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Hello to all... This is Jim VanCleve with Mountain Heart. I'd like to say thanks to the many folks on the list who have written and asked about our recent trip to South America! As promised, I have done my best to compile a "journal" of sorts, that recounts most of our trip. Sorry if there are any minor typos. It took me a little more than 5 hours to write and I can only assume my grammar was heading south as I was going along! Again, thanks so much for all the kind words you've sent our way, and I hope you enjoy reading about the trip half as much as we enjoyed taking it! God Bless, jim v. MH We have never been on such an exciting trip since we came together as a band a few years ago. We will have a lifetime of memories and sights to tell about as a result... From the very beginning it was an adventure. Due to an unfortunate washing machine incident, Barry's passport was not in the most appropriate shape to travel internationally, and we were a little worried about getting him through customs in the various countries we were going to visit. We didn't have time for him to get a new one, as the trip had come up so quickly, so we were inclined to just go for it and hope for the best. Also, to play in Paraguay, one has to have a work visa. They wouldn't issue one to Barry with his passport being in the condition it was in. Barry talked to the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay, who had arranged our trip, and they were confident they could get everything taken care of if we could just get down there. Hurricanes and bad timing were out to get us from the start. While I was driving to the airport to leave from Nashville, my phone rang. It was Barry, who was already there. He said that the airline had cancelled the flight we were originally supposed to be on due to the fact that hurricane Frances was heading towards Miami, and they'd been trying to call the only contact number they had.a number for the U.S. Embassy in Paraguay, who had collaborated with the embassy in Uruguay to get us to South America. Our friends in Paraguay didn't know how to contact us to let us know about the cancellation, so we were unaware that we'd been rerouted through Dallas and had already missed that flight. So, we arrived at the airport without a way to Uruguay less than 24 hours before we were to play at the Prado Fairgrounds in Montevideo. We stood at the flight desk for a good two hours routing and rerouting. Many thanks to the man at the American desk for helping us finally find a solution. We had ten minutes to board when we finally got our passes. We headed towards security to find a MASSIVE line. A man standing there actually recognized us--he had been to the show at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville earlier this year--and asked where we were heading. After we explained the whole thing to him and how we were, in all likelihood, about to miss our flight leaving Nashville, he said, "We'll fix that." He proceeded to start up the line asking people if they would mind us moving to the front of the line with all our instruments, as were about to miss our flight. Thankfully, the people were all very accommodating and let us up front. We got to our plane and sat down to head for Dallas with little time to spare. Taking a deep breath, we looked at our flight times and connectors and gates and realized the fun was far from over. The situation was actually going to be worse when we touched down in Dallas. We had a little less than fifteen minutes to span the ENTIRE Dallas/Ft. Worth airport and catch our next plane. Our gates were as far apart as they could be. And that would be the last flight leaving for Santiago, Chile (our next stop en route to Uruguay) that night. We informed the flight attendant on our Dallas-bound flight of our dilemma, and she contacted the agent at the counter inside as we taxied to the gate. As we exited the plane I stopped to ask her about the situation, and she said she'd notified the agent at the gate we were heading to that we were late but on our way. Then she said, "You'd better run." :) We took off running, lugging banjos, fiddles and guitars along. We had to ride the train to the other side of the airport. It was the closest of close calls. We were the last ones on the plane, and they shut the doors behind us. As we sat down, we all just kind of laughed and took deep sighs of relief. We'd made it! We were starving and tired, but at least we were still moving. We tried to sleep as much as we could on the nine-hour flight to Chile. But sleeping sitting up isn't easy. We saw the sun rise from the plane and began our descent into Santiago in a thick fog. We could see the Andes Mountains protruding up from the mist and fog all around. It was breathtaking. As we landed, we all braced for the worst. We had three band members who were unconfirmed for seats to Uruguay. None of us really could speak Spanish, and we were very worried that some of the band would be left behind, many thousands of miles from home in a very foreign place. The Lord was looking after us. Scotty Bolen, our tireless sound tech and road manager, found an English-speaking agent and proceeded to get everything taken care of with a little bit of persuasive begging. Guess he's worth paying after all! We boarded the next flight, and it offered the most amazing sight I have ever seen. We rose out of a canyon that I can't even begin to guess the depth of. The Andes Mountains are one of the tallest mountain ranges in the world. We climbed till the cloud cover began to look like the ground. The mountains jutted out of the clouds all around us. We had climbed to what would typically be a safe altitude, but the mountains were still above our plane windows all around. The pilot turned east and began to head straight at the rock wall that was rising quickly up under the plane. When we finally cleared the mountains, only a couple thousand feet separated the bottom of the plane and the ravine that we were flying through. Mountains were still several hundred feet above us on either side--a little disturbing, but so beautiful. The Andes were covered in feet of snow even in the bright sunshine. I marveled at how much things had changed around me in a little less than twelve hours! We arrived a couple hours later in a small airport in Montevideo, Uruguay. The city was situated right on the ocean and looked massive from the air. We exited the plane right onto the runway and boarded a bus that was to take us to the terminal. No passport problems yet for Barry. They let him through after a couple of funny looks--but he gets those everywhere! We met a customs agent who was very friendly but didn't speak ANY English. We both laughed at our language handicaps, and he threw his hands up smiling. He brought an English-speaking agent over and we explained our situation to him. He had already spoken with our liaison at the airport and told us that the folks from the embassy were already there waiting on us. We met Amanda and Lucia from the embassy at customs, and they got us through in a matter of minutes. We were definitely not in Kansas anymore! Everything was in Spanish now, which we expected. But what we didn't expect was the fact that it looked like we were in Florida. With the exception of all the little European automobiles, Uruguay bore an uncanny resemblance to Sarasota, Florida, where I was born. Amanda was briefing us on our schedule for that day as we all let it sink in that we'd made it to Uruguay... We stayed at the Cala di Volpe hotel in Montevideo. It was an extremely nice hotel, and everybody there was very understanding of our inability to speak Spanish. Many of the waiters and bellhops did speak some English, so it wasn't too bad. We were scheduled to play at the Prado fairgrounds each evening at around 7:00, which was around 4:00 at my house in Tennessee. The fair is a massive event. It draws around 300,000 people yearly. It is like the biggest state fair you've ever been to, yet filled with reminders that you're in somebody else's hometown. The odd thing about it, and about the whole trip I guess, was how much it felt like we were still somewhere near home. We knew we were thousands of miles from home, but due to the people and their kindness, and the similarities of their cultures and ours, and an occasional American influence, it was not as foreign as I had initially expected. It was a very eye-opening experience. As a band, Mountain Heart had never played before a crowd that wasn't mostly English speaking, so we were quite nervous about how to conduct ourselves between songs. I have to thank the people of Uruguay and Paraguay. As a society, they are some of the most laid back and friendly people on this earth. We could all take a lesson on how to treat our neighbors from some of these folks. We began our show at Prado that night.without sleep, but running purely on excitement. The people there went crazy over Mountain Heart. I expected polite applause and a crowd that was "in and out." But the people would walk up and they would stay until we were finished with the last note each night. In front of a crowd that was at least 90% Spanish speaking, music, as only it can, became the cliché of a "universal language." The emotion in music itself crossed all language, political and physical boundaries on our trip. People cheered like they were at a rock concert!! We were introduced on stage each night by a representative from the U.S. Embassy. Somewhere in the middle of the set, he would come up and tell everybody who couldn't speak English what kind of music we were playing, where it originated, and why we were there playing it for them. Then he would introduce each of us individually and tell where we were from. The crowd was big and the response was nothing short of overwhelming. This is kind of mind-boggling when you consider that most of the people there couldn't understand the words to the songs we were singing. But in all, it was an extremely rewarding experience. One of the most interesting highlights of the trip was an excursion Barry, Clay and I took. Lucia from the embassy took us to a local restaurant/music club for dinner after we played the Prado Fairgrounds the second night. Upon arriving she received a couple phone calls and turned to us, obviously excited. She told us that Gorge Nasser was coming over to visit with us. I was unaware of it at the time, but Gorge Nasser is an extremely popular rock star in Uruguay, and Lucia told us that he wanted to meet us. He had been given a copy of our "Force of Nature" album by the U.S. Embassy. He arrived a bit later and informed us that he had also called some of the guys in his band to get them to come over to the club and perform a couple of songs for us in an impromptu kind of setting. Lucia was visibly excited. She said that Gorge didn't perform in clubs like this--ever. He mostly sang in big theatres or at large outdoor concerts where he was headlining. However, Gorge was an extremely gracious host. He definitely looked like a rock star when he walked in. He was dressed like, and even resembled Bon Jovi or Keith Urban. It was apparent that a lot of people in the club knew who he was. He sat with us and ate a bite and we talked about our trip. When he went to the stage after eating some supper with us, the whole restaurant came forward to listen to him sing. He began speaking in English, telling about Mountain Heart and how he had fallen in love with our music, and that he was there to do a few songs for us since we were guests in his country. He then repeated himself in Spanish and everybody there looked at us and applauded us. It was kind of comical.we weren't sure what he was saying and we were all about mid-bite in a steak when he pointed our direction and everybody clapped! We wiped our mouths and tried to say thank you! After Gorge sang, he came and joined us again and we talked about music and the music industry in Uruguay and in America. It was extremely interesting to hear his point of view on the whole topic. As we got ready to leave, we all had our picture taken together, and the restaurant owner wanted a picture to hang (mostly due to Gorge being there). We exchanged email addresses and he gave us each one of his CD's to listen to. The next night, at the Prado fairgrounds, Gorge was there. He wanted to meet the rest of the band and see our live show. He was again extremely nice and gracious. I cannot say enough about how polite everybody was.even the "rich and famous" people are very down to earth!! I have to go off topic for a second to say this. The food in Uruguay was absolutely incredible! We had to "suffer" through eating some of the best beef we've ever had. I think that nearly everybody in the band ate a steak at every meal for the four days we were in Uruguay. It was probably not the healthiest of diets for us, but the food was so good, it was almost irresistible! They take pride in their cuisine there, and rightly so! On the eve of our fourth day in Uruguay, we finally made our way down to the airport in Montevideo to fly to Paraguay. Paraguay is a landlocked country a few hundred miles northwest of Uruguay. We flew in the middle of the night, first to Buenos Aires, then onto Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I want to say a few words about Buenos Aires. We never got off the plane while we were touched down there in the city, but while we were flying in, I immediately recalled what they'd told us in Uruguay. "Buenos Aires is one of the biggest cities in the world." I can't recall exact figures, but it seems I remember being told that it had upwards of 18 to 20 million people when you include some of the outlying areas of the city. Either way, as we were flying into and out of Buenos Aires, Jason, Clay and I were all huddled over our plane window trying just to see the whole city. We were very high above the place and still could not see the end of all the lights. It was impossible to imagine how long it would take to cross the city on foot or in a car.it took nearly 40 minutes to FLY over it. I'm sure there are bigger cities on this planet, but that night, we were amazed at how massive that city appeared. We attempted to take some pictures from the plane windows. The lights of the city shining through and from under the cloud cover made the sky glow, even from several thousand feet above it. You couldn't paint a picture or take a photograph that would accurately describe it About an hour and a half later, we touched down in Asuncion. As we deplaned, we all noticed immediately that this country had a much more tropical-feeling climate than Uruguay. We met our contacts at the customs counters, and they escorted us to our hotel for the evening. We started discussing the climate on the drive over. On this night, in what was their winter, the air was a bit hot and humid. We were told that during the summer, the daytime temperatures could rise to 115 degrees with VERY high humidity. Upon settling into our rooms, we all tried to figure out the proper country codes and find internet access so we could each talk to our loved ones at home, letting them know that we were once again safe on the ground. The next day was to be our only full day in Paraguay. Steve and I got up early and did a radio interview with a man who spoke mostly Spanish and Portuguese. Our interpreter from the embassy was MOST helpful in this situation!! The man spoke just enough English to ask us the questions and then to translate for the listening audience, but the interpreter made what would have been a comedic situation a great interview and a rewarding "conversation." I was surprised at the number of calls from people who just wanted to welcome us to their country. One caller said that he was excited to be coming to see us that night and that it was commendable for us to come to Paraguay during a time when the world was seeing so much unrest. He said that music was a common thread that put politics and worldly differences aside. Like I said before, the people of these two countries were all quite friendly. As we were riding back to the hotel, we were going over cobblestone streets, past street vendors and little shops. We passed a couple of banks and government buildings. These two types of buildings were being guarded by what appeared to be either soldiers or police officers. The only thing that seemed different to me, was that these men were all carrying automatic and semi-automatic machine guns. It seemed a little surreal to me to see a McDonalds on one corner and on the very next corner, a man holding a machine gun. Our liaison then began to remind us that just a few short years ago, Paraguay had a dictatorial ruler. When he was overthrown, there was quite a bit of unrest. To be safe, they still guard their government offices pretty well. After Steve and I returned to the hotel, the whole band went out to lunch at what we were told was a Brazilian style restaurant. There was a very large bar with salad and pasta type dishes in the middle of the restaurant. Then at your table, there were servers who came around with various types of meat on great big skewers. Of course, we tried nearly everything. I also tried VERY persistently to get Barry to eat some blood sausage. I've heard it's pretty good, and usually Barry will eat anything if it's not still moving around. But I think he was scared of the name, because he wouldn't eat it. I have to admit, it doesn't SOUND like it would be good. Later, after we'd had a few hours to rest up, it was time to go to the show. The venue was a beautiful theatre in downtown Asuncion complete with a sound system that some American venues should take a lesson from!! Everyone in charge of the show was a complete professional, and the crowd was at standing room only capacity! All this for a bluegrass band in Paraguay! We began playing and immediately knew we were going to have a lot of fun. The Paraguayan crowd was extremely lively! The people clapped along, applauded instrumental solos and gave us two standing ovations at the end of the show! I have to say, we didn't really expect that kind of a response! We were flattered and humbled at the same time. After the show we met several people from the audience. Instead of saying "thanks" or "nice job," the people of Paraguay who spoke some English used the word "Congratulations." We knew what they meant. At this point, we began to understand why when we announced that some of us were from Tennessee and Georgia and North Carolina, there were people hollering like it was their hometown. The reason for that was. IT WAS their hometown!!! I found it kind of funny that some people were applauding the small town of Ellijay, GA, halfway around the world. But as we were talking to some of the people after the show, we learned that there were about twenty members of the Peace Corps in the house that night. Some of the guys and gals were from Chattanooga and Atlanta, just a stone's throw from Ellijay and Knoxville! They came to see the show after they heard about it on the radio station Steve and I had visited earlier that day. Some of them had been in Paraguay for almost two years and said it was "awesome just to hear some music from back home." They said they loved our accents, too. They hadn't heard anybody with a southern accent for a long time. They had been yelling and carrying on all night long!! They told us that they'd also been translating what we were singing and saying to all the people around them. So it was no doubt then, why the show had gone over so well! We'd had translators in the crowd working for us!! It was interesting to talk to people about little music venues we'd both been to, which are close to my own house, while my feet were touching ground half a world away. With the show a wrap and a success, we loaded into our "tour van" and headed back to the hotel. When we got to our hotel that night, we ordered some pizzas from a local chain that had been highly recommended. The pizzas were VERY good and had all fresh toppings which is a little unusual when compared with what you get from some places in America. After a little fellowship among the band and some pizza, there was a friendly "wrestling match" between Scotty (who is small) and Barry (who is not small). Complete with a real-life announcer, an evil manager and the obligatory fan with a "John 3:16" sign, this match saw Scotty end up with a hernia, a broken rib, and a lot of wounded pride. Scotty maintains that he won the match. Jury is still out on that one, though. We'd had a lot of fun on this trip, but we were ready to start home the next morning! We all headed off to get our things packed and get to bed. Our flights home were to go from Asuncion, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Miami, Florida, to Nashville. By this time, there was another hurricane brewing off the coast of Florida, and our longest flight was made a little longer. The pilot routed a little farther west than he normally would have to get around what came ashore as Hurricane Ivan. About nine and a half hours after we left Sao Paulo, we touched down in Miami, Florida. Barry caught a plane directly back to Atlanta. The rest of us stayed in Miami for seven hours waiting on the plane to Nashville. We were sitting next to the flight desk and heard repeatedly that they were evacuating the Florida Keys again on account of Hurrican Ivan. A lot of nervous looking people passed through that airport that day. From there on, the rest of us completed our trip to Nashville without incident and were so relieved when we touched down in Tennessee. We had a full 18 hours before we had to drive all the way up to Michigan and play again! We were pretty worn out, and really wanted to go home, but glad to be back in the USA. The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping as much as possible between shows and watching the clock, waiting to go home and tell our families about our trip. It's taken me a couple of weeks to recover from the whole trip. It's taken that much time, too, just to gather all my thoughts and recollect the most memorable details. We've been working pretty hard lately, but we're still having fun, and are really grateful to have had this opportunity to take bluegrass and acoustic music to a place where the majority of the population has never heard it before. In some cases, they'd never even heard about the genre at all. Hopefully, Mountain Heart will be helping to change that! Thanks for reading about the trip! Sorry for the delay in between the last couple of segments, I wasn't aware there was a 4 post limit per day! Live and Learn... If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me either on the list or at www.mountainheart.com. Thanks to you who have already written! I appreciate the kind words and encouragement. God Bless, jim v.
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