Higuerote: Venezuelan Beaches, Honoring my Adoptive Home

Pictures by Carlos Rodríguez

Majagua, Higuerote, Estado Miranda, Venezuela

I owe a lot to Venezuela; practically half of my life, half of my friends, half of my party-time, half of my personality and the best memories of what it means to go to the beach.

However, since I haven’t been able to go back in many years, to my adptive home, I have dedicated little time and space to it in my blog. For this reason I have decided to share a little piece of Venezuelan beauty through the pictures of my friend Carlos Rodriguez.

Right now, I settle with the memory of these hidden beaches, although I hope some day I will be able to go back to feel the warm sand under my feet and the temperate marine breeze of beach days that taste like empanada, friend’s laughter, reggae, beer and salt.

Panoramic view, Chirimena, Higuerote, Estado Miranda, Venezuela

“The boat is in a river that flows out of the middle of the beach, fishermen keep their boats there, in the middle of the river, where pelicans are in charge of cleaning up everything that may be left behind after fishermen clean the fishing lines they’ve been collecting since 5 a.m. This beach is located in Estado Aragua, in the North, next to the tall coastal mountain range where you can see Puerto Cabello and Choroni (Estado Carabobo and Aragua, respectively).” – Carlos Rodriguez, Caracas, Venezuela.

Two Romes on the Mirror: Twin Cities

A couple of years ago I got permission to use my scholarship in a study abroad program in Rome, Italy.

I was excited about the opportunity of visiting my relative's land for the first time, about having the opportunity to come in direct contact with this distant culture that was also my culture, about meeting my far relatives, about traveling, about growing, about everything...

At the same time, I new that since I was only going to be in Rome for a semester, I wanted to internalize and absorb everything as fast as I could: I wanted to learn about the culture, compare “Italian” food in Italy with the one I eat in the new continent, see how Italians lived, how they studied, what it was like to work in Rome…

For that reason, I was eager to find a job in Rome through the Internet. After sending many e-mails, CVs and applications, I got an e-mail from a History Museum that was looking for a communications intern in Rome. It seemed like the perfect opportunity: I was going to be able to practice Italian (very basic at that time), I was going to learn a lot of history about the country, and I was going to gain experience in my field.

A month before flying to Rome, I wrote to the Museum’s managers asking them if they could help me find accommodations in Italy. They cordially responded something like: Unfortunately, we cannot help you find a place in Italy because we are located in Rome, Georgia, United States.

Those few words were enough to kill my perfect plan of having a full immersion into Italian culture. However, they were not enough to attenuate my excitement f traveling to the old continent.

From now on, whenever you are searching for a city in Internet, you should double check to make sure it concerns the desire city, otherwise you might be looking at the unreal reflection of a name that counts twice.


Places on a Mirror (includes cities and states):

• Ennis, Irelanda vs. Ennis, Texas, USA
• San Francisco, California, USA vs. San Francisco, Cordoba, Argentina
• Valparaiso, Zacatecas, Mexico vs. Valparaiso, Chile
• Oran, Salta, Argentina vs. Oran, Algeria
• Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico vs. Guadalajara, Castilla - La Macha, Spain
• Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia vs. Medellin, Veracruz, Mexico
• Valencia, Spain vs. Valencia, Venezuela
• Bolívar, Venezuela vs. Bolívar, Colombia
• Ayacucho, Perú vs. Ayacucho, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Armenia, Quindio, Colombia vs. Armenia (country)
• Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico vs. Monterrey, California, USA
• San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina vs. San Rafael, California, USA
• Aguas Calientes, Mexico vs. Aguas Calientes, Peru
• Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina vs. Santa Rosa, California, USA
• San Jose, Costa Rica vs. San Jose, California, USA
• Santa Barbara, California, EEUU vs. Santa Barbara, Antioquia, Colombia
• Krakow, Poland vs. Krakow, Wisconsin, USA

Trios:

• Cordoba, Spain vs. Cordoba, Argentina vs. Cordoba, Mexico
• Merida, Spain vs. Merida, Venezuela vs. Merida, Mexico
• Paris, France vs. Paris, Texas, USA vs. Paris, Tennessee
• Trujillo, Venezuela vs. Trujillo, Spain vs. Trujillo, Peru
• Sucre, Perú vs. Sucre, Venezuela vs. Sucre, Bolivia
• Athens, Greece vs. Athens, Ohio, EEUU vs. Athens, Texas, USA

Multiple:

• Humboldt, Germany vs. Humboldt, Santa Fe, Argentina vs. Humboldt, California, USA vs. Humboldt, Nevada, USA
• Providence, Rhode Island, USA vs. Providence, Colombia vs. Providence, Chile vs. Providence, Santa Fe, Argentina
• Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina vs. Rosario, Sinaloa, México vs. Rosario, Chihuahua, Mexico vs. Rosario, Filipinas vs. Rosario, Uruguay

CyberShopping in Argentina, Experience Worthy of Surrealistic Life

Address > Enter > Pop. The website that I was looking for opened up. Click-Click. "Awesome! The exact tennis shows I was looking for!," exclaimed my friend, Would you come get them with me?

Jobless, and with lots of free time at that time, I agreed to go with him. Besides I'd never been to the area of Buenos Aires where the store was located and I wanted to explore that part of the city.

After a 40-minute bus ride we arrived at the given address, although wefelt we were in the wrong place: an area of low houses next to the railways. But the address was correct; so we walked about two blocks to thedoor of the "store", a white house built in the beginning of the XX Century.

A guard received us at the door, he asked a couple of strange questions from the other side of the bars, he asked for our ID, wrote our names downin a book and opened the bars. As we walked in, we passed through a metaldetector and the guard searched our bags; the situation was strange and it reminded me of the pre-departure flight procedures.

After we passed these controls, he opened a second door where we found a third door thatseparated us from the tennis shoes. Behind the last door, the stored resembled any regular shoe store in Av. Santa Fe or Av. Cordoba, with shoes and tennis rackets displayed on thewalls, and various people trying on shoes and clothes. However, the atmosphere was tense, and the salesmen kept looking into the cameras and the safeguarded door the whole time. I felt like the protagonist of one ofthose hidden camera prank shows. Only this time, it was no joke; my friendwas as stunned as I was.

After a little while, the storekeepers brought the shoes he had previouslyreserved through the Internet. He paid for them in a hurry and left theplace as fast as we could. "They were the exact shoes I was looking for!" he told me as we were leaving, "and I had not been able to find them anywhereelse." At that time, he was defeated by desire. In his place, I would havesettled for the desire, and from now on I can assure you I will stick totraditional shopping. As of now, in Argentina, Internet shopping is not made for me.

Poppa's Hat Travels the World

Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina

Each person chooses different ways of keeping the spirit of their loved ones alive. Some people keep their pictures or some family item, others transmit special recipes, stories or family traditions from one generation to the other, while others create their own rituals.

For that reason I became curious when I found out that after his grandfather died before going to study abroad in Argentina, Porter Campbell travels around the world with his grandpa’s hat to keep his memory alive.

Laura: When did you Stara travelling with the hat?

Porter: Since I came to Argentina August 2006.

LV: How did you come up with this idea?
PC: Poppa was an inspiration for me throughout my life; it was part of the inspiration to do something on his name. He used to that that hat with him everywhere, so it became his “symbol”, we say. And since he died two months before I came here, it was natural. Although I think the idea originally came from one of my aunts, Connie, or his son Robbie.


LV: Do other family members travel with the hat?

PC: No, just me for now.

LV: Where have you traveled with the hat so far?

PC: Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Córdoba, Mendoza, Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Chile (Chile, Valdivia, Santiago).

LV: Does the hat have a name?

PC: No, “Poppa’s Hat”....

LV: Did your grandfather like to travel?

PC: I think he did, he always traveled to visit his children and his grandchildren. He also had “timeshares” everywhere…

LV: In one of the pictures you can see a ring along with the hat. What’s the story of the “family ring”?

PC: Poppa liked the ring and he bought one for each family member. It is like our symbol, I guess.

LV: Would you like your grandchildren to follow a similar tradition? If that’s the case, what object would they take around the world?

PC: I’d like to pass on the hat to my entire family (from my cousins to my grandchildren), and if someone is traveling to an interesting site I’d like them to take the hat. Another object… I don’t know. I don’t have anything that I carry with me everywhere I go, maybe some day. I think I am going to make a book with all the pictures, and make copies to pass down to my immediate family.

Now I leave you some of the pictures Porter took while traveling through Argentina. Enjoy:

Poppa in Argentina

Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina

Cascadita en Argentina


Mendoza, Argentina

Mar del Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bariloche, Argentina

Puente de Mendoza, Argentina

Cerro de los Siete Colores, Argentina

Buses are Argentinean. Read the History

“Did you know buses were invented in Argentina?” I would repeat proudly, with a bit of skepticism, while I traveled. Although I had never been able to find facts to back out this statement, I had always repeated it as a fact…until I found “De los colectivos” an article written by Federico Recagno for the 44th volume of December’s edition of Todo Contol, the magazine for Obra Social del Personal de los Organismos de Control, which confirmed that the bus actually IS an Argentinean invention.

According to the article, in 1920, a group of taxi drivers got together in a bar of Rivadavia Avenue to come up with a new system of transportation that enabled them to more a large number of passengers at the same time, to be able to offset the high cost of taxi-meters.

Recagno affirms that the first car-bus, with “capacity for four passengers sitting in the back, three on the sides, and one next to the driver” circulated through Buenos Aires for the first time September 24, 1928. The trip cost between 10 and 20 cents, and route stated in Primera Junta, passed through Plaza Flores and ended in Lacarra y Rivadavia, one way, and the inverse route on the way back.

As time passed by, this medium of transportation became more and more popular, businessmen started adding bigger cars to fit more people and they assigned new routes around the city.

The car-bus continued to evolve until it transformed into the medium of transportation that we use today, where in Buenos Aires it is impossible to travel without coins clinking in your pockets.



Curiosities about buses in Argentina:
Tulio Montaña = first bus passenger.
Corina Milianazzi = received the first printed bus ticket.
Bondi = name used by people from Buenos Aires to refer to the bus; the word comes from the word “bondinho” in Portuguese that means little bus.

San Telmo, An Neighborhood of Antiques that Lost its Kingdom to Modernity in Buenos Aires

I confess. I am a Fair’s girl. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t juggle and I’m not into acrobatics, I am a Fair’s girl because on the weekends I like to stroll down the different Artisan’s Fairs that are organized across Buenos Aires: at Juramento, Plaza Italia, Placita Cortázar, Plaza Francia or San Telmo.

Each of the fairs has a unique touch to it. For example, at Placita Cortázar you can experience how traditional art fusions with modern art, and decorative art with clothing items; at Plaza Francia you can see how street artist’s presentations wrap around artisan’s crafts; and at San Telmo you can be the protagonist of how history and tradition mingle with modern society and tourists.

It had been a long time since I had last walked around this area of town, and I was surprised to see how much the Fair that grown and evolved. About ten or twelve years ago, San Telmo, one of Buenos Aires’ first neighborhoods, was characterized for being the host of antique stores during the week, and a renown Sunday Antique Fair where businessmen exchanged and their merchandise to curious people passing by.

Even though nowadays Buenos Aires’ most renowned and emblematic antique stores are still located in San Telmo, as I walked down Defensa Street Sunday afternoon, antiques got lost among rustic and modern art crafts that were sold by street artists. Nevertheless, the neighborhood still conserves a gallery where you can find old and strange objects, some almost forgotten that take you back to your childhood days, and other completely unknown for young generations. Antiques continue to play a central role in the neighborhood, even though they no longer rule the place, and now they have to share their kingdom with modern objects.

Although San Telmo has been modernized in the past couple of years, it still conserves its rough spirit: tango groups fill the streets with profound beat of the double bass, harmonious notes of the violin and the agile two by four of the bandoneón; dancers adorn the cobblestones with firuletes and eights, turns and history; and painters portray moments, figures and people attempting to immortalize the moment.

At San Telmo I enjoy being a Fair’s girl because I travel through time, experiment the past and experience the present changes at the same time.

Puerto Madero’s Filthy Containers are Recovered to Make-up Buenos Aires Posh Area

Since Buenos Aires’s Puerto Madero was built for the first time by Pedro de Mendoza in 1536 and named it Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre,, the port and its area have been remodeled, reconstructed and re-inaugurated more than five times.

The last reconstruction started in 1992, after the Ministry of Public Services and Public Affairs, The Minitry of Interior and The Government of Buenos Aires agreed to stimulate this port’s area urban development November 15, 1989.

To select the model that they would use for the remodeling process, they called for a “National Contest of Ideas for Puerto Madero,” where they established they wanted to: transform the area, reorganize its urban character, promote the installation of commercial outlets and offices, and re-conquer the riverside.

February 1992, the jury chose the three best proposals (out of 96 presented) and selected three people of each group to work jointly in Puerto Madero’s uplifting project. According to Puertomadero.com, this group was made up by: Juan Manuel Borthagaray, Cristian Carnicer, Pablo Doval, Enrique García Espil, Mariana Leidemann, Carlos Marre, Rómulo Pérez, Antonio Tufaro and Eugenio Xaus.

These people were able to transform a place that held huge rusty containers, dirty and neglected buildings infected with rodents and cockroaches, into a beautiful river walk with prestigious bars, restaurants, ice-cream shops and cafes; a very romantic place where you can retreat to take a peaceful walk under the moonlight with your honey.

Timeline

Constructions and Port’s Reconstructions
1536- Pedro de Mendoza
1580- Juan de Garay
1855- Construction of New Customs Building that reactivated the Port’s movement, done by the English engineer Eduardo Taylor
1887-1897- Ing. Eduardo Madero
1911-1925- New Port
1992- Last reconstruction

Presented Projects
Between 1580 and 1887 many projects where presented. However, they were not completed due to Spain’s resistance.
1755- Juan de Echeverría
1761- Francisco de Vianes
1777- Ing. Francisco Rodrígues y Cardoso
1795-1802- Pedro Antonio Cerviño (partially constructed)
1805- Ing. Eustaquio Gianni
1810-1811- Mariano Moreno and its first committee
1823- Ing. Santiago Bevans
1825- Guillermo Micklejon
1853- Ing. Carlos Pellegrini and Manuel Tudury
1859- Ing. Coghlan
1871- Ing. Juan Bateman
1872- Ing. J. Revy
1975- Ing. Guillermo Rigoni

How to get there:
Buses:
Lines: 2, 4, 6 , 20 , 22 , 26 , 33 , 54 , 56 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 74 , 93 , 99 , 105 , 109 , 111 , 126 , 129 , 130 , 140 , 143 , 146 , 152 , 159

Subways:
Line B: Station: L.N. Alem
Line A: Station: Pza. de Mayo

Palermo, the Forever Creative Neighborhood of Buenos Aires

When I was small I used to walk through Palermo Viejo so I could go play in the park. With my small legs, it was torturous to drag my tricycle through broken sidewalks with old and neglected houses.

Around that time, the architects Jorge Hampton y Emilio Rivoira had already started to remodel the area, although most of the changes were unnoticeable. It wasn’t until the mid-90s that those early XX century houses with ample spaces, high ceilings, picturesque balconies with forged bars, began hosting decoration stores, clothing boutiques, specialized restaurants, and boutique hotels.

Little by little the neighborhood started to change until it transformed itself into the epicenter of Buenos Aires’ bohemian-contemporary movement; an area where artisans, clothing-designers and artists get together at Placita Cortazar to sell their accessories, paintings, bijouterie and other crafts.

Some people believe this artisans and artists are a new addition to the neighborhood. However, Palermo’s neighbors say that since the beginning, this neighborhood was tranquil and creative; a place where people got together to chat and have intellectual talks in plazas, cafes, clubs and neighborhood associations.

At the same time, there are stories that try to explain how the neighborhood got its name, although there is no official story. Some say Palermo carries its name because years ago they used to venerate the Virgin of San Benito de Palermo there.

Others say that the Chief of State Juan Manuel de Rosas gave this name to the first lands he bought in the area because his mistress thought of Sicilia every time she looked at the stream that ran through it.

The most popular story assures that the neighborhood carried this name to honor chacarero (person that dances chacarera) Juan Domigno de Palermo, the first owner of these lands.

I doubt we will be able to ever know the exact precedence of this neighborhood’s name, a neighborhood that has been parted and renamed in the last couple of years into: Palermo Holywood to the North of Av. Juan B. Justo, Palermo SOHO, to the South of this avenue, and the rest, simple Palermo.

Nowadays, it is fun to walk through Palermo during the weekends to live and experience the subculture that has been created in this neighborhood. At the same time, there are good and varied restaurants where you and eat and spend some pleasant time with your friends.

My favorites:
La Baita–Italian Restaurant
Thames 1603 (Thames y Honduras)
Price: Around $25 per person

Gardelito – Argentinean food
Thames 1919
Price: Around $25 per person

How to get there:
Bus
Córdoba and Scalabrini Ortiz / Cabrera and Scalabrini Ortiz:
140, 106

Plaza Italia / Güemes and Borges:
12, 29, 39, 68, 152

Plaza Italia / Charcas and Borges:
111

Placita Cortázar:
34, 36, 55, 93, 161

Metro
Line D to Plaza Italia


More about the neighborhood:

• Palermo’s day: June 25. Decree 43.653 (B.M. Nro. 18.587 of 02/08/89).
• Story of how Julian Gallo’s house turned into a restaurant.

Jorge Gobbi interviewed me for blog.despegar.com

This Thursday, Jorge Gobbi from blog.despegar.com Publisher an interview where I talk about my experience as a blogger and express my opinions regarding the blogosphere.

You read it by clicking the following lik: Blogs sobre viajes: Vida Surrealista de un Viajante Sin Guía.
Hope you like it.
Have a nice week.
Suerte!
Laura

Flying Men at Cumple el Tajin, Mexico

By María Luisa Villegas

The Cumbre Tajín is a cultural event that takes place in Veracruz, Papantla, Mexico. During the celebration a group of men climb to the top of the 30-meter-high “flying stick” for the dance of Los Voladores de Papantla to honor the sun invoking the four cardinal spots: North, South, East and West.

Dance of the San Miguelitos, where good and evil meet for a battle where they try to delimit their kingdoms.

Dance of the Flying Men.



Weaving typical Totonacas’ outfits.



Mud Sculpturing workshop at the Cumbre El Tajín.




Sculptures made with vanilla flower; an old legend says that the flower first emerged from the blood of one of Tonacas’s princesses. Vanilla means “Caxixanath” hidden flower.