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!