That’s the problem with small towns: the lack of choice. The long, enthralling drive from Salta had left us peckish, but a lack of options meant we had to wait for the curiously named ‘Los 3 Chinos’ restaurant to open at who-knows-what hour. No choice but to watch the handful of village kids spill onto the dirt football pitch. No choice but to watch lightning flash innocuously above the vast mountains. No choice but to place our beer on the jagged mud wall and amble onto the arena for a kick of the ball.

‘Patagonia’s most present characteristic is its endless expanse of nothingness, both an attraction and a lesson in boredom for the overland traveller’, I read as the plane veered its course towards El Calafate.

Having found a direct flight out of Ushuaia for the same price as a 2-day bus/ weather-dependent ferry/bus/overnight stop in ‘wind-pummelled service town’/bus option, I had, happily, forfeited the first leg of the Ruta 40 that starts in Río Gallegos.

First Southwest was forced to ground planes following revelations the company had skipped mandatory inspections. Then it happened with American Airlines as well. The stream of forced groundings has left hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded and with few options.

President George Bush announced that after the surge ends this summer there will be no further troop withdrawals from Iraq. The president’s announcement virtually guarantees that the US will be keeping 140,000 troops in Iraq until he leaves office next January.

During October and November 1947, 1,500 indigenous people from the Pilagá tribe were killed in a campaign that started near the town of Las Lomitas and spread throughout the province of Formosa.

Despite the discovery of mass graves more than two years ago, the Argentine government is still refusing to recognize the genocide, and ‘official’ history taught in schools makes no mention of the fact that half of the aboriginal race was wiped out in under a month.

It’s official, Carlos Pellegrini High School students REALLY don’t want to go to school. The Buenos Aires public high school recently received it’s 61st bomb threat…. this year.

Aliens live among us. No, I’m not being euphemistic, referring to the ghastly tourists who swarm upon Buenos Aires and indeed the rest of South America in the hope of ‘finding themselves’. I am talking actual extraterrestrial, Encounters del Tercer Tipo, high possibility of ‘probing’, aliens. And they are right here in Argentina. Specifically Córdoba.

Brazilian citizens are mobilizing to combat dengue fever, which has infected over 57,000 people and killed 67 so far this year.

Sen John McCain recently openly embraced the endorsement of Texas megachurch leader John Hagee. Televangelists and the Republican party normally go hand-in-hand, but this endorsement is causing McCain considerable heartburn.

Health inspectors had an unpleasant surprise this week when they paid a visit to French, a Buenos Aires pizzeria. Aside from the typical lack of hygiene found in most Buenos Aires fast food restaurants, the inspectors also found 2 dog bodies hidden in the restaurant freezer.