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Jan. 15, 2007 Recently, on my way back from Tierra del Fuego, which is at the south end of Argentina, upon passing through a corner of Chile and reentering Argentina, I received a new 90-day visa. Now I have till March 29 to stay in Buenos Aires, where I’m sharing an apartment. The man with whom I am sharing the apartment, who resided in Los Angeles for a while but does not speak English, is really the friend of a friend. The neighborhood, Villa Soldati, is a little depressed, but the upside is that my rent dropped from $450 to $200 a month. Another good point is that on my side trips, I do not have to tote my 100 pounds of baggage; I can just leave most of it with this trustworthy gentleman. Now I’ve been in 11 out of Argentina’s 23 provinces. I’m considering a short bus ride through some or all of the 7 provinces of the northwest, which contain the famous city of Tucumán, parts of the Andes and some of the southern ruins of the Incas. There also are llamas and vicuñas, which so far I haven’t seen. There may be also rheas and guacamayos (macaws) too, but my experience has been that you usually don’t see these more colorful animals
unless you take a special, expensive excursion for the very purpose. On the way out of the country, if I go to Brazil, which depends on a successful visa application, I’ll pass through two more provinces, providing that I go by way of Iguazú Falls, which I missed my last time around. However, at that time the South American autumn will have begun, and southerly Foz de Iguaçu, nearby in Brazil, will have
started cooling. Perhaps I’ll stay in Foz for a week or two, and then return to Belém. The only thing that I don’t like about Belém is the prospect of another voyage up the Amazon. The ship I sailed on the first time had ultra-spartan accommodations, and the crew played loud music about 16 or 18 hours a day. That drove me crazy, but that’s the only way to get to Venezuela without flying. Upon disembarking, you board a bus in Manaus. I love Manaus,
warm every day of the year. Another option would be to choose another city not so far up the coast, a city like Recife, Fortaleza, Pernambuco or Bahia. Although the weather in Brazil is far superior to that of Argentina, there are some drawbacks. Prices are generally double. I’m a real amateur at the Portuguese language. Cyber cafés are few and far between and cost four times as much. However, if I do go to Venezuela, I will probably proceed from there to Puerto Rico, where I’ll be able to relax for a year or two. If Puerto Rico is to my liking, I may just stay permanently, contenting myself with shorter trips to places like Philippines and
India . I just don’t know. One thing you can count on is that you’ll never see me in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles again.
------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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