Zarate, Argentina

Mar 1, 2006

Zarate is a charming little town on the side of the river that separates two of the provinces of Argentina. I have often seen it from atop the bridge crossing the river and told myself I should stop here. It is clean and has a lot of very expensive looking houses on the bluffs over the river. The downtown is vibrant at night, with crowded restaurants and lots of foot traffic. I would definitely like to come back and spend more time here.

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I was supposed to go to Uruguay today to pick up some paperwork for a venture I am looking into. So I gassed up the bike and headed for the international bridge.

Because the protesters of the Papermills being built in Uruguay had removed the signs to the bridge, I got lost and ended up wandering around for a while, before backtracking and finding the right route. About 10 miles from the bridge, I came across the blockade.

I´ll say one thing for them, the Argentines know how to build a blockade. They have taken a tractor trailer and set it sideways in the road, across a bridge over a river. There is a path next to it wide enough for a semi that they block with a farm tractor. In front of the trailer are two tents, off to both sides of the road are tents, and up the road the police have a tent over a picnic table and what appears to be a camping trailer.

The mood is festive. Once I realized there was no way to ride around the blockade, I planned to charm my way across, told them I supported them, and politely asked if I could cross.

-No, but would you like some water?

The police officers came over and looked me and the bike over.

-Offer him a maté, one said, laughing at the idea of offering a foreigner a maté.

-Would you like a maté?

¨Sweet or bitter?¨ I replied.

That got them laughing. I got off the bike and had a maté with the protesters while the police went back to their tent. The protesters showed me their blockade. They were quite proud of it. One of the tents was a kitchen, with a working stove. There is a working freezer because someone from the electric coop came out and dug up the cable and tapped into it for them, and they have dug a well beside the blockade, so they have fresh water.

On the side of the road, they are building a wooden house, so evidently they are happy there. On the other side they are building a permanent bathroom, so they can stop renting the chemical toilets they are using now.

I was going to suggest putting the bathroom in the house, but I´m sure they thought about it and decided it would be better to have it across the busy international highway. In another tent they have assembled cartoons from all over the world about the papermills, (none are pro-mill), and various media clippings.

I told them I used to go to anti-nuclear protests, leaving out the part that it had more to do with someone named Heather than any real opinion one way or another regarding the wisdom of constructing a nuclear plant on an active seismic fault, and that made them offer me some pastries. I declined, but did enjoy sitting under one of the tents talking to them.

There were five of them, a very elderly man who wore a teeshirt supporting one of the local motels, a guy of 50 who seemed to be in charge, two women in their 40s, and an idealistic kid of 20 from Buenos Aires who had been there for 11 days.

He feels sorry for the Uruguayans.

He showed me the jewelry he made, and was worried that Bush might seek another term. I told him that was impossible. His eyes lit up. Then I told him Bush has a brother. He found this troubling.

The woman who drives the tractor back and forth to allow certain traffic through is fairly fleshy. She told ribald stories about some of the younger male volunteers who had been there earlier.I helped them unload a pickup full of wood.

They invited me to stay for a barbeque, but I told them I had to be moving along.While I was there, the Argentine Customs officers, who work on the other side of the bridge in Uruguay, drove up to one side of the barrier, walked around it, and got in another car and went off to work, after joking with the protesters.

They didn´t let me cross, but I left with posters, stickers, pamphlets, a button and a really neat baseball cap.