The Blaus - South America and Europe

January 15th- Villa Gesell - Argentine Atlantic Coast

We arrived this morning in Villa Gesell, which is about 6 hours south by bus down the coast. We left at 5 AM, and haven`t really slept yet. The pronunciation of Villa Gesell is very hard, and nothing like what we would say in English, so when we said where we were going at the bus station, all we got were strange looks. Then someone finally figured out that we meant, ¨Bija Hesey¨ is how they say it, and helped us get the right bus. It is a small beach town, and where Che Gueveras first stop on his motorcycle journey around Latin America about 50 years ago. Che is a huge hero in Argentina (he is Argentine), and from what we have heard, a hero all over Latin America. He was a medical student, who decided to take a motorcyle journey with his friend across all of Latin America (as seen in the movie Motorcyle Diaries), and when he confronted all the poverty of his America, he decided to dedicate his life to changing what he could by empowering the people and promoting violent means to do so. Many years later he joined Fidel Castro and was instrumental in the overthrow of the Cuban government and the beginnings of Communism there. He is looked at here as a revolutionary who had given his life for the people of South America. He was killed about 30 years ago with the help of the CIA in Bolivia.

In all of our converstaions with people here, Che is often mentioned, and his cause is always talked about. The Latin Americans have a deep and complicated history, and are very much anti-American poltically. However, they are nice to us on a personal level, but our politics and American hegemony has left deep scars here. We stayed up last night all night before our bus speaking with an Italian guy who now lives in BsAs, who works at our guest house, and he told us a lot about how Argentines view the world and particularly Americans. They are unhappy with our corporations and how they have taken so much of the natural resources of their land and profited themselves, but given very little back to the people here. They are also keenly aware that our government has supported multiple repressive regimes in the region to secure those natural resources for American companies at cheap costs, and therefore have helped lead to the suffering of the masses. Anyway, the more we talk to people, the more we learn about their thoughts and views. The Latin American view of the world is very different than the American world view, and it has been interesting for us to get inside their heads and see things from their viewpoint. We both hope to continue to learn as much as possible about the people while we go further along the journey.

One thing about Villa Gesell is that it is a bit of a party town for younger Argentines, about 18 to 21 years old. It is buzzing with familiar music and kids looking to have fun. We were told in advance of this, and that the girls here are ¨hysterical.¨ Not knowing what that meant, we asked, and that is the word Argentine guys use to describe young women as teases. Not sure about that, but it was a funny story, at first we thought all the girls in the town would be running around screaming and crying or laughing hysterically. That does not seem to be the case.

The Italian guy that we talked with (Fabio) has been in Argentina for over a year now. He doesn´t have residency to work and live here, but he can stay in Argentina by leaving the country and returning every 90 days. He goes to Uruguay for the weekend every 3 months to get his passport stamped, and this allows him to remain in Argentina for another 90 days. Anyway, now we know how foreigners manage to live here, and we plan to continue dreaming up our own schemes while we go south and explore the rest of the country.

posted by The Blaus @ 10:11 PM