The trip started on the 26th of January, with a long flight made
of 4 flying legs, Tel-Aviv->Zurich / Zurich->Dallas (Ft. Worth) /
Dallas->Miami and finally Miami->Buenos Aires. The whole enchilada
lasted some 34 hours not including 3 hours of in-between flight
times.
I landed in Buenos Aires on a sunny day, and went directly to a
Hotel on Av. de Majo, some 500 from the intersection with 9 de Julio.
I made myself aquainted with the surroundings a bit, and with the
nearest Internet Cafe, and then I went to sleep, awaiting the arrival
of my friend (Ofer) and his wife (Keren), who were honeymooning in
South America for close to 2 months already, and browsed through
Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
We stayed in Buenos Aires for 7 days, on the first we went to a
market place, and the first thing we saw there was a very ridiculous
thing, maybe a bit sad considering how contrastful it was:
An old woman, sitting on a chair playing music on plastic kitchen cups,
and making a parrotish sound via a conus like device on her mouth,
all this while she was surrounded by colourful people and an
athmosphere of festivity, which highly contrasted with the way she
had to make a living (but that is subject to one's own point of view).
Next, we watched a Tango street show (see pictures 1, 2, 3 & 4 ).
On the following days, we strawled around the streets of Buenos Aires,
which is delightful in itself, went to see the government plaza, see the
following pictures 1, 2, 3 & 4.
The Argentinian women are incredible compared to anywhere I've ever
been including Europe, US, far east. They are mildly to medium tanned,
many have blue or green eyes, amazingly slender, so women-like in the
way they dress and walk and talk, an art long lost in the US and Europe,
where the women have lost (in my view - and also, a bit of a generalization
here) the touch and the finesse. A sample of one I saw actually in Buzios
(see below - a resort in Brazil where many Argentinians and Chilians go
to) is here.
We then went to see the national opera house, of which we could
only take a few pictures, see here the Vitrage ceiling the
main staircase and one more angle of it, and an entertainer
playing the flute for everyones amusement.
We also went to the Ricolleta quadrant, to see the Museum of fine
arts, in which we could only take one picture,in the lobby, of a
monument which can be found in Buenos Aires on the way to the inland
commercial airport. The Ricolleta quadrant is packed with beautiful
buildings, statues and also a colorful market (and one more).
But Ricolleta is famous for its graveyard, full of edifices and
mausoleums that wouldn't shame the size of a real life house, and
the luxury you see only in palaces of old, see the following pictures:
1, 2 & 3. In that same graveyard the family of Evita Peron (Duarte)
is burried, including Evita herself, in a luxurious mausoleum which is
always covered with flowers.
But Buenos Aires is not all about art and the mixture of old and new.
It's also about the people, about going out, and about fun. One night
we went out to the Riva Esta club, located on the east bank of a river,
but on the way to the club we stopped by a carting range, where we took
a few spins around the circuit, see the following: 1, 2, 3 & 4.
We then headed on to the club, which was an exhilirating experience,
with the south american music playing, the ~1000 people, and the rain
that started raining at ~03:00AM, coming from the river like a wall
of water, and then hitting the club, but everyone stayed out in the
open and danced in the rain, so sensuous and sexy, see the following
picture (unfortunately, no pictures of the dancing in the rain part...).
Buenos Aires is also about the food, the wonderful restaurants
great food and great athmosphere.
Buenos Aires is also about football, and we went down to the Boca
"hood", which was beautifully decorated, see the following: 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. We then went down to the Boca Juniors stadium, once
home of Diego Armando Maradona and took some pictures of the stadium,
see 1 & 2.
Very reluctantly I must admit, we took the flight to the Iguasu falls
after this wonderful week in Buenos Aires. The Iguasu falls are the
largest in the world, some 4 km long, highest one (Devils mouth) is some
80 meters high. It has 3 sides, Argentinian, Brazilian and Paraguaian.
We visited the Argentinian and the Brazilian sides. The falls are so
incredibly beautiful, and the nature is so rich in variety of both flora
fauna and animal life, that anything I'd try to describe here in my
meager words will only belittle this masterpiece of nature. So, in this
spirit, I will let nature talk, and show you the pictures:
Argentinian side: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30,
31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
45 & 46.
Brazilian side: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,
18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32,
33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43.
Phewww !! That place was awesome ! We took a speedboat under the falls
and we have the video of that, rather unbelievable (take my word for it,
it's worth every penny). More about the Iguasu falls can be found by
searching at Google ! and also here for the lazy ones among you.
Well, on we went, on a 24hours bus to Rio de Janeiro (we could have flown
over, but taking a night bus in South America is also, in my own opinion,
a part of experiencing it). We got to Rio, which was a bit frightening at
first. Unlike Buenos Aires, it's more crowded, less European like, hotter,
more "friction" between people, less finesse and more gipsy like. It takes
a bit of getting used to, but it's worth it. We were in Rio two times,
the first time for about 3-4 days, then we went down south, and then we
came back to Rio for 3 more days before we took the flight back to NYC.
On our first "tour of duty", we walked around the city and the beaches,
like Copa Cabana and Ipanema, went to see the Corcovado and the huge Christ
that oversees the Rio de Janeiro bay. We met some friends there, and here
are some pictures of it all: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11.
And if you are in Rio de Janeiro, you're bound to go see a football (soccer
for all you US people) match at the Maracana, the largest stadium in the
world, howsing some 185,000 people in it at max capacity (reduced from about
220,000 thousand for safety reasons). We went to see a match between two
teams, Flamengo and Fluminense, the favourite was Flamengo, having also
2/3 of the crowd (some 80,000 that day), but, Fluminense won 3:0 after
a 3 goals blitz in the first 13 minutes of the match. Here are some
pictures of the stadium, the crowd, and hopefully these glimpses can
provide some clue as to the athmosphere in the stadium at that time
(which was heated up, sometimes a bit violent too, but far far less
than we expected, so it was a rather enjoyable experience): 1, 2, 3,
4, 5 & 6.
We then left Rio for about a week to a Southern resort on a peninsula
called Buzios. In the best tradition of a Brazilian resort, we spent the
week on our backs, in the burning sun, on the beautiful beaches of Buzios,
as you can see here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12.
We rented the top floor of a villa, so we had a home of our own, quite
comfortable and we prepared huge breakfasts on a daily basis, something
that really brightens your day, here are some pics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8.
At night we went to eat, and also to beach parties, it was alot of fun
and great music, and enchanting athmosphere, see for yourselves: 1, 2, 3,
4 & 5.
After the relaxing week in Buzios, we went back to Rio de Janeiro, for
our second tour of duty there. The one attraction I will share with you
was the city bird park and zoo, with many species in it, alot of parrots,
and various animals, see a few samples here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7.
Then, we were supposed to get back to NYC on a AA flight from Rio to NYC
via Miami. However, exactly then began the big storm on the upper east coast
of the US, and all airports were closed except for Newark, where we were the
last flight to land (scary landing, see here - this was close to the
runway, visibility zero) before it was closed.
It was -10 Celsius, high winds, no taxies available, and only Ofer's
father was brave enough to drive from Tenafly to Newark in that blizzard
in order to take us home, and this is what it looked like on the road.
However, we took advantage of the situation, and built a 2 meters high
snowman, here are some pics of it: 1, 2 & 3, and we also had some
fun in the snow, jumping around like this !
We were in NYC for a few days, went on a family visit to Montreal (no
pictures - private :), and then went back to NYC for a few more days
- went to a Knicks vs. Nets game (Nets won by 29 points ... not much of
a fight), and then finally, we went back to Israel...
Well, for all those who made it so far, I hope it was interesting, and,
I wholeheartedly recommend to those of you who can afford it:
Travel around the world as much as you possibly can, life is
short, and this world has so much to offer, and there's so much to see,
so many cultures, so many different realities and points of view. Get
out there, and explore !
