Chimu Adventures Blog

Archive for July, 2010

Bolivian Pyramid ‘renovation’ may cause collapse

Jul 30

Posted by dillon in South American Tours | No Comments

EAGER to attract more tourists, the town of Tiwanaku in the Bolivian Andes has spruced up the ancient Akapana pyramid with adobe instead of stone, in what some experts are calling a renovation fiasco.

Now, the Akapana pyramid risks losing its designation as a UN World Heritage Site and there is concern the makeover could even cause its collapse.

The pyramid is one of the biggest pre-Columbian constructions in South America and a building of great spiritual significance for the Tiwanaku civilisation, which spread throughout south-western Bolivia and parts of neighboring Peru, Argentina and Chile from around 1500 BC to AD 1200.

Jose Luis Paz, who was appointed in June to assess damage at the site, said the state National Archaeology Union erred in choosing to rebuild the pyramid using adobe, when it was clear to the naked eye that the original was built of stone.

Tiwanaku ruins near La Paz in Bolivia

Tiwanaku ruins near La Paz in Bolivia

“They decided to go freehand with the (new) design,” he said.

“There are no studies showing that the walls really looked like this.”

The pyramid stands in the Tiwanaku archaeological site, some 64km north of Bolivia’s administrative capital of La Paz.

According to Mr Paz, who now heads excavation at the site, the town of Tiwanaku hired the UNAR to renovate Akapana to make it “more attractive for tourists”, regardless of how the pyramid may have originally looked like.

Thousands of tourists visit Tiwanaku every year and pay about $10 to enter the site, but the village of Tiwanaku, which manages the park, thought a better-looking pyramid would attract even more visitors, he said.

Culture Minister Pablo Groux dismissed some of the criticism and said the renovation was long called for.

“The UNAR has restored the original form the pyramid had. If we look at pictures from five years ago, there was just a hill there,” he said.

“What we can see now is something close to what the construction originally looked like.”

Still, Mr Paz said the controversy was not only about aesthetics.

The archaeologist said lower decks are slightly tilted because of the extra weight of the adobe walls, which could lead to the collapse of the pyramid.

UNESCO is due to visit Tiwanaku shortly and if it decides Akapana has been excessively tampered with, it may drop Tiwanaku from its list of World Heritage Sites.

In 2000, UNESCO decided that Tiwanaku deserved to be in the list because its ruins “bear striking witness to the power of the empire that played a leading role in the development of the Andean pre-Hispanic civilisation”.

The Tiwanaku civilisation, which flourished around Lake Titicaca, was one of the precursors of the Inca empire, the largest pre-Columbian civilisation in the Americas.

Mr Groux believes that Tiwanaku will not lose its World Heritage status because the Government halted the reconstruction project earlier this year, as soon as UNESCO told them to.

Looting of Akapana’s carved stones and ceramics started soon after the Spanish conquest and the structure was later used as a quarry, from which stones were extracted to build a rail line and a Catholic church nearby.

Its size and the still-standing lower decks suggest that Akapana was once a remarkable building, but as a result of the ransacking and the extreme temperatures and strong winds in the Andean plateau, some 3800m above sea level, the pyramid looks rundown.

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Easter Islanders set to refuse Moai statue loan to France

Jul 20

Posted by dillon in Antarctica Cruises | No Comments

THE Rapa Nui people on Easter Island are mobilising to preserve their heritage and, in the latest twist, have refused to loan one of their renowned Moai statues for an exhibition in Paris.

During a referendum this year, 89 per cent of the islanders, most ethnic Polynesians, opposed transporting the ancient monolithic human rock figure 13,000km from the South Pacific to the Tuileries Gardens in Paris, where they were set to be put on display between April 26 and May 9.

Chile’s National Monuments Council, which had initially backed loaning the Moai, said it would make its final decision later this year.

But the “most likely” and “foreseeable” outcome is that it would abide by the islanders’ choice, a source close to the institution said.

Easter Island - Off the coast of Chile

Easter Island - Off the coast of Chile

The mysterious basalt sculptures with outsized heads were made some 500 to 750 years ago and have become a symbol of Easter Island, a territory annexed to Chile in the late 19th century.

Italy’s Mare Nostrum and France’s Louis Vuitton launched the project to haul the Moai across oceans for public view in Paris two years ago.

They aimed to introduce the island’s culture to Europe in exchange for helping preserve its heritage with a fund that initially included half a million dollars.

Archaeologists and logistics coordinators had scoped out the site and preselected a statue 5m tall that weighed 13 tonnes. They had planned to insure it for $2.14 million.

The island’s 4000 inhabitants were informed about the project during public meetings before a referendum was held under the auspices of the International Labour Organization’s convention on indigenous people.

Out of 900 people who responded, 789 islanders said they opposed sending the Moai to France, while 94 said they supported the move.

The islanders’ clear refusal is an example of how inhabitants of this isolated piece of paradise are increasingly defending a heritage and ecosystem they say is under threat.

They have expressed worry at the 50,000 tourists who flood the tiny Easter Islands each year and a growing number of immigrants from continental Chile some 3500km away.

Authorities are also concerned about the large number of visitors expected for the solar eclipse set for July 11.

Last year, islanders symbolically closed their island – which is just 24km by 12km – for 48 hours, blocking the Mataveri airport and urging increased awareness of their migration problem.

In October, they managed to obtain guarantees that the Chilean constitution would be revised to reflect those concerns.

Now, they have focused their efforts on preserving the Moai.

“You can understand their reaction,” said Luis Carlos Parentini, a historian specialising in indigenous communities.

“Throughout their history, they saw much of their heritage disappear. They could be suspecting that what leaves the island won’t come back.

“And they don’t have much to gain out of this, as the island is already immensely popular.”

The islanders may have good reason to be sceptical.

A smaller Moai standing 1.2m tall and weighing two tonnes that was offered to a head of state in 1927 travelled from Argentina to Europe for 80 years before it was finally returned in 2006.

Chimu Adventures offers tours and packages to Easter Island, visit our website for more details.

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Lose yourself in the pristine beaches and dive sites of Ilha Grande

Jul 15

Posted by dillon in South American Tours | No Comments

Brazil’s Ilha Grande is indeed, as its name humbly translates, a Big Island. It’s just, well, so much more than that.

Ilha Grande attractions
Why not tell the world of the vast array of assets that it boasts: impeccable white sand beaches; a dense and vibrant Brazilian jungle; azure and aqua lagoons; world-class dive sites;  an adorable car-less township arced by sharp mountain peaks; and its uninterrupted blessedness.

All visitors to Ilha Grande, a three-hour bus and boat trip from a Rio de Janeiro tour, are afforded a spectacular introduction to island life, as the boat slinks into a bay of clear blue waters, slowly revealing a settlement towered over by mountains and seemingly swallowed by jungle. This is Vila do Abraao, a tiny township that from the shoreline resembles only an adorable collection of  rustic hammock-clad beach houses and remnant colonial buildings that stretch along the foreshore.

There is no indication of the fascinating offerings that lie behind. There’s a village back there that follows no clock or schedule, where excitable barefoot kids churn up the dusty streets, where lighthearted locals gather for hours outside the tiny shops, where ageing locals congregate in dimly lit cafes to laugh and gamble over cards, where distant samba beats echo through the trees.

It’s not surprising that this place has an international flavour to its workforce, those who travelled here as wide-eyed tourists only to forgo their former lives and set up camp under the Brazilian sun, having succumbed to Ilha Grande’s charm. They elicit much envy.

The crystal clear waters of Ilha Grande, Brazil

The crystal clear waters of Ilha Grande, Brazil

There are no ATMs, no cars, no neon lights. Internet facilities are scarce and after three days I’m yet to see a mobile phone.

Theirs is a blissful existence, from the hirsute Laurent, a Frenchman who spends six months of the year looking after the Pousada Naturalia guesthouse to affable Peter, who understandably swapped his dull desk job in freezing Copenhagen to operate a funky lay-about bar and barbecue joint on the sands of Vila do Abraao.

Here, night after night, patrons dip their toes into the soft Brazilian sand and watch the sun fade to nothing, as their fresh fish is barbecued to perfection by this gabby Dane.

Getting around
There are two (affordable) ways to navigate your way around – aboard a grand schooner or hiking over the steep mountains in search of glory. And no glory is like Lopes Mendes glory; a 3km ocean beach so white it hurts your eyes, hemmed in by lush green verdure and inviting blue waters.

This stretch of sand is often quoted among the top 10 beaches in the cosmos. Some say it has no peer. The purists love it because of the lack of infrastructure. There are no hotels, restaurants, or even toilets – nothing but three sandwich and beer vendors.

The naturalists love it because the only way into Lopes Mendes is a sweaty 30-minute hike over a jungle pass, an adventure guaranteed to include howler monkeys. Boats are not allowed to land directly on the sand. Myself? After spending a week crushed by the ebb and flow of 100,000 buffed and brown Brazilians on Copacabana and Ipanema beaches in Rio, I’m digging the utter serenity.

Everywhere your schooner skipper directs his craft around this isle, an empty white sand beach stands to amaze its guests. After naming 22 coves and beaches, locals simply gave up on the rest, such is the glut.

Underwater delights
Even where sand is not present along the shoreline, this island still serves up delicacies. Snorkelling off the back of a speedboat (less affordable) in the Green Lagoon  yet another underwhelming title that understates its true beauty  we share a treasured moment with a trio of turtles, inquisitive, but gracefully keeping a few feet of distance.

If green is not your colour, the Blue Lagoon is a mere kilometre away and sheltered by a privately owned isthmus. It’s a fashionable parade of who’s who in the aqua realm.

The last dive site deserves mention, not for its abundance of marine life, or the aquatic tapestry of colours. It’s a helicopter. In 8m of water at Laja do Matardz. Rotors still intact. Thankfully, pilot nowhere to be seen.

Smirking islanders will quickly tell you it was a classic life insurance con, executed by a businessman up to his eyeballs in debt, who staged his own death by parking his chopper on the ocean floor.

Nice try buddy. If you really wanted to escape the hazards of city living and flee to Ilha Grande to live an anonymous lifestyle in tropical jungle or hulled up in a deserted beach bungalow, just catch the ferry.

Nobody here would care.

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Painting the Andes – A New Measure Against Global Warming?

Jul 8

Posted by dillon in South American Tours | No Comments

An inventor has set out to paint the peaks of the Andes white in an attempt to combat the effects of climate change.

By painting the mountains, Eduardo Gold hopes to replicate the effect of Andean glaciers in Peru, which reflect back sunlight and hence heat back through the atmosphere.

The technique is scientifically plausible and, according to some scientists, may be the only method of lowering global temperatures in a crisis.

It is believed that painting the Andean Peaks will slow down the glacier melting

It is believed that painting the Andean Peaks will slow down the glacier melting

“A white surface reflects the sun’s rays back through the atmosphere and into space, in doing so it cools the area around it too,” said the 55-year-old activist. “In effect in creates a micro-climate, so we can say that the cold generates more cold, just as heat generates more heat.”

It is hoped the project will slow the melting of the glaciers and keep in tact the beautiful Andean peaks for tourists on a Peru highlights tour or the Inca trail.

Four workmen have been given the task of painting three peaks, starting with Peru’s Chalon Sombrero peak, which lies 4,756 metres above sea level.

Chalon Sombrero, like many of the Andean peaks in Peru, has seen its glacier disappear within living memory.

The painters who have already completed two hectares of a planned 70 have been recruited from Licapa village, which depends on the run-off from the mountain for its water.

The project is a low technology remedy for global warming. The workers use an environmentally-friendly mix of lime, industrial egg white and water, which is known to have been used since Peru’s colonial times

The whitewash is slopped out on the slopes from jugs.

If the underlying theory, which is known as Solar Radiation Management, works the glacier should re-emerge in a cooler micro-climate.

The £135,000-project is funded by the World Bank after Mr Gold won a “100 Ideas to Save the Planet” competition last year.

The World Bank last year estimated that 22 per cent of Peru’s glaciers have melted since 1980 and there are projections that all the country’s glaciers could disappear in the next 20 years.

While novel the painting scheme is not the only outlandish way of tackling global warming proposed. Firing mirrors into space to reflect the sun’s rays, or feeding cattle garlic to reduce methane emissions have been mooted.

Locals who have witnessed the destruction of the glaciers are strong supporters of Mr Gold’s scheme. “All the peaks here should be painted in this way,” said Pablo Parco Palomino. “That way there would be as much water as there was before the glacier disappeared, and that would mean more pasture to support more livestock.”

But Antonio Brack, Peru’s Environment Minister, told the World Bank that its funding would be better spent on other “projects which would have more impact in mitigating climate change.”

Mr Gold believes he can put the theory into practice and get results. “I’d rather try and fail to find a solution than start working out how we are going to survive without the glaciers, as if the situation was irreversible,”

Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary, has endorsed installation of white roofs to help prevent climate change, an idea seen as more logistically feasible than painting mountain peaks.

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Mexico City and the beach

Jul 7

Posted by dillon in South American Tours | No Comments

Versatile Mexico dazzles and delights from the capital to the coast.

Cowboys and Indians, communists and ice-picks, Aztecs, artists, mariachis and masked wrestlers. We saw all of those, as well as colonial mansions, baroque churches, teeming markets and great museums on our great Mexico Tour.

We climbed pyramids, made guacamole and re-enacted human sacrifices. Then we went to the beach on the amazing Mayan Riviera.

I knew that Mexico, a vast and deeply civilised country, might provide the perfect adventure. What I didn’t appreciate is quite how intense that adventure would be from Day 1.

The Pyramids Near Mexico City

The Pyramids Near Mexico City

Mexico City is the sort of place that most people either avoid entirely or leave immediately. That’s a big mistake. This is one of the most tumultuous urban experiences imaginable, a monstrous megalopolis of about 23 million souls, too many to count, certainly, and almost all of them in vehicles that belch fumes and clog the roads.

But it is also one of the most exciting, rewarding and thoroughly cultured places on Earth. If you want your children to learn stuff on a trip, and take away memories that may even enrich them a little, then the city that Mexicans call simply Mexico is ideal.

We came armed with a long checklist to be crammed into our three days in town, and had a guide and a driver to help us to find our way through the insanity to our hotel – the splendidly trendy La Condessa.

First on our list was to check out the museums devoted to Frida Kahlo and Leon Trotsky, who were neighbours (and lovers) in a leafy quarter called Coyoacán. These museums are the actual houses where they lived, so they were small and personal with great stories to reveal.

Next day was Aztec day. This entailed an early drive (before the heat and the madness) to Teotihuacán, an hour outside the city and one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world.

Even our philistine offspring were slack-jawed at the scale and wonder of this place (especially when we climbed the giant Sun pyramid and volunteered Alfie as a sacrifice to ensure that the Sun would rise). They were even eager to go to the mighty Anthropological Museum, where the civilisation we had clambered over was placed perfectly in context and packed with pre-Colombian treasures.

There were more ruins poking up amid the charismatic mayhem of the Zócalo, Mexico’s tumultuous main square, where heirs of the ancient tribes don Aztec-style garb and dance for the crowds. Later, we had another side order of art as we took in Diego Rivera’s dazzling murals. We came for culture and we certainly got it.

Mexico City is exhausting and inexhaustible. We could happily have spent a week there but after three days we were also pleased to be on our way somewhere a little less frenetic. So four hours heading north in a luxury coach on open country roads, bound for the area known as Mexico profundo, was a dreamy interlude.

We went past sierras, arroyos, mesas and countless cacti, while cowboys on their steeds tended distant cattle. Eventually we arrived in a very different Mexican city. San Miguel de Allende, an elegant colonial Spanish enclave – all ochre mansions, cobbled streets, gabled courtyards and dappled squares – is unremittingly lovely.

It’s also manicured and mollified by the presence of plenty of affluent gringos shopping in its craft stores and sipping in its bars. Still, that didn’t detract from its sweetly Mexican charms.

Our hotel, La Puertecita, on the edge of town, was serenity itself: hanging gardens and translucent pools, and gentle, attentive staff. Time in San Miguel is sumptuous and slow. We began the morning with fruit and spicy huevos rancheros, ambled into town to shop and explore a church or mansion.

To keep the culture quotient topped up we found time for a Mexican cookery lesson and visited a ranch, but we could have easily done nothing but marvel at the charm of this softly alluring town. And we could have kept doing that for a very long time – except that we had an appointment by the sea.

They were just about placated by the promise of a few sybaritic days on the Pacific coast. But even our high expectations seemed understated when we eventually landed in the province of Jalisco, on what has been dubbed the Costa Careyes.

The cacti had been replaced by palms and the hot air was heavy with tropical portent. The hotel, sitting alone on a dreamy sandy bay, was our vibrantly coloured, blissfully laid-back home for the next few days. The kids stopped moaning immediately. This was a shoe-less, stress-less kind of place – we had space and time and sunshine. Our chalky blue casita sat beside an azure sea on the Mayan Riviera.

After all that culture I didn’t mind that we were isolated, because the staff and the ambience were still emphatically Mexican. Gentle, lilting, easy … beach resorts don’t get too much better than this. And nor do family holidays.

Chimu Adventures offers all kinds of package tours to Mexico. Visit our website for more details.

Source: The Sunday Times

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Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue re-opened after $5m face lift

Jul 2

Posted by dillon in Antarctica Cruises | No Comments

Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue is back in plain sight after a four-month long $5 AUD million renovation. The news is a welcome sight for the popular tourist attraction and Rio and to the many catholics in Brazil.

As it was unveiled, the monument was lit up in green and yellow to honour the Brazilian football team as it played in the World Cup. The Selecao play Holland tonight in the world cup quarter final which will bring the country to a stand still.

Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro

Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro

Scaffolding had encircled the mountaintop statue that overlooks Rio’s white-sand beaches as workers repaired its eroded face and hands.

The renovation to the 125-foot Christ the Redeemer, which draws nearly two million visitors a year, was funded through public and private donations. In an effort to match the colour of the soapstone, the restorers used more than 60,000 pieces of rock from the same quarry used when the statue was erected in 1931.

In April, vandals covered the head, arms and chest of the 130-foot statue in graffiti. They spray-painted phrases like “when the cat is away, the mice play”, as well as apparent references to Rio residents who were killed or who disappeared in recent crimes.

For more information on chimuadventures Rio de Janeiro and Brazil tours, visit our website.

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