Easter Island

I had an amazing time on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as everyone there calls it. The Chileans call it Isla de Pascua, which translates to Easter Island, and they constantly affirm how it´s a part of Chile. The natives are considerably less enthusiastic about being part of Chile, though they´re mostly indifferent. Anyhow, it´s a stunning place, completely isolated in the south pacific. The people are a fascinating blend of latin american and polynesian, with a mix of facial features, language, and music that reflect the mixture. The pace of life more relaxed than anywhere I´ve ever been, its definitely island living.

The Moai, the giant statues, are awe inspiring. Ive never seen anything like them. Massive stone heads all over the island, for miles and miles, all taken from the same quarry in the side of a little of a little volcano. And the island is completely quiet outside Hanga Roa (pop. 4,500). Ive never been anywhere so quiet. Stone heads, grass blowing in the wind, and waves crashing. Thats the only sound. It adds to the effect of the Moai, no question.

The hostel was FANTASTIC (my first use of caps on this blog). They pick you up at the airport and give you a lei, and it´s run by a lady named Ana Rapu and her nephew Nane and his austrian wife. The hostel consists of little tin roofed buildings with chickens and puppies running around the grounds. The tour they gave us consisted of Nane, his wife Agnes, and their 9 year old son Joaquin Tosauro driving around the island in a Ford 4x4 and taking hikes around the monuments as each parent took turns with the baby in the car. It was like taking a family outing among the ruins. Also, it didn{t hurt there was a lovely girl from Paris named Nadej staying at the hostel who wanted to see all the same things I did. The 5 of us had a fantastic day touring the Moai and seeing Rapa Nui.

All in all, the 5 weeks ended on a high note by seeing such an incredible place. I´m at the Santiago airport, on a flight to Atlanta in two hours. This is my last post from South America, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read it. I´m putting together some internet photo albums when I get back, let me know if you´d like to see them. Hasta luego...

Kirt

Santiago

I´m in Santiago for the last leg of my trip before I head out to the Island. I´ve enjoyed seeing the sights and had a good night out in the city with some Brazilian med students and a couple from Dundee, all of whom I met at the hostel. However, I´ve been getting frustrated enough with Chileans that I think I should reflect on the best things in this country and the worst in Argentina, I´m starting to get a bit down on it. The problem with seeing Chile after being in Argentina is that Chile is more expensive, and the people are much less friendly (to the point of sometimes being total jerks), harder to understand, and less attractive. It´s a bit like visiting Austria after visiting Australia. Yes, Austria is a perfectly nice place in its own right, with some admirable qualities. But it still would be a bit of a letdown. So in an effort to give Chile a fair shake, here it goes:

2 Worst Things about Argentina

1) Bus Drivers

A help wanted ad for a bus driver in Argentina might read something like: ´Do you suffer from rage attacks? Do you require a profession where you can drink on the job? Is your vision impaired in one or both eyes? If you answered yes to all of these questions, an exciting career awaits you trying to kill your fellow man as a bus driver in (insert Argentine city).´ I´ve been some places with bad drivers, I´ve been to Boston and New Jersey, but for a combination of recklessness and bloodlust, no one can match Argentine busdrivers. They actually speed up when you´re in the crosswalk...and they have a red light they´ve just blown through!

2) Getting Change

It may be a holdover from the currency crisis, but it is impossible to get change in Argentina, no one seems to have small bills and coins. Anywhere. People in shops are genuinely upset and disappointed when you don´t have exact change. They´re explanation for the coin shortage? The buses. Everyone has to have exact change to ride them so they hoard the change. Again, the buses are an enemy to man.


2 Best Things about Chile

1) Efficiency

The flip side of the lack of typical latin warmth and energy is that Chile is as efficient as a northern hemisphere country; the metro is excellent and spotless, services run quickly and predictably, and the airport is nicer than SeaTac. It is somewhat of a relief to know things will work as they should when you need something

2) The Land and Climate

That is Chile´s true blessing; incredible natural beauty in land rich with resources. Further, the climate in middle chile is perfect. Not too hot, and sunny 100of the time in Spring and Summer. It´s gorgeous. It´s one of the reason wine producing is so successful here, rain during the harvest season is almost unheard of.

There. That wasn´t so hard. Now I like Chile again. Off to an asado (BBQ) at the hostel. Will post again from Easter Island....

Master and Commander

I spent this morning at Chile´s naval history museum, on the site of their original naval academy. It´s a fantastic museum, with a stunning view of the harbor. Particularly interesting were the exploits of Lord Thomas Cochrane, a ginger haired Scot who founded the Chilean Navy. The museum is practically a shrine to him, with massive stained glass windows depicting him destroying the Spanish fleet and kicking the Spanish out of Chile. After reading about him there, I did a bit of internet research and found he was the inspiration for Patrick O´Brian´s naval hero Jack Aubrey, portrayed by Russel Crowe in the film Master and Commander.

Nicknamed the Sea Wolf, he had an incredible life, one that took him from being a student at the University of Edinburgh to a royal navy officer to a disgraced member of the House of Commons, wrongly convicted of white collar crime. He went to Chile and became one of the great naval heroes of the 19th century. He also married a half spanish woman twenty years younger, for which his rich uncle Basil disinherited him. His life is full of crazy episodes like that. Here´s his wikipedia entry, it´s worth looking at: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cochrane

ps one thing i love about travelling on my own; if i decide i want to spend a half (or whole) day being a history nerd, then that is exactly what i´ll do! try and stop me...

Valparaiso

I´m here in the coastal city of Valparaiso, just to the west of Santiago. It´s a beautiful sunny spring day, and the hostel has great views of the city and the port. I took an overnight bus from Valdivia, and managed to sleep through most of it. It was time to get out of Valdivia, it reminded me of Dundee, Scotland more than anywhere else. A perfectly nice and prosperous little historic city, but with year-round wind and rain that keeps the town from being very festive. Valparaiso by contrast is bustling, noisy and sunny.
I was up taking photos from one of the hills, until a stocky Navy MP made clear that taking photos of the navy cruisers in the harbor was forbidden. That seemed odd to me, as anyone from a tall building could take the same photo, and it´s not like chile´s naval cruisers have never been photographed before. It´s some bangup counterespionage those MP´s are doing, that´s for sure. When Hugo Chavez tries to invade, he´ll have to do it without firsthand photos from the tourist overlook of those 6 ships in the harbor, thank you very much.

I´m readjusting to the Chilean accent. People in Argentina told me they can´t understand a lot of Chilenos, so it makes me feel a bit better that I´m often at a loss. The dialect is very fast, spoken back in the throat, and loaded with all sorts of changed and invented words. Maybe that´s why Valdivia reminded me of Scotland so much, everyone was unintelligble there too.

Anyhow, I´ll spend the week here and poking around surrounding towns like viña del mar and isla negra. Then for the weekend, I found a half-price ticket on lan.com for easter island. I still can´t believe I´m going, but that´s how I´ll be finishing up the trip. I get back from the island to Santiago on Monday, hang out in the airport for several hours, then start the trip back to DC late monday night.

Back in Chile

I crossed back into Chile today, and was treated to spectacular views the entire way. It´s amazing to have had lunch way up above treeline in the Andes with snow all around, and now to be sitting in a little coastal fishing town for dinner. The lushness of this part of Chile is incredible, I´ve never seen anywhere so green. The farms look beautiful and idyllic, and there´s all sorts of crazy birds around, which I don´t usually notice. This town, Valdivia, was crucial to the conquest of the country, and I´m going to go check out the old spanish forts by the river in the morning. It´s worth noting poor Pedro de Valdivia met his end here rather badly. The Spanish nobleman who founded Santiago, he was eventually captured by the Mapuche indians near here. The Mapuche were unimpressed with the Spanish lust for gold and their rape and pillaging of Chile to find it, so they killed Pedro by making him drink molten gold. The Mapuche were among the fiercest tribes in the Americas, there were areas near here still unsafe for Europeans in the mid 19th century. Considering the Spanish showed up in the 1540´s, that´s a long time to fight them off.
Anyhow, it´s mighty quiet as the students are gone for summer break from what turns out to be a university town, so I´ll head north either tomorrow night or Sunday morning.
ps I talked to some Israelis on the bus headed to the USA after this. I asked them what they looked forward to eating there. Their answer: s´mores.

Posting Up

I´ve been laying pretty low for a few days. I didn´t want to needlessly worry anyone, and I feel great now, but I caught a bug going around the hostel in mendoza and showed up in Bariloche feeling pretty nasty. After arriving at the world´s worst hostel, where my room had no curtains, no pillows, and where i got locked out for two hours when they gave me the wrong key, I did something I´ve never done before; just walked out to find a new place. The hostel offered to give me a free night´s stay, but who wants a free night in a dump? Anyhow, I walked down the street and found a hotel, where for the princely sum of 30 dollars a night I got a sparkling clean room with a view of the mountains, a tv with 4 channels of movies in english and a big comfy bed. I´ve spent two days basically sleeping and watching movies, and now I feel perfect. I also shaved my beard I´ve been growing the whole time down here (won´t get to grow one of those for a few years). It´s a bit of a shame that I couldn´t get out and explore the hills here, but a few days under the weather in a 5 week trip isn´t bad.

One thing worth mentioning is linking up with the Israeli travel trail. There is a pretty well worn path of Israelis who get done with their military service and go off to travel in South America for 6 months. Bariloche is definitely a stop, there are even signs in the restaurants and shops in Hebrew. I met a great group in Mendoza, and even sang a late-night round of Ba´Sha Na Habah´ah with some Israeli army vets, a Hebrew song I learned in swing choir at Curtis HS. A long way from Tacoma, no?
Also, it´s nice being able to talk about my job in coversation, as the Israeli vets obviously have no problem with military affiliation. And apparently the TV show JAG was a big hit in Israel. I´m quiet about what I do with Argentines, they tend to have very strong feelings about the military as an institution. I can´t really blame them, Argentina´s military murdered 30,000 of their own people barely 30 years ago. Still, even when I´ve tried to explain I´m a lawyer in the American Navy and not a corrupt policeman in the Argentine Army, a few kind of assume I´m a fascist. Better to just say I´m a lawyer for ´the government´ back home.

Now I have to figure out my itinerary for the next 10 days. I think I´ll cross into Chile tomorrow or the next day, spend a few days in Valdivia and the Chilean Lake District, then up to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar on the coast for the tail end of the week. I´ll be in Santiago next weekend, then back to the states on the 18th.

Jacksonville

I arrived in Bariloche yesterday after a 17 hour bus ride from Mendoza, and it was worth the journey. This area of Argentina is stunning. It´s called the Lake District, but the mountains and forests make it look like Yosemite. Bariloche is a little resort town, and while a bit commercial, is a great place to hang out for a day or two before heading up into mountains to do some hiking.
Anyway, I got word on gmail yesterday to call in to the Navy detailer in Tennessee about my first duty station. As a result, I learned in an internet phone booth in Argentina that my first assignment will be Jacksonville, Florida. I report in March, 2008 after I finish Naval Justice School in Newport, RI. I´m really looking forward to it. It´s meant to be a great office, and the base is the third biggest in the Navy (after Norfolk, VA and San Diego) so there should be a lot of good work.
That´s the news of the day. I hope everyone´s well, and staying dry after the massive storm in WA. Nos vemos.

the good, the bad, and the feo

In the last 24 hours, I´ve had a pretty representative experience of the things that make Argentina a wonderful country, while being maddening and exhausting.

The good: Getting invited to a party by two local people you´ve only known a week, and then the warmth with which you´re treated as a guest. The party was hosted by a Mendoza couple that are friends with the two girls, Mika and Soledad, who taught me Tango this week. Mika and Sole are both university students in their mid-twenties, and they get together with their friends at this house every monday to dance tango and have conversations with lots of dramatic hand gestures and shrugging. Honestly, the people here seem more like Italians (which most of them are genetically. At one point in the 19th century, there were more italian last names than spanish ones in Buenos Aires) the longer I´m here. There were about 15 people at the house, all about my age and all excellent dancers, besides me of course. The men tended to be big athletic guys, probably averaged about 6´2, and were amazingly agile, so that was kind of intimidating. The women were characteritically beautiful dancers, which is always intimidating. But everyone there went out of their way to make me feel welcome, and I even danced a few songs on the dance floor without managing to knock anyone over or destroy Mika´s toes. Anyway, the warmth and joie de vivre of the people here is fantastic, and something it´s impossible to get tired of.

The bad: The logistics of everyday life. I brought a cheap portable cd player here, as i didn´t want to risk my ipod, plus it´s easy to buy cheap cds here so you have new music. Anyhow, the 20 dollar fred meyer cd player stopped working yesterday (though I got some good runs with it in the amazing park they have in mendoza.
I went to go buy a new one today. After finally finding a store that carried a discman, I presumed I might simply select my item, take it to the cash register for payment, and leave. Ah, but this is Argentina. I was required to speak with no fewer than 5 people over the course 30 minutes, submit my passport, and fill out a stack of forms in triplicate while shuttling around to different counters. I asked them at one point in spanish ¨Am I buying a cd player or real estate?´´ It´s typical inefficiency. Everything shuts in the middle of the day for a 4 hour siesta. Or it doesn´t open at all. My friend Kristie runs a business in B.A., but has to pick up payment personally from all of her advertisers because you can´t trust the mail. And on and on. Perhaps Italian efficiency?

The feo: Trying to adjust to Argentine hours is ugly (feo). Don´t like staying up late? Since dinner often happens at midnight, then that just means you´ll go hungry. Argentines still wake up early after staying up until 3 am, but they´re exhausted and just go back to bed for 3 more hours at 1 pm. And then they commmute all over again. Maybe I´d get used to it, but it feels kind of feo for the time being.

I´m off to Bariloche on an overnight bus with my well-documented cd player. Also, I should know by the end of the week where I´ll be based in the Navy! It looks like Bremerton, DC, and San Diego are unfortunately off the table for this first year, but there are some good bases that look like I should have a shot at.

better environs

After the bee incident, I moved to a new hostel called Damajuana. Its on a better street, with better facilties and a swimming pool. In short, it rules. My spanish has gotten markedly better, and I´ve spent entire evenings of conversation only in spanish. It´s really fun. I lucked out and had a great spanish teacher this week, a really funny guy from Buenos Aires. I now know a few bad words I didn´t before as a result.
I also met an Irish guy last night at dinner whose uncle owns the Primo Grill on 6th Ave in Tacoma. What are the odds? Spent today running in the amazing park they have here, followed by a tango lesson, then an afternoon meal with some Israelis travelling after finishing military service. I´m about to put on my mancapris and do some reading, just thought I´d post to let everyone know I´m fine. Also, will stay here until Tuesday, at which point I will go to Bariloche in the south. Have been invited to a party by my tango teachers on monday night, which should be a lot of fun and great spanish practice, though not sure my dancing is ready for a party with the locals. Will try to get some good photos.

mullets and man-besos

I realize I haven´t commented much on argentine culture, rather what I´ve been doing and where I´ve been. The following are two things I´ve noticed I do not particularly approve of, and one that I´ve come to accept.

1) Mullets: You are simply not cool in buenos aires if you do not have a mullet. He-mullet, she-mullet, the billy ray cyrus power perm in the back, you name it. Rattails are present in the hippest of the hip bars and restaurants. It´s like the world´s turned upside down. I swear people would meet me and think: he´d be cool...if only he had a mullet.

2) Man-Besos: This is true in all over Argentina; dudes kiss each other on the cheek to say hello. You want a surprise, try having a mulletted dude with a beard go in to kiss you hello at breakfast in a cafe before you´ve had your coffee. I don´t recommend it. You can´t really avoid it without being rude, but i found a crocodile dundee-esque handshake combined with a slap on the back would cut it off at the pass sometimes.

3) Man-Capris: All the guys wear their warmup pants 3/4 length when out running. Nike,Adidas, that´s all they sell. Man-capris. I now own a pair, and am happy to report they´re like normal pants, just less hot. I´m ready to bring them back to the states and start a revolution.

Went on a wine tour today after class, but was very commercial and they gave us almost no wine. Was kind of like the Frass Canyon scene in Sideways.
Still haven´t decided my next city, but moving hostels in the morning within Mendoza tomorrow after getting stung by a bee in bed. Apparently they´ve got a nest in the attic.That´s all for now. Overall, Mendoza remains awesome.

book learnin´

I had my first classroom spanish lessons in mendoza today. my teacher, a guy from buenos aires, is a very good instructor and i got a lot out of the session. The school was accomdating about me starting midweek, and i had 4 hours of class today to make up for not beginning earlier. 4 hours of spanish is excellent for practice, having to stay thinking in spanish for that long continuously. It´s a shame I don´t have a few more weeks or months to just study spanish, I could make a lot of progress in a course like this. Ah well, I´m very fortunate to have the time down here I do have.
I was planning on going to a bodega (winery) today, but it´s too hot to do much of anything, as it´s about 95 in the shade and pretty humid. Had a siesta instead. I had a great meal at the hostel last night, one of the best parts has been meeting other people travelling. Last night the group was a girl from chile who lives in london, a guy who goes to ucsf med school taking some time off from rotations, two dutch law students on holiday, a city planner from eatonville, WA (not making it up) and two argentines on holiday. Conversations tend to alternate between spanish and english, depending on people´s language abilities. Everyone went to the grocery store and put together a dish, and we had a big communal meal. It´s kind of a self-selecting group of people that tends to come to these places and who backpack around south america in the first place, and you end up having all sorts of interesting and unexpected conversations. Too hot to think of much interesting to write at the moment. Nos vemos.

El Tango de Mendoza

Viva Mendoza! There are really a lot of things to like about this town: the manageable size, the warm friendly people, the landscape, the great wine, the low prices. Then there are experiences like I had this afternoon.

I found a good spanish school, and signed up for a week´s worth of lessons. My conversational ability has come back the past two weeks, so it´s a good time to get into some formal instruction. The school director showed me their calendar of events, and this afternoon was free tango lessons. I only had an hour to go back to the hostel and clean up and get back, but I decided it was too good to pass up.

I arrived, and learned I was the only student enrolled for the class. The door opened, and the two instructors walked in. Both students at the local university, they are quite possibly the two most beautiful women I have seen in Argentina. Absolutely stunning, both of them. They asked me if I still wanted to take the class, I´d get more personal attention this way. Yes, I decided. I can stick around.

After getting my powers of speech back, the lesson went really well. They both spoke crystal clear spanish, so I got two hours of really good practice speaking and listening. They were very professional and capable teachers too. They told me the whole history of the tango, including the pope outlawing it at one point, from what I gathered were dancers not making enough room between them for the holy ghost, as they say at catholic school dances in the states. After a few early jitters, by the end of the session I was breaking out the moves I´d learned years ago from the argentine teachers back home, to the delight of the profesoras. It was awesome. Such a cool experience. I´m taking another lesson saturday. Can you blame me?

Again I say, Viva Mendoza!

back in the andes

I made it to Mendoza, and am happy to report it´s a lovely city. It is also really, really hot. You´d think the coast would be hotter than the mountains, but that´s not the case. I took an overnight bus across the pampas to get here. It gives you a good sense of how big the Argentine pampas is to do it that way, it´s like looking at the horizon driving across Nebraska. The prarie just goes on and on and on. Besides the sandwich guy giving me change with a counterfeit five peso bill and listening to Shakira´s collected works being played over the intercom, the ride was uneventful.

My last day in Buenos Aires was unforgettable, as I had the singular privilege of visiting Tierra Santa. Wedged between a driving range and a waterpark, it is several acres of christian themepark amazingness. The english language park guide is full of wonderful quotations like: ¨visitors will delight in the 18 meter high jesus, and with especially his 36 mechanical movements.¨ or ¨experience the magic of the Creation through laser lights and state of the art robotic patriarchs.¨ I´m forgetting some, but you get the idea. It was really hard to keep a straight face, which is a problem as about 90 percent of the parkgoers are really serious about it, not a trace of irony. One woman was weeping at the wailing wall, and I started smirking at a funny translation and one of the roman soldiers working there gave me a really dirty look. That would have been a hard black eye to explain, getting thwacked with a plastic sword by an argentine roman soldier at the fake wailing wall. Also, there was a somewhat inexplicable exhibit on Gandhi wedged between a synagogue and the crown of thorns diorama. Maybe they´re trying to be pluralistic. I have some great photos, I will attempt to upload them.

Am off to buy shorts in an attempt to stay cool. Viva Mendoza.

off to mendoza

i got back to buenos aires this morning, after a lovely boat ride on a beautiful spring morning over the river from colonia del sacramento, uruguay. i loved uruguay, i wish i´d had more time there. sandy beaches, beautiful old colonial architecture, friendly people, laid back atmosphere...what´s not to like? anyhow, in buenos aires a few more hours, then up into the andes to mendoza!

off to uruguay

I just got into Colonia, Uruguay, where I´ll be until Sunday morning. The town is really nice, it´s a little colonial getaway town with cobblestone streets and open plazas, and is really clean and well maintained. Reminds me a bit of Newport, or maybe Victoria. Anyhow, nice to get out of the big city for a bit.

Last night was Buenos Aires thanksgiving. It was a bit of a 'quilombo' preparing it, which is the omnipresent word in buenos aires for mess/snafu/less nice words, however you want to call it. My sweet potatoes were an unmitigated disaster, but the rest of the food was excellent and there was tons of good wine. I took it upon myself to buy a few bottles of champagne and give a thanksgiving toast. It caught most by surprise (19 people total, 4 americans), but despite the sentimentality, it's the whole point of the feast to take a moment and reflect on everything we have to be thankful for. That's the simple purity of thanksgiving, there's none of the commercialism or religious complexity of holidays like easter and christmas. Just a feast, and an opportunity to reflect on how much we have to be grateful for, especially the people around us. Anyway, the dinner (which started at 11:30 pm) was a fantastic time in a great old converted 19th century villa in San Telmo.
My favorite quote of the evening was a local guy explaining to me that when he was travelling in europe and was trying to meet girls, one told him: "you don't have to lie here, you're not in argentina." sums up the social interactions between men and women here pretty nicely.
I may move this journal to another site so it's easier to post photos, but will be sure to let any of you reading it know.

el dia de gratitud

it's a bit odd to be in latin america for the quintessential american holiday, and it's a shame not to be with family today. however, there is a good thanksgiving feast planned for tonight that i'm looking forward to. one of kristie's staff members is hosting tonight, and we're having roast chickens (turkeys are unavailable in b.a.) and all sorts of other thanksgiving treats. i'm going to try and make sweet potatoes happen, we'll see how that works out.

I'm headed out of town for a two day trip tomorrow. i was going to go to iguazu falls, but it's 17 hours up there, and just too much hassle. instead, i think i'll jump on a ferry across the river to Uruguay, seeing Colonia and Montevideo, then come back Sunday morning to go to Tierra Santa with Kristie and her brother, who gets into town this weekend.

La Tierra Santa (http://www.tierrasanta-bsas.com.ar/) is Argentina's religious theme park, and it's meant to score a 10 out of 10 on the unintentional comedy scale. I'm looking forward to seeing the Resurrection, which takes place every half hour!

Then Sunday night I'll jump on the overnight bus to Mendoza, where I plan to spend another week or so. Everyone I've talked to loved the place, from natives of b.a. to the judge I used to work for in Seattle. I've been practicing my spanish here, but I think Mendoza will be a relaxed (and cheap) place to enroll in some classes and finally get my verbs in decent shape. Buenos Aires is amazing, but I'm ready for a less massive city for a while. Happy Thanksgiving.

las islas malvinas

this is how one is meant to refer to the falkland islands in argentina. you see, they rightfully belong to argetina, as the exhibit in the military museum so earnestly argues. the museum leaves out that the military dictatorship in the 80´s launched an invasion of an island populated by not much more than a few british people shopping at tesco´s and enjoying episodes of upstairs downstairs. the invaders then got roundly booted out by the british military in about two months. there still is a bit of resentment about it here, as there is with madonna playing eva peron in the musical. i spent yesterday afternoon walking the city and visiting the museums.
the eva peron museum is interesting, a cult around her personality has developed here over the years, some people even want her beatified at the vatican. she was only 33 when she died, and some whisper she refused treatment for her ovarian cancer so she could become a martyr. maybe the most striking part of the museum is seeing photos of her growing up as a country girl in the provinces, and then seeing photos from only about 12 years later of her funeral in buenos aires. the funeral photos look like the kinds of thing you see from the kennedy assassination or v-e day; black and white photos of an entire city´s population pressed into every open space, ranks upon ranks of soliders lining the procession, tanks leading the hearse, and so on. the fact that through sheer force of will and personality she was able to have that kind of rise from peasant to dictatress (my word) is incredible.
last night we made our first visit to a milonga, la catedral. milongas are the traditional tango venues, and it was amazing to watch the local couples here in b.a. on the dance floor. the venue itself was a great old dimly lit 19th century space converted into a dance hall with candles and crazy artwork and gas lamps suspended from 50 foot ceilings. the dancers themselves were amazing, it´s hypnotic to watch them move. i´ve taken a few lessons years ago, but would need a hell of a lot more to be able to hold my own at a good buenos aires milonga. still, watching the spectacle with a great (and absurdly cheap) bottle of red wine made for a great night.

codigos rojos

this is how you say ´code red´ in spanish. after describing my job to some argentine guys who asked me what i did, one of them replied ¨ah, es como la pelicula con tom cruise y...los codigos rojos, no?´ it appears there´s no escaping a few good men.
last night was my first asado experience. the argentinian version of a barbecue, we had an endless supply of steak and wine and grilled vegetables. we were hosted by kristie´s friend werner along with several argentinian friends, on werner´s rooftop terrace of his downtown apartment building. the view was as amazing as the food. it was a great chance to practice spanish, but reaffirmed how much more i want to work on it.

the night before that was extraordinary. kristie´s spanish teacher, nacho, threw a party saturday night called ¨fiesta senor drummond.¨ that´s right, a different strokes themed party named after the inimitable mr. drummond. apparently the show was huge in argentina in the 80´s. there were photos of willis and arnold all over the walls, girls in leg warmers, 80´s dance music blaring, and the 80´s video game ´bad dudes´set up in the corner. it was surreal, and augmented by singing a spirited duet of the different strokes theme song with nacho. the world truly does not move to the beat of just one drum.

in any event, an excellent weekend, and buenos aires is living up to its reputation as one of the best cities anywhere.

buenos aires

we're cooking dinner at casa argentimes, so i won't make this much of a post. just a quick note that i made it here safely, and am absolutely stunned by this city. kristie's house, which she shares with some other expats, doubles as the offices of the argentimes, and we're right in the middle of the san telmo district. i may be here about a week, i've been invited to a thanksgiving dinner on thursday that sounds too good to pass up. i'm having a great time with the people i've met, and catching up with kristie was worth the trip alone. this paper she's started is amazing. there are great options for learning spanish here too, so i think i'll begin classes on monday. more to come, but it's a good thing i've got a job in the states, because it would be very easy for a week in buenos aires to turn into months, or even years. hasta luego....k

don´t cry for me argentina

the truth is... i´ll be there this evening.
i know that song is terribly cliched, but i kind of couldn´t stop myself from typing it.
had a great day in santiago yesterday. a nice long run in the park de los reyes along the banks of the river, lunch in a cafe beside the plaza brazil, then checked out some of the museums and santa lucia hill which is a steep little hill rising right out of the heart of the city that they turned into an ornate beaux-arts park early in the last century. it´s really nice, and offers a great view of the city and the valley. then went out for dinner and drinks with two austrian guys and a girl who went to monash uni. in melbourne, which brought back memories of the vis competition (competition was in austria, met lots of people from monash). was a fun evening, though it´s safe to say austrians can drink more beer than americans. they can also do better impressions of arnold schwarzenegger, which is instant hilarity.
i have a few hours to explore the city some more before my flight, then off over the andes. i´m currently planning to come back overland through cordoba and mendoza and cross back into chile from mendoza. will update this page as i deteremine where i´m going.

earthquake

thanks for the concern of those of you who wrote. the earthquake was 400 miles away, so no problem here in santiago. this computer is slow, will post later.

made it

So here i am, in sunny Santiago de Chile! The weather is perfect, the city is beautiful, and my spanish is rusty. The place I´m staying is very cool, full of climbers and backpackers making their way around south america. I´ve changed plans a bit, and i´m going to fly to Buenos Aires on Friday and spend some time with my friend and fellow veteran of voluntarios de occidente, kristie robinson. She is founder and editor of the argentimes (www.argentimes.com), and it will be great to see the city with an expert of all things porteño. I´ll be making my way back from B.A. overland to chile, likely stopping in Bariloche after crossing the pampas. Off to dinner, hope everyone´s well. As always, my gmail address is the best way to reach me.
abrazos fuertes, kirt(lando)

starting up

This is my first venture into the world of web logs. I will be traveling to South America from November 14 to December 18, 2007. Please check in and say hi, I'll try to include some good photos and anecdotes from my trip.