Buenos Aires, the city that never sleeps!

Buenos Aires, the city that never sleeps. We went to a restaurant last night, the Cabrera at 8 pm when it opened, and there was already a waiting line and would not buy that we had made reservations. At first blush, I thought it was a ploy to get a groundswell of customers and build up the hype but guess what, it was real. When we came back 30 minutes later every seat in the house was full and this was a Monday night! After dinner, we decided to go dancing or at least see what these tango halls were all about, so at 10 we went to an Armenian, of all things, milonga and you know what? It was crowded with dancers and it was not even about to begin, really. There was a lesson until 11 pm, then free dancing till about one, then a show with singers and dancers. I suppose people get home about three begging the question of whether they go to work or not the next day, and if they do go to work at what time?

We just took a walk yesterday down Sante Fe Avenue and Sylvia dropped in to buy a bathing suit. The guy just happened to be a Sephardic Jew from Lebanon who has been living here for fourteen years. He says there are no Jews left in Lebanon or anywhere else in the Middle East, quickly putting a lie to any Arab propaganda about how Jews are being treated in the Middle East. Of course, in Israel there are Arabs in the Knesset, Arabs that have jobs and of course, Arabs that are Israeli citizens. Wouldn’t it be nice to say that Jews were treated the same anywhere in the Middle East as Arabs are treated in Israel. Sadly this is not the case because there are no Jews left in any Arab country, at least who would openly call themselves Jews.

Talking about politics, whenever there is any political gathering, it all happens at Plaza de Mayo. Of course, no-one knew what I was talking about when I said Playa de Mayo because it is pronounced Majo but we eventually found it and true to form, there were various groups of people protesting a variety of things from the War in the Falklands to lost soldiers. On Thursdays, mothers and grandmothers from the dirty war of the l980’s still come out to protest their lost children. I was amazed to see how a protest developed. I watched one group get off the bus, get their drums pounding away until a reporter told them to keep quiet so she could do the proverbial interview, then they all disappeared immediately after the interview. A media event par excellence. They have it down to a science.
All around the Plaza de Mayo, by the way, are buildings in a variety of styles from colonial to modern, including the balcony where Eva Peron did her shtick in the pink building. There was a neo classical church, a colonial city hall, and some modern buildings that house government employees.

To-day we did the shopping thing in the Pacifico Mall which was unbelievable in its ornateness. One would think we were in the Vatican or somewhere. Sylvia was fascinated with the shoe selection and when we went out to the walking street, Avenue Florida, we must have entered into dozens of shoe stores, or so it seemed. The downtown was teeming with people which we were certainly not used to seeing in Chile, even in Santiago. We are just going to go to sleep now for a few hours so we can wake up later and tango away the night!

Wine Tasting in Chile

Even though Chile is long and skinny, it does not take long to find unbelievable contrasts. Yesterday morning we were saying good-bye to the beach at Vina del Mar and a few hours later we were deep into the wine district just south of Santiago. It is unbelievable for me to be surrounded by mountains. Because I now live in Costa Rica on one of the best beaches in the region, I guess beaches are old hat to me but to see the mountains for the first time is really inspiring. Today is the third day of summer and there is still snow at the top even though I am not sure you could get to them even if you wanted to.

We did visit the famous hot springs hotel in the area called Termas de Cauquenes but I was not impressed. Having seen the hot springs at Arenal where there are so many pools with different temperatures this one was rather dingy. As you can see in the pictures, they are a million rooms with literally a little bathtub in each. How dreary, even for Charles Darwin who apparently visited this place and probably saw exactly the same things I saw since I do not think they have upgraded very much in the last few (hundred) years.

The vinyards, on the other hand, were really nice. Even though we have been to the great vinyards of the world, like Niagara-on-the-Lake, to say nothing of France or California, I do not remember seeing them surrounded by mountains and flowers. Interestingly enough, the woman told us that the roses gave an indication of possible plague when they start to die which gives the agronomists a head start on eradicating the problem before it gets started on the grapes. There is one growing season and the grapes are harvested from March to May. Even though we are obviously in Chile, I it doesn’t seem to strike me as “this is Chile”. We were in a mall yesterday and it could have been anywhere in the world, unfortunately. The same stores, the same boring faces of kids hired to sell the merchandise and the worst of all the same Christmas carols sung in English! Yuk. Am I in Toronto or Rancagua a name I cannot even pronounce.

It is Christmas Eve and Sylvia and I are just going out to explore the little town near our hotel. I know there will be nothing to do, but who knows, maybe we will fall into a church or two.

Museums of Vina del Mar

Vina del Mar is just a few minutes north of Valparaiso but actually miles away in terms of feel. It is all flat and centres around the sea. I suppose rich people from Santiago come here to spend the summer or week-ends away from hot Santiago. The water looks beautiful, as you saw from yesterday’s pictures, but it is so damn cold and dangerous no-one in their right mind would ever swim here. In fact, they hardly play on the beach from what I can see. Vina I guess is more for sitting in your expensive summer home, eating in fancy restaurants and/or walking and taking in the beautiful scenery.

The galleries were actually fabulous. We learned about Easter Island at the Museo de Arqueologia. What I learned was, as usual, the colonizers came and destroyed the civilization that existed there already. Inside the gallery, as I looked at the silverwork and ceramics of the Mapuche Indians, I could see they were also quite advanced before the Incas who extended their influence all the way down to Chile. When I asked a guy who seemed quite knowledgeable why the Incas died away so quickly he responded that the Spanish killed their leader and there was no leadership to take his place i.e. no middle management. Sounds like a reasonable sort of statement. Have no idea whether it is true or not.

Another museum we went to was the Alvares-Vergaras mansion. They came to Chile from Spain and created their home in neo-Gothic style. Why would they do this, I asked myself, when there was so much more they could have done to fit into the scenery of Vina and then it occured to me that we all create and value what we know. As I looked at their pictures in the home from a hundred years ago, the guy was wearing a waistcoat, smoking a cigar and generally could have been anywhere in Europe. Who would want to wear a three piece suit in 80 degree weather? I guess the answer is that if this was your idea of beauty, why not? It is all you know. Obviously one's values, opinion of beauty, and way of looking at the world are formed from your surroundings as you grow up. It is clearly difficult to break away from the mold.

The Museo de Bellas Artes also had a fabulous building and magnificent gardens. We had lunch at Jerusalem restaurant, believe it or not, and almost fell into this park. Tomorrow we are off to another part of Chile, but the feel I get for Valparaiso is the same feeling I got in Greece as we lived high in the hills surrounding one of the Greek islands as you can see form this picture. The feeling I get in Vina is a European spa town in some place in Germany, even though I have never actually visited a spa town in Germany!

Chile

After I just finished paying the $130 ‘reciprocal’ entry visa to Chile, I went outside to be jostled by a million cab drivers. The going rate into town was $30 but one driver shouted $20. Guess what, I took him. He then asked me whether I had any pesos, or whatever the currency is here, and I said no. He said he wanted pesos and directed me over the atm. The machine said 200,000 and I asked him how much money that was in American currency. He told me 100 dollars. How brilliant of him. It turns out that it was 400 dollars but of course with this incorrect information my calculations were dead wrong. When we got to the hotel he asked for 40,000 which I assumed was 20 dollars but turns out was 80. The guy should be working on Wall Street! Thinking the guy was doing me a favour, I asked him to pick Sylvia up the next morning and stand there with a sign and so on. Guess what, Sylvia went straight for the bus and he had to drive out to the airport to wait for a fare that never happened.

I was quite impressed with Santiago as I was driving in. You can actually see the mountains surrounding the city. Lima was also in a valley but it was so smoggy you would never know there were mountains surrounding the city and could seldom see them. Here they are crystal clear. Last night I went to a street as wide as University avenue with dozens of restaurants that were actually quite nice. I really like the feel of Santiago.

We then rented a car and drove to Valparaiso, about two hours from the capital and the centre of tourism for the natives of Santiago as well as the world because this is where all of the cruise ships dock. Before the Panama Canal, Valapairso was the key route from Europe to the Pacific and it is still a working port. As we took a little boat around the port today, I saw a huge ocean liner from the Holland American Line, about four war ships, container vessels and oil ships. It was really great.

We also went for a little ride to Vina del Mar, an upper class resort area with a huge casino, a wide expanse of Pacific Ocean and loads of hotels and parks. In fact, we drove through and headed north for about an hour and saw sea lions, pelicans, all kinds of birds and great rock formations. The seafood restaurant we stopped at was great and Sylvia loved the cool ocean breeze, even though I was a little on the cool side. Apparently, it is quite cool on the coast but gets warmer as you head inland into the Andes mountains and Argentina.

We are now staying in a great hotel in one of the labyrinth of streets winding its way through one of the forty hills Valparaiso is founded on. We can never find the hotel, but when we do it is worth the drive to Acton. It has a great balcony overlooking the city, it is right in the tourist area and there is no air conditioning, a wonderful bonus for me! Driving a gear shift though, is not a bonus, that is for sure, as the hills are as steep as I remember the Greek islands to be.

Tomorrow, we stay in town and check out all of the museums that were closed today ( Monday) but I think we will walk. It is simply too hard to find the hotel and hopefully a taxi will have better luck.

Lima's Parks and nightlife

It is now one in the morning and this place just seems to be waking up. I took a bus tour of Lima by night and walking home from Park Kennedy was quite the experience. There are nightclubs, bars and restaurants which people literally fill to the door; that is on a Thursday night! It was like the middle of the day in Toronto on Yonge Street. They must sleep some time during the day because they sure don’t sleep at night!

The highlight of the night for me was what should have been called "Parque de Fuentes" or Park of Fountains but instead was called something like Reservas Park. A few years ago the government redid the whole park and put in dozens of fountains. Some small, one shooting 80 meters in the air, a few you walked through or played in, but one, which gave the musical fountain in the Melbourne casino a real run for its money. There was obviously the great music and dancing waters, but there was also the three dimensional images popping out of the water. In fact, in sort of gave the history of Peru in pictures which made me feel guilty for not visiting Cusco. I will simply have to come again, that’s all!

I met two childhood friends on the bus; one who moved to Miami thirty years ago and one that still lived here. We were talking about the differences between American and Peruvian culture and they came up with a few. The American one told me that in the States all she did was work to make a living and she says that when she calls her Peruvian friends here they always seem to have time to talk, have coffee and go out. Secondly, you could see the difference between the two women. The Americanized one had no lipstick, her hair was a mess and so on and her Peruvian friend was immaculately dressed, hair coiffed and was wearing beautiful clothes. Basically, they both said that in Peru you work to live and in the States you live to work. These are my words and not theirs, but pretty good, eh.

There are something like forty boroughs or districts in Lima and from what I can see, they are all full of parks with fountains, walkways, birds and wonderful statues. Lima is a Unesco city and certainly not as pretty as Cartegena, but the parks are really special. There are loads of people just sitting feeding the birds. Lima must also be pretty wealthy, especially where I tend to hang out ,because there are copious women dressed in white pushing old people around in strollers. Interestingly enough, I made eye contact with about a ninety year old woman in a stroller and she seemed desperate to talk. God it must be awful to be cooped up in your house the whole day with no-one to talk to.

The week just flew past, it seems. Tomorrow, I want to visit the Japanese cultural centre and see if I can figure out why there are so many Asians here ( in fact, I visited Chinatown during the day) and then perhaps the art gallery which has a spectacular building I did see to-night. However, if I don’t go to bed now, I probably won’t see anything because I will be sleeping all day!

Musuems in Lima

I learned a lot about history today but you know what the best part of the day was ? Taking the public bus home . I ended up in El Centro where the congress is located and I knew I could never get a taxi at rush hour. If they don’t want to take you they just say no and drive off! After asking about a million people, someone finally pushed me on the right bus going to Miraflores. Remember Josh when they pushed us both off and on the bus trying to find the big market in Bangkok years ago? Anyway, back to the story. After sitting in the bus for an hour and being serenaded by a musician, vendors selling gum and so on, I decided that I did my Lima deed and got off the bus to the safety of a cab. I did it, I know I can do it and who knows, maybe will again!

The museum of gold was really special. I learned about the history of pre-Columbian native peoples and how advanced they were. What was interesting about the museum for me was not the gold so much as how great the Egyptian influence was which you could see in the mummies, the headdresses and so on. Clearly the Egyptians were first, I presume, but how did their influence make it to South America? Obviously it was before movies and Internet. Clearly either the Egyptians or Peruvians were traders and met each other. The Inca Empire, though huge( from Panama in the north to the northern parts of Argentina and down into Chile only lasted for about 100 years). Hell, even the Inquisition lasted longer than that, an amazing 500 or so years. How is it possible that the McCarthy Era in the United States lasted but a few years but it took the age of Enlightenment to put a halt to the Inquisition? My guide in the Museum of the Inquisition, who spoke great English, told me that the reason the Jews were the victims was that they had all the money in Spain and were lending out money at exorbitant rates. When I tried to have a discussion with him, he did stick to his guns. Bigotry rears its’ ugly head again.

The market on the way to the museum was huge. There had to be at least five huge buildings with just shoes, and then five buildings with clothes and so on. I didn’t bother exploring the market very much because I was in a hurry to get to the Inquisition museum before it closed. Perhaps, when I go to visit Congress tomorrow I will stroll through the market. If anyone wants something, send me an e mail to-night.
I felt right at home at the Congress for Peru. I did not get in because it was five in the afternoon, but I certainly recognized all of the characters! Outside the building, the drivers were dressed in suits talking to each other and waiting for their charge. There was the poor guy washing the cars without respite. Cameramen and other officials went through the special pass gate and had to present their papers before they got in. There were the executive assistants to the politians wearing suits, earpieces and scurrying around to make sure they pleased their masters. The politicians, with the gray hair and fancy suits were trying to get out as quickly as they could and I wondered how strange they felt wearing a suit, especially if they came from the Andes or Amazon or far north!
And then there was the guy beside me on the bus wearing a fantastic suit, was a government lawyer, and when I asked him where my hotel was, took out his fancy gadget and mapped it out. Daniel, the guy had a Nokia phone with all of the stuff on it.
I could have been on Parliament hill, except for the guy playing the wind instrument and the guitar on the bus!

New York of the south!

Miraflores means" see the flowers "and if you look at my pictures you will see why. It is located right on the Pacific Ocean and even though Lima is at sea level and is very dry, I presume the flora and fauna get some humidity from the sea. When I went for my Sunday walk today all over the Miraflores, the Pacific certainly looks nothing like the Pacific I know at Hermosa. The water looks cold and the playa seems very rocky. As I looked down I saw lots people surfing wearing wet suits. Certainly not what you would see in Costa Rica at Tamarindo for example. A wet suit we be so unnecessary in our warm water!

Just came back from the casino, by the way. Every time I sit at a two dollar table ( Jaco and here) I win, although not usually so lucky at the five dollar table. Last night, I met an Australian guy who imports used slot machines from Australia and rents them to all of the casinos in Lima. Apparently they make fifteen dollars a day and he rents them for five. In Vegas, he said, each slot machine table makes about $150 a day for the casino.

I do find the people in Lima to be terrifically friendly from the taxi drivers to people on the street. Here people actually smile at you. I am convinced that the people in Costa Rica are quite shy and will only smile or approach you if you speak first. Otherwise, there is never even a hint of a smile to a gringo like myself.
Found a beautiful coffee shop today and for the first time had a cup of coffee. I started by saying in Spanish a little coffee and lots of milk and sugar and then changed my mind and ordered hot chocolate but when the waitress starting asking if I wanted a layer of hot chocolate on top of the coffee it got way too complicated so I just drank the coffee, read (or pretended to read a Spanish paper) and watched the Sunday morning crowd, similar to Yorkville Avenue I would suppose.

Then I went across the street to visit the Huaca Pucllana. A huaca is a religious site and it is so interesting to see these ruins in the middle of this very affluent suburb. As in the Mexican pyramids, sacrifices were made (usually women between 18 and twenty five, along with a few precious pots and seeds for fruits and vegetables. What is amazing is that I sort of understand these sacrifices to the Gods of the sun and moon. How is it that different that Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son ( except he didn’t and they did). They have the bodies to prove it, as they were discovered in l981.

I went for supper on Pizzas street where the footballers were celebrating their team victory with loud songs and cheering that must have gone on for hours with the ever present police ready to do their jobs if things got out of hand. I wonder what team they were cheering for today? I did want to go to the big game just to get a feel for South American soccer but everyone I asked if I could get a ticket just told me to watch it on TV…a lot safer and quieter they said, having missed the point entirely. And truth be told, I was so caught up in the burial grounds that I forgot about the game anyway.

OK, ready for bed and hope to see the gold museum that Reg suggested when he found out I was in Lima. If I end up going to Cuzco I will have to leave Lima on Tuesday and I am not sure I want to do that just yet. Having way too much fun. It is like the New York of the south

Life at the top!

Now that I am of vacation I am finally getting a chance to breathe and reflect on my experiences opening a new school Even though there are only something like 67 kids in the school, they all have parents which is what maked this year interesting, to say the least.

As a principal of a big school, like the American School of Bangkok, it was just a question of “keeping the ship afloat” The school mission and vision, norms of student behavior and teacher expectations were all established. It was really a piece of cake and probably the easiest job in the whole education endeavour. Running a small school, however is really time consuming and challenging. I typically came to school thirty minutes before anyone else, put my computer on the desk and never opened it till about three p.m.because I am not in my office.

Think about it…when a three year old spits at a teacher, who is going to discipline the kid, or for that matter, decide if he should go on that same day field trip? It was kind of funny putting him in a chair about ten sizes too big for him and telling him in English that his behavior was inappropriate. Of course, I kept asking him if he understood what I was saying and he kept nodding yes, I’m sure not understanding a word! At the end, I picked him up, hugged him, and took him back to class. Who is there to organize the graduation assembly last week and figure out what to do when the first girl comes up to get her piece of paper and simply stands there? Who has to walk them across the stage holding their hand? On the other hand, who has to deal with the teenage boy who says something totally inappropriate to the only girl in the class who speaks so little English? And who do you think has to speak with the irate mother?

What saves me half the time is that I try to speak in Spanish and it is hard to be irate when the idiot opposite you is trying to placate you in your mother tongue and you have no idea what that idiot is saying. It kind of levels the playing field in a big hurry. There will be a minority of parents that complain about any program, any activity, or anything frankly. I would love to go into details here, but knowing this is the Internet, for sure it would get back to them and cause needless embarrassment, even though they are really quite funny.

When you are at an established school, God willing, there is a vision and mission and hopefully a strategic plan. When you are at a small school, you have to create all that and then sell it to the community, teachers and owners. In my particular cases, the owners are really enlightened and they sell me on their vision. In fact, because they have not been programmed by forty years of teaching, they generally ask me why we can’t do something, as opposed to why we can. For example why can’t parents be involved in graduation and sign the certificates as well as present them to their child? Excellent question, actually, if we are really working with the parents to educate their kid. The hard part of all of this is selling it to the teachers, actually, not the owners who continually challenge me.

Luckily, we have an expert branding guy who is just in Costa Rica for a year writing a book and his child is in our school. He gave us all a lesson in how to brand our product and we are taking his advice seriously. I got a business course on marketing 101 from this guy which I really appreciate. You know, it is too bad I am not a lot younger and could actually do something with all of this information that I have in my head. As I have said many times, retirement is just wasted on us older guys. Guys like Joshua and Daniel should retire now and work later, when they have something to offer in terms of life experience although I know they are making a wonderful contribution to their chosen fields now.

The real question is, now that I have learned so much about the running of a school, where do I go next? Who wants a senior hanging around? Hopefully there will be a lot of golf, because I sure did not have any time to play this year!

My birthday in Lima

Well, so far I have had two birthday parties and it is only 6 pm on the 12th. Last night, as soon as I arrived I went for my usual walk to the main street near my hotel and the inevitable happened. I had dinner with two guys Josh’s age who worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia. At about midnight, they asked me whether I wanted to go to a fiesta where they were meeting their friends. As usual, I said yes and ended up about 1 am on a Friday night at a tremendously large restaurant called three Marias where there were hundreds of people eating, drinking and dancing. What I found amazing was most of them, including my hosts, were going to work the next day, but it seems they eat really late in Lima and stay up really late, no matter what time they have to be at work. I guess it is like New York, although I can’t imagine Americans staying up till about three in the morning if they have to work at 8.

Today I slept in ( what a surprise) and then went downtown (el Centro) to see the presidential palace, cathedral and so on. A group of university girls approached me with a camera and asked me to pronounce a list of s words, z words and sh words and they taped me, presumably so the class can hear how these words are supposed to be pronounced. Can you imagine a group of 21 year olds killing the English language because of me?

Then another bunch of university kids accosted me and when I told them it was compleanos they insisted on singing for me! Two fiestas for one birthday.

I had my ups and downs, as usual, with my Spanish. Last night, driving in from the airport I spoke the whole way with a cab driver without problem. Today, I asked my cab driver a question in Spanish as he was returning me to my hotel and he apologized for not understanding me by saying; “sorry, I don’t speak English”

To-night I am going to go and have supper and see what happens. Whatever transpires, it will be an adventure, guaranteed!

Costa Rican field trip

I have taken many field trips over the years but none like I took today with our middle school kids to Playa Nacascolo in the Papagayo Peninsula. There are a few trips that do stand out but they all involve cold and ice. I remember one trip to Ottawa where it was so cold we had to use the underground tunnels at the university of Ottawa so we did not freeze. In spite of that, the kids tied bedsheets together and climbed out their dorm windows to enjoy the midnight air while I sat supervising the empty hallways!

There was also the trip to Montreal I remember so clearly for a few reasons. One, we had a kid go to the hospital with an attack of appendicitis and to top off these festivities had a bus accident on the way home. Lots of trips and lots of memories such as the student who asked at the Buddhist temple whether he could have an apple which was part of an offering and then proceeded to eat it!

My field trip today however, will remain memorable as my first Costa Rican field trip. Most of the trips I remember, whether to going to museums, art galleries or overnight trips involved a lot of cold and a lot of snow for some reason. Why I couldn’t organize trips for the summer I will never know. ( Oh Ya, no school)

We are just about to start our summer break in Costa Rica so, as a last hurray, took our middle school kids to the beach. As you can see from the pictures, this is what a field trip should be like. Kids in their bathing suites, sun shining, playing volleyball in the water, playing on the beach or walking through the woods looking at toucans and dozens of other birds I do not know the names of to say nothing of iguanas and howler monkeys. Remember how scared I was Josh when I first heard the monkeys that sound like gorillas?

I am a little red and sore, but it sure beats shivering in the snow!