Sharing with strangers

Our two nights in Cordoba(Saturday and Sunday) are in a hostel and we are in dorms. I haven't shared a room with anyone other than Nic, family or good friends since I was at school and now I am in a room with six people from our group who are not far short of strangers. I knew that we would be in dorms occasionally, so it was not unexpected, and I have no issue with any of the people in the room, but it still feels a bit weird.

Of course travelling as a couple, we are lucky in that when we have the two person hotel rooms or tents, we have that to ourselves, whereas those travelling singly are sharing then too. I think for me, that complete lack of any private time or space would be a little much.

Meet Cameron and her friends

Cameron

So having joined the Dragoman group on Thursday, today we met Cameron. Cameron is the truck we will be travelling on for the next 79 days, and is named after Cameron Diaz.  She is 21 years old, about 4m high, 10m long and she weighs in at around 15 tonnes.  Not sure how Ms Diaz would feel about having a 15 tonne truck named after her, but never mind.

We met Cameron at about 5:45am, setting off early for the 12 hour drive from BsAs to Cordoba.  There are 24 seats and there are 19 of us, so we’re not full, but we don’t rattle around. The same can’t be said for Cameron!  Happily the seats are actually pretty comfortable, which is just as well, as we are on it for a long time.  The ride is a little bumpy, but not too bad.  And the windows do all close properly, so though not the warmest of vehicles, it’s not that cold either.

Breakfast stop

Cameron has a back locker for all the rucksacks, and a couple of people get the job of hauling themselves up on a rope to stack the packs in.  There is a wood locker on the back for when we get to BBQ time, and various side lockers that contain the tents, folding chairs, a couple of tables that act as the kitchen, and all the various pots, pans, plates and cutlery that we need.  There are also a couple of hefty shovels for when we have to dig Cameron out of whatever hole she gets herself into!

We have a few cool boxes on board and – in what will quite possibly become the most popular area, we have a little space called the bar, which is self explanatory.  Overall, I think we will be OK with Cameron for the next few months.

And what about her friends.  First up we have the Dragoman crew, Dave and Ivan.  Dave is our tour leader.  He  is Australian and already it is fairly clear that he has ‘no worries’.  Ivan is our driver and mechanic French, and has been dubbed with the highly original nickname of Frenchie. Ivan is our Spanish speaker.

We haven’t got to know all of our travelling companions yet, but just so that you know who we have on board, I’ll go through the list.  We have four other couples, Elliot and Gemma who are engineering students from near Newcastle, Bert a fireman, and Vanessa from Belgium, Tim and Claire are lawyers from Bristol, and retired couple from Australia, Colin and Ann.  There are two people travelling together as friends, Sharif, a student from Munich, Germany and Sophie, from Auckland, New Zealand.  Then in the single travellers we have a mix of ages.  Alex a student from London, Leon from Netherlands who has just finished university, Jade and Leoni, a police officer, are Australian, Shay and Aine (pronounced like Anya) are both from Ireland, and Carolyn is a police officer from Glasgow.

Colin and Ann, Elliot and Jemma, Alex and Shay have been on board since Rio.  Some of the group are only on for the first leg to La Paz (Bolivia), but there are a few on to Lima (Peru), and at least one is on to Quito (Ecuador).  We are the only ones going right through to Cartagena, Colombia.

Tango

Salon tango

It is tango time in Buenos Aires, and over the last week we saw two very different types .  There is a tango festival on and part of the festival is the tango world cup.  So on Tuesday we went along to the exhibition centre where they were holding one of the competitions.  It was the first round of the Salon competition.  The Salon dancing is where about eleven couples dance at the same time, much as happens in the milonga salons, but they have a bit more space.  I say that, but the floor is still quite crowded and we witnessed a number of near misses as two couples almost collided.

I’m not sure how you get to be in the competition, but it seemed a bit like anyone could put their name down.  We were there for about five and a half hours and saw 22 rounds which was about 240 couples, but there were about 500 couples in total.  The standards varied immensely.  There were some couples who even to my untrained eye were clearly very good.  The proximity of the other dancers means that they use the close hold and there isn’t much room for showy moves, but still they danced with real flair, adding in the fancy footwork and leg flicks where they could.  And they were certainly dressed for the occasion.

Some others though were less polished.  They didn’t have fancy outfits, and their dancing was still perfectly respectable, but the moves were more basic and they lacked the finesse and style that the others showed.

Hopefully not drunk!

There were a few much older couples too and whilst some of them obviously had some skill, you could see that their movements didn’t have the same fluidity as the others.

There was one couple who actually looked like they might be drunk - although they managed the full dance without crashing anyone so I assume they weren't!

As we only stayed for half of the first round we don’t know who got through, but we certainly picked out some that we thought should, including couples from Italy, Russia and Japan, as well as the Argentinians.

the locals have a go too

As we left, we saw that there was a separate dance floor at the back of the hall, where anyone could get up and strut their stuff.  We considered having a go just so that we could say we had danced at the tango world cup, but as we would probably have bumped into everyone we decided that it was best not to.

Tango spectacular at Cafe Tortoni

The second event was a tango show at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, on Friday night with the Dragoman group.  This was completely different as it was show tango, where they have a lot more room to dance and so use a more open hold and do a lot of big moves.  The show dancing is much faster paced and they pack in the lifts and the leg flicks.  It is impressive, and fun to watch, but the ‘spectacular’ takes away from the intensity of the dance.  For me, the slower paced dance that we saw at the competition was more appealing.  It had a more dramatic and passionate feel to it that I found more powerful.

 

But the show at Tortoni wasn’t just about the dance.  In tango, the music is important too and the show had a number of classic tango songs interspersed.  But the highlight of the show for me was a routine done with balls on the end of a bit of string. The guys were doing the traditional dance, possibly the zapateada, that involves a lot of fast paced foot tapping and stamping, but at the same time twirling these strings around so that the balls clacked on the floor too.  The timing of the moves to the music was incredible, especially when there were two of them dancing at the same time and they were synchronised perfectly.

Overall, two good events, but the Salon tango gets my vote.

Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta was the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires, opened in 1822.  The first grave, in 1823, was a simple one for the wife of San Martin, the first President of the independent BsAs.  Over time, the rich and powerful of BsAs built their mausoleums here and as the wealth of the country grew, so did the quality of the crypts.As the tour guide put it, they would build a house in the city, a castle in the countryside, and a mausoleum in Recoleta Cemetery.

The family tombs can generally hold about 20 coffins. Many are decorated with stonework and metalwork ordered from Europe and there are some incredibly detailed sculptures that are regarded as works of art in their own right.

It is quite strange to walk down all of these little ‘streets’ of tombs, overlooked by multiple stone angels.

I quite liked the story of the family who buried their longstanding housekeeper along the outside edge of their family tomb, so as in life she stayed alongside them but not actually with them.

Rufina's tomb

A much sadder story was that of Rufina, a young girl who died and was buried, but later was found to have not been dead at all.  She had tried to escape from the coffin and the staff noticed that it had moved a little, but when they opened it they were too late and this time she really was dead.

The family added beautiful art nouveau decoration, with a sculpture of Rufina with her hand on the door of the tomb.  It is said that she is one of the many ghosts that walk the cemetery at night and play with the many stray (but well fed) cats that live there.

Eva Peron's tomb 

Of course the reason that many people visit Recoleta Cemetery is to visit the tomb of Evita.  She is buried deep down in the Duarte family tomb.  It is a small tomb in one of the ‘side streets’, but there are constantly people there.  

Packing

It's a sorting and packing day today, as we leave the flat in the morning to join the Dragoman group at the hotel. Have to say goodbye to civilised clothes and my handbag, as there is mo room for that kind of stuff in the rucksack. I've never worn a fleece before, so that we be another new experience!

Looking forward to this next stage of the trip, albeit a little nervous. 79 days with a group of people is fine if you get along but as yet I have no idea who they are and what they'll be like. Just hope they're a good mix of people and don't get too exasperated with my fussy eating habits when it's their turn to cook!

Will be in Buenos Aires till Saturday morning and then we have our first 300km drive to Rosario. Typical though, our first night of camping is Saturday and it's the one day this week when they've forecast rain! Hmmm.

Haircuts

As we get on the Dragoman truck for a couple of months next week, we both figured we should get our hair cut today. Now this isn't so bad for Nic as he just needs his already short hair cut a bit shorter. He took a copy of his passport photo along to give them an idea of the length, and was well away.

Mine isn't quite so easy. The cut isn't so bad as I could just tell her that I wanted it a bit shorter and no fringe. I had been pre-warned that fringes are in, so I would get one if I didn't specifically say not to. The tricky bit was the colour. Asking for it was OK, but as ever the problem is coping with the questions. And there were so many questions! With the hairdresser speaking absolutely no English, I was reduced to guessing based on what I did understand and hoping for the best.

Now I didn't relish the idea of meeting my travelling companions with green hair, so you can imagine that I was a little anxious when the dye came off and I could see the result. But actually it is OK. So am most relieved and can chalk up getting my first haircut in a foreign language as a success. A small success yes, but as I'm sure the ladies reading this will appreciate, it is an important one!

Vote, don't drink!

Now I am all for the fact that people should exercise their right to vote and do so in an informed way, which should really include being sober. But I'm not sure that I like the system here. Not only is voting compulsory, which probably means that those who don't care just put down any old thing without even knowing what the candidates stand for, but they ban alcohol too!

The evening before the elections, after a certain time you can't buy alcohol in the shops or in restaurants and bars. This wouldn't be so bad, but the elections are on a Sunday, so you can't drink in a bar on the Saturday night, and there have been three since we've been here.

And of course all this applies to us even though we don't vote anyway! Can't see the idea catching on in the UK somehow.

Don't cry for me Argentina

The courtyard

Yesterday we took a tour of the Casa Rosada.  It is a free tour, and we didn't have to wait long, but I gather the queues can be fairly long in the summer.  It says that the tours are in Spanish, English and possibly other languages, but ours was only in Spanish. Thankfully our Spanish lessons have had some effect as we understood most of it.

ceremonial guard

The Casa Rosada is the office of the President and other ministers, so you can only tour it at weekends, but even that is quite surprising really. They only allow you through some parts in single file so that they can keep quite a careful eye on you.

The White Room

The tour focused on the architecture and artwork in the building but it showed us the room where the legislation is passed and you do pass through the President's office.

The President's Room

I wasn't entirely sure that her statuette of the Three Wise Monkeys (the 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' ones) was quite right though.

Of course the most famous part of the Casa Rosada is the balcony from which Juan and Eva Peron used to speak to the crowds gathered in the Plaza de Mayo. The Pope apparently blessed the Argentinians from here during the Falklands war, and the national football team have appeared here too.

View from That Balcony

So we got to go out on to the balcony (which is apparently not a proper balcony because it doesn't stand out further than the front of the building) and pretend to be important too.  And of course some things just have to be done, so I did give a short chorus of 'Don't cry for me Argentina' albeit very, very quietly!

Cathedral

We also had a look around the Cathedral.  From the outside it looks more like a grand old office building than a cathedral; inside it is much better but somehow it still didn't seem very impressive.  It is here that the body of General San Martin is buried and there were guards at the doorway o his tomb.

Jesus

There were quite a few individual shrines, some of which had doll like effigies of Mary, dressed quite oddly in very regal looking clothes.  What I thought was the strangest though, was the full size model of Jesus standing in front of himself, looking like he is ready to have a quick chat with you!

and more art

Since my posting about our visit to the museum of fine arts we have been to two more - the museum of decorative arts and the MALBA, which is modern art.  Now if you read my earlier post  then you are probably wondering why I bothered, but I live in hope.  Sadly, in the main that optimism was misplaced. I'm not going to repeat the things I said in the other blog, but you should assume that they do still apply!

The decorative arts museum is a collection in a house commissioned by a wealthy and important couple in 1916, but after her death in 1935 the husband gave it to the state to turn into a museum.  The house is of french style and is very impressive.  I even quite liked some of the objects on display.  But I was disappointed when I saw Rodin's The Thinker, because I had - obviously quite ignorantly - assumed there was only one, and in fact there are a whole batch of them.

The MALBA is modern art, which is always a bit of a worry, and sure enough there were a batch of pictures that consisted of a single colour painted canvas, were of oddly distorted bodies, or just simply a blurred photo of a vase etc.  I have quite a few blurred photographs that I was going to delete, but I am now vaguely hopeful that they might be worth a fortune - I won't hold my breath though.  But there were a few good pieces and one that I would even choose to put in my house, though I doubt I could afford it.  It was a few bits of perspex rotating in a reflective, lit up, semi circular box, giving the impression that they are floating.   I liked it, and thought it was clever, but I'm still not sure I would call it art.

Madres de Plaza de Mayo

Madres de Plaza de Mayo

Every Thursday between 3.30 and 4.00pm, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo make their protest.  Plaza de Mayo is the square in front of the Casa Rosada, and Madres means mothers.  But simply translating the words doesn't explain who these ladies in their trademark white headscarves actually are.  They are traditionally the mothers, but could also be grandmothers, aunts etc, of people who 'disappeared' in Argentina in it's darker years.

The exact facts are still debated but broadly, from 1976 to 1983, there was what became known as the 'dirty war' during which the military juntas carried out illegal arrests, torture and 'forced disappearance' of various opponents ranging from militias to trade union activists and students.  Many thousands of people disappeared and their families still do not know what happened to them. The actual number of 'disappeared' varies from around 11,000 to 30,000 depending on whose account you believe.

the painted pathway

The laws at that time stopped people from gathering in groups, thereby preventing them meeting to discuss issues or to protest.  But the Madres found a way around this.  The laws covered sitting and standing in groups, but said nothing to prevent situations where many people were moving around the same place.  So since 30 April 1977 the Madres would march around the Plaza de Mayo swapping stories and information to try to discover what had happened to their missing loved ones, and calling out their names to demand justice for them.  Each of their white headscarves has the name of their missing loved one on it. They were effective too, as they raised the profile internationally and helped bring about investigations and political change.  Of course their protesting made them targets too, and it is known that some of the 14 founding members were also detained, tortured and murdered.

the Madres stall

The Madres continue their walk of protest, though these days they have a circular pathway marked out around the column in the square, and others join in. They also have a stall where they sell literature and other items, and they have their own van and minibus.  But if that sounds like they are commercialised then I don't mean it to; they just have legitimacy and are a more formal organisation now albeit that their numbers are presumably dwindling with the passing of the years.



When we were there yesterday, there were two groups of Madres and at the time I didn't know why.  But having read up on it I see that some of the Madres developed different priorities and so they split into two groups in 1986, the Linea Fundadora (Founding Line) and the Association.  The Linea Fundadora group retains its original aims of 'Memory, Truth and Justice', and together with the Abuelas (grandmothers) group is also trying to locate the 296 children they say were born whilst their mothers were detained.  These children were taken by other families and the Madres and Abuelas want them identified to at least have them know their true families.
 

Madres Association

Madres Association

The Association is more political, aiming to carry on the idealogies of the disappeared. Yesterday, the Association group was the larger and was marking 11 years since the establishment of their private University.  The film crews were out in force for this and that group, whilst clearly sincere, did have a slight air of performing for the cameras.

Madres - Linea Fundadora

The Linea Fundadora group was smaller, and had no flags, but was absolutely compelling for it's dignity and determination. The Madres led the group and were followed by other men and women who had lost people. Some carried placards with pictures of the person they had lost.  All listened to the constant roll call of names of those who have 'disappeared' and after each name repeated the word which I presume means missing or something similar.

placards of the disappeared

The other group had the numbers, the flags, the chants and the film crews, but it was this smaller group that epitomised what the Madres are all about.  The nature of their protest is saddening, but their courage, composure, determination and presumably at least some level of hope, made this proud and defiant too.

What horrified me was the comparison of this protest, to the behaviour of a small minority of the English population right now.  These women have a horrifying and legitimate complaint, but they behave in a way that is peaceful, dignified, and harms no-one else.  Like everyone else, I don't yet know the truth of what happened with Mark Duggan, and if the shooting was unjustified then his family will have a legitimate complaint and the police will have to improve how they handle these cases.  But nothing can justify the looting, violence and apparently now murders that have happened over the last week.  I am not ashamed to be British when I hear about this because I know that the majority of the British people are as horrified as I am. But I am genuinely appalled at the behaviour of these people. If they truly wanted to protest at Mark Duggan's shooting  (despite presumably not knowing the real facts any more than I do) then they should take a leaf out of the Madres book.

Sadly I suspect that they just have an over developed sense of what is owed to them and a desire for some free mobiles, trainers and anything else they could lay their hands on through a broken shop window.

Visit Jerusalem in Buenos Aires .....

Visit Jerusalem in Buenos Aires all year long

Yesterday we visited a theme park called Tierra Santa - or the Holy Land.  Now I'm not a religious person, but to me the idea of a religious theme park is just wierd.  I have posted a number of pictures here and there are more on the slideshow, so you can see for yourself, but it was incredibly kitsch and at times quite comical.

My experience of church in the UK was that although religion can be the subject of humour at times, generally, whether we believe or not, we show a certain amount of respect to it, speaking in hushed tones in churches and having regard for people 'of the cloth'.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem

Of course we also have churches where congregations are encouraged to be more exuberant in their worship, but they are still respectful of their religion.  South America seems less reverential about religion than much of Europe, but it clearly takes it very seriously.  So how does that fit with a religious theme park?

The Crucifixion

The park depicts various moments of religious importance, primarily from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Most are static tableaux such as the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem, or the crucifixion, but there are four that go further.

The Last Supper

The birth of light, the nativity, the last supper and the resurrection of Christ are all shown in motion.  The characters are presumably moved by hydraulics but the movement is limited and very stilted.  They play a soundtrack which is mostly narration or music, but in the last supper we hear Jesus speaking to his disciples.  The nativity scene had lowing cattle, a star moving across the sky and the three kings offering up their gifts.

The Resurrection

But the 'best' one had to be the resurrection.  To a chorus of hallelujahs, a 15 foot high model of Jesus,with his arms outstretched, rose up out of a rock and turned back and forth, before disappearing back down.

The Resurrection

Now I knew what was coming because a friend had been here and told me about it, bit still nothing quite prepares you for it.  I did try to control my laughter just in case anyone was actually taking this seriously, but it was just too much.

There are video clips of the full display on you tube if you want to see it in its full glory!

The replica Wailing Wall

WHY DO IT??? Surely no-one can take this seriously?  I can't see how even the most ardent believers could find this anything other than completely ridiculous and possibly even insulting.

Someone suggested it is bringing an opportunity to see something of these biblical places that most people will never get to see in real life - but a plaster mock up of the wailing wall, complete with model wailers, doesn't make you believe you've seen it and there is absolutely no attempt to make it a spiritual experience.

Mother Teresa

Ghandi

It could be educational, but the actual  information was pretty limited, and there was no explanation at all of throwing in the models of Ghandi, Martin Luther, Mother Teresa and the Pope, or for that matter the mosque!

If it is intended to encourage belief among those who either don't believe or don't know the stories, then if my reaction is anything to go by, it has no chance!

So if we knew what to expect and are so unimpressed by it then why did we go.  Well some things really do have to be seen to be believed and it was entertaining just for being so unbelievably kitsch.

Salem Pizzeria and Bar

It was also amusing to us that being right next to the airport, you could be looking at a biblical scene with an aeroplane taking off just above it.

But whatever I think, it seems to be a moneyspinner.  Entrance was 40 pesos each (£6), which is relatively expensive here.  There were plenty of places to buy food and drink such as the 'Salem Pizzeria', there was a souvenir shop and a market selling scarves, pottery and jewellery.

Jesus throws traders out of the temple

      

Nic with a donkey 

 This of course is all alongside the tableau of Jesus throwing the market traders out of the temple. Hmmm!

Perhaps peoples' view of religion here is different enough to make this a positive experience, but I can't see it!

Are you out there?

OK with one notable exception (thank you Lisa) we are lacking anyone leaving any comments on the blog. It would be nice to know that there are a few of you out there reading this, so I am trying out opening up the comments so that you don't have to sign up to google email. So give it a go and leave us a message - even if you just say hi. Don't forget to say who you are and that unlike me, you probably have a name that we know more than one of! Oh and if you are reading this and don't know us, feel free to say hi and tell us how you came across this blog.

For ease

A quick post to let you know that I have now added a 'last updated' onto our various other pages so that you can see if there is something new at a glance, rather than having to go into each of them to see.  Hopefully it will save you some wasted clicks when there is nothing new to see.

What's so fine about art?

Yesterday we visited the museum of fine arts in BsAs.  The museum was pretty good overall and I'm glad we went, but as in previous visits to similar museums and galleries, much of the artwork left me cold. There are usually a few pieces that I genuinely like or am impressed by, but a lot of the time I don't see what the fuss is about. So am I wrong not to appreciate these great works of art? Am I just an uncultured oaf who doesn't recognise brilliance when it's in front of me, or is it OK that I don't like it?

To me, there are two ways that I can be impressed by a piece of art. The first is simply that I like it. Sometimes I don't even know why I like a piece of art, but it just appeals to me. We have a picture back at home (as far as we have a 'back at home'!), that shows how wierd this can be. The picture is a Simon Bull called Sweet Surrender and it is everything that I dislike. It is of oversized flowers, the colours are gaudy and aren't the right colours for the subject, there is gilding in the picture and the frame is gilded. But I love it! Whenever I look at it I want to smile. Regardless of the individual elements that I don't like, the overall effect is one that I do. I can't explain why, but that doesn't matter. And for me, that is the essence of art, that the subject, style, and even the skill of the artist don't matter if you really like it. For that reason, to me art is completely personal and subjective. I don't think you can be told what you like or that you should like something - you either do or you don't.

That said, I do think that some pieces of art are still impressive even if you don't like them. There was a picture at the gallery yesterday that I didn't particularly like, but I thought was amazing. It was a picture of sunrise over a Dutch river scene, and whether from a distance or close up, the sun in the picture seemed to glow. The effect was astonishing as it really looked like there was light coming out if the canvas and reflecting on the water and buildings in the picture. I didn't like it, but I could appreciate the quality of it and was impressed by that.

I know that I am not educated in art, and that there are probably many pictures that show a lot of skillful techniques that I don't know about, and so I can see that I should appreciate those if I could recognise them.  And I also know that some paintings have a great deal of symbolism and tell a story about a time or situation that goes well beyond the obvious image. Again, that is my failing and I think I would appreciate those if I knew the significance.  So between those two aspects I can see that there will be some paintings or other works of art that I should be inmpressed by, for good reason, I just don't know it.

But I look at some of these great works of art and I neither like them nor can understand why they are so well regarded.  Heathen that I am, I don't get why there is such a lot of fuss about Van Gogh's sunflowers for example - there I said it out loud!  To me, in the Sunflowers and some of his other paintings like The Bedroom, the perspectives are wrong, the subjects are dull, and the images and colours are lifeless.  Now I can understand that some people may like them - and I have no problem with that because it is subjective, but why am I always being told that I should like them?  Why are they good objectively?

I know that he was an early user of thick paint on the canvas, which gives him originality, but does being original make it good? Now in fact I do quite like some of his work; pieces like Cafe Terrace at Night have an intensity about them that appeals to me and that may come from a skill of using the thick paint application, or just from his own intensity.  So maybe there is a skill here that should be evident to me in all of his paintings and it is just my lack of imagination stopping me seeing it.  Or perhaps the fact that I like some pictures is nothing to do with skill, but rather that I just like these colours better!

And the question is even harder to answer when you start to consider some of the modern art - can it really be skillful if the same effects can be replicated by a child or a chimp!

No doubt many people will disagree with me about Van Gogh's sunflowers and there may well be a whole host of undeniable factors that mean I should be impressed by his work.  I am OK with that. I still don't have to like it though!

Our slideshows

Neither of us are great photographers, but we know that people like to see picturesof the places we are talking about. So we have now added a slideshow of some of our photos onto the blog. At present it just has the ones that we have included in the various blogposts and a few others from the last few weeks, but we will continue to add to them as we travel. Over time, we will create a number of slideshows for different places that we visit, so that it is easier to know what they are of. We have added captions to some, but may not have time to put them on all pictures.

The slideshows are on the right hand side of the page, below the other page links. You can just watch the slideshow, or if you click on the slideshow it should take you to our picasa page where you will be able to see all of our public photos. Hope you enjoy them.