Study tours
Vanuatu 2010
Mexico and Cuba 2009
South America 2007
India 2005
Indochina 2003
South America Study Tour – January 2007
Figure 1: The 2007 GTAV South American tour group
The 24-day January 2007 GTAV tour of South America attracted a mixed group of travellers (figure 1); current geographers, retired geographers, partners, and a few extras gave a total of 22. Five countries were included – Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru – with stopovers in both directions in New Zealand.
In such a vast continent there were a thousand things to look at and comment on but broadly, our viewing fell into natural landscape, human landscape or historical site.
Natural environments contrasted with Australia immediately, such as the abundance of green in the agricultural landscapes that dominated much of the land we flew over. Though the Andes should have been prominent, we only had an opportunity to realise their height and scope around Lake Titicaca and the altiplano in Peru/Bolivia when, at 3800 metres as a base height, their dominance on the horizon in all directions could really be appreciated. First glimpses of the Iguacu Falls were unimpressive (figure 2), but as we wandered down the valley path through the rainforest, the full size of the falls became clear. From the Argentinean side the following day, we felt the full force of the water as we watched the swifts darting for insects in the drenching spray.
Figure 2: On the boardwalk to Iguacu Falls, Brazil
The Amazon jungle was reached only after a bus ride, two water transfers and a three kilometre walk in borrowed gumboots through the mud – but the rewards were worth it! Sandoval Lake is home to the endangered river otter that we viewed on both our lake excursions, birds abounded in the area, and the quality of the talks by the local guides really gave us a chance to appreciate the diversity of this rainforest with its armies of marching ants all carrying a curled leaf fragment, its beautiful flowers and its caimans lurking on the lake shores.
Human environments, of course, varied from Australia but the contrasts between areas were also great. Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema and Copacabana beaches, with their abundant wealth, beautiful tiles and scantily clad samba dancers (figure 3), are only a few kilometres from the favelas where continuous, uncontrolled building not only blocks the light, it holds the threat of being washed down the hill in the first downpour (as happened the day after we left!). Similarly in Lima, the wealth of Miraflores, with its fenced and guarded homes near the plaza overlooking the coast where we stayed, was very different from the housing of the thousands who crowded into the buses that packed the main roads on their way to work. Of all the cities, Buenos Aires was the most like Melbourne, but even here the sight of the many dog-walkers in the park, each with 10–15 animals showed how different livelihoods could be made in a place where the gap between the richest sector and the poorest was so much greater than that in Australia.
Figure 3: Samba show in Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Rural Peru was a patchwork of fields growing a wide variety of potatoes, corn of different sizes and colors, broad beans and a range of livestock – cattle, sheep, llama, pigs and a stray dog. Higher up on the altiplano (over 3500 metres) there was less cropping – reduced mainly to potatoes and pastures with some flower growing e.g. gladioli. The dull brown adobe housing with terracotta trim remained, as did the political slogans painted everywhere, as we moved into Bolivia. It is one thing to read the percentage in agriculture as 40 percent and quite another to see it with people working in the fields, washing laundry in the streams, riding basic carts and watching grazing animals for mile after mile. Ranches in Argentina, however, could have been rural Victoria complete with eucalyptus that dominated these formerly treeless pampas areas. It is amazing how widely spread our trees have become. In Peru they are the major construction timber between the bricks, having been cut off at the trunk base and left to coppice for the next harvest. One surprise of the trip was the city of Juliaca, a town of 160 000 perched on the high plain of Peru. Without warning it suddenly appeared branching on either side of the main road without paving or guttering. It is a bustling, dirty, industrial centre that has few environmental regulations and factories stretched along the road, the most noxious of which seemed to be the cement works at the far end of the town.
Historical sites and their change over time was another key aspect of the trip. Machu Picchu was the highlight of the trip in this category (figure 4). Having come from Cusco on the train in the morning, we climbed the steep hill to the site in the bus. To wander the terraces, see the quarries, and check the water control systems and housing was a real thrill. Several of the party climbed the slopes for the panoramic views of, not only the lost city but the similar rounded landforms that characterise the site and the views of the raging river at the base of the valleys.
Figure 4: overlooking the site of Machu Picchu, Peru
Other historical sites of the former Inca civilization were also included. Some of these had since been used as foundations for Christian churches and homes as in Cusco while others like the Viracocha Temple were in the process of restoration by the government. Our trip to the Sun Island in Lake Titicaca, birth place of the Incas, and the Fountain of Youth in Bolivia highlighted the relatively few historical sites this country has compared to the more favoured and developed historical sites of Peru. The fascinating Uros villages on the reed beds in Lake Titicaca showed how a distinct lifestyle could be preserved and used as a profitable tourist attraction.
The accommodation throughout the tour was comfortable and the meals at local restaurants were numerous and afforded the opportunity to taste the delights of pisco sour drinks, llama, guinea pig and, in Argentina, thick beef steaks. Most of the day-to-day costs were much less than in other parts of the world. For example, a kilogram of washing at rural hotels cost a mere A$1.20. On the final day many had a shopping spree in Buenos Aires for leather and woollen goods.
Our thanks go to Barrie Jones, the tour organiser, for his dedicated and detailed arrangements.
Report by Shirley Lahtinen, Ringwood Secondary College