JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Copa America 2011 Argentina

And adventures in Patagonia, Uruguay and Chile

Leaving Argentina

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ezeiza Airport, Buenos Aires. August 9th

There are full scale riots in Santiago, Chile, competing with London and the impending financial meltdown for the headlines here in Argentina. God knows how far it can all go; if the feral kids of the UK really wish to they can take the country down for a few days - every crap town and soulless city could have fighting on the streets by the time I get back. So far it is just London and Birmingham, but surely it will spread? Eventually there could be deaths and it would all go way, way out of control. Or maybe stop and begin again next year.

The Argentine peso seems to have devalued overnight by a few percentage points, while the Buenos Aires stock exchange experienced the biggest fall on the planet, over 10 percent in one day. They are not panicking here. In fact, they are brushing it off, because Argentina has been here so many times before. But, the global markets are a mechanism largely of evil, not good, and Argentina, which has one of the lowest credit ratings on the planet, could be seen as a weak animal, and taken down by investors who care nothing of the consequences of their selfish actions. There again, these things happen and the world somehow returns to its status quo, and all is forgotten a few weeks later…

I am experiencing this kind of strange peace in Ezeiza international airport, shortly before I fly to Sao Paulo. It feels very safe here and removed from the problems of the world and my own not insignificant personal issues.  

It is 6 weeks today that I left England. I swear it feels like months and months. Travel is like that - every day, even the most mundane, has something new and memorable either for the good or bad. My god, 6 weeks, how can it be possible? I feel like a different person to the one who drove through London on a National Express coach on his way to Heathrow and then South America, reflecting upon what a grey, miserable and ****  place the English capital is. I am not surprised this is happening to London. I am only surprised that everybody else is surprised.

Somebody has switched channels and there is some boll**** about Britney Spears. Escapism? No, this is the bullshit that got us here in the first place; a society with no society, a society where the only God isn't money itself, but wanting things; wanting false dreams. It is Saturday night Britain's got Talent, Ipod players, cosmetic surgery and kids wanting to be somebody else rather than themselves.

Hilariously I thought I’d treat myself to dinner in a decent airport restaurant as I have a few pesos left and my head is spinning.  The chef has made a worse mess of my ‘noquis’ and spinach than I thought possible. FFS, you have got to laugh. After last night's experience on the streets of Buenos Aires, it would be absurd for me to care. Those lovely people all sleeping on the street, happy for a blanket and a cup of soup.

And, shi*, I just realised I need to board after 30 minutes. Why did I have the idea in my head I had to check in after 30 minutes, when I have already done that? Red wine& spinning head clouding my judgement?

0 Comments

Making a positive change to the lives of others

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 
A long overdue blog:

Buenos Aires, August 8th

My friend Mariano from the excellent Vi Luz y Entre hostel has agreed to take me on a mission to one of the Buenos Aires slums. We want to meet a local priest who has set up a successful community project supporting the local kids. We haven’t been able to get in contact with the priest so we are just going to stroll into the slum and hope we can track him down. It isn’t without risk.

We park the car up at a supermarket a few hundred yards from the slum, leave most of our valuables in the car and walk into the shanty town. This isn’t particularly clever but it is a calculated risk. If it starts to feel too dangerous, hopefully we can backtrack.

Mariano has done his homework and we manage to find the small chapel and community centre without too much trouble. It is mid-afternoon and we don’t seem to have attracted too much unwanted attention.

The priest won’t be around until after dark and one of the workers from the community centre is scolding us for our foolishness. He says that walking in here without members of the local community with us is dangerous and foolhardy. He tells me I can take a couple of photos but then we need to leave promptly because they cannot guarantee our safety. We have ten minutes. If we stay twenty, we could get problems. Mariano swaps phone numbers, I capture a couple of images of the slum sports pitch project and the community centre, and we make tracks back to the car, watching our backs along the way.

I am very disappointed to not meet the priest and get full details of the slum project to share with you. In the evening, however, I do get the opportunity to witness first hand a very special project in Buenos Aires. Started just a couple of years ago, the project is both simple and effective:

Meeting at 8pm each evening at a designated spot in downtown Buenos Aires, volunteers meet, split up into around a dozen groups, and follow a designated walking route, meeting the homeless of the Argentine capital. The project is coordinated by the good people of Red Solidaria. During the winter months they give out blankets, cups of hot soup, provisions such as shampoo, but most importantly perhaps, they show a genuine sense of caring, concern and love towards the people they meet on the street. I have to say the experience is totally humbling and gives me a new insight into the plight of the homeless. The volunteers I accompany seem to possess more individual empathy than a dozen people put together. They are lovely human beings who give up each Monday evening to help improve the lives of others. Gorgeous Gi (who is in the band Profuga de Agua) is fortunately fluent in English and helps me to communicate with my other new friends over the course of the three hours we spend together as well as with those we meet during the evening, less fortunate than us.


Picture

The nights are cold in Buenos Aires during the winter and there are plenty out on the streets struggling to keep warm. We meet a couple with two young kids, a group of teenage boys, a large group of individuals with drug and alcohol problems, an extended family living in temporary tents, a former top lawyer who sleeps in a door way, a lady who sifts through rubbish every night so she has enough to pay for her daughter to go to school. The stories of how they all got here are all so different. You understand that short moments and seemingly unimportant decisions end up shaping the whole of your life in ways in which you could never imagine.
Picture
I will bring you detailed information about this project at a later date but I think it is important to realise that this project can be adapted to any city or town that has a homeless issue, of which most do. Get together with a couple of friends and set out to try and help and get to know the homeless one night. If you feel you have gained anything positive from this experience, then try to go back a week or two weeks later and maybe encourage others to join you. Before you know it you will have made a massive positive change to the lives of others and I am sure you will feel fantastic in yourself for having done it.

You can read more about Red Solidaria by following this link. Most internet browsers now offer language translation options, so although the site is in Spanish, you will be able to instantly translate it into English through Google Chrome, for example.
You can also read more about the other organisations that More Than a Game likes and supports by following the link to our 'Projects we like' page.
  
Picture

Photos (c) Justin Walley & morethanagame.info 2011


Picture
0 Comments

Final images of Buenos Aires

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

(c) Justin Walley/Morethanagame.info 2011

0 Comments

Goodbye to Patagonia

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 

Photos (c) Justin Walley & morethanagame.info 2011

El Calafate airport somehow escapes the worst of the winter storm that left my bus stranded on a mountain pass the previous night for 8 hours. It is time to leave the remoteness of Patagonia behind. I will certainly never forget my time here...
0 Comments

Stranded on a mountain top

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 

Photos (c) Justin Walley & morethanagame.info 2011


As the weather began to set in on our journey back from the Fitz Roy mountains, you just knew that we were going to struggle to get home. An hour into the journey, the bus came off the road and left us stranded on a mountain top with no emergency phone coverage and very soon no heating or power. The snow kept falling and it was 8 hours later before we were rescued, cold, tired but very relieved. We eventually got back at 5am.
0 Comments

Congratulations Rupert!!

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 
A personal congratulations to my good friend, Rupert, who has just announced he is getting married to his lady, Baiba. Congratulations to you both!
Please enjoy these photos of 'Bar De Ruperto', in Puerto Natales, Chile.
PS I tried to get a pint to toast your news but they were closed :))
0 Comments

What is it with the 100 peso note?

1/9/2011

0 Comments

 
What is it with the Argentine 100 peso note? It is worth the equivalent of 20 euro and yet any attempt to change one or ‘break’ one very often prompts panic in Argentina. Paying for a hostel costing 30 peso – no chance! Lunch, 15 peso – are you joking! Taxi, 40 peso – driver asks to keep the change. Then I decided to pop in to the country’s biggest multinational supermarket chain, Carrefour, and break one of my hundreds for a bottle of drinking water…only to be almost marched off the premises by the supermarket’s security.  You’d understand it if the cost of living was low in Argentina but prices here are generally at the lower European price levels you find in the peripheral countries such as Portugal, Turkey and the Baltic states. Can you imagine there being panic every time you tried to break into a 20 euro note in Portugal?!

0 Comments

Staring into the abyss

31/8/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture

(c) Justin Walley & morethanagame.info 2011


As the weather sets in, our hike comes to an end as we hit a frozen lake below the Fitz Roy mountains
0 Comments

Patagonian wheels

22/8/2011

0 Comments

 
They keep their ride very real up in the mountains of Patagonia in the town of El Chaltan
0 Comments

A place important to all of us

22/8/2011

0 Comments

 

(c) Justin Walley & morethanagame.info 2011


This icefield is believed to be the world's third largest reserve of fresh water. The ice is 170 metres deep in places.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Copa America 2011

    A blog from the 2011 Copa America and road trip around Argentina.

    Picture
    Picture

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit


    Archives:

    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011


    Categories:

    All
    100 Peso Note
    1929 Great Depression
    2007 Copa America Final
    2010 World Cup
    2011 Birmingham Riots
    2011 Copa America
    2011 Copa America Final
    2011 Economic Collapse Argentina
    2014 World Cup Finals
    24 July 2011
    Absinthe
    Accidents
    Aconcagua
    Aerolineas Argentinas
    Aguero
    Alacaluf
    Alaska
    Albania
    Alexis Sanchez
    Alonso
    Andes Beer
    Andesmar
    Andes Mountain
    Antarctica
    Antarctic Researchers
    Antonio Valencia
    Argentina
    Argentina 3 Costa Rica 0
    Argentina Flight
    Argentina Girls
    Argentina Independence Day
    Argentina V Bolivia
    Argentina V Colombia
    Argentina V Columbia
    Argentina V Costa Rica
    Argentina V Uruguay
    Argentina Winter Weather
    Argentine F A
    Argentine Food
    Argentine Football Dog
    Argentine National Manager
    Argentine Peso
    Armenia
    Art
    Atlantic Coast
    Atletico Madrid
    Avenue De 9 Juli
    Bahia Lapataia
    Baltic States
    Banega
    Barcelona
    Bar De Ruperto
    Basil Faulty
    Batista
    Bbc
    B B C News
    Beachmaster
    Bird Man Of Chile
    Bjorn Heidenstrom
    Bolivia
    Bolivia V Costa Rica
    Brasil 2 Paraguay 2
    Brasil 4 Ecuador 2
    Brasil Flops
    Brasil Four Penalty Misses
    Brasil V Ecuador
    Brasil V Paraguay
    Brasil V Venezuela
    Brazil
    Britain
    Bruce Forsyth
    Buenos Aires
    Buenos Aires Slums
    Bus Accident
    Caicedo
    Cape Town
    Carlos Sanchez
    Carlos Tevez
    Carrefour
    Central Asia
    Cesar
    Che Guevara
    Che Lagarto Hostel
    Chile
    Chilean Football Fans
    Chilean Steppe
    Chile Fjords
    Chile Girls
    Chile Volcanic Eruption
    Chile V Uruguay
    Chile V Uruguay 2011
    Christmas
    Christopher Lee
    City Hotel Mendoza
    Ciudad Vieja
    Cold Weather
    Colonia
    Colonia Ferry Terminal
    Colon Stadium
    Columbia
    Columbian Fans
    Columbia V Peru
    Contemplating Life
    Copa America
    Copa America 2011
    Copa America 2011 Final
    Copa America Final
    Copa America Final Ticket
    Copa America Football Dog
    Copa America Golden Boot
    Copa America Semi Final
    Copa Libertadores
    Copa Semi Final
    Cordoba
    Costa Rica
    Currency Wars
    Custard Creams
    Danish Nick
    David Villa
    Diego Forlan
    Di Maria
    Dog Gets Game Against Brasil
    Ecuador Football Team
    El Calafate Airport
    El Chaltan
    Elephant Seal
    English Premier League
    Essaouira
    Estonia
    European Settlers
    Eva Peron
    Falcao
    Falkland Islands
    Fidel Castro
    Fiorentina
    Fitz Roy Mountains
    Flights Grounded
    Flores
    Fray Bentos
    Fred
    Friendly
    Friendly Matches
    Fuegians
    Gabriel Batistuta
    German Andy
    Glacier
    Goa
    Gonzalez
    Google
    Guanacos
    Guerrero
    Harem
    Havana
    Heathrow
    Hernandez
    Higuain
    Hostel
    Hostels
    Hugo Chavez
    Icefield
    Iguazu Falls
    Independent Tourism
    Indian Cricket
    Inflation Rate In Argentina
    Islas Malvinas
    Jorge Newbury
    Jose Batista
    Journalists
    Juan Vargas
    Jujuy
    Justo Villar
    Kyrgyzstan
    'land Of Fire'
    La Plata
    La Plata Stadium
    Lavezzi
    Leeds United
    Lionel Messi
    Live Streaming
    London
    Los Penitentes
    Lucio
    Luis Suarez
    Luiz Suarez
    Malawi Riots
    Malbec Wine
    Manchester City
    Manchester City Football Club
    Maradona
    Maradona Lookalike
    Mario Kempes
    Mario Kempes Stadium
    Martins
    Mass Brawl
    Mendoza
    Messi
    Mexican Wrestlers
    Mexico
    Mexico V Peru
    Midsummer
    Milito
    Milodon Cave
    Misiones
    Mister Copa America
    Montevideo
    Monumental Stadium
    More Than A Game
    Morethanagame.info
    Nacional Route 3
    Nagorno Karabakh
    New Domain
    New Zealand
    Neymar
    Nurnberg Charles
    Obelisk
    Ona
    Opening Ceremony
    Package Tourism
    Palacio Salvo
    Pan-american Highway
    Paolo Guerrero
    Paraguay Football Team
    Paraguay V Venezuela
    Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego
    Patagonia
    Patagonia Bus Journeys
    Pato
    Penarol
    Peninsula Valdes
    Pereira
    Perito Moreno
    Perito Moreno Glacier Video
    Peru
    Peru V Chile
    Peru V Colombia
    Peru V Columbia
    Peru V Mexico
    Peru V Uruguay
    Peru V Venezuela
    Peso
    Petrol Prices At Pump
    Plaza Independencia
    Police
    Port
    Portugal
    Portuguese Colony
    Posadas
    Pre-copa America Final Images
    Press Centre
    Profuga De Agua
    Puerto Madero
    Puerto Madryn
    Puerto Natales
    Punta Arenas
    Quarter Final
    Quarter Finals
    Quarter Finals Copa America
    Ramos
    Recoleta
    Recoleta Cemetary
    Red Solidaria
    Ricky Villa
    Rincon
    Rio De La Plata
    Rio Gallegos
    Rio Negro
    Rio Santa Fe
    Riots
    River Plate
    River Plate Stadium
    Road To Nowhere
    Robinho
    Romania
    Romero
    Roque Santa Cruz
    Route 7
    San Luis
    Santa Fe
    Santa Fe Beer
    Santa Fe Brewery
    Santa Fe Hotel
    Santa Fe Union
    Santiago
    Santos
    Sao Paolo
    Sergio Aguero
    Sergio Aguerro
    Slums
    Soviet Union
    Spain
    Stolen Money
    Talking Heads
    Tam
    The 1978 World Cup
    The Bear
    The Fountain Movie
    The Land Of Fire
    The Roof Of The Americas
    The Shirt 2010
    The Vinotintos
    The World's Biggest Shirt
    Tiblisi
    Tierra Del Fuego
    Tim Vickery
    Torres Del Paine
    Traffic Sports
    Turkey
    Tv
    Unesco
    Union Santa Fe
    Uruguay
    Uruguay 3 Paraguay 0
    Uruguay Ferry
    Uruguay Football Team
    Uruguay V Argentina
    Uruguay V Chile
    Uruguay V Paraguay
    Uruguay V Peru
    Ushuaia
    Venezuela
    Venezuela 3 Paraguay 3
    Venezuela Football Team
    Venezuela V Chile
    Venezuela V Paraguay Fight
    Vi Luz Y Entre
    Vi Luz Y Entre Hostel
    Volcanic Eruption
    Wales
    Welsh Ancestry
    Welsh Immigrants
    Werder Bremen
    Whales
    Yaghan
    Young Argentine Fans
    You Tube
    Zambia

    Fixtures - Results - Goal Scorers - Teams - Squads - Host Cities - Stadiums

    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Forecast Satellite
    WeatherBug
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages