Diego Armando Maradona, one of the greatest football players ever. He died at the age of 60 years old last November 25th, 2020. Diego carried the legendary number 10 and thrilled the world in ways no other footballer had done before.
In his professional career, he played in the most important teams: Boca Juniors, Barcelona FC, Sevilla and of course his national team, Argentina. The unknown and simple Napoli won several National and International trophies, which no other South Italian team could ever emulate. Thanks to him and his leading energy, we won the 2nd World Cup and celebrated one of the happiest hours as a nation.
He was a collector of championships, the scorer of unforgettable goals (and unforgivable ones, too like “the hand of god”), a player of incomparable talent and unimaginable excesses.
“What do I care what Diego did with his life?” the Argentine writer Roberto Fontanarrosa was reported to have declared once. “I care what he did with mine.”
This 30th of September, the Argentine cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, known as Quino, who created the character Mafalda, has died aged 88 in Mendoza, the city where he was born. Mafalda, the cartoon about the adventures of a six-year-old girl of the same name, is immensely popular in the Spanish-speaking world.
Quino wrote and drew the comics between 1964 and 1973 but they are still being reprinted to this day.
Mafalda is so popular she even has her own statues in Argentina and in Spain.
The comic, that first appeared in the Argentine weekly Primera Plana in 1964, features the daily life of Mafalda, the daughter of a typical middle-class Argentine couple, whom she often baffles with her insightful questions.
Mafalda hates soup and wants world peace.
Mafalda’s wit and her sharp observations of the adult world ensured the comic’s popularity, which was translated into 26 languages. She has become one of the cultural icons of Argentina.
Quino drew the comic strips for nine years until in 1973, he decided to stop. Asked about his decision, decades later, the graphic artist said he wanted to avoid repetition.
We are glad to announce that Kallpa is certified with ‘Safe Travels Stamp’, provided by The World Travel & Tourism Council. The specially designed stamp will allow travelers to recognize governments and companies around the world which have adopted health and hygiene global standardized protocols – so travelers can experience ‘Safe Travels’.
We have implemented our Health and Safety protocols, which are available and regularly updated in the Health & Safety section.
When wildlife is in danger and luckily someone is around to do something about it, the incident becomes an anecdote that certainly deserves to be told.
Last month, one of our groups from Germany traveling through the National Road 40 saw a guanaco trapped on a wire fence. We invited Claudio Allende, Kallpa’s Tour Leader assigned to this group (and one of the heroes of the day!) to write about the episode and share it with all of you:
Claudio Allende
Guanaco Ricky’s second birthday by Claudio M. Allende
Lands in Patagonia are surrounded by thousands of kilometers of wire fence. This is how man decided to civilize and settle on these beautiful grounds, still wild and adventurous.
Crossing through the Route 40 towards El Chaltén, one of the largest and fairest roads by the side of the Andes, we saw a guanaco trapped on a wire fence. Many guanaco carcasses hung from the wire showed us his probable fate. But today, his destiny was about to change.
The guanaco tangled on a wire fence
While Sergio -the driver- drove through a constant fight against the wind, 14 German travelers enjoyed the Patagonian natural beauties: mountains and hills, guanacos, rheas, foxes, sheeps and gauchos, all holding hands under the Patagonian skies.
That is how we found the poor guanaco with his legs tangled on a fence. When I asked if we should stop and try to help him, Sergio slammed on the breaks, we looked at each other and it was clear that we would do everything possible to liberate the animal.
Sergio and Claudio helping the guanaco
“Please don’t anyone get off, stay on the bus so we don’t scare him more than he already is” were my words to our travelers and we walked towards the poor guanaco, that nervously watched us getting closer and closer. An adult specimen-such like this one- might weigh up to 90 kilos. The mix of fright when he saw us, believing us to be a menace and the desperation for not being able to escape gave the animal an incredible strength. Every movement of his head and every kick could hurt Sergio or me, and also endanger the travelers.
Almost done!
But at the moment you don’t think about any of that: we saw a few wounds that he had on his groin and how the wire was hurting his long legs. Without any doubt, we begun to separate the wires and try to release one of the legs. Once he had one free, the scared animal started kicking. I hung from his neck trying to cover his eyes, to disorient him so he could soothe a bit while Sergio fought with the last leg. We had just two wires left. With all our strength combined, finally we set him free. “Our” guanaco ran away immediately. The wounds weren’t that deep and surely he would survive. As a token of his appreciation, we got a few kicks and bruises…but also the satisfaction of giving this animal a new life.
Ricky trying to escape
The travelers rejoiced: we heard the cries of joy in the bus and when we returned, a big and loud applause. We celebrated toasting with water and baptized “our” guanaco on his second birthday. Somewhere in Patagonia, now we have a guanaco son named Ricky and I hope to see him again sometime.
Ricky finally free!
The pictures are courtesy of one of the travelers.
