Well I am home, and the 36 hour trip was uneventful. Still I had imagined my home coming slightly different, as I just came home in time to see my father being taken to intensive care in a hospital in Belgium, after an accident he had in Rwanda. For those who know him annd wannt more info, please check: http://jeroen69.punt.nl/

And me? I think I should start looking for work ... while the hours waiting in hospitals are well spend on organising photos.

Tranquilo!

And that completes the tour ...

Going to (no not in) Mercedes

So I basically spend a whole month on the sides of the Andes mountains in the west of Argentina travelling from south to north. At some point you cannot get any further north, so time to strat closing the circle. After 8 days of rain in Tucuman and Salta, I was hoping more to the east would be good to me.

I had read about this national park/wetland in the province of Corrientes, that was supposed to be wonderful, maybe nicer than the Pantanal. I had also started to figure out this park was very hard to get to. One small village forms the entrance, and as far I could tell only a bad road from the South would go there.

I found one accomodation mentioned in the Lonely Planet online, and they offered transport as well. One email later I had learned they were no 6 times more expensive then 4 years ago when the LP was printed (180 US dollar instead of 27) and they charged 80 USD for transport.

So I thought I`d go to Mercedes, the town south where the raod to the small village starts, and hoped I might get a chance to do a day tour to the park. Well then you try to get a bus ticket to Mercedes ... You go to a random (but big national and trustworthy) bus company in Salta and ask. `Mercedes, no we do not go there`. (And upon arrival see three busses of the particular company st the terminal in Mercedes ...)

Anyway, another company managed to figure it all out for me. Back to Tucuman, night bus to Resistencia, wait 11 hours, and from there with some obscure company to Mercedes. And that went well, I arrived Saturday midnight.

Mercedes on Sunday is absolutely deserted, empty, dead, one big siesta, nothing. Except maybe for the fair around the Gaucho Gil shrine 9 km out of town (photos later). The lady from the hostel happens to be a travel agent as well, offering organised trips to the national park. She advices me to stay any longer than necessary in Mercedes, she can get me to Colonia Carlos Pelligrini on Monday, where I can continue north Wednesday afternoon (so there are more roads ...) All this advising happened while being completely wasted from the whole Sunday afternoon/evening drinking and partying in the yard of the hostel (that is, the staff of the hostel did the partying and drinking (mostly)). Anyway, she did more or less remember in the morning, and I was on my way to Pellegrini around noon (paying 50 pesos, around 15 USD for the transport, not 80 USD).

Carlos Pellegrini .... More later

And back from the middle of nowhere ... Also maybe Internet is not the first thing in my mind anymore these days, which is also a good thing

After Mendoza I made my way to San Agustin de Valle Fertil, a sleepy village in the middle of nowhere. Arriving at midnight without having a clue where you will sleep is not something I usually do (or is it did?) but I did here that there would be people at the bus station trying to sell you tours and show you hostels. And indeed, there´s a lot waiting for that one tourist. And they basically all have the same tour from two possible comapanies, and I am not sure about the hotel/hostel situation, but I picked the cheap one for 15 pesos per night. Fun, basic, cockroaches, the usual.

From Valle Fertil you can visit two parks which together are one UNESCO World Heritage Site, and as they are in two different provinces of course there´s two seperate entities running them and asking for entrance fees. No biggie.
The very impressive names of the parks I forgot, but the first is dubbed ´Valle de la luna´ (valley of the moon) and the second is a massive canyon. And pictures would be nice to show, and I struggle a little with sorting out the enourmous amounts of photos on these slow Internet Cafe computers (in fact, this one does not have USB). So that will come later. Nice parks though!

From San Agustin de Valle Fertil I travelled more north. Catching a bus a 03:00 to take me to La Rioja, where I had to find a bus further north to Tucuman. Somewhere on the second bus I wake up, and to my surprise the landscape is completely green! Meadows, trees! After 7 weeks of pampas and black granite mountains, and red dusty roads, Argentina appears to also have green!

In Tucuman I stayd with a friend from The Netherlands who lives here for a few months. Little hanging around town. A tour to the subtropical rainforrest mountains and inka ruins, and some more relaxing. Nice. The promissed 45 degrees was not here ... Let´s hope that the promissed rain in Salta will also not be there ...

More from Salta later!

Salud,
Jeroen

I got out of Mendoza! On the day I planned to leave! I even did an excursion.

These three statements are not comon for the people I´ve met there, in Damajuana Hostel.

It appeared to be very comon to come into the garden stating ´am staying another night!´ or two or three. One Dutch guys had already been there 2 months now.

And the enclosed backyard with pool made it very easy never to go outside, and forget about the excursions you wanted to do. More often than not because one just went to bed by the time the tourbusses came round to pick people up. More often than not helped by the vast quantities of beer, Mendoza wines and your general south american coctails. If one did make it out of the hostel, it was mainly to get to one of the 10 to 20 bars and restaurants in the street. Yes, this was a party hostel, and that was what happend, party!

So I missed the wine tour, but I did taste a few very good Malbec´s from Mendoza already And I guess I´ve seen the process and cellars before Further was it 30-40 degrees during the day. So the cold of Patagonia is completely forgotten. Now on my way to 40+ degrees around Túcuman! But first San Agustin de Valle Fertil!

Salud,
Jeroen

Well well well, I think I have somne catching up to do. When you travel to the middle of nowhere for new years, you do not have much opportunities to connect with the outside world

So first: Happy New Year (Somehow they do not allow my super cool new years card as a photo upload here, but you can be assured it is a collage of the whale photos below )

Side track: This is another handicap in posting stories. WAYN ´checks´ photos before they become public. This morning I added 10 photos and so far only a handful are available. Anyway, I´m going to write now. Photos later

31 dec - El Calafate - El Chaltén

Did I mention they started summer time on Saturday the 29th? Well noone told me. It took me more than 24 hours to figure that one out I have some time to kill before my bus leaves for El Chaltén. I do the bird reserve. I have a new favorite bird! A little noisy though in the morning ...


I arrive in El Chalten at 22:30. It is cloudy. Light rain. We get dropped of at the bigger hostel in town and my ´posada´ should be next door. I only see a shed, and yes that´s the one. Inside a note ´check in in the hostel´. So back at the hostel the special ´new year´s eve dinner´ is in full swing. I am told that for 100 peso I can join them. I will consider it. Back in my most basic and cold room, I decide that the dinner would be a great idea.

So at 22:50 I get a plate, for, knife and glass and get dumped at a table of 23 german tourist, nearly retirees, who do not seem to like the fact they get an intruder on their table and ignore me, except when I ask them to pass the wine, which they are friendly enough to do each and every time. This group is traveling by ´rotel´ a hotel on wheels. Interesting thing. 21 seats, 21 ´rooms´ and the driver and guide sleep in my posada They are friendly guys and we actually talk.

Midnight comes around, sparkling wine all over the place. Tables to the side, loud music, disco light, party! Argentinians are serious partiers, did I mention that before? They are good at it. Fun! Weird by the way to go outside to see the fireworks (not there in the middle of nowhere of course) and find out it is still somewhat light in the west ...
The dance floor is dominated by a big israeli group (is it actually new years for them? and if so, in what year are they?) And I empty some more bottles of wine I find left over on the dinner tables (not all myself.) And this all within a little over 2 hour block, as I crashed in bed a little after 1 By the way, I only found out the next day that wine was only limittedly included in the price, and I probably shared some of the bottles bought by others ... Thanks, very hospital people!

Jan 1 - Cerro Torre

I wake up with a slight hangover. It´s still rather early but very light outside. I look out and see a rainbow. Great So the rain is going and the sun is coming I thought. Wrong! So I wait some hours by the gas heater, reading a little. And it is not getting much better. In fact the rain is not so bad, a little ´miezerig´as we say in the Netherlands. So around noon I say to myself, you have to get out.

There´s only one reason to come to El Chaltén: Hiking. They are supposed to have some spectacular mountains and glaciers and a good series of trails, so I better do some of that. The lonely planet says that if you only have one day, you better do the trail to the Cerro Torre if the weather is nice. Well I have two days, I want to see the Cerro Fitz Roy. I hope the weather will be better on day 2, so I do the Torre

10 km one way. First climbing 45 minutes, then a good hour nice hilly foresty plains, and a final push to the Laguna Torre, the glacier lake at the bottom of the Cerro Torre. I bet it is beautiful, on a sunny day ...

Then 10 km back. The rain in the end does manages to make one through and through wet, and I notice my daypack is not completely waterproof. Luckily mainly the top part, not the camera section.

There´s a wonderful little Cervezeria in El Chaltén where they sell homebrewed beer (I hear after Belgian recipe). Understandably they only have the summer ´rubia´ (wheatbeer) even though everyone orders the winter bock (negro). Still the rubia is a good beer. A little more bitter then I prefer, but somehow, after 5 hours walking in hills in the rain, they go down like water. I sleep early that night (because of the phisical endurance of course).

'''2 jan - Cerro Fitz Roy
'''

According to the books, the granite rock called Fitz Roy, it one of the most difficult hills to climb in the world, because of it´s vertical wals on all sides. It is supposed to be collosal, and it is the objective of my second day (to reach the viewpoint at the bottom of the thing of course.) A 3,5 hour 12,5 km one way walk. First 45 uphill, then 2 hours nice hilly foresty plains, and a final steep rocky 45 minute climb to the Laguna de Los Tres (lake and viewpoint is named in honor of the three Frenchmen that first conquered Mount Fitz Roy.)

Today the sun is battling with the clouds. Until about 3 hours in the walk, I am convinced that the sun eventually is going to win from the clouds. That the sky will break open when I get to the Laguna, and I will have the magnificent view of the collosal Fitz Roy. The whole way I walk on the edge of sun and clouds and percipitation, which today comes down in the form of snow. And that is a little more pleasant then rain.

And the sun lost ... while climbing the last half hour it is snow, more snow, wind, cold, snow, storm, and snow. I think I reach a point that could be considered the end of the trail. I almost get blown away. I look behind me and see that I cannot even see my own tracks anymore, and decide it is probably safer to return immediately.

Going down is as hard as climbing, but ons back at the bottom of the last climb, the wind is less, the snow is less, and it is rather pleasant to walk the rest of the 3,5 hours back. The last hour in the full sun ... Rubia tastes very good that night.

3 jan - El Chaltén - El Calafate

I am convinced that El Chaltén is the best conspiracy in the world. One gets lured to come to this place build of sheds in the middle of nowhere with promisses of beautiful mauntains. You stay in their expensive hostels and eat in their expensive restaurants. There´s nowhere else to go anyway. You walk the trails only to find clouds ... very smart publicity stunt ...

The day of my departure is a beautiful sunny day. Clear blue skies. I walk a little through the town to kill time until my 13:00 bus. The town was founded in 1985 by the way, in order to claim the land before Chile would. It is small and has a Wadden Island feel to it. Every house is either renting rooms or selling food or something. Mostly wood. Little infrastructure. Somewhat cute and cousy.
And as I turn a corner, to my surprise, and not known before, I see a series of spectacular mountains climbing high over the hills on the edge of town. Simply blocked by clouds for three days in a row, there they are! It is not a scam.

On the left the Torre who hardly ever shows himself, and on the right the Fitz Roy, the highest in the area. Nice (I realise that photos do not capture the magnitude of these spectacular views, but I share them anyway. I have better ones somewhere by the way. )

4 jan - El Calafate - Torres del Paine

Today I go to Chile, a little sidestep from my Argentina tour, but supposedly one of the most beautiful nature reserves in the world, "Torres del Paine" (towers of pain). I am supposed to be ready at 5:50 for the day tour to the park, which I will use to see a bigger part of the park and then stay behind for a couple of nights to spend a full day hiking in the park.
This trip will become known as ´the bus ride from hell´ and I must admit, after 7 weeks in these regions, it doesn´t really wind me up anymore.

First the bus comes an hour late. Fine, they need to pick up people all over the place. Understandable. But I think that was noit the reason, I think the drivers just overslept, from what I heard from the complaints left and right (others have not been here so long ). Then, one would think you would do this before you start a tour that requires 4-5 hours driving each way to have the most of the day in the park, but no, these guys now first stop at the gas station to fill up ... Lucky we are second bus in line, so it only takes 20 minutes. On the road we stop for no particular reason a couple of times, in general that is because someone could not hold up their pee (and the toilets in the busses are never functioning; not in the tour busses at least.) In this case, it appeared to be a person who got sick. So sick that after two hours we pull up to a clinic/hostpital. And we do not leave these people behind of course, no we make an ad-hoc coffee/pee stop of an hour.
At the Argentina side of the border, the driver collects our passports and goes in the office. It takes 75 minutes to get 45 pasports stamped ... Noone knows what is happening, what takes so long, where we go from here, what is next. Really unbelievable.
At the Chile side of the border, everyone needs to get of, with all luggage. Chile does not have any animal and crops diseases and they want to keep it that way. This goes astonishingly fast. However, here we have our mandatory coffee break at the souvenir story/coffe shop at the border ... It is necessary, because the park entrance can only be paid in Chilean Peso, and almost everyone hast to change. Of course it takes almost an hour for 45 peopl to go through this whole process of border crossing/money changing/ peeing and shopping.

After 7 1/2 hours (instead of 4/5) we reach the park. The guide who joined us at the border suggests that thos who stay in the park get of now, as the entrance is where they need to get busses to the hostels and shelters. Uhm, we were promissed a tour and then get dropped of here again ... Oh yes, well that is possible too ... But it is so late and we will therefor not return here, but if you insist I´ll arrange something. It indeed is so late, that the tour consists of a race through the southern part of the park, with a few photo opps stops and a 30 min walk to a waterfall. 2 hours max. I pitty those who then have to return to El Calafate ... Just in case the weather turns worse again tomorrow I take a photo of the towers (which I forgot to upload this morning).

The trip to the Refugio (shelter; relatively basic bunk bed type place) is a breeze (and in fact the return from the end of the park to the beginning gives better views). A nice simple meal. An ealry night and a good night sleep.

5 jan - Torres del Paine



Waking up early every day has it´s advantages.

I have one day. I am staying at the beginning of the 4,5 hour trail to bottom/viewpoint of the Torres, so I better do this one. The total hight difference during this hike will be 800 meters. The trail is supposedly 12,5 km long. The first hour is pritty heavy uphill. And then there´s more up and down afterwards compared to El Chaltén. The final push is what the lonely planet describes as a ´knee popping´ climb over boulders and rocks to the end of the trail. And they are right. You cannot talk about a trail anymore really, you are looking at boulders and try to figure out the best route to the next red dot on the rocks signifying the path to follow. There´s lot´s of resting and contemplating going on during this part, and not only by me. You wonder a lot why you are doing this, to get a little but closer to these towery pointy rocks you´ve seen from a distance. And then you reach the top of the boulders, and a valley opens up with a huge glacial lake, from which these towers rise another kilometer in the clear bleu and (did I mention?) sunny sky! Breathtaking and again, hard to capture in a photo. You will just have to believe me or go and see yourself.





The way down is more scarry and difficult then up. Boulders seem to have grown in size. And the ones that appeard firm and fixed on the way up, move and slide and are slippery on the way down. The walk back through the more or less flat area is beautiful, and in the sun I finally have eyes for the surroundings and waterfalls and orchids etc. By the time I reach the last 1 hour decent, every musscle in my body is complaining. And you have to go down ... Ah well. We made it and I was ahappy to lay in the sun for a while, have a nice simple dinner again and a good night sleep.



Jan 6/7 - Torres del Paine - Puerto Natales - El Calafate - Bariloche

Basically two days of travveling to reach my next destination. This is also Patagonia. Lot´s of hanging around bus terminals airports and in busses and planes to get places. First I have to go to the cute town of Puerto Natales in the south of Chili (wonderful king crab and congered eel by the way), from where I catch an early bus back top El Calafate to catch a plane to Bariloche. Discussion with travel agent weeks ago: "No problem, plenty of time to make all the connections." "uhm, I heard there is a time difference between Chile and Argentine, with a 5 to 7 hour bus ride, that might get tricky." "No no, let me check, no ther is no time difference." She was right of course, at that time there was no time difference ...

However the bus leaves half an hour earlier than I thought (which I knew in time). The crossing back into Argentina was a breeze (they know there´s no diseases in Chili, so they do not need to check. In fact, there´s no diseases in Patagonia either, but hey ...) Stamp stamp, 30 minutes max. Still it ends up being a 5 1/2 hour ride back to El Calafate from Purto Natales. I get to the place where I will have my transfer to the aiprot with half an hour to spare. And the plane is only 75 minutes late, so in the end I arrive late in the evening in Bariloche, where I finally have a day off from all the travelling and excursions!

So I am caught up on the blog and with most emails. I have sent hardly anyone my new years card, which I cannot show here. By the way, thanks for the two SMS I did receive 3 days after the beginning of the new year. If more people sent something, I am sorry I did not recive it. Have fun, talk to you later!

As the Lonely Planet describes it: "El Calafate is one of a few places that claims its livelihood from a single tourist attraction, the spectacular Glacier Perito Moreno." And I must admit, it is spectacular!

Again, I had very few expectations, having seen one glacier in the Alps before (the one in Ushuaia not counting, I´m not even sure if there was any glacier left there.) Nothing wrong with the Aletch glacier in Switzerland, but here nature has lifted the concept to a higher level.

What helps is the accessibility of the Perito Moreno Glacier. You drive right up to the end of this 30 km long 5 km wide glacier. And there you stand before a 60 meter high wall of ice, which in itself if already rather impressive.

Despite (or maybe because of) climate change, this is one of the few glaciers that has been growing. (Must be said that all the other glaciers originating in the continental ice field on the border of Chili and Argentina are decreasing, so in total it is not getting any better.)

Anyway, the Perito Moreno runs down the hill with an impressive speed of 2 meters a day. That is one of the fastest in the world. It ends in a lake wrapped around a peninsula. And since 15 years, the glacier is running into the peninsula again, every other year. Thus blocking the south part of the lake, which then starts accumulating water, up to 20 meters higher. That until the water pressure wins from the ice and breaks through the dam of ice. Should be an impressive moment to witness.

Currently the lake is blocked again, and water level is rising 4 cm a day, and is expected to rise much more near the end of the summer when more snow in the surrounding mountains is melting. But the breakthrough may not happen until next summer.

So we have a block of ice that is sliding down a hill 2 meters a day. Is that all? No! The movement and the melting and the contact with the lake water causes blocks to break of. With loud cracking and thunderous roars cubes crash in the water. And the guide was right, if you here the sound, you are already to late watching. Unless you are just pointing your camera in the right direction

First you watch the thing from above, then you do the optional boat tour on the lake and look at it from water level (from a safe 300 meters distance). You take 180 photos, and that is a perfect reason to travel to El Calafate!

Some of the 180 photos over here

And below the lucky shots. Remember, a 20-story building is crashing in the watter here ...

And more: Here

Degrees of nothingness

Greetings from the end of the world! El Fin del Mundo. Tierra del Fuego. "Fire Land", "Vuurland", etc. The most Southern city in the world, Ushuaia, is of course not the most Southern City, but somehow did Puerto Williams in Chili, south across the Beagle Chanel, miss out on claiming the title. Then again, se dise no es un ciudad, Puerto Williams, entonces, Ushuaya está!

It is nice to see some green and trees again after my days in the steppes around Puerto Madryn, near the Peninsula Valdez. The nothingness there consists of low shrubs and aloe-type plants on a flat plain(okay more hilly than the Netherlands.) And that goes on for hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometers.

Here the nothingness is the feeling that you are at the absolute end of civilisation. Yes, there´s some boats leaving to some camps on Antarctica in the summer, but still most things end here (for example Route Nacional 3 ends here, 3075 kilometers from the start in Buenos Aires.

Then what do you do here? Nothing? Well there a national park, and there´s the beagle channel, and the selection of boat tours on the channel. And extremely expensive shops and restaurants. If you recently purchased Lonely Planet that includes this area, feel free to multiply all the prices mentiond by 2 or 3, inflation must be higher in this part of Argentina. And I am not complaining, my day in the park and the boat tour were great

Oh yes, did I mention that I fulfilled one of my life goals? Hmm, big word, goal, maybe dream? Papa Noel gave out presents when I visited the Peninsula Valdez last Monday. Some of you may know that going to Valdez was the original reason for picking Argentina for a trip. When I finally left, I already knew I would be too late and the season was over, but hey, still fun to go to Argentina. However, when I was visiting the Peninsula, guide were talking about still a few sightings ... Thus, why not, let´s include that boat trip. And within 5 minutes, there it was, the first whale! Yeah! Out of the 4000 whales that populate the bay May through November, with the hight of the season in September/October, 4 or 5 stayed behind for me!

After following the first water fountain for a while, who decided not to surface anymore, suddenly one jumps out of the water a few hundred meters away, right in front of another boat ful of tourists. Massive! I really thought ´what the fuck, don´t they only do that in movies?´ No, he/she did it a few more times! Spectacular!

You may search for the photos already on my picasaweb albums. Here they will be featured in a few days, when I get to internet again.

Need to run, fly to El Calafate tonight. Hasta Pronto!

Degrees of nothingness

Greetings from the end of the world! El Fin del Mundo. Tierra del Fuego. "Fire Land", "Vuurland", etc. The most Southern city in the world, Ushuaia, is of course not the most Southern City, but somehow did Puerto Williams in Chili, south across the Beagle Chanel, miss out on claiming the title. Then again, se dise no es un ciudad, Puerto Williams, entonces, Ushuaya está!

It is nice to see some green and trees again after my days in the steppes around Puerto Madryn, near the Peninsula Valdez. The nothingness there consists of low shrubs and aloe-type plants on a flat plain(okay more hilly than the Netherlands.) And that goes on for hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometers.

Here the nothingness is the feeling that you are at the absolute end of civilisation. Yes, there´s some boats leaving to some camps on Antarctica in the summer, but still most things end here (for example Route Nacional 3 ends here, 3075 kilometers from the start in Buenos Aires.

***smoke break***

Degrees of nothingness

Greetings from the end of the world! El Fin del Mundo. Tierra del Fuego. "Fire Land", "Vuurland", etc. The most Southern city in the world, Ushuaia, is of course not the most Southern City, but somehow did Puerto Williams in Chili, south across the Beagle Chanel, miss out on claiming the title. Then again, se dise no es un ciudad, Puerto Williams, entonces, Ushuaya está!

It is nice to see some green and trees again after my days in the steppes around Puerto Madryn, near the Peninsula Valdez. The nothingness there consists of low shrubs and aloe-type plants on a flat plain(okay more hilly than the Netherlands.) And that goes on for hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometers.

Here the nothingness is the feeling that you are at the absolute end of civilisation. Yes, there´s some boats leaving to some camps on Antarctica in the summer, but still most things end here (for example Route Nacional 3 ends here, 3075 kilometers from the start in Buenos Aires.

***smoke break***

And here`s a few already: PENGUINS

Well well well, time flies when you are having fun. Tomorrow the last day of classes at the spanish school! And I have been cooking up part of my trip through Argentina, with help from a travel agency. Everyone, no really everyone is traveling to patagonia the coming weeks (reason enough not to do it one would say, but hey, it was one of the objectives of the trip.) Anyway, traveling alone has its advantages, some things are easier to arrange, compared to a couple or a group trying to get on a bus, in a hostel, etc. Here´s the itinerary for the next 3 weeks ...

(Insert picture here .. shit left it on the other computer )

21 DEC BUS TO PUERTO MADRYN
22 DEC ARRIVE IN PUERTO MADRYN AT NOON
23 DEC FULL DAY EXCURSION TO PENINSULA VALDEZ
24 DEC FULL DAY EXCURSION TO PUNTA TOMBO
25 DEC FLIGHT IN THE EVENING TO USHUAIA
26 DEC EXC FULL DAY TO THE NATIONAL PARK WITH TREKK AND CANOEING
27 DEC EXC NAVIGATION TO THE BEAGLE CHANNEL
28 DEC FLIGHT TO CALAFATE
29 DEC FULL DAY EXCURSION TO THE PERITO MORENO GLACIER
30 DEC Day off Calafate
31 DEC BUS AT 6 PM TO CHALTEN
01 JAN CHALTEN
02 JAN Chalten
03 JAN BUS AT 6 PM TO CALAFATE
04 JAN FULL DAY EXCURSION TO TORRES DEL PAINE
05 JAN TORRES DEL PAINE
06 JAN TORRES DEL PAINE, evening to Puerto Natales.
07 JAN Back to Calafate to Fly to Bariloche
08 JAN excursion to national park trekking and canoeing
09 JAN BARILOCHE
10 Jan Bariloche

And then, sit back ,relax and think again

Salud!
Jeroen

Desafortunadamente

Possibly the longest word I´ve learned so far ...

The Daily Protest March

Before traveling to Argentina, I had read the usual ´don´t do this, don´t do that, watch your bags, don´t go there´ types of advises. One of those advises was to stay away from the protests that occur in Buenos Aires, as they have the tendency to turn violent.

Much to my surprise, the first day in Buenos Aires, I find half the Plaza de Mayo blocked of with 3 meter high moveable fences. With a massive police force behind them, waiting in the shade of some trees. From a distance a protest march was getting closer. Well well, too bad I did not bring my camera I thought (you can imagine that ´watch out displaying your big expensive camera was one of the advices ...). I noticed that one could still pass the fence, thus doing the tourist thing and have a look at the Casa Rosa, the residense of (then El, now La) La Presidente.

Nice mix of tourists and police and riot police. With as highlight the massive water canon truck. It was hot and the march was still far away, and I decided to take the advice, especially as I did not know my way around yet, and left the scene before it may have turned ugly, or not. And I hoped that I might be lucky and witness a protest again some day.

How surprised I was to see another protest start the next day, and the next, and cross one here, and one there. There are protests every day! Many appear to start in a university building near the Plaza the Mayo. Excellent place for it. And so far I have not seen any violence. Maybe I have nog been in the right place. Anyway, I generally do not have my camera anyway. In the pictures of Monday´s presidential inauguration, there were many many many small protests along the route La Kirchner was taking, so you may have noticed some bits and pieces there.



Monday we were in the fortunate position that a very big protest march came straight through the Avenida de Mayo, from Congreso to the Casa Rosa. The whole morning lessons were hard to follow because of the noise. It was an ENVIRONMENTAL protest! Yeah yeah yeah According to some, the first ever in the country! I do not know all the ins ans outs, but we are angry at Uruguay, for building two massive paper factories on their side of the Rio del Plata. I think we are afraid it will polute the water, kill the fish, or something, but to get so many Argentinos on their feet for the environment, there is probably some strong economics reason under the surface that I am not aware of.

Of course I went to check out the Web Site of WWF´s associate organisation FVSA (Fundacion Vida Silvestre Argentina.) And all I found so far is an old message about climate change and penguins on the front page and the opinion page reads:

La FVSA Opina - Esta sección se encontrará disponible muy pronto. Gracias.

Anyway, I bet that this is a problem of my Spanish skills more than the FSVA´s efforts for the Argentinian Environement. Hey we´ve had plenty of their staff in the WWF College

That´s it for now. Soon more about my upcoming travel plans!

¡Salud!
Jeroen