Day at the Pool

Today we had a full day off with nothing planned in Buenos Aires. So my roommates and I wanted to go to the huge pool called Parque Norte. It’s a place where people can come relax by the pool, play sports, or play in the park. We talked to Jackie and Sam who were planning to go to because they knew which bus to take and where it would pick us up. At first we walked the wrong way towards the bus stop, but then eventually we found the right place with Jackie and Sam. We had to wait for about 15 minutes before the bus came, and we were about to give up and take a taxi right when it pulled up. It was a pretty far ride, further than the airport, to finally get there. It was 35 pesos to get in and then we had to go through this weird medical check to get in. They checked our hair for lice, and they checked our toes and fingers for fungus. It actually made me feel better knowing the people have to be semi clean to enter. Once we got in we got some lounge chairs, and the pool was HUGE. It is still a little shocking to see all the women in thong bathing suits, but I know it is just their culture. It was nice to lay by the pool, eat lunch, and nap on a beautiful day. It was a relaxing day off, but then the clouds rolled in so we decided to head home. Overall a successful day!

A Day in the Andes

On a weekend trip to Mendoza, Argentina, we had a day scheduled to spend in the actual Andes Mountains. So this past Saturday morning we all woke up really early and got dressed in some hiking gear. It was about an hour drive to get from the hotel to the base camp. On the drive there, we saw an unbelieveable view of the mountain range, including the highest point that we could see which was covered in snow. That highest visible point was called Plata, or silver. Then we had to actually drive up the mountain in this big van, and at some points, I did not think we were going to make it up. Our bus driver was great though and we arrived all in one piece at the base camp.

We had to split our group into two separate groups because there were not enough horses for us all to ride at once and then we flipped a coin to see which group did hiking or riding first. My group lost the coin toss, so we rode the horses first.
The horses were brought to our base camp, and there were about 20 wild dogs with them too. I used to ride horses up until middle school, but I completely forgot how much I loved to do it. My horse Cortito was great and listened to every command I gave him. We were at the head of the group behind our tour leader, and when we would start trotting, everyone else was further behind us. I would have loved to just keep riding the horses for the rest of the day, but we had to go back to the base camp for lunch. The other group came back just in time for the barbecue too. We ate delicious empanadas, steak sandwiches, grilled vegetables, and fresh fruit. I ate so much! Almost three of the sandwiches because they were so good. After lunch, it was our time to hike up the mountains. It was very hot, and definitely a bit of a workout to get there. We arrived at a fresh water spring and were able to drink the water straight from the hose. Water never tasted so good! Then we climbed up one final steep mountain, and from the top, it was totally worth it. I have never seen such a beautiful view in my life.

We climbed back down all the way to the base camp, had some mate, and drove back to the hotel. Overall an amazing day trip in Mendoza.

The Indigenous Guarani People

On our weekend trip to Iguazu, we had excellent excursions planned. Not only did we get to see the waterfalls from different levels (above and below), we actually got to take a boat ride underneath of them. The next day we were going to visit the indigenous Guarani people of the Misiones province. Our whole group traveled to their community on this huge military-like truck. It reminded me of how people travel to different refugees. During the drive there, I could definitely tell that this part of Argentina was impoverished. There seemed to be a look of anger or sadness (I couldn’t tell which one) as we drove past with our cameras out. When we finally reached the Guarani village, the mosquitos were out to attack. We bathed in bug spray as we tried to listen to our tour guide Luis and Professor Manzano’s translation. We did not get to see specifically the families’ houses, but I was very surprised to hear that there were around 2000 people living there in total. We learned about how they know both the Guarani language and Spanish, as well, and that they had two names so that they could travel through the country. Luis showed us the different types of traps they would use to catch animals for food and products. He also explained to us how the seasons were very important. The month of September was very important because it is their summer equinox. We learned about how each Guarani village has a chief leader, but most importantly, a spiritual leader who assigned the chief of the community. The children of the community sang us a song to welcome and thank us for visiting them, and honestly, it brought some tears to my eyes. I felt bad for the kids. It did not look as though they were happy that we were there taking pictures of them. It kind of made me feel like we were invading their space. Anyway, at the end we all got to buy some of the crafted jewelry that the Guarani people would make from a seed of one of their plants. I LOVED the bracelet I bought, and I wish I had more pesos when I went because I think my mom would have liked it as well. At the end of our visit, I took pictures with all of the little kids. My favorite little boy was the one on the end during the performance because he was so off beat, and he was really friendly with me when I wanted to take a picture. Overall, it was an eye opening experience for me to visit and learn about the Guarani culture, and I think it was my favorite part about visiting Iguazu.

San Telmo

On our first Sunday in Buenos Aires, my housemates and I walked to meet our group at the Plaza de Mayo. We all met outside of the Cathedral to learn a little background information about the history of why the specific buildings were actually placed at that area, and we learned about some important events that occurred throughout Argentina’s revolution for independence. After the little history lesson, we all walked into San Telmo where there is a big market lining all of one street connecting the two towns of Recoleta and San Telmo. It was so awesome to see all of the different handmade crafts, jewelry, and souvenirs. The market was unbelievably crowded. It seemed like all the locals and tourists came to attend this event weekly. There was also a lot of local music playing in the streets. There were two guys on guitar playing at one place, and also, a woman playing a long wooden horn. The horn was about three times as long as me, and it was a sound I had never heard before. I bought souvenirs for my family there, but my favorite part was experiencing the music in the streets, while interacting with the townies. We also ate lunch at this little spot that someone had recommended to Pat. The best part of the whole meal was this oil spice mix that was given at the beginning with bread. It looked really weird, but tasted amazing! After eating and being in the sun all day, we were all ready to head back to the house and relax.

Is it a rabbit/deer hybrid??

 So today was our first day without classes in Buenos Aires. It's the first Saturday here, and our morning was scheduled with some pretty cool tours of El Tigre. It was kinda a gloomy day while we were there, but when we got off the bus back in Recoleta, it was sunny and beautiful. Since we had the whole afternoon free, Rory, Pat, and I decided to take a little walk and see the town. We decided to walk to the Botanical Gardens. It was a really easy walk because we just had to go straight down Santa Fe, but it was 20 blocks through the Recoleta and Palermo. On the walk, we actually ran into two other students from our program after we had been walking for about 40 minutes. It was crazy to see them out far from our house because the city is so huge. We finally reached the Botanical Gardens, but it was closed!

After we had just walked for an hour, the gates were locked! Apparently it was because it had rained earlier that day, and we were all kind of bummed until we realized that the Zoo was just across the street. For only 22 pesos a person, we went into the zoo, and I had never seen animals so comfortable around people. There were little muskrats and some animal that resembled a deer/rabbit hybrid that were just coming straight up to the people and anyone could feed them. It was basically a zoo like any other in the U.S., but it was fun not being 100% familiar with which animals were what because of the language barrier. Like I was saying about how friendly the animals were, anyone could even feed the zebras or even bison! The feline animals were all pretty much hot and sleeping in the shade, but the monkeys were very active and entertaining. All of the monkeys had some sort of weird red, growth on their butts. I had never seen anything so gross and uncomfortable before. I just kept wondering how it could possibly sit comfortably. But then we were getting a little antsy, so we decided to finish up at the zoo, and took the subway home for the first time. It was so easy to just jump on for 1,10 pesos! That compared to the usual 25 pesos taxi ride was so surprising! We finally got home, and it felt great to actually see the city on our own. It was a great way to spend a free Saturday afternoon.

A Trip to La Boca

Today was our first actual day in Buenos Aires, and after all of the orientations, a bunch of us from the group wanted to grab lunch together. However, we did not realize it would take over an hour and a half to just receive our food, which was primarily because there were about 15 of us. We were starting to get really anxious because we had to meet with the group at a certain time, and it was getting to be pretty close to that time without our food even coming out. Finally with 15 minutes to spare, my roommate Alex and I ate our lunch in about five bites, so that we could run ahead to tell our professors in case the others were going to be late. Luckily everyone made it in time to load onto the bus for our city tour. On the bus, we drove around the city and had a verbal tour from our guide, and we ended up in the south part of Argentina called La Boca. We got to get off the bus and walk around the town. Let me just say, I have never seen any type of buildings like that anywhere at home. It's the part of the city that was developed by and for the immigrants to live in, but has now become a popular place for artists to show their art work. The buildings were every bright color possible, and it was not like the colors even went together. It was as though a five year old was the exterior color designer. I loved it! Caminita Street was lined with artist after artist showing their work on the sides, accompanied by the towns stray dogs and even some cats (my favorite). It was so funny to just walk around and try to be seduced by the male tango dancers. I literally had to like run away from one of them. The cafes all had tango dancers in front of the outdoor tables, and also had weird men asking to be our husbands. It was pretty entertaining to walk around the city, as long as you did not get too close to the stench of the port water, or until it started raining bullets. Then the bus finally picked us back up, and we had to drive through a really ghetto area of town. I hated to see the types of shacks that were falling apart and actually lived in with little kids outside. Luckily, we drove past it pretty quickly and finished up with the rest of the bus tour. But honestly, I am exhausted right now and cannot wait to take a little nap before we actually sit down and eat dinner after this crazy, long day.