Loes in the Andes

This month we did not want to stay in the busy city (Buenos Aires), so we went to discover the country side of Argentina. We rented a car and drove to Cordoba, Talampaya National Park, Villa Union, Chilecito, Tinogasta, Salta and Tucuman. The Andes are fantastic beautiful mountains with different colours and shadings and many layers of rock.
The climate is very very hot during the day and in the evening clouds and often thunder and lightning is hanging over the mountain tops. Loes in Spanish means LIGHT so I really felt at home with the lightning in the mountains.

Our first stop was Cordoba 700km away from Buenos Aires. It is a town with very helpful happy people and a lot cheaper than Buenos Aires. Cordoba is very religious, because it was one of the first settlements of the Spanish Catholic priests in the 16 century.

We stayed 3 days in Cordoba. Dad and Steven went to the soccer stadium with the owner of the apartment we stayed in and saw a very exciting soccer match.. They only came home at 4 am because they had their dinner after the match. Mom and I 'shopped' a lot in the little street without cars. We tried to do and see as many things as we could. We went to Mercado de Pulgas (Shopping street) and the beautiful Evita Peron Ferreira House with an interesting exposition about the military government and the terrible things they did to the women. We also went into big churches and cathedrals.

We drove on into the Andes and passed the Talampaya National Park. Dry and red sand everywhere with beautiful rocks and mountains and some of the tops had snow on it while the temperature around the car was 38degrees. We slept in ChileCito and when I woke up I thought I was in Rio De Janeiro. I ones saw a picture with the Corcovado- the huge statue of Jesus Christ- and here in ChileCito there was the same big statue. This little town was 507km from Cordoba and sleeps twice a day. People are around in the morning till 13.00 o'clock and disappear for a long siesta until 18.00 hours. Then everyone comes to the village and ride their motor bikes (without helmet) and pickup cars in circles around the Plaza (central square of the town). They meet and chat and eat ice-creams (Hmmmmm).
When we wanted to leave there was no petrol in the stations and no money in the banks to pay cash for everything, so we had to wait a few days to for the petrol and until the banks had cash delivered again.
Steven en I did not mind! The B&B had a very big swimming pool and a table soccer game. The little house was very coulourful and clean and we had breakfast in a basket in front of our door.

Our next stop was in Tinogasta (= Meeting Place), a small town 1,310 km from Buenos Aires.It has approx. 20,000 people and is surrounded by beautiful mountains and by a dessert. It is at the foot of the Andes close to Chile. The area is "famous" as the last place where the Incas were hiding for the Spanish colonists. They all died 500 years ago. But for us the main reason to visit Tinogasto was to find a friend of my mom and dad from the time they studied together. We asked around in town and found Monique and her family. What a great SURPRISE! It was like we knew them already for years and played with their three daughters; Ambar, Nadia and Jessy. They had Olivos, a camping with a large pool and even cabanas (little house) were we stayed. They have horses, dogs, cats and even two lamas walking around Olivas.
They were the best guides and showed us all the nice places. We went horse riding in the Campo (bush just before the Andes mountains starts). Nadia taught me how to gallop (joehoe). They showed us secret places were we found many parts of pottery and pipes from the Incas. On the rocks were also paintings from the Incas. After we collected parts of pottery, we went to a private 'museum' of a man who - sine he was a small boy - collected pottery parts, stones, spear points and even an skeleton of an Inca that he found. The next day we went into the mountains towards Chile and saw a huge creepy Tarantula spider crossing the road. We also went to Fiambala Term pools and bathed in many rock pools, each with their own small little waterfall and its own temperature. It started with 25∘ degrees up to-50degrees. In the evening we had an Asado (braai) with all the family and friends of the father of Carlos. It was very cozy and a real Fiesta Argentina. It was the best stay!

We were late in Tucuman, we couldn't see a lot but there were many shops and cathedrals.It is the fifth biggest city after Buenos Aires,Cordoba, Rosario and Mendoza.It's 1,311 km from Buenos Aires.The social life starts at night when the people meet at the market or at the Plaza in the middle of the town.

 FINALLY HAVE INTERNET
(please leave a comment!!!)f
Thank you  from kreeft on the move

Farewell new friends

fHockey+ Soccer
Last week we played hockey and soccer for the last time in  Argentina, because we are going for 3 weeks to see the northwest part of this big country. First to Cordoba, the 2nd largest city, then to Villa Union (a place in the middle of nowhere), Tinogasta (to find a school friend of my parents) and mostly Salta near the Andes mountains. It was a fun 2 months in Buenos Aires and hockey-wise I learned many skills and Steven learned to control the ball even better. My new hockey friends were very kind. They gave me many hugs and kisses and they made me walk through their own 'goodbye-arch' made of hockey sticks. They also gave me a small mascot and a batch to remember the Hockey Club San Telmo. It was a little statue of a girl with a hockey stick wearing the colors of San Telmo Club. I am glad I received their Facebook names so we can chat in Spanish.We had a surprise for Steven, because he did so well in soccer he got a ticket to go to a local soccer game with my dad.


Tango lessons
In beginning of February I (finally) started  real Tango lessons.
The Tango is a difficult and serious dance to learnb. I took 2 weeks to learn the basic steps and now I can do even turning and spinning.... See the movie clip from a week ago with my 'partner'. A lot of people tell me that I need to have life experience to do the tango, because I can then also  have the right (serious and sad) look in my face. There are a group of people with partners and they are taught by a maestra (female teacher) and a maestro (male teacher). They stand in the middle of the class and do the steps and then you will follow individually and then with your partner. There are different kinds of tango-music; there is slow and sad, but there is also quick and happy. The slow and sad one I started in the beginning of February, but now since a few days, I can do the fast and happy tango steps.YAAAY !!

           Buses - Collectivo 
In Buenos Aires, the public transport is very good. There are many buses going around and you never have to wait longer then five minutes. There is a bus stop at every street. There are many people going with the bus to work and children going to school. You have to pay coins in a machine for a bus trip that will cost 1.20 pesos (R2.40). But the government made debit cards so there is no time lost at the bus stops for people having to pay cash. This card is named "Sube-card" and you fill them up in shops and then you hold it against a machine in the bus that will automatically take 1.20 pesos off. We mostly took Collectivo #17 between Recoleta and San Telmo. Ones when Steven went to soccer he was the only one in the the bus with a lady that was about to give birth. When I went home from hockey the bus was always full with Portenos and we one night had all of a sudden a small accident. The streets are narrow and the buses big and when the bus stopped at the side of the road to pick up more people, the bus driver hit a car which he didn't see. The car had a lot of damage.So we had to wait for at least a half hour to drive on again.

Thank you those who have left comments last week!!
Gracias Esteban, Germaine, Gaap y Louisa

Train crash and interview with Tony Leon

This was a very hectic week in Buenos Aires. There were 2 accidents in front of our apartment block and a terrible train crash which shocked Buenos Aires.

Breaking news = TRAIN CRASH
On Wednesday 22 Febuary, the people of Buenos Aires went back to work after a long (Carnival) weekend. In the morning rush hour a train loaded with commuters drove into the train station of "Once" (centre of Buenos Aires) but failed to stop. The train crashed into the end of the platform and the wagons crashed into each other. There were 50 people killed and 600 wounded. This train crash is the worst train crash since 40 years ago. The whole day it was in the news, the many relatives and fathers and mothers were angry since they said that they did not get any information of where their sons, daughters and friends were, in hospital or dead?
I also found it very scary since we were there just some days before, when we went to Plaza Misere (where the station 'Once' is) to take the train to the Bolivian area.
The real reason of the accident is not officially known yet, but the Portenos say that it is due to lack of maintenance of the train (brakes) -as so many things here in the city are not so well maintained.

                                                                                                                

      INTERVIEW WITH TONY LEON

      

      On Thursday 23rd February I was lucky to visit the ambassador of South Africa in Argentina, Mr Tony Leon. In an interview I had with him (Steven came with me to take photos) he told me that he was born in Durban, South Africa born on 15th December 1956 and that he lives now with his wife in Argentina. He has also 2 children in South Africa at the University of Cape Town. Mr Leon has been the ambassador of South Africa in Argentina/Paraguay and Uruguay since September 2009. 

      There are about 100 South Africans living in Argentina. 

      He confirmed that there were no South Africans or South African tourists in the train crash from the day before, because the train came from the west where there is not much to see or to do for the tourists. 

       He explained to me why South Africa was important for Argentina and why Argentina is important to South 
       Africa. South Africa exports mainly coal to Argentina 
       and Argentina exports soy-beans to South Africa.    

      Mr Leon found the Economy of Argentina an interesting challenge and the level of price inflation concerning. (I also noticed that the -chocolate-milk and the bus-fare is more expensive now than 2 months ago when we arrived here).
      Not many people in Argentina know South Africa, so he is promoting South Africa through  Publicity, internet, and via WC soccer to journalists. Tourism did improve the last few years. Mr Leon was writing for the Sunday Times and Business Day - a more formal newspaper which they sell on good street stands. There is also a English newspaper called Daily Buenos Aires.      


      Of course I wanted to know what he personally missed most from his home country (see if he feels the same as I do?!) The things that Mr Leon misses most from South Africa are: Languages (I must also say that I hardly ever hear the English language in the streets and shops), many different cultures, English books, English spoken theater, modern gadgets (i-phones are very rare here) and he misses the basic food things, like toasted cheese sandwich. 
      
      When I googled 'Tony Leon' I saw that he was involved 
      in the politics of South Africa when it became a democracy in 1994. So when he was so involved with 
       his home country South Africa, how is it to live now in another country? Mr Leon says that " If you want to appreciate your own country, you have to go to another country.!!!!   

            Gracias, Thank You, Baie Dankie Mr Leon.

                        Louisa
                        Photos done by Steven




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Valentines day/ Tigre

During the month of February the summer holiday ends and the populated beaches slowly become less busy. In the city center of Buenos Aires there are suddenly more people on the street and the buses are more packed. On the 14 February it was Valentine's day.! Valentines day is not big at all here in Bueos Aires. You see very few men from work going home with roses. At restaurants you get a chocolate formed in a heart. There are some Valentines specials in shops, but otherwise that's it! I know in the USA Valentine is very big and Argentina is very close USA, but I wonder how Valentines Day is celebrated in other countries? Of course I love making something special out of these special days and that is way I organised with my brother A Valantines Special for my parents. We started by making a special breakfast for them. Sneaked out early to get fresh rolls and got my dads favorite cappochino. Then we did a 'show' with songs (the favorite songs of mom and dad) and dances. My mother did not have to cook today, so we went out for diner in a very nice restaurant named Juan M.



TIGRE (Buenos Aires)
.....But I havent written about our adventure to Tigre.
We went with the train from Retiro to Tigre just 45 minutes outside of Buenos Aires (like a Houtbay of Capetown). Tigre is a village with many little rivers and the people move with small boats and canos. For the Dutch it looks like Giethoorn. It is beautiful with lots of activity on the water and sunny foto moments of water, trees and people. When we arrived we were surprised how green and clean it was. My my mom and dad were mostly surprised, since they were in Tigre 15 years ago. Now Tigre was different, modern and new with a new train station and many new buildings.
We went with the taxiboat on the river to a guesthouse on one of the riverbanks. We saw the canos and before you knew it we where on the river ourselves canoing in between the speedboats and taxi's. They were driving very fast and we fell over a few times, because of the waves they made. We played badminton, then canoed again and after the weekend we said goodbye to our excellent hostess and host Carolina en Stef. Carolina is Argentinian and speaks very good English, is a very good cook and told us interesting stories over Argentina. Stef is Dutch and had an impressive collection of DVD's which we were allowed to watch after sunset. What was funny was that they had a dog named Nelson (named after Nelson Mandela) who somehow smelled that we were from South Africa. So he became our friend. Even Steven, who is always afraid of dogs, liked to play with Nelson.
So, after the weekend we went back to the mainland with the boat and we stayed a few more days in a hostel in the centre of Tigre. We walked around a lot and finally we found the place under the tree where my father ASKED my mother to marry her. That was exactly 15 years ago. Quickly I bought a flower and bright red cherries and of course we could not leave the spot looking over the Tigre River without having seen the KISS.


When we stayed in Tigre we lived next to a ice-cream shop. As you know my dad is a Big Fan of ice-cream!!! So,obviously we had to get a ice-cream but not in a cone, oooh nooo in a 2kg box.There are many  ice-cream flavours.They are all delicious !!! I scream,You scream we all scream for ICE-CREAM !! Since we stayed  next to a ice-cream shop they had extra  deliveries see picture. Who doesn't like ice-cream?

Gracias
louisa


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Kreeft on the move like the Emigrants did

La Boca
Long time ago, immigrants from Europe arrived with ships at the 'mouth' (Boca) of the river and settled there. The people did not have money and tried to work in the harbor supplying the ships. They made their 'houses' from left-over materials and painted them with left-over paint in different and bright colors.

house in Caminito (little street) La Boca

We went to see these colorful houses in Caminito-la Boca and you could imagine how people lived those days in the past.
Now the river and the street are dirty with litter and toilet waste and the old streets were full with souvenir markets, restaurants and bars with Tango dancers. A little bit too touristic. There were so many different dancers and singers that all the music became mixed up and you could not really enjoy it. We then walked a little around and went to the soccer stadium in La Boca. This was a highlight for Steven. 

             Steven 'skilling'

Boca Junior Stadium

Steven: .......Wauw, here in this stadium Diego Maradona played when he was a Boca Juniors.He played from1981 till 1982 and again from 1995 till 1997 and scored 35 goals for Boca Juniors. But of course I only know him from television and because he has played for Argentina the National team.
We saw the stadium but it was not so big-
only 49.000 people can be seated. 
Strange because it seems that all the people in 
Buenos Aires are fan of Boca Junior
and they are 2nd in the PSL. Where do they sit?????
And you know who also played in this stadium.........????
Our ex-keeper from Ajax Cape Town- Hans Vonk 
ones played here as well!
In the streets around the stadium, there were many fans- flags 
and statues in Blue and yellow (the colors of Boca).



San Telmo

Many Asados (braai).in San Telmo 

As soon as people were able to built a house they moved to a real 'barrio' (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires. So a little north of La Boca a new area started to grow. It was officially the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. 1st there settled many dockworkers, brick masters, tradesman and leather craftsman and these people attracted other business people. The 'town' got even lights, taps with water, gas and toilets. Beautiful big houses were built, hospitals and even a warehouse, but then all of a sudden in 1871 yellow fever (a dangerous virus) was transmitted (coming from Europe via the ships into La Boca). In beautiful San Telmo almost 10,000 people died.
Everyone tried to leave San Telmo and moved further to the north into a new neighborhood.....Recoleta.

We now did that same 'trip' - luckily not because of the yellow fever!
We went to La Boca, we lived a month in San Telmo and when we visited every icecream place (Heladeria) in San Telmo (and there are many many many of them) we moved to another area of Buenos Aires, in Recoleta (in calle Posadas).
Again we will stay here now for 1 month to see everything around this area. Recoleta looks more wealthy and has a cleaner environment. Also the people are friendlier than San telmo.(but not in the grocery shops).

Recoleta cemetery in the middle of busy Buenos Aires

Recoleta
In Recoleta there are many things to see and lots of history. We are here now 10 days and already went to Recoleta cemetery to visit the grave of Eva Peron and to some museums and arts museums too. We haven't found any sports clubs yet (everything here is private and for members only) so we keep going to our 'old' hockey and soccer club in San Telmo. It is easy to take bus number 17 with our Sube-card (a sort of card which the Portenos use to take the public transport without having to take money with you!).
By the way, we really feel special having this Sube Card,  as it is really wanted by the Portenos.....will tell you the story soon..........!

Weather, Garbage and Environment

A few days ago in Buenos Aires on my dad's birthday, we went with the bus from Recoleta (where we will stay this month) to SanTelmo. My brother plays soccer there and I play hockey. When we finished it was drizzling and then raining a bit and than all of a sudden there was lightning with thunder and it was pouring with rain. We quickly went back home and showered and watched the 8 o'clock news. On the news it was said that in some places there was water flooding from 8 centimeters to a few meters. The subway was closed down and traffic lights had stopped working. Lots of buildings had no electricity and there were many ambulances and fire engines with loud sirens.There were even people killed. The whole city of Buenos Aires was upside down!


Happy Birthday 

On the 1st of February it was my father's birthday. We were still in Tigre, a place 45 minutes from Buenos Aires (next week's story). We had a fun time and left in the afternoon to go to our new apartment in Recoleta. While we unpacked and prepared for my dads birthday party, the storm started over Buenos Aires. Later that evening we went outside in the poring rain and finally found a restaurant where we met 3  environment experts from the Netherlands.





What do the experts say
I have interviewed Leo, Bob and Robert who are Dutch and live in Holland, Eindhoven and Nijmegen. They are environment experts. They studied Environmental Protection. They also think that Buenos Aires is dirty. In the richer places it is cleaner and in the poor places it is dirtier with litter in the streets and overflowing containers. They have traveled a lot and they said that India is the dirtiest country and Singapore the cleanest in the world.
In BA they don't have separated waste like in Holland and South Africa. That is why they are here in Argentina, to try to introduce separation of waste. However, there are many poor and homeless people who take out plastic and what they need and leave a big mess leaving all the garbage around the streets. Then the rain washes the garbage in the streets and this is how the drainage system gets blogged, causing flooded streets.
After the waste is collected every day, they don't reuse the plastic. In South Africa they reuse many materials by making beautiful accessories like earrings from bottle tops and gift boxes out of plastic and beads out of paper.
Leo, Bob and Robert said that we SHOULD'NT LITTER and, DON'T USE A LOT OF ENERGY. The small things that you can do can make a big difference in the world.!!!!!!

Photo: Steven Kreeftenberg from L to R : Loes,Leo,Robert,Bob.

                                                         

                           ECO expert ??????

Gracias


 Louisa

Porteños and Vecinos

Living in Buenos Aires, I want to try to be a Porteno! It comes from the word 'Port' for a person who works/lives in the harbor. In gerenal Portenos means the citizens of the the city.Those Portenos living around me are my 'Vecinos' (= neighbours/neighborhood).The neighborhood here is very quiet,calm and warm. Everyone has holidays here and schools will start their year in beginning of March. Then we will be leaving Buenos Aires and go to the country side. The Vecinos/neighborhood is different than were I live in Sout Africa. In the morning everyone goes with the bus to work and there are hardly any private car to see. Only cars for work eg money for banks or plumbing cars). There is a lot of gravity and advertisement on the walls and houses. Everywhere there are posters of this drink called "Epika". It looks really nice and tasty on the posters. There are lots and lots of posters, but no one sells it and some even don't know what it is at all!!!!

A famous local

Here they mainly eat pizza, pasta and meat. So on the menu of the restaurants there are Pizzas or Asado (braaivlees). In South Africa everyone eats supper at 6 or 7 o'clock, but here they eat supper at 22:00 -also the children.They have markets on Thursday and Sunday where they only sell old stuff eg.(compass, old cutlery etc.......). In San Telmo there is also an inside market where they sell fruit and vegetables and of course meat. (but it smells a lot!!)
Everyone in the parks and in the streets drink from small round wooden mugg's with a metal straw, in which you put special kind of green, dry tea, which you have to let dry for a day and then poor hot water in. You then drink the tea with the metal straw you and fill it up with warm water from a flask.
On every corner of the street there is a police officer standing, but..................

Steven in the trash can.

The homeschooling went really well until one of the students were very naughty!!!!


                                                                


           STOLEN!!!

Reward for stolen phone!!

When we went to a museum/the government museum we had to go through a scanner machine to check our bags if we didn't have weapons and then . . We put our phone and camera in the bag and when it came out of the scanner ........ MY DAD"S IPHONE WAS STOLEN!!!! This was the first time something was stolen of him. Well except when we went to Thailand and his bag of clothes were stolen. But this now was something very valuable so we went to the security/police and there was a very kind manager there who helped us. We checked the videocameras, but could only see the entrance, one step away from where it happened. This was the theory: when my dad put his phone in his side pocket of the bag and put it in the scanner he went to get it on the other side, but it was gone by then. The security said that it would have dropped and someone would have taken it and sold it for money.I guess we will never find out what really did happen?????????????????????????????!!!!

Weird Beard!!!

Walking on the street in Buenos Aires- in the heat- you see many people with piercings and tattoos, many wearing jeans or dark clothes. Strange in this Sunny City. Also many man have beards. The last couple of days I 'investigated' how this is 

possible. Why in comparison with other countries I visited have these man Beards?. 

Vecinos

My Vecinos/neighbors who lives the floor on top of our apartment have a Dad, Mom, son and a daughter, of 18 years. We first met our neighbors when we were hanging our wash to dry on the roof of our building. We saw the mother showering in her bikini like always and her daughter was there too. She could speak English very well and she was a very happy girl. She is studying yo be a journalist to help Argentina and to write about government,she is also studying to be a film producer. She was looking for work to earn money during her summer holidays. She says that her mom works very hard too, but we mostly see her showering or shouting.I have interviewed Analia  (the girl):

1. How do you want to change Argentina by acting?
2. Would you want to move somewhere else?
3. What do you like in Argentina?
4. What do you  dislike in Argentina?

1. Slowly,step by step.The importance 
2. She is born in Uruguay.Has been travelling a bit.She would want to travel more,but would want to live in Moskou.
3. Analia likesthe nature that Argentina has Mountains,a lot of culture,work, country is improving.She says that Argentina has everything!!
4. She dislikes social violence and there is lots of robbery.Bad economic distribution.

For all the dutch people who are following us and cant really understand in English I am also writing it in Dutch  http://blogs.rnw.nl/wereldkids/  my last 2 blogs will and has  been  on wereldkids on the  27 and will be on the 31 January.

Gracias amigos

Louisa

When I went in the government building I was lost and went in a the wrong room.

At market