Salem-News.com Argentina articles Page 4

Zenaida Auriculata, The Eared Dove, Torcaza

Pigeons, who wants to know about pigeons? they are just peregrine falcon fodder, right? Or as Michael Ondaatje calls them, flying rats.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - Today as my husband headed off to the organic dairy for our milk, cheese and yogurt, I stepped across the road to the bosque (woods), camera in hand to catch a photo of the eared dove we see in Argentina.

The Teros: Scarecrow of Argentina

If I were not a pacifist I would suggest to my crack shot husband a new BB gun for Christmas.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - The teros, the southern lapwing, are beautiful, plentiful and noisy. They screech like you are killing their mother; like they are calling your mother up short for ever conceiving you.

Well now, I have the same to say to them. After gardening my whole life in small places and never planting corn I finally did this year. But not with just any corn, with that special short corn that is fast-growing enough to beat the climate here in our little pocket of the Andes.

Bird of the Week: Pecho Colorado

They are common throughout Patagonia, but to us they are rare and special because they introduced us to the Birdmen of El Bolson, Argentina.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - When he was approaching his fiftieth year, Hungarian immigrant Andor Kovacs, his wife and his large family of 6 sons and one daughter settled in northern Patagonia.

Here he met Andres Gial, a man ten years his junior who befriended Andor and introduced the family to the natural history of El Bolson Rio Negro Province.

Bird of the Week: Burrowing Parrot, Loro Barranquero, Cyanoliceus Patagonus

The loro barraquero nests in dens or cliffs over the sea coast or along rivers, hatching up to four white eggs.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - We have long been familiar with the local parrot, the cachana or austral parakeet which flies in groups around El Bolson - but were thrilled to see the largest of Argentine parrots, the burrowing parrot when we were recently in Chubut, to the south of Rio Negro Province.

This loro has a black beak, white rimmed eyes, and an olive green head. The back and sides of the neck are whitish, the breast and back of the neck are greyish olive, the flanks yellow olive, the abdomen and upper legs are yellow and orange, the back is green/olive, the sides greyish, the wings olive with blue margins, the legs and feet are whiteish.

President of Argentina Under Fire For Breaking Up Fox-Like Media Group: Clarin

Clarin claims that the government has set out to gag the media, to shut them up on account of unwanted criticism. However, Sen. Nicolas Fernandez, a supporter of the bill (and no relation to the president) pointed out that nothing in the new bill regulates content.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - If you think Barack Obama has trouble with Fox News, President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina has more trouble with Clarin, the biggest media group in Argentina.

Like Fox in the US, Clarin has taken its role as watchdog very seriously.

Adios a Oregon

Views of a rainy NW state from a South American Paradise.

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - Patagonia is a long way from the USA not just in terms of the miles that a person has to travel to get here, but culturally and politically as well.

When I recently returned to our little outpost here in the southern cone, several of the neighbors dropped by to say welcome and chat for a bit. It was good to be back on our dusty lane in Patagonia where people value tranquility just ahead of raspberry jam.

Mañana

Inside perspective on life in Argentina from a former resident of Oregon.

(EL BOLSON, Argentina) - Manana is a word that gets no respect from English speakers. Northerners say it with a whiney nasal quality that suggests it’s something less than it is, tomorrow. It’s a derisive codeword for “maybe never.” Argentines resent this because to them, manana has a very clear and precise meaning, sometime next week.

En dos o tres dias is Argentine Spanish for “maybe never”. At least that’s been our experience here in Patagonia.

We arrived in El Bolson just three days prior to the contractual deadline for the completion of our house.

Islas Malvinas Day in Argentina

Holy week would be a crowded and noisy salute to the last of summer’s heat, but we were able to endure until Easter, the return of rain and peace at last.

(FALKLAND ISLANDS, Argentina) - Islas Malvinas Day came and went. A thief in the night, it hid itself at the beginning of la semana santa (holy week) and managed to stay unnoticed in the shadows of the grander holidays that would follow.

There were no conspicuous displays of Argentine flags, parades, fireworks or other conventional displays of patriotic fervor.

In el Bolson, the only inkling we had that there was a holiday afoot was that the banks were closed; but in a town with only two banks that stay open only three hours per day, most closures go by unnoticed. The 24-hour teller machines did a nonetheless brisk business.