Brett's Southern Crossing

Argentina, along with several other South American countries, are celebrating their 200th anniversaries this year.  As Napoleon caused chaos in Europe, most of South America took advantage of the situation to declare independence from Spain, or at least begin the process.  In Buenos Aires there was a week of celebrations culminating in a huge parade down Avenida 9 de Julio.  In Argentina’s case, while July 9th is independence day they celebrate the nation’s birthday a little earlier in May, since the first local government was formed in May of 1810 (independence wasn’t declared until 1816).

In true Argentine fashion, the parade started well after dark at 9pm.  The floats were really well done and covered all of the major events of Argentine history including the indigenous peoples, wars of independence, political upheaval, military dictatorship, Malvinas/Falkland Islands war, the Madres y Abuelos de Plaza de Mayo, Peronism, the industrial revolution, democracy, and more.  I took a video, which was difficult since with 3 million people attending the parade it was kind of a mosh pit just to stay in my spot!

A great photo album of the festivities can be found here.

Last year I read about a BBC mini series called Long Way Round.  It’s a travel reality series starring actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman.  They decided to ride motorcycles from London east to New York City.  The trip was almost entirely on the ground (20,000 miles!) with only one small segment by train and a flight from Magadan, Russia to Anchorage, Alaska.  You can’t imagine what an ordeal it was for them to ride through Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and the Road of Bones in eastern Russia.

Last year at Christmas my brother gave me the book version of Long Way Round as well as the DVD and book for Long Way Down — Ewan and Charley’s next trip from northern Scotland to Cape Town, South Africa.  I only just got around to reading the book this week and it’s great.  Both books have the typical humorous style that travelogues seem to have.

I was thinking about the other travelogues I’ve read/watched and I came up with:

• Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country
• Bill Bryson’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself
• Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air
• An independent film called A Map for Saturday

I can hardly believe the list is so short!  I definitely need to read the rest of the books by Bryson and Krakauer.  But I need your help with recommendations.  If you’ve read a great travelogue leave a comment so I can add it to my list!