to travel all that distance, maybe for the only time this lifetime, I also wanted to see Paraguay. So, given the tight scheduling at the end, the trip started in Asuncion, Paraguay, which numerically made it the fifth country I visited (counting the long layover in Sao Paulo airport en route to Asuncion).

I do recognize and remember the above building. The National Pantheon of Heroes. Or, if you prefer, Panteón Nacional de los Héroes y Oratorio de la Virgen Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción. This is to honor the war dead of Paraguay. And Paraguay has fought A LOT of wars, including ones against its significantly larger neighbors (e.g., the War of Triple Alliance, where Little Paraguay took on the combined forces of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay).

And, across the plaza, you can the triangular-shaped hotel in which I stayed, the Hotel Guarani.

Church:

English was not common in Asuncion. I met one person in Paraguay who spoke English. He was the day shift clerk at my hotel.

I met one person at the casino of my hotel who was in town on business and who offered to show me around Asuncion.

I believe his name was Javier, but, again, it's been 23 years. I do remember he was Peruano. He spoke no English. Still, he was a pretty good guide.

Government building:

Same government building, in landscape instead of profile.

I'm guessing the water in this photo is Bahia de Asuncion and not the Paraguay River. I remember thinking at the time this was the Paraguay River and that the other shore, visible in this photo, was Argentina. But I now think I was mistaken.

Government building flying the Paraguayo red white and blue:

Public art, with symbolism.

At the time of my visit, Paraguay was in the early stages of throwing off the lingering effects of nearly two centuries of military dictatorship. Alfredo Stroessner had governed Paraguay as its military dictator for nearly half a century. In turn, in 1989, he was deposed in a coup d'etat. A new military dictatorship governed for the next four years before turning the country over to democratically-elected civilian leadership in 1993.  Four years before my visit. After nearly two centuries.

I really enjoyed my three days in Asuncion and I do hope to go back at some point.

Same Pantheon of Heroes, different day:

This is a column honoring or symbolizing whatever you want it to. I can't remember. It's been 23 years ... 

One change that I would expect to see in the current Asuncion compared to Asuncion 1997 would be far fewer soldiers with automatic weapons on the street:

They were everywhere.

Usually they were happy and smiling. Until I asked to take their pictures. Then they adopted a more stern, more militaristic look.

Except this guy:

These were the guards at the National Pantheon of Heroes.

It seems like I took a lot of photos of the National Pantheon of Heroes. And this is in the day of film photography, when each photo was precious. If they had had TripAdvisor back in 1997 (and maybe they did, I didn't have the internet back then, since this was the technological dark ages), the National Pantheon of Heroes would have rated #1 Thing To See in Asuncion.

We will conclude with the woman and girl in a flea market stall in Plaza Uruguayo on my last day in Paraguay. As background, please note that Paraguay has two official languages: Spanish and Guarani. Guarani is an indigenous language spoken by absolutely no one outside of Paraguay.

I bought my souvenir Ñandutí lace from them. Ñandutí lace is THE souvenir to bring home from Paraguay. What I remember about them is this funny little vignette. I'm struggling to speak Spanish with them and I'm apologizing for my atrocious language skills, and they tell me, in Spanish, yet I understood, "Then speak in Guarani." And we all laughed hysterically.

I guess you had to be there. And you should.