The Blog of Omar

Omar's journal of his travels around South America.

Iguazu falls

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Nov• 29•11

In the Iguazu falls we went on a helicopter! I was really excited and I could not believe how lucky I was. I felt really lucky that I was 10 the first time I went on a helicopter. And Tariq (my brother) is 3 and he went on the helicopter. When we were flying over the Iguazu falls we did a 75 degree tilt! It was so fun and scary at the same time.

We also went to a park of birds and there were about 200 different types of birds. There were parrots, ostriches and a lot more birds. We saw a toucan with a beak that looked like a cartoon. We saw a bird called the Southern Screamer because you can hear the Southern Screamer screaming from 3 kilometres away. We also saw a bright red bird that looked so rare but there were a lot there. There were also reptiles such as snakes and crocodiles. We saw 3 Anacondas and a Cayman there.While we did that we were in Brazil.

We had a buffet there and then we went to Paraguay to see a damn. It makes electricity for all of Paraguay and 22% of Brazil. There are 2 turbines for Paraguay and 10 for Brazil.A turbine is like a windmill for water that makes electricity.

(nearly) 10 facts about the Iguazu falls

  1. The biggest waterfall at Iguazu falls is called the devil’s throat.
  2. Iguazu in native Indian language means ” big water”.
  3. The Iguazu falls is one of the 7 wonders of nature.
  4. The Iguazu falls is shared by Argentina and Brazil.
  5. There are 275 individual waterfalls there.
  6. In the aeroplane we saw the spray from 10km away.

We went to the Argentinian National Park of the Iguazu falls. We went on a train that took us to 3 stops, there was the main station, the waterfall and the devil’s throat. When we got to the waterfall we had a look at the water falls and the view was as beautiful as looking at 100 rainbows at the same time.

We went on a boat that went into a water fall at the Iguazu falls. Before we went to the first waterfall the river was really bumpy and we jumped really high in the boat and at one point the boat turned so much that I felt quite scared. When we went into the waterfall we got totally soaked. It was like going on a waterslide wigh your clothes on.

After the boat ride we had lunch and at the restaurant there were a lot of animals called coatis which look like badgers. If you sit outside they will climb the table and eat your food. Watching a coatis stealing food was as funny as looking at somebody laughing their head off!After our lunch we went back home.

Posted in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay , | 1 Comment »

Glaciers

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Nov• 23•11

Glaciers are ice sheets on the mountains. At the bottom of a glacier there is earth. Ice comes down from mountains and reaches the bottom of the valley. Ice plates are made when ice is made quicker than it melts.

We have been to many glaciers, These are the glaciers that we have seen: Viedma, Perito Moreno, and Glacier grey.

Icebergs come from glaciers. The difference between a glacier and an iceberg is that icebergs float. Did you know that you only see 1/10 of an iceberg! 9/10 of an iceberg is under water! That fact was as amazing as looking at 50 wiis at the same time.

We went to the Glaciarium which is a museum about glaciers. When we got in we saw a 3-d film that showed the things in Patagonia. It showed El Chalten and plants that are in Patagonia. It also showed ice falling off glaciers, and I really liked that part. We also saw pieces of ice falling down from Perito Moreno. In the Glaciarium we saw a writer called Perito Moreno, he got attacked by a puma in Patagonia.The Glacier Perito Moreno is named after the writer Perito Moreno.

Watching the glaciers here was fun and I really enjoyed the stay. We are now going North and I am as happy as a clown!

Posted in Argentina, Chile , , | No Comments »

Our time in Patagonia

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Nov• 20•11

We had a really good time in a place in Patagonia called Chalten.The first day we came here we went out to eat dinner and after our parents let us have an ice cream.

The next day we climbed up a hill with teachers from Chalten and they were P.E. teachers. After we walked about 50 metres, my brother Alvaro and sister Aida ran into some mud. We climbed a tall log and got to the end of it. Then we crossed a big rock with a cave and then we climbed the rock. The rock was as big as the biggest rock in the world.

When we got to the top of the rock we saw that there was some mud and grass on top of the humongous rock. When we looked down we saw the grass far below us in the forest. We heard a lot of birds singing and leaves rustling in the trees that were far in the distance of the green forest. We hardly smelt anything in that forest which was strange because there are normally a lot of smells in a forest. When we looked down we could hardly see anything.

When we went back down we played five games of hide and seek. Then one of the teachers went back home and we went home with the other one.

The next day we went to El Chorrio del Salto which is a waterfall and when we went there the sight was amazing. It was as stunning as watching one hundred games of football. We tried to walk back home but a car kindly took us back home because it was a three kilometre walk.

The weather here was really windy and cold but I feel good because it feels like I am back in London.

Posted in Argentina , | No Comments »

Watching Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Nov• 13•11

Watching a game in Buenos Aires is very different from watching a football match in England. First we went to a restaurant, it was very different from the rest of the restaurants because it had no seats or tables so everyone had to stand up while they were eating.

The queue for the match was really long and we had to wait for about 20 minutes to get to the football stadium. We bought a Boca Juniors shirt. The match was Boca Juniors against Atletico Rafaela. When we got to the stadium the reserves were playing.

Then a man was giving out newspaper for everyone to tear and to throw into the air to welcome the players.It was like thousands of people throwing confetti at a wedding. Boca Juniors were home and Atletico Rafaela were away.

As soon as the game started the crowd started singing and about 20 people were playing the drums. The stadium was full of people and nobody could sit because there were roughly 55 thousand people in the stadium. There was also a man who was about 60 and he was jumping while singing.

There was a man put in jail for four years and he was the leader of the hooligans. He told someone else to be the leader when he was in jail and then he would be able to be the leader after he got out of jail. So now the leader went out of jail recently and he was there at the match and the new leader was there as well. The new leader wanted to carry on being the leader so we thought there might have been a fight but luckily there was not a fight.

The score at the end of the match was 3-1.The match was really exciting and fun. Today was a really good day.

Posted in Argentina , | No Comments »

Robbery in Buenos Aires

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Oct• 26•11

Today the Al-Qasem family had a close escape from being robbed by a robber in a tube in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The robber went in the train as them at the same time, and then when the train went to the very next stop, when the doors opened the robber sneaked into Mr Al-Qasem’s pocket, got his wallet, opened it, took the money out, and put the wallet on the floor. Mr AlQasem felt something going on with his pocket so then he searched for his wallet. The robber pointed to the dad’s wallet.

While Mr AlQasem was picking up his wallet, the robber walked away with the money. Then Mrs AlQasem heard Mr AlQasem say “where’s my money?”. She saw someone walking in a rush, so she knew it was the robber and ran after him. Then the man threw her the money because he saw the dad running after him, so then the robber started running as well.

The robber jumped over a barrier, so did Mr AlQasem. This is when sports are useful, Mr AlQasem did a rugby tackle by tapping the man’s right leg and then the robber tripped up, and another man kept the robber down. When the police came, the robber started bashing his head to make blood dribble down his face so that later on when he is being questioned by the judge, he could say that the police were beating him up (which they weren’t).

They brought the robber upstairs to talk with him and then one of the policemen went to Mrs AlQasem and asked her some questions and at the end he said that the man was from Chile.

The wallet, the policeman's badge, and the injured knee

Portrait of the robber while bashing his head


(written by news reporter Omar for his newspaper, posted by his dad)

Posted in Argentina , | 3 Comments »

Review of the playground at the top of Salta

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Oct• 19•11

In this playground I think the good things are the slide because it is quite long and slippery, the web because you can climb it and pretend your the kid version of spiderman, and the bridges to cross to different places are different like there are some made of wood and others made of string. The bad thing is the slide because it was a bit bumpy at the end. I though it was worth going and I would rate it 4.5 out of 5.

SpiderOmar

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Bolivia

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Oct• 17•11

In Bolivia we firstly went to Copacabana and we were searching for a place to stay. We finally slept in a Hotel. The next day we went to la isla del sol (The island of the sun) and when we got there we had to walk up a mountain that was 500 metres tall. The next day we saw two children who were playing with toys that looked like spinning tops we swapped our balls for their spinning tops. The Amazing thing was that the lake titicaca is also in Bolivia. Then we went back to copacabana and took a bus to the capital of Bolivia, La Paz (The Peace). In the Hostel that we stayed in we had panckack breakfast which means for breakfast we have a buffet of panckaked and Dulce de leche. In Bolivia they call it Manfar. We went to the witches market and we saw llama foetuses and they looked as horrible as melted haribos on a dead chihuahua. We also spotted on the wall a piece of writing that said Free Palestine. After La Paz we went to the uyuni sale desert which is a desert of salt and the first thing that surprised me the most is that it was so white and at the beggining it was all brown. We slept in a hotel made of salt and when you look at the wall from far away it looks normal but when you are really close it looks like salt. We had a buffet dinner and it was so nice. After the uyuni salt desert we went to Tupiza and we had a car crash the first day and It made a dent in the front of the car but we were lucky because our driver James knew that the place where the dent was, was plastic and James pulled it out and then the car looked ok but it was still a bit cracked.

Hotel in Copacabana

Isla del Sol

Boys with spinning tops, top of mountain

School parade at Isla del Sol

Llama foetuses in La Paz

Free Palestine in La Paz

Flamingoes in Uyuni

Lake in Uyuni

Ice in the mountains in Uyuni

Big and small

Falling off mum's hand

Handstands

Our room in the salt hotel

Posted in Bolivia , | No Comments »

La Cupula

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Oct• 07•11

 

Come to La Cupula and have a brilliant time.

View from restaurant

Here at La Cupula we have a wide variety of food from Bolivian food to Italian food. While you are waiting for your food you may go to our playground to play or to lie down on our hammocks. While you relax our chefs work their hardest for the perfect taste. And while you are eating you may as well look at the view of the sea and boats. Thank you for taking your time and please come to La Cupula.
Copacabana, Calle de la Playa, Bolivia

Posted on behalf of Omar by his dad.

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Lake Titicaca

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Oct• 01•11

Today we are in a lake that is the highest lake that you can cross in altitude, the lake Titicaca. We are going to go to the Uros islands. The Uros islands are man-made and they float. It took us 1 hour to get there and the first thing I realised was that there was straw and bamboo as the floor. At first we had a tourist guide and you won´t believe who he was, he was the President! after that we had free time so I was playing really rough games where we fall down like walking up stairs and then jumping of. My record was number eight. That was about the hieght of about 2 metres and a half. After that we had our lunch. I asked for a hotdog and instead of a bun I got a piece of bred with a sausage inside and also crisps insire. Then we went back home in Puno.

One of the islands

Another island

Our boat

The president

The tower

Posted in Peru , | No Comments »

Peru

Written By: Dad typing from my notes - Sep• 11•11

Today and for roughly two weeks we are working at a school called Aldea Yanapay. At Aldea Yanapay there is a topic every week, and guess what their topic was? English! At the end of the week we had to make a song of what we want to be when we are older.
The thing that I am liking the most is dodgeball. Here, in the school they play like this. On each side of the pitch there’s one person who throws the ball and all the others are in the middle. Whoever catches the ball gets an extra life and anyone who gets hit by the ball loses a life. Everyone starts with zero lives.
My sister and baby brother are at School 1. I am in school 2. School 1 is ages 4-8 but my sister and brother are still allowed to be at school 1. My brother Alvaro is in school 2, uvas. Uvas is grapes in Spanish. Uvas are ages 8-9 andthey are learning how to say the seasons in English. Both of our classes are doing the same thing singing in English. I hope I do a good job in singing with my class.

Posted in Peru , | 2 Comments »
 
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