| Latin American City Breaks |
City Breaks in Latin America
Caracas
With a population around 4 million, Caracas is the capital and more populated city in Venezuela. It is located close to the Coast, La Guaira Port, but at an altitude of 800 meters (2400 feet), which gives it an unique climate.
Caracas is located under the Avila, a mountain that reaches 2600 meters (7800 ft.), where the Humboldt Hotel (currently out of service, undergoing refurbishment) is located, which you can reach by cable car. Definitely for tourists, it is the best activity around the city, because of the beautiful view and the nice and cool weather. If you like hiking you can also make a three to four hour excursion, and return by cable car (or walking).
Caracas is also a cultural center. The museum of modern art, is one of the most important in south America and you can appreciate high quality works. Every year Caracas hosts an international Theater Festival, where groups from all over the world meet.
 
Caracas is known for the quality of its restaurants, where you can have meals from all over the world. It also has several shopping centers, modern and luxurious that make shopping and interesting activity. Among the most popular buys for the tourists are gold jewels and shoes (consequence of the Italian immigration in the fifties).
Caracas has several parks. The biggest one is the Avila National Park, where sport fans can climb 400 meters (1200 ft) in half an hour, and be awarded with a beautiful view of the city.
Caracas´ inhabitants can enjoy all year long the beaches, located at only half an hour or the nice weather of the mountain, at a similar distance. One of the most popular trips is to "Colonia Tovar ", a German village in the tropics.
Caracas is different....a fantastic City Break destination
Quito
Quito, capital of Ecuador and of Pichincha, the country's most populous Andean province, is situated 116 limes from the Pacific coast at an altitude of 9,350 feet, just south of the equator. It has a pleasant climate that can be described as "permanent spring". The city, one of the oldest in South America, is built in a small basin on the lower slopes of Cerro Pichincha , a volcano that last erupeted in 1666. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Quitu and for several decades, prior to its occupation by spaniards in 1534, was a second (northern) capital of the Inca empire.
The city official name as given by the Spaniards, is Villa de San Francisco de Quito, with a population of 1.3 in 1989, is Ecuador's second largets city. It is the political, administrative, and cultural capital but has lost its primary economic position to Guayaquil, with which it has had a railway link since 1908.
 
Quito, more than any othe South Amrican capital, has preserved its colonial atmosphere, with squares, fountains, public buildings, and houses built in the typical Sapanish or Moorish style. Mosta attractive is the main square, Plaza Mayor, with its seventeenth-century cathedral, government palaces, municipal hall, and other buildings. Quito is well known for its many small workshops producing native arts and for its outdoor Indian markets.
Sebastián de Benalcázar founded Quito in 1534. If he were to return today, he would probably feel right at home. In the Old Town, many of the original colonial structures have been wonderfully preserved and restored. Quito was and still is a city of grand churches with wildly detailed hand-carved facades, and a place where 500-year-old buildings open onto medieval-style courtyards, complete with columned archways. Even the highly active Pichincha Volcano, which dominates the western side of the city, has failed to destroy this living testimonial to Quito's colonial past.
But that's only one side of Quito. If Benalcázar were to venture a couple of miles north, the glass skyscrapers, electric trolleys, and early-20th-century mansions would make his head spin. Quito is a city of wonderful juxtapositions. It's a place where you can travel to the past, while still enjoying a life of modern-day comforts. The living museums in the Old Town nicely complement the modern art and archaeology museums in the New Town. Spend two leisurely days here and you'll see the best of what the city has to offer. Then you can travel to colorful indigenous markets, a unique cloud forest, or to the glaciers of the world's highest active volcano -- all within 2 hours of the city.
Remember that at 2,804m (9,348 ft.) above sea level, Quito is one of the highest capital cities in the world, and the air is much thinner up here. Fortunately, this is a great city break for taking it easy.
Lima
Lima once ranked as the richest and most important city in the Americas and was considered to be the most beautiful colonial settlement in the region. Founded in 1535 by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish Crown's "City of Kings" quickly became the center of power and trade for the entire American viceregency that stretched from Quito to Santiago. Lima was home to some of the Americas' finest baroque and Renaissance churches, palaces, and mansions, as well as the continent's first university, founded in 1551. For 2 centuries, the capital also served as the headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition.
When Spain created a rival viceregency in Río de la Plata, which subsequently grew rich from silver mines, Lima quickly fell into decline. An earthquake decimated the city in 1746, leaving more than 4,000 dead and few buildings standing. Today the capital of Peru is a sprawling, chaotic, and mostly unlovely metropolis, and many visitors dart through it as fast as possible -- if not bypass it altogether. Peru's blistering poverty is more apparent here than perhaps anywhere else: Depressing shantytowns called pueblos jóvenes lacerate the outer rings of the city. The despair of a large segment of the capital's largely migrant and mestizo population contrasts uncomfortably with the ritzy apartment and office buildings in the residential suburbs.
 
And as if that weren't enough, for most of the year, an unrelenting gray cloud called the garúa hangs heavily overhead, obscuring the coastline and dulling the city's appearance. Although it virtually never rains in Lima, the sun comes out only from December to April; the rest of the time, Lima makes London look like Lisbon. Lima has calmed down a bit since the chaotic 1980s and 1990s, when the city was the scene of carjackings, kidnappings, embassy takeovers, and strong-arm political maneuvers. But the city still feels schizophrenic; outer suburbs such as Barranco are relatively gentle oases, worlds apart from the congestion and grime of the rest of the city. Although middle-class Limeños from residential barrios are again venturing downtown along with foreign visitors, there are still plenty of locals who consider central Lima off-limits.
For many visitors, Lima demands too much effort to sift beneath the soot and uncover the city's rewards, especially when such extraordinary treasures hover over the horizon in the Andes mountains and in the Amazon jungle. So why come to Lima except to beeline it to Cusco or elsewhere? If you skip Lima altogether, you'll miss a vital part of what is Peru today. With a population of eight million -- about one-third Peru's population -- and as the seat of the national government and the headquarters of most industry, Lima thoroughly dominates Peru's political and commercial life. The country's best museums, restaurants, and nightlife are here, and many of the classic colonial buildings in the old centro are slowly being refurbished.
Even if you have only a day or two for Lima, the city's art and archaeology museums serve as perfect introductions to the rich history and culture you'll encounter elsewhere in the country. Not to be missed are the Museo de la Nación, which traces the history of Peru's ancient civilizations, and the Rafael Larco Herrera Museum, the world's largest private collection of pre-Columbian art. If you also squeeze in a tour of colonial Lima, dine at a great criollo (creole) restaurant, soak up some energetic nightlife, and browse the country's best shops, you might just come away from a Lima city break pleasantly surprised, if not exactly enamored of the city.
Bogota
Colombia's capital city, Bogotá sits perched high in the Andes at 2,598m (8,660 ft.). Most travelers stick to the city center, in neighborhoods such as the Zona Rosa, or La Candelaria, the oldest part of town and an important stop for its historical value. Bogotá's strange allure is played out in its colorful, chaotic street life, and its contrasts -- such as glitzy skyscrapers and colonial buildings, upscale communities and poor slums -- are startling. Walking the city streets is part of the attraction, but for safety reasons, be sure to have your hotel hire a reliable guide to accompany you. Highlights in Bogotá include the Museo del Oro, one of the best pre-Columbian museums in the world, and the Iglesia de Santa Clara and the Iglesia de San Ignacio, two splendid colonial churches.
Thankfully, one of Colombia's best and most beautiful attractions, Cartagena, is still relatively safe for travelers. (Some take a direct flight to Cartagena, avoiding Bogotá altogether, and many international cruise ships make a stop here.) Cartagena sits on the Caribbean coast and is a wonderfully picturesque, walled-in fishing village of pastel-painted buildings, fine cathedrals, and plenty of Spanish colonial architecture and 17th-century forts that allow you to steep yourself in history. The white-sand beaches are sublime, the restaurants are excellent, and lodging comes in all styles and prices.
Two other safe destinations (because they are offshore islands) are San Andrés and Providencia. These sun-kissed Caribbean islands have attracted tourism for their beaches, which are lapped by crystal-clear water and offer great snorkeling, fishing, and boating opportunities. The islands are actually closer to Nicaragua, and can be reached by a flight from Bogotá or San José, Costa Rica.
 
The Colombians are good-looking people, and they take pride in their physical appearance. Just hang around the downtown area at lunchtime and you'll see what I mean. The women executives dress professionally, but attractively in their well-fitting, above-the-knee skirts. The men all wear stylish suits, are clean-shaven, and talk on cell phones as they ride around in their Mercedes and BMWs. You'd have a hard time differentiating the scene from that of any American metropolis during lunch hour. I liked to sit in any one of the numerous cafés or bistros, sipping an espresso and people-watching. It's also a good way to meet people. I can't count the number of times that someone would catch my eye and then offer to buy me a coffee in exchange for a little English practice. There are also a number of really interesting used book and record stores in the area. The place is a safe city break during the day, and it is a good area to perhaps spend your first day to get your bearings.
Brasilia
Fifty years ago, the spot where Brasilia now stands was nothing but cerrado -- short scrubby forest, stretching thousands of miles in every direction. That the entire city was completed in the space of just 4 years is thanks to the will of one man, former president Juscelino Kubitschek. JK (as he is known) was elected president in 1956 on the promise that he'd move the capital inland from Rio de Janeiro. Few expected JK to see it through.
The site, on Brazil's high interior plateau, was over 600km (372 miles) from the nearest paved road, 125km (78 miles) from the nearest railroad, and some 190km (118 miles) from the nearest airport. JK pressed ahead with a competition for city plans. The winning design for the master plan was submitted by architect Lucio Costa.
Costa's plan was pure architectural Modernism: Transit would be by road and car; activities were to be strictly segregated by area; residential buildings were to be identical in size and shape and appearance; in place of a grid, there were but two great intersecting streets, one straight, one slightly curved. Viewed from on high, the city looked bold and monumental -- like an airplane in flight, or an arrow shooting forward into the future.
Groundbreaking began in 1957. Thousands of workers poured in from around the country. Living conditions were frightful, but by April 21, 1960, there was enough of a city for the grand inauguration to be held. Politicians and bureaucrats began to make the long shift inland.
In years since, Brasilia has been a source of controversy. The city looks as clean and functional as Modernist planners hoped and promised, but the carefully designated use zones now feel stifling, ill-equipped to address the complexity of a true city. But if nothing else, Brasilia succeeded in shifting Brazil's focus from the coast to its vast interior.
 
For visitors, the attractions here are purely architectural. Brazil's best designers, architects, and artists were commissioned to create the monuments and buildings and make them beautiful. A visit to Brasilia is a chance to see and judge their success.
Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is a monument to what Brazilians can do and have done. It's a city pointing like an arrow into the future. It's built on a massive scale, with large, innovative buildings, a freedom of spirit and imagination.
It was built to honor the beauty and soul of Brazil, yet it does not attract or charm visitors the way other Brazilian cities do.
Part of the difficulty was the great distance of the new capital from the rest of Brazil. The chosen site, though able to accommodate a great city, near rivers, was over 360 miles (600km) from the nearest paved road, 75 miles (125km) from the nearest railroad, and some 115 miles (190km) from the nearest airport.
Brasilia is not a walkable city break. The distances between buildings, and sectors, requires a vehicle. There are sectors for hotels, other for finance, commerce, sports and diplomacy. Because of rigid zoning laws and the basic layout, the majority of the population lives outside the city limits, in these lower income satellite cities, and there you'll find the essence of Brazil.
Santiago
When it was founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1541, Santiago was little more than the triangular patch of land embraced by two arms of the Río Mapocho. Today that area, known as Santiago Centro, is just one of 32 comunas that make up the city, each with its own distinct personality. You'd never mistake Patronato, a neighborhood north of downtown filled with Moorish-style mansions built by families who made their fortunes in textiles, with Providencia, where the modern skyscrapers built by international corporations crowd the avenues. The chic shopping centers of Las Condes have little in common with the outdoor markets in Bellavista.
Perhaps the neighborhoods have retained their individuality because many have histories as old as Santiago itself. Nuñoa, for example, was a hardworking farm town to the east. Farther away was El Arrayán, a sleepy village in the foothills of the Andes. As the capital grew, these and many other communities were drawn inside the city limits. If you ask Santiaguinos you meet today where they reside, they are just as likely to mention their neighborhood as their city.
 
It wasn't until after Chile finally won its independence from Spain in 1818 that Santiago took the shape it has today. Broad avenues extended in every direction. Buildings befitting a national capital, such as the Congreso Nacional and the Teatro Municipal, won wide acclaim. Parque Quinta Normal and Parque O'Higgins preserved huge swaths of green for the people, and the poplar-lined Parque Forestal gave the increasingly proud populace a place to promenade.
Santiago today is home to almost 6 million people -- nearly a third of the country's total population. It continues to spread outward to the so-called barrios altos (upper neighborhoods) east of the center. It's also growing upward, as new office towers transform the skyline. Yet in many ways, Santiago still feels like a small town on a city break, where residents are always likely to bump into an acquaintance along the city center's crowded streets and bustling plazas.
Buenos Aries
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina. It is also the country's chief port and leading industrial center. About a third of Argentina's people live in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. The city lies in eastern Argentina, along a broad, muddy, funnel-shaped bay called the Rio de la Plata.
More: Buenos Aires is one of the largest cities in the world; a megalopolis with over eleven million inhabitants in both the city and its surroundings. It is also the most elegant and the busiest city in South America which represents the Argentine essence.
In spite of its modern constructions and dynamic activity, it has managed to preserve old traditions and charming corners. Visitors are fascinated by its environment, the individuality of each of its neighbourhoods, the cordiality of its people, and its wide selection of cultural and commercial opportunities.
Buenos Aires, surrounded by Argentina’s splendid countryside, is the great cosmopolitan doorway to South America.
Located in front of the Río de La Plata, it is a modern, dynamic and radiant city that features the European architecture of its founders and absorbs the passion of its people; the "Porteños" (people of the Port).
Considered "The Pearl" of South America, Buenos Aires has an intense cultural life where tango, long coffee klatches and football (soccer) are essential elements in its people daily lives.
Buenos Aires is a very interesting and intriguing city break where visitors can enjoy a variety of activities.
 
During the day you can visit museums, historical places, walk along the Avenida de Mayo, take a guided tour or simply have a coffee in a coffee shop on the Avenida 9 de Julio. At night you can go to a Tango show in San Telmo, have dinner in a typical "parrillada" or go to a pub to listen to live rock or jazz bands.
Even if you go shopping, to the theater, or to see a night show, it surely will be something you will never forget.
Biking around Buenos Aires is nice and fun, but you must take some precautions. There are no restrictions for riding bicycles on streets and avenues, but it can be dangerous since, depending on the time and the area, there can be a lot of traffic and drivers aren't too patient with cyclists. We recommend that you use the bike-trails located in the Bosques de Palermo, Costanera, Parque Thays, Av. Figueroa Alcorta and Avenida Libertador.
Montevideo
Montevideo, the southernmost capital on the continent, is home to half the country's population. Born on the banks of the Río de la Plata, Montevideo first existed as a fortress of the Spanish Empire and developed into a major port city in the mid-18th century. European immigrants, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British, influenced the city's architecture, and a walk around the capital reveals architectural styles ranging from colonial to Art Deco. Indeed, the richness of Montevideo's architecture is unrivaled in South America.
Although Montevideo has few must-see attractions, its charm lies in wait for the careful traveler. A walk along La Rambla, stretching from the Old City to the neighborhood of Carrasco, takes you along the riverfront past fishermen and their catch to parks and gardens where children play and elders sip mate (a tea-like beverage). Restaurants, cafes, bars, and street performers populate the port area, where you will also discover the flavors of Uruguay at the afternoon and weekend Mercado del Puerto, or Port Market. Many of the city's historic sites surround Plaza Independencia and can be visited in a few hours.
To be sure, the 13 million-plus megalopolis Buenos Aires, famed city of Evita, tango and soccer-sensation Maradona, is one of the world's great cities, a must see. If you have limited time in South America, by all means, B.A.'s the place to go. And if you're solely in pursuit of the best restaurants, the biggest monuments, the grandest boulevards and the chicest people, then the "Paris of the South" is your spot.
 
But if you have extra time while in and around Buenos Aires; if you're an enthusiast of quirky, cheap, authentic, un-self-conscious places that haven't been deflowered by mobs of tourists; if your South American dream sequence--eating thick slabs of beef, drinking red wine, then watching sultry Latinas wailing in smoky tango bars--must conclude with a small bill; and if your fantasy includes an affordable room in a nearly elegant, European-style hotel surrounded by tree-lined, monument-laden plazas, within easy walking distance to the country's greatest sculptures and art museums, theaters and white-sand beaches . . . well, then, you could be interested in Montevideo.
Tango's Second City. With two All Tango radio stations, more than 20 tanguerias (dance halls) and seven tango schools, Montevideo is more tango-mad than even Buenos Aires. B.A., it turns out, never monopolized tango--the art grew up simultaneously in the working-class neighborhoods of both cities in the late-1880s. And proud Uruguayans will inevitably tell you that tango's most famous song, "La Cumparsita," and the genre's most famous performer, Carlos Gardel, are products of Uruguay. The city is undergoing a tango renaissance, with new clubs opening and a new generation of performers learning the art. A tango show (dinner and drinks) at one of the tourist-friendly Buenos Aires spots costs around $50; a show in Montevideo will cost half that. Stop by Montevideo's visitor center (Lavalleja 1409) and pick up a map of the city's tanguerias, many an easy walk from the Old City. Check out the famous two-hour "History of Tango" show at the club Tangueria del Cuarento. If you love to tango, make Montevideo your city break.
Asuncion
Like most Latin American cities, Asunción suffers from haphazard development and inadequate infrastructure. During the day, the zona centro (city center) is packed. Street vendors crowd sidewalks, and traffic hurtles by. Drivers play a dangerous game of chicken at every intersection, and crossing the street becomes a terrifying experience as buses bear down on pedestrians with seemingly murderous intent.
But take a step back and you'll see another side of the city that was once the colonial capital of southern South America. On the drive from the airport, the taxi whisks by the magnificent mansions lining Avenida Mariscal López. Remnants of Asunción's prosperous past can also be detected in the delicately decorated facade and balconies of belle epoque buildings that have survived the vagaries of fashion (though many of them are now attached to fast-food establishments).
Alongside the money changers and peddlers are women selling bundles of herbs and roots -- centuries-old remedies for every bodily ailment. Contrasting with the hustle and bustle of the commercial center just 100 meters away, the pristine columned Government and Legislative palaces overlook the Bay of Asunción, as cool river breezes rustle through jacaranda and flame trees in the nearby riverside park. During the day, rich and poor rub shoulders, air-conditioned sedans jostling at crossroads with packed buses. At night the wealthy drive to their elegant suburban homes while street vendors lug their unsold wares back to the reclaimed swampland of La Chacarita shantytown just below the Legislative Palace.
 
Yet, despite the chasm between the classes, visitors need not be overly concerned with theft and violence. Rich or poor, the Asunceño is invariably courteous and helpful.
There is still that old sense of intimacy. Although there were now well over a million people in Asuncion, it had somehow sustained the illusion that everybody knew each other, that there was a commonality or purpose, a quiet confederacy. You feel like this partly because you cannot interpret the Paraguayan reserve, the silence on the buses, the absence of rage.
But there is something else as well. Many people lived out their lives on the street and you can see the same people time and time again: watchmen grilling meat, money-changers with satchels of bank-notes, tarot-card readers, shoe-shiners, Maka Indians hawking frail weapons. Somehow, their lives seemed to be so unjustifiably self-contained, this is a very interesting city break.
La Paz
The city of La Paz is nestled in a valley atop the Bolivian plateau, surrounded by snowy peaks and dominated by the white head of Illimani, the sacred mountain. The setting is sure to take your breath away (and if the setting doesn't, the 3,739m/12,464-ft. altitude will), but that's not what I love best about La Paz. The Paceños themselves, the city's inhabitants, are what make this place unforgettable. No other major South American city holds on to its past so firmly. Many of the women wear traditional clothing every day: colorful multilayered petticoats, fringed shawls, lace aprons, and (oddest of all) bowler hats, which look like they came straight from a prewar London haberdashery. You'll see these women throughout the city -- on the buses, in the churches, shopping, or perhaps setting up their own shops.
They probably won't be setting up shop inside, though -- hardly anyone does in La Paz. The city is one giant street market. In stalls on the sidewalks or at street corners you can buy not only batteries and chewing gum, but also dice and leather dice-cups, socks, hats, sneakers, cameras, and telephones. In the Mercado Negro (Black Market) area of the city, computers, electric drills, bookcases, office supplies, and everything else you could think of are all displayed on the sidewalk. At the Mercado de los Brujos (Witch Doctors' Market), the discerning shopper can find the finest in good-luck statuettes and all the materials required for a proper offering to Pachamama, including baskets of dried llama fetuses. Perhaps you aren't in the market for such things, but just being in a place where people are is half the fun of La Paz.
La Paz was founded; headquarters of the government of Bolivia and capital of the department of the same name. Since its foundation, the city has known how to harmonize those features of its cultural and architectural inheritance, with discreet flashes of modernity that constitute authentic brushstrokes of the future in the andean height.
 
Squares invaded by hundreds of hungry doves... peace doves?, markets of crafts in which words in quechua and aymara are whispered, a valley that resembles to the moon surface, streets in perpetual ascent that end in sublime colonial churches... but, it is necessary to walk slowly, to avoid the rigors of the 3,640 metres above sea level, a fantastic city break.
Days of peace and of an exaggeratedly blue sky in one of the jewels of the Andes that glows due to the protector presence of the Illimani (6,403 meters of altitude), the powerful guardian of the most important city in Bolivia, arisen when the clamors of the civil war ceased among the Spanish conquerors.
Times of bloody battles in the stony lands of the Andes. Evil winds of desolation descended of the snowy picks of the mountain range. War and fright, blood and death, because in the lands, stolen to the mythical sons of the Sun, the Spanish conquerors brandished the sword and loaded the guns to support their desires of wealth and to kill the ambition of their own blood brothers.
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