Northern Argentina VI: All about passing the time

LOCATION: ARGENTINA

After doing the jump, I found myself waiting for Monday so I could receive my package sent for me from Israel. Aside from living in the Internet point, I also went to have some fun at night in clubs and saw the magnificent and out of this world show of the famous De La Guarda. It was wet and crazy!!

What do you mean no packages today? Or tomorrow??
Somehow I thought I am a person that learns from his past mistakes. Well, surprise, surprise, I still have a lot to learn and to master. I have asked my mother to send me some stuff as I already forgot Cusco times, when i got stranded there for no less than a month and a week! Well, as I asked my mom to send it to me EMS (Express Mail Service, a fast way to ship things from here to there without loosing your pants to UPS/DHL/FedEx special couriers...) so I guessed that in 5 days it will reach me. Well, think again, as what happened to me. The package didn't reach my hostel, so I went to visit the main post office here in Cordoba on Friday morning, only to hear the lady in customer service saying something about the package department not open till Monday. MONDAY!? Shit, that's three days from now! And I am already here for almost two weeks! I need to move ass, here!! Damn...
So, I am stuck here for the next three days, hopefully the packages section WILL be open (and nobody can guarantee anything here, believe me, especially after the Peruvian post office lost me 10 rolls 0f developed films somewhere between Arequipa and Lima..just wonderful!). What am I doing here? Well, suddenly I have more time to write and change blog, aint I?? Well, now you know why!

De La Guarda – when humans, water and color meet mid air in a crazy frenzy!
Once, over five years ago, a new and original show came into Israel. It was a sensation, and all tickets were sold out several times and the show was prolonged for several weeks due to high demand. It was called, De La Guarda, and at that time made me curious but with not too much of enthusiasm and lack of cash, I preferred to do other things. Turns out, I came to the origin of this show...
Funny thing, already when I was traveling with Lee in a month ago some people we met talked about a show that will be held on the fifth of November and it is a MUST! I understand that it was a rock show, and I was not sure I would stay in Cordoba so much time...well, surprise, surprise..
And then Aviran and Alon told me about this show – Aviran decided to skip it but I decided that missing it in Israel is a good reason to see this show, here in Argentina.
Some words about the De La Guarda show and group: Started at 1993 days in a music bar among the many bars dotting Buenos Aires`s streets, it made a breakthrough in the 90`s and also in the start of the new century, and had a wide world tour, including in Israel.
Well, the time has come, and I went back to the hostel to arrange myself. Alon and Moran (A friend of Aviran and Alon) were not at the hostel, and after looking for them in the Tango hostel (and not finding them there...) I comprehended that they didn't wait for me...Well, I didn't know but it was for the best.
I went out to the streets and stopped a caby that took some ten minutes, while driving through streets I was never familiar with (turns out, he was just wasting time so he could make more money on the counter...). I arrived five minutes before the show started, and after depositing my jacket I entered the place, a people crowded black-walled square arena with a low-ceiling cover of some sort. I only knew that it involves flying performers and water sprayed all over ya. Well, looking up at the low cover I could not figure out how the hell they will move this so the performers can go down and grab you so you can fly with them...A magical-like tunes were poking from speakers all around the arena and people were amassed together, standing and looking around, passing the time. Alon or Moran were not to be seen and frankly, I didn't bothered to look for them.
And then, suddenly the little light that was in the arena has dropped to nil, and suddenly the music changed to another nature-like tunes and the screen above have been lighted with colored spotlights, showing figures and shadows cross from one side to another, speeding across, in an out of this world scene. The crowd roared with enthusiasm as seeds of some kind, balloons and florescence were tossed, released and sprayed all over the cover and made everyone curious as to what will happen next. And then came the flashlights scene: through little hols in the cover, flashlights shone, here one, another there, and in the background you could hear a mumble jumble in an unfamiliar and nonexistent language, which went along with the behavior of the flashlight. It was a funny scene and we all laughed. And then, smoke was released into the cover and suddenly a head burst out of the cover, 2 meters above the head of the crowd, shouting and continuing on the mumble jumble language. Another head popped out and then was pulled back behind the cover. And then, the cover was ripped at several locations, and behold, we were facing a ten meter high hall, with construction pipes build till the ceiling, way above our head. All the balloons, confetti and other things that were on the cover, was sprayed all over us and felt like a combination between Independence day and a wild show of bizarre acting. The performers, athletics wearing suits and very short skirts, were swinging five meter in mid air, flagging their hands, legs and heads in a crazy frenzy. All the while, tribal-like tunes and songs were keeping coming out of the speakers and, for my amazement, were originated from the swinging performers and other participants that were hiding among the elaborate constructions. At one point, a soft spray of water sprinkled all over us, and two stages were pushed into the mass of the crowed at two different locations, and on those stages, one at each, a show of solo performer was conducted under a shower of water, with colored back light and appropriate tunes. Amazing and wild!
At another point, a performer with only ass-exposing underwear, went from the construction in a tarazan like swing almost all the way down to the crowd, shouting and mumbling, and some times on the way down to the crowd, grabbing and tying some “fortunate” victims, usually girls and then swinging with them in the air while fonding there ass in a horny way...How Latin!
The show continued on also with a mass jumping dancing thing, with the performers amid the crowd, picking up atmosphere and hands and making the whole crowd jump and yell in a mass frenzy. A wild-wild show, I can tell you, especially when 200 people jump, push and pull one another to stabilize themselves. It might sound like a total mess, but it is less violent then it sounds. Drum playing, tribal singing and surrealistic scenes of human movement in mid air were also on the menu, and for an hour and a bit, there was not a single moment of silence, relax, and darkness. When one show was finished, another one was starting on the other side of the arena, transferring the attention from the old scene to the new one.
Somehow, it was possible for me to comprehend that those enthusiastic performers, some 8 people all in all, were living this kind of frenzy, and it could be hard for me to actually see them strolling in town like normal human beings...THEY WERE THAT CRAZY!! All was wild, full of good energies and simplified. An original show, one that is hard to conceive or to forget.