Video: Eco Yoga Park, Argentina
June 29, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | Health, South America, Travel, Video
Here’s a short video compilation of clips I took whilst staying at the Eco Yoga Park just outside Buenos Aires in Argentina. You can also view a photo slide show of the Eco Yoga Park here, and listen to the Eco Yoga Park podcast here. Thanks to all who appear in the video. Pete, you’ll get it eventually :-).
Podcast: Eco Yoga Park, Argentina
June 8, 2009 | Thomas | 10 Comments | Podcasts, South America, Travel
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This podcast has been recorded whilst I’m volunteering at an Eco Yoga Park near General Rodriguez, 60km west of Buenos Aires in Argentina. (Photo slideshow of The Eco Yoga Park)
Run by Hare Krishna devotees, and known by its other name Nueva Vrindavan, the Eco Yoga Park proved to be a wonderful break after nearly 8 months on the road. At only US $12 a day for food accommodation and yoga and meditation classes, it was also great value.
Show notes
As it’s a longer podcast than normal, I thought I’d include a summary of contents with approximate timings:
0-7 mins - Introduction, temple sounds, why I came to the Eco Yoga Park
7-9 mins - Temple Service sounds
9-19 mins - Interview with Svayam, a Hare Krishna Monk/Devotee
19-21 - Hatha Yoga session
21-29 - Tour of the Eco Yoga Park grounds
29-39 - Interview with Jameson & Laura, two volunteers
39-44 - Sounds, music….
Links
Photos of The Eco Yoga Park, Argentina
Laura & Jameson’s blog
Eco Yoga Park website
Eco Yoga Park alternative website (in Spanish)
Volunteer in an Eco Yoga Ashram in South America
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Video: La Bomba de Tiempo, Buenos Aires
May 26, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel, Video
Here’s a quick video clip of La Bomba de Tiempo (’timebomb’), an incredible drum ensemble based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first part of the video show the warm-up group, and the second part is the main La Bomba de Tiempo band. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries after a minute or so, but I will be going back to re-record in the near future!
Every Monday they play at Ciudad Cultural Konex in Buenos Aires, and most Mondays it turns into a percussion-driven rave. I was lucky enough to arrive in Buenos Aires on a Sunday and go to the Monday show - and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a percussion show like it. What’s unique about it is the series of complicated hand gestures they have built up to direct/orchestrate the complex, layered rhythms. You can see these particularly well in the second half of the video.
Bomba founder Santiago Vázquez used to be the only director for the group, but as more members learned the sign language to perfection, they too started directing. Now, there are usually 2 or 3 rotating directors each night, and they go back to playing their instruments when they finish directing.
La Bomba de Tiempo is a fantastic night out, and there are plenty of ‘after parties’ to go to if you’d like to continue the festivities ;-).
Street art in Buenos Aires, Argentina
May 25, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel
Walking around the centre of Buenos Aires the other night, I spotted this fabulous example of Argentinian street art.
Iguazu Falls, Argentina
May 20, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | South America, Travel
With the flooding of the Guaíra Falls between Brazil & Paraguay in 1982, the mighty Iguazu falls currently has the greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world. You can view my photo slideshow of Iguazu Falls here, and my Iguazu Falls video here.
The entire Iguazu waterfall system consists of 275 waterfalls along 2.7 kilometers (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual waterfalls are up to 82 meters (269 ft) in height. The Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo in Spanish or Garganta do Diabo in Portuguese), a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long (490 by 2300 feet) waterfall, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil.
The shape of Iguazu falls, and the walkways around the falls on the Argentinian side allow for spectacular vistas. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls. The Devil’s Throat (La Garganta del Diablo pictured below) has water pouring into it from three sides, and being up close to it gave me a peculiar kind of vertigo.
Famously, upon seeing Iguazu, the United States’ First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed “Poor Niagara!”. She was right, the water falling over Iguazu in peak flow has a surface area of about 1.3 million ft², by comparison, Niagara has a surface area of under 600,000 ft².
Here’s a few more photos I took - on two separate days, one cloudy, and one sunny:
Video: Iguazu Falls, Argentina
May 20, 2009 | Thomas | 1 Comment | South America, Travel, Video
Here’s a short video I have put together of the clips I took at Iguazu Falls on the Argentina/Brazil border. With the flooding of the Guaíra Falls between Brazil & Paraguay in 1982, the mighty Iguazu falls currently has the greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world.
Links
You can view my photo slideshow of Iguazu Falls here.
Iguazu Falls on Wikipedia
Salta, Argentina
May 19, 2009 | Thomas | No Comments | Chiang Mai Trips, South America, Travel
Arriving in the warm and sunny Salta climate after the Bolivian Altiplano was a huge relief. It felt like re-entering Europe after a trip to the moon.
Salta’s a medium-sized town in North West Argentina (View map) with about 500,000 inhabitants. It lies in the Lerma Valley, 1,152 meters above sea level, at the foothills of the Andes mountains. Salta was founded on April 16 1582 by the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Lerma, and has in recent years been nicknamed Salta la Linda (”Salta the Fair”). It has now become a major tourist destination due to its old, colonial architecture and the natural scenery of the countryside and valleys to the West.
Here’s a couple of random examples of some very creative street art I saw whilst walking around the backstreets of Salta:
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