3 Months Already?

Holy Crap! It's been more than 3 Months! I made a top 10 list to recap, if simply for my own enjoyment & recollection. There are really many many runner ups, but hey, anything more than 10 would just be weird.


1) Carnival in Rio: This would have been a cultural explosion without the host I had. But with Brian and his family, I spent my days like a regular Carioci, going to the best blocos, meeting all his friends, eating home cooked feijoada, and participating in the official Carnival parade in the Sambodromo. Unbelievable.

All the different colors in the photo really bring out the Carnival/Rio experience:


2) Easter Island: Like a paradise. Free to walk anywhere on the island amongst the roving horses and view the Polynesian plants, see waves crashing against the cliffs, and view amazing sunsets with a backdrop of Maori statues.

Hanging with the Maori:

3) Hiking Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina: Never will I climb on a glacier again with crampons. Incredible scenery. Plus, the freshest water I’ve ever tasted my entire life.



4) Staying with a family in Ushuaia, Argentina: I could not have learned more about the farthest south city in the world without this family. Plus, we went on amazing hikes I would not have gone on, and shared many homecooked meals.



5) Spending 3 weeks in Buenos Aires. Meeting many people in many Rotaract clubs. Making great new friend with Lautaro, whom I couchsurfed with for about 4 days in Feb and 5 days in April (plus who helped me replace my lost credit card!). Staying with and going out with Brian from Columbia/Jersey. Sucking at the Tango on two occasions. Making friends with all the people living at the hostel I stayed at for 10 nights. Wandering the plazas and parks.

Three weeks requires at least two photos:




6) Being taken, 100% unknowingly, to a whorehouse in Sao Paulo. It is #1 for most uncomfortable experiences. It was topped off with the fact that Bruno, whom I had met about 30 minutes prior, didn’t speak 1 word of English, and thought he was doing me a great service. Shopping para mujeres, as he calls it. Maybe I should learn the phrase ‘Get me out of here ASAP’ in Portuguese before I go back to Sao Paulo. Hilariously awful experience.

I have no photos of this or of Bruno (sadly I did not get any with him). So here's my friend Thiago in Sao Paulo:


7) Floods in Montevideo with Gonzalo: I don’t know why , but it was a thing to remember, having to run from the Governor’s palace (which we were inside afterhours, nonetheless) to the car with my friend Gonzalo in Montevideo, getting 100% drenched, then driving home for 30 minutes whilst not being able to see a damn thing, and watching stuff float down the streets. Inundacion.



8) Drinking Mate with hosts: Mate in Montevideo. Mate in Buenos Aires. Mate in Mendoza. Mate in Bariloche. Mate in Santiago. Mate everywhere. Gotta love this stuff and how ingrained it is in the culture of Uruguay, Argentina, and somewhat in Chile.


9) Bus Rides: Truly the best way to see the countries. The winding road between Mendoza & Santiago was the most ridiculous stretch (especially considering that the Aconcagua mountain is the tallest in the western hemisphere).

10) Lima: By far the most chaotic, disorganized, city of my trip. For simply that, I actually liked the city. Taking a bus is truly an adventure there. Thank you Marco & Renzo for helping me negotiate the system and preventing injury when my Spanish sucked royally. It’s a pity every traveler I have met says they hate the city. It has a lot to offer, even if you end up with the runs.



I’m sure once I go to Paraguay, return to Brazil for awhile, make my way back through the Pantanal to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, & Colombia, the list will double, haha.

*Most terrifying moment: At 3am somewhere over the pitch black Brazilian jungle, the plane started moving violently then did one of those very large instant drops. The whole cabin screamed. I thought I was gonna plummet into the Jungle at that point, haha.


Other really cool stuff:
-Going to a semi final soccer match in Rio at Maracana Stadium. Vasco da Gama vs Fluminese. The subway after was ridiculous afterwards between Carnival & Soccer people.
-Eating Anticuchos in Lima
-Going to a Parilla in Montevideo & a Churrascaria in Rio.
-Feria de Matadores in Buenos Aires
-Visiting wineries in Mendoza
-Going to a birthday party with Ulises in Maipu, outside of Mendoza
-Going to Nati's friends aunt's house in the mountains outside of Santiago, Chile.
-Parque Tierra del Fuego Ushuaia.
-Going out with Brian & his Colombian friends in Buenos Aires.
-Learning to make empanadas twice in Bariloche & Ushuaia.
-Rush Hour subway rides in Buenos Aires.
-Seeing the houses on Ancud, Chiloe & Punta Arenas, Chile
-Seeing people use horses as a method of transportation in Montevideo & elsewhere
-Walter's Birthday festivities in Parana

Finally Leaving!

Well, I've spent almost 3 weeks in Buenos Aires, and am heading out tomorrow finally. It's a great city and you can't run out of things to do and people to meet. My fav city along with Rio, but both totally different. I probably could spend 3 more weeks here.

This is Buenos Aires:


I felt like I got to know the city pretty well, to the point where I knew the names of many neighborhoods and could talk about where things were located with respect to streets. Mainly that is because it is a very easy city to get to know; like Chicago, it is fairly grid like (although Chicago must be the world's most ultimate grid), and once you know the main streets, and can read numbers, your set. Also, it was great to stay for awhile because I got to see people multiple times...Most of the time I meet someone or some people and I'm leaving in a day or two, so it was great to be able to tell people I was here for a few weeks to try to meet up again.

View from hostel balcony:


This building was too cool and ridiculously ornate not to take a picture. I have no clue what it is:

Random Observations:

-PRINT MORE COINS. It is a struggle when buying almost anything at a supermarket. The cashiers always ask you for coins, and occasionally refuse service if you don't have specific enough change. They really put up a fuss. And forget paying with 100 peso bills ($25), which of course the ATM machines dispense. Because of this, lots of times you'll pay 20 or 30 cents more or less cause they wanna horde whatever coins they have

-PRINT NEW BILLS. The smallest bill, the 2 peso, is ridiculous. Half of them are ripped or taped together.

-When taking a cab, make sure you know how to get where your going. If the taxi driver recognizes your accent, he'll probably take a longer route or a slower road. Tell him which roads you want to take to get to your destination.

-Even though there are no coins, always make sure you have coins on you, if you plan on taking the buses (colectivos here). There are no cards for the busses.

-One thing I never mentioned in any blogs is that now I'm very accustomed to the kiss hello/kiss goodbye. (I have some feeling that may be a topic for a Seinfeld episode). Actually, its more of a cheek touch and you make the sound. Some countries, both sides, some countries, one side. I forgot what it was like in Brazil, though. In Argentina more than other countries, the greeting is between men-women, women-women, and men-men. Plus in large groups you need to say hello and good bye to everyone individually, making it a long ridiculous process to go around the group and do the kiss goodbye to 20 people (it has happened more than several times). In my hostel with the Argentinians here, it is also part of the normal good morning process, haha. So, hello's and goodbye's are really a big thing. Also, introductions are big as well, always be very forward and introduce yourself because it's a little rude otherwise. Introductions can be slightly odd, though, because most times, people don't even say their name! They just go around the group and do the kiss hello like a formality. I end up having to ask them their name later. Sheesh.

Voy para Rosario, Argentina, manana de la noche (es 4 horas por bus noroeste), hasta Jueves, y entonces norte a Santa Fe para un par de dias. Despues Corrientes, cerca de la frontera con Paraguay. Hay un parque nacional Argentino cercana de Corrientes que quiero ir a, similar a el Pantanal en Brazil. Hay un gran variedad de fauna aca. Quizas voy a a la ciudad Resistencia tambien por un dia. Y finalmente, creo que voy para Asuncion por menos que una semana, no se el duracion, y despues voy para el medio de la nada en el sur de Paraguay por algun tiempo para visitar una amiga en el Peace Corps. Entonces Brazil otro vez en Junio, quizas Bolivia en Julio, Peru en Augosto, y Ecuador y Colombia en Augosto y Septiembre.



Probably one of the Argentinian Generals or General-Presidents known for killing of indigenous people. A repeating story I've heard, but I have no clue with this statue.


One of the numerous peatonals (Pedestrian walkways) in the center:


The obelisk. I hear this is the widest street in the world. There are about 8 lanes in each direction, with about 2 or 3 more on each side divided by a small patch of grass. Thats probably close to 20 lanes:


Went to a dinner with a bunch of people from Couchsurfing at a vegetarian restaurant. It was delicious.


Went to some random birthday party after veggie food. With Maru from Buenos Aires and Marco from Germany:


Hasta Luego BsAs! Espero nos vemos otro vez algun dia!

BsAs....Todavia

So after I spent 5 days with my friend Lautaro in San Telmo Buenos Aires, I switched places in Buenos Aires for a few days to stay with a friend I had met here on my first trip down.

I switched neighborhoods to Recoleta/Palermo to stay with Brian, from Colombia & New Jersey, who is studying at one of the Universities here.

Not much to report except that I passed the next few days with more walking around in new areas. One night, we went out to a disco with some of his friends. If you ever heard nightlife down here doesn't kick in until late, your right. We got there at 1230, and the place wasn't too populated. By about 2 or 230, it started to get pretty busy. We took off at about 5am, and there were still lots of people there. I might also reiterate that this was a Wednesday night. When they say that Buenos Aires is the city that never sleeps, I'll have to agree with that. The place was populated with poor students, rich couples, and everything in between, a very interesting mix.

Anyways, I got sick of staying with people for 11 consecutive days, so I switched to a hostel, where I have been for 5 nights.

Friday night I went to a restaurant meeting with one of the Rotaract clubs here. There are 14 clubs, so there really are alot of people involved in it down here. After the meeting, I went out of a few drinks near Recoleta Cemetery with a few of them.





Saturday, there was this big Rotary & Rotaract conference I decided to go to, which I though would be a good opportunity to meet lots of people. I did end up meeting quite a few people, and several took down my information to let me know when there would be meetings and gatherings later in the week.

I didn't get the memo that I should have worn something nice to this, haha:



There were a ton of people at this conference, considering as much because there are something like 45 Rotary clubs in the city limits alone, one of which has 350 people. So I tried my best to just walk around and meet people.



They had some people in their 20s talk about how they were being sent to Germany by the Rotary clubs here for some sort of inter exchange program. Most of the students had travelled all over the world and that's all they talked about in their presentations, and I kind of felt like I was in some sort of uppity parent sponsored travel club. I thought them might talk more about volunteer programs and that kind of thing. Anyways, the program is a good idea, the conference was good, and I met alot of people.

I then got invited to go to some more Tango lessons on the following Monday night. Let me say, even for this being my second set of lessons, graceful walking has never been so hard. You need to feel the music, relax, and just do some simple walking moves. Anyways, it was fun, I'm not trying to be a pro or anything at the tango, so that might be it for my up and coming career.

Tuesday, I went with Lautauro to play some Ultimate frisbee. It was basically a training session for one of the four teams in Buenos Aires. All of the whopping 6 or 7 other people there were really nice, there was even a guy from Michigan who had been living in BA for 10 years. So both Lautaro & I sucked and had never played, but there was a trainer there that taught us throwing techniques. Then, we ran alot, and did alot of stretching. And I realized I should probably try to excercise more instead of just doing alot of walking, cause today I am ridiculously sore.

Don't take the Subway (Subte)

Ok, the title isn't REALLY true.

But after spending over 2 weeks in total so far in Buenos Aires, I have had the pleasure of taking this subway system during morning and evening commute at least 6 or 7 times.

And wow, it is just ridiculous.

I've learned to try to get a spot on the yellow area of the train platform, that area you aren't supposed to stand because it is really close to the train.

Here's what happens:

-Train Approaches. You see the train is PACKED, and there can not possibly be room for any more people.

-You get yourself ready, and hope that the door stops near you.

-Door opens. You realize there isn't any space in the train. Literally. Everyone is standing. Take a deep breath because your gonna make it in.

-3 people get out. You smash your body just inside the door, enough to not get crushed when it closes, helped by all the people pushing you from behind to try and squeeze that last body in. 6 people or more get in.

-Then comes the reaaallllly uncomfortable part. Typically, the front of my body, and thank god for my messenger bag as a buffer, is pressed up against someones backside. The same goes for someone behind me. One either side of me, my arms are smashing into people. I try to cock my head to one side so my face isn't in someones hair. You really get to know your neighbors.

-When you get to estacion Diagonal Norte to transfer to another line, the car floods out like sheep. Repeat above for the second train ride.

When people need to get off, they push their way through to the train to the doors through nonexistent space, and you get smashed into someone else even more because of this. It's like a rock concert but more tranquil. Typically, during the ride, you don't even need to hold onto something to brace yourself, because you have so many bodies doing that job. One time, I did put my hand onto the ceiling to brace myself...I didn't have space to lower my elbow the entire train ride.

Looking on the bright side, at least they are using public transportation!!! It costs a little less than 30 cents a ride for me (1.10 pesos!).

Back in Buenos Aires

Been back here in Buenos Aires for a week now.

I met alot of people my first time around up here, so about 10 minutes after I booked the plane ticket from Ushuaia, I already had a place to stay. I stayed with my friend Lautaro for about 4 nights, from Saturday evening to Wednesday afternoon. It just so happened that he had another couchsurfer there, a girl from Sao Paulo, so the three of us again had a great mix of people going on.

Lautaro took us to a Gaucho fair on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on Sunday. Basically, lots and lots of local arts, crafts, foods, etc. Plus they had some live Gaucho music going on. We dropped into a building, the "Federacion Gaucha Portena". Here we grabbed a bite to eat and a cheap bottle of table wine, which we mixed with soda(they call carbonated water soda). I've done this wine/carbonated water thing with at least 3 or 4 other people, so it seems to be fairly common, but it is usually done with cheaper table wine. Anyways, there were just normal people inside dancing away to some great music.




Table wine & Carbonated water:


Inside the Goucha Portena Hall:


A part of the Fair:


So after this, we went to the gaucho games part the fair. The game was simple, the Gaucho's take turns on their horses going full speed down the street and trying to stick a tiny knife through what is basically a tiny silver keychain ring. I'm gonna say the success rate was close to 10%, but it was fun watching them zoom down the street on their horses.

Go Gaucho:




Small horses require small dogs:


My first time around Buenos Aires, I saw alot of stuff, but the city is so big that there is always more to see. Unlike some other cities I've been to, you can just walk, and walk, while still feeling safe, and enjoy the impressive architecture, numerous plazas, and sprawling statue filled parks. Since Lautauro of course had to work, and there was one key between me and Selia from Sao Paulo, we basically toured the city together for two days. It was actually quite fun because I probably saw some things I would have passed on by myself, but by the end of day two, I was pretty tired of trying to understand her Spanish in a heavy Portuguese accent, my brain just couldn't take it. We did do some pretty cool things over a few days, including going to some free tango lessons on a Monday night (at which I am absurdly pathetic), had lunch with someone she knew from Ireland who was working in Buenos Aires, and went to some big concert with a bunch of people playing keyboards and drums. Plus, we were lost half the time, so we got to know the Buenos Aires transportation bible, the 'Guia T', really well, whilst trying to take busses everywhere.

Had to take a picture trying to figure out which bus to take:


Statues, plazas, & parks everywhere:



I went to Recoleta Cemetery one day. Can't say I like cemeteries, but wow, talk about having alot of important and famous people buried in one place, presidents, generals, poets, writers, doctors, scientists, even Evita. On top of that, the cemetery is like a maze, with narrow streets lined by ridiculously ornate houses for the coffins, covering all different types of architecture, some new, some totally neglected and crumbling. I spent only about an hour and a half meandering the place before I got tired of being surrounded by dead people, ew.

Recoleta:






Eva Peron:


Past President:




That's it for today folks, stay tuned.

Ushuaia Part 2

Rather than talk about all the places I went near Ushuaia, I'll let the pictures do the talking. But first, a video from Buenos Aires:

This was a fair in the outer limits of Buenos Aires with hundreds of typical foods, crafts, etc. Plus, this crazy gaucho (cowboy) game, where they go full speed and try to stick a knife through a ridiculously tiny keychain ring.


Cormorants:


They look alot like penguins, but nope:


A view of Ushuaia:


Ushuaia:


Ushuaia waterfront:


Colony of Sea Lions:


Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse in the Beagle Straight:


Bridges Island:


The glacier behind Ushuaia:


A view from Parque Tierra del Fuego. It is in Argentina, but the mountains on the other side belong to Chile:


Another ecosystem in the park:


Woodpecker in the Park:


Another type of forest in the park:


A Peat Bog in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. This park is the only place in Argentina where sea meets mountains and forests, and thus creates alot of unique ecosystems: