You may have noticed I've been less than attentive to the old blog, lately, and I suppose the project has gotten a little out of hand. I'll be back home by the 30th, and by then it will be too late to keep updating a blog about my life in this hemisphere. I've decided to run a two part photo special with all my pictures since my last update and some special never before seen material from a friend. I'll try to put part one in something approaching chronological order.
RETURN TO RECOLETA CEMETERY
Far and away the creepiest place I've seen in this country so far, I jumped at the chance to go back with a friend of a friend visiting from New York. We went on a perfectly spooky day.
Here's something that would never happen in America; somebody could fall down there and sue.
Note the torn security seals on the doorframe, indicating that this tomb has recently been broken open with intent either to rob or to smoke joints (a pastime popular with the younger generations of great families).
The most horrible thing that's ever been on my blog. It had rained the day before, leading me to believe that the horrible stain on this mausoleum is probably the flushed out putrescence of somebody's grandpa.
Your correspondent at the tomb of the "Wild Bull of the Pampas" himself, Luis Angel Firpo.
My good friend Natasha Magariel and myself pictured in front of a mausoleum.
Life goes on, even if that means nobody's going to be able to see your statue.
Here I am at the grave of the famous "Lady in White" of Recoleta Cemetery, Rufina Cambaceres. The daughter of a cattle baron, she lived all her 19 years in the lap of luxury until her mother walked in and discovered her cold dead on the floor of her room. Three of the finest doctors in the country confirmed the death, and she was buried some days later in the family's mausoleum. When the caretakers came to clean the next week the found her casket had moved. When the family arrived to investigate they discovered, to their utter horror, that Rufina's fingertips were bloody and worn to the bone, and that the silk lining of the casket had been torn to shreds. Legend has it that her ghost now haunts the cemetery, dressed in the wedding dress she was destined never to wear.
RANDOM
Here's Matthew Fox of Baltimore and our trusty GSE program director Luis Alfredo Martinez Braunschweig, of Venezuela.
Upstairs at Milion.
MIKE VAN BEEKHAM'S BIRTHDAY
Some shots of the night of my good buddy Mike from Wisconsin's birthday party.
These guys are a real barrel of laughs. The guy in the middle gets bracelets for all the finest boliches in Buenos Aires because I speculate that he sells drugs to the children of very powerful people.
On the right in the white shirt is Phil, from England. I don't really know how we started hanging with Phil, but the guy knows how to have a good time. He also knows how to stay up doing cocaine for three days straight, get thrown out of his apartment, and then spend the next three sleeping on the couch.
Finally here's me with Mike himself. Mike is wearing that shirt because he plays trumpet in a Salsa combo.
FRANJOAN AND THE MUTANTS
Our friend Juani and his brother Tony have a little rock and roll group. Here's a few shots from the night of one of their shows.
GOING AWAY ESTILO CAMPO
These last few shots are from our big GSE going away dinner at Estilo Campo in Puerto Madero. Because GSE was picking up the bill, everyone had the most expensive thing on the menu. I'm sure the manager was very pleased with himself when he got eleven orders for the wild boar.
