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Published: January 29th 2007
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One very cool thing that I forgot to mention was that we got to see comet McNaught while camping. Apparently, it is the brightest comet in the southern hemisphere in 30 years. It could be seen streaking across the sky right after sunset low on the horizon, so by the time it got really dark it was already gone. But we could still see it very well. Diego thought there was some kind of fire in the distance. We missed the brightest point by a few days, but it was so cool. Don´t get to see that too often. Tobias was delighted, since his hobby as a kid was astronomy. Funny thing is, the first night we met, we had this ongoing debate between which planet was Mercury and which was Venus. Nobody else on the crew knew anything about planets, so there was no resolution to the disagreement. All I know is that it´s not worth arguing with Germans.
More about Mar Del Plata...
I think the best part about Mar Del Plata was the little theatre in Plaza San Martin. It is small, but pretty with spanish tile in the front lobby, and three tiers surrounding the main stage. There were shows going on every night, and I attended a Tango musical, which was not what I was expecting. I mean, there was plenty of tango, yes. I just didn´t realize how MACHO it is. When I think of tango, I think of thin, leggy women with roses in their teeth seducing men with their fancy dance. This is not so. Sure, the women were thin and leggy, but they mostly represented pretty accents to the male counterpart. Most of the shouts and cheers from the audience were from men, and it was always after the MEN danced, not after the women. Not only that, but there were many scenes where it was just one dude singing away about his broken heart accompanied by a lot of accordion, and the audience ate this up. They love the solo gaucho. Once again, women never sang. It was very male-centric, and a good cultural experience.
That night I met a bunch of travelers at the hostel, and it´s always a fun mix. Swedish, dutch, argentine, chilean, german, isreaeli, irish, english, australian, and one other american (the only fat one of course) all in a pot. I found out that chewing tobacco is now the new hottest thing in Sweden. This girl had two cans of it, one in mandarin flavor and the other in pomagranite. Everyone thought this was hilarious because they couldn´t understand why you´d put this under your lip for a niccotine fix as opposed to smoking cigarettes (everyone smokes). I think the girl thought it had better health benefits than cigarettes, which is also funny, and they´re also outlawing indoor smoking in Sweden, I guess. So one of the Isreaelis decided to smoke the chaw, and that was hilarious. I told him he may as well smoke the mate as well, and he did that too! The girl from Amsterdam just watched from the corner in disgust. The irish, argentine, and israeli fellows all tried the chaw and it brought tears to their eyes. Apparently it burns, and nobody lasted longer than five minutes. When I think of chewing tobbacco, I think of this masculine nasty habit that cowboys have. To think that chaw is now this trendy thing that little swedish girls do just cracks me up. Apparently there are other flavors, too.
The next day I went to the beach with a few others. Had to do the beach thing. We took the bus to a nicer one, and it was fun. My favorite thing was to watch the argentine guys acting super macho with their surf boards under arm when there were zero waves. Lookin´cool, guys. And the bikinis these girls wear... may as well not have a swimsuit at all. And the body size, shape, tone, etc. did not matter. Could be 14 could be 65 could be pregnant. Everyone wore the same skimpy bikini which exposed more bum than not, and everyone sun bathed for hours in the ridiculously intense sun. I borrowed an umbrella from the hostel, thank goodness, or I would have roasted. The one patch of me that was exposed got burnt. Luckly, it was only a patch. The experience was worth it.
We had meat that night. I love argentine meat. It´s so good. Went out with a few girls and one of the israeli guys, and he was dying because he can´t eat meat unless the cow is sacrificed in a certain way. Unfortunately for him, nobody in Argentina prepares meat for the Jews, so he had to enjoy his raviolis as much as possible. He cursed us more than once.
Later there was a free concert on the beach where the Corozonadas were the stars. I had no idea what to expect, which is the main reason why I went, but holy cow, this concert was more crowded than the beach! There must have been a few thousand people huddled together on this massive lawn, spilling out into the street to see this group. I´m thinking, wow, these guys must be good. Which is funny, because they were mostly a cover band! They played the Stones, Beatles, David Bowie (painfully), Tom Petty, and crowd went nuts! I couldn´t understand it, because everyone knows that the only reason why ¨Let´s Dance¨ is a good song is because David Bowie sings it. I don´t know how this guy got it into his head that he could pull it off, but it didn´t work. They had a bassist, keyboardist, drummer and THREE guitar players, including the lead singer. I mean, three is a bit over the top, isn´t it? ¨Hey guys, wanna be in my band? Just play guitar, it´s cool. We´ll make it big.¨ The two back up guitarists looked like they belonged to some big hair 80´s band (which is quite possible that´s what they were when they started) and the lead singer (in his 50´s) looked like he belonged in a yacht club. He wore white slacks, a button up white t-shirt, small sunglasses (despite the lack of sun) and a silly woven hat. I suspect he didn´t really know how to play the guitar because he often put it down to play the tamborine. But he played that tamborine lake a maniac, I tell you! Every time he picked it up, the French girl and I would yell ¨Go! Go! Mas tamborine!¨and jumped around like idiots. This is usually when he would be running wildly back and fourth on stage like a chicken with its head off, thumping that tamborine like the rock star that he is. When they played their few original tunes, everyone knew the words. In fact, the stoners in front of us started moshing (my toe being the only casualty) and the guy behind us was so drunk he fell over. Twice. Im guessing that´s the secret to fully enjoying the Corozonadas; that is, under the influence of something. Anything. Soberly, we winced through the entire show.
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