Mas austral del mundo

A few weeks ago our group went to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world located in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province. After 3 hours on a plane, we broke through the clouds and the snowcapped mountains were so close it seemed like we could reach out and touch them. I've flown over snowy mountains before, but something about being so close to Antarctica (800 miles!) made it different this time!

Leaving mi querido Buenos Aires!

 Arriving en la ciudad mas austral del mundo!

We arrived at the tiniest airport outside of Alexander City and jumped in a van to our hotel. The city of Ushuaia has about 50,000 people and thrives on tourism and manufacturing household appliances. It has a small town feel and is full of souvenir shops and un monton of restaurants competing for who can serve the biggest, best king crab in town. Too bad I can't comment on the king crab, food in Ushuaia is expensive to say the least.

"The Malvinas are and always will be Argentina's." Falkland War, google it. But in Argentina, NEVER call them the Falklands.

"Culo" = umm, bottom :)

We were only there for two full days but we saw so much during that time! The first day we went for a ride on the 'tren al fin del mundo' (train to the end of the world) and disembarked in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego. In its early days, Ushuaia was a penal colony but through the years it morphed into a town that now boasts a strong tourism industry. The prison was closed in the 1940s. Prisoners in Ushuaia rode el tren al fin del mudo to and from the forests where they cut the wood for the prison's furnaces. The prison didn't have problems with escape attempts- after a day or two in the bitter cold, escapees returned begging for shelter and food. Claro!

I took this photo for my Granny because she gave me this jacket at least 10 years ago and my Land's End actually made it to land's end!

The dead trees are ones that were cut by prisoners.

After the parque, we went on a boat tour of the Beagle Channel. Luck was on our side because no one bought tickets for the VIP area (enclosed top part of the boat with big comfy seats, free coffee, alfajores, pepas and heat!) which had 16 seats, our group had 16 people and the ticket taker was an angel! We set off into the channel and the view was AMAZING. It was a four hour trip and the highlight was definitely the penguins! But the sea lions, mountains and flag waving in the wind were amazing also!

2 more minutes and I may have frozen in this position.

Those aren't penguins but those ARE sea lions!

Not what I was expecting of a penguin colony but it is summer here. C'est la vie!

The next day we toured the lake district. This was a lot of fun too although I wish we hadn't been in a van 90% of the day.  We were itching to move around and get away from our tour guide who insisted on being snappy with the driver. 'Rapido, rapido boludo! Adelante como te dije, dale dale dale!' Excuse me lady but we are hanging on the side of a mountain in damn near Antarctica in a van with wheels the size of paper plates, let this man drive as slow as he wants! Pobrecito Roberto! I digress. We ventured to the end of Ruta 3- the road that starts in BsAs and stretches to Tierra del Fuego. Southernmost point in the Americas: check! We continued on our tour stopping along the way for photo shoots and lunch at the weirdest-coolest-market-exotic bird reserve-museum-bakery-all-in-one-type-sort-of-I-don't-know-what-it-was-place. 

Kelsie enjoying the weirdest market/bird refuge/museum/bakery!

Then we returned to the hotel, packed our bags and headed back to Buenos Aires! Ushuaia was a lot of fun but I think it would be interesting to see it in-season. Then again, I hate cold weather so who knows!

Back to mi querido Buenos Aires!

Algunas observaciones

I went to Ushuaia this past weekend, but I'm waiting for some photos before I write about it. Instead, I'm going to share some observations of Argentina, Buenos Aires and Latin America.

• Don't tell anyone in Florida but Argentina has tastier orange juice. Baggio Pronto Naranja por favor! 
• Argentines are more politically involved than Americans. Nestor Kirchner, the former president and husband of the current president, died a few days ago. My host family is in total shambles. A friend's host family cracked a bottle of champagne. There is no middle ground. You love or hate politicians. Me parece que el mitad no existe con respeto al gobierno.
• Argentine women either wear make-up like it's cake frosting (not an exaggeration) or nothing at all. 
• Argentine men don't know what tweezers are. Ears, noses and of course eyebrows, well, you know. This gets me in trouble on the bus and subway. Guys think I'm checking them out when I'm really just in awe at the fluidity of their unibrows.
• I think listening to Spanish music has blown my speaking ability through the roof. Too bad I didn't discover this sooner.
• Argentina knows snacks. Argentina has to be the snack capital of the world. Kiosks (little stores about the size of a bathroom that prettttttty much only sell snacks and cigarettes) have impressive shelves of alfajores, alfajores, chocolate bars and alfajores. Finding cheddar cheese singles in a grocery store is next to impossible (and incredibly expensive) but there are aisles and aisles of jams, dulce de leche, cookies, crackers, dips, candies, chocolates, cereals, sodas and alfajores.
• Yogurt comes two ways: firme and cremoso. Cremoso yogurt has the consistency of milk and firme jiggles like Jell-O. 
• A guy told me in Ushuaia that if you understand Argentine Spanish, you can understand it all except maybe not Chilean. I believe it. Or at least I hope he's right. I'd bet my car that any one from back home with no knowledge of Spanish would think they were hearing Italian. A few reasons- they talk with their hands, including the little hand at mouth kiss thing thing; they put -issimo on the end of adjectives for emphasis, buenissimo, riquissimo, lejissimo; and there are as many Italian last names here as there are Spanish. My family's last name is Albergucci. Doesn't get much more Italian than that. 
• Alfajores and orange juice is my new favorite combo. If you've been living a deprived life and have never experienced an alfajor, I'm sorry. If you're family, no worries- I'm bringing back boxes and boxes. Alfajores are a cookie filled with dulce de leche, covered in chocolate and sometimes sprinkled with nuts. I love Terabusi, Milka and Negro/Blanco. Om nom nom nom!
• Pizza here has to be eaten with a fork. Hands not an option. 
• E M P A N A D A S.
• I think food is here a bit overrated but I will be living a sad life without empanadas, medialunas, milanesa napolitana, alfajores and queso untable. Luckily all but the last two can be recreated at home.
• Argentina is Latin America but the coffee sho ain't. I think good Latin American coffee ends in Venezuela. Triste. Por lo menos tenemos maté!
• Argentines get the most out of their things. This is one life lesson I'm super happy to have learned. They wear clothes over and over and over before washing. They reuse bags- paper and plastic- over and over again. They take care of the things they have and make everything last. My host mom's Fiat has 900,000 kilometers on it. That's about 600,000 miles. Yeah.
• After studying Spanish for a few years, I've come to realize that my Spanish speaking world is dominated by a 3-letter word. Que. It means what and that and sometimes how. It also triggers the subjunctive- a linguistic mood that doesn't exist in English. Que importante!

Ushuaia blog coming soooon!

Beautiful Boca

This weekend we went to La Boca. La Boca has a very unique reputation. It is known as one of the more dangerous areas of Buenos Aires but it is a crucial part of tango, art and futbol history. La Boca is located on the river where many factories and lots of poverty are found. But when tango music and dance were thriving among the city's lower classes and growing into the seductive dance it has become, neighborhoods like Boca were crucial to the dance's development. 

There are also several famous artists that found inspiration in the area's river society. There is a group of artists from the area collectively known as 'pintores de la Boca'. Among them is Abraham Vigo and Facio Hebequer but  the most famous is Benito Quinquela Martin.

 

Barcas en el Riachuelo by B. Q. Martin

 

Lastly, La Boca is home to the Boca Juniors. In Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires, you are either a River Plate fan or Boca Juniors fan. Even those who swear allegiance to Tigre, Estudiantes or other teams will have a Boca or River Plate preference. Boca and River Plate are the equivalent of Yankees or Red Sox in the United States. Most will tell you that Boca Juniors is the team of the lower classes while River Plate is for the upper classes. River fans says Boca fans are riding the bandwagon while Boca claims their superiority because Diego Maradona repped the blue and yellow during his youth. As you may or may not know, Diego Maradona is the infamous former Argentina national coach some say lead  Argentina to their embarrassing performances in the 2010 World Cup and played on the World Cup Champion team of the 1980's. The rivalry is so strong that until a year ago, there was NO red (River's color) advertising in Estadio de la Boca Juniors. Even today the Coca-Cola marquee around the stadium is black and white.

Click the link to see Maradona in one the sport world's most controversial moments:

The hand of God? 

 Katherine and I practicing goal celebrations

La Boca, though filled with glowing murals, is polluted, poverty-stricken, prone to crime and was especially devastated when the peso crashed in 2001. We went to an alfajor bakery that was started by a few families who refused to let the slaughtered economy ruin their lives and the futures of their children. They have been a profitable alfajor company for 8 years now and use their rags to riches story to inspire tourists and neighbors. 

 Amigos at the alfajor bakery

We also went to a book cooperative that uses cardboard to bind journals, poetry books and books for kids. The cooperatives pays cartoneras 25 centavos for each box they bring in. Then, they make and decorate books that are sold on site and in several bookstores in Buenos Aires. Cartoneras are people who earn their living by sorting through the city's trash for cardboard. Buenos Aires does not have an all-inclusive recycling system and though many mayor's have tried, they simply cannot create one because it would take away the livelihood of so many people. 

 Our visit to Boca was so much fun and I must applaud our co-director Gaby (who also works for an eco-friendly/off the beaten path tour company) for leading us on a tour of Boca that showed us how residents brighten their neighborhood by working to overcome economic and social crises. 

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the trip:

Feliz dia

Hoy es Dia de la Madre en Argentina. Se ha anunciado por semanas y las florerias alrededor de la ciudad explotaron ayer! Este Dia de la Madre es un poco mas especial para mi familia argentina. Este ano es el primer ano que Luz es una mama y Lily una abuela entonces estan preparando un gran almuerzo para todo!

Entonces, ¡Feliz dia de la madre a todas las mujeres que han sido una influencia en mi vida!

Granny, Nana, Betty, Mel, Gretchen, Pegeen- ellas amo!

Un gran abrazo y beso para Mandy y Olive.

Y lo mas importante de todo- te amo a Mom!

Nuestros vecinos

Last weekend the group went to a city just outside of BsAs called Tigre.  Tigre's location on the Rio Parana (no worries, there are no piranha!) makes it a delta. Part of the city has roads but many residents live on the river and depend on boats for transportation. There's a boat bus, a grocery boat, a police boat, a fire boat, a trash boat- boats for everything! We arrived at the boat station, boarded and set off cruising down the river dropping off and picking up people along the way. It was so  neat! I'm sure there are places like this in the U.S. but I've never been so this was a new experience.

Collectivo (bus) boat

Grocery boat

When we arrived at our destination, everyone went straight for the coffee, maté and of course the hammock! One thing that I love about my program is that when we go on these excursions, we don't take the typical tourist approach. Having only 13 kids, our group is small enough to be accommodated and entertained by families. Our trip to Tigre was no exception. We spent the day with a family that one of our directors has been friends with for years. They taught us about life on the delta, fed us delicious milanesa sandwichitos, filled us with pasta frola and made us a part of the family for the day. 

We also went rowing! Many people in Tigre row for exercise as well as transportation. Rowing is such a great work out! We spent an hour singing and racing down the river which ultimately led to sore backs, buff biceps and a few blisters!

Then we had a few hours of absolute nothingness. And it was GREAT! We sunbathed, swam, read, played chess, practiced Spanish and enjoyed maté. I've said it before and I'll say it again- nature takes on a new level of amazingness when you live in a concrete jungle! There were bugs! And dirt! And fresh air! And more bugs! And flowers! And a day with no schedule is beautiful! No racing to catch the subway, fighting for a taxi, dividing everything by 4 (peso to dollar conversion), hustling to university or dodging dodgy sidewalks and doggie gifts.

After rowing, we all learned a lesson about the importance of being prepared and why we should have paid more attention to those geography terms from third grade. In our pre-Tigre e-mail, we were given a list of things to bring that included long pants and water proof shoes. But what exactly qualifies as water proof? Flip flops are water proof. So are rain boots and my choice- Chacos. No, no, no. By water proof they meant mud boots. What we thought was going to be a walk through the woods and maybe splashing in creeks turned into mud up to our knees, blade grass battle wounds and a now-hysterical mix of paranoia, whining and giggles. How did none of us hit up Google before this adventure? When I think of delta, I think of foot-deep water that is neither ocean nor river (c'mon Ellen, this ain't Brunswick!) Not blade grass over my head, mysterious depths of mud and fighting for the life of my adidas. When we arrived back in civilization 45 minutes later, several people and most of our clothes went straight to the river for a bath. For every complaint there were at least 73 laughs- one of those, 'this will be funny one day' kind of experiences. Lesson = learned.

This is the BEST picture that has been taken so far on this trip. Danielle shrieked when here foot sank into a foot of mud and almost lost her shoe when she tried to pull her foot out. This IS teamwork!

Dressing in layers = always a good idea

This weekend we did an API sponsored service project. We went to a home for abused and abandoned teenage girls and painted the dining room, staff office and laundry room. The walls definitely needed paint and the girls were really happy to have our help and company. They loved the boys in our group the most but made sure the ladies always had music blaring to pass the monotony of painting!

It was hard work painting so many walls with so many corners and doors but there was plenty of choripan and alfajores to keep us happy! And of course, just knowing that we were brightening their day was enough! When we left, the girls screamed te amos and I love yous to the boys and when I kissed the house mother goodbye she looked at me with the sweetest expression and said 'muchissimas gracias mi amor!'

My time here in Buenos Aires is winding down. The reality of returning is starting to set in. It's a bizarre mix of roller coaster-like emotions. I've gotten everything I ever wanted out of Buenos Aires but I know there's more. So much more. I'm motivated to hustle through my last semesters, work hard, save hard, practice more Spanish and do whatever it takes to move on to wherever life may lead. I know the first couple of months back home is going to be hard. There will depressed days and separation anxiety. I know there are only a few people that can even remotely understand this experience. But I also know Buenos Aires will be as much a part of my future as it will be of my past.

Mendoza

The last two weeks have been super busy! I went to Mendoza for the long weekend and had a BLAST! The bus ride from BsAs to Mendoza was about 14 hours. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The seats reclined just enough to almost be comfortable, there was a bathroom, food service and I won a bottle of chardonnay for winning on-board bingo! It was my first time on a double decker and I hated the swaying and nearness of passing rigs next to my face all night but there was plenty of good company and maté to keep it enjoyable.

We arrived in Mendoza and headed to Hostel Empedrado. I have only stayed in a few hostels, but Empedrado was the best so far. The bed was comfortable, the kitchen was large and conducive to socializing, the bathrooms were nice and there was a ridiculous free breakfast every morning- panqueques con dulce de leche, naranjas, medialunas, café, cereal and bananas! I could wake up to maté and panqueques con dulce de leche for the rest of my life! The hostel also hosted an asado that was amazing.  All you can eat/drink vino, various cuts of beef and pork for 35 pesos (US$8.75)! Add in the good company and it was perfect! Oh, and there was a free wine tasting!

Our first day in Mendoza we met three girls from New Zealand, a girl from Finland and her Swedish boyfriend and a guy from New York City. I could not have asked for a better people with whom to enjoy Mendoza. There was never a lull in the conversation and we made sure to cook up some tasty meals between the seven of us! The three Kiwis actually met my friend Dylan (a friend of a friend I hung out with while in Costa Rica earlier this year) while traveling through Colombia. The world IS shrinking all around me!

 Johan, Ida, Claire, Stacey, Nicola, me and Agustin enjoying dinner

We spent two days biking betwixt (I LOVE that word!) vineyards. We made stops at La Rural, Lagarde, Luigi Bosca and di Tommaso. They were all nice, but Lagarde and di Tommaso were my favorites.  I thought Lagarde had the most informative tour, super tasty champagne (not much of a champagne fan) and an awesome guide who cut us a deal on a few bottles of wine. Di Tommaso was the most picturesque.  We opted out of the tour there (but still drank the wine) but did enjoy lunch and the scenery. Luigi Bosca was the swankest of all and La Rural was the only one that allowed us to venture into the vines. 

 Antique wine tools at La Rural

Lunch at di Tommaso and the view from the table

 Wine tasting room at Luigi Bosca

Fermentation tanks, 108 year old grapes in the vineyards and enjoying the champagne at Lagarde

The winery tours were a great way to spend our days. The idea is that you hop on a bus to the wine region of your choice, rent a bike (US$4-6) and set off. The bike rental companies give you a map, vouchers and recommendations then guarantee victory wine when you return in one piece.

Even though it seems like you would be too drunk to ride a bike, the truth is that you don't get endless wine at each winery. You do the tour, enjoy a sample or two then head on to the next. We did enjoy a bit of wine at di Tommaso but we also ate lunch there and biked 4ish kilometers to get there. Riding the bike is half the fun! The scenery is amazing- Andes on one side, desert on the other and vineyards sprinkled all around. Also, the wineries in Mendoza are a good distance outside of Mendoza city. And with so many places to choose from, it's rare that tourists cluster at any particular place.  Mendoza felt authentic. Not to say Buenos Aires isn't authentic, but 8 of 10 people here speak functional English- not the case in Mendoza. Also, Mendoza's proximity to Chile and Bolivia means a higher indigenous population.  No plastic surgery, no honking cabs, no sky scrapers.

Another day, we went up into the mountains for an asado with some fellow Argentineans Agustin met while traveling where else but New Zealand. That was the day I fell in love with maté. Agustin and his friends spent all of the hour long car ride catching up so I just slurped maté and tried hard to contain the 5-year-old side of me from slapping the windows every time we cleared a curve and the Andes burst onto the scene.  Oooh, the food was so good and the weather was ideal! I was wide-eyed the entire day- in a state of shock that my life landed me in the Andes with eight Argentines, speaking Spanish (okay, more listening than speaking), drinking wine, passing around maté and soaking up sol. 

Life is so good. So, so good. 

We packed up and got back on the bus to BsAs. The return trip was 17 hours because we stopped at what seemed like every bus station between Mendoza and Cordoba. If you're not familiar with the geography of Argentina- just know that that's a long way! But we were exhausted and the bus was nice enough to play a variety of movies. 

(Warning: Ranting ahead!)

The first movie was 'Shooter' AKA the biggest blow to American cinema since the beginning of time.  I was embarrassed through the whole movie and hoped no one on the bus would notice the gringa on board. The main character's name is Bob Lee Swagger. Really?! It was painful to hear several minutes of Spanish then a name like that. Like a dagger to my heart every time. "Muchachos, lo importante es que encontramos a los espies! Ahora vayan al edificio y le maten el hombre que se llaman BOB LEE SWAGGER." Throw that in with the fact that the subtitles were half Portuguese and my brain was crying for 1.5 hours. Although I did have quite a few giggles thinking about how much fun the movie would have been if Daniel were there. Daniel loves Mark Wahlberg. NOT! A few years ago we had a couple hours of gutbusting laughter while watching the second worst movie ever made: 'Rockstar' which also stars Mark Wahlberg.  The other two movies were okay.  I threw up thanks to God when the last movie was NOT dubbed. We were right under the monitor and this bus was not equipped with headphone capabilities. You either watched the movie or...watched the movie.

We finally arrived back in the city at 8 a.m.and if I could drop everything and go back right now, I would! Luckily the friends we made in Mendoza are all heading to BsAs this week so maybe the fun will continue here!