This speech was prepared for the first meeting of the Columbia University Amnesty group, where I served as webmaster for one year. It was intended as an introduction to the world of Amnesty International including some of the history behind the organization.

Hi everyone and welcome to the first meeting. First of all, can everyone understand what I’m saying ok, is my voice clear enough? As you may have surmised from the way I speak, I’m not from around here. I’m from further south… 86th street, as a matter of fact.

“Open your newspaper any day of the week and you will find a story from somewhere of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions are unacceptable to his government, The newspaper reader feels a sickening sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust could be united into common action, something effective could be done.” So said Peter Benenson in his article “The Forgotten Prisoners”, published May 28th 1961 after he was incensed days earlier reading in a newspaper of a pair of Portuguese students who had raised their glasses in a toast to freedom and been imprisoned for seven years without trial for their troubles.

His article called on readers to write letters to free, or at the very least demand prompt and fair trial for so-called “prisoners of conscience”, people imprisoned for their beliefs, be they religious or merely politically inconvenient, and who have not used or advocated violence. The campaign: “Appeal for Amnesty 1961” snowballed into a permanent, international movement with over a million card-carrying members (and many, many more supporters) in over 150 countries around the world which we now know as “Amnesty International”.  The mandate of the movement has also expanded beyond prisoners of conscience (which only address articles 18 and 19 of the UDHR) to include all human rights abuses as defined in the UDHR. In 1977, Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace prize.

Our vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all the human rights enshrined in the UDHR and other human rights instruments. This may seem a lofty and impossible goal, but it is known that in about one third of our letter-writing cases alone, an improvement is reported. Good results notwithstanding, letters from Amnesty supporters are a source of inspiration and hope, and when you are stuck in a jail cell with no guarantee that anybody knows of your whereabouts, inspiration and hope are in desperately short supply. A prisoner of conscience who I spoke to once related the feeling to me thus: “getting a letter from Amnesty is like being a thirsty man wandering the desert for days and finally finding a drop of water”.

Yet, in spite of the success of this organization, our task is enormous, and good results aren’t always immediate or forthcoming. But why do nothing when we can do a little? I, for one, couldn’t imagine a world without Amnesty International, I don’t think I’d want to live in it.

So I leave you with this: I challenge you all to think about how you can make a lasting contribution, however small, to humanity as a whole for it is your responsibility, your duty, to use your voice, as I have just used mine, to speak up for those who, through no fault of their own, have no voice.

I recently completed a paid internship at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, which is based at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in the City of New York. It involved being the official photographer for the 2008 Summer Institute. What does that mean? I hear you ask… well, I constructed an audio slideshow to answer that exact question. Here it is (click the video link):

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger (or PrezBo, as we like to call him) gave the opening welcome.

Did I mention that this was a fairly big deal. This guy – Kofi Annan (pronounced to rhyme with “canon”) gave a little speech, and he even told a joke.

As is expected with any large evet at Columbia, the press were all over it (how do you think I got front row seats anyway?)

Others would try to get even closer, sneaking up on guest speakers from the sides.

…and no earth institute event is complete without the appearence of the director – Jeffrey Sachs. Here he signs a book for a fan (who isn’t me for once).

He also spoke a little bit… which, in Jeff-Sachs-land translates to a few hours, because he does rather like to talk. (this picture made the front of the paper)

If there’s anyone around here who’s doing something about the state of the planet, it is the Scandinavians. The minister for foreign affairs from Norway, Jonas Gahr Store, gives the low down on global health and their foreign policy agenda.

Speaking of Norwegians, Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian institute of international affairs, tells us a bit about addressing areas of conflict in the developing world.

Of course, lots of the panelists had to be flown in, and many came from far and wide and had literally just stepped off planes following 20-hour transits. Or maybe they just didn’t find the other speakers on their panel terribly exciting.

The Sachs man takes the stage again to wake everyone up…

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran chairs the debate for the evening… which was actually lots of fun, although due to timing, somewhat sparsely attended.

The topic of the debate was interesting, and timely.

…and the speakers were endlessly amusing. Vinod went so far as to say that all innovation happens in America and that Europe was largely useless (I’m not exaggerating)

This lady spoke about nuclear energy… and France. Did you know that most of France’s energy is nuclear?

But all I could think about were her huge glasses.

Ok, so I managed to get a front-row seat… but some front row seats are more… *front* than others.

There were even tables at the front for VIPs and certain media to sit and blog.

It was not only the panelists who occasionally tuned out of proceedings. Even among the audience, some distractions proved too distracting.

Each of the many panels included time for questions. This questioner’s name was “Summer Rayne Oakes”, which I thought was a joke-name (like “Biggus Dickus”) until I googled it.

Even the Sachs-man had a question or two for the panelists.

The second day of panels was very informative, with many slides detailing just how bad the situation is with regard to climate change.

…looks like I wasn’t the only media presence there. The whole conference was videoed and can be watched here.

Friend and classmate Cathy Vaughan carries out her essential role as timekeeper for the speakers. It was joked later that these signs might be more effective if they said “shut up” on them instead of “2 minutes”

Discussion on climate change issues obviously didn’t appeal to everyone. This, I can only assume was one of the children of the speakers, keeping herself busy at the back of the lecture hall.

Each of the panels was chaired by a person from the Economist magazine. These guys were surprisingly good at it.

Me, being the geek that I am, shot a grey card, so that I could synchronize my white balance in all the photos that I took. (If you don’t understand any of that, don’t worry). You will notice, also that the image is only in focus for a narrow band of the picture. That’s what you get for shooting f/2.8 aperture.

Hey, you… yeah, you… no, not you, the person I’m pointing my pen at… yeah… you.

Jeff concludes the conference with a look of concern.

New York

Tonight saw the launch of “Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development”. It is the first student-run interdisciplinary journal of sustainable development… ever. That’s pretty cool. It will be an annual publication and the first issue consists of 12 articles. Now here’s the kicker – one of those articles was penned by me!

The event was a tad nerve-wracking not only for the obvious reasons… but also because the man on the left of the photo is the head of the advisory board to Consilience – Dr Joshua Zivin who also happens to be the director of the PhD program in Sustainable Development (which I have applied for again). The man in the centre of the photo is Jeffrey Sachs himself (who probably doesn’t recognize me from class) and to his left is Anubha Agarwal, the editor-in-chief of Consilience (although she is considerably less scary than the other two).

The website for Consilience can be found here. The first issue is here, and my article can be found here.

My feet finally returned to solid ground
from abstract worlds to which my maths had taken
me aloft and in many equations drowned

Relaxed anew, my mind it hath awakened
and to far-off lands I found my gaze renewed
my plans to travel, they could ne’er be shaken

So how to plan an epic? What to include?
so much there is to see and so much to do
so much of this choice would boil down to the mood

We start this in Mexico, to get a clue
on language, that is, to learn the Spanish tongue
or else we shall find our plans hard to pull through

In Guanajuato, short of breath, strained of lung
at Don Quijote we navigate our way
through verbs and nouns: language ladder’s first few rungs

After this, we trip through Mexico and stay
at some pretty ‘budget’ accommodation
all the while taking it all in, day by day

Highlands to lowlands, from station to station
we traversed the land, west to east by bus
then to Cuba with much anticipation

In Cuba things were different, it seemed to us
there was no hidden hand, à la Adam Smith
but now how to get around? by train? by bus?

No, a car we hired for the week and with
a sense of adventure we traversed the land
from town to town to find fact and dispel myth

As we drove, we gave to hitchikers a hand
and learned from them that Cuban life’s pretty tough
after this, to Venezuela we went, and

We had not enough time, so things were quite rough
but I was on a mission to come and see
the Angel Falls, and perhaps some other stuff

Following, we flew to the land of the free
the United States, ’twas but a short detour
from our Latin American travel-spree

The reason was that US unis would lure
my friend Nick and I into their hallowed halls
so we thought we’d visit, and receive a tour

Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech from the west coast calls
MIT, Harvard, Princeton rise in the east
and I to New York for Columbia’s walls

But Nick was accepted to them all, at least
and I was not, and sad was I for this fact
nevertheless, in New York I had a feast

But strange, just before I left, I had a smack
figuratively, of course, but still it shocked
me to find my application, still intact

And resubmitted – an M.A. to unlock
but I felt my chances were still very slim
and still the rest of my travels to concoct

Tired was I in Ecuador, on a whim
up to the equator I went to inspect
that red line that circles the globe – it was thin

To Peru, once again with Nick to connect
and so the long hike to Machu Picchu walk
and no walk in the park this, it needs respect

More than just a sight to see, one more to chalk
up on your list of places to travel to
the old Inca City lives up to the talk

Then, salt flats in Bolivia travelled through
to mines in Potosí where I felt quite ill
from the altitude, though it was nothing new

Through to Paraguay, through the Chaco to kill
my love of buses, for a fifty-hour
trip will make anybody’s guts want to spill

Not to mention the crazy girl who could sour
an already brutal transit through the heat
by hitting on me… all I did was cower

But Asuncion, Paraguay was pretty neat
for while there, I miraculously learned that
I was destined no more to accept defeat

‘Cause a place at Columbia for this brat
me, that is, was now on offer for a chance
to change the world, so to New York – where it’s at

So on to Iguazu falls I would then prance
in quite a deliriously joyous mood
while admiring the waterfall’s great expanse

Onwards to Rio, where some would dress quite lewd
for Carnival at least, and the beach so warm
and in Maracanã for a football feud

Then through Uruguay, the calm before the storm
it was May, and I was running out of time
so now a final plan I needed to form

Through Argentina and Chile, I would climb
at least one mountian, and a glacier see
and see how far south I dare travel this time

Of year, for winter approached and a degree
would be considered warm in some places here
so down I went, to Ushuaia the city

At the bottom of the world where I would fear
acute sea-sickness from all the boats I took
then northward went I, bigger mountains to near

Snow-capped cerros screamed adventure, begged a look
at three thousand seven hundred metres tall
Lanín would be the one written in my book

But alas, disaster struck and we would fall
short of the top due to inclement weather
the mountain, it knows how to make you feel small

Though we escaped, and lucky for our tether
of rope, but next through to Chile my bus went
where Nick and I would find ourselves together

But on one more adventure I was hell-bent
so in Coyhaique I flew a light aircraft
and lastly to Santiago – I was spent

We met and retold stories, we smiled and laughed
and marvelled that our trip’s months had numbered five
now set for home, to tell tales both smart and daft

So finally in Melbourne, we would arrive
but there was so much work that was to be done
if I was to have any chance to survive

My move to America, though it be fun
would be via skating world championships
so the pace of life, was still quite a brisk run

I had to pack up my home, pack up my scripts
and relocate my grand theatre of life
but without a clue, I would shoot from the hip

It surprised me, though, the emotional strife
that such a major life-changing move would bring
for this was not the first time in my short life

That I had moved like this, but nowhere to cling
to as home, yes – that’s the problem this instance
’cause home is where friends are – mine the world will fling

To its farthest corners, the greatest distance
and so my heart is flung, but I must hone in
on the making good of my small existence

So first, to Colombia to speedskate in
those darned championships where I have little hope
and in here, I witnessed one more deadly sin

Greed, it seems to touch us all so broad its scope
my laptop, camera, ipod some fool did steal
and sure was I of some athletes’ use of dope

Laptop’s loss was traumatic and hard to heal
but luckily’s New York is just the right place
to catch my breath, find my feet and keep it real

Semester starts, we must read at frantic pace
pity, for the campus has such scenery
but my uni work, I quickly did embrace

My research, location of much greenery
out of the city and upstate where we find
the heart of climate science machinery

But so much more on offer, we keep in mind
and so many new things in this place to learn
I must seize it all, lest I be left behind

But even our happiness takes time to earn
such life-shifting moves don’t come without a cost
to that intangible place – home, I oft yearn

Where is this place? I say, I do feel quite lost
in this big world, much of it I have explored
but my place in it, shrouded by winter frost

Though in this place, to mope, I cannot afford
I thank old frends, whose presence has been heaven
and new ones, and some like Cyrano adored

But now it’s finished, the hour reads eleven
’tis been quite a journey, more love and less hate
I bid goodbye to 2007
can I top this? Bring on 2008!

This poem was sent to the members of the cuai-board email listserv as a christmas card and may have been influenced by the alcohol that inevitably accompanies christmas gatherings.

To all my friends in amnesty
I write to you with festive cheer
for from semester, we are free
so closer still to your degree
but come with me, we’ll grab a beer

We’ll speak of great deeds done in aid
of human rights, the cause we follow
but let’s press on on this crusade
to make well sure we don’t evade
the truth, though it be hard to swallow

The world around us seems to fall
apart, it seems our cause is lost
but no, we must have hope I call
and bring ’bout change, however small
and worry not about the cost

For human rights is more than just
an out-there, leftie, social cause
you see, that isn’t quite the thrust
injustice, that is what we must
fight, so now we should take pause

To think about all that we do
and all those ones whom we assist
let their strong will inspire you
when next semester starts anew
we must go on, we must persist

For there is still much to be done
but don’t despair, there is still hope
we should not jest, but still have fun
to help just a little, is better than none
so keep up a smile, please don’t mope

But we shan’t forget the time of year
after all, it’s festive season
what better time, what better reason
to purge from mind, all of your fear
and raise your glass and toast to freedom!

To all my friends who with me share
The burden of this final act
I call you now, to come, to dare
And through this haze, this frosty air
To Schermerhorn to face the fact

That we are now but halfway done
Of this course, though more work still
There is to do, we must have fun
Beneath this forcing from the sun
And through the biting winter chill

But we are burdened with the mission
To solve the problems of this world
Oh! so young, with such ambition
But first we need a li’l revision
To know the direction Coriolis swirled

Back to your books! The chant will grow
To learn of words like “thermocline”
To understand the Ekman Flow
And watch the negative feedback slow
And lorentz attractors intertwine

So read about your land-sea breezes
And don’t forget the oscillation
Stay safe, stay warm, bless those sneezes
But keep in mind, those glacial freezes
…and thermohaline circulation

Once more unto the breach we go!
The big exam, our final test
come rain, hail, shine… or snow
I hope this verse will make you know
That you will give it your very best

A typical week in the life a a Columbia University graduate student.

Let’s take a look at what life is like through the eye of my camera… in invite you into a week in the life of Daniel Yeow.

It all begins here, in my studio apartment on 86th Street. People often say that the state of one’s apartment is a reflection of the state of one’s mind or life. I’d have to say that I wholeheartedly agree on this particular saying. (do you like the panoramic shot? do ya? do ya?)

After a healthy breakfast of specially-imported Weet-Bix (do you KNOW how difficult it is to find cereal in the US with no added sugar?) my day starts with a subway ride into university on the 1 train. I ride from 86th street to 116th. The subway is a curious thing in that the stations are invariably warmer than the ambient outside temperature.

If you’re lucky enough to get to Uni at 7am due to an inexplicable bout of insomnia (that’s not technically true, I know full-well why it happened), you may witness the sundial without any sun actually touching it. Once upon a time, there was a huge granite ball on the very spot where I was crouching to take this photo… but it has somehow been ‘lost’ in the sands of time.

Turning around, I am greeted by this funny looking statue which sits in front of the Low Library… which hasn’t been used as a library since the 30s but must confuse many people because it has, written in stone, on the outside of the building “Library of Columbia University”.

Walking up the stairs and doing an about-face, we get an expansive view over Low plaza and towards the actual main library of Columbia University – Butler. It isn’t quite as impressive as Low, but functions well as a library. The Low library is home to the largest granite dome in the United States apparently… lets see if we can find it.

I journeyed into the Low Library in search of the dome, but could not find it. Instead, there is this lovely area in the middle called the “rotunda”.

Walking around uni at 7am isn’t all it’s cracked up to be… there aren’t many people around to talk to. The grounds are kept very well-manicured. On the left, through the trees, you can see Earl Hall… which is where many student meetings take place because there are lots of meeting room… which are good places to have meetings.

But life isn’t all about classes and study here at Columbia, it will probably come as a surprise that I have joined the well-known neo-conservative group on campus – Amnesty International. In fact, I am it’s webmaster (any title with ‘master’ in it isn’t likely to keep me at bay for long). Occasionally we have board meetings, sometime they turn into bored meetings, other times, we eat cake and write letters.

In amongst the many lovely old buildings on campus, there exists this oddity – Lerner Hall. A decidedly modern construction, this is the hub of student life… sort of. There are auditoriums, meeting rooms, various eateries and a ‘piano lounge’ where anyone can just come along and play. Technically, at any given time, there are probably many more people in the Butler Library than there are here.

Just across the road, is the School of International and Public Affairs – SIPA. They occasionally hold very poorly-organised events with high profile speakers where the object is to study the game-theoretic behavioural patterns of the students when several hundred students try to fit into a lecture hall which only seats a tiny fraction of that number.

Columbia is an odd place to be at night. Mostly because there are lots of people, not a common occurrence at Melbourne University at night. Perhaps this is just a follow-on effect from being in New York… where there are generally more people about at night.

And sometimes, there are even night markets to go to… yes, there is always “life” (whatever that is) on campus.

Those who have been paying attention to this website will know that my MA is in “Climate and Society”. So what of the climate science, you ask youselves (or perhaps I do, on your behalf). A short (free) bus ride away is the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory which is located upstate, away from the earthquake-observation-wrecking woes of the subway.

They’ve recently become big on recycling here. This year, we won an annual competition among American Universities to be big and efficient recyclers. The trophy is probably about the ugliest thing on this whole campus. But we’re very proud of if, of course.

As much as I like the hypermodern surroundings of Lerner Hall, the cafeteria at Lamont is simply a picture. The entire complex used to be the country estate of some really rich guy, who donated it to the university when he died. As a result of this, many of the buildings look like old manor houses… because that is exactly what they were. The cafeteria building used to be a swimming pool.

The food here is nice, and some of the ‘specials’ have interesting names. The seismology sampler is one of my favourites.

The building I work in is called the “Monell Building” and is one of the newer additions. It is the home of the IRI – International Research Institute for Climate and Society, which is where I do my research. Incidentally, they are also the reason that my course exists. My MA is not a SIPA course, but a GSAS (graduate school of arts and sciences) one which is centred around the department of earth and environmental science (DEES) which started when the IRI thought it would be a good idea to have climate scientists who knew other stuff as well. Possibly with the view that these interdisciplinary people would be able to more effectively implement good policy regarding the environment.

A short walk down from the Monell building is an area where some of us play soccer at lunchtime. The attitude here is very relaxed and the people here are pretty chill, despite some of them having very intimidating academic reputations. If I had to pick the perfect workplace, this would be it. Absolutely postcard-picturesque environment, good company, stimulating work, free shuttle bus to and from manhattan.

On weekends, I meet up with some of my Climate and Society buddies to study together (I’m such a geek). In true New Yorker style, we don’t meet at someone’s apartment (we wouldn’t all fit anyway), we meet at a trendy cafe somewhere and eat pancakes for breakfast.

…and occasionally we let our hair down and hang out and try to forget about all the reading and work that we haven’t gotten around to doing.

Well… there you have it. A week in my life… other things occasionally pop up, like trips to the UN and other such trivial matters, but this is the typical grind…

I went to world championships in Cali, Colombia. This did not go well. It began rather ominously with the missing of a flight due to some rather incompetant miscommunication on the part of the early morning virgin blue domestic staff. I eventually… after a great deal of struggle… managed to get myself to Cali. I didn’t skate particularly well, but that was no surprise considering the amount of training that I had done (6 weeks). I had my camera, laptop and ipod stolen from my locked hotel room (which was, miraulously, still locked on my return) during the 30 minutes that it took for us to eat dinner. Various other things went badly in the running of the competition which will be outlined in more detailed in a strongly-worded letter/petition which I will be writing to the organisers. On a slightly more upbeat note, I did finish the marathon… all 42km of it without being lapped by the main peleton. No small achievement for a time trial specialist such as myself.

New York is a pretty crazy place, and for at least the next twelve months, I will call it home. I touched down at about 1am on Monday the 27th of August. By sunset on Monday, I had brought a new Laptop, registered my existence at the international students and scholars office, applied for a social security number, obtained a Columbia (the university, not the country) ID card and eaten at least one meal. There are few places in the world where so many things can be done in one day. Getting an apartment was another story altogether and I was without a home until only last Tuesday. This was a little tricky because I didn’t have any furniture until the following Friday. Lucky for my friend Peter McNamara who was coming down to watch some football who would arrive on Saturday.

My academic life is certainly a highlight of recent events. My electives are “Introduction to International Development”, “Contemporary Diplomacy” and “Human Rights and Development Policy”. Those with whom I have spoken recently will note that I was supposed to choose two electives and above are listed three. Despite being swamped with reading, I have decided to overload (I may un-decide soon…) mostly due to the fact that my climate science core subjects (like my probability class) are, for mathematically trained people such as myself, extremely straightforward.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found a means to connect my “spare” point-and-shoot camera to my computer, so those of you who have been waiting eagerly for photos will have to wait a little longer. I will probably not replace my DSLR arrangement for quite some time, at least until I can get some of the insurance money back from the theft in Colombia (the country).

A feeble attempt at capturing the enormity of the Iguazu Falls

This one one of a series of travel emails I sent to friends and family who wished to follow my travels through Latin America in the first half of 2007

Nothing really prepares you for the Iguazu falls. They’re big. Very big. They are the second most voluminous waterfalls in the world after Victoria falls, at the source of the Nile. They’re also one of the lesser-known attractions of South America. Everyone has heard of Machu Picchu and Patagonia and Angel Falls… but poor Iguazu falls seems to fall by the wayside. In fact, I hadn’t heard of them until I was glancing through Nick’s Lonely Planet: “South America on a Shoestring”.

The falls are situated in the rather awkward, three-borders-area between Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Lucky for me seeing as I had 72 hours to get myself out of Paraguay. This is a tricky place to be because the falls themselves are on the Rio Iguazu which IS the border between Brazil and Argentina. Visiting the falls generally involves passing from one side to the other quite frequently. Lucky for me (you think I’m lucky? just wait… there’s more) I managed to get a multiple entry visa for Brazil but it turns out I needn’t have bothered because, if you plan on returning on the same day, they don’t bother to check your passport or give you a stamp. The Argentines are bit stricter… I didn’t need a visa, but I did need lots of stamps during the three days that I was there.

Another forgotten treasure in this area is the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant – the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. I had not heard of it until I got to Asuncion. It is terribly impressive. It lies on the Rio Parana (named after the fish and spelled incorrectly (I’m kidding)) which is the border between Paraguay and Brazil… luckily, nobody checked my passport. The spillway of the dam has a capacity for a flow of water 40 times that of the Iguazu falls… and since the average flow of the Iguazu falls is about 1.5 million litres of water per second… well, I’m not great at math, but that’s an awful lot.

But I’m getting ahead of myself… our story left off in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, one of only two landlocked countries in all of South America. I had managed to finally get my visa (the travel permit, not the credit card) from the Brazilian embassy and arrange my bus trip from Asuncion to Ciudad del Este, which would then connect to Puerto Iguazu on the Argentine side of the falls. I was feeling pretty good about how things were going when I got back to my hotel and checked my email to find an item in my inbox from the admissions office of Columbia University…

Those who know me from Melbourne Uni know that my academic record is quite exceptional. Exceptional because one wonders how I didn’t get kicked out for failing so many subjects. Exceptional because on two separate occasions, I passed only one subject in a semester… but lets not dwell on the negatives. Anyway, the pattern of emails from university admissions offices so far had been disappointing but not entirely surprising. I sat up in my chair, took a few deep breaths, then clicked… “Dear Daniel, on behalf of the… blah blah blah…” I was skimming for the words “sorry”, “regret” and “unable”… but, quite to my confusion, I couldn’t find them. Instead, I found that I had received an offer of admission.

I was shocked. I checked the browser to make sure that I hadn’t accidentally opened someone else’s email account. I couldn’t believe it… I start in September this year…!

I celebrated by walking down to the hotel lobby and asking nicely if I could play the piano which I had noticed in their dining room. Despite it being about 11pm, because there was hardly anyone else in the hotel (and I assume the dining room had decent sound insulation), they said yes. I sat down and let rip with my fingers for the first time in over three months. I was rusty… but the piano was horrendously out of tune as well… but I didn’t mind. I played and I sang and I’m sure the hotel staff were in the lobby having a quiet chuckle. It was a good day.

So there I was, walking around Iguazu falls in a stupidly good mood. I was tagging along with a tour and one of the other people on the tour was from Boston. Someone once told me that it was very important to find an institution which had a good orientation or culture which matches my own. When I told this guy that I was going to Columbia he said “oh dear, they are going to turn you into a left-wing, tree-hugging hippie! You better watch yourself, I can’t stand those people”. In doing so, he did something which I wasn’t sure was possible at that time – put me in an even better mood…

Most of the falls are on the Argentine side. From the Brazilian side however, one can get a more expansive view of all the falls. Even this wasn’t enough for me though… so I opted to take a boat out into the middle of the Rio Iguazu and get a *really* panoramic view of the falls. These boat trips aren’t for people who don’t like to get wet. Everyone got thoroughly soaked, but it was an awful lot of fun. Good thing I had a plastic bag for my camera.

After the Iguazu falls, I hopped on a plane for the first time in over a month and flew to Sao Paulo (which is called “San Pablo” in all the Spanish-language brochures), Brazil, an expansive and very populated city. After catching my breath and eating some nice meals (though… not as nice as the ones I had in New York) I moved onto Rio de Janiero where I would stay on Copacabana beach and do some REALLY touristy stuff, like go for a morning jog.

Although I was there for about five days, it really wasn’t enough. Aside from the obvious touristy things to do, such as taking the cable car to the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain and visiting the statue of Christ the Redeemer, I also attended a football match. Let me just say now that Melbourne football crowds have NOTHING on Brazilian ones. Not only is everyone a little bit more passionate (yes, even more passionate than Collingwood supporters), there are samba bands, massive banners, illegal fireworks and flares constantly throughout the game.

Next stop – Montevideo, Uruguay. Suddenly I found myself in a city which was more like Europe than South America. A slightly poorer Europe, to be sure… but even the climate matched. First thing that stood out for me – good beef. Uruguayan beef seems to live in the shadow of Argentine beef, but it is, in my opinion, just as good. This could also be because Argentina exports all of its best beef, leaving it’s “B” grade beef for the locals (which is still exceptionally good). Montevideo is also a very safe city… and, due to Uruguay’s location and being, at various times in its history, caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Spain and Portugal… then Argentina and Brazil… has an eclectic mix of architectural styles.

On my last night in Montevideo, I went to a shopping mall which used to be a prison… this shopping mall was so large that it had not one, not two… but three cinema complexes attached to it. I went to see Spiderman 3 with two other people because the other cinema company had beaten this one to a copy of the Spanish dub… which everyone flocked to see (especially because it happened to show at exactly the same time).

Colonia del Sacramento, across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires, was established by the Portuguese… on land claimed by the Spanish. This did not end well… there was some fighting. It also served as an important smuggling port because security wasn’t as tight here as it was in Buenos Aires (it still isn’t). Two hours from Montevideo by bus and about one hour from Buenos Aires by boat, I spent an afternoon here before catching the ferry to the Argentinian side. Despite being an hour by ferry, it was a clear day and one could actually see the taller buildings of Buenos Aires from the shores of Colonia, which I thought was pretty neat.

Buenos Aires

Apart from eating lots of beef and seeing some tango (two things I’d promised myself that I’d do when in Argentina), one of the first things I did was visit the ‘local’ cemetery. Why? I had that stupid song from the musical Evita, “Buenos Aires” I think it’s called, stuck in my head… so I thought I’d pay a visit to Eva Peron’s final resting place. The cemetery itself is extensive and there are free tours. Good thing too because there are a fair few dead people here (c’mon, its a cemetery) who had very interesting life stories. People who were buried alive by accident, couples who had quarreled in life so in death requested that their busts face in opposite directions and a fair supply of eccentric political figures.

I spent the rest of my time just walking around the city, admiring the architecture (definitely looks like a European city) and planning my next move. The question begging was… how far south do I dare to go? I finally decided to go somewhere where, at the time, there was only one flight a week – Ushuaia. I city I had never heard of before but is, apparently, the southernmost city in the world.

It feels like the southernmost city in the world. It has snowed every day that I’ve been here and it is very cold. It feels much colder that 4-6 degrees (what the thermometer says). Although it is low-season, it is still one of the most spectacularly beautiful places I have ever been to (and I’ve been to a few…). Ushuaia has a great deal in common with Australia. For a start… it is pronounced similarly… well, if you’re an aussie who pronounces Australia “ostraya”. It also received its first significant boost in population as a penal colony… and most sailors at the time would have agreed that it was about as inaccessible as a place could get.

The waters around here and cape horn are notorious for sinking ships. When the industrial revolution came along and made wooden ships with sails obsolete, this was a favourite location to have an “accident” to collect a bit of insurance to go towards replacing your fleet. Even the Beagle channel, on which Ushuaia is located, supposedly one of the calmest bits of ocean in these parts… made me feel quite ill (my head is still rocking back and forth and its been two days dammit!).

Argentina’s tourism infrastructure is impressively well-developed. In addition… Ushuaia has a disproportionately large number of specialist photographic equipment stores and wireless internet hotspots… which is how I’ve managed to send this email. The food here is also quite excellent, the seafood is fresh (I wonder why) and the meat is of typically high quality.

After this, I am going north in search of warmer weather and the Perito Moreno glacier which flows into Lago Argentina… Calafate is meant to be a good place to start that particular quest. I will probably meet up with Nick on the Chilean side at the northern end of the lakes district after which we will go to Santiago de Chile from where our flight departs for Melbourne. I can’t believe there are less than three weeks left… it doesn’t seem like five months have passed…

Overlooking Lake Fagnano