10 April 2009
Buenos Aires Pt III: other stuff
One weekend we visited a guy who lives in the Delta of Tigre, north of the capital. He had bought some land and was hoping to create a sustainable eco-village where couch surfers could come and stay in exchange for a little work. He'd invited anyone on the couch surfers website to come along for a working weekend. It was a beautiful area with rivers lined with weeping willows and a few oaks here and there giving it quite an English feel. We talked of his plans, shared ideas, did a bit of land clearing with machettes and then had a sleep over in a wooden shack on stilts with candles and a bit of a sing song. Was very nice, and met some great people. Unfortunately we left before the Kiwi guy arrived to build an earth oven - really want to pick up some natural construction skills and this would have been a fine chance.
In one unfortunate week I left my card in the cash machine and had my account emptied and had my MP3 player stolen at a hostel. Wasn't too bad in the end though - the bank refunded my money and the guy who was responsible for leaving my MP3 player in a vulnerable place coughed up some cash, whicch was quite a result, but will never make up for the loss of my music.
One night we went out with our friends Yami and Santiago from Colombia to a 'contact dance' night at this big house where a traveller/hippie/new age type community live. There was some live music, some entertaining performance, and plenty of contact dancing - an intimate dance where people dance with each other whilst maintaining body and eye contact. Basically it looks like people rolling around on each other's backs and jigging aound each other in circles whilst always touching. At times it was mesmorising and quite cool to watch, which is all I did - not wearing the appropriate atire of hemp fisherman pants and poncho was my official excuse for not participating. It was a fun night, but once again I was disappointed by the aire of supiriority given out by so called 'hippies'. I've been to my fair share of hippie gatherings and I've often left feeling that the community seemed quite closed and cliquey, and looked down on those who didn't know whether their chakras were open or closed, or who didn't adopt the lotus position and meditate at any given chance. Surely to be open to all people and the desire to share philosophies with others should be the ways of the enlightened hippie? How are you going to change world conscienceness by sticking in closed groups and shunning outsiders or newcomers? Was fun overall though, and had a good old bash at various percussive instruments during the spontaneous jams that broke out through the night.
One day we went with Alcira to a permaculture day, out in the country. It was a nice day out, and made me realise how much I craved some clean country air. We didn't learn that much on the day, as it was all in Spanish, but we did learn about a technique of planting called-Fukaku named after it's Japanese inventor, who is a bit of a legend amongst the permaculture movement. Whilst there, we met a lovely couple called Dave and Elisa. Dave is English and had met Argentinian Elisa in the states back in the day, and they'd both moved to Argentina. They'd lived though Argentina's dark recent years - the 'dirty war' where up to 30, 000 people were 'disappeared' between '76-'83, under Jorge Rafeal Videla's military dictatorship. They currently live in La Plata just outside of BA and run an organisation called MACA (Musica, Arte, Cultura, Ambiente (environment)). As the name suggests, they're involved in the arts and environmental education and work with local youth and schools. I spoke about activism in the UK and they invited me to visit them and do an interview for their radio station.
On our last night we checked out 'La bomba' which is basically a weekly drum circle put on by this amazing percussion group in a little stadium type place just off some random street in the city. We'd heard
a lot about it during our stay but had foolishly waited till our last night to go. It was fantastic - the drummers were amazing, it was far more than your average drum circle. These guys took you on a journey through loads of different styles, with intricate layers of complex patterns ranging from samba to an imitation of techno and other electronic genres. They have a 'composer' type guy who directs the group abd each week they have a guest musician play with them, from saxophonists to rappers to turntablists. In our case it was a funky jazz trumpeter. There must have been 500 people or more there, and together we lapped it up, dancing, cheering and drinking - it was true festival vibe! We had met up with our Irish friend Paddy (of Venezuela and Amazon river boat fame), Jeff and Yami, our former couch surfing hosts, and had a wicked last night in the city.
The next day, we'd decided to visit La Plata on our way out of BA, to honour our invitation from David and Elisa. And we're glad we did. David and Elisa are fascinating people and were amazing hosts. We stayed with them in their lovely home for 2 days and met their family, enjoyed Elisa's wonderful cooking, had interestin
g conversations and learned about what it was like to live through the 'dirty war', and learned more about the Falklands. We visited their friends who live a very sustainable life out in the countryside, and helped them distribute some Fukaku balls (they'd also been to the permaculture course). It was there I did the interview. Sod's law ensured that the one day on the whole trip I had an interview was the one day that a cold and sore throat robbed me of my voice. Literally, my voice had pretty much gone, and to make things worst, at the last minute I was told it would all be in Spanish! However, I soldiered on and with a bit of translation help managed to hold it together. They asked me about the trip, the ship, the voluntary work, activism and my opinions on environmental awareness in Latin America. So soon, my huskey broken spanish will be broadcast throughout the homes of Buenos Aires! Result!
We had the opportunity to camp on their friends' organic farm in La Plata to help out for a few days, but sadly had to decline due to time limits; the extra 4 weeks meant that we really had to push North and head to Bolivia.
It was such a shame that we had no time left to explore the rest of Argentina. There's some stunning areas such as Patagonia and the 'lake district', and loads of opportunity for camping (where we couild have put this blasted tent to use), not to mention the many organic farms we could have worked on through the WOOF network. But we simply had to move on. To stay any longer would have ment cutting time in Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador, all countries with volunteer work we were excited about.
We considered stopping off somewhere in the North of Argentina on our way up North, maybe Salta or Jujuy, but had been warned about an outbreak of dengue fever.
So, still undecided on exactly where we would go, we made our farewells to David and Elisa and took the train back to BA to find a b
us to our next destination.
In one unfortunate week I left my card in the cash machine and had my account emptied and had my MP3 player stolen at a hostel. Wasn't too bad in the end though - the bank refunded my money and the guy who was responsible for leaving my MP3 player in a vulnerable place coughed up some cash, whicch was quite a result, but will never make up for the loss of my music.
One night we went out with our friends Yami and Santiago from Colombia to a 'contact dance' night at this big house where a traveller/hippie/new age type community live. There was some live music, some entertaining performance, and plenty of contact dancing - an intimate dance where people dance with each other whilst maintaining body and eye contact. Basically it looks like people rolling around on each other's backs and jigging aound each other in circles whilst always touching. At times it was mesmorising and quite cool to watch, which is all I did - not wearing the appropriate atire of hemp fisherman pants and poncho was my official excuse for not participating. It was a fun night, but once again I was disappointed by the aire of supiriority given out by so called 'hippies'. I've been to my fair share of hippie gatherings and I've often left feeling that the community seemed quite closed and cliquey, and looked down on those who didn't know whether their chakras were open or closed, or who didn't adopt the lotus position and meditate at any given chance. Surely to be open to all people and the desire to share philosophies with others should be the ways of the enlightened hippie? How are you going to change world conscienceness by sticking in closed groups and shunning outsiders or newcomers? Was fun overall though, and had a good old bash at various percussive instruments during the spontaneous jams that broke out through the night.
One day we went with Alcira to a permaculture day, out in the country. It was a nice day out, and made me realise how much I craved some clean country air. We didn't learn that much on the day, as it was all in Spanish, but we did learn about a technique of planting called-Fukaku named after it's Japanese inventor, who is a bit of a legend amongst the permaculture movement. Whilst there, we met a lovely couple called Dave and Elisa. Dave is English and had met Argentinian Elisa in the states back in the day, and they'd both moved to Argentina. They'd lived though Argentina's dark recent years - the 'dirty war' where up to 30, 000 people were 'disappeared' between '76-'83, under Jorge Rafeal Videla's military dictatorship. They currently live in La Plata just outside of BA and run an organisation called MACA (Musica, Arte, Cultura, Ambiente (environment)). As the name suggests, they're involved in the arts and environmental education and work with local youth and schools. I spoke about activism in the UK and they invited me to visit them and do an interview for their radio station.
On our last night we checked out 'La bomba' which is basically a weekly drum circle put on by this amazing percussion group in a little stadium type place just off some random street in the city. We'd heard
a lot about it during our stay but had foolishly waited till our last night to go. It was fantastic - the drummers were amazing, it was far more than your average drum circle. These guys took you on a journey through loads of different styles, with intricate layers of complex patterns ranging from samba to an imitation of techno and other electronic genres. They have a 'composer' type guy who directs the group abd each week they have a guest musician play with them, from saxophonists to rappers to turntablists. In our case it was a funky jazz trumpeter. There must have been 500 people or more there, and together we lapped it up, dancing, cheering and drinking - it was true festival vibe! We had met up with our Irish friend Paddy (of Venezuela and Amazon river boat fame), Jeff and Yami, our former couch surfing hosts, and had a wicked last night in the city.The next day, we'd decided to visit La Plata on our way out of BA, to honour our invitation from David and Elisa. And we're glad we did. David and Elisa are fascinating people and were amazing hosts. We stayed with them in their lovely home for 2 days and met their family, enjoyed Elisa's wonderful cooking, had interestin
g conversations and learned about what it was like to live through the 'dirty war', and learned more about the Falklands. We visited their friends who live a very sustainable life out in the countryside, and helped them distribute some Fukaku balls (they'd also been to the permaculture course). It was there I did the interview. Sod's law ensured that the one day on the whole trip I had an interview was the one day that a cold and sore throat robbed me of my voice. Literally, my voice had pretty much gone, and to make things worst, at the last minute I was told it would all be in Spanish! However, I soldiered on and with a bit of translation help managed to hold it together. They asked me about the trip, the ship, the voluntary work, activism and my opinions on environmental awareness in Latin America. So soon, my huskey broken spanish will be broadcast throughout the homes of Buenos Aires! Result!We had the opportunity to camp on their friends' organic farm in La Plata to help out for a few days, but sadly had to decline due to time limits; the extra 4 weeks meant that we really had to push North and head to Bolivia.
It was such a shame that we had no time left to explore the rest of Argentina. There's some stunning areas such as Patagonia and the 'lake district', and loads of opportunity for camping (where we couild have put this blasted tent to use), not to mention the many organic farms we could have worked on through the WOOF network. But we simply had to move on. To stay any longer would have ment cutting time in Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador, all countries with volunteer work we were excited about.
We considered stopping off somewhere in the North of Argentina on our way up North, maybe Salta or Jujuy, but had been warned about an outbreak of dengue fever.
So, still undecided on exactly where we would go, we made our farewells to David and Elisa and took the train back to BA to find a b
us to our next destination.
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