Buenos Aires - la ultima vez

puerto madero...

old bus, new skyscraper

Facultad de Medicina

palermo parks

recoleta cemetery

students protesting the increase of university tuition around congresso

Plaza de Mayo

Coming up into Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo from the metro, I was in the middle of throngs of people. People gathering or protesting or being paid by the Argentine government to come out in support of the president, Christina Kirchner. The night before, the whole city stepped outside and banged on pots and pans for a little while, apparently to show the president that 'enough was enough.'

lots of people means lots of urine

the president's casa rosada. in the background, someone has a sign that reads 'Vine solo no mi pagaron' (I came here by myself. They didn't pay me.)

Here is a group of folks from Jujuy. It is the same flags and same people that I photographed on the 25th of May for the president's speech in Salta. It seems that the Argentine government puts some of their citizens on buses and pays them to show up for political rallies so that the president appears to have enormous support. These Argentines are part of a 'neighborhood organization' called Tupac Amaru: http://www.tupacamaru.org.ar/

It would not be a gathering of Argentines without Quilmes!

Flyers in the street say 'Por la affirmacion de la democracia'

Futebol em Porto Alegre

I spent the weekend in Porto Alegre and I had to check out a soccer game. I saw one of the local teams Internacional beat Botafogo.

Passo Fundo, Brazil - Lamar's apartment

Passo Fundo

Angelo and Lamar: I ventured to the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sol to visit Lamar (pictured at right) whom I had befriended 8 years ago on my AFS study abroad program in Bassano del Grappa, Italy. I stayed at Lamar and Angelo's apartment for a week, enjoying their hospitality of Brazilian cuisine and mate while trying to learn Portugese by watching episodes of Woody the Woodpecker on television. I could understand some Portugese, but I communicated in mostly Spanish mixed with a little bit of Portugese lexicon.
Lamar and Angelo were gracious hosts, making me dinner, chicken hearts, tons of mate and told me to stay as long as I wanted.
Lamar is studying agronomy at the local college. His English is really good and we mostly communicated with that. Lamar took me over to his parents' house for lunch every day. He works for his father selling seeds and agrochemicals from companies like Monsanto to local farmers.

In Passo Fundo and its state of Rio Grande do Sol, they take yerba mate or 'chimarrão' very seriously. This statue was in the center of the city square!

I drank the Brazilian mate every day. Their mate is pulverized and they part all of the yerba on one side in a special way and slowly push more of the dry yerba into the tea as time passes.

Lamar's bathroom windows

view from Lamar's balcony

my laundry drying on the balconies

In the three Brazilian cities that I visited, it appeared that all of the trash pickup is done by horse-drawn carts.

Foz do Iguaçu

muito agua from the Brazilian side



tourists with the park's friendly coati