The Fog

I won't have much time to add anything new for the next few weeks since I'm headed waaaaayyy down to the southern tip of South America (650 miles north of Antarctica!) for the next week and a half, so here are a few items of interest to "show off" before leaving town.

A while ago we had some fog roll through the city (it's so humid that during the winter-to-spring transition it creates some interesting weather situations). So whilst wandering around one Saturday afternoon, here are a few scenes from foggy Buenos Aires... on the left, this is the view in the Plaza de Mayo. It sorta feels like you're in London or Paris, with the exception of the kidnappings, motor thieves, labor strikes, protest marches, and work stoppages constantly going on. ¡Viva la america latina!

Moving along, to the right is another view of the Plaza de Mayo, over towards the old Cabildo building. It was really strange because in my neighborhood (20 minutes away by subway), it was a sunny blue sky day... but when I arrived downtown, this is what was going on. You could see where the actual wall of fog began and ended - really weird but interesting. I am submitting it to Al Gore for more proof of "global warming". Plus with summer on it's way, I suspect the globe down here will become even warmer in the coming months. Al Gore will be getting lots of email from me keeping him apprised of our situation down here.

I also made a stop in the mega-touristy barrio of La Boca. This is the place where all the ubiquitous photos are shot of the Argentine tango dancers in front of the multi-colored houses, buildings, etc. But the real "photo action" this day was down by the docks on the foggy Rio Riachuela that feeds into the Atlantic (eventually). I also did a nice job editing out all the nasty garbage and junk floating in this river... if you accidentally fell in, I bet you'd lose a few layers of skin and probably contract some sort of hideous, incurable skin disease. Yes, it's that nasty and smelly. Looks pretty, tho...

Anyhoo, tomorrow is the big day that I head down to Patagonia. For those with a map, I'm flying down to El Calafate (for the Perito Moreno glaciar), then across the border to Puerto Natales, Chile to hike in the Torres del Paine national park, then down to Punta Arenas (Chile), and finally back across to Argentina to "the furthest south (populated) city in the world", Usuhaia. Then back to Buenos Aires... or at least that's the plan for the moment!

Iguazú Falls

After Paraguay it was time to find a bus and head 300 km south to Encarnación, a Paraguayan border town near Argentina. I didn't really take any pictures of it, but it was pretty nice for a border town. Fairly "secure feeling" as well... most border towns have barred windows all over the place & a lot of seedy people on the street corners but Encarnación was pretty nice over all. When I walked around downtown at 10:30 PM or so it was kids and old folks galore.

The next day I crossed the border with my ultimate destination being 250km away in Puerto Iguazú (at the spectacular waterfalls that form "the triple border" of Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil). I have a bazillion pictures of them so it'll be hard to figure out which ones to post here.

But to summarize, they're almost 2 miles long, drop down over 200 feet, and during the rainy season (when I was there) there's nearly a half MILLION gallons of water per SECOND going over the falls. Or, if you're a fan of the metric system, 1800 cubic meters of water... which means nothing to me. I had to 'Google it' for the conversion.

There's an Argentina side and a Brazilian side to the falls. Brazil has the best panoramic view but you get to 'experience' the waterfalls on Argentina's side. But I did not go on the Brazilian side for reasons that I've already ranted about in months past (least of all spending $100 USD for a stupid one day visa!). Plus I'd already seen it 3 years ago. And Argentina has a really impressive national park that costs $30 or $40 pesos, depending on low or high season.

It's huge with 3 different levels to view / walk around things, so you end up doing at least 5 miles of walking on the trails and catwalks themselves (if you see the entire park). Plus you can ride a boat down by the falls and get soaked, take a jeep through the jungle, paddle a canoe, and who knows what all else.

Officially, it was winter (and in the upper 80s) while I was there. Summer temps have to be brutal! But some people are prepared for the weather, no matter what comes at them as my favorite tourist of the day proves. This sassy little emsemble of a T-shirt, pink flowery shorts, and black socks will be all the rage in Paris next fashion season... so I assume, since I heard him speaking French.

Plus I was lucky to be there on a sunny day this time around. The last time I was there, it was overcast and rainy so the sun really made a major difference in the experience. Especially when it came to the wildlife.

"I call the big one Bitey" (someone reading this will get my obscure Simpsons reference!). Anyhow, here you can see some of the coatís... I don't think we have them in the USA but they're sort of like long-snouted raccoons. And they're really cocky and try to mug you for your lunch at the snack bar.

Besides the coatís (that were all over the place, not just the food- intensive areas), there were monkeys, crocodiles, exotic birds (allegedly toucans, which I never saw), and who knows what all else was hiding in the jungle. But at the bottom right is a good reminder why to not go into the water... besides the potential of going off a 200 foot cliff in 1800 cubic meters of river water.

And I guess that's it for this little trip. On the heals of it, next week I'm headed for a completely opposite experience, in the frozen south of Chile and Argentina: Patagonia! It should be a lot of glaciars (Perito Moreno) and hiking (Torres del Paine), while hopefully ending up at "The End of the World", Ushuaia!

Paraguay - Part II

Continuing where I left off last time, along the streets of Asunción... so you've now seen the highlights (nice buildings, etc). At left is a fairly good representation of the old colonial part of town... dating from the 1500s to 1700s, which is REALLY rare since most of it was knocked down by one military dictatorship or another in the past few centuries. An effort to modernize or something - I have no idea what the rationalization was. So let's move along to my "Poverty Tour 2007"...

Returning to the pink congressional building, this was a street that went down towards the river behind it. Onward ho!!! At least that's what the statue seems to be saying. Alas it's a great big shanty town down this street that you're onward ho'ing... leading to a huge "villa misería", as they call it in Spanish. It translates pretty well into English too, methinks.

Anyway, if you walk along the top of the hill (around the Congress building), this photo on the left is LITERALLY what you see down the hill in the "back yard" of the legislative branch. I semi managed to capture the wall dividing the top of the congressional hill from whatever lies below it. Anything below "the white wall" is subject to flooding. Whenever. However. And so on.

Here's a wider shot of the same area, below right. The business towers and strip malls around here are built on stilts, if that gives you an idea of what it's all about. Also, this would be one of those areas I mentioned that I didn't venture into at night. Actually, I didn't venture during the day either... this was close enough. Although I did read a few stories (on the internet) about some 'rocket scientist wannabes' that DID go look around... they usually ended up getting mugged or otherwise robbed.

So, right when you're thinking to yourself "Guess I've seen it all. Paraguay really is poor." No, this is one area that Paraguay can really distinguish itself. Moving right along over to the Plaza Uruguaya, this is what I happened to encounter. I don't quite know what the story is behind it, but when you're looking at the shacks, that's not the poorest area... this tent city is.

And I use the term "tent city" loosely, because really it's just rope tied around the trees with tarps slung over them to act as a tent. Then there's lots of campfires, laundry, and basically just sitting around. The big banner says "Dengue fever can be avoided", which is a mosquito-borne disease that's rampant in the tropics and especially in this country. Having been to both Bolivia and Paraguay now, I think I would have to say that Paraguay appears (to me, anyway) to be the poorest country. Bolivia at least has some hope in scenic wonders/tourist attractions plus natural resources (2nd largest South American producer of natural gas) going for it. Paraguay? Not so much.

But to end on a positive note (too late?), the people I spoke to were really nice and despite what the photos look like here, I never felt insecure/unsafe while there. In fact, you don't really even get harrassed by the street vendors. I plopped down in the middle of the main town square, Plaza Independencia, wondering how long it would take until I would be swarmed by the sunglasses-N-fake-Rolexes salesmen. After a half hour of taking in the afternoon, people watching, & enjoying some winter warmth, the grand total was exactly ZERO annoying salesmen that pestered me. So maybe Paraguay DOES have something going for it.

Up next: the Paraguay/Argentina border and the amazing waterfalls at Iguazú!

Paraguay

I'm back in BsAs from Paraguay (and Iguazú), safe-n-sound... what a whirlwind week of traveling. The itinerary took me from Buenos Aires to Asunción, then down through Paraguay to Encarnación on the border with Argentina, next up to Puerto Iguazú (Argentina), and finally back to Buenos Aires.

So, my commentary on Paraguay... it was "interesting". This is probably a two-part blog entry but we'll see. The building over on the right is the Pantheon of the Heroes of Paraguay -- it's the most famous building in the entire country, from what I could tell in all of the (very scant) literature about the place. It was nice but suffered from being wedged into the middle of a bunch of non-descript shops, office buildings, and what not.

To the left is a picture of the interior... I piggy backed on a tourist group of old folks that seemed to know where they were going. Everything I heard about the dearth of tourists in Paraguay was correct; besides the old folks, I saw ONE other tourist in the city plus TWO backpackers at the bus terminal when I was heading out of Asunción. And that was it. As far as the country being a glimpse into "old timey, original South America", if that means tons of garbage, poverty, buildings pock-marked by bullets from the last coup-de-tat attempt, plus military automatic weaponry (literally) everywhere, then Paraguay is the real deal.

On the other hand, the people were really nice and it was a very "secure" feeling place... decades of a military dictatorship that can imprison / execute you at the slightest whim for whatever infraction tends to instill that into the populace. See also "Saddam Hussein".

So, besides the Pantheon, the Government House for the President (to the right) was quite impressive. In the late 1800s, when it was built, it was said that the dictator who had it built laid down the edict that anyone caught looking at the building would be shot in the act. Charming. Anyway, besides guards with endless AK-47s surrounding the place, it was quite impressive looking.

Also it was sort of hot while I was running around photographing it IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!! I can't imagine how hot this country gets when it's any season other than winter. I think the temps went up in the low 90s while I was there "in the dead of winter".

OK, moving on... I next ventured over to the Congress (equivalent) building. It was interesting for several reasons... it's your standard (pink) government building but directly behind it, down a huge hill towards the river that Asunción was founded on, was a massive urban slum. In short, it was a place one does not venture towards, or after, sundown.

Also, if you looked at the edge of building, you could see pock marks from the bullets of yesteryear, during whatever previous coup attempt (or success) that went down. It's still not repaired. But here's a close up photo of it for your perusal and enjoyment.

OK, that's enough typing this time around. I'm getting carpal tunnels or something while writing this sequel to "War and Peace". At any rate, this is all the "Chamber of Commerce" type of stuff. If there was such a thing (but usually you have to have tourists if you have a chamber of commerce). Next time around I'll continue this recap with my "Poverty Tour '07" experiences. You can hardly wait.

The Other Guay

Soooo... my last entry before heading to Paraguay (official motto: "The Other Guay!")... we'll see how it compares to Uruguay. While doing some research on the country, I uncovered this incredibly exciting tid-bit:

"For all registered blood donors with an unsatisfied passion for dueling, Paraguay should be at the top of your list of places to go. It is a ‘fact’ that dueling is indeed legal in Paraguay, as long as both parties are registered blood donors."

Although I'm not a rabid fan of dueling, and it's irrelevant whether or not I've signed-up for the right to have internal organs freely distributed in the country in the event of an untimely death, it's still good to know there are places in the world where one can legally "demand satisfaction", and indulge themself in a good old fashioned duel.

Beyond that, while planning to later return across the border into Argentina (to get to the massive waterfalls at Iguazú), I selected using the Encarnacion/Posadas route instead of going through Ciudad del Este, then over to Foz do Iguazu (Brazil), and finally across to Puerto Iguazu (Argentina). This is mostly because I have not seen ONE positive thing about C.d. Este, unless you're looking for fake Rolex watches, knock-off Marlboro cigarettes, or to view some mid-east terrorists in training (yes, the city is well known for it). Anyway, to me C.d. Este sounds like that city in the 1st Star Wars movie with all the freaks, mutants, and pistoleros. Having grown up in New Mexico, I've already seen enough dumpy border towns that I don't mind missing this one.

Hopefully my next entry will have some nice waterfall, jungle, etc, photos posted. It all depends on how long it takes me to back up the photos from my camera, download them on this website, etc. In fact, I can officially say that I regret not bringing my laptop to Buenos Aires this time around. Broadband internet has hit in a big way in the past 3 years so most any apt with cable TV now has broadband access. No need to do "the internet cafe thing" as I (have to) do. Ah well, live and learn.

Off to the Races

A week or two ago, on a really cold (of course) Sunday, I spent an afternoon at the racetrack with a bunch of other expats. Last time I lived here, I mostly hung out with other students... this time, it tends to be expats or "porteños", as the locals are called. The attached photo looks like I nearly captured the finish as the winning horse crossed the line, but it's actually one of the last horses bringing up the rear. Hmmmm, I wonder if the horse track is where the saying comes from?

But to answer the obvious question... no, I didn't win any money -- anyone who knows me knows that I am far too cheap to bet on horse races... if I want to gamble/speculate, I put the money to work with options on oil company stocks. This is what's known as a "sure thing"! But a chica from Brazil (in the center of the photo) plunked down $5 pesos and won $125!!! Now THAT'S a nice return. The biggest complaint at the track came from the euros, who couldn't believe that it's illegal to sell beer at a horse track. Shocking!

In other news, I FINALLY got my visa to enter Paraguay. It's the least visited country in South America and very un-touristy. If my "tourist visa # issued" is any guide, as of mid-August we're at less than 700 TOTAL! So, I don't quite know what to expect. It's a bit odd when you tell your Spanish prof that you're going to Paraguay and you get a really quizical look with the question "why?!" But I've heard everything from "I would never go to Paraguay alone" to "It's really safe, low-key, and tranquil... but boring". So we'll see.

But that's another thing... I couldn't convince anyone else to go to Paraguay. They're mostly part of the backpacker crowd so I think they were too cheap to pay for the visa. So I'll be solo until I make it across the triple border to enjoy "las cataratas" ie., the waterfalls at Iguazú. I haven't done much traveling (YET! but I will make up for it with a vengeance later on) so this will be fun. It's been nearly 12 straight weeks of school so a break will be nice. I'm pondering a trip to Machu Picchu / Peru and Bolivia but, if it happens, it'll be pricey.

Everything is pricey around here. This super-cold winter is causing quite a bit of inflation (last week the paper said that it was the coldest July in Buenos Aires in 45 years). When they have to idle the factories because of a loss of power, they can't harvest/process/distribute food, fulltime jobs become partime jobs, and so it goes. I'm actually watching prices go up about 10% per month right now. Some things, like vegetables, are up nearly 50% this YEAR. Fortunately I'm in the land of good beef, chicken, BBQs, etc, so I couldn't care less about vegetables... except maybe potatoes, they're OK.

Brazilian invasion

It's August already?! Well now that July is over, the flood of Brazilians learning Spanish at the school has officially tapered off... back to work, school, the beach, or whatever it is that they do. In fact I only have 2 1/2 weeks of classes left at COINED... the time is flying by.

Anyway, the school tripled in size during the month of July -- the stories about Argentina being invaded during the Brazilian winter vacation weeks (all of July) were true. I ran the numbers one week and figured they were clearing $30k USD in one week... adjust it for buying power in Argentina and it's like making $100 grand in a single week!!

The downside is that a few weeks ago, it was so packed / disorganized / ridiculous that we started classes 1 hour late, had to go to a restaurant across the street because the school was overbooked, and my particular class had 8 students (when 7 is the supposed max). Naturally quite a few people threw a fit about it... it was a pretty insane week.

In compensation, I got two days of free private lessons (4 hrs total) to make up for the firedrill that week. Which I was happy with... 7 hrs of Spanish classes per day is a bit over the top for me. Not to mention when you leave, the city/country is your lab so there's no real break from it all. Anyhow, the majority of my time at COINED was mostly a class with a lot of Brazilians (the professor, a Russian, and I were the only non-Brasileños). This is a photo of the class. We'll all be finished by Aug 17. And then....

I'm "mounting an expedition" to Paraguay, en route to the Iguazú waterfalls on the Argentina/Paraguay/Brazil border, for a week or so. Apparently there is such high demand to go to Paraguay that they make Americans get a visa for $45 (one time) or $65 (life of the passport) to enter the country. Hmmmm, could the real reason be that it's just a money grab? Ah well, Brazil's requirements are even worse!

NORMALLY I would have gone to Brazil but their State Dept is having a spat with the USA State Dept, so.... Brazil requires $100 for a 30 day visa (or maybe 90 days, there's no logic to it as I'm told), copies of my bank accounts to prove I won't work (yeah right, who hands over THAT kind of info to Brazil?!!), proof that I have "onward travel plans", fingerprints (seriously! then they just throw them out) and probably dental records and references from my priest/pastor/rabbi/grandma. Ah well, I guess Brazil is teaching American tourists a lesson by refusing 100s to 1000s of $$$ from them in order to win a Phyrric victory of sorts (Google it). Anyway, it explains a lot as to why a country so rich in resources, great weather, food, an educated work force, large population, etc, etc, isn't the world super power that one would expect. So Paraguay, here I come!

I'll wrap this up while talking about July 20 in Argentina... "El Día del Amigo". Apparently every single day in Argentina is "día de something"... kids, dogs, firemen, workers on strike, etc, etc. Basically it's another excuse for a dinner party. I went over to Marta's place (who I rented an apt from, back in 2004). The one in the photo is a different apt because she's renting out the other one to some Americans... real estate sales/rentals to foreigners in this town is a whole subject in itself, some day maybe I'll discuss it. The short of it is that the locals can rent out apts for 3x - 4x of what they could get locally, so it's a huge business opportunity. OK, back on topic...

So, dinner went well towards 2am or so, this IS Argentina, afterall! The night ends with everyone sitting around yapping and sipping "mate". Mate is the odd tea-like conconction that is sipped out of a drug-paraphelia-looking-gourd-bowl-thing with slight overtones of musty socks and subtle hints of barnyard hay. OK, it's not half bad but it's definitely DIFFERENT.