Mi Ultima Entrada- The Last Post

After being 5400 miles away for 4 months, I've composed some lists my overall experience of Argentina-what I expected, what I didn't, and what I liked or didnt.  I’ve truly had an incredible experience in Buenos Aires and I hope to someday return to my temporary home. I met people, had great experiences, and learned so much in 4 short months.  Well, here are my lists:

Things I’ve realized

~You are going to see or experience something bizarre every day. Today, I saw a sandwich factory washing their left-over leaves and tomato slices off on the sidewalk and into the sewer. 

~If you want to determine if a random stranger (has to be someone you don’t know at all) is a porteño or not, look them straight in the eye and smile. If they do not return the smile, it’s a porteño….this goes the other way around too. 

~If you see a porteño you know you MUST give them a beso and greet then enthusiastically, even if this means leaning over 3 people, interrupting a conversation, walking into a and interrupting the class (seriously this happened), or even if it’s just your teacher on the street. 

~I waste sooo much time waiting for busses, trains, and the subte. 

~Going out for dinner is fairly expensive. 

~You don’t need to get very dressed up to go out at night if you don’t feel like it.  You’ll see everything from stylish t-shirts to girls in short party dresses.

~Porteños very often donate to the beggars who come onto the subte. 

~Little kids will come into restaurants while you’re eating to beg at each table and the owners usually won’t say anything.

~Taxi drivers are some of the friendliest people. 

~It hasn’t felt like Christmas is close at ALL. 

What I’ll miss

~Seeing something strange every day. Even as I write this on the bus on the way to the airport, we passed cars out on the side of the highway in the triangle between an overpass and the connecting road.  Not only were there cars there though, they were 5 of them purposefully there and the people were sitting out on blankets in the grass. I just don’t think I can imagine people doing that next to the entrance ramp on I75.  Ha

~Alfajores-2 or 3 cookies with dulce de leche as layers in between…YUM

~Dulce de leche- this goes without saying if you’ve been following my blogs.  I brought home 3 containers of it J

~Mate conversation club

~So many opportunities to speak Spanish

~Riding the bus, subte, and train.

~Street/public transport performers and vendors.

~Grapefruit-flavored water.

~People waiting their turn almost always.

~Dessert after EVERY dinner.

~Being able to stay out till the sun rises.

~AND of course, all my Sol and UB friends, Porteño friends, our director, and my host mom

What I’m looking forward to:

~People speaking English

~Stores having change for a $20….or just paying with a credit card J

~Being able to throw TP in the toilet.

~Peanut butter

~American breakfasts.

~Skyline, Marion’s, Waffle House

~Drinking mate in the US

~American milk

What I feel like I would never get used to no matter how long I was in Argentina:

~Strangers not smiling back ever…it just bothers me.

~Women breastfeeding in public- on the bus, in shops, on the side of the street….just startles me for a second haha

~All the platform shoes and the pants that look like you have a sweatshirt on your legs

~Guys trying to kiss you half way through the first song you dance to….I have gotten used to dodging out at this point tho :D

What I have gotten accustomed to:

~Piropos: look straight ahead, don’t smile, and pretend like nothing happened.

~Throwing TP in the trash can.

~Eating at 9 PM.

~All the meat in the diet.

Argentina, you’ll always hold a place in my heart as well as everyone I’ve met along the way.  Thank you for everyone who has supported my journey and everyone who’s been reading my blog for the last few months.  The 1500 views has been flattering, even though half of these might be from my parents ;)  I would love to tell any one of you about my experiences in person sometime.  Un beso!

Traveling Argentina

My travels with my mom and brother were incredible.  It might just be the best vacation I’ve ever been on.  El Glaciar Perito Moreno was probably the most spectacular view I’ve ever seen and Iguazu was maybe even cooler than the first time. The pictures will truly tell the story of our trip but I’m going to sum it up for you.

            Joel and my mom arrived probably the craziest time they could. It was my last night with my host mom and so I arrived late to the hostel so they were talking to a man who spoke very little English for an hour. Woops.  On top of this, they arrived on the night of the largest anti-Cristina (Argentina’s president) ever.  There was also a garbage strike earlier that week so they were wondering why it stank and there was garbage everywhere.  If this wasn’t enough, there were power outages in large portions of the city so that people had started protesting the night before since it was 90+ outside.  This included our hostel so that night we had no air conditioning.  However, 3 bus lines run down our street and these buildings are old marble so the sound reverberates.  The effect was a sound like a jet liner taking off on our street.  I’m not joking: we had to stop talking when one drove past because we couldn’t hear each other.  It was so hot though I eventually had to open a window.  When I woke up for good in the morning though I first looked over to see the cords of earplugs hanging out my mom’s ears and then look at my brother and he is dead asleep with one finger still plugging his ear.  I still can’t believe I didn’t take a picture. 

            The wildness continued through the next day though. It started off hot but in the afternoon the temperature plunged and it started pouring.  Then the subways flooded and we waited out on a street trying to take any bus back to the house.  We were freezing cold and soaking wet in the rain and had to wait about 45 minutes.  

            When we finally did get on the bus though, everyone wanted on.  I sat on Joel and my mom’s laps and as the bus took off, three guys in suits start running after the bus.  The first one jumps in the open door, hanging slightly out, the second one somehow grabbed on and was hanging out more and then the third guy somehow jumps on and is fully out the door and we are driving down 9 de Julio (aka the widest street in the world).  The bus driver is yelling at the guys that it’s not safe and they’ll die and meanwhile we’re just hysterically laughing.  “Welcome to Argentina.”  Protests, flooded subways, garbage strike, power outages, and people hanging out of buses all in the first 24 hours. 

            The rest of the tour of Buenos Aires went much more smoothly.  We went to the Caminito, the famous street in La Boca neighborhood.  We saw Plaza de Mayo, famous churches, my host mom’s house, Recoleta Cemetery, Recoleta Fair, and so much more. 

            After Buenos Aires, we went to El Calafate, a cute little town on the edge of a beautiful lake with mountains in the background.  It is also probably the farthest south I’ll ever be.  Further from the equator than anyone in the continental US.  We stayed in a nice little bed and breakfast run by this extremely nice couple.  While here we went to see Perito Moreno Glacier and even went trekking on it and drank some fresh water off it.  It was fantastic and undoubtedly worth it.  The pictures really tell the story:

            We also rented a car for a day and traveled to El Chalten where we hiked to see an overlook of Mount Fitzroy.  This was also very beautiful.  The overlook was a gorgeous mountain lake from which you could see other mountains, Mount Fitzroy, and another glacier. This trek was extremely steep though….huge inclines for the first hour at least….easy way back though J

 The sheer rock faces below are mount fitzroy!

            Next, we traveled to Bariloche, the lake district.  And lakes it was!  Everywhere was more and more lakes!  We hiked around El Circuito Chico, took a boat around the lakes to a few ports and went hiking to see more lakes and waterfalls.  The last day Joel and I went horseback riding at a family-owned ranch. 

Feeding the seagulls from the boat!

            Our last stop was Iguazu.  I thought Iguazu was a great site the first time but this time was even better I think.  It was different in that this time, there was much less water and the water was so much greener rather than brown.  With less water, there was less mist and we got some spectacular views of the falls. We also got to go over to the island this time for more viewpoints and swimming since it wasn’t too flooded.  It wasn’t as powerful by any means and the sound wasn’t as impressive but I was glad to be able to experience it both ways because they were very unique experiences.

            I was so glad that my mom and brother came.  I was thrilled to have them to travel with me and experience some of what I have been experiencing for the last four months.  I’m glad they got a view of my life in Argentina and I will now be able to better share things when I’m home since they can relate.  This vacation was definitely a highlight of my trip to Argentina and I sincerely hope everyone has the opportunity and will to travel like I have this past year.  You won’t regret it.  

Iguazu- Part 1

            Well this is only part one because IM GOING BACK!!  And im so excited.  Iguazú falls was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen....it’s made up of 150-300 waterfalls depending on the water level and the whole thing together is pretty much a giant horseshoe of waterfalls with a cool island in the middle. 

          

 The sound of the falls was like deafening constant thunder and the mist made it difficult to take pictures at times.  There were boardwalks that were hanging over the falls practically and there was a boardwalk that was extremely close to being underneath one of them so that standing there, you got drenched head to foot within 10 seconds :D 

            Nothing compares to Iguazu like being there but take a look at some of my facebook pictures (coming up soon hopefully) and you’ll see what I mean.  And on top of that, the animals were really unique. I saw creatures that I’ve never even heard of before and got to see a bright blue bird do some sort of singing dance.   The butterflies were beautiful but what was impressive was the number of butterflies.  I swear, there were swarms of them at times… you would be walking and realize 6 butterflies on his back.  It was just a great experience and if you ever go to south America, this should be one of your pit stops without a doubt. 

            And if you make it to Iguazu be sure to visit the iniginous community while you’re there. We got to go on a tour and it was really interesting.  The age of the people was what really struck me.  I didn’t see anyone who looked over 30 although I know there had to have been and the parents in the community looked my age.  We did ask one guy how old he was and he said 19 and he’s married with a 3 year old daughter.  It was a very neat way of life with virtually no wasting of resources and they still trapped most of their animals with ingenious contraptions.  It was quite a different experience than most of what I’ve seen in Argentina but really cool!!!