Buenos Aires

City design / transport

Ah Buenos Aires, the Paris of the south they say…. This description is probably not too far off, although we don’t know Paris so well. What BA does do in terms of planning and design, it does very well indeed. The city was laid out in a logical grid system of small block which makes it legible and easy to get around. The hierarchy of streets is second to none I’ve experienced from some of the widest avenues in the world to neat little streets and pedestrian malls. The city has an incredibly rich architectural fabric, a lot of which stems from the influence of French architects during its construction. The density of La Capital Federal (the inner city, being a state in itself) is incredible, making every conduit, plaza and park full of activity. Most streets are also of a comfortable human scale, with towers being a rarity for the most part. It’s a relatively safe place in general, and seems to operate on one level or another 24/7. The public transit system is efficient, cheap and deals remarkably well with the literally millions of commuters. Trains bring people in from all around the city to one of four (?) main stations, which are in turn serviced by a fairly well developed subway network and by local buses. The network of buses is especially impressive, running 24/7, costing 1.25 pesos (around 30 AUD cents) regardless of distance. Cyclists are being encouraged increasingly by initiatives such as free bikes for rent put on by the local government and dedicated cycle lanes. Yet, the amount traffic and craziness of the drivers was discouraging enough for us though, so we stayed on foot.

There are a few things the city could do with however in terms of design. The most noticeable for us was the lack of connections to nature, partly due to the rarity of accessible public open green space, but also due to its lack of connection to the river (which feels more like a deep bay). You wouldn’t really know you’re on the coast unless you went looking for it – an opportunity missed.

Nightlife / culture / cuisine

Porteños (Buenos Aires residents) certainly do know how to live a good life when it comes to cuisine, culture and nightlife. San Telmo, Palermo, Recoleta… each suburb has its own vibe yet all had a nice quality in common. Red meat and Italian are the specialties in terms of dining and are done really well. Bars and clubs abound, although we only really went out looking for the former. Nightlife has a distinctly late way of happening there, with people still chewing steaks at midnight and not really hitting the bars until 2 or 3am. They like their wine and beer, which is conveniently cheap, and seem to have their enjoyment of it under control a bit more than folks from our neck of the woods, which is always nice!

Buenos Aires has a distinct café scene which we were only too happy to join in on. Cafes are an important part of every day life for porteños where you will often see locals participating in animated discussions, particularly groups of older men. The typical fare included café con leche and medialunas (croissants) or a shot of coffee. Many cafes have an old school feel about them, and there are many that have been around for 100 years with worn wooden bar tops and furniture and copious amounts of old school photographs of Carlos Gardel (Argentinan tango singer) and tango dancers.

Sweet treats were widely available in Buenos Aires which for sweet-tooth Whitney was too hard to resist. Ice cream, dulce de leche (caramel), and alfajores (dulce de leche jammed between two biscuits) were just some of the sweet treats you could pick up from most street corners around the city. Yum!

* Food highlight *

A stay in Buenos Aires is not complete without a visit to a parilla (barbeque) restaurant. While we had the opportunity to chow down on steak at various

parillas, we decided to splash out and go to a fancy parilla restaurant which was recommended to us by many locals. We went with a big group of friends which made the experience even better. The name of the restaurant was La Cabrera in Palermo. It’s one of those restaurants you have to line up for and hour to get in, but champagne and magazines are at the ready to ease the wait. Once we were allowed in, we were given the VIP room which was very special indeed.

After consulting the diagram of the cow and the different cuts available, Lukas and I ordered the lomo which consisted of about 500 grams of meat. Along with this we ordered a spread of papas fritas (chips), salads and bread. Of course, we also had to have some malbec (red wine from the Mendoza region of Argentina).

The meat made its way out on a chopping board along with about 5 little dishes of mini salads/mustards. Hands down, that steak was the best we have ever tasted. I’m no big meat eater, but this steak could turn a vegetarian into a carnivore! It was perfectly cooked, with all the natural flavours flowing without the need for any T-sauce. We highly recommend La Cabrera to anyone visiting Buenos Aires.

Apartment

Through dumb luck more than anything else, we ended up in a homely little studio apartment in the well-to-do suburb of Recoleta for the majority of our stay in BA. This allowed us to feel settled in our own space, to entertain friends and provided a great base from which to go about our day to day and to explore new parts of town. Our apartment was superbly located close enough to the action (transport, shops, restaurants, parks) to be very convenient but also on a nice leafy street. Living there really made our time in BA in a lot of ways.

Day to day life – Spanish school and food bank

Our day to day life in BA had a pleasant simplicity about it, living day by day, having plenty of free time but also structure and purpose to our weeks. Whitney spent four weeks taking Spanish classes each morning for four hours, while I (Lukas) did some volunteer work part time in a food bank out in the suburbs. After a hearty lunchtime meal a siesta often followed. We adopted the routine of eating dinner at about 10-11pm each evening which may not have been the healthiest approach – ‘when in Rome’ though! Evenings and weekends were spent exploring the city, hanging out with newly made friends both local and from abroad, and heading to our favourite hang-out spots such as the Recoleta or Palermo cafes and San Telmo and Recoleta Markets.

Interesting history

Buenos Aires is the cultural centre of a country which has a very colourful history - politically, economically, socially and artistically. Porteños and Argentinians from afar are evidently very active in local and nation-wide politics with protests being held in Buenos Aires almost every day, all of which are for the most part peaceful but vocal. Protest topics varied between current gripes or events that occurred many years ago. You can feel a certain energy from the locals in Buenos Aires, the type of energy where it’s certain that young and old are passionate about their country and their livelihood within it. Even a superficial look into 20^th and early 21^st Century happenings in Argentina remind us that while it is perhaps one of the more developed countries in Latin America, it has had severe problems and a sense of volatility remains and is evident in everyday life. Examples include the seemingly very rapid inflation (prices quoted in guide books written a few years ago are of no use today) and very harsh restrictions on daily cash withdrawls from ATMs. Many prefer to hold savings accounts in US dollars, presumably in case of another crash.

Overall impression

Buenos Aires is rich in culture and history. Some say it is set apart from the rest of Argentina, a different country in itself. We feel Buenos Aires gave us a great insight into life in Argentina and we are lucky to have had the opportunity to have lived there. The city is intense, like any big city, but it is alive and happening. Buenos Aires was the perfect start to the rest of our trip through the Spanish speaking parts of South America.

Iguazu Falls and the Return to Sao Paulo

After our ‘planning field trip’ on the southern highlands in Curitiba, it was time to turn our attention to one of the true postcard destinations of Latin America – Iguazu Falls. This is one destination that you hear loads about when you’re planning your trip and definitely lives up to all the hype. The beautiful raw power of all that water is on display and can be experienced from many viewpoints – from stunning distant panoramas to literally feeling the force by getting soaked on the closest viewing platforms where you can almost reach out and get your arm torn off! We visited both the Brazilian side of the falls and the Argentinean side, both are spectacular, but quite different – the former giving an overview and great photo opportunities from a distance and the latter allowing you to get up-close and personal from on top of and underneath the many individual falls which make up the whole. We even forked out for a boat ride which took you right up underneath the falls – one slip on the throttle and we were done for! We also did a day trip out to Itaipu Binacional – the biggest hydro-electric dam in the world. It was pretty impressive and had a real focus on sustainability in its propaganda, although we questioned ourselves a bit on the impact on the environment and people of flooding the landscape (in the ‘70s) to create a lake 170km long to power it! So Iguazu Falls was a fantastic and very memorable experience on the whole.

Another long haul overnight bus got us to Sao Paulo in a bleary-eyed state where we got straight onto an impressive new metro line to our ‘home’ in Brazil at Fabi’s apartment in central suburb. Coming from ‘little old’ Auckland every suburb here feels like you’re in the middle of the CBD, and when you get up high enough for a view the high density of tall buildings just goes on and on in all directions. Sao Paulo is an interesting place in that it doesn’t have too many massively famous tourist attractions, but it does have a certain appeal to it – it feels prosperous, lively, happening. The massive waves of immigration in the city’s past are evident in the faces of the people on the street – a real melting pot of European, Asian, African and indigenous Brazilian. There are also many expats who have set up shop to reap the rewards of a rapidly developing economy. We spent much of the time doing the low key local thing here, going out for drinks and to the odd club, checking out a few parts of town. The trip out to the airport was a true Paulista experience in itself – leaving with plenty of time to spare our 40-odd minute drive ticked past the two-hour mark due to a series of serious traffic snarls.

So that brings an end to our time in Brazil, at least for now. Our impression is generally that it’s an exciting, interesting and hugely varied country – from the drum beats of the African north east to the more sophisticated European feel of the temperate cities of the south. We got a fairly good overall impression of the country in out six weeks here, having seen some of the most beautiful and popular parts of the coastline and some real highlights inland too. One could easily spend a year discovering the place, parts we would love to come back to include the Amazon, north eastern coast and the Pantanal.



Tschau Brasil! Lukas

Curitiba - the pinnacle of excellent urban planning!

Wow, so Curitiba. It´s known as one of Brazil´s best cities for quality of life... and after spending one day here we are quickly learning why. I have always wanted to see Curitiba... I was inspired by a lecture I had during my uni days on examples of cities that have ´good´ planning. It was most interesting to me that a city classed as ´third world´could have transport systems as well as cultural and social programs which work better than a city in New Zealand, such as Auckland.

Here´s a geeky little background on the planning of Curitiba... Once the 1960s hit, Curitiba experienced similar challenges to many other cities around the world. The car became dominant, placing pressure on more roading infrastructure, and the population ballooned placing pressure on housing, social services and the general structure/urban fabric of the city. This brought about the ´Curitiba Master Plan´in 1965 which was proposed by a very popular guy (amongst Curitibans!) named Jamie Lerner, who later became mayor of Curitiba. Jamie proposed an improved and affordable transport system, preservation of the Historic Centre, reduction in traffic, and controls on urban sprawl. The interesting thing about this mayor was that he truely took control. There was no public consultation, he literally closed the city down over night and had construction crews working 24/7 until the city was transformed. The results, as far as I can see, are very positive!

So after a day of wandering around the city and taking it all in, here are my impressions of Curitiba.

The transport system - this is Curitiba´s pride and joy, and I can understand why. When it comes to getting around, the bus rules in Curitiba. Throughout the downtown area of the city are these glass tubes, where the buses stop. There is one flat fee, no matter where you are going in the city. There are many different types of buses, depending on your need and there are bus lanes everywhere.

Pedestrians rule - Some streets in the downtown area are purely for pedestrians. I was downtown around and lunchtime and it had a great vibe. Even though the weather was freezing, there were so many people about talking, sitting, walking, shopping... the way a public space should be enjoyed! I also noticed lots of measures for disabled people, which is a real first for South America as a whole. From what I have seen through the rest of Brazil, let´s just say I wouldn´t like to be disabled on some of the shocking cobbled, uneven roads and footpaths.

Social responsibility - One awesome program that I learnt about today was the ´Green Exchange Program´which basically gets the people living in favelas on the outskirts of the city to collect rubbish in and around their neighbourhood, and in exchange they recieve a bag of food and bus tickets. This program was motivated by the fact that the government could not afford to provide services to the favelas... so this was their solution.

Culture - this is the first city I have been to in Brazil which openly encourages theatre, the arts, music and learning. It seemed very prevalent with the number of independant galleries and small theatres around the place. I also noticed cool little antique shops, book shops and cute cafes. A nice European feel.

Environmental sensitivity - as a student and a professional planner, I have often wondered if the application of environmental sustainability principles to a city as a whole is achievable. Curitiba has shown that you only really need simple measures in place as well as ways to educate the people of the city on how to implement the ideas. There are parks all throughout the city - about 52 square metres of park space per person, to be exact! In the larger parks, sheep are let loose to graze which removes the need for expensive maintenance.

As you can see, very inspired by Curitiba indeed. Looking forward to more exploring tomorrow!

Brazil so far

Hi guys

Well I have decided to start documenting the big South American journey. I started a hand-written diary, but that lasted but one week... Lukas has been a bit better at writing things down! I have never written a blog before so hopefully this is interesting for anyone who decides to read it. At the very least, this can be a little motivation to keep a diary of my impressions of South America. The intention is for both Lukas and I to contribute to the blog. Where I can, I am going to be a little geeky by adding my impressions on the planning/urban design of citites, towns and spaces which we come across. Obviously, this is an interest that Lukas and I both share in our professions.

So here we are, finally, in South America. This trip has been a looong time in the making and I am so happy to finally be doing it! Travelling around South America for one year has always been a dream of mine. It all started when I was in high school, when I became good friends with some Brazillian exchange students who got me interested in the Brazillian lifestyle, the people, the language... which is when I decided I must go to South America, and for a good chunk of time. Since moving to Australia in 2009, Lukas and I made it our mission to get to South America within 2 years. So we saved and skimped... and now here we are!

The trip to South America was certainly eventful. Our first stop was Buenos Aires, Argentina where we stayed for 3 nights. Beforehand, I was so so sick! The moment we stepped off the plane in Auckland I got a terrible cold/flu. I think it was an accumulation of getting ready for the trip and moving away from Australia. The most awkward was when I threw up 4 times on the plane to Chile (our first stop). Do you know what it is like to be sick while travelling? Not fun - I can say that much!

We have been in Brazil now since 11 August 2011. How do I even begin to describe all the things we have seen and done in the past 5 weeks or so! I am not going to try and write about everything, but a few highlights which have stood out for me.

Sao Paulo

What a crazy city. This is where the adventure in Brazil began. I would describe it as a concrete jungle. For starters, there are 25 million inhabitants so you can imagine the number of high rises and highways that sprawl throughout the city. There is a massive gap between rich and poor. To give you an idea, to avoid rush hour and kidnappings, rich businessmen take helicopters to and from work. Still getting my head around this! It is a somewhat dangerous city so I was a little scared to say the least. But, Lukas and I were so fortunate to stay with my good friend from my Canadian exchange, Fabi. She took care of us so well! There is really something special about staying with a local, especially in a city like Sao Paulo.

Southern Coast

Between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro we hugged the coastline while traveling with some French and Brazilian companions. We stopped off at a fantastic rustic beach house in Ubatuba, a quaint colonial village of Paraty, the subtropical island paradise of Ilha Grande and the hip upmarket beach town of Buzios. The scenery was stunning, especially the stretches where the rainforest-clad hills tumbled straight into the sea­­­ and where the palm trees gave the landscape a real tropical flavour.

Rio de Janiero

Another crazy city, but in quite an exquisite setting. One thing we did there that stood out for me was go to party in a favela. Yes, that's right - a favela! I was quite scared at first. But we were with abunch of locals who knew where we were going. Have to say it was amazing. The party was at a 'favela mansion' bought by an English guy. It was called 'The Maze'. Shows what you can do without a building consent! The house really was a maze, it was all over the show. It had an amazing view of Rio, caprihinas and a jazz/ska band playing. Walking through the favelas to get to the party was quite the experience. It's chaos but it works. The favela is it's own world. It has it's own network of alleys and shops and facilities. I wondered if perhaps the community works better in a favela that in other parts of the city.

Ouro Preto and Bahian Beaches

On our only venture seriously inland in the country we picked out Ouro Preto, a beautifully well preserved 18th C gold mining town set amongst the hills. Taking a stroll around the old town was quite special, churches and grand public buildings galore, no expense spared at the time and as attention steered away from the area after the gold rushes, the town is in an almost untouched state today.
Interested in keeping the beach theme going (partly in the interest of not blowing the budget!) we headed back out to the coast and covered the stretch up to Salvador over a few weeks, stopping in places with fantastic names like Arraial d’Ajuda, Trancoso, Porto Seguro, and Itacaré. Many days were spent lounging out under the palm trees with a picnic lunch and the daily treat of the odd piece of local delicacy like fresh tropical fruit, açaí (Amazonian berry blended with ice) and chilled coconut water. Salvador was an all together more intense and intruiging experience. The central part of town is another great example of a well preserved colonial centre and the African heritage of a large part of the population is evident in the music and dance, food and pace of life. It's also one of the more dangerous places to visit, so we needed to be alert constantly. The city is well worth a visit as it is quite unique for the continent.

The buses - well this is where it all happens! It seems every time we hop on a long distance bus, we get seated next to children who throw up everywhere. Seriously, it has happened 3 times! All sorts of people come on to the buses, and it seems we are usually the only backpackers. People sing, play their radios (very loud). The scenery out the window has been beautiful.... mountains, sunsets, the sea, paddoks. How do I describe it?!

Well that's all I am going to write for now. I am going to post some photos on Facebook soon so hopefully this will give a better visual explanation of what we have been experiencing here in Brazil.

Over and out for now.