What Lies Beneath

An update from Bariloche..... Lots to tell, but I or you won´t get through it all! I´ve moved from second homestay into a hotel for the next 3 few days, where I have freedom. Woo-hoo! No more homestays until April. Hurrah. Oh...........it is April.

Amanda (the last homestay hostess) cooked lovely food but was a cross between Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances and Val of Bonaly fame. Shudder! She did things like move my plate around as I ate a pear to ensure it was perfectly centred around the pear slice I was eating. She never ate with me but always stood over me with a cloth. I kept having to remind myself I was closer to 30 years old than 3. How I love my own space.

This week I have been finding out about "the disappeared" which my Amnesty magazine has sometimes written about but which could, as a tourist or backpacker here, be completely overlooked. I wasn´t sure if this terrible chapter in recent Argentine history was taboo or not, so I asked my teacher who said it was talked about, and that children now learnt about it in school.

I am not too hot on politics and international relations....wish I was..........I am sure *someone* will post a message if I get this next bit wrong...........anyway, as I understand it the Dirty War or Guerra Sucia, was the state-sponsored violence against citizens of Argentina, which happened after Peron´s death, and his wife´s rule (cue Evita) between 1976 and 1983 by the then military dictatorship. It was something which the Argentine court later refered to as Genocide. This was going on at the same time as the war with Maggie and the "Malvinas" (or rather vice versa) and I have heard some interesting views on this.
Basically 30,000 innocent Argentine members of the public were taken from their homes, work and from the streets as they walked to work etc by the military and never heard of again. What I didn´t realise were that most of those taken were only aged 16-25. Almost everyone in this area knows someone who "disappeared".

Whilst I was kayaking on the beautiful lake on Saturday (as per last Saturday too) amid this utterly stunning scenery it hit home that beneath me, the 110m depth lake, is where it is likely that some of these 30,000 individuals had met their end; drugged or weighed down and pushed overboard in the centre of the lake. For what? Although a few were communists, I understand that the vast majority were not, but were, as Ani told me, people like me.
The disappeared would mostly be in their 40s now, so it wasn´t even that long ago. So hard to imagine, in this completely European style city. Horrendeous to think about, but important I think, to do so. Not for the first time here I am very thankful to be British, and also that in my time here in Argentina there is freedom to talk, to find out facts, to think freely and of course to
write this.

Grim thoughts, so on to cheerier topics. Yesterday I went on a 10 hour minibus trip up to a glacier...........apart from the bus ride it was great. We heard little chunks fall away, but couldn´t see them. It was incredible to listen though. So here are some pics.




I am going to Mendoza on tomorrow to the grape harvest (!) and to meet Colin for 10 days. He´ll go to the ends of the earth to put off looking in to changing careers!! We are going to be in Mendoza for a few days then Buenos Aires for some more Spanish lessons, before I head up to Posadas for the orphange project.





There´s so much more I want to do here, but time is running out! I hope to write again before I leave for Mendoza....I´ve hardly mentioned Patagonia and what I´ve seen of it.

Buenos Noches Amigos.