I am in a cybercafe because it´s too hot outside...

... so, my blog postings are entirely conditioned by the weather. It´s 2pm and no live soul dares to brave the 40C (100F) outside, rather they all take to a 3-hour siesta. Well, the kids playing videogames fanatically around me are an exception. Gorillaz `Kids with Guns` is playing in the background. How fitting. And I can´t open my e-mail. So, some news on the last days of my mochilera adventures. The general area is called Valle Punillo in the sierras of the Cordoba province. I travelled for five days with a friend I met in Buenos Aires, Luis. We camped, grilled, and went to a rock concert in Cosquín. Crazy Crazy! Then, I went on my own to La Cumbre, a small, quiet and charming little town, where Argentine writer Mujica Laínez spent the his last years. It is called, fittingly, The Paradise. Will put up photos soon... [The music in this cyber-cafe is really good!! The white stripes right now] I decided I really like the idea of a house-museum because the house loses that lived-in feeling, but there remain those small ghost-gestures that the visitor can imagine have happened here. Museums, art-museums, are impersonal, and sometimes I like it that way, but there is a certain sense of objective coldness that sometimes scares me. House-museums have that feeling of the private that makes you feel like you are an intruder, albeit a welcomed one. The welcomed intruder--what better feeling? [Gorillaz again, I´m in heaven!]
Now I am in the land of UFO´s, Capilla del Monte, a small, partly-hippie town, with a Buddhist temple and gorgeous natural landscapes. TBC... (I wonder what Nicholas makes out of this one...;) My first guess would be TuBerCulosis...)

After a long absence, reporting sunny skies!

Well, I haven't been writing this past week because I was outside, enjoying the gorgeous weather. I have walked and walked, BA is a haven for such endeavour... Impressions, again, in a chaotic order:

--Japanese Garden is an oasis of peace in an otherwise tumultuos city. There is a Japanese restaurant inside where I plan to take Sharonita when she comes here in February.
--I am buying way too many books... I keep telling myself that one can never have too many, right?
--I have finally figured out the rhythm of the city, but it's funny because, if you think about it, as Mike had remarked, people in Buenos Aires never sleep! Let's see. Lunch is at 12-3, then siesta or work or walking around. 5-10 or so linger in a cafe with a cup or coffee, a chopp (pint) of beer (Quilmes or Imperial), reading the newspaper, conversing with friends. During this time, as the trash is brought out on the street, a sad and very common sight is the people rummaging through it in the hopes to find something to salvage. Ever since the economic disaster of 2001, many have been put in this situation in order to survive. It's not just bums, the number of people in this situation is frightening. Around 10:10pm one starts thinking about dinner. Many eat out, beginning 11pm (which is really early actually) until 3am or so. Well, if you can squeeze in a movie or a play, that's even better. 3 am, nightlife starts (take that, you puritan Michigan laws!) until around 6am, when you come out of a dark bar and it's sunny outside and people are heading to work. (What a great feeling!!) Now, tell me--when do people get to sleep?
--the photo above is from a theater-dance group called El Descueve--gotta see it! It's fabulously sensual and playful. It all ended in a lettuce fight... Go figure!

Tonight I am heading to Cordoba for a week or so... Good night and good luck!

Rain and thunder as impetus for blog postings...

So... being that I am confined to the dry space of my room and that Patxi really really wants me to, I will start posting news bits from life in the Paris of South America. Initial impressions are really just a long list of unconnected, random ideas. It will take me more time to process them into full-sentence format, so bear with me. Here it goes, and not to be too pedantic, it does make me think of Borges' Chinese Encyclopedia famoulsy cited by Foucault in The Order of Things. [I hope that at least Mike appreciates this reference. :D ]:

-coffee, excellent as expected
-food: meat, meat, red meat, and oh, did I mention MEAT?
-wine: yummm and SO cheap
-some metrocars have cushions... styling it up in the subte
-parks as dwelling spaces for cats... the Botanical Garden is literally CATLAND



-noiselevel: elevated--so many cars and buses, my gosh...
-no tango interaction as of yet; will try harder, I promise.
-i might have just found my mom away from home: Beatriz, the very nice and helpful lady who arranged for my housing. Her mom is Romanian, and I have taken upon myself to convince her to visit the Dacian plains.
-this one is incredibly inappropriate, but it must be included--I have discovered the (hygienic, of course) uses and benefits of the bidet.
-puerto madero, the newest residential area of the city, is comprised of warehouses transformed into stylish lofts and expensive-yet-they-say-delicious restaurants, is also the quietest area in town, birds chirping and all that good stuff.




Check out flickr.com/photos/amateur_uploader for more pics.

Maybe I will run and get that cup of coffee after all, addiction is stronger than inconvenience...

Ladies and gentlemen, the weather forecast for Buenos Aires, Argentina: it's raining cats and dogs!

So, it's a summer afternoon in the Southern Cone. Would one expect rain and thunder? I think not... however, the truth of the matter is that I am stuck in my room, contemplating whether it's worth running to the corner cafe and read there (which would involve me getting soaking wet) or stay here and try to will the rain to stop by looking intensely out the window.
Needless to say, the long awaited Sunday flea market in Plaza Dorrengo is compromised...