The thundering Iguazu Falls in Brazil / Argentina

*WS 97 - The thundering Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina*

The Iguazu Falls is a series of waterfall bordering Brazil and Argentina, 20% of the falls in Brazil and 80% in Argentina. The rim width of the falls is 2.7 km, about a quarter without water. The main falls are 60 m to 82 m deep. Both countries have national parks named after the falls and both are UNESCO World Heritage sites.  

The Iguazu Falls is in fact one of the top 3 waterfall in the World. The others are Victoria in Africa and Niagara in North America. 

We visited the falls in 2019. It was a rainy afternoon when we were on the Brazilian side. The first 3 photos were taken on this side, with tourists taking selfie in raincoats. On the next day we had a full day exploring the Argentina side. We trekked for several hours along established trails viewing the many falls at different places. The 5th photo shows the Mbigua Falls and the 7th the Devil's Throat where a huge amount of water swirl down the deep curved fissure in the rock to create a spectacular series of waterfall if viewed from below. The monkeys here are the black capuchins, said to be very intelligent.

The statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

*WS 87: The statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil*

The statue of Christ the Redeemer is an Art Deco statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, created by French sculptor Paul Landowski and built in 1931. The height is 38 m including an 8 m base. The outreached arms measure 26 m wide. It is now the icon of the city and in a worldwide poll in 2007 voted by more than 100 million people, was included as 1 of the 7 New Wonders of the World. We were here in 2019.

The statue is located at the peak of a 610 m mountain, Mount Corcovado, reachable by hill railway. The 1st photo shows the flags hung from the ceiling of the base station of the hill railway. The Malaysian flag is there. The 3rd photo shows the sharp peak of the mountain, viewed from another mountain called the Sugarloaf which we also visited.  The 7th photo shows the view of the city from the peak. The last photo shows the Catholic chapel at the base of the statue, consecrated in 2006. A chapel is an "official" area for Christian worship.

South America WS01

*WS 01 – The Selaron Steps, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil*

The Selaron Steps are a stretch of a steep pedestrian-only road in a residential neighbourhood in Rio where the steps and parapets are decorated with ceramic tiles. There are 215 steps over a 125 m stretch of road. The tiling work is the effort of a Chilean resident Jorge Selaron who started decorating the steps outside his house in 1990, and later extended the tiling to the neighbours' steps until he died in 2012. 

More than 2,000 tiles were used, including tiles from 60 other countries given to him by tourists in the later part of his work and some 300 tiles hand painted by Selaron himself.  

It is now World famous and frequently featured in travel and leisure magazines and advertisements. We visited this place in March 2019. The first photo shows the big crowd at the lower end of the steps. The last photo shows the black pregnant woman painted by Selaron. This figure is repeated painted by Selaron, including simple sketches he sold to tourists to finance his project. He said she was a friend but refused to reveal more.