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.

More photos

Recently I've recieved a few requests for more photos of the journey, which is lovely as it shows that there are at least a few people following the blog!
So, I've begun to add pages of photos only, which I`ll eventually get round to labelling. These pages will be titled 'Photos', followed by the location, ie 'Photos: Trinidad and Tobago'.
They will be in order, so you`ll have to go back to the earlier posts to find them.

Once again I`m a little behind, but over the next few days expect to hear tales of 60hour + bus rides, magnificent waterfalls, volunteering in Argentinian slums and our first 'couch surfing' experiences. Plus more recent photos that need updating, once I've found a cheap place to burn them onto CD......

Thanks for reading, hope you're all well and happy,

Love from Lewis and Colette x

World Social Forum 2009: a report for a new Hull Magazine

We'd arrived a week early with high expectations of the Forum. We'd travelled over 4000km to get there from Colombia; 5 days by bus & 5 more by Amazonian river boat sleeping amongst a tangled web of hammocks. 100,000 people were expected to descend upon the city of Belem, which lies at the confluence of the mighty river Amazon and the Atlantic ocean, to speak of their struggles and campaigns and discuss strategies to achieve a better world. 'Um outro mundo e possivel' (another world is possible) has been the forums' tag line since its birth in 2001, in southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. The forum rose in part as a direct challenge to The World Economic Forum which takes place in Davos, Switzerland every January, where top business leaders, politicians and economists get together to discuss how best to maintain the Capitalist status quo. The Porto Alegre declaration of 2001 states that the forum is "an open meeting place where social movements, networks, NGOs and other civil society organizations opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking, to debate ideas democratically, to formulate proposals, share their experiences freely and network for effective action. Since the first world encounter in 2001, it has taken the form of a permanent world process seeking and building alternatives to neo-liberal policies".

Things kicked off with a huge demonstration through the streets of Belem, starting at the port where the visiting Greenpeace vessel 'Arctic Sunrise' was docked. It was every bit as colourful and lively as you'd expect a Latin American demonstration to be, and when the inevitable deluge of wet season rain arrived it did nothing to dampen spirits. In fact it only served to whip the crowds into a heightened frenzy as people cheered, danced, and chanted to the sounds of samba drums whilst being soaked to the bone with lashings of cool rain.

The workshops commenced the following day with over 4,300 on offer over the duration of the week, with titles as diverse as the organizations presenting them. Would it be the 'Palestinian Grassroots anti-apartheid wall campaign: Root causes & prospects for common struggle', or the 'India Resource Centre: International Campaign against Coca Cola'? How about 'Indigenous Environmental Network: Indigenous peoples energy & climate justice' or the 'International network for the abolition of foreign military bases'. The list was endless, and it soon became apparent that it would be impossible to attend all of interest.



A strong theme this year was the importance of the Amazon basin as a source of Biodiversity and as a vital carbon sink. As a result of the 'call for indigenous peoples participation', over 3000 indigenous people were present, many from tribes based in the Amazon basin. Members of Tribes such as the Jawari wandered around painted from head to toe with traditional tribal markings, complete with colourful feathered head dress, spears and bows & arrows. Indigenous people from around the world were also represented, coming as from as far as Canada to talk about the Tar sands operations which are wrecking havoc in Northern Alberta, and from Nigeria to speak against the oil companies that are displacing and brutalizing communities across the Niger delta. Hearing these stories first hand from the people who daily face the reality of predatory corporations operating in their lands was extremely poignant. Never before have I heard such an array of stories and accounts which have painted such a vivid overall picture of the extent to which the Neo-liberal stage of Capitalism is responsible for the planetary crisis we are facing. However, it was heartening and inspiring to hear of the range of resistance world wide; the globalization of struggle.

Unfortunately however, there appears to be much room for improvement in the organization of the gathering. Things were chaotic from the beginning, when no one could give us details about accommodation, or how / who to pay for registration. The Forum was spread between The Universidad Fedral Rural da Amazonia (UFRA) and and the Universidad Fedral Do Para (UFPA). It was difficult to board the buses going inbetween the two, due to the number of people attempting to squeeze their way on. A simple shuttle bus system would have lightened the pressure from the normal bus service.
The programme of workshops had been drastically altered without amendments being made and apparently this was known even before the programmes had been distributed. We only worked this out late in the week, after many a frustrating hour finding our way to the poorly signed workshop locations only to find nothing there. We would be told one thing by one volunteer, only to be told the opposite by another, resulting in countless wild goose chases.
When attending gatherings such as this one tries to shake off the expectation of the religious punctuality championed by top-down organization, but there are limits. A few big boards detailing amendments, or volunteers with knowledge of the re-jigged workshops would have saved a lot of wasted energy.
For a forum with a strong theme on Amazonian deforestation due to soya monocultures grown for cattle feed, there was little in the way of vegetarian or vegan food. It was impossible to buy any on the UFPA campus, and most of the veggie options at UFRA were overpriced. Yet, ironically, it was all to easy to buy a can of Coca Cola. The only water available was sold in tiny overpriced plastic bottles, and all food and drink was served in disposable plastic and polystyrene cups and plates which overflowed from bins and littered the ground. Despite both the Fedral and State governments ploughing huge sums of money into the Forum, it appeared that responsible waste management had been forgotten, with no recycling facilities to be seen.

At times, looking around at the hoards of confused people walking through the scattered plastic debris in search for non-existent workshops, it was hard to imagine "another world is possible". It's a sad irony that ethical responsibilities such as these could be neglected at such a symbolic level; a gathering that is meant to epitomize this 'movement of movements'. It goes without saying that good environmental & ethical practice should be sown into the very fabric of the World Social Forum - as Ghandi once said, we should be the change we wish to see in the world.
One can only hope that these problems have been duly noted and added to the 'things to improve' list.

Overall, despite these contradictions, the Forum was a positive experience and I left feeling inspired, with a notebook full of new contacts and ideas. The Forum's strength is definitely in the sheer diversity of it's participants & the potential for bridges to be built between them, and for the strengthening of alliances united in their resistance. For me this is what the forum is about; sharing experience, inspiration, solidarity, strengthening alliances and forming strategies. I spoke enthusiastically of the Camp For Climate Action throughout the week, and people listened eagerly and expressedd interest in forming Climate Camps in their regions; as a result we may see a new camp pop up to challenge the Canadian tar sand operations. This demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of having a space created in which ideas are shared and movements furthered. Another reassuring thing was to see the sheer number of young people present. Whoever said today's youth are apathetic?

Global Capitalism is in crisis, it's indefatigable greed seeding the beginning of its own demise. And here, in Brazil, gathered the nuclei of a peoples movement, a movement with perhaps the energy, ideas and determination required to replace the current flawed system and institutions. Indeed another world is possible and it has surely never been more necessary than now.

Down the Amazon on a river boat

After buying some fruit and salad for supplies, we boarded the '11 de mayo'; a classic three-tier Amazonian river boat. By the time we arrived, the little vessel already looked packed to capacity, the middle floor consisting of a huge chaotic web of hammocks. We managed to get a recommended spot-second floor, near the front so that we were away from the sound of the engine and would recieve ample breeze to keep those winged bloodsuckers away. We tied our hammocks to the nest.
We bumped into our Irish friend Patrick, who we'd met earlier in Venezuela, and met a couple of girls from New York also on their way to the forum. The hammocks were up, and we had a crew.
After a couple of hours, we left the busy port, passing other boats straining under the weight of passenegers and freight. We were away, and once again it felt good to be on the move.
For 5 days we gently cruised down the Amazon, soaking up some amazing scenery, and experiencing the warmth and hospitality of the Brazilian people. We passed river- dwellers, fisher folk, dolphins, snakes and birds.
During certain stretches, kids from river-dwelling communitys paddled frantically towards the boat in traditional dug out canoes, approaching from all directions, emitting strange howling noises to notify us of their presence. On reaching the boat (which was travelling much faster than them and could easily have dragged them underneath and into the propellors) they attached home-made grapple hooks onto the hull so that they were being towed along. The spray from the bow wave would begin to fill the tiny vessels, so one kid would be there desperately bailing out the water, whilst the other would sell sugar cane, fruits and shrimp to the passengers onboard. Some of the kids would simply beg, making hand signals which were met by a string of plastic bags containing clothes tossed overboard. It was really fun and interesting to watch, and all onboard crowded around the edge to look down and cheer them on!
One night we got together with a group of other gringos, and Brazilians heading to the Forum, and had a jam on the top deck with guitars, bongos, singing and beat boxing. The atmosphere was electric, maybe in part due to the amazing sheet & fork lightning that light up the wide sky around us.
It took a few nights to get used to the sleeping bit. The hammocks were literally touching and criss-crossing each other, so that you were generally aware of all your neighbours' movements. Ocassionally you'd have someone clumsily squeeze between you. Sometimes they'd duck and attempt to go underneath, inevitabley head-butting your arse. Now and then a rogue foot or elbow would serve you a little wake-up jab, usually just at the point where you had finally reached the verge of slumber. We stopped at a few small ports along the way, and just when you thought the boat's population had reached it's maximum, more people boarded. And just when you thought that no new hammocks could possibly have the audacity to enter your carefully guarded and already crowded territory, one would magically appear above or below you, during the time it took to blink. Early each morning, usually at around 2am, the wind would pick up and the rainy season deluge would begin. This was the only down point of being positioned where we were; the breeze that helped us remain bite-free would also bring with it heavy lashings of rain. You'd have to jump out of the hammock, fumble at the ropes to pull down the tarpaulin covering the deck, and receive a battering by the rain in the process, all before having the chance to wake up.
I loved every minute of it! I spent lots of time reading, dozing (sleeping in the day was often more fruitful than in the night) and talking to the many great people we were sharing the experience with. The majority of people on board were obviously Brazilian, and despite the language barrier friendships were made, and laughs were had. What a warm, friendly, welcoming bunch of people!
The food was pretty lame, but we'd known it would be, and enjoyed the extras we were able to pick up along the way. Frustratingly, it was only on the last day that we realized there was a kitchen available to use on the bottom floor. I'd recommend that any Veggies, and especially Vegans, take plenty of extra food. You can ask for the meal without meat, but you'll still pay the same price of 6 Reais per meal, regardless of the fact that it's only rice, beans and salad, and should be sold for significantly less.
Finally we approached the city of Belem. The immense metropolis sprawled accross the horizon, appearing alien after 5 days of only trees as a back drop. It had been a great journey, a highlight of the trip so far, and testament to the beauty of terrestrial/aquatic travel; these are the types of experience lost to the rushed traveller of the skies. I reccomend anyone travelling in the Amazon to give it a go.
After packing away our hammocks, and a flurry of photos and fairwells with our neighbours, we were ready to enter the city.

(The trip cost roughly 200 R each, for 5 days. You must have your own Hammock, cheap ones can be bought for 10 R each, with ropes for 6 R per set, around any of the market stalls in Manaus. Haggling is normal and expected. Better and more comfortable hammocks can be bought for between 20-30 R, but are heavy, and quite large so not so suitable for the backpack.)