Post Tagged with "Americas"

Snapshots of Argentinean rural towns

In Argentina, many rural towns grew around railway stations and were mainly named after early settlers. Most towns thrived in the first half of the 20th century and started to decline when rail lines were shut down and services stopped.

Nowadays, although agriculture is still their mainstay, tourism plays a very important role in the local economy as well. City dwellers come to these towns for the day to eat great food, cleanse their lungs with fresh air and relax away from the hustle and bustle of big cities.

Uribelarrea is located about 120 kilometres southwest of the city of Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1890 by Miguel Nemesio de Uribelarrea. The disused train station is now the home of the local police .

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Ceviche: The taste of summer in Lima

I’ve become a fierce defender of Peru’s culinary heritage. Home in Australia recently, overhearing a man at the next table explaining to his friends that the unfamiliar “Pisco” on the drinks menu is a Chilean spirit, I had to physically restrain myself from leaping to my feet to correct him. I think with shame of a year working in a Brisbane restaurant, in which we all earnestly explained ceviche to curious customers as a Chilean dish.

When I mustered the courage to confess this to my Peruvian friends, they shook their heads in disgust. “Chilenos,” they muttered darkly.

There’s a long-standing rivalry between the two countries, and this whole gastronomic controversy doesn’t help matters. Peruvians, and especially those from the coastal regions, are fiercely proud of ceviche, their national dish, and Pisco, the national intoxicant. Now that we’re standing on the verge of the heralded “boom” of Peruvian cuisine, their legacy may seem to be assured, but grudges are still nursed, and the uncomfortable fact remains that ceviche, in one form or another, is prepared and consumed in Mexico, south through Central America and Ecuador, and even in dreaded Chile.

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Hello from Rio!

Daily Rio Life is a blog written by a Canadian expat woman who has been living in Rio de Janeiro for two years. She writes about her life in Brazil and covers topics such as preparing a move and choosing a neighbourhood. She also offers a shopping guide, and tips to enjoy the city, for example, restaurants to enjoy… or to avoid!

One of my favourite posts deals with the psychological exam you have to take to get a Brazilian driver’s licence. It’s surreal! Very fun to read, I guess not much fun to actually sit that type of exam! You can read this post here. A useful blog for anyone wanting to move to Rio!

Update (29.09.10): The post originally stated that DLR is from Calgary. Corrected following comment below.

Read more:
More South American blogs from Blogs of the World
Feijoada: Carla explains this typical dish from Brazil
Kiss, hug or shake hands? Greetings around the world

An American expat blogging from Necochea

Katie Alley is a Philadelphia native who moved to the seaside town of Necochea –Argentina- after maintaining a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend Daniel for over two years. For both personal and work-related reasons, they decided that it would be more feasible for her to make the move to Argentina instead of Daniel moving to the United States.

Katie started her blog Seashells and Sunflowers as a way to chronicle her adventures and experiences in Argentina and as a means of connecting with other expats. It’s also been a great way to keep friends and family back in the United States up to date.

Katie’s passion for photography shows in her photos. She also loves cooking and writing about recipes and ingredients that are unique to Argentina, like cornalitos fritos or locro.

Katie also writes about cultural differences and how she has adapted to life in a new country, like the time she joined a choir or was “rechristened” at the immigrations office.

Not only is Seashells and Sunflowers a treasure trove of information about Argentina; its blogrolls are extensive and cover diverse topics from food to news to links for expats.

Read more:
More Blogs from Argentina on Blogs of the World
Stories of cross-cultural relationships
Cafe culture in Buenos Aires

Little spots of great beauty

Paulina describes her blog Santiago Open City as “a digital map of my footsteps and existence”.

Santiago is Paulina’s hometown and she has been blogging about it for almost a year. Posts consist of photos with short descriptions (in English and Spanish) and I enjoy the way you can see the small details of life in the city of Santiago through her blog.

Singing in the rain, by Paulina Millaman

I asked Paulina what she likes best about living in Santiago:

“Santiago is gigantic and cold sometimes, but it has little spots of great beauty and sometimes twilights are marvellous and magic (maybe these phenomena were caused by air pollution, who knows)”

Why not take a look at Paulina’s blog and discover some of Santiago’s little spots of beauty for yourself?

Read more:
More South American blogs from Blogs of the World
The rains continue in Zambia
Tango: passion and nostalgia in Argentina

Uruguay’s school bloggers

Uruguay is one of the pioneering countries in the one laptop per child project. By the end of 2009 every child attending a state primary school had been provided with one of the famous green and white laptops.

Rising Voices wrote about Uruguay’s efforts to educate teachers about the benefits of teaching children to blog, through a project called Blogging since Infancy.

Reading about this project, I learnt that each school in Uruguay has a number. School number 24, in Villa Cardal, started an experimental blog which links individual blogs from each class in the school. If you read Spanish you can take a look here, and if you don’t, have a go at reading it with Google Translate.

School number 153, in Canelones, have been using their colourful blog to give homework, among other things. Spanish version is here, translated version here.

Read more:
More South American blogs from Blogs of the World
The hand of God and other World Cup drama
Is there an easy way to blog in a different language?