Visitors to the Iguazú National Park will not take to discover the coatis. They are everywhere, particularly in areas where most tourists can find. The reason is simple: the coatis have adapted to human presence, to the point where they now live. In other words, are constantly in search of food, and in some cases directly be left with part of your lunch without permission. While it looks nicer than can be quite aggressive, which you will discover if they jump to the table where you’re eating, as can happen in any of the areas of food in the park. You will find also many signs that they are asked to not feed the animals, as this alters the ecological balance of the area and change the behavior of the species in the region. For example, the coatis are becoming more time on the floor, and no longer seek their food in trees, as was his normal behavior.

In the video you can see underneath a raccoon in action. The fact that no one drives away quickly is one reason why they have become accustomed to getting food this way. Needless to say that hardly eat chips, burgers and sandwiches can be considered a recommended diet for these animals.

There are provisions for the administration of National Parks to work with this theme, such as securing garbage cans to prevent the coatis can open them also to ask the tourists to take care not to leave food available to animals, as you can see the sign underneath, stuck in one of the counters of a food stall on the Argentine side.

Mind you, I have clear that with a disaster can be made interesting. It occurs to me, for example, Andrew Zimmern and his interesting “Bizarre Foods” (“exotic foods” in the translation of the Discovery Travel and Living). The same idea has been used very poor on this side of the world. While the local search Zimmern tell you about these particular foods in Argentina, for example, lead to third-line stars to other countries to make ethnocentric comments such as “how to eat this crap.”

Or maybe I’m a little inattentive and these programs already exist (in particular, know how markets work in Spain in this topic.) Anyway, I think there’s enough market in Spanish to leave the television infomercial about the “heavenly places.”

Just in case: no, I’m done “Travel Blog TV”

The picture of Anthony Bourdain opens the entry was made by Neeta Lind and published on Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

But there was another important issue: the arrival in the United States presidency Barack Obama. As his father was an immigrant from Kenya, this has driven the sights on this nation, particularly on the village where Obama came out, Kogelo . Today we offer a variety of tours there. The problem is that I could not find any statistical data on time to see how important this issue, or if it is pure marketing. In particular, to analyze the real impact on tourism in Kenya, regardless of where Obama’s father lived.

In recent days, I found several books that examine what is called “the Chinese century.” The idea that China’s growth will make this country turn into a few decades in most economically powerful nation on Earth. In the tourist market, for example, it is expected that by 2020 China will be the nation’s most visited, and tourists from that country, thanks to the gradual economic liberalization, beginning to reach many parts of the world. On a planet where there are about 800 million international travelers a year, that 10% of China’s population begins to travel outside their country would provide 120 to 150 million extra passengers.

But one thing is that China will become the largest economy in the world, and one that this country succeeds in establishing a political process of hegemony over the world. As many know, the U.S. ability to become an imperial power was a combination of economic and cultural capabilities. This last point is key: the U.S. has managed to universalize their ways of seeing the world through an impressive crop of films, books, television programs, and even through a clear popularity of English in the past five decades.

The second economy in the world at the moment, Japan, appeared in the ’80s as the power to come. Not only was a great economic importance, it could also provide a remarkable cultural production today known around the world, mainly based on the manga and anime.

All this leads to one question: can China become a global hegemon when their cultural productions still fail to catch on in the world? There is no reason for this popularity: the tight control the Chinese Communist Party has on any form of expression . That control, combined with political repression, has enabled China to grow at very high rates and that much of the population living tolerated in other parts of the world had led to massive explosive rebellions. But at the same time, it condemned China to a massive cultural production that lacks the appeal of that produced in the U.S. and Japan. I do not think any of you are interested too read or see things that glorify a party, or some insight into the past to serve partisan interests very accurate.

Read well: do not say that nothing produced in China can not be popular in the world. What I am saying is that, measured by their economic importance, China has produced many popular media products unless the United States and Japan. If we follow previous historical experiences, it seems very complicated to build a global political hegemony in the absence of the ability to create global products, translate, in symbolic terms, the economic power of a nation.

The morning we

The image which opens the door, where Beijing is seen behind a thick fog of pollution, was taken by Addictive Picasso and published on Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

At the entrance yesterday, he deliberately limited myself ” cultural ” the field of global media products. But the success of Chinese cuisine in the world is a good example of the paradoxes of success country’s economic. On the one hand, the control of the Chinese authorities on ways of expression leads to a clear depletion of events such as literature and film. But on the other, take much of that creativity into other areas, such as the kitchen.

The success of Chinese cooking worldwide is far from being a new phenomenon, and it takes a lot of decades of consolidation. A point that there are localized versions of Chinese food, and can be found versions even ” creolized ” , as the Peruvian Chinese restaurant, where the food may differ from those to be found in American Chinese restaurants.

But in China, as has Ted Fishman, the food is one area of culture where many people can progress. As this is an aspect of expression that deserves more attention from the ruling party , no more controls -hardly subversive slogans can find a new dish. therefore in recent years have seen huge growth in the food market in China. Y no longer just about fast food and economic , has also begun to explore the grounds of the haute cuisine.

The interesting thing about the issue of Chinese food is that it is a cultural product that can be exported relatively easily. And that is an area where there are more own creation, local, that imitations of foreign products . Because, like all the world knows, much of China’s industrial progress is based on copying foreign products, which are then sold at a fraction of original cost.

In the culinary theme, where the party’s ideological constraints do not have much relevance, there is so much trouble with export that kind of cultural content. For the Chinese government then will have to see where you can prioritize the political control of media content, in order to stabilize the country, and when will it begin to moderate, to stop selling only industrial products. With the current policy of tight control of content, China can never establish a process of cultural hegemony as the United States made by or to a lesser extent established by Japan (see the entry for yesterday).

On culture and industry we deal tomorrow, in the latter part of this series of entries, with the theme of souvenirs ..

In mid-2008, everyone was talking about China and the Olympics. The media praised the buildings that were built for the event, and the enormous amount of money the country had invested in improving Beijing’s infrastructure. Sure, the expropriations had been made in the city and the tens of thousands of evacuees nobody said much (I discussed this in Olympics: not everything ends in Tibet ). But now the issue is different. The Olympic Games are over. In the city were built more than 100 multi-star hotels to accommodate tourists arriving for the Games. And the Chinese government’s expectation was that the wide publicity of the event would take more tourists during the remainder of 2008.

But you know what happened in the second half of 2008: global financial crisis began, and now Beijing has hotels expensive and hardly have passengers. According to the Los Angeles Times , officials of the Pangu Plaza, a hotel of 234 rooms and suites that cost $ 17,000 the night, claim to have an occupancy of 30%. But the Los Angeles Times reporter saw no passengers stay. Hotels like the Marriott, which were paid during the Games of 5000-6000 yuan per night (between 650 and 800 U.S. dollars), now rent their rooms for 800 yuan, according to China.org.cn .

Clearly, the “bubble” of buildings in China at some point I was starting to have problems. And worse, the future, is that while the country hopes that tourism will grow in coming years, this improvement will not be as impressive as to absorb many expensive and luxury hotels. Or is anything that one of the many bubbles that we will see explode in the coming months?

More on this in The Economist

The photo of the polluted Beijing that opens this post was taken by Addictive Picasso and published on Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

CNN devotes a footnote to the attractions of Bamiyan, a region of Afghanistan. “Tourism in Afghanistan? According to the text, Bamiyan is one of the safest areas of the country, but that does not mean much in a country where year after deaths a year by fighting between Taliban and U.S. forces and the United Nations. Bamiyan was for many years a tourist destination in the “hippie trail” in Asia, but after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1979, things changed. Then came the Taliban, and produced an event that is remembered even today: the destruction of two giant statues of Buddha, which had more than 1500 years old.

According to the note, the recent violence and the recent elections caused a “dramatic fall in arrivals of foreign visitors.” No figures are, because outside of the military and defense contractors, is quite difficult to think that many tourists venture into these days in Afghanistan.

CNN’s note can be found at this link (seen on Gadling ). The picture which opens the door Bamiyan was taken by Carl Montgomery and published in Flickr under Creative Commons Attribution License.

North Korea would authorize more extensive tours . One of the world’s most isolated countries, North Korea, would be exploring the possibility of allowing more extensive tours, at least for Americans. So far, only five days you can stay in the country, with many limitations on internal movement. In the future, this period would be extended, but may only use travel agents officially recognized by the North Korean government.

Back in 1996, my undergraduate thesis degree in Communication Sciences was on the Argentine media coverage of the attack committed against the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) 1994 18. The bombing was one of the worst committed in Argentina’s history and caused 86 deaths. The event was the main news media for several weeks, and what I discussed was the coverage of several newspapers, Clarín Argentina; Página/12; Chronicle and The Reason. The thesis can be read on a page on Tripod , with a consistent aesthetic to that time. One of the most worked was the theme of the “Triple Frontier” between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, because the newspapers and the government of Argentina is focused on the Triple Border as the area from which the attack was planned (no never conclusively prove anything.)

Although it had been in Niagara a few years ago, was for an event, and only I was on the Brazilian side. So much had been unable to visit the area. Finally, this time if I got time. The physical point where the Triple Frontier proved to be a very beautiful, something I hope to see in the video, despite the cloudy day in which I had to shoot the pictures:

But the sticking point for those media coverage was Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. In newspaper stories while covering the attack on AMIA, was painted as a “lawless space” from which terrorists operated, my analysis of such constructions appear in the texts quoted in the first paragraph, and would recommend read to avoid misunderstandings if they are very interested in this topic. It was very interesting to see finally a place on which he had to read lots of descriptions. It is a city completely geared to trade, and which is now integrated in a very striking with Foz de Iguazu. The presence of the Brazilians is overwhelming. Directly in shops you speak Portuguese, and many letters portuñol. Even the eateries are called “Food Plaza” for the literal translation of “Praça de alimentação. There are all kinds of products, but what you see is clothing, textiles, toys and electronics of all kinds. In fact, this is the great advantage of Ciudad del Este, the products sold in the city cost less in dollars than in Brazil and Argentina. And the galleries where the locals are really huge, some of them quite difficult to navigate.

There are several issues to consider when you go to Ciudad del Este to purchase. The first is that many villagers tend to change places every so often. Before going there, check online for updated maps. Better to have available at least several hours to go, since the supply is very large. And not only is cheap electronics, there are also many brand available, in some cases, not very cheap prices, as with Apple. In the city there is even a site like Mona Lisa, a kind of gallery quite expensive brands and all original. Galleries and Lai Lai (pictured above), Vendome, Hijazi and Jebai, for example, have many locals. As I noted, we should not buy in the galleries near the border, prices are more expensive. On the electronics side, there is much availability of little-known Chinese brands, but also other Japanese like Sony and Panasonic. By the way, have a map of galleries in Shopping no Paraguai , a place, obviously, in Portuguese.

From Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, go to Ciudad del Este Brazil requires necessarily pass by the city of Foz de Iguazu, and then cross the bridge over the river to go to Paraguay. There are two types of public transport buses, most at a cost of 5 pesos and about 40 minutes away, go to Foz, just across the bridge. Then you have to walk across the 500 meters to the Paraguayan side, or can take a bike, the fastest way to cross the area. There are also buses that leave the side of Ciudad del Este, but by the afternoon cross the bridge can take a long time. Companies providing the service are Cruise North does not stop at any point in Foz-e Itaipu that if you take passengers on the Brazilian side. There are services every half hour or forty minutes. The last bus leaves at 7 pm from Foz. In the evening, including weekends, is a very long line of buses waiting to cross from Paraguay and Brazil.

On the side of the steps you must do both. On the way, exit both Argentina and Brazil. On return, entry into both countries. Both times I was in Paraguay asked me not to do any processing. If they are not citizens of Argentine and Mercosur, keep in mind that these buses will leave them in the regular crossing point between Argentina and Brazil, and ask them to take the microphone that comes back to not having to wait. So you can stay a half hour or more sitting on the border post waiting for the bus. If you are from Argentina, the per person limit for purchases is $ 300, which is enough to buy clothes, toys and some not so expensive electronics.

At lunchtime, in Ciudad del Este is very easy to find Brazilian food supply in some spaces, which get the weight plates. Also, if attached to something more predictable, there are McDonald’s and Burger King. Traffic in Ciudad del Este is crazy, it’s quite difficult to patrol the streets, and Saturday afternoon the city simply collapsed. Therefore, to avoid having to cross the bridge on foot, many opt to pay a bike to make the trip, there are many walking the streets, to the point that to enter the office area is a true Brazilian congestion, as you can see in the photo.

A few weeks ago, we had the authorities of the city and State of New York elo had provisions prohibit the rental of apartments for periods of less than 30 days . Such action impacting quite evident in the temporary rental market for tourists. The measure was justified in not removing the need for places to rent for local residents, but also had to do with other reasons, such as charging a hotel room tax, which ends in state funds.

Now, the city of San Francisco, which already has a law similar to New York for 20 years, announced that it will strengthen controls to enforce the law , before the emergence of temporary accommodation for periods of less than 30 days . With what two of the most visited cities by international tourists in the United States have similar laws in effect on the subject.

The question, to those decisions is whether to see a series of similar initiatives from the legal point of view in other U.S. cities. It is an interesting topic because in recent years have been consolidated in the United States a number of sites and portals rental homes and apartments for short periods, aimed at tourists who will stay for few days in a city. The best known case is that of HomeAway , but there are other portals on the market. must continue the theme in the coming months.