Corcovado, Rio: Number 187 from the 1000 places to see before you die book

You almost wonder why you bother really.

Perhaps the Ancients kept on outbeating themselves around their empires to prove a point and we no longer have the records to know..or perhaps the Great Pyramid at Giza, which was finished circa 2560BC was always the tallest pyramid in the world, and has remained so. To go more recent from medieval times, perhaps the Great Wall of China, at some 8,851 km was the longest wall in the world then,  and has remained so. Perhaps the Colosseum, when it was finished in 80AD, was the largest stadium in the world, and has remained so.

And then we have, on the top of Corcovado Mountain a figure of Christ the Redeemer- all 39.6m of him, including its base, with a reach of 22m fingertip to fingertip which was in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest statue of Christ, and was also included in the New 7Wonders of the world (albeit to be fair it was a hodgepodge finalist list including the Great Pyramid of Giza getting in the top 7…………….. as number 8 as an honorary candidate..and including Petra, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, the Colosseum, Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China).

So…lets look at the facts here. Completed in 1931 to commemorate the 1922 centennial of Brazilian independence (yep theres a story in there as to why it was 9 years late!!) Christ the Redeemer is actually only the third tallest Christ in the world.  In a classic case of outdoing what is already there- it was the tallest until the 1980’s when Bolivia built the El Cristo de la Concordia statue, which admittedly only stands 33m but, if you include its mount (always important it seems in arguing a world record) , reaches a final height of 42 meters.

Both countries Im sure pulled out the rosary beads when in November 2010, a tiny little village in Poland called Swiebodzin, which is inhabited by a mere 21,000 people, decided to spend $1.5m and five years building one that is 51m tall- making their statue of Christ the King monument the tallest in the world.  To be fair the statue is only 33m – according to the blurb which is “one metre for every year that Jesus lived” however when you take into account  its 3m gold crown and the mound it sits on,  it tops a very respectable 51m….yet to date has not hit anything other than the Guinness Book of Records.  

What’s the lesson here……build the biggest thing you can then get wiped out by another race (calling Mars……calling Mars) or don’t bother because technology allows us to always build bigger and better so put the funds into the poor people in your country instead of building a statue “to attract pilgrims” as the local priest in Swiebodzin says was the rationale for building the Christ the King monument??

Anyhow, back to the ” Christ the Redeemer” statue on Corcovado which has fallen in and out of favour with the Catholic Church as to its maintenance but now looks to be fully funded with Vale, the mega large Brazilian mining company, signing an agreement in 2010 to sponsor any restoration.

the view when i arrived

me and Christ the Redeemer

Access is either via a cable car (sadly my tour guide thought there were too many people lining up from the 3 cruise ships in town so we didn’t do that) or by driving. It was a ghastly miserable day anyhow- fog streaming in off the sea, raining heavily, and quite hard work on the top of any mountain- whether or not God’s presence felt closer or not.

And so, wet, cold and damp I trudged up the steps to stand at the foot of Christ. Slippery feet man…that black marble they used all around the base had tourists falling over left , right and centre.  Pity his feet were a few metres above our heads otherwise Id have mistaken their falls for eagerness to replicate St Francis or at least Easter Friday and kiss the soapstone toes.

Now- here is an interesting dilemma on reviewing this entry.

Was it included as it was the largest statue of Christ in the world …or the second if you take into account the mount under El Cristo de la Concordia ….and now anyhow the third given Christ the King?  Interesting that the largest statue of Mary (which is in Bulgaria) and incidentally stands at a far smaller 32 metres ,  isn’t included in the book. …nor is the second nor third largest Mary statue….nor indeed either number 1 or 2 of the world’s largest statues of Christ (mount included!!).

Even if that were the rationale behind its inclusion….it has now dropped to number 3 on the world stage of Jesus statues  (albeit perhaps either with a tectonic plate shift the Corcovado Mountain might gain another 11m or so, or Vale might open up their back purse and stick a massive 14m crown on his head).

Could it have been included in the book because of the view……however TableTop mountain in South Africa has a pretty cool view (and a cable car) and Sugarloaf rock on the next bay around in Rio has a similar view (and a cable car)…as below pictures show (yes- it was still miserable and raining)?

even the monkey hated the cold and the rain

So I presume its included because there is a view AND it is from one of the largest statues of Christ in the world.

So on that basis I googled to look at views from Number 1 and Number 2 of the highest Jesus statues … here’s number 1 and this is the best I could find of Number 2.

So, on the basis that you are into modern age and religious sculptures and with views and it already exists…then Christ the Redeemer retains its spot in the 1000 places to see before you die book as it is large and has the best view. Besides which…it’s a pretty famous statue so should be seen.

If however, you are after something that  is modern age and religious and has views and exists AND is unlikely in our lifetime to be “topped” AND incidentally doesn’t appear in the 1000 places to see before you die book , then I raise for consideration the  world’s largest statue- the 502 metre tall Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China.

Mind you, skim a bit deeper and you find out the statue (oh that mount issue keeps on cropping up) is only 128 m and plans are afoot in this decade to build a 152m, mount aside,  Maitreya statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India costing some $250 million.

As I say…compete on sand castle building on your local beach. At least then you hold a record for a while and save yourself millions trying to be remembered when someone just pips the post by building their castle on a dune that has a fantastic tropical island view.

Rodizio and Feijoada in Rio: Number 186 of the 1000 places to see before you die

This is all about food, glorious food. So……first on the rank- rodizio which means “rotation” This style is about lots of waiters walking around with a piece of cooked meat carving it directly to your plate. Add a buffet of seafood, salads, breads, desserts and soup…its basically an upmarket BBQ (churrascarai given we are in Brazil) delivered straight to your plate.

the restaurant



My night to experience this was at a restaurant called Porcao , aptly meaning “big pig” which first started slicing up the meat in Rio in 1975 and now has locations in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Portugal, and the United States.

Suffice to say, the style makes you one big pig. While only a few slivers of each meat is delivered there were about 10 skewers with hunks of sirloin through to brisket circulating at any one time. You are given a disc when you arrive which is basically a “yes……feed me” sign in green and a “no…im full” in red. At this stage of the night I was a green sign.

Divine!!  

Now for the next- feijoada. Not for the fainthearted this is a Saturday delicacy. So off I trooped to the recommended Caesar Park Hotel in Ipanema, Rio to try this. I was rather lucky that it was the weekend before Carneval so the hotel had put on a special Carneval Feijoada lunch- not cheap at some $200- but it came with one of the top Samba schools dancing- full on band, samba girls and boys, the owner (and his son) and their flag bearer, unlimited caipirinhas, school t-shirt and a few feathers. Beija-Flor Samba school was hotly tipped to be one of the leading contenders at the forthcoming Carneval- and in fact went on that week to win top spot at the 2011 Carneval.


the owner, son and leading flag carrier



But first- to review feijoada. Now this Brazilian national dish is a black bean stew with pork and beef, which originates from Portugal. At the hotel they had big earthenware pots containing the beans….then…get ready….equally as large pots of pigs ears, tripe, smoked sausage, unsmoked sausage, pigs tail, beef tongue, pork loin, pork cutlet, beef, dried beef and trotters. You mixed and matched as you felt free.

While a novelty, this is not a gourmet looking dish- the beans are black, all of the meat stews are brown, and then there is white rice or yellow cassava flour to put on the base. Presentation and flavour (other than that overwhelmingly of meat) is not in feijoada’s favour.

I forgot as it was to take a photo of it all on my plate because at that moment out came a samba girl and boy…..and this was more of a highlight…


So, both reviewed. Should they be in the top 1000 places to see before you die?

I have to say a thumbs down on this. While they may well represent the national dish, and a Brazilian way of eating….none the less paella in spain doesn’t appear in the book, neither does vegemite and cheese sandwich on bondi beach (personally Id put that in the 1000 things people should experience) so I think that you shouldn’t lose any sleep if this was one of the things that you went to your deathbed without experiencing!

However....samba boys and girls should be in there....but then Carneval Rio is my next blog!

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Pantanal & Caiman Ecological Lodge, Brazil: Number 182 from the 1000 places to see before you die book

I sure was getting my dose of avarians on this trip- from the wetlands of the Okavango Delta ….now to the world’s largest wetlands- the Pantanal in Brazil. Home to species which grow larger here than anywhere in South America- including jaguars, wolves, and armadillos- through to others which have been largely hunted to extinction in other parts of the continent- ajnirus, rheas…and those lovely coatis I pictured at the Iguazu Falls article.

Im a bit of a sucker for looking at either wildlife, plants or the top of a martini glass when Im travelling and this trip was boding well. While the 1000 places to see before you die book had recommended the Caiman Ecological Refuge as the base, it sadly in this season was only rentable as an entire house….and was probably in the book as it was the first eco lodge in Brazil…so better to try some others anyhow. I had been booked instead into the Zagaia Eco Resort in Bonito. 

It was thrilling to watch the landscape change from the huge sprawling metropolis that was Sao Paolo, home to some 11 million people, a concrete high rise jungle drifting kilometre after kilometre before finally giving way to a string of islands and bays and finally the green green grass of the Patanal. The area, aside from being an ecological sanctuary, is also home to Brazilian cowboys known as "pantaneros". I was looking forward to having some churrasco served up by some hairy chested, accented, olive skinned, fit, cowboy hat wearing man who might offer to take me riding later on.  

Unfortunately, stressed and grumpy after a 4am start, I arrived at the resort at 5pm to find it was not what had been featuring in my dreams. More like the place youd book for a team bonding session, a conference, or a middle income bunch of families having holidays together where the boys played golf, the girls had massages, and the kids played in the pool. Eeek. I had one of those T² moments (toy throwing!) with my concierge service (all though bless Quintessentially  - im not sure many of their members have as diverse and bizarre requests as me for so many countries in the world)....and, confident that wheels were turning fast to get me out of a place with piped pool music, I sat back with a caiprinha and read a book.

Next morning was an early start as a driver came to pick me up to transport me 200km further north. Oddly Brazil seemed to have this whole network of people who drove people incredibly long distances. Quintessentially had given me a choice of a $6000 private charter to fly 2 hours to one fazenda (working farm....read...cowboys!!)  in the Pantanal....or about $200 to drive to another fazenda 2 hours up the track. I took the car option as I was intrigued as to what the second ride would be like. On the first trip my driver had spent all three and a half hours looking at his phone or reading a bill while flicking up and down through South American music channels playing music I couldnt understand,all the while driving at 160km/hour. My portugese is non existent- as was his English......so I spent most of the ride gritting my teeth and praying.  My second one was a treat- sticking to what seemed a more reasonable speed of 110 km/hr he cracked his knuckles constantly while listening to 'break your heart type' songs the whole way. Now if Id been in the car with a girlfriend we perhaps could have had a blast singing our hearts out and having competitions as to who sang the songs ( choruses of some of them included "making love out of nothing at all," "2 out of 3 aint bad," "please dont go, Im begging you to stay" ).

As it was, after enjoying a solo breakfast at the resort on a table seated for 5, being in a country where I was struggling to communicate (I had studied spanish once for 6 months but that was 25 years ago and it didnt really make understanding portugese any easier), trying to sort out a couple of tickets to europe and asia as well as some work issues, all it did was made me feel more alone on the road.

That was all to change when I checked into the fabulous Pousada Aguape in the western Pantanal . In Joao’s family for 160 years, the fazenda, or ranch, was a sprawling 3 million hectares which until 50 years ago had no electricity. It was exactly the experience that I needed. After a lovely lunch of chicken and beans (beans were to be on every meal I later discovered) I saddled up my horse. Now johnies and i get on very well, and Johny Walker, my horse, was to prove no different. Outfitted with a pantanero hat kindly provided by Joao I set out with Erasmo for a three hour ride in the pantanal.

Now the pantanal, according to Lonely Planet, has the greatest concentration of fauna in the New World. Some 230,000 square kilometres- thats about half the size of France- which lies largely uninhabited and is a protected ecological area. I was here in the wet season when the waters had reached their high mark of some 3m. As a result of all the water- its a large alluvial basin in essence- farming was limited to cattle of which there are some 200 million in Brazil. Aguape had about 2000 zebu cattle from India (80% of cows in Brazil are this breed), 70 horses, 20 pantaneros and...no guests!! The odds were looking good!!

The first afternoon's ride was great- a lot of birds including jabirus,the world's largest storks and familiar to me from north Australia and a family of capybaras, the world's largest rodent weighing up to 70kg,  eating on the banks. Coming back some 8 large bright blue hyacinth macaws, over a metre in length and the....you guessed it....largest macaw in the world, were having a squabble match in the horse supplements trough while underneath my feet an armidillo blindly wandered.

   Dawn hadn't yet broken the next morning when I jumped eagerly on Johny at 5am. Of course, that was in my dream- the reality was a sleep deprived me- caffeine laden, gingerly walking like I had a butternut squash up my doo daa, groaned my way a couple of metres in the air to the top of Indiana Jones -my nag for the day- while bitterly swearing to a bunch of cowboys who couldnt understand a word but got the gist!  At least this time they had outfitted me on an amazing pantanero saddle (think English saddle with half a merino sheep put over it to help with butt soreness).

One of the beautiful things about staying on a fazenda, as opposed to joining a tour, is that they put on all the "normal" activities of a tour (horseriding, piranha fishing, boat trip, night safari, day safari)..................but allow you to do a few different things- spending a day with the pantaneros mustering the cattle, driving a horse driven carriage into town to buy groceries and lying around in a hammock by the pool. Bliss- and in that vein I cant recommend where I stayed enough.

It was a nice slow 3 hour amble to go out to where the cattle were that needed moving. The pantaneros were every girl's dream- faded denims, leather chaps and white rolled up shirts showing off their olive skins, jaunty straw hats on their heads sporting a fancy feather, the older generation an advert for the Marlboro Man smoking away under their moustaches which grew largely untamed on their leathered faces, every now and again one reaching behind their back where, tucked tightly in place by a brightly coloured sash, lay a razor sharp knife which they hacked overhanging palms with.

  

    

Cattle rounded up and briefly penned we dismounted for brunch. Chopping off a leaf they gestured I was to shovel up the cassava flour and put a bitesize chunk of cooked beef in my mouth. Hmmm. I stuck with the beef. Then a communal cow horn mug filled with tea leaves, splashed with cold water was produced along with a silver straw. Chi on the range!! It wasnt anything like iced tea but the straw did a good job of straining it. Several refills later, food and hunger satiated, we remounted the horses to drive the cattle home. I was getting the hang of mustering, along with, in parts, galloping ankle deep- thats my ankle- the horse was up to its chest in water, to stop errant cattle.  There was something deeply relaxing, walking behind these bulls, creamy sacks of skin falling down their throats to their knees like an old woman's turkey jowls, a large hump of muscle on their necks resembling a walrus’s nose and foot long pendulous balls banging mercilessly on their haunches as they meandered through the grass.

It was even more exhilarating when diving into one patch to move a bull back into the herd I flushed out an anteater. Now I always thought these things were small...but the pantanal has giant anteaters (of course!) and it was a good 2 metres long, beautiful long snout with this huge bushy black tail feathering parallel behind it.

 

Arriving back at camp at midday I scoffed down some food (fell  in love with their bean casserole) before drifting into an afternoon nap while the sun continued to scorch the earth.  The afternoon agenda was to catch some piranha for sashimi and piranha soup. Id been looking forward to trying my luck at this since I came so we scrapped the boat trip up river for another day and headed out in a dinghy to kill the suckers. Caymans drifted closer to observe us, their snouts barely rising above the surface of the water as they lazily circled us and then...tug tug tug. Teal tipped damsel flies were rudely thrown off my rod as I hurled in my first of what was to be 9 piranhas later. Piranhas my host gleefully told me "are the Viagra for the pantaneros".  Hmmm!!!

The next few days followed a similar vein- I swapped bush walking safari and horse carriage for a few more days out with the pantaneros mustering, great food and chat every night and a very relaxed me that left 4 days later to head to Salvador to tick a few more of the 1000 places to see before you die book.

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Iguazu Falls, Argentina: Number 181 of the 1000 Places to See Before You Die

Growing up as a child I always had the desire to visit each of the 7 natural wonders of the world, the 7 ancient wonders of the world and the 7 industrial wonders of the world. And so it was rather exciting to be visiting what is widely billed as a given inclusion in the forthcoming new 7 wonders of nature. ... albeit a review of the finalists for this had some inclusions Id never heard of as being "must see's""...the Bay of Fundy? Je Ju Island? Cliffs of Moher?

I had endured a rather tortuous 17 hours of flying from South Africa before I finally landed at midnight at the small airport servicing the falls in Brazil. Having heard from other travellers that it was cheaper and better to stay on the Argentinian side and see the falls from there (as an aside two-thirds of the falls are on the Argentinian side), I clambered into a taxi, crossed another border, got another country in my passport and headed for the hotel. I was staying at the rather lovely Panoramic Hotel- which- according to the website had an amazing pool overlooking the falls. Reality- it did overlook the Iguazu river that the falls were situated on but it was spring cleaning time for the pool so that was shut. 


Nonetheless the breakfast was a real treat- aside from the usual items youd expect in a 5*, there were some- I presume Argentinian usuals- dulce de leche for your toast, ricotta torte, chocolate brownies, pear tarte, fruit bread, almond croissants. Yummy!! Sadly Id been wiped by plane flu, was desperately hoping I wasnt going to wake up sweating as then Id need a malaria test from my trip to Botswana, and hadnt been exercising for two weeks so it was fruit salad for me.


snookum bears aka brazilian aardvarks



Having entered the national park containing the falls I decided first stop would be to have a look at somewildlife. I meandered down a jungle path, skipping alongside fluttering butterflies, jumping over some amazingly ferocious large ants, watching some rather odd tree climbing raccoony looking animals (found out later they were coatis- a brazilian aardvark but I prefer their slang name of snookum bears), whistling a care free tune, rounded a bend and came face to face with......well, hard to describe it really given that I was in the middle of a tropical jungle.

 Picture some rather exotic animals on mass, white luminescent skins, tribal markings on some bodies, chattering away quite excitedly next to a boat....and wearing bikinis for the female species and Bonds underpants for the male species. Homo sapiens Australis.
 

homo sapiens australis




Before.....

 I had inadvertently stumbled on the departure jetty for the boat ride to the falls...being Australian however I felt no fear joining this motley group of naked tourists and clambered on myself- fully clothed of course. Im half English!! What followed was 45 minutes of laughter as we roared along in a hovercraft up to the falls- first stop...Devil's Throat- the most impressive of the waterfalls- 82 metres high, 150 metres wide and 700 metres long. The grinning captain floored the hovercraft right underneath them.......ah...now I understood the various stages of naked undress in the boat!! Thoroughly soaked he then whipped us backwards and.................repeated the exercise again as if the first time was not enough!

After!!

By now, thankful that I was at the very back of the boat as I was definately winning the wet t-shirt competition, we then roared around the other side to another set of waterfalls. Again the insane captain repeated his madness....and just in case we hadnt been fully finished off then did it again.

Bedraggled, cold, and with fully wet clothes I clamboured back on dry land to find a sunny spot to dry off. Sadly it was raining so there was only one thing to do....hike along to the one hotel in the park- the Sheraton- and treat myself to the hand dryer in their toilets, before dripping up to the bar to order a caipirinha and a toasted sandwich. Excellent!!

The next day I decided to brave the park again and do the choooochoooo train tour and a jungle adventure tour. The latter was not really that adventurous- a stick shift truck roaring along a well cut path in the jungle while the tour guide pointed out various trees such as wild papaya and palms...oh and a few toucans lazily flying overhead.

The chooochooo train however was great fun...meandering through the jungle between food stops and the kilometre long walkway right to the top of Devil's throat. Given that you could see the power of the water rushing underneath the grills of the walkway as you traversed to the edge of the largest waterfall in the system, it was a rather slow and nervous crossing. 

 

On one side, slowly rusting in the water, you could see an earlier walkway that had been condemmed. This new one however went right out to the edge of the waterfall...crossing several smaller waterfalls on the way. The roar of the water was deafening- some 1800 cubic metres of water go over it per second.....and in peak floods its been recorded up to some 12,800 cubic metres a second. Perching on the edge of this waterfall you can see why no Harry Houdini has ever tried to go over in a barrel!!. While Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe has the largest amount of water, Iguazu is wider but hampered on taking the water volume prize as it is split into about 270 separate waterfalls. Taller and twice the width of Niagara Falls, it is reported that the United States' First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said "Poor Niagara!" when she first saw it.

The waterfalls were first discovered (at least by Europeans that is!!) by a Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541 but were not rediscovered until the end of the nineteenth century by the explorer Boselli. Hard to believe that a 3km width of waterfalls at that height, creating that amount of noise, could be swallowed by the jungle for so long.

Ending the fantastic two day visit, I wondered into the information centre and was told that tribal legend says that a big snake called "Boi" lived in the river. To calm its rage, aborigines sacrificed a woman every year as an offering. However one year a brave aborigine kidnapped the woman and saved her from death by escaping through the river. Boi burst in anger, curled its body and split the river forming the cataracts to separate the man and the woman. Lovely!

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