1721  Notes from Buenos Aires 21

Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 21:53:43 -0500
From: Rick McGarrey <RICKMCG@FLASH.NET>
Subject: Notes from Buenos Aires 21

Trucho
(Part 1 of 2)

We went to Cordoba and Iguazu Falls last week.
Cordoba is Argentina's second city. It sits in the
middle of the Pampas, and for me it has the feel of a
prosperous mid-continent U.S. city. The first thing I
saw at their neatly manicured little airport was a
bunch of good old boys in baseball caps that looked
like they were used to handling livestock- exactly the
sort of guys you would see waiting for a family member
at an airport in Colorado Springs or Amarillo.
Cordoba is slower paced than BsAs, and it is also more
spread out because it isn't jammed up against a
coastline. It has a pretty river running though it,
and downtown they have closed off a lot of the streets
to car traffic and made some very nice walking around
space. We found a Wednesday night milonga that was so
much like something in the U.S. it was scary. It was
in an upscale restaurant called 'El Arrabal'(?), that
looked exactly like a thousand similar places in
affluent U.S. suburbs. The dancers all had a sort of
dentist/tennis player look. Almost none of them
smoked, and they all looked lean and fit from working
out at their athletic clubs. It was quite a switch
from the gritty dissolutes we're used to in the BsAs
clubs. They even had a sort of inhibited, analytical
gringo way of dancing tango that made me swear I was
back in the States, and they spotted Alejandra and me
as big city folk right away. I'm from the Mountain
West, so it's not easy for me to feel like a
sophisticate, but both here and in Salta that's what
we were. After the Salta experience, where we became
more or less celebrity guests every time we went to a
milonga, we learned to keep a low profile... but in
Cordoba they were going to have a show with a
bandoneon and tango singer, and the first thing the
man with the microphone did was head straight for my
hiding place in the corner. I won't go into the
details- let's just say it's never easy trying to be
clever with a microphone in your face, especially when
the conversation is taking place in Castellano.

We rented a car and drove around the Sierras de
Cordoba Mountains a little, and then we flew to Iguazu
Falls. Iguazu is a well known tourist attraction in
the north on the edge of Paraguay and Brazil. I was
hoping to walk across the bridges and set foot in both
countries just to say I'd done it, but since 9-11 easy
border crossings seem to be a thing of the past, so I
looked but couldn't touch. Paraguay supposedly has
some terrorist activity, and the place did look a
little dangerous from our viewpoint across the Parana
River. The lady at the souvenir stand said don't go
over- those Paraguayos are not to be trusted!

Iguazu Park is a tropical forest with a huge line of
spectacular waterfalls sitting in the middle. We
stayed at a hotel right in the park. If you're the
kind of person who likes your wilderness experience
along with about thirty thousand other people, say in
Yosemite Valley or the South Rim of the Grand Canyon
in August, then Iguazu is for you. The park logo
shows a colorful, smiling toucan bird with a large
bright yellow beak. In reality, there are none- other
than the wooden ones sold in the dozens of shops in
the park. The helicopters that roar over the falls
every minute of the day, and the power boats that roar
up the river, have long since driven them over to
Paraguay to live with the terrorists (who are much
quieter and friendlier). It gets worse. Each evening
at 6 PM we were sealed inside the hotel, to 'protect
the wildlife' until 8am, when we were awakened by the
roar of the boats and choppers. Late the first night,
sealed in the hotel, I looked out and saw lights
flashing in the forest and around the falls. I asked
about it, and they said there were special tours. For
$80 you could go out into the park at night and shoot
off flash bulbs.

The whole park infrastructure must have been designed
by airport architects. This is the truth: you are
NEVER allowed to touch the ground! They have a people
mover type shuttle train that goes from the parking
lot at the entrance and deposits everyone onto metal
ramps that are set on pylons. The ramps are very
similar to the ones used to board planes in airports,
except the tops are cut off, so you can see out. You
enter the ramps, and then move along at a the speed of
the slowest person ahead of you, just like boarding an
airplane. Except that people can't smoke boarding
airplanes, and here people are smoking in front and
behind. The entire park consists of about a mile and
a half of these ramps. You can see the forest around
you, and they lead to some spectacular views of the
falls, but the 'lookout modules' are literally jammed
with people. There are professional photographers on
step ladders constantly yelling at people to get out
of the way, so they can shoot customers pictures with
the falls in the background. There is only one way
to get out of the chutes, and that's with a pass.
Travelers can buy different colored badges that run
from the Cub for $30 up to the Shackleton Explorer for
over $100. I was a little too timid for such things,
but I did see people wearing bicycle helmets and life
jackets being rowed away to adventure in inflatable
rafts, as guides in Marlin Perkins outfits and
loudspeakers entertained them with jungle stories.

There are supposed to be monkeys, birds, and jaguars,
but the only wildlife we saw was a small band of
coatis that roam from the shopping arcade, to the
hotel pool, to the snack bar at the 'Garganta del
Diablo' people mover station. Each one is fitted with
a blue ear tag, and a large orange collar, and they
are constantly followed by tourists with cameras. As
I watched them I had a sudden pang of sympathy for
Gavito and his pals as they ride the circuit from
Canning, to Nino Bien, to El Beso. I suppose if the
guys in the funny hats who dance street tango in San
Telmo turn you on, you might love Iguazu.

(End of Part 1)

Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 10:48:17 -0300
From: la guacha <lamasguacha@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Notes from Buenos Aires 21

"There are supposed to be monkeys, birds, and jaguars,
but the only wildlife we saw was a small band of
coatis that roam from the shopping arcade, to the
hotel pool, to the snack bar at the 'Garganta del
Diablo' people mover station. Each one is fitted with
a blue ear tag, and a large orange collar, and they
are constantly followed by tourists with cameras. As
I watched them I had a sudden pang of sympathy for
Gavito and his pals as they ride the circuit from
Canning, to Nino Bien, to El Beso. I suppose if the
guys in the funny hats who dance street tango in San
Telmo turn you on, you might love Iguazu."

He sure is nasty under the guise of 'sympathy', isn't he?