Kruger Safari

This elephant tried to attack us

 I realise I haven't been writing much here from my southafrican trip although I have seen and experienced a lot, but maybe that is exactly why. However now I have arrived at the Kruger area, although I will only enter the park itself tomorrow. Today I arrived at the Thornhill lodge an had a safari drive in one of the private reserves and I got really lucky!! First I was lucky with the company, two very nice girls from Germany, Tessa and Manuela. They told me about all the animals they had already seen and I got a little worried we would not have the same luck now, but we had. In just three hours we saw all the Big Five!!! Very close up! An elephant even tried to attack us.




leopard cubs

Lioness

 In a way I thought the rangers might have been a little too focused on finding the big five and did not pay much attention to other animals we passed on the way, but I guess that's what people come for. When I asked about some bird, they seemed a little surprised and often did not know, but from what I heard at dinner about tomorrows ranger he knows a lot about everything, even birds. And from what I understood I am going to get a private drive tomorrow so I guess I will be able to see and ask a lot!! Sometime it is good to travel off season! I am so happy! I love safaris!! I

A handsome male giraffe from the Kruger park



Black rhino

Salvador de Bahia

Cidade Baixa



Farrol de Barra






Barra

Niemeyermania

Saturday I took the time to go down to Brasília's heart of power, the Praca Três Poderes, the Three Power's Square, with my camera. Until now I have only passed by car or visited the places on business meetings when taking pictures was not a good idea.
This is not only where the legislative, executive and judiciary powers meet, this is also the heart of Oscar Nimeyer land.

I am aware of that it might look very empty, strange and eerie on the pictures, but on site I must say it has a very special atmosphere and the builidings are actually quite beautiful.




The Congress. The sphere for the Senate and the bowl for the Chamber.









Ministry of Justice






The presidential palace









The Supreme Court






Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Good Friday

For not being a very religious person this Easter has started out rather religious after all. Yesterday I took my car to the streets for a rather random drive. I ended up at the Templo da Boa Vontade, Temple of Good Will.




It is an ecumenical temple that is one of the sights of Brasília and it is quite spectacular. I won’t go into detail here, anyone interested can google it, but it was indeed quite fascinating.



When you enter you are supposed to follow the black circular path on the floor to the middle of the pyramid.






Then you will find yourself standing on a brass plate under what is supposedly the largest crystal on earth. After that you leave following the white path going in the other direction, this is symbolizing mankind’s search for balance and enlightment. As I am not only not particularly religious I am also not very spiritual so I did not think much about this mumbo jumbo and would probably not have bothered to do it at all hadn’t it been for the very kind and serious man at the entrance who so kindly explained it to me. So I started toggling along the black path and feeling rather stupid. But after a while I was kind of moved by the spirit of the place and for a while I almost felt nauseous and dizzy, which went all away walking outwards again. Well I suppose it is not so strange that you get dizzy when walking in a circle, but anyway it was a smart thought to build it like that!





In the same area as the Boa Vontade I saw another interesting church that I maybe should find out more about. The Church of Perfect Liberty!! However I don’t feel quite sure that we have the same understanding of liberty.

Today I decided to make a trip outside of the city. It is not very much that you can see or do on a daytrip from Brasília, but I had read about the town Planaltina that is only about 40 km from Brasilia. There they have what is called the cornerstone of Brasília, that is a monument erected in 1922 to mark the place for the new capitol. I also read that the main happening of the year in Planaltina is a festival and a staging of Jesus way to the cross, which is taking place on Good Friday every year. As today is Good Friday I thought it might be a good idea to go there.
Once out of Brasília it was easy to find Planaltina and I almost stumbled on the Via Sacra area where the festival was. As I wanted to have a look at the town first I drove into what I believe was the centre, but it being holyday everything was closed and not much to see. I had no idea of where this monument was and did not see any signs for it (at least none I could understand) so I drove back to the festival area. It turned out I got there about one hour before it was supposed to start (but already many were there before me) but I decided to stay and wait.




I got a little bit worried when I saw the amount of police forces that came just before me. Both the military and civilian police were there as well as the rescue services and civilian defence. I can understand that you need a lot of security when many people gather and I knew the visitors use to counts in hundreds of thousand’s according to what I read, but still the number of security was impressive. I got a little worried that this thing could cause some kind of religious hysteria and decided not to stay very long.

This being in Brazil of course the waiting was long, but once it started it was actually quite impressing and fascinating. It was so many actors and they were really good and “realistic”. As I had made up my mind not to stay till the end and also wanted to come back to Brasília before it got dark I almost missed Jesus! I only met him briefly on his way up Via Dolorosa, but could not even get a good picture as a woman was almost killing me with her umbrella as he passed.










Visitors walking up the Via Sacra as I was leaving. There were many people coming still as I left and it had all started so I suppose it continues untill late.



Although you can not see him it is supposed to be Jesus led away by the two men in black

Garden Action

The most interesting thing (or actually the only interesting thing, or even the only thing at all) in my “garden” is a small tree of the kind that we in Sweden would call “julstjärna” and keep in flowerpots for Christmas (apparently aka Euphorbia pulcherrima). The interesting thing with it is that when I arrived here three weeks ago it was completely green, without any red leaves, so it actually took me some time to realise it was such a tree.



Since then the top leaves have started getting redder and redder. Maybe I should take pictures to follow the transformation. And maybe I should have taken a real “before-picture”. This is the level of excitement in my home!


But now at least I have received a table to go with the one chair I have had until now and hopefully I will also get the hammock that I bought last weekend, up before Easter. That would mean I can actually be out there, which will be an immense improvement to my quality of life at home.

Some Brasília pictures

Posting some city picuters from Brasília. From one of my walks to through the city.






The big open space between the driving lanes along Axio monumental. Close to the TV-tower where there is a quite nice market.








The two towers at the end of the street are part of the congress buildings. Next to it is the Ministry for foreign affairs. Both quite spectacular buildings. One day I will go there without any other business than having a good look and bring the camera.




A typical local commercial center.



A typical residential area, on the Southern wing, Asa Sul.

Capital Fashion Week

I made a visit to the Brasilia Capitol Fashion Week tonight. Not that I have been to any real fashion show before, but I must say I thought it would be more…. fashion. It was not very glamorous. There was not even a place where you could get a glass of wine in the break between the shows (let alone champagne).



I had tickets for three shows, but the first one started already at 17.30 and I didn’t finish work early enough to make it to that one. The second one started at 19.30. This being Brazil I never thought it would start at 19.30, but it got even later than I expected. I arrived about 19.40 and got into the hall at about ten minutes later but the show didn’t start until 20.10. For a while I thought this would mean the last show would get even more delayed, but then it turns out the whole show was over in ten minutes! I might have been able to remain seated as I had tickets also for the next show, but did not really wanted to sit there for so long so I went out to see what was going on in the lounge, which was not very much. Then there was a long queue to get in again so I gave up and decided to go home instead. It was actually more interesting to watch the visitors than the show. As the show I watched was displaying men’s wear, it was actually more interesting to watch the models then the clothes.

However I was really proud that this time I managed to call and order a taxi all by myself when it was time to get back. Not that I understood everything the operator said, but the taxi came! :-)

A First Glipmse of Brasília

From Lonely Planet Brazil: "With long distances and harrowing sixlane highways connected by spagetti junctions to negotiate, Brasíla is not really a city for walkers."


So what is the first thing I do on my first day in Brasília. I go for a jog in the morning and then for a walk in the city. And ok, I can agree on that this city was not built for walkers, but on the other hand, just because of the fact that there are no room for walkers (no side walks) you can walk everywhere. Between the above mentioned highways there are plenty of green spaces where you can walk and it beeing highways that you need to cross, means at least you only have to look out for cars coming from one direction at a time.

I don't really know what to say about my first impression this far. It is a very different city, it is fascinating and interesting and I think it might work, but I don't know if I will find anything charming and cosy about it. We will see. However some first impressions are at least that it is anything but crowded and there is lot of green. I knew that it would be nothing like Rio, but I must say I did not expect it to remind me more about Harare that Rio.


Here are a few glimpses from my first walk in the city.





View from the Embassy district (one of them) towards Lago do Paranóa.





Flowers on a tree





One of the junctions





The Catedral Metropolitana





Inside the cathedral








Museu Nacional

Bahir Dar

After Lalibela we went to Bahir Dar by Lake Tana. To be honest I had never heard of Bahir Dar until my friend recommended it and I didn't know about Lake Tana before I saw the movie Teza a while ago. However, Bahir Dar is regarded as the "Riviera of Ethiopa" and hence a rather popular tourist destination. Therefore the atmosphere is very different, almost mondane.



Ok, I have never been to the riviera and don't really think it is very similar, but there is a board walk along the lakeside and there are cafés and bars along the waterfront and jettys where boats leave for tours on the lake.



Of course the climate is very differnt too, much more humid and for the first time in Ethiopia we were under 2000 meters above sea level. Unfortunately some of the back side of tourism are also there, for examlpe more people wanting to make money on tourists.

Bahir Dar is also the starting point for the Blue Nile. We went for a tour to see the Nile Falls about one hour outside Bahir Dar. It was a nice trip for getting to see some more of a different countryside and some nice nature and beautiful birds, but I must say the falls were a bit of a disappointment.



There is a hydro electric power plant just up-streams of the falls, diverting a lot of the water and as it was low-water levels as we were there, there was hardly any water in the falls at all. Not very impressing compared to the Victoria Falls.

Lake Tana and Bahir Dar are also known for the monastries along the shore and on islands on the lake. We went on a boatride to visit a couple of the monastries.



The boat trip on the lake was very nice, but the monastries were a little of a disappointment. Or maybe it is just me who don't know how to appreciate them... But after a while it got very annoying to constantly be expected to pay money for eveything and you might get fed up of seeing one more ancient goatskin bible and a proccessional cross.



I liked the colourful paintings though. Especially the crash-diving angels..

Ethiopia: Lalibela

After a couple of days we took a flight to Lalibela, UNESCO World heritage site, known for its eleven rock hewn churches.

Although it is only about an hour's flight from Addis it was easy to tell the difference from Addis already on arrival. Of course it is much smaller and hence quiter and the air is cleaner, but it is also much more arid. It was also much less developed and much poorer than I expected as Lalibela is one of the most well known tourist sites and reasons tourists come to Ethiopia. The area and organisation around the churches is fairly well developed but the infrastructure of the town is practically non-existant.




The hotel where we stayed was however very new, modern and nice. The most striking thing was of course the view. Absolutely fantastic!!














The curches was of course very interesting and unique. Even if I am not at all religious I can imagine and appreciate the spirituality of the place. At least I might have if it wasn't because my friend had explained to us how all the carpets on the floors of the churces were full of fleas; and hadn't it been for all the big groups of Israeli, French and American tourists; and if the priests hadn't looked so bored.... But ignoring these facts and focusing on the believers coming to pray or just to sit in the shadow and read you could sense the spirituality.