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Tuesday 16 May 2017

Protecting the Animals of Pato Branco

Since moving to Brazil, I have spent a lot of time driving between Pato Branco and Curitiba, along with various other car journeys.  On these journeys, it is not uncommon to see stray dogs by the side of the road, sometimes sleeping, sometimes wondering lost.  Apparently, there are people that get tired of having a dog (or other reasons – I honestly can’t work out what goes on in these people’s minds) that just release (that should be, kick out…) a dog at the side of the road.  Even worse is seeing a dog stranded in the central reservation, with no way of getting food without braving the fast moving, continuous stream of traffic.  I have seen a lot of these strays and it’s a sight I hate seeing – I can’t understand why anyone would treat an animal like that.  My wife and I have often said that if we had a farm (or if we had money) we would love to be able to take in these stray dogs so that they would have a chance in life.

Recently, we found out that someone has done just this.  Seu Lima has a sanctuary just outside Pato Branco where he takes in stray dogs, cats and even monkeys.  Amazingly, he does this without any assistance from the city, even though he is performing a valuable service by giving a home to stray dogs and cats in the city.  When we visited him, we were greeted by a cacophony of dogs barking and seu Lima came out to meet us.  We were immediately taken by his friendly nature and the love for his animals which was clear from the way he spoke.  



Zico holding my hand
He introduced us to Zico, a monkey that, between mouthfuls of watermelon, likes to hold hands with people!  When I reached out a second hand, he took it in his and started excitedly jumping up and down!  He then spotted a tempting rubber attachment hanging off my camera, snatched it away and proceeded to (try) to chew it!  Eventually he gave up on it and abandoned the rubber in favour of a more tempting courgette.  I guess he felt bad about it because he gave me a piece of courgette when I returned!

Seu Lima then took us on a tour of the sanctuary.  He petted each of the dogs as we passed, with a story about most of them.  They were generally kept one or two dogs to a pen and we were impressed with how clean each pen was, despite the huge number of animals.  Most of the dogs (at least those that have spent some time there) appear well fed and in good spirits, although many show signs of the abuse or neglect the suffered prior to their rescue – one fled to the roof of her kennel as I passed and, clearly shaking, urinated in fear.  We also saw animals that with amputated limbs, missing eyes and other injuries and health problems.  Seu Lima told us about the first dog he rescued, who was abandoned at the side of the road and someone had thrown either hot water or hot oil at him.  In some ways, it was horrible to see the state of some of the animals, but at the same time, I was glad that they were being fed, sheltered and very well cared for.


For more information, to find out about adopting a dog or to donate, more information is available (in Portuguese) at the website for the Associação Lima de Proteção aos Animaisde Pato Branco  or at https://www.facebook.com/alpapb/

Seu Lima with the second dog he rescued and one of the assistants

Friday 31 March 2017

Pato Branco

Pato Branco from the air, the yellow church is in the
middle of the shot
I must correct a terrible omission…  I have a blog about Brazil but have not written about the one place in which I have spent more time than anywhere else in Brazil – Pato Branco!  I have been coming here since December 2008 and have lived here since December 2015, how could I have missed this place?!

You can be forgiven if you have never heard of Pato Branco, it is a relatively small city deep in the countryside of southern Brazil.  With a population of just under 80,000 people, it is considered to be the capital of Southwest Paraná, one of the 3 southernmost states in Brazil.  I should point out that residents of neighbouring Francisco Beltrão (the “little city” is actually a bit bigger than Pato Branco, with a population just under 85,000) do not necessarily share this opinion, so I’ll move swiftly on. 


Where is Pato Branco?  From Google Maps
Pato Branco (meaning White Duck in English) is a very young city, marking its 65th birthday in December 2016.  It started life as a colony called Colônia Bom Retiro, founded in 1918 to resettle people unsatisfied with the result of a border dispute with the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina.  The name Pato Branco comes from a telegraph station Posto do Rio Pato Branco (station of white duck river) and people began to refer to the region as simply Pato Branco, becoming official in 1938.

Two Haitian immigrants in Pato
Branco (photograph by Dan Jaeger)
The majority of the population is descended from European immigrants, in large part Italians from Veneto, in the North of Italy.  This has a marked influence on the culture of the city with many Italian-based customs and parties, a fondness for pasta and polenta and many shops and restaurants with Italian names.  There are also a significant number of people descended from Ukraine, Germany and Poland.  There is even a Ukrainian church in the city with Ukrainian parties and food.  This being Brazil, many of the cultures and traditions mix and it is not uncommon to meet people with recent ancestry from Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Portugal in various combinations!  Relatively recently, there has been a wave of immigrants from Haiti, with the largest community of Haitians in Paraná.  After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, several companies helped Haitians to obtain documentation to work, helping them to find housing and bring their families.  The Haitian community is generally happy in Pato Branco (except maybe for the cold in the winter months!) and are integrating well into the community.
 
The Ukrainian church (Paróquia Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro) in winter
Empty streets
The city is a small rural city with an economy based on agriculture, although in recent years it has seen growth in the areas of IT and electronics.  The city has been growing rapidly as a result of this change, with an increase in population from 72,370 in the last census in 2010 to an estimated 79,869 as of 2016.  This has changed the face of the city, even in the few years since I started coming here, there are considerably more apartment blocks, with several new buildings under construction.  In anticipation of further growth, there is a plan to relocate the city centre to an area just north of the city.  People have been buying up plots of land in anticipation of the move, although no one really knows when this will happen.  With the current recession in Brazil, the worst on record (according to the BBC), development has slowed somewhat with new roads running between empty plots of grassy land, waiting for movement. 


One thing that I have found funny since moving to Pato Branco; no one has asked whether I like living there, only whether I am “adapting”!  I’m not sure whether they are referring specifically to Pato Branco or to Brazil in general, but yes, I’m adapting!  It is a lot different to what I’m used to – it’s certainly not a large metropolitan area like London or the Bay Area and neither is it like a small town in Britain.  It has most of the services you would expect of a city – supermarkets, pharmacies, post office, hospitals etc – but the supermarkets close at 8pm and you’ll be lucky to find anything open on Sunday.  There is a cinema now though!  It opened a few months ago and means that you no longer need to drive 2-3 hours to find a cinema, though it does only have 3 screens (though having said that, it’s no different to where I grew up in a small town in Northeast Scotland.)  So yes, it is different to what I’m used to, but I am getting used to it, and it is a pretty town.

Praça Getúlio Vargas
Like many cities in Brazil, the centre of Pato Branco is well built-up, with several colourful apartment clocks, approximately 15 to 20 stories high.  This, as well as the numerous steep hills, gives the impression that the city is bigger than it is.  All the same, when you crest a hill and see the city spreading out with smaller houses, it’s clear to see how the city is growing.  It does still maintain a small community feel though.  The yellow church forms a scenic centre-point, and the fountains and trees of the Praça Getúlio Vargas directly in front of the church makes the centre of town a pleasant place to walk or sit and relax.  Indeed, at weekends and summer evenings, it is fairly common to see families gathered in the square talking and drinking chimarrão (a hot, yerba mate drink typical of Southern Brazil and Argentina.)


The accent and dialect is one area that I did struggle with, though.  When I started learning Portuguese, I mostly heard accents from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with the São Paulo accent relatively easy for me to understand.  In Pato Branco, though, the accent is markedly different.  In much the same way as rural English accents can differ from more metropolitan accents, the rural Paraná accent is a lot different to the accent from São Paulo and even Curitiba.  Even now, having lived here for about 15 months, I can get caught out by some unusual expressions!

Birds flying around the church (Paróquia São Pedro Apóstolo)
(Photograph by Dan Jaeger)
The increase in population has resulted in increases in traffic, which has forced the city to make a string of changes to the roads to cope with the increased demand.  Some changes, such as replacing stop signs with traffic lights have greatly improved things for road users, while some changes are less welcome, such as changing some one-way streets (which worked due to alternating the direction of traffic on parallel streets) to two-way without reconsidering the traffic signals, which no longer leave time for pedestrians to cross, meaning you have to take your chances and hope that a car doesn’t come flying around a blind corner.

Pato Branco = White Duck
The city become well known in Brazil as a result of a comedy, “Toma Lá, Dá Cá,” which featured a character from Pato Branco with a strong countryside accent constantly telling long-winded folk tales about the people of the city.  The first time I became aware of this, I was in a restaurant in London with my wife (girlfriend at the time) and she noticed that the waiter was Brazilian.  The restaurant wasn’t busy se we chatted with him and he burst out laughing when she said she came from Pato Branco – he thought it was a fictional city!  It wasn’t the first time I found Brazilians laughing about the name of the city.  The city is also known for being the home of footballers Alexandre Pato (who played for the national side, and teams including Corinthians, Milan and Chelsea) and Rogério Ceni, the former goalkeeper of São Paulo.


Pato Branco is a lovely, peaceful city that’s perfect for raising a family.  There is a strong economy and, with the upcoming opening of the airport to commercial flights, I am sure the city will continue to grow and prosper.

The city centre, shortly before a summer storm

Tuesday 28 March 2017

Cataratas do Iguaçu (Iguassu Falls)

Not far from Pato Branco (171 miles, 275km, but it’s all relative…) are the famous Cataratas do Iguaçu (Iguassu Falls, Cataratas del Iguazú in Spanish), a spectacular series of waterfalls along the border between Brazil and Argentina.  Seven years after my first visit to Pato Branco, I still hadn’t been (combinations of bad weather and short holidays/busy schedules) so my wife and I decided to spend a weekend there.  My first thoughts were to head there for the 4-day weekend of a bank holiday (when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, the day between the holiday and the weekend is often granted to employees as a holiday, known as a bridge day), but we chose to visit the weekend before to avoid the crowds. 

So after work one Friday, we set off to Foz do Iguaçu, a city on the triple border with Argentina and Paraguay, 15 miles (25km) from the falls.  I wasn’t sure what to expect of the city; I’d heard that it could be a bit dangerous and generally unpleasant, frontier towns here don’t typically have very good reputations, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The city appeared quite pleasant, with trees everywhere, modern buildings and well-organised roads.  The top floor of the hotel gave a good view of Foz do Iguaçu and across the Paraná river to Paraguay.

As Cataratas

We started the day early, with a plan to arrive at the falls around 9am, when the park opens, which was just as well, as the car park didn’t take long to fill up.  The entrance is somewhat confusing.  You can follow road signs to the falls from the city, and eventually you reach the entrance to Iguaçu National Park, but this is not the entrance to the car park.  The car park is actually slightly before the National Park entrance, on the left hand side and not terribly well sign-posted, there is only one sign on the right hand side of the road with an arrow that points vaguely ahead and to the left.  There was an old woman standing in the road pointing in the direction of the car park, but with no uniform or ID, she looked a bit suspicious – as if she was offering some alternative parking or ‘protection.’  It turned out that she directing us to the right place.

Apart from the poor sign-posting, the visitor centre is quite well organised.  The car park is kept some distance away from the falls, which are then accessed by regular, open-topped shuttle buses, helping to limit the environmental impact of tourism on the area.  Before arriving at the trail to the fails, there are other stops for the Macuco Safari, a boat tour that allows you to get up close to the falls, and Trilha do Poço Preto, a 9km ‘eco adventure’ trail through the forest.  We didn’t have time for either of these but maybe next time…

The penultimate stop is for the Trilha das Cataratas (cataracts trail).  From the bus stop, it is a very short walk to a platform where you get your first view of the falls, a long curtain that, even from a distance, is enough to take your breath away.  Accompanying the crowd of sightseers, are the ever present quatis (South American coati), members of the racoon family.  There are constant warnings not to feed the quatis and to avoid eating near them, as they are cheeky and fast – they ripped open a carrier bag with sunscreen in attempt to find food.  As you follow the trail towards the waterfalls, you encounter thousands of butterflies of all colours and sizes. 

Inset, one of the viewing platforms on the Argentinian side
The majority of the 275 falls are on the Argentinian side of the river and the trail offers amazing views of all the falls, with occasional viewing platforms.  From the trail it was possible to see trails on the Argentinian side, the tiny people serving as a reminder of just how big the falls are, even the smaller ones.  Soon, the trail turns a corner giving view up the canyon where massive cloud of continually rising spray partially obscures the Garganta do Diabo (Devil’s Throat), the U-shaped fall which is the largest of all the cataracts with the greatest flow.  Even from this point, a few hundred metres from the Garganta do Diabo, there is a constant fine spray in the air and a rainbow hangs permanently over the canyon. 


Approaching the Walkway
As you get closer to the Garganta do Diabo, the roar gets louder and the spray increases until you reach a walkway into the middle of the canyon and the middle of the waterfall.  Some people wore raincoats to protect against the constant shower from the falls, although (at about 30°C) it was warm enough to dry out your clothes, so we didn’t bother.  The views from the platform are spectacular, on one side is the immense power of the falls plummeting towards you and on the other, the river disappears over the edge of more falls and plummets to the floor of the canyon.  This platform isn’t for people afraid of heights! 


The platform hanging over the edge of another waterfall
I could have spent hours on the platform, hypnotised by the endless torrents and following with my eyes the multiple paths the water takes to the bottom on the canyon.  Eventually we left the walkway and headed toward the lift that takes you to another platform at the top of the falls.  There is only one lift with a rather limited capacity, so there is quite a long queue.  There is a pathway that winds up the hill to the platform, but with the heat and humidity, it is more tempting to just wait for the lift!  From the top platform, you are greeted by a different, but no less spectacular view of the falls!  In the distance, through the hazy spray that is constantly rising, a platform on the Argentinian side can just about be seen; a flag a host of minuscular people.  It appears to be perched on the edge of a massive waterfall, looking into the Garganta do Diabo (or should I say Garganta del Diablo?), which must also be quite spectacular.  Looking to the right, beyond the spray and through the ever present rainbow, the walkway snakes out across the water, looking tiny and perilously close to the edge of the falls.  This is the grand finale of the tour, from here, the footpath takes you to a restaurant and array of snack-shops (lanchonettes) and the bus stop back to the park entrance.  It is a pleasant place to sit and watch the river slowly, calmly edging closer to the falls before reappearing as a cloud of fine spray.

Parque das Aves

The inquisitive toucan
Directly across the road from the carpark for the falls, is the Parque das Aves (literally “bird park” in English) which is a sanctuary for rescued birds, where they are kept in large enclosures that you can walk through, without having to look through windows or wire fences.  To protect the birds, the foot path is separated from the wooded area by a fence, although this did not prevent an inquisitive toucan from flying over to curiously nose around my wife’s hat, which she had laid on a bench!  I was impressed at how fearless the bird was, even as people gathered round to take close up photos.  If anything, I’d say he was playing up for the camera!




Itaipu

We spent a pleasant hour or so at the Parque das Aves before moving on the Itaipu Dam.  We booked tickets for the tour online and as we choose the longer tour (that goes over and inside the dam) there were limited time slots available.  The tour starts with a video presentation in a small cinema before boarding the buses that go up to the dam.  The first stop is the spillway, a group of locks that open when needed to the control the level of the reservoir, leading to a spectacular deluge down three chutes.  I say spectacular, because the photos look good…  The locks are only opened a few days each year and our visit wasn’t one of those days, so the spillway was bone dry.  From our vantage point, it appears relatively small, it was only when we were told that the gates on the locks are about 10 metres in diameter and the slope is 30 m long that we could put it in perspective and see how large it really is.

The desk on the left is in Brazil, the
one on the right is in Paraguay
From there, the tour bus takes you onto the dam itself.  What really strikes you is the scale of the thing; from the top, you see a panoramic view of the surrounding Brazilian and Paraguayan countryside, with Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este in the distance on either side of the Paraná River that marks the international border.  This scale is emphasised further as you descend into the depths of the dam seeing the huge tubes that carry the water and the massive generators.  From here, the tour goes inside the control centre for the dam, a large building straddling Brazil and Paraguay where everything is split equally between the two countries and a yellow line runs through the middle of the building to mark the border.  The tour group is split into two groups – Portuguese and English – for this part, where the guide tells the story of the dam’s construction as well as explaining the operation.  Everything is exactly equal between the two countries, although Brazil’s power needs are greater than those of Paraguay, so Paraguay sells some power back to Brazil – the 50Hz electricity generated by Paraguay is converted back to 60Hz for delivery to Brazil.

Foz do Iguaçu in the distance

Puerto Iguazú, Argentina

We decided to have dinner in Puerto Iguazú – just across the Argentine border – in a restaurant that was recommended to us called La Roeda.  I’m not sure whether this is normal or whether something was going on, but there seemed to be police everywhere after crossing into Argentina.  Inconveniently, one of the roads on the route was closed, throwing off the GPS and neither my wife nor I had a data signal on our phones, so we ended up on a bizarre back road tour of the city.  It was strange – it looked very much like any Brazilian small city, but the back roads were often poorly lit (if at all) with huge cambers on the road.  Coming out of one T junction, there was a massive dip before a steep slope onto the road – all of which was obscured by the poor lighting so I wasn’t driving as slow as I should have – which wasn’t particularly pleasant.  We eventually found ourselves on the right road, guessing the direction we needed to go, we stumbled on the restaurant, parked on the street and made our way in.

La Rueda, well worth a visit, excellent restaurant!
I get a bit mixed up when someone speaks to me in Spanish.  I can get the gist of what they’re saying, but I can’t bring myself to just reply in Portuguese, so no words leave my mouth!  Once I’ve got my Portuguese to a decent level, I think I’ll need to have a go at Spanish!  In reality, I shouldn’t have been too concerned as the staff can generally understand Portuguese, being on the border, and our waiter spoke good Portuguese.  The meal was very good and my bife de chorizo was perfect; Argentina is certainly good for steaks!  The staff were very friendly and the whole evening was very pleasant.  First impressions mean a lot and Argentina left a very good impression.

Ciudad de Este, Paraguay

On our last day, we decided to cross the bridge to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay.  The city is popular with Brazilians looking for cheap shopping and there is one shopping Centre, Mona Lisa, which advertises with massive billboards stretching for hundreds of miles along the highway that leads to Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este.  It was a Sunday, but our good friend Google said the shopping centre was open, so we thought we’d go and have a look.

My first thought, before we’d even crossed the border, was what a mess!  The road that leads up to the border check point before the bridge is disorganised – borderline chaotic – and filthy, with litter everywhere.  The traffic becomes a bit more ordered as you drive slowly through the checkpoints, although I was surprised that neither exiting Brazil nor entering Paraguay were we stopped to check our papers.  When we entered and left Argentina, we had to stop and show our ID cards (passports if you’re not a resident of a MERCOSUL country.)

My second impression of the city wasn’t much better; even as we were exiting the border area, there was a swarm of people standing around the road, calling out in Spanish (and possibly Guarani, as some of it I couldn’t come closed to recognising it) and knocking on the car windows.  Waving them away didn’t work, they were persistent, although I had no idea what they wanted!  I assumed they were trying to sell something.  I realised that by stopping the car, however briefly, at the junction, it had encouraged them, so I headed off uttering the odd swear word…

We crossed the roundabout by the border and my wife pointed out that we had missed the shopping centre, which was on our left and rapidly receding into the distance.  Never mind, there’s bound to be a turn soon, so I can head back the way I came.

The ordered, slow traffic of the border crossing was just a memory, as cars came flying past on all sides giving the impression of a motorway, rather than a main road through a city.  Before long, we reached an equally chaotic roundabout – cars flying around, entering and exiting oblivious to other cars and lane discipline.  As I sat wondering how the hell I was going to join this madness, a car in the middle “lane” of the roundabout stopped, presumably to let me out, despite the cars speeding past of either side of it!  I spotted a gap, stepped on the gas and shot out into the fray.  I don’t know how I got round the roundabout, it’s all a bit of a blur, but I found myself back on the road heading to the shopping centre and the border.  We turned right to head to the shopping centre and found to our disappointment that it was closed. 

By this point, we had been in the country for about 10 minutes experiencing traffic chaos when moving and endless pestering when stationary so we decided to just head back to Brazil.  To get back to the main road, we had to follow a narrow street that went through a market and somehow do a u-turn to get back.  In Brazil, it’s not usually legal to do u-turns, but by this point, I was under the impression that rules don’t count for much in this city, so I spotted a gap and went.  After avoiding one suddenly stopping car and another one manically overtaking us (on a single-lane road through a market, remember), we reached the first roundabout whose first exit would lead us to Brazil.  As we waited for a gap in the continuous flow of traffic, a lunatic ran across the road – somehow avoiding the 4 lanes of speeding cars – to our car, again shouting and knocking on the windows.  That was it.  I saw a tiny gap, revved the engine and leapt onto the roundabout to the relative calm of Brazil. 

As we crossed the border, we started breathing again and tried to make sense of what had just happened.  We spent about 15 min in Paraguay and nothing about our trip made much sense!  We stopped at a petrol station and told the attendant about our experience.  He told us that they were probably trying to sell parking and that the best thing was to take a bus across the border, having a car with Brazilian number plates immediately marks you as a tourist and potential customer.  Well, now we know…

Marco das Três Fronteiras

Paraguay
Argentina
Before departing the area, we decided to find the spot where the borders of all three countries meet, where the Iguaçu River (Foz do Iguaçu literally means “mouth of the Iguaçu”) flows into the Paraná River.  There is a tourist souvenir shop here and, with an entry fee, the Marco das Três Fronteiras – the mark of the three borders.  The mark is a green and yellow pyramid obelisk and by looking across the rivers, you can see the busy counterpart area in Argentina with its blue and white pyramid obelisk and Paraguay’s quieter-looking area with a red, white and blue rectangular obelisk.  It’s worth pointing out that the Brazilian and Argentinian areas around located at the corner of their respective cities, while the area in Paraguay is a little to the south of the city, which may explain the lack of visible visitors.  We had some lunch from the café looking out over the rivers and three countries.  After the chaos and rush of our brief trip to Ciudad del Este, the serenity of the view provided a perfect farewell to this beautiful corner of the country(s).
The Brazilian obelisk, with the Argentinian and Paraguayan ones in the distance

Tips

After all this, I have some tips for anyone planning a trip to Foz do Iguaçu.
  1. Go to the cataratas in the morning.  This is when the light is best from the Brazilian side, and you’ll want to avoid the crowds anyway.
  2. Be prepared to get wet.  If you go onto the walkway, the spray will soak you through.  The heat will probably dry out your clothes, although I haven’t been there in winter to see what it is like then!
  3. Prepare for the quatis – avoid eating near them and don’t take anything in a carrier bag, as they will rip it open!  I don’t think they pose any dangers to people, but they can be a nuisance.
  4. Visit the Parque das Aves afterwards.  It’s right next to the entrance so it’s easy to get to.  It’s well worth a visit and it supports their rescue and recuperation activities.
  5. Visit Itaipu Dam (on a different day.)  We did it all in one day, but that meant it was a bit of a rush.  Far better to take your time and enjoy your day.  Itaipu is a little further north of the city so the visit will take a good few hours.
  6. Visit Puerto Iguazú (even if it’s just for dinner.)  I’ve heard that the falls viewed from the Argentinian side are even more spectacular than from the Brazilian side – I can’t comment, as I haven’t been!  Hopping across the border for a good steak was well worth it!  Just be aware of border controls though.  As a MERCOSUL citizen, or permanent resident, it’s easy to go through the border with your ID card, however visitors will have to ensure that they are stamped in and out of the countries.  There is some useful advice in this blog.
  7. If you plan on going to Ciudad del Este, plan it first.  It’s probably best not to drive, some people walk, some get the bus, I’m not sure which is best, but I don’t think I’ll be driving across any time soon!