English?

http://www.huellasandinas.com/primer1.html

Dan: I offered my translation services to this hostel a few months ago. It appears that they haven't changed their website yet. Maybe I'll bring them my business card again. These are the pitfalls of using only a translation program and not a human native speaker. Check out some of the interesting things on the menu if you go on one of their excursions. The scariest part is what's for breakfast if you go "Trekking in Villavicencio"

La inseguridad

Lou: What is the big political issue of politicians running for election this October in this province? Health care? No, luckily we don’t have info first hand, but affordable or free health care is the rule here. Immigration issues? No, We’ve heard that the penalty for overstaying your visa is only a US$16 fine. It seems the biggest political issue is “la inseguridad”—the insecurity. They’re not talking about the insecurity of not being able to have gas delivered in a simple and timely manner or of getting something as important as a water heater fixed immediately—those are just common annoyances (for which we haven’t received much sympathy here—people think we’re too uptight!). It’s the insecurity of the recent spike in crime. I’ve always felt safer here than in the Twin Cities. I figured petty crime is a worry since we look and act like foreigners much of the time, but random gang crime or other violent crime just doesn’t seem typical. And historically, it seems it is atypical.

The crimes involving guns that we hear of in the news involve robberies—for money or for cars. If someone is killed in a robbery the people hold protests and the community bands together. It still seems to me that violent crime is a worse problem in the states. It seems we hear of someone being shot almost every week in the Cities, but there have been less than a handful of shootings in Mendoza and greater Mendoza since we’ve been here. Maybe all of the crime doesn’t make the news, though. They have declared some sort of state of emergency and have brought in a some National Guards to help patrol. But it may just be a show for election season

The criminals, I’ve been told, are often young people that come from poorer communities further out of town. I guess living in the center of the city we are a little isolated from all of the crime that takes place farther out of the city. We often see cops on street corners and in squares, but I guess people are really frustrated with the lack of cop visibility outside of the touristy center.

Guns are very hard to get legally in Argentina, but I guess there are illegal ones to be found. I think more than often the perpetrators are without weapons and are just in a group able to overtake just one person on the street. Every few weeks Dan hears stories of someone that knows someone else that got robbed for money and jewelry, usually in less well lit, quieter suburbs. Our policy is to only carry valuables and money that we need and, if need be, to hand it over & get out! The laptop only gets out about once a week and is disguised in a backpack.

I hope we’ve had our experience with the “insecurity” and we can be done with it now. One Saturday evening I was in a large internet joint that has rows and rows of computers. I was there for quite awhile and had come in with my phone. While I was there, my phone seemed to have disappeared from coat pocket (my coat was on the back of my chair). There was a man that bent down to pick up something and asked the lady next to me if she had dropped it; I think this is the point that my phone grew legs. When I talked to the security guard there (who was nice, but not all that helpful) he said it was a bad day and a woman had lost her purse that morning. So, petty, opportunistic theft seems to be pretty prevalent. Even so, there are plenty of people that leave their phone or purse sitting right next to the keyboard in plain view. Maybe, plain view is better where everyone including yourself can see it! We are slowly learning.

Sign from men's room in Jujuy

Don't throw coca leaves on the floor. Let that be a lesson to ya.

Coca leaves (yes, the ones used to make cocaine) are chewed by folks in the north of Argentina and countries north of here. It curbs hunger pains and gives energy. It is also the medicine of choice for altitude sickness.

trying times addendum

Our loandlord's brother just send us a text message saying " I crashed my car so I couldn't get your new hot water heater. I'll fix things tomorrow."

trying times

We are having an annoying week. Our gas cannister ran out. We rely upon this for our space heater. No big deal, right? Just go get another right? Well a 10kg can of gas is pretty heavy, but there are companies that bring it to your home. How convenient, right? Well, every time we´ve ordered one, we´ve had to wait until the next evening, which means at least a day of cold. We can´t order before we run out, because we must also return the empty can. This week the delivery people came, and even though we left instructions to get the empty can and the payment form the caretakers while we were out, they left anyway. The next day we ordered again, but they called later to tell us their supplies for the day had run out. I called another company which promised morning delivery, but then they also ran out, but promised an evening drop. Right now, I hope that Louann is at home, enjoying the recently delivered source of heat. After four days of cold, we need it.

Adding to our lack of comfort, is the recent drop in water temperature in our house. We thought it was related to the drop in air temp outside, but turns out to be something more. So for the past week or so we´ve been taking cold, and brief showers. In the summer this wouldn´t be so terrible. But now it is maybe in the 40s and i´'ll be colder tonight. The landlord´s bro came the other night to check it out on the weekend, and today he is slated to come and try repairing it.

Also adding to our annoyance, and not helping with our communication with various heat-oriented services, was the recent theft of Lulu´s celular phone. She was sitting at a computer at a Cyber place and someone lifted it out of her jacket pocket. Now we are waiting to get a chip in the mail (to keep her old number) so we can shop for a new phone, get it activated, and get our lives back on track.

First five months video montage

Here is our first experiment with video. We are pretty unsophisticated at video editing, but it's a first try.

Prepare yourself for a pretty boring, 5-minute video. The video includes the following:

La Via Blanca ( Parade of Vendimia princesses – March )

Puente del Inca

Abandoned roundhouse and train station at Las Cuevas

Mountains at Cristo Redentor (border of Chile and Argentina)

Exciting footage of busride from Cordoba

Exciting footage of busride in Cordoba, with nervous pedestrian

Ischigualasto/ Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon)

Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat)– Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls

Hummingbirds at orchid garden – Puerto Iguazu

Eating humitas at Rincon del la Empanada – Salta

Pre-Inca ruins at Santa Rosa de Tastil

a blustery august day

It´s August 2nd and we have snow. Sure it is winter here, but apparently there hasn´t been snow in the city for 20 years. It has snowed 3 or 4 times since we´ve been here.