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On the day after Christmas, my wife, two of our adult children, and I left Raleigh for a trip to Brazil, and Paraguay. The principle purpose of the trip was to visit the place where my wife was born, (San Lorenzo, near Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay) and where she lived the first 10 years of her life (near Filadelfia, in the Grand Chaco of Paraguay).
During that trip I had an opportunity to ride several very interesting transportation systems.
The first one that we rode was the suspended cable car ride (teleferico) up Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro.
http://www.webshots.com/g/32/571-sh/25340.html
http://www.worldtouristattractions.travel-guides.com/attractions/slm/slm.asp
There are actually two sections to the cable ride; there’s a halfway station where you can view the city, then a second ride to the top for an even more spectacular view.
The cable cars were counterbalanced: as one went up, the other went down.
The next interesting trip was the tram to Santa Teresa. It’s a narrow gauge streetcar from the downtown Rio to several outlying areas. We took the one that went the farthest from the downtown. The trip was so steep that the motorman had to back up several times because the two-axle car slipped its wheels several times. The car was open: people hung on the sides. It was one of the most interesting traction rides I ever had.
http://members.aol.com/tranviario/6RJ1.html , search for “Teresa”
http://members.aol.com/almo1934/si.html
The tramway is opened now; I rode it to the end of the line.
http://members.es.tripod.de/EmidioGarde/eletricos/bondstfotos1.htm
http://members.es.tripod.de/EmidioGarde/eletricos/bondstfotos2.htm
Next we took the cog railway to Corcovado, where the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooks the city. The equipment was made in Switzerland. The view from the top of the city and its beaches was fantastic, and at night you could see the illuminated statue from the city below.
http://www.interhabit.com/site/loc-brasil/rio/esp-corcovado.asp#?
http://www.corcovado.com.br/floresta.asp
http://www.corcovado.com.br/trem.asp
The next leg of our trip took us to Curitiba, Brazil, where I wanted to go to check out what they have done, using three section articulated buses, running in separate bus lanes and loading/unloading at high level platforms at the side of the bus lanes. There was pre-pay and wheelchair lifts at most of the platforms, which are enclosed in transparent tubes. Up to five doors open at each stop, which typically last 20 seconds. The city has 1.5 million; the buses handle 1.9 million riders daily.
http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/pmc/ingles/Solucoes/Transporte/index.html
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200201/buses.asp
http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/pmc/curitiba/index.asp?noframe=sim&conteudo=mapashtml/mapas.html#
(click on Transporte Collectivo to see a map of the city’s principal bus lines)
We arrived in Curitiba on December 30, spent New Year’s Eve there. Curitiba had some great parks, including a botanical garden, and some wonderful parks built around rivers and falls. It also had a retired streetcar in the center plaza, with an ad to buy war bonds.
In Curitiba, we rode the narrow gauge train to Morretes, on the way to the ocean port of Paranagua. It is a true engineering marvel, with lots of tunnels and bridges through the mountain area, known as Mata Atlantica.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/golinelli/bresil/cfcuritiba1.htm
We also took a side trip to Vila Velha, (Old Town) a group of natural rock formations.
http://www.bugbog.com/gallery/brazil_pictures/brazil_pictures_8.html
Next, we traveled to the Falls of Iguassu, on the border between Brazil in Argentina, with Paraguay very close by. It is something that dwarfs Niagara Falls. Spectacular would be an understatement.
http://www.bugbog.com/gallery/brazil_pictures/brazil_pictures_9.html
Both Brazil and Argentina have national parks on either side, which are used for conservation of species of flora and fauna. We even saw a puma as we traveled along in our vehicle. On the Brazil side, we traveled in a tour van, but on the Argentine side, we traveled in two-foot tourist trains, gasoline powered, made in England, to reach the walkways at the falls from the parking lots. The trains operated push-pull, with a cab in the next-to-last car. The operator could see over the people in the last car when the train went in that direction.
We then traveled to Asuncion, Paraguay, where unfortunately, they have taken out the Asuncion-to-Encarnacion narrow-gauge train.
http://www.travel-library.com/south_america/churcher/
There were also remnants of a streetcar line in Asuncion; our guide said that it was stupid that a country that has so much hydro-electric power would remove electric transportation.
We then traveled to Filadelfia, which is the center of the Mennonite Colonies, formed in the twenties, thirties, and forties, by those who had fled from Russia and other countries. The trip from Asuncion to Filadelfia was a nine-hour bus ride (450 km).
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