Update - Posadas, Argentina

In the cafe again on the main plaza in the center of town of Posadas, the captial of Missiones Province. The main government building is across the plaza, a pink colored colonial-looking building. Strange, but there are 20 brand new red tractors neatly parked in a row out in front of this building, all for sale.

The sky has once again turned grey and the wind is blowing. A little rain today but tomorrow, more... the old woman behind the desk of our modest hotel informs. I order a cappucino this time instead of my usual espresso, spilling sugar all over the small round green table. The cafe looks like it could be a hundred, maybe two hundred years old - straight out of Rome.

People scurry along the cobblestoned streets. Its a real Latin American town and its been too long since I´ve been down this way. I haven´t seen one gringo the whole time we´ve been here, thank God. A few Espanoles maybe - yeah, last night in the Casino loudly and increasingly annoyingly playing blackjack, hitting each other each time one of them would win, while the other six would hit a 14 or a 16 and loose. There´s also the skinhead sports team staying around the corner from the cafe.. not sure what they are up to.

The cappucino is excellent as I light my second cigarette for the day. With the wind and the bland sky, my desire to shoot Jesuit mission ruins has waned. All I can think of is Samantha and the Janis Joplin posters that decorate her bedroom. I wipe the sleep from my eyes on my shirt sleeve, waking up in this cafe in South America - far away from home and ´The War´and Katrina. The only news we get down here is of rape, murder, forceable evacuations by the National Guard branding M-16´s, hunt for snipers on rooftops (??), people starting to die from contaiminated water and just chaos in general.

I ask the waiter dressed in traditional saloon-style black pants, white shirt and velvet-red vest if he can break a hundo. Change for big bills is a whole other thing in Latin America. I head back out into the street once again, just as the rain begins. God I love it down here!