Murga

All we need is music, sweet music

And there'll be music everywhere

There'll be laughing, singing and music swinging

And dancing in the street

It doesn't matter what you wear
Just a long as you are there


C'mon every guy, grab a girl
Everywhere around the world


And there'll be dancing

Dancing in the street

Murga is the name of the song and dance they perform during the Carnaval season in Uruguay and parts of Argentina. In Buenos Aires each Barrio, or neighborhood, has a band and group of dancers who preform in the parks during the season. One night I bought a ticket to go to a concert and was walking around before it started. I saw two guys on the street with snare drums and in my best spanish asked if we were having a concert. They said a few streets away they were having one. So I went with them . It turned out to be a practice for the weekend Murga session they were to have. I was the only foreigner to be found in this back alley street next to the train tracks.

So I threw my concert ticked in the trash and stayed for the street concert. About 60 children were in front of the parade. Behind them four teenagers practiced the murga dance, a type of break dance and in the rear were the drummers. Eight base drums with cymbols and six snare drummers. For about an hours they walked slowly up and down the side street playing and dancing, playing and dancing. There was no way I could be a bystander and not participate. After twenty minutes of observing I jumped into the practice and did the Murga dance.

Two nights later after I was walking to the bus in another part of the city, an hour walk from where I saw the practice. I heard drums in the distance so I followed the noise. It turned out the be the same people I had met two nights earlier practicing. But this night was not a practice. Marching down the street toward the plaze at the presidential palace, hundreds of people walked, danced and drummed. They wore big hats and colorful clothing. In about five minutes we all arrived at the park and everyone formed a large circle around the dancers and drummers. And they danced and drummed for the next half hour.

Buenos Aires

Or as the tee-shirts here say ¨Buenos F·$%&/" Aires¨ For the first week in the city I lived with a woman that the Spanish school set me up with. I had my own bedroom and bathroom in the nice part of the city. In the city that never sleeps. Thats one of its nicknames. And there was little sleep. Its uncool to go to the clubs before 2 or 3 in the morning. Dont even bother going cause noone will be there. And when you leave you will need sunglasses because the sun could very well be up.

So every day in the afternoon for the two weeks I took spanish classes . At night I would go out and practice with the locals. Waiting in Line for concerts which I never got ticked to cause they always sold out fifty people in front of me. One night I went to an outdoor techno rave cause I couldnt get tickets to any other concert. Why not? 4000 other people went. For the second week I moved into a hostel and ran into some people I had met in Bolivia and others from northen Argentina.

We went to two futbol matches. Every team has about 5 songs and chants and they sing them over and over again. Forty minutes before the game the fanatics pile into the staduim. A complete band with about 15 bass drums equiped with cymbos , 10 snares drummers and a complete horn section start playing half an hour before gametime and finish half and hour after. and they dont stop for any breaks. If you sit in the home teams section you cant even leave the stadium untill half an hour after the game. So you might as well play songs and cheer.They give the visiting teams fans a half hour head start to get out of the home teams neighborhood. Then the home team is released. The two teams fans arent even allowed to sit with each other. The visitors have their own section to sit in. And they dont serve beer at these games. And for four hours before the game no restaurant or store will sell any booze with in a 2 kilometer radius of the stadium. People are roudy enough at the match.

At the Futbol game. River Plate.

The waterfront on a cloudy day.

The office of South Americas first elected female president.

The obelisk in the city center.

Shopping Mall at Night

Recoleta Cemetary

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A million dollar mausoleum.

And another marble mausoleum




An enlightened Angle to watch over you while you sleep.

Want to live on this street? Its one block from Eastnor Heights.

Bury me here.

This is the exclusive cemetery where all of Buenos Aires
and Argentina´s most prominent and wealthy people are buried

Homer and I in Buenos Aires

Iguazú Falls

Thirsty?

Bodegas in Cafayate.

Welcome to Cafayate (Calf-a-shót-e)

Vineyard in the Mountains

Town Square

The front door to one of the Bodegas

Aging like fine wine

In the early 2000´s Argentina went through an economic turmoil. Sound familiar? Due to the devaluation of the Argentinian Peso, products from Argentina became very cheap and foreigners bought many Argentinian goods, including wines. Since then the economy has recovered. However Argentinian wines are now popular throughout the world because they had become very affordable in the early 2000´s, although now they are not so cheap. See how good things can happen when the economy goes to shambles.

Cafayate is known for a wine called Torrontes. It is a sweet white and if you can find some buy it and drink it. It will keep you entertained until its gone. Here they have very little rainfall and low humidity so fungus is not able to grow on the vines. The lack of rain is supplemented by melted snow from the near bye Andés making it suitable for growing grapes. So rent a bicycle and go visit all the wineries around town. Most offer free tours and tastings. It might be wise to walk the bike home, but its more fun to ride it.

Northern Argentina

Tie-Dye Mountains

A Hot water spring in the mountains of seven colors.