Iguazu Falls - Brazil

From Patagonia to Buenos Aires where we spend one night again.  Then from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls International Airport in Puerto Iguazú.  After arriving in Puerto Iguazúon, as I remember correctly, we took a shuttle bus to the hostel which we were staying in, Hostel Inn Iguazu.  This hostel is a great spot to meet other travelers eager awaiting the inspiring sights of the waterfalls.  It has a huge swimming pool which is great to wash away the waterfall spray after a long hike!   I loved staying in this hostel, as they arrange shuttle bus services to and from the National park, both on the Argenina side as well as on the Brazilian side.

Iguazu Falls was a highlight in our trip.  It was spectacular.  Nature at its best.  Declared a Natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it is one of the most impressive natural wonders I've seen. The most spectacular (and scary) waterfall is Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat). Mist rises between 30 metres and 150 m from Iguazu's Devil's Throat. It's surely to be one of natures most attractive display of both beauty and force. The park's exotic subtropical 2,000 plant species - gigantic trees, different bird and animal species, some are: the spotted jaguars, butterflies, raccoons,  monkeys, coral snakes, toucans and parrots, which all complete this amazing site. There are boat trips to the base of the falls where your heart will beat under the enormous force of the waterfall and you'll get soaked off course!  In Guaraní language, the term "Iguazú" means "great waters".  And great it was indeed!
 

Iguazu consists out of about 275 separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 60 metres and 82 metres high. The falls are protected by two National Parks (Argentina´s and Brazil´s) and it serves as the border between the two countries.  At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls. And the cool spray is a comfort in the heat.

On the Brazilian side there is a beautiful walkway along the canyon with an extension to the lower base of the Devil's Throat. Helicopter rides offering views from above of the falls and the jungle are available and amazing, but only on the Brazilian side; Argentina has prohibited such tours.

Interesting facts (for me) about Iguazu:

• Iguazu Falls was short-listed as a candidate to be one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation.
• The falls have been featured in several movies, including, The Mission.
• Iguazu is also often compared with Southern Africa's Victoria Falls which separates Zambia and Zimbabwe, although Iguazu is wider.

First, a boat trip on the river - a rough but thrilling ride indeed!

This gets your adrenalin rushing - as close as you can go - they slowly drifted our boat underneath a waterfall.    The power of it all was overwhelming and a feeling of succumbing takes hold of you - knowing how extremely small you are.

Devil's throat

Devil's throat

A helicopter ride

Views from above

Hostel Inn Iguazu

Hostel Inn Iguazu - a party

Hostel Inn Iguazu

A Swedish Christmas

Donald Duck, Pickled herring,  and nubbe - A Swedish Christmas

My Swedish Christmas began at 2 o’clock on Julafton, December 24.

But I started the day in my own kitchen in my apartment trying to dust off the spider-webbed- baker in me.  My chocolate brownies and carrot cake mixes weren’t really meant for cupcake holders, but I tried it, but left it in the oven too long.  I warned my hosts beforehand, but they were very polite and tried my cupcakes in the end.... (The forgotten memories of baking have not yet returned, but I am willing to give it another go in the maybe-near-future).

We arrived at 2 at our hosts, a Swedish family who will always be close to my heart and who were kind enough to invite us along for Christmas.  First glögg (mulled wine) is prepared in a pot on the stove and served in small coffee cups.  We brought Lingonberry glögg (cow berrier).  I love the taste and warmth of glögg.

At precisely 3.00, the TV is switched on and is it time for the oldest and most steadfast Christmas tradition in Sweden: the collection of short clips out of popular Walt Disney cartoons or movies.  Donald Duck (Kalle Anka in Swedish), Mickey Mouse (Musse Pigg), Goofy (Långben), Chip and dale (Piff och Puff), Cinderella (Askungen), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Snövit och de sju dvärgarna) all make their appearance in this half hour-watched-by-all-Swedes tradition.  This is probably one of the strangest Swedish traditions I've ever seen. The Swedes watch the same episode that has been screened for the past 50 years, every year.  Only the last 5 minutes of the show is changed every year. This year Timon and Pumba made their appearance in the last 5 minutes.  The strangest of the whole tradition is that it is dubbed, but you can still hear the original English audio, e.g. Donald Duck’s voice.  The dubbed voice is an ordinary man talking in an ordinary voice, in Swedish, not in a Donald Duck or Goofy voice. What an interesting tradition!  But what I found is that it brings the whole family together; the adults look forward to the whole event just as much as the children.  And newbies introduced to the tradition (me) enjoyed it as much as everyone else! And what I loved most is the Swedes know all the words of it as well as all words of the songs!  But this creates a warm and cozy feeling before the Julbord!
 

Next on the agenda is the Christmas feast or Julbord, as it's known in Swedish. The standards include Christmas ham, pickled herring, meatballs, soft cheeses, smoked salmon, “prince sausage” (small sausages with what looks like crowns at each end) and potato bake - a smorgasbord of Christmas delights. All this is combined with the drinking of nubbe (Swedish snaps).  And if you have to not-drink-and-drive there is always Julmust - a special Christmas coke that was introduced to me and which I came to love.  It almost tastes like cherry coke.  Julmust is (according to my knowledge) only available over Christmas and comes in bottles with Christmas labels and all.

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Julmust

After a lot of indulging, eating, sometimes singing and laughing, the table is cleared and the children are told that Santa could be on his way.  Santa in Sweden is not a phantom-like visitor that fills up children's stockings while they sleep. No, the bearded man in the red suit delivers presents to children face to face, usually after the Julbord. At this time, the dads of Sweden conveniently step out to go and "buy the newspaper". 

After the visit from Santa and the opening of all the presents it is time for coffee and “something with the coffee”.   I was introduced to the miniature red and green cupcake holders with the most delicious toffee mix they call knäck.  They also warn you beforehand that it is very dangerous for your teeth.  I loved the caramel-toffee-nutty taste.  I sucked long and hard as not to lose a tooth.  With the knäck they served a dark brown toffee mix in silver cupcake holders.  This they call kola.  Also a delicious sweet-dark-toffee-pudding mix which is better eaten with a spoon.

While enjoying coffee, with a Swedish-whiskey twist, the adults (who brought two presents each) choose two numbers written on small pieces of paper.  The presents with your numbers on is yours.  Everyone waits for all to receive a present, which the dad of the house gives out and then everyone opens theirs together.  PS. I loved my gifts!
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knäck

After cleaning and coffee everyone relax in front of the television for a traditional Swedish movie.

Christmas in Sweden is very different to the ones I've had in South Africa, Argentina and South Korea, but it also has it's similarities. It was a great experience and definitely one of the highlights of my time in Sweden.

God Jul och Gott nytt År!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Saint Lucia Day

I was privileged to take part in a school’s Saint Lucia celebration on the 13^th of December. 

What a warm and wonderful tradition to get you in the Christmas spirit!  Candle light, beautiful songs, pepperkakor (gingerbread cookies), white robes, red ribbons and a lot of singing are going around Sweden this time of year.  A lot of practicing for the big Saint Lucia event takes place beforehand. Traditionally one girl wears a crown of candles (or lights) on her head while others hold only a single candle each. 

The Saint Lucia event I attended took place at Annedalskyrkan (church) in Gothenburg. 

A bit of history:

St. Lucy is believed to have been a Sicilian saint who suffered a martyr's death in Syracuse, Sicily around AD 310. According to the legend she was seeking help for her mother's long-term illness at the shrine of Saint Agnes, in her native Sicily, when an angel appeared to her in a dream beside the shrine. As a result of this, Lucy became a devout Christian, refused to compromise her virginity in marriage and was denounced to the Roman authorities by the man she would have wed. They threatened to drag her off to a brothel if she did not renounce her Christian beliefs, but were unable to move her, even with a thousand men and fifty oxen pulling. So they stacked materials for a fire around her instead and set light to it, but she would not stop speaking, insisting that her death would lessen the fear of it for other Christians and bring grief to non-believers. One of the soldiers stuck a spear through her throat to stop these denouncements, but to no effect. Soon afterwards, the Roman consulate in charge was hauled off to Rome on charges of theft from the state and beheaded. Saint Lucy was able to die only when she was given the Christian sacrament.

In another story, Saint Lucy was working to help Christians hiding in the catacombs during the terror under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and in order to bring with her as many supplies as possible, she needed to have both hands free. She solved this problem by attaching candles to a wreath on her head.

The song:
The lyrics to the song we sang, (I love the sound of the Swedish on my tongue):

Sankta Lucia

Translation

Natten går tunga fjät, runt gård och stuga. Kring jord som sol'n förlät, skuggorna ruva. Då i vårt mörka hus, stiga med tända ljus, Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia. Natten var stor och stum. Nu hör det svingar, i alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar. Se på vår tröskel står vitkläd, med ljus i hår, Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia. Mörkret skall flykta snart ur jordens dalar. Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar. Dagen skall åter ny, stiga ur rosig sky, Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia.

Hark! through the darksome night Sounds come a winging: Lo! 'tis the Queen of Light Joyfully singing. Clad in her garment white, Wearing her crown of light, Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia! Deep in the northern sky Bright stars are beaming; Christmas is drawing nigh Candles are gleaming. Welcome thou vision rare, Lights glowing in thy hair. Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!

(Images from the web; research: - www.wikipedia.com)

Patagonia, Argentina

After almost missing our flight in the early morning of 25^th of December 2007, (because of a party at Hostel Inn in Buenos Aires and our own miss guided time of our flight) we safely, but very tired, arrived at the El Calafate International Airport.  (The airport is located some 20 km east of the village and has daily flights to and from Buenos Aires.)  We shared a taxi from the airport to the town of El Calafate with a Chilean couple.

El Calafate

El Calafate is in Santa Cruz, a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia.   It is a small, cute town with wooden lodges and huts, is set on the glacial blue Lake Argentino, and catering mainly for tourists wanting to see the glaciers.  Starry, clear skies await you in this province of Argentina.  Beautiful nature and wildlife, just outside the town, awaits eager trekkers. It is easy to find accommodation in this small town, though for us, arriving on Christmas day it wasn’t.  But after walking around the town we booked ourselves in a small hotel as all the hostels were full.  All in all accommodation is easy to find.  There is a supermarket at the end of the main street with fair prices. (Buy your food for your tours in advance, because in the national park there are almost no places to buy food.)  We made our own sandwiches (taken from the breakfast buffet at the hotel) for the trip.

El Calafate

The boat excursion:  Parque Nacional Los Glaciares 

This is the reason for making the trip to El Calafate.  The boat excursions are done by professional companies and the boats are clean and comfortable.  This is the best and only way to see many of the glaciers and places in the National Park.

“Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Spanish: The Glaciers) is a national park which was declared  a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981.  The national park, created in 1937, is the second largest in Argentina. Its name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers, of which only 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean. The ice cap is the largest outside of Antarctica and Greenland. In other parts of the world, glaciers start at a height of at least 2,500 meters above mean sea level, but due to the size of the ice cap, these glaciers begin at only 1,500m, eroding the surface of the mountains that support them.” - www.wikipedia.com

This is glacier country at its best.  The water and the shapes of the ice-bergs floating in the lake are astoundingly bright-ice-turquoise-blue.  (The reason for this extraordinary color is because of the rock flour, or glacial flour, which becomes suspended in river water making the water appear cloudy, which is sometimes known as glacial milk.  If the river flows into a glacial lake, the lake may appear turquoise in color as a result.)

The boat excursion travels between a number of smaller glaciers as well as the major ones which flow into Lake Argentino:

1.   Bahía Onelli, a lake where you get to relax and eat your lunch for about an hour.  There you have beautiful views of small pieces of icebergs lying in and around the lake.  

Bahía Onelli

One of the interesting ice figures at Bahía Onelli

2.   The inaccessible Spegazzini glacier.   The boat stops at part of the 100 meter wall of the glacier.  Here you can hear and see parts of the wall falling off.  We took a video clip just as a part of the wall came down.  The whole boat rocked on the waves from the fall.  It was quite a riveting and at the same time scary experience!

 Spegazzini glacier

3.   The Upsala Glacier is a large valley glacier. “The Upsala Glacier is well known for its rapid retreat, which many see as evidence for global warming.”  

                            

      A very interesting fact I didn’t know at that time: “The name comes from the old spelling with one p of Uppsala University, which sponsored the first glaciological studies in the area. Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden(!) , and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477.” - www.wikipedia.com

Upsala glacier - our boat couldn't get through and I don't think it was meant to go through

5.   The Perito Moreno is reachable by land.  This is the most famous glacier and a must see, 80km from El Calafate.  We took a bus to see this glacier the following day.  You can see the enormous glacier just meters away from you.  You spend a couple of hours here as the sound coming from the glacier is extraordinary and you just want to stay there and stare at this mother (nature) of a wonder!  The cracking ice makes a sound difficult to describe.  It is as if the glacier is moaning and groaning, giving birth to smaller glaciers as it falls with a huge splash in the water.  This happens quiet often and it is worth the (patient) wait.  For me something beautiful was the sun that came out from behind the clouds now and again as if it was playing hide and seek over Perito.  And as the sun's rays touched the glacier it gave out a cry of pure joy and satisfaction.  I've never seen nature playing right in front of my eyes in such a unique and surreal way.  "Perito Moreno nearby is one of the few advancing glaciers in the world, which is 30km x 5km wide. Nature at its most awesome and intimidating."

Perito Moreno - the sun playing over it

Perito Moreno

And now I have to say that Patagonia wasn’t planned, I’ve never heard of it and I never knew about the glaciers.  We simply had a few days to kill over Christmas and after talking to a travel guide in Buenos Aires the most obvious thing to do were to go see the glaciers in Patagonia!  Without accommodation booked we found a room on Christmas day and on the 26^th of December found 2 seats on a boat to go see the glaciers.  This is not the ideal way to travel but it was a hell of an adventure and a highlight in our Argentinian trip!

COURAGE

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate
and the wisdom to be humble.  Courage is the foundation of integrity.  -  KESHAVAN NAIR

One Swedish afternoon

I took a tram ride downtown as the fog set slowly down on the streets of Gothenburg.  It was already dark.  With the sounds of Regina Spector - her eerie, but fantastic voice and brilliant lyrics - in my ears, she blended in with the fog which in return blended in with the newly-lit-Christmas lights.  The fog covered the street with hollow drowsiness and a sleepy overflow covered me up like a blanket.  The streets walked lonely, dark past me, with their only companion:   The Fog.  The water canal lay still, quiet, lifeless and awaiting the lights to come dance on it.  A mirror image of the Gothenburg world reflected in the water as I passed.  The eerie stillness calmed me, supported my hurried soul.  It whispered in my ear: I have to go there; I have to walk those streets in the foggy nothingness and hopefully find my footsteps back.

The sound of cold

When the yellow leaves leave their trees to rest on the ground and winter's bone starts to spread its colors and breath over everything, everything starts to feel different. Cold has another sound to it. Cold sounds different from Autumn.
 The sound of cold is the early morning's perfectly dark blue sky with just the full moon balancing itself against the morning star, which shines so bright as if it's trying to outdo the moon. The sound of cars driving on the road when its starting to turn over to winter, has another sound. The tires on the road just sounds different. People talking in the streets sounds like their awaiting, expecting... They sound different than before. Voices sounds different. Their voices echo into the now light blue sky. Cold is a perfectly cloudless, move less, calm, azure, blue sky. The most perfect light blue you can ever imagine. I walked past grass and noticed how they glittered in the morning light. Ice coated green grayish grass greeted me with a welcoming surprise. I wanted to touch it. Cold is ice coated grass glittering underneath the morning moon. Magical. Wondrous. I saw a giant tarantula leave crawling my way -  a big leave exactly shaped like a tarantula - legs and all, almost moving life-like. Cold is finding the sky torn between colors. Fire-ish, reddish, horizon, succumbing and overlapping, overflowing with the blue haze.   And then a red-pink horizon greeted me in the cold. A promise of a bright, clear day. Glory morning. It's perfect. The cold is magical and perfect. Driving past parks and grass fields, it looks like a fog layer hanging over the grass with trees rooted on the fog layer. It looks like a fairy tale. Difficult to describe in words.


And now my husband tells me everything sounds different in the cold, because the air is thicker and cold air is a better conductor of sound. O well, in my writer's eyes and ears, I didn't think scientifically.

Photo by Photographer Marta Cernicka - photo.net picture on VisualizeUs

found on http://vi.sualize.us/view/b37bd4f91ab74c2b5be4a419893cfda7/

found on http://ohinevertoldyou.tumblr.com/post/13014304618

Have a great (cold) week! ;)

Quote for the week

We cannot escape fear.  We can only transform it into a companion
that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures... 
Take a risk a day - one small or bold stroke that will make you feel
great once you have done it.  - Susan Jeffers


image found on http://angelicafreire.tumblr.com/post/12695959659





All about Gothenburg

May 2011:  After a long winter I took a walk "on the bright side" of Gothenburg as it was my first Sunny and blue-skied day since I arrived in March.  During the following spring I watched flowers bloom gorgeously over the canals and loved every moment of it.



Gustav Adolf Torg



The German Church (also known as the Christina Church) lies in central Gothenburg.

Statues next to the Gothenburg Art Museum

Poseidon (1931) at the top of Avenyn at Götaplatsen



Poseidon in front of the Art Museum


 (Oktober 2011:  Poseidon taking a Spa month):

 

Beginning of Spring

Walking down the Avenue I found:

Enjoying the sun

A trip with a Paddan (the boat) along the canals and out in Göta Älv takes approx 50 minutes.

Kungsportplatsen

Postcards at a shop

Teenage bands filling the streets with music

Swedes love flowers, plants and their gardens

One of the many small shopping streets

Rent a bike (first 30 minutes are free) and see Gothenburg

After a long winter the Swedes were enjoying every bit of sunshine

Cherry blossoms in Spring time

Linnégatan:  multistory residential buildings built in the early 1900's. The street is a lively cafe and restaurant strip.

Spring time along the Göta Älv

The Wheel of Gothenburg