Hello!
I leave tomorrow! I can't believe how fast it's all gone! Here's what I did my last few days here...
Monday- Walk down Puerto Madryn for a final churripan, visit to the Botanical Gardens, stroll through the Palermo Parks (beautiful and full of people but also unfortunately very full of mosquitos), visit to the Gran Ateneo (an old theatre converted into a bookstore, definitely the coolest bookstore I've ever been in), and last night at the Bomba del Tiempo drumming show.
Tuesday- Visit to the Buenos Aires rose gardens and a friend's roof-top going-away pool party, final visit to the Catedral for one last milonga (a milonga is a place where normal people dance tango , as opposed to a tango show.
Wednesday- Visits to ESMA (one of the biggest clandestine detention centers used by the government during the Dirty Wars) and the Memorial Park for the thousands killed and disappeared during the Dirty Wars, afternoon coffee at the historical Cafe Violettas, boot shopping in the leather district, and farewell to a bunch of kids from my program at Bangalore.
Thursday- Walk around Recoleta's giant metal flower, visit to the University of Buenos Aires Law School, visits to the two most popular art museums in Buenos Aires (MALBA and Bellas Artes), lunch at one of my favorite empanada places, dinner at Desnivel (my favorite steak restaurant) and last night at Cronico (favorite bar).
Friday- Lots of goodbyes. Most of my friends left and I also stopped by Help Argentina to say goodbye to everyone there. Also, went out to Plaza Serrano for dinner and drinks with my host mom and her friends. Last ice cream in Buenos Aires!
Saturday- Shopping at the Recoleta fair where we got caught in a torrential downpour and had to hide out in the cultural center for a while, final cafe con medialunas, walk down Avenida Florida (an outdoor mall), and delicious dinner of steak and squash stew at Cumana.
Sunday- I cooked brunch for Eli and Guillermo then went with one of my friends to wander around San Telmo fair.
As excited as I am to go home and see everyone, I can't believe that my South American adventure is really over! Thanks to all for keeping in touch! Having such a great support system was a huge part of me being able to be gone for so long! Hope to see you soon!
Love, Melanie
LAST PICTURES FROM BUENOS AIRES
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Trip to Patagonia, Dec 6-13
Hi! Just got back from my last adventure here in Argentina. Patagonia was one of the most incredible places I've ever been to!
Puerto Madryn
Puerto Madryn is a city on the mid-Atlantic coast of Argentina, and one of the northernmost points in Patagonia. It's right at the base of the Valdes Peninsula, which is one of the most important places for marine wildlife in South America.On Sunday the sixth, I left on a bus from Buenos Aires bound for Puerto Madryn. Traveling by bus is very typically Argentine, and I wanted one more long trip before leaving. After 20 hours of watching the Argentine landscape change, watching the sunrise and sunset, watching a few movies and sleeping, I arrived in Puerto Madryn. I spent the afternoon exploring the beach and visiting the ecological museum. Later that evening, my friend Carolyn (who had opted to fly instead of bus) arrived.
The next morning, we left for our full day tour of the Peninsula Valdes. First, we went on a whale watching boat trip to see the endangered southern right whale. We spotted a bunch of whales, most memorably a mother with her calf. Next, we drove around the island to see elephant seal conolonies, sea lions, a penguin colony, guanacos (a type of wild llama), armadillos and many other animals. The whole experience was absolutely incredible!
On Wednesday the ninth, I spent the morning swimming and napping on the beach, then in the afternoon hopped on another bus bound for Rio Gallegos. After another 20 hours of huge open spaces and mystical landscapes, I arrived in Rio Gallegos and 2 hours later got on another bus for 4 hours to Calafate.
El Calafate and El Chalten
El Calafate is a town in southern Patagonia right outside of the Glacier National Park. Upon arriving in Calafate, I tried to find a hostel. I had made reservations before because I wasn't sure what day I was going to be arriving. I couldn't find a single reservation for Thursday night, so for half price I reserved a bed in the common room of a hostel. I spent the afternoon hiking around the incredibly teal blue glacier lake (Lago Argentino), then went back to the hostel for an all-you-can eat barbeque. I hung out some other travelers from Germany and Holland and we watched the sunset from the hostel's enormous windows (at about 11:30, since its so far south in the summer there are only about 5 hours of dark per day).
Friday morning, I woke up early to go on my mini-trekking expedition on the Glacier Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is a giant glacier fed from the Southern Patagonia Icefield. It grows and shrinks every year. It's an amazing blue color and the water it's in is teal. First, our bus stopped at the boardwalks so we could explore around on our own. I watched huge chunks fall of the glacier (as it's summer, the glacier is receding). It is a really incredible sight and sounds like really loud thunder or some type of explosion. After the boardwalks, we road a boat up close to the glacier to get an even better view. On the other side of the lake, we strapped crampons on to our boots and walked across the glacier for a couple hours. It was really incredible- everything was jagged and blue and it almost felt like being on another planet. At the end of the trek, we had whiskey on glacier ice then road the boat to the bus and the bus back to El Calafate.
Friday evening, I met up with my friend Elise who had just flown down from Buenos Aires. We rented a car and set off on the 3 hour drive to El Chalten. It was the most beautiful road trip I've ever been on. We left at about 9:00 pm so we got to see the sun set. We stopped a few times along the way to see the view, and also got to drive a few hours along the famous Argentine Route 40. At about 1:00 AM (we got a little lost), we arrived at our hostel in El Chalten to sleep for a few hours before hiking.
El Chalten is the trekking capital of Argentina, and is at the base of some of the most amazing hikes in South America. We decided to go up to where we could better see the mountain Fitz Roy. The whole hike ended up being about 7 hours, complete with snow-capped mountains, enormous valleys, a mountain stream, a bright blue glacier and a waterfall. The Patagonian Andes are absolutely incredible! After the hike, we had another beautiful and memorable drive back to El Calafate. We spent the evening hanging out at the hostel with another group of travelers. It was an incredible way to finish my backpacking experience here in South America.
Sunday morning, I flew back to Buenos Aires. Since then, I've been living the tourist life here, trying to cram in everything I didn't get the chance to go when I still had to go to school. We went for a stroll along Puerto Madero, the Botanical Gardens, the beautiful parks of Palermo, an old theatre converted into a bookstore, and an outdoor drumming show. On the 21st I leave Buenos Aires and will be back in Colorado the morning of the 22nd. Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PATAGONIA PICTURES
Puerto Madryn
Puerto Madryn is a city on the mid-Atlantic coast of Argentina, and one of the northernmost points in Patagonia. It's right at the base of the Valdes Peninsula, which is one of the most important places for marine wildlife in South America.On Sunday the sixth, I left on a bus from Buenos Aires bound for Puerto Madryn. Traveling by bus is very typically Argentine, and I wanted one more long trip before leaving. After 20 hours of watching the Argentine landscape change, watching the sunrise and sunset, watching a few movies and sleeping, I arrived in Puerto Madryn. I spent the afternoon exploring the beach and visiting the ecological museum. Later that evening, my friend Carolyn (who had opted to fly instead of bus) arrived.
The next morning, we left for our full day tour of the Peninsula Valdes. First, we went on a whale watching boat trip to see the endangered southern right whale. We spotted a bunch of whales, most memorably a mother with her calf. Next, we drove around the island to see elephant seal conolonies, sea lions, a penguin colony, guanacos (a type of wild llama), armadillos and many other animals. The whole experience was absolutely incredible!
On Wednesday the ninth, I spent the morning swimming and napping on the beach, then in the afternoon hopped on another bus bound for Rio Gallegos. After another 20 hours of huge open spaces and mystical landscapes, I arrived in Rio Gallegos and 2 hours later got on another bus for 4 hours to Calafate.
El Calafate and El Chalten
El Calafate is a town in southern Patagonia right outside of the Glacier National Park. Upon arriving in Calafate, I tried to find a hostel. I had made reservations before because I wasn't sure what day I was going to be arriving. I couldn't find a single reservation for Thursday night, so for half price I reserved a bed in the common room of a hostel. I spent the afternoon hiking around the incredibly teal blue glacier lake (Lago Argentino), then went back to the hostel for an all-you-can eat barbeque. I hung out some other travelers from Germany and Holland and we watched the sunset from the hostel's enormous windows (at about 11:30, since its so far south in the summer there are only about 5 hours of dark per day).
Friday morning, I woke up early to go on my mini-trekking expedition on the Glacier Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is a giant glacier fed from the Southern Patagonia Icefield. It grows and shrinks every year. It's an amazing blue color and the water it's in is teal. First, our bus stopped at the boardwalks so we could explore around on our own. I watched huge chunks fall of the glacier (as it's summer, the glacier is receding). It is a really incredible sight and sounds like really loud thunder or some type of explosion. After the boardwalks, we road a boat up close to the glacier to get an even better view. On the other side of the lake, we strapped crampons on to our boots and walked across the glacier for a couple hours. It was really incredible- everything was jagged and blue and it almost felt like being on another planet. At the end of the trek, we had whiskey on glacier ice then road the boat to the bus and the bus back to El Calafate.
Friday evening, I met up with my friend Elise who had just flown down from Buenos Aires. We rented a car and set off on the 3 hour drive to El Chalten. It was the most beautiful road trip I've ever been on. We left at about 9:00 pm so we got to see the sun set. We stopped a few times along the way to see the view, and also got to drive a few hours along the famous Argentine Route 40. At about 1:00 AM (we got a little lost), we arrived at our hostel in El Chalten to sleep for a few hours before hiking.
El Chalten is the trekking capital of Argentina, and is at the base of some of the most amazing hikes in South America. We decided to go up to where we could better see the mountain Fitz Roy. The whole hike ended up being about 7 hours, complete with snow-capped mountains, enormous valleys, a mountain stream, a bright blue glacier and a waterfall. The Patagonian Andes are absolutely incredible! After the hike, we had another beautiful and memorable drive back to El Calafate. We spent the evening hanging out at the hostel with another group of travelers. It was an incredible way to finish my backpacking experience here in South America.
Sunday morning, I flew back to Buenos Aires. Since then, I've been living the tourist life here, trying to cram in everything I didn't get the chance to go when I still had to go to school. We went for a stroll along Puerto Madero, the Botanical Gardens, the beautiful parks of Palermo, an old theatre converted into a bookstore, and an outdoor drumming show. On the 21st I leave Buenos Aires and will be back in Colorado the morning of the 22nd. Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PATAGONIA PICTURES
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Thanksgiving and Help Argentina, Nov 23-Dec3
Hi! I hope you're all doing well. Lots of studying this week (just finished my last final today!), but also some fun too. Here's a little summary...
On Thursday, we had a Thanksgiving dinner here in my host mom Eli's apartment. Five of my American friends came over, as well as my Argentine "cousin" (Eli's nephew) Jonny, and Eli and her boyfriend Guillermo ate with us too. We cooked chickens (couldn't find turkey), stuffing, roasted vegetable, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. Delicious! Although I was sad not to be at home with family, we had a really great time!
Although I spent most of my time studying in preparation for my last week of school (2 oral final exams, both in Spanish!), the culinary fun continued for the whole weekend. As one of my American friends had a brother visiting, we went to La Cabrera, one of the best steak restaurants in town. We waiting for about 3 hours to get in, while drinking free champagne, and then ate a dinner of enormous, delicious steaks with lots of different little sides to put on the steaks. On Friday night, another friend had parents visiting, so we went to an Argentine-American fusion restaurant, which was also delicious. The transition back to eating the food I cook for for myself at Georgetown is not going to be easy!
My friend Sondi and I, who is also volunteering at the organization Help Argentina, decided to organize an end of the year fundraising event. We chose to give the money we raise to the organization Quilmena Deporte y Salud (Quilmena Sport and Health). Quilmena is an organization founded by Pedro Franco, an ex-nacional champion boxer from Argentina. After his boxing career was over, Pedro started a boxing gym in the back of his father's house in Quilmes, a very poor area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. His goal was to provide the boys and young men of the area with an alternative to the drugs and violence that are all to common on the streets of Quilmes. In the past 15 years, Pedro has expanded the boxing gym and started a food kitchen out of the same house. He's a really incredible man, and we spent the day on Friday in Quilmes helping in the food kitchen and watching the boxers training. Tonight, we have a happy hour at a local bar, and we hope to re-build the floor of the boxing ring with the money we raise.
This past Wednesday was my last day at Help Argentina. I had a really great time working there- learned a lot and really liked the people. I'll miss them all a lot!
This week was also my last week of classes. It was pretty stressful, because both of my exams this week were oral. My last test was today, and in true UBA fashion, they only let my partner and I give 2 minutes of a 20 minute presentation before telling us to stop and giving us a passing grade. Apparently a lot of groups had already given presentations on the same theme, and they were bored of listening to the same presentation over and over again. Overall, although UBA made my study abroad experience much more academically demanding then I expected it to be, I'm really glad I decided to take my two classes there. I learned a lot, met some really cool people and got a completely new perspective on university education.
I did, however, have one little problem this week. After stepping on the needle a couple of weeks ago, my foot never stopped hurting. I went to the ER the day after and they told me to wait a week and it would heal, but it never did. By the time I finally got an appointment with the podologist, it was two weeks after the initial incident. At the doctor, I was extremely surprised when they pulled about an inch of needle out of my foot. My foot feels way better now, and hopefully everything will be ok after they get the last little piece out tomorrow. This experience has taught me 2 things...1.) not to trust the Argentine ERs and 2.) i should probably live in a bubble for protection.
All in all, I'm extremely excited to be done with classes. I have a little less than three weeks left here in Argentina, and I'm very sad to be leaving but very excited to come home. If all goes well with the foot, I head down to Patagonia on Saturday to see penguins and glaciers, then Ill have about a week left in Buenos Aires to see everything I haven't seen yet.
Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PHOTOS FROM THE WEEK
On Thursday, we had a Thanksgiving dinner here in my host mom Eli's apartment. Five of my American friends came over, as well as my Argentine "cousin" (Eli's nephew) Jonny, and Eli and her boyfriend Guillermo ate with us too. We cooked chickens (couldn't find turkey), stuffing, roasted vegetable, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. Delicious! Although I was sad not to be at home with family, we had a really great time!
Although I spent most of my time studying in preparation for my last week of school (2 oral final exams, both in Spanish!), the culinary fun continued for the whole weekend. As one of my American friends had a brother visiting, we went to La Cabrera, one of the best steak restaurants in town. We waiting for about 3 hours to get in, while drinking free champagne, and then ate a dinner of enormous, delicious steaks with lots of different little sides to put on the steaks. On Friday night, another friend had parents visiting, so we went to an Argentine-American fusion restaurant, which was also delicious. The transition back to eating the food I cook for for myself at Georgetown is not going to be easy!
My friend Sondi and I, who is also volunteering at the organization Help Argentina, decided to organize an end of the year fundraising event. We chose to give the money we raise to the organization Quilmena Deporte y Salud (Quilmena Sport and Health). Quilmena is an organization founded by Pedro Franco, an ex-nacional champion boxer from Argentina. After his boxing career was over, Pedro started a boxing gym in the back of his father's house in Quilmes, a very poor area on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. His goal was to provide the boys and young men of the area with an alternative to the drugs and violence that are all to common on the streets of Quilmes. In the past 15 years, Pedro has expanded the boxing gym and started a food kitchen out of the same house. He's a really incredible man, and we spent the day on Friday in Quilmes helping in the food kitchen and watching the boxers training. Tonight, we have a happy hour at a local bar, and we hope to re-build the floor of the boxing ring with the money we raise.
This past Wednesday was my last day at Help Argentina. I had a really great time working there- learned a lot and really liked the people. I'll miss them all a lot!
This week was also my last week of classes. It was pretty stressful, because both of my exams this week were oral. My last test was today, and in true UBA fashion, they only let my partner and I give 2 minutes of a 20 minute presentation before telling us to stop and giving us a passing grade. Apparently a lot of groups had already given presentations on the same theme, and they were bored of listening to the same presentation over and over again. Overall, although UBA made my study abroad experience much more academically demanding then I expected it to be, I'm really glad I decided to take my two classes there. I learned a lot, met some really cool people and got a completely new perspective on university education.
I did, however, have one little problem this week. After stepping on the needle a couple of weeks ago, my foot never stopped hurting. I went to the ER the day after and they told me to wait a week and it would heal, but it never did. By the time I finally got an appointment with the podologist, it was two weeks after the initial incident. At the doctor, I was extremely surprised when they pulled about an inch of needle out of my foot. My foot feels way better now, and hopefully everything will be ok after they get the last little piece out tomorrow. This experience has taught me 2 things...1.) not to trust the Argentine ERs and 2.) i should probably live in a bubble for protection.
All in all, I'm extremely excited to be done with classes. I have a little less than three weeks left here in Argentina, and I'm very sad to be leaving but very excited to come home. If all goes well with the foot, I head down to Patagonia on Saturday to see penguins and glaciers, then Ill have about a week left in Buenos Aires to see everything I haven't seen yet.
Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PHOTOS FROM THE WEEK
Saturday, November 21, 2009
November 11-21, Soccer Tournament and Game and Brazilian Party
Hi all!
It's been a great week! Pretty consumed by homework, as I will continue to be until I finish December 3rd. I do manage to still have some fun on the weekends, though. Here it goes...
Friday we went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant (not the best of the cuisine of Buenos Aires, but still a welcome break from steak and wine) and saw the movie Abrazos Rotos with Penelope Cruz.
Last Saturday, one of the small private universities in the suburbs of Buenos Aires hosted a soccer tournament and invited teams from all the exchange student programs. Our program sent a teams to the boys' and girls' divisions. However, when we got there we discovered that the 3 other girls' teams had all canceled. Instead of sitting out, the girls' team decided to play in the boys' division. It was really fun, and though we only won one game, we played them all pretty close and the Argentine guys were very surprised to see girls who could actually play sports. A very fun day.
Saturday night was Mueseum Night in Buenos Aires. From 8 pm until 2 in the morning, the government sponsors an event where all the museums in the city are open for free to the general public. They supply maps, guides and free bus tokens. We planned to see a few of the most popular museums in the city, but drastically underestimated the popularity of the event. the line for the MALBA (one of the most popular art museums) stretched around an entire city block. We instead ended up going to the Metropolitan Museum, which had some modern art and a piano concert, and the Planetarium, which had it's telescopes open for public use (we never got to use them due to line problems). For me, the best part of the event was how many diverse people were out in the city that night. Everyone was wandering around, maps out, looking for the best museums and the best ways to get there.
On Sunday, I went to my first Argentine-league soccer game. Although I already went to the Argentina-Peru game, I wanted to go to a league game because they're a more typical part of the Buenos Aires culture. We went to a River game, which is one of the two most popular teams in Buenos Aires. The two groups of fans were separated by an empty sections of seats so that they couldn't throw anything at each other. There were police men in riot gear everywhere, and the players had to enter the field through giant tubes so that no one could hit them with flying objects. The game was very fun, the two groups of fans sing songs back and forth at each other the whole game. River won 3-1 after scoring 3 goals in ten minutes in the second half. By the third goal, the whole River side was absolute chaos. 4 little boys sitting in front of us spent the entire game singing, jumping, and spinning their shirts around their heads (pretty adorable). After the game, no River fans could leave until they cleared the entire other side to prevent fights between the two groups.
One slightly less fun experience... on Wednesday night, I stepped on an unidentified object in my bedroom and got a pretty deep puncture wound in my foot. We never found what I stepped on, and I'm still hoping it's not floating around somewhere in my foot.... My host parents took me to a hospital to get it checked out and get a tetnus shot. Although the situation wasn't ideal, it was very interesting to see how another health care system works. There was lots of waiting involved, and we actually had to walk around the block to the pharmacy, buy the medicine and then come back so a nurse could give me the shot. I've been hobbling around the house since, getting a little frustrated that I can't go out and do all the things I want to do. I'm hoping it heals up soon...
My host mom's boyfriend has a friend who organizes parties, and he got me two tickets for a party with the Brazilian on a boat in the Rio de Plata. I went with my friend Rob, and it was very fun. The boat was full of dignitaries from all different embassies in Buenos Aires. They had a famous Brazilian women sing, and everyone was dancing. Very fun.
School's trucking along. My host family is great, and I still absolutely love the city. I'm trying to start planning a potential trip for the couple weeks between when I finish and when I leave to go home. It feels like I just got here even though I only have less than a month less!
Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PHOTOS FROM SOCCER STUFF AND NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
It's been a great week! Pretty consumed by homework, as I will continue to be until I finish December 3rd. I do manage to still have some fun on the weekends, though. Here it goes...
Friday we went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant (not the best of the cuisine of Buenos Aires, but still a welcome break from steak and wine) and saw the movie Abrazos Rotos with Penelope Cruz.
Last Saturday, one of the small private universities in the suburbs of Buenos Aires hosted a soccer tournament and invited teams from all the exchange student programs. Our program sent a teams to the boys' and girls' divisions. However, when we got there we discovered that the 3 other girls' teams had all canceled. Instead of sitting out, the girls' team decided to play in the boys' division. It was really fun, and though we only won one game, we played them all pretty close and the Argentine guys were very surprised to see girls who could actually play sports. A very fun day.
Saturday night was Mueseum Night in Buenos Aires. From 8 pm until 2 in the morning, the government sponsors an event where all the museums in the city are open for free to the general public. They supply maps, guides and free bus tokens. We planned to see a few of the most popular museums in the city, but drastically underestimated the popularity of the event. the line for the MALBA (one of the most popular art museums) stretched around an entire city block. We instead ended up going to the Metropolitan Museum, which had some modern art and a piano concert, and the Planetarium, which had it's telescopes open for public use (we never got to use them due to line problems). For me, the best part of the event was how many diverse people were out in the city that night. Everyone was wandering around, maps out, looking for the best museums and the best ways to get there.
On Sunday, I went to my first Argentine-league soccer game. Although I already went to the Argentina-Peru game, I wanted to go to a league game because they're a more typical part of the Buenos Aires culture. We went to a River game, which is one of the two most popular teams in Buenos Aires. The two groups of fans were separated by an empty sections of seats so that they couldn't throw anything at each other. There were police men in riot gear everywhere, and the players had to enter the field through giant tubes so that no one could hit them with flying objects. The game was very fun, the two groups of fans sing songs back and forth at each other the whole game. River won 3-1 after scoring 3 goals in ten minutes in the second half. By the third goal, the whole River side was absolute chaos. 4 little boys sitting in front of us spent the entire game singing, jumping, and spinning their shirts around their heads (pretty adorable). After the game, no River fans could leave until they cleared the entire other side to prevent fights between the two groups.
One slightly less fun experience... on Wednesday night, I stepped on an unidentified object in my bedroom and got a pretty deep puncture wound in my foot. We never found what I stepped on, and I'm still hoping it's not floating around somewhere in my foot.... My host parents took me to a hospital to get it checked out and get a tetnus shot. Although the situation wasn't ideal, it was very interesting to see how another health care system works. There was lots of waiting involved, and we actually had to walk around the block to the pharmacy, buy the medicine and then come back so a nurse could give me the shot. I've been hobbling around the house since, getting a little frustrated that I can't go out and do all the things I want to do. I'm hoping it heals up soon...
My host mom's boyfriend has a friend who organizes parties, and he got me two tickets for a party with the Brazilian on a boat in the Rio de Plata. I went with my friend Rob, and it was very fun. The boat was full of dignitaries from all different embassies in Buenos Aires. They had a famous Brazilian women sing, and everyone was dancing. Very fun.
School's trucking along. My host family is great, and I still absolutely love the city. I'm trying to start planning a potential trip for the couple weeks between when I finish and when I leave to go home. It feels like I just got here even though I only have less than a month less!
Hope you're all well!
Love, Melanie
PHOTOS FROM SOCCER STUFF AND NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Uruguayan Adventures
Hello!
I just got back this morning and can't yet force myself to confront the looming pile of homework, so I decided to update the blog as a relatively useful way of procrastinating. I went on a four-day trip to Uruguay this weekend, had a really incredible time and became somewhat of a lighthouse consieur. It was really relaxing to get away from the hubub of Buenos Aires one last time before super crunch time in November. Here's a summary...
We (my friend Carolyn and I) left Thursday in the middle of the night on a ferry headed across the Rio de Plata for the city of Colonia in Uruguay. Colonia is an old city the Portuguese built in the 18th century to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. It has a really beautiful and well-preserved old quarter that was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We got there at about 3:30 in the morning, spent the rest of the night in a hostel and then ate some fruit and bread on the beach for breakfast after getting a few hours of sleep. We spent the day wandering around the old quarter. We went to a bunch of old museums with old Portuguese art and artifacts. My favorite exhibit was of a lot of the old maps of how they used to think the world looked. We saw some really pretty old buildings, churches and the old wharf. We also climbed up the lighthouse to get a better view of the city. My favorite was a street called the "Street of Sighs," which is a street with the original Portuguese cobbling and beautiful red and yellow buildings, and a nice view of the water. After a nice nap, we cooked at the hostel for dinner then went to a cool bar called the Drugstore for some wine a live guitar music.
Friday morning, we caught an early bus from Colonia to Montevideo (Uruguay's capital). In Montevideo, we spent the day exploring around the part of the city called Ciudad Vieja (old city). First, we went to the Mercado del Puerto, a really pretty old building that holds a lot of parilla restaurants (barbeque). We were lucky to be there on Saturday, the most popular time of week for the Mercado, and we sat at the bar and watched them grill our meat (delicious). Then, we walked along the waterfront to the Plaza Independencia (main square of Ciudad Vieja). From there, we saw the presidential residence, some cool old buildings, palaces, museums and a cathedral. We wandered through a flea market in a plaza and found lots of cool old books. After another quick little nap, we watched the sunset into the water from the wharf. We went to dinner and to watch a band at an Irish Bar with a few guys we met from the hostel (although we were looking for something a bit more authentic, the woman at the hostel assured us that the Irish Bar was the best place to go). We slept as much as we could, considering that we were sharing our hostel (and our door room) with a Brazilian rugby team.
Early Sunday morning, Carolyn caught a bus back to Buenos Aires and I continued on up to the coast to a little beach town called La Paloma. The bus ride was really beautiful, the Uruguayan countryside is very green and full of cows. Gauchos kept climbing on the bus along the way. La Paloma is on a point on the eastern shore of Uruguay. As it's still late spring/early summer here, there weren't alot of turists in La Paloma so it was really peaceful. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so after checking into a hostel, I took a little nap in the sun on the beach. Then I took a little walk down the point to the lighthouse (biggest in Uruguay). I climbed up the lighthouse for a really pretty view of the point and the Atlantic Ocean. As the lighthouse is on the tip of the point, the Atlantic surrounds it on 3 sides. After the lighthouse, I found a spot on the rocks with the waves crashing and read for a while. In the evening, I grabbed some dinner and watched an absolutely incredible sunset from the beach.
Monday morning, I caught a 5:45 bus from La Paloma to Cabo Polonio. Although I was pretty tired, it was cool to watch the sunrise from the bus. Cabo Polonio is a little town nestled between sand dunes and an enormous seal colony, accessible only by foot or a 4x4 truck ride. I caught the first truck at 7:30 and went on a rough but very beautiful ride across the dunes to Cabo. Cabo was even smaller than I expected, consisting of nothing more than a collection of little houses, shops and shacks to get food. There is definitely a very hippy attitude- the town doesn't have running water (because it would be too difficult to lay pipes) or power (because the residents prefer not to have electricity). I scrambled across the rock beach to the seal colony, where I watched the seals swim, sleep, snuggle, and fight for a while. I was the only person there and it was really cool to be there with just me and the seals. Next, I climbed up lighthouse #3. At the top, I met a young Uruguayan navy guy painting the lighthouse. He took a break to teach me about the seals, explain the lack of whales (unfortunately I missed them by a few weeks), and the history of the town. He also showed me how to light the lighthouse. Next, I walked through the town and then along the beach to the dunes (accompanied by a very friendly local dog). The dunes were beautiful, but with the wind the sand really hurt my skin so I didn't stay for long. I hung out on the beach for while, then got fish for lunch at a little shack and hung out with a women selling bracelets and sandles. Finally, I caught the 4x4 truck down to the road for the trip back to Buenos Aires. Although I loved all the places I visited, something about Cabo Polonio was extra special and I hope to return someday.
After a long series of bus and ferry rides, I got back to Buenos Aires at about 8 am this morning. I plan to spend the next couple of weeks trying to somehow get all my work done, then travel in Patagonia for two weeks before one final week here in Buenos Aires. I can't believe I'm leaving so soon- it still seems like I just got here. I've avoided picking up the ever-present smoking but gotten hooked on drinking mate, and although I'm looking forward to getting home will definitely miss the city a lot.
Hope you're all well! All my love, Melanie
PICTURES FROM TRIP TO URUGUAY
I just got back this morning and can't yet force myself to confront the looming pile of homework, so I decided to update the blog as a relatively useful way of procrastinating. I went on a four-day trip to Uruguay this weekend, had a really incredible time and became somewhat of a lighthouse consieur. It was really relaxing to get away from the hubub of Buenos Aires one last time before super crunch time in November. Here's a summary...
We (my friend Carolyn and I) left Thursday in the middle of the night on a ferry headed across the Rio de Plata for the city of Colonia in Uruguay. Colonia is an old city the Portuguese built in the 18th century to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. It has a really beautiful and well-preserved old quarter that was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We got there at about 3:30 in the morning, spent the rest of the night in a hostel and then ate some fruit and bread on the beach for breakfast after getting a few hours of sleep. We spent the day wandering around the old quarter. We went to a bunch of old museums with old Portuguese art and artifacts. My favorite exhibit was of a lot of the old maps of how they used to think the world looked. We saw some really pretty old buildings, churches and the old wharf. We also climbed up the lighthouse to get a better view of the city. My favorite was a street called the "Street of Sighs," which is a street with the original Portuguese cobbling and beautiful red and yellow buildings, and a nice view of the water. After a nice nap, we cooked at the hostel for dinner then went to a cool bar called the Drugstore for some wine a live guitar music.
Friday morning, we caught an early bus from Colonia to Montevideo (Uruguay's capital). In Montevideo, we spent the day exploring around the part of the city called Ciudad Vieja (old city). First, we went to the Mercado del Puerto, a really pretty old building that holds a lot of parilla restaurants (barbeque). We were lucky to be there on Saturday, the most popular time of week for the Mercado, and we sat at the bar and watched them grill our meat (delicious). Then, we walked along the waterfront to the Plaza Independencia (main square of Ciudad Vieja). From there, we saw the presidential residence, some cool old buildings, palaces, museums and a cathedral. We wandered through a flea market in a plaza and found lots of cool old books. After another quick little nap, we watched the sunset into the water from the wharf. We went to dinner and to watch a band at an Irish Bar with a few guys we met from the hostel (although we were looking for something a bit more authentic, the woman at the hostel assured us that the Irish Bar was the best place to go). We slept as much as we could, considering that we were sharing our hostel (and our door room) with a Brazilian rugby team.
Early Sunday morning, Carolyn caught a bus back to Buenos Aires and I continued on up to the coast to a little beach town called La Paloma. The bus ride was really beautiful, the Uruguayan countryside is very green and full of cows. Gauchos kept climbing on the bus along the way. La Paloma is on a point on the eastern shore of Uruguay. As it's still late spring/early summer here, there weren't alot of turists in La Paloma so it was really peaceful. The weather was absolutely beautiful, so after checking into a hostel, I took a little nap in the sun on the beach. Then I took a little walk down the point to the lighthouse (biggest in Uruguay). I climbed up the lighthouse for a really pretty view of the point and the Atlantic Ocean. As the lighthouse is on the tip of the point, the Atlantic surrounds it on 3 sides. After the lighthouse, I found a spot on the rocks with the waves crashing and read for a while. In the evening, I grabbed some dinner and watched an absolutely incredible sunset from the beach.
Monday morning, I caught a 5:45 bus from La Paloma to Cabo Polonio. Although I was pretty tired, it was cool to watch the sunrise from the bus. Cabo Polonio is a little town nestled between sand dunes and an enormous seal colony, accessible only by foot or a 4x4 truck ride. I caught the first truck at 7:30 and went on a rough but very beautiful ride across the dunes to Cabo. Cabo was even smaller than I expected, consisting of nothing more than a collection of little houses, shops and shacks to get food. There is definitely a very hippy attitude- the town doesn't have running water (because it would be too difficult to lay pipes) or power (because the residents prefer not to have electricity). I scrambled across the rock beach to the seal colony, where I watched the seals swim, sleep, snuggle, and fight for a while. I was the only person there and it was really cool to be there with just me and the seals. Next, I climbed up lighthouse #3. At the top, I met a young Uruguayan navy guy painting the lighthouse. He took a break to teach me about the seals, explain the lack of whales (unfortunately I missed them by a few weeks), and the history of the town. He also showed me how to light the lighthouse. Next, I walked through the town and then along the beach to the dunes (accompanied by a very friendly local dog). The dunes were beautiful, but with the wind the sand really hurt my skin so I didn't stay for long. I hung out on the beach for while, then got fish for lunch at a little shack and hung out with a women selling bracelets and sandles. Finally, I caught the 4x4 truck down to the road for the trip back to Buenos Aires. Although I loved all the places I visited, something about Cabo Polonio was extra special and I hope to return someday.
After a long series of bus and ferry rides, I got back to Buenos Aires at about 8 am this morning. I plan to spend the next couple of weeks trying to somehow get all my work done, then travel in Patagonia for two weeks before one final week here in Buenos Aires. I can't believe I'm leaving so soon- it still seems like I just got here. I've avoided picking up the ever-present smoking but gotten hooked on drinking mate, and although I'm looking forward to getting home will definitely miss the city a lot.
Hope you're all well! All my love, Melanie
PICTURES FROM TRIP TO URUGUAY
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Madres del Plazo Mayo and Halloween, Oct 29- Nov 5
Hello! It's been a great week in Buenos Aires. Not super eventfull due to the 12-page research paper (in Spanish) I had to turn in on Tuesday, but still did some cool stuff...
On Thursday, I went to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the Madres del Plaza Mayo march. It was a beautiful but very hot and humid day. I grabbed a sandwich and found a spot on the grass near the Casa Rosada to watch. The Madres started marching in the 1970s in protest of the military dictatorship. They were formed as a group of mothers of disappeared people and wore white hankerchiefs and carried signs as they marched. They continue to march today in rememberance, as part of their support for the tribunals against the military leaders that are still going on, and in a more general support of human rights in Argentina. There were two groups... one was the larger original Madres del Plaza Mayo, and the other was the smaller splinter group Madres del Plaza Mayo Linea Fundadora (they split in the 80s over political differences). The women marched slowly through the heat, helping each other out with umbrellas to block the sun and engaging in lively discussion. Many held photos of their disappeared children, brothers and sisters. The whole experience was extremely moving.
This past Saturday was Halloween, an event that still hasn't quite caught on here yet. We went and got costumes at a little shop that was filled almost exclusively with Americans. I dressed as Cleopatra. We had a little party and watched the World Series in costume and then went out to a Halloween party at a club. It was a very fun and throughly un-Argentine experience.
Now that I have my camera back, I`m on a mission to take pictures of the inside of the UBA. It's a little intimidating... I don't think the students would love for an American to come in and take pictures of all their Che pictures, so I try to sneak my camera out whenever I happen to be in a hallway by myself. Look for random pictures over the next couple of weeks.
It's seems like the time has flown by, and I only have about a month and a half left here in Argentina. Classes all finish the first week of December, so life is about to get very hectic. Within the next month I have a test on service learning, a final paper on Argentine fiction, a final portfolio of my volunteering at Help Argentina, a research paper on water privitazation in Bolivia in Argentina, and an oral presentation on the history of Cuba, Bolivia and Chile (all in Spanish). Also, there are a ton of things I`m still hoping to do in Buenos Aires. I've loved the city the whole time I've been here, but the spring (southern hemisphere is opposite seasons) here is really incredible. I'm taking a little trip to the Uruguayan beaches this weekend as a final hurrah before school gets super tough. I'm also planning to spend a couple weeks in Patagonia in December between the end of school and my flight home on Dec 21. I'll try to keep posting pictures though!
Hope you`re all very well and would love any news of how you're all doing!
Love, Melanie
MADRES, etc.
On Thursday, I went to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the Madres del Plaza Mayo march. It was a beautiful but very hot and humid day. I grabbed a sandwich and found a spot on the grass near the Casa Rosada to watch. The Madres started marching in the 1970s in protest of the military dictatorship. They were formed as a group of mothers of disappeared people and wore white hankerchiefs and carried signs as they marched. They continue to march today in rememberance, as part of their support for the tribunals against the military leaders that are still going on, and in a more general support of human rights in Argentina. There were two groups... one was the larger original Madres del Plaza Mayo, and the other was the smaller splinter group Madres del Plaza Mayo Linea Fundadora (they split in the 80s over political differences). The women marched slowly through the heat, helping each other out with umbrellas to block the sun and engaging in lively discussion. Many held photos of their disappeared children, brothers and sisters. The whole experience was extremely moving.
This past Saturday was Halloween, an event that still hasn't quite caught on here yet. We went and got costumes at a little shop that was filled almost exclusively with Americans. I dressed as Cleopatra. We had a little party and watched the World Series in costume and then went out to a Halloween party at a club. It was a very fun and throughly un-Argentine experience.
Now that I have my camera back, I`m on a mission to take pictures of the inside of the UBA. It's a little intimidating... I don't think the students would love for an American to come in and take pictures of all their Che pictures, so I try to sneak my camera out whenever I happen to be in a hallway by myself. Look for random pictures over the next couple of weeks.
It's seems like the time has flown by, and I only have about a month and a half left here in Argentina. Classes all finish the first week of December, so life is about to get very hectic. Within the next month I have a test on service learning, a final paper on Argentine fiction, a final portfolio of my volunteering at Help Argentina, a research paper on water privitazation in Bolivia in Argentina, and an oral presentation on the history of Cuba, Bolivia and Chile (all in Spanish). Also, there are a ton of things I`m still hoping to do in Buenos Aires. I've loved the city the whole time I've been here, but the spring (southern hemisphere is opposite seasons) here is really incredible. I'm taking a little trip to the Uruguayan beaches this weekend as a final hurrah before school gets super tough. I'm also planning to spend a couple weeks in Patagonia in December between the end of school and my flight home on Dec 21. I'll try to keep posting pictures though!
Hope you`re all very well and would love any news of how you're all doing!
Love, Melanie
MADRES, etc.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Catch-up from Buenos Aires (until October 28)
Hi!
I kind of lost motivation with my blog after my camera broke. However, my new camera just arrived yesterday and seems to be a perfect excuse to start back up (hopefully weekly again). I'll try to give a quick summary of what I've been up to this last month or so...
School's been going well. I'm really interested in both of my UBA classes. In politics, we did separate two hour reviews of the current political situations in almost ever South American country, which was extremely interesting. In history, we learned about the Mexican Revolution, Brazil under Vargas and now we've moved on to Bolivia and Cuba. A lot of the class discussions (especially in politics) get very heated, and it's really cool to see how a whole different groups of students conceptualize all these political and historical issues. I just finished my first round of midterms, which were pretty intimidating (all in Spanish), but I think I did alright. Overall, I'm not only learning new information but also learning a new way to think about it all.
Volunteer work at Help Argentina has also been going very well. I just finished up a step by step guide so that the member organizations can create their own fundraising home pages on the Help Argentina website. More importantly, I really like the people that I work with. We eat lunch for about an hour everyday, read each other's horoscopes and chat. It's only the Argentines, however, who take part in this lunch break. The two Americans in their office sit at their desks and eat while they work. Overall, it's been a very interesting way to compare the American and Argentine work styles.
Everything is still going great with my host family. We hang out and drink mate and eat beef together almost every night. They recently cooked me rabbit, which was a little bit sad but absolutely delicious. One study snack they brough me during finals was cocktail shrimp and champagne (a little unexpected and not exactly conducive to me getting work done). Last weekend, we had a barbeque in a park in a pretty area of the city called Belgrano. My host mom is a wonderful friendly person and I`m extremely lucky to be living with her.
One of the most fun things I've done over the past month or so was to go to the Argentina vs. Peru World Cup qualifying soccer game. Argentina had to win this game to keep a chance of qualifying, so it was a pretty big deal here. We decided to try to go to the game the morning of, so we looked on line and found a place we could get the tickets for super cheap. We bought a bunch of Argentine soccer gear and snacks in front of the stadium, and in we went. The stadium was utter madness. It was packed, and everyone was jumping and screaming songs the whole game. The first half was relatively mellow, but and Argentina scored in the beginning of the second half and the stadium errupted. Shortly after the first goal, a torrential downpour (complete with lighting and thuner) started. The game, however, would go on. Although we could hardly see what was going on because of the rain, with about 30 seconds left in regulation Peru scored to tie it up. The stadium was super tense, and 3 minutes into stoppage time Argentina scored again to win with about 30 seconds left in the game. The crowd turned into a bouncing, screaming mob of people and Argentina's coach Maradonna did a belly slide across the muddy field. Possibly the best single sports moment I`ve ever witnessed. A few days later, I went to a bar to watch Argentina beat Uruguay to officially qualify for the World Cup.
Another fun thing I did was to go to the Recoleta Fair. It's an open market in a really pretty part of the city, where various artesans and food vendors gather every weekend. I wandered around, bought a bunch of Christmas presents, listened to some guitar and drumming music, and saw the beautiful metal flower near the fair. I also went to an architecture exhibit at a near-by cultural center.
One of our Argentine friends took us to a corporate party for the 20th birthday of a company called Radio Argentina (basically like Radio Shack). It was a very formal affair, and we were all very underdressed. We danced with a bunch of corporate guys in suites and listened to the popular Argentine band they had brought in for the night. The party was in a really fancy room of a place called La Rural, which we never would have had access to otherwise, and that was fun to see too.
Last weekend, we finally went to the Japanese Gardens, which is the biggest Japanese gardens outside of Japan. It was beautiful (first place I went with my new camera) and very relaxing. Spring has just started in earnest here, and it's beautiful weather for walking around the city's many wonderful parks.
I`m having a really incredible time here in Buenos Aires, even though midterms have kept me inside a little more than I might prefer. I`ll try to do a better job with blogs and pictures. I hope you`re all very well!
Love, Melanie
JAPANESE GARDEN PICTURES
I kind of lost motivation with my blog after my camera broke. However, my new camera just arrived yesterday and seems to be a perfect excuse to start back up (hopefully weekly again). I'll try to give a quick summary of what I've been up to this last month or so...
School's been going well. I'm really interested in both of my UBA classes. In politics, we did separate two hour reviews of the current political situations in almost ever South American country, which was extremely interesting. In history, we learned about the Mexican Revolution, Brazil under Vargas and now we've moved on to Bolivia and Cuba. A lot of the class discussions (especially in politics) get very heated, and it's really cool to see how a whole different groups of students conceptualize all these political and historical issues. I just finished my first round of midterms, which were pretty intimidating (all in Spanish), but I think I did alright. Overall, I'm not only learning new information but also learning a new way to think about it all.
Volunteer work at Help Argentina has also been going very well. I just finished up a step by step guide so that the member organizations can create their own fundraising home pages on the Help Argentina website. More importantly, I really like the people that I work with. We eat lunch for about an hour everyday, read each other's horoscopes and chat. It's only the Argentines, however, who take part in this lunch break. The two Americans in their office sit at their desks and eat while they work. Overall, it's been a very interesting way to compare the American and Argentine work styles.
Everything is still going great with my host family. We hang out and drink mate and eat beef together almost every night. They recently cooked me rabbit, which was a little bit sad but absolutely delicious. One study snack they brough me during finals was cocktail shrimp and champagne (a little unexpected and not exactly conducive to me getting work done). Last weekend, we had a barbeque in a park in a pretty area of the city called Belgrano. My host mom is a wonderful friendly person and I`m extremely lucky to be living with her.
One of the most fun things I've done over the past month or so was to go to the Argentina vs. Peru World Cup qualifying soccer game. Argentina had to win this game to keep a chance of qualifying, so it was a pretty big deal here. We decided to try to go to the game the morning of, so we looked on line and found a place we could get the tickets for super cheap. We bought a bunch of Argentine soccer gear and snacks in front of the stadium, and in we went. The stadium was utter madness. It was packed, and everyone was jumping and screaming songs the whole game. The first half was relatively mellow, but and Argentina scored in the beginning of the second half and the stadium errupted. Shortly after the first goal, a torrential downpour (complete with lighting and thuner) started. The game, however, would go on. Although we could hardly see what was going on because of the rain, with about 30 seconds left in regulation Peru scored to tie it up. The stadium was super tense, and 3 minutes into stoppage time Argentina scored again to win with about 30 seconds left in the game. The crowd turned into a bouncing, screaming mob of people and Argentina's coach Maradonna did a belly slide across the muddy field. Possibly the best single sports moment I`ve ever witnessed. A few days later, I went to a bar to watch Argentina beat Uruguay to officially qualify for the World Cup.
Another fun thing I did was to go to the Recoleta Fair. It's an open market in a really pretty part of the city, where various artesans and food vendors gather every weekend. I wandered around, bought a bunch of Christmas presents, listened to some guitar and drumming music, and saw the beautiful metal flower near the fair. I also went to an architecture exhibit at a near-by cultural center.
One of our Argentine friends took us to a corporate party for the 20th birthday of a company called Radio Argentina (basically like Radio Shack). It was a very formal affair, and we were all very underdressed. We danced with a bunch of corporate guys in suites and listened to the popular Argentine band they had brought in for the night. The party was in a really fancy room of a place called La Rural, which we never would have had access to otherwise, and that was fun to see too.
Last weekend, we finally went to the Japanese Gardens, which is the biggest Japanese gardens outside of Japan. It was beautiful (first place I went with my new camera) and very relaxing. Spring has just started in earnest here, and it's beautiful weather for walking around the city's many wonderful parks.
I`m having a really incredible time here in Buenos Aires, even though midterms have kept me inside a little more than I might prefer. I`ll try to do a better job with blogs and pictures. I hope you`re all very well!
Love, Melanie
JAPANESE GARDEN PICTURES
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Mendoza and Jujuy (September 11-19)
Hi! Hope you've all been well! Due to the schedules of a traveling friends and the program that I'm here in Buenos Aires through, I had two back-to-back trips over the past couple of weeks. Here's a few highlights...
MENDOZA
Mendoza is a beautiful city at the base of the Andes mountains in western Argentina very close to the border with Chile. With a friend (Josh) I met while traveling in Peru, I took an overnight bus to Mendoza on Thursday.
The first thing we did was to bus up to a little town called Puente del Inca. Puente del Inca is up in the Andes mountains about 4 kilometers from Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. We didn't do a whole lot of advance planning/research, and were a bit surprised when it was still very snowy and cold up in Puente del Inca. However, it was sunny and warm during the days and we had an awesome time. We stayed in a little hostel in Puente del Inca and from there spent a day hiking around the area around Aconcagua. It was incredibly beautiful.
After a day in Puente del Inca, we took the bus back down to Mendoza and spent a day exploring the city. Mendoza is much smaller and calmer than Buenos Aires. We ate lunch in a cafe, visited the city's main plazas, and then went to the Park of San Martin. The park is enormous, complete with a rose garden, lake, zoo, and observatory tower. As we were there on a Sunday, it seemed like the entire city was in the park playing soccer, drinking an Argentine tea called mate, and picnicking. It was a beautiful spot and a nice change of pace from the rather more hectic atmosphere in Buenos Aires.
On Monday, we bused out to a little town called Maipu for a wine tour. The Mendoza region produces about 80% of Argentina's wine and is very well known for its wineries. We rented bikes and rode from vineyard to vineyard, stopping for tastings and tours. On one side of the road were the Andes mountains and on the other side were the vineyards- it was really breathtaking and the views made it hard to concentrate on the bike riding. We finished the day with a tour of a fancy chocolate-maker's store, then went back into Mendoza to catch our bus to Buenos Aires.
Mendoza Pictures
JUJUY
I spent Tuesday going to class and desperately trying to organize my life before leaving for Jujuy, and then went to a jazz club for a show as it was Josh's last night in Buenos Aires. On Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after getting back from Mendoza, I flew to Jujuy with about 60 other students and coordinators from my program. One bad part- my camera/traveling companion (which must be at least 7 or 8 years old by now) finally stopped working on this trip, so there are no pictures (I took a few before it broke but I can't get them off the card for now- hopefully I will be able to later).
Jujuy is a province in the northwest of Argentine close to the borders with Chile and Bolivia. It is famous for it's incredibly colored canyons (kind of similar looking to places like the Grand Canyon in Colorado). We stayed in a charming little hotel, where every group of three of us got a little cabin to stay in. It was a welcome change from the value dorms (dorm rooms with 10-15 people in bunkbeds) that we stayed in in Mendoza. We ate a lot of delicious steak dinners (the program trips are all expenses paid) and had a lot of time to relax.
On Thursday, we went to a place called Pucara, which is both the ruins of a pre-Incan city and an excellent viewpoint to see some of the coolest parts of the canyons (the area is called the Quebrada de Humahuaca). We spent the afternoon exploring the near-by city/town of Humahuaca.
On Friday we went to the Salinas Grandes- an enormous salt flat up in the middle of the Andes. It was really cool to see-the whole thing is very large, very flat and very white. The native people have a whole production system set up to extract and sell the salt. In the afternoon, we went back to Pucara to hike through the Canyon of 7 Colors. We were there around dusk, and the lighting and the scenery were absolutely incredible. The colors ranged from a creamy beige to bright orange to dark red. It was a very fun way to finish off the trip.
Saturday morning, we left to fly back to Buenos Aires. I've spent today trying to catch up on my homework- it's a pretty daunting task, but all the traveling was definitely worth it. Both trips were incredible and I feel like I wouldn't have the chance to see everything I want to see in Argentina even if I were traveling here for a year. However, it's great to be back in the city- it's really starting to feel more like a home.
All my love, Melanie
MENDOZA
Mendoza is a beautiful city at the base of the Andes mountains in western Argentina very close to the border with Chile. With a friend (Josh) I met while traveling in Peru, I took an overnight bus to Mendoza on Thursday.
The first thing we did was to bus up to a little town called Puente del Inca. Puente del Inca is up in the Andes mountains about 4 kilometers from Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. We didn't do a whole lot of advance planning/research, and were a bit surprised when it was still very snowy and cold up in Puente del Inca. However, it was sunny and warm during the days and we had an awesome time. We stayed in a little hostel in Puente del Inca and from there spent a day hiking around the area around Aconcagua. It was incredibly beautiful.
After a day in Puente del Inca, we took the bus back down to Mendoza and spent a day exploring the city. Mendoza is much smaller and calmer than Buenos Aires. We ate lunch in a cafe, visited the city's main plazas, and then went to the Park of San Martin. The park is enormous, complete with a rose garden, lake, zoo, and observatory tower. As we were there on a Sunday, it seemed like the entire city was in the park playing soccer, drinking an Argentine tea called mate, and picnicking. It was a beautiful spot and a nice change of pace from the rather more hectic atmosphere in Buenos Aires.
On Monday, we bused out to a little town called Maipu for a wine tour. The Mendoza region produces about 80% of Argentina's wine and is very well known for its wineries. We rented bikes and rode from vineyard to vineyard, stopping for tastings and tours. On one side of the road were the Andes mountains and on the other side were the vineyards- it was really breathtaking and the views made it hard to concentrate on the bike riding. We finished the day with a tour of a fancy chocolate-maker's store, then went back into Mendoza to catch our bus to Buenos Aires.
Mendoza Pictures
JUJUY
I spent Tuesday going to class and desperately trying to organize my life before leaving for Jujuy, and then went to a jazz club for a show as it was Josh's last night in Buenos Aires. On Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after getting back from Mendoza, I flew to Jujuy with about 60 other students and coordinators from my program. One bad part- my camera/traveling companion (which must be at least 7 or 8 years old by now) finally stopped working on this trip, so there are no pictures (I took a few before it broke but I can't get them off the card for now- hopefully I will be able to later).
Jujuy is a province in the northwest of Argentine close to the borders with Chile and Bolivia. It is famous for it's incredibly colored canyons (kind of similar looking to places like the Grand Canyon in Colorado). We stayed in a charming little hotel, where every group of three of us got a little cabin to stay in. It was a welcome change from the value dorms (dorm rooms with 10-15 people in bunkbeds) that we stayed in in Mendoza. We ate a lot of delicious steak dinners (the program trips are all expenses paid) and had a lot of time to relax.
On Thursday, we went to a place called Pucara, which is both the ruins of a pre-Incan city and an excellent viewpoint to see some of the coolest parts of the canyons (the area is called the Quebrada de Humahuaca). We spent the afternoon exploring the near-by city/town of Humahuaca.
On Friday we went to the Salinas Grandes- an enormous salt flat up in the middle of the Andes. It was really cool to see-the whole thing is very large, very flat and very white. The native people have a whole production system set up to extract and sell the salt. In the afternoon, we went back to Pucara to hike through the Canyon of 7 Colors. We were there around dusk, and the lighting and the scenery were absolutely incredible. The colors ranged from a creamy beige to bright orange to dark red. It was a very fun way to finish off the trip.
Saturday morning, we left to fly back to Buenos Aires. I've spent today trying to catch up on my homework- it's a pretty daunting task, but all the traveling was definitely worth it. Both trips were incredible and I feel like I wouldn't have the chance to see everything I want to see in Argentina even if I were traveling here for a year. However, it's great to be back in the city- it's really starting to feel more like a home.
All my love, Melanie
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Argentina vs. Brazil, Recoleta cemetary, etc. (September 3-10)
Hello!
Another great week here in Buenos Aires! I'm finally getting all the pieces of my schedule to fall into place, and am really starting to feel like I'm living here as opposed to just visiting. Here's a few of this weeks highlights...
Saturday was the Argentina vs. Brazil qualifier game for the World Cup. Nearly to say, the whole city was buzzing with excitement all day. We found a cool sports bar to watch the game in, which was absolutely packed. Everyone was intensely into the game, and lots of them were wearing flags draped around their shoulders. We spent most of the time singing, yelling at the group of Brazilian fans and pounding on the tables. Even though Argentina lost, I had a great time.
On Monday, we went to a play called El Vampiro. It was a very small, independent production- the only reason we knew about it was that one of my American friends knows one of the Argentines who acted in the play. Even though I didn't quite understand everything, it was very interesting to go experience an alternative side of Buenos Aires culture.
Tuesday night we went for tango lessons at this really cool place called La Catedral. It looks like nothing from the outside but inside looks like a giant converted barn covered in cool artwork. After our lessons, we hung out and watched a lot of the Argentines dance tango (they're really good so it's basically like going to a show). At about 2 o'clock in the morning, a group of tango musicians came in so the dancing stopped and they performed in the middle of the dance floor. Everyone sat around on the floor, sipping on wine and listening to the beautiful guitar. It really made me feel like I was in the real Buenos Aires.
I finally made it over to the Recoleta Cemetary, which is full of the Argentine rich and famous. It's enormous and full of beautiful family tombs- we wondered around for a few hours and I definitely would have been happy to stay a few more. The most famous tomb is Evita's, which is still to this day covered in fresh flowers brought in by visitors. We saw a funeral procession coming in as we were leaving, which really put the whole thing a bit more into perspective. Although it's an awesome place, it's kind of strange that a cemetery is such a touristy place.
I'm starting to understand more and more in my classes (probably due to the fact that I now have tutors for both history and politics). In politics class, we discussed populism and the patterns of economic reform in different Latin American countries. For history, we're still focusing on the Mexican Revolution. However, both classes often drift towards the role of the US in Latin American politics. What the students and teachers have to say about the US is usually quite harsh. I'm tempted to join in, but it's kind of hard to defend a lot of the actions of the US government in Latin America. The resentment of US foreign policy here is pretty overwhelming- I've heard several people say that they think the US was involved with the coup in Honduras and there are almost weekly protests of the US construction of military bases in Colombia. Although it's kind of discouraging for me that they distrust and dislike the American government so much, I've been given an incredible opportunity to learn about the roots and manifestations of this distrust from a first-hand perspective.
Finally, I started my internship with Help Argentina yesterday. My first project is to translate different grantee profiles from Spanish to English. It's hard work, but really good practice for my Spanish and a good way to learn more about what different organizations are doing. I'll be working there 8 hours a week. The people there are really cool- I'm looking forward to getting to know them all better.
That's all for this week. Buenos Aires has been treating me great- I continue to find cool cafes, restaurants and parks everywhere I go. Tonight, I leave for Mendoza and then next week I'm off to Jujuy. I hope you are all well and I send all my love!
Photos from Recoleta and a couple random ones from the game
Another great week here in Buenos Aires! I'm finally getting all the pieces of my schedule to fall into place, and am really starting to feel like I'm living here as opposed to just visiting. Here's a few of this weeks highlights...
Saturday was the Argentina vs. Brazil qualifier game for the World Cup. Nearly to say, the whole city was buzzing with excitement all day. We found a cool sports bar to watch the game in, which was absolutely packed. Everyone was intensely into the game, and lots of them were wearing flags draped around their shoulders. We spent most of the time singing, yelling at the group of Brazilian fans and pounding on the tables. Even though Argentina lost, I had a great time.
On Monday, we went to a play called El Vampiro. It was a very small, independent production- the only reason we knew about it was that one of my American friends knows one of the Argentines who acted in the play. Even though I didn't quite understand everything, it was very interesting to go experience an alternative side of Buenos Aires culture.
Tuesday night we went for tango lessons at this really cool place called La Catedral. It looks like nothing from the outside but inside looks like a giant converted barn covered in cool artwork. After our lessons, we hung out and watched a lot of the Argentines dance tango (they're really good so it's basically like going to a show). At about 2 o'clock in the morning, a group of tango musicians came in so the dancing stopped and they performed in the middle of the dance floor. Everyone sat around on the floor, sipping on wine and listening to the beautiful guitar. It really made me feel like I was in the real Buenos Aires.
I finally made it over to the Recoleta Cemetary, which is full of the Argentine rich and famous. It's enormous and full of beautiful family tombs- we wondered around for a few hours and I definitely would have been happy to stay a few more. The most famous tomb is Evita's, which is still to this day covered in fresh flowers brought in by visitors. We saw a funeral procession coming in as we were leaving, which really put the whole thing a bit more into perspective. Although it's an awesome place, it's kind of strange that a cemetery is such a touristy place.
I'm starting to understand more and more in my classes (probably due to the fact that I now have tutors for both history and politics). In politics class, we discussed populism and the patterns of economic reform in different Latin American countries. For history, we're still focusing on the Mexican Revolution. However, both classes often drift towards the role of the US in Latin American politics. What the students and teachers have to say about the US is usually quite harsh. I'm tempted to join in, but it's kind of hard to defend a lot of the actions of the US government in Latin America. The resentment of US foreign policy here is pretty overwhelming- I've heard several people say that they think the US was involved with the coup in Honduras and there are almost weekly protests of the US construction of military bases in Colombia. Although it's kind of discouraging for me that they distrust and dislike the American government so much, I've been given an incredible opportunity to learn about the roots and manifestations of this distrust from a first-hand perspective.
Finally, I started my internship with Help Argentina yesterday. My first project is to translate different grantee profiles from Spanish to English. It's hard work, but really good practice for my Spanish and a good way to learn more about what different organizations are doing. I'll be working there 8 hours a week. The people there are really cool- I'm looking forward to getting to know them all better.
That's all for this week. Buenos Aires has been treating me great- I continue to find cool cafes, restaurants and parks everywhere I go. Tonight, I leave for Mendoza and then next week I'm off to Jujuy. I hope you are all well and I send all my love!
Photos from Recoleta and a couple random ones from the game
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
School in Buenos Aires (August 20-September 2)
The past couple weeks I've stayed here in Buenos Aires, settling into a schedule with classes and doing various things about the city. I'm in class about 16 hours a week, and when I start my internship (which will hopefully be with Help Argentina) that will be another eight hours. Homework has been taking up a pretty decent amount of my time (the two direct enrollment classes have a lot of reading, which takes me about 3 times longer that reading normally does since it's in Spanish), but it's so far been interesting stuff. Here's a few highlights:
August is the International Tango Fair in Buenos Aires, and all of the events are free so we decided to go see a show. The show was at this cool old theater called Teatro 25 de Mayo, and we got there early in the morning to wait in line for tickets. We went back that night for the show, which was absolutely incredible. Tango is a really beautiful dance, and these were some of the best dancers in the world. I definitely plan on trying to see more tango before I leave. After the show, we went to a delicious dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, and then to an Argentine ice cream shop (Argentine ice cream is the best I've ever had).
Today, I had a free afternoon so I went to see some museums. First, I went to the Evita Peron museum. It was full of movies, information and various artifacts- such as many of her outfits. It was a really cool experience- Evita is still a very popular figure here (her face is used in a similar way to Che's) and it was an eye-opening experience to see how they portray her. The museum was definitely bordering on propaganda in terms of glorifying Evita- there was no mention of any flaws or failures. After the Evita museum, I walked through some of Palermo's beautiful parks to the Latin American Mueseum of Art in Buenos Aires (MALBA). It's a cool modern building with a great collection of art, including some really big names like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Xul Solar, David Siquieros and Wilfredo Lam.
I've joined a soccer club through my study abroad program. We meet once a week for games, a group of American students and different Argentine people. Afterwards, we hang out and drink a few beers. In a few weeks, we're going to go to an Argentine soccer game, which should be very fun in an absolutely crazy kind of way.
The night life here has continued to be incredible. We've continued to find different bars, restaurants and clubs that are all very fun. The entire country seems to be on a different schedule. The other night we were walking home at about 3:00 am and saw about 20 middle aged business people having a meeting in a restaurant. It's not unusual to see full families, including kids as young as two or three years old, walking around at 1 in the morning. It's definitely a city that never sleeps.
Classes are going great. I really love my politics class. The UBA building it's in is pretty crazy in terms of socialist grafittis- there's a huge sign in front of one of my classrooms that says "Yankee get out of South America," which is a bit intimidating. We're now studying history so that we have a background of Latin American political history before we start with current political events. History class is really interesting too. We're now studying the Mexican Revolution, which I've already studied, but studying it in a completely different way than I learned it in the US. Here, the class is much more focused on the mobilization of the masses and the difference economic relationships between classes (not exactly surprising). I'm slowly starting to absorb more and more of the Spanish. For my service learning class, I had an interview with Help Argentina on Monday and I should hopefully hear back from them soon.
Other fun things- ordering in ice cream and empanadas to the apartment, finding good cafes to study with a cafe con leche, and finally getting my student visa!
I hope everyone's well and please send emails updating me on how you all are!
Love, Melanie
PICTURES
August is the International Tango Fair in Buenos Aires, and all of the events are free so we decided to go see a show. The show was at this cool old theater called Teatro 25 de Mayo, and we got there early in the morning to wait in line for tickets. We went back that night for the show, which was absolutely incredible. Tango is a really beautiful dance, and these were some of the best dancers in the world. I definitely plan on trying to see more tango before I leave. After the show, we went to a delicious dinner at a Peruvian restaurant, and then to an Argentine ice cream shop (Argentine ice cream is the best I've ever had).
Today, I had a free afternoon so I went to see some museums. First, I went to the Evita Peron museum. It was full of movies, information and various artifacts- such as many of her outfits. It was a really cool experience- Evita is still a very popular figure here (her face is used in a similar way to Che's) and it was an eye-opening experience to see how they portray her. The museum was definitely bordering on propaganda in terms of glorifying Evita- there was no mention of any flaws or failures. After the Evita museum, I walked through some of Palermo's beautiful parks to the Latin American Mueseum of Art in Buenos Aires (MALBA). It's a cool modern building with a great collection of art, including some really big names like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Xul Solar, David Siquieros and Wilfredo Lam.
I've joined a soccer club through my study abroad program. We meet once a week for games, a group of American students and different Argentine people. Afterwards, we hang out and drink a few beers. In a few weeks, we're going to go to an Argentine soccer game, which should be very fun in an absolutely crazy kind of way.
The night life here has continued to be incredible. We've continued to find different bars, restaurants and clubs that are all very fun. The entire country seems to be on a different schedule. The other night we were walking home at about 3:00 am and saw about 20 middle aged business people having a meeting in a restaurant. It's not unusual to see full families, including kids as young as two or three years old, walking around at 1 in the morning. It's definitely a city that never sleeps.
Classes are going great. I really love my politics class. The UBA building it's in is pretty crazy in terms of socialist grafittis- there's a huge sign in front of one of my classrooms that says "Yankee get out of South America," which is a bit intimidating. We're now studying history so that we have a background of Latin American political history before we start with current political events. History class is really interesting too. We're now studying the Mexican Revolution, which I've already studied, but studying it in a completely different way than I learned it in the US. Here, the class is much more focused on the mobilization of the masses and the difference economic relationships between classes (not exac
tly surprising). I'm slowly starting to absorb more and more of the Spanish. For my service learning class, I had an interview with Help Argentina on Monday and I should hopefully hear back from them soon. Other fun things- ordering in ice cream and empanadas to the apartment, finding good cafes to study with a cafe con leche, and finally getting my student visa!
I hope everyone's well and please send emails updating me on how you all are!
Love, Melanie
PICTURES
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Iguazu Falls (August 13-19)
Things is Buenos Aires are still going very well. This week, I went to Iguazu Falls, started classes, and got a kitten. Here's a summary-
On Thursday night, I left with about six of my friends on a bus bound for Puerto Iguazu (20 hour trip), a small town in northern Argentina in the province of Missiones, right on the triple border with Paraguay and Brazil. We decided to splurge a bit and paid the extra $5 to ride on "cama ejecutiva." The bus was incredible- big leather seats that reclined to almost 180 degrees, dinner, breakfast, wine, etc. The ride itself was like a little vacation. We got to Iguazu on Friday afternoon, got settled into our hostel and walked down to see the tres fronteras (where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentine are divided by two rivers). We spent the evening relaxing and exploring around the town a bit. Saturday, we woke up early to get a full day at Iguazu Falls National Park. The falls were absolutely INCREDIBLE! There are waterfalls everywhere, big and small, some hidden away in the jungle and others clumped together. It's hard to even explain how cool they were, (I took a bunch of pictures). We took a 15-minute boat ride under a few of the falls and got absolutely drenched- very fun. My favorite was the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's throat), which is the biggest waterfall in the park. It literally looks like an ocean falling off a cliff, and was definitely one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The power of the waterfall is incredibly humbling, and it was really cool to stand and let the mist from the waterfall drench me. A truly unforgettable day, with the one hitch of getting my lunch stolen off of my lap by coatis (raccoon like jungle animals that only seem cute at first).
The next day, I went to an animal sanctuary and saw monkeys, toucans, alligators, and lots of raptors that are either being rehabilitated or are living there. They have a training program to re-teach the previously captive eagles, hawks and falcons how to hunt, and that was cool to see. I found myself with a spare couple hours after, and of course went back into the park and just stood by the garganta for about half an hour. At about 4 in the afternoon, we caught the bus back to Buenos Aires.
Since getting back from Iguazu, I've been focused on two things. The first is visiting service organizations for my service learning class internship. I first visited the Madres del Plaza Mayo, which won't fit into my schedule but was really amazing to see. The organization was founded in the 1970s by the mothers of those who were forcibly "disappeared" during the dictatorship (called the Dirty Wars in the US). We went into their office, and it was full of old woman who are still working to find out what happened to their children and improve human rights and government accountability in Argentina. The walls were covered with the pictures of their disappeared children- most of whom were about my age when they disappeared. The mothers told us their stories and about what they're trying to achieve today- the whole experience was very moving. I also visited an organization called Help Argentina, which links donors around the world to non-profit organizations in Argentina, and a community center in one of the poorest barrios outside of Buenos Aires. On Monday, I'm visiting a center that focuses on drug policy and treatment and addiction prevention. They all seem really worthwhile and interesting, and I'm still really not sure which one I'll pick.
The other thing I've been doing is going to class (school was bound to happen eventually). I've only been to two classes so far. The first was my Argentine Fiction class, which is taught by an Argentine professor but all foreign kids from my program, so it's pretty similar to the classes I take at school at home. My first history class, at UBA (the public university), was much more interesting. The building has very cool old architecture, but it's a bit run down. The walls are covered with pamphlets and grafatti, most of which is advocating very leftist causes (lots of pictures of Che). My class was extremely interesting- it started very late, random students kept coming in to present different groups/political causes, and students wandered in and out. However, the content of the class was extremely interesting. We spent most of the class discussing the meaning of a unified "Latin American" identity- what does it mean to be Latin America? The students were all very passionate and engaged and everyone had some kind of answer. Overall, the UBA is a little run down, but I was very impressed about how much the students care about the content and quality of their education. Everyone there really cares about what they're learning and wants to be there. I'm excited to see what my politics class will be like.
Most importantly, our apartment welcomed a new family member last night- a kitten. She is white and gray with stripes and beautiful and snuggly, and her name is Paqui (I don't know why they named her that and they won't tell me. Apparently it's a long story).
I hope you're all well and send all my love.
Melanie
Photos from Iguazu
On Thursday night, I left with about six of my friends on a bus bound for Puerto Iguazu (20 hour trip), a small town in northern Argentina in the province of Missiones, right on the triple border with Paraguay and Brazil. We decided to splurge a bit and paid the extra $5 to ride on "cama ejecutiva." The bus was incredible- big leather seats that reclined to almost 180 degrees, dinner, breakfast, wine, etc. The ride itself was like a little vacation. We got to Iguazu on Friday afternoon, got settled into our hostel and walked down to see the tres fronteras (where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentine are divided by two rivers). We spent the evening relaxing and exploring around the town a bit. Saturday, we woke up early to get a full day at Iguazu Falls National Park. The falls were absolutely INCREDIBLE! There are waterfalls everywhere, big and small, some hidden away in the jungle and others clumped together. It's hard to even explain how cool they were, (I took a bunch of pictures). We took a 15-minute boat ride under a few of the falls and got absolutely drenched- very fun. My favorite was the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's throat), which is the biggest waterfall in the park. It literally looks like an ocean falling off a cliff, and was definitely one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The power of the waterfall is incredibly humbling, and it was really cool to stand and let the mist from the waterfall drench me. A truly unforgettable day, with the one hitch of getting my lunch stolen off of my lap by coatis (raccoon like jungle animals that only seem cute at first).
The next day, I went to an animal sanctuary and saw monkeys, toucans, alligators, and lots of raptors that are either being rehabilitated or are living there. They have a training program to re-teach the previously captive eagles, hawks and falcons how to hunt, and that was cool to see. I found myself with a spare couple hours after, and of course went back into the park and just stood by the garganta for about half an hour. At about 4 in the afternoon, we caught the bus back to Buenos Aires.
Since getting back from Iguazu, I've been focused on two things. The first is visiting service organizations for my service learning class internship. I first visited the Madres del Plaza Mayo, which won't fit into my schedule but was really amazing to see. The organization was founded in the 1970s by the mothers of those who were forcibly "disappeared" during the dictatorship (called the Dirty Wars in the US). We went into their office, and it was full of old woman who are still working to find out what happened to their children and improve human rights and government accountability in Argentina. The walls were covered with the pictures of their disappeared children- most of whom were about my age when they disappeared. The mothers told us their stories and about what they're trying to achieve today- the whole experience was very moving. I also visited an organization called Help Argentina, which links donors around the world to non-profit organizations in Argentina, and a community center in one of the poorest barrios outside of Buenos Aires. On Monday, I'm visiting a center that focuses on drug policy and treatment and addiction prevention. They all seem really worthwhile and interesting, and I'm still really not sure which one I'll pick.
The other thing I've been doing is going to class (school was bound to happen eventually). I've only been to two classes so far. The first was my Argentine Fiction class, which is taught by an Argentine professor but all foreign kids from my program, so it's pretty similar to the classes I take at school at home. My first history class, at UBA (the public university), was much more interesting. The building has very cool old architecture, but it's a bit run down. The walls are covered with pamphlets and grafatti, most of which is advocating very leftist causes (lots of pictures of Che). My class was extremely interesting- it started very late, random students kept coming in to present different groups/political causes, and students wandered in and out. However, the content of the class was extremely interesting. We spent most of the class discussing the meaning of a unified "Latin American" identity- what does it mean to be Latin America? The students were all very passionate and engaged and everyone had some kind of answer. Overall, the UBA is a little run down, but I was very impressed about how much the students care about the content and quality of their education. Everyone there really cares about what they're learning and wants to be there. I'm excited to see what my politics class will be like.
Most importantly, our apartment welcomed a new family member last night- a kitten. She is white and gray with stripes and beautiful and snuggly, and her name is Paqui (I don't know why they named her that and they won't tell me. Apparently it's a long story).
I hope you're all well and send all my love.
Melanie
Photos from Iguazu
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
More from Buenos Aires (August 5-12)
Things are still going great here in Buenos Aires. I still haven't started classes (everything got moved back as a precaution with the swine flu outbreak), so I've gotten a good chance to do a little exploring around the city. Here's a summary of what I've been up to...
I've been trying to go out to a little bit more authentic of places at night. It's very easy to fall into a pattern of going all to the more touristy clubs, which is fun but not what I came to Buenos Aires to do. My favorite was an Afro-pub called Akwaba, where we saw an Uruguayan trio play Afro-Cuban music. The place was small and poorly lit, and absolutely packed with people dancing salsa. I'm continually amazed at how well normal people can dance here (especially considering my own dancing skills). I did, however, dance a bit, and had a great time. Once classes start and I get into more of a schedule, I'm going to start taking salsa and/or tango lessons.
We've also been doing the actual registration for classes this week. The way my program's set up, we can take classes at three places: FLACSO (the program's headquarters, where the classes are taught in Spanish but are all foreign students), UCA (the private, Catholic University of Buenos Aires) and UBA (the public university of Buenos Aires). After much consideration and Spanish pre-testing, I've decided to take an Argentine fiction class at FLACSO and two classes at UBA- Latin American Politics and the Social History of Latin America. UBA is a free university of 300,000 students, almost all of whom are Argentine. It's supposed to be pretty wild- the class sizes are huge, the facilities are awful, and in some class rooms the students have to sit on the floor. However, UBA is also the most prestigious university in the country, has the best professors and the most intelligent students, so I decided to try my luck. For my fourth class, I'm taking a service learning seminar at FLACSO. Sometime during the next week, I'll select a non-profit organization to volunteer at about 5 hours a week in coordination with a once a week class at FLACSO.
In terms of extra-curriculars, I just joined the football interest club through FLACSO. With the group, I'm going to go to different Argentine soccer games. Also, starting next week, we will meet twice a week to play soccer ourselves. The group consists of all kids from my program but is run by Argentine students, so we will be playing every week with Argentines. It promises to be a fun but humbling and humiliating experience (the 8 year olds I see playing in the park are probably better than me).
This past weekend, our program took a trip to a small gaucho town about 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires called San Antonia de Acero. It was very fun and relaxing- we saw a gaucho show, went horseback riding, had a dance lesson, and ate an absolutely incredible amount of delicious beef. Although I am in love with Buenos Aires, it's very nice to know that there are such nice places so close if I ever need to get out of the city for a day or two.
I've also celebrated a few birthdays this weekend. A girl who stayed with my host mom about a year ago came back to visit and Saturday was her birthday, so we had a big birthday party. We filled the bathtub with ice and bottles of red wine, and spent the night dancing. It was a blast and a great opportunity to spend time with some more Argentines. On Sunday, my friend from Georgetown Jake's host family celebrated Jake's birthday with an asada (barbeque) at their house. We started eating at 2:00 pm and didn't get up from the table until 8:00 pm- Argentines really know how to enjoy each other's company.
With another friend from Georgetown (Raphy) who came to visit this weekend, I saw some of the prettiest parts of Buenos Aires. We walked along Puerto Madero at night, and saw the enormous bridge illuminated and reflecting on the water. We also went to La Boca for lunch, and saw a tango show as well as the beautifully colorful walls and houses.
I'm off to Iguazu Falls for a trip tomorrow, get back on Monday and start classes on Tuesday. I'm having a truly fabulous time, and am already starting to worry that I won't have time to do all the things I want to do here. I hope you all are very well, and I send all my love. Melanie
PICTURES FROM THIS WEEK
I've been trying to go out to a little bit more authentic of places at night. It's very easy to fall into a pattern of going all to the more touristy clubs, which is fun but not what I came to Buenos Aires to do. My favorite was an Afro-pub called Akwaba, where we saw an Uruguayan trio play Afro-Cuban music. The place was small and poorly lit, and absolutely packed with people dancing salsa. I'm continually amazed at how well normal people can dance here (especially considering my own dancing skills). I did, however, dance a bit, and had a great time. Once classes start and I get into more of a schedule, I'm going to start taking salsa and/or tango lessons.
We've also been doing the actual registration for classes this week. The way my program's set up, we can take classes at three places: FLACSO (the program's headquarters, where the classes are taught in Spanish but are all foreign students), UCA (the private, Catholic University of Buenos Aires) and UBA (the public university of Buenos Aires). After much consideration and Spanish pre-testing, I've decided to take an Argentine fiction class at FLACSO and two classes at UBA- Latin American Politics and the Social History of Latin America. UBA is a free university of 300,000 students, almost all of whom are Argentine. It's supposed to be pretty wild- the class sizes are huge, the facilities are awful, and in some class rooms the students have to sit on the floor. However, UBA is also the most prestigious university in the country, has the best professors and the most intelligent students, so I decided to try my luck. For my fourth class, I'm taking a service learning seminar at FLACSO. Sometime during the next week, I'll select a non-profit organization to volunteer at about 5 hours a week in coordination with a once a week class at FLACSO.
In terms of extra-curriculars, I just joined the football interest club through FLACSO. With the group, I'm going to go to different Argentine soccer games. Also, starting next week, we will meet twice a week to play soccer ourselves. The group consists of all kids from my program but is run by Argentine students, so we will be playing every week with Argentines. It promises to be a fun but humbling and humiliating experience (the 8 year olds I see playing in the park are probably better than me).
This past weekend, our program took a trip to a small gaucho town about 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires called San Antonia de Acero. It was very fun and relaxing- we saw a gaucho show, went horseback riding, had a dance lesson, and ate an absolutely incredible amount of delicious beef. Although I am in love with Buenos Aires, it's very nice to know that there are such nice places so close if I ever need to get out of the city for a day or two.
I've also celebrated a few birthdays this weekend. A girl who stayed with my host mom about a year ago came back to visit and Saturday was her birthday, so we had a big birthday party. We filled the bathtub with ice and bottles of red wine, and spent the night dancing. It was a blast and a great opportunity to spend time with some more Argentines. On Sunday, my friend from Georgetown Jake's host family celebrated Jake's birthday with an asada (barbeque) at their house. We started eating at 2:00 pm and didn't get up from the table until 8:00 pm- Argentines really know how to enjoy each other's company.
With another friend from Georgetown (Raphy) who came to visit this weekend, I saw some of the prettiest parts of Buenos Aires. We walked along Puerto Madero at night, and saw the enormous bridge illuminated and reflecting on the water. We also went to La Boca for lunch, and saw a tango show as well as the beautifully colorful walls and houses.
I'm off to Iguazu Falls for a trip tomorrow, get back on Monday and start classes on Tuesday. I'm having a truly fabulous time, and am already starting to worry that I won't have time to do all the things I want to do here. I hope you all are very well, and I send all my love. Melanie
PICTURES FROM THIS WEEK
Monday, August 10, 2009
Mailing Address
I just received my mailing address here:
Melanie Pitkin
CIEE-FLACSO Program
Ayacucho 555
Buenos Aires, 1026 ARGENTINA
Melanie Pitkin
CIEE-FLACSO Program
Ayacucho 555
Buenos Aires, 1026 ARGENTINA
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Buenos Aires!
July 22nd-August 4th: Arrival in Buenos Aires
I arrived in Buenos Aires on July 22nd. I landed in the middle of the cold front- although the Buenos Aires winter is definitely milder than Colorado, it's quite a bit colder than I expected. My first night, I caught a car to my hotel and took a long, warm bath in my private room (in Peru, I stayed almost exclusively in dorm-style hostels, very few of which had warm showers). The next morning, the program began.
Apart from a rough first few days (I was pretty culture shocked coming almost directly from trekking in the jungle to one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America), the first week+ here in Buenos Aires has been great. The city is beautiful in a very European way. The architecture is predominantly colonial, and there are parks and squares scattered throughout the whole city. I have also loved the feel of the city. It's more relaxed than most big American cities, and sophisticated without being pretentious. The people are not exactly warm, but still very helpful and conversational.
As promised, the city never sleeps. We normally don't go out until 12 or 1 am and returning by 4 am is considered "early." There is an incredible array of things to do here. Although a decent portion of my time is still being spent at orientation for the program, I've been to the National History Museum, the Zoo, Puerto Madero, the Lonely Planet walking tour, the annual rural exposition, and a wide array of cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. The coolest thing I've done is take a tour of the Casa Rosada (the Argentine equivalent of the White House). The security there is much looser than in American government buildings, and as we went on a Sunday we were able to see almost everything.
I'm living in a barrio called Palermo with a 35 woman who is a lawyer. Although she is very busy and not home so often, she is very helpful, kind, and funny. It's a nice mix of support and independence- she lets me do whatever I want, but if I need anything she's always willing to help. I went out to a jazz club with her and her friends one night, and spend lots of dinner discussing a wide array of topics with my host mom and her boyfriend. Through her, I'm sure I'll get the chance to meet a lot of cool Argentines. Also,the location of the apartment is great. It's in a very safe neighborhood where the majority of the bars and clubs are located, as well as a bunch of cool restaurants, cafes and shops.
The program I'm here with has also been very cool. Apart from the two directors, the majority of the staff are Argentine students between the ages of 22-27. Most of them are studying or have studied at the University of Buenos Aires, so they've been very helpful as we've waded through the registration process. Within a few days, I should know my schedule. As of now, I think I'm going to take an Argentine fiction class, a Service Learning class based predominately on weekly volunteering, a Latin American history class and a Latin American politics class. Due to the swine flu, classes were moved back and we won't be starting until around August 17th. I'm excited for the extra time to explore around the city!
I hope that you're all well, and now that I have reliable internet access I'll try to update this more often. I hope that you're all well and to hear about what you're all up to!
Love, Melanie
Photos from the first week
I arrived in Buenos Aires on July 22nd. I landed in the middle of the cold front- although the Buenos Aires winter is definitely milder than Colorado, it's quite a bit colder than I expected. My first night, I caught a car to my hotel and took a long, warm bath in my private room (in Peru, I stayed almost exclusively in dorm-style hostels, very few of which had warm showers). The next morning, the program began.
Apart from a rough first few days (I was pretty culture shocked coming almost directly from trekking in the jungle to one of the most cosmopolitan cities in South America), the first week+ here in Buenos Aires has been great. The city is beautiful in a very European way. The architecture is predominantly colonial, and there are parks and squares scattered throughout the whole city. I have also loved the feel of the city. It's more relaxed than most big American cities, and sophisticated without being pretentious. The people are not exactly warm, but still very helpful and conversational.
As promised, the city never sleeps. We normally don't go out until 12 or 1 am and returning by 4 am is considered "early." There is an incredible array of things to do here. Although a decent portion of my time is still being spent at orientation for the program, I've been to the National History Museum, the Zoo, Puerto Madero, the Lonely Planet walking tour, the annual rural exposition, and a wide array of cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs. The coolest thing I've done is take a tour of the Casa Rosada (the Argentine equivalent of the White House). The security there is much looser than in American government buildings, and as we went on a Sunday we were able to see almost everything.
I'm living in a barrio called Palermo with a 35 woman who is a lawyer. Although she is very busy and not home so often, she is very helpful, kind, and funny. It's a nice mix of support and independence- she lets me do whatever I want, but if I need anything she's always willing to help. I went out to a jazz club with her and her friends one night, and spend lots of dinner discussing a wide array of topics with my host mom and her boyfriend. Through her, I'm sure I'll get the chance to meet a lot of cool Argentines. Also,the location of the apartment is great. It's in a very safe neighborhood where the majority of the bars and clubs are located, as well as a bunch of cool restaurants, cafes and shops.
The program I'm here with has also been very cool. Apart from the two directors, the majority of the staff are Argentine students between the ages of 22-27. Most of them are studying or have studied at the University of Buenos Aires, so they've been very helpful as we've waded through the registration process. Within a few days, I should know my schedule. As of now, I think I'm going to take an Argentine fiction class, a Service Learning class based predominately on weekly volunteering, a Latin American history class and a Latin American politics class. Due to the swine flu, classes were moved back and we won't be starting until around August 17th. I'm excited for the extra time to explore around the city!
I hope that you're all well, and now that I have reliable internet access I'll try to update this more often. I hope that you're all well and to hear about what you're all up to!
Love, Melanie
Photos from the first week
Last Week in Peru
Hi! I'm now in Buenos Aires, but I thought I'd write a little bit about my last week in Peru.
On July 15, I took a bus from Huancayo to Lima, which was very easy. I stayed at a hostel right near the center of Lima and had the opportunity to spend the evening looking at the governmental palace and other incredible architecture of the main square. Very early on the morning of the 16th, I caught a flight from Lima to Cusco. Although I was planning on sleeping for the whole flight, I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the flight was. The airplane flew very low, and I watched the sunrise over the snow-capped Andes poking through a thin layer of clouds (it kinds of looked like islands in a very still ocean). I met my friend Frank in Cusco, (an absolutely incredible city) and we spent the day exploring. It was very interesting to see the buildings where the Spaniards built directly on top of the Inca walls. Although the Inca walls are much older, they have endured the time, weather and earthquakes much better than the Spanish walls have. After a quick briefing, we packed and went to bed early in preparation for the beginning of the Inca Trail!
July 17-20: Inca Trail
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was one of the most incredible things I've ever done. Although it's a little pricier than most of the trekking in Peru, I would definitely recommend it for anyone who ever gets the chance. Our group consisted of 9 hikers, 2 guides, and 13 porters. We hiked for 4 days and three nights along the trail the ancient Inca upper class used at a type of pilgrimmage from Cusco to Machu Picchu. I was amazed at how quickly the terrain changed... we hiked through forest, jungle, and more rocky and alpine terrain. The highest point (and part where I struggled most) was Dead Woman's Pass (14,000 feet). Our guides were great and the porters carried our tents and food. Although we were sleeping in tents, it wasn't exactly roughing it.... the porters went ahead to cook us amazing meals, set out bowls of warm water for us to wash every morning and evening, and woke us every morning by coming to our tents with hot coca tea.
The trail wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, considering that I carried most of my own stuff. Although most people hire porters to carry their clothes, sleeping bags, etc., Frank and I decided to carry our own. It definitely made the hike I bit harder, but it added a little sense of accomplishment to do it on my own. The hike was incredibly beautiful...I could hardly put my camera away. Not only were there incredible views, we saw one or two ancient Inca sites every day. The people in our group were great, and the trail wasn't as clogged with tourists as I expected it to be.
Machu Picchu was also incredible. Our group woke up extra early and was second in line at the check point. When the check point opened at 5:30 AM, Frank and I ran along the jungle paths (guided only by the light of our headlamps) and ended up being the 2nd (Frank) and 6th people to reach the sungate, giving us the unique opportunity to see the site before the 2,000 daily tourists arrived. Although not as mysterious and spiritual as the other sites due to the volume of tourists, Machu Picchu was amazing to finally see.
After the Inca Trail, we spent a night in Aguas Calientes, took the train down to Cusco, and then spent one final night in Cusco. On the morning of the 22nd, I flew to Buenos Aires. I had an amazing time in Peru. The people are so warm, friendly and generous. The hikes I went on were absolutely gorgeous, and the Andean culture is fascinating. Although I'm loving Buenos Aires, I definitely miss Peru too and hope to return again to see all the things I missed.
On July 15, I took a bus from Huancayo to Lima, which was very easy. I stayed at a hostel right near the center of Lima and had the opportunity to spend the evening looking at the governmental palace and other incredible architecture of the main square. Very early on the morning of the 16th, I caught a flight from Lima to Cusco. Although I was planning on sleeping for the whole flight, I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the flight was. The airplane flew very low, and I watched the sunrise over the snow-capped Andes poking through a thin layer of clouds (it kinds of looked like islands in a very still ocean). I met my friend Frank in Cusco, (an absolutely incredible city) and we spent the day exploring. It was very interesting to see the buildings where the Spaniards built directly on top of the Inca walls. Although the Inca walls are much older, they have endured the time, weather and earthquakes much better than the Spanish walls have. After a quick briefing, we packed and went to bed early in preparation for the beginning of the Inca Trail!
July 17-20: Inca Trail
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was one of the most incredible things I've ever done. Although it's a little pricier than most of the trekking in Peru, I would definitely recommend it for anyone who ever gets the chance. Our group consisted of 9 hikers, 2 guides, and 13 porters. We hiked for 4 days and three nights along the trail the ancient Inca upper class used at a type of pilgrimmage from Cusco to Machu Picchu. I was amazed at how quickly the terrain changed... we hiked through forest, jungle, and more rocky and alpine terrain. The highest point (and part where I struggled most) was Dead Woman's Pass (14,000 feet). Our guides were great and the porters carried our tents and food. Although we were sleeping in tents, it wasn't exactly roughing it.... the porters went ahead to cook us amazing meals, set out bowls of warm water for us to wash every morning and evening, and woke us every morning by coming to our tents with hot coca tea.
The trail wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, considering that I carried most of my own stuff. Although most people hire porters to carry their clothes, sleeping bags, etc., Frank and I decided to carry our own. It definitely made the hike I bit harder, but it added a little sense of accomplishment to do it on my own. The hike was incredibly beautiful...I could hardly put my camera away. Not only were there incredible views, we saw one or two ancient Inca sites every day. The people in our group were great, and the trail wasn't as clogged with tourists as I expected it to be.
Machu Picchu was also incredible. Our group woke up extra early and was second in line at the check point. When the check point opened at 5:30 AM, Frank and I ran along the jungle paths (guided only by the light of our headlamps) and ended up being the 2nd (Frank) and 6th people to reach the sungate, giving us the unique opportunity to see the site before the 2,000 daily tourists arrived. Although not as mysterious and spiritual as the other sites due to the volume of tourists, Machu Picchu was amazing to finally see.
After the Inca Trail, we spent a night in Aguas Calientes, took the train down to Cusco, and then spent one final night in Cusco. On the morning of the 22nd, I flew to Buenos Aires. I had an amazing time in Peru. The people are so warm, friendly and generous. The hikes I went on were absolutely gorgeous, and the Andean culture is fascinating. Although I'm loving Buenos Aires, I definitely miss Peru too and hope to return again to see all the things I missed.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Peru Pictures
I've been uploading all of my pictures and they're in four albums from different parts of my trip. Here's the links... sorry there's so many!
Beginning of trip through trips to the craft villages:
Various hikes, natural dyes class and the jungle:
More hikes, weaving class, rural homestay, and final party:
Cusco, Inca Trail and Machu Picchu:
Beginning of trip through trips to the craft villages:
Various hikes, natural dyes class and the jungle:
More hikes, weaving class, rural homestay, and final party:
Cusco, Inca Trail and Machu Picchu:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Update from Peru
Sorry I really haven´t used this very much! I haven´t been able to upload my pictures and I keep waiting to update this until I could figure out my pictures. I´m going to go ahead without pictures and hopefully I´ll figure out a way to post them when I get to Buenos Aires! Here´s a brief summary of what I´ve been up to...
June 14-19: Natural dyes class
Our main goal at the orphanage was to start teaching some of the older kids (ages 12-15) skills they can use to make money after the leave the orphanage at age 18. This week, we brought in a weaving expert from one of the nearbye villages to teach the kids (and be default, us) how to make natural dyes for wool using plants, minerals and insects. We made yellow, green, purple, gold, and red. It was really fascinating to see what the people have learned to make naturally. Due to the deaths in Iquitos, there was a strike and lots of protests in the streets this week. People overall are extremely unhappy with the Garcia government. Maura and I had the opprotunity to visit the Huancayo courthouse with a lawyer we met at a barbeque and it was extremely interesting to see how a different judicial system functions. We took one walk out into the country, came across some people harvesting potatoes, and sat for a while with them and ate fresh roasted potatoes. Its incredible how such poor people are still so generous. We also went to a little village famous for its gourd-carvers and learned how they make the gourds.
June 20-24: Trip to the Jungle
Along with three of my friends, and then our tri-generational guide trio of Abuelo (grandfather), Lucho (father) and Rayme (son), we took a bus ride about 4 hours north to La Merced. From La Merced, we took a car for an hour, a moto for another hour, a cable car across the river, and then hiked about an hour up into the high jungle. It was absolutely beautiful... looked like it was straight out of Jurassic Park. We stayed at a ranch their family owns in a two story, no-wall wooden structure, sleeping in mosquito nets. Every day we were there, we took hikes around the jungle. Lucho is an expert on the plants and animals, and we found coffee beans, chocolate beans, avocado, bananas, and lots of other things to eat. We saw an amazing selection of birds and butterflies. Abuelo cooked for us every breakfast and dinner, and the food was really amazing. Whenever we got too hot and sweaty, we would just stop at one of the waterfalls and take a little shower before continuing on.
A couple more memorable experiences...
The second day we were there, we hiked down a steep bit of mountain that was very muddy but had lots of small trees and vines. Lucho, Rayme and my friends Maura and Kusi walked down very gracefully. However, my other friend Frank and I could not keep out footing and ended up sliding down most of the mountain on our butts. We would just swing/hang from vine to tree to vine, pullling our quite a bit of it as we went. It was incredibly fun and my pants were irreversably muddied. Lucho claimed that the two of us needed to be careful not to contribute so much to deforestation.
On the third day, we walked along the river, stopping to climb up the different little waterfalls. Everything was going well until Lucho got bored with the trails he always goes on and decided to explore a bit. We ended up having to repel down a series of twenty foot rock cliffs with nothing but a rope to hold onto. COnsidering my fear of heights, I was absolutely terrified. However, things were fine until Rayme forgot the machete at the top of one of the cliffs and decided to free climb to go get it. He started an avalanche on himself and one of the rocks cracked a gash in his head. We all, predictably, started to freak out, but we still had like three more cliffs to climb down. We tied a pair of pants on Rayme´s head to stop the bleeding, then rushed down all the cliffs and hiked about 2 hours down the river. Rayme went to the clinic, got some stitches and was fine, but it was quite the scary experience. Medical accidents become a little more frightening when you´re six hours from a hospital.
Overall, the jungle experience was absolutely incredible. It was one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been, the hiking was incredible, and it was great to meet all the local people.
June 26-29: Visit to Ayacucho
For the weekend, Maura, Kusi and I went to visit Frank in Ayacucho. We took night buses too and from Ayacucho on Friday and Sunday nights (a good way to save time and to save money on hostels). The road from Huancayo to Ayacucho is mostly dirt and very bumpy, but it was easy enough to sleep both ways. Ayacucho is a really cool city. It´s smaller than Huancayo, more colonial and more pedestrian. It was also the home of the terrorist group the Shining Path, so until recently no tourists could go there. Therefore, the city has less American/European influences than most cities in Peru, which was fun to see.
The first day in Ayacucho we went to a soccer game (which was absolutely insane but very fun) and went shopping for llama blankets. The second day we went shopping at a market which used to be a jail but now serves as an artesian market. Every vendor has a cell. In the afternoon, we watched the America vs Brazil soccer game in the street with about 30 Peruvian men. It was fun, even though everyone except for us was rooting for Brazil.
June 30-July 5: Back to Huancayo
We had class again with the kids at the orphanage this week. Since Maura and Kusi left on Wednesday, we had a little party with the kids. It was adorable- they were all so excited and appreciative. We decorated our classroom with streamers and balloons, ate cake and ice cream, handed out photo albums and had dancing competitions. The party reminded me of a middle school dance. There was another strike this week in protest of three new transportation laws, and no cars or buses were on the roads and most of the roads were blocked off with large stones. The general discontent with the government is pretty incredible.
After Maura and Kusi left, a new girl named Sam from Pittsburgh arrived to help with classes. In the afternoons, we took a couple of expedititions out to different towns in the valley (Huancayo is in the center of the Mantaro Valley in the Andes Mountains, and the valley is full of really cool villages and beautiful hikes). On Saturday (July 4th), we tried to be American by going to the giant mall and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and ice cream. On Sunday, we shopped at the Huancayo market (the longest in all of Peru) and had a delicious trout barbeque in the afternoon.
July 6- July 10: Rural homestay and weaving class
This week, I went with an English guy named Matt to a town called 3 de diciembre (about 1 hour south of Huancayo) to live for a week with a rural family. It was a really incredible experience. The family was a husband, a wife, their 23 year-old daughter (trainging to become a nurse) and their 19 year-old son (at school to become a mining engineer). They live on a farm where they grow all of their own food and raise animals. To earn money to pay for their kids´education, the husband works construction in the city and the wife runs the farm and takes the crops to the market.
We spent the weeking just helping around the farm and house. I cooked, cleaned, de-kernaled dried corn to sell in the market, chopped alfalfa, fed the pigs, mixed cement and much more. Everything we ate for the whole week was all natural and grown on their farm. They grow 4 kinds of potatoes, corn, spinach, 20 kinds of herbs, wheat, and much more. The only problem with this situation was that we ate an almost exclusively starch diet (potatoes 3x daily) and that our host mom forced us to eat until absolute exhaustion at every meal. We both felt our pants tightening a bit by the end of the week, and could not make it through the day without napping after lunch. However, for one of our lunches, we visited a trout pond where we paid $2 each for a man to pull out our trout, kill them, clean them, and fry them- one of the most delicious things I´ve ever eaten.
The lifestyle there was incredible. We worked hard all day, went to sleep with the sun and woke up at dawn. The landscape around the farm is incredibly beautiful, and the local people were all so friendly that we couldn´t go on a walk without having to stop to talk at least a few times. We learned about the rural Peruvian Santiago festival, and were twice dressed up by our family in traditional Santiago costumes to use as props for photographs (they had the two of us take one series of photos with the family cow). I was so lucky to have the opportunity to meet such wonderful people.
July 11: Huayatapallana hike
Huancayo is surrounded by mountains, almost all of which are brown and gently rounded. However, there is one mountain that is much taller and covered by snow- Huayatapallana. You can see the mountain from anywhere in the valley, and I´ve wanted to hike up to it since I got here. Instead of spending money on a guide, two Australians, Jared and Felicia, and I decided to try the hike ourselves.
We woke up at about 5, went to the market for some fruit, bread and cheese to bring along for lunch, and then took a taxi up to the last town up the road towards the mountain. From there, we hiked up the road for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, we met a Peruvian woman who told us it would be another 5 hours by road and offered to lead us on a short cut. After walking with her for about an hour, we arrived at her familiy´s cow and llama grazing area. They live out in the middle of a beautiful, freezing, windswept mountain range in these little grass huts that are about 15 feet in circumference and 5 feet high. They offered us some milk (actually disgusting milk curds, but it was still very generous) and crackers. Then, they offered to have their 12 year-old daughter lead us up the mountain. Wearing nothing but black sandles with no socks, a t-shirt with a blanket safety pinned over, pants and a hat (we eventually gave her some of our clothes to wear), she started running up the mountain much faster than any of us could keep up (we were at about 13,000 feet and not breathing so well). She kept having to adjust her time estimate and was in constant amazement at how slow we were. Finally, we arrived at the lake at the base of the mountain, which was gorgeous, and ate some lunch before an easy hike back down.
July 12: Pachamanca
Today, we had an enormous Peruvian feast called a Pachamanca. They cook a Pachamanca by digging a giant hole in the ground, lining it with extremely hot rocks, and then filling the hole with potatoes, lamb, pork, beans, tamales, and guinea pig. Then, they cover the food with banana leaves and a tarp and it cooks. It was incredibly delicious and it was definitely one of the biggest meals I´ve ever eaten in one sitting. The guinea pig was delicious, but the lamb was my favorite.
July 13-14: Last days in Huancayo (kind of)
On the 13th, our last day at the orphanage, we went into the orphanage with all the ingredients for the cake the kids wanted to make us and watched them bake. They were all much more knowledgable than we were. After, we took a little trip out to the Ocapa Monestary in one of the nearby towns. In the evening, we went back to the orphanage and had a little going away party. We ate the cake, gave the kids all of our leftover supplies as prizes, and danced. At the end, all the girls sang us a song and a couple of the kids gave going away speeches. It was all very touching, and it was sad to leave. They are all such great kids with a pretty hard life ahead of them.
Today, I´ve just been trying to get everything in line before I leave. Tomorrow morning, I take a bus to Lima and then spend the night in Lima. Thursday I fly to Cusco, and Friday I begin the Inca trail. By Monday I´ll be in Machu Picchu, and I leave for Buenos Aires on the 22nd.
Sorry this is so long and I hope that everyone is well. I will try to update this more regularaly when I am in Argentina and have better internet access. Please send emails with updates on how you´re all doing.
Love, Melanie
June 14-19: Natural dyes class
Our main goal at the orphanage was to start teaching some of the older kids (ages 12-15) skills they can use to make money after the leave the orphanage at age 18. This week, we brought in a weaving expert from one of the nearbye villages to teach the kids (and be default, us) how to make natural dyes for wool using plants, minerals and insects. We made yellow, green, purple, gold, and red. It was really fascinating to see what the people have learned to make naturally. Due to the deaths in Iquitos, there was a strike and lots of protests in the streets this week. People overall are extremely unhappy with the Garcia government. Maura and I had the opprotunity to visit the Huancayo courthouse with a lawyer we met at a barbeque and it was extremely interesting to see how a different judicial system functions. We took one walk out into the country, came across some people harvesting potatoes, and sat for a while with them and ate fresh roasted potatoes. Its incredible how such poor people are still so generous. We also went to a little village famous for its gourd-carvers and learned how they make the gourds.
June 20-24: Trip to the Jungle
Along with three of my friends, and then our tri-generational guide trio of Abuelo (grandfather), Lucho (father) and Rayme (son), we took a bus ride about 4 hours north to La Merced. From La Merced, we took a car for an hour, a moto for another hour, a cable car across the river, and then hiked about an hour up into the high jungle. It was absolutely beautiful... looked like it was straight out of Jurassic Park. We stayed at a ranch their family owns in a two story, no-wall wooden structure, sleeping in mosquito nets. Every day we were there, we took hikes around the jungle. Lucho is an expert on the plants and animals, and we found coffee beans, chocolate beans, avocado, bananas, and lots of other things to eat. We saw an amazing selection of birds and butterflies. Abuelo cooked for us every breakfast and dinner, and the food was really amazing. Whenever we got too hot and sweaty, we would just stop at one of the waterfalls and take a little shower before continuing on.
A couple more memorable experiences...
The second day we were there, we hiked down a steep bit of mountain that was very muddy but had lots of small trees and vines. Lucho, Rayme and my friends Maura and Kusi walked down very gracefully. However, my other friend Frank and I could not keep out footing and ended up sliding down most of the mountain on our butts. We would just swing/hang from vine to tree to vine, pullling our quite a bit of it as we went. It was incredibly fun and my pants were irreversably muddied. Lucho claimed that the two of us needed to be careful not to contribute so much to deforestation.
On the third day, we walked along the river, stopping to climb up the different little waterfalls. Everything was going well until Lucho got bored with the trails he always goes on and decided to explore a bit. We ended up having to repel down a series of twenty foot rock cliffs with nothing but a rope to hold onto. COnsidering my fear of heights, I was absolutely terrified. However, things were fine until Rayme forgot the machete at the top of one of the cliffs and decided to free climb to go get it. He started an avalanche on himself and one of the rocks cracked a gash in his head. We all, predictably, started to freak out, but we still had like three more cliffs to climb down. We tied a pair of pants on Rayme´s head to stop the bleeding, then rushed down all the cliffs and hiked about 2 hours down the river. Rayme went to the clinic, got some stitches and was fine, but it was quite the scary experience. Medical accidents become a little more frightening when you´re six hours from a hospital.
Overall, the jungle experience was absolutely incredible. It was one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been, the hiking was incredible, and it was great to meet all the local people.
June 26-29: Visit to Ayacucho
For the weekend, Maura, Kusi and I went to visit Frank in Ayacucho. We took night buses too and from Ayacucho on Friday and Sunday nights (a good way to save time and to save money on hostels). The road from Huancayo to Ayacucho is mostly dirt and very bumpy, but it was easy enough to sleep both ways. Ayacucho is a really cool city. It´s smaller than Huancayo, more colonial and more pedestrian. It was also the home of the terrorist group the Shining Path, so until recently no tourists could go there. Therefore, the city has less American/European influences than most cities in Peru, which was fun to see.
The first day in Ayacucho we went to a soccer game (which was absolutely insane but very fun) and went shopping for llama blankets. The second day we went shopping at a market which used to be a jail but now serves as an artesian market. Every vendor has a cell. In the afternoon, we watched the America vs Brazil soccer game in the street with about 30 Peruvian men. It was fun, even though everyone except for us was rooting for Brazil.
June 30-July 5: Back to Huancayo
We had class again with the kids at the orphanage this week. Since Maura and Kusi left on Wednesday, we had a little party with the kids. It was adorable- they were all so excited and appreciative. We decorated our classroom with streamers and balloons, ate cake and ice cream, handed out photo albums and had dancing competitions. The party reminded me of a middle school dance. There was another strike this week in protest of three new transportation laws, and no cars or buses were on the roads and most of the roads were blocked off with large stones. The general discontent with the government is pretty incredible.
After Maura and Kusi left, a new girl named Sam from Pittsburgh arrived to help with classes. In the afternoons, we took a couple of expedititions out to different towns in the valley (Huancayo is in the center of the Mantaro Valley in the Andes Mountains, and the valley is full of really cool villages and beautiful hikes). On Saturday (July 4th), we tried to be American by going to the giant mall and eating Kentucky Fried Chicken and ice cream. On Sunday, we shopped at the Huancayo market (the longest in all of Peru) and had a delicious trout barbeque in the afternoon.
July 6- July 10: Rural homestay and weaving class
This week, I went with an English guy named Matt to a town called 3 de diciembre (about 1 hour south of Huancayo) to live for a week with a rural family. It was a really incredible experience. The family was a husband, a wife, their 23 year-old daughter (trainging to become a nurse) and their 19 year-old son (at school to become a mining engineer). They live on a farm where they grow all of their own food and raise animals. To earn money to pay for their kids´education, the husband works construction in the city and the wife runs the farm and takes the crops to the market.
We spent the weeking just helping around the farm and house. I cooked, cleaned, de-kernaled dried corn to sell in the market, chopped alfalfa, fed the pigs, mixed cement and much more. Everything we ate for the whole week was all natural and grown on their farm. They grow 4 kinds of potatoes, corn, spinach, 20 kinds of herbs, wheat, and much more. The only problem with this situation was that we ate an almost exclusively starch diet (potatoes 3x daily) and that our host mom forced us to eat until absolute exhaustion at every meal. We both felt our pants tightening a bit by the end of the week, and could not make it through the day without napping after lunch. However, for one of our lunches, we visited a trout pond where we paid $2 each for a man to pull out our trout, kill them, clean them, and fry them- one of the most delicious things I´ve ever eaten.
The lifestyle there was incredible. We worked hard all day, went to sleep with the sun and woke up at dawn. The landscape around the farm is incredibly beautiful, and the local people were all so friendly that we couldn´t go on a walk without having to stop to talk at least a few times. We learned about the rural Peruvian Santiago festival, and were twice dressed up by our family in traditional Santiago costumes to use as props for photographs (they had the two of us take one series of photos with the family cow). I was so lucky to have the opportunity to meet such wonderful people.
July 11: Huayatapallana hike
Huancayo is surrounded by mountains, almost all of which are brown and gently rounded. However, there is one mountain that is much taller and covered by snow- Huayatapallana. You can see the mountain from anywhere in the valley, and I´ve wanted to hike up to it since I got here. Instead of spending money on a guide, two Australians, Jared and Felicia, and I decided to try the hike ourselves.
We woke up at about 5, went to the market for some fruit, bread and cheese to bring along for lunch, and then took a taxi up to the last town up the road towards the mountain. From there, we hiked up the road for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, we met a Peruvian woman who told us it would be another 5 hours by road and offered to lead us on a short cut. After walking with her for about an hour, we arrived at her familiy´s cow and llama grazing area. They live out in the middle of a beautiful, freezing, windswept mountain range in these little grass huts that are about 15 feet in circumference and 5 feet high. They offered us some milk (actually disgusting milk curds, but it was still very generous) and crackers. Then, they offered to have their 12 year-old daughter lead us up the mountain. Wearing nothing but black sandles with no socks, a t-shirt with a blanket safety pinned over, pants and a hat (we eventually gave her some of our clothes to wear), she started running up the mountain much faster than any of us could keep up (we were at about 13,000 feet and not breathing so well). She kept having to adjust her time estimate and was in constant amazement at how slow we were. Finally, we arrived at the lake at the base of the mountain, which was gorgeous, and ate some lunch before an easy hike back down.
July 12: Pachamanca
Today, we had an enormous Peruvian feast called a Pachamanca. They cook a Pachamanca by digging a giant hole in the ground, lining it with extremely hot rocks, and then filling the hole with potatoes, lamb, pork, beans, tamales, and guinea pig. Then, they cover the food with banana leaves and a tarp and it cooks. It was incredibly delicious and it was definitely one of the biggest meals I´ve ever eaten in one sitting. The guinea pig was delicious, but the lamb was my favorite.
July 13-14: Last days in Huancayo (kind of)
On the 13th, our last day at the orphanage, we went into the orphanage with all the ingredients for the cake the kids wanted to make us and watched them bake. They were all much more knowledgable than we were. After, we took a little trip out to the Ocapa Monestary in one of the nearby towns. In the evening, we went back to the orphanage and had a little going away party. We ate the cake, gave the kids all of our leftover supplies as prizes, and danced. At the end, all the girls sang us a song and a couple of the kids gave going away speeches. It was all very touching, and it was sad to leave. They are all such great kids with a pretty hard life ahead of them.
Today, I´ve just been trying to get everything in line before I leave. Tomorrow morning, I take a bus to Lima and then spend the night in Lima. Thursday I fly to Cusco, and Friday I begin the Inca trail. By Monday I´ll be in Machu Picchu, and I leave for Buenos Aires on the 22nd.
Sorry this is so long and I hope that everyone is well. I will try to update this more regularaly when I am in Argentina and have better internet access. Please send emails with updates on how you´re all doing.
Love, Melanie
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Pictures
Hi!
Everything's still going well. I've visited a formation of natural rock towers (Torre Torre), hiked to a laguna, visited village specializing in weaving and silver jewelry, and visited pre-Incan ruins that overlook most of the Montero Valley. The Andes are absolutely amazing, and classes are still going great!
Here´s a link to the pictures I´ve taken so far: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1150038014/a=136417991_136417991/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
First few days
Hi!
The trip here was a little rocky (a flight got canceled and they lost one of my bags) but my time here to far has been incredible! I´m staying in a small hostel in Huancayo, where I have met some really amazing people. We´ve been exploring around the city and hiking into the mountains (Huancayo is in the Andes at the base of some really cool mountains). Also, we´ve started to teach at the orphanage, and that´s been really fun. The kids are a little rowdy but very good. The biggest problem came when I tried to tutor a boy on his multiplication homework (it´s been a while since I´ve tried to figure out math without a calculator). My computer is locked up safe, so I haven´t yet been able to post pictures, but I´ll post them as soon as I get a chance.
Hope you´re well!
The trip here was a little rocky (a flight got canceled and they lost one of my bags) but my time here to far has been incredible! I´m staying in a small hostel in Huancayo, where I have met some really amazing people. We´ve been exploring around the city and hiking into the mountains (Huancayo is in the Andes at the base of some really cool mountains). Also, we´ve started to teach at the orphanage, and that´s been really fun. The kids are a little rowdy but very good. The biggest problem came when I tried to tutor a boy on his multiplication homework (it´s been a while since I´ve tried to figure out math without a calculator). My computer is locked up safe, so I haven´t yet been able to post pictures, but I´ll post them as soon as I get a chance.
Hope you´re well!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Hi!
Hi!
I just started this blog for my trip to Peru and Argentina (I leave June 6 and get back December 22). I don't really know how to do this, so it might be a little bit of a learning process. Please keep in touch through email. I'm not sure how often I'll be on a computer to respond, but I'd love to keep up with how everyone is doing!
Love,
Melanie
I just started this blog for my trip to Peru and Argentina (I leave June 6 and get back December 22). I don't really know how to do this, so it might be a little bit of a learning process. Please keep in touch through email. I'm not sure how often I'll be on a computer to respond, but I'd love to keep up with how everyone is doing!
Love,
Melanie
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