Papa Americano

In lieu of finding the words to describe the past six months traveling up from Buenos Aires to Nicaragua (I honestly can't remember any, Spanish or otherwise) I'm going to begin with a numbered list. And pictures. In no particular order:

1. Boat Crash in the Amazon. The Brazilian civil defense unit eventually kick into action and we're rescued by an aircraft carrier... eight days later.

2. Hot Sauce

can never get enough

3. I like big butts and I cannot lie: Anything and everything in Rio.

Ipanema Beach

Jesus Walks...

Wouldn't you?

4. Working hard at The Naked Tiger

The hardest workers the hostel has ever seen

5.  Finding a Lost City

La Ciudad Perdida, Colombia

6. Sailing the San Blas

Jump in

7. Anything PHat. And yeah, that's with a PH.

Colombia's most famous artist likes all things PHat

8. Street Parties, Southern hemisphere styleeeee

Lapa Street Party, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

9. Sunsets and beaches (including tandem canoe trips as seen below)

Playa Blanca, Cartagena, Colombia

10. Papa Americano. I heard this song once a day without fail - for an entire year.
 

The Dog Ate My Homework

I'm not going to make any excuses for my absence as of late because I just don't have the words. (honestly, I've forgotten how to write). Instead, I'm hoping this will say it all. 182 days (six months if you're into numbers) of this. With some productivity thrown in there for good measure...

San Blas Islands, snapped during a five day sailing trip from Colombia to Panama

The Modern Day Saints

Last article for The Argentina Independent:

Soldiers of God on a Mission. Virreyes, Buenos Aires (photo: Kate Redburn)

God's soldiers have arrived on Argentine turf. Self proclaimed 'Modern Day Saints', the Mormon missionaries of Buenos Aires trawl the streets of the city for converts. They preach on the Subte. They preach on the buses. They preach in the rain. And when they hear no, they preach some more.

B.A. is home to three Mormon missions; and South America is currently playing garden of Eden to 50 different missions, populated with solid mid-Western stock; young men with glowing white teeth and an urgent message to share. I trekked down to the Virreyes Mission in the North of the City to hear it from the experts... Click here to learn how to do it, Missionary Style. 

Santa's Little Helpers

It's summer in the southern hemisphere. Which not only mean's I'm sporting a tan (this has become a scary life goal), but also means that Christmas has just passed. Christmas isn't exactly on the agenda here - other than British expats flooding the beaches wearing santa hats (and I'll be honest here, I did the same), it seemed to pass without much note. But the good news is that Christmas elves never stop needing the loo. Northpole or not.

A Christmas elf in Bosques de Palermo Park, Buenos Aires

The Villas: The Sheratoncita

Slum tourism is a really buzz topic right now, as the favelas of Brazil welcome in busloads of visitors each day and the movie, Slum Dog Millionaire, suddenly made the shantytowns of Mumbai a tourist must-see. There are so many facets of the industry and so many faces involved:

Carlos Adrien outside The Sheratoncita

Carlos Adrien lives in Villa 31, the biggest shanty town in Buenos Aires. As Villa 31 is organizing itself into an established community with it's own governing system and an explosion of wrought iron houses instead of cardboard, he has decided to convert his own house into a hotel. Cleverly named the Sheratoncita, he certainly doesn't promise anything less... To read, A Weekend at the Villa: The Sheratoncita Hotel, click here.

(Photo: Shooresh Fezoni for The Argentina Independent)

The Villas: A Leg-Up

Of everything I have done for The Argentina Independent,  I think my favourite articles are the ones I wrote for the Villa series. I came across the stories on my first week here, so I was very glad when I finally found the contacts.

Guido Fuentes and the models on the rooftops of Villa 31

Guido Fuentes is a Bolivian hairdresser who runs a beauty school out of his kitchen in the biggest shanty town of Buenos Aires. The girls, age 11-22, put on fashion shows and do photo shoots in the Villa and beyond. Guido's unwavering sternness is the perfect anecdote to the energetic gaggle of models that flood his kitchen each week with make-up and costume demands to the max. To read the article, A Leg-Up: Catwalk Classes in Villa 31, click here.

A Hippy Haven

El Aldea is an ecocommunity hidden deep in the concrete jungle of Buenos Aires. Wedged between highrises and an airport, under a sky of smog, sits this Utopian community devoted to recycling and organic farming. I went a couple of times in order to write my article. I of course stood out like a sore thumb, but it wasn't long before I was eating a 'raw' cake made from ingredients gathered from dumpsters, and reveling barefoot with the best of them. The real clincher was right before lunch when we touched palms and closed our eyes in thanks - for about twenty minutes. Luckily the food was delicious. (To read my article click here)

...Can't you tell?