8/29/2004 - Viva Boca Juniors

It is Sunday night and I have now experienced a soccer game in South America. Although the quality of the game was not the best I have seen, the atmosphere and experience was by far the best. We paid the tourist price of 120 pesos each for the tickets. That is the equivalent of $40 which doesn´t sound too bad right. Well, we are in South America, not the northeast. I think the actual prices of tickets range from 3 pesos to somewhere around 50 or 60 pesos. However, our tickets did include car service to and from the game/hotel as well as free admission into the museum. Since I wasn´t sure if I would be allowed to bring a camera into the stadium and I wasn´t really sure what anything would be like, I left the camera in the hotel so what could have been the best pictures of my trip did not happen. So instead I will have to describe the visual

First off, you have to remember that I am in South America where rules and safety do not really exist. The stadium is in the middle of a barrio sort of like Wrigley or Fenway. Within the stadium, there are seats and bleachers. The bleachers are behind each goal and 3 levels. The seats are on the one side. We sat just outside the 18 yard line in a seat. There are definitely 2 levels of these. I am not sure if the third level above us was seats or bleachers. The other sideline housed the press boxes. I am guessing the stadium could fit 50,000 - 60,000 easily. There is no scoreboard withing the stadium providing score or approximate time. There is also no sophisticated sound system. There is an announcer but the sound system is like a dj set up with speakers placed on the field. Also, people just start smoking right there next to you because there are no laws against it. This actually happens everywehere in the city. Lots of smoking. Now the bleacher seats are funny. Nobody sits in them the entire game. They just stand, jump, and dance the entire time while singing songs and doing cheers. The team flags are flying everywhere. Also, these bleacher sections are completely enclosed by barbed wire fence. There is just a regular fence in the upper deck which divides two bleacher sections. And people sit on this fence too. On the 2nd level there is a cop on every other row next to the fence which divides the bleachers from the seats. People also stand on railing and basically do whatever they want. It is amazing more people do not get hurt.

Prior to the game starting, they give some award to Diego Maradona. This might be a good time to mention that the game we were watching was Boca Juniors v Racing. Boca Juniors is the club team where Maradona played and he is the equivalent of god in this country and maybe more important in the Boca barrio. Well, he strolls onto the field for the award and the place goes nuts. Electrifying is the only way to describe it. The fans really got into the game as well. Even the people in the seats were singing and chanting. Just not nonstop like the bleacher people. And there were at least 3 or 4 drums being played the entire time in the bleacher section. Each team had their own drums.
So no need to worry about our safety. We were picked up at the hotel, escorted to our seats and back to the van and dropped off at the hotel again. Had I known all this up front, I would have brought the camera.

On Saturday, Amy and I walked from the Recoletta section of the city which is where our hotel is to Palermo which is where the Guarambare sisters are living. Sylvia made us lunch and then we went back to the hotel. Saturday night we took a cab back to Palermo and went out with the girls. We went to a dicoteca where they played all spanish music. We got there around 11:30 or 12:00 and were 5 of maybe 30 people in the place. Around 1 am it started getting a little crowded and by 1:30 it was packed. This entire time was a dj playing. Then around 2:30 the first live act went on. The night was a lot of fun and I learned that the argentinians in this place were just as bad if not worse dancer than me.

On Friday we took a tour of the Teatro Colon and a city bus tour. Good stuff. Oh and I forgot to mention, the night we got here on Thursday, we were just walking around the city and found ourselves in the middle of some sort of demonstration, protest, etc. I am not really sure what it was all about but it was big. Apparently that was why we had such a hard time finding a hotel room when we got here. Don´t worry, it was very peaceful and safe. Many of the people attending were upper class.

Things are going well and the rest of our week will be sort of busy. We plan on going to a Tango dinner/show tomorrow night. On Wednesday we are going to Colonial Uruguay to see the sites and on Friday I leave for the US, arriving Saturday morning.

It is about 9 and almost time for dinner.

8/26/2004 - Return to Civilization

As Julie decided to pose the question to everyone, I will provide everyone with a quick answer.

They brush their teeth in the urban area. Further out they rinse with water, chew on wood or eat an apple.
So, we are now in Buenos Aires. We arrived here today. From Itagua, we took a 5 hour bus trip to Encarnacion. There we toured the city and went to some jesuit ruins outside the city in trinidad. These ruins were actually very interesting. Built in 1725 and abandon within 50 years. Lots of work was done. And what is left is pretty good too. However, you know you are in Paraguay visiting a National Park (it might even be a world listing) but we could walk anywhere we wanted. We climed all over the stones and stood on top of the walls of the church. Of course there are no railings or rope to steady yourself so you are your own to fall. There was also only 4 other visitors at the park.

Yesterday we boarded a bus from Encarnacion to Buenos Aires. The total time of the trip consisted of 14 hours. However, most of the first 3 hours was spent at Paraguayan customs leaving the country, Argentinian customs entering the country, and dinner. Now dinner was not on the bus. We stopped at a bus terminal, went into a dining hall and ate dinner at a table. Dinner consisted of empinadas, chicken and rice, and dessert. And the server offered soda, water, beer, and wine. Luckily, I slept off and on the bus for 5 hours.

We are now hanging in Buenos Aires. It is good to be back in a city again. We sort of just relaxed today after the bus ride. Since I am vacationing the Amy way, we didn´t have any hotel reservations. We called about 10 hotels and none of them had any rooms. We are staying in a decent hotel in the Recoleta section of the city. Tonight we will just walk around and eat. Tomorrow we plan on taking a bus tour of the city and a guided tour of Teatro Colon which is a world famous opera house.

As luck would have it, 3 of Amy´s Guarambare sisters are in Argentina and we will meet up with them. If we decide to get up for the game on Saturday morning we can watch the gold medal olympic futbol game between Paraguay and Argentina. And we are definitely going to a live futbol game on Sunday.

I will keep you updated. Oh and mom, what am I supposed to be buying?

Adios!

8/23/2004 - Return of the Crazy Bus

Greetings from Paraguay! I have been here 4 days and it has been pretty eventful so far. The temperature is a little cooler this year than last. About 15-17 degrees celsius (in the 60´s for you americanos). But walking around you would think it is around freezing. Everyone is wearing ski caps and freezing there butts off. I am a little underdressed as I didn´t bring a true spring jacket... poor planing. Of course today it was upper 70's and I got sunburned. Maybe the shorts will make a comeback.

I have adjusted well to Amy's outhouse. The shower even has hotwater. Although you have to see how they rig these showers for hot water. Basically, you attach an electric current to the spout. So you must sacrafice water pressure to get the hot water. And I have found new meaning for a utility sink. The sink itself is outside exposed to the road (using the word road in its paraguay definition, cars can drive on the uneven dirt but must share with cows, dogs, sheep, chickens, and horses, and people). So I use the sink to wash my hands and brush my teeth. Everyone just stares at me like I am crazy probably because I am american but might be because I am brushing my teeth as they are walking to the market. The sink is also used for washing dishes and clothes. But of course, there is no hot water at the sink.

Saturday, Amy and I ate fresh chicken. And when I say fresh chicken, I mean the neighbor killed the chicken for us that day. Thankfully, she skinned it and plucked it as well. We cooked the chicken for an hour and they still told us we didn´t cook it long enough. Then a girl stopped by and had no idea what broccoli was. And refused to even try it. I brought cheese whiz down from the states and we put it on the brocoli. The neighbors seemed to enjoy it. I also brought down marshmallows and that was tried with hesitation as well.

Yesterday, I saw the paraguayan juvenile prison system at its best. They throw these kids in "jail" and they are supposed to rehab them. However, these kids are not required to go to class, clothes are not provided for them. They just hang out the entire day. Not too productive. No manual labor, no structure, no lessons, no nothing.

Then we went to Guarambare where I fielded more marriage propositions. Of course the provision is that I must live here. Fat chance of that. Fun place to visit for a few days, maybe a week but I would never be able to live here. Besides, while in Guarambare, we were walking down the "road" and a herd of cows were coming at us with chickens skattering to get out of the way. Nothing like urban living.

Today I went to the school to teach english with my sister. I was the circus animal once again. The kids just wanted to hear how there name translates into English. Amazing the hours of entertainment this can cause. It was folk day so the students performed a show with the traditional Paraguayan dance. Then we stopped by the instituto where I first experienced main veining sugar cane last year. I wouldn´t call myself an addict but I would do it again. However, due to changes, all of the cane was cut down so I had to do without it this year.

Chao!