United States

I just flew back to the US and boy are my arms tired.

I started my cumpledida/despedaños on Sunday with an asado, then kept it going with a trip to Chinatown, dance clubs, eating a lot, hanging with friends... Awesome. Today I celebrated my 24th as Gammie celebrated her 75th.

When I wake up tomorrow I'm definitely going to forget I'm here at first.

good travel karma

So yesterday I was in Brazil. Today I'm in Argentina. On Friday I'll be in the US of A. Cray cray.

After the last entry, I used the money I got from my bus ticket refund to find and buy a discount airline ticket on LAN airlines. The flight was delayed a few hours, but they promoted me to first class for free. So in the course of a few hours I literally went from sleeping in a bus station to drinking champagne as my giant plane seat gave me an electronic back massage (*).

I got home last night to find the homeboys ordering empanadas. We talked about Brazilian girls, Brazilian parties, and Brazilian party girls until I fell asleep.

Today I got my things in order. Soon I will start my Chanukah-Birthday celebration, the most ambitious multiple-day, multiple-country birthday party I've attempted yet.

I want the red ultra mega mega man.



*asterisk - funk fusion band

Brazil, cont´d

I write this entry from the bus station in São Paulo, the biggest and nicest bus station in South America. Earlier I was set up to be on a bus somewhere between here and Buenos Aires right now, but I thought I forgot my camera and went back to my friend´s house, only to find, once there, that it was in the very bottom of my backpack all along.
Oh well. I can be bumbly, I´m on vacation.

Back to Buenos Aires, take-two. And soon thereafter, back to the USA! It´s been a while, North America.

A REVIEW OF THE LAST FEW DAYS IN RIO:
Sunny, sunny days. I climbed up Pão de Açucar and wandered around the gigantic Jardim Botanico, taking photos like it was my job. I also spent an entire day on the beach, flaunting my blindingly white skin for the first time since the Argentinean winter came. And in a speedo, no less. I also drank out of a coconut for the first time since Honduras.

I hear açai juice is the new pomegranate in the United States. Well, Brazilians have known about it since... ever. It´s amaazing. Same with the ubiquitous pão de queixo and my favorite fast food place, Habib´s (for those of you who´ve seen Don´t Mess With The Zohan,... this place is Muchentuchen! fo reals!).

Anyway, I´m going to pass the time for a while until I can catch the next bus and I´ll catch you on the flipside.

BRAZIL ROCKS!

Side note, since a few people have asked:
Now that I´ve been here I can make a few comparisons, for those of you keeping track of my Argentina-Brazil loyalties: Pelé is better than Maradona, Maradona rocks harder than Pelé, Argentine pizza is better, Brazil has better fruits and vegetables, Argentina has better pastries, Brazil has better spicy food, Brazil has crazier parties, Argentina parties later, Argentinean asados have better meat, Brazilian churrascos have better seasoning, Brazil has better beaches, Argentina has better literature, Brazil has better original music, the beer is about the same in both countries, and I like Fernet better than cachaça. I can think of exceptions for every one of these sweeping generalizations and I welcome comments.

BRASIL SIL SIL!!!

You know it´s a good trip when I don´t have time for very many entries. Here´s a rundown of everything, before I run out the door for more adventures.

THE ITINERARY (so far)
Florianópolis
São Paulo
Rio de Janeiro (still here)

SOME STUFF I DID
Went to a gigantic party called Micarreta in Florianópolis where everyone wears the same t-shirt, and danced in the rain. Left Floripa the day before it flooded á la New Orleans. Shitchy! Saw little kids learning capo eira. Learned to dance forroa and aché (I´m misspelling this). Realized I´ve always known how to dance baile funky.

Met a French princess in São Paulo. Went to a churrasco where someone told me I look like James Bluntchy. Fuckers! Went to a São Paulo biker bar and made friends with everybody there. Saw but didn´t enter the Museum of Football (soccer). Ate all you can eat sushi. Twice. Learned that caipirinhas are deceptively strong. I now have an adoptive Brazilian mommy in São Paulo and I´ve realized that in my heart I´ve always been from the torçida of Palmeiras. Learned about the São Paulo skate scene firsthand. Played a pickup soccer game at a party, barefoot, and scored 3 goals (I was surprised too!). Learned, once again, that ciproflaxin is my friend. Learned to curse in Portuguese (porra!). Learned that Pelé is better than Maradona.

Climbed up to see the giant Jesus in Rio de Janeiro. Realized that it was more of a holy ghost than a Jesus because we were inside a cloud and the people working at the juice bar described to me what the view usually looks like when visibility is more than a few meters. Had a spicy delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving with Jen, Juli and awesome new friendles! Reunited with Mixmaster D from Buenos Aires. Danced samba and salsa in the same night.

It has been sunny a total of...about three days.

I have stayed in a hostel a total of... three days. The rest of the time, couch surfing and mooching like a campeão.

I love Brazil and I love Brazilians.

Beautiful, open, kind, hospitality like at momma´s house.

Brasil sil sil!!!

By this time tomorrow I will be on a bus deep inside the Brazilian border, moving toward Florianópolis, then São Paolo, then eventually Rio de Janeiro.

Eu vou ao Brasil! Estou muito feliz!

Halloween kvelling

Oh man!!! Easily the best Halloween party of my entire life!

My students and friends here are awesome! What an amazing party!

Beautiful spring day

A humid spring day, not a cloud in the sky.

I teach two English class sections in the early afternoon. We read Langston Hughs and Walt Whitman and consider what "the truth" means to them, and to us. We watch a clip from "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".

I get a visit from K-Gore, lovely cordobesa Fulbright friend and we drank tereré and talked about what we want to be when we grow up. She's had a Fulbrighty revelation: American Studies professor! I want to be her student. I have some ideas, we'll see.

I find a flank steak the size of my head at the grocery store and eat it. Cost: 2.30 pesos argentinos ( about 70 cents US).

I study Portuguese and eat dulce de leche wit' a spoon.

Thank you, Mister Fulbright.

Cheers,
Charly

cabos sueltos

Only a few personal projects left to finish up:

Halloween Party. This will be epic. La Plata will have its long-overdue costume party.

"Album" of original music. This will be epic. I have most of the songs recorded and will most likely be able to lay down the rest of the tracks in time to have a "CD release" mini-concert at our Halloween Party.

Project of academic importance. Pending... I found a book a while back that (oh no!) says everything I wanted to learn about my research topic. The other day, a friend gave me the (obvious) idea that I should translate the book. It would be an easy enough translation project to do, and the book is new enough that there isn't an English language version out yet. The author's from Buenos Aires, but the book was published posthumously by her parents. My hope is that I can find her parents and pitch the idea of translating the book. With under 2 months of Fulbright-ness left, I can at least get started on it and have all the contacts in place before getting home.

On all fronts, my epic friends here have inspired me to go further with my projects than I would have on my own. How Fulbrighty.

En pedo en la tierra de los nazis

Ok, the title's a little exaggerated but I'm sure you get the idea.

This past weekend I trekked to Villa General Belgrano along with 13 other Fulbrighters and their significant others and friends. We stayed in super awesome cabins (I highly recommend A y M Chalets, where we stayed - better even than home!) and we attended

OKTOBERFEST!!!

The biggest beer festival in all of Argentina! I bought a .75-liter beersteiner and a funny hat and all of us drank loads of ridiculously overpriced artesan beer, which was ridiculously worth it. All the major colonias and colectividades of the interior of Argentina were represented in a long series of parades and dances: German, Austrian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, Irish, Palestinian, viking (I'm not making this up!)... I got a photo with the viking, como dios manda.

It was great to soak up the sun and beer, and be with some of my favorite people around. We also hiked up the sierras cordobesas and I laughed about the cántádító córdóbés people speak with over there.

Abbotts and Rowleys, know that I upheld our family honor and, in Matt's stead, did a Russian dance to the polka music. My kneecaps are recovering.

Oom-pa-pa,
Charly
de la colectividad yanqui argentina

Wales and Whales

This past week was an Exam Week for my students here at the UNLP, which means I didn't have to give discussion classes. I subbed for two teacher friends at their institutes on Monday and Tuesday, and met with a lawyer I've been meeting with for English-language discussions, then on Wednesday I was off...

But where to go? I had initially planned on revisiting rainy Valdivia, Chile, so I could eat sopaipillas, drink Kunstmann beer, and eat burgers with guacamole on top. And compulsively say "po" at the end of every sentence. And revisit my Tía from when I lived in the pensión there as an exchange student 3 years back. But alas, as I evaluated the amount of time it would take to get there (35 hours each way by bus, and a plane would cost $800-plus USD) and the amount of time I had (5 days left until I had to be in class again), I realized it would not add up. What was I to do? I putzed around for a few hours in BA, and came upon an Argentine travel book with whales and penguins on the cover. The Welsh Peninsula, it read. I took it as a sign. So began my quest.

PUERTO MADRYN

I had wanted to explore further south for a while now. The time had come. It was a modest 14-hour bus ride to arrive there. I got on the bus with only one days' worth of extra clothes and a camera, all stuffed into my hippie backpack.

Yes, Puerto Madryn, settled by Welsh people (they're still there and they still speak Welsh and drink Welsh tea with Welsh scones), traversed by English corsair Sir Francis Drake and the author of Le Petit Prince, that Saint Exupery guy.

When I first arrived, and walked to the end of the pier, the city-slicker bonaerense voice inside of me shouted out "¡Ay no! ¿Qué hiciste boludo? ¡No hay nada acá, volvé ahora!" Just at that moment, said voice was immediately silenced by the prehistoric rumble of a whale's nostril shooting water vapor 10 meters into the air. Two others soon followed, a mama whale and a baby. I checked into a hostel and extended my return ticket by a few hours so I could to a full-day expedition the next day.

I had come alone, but traveling alone you're never really alone. Wait, can I fit alone into that sentence one more time? I met Fede, an Argentinean theater teacher who teaches at an International Bacchalaureate school in BA, who had also come alone for his school vacation. We met a nice Swiss girl and went out in search of the elusive Puerto Madryn night-life. The first few bars looked depressing: one old guy asleep on the bar, a bartender watching a second-tier soccer team on the TV... blah. We walked a few blocks, asking every passerby if they were from here and, if so where to go.
-No, we're from Spain.
-No, we're from Buenos Aires.
-No, I don't speak Spanish.
We eventually came upon a guy sitting on the sidewalk drinking a bottle. The dude was from there, and he happened to direct us to the only bar with more than two people in it on a Thursday night. It was named for a flower. We entered and had only one drink each (they were expensive) and soon after saw a group of recent high school graduates and their teachers stream onto the dance floor, chanting "BARILOOOOOCHE" and requesting cumbia song. The night was a success! We danced for a while and then I fell into a deep coma that lasted until 7am the next morning.

We set out in a van and headed to the top hooking peninsula of the semi-circular bay. This is where my narrative ends and the pictures begin. I saw whales (up close and personal in a little boat), orcas (we even saw them kill a seal), sea elephants, seals, penguins, armadillos, guanacos, and other critters.

Mission Completed.

I arrived again in Buenos Aires on Saturday afternoon and then went to see La Isla Desierta with Agus, as per Fede's recommendation. It was an amazing play put on entirely by blind actors in complete darkness. They used the other four senses impeccably: sound, touch, smell... ok, not taste, but who cares? It was the best play I have ever... not seen! We then ate Armenian food and headed home.

Success! The whole trip was sunny and warm and perfect.

Over a year

It's official. It's been over a year since I last resided in the U.S. ¡Cha chan!

I'll fly back to the States in December the day after my b-day. I'm going to try to pull off a Hanukkah birthday this year and drag out celebrations between Argentina and the U.S. (Shh! It's a secret! I'm going to amass a huge amount of presents and I want you, you there, to give me the Red Ultra Mega Mega Man action figure.)

I don't know what it's like in (North) America anymore (...but I live in the era informática and can get tidbits here and there from the New York Times, the Washington Post, YouTube, and all you scurvy dogs).

It sounds like some things over there have changed and others have not. Some things about me have changed too, and others have not. For example, I still like indie, jazz, funk, soul, and hip-hop music, big salads, complicated high-fives, The Daily Show, 'Merkin football, the DC Metro, Thanksgiving leftovers, Naan bread, Chipotle burritos....AHHH sorry I'm getting hungry, thinking about the US has that effect sometimes.

Some things that are different about me now: well, I've had some variation of a mullet for about 8 months now, I now can eat a close-to-raw steak without gagging, my cyrcadian rhythms are now completely out of sync with the sun, I know which bus to take to get to any part of the city (or the country), I compulsively say certain phrases I used to find annoying ("qué sé yo", "mira vos," etc. ad infinitum) and I now wear Argentinean underoos. These last three things are fairly recent developments and represent advanced symptoms of acute argentinidad. The one thing left for me to do is attend a clásico or stop seeing the irony in listening to Intoxicados - that will be the moment that I become fully Argentinean.

Anyway, time to stop eating pure dulce de leche with a spoon and go to bed listening to American hip-hop music. (It's my little trick to keep some part of me yanqui).

Recent good reads: España: Decí Alpiste, Diálogo de las Américas, Macanudo, Conejito de Viaje, El Eternauta (the last three are historietas, comic books)

My favorite internet video of the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ

GRE

After perusing the trivial verbiage that passes for GRE vocabulary with great perspicacity, this standard testing tyro has seen his initial diffidence replaced by confidence, obviated any possible complications sedulously and is ready to be tested.

It'll be like a practice run, I guess... I'll tell you how it goes, eh?

Pi-R-squared,
Ch.

Río Cuarto, Córdoba

Setting out from Mendoza, I got on a bus and took a long ride that would take me to Río Cuarto, in the province of Córdoba. Córdoba is known for their delicious alfajores, their rich farmland, the huge university town that is the city of Córdoba, and the strange cordobés accent (they put their em-PHAS-is on the wrong syll-A-ble). I'll be going to the city of Córdoba for their apparently-legendary Oktoberfest celebrations a few months down the road, but for now I stopped at Río Cuarto, where two Fulbright friends are teaching English.

I got in close to midnight to find Linds, K-Gore, and their friend Fran about to sit down to an amazing Italian dinner: salad with fresh pepper and pear slices, Risotto with chicken and grated cheese, and of course red wine. We ate together and Fran, a microbiology professor and a former scholarship recipient in the US, became the 100th person on this trip to comment on my porteño accent (You're number 100! You win a dance party!). We danced to 80s music until 4am, when the police arrived to notify us there was a noise complaint from a neighbor. Good night!

The next day I walked around the river for which the town is named with K-Gore, and pondered about what happened to the first, second and third rivers. There were horses all over (but here it wasn't just the trash collectors, and it didn't seem anachronistic) at the park, and Katie remarked that this maybe was what Chicago would look like a century ago. I could see it I guess. A lot of the buildings in Río Cuarto seemed to be new and they had a very blocky, modern architectural style, juxtaposed against the humble homes on the fringe of the river. We ate some really amazing facturas and drank maté at a nearby municipal field, which soon was invaded by a 9th grade boys' gym class. Haha.

Later on we studied vocabulary for the GREs (Linds is taking them too) and then recorded some songs (me on vocals, guitars and Miss Sovereign on vocals, drums). The songs can be found on my MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/checharlyeua
Happy listening!

Anyway, then it was off to La Plata on a bus the next day. Soon I'll be hanging out with Brazilian friends (Renata and Ygor are visiting, see earlier posts) and Agus and Tino and all my platense peeps.

MENDOZA

I left La Plata at night (this time I went for the classy cama section on the planta baja) and arrived at Mendoza the next morning, where I proceeded to hang out with Fulbrightera friend Lilli, who is way awesome and one of my favorite people around, and happened to have a whole extra room in her house free! My stay in Mendoza would be gratis.

We went over to the big public park near her house and I met her neighbor and a few friends. We layed out on a big blanket, drank mate and played guitars. Lilli´s friends were really nice and really cool.

Soon thereafter I went over to the bus terminal to meet up with Marcela my Chilean sister! YAY!!! You dedicated blog-readers will remember her from my last visit to Chile and from my estancia en Valdivia, Chile (po) (weón). She arrived and the familia feliz reunited! I gave her the iPod she had ordered from my last trip to the US and she jumped up and down and carried it around like her baby. Haha yeah!!

After that we went on the hunt for this restaurant that´s actually a house where a family cooks up a big dinner and guests eat with the family, whatever they´re having. The rumor is that they have the very best food in the whole city. We tracked down the place but it was closed, so we took a recommendation from the super-nice cabby who took us to a place with famous lomitos (for the Rowleys: ok, think of a Bumstead with fried egg and steak and other stuff in it, with amaaazing fresh French bread that tastes almost like crusty Angel food cake). The sandwich I got could have won a Nobel prize. I ate it in self-defense. It could have eaten me. Photographic evidence will be up soon on my Picasa site (at right on this bloggy). Lilli had been on one of those lemon juice fasts (trying to get her body to get rid of all that... well... Argentinean food) and she kindly broke her fast in honor of her esteemed guests, who were dead set on eating like chanchos.

After that we we stopped at an artesan ice cream place (the best in Mendoza, according to the cabby, whose opinion I trusted). It indeed was the best ever! We had a sundae between the three of us, then three shakes in succession (also between the three of us, with straws). Marcela and I had made a pact before the night started that we would return to our respective homes rolling like giant bowling-ball-people. I am a man of my word.

After that, Lilli and I went to her favorite bar, a place run by two of her friends. It was a really cozy, artistic place. The kind of place where the owner invites you into the kitchen to talk about the better points of empanadas with the chef (as we did).

The next day, Marcy and I went to the mall and I got a new poofy down vest and Marcy looked for iPod accessories and bought some chocolate and stuff to bring back. I took her to the bus station and watched ride of into the sunset (figuratively - it was about 3pm).

Lilli and I had tea and played music and philosophized and talked about grad schools and lesson plans and came up with a detailed plan of how we would start our own hostel/bar and what it would be like and how we could make it have our kind of vibe. We could link it to a local NGO, we could make a chain of them, we could use our contacts around here to... well, I shouldn´t reveal our entire business plan just yet. Suffice it to say it would be sweet!

After that we were off to a ciclo de cine run by the university in this giant and amazing theater, with a friend of Lil´s. It was a terrible, trite, ridiculous movie about Elijah Wood solving a serial killer mystery in Oxford, England by using...mathematical calculations? I should reveal that one of my favorite pastimes with good friends is to see terrible movies and be the only people in the theater who laugh. Mystery Science Theater style.

I´m now in the bus station in Mendoza, about to ¨study GREs¨ (draw a comic book of my trip), having eaten a heaping helping of amazing oatmeal, spinach salad with almonds and soy sauce, orange juice, coffee, and a delicious pastry.

If Lilli ran a hostel, I would stay there for a long time.

Mar del Plata

Before I start this entry I want to commend Ma and Pa for some serious serious computer help that is only possible in this era de la informática. We made a three-way call and were able to repair my ailing computer. It is now good-as-new (*knock on wood - as good-as-new as a compy with Windows Vista can be)!!! Thank you thank you thank you!

MAR DEL PLATA
I embarked for Mar del Plata to visit Sanchez and el Colo (Matt and Jake). They had already achieved celebrity status there after only a few months and it was cool to travel in their entourage. Their coolness gave me coolness my proxy. Anyway, I saw sea lions and went out to the ocean and ate a gigantic burger and loved it. I only spent a day there but I was able to get the full MDP experience. Artesan alfajores, playing pool (Jake kept explaining the international rules of pool, which apparently are completely different from the way I learned it, and kept saying ¨no, no, let´s play it your way¨... about the only thing they have in common is that you´re trying to get the ball in the pocket), having fun with our nationalities (Jake is Australian and it´s fun to have old people come over and say, ¨Aw yeah! Crocodile Dundee!¨ to us,... for Matt and I they didn´t know where the hell we would be from, with our apparent ¨caras de platenses¨).

It was like one of those times (have you had these, reader?) when you walk into a party and don´t know anyone and leave having met everybody. Like Wedding Crashers.

Pictures to follow.

I returned to La Plata and put together a heaping helping of salad (what? salad in Argentina?) with Agus. The next day I left for Mendoza!

Buenos Aires addendum

B.A., etc.
Haha, an explanation of the FOTC reference in the last posting: I was walking to the bus stop in Buenos Aires at about 11pm after a great long visit with the Colombian former-roommates. We ate choripan and walked around the Sunday artesan markets and then went to the coastal reserve park, then I went to my favorite ice cream place. I also registered for the GREs - I´ll take them in BA on the 19th. I figured, why not? Since then I´ve been re-studying geometry and trying to remember how I did analogies on the SATs whenever I´m on a long bus ride.

Anyway, I was walking to the bus stop around 11pm, right? Well 11pm on Sunday night must have been Ask-Charly-for-Money-O´Clock because no less than six people came up to me and asked me for money. The first guy was nice so I gave him a coin. The second guy was a cortonero and those guys are making an honest living and I totally respect him so as he was walking by and asked for a giant sip of the Coke I´d just bought I let him drink it. He drank about half in one gulp. The third guy was about to say some intricate I-need-money story but I interrupted before he could start and gave him the rest of the Coke. The fourth and fifth guys I just told them no because my generosity was spent and this was already well outside of my normal amount of giving (sorry, I´m being real here - I´m not made of money). The sixth guy was a disabled guy who I asked for directions and when he asked for change he started by saying ¨with all respect, you don´t have to, but...¨ so I gave him the last coin I had. Buenos Aires has a coin shortage almost year-round so this was a stretch for me, but he had helped me after all.

Finally, at the bus stop, some blonde guy in nicer clothes than mine came over to me and asked me for 5 pesos. Wait, did I say six people asked me for money? I mean seven. By now my response was NO WAY! He kept asking and started getting pushy and it turned to ¨No!... NO, NO, NO BOLUDO!! If you want 5 pesos get a $%&/· job! You don´t know what poverty is!¨ He didn´t like this and kind of lunged at me but I took a few steps back and started yelling at him, so he ran off. (There was a cop half a block away.) I stayed at the bus stop, legs trembling a little since I hadn´t cursed out a stranger in a long time, and put my hood up. My students tell me that you can tell someone looks dangerous if they´re wearing a hat and have their hood up.

*A confession: after living in Honduras I have a potty mouth. I am trying to correct this. It especially comes out when I´m angry or sleepy. I was both.

When I got home at 4 am, I didn´t have time to write the whole story so I put up the song. I was still thinking to myself, ¨What happened? Have I gotten soft since leaving Honduras? Are my defenses down? ... Or am I just over-confident here so I think I can walk in any neighborhood at any time of day?¨ I think it´s the latter. I mean, Buenos Aires, and all of Argentina for that matter, is so tame! I know Argentineans who don´t lock their door!

Anyway, that´s the story of

Inner.
City.
Pressure.

Hahaha.

Me in Buenos Aires on Sunday night. Haha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wqfcwgT0Ds&NR=1

Daddy Yankee and Mommy Yankee tour Argentina

Shortly after giving my final lesson, and getting an improvised visit from a WM friend, Ma and Pa got into town and I was ready to begin winter vacation!

I introduced them to Prof. Morales, my Fulbright referente, who is kind of like my Argentine mommy in La Plata, and we shared a huge family parrillada. They also got to check out my deluxe double apartment and meet Tino, Bob and Manson (my roommate and two fish respectively). They also had the pleasure, as some of you choice readers may have had, of staying on the new fold-out futon.

After a day and a half in La Plata it was time to roll out to Iguazú. This meant getting semi-cama bus tickets and packing into a double-decker bus full of Paraguayans with their cell phones blasting cumbia music on full blast. "Boom chicka boom chicka boom chicka ..." I met a nice Brazilian lady on the bus who is doing a Master's in Education in Paraguay is applying to a doctorate program at the UNLP. Anyway, twenty hours into hour scenic, officially-17-hour bus ride, we arrived at the town of Puerto Iguazú. We proceeded to stay in a sweet hotel that had breakfast and dinner buffets included in the price of our lodging. Oh yeah!

We visited the ecological park surround Iguazú Falls. There were wide, well-paved paths through the park and even restaurants, gift-shops, and Guaraní artesans with official nametags selling cool carved wooden things. We got some awesome mandatory us-in-front-of-the-falls pictures and then went on some of the trails through the woods, where we saw capuchin monkeys, coatíes (coatimundu in English? Like jungle raccoons), parrots, iguanas, and other beasties. We also went into a boat ride that actually took us under some of the falls. We had bought ponchos after seeing how pathetic all the people coming off the boat before us looked. Have you ever seen when a cat get soaked, and slinks around looking all mopey and indignant? That was them. Oh, but not us! We were ponchoed head to toe - we looked like triumphant condoms (*great name for an epic metal band) and we came out dry and happy!

At night we "hit" the "town". We were drinking beers and Fernet-and-Coke (Dad didn't like this admittedly foul-smelling Italo-Argentine mixed drink but he was brave and tried it) and a kid came over to our table and did magic tricks and then give us crystals out of a shoebox for good luck. What showmanship! He'll be famous some day.

We also went to the Triple Border area, where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil are separated and the merging of three river branches. Each side of the river has its own obelisk with its national colors on it and on a clear day like the one we spent there, you can see all the people in other countries taking pictures of you as you take pictures of them.

On the bus ride back, I formally withdrew any and all complaints I might have had about the first one. There was a screaming two-year-old with a nasty cough right behind me in the bus. I found myself wishing there would just be loud music from people's cell phones instead. Eventually, the baby got tired of screaming and her young parents learned that lollipops are only a quick fix for making her stop crying... And we woke up in Buenos Aires.

Their last few days were spent in Buenos Aires, where Agus and I were their official "native guides" bringing them to see the sights: the obelisk, the microcento, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, la Plaza de Mayo, la Casa Rosada, Recoleta, Floris Generalis, Tango Show at Cafe Tortoni, etc. When Mom and Dad left at the airport I realized that I had missed them more than I thought. At that same moment, Agus's brother was flying back to Spain. We pulled ourselves together and took a long series of cheap buses back to La Plata.

That same night, I got a visit from Justin (remember Honduras? He was there: co-founder of OYE). Justin, Agus and I spent two days just recharging in LP. Justin is now gone, my computer has crashed and been completely reformatted (thanks Dell tech support!) and in no time I will be en route to Argentina's hinterlands, where more exploration awaits.

La Plata in the news

La Plata was recently in US news: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/14/AR2008071401992.html?wpisrc=newsletter for hamburger innovations. Go us!

When we talked about the article in class, I found out that the following things were all invented in Argentina: the digital watch, the bus, pens, fingerprinting, bypass surgery, and pato (Argentina's national sport, similar to polo).

Dear Mr. Fulbright

Dear Mr. Fulbright,

Thank you for the academic conference in Uruguay the other week. I must be honest with you, ole Fulbrighty, I thought it would be a little boring. And I was a bit tired after our all-night HIP HOP party in La Plata...which rocked...

But it wasn't at all! I met some of the most amazing people ever and got so many ideas about things to do with my university classes from all the great people you've placed at schools in Uruguay, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. The horseback riding and free wine were also a nice touch.

Half a week later I found myself in Tandil presenting about human rights to a group of high school students in the Jóvenes y Memoria program for the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria.

Good show.

Atentamente suyo,
Charly el yanqui platense

Reflections

The first semester is over! Whoa, I'm halfway there! (Whoa-oh, living on a prayer?)

So, what have I learned? What kind of progress have I made? What awaits me?

Reflections (set to Babasónicos, I imagine myself in a Bill Cosby sweater as I write this)...
On being el yanqui platense: I am now at a point where I "pass for" Argentine the majority of the time. You know, walking down the street, talking to people, going through my day, etc. Or at the least I pass for a weird Argentine. I'm at that point where everything here has become pretty normal.

On "culture shock": I'm now at a point where I am adapted to living here and in some ways I can't imagine living somewhere else, at least for now. Every once in a while I feel a small "culture after-shock", like when I get a visit and try to explain things that now feel normal to me, or when people ask me questions about the U.S. I've realized that I have no idea what it's like there now except for what I hear from, well, people like you guys who are reading this. I've also realized that I'm okay with that.

On the future: The future's so bright I can hardly see it. For sure I'll be in North America come December. And that's about all I have to say about that. For now.

Coming adventures:
Winter vacation! Possibilities: Rio de Janeiro (have to work out that visa stuff), Iguazú Falls, Mendoza, etc. I hope to go to all these destinations and more before August 18th when I have to be in class again.
Visit from parents! In 2 days!

Viviendo el sueño

I'm back to Argentina after an 8-day power-jaunt to the United States for Matt and Darya's wedding, which was amazing! So much food, so much family, so many goings-on! I now want to take up my cool new in-laws on their offer to go to Moscow or Kiev someday.

Here in La Plata, things are busy once again and it is officially winter. I hit the ground running when I got back. I've been making some cultural presentations to local English institutes where my professorial university colleagues work and have had fun making people try Reese's cups and Craisins and having people ask me if North American universities are like in the movies. Yes, it's just like Animal House!

English III discussion sections are going really well! I've been having fun seeing their creativity come out as we did "Exquisite Corpse" storytelling (continue-the-story, where students pass on the narration of the story -- see my other blog for their stories). I've also done a few "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"-style improv games, which were an amazing success, especially in my Friday afternoon section. I'm also full-blast giving discussion sections for English I - it's fun talking to the freshmen and letting them just talk about whatever they want to and remember that, yes, despite how hard Phonetics I is, English speakers can still understand them when they speak in English. The British accent your professors all want you to have is just icing on the cake. I'm all set up to give more presentations in English IV and I'm preparing a lesson revolving around the film Garden State for the English II classes. So yeah, I'm busy. And very happy!

At the Comisión, I've been playing catch-up but things are going well now. The WM internship continues to chug along, and I'm trying to navigate my role as a middle-man who tries to connect really busy Commission employees and their resources with really busy WM students and their energy. Meanwhile I am, well, really busy. And at the Committee Against Torture, I'm now into the nitty gritty of looking at their databases for habeas corpus claims.

In my personal life, things are going really well! It's great to be back with my Argentine friends (who loved the US merchandise I was able to get past customs for them: baseball gloves, digital video camera, iPod, candies, CDs)! Lately I've been spending my free time studying Portuguese and Hebrew, learning to cook Indian food, discovering the Argentine version of Costco with Tino(it's called Nini and it's excellent! No more grocery shopping for about 4 months! Haha), going to parties and concerts, playing music at my friend's birthday, going to a zombie movie film series at the local cultural center, trying to start a rock band (still not fruitlessly, we have 3 members and haven't yet practiced), hanging and presenting songs and poetry at Kristal's bilingual writing workshop, appearing on an Argentine friend's radio show to play music, volunteering to work with little kids on Saturdays at the local schule.

I'm also looking forward to a winter break visit from Mama and Papa Abbott!

Hasta la victoria,
Chuck /Che Charly / C3

PS. Shameful self-promotion: I appeared on the iTunes podcast entitled My Fulbright Life to talk about, well...myself. (Narcissist!) No, to talk about Argentina, what I'm doing, how to apply...Check it out.

yanquilandia

I can´t describe how amazingly well things are going here - loving it!

In short time, I´ll be back in the Far North for a whirlwind of family, food, and matrimonial celebrations - be ready!

Nuevas noticias

English classes at the UNLP continue to go very well. We have a class blog up now and movie night is a regular thing now. Also, Kristal´s bilingual writing workshop has taken off.

The immigrant experience continues to be interesting. I could see myself staying here a long time, given the chance.

I have a beautiful new guitarra criolla-eléctrica which rocks my world.

More about the Commission: The Comisión Provincial por la Memoria was created by the Argentine government in 2003, along with the Comité Contra la Tortura, with the mission of preserving national memory of the atrocities committed during the years of the last military dictatorship (under Videla, 1976-1983), a time when over 30,000 Argentines were illegally detained, tortured, and ´disappeared´. The Commission is funded by the national government but is autonomous from government agencies.

With the Comisión, I´m coordinating an internship for William and Mary students here on an exchange program who work to organize testimonies regarding the dictatorship using documentary films from the Jóvenes y Memoria program. I´ve also just recently started work with the Comité Contra la Tortura, a group of lawyers, law students and social workers who work on behalf of people detained in prisons, correction institutions, and juvenile detention centers. They publish annual reports on the state of detention centers in the province of Buenos Aires and they work daily to bring forward habeas corpus claims on behalf of prisoners. The Committee also makes surprise visits to detention centers to check on living conditions and possible human rights violations. So I´m doing a law internship with them now too, and attending a weekly training course they give for legal and social work professionals.

At the end of this month, I´ll be back in the US for a week for my bro´s wedding. Looking forward to another fly-by-night Gringolandia visit.

a quotation

"It's a dangerous business going out your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." --Bilbo Baggins

Yay!

We just had our first movie night, complete with North American (read as: US-Mexican food, bbq chicken pizza) food. A big hit! My students are starting to email me more with questions too, and they´re enjoying our English Discussion Class blog that Kristal and I set up.

Things are going great in La Plata - loving life and making friends! I´m signing up for a Portuguese class and, actually, maybe a Chinese class depending on what it´s like. First class is tomorrow. And I´m signed up for a tango/milonga lesson, we´ll see how that goes.

I had placed a musician classified ad at a few music stores around here and got a few bites: a local saxe player looking to start a jazz combo to play some standards and a blues/rock band, both looking for a bass player. I´m glad that I switched to bass at age 12, it makes finding musicians to play with a lot easier. First ´band practice´(?) is tomorrow afternoon.

So I continue to feel at-home and happy in La Plata and I´m finding out what cool extracurriculars there are to do. So far I´ve found everything I looked for so, um, HAKUNA MATATA.

Next week is exam week (read as: no university work for Chuck to do) so I may head out to Mendoza for the second part of the week.

Rock,
C3

tantas cosas que contar...

A quick update!

I am now in my second full week of teaching English discussion classes. My students are, on average, the same age as me and they have impeccable English skills. Most of them speak with British accents since that´s the kind of English they teach here. In-class participation is really good. I think we can have a lot of fun this semester!

I am now in my third or fourth week of working with the Comisión Provincial por la Memoria. I am currently coordinating a video-testimonial archiving project for the William and Mary students doing internships there. Two of them are my former Sharpies. One of them is Walker, who I last saw in Honduras. I had my internship group over last night to have dinner at my apartment and talk about Honduras, William and Mary, life in La Plata, etc. Today we started in on our first trial run for their internship work.

I´m really glad to have Kristal (the other Fulbright ETA) and her husband Venicius around. We make a good exploration team. Over the weekend we went to Buenos Aires and I caught up with my colombianos from San Telmo. Then we went to eat Japanese food and decided we might apply to JET for next year. Then we went to my lovely friend Jackie´s house and had an international Mario Kart championship until the next morning. Adoro mi comunidad inmigrante - sacamos un poco de todas partes y hacemos algo aun mejor: Interculturalismo.

Other than that, day to day life has been the basics: getting to know people here, hanging with Tino in the house, buying clothes (now that I´m not a hippie backpacker anymore), cooking food, trying to form the world´s greatest rock band, etc.

Cariños desde La Plata,
Ch.

el otro lado del río

Greg and I are in Uruguay just for today. We saw the beaches of Montevideo and ate loads of little delicious pastries.

I found an apartment in La Plata! I`ll start moving my stuff there this Thursday. I`ll have my own room and my new roomy, Vale, will have the other. He`s a Mendoza transplant and film student who happens to date Diego`s sister. Thus the roommate connection. The new place is awesome! Very close to both workplaces, a balcony, marble countertops, internet, a grill downstairs that we can use... and the price is right. Yay! Ya es oficial: me he hecho platense.

huevones de pascua

VISITAS

Since I`ve arrived here, I`ve had 3 visits from out-of-town friendles. The first was Asun, Marcela`s friend. The second was Greggo. The third, Marcy. Marcy leaves tomorrow and Greg leaves Wednesday. I will then have a few days to myself at the end of the week, which I will surely fill up with lots of reading and lots of running around La Plata and the public parks in Buenos Aires. And maybe buying a guitar. And definitely going to my favorite pizzería, PIZZERIA GUERRIN.

During this time, I have gotten to know the city really, really well and am starting to feel almost like a tour guide, now that I have a spiel for every landmark in the city, most of which are within walking distance of my apartment in San Telmo.

During this time, I have also lost and found a debit card and I continue to work out my housing situation in La Plata. I have come to the conclusion that it`s best to live close to where all my work, my students, and my classes are. So the search continues, this time with lots of help from coworkers, and a small crew of international students in the same search process.

It´s official

I´m now fully oriented after a week of orientation. I now have a load of teacher books, an actual factual visa de cortesía, over 20 American friends spread out through the provinces with over 20 couches where I can crash, and more official papers I can heft about when questioned by authorities or landlords.

The other ETA assigned to La Plata is way cool. Tomorrow we´re off to start house hunting. But first we must dance. It is Friday night, after all.

sweet home buenos aires (or) entre porteños y platenses

• LA LLEGADA
  I returned to Buenos Aires, smelling of B.O. and Chilean alfajores, after a 20-plus hour bus ride back from Santiago. I went to hang out with my friend Andrea, a Columbian Buenos Aires transplant and film student, and out of this chance meeting came the offer to fill a vacant space in her 4-person apartment in San Telmo. This will be my home at least for this month, as I work out the commute (45 minutes by bus to La Plata - doable?) and continue to check out housing options in La Plata.
  
  LA PLATA
  I went to visit Prof. Morales and she is an awesome person! She took me around the city, gave me a tour of the academic buildings, introduced me to a few students, and is helping me to get adjusted to moving in. I`m really excited to start doing my discussion sections for the English classes, because I`ve pretty much been given a lot of room to be creative with activities. Also, I might help out in a few literary and cultural studies classes there dealing with American literature (so like, talking about The Scarlet Letter or The House on Mango Street with a bunch of Argentine college students.) Most excellent.
  I also met up with Diego and the Comisiòn por la Memoria. It turns out that Diego lives about 10 blocks from me in Buenos Aires, so the commute is possible. He may even give me a ride there when he gets a car. Things at the Commission are similarly open to my interpretation and plans. I`m going to have an ongoing orientation this coming week and get familiar with their different departments and programs and then see where I can work with them. Also, there are 9 William and Mary students there doing a new exchange program masterfully organized by Prof. T. Three of them are my former Sharpies. It`ll be exciting to work with the Commission while they are there and to once again connect with them and their W&M sized sense of curiosity.
  
  ANYWAY
  I LOVE LIVING IN SAN TELMO! IT IS AMAZING! It is the art and tango capital of Buenos Aires and is within walking distance of the best parts of the city. And my roommates are really nice. Couldn´t be more happy with my housing arrangement.
  
  -----
  
  I´d like to clarify a few correct and incorrect assumptions I had about living in Buenos Aires before I arrived here:
  
• The schools are high quality. Correct. Public universities are essentially free and are high quality. The Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata are both ranked in the top 100 universities in the world and are number 1 and 2 in Argentina, respectively, in terms of prestige. I`m in a good place of learning.
• The streets are paved with gold. Incorrect. The streets are paved with trash, like in most capital cities. But check out the amazing green space and public gardens here! Very amazing and liveable city.
• The food is good. Correct (with qualification). You can get amazingly amazingly good pizza, steak, pasta, empanadas, burgers, wine, pastries, espresso or mate here. It is mindblowingly good and usually very cheap. What you can`t get in high quantity or quality: fruits or vegetables or things your doctor tells you to eat.
• The rent is cheap. Incorrect. The rent was cheap until all the Europeans and North Americans found out and bought time shares in BA and made it hard for Argentines to live in the capital. Housing is a seller`s market. Inflation is still the main culprit, though, since prices of utilities are going up as well - the energy crisis thing having its ripple effect. House-hunting is hard wherever you come from and Argentina`s middle class is sort of disappearing as people have to live with 3 generations in the same apartment.
• Los argentinos son pesados. Incorrect. People are expressive and talk with loud voices and lots of hand motions. True, people wear much nicer clothes than they can afford and they`re very proud of their highways, their Maradona, their team, etc., but they are way nice and will go out of their way to help you out. I didn´t imagine myself as a porteño but I`m liking living in the capi capi.
• Finding work in Argentina is easy. Correct (with qualification). If you work hard and have education, finding how to work shouldn´t be a problem. Unemployment is a bit of a problem in Argentina, but what there is more often is under-employment, that is, people working in jobs they are over-qualified for because of the job market.
  There it is, from my completely biased perspective.

aventuras en santiago de chile

CAJÓN DEL MAIPO
We zoomed along well-kept roads running parallel to the contours of the mountains due east of Santiago until we came to the last empanada stand before the Argentine border. Here we stopped, where the road stops being paved, to climb on some rocks on the side of the clear blue mountain stream that eventually feeds Santiago´s comically smelly Río Mapocho.

¡TERREMOTOS!
The following day after hanging out in Marcy´s rooftop pool (did I mention how nice her apartment complex is?) we went out with friends Carlos, Asunción and Gabi to the perfect hangout for guachones and flaites alike, LA PIOJERA. This place had a duo playing cuenca duets on accordion and guitar for anyone with a gamba and a request. We had their specialty: the TERREMOTO (earthquake), a pint glass full of red wine and topped off with a huge scoop of pineapple ice cream. It´s like candy that makes you drunk. It was an 8 on the Richter scale. We ended up running around the Metro and somehow ended up hanging out in Bellavista before the night was over.

OTHER SIGHTS
The giant national cemetary in Santiago, the National Temple containing an interesting display on some kind of holy blanket (?), the Sunday markets out in the Maipú part of the city, subpar (but healthy) Chilean pizza, a huuuuuge mall in Santiago, my eyes bugging out at how expensive everything is there...

DREAM THEATER
I went to the espectáculo that is a Chilean metal concert. The whole crew of us arrived at noon to have a rock picnic and wait for the gates to the Arena de Santiago to open. I was transported to the 1980s, smushed in between thousands of Chilean Bills and Teds. It was an excellent adventure. Marcy fell in love with the drummer of Dream Theater, who was wearing a Chilean Selección Nacional jersey. I told her about the Wilco song describing such a love but she still has to hear it. The concert was amazing! They had a very huge and well-orchestrated stage show, complete with dualling keytar/guitar noodle solos, giant ants that came down from the ceiling, cartoons in the background that showed the band members killing dinosaurs and space aliens with their rock music... it was virtuosic cock rock at its best.

VALPO
We got out of the Dream Theater concert at about 11. It was Saturday night and Marci was NOT going to hear anyone say they´re tired. Her American brother was in town and damn it, we were going to have a dance party in Valparaíso. Carlos drove us out there in his pickup truck. We arrived at a club called HUEVOS or something at about 1:30 am. It was a pretty sweet multi-level overlooking the foggy city and the ocean. The music was eclectic: reggaeton here, English 80s music there, salsa here, electrónica there... We danced until about 5:30 am when it started closing, then went to a late-night eatery to get gigantic Completos (panchos con palta, mayonesa, tomates, cebollas... tu cachai po) and coffee. Then we all went to the Miradores overlooking the city and looked at the lights of housing outlining Valpo´s classic hills.

Sunday night I had my final Chilean once (this time with SOPAIPILLAS!!! AHHH!!! my trip was now complete) at Carlos´s house.

SWEET HOME BUENOS AIRES
I now have just arrived, stinky and sleepy, to Buenos Aires after riding for a little over 24 hours (there was a short delay in customs) in a sweet decked out ANDESMAR bus (servicio cama) from Santiago to Buenos Aires, con parada en Mendoza.

Quehaceres:
-find an apartment in La Plata
-meet with my referente
-get my visa de cortesía (and maybe work out that absentee ballot thing while I´m there)
-party with BA friends (first get cell phone charged up)

chile

LA LLEGADA
My flight got in early to the airport in Santiago and Marcela got there a little late. The two of us being the fast-moving people we are, we both started searching for each other in opposite directions. She went up and down the airport scrutinizing every tall gringo she could find and I went up and down the airport scrutinizing every short chilena I could find. I eventually came up with a plan: walk to the Holiday Inn across the street and use their internet (the airport used to have an internet cafe but it is now gone) and look up her phone number. As I was doing this, I saw her from the distance. This is where we ran towards each other in slow motion with some kind of 80s ballad playing in the background.

DE LA RAJA, WEÓN
That night I had my first Chilean once in nearly 3 years. ¡Espectacular po! We watched Chayanne rock the Viña concert on TV and crashed at her friend Carlos´s house. The next day I went with her to her job as a medical technician in the prestigious University of Chile Hospital´s lab. Marcy has requested half-days at work for this whole week so that we can hang out. We ate some huge completos (I almost wrote panchos, now that I`m argentino...) and a bunch of empanadas de queso, then walked around Santiago´s big Recoleta cemetary, looking at the graves of former presidents, war heroes, rich people, poets... Salvador Allende´s grave was one of my favorites. Very humanistic in design, with loads and loads of fresh flowers people had put there that day. We spent the afternoon sleeping in the sun at her rooftop pool (did I mention she has a sweet apartment?) then hung out with some of her friends from Valdivia. I remembered them all. Everybody looks really good - I think time has been good to all of us.

(Also I dropped off Francisco´s iPod to him. Fue exitosa la entrega.)

Today I slept in late, tidied up the apartment a little (Marcy´s joke of the day was that she has an American domestic servant), started a little sewing that I have to do (fixing my favorite jeans, my defunct Peruvian backpack, putting little flags on my big backpack...), and purchased tickets to the Dream Theater concert this Saturday (METAL PESADO YEAH!!). In the afternoon we flew around town on her motorcycle (fue bakán po gueón, te juro) and I bought bus tickets back to Buenos Aires for next week. Then we had a power siesta after eating a pizza between the two of us. Tonight we went out with her amazingly funny friends Gabi and Asunción and then danced down the street singing reggaeton songs. All the big hits from Honduras recently arrived here for South American summer.

Our Santiago itinerary: Tomorrow Cajón del Maipo, ice cream, and going out at night. Friday night is a big big dance party. Saturday is heavy metal arena rock with Dreamtheater. Sunday we´re going to work out still. Monday I catch a 20-hour bus back to my Buenos Aires querida.

bolivia

LA PAZ

Our first night in La Paz, Judith and I satiated our rocking imperialist appetite (asterisk) by going to Hard Rock Cafe La Paz, eating a ton of food, and buying t shirts. After eating all manner of weird stuff in our last few days in Peru, we were ready for something more Hard Rockish. We stayed at LOKI, an Irish party hostel with a heart of gold.

The second day, we celebrated Judith's birthday at the hostel (cake and all) and then we sampled the La Paz night life by going to a sweaty, packed dance club and getting drinks spilled on me by a really drunk Irish guy, then going to (and very quickly leaving) a sketchy "after hours" place. During the day we walked around the Witches' Market, which actually is what is sounds like. For some reason they sell loads and loads of mummified alpaca fetuses (asterisk. death metal), love potions, fake Chinese remedies, stones to bring good luck, postcards with Evo Morales on them, etc... Also mixed in with the witch stores are a ton of amazing artesan music stores with handmade Bolivian guitars, charangos, mandolins, flutes, ... the works. I went with some cool kids from Oregon and Judith had to leave for Santa Cruz/Buenos Aires/USA/Germany.

I met up with Lauren, a WM classmate currently working in La Paz along with her diplofamily. We went out to get Thai food and compared notes on funny South American experiences.

COCHABAMBA
Straight from dinner I caught a kind of shabby night bus (not even semi cama) to Cochabamba, where I was immediately received by Ale's momma, brother, cousin, cousin's boyfriend, and a Brazilian film student who was visiting. Mamá Ruth brought me all around Cochabamba and the surrounding area, introducing me to the whole extended family and holding my and Victor Hugo's hands, like her two boys. We went to a Peach Festival in a nearby town, climbed up to the Cristo statue, went to Ale's aunt's consultorio/house, ate anticuchos, drank chicha durazno, listened to music, talked film with Vio and Dan... I also got a driving tour of Cochabamba from Victor Hugo, who showed me the plaza central (complete with burn marks left on the prefecture from when the campesinos came and stormed the city a little over a year ago), the prado, the young people prado where they cruise and go to clubs, and the Isla, where you can buy amaaaazing after party food. I also met Ale's grandma, who is such a beautiful lady. I told her about how much we loved getting her Bolivian bread in college. Before I left, she had brought me a giant plastic baggy full of those delicious circular loaves...Oh man!! Ale, tu familia es tan pero tan encantadora!!!! Mom, Momma Ruth sends you big hugs and invites you to visit when you come to South America.

I can't believe it was just one day! It was easily the best day of this trip so far!

LA PAZ parte dos
I am now back in La Paz, having taken a much more comfortable and ritzy night bus with Vi and Dan, who are heading farther west tomorrow to film some more footage. In a few hours I will get on a LAN plane and most likely fall asleep for 5 hours, then wake up in Santiago de Chile where Marcy is waiting for me.
And I will bring Ale's cousin's iPod to him, without fail.

Hasta Chilito, queridos lectores.

machu picchu, valle sagrado, bolivia

MACHU PICCHU
This was clearly the peak of my Peru trip. Judith and I woke up at 5am, got on the first bus to Machu Picchu, hiked through the fog, then climbed up to the top of Waynu Picchu (the "nose" of the face shaped mountains behind the ruins) just in time to survey the now-tiny Machu Picchu below us as the fog cleared. We took the long way down, climbing down slippery ladders and ancient rock Inca stairs. No words I write will do justice to the place, so get ready for photos soon.

VALLE SAGRADO
After seeing the coolest ruins in the hemisphere (maybe the world), Valle Sagrado was mostly about climbing up some cool mountains. My favorite were the ruins in Pisaq, perched ontop of a mountain that oversees the river and the serpentine roads that a colectivo would later take us up and back to Cuzco, past the roadblocks, miraculously. These buses cost about 75 US cents. We were the only non Peruvians in it. Rock.

GOODBYE CUZCO
My last night in Cuzco was spent with Judith and 3 guys from New York we met who were really fun. The guys were deadset on eating cuy (guinea pig) so that is just what we did. It was the foulest thing Ive ever eaten. It looked like a tiny tiny roast pig except with little rat teeth and claws and a rat tail. OK, it was pretty much like a rat. Im sorry to say I have photographic evidence of this too. The alpaca curry, however, was phenomenal.

HELLO BOLIVIA
We took a super super sketchy overnight bus from Cuzco to Puno and bonded with Chilean fellow travelers by complaining about the "direct" bus with "reserved" seats and "secure" baggage (read as, 4 plus stops in the night, packing locals into the stairwells, not letting us into the bus bathroom and making us pee outside, the persistent smell of old socks farts and llama, and the fact that the bus was from a different company than the vendor claimed to be...RIDICULOUS! HAHAHA!) I didn't sleep well at all last night. It didn't help that visions of sugarplum cuy were dancing in our stomachs all night...
That said, we made it to Puno and ignored the very forceful hawkers for about an hour until we could catch a bus (less sketchy than our now lowered expectations) to take us over the border. I am pleased to say that I had all my documents in order for the now-required visa that (only) Americans have to apply for to enter Bolivia (it's a populist thing, talk to Evo about it...) and they processed it at the border in about a minute, with no under-the-table fees or anything. Good job, Bolivia!

I now write to you from La Paz, where I've found a hostel and am getting ready to chill a little. 2 days to Cochabamba, 4 days to Chile. Rock and roll.

ollantaytambo, aguas calientes

Wunderteam update: The Fellowship is breaking, Frodo! No, it`s cool. Linda stays in Cusco to do her volunteer practicum thing for a month or so. Lena and Alex have decided to extend their stay in Cusco so that they can keep on salsatanzen and go to the Inka Trail when it opens at the start of March.

About the author:
I, the person with the dual time/money limitation, hear the rumor that all the transport workers will start a huelga at the beginning of this coming week, and set out this morning dead-set on making it to Machu Picchu. Judith, also under the time restriction of having to see things and somehow make it to her Buenos Aires to Colorado flight in a week and a half, comes along. We break the cardinal ¨book ahead of time¨ rule and take a precarious high-speed taxi ride, shared with a German guy, through the beautiful green valleys between Cusco and Ollantaytambo.

Adventure
At Ollantaytambo, we eat a trout lunch and climb up the terraced Inka fortress that once set the stage for a major Inca victory over the Spanish, wherein they flooded the ground below and threw things at the Spanish until they went away. There we meet an eccentric Brasilian flute player wearing medieval boots, who dances and riffs on the beautiful acoustics of the ancient rocks.

We then board a train that takes us through a valley so deep that we have to stick our heads out of the window to see the sky for most of the ride. It is lush, green, almost jungle-like, nothing like the dry Andean route my imagination had painted for me. We share the ride with two Chilean doctoral students and compare notes on Peruvian literature.

I am now in the impossibly touristic Ewok village that is Aguas Calientes. At 4:30am I`ll wake up, eat, and board the 5:30am bus that will take us up to Machu Picchu, lo máximo, the tourist site to beat all tourist sites, the archeological capital of the Western Hemisphere, the ancient ruins that tell Stonehenge, ¨Ché flaquito, vos sos un tarado.¨ (My Machu Picchu speaks porteño.)

Photos to come.

Travel itinerary

Tomorrow we leave for El Valle Sagrado, then go on to Ollantaytambo, then to Aguas Calientes, then to Machu Picchu. I will be back to Cuzco from Machu Picchu by Tuesday night.

Next Wednesday night, I will get on a night bus from Cuzco to Copacabana/La Paz. From there I will visit Isla del Sol, La Paz, and Cochabamba.

I will fly out of La Paz to Santiago de Chile on Monday, February 25th.

(This is the plan right now. I`ll let you know if it changes.)

Rock! More photos to come.

cusco

A five hour bus ride and we have arrived in Cusco...

lake titicaca

A joke, told by a guy who lives on Uro, also known as Islas Flotantes:
El Lago Titicaca se divide entre dos países, Peru y Bolivia. Peru tiene la parte Titi y Bolivia la caca.

Wunderteam took a boat tour of the islands today (we were the only non-Peruvians). Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, the Uro people decided they wanted to get away from the warring Collacas so they got a bunch of totora reeds and pretty much wove a giant island where they have lived ever since. It´s crazy, right?

When you stand on the floating island it kind of feels like a waterbed. They make their houses out of the same woven reeds too, and they also eat the inside of the reeds for food, which they serve up alongside the chickens and ducks and fish and other stuff that they eat. Their boats are also woven and have puma heads on the front - they look viking -like. Over time the people living on Uro have intermixed with Aymara-speaking settlers, but they pretty much live the same way they always have, out on their giant floating island, except that now they move beyond subsistence by selling handmade (a relative term) touristic items.

Cultural commodities and underwater basket weaving. Where am I?

Tomorrow we leave for Cuzco via bus. We`ll actually be at a lower altitude when we finally reach Machu Picchu.
In preparation I am about to eat at a restaurant called Machu Pizza.

puno

We took another nice Cruz del Sur bus yesterday which took us from Arequipa up to Puno, the closest major Peruvian city to Lake Titicaca.
My stomach is now officially better! And I bought altitude sickness pills which seem to work for us so far.
This morning I went to the Bolivian consulate to see how many hoops I need to jump through to be able to cross the lake. The answer: not so many. $100, a 4x4 photo (just got it), a letter of invitation or hotel invitation, an itinerary (haha, fuera yanquis!), and proof that I have enough many to leave the country once I enter. They gave me the formulario.
I called Alejandro´s mom today and she said she could write me a letter of invitation for the visa if I need. In the next few days I`ll figure out if I have the tiempo and the ganas to go to Bolivia. It would be really cool to see Mama Grageda. If not, maybe en otra ocasión.

Here in Puno they are still in the midst of all day and all night parades and marching bands and fancy costumes for the Virgen de Candelaria celebrations. Last night we joined the revelers in the dry Andean cold to watch parades go by as far as the eye can see in both directions, up steep hills and past angry tour bus drivers. Puno is not much to look at but the fiestas are pretty cool.

Ok, off to see about seeing some islands on the lake. TOmorrow morning we leave for Cuzco and then Machu Picchu.

I will let you, and the State Department, know if I`m going to Bolivia sometime in the next 4 days. If not, I may take a direct flight to Santiago to finish out my vacation in my muy querido Chilito, taking warm showers and eating high quality pastel de choclo.

Word.

estas alturas

An update from Arequipa, Peru´s second biggest city.

There are now 5 total in our group: Lena, Alex, me, Judith, and now Linda, a Dutch student we met at Huacachina. We got into the city early in the morning and went to see the Sanctuary Museum, where you can see a frozen Inca girl (we saw Sarita but there`s also one called Juanita). Sarita was a human sacrifice made to the volcanoes. We also saw the Monastery of Santa Catalina, once a home to party-girl nuns who fraternized with their servants a lot until a strict Mother Superior type was sent there in the late 1700s.

We spent the past two days on a tour of the nearby canyon country. We saw the Cañon del Colca, saw giant condors flying around, saw pre-Incan burial grounds with bleached bones everywhere, ate alpaca meat, saw the Wititi love dance (performed like clockwork for tourists), went to hot springs, and saw beautiful green valleys covered with pre-Incan and Incan terraced hillsides. Also, all of us got some killer altitude sickness, despite all of the disgusting mate de coca we kept drinking at rest stops. 4 out of 5 of our group got the same stomach bug, but yesterday I also got a fever and started shivering uncontrollably. They took me to the hospital in Chivay and the doctors fixed me up and gave us all medicine. We´re now back in Arequipa rehydrating and taking medicine and feeling so much better than I was before.

If all goes according to plan, I`ll be off to Puno tomorrow to check out Lake Titicaca. Then from Puno our supergroup will continue on to Cuzco/Machu Picchu.

Altitude here in Arequipa: about 2300 meters or so
Altitude for the tour: over 4000 meters

oasis

Hey, readers!

Wunderteam versiòn 2 (Me, Judith, Lena and Alex)
or, alternately, El rey y sus 3 alemanas (this is what they dubbed me in Pisco)

has now made it to earthquake-ravaged Pisco (a 7 point something quake hit it hard in August and they`re still rebuilding). Around Pisco, we went to the Islas Ballestas, these giant rocky islands covered with sea lions, penguins, seagulls, and loads and loads of birds. The whole island is dyed white from the bird crap (called guano, incidentally, a highly valuable early export for Peru).

We also made it out to some Inca/Wani ruins called Puchacamac. It is currently inhabited by French tourists.

We then took a long bus ride over to Ica and from Ica took a taxi to an oasis called Huacachina, stuck in between giant sand dunes on all sides. It`s a small green area with a little lake, palm trees, a handful of taxis, every second building is a hostal (varying in levels of sketchiness but all with a pool for some reason). From the town you can get a ride on a dune buggy that will take you far out into the dunes and then go sandboarding down gigantic and unforgiving sandy hills. This is exactly how we spent yesterday. Yesterday night we worked on getting sand out of all those body parts we never knew we had and then got some pisco sours and so-so food. Anything with palta (avocado) is good for me (mayonnaise cancels it out though).

GUERRA DEL PACÌFICO
Being in Peru is funny because everything I thought was typical of Chile is also typical of Peru. Pisco sours, alpaca socks, etc... Peruvians hate Chileans. It`s funny. All of the clothing stores here are Chilean, all the fashion models, etc.

Tomorrow, we`ll take a night bus to Arequipa, then we`ll go on the Lake Titicaca and later Machu Picchu via Puno and Cuzco, respectively. It`s nice indulging the travel bug and it will also be nice to get back home to Argentina, where nobody calls me ¨mìster¨ or tries to give me fake bills.

Saludos desde el oasis,
Charly Mochilero

Lima

I´ve made it to Peru! After staying up all night on Friday and having an excellent send off with my way awesome friends Renata, Ygor and Jackie, I got into a LAN Peru plane bleary eyed and slept until we landed in Lima.

In customs, I ran into Judith, a German girl I met in Uruguay. In high school she studied in Colorado and she blows me away by being more American than I am - she quotes Borat a lot and is a trip - we had an amazing time at this seaside buffet the first day there, spending a good 4 or 5 hours and eating a good 6 or 7 plates of food. She has now joined our Wunderteam (thus completely solidifying the European girl to Yankee boy majority) and will rock out with us across Peru.

Yesterday upon arriving I found out it was Día de Pisco, so I had a happy reunion with pisco sours (this time, Peruvian style - the original, even though Chile claims pisco sours as their own, just like the Pacific...ohh!).
Late last night I had a happy reunion with Lena, who now is not sick anymore (she had her wisdom tooth taken out in Honduras which had to have been an adventure) and now has rasta braids care of our Caribbean friends. We´re currently staying in the posh Miraflores barrio where they sell beautiful art and artesanry on the street and I bought a sweet Inka Cola t-shirt for 3 dollars. Today Lena and Judith and I went to the Plaza de Armas and saw a long long parade of conjuntos with drums and Andean flutes and ridiculously cool costumes. Tonight Alex flew in from Switzerland and boy are her arms tired.

Tomorrow we will reunite in the morning and then head south through Pisco (the town that is, although us going through a giant pisco sour is an interesting mental image...but I digress), on to Arequipa, from there over to Cusco, take a train to Machu Picchu, get to Puno / Lake Titicaca, etc. If they let me into Bolivia and I have time I´ll try to go see Mamá Salinas and no matter what I´ll get to Santiago, Chile for a few days to see Marci. Then back to Sweet Home Buenos Aires.

la partida a peru

in about 12 hours i will get in a taxi which will take me to a plane which will take me to peru.

until then, i may just stay up late with my new best brasilian friends, renata and ygor, and not sleep. everything is packed up and ready to go, yayayay!

Al otro lado del rìo

I have returned to Buenos Aires. I took the boat back on Tuesday. Uruguay was so LEGAO!

My last night there I went to see a Murga - think bright, colorful, rhythmic populist music theater with big troupes of performers and big drums. I am now nicely tanned/burned and ready for some more city living and good pizza. Last night I went to my second tango class, this time with my friend Sergio and all of his coworkers from American Airlines. Afterwards I went and hung out with more Brasilians, and an Argentine kid who`s in the production of El Fantasma de Canterville (yeah, by Oscar Wilde, great). It was sweet - ask me to tell you the story about how I saved us all later that night with my Honduran tough talk and commanding man-beard.

I now have some more friends who are in BsAs/La Plata long-term. People here are very open, and not in a sketchy way. It`s cool.

---------------------

I now find myself in La Plata. On the bus I met a family man/former professional boxer/tae kwon do instructor named Diego (Note: everyone in Argentina between my age and 30 is named Diego, after Maradona). I now have a personal bodyguard whenever I`m in La Plata, haha. I may go to an asado with his family some time after I settle here.

I`m going to spend most of the day here in La Plata just checking it out and visiting a few people I know here. It`s a very cool university town. I`m going to like it a lot. It`s only about an hour from the middle of BsAs by bus. So I can get just as much of Buenos Aires as I want, but not too much. There is a lot of student housing around and it`s mostly pretty cheap.

Later gators...

Uruguay, parte dos

After writing that last update I went out with the brasileños and danced samba, salsa, ska, techno, this two-step Brasilian dance whose name I forget, etc. in a bunch of Montevideo milongas. I stayed out dancing until about 5:45am (the parties were still going because it was Friday). Then I got back and slept for about 15 minutes before someone`s alarm woke me up - time to catch the early bus to Punta del Este!

In Punta del Este, we saw a gigantic sculpture of a hand on the beach, walked around the beach and went to the port to see the sea lions, saw a gigantic Casino, etc. I caught the bus to nearby Punta Baranella (sp?) to see the Casapueblo (giant house/castle/art studio) of legendary Uruguayan artist Carlos Pàez Vilarò. I barely take pictures of anything, but I took a lot there because ¡còmo no chè!

When I got back from Punta del Este last night I fell straight asleep (okay, after playing music and singing with two Spanish dudes who had started a Spanish 50s rock band and a Belgian guy who just drove a car across Africa for charity) and then woke up today at 2pm.

Rock and Roll and Peñarol,
Charly, ever the token North American

buenos aires, a continuaciòn, màs uruguay

Since my arrival in Buenos Aires, I have taken a tango lesson and seen live tango music, gone to see jazz, rediscovered the cool neighborhoods (Microcentro, San Telmo, Recoleta, Palermo, etc.), went to eat at night at the beautiful and new Puerto Madero (historically Buenos Aires`s Ellis Island, now a porteño version of Inner Harbor, except more beautiful and ritzy, except wait is that a HOOTERS restaurant in between the trendy Argentine restaurants? yes it is...aww no), went to see a Japanese art film (not very good), went to a bunch of ferias de libro to scour through used books, went out to dance clubs almost every night/early morning, found the best and cheapest pizza in the city (Guerrin, go there, love it), met loads of cool Brasilians (all the porteños have gone to the provinces or Mar del Plata for vacation, or Miami if you`re really rich), etc.

I also went one day to see the AMIA building (Argentine Israeli Mutual Association, bombed in 1994 by people who are still under investigation - look it up on Google, it`s crazy). I was sort of surprised and sort of not surprised to see that the security was super tight. There was a big bomb proof (?) wall in front of the building with the names of all the victims written on it. Two guards and a policemen were on permanent watch outside and told us we couldn`t go in without having a prior interview to determine if we could take a tour. A Brazilian friend I was going with told me that after the bombing, her (Jewish affiliated) high school in Sao Paolo put in metal detectors and got a security guard. We`re talking about a pretty serious terrorist attack. You could still see the scratch marks on the side of the tall building next to it, it was like a smaller version of Ground Zero in NYC. Yeah.

I also met with the Fulbright Commission in Buenos Aires. At first I thought I`d need to get a bunch of documents for the student visa but as I understand it they`re going to give me a Visa de Cortesìa, which I guess is easier to get...? So hopefully I won`t have to go back to the US last minute to get my fingerprints taken and get a copy of my birth certificate (cruzate los dedos). THe Fulbright people are SO nice and SO helpful and they really have their stuff together! They even let me store my excess bags (thus converting into hippie backpacker mode) at their office until I get back from my pending road trip (itinerary to follow).

URUGUAY
THis morning I walked down the street to the port and got onto a ferry. It was really nice and organized like an airplane. I took the boat across to Colonia, Uruguay then caught a pretty plush bus (semi cama, a lo chileno) to Montevideo, where I am now. In the land of Jorge Drexler, Carlos Gardel (depending on whom you ask, by which I mean, he actually is from Uruguay), and chill people who are basically Argentines`more chill, totally mate-addicted cousins.

THe first second I got into the Albergue Juvenil where I`m staying, I was offered matè, chips, and beer and met a whole bunch of really nice Brazilians who are doing a Spanish language immersion summer course. I went with two of them down to the closest beach and we talked about life and they convinced me of how much I have to go to Brazil. I`m sold. Brazilians are really legao! They just invited me to eat dinner with them (they cooked because they think Uruguayan food has too much fat) and early tomorrow morning I`ll probably go with all the Brazilians to Punta del Este to spend the day on the beach maxing and relaxing.

I plan to be back to Buenos Aires by Sunday, give or take. It`s only about a 2 hour boat ride. Then I will be off to:
Lima, Peru (I fly there on wonderful LAN airlines from BsAs on Feb. 2, where I will-if things go according to plan- meet up with Lena and Alex and then go to Machu Picchu, Arequipa, Lake Titicaca, etc.)

That`s as far as I`ve worked it out so far. From there, we will either go into Bolivia through Lake Titicaca and then on the Chile, or just go straight to Chile if there isn`t enough time.
Then in mid February in Chile I`ll meet up with my former housemate, Marcela, in Santiago and we`ll hang around Chile (maybe take an overnight bus to Valdivia even and then cross over to Bariloche? Who knows). I``ll keep the updates coming.

Overall impressions so far: If Buenos Aires thinks it`s a big deal, that`s because it is. It`s pretty much the nicest city I`ve ever been in. Uruguay is more casual and more Brazilian, which I like a lot. Everywhere I`ve gone so far I`ve been surprised by how much people treat me like I fit in, which is a big change from the atmosphere in Central America. All of a sudden people on the street are helpful, people start conversations with the assumption I`m from Buenos Aires or the vicinity, nobody treats me like I`m a Martian or calls me racist names or tries to charge me double the actual price for things. Taxis have meters, toilets flush, sinks have hot water, customs charges you the same amount every time (exception: computers, err), men and women alike kiss you on the cheek, bookstores are everywhere, etc. Argentina isn`t as cheap as it was 2 years ago when I came (peso up, dollar down) but you know what? Good job, Argentina! And it`s still considerably cheaper than the US or Chile considering the quality of the things you can buy. OK, enough rumination for now.

Book recommendation: Puto el que lee. The funniest introduction I`ve read ever. ¿Viste chè?

Sweet Home Buenos Aires

Donde el cielo està azul, siempre azul.

Hey readers, I made it to BsAs this morning after sleeping on a plane next to a dad and a little girl. She went to see Mickey and Minnie in Disney with her American cousins. He was a professor of architecture at the Universidad Catòlica de La Plata (not to be confused with my Universidad Nacional de La Plata but in the same town).

I now have an Argentine cell phone. Ask me for the number and I`ll give it to you. I also have all the mate drinking accoutriments you could possibly have and am ready to be fully Argentine. I just bought the book Puto el que lee, which I highly recommend to any boludo hijo de remil putas who likes the Argentine flavored naughty words.

Soon I will post my itinerary for upcoming hippie mochilero adventures.

Cheers,
Ch.

Impresiones de Yanquilandia

Since I´ve been home I´ve achieved all of the goals I had for myself:
-Sleep a lot
-Eat a lot
-Visit at least the majority of the family
-Record some music
-Read more books, study more German
-Visit some friendles

Cheque leque. Panqueque.

While in the US, I´ve been able to eat a lot of Indian and Italian food, drink tap water, draw smiley faces on people´s dirty cars, shovel snow, flush toilet paper in the toilet, and do other such North American things. It´s really weird to be bundled up and looking out at the snow and then talk to my Honduran friends who are still schvitzing like crazy down there. Having had 3 winters in a row last time I went to South America, I must say that experiencing 3 summers in a row is particularly choice. I´m pretty tan.

I had a pretty cool welcome back party with my family, family friends, and some high school friends and it was way awesome. I made empanadas for everyone. About recording music: I later got to record a little demo at a makeshift studio down the road from my parents´house. Also, I love the book Unbearable Lightness of Being. I got to hang out with the other Fulbrighter I know and tell her of some of my crazy Central American adventures and compare notes on Argentina. Tonight I went out and saw some live jazz music in Georgetown, in Our Nation´s Capital.

About 36 hours to go until I board a plane to Buenos Aires. Tomorrow I´ll hang out with Ale and hopefully have a Greg Teich sighting in DC. Go go gadget adventure!

tecnología

i write to you from my new compy! and from the united states!

i got back late last night and have been chilling out since.

empacado y cheque leque

ok, everything packed and ready to go! back to the u.s. until the 20th when i fly to buenos aires. from there i´ll be off the perú, bolivia, chile, etc. until i start my awesome awesome argentina orientation in early march.

de vuelta a honduras

since i last wrote:
-met an awesome drummer from london/japan who accompanied us on the journey
-went from mexico to belize to guatemala in one day
-got hustled by a coyote on the carretera in guate
-saw the tikal ruins
-climbed up an active, lava-oozing volcano right outside of antigua
-lost my credit card and started getting really really tacaño
-played music in the plaza in antigua and got invited to an open mic night in antigua, with koichi. we will call the band THE PAPAYA CHALLENGE
-somehow made it back to honduras with all my stuff and got to revisit copán, where lena, alex and i met. cool.

no time to elaborate now, but ask me later about these adventures. photos to come.

i am now in progreso, honduras, about to catch up with WM kids. i have enough money more or less. things are chill.

año nuevo

happy new year to all! i spent the new year by cooking with hostal friends and playing music for everyone on the roof terrace (there were about 6 or 7 argentine guys from D.F. who cracked me up and kept requesting jorge drexler and soda stereo songs), then going out to dance in the street and on the beach until about 5:30 am.

¡viva méxico cabrones!