Fly You Fools, Fly... [Bangkok, Thailand, 05/07/04]
South by South-East [Guilin, China, 27/06/04]
Grease is the Word [Beijing, China, 22/06/04]
Zen and the Art of Being Japanese [Kyoto, Japan, 10/06/04]
I Wish I Was Famous [LA, 23/05/04]
Nothing Newsworthy [Berkeley, USA, 16/05/04]
Flash -- ahaaaaa... [Mexico City, Mexico, 29/04/04]
South America in my Nutshell: A Different Picture [Bogota, Colombia, 19/04/04]
The War Against Tourism [Bogota, Colombia, 08/04/04]
Downtime [Lima, Peru, 29/03/04]
A Walk in the Park [Inca Trail, Peru, 21/03/04]
Naturally Sweaty [Cusco, Peru, 15/03/04]
Time Travelling [Cusco, Peru, 12/03/04]
Worst ever... [Sucre, Bolivia, 05/04/04]
There are some things money can't buy... [Sucre, Bolivia, 02/03/04]
I Me Mine... [Potosí, Bolivia, 27/02/04]
¿Como te Llama? (How is your Llama?) [Tilcara, 23/02/04]
The Good, The Bad and the Gringo [Jujuy, Argentina, 20/02/04]
Second Class Travel, Never Again! [Salta, 16/02/04]
January 31, 2004
There's only so little you can write about the Iguaçu Falls without just stating the obvious and besides, at that the photos do a much better job. I could write that 1,200,000 litres of water pour down Iguaçu every second but first of all I don't even know what 1,200,000 litres per second is supposed to look like and then it is a pretty dull statistic. I could talk about how the Brasilian side gives you an impressive panoramic walkway along the side of all the Falls while Argentine side is more of a waterfall theme park where you get up-close, wet and personal with a few of them. But again, hardly inspiring. So I'll just admit I'm at a loss for words and won't spoil the experience by waxing lyrical about a bit of water.
With the Iguaçu area being one of the popular border crossings between Argentina and Brasil it is also home to another phenomenon. Here is where I ran headlong into one of the three 'waves' of young Israeli 3-year-military-service absolvents who pass through on their way to the legendary Carnival in Brasil. When I arrived at my current hostels there were 12 Israelis, 1 Japanese and myself and that is of course completely anecdotal and non-representative. The other two 'waves' originate in Santiago de Chile and Cuzco, Peru and by February they all converge on the major carnival centres. Apparently 3000 Israelis will have made the pilgrimage. For a country with a smaller population than London and with some like orthodox Jews and the elderly never or barely ever traveling, that has to be quite a sizable exodus of young people. I myself found it a fascinating bit of social behaviour (if slighly lemming-esque :).
So there, at least I've managed to write about something around here. Next stop BA.
[I never realised no one could download hi-res version of the pictures: if anyone wants any copies hi-res of pics for desktop backgrounds or for printing on a t-shirt for your dog just email me telling me which one you want and I'll make it happen. Also the new Argentine Falls side pics are in Album Argentina 1 and in Brasil 6 Panoramas.]