The Masters

Cafe Argentino

I guess Starbucks is alright, but I prefer this.  Here you have the three basic ways to serve coffee in Argentina.  Cafe: like an espresso.  Cortado: just a splash of milk to cut the acidity.  Or a cortado al reves:  more milk.  I will take a cortado, por favor.

Gaucho Festival

Our province of Cordoba hosts two important Festivals in the summer.  One is for folk music and the other is doma (basically a rodeo gaucho style).  Tonight Carita and I are going to the doma festival in the town of Jesus Maria with some people from the church who live there.  We have watched it every year on television (it goes for several nights) but we have never had the chance to go.  Hopefully the rain will let up today or we are going to be wet gauchos.

Here are a couple of videos of the bronc riding.  Well, I am not sure the first one qualifies as a ride.

Argentina and the Economic Crisis

Here is an article in the New York Times about how the international economic crisis is being played out in Argentina.  Who knew that 's were a leading economic indicator?

You might have to register to read the article.

Volcanic Ash

Ash from the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile has been blowing across the Andes and out into the Atlantic.  It has carried as far north as Buenos Aires which is almost 1000 miles away.  The airport in Buenos Aires has had to close twice in the last few days because of low visibility.  It is still well south og Cordoba.

The photo is from The V0lcanism Blog.

Chaiten Volcano

In 2001 we took a vacation to southern Argentina.  We spent several days around Esquel in the province of Chubut and then we crossed over to Chile and spent a few days around Chaiten.  One of the coolest things we saw was a black beach made volcanic sand.

This las week the volcano Chaiten erupted.  The town of Chaiten has been evacuated and the city of Esquel, on the other side of the Andes, has been covered in Ash.  Here is a link to a CNN article.  The picture is from the AP via Yahoo News.

Thirty Day Truce in Farm Crisis

The farmers of Argentina have lifted the road blocks for thirty days to allow food to reach the markets. Now the country is waiting the outcome of negotiations that should be held with the government. Food is slowly trickling back but prices have shot up sharply.

Farm Crisis

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president of Argentina, made the Drudge Report with a link for this article.  Check it out for a report on the evolution of the farm crisis here.  There are as many as 500 roadblocks throughout the country and food is not reaching the cities.  We went to the store today and there was no meat, eggs, or milk to be had.  There are limits on other items.  For example, there was a limit of three bags of rice per family.  Needless to say, prices have risen significantly for what is available.

Tensions in Argentina

The farmers in Argentina have been on strike for 15 days now and they have blocked all the major highways in the country.  We are beginning to see serious shortages in the supermarkets and protests have spread to the cities.  There has been some violence but so far it hasn't gotten out of control.  Here is an article for more background.

Big Rain

We had a minor flood around our church in Cordoba after youth meeting on Saturday.  Carita and I played taxi.

Presidential Elections

Presidential elections take place on Sunday.  Here is an article from the Economist the explains the situation.