RECUERDOS DE SUDAMÉRICA I: THE IMAGE OF MARTÍN FIERRO

During my just-completed South American journey I discovered a rather remarkable piece of art hanging from a pillar inside La Escalera, which is one of the most thorough gift shops in the Argentine city of Cafayate, in Salta province. This piece is a solid piece of wood planking nearly 1" thick and measuring roughly 18"x24". The above image is mounted on the wood base and comes from a vintage 1937 calendar that had been published by the Argentine textile giant, Alpargatas Textil (aka the Sociedad Anónima Fábrica de Alpargatas, founded in 1883), who specialize in gaucho clothing, and especially the manufacture of the distinctive rope-soled gaucho sandals, known as alpargatas.
The verse that accompanies the image comes from the epic gaucho poem Martín Fierro (1872), by José Hernández, and the subtitle to the image itself is "El Boliche de Virtú," which translates into the "little shop of virtue." The four phrases included are excerpted from canto IV of the poem, and relate to the relative importance of this little business for the goods (drinks and items to consume as food or medicinals) the pulpero serves to his clients.
The mounted piece appears as a truly striking work of art, and although I could find out little on the original artist, whose signature on the image is "Lavattaro," a name of Italian origin, the artist who mounted and laminated the image is a Cafayate local named Hector Habrhan. Later editions of the calendar published by this same textile company were illustrated by the famed F. Molina Campos.
Anyway, even though it was a piece of relative substantial size and substance, I could not resist buying it and bringing it back with me. As it was, the package barely fit inside the larger of my two suitcases, so I was lucky in that regard for not having to pay an exorbitant fee for shipping. Instead, it took up quite a bit of luggage space while making that particular suitcase even heavier than it had been at the time of my departure.
My purpose with this piece of art is not to further clutter up my already over-full wall space in my small home but rather, to be a donation to the Western Folklife Center, which is the organization which puts on the famous National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, held every year in Elko, Nevada. A couple of years ago they featured the work of several gaucho artists, and last December they sponsored a folklife exchange visit to Brasil and Argentina.
It is my intention that this piece will be sold at the Silent Auction, which takes place every year during the Gathering as a means of generating funds that go towards the continued operation of the Folklife Center. And for donors such as myself, in this case, it becomes a tax-deductible donation.
Anyway, I should say that from time to time I will plan to post additional materials here on this blog that might pertain to some aspect of South America, either something that came directly from my travels, or perhaps something of interest that relates to the region in general. In other words, even though I am home now, I will try to keep the blog going, so please, feel free to visit from time to time. Chao, amigos.

CHILE-ARGENTINA 2007: A FINAL WRAP

Okay, so I am sitting in front of the computer in the office of LYS Rent A Car in Santiago Centro. Andres´main office assistant is off to his almuerzo (lunch) so I´m going to just have a little fun with some images I´ve culled from the internet and put up some final thoughts on this very

successful third trip through Chile and Argentina. I suppose that I could try to give ID´s to images where appropriate, but the formatting of this blogging system might not make for really accurate notation. Anyway, to the left is a classic old tango image, I think from maybe about 1920?

And below is a copy of a lithograph of one of the head Libertadores himself, the Argentine San Martín, who is credited with liberating both countries, back in 1818, when he, along with his Chilean counterparts under Bernardo O´Higgins, routed the Spanish in the Battle of Maipú.

Now here is the map of the route that led from Paso de Jama into the Northwestern Argentine Province of Jujuy. I drove part of that route this time around, past Susques and to the edge of the Salinas Grandes, where I turned southward on the unpaved dirt track that cut across that emptiness in the direction of San Antonio De Los Cobres and my rather unplanned accompaniment in that double vehicle rescue over the summit of Abra Del Acay and failed attempt to reach Cafayate in a timely manner. Now here´s more Tango, for those of you out there who are total music history freaks: That´s the immortal "founder" of the tango, the great Carlos Gardel, whose music still reverbrates loudly down in these parts, especially in Argentina.


And of course, if you dig the sort of real gaucho folksinging, here is a photo of another immortal but still dead Argentine musician, Jorge Cafrune, whose gritty and soulful music is at least as gutsy as anything that Woody Guthrie or Ramblin´Jack Elliot ever sang. Too bad his music is not better known outside of Latin America. He was incredible, and Todo Argentino!

More Gaucho culture here with the artwork of the great Argentine artist and illustrator F. Molino Campos, with this little gem that came from the website at www.folkloredelnorte.com.ar

Lastly, in order to prove that this is not all meant to revere the soulfulness of the Argentines, here is an image of the great Chilean songwriter and martyr, Victor Jara, whose incredibly creative life was rudely snuffed out during the September 11, 1973 Golpe Del Estado in Chile, which was the military coup that ousted the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, and installed General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte as the head of the military junta that would rule the country with an iron fist for the next 17 years.

Oh, did I just finish traveling here, you bet I did. And now I will officially declare that there is a good chance I will be back again, perhaps as soon as this coming December. So stay tuned, my amigos, there could soon be more adventures to come for the Atacama Viajero.

LAST DAY AT ISLA NEGRA: LA CASA DE NERUDA

Yesterday I thought it appropriate to once again visit the famed house of the late, great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda during my last day in Isla Negra. The image you see above is of an elderly gentleman gazing out of a glass door that stands next to a large mural of Neruda, in the reception hall of the main building of the Fundación Neruda, next to the poet´s house. This building houses the offices of the Fundación, as well as the bookstore, a cafe, and the registration desk for tours of the house.


Now I didn´t go in for the tour, choosing instead to just walk the grounds and buy a book in the bookstore, Neruda´s Canto General, which includes one of his most famous poems, "Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu."
Now, the more I read Neruda, the more I am struck by the power of his imagery. And although I consider my command of Spanish to be limited, I have enough under my belt to appreciate how his Castellano can be so precise and carry such magnitude. Canto General is considered to be one of his essential works. It contains 15 chapters, beginning with "La Lampara en la Tierra" and followed by "Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu." These first two chapters embrace the majestic natural beauty of the South American continent before the conquest in some of the most expressive poetry I have ever read. But the third chapter is entitled "Los Conquistadores," which I finished reading last night in my cabaña. You can imagine that such a master of the language could lay out the most precise and chilling indictment of the conquistadors as one could ever expect to find, and in fact, he does so with such a natural skill that I, for one, was astounded. Neruda holds no quarter for the likes of Cortéz, Pizzarro, Valdivia and their fellows, so now I am anxious to begin my reading of the fourth chapter, "Los Libertadores."

Anyway, a short time ago I arrived back in Santiago, and I delivered that trusty Toyota Hilux that had carried me along across Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina for these past four weeks to my agent here. This time there were no sorrowful incidents like that time in February 2006 when I had the collision with the llama in the remotest parts of Argentina´s Jujuy Province. . .this trip actually ended up being nearly flawless, for which I am certainly thankful.
Perhaps tomorrow I will try to post one more piece here, to put a final wrap on this third trip through the countries of Chile and Argentina. So check back, my friends.
Chao.

ACROSS THE ANDES AND BACK TO CHILE

So once more I pushed my trusty rented 4x4 Toyota Hilux up across the high Andes, on the route leading west from Mendoza, Argentina and back into Chile. Actually, the above image is the view of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, as seen from the vista point only a couple of kilometers from the Chilean border.

But Aconcagua is not the only mountain of note on this very aerial crossing point. The above image shows another very high peak, seen from a distance through a high, lonesome quebrada on the Argentine side of the border.

The third picture will give you a bit of perspective on the depth of the valleys (or the height of the peaks, with the road visible at the bottom of the frame. This last shot was taken on the Chilean side, after passing through customs.

Anyway, It was a long, slow traversal of the mountains, partly due to the presence of many trucks, each one laboring up (and down) in their lower gears on the narrow, winding two-lane highway. Also, the highway departments of both countries were busy making road repairs. The other thing that made the drive go so slowly were the numerous (TOO NUMEROUS) police check points on the Argentine side of the pass. Such repeated (and in my mind, unnecessary) authoritarian incursions tends to be intimidating (at least it is for me), and I really got to a point where I wanted to just tell one of the Gendarmes to "stuff it," but my better self told me that such a negative act would only serve to land me in a very messy situation, so politeness was always the rule.

And thanks to my sense of restraint, I am now here on the Chilean coast, renting a cozy little cabaña in Los Tabos, a sleepy little resort town just down the road ( maybe 4 km only) from the late, great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda´s fabled ocean home at Isla Negra. Actually, I stayed here back in November, 2005, at the start of my last South American adventure, so I feel it is right that this one, my third excursion, ends up here. I will be staying here until the morning of March 8th, strolling the beach and doing little of importance before making the 120 km drive back to Santiago on that date. So this will likely be my last post before returning to that city, and then perhaps I will try to put up one last blog post from there to put a wrap on this journey. Remember, I fly out from Santiago on the evening of March 10.

So until that last post from the road, that´s it from here.

Chao, amigos.

THE GRAND CITY OF MENDOZA

So there´s time for one more stop here in Argentina - the grand city of Mendoza, best-kown as the place where 80% of the country´s wine is produced. Besides the great wine, Mendoza prides itself in the stately appearance of its broad avenues, many of which are shaded by long rows of tall and stately London Plane Trees. The centro is full of fine outdoor cafes and elegant shops catering to the more unique tastes of the tourist crowd. The impressive Plaza Independencia (shown in the above picture) fills up on the weekends with booths run by the local artisans of the region.
It is the comercial and administrative center for this part of Argentina as well, and for many visitors it is the perfect jumping off point for visits to the high Andes and Cerro Aconcagua (6962 meters, or 22,836 ft. elevation), sometimes called the "roof of the Americas" and the highest point in the hemisphere.
Anyway, I got in here yesterday afternoon after spending my previous day at Villa Dolores, where I met the father (Dr. Domingo José Martino) , brother (Sebastiano), and best friend (Hugo Tello) of my old Argentine pal Matías Martino, who unfortunately could not be there since he happens to be going to the United States tomorrow on a work assignment.
A word should be said about the good time I had in my short visit to Villa Dolores and the fine hospitality of Dr. Martino, who fed me and put me up in his home. Also, Hugo took me for a fascinating tour of some of the local outdoor highlights in the region, including a hike in the mountains that separate that valley, known as the "Traslasierra," from the city of Córdoba.

This photo here shows the view from the vista point on the trail that looks down into the Río Mina Clavado, near its source. Its waters flow out from these mountains to invigorate the agrigultural pursuits in the area around the town of Mina Clavado and Villa Dolores. Hugo and I hiked there to see the waterfalls that pour down from the heights and are considered to be the source of the river.





We were planning to go further to check out some more views, but the winds picked up and became something of a force to be reckoned with, as witnessed by this shot of some pampas grass being bent by the force of the wind. I asked Hugo if these winds were a normal occurrence and he said they were very extraordinary, that usually it is calm. It even became a thing of concern for driving on the winding mountain road, so we cut our tour short and returned to Villa Dolores. So it goes.

When I left Villa Dolores yesterday morning I was thinking that I had enough time left before I am scheduled to return the truck that I was going to cross back into Chile and then drive southward as far as Los Angeles, to visit again my German friends Winfried and Elke at the Hosteria "El Rincón," but when I got into Mendoza I decided that I would have to at least spend one day taking in this city, so now I am planning to cross back into Chile tomorrow, and just drive out to the coast, likely near the late, great poet Pablo Neruda´s famous home at Isla Negra, to rent a small cabaña for my last couple of days before my mandatory return to Santiago on March 8th. Then It will be time to bid South America good-bye once again, when my return flight to the USA leaves on the evening of March 10.

But don´t think that this trip is over yet. I still have to cross those Andes. . .

ROLLING ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL ARGENTINA

Considering how difficult traversing the vast expanses of this rather huge and beautiful country, I was amazed today how quickly I was able to cut across the flat but thickly-vegetated regions south of Catamarca. But before I go forward with that, let me just mention the lead photo I posted, which came from the rainy crossing of a very spectacular canyon that cuts right through the Selva Subtropical Yungay, which is north of Catamarca. Looks like a real jungle, doesn´t it?
Anyway, the Ruta Nacional 38 below Catamarca is a long and straight road - and in surprisingly good condition too. I felt I was rolling along just as rapidly as I did when I went north on Chile´s portion of the Panamerican Highway a couple of weeks back.
But the road passes through a vcariety of ecological/vegetation zones, from the near-jungle in the above picture to a near-Paraguayan Chaco-type of thick brush, sticky heat and the nastiest flies you can imagine. I stopped at a hermitage dedicated to a priest where I managed to take a few pictures (not shown here) before my truck got filled with a voacious bunch of biting flies! I had a heck of a time getting rid of them.

Anyway, a bit farther down the trail from the buggy hermitage I encountered a typical cemetery in SE La Rioja Province. These photos of a few of the mausoleums will show that once upon a time, these people had the money to be interred in style, but I think it is all old Argentine money, as the faces on the tombs all looked like their prime was in the early days of the 20th Century. The town this particular cemetery is located is known as Serrezuela, and is located just west of the Córdoba Provincial boundary. I thought it was also interesting to note that there were almost as many mausoleums in the cemetery as there were houses in the town...

Farther south still, I reached the point where Ruta Nacional 38 connects with Ruta Provincial 15 (Córdoba Province), which is my road that will take me into Villa Dolores tomorrow. As I followed this route, I got another good blast of rain (see photo of the storm) which was enough to wash off all the dead bugs from my windshield. The river in the photo was also from the same spot as the cumulus cloud picture - just looking down off the bridge instead of up to the sky.

Anyway, like I said, I got farther today than I had expected, finally booking a room in a nice hotel in the somewhat tourist town of Mina Clavado. But now that it is March 1st, tourist season is past, so I think I can enjoy the somewhat mellow atmosphere, and will continue doing that for a time in the morning, since Villa Dolores is only 50 km away.

When I pull in there around noon tomorrow I will be meeting the father of my friend Matias Martino for the first time. I am planning to stay there through March 3rd, and then will start my way back to Chile on the 4th.

Stay tuned, there is still plenty of territory to cross on this one, which means numerous potential adventures.

Chao, for now, amigos.