Yes, we're still going to Rio, tomorrow. I'm aware of the recent violence we'll be extra careful. Anyway, I'll write more later. Gotta run. love, George
(Later that day)
I´m just killing a couple minutes while waiting for the bus in the Sao Paulo bus station (rodovaria = bus station). We spent 40 minutes in an urban bus to get from the Coachman house to a metro station and another 20 or so to get here. In a few minutes we´re off to the madness of Rio, though I can´t say Sao Paulo is much better. This is a big, big city that is built up so all you see are high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. Fortunately there are a lot of trees, so it´s not completely paved over. The Coachman house is indeed a refuge in the middle of the mess, it´s really nice to be there.
We should be fine in Rio. John says the police probably arrested some big drug dealer and they´re retaliating. I´m more worried about the large crowds and being distracted by the many interesting women!
I´ll tell you how it goes.
Friday, February 28, 2003
Friday, February 7, 2003
Argentina - Salta
Hello from green, warm, friendly Salta. We arrived yesterday morning from Jujuy, impressed by the lushness of the vegetation and vastness of the skies. Salta is perhaps the cleanest town we`ve been to and the people are very European, and the towns are more and more reminiscent of Spain.
The highways are nice making bus rides more comfortable and despite the economic crisis, people are getting along well enough. At least the level of poverty is not nearly as visible as in previous countries. One can sense the disappointment in their politicians. The people have no trust in their elected officials as they are as corrupt as they come, having basically destroyed an entire country`s economy for selfish gains. The value of the Argentinian peso has dropped in one year from being fixed one to one with the dollar to now 3.2 to a dollar, a staggering devaluation in such a short period of time. No one is anticipating a quick recovery either. But people have their pride still, and hope for the best, after all this place is indeed beautiful, and as we saw last night, people still enjoy themselves by going out and living.
Helen gave me a contact here in Salta, of which we took advantage and met John and Christine Leach (Christine is a cousin of Helen´s, her maiden name was also Lane), and their two boys Thomas and Lorenzo, ages 4 and 5 respectively who are two adorable little toeheads already speaking English, Spanish, and some Portuguese. We had lunch with them and took an afternoon nap and enjoyed the views from their lovely house just outside of town. They gave us some tasty honey from their large tobacco farm a few kilometers further out of town. They invited us to stay at their house, though it would have only been for the night because they left for Chile today. We already found lodging, but appreciated the offer. Nice people, John is of English dissent (sp?) but his family has been here for several generations; Christine is from Brazil. It was very interesting to visit with them and discuss Argentina and see how traditions survive (i.e. English).
We´ll be here a couple days more then head to Resistencia before visiting other relatives of Helen´s in Asuncion, Paraguay. Things are working out quite nicely.
I forgot to mention that we crossed another time zone entering Bolivia and another entering Argentina, so now we´re four hours ahead, i.e. 2PM there is 6PM here. We also crossed another geographical milestone by passing the Tropic of Capricorn just north of Jujuy, having transversed the entire Tropics (Cancer is somewhere between Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan). We won´t be going much further south, more east and north. Though I have a strong desire to see more of Argentina and for sure Chile.
The highways are nice making bus rides more comfortable and despite the economic crisis, people are getting along well enough. At least the level of poverty is not nearly as visible as in previous countries. One can sense the disappointment in their politicians. The people have no trust in their elected officials as they are as corrupt as they come, having basically destroyed an entire country`s economy for selfish gains. The value of the Argentinian peso has dropped in one year from being fixed one to one with the dollar to now 3.2 to a dollar, a staggering devaluation in such a short period of time. No one is anticipating a quick recovery either. But people have their pride still, and hope for the best, after all this place is indeed beautiful, and as we saw last night, people still enjoy themselves by going out and living.
Helen gave me a contact here in Salta, of which we took advantage and met John and Christine Leach (Christine is a cousin of Helen´s, her maiden name was also Lane), and their two boys Thomas and Lorenzo, ages 4 and 5 respectively who are two adorable little toeheads already speaking English, Spanish, and some Portuguese. We had lunch with them and took an afternoon nap and enjoyed the views from their lovely house just outside of town. They gave us some tasty honey from their large tobacco farm a few kilometers further out of town. They invited us to stay at their house, though it would have only been for the night because they left for Chile today. We already found lodging, but appreciated the offer. Nice people, John is of English dissent (sp?) but his family has been here for several generations; Christine is from Brazil. It was very interesting to visit with them and discuss Argentina and see how traditions survive (i.e. English).
We´ll be here a couple days more then head to Resistencia before visiting other relatives of Helen´s in Asuncion, Paraguay. Things are working out quite nicely.
I forgot to mention that we crossed another time zone entering Bolivia and another entering Argentina, so now we´re four hours ahead, i.e. 2PM there is 6PM here. We also crossed another geographical milestone by passing the Tropic of Capricorn just north of Jujuy, having transversed the entire Tropics (Cancer is somewhere between Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan). We won´t be going much further south, more east and north. Though I have a strong desire to see more of Argentina and for sure Chile.
Wednesday, February 5, 2003
Argentina - Jujuy
Yup, already in Argentina. We´re moving along quite quickly. The trick is to take long overnight bus rides to save on hotel costs and time, though today we spent the morning and noon in the bus and were able to see the spectacular descent from the Andes into the Northern "Pampa" of Argentina, which resembles nothing more than the Sonoran desert! even the cactus look just like saguaros, just a little fuzzier. The climate is the same as when we left home: warm, humid; and the mesquite trees line the hills and willows the arroyos. We´re just here in Jujuy (pronounced "hoo-hooey." Really) for the night then off to Salta tomorrow, where I´ve been trying to make a connection with some of Helen´s family, but their Email address was mistyped so I´m going to have to call.
I´m so glad to be in Argentina, it´s always had a similar mystique as Spain had for me, now I´m here. Bolivia was really nice, but I like the warm places better. We passed by where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their ends (all the way into southern Bolivia!) Oh, and I got mugged finally, last night at the Potosi bus station. Really, it was quite an amusing experience. For some reason, all twenty of the buses leaving Potosi leave about the same time every afternoon, making the bus terminal a bit more than chaotic when boarding. Anyway, Scott went to the bathroom, we´d already loaded our packs, all i had was a day pack and my guitar, when a person squirted some caramel shit on my arm. I immediately knew what was going on and backed up quickly and felt someone brush my leg, so I conveniently swung my guitar around, but I couln´t tell who it was since it was so crowded. But my wallet was still there. So I decided to get on the bus and get away from the mess. There was a person charging a typical "tax" of a few cents upon boarding the bus, normal, but as I was digging for my change I felt someone brush my leg again (my left thigh is where I kept this wallet) so I grabbed the hand that led to a middle aged lady who looked at me dumbfounded as I told her "keep your hands away or we´ll be visiting the police." She disappeared, my wallet was still there. So I payed the tax, boarded, stowed my guitar and decided I´d go back out to warn Scott, who was now watching the baggage bin (as one of us usually does before we leave, to make sure no one walks off with our bags). As I was walking down the bus isle, I had to push my way through a group of people who were all upset about something, in the midst of this chaos I, once again, felt my thigh being brushed, but this time the wallet was gone, and there was only one man who it could of been. So I grabbed his jacket and told him "give it back" he played dumb and I started laughing in his face and followed him off and approached him again and told him "a shame you didn´t get anything" (all dialogues in Spanish of course) and he too disappeared. My last statement was almost entirely true, but he did get my wallet that only had some useless calling cards from Costa Rica and Guatemala because it was my dummy wallet that I never use anyway, other than occupying space in my pocket. But the bad part was he used a rapid razor to cleanly cut my poor pocket and swiftly slide out my wanted wallet (say again?), so I was lucky he didn´t try and use it again; and I had this caramel shit on my shirt which cleaned off nicely as EX-OFFICIO brand shirts claim to resist stains. I was lucky, about the stain, and the wallet I guess. It made the next eleven hours in bus a bit tense though because I suspected everyone of trying to rob me. Now I´m over that and looking for a new wallet and a tailor to fix my pocket.
So that´s the latest of adventures. To answer your question about where we stay, we stay in budget Hostels averaging two dollars a night, hot water in Peru and Bolivia was a priority and private bathrooms are optional. We lucked out today, because we have both for a mere three dollars. Argentina´s economic crisis is much to our benefit (beef here costs 13 pesos for 3 kilograms, roughly four dollars for seven pounds!) the exchange is 3.2 Argentinian pesos to a dollar, where just a year ago the peso was fixed with the dollar. The people were hit hard.
So yeah, back in warm weather, reasonable altitudes (1200 meters, 4000 feet) and the ladies are looking better and better. (I could hear the "uh-oh" from here. fret not, everything's under control, for the moment).
I´ll be in touch from Salta, hopefully I´ll be able to get a hold of Helen´s family, though I have been in contact with some others in Asuncion, Paraguay. What luck!
I´m so glad to be in Argentina, it´s always had a similar mystique as Spain had for me, now I´m here. Bolivia was really nice, but I like the warm places better. We passed by where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid met their ends (all the way into southern Bolivia!) Oh, and I got mugged finally, last night at the Potosi bus station. Really, it was quite an amusing experience. For some reason, all twenty of the buses leaving Potosi leave about the same time every afternoon, making the bus terminal a bit more than chaotic when boarding. Anyway, Scott went to the bathroom, we´d already loaded our packs, all i had was a day pack and my guitar, when a person squirted some caramel shit on my arm. I immediately knew what was going on and backed up quickly and felt someone brush my leg, so I conveniently swung my guitar around, but I couln´t tell who it was since it was so crowded. But my wallet was still there. So I decided to get on the bus and get away from the mess. There was a person charging a typical "tax" of a few cents upon boarding the bus, normal, but as I was digging for my change I felt someone brush my leg again (my left thigh is where I kept this wallet) so I grabbed the hand that led to a middle aged lady who looked at me dumbfounded as I told her "keep your hands away or we´ll be visiting the police." She disappeared, my wallet was still there. So I payed the tax, boarded, stowed my guitar and decided I´d go back out to warn Scott, who was now watching the baggage bin (as one of us usually does before we leave, to make sure no one walks off with our bags). As I was walking down the bus isle, I had to push my way through a group of people who were all upset about something, in the midst of this chaos I, once again, felt my thigh being brushed, but this time the wallet was gone, and there was only one man who it could of been. So I grabbed his jacket and told him "give it back" he played dumb and I started laughing in his face and followed him off and approached him again and told him "a shame you didn´t get anything" (all dialogues in Spanish of course) and he too disappeared. My last statement was almost entirely true, but he did get my wallet that only had some useless calling cards from Costa Rica and Guatemala because it was my dummy wallet that I never use anyway, other than occupying space in my pocket. But the bad part was he used a rapid razor to cleanly cut my poor pocket and swiftly slide out my wanted wallet (say again?), so I was lucky he didn´t try and use it again; and I had this caramel shit on my shirt which cleaned off nicely as EX-OFFICIO brand shirts claim to resist stains. I was lucky, about the stain, and the wallet I guess. It made the next eleven hours in bus a bit tense though because I suspected everyone of trying to rob me. Now I´m over that and looking for a new wallet and a tailor to fix my pocket.
So that´s the latest of adventures. To answer your question about where we stay, we stay in budget Hostels averaging two dollars a night, hot water in Peru and Bolivia was a priority and private bathrooms are optional. We lucked out today, because we have both for a mere three dollars. Argentina´s economic crisis is much to our benefit (beef here costs 13 pesos for 3 kilograms, roughly four dollars for seven pounds!) the exchange is 3.2 Argentinian pesos to a dollar, where just a year ago the peso was fixed with the dollar. The people were hit hard.
So yeah, back in warm weather, reasonable altitudes (1200 meters, 4000 feet) and the ladies are looking better and better. (I could hear the "uh-oh" from here. fret not, everything's under control, for the moment).
I´ll be in touch from Salta, hopefully I´ll be able to get a hold of Helen´s family, though I have been in contact with some others in Asuncion, Paraguay. What luck!
Monday, February 3, 2003
Bolivia - Potosí
Hello from chilly Potosi, some 14,400 feet above sea level, but it´s not as cold as AZ in the winter (though it´s summer here) because it doesn´t freeze at night. Today we toured one of the world´s most infamous mines that has, in the past four hundred years, claimed the lives of well over 8 million people (from African and indigenous slaves to present day miners).
Guided by a 21 year old, ten year veteran of the mines, we crawled and climbed 500 meters into the what used to be the world´s richest mine, before the Spaniards took all the millions of tons of silver for themselves. All is left is a Swiss cheese hill, that has sunk over 1000 meters, averaging now a meter a year. A tragic place, most tragic, is one of the most vivid examples of the blatant exploitation of a land for the benefit of the European Royaly and the Catholic Church. Today, the tailings are picked through for tin and zinc, bought by the USA, but the town still struggles, mainly surviving on tourism. Coca leaves flow freely as they are a save substance in their natural form, but the US places pressure on the officials to eradicate the crop, so the poor poor people are loosing their culture as they lose money and identity. Such a desolate land, only the most humble and the most greedy would try and survive here, hardly any vegetation and minimal annual rainfall, it´s hard to believe that Potosi was once the largest and richest city in the western hemisphere. Definitely worth the visit.
We heard about the Colombia a couple days ago, though the cause remains unknown. Bolivia is full of it´s own news and turmoil, as their history has always been. In fact their government has changed some 160 times in the 140 years it´s been a country (give or take a couple numbers on both) these people are just tired and want nothing more than a simple life, but corruption prevents any form of progress and the weakest suffer the most.
How fortunate I am, so very, very fortunate. All I have to do is go to a bank and I´m set for a week. Which reminds me, the ATM charge has always been $3, that´s why I go inside and use my debit card like a credit card for a "cash advance" because it has the visa symbol, but since it´s not a credit card I get no charge by either bank, as the credit card is supposed to charge a commission.
...
Again, I´m so fortunate. I couldn´t be happier right now. We´ll be on the move south again tomorrow, heading to Argentina. Bolivia is a great country with so much to offer the ecotourist, but we´re just passing through right now, trying to get to Brasil. I would like to spend more time here, like Guatemala and Mexico. The food is so good too, though it´s influenced by Argentinian gastronomy as well.
Guided by a 21 year old, ten year veteran of the mines, we crawled and climbed 500 meters into the what used to be the world´s richest mine, before the Spaniards took all the millions of tons of silver for themselves. All is left is a Swiss cheese hill, that has sunk over 1000 meters, averaging now a meter a year. A tragic place, most tragic, is one of the most vivid examples of the blatant exploitation of a land for the benefit of the European Royaly and the Catholic Church. Today, the tailings are picked through for tin and zinc, bought by the USA, but the town still struggles, mainly surviving on tourism. Coca leaves flow freely as they are a save substance in their natural form, but the US places pressure on the officials to eradicate the crop, so the poor poor people are loosing their culture as they lose money and identity. Such a desolate land, only the most humble and the most greedy would try and survive here, hardly any vegetation and minimal annual rainfall, it´s hard to believe that Potosi was once the largest and richest city in the western hemisphere. Definitely worth the visit.
We heard about the Colombia a couple days ago, though the cause remains unknown. Bolivia is full of it´s own news and turmoil, as their history has always been. In fact their government has changed some 160 times in the 140 years it´s been a country (give or take a couple numbers on both) these people are just tired and want nothing more than a simple life, but corruption prevents any form of progress and the weakest suffer the most.
How fortunate I am, so very, very fortunate. All I have to do is go to a bank and I´m set for a week. Which reminds me, the ATM charge has always been $3, that´s why I go inside and use my debit card like a credit card for a "cash advance" because it has the visa symbol, but since it´s not a credit card I get no charge by either bank, as the credit card is supposed to charge a commission.
...
Again, I´m so fortunate. I couldn´t be happier right now. We´ll be on the move south again tomorrow, heading to Argentina. Bolivia is a great country with so much to offer the ecotourist, but we´re just passing through right now, trying to get to Brasil. I would like to spend more time here, like Guatemala and Mexico. The food is so good too, though it´s influenced by Argentinian gastronomy as well.
Saturday, February 1, 2003
Bolivia - La Paz
Greetings from the Altiplano of Bolivia. La Paz is such an interesting city, built in what resembles a three sided volcano (though I don´t think it was a volcano) with majestic mountains dominating the background under skies blue as Arizona´s (when it is not raining here). It´s the coolest (cold) place we´ve been, again, the altitude, and the sun is intense (yes, I´m using my sunblock). Much like the other south American capitals (thought La Paz is the unofficial capital, Sucre being the official) the streets bustle with cars, buses, people and animals in such chaos that it almost seems planned. The hills are steep that line the "bowl" of La Paz, and the houses are stacked one on top of the other overflowing the rim and sprawling out onto the surrounding plateau.
The indigenous population is prevalent, many not speaking much Spanish, only Quechua (Language of the Incas) and Aymara (another even older language). The ladies´ apparel is of the previous century, wearing layered dresses with shiny material, thick knit shawls and Charlie Chaplin felt top hats (the rounded kind), which is endlessly amusing, to me (not amusing like I want to laugh, just cracking a smile rather). And, just like all the more indigenous women since Oaxaca, they all carry loads on their backs like ants (almost the same proportions of weight too) using a tied piece of hand woven tapestry, and somehow have room for a baby in there too. I´ll never complain again about having to carry groceries from the car to the kitchen.
Beer when poured out of the bottle into a glass is pure foam, again, the altitude, which has been the source of some frustration, having to resolve to hard liquor (hee, hee). Bolivia is the Coca capital (though some would argue that Colombia is) and the USA´s presence in aide and loans controls the economy, with a special emphasis on obliterating Coca (leave that is processed to make cocaine) cultivation. One sees the locals, i.e. indigenous, chewing the leaves as has been done for 2500 years and wasn´t a problem for anyone until the Europeans came. I went to a museum dedicated to Coca, very interesting, and learned a lot about this simple little plant that intrigues the world. And while there is an incredible demand in the US and other European countries, there will be a supply from Bolivia, creating a vast schism between political parties who support cocaleros (growers) and the US. However, we haven´t encountered much Anti-American sentiment other than graffiti on the walls. So it goes...
Tonight we´ll be heading to even higher and colder ground, Potosí, once the most important city in Latin America, because of its mines. I´m much looking forward to this city because of it´s historical significance, though supposedly only a ghost city anymore. I´ll tell you more as I learn more.
So we´re going to war? Another Vietnam? apparently the gov´ment has been unloading many a dollar in war preparation already. Hmmm? Nelson Mandela has condemned Bush, but I guess "peace" is not the objective.
The indigenous population is prevalent, many not speaking much Spanish, only Quechua (Language of the Incas) and Aymara (another even older language). The ladies´ apparel is of the previous century, wearing layered dresses with shiny material, thick knit shawls and Charlie Chaplin felt top hats (the rounded kind), which is endlessly amusing, to me (not amusing like I want to laugh, just cracking a smile rather). And, just like all the more indigenous women since Oaxaca, they all carry loads on their backs like ants (almost the same proportions of weight too) using a tied piece of hand woven tapestry, and somehow have room for a baby in there too. I´ll never complain again about having to carry groceries from the car to the kitchen.
Beer when poured out of the bottle into a glass is pure foam, again, the altitude, which has been the source of some frustration, having to resolve to hard liquor (hee, hee). Bolivia is the Coca capital (though some would argue that Colombia is) and the USA´s presence in aide and loans controls the economy, with a special emphasis on obliterating Coca (leave that is processed to make cocaine) cultivation. One sees the locals, i.e. indigenous, chewing the leaves as has been done for 2500 years and wasn´t a problem for anyone until the Europeans came. I went to a museum dedicated to Coca, very interesting, and learned a lot about this simple little plant that intrigues the world. And while there is an incredible demand in the US and other European countries, there will be a supply from Bolivia, creating a vast schism between political parties who support cocaleros (growers) and the US. However, we haven´t encountered much Anti-American sentiment other than graffiti on the walls. So it goes...
Tonight we´ll be heading to even higher and colder ground, Potosí, once the most important city in Latin America, because of its mines. I´m much looking forward to this city because of it´s historical significance, though supposedly only a ghost city anymore. I´ll tell you more as I learn more.
So we´re going to war? Another Vietnam? apparently the gov´ment has been unloading many a dollar in war preparation already. Hmmm? Nelson Mandela has condemned Bush, but I guess "peace" is not the objective.
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