Uruguay, Come and Gone

February, 2004

Dear family & friends,

The Rio de la Plata originates in Uruguay (as the Uruguay River), and forms the boundary for Argentina and Uruguay. I do not know why it was called the 'silver' river as, like all large rivers, it carries a lot of silt with it as it wends it's way to the sea, consequently it is much more brown or red than silver. Maybe it was so named in the hopes that it would lead to the silver and other riches that South America was known to hold, and which were the stimuli for all early European exploration. In any case, it is a grand river and a three-hour ferry ride took me across from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. The ferry was new, quite modern, and very comfortable, even in 'turista class' where I was.

Argentina Today

February 14, 2004

Dear family & friends,

Two years after the then President Adolfo Rodriguez Sau announced to a cheering Congress that Argentina was defaulting on it's sovereign debt of $88 billion US, the country remains in economic turbulence. Following the default, the peso, which had been pegged 1 to 1 with the American dollar, fell to its current level of about 3 peso to the dollar. Current President Nestor Kirchener has gained support from more than 60% of his electorate with his hardline position of not negotiating repayment to the international institutions holding the debt, offering a 'take it or leave it' 25 % and no payment of the accrued interest since default. This reduction in the debt is being referred to as a 'haircut' here in Argentina - more than just a trim, more like a scalping.

It Takes Two To Tango And Iguazu Too

Late January, 2004

Dear family and friends,

Who knows who Carlos Gardel is?  Okay, Daph, Bev and Jim, and you John, you can all put your hands down.  I thought you might know.  For the rest of you, Carlos Gardel is only slightly less revered in Argentina than San Martin, Evita, or Maradonna.  Gardel is the one who popularized and then introduced tango music and dance to Broadway and Hollywood in the 1930's.  His pictures and CD's are available everywhere even yet today. Tango may well be the best known export of Argentina, an art form encompassing music, poetry, and dance. 

Apparently the dance was originated by men at the end of the 19th Century and was danced in the brothels of La Boca and San Telmo.  With all the European immigration, the tango inevitably made its way to the dance hall of Paris where it was gentrified and internationalized.  With the imprimatur of that stamp of approval, the dance was adopted by Argentinean society and has been the rage ever since. 

Wanderings in the winter of 2004

January 2004

Dear family and friends,

It's going to be another beautiful day, I thought, as I teed up my ball. The cobalt blue sky was cloudless, and at 18 degrees (my tee time was 7:00AM again), it promised to be ideal for another great round of golf. The quiet of the day was only disturbed by the morning chorus of the kea, saddleback, tieki, kakapo and other local birds flitting about in the pohutukawa trees around the clubhouse.

Tour 2003 - Shangri-La

Dear Family and Friends,

In his 1933 classic, Lost Horizon, John Hilton described a utopian, idyllic valley he called Shangri-La.  Inspired by the real life exploits of George Leigh-Mallory who lost his life in 1924 attempting to climb Mt. Everest, Shangri-La was somewhere in the Tibetan Himalayan mountains.  Shangri-La was a place of peace and security; living was not a struggle but a lasting delight.  People did not age; there were no wars.  The society was based around a 'Lamasery' (a Tibetan Monastery) in a beautiful, snowless, sunny, fertile land called the Valley of the Blue Moon. 

Ever since the publication of Hilton's novel, people have speculated as to the actual whereabouts of this wondrous place.  Wonder no more.  The Chinese government, always eager to adopt anything that will bolster tourism, has now proclaimed Shangri-La is, in fact, the old city of Zhongdian (in the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Northwest Yunnan Province).  So, Zhongdian no longer exists, and thus I found myself in Shangri-La.  (The local Tibetans don’t give a shit what the Chinese call their city.  They call their home Gyelthang.  It never was Zhongdian, and it won’t be Shangri-La.)

Tour 2003 - Yunnan and Kunming - almost home: safe, sound and SARS-free

Dear Family and Friends,

I have now arrived home, safe, sound, and SARS free.  Internet access was not so readily available as one would like in western China, so I wasn't able to send off an e-mail report of my China wanderings.  I have decided to send a couple more e-mails to you all to finish my 2003 journey.   So, delete it if you don't want to read it, otherwise, here is the first of two China journey notes.