Posadas, Argentina

On the border between Paraguay and Brazil. The cyber cafe, or ´server´as they are called down here closes in 7 minutes.

My ass is super sore from 20 kilometers on horseback at an Estancia on Los Esteros del Iberá - the untouched marshlands of the North East part of Argentina. Danny continues to complain of a bruised, maybe cracked rib from a karting accident back in BA (he beat me anyhow to the tune of 20 pesos). Street kids fighting outside of the main disco here... literally in the STREET, in front of the oncoming cars - UFC style - only to be hustled off by the cops, dragged by the scruffs of their shirt collars. The smiles dissapear from their faces

Speaking of cops, we not-so-graciously got a ride in the back of in the back of a police car, I think it was a Chevy Chevette, today from El Puma ... a quasi-reserve or rehabilitation center for captured wild animales, much like they have in South Africa, captured by farmers protecting their cattle. The cops were supposed to be investigating a robbery in the local barrio, but instead, they were snaping pics of the animals in the reserve with their cell phones. A guy in the car behind us frantically waves them down and we both stop on the dirt road that leads back to the main highway, once again in the middle of nowhere - and now we begin to roast, the three of us crammed into the back. My leg, jammed against the modled plastic just below the cage that seperates the bad from the law, begins to cramp from the horseback riding from the day before, which was entirely a whole other world. But you know the back of those cop cars... the windows don´t go down and the doors don´t open and its HOT outside. When the driver of the cop car finally turns of the engine... and then sets the parking brake, Danny begins to loose his shit, unable to hold back an uncontrolable urge to break down and laugh hysterically. I follow suit, looking out the opposite window with my arm covering my face. Aimee, seated between the two of us elbows us both in the ribs simultaneously. They finally dropped us off, again in the middle of nowhere to catch a collectivo back into town. Wouldn´t you know it... MORMONS on the bus, just like back home and just like the Jesuits, hundereds of years before them. I snap their pictures while they dejectedly look at the floor.

We all agree that Posadas is great... but its back to BA on Monday for my final week in this country that never sleeps, and to meet up with Samantha once again.

chao,
goyo