How to drink "mate"

Pour. Sip. Look cool

Mate is a traditional caffeinated tea-like drink from southern South America. Unlike tea or coffee, the filtration process happens while drinking, not before: a special metal straw has a closed end whith tiny holes in it that allows in the infusion but keeps out the herb.
A special "cup" or gourd is filled with "Yerba Mate" once, and then hot water, usually from a thermos, is poured into the gourd. Lastly, the straw goes into the gourd and the infusion sipped via the metal straw.

You can read all about it here.
The habit of drinking Yerba Mate is so common in Uruguay that you can often see young and old drinking it on the streets.

Iran: how long will this government last?

Its been six months since the fraudulent elections in Iran, and despite all the arrests, imprisonments, torture, and killings of protesters, the opposition is still very strong, as the recent demonstrations follwing lead opposition cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri's funeral show.

It seems clear this goverment won't complete its full term, the question is how long will it last, and what will happen afterwards. I pray for a fully democratic government in Iran that will help stabilize the middle east and prove that full-fledged democracies are viable in muslim countries.

Panic Attack

A few weeks ago I arrived home in Montevideo anticipating a peaceful vacation in this small corner of the world.
Little did I know...

Distrito Federal

More snapshots from Mexico City

Teotihuacan

Walking down the Avenue of the Dead in this precolumbian city, you can almost feel the weight of time adding to the thousands of tons of masonry -over twenty centuries since its first buildings were erected.

I was particularly aware of this fact because only a day before, I had been marveling at five hundred year old cathedrals in the historic distric of Mexico City and all the history since the Spaniards arrived in Mexico.

Knowing that the builders of this city faded away without ever coming into contact with the people of the Old World feels like watching the remains of an alternate current of history. What if the the Europeans had never crossed the Atlantic and the Mayans had thrived and expanded? Perhaps I'd be posting pictures of ancient Roman ruins and wondering the same thing.