Rosarigasinos into the woods

We the Rosarigasinos went to do a photographic tour of the Bosque de los Constituyentes last Saturday (follow the link for more pictures, and try Flickr too). In case you haven't been following, we're a group of local photo freaks... er, amateur photographers, and we do these tours every month.

Constituyentes are the people who draft a constitution, and bosque means woods. The place was an environmentally damaged area and a no-man's-land in the northwest of the outer urban ring of Rosario, where the Ludueña Stream crosses beneath Circunvalación Avenue. It's a bit difficult to get there without a car and some courage, but now there's at least something to look forward to: 260 hectares (2.6 km²) of forest, plain and water, which took a lot of work to turn into a working ecosystem. They did it in the 1990s; people set fire to the woods several times, and there were other problems, but the place seems to be doing OK now. The trees planted there will reach maturity, according to the official brochure, in 2040, but there's a lot of life there already: pines and eucalyptus, several species of birds (kiskadees, lapwings, plovers, and others I couldn't identify), water turtles, and snails.

There are llamas as well! They were so out of place in this place, but it turns out they were brought in when the zoo closed. (There was a lot of debate when the municipality decided to close down Rosario's zoo. We're the only large city in Argentina without a zoo, and though the state of it was appalling, they could've tried to improve it instead of sending the animals away.) We tried to get close to the llamas but they didn't like it very much; the males came forward with threatening looks, and that was it.

I didn't think the tour was a good idea at the beginning, because it was so complicated to get there and because you have to get a permit to enter. I hate bureaucracy and I have no contacts, but fortunately other people in the group did, so after an exchange of emails and faxes and finally a personal phone chat with the head of the municipal park department, we were told it was fine for us 20 or so photographers to visit the woods for a couple of hours. There was nobody to guide us, as promised, and we overstayed a bit too. So much for bureaucracy! I'm glad to say nobody did anything ecologically irresponsible like lighting a cigarette or leaving plastic wrappings on the ground.

After the tour we grabbed something to eat at the patio de comidas of the Carrefour supermarket, and then we went home to rest for the night — since it was the birthday of one of the guys and we were having an asado. We were lucky the horrible storm that was forecast didn't materialize, or rather, it did but then vanished.

This is the first time we celebrate like this. As I said to the group, we've definitely moved ahead from being just an Internet-based photographers' group and picture repository to a group of people, colleagues, friends, or whatever you prefer to call it. I'm immensely grateful to these guys who have so casually turned into friends; if I were to sum up the brightest aspects of this year (yes, it's that time already) I'd surely place the Rosarigasinos at the top.

Photographers' plague reloaded

I'm just back from a meeting (somebody pompously termed it an assembly) of the Rosarigasinos photographer group (the ones I went to Granadero Baigorria with, and to the boat tour before that).

We've been planning to hold a modest joint exhibition (only 3 pictures per person), and today we wrapped up most of the issues. It'll be held on the 1st and 2nd floors of the Faculty of Biochemistry of the National University of Rosario, which lends the space at no cost to such things, starting on October 8. Matte paper, 15×21 cm, mounted on 3 mm high-impact plastic sheet. The topic is the city, and the name is Mirada Rosarigasina. Not that this advertising will get through to many, but I do what I can.

(I could do some more advertising in the relevant place in my new website, the one you don't know where it is yet, even after I told you specifically to join my three initials —which are the same as the name of a Popular Document Format— with hyphens and add .com.ar.)

After the meeting I had to run to Japanese school to write a composition for a contest. You get dictionaries, a couple of sheets of paper divided into 300 large squares (one per character), and 2 hours to write about some topic. They give you 2 topics to choose from, on the spot. I wrote about "current trends", mentioning the widespread use of mobile phones and computers, the poverty and rudeness of the young generations' language, and the fact that, fortunately, some customs, such as grabbing a quick cup of coffee with a friend, never get out of fashion.

I was relaxed given the occasion — last year I was terribly nervous and made a lot of mistakes, but this time I simply let it flow out without caring too much about using complicated expressions. Better being correct and sound just a bit simple than using a lot of learned words and get them wrong (and let me tell you, Japanese is an irresistible tempter in this regard — for every simple, common concept, the formal register has two or three obscure equivalents that you can misuse horribly without even noticing).

So I wrote, I gave it to my sensei, and now she's sending it to Kyoren in Buenos Aires to be graded. I don't think I'll win a prize, but I came out satisfied with I'd written, so I don't care.

Photographers' plague, part 2

On Sunday I marched again to gather with a different group of people... mostly friends and acquaintances of a friend of mine, who, coincidentally, were mostly photographers. I was digital, they were analog, but that was it. (I must note that, depending on to the people involved, a digital vs. film discussion may or may not become a religious war.)

We were supposed to gather at the door of the Club Mitre, or Club de Pescadores (Fishermen's Club), which is located on the... I can't call that a beach... let's say at the foot of the ravine of the Paraná River. You come from the city center down Corrientes St., and after passing the Rosario Central Station you are in the Parque de España. There are an elevator and a staircase which take you closer to the water level, where you'll find, on one side, a simple restaurant specialized in local fish, and on the other, an outdoor space with tables, chairs, and asadores with parrillas (that's barbecue platforms with grills).

If you want to eat at the restaurant, you don't pay anything to enter the club, and you can have (for example) a boga for two for 30 pesos, or a parrillada (good for one young male or two non-voracious females, according to the lady in charge) for AR$18.50. If you prefer to use the other facilities, you pay 4 pesos to enter, and you must bring your own food and whatever you're going to use in order to cook it and eat it.

When I showed up, at 11 AM, there were a group of people, some toting humongous cameras, but no sign of my friend. She came a bit later, and together with another friend of mine went to the supermarket to get some hamburgers, bread, tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, and ketchup. That was to be our lunch. It took longer than I expected for such simple arrangements, mainly because there was almost no dry wood and old newspapers to help kindle the fire.

More people came, some went away. It was a peaceful afternoon, which I needed badly. I took pictures... nothing fancy, some of the people, to document the event, and some of the very nice view of the river, and a couple of ship-spotting pictures as well (I saw a LNG carrier!).

The morning was a bit cold, but sunny. The afternoon alternated between sunny and freezing, following the cloud cover.

We left the club at about 5 PM, and went to see a collective photo exhibition at the Centro de Expresiones Contemporáneas (CEC), which is a group of former port storehouses appropriated by the municipal government and refurbished to serve as a culture center (mainly for low-budget things, fan conventions like Leyendas, and non-massive rock concerts). The pictures on display were 25% good, 50% just (or barely) nice to look at, 25% too artsy or "conceptual" for their own good. We left the CEC as the sun went down.

Photographers' plague, part 1

Last Saturday was the monthly meeting/safari of the Rosarigasinos photographers' group (pictures?). I think there were about 20 of us this time. It was held in Granadero Baigorria, a city of 45,000 located just north of Rosario, in what a porteño would call el conurbano. We decided on it because it was nearby and there are several baigorrienses in our group. Like a dreadful swarm we descended upon a number of significant spots in the city, including a famed restaurant where we consumed a most welcome pasta lunch. The day was extremely cold and windy. The sun didn't come out from behind the clouds. Much merriment was had, and abundant photo-picturing was achieved, nevertheless.

Our main destination was the natural reserve. Saying it was neglected would be an understatement, unless by "natural" you mean "forgotten by mankind". Despite the garbage and the lack of care, it's a nice little place by the river. Some time ago large numbers of dead fish started appearing in the banks of the Paraná; pollution was blamed, but it turned out that the cold is the real culprit. Persistently cold temperatures made the fish sick and lowered their natural defenses. This happens from time to time.

We invaded the train station and then toured the main square and took pictures of the church.

We also went to a replica of the Marian shrine of Schoenstatt. I don't really get what use it is to build a copy of a shrine (except as a tourist attraction). Sympathetic magic, maybe. Anyway, I reckon 25% of the group was agnostic or atheist, so this had more photographic and anthropological value than anything else. The shrine was nice enough (better ligthing would've helped).

All in all, a great day and a great place. No major tourist attractions, just gems known to the locals, mostly.

If you're in Rosario, you can get to Granadero Baigorria easily: get out of the center through the Cruce Alberdi, go down Alberdi Ave., then the wide Rondeau Blvd., and then cross the municipal border under the Rosario–Victoria Bridge. That's it. The street changes its name to San Martín Ave., and goes on in a straight line. You'll see a collection of ugly buildings on your left: the Eva Perón Hospital. Keep driving and you'll be in Capitán Bermúdez, and then in Fray Luis Beltrán (these are smaller towns). After Beltrán is San Lorenzo, site of the only battle of the war of independence that was fought inside present-day national territory, and then Puerto General San Martín, and thus ends Greater Rosario.

The photographers' plague repeated itself, in slightly mutated form, the next day. I'll get to it tomorrow.