Episode 31: Iguazu Falls

Well, after our trip back over the border and our run in with the crazy Geordie guy in our hostel who recently left his job in Spain where he was paid in cocaine (:/), we headed over to Iguazu falls. Naturally it's now much easier to get around given that everything's in Spanish, and at the entrance I actually managed to argue my way to the Argentinian price (3 times less than the normal price) despite not having any documents - get in!

The Iguazu Falls is perhaps the epitome of the phrase "a picture speaks a thousand words". The scale of them is simply overwhelming and it's interesting to note that whilst the presidents of Brazil and Argentina (the falls lie on the border of the two countries) technically "own" them, they surely cannot help but feel that in reality this natural phenomenon really owns them.

After following a few of the trails around the falls, we decided to (quite literally) take the plunge and jump on a boat into the heart of this wonder of the world! If you ever find yourself in Iguazu (which you all should), then we'd definitely recommend taking the boat - it literally goes into the middle of the enormous plunge pool of the main waterfall, meaning you get totally soaked - but it is an amazing experience just looking up and seeing such a brilliant piece of nature above you.

The falls are in fact part of a larger national park and whilst they are of course the main attraction, the wildlife was pretty memorable too. I don't think we'll ever forget the mischievous coaties who lurk around all the cafes and literally jump on you the second you take your eye of your food (see pictures below!)

After the excitement of Iguazu, we spent a pretty uneventful Shabbat in Salta, where the Chabad Rabbi welcomed us and the token 20 traveling Israelis into his home. They were very hospitable, but it was also sad to see not one other person in Shul on Shabbat morning - it was literally me and Nick! On Friday afternoon we took the cable car up to see the views of Salta (impressive, but nothing on the views of Rio), and on Saturday night we took the overnight bus to Tupiza, Bolivia, which is where we are now. As close to a ghost town as either of us have ever seen, Tupiza reminds me a bit of Cuba in the sense that
it is a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. There was however one interesting commonality among the few Bolvians we have seen so far - they all have jet black hair! Perhaps it's a local fashion trend but either way it makes it very easy to pick out the foreigners!

Salta and Tupiza aren't exactly worth going out of your way to visit, but they've been useful stop-overs before we head off (not a moment too soon!) on a 4 day salt flats tour which is set to be one of the highlights of the trip!

Episode 31: the salt flats

Episode 30: Floripa and Brasil impressions

We've spent the last three days in a medium sized beach town called 'Floripa' - there isn't much to say apart from that we've done some cool activities and been out a few times at night on well organised joint events between all the Floripa hostels. Below (see bottom) is us waterfall jumping, sandboarding and chilling (we also did windsurfing but didn't get any photos)



Anyway, seeing as there's not a lot to write about I want to expand upon what Nick said in the last blog about the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Gamescin Brazil. Now, we've had an excellent trip so far, but the reality is that it hasn't exactly been helped by...well...Brazilians.

Not wanting to generalise, I want to clarify that this was only our experience and could be totally different for others. However, it seems that Brazilians are actually quite like the English - a bit cold, unfriendly and only speak their native language! Between Nick and I we actually speak three languages - English, Spanish and French - unfortunately very few Brazilians appear to speak any of these, even though Spanish and Portuguese are supposedly (grammatically) similar. Also, as I spoke about last year, I believe that English is much easier language to get a grasp of than those two Hispanic ones - and with Brazil hosting a global audience over the next few years, it is surprising that more emphasis hasn't been put on foreign languages.

When talking to one of the rare breed of multilingual friendly Brazilians about the language issue, it was largely brushed off as a side point. On the contrary, if the World Cup was hosted tomorrow, we can guarantee that this issue would cause horror stories (in conjunction with the fact that one in every two taxi drivers don't know where they're going or don't even turn up when ordered, pickpockets are widespread during high season and Jewish Mean Time is taken to a whole new level). It's not hard to imagine Spain waiting on the pitch for England in the semis while our team coach has been taken on a detour up Sugarloaf mountain. Actually, that would never happen - we've got no chance of making the semis.

In fact, as I write this we've just gone through the airport in which we were asked to write our emergency details on a scrap of paper (why do they need them so badly all of a sudden??) and at the gate the message went from 'please wait' immediately to 'last call', causing widespread panic. Back, then, to the civilisation of Argentina - and if you've been following this blog, you'll know that that's the last thing I thought I'd ever say!

Next up: Iguazu Falls

Episode 29: Rio pt II - guest blog

Whilst Joe is watching the football, I've been given the weighty task on filling you in on our travels from the past few days.

Before I hijack Joe's blog, I should probably introduce myself: my name is Nick, I was Joe's housemate last year and I've been studying in Canada this year. After about 6 months of intense planning over Skype, I flew out to meet him on Monday!

On our first day here together we decided to make the most of the clear skies and get the (expensive) train ride up to see the famous statue of 'Christ the Redeemer' that looks out over the Rio skyline. On the slightly turbulent ride up (we thought TFL was bad!), we were accompanied (one foot in front of us) by a samba band. But even four instruments in his face failed to compete with Joe Cohen's famous ability to nap anywhere! (I'm determined to find something to challenge this before we leave!) Up close the statue really is quite impressive but you can only really appreciate its scale from afar - from the beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana.

In the evening, we took the (even more expensive) cable car up to Sugarloaf Mountain to see the sunset. The scene itself was as close to picture-postcard as you're gonna get and the ominous clouds hovering just ahead made for some great photos

Perhaps the common thread to our past few days has been a growing frustration with Brazilians. They are, it has to be said, always more than willing to give directions (always in Portugese) and wild gesticulations. Unfortunately, they are also always more than willing to give directions to places they've never heard of - including cab drivers - who are more than happy to drive in a random direction and drop you off at "aqui, aqui" whether or not it's where you asked to go to or not! Unfortunately we fell victim to this when we tried to visit the 'local' and 'famous' tourist attraction of the Escadaria de Saleron (see photos), with there even being a significant amount of disagreement among locals about which town they were in!

We've also heard stories about bus drivers taking lengthy detours to pickup lunch for themselves, pickup parcels for friends and drop them off. (It probably doesn't add too much time onto the journey though as they seem determined to take most of the road corners on two wheels!) With terrible infrastructure, almost no English/Spanish speakers and as the world's most difficult place to withdraw money as a foreigner(we couldn't get out cash from an HSBC - using an HSBC card!) it's no wonder that the Brazilians seem to be wondering how Rio is going to host the World Cup next year...never mind the Olympics in 2016!

That's all from me - off to Florianopolis tomorrow morning!

Nick Feingold

Episode 28: Rio de Janeiro

After having left BA for the first time for 7 months (to return for only a couple more days after travelling), I arrived in Rio to meet up with one of my best friends a few days ago. We've done quite a lot so far, but the thing which has stuck out in both our minds as having had the most impact was the tour of one of the favelas (shanty towns).

Now, having seen the movie City of G-d, we were pretty apprehensive (even though it was am official tour) - and as such we didn't even take our cameras or money. It turned out to be... a mistake! Not a mistake to go, though , a mistake not to take money or cameras. In Rocinho, which is the biggest favela in brazil with approximately 200000 people, we saw hospitals, markets, children playing, winding streets with small shops, security cameras and houses with running water and electricity. Whilst some of these houses were often run down, it wasn't nearly as bad as in the movie and the police (perhaps with the Olympics and World Cup in sight) have really stepped up and vastly decreased the drug trade in the area. 

We had an excellent tour guide, who took us up to the top of some of the buildings for amazing views - and at the same time explained that buildings are constructed by the locals and pop up as and when, with no respect for other people's property (as demonstrated by some windows being half covered by concrete etc).

My first impressions of rio have been pretty good - it's cleaner than BA although much more expensive - but what the favela citizens have done (with government help) has honestly been an inspiration, turning many of their lives from poverty and squalor to what the tour guide described as something 'approaching middle class'. For those who have heard one of my speeches, it'll probably find its way in there in the future. Anyway - work is over, travelling has begun!

Up next: episode x: Rio pt II (guest blog)

Episode 27: Argentina Factfile

caution: not to be taken strictly at face value...

Country: Argentina
Population: 40 million. Vast majority of Italian and Spanish origin. Cerca 3000 brits, but not included in population. (see what i did there...).
GDP: 4 cows, 2 packs of Lay's ready salted and a pot of Dulce de Leche. (pesos don't count, you see).
Religion: Whatever the pope says...
Territorial claims: None (see, I did it again...)

Brief description: Wonderful scenery. Insecurity. Hot. Poor driving. Asado. Mate (instead of tea). Dulce de Leche. Arrogant males. Hysterical females. Corruption. Perito Moreno. Tango. Constant street repairs. Messi. Overly hot trains. Boca. Graffiti. Friendly. Football. Malvinas. Milongas. Abundance of natural resources. Maradona. Truco cards. Beef. Punta de Este/Mar del Plata. Floods. Penguins. The Pope. Democracy?

Fun Facts:
-Most streets here are 1 way, with the exception of main Avenues and a few others.
-The difference between Argentinian goods and imported goods (say, argentina olive oil vs imported olive oil) is likely to be at least 3 or 4 times the price.
industria
-It is 5 times cheaper to take the train across the whole city than it is to buy one litre of water.
-It is 10 times cheaper to take the bus (again across the whole city) that it is to buy 2 medium quality red apples. lets not even talk about green apples...
-Buenos Aires is slightly bigger than the whole of France, whilst you could fit a massive 11.45 United Kingdoms in Argentina.
-In the south of Argentina you will find lots of Welsh, whilst in the Mid-West (bariloche) you will find lots of Israeli's.
-Argentina was originally known for its large amounts of silver (plata - hence Rio de la Plata, Mar del Plata etc). The actual name comes from the latin word Argentum, thus giving a translation of Argentina as 'land of silver'.

Interlude 22: Things i will/won't miss from the office

As it's my last day at work, I think (maybe just even for my own memories!) I should go over some things I´ll miss from the working day.


1) the morning SUBTE journey - WILL NOT MISS
My least favorite part of the day, squeezing into old, boiling hot trains and being squished around. On the plus side, it only costs 40p a day. On the super plus side, you get to watch the same video of all of messi's 2012/2013 goals on repeat all day, every day on the stations TVs (see below). It never gets old...

2) The daily office mate. WILL MISS

Yep, the traditional argentinian drink has become a personal favorite, shared between the whole office. The bitterness and the caffeine/antioxidants keep you awake, healthy and err, on the toilet. Problem is, if i try to import the tradition of 'strong herbs' back to the UK for 'sharing' in the office...well...i think you see where I'm going with that.

3)Football/banter:  WILL MISS

Back at the end of 2012, my departments 5 a side team made it all the way to the final (it's argentina, everyone plays) before losing out late on. It's been 6 months filled with banter and a great working atmosphere but also with kind people who go out their way to help. Either that, or insult you when you call their team rubbish. Which they all are. *dons tin hat for mountain of incoming office abuse*

4) Social. WILL DEFINITELY MISS

The amount of time we all go out as friends outside work was very foreign at the start, but it's great! Almost every weekend theres something big going on (although every so often its on friday so i can't go) - and being someone not used to seeing work people outside work in the UK, this is definitely something I'll miss.

                                   

Lets stop before I get to the work bit, shall we? It goes without saying that the main thing in my 6 months working has been learning the language, and I'm pleased to say I'm happy (if not a little worried i'll forget some of it), which seemed like a long way off at the start. I know they're all reading this, so I want to take this chance to thank Martin, Rocio, la Tucu, Bea, Sophie, Santi, Martincito, Bruno, Emanuel and pretty much everyone else in the office who has helped me out along the way. As such, I leave you with this as thanks:

Interlude 21: Floodwaters Rising

As has been widely reported, there has been a serious flood in the Province of Buenos Aires in recent days (and thanks to all my friends who got in touch to check I was OK). Luckily the area I live in (in the North of Buenos Aires city) was barely touched. Worst off was the lesser known Capital City of Buenos Aires Province, La Plata:

Now, when I say flood, it really does mean flood - and you can look at this in one of two ways. Firstly, there is obviously nothing the goverment can do about the weather. A colleague of mine asked me this morning what would have happened in london if there was this much rain. The answer inevitably would be almost as much damage as you can see above (I say almost taking into account that whilst we have a very built up city with not much grass to absorb the water, we also have a better sewage system etc). 

The second point of analysis to make is actually the main one, the real talking point inside BA. Why, when storms (given, not usually of this size) are commonplace (I have experienced many a torrential downpour in the last 7 months), were adequate provisions not put in place? The question that has been on my mind is where are the boats? Where are the helicopters? Where is the military help? There were reports of people freezing overnight on rooptops waiting to be saved, and many people are still without electricity.

The reasons behind this can be related to the current squabbling for a scapegoat between the La Plata Provincial government led by Scioli (an opponent of Cristina, the Presidenta) and the National government. In essence, lots of government funds are pilfered by the politicians (which doesn't help), but lots also go on other things like subsidising the SUBTE trains and overly generous unemployment benefits. It is this money which should have gone into contingency and disaster planning.

This is not to say the government don't care, in fact they have declared an official 3 day mourning period for the 51 La Plata deaths (declared so far). I have to admit, I'm not entirely sure what that means, and 99% of people in BA city centre are working as normal, but still it is an action that has been taken. The people, nevertheless, are angry - and with plenty of reason. Just like any government takes the blame when the economy turns sour even if they did not cause it, the people here are venting. There has been limited effort to remove the floodwaters, and the death toll is inevitably set to rise with over 20 'disappearances' reported on top of the 57 province-wide death figures. In recent weeks things have not been going so well for the Argentine government, with a series of bad decisions accompanying some bad luck, but potentially things have just taken another turn for the worst.

Episode 26: The Papal Consequences

This last week has been both Passover and Easter, a festive, enjoyable time for both Jews and Cristians alike. As such, my cousin decided to come and take advantage of my being here for a couple more weeks and visit me from England. She brought with her many things that I have been missing for a while - English humour (hmm), English football (it had been too long since I'd had a good face-to-face Spurs vs Arsenal debate) and...err... Japanese style photo snapping. Vague stereotypes aside, she brought one thing which I'd almost completely forgotten about - a copy of the Economist. Apart from the cover photo (which was a cartoon the country of Cyprus sinking amidst huge debts, and incidently a place where I will be visiting with a large group of friends later on in the summer), there was one really interesting article - that about Argentina and the pope.




Now, it is available online (here), and I had already posted about Pope Francisco (here), but I'm going to summarise it in my own words with some other comments - because its not so often you have someone with both and inside and outside perspective of something so important in a country so...far away!

It was thought very unlikely that the Argentinian candidate would win the Papal election, so Cristina really must have been ruing her luck. Indeed, as the article muses, whilst all other television channels were showing non-stop coverage of the inauguration, the state owned Channel 7 (which, in fairness, I never watch) was showing cartoons.

Anyway, the article speaks of damage limitation (Cristina, the Presidenta, quickly went to Rome to sit down with her prior adversary to give him a mate  andsome compulsory praises), of obvious requests (for example that he wade into the Falkland Islands debate, not that he ever would - even though this appears to be one of the few things they actually agree on) and most importantly of a changing political landscape.

What I mean by this is that gradually, both sides are using old skeletons against each other. For example how a document from 1979 (remember, Bergoglio at 76 is on the old side) appears to suggest he helped deny a Priest access to Argentina on the grounds of suspected Guerrilla contact, although much of this is disputed territory seemingly to me taken out of context. On the other hand, he accuses her of not doing enough to help the poor (although I would add here that she does quite a lot to help the poor, and without going into it deeper I would imagine it is a dig at the corruption which is so widespread that is holds back even further developments)

What seems to be beyond doubt is that unless the government cede some ground, there will be tensions - if not directly from the fact that the clergy here now has some new found power and sway. Not that the the Kirchner government needs any new issues - with enough on their plate, the 'kirchneristas' held parties in some of the Villas to mark his inauguration. In addition to that, you might even be lucky enough to see one of these government posters flying around if you walk about enough...