South America Blog
About this blog
Wayne Bernhardson is the author of Moon Handbooks to Buenos Aires, Chile, Argentina, and Patagonia. Here he shares his vast knowledge of South America and its people.
Recent Posts
- The Papal Cumbia
- The Uruguayan Sacraments: Tango & Mate
- Taxing the Tourist: Argentina's AFIP Aims Low
- Fortress Falklands: A Book Review
- Pope Argentinus I, The Musical: Ragtime Meets Tango
- Credit Where Credit Is Undue?
- ¿Adios Hugo?
- When "No" Is A Positive
- Chile and Its "Crazies"
- The Oscars: A Post Mortem, So to Speak
- Sacrificing the Atacama? A Chilean View of Dakar
- Chilean Oscar Faceoff? "No" v. "Kon-Tiki"
- Friday Digest: Southern Cone Nuggets
- Dancing in the Mud? The Andean Aftermath
- Floods & Mud: Summer Storms Hit the Andes
On Saturday: Reciprocity, Dólares, Uruguay
In writing recently about Argentina’s plan to collect its “reciprocity fee” for tourists online, I remarked that many details were not yet clear – particularly whether the measure might be applied to overland border crossings, where accountability issues might be serious. At remote and thinly staffed crossings such as Mamuil Malal (pictured above), no one can guarantee than sums of money might not go missing. more >>
Public Phones to Perish
When I first visited Buenos Aires, in 1980, telecommunications were rudimentary at best – the single phone company, ENTel, was a Soviet-style state monopoly and trying to get a new line was a nightmare. Of two comparable apartments, one with a phone might sell for double the price of one without. ENTel would charge several hundred dollars simply for changing the billing name, and moving your number from one place to another was literally impossible. For those without a phone, making a long-distance call – especially overseas – involved endless lines at an inconveniently located ENTel office, plus preposterous prices. more >>
Reciprocity Online: Argentina Makes Things Worse
In a couple weeks, I’m flying to Buenos Aires for a month and a half, and I’m looking forward to it – earlier this year, I was there only briefly and spent most of the time in bed with bronchitis. While searching for flights – in the end, I was fortunate enough to have sufficient miles for a free one – I learned an important new fact about Argentina’s so-called “reciprocity fee,” the visa charge that’s really an opportunistic retaliation against countries that require Argentines to pay for a visa application. more >>
The Death of Disco: Tony Manero in Chile
In 1979, on my second visit to South America, there was a new word in the Spanish language. In Peru, I first encountered the verb travoltar, which meant to dance like John Travolta's character Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, an enormous hit around the continent. Personally, I always detested disco, but there’s no dismissing the cultural impact of that film about a working-class kid who turns into something else when he hits the dance floor. more >>
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