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
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