While We Were Gone Part II: Misiones

After yet another longer break we welcome you again! Let's continue with our story, shall we?

After seeing all there was to see in the Iguazu National Park on both it's sides, that is in Argentina and Brasil, we still had a couple of days left there and we decided to use one of them to make a small trip to the jesuit ruins scattered all over the province of Misiones. The ruins are situated not exclusively in Argentina. There were many that were built on the territory of todays Uruguay and Brasil, but the ones that are most famous are in Argentina. We had several options to choose from, including a tourist (yuck!) bus ride with a complete package, but after a rather short discussion we decided that it suits us better to rent a car and do the trip on our own, thus allowing us to be masters of our time. To be honest the costs are quite similar, so unless you're a big fan of having a tour guide with a clear superiority complex, I would advise you to seriously ponder renting a car too.

The one who was the most happy about this idea was - of course - Niki, who by then had been eyeing all passing cars with a crazed look that contained a mixture of nostalgia, envy and racing confidence of Michael Schumacher. If you ever want to be on good terms with her, never (and I mean NEVER) try to question Niki's driving skills. In the end you'll do as you please, but don't call me then asking to cover the expenses of any (or all) of your broken limbs, let alone moral damage - you have been warned. The car rental guy asked who will be driving the car, to which Niki innocently pointed her finger at my mom. In theory only my mom was supposed to drive it, but in the end she drove not more that 200 m back to our hostel, where Niki took over the command and we headed south. At considerable velocity, I might add. 

Our target was the town of San Ignacio, where the biggest complex of preserved jesuit mission is situated. The distance from Puerto Iguazu is of roughly 230 kilometers (which is a stone's throw by argentinean standards). During the drive we had our first (out of a couple more to follow) perplexing encounter with local gandarmes, who for reasons unknown to us organized a small checkpoint, but after all we are all entitled to some fun, aren't we? Either way, while approaching the checkpoint we were not quite sure what a couple of guys in uniforms standing here and there on the road expected us to do. Slow down? Stop? Niki's bet was to drive through at 60 km/h, but it seems to have been the wrong one. One of the gandarmes gave a signal to stop and patiently asked Niki, if she intended to kill any of them at that speed. Then smiled understandingly at waved to proceed. This situation illustrates perfectly why I don't have a driving license: we would just get into trouble, thats why. But a pretty foreigner chick (who just happens to be the driver too) is all that's needed to trigger a sense of mercy in all the seasoned law enforcers you might meet on your way. 

We carried along the way occasionally checking our bearings on a touristic flyer map. It also served us to find out that there are some cool places along the road, where we can go for a swim, but mysteriously we always managed to pass the right turn. Soon enough my mom spotted some booths decorated with signs "Mango", where they were selling pineapples... not mangos. A thorough inspection of one of the booths confirmed that indeed no mango was to be found. Eventually though, we managed to find one that sold mango and we stopped there. I bought a couple of them and asked the guy if there were some places of interest around, to which he replied that 6 km from where we were, there was a place called Gruta India (which translates to "Indian Cave"). We took the opportunity to explore his advice and indeed - after driving about 6 km more on a dirt road we arrived to a pleasant camping stretched under blissful shade of trees, but no indian cave in sight. To enter the camping we had to contribute to local tourism with 5 peso (1 euro) and so we did. Then we found this:

Hmm.. yes, we've seen it in the movies too. So after all the mango guy proved to be the most reliable tourist information so far. It was clear that we were about to spend a couple of hours in this little piece of paradise, so we looked for a way to approach it conveniently and without braking legs, and jumped into the water to cool off.

The cave itself was quite impressive, spacious and it was evident that whoever lived there (most likely indians) must have been rather happy there. It actually made me feel like ripping off my clothes, making a stone knife and settle there for good, make children in amounts that would provide me with my own football team etc. Of course Niki has different opinion about this project, but luckily for me this blog is in my absolute power mwahahahaha!

After staying there for a couple of hours we consumed the mango and left the place convinced that it was worth to go there.

In an hour or so we arrived to San Igancio, making only a brief stop to eat something at a small drive-by place, where we managed to pull the service out of their afternoon nap and cook us a meal, which consisted of huge burgers and milanesas. This was the place where we also came up with the next great business idea - there you go: travels do inspire!

In San Igancio the weather became a bit less optimistic - it seemed like rain. You don't have to spend a particularly long time in Argentina to be able to tell the weather. When the air is hot and humid and there are grey - or at least not friendly looking - clouds over your heard it means you have max one hour to look for shelter. And I don't mean a small bullshit european rain, but RAIN. Big one. In our case we had some 30 minutes to see the ruins, which - of course - is not enough, so we ended up wet. Curiously enough, on the way back all stayed in their wet clothes except me (known for my exhibitionistic tendencies), and dried up much earlier. In the end I put on my wet shirt and let it dry on my as drying separated from my hot body (mwahahaha!) clearly didn't bring the desired results. Below you can marvel at some pictures from San Ignacio mission.

Basically while we were taking these photos rain was already dripping on your heads. 10 minutes later we were standing under a tree, about half way from the ruins to the museum wondering if the protection it provided would be sufficient. It wasn't - we all got completely wet, but all in all it was fun. The original plan was to go to see another complex in Santa Ana, but the rain crossed that plan, so we returned to Puerto Iguazu.

While We Were Gone Part I: Iguazu Waterfalls

Girls and boys... and whoever doesn't fall in any of these categories... Go grab a beer, wine, make yourselves a cup of tea or whatever it is that you indulge on such occasions - this is gonna be a long one. And yes, we'll make up for not writing for a month.

As some of you know, or not, my parents have visited us last month. They made a good use of the winter break at polish schools and came to chase some sunshine and argentinean beef, heh! I, on the other hand, took the liberty of quitting my job, which - quite honestly - I have been looking forward to for a long, long time, for understandable reasons (for example I deserve something much, much better, right?). I feel this is the right place to thank my father for sharing his little part time activity with me. What happened was that already for some time he has been writing for a small polish magazine about mysteries of World War II, and since I too have unquestionable talent with words (yes, now you can smile) it appeared like a good idea to let me do some writing too.  So now I work from home, which is great, plus I can do something that I really like - being a smart ass. It's really incredible that I can earn more money with 3 articles than with a month's work in a call center... Niki doesn't really like the actual status quo, so I am also looking for something else, like a part time job at a restaurant or a hostel. But back to our story.

It's really nice to have someone from Europe visiting us, especially family, as they understand our longing for some items that are not particularly accessible here, like polish vodka. My parents brought a couple of bottles of this fine distillate, of which the best is of course Żubrówka. By the way I also learned that in a store couple of blocks away they have excellent polish vodka Belvedere, unfortunately the price effectively scares me away from buying it. Interestingly, when we visited the store with my father we also found a stock of Jarzębiak, which was bottled still in the politically incorrect times. They selling it here for 15 pesos, which is probably due to the fact that they have no idea what it is. Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it, am I? Anyway Argentineans are not especially fond of stronger intoxicants...

During the first 3 days we stayed in Buenos Aires, so me and Niki showed them the city - the regular tour: center, La Boca, Recoleta etc. But one day we also took a trip to Tigre, which is some 50 km north of the city. Niki has already been there before and she posted some photos before, but for me it was the first time too. The place is absolutely amazing! Imagine something like Venice, but in the forest, and no tall buildings - only houses with gardens. There is no other way to access them than to take a boat and many people living there have their own motor boats. The area is huge, has lots of small islands an channels. It looks like this:

After taking a boat to one of the islands we had a nice meal in one of the restaurants overlooking the channel. I must say that the meat served there was by far the tastiest I had so far, but of course I haven't yet visited all the fancy places in Buenos Aires. My mother received a piece of "bife" that was roughly the size (but not the consistency) of a mid-sized brick. We all had huge portions, and we found ourselves in a risky situation of not being able to move due to long digesting process, so took a brave decision and wandered off to walk it out. The island - at least on the map - looked relatively small, with only one path that led us all around it... or that's what we thought. The more we went the harder the terrain looked. It had been raining couple of days before our arrival and the path started to turn muddy. We decided to move on, even though one of the locals warned us that it's probably not the best idea. "What the hell", we thought. "We are not some ordinary tourist people. We can handle it!". That's when the path turned to mud and introduced us to a couple of improvised bridges thrown over smaller channels. They were tricky to cross, because of the 2 cm layers of mud on our shoes or - in some cases - flip flops (the best way to learn is to take the hard way, right?). Every time we had to cross one of those bridges, tension grew higher and higher - it was extremely slippery. After some 45 minutes of walking we were forced to conclude that we it was impossible to continue our joyous hiking - the path was gone. By that time we were all scratched to blood, Niki decided that it's a better idea to walk bare foot and some had the misfortune of crash landing in the mud. Decision had to be taken quickly as the only way to keep mosquitoes away was to walk, so our voluntary guerilla squad turned and headed back. Quickly, it was getting dark. All in all if anyone is wondering how it is to be in the jungle, I advise to do what we did. Of course it's not even close to the real jungle, where you would have to be very lucky to find a path (assuming that it leads somewhere safe), and you would probably have close encounters with considerable numbers of curious animals, wondering if some parts of you are edible. But we'll get back to this subject later.

After our short but exciting visit to Tigre, we spent one more day in Buenos Aires. My father found an old frigate docked in one of the channels in Puerto Madero, and as a old time, die-for fan of everything that floats and has guns, he went to visit it. The next day we were to take off for Puerto Iguazu...

There are a couple of things that I find very strange and controversial about Argentina, I have already written about some of them in my previous posts. This time I will tell you about tourism in this beautiful country. Although in most cases you probably won't encounter this phenomenon, at times, such as flying with Aerolineas Argentinas to a domestic destination, you will be asked to enter your nationality while booking a flight. This, unfortunately, is not for purely statistical or bureaucratic purposes. Argentineans and residents of Argentina enjoy lower prices of plane tickets, while foreigners, which are widely regarded to as "gringos" (even though not all tourists are american..) have to pay more. As an example, Niki, who has her residency, payed about 500 peso (cca. 120 euro), while me and my parents had to pay about 750 (cca. 180 euro). For an European (or gringo) the difference is, perhaps, not that significant. However, keep in mind that 250 peso is enough for one weeks life in Argentina, even if one dines at restaurants everyday. Furthermore, entry to the Iguazu Natural Park is also more expensive for foreigners - 40 peso, while it's 12 peso for an Argentinean or a resident. So keep this in mind while planning a visit to the waterfalls. 

 

The flight was not the most enjoyable I had, with the plane being late and we couldn't get seats next to each other. I was the most unlucky - my seat was at the back of the plane, with no windows and no possibility to lean back, but what the hell - it's just a bit over one hour, and I don't really care for the conditions as long as it takes me where I want to go. Eventually we landed in Puerto Iguazu airport. The air was heavy and it was very hot. We took a taxi to the city and checked into the hostel I have previously reserved. The good thing about traveling with my parents is that they don't care for luxury neither. We booked a simple dorm room with bunk beds, and as there was four of us, we had the room for ourselves. The plan was not to spend most of the time in the room any way. The plan was only to sleep there. The price was around 10 US$ / bed / night, with breakfast included (that is bread, butter, jam and coffee / tea), so all in all it was very cheap. The hostel - Hostel Park Iguazu - is nice and clean, has air conditioning, nice, english speaking staff, and a swimming pool to cool off after running around the jungle all day. We decided to leave our staff and go to the brazilian part of the waterfalls as we were informed that one needs only a few hours to take the trail around it, while for the Argentinean side a whole day is hardly enough. The taxi driver that took us from the airport agreed to take us there for 150 peso, which is actually more than normal, so don't go for it as we did - there are cheaper ways to get there. The only advantage was that he offered to take us to the bird park (Parque de las Aves), wait for us there and then take us to the waterfalls and wait for us there too, so that after it all we could get to Foz de Iguazu, brazilian equivalent of Puerto Iguazu, to eat something. He also tried to persuade us into buying one of the "adventures", as they call the special tourist attractions, like speedboats that take you very close to the waterfalls, but after learning the prices, we decided to skip it, and so I advise to anyone going to the brazilian side - you can do the same on the argentinean side for much less. 

Parque de las Aves is a small zoo-type garden dedicated to preservation of rare and not so rare kinds of birds from all over the world, mostly from tropical regions. The entrance fee is about 40 peso, not the cheapest, but not a big tragedy neither. Anyway it's worth to go and see it as it is the first occasion to see rain forest fauna, and all the noisy birds, living in relatively big spaces that allow them to fly more or less freely. I guess the biggest attraction are Tucans, that are really fun, curious birds, that are allowed to wander around the park freely, posing to pictures just as this dude here: 

Apart from birds, there is a big collection of water turtles, couple of snakes, crocodiles and a wonderful butterfly cage, where I saw the biggest and most colorful butterflies I have ever seen in my life. In the very same place I also had a chance to see a humming bird (kolibri) for the first time in my life.

 

They come to feed on flowers or from little containers filled with whatever they like to get high on, and disguised as flowers. I saw one of them from really, really close. They are so small... Like a big bumblebee, really. But definitely my favorite there was this dude (I want to have one):

 

From there we went to the Iguazu Park. The entrance fee to the brazilian side is pretty much the same as on the argentinean one - 40 peso, more or less. There is the park's bus service that take you to various locations in the park, we took it to arrive where the the trail starts and after a couple of minutes it's the first of the many shocks you will experience looking at the falls. It's worth to note, that it's not the biggest one (I men the shock). It's very hot and humid, the air is very heavy and in it you see a mist that comes from water crashing down from over 50 meters. There are over 200 single waterfalls that build up to the breathtaking view of Iguazu Falls. When you have the first encounter it looks something like this:

From then on there is a roughly 1,5 km trail leading close to the Devil's Throat, the biggest waterfall of Iguazu, but you don't have a good view of it from the brazilian side. During the walk you get to see many interesting animals that live there, like Iguanas and big hairy spiders. I would say that it's worth to go there, because of the panoramic view of the Falls. Nevertheless, there are a number of impressive locations on the brazilian side, with walking decks build above the mirror of the water so that you can get closer. The sound of crashing water is almost deafening, it really makes you realize the power of the nature. For those who have seen it, there is a great scene in the film "The Mission", when a missionary who failed to win the trust of local Guarani tribe is tied to a cross and let down the river that eventually reaches the Devil's Throat, where the poor guy finds his end in it's roaring waters 70 meters below. Here are a couple of pictures from the brazilian side: 

After reaching the end of our trail we took a bus back to the gate of the park, where our beloved taxi driver was waiting for us. He took his chances and decided to persuade us to a dinner in one of the tourist restaurants in Foz de Iguazu. The program consists of local dance shows (I don't think that samba and tango are really local dances there) and a dinner for nothing but 40 US$ per head. No thanks. Suddenly he got sad, realized that he can't squeeze any more cash out of us and started mumbling something about leaving us in Foz de Iguazu, because he didn't feel like waiting for us. What a prick! Sorry man, we're not here to spend our evening in a tourist asylum, and get ripped off; we want something local and authentic! So we got off in the center of the city, which actually doesn't look like center at all, found a bunch of hippies selling bracelets and necklaces who were really nice and showed us where to go to eat something good and cheap. A couple of meters from them there was a simple restaurant, with great food, huge portions, everything cheap, and none of that "feather up my ass" attitude that we would undoubtedly have to cope with on numerous occasions in the future.

From there we took another cab to the argentinean side, consciously bargained the price to a reasonable amount as the cab drivers get a little bit overexcited when seeing foreigners and arrived to our hostel just in time for a nice cold beer, after which we called it a day. Next morning we had to wake up early not to waste time. It was going to be a long day on the argentinean side of the park.

 

As anticipated we woke up early, had a brief breakfast (only because you can't really play around bread and jam for a long time), went to the city to stock up on empanadas and took a bus to the Falls. Our plan was to first go to the Devil's Throat, then take a 30 min boat with a guide that shows some interesting things about the jungle and some even more interesting animals, and after that, to end the day, take one of the speedboats that come really close to the falls, giving everyone a good shower. One of the differences between the argentinean and brazilian side of the park is that there are no buses on the argentinean side, they have a small train that takes the visitors to various places in the park. 

After arriving to the Devil's Throat station, we took a long walking deck built above the river, which leads directly to the edge of the fall. We were lucky to come there after the high season, so there were not so many people, normally it's hard to find a good spot to see anything and you have to wait for a train for hours before it's your turn. As I said, the deck is very long, it takes around 20 minutes to arrive to the showdown, but there are many interesting things to see while walking. For example there is a bunch of friendly butterflies, clearly accustomed to the fact of having people walking forth and back. They often sit on people's hands, apparently feeding on minerals in human sweat. You can walk a good 5 minutes before the butterfly takes off looking for someone else to board.

 

Every now and then, when the deck goes through the trees, there are signs calling for attention as some of the snakes living there may get overly friendly and drop from a tree on your unsuspecting head. It's also worth noting that all the snakes living in this area are venomous. Although their bite is not particularly deadly, I paid good attention in order to avoid their curiosity. Eventually, as we were closing to the destination of our trip, we started hearing a low, humming sound, and we saw that the riverbed suddenly disappears in something that could only be compared to a very large drain, like something that you can find in your kitchen sink. Without any further a do, this is The Devil's Throat:

   

I can tell you one thing for sure: I have never, ever, seen anything like this in my life. The waterfalls, with the water rumbling down cascades, that no leaving creature can survive (except birds, that occasionally dive into this mayhem only to find a moment of refreshing breeze), the jungle that surrounds it, the noise, the hot that seems to stick to every bit of your skin.. It's hypnotic. Every time I stopped to look at the waterfalls, it was something that devoured my attention entirely. One may think that it's just water flowing. But some simply don't realize that it has been flowing like this for millions of years. It's a spectacle of destruction and undeniable beauty. It's a spectacle that keeps on drawing the attention of hundreds of thousands of people who come to see this marvel of nature every year. I felt like I could never leave this place. I felt that I could stand there staring for months, before deciding that my needs for visual feast have finally been satisfied. Every time it seemed that it's enough and we should leave, I felt like coming back and looking and it a little bit more, over and over again. Pictures and videos can't possibly show you what I am talking about. You really have to be there. It's the mother nature saying: "DON'T FUCK WITH ME" and saying it with an echoed voice of billions of drops falling on stones and plants to finally reunite with their own element many, many meters below, where it finally calms down after this loud exclamation, as if having to make this point had cost it a lot of effort, and now it flows freely, throwing gentle reflections on stone walls. Leaving this place somehow filled me with a deep sorrow, I didn't know when would I have a chance to see such a marvel again. But then again, if every moment of our lives was filled with such marvels, we would never learn to appreciate their true value. The only problem that acts to obscure the true dimension of this experience is that all in all it has been brought to nothing more that a tourist attraction - there are thousands of people seeing this place every day, there are bars, and souvenir shops selling T-shirts with logo of the park and it somehow doesn't feel right, but then again I think that not many people would have a chance to see this wonder if it wasn't what it is today. You have to remember that someone, back in the day, has seen it for the first time and told about it to his or her friends who went to see it and passed the story along. The first stone was cast and the avalanche that follows it was just a question of time. I don't think that there are many places of true beauty that are not contaminated with human, invasive presence. It always makes the spectacle a bit less impressive, but there really is no way to avoid it. If someone was to decide not to share a discovery of a place of comparable or greater beauty, it would only be of selfishness. 

After satisfying our eyes (to some extent) with the Devil's Throat we returned to the station, next to which a small pontoon dock was situated. That was the beginning of a slow and quite ride on the more peaceful currents of the river, all to discover a bit more about the wildlife of the jungle. Our guide was a young guy from Puerto Iguazu, who lived in the neighborhood all his life. He was really a nice person to be around, partly because he knew so much about all the things that we had no idea about, and partly because he didn't try to make himself look as something better than us - ignorants. He wanted to pass his knowledge to anyone who cared to listen. Luckily there was only us and a couple of other people in the boat, all of which were asking questions about the jungle and the animals living in it. Within five minutes we found ourselves looking at a crocodile 5 meters away from us. She (yes, she) was on the shore, sleeping and guarding her eggs. 

The way we encountered wildlife in the jungle was very cool, because we were on a small rowboat that was making little noise, if any. We never stayed in one place for a long time to make the animals feel endangered, besides they are kind of used to having people come and go every 20 minutes (which sucks). Our guide told us that half an hour before taking on our group he has heard a monkey family in the jungle, perhaps they were still there, so we decided to go and check it out. We didn't find any, but we entered all the narrow corridors made together by the river and the forest to find out what's there - usually a bunch of screaming birds. The guide also told us a story that the area of the park, although normally safe, knows some events, when wild animals showed to the people living there that they can't freely interfere with their territories. Couple of years ago a jaguar kidnapped (and consumed) a baby that was foolishly left by it's parents to play alone in the garden. From his own experience, he has also met a jaguar on his path, without such grim consequences, nevertheless all he could say about the meeting was "he was really big" which proves that you should never neglect wild animals in this region. After the ride, we were transported to the nearest train station from where we could continue our adventure.

The idea was to take the so called "internal trail" that leads to a couple of smaller waterfalls and eventually reach the dock of speedboats that would take us closer to the them. The trail was pretty long and exciting but I will not talk about it too much. One thing worth mentioning are the animals that we spotted on our way. They were funny monkey-like creatures, but unfortunately I already forgot what they're called. One thing I remember is that they were always hungry. If someone was not giving them food, they would climb up, and into, garbage bins and scavenge all the edible stuff they could find. They looked like this:

These little bastards are everywhere, and - as usual - all the signs seem to apply only to humans. I mean, there are no signs for those fur-balls saying "don't beg humans for food", but there are signs for us saying, more or less: "don't feed the fur-balls". As with everything, the responsibility for the well being of our planet is in our hands. No surprise here. Anyway, walking the trail we got to see some really beautiful sights, before we eventually got down to the speedboat dock:

That last picture is also the last of the "adventures" that we took. I know it sounds dull, but you know what? I can actually recommend it at the end of the day of watching waterfalls from every possible angle. It just brings you back to life. It's nothing that much special in terms of seeing beauty - no, you won't see any. It's just adrenaline. You will be thrown under a waterfall (a small one mkay? I ain't ready for suicide) and you will be splashed and slashed by the water falling down directly in your face. My advice: bring water goggles. Oh, and listen to the guy who tells you to put all electronic devices in a dry place (that means: a bag) - at the end of the ride you will be wet, soaked, there won't be a single dry spot on you, and yes, that includes your underwear too. All in all a good ride, worth it's money, in my opinion.

After that we walked a little bit and arrived to a nice little bar, where they had beer (no alcohol on the brazilian side - you have been warned!). We took a small rest there, drank a couple and talked how wonderful it would be to live in a place like this, provided that there were no tourists. 

The next day was something else again.

/end of part one. wait for what's to follow/

MORE PHOTOS

 

 

  

My Woman Is Gone

all right, so without any further a-do...

(...because you know, I could start this off just as any of the previous posts, that 'yeah, so... khm.. sorry everybody for not giving a sign of life for such a long time but we were busy with this and that, but we hereby promise to be better from now on yada-yada-yada...')

which is basically how I started this post anyway.

By the way, do you remember the first post on this blog?

Yep, the one in which I kindly asked you to organize a rescue mission in case we didn't give a shout for more than two weeks... It's been THREE weeks. WHERE IS THE CAVALRY?!! 

'...screw you guys! I'm going home!'

Anyhow.

Me woman is gone. 

Niki found herself in a quite favorable (to her) situation of having 3 days off in a row (was it 4? ... damn, I'm not sure when she's coming back..), so she took the cash AND the credit card and set off for the coast with a friend of her. Now, she's a good woman, so she left me some money ('baby, promise me that you'll do some shopping and eat like a human being'), which - I must honestly say - is half gone. That said, I must restrict the expenses to only the most vital necessities, which - accidentally - is beer, fags, and toilet paper. I'm pretty much secured with the first two, so I'm happy. The last one looks kind of grim, but I'll worry about it when the shit hits the fan (now, really, could you think of a better place for this phrase?). She even wanted to take my Bukowski as well, can you imagine that? UNTHINKABLE! But I stood my ground, so now I can continue spending my evenings reading "Tales of Ordinary Madness", doing all the unhealthy things that men do when their woman is gone (which is drinking in solitude, smoking, eating late and being on bad terms with my shaving machine), and getting into the vibe of an unacclaimed literary genius, boozing his life away while writing about bums and whores. It's a pretty sure bet to think that what you're reading right now is directly affected by Bukowski's prose. (God, I have to stop reading Bukowski). Other influences you may see (or not) in my writing include punk rock, as in a quite short interval of time (say, 2 days) I watched two documentaries: "Punk Attitude" by Don Letts, and "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten" by Julien Temple, albums of Joy Division (influenced by seeing "Control") and neurotic jazz music of the kind of Cujo and Amon Tobin (which in fact is one and the same person). All of which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Today, no.. actually for the second day, while at work, I was playing with the thought of getting up from my chair, opening my boss's office with a well aimed kick and telling him straight in the face what I think of answering questions like 'is butt-sex healthy?' (that's an original one, actually). And I don't have warm feelings about answering such questions for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, especially since HOW THE HELL SHOULD I KNOW IS IT HEALTHY OR NOT??

I am just about to initiate my plan B which constitutes of printing some 50 CVs and going on a tour around all the bars, restaurants and snob hotels of Palermo with the purpose of finding another job. And it's simply because ANYTHING is better than nursing love lives of Americans. Actually there is a couple of Polish restaurants around here, so I think I'll try those ones first and show them how to make Pierogi. 

Damn! Sorry. My beer is gone so we'll take a short brake for a refill. 

<..........> (which, in my humble opinion stands for 'short break to refill the beer')

During the last couples of weeks nothing much happened (besides me waiting for the cavalry to arrive). I've been looking for a job (again). Some other people have been looking for a job for me. And I've been looking for some more people who would look for a job for me. 

At the beginning of January a dear friend of ours from Ecuador came to visit. Her name is Soledad and we met in Granada, Spain, in early 2006. It was actually a funny situation because she arrived to Granada shortly after Niki departed for Hungary to write her thesis. All of a sudden I got this text in Spanish saying that she'd be staying at our place and I had no idea who she was. Apparently Niki met her in Tarragona, they talked all night and Sole said she was going to Granada, so Niki offered her to stay at our apartment... but forgot to tell me about it. So now, in Buenos Aires, she actually saw us both together for the first time! We also met Sole's cousin - Sylvia, and her boyfriend Dylan, and ended up consuming large amounts of alcohol and playing guitar. 

Oh, we also signed up for Couch Surfing, so all of a sudden we had some visitors coming from all parts of the world to crash on our couch for a couple of nights. So far we had: two girls from Germany, Geraud - a French guy who temporarily works and lives in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Terrence - dude from South Africa who was with us when Sole was here, and filled me in on secret practices of doing business, Ricardo - a Brazilian who filled us in on where to go in Brazil, and recently a couple from Hungary - Adrien and Karesz who brought us cseresznyepalinka (home made). By the way, Terrence, if you're reading this, dude, you left some Shaolin footwear here! One reason for you to come back! We actually have so many requests from Couch Surfing that - unfortunately - we had to start turning them down. Otherwise we just wouldn't have any private life with Niki any more. 

On the more local, but still social accent, it seems that we have found our Argentinean crowd finally, as expected I might add. There's always someone dropping by our flat, they are mostly Niki's colleagues from work: Leo (he likes punk rock too, but I don't know if he likes Bukowski), Yessi (she works for visual production of one quite well known band called Bersuit), Martin (who does sound for concerts and I got him into psytrance music), Ceci (I wrote about her before) and a bunch of other people that we meet almost everyday. Most of them work with Niki at Telemedia, so she gets to see them more often, naturally. 

We got to know some real Argentinean bars, not those plastic-fantastic designed "lounges" or whatever they're called where they charge you 15 peso for a beer. Last week Ceci took us to a place (of course I forgot the name by now) that had the real Argentinean tango vibe, minimal, 4th hand interior all soaked up in smoke (yes! it's allowed to smoke inside! .. at least it's not prohibited.) and young, and not so young lads and girls sitting around playing and singing tango. Wonderful! When I was there, I kept thinking that Nate would love this place.

Hmm... In the end I managed to end this post on a brighter and less cynical note.

Now back to Bukowski.

New Year's Eve On The Beach

Welcome in 2008 kiiiiiiids!

We just came back from our little trip to Reta, which is a small village on the coast of Argentina, some 200 km from Bahia Blanca. We spent there 3 days, including the celebration of the new year. This was first time we ever greeted the new year on a beach in 35 C, so all in all it was a quite interesting experience for us.

The invitation came from a friend of ours - Cecilia. She works as a camera operator at Telemedia here. She has some friends living in Reta, so we decided to rent a car, took onboard another friend of Ceci - Sofia, and headed off south. The trip was okay, we are slowly getting used to the fact that 600 km is not a distance in Argentina. In fact it qualifies as a short weekend trip. The night we left Buenos Aires Niki had to work until 4 am, so me and Zoli (a hungarian guys who is here for some time) took the opportunity to indulge serious amounts of alcohol in order to make the trip more bearable. As a result I fell asleep in no time, shortly after I managed to make myself comfortable in the back of our car. Unfortunately Zoli couldn't come as he had some work to do (of course in the end it appeared that he actually could have come with us - the Argentineans didn't show up for work). Our road led through the mainland of the province of Buenos Aires, along the road known as Ruta 3. The landscape is mostly flat, providing short outbursts of excitement when we saw some cows, but otherwise there was simply nothing. We also learned that there is no highway patrol in Argentina, so one can floor it as much as the conditions permit. Especially Niki took advantage of this fact, hungry for some driving action after three months of absence from behind the wheel.

At some 30 km before Reta the asphalt disappeared and the road turned to dirt. This helped me understand why everyone drives pickup trucks or SUVs. Needless to say that it was the same in Reta itself. Actually in Reta most of the people drive either quads or MadMax-like vehicles called "areneros" (arenas = sand). We actually saw a transparent bus, or at least something built on the base of a bus, that in fact was house on wheels, big wheels... really big wheels, so that in can park on a beach.

We arrived around 2 pm, and met with Vanessa, who was the only person there at that time. Well there were two dogs too: Frida and Miss. After a small chat we retired to catch some sleep and woke up only around 6 pm. It was very hot during the day so we didn't even think of going to the beach, as we would simply get sunburnt in 15 minutes. The main inhabitant of the house is Caro, who arrived while we were sleeping from Buenos Aires where she was visiting her family for Christmas. When we woke up there was also her boyfriend Marcos so the gang looked almost complete. We drank a couple of beers and decided to move the party to the beach. The sun was much weaker by that time, but it was just perfect to go for a swim and lay around. Before that we had to do some shopping and by the time we got back another friend arrived - Dejan. I actually never wrote about him, because it's a long story all together. Dejan is a friend of Meri, he's been traveling around the world on his bicycle for 3 years now and has another 2 years to go. When Meri came to visit us in Buenos Aires, she first went to Brasil, met with Dejan there and came together to us. Then Dejan stayed at our house for a couple of days and headed off to the south, but we stayed in touch and when it was clear we're going to Reta, we told him about it and he decided to join us, since he was only 200 km away from there. We were a bit worried how he would find us in Reta, because the only directions we had for him were: "find a bar called La Luna and ask for Caro's house", but he managed well. So in the end we went to the beach together. And the beach... oh man... it was huge sand beach with almost no people there, definitely not the kind of beach that one may find in places like Mar del Plata or Miramar, where people are squeezed like sardines between themselves and hauls of trash. Also very curious thing about that beach was that the sun rises from and sets to the sea. I've never seen anything like this (and I didn't see it this time neither, but we'll get to that). The first time I went for a swim I had a close encounter with a jellyfish, so I was later more careful about where I step, but Dejan soon repeated my errors and had a similar encounter. In the evening we had an "asado" (barbecue), but all in all it was more low key party, because we had to save strength for the big night.

The major part of the next day we spent on the beach again and later stayed at home, next to a bonfire to greet the new year. Only after that we decided to go into the town to join other people. Unfortunately for me, by that time I was pretty much wasted and in one of the bars I got into a fight which left me with a black eye. Actually I should rather say that I must have gotten into a fight as quite frankly I don't have any record of that event, nor have I witnesses as girls and Dejan were already on the beach waiting for the sunrise. Either way the "perpetrators" put me into their jeep and took me to the beach, so all in all it was nice of them.

Now don't get too worried about me. You know how it is with me and New Year's Eve. I rarely remember any of them, and it's a major success if I don't sleep through it. Either way there's always something strange going on with me or in my direct proximity on that occasion. The doctor said to put some ice, and in the end all that suffered was my pride, which led me to the conclusion to terminate my street-fighter career with immediate effect. At least one thing I learned that night... Of course Niki was worried to death about me and when it was clear that nothing serious happened her mother instincts was immediately replaced with anger that yet again I managed to screw up her party. Soon she packed me to bed and once I was out of her way she continued to have fun. So this is why I didn't see the sunrise, but judging from the pictures the girls made it was quite some view.

Now my eye is nicely changing colors, which is fun to observe.

Merry Christmas From The Gauchos!!!

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all warm and happy Christmas. If you can, spend it with your families. We can't and at times like this one we learn to appreciate the presence of the people we care about most in the world. This goes out to all of our families in Poland and Hungary, our moms and dads, who - although it's hard for them - never, even for a second stopped us from chasing our dreams and fully supported us all the way. This goes out to my brother Michal, who - I am sure - does what he can to substitute me while I'm away.

This also goes out to all of you, people that we met in Budapest or any other part of the world - our friends. Especially in my case, having such a fantastic crowd around me for so many years was like having another family. We shared many great moments and in times of doubt we could always count on all of you. We miss you all like mad, but we're sure to see you soon.

We wish you to have the faith in your dreams and the courage to fulfill them. Dare to raise the level for yourselves every time. We wish you to have the patience when things don't turn out as you planned and tolerance not to blame others for digging holes under you. Remember that every failure is a lesson bound to make you stronger and wiser. Remember that everything happens for a reason. We wish you all to achieve your goals, whether it is to become successful, famous or simply a better person. To all those who want to make the world a better place to live we send extra strength, we hope it will guide you along the righteous path, please remember that no one is truly evil, and even your worst enemies were kids one day. We wish you lots of love, because in the end all that's left of us are memories in the hearts of those who loved us. Whatever you do and wherever you are don't forget where you come from and who you met along your way.

Sending all the love from World's End,

Niki & Marcin a.k.a. The Gauchos

Uruguay: Grilled Hungarians, Los Santos and Sexy Underwear.

Hola locos!

Yesterday we returned from our little trip to Uruguay. We didn't have much time, because we both work and can only use the 2 free days a week that we have. Either way Niki did a splendid job planning the trip (and moaning about me not helping her :)), an effort worth of the attention of the most advanced logistics companies. We took a ferry from Buenos Aires across the Rio de la Plata to Colonia de Sacramento, then a quick transfer to Montevideo and another bus to Piriapolis, which was our destination. Niki didn't sleep the night before our trip, because we had to leave very early in the morning and she still had to do one late night show for Telemedia, which left her pretty much no options whatsoever. We drank a quick coffee and off we went. The ride to Colonia is only 50 minutes with a ferry, then some 2 hours to Montevideo and a bit more than an hour to Piriapolis. Our dream would have been to go to Punta Del Diablo, but it's too far out north, we didn't have time for that.

Anyway Piriapolis is a cool little town on the southern coast of Uruguay. Niki found a small hostel for us to crash there for one night. It's still very early into the season so it was almost empty (except for one American dude and a Polish chick that we never met). We also had luck with the weather - it was very hot while we were day, it only got a bit worse the next day when we were leaving anyway.  

It was great to get out of Buenos Aires, my first time ever since we arrived here. It felt like just about time to lay around on a beach and scorch our skin in the mid-day sun. And so we did. Uruguay is a bit more expensive than Argentina, but as we found out later the salaries are not necesarily higher. As one old man told us: 'it's always been this way'. I didn't get deeper into that.

Curious thing that day was, that already when we arrived we noticed a huge smoke in the middle of the town, but we thought that it must be under control since no one showed any sign of interest. It was only until some 5 hours later that the Bomberos (firemen) woke up from their siesta and pulled out all their heavy water artillery, driving in a frenzy to the site in question and spilling impressive amounts of water on their way. At that time we were comfortably seated in a nearby bar, sipping on cold beer, watching the spectacle with growing astonishment, as soon helicopters joined in. I guess the pilots must have been a bit excited about their assignment as at times, they descended towards the sea to refill the water tank, but then hurried right away, probably thinking that it's already full. In my humble opinion it was far from it, but then again perhaps that's why I don't reinforce the ranks of Uruguayan Bomberos.

The next day we had a plan to rent some bikes and cycle out of town to some more natural beach. We ate a quick breakfast (how long can you eat bread with butter, eh?) and went to the city to rent the bikes. The bikes, as expected, were of the commonly known 'playera' brand (read: plashera). For some strange reason they enjoy a cult status in both Argentina and Uruguay (I assume it's no different in other countries on South America), and even though the name suggests that they're suitable for riding even in loose sands of a beach, they sink in just as nicely as any other bicycle. Mine hardly had any breaks too, but I enjoy a challenge :). We found a nice beach and continued to scorch our skins from where we abandoned this activity the day before. We fulfilled this task with great success, even today my back and face is completely red...

Around 4 o'clock we got on a bus back to Montevideo to spend our last night there. I must say that the city is quite nice. I would even say that perhaps it's more enjoyable than Buenos Aires, simply because it's smaller but then again, due to lack of time, we didn't explore it too much, especially it's outskirts. We visited the old town though and even went down to check out the sea. It's interesting that walking the streets of the old town you can see the sea in 3 directions. There are plenty of old buildings, and it would be a cool place to open a hostel, some of those buildings are in fact deserted. The hotel where we stayed was also an interesting one, situated in an old house, few blocks away from the old town. It gave me an impression of being in some movie about Cuba or another exotic place - high ceilings, minimum furniture and all of it quite old. Lots of people live in such hotels for months, I imagine... Some workers or bohemian travelers that don't identify themselves with the 'backpackers hostel' accommodation. 

During our walk through the city we saw a couple of eyebrow raising things. First of all we found a small shop that, according to it's information, sold religious stuff. A quick glance at the shopping window allowed us to discover that side by side with little figures of saints, the shop offered a variety of sexy tangas. The second thing we discovered was when we went to eat and in the menu we spotted a familiarly named dish called Hungaras. After an inquiry with the waiter we learned that it's a type of grilled sausage, very popular with Uruguayans. Is it possible that fame of Hungarian sausages reached Uruguay?  

Opinion Is Like An Ass. Everyone's Got One.

Hola boludos!

I guess we aren't as prolific about this little space lately as one might think, so first of all apologies (again) for not giving a sign of life for some time. It doesn't mean that there's not that much happening, I suppose it just means that we simply are lazy, but to justify this, we would say that we just work a lot.

'The sun is shining! The weather is sweet..' and that's exactly what's happening here. Actually it gets hotter every day, even now, at 20:48 pm the temperature is around 27 C. I have a funny feeling that we're down for some suffering in the upcoming months as we don't have air condition in our flat.. The good thing is that we're in shadow more or less, so it's still cooler than outside. Everyone I know says that in from January it will be impossible to compute simple mathematical tasks, and it's not really due to the temperature but due to humidity that kicks in around that time.

To cut the long story short: we've been here for almost 3 months now, so I figure it's time for some honest opinions about life in Buenos Aires. I can say straight away that it's not as peachy as one might have thought (if there is such a person). I must say that it's kind of awkward for me, because when I come to think about it we had just unbelievable luck with the way things worked out for us - Niki's job, the flat, etc. However there's this strange thing about human nature, that no matter what we have, it always leaves us wanting for more. There's always something to complain about. Now, I don't want to be an ungrateful prick, but as I said, I will write honestly about the way we feel.  

Some of you asked me about the people here.

I have some Argentine friends still from Hungary, and if they are reading this I hope they don't get offended by what I am going to say, after all it's not my intention to hurt someone, but I do want to speak my mind directly and state my opinion. Please remember that it's an early opinion, that formed itself after only 3 months, but nevertheless it's an opinion and I wouldn't be honest with myself if I wrote something else. I hope it will change though..

I wouldn't say that I dislike Argentines, but there are definitely some things about them that annoy me, or - perhaps - I haven't come to understand them fully. First of all, after all this time we've been here we really don't have Argentine friends... and shoot me but I don't know why. I have some theories, though. As I go back in time and recall the first years of my stay in Hungary, I didn't have any Hungarian friends neither. It took some 2 years to 'break the spell'. For a long time I thought that Hungarians are just cold people, but I wouldn't be the first one to sign such a statement now. Now I think that it simply takes some time to understand the culture, learn the way people talk, and the way they tend to think. All in all it's a lengthy process and I can understand that it's not easy for a person to come from another corner of this planet and blend in straight away. 

The Argentine culture is a bit different. It's not that people here are cold, at least not at first sight. I would say they are reserved with outsiders. When you come here, the first thing you notice is that people are open, that they don't lurk in the corners and talk quietly for you not to overhear their precious secrets. They like to talk loud (just like Croatians.. hehe), shout even, and the way they talk Spanish has much more melody than in Spain, for instance. But when you're an outsider it all comes to a sudden halt. I consider myself to be a rather tolerant person and I always try to understand the differences, so I am not mad or disappointed at this, in fact in fuels my determination to 'break the spell', just as it happened in Hungary. The bottom line is that in a country that was built by immigrants, one can still be considered an outsider. Sure, people will be nice to you. You can go out and meet some folks in a bar and have a good chat with them, but that's it. Once the night comes to an end you both go your separate ways and there's no 'hey what's your phone number, we should do this again sometime'. Yes, I am generalizing, because there's no other way for me to show you the vibe that I feel is present here, the vibe that I feel when I am around Argentines. 

Niki tells me from time to time, that she's kind of disappointed about atmosphere in Telemedia here. In Hungary there's just a bunch of foreigners working there and although she's Hungarian she was always open with people coming from all over the world. She thought that it must be kind of hard for them to blend in - new workplace, new faces, people talking language that you can't really place, language that all in all is very difficult to learn. So she always tried to make it easier for them, take them to places, make them meet her friends and give them an opportunity to see life in Budapest from a perspective of a Hungarian. Hell, I can honestly say that it was the moment I met Niki that opened many doors for me. That was the moment I met many of you guys, who are my friends now. On the other hand, here it's different. There is no feeling of community, that sort of we're-all-in-the-same-boat vibe. To say the truth, as I was given a chance in Telemedia too, I felt like we aren't really welcomed there. Of course not from all the people, but still I felt like some strange species that everyone is looking at, wondering what am I doing there. No one really asks us out and most of the plans about going out are made without us taken into consideration. It's a little bit sad for us, but I am sure that once we've spent enough time here, it will change.

Another thing I noticed about Argentines is that they are always helpful. But don't get too excited yet. I realized after about 2 months here, that everyone would say that they were willing to help you. I met many people that offered their help and talked about possibilities, people they know and places they can get me in, but unfortunately it ends right there. When I was looking for a job, I met many people that wanted to help me find something more suitable to my abilities, so I sent my CV to a whole lot of them, but I never heard from them any more. After a while I stopped believing them. There's a good word for that here: 'chamullo'. It's not to say 'lie'. It rather means a harmless, little, white lie that doesn't really hurt anyone, it's just something meant to upgrade the reality as opposed to what it actually is. There's a similar phenomenon that I remember from Spain - if you're lost and ask for directions, no Spaniard will ever tell you that he/she doesn't know, instead they will tell you to the best of their abilities, which unfortunately often is quite wrong. They don't mean anything wrong, they actually do want to help you, but either because of their actual knowledge or their mentality, they can't and they won't admit it.

To end this on a lighter note: we are invited to a new year's party at a beach somewhere outside Buenos Aires by a girl who works with Niki - Cecilia. It seems like things are slowly changing :D 

Another thing that bothers us is that we really work a lot here. Most of the people work a lot in Buenos Aires. The working day ends around 20.00 and it is then that the subte is packed with people going home from their work. The problem with this is that we don't really have time to see anything in Buenos Aires, let alone Argentina, where you have to travel for a long time to get anywhere. This is especially valid for Niki's job as she has a quite weird schedule. Some days she has programs until 6 am and is the single person with the most shows per week. I can understand that she's the new one, and it's the freshmen who get screwed the most, but sometimes it's a bit over the top. I hope that it will change soon. On the other hand, I work 7 hours a day, which is still all right (if it wasn't for what I do), but this way we hardly ever see each other with Niki - she doesn't work during the day when I am at work, but when I come home, she has to go and do some shows and comes back when I am already asleep. There's not much we can do about it, the money Niki earns with Telemedia is incomparable to anything else. I still look for another job, as TM decided that I am 'too quiet' to handle this job (this is actually a subject I am not going to elaborate on at this point).

We plan to go to Uruguay next week. My visa expires around that time, and I have a choice either to pay to prolong it or just re-enter the country. The second option is better as at least I will finally get out of Buenos Aires, after 3 months of continuously being here.  

Be good and dress up warm! We'll be reporting to you shortly.