Cordoba, Rosario, Carlos Paz

Last week I went on about a week and a half adventure around the central part of Argentina with Miarana. I decided not to go to Iguzau falls because it is far and a lot of money. Insted I decided to go to Cordoba and Rosario. I have been wanting to go camping for a while and from what I read these are two great places. In Rosario our train was cancled because of a strike. That was a dissapointment. We took a bus insted. The first day in Rosario we went camping on the River Islands. The place was pretty cool. You had to take a boat out there. There are beaches with sand and plenty of places to camp. The first night was windy and cold. We had a group of pigs wonder around the tent all night. We decided to leave after one day because they were not sending any more boats for a few days and it was cold. When we got back to town there was a huge multicultural fair all weekend. I bought some cool gifts and ate some different food. Overall I would say Rosario was a kinda a bummer. The town wasn..t as cool as advertised but it was fun thanks to the festival.Cordoba - Cordoba was the exact oppsite as Rosario. Cordoba was so cool and chill. There were loads of things to do. I liked Cordoba more than Buenos Aires. There isn..t as much noise, everything is calmer than the capital, and you still have access to everything that there is in Buenos Aires. I wish I would have gone here sooner. After a couple of days we decided to end the trip by camping in a smaller resort town called Carlos Paz.Carlos Paz - This is a little town that kids graduating for middle school go to celebrate. The whole time there you could see groups of ¨engresados¨ laughing it up and having a good time. I felt really happy to see all the celebrations because this doen..t really exist for middle schoolers in the U.S. Miarana told me that Carlos Paz for middle schoolers is like Bariloche for highschoolers. The camping was good - not really roughing it. There was a pool and all kinds of thing to do on the campgroud. It was more like a scaled down theme park with camping. I had fun. After all the adventre we came back to Buenos Aires. I can..t wait to get back to the U.S. and then to New York.

Rosario

The UGA part of my trip is over. We all said our good bye..s and had a really nice dinner at a japanese resturant. I decided to go down the road about 4 hours to Rosario. This place really seemed cool to me b/c the city is not too big and they have camping on the river islands. We got to the trian station station and the train was cancled b/c of a strike. So we had to take a bus. We (Miarana and I) finally got to Rosario late. We ate pizza and got a cheep place to stay. In the morning we headed to the camp group. We rode a boat over and put up the tent. The islands are pretty cool. They have cool things to do and you can get sun. Everything is more expensive and it was kinda empty b/c we went at off season. We saw a group of pigs. There were two mothers and about 9 babies. In the middle of night it started to rain, the tempature droped, and the wind really picked up. I slept fine but we decied to go back to the city b/c there woudln..t be any more boats coming over for almost 2 days. The whole thing was fun and I would like to do it again where there is better weather.

Travel plans

Here is a rough guide to what I will be doing for the next month. I will add updates as thing change.

11.13 Train to Rosario for 3-4. I would like to go to the river islands and chill/camp

11.17 Bus to either Cordoba or Iguazu. If I go to Cordoba I plan on skydiving (as my birthday gift from everyone). If I go to Iguazu then I..ll go see the falls.

11.21 Bus to either Iguazu or Cordoba. Depending on time and money.

11.25 Boat to Colonia, Uruaguy

11.27 Back in Buenos Aires

12.3 Fly home to Houston, TX.

Last Days

The UGA en Buenos Aires program has ended. Last night we went as a group to eat sushi at a cool little japanese resturant. Everyone said a little something and got a little sentimential. Overall I think it was a nice ending. Personally I have been trying to transition away from the city. After coming back for Patigonia I can really see how much of a toll the city takes on me. So yesterday I went to the train station and bought a train ticket to Rosario. Ï am leaving today at 6.45 local time. Rosario is a really chill city, the third largest in Argentina. I look foward to going to the Che Gevarra measeum and just relaxing next to the river. Maybe I will do some camping. Yesterday I also bought a new knife to replace the one I had to throw away at the airport. This knife is a little better but basically the same. The price wasn..t that much more than in the U.S. and I really use the knife a lot for day to do things so I went ahead and bought it.

Disaster strikes

First of all Im safe so don..t worry about that. I had my digital camera stolen from my luggage at the airport. I know it was stolen because it was the last thing I put in my bag and I put it in a front pocket of my backpack. The charger and cables were still in the same pocket but the camera and memory card were taken. I spent an hour bitching to the manager of baggage. She said the airline was not responisble for any lost items. I really hate that I lost all the photos. There were great shot of icebergs, glaciers, moutians, me treking on an iceberg, group shots. All these shot were once in a life time and I know I won..t be able to get them back. Also, until this point in the trip I have managed to avoid any major hits. This was the first one so I..m a little dissappointed in myself for not taking better care of my things.

Yes we can!

I..m not a political guy. I think there is so much unknow in politics that it is almost silly to think you really know a topic. On the other hand I have a deep admiration for people who feel strongly about something and do something about it. Being in Argentina has really given me an idea of how American politics affect the world. I..m not talking about the direct political actions of our country - I still don..t beleive that one person can have a complete understanding of that topic. I..m refering to how American political affect the people in other countries. Here in Argentina the first thing that comes out of someome after I tell them I..m from the U.S. they ask about Obama. And they like him. For the first time in a long time I feel proud to talk about our presedent. People here seem hopeful just as I do. You can tell by talking to them that they think Obama will have an indirect affect on there personal lives. I hope Obama lives up to the hype. Not just for us but also for ¨people listening to the raido in forgotten corners of the world¨ as he put it.

Ice, Ice, Baby

The past few days the whole UGA en Buenos Aires program has been traveling. We went trecking on a glacier and took an awasome boat ride to the north and south side of the most famous glacier in Argentina. The day we went treking and the group dinner we had were two of my most faviorte memories of the entire trip. The views are amazing. I have a bunch of pictuers on the way. I can..t upload them right now but I will in the coming days. You must see the pics. There is no way to discribe the image. On a sad note I have been quite stressed with all the travle and moving around. I went to the airport and forgot that I had my Swiss Army knife in the small pocket of my cargo pants. There was no time to put the knife in my bag - I had to throw the knife away. I was really sad to see it go. It wasn..t that expensive but it was one of my favorite things. The knife said ¨Camping¨ on it and had a little teepee on it. I was supposed to give the knife as a gift to my nephew so seeing it laying next to a coffee cup in the air port trash really stung.

Gifts

As everyone must know my trip is winding down. I..m starting to plan to return back to the United States. Unlink my trip to Spain I have done a much better job managing my money (with the help and support of friends and family). With that in mind I would like to share some of my experience with everyone. If you would like a small gift from Argentina please send me a message. If you can give me some kind of idea of what you want that would save me a lot of trouble. I can..t promise anything huge but there are bunches of thing at various price levels. For example, today I saw a hand woven clutch that looked just like a llama for 15 US dollars.

UGA vs. UF

Wow. This is it. This is for all the marbles. The winnerr of this game most likely wins the SEC east, could win the SEC out right, and could go to the national championship. Not to mention this is the last time the seniors ever get to play in Jacksonville. There are countless side stories, the dace party from last year, GA maybe coming out in ALL RED, recruiting. For UGA and UF this is the Superbowl. This is how I see things playing out: Georgia has the better team but Florida has looked better all year. I think the coaching staff for UGA has been saving up for this game. I think Georgia will run Knowshon early much the same way they did last year. If the O line is getting a push early look for UGA to work off of that (play action pass). The ideal situation for GA is to kill the clock with long drives like the ones we have been seeing the past couple of weeks. FL's defensive line is not as strong as LSU so I fully expect Knowshon to go over 100 yards and basically carry UGA to a win. UGA wins 35 - 17 Here are some players to watch for:

Knowshon: He is the key to the win. If he has a good game GA wins. Watch for the O line to make huge holes to run through. 25 carries 140 yards 2 TD's (player of the game)

Matt Stafford: UF will crowd the line in order to stop the running game. This is give Stafford 1 ..s on the outside. I think it would be better of Stafford to throw less but with big results when he does throw. No turnovers is key. 16 of 26 for 240 yards 1 TD.

The O line - The young guys up front have been playing exceptionally well considering the adversity they have faced. They are going aginist a weaker and injured defense. They could dominate this game.

Rennie Curren - FL plays a speed game so look for the little quick "dart" to play a big role in stopping movent to the outside. Rennie should get 10 tackles.

Reshad Jones - The QB of the defense has been progressing in his first season as starter. Jones will have to be very diciplined with FL. One busted coverage or missed tackle could be a TD.

La Boca

A few months ago, at the start of my trip, I went to La Boca. La Boca is an interesting place with an interesting history. "La Boca" translated means "the mouth" that is a pretty good way to describe this place. Literally La Boca is the mouth of a river and a heavy industrial center. Ships are docked on the river front and you can see factories off in the distance. La Boca is also the birth place of soccer in Argentina. The two most famous teams in Argentina (River Plate and Boca) used to share the same neighbor until River moved up town - never-the-less the rivalry still remains today. The last and most visible element of La Boca is the tourist destination "El caminito" - a series of painted metal buildings where artist gather and people from all over go. This space was created by poor people as a way to transcend a poor neighborhood and unite the people that live there. The buildings are nothing more than the painted shacks made the left over paint and steel for the shipping industry near by.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get to walk off the path that I first saw and see the other reality of La Boca distinct for the tourism and colored buildings - more human. We (our group) visited a group of people that were poor and homeless and decided to work together and build a community. Much in the same way people in the past decided to build el caminito as a for of solidarity and community, these people also decided to build buildings and unify themselves. The were many different branches, some local some governmental and some individual, basically these people worked in a co-op and banned their labor together. Some people were able to work in order to build apartments other people pay a very reduced rent. The common thread that runs through everything is a sense of community and togetherness that you can not fake. The feeling of being a part of a whole comes as much from sharing a bathroom with 20 others as it does from knowing that everyone is literally dependent on the work of the group for food, housing, health care, and support. I truly believe that this type of feeling can only exist in small groups where resources are communal.

For me one striking element of the trip was the use of space among the group. You can really see and understand the close contact that the people of co-op must have when you are in their spaces. First of all there is very little structure to the space. An office functioned as a living room, nursery, and computer room just as much as a place to get work done. As we walked through a door there was a small kitchen with and a hallway with construction tools. The large room was open but within the open space there were dividers of stills that separated the living space of one family and another's. The doors to each living area were nothing more than a old piece of wood or a curtain. Standing there you could hear all at once the crying of children, noise from the street, and sound of voices of various people. The only thing separating this space for the street was a haphazard building that had many holes large enough for a bird to make a nest and sunlight to shine through. In fact the building was so bad you could see the dripping water from the upstairs neighbor's bathroom.

You would never know by talking to anyone in this co op that they were unhappy with there living situation - quite the opposite in fact. Everywhere you looked you say smiling faces full of life. And the people were proud. There was no shame in the eyes of these people. They were more than willing to tell you how difficult it is to get the government to help.