It's a STEAL!!!

Image by Xurxo Martínez via Flickr












Getting robbed or pickpocketed in a 3rd world country is almost a rite of passage at times. I almost feel as if you haven't really lived until you stare into your knapsack and realize that there is one less object there. One fine day in Buenos Aires for me, that one less object in my knapsack was my wallet full of money along with my all important bank card.

Unraveling Reggaeton

Latin America isn't all salsa, merengue and tango.  And it isn't just all hard core rock and roll either....there is an urban culture. In alot of my conversations with people, they would mention "reggaeton" and for the longest time I didn't quite know what they meant until quite recently. Early on I mistakenly thought that "reggae" and "reggaeton" were similar but experience has taught me otherwise. Reggaeton is Latin America's answer to latinos who have more of a taste for the hip hop urban culture.

In conversations with the locals here, when they asked me what kind of music I like, I didn't quite know how to answer because there is no word is spanish for "R & B". I would have to tell them that it is a form of music that exists in the United States among the African Americans and it is like hip hop but in song form. That is the only way I knew how to answer.

One day I decided to put some videos of some examples of "R & B" on the facebook wall of my new big sister Ceci. The videos I chose for my examples were classics....Usher, Destiny's Child, Alicia Keys, TLC. Just to give here the idea of what exactly R & B was. It was an instant hit! She immediately swallowed the genre of "R & B" wholeheartedly. Ceci loved all the videos I put on her wall but she especially took to this one...

A Tale of Two Argentines

One pressing question that is constantly on my mind when it comes to my regards to relationships in Latin America is this "How do I know when someone is growing fond of me?"  Latin American society is open, loving, and friendly and everyone is your friend. But even within a society as open as the Argentine society, it does happen that you may be growing on someone but they are unable to recognize their feelings. And when I talk about feelings of fondness, I'm not necessarily meaning romantic. In fact, out of all the types of relationships, romantic is probably the easiest one to guess and is the most obvious.

Toying with Teahupo

Teahupo....the place may not ring a bell in your mind. It certainly isn't one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world. But on August 17, 2000 history got made in this little spot in Tahiti when world renown big wave surfer Laird Hamilton would ride the biggest wave ever.