********************* FUNNY THINGS ABOUT ARGENTINA/BOLIVIA -In Argentina, along with other South American countries, many if not most small intersections are without stop lights and stop signs. No wonder so many people have pictures of Jesus dangling from their rearview mirrors. -My patience has grown like hair here: slowly but always longer, although someone with a sharp enough edge can always cut it short -There are two levels of romantic relaitonships here: the first level is, as someone here in Tarija explained to me last night, is basically someone you kiss & hold hands with, but noth [View Full Entry]

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Rising early (by my Argentina standards, 8 am) I drank some sludgy coffee and ate some "dulce de leche", an Argentine favorite, which is basically what NASA would come up with if tasked with cramming the most sugar into a 3 cm cube, spread on stale bread. Once the sugar high kicked in along with the buzz from the Maté de Coca, I was wide awake and I couldn't care less about the crappy food. That day I was to head to Iguazu falls, an enermous array of waterfalls stretching along a steep jungle valley wall. By 8:45 I was crammed [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes too much is too much. I had heard that Buenos Aires is a place to party, but I never thought it would add up to something like this. Today I got home at 8 am after a long night of dancing at an enermous dance club named Mint with some British friends. This makes the fourth morning in a row where I saw the sun rise and four days spent sleeping until after 3:30 pm. So, the normal day this week consists of: *getting up with a very dry mouth at 3-5 pm *slowly, SLOWLY opening my eyes and trying [View Full Entry]

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********************* FUNNY THINGS ABOUT BUENOS AIRES *The many mortorcycles weave their way to the front of the line at stoplights so, when the light turns green, you get a little motorcross race, very funny to watch *People are incredibly friendly: old ladies never stand on buses and people have even offered to help me with my bags when I am trudging along with my backpack *It is hard to find a young person who does not speak at least a bit of English and almost all are eager to speak it, mostly, I think, to make sure I understand that they [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday I awoke with the taste of sweaty shoe in my mouth. Completely disoriented, my eyes slowly traced the room looking for any sign of familiarity. After about twenty seconds it occured to me that I was in the TV room of my hostel, fully dressed, and completely hungover. My mind felt like it was in shrinkwrap. You see, Argentina won in overtime on Saturday and the town celebrated accordingly. I got home at... dunno... but I remember it being light out while I zigzagged home. The only clear thought I remember having when I woke up, which was at 1 [View Full Entry]

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*************************** Steaks since arriving in Argentina: Eight, ranging from good to fantastic. FUNNY ARGENTINA THINGS *people, I think, own all the property up to the road in front of their houses, so in wealthier neighborhoods the sidewalk is made of different materials and has many steps *They looooove palm trees. I am starting to. *Guys do the cheeck-kiss thing between eachother. The funniest incident is when I saw two enermous bouncers throw a guy out in the street like goons then embracing... *Lots of people speak English and almost all prefer that to English with me *Peo [View Full Entry]

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********************************** *WHAT I AM LOVING ABOUT ARGENTINA *Being a foreign local (Seen as another John Q, if a foreign one) *Food/wine/ *Sophisticated people (as educated as Canadians; youth more interested in learning and less offended by being taught) *Quality of living/Cleanliness *Simply beautiful - I think Salta had one of the most beautful, pleasant plazas I have ever seen * *WHAT I AM MISSING ABOUT OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES *Feeling like I am really in a very different place *The raw variety of life *That people do not speak English * *WHAT I AM MISS [View Full Entry]

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Hola, Sometimes things happen on this trip that I just need to put down. Yesterday I found a small bar just off the central plaza to watch the Argentina vs. Ivory Coast soccer (er, Football) game that had the town shutting down its stores and crowding its bars. Soon into the game, after I had drank quite a bit of beer, I gots to talkin' to the bar owner's son and his friends, all of which roughly my age and mostly all wearing Argentina's baby blue and white jersey. We drank quite a bit while talking about this and that (I [View Full Entry]

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Hola, Bonjour, Hello: take your pick, Argentinians respond to them all, and I am pretty sure that many prefer hello. What a weird place. Culturally this is the weirdest place I have ever been, at least of its kind. I have experienced, in Montreal let's say, the feeling that a people feel strained to portray and live the culture that they have adopted. It is kind of like a guy in a stylish suit that is baggy in places, which he knows and causes a slight insecurity, but nonetheless he is trying his best to play the persona of someone in [View Full Entry]

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On the dusty, bumpy ride from Potosi to Uyuni the bus made one of many stops to clear rocks from the road. My eyes drifted upward from my book and followed the driver hopping from his door and walking outwards from the bus. Then they fixated on Jupiter. Actually, no, Jupiter bears more resemblance to normalcy than does the eyeful I was presented with this morning. The sky was the only normal part, a bright midday blue with a few whisps of clouds. Below was the peak of a narrow mountain with a rounded tip coloured a fleshy red, as if [View Full Entry]

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