Rantflections

I´ve been on the move lately. After spending four nights in Rosario at Sergio´s place I took a night bus way up to the northeastern tip of Argentina - landing in a place called Puerto Iguazú. I stayed there for a couple days and saw some awe-inspiring waterfalls down the road (which I´ll write about when I can scan the photos I took and post them up for you all to see). I was also hogtied with beaurocratic red tape by the Brazillian Embassy in the city . . . I wanted a visa to go see the other side of the waterfalls (they are situation right on the Brazil-Argentina border) as well as visit Brazil at the end of my trip, but they told me that the thirty-day period for tourists starts upon the first entrance so too bad bud. Which would have prompted me to just get two separate visas if they didn´t cost $130 (!!!) for US citizens - about three times the amount as they do for nationals of any other country. My receipt had the answer to the obvious question: the charge is in receprocity for the same amount that the US charges people from all countries of the world as a ¨processing fee¨ for visa applications. (And they don´t refund it if they deny the person entrance, which I hear is quite common.) At first I started thinking like this: ¨Uh, Brazil, I wasn´t in Congress that day when the bill about those fees came up, and I agree with you and all . . .¨ but the more I thought about it the more I applauded it as the sort of blunt government-mandated middle finger that deserved my respect for its pure honesty, if nothing else.

Okay, from there I landed in a little city named Resistencia, where I´m writing from right now. The city´s claim to fame is that they have over 300 statues scattered over the city. They´re obsessed with them. There´s even a law that if you put a statue in front of your house you don´t have to pay taxes for a year. The statues themselves . . . well, they´re nice. But seeing a bust of Albert Einstein´s rusty face in front of Banco Colombia doesn´t really provoke any sort of aesthetic bliss, you know? I should also mention that they are horses and carts here that are actually being used for practical purposes - like, carrying building materials. Which is just the kind of exotica I didn´t know I was looking for . . . since, lately, I´ve been needing some camaraderie in my internal battle against Progress.