Posts tagged adventure

Luciano K: Luxury Boutique Hotel Located in The Heart of Bohemian Santiago…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s post of Hotel Luciano K review, where I will try to describe the beauty of comfort staying in the heart of bohemian Santiago, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Chile were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourismthe National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K.

If by any chance you missed reading the previous travelogue from Chile or you want to remind yourself of some interesting things about Santiago, take the opportunity to visit the following LINK before continuing with today’s review of Hotel Luciano K.

Barrio Lastarria (Neighborhood of Lastarria) is a historic neighborhood in the center of Santiago. Now a popular tourist destination, Barrio Lastarria is a center of cultural activity, with cinemas, theatres, museums, restaurants and bars. Various cultural activities such as festivals and live performances are usually held throughout the streets of Lastarria due to its strong cultural character, especially in J.V. Street. Lastarria and Forestal park.

Barrio Lastarria is bordered by Alameda and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center to the south, Santa Lucia Hill to the west, Forestal Park to the north, and Baquedano Square to the east. In this iconic neighbourhood in the bohemian heart of Santiago, there are numerous luxury hotels, and among them is Hotel Luciano K.

Luciano K is a boutique hotel with 38 rooms, which represents the ideal blend of antique character and art deco design. This lovely hotel has a lobby, bar, sauna and a beautiful restaurant located on the first floor. 300 square meter rooftop terrace with bar, heated pool and spectacular views of Park Forestal and Alameda.

The building in which Luciano K Hotel is located is a historical jewel in the heart of the gastronomic and cultural settlement of Lastarria. It was originally designed by the architect Luciano Kulczewski in the 1920s. At the time of construction, this was the tallest building in Chile and the first with an elevator and central heating. Its architecture and style take us back to the glamor and elegance of the 1920s, accompanied by the best comfort and state-of-the-art technology in international hotels.

When we talk about the decoration of the rooms at Hotel Luciano K, rest assured that every detail has been carefully thought out to give guests an unrivalled experience in the heart of South America, the capital of the bohemian capital of Chile. With a sophisticated and contemporary style, all rooms at the Luciano K Hotel offer a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. From luxurious linens to state-of-the-art technology, every element combines to create a space where guests can rest and recharge after exploring Santiago.

During my stay in the capital of Chile, I had the opportunity to feel the beauty of the comfort of the Deluxe Room, a 28 m2 room for up to two people with a private bathroom, toiletries and a view of the park and the city.

The Deluxe Rooms at the Luciano K Hotel can offer complete comfort as it is equipped with a double bed or two separate beds depending on your preference, luxurious robes and slippers, among the technical possibilities I would single out fast WiFi internet, amazing Bluetooth speakers with which you can enjoy your favorite music during your stay in this hotel, as well as a 40-inch smart TV and cable television. It is important to note that the buffet breakfast is included in the price.

In the room you have a large desk, a safe, a bar fridge, while the luxurious bathroom is equipped with all hygiene items, including a hair dryer. During your stay at the Luciano K Hotel, you can expect exceptional and quality service that you will remember.

Luciano K Hotel has one of the best gastronomic offers in the hotel itself. This boutique hotel has a restaurant on the first floor of the building and they also have a roof terrace “Terazza K” so you can enjoy excellent drinks designed exclusively for Luciano K guests and visitors, along with a tapas menu, with an unbeatable view of the capital of Chile.

Try the delicious menu prepared by their chef with gourmet and quality dishes, with a unique atmosphere, created for all kinds of meetings, both business meetings and meetings with friends or perhaps romantic dinners.

A buffet breakfast is served every morning in the restaurant on the first floor, while dinner can be had on the wonderful roof terrace where I had the opportunity to enjoy an incredible view of the city with fantastic specialties.

In addition to delicious dishes, you can enjoy alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails with your family or friends.

My dear travellers, we have come to the end of this second special travelogue from Chile where we enjoyed the beauty of the comfort of Hotel Luciano K in the bohemian heart of Santiago in the series of travelogues of Chile where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourismthe National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K in cooperation with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of daily life in Santiago. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Chile.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourismthe National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Chilean culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Santiago.

How did you like my story about the Hotel Luciano K, gem of the bohemian capital of Chile below the Andes? Have you had the chance to visit Santiago and beautiful Chile so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Santiago,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourismthe National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letters from Chile: Santiago, The Vibrant City Below The Andes…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to describe the capital of Chile – Santiago, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Chile were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K.

Chile, formally the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. Chile had a population of 17.5 million at the last census and has a territorial area of ​​756,102 square kilometers. This country is bordered by Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east and the Drake Passage to the south. The country also controls several Pacific islands, including Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Easter Island and claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers of Antarctica as the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago, and the national language is Spanish.

Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule, but they failed to conquer the autonomous Mapuche tribal people who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. Chile emerged as a relatively stable authoritarian republic in the 1830s following their declaration of independence from Spain in 1818. During the 19th century, Chile experienced significant economic and territorial growth, ending Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific, defeating Peru and Bolivia. In the 20th century, until the 1970s, Chile went through a process of democratization and experienced rapid population growth and urbanization, while increasingly relying on exports from copper mining to support its economy.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the country was marked by severe left-right political polarization and turmoil, culminating in the 1973 Chilean coup that overthrew the democratically elected left-wing government of Salvador Allende. This was followed by a 16-year right-wing military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet, in which the 1980 Chilean Constitution was enacted with the consultation of the Ortuzar Commission, as well as several political and economic reforms, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths or disappearances. The regime ended in 1990, after a referendum in 1988, and was succeeded by a center-left coalition that ruled until 2010.

Chile has high incomes and is one of the most economically and socially stable countries in South America. Chile also scores well in the region in terms of state sustainability and democratic development. Chile is a founding member of the United Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Pacific Alliance, and joined the OECD in 2010.

How did Chile get its name? There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile. According to the 17th-century Spanish chronicler, Diego de Rosales, the Incas named the Aconcagua Valley Chili, a corruption of the name of a Picunche tribal chief named Tilly, who ruled the area at the time of the Inca conquest in the 15th century. While another theory points to the similarity of the Aconcagua Valley with the Casma Valley in Peru, where there was a city and valley named Chili.

Some other theorists argue that Chile may come from a Native American word meaning either “ends of the earth” or “sea gulls” from the Mapuche word chilli, which may mean “where the earth ends” or from the Quechua chiri “cold”] or tchili meaning either “snow” or “deepest point of the Earth”. Another origin attributed to chile is the onomatopoeic chile-chile – a Mapuche imitation of the chirping of a bird known locally as a trile.

The Spanish conquistadors heard the name from the Incas, and the few survivors of Diego de Almagro’s first Spanish expedition south from Peru called themselves the “men of Chile.” Finally, Almagro is credited with universalizing the name Chile, after naming the Mapocho Valley as such. Older spelling The word “chili” was used in English until the early 20th century before it changed to “chile”.

Santiago, also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the central valley of the country and is the center of the metropolitan region of Santiago, which has seven million inhabitants, which represents 40% of the total population of Chile. Most of the city is located between 500-650 m above sea level.

Founded in 1541 by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, Santiago has served as Chile’s capital since colonial times. The city has a downtown characterized by 19th-century neoclassical architecture and winding side streets with a mix of Art Deco, Neo-Gothic and other styles. Santiago’s cityscape is defined by several independent hills and the fast-flowing Mapocho River, which is bordered by parks such as the Bicentenario Park, the Forestal Park, and the Parque de la Familia. The Andes are visible from most parts of the city and contribute to the smog problem, especially during the winter due to the lack of rain. The outskirts of the city are surrounded by vineyards, and Santiago is an hour’s drive from both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Santiago is the political and financial center of Chile and hosts the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations and organizations. The executive and judicial branches of the Chilean government are located in Santiago, while Congress mainly meets in nearby Valparaiso.

How did this city get its name? The name Santiago was chosen by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia when he founded the city in 1541 as “Santiago del Nuevo Extremo”, as a reference to his native region of Extremadura and as a tribute to James the Great, the patron saint of Spain. The saint’s name appears in various forms in Spanish, such as Diego, Jaime, Jacobo or Santiago, the latter being derived from the Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctu Iacobu.[6] Apparently, there was no indigenous name for the area where Santiago is located, but the Mapuche language uses the adapted name Santiaw.

In Chile, several entities share the name Santiago, which can often lead to confusion. The Commune of Santiago, also known as Santiago Center, is an administrative unit that encompasses the area occupied by the city during the colonial era. It is managed by the municipality of Santiago, and is headed by the mayor. This commune is part of the province of Santiago, which is headed by a provincial delegate appointed by the President of the Republic, and is also part of the metropolitan region of Santiago, which is governed by a popularly elected governor.

When the term Santiago is used without further clarification, it usually refers to Gran Santiago (Greater Santiago), a metropolitan area characterized by continuous urban development. This area includes the municipality of Santiago and over 40 other municipalities, covering most of the province of Santiago and parts of neighboring provinces. The definition of a metropolitan area changed over time as the city expanded, encompassing smaller towns and rural areas. The inhabitants of the city and region are called santiaguinos (a term for men) and santiaguinas (a term for women).

What is interesting is the fact that only a few historic buildings from the Spanish colonial period remain in the city, because like the rest of the country, Santiago is regularly hit by earthquakes. Preserved buildings include the Casa Colorada (1769), the Church of San Francisco (1586) and the Posada del Corregidor (1750).

The cathedral in the central square (Plaza de Armas) is a landmark that ranks as the Palacio de La Moneda, the Presidential Palace. The original religious building was built between 1784 and 1805, and the architect Joaquin Toeska was in charge of its construction. Other buildings surrounding the Plaza de Armas are the Central Post Office building, which was completed in 1882, and the Palacio de la Real Audiencia de Santiago, built between 1804 and 1807. It houses the Chilean National History Museum with 12,000 objects on display. On the southeast corner of the square is the green cast iron building “Commercial Edwards”, which was built in 1893. To the east of it is the colonial building “Casa Colorado” (1769), which houses the Museum of Santiago. Nearby is the Municipal Theater of Santiago, built in 1857 by the French architect Brune of Edward Baines. It was badly damaged in the 1906 earthquake. Not far from the theater are the Villa Subercazo and the National Library, one of the largest libraries in South America.

The former building of the National Congress, the Palace of Justice and the Royal Customs Palace (Palacio de la Real Aduana de Santiago) are located close to each other. The latter houses the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. A fire destroyed the Congress building in 1895, which was then rebuilt in the neoclassical style and reopened in 1901. The Congress was overthrown under the military dictatorship (1973–89) of Augusto Pinochet, after which the dictatorship was reconstituted on March 11, 1990, in Valparaíso.

The building of the Palace of Justice (Palacio de Tribunales) is located on the south side of Mont Square. It was designed by the architect Emilio Dojere, and was built between 1907 and 1926. The building houses the Supreme Court of Chile. The panel of 21 judges is the highest judicial authority in Chile. The building is also the seat of the Court of Appeal of Santiago.

Calle Bandera leads to the building of the Santiago Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Comercio), completed in 1917, the Club de la Union (opened in 1925), the University of Chile (1872) and the oldest church in the city, the Church of San Francisco (built between 1586 and 1628), with its statue of Maria Virgen del Socoro (“Our Lady of Help”), brought to Chile by Pedro de Valdivia. North of the Plaza de Armas (“Weapons Square”, where the colonial militia assembled) are the Paseo Puente, the Church of Santo Domingo (1771) and the Central Market (Mercado Central), an ornamental iron building. Also in downtown Santiago is the Torre Entel, a 127.4-meter-tall television tower with an observation deck, completed in 1974; the tower serves as a communications center for the communications company ENTEL Chile.

The center of Costanera was completed in 2009 and includes residential, shopping and entertainment facilities. The project, with a total area of ​​600,000 square meters, includes the 300-meter-high Gran Torre Santiago (the tallest building in South America) and other commercial buildings. Four business towers are connected by highway and subway.

Within the metropolitan area of ​​Santiago, there are 174 cultural heritage sites under the supervision of the National Council of Monuments, which include archaeological, architectural and historical monuments, settlements and typical areas. Of these, 93 are located in the municipality of Santiago, which is considered the historic center of the city. Although none of Santiago’s monuments have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, three have already been proposed by the Chilean government: the Incan sanctuary of El Plomo, the Church and Monastery of San Francisco, and the Palace of La Moneda.

In the center of Santiago there are several buildings built during the Spanish domination and which mostly correspond, like the Metropolitan Cathedral and the aforementioned Church of San Francisco, to Catholic churches. Buildings from that period are those located on the side of the Plaza de Armas, such as the seat of the Royal Audience, the post office or the Casa Colorado.

During the nineteenth century and the gaining of independence, new architectural works began to be built in the capital of the young republic. The aristocracy built small palaces for residential use, mostly around the Republika settlement, and they have been preserved to this day. These structures, which have adopted artistic trends from Europe, are joined by the Equestrian Club of Santiago, the headquarters of the University of Chile and the Catholic University, Central Station and Mapocho Station, Mercado Central, the National Library, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Paris-Londres district, among others.

Various green spaces in the city contain within and around various cultural heritage sites. Among the most important are the fortifications of Santa Lucia Hill, the Shrine of the Virgin Mary on top of San Cristobal Hill, the lavish crypt of the General Cemetery, Forestal Park, O’Higgins Park and Quinta Normal Park.

What should you visit when you find yourself in Santiago, the capital of Chile? If you are a big lover of architecture, you can enjoy the beauty of the facades of buildings from the colonial period and also in modern architecture. In addition, there are several hills in Santiago from which you can enjoy divine viewpoints from which you will see the capital of Chile in a completely different light.

San Cristóbal Hill (Spanish: Cerro San Cristóbal) – This 860m hill in downtown Santiago has a zoo and wine museum with an interesting gondola ride to the top, where you can see a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the city.

Santa Lucía Hill (Spanish: Cerro Santa Lucía), also known in the Mapuche language as Uelen Hill, is a small hill in the center of Santiago. It is located between Alameda del Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins to the south, Calle Santa Lucia to the west and Victoria Subercazo to the east. The hill has an altitude of 629 m and a height of 69 m above the surrounding area. The hill is the remnant of a 15 million year old volcano. The hill includes a park of 65,300 square meters decorated with ornate facades, steps and fountains. At the highest point there is a viewpoint popular with tourists visiting the city and a meeting place for locals especially for a first date.

It was originally called Uelito o heutrecan by the inhabitants before colonization. However, the current name comes from the day Pedro de Valdivia conquered the hill, December 13, 1540. On that day, “Santa Lucia” is celebrated. It was first used by missionaries as a place of worship or prayer in the years of the smallpox epidemic in 1541. Later, in 1816, Manuel Olager Feliu, a brigadier in the Royal Engineers, designed and built two forts or castles on Santa Lucia Hill, one to the north and the other to the south of the hill. The fortifications were built of stone and lime and could hold eight or twelve guns each. In addition, Olager Feliu designed and built an auxiliary building for ammunition storage and garrison accommodation.

On one side of the hill, Fort Hidalgo was completed in 1820 as a defensive point. On the other hand, the terrain on the hillside was used as a “cemetery for dissidents”, people who did not follow the official Roman Catholic faith of the time or were considered unworthy of burial in the holy place. However, remains buried on the hillside in this manner were eventually moved to a secluded section of the General Cemetery, before said cemetery was, in turn, opened to all burials regardless of creed or social status.

In 1849, James Melville Gillis led an American naval astronomical expedition to Chile to more accurately measure solar parallax. The observatory was set up on the hill of Santa Lucia and was managed by Gillis. When the expedition ended in September 1852, the observatory and accompanying equipment were sold to the Chilean government and formed the nucleus of the first National Astronomical Observatory.

In 1872, Benhamin Vicuña Macena decided to implement a dramatic change in the urban atmosphere of the city of Santiago, among his many works aimed at improving the city, and so he initiated an extensive reconstruction of the hill. The works of 1872 consisted of a road which crossed the hill, and at the top led to a chapel which he also built there, lighted by the then new gas. The rest of the hill contains a park with fountains and viewpoints. The hill itself is watered by a sophisticated irrigation system. The now iconic yellow and white facade is also a product of Vicunja Makenene’s reconstruction. Vicunja Makena was assisted in the realization of his projects by the architect Manuel Aldunate, the constructor Enrique Henes and the stonecutter Andres Staimbuk.

A few years ago, Santa Lucia Hill received an improvement in its lighting and security system. Also, Fort Hidalgo has been restored and reopened to the public. Traditionally, the cannon shot is fired precisely at noon.

The Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes or MNBA) is one of the main centers for Chilean art and wider South American art. Founded in 1880, which also makes it the oldest in South America, the organization is managed by the Art Union (Unión Artística).

The current building, the Palace of Fine Arts (el Palacio de Bellas Artes), dates from 1910 and marks the first centenary of Chile’s independence. It was designed by the Chilean architect Emil Zequier in a fully developed Beaux-Arts style and is located in Parque Forrestal in Santiago. Behind it is the Museum of Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo) of the University of Chile, which also houses the old School of Fine Arts (Escuela de Bellas Artes).

The Palace of Fine Arts, the current home of the museum, was built in the Neoclassical style of the Second Empire and the Baroque Revival style, strongly enhanced by Art Nouveau details and details of metal structural architecture. The central entrance is through a gigantically enlarged version of Borromini’s false-perspective window from the Palazzo Barberini, which includes a pedimented door completely surrounded by glass, characteristic of the Beaux-Arts style. Through a broken pediment, a square dome rises to the top. The interior layout and facade are modeled after the Petit Palais in Paris. The glass dome that crowns the central hall was designed and manufactured in Belgium, and was brought to Chile in 1907. The approximate weight of the armor of the museum is 115,000 kg, and the glass of the dome is 2,400 kg.

Architecturally, the floor plan of the museum is one with a central axis marked by the entrance and a large hall with a staircase to the second floor. In the great hall, above the balcony from the second floor, there is a carving in high relief depicting two angels holding a shield. They are located in a semi-vault above the heads of two caryatids rising from the balcony, carved by Antonio Coli and Pi.

Santiago, the capital of Chile, is a large metropolis with a diverse selection of shopping centers. If you have some free time and want to feel the charms of modern Santiago and enjoy a luxurious experience of incredible shopping, I highly recommend you to visit Parque Arauco. This luxury mall is known for its high-quality fashion and fine dining. The mall contains over 350 stores, including designer brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada.

And for true gourmets and hedonists, there is an excellent selection of gourmet restaurants and cafes. Arauco Park also has a cinema and theater and often hosts live music and cultural events throughout the year, making it a popular destination for shopping and entertainment.

In the next post I will delight you with a review of the famous Hotel Luciano K located in the bohemian heart of Santiago, so we will continue our exploration of the capital of Chile – Santiago.

My dear travellers, we have come to the end of this first special travelogue from Chile where we enjoyed the beauty of Santiago in the series of travelogues of Chile where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K in cooperation with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of daily life in Santiago. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Chile.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Chilean culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Santiago.

How did you like my story about Santiago de Chile and the presentation of the vibrant city below the Andes? Have you had the chance to visit Santiago and beautiful Chile so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Santiago,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, the National Tourist Organization of Chile (Chile Travel) and Hotel Luciano K and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel: The Best Place to Feel the Pulse of Buenos Aires

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to convey to you the beauty of the best place to feel the pulse of Buenos Aires and feel the luxury of comfort at Loi Suites Recoleta hotel, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organisations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Argentina were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of ArgentinaConvention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel.

If by any chance you missed reading the previous travelogues from Argentina or you want to remind yourself of some interesting things, take the opportunity to visit the following links:

  1. Letters from Argentina: Buenos Aires, City of Art, Tango and European Architecture (Travelogue)
  2. Letters from Argentina: La Recoleta Cemetery, a walk through Argentina’s rich history (Travelogue)

Recoleta is a barrio or neighborhood in Buenos Aires, located in the northern part of the city, next to the Rio de la Plata. The area is probably best known for being home to the prestigious Recoleta Cemetery. It is a traditionally upper-class and conservative neighborhood with some of the most expensive real estate in the city, known for its Parisian-style townhouses, opulent former palaces and posh boutiques.

The name of this prestigious settlement comes from the monastery – the Recoleta Convent (Convento de la Recoleta) of the Recoleta fathers, members of the Franciscan Order, which was founded in the area at the beginning of the 18th century. They founded a monastery and a church dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Pilar with a cemetery. Recoleta Trail is almost the exact geographical center of the settlement and one of its highest points in the city, which at the end of the 19th century attracted wealthy families from the south of the city who wanted to escape the deadly yellow fever epidemic that began in 1871. Since then, Recoleta has been one of the best and most expensive neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, home to private family villas, foreign embassies and luxury hotels, including the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel.

If you want to feel the real pulse and spirit of Buenos Aires, the Loi Suites Recoleta hotel is the ideal place for you. Buenos Aires is an ideal destination in South America that you can visit at any time of the year. If you enjoy long walks where you can explore the cultural content of the city or enjoy the beauty of architecture, museums and discovering tourist attractions, Buenos Aires is the right destination for you. Events, theater performances, concerts and a lively nightlife invite visitors to this incredible city to enjoy a variety of culinary offerings.

When we travel it is very important to choose the right hotel location because this decision will significantly affect your trip and in this way you can improve your experience while visiting the city’s neighbourhoods and ensure the best possible time during a day full of activities in Buenos Aires. The Loi Suites Recoleta hotel is the perfect choice for a true city experience. Loi Suits hotels consistently offer superior service, the best location and facilities tailored to the needs of guests, whether traveling for leisure or business.

Loi Suites Recoleta hotel is located in the heart of one of the most prestigious neighborhoods of Buenos Aires – Recoleta. This hotel is just steps away from the historic Recoleta Cemetery, surrounded by exquisite French-style architecture. It is close to the city’s best restaurants, bars, art galleries and historic squares. Ideal for a family holiday, a romantic holiday or just a break from the routine with friends, this hotel offers total luxury comfort, convenience, quality of service with the marked attention to detail that you can feel in a five-star hotel, with spacious and comfortable rooms.

The hidden gem of the facility is its stunning Winter Garden, where guests and locals alike can enjoy an exquisite gastronomic offer. Surrounded by exotic plants, it recreates a tropical atmosphere in the heart of Recoleta, with marble details and wicker chairs, creating an oasis where the atmosphere of spring reigns throughout the year. The space bathed in natural light thanks to the glass roof during the day, and exquisitely designed for pleasant dinners, makes this restaurant a unique option to enjoy all its culinary offers: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.

When choosing to stay at Recoleta, guests have the opportunity to enjoy one of the most elegant and exclusive parts of Buenos Aires. Recoleta is known for its European-style architecture, wide green areas and rich cultural offer. In the immediate vicinity of Loi Suites Recoleta, hotel guests have quick and easy access to the National Museum of Fine Arts and the famous Alvear Avenue, perfect for luxury lovers. What’s more, the proximity of exceptional restaurants and historic cafes makes Recoleta an unbeatable place to immerse yourself in the rich Portenjo lifestyle.

The head chef of Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel, Dario Galizia presents a completely renewed menu every season to offer new delights to hotel guests and restaurant visitors. The cuisine is recognizable with strong Mediterranean influences, emphasizing the flavors of Italian and Spanish gastronomy. Special attention is paid to abundant local products, especially meat and fresh fish, which are carefully prepared following French culinary techniques. It is also worth noting that the distinctive classic “Garden Tea”, which contains sweet and savoury treats from the traditional “five o’clock tea”, is an excellent and complete offer, perfect for enjoying with friends, meetings or special celebrations.

During my visit to Buenos Aires, I had the opportunity to stay in the Executive Suite which is the jewel of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel. A very spacious apartment of 42 square meters with a bedroom with a double bed, a separate living and working area and a kitchen is the perfect space to call your home when you come to Buenos Aires. This apartment is equipped with a small kitchen where you can prepare some quick meals, coffee or tea because the kitchen is equipped to meet the needs of the guests.

A spacious bathroom made of marble will make your free time for relaxation even better and more comfortable. The bathroom is fully equipped so you don’t have to think about hygiene items or a hair dryer. What won my heart were the little signs of attention provided by the staff of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel like the chocolates they brought me every day.

During the trip, the hotel where we stay is very important to all of us, because the hotel is our home in the new destination and therefore it is very important to choose a good hotel in each destination. During my stay in the capital of Argentina, my Loi Suites Recoleta was my home, adorned with style, comfort and a beautiful atmosphere in the heart of Buenos Aires.

In addition to the hotel in the capital of Argentina – Buenos Aires, Loi Suites has its hotels in San Martín de los Andes, if you want to discover the beauty of Argentine Patagonia – Loi Suites Chapelco or if you want to be harmoniously immersed in the subtropical forest of Irjapu with the Loi Suites Iguazu hotel.

All guests of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel can enjoy amenities such as an indoor pool and a gym. In addition to these facilities, guests can then relax with a therapeutic massage in the relaxation room. Of course, this hotel offers 24-hour medical assistance, laundry and dry cleaning for an additional charge, as well as parking for an additional charge.

In the next post, I will delight you with a new travelogue from Chile, where we will enjoy the beauty of the capital Santiago, as well as a fashion story and hotel review from Santiago.

My dear adventurers, we have reached the end of this third and at the same time the last special travelogue from Argentina where we enjoyed the beauty of comfort with Loi Suites Recoleta hotel in the series of travelogues of Argentina where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of ArgentinaConvention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Argentina.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of ArgentinaConvention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Argentinian culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires.

How did you like my story about Loi Suites Recoleta hotel? Have you had the chance to visit Buenos Aires and beautiful Argentina so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Buenos Aires,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of ArgentinaConvention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letters from Argentina: La Recoleta Cemetery, A Walk Through Argentina’s Rich History…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to convey to you the beauty of Argentine history with a walk through the most beautiful cemetery in the world – La Recoleta, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Argentina were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel.

In order to ever understand the present, we must understand the past. A cemetery does not necessarily have to be a place where the feeling of sadness prevails, but it can be a place where you can learn something about the history of a people, the culture of a country and enjoy the architecture.

La Recoleta Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the prestigious neighborhood of Recoleta in Buenos Aires. It contains the graves of notable eminent people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel laureates, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and military commanders such as Julio Argentino Roca. In 2011, the BBC named it one of the world’s best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN included it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.

The cemetery covers an area of ​​5.5 hectares and contains 4,691 tombs, all of which are built above ground, of which 94 have been declared national historical monuments by the Argentine government and are protected by the state. The entrance to the cemetery is through neoclassical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide range of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque and Neo-Gothic, and most of the materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of the tombs were imported from Paris and Milan.

At the beginning of the 18th century, friars from the order of Franciscan recollects arrived barefoot in the area where the Recoleta cemetery is currently located, then on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. In 1732, they built a monastery and a church at that place, which they placed under the patronage of the Virgin Pilar. Currently, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar is a national historical monument. The locals called the Recollects church simply La Recoleta, a name that spread throughout the area.

When the order was dissolved in 1822, on November 17 of that year, the garden of the monastery was turned into the first public cemetery in the city of Buenos Aires. The people responsible for its creation were the then governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Martín Rodríguez (his remains rest in the cemetery) and his government minister Bernardino Rivadavia. Its first two tenants were the freed black boy Juan Benito and the young María Dolores Maciel.

In 1863, La Recoleta cemetery lost its status as a cemetery due to a conflict with the Freemasons, since the Mason Blas Aguero died that year, who refused to receive the holy sacraments, so the church denied him burial, but at the request of his nephew, President Bartholomew Mitre gave him permission, after which the archbishop’s status of the cemetery was not extinguished.

In the 1870s, as a result of the yellow fever epidemic that ravaged the city, many upper-class portens left the neighborhoods of San Telmo and Montserrat and moved to the northern part of the city in Recolet. When it became an upper-class neighborhood, the cemetery became the final resting place of the most prestigious and powerful families of Buenos Aires. At the same time, the Chacarita cemetery or Western Cemetery, unlike the North Cemetery, less commonly called Recoleta, was inaugurated.

At the very entrance to the cemetery, three dates are engraved on the floor: 1822, when the La Recoleta cemetery was created, 1881, when the first remodeling of the cemetery was carried out, and 2003, the year of the second remodeling of the cemetery. The Recoleta Cemetery is an emblematic burial monument in Buenos Aires, recognized for its artistic and historical value. Its main entrance has a portico formed by four Greek Doric columns, completed during renovations in 1881 under the supervision of Mayor Torquato de Alvear. The external and internal facades are decorated with Latin inscriptions: “Requiescant in pace” (Rest in peace) on the outside, and “Expectamus Dominum” (We await the Lord) on the inside, symbolizing the dialogue between the living and the dead.

On the front, above the pillars, are written the first symbols of life and death, presented in eleven allegories: the spindle and the scissors: the thread of life that can be cut at any moment. Cross and letter P: peace of Christ in cemeteries. Crown: a vow of lasting memory. Sphere and Wings: a process of life and death that is constantly spinning like a sphere. Cross and crown: death and memory. Bee: diligence. The snake bites its tail: the beginning and the end. Shroud over the urn: abandonment and death. Torches with flames pointing downwards: death. Owl: guardian, and according to some beliefs, heralds death. Water clock or hourglass: passage of time or passage of life.

The cemetery has 4,780 graves spread over 54,843 square meters, 80 of which have been declared national historical monuments. The cemetery contains several marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide range of architectural styles. La Recoleta cemetery is organized in the form of blocks, conceived as a small town, with wide rows of trees leading to side alleys lined with mausoleums and arches. There is a large central roundabout from which the main avenues depart, with a sculpture of Christ by the sculptor Pedro Zonza Briano, in 1914.

Mausoleums, built in a variety of architectural styles, are usually marked with a family name on the facade, and often contain bronze plaques with the names of the buried individuals. Among the famous people buried in this cemetery are figures from Argentine politics, culture and society.

The writer Jorge Luis Borges expressed in one of his poems his desire to be buried in this place, although he was finally buried in Geneva. The Recoleta Cemetery can be considered a “city within a city”, as its architectural configuration, layout and sculptures make it one of the most famous places in Buenos Aires. This cemetery is a unique space that, with its urban layout, reflects an organization similar to that of a city.

Its layout is characterized by orthogonal streets that divide the land into regular plots, creating avenues, alleys and diagonals. These features structure the space so that each part of the cemetery has its own identity, while the sculptures commissioned by the families who own the vaults visually enrich the environment, with different artistic representations of life and death.

In the center of the cemetery, a large central roundabout serves as a reference point, from which the main avenues diverge. In this area there is a sculpture of Christ made by the sculptor Pedro Zonca Briano in 1914, which forms a large cross, a symbol of the sanctity of the place.

From the very beginning, the cemetery area has had extensions, significant and reference elements, which thicken the experience of the place. The cemetery maintains a practical relationship of identification with the city itself: a spatial arrangement in grids, from which the blocks built on the Recoleta land arise, a geometric design with streets, avenues and diagonals. The walls contain, define and protect it as a sacred space.

The plan was requested from the Director of the Department of Architectural Engineers of the Province of Buenos Aires, Eng. Prospero Catelin. With the plan approved and already in execution, a government decree was issued on September 3, 1823, which determines the scale of prices according to the location of the plots and which is interesting for the purpose of this work, because it determines that “the most desirable graves are occupied by the bodies of those people whose virtues or relevant services to society have earned them power and a notable place forever in the society of citizens. duty to perpetuate the memory of such worthy citizens by disposing of their ashes.”

It is significant that the Government, following the tone of the explanation of the decree, reserves for itself “some graves to officially assign them to those people who stand out due to merits contracted in any branch of public service”, thereby reserving space for grave plots for the pantheon of meritorious citizens, to the right of the main entrance street to the cemetery.

La Recoleta Cemetery is the eternal home of numerous eminent personalities who in some way left their mark on Argentine history. Some of them are:

General Bartolome Mitre

The mausoleum of General Bartolomé Mitre is located opposite the old entrance gate at 1720 Junin Street. Sculpted in marble, his sculptures were made by Eduardo Rubino, born in Turin, and represent “Liberty”, “Duty” and “Justice”. Today, on its top, the hero’s name is framed between winged figures. Miter was a military man, journalist, poet and historian, who crowned his career as the president of the united nation in the period 1862-1868. year.

Eva Duarte de Peron

On one of the streets in section 16 is the Duarte family vault, in the Art Deco style, notable for its pilaster and pediment treatment framing the bronze doors, richly decorated with festoons, flowers and stylized foliage. The building is crowned with a burning brazier, a symbol of eternity. Eva Duarte de Perón, who did extensive social work for the poor during the first presidency of her husband, General Juan Domingo Perón, died in 1952 at the age of 33. After the 1955 coup, his remains were stolen and hidden by the Liberation Revolution until this restitution and final transfer in 1976.

Julio Argentino Roca

Its vault is built on the corner formed by one of the diagonals of this necropolis and one of its main streets, a location that allows it to be distinguished from different places. A soldier and statesman born in Tucumán in 1843 and killed in Buenos Aires in 1914, he fought in the campaign against Paraguay and conquered the desert. President of the Republic in two terms: 1880-1886 and 1898-1904. The vault has mannerist features, and its walls and the fence surrounding it are richly decorated with arabesques, angels and fallen torches. The domestic character of its main door, which is preceded by a small atrium, attracts attention; It has a rich decoration of the classical repertoire.

Juan Manuel de Rosas

The hero rests in the family crypt of Ortiz de Rozas next to his wife Encarnacion Escura, who died in 1838 and is also buried there. The vault, covered in granite, was built in 1845 after the death of Agustina López Osorio, Rosas’ mother, and remodeled in the first decade of the 20th century, when one of the entrance doors was closed to make room for the altar. Rosas died in exile in England in 1877, after the defeat at the Battle of Cazeros, and his remains were returned and interred in this mausoleum on September 30, 1989 during the government of Carlos Menem, after years of efforts led by sectors of historical revisionism.

Manuel Dorrego

The remains of Manuel Dorego rest in a vault located on the main street of the cemetery, near the Central Christ. His tomb is a truncated pyramid with an acropter at the corners and artistically wrought iron doors, which allow one to see inside the white marble urn where the hero lies. Dorego, the governor of Buenos Aires, was an ardent defender of federalism. Deposed by Juan Lavalle in 1828, he was executed by order of the latter near Navarre. His remains were transferred to Recoleta in December 1829 by order of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

Facundo Quiroga

The tomb of Juan Facundo Quiroga is surrounded by low iron railings that end in a spearhead. In its center, on a quadrangular pillar, stands the “Dolorosa” made of Carrara marble, the work of the Italian sculptor Antonio Tantardini (1829-1879), which is considered the first work of art in the cemetery. Quiroga, born in 1788 in Llanos de La Rioja, was governor of that province and fought against the Unitarians, defeating Lamadrid at ‘El Tala’ and José María Paz at ‘La Tablada’. His life ended tragically in 1835, when he was killed in Baranca Yaco. His remains were originally placed in the Cemetery of Canons, next to the cathedral in Cordoba, and the following year they were transferred to this tomb.

Rufina Cambaceres

In the corner of section 13 is the vault of Rufina Cambaseres next to her family, which bears the name of Antonio Cambaseres, Rufina’s uncle, in reference to Mr. Cambaseres, a landowner and man of great wealth who held the position of director of the provincial bank of Buenos Aires and the railroad. Rufina’s father, Eugenio, was a distinguished writer who left behind interesting works. Her daughter died on May 31, 1902. , her 19th birthday, probably buried under a cataleptic fit. Her mother decided to build a tomb for her daughter next to the family vault. The result was an important Art Nouveau monument with a stylization of curved lines and an abundance of stems, leaves and flowers. It is the work of the German Richard Eigner. Rufina is shown standing in front of a door, holding the handle as if to open it. This artistic performance, complete with the circumstances of her sudden death.

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

The tomb of this hero is located in one of the inner streets of the 17th part of this necropolis. On the podium with a quadrangular base covered with mosaic stands an obelisk crowned with a bronze condor, at the bottom of which is the inscription “Civilization and Barbarism”. Sarmiento was an educator, writer and soldier. He was the governor of his province and the president of the nation in the period 1868-1874.

Federico Leloir

We can say that it is one of the most impressive vaults in this cemetery, which was designed by the French architect A. Guilbert. The Leloirs are originally from the French low Pyrenees, and arrived in these countries around 1820. Dr. Luis Federico Leloir rests here. Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1970. The monument consists of three characteristic parts. Large cubical base, faced with polished granite: middle part; composed of a bronze drum, which supports the dome, an element transformed into a skylight through which light reaches the refined chapel. This is presided over by Christ, the work of the Italian Leonardo Bistolfi (1859-1933). The entire structure is crowned by a small temple surrounded by Ionic columns, on which rests a large dome, inside which the Redeemer is represented in tiles of different colors.

Carlos Pellegrini

The mausoleum of Dr. Pellegrini is located on the central path, closing the street that starts at the Peristyle. This circumstance gives it a wonderful perspective, further emphasizing the inherent values ​​of the work. It was commissioned by the Jockey Club to house the remains of its founder and first president. It is the work of the French sculptor Marins Jean Antonin Mercie.

Doctor Salvador María del Carril

This vault is a monumental construction in which the most prominent part is the needle-shaped canopy crowned with the image of Cronus – the God of Time. Inside the pavilion is a statue of the jurist, and above the entrance to the crypt is a bust of Da Tiburcia Dominguez, his wife. The tomb was made by Camilo Romairon Del Carril (1798-1883) who was governor of his native province of San Juan: Minister of Government and Foreign Affairs during the governorship of Laval.

General Juan Lavalle

A bronze grenadier watches over the sleep of the brave soldier Chakabuka, Maipu, Riobamba, Pichincha and Ituzaing, among other military actions. It is a sober vault made of black granite, with refined doors that stand out. He was the governor of the province of Buenos Aires and as head of the unit he intervened in Navarre’s action.

The tomb of José Clemente Paz (1842-1912) is one of the monuments of the exceptional sculptural group of the Frenchman Gilles Félix Coutant (1848-1939), who performed works on behalf of the Paz family, in honor of their late son, José Jacob Paz, a year later in Eight Gainza Paz4. In 1912, the president of La Prensa, José Clemente Paz, was buried in this vault.

Felix Coutant was a famous French sculptor of his time. His works stand out for their attention to detail and pleat work. He created sculptures in bronze and marble with a neoclassical approach and arranged them to be seen from the front, contained in the rear supports, making them part of the architecture.

The tomb has a cubic volume covered with black granite, a bronze door that serves as a pedestal for two large angels, placed from right to left of the door, one on an anchor and the other with a crown at the feet. Another sculptural group of three figures renews the drama: a half-subdued woman, almost fainting, letting go of an extinguished lamp.

In ascending order, in the same line, we see an urn with a half-open lid called a sarcophagus, from which appears a female figure representing the human soul, moving towards an angel with outstretched wings and pointing with the index finger towards infinity, eternity. The entire work is made of white marble, with meticulous details and great dynamics. The Tomb of the Paz Family is a sculptural work that can be seen as a “monument, not a charm”, as it is valued for what it was originally intended for.

Grave of Olivera De Pigneto

This tomb is located in section 9 and was made by Louis Perlotti in 1946. It is important to note that both the panels and the relief are made of dolomite stone that could have come from the Olavaria quarry, Buenos Aires province, and the base is made of granite. It shows the image of a woman with raised hands, in which simplicity, purity and sobriety can be seen. Due to the southern orientation of the front part of the tomb and its delimitation by the adjacent wall, the tomb is closed, creating a very humid microclimate that favors the development of microorganisms, which makes it difficult to read the work. The development of plants was observed at the junction of the plate and the relief. Microcracks have been identified in most stones. Erosion was also evident in the form of aggressive agents such as rain and wind, leading to a lack of surface cohesion and loss of surface finish. Because of all these omissions, it was necessary to carry out the restoration of the tomb. It is important to note that the relief, although exposed, was integrated into the overall composition of the tomb after the restoration.

Mausoleum of Doctor Nicolas de Avellaneda

This mausoleum is located in section 20 and was created by Parisian sculptor Gilles Coutant in 1910. This monument is made entirely of Carrara marble by carving and assembling slabs. Its dimensions are 3m high, 2.50m wide and 2.3m deep. It consists of a tall column with an allegorical figure of a woman in the act of prayer on its shaft, a capital with a portrait of a hero and a plinth with ornamental decoration. This monument was previously restored in 1968, due to the fact that the work is exposed without any protection and suffers from general surface erosion. Only in the sectors protected from the rain by their orientation (northeast) and morphology, a record of the original polishing could be observed.

In the right profile, the sculpture has a thin black layer produced by biological agents that covers almost the entire surface and is embedded in the structure of the stone. Also on the face of the allegory, erosion was observed with the loss of the finish, as well as the sticking of black bark. Structurally, the movement of the column that closes the mausoleum was observed. The lack of a metal chain attached to the pillars as a closure of the monument was also noticed. The intervention enabled a quick interpretation of the monument considering its location at the end of one of the cemetery streets. Standing near the sculpture, one can clearly see the different treatments on the same material.

Mausoleum of Colonel Federik Brandasen

This mausoleum is located in section 9 and was built by Carlos Romairone in 1905. The load-bearing material of the monument is Carrara marble with veins, except for the bust, which is made of unearthed Carrara marble. The memorial plaques and ornaments placed at the opening of the monument were cast in bronze. The dimension is 5m high, with a base of 2m by 2m. A visual comparison between the historical documentation and the current state of the monument revealed some differences, such as the addition of steps to the front of the monument. Both the allegory and the portrait of the colonel represent a significant accumulation of surface society and a change in granulometry.

This is observed in areas exposed to rain incense and extends along runoff lines generated by the morphology. Added to this is the mechanical effect of sandblasting done in the previous changes. Marble presents significant cracks as well as a film of oxide from metal decorative elements. Cracks and cracks were also observed, some of them with the application of cement mortar products of previous interventions. The criteria for the intervention included the relocation of the memorial plaques, which were placed in front of the monument, which, due to the proximity of the entrance to the cemetery, enables a quick inspection.

Tomb of Maria Sánchez de Thompson and Mandeville

This tomb is located in Section 3 and was created by an anonymous artist in 1870 using the turning technique, with Carrara marble assembled in sections. Its dimensions are 2m high and 2m wide and 1.7m deep. The biggest concern about this work, when it came to its conservation, was its structural deterioration, the result of ground movement under the influence of nearby tree growth. Its square base and orientation create a significant difference in wear between the front with direct exposure to rain and wind compared to profiles that have less wear. Ornaments and plaques show pronounced erosion, the progress of which reveals veins of marble in relief. A high percentage of oxidation can be observed on the front side of the tomb, which is quickly visible. The constructive maintenance of the tomb is the result of technical availability related to its historical moment, which has been revalued over time.

From the beginning of the 19th century, the political circumstances that unfolded on both sides of the River Plate, from the English invasions onwards, reinforced a special commitment to military glory, and especially posthumous honors given to the heroes of the Reconquest and the entry into the era of independence to the military heroes of independence. This recognition was reflected in significant funerary celebrations, with commemorative rituals reminiscent of royal burials during the colonial period and ephemeral architectural and artistic objects of admirable material and artistic investment. These were supplemented by funerary monuments placed in the public cemetery beginning in the late 1820s.

In the next post, I will delight you with a review of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel, so that you can learn more about this fantastic hotel in Buenos Aires and consider staying here during your stay in the Argentine capital.

My dear adventurers, we have reached the end of this second special travelogue from Argentina where we enjoyed the beauty of Buenos Aires in the series of travelogues of Argentina where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Argentina.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Argentinian culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires.

How did you like my story about La Recoleta cemetery and the presentation of Argentine history in this way? Have you had the chance to visit Buenos Aires and beautiful Argentina so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Buenos Aires,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

SHARE THIS POST

Letters from Argentina: Buenos Aires, City of Art, Tango and European Architecture

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. May, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to show you the capital of Argentina – Buenos Aires, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Argentina were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel.

Argentina, officially the Republic of Argentina, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of ​​approximately 2,800,000 km2, making it the second largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth largest country in the Americas, and the eighth largest country in the world. Argentina shares most of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south.

Argentina is a federal state divided into 23 provinces and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital and the nation’s largest city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but they exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and part of Antarctica.

The earliest recorded human presence in modern Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The Inca Empire expanded to the northwest of the country in pre-Columbian times. The country has its roots in the Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century. Argentina rose as the successor state to the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The declaration of July 9, 1816 and the struggle for independence (in the period from 1810 to 1825) were followed by a prolonged civil war that lasted until 1880, when it was reorganized as a federation. The country enjoyed relative peace and stability thereafter, with several waves of European immigration, mainly Italian and Spanish, influencing its culture and demographics.

The National Autonomist Party dominated national politics during the period called the Conservative Republic, from 1880 until the 1916 election. The Great Depression led to the first coup d’état in 1930 led by José Félix Uribura, which began the so-called “Infamous Decade” (1930–1943). After that coup, four more followed in 1943, 1955, 1962 and 1966. After the death of President Juan Peron in 1974, his widow and vice president, Isabel Peron, ascended to the presidency, before being ousted in a final coup in 1976. where thousands of political critics, activists and leftists were killed in the Dirty War, a period of state terrorism and civil unrest that lasted until the election of Raúl Alfonsín as president in 1983.

Argentina is a regional power and maintains its historical status as a middle power in international affairs. This country is the main ally of the United States outside of NATO. Argentina is a developing country with the second highest HDI (human development index) in Latin America, after Chile. It maintains the second largest economy in South America and is a member of the G-15 and G20. Argentina is also a founding member of the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, Mercosur, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the Organization of Ibero-American States.

Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the capital and largest city of the Argentine Republic. It is located in the southwest of Rio de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha-Global City, according to the Globalization and Global Network for Cities (GaVC) 2024 ranking. The city itself has a population of nearly 3.1 million and an urban area of ​​16.7 million, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the world.

The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of the province of Buenos Aires nor its capital, it is an autonomous district. After the civil war in Argentina, in 1880, Buenos Aires was federalized and separated from the Province of Buenos Aires. The city limits were expanded to include the cities of Belgrano and Flores, both now urban areas. With the constitutional amendment of 1994, the city gained autonomy, hence its formal name Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Thus, in 1996, the citizens elected their first head of government, previously the mayor was directly appointed by the president of Argentina.

The conurbation of Greater Buenos Aires includes several surrounding cities, located in neighboring districts of the province of Buenos Aires. It is the fourth most populous metropolitan area in America. It is also the second largest city south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Buenos Aires has the highest human development of any of Argentina’s administrative divisions and its quality of life was ranked 91st in the world in 2018, one of the best in Latin America.

Buenos Aires is known for its preserved eclectic European architecture and rich cultural life. It is a multicultural city that is home to multiple ethnic and religious groups, contributing to its culture as well as the dialect spoken in the city and some other parts of the country. This is because since the 19th century, the city, and the country in general, has been the main recipient of millions of immigrants from all over the world, making it a melting pot where several ethnic groups live together. Thus, Buenos Aires is considered one of the most diverse cities in America.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism in Argentina’s capital has grown continuously since 2002. In a survey conducted by travel and tourism publication Travel + Leisure Magazine, visitors voted Buenos Aires as the second most desirable city to visit after Florence, Italy. Buenos Aires is an international hub for a very active and diverse nightlife with bars, dance bars and nightclubs that stay open well past midnight.

Visitors have many travel options such as going to a tango show, an estancia in the province of Buenos Aires, or enjoying a traditional asado. Recently, new tourist circles have developed, dedicated to Argentines such as Carlos Gardel, Eva Perón or Jorge Luis Borges. Before 2011, due to the favorable exchange rate of the Argentine peso, shopping centers such as Alto Palermo, Paseo Alcorta, Patio Bullrich, Abasto de Buenos Aires and Galerías Pasifico were frequented by tourists. Today, the exchange rate significantly hinders tourism and especially shopping. In fact, major fashion brands such as Burberry and Louis Vuitton have left the country due to the exchange rate and import restrictions. The city also hosts music festivals, some of the biggest being Quilmes Rock, Creamfields BA, Ultra Music Festival (Buenos Aires) and Buenos Aires Jazz Festival.

The most popular tourist locations are located in the historic center of the city, more specifically in the Montserrat and San Telmo districts. Buenos Aires was conceived around the Plaza de Mayo, the administrative center of the colony. East of the square is the Casa Rosada, the official seat of the executive branch of Argentina’s government. To the north, the Metropolitan Cathedral which has stood in the same location since colonial times, and the Banco de la Nacion Argentina building, a parcel of land originally owned by Juan de Garay. Other important colonial institutions were the Cabildo, in the west, which was renovated during the construction of Avenida de Mayo and Julio A. Roque. To the south is the Congreso de la Nacion (National Congress), which currently houses the Academia Nacional de la Historia (National Academy of History). Finally, to the northwest is the Town Hall.

Buenos Aires also became known for LGBT tourism, the legalization of same-sex marriage on July 15, 2010, making it the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth in the world to do so. His Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, made Argentina “the only country that allows people to change their gender identity without facing obstacles such as hormone therapy, surgery or a psychiatric diagnosis that marks them as having an abnormality.” In 2015, the World Health Organization cited Argentina as an exemplary country for providing transgender rights. Despite these legal advances, however, homophobia remains a hotly contested social issue in the city and the country.

Buenos Aires has different types of accommodation ranging from five-star luxury hotels in the city center to budget hotels located in the suburbs. Regardless, the city’s transportation system provides easy and cheap access to the city. Most of the hotels are located in the central part of the city, in close proximity to most of the main tourist attractions.

What tourist attractions should you visit in Buenos Aires? Teatro Colón is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires. National Geographic considers it one of the ten best opera houses in the world. According to a survey conducted by acoustic expert Leo Beranek among leading international opera and orchestra directors, the Teatro Colón has the best acoustic room for opera and the second best for concerts in the world. The current Colon replaced the original theater that was opened in 1857. At the end of the century, it became clear that a new theater was needed, and after a 20-year process, the current theater opened on May 25, 1908, with the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.

The Teatro Colón was frequented by the most prominent singers and opera companies of the time, sometimes traveling to other cities including Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. After this period of huge international success, the theater’s deterioration became clear and plans were made for a massive renovation. After initial restoration work on the landmark began in 2005, the theater was closed for renovations from October 2006 to May 2010. It reopened on May 24, 2010 with a program for the 2010 season. The theater was declared a national historical monument in 1991.

La Recoleta Cemetery (Spanish: Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a cemetery located in the prestigious neighborhood of Recoleta in Buenos Aires. It contains the graves of notable eminent people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel laureates, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and military commanders such as Julio Argentino Roca. In 2011, the BBC named it one of the world’s best cemeteries, and in 2013, CNN included it among the 10 most beautiful cemeteries in the world.

The cemetery covers an area of ​​5.5 hectares and contains 4,691 tombs, all of which are built above ground, of which 94 have been declared national historical monuments by the Argentine government and are protected by the state. The entrance to the cemetery is through neoclassical gates with tall Doric columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide range of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque and Neo-Gothic, and most of the materials used between 1880 and 1930 in the construction of the tombs were imported from Paris and Milan. In the next blog post, which will be completely dedicated to this site, I will try to provide you with some additional details about this site.

Obelisco de Buenos Aires is a historical monument, which is considered an icon of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It was built in 1936 to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the first founding of Buenos Aires by Pedro de Mendoza. The work was designed by Argentinian architect Alberto Prebish and built by the German consortium GEOPE-Siemens Bauunion-Grun & Bilfinger. The obelisk has a height of 67.5 meters, culminating in a Roman-style point of about 40 cm. It has a single front door and four windows at its top. It is located in Plaza de la Republica, at the intersection of Corrientes Avenue and 9 de Julio in the San Nicolas neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Ateneo Grand Splendid is a bookstore located in the Recoleta neighborhood. It stands out for the fact that it is located in the place where the Grand Splendid theater used to be, since it has preserved the original architecture of the said theater, but at the same time it has been re-adapted to function as a bookstore. In 2008, the British newspaper The Guardian chose it as the second most beautiful bookstore in the world, and in 2019, National Geographic declared it the most beautiful in the world.

Located on Santa Fe Avenue in Barrio Norte, the building was designed by architects Pero and Torres Armengol for impresario Max Glicksman, and opened as a theater under the name Teatro Gran Splendid in May 1919. The building of eclectic architecture features ceiling frescoes painted by Italian artist Nazareno Orlandi and caryatids sculpted by Troyano Troyani, whose work also adorns the wreath along the Palacio de la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

The theater had a capacity of 1,050 seats and hosted various performances, including performances by tango artists Carlos Gardel, Francisco Canaro, Roberto Firp and Ignacio Corsini. In 1924, Glucksmann started his own radio station (Radio Splendid), which broadcast from the building where his record company, Nacional Odeon, made some of the early recordings of the great tango singers of the time. At the end of the twenties, the theater was converted into a cinema, and in 1929 the first sound films shown in Argentina were shown.

Today this is one of the most beautiful libraries I have ever seen in my life and I took the opportunity to buy a book in Spanish from a writer I have been looking for a long time because I wanted to get back to learning Spanish.

The Pink House (in Spanish: Casa Rosada) is the presidential work palace of the first man of the Argentine Republic, located in the very heart of Buenos Aires. The palace is officially known as Casa de Gobierno (“House of Government”). Normally, the President lives in Quinta de Olivos, the official residence of the President of Argentina, located in Olivos, Greater Buenos Aires. Casa Rosada’s signature color is baby pink and it is considered one of the most emblematic buildings in Buenos Aires. The building also houses a museum, which contains items related to former presidents of Argentina. It was declared a national historical monument of Argentina.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Spanish: Catedral Metropolitana de la Santisima Trinidad) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Buenos Aires. It is located in the city center, overlooking the Plaza de Mayo, at the corner of San Martín and Rivadavia streets in the San Nicolas neighborhood. It is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and had the rank of the primary church of Argentina from 1822 to 2024. The cathedral was declared a national historical monument in 1942.

Plaza de Mayo is the square located in front of the Casa Rosada, the seat of the National Executive. It was created in 1884, as a result of the unification of Plaza de la Victoria and Plaza del Fuerte, by the demolition of the building called Recova Vieja, which separated them. It is located in the place where the second founding of the City took place in 1580. It is located in the Montserrat district, more precisely, in the so-called center of Buenos Aires, surrounded by the streets of Hipolito Yrigoyen, Balcarsa, Avenida Rivadavia and Bolívar in the Montserrat district. From its western side originate three important avenues: President Julio A. Roca, President Roca Sáenz Peña and Avenida de Mayo. In its surroundings there are several main monuments and places of interest: the historic Cabildo, the Casa Rosada (where the executive branch of the nation is located), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Buenos Aires City Government Building, the headquarters of the Banco Nacion and the headquarters of the Customs Collection and Control Agency.

The Cabildo of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Cabildo de Buenos Aires) is a public building in the city of Buenos Aires, which was used as the seat of the city council during the colonial era and the government house of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. The building was also the seat of other institutions, such as the Royal Audience of Buenos Aires, the highest court of second instance in the territory, which operated from April 6, 1661 to January 23, 1812, when it was replaced by the Appeals Chamber. Then, during 1810, the Primera Junta created the Public Library of Buenos Aires, which Cabildo was its first location in two years. However, the institution that worked longer in that building was the prison of Buenos Aires, from 1608 to 1877, when their prisoners were transferred to the missing national penitentiary in Calle Las Heras, when it was inaugurated. The Cabildo was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1933 and opened to the public as a museum in 1938.

What you must not miss if your road leads you to Buenos Aires is the famous Caminito street, which means “little path” in Spanish. Caminito is a street museum and traditional alley, located in La Boca, a district of Buenos Aires. The place gained cultural significance because it inspired the music for the famous tango “Caminito” from 1926, composed by Juan de Dios Filiberto.

In the 1800s, a small stream that flows into the Riachuelo River ran along the same route as where Caminito is now. Later, this area of ​​the stream became known as Puntin, a Genoese diminutive for the small bridge that allowed people to cross the stream there. When the creek dried up, tracks for the Ferrocarril Buenos Aires and Puerto de la Ensenada were laid on the site. Abandoned paths remain at the end of the Caminito, along Via Garibaldi.

In 1954, the railroad was closed, and the area where Caminito was located became a landfill and the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Over the next three years, Argentinian artist Benito Quinquela Martin, who lived nearby, painstakingly prepared the walls facing the deserted street, applying pastel colors and by 1960 had installed a stage at the south end, the wooden plank stage was replaced by a nearby theater in 1972. The artist was a personal friend of Argentine tango composer Juan de Dios Philibert, who created the well-known melody of the same name from 1926.

La Boca (Spanish meaning “The Mouth”, probably of the Matanza River) is a neighborhood (barrio) of Buenos Aires. Its location near the port of Buenos Aires meant that the area became a melting pot of different cultures during the 20th century, when millions of immigrants from Europe and Asia arrived in Argentina. In particular, many of its settlers are originally from the Italian region of Liguria. The neighborhood became a cornerstone of portenjo culture, being an important place during the early development of tango. Today it is mostly known for being the home of Boca Juniors, one of the two biggest soccer teams in Argentina.

After a long general strike in 1882, La Boca seceded from Argentina, and the rebels raised the flag of Genoa, which was immediately torn down by the then president Julio Argentino Rocca. Among sports fans, Boca is best known for being the home of the world famous football club Boca Juniors. The club plays its home games at the Alberto J. Armando Stadium, popularly known as La Bombonera (Spanish: “candy box”).

La Boca was home to the Garra or fighting spirit that was represented in the hard working, no nonsense people of Bari and reflected in the most popular club on the pitch, Boca Juniors. During the first half of the 20th century, the citizens of La Boca were characterized by rejecting “art for art’s sake” and adopting a working-class attitude to work and life, unlike the wealthier citizens of the north, often represented through their River Plate Club. In 1907, La Boca became its own micronational republic. Their first attempt was short-lived, but two later attempts were more successful. The first lasted from 1923 to 1972, and the second was established in 1986. Republican graffiti was still present in the barrio.

Another of Argentina’s most popular clubs, River Plate, originally started in La Boca. However, in 1938 the club moved to the Núñez neighborhood on the northern edge of the city and became more identified with the elite of Buenos Aires than with the lower class citizens of La Boca. Land in and around La Boca was often controlled by the state or wealthy corporations in the first half of the 20th century, due to its location near the docks, which made it difficult for citizens to access soccer fields.

La Boca is a popular destination for tourists visiting Argentina, with its colorful houses and Caminito pedestrian street, where tango dancers perform and tango memorabilia is sold. Other attractions include the La Ribera theater, many tango music clubs and Italian taverns. The area frequented by tourists is only a few blocks long and has been very actively developed for tourism in the last few years, with many markets and restaurants catering to tourists. Outside of this tourist area, it is a fairly poor area where petty crimes are regularly reported.

The Japanese Gardens of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Jardin Japones de Buenos Aires) are a public space managed by the non-profit Japan Argentina Cultural Foundation in Buenos Aires. These gardens are among the largest Japanese gardens in the world outside of Japan.

After the demolition of a similar, smaller garden in the Retiro area, the Japanese Argentine Cultural Foundation secured ownership of 2 hectares at the northeast corner of the city’s large Tres de Febrero park for the purpose of creating a replacement park. Completed in 1967, the gardens were officially opened on the occasion of the state visit of the then Crown Prince Akihito and Japanese Princess Michiko to Argentina.

One of the garden’s entrances leading to Figueroa Alcorta Avenue led to the garden’s cultural center, a restaurant, a greenhouse known for its collection of bonsai trees, and a gift shop with a large selection of Asian garden seeds, as well as handicrafts made by artisans on the grounds. The central lake is crossed by the Divine Bridge, which traditionally represents the entrance to heaven, and the Trunk Bridge, which leads to an island where Japanese medicinal herbs are grown.

The lake is surrounded by the flora of Japan, such as sakura, katsura, momiji and azalea. In the park, however, there are also complementary species that originate from South America, especially type trees and silk trees. The lake itself is inhabited by carp. A small number of epiphytic bromeliads of the genus Tillandsia can be seen, as well as one orchid of the widespread and diverse genus Oncidium. The park is also adorned with a Japanese peace bell and a large ishidoro, as well as numerous other granite sculptures. A Japanese Buddhist temple is maintained on the grounds and the Institute also hosts regular cultural activities for the general public. Alfred Zucker designed an outdoor theater for the park.

Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance that originated at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It usually has a 2/4 or 4/4 time signature and two or three parts that repeat in patterns such as ABAB or ABCAC. His lyrics are marked by nostalgia, sadness and lamentation for lost love. A typical orchestra has several melodic instruments and the bandoneon gives it a special look. It continued to grow in popularity and spread internationally, adding modern elements without replacing the older ones. Among its leading figures are singer-songwriter Carlos Gardel and composers/performers Francisco Canaro, Juan D’Arienzo, Carlos Di Sarli, Osvaldo Pugliese, Elvira Santamaria and Astor Piazzolla.

The origins of the Argentine Tango are unclear as there are few historical documents from that era. In recent years, several tango lovers have undertaken a thorough investigation of that history, so that today it is less mysterious than before. The dance is generally considered to have developed in the late 19th century in the working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was practiced by Argentine dancers, musicians, and immigrant workers. Like other Latin American countries, Argentine elites rejected racial mixing with darker-skinned Argentines. Argentinians repeated the stereotypes that were common in Europe in the colonial era: non-white people were forced to live in the ghetto. Tango was practiced in the streets and in the courtyards, especially in the dark corners of the streets. In addition, Afro-Argentines played an important role in the evolution both musically and choreographically of the early tango. The term “tango” originated from Afro-Argentine dance forms, and black people were still associated with tango well into the 20th century. Tango developed as an expression of the political struggle of the black community and was loved by many immigrants who lived in poverty and wanted to change their socio-economic situation.

Argentine elites viewed tango as a dangerous association of people and a gathering place for the lower class. However, as famous tango stars such as Alberto Castillo gained popularity in Argentina, a positive image of blackness associated with tango began to spread in Argentine mass culture during the 1930s to 1950s. Tango lyrics often challenge the images of Argentina created by foreigners: the real Argentina was a country with black and white people who created tango, not rich people who danced the foxtrot. In addition, Argentine tango lyrics presented humility as a major theme, and mass culture promoted tango to encourage humility as a national identity.

To end this travelogue, I would like to give you an honest recommendation and review for a hotel to stay in Buenos Aires. During the trip, the hotel where we stay is very important to all of us, because the hotel is our home in the new destination and therefore it is very important to choose a good hotel in each destination. During my stay in Buenos Aires, the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel was my home, boasting style, comfort and a beautiful atmosphere in the elegant heart of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires is undoubtedly an ideal destination at any time of the year. If you are wondering which is the best area to find a hotel in Buenos Aires, my honest recommendation is the Recoleta area. It is ideal if you are looking for a hotel because it makes it easy to explore the city, visit museums and discover cultural attractions right in the heart of the city. Events, theater performances, concerts and lively nightlife in Buenos Aires simply invite visitors to enjoy a varied and enjoyable culinary program. Without a doubt, choosing the right location will enhance your experience as you tour the neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and ensure the best possible time during your action-packed trip.

Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel is the perfect choice for the best experience of the city. With the quality of service offered by Loi Suites hotels, their team consistently always offers superior service, the best location and facilities tailored to the needs of all guests, whether you are traveling for tourism or business reasons. Located in the heart of one of the most prestigious neighborhoods of Buenos Aires – Recoleta, Loi Suites Recoleta is just a few steps from the historic Recoleta Cemetery, surrounded by an exquisite French style of architecture. The hotel is located in the immediate vicinity of the city’s best restaurants, bars, art galleries and historic squares.

In one of the next posts from Argentina, I will share with you my personal review of the hotel, as well as the quality of service of the Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel, so that you can consider this hotel if your trip takes you to Buenos Aires.

In the next post I will write you a special travelogue about the Recoleta Cemetery, so we will continue our exploration of the capital of Argentina – Buenos Aires.

My dear adventurers, we have reached the end of this first special travelogue from Argentina where we enjoyed the beauty of Buenos Aires in the series of travelogues of Argentina where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Argentina.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this very unusual Argentine culture in a different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Buenos Aires.

How did you like my story about Buenos Aires and the presentation of the city of art, tango and European architecture? Have you had the chance to visit Buenos Aires and beautiful Argentina so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Buenos Aires,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Sports of Argentina, Convention Bureau of the City of Buenos Aires and Loi Suites Recoleta Hotel and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letters from Uruguay: Montevideo, City of Wine, Football and Urban Beaches…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. April, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, where I will try to show you the capital of Uruguay – Montevideo, I would like to thank The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national tourism organizations, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from several countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Uruguay were created with the selfless help of The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Ministry of Tourism of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and The Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco Hotel and Spa.

Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay (in Spanish: Republica Oriental del Uruguai) is a country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the west and southwest and Brazil to the north and northeast, while it borders the Rio de la Plata to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. It is part of the Southern Cone region of South America. Uruguay covers an area of ​​approximately 176,215 square kilometers. This country has a population of about 3.5 million people, of which almost 2 million live in the metropolitan area of ​​the capital and largest city – Montevideo.

How was Uruguay formed? The area of ​​present-day Uruguay was first inhabited by hunter-gatherer groups 13,000 years ago. The predominant tribe at the time of European arrival was the Charrua people. At the same time, there were other tribes, such as the Guarani and the Chana, when the Portuguese first established Colonia do Sacramento in 1680, Uruguay was colonized by Europeans later than neighbouring countries.

The Spanish founded Montevideo as a military stronghold in the early 18th century due to competing claims to the region, while Uruguay gained independence between 1811 and 1828, after a four-way struggle between Portugal and Spain, and later Argentina and Brazil. It remained under the influence and interventions of foreign countries during the first half of the 19th century. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, numerous pioneering economic, labor and social reforms were implemented that led to the creation of a highly developed welfare state, which made the country known as the “Switzerland of America”. However, a series of economic crises and the struggle against far-left urban guerrilla warfare in the late 1960s and early 1970s culminated in a coup in 1973, which established a civil-military dictatorship until 1985. Today, Uruguay is a democratic constitutional republic, with a president who is both head of state and head of government.

In 2023, Uruguay was categorized as a “full democracy” by the Economist Democracy Index and ranked highly in international measures of government transparency, economic freedom, social progress, income equality, per capita income, innovation and infrastructure. The country has fully legalized cannabis (the first country in the world to do so), as well as same-sex marriage and abortion. He is a founding member of the United Nations, OAS and Mercosur.

Montevideo is the capital and largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city itself has slightly more than 1,300,000 inhabitants on an area of ​​201 square kilometers. Montevideo is located on the south coast of the country, on the northeast bank of the Rio de la Plata. A Portuguese garrison was established in what is now the city of Montevideo in November 1723, the Portuguese garrison was expelled in February 1724 by the Spanish soldier Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amid the Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platinum region.

There is no official document on the founding of the city, but the “Diary” of Bruno Mauricio de Zabala officially mentions the date December 24, 1726 as the date of the city’s foundation, which is confirmed by the witnesses present. Complete independence from Buenos Aires as a real city was achieved only on January 1, 1730. It was also briefly under British rule in 1807, but the city was eventually retaken by Spanish Criollos who defeated a British invasion on the River Plate. Montevideo is the headquarters of the administrative headquarters of Mercosur and ALADI, the leading trade blocs of Latin America, a position that has drawn comparisons with the role of Brussels in Europe.

In Mercer’s 2019 Quality of Life Report, Montevideo was rated first in Latin America, a ranking the city has held consistently since 2005. As of 2010, Montevideo was the 19th largest city economy on the continent and the 9th largest revenue earner among major cities. In 2022, it has a projected GDP of $53.9 billion, with $30,148 per capita.

In 2018, it was classified as a beta global city that was eighth in Latin America and 84th in the world. Montevideo hosted every match during the first FIFA World Cup in 1930.

Described as a “vibrant, eclectic place with a rich cultural life” and a “thriving technology center and entrepreneurial culture”, Montevideo was ranked eighth in Latin America in 2013. The city has historic European architecture and is actually considered one of the cities with the greatest Art Deco influence. Montevideo is Uruguay’s center of commerce and higher education, as well as its main port and financial center, anchoring a metropolitan area of ​​about 2 million inhabitants.

What should you visit in Montevideo? Plaza Independencia (translation from Spanish for “Independence Square”) is the most important city square in Montevideo, laid out in the 19th century on the area occupied by the Montevideo Citadel. In its center is a monument to General José Gervasio Artigas, and below it is his mausoleum.

Located in the barrio Centro, on the border with Ciudad Vieja, the square has been used for numerous political demonstrations and official public events. Prominent buildings facing the square are Palacio Salvo, Solis Theater, Estevez Palace, and the Executive Tower.

The Andes 1972 Museum (Spanish: Museo Andes 1972) is located in the Old Town of Montevideo. It is a museum about the story of the famous Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 related to the plane crash in the Andes in 1972 involving a group of Uruguayan rugby players, their friends and relatives who were traveling to Chile when the plane crashed. Some of them belonged to Old Christians Rugby Club. Their story of how they survived the tragedy has been shared around the world through books, documentaries, pictures and conferences and has been the inspiration for the movie Alive and many books.

The museum honors the memory of the 29 people who died in the plane crash in the Andes and those who risked their lives to save the others. It is a reminder of those 16 Uruguayans who came back to life after 72 days in the Andes in harsh weather conditions without food and proper clothing. It is a private enterprise that has been declared of cultural and tourist interest by the MEC and the Ministry of Tourism and Deportation of Uruguay.

Salvo Palace (Spanish: Palacio Salvo) is an eclectic skyscraper at the intersection of Avenida 18 de Julio and Plaza Independencia in Montevideo. Completed in 1928, the 27-story Palacio Salvo is 105 m tall. For a short time it was the tallest building in Latin America, and upon completion it was the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the world. It was designed by architect Mario Palati, an Italian immigrant living in Buenos Aires, who used a similar design for his Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires. Since 1996, the Salvo Palace has been a national historical monument of Uruguay.

Gateway of the Citadel (Spanish: Puerta de la Ciudadela) is the last remaining piece of the old wall around Montevideo. It’s just an archway with a fairly small piece of rock surrounding it, but overall it’s quite impressive and interesting. It is also set up to serve as the entrance to the Plaza Indepencia and is a great photogenic spot to photograph both the gate itself and the rest of the wall, as well as the view through it. The view towards the square, and in the background you can see the Palacio Salvo is really something special. This is a place you should not miss if you are walking around the old part of the city of Montevideo.

The Solis Theater (Spanish: Teatro Solis) is the most important and famous theater in Uruguay. It was opened in 1856. The building was designed by the Italian architect Carlo Zucci. It is located in the Old Town of Montevideo, right next to Plaza Independencia. The theater was named after the explorer Juan Diaz de Solís, who was the first European explorer to come to modern-day Uruguay.

In 1998, the Montevideo government began a major reconstruction of the theater, which included two columns designed by Philippe Starck. The reconstruction was completed in 2004, and reopened in August of the same year. The acoustic studies of the rehabilitation project were entrusted to Jerome Falala from the French studio Avel Acoustique. Thomas Giribaldi’s La Parisina, which is considered the first Uruguayan national opera, premiered in Solis on September 14, 1878.

The Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica is the main Catholic church in Montevideo. It is located in the Old Town, facing Plaza Constitucion or Plaza Matriz. It was listed as a national historical monument in 1975. The origins of the basilica date back to the colonial era, when a brick church was built in 1740 on the site now occupied by the cathedral. Later, in 1790, the foundation stone was laid to start the construction of a new building, which is in the neoclassical style and was designed by Thomas Toribio. The temple was finally consecrated in 1804, when the country had not yet gained independence, so in 2004 its bicentennial was celebrated.

Later, in 1870, it was titled as a small basilica, and on July 12, 1878, Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the status of a cathedral. In 1897, it was declared a metropolitan basilica, naming the suffragan dioceses of Salto and Melo. Important ceremonies are held in this cathedral presided over by the Archbishop of Montevideo. However, there is also a parish priest who performs his duties, as well as those who are in charge of other parishes. Weddings and choir concerts are often held in this spacious temple. As was the custom in the 19th century, here rest the remains of famous people who died in the city, whether they were religious or not.

Plaza de la Constitucion (Spanish for “Constitution Square”), also known as Plaza Matriz, is the oldest town square in Montevideo. Located in the barrio of Ciudad Vieja, from 1726 he was the mayor of the city fortress of San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, which was the only open public space. It is the center of the city’s historic district and is surrounded by important buildings, such as the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Cabildo. It is one of the most important tourist spots in the city.

Founded in 1726, two years after Montevideo was founded, the square was a dusty plain until the late 18th century, when buildings were erected around it. From that moment on, official manifestations and celebrations, both civil and military, were held in the area, as well as bullfights, since the square also housed an arena. It is currently the tourist and commercial axis of the barrio together with the Pedestrian Sarandi. Offices, government buildings, banks, numerous shops and cultural institutions are nearby.

What is not known is that in 1868 the construction of a steam pumping plant and a 60 km pipeline to supply the city with water began. In addition, a water fountain was built on the square. On May 13, 1871, water pumped from the Santa Lucia River reached the Plaza Constitucion for the first time. Finally, the fountain was officially opened by President Lorenzo Batle i Grau on July 18. in 1871. The fountain was designed by architect Juan Manuel Ferrari, and consists of a circular pool with an ornate column in the center that takes the form of three dishes that open to a smaller size. In the center are four griffins alternating with different symbolic elements, such as the national coat of arms.

Montevideo Centenary Stadium (Spanish: Estadio Centenario) is a stadium in Parque Batlle in Montevideo, which is primarily used for football matches. The stadium was built between 1929 and 1930 to host the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930, as well as to mark the centenary of Uruguay’s first constitution. FIFA listed it as one of the classic football stadiums in the world. The turning point was on July 18, 1983, when FIFA declared it the first historical monument of world football, to this day the only building to receive this recognition in the world.

Estadio Centenario is the national stadium of Uruguay and the main home of their national football team. Uruguay have always been a threat when playing at their home stadium, consistently beating top teams. Even top-ranked Brazil have managed just three wins in 20 attempts, two of which were official games during World Cup qualifiers in 2010 and 2018, but one was Uruguay’s heaviest defeat at the stadium when they lost 4-0 to Brazil in 2009.

Old City (Ciudad Vieja in Spanish) is a barrio (neighborhood or district) in Montevideo. Located on a peninsula at the mouth of Montevideo Bay, it is the city’s historic district. It was founded in 1724 as a walled city by the Spanish Empire. After Uruguay’s independence, it became an expanding quarter of the city that quickly outgrew the original fortress, which was later demolished.

As one of the city’s central districts, it forms part of its central business district alongside Centro and Cordon. It serves as a key office district, housing several commercial banks and other financial institutions, government buildings, as well as museums, cultural venues, theaters and art galleries. The district also has a high concentration of Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Neoclassical buildings.

Until 1829, it was surrounded by a wall that protected it from possible invasions. After the wall was demolished, the only part of it that was preserved was the main gate of the Citadel, which remains the emblem of Montevideo to this day. Some street names recall the presence of the wall, such as Ciudadela (citadel) or Brecha (breach), named after a breach in the wall that the British managed to open to enter the city during the British invasion of 1807 and the brief occupation of the city before they were defeated.

In 1992, the main street of Sarandi was turned into a pedestrian path, which increased its commercial and tourist attractiveness. A few years later, in 2005, it was expanded beyond the Constitution Square. Ciudad Vieja has elegant buildings from the colonial era and the first decades of independence. The Cabildo (built between 1804 and 1812), the Solis Theater, the Metropolitan Cathedral and several museums, such as the Museo Torres Garcia are among the most impressive. Also, several designer shops and recycled loft floors flourish on the streets near the port.

Pocitos is an upscale seaside barrio of Montevideo. It is bordered by Buce to the east, Batlle Park to the north, Tres Cruces, Cordon and Rodo Park to the west and Punta Carretas to the south. Pocitos is politically included in the CH municipality of Montevideo, and located along the banks of the Rio de la Plata, it is one of the most famous beaches in the city. The neighborhood is an affluent area of ​​the city, characterized by the presence of high-rise residential buildings overlooking the Rambla and the main boulevards, along with old neoclassical and eclectic villas.

Punta Brava Lighthouse (Spanish: Faro Punta Brava), also known as Punta Carretas Lighthouse, was built in 1876. The lighthouse is 21 meters high, and its light reaches a distance of 24 km, with a flash every ten seconds. The lighthouse was modernized in 1962 and became electric. The lighthouse is important for guiding boats to the port of Banco Ingles Buceo or the entrance to the Santa Lucia River.

Batlle Park (Parque Batlle) is the main public central park, located south of Avenida Italia and north of Avenue Rivera. Along with Park Prado and Park Rodo, it is one of the three large parks that dominate Montevideo. The park and its surroundings form one of the 62 settlements (barrios) of the city. Barrio Parque Batlle is one of the seven coastal barrios, the others being Buceo, Carrasco, Malvin, Pocitos, Punta Karetas and Punta Gorda.

Barrio Parque Battle includes four former districts: Belgrano, Italiano, Villa Dolores and Batlle Park itself and borders the neighborhoods of La Blancueada, Tres Cruces, Pocitos and Buceo. It has a high population density and most of its households are middle-high or high-income. Villa Dolores, a sub-district of Parque Batlle, takes its name from the original villa of Don Alejo Rossell i Rius and Dona Dolores Pereira de Rossell. On their land, they started a private collection of animals that became a zoo and ownership was transferred to the city in 1919, and in 1955, the Planetarium of Montevideo was built within.

Parque Batlle is named in honor of José Batlle y Ordoñez, president of Uruguay from 1911 to 1915. The park was originally proposed by the Law of March 1907, which also designed wide boulevards and avenues. The French landscape architect, Carlos Thais, began planting in 1911, and in 1918 the park was named Parque de los Aliados, after the Allied victory in World War I. On May 5, 1930, after a significant expansion, it was again renamed Parque Batlle y Ordonez. Since 2010, the park covers an area of ​​60 hectares and is considered the “lungs” of the city of Montevideo due to the large number of trees planted here.

The Prado Park (Parque Prado in Spanish) was opened in 1873 and is the largest of the six main public parks in Montevideo with an area of ​​260 hectares. Located in the northern part of the city, the Miguelete stream flows through the park and the neighborhood of the same name. It is surrounded by Agraciada, Obes Lucas, Joaquin Suarez, Luis Alberto de Herrera avenues and Castro and Jose Maria Reyes streets.

The most visited areas of the park are the Rosedal, a public rose garden with pergolas, the Botanical Garden, the area around the Hotel del Prado, as well as the Rural del Prado, a seasonal livestock and domestic animal fair. Rosedal contains four pergolas, eight domes and a fountain; her 12,000 roses were imported from France in 1910. There are several jogging trails along the Miguelete River.

The presidential residence is located behind the Botanical Garden. Founded in 1930, the Juan Manuel Blanes Museum is housed in the Palladian Villa, a National Heritage Site since 1975, and includes a Japanese garden. The Professor Attilio Lombardo Museum and the Botanical Garden were founded in 1902, and the National Institute of Physical Climatology and its observatory are also located in the Prado Park.

In the next post, I will write about the Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco Hotel, which is a representative of classic Uruguayan luxury. Hotel Casino Carrasco is a historic five-star hotel and casino, located on the Rambla, the hotel is the center of the urban plan designed for the barrio Carrasco, in the first decades of the 20th century, by the French landscape architects Charles Thais and Edouard Andre.

My dear travellers, we have come to the end of this first special travelogue about the capital of Uruguay – Montevideo, where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Ministry of Tourism of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and The Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco Hotel and Spa in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Montevideo. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Uruguay.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Ministry of Tourism of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and The Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco Hotel and Spa for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this unusual Uruguayan culture in a completely different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Montevideo.

How did you like my story about Montevideo and the presentation of the Uruguayan center of entertainment and hedonism that adorns the heart of this unusual country in South America? Have you had the chance to visit Montevideo and beautiful Uruguay so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Montevideo,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), The Ministry of Tourism of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay and The Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco Hotel and Spa and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letters from Brazil: Rio Carnival, Discover the Magic of the Biggest Show in the World!

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. April, as well as the following months, will be dedicated to one unusual continent – South America, I will show you the countries that I had the opportunity to visit and I am sure that you will enjoy it and want to spend your vacation in one of the destinations. At the very beginning of this travelogue about Rio Carnival, I would like to thank the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), local ministries of tourism, national and city tourism boards, as well as other partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America. With their help, travelogues from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo) and other countries were created, as well as numerous fashion stories that you will have the opportunity to read during this series of posts, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

Posts from Brazil were created with the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)EMBRATUR (National Tourism Organization of Brazil) – Visit Brasil, Carnaval Experience, as well as numerous local partners that will be mentioned later.

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is the largest open-air party in the world, visited by several million people around the world every year. It is the manifestation by which Rio has become recognizable at the world level and therefore the carnival gets better every year due to the possibility of bigger budgets that samba schools invest in their performances every year. You are probably wondering what the organization of this famous outdoor party looks like?

The Carnaval Experience team is here to give you an exclusive peek behind the scenes of the organisation of the Rio Carnival! During ten years of rich experience, the Carnaval Experience team has perfected the organization of special tourist visits for all interested visitors who want to feel a unique and authentic experience suitable for all ages! The Carnaval Experience team came up with the idea to present the universe of Samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, to allow all visitors to see and feel the magic of the creation of a show like Carnival in Rio, as well as the history of Samba and Carnival itself.

This was made possible by the non-governmental organization Pimpolhos da Grande Rio. In partnership with its “mother school”, Academicos do Grande Rio, the Carnaval Experience team opens the doors of the Carnival’s playful universe for the general public to be enchanted by the characters of this beautiful world cultural manifestation. Pimpolhos da Grande Rio is a children’s samba school and non-governmental organization. Their mission is to promote social integration and education through carnival. The Carnaval Experience tourism program is part of the Pimpolhos da Grande Rio pillar of socio-economic sustainability and arises from the need to ensure the continuity of socio-cultural projects.

The Carnaval Experience is the only tour that allows you to peek behind the scenes of the Carioca Carnival, the most famous carnival in the world all year round, if you are unable to visit the carnival. When you’re in Rio, you simply have to experience Samba! This special tourist tour shows the artistry and imagination of all those who deeply believe and invest their true love and passion in creating the magic of Carnival and allows you to peek behind the scenes of the biggest show in the world! Allow yourself to live a unique and authentic experience, exploring behind the scenes, secrets and familiar people who make preparations for the parade.

During the tour, you will witness the process of creating and manufacturing floats and more than 3,000 costumes for the parade. Guided Tour of the 2022 Carnival Champions Warehouse – Samba School, Grande Rio. This tour offers an exhibition on the history of samba and carnival. Finally, don’t miss the opportunity to dress up in exclusive parade costumes, feel the rhythm of samba and enjoy the delicious caipirinha that is there to welcome you.

What you can expect from this Carnaval Experience tour:

  • Guided tour of the Academicos da Grande Rio warehouse – one of the main samba schools (30 min).
  • Lecture in the exhibition room: you will learn a little about the history of samba and carnival parades (20 min).
  • Entertainment: dressing up in costumes from previous parades and taking photos (20 min).
  • A taste of samba: Caipirinha welcome (10 min).
  • Little samba class with one of their dancers! (10 min).

Have you ever wondered how the preparation calendar for the Rio Carnival works? Do you know what it looks like behind the scenes? After completing a small carnival school with the Carnaval Experience team, I will try to explain to you step by step the conceptual creation process, as well as the organization of this world spectacle!

All fans of this world sensation called Carnival in Rio know that this parade takes place every year in February or March at the Sambadrome Marquis de Sapucai in Rio de Janeiro. Many people from Europe think that the Carnival with beautiful costumes takes place in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, that was once upon a time, but today all the main activities of the carnival and the presentation of the samba school are held exclusively at the Sambadrome. What you must know is the fact that Brazilians are extremely proud of this event and that for them it is not just an event but a way of life. Carnival in Rio represents a real explosion of emotions, colors, glitter and joy! What many do not know is that the preparation of the production for the biggest show on earth lasts all year long. Preparation for the next Carnival begins immediately after the Carnival is over and it looks something like this:

MARCH

Immediately after the last held parade, samba schools evaluate what worked and what needs to be changed for the next Carnival. In addition, work begins on the dismantling of floats and other used materials from the last carnival. During this period, samba schools also define what will be used and what will not be used during the next Carnival. Materials for recycling and sale are separated.

APRIL and MAY

During this period, the plot of the next carnival is chosen and the samba schools start the carnival planning process again. In short, the plot of the carnival consists of a story and a theme.

JUNE

Schools already have conceptually ready, sketched and drawn costumes and allegories.

JULY, AUGUST and SEPTEMBER

During this period, schools have already made samples (trial versions) of costumes and floats (parade floats). During this period, one can already see how the next carnival is slowly taking shape and getting its new form. If you visit a samba school with the Carnaval Experience team during this period, you can see the secrets and surprises of samba schools. I would just ask that you remember not to take pictures of the floats.

OCTOBER

The beginning of carnival fever in full swing: the official samba plot is chosen and filmed. Essays Begin and take place in samba schools as well as on the street. They involve community members who will parade: you have to have the samba theme on the tip of your tongue, be willing, excited and have a lot of love for the associations!

NOVEMBER

The beginning of the reproduction of costumes and sculptures, as well as the painting of fantasies and allegories.

DECEMBER

The production of costumes begins with an emphasis especially on those that will be on top of the floats and are very luxurious, opulent and special.

JANUARY and FEBRUARY

These are the two most intensive months during the organization of the carnival due to production work and numerous rehearsals that are in full swing. And then it’s time to start the parade!

Finally, after all these efforts and this extraordinary dedication, the samba schools can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for a moment. The sense of duty is fulfilled!

This festival, which takes place every year before Lent, is considered the largest carnival celebration in the world, with over two million people a day on the streets of the city. The first carnival festival in Rio was held in 1723.

A typical Rio Carnival parade is filled with parties, floats and decorations from the many samba schools located in Rio (approximately more than 200, divided into five leagues/divisions). A samba school is composed of a collaboration of local neighbors who want to attend the carnival together, with some kind of regional, geographic and common origin.

There is a specific order that each school must follow when registering for the parade. Each school starts with the “comissao de frente” (which means “Front Commission”), that is the group of people from the school that appears first. Made up of ten to fifteen people, the comissao de frente represents the school and sets the mood and style of their presentation. These people have choreographed dances in elaborate costumes that usually tell a short story. After the “comissao de frente” is the first float in the samba school, called “abre-alas” (“Opening the wings”).

Next come the Mestre-sala and the Porta-Bandeira (“Master of Ceremonies and Flag-bearer”), with one to four couples, one active and three spares, to lead the players, including veterans of the old guard and “ala das baianas”, with a battery of drums at the rear and sometimes a brass section and guitars. This brass section was included in the early 20th century as part of a more diverse musical ensemble that began to be offered at that time.

How did the Rio Carnival come about? The origins of the Rio Carnival celebration date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. Carnival was brought to Brazil by the Portuguese colonizers between the 16th and 17th centuries, manifesting itself initially through the ‘Entrudo’, a popular festival where public games and carefree derision ran rampant through the streets. Over time, the festival acquired other ways of expression, such as the use of masks and costumes. O Moleque by Lima Barrett, depicts the emergence of a costume originally used in carnival, tracing its European cultural roots. The costumes are symbolic of the political and cultural themes of the time, which were then integrated into the carnival. The popularization of entertainment among the poor also contributed to the appearance of carnival societies created by the monarchical elite.

In 1840, the first masquerade ball was held in Rio, and polka and waltz were in the center of attention. Later, in the early 20th century, the Samba and Batucada rhythms classically associated with the Rio Carnival were introduced by Afro-Brazilians and Pardos, adapting various cultural inputs to create a new musical genre. During this period, Carnival assumed its position as the most popular festival in Brazil.

During the 1920s and 1930s in Rio, samba schools began to become popular as a way for the blocks to increase their legitimacy and prevent police oppression. Blacks at the time were often harassed by the police for any street carnival activities due to the city’s attempt to become a European-style capital at the time.

There was no carnival in the period from 1915 to 1918, due to the First World War, as well as during the period 1940-1945. because of World War II. This event was once again canceled with strict warnings against clandestine celebrations in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil and postponed to 2022 for similar reasons. The carnival is back with a bang in 2023.

The previously existing traditions of ‘Entrudos’ and other popular festivities such as ‘ranchos’ and ‘Cordao Carnavalesco’ dating back to the Empire would eventually be combined into carnival blocks by the 1920s and evolve into their final form – the samba schools of Rio.

The Estacio de Sa, together with the Portel and the Estacao Primeira de Mangueira, first paraded in the city in 1929. All three were former carnival blocks that were transformed into schools with professional staff and city support. A little later, in 1930, seven schools were already operating in the city. With the works in Avenida Presidente Vargas, the parade moved there, and from 1942 to 1945 the parade was held in Sao Januario.

From 1952, temporary audience stands were assembled annually, and in 1961 paid tickets debuted to take advantage of growing international and national interest and increasing tourist arrivals. In 1974, due to subway construction, the parade was held on Avenida Presidente Antonio Carlos, from where it was also broadcast on color television for the first time. In 1978, the parade was moved to Avenida Marquis de Sapucaya – Sambadrome, where it remains until today. In 1983, the then Governor Leonel Brizola commissioned the architect Oscar Niemeyer to design a permanent local stadium for the parades in the same area, because until then the stands were still temporary and only assembled and disassembled for the event.

With the increase in the number of participating schools making the parade longer and tiring for the public, in 1984 the parade was split into two dates and categories: Friday evening to Saturday morning for the lower schools and Sunday evening to Monday morning for the main schools, including the more recognizable ones. That year, the school of “superchampions” was also announced after the parade of champions that took place the following Saturday, who had been awarded for the best results of the previous competition nights. Since this practice has never been repeated, Mangueira remains the only samba school ever to receive the title and dignity of “superchampions” of the annual event. Portela is the samba school with the highest number of championships.

Special Group schools under LIESA parade on two days (Sunday and Monday), while A series schools parade on Friday and Saturday under LIERJ, which also has a B series, which parades on Holy Tuesday. Both organizations were under the banner of AESCRJ before it lost its organizational rights, which also allowed the establishment of new organizations such as LIESB and Samba e Nosso for lower level divisions. The Golden Division (Serie A) champion school, who progress directly as participants in the Special Group for next year’s carnival parades, run on Carnival Monday, while the Special Group champion parades once more on the Saturday after Ash Wednesday.

As of 2018, the LIESB handed over the management of the E Series and its schools to ACAS, who now manage it as an entry-level organization for samba schools, in 2020, the C Series (Silver Division) fell under a new organization, LIVRES, with LIESB managing the divisions above and below it.

Since the main parade takes place at the Marquis de Sapucai Sambadrome and the balls at the Palace and Copacabana Beach, many carnival participants are in other locations. Street festivals are very common during Carnival and are very populated by locals. Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still extremely common. Anyone can participate in street festivals. The gangs are very familiar with the street carnival, especially since you don’t need anything to join the fun except to jump in. One of the most famous groups in Rio is Banda de Ipanema. Banda de Ipanema first formed in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most outrageous street band.

Rio de Janeiro is “submerged”, almost “invisible” and this appears in full intensity during the carnival. Although it was clearly noticed only during the carnival, this city is occupied (especially in the central part) to a large extent by actors who play, sing and dance in different locations, giving a new meaning to their daily life and their relationship with the public spaces of the city. Incorporated into every aspect of the Rio Carnival are dance and music. The most famous dance at the Brazilian carnival is the samba. The samba remains a popular dance not only at the carnival, but also in the ghettos outside the main cities. These villages keep alive the historical aspect of the game without the influence of western cultures.

Music is another important part of all aspects of carnival. According to Samba City, “The samba carnival instruments are an important part of Brazil and the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, sending out irresistible rhythms and rhythms that explode the audience in a colorful fantasy festival of dance revolution!” The samba found in Rio is the Batucanada. “It was made out of a rhythmic need to allow you to sing, dance and parade at the same time.” This is why the batucado style is found in most of all street carnivals in Rio.

Street parades, blocks and gangs take place throughout the city of Rio during Carnaval, the most famous and largest carnival celebration in the world. More than 300 gangs can happen at any time. While the biggest street party takes place in front of the Sambadrome, the biggest organized street dance is usually found in Cinelandia Square in downtown Rio. During the 2012 Carnival, more than 2 million revelers took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro to participate in the Bloc of Cordão da Bola Preta. According to police estimates, more than 5 million people attended the block during the 2012 Rio Carnival and no crime was reported.

When the Sambadrome was built in 1984, it had the side effect of taking street parades out of the city center into a specific ticketed performance space. Some samba schools have since been motivated by a plan that focuses on reclaiming public space and using the carnival tradition to occupy the streets with parades or blocks. Many of them represent the local community of the area, but they are open to everyone.

Several of Rio’s street carnival blocks that hold parties are affiliated with the Federation of Carnival Blocks of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FBCERJ), founded in 1965.

In the next post, I will write about the Copacabana Palace Hotel, which is a representative of classic Brazilian luxury located in a refreshing natural environment. This exceptional Belmond hotel allows you to relax in the heart of Rio de Janeiro, which you should consider if you decide to visit Rio de Janeiro, the most colorful pearl of the South Atlantic Ocean. My dear adventurers, we have come to the end of this second special travelogue about Rio Carnival in the series of travelogues about Brazil where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. 

Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)EMBRATUR (National Tourism Organization of Brazil) – Visit Brasil, Carnaval ExperienceCopacabana Palace Belmond Hotel in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of local culture and the beauty of everyday life in Rio de Janeiro. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Brazil.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

It is an honour to have the opportunity to cooperate with many companies and businessmen in the tourism sector and I would like to thank once again the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), Carnaval Experience and EMBRATUR (National Tourism Organization of Brazil) – Visit Brasil for this incredible adventure and for allowing me to feel the beauty of this unusual Brazilian culture in a completely different way and to feel the beauty of everyday life in Rio de Janeiro.

How did you like my story about Rio Carnival and the presentation of the Brazilian center of entertainment and hedonism that adorns the heart of this unusual country in South America? Have you had the chance to visit Brazil so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

With Love from Rio de Janeiro,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)EMBRATUR(National Tourism Organization of Brazil) – Visit Brasil, Carnaval ExperienceCopacabana Palace Belmond Hotel and other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letter from England: London, The City of Big Dreams

My dear travellers and all lovers of unusual trips, welcome to the travelogue from the series of posts from London on the Mr.M blog. The month of March will be dedicated to an unusual country in the heart of Western Europe and the largest constituent country of the United Kingdom, a country known for its royal family, traditional English breakfast, famous English accent, tea, rain, rain and more rain. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue about the capital of England – London, I would recommend you to take your favourite soft or hot drink, snacks or your favourite sweets, relax and enjoy today’s travelogue about the British metropolis where only big dreams are dreamed.

I believe that all travel lovers who have been following my blog for years know about my indescribable love for this European city, which simply cannot be described in words, but I tried to convey at least a part of the atmosphere that reigns in London every day through numerous travelogues on the Mr.M blog. This city is special, it has a million faces, but I am sure that everyone who visits London will definitely fall in love with one of the many faces of this British metropolis and find an additional reason to love this city.

London is a city where absolutely everything is possible and every dream can come true, a city that is so traditional, faithfully maintaining the image of its heritage and tradition, yet so modern and progressive. Many predicted that after Brexit this city would lose its popularity among tourists and that attendance would decrease significantly, but that did not come true, which is why I am extremely glad. In this post, I will try to describe this city to you once again, but also give some useful tips for visiting tourist attractions that I have not mentioned before on my blog.

London is the main and also the largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of almost 9 million inhabitants according to the data from the last census in 2022. An interesting fact is that it is London with its wider metropolitan area that is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of almost 15 million inhabitants. London is located on the River Thames in South East England, almost 80 km from the tidal estuary to the North Sea and this area has been a major settlement for almost 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial center, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries.

The City of Westminster, west of the City of London, has been the home of the national government and parliament for centuries. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the largest city in the world at the time. Since the 19th century, the name “London” has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically divided between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 largely comprises the administrative area governed by the Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym of the City of London Borough.

As one of the world’s largest cities, London exerts a powerful influence on the world’s arts, entertainment, fashion, commerce, finance, education, healthcare, media, science, technology, tourism, transportation and communications. Despite the exodus of stock listings from the London Stock Exchange after Brexit, London remains a European economic powerhouse and one of the world’s largest financial centers. It has the largest concentration of higher education institutions in Europe, some of which are the highest-ranking academic institutions in the world: Imperial College London in the natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in the social sciences and the comprehensive University College London. It is the most visited city in Europe and has the busiest city airport system in the world. The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world.

London’s diverse cultures include over 300 languages. Greater London’s 2023 population of just under 10 million made it the third most populous city in Europe, accounting for 14% of the population of the United Kingdom and over 16% of the population of England. The built-up area of ​​Greater London is the fourth most populous in Europe, with around 9.8 million inhabitants as of 2011. The London metropolitan area is the third most populous in Europe, with around 14 million inhabitants as of 2016, making London a megacity.

What is interesting about this city is that four world heritage sites are located in London itself: Kew Gardens; The Tower of London, a site containing the Palace of Westminster, St Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey, as well as the historic neighborhood of Greenwich where the Royal Observatory defines the prime meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square. The city has the most museums, art galleries, libraries and cultural facilities in the UK, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and numerous West End theatres. Important sporting events held in London include the FA Cup Final, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the London Marathon. It became the first city to host three Summer Olympics after hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.

What tourist attractions should you visit if your trip takes you to London? In the previous pictures, you had the opportunity to see the most recognizable symbol of London – Big Ben. Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster and for the clock tower itself, located at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. Originally known simply as the Clock Tower, it was renamed the Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The clock is a strike clock with five bells.

The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is commonly called the House of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative houses that occupy the building. The palace is one of the centers of political life in the United Kingdom. The word “Westminster” has become a metonym for the British Parliament and the British government, and the Westminster system of government marks the name of the palace. Since 1970, the palace has been a Grade I protected building, and since 1987 it has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Royal Horse Guards is a historic building in Westminster, between Whitehall and Horse Guards Parade. It was built in the middle of the 18th century, replacing an earlier building, as barracks and stables for the household cavalry. The current and previous buildings were, between the early 18th century and 1858, the main military headquarters of the British Empire. The Horse Guards originally formed the entrance to Whitehall Palace and later to St James’s Palace; for this reason, it is still solemnly defended by the King’s Life Guard.

Although it is still in military use, part of the building houses The Household Cavalry Museum, which is open to the public. It also functions as a gateway between Whitehall and St James’s Park. It is also a very popular tourist attraction because of the guard soldiers on horses and all the tourists take pictures with the horses and try to pet the horses, this is not recommended because the large number of people makes the animals nervous. My advice to you is to take a picture of the guard on the horse from a safe distance without approaching the horses and continue your tour of the city.

Each morning, the Royal Horse Guards ride from Hyde Park Barracks in Knightsbridge, via Hyde Park Corner, Constitution Hill and the Mall, to take up guard duties in a ceremony at 11:00 on weekdays or 10:00 on Sundays. The Guard is usually provided by the Household Cavalry Regiment, consisting of squadrons from each Household Cavalry regiment, Lifeguards wearing red tunics and white helmet plumes, and Blue and Royal wearing blue tunics and red plumes. However, some other cavalry units from Britain and other Commonwealth realms occasionally post a guard; The Royal Troop, Royal Horse Artillery and Royal Canadian Mounted Police are examples.

When the monarch is in London, the guard consists of one officer and twelve other ranks, including a trumpeter and standard-bearer; known as the Long Watch. When the monarch is not in London, the guard is reduced to two non-commissioned officers and ten soldiers; known as short guard.

The King’s Lifeguard Changing Ceremony takes place on Horse Guards Parade next to the Horse Guards Building. Two guards on horseback guard the entrance to the Horse Guards on Whitehall from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and change every hour. At 16:00 there is a parade with horses and two guards remain on duty until 20:00.

When you are done visiting this tourist attraction, I highly recommend you to visit the most visited park in London – St. James’s Park. This unusual park has a small lake, St. James Park Lake with two islands known as West Island and Duck Island, the latter named after the resident waterfowl that live in the lake. In the late nineteenth century Duck Island was considered a remote enough location for Scotland Yard to establish a bomb disposal facility there; the resident bird keeper was given the responsibility of taking care of the tools kept for dismantling the device. It now houses pumps and water purification machines for the lake and fountains.

A permanent colony of pelicans has been a feature of the park since the Russian ambassador presented them to Charles II in 1664. While most of the birds have their wings clipped, there is a pelican that can be seen flying, occasionally outside the park boundaries. In addition to birds, this is home to numerous other animals, the most famous of which are cute squirrels that cause positive reactions in people. This park is unfairly confused by many tourists with Hyde Park, but they are not the same parks at all and there are no famous swans and squirrels there, but only paths for walking and cycling.

The blue bridge over the lake offers a tree-framed view west towards Buckingham Palace. Looking east, the view includes the Swire Fountain on the north of Duck Island and next to the lake is the Horse Guards Parade Ground, with the Horse Guards, the Old War Office and Whitehall Court behind. South of Duck Island is the Tiffany Fountain on Pelican Rock; and next to the lake is the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with the London Eye, Shell Tower and the Shard beyond. The park has a children’s playground with a large sandpit.

There are numerous signs in the park telling tourists and park visitors that it is not allowed to feed the animals, but 99% of people feed them and the animals are used to it. If you want to make a nice memory and the famous picture with the squirrels in St. James Park, bring a small bag of hazelnuts and arm yourself with patience and be quick, the squirrels are used to the presence of people, but they are not completely tamed. Be considerate of the animals in the park and do not disturb them.

A leisurely stroll through this park takes you to the next very important London landmark, which is the famous Buckingham Palace. This palace is the royal residence in London and the administrative seat of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the center of state occasions and royal hospitality. This place has been the focus of the British people in times of national rejoicing and mourning.

Originally known as Buckingham House, the core building of today’s palace was a large town house built for the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 on a site that had been privately owned for at least 150 years. It was bought by George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as the Queen’s House. During the 19th century, it was expanded by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who built three wings around the central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch upon the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. Today this palace is a famous tourist attraction of London.

London is an extremely large city and you can walk around the city to visit the tourist attractions, but in that case wear comfortable shoes. If you are not a fan of walking around the city, there is a diverse transportation system consisting of buses and metro lines, my recommendation is the bus – it is cheaper and you can get to know the city in a better way.

Of course, there is also the famous taxi, but trust me their services are overpriced. I’ve taken a taxi in heavy rain a couple of times and you don’t want to know how much their driving bills were.

If you get tired of visiting these attractions, I advise you to use transportation to visit the famous Kensington Palace, which is our next stop. Kensington Palace is a royal residence located in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It has served as the residence of the British royal family since the 17th century and is currently the official London residence of several royal families, including the Prince and Princess of Wales – William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and Princess Eugenie, their two sons Jack Brooks and her husband, two sons Jack and Banks. The term “Kensington Palace” is often used as a metonym for the offices of the royal family who reside there.

Today, the State Rooms of Kensington Palace are open to the public and are managed by Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity that operates without public funding. The offices and private living quarters of the palace remain the responsibility of the Royal Household. In addition, Kensington Palace displays a number of paintings and other artefacts from the Royal Collection.

Here you can also find the Statue of Diana, Princess of Wales located in the Sunken Garden of Kensington Palace. Commissioned by her two sons Princes William and Harry on the 20th anniversary of her death, the statue was designed and executed by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley and placed in the newly redesigned Pip Morrison Garden before being unveiled as a memorial to Diana on July 1, 2021, which would have been her 60th birthday.

Kensington Gardens, formerly the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are part of London’s royal parks. The Gardens are shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and are located just west of Hyde Park, in West Central London known as the West End. The gardens cover an area of ​​107 hectares. The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James’s Park together form an almost continuous “green lung” in the heart of London. Kensington Gardens is listed as High Grade 1 on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

If you’ve decided to visit Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace on a Saturday, then let me help you complete your time in the right way! I am taking you to an area of ​​London that became incredibly famous because of a Hollywood production of the same name with an actress who captivates with her appearance, charisma and conquered the world because of her smile – Julia Roberts. I’m taking you to Nothing Hill! This area is located very close to Kensington Gardens, so I think you should not skip a visit to this interesting district.

You must be wondering why I advised the day of the visit to be a Saturday, it is because of the famous street market that is held on Saturdays from morning to afternoon, every Saturday of the month. Then the streets are lively and there are a lot of visitors, so you will have a better memory of Nothing Hill. I tell you this from my experience because I visited Nothing Hill several times on weekdays and there was not a soul on the street, so you don’t get the impression that the neighborhood is visited. This part of the city is lively only on Saturdays and during holidays precisely because of the street market.

To disappoint you right away, you won’t find the famous Nothing Hill bookstore here and there are no blue doors, but you can find interesting pieces of clothing, antiques and various gifts that you didn’t even know you needed in your life.

The main day of the antiques market is Saturday, the only day when all five sections are open: used goods, clothing and accessories, household goods, fruit, vegetables and other food, antiques. Remember Saturday is the ideal time for Portobello Road and the famous market on Nothing Hill which you must not miss.

The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington. It has a capacity of 5,272 seats. Since the hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world’s leading artists from many genres of performance have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the BBC Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941.

It hosts more than 390 events in the main hall annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sporting events, award ceremonies, numerous school and community performances and banquets. An additional 400 events are held each year in non-public spaces. During its 153-year history, the hall has hosted people from various walks of life, including meetings held by suffragettes, speeches by Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and Albert Einstein, fights by Lennox Lewis, exhibition fights by Muhammad Ali and concerts by regulars such as Eric Clapton and Shirley Bassey.

The hall was originally to be called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but was renamed the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria after laying the foundation stone for the hall in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier. It forms the practical part of the memorial to the Prince, the decorative part being the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from Hall by Kensington Hill.

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a wide range of specimens from different segments of natural history. It is one of the three main museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. However, the main frontage of the Natural History Museum is on Cromwell Road. The museum houses life and earth science specimens that include about 80 million items in five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. The museum is a research centre specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation.

Given the age of the institution, many collections have great historical and scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly known for its display of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture , sometimes referred to as nature’s cathedral, exemplified by the large diplodocus that dominated the vaulted central hall before being replaced in 2017 by a blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. The Library of the Natural History Museum contains an extensive collection of books, journals, manuscripts and works of art related to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. The museum is recognised as an eminent centre of natural history and research in related fields in the world.

Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was officially known as the British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from the collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened until 1881, later incorporating the Geological Museum. The Darwin Center is a recent addition, designed in part as a modern facility to house valuable collections.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge admission. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body under the auspices of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is important to note that the Princess of Wales is the patron of the museum.

One of the most famous and certainly the most prominent exhibits — nicknamed “Dippy” — is a 32-meter-long replica of the Diplodocus carnegii skeleton that has been on display in the central hall for years. The cast was gifted by the Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie, after discussions with King Edward VII, then a keen trustee of the British Museum. Carnegie paid £2,000 (equivalent to £272,185 today) for the cast, copying the original held at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The works were sent to London in 36 crates, and on May 12, 1905, the exhibition was presented with great public and media interest. The actual fossil had yet to be mounted, as the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh was still being built to house it.

As word of Dippy spread, Carnegie paid for additional copies to be made for display in most major European capitals and in Central and South America, making Dippy the most viewed dinosaur skeleton in the world. The dinosaur quickly became an icon of the museum and appeared in many cartoons and other media. After 112 years on display at the museum, the dinosaur replica was removed in early 2017 to be replaced by an actual young blue whale skeleton, a 128-year-old skeleton nicknamed “Hope.” Dippy embarked on a tour of various British museums starting in 2018 and ending in 2020 at Norwich Cathedral.

The skeleton of the blue whale, Hope, that replaced Dippy is another prominent exhibit in the museum. The display of the skeleton, about 25 m long and weighing 4.5 tons, was made possible only in 1934 with the construction of the New Hall of Whales (today it is called the Sisari Gallery (in a separate room where there is a model of a blue whale)). The whale had been in storage for 42 years since it ran aground on sandbars at the mouth of Wexford Harbor in Ireland in March 1891 after being injured by whalers. At that time, it was first exhibited in the Sisari Gallery (blue whale model), but now it takes pride of place in the museum’s Hintze Hall.

Discussion of the idea of ​​a life-size model also began around 1934, and work was conducted in the Hall of Whales itself. Since making a plaster cast of such a large animal was considered prohibitively expensive, models were used to carefully fit the structure together. During construction, workers left an opening in the whale’s stomach, which they would use for stealthy cigarette breaks. Before the door was closed and sealed forever, some coins and a phone book were placed inside – which soon grew into an urban myth that a time capsule remained inside. The works were completed in full in the hall and in front of the public in 1938. At the time, it was the largest such model in the world, with a length of 28 meters. Construction details were later loaned by several American museums, which further expanded the plans. The work involved in removing Dippy and replacing him with Hope was documented in a BBC television special the day before Hope was unveiled to the public.

The Darwin Center is home to Archie, an 8.62m giant squid that was caught alive in a fishing net near the Falkland Islands in 2004. The squid is not on display but is stored in a large tank room in the basement of the building. Special visits are available to the public and they see unexhibited items behind the scenes for a special fee by booking one of several tours that can be found in their daily offer. Upon arrival at the museum, the specimen was immediately frozen and preparations began for its permanent storage. As there are few complete and relatively fresh examples of the species, “wet storage” was chosen, leaving the squid undissected. A 9.45-meter acrylic tank was constructed, and the body was preserved in a mixture of formalin and saline.

The museum houses the remains and bones of the “Thames River Whale”, a northern right whale that lost its way on January 20, 2006 and swam into the Thames. Although it is primarily used for research purposes and is stored in a museum warehouse in Wandsworth. Dinocochlea, one of paleontology’s more enduring mysteries (it was originally thought to be a giant gastropod shell, then a coprolite, and now a concrete worm tunnel), has been part of the collection since its discovery in 1921.

Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, central London, established in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. The square’s name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on October 21, 1805, off the coast of Cape Trafalgar.

The site around Trafalgar Square has become a significant landmark of London since the 1200s. For centuries, distances measured from Charing Cross served as location markers. The site of today’s square formerly housed an elaborately designed, enclosed courtyard, the King’s Mews. After George IV moved the mews to Buckingham Palace, John Nash restored the area, but progress was slow after his death, and the square was not opened until 1844.

The 52-meter-high Nelson’s Column is guarded by four lion statues in its center. A number of commemorative statues and sculptures occupy the square, but the Fourth Plinth, left empty since 1840, has hosted contemporary art since 1999. Prominent buildings overlooking the square include the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Canada House and South Africa House.

The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday in 1887, the culmination of the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests and climate change campaigns. Since 1947, Norway has donated a Christmas tree to the square and it is placed twelve days before and after Christmas. The square is the center of London’s annual New Year celebrations. It was famous for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early 21st century.

Piccadilly Circus is a crossroads and public space in London’s West End in Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. The name comes from the Latin word meaning “circle”, is a round open space at a street intersection.

Piccadilly Circus now connects Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street. It is close to the main shopping and entertainment areas of the West End. Its status as a major traffic intersection has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and tourist attraction. The circus is particularly notable for its video display and neon signs placed on the corner building on the north side, as well as the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain and the statue of Anteros (popularly thought, though mistakenly, to be of Eros status). It is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion and the Criterion Theatre. Below the square is Piccadilly Circus station, which is part of the London Underground system.

And now I would like to introduce you to a London neighborhood that is particularly dear to me because of its unusualness. Covent Garden is a district of London, on the eastern edge of the West End, between St Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane. It connects to the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist area and to the Royal Opera House, which is itself known as “Covent Garden”. The district is divided by the main thoroughfare Long Acre, to the north of which is given over to independent shops centred around Neal’s Yard and Seven Dials, while to the south is the central square with its street performers and most of the historic buildings, theatres and entertainment venues, including the London Transport Museum and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

The area was grassland until briefly settled in the 7th century when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwick, then abandoned in the late 9th century after which it reverted to grassland. By 1200, this part of the present-day city was enclosed by the abbot of Westminster Abbey for use as arable land and orchards, which were later called the “Abbey and Convent Garden” and later the “Monastery Garden”.

After the dissolution of the monastery, the young King Edward VI granted it in 1552 to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, a trusted advisor to his father King Henry VIII. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants to the area. Jones designed the Italianate arcade square along with St. Paul’s Church. The design of the square was new to London and had a significant influence on modern city planning, acting as a prototype for new estates as London grew.

By 1654, a small outdoor fruit and vegetable market had developed on the southern side of the modern square. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area came into disrepute, as taverns, theaters, taverns and brothels opened. By the 18th century, it had become notorious for its abundance of brothels. An Act of Parliament drawn up to control the area erected a neoclassical building by Charles Fowler in 1830 to cover any current deficiencies and help organize the market.

The market gradually grew and new buildings were added: the Flower Hall, the Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market was opened. By the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market moved to New Covent Garden Market about 5 kilometers south-west at Nine Elms. The central building reopened as a shopping center in 1980 and is now a tourist site containing cafes, pubs, small shops and a small interesting craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.

Chinatown is an ethnic enclave in the City of Westminster in central London, bordering Soho to the north and west, Theaterland to the south and east. The enclave currently occupies an area in and around Gerrard Street. It contains a number of Chinese restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, souvenir shops and other Chinese businesses. The first Chinatown was located in Limehouse in the East End.

The first area of ​​London known as Chinatown was located in the Limehouse area of ​​East London. In the early 20th century, London’s Chinese population was concentrated in the area, opening up businesses that catered to the Chinese sailors who frequented the Docklands. The area was known for exaggerated reports and stories of slum houses and (then legal) opium dens, rather than the Chinese restaurants and supermarkets of today’s Chinatown. However, much of the area was damaged by aerial bombing during the Blitz in World War II, although a number of elderly Chinese still choose to live in the area. After World War II, however, the growing popularity of Chinese cuisine and the influx of immigrants from Hong Kong led to an increasing number of Chinese restaurants opening elsewhere.

The current Chinatown, located off Shaftesbury Avenue, did not begin to develop until the 1970s. It used to be an ordinary area of ​​Soho, run down, with Gerrard Street as its main thoroughfare. It was dominated by the Post Office, facing Macclesfield Street, and other large establishments were The Tailor & Cutter House, now a Chinese supermarket and restaurant, the Boulogne Restaurant, near the end of Wardour Street, and the Peter Mario Restaurant at the other end. Other businesses included a bakery, the Sari Centre, the Lesgrain French Tavern, Harrison Marks’ Glamor Studio, an Indian restaurant and various brothels. Many assume that the first Chinese restaurants were opened on Lisle Street, parallel to Gerrard Street, and gradually they opened in greater numbers, one of the first restaurants being the Kowloon Restaurant. This area now has more than 80 restaurants.

London is a city that you can explore for years and believe me you will never fully discover it because this city is so big, it is best to just get lost in the streets of London and explore this city when you visit all the main tourist attractions. Trust me, you’d be pleasantly surprised what you’d discover about this city if you let yourself be completely charmed by it.

Since I spent most of my life in London, both because of my sister who trained as a doctor for years in London, this city is well known to me and when I’m in it and I have extra free time, I get on an interesting bus line and take the opportunity to see the city. That’s my strategy for getting to know the parts of London that I haven’t been able to discover, but I leave it up to you to choose your own way of discovering this unusual European metropolis.

When you get tired of sightseeing or just want to enjoy the charms of shopping, London is the center of hedonism for all shopping lovers. You must bear in mind the fact that London is the center of luxury and supreme hedonism and that it is possible to find absolutely everything needed to satisfy the needs of the most demanding clientele. On the other hand, there is also an affordable side of London where people on a budget can enjoy this city. Due to this fact, ie. because of that balancing balance i love this city because it can satisfy everyone’s needs depending on the clientele’s capabilities.

During this visit to London, my home was located in Marylebone, an upscale neighborhood located in central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. The ancient parish, and later the city borough, merged with the boroughs of Westminster and Paddington to form the new City of Westminster in 1965.

The area is also served by numerous tube stations, such as: Baker Street, Bond Street, Edgware Road (Bakerloo Line), Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City Lines), Great Portland Street, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Oxford Circus and Regent’s Park.

During every trip, the hotel where we stay is very important to all of us, because the hotel is our home in the new destination and therefore it is very important to choose a good hotel in each destination. During my stay in the capital of England this time, The Marylebone Hotel was my home, adorned with style, comfort and a beautiful atmosphere in the very heart of London.

The Marylebone is a 5-star hotel, ideally located in the heart of the English capital, one of the most exciting cities in Europe. This great hotel is just a moment’s walk from bustling Oxford Street and trendy luxury shopping and entertainment districts such as Bond Street, Hyde Park and Soho. Its location in the borough of Marylebone makes it the perfect base for those looking to explore central London, shop or sightsee with ease, while staying in one of London’s most cosmopolitan and stylish areas.

The vibrant charm of the Marylebone neighbourhood is reflected in the style and ambience of Marylebone. This alluring tone begins in the hotel’s chic lobby and cocktail bar, characterised by inviting angles and the elegance that this hotel exudes. Then there’s the ever-popular 108 Brasserie and Bar, set on the cobblestones of picturesque Marylebone Lane – a lively forum for locals and visitors alike. The elegantly designed guest rooms and suites at The Marylebone Hotel, including the Roof Terrace Suites, represent modern comfort in the heart of London.

The Marylebone Hotel belongs to The Doyle Collection group of luxury hotels, where guests can always enjoy free access to the exclusive Third Space Health Club, which has a gym and an 18m swimming pool among other modern facilities.

In the next post, I will share with you a review of this hotel, as well as many details about this amazing hotel. I would like to give a special thanks to the staff at The Marylebone Hotel for their warm welcome and hosting me at their hotel. The stay in their hotel was exceptional, a unique experience that I will remember!

My dear travellers, we have come to the end of this first special travelogue in the series of travelogues about London where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this British metropolis. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of The Marylebone Hotel in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of English local culture and tradition. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from London.

A person is rich in soul if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad that I always manage to find partners of my projects who help me to discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way.

I am honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with many companies and businesses in the tourism sector and I would like to thank The Marylebone Hotel and The Doyle Collection once again for this amazing adventure and for allowing me to experience the beauty of this unusual local English culture and tradition in a completely different way.

How did you like my story about London, the British metropolis and the heart of Western Europe? Have you had a chance to visit London so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with a new story!

With Love from London,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by The Marylebone Hotel and The Doyle Collection Group. This post represents my personal and honest review of the impression of the destination and the tourist services provided during my stay in London.

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Letters from Ecuador: Ingapirca, Gualaceo and Chordeleg, Explore The Beauty of Andean Culture…

My dear travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new series of travelogues on the Mr.M blog. The month of November will be dedicated to an unusual country in the heart of South America, a country known for the highest quality cocoa, bananas and coffee – Ecuador. At the very beginning of today’s travelogue, I would like to thank PRO ECUADOR and Tour Operator Cuenca BesTours as well as other local partners who selflessly supported my adventure in South America.

With their help, travelogues from Ecuador and fashion stories were created that you will have the opportunity to read this November and December, and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the new adventure.

If by any chance you missed reading the previous travelogues and fashion stories from Ecuador or you want to remind yourself of some interesting things, take the opportunity to visit the following links:

  1. Letters from Ecuador: Quito, a city coloured by the art and architecture of the Baroque…(Travelogue)
  2. Sannino Napoli: Discover true Italian craftsmanship with timeless and unique style…(Fashion Story)
  3. Letters from Ecuador: Quito, the pearl of South America in the middle of the world…(Travelogue)
  4. Brett Johnson: Fashion for the modern man with refined and refined taste… (Fashion Story)
  5. Letters from Ecuador: Cuenca, the Vibrant Charming Colonial Gem of South America… (Travelogue)
  6. Appella: Unique Watches that Combine Classic Design and Swiss Functionality… (Fashion Story)

It is very important to note that Cuenca BesTours is a leading tour operator and travel agency based in Cuenca. Their team specializes in organizing and customizing cultural and adventure tours and activities for couples, families and groups in Cuenca and Ecuador. With more than ten years of experience, we have built a reputation for providing personalized and memorable experiences for our guests. The Cuenca BesTours team of local travel experts strives to skilfully bring every detail of every trip to perfection in order to create added value that makes the tourist experience unique and unforgettable.

If you decide to visit Ecuador, Cuenca BesTours offers group and private individual tours in Ecuador with which you can get to know this unusual country in South America. Also, they are organising extraordinary Day Trips from Cuenca, cultural heart of Ecuador. My experience with the travel agency Cuenca BesTours is outstanding and I can praise the work of their team who organised at very short notice a multi-day trip to Cuenca, which I described in a previous travelogue about this charming city, as well as a tour of the ruins of Ingapirca and Gualaceo and Chordeleg towns – villages where I had the opportunity to better explore the beauty of Andean culture and about which I will write to you in more detail today.

A new morning dawned in Guayaquil and my photographer and I knew it was time to continue our adventure. The smiling guide Chris presented us with an itinerary with lots of useful information. Chris kept us company during this trip and did his best to make our adventure in and around Cuenca perfect. He is a living encyclopedia and is very familiar with this part of Ecuador because he lives in Cuenca.

Ingapirca, which means “wall of the Incas” in the Kichwa language, is one of the most important set of pre-Columbian ruins in Republic of Ecuador, located about 80 km north of Cuenca. The Inca Sun Temple located on its hill with an amazing panoramic view of the surrounding nature is a truly unique and impressive landscape, and the ruins themselves have a fascinating history. Ingapirca is an archaeological complex located in the Canar province. It is undoubtedly one of the most famous archaeological sites in the country.

The site was initially a settlement of the Canari culture, although it was later occupied by the Incas, who built most of the structures that have survived to this day. After conducting numerous researches, by interpreting certain archaeologists’ writings, it is considered that this complex must have had a religious function, because it was built on a rocky outcrop that must have been the pacarina (the place of origin of the people according to some local myths) for the Canaries. It is mainly known for the great Sun Temple of Ingapirca, which is a unique building in the entire Inca Empire because it has an oval plan. Such kind of constructions are not known at any other Inca site in pre-Columbian America.

In the province of Canar, in the south of the country, at an altitude of approximately 3160 m and almost 16 km from the city of Canar, there is the most significant archaeological building of Inca origin in the current Republic of Ecuador.

Ingapirca is a Quichua word meaning wall of the Incas. It is an authentic Inca-Canary construction, created at the beginning of the sixteenth century, which is assumed to have been an observatory of the sun and the moon just before the arrival of the Spaniards in the area. The collection of archaeological remains of Ingapirca has been recorded by the outside world since at least the mid-eighteenth century, although there are references to the site where these structures are located – Valle del Canar – as early as the sixteenth century, when it was known as the province of Hatun Canar (Quichua language: Hatun Canar, which means “great place of canaries”).

The model of the house, not originally built in the Ingapirca complex, faithfully shows what one of the houses looked like.

One of the records from 1582, recorded by the parish priest Fray Gaspar de Gallegos, parish priest of San Francisco de Peleusi de Azogues, a town near this site, wrote the following:

“I came to the territory called Canares, because three leagues from here there is a city called Hatum Canar, which in the Inca language means “the great province of Cañas”, and there they say that in the time of the Incas Huain Capac there was a large population of Indians and that there was housed the main chief and it seems so, because today there are large and very luxurious buildings, and among them very strong ones”.

Collective grave of a priestess from Canaria and 10 of her servants.

Today there is no confirmed information for what purpose this building of Inca-Canari origin was built. The only criterion in which several historians and archaeologists agree is that it was built under the direct orders of the former Inca Huain Capac, during the territorial expansion and conquest of the people that the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, his father and ancestor as the emperor of Tahuantinsuyo, began many years ago towards the territories which today make up southern Ecuador.

Some archaeologists believe that this site also played a large role in the military strategies of the Incas, as an outpost and supply of troops in the north of Ecuador, but its most important purpose was to be a place of worship and respect for the cult of the Sun, the greatest god of the Incas, which made itself in Coricancha , dedicated to the ritual of the Incas.

The ruins of Ingapirca were excavated and restored by the Archaeological Mission of Spain between 1974 and 1975. These investigations led to several publications by archaeologists José Alcina, Miguel Rivera and Antonio Fresco.

What is the historical background of Ingapirca? According to what is currently known and verified, the Canaries were present in this region long before the Incas arrived. They are renowned for their fierce fighting spirit and tenacious resistance to invasion, having successfully repelled the Inca ruler Tupac Yupanqui’s army from their territory. Through a combination of wars and marriages, the Inca Empire did not ultimately conquer the Canaries until Huaina Capac, Yupanqui’s son, carried on his father’s campaign.

It’s interesting to note that the conquerors respected the Canaries enough to establish a community with them after their victory and build a Temple of the Sun to go with the Temple of the Moon already in place. In addition to its ceremonial role, Ingapirca is thought to have served astronomical, political, and administrative purposes. Atahualpa, the son of Juana Capac, would sometimes visit the many high-status individuals and families who resided there.

Though its golden age and growth were brief, Ingapirca’s strategic location overlooking the surrounding valley at 3,200 meters above sea level was crucial. It is thought that the complex was destroyed in the conflict between Atahualpa and his brother Huascar in 1532, just before the Spanish conquest. After the site was looted by the Spanish, many of the stone walls were used to construct haciendas and churches in Cuenca and other places. After being abandoned, the site was restored by the Ecuadorian government in the middle of the 20th century, and in 1966 it was made public.

All of the explanations are in Spanish, so it takes creativity and a tour with a guide like Chris to make the most of Ingapirca, which is essentially just stone foundations. The original Kanari settlement is marked by the Pilaloma complex on the south side. Thousands of spondyl shells and the collective tomb of the Canarian priestess and ten of her servants, who were buried alive with her after her death, are the most fascinating features of this complex. The tomb is situated beneath a sizeable stone that is thought to be connected to a number of astronomical computations and may have served as a sacrifice altar.

There is a sizable open area where many devotees congregated for rituals in addition to the communal tomb and temples in the Ingaprit ruins. A portion of the Inca Trail, which formerly linked administrative and religious hubs in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, still adheres to this belief. Grain storage areas, terraced agricultural terraces, and ceremonial baths are additional features.

Built on top of the ancient ceremonial rock of Canary, the elliptical Temple of the Sun—the only one of its kind in the Inca Empire forms the complex’s focal point. This structure is thought to have served as a location for rituals as well as a means of determining when religious holidays and agricultural labor should take place. Inti Rajmi, the Sun Festival, which is still observed in Ingapirca every June, was the most significant occasion. The volcanic rocks were hand-hewn so precisely that mortar was not required, allowing for the full appreciation of the magnificent stonework that is the hallmark of Inca construction.

The House of the Chosen, where only the most attractive girls from the nearby villages lived as Virgins of the Sun, is located next to the temple in this remarkable complex. These girls learned to dance, knit, weave, and cook after being taken from their homes as young children. They had to prepare ceremonial food, keep the sacred fire going, entertain visiting Inca dignitaries, and weave garments for the emperor and rituals. They would wed high-ranking men like priests, notable soldiers, and Incas.

Interestingly, there is a big stone with 28 holes of varying sizes close to the Sun temple. It is thought that this stone served as the lunar calendar. The holes are thought to have been filled with water, which caused the moonlight to reflect differently throughout the month, telling the date. The Cara del Inca, a massive human face that is thought to be a natural phenomenon, can be seen outlined on a cliff a short stroll from the temple.

After spending two hours at the Ingapirca complex, we continue on to Gualaceo and Chordeleg villages. The South American village of Chordeleg, located in the Azuay region, is well-known for its ceramics and exquisite silver and gold filigree jewelry. Thanks to the local artisans’ workshop, you can learn how this delicate technique is expertly executed to create such beautiful pieces.

Let’s not forget how filigree jewelry is made. Mrs. Mom’s earlier fashion stories, in which she wrote to you about the renowned Filevi 1928 jewelry from North Macedonia, probably taught you about it. One of the most exquisite metalworking techniques is filigree. Over the ages, this method has been employed to create incredibly valuable and exquisite jewelry as well as ornamental objects that are still prized today. Using this technique, the motif is composed of silver, gold, and less frequently copper wire to create jewelry or decorative items. A complex motif is created by bending, interlacing, and tying wire threads together; it can be displayed fully free or on a metal base. Filigree wire was used to create geometric designs, flowers, and circles. These items were occasionally topped with tiny metal balls.

Before traveling to Gualaceo, a village renowned for its amazing textiles, you can explore Chordelega’s center by strolling through Plaza Central or the Main Square and stopping by the numerous artisan stores that line it.

Discover the vibrant colors and unique patterns of the handwoven fabrics sold by locals at Gualaceo’s two traditional markets, where you can immerse yourself in the vibrant pace of everyday life. Visit workshops where textiles are made and try to observe the various looms that the artisans use to enjoy the creation of handicrafts. The renowned ponchos that are represented in this Andean region are frequently made using the pre-Hispanic Ikat weaving technique, which you can learn about here!

In the next post, I will write about the most populated city in Ecuador, which many say is the Pearl of the Pacific – Guayaquil, which you should visit if you decide to visit this unusual country in South America. My dear adventurers, we have come to the end of this fourth special travelogue in the series of travelogues about Ecuador where we had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this unusual country in South America. Today’s travelogue would not be possible without the selfless help of PRO ECUADOR and Tour Operator Cuenca BesTours in collaboration with local partners who allowed me to feel the spirit and beauty of Ecuadorian and Andean local culture and traditions. Of course, as always, I tried my best to convey to you my impressions of this unusual experience from Ecuador.

Being able to travel the world is a sign of a rich soul, and I’m happy that I consistently find project partners who enable me to see new and unusual places in a whole new way.

It is a privilege for me to work with so many organisations and businesses in the tourism industry, and I want to express my gratitude to the Tour Operator Cuenca BesTours once more for this amazing experience and for giving me the chance to appreciate the beauty of this unique Ecuadorian and Andean local culture in a whole new way.

How did you like my story about Ecuador and the presentation of Ingapirca Ruins and as well of Gualaceo and Chordeleg charming villages, which adorns the south of this unusual country in South America? Have you had the chance to visit Ecuador so far?

If you have any question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write me below in the comments. Of course, as always, you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you at the same place in a few days, with some new story!

In the following stories from Ecuador, we will discover some other interesting sights that you should visit if your journey leads you to this exotic country!

With Love from Ecuador,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by PRO ECUADOR and Tour Operator Cuenca BesTours as well as other local partners. This post is my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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Letters from Sri Lanka: Mirissa and Bentota, Real Diamonds of the Indian Ocean…

Dear my travelers and lovers of unusual journeys, welcome to the new adventure on the Mr.M blog! Thank you for the many letters and messages you have sent me and I must admit that it is a great honor and pleasure that my travelogues from Sri Lanka have fulfilled your time during winter and spring season. I am glad that you enjoyed my exotic adventure together with me and I believe that this year will be exciting for all my readers because I am preparing unusual travelogues from Europe and the world, so we will all truly enjoy it!

To my great regret, we have reached the end of this unusual and exotic adventure, so this letter will be the last in a series of posts related to Sri Lanka, but who knows, maybe I will return to this unusual island and continue our unusual adventure! Before I start today’s post I would like to thank the Sri Lankan Tourism Board for this amazing experience and for having the opportunity to continue my adventure on my favorite dream island!

If by any chance you missed any of my previous posts, take the opportunity to visit some of the previous stories at the following links:

  1. The Story about Colombo (Travelogue): LINK
  2. Unforgettable Fashion Safari in Sri Lanka: LINK
  3. My Safari Experience in Sri Lanka (Travelogue): LINK
  4. Sigiriya: The Magic of the Lost Kingdom (Travelogue): LINK
  5. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Travelogue): LINK
  6. Kandyan Dance, a Unique Example of Sinhalese Culture: LINK

I will start today’s post with one exciting early morning cruise – a whale and dolphin watching expedition. Mirissa is an ideal place for whale and dolphin watching, the season suitable for this type of activity lasts from November to April, the period when this part of Sri Lanka becomes one “big playground” for countless species of whales and dolphins.

Some of the most commonly seen whale species in the area include: Sperm whales, killer whales, Bryde whales, short finned Whales, of course next to them you will be able to see playful flocks of dolphins and striped dolphins having fun around your boat! However, the main type of whale that needs special attention is the Blue Whale – which is considered to be the largest animal in the world! Whale and dolphin watching in the Mirissa is ideal for all true nature lovers as they set sail into the ocean.

I had this unforgettable experience in Mirissa with Certina DS Jubilee.

For all the adventurers who are headed to Mirissa, here is some basic information. Mirissa is a small town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, located in Matara County, in the Southern Province. It is located approximately 150 kilometers south of Colombo and is located at an altitude of 4 meters above sea level. Beach and nightlife of Mirissa make this coastal city a popular tourist destination in Sri Lanka. This city is also a fishing port and one of the main locations on the island for whale and dolphin watching.

After Mirissa, I headed to Bentota, a coastal town in Sri Lanka, located in Galle County in the Southern Province. Bentota is located on the southern bank of the mouth of the river Bentota, at an altitude of 3 meters above sea level. The name of the city comes from a mythical story which claims that a demon named “Ben” ruled the “tota” – the river bank.

Bentota is a tourist attraction, with a local airport and many hotels of different categories for each budget, from affordable hotels range up to the most luxurious hotel resorts. This is a destination for all water sports fans. Bentota also provides an ancient art of healing called Ayurveda.

Ayurveda is a science that describes all the favorable and unfavorable, including happy and unhappy states of life, together with what is good and bad for life, measures for achieving them as well as life itself. The written texts of this complete system of natural health are about 5,000 years old. For centuries, sages and physicians have discovered this ancient wisdom. Ayurveda is the oldest, most comprehensive health care system in use today.

Bentota is known for the production of Toddy, an alcoholic beverage made from coconut nectar. There is also a turtle hatchery here, located on Induruwa Beach. Bentota is a historical site described in ancient messengers’ songs (Sandeśa-Kāvya). Galapatha Rajamaha Viharaya is one of the five ancient temples in the region.

In the 17th century, the Portuguese built a small fortress at the mouth of the Bentota River (Benata Ganga), which in Sinhala was called Parangi Kotuva, which means fortress of the Portuguese. The river marked the southern end of Portuguese territory in Sri Lanka. The Dutch later allowed the fortress to collapse, turning one of the large buildings inside the fortress into a colonial resting place for Dutch officers traveling between Colombo and Galle.

The British then turned the holiday home into a seaside sanatorium. Sir James Emerson Tennent, the colonial secretary of Ceylon in his book, said the Bentota holiday home, set in a small park, deep in the shade of lofty tamarind trees on the part of the beach where the river meets the sea, is one of the coldest and most pleasant Ceylon. The British introduced railways in the early 19th century, mainly to transport coconut products from the deep south to the capital, building a permanent bridge – Bentota Palam to cross the river.

What can you visit in Bentota? Local sights you should visit:

  • Bentota Beach
  • Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery – a community turtle hatchery and turtle watching project established by the Turtle Conservation Project in cooperation with the Sri Lankan Wildlife Department.
  • Brief Garden – home and garden of renowned Sri Lankan landscape architect Bevis Bava, older brother of architect Jeffrey Bava. Located on the territory of a former rubber plantation, Bava continued to develop the estate until his death in 1992.
  • The Buddhist temple of Galapatha Rajamaha Viharaya, located in Bentota, contains stone inscriptions, stone carvings, pillars, ponds and troughs from the medieval period.
  • Helipad Richi Skilark. This heliport operates a helicopter ride in Bentota near the mouth operated by Skilark Aviation Helicopters.
  • River Boat Safari through the Mangrove Lagoon.

One activity I would advise you to embark on is a River Boat Safari through the Mangrove Lagoon. You can combine a river cruise with a visit to the Mangrove Lagoon, where you can see crocodiles that are now rare, but there are plenty of water monitors and river birds. This is a wonderful and relaxing experience where you can enjoy the majesty and beauty of the river landscape.

This safari is unusual because you have the opportunity to enjoy the exotic beauty of the flora and fauna that inhabit this part of Sri Lanka. In addition to the amazing scenery, you have the opportunity to get to know the locals and briefly get an impression of what life in Bentota looks like. During this one-day excursion, I visited a family that makes natural cinnamon products.

An unforgettable experience for me was to see the jellyfish live, when our guide suddenly dipped his hands in the water, I was expecting something preparing the engine, but suddenly he pulled the jellyfish out of the water, I was honestly amazed, but also delighted with the sight! I think this cruise is something you have to experience if you are coming to Bentota.

A few moments ago, I mentioned a visit to a family that produces natural cinnamon products, which was educational and unusual. I even had the opportunity to try cinnamon tea, which is effective and relaxes a person. Cinnamon can be used to make various creams, teas, cakes and products, even from the leaves of the plant, locals in Sri Lanka make roofs for their houses.

Another interesting thing that impressed me was that there are shops and fast food restaurants on the water, which I have not had the opportunity to see so far. There are also sacred places – temples on the water and on the shores that you can see during the cruise.

My stay in Bentota was unforgettable thanks to the team of the Sri Lankan Tourism Board and the friendly staff of the Taj Bentota Resort & Spa hotel who made my stay in this coastal city make me feel at home.

This luxury hotel complex, formerly known as Taj Exotica, this 160-room resort was built by Maga Engineering in 1997. Located in an exotic and beautiful town on Bentota Beach, the resort features distinctive colonial architecture marked by beautiful red tiled roofs.

This 5-star hotel resort offers an extremely rich range of services, including fine restaurants, modern rooms, a spa, a terraced infinity pool and a beautiful lobby with a high solid wood ceiling. The resort opened in 1997. Enjoy the view of the incredible beauty of the Indian Ocean.

Accept the modest greetings ‘Aiubovan’ with a smile, followed by sips of ‘Nelli’ (fruit wine), passion fruit or Ceylon iced tea. This is just a small part of everything that Taj Bentota Resort & Spa has to offer! Immerse yourself in a space that reflects the spirit of Sri Lanka.

Dear travelers, we have come to the end of this last post about the Sri Lankan adventure. It was my greates pleasure to present you all the beauties of Mirissa and Bentota, which would not be possible without the selfless help of the Sri Lankan Tourism Board in cooperation with local partners like Taj Bentota Resort & Spa. to feel the spirit and beauty of the Indian Ocean and Sri Lankan culture and tradition. Of course, as always, I tried to share my impressions of this unusual experience in Sri Lanka.

Time always flies when a person has a good time! A man is rich at heart if he has managed to explore the world and I am glad to always be able to find partners for my projects that help me discover new and unusual destinations in a completely different way during this global health crisis COVID-19.

I am honoured to have the opportunity to work with companies that are at the top of the tourism industry and I would like to thank them for this amazing adventure and for allowing me to experience the beauty of this unusual island country in South Asia in a completely different way.

How did you like this story of mine about my experience in Mirissa and Bentota? Have you maybe had the opportunity to visit Sri Lanka before? Share with me your experiences, I would be glad to hear!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me you can write to me below in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via email or social networks, all addresses can be found on the CONTACT page. See you in the same place in a couple of days, with a new story!

Warm greetings from Sri Lanka,

Mr.M

This post is sponsored by the Sri Lankan Tourism Board and Taj Bentota Resort & Spa. This post presents my personal and honest review of the destination experience.

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