Colombia South America

Playa Blanca

Cartagena is on the Caribbean, so it is not surprising that it is surrounded by beautiful beaches. The ones right here in Caragena are fine, but the farther out you go, the more pristine and beautiful they become. About an hour away by speed boat is a beach called Playa Blanca: a stretch of powdery white sand along turquoise sea with palm trees and various places renting hammocks and grass huts for the night. I am not much of a beach person, but this sounded quite idyllic, so i decided to go.

There are 3 ways to get to Playa Blanca: take a tour (which involves also going to an aquaraium and has less than favorable reviews and costs about $50,000 pesos or more), take a 3 hour bus ride and then convince someone to take you to the beach the last half an hour by motorbike, or convince someone to take you in a private boat.

I was not going to spend hours on a bus and did not relish the idea of a tour, so i opted for the private boat. I went just outside of the old city to the market at about 7:30am and found where the boats were. They were smallish, fiberglass boats with wooden benches and were sort of rectangular in shape. They were docked next to where men were repairing fishing nets and gutting the freshly caught fish. I found a man with a boat and asked if he was going to Playa Blanca. He was not going there, but just past it, and would drop me off for 20,000 pesos (about $10-$12 dollars). This sounded good. I hopped on the boat and waited. The deal is, you have to wait for them to fill up their boats before they leave. i waited nearly 2 hours but i did not mind, as men came by selling coffee and bananas and i really enjoyed watching the fishermen and the activities as the boats were loaded with supplies. Our boat was filled with water jugs, flowers, crates of pineapples, bags of plantains and coconuts, and other less exciting items and about 10 other people got on board. Then we left.

The boat sped along, leaping off of the waves. I have never been on a boat that fast and it was very exciting. We passed by green areas of trees, the new city of Cartagena with its modern high rises, and past tiny shacks along the water, where people were clearly living in great poverty. After about an hour we arrived in Playa Blanca.

I was the only one getting off there, so i hopped off the boat and waded to the beach (there is no dock area). The boat began to pull away and then came back with the captain yelling at me that i had not paid him. I argued with him, as best i could, that i had paid in Cartagena, but after some time, i realized that i may have paid the wrong man (ie not the captain). I saw others paying in Cartagena, but perhaps they paid the correct person, or maybe they were just ripping me off, but i finally gave in and paid 20,000 pesos, again.

Obviously, this is only about $10, so it was not the money that bothered me, but my pride was injured and i was a bit embarrassed as it looked like i was trying to get away without paying, which was not the case. Anyway, as the boat pulled away and i was left on this desolate beach, i regretted coming, did not want to be there, and realized…how was i going to get back?

I had assumed that there would be a dock with boats and that it would be easy to arrange for return transport, but once the boats drop of their passengers, they leave. The beach did have one end which was clearly more touristy, as there were lots of people (but still only grass huts and hammocks), but the end i was at was fairly deserted. I sat down on a chair feeling kind of upset and pannicky. There is no road, no boats, no electricity, no telephones (no motor cars)…i was already planning to live there forever Gilligan’s Island style, when some women wandered by and sat with me. They had been at the busy end of the beach selling massages. They tried to chat with me, but the language barrier made it mostly impossible, however they could see i was unhappy. They called over a man who operated the hammock, hut, and kitchen establishment at which i found myself. (El Paraisio de Mama Ruth – i highly recommend them for sleeping & eating.)

This man did speak fairly good English and i explained my situation. He expressed regret for my being ripped off and said he would arrange for a boat to take me back at 3:00 (it was now 11:30) for 10,000 pesos. He fixed me up with a hammock, and some lunch of salad, rice, and plantains (he brought out a platter of freshly caught fish for me to select from, but i explained the vegetarian thing). I felt immediately more at ease.

And so i hung out there for more than 3 hours. i ate lunch, smoked two cigars, lay on the beach, sat in a chair looking out at the sea. Occasionally people walked by selling jewelry, shells, or coconut drinks, but other than that, it was completely quiet. Nothing but wind and waves, and a few men who emerged from the sea holding long, bright silvery fish they had caught with their hands. I have to say that i relaxed very quickly and found it quite peaceful.

At about 3:00 though I got anxious. My English speaking friend was no where to be seen and there were no boats on the horizon. I figured I was going to have to spend the night, when a boat came around the corner, loaded with people and with a man sitting on the bow, waving his arms. It was the guy! I waded out to the boat, thanked him for his help, and we sped off back to Cartagena.

The day, over all, was a great experience but i must admit to being particularly happy when i set foot back on land in Cartagena, tired, sweaty, and salty.

I spent the evening walking around, grabbed a bit of dinner and found a another cigar shop where i sat with the manager and his friend and smoked and chatted for an hour of so. (This time I learned all about prostitution in Cartagena.) I had planned to go to a salsa club, but was nodding off by 10:00, so i just went to bed.

That was my Thursday. I can’t wait to see what will happen today.
d

Brazil South America

Museums and Murals in São Paulo

I woke up on my second day in São Paulo with a plan. (The first day’s post is here.) The thing that I most wanted to see in São Paulo was Batman Alley (Beco de Batman) and I wanted to get there early. I was staying in the centre, so I got on the subway at Luz station, and I took the train to Santuario Nossa Senhora de Fatima station. From there, it was a fairly short walk to the area I wanted to see. I used maps.me to navigate my way. Once one I was just a block or two away from Batman Alley there were some signs that pointed me in the right direction. It was early and there was almost no one else around.

Batman Alley is a long street (or now really a collection of streets) in one area that is famous for being covered in murals. Apparently in the ‘80s there was a mural painted of Batman which is how the street got its name. Now it covered in murals, like a winding outdoor art gallery and the area seems to be spreading. Murals of all different styles are painted and then painted over. It’s constantly changing. You could go and come back a few months later and the whole landscape of murals will be completely different. There are still paintings of Batman, however.

It was delightful, and going first thing in the morning was the best because there was really no one else around. By the time I left, there were some vendors setting up to sell jewelry and whatnot and a few other tourists had appeared, taking elaborately posed pictures in front of the murals, so I was glad that I went when I did. I love street art, so this was fantastic for me.

From there I meandered over to Coffee Lab, which is known for being one of the best coffee shops in São Paulo. I didn’t have much to compare it to having only been in São Paulo for less than 24 hours, but it did have excellent coffee and a nice atmosphere.

I hopped back on the nearest subway station and went to the Museum of São Paulo. An art museum. An excellent art museum. It wasn’t even really on my list of things that I had to do, but I’m so glad that I decided to go. The museum is in an interesting building, and it has a collection of regular exhibits and special exhibitions. The thing that was amazing about it was that one floor which seemed to be their permanent collection, was that the art wasn’t displayed on the walls. Art was displayed with each painting free standing above a heavy cement base and the paintings just sort of floating in midair. The thing that made it more interesting was that the title of the painting and the artist’s name and any description of the painting were on the back of the canvas; so you would walk around looking at these paintings unsure of who or what they were until you walked around to the backside of it. This is maybe the most creative and interesting way of looking at art, because you are not influenced by knowing what you’re looking at. You are looking at a painting and you have to judge it on its merits and how you really feel about it without being influenced by the fact that you know that it’s a Picasso or Modigliani. I also like that they displayed the art without segregating it into era or type of painting (so there might be a very modern South American painting hung right next to a classical European painting).

It was fascinating. They also had an excellent exhibit of Gauguin’s Tahitian work, which I enjoyed.

The museum is on Paulista Ave, which is supposed to be a very important major street in São Paulo, so I walked down it until I reached the next subway station, which was quite a ways, I was not impressed with the street; it was big and it had a lot of buildings but I thought most of them were quite unattractive and there wasn’t really much on the street that interested me, but I’m still glad that I saw it.

At the next subway station I again got on a train and hopped over to Ibirapuera Park, in the middle of which is the Sao Paulo Museum of Modern Art. The museum is really in the middle of the park and it was quite a walk to find it, but it was pleasant walking through the park, which has a body of water in the middle and everyone was out riding bikes and running, playing ball and having picnics. It was a nice atmosphere.

The museum was fine. I enjoyed the art, but it was relatively small given the effort it took to get there.

On the way out I found myself utterly lost trying to get out of the park I was trying to go back the way I came but I got turned around and every time I tried to exit the park, I found myself faced by a fence. I eventually found a gate out and then realized I was nowhere near a subway station. I got on a bus only to discover that they only take exact change and I only had paper money, which they would not accept and there was no way to pay by a card, so, frustratingly, I had to get off the bus and walk quite a distance to the next subway station. That was a bit annoying.

But I did make my way to the subway eventually and went back to the centre and visited the Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Paul; a large cathedral from the 1950s which was which is pleasant to visit. (And even had its own cathedral traffic lights on the surrounding streets.)

Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady Assumption and Saint Paul

From there I walked around the central area. It was Sunday and the streets were filled with people. There was a market going on with vendors selling mostly clothes, trinkets, toys, and electronics. It was very lively. People were flying kites and selling food. It all felt a little bit rough around the edges but was lively and it was nice for a wander.

At this point it was late in the afternoon and I had to start thinking about getting back to the hotel because I had a flight heading out of Brazil, but I still made one more visit to the Mercado Municipal Paulistano, where I had been the day before for lunch. I had a quick meal and then went back to my hotel to pack up and take the train to the airport.

Mercado Municipal Paulistano

I really liked São Paulo. I wasn’t supposed to be there; I was supposed to be in Paraguay (you can read about that debacle here), and I don’t know if I would have had a better time in Paraguay, but São Paulo was good. I liked it better than Rio, and it was entirely different from Salvador. It made a nice end my trip to Brazil, despite all the hassles of getting there in the first place. Brazil was a place that I had never really been excited to see but now that I’ve been, I’m glad that I’ve gone, and I would go back to see more of the country. A country that big and diverse deserves more than one visit.

Brazil South America

São Paulo Surprise

My plan was to leave Salvador and fly to Asunción, Paraguay; the flight and it took me through Sao Paulo, where I would have a short layover. I was interested in visiting São Paulo but I have to make choices and I had decided that I would use an extra couple of days to visit the capital city Paraguay rather than visiting a third city in Brazil. Things did not go as planned.

The problems started when my flight out of Salvador was delayed, and it became quickly apparent that I was not going to make my connecting flight out of São Paulo. The airline Azul) was remarkable; they told me, before I even had the chance to complain, that they had put me on a new flight (on a different airline) out of São Paulo to Asunción and that I would now have a 12 hour layover in São Paulo and for that reason they gave me meal vouchers and snack box, they put me into a hotel for the day, and gave me taxi vouchers to get me to and from the hotel. I was a little disappointed that my short trip to Paraguay would be delayed, but it gave me the opportunity to see São Paulo. I think the best way to enjoy travel without getting frustrated over the little things is to be flexible.

I arrived in São Paulo and I had to go to a desk to get my vouchers and hotel confirmation. Since I was at the airport, I thought well I may as well pick up my boarding pass for my flight later that evening to Asunción so I went over to the other airline to pick it up. My flight from Salvador to São Paulo was on Azul airlines but my flight from São Paulo to Asunción would be on LATAM Air. When I went to pick up the boarding pass, the man asked to see my yellow fever vaccination card. It was the first time I had been asked for the card on this trip and I had kind of forgotten about it. Let me say right now: I should have had it with me. Canadians do not need their yellow fever cards to visit Paraguay – unless they are entering from certain airport in Brazil. Oops. I think that with the repeal of the COVID travel regulations, I became a little bit lax about having my vaccination papers with me, however, no problem, I had a digital version of it. So I pulled up my phone and I showed him the digital version and he said I had to have the original. I said “I have the original but it’s at home in Canada.” And what followed was a short and polite negotiation on my part to try to see if there was any way that he would let me board. I asked him if he would accept a legally notarized digital copy of the original, which I could have gotten in short order, or if there was some way that I could get a new vaccination card in São Paulo, but he said that none of that would be sufficient and the only way that he was going to let me board the flight was with my original yellow fever vaccination card. At that point I realized I was not going to Asunción.

(The only alternative he suggested was that I fly to Lima and then to Asunción because the no proof of vaccination would be required, but I was only going for 2.5 days, so that seemed like too much extra hassle and expense.)

I was pleased with myself for not being a jerk to the guy at the counter, because obviously it’s not his fault (it’s my fault…and maybe the fault of the government of Paraguay), but as I walked away I felt upset that I wasn’t going to go to Paraguay. I’d lost out on my flight cost, my hotel cost, and now I didn’t know what to do. I went and sat down and moped for a minute or two and I thought, “OK I was supposed to be flying home in about two and a half days anyway, I guess now I’ll spend that time in São Paulo.” The thing was, I didn’t know anything about São Paulo. To the Internet!

I quickly pulled up some blog posts about Sao Paulo. It’s a city of about 20 million people. Massive. I didn’t really know what there was to see, so relying on other people’s blog posts (Thank you bloggers!) I figured out an area of the city to stay in (central), did a quick read about the subway system, and decided on some things that I might like to see. I booked myself into a hotel and I got into a taxi and went into the city, I at a budget hotel, which was a good price and in a good location very close to the subway and walking distance to many things that I wanted to see, the hotel lacked any charm and character but it was brand new and it suited my needs in a pinch.

I went up to my room, unpacked a little bit, called the airline to change my flights back home (I was supposed to fly back to Vancouver from Asunción to Rio to New York to Vancouver, but since I was not in Asunción, I couldn’t catch my flight to Rio, which meant I missed out on my final day in Rio, but I got it all rebooked from São Paulo and it only cost me $14. Canadian.

I went out into the city. São Paulo is known for being dangerous and I didn’t really have enough time to research whether that reputation was deserved, so I felt a little bit on guard as I walked around the city centre. São Paulo feels kind of rough. My take on it after having visited Rio is that Rio reminds me of Miami and São Paulo reminds me a bit of New York, but New York from a Charles Bronson movie. It feels a little gritty and a little rough around the edges. Fortunately, I like cities that are a little bit rough around the edges and I love Charles Bronson movies, so São Paulo suited me just fine.

Leaving my hotel, I walked a short distance to the Mercado Municipal Paulistano, the biggest indoor market in the city. It is in a pretty, butter yellow building from 1933 with stained glass windows and inside is a vast array of food items and places to eat.

I think this is a ‘must do’ in São Paulo – Especially if you eat meat. There was meat of varying types everywhere. I think it’s a carnivore’s dream. I am not a carnivore and I found it a little bit challenging to find a sit-down place to eat at.

Market Memories

Finally, I went up to one of the restaurants and explained that I was a vegetarian and they brought me some delicious appetizer and then some sort of pastry filled with cheese, The pastry filled with cheese was amazing, but the super spicy pickle sauce that they brought me on the side was delicious and made my face sweat it was so spicy. I washed it down with fresh watermelon juice. Delicious.

Lunch

It was already late afternoon, and I didn’t really want to be out much after dark, so I walked around the city centre, took in some murals in that area and some views over the city, and visited a church.

Mosterio São Bento

I then hopped on the subway at Luz station and went to Oscar Freire station, which was in a different area, in order to visit a cigar lounge/bar (Café Esch). The subway was very easy to navigate and was inexpensive though it was very crowded. From the subway I walked to the cigar lounge through an affluent neighbourhood.

I settled into the lounge and bought a couple of cigars and had a cocktail. It was such a heavenly environment after the day I had of delays and disappointments and changed plans. It was nice just to sit back and relax, even if while I sat there, I ended up doing a bunch of work remotely.

I’ll have to save Paraguay for a future trip, but I was loving my spontaneous visit to São Paulo. The next day would be a full one with museums and murals. (Next post here.)

Brazil South America

Salvador’s Lower City

I went on and on in my first post about Salvador about how pretty, interesting, and historic it is. What I carved out of that post was anything about the lower part of the city. My first post was all about Pelourinho, the UNESCO heritage treasure of the upper city, but the lower part of Salvador is also worth visiting for a few reasons.

To get to the lower city there are some excellent options: one is an outdoor elevator (the Lacerda Elevator). Perhaps not surprisingly, given Brazil’s Portuguese connection, the only other place I have seen an outdoor elevation is in Lisbon. Why is an outdoor elevator so cool? I don’t know. They just are. Even better, this one, (built between 1869 and 1873) has an interesting design and costs pennies (the equivalent of about 4c CDN).

The other way to reach to lower city is by funicular: the Gonçalves funicular, built in 1889). I love funiculars. Again, I don’t know why. Like the elevator, it is so inexpensive it is practically free.

Funicular Fun

I took the elevator down, which put me just across the street from the sea, and just across from the crafts market: Mercado Modelo. The market is worth visiting even if, like me, you don’t really have any plans to buy anything. There are lots of things to look at and lots of things I liked but I just don’t have the need to buy souvenirs. There are also some good places to have a bite to eat.

I wanted to see the market, but I was on a mission. I wanted to try some local cigars. Bahia is a tobacco growing region of Brazil and makes cigars and I had only tried two brands in the past, so I want to do some smoking. I had found a cigar store in Pelourinho, but the selection was dismal, and the cigars were in poor condition. I got a tip from a very helpful concierge at a fancy hotel in city that there was a good cigar store (Charutos Bahia) in the lower city. (I may stay at hostels, but they seldom have the intel on cigars, so sometimes I’ll seek the advice of a concierge at a hotel I would never pay to stay at.)

Buying cigars. Look how happy I am.

I found my way to the cigar store. It didn’t have a great selection, but almost everything that it had was local. The man in the store didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Portuguese, but we managed to have a robust conversation about cigars, and he helped me select six different locally grown and made cigars for me to try. And over the next 24 hours I did my best to smoke all of them so that I could go back the next day and buy more of the ones that I liked.

I walked more around the lower city and smoked my cigar and eventually stopped and found something uninteresting but vegetarian to eat.

Statues in the Square

The next day I returned to the lower city with the goal of purchasing the cigars that I liked the most. I bought one box and one bundle and then carried on my way wandering around. The thing about the lower city that is remarkable is that many buildings are in bad shape; they are mossy, some of them are look like they’re falling down, and some of them seem to be just hollow facades, but they’re all quite beautiful in their own way. They have a lot of character and a lot of colour. And some of the streets, especially those near the bottom of the funicular are lively, with small fruit and vegetable markets and coffee shops. I enjoyed wandering around down there. There were some nice murals and churches, and it was beautiful without being precious.

Lower City views

I really enjoyed my time in Salvador, and I felt very satisfied with how long I spent there. The next day in the morning I had a flight to go to Paraguay via Sao Paulo. That trip didn’t really go as planned but I’ll write about that in the next post.

Wandering North

Playa Blanca

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