Sitting in a quiet bar overlooking the dazzling vista of Iguazu Falls, I can hardly imagine a more refreshing drink than a Brazilian caipirinha. Simply mash small chunks of lime and sugar together in a glass. Add lots of ice and a special distilled sugar-cane alcohol called cachaça and the drink is complete. The same drink is also made using other tangy fruits including lemons and passionfruit.
The lime and cachaça provide a superb contrast of sweet and sour and makes for a tangy thirst-quenching drink in the humid falls climate.
In Australia, I have enjoyed on several occasions a variation called caipiroska made on vodka instead of the Brazilian cachaça.
While I've never seen a caipirinha outside of Brazil (it wasn't even available on the Argentinian side of the falls!), make sure you check out the national drink of Brazil.
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At the start of each month, Travel Wonders highlights a characteristic drink experienced on his travels. Other offerings from South America include coca tea from Peru and the famous Pisco Sour, available over much of South America.
Photo Credit: caipirinha
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Drinks Around the World: Caipirinha (Brazil)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Books and Bones of San Francisco Monastery (Lima, Peru)
Relaxing in the monastery courtyard gardens looking over the San Francisco Monastery, the complex immediately strikes as architecturally as beautiful as most European churches. There is little surprise that it is recorded on UNESCO’s World Heritage list and is one of Lima’s finest travel wonders. The complex has two main areas - the church with its squat towers and superb carved central portal; and a fascinating area where the monks once lived with two very significant highlights.
So elegantly and tastefully lit at night, the church has a peaceful feel, despite the crowds of worshippers and travellers, with its domes and square patterned paintwork. While the main altar is carved from oak, the solid silver altar in one of the chapels highlights the mineral wealth in the area at the time that drove the Spanish to conquer most of South America. The walls around the accompanying monastery are covered with glossy glazed hand-painted tiles in blues, greens and yellows so reminiscent of the Moorish style.
However the real treasures are hidden within the monastery walls (and only available via a guided tour). Art treasures of famous masters and wondrous wood carvings litter the labyrinthine walls alongside locally produced paintings. A Last Supper shows a meal of the local delicacy of guinea pig (cuy) and the angels with wings of tropical parrots.
A magnificent library (sadly, visitors can only peer from the doorway to protect its valuable holdings) is lined with ancient leather-bound dusty tomes and manuscripts stored in old wooden bookcases, a couple dating back to the days of hand-written texts. A number of books document the times of the early Spanish conquest (from the Spanish viewpoint of course). Though too delicate and valuable to touch, it would have been great to be able to flick through the centuries of antique texts and absorbing the history held on the monastery’s shelves. 
Built in the late 1600s, but only discovered in 1951, the building’s low-ceilinged and claustrophobic crypt harbours the skulls and bones of over 70,000 people. Peering through the inky blackness of the alleys, a strange surprise awaited. Somewhat ghoulishly, the archaeologists catalogued their findings by sorting the bones into separate bins, the arm and leg bones in one area, pelvises in a second zone and skulls in yet another. To complete their efforts, and with a European flair, the scientists turned their hand to art, building patterns with radiating fans of femurs broken by rings of skulls.
The catacombs and tunnels are said to run for some distance under the city linked to other churches. It was difficult to tell whether this was a nice medieval tale or a practical way to move cross town.
Lima is often little more than a gateway for travellers exploring the Peruvian highlights, whether it be flying over the mysterious Nazca Lines, boating around the wildlife of Ballestas Islands or trekking the Inca Trail, but Lima warrants a little time to explore its treasures, especially the San Francisco Monastery.
Photo Credit: church interior
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A View from Afar: The Middle East Revolution
Over the years I have travelled to several countries on different occasions in North Africa and the Middle East including Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Like many, I now look on with interest as the populations participate in a wave of uprisings across the region. Tunisia and Egypt have overturned multi-decade unpopular regimes. Libya is on the brink as I write this article and unrest has been reported in Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and others.
These countries are somewhat testing places to travel – tiring from the incessant heat and caution with drinking clean water, frustrating at times to travel around, nervy from cultures very alien to my own western upbringing, occasionally discomforting from feeling numerous unwanted glares, and battling with petty, slow and sometimes suspect officials in visa offices, banks and border crossing.
Indeed, I was in Algeria during the first gulf war (1991), one of the few countries in the world to openly support Iraq in their invasion of Kuwait and strongly condemn the military action led by the United States. Taking six hours to cross the border and avoiding the hotspot of Algiers, the initial welcome felt anything but overwhelming. Additionally, it was during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Except for private drinks of water during the day (yes, it was hot), I also abstained from eating in the daylight hours (not that cafes were open, but it was the correct thing to do). With the exception of two stones thrown at me in one town, only the utmost courtesy, friendship and interest was shown to me through the weeks in the Algerian towns and crossing the Sahara.
While I often tried to start fairly general conversations about conditions in the various countries, it was clear that venturing too close to political commentary was a no-go zone. There may be some quiet and generic complaints about the rate of pay or the health system and even an occasional veiled reference to corruption, but people quickly would start to look uncomfortable and change the topic.
In Australia, like most western countries, I can confidently communicate my views on the government, the laws and the various changes without censorship or any real feel of repression. Even public protest is unlikely to cause any issues unlike in Libya where armed mercenaries are gunning protesters down in cold blood or arbitrarily arresting them. While the army was superbly restrained in Egypt, there were several reports of arrests of the leaders in the uprising.
Most importantly, in Australia, I get a say in who should run the country every three years and have no fear that the defeated leader will try to institute themselves into office for life, arrest or ban all the opposition, call in the military or change the result through foul means. Change is orderly and while all parties make their ambitious claims before an election and make the opposition out to be worse than Hitler, Vlad the Impaler, Pol Pot and Caligula all rolled into one, they follow the basic electoral laws and accept the result.
In many of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (and many other parts of the world), there has been decades of disempowerment of the people. Without the benefit of an independent media, people still complain quietly about the conditions but are cautious to keep their opinions very quiet. These leaders, drunk on absolute power, quite happy impose long prison terms or kill anyone who raises their head too high above the pack to complain (spooking others to not follow in their actions). Desperate leaders will unleash the military on their on citizens, the very group charged with protecting the population.
This makes the current uprisings extremely brave and worthy of the utmost respect. Some will lose their lives or livelihoods and all take a great risk if the revolution fails. Uncertainty must reign in their minds but there comes a point where the momentum of people’s beliefs and the efforts in the region can bring important change. Tunisia and Egypt have forced their leaders from office and Libya looks likely to follow. I can only hope that there are several others too.
To my mind, it has similar parallels to the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s. I fortuitously travelled to Hungary and Czechoslovakia only months before the momentous events and students were speaking more confidently despite the personal risk. A Polish shipyard led the way but once one regime failed, there was a rapid progression as states claimed independence of the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain countries changed from unpopular and unrepresentative communist regimes. Some leadership rolled quickly (Czechoslovakia had the Velvet Revolution) while other struggles resulted in greater bloodshed. The imagery of suppressed East Germans breaking down and clambering over the wall to re-unite the two halves of their country is fresh in most of our minds.
I am not sure that I’d have the courage to risk my life for such change. It is difficult to tell until you are in the situation. But my admiration goes out to these fine young men and women who have the courage of their convictions to make a better place for their future generations and for a change that is good for the world. Let us hope that their efforts aren’t in vain and result in better countries for the citizens of North Africa and the Middle East.
Photo Credits: Egypt, Egypt, Bahrain, Berlin Wall
Monday, February 21, 2011
Photo of the Week: The Winds of Change in Egypt
The people-driven winds of change blow through Egypt and its Middle Eastern and North African neighbours will hopefully lead to improved leadership across the region. It is difficult to imagine what the average person on the street must be thinking in a country that has been characterised by submission to a ruler since the times of the pharoahs (how else would these remarkable temples such as the pictured 2,000 year old Edfu Temple have been so effectively built) and that has undergone remarkably few dramatic political changes in its long history.
Is the population that has booted out the Mubarak regime ready to voice and express their opinions for a new inclusive leadership where the elected officials govern for the population and not simply themselves? What of the other countries in the region? Only time will tell...
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Danish Culture Capital (Aarhus, Denmark)
Perched on a bay, the Danish travel wonder of Århus is a lively and colourful university city with a vibrant feel to it while a short stroll from the centre offers relaxation in parks, forests and beaches. This cultural treasure trove is a great walking city to absorb both Scandinavian history and modern life with fascinating displays from the Viking Age, the 19th century and even the Iron Age.
For over 1000 years, Danes have lived in the narrow medieval street around the cathedral area as shown in the Viking remains dug in the free-to-visit basement of a central bank building. Much of the dig is in-situ with a range of tools and a Viking skeleton. Maps highlight the deceptive wide extent of Viking exploration and rule from Iceland and Britain to Ukraine while models show the difficult, but relatively prosperous and communal life of the feared Vikings. 
Nearby, shows Århus today with a stunning art gallery (I find the building far more striking than most of the art) with a truly Scandinavian feel to its architecture, while impromptu music launches out in the neighbouring concern hall. 
The highlight of Århus is the superb Den Gamle By (Old Town) open-air museum – a remarkable collection of 75 buildings that have been gathered since the museum opened in 1914 (an impressively early focus on preserving Danish heritage). Nineteenth century life is captured in the numerous half-timbered buildings that form a Danish market town of the time. It is easy to feel the traders tramping the dusty streets selling their wares while craftsmen demonstrate their skills in pottery and woodwork and bakers create the wonderful aroma of fresh bread, cakes and pastries. Horse and carts wander the roughened streets while the Mint Master’s House shows the difference between wealth and workers in times past.
The greatest single treasure in Århus is located a few kilometres south of Århus. Among Viking collections, rune stones and a superb collection of pre-Christ military weapons in the Moesgård Prehistoric Museum is the exceptional well-preserved body of the Iron Age Grauballe Man. Thoroughly investigated with all kinds of modern scanners, probes and machines, he is thought to have been sacrificed with a savage single slit across his throat (the gaping wound is very apparent), his naked body dumped in a peat bog around 300BC (and found in 1952). Estimated to be 34 at his death and in good general health, his final meal was a burned porridge of barley and rye. It is difficult to imagine his life and his feelings as he met his nasty death, the subtle features of his face capture an apparent peace. The level of preservation is striking – the fingernails and toenails, the thick hair, the twisted torso amd the lean smooth-skinned body.
Århus is a surprising city, compact and lively, yet packed with cultural gems that highlight the rich Danish history through the various ages.
As if he had been poured
in tar, he lies
on a pillow of turf
and seems to weep
the black river of himself.
The grain of his wrists
is like bog oak,
the ball of his heel
like a basalt egg.
- Extract from "The Grauballe Man" by Seamus Heaney
Note: Learn more about the Viking Museum, Den Gamle By and Moesgård Museum.
