BRAZIL – RIO GRANDE SUL – EAST & WEST

RIO GRANDE DO SOL “Great River of the South”) is a state in the southern region of Brazil . It is the fifth-most-populous state and the ninth largest by area. Located in the southernmost part of the country, Rio Grande do Sul is bordered clockwise by Santa Catarina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Uruguayan departments of Rocha , Treinta y Tres , Cerro Largo , Rivera and Artigas to the south and southwest, and the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Misiones to the west and northwest. The capital and largest city is Porto Alegre . The state has the highest life expectancy in Brazil, and the crime rate is relatively low compared to the Brazilian national average. Despite the high standard of living , unemployment is still high in the state, as of 2017. The state has 5.4% of the Brazilian population and it is responsible for 6.6% of the Brazilian GDP.
The state shares a gaucho culture with its neighbors Argentina and Uruguay. Before the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish settlers, it was inhabited mostly by the Guarani and Kaingang peoples (with smaller populations of Charrúa and Minuane ). The first Europeans there were Jesuits , followed by settlers from the Azores . In the 19th century it was the scene of conflicts including the Ragamuffin War and the Paraguayan War . Large waves of German and Italian migration have shaped the state as well.

RIO GRANDE do SUL EAST (Porto Alegre, Caxias do Sul)  April 27, 28, 2022

I took the bus from Florianopolis to Porto Alegre (16:30 – 22:30, 6 hours, 159 BR) and took an Uber to my hostel, POA Ecohostel (60 BR/night). 

PORTO ALEGRE  (‘”Joyful Harbor”‘) (pop 1,488,252) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and the twelfth most populous city in the country and the center of Brazil’s fifth largest metropolitan area, with 4,405,760 inhabitants (2010). The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian state.
Porto Alegre was founded in 1769 by Manuel Jorge Gomes de Sepúlveda, who used the pseudonym José Marcelino de Figueiredo to hide his identity; but the official date is 1772 with the act signed by immigrants from the Azores, Portugal.
The city lies on the eastern bank of the Guaíba Lake, where five rivers converge to form the Lagoa dos Patos, a giant freshwater lagoon navigable by even the largest of ships. This five-river junction has become an important alluvial port as well as a chief industrial and commercial center of Brazil.
In recent years, Porto Alegre hosted the World Social Forum, an initiative of several non-government organizations. The city became famous for being the first city that implemented participatory budgeting. The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Porto Alegre in 2006. Since 2000, Porto Alegre also hosts one of the world’s largest free software events, called FISL.
In the middle of 2010s, Porto Alegre had a growing wave of violence, being ranked as 39th among the world’s 50 most violent cities in 2017. Nevertheless, the number of violent crimes has been dropping steadily since 2018. 
Porto Alegre Airport (POA)
The plan was to see the NM sites in PA and I went out despite the rain. However, it was so windy, it was impossible to stay dry or keep the my umbrella from inverting, I returned to the hostel to stay another night. It was good to have another day off and take it easy, reading and catching up on business. 
Memorial Prestes. In the NM Architectural Delight series, the Luiz Carlos Prestes Memorial is a memorial and cultural center designed by Oscar Niemeyer to be a tribute to the life of Luiz Carlos Prestes. It is a round building with all black glass windows. It has a photographic collection that narrates the history of the ninety years of the Brazilian communism. With a collection of 135 photographs, a small auditorium and a space available for exhibitions, debates, artistic presentations,


Day 2
I had a walk to the bus terminal and on the way saw the following sites. 
Monumento aos Açorianos (Monument to the Azoreans) is a public art monument in honor of the arrival of the first sixty Azorean couples that populated the city in 1752. Built in 1973, made of steel, it resembles a caravel, composed of intertwined human bodies and, in its front, a winged figure that resembles the mythological Greek character Icarus, representing the victory of reaching a new country having traveled through the sea. The monument is 17 meters high and 24 meters wide.
It is located in one of the most famous plazas in the city, the Azoreans’ Plaza and has an inscription reading “Never would those Azorean couples have dreamt that, from the seed they had thrown to the soil, the splendor of this city would grow.”
In 2013 the monument was walled off to protect it from vandalism and restored over 3 years: a two-level water mirror connected by a small waterfall.Catedral Metropolitana is a Catholic Church located in the city center, in the Praça da Matriz. The Baroque-style cathedral has two bell towers flanking the main entrance. The current cathedral was built in 1921-1972.
It is an elegant church: five large mosaids on the facade, 3 naves supported by 3 massive columns per side (marble around central column, a giant dome at the cross and stained glass high up and at the cross.

Júlio de Castilhos Museum. (1860-1903) was a Brazilian journalist and politician, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, and was the principal author of the State Constitution of 1891.
Castilhism was a political theory that encouraged direct participation, such as plebiscites and popular referendums; the establishment of a modernizing, interventionist, and regulating the economy
1231 Duque de Caxias, the last house in which he lived was converted into the Júlio de Castilhos Museum plus a monument in the Praça da Matriz, and the town of Júlio de Castilhos, where he was born, was named in his honour.
This has an eclectic collection: a carriage, passenger liner model, fashion from the 1930s, polychromes, indigenous artifacts (bows and arrows, pots, funerary urns, baskets, stone tools, women’s elegant fashion, and his apartment with a bedroom, desks, and awards. Porto Alegre Public Market. Built as a one-story building in 1884, a second floor and high roof supported by a steel girder system was added in 1910. It is a lovely market with only food (produce, meat) and restaurants. I ate lunch here and it is always a challenge to order.
I then Ubered to the plane and back to the terminal.
Varig Experience. This is a Douglas DC-3, a twin-engine, 32-passenger airplane in use in the 1930s and 40s. It revolutionized passenger travel and carried 90% of all air traffic in the US. Cruising at 279 km/hour, its flight duration was 9 hours.
This plane sits behind a mall area with many restaurants and next to a playground and soccer pitch. It cannot be entered.

I didn’t see any of these in Rio Grand Sul East
PORTO ALEGRA
Itinerant Egyptian Museum
PUCRS Museum of Science and Technology
Tentative WHS: Station écologique de Taim (Rio Grande do Sul) (06/09/1996)
XL
Chuy/Chui
Mostardas ‘spit’ (RG do Sul)
Religious Temples: Três Coroas: Templo Budista
World of Nature
Aparados da Serra NP
Caracol Park
Lagoa do Peixe NP
Botanical Gardens: Lajeado Botanical Gardens
Waterfalls: Caracol Falls
Lakes: Lagoa dos Patos
Rivers
Jaguarão/Yaguarón River
Rio Negro
Festivals: Festa da Uva, Caxias do Sul
Beaches: Tramandai Beach
Well-being: Wineries: Vale dos Vinhedos (Bento Gonçalves)
Lighthouses São José do Norte: Barra Rio Grande Lighthouse
Windmills and Wheels: Bento Gonçalves: Moinho Bertarello
Railway Museums: Garibaldi Railway Station Museum
Cities of the Americas
BENTO GONCALVES
CAXIAS de SUL
ERECHIM
PELOTAS
RIO GRANDE
SANTA CRUZ do SUL
Villages and Small Towns
IVOTI
CANELA
Religious Temples: Canela: Catedral de Pedra
Theme Parks and Miniatures: Canela: Mundo a Vapor
Hospitality Legends: Canela: Grande Hotel
Bizzarium Canela: Beatles Museum
GRAMADO
Religious Temples: Gramado: Igreja Matriz Sao Pedro Apostolo
Zoos: Gramado Zoo
Theme Parks and Miniatures: Gramado: Mini Mundo
Festivals
Gramado: Gramado Film Festival
Natal Luz, Gramado
NOVA PETROPOLIS
Open-Air Museums: Nova Petrópolis: Aldeia do Imigrante
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I took the bus from Porto Alegre to San Miguel das Missoes (22:30 – 5 am, 6.5 hours, 186 BR)

RIO GRANDE do SOL WEST  (Santa Maria, Uruguaiana)

SAO MIGUEL das MISSOES
Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil). World Heritage Site. (St. Michael of the Missions, São Miguel Arcanjo, Misión de San Miguel Arcángel). Built between 1735-1745, it was one of the many Spanish Colonial Jesuit Reductions in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. Spanish Jesuit missionaries founded the mission with the goal of converting the Guaraní Indians to Christianity and protecting locals from the Portuguese slave traders known as the Bandeirantes.
The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 transferred sovereignty over the area from Spain to Portugal. The Spanish Jesuit missions were ordered to move to the retained Spanish territory west of the Uruguay River. The Guaraní tribes refused to comply with the order to relocate from their homelands, now deemed in Portuguese “territory”, which led to the Guarani War. A joint Portuguese-Spanish army attacked and defeated the Guaraní, and the mission was destroyed.
The Spanish Colonial architecture of the ruins was declared a WHS in 1984 along with Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina),

M@P:
Brazil/Uruguay (disputed) – Brazilian island
Brazil/Uruguay (disputed) – Rincón de Artigas
XL
Rio Grande do Sul southwest (Uruguaiana area)
Rivera/Santana do Livramento 

Cities of the Americas
BAGE
URUGUAIANAC
SANTA MARIA
Art Museums: Santa Maria: Museu de Arte de Santa Maria
PASSO FUNDO
Airports: Passo Fundo (PFB)
Vehicle Museums: Passo Fundo: Museo do Automobilsmo Brasileiro
Villages and Small Towns

Roads, Road Bridges and Tunnels: Road – BR-153: Transbrasiliana Highway (Macapa-Uruguay border)
History, Culture, National and City Museums
São Gabriel: Gaucho FEB Museum
São João do Polesine: Italian Immigrant Museum
House and Biographical Museums: Cruz Alta: Érico Veríssimo Museum
World of Nature: Ibirapuitã Protection Area
Waterfalls
Panambi: Cascata do Rio Caxambu
Salto Yucumã Waterfall
Rivers
Quaraí River
Uruguay River
Military, War and Police Museums: Panambi: Brazilian Military Museum
Bizzarium: Itaara: Museu Internacional de Ufologia, História e Ciência Victor Mostajo