|
NORTHERN ARGENTINA & A BIT OF BRAZIL
June 2006
Other
Overlanders. Birds & broken bridges.
It was a distance
of 2700km from the wineries of Mendoza to the Paraguay border.
We travelled
through the cities of San Juan, La Rioja, Catamarca, Tucuman,
Salta, Resistencia and Formosa. In each city centre the leafy main
plaza with cathedral or city hall never ceased to delight. That is
also where we found the internet café’s; and once a “gelateria”
with 52 flavours of ice cream.
Near San Juan
in the “Valley of the moon” lies Ischigualasto Desert Park.
Here over millennia, erosion has exposed ancient strata containing
fossils. We walked with a guide in the canyons between the weird
rock shapes. We saw a model of the ancient Frenguelisaurus
Ischigualastensis dinosaur and the fossilised bones of the oldest
known predatory dinosaur, the Eoraptor Lunensis, dating from 225
million years ago. Because of the scorching days in summer and the
freezing cold winters, palaeontologists can work only two months
of the year.
The most
attractive drive.
One of the most
interesting routes was a 250km stretch from Tucuman to
Salta which consisted of a variety of landscapes. After the sugar
cane fields, there was a misty mossy forest, then mountain sides
with colossal candelabra cacti. A bonus was a group of horsemen
dressed up in “gaucho” finery, passing by. Inca period ruins at
Quilmes with an adjacent modern hotel built from local rock,
was next. (A dinner there gave Leoné a break from cooking supper).
Then there were vineyards at Cafayate, where we tasted the
fruity red Malbec and dry but aromatic white Torrontés cultivars.
The last panorama was a long drive in a canyon of amazing red rock
formations with a wide river flowing alongside.
Doggy travellers.
At the city of
Salta campground, a number of long-haul travellers had
congregated. Out of 8, there were 3 vehicles travelling with pets.
The one couple had driven from North America. They had to ship
around (in stead of proceeding through) Panama because no foreign
dogs are allowed into Panama. The Swiss and their vehicle arrived
by ship in Argentina. She then returned home to fetch the dog and
flew back to BA. At the airport she collected him where he was
standing (out of his cage) on the carousel between the bags. A
couple with two terriers had paid more for the dogs’ air fares
from South Africa than for their own.
Moral of story,
if you are travelling: a small pet rock is best!
In Salta we went
to a folklore show with some German friends. We were first to
arrive at 10 pm. By one o‘clock the restaurant was still full of
people, including children of all ages. Now we know why they need
that long midday “siesta”.
PARAGUAY.
Asuncion,
the capital, sprawls on the banks of the wide Paraguay River. It
was a public holiday and we could easily park and admire the
attractive public buildings – many painted pink. In the Botanic
Garden, where there used to be a campsite, we were told to move to
right next to the guard house, “for your own safety”.
The next day we
were driving on a main road with our side lights on. A policeman
stopped us and demanded a fine, because we did not have headlights
on. Jan photographed him real close up, and he backed off.
Grubby, chaotic
Ciudad del Este is a duty free shopping area on the border
with Brazil. We considered joining the heaving, frantic mass of
shoppers, traders and frenzied motor cyclists but decided to
escape the chaos, to Foz do Iguaçu.
Iguazu
Waterfalls.
We walked
kilometres in the rain forest park to see the scores of
spectacular falls on the Argentinean and on the Brazilian side.
Itaipu dam,
between Paraguay and Brazil is the largest hydro-electric complex
in the world and was interesting to visit.
BRAZIL.
Truckers’ life;
trucker’s wife.
We had been
through the Amazon and most of Brazil with our daughters Liesl and
Ingrid, who were then 6 and 4, so this time we chose to drive
through just a corner of the country.
Dipli felt tiny
next to all the colossal trucks on the single lane patched-tar
main road. Brazil is so big and huge quantities of goods have to
be hauled. Thus there is a very large contingent of truckers
permanently on the roads; so we joined their lifestyle. The
spacious filling stations/truck stops provided safe overnight
parking and usually had clean facilities with showers. A neatly
paved truck stop was a good place for Jan to do a service on
Dipli. There was always a restaurant/”lanchonette” where you could
have snacks, a buffet meal or a “churrasco/rodizeo” – grilled
chunks of various meats sliced at your table; as much as you can
eat! (The buffet was usually stewed meat, black-beans, cooked
kylie, rice, dry manioc/cassava sprinkle, salad, beetroot,
spaghetti and rice pudding. Fresh fruit juices were always
delicious.)
In the province
of Mato Grosso (literally: “large forest”) where once
forests were, are now cultivated fields to the horizon.
“Da Copa 2006”.
It seemed as if
all Brasileiro’s were wearing the yellow with green shirt of the
national soccer team. When Brazil was playing a World Cup match in
Germany, the streets were totally deserted. Once we were in a
hypermarket during a match. The idle cashiers each had their own
screens and the rest of the staff members were in front of the big
screen TV in the electronics section. When Brazil beat Ghana: 3-1,
the police closed the roads and the street parties went on from
the morning into the night. When Brazil played France, we were in
the jungle. Later, when we asked a young teenager what the result
of the match had been, he burst into tears, and uttered: “Francia:
um, Brasil: zero”.
Centre of South America.
On the journey so
far, we have ‘collected’ the geographic centres of three
continents and could now add a fourth. In downtown Cuiabá
stands an obelisk marking the point as determined in 1909. We also
drove 70km NE to the more recently determined point at Chapada
dos Guimarães.
The Pantanal.
The Pantanal is a
vast natural paradise. Seasonal flooding has limited human
occupation and provides an enormously rich feeding ground for
fauna; concentrating the exotic wildlife in the wetland.
One of the only
roads into the area, the Transpantaneira, starts at Poconé.
It is a raised dirt road of 150km containing 126 wooden bridges.
16 had broken crosswise planks and big gaps. Jan had to aim
carefully to stay on the lengthwise boards. Leoné kept her eyes
shut.
The water birds
congregated in huge numbers. Jabiru storks were feeding in the
swamps or were perched on their big nests in short trees. There
were also raptors, gaudy parrots, giant blue macaws, large-billed
toucans and colourful butterflies. Small crocodiles (‘jacarés’)
basked in the sun next to the ponds and rivers. We saw marsh deer
and at dusk it was an unforgettable sight to see many capybaras in
family groups gathering on the road. These large (up to 65kg)
vegetarian aquatic tailless rodents have a guinea pig-like face
and a bulky body with course hair.
At Porto
Jofre, the end of the road, we relaxed next to the wide river.
The Pantanal is famous for its fishing. Fishermen complained
because the piranhas ate their bait or nibbled on what they had
caught. However, amongst other species, they did catch piranhas
and an Italian angler gave us some fillets to cook. Well garlic’ed
they tasted great.
Then it was back over those bridges
towards Bolivia.
This journey up to June 2006:
Time on the road (excluding home
visits): 3 years, 10 ½ months.
Kilometres driven: 170 000
Countries visited: 70
|
