Looking Back part 2

Here comes part two as promised. I finished my last final today and am officially packing now. Let's just hope I can fit it all in the bags without going over the weight limit. It's going to be hard after accumulating so much junk over the past 5 months. The good news is, I'm all done with souvenir shopping so I shouldn't be adding anything else in the pile.

I left you off with the last post leaving Mendoza for Buenos Aires. I moved to a new host stay then, and the new host mom, named Muchy has been very welcoming and kind. So after doing some random sightseeing for a few days, I received a text Friday inviting me to go to Mar de Plata for the weekend. My friend Samara's host mom was going there to visit family, and she offered to drive us for free! Surprise trips are the best!

Mar de Plata is the main beach town for the province of Buenos Aires about a 5 hours drive south of the main city. Basically everyone who is anyone goes there once it warms up. To give you some perspective, the town's population is about 650,000 in the off season, and well over 2 million in the summer months.

When we got there the first thing Samara's host parents did was drive us to the port where all of the fishermen go. Of course it stunk like fish horribly. They parked the car about 20 feet from some big brown rocks, and then after a double take we realized they weren't rocks, but rather gigantic sea lions (or sea wolves as they are called here)! They were absolutely everywhere and they have no fear of people. In fact they would frequently be sleeping on the port docks where the fishermen would go to tie up their fishing boats. The sea lions were smart and knew that fishermen often dropped food, so they were basically just waiting for a feast. However, it makes it hard for fishermen to tie up when there are gigantic hungry animals in your parking spot. So, the fishermen somehow trained a bunch of dogs to chase off the sea lions whenever the fishing boats approached.

Later in the weekend, we attempted to get some quality beach time. I say attempted because it was surprisingly chilly, with lots of wind and clouds, but I still jumped in the ocean (which the currents here bring water straight from Antarctica, so it was also cold). We still had an awesome time and thankfully on Sunday we had a few hours of sunshine in order to get properly burnt like everyone should on a good beach weekend, something about that hole in the ozone layer here seems to make the sun feel even more intense.

Sunday evening, we went four wheeling on the beach, which was an absolute blast. We then continued our traveling tradition and ate at a Mexican restaurant for dinner after failing to find a sushi restaurant. I think I'm addicted.   Monday was a holiday, so the roads were packed and we took a back route home. The middle of nowhere Argentina looks an awful lot like middle of nowhere United States if you were interested in knowing. Overall a really fun and cheap surprise beach trip!

I don't have much time left here, so this will probably be my last post from Argentina. Be expecting another post, two at the most summing up my whole experience, it really just depends on my motivation level when I get back. I am definitely going to miss going on so many adventures, but I am definitely ready to go home. I miss everyone so much. I'm just hoping to bring some warm weather with me!

Thanks for reading!

Scott

Looking Back

Well buckle up readers, it's going to be a long one. I should have posted a few times the last few weeks with all of the activities I have been doing, but I was lazy. Don't worry (I'm sure you are), I will make up for it in this post I hope.

Two weekends ago I had the pleasure of going to Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is a province on the far western edge of the state, almost directly West of Buenos Aires and bordering Chile along the Andes mountain range. If any of you are fans of Malbec wine, there is a very good chance it came from Mendoza. This province is famous for its natural beauty and wine production.

Naturally, after a 14 hour bus ride the first thing me and my travel buddy, Samara, did was take a wine tasting tour on bikes. The weather was sunny and hot (perfect for me) and the scenery from the bike ride was gorgeous, with snow-covered mountains in the background and vineyards as far as the eye could see. We visited a more tradition vineyard (Bodega in Spanish) first which definitely had the highest quality of wine; it didn't hurt that they also gave us more wine than any of the other vineyards. After visiting two more vineyards, our tour guides led us to a local beer garden to enjoy some empanadas and a pint of ice cold beer. Altogether it was a wonderful day, and an excellent way to escape the craziness of Buenos Aires. We also met some very interesting people from all over the world, including some really cool Canadians and Israelis. We finished off the day with frozen margaritas at a Mexican restaurant. And if you are wondering, no I did not stumble home, I walked just fine lol.

On Sunday, we had to get up bright and early for a tour of the Andes mountains. We were more or less awake (In the case of Samara less) for the ride to the mountains. We drove over 250 miles that day, and saw some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen in my life, including the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, Mt. Aconcagua (pronounced aconcowa). I could talk forever about how gorgeous the area was, but I will let the pictures talk for me. Strangely, our bus driver had a very big obsession with Lynyrd Skynyrd and other Southern Rock so while driving through all of this we listened to Free Bird, Sweet Home Alabama, and Fortunate Son several times (his playlist was on repeat). Not exactly awe inspiring music, but I enjoyed it. 

The picture of the sediment structure/building and bridge is called Puente del Inca and used to have a hotel/ ski resort built next to and on it, but a rock slide destroyed most of the structures. The colors are formed by sediments rising up, a lot like stalagmites in a cave. Only locals now are allowed to go near the area now to prevent any more damage. Many locals will place rocks in the water for a few days and then once they become multi colored they take them out and sell them to tourist. Pretty sweet deal. 

The highest altitude that we reached was about 10,000 feet, and it was pretty cold. We ate lunch at a very cozy restaurant built in a valley really close to the border with Chile. Crossing the border is a long process, but thanks to a relatively new process it is much easier than before. Around 100 years ago, a railroad was constructed through the mountains, but was very expensive to upkeep due to constant rock slides, so it was abandoned in 1990. You can still see the old tracks running near the highway, but large segments have been destroyed by landslides. 

On Monday, we went river rafting in the Mendoza River. Not thinking ahead, we did not bring a change of clothes or a towel. It was hot in town, and we didn't really connect the dots that we would be going back up into the mountains again where it was colder. We did, and the river was snow fed. The rafting experience was amazing, and definitely at the top of the list in terms of most fun activities I've done here, but we were freezing cold. I was literally shaking when I got off the raft, but without a doubt it was worth it.

On our final day we just wandered the city looking to entertain ourselves before the bus picked us up. Without a doubt, it was an amazing weekend, and Mendoza may be my favorite place in Argentina just in terms of the beauty of the city and the vast amounts of activities you can do there outside. This was also my first time staying in a hostel, and I definitely think it is the way to go to travel cheaply. We paid under $10 a night and the place was not too shabby.

This was part 1 of my November experiences, look for part 2 sometime in the next few days. I actually have to go back to reality a little this weekend and study for a final that will be on Monday. Thanks for reading!


Scott

Schools Out For Summer!

So far I've been enjoying my new found freedom from classes. This Friday, I'm changing host family's as my amazing host mom here is heading to the US this weekend. I'm a little bummed that I have to leave this apartment early, but it will be really interesting to live with another family for a few weeks to compare and contrast.

The final countdown has begun. After some very hard goodbyes this weekend, it finally hit me that the semester is coming to an end. The city feels a little empty without most of our group back in the US, but there are so many things to do I am keeping myself occupied. This week one of our group members has her family in town, so we went back to el Tigre to go kayaking. The weather was absolutely perfect, and I actually managed to go swimming! Being in the middle of such a huge city, it is easy to forget how tropical this area can be. Palm trees, colorful birds, and beautiful scenery filled out excursion, and I think we all enjoyed Tigre more this time around than the last. It was a much smaller group and it felt like a much more intimate experience. Plus, the train to get there only took about 50 minutes and cost only 1.50 Pesos (about 20 cents in US dollars) each way. We will definitely be coming back.

Right now I'm torn between thinking I have no time left in the city and thinking I have a ton of time left. December 7th seems really far away, but 3 weeks and a few days seems really close. I think part of it is the fact that it is so warm here. It does not feel like November in any way, shape, or form. We now constantly talk about what our first meal in the US will be, and most if not all of us are getting antsy to go home. I have definitely been playing Christmas music in my room, and may or may not be listening to it while writing this post.

Recently I have been feeling a lot of writer's block for these blogs. I feel like I have a ton of things to say but at the same time nothing comes to me when I go to write a blog post. I will probably have one more post describing my various adventures, and then start talking about the culture in general plus reflections. So, if you have any questions about Argentina please leave them below or message me on Facebook, I would love to answer them. I feel like after 4 months, I have a pretty good grasp of the culture and the people or Argentina, or at least Buenos Aires.

Before I finish this post, there is one observation that I would like to write about, the contrast you see in this country. I'm certainly familiar with contrasts in neighborhoods; you can see that in just about any major city in the US. There are rich neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods, good parts of town and parts where you lock the car doors as you drive through. In Buenos Aires, the contrast between the rich parts and the poor parts are huge, but they are also pushed right up next to each other. Some of the worst parts of town are literally across the railroad tracks from the nicest part of town. Here are both neighborhoods below, sorry the quality is not great but for obvious reasons I did not go walking through the bad neighborhood, namely for my mother's heart not to explode.

Some of the other contrasts were also incredible. In a matter of less than an few hours, I can go from the heart of one of the largest cities in the world, to a quiet beach town, or a tropical river delta, or rolling hills and great plains similar to the ones I'm used to seeing in KC. Living in Buenos Aires, it is easy to think that this is how the rest of the country lives, but it is far from it. Of course, you can see the changes in geography in the US as well ranging from Hawaii to Alaska, but it feels much more condensed here. This country can offer almost anything you can imagine for fun, whether you liking dancing at a club until the sun rises or exploring glaciers, you will find some of the most beautiful places you could ever imagine.

Speaking of beautiful places, this weekend I will be going to the Andes Mountains to see the tallest mountain in the Americas. Look for lots of pictures and another post next week!

Thanks for reading

Scott

Weekend Update

Well the past couple of weeks have not been full of adventures like the ones I had earlier, but they have been fun nevertheless. This past Sunday we went to a river community north of Buenos Aires called El Tigre. Before we got there, our director gave us a very quick tour of a beautiful Gothic cathedral built near the city. Once we arrived, we took a boat tour to see the whole area. Most of the people living in the area are not connected to the city by roads. They live in raised houses on the various islands created by the huge river delta that spans throughout the area. The area was beautiful, with lots of palm trees, and even some beaches on the river shore. During the boat tour we could not stop cracking up over the voice they used to give the tour in English. The tour had a prerecorded message explaining the trip in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. The other two languages we fine as far as we could tell, but the English voice was some weird combination of an Asian man and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Once we finally stopped laughing, we did learn a few interesting things about the area. Since most people are not connected by roads, they have to use boats for everything. A boat comes every school day to pick up kids to take them to school. Even more odd, they have big boats loaded with groceries that are basically floating supermarkets that go from house to house selling everything that people need. After the tour we had more Carne Asado, then went to a gigantic street market, and then went home.

The semester itself is winding down, and I only have a week left of classes. The last week was kind of crazy with finals and projects, but this week looks to be much easier. I have one final and then I am essentially done. After this week the only thing I will have left is my final for my class with local students. For local students you have a short break for a few weeks after classes are done to take your final. I would personally rather just get it over with, but at least it gives me an excuse to enjoy the city without having any classes. The final itself looks to be a little intimidating. The final is oral and given to three professors who can ask you about any reading or theme from the semester, in Spanish of course.

Before I take the final, I will be going on one final big trip in two weeks; Mendoza. It is a beautiful province very close to the Andes mountains and known to be the wine country of Argentina. We will be going river rafting, wine tasting, and also going on a day trip to the Andes mountains. I am so excited!

That is it for now. Thanks for reading!

Scott

Iguazu Falls!

This past weekend we finally took the trip to Iguazu falls in the very northernmost part of Argentina. All of us have been looking forward to it for a while, and it is definitely one of it not the highlight of our activities that we have done. Our fearless leader Raul planned everything and it was an absolutely perfect region.

Iguazu falls is in the province called Misiones in the extreme Northeast of Argentina. The area is very tropical, with numerous major rivers and rainforest throughout the province. It borders Brazil to the East and Paraguay to the West. To get there, we took at bus ride for about 18 hours each way. The trip was long, but most of it was overnight so I slept through a very large portion of us. These also weren't you everyday bus seats. Our seats were recliners with foot rests, so it was easy to fall asleep.

On the way there, we stopped at a town called Posadas to meet up with our tour guide, Nacha. We first went to an Estancia (farm) where a family produced Yerba for Mate (herbs for the tea that is crazy popular here). At the farm, in addition to their Yerba plant they had a pool, cabins, lots of food, and puppies for us to relax and play with. We spent a few hours there enjoying nature and swimming in the pool, and then had Carne Asado (grilled meat) for lunch. After that we were headed to the San Ignacio ruins.

The San Ignacio mission was the largest Jesuit mission in the region. The province is called Misiones because it had dozens of missions throughout it, all run by the Jesuits. I am a little fuzzy on my history, but the Jesuits ran this missions with the native people, called the Guarani people in the 1600's to the early 1700's. If you have ever seen the movie "The Mission" starring Robert De Niro, this is exactly what the plot is about. They even filmed the movie here. Anyways, the Spanish kicked out the Jesuits from the region in the 18th century and the missions fell into disrepair. A fire later destroyed most of the area, but impressive ruins still outline the mission.

After touring the mission, we took a drive across the province to our hotel. We stayed in cabins right on the edge of the Jungle, and it was a very nice hotel. We were very tired after a long day of traveling, so we didn't do a lot Friday night.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to Iguazu Falls National Park. It is a series of waterfalls fed by the Iguazu river and in the middle of the tropical rainforest. The falls are breathtakingly beautiful, and the surrounding nature only further amplifies the view. The waterfalls are not impressive due to their height, but rather for how massively wide the waterfalls are. Panoramic photos can't even capture all of the falls. I took over 200 pictures in one afternoon, and if you know me, you know that is a ton for me.

We had the opportunity to explore all over the falls. We took trails giving viewpoints from all angles, including on top of and even underneath the falls. We also took a boat adventure straight into the falls, and experienced their power firsthand. We were all soaked by the end, which felt great because of the heat, and we were all exhilarated by getting to experience such beauty.

The park itself was full of tropical animals, and we saw over a half dozen monkeys climbing trees and napping. The most pervasive animal was the Coatie, an animal very similar to a raccoon, but with a longer snout and slightly different coloring. Coatie have no fear, and I saw two of them run right up to a girl eating a pizza and grab the slice right from her hands. You have to really watch your stuff.

We left the park that evening to go look over the point where the borders of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina all meet up. It was a beautiful area, but after being spoiled with the waterfalls at Iguazu we were all a little bored with it. We then went back to the hotel to swim for a while before dinner. The pool was freezing cold, but we were determined to swim since most of us hadn't been in a pool since coming here in July.

On Sunday, we visited a Guarani reservation to learn about the indigenous population. Then, the long sad bus ride home. After 18 more hours on a bus, reality smacked us hard in the face at 8 AM Monday morning when our warm tropical paradise turned into chilly Buenos Aires. However, the weather here just took a temporary dip and should be nice and warm in a few days.

Iguazu falls was probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life, and is definitely up to par with anything Hawaii has to offer in terms of scenery. This trip was definitely the adventure of a lifetime, and I had an amazing time. Now just three more weeks of classes before I go from student to full time tourist in Argentina. It is getting really difficult to motivate myself for the home stretch, but so far so good!

Thanks for reading!

Scott

PS, the internet is not cooperating with me right now, so if you would like to see more photos, please check out my facebook page.

Un Techo Para mi Pais

This past week has been very busy. Thankfully the weather suddenly became gorgeous and it is near 75 and sunny almost every day in the long range forecast. It makes it really nice to find a park to read in or just explore the city. I am also hoping not to return to the US all pale and pasty, but we will see on that one. After this week, I only have three weeks of classes left in my semester, then I have almost a month to take a final exam, travel, and just enjoy life in Argentina. Time is flying by, and I only have about a month and a half left here which is crazy to think about.

This weekend, our wonderful director, Raul, offered us all the chance to participate in a weekend activity called "Un Techo Para mi Pais." The name of the organization literally translates to "A roof for my country" and it is a non-profit that sends groups into impoverished areas to build houses for families in need. It seems very similar to habitat for humanity, although the need here is much greater.

When Raul told us about the activity, I was very excited but anxious at the same time. He told us we would be split up and probably the only Americans in our group, which I was very excited about. I knew this weekend would be an awesome chance to practice Spanish. My construction vocabulary in Spanish is lacking however, so I was a little nervous about comprehension. Thankfully I had no problems at all and was actually surprised at how easy it was to communicate with everyone there no matter the theme we were talking about. This weekend definitely improved my confidence in talking with native speakers about anything.

The second thing I was anxious for was seeing what the neighborhood was like. Up until this point, I mainly stayed in the richer parts of Buenos Aires, which are very beautiful and safe. However, this weekend we were going into the heart of the poorest neighborhoods in all of Argentina. The poverty in these areas were unlike anything I had ever seen, and it was heartbreaking to see so many young, beautiful children walking around the streets knowing that they will not have the same opportunities that I have been blessed with. At the same time, the people there were in no way depressed or mopy. On the contrary, they were eager to talk to me about anything, and even gave me the nickname "Mr. America." They were also ready to help build the house and incredibly hard working. Without them, the house wouldn't have been nearly as easy to construct.  A strange thing that I saw in the area, was that a lot of people had horses to get around. There were horses puling carts all over the place, and even kids were riding horses everywhere.

The first morning, we played an icebreaker that was rock paper scissors with rankings depending if you win or lose. Everyone starts as an amoeba, and if you win you become a crab. If you are a crab, you can only play other crabs and rock paper scissors and the winner becomes a bunny, the loser an amoeba. Next you become a gorilla, and then if you can win as a gorilla you win the game and can leave the area. No matter your rank, if you lose you become an amoeba again. Well, yours truly was the loser of a group of nearly 40, so as punishment they wrote "Ameoba" in big black letters across my forehead. Needless to say, if me being an American wasn't a conversation starter, this certainly was.

The house itself was very simple to construct. First, we dug holes for 15 wooden support pillars in the ground.

After digging 7 holes and placing the pillars we hit a minor snag; someone in the group hit a sewer line with their shovel and broke it. Thankfully the flow was very slow and the smell was fairly contained, but the idea of what was in that hole was disgusting. We lost most of the first afternoon waiting for someone to help us fix the problem before we could continue digging.

After the problem was fixed, we were back in business. We soon placed the prefabricated floor over the pillars and next we had to put up the walls. From there, we nailed everything together and then began assembling the support beams for the roof. After that, we nailed the metal roofing in, placed the windows and door, and finally painted the house.

When we were done, the family we had built it for was incredibly grateful. They were an older couple, and the wife was deaf, but she still communicated her gratitude without any problems. The family had cooked for us, helped us build, and talked with us for three days, and I have to admit it was a little sad to leave the neighborhood Monday evening.

The whole experience felt a little bit like summer camp. We slept in sleeping bags in a big gymnasium, we stayed up late playing random games, and even had a bonfire Sunday night minus the s'mores. The experience itself was truly incredible, and I feel like I got to know a completely different side of Argentina. I would highly recommend doing something like this to anyone staying in Latin America for an extended period of time.

For me, the hard working weekend is over and I get to relax this next one in the tropical rainforest near Iguazu Falls in the extreme North of Argentina. Be expecting a ridiculous amount of pictures.

Thanks for reading,

Scott

Fuerza Bruta

This Friday we went to a show called Fuerza Bruta (Brute force). We were not really sure what to to expect, but we were told it was like Cirque du Soleil combined with a rave. When we got there we were ushered into a large dark room with no seats. The crowd was gathered towards the front of the stage. The show began and honestly it is way easy to show videos of it than describe it, and thankfully I took a ton of videos. Unfortunately, the bandwidth is terrible here so I can only put up a few videos. The first one was of a man on a treadmill. They put chairs and people on it going towards him to make it look like he is going down a city street. It was really interesting to watch.

 

The next video is supposed to represent the man running on the treadmill's dreams (I think) It was really cool and I'm not sure if you can tell by the video but the women are way up in the air going along the walls. 

 

The final video is of a pool of water they lowered just above our heads and the bottom is made of clear plastic. There were 4 or 5 women above doing different things in the water to make the ripples go in different patterns. 

Honestly the videos don't do the show justice, but just know that every member of our group absolutely loved the show, and none of us were really sure what it would be like beforehand. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, I would highly recommend seeing Fuerza Bruta.

Thanks for reading!

Scott