Brazilian power brokers

Hello folks

Its been a good month or so here in South America.

We flew into Buenos Aires, after all the clean up/set up that needed to take place before leaving Seattle. Arrived at our couch surfing host in the old town of San telco. What great people and place to acclimatize for the first few days in Argentina. The large colonial apartment has a grand balcony over the numerous bars and restaurants.

Yet within a few days, we took off for the southern extremes of the pampas and winelands. We had signed up for 4 days in a rural house called Casa Magica with los kukis. We had arrived in the middle of a contact improv dance 'retreat'. (Our main reason for coming to South America and Argentina, in particular).

The people there were so friendly and helpful, Lisa had wondered if it might actually end up as the best part of the trip.

We carried further on to Bariloche in the mountains bordering Chile. Strange to be back in the cool wet weather so familiar to the Northwest. We ran into our dance friends in that extra touristy town. But were back in Buenos Aires for our contact improv dance teacher conference before too long.

The first couple of nights were gruelling and exhilarating; feeling a little out of shape but meeting such great dancers from the area. We sweated through the 5 days in this beautiful colonial building. Lunches were provided.We had some cultural misunderstandings, and my Spanish isn't strong enough for fluent, fast group dialogue. Nonetheless we really enjoyed the jams.

After some wayward dawdling after the conference and some great jams, one in the park, and another at an ariel studio, we moved on to Uruguay. One of the few countries these days without the punitive 'reciprocity' laws. So yes, if you havnt heard, a number of countries have decided to strike back at the north Americas, racists immigration rules, and rightly so, since the discrimination has been going on for so long. So, to explain quickly, whatever our countries have a prerequisites for these ones, they ask for in return. and I tell you, its extreme! Really negating visas doesn't compromise the already extensive power that immigration officials already have.

An American friend of our couchsurf hosts dropped in from a local tech conference, offering their lovely beach house here in Punta Del Diablo Uruguay. Apparently voted the top 10 places to visit by Lonely Planet. We agree, its great!

Today we went to Brazil, 3 times. Its easy in the border town of Chuy, one simply crosses the main street to the other side. All too many expensive 'duty free' shops in the town. And really the Brazilian economy is on fire, its true. We mistakenly bought a small bottle of contact lens solution for 34 dollars $U.S. Maybe we can take it back tomorrow. You see we need to return, since non of the bank machines were functioning (and this is before the massive ominous storm cloud appeared in the horizon and swallowed the town). Perhaps we should go to another country since the machines weren't any use to us on the Uruguayan side of the street. We tried a couple of the bank machines in the Brazilian banks, but no luck. The power had gone off but the machines were still on. So we tried again, with one of the tellers from inside the darkened bank. Again and again, at last with the proper series of swipes and Portuguese selection the money was clicking along and ready to pop out… and then lightening struck and the power went black! So maybe someone out there gets to have that money, and likely it can be recovered, but we still have to go back, since we didn't get any...