HopStopTravel.com » art

Resistence is futile

Sarit Reizin — Thu, 25 May 2006 21:15:00 +0000

Just our luck. Coming in to town we find out that every hotel room in town is booked due to some Evangelistic convention, some sport championship, and another event we don’t even remember. We came to the town of Resistencia to see for ourselves at least a small portion of the some three hundred sculptures scattered in the area. I was really excited about this place, so we stored our backpacks with a very nice hotel manager and for about five hours roamed the streets.

What we found was very interesting, but it wasn’t only statues. It was the day of 25th of May, and we should have guessed there will be a celebration in every town in Argentina on this date, as pretty much every city, town, and village, we’ve visited so far had a “twenty fifth of May” plaza. It was something like the Argentinean Independence Day, the history of which I’m going to spare you. The streets were full of people, and the children were dressed in national costumes. Also was there a parade featuring about everyone in town, almost to the point that we were wondering who were the people watching this thing if all the schools, clubs, and organizations in town were in the parade with all their members.

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The simple life

Sarit Reizin — Thu, 18 May 2006 04:00:00 +0000

Never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I have grown tired of big cities. If you know me, you must know that I always spoke of NY, for example, as of a kindred spirit and portrayed myself always as a city girl mortified by suburbs. Now though, while I still cringe at the idea of living in a suburban area, I also must admit that after shlepping around Argentina’s Mendoza and Chile’s Santiago for a few days, I’m ready to move on to a less crowded area where most roads are dirt roads, and where I don’t have to clench my handbag every time I go outside.
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Heaven on Earth

Sarit Reizin — Sat, 13 May 2006 04:00:00 +0000

“Heaven on Earth,” said a Russian guy selling matrioshkas (babushkas) on the weekend artisan market. “You came here in the wrong time, though. In the summer everything here looks much livelier, but even now when it doesn’t, this is still the best place to live. I have cabins near here that I rent, with banya (Russian sauna). Built it myself. I’m also building a house. Move over a bit guys, I’m still trying to sell here. Were was I, oh yeah, I’m building a house all on my own, bit by bit, and you know much the tax on my land is for a year? Fifteen dollars. That’s all! Both my cars, never registered. If the police stops me, they just check on the computer that the car isn’t stolen and send me on my way. ‘Carry on chief,’ they say. And so many things here are free. The gas, the education, medicine. It’s communism, I tell you. The good kind. I know a couple of academics that came here from Simferopol a year ago with nothing. They started making little gnomes from play-doh and selling them at the market, just like I’m doing. Now they have a house, a car, and a motor boat. I’m telling you, this is the best place to live. Heaven on Earth.”

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Montevideo, Uruguai

Sarit Reizin — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 04:00:00 +0000

Even though Uruguay and Argentina share a border and some cultural features like Tango and Mate, they definitely don’t share the same schedule. Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the capitals, could not be more different. We did hear that Uruguay is laid back, but we could not even start imagining how much. While in BA every day of the week every place around would be open till dark and many restaurants into the wee hours of the night; here, in Montevideo, we could barely find an open place to eat or shop on a weekend afternoon.
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Drawings for the gods

Sarit Reizin — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 09:11:00 +0000

Nazca probably would be completely unknown if not only for the famous gigantic drawings, known to us as the Nazca Lines. Created thousands of years ago by the Nazca people, many wonder what is the purpose of these lines, but one thing is certain — the only way to really appreciate these drawings is to take a ride in a small, six seater plane and fly above them banking almost 90% for a better view.
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See salt sea

Sarit Reizin — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 02:59:00 +0000

Once again we reach a site where the pictures are worth a thousand words. Well correction, we’ve reached about ten such sites over the next three days. To tell you the truth, I would have preferred to do this whole drive on my own, without a guide, if only the book didn’t say that to do that I would need a car, a GPS, and a loose screw in the head. Honestly, this trip did not require a guide, just a driver, and that is exactly what we got from the tour company we chose.

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Most expensive meal

Sarit Reizin — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 06:59:00 +0000

La Paz turned out to be a beautiful city with a huge and busy market where Shurik almost got pickpocketed; very political street art not only in form of highway side graffiti, but also on huge canvases displayed in public parks; and even something called the Witches Market, which turned out to be quite disappointing since, apart from bunches of dried up frogs and lama fetuses, it did not differ from any other market we have seen in South America so far.

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