snrtobias

Some Yvytu Ytati Technology

Written on February 8, 2009

Context – Where I am Right Now

Villarica, Chile. Sitting in the patio – which is what they call their yard – of Hector and Irma’s guest home. “Tourist homes,” they called them when we were kids, before there were freeways and but few motels. People took in tourists to supplement their income and we’d look for “Tourist Rooms” signs on the road to my mother’s relatives’ home in Minnesota. We’ve spend this day coming down from our overnight bus ride from Santiago, which left us exhausted.

Where We’ve Been the Last Few Days

Sometimes magic happens. We’ve just spent almost a week in Santiago, our growing friendship with the Guzman’s a greater focus of our attention than Santiago tourism. This friendship is a rare experience, and to hear the Guzman’s, it’s as rare for them as for us. It began when we were having dinner in Mendoza Argentina at the other foot of the Andes. Luis and Vivian were at the next table in the restaurant with their daughters Carolina, age almost 18 and Maria Ignacia age 15. They struck up a conversation with us, and we’ve become increasingly closer friends since. We left a set of true and fast friends in santiago. We also met Carlos and Maruja, Vivian’s parents – he’s a retired Chilean army colonel – and her sisters Carolina – an art historian and author – and I forget the name of her other sister. It’s been very intense, and Rebecca will no doubt describe it in a forthcoming post. I’ll talk about it too – probably for years to come.

Some Gaucho Technology

Meanwhile my mind is back a few weeks ago in Yvytu Ytati, in la patria gaucha, the Gaucho homeland, near Tacuarembó Uruguay. Rebecca has written about our great experience with Nahir and Pedro and their son Juan and their hired man, Carlos. While there I also feasted my curiosity on certain facts about how Pedro and Nahir managed their ranch. These included fencing, water, electricity, and waste water. (more…)

 Before and after our excursion into the Andes, we went to Mendoza, Argentina which is located at the foot of those fantastic mountains.  My prior post skipped Mendoza and went right to the Andes.  So now, I am catching up and taking you back to Mendoza to fill you in on our experiences there. For the rest of this post and for fascinating pictures, be sure to click on the “read more” instructions which follow this sentence. (more…)

 We took an overnight bus from Paysandu, Uruguay to Mendoza, Argentina on 1-23-09. We left Mendoza on 2-1-09. Mendoza is located at the foot of the Andes so during that time, we rented a car for a three day excursion into the mountains, from 1-27-09 to 1-30-09. Having done no prior research and knowing basically nothing about the Andes, I really had no idea what to expect. I only knew from general knowledge that they were a major mountain range in South America. I learned a lot on this trip, such as they extend from Central America all the way to the end of the continent of South America and that they contain the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. In the world, only the Himalayan mountains are higher. (more…)

While waiting to go on our rural tourism experience, we hung around the town of Tacuarembo for an evening.  I must admit, it did not leave me wanting to spend 3 days there to get to know it. We had a hard time finding a place to get a beer and something to eat, and the hotel, virtually the only one in town, left something to be desired. There were no gauchos in sight, but lots of people and families riding bicycles and motorbikes. These photos are especially sent with Mindy Shapiro in mind.

We left Montevideo for Tacuarembó on 1-16-09. 

Writing this on Jan 27, 2009

Secret Code

Sitting on the stoop of our cabaña in Andean resort town of Uspallata, where we’ve just settled after driving up from Mendoza. I hope to tell you about the Andes when I get a chance, but don’t count on me to give you a chronological account.

For now this is very relaxing, and I’m recalling this conversation we had back in Colonia, Uruguay on a Saturday evening. This was in a secret code, which fascinated me. It went something like this:

Me, to man sitting at the next table to the one we’d like to occupy in the patio of the Mesón de la Plaza restaurant: ¿No les molesta si nos ubicamos aquí? Okay with you if we sit here?

Man, seventy-ish, with stylishly cared-for seventy-ish companion with the look of a wife: ¡Por favor! And then, in some form of English, Where are you from?

Me: Philadelphia.

And then the basic vacation? Yes, etc. chitchat. Then he: We have come from Buenos Aires on our motorboat.

Me: Oh, you’re from Buenos Aires. (I don’t know, maybe 90 percent of the tourists in Colonia were from Buenos Aires.) (more…)

January 15, 2009

I’ve figured out that Rebecca’s the reporter, but I’m the columnist.  I’m more likely to tell you what I was thinking or feeling than what we did.

 Montevideo, Uruguay. I have loved being in Uruguay so far. We began with three days in Carmelo, then spent three or four days in Colonia, and now we are about to spend our fourth night in Montevideo.

Rebecca in her prior documentation found in a Montevideo tourist booklet a quote from Albert Einstein:

 In Uruguay, I met with an authentic warmth, as I seldom have in my life. There I found love of one’s own land, without any delirium of grandeur. These people, so modest and natural, make you think of the Swiss or the Dutch. The devil take large states with their obsessions. (more…)

 The bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo on 1-12-09 was a comfortable 2.5 hours. The guide books say how comfortable the buses are, and they are right. It is quite a system and can be very luxurious even, with chairs that for all intents and purposes turn into beds. We have not experienced one of those yet, but probably will when we have a longer journey.

We had met a couple in Colonia – Susie and John – who have lived on a boat for 20 years and normally move back and forth from time to time and for some reason I don’t know (probably having to do with time limitations) between Panama and Colombia. They dry-docked their boat in Panama and returned to the United States for a couple of years to earn money. They decided to return to Panama via an excursion to Uruguay, I think because they had heard that many Americans retired there and they wanted to check it out. In any case, they had been in Montevideo and suggested the Klee Hotel. We followed their suggestion and checked into the Klee on Monday afternoon 1/12/09. (Turned out we bumped into them again the next day at the Klee where they were staying prior to catching their flight back to Panama.) The Klee was a comfortable hotel with an ambiance out of the 1970′s. The breakfasts were the best we’d had so far at any of the hotels, and included fruit and a yogurt drink that is popular here, in addition to the regular bread, media lunas, butter and jam.

Quite comfortable, but no hotel stationary.

 I’ve decided that it takes about 3 days to begin to get to know a city. (more…)

6. enero 2009

Tamet, Paraná/ Luján Delta, Provincia de Buenos Aires. Two so very relaxing nights here and such a relaxing day. This is a decaying resort on the Río Carapachay. This is our shakedown lodging. We managed to get our gear here from our apartment in BA, using Colectivo, train to Tigre, and then Lancha, or Launch. I like what we are doing. Rebecca found this place on the Web, and I called and did the reserving in Spanish, speaking with Agosto, who runs this place out of “Night or the Iguana” or Green Mansions” or something. “Take the Lancha called Jilguero and tell lthe marinero to let you off at Tamet. I will meet you at the muelle, the dock. I’m called Agosto.” (more…)