Bolivia bound

By the time we'd reached the bus station, we'd decided to give the north of Argentina the wide birth, due to tales of dengue death and mayhem. We'd hoped to camp, but came to the conclusion that this was a bad idea. It was mainly Colette who had the doubt - I had been of the opinion that we should find out exactly where the outbreaks were and avoid those areas, not the whole region. However, 2 things made me realise we'd probably made the right choice; as we boarded the bus for Jujuy anyone boarding north bound buses was handed a free big bottle of 'Psst' mosquito repellent, courtesy of the Argentinian government, and during our 30 hour bus ride, I saw south bound traffic being stopped and fumagated by men in boiler suits and masks at least 3 times. Some people complained about over the top media scare mongering and claimed that it was nowhere near as bad as people were saying. We decided against finding out for ourselves. We really were due to be in Bolivia by this point anyway.

We arrived at La Quiaca after dark, and decided to stay the night and cross the border the next morning. Stepping off the bus we could imediately feel Bolivia's proximity. The indigenous blood was evident in the faces of the people and the traditional dress of the women, or 'cholas' who sat huddled in groups amongst their blankets and wears, chewing mouth fulls of coca leaves. As it was Easter saturday we could hear Mass being projected into the night by loud speaker from the church. The mountain air felt clean and crisp after so long in the city, and the beds in the chilly little hotel were necessarily equipped with layers of thick alpaca blankets.


After a good night's sleep we had breakfast and set off for the boarder, which was a 10 minute walk along a disused railway track. It felt like we were walking through the set of an old wildwest movie, rugged and dusty with mountains in the distance.

The boarder crossing was pleasant as far as boarder crossings go. There was no que, the official was cheery and it was all very straighforward and swift. The cheeky face of Evo Morales beamed down at us from a poster hung on the wall (Bolivia's first indigenous president). We walked over a bridge and saw people washing clothes in the river below. Walking up the street we passed Cholas selling fruit, street stalls selling anything from cigarettes to pliers and, behold, juice ladies! We'd being missing fresh fruit juice in Argentina, and hadn't really seen any since Colombia, so we were happy to see the juice ladies with their orange press mobile stalls out in force. Pomello for me, 25p. The street was colourful and buzzed with activity and we traded the last of our Argentinian pesos for bundles of ancient looking Bolivianos. We were in Bolivia.

A few Buenos Aires shots (more to follow)

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 interesting 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 bus to our next destination.

Buenos Aires Pt II: The work bit (Soundtrack:Tango in the streets)

After a few days we got involved with an organisation that works with children living in 'Las Villas' ; the poor neighbourhoods aka slums which circle the city and spread into the smog hazed distance. L.I.F.E. (Lunchamos para una infancia feliz y con esperanza) which translates to ' We strive for a childhood with happiness and hope' http://www.lifeargentina.org/ are doing just that - attempting to give children living in these communities a bit of space in which to play, imagine and be creative, to give them a chance to have a childhood, a phase in life which can be drastically reduced when living in these conditons. It was certainly an eye-opener to see the parts of Buenos Aires that few tourists get a chance to glimpse. The impossible number of tiny shacks appear to hold each other up, in the dusty streets lay huge piles of rubbish - mini landfills where stray pregnant dogs rummage for scraps, and nearby children play games or harrass the dogs. Old beat-up cars and trucks trundle past, "cumbia villera", the genre of music that has emerged from the slums in recent years, blaring from the windows.



Once our mini pulled up, we'd be met by a group of beaming, cheering kids all overjoyed that the LIFE crew were back. After a bit of pushing and shoving to secure a shoulder ride or piggy back, we'd go to one of the small public spaces allocated for the sessions, sometimes just the living room (for living room read bare concrete room, with a few pictures on the walls to liven up the dominant grey, and maybe a CD player in the corner) of somebodys house in the community. The idea is, we help them out with their homework, help them to learn some english, play games and give them something positive to focus on.



Most of the kids were so cute and affectionate, despite living in such tough conditions. Others I found to be more of a challenge, sometimes the older boys could be a bit unpredictable, and at times aggressive, but its to be expected - these kids are tough. In this world so alien to my own childhood, they have to be. Generally though, once they'd accepted you, they'd get stuck into the activities, often with suprising results. I found that doing a little 'beat-box' workshop tends to get even the most non-chalent of the older lads interested. I introduced the tetrapack wallet activity which I do regularly with kids in the UK, and as always it went down a treat.

Many of the kids we worked with were HIV positive. It's tragic to think that already some of them are destined to a shortened life, even before facing the multiple challenges of a life of poverty. A recent phenomenom has been the spread of 'Paco' a cheap, cocaine residue which is now ubiquitos in the slums, and sadly, is used by many young teens. Paco is even more toxic than crack cocaine because it's made mostly of solvents and chemicals like kerosene, with just a dab of cocaine. I can only hope that the little friends I made during my short time there don't fall into that trap.



My time with LIFE was cut short due to the discovery of another project, one which could not have been more perfect for me. Colette found the project description whilst we were studying at Spanish school and rushed to show me. Fundacion Argentina Etoecologia, an NGO based in BA, was looking for an intern to create a programe of climate change education to be used by teachers in primary schools accross Argentina. The internship would last 4 weeks, and require a second week of Spanish school first, to get me up to scratch. I had to apply for the position as I would a formal job, including a cover letter and CV......in Spanish!

So it was set ; 5 more weeks in Buenas Aires. Colette would work at an orphanage whilst I worked on my project. This was a significant change in the grand plan, and the thought of spending that length of time in the big city didn't exactly fill me with joy, but I knew since reading the description that there was no choice in the matter - this was perfect for me and an opportunity I could not refuse. Spreading the word about climate change is partly why I'm here afterall.



So, for 4 weeks I planned and created a short programme of climate change awareness education including teacher's notes on how to use the package effectively. I worked in the apartment of Alcira, FAE's president, in the Constitution area of BA. Other tasks included helping her with translations of letters to other environmental organisations and advising a member of the Argentinian Navy on the impacts of climate change on the marine ecosystem.
Alcira seemed impressed with my work and as a result made me an official representative of the organisation!

Prince Charles must have had the same idea - during my time with FAE he was out visiting South American leaders to try and drive home how close we are to catastrophic global meltdown http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/12/prince-charles-brazil-climate-change-warning. Maybe he's been reading my blog? If so Charley, why didnt you take the boat? Surely not a case of insufficiant time and funds old boy? Really though, big up to the prince meister - he is doing a lot of good stuff for the cause, I only wish others with such high profiles would make some noise.


As we hadn't planned to be in BA for so long, and Argentina is one of the more expensive countries we'll visit, we decided that we had to cut our daily living expenses so that we dont have to make too many sacrifices later in the trip. So, we made a profile on Couch Surfers http://www.couchsurfing.com/ and began looking for people to take us in. The concept is simple; there are many people in the world who like to meet people from other countries/cultures and simply want to help out others, so a network as formed in which people offer space in their homes for people to come and live! For free! I'd heard about it a few years ago, but this was the first time I've been involved.

We've had a good experience so far. We stayed in a palace of a home with a new Argentinian friend, Yami, complete with indoor pool, hooker pipe and our own private room with onsuite bathroom (only the finest marble of course) for a week. We even had a maid! Then we stayed with a guy called Jeff from Oklahoma for 2.5 weeks in his nice 12 story high city apartment, with an amazing view out accross the city and again our own room. It's a different world up there, a community living high above the other city inhabitants, kind of like the canopy high up in the rainforest. There was a dove nesting on his balcony, it's egg hatched during our stay, and we often saw urban birds of prey circling above.

As well as making new friends, we've saved a fair sum of dosh - often its the daily accommodation fees which make up the largest percantage of your daily spending when traveling. And to honour the exchange, we've already offered the homes of our parents to a whole array of fascinating characters, who are probably on their way to England as we speak. He he he, not really, don't worry Mum & Dad, joke!

But really, as soon as I get settled back home I'll definately repay the Karma and have people to stay.

Buenos Aires Pt. I : the culture bit (soundtrack: The Gotan project, la revancha del tango)

We arrived at about 8am feeling a tad groggy, but excited. After a coffee at the bus station, we headed towards the subte (tube) station to get a tube to San Telmo, one of the old areas of the city, popular for its traditional cobbled streets & architecture, markets, artisans, smokey old bohemian cafes and that kind of thing.

Checked into a hostel in time for free breakfast (consisting of the traditional Argentine sweet pastries, bread & jam, coffee) and had a rest before setting off to explore. The first thing that struck me about BA was that it didn't feel like we were in Latin America at all. Indeed the 'Paris of South America' does feel very much like a European city, after absorbing millions of European immigrants throughout the 19th century, many of which were Italians.

And thanks to the Italian influence, there's some tastey treats to be found. There's an abundance of tastey cheese-based snacks, and I'm talking quality cheese, available at a reasonable price. No more of that south American water sponge 'cheese'. For now, anyway. Colette has been indulging ever since, and it's certainly been a challenge to my attempted low-carbon (aka less dairy) diet. A challenge I reckon I've temporarily failed, mainly due to my tired, bored taste buds who have been pushed to the point of rebellion over the general lack of dietry excitement in recent times. Empanadas. They're the snack of choice here, and are basically little pasties, hand made and filled with a variety of fillings including a tastey cheddary type of cheese with onion, blue cheese (a particular treat!), spinach, and of course plenty of tastey looking meats. That has been another temptation - the meat - which we've so far managed to overcome. We are in the land of the steak! Everywhere you go, mouth-watering steaks abound, all offered for a price that boggles the mind. The meat here is cheap as chips. In fact its cheaper - I could eat a prime Argentinain slab for less than the cost of a kilo of potatoes. This is not the place for 2 meat - loving vegetarians.


And then there's the Mate! The presence of mate was first observed as we got closer to Argentina, in the South of Brazil. The Argentines visiting Foz de Iguacu could be seen wondering around sucking on metal straws (bombillas) protruding from tiny brown cups (gourds), thermos flasks hung around their shoulders. Its a type of shrub thats dried and used like a tea - in fact it's comparable to green tea. There's a real ritual to its preparation, and people pass it around, taking Mate is a social affair. We've become fairly partial during our stay, and now have our own Mate drinking apperatus and a half kilo pouch of mate (courtesy of my new friend Alcira, who I'll come to shortly).

There's plenty of live music. We've seen amazing reggae bands, local bands playing all sorts of latin fusions, jazz-funk bands (one of the best jazz-funk bands I've ever seen in fact) and, last but not least, we got to see the mighty Manu Chau. And of course there's the Tango we' tried our hand at Tango too which has been fun. I really like Tango music, which probably explains my love for the heavily tango influenced Gotan project.


San Telmo has a great atmosphere, especially at the weekends when the square is packed with people eager to watch the free Tango shows whilst sipping drinks out on the cobbled streets, and the artisans gather to set up their stalls. Sunday is a day out here - it feels like a festival with street performers, music and artists selling their work. Bands just turn up with their amps and generators and play. You'd never get that in the UK, you`d need a licence for this, a permit for that......
And of course, we' tried our hand at Tango too which has been fun. I really like Tango music, which probably explains my love for the heavily tango influenced Gotan project.

Despite there being plenty to see in the city, we've probably missed a lot of sights due to that fact that you need to keep your eyes squarely on the ground just in front of you in order to avoid the abundant piles of dog shit. I've never seen so many dogs in a city. But these are different from the usual latin American city dogs, in that they have homes and owners, and are usually not pregnant and attached to leads. 'Paseadores de perros' are the people employed to walk the dogs of the people who have dogs but not the time in which to walk said dogs. That sentance is up for review. Its's hilarious - you have a person (usually male, muscle-bound and bursting with machismo) walking up to 14 dogs in one go. You'd have to be strong to do it too - some of the dogs are monsters (this is reflected in the size of some of the deposits left, unless there be bears in these streets). Unfortunately though, poopa scoops have yet to catch on, and so we're left to run the turd gauntlet on a daily basis.



We had only planned to stay for 1 week or two, but then we found a Spanish school with a promotion of one week's free lessons. One week turned into two, and we discovered some volunteer work we couldn't refuse....and so we were locked into another 4 weeks in Buenos Aires.

Top ten climate change deniars and the secrets behind their motives!

Here's a nice little round up of some of the world's most prominent cimate change skeptics.....and some interesting information on where some of their salaries come from.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/mar/06/climate-change-deniers-top-10

Post-forum Brazil blitz: A journey through the length of Brazil (Soundtrack: Coach engines)

On the last night of the forum, we managed to get to a free Jorge Ben Jor concert, in a huge venue in Belem called Hangar. It was a massive gig, as he's a massive name and one of Brazil's most well known artists, most famous for his Bossa nova style. I`ve had a few of his tracks for a while, so it was a bonus to get to see him. It also kind of made up for the many music events which had fallen through at the forum. At the beginning, when we'd first arrived in Belem, I`d done a fair bit of pushing the DJ thing and secured myself some pretty big gigs over the duration of the forum; I had been set to DJ at a huge Reggae night, a daytime Hip Hop event with an open mic, a gay and lesbian night and, prehaps most excitingly, I was to be the DJ for a Hip Hop crew from New York called the Readnex Poetry Squad http://www.myspace.com/readnex who were meant to be playing on the last day on a big festival stage.
Frustratingly, each one fell through, or moved location at the last minute, or simply disappeared from existance. I did get to play with the Readnex though, although I wasn't DJing as such, just playing their instrumental tracks from a laptop, which was still quite fun and I got to fulfill my fantasy of playing on a festival stage!
We packed up, said goodbye to the great bunch of people we'd befriended and left the free forum accommodation (the classroom floors of a local college). After a few days spent back in Belem city we decided to hit the road and head south, and it took some time to decide between Bolivia or heading really far south to Argentina. In the end, we opted for Argentina, as it seemed to make sense to go as far south as we we going to go, and then work our way north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and then Colombia again, where we'll get our boat home.
A quick glance at a map will show that Belem is a long, long way from Argentina, so we prepared for a long, long journey. From belem we headed to Cuiba, and then to Campo Grande, racking up a total of 60 hours in one go. After a day's break in Campo Grande, another 20ish hours got us to Foz Do Iguacu, where we would stop to check out some of the most world's most amazing waterfalls. We camped in a great hostel, where we put the tent up in the shade of orange and avocado trees whose fruits we could help ourselves to.
The falls are from the Iguazu River, located on the border of the Brazillian state of Parana and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. Guaraní Indian legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine girl named Naipí. She wasn't really up for it, so she did a runner with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. As a result, the god was less than happy and in rage proceeded to smash the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The girl can now be seen as a rock, and her lover a tree.It was absolutely stunning. We'd heard a lot of hype about the falls beforehand and sometimes things don´t quite live up to your expectations when you've had something hyped up so much, but this place was amazing, and undoubltedly one of the most beautiful I've had the pleasure to witness. The energy of the place was awsome, with such a phenominal volume of water just roaring through and crashing together from over 240 different falls, with rainbows appearing everywhere with all the mist.

We spent a day exploring from the Brazillian side, and then a day from the Argentine side, the latter being our favourite. For accomodation we put the tent to use and camped in a really nice campsite in Puerto Iguacu for a couple of days, before taking a final 20 hour bus trip to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. I think it's safe to say that we've officially earnt the title of true 'hardcore bus travelers', or maybe just 'crazy fools'. We've also mastered the art of stretching a hotel free 'breakfast' into a free breakfast, lunch and bus snacks - it's all about the subtle under-the-table rucksack filling.