Cristo Redentor and Jardim Botanico

Christ the Redeemer, the icon of Rio, stands 700 meters over Rio on top of Corcovado. The status is 38 meters tall. On a sunny day, you should be able to see all the coastlines and the Sugarloaf. When we got to the tram, there was a note on the side of the ticketing window that said ´We are not responsible for the weather on top of of Corcovado´. The ticket girl smiled apologetically and said ´it is not clear today´. I responded, `I know, you are not responsible for the weather on Corcovado´. 10 minutes of ride in Tijuca, the national forest, we are at the summit. As we walked up, we were engulfed by fog and clouds. I did not expect it to be so bad until I realized we were already standing in front of the Christ. We could not make out half of the statue. There was the bottom half and some dubious shadow of two arms in the cloud. The face is not visible at all. Everyone exclaimed in their own language - oh no! you can´t see anything!

For amusement, we still took a picture in front of the statue. The camera would not even focus when set at auto focus mode since it could not tell what I was trying to focus on. It was a blur. Oh well, I guess I would have to say I was not too impressed by the newly voted wonder of the world. As for the view, there was leaves three meters down the platform where Christ was standing and down further there was only fog.

We descended the mountain and headed to the Jardim Botanico, which was designed by the order of Prince Regent Dom Joáo in 1808. It has a great collection of exotic plants, a rose garden, an orchid garden, a Japanese garden of lotus pond, and bamboo and an Amazon garden. It was supposed to have over 5000 plants. The rows of palm trees were impressive. This was the best botanic garden and the oldest I had ever visited.

Mike went back to the hotel when I strolled the street fair along the Copacabana beach. Tonight we will go to Ipanema beach for dinner at restaurant Sao Sebastiao in the boutique hotel Froneria. Then we will head to Centro for a Samba club. Tomorrow is the last day. I hope it will not rain.

Also because of the weather, we could not hang glide today and I will have to reserve it for next round.

Pao de Acucar & Santa Teresa

This morning we went to Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf), one of Rio´s icons which can be seen from most part of the city. The summit is at a soaring 393 meters. To get there, one must take the telefonico (cable car), first stop is at Morro da Urca at 215 meters, next stop is from the peak of Morro da Urca to the top of Sugarloaf. The cable ride was very fast. It zipped through and we were at the summit in no time. It was a cloudy day. When the clouds passed, we could see the Cristo Redentor and the Corcovado mountain. The winding coastline was clear in view and the beaches curved like the hems of skirts, the waves like the lace embellishing the white beach sand. The view was breathtaking even on such a gloomy day. I could only imagine in my mind´s eye how gorgeous it would be if this were a sunny day with blue sky and blue sea.

The weather is warm and humid. I was happy to wear a dress and not freeze. Women dress completely differently here in Rio as compared to Santiago where the style is very much conservative. You see a lot more colors and a lot more skin, and not just on the beach. It was definitely more tropical.

Because of the clouds, we decided not to go to Cristo Redentor today. This morning´s hang glide session was also delayed until tomorrow depending on weather. We decided to go to Santa Teresa via Centro and took the Bonde to the old hilltop Bohemian neighborhood. Santa Teresa. The Bonde (tram) is the last of the historical streetcars that once crisscrossed the city. In the 19th century, Santa Teresa used to be the neighborhood of the wealthy, therefore a rich collection of 19th century colonial mansions and villas still remained. Nowadays it is the center of Bohemian Rio.

At last night´s Samba show, we met a couple from Spain, who recommended a Brazilian restaurant Do Arnaudo, at the second stop of the Bonde in Santa Teresa. As we were scanning through the pretty houses and winding streets, Mike saw the restaurant. We rang the bell and hopped off the bonde. The double cable rails inlaid the cobbled street, Do Arnaudo sat on the right side of the road on the way up hill. It was a bar/restaurant. We ordered dried jerk beef with pumkin, rice, beans and onions. Basically a small portion of feijoada. In Portugese, it´s called lombinho com macaxeira arroz (faijo de corda e farofa de abobora). I had a caipirinha. This was a cocktail made from cachaca. It went very well with the feijao and was very strong. Since I had it on an empty stomach, in no time, it went straight up my head.

We spent about two hours wandering in the pretty neighborhood of Santa Teresa, following the tram track up and down the hill. At the end of the trail, it made a circle and the track came back to where we had lunch. Nearby was the Bonde station. The Bonde comes very half hour. Local kids hop on and off without tickets but it was a norm. The Bonde was so full there was already people holding on and hanging out each side. Two local girls opened their arms and exposed two seats for Mike and me. The girls held on to the cable steel handle the entire time back to Centro, giggling, chatting with each other and making calls on their cell. It was quite an experience for me, sitting squeezed tight in one of the four spots in my row, in this 19th century yellow cable car, rattling down the stony hill.

Porcao and Samba City

Per my Brazilian coworker´s suggestion, we must go to Porcao, a Brazilian steakhouse, so we went and spent two hours eating there. The view was breathtaking. The Sugar Loaf was very close and the water calm after a storm this afternoon. We ate many rounds of beef of various cuts, all marinated to perfection, grilled medium rare to medium and frequented its buffet for other goodies. It´s all you can eat, but after sushi and beaf and six big portion of side dishes that came with the meal, I stopped. The next table of a dozen or so men came before us and took several cigarette breaks during the meal and came back for another round of meat after we were leaving. Food kept being served even though we put the red stop sign on our table indicating no more ´sim por favor´. At times, the waiter almost pushed the meat onto our plates. It´s freshed grilled, hot and juicy. He was eager to show off and we could not say no.

I also tried a dessert called kinzi, it was made of egg, caramel and coconut and was extremely sweet even for my big sweet tooth.

at 7 30, we booked a tour to Samba City for a mini carnival show located in the samba school in Suburb Gamboa. The show started at 10 and ended with the floats going out onto the streets. We all put on hats of feathers in all colors and shapes, danced with the samba dancers from the show. There were fireworks. People were waving their arms and shaking their hips. Music was loud in the air. The happy atmosphere was contagious. We got a glimpse of the famous Rio de Janeiro carnival.

Two Sides of a Coin

¨Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are just like two sides of a coin¨, Willie, our guide told us as we drove down the steep hills of Valparaiso to Vina del Mar, ¨one is old, the other one new and modern.¨

The tour started at 9 30. We were greeted by the jovian Peruvian, who lived in Korea forfour years since 19, married a Mexican, had two sons, and told us plenty tales about history, geography, and politics. Valparaiso is about 135 kms west from Santiago. On the way, Willie told us that two things came free with Santiago, wander dogs (homeless dogs) and lady drivers (apparently he was afraid of them). He claimed that the street was five lanes all in one way during rush hour because they had to reserve three lanes just for the lady drivers!

We stopped by Curacavi where we took photos of a llama who happily ate the grass Willie collected. Curacavi is an Indian word meaning the meeting of the stones. A lot of Indian chiefs had stone in the name, when the chiefs met in the valley, the place adopted the name of ´meeting of the stones´. Then we passed Casablanca where the vineyards were. The scenary is gorgeous with the mountains as a backdrop, vineyards and villas in the front. Locals come from Santiago to the vineyards for weekend day trips especially in summer season.

Valparaiso used to be the biggest port in the country. It was first discovered by the Spanish in 1541. The city was built on hills. All the houses are colorful and the hills remind me of San Francisco. There are 15 funiculars in the city, mostly built in the 1880s, with a few still in working condition. We took one up the hill. The wood interior is smooth. As the cable car moved up slowly, it made cracking noises. It´s surprising that after 100 years, this antique still works. At the top of the hill, we got a bird´s eye view of the hillside, the sea and the port of ferries, private boats and larger cruises. Valparaiso is a World Heritage place because of its unique colorful hillside houses and colonial architecture. The center of the town has two squares, one is the Plaza de Armas, the other is the Plaza de Sotomayor.

Lunch was at a castle named Castle de Mar. Out of the window, pelicans sat on the rocks or hovered over the seashore. I tried a Chardonay from Casablanca. It was very good. Seafood was superb. We tried Chilean king crab, parmesan scallops, salmon (which was a big export item in Chile) and conger with mixed seafood.

Vina del Mar has a history since 1900. It´s an area built up just for the rich from the old Valparaiso, which the working class live. We went to the piers and the beach. The water has the cold current from the antactic hence it´s always cold. Even in summer when outside temperature is over 90 degrees, the water is still too cold for swimmers. Willie said it had been called the ¨True Love Test¨. To demonstrate their love, men either plunge into the cold water, or go into the castle store to buy their lady some diamonds. Well, my man did neither.

As soon as Mike learned that there was a casino in town, he wanted to gamble. We have gambled all over the world, now we are going to donate some money to Chile. We went to the casino and played half an hour of Blackjack. I doubled up since I hit three blackjacks and had a few more good hands. He made out 15% higher too. So Chile ended up paying some of our day trip!

The last stop was the Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) musem where one of the two original statues from Easter Island could be found in Chile. This stone statue is from Rapa Nui and it was about 4 meters tall. The height of the statue symbolized the social status of the person. For example, the tallest would be 22 meters hence the Chilean president would have had such a statue.

The bad part of the day was my camera lense jammed up. The zoom no longer worked. For the rest of the trip, I will not be able to zoom any more. Too bad...

General Eating Schedule

Breakfast 9 to 10
Morning coffee and pastry 12 to 1
Lunch 2 to 4
Afternoon coffee and snacks 5 to 6
Before dinner drink 6 7ish
Dinner 8 30 -9 to 11ish
Icecream maybe at 11 if the lines are not too long

This schedule for the past week has really messed me up. Indeed I am eating all day long but I still get hungry. The stomach adjusts itself in front of good and endless options. The first two days I starved at 6 because it was normally dinner time for me but no place was open for dinner. We were waiting outside restaurant before 8 so we could get in when it opened. By third day we were eating at 9 pm and inserted a number of random eating sessions during the day hence the hungry feeling went away and along came the stuffed duck complex by midnight.

Portenos eat dinner around 9 30 10ish and go out at 2 AM and party till 5 or 6 AM. Especially in Palermo where we stayed, there were countless hip bars, sidewalk cafes, and traditional and international restaurants... We did not see locals crowding up usually until after 11 PM. It was a brand new life style for me even though I am definitly too old to party after 2!

Santiago Impression

We arrived at Santiago international airport at 8 AM this morning. The hotel picked us up. Mike had to pay 131 usds for entry fee as a reciprocal procedure since US does this to Chilean citizens.

It was much colder than Buenos Aires since now we are in the mountainous areas. The first scenary that wowed me was the snow capped Andean mountain in early morning mist as the backdrop of the highway. When we got out to walk around later the long mountain range could be seen almost anywhere in the city.

On first impression, I thought the Santiago streets were much cleaner than those of BA. There was not much dog waste on the roads while in BA, everywhere on the sidewalks, in the parks, there was dog poop. The Portenos love dogs but they do not clean after them on the streets.

We are in the Providencia neighborhood. Down our street, there is a very quiet and pretty neighborhood of well maintained, upper middle class houses. We walked about 20 minutes to the Parque Metropolitano (metropolitan park). Its summit offers a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately the funicular that was supposed to zip us up to the peak was out of order so we opted to hike the six kilometers to the peak. It was getting warm and sunny and we encountered numerous cyclers, joggers up and down the hill on our waving road up. The view was getting better as we ascended. We decided to cut through the road for cars and looked for shortcuts in the hiking trails on the side of the hill. We hiked a very steep trail following a pipeline in the woods for about 20 minutes when we finally hit the main road again, only to find us detoured to the electric towers instead of the peak where the Virgin Mary statue stood.

Eventually we made it to the summit. There was a church and the statue of Virgin Mary opened her arms to welcome us. The view over the city was breathtaking. Even though it was an overcast day, it was all worth the 2 hour hike to see the majestic Andean snowy peaks afar. Most of them over six thousand meters high. Aconcagua peak was the tallest and stood a 6920 meters high.

We took the park bus down the mountain and headed towards Plaza de Armas where most of Santiago´s points of interests are. There were many colonial style buildings near the plaza. We visited the Cathedral of Santiago and had lunch in an Italian restaurant. Seafood is great in Chile, a good change from eating so much beef in Argentina.

Our hotel staff recommended Divertemento Chileno for traditional Chilean food. It was in the park near its gate. We tracked all the way back in the evening. Mike ordered grilled mixed fish, all fresh. I had Cazuela de Ave (country style chicken and veggie soup) and seafood salad. The soup came out in a bowl larger than the largest size of ¨Pho¨. I almost fell over my seat when I saw it. I was provided with a gigantic spoon larger than my mouth but the first spoonful sent me straight to food heaven. I did my best and drank most of the soup and finished all the veggies. There was bits of rice in the broth.

For dessert, Mike had Ponderaciones, crisp pastry wrapping vanilla ice cream. I had a Port Flan with Cognac soaked prunes.

The first day of Chile turned out to be great. I´d say Santiago is non pretentious, hearty, pedestrian friendly, metro easy, clean, and friendly.

Last Day is Shopping Day

We shopped all day today and just got back. Had ice-cream again at Freddo again. We each had a belt made at the fair, Argentina leather with custom buckles.
Last steak meal tonight. We are going to a restaurant called "Standard". Its famous dish is the 24 hour slow-cooked beef ribs.

Tomorrow we fly out to Santiago, Chile. Ciao, Buesnos Aires!

San Antonio de Areco & Ombu Estancia

San Antonio de Areco, a pretty little town of 5000 people, is an easy drive away from Buenos Aires. It's in the pampas where we visited the Ombu estancia about 6 KMs away. This was a mid side estancia that had ten working gauchos. I even saw a woman working the horses. I asked the tour guide if a girl was born into a gaucho family, did she have the freedom to do whatever she wanted? The answer was yes. The woman could do anything just like men, or better. According to Daniel, our guide, gauchos, the special people who formed their own unique culture and history over the years, were dwindling in numbers. Gauchos are traditionally very poor people. The profession itself was starting to die out as a result of modernization.

We were served with wine and freshly baked empanadas stuffed with ground meat. After the snack break, we rode horses on the estancia. Only a couple horses ran. Mine was a stubborn one that would not go any faster than the dog that was following the group. It was not so much into eating like the horse I had in Goreme, Turkey but it was glued to the slow speed like the horse of Julee. I kept thinking about that other ride Julee and I had. How different is the landscape now! The pampas is vast and flat. I couldn't see any buildings at the end of the horizon. Horses, cattle, and sheep grazed the field.

After the horseback riding, we went back to the house. An asado (BBQ) lunch was served outdoors. Tables had been set up right near an old tree whose trunk must be over 4 meters wide. We had freshly bbq'ed pork ribs, chicken, blood sausages, chorizos, beef steak and other assortment of salads and sauces. Malbec was served. I have gotten so used to drinking wine these days, I can easily get tipsy before noon. Argentina's Malbec tastes so good, I am fallen love with it. People on our tour came from Australia, England and US. I noticed that blood sausages were the least favorite on our plates. I tried mine and finished it but it was definitely not my favorite either. The homemade ice-cream cake with caramel and nuts outside was delicious.

After lunch, the gauchos showed us some serious horse whispering. The gaucho teenager was able to take the horse upside down, with four legs in the air, belly completely exposed and head on the ground. The two bonded so well, it must have taken years for the animal to trust the human like this.


An older gaucho musician played guitar and sang some traditional songs about the gaucho's life on the pampas. Dogs ran around between tables for leftover bones and meats. They all got a stomach full just like us.

The estancia was tranquil and beautiful. The land was full of green plants, trees and spring blooms. Next time, I would stay over a night or two to enjoy the peace and quiet.

La Cabrera

I am exhausted from eating. La Cabrera, another parrilla highly rated on TripAdvisor.com and by our hotel, presented us each with 20 ounces of steak, six small side dishes to share, and with the steak came with our own six small side dishes. We also had half portion of a tomato salad with mazzerella. I did not know it was half portion until seeing the bill.

Our waiter was like a magician. Each time he showed up, more food came with him. He even brought us a tree of lollipops at the end of the meal. We each had to take three of different flavors. Then came the limoncello, which was also on the house. I did not complain. I had mine and Mike's portion.

Meat was extremely juicy and tasty. Shared sides were hot dishes: pumpkin, squash in buttery sauce, two types of sauteed onion, mashed potato, and roasted potato in bacon sauce. Separate side dishes were mostly olive oil and vinegar based and very refreshing.


I am dying from overeating. Mike, surprisingly ate all his portion and was not even full. He is definitely in his meat heaven. No more ice-cream tonight...

Quick Facts of Cows

Cattles are raised on the pampas in Argentina. There is the wet pampas near BA and the dry ones in the west or Patagonia where there is not so much rain.

The cows are lean because the land is flat therefore the cows do not need to move much, hence no muscle development, hence tender. Fat cows make tender meats. :)

La Boca and San Delmo

After a deep tissue massage in the morning, we relaxed our sore butts and legs from horseback riding. Sunday is the day for street fairs and tango in the streets of La Boca and San Delmo.

La Boca is photographed as the symbol of BA in many travel magazines because of its colorful houses in El Caminito, the name of the colorful street of the neighborhood. The two blocks of houses in bright red, green, yellow, blue, and purple are the only areas safe enough for tourists. All guidebooks and our hotel staff warned us against going beyond those streets. If you simply read the guidebooks, it could easily sway a tourist to skip La Boca since it was most of the time described as the shanty town of BA and extremely unsafe. I was glad we went. Otherwise we would have missed this unique little corner of the town.

The cab dropped us right in front of the triangular house. Immediately we were attracted to a circle of people watching the street tango in full swing at the square.

Tango, the dance of passion, love and desires can be found everywhere in San Delmo and La Boca. We strolled along the two blocks of streets. Mike snapped a few quick jump shots of me in front of the brightly painted walls.

Local artists sold their crafts and paintings on the side of cobbled street. I bought two framed collages of day and night of La Boca, on which of course there were cats. I had to bring some cats back home. :)

Next stop is the Case Rosada. We were there the other day but they closed for tours. Today it was open for tours. Even though it was in Spanish, we followed the guides dressed in soldier uniform upstairs into this presidential house and its beautiful courtyard. There were pictures of the Peron family, historical photos of the revolutions and wars. I thought the house was bigger than the White House.

Granted it was a little difficult considering we did not understand much of anything from the tour but it was nice to be able to go upstairs, see the inside of hall and the pretty courtyard with fountain and palms.
San Delmo's Sunday market opens from 10 AM to 5 PM. It's a quick cab away from the Plaza de Mayo. We had a fast lunch then joined the hundreds thousands of people in the fair.

The main street is blocked on Sundays specifically to make room for the fair. All the way down the road, all we could see was sea of people. We saw lots of leather goods, handicrafts in glass, wood, stones, silver, weaved clothing and vantage clothes.

We saw a band of youngsters making music in the middle of the street. In South America, as if dancing and singing were a part of the birth right, we see people everywhere, young and old reacting to music and rhythm is in their blood. I found myself often jealous of them to be able to let go and let their hearts and limbs take them.


Tonight we are going to La Cabrera, another parrilla for steak. Steak is the main staple here, all twenty cuts or more on the menu, all juicy and delicious. Mike is in heaven...