Buenos Aires

The Heartbeat Of South America


Buenos Aires is the most European of all Latin American cities. With its wide boulevards, leafy parks, grand buildings and varied culture and nightlife, the city is reminiscent of Paris or Barcelona. The Porteños ('people of the port'), as the residents of Buenos Aires are called, are more European too - descended from the first Spanish founders and Italian immigrants from the 19th century. Their culture and cuisine still flavor the city and can be enjoyed in countless art galleries, theatres and museums, as well as fine restaurants. But the city has also spawned its own art forms, notably the tango, for which Buenos Aires is famous. It is the third largest city in South America and comprises 47 barrios (neighbourhoods) in which nearly 3 million people live.



San Telmo is the oldest district in Buenos Aires and perhaps the most atmospheric too. Once the home of the elite and affluent, an epidemic of yellow fever caused the wealthy to abandon the area in 1823. It is the birthplace of the tango and every Sunday the quiet, cobble stoned streets are closed to traffic and the outdoor antiques fair begins. The heart of Buenos Aires beats strongest in San Telmo!


Street performers (buskers) compete for your attention and people are selling everything from old seltzer bottles to new (I hope) bras. Known for its bohemian charm, San Telmo is the neighbourhood of arts, antiques, tango, and timelessness.

The tree lined main plaza, Plaza Dorrego, a peaceful place for sipping a beverage and feeding the pigeons on a week day, is transformed on Sundays into a lively market that spills out onto the surrounding streets.
Table after table after table of riding stirrups, gramophones, lamps, and jewelry, to name but a very few things, can be found on a Sunday in San Telmo.

There's an almost tangible feeling of excitement and expectation in the air. The real thrill of a Sunday visit here is strolling around listening to the musicians and watching the street entertainers. When I glanced over my balcony the first Sunday morning I was there and watched a piano being carried down the street, I knew it was going to be a day to remember. The pulsing rhythm of San Telmo was just warming up.

Street vendors serve up their specialty treats. Some being made right on the spot!

Clowns and Marionettes...
Let the carnival begin!

At dusk the drummers come out!

All sorts of various live entertainment abounds...for a peso or two!

I found the piano!

The piano belonged to an orchestra by the name of El Afronte who played tango style music. Those accordion players were actually quite lively performers.

Superb entertainment for just a drop of a coin in the open guitar case or upturned hat.

And just when you think you've seen it all, someone just throws down a board on the street, grabs a partner, and commences to dance the tango right then and there!

Thump, THUMP...Thump, THUMP...

The heart of Buenos Aires is still beating strong in San Telmo!

While this is the end of this post, it is not the last tango!

A few pictures...so far.

Snow Capped Andes mountains


The tango rules in Buenos Aires!

I couldn´t resist this one...plumbers pants can be found ANYWHERE.

Street musicians

Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay. An hours ride across the river from Buenos Aires.

I think someone forgot to feed the meter....

Colonia....UNESCO world heritage site.

Volcan Chabuco

Osorno

Fisherman near lake llanquihue.

Osorno and lake at dawn

Why did the penguin cross the road?

Baby sea lion near Puerto Montt. How cute is that??

Airplane Etiquette

Make sure you pack your manners!

When people travel these days, they tend to leave polite society behind and create a whole new temporary and transitory community. Time and space are reduced, nerves are shortened and tempers tend to flare up faster than they do on the ground. Etiquette is a fancy way of describing the practice of simple consideration for others in airports and on flights. Or even more basic, it is the application of the Golden Rule on the ground, as well as at 30,000 feet in the air. Lately, airline and etiquette seem to go together about as well as jumbo and shrimp. On a recent flight en route to my latest adventure in self indulgent gluttony and debauchery, oops, I mean... a grueling business trip, I felt compelled to write about uncivilized in-flight behaviour. There are unwritten rules that make a long haul flight tolerable. Polite, civilized travelers – hell, polite humans – just know these things. You think? Read on.

Here are eight of the top things the polite traveler needs to know:

1- Don't stand in the aisle after you board and fiddle with something in your carry on that you've already placed in the bin. You are holding up passengers trying to get to their seats. In fact, you are holding up the entire plane because it can't take off until everyone is seated. That doesn't mean that other passengers should shove past you while you are trying to place your bag in the over head bin. Why not take a minute and HELP the person with their bag? I haven't seen this happen in YEARS though. (Flight attendants have said publicly it is NOT their job to help you get your carry on in the bin. I might add here that the general indifference to passengers by flight attendants is also disconcerting. Yeah, I said it.) Little old ladies, or people with handicaps, are not exempt from this rude behavior. I have to carry some heavy camera equipment in mine, and although it is regulation size and not overweight, it is still difficult to lift over my head. Chivalry is DEAD folks.

2- Let's do some math shall we? Three arm rests. Three people with two arms each. Six arm rests are needed. Who gets to use them? The answer is elementary. The person in the middle seat has rights to BOTH middle armrests. They’ve already drawn the short straw by being in the middle seat, so the least that can be done is for the window and aisle passengers to cede this often disputed territory to the monkey in the middle.

3- Airlines have stopped serving meals even on flights of more than 12 hours. Oh, you can get food. They will gladly SELL you that stale ham and some kind of cheese substance sandwich for $12.00 bucks. The result is people are bringing their own food and snacks onto the plane, often from home. Please skip the garlic and onions, I beg of you. Literally, we are having to board planes with an armload of groceries. Low blood sugar, on top of the cramped, stale, uncomfortable environment, makes people behave in ways they might not normally behave. If you hear a screechingly shrill cry, "What do you mean we don't have any more snickers?", just ignore your husband.

4- Gone are the days when a trip on an airplane was an occasion to dress up. But, flip flops, shorts emblazoned on the rear with " All Aboard!", and sleeveless T-shirts are just in bad taste. You may be going to a tropical destination, but YOU AREN'T THERE YET! (Sorry, I didn't mean to yell.) Please shower, use deodorant, and if you have to take your shoes off make sure you are wearing clean socks.

5- The seat in front of you is not a handle. Do not use it to get up or sit down. If raising yourself out of a seated position causes you undue stress and requires you to fashion a rudimentary pulley system to achieve what every able-bodied person should be able to do under their own steam, may I suggest you hit the gym and develop a little more upper body strength? Also, do not grab the headrests of every aisle seat passenger for support as you travel down the aisle to the restroom. When you let go and reach for the next one, this will cause the head rest to spring forward and could give someone whiplash, not to mention waking up anyone who has managed to finally go to sleep. There is a groove along the overhead bins that will give you the support and guidance you need.

6- When seated next to a baby or in the same row, and parachuting out is not an option, try to remember babies often have painful ear problems due to the pressurized cabin. If you bring a baby on board, make sure you have enough formula and toys to occupy them. That tray table your child is playing bongos on is attached to the back of someone else's seat! Please don't pass soiled diapers to me to hand to the flight attendant.

7- Get in and out of the bathroom quickly. The airplane bathroom is always a point of contention because, on a plane full of people, the bathroom is a scarce resource that is always in high demand, and you know how competitive humans get about scarce resources.... Long lines can often be seen, full of people waiting to cram themselves into the tiny, dark, closet-like rooms, where for some reason the turbulence always seems 100 times worse and there is always a strange hissing air noise... Anyway, when it is your turn it is not the time to do things like read the newspaper, put your hair in rollers, do your makeup or nails, paint the next portrait of the Mona Lisa, or whatever it is that people are doing in there. Just get in and get out, so the next person in the lineup can get their own claustrophobic turn. You'd want the same from the person ahead of you, right.....? Please don't wait until the person in the aisle seat is sound asleep before you decide to go to the rest room.

8- When and how to recline a seat. Look to see if the tray table behind you is down. There may be a beverage or laptop on it. Ease it down slowly. The expert on manners, Miss Manners herself, had this to say when asked if it was rude to ask a fellow traveler to limit their reclining:
“There is a rude party here, all right, but it is neither you, for requesting the space in which to eat your dinner, nor the passenger, for assuming that otherwise everyone spends the time tilted back like a row of dominoes. “The rude party is the airline that puts people in an untenable position, so to speak, and then allows them to blame one another for their discomfort.”

Recently, she reinforced those earlier comments with the following well-targeted words:

“The real culprit here is the airlines, who install their seats so closely together that the reasonable attitude of reclining a seat that is designed to recline constitutes a nuisance to the passenger behind. “However, this deeper problem, of setting minimal comfort standards—or even minimal health conditions—for long-haul flights, is not one that etiquette can solve.”

The most important keys to building a well-mannered flying society are organization and consideration of others. Interpret those things wisely and generously, and we might be able to beat back the barbaric hordes and take back the skies. If you practice the above eight unwritten rules it will certainly win over MY crusty travel heart, and make air travel more enjoyable and comfortable for everyone.

Okay, now take off!

A Fistful Of Dollars

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

If you're planning a trip to the Kuna Yala Nation (Comarca of Panama) which was formerly San Blas Islands, bring a roll of $US ones along if you care to take a picture. You're gonna need 'em.
The beautiful, idyllic, scenery passing over the dense Darien Gap by small plane, the only way to arrive here, is a travel thrill. No roads exist.

The archipelago is dotted with remote, tee tiny islands, many uninhabited. It’s as much of a contrast with Panama City as you could imagine. La Comarca de Kuna Yala is a strip of land and a string of 365 islands that stretch 200 miles along the Caribbean coast.

When the plane arrives at the very short airstrip, the lodge picks you up and whisks you away immediately. You are only allowed to enter one of the villages by express permission from the Kuna leader, or Shaman. As far as I know, no one is allowed to overnight in a village.

My lodge was situated on an Island the size of a football field, being generous. But that was what I wanted, a quiet get-away for clients who, like me, don't need a lot of night life.

You will have a room with a view!

You're just steps away from the water at any time, and can watch the small dugouts passing by laden with coconuts they have collected, but you probably don't want to swim in that water.

Tours are taken AWAY from the lodges to swim near smaller uninhabited islands. The toilets are composting at lodges, but the island is so small everything finds its way to the waters edge eventually.

In the nearby village this is what you will find in the way of , erm, facilities.

These toilets are like out houses built over the water. Yes, you read that right. Waste goes directly into the water.

There is no mistaking a Kuna woman.

They wear beautiful and brightly colored tapestries called molas around their waists and wrap colorful beads around their wrists and calves. The beads are called winnis and are supposed to protect them from malicious spirits. Bright red scarves adorn their heads and they usually have a black line running vertically down the length of their nose with a gold ring placed through the septum.

The Kuna Yala have only been living on the islands for a very short period of time, only about one hundred and fifty years. Up until the early 1800s the islands were completely free of people with the exception of pirates who used the islands as a hideout. The Kunas have a strong relationship with the Colombians. Every year, rickety wooden schooners from Colombia, laden with cocoa, soup, soap, and trinkets come to San Blas to trade with the Kuna for Coconuts.

The Kuna probably sell the most coconuts of anybody in the world. In fact, up until the late 1990s, the coconut was used as currency.

In 1996 they were declared a nation amongst themselves, allowing them to make their own governmental decisions, while still maintaining military protection from Panama.

They have not made wise decisions. (Here's their new flag.) They have over fished their waters, (not for their own benefit, but for selling), the groves of coconuts have been infested of late with an epidemic of mysterious Porroca and is killing the trees slowly, and their isolation and feeling of superiority over outsiders has resulted in a lot of in breeding, causing mental retardation and perhaps the high case of albino children. They rely strongly now on tourism and selling their molas. Bright, intricate, reverse applique works of art.

The introduction of radio, television and computers (generator powered )has changed the designs the women wear as a panel on their shirts. I saw one with Marge Simpson and another with Santa Clause! A child I stopped to chat with was carrying a talking doll beside her, still in its wrapping. It was her christening present, reciting, at a push of its stomach, 'Have a Nice Day' in an American accent.

They are fascinating indigenous peoples, with their distinctive melodic music and dance. We hope they look toward the future and realize they can't continue on the same path of sustainable income they have been accustomed to in the past if they don't make some changes. Last month they reluctantly allowed UC Santa Cruz plant scientists to try and come up with a solution to their coconut disease. It looks hopeful.

If you want to take a picture while in the village it costs one dollar and if you try and take a picture of a house, or a view, and someone thinks they may have been in that picture, they will run to you and ask for their dollar. Always ask permission of anyone you wish to photograph first, and then fork over a buck. Don't even think about taking a picture and paying for it afterward. It may cause a riot.

Kids will give you a smile, but the women, I think, will give you a lousy picture on purpose...so you'll need to take another one for another dollar and then still get results that are no better. I even had a woman tell me she knew I was going to put her picture on the Internet and where was her cut of that money? (Obviously, they don't understand quite as much as they think they do about the world of cyberspace.) So, I hope I put her mind at rest when I deleted the picture in front of her right then and there. See? There it is and now it's gone. She didn't offer to return my dollar. It was a crappy picture anyway.

I made the mistake of taking a picture of this toddler dragging a monkey around.

The child demanded his dollar and afterward I felt very guilty about encouraging the horrendous treatment of the poor animal. He was being dragged around by this child and clearly despondent. Taken from his mother for photo opts. I was disturbed about it for several days and asked the owner of my lodge (also a Kuna) if he thought I could buy the monkey and take it to a refuge center in Panama City I knew about. I was told that if I did that, it would only encourage them to go out in the jungle and capture more.

I haven't painted a very pretty picture here of the Kuna. I actually tried very hard not to do that, because in the past the area has been very enjoyable. But tourists who come here now to buy their molas are treated as nothing more than a dollar sign and their disdain for you is palpable. You won't find any fresh fish or lobster here now either, and maybe for a long time to come if they don't change their fishing habits and stop polluting the water. Leaving the airstrip, heading back to Panama City, as the wing of the plane turned at the end of the tiny runway, I looked down into the garbage filled water and saw a single, sequined, platform shoe floating on top of the water....I had to ponder...is the other shoe fixin' to drop on the Kuna Yala?

For more information on the Kuna Yala and a different opinion look here:
www.escapeartist.com/panama/kuna.html

There's a map and other info here: www.american.edu/ted/kuna.htm

We are using a new lodge in the Comarca now and a new approach to visiting amongst the Kuna Yala. Contact us at http://www.latinamaericayourway.net to find out more.

Updates about their flag can be found here: www.flagspot.net/flags/pa-nat.html