Marge and I just returned from a cruise around very south America starting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, then Montevideo, Uruguay; Stanley in the Falkland Islands, 6 days on and off zodiac boats on the Antarctic peninsula, then stops in Argentina again, and stops in Patagonia, Chile and up the west coast to Valparaiso, Chile and over to the airport in Santiago, Chile. It was a great trip although I was a little disappointed with Uruguay after I heard it was a great place which has legalized gay marriage, is in the process of completing the legalization of marihuana, and allegedly has a relatively free market with good economic growth. However, the economy is not so great, and the place looks a bit seedy, at least compared to Chile, but this observation is based on visiting only one city and touring it by bus for a few hours. Our tour guide blamed the poor economy in Uruguay on the influence of the poor economies in the larger countries of Argentina and Brazil, but she seemed a little perplexed and said that the Uruguayans were doing all they could to improve the economy by electing a socialist government, failing, imho, to connect the dots. We walked through a large pro or anti-abortion demonstration taking pictures in Buenos Aires, which we read later was not a wise thing to do, and we never really figured out what was going on. Also saw various signs protesting England's continued possession of what they call the Malvinas Islands and England calls the Falkland Islands. We learned that Chile has been subsiding both individuals and businesses to move down to Patagonia to counter the Argentine presence there, thus robbing the productive Peter in the north to pay struggling Paul in the south, which has had deteriorating economic conditions ever since the opening of the Panama canal in 1914. All in all the trip reinforced my belief that John Lennon had it right when he wrote Imagine: Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one __________________
