I apologize to you all for having made my last post so incredibly long! I wish that I had had time to write two separate accounts of the trips. But with only two days in between each trip, that made it impossible. I have not been as good about writing in my blog as I would like either; I hope that those of you who have been following haven’t been too anxious for another update. Well once again I have another trip to talk about, it seems like all I have been doing is traveling from one place to another. But I’m done for now, well or at least until I go to Mendoza and Salta with the rest of the group.
On the 28th of May I headed back to Buenos Aires. There were several things that I was very excited to see that I was unable to see the first time I visited. I wanted to go to Teatro Colon, and the San Telmo Feria (market). I was also excited to visit a couple friends. Devin was in Buenos Aires with his parents, so I meet up with them on Friday night for dinner. After dinner, we walked down to the Obelisco and had a glass of wine alongside the widest street in the world. We were sitting outside but it started sprinkling so we went inside. Looking back, this was just (Think what this word is!!!) for what was to come.
Devin and I were staying at Hostel Suites Florida again and his parents were staying at a hotel in Recoleta (long story short they were supposed to be staying closer); so on Saturday we meet at the Plaza de Mayo which was only 6 or 8 blocks from where we were staying. It was raining when we left the hostel. Luckily there was a guy selling umbrellas right beside the hostel, so we both bought an umbrella and where on our way. It wasn’t raining real heavy it was more of a steady rain, but there were large puddles everywhere. I like the rain so this didn’t really bother me; however, it did put a damper on our plans. We found plenty to do though and found some souvenirs for Devin’s parents to take back; more importantly we found some yerba mate for them to take back.
After going back to their hotel and saying goodbye, Devin and I headed back to the Hostel. I decided that I wanted to stop by Teatro Colon on my way back so I could buy tickets for a tour the next day. We got off the subte (subway) and walked two blocks to the theater. When I asked about tours I was devastated to hear that there were no tours! How could this be? I had checked online to make sure that there were tours. They had prices, weekly schedules, the time the tour took, they had everything posted online, and to top it all off they had the grand opening on the 24th of May I had watched it on T.V. with my own eyes! So how could they not have tours? I was simply told that the internet was wrong and that there will be no tours until July. I was pretty upset, but then I just thought…well its Argentina. I feel like this goes well with one of my other posts. Someone in the group was working on a book with stories like these; I’ll let you know when it is published.
So after finding out this bad news we headed back to the hostel. By the time we had got back, we were both soaked from having walked in the rain all day and we were pretty tired too. But I had plans, so I couldn’t rest. This is ok though, because I had plans to go and meet another friend for coffee. I met up with Lillí Villí at Café Tortoni. First of all Lillí is a friend from Simpson who is from Buenos Aires. She was the full bright at Simpson this year for Spanish; which means she worked kind of like a teacher’s assistant. She ran a program at Simpson called Spanish table, where I would go and could speak entirely in Spanish for an hour a week to improve my language skills. This helped me a lot, and I’m really grateful that I got to do it before coming to Argentina. Second Café Tortoni is the most famous coffee shop in Buenos Aires, it is where many of the famous people and the greatest minds of Argentina would go and converse, and well drink coffee. It is a very nice Café!
Lillí and I talked for quite some time before we had to part ways. I would have loved to stay and chat longer, but I had to get back to the hostel for another important chat. I had a Skype date set up with the family back home, because it was my sister’s graduation party. So I got back to the hostel and called home. Unfortunately, it was extremely loud in the lobby and of course that is the only place that there was Wi-Fi. So with the background noise I couldn’t hear hardly anything that they were saying, and they could hear nothing that I said. But I got to say hi to a few people and most importantly I got to congratulate Carrie on her achievement. This is one of those moments that I really wish I could have been back in Iowa, I felt really bad about missing it. But I was there in heart!
After trying everything to make Skype work better I finally gave up and Devin and I went to go get dinner. We hit up an old favorite “Solo Empanadas.” Can you guess what they make? Well let me tell you, they make “Only Empanadas.” We ate back at the hostel and sat around for awhile after dinner trying to figure out what we were going to do that night since it was still raining and we were both really tired. We ended up playing several games of pool, then going to bed.
We got up fairly early Sunday Morning and headed to the San Telmo feria (market). Luckily the rain quit sometime the night before. I say luckily because the forecast called for more rain on Sunday (this would have caused the feria to close). We really felt like God had blessed us on Sunday because not only was it not raining, but the sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and we found a TON of gifts for family and friends! The market was really cool. It was massive, that’s really the only way to describe it. There were so many different things too look at; artesian jewelry, clothes, paintings, and crafts, there were also antiques and all kinds of shirt shops with everything Argentina you need to get ready for the world cup. We walked forever and ended up walking all the way back to the Plaza de Mayo. After the long walk and acquiring lots of good stuff we were both ready to head back. We got all our stuff packed up at the hostel and headed to the bus station.
Our bus trip was nice; it only takes about 4 hours to travel from Buenos Aires to Rosario. So this trip was much shorter than the last several trips that I have taken. Even though I didn’t get to go to Teatro Colon I did have a really good weekend. It was nice to go back to Buenos Aires and see some of the sites again, and get some gift shopping done (which I still have finish up). And it was really nice to visit with some good friends!
When I got back to Rosario I discovered that I was once again without internet. It’s been kind of a struggle with the internet as it goes out on occasion and doesn’t return for days at a time. It is very odd. My host mom has worked really hard to get the company to work on it and make it work, but there just isn’t good service for these kinds of things in Argentina. They come when they want to and it may be weeks before they get to you. So on Monday I went into UCEL to work on homework and check my email. While I was in there I meet up with some friends and while we were talking we realized that it was now the 1st of June.
This really hit me! I have been having such a great time here in Argentina that finding out that it’s already June was such as surprise because it means that I don’t have that much time left here. Now I really have mixed feelings. I have been having such a good time that I don’t want it to end, and I really like this city so I don’t want to leave. But, at the same time I’m excited to see my family and friends back home. I have been able to talk to family on Skype fairly regularly, but it’s just not the same. I am also excited to have some good `ol fashion Iowa cooking! But I know that I will miss this place.
Last week was a pretty normal week. I had a lot of homework it seemed like but I still found time to hang out with old friends and make new ones. A couple weeks prior a new group of students from the United States arrived at UCEL. They came down for a three week intensive Spanish program. Wow, am I glad I didn’t do this! I can’t imagine how hard it would be to squeeze in so much knowledge in such a small amount of time. I started the weekend a little early last week. After English class on Thursday night, I went out with a huge group of people including Argentine students, U.S. students, and even the English teacher. It was a very interesting night, we had drinks and stayed out pretty late considering that I had class the next morning. Friday night I went out again. This time though I went out for real, Argentina style that is. We started the night at a bar and were there until around 2 AM when we headed to the boliche (dance club). We were there until 6 AM when the club closed. Then the search for a taxi was on. We looked and looked for taxi’s but couldn’t find any. We ended up walking a long way before we found one. And I ended up getting home sometime after 7 o’clock in the morning. It was a really fun night!
I spent the rest of my weekend studying since now I’m getting weighted down by homework, projects, and have all of my finals to study for. This week is the last week before finals and in total I had 3 projects to do. I have already finished two of the projects and gave the presentations for them. I have one more that is due tomorrow. I have been really putting this one off, and still haven’t completed it. I’m not concerned though I think it will be fairly easy, and I really wanted to get another post up on my blog before the chaos of my finals start next week.
Well I guess that’s about it, so maybe I should start on my project….maybe. I hope to get another post up, but please be patient as I will be very busy this coming week. After finishing all of my finals on Thursday afternoon I head out for Mendoza that night. So I will get a post up as soon as I can.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Two trip in 11 days!
I’m back! To Rosario that is. I have been off traveling for practically the last two weeks. Here is the run-down of my trips. I left for Bariloche on Thursday, May 6th, arrived on May 7th. Left Bariloche on May 10th, and got back to Rosario on Tuesday, May 11th. When I got back to Rosario I had class in the afternoon, I went to class on Wednesday and then left for Iguazu Thursday afternoon. I arrived in Iguazu on Friday, May 14th. I left Iguazu on Sunday May 16th, and arrived back in Rosario on the 17th. So between May 6th and May 17th I spent over 82 hours on a bus! Needless to say I was a little tired after this.
So Bariloche was the first leg of my travels, and in my opinion the better of the two. This is not meant to take anything away from Iguazu because it was incredible also; I love the mountains so this probably swayed my opinion a little bit. I arrived in Bariloche around 10:30 with little problems. The most exciting occurrence on the bus ride was when we were woken up at 1:30 A.M. by a soldier on the bus. The bus had been stopped at a check point. All the bags in the bottom of the bus were taken out and laid on the ground so the officers could run drug dogs over them. One of the soldiers came on the bus to check things out in there. He looked at us and looked at our bags. After moving them around a bit he got back off the bus. This was all rather surprising to me because I had been asleep and when the bus stopped and the lights came on I was still partially asleep. I remember hearing something and kind of looking up and seeing the outline of someone in all green. I didn’t have my glasses on or my contacts in so I couldn’t see all that well. But when he got closer I could see him and realized what was going on.
So that was interesting. But it all ended up alright. As I said we got into Bariloche around 10:30 and went to the hostel right away. We got there and found the staff there to be very helpful! We weren’t supposed to be able to check in for another 2 or 4 hours or something like that but they went ahead and let us check in and put our stuff in the room. We dropped off our stuff and did a few little errand type things. Devin and I went to the square to visit the tourist office and to find a bank. Oh this brings me to an important point. Let me introduce the characters in the story quick. I traveled with two good friends, Devin Linn and Andrea Benson. They are both from Iowa and are fellow juniors at Simpson College. When Devin and I got back to the hostel we went over some of our options and decided to go down to the main street to get a trip for the next day booked. After getting everything for that figured out we grabbed a bus out to Cerro Campanario. This is a small mountain on the outskirts of town. It was a good 25-30 minute bus ride, but we got there with little problems. The biggest problem was trying to figure out where to get off the bus. Luckily right as the bus made a stop I spotted a sign that said Cerro Campanario.
When we got off the bus it was like we had just been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. There was one little side road that went off toward a building and a house. There was a sign though pointing the way and announcing the chairlift. When we got up to the point where we could take the chairlift we opted to hike. On the way up the mountain we wondered why we had chosen to do this but looking back I’m glad we did. It was well worth it. Not only was it cheaper (hiking was free) it was a good experience and now I can say that I’ve done it. After climbing a little over 3,400 feet to the top of the mountain we had a miraculous view! It was absolutely beautiful. From the top you could turn 360 degrees and see nothing but mountains in the background with lakes in front of them. In the distance you could see Bariloche, and houses strung out along the lake shore. I don’t even know what more to say about the view, it was beautiful, majestic, it was breathtaking. Words can’t really do it justice, nor can pictures because they seem like something created by a computer or painted not something real. It really is breathtaking. I hope that at the very least the pictures I took will give you an idea of how beautiful it was.
After standing on top of the world for a while we decided that we better go back down. We were going to take the chairlift back down, but thought, hell if we made it up making it down will be much easier! Actually it took about the same time. To keep from falling we had to go a bit slower than expected. We caught the bus back to Bariloche and decided on a nap when we got to the hostel. Well our short nap turned into 2 hours! Climbing a mountain is hard work! When we got up we all got ready then went out to dinner. The restaurant was called Rodeo. It was delicious even though it was a bit expensive. After some delicious food we headed back to the hostel to go back to bed.
We got up early on Saturday and headed down to the center of town to check out some of the shops and some of the artisan goods. After a looking around we headed to the bus stop and headed out to Puerto Pañuelo which was where our boat for Isla Victoria left from. This bus ride was a bit longer it took us about 45 minutes to get out there, and the bus was quite full. When we got out there we got our tickets for the boat and for the national park. We had some time to waste after buying our tickets so we walked around the port a bit. We gawked at “Llao Llao” the resort that overlooked the port on the top of a hill. It is massive! We also took pictures of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the mountains in the background. It was a little over overcast, but I think that the pictures still came out good.
After waiting for about 45 minutes to an hour we were allowed to board the boat which left on time more or less. The boat was a extra-large pontoon boat. I can’t even give dimensions to the boat, but it was a good sized vessel. We had to stay seated while in port, and couldn’t go to the outside until we were well on our way. As soon as I could go outside I did! The boat was actually moving fairly fast, It wasn’t a speed boat by any means but it wasn’t going slow either. It took us about 30 minutes to get to Isla Victoria. During this time, I was on the outside the boat standing on the “deck.” I had some great opportunities on the boat to take some very neat pictures. I thought the weather was absolutely beautiful. So I spent most of my time on the deck, opposed to the inside of the boat.
It was a little chilly moving across the water, with a bit of a breeze. I’m used to colder weather though so I didn’t mind. The weather in Bariloche wasn’t bitter cold; it was just fresh. It wasn’t the kind of cold that really cuts through your clothes, it was just a bit chilly, the kind of cold that hits you in the face a bit and makes your cheeks rosy!
After a half hour we made it to Isla Victoria. As we came to the island I could only see trees, and mountains, it was beautiful. As we got off the boat we were told how much time we had to explore the island, and that if we wanted our guide would take us on one of the trails on the island with the rest of the group. We did this for a bit but decided we would have more fun exploring the island on our own, so we headed off on another trail that was a little more difficult to hike. I would say that this was completely worth it! The views that we had from this trail were amazing. We had packed a lunch as well, so we found a spot on the trail with a beautiful view and a bench and had lunch taking in the scenery.
We had enough time on the island to do all of the trails that were open. One of the trails took us down to a beach on the island. There was a little fishing dock that jetted out into the lake, and the beach was very fine sand; all of this with mountains in front of me and trees behind me, it was awe-inspiring. After thoroughly enjoying Isla Victoria it was time to board the boat. From here we went to Bosque de Arrayanes. This is part of Argentina’s first national park, “Nahuel Huapi National Park.” While I’m on the subject I’m sure some of you are wondering what Nahuel Huapi means. Well the name comes from the indigenous people who used to inhabit the area, and it means tiger lake. From this some people think that there is a monster that inhabits the lake. Our tour guide assured us all that this was a complete false hood.
The boat ride to Bosque de Arrayanes took us about 30 minutes. Once again I stayed out on the deck of the boat most of the time. When we got into port we were told we only had 45 minutes to explore here. I was a little disappointed that we had had so much time at the other place but didn’t get that much time here. Afterwards I realized that 45 minutes was plenty of time as there was not all that much to see there. That’s not to say that it wasn’t beautiful. Bosque de Arrayanes means “Forest of Arrayanes.” Arrayanes is a kind of tree that is unique to the region around Bariloche. It doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world! It is a very interesting tree, but it is the only thing to see there, so we didn’t need a lot of time to look around.
When we got back on the boat the sun had already started to go down. As we were making our way back to shore the views became even more spectacular as the sun was eclipsed by mountain peaks. Unfortunately, I got no pictures of this because after the boat rides earlier in the day and Isla Victoria my camera batteries died in the Bosque de Arrayanes. The views were stunning all day I just wish I could have taken some pictures of the sun set on our way back to port. When we got back to port we made our way back to Bariloche as we had to plan our events for the next day.
We all wanted to go to a town some distance from Bariloche called San Martin de Los Andes. It is a small town that we had heard was absolutely beautiful. We ended up finding a service that did tours from Bariloche to San Martin and took you past the “seven lakes” on the way. The excursion picked us up from our hostile a little after 8 A.M. on Sunday morning. And after picking up some more passengers we were on our way. The first stop we made was just out of town so we could look back and take pictures of Bariloche. This was the first of very few stops, which was a little frustrating as there were so many things that I would have liked to stop and take pictures of. I understand why we didn’t though, because if we had stopped every time I wanted to we probably would have stayed the night in San Martin.
We stopped at a small town along the way to San Martin to have a coffee or a hot chocolate. I choose to have the hot chocolate, even though I love coffee. Why? Well because Bariloche is very well known for its chocolates. There is a big Swiss and German influence in the region and so their Chocolates are considered the best in Argentina. And let me tell you, the claim is probably true. I haven’t tried the chocolate in every place in Argentina, but I’m not sure anything could have competed with it. We continued on our way to San Martin stopping occasionally for some pictures, so I had to do my best to get pictures out the window.
When we got to San Martin de Los Andes we headed out in search of food. Like true college students, we found a small super market where we got stuff for ham and cheese sandwiches. However, once again we were able to eat lunch in the midst of an impressive view. After lunch we walked around the Pella of the Rio Negro Province. I say this because in San Martin they are very proud of their flowers. The flower that they are particularly fond of is the Rose. If you pick a rose in city limits, the penalty is 3 days in jail. It goes without saying that we kept our hands far from these flowers, but I did get some pictures of the roses as they were very beautiful.
After spending some time in the beauty of this city we were back in the bus and on our way back to Bariloche. The trip back was less impressive, because the route we took is more arid, and the mountains are smaller. It was still pretty, but after the route in the morning it was kind of a letdown. We got back to Bariloche shortly after sun set so instead of visiting more sites in town we got some food and headed back to the hostile to cook.
The next morning I woke up early to go down the cathedral. I have always enjoyed architecture, and in particular the architecture of churches. The amount of time, effort, and money that is used to build these structures is incredible. This is why I have made it a point to go to so many cathedrals while I’m here. The old style, the grand size, and the location of these cathedrals are amazing. The cathedral in Bariloche was no different. It is located close to Lake Nahuel Huapi and made of all stone, including a stone ceiling.
I got to the cathedral just as the sun was coming up. I wish I had a better camera to better capture the sight. As the sun rose over the mountains rays of light hit the steeple as the reds and yellows of the sunrise illuminated the background. It was breath-taking! When I went inside the cathedral I continued to be amazed, by the stone roof, and all the wooden pews. It really was a unique experience.
After enjoying my time at the cathedral I meet back up with Devin and Andrea who were searching the town for gifts to take their friends and family. I joined in the hunt as I felt (and still feel) way behind on getting gifts for everyone back home. We looked for quite some time, and got some things before we had to go back to the hostile to check out and head to the bus station. We got to the bus station a little early, this was a dumb move as we should have known that in Argentina things are almost never early. Our bus ended up getting to the station about 15-30 minutes after it was supposed to leave and we got out on the road shortly after that.
The trip back home was uneventful as we did not get stopped and searched for drugs on our way back. When we got back into Rosario on Tuesday it was about 11:30. I headed home to drop off my bags, get showered and get some food before class at 2:30. When I got home, my host mom was home as well. She wanted to know all about the trip and see pictures. So I told her all about it and started showing pictures as she made me lunch. I ended up not getting my shower, but I did get lunch, and made it to class on time so I shouldn’t complain. After class, I headed back to the bus station with some friends to get tickets for Iguazu.
After running around the bus station for about an hour we had checked all the stands to find the best prices and times for traveling to Iguazu and bought our tickets. When I got home I was so beat, but I had to do more homework since I was going to be gone again shortly. Wednesday was a normal day in Rosario for me, and then Thursday I got up extra early so I could pack for Iguazu. I also needed to study for my history quiz that I had before I headed out of town. I got to UCEL to find out that our professor was sick and I wouldn’t have to take the test. That was a relief because I definitely wasn’t ready for it. But I got on the bus around 2:30 with several friends, and we were off for the waterfalls!
The bus ride to Iguazu was about 19 hours. I ended up getting into the town of Puerto Iguazu around 10:00 A.M. My group consisted of 5 people; Jesse Kuttler, Robyn Ruggles, Amy Rardin, Kelsey Tulon, and Cassandra Ring. All 5 are from Simpson College and are studying Spanish with me. Later in the trip to Iguazu Andrea joined us too. She took a different bus that arrived a bit later than ours. While we were up there another small group of our friends also were at Iguazu. That group consisted of Eric Phifer, Chris Adams, and Emily VanBeek. Hopefully I didn’t butcher those names too bad. We meet up with that group about every evening we were there to hang-out, have dinner, and chat about the falls.
When we got into the falls at 10 we headed to the hostile to drop off our stuff and had planned on going straight to the falls afterwards. After getting all settled in it was about 11 o’clock. The man at the desk said that it would be better if we didn’t go to the falls at that time because the park closed at 6 PM and we wouldn’t get to see very much before the park closed. So instead of going to the falls we toured the town and checked out all of the touristy shops. Really we just kind of took it easy and relaxed. It was nice to have a day where I wasn’t rushing around trying to do everything I possibly could. Later that night after Andrea had made it in we went out to dinner as a group and had asado. Then we retired to our room at the hostile so we could get up early the next day.
I had every intention of getting a good night’s sleep, so I would be ready to go everywhere and do everything tomorrow at the falls. Well for various reasons that just didn’t happen. I woke up at 4 AM when a motorbike went by our hostile with no muffler. I looked toward the window when I woke up and saw light in the window and thought for sure that we had all overslept. So I jumped out of bed ran to my phone that was charging a little ways from my bed to check the time. To my surprise I still had 3 hours to sleep. So I went back to bed, but never really went back to sleep. Around 6:15 I finally gave up on going back to sleep and just got up and went out to the common area and got on facebook. At 7 AM I went back into the room to get everyone up and moving so we could head to the falls.
When everyone was up and ready we headed back to the bus station; this time to catch a smaller bus that would take us to the falls. We bought our tickets and were told that the bus would be there in about 10 minutes. After waiting 20 minutes I started to wonder where our bus might be. And after 30 minutes we were informed that there had been “un accidente muy muy feo” or a very very ugly accident. This was blocking the road so the bus could not get back to take us to the falls. But the bus did finally show up and we headed off to the falls. On the way we saw the car that had been in the accident, and I was pretty sure the people of that vehicle could not have made it out alive. The car was destroyed.
When we made it to Iguazu we decided that we would tour the lower trail of the falls first and work our way to the other two circuits above the falls. The lower circuit takes you bellow and around the falls. It’s quite an impressive view from bellow seeing the amount of water flowing over the falls. I really enjoyed this circuit because of the panoramic view of the falls that I had. I could see the water flowing over hundreds of different points. It was breathtaking! Also on the lower circuit I was able to stand almost completely underneath the falls. At one point the catwalk comes within 10 feet of the falls. It was so impressive to walk out here, because not only do you get soaked from the mist and spray of the falls but because of the power you feel from the waterfall and the mighty roar it makes from the water crashing against the rocks bellow. Incredible! I also liked the lower circuit because of how it weaved in and out of the subtropical forest. I am still torn as to which of the 3 circuits at Iguazu was my favorite.
The second circuit is called the upper circuit. It takes you above a majority of the falls you just saw from bellow and out over ones that you could only see from the other circuit. It was nice, but I don’t think it can be put into the same league with the other two circuits. The views were still incredible; it was just another way of looking at the same thing. I did really like the way I could see the water coming to the edge and then just disappear into nothing. Then from bellow these pillars of mist would rise above the falls and occasionally blow back onto all of us on the catwalk. It was an impressive experience too.
The final circuit took us to “La Garganta Del Diablo” or “The Throat of the Devil.” It is the largest series of all of the waterfalls and it was INCREDIBLE!!! There really aren’t words to describe it. There is so much water flowing over the edge at this point that the bottom is completely shrouded in mist. La Garganta Del Diablo is shaped like a “U,” and the water flows in from all sides with the bulk of the water flowing over the trough of the “U.” Mist forms at the bottom of the falls, and rises like white smoke, which can be seen from some distance. As we were leaving the park later we could see this rising out of the jungle.
We ended up leaving the park just after 5 about an hour before the park officially closed. We wanted to do another trail but didn’t have enough time to do it all in one day. So we headed back to the hostile to rest a bit before Sunday when we went back to the falls for a second day. Saturday night we just hanged out around the hostile, played some pool, and chatted. It was a good night, and we were all so tired from our day at the falls no one had the ambition to go out. I went to bed a little earlier than normal that night, and slept better but was woken up again in the middle of the night; this time by what sounded like gun-shots. I think/hope that it was just backfires from a motorcycle or some kind of vehicle. At any rate I didn’t sleep the best after that but I still got more sleep than the night before.
I got up and ate breakfast at the hostile as did everyone else then we headed back to the falls. This time we didn’t have to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for our bus to take us up to the falls. When we got there we headed straight for the jungle hike. This is the only trail that we didn’t get to do the day before, and we had heard it took some time to do so we wanted to get out and do it as soon as possible. I’m very glad we got on the trail early because we ended up spending over 4 hours on this trail. The trail takes you through the heart of a sub-tropical forest. It was very neat. I’m not sure if it really was a rain forest, but if it was I can believe it because the whole time we were there it was at least sprinkling.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I went on this hike, but at first I was kind of unimpressed. Everything was so overgrown, there were plants growing on top of plants. And the more I looked at it the more impressed I was with it. There were all kinds of different species of plants fighting over the ground, the sun, and the water. The one thing that I know I was expecting or hoping to see was a monkey, and I didn’t see that. Which was disappointing but I was lucky because the day before I saw a toucan, and what a beautiful bird the toucan is.
At the end of the hiking trail is a single waterfall. When we finally made it to this fall it was time for some photos. Unlike the falls the day before there was no one else around this fall so we had a little more freedom to do what we wanted. We walked around the fall, we probably were not following the rules to a “T,” but it didn’t say that we couldn’t go over there either. We also climbed some very large rocks close to the waterfall, and the pictures from this came out wonderfully! We ended spending a lot of time at this waterfall and even ate our lunch next to it. We decided to leave after a member of our group, Cassandra Ring, fell into the pool of water bellow the fall getting completely soaked. Luckily she didn’t have anything in her pockets and just had to put up with being soaked for the rest of the hike back to the entrance.
Looking back on it we probably spent more than 4 hours on this trail, but since we had now gone to all the falls and done everything that there was to do at the falls we decided to go back to the hostile. On the way back to the hostile we decided that since our bus also went to the 3 frontiers we would just go out there as well. The 3 frontiers is the point that the three countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. The monument built there is neat. There is a triangular monument at the corner of all three countries painted as the country’s flag. Standing there you can see the monument of each country on their respective sides of the river. From here we walked back to the hostile.
When I got back to the hostile I got my stuff packed up as I was leaving that night. The rest of the group was staying the night and still had some time the next day to do whatever they wanted. I had booked my ticket differently so I could get a good night’s sleep at home before I had class, unlike when I went to Bariloche. My bus didn’t leave until 9 so I hung out with everyone at the hostile until about 8:15 when I headed out, picked up some food, and then waited at the bus station. When I left it was really cool, because everyone from the group went with me to walk me up to the bus station. I had my own little entourage. Not really, but I was really appreciative that they went with me; I would have been scared to walk up there by myself at night. So thank you again everyone for going with me!
After waiting a little while my bus was there and I was onboard headed back to Rosario. The bus ride back to Rosario was much longer this time with no one to talk too, but I managed and got back to Rosario around 5 PM Monday afternoon.
This week has been interesting as well but as this is already a book I am going to try and keep it short. Jim is back in Rosario after going on his own travels, and his wife Elyse is now here too. Classes Tuesday were normal and Wednesday was as well. Thursday I had a class as normal but after class I had a test for Spanish. The test started at 5 and I got done with it shortly before 7, it was a long test, but I think it went well. However, the big news of Thursday was that Devin’s parents got into Rosario with two friends from Minnesota.
I meet up with everyone just before 9 o’clock for dinner. We went to “La Casa Del Tango.” It is a very nice restaurant close to the river on the north side of downtown Rosario. As you can probably guess, when you go to the house of tango you don’t just get a great dinner, but a tango show as well. This was very cool.
The dinner went really well. Devin’s parents were very nice, and although they were very tired after the flight and drive to Rosario, it was really good getting to talk to someone from Iowa face to face again. Devin had invited me to help translate things between his host mom and his parents and friends, who do not speak Spanish. I was very surprised though because I didn’t realize that his host mom spoke English. She Is very good, so I wasn’t really needed and Devin did a great job of translating everything anyways. It was a lot of fun though and I really enjoyed the evening.
This week we also got to meet some students from the United States who recently arrived at UCEL for a 3 week intensive course in Spanish. It was really good meeting these students and talking to them as well. On Friday night I went out with a few people and ran into another couple of students from Simpson and a couple of the new students. Then Saturday I went to an event at the flag monument, to celebrate the bicentennial of Argentina. For the event the national orchestra of Argentina performed with two opera singers, it was impressive. Today I got up and helped my host mom clean the house, as we were having people over for lunch to celebrate the bicentennial of Argentina. Jim and Elyse came over for lunch, and I think they had a good time, well I hope they did. I got to help Jose with the “asado,” which was fun and I learned a lot. Now I’m ready to build a “parrilla” (grill) when I get back to Iowa, so I can share “asado” with all!
I hope that all is well back home. Keep reading my blog and let me know what you think! I should be posting more regularly again so check it occasionally to hear the latest on life in Argentina.
So Bariloche was the first leg of my travels, and in my opinion the better of the two. This is not meant to take anything away from Iguazu because it was incredible also; I love the mountains so this probably swayed my opinion a little bit. I arrived in Bariloche around 10:30 with little problems. The most exciting occurrence on the bus ride was when we were woken up at 1:30 A.M. by a soldier on the bus. The bus had been stopped at a check point. All the bags in the bottom of the bus were taken out and laid on the ground so the officers could run drug dogs over them. One of the soldiers came on the bus to check things out in there. He looked at us and looked at our bags. After moving them around a bit he got back off the bus. This was all rather surprising to me because I had been asleep and when the bus stopped and the lights came on I was still partially asleep. I remember hearing something and kind of looking up and seeing the outline of someone in all green. I didn’t have my glasses on or my contacts in so I couldn’t see all that well. But when he got closer I could see him and realized what was going on.
So that was interesting. But it all ended up alright. As I said we got into Bariloche around 10:30 and went to the hostel right away. We got there and found the staff there to be very helpful! We weren’t supposed to be able to check in for another 2 or 4 hours or something like that but they went ahead and let us check in and put our stuff in the room. We dropped off our stuff and did a few little errand type things. Devin and I went to the square to visit the tourist office and to find a bank. Oh this brings me to an important point. Let me introduce the characters in the story quick. I traveled with two good friends, Devin Linn and Andrea Benson. They are both from Iowa and are fellow juniors at Simpson College. When Devin and I got back to the hostel we went over some of our options and decided to go down to the main street to get a trip for the next day booked. After getting everything for that figured out we grabbed a bus out to Cerro Campanario. This is a small mountain on the outskirts of town. It was a good 25-30 minute bus ride, but we got there with little problems. The biggest problem was trying to figure out where to get off the bus. Luckily right as the bus made a stop I spotted a sign that said Cerro Campanario.
When we got off the bus it was like we had just been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. There was one little side road that went off toward a building and a house. There was a sign though pointing the way and announcing the chairlift. When we got up to the point where we could take the chairlift we opted to hike. On the way up the mountain we wondered why we had chosen to do this but looking back I’m glad we did. It was well worth it. Not only was it cheaper (hiking was free) it was a good experience and now I can say that I’ve done it. After climbing a little over 3,400 feet to the top of the mountain we had a miraculous view! It was absolutely beautiful. From the top you could turn 360 degrees and see nothing but mountains in the background with lakes in front of them. In the distance you could see Bariloche, and houses strung out along the lake shore. I don’t even know what more to say about the view, it was beautiful, majestic, it was breathtaking. Words can’t really do it justice, nor can pictures because they seem like something created by a computer or painted not something real. It really is breathtaking. I hope that at the very least the pictures I took will give you an idea of how beautiful it was.
After standing on top of the world for a while we decided that we better go back down. We were going to take the chairlift back down, but thought, hell if we made it up making it down will be much easier! Actually it took about the same time. To keep from falling we had to go a bit slower than expected. We caught the bus back to Bariloche and decided on a nap when we got to the hostel. Well our short nap turned into 2 hours! Climbing a mountain is hard work! When we got up we all got ready then went out to dinner. The restaurant was called Rodeo. It was delicious even though it was a bit expensive. After some delicious food we headed back to the hostel to go back to bed.
We got up early on Saturday and headed down to the center of town to check out some of the shops and some of the artisan goods. After a looking around we headed to the bus stop and headed out to Puerto Pañuelo which was where our boat for Isla Victoria left from. This bus ride was a bit longer it took us about 45 minutes to get out there, and the bus was quite full. When we got out there we got our tickets for the boat and for the national park. We had some time to waste after buying our tickets so we walked around the port a bit. We gawked at “Llao Llao” the resort that overlooked the port on the top of a hill. It is massive! We also took pictures of Lake Nahuel Huapi and the mountains in the background. It was a little over overcast, but I think that the pictures still came out good.
After waiting for about 45 minutes to an hour we were allowed to board the boat which left on time more or less. The boat was a extra-large pontoon boat. I can’t even give dimensions to the boat, but it was a good sized vessel. We had to stay seated while in port, and couldn’t go to the outside until we were well on our way. As soon as I could go outside I did! The boat was actually moving fairly fast, It wasn’t a speed boat by any means but it wasn’t going slow either. It took us about 30 minutes to get to Isla Victoria. During this time, I was on the outside the boat standing on the “deck.” I had some great opportunities on the boat to take some very neat pictures. I thought the weather was absolutely beautiful. So I spent most of my time on the deck, opposed to the inside of the boat.
It was a little chilly moving across the water, with a bit of a breeze. I’m used to colder weather though so I didn’t mind. The weather in Bariloche wasn’t bitter cold; it was just fresh. It wasn’t the kind of cold that really cuts through your clothes, it was just a bit chilly, the kind of cold that hits you in the face a bit and makes your cheeks rosy!
After a half hour we made it to Isla Victoria. As we came to the island I could only see trees, and mountains, it was beautiful. As we got off the boat we were told how much time we had to explore the island, and that if we wanted our guide would take us on one of the trails on the island with the rest of the group. We did this for a bit but decided we would have more fun exploring the island on our own, so we headed off on another trail that was a little more difficult to hike. I would say that this was completely worth it! The views that we had from this trail were amazing. We had packed a lunch as well, so we found a spot on the trail with a beautiful view and a bench and had lunch taking in the scenery.
We had enough time on the island to do all of the trails that were open. One of the trails took us down to a beach on the island. There was a little fishing dock that jetted out into the lake, and the beach was very fine sand; all of this with mountains in front of me and trees behind me, it was awe-inspiring. After thoroughly enjoying Isla Victoria it was time to board the boat. From here we went to Bosque de Arrayanes. This is part of Argentina’s first national park, “Nahuel Huapi National Park.” While I’m on the subject I’m sure some of you are wondering what Nahuel Huapi means. Well the name comes from the indigenous people who used to inhabit the area, and it means tiger lake. From this some people think that there is a monster that inhabits the lake. Our tour guide assured us all that this was a complete false hood.
The boat ride to Bosque de Arrayanes took us about 30 minutes. Once again I stayed out on the deck of the boat most of the time. When we got into port we were told we only had 45 minutes to explore here. I was a little disappointed that we had had so much time at the other place but didn’t get that much time here. Afterwards I realized that 45 minutes was plenty of time as there was not all that much to see there. That’s not to say that it wasn’t beautiful. Bosque de Arrayanes means “Forest of Arrayanes.” Arrayanes is a kind of tree that is unique to the region around Bariloche. It doesn’t grow anywhere else in the world! It is a very interesting tree, but it is the only thing to see there, so we didn’t need a lot of time to look around.
When we got back on the boat the sun had already started to go down. As we were making our way back to shore the views became even more spectacular as the sun was eclipsed by mountain peaks. Unfortunately, I got no pictures of this because after the boat rides earlier in the day and Isla Victoria my camera batteries died in the Bosque de Arrayanes. The views were stunning all day I just wish I could have taken some pictures of the sun set on our way back to port. When we got back to port we made our way back to Bariloche as we had to plan our events for the next day.
We all wanted to go to a town some distance from Bariloche called San Martin de Los Andes. It is a small town that we had heard was absolutely beautiful. We ended up finding a service that did tours from Bariloche to San Martin and took you past the “seven lakes” on the way. The excursion picked us up from our hostile a little after 8 A.M. on Sunday morning. And after picking up some more passengers we were on our way. The first stop we made was just out of town so we could look back and take pictures of Bariloche. This was the first of very few stops, which was a little frustrating as there were so many things that I would have liked to stop and take pictures of. I understand why we didn’t though, because if we had stopped every time I wanted to we probably would have stayed the night in San Martin.
We stopped at a small town along the way to San Martin to have a coffee or a hot chocolate. I choose to have the hot chocolate, even though I love coffee. Why? Well because Bariloche is very well known for its chocolates. There is a big Swiss and German influence in the region and so their Chocolates are considered the best in Argentina. And let me tell you, the claim is probably true. I haven’t tried the chocolate in every place in Argentina, but I’m not sure anything could have competed with it. We continued on our way to San Martin stopping occasionally for some pictures, so I had to do my best to get pictures out the window.
When we got to San Martin de Los Andes we headed out in search of food. Like true college students, we found a small super market where we got stuff for ham and cheese sandwiches. However, once again we were able to eat lunch in the midst of an impressive view. After lunch we walked around the Pella of the Rio Negro Province. I say this because in San Martin they are very proud of their flowers. The flower that they are particularly fond of is the Rose. If you pick a rose in city limits, the penalty is 3 days in jail. It goes without saying that we kept our hands far from these flowers, but I did get some pictures of the roses as they were very beautiful.
After spending some time in the beauty of this city we were back in the bus and on our way back to Bariloche. The trip back was less impressive, because the route we took is more arid, and the mountains are smaller. It was still pretty, but after the route in the morning it was kind of a letdown. We got back to Bariloche shortly after sun set so instead of visiting more sites in town we got some food and headed back to the hostile to cook.
The next morning I woke up early to go down the cathedral. I have always enjoyed architecture, and in particular the architecture of churches. The amount of time, effort, and money that is used to build these structures is incredible. This is why I have made it a point to go to so many cathedrals while I’m here. The old style, the grand size, and the location of these cathedrals are amazing. The cathedral in Bariloche was no different. It is located close to Lake Nahuel Huapi and made of all stone, including a stone ceiling.
I got to the cathedral just as the sun was coming up. I wish I had a better camera to better capture the sight. As the sun rose over the mountains rays of light hit the steeple as the reds and yellows of the sunrise illuminated the background. It was breath-taking! When I went inside the cathedral I continued to be amazed, by the stone roof, and all the wooden pews. It really was a unique experience.
After enjoying my time at the cathedral I meet back up with Devin and Andrea who were searching the town for gifts to take their friends and family. I joined in the hunt as I felt (and still feel) way behind on getting gifts for everyone back home. We looked for quite some time, and got some things before we had to go back to the hostile to check out and head to the bus station. We got to the bus station a little early, this was a dumb move as we should have known that in Argentina things are almost never early. Our bus ended up getting to the station about 15-30 minutes after it was supposed to leave and we got out on the road shortly after that.
The trip back home was uneventful as we did not get stopped and searched for drugs on our way back. When we got back into Rosario on Tuesday it was about 11:30. I headed home to drop off my bags, get showered and get some food before class at 2:30. When I got home, my host mom was home as well. She wanted to know all about the trip and see pictures. So I told her all about it and started showing pictures as she made me lunch. I ended up not getting my shower, but I did get lunch, and made it to class on time so I shouldn’t complain. After class, I headed back to the bus station with some friends to get tickets for Iguazu.
After running around the bus station for about an hour we had checked all the stands to find the best prices and times for traveling to Iguazu and bought our tickets. When I got home I was so beat, but I had to do more homework since I was going to be gone again shortly. Wednesday was a normal day in Rosario for me, and then Thursday I got up extra early so I could pack for Iguazu. I also needed to study for my history quiz that I had before I headed out of town. I got to UCEL to find out that our professor was sick and I wouldn’t have to take the test. That was a relief because I definitely wasn’t ready for it. But I got on the bus around 2:30 with several friends, and we were off for the waterfalls!
The bus ride to Iguazu was about 19 hours. I ended up getting into the town of Puerto Iguazu around 10:00 A.M. My group consisted of 5 people; Jesse Kuttler, Robyn Ruggles, Amy Rardin, Kelsey Tulon, and Cassandra Ring. All 5 are from Simpson College and are studying Spanish with me. Later in the trip to Iguazu Andrea joined us too. She took a different bus that arrived a bit later than ours. While we were up there another small group of our friends also were at Iguazu. That group consisted of Eric Phifer, Chris Adams, and Emily VanBeek. Hopefully I didn’t butcher those names too bad. We meet up with that group about every evening we were there to hang-out, have dinner, and chat about the falls.
When we got into the falls at 10 we headed to the hostile to drop off our stuff and had planned on going straight to the falls afterwards. After getting all settled in it was about 11 o’clock. The man at the desk said that it would be better if we didn’t go to the falls at that time because the park closed at 6 PM and we wouldn’t get to see very much before the park closed. So instead of going to the falls we toured the town and checked out all of the touristy shops. Really we just kind of took it easy and relaxed. It was nice to have a day where I wasn’t rushing around trying to do everything I possibly could. Later that night after Andrea had made it in we went out to dinner as a group and had asado. Then we retired to our room at the hostile so we could get up early the next day.
I had every intention of getting a good night’s sleep, so I would be ready to go everywhere and do everything tomorrow at the falls. Well for various reasons that just didn’t happen. I woke up at 4 AM when a motorbike went by our hostile with no muffler. I looked toward the window when I woke up and saw light in the window and thought for sure that we had all overslept. So I jumped out of bed ran to my phone that was charging a little ways from my bed to check the time. To my surprise I still had 3 hours to sleep. So I went back to bed, but never really went back to sleep. Around 6:15 I finally gave up on going back to sleep and just got up and went out to the common area and got on facebook. At 7 AM I went back into the room to get everyone up and moving so we could head to the falls.
When everyone was up and ready we headed back to the bus station; this time to catch a smaller bus that would take us to the falls. We bought our tickets and were told that the bus would be there in about 10 minutes. After waiting 20 minutes I started to wonder where our bus might be. And after 30 minutes we were informed that there had been “un accidente muy muy feo” or a very very ugly accident. This was blocking the road so the bus could not get back to take us to the falls. But the bus did finally show up and we headed off to the falls. On the way we saw the car that had been in the accident, and I was pretty sure the people of that vehicle could not have made it out alive. The car was destroyed.
When we made it to Iguazu we decided that we would tour the lower trail of the falls first and work our way to the other two circuits above the falls. The lower circuit takes you bellow and around the falls. It’s quite an impressive view from bellow seeing the amount of water flowing over the falls. I really enjoyed this circuit because of the panoramic view of the falls that I had. I could see the water flowing over hundreds of different points. It was breathtaking! Also on the lower circuit I was able to stand almost completely underneath the falls. At one point the catwalk comes within 10 feet of the falls. It was so impressive to walk out here, because not only do you get soaked from the mist and spray of the falls but because of the power you feel from the waterfall and the mighty roar it makes from the water crashing against the rocks bellow. Incredible! I also liked the lower circuit because of how it weaved in and out of the subtropical forest. I am still torn as to which of the 3 circuits at Iguazu was my favorite.
The second circuit is called the upper circuit. It takes you above a majority of the falls you just saw from bellow and out over ones that you could only see from the other circuit. It was nice, but I don’t think it can be put into the same league with the other two circuits. The views were still incredible; it was just another way of looking at the same thing. I did really like the way I could see the water coming to the edge and then just disappear into nothing. Then from bellow these pillars of mist would rise above the falls and occasionally blow back onto all of us on the catwalk. It was an impressive experience too.
The final circuit took us to “La Garganta Del Diablo” or “The Throat of the Devil.” It is the largest series of all of the waterfalls and it was INCREDIBLE!!! There really aren’t words to describe it. There is so much water flowing over the edge at this point that the bottom is completely shrouded in mist. La Garganta Del Diablo is shaped like a “U,” and the water flows in from all sides with the bulk of the water flowing over the trough of the “U.” Mist forms at the bottom of the falls, and rises like white smoke, which can be seen from some distance. As we were leaving the park later we could see this rising out of the jungle.
We ended up leaving the park just after 5 about an hour before the park officially closed. We wanted to do another trail but didn’t have enough time to do it all in one day. So we headed back to the hostile to rest a bit before Sunday when we went back to the falls for a second day. Saturday night we just hanged out around the hostile, played some pool, and chatted. It was a good night, and we were all so tired from our day at the falls no one had the ambition to go out. I went to bed a little earlier than normal that night, and slept better but was woken up again in the middle of the night; this time by what sounded like gun-shots. I think/hope that it was just backfires from a motorcycle or some kind of vehicle. At any rate I didn’t sleep the best after that but I still got more sleep than the night before.
I got up and ate breakfast at the hostile as did everyone else then we headed back to the falls. This time we didn’t have to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for our bus to take us up to the falls. When we got there we headed straight for the jungle hike. This is the only trail that we didn’t get to do the day before, and we had heard it took some time to do so we wanted to get out and do it as soon as possible. I’m very glad we got on the trail early because we ended up spending over 4 hours on this trail. The trail takes you through the heart of a sub-tropical forest. It was very neat. I’m not sure if it really was a rain forest, but if it was I can believe it because the whole time we were there it was at least sprinkling.
I don’t know what I was expecting when I went on this hike, but at first I was kind of unimpressed. Everything was so overgrown, there were plants growing on top of plants. And the more I looked at it the more impressed I was with it. There were all kinds of different species of plants fighting over the ground, the sun, and the water. The one thing that I know I was expecting or hoping to see was a monkey, and I didn’t see that. Which was disappointing but I was lucky because the day before I saw a toucan, and what a beautiful bird the toucan is.
At the end of the hiking trail is a single waterfall. When we finally made it to this fall it was time for some photos. Unlike the falls the day before there was no one else around this fall so we had a little more freedom to do what we wanted. We walked around the fall, we probably were not following the rules to a “T,” but it didn’t say that we couldn’t go over there either. We also climbed some very large rocks close to the waterfall, and the pictures from this came out wonderfully! We ended spending a lot of time at this waterfall and even ate our lunch next to it. We decided to leave after a member of our group, Cassandra Ring, fell into the pool of water bellow the fall getting completely soaked. Luckily she didn’t have anything in her pockets and just had to put up with being soaked for the rest of the hike back to the entrance.
Looking back on it we probably spent more than 4 hours on this trail, but since we had now gone to all the falls and done everything that there was to do at the falls we decided to go back to the hostile. On the way back to the hostile we decided that since our bus also went to the 3 frontiers we would just go out there as well. The 3 frontiers is the point that the three countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. The monument built there is neat. There is a triangular monument at the corner of all three countries painted as the country’s flag. Standing there you can see the monument of each country on their respective sides of the river. From here we walked back to the hostile.
When I got back to the hostile I got my stuff packed up as I was leaving that night. The rest of the group was staying the night and still had some time the next day to do whatever they wanted. I had booked my ticket differently so I could get a good night’s sleep at home before I had class, unlike when I went to Bariloche. My bus didn’t leave until 9 so I hung out with everyone at the hostile until about 8:15 when I headed out, picked up some food, and then waited at the bus station. When I left it was really cool, because everyone from the group went with me to walk me up to the bus station. I had my own little entourage. Not really, but I was really appreciative that they went with me; I would have been scared to walk up there by myself at night. So thank you again everyone for going with me!
After waiting a little while my bus was there and I was onboard headed back to Rosario. The bus ride back to Rosario was much longer this time with no one to talk too, but I managed and got back to Rosario around 5 PM Monday afternoon.
This week has been interesting as well but as this is already a book I am going to try and keep it short. Jim is back in Rosario after going on his own travels, and his wife Elyse is now here too. Classes Tuesday were normal and Wednesday was as well. Thursday I had a class as normal but after class I had a test for Spanish. The test started at 5 and I got done with it shortly before 7, it was a long test, but I think it went well. However, the big news of Thursday was that Devin’s parents got into Rosario with two friends from Minnesota.
I meet up with everyone just before 9 o’clock for dinner. We went to “La Casa Del Tango.” It is a very nice restaurant close to the river on the north side of downtown Rosario. As you can probably guess, when you go to the house of tango you don’t just get a great dinner, but a tango show as well. This was very cool.
The dinner went really well. Devin’s parents were very nice, and although they were very tired after the flight and drive to Rosario, it was really good getting to talk to someone from Iowa face to face again. Devin had invited me to help translate things between his host mom and his parents and friends, who do not speak Spanish. I was very surprised though because I didn’t realize that his host mom spoke English. She Is very good, so I wasn’t really needed and Devin did a great job of translating everything anyways. It was a lot of fun though and I really enjoyed the evening.
This week we also got to meet some students from the United States who recently arrived at UCEL for a 3 week intensive course in Spanish. It was really good meeting these students and talking to them as well. On Friday night I went out with a few people and ran into another couple of students from Simpson and a couple of the new students. Then Saturday I went to an event at the flag monument, to celebrate the bicentennial of Argentina. For the event the national orchestra of Argentina performed with two opera singers, it was impressive. Today I got up and helped my host mom clean the house, as we were having people over for lunch to celebrate the bicentennial of Argentina. Jim and Elyse came over for lunch, and I think they had a good time, well I hope they did. I got to help Jose with the “asado,” which was fun and I learned a lot. Now I’m ready to build a “parrilla” (grill) when I get back to Iowa, so I can share “asado” with all!
I hope that all is well back home. Keep reading my blog and let me know what you think! I should be posting more regularly again so check it occasionally to hear the latest on life in Argentina.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Why??? Its Argentina, thats why!
Since I´ve been here there have been some things that just haven´t made sense. This week I had one these experiences. On Friday morning I went with Professor Jim Palmieri to the immigration office to renue my visa. I got there around 8:30 right after the office opened. After waiting 30 minutes or so Jim and I got called to the counter. We presented the officer with our passports as well as a copy of our passports (the page with our picture and the pages with our Argentine visa). After looking at our stuff the immigration officer said that we didn´t have the proper papers. When I asked what it was that we needed he told us that we needed every page of our passport copied. After some clarification we did indeed have to have every page copied, even the blank pages! A little frustrated and confused as to why this was necessary, we left the immigration office and headed to the nearest copy stand. Luckily this was only a block away.
After paying 4 pesos (1USD) I had my entire passport copied and we headed back to the immigration office to finish renuing our visas. Or so we thought. Upon return we were able to jump to the front of the line and talk to the same officer as before. We gave our newly made copies and our passports to the officer then found a seat to wait some more. After a little while we got called back up again and were told that we had to pay the 300 peso (75 USD) fee. We both reach for our wallets, when we are told that we cannot pay there. This is now the second thing that greatly confused me. Why couldn´t we pay there??? I´m not really sure, perhaps to try and combat corruption, maybe for security measures, whatever the reason it was an inconvienece. After looking quite bewildered we were told that we had to go to ¨Banco de la Nacion de Argentina¨ to pay the fee. We got directions to the bank and we´re on our way.
The bank was 5 or 6 blocks from the immigration office. When we arrived at the bank, I think that we were both a little stuned. We walked in and it didn´t seem like a bank at all. There were no tellers, no counters where you could be helped it was just a room with a couple of benchs. Thats when I spotted the sign saying that the bank was down the stairs. When we got down stairs there was one teller, and he did not seem overly thrilled about his job. The bank was very plain and kind of odd. I mean it was in the basement of this building and had only teller, there were not even any other stands if they wanted/needed another teller. We waited for our turn and after a little bit we were being helped. The teller took our papers scanned one of them and asked each of us for our 300 pesos. He then proceeded to stamp the hell out of the papers we had just given him. After unleashing his anger on our papers he ripped part of the papers off and gave us the rest to take back to the immigration office.
As I said he only scanned one of the papers so after leaving the bank we decided to go back and make sure he didnt need to scan the other paper. This was a good idea, however the bank teller didn´t appreciate it. It turns out that he didnt need to scan both of them, but I´m glad that we went back to check. At this point I went down to UCEL because I had a project to turn in, and I needed to explain to my teacher why I wouldnt be in class today. I then went back up to the immigration office with Jim. We got there gave our papers to the officer who took them and told us to take a seat to wait. We found out that the computer system was down so we were starting to wonder if we would ever get our visas. After waiting some, then waiting some more we discovered that we were the last ones in the immigration at 1 o´clock the time that the office closes. Luckily the officer said that he would finish up our visas that day. In the end we got our visas, but it was after alot of time and alot of trouble.
I think the most frustrating thing of the whole ordeal was the waiting. I knew that renewing the visa would probably take a while, I had no idea that it would take as long as it did. I was also concerend that as it was friday I wouldn´t get my passport back and it would sit at the immigration office all weekend. Because from the start of the process to the end of it, the immigration officer had our passports. I felt very insecure leaving my passport in the office, so I was very happy to get it back at the end with my new visa.
All around this has been a busy week for me. I had alot going on in school. I had a test in history of Argentina, a review to do in Economics, and as always homework for Spanish. I stayed busy with english class in the evenings as well. I dont know if I´ve talked about this yet so let me explain. As my Spanish has improved my English has gotten worse. Therefore they are making some of us take an english class to work on grammer. Ha ha ha...ok so thats not true. I go to an English course on Tuesday and Thursday night to assist an UCEL course. In the class I talk to the students in English so they can hear a native speaker, something they rarely get. It is alot of fun going to this class because I can see the difficulty they are having with the language and I can relate to it. I have the same difficulty just in reverse. Its also fun because I´ve gotten to see all the silly things about our language that don´t really make sense. I thought that Spanish was full of irregulars and very random. I had no idea how many words we shorten down, have but don´t use, or just verbs that have very wierd congugations. It has been very insightful.
A note to those who follow my blog. Next week is going to be even more irregular for my blog post than normal, as I am going to Bariloche. I actually might not even get another post up for 2 weeks. But don´t give up hope on me! I will make sure to get something new up on the blog as soon as possible! Bye for now, Chau!
-Nick
After paying 4 pesos (1USD) I had my entire passport copied and we headed back to the immigration office to finish renuing our visas. Or so we thought. Upon return we were able to jump to the front of the line and talk to the same officer as before. We gave our newly made copies and our passports to the officer then found a seat to wait some more. After a little while we got called back up again and were told that we had to pay the 300 peso (75 USD) fee. We both reach for our wallets, when we are told that we cannot pay there. This is now the second thing that greatly confused me. Why couldn´t we pay there??? I´m not really sure, perhaps to try and combat corruption, maybe for security measures, whatever the reason it was an inconvienece. After looking quite bewildered we were told that we had to go to ¨Banco de la Nacion de Argentina¨ to pay the fee. We got directions to the bank and we´re on our way.
The bank was 5 or 6 blocks from the immigration office. When we arrived at the bank, I think that we were both a little stuned. We walked in and it didn´t seem like a bank at all. There were no tellers, no counters where you could be helped it was just a room with a couple of benchs. Thats when I spotted the sign saying that the bank was down the stairs. When we got down stairs there was one teller, and he did not seem overly thrilled about his job. The bank was very plain and kind of odd. I mean it was in the basement of this building and had only teller, there were not even any other stands if they wanted/needed another teller. We waited for our turn and after a little bit we were being helped. The teller took our papers scanned one of them and asked each of us for our 300 pesos. He then proceeded to stamp the hell out of the papers we had just given him. After unleashing his anger on our papers he ripped part of the papers off and gave us the rest to take back to the immigration office.
As I said he only scanned one of the papers so after leaving the bank we decided to go back and make sure he didnt need to scan the other paper. This was a good idea, however the bank teller didn´t appreciate it. It turns out that he didnt need to scan both of them, but I´m glad that we went back to check. At this point I went down to UCEL because I had a project to turn in, and I needed to explain to my teacher why I wouldnt be in class today. I then went back up to the immigration office with Jim. We got there gave our papers to the officer who took them and told us to take a seat to wait. We found out that the computer system was down so we were starting to wonder if we would ever get our visas. After waiting some, then waiting some more we discovered that we were the last ones in the immigration at 1 o´clock the time that the office closes. Luckily the officer said that he would finish up our visas that day. In the end we got our visas, but it was after alot of time and alot of trouble.
I think the most frustrating thing of the whole ordeal was the waiting. I knew that renewing the visa would probably take a while, I had no idea that it would take as long as it did. I was also concerend that as it was friday I wouldn´t get my passport back and it would sit at the immigration office all weekend. Because from the start of the process to the end of it, the immigration officer had our passports. I felt very insecure leaving my passport in the office, so I was very happy to get it back at the end with my new visa.
All around this has been a busy week for me. I had alot going on in school. I had a test in history of Argentina, a review to do in Economics, and as always homework for Spanish. I stayed busy with english class in the evenings as well. I dont know if I´ve talked about this yet so let me explain. As my Spanish has improved my English has gotten worse. Therefore they are making some of us take an english class to work on grammer. Ha ha ha...ok so thats not true. I go to an English course on Tuesday and Thursday night to assist an UCEL course. In the class I talk to the students in English so they can hear a native speaker, something they rarely get. It is alot of fun going to this class because I can see the difficulty they are having with the language and I can relate to it. I have the same difficulty just in reverse. Its also fun because I´ve gotten to see all the silly things about our language that don´t really make sense. I thought that Spanish was full of irregulars and very random. I had no idea how many words we shorten down, have but don´t use, or just verbs that have very wierd congugations. It has been very insightful.
A note to those who follow my blog. Next week is going to be even more irregular for my blog post than normal, as I am going to Bariloche. I actually might not even get another post up for 2 weeks. But don´t give up hope on me! I will make sure to get something new up on the blog as soon as possible! Bye for now, Chau!
-Nick
Friday, April 23, 2010
Getting Ready
I have been in Argentina for some time now. And now I'm starting to think about the rest of my time here and what im going to do. Its really scarry, because I feel like I have alot of time left here, but really I don't. When I looked at the weekends I have left in which im able to travel, I'm down to only 4 or 5 more weekends. This is not nearly enough time! I have so many things I want to see and do here in Argentina. I've been absolutely loving my time here, so it is hard to think about it ending. At the same time I am excited to get back and see everyone, but maybe they can come down and visit me, then I could stay here longer!
This week I finally got one of my trips planned. I'm going to Bariloche!!!!! I am so excited for this it is going to be absolutely amazing! Bariloche is in the southern part of the Argentina in a region called Patagonia. There is a park near Bariloche which is said to have inspired Walt Disney to create the movie Bambi. I cannot wait to tell you all about Bariloche after my trip. I leave on Thursday the 6th at 11 o'clock in the morning and arrive in Bariloche at 9:20 in the morning the next day. Now you might ask why is it going to take so long? Well Bariloche is very far from Rosario and instead of flying my group and I have opted to take a bus. Why? Well it is about 300 dollars cheaper than flying. Taking the bus is rediculously cheap. I paid 724 pesos for round trip tickets to Bariloche. This is the equivalent of about 181 USD. When you look at the distance that I'm going to travel this is very very cheap. The downside im sure your seeing. Its 22 hours on a bus. Well Im looking on the brightside; I will get to see the country side, I will be able to sleep on the bus, and I will be saving a bunch of money!
I got my first care package from home this week! I have been waiting for weeks for the packages and I finally got one of them. It took my birthday cookies from Granny (Betty Becker) 5 weeks to make there way to Argentina. They are a little hard now....but they are still good! Now im just waiting for the others to arrive. I've learned to be patient with the postal service, it took 20 days for me to recieve a letter so who knows how long some of these packages will take?
This week has been pretty laid back. I havent done a whole lot, and im going to try and take this weekend pretty easy. I've gone out every weekend Ive been in Rosario so far so I want to spend one weekend just trying to get ahead on my homework so that I have less to worry about when I go to Bariloche.
While I have one of my trips planned, I have others I need to get planned out. As those of you who read my blog last week know I still need to go to Iguazu to see the waterfalls. I'm trying to figure out plans for this as well. I am thinking about going the weekend after I go to Bariloche. I dont exactly want to do them back to back but it is almost unaviodable, as I would like to go back to Buenos Aires on the weekend of the 28th-31st. Then it is almost time for finals....AHHHH Its all going so fast!
Finally I want to talk about how distant I feel from the rest of the world some times here. Like I have said I absolutely love it her! But I definitely have missed out on a lot of news. Back at home I feel like I do a fairly good job of keeping up to date on the news of the nation and the world. Here I have not been reading the paper, I dont watch the 5, 6, or 10 o'clock news, and I havent been checking things online like I do back home. Perhaps this is a result of the laid back lifestyle here or maybe I just havent been making time for it like I do at home. At any rate I do kind of miss this. It is an easy fix I just have to check the internet more, buy the paper every now and again, or find out when the national news is on here.
Well I'm going to get started on my homework. Or at least try if facebook or skype dont pull me away to long. I'm wishing you all the best.
-Nick
This week I finally got one of my trips planned. I'm going to Bariloche!!!!! I am so excited for this it is going to be absolutely amazing! Bariloche is in the southern part of the Argentina in a region called Patagonia. There is a park near Bariloche which is said to have inspired Walt Disney to create the movie Bambi. I cannot wait to tell you all about Bariloche after my trip. I leave on Thursday the 6th at 11 o'clock in the morning and arrive in Bariloche at 9:20 in the morning the next day. Now you might ask why is it going to take so long? Well Bariloche is very far from Rosario and instead of flying my group and I have opted to take a bus. Why? Well it is about 300 dollars cheaper than flying. Taking the bus is rediculously cheap. I paid 724 pesos for round trip tickets to Bariloche. This is the equivalent of about 181 USD. When you look at the distance that I'm going to travel this is very very cheap. The downside im sure your seeing. Its 22 hours on a bus. Well Im looking on the brightside; I will get to see the country side, I will be able to sleep on the bus, and I will be saving a bunch of money!
I got my first care package from home this week! I have been waiting for weeks for the packages and I finally got one of them. It took my birthday cookies from Granny (Betty Becker) 5 weeks to make there way to Argentina. They are a little hard now....but they are still good! Now im just waiting for the others to arrive. I've learned to be patient with the postal service, it took 20 days for me to recieve a letter so who knows how long some of these packages will take?
This week has been pretty laid back. I havent done a whole lot, and im going to try and take this weekend pretty easy. I've gone out every weekend Ive been in Rosario so far so I want to spend one weekend just trying to get ahead on my homework so that I have less to worry about when I go to Bariloche.
While I have one of my trips planned, I have others I need to get planned out. As those of you who read my blog last week know I still need to go to Iguazu to see the waterfalls. I'm trying to figure out plans for this as well. I am thinking about going the weekend after I go to Bariloche. I dont exactly want to do them back to back but it is almost unaviodable, as I would like to go back to Buenos Aires on the weekend of the 28th-31st. Then it is almost time for finals....AHHHH Its all going so fast!
Finally I want to talk about how distant I feel from the rest of the world some times here. Like I have said I absolutely love it her! But I definitely have missed out on a lot of news. Back at home I feel like I do a fairly good job of keeping up to date on the news of the nation and the world. Here I have not been reading the paper, I dont watch the 5, 6, or 10 o'clock news, and I havent been checking things online like I do back home. Perhaps this is a result of the laid back lifestyle here or maybe I just havent been making time for it like I do at home. At any rate I do kind of miss this. It is an easy fix I just have to check the internet more, buy the paper every now and again, or find out when the national news is on here.
Well I'm going to get started on my homework. Or at least try if facebook or skype dont pull me away to long. I'm wishing you all the best.
-Nick
Monday, April 12, 2010
Fun Weekend in Rosario
Last week and weekend were very busy for me. I started my week by going to the "La Paz School." This school is in a poorer neighborhood and is very crowded. The kids however were very cheery and enjoying themselves like young kids do. All of the kids I saw were under 7 years old, but I was told that the school has older students as well. It was fun to see all of these kids laughing and playing and having a good time. Then we were takend aside by one of the school teachers, she explained the situation that most if not all of these kids come from. She described how many had parents who were without jobs and their parents parents didn't have jobs either. She told us that many of the families are disfunctional at best, many kids didn't know their fathers. The kids grow up in a neighborhood where drugs and violence are everyday occurances and some of their families probably abuse drugs as well. It is not a nice situation for these kids. Yet despite all that these kids were happy and playing with their friends. These kids lives are much more dificult than they need to be at such a young age, they did nothing but were just born into a bad situation.
Now on to some more happy subjects. I started the weekend going to a friend of a friends house. It was alot of fun we had pizza and just hung out. This was very similar to a get together in the US and it was fun to relax and chat. So I got home around 2:30 or 3. Then got up at a decent time to get ready for my first professional soccer game. I know what your think, "nick i didnt know you played soccer." Well I dont but the team I watched play soccer did really good!
I went to a Newells Old Boys game. It was Amazing! The fans were die-hards. They were all decked out for the game and were very enthusiastic. They sing throughout the entire 90 minutes of play and when something exciting happens they get very loud. Newells won 3-0 too so that made the game even more fun. And it was really exciting everytime they scored because the crowd would just errupt! There was never really silence but it was like everyone took a breath right before the goal and used all of that breath to cheer right after the goal! It was very cool.
After the game I went home for a bit to try and rest before a big night out on the town. Saturday was my friend Devin's 21st birthday. We helped him celebrate it as it is celebrated in the US. We started the night around 11:30 at a bar/mini-market. It is an odd combination I know so let me explain a little. This store has tables, all kinds of drinks from soda to beer, water to liquor, juice to wine, so pretty much it had everything. They also had chips, and little snack foods. Really this store had just about everything. It was a nice little place, but very very busy! We had probably 15 people with us and there were alot more that were not with us. There wasn't enough seating in the store and so I stood most of the time. The shop was not only full, it was very loud as well which was a result of its size and the number of people crammed in there.
We ended up leaving the bar between 2:30 and 3:00 A.M. At this point we decided on what boliche we were going to go to. We ended up going to "Thomas's" which is a boliche that we have been to before. When we got there the place was packed, as it was the time before as well. We hung out there and did a little dancing. Of course we all had to do a tequila shot with devin for his 21st! This was probably the biggest shot in the world! Instead of having shot glasses at Thomas's they just go ahead and pour out what they think a shot is into a plastic cup. So either shot glasses are bigger in Argentina, the bar tender doesnt know how much a shot is, or the bar tender was just very generous. At any rate I had a great time at the boliche and we ended up leaving when they closed somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 A.M.
The next day or the same day how ever you want to look at it, I got up at noon and went to the river. All the Simpson students at UCEL were invited to an Asado! It was DELICIOUS! At the Asado I tried something new. It is called morcilla and it is blood sausage. It actually had a very good flavor and I liked it. The texture of the morcilla threw me off a little bit though. It was smooth but kind of gritty at the same time, it looked kind of like refried beans and had a similar texture but with a little more grit. Thats about the best I can do to describe it. It wasn't bad though and it was something that I could have again in small quantities. I dont think its something that you eat in large amounts its more or less something to accompany the other meat.
After enjoying a relaxing asado, a couple of us headed out on a walk. We went down to a local market and shoped for a bit. It was alot of fun looking at all the neat hand made goods. Jim bought a porta-mate which is a bag to carry your mate, yerba, and water or juice in. It is a beautiful hand made leather bag with designs on it. I bought my first gift for family back home at the market as well but I wont go into alot of detail on it.
In all it was a very full and fun week in Rosario. I dont think I had any down time last week at all. It has been hard to keep up to date with emails and facebook and all those other things last week because I have been without internet since wednesday. But I am hoping that I will be getting this back soon. That being said I have to give a big thanks to Jim Palmieri also known as "Jota Pe" for letting me use the internet at his apartment! This has been a big help!
I'm very excited for this week as I hope to be wrapping up plans on a couple more trips around Argentina before my time here is through. I hope to still see Las Cataratas del Iguazu, these are some of the largest waterfalls in the entire world. The chain contains 275 falls and is 2.7 kilometers long! I also want to go to San Carlos de Bariloche also known as just Bariloche. This is one of the most famous cities in Argentina aside from Buenos Aires. It is a big resort town and is in a beautiful location against the Andes in Patagonia. The city is situated alongside a lake and is surrounded by mountains. The pictures from this city are absolutely beautiful and there is a very beautiful cathedral here as well. I encourage everyone to look at pictures of both these places as the pictures are just beautiful, and hopefully i can show you my pictures of these places when I get back!
I hope that all is well with all of my blog followers!
-Nick Wood
Now on to some more happy subjects. I started the weekend going to a friend of a friends house. It was alot of fun we had pizza and just hung out. This was very similar to a get together in the US and it was fun to relax and chat. So I got home around 2:30 or 3. Then got up at a decent time to get ready for my first professional soccer game. I know what your think, "nick i didnt know you played soccer." Well I dont but the team I watched play soccer did really good!
I went to a Newells Old Boys game. It was Amazing! The fans were die-hards. They were all decked out for the game and were very enthusiastic. They sing throughout the entire 90 minutes of play and when something exciting happens they get very loud. Newells won 3-0 too so that made the game even more fun. And it was really exciting everytime they scored because the crowd would just errupt! There was never really silence but it was like everyone took a breath right before the goal and used all of that breath to cheer right after the goal! It was very cool.
After the game I went home for a bit to try and rest before a big night out on the town. Saturday was my friend Devin's 21st birthday. We helped him celebrate it as it is celebrated in the US. We started the night around 11:30 at a bar/mini-market. It is an odd combination I know so let me explain a little. This store has tables, all kinds of drinks from soda to beer, water to liquor, juice to wine, so pretty much it had everything. They also had chips, and little snack foods. Really this store had just about everything. It was a nice little place, but very very busy! We had probably 15 people with us and there were alot more that were not with us. There wasn't enough seating in the store and so I stood most of the time. The shop was not only full, it was very loud as well which was a result of its size and the number of people crammed in there.
We ended up leaving the bar between 2:30 and 3:00 A.M. At this point we decided on what boliche we were going to go to. We ended up going to "Thomas's" which is a boliche that we have been to before. When we got there the place was packed, as it was the time before as well. We hung out there and did a little dancing. Of course we all had to do a tequila shot with devin for his 21st! This was probably the biggest shot in the world! Instead of having shot glasses at Thomas's they just go ahead and pour out what they think a shot is into a plastic cup. So either shot glasses are bigger in Argentina, the bar tender doesnt know how much a shot is, or the bar tender was just very generous. At any rate I had a great time at the boliche and we ended up leaving when they closed somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 A.M.
The next day or the same day how ever you want to look at it, I got up at noon and went to the river. All the Simpson students at UCEL were invited to an Asado! It was DELICIOUS! At the Asado I tried something new. It is called morcilla and it is blood sausage. It actually had a very good flavor and I liked it. The texture of the morcilla threw me off a little bit though. It was smooth but kind of gritty at the same time, it looked kind of like refried beans and had a similar texture but with a little more grit. Thats about the best I can do to describe it. It wasn't bad though and it was something that I could have again in small quantities. I dont think its something that you eat in large amounts its more or less something to accompany the other meat.
After enjoying a relaxing asado, a couple of us headed out on a walk. We went down to a local market and shoped for a bit. It was alot of fun looking at all the neat hand made goods. Jim bought a porta-mate which is a bag to carry your mate, yerba, and water or juice in. It is a beautiful hand made leather bag with designs on it. I bought my first gift for family back home at the market as well but I wont go into alot of detail on it.
In all it was a very full and fun week in Rosario. I dont think I had any down time last week at all. It has been hard to keep up to date with emails and facebook and all those other things last week because I have been without internet since wednesday. But I am hoping that I will be getting this back soon. That being said I have to give a big thanks to Jim Palmieri also known as "Jota Pe" for letting me use the internet at his apartment! This has been a big help!
I'm very excited for this week as I hope to be wrapping up plans on a couple more trips around Argentina before my time here is through. I hope to still see Las Cataratas del Iguazu, these are some of the largest waterfalls in the entire world. The chain contains 275 falls and is 2.7 kilometers long! I also want to go to San Carlos de Bariloche also known as just Bariloche. This is one of the most famous cities in Argentina aside from Buenos Aires. It is a big resort town and is in a beautiful location against the Andes in Patagonia. The city is situated alongside a lake and is surrounded by mountains. The pictures from this city are absolutely beautiful and there is a very beautiful cathedral here as well. I encourage everyone to look at pictures of both these places as the pictures are just beautiful, and hopefully i can show you my pictures of these places when I get back!
I hope that all is well with all of my blog followers!
-Nick Wood
Friday, April 9, 2010
Pictures
Ok so it took me FOREVER to get these pictures up. Sorry bout that there is an excuse but i'm not even going to give it. Anyways here is some pictures from Cordoba. It takes forever to get pictures up so this is all i will put up for now. When I get back I will need to put together a slide show to show everyone all of the amazing pictures!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Cordoba and More
Hello again. I'm sure that everyone was starting to wonder if I was still ok, since I´ve taken so long to write in my blog again. Well I'm doing Great! Argentina is wonderful and I have lots to talk about. Last week I went to Cordoba. Cordoba is the second largest city in Argentina with 1.3-1.4 million people. It is also a popular tourist spot because it is located near the sierras which are a small mountain range. The city is beautiful! There are old Cathedrals that have beautiful architecture and exquisite paintings. Unfourtuanetly at this time I cannot put up pictures of all the things I saw in Cordoba. I will try and get these pictures up as soon as possible!
Back to Cordoba. I left for Cordoba on friday morning at 7:30 by bus. This is the preferred method of transportion for everything here. There are buses leaving from Rosario for many different places in the country throughout the day. Therefore it is relatively easy to find a bus to your destination. The trip to Cordoba is aproximately 400 Km which is right around 250 miles. The trip took much longer than it would have in the United States because with the bus we had to stop in almost every little town along the way to drop off and pick up passangers. The ride was long and honestly quite boring because the land between Rosario and Cordoba can be best described as flatter than Nebraska. I do not recall a single hill between the two cities. I arrived in Cordoba just shortly after 2 in the afternoon. After looking around a bit in the bus terminal I found a information booth where I was able to get a map of the city and locate the hotel.
While in Cordoba I stayed at the Hotel Interplaza. I booked the rooms ahead of time on the internet and the site I booked them from said that it was a five star hotel. It was a very nice hotel, the lobby was very plush and elegant. However, I feel like a five star hotel in the United States would be a little nicer than this hotel was. I am in no way complaining because the hotel was very nice, it was in a great location and I enjoyed it very much. I am simply making a comparison between it and what I think a five star hotel would be like in the United States. Now many of you are probably wondering, ¨geeze Nick where did you find the money to stay in a five star hotel?¨ Well I was able to stay at this hotel because it actually was not that expensive by US standards. For 3 nights one room cost 256 US Dollars. I shared my room with Devin so in the end the room only cost 125 dollars for 3 nights. This made the hotel very affordable, not to mention the hotel offered a continental breakfast every morning, leaving me with one less thing to worry about. As I said earlier the hotel was in a great location. It was only 8 blocks from the bus station, so I was able to walk to and from the bus station, and it was only a block from the main plaza in the city.
The main plaza was also the home of one of the biggest, and I think most beautiful, cathedrals in Cordoba. Saturday morning my group visited this plaza and the cathedral. After spending some time here the group split up for a little bit. Devin Linn, Jim Palmieri, and myself went to Alta Gracia while Gillian Howard and Anna Vollmer did some shopping in downtown Cordoba.
Jim, Devin and I went off looking for the secondary bus station which is home to the smaller more local buses. These buses are similar to the white buses back in Iowa that assist older people to get out of the house and go to walmart or where ever else they go. If some one knows the name of these buses back home please leave me a comment with their name as I cannot remember. So the three of us headed off to the secondary station consulting our map frequently. We finally found the station, but we weren´t sure if it was actually the station. There were buses outside the building and there were platforms for these buses. However, when we went into the building it was a meat market. There were several different butcher counters and lots of people buying and selling every kind of cut of meat imagineable. I saw cow tounges hanging from hooks, cow hearts, livers, kidneys, everything. So there we were wondering where we buy our bus tickets and all we see/smell is raw meat. After looking around a while and following multiple signs I discovered that the bus station was in the basement or underneath the meat market. Why I didnt think of this earlier I´m not really sure (sarcasm). This was probably the wierdest thing I experienced on my trip to Cordoba. I still am a little confused as to why the bus station was underneath a meat market, but oh well. So we got our tickets and headed to Alta Gracia.
Alta Gracia is a smaller town about 35 Km outside of Cordoba. It is home to an old Jesuit Mission. We visited this however, we were unable to see more than the sanctuary because the rest of the mission was not open to the public until 5 PM. So we went in search of lunch and found a nice little resturant. We then made our way to the Ernesto ¨Che¨ Guevara house and museum. If you have never heard of ¨Che¨ you have probably heard of one of his close friends Fidel Castro. Che was born in Rosario, Argentina but his family moved to Alta Gracia due to his cronic asthma. He was a revolutionary who traveld all around Latin America on a motorcycle. There is actually a movie based on this called the ¨Motorcycle diaries.¨ He meet Castro and joined the revolution in Cuba. However, after some time in Castro´s cabinet he began to disagree with things that Castro was doing and resigned from his postion. He is viewed by some people here as a good person and some people think poorly of him. So wether he was a good guy or a bad guy I can´t really say. I can say though that his life is very interesting, like I said he traveled around Latin America on a motorcycle, and fought in revolutions in many different countries. His famous saying is ¨¡Hasta la victoria...Siempre!¨ which means Until the victory always!
When we had finished touring the museum we made our way back to Cordoba. On the way back to Cordoba I figured out how much we had spent on our day trip to Alta Gracia. It ended up being under 40 pesos for the day. This is the equivalent of 10 US dollars! And this included our transportion to and from Alta Gracia, our lunch, and our admission into the museum. On the way back to Cordoba our bus broke down and so we had to wait on the side of the road for 10 minutes or so for another bus to pick us up. When we got back to Cordoba we had just enough time to go back to the hotel drob of some stuff and head to the city bus tour. The city bus tour took us around to see the important places in Cordoba. This was well worth the 30 pesos it cost to take the bus. We sat on the second story of this double decker bus, and the second story of the bus is completely open so we could see the sites very well. The tour guide on the bus gave the tour of the city in Spanish and in English which was nice because when I didnt exactly understand something in Spanish I heard it shortly after in English. The tour took about an hour and a half and took us past large cathedrals, modern buildings with unique architecture and through the main park in Cordoba.
Later that night we went out to eat as a whole group again. And went to bed around 2 AM. Sunday we all traveled to Villa Carlos Paz. This is another town not far from Cordoba. It is situated in a valley with mountains around it and it shares the valley with a lake. It was a very beautiful city, however since it was Sunday everything was dead. We at least got to take a chair lift to the top of one of the mountains close. From there we had a great view of the city. We also took what was called the aerotren. It was a train on the top of the mountain that was supposed to be alot of fun, but it was actually quite disapointing as the train only went 200 meters before it stoped let us off at a gift shop then came back ten minutes later to take us back to the chair lift. In all I dont think the train went more than 400 meters! From the top of the mountain though I did have a very good view of the city. We spent a little more time in Carlos Paz before we returned to Cordoba. Overall I was not all that impressed with this city but I bet this city would be much more fun during the week when things are not all closed down. We went out to another nice dinner Sunday night, and left monday morning for Rosario.
It was a very good trip, and was alot of fun! This week has been kind of wierd because I only had class on tuesday and wednesday. Almost everything has been closed the last two days for the holidays. So wednesday night I went out to celebrate my 21st birthday since I did very little on my actual birthday. I was extremly supprised though on my birthday. My host mom got home and said something real quick that I didnt really understand, she then said that she would be right back and told me not to go anywhere. In a little bit she returned with 2 of her sisters and her mom. They were all carrying gifts, I was absolutely blown away! I didn´t expect anything from them! And they were very nice gifts. My host mom got me a shirt from Kevingston which is a very nice brand name here. Her mom got me a shirt from Cardon, another very nice brand name. And her sisters both got me bottles of wine. I was overwhelmed, I couldn´t believe how generous they were.
On thursday Jim, Devin, and I went to the park and drank mate (Máh-tE), and yesterday I meet up with Devin and Anna to work on our project for Spanish. Tonight my host mom is having some of her family over for dinner to celebrate my birthday. She wanted me to invite some people too so Jim and Devin will be joining us for dinner. It should be a fun and interesting night!
Well I appologize for taking so long to give you all an update on Argentina! I hope to be able to post pictures of Cordoba soon. So until then Bye, and I hope that everyone has a very nice Easter!
-Nick
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