Postcards from Argentina :: Saudade Rio

"Saudade" - my favorite word that I have learned in all my travels. While it has no direct translation from Portuguese to English, it has been described as "the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, or well-being. And which now triggers the senses and makes one live again." Perhaps some of my Brazilian friends for whom I have Saudade will chime in to further enlighten us...

Postcards from Argentina :: Iguazú Falls

 

After a long bus ride north, we stumbled into the sleepy little town of Iguazú on the Argentinian side of the cataratas. Photos and rumors of Iguazú fall´s magesty did little to prepare us for the next three days spent exploring the maze of pathways that surround the thundering cataracts. 

Thunderstorms alternated pleasantly with the hot jungle sun, and our down time in the town spent playing futbol pickup matches, putting the hostel kitchen to good use, and swapping stories with other travelers was a nice change of pace from the bustle of the city. 

Postcards from Argentina :: Buenos Aires

This old antique dealer agreed to allow me to snap a single image.  Smart on his part, as I could have lingered a good while longer here...

A week spent wandering the streets of Buenos Aires left me with an appetite for more. A deliciously European city in terms of its love of fine food, wine, fashion and history, yet with none of old Europe's pretensions and all of the casual and vivacious Latin flare of South America.

San Telmo

My friend from Caracas + melted spoon musician

Watching, not waiting.

Headless

My new gourd

Curious

Buenos Aires skyline on a blustery day

San Isidro

Street Asado

New friends from the partido Radical who introduced me to Tucumán "choripan"

Jorge

Postcards from Argentina :: The Road North

On the road with my little (big) bro!

Long straight roads, seemingly endless expanses of desert, roadside scatterings of shacks, and momentary glimpses into the world slipping past the window of the bus. 24 hours on the road invokes excitement and a feeling of anticipation in some, and boredom in others. Personally I relished this trip north to Buenos Aires and the chance to sit back and soak up the Argentinian countryside as we moved through it. Curious also about the other motorists who headed doggedly into the setting sun behind us, I watched and snapped, gratified by the occasional 1/1000 of a second that momentarily froze that fleeting river of determined faces.