John Bechtel, B2B Writer: When Content Matters
“When results are mission critical, inspired writing is no longer a commodity.”Traveling without a destination
It is a good thing to be a little afraid, to keep an edge, to remain sharp. In the end, it’s not about the destination at all, nor is it about keeping score of where we’ve been. Most of life and its attendant memories were created between destinations, the plotting and pursuing new adventures.
A writer’s dilemma
Travel writing is trading our words for tourism dollars. Stay focused on the right numbers and be persistent, and your writing business will succeed.
My first class of English students all graduate with high honors!
At the party in the photos above, I played their videos on my laptop for their parents to see. A sizable group of parents gathered around behind the laptop, spellbound. I saw smiles and tears of joy and pride in their eyes.
A morning with the gauchos in northeast Argentina
The purpose of today”s operations were to give medicine to protect the cattle from nasty parasite bugs that infect their skin and other health issues. All of the animals except one receive this treatment. The sole exception is the one animal selected to be butchered that day.
The next generation of adobe house builders in the village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, Corrientes province, NE Argentina
And so it is that in Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, where architectural design is frequently on display, the village building codes require that only local building materials be used with traditional methods, thereby assuring that no well-heeled investors come in and build gaudy McMansions that clearly do not blend with the landscape and look of the village.
The insane traffic situation and other things you should know before visiting the village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini on the edge of the Ibera Marshes, the 2nd largest pristine wetland in the world.
Three words come to mind right away: pristine, pretty, and primitive. Not primitive as in stone age, but in the sense of doing the best you can with limited resources, and putting your best foot forward with dignity and pride.
Teaching merchandising and entrepreneurship to kids under 12 in Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, Corrientes province, Argentina
Stay tuned for a hilarious post on the next generation of adobe house builders, and then stay with me as I explore further northeast of here, to the Argentine province of Missiones and its 400 years of Jesuit-Guarani history and the conflicts endured as the borders between Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina took shape. This will include early histories of Buenos Aires, Asuncion, and Corrientes, and yes, even a plunge into dense jungle. Travel with me without a single mosquito bite!
Murder in the Schoolyard–an ugly story from the Ibera Wetlands, Corrientes province, Northeast Argentina
The gorgeous ceibo may be resistant to fire and ice, but it’s no match for the higueron. If the ceibo is a symbol of courage in the face of adversity, I think the higueron could be a fitting symbol of evil that you never see coming.
First hand encounters with wildlife in the village of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, Ibera Wetlands of Argentina
As another soggy night descended upon us, the posadas of the village looked every bit the outposts of civilization that they were.
Memories of Mesopotamia
In the weeks to come I will be traveling even further north, and entering jungle on the border with southeast Brazil to the west of Iguazu Falls. I will also be traveling through the province of Missiones and the Jesuit history that was the basis for the 1986 movie The Mission with Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. This might be one of Hollywood’s few successes depicting history with some degree of accuracy.
Getting past the fear
I want to be less afraid, of fewer things. To accomplish this as I grow older, I have to constantly push back at the boundaries of what I dare not attempt, and to resist the sense of life’s opportunities shrinking. Life still is what it is, but I for one will not go quietly into that dark night.
What I learned in Buenos Aires (and why I’m going back)
This time I plan to stay in private homes, where I will work or contribute in whatever way desired, and I will learn Spanish and really get in touch with the Argentine way of life. Why? Because everywhere in the world, people are the same in some basic ways. They want to be left alone to live their lives with their family and friends, and trade with others as they choose.
The Palacio Barolo: An instructive tour of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven in one Buenos Aires afternoon.
Palanti was a scholar of The Divine Comedy and filled the building with references to the poem. The building is exactly one hundred meters high, one meter for each of the 100 cantos in Dante’s poem. The building is divided into three parts, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, also symbolizing the Holy Trinity of God, Son, and Holy Ghost. There are 22 floors; there are 22 stanzas in some cantos.
To Marina, with love.
After drinking more than 6 litres of beer make sure to wear a parachute when going to bed.
The Other Argentina
Argentina has achieved the final end result of decades of bad ideas and misguided public policy: total loss of faith in her institutions, universities overflowing with passionate Argentine rhetoric about social theories, ubiquitous framed photos of Che Guevara, but a desperate lack of knowledge about how to get anything done.