Picture challenge

Hasn't been any picture vore for a while. But now it's time. You can admire six brand new good pictures from my travel on http://mewpictures.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to place your vote for one. It is important.

/Mattias

Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia del Sacramento is little town with an intriguing history, founded by the Portuguese. The Spanish later conquered it when they tried to take total control over the Buenos Aires-area. It is now a very touristy place, full of restaurants and bars and it sort of priced me away fairly rapidly.

There are many features around like walls, cannons, winding cobbled streets, a lighthouse, museums and small churches. Colonia would be good for maybe a couple of days for the one who got plenty of time.

Montevideo

I expected a much more chaotic place when first arriving to the capital city of Uruguay. The first impression was however totally different: the modern bus station had manned information booths, live departure screens (God, don't remember when I saw these last time), clean restaurants, Mc Donald's and organised Taxi ranks.

Venturing further into the city, Montevideo continued to show proof of a high quality of life (in fact the highest in Latin America according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting; I researched it).

Mercer also had a 'personal safety in cities' ranking, dominated by European cities. Only eight Latin American cities made the ranking, of which the first three were: Monterrey, Mexico (99), Santiago, Chile (110) and Montevideo, Uruguay (115). I guess Uruguay is not as bad after all. Certainly nicer here than across the border to Brazil. Rio de Janeiro is for example one of the most dangerous cities in the world (usually make the top-10 in any ranking).

Chui

Chui is one of the border towns between Brazil and Uruguay. The traditional border town in South America is clearly divided (by a river or something), with stronghold-borderposts on both sides of the bridge protecting the country from whatever evil that may come through from the other side.

But not Chui.

In Chui, the main street forms the border. And everyone can walk across as many time they like without being aimed at by suspicious-looking security guards with automatic Uzi's. Everything located on one side belongs to Uruguay, and everything on the other side belongs to Brazil.

There was a storm coming this night. Thunder roamed and strong rain shattered against the window of the bus when approaching the frontier zone. When arriving in Chui, it didn't rain (thank you very much) but one could hear and see the thunder above the horizon. The storm did not get closer but it just hoovered there on the same place. Like a sailboat in no wind. There was a sudden power failure and all the shops, businesses, exchange houses, bars, hotels and restaurants went dark. Even the hot-dog booth on the side of the street went dark. But only on one side of the street; Uruguay side still had light.

I just realised that I don't really have a point with this entry so I stop here. Apart from that it just looked funny with half the street dark and the other half making the best business ever. Viva Uruguay.

Curitiba

Brazil is so amazingly large that it is difficult to travel the country without stopping here and there, catching breath. I was on my way to Uruguay and the choice of stop fell on Curitiba.

I read about Curitiba long ago as it is famous for its bus rapid transport system with buses on segregated lanes. It has been the model city of many other places around the world, including Quito, Ecuador and Bogotá, Colombia.

Apart from this, there was not much that I really wanted to see. Actually, there was not much else to see at all. But it doesn't matter. I can only conclude that the bus rapid transit stations look funny. Large dark-coloured cylinders. It's like something taken from a Batman-movie.

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is a worldwide-famous city and although it only has half the amount of inhabitants compared to the nearby São Paulo's 13 million, it is the city to visit in Brazil. Rio de Janeiro is as exciting as Michael Moore is controversial, as crazy as the size of Jay Leno's chin and you are just as likely to fall in love with this place as Nicolas Sarkozy is going to put the interests of the European Union before the interests of France.

Ok, that last thing was a joke.

But it is not for nothing. Rio de Janeiro may occupy the most spectacular city-setting in the world with mountains, cliffs, sand-beaches, deep-blue sea and rainforests; all featuring in the background of the Rio de Janeiro-postcard behind modern skyscrapers.

And if that wouldn't be enough to convince you, there is always the craziest party in the world (the carnival), the mountain-top statue of the Christ Redeemer (one of the world's new seven wonders), the sugar loaf (iconic mountain), or why not football madness on one of the world's biggest football stadiums (Maracanã).

Unfortunately (as I have started to say about an awful lot of places recently) I didn't have enough time to stay longer and explore more of the city. But nevertheless, even though I couldn't go to a Samba-school, see a football match (the league was between the first and second stage), swim at all the classic beaches, do bar hopping, see the carnival or go hang-gliding, it was definitely a cool place with a lot to do and see. And there is always a next time, right?

The Rio-pictures follows below. They should be pretty self-explaining by now.

Asuncion

One of the most anonymous capital cities on the South American continent is quite anonymous when it comes to tourist attractions as well. Apart from walking around looking at the locals who are constantly running around with their thermoses drinking mate wherever they have a minute to spare, there are few tours, hardly any museums to talk about for a capital city, no excursions, no activities, no mountains, no paragliding and no smorgasbords.

Asuncion does however have something few others do: plenty of mosquitos carrying the Dengue-fever virus, which there is no vaccine for. Yey!

Asuncion is also a city where the upper class mixes more with the poorer people compared to other places I have seen (I guess they have the mate-drinking in common) and one may encounter traffic jams with horse-carts transporting a load of junk next to a brand new black Mercedes Benz with toned windows.

I guess it doesn't get more exciting than this. I only managed to take ten photos in total; none of them turned out good and only one made the OK-mark.

Encarnacion

Encarnacion is a Paraguayan border city just across the river from Posadas, Argentina. Nearby are some Paraguayan ruins of the Jesuit missions located.

The Jesuit missions were catholic groups, building camps (small fortressed towns) with the purpose of converting the local native population to Christianity. When slave traders came to hunt people to sell as slaves, the Jesuits protected the locals. This, amongst other things, led to that the Jesuits were expelled from South America in 1767. Ruins from the time today exist in Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina. Here are some photos from the Paraguayan missions:

Salta

As it had been much travelling in little time recently, I stopped by the Argentinean city of Salta overnight to rest. Salta didn't have much to catch my attention beyond a morning or so but it was a worthwhile stop and I could visit a few banks with ATMs. My idea of a relaxing time soon ended up in a hike to the top of a hill to look at the view of Salta and the surrounding Lerma Valley. Needed a shower before going to the bus station.

Tupiza

So a couple of days later than expected, I finally entered Tupiza (three hours from the border to Argentina) the other route, avoiding the rivers on the Uyuni road.

Unfortunately I did not have much time left to spend but otherwise I would be keen on staying a night here. Tupiza is a small country-side town, which looks like it was taken from a place in the old American Wild West. Just a bit more spectacular with the high red mountains in the background, surrounded by canyons, coloured rocks and cactuses. A really beauty.

A lot of people know the classic movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). It made Paul Newman and Robert Redford famous. Fewer people know the script was based on a real story, and even less people know that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid spent their last days in Bolivia, more specifically in Tupiza.