I went for a trip just over 3 weeks to South America. It was something that I have been wanting to do for years. Most of my time was spent in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
April 20th to 21st
I arrived on Wednesday morning and now it is Friday midday. It is so good to be here; I have done some sightseeing and I have enjoyed some good food. I really should try to speak more Spanish. I need to try harder. I think I shall spend some time doing language drills on the BBC languages web-site.
I am renting an apartment from a couple Steve and Mariana. Steve and I have known each other for a few years now; we met at a conference in New York about 4 years ago and stayed in touch. We have met up in Los Angeles and London and now in Argentina. Steve was living stateside but has been living in Argentina now for a year and a half. Mariana is from these parts; hence the move to Argentina to greatly simplify the story.
The apartment is in Palermo Viejo.; Viejo means old. This area was rundown about ten or so years ago. It has been become quite popular of late and is full of bars and restaurants. It reminds me place like East Dulwich and Northcote road in London. The area is self contained and you can find many thingss within walking distance. There is even an Irish pub in the area. There is a new shop or restaurant opening up here all the time. It is a fantastic place to be based in Buenos Aires. The buildings are not so tall here and it is quite laidback during the day. It can be quite hopping at night. Many of the streets are named after Latin Amercian countries in this area. The apartment for example is near Honduras street.
April 26th
I am now in the Sheraton hotel in the national park at Iguazu in the north of Argentina as I type this.
Colon
Early Saturday morning on April 23rd, Steve and I leave Buenos Aies to go a town called Colon in the province of Entre Rios. It was over a four drive. We left Buenos Aires around 6 AM which meant we had to get up around 5 AM – ughh. But we wanted to get an early start on the day and make the most of it.
Originally, the plan was to go stay in a place outside Colon that has rooms made from railway cars. But when we got there, we found that they were all booked up. Before we left, we had a look around grounds. There was a flock of birds that looked like minature Ostriches kept in a pen; they are type of Rhea called Nandu. The father tends to the raising of the young; I got fairly close to the adult bird and looked it in the eye briefly; you want to pet them but I would like to keep my fingers so I resisted the temptation. A bird that big and their brains are quite small in comparison. As Steve said to me they may not be that smart but they act rather instintively.
April 27th
The hotel I am staying in is in the park grounds; I took a small train that takes you to the path to get to “The Devil's Throat” or “Garganta del Diablo” in Spanish. The Throat is the main feature of the falls. See the photos and you will see what I mean. There was many groups of people jostling for position to take photos in front of the falls.
An impatient older lady in said something in Korean to make me move as she pushed me out of the way. Isn't funny how you be looking at something so beautiful and people cannot just wait a minute to give people a chance to have a look. The falls were not about to dry up and run out of water. I took the time to admire the majesty of the falls for a little while.
There are a few paths in the park to see different sections of the falls; I walked along alll of them today. I was not having much luck in seeing wildlife; with all the people about the park, the animals keep to themselves. I did hear that other people saw: an anteater, caimain, monkeys and a family of coatis (a type of raccoon); I did see some vultures and fish and many little birds. It also rained quite a bit today; I am going to visit some of the paths again tomorrow if the sun is out.
May 6th (updated July 2006)
Well, here I am one day before I fly back to the U.K.
Over the last few days I went on a day trip to Colonia in Uruguay, took a Tango lesson, and saw some contemporary art along with walking around Buenos Aires a bit more.
I have on and off been taking Tango lessons in London and I wanted to take a little refresher. I took a two and half hour lesson with a friend of a friend. The teacher's name is Miriam. I went to the lesson with Javier who works at Red Car. Javier dances the Tango and came along with me. He was very helpful translating for me when I did not understand what Miriam was saying. I was kind of worn out by the end of the lesson but I was happy. The Tango is a very technical dance; it is the only type of dance that I have tried to learn; I did try Capoeira once in London but that is not a typical dance. You need to concentrate but not over think. And there is of course as the leader you need to lead your partner and move with the music. When all three things are going well, it is such a great feeling.
Epilogue
I am truly glad I went to Argentina. I keep thinking about gong back. After years of thinking about going to South America it finally happened.
This photo above was taken in the square near the apartment I was staying in. I ended up sharing a table with the these 2 women and the fellow was taking instant photos to sell to people. But then who took the photo of us? This was sometime in May which is the start of fall in South America. Even though, the nights were getting cooler it was still warm enough to be sitting outdoors in the middle of the night.
I did go visit Rocio one more time at the studio space she was working in. I shot some video with her which I have yet still to edit. We had a chat and drank some tea.
I do want to go back to South America and go for a ride in the Tren a las Nubes (Cloud Train) in Northern Argentina and go to places like the wine country in Mendoza. And I would like to see some of Bolivia and get up to Peru to see lake Titicaca. Steve has been telling about a place called San Luis in Argentina. I hope to be there as soon as possible