HopStopTravel.com » architecture

Trucking Along

Sarit Reizin — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 04:00:00 +0000

The reason for the next four days was this quote “… on epic 4WD-journey to Parque Nacional dos Lencois Maranhenses you’ll roll past sand dunes and splash through creeks, ducking palms as the untouched landscape unfolds around you.” “The best part is getting there,” Shurik was very excited about this. I went along. I would be lying if I said I was completely uninterested how this will turn out.

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June in Rio de Janeiro

Sarit Reizin — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 04:00:00 +0000

Rio is officially my all time favorite from the big cities we’ve been to so far. Buenos Aires comes close with its tango and almost New York atmosphere, but Rio de Janeiro is a metropolitan intertwined with hills of jungle, framed by the ocean. I have never seen anything like this. The first thing we did is go up to Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer, the all famous statue towering above Rios as its icon. The view from there is unbelievable, and we stayed at his heels till sunset only to see Rio change below us.

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Sao Jao and Tiradentes

Sarit Reizin — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:00:00 +0000

One, a town full of colonial architecture (which, by now, I had enough of). The other, a small village packed with somewhat bizarre home accessories like a female bust for your window sill or these charming TP dispensers.

Crew, prepare the cabin for takeoff

Sarit Reizin — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:00:00 +0000

“We all live in giant airplane, giant airplane…” That should be a theme song of residents of Brasilia, Brazil’s ultramodern, planned, built-from-scratch capital. The whole city is shaped like an airplane with government offices, public buildings, and monuments situated along the body, while 7km each wings are divided into hotel, commercial, and residential sectors. We stayed in a small hotel where the southern wing is attached to the fuselage.
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If they build it, we will come

Sarit Reizin — Fri, 26 May 2006 21:58:00 +0000

San Ignacio was just a short stop, not even half a day, on our way to the main and last attraction in Argentina – Iguazu Falls. The Jesuit and Guarani cultures are an important part of this country’s heritage and this is where we chose to have our history lesson.
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Valparaiso, Chile

Sarit Reizin — Thu, 18 May 2006 20:29:00 +0000

An entire town situated on steep hills surrounding a tiny strip of land where one of the oldest and busiest of Chilean ports is located. Exploring the town would probably prove impossible if only not for the fifteen cable-cars ready and willing to take you wherever you wish.

Beauty and the Beast

Sarit Reizin — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 05:30:00 +0000

The only reason we stopped in Osorno was because we missed our bus across the border to Bariloche. It was already late in the afternoon and we had no idea what was available to do in town so we just walked around. We didn’t hope to find much, but as usual we got more then we bargained for. As it turned out, Osorno was home to several enormous, marvelous and monstrous at the same time, concrete churches which came in amazing contrast to the petite wooden churches we just saw on the Island of Chiloe.

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A parakeet named La Boca

Sarit Reizin — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 04:00:00 +0000

Colorful, tiny, and noisy barrio of La Boca is a tight cluster of cafes, shops, and papier-mâché life size figurines. The day we chose to visit it was already packed with activities like moving to a different hostel, as we were not enjoying the company of our new uninvited roommates the Cucarachas, and we also had a dance class later that day, but nevertheless we decided to walk.
We are staying in San Telmo, a neighboring barrio, so it wasn’t exactly far away, but still, the less then scenic walk to La Boca was a waste of time. Since we did not care much for the football stadium we went straight to the main street where we got simply bombarded with flyers from pretty much every cafe on the block. Quiet but pushy, the vendors were persistent, but not very convincing. To us, their determination was more off-putting than anything else and we stayed away until one sign, with a very familiar name for us, caught our eye – El Samovar De Rasputin. With a name like that, how were we not to go in! Inside, as was to be expected, was absolutely nothing Russian whatsoever and my attempt to joke about it with the waitress went completely over her head. Nevertheless, we were hungry, and they had the exact same food as any other joint in sight, so we stayed. At first, I was a bit disappointed we would not get to see the Tango show that other places were offering, but that worry quickly went away as pretty much every where you’d look in La Boca you’d see somebody dancing Tango for spare change. After lunch we walked around for a bit among the colorful artisan vendors and the even more colorful houses that La Boca is so famous for. They are actually quite remarkable with some walls colored in four different colors and vibrant signs in their fronts. La Boca was cute, but very loud and a bit repetitive so after we made sure we saw all there was to see, we took a cab back to San Telmo.

Santa Catalina

Sarit Reizin — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 04:34:00 +0000

The trip to Arequipa (Peru) took us about 24 hours, just a tad longer than our non-stop twenty-two hour bus ride from Lima to Cuzco. This time we spent less time in the bus, but with border crossing and three bus changes we got to Arequipa quite late the next evening. Personally, I was really looking forward to Arequipa. Many people we met on the road raved how beautiful it is, and how many cool things you can do here. Alas, I have to say we found Arequipa to be somewhat boring. No matter how hard we looked, we could not find any interesting markets, and the excursions from the local travel agencies did not look like anything we couldn’t do by ourselves. We strolled the streets for a while and eventually ended up spending most of our time in Monasterio de Santa Catalina which is said to be the finest example of Arequipa’s colonial architecture. The Monastery was indeed impressive in its size and structure. Inside, besides the usual tiny courtyards surrounded by religious art, were actual streets, nun’s quarters, and all they might need to live their quiet lives, like kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry facilities, all accessible without leaving the walls of the convent.