El Fin del Mundo

Spring Break finally arrived after a long and grueling four weeks of school (how did we all survive right??) and eight of us started our intrepid adventure to the end of the world and back again.  We flew into Ushuaia on saturday morning, which is known to be the southernmost city in the world and the port of departure for Antarctica.  We were however informed that sadly, for geographical drinkers, the southernmost
bar in the world is not in Ushuaia but rather at a Ukrainian base on Antarctica.  Typical.  First day we did some exploring and visited the prisoners museum.  Apparently Argentines
decided to do in Patagonia what the British did in Australia, and sent all their convicts there.  Needless to say it was probably a miserable place to live as we went down there during summer and it was still freezing.  In the hostel that night, all 6 of us girls were in one room and the 2 boys were in the room next door.  They must have missed us as they ended up moving both their mattresses and sleeping on our floor! Slumber party! Never have I seen one room with so many people/bags/bottles of wine. Our second morning there Keeley, Maggie and I went on a sailboat ride out into the Beagle Canal and got the most amazing view of the mountains from the ocean.  Stopped off on Island H (clearly the settlers were creative thinkers-the island is in the shape of an H) and learned about the Yamana people who lived stark naked on the islands and rubbed sea lion fat over them to keep them from freezing to death.  What a life!  After, we went and stalked some sea lions while they were sleeping, so cool!  After our long, wet, windy, cold, yet thoroughly enjoyable cruise we all found our way to the one and only Dublin Irish Bar which conveniently was situated around the corner from our hostel.  upon our return to the hostel, we were admittedly a little loud, and a fellow traveller decided to come out of his room and scream at us in spanish.  He ended by yelling "Idiotas" and storming back down the hallway.  This would have been a slightly terrifying experience, had this athletic young man not been wearing the equivalent of granny panties....they kind of took the edge off and left us in fits of giggles yet still remaining terrified that he might return for round two.

Monday was a pretty uneventful day as the majority of it was spent on a bus which drove us into Chile to Punta Arenas.  The town itself is pretty unexciting as we discovered on our trek to the hostel but from Punta Arenas you can go to see a penguin colony which has more than 100,000 penguins!  We nicknamed our hostel Grandma's House, as it was run out of an elderly woman's home.  Imagine the stereotypical grandparents house....thats where we stayed...that's also where Alana turned 21.  Raging with grandma, woop woop.  We made up for it though when we partied with the penguins, busting out the party hats and all.  Pulled out all the stops.  We even had lunch in a supermarket!  Punta Arenas is also where we got "gringo-ed", aka ripped off by the taxi drivers.  Let the good times roll.

Wednesday morning we took a bus to Puerto Natales, the gateway to Torres del Paine, Chile's (and arguably South America's) finest national park.  We then had a grand total of two and a half hours to buy bus tickets, find somewhere to rent backpacks, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, stoves, gas, jackets and pretty much anything else you need for a trek into the mountains.  It was like the Amazing Race, group style.  Everyone running in all different directions, tensions rising...it would have made awesome television.  Mission was accomplished with minutes to spare and we made it to our bus on time.  But only in South America would a bus driver with a bus full of people turn the bus around 20 minutes in because one passenger started crying that she had accidently thrown out her camera at the bus depot.  How you manage to throw out your camera I have no idea, next to my passport it is the one thing I care about most on this trip! But we made it to the park by 5:30 pm and got on a ferry across Lago Pehoe to get to our starting point, having little to no idea that what was in store for us was way more intense than we anticipated.  That ferry trip was absolutely gorgeous.  Blue skies, turquoise waters, very Caribbean looking, except for the fact that the temperature hovered around freezing.  The next 48 hours we spent trekking up and down mountains, pitching tents, eating borderline raw spaghetti and crackers and tearing all the skin off our feet...and none of us showered for three days. Sounds fun right? It was, in actuality, one of the most amazing experiences.  Not only was the landscape picturesque, but the feeling of accomplishment was a natural adrenaline boost!  We also saw the effects of a massive forest fire that had swept the park last November, starting from someone's campfire.  There were times when we walked through areas where everything around us was burnt.  Creepy but cool.  I will admit that Keeley had to bribe me with crackers during the last 30 minutes of our 11 hour hike to keep walking as my legs point blank refused to keep moving uphill.  And yes, I know, typical Olivia, bribing with food always seems to work.  Damn it.   

Our last stop on our whirlwind trip of Patagonia took us back to Argentina to Calafate, which has become a huge tourist draw because of the Perito Moreno glacier which is a 250 km² (97 sq mi) ice formation, and has a length of 30 km (19 mi).  It's one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing!  All in all an awesome trip to some of the most naturally beautiful places in the world!

Iguazu Falls

1:00 am Saturday: Bed time

3:30 am Saturday: Alarm goes off.

4:10 am Saturday: Cab arrives

4:30 am Saturday: Get on a bus with forty other students

5:30 am Saturday: Arrive at EZE aiport

7:00 am Saturday: Supposed take off time

10:45am Saturday: Actual take off time. 

Just so everyone is clear, I am not a morning person.  Think about if for a second and imagine how fun I was for 80% of that day, I'm surprised anyone still wanted to talk to me.  I guess I am funny after all!

But even though we all looked like homeless people sleeping on our bags in the airport we made it to Iguazu by one in the afternoon and our pilot decided to take it upon himself to make up for our wait time and fly us in a circle over the waterfalls giving us an amazing birds eye view.  Definitely made it worth the wait. 

Upon arrival, the heavens opened and we were greeted with a torrential downpour so we postponed our trip to visit the falls until Sunday.  Instead we trekked over to a place called the Three Frontiers which is where two rivers intersect and you are able to see Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina all at the same time.  So I can't say I've officially been to Brazil or Paraguay, but I have definitely seen them! This is around the time that I discovered there was a tear in the contacts that i had brought for the trip so I had one of two options, be blind for three days, or wear my glasses. Neither of those sounded particularly appealing. Through process of elimination I decided that I couldn't be blind while viewing some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, so glasses it was.  Yup, the closet nerd came out, while hiking. Go me. 

Dinner proved an even more exciting adventure as a group of us went out for dinner and one of the guys got pick-pocketed on our way there.  But no, the excitement doesn't end there.  Dinner goes great, we eat, we get the check...and out of nowhere the two guys at our table start full on brawling.  I'm talking 12 tequila shot bar fight, except it was in a restaurant.  People were scooping up their children and whisking them out of the room while the rest of our dinner party sat there in a state of extreme confusion as fists continued to be thrown.  Slightly embarrassing would be an understatement.  No wonder foreigners get the reputation that we do.  Anyways, after apologizing profusely and paying two hundred pesos for the damage the boys did to the place we shuffled out and (wisely) decided to call it a night.  

Sunday morning we left for Iguazu falls, which for those of you who don't know are like Niagara Falls on steroids.  It's made up of hundreds of waterfalls on both the Argentinean side and the Brazilian side.  Pictures just don't do it justice, but I tried.  We also took a boat ride under the falls, getting extremely wet in the process! 

Monday morning we toured the ruins of an old mission before heading off to an estancia for lunch and a relaxing day by the pool.  Tanning in the middle of the rolling hills in the northern provinces of Argentina was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip.  Then guess what, our plane was delayed again! Surprise surprise! Argentine time is like island time, it doesn't really exist.
And because of our thoroughly stressful weekend my roommate and I, decided that we couldn't go to class today so we slept in and then decided to tour the city.  Definitely a well deserved break!  

Mendoza: Wine Country

After much umming and ahhing a group of us decided that our destination for the four day holiday weekend was going to be Mendoza, which is the wine capital of Argentina.  What better way to spend a long weekend than by biking through vineyards and testing all the wines that South America has to offer? This idyllic weekend started out with a fourteen hour bus ride which was delayed three hours, typical.  But we made it to our hostel by noon on Saturday and asked what we could do to pass some time as all the wine tours had left for the day....the guides answer: paragliding.  Somehow, 45 minutes later and 300 pesos poorer, we were strapped into harnesses and running off the side of a cliff at full speed.  Spontaneity at its finest.  We got a bird's eye view of Mendoza, the surrounding vineyards and the nearby foothills to the Andes.  Couldn't think of a better way to be introduced to this slice of countryside.

Later that night we were treated to an asado (a massive barbeque) and FREE tequila.  Yes, FREE tequila.  How could I resist?  About an hour in, our delicious dinner turned into some form of foam party (I blame the tequila) which we enjoyed until the wee hours of the morning.  Waking up the next morning at 7:30 for a full day of trekking, rappelling, and white water rafting was not as easy as we had imagined in our tequila induced state.  But we soldiered through and had the greatest day despite the cold weather! And what better way to celebrate a great day then by having some more tequila? The Porteño men across the hall from us decided to host a mini party for us so we ended up teaching them all the American drinking games we could think of (you try explaining flip cup in Spanish!!).
The best part of the trip was definitely our biking tour of the vineyards.  We got to visit three different bodegas (wineries), all completely different, and taste test 3-4 wines at each place which as you would imagine made it increasingly difficult to bike in a straight line as the day wore on.

 
As it was the weekend of Carnival, we attempted to make it to the celebrations.  Assuming that the Argentineans who like to start their drinking late and end even later, would be celebrating well past midnight.  We walked over to the huge park only to find it completely deserted, yes, we missed one of the biggest celebrations of the year.  Oops.  Lucky for us a large group of Argentine men took it upon themselves to help us celebrate in some way shape or form.  When they saw us walking into the park they ran at us with bottles of water and cans of spray foam, and as we all ran screaming in opposite directions they completely soaked us, apparently another tradition we had never heard of... Slightly scary being charged by a large group of water bottle toting latino men.
Finished our trip with another fourteen hour bus ride which got us home at 8am Wednesday morning, allowing us a full 2 hours before we had to go to class for our 5 hours intensive spanish class.  Now it's time to catch up on three days worth of sleep!       

Hazing and La Bomba

Walked out of class today to find a guy being legit hazed...in front of school.  No joke, people were pelting him with eggs, flour, honey, milk, chocolate syrup, dulce de leche, you name it, but the weirdest part was he was laughing and smiling through the entire thing.  I was confused to say the least, but apparently this is how Argentine students celebrate graduating from university.  Not sure if that's how I would want to end a glorious four years but hey, its not my tradition!  It sure was entertaining though.

Every Monday night there is a concert called La Bomba de Tiempo in a random outdoor venue called Konex which looks mildly like a bombed out building.  It's a percussion group of about 15 drummers but they also invite other local musicians to accompany them on occassion.  The whole thing basically turns into a huge jam session/rager/place to get your dance on for both Porteños and tourists.  Possibly one of the best nights we have had here so far.  Some info on Bomba de Tiempo.   Needless to say we all needed to go home and shower immediately after La Bomba.

El Tigre

Saturday morning found us ISA students on a train headed up to El Tigre, a small town about 17 miles north of the city which is situated on a river delta, aka the South American version of Venice.  There are no roads, just rivers making it an ideal getaway for porteños when they want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  Apparently if you are trying to send a letter to one of the houses, you have to write the name (not number) of the house, and the river that its on! Everything happens by boat, the post, supermarket, etc.  We arrived and took a barge tour of the river on our way to a secluded beach spot where we spend a couple of hours getting our burn on.  I managed to 2nd degree burn just my left hand, how I managed that...I have no idea as I used SPF 45 (thats the lowest they seem to sell here).  It looks like a huge purple birth mark, people keep staring at me funny.  Lucky for me, I was one of the least burnt people on Monday at school, lets just say we couldn't have made it more obvious that we aren't from here.  After frying ourselves we strolled around Puerto de Frutas, an open air market where we all picked up gourds for mate (a traditional hot drink kind of like tea that is drunk communally here in Argentina).  Our final stop of the day was at San Isidro where we had a beautiful coastal view of Buenos Aires and had an afternoon tea of media lunas, tostadas and brownies!  

Cultural Observations

First week of school. Check. Somehow we all managed to survive a grueling five hours of intensive Spanish every day, even after some of our rather more outlandish nightly excursions.  Apparently my spanish is improving (according to my host mum), so this intensive program must be working?!?
Some cultural observations:

Professional dog walker!

View from my classroom

1) Americans have no idea how to party.  Everyone needs to come down here and give Porteño Partying a try.  A typical night out STARTS at 3am and lasts until 8am, at which time one can go to an after party until around noon.  Haven't quite figured out how they manage to get up on Monday morning and go to work again.  It's pure ridiculousness.
2) They don't pick up dog poo.  Literally we are advised to walk around the city while looking down so as to avoid stepping in treacherous zones.

New Trier girls reunion in BsAs!

3) On that note, I have never seen so many beautiful dogs in one place, and they are all so well behaved too!
4) I think thieves in Buenos Aires get a PhD in robbery 101.  Their scams are so elaborate and well planned.  "Mustard on the back" is a well known (yet still fallen for) trick.  Some nice old lady taps you on the shoulder to let you know that you have mustard/ketchup/bird poo/powdered milk (you get the idea), etc. on your back.  You think how nice she is looking out for me.  But as soon as you look over your shoulder to check out your back, BOOM she's gone, and so is your wallet/camera/anything else valuable you have on you.  One guy in our program had all his bags stolen at the airport when they pulled this on him.
5) Men are a lot more aggressive south of the equator.  They have no qualms about yelling out "piropos" or  "cat calls" at any woman who walks by them.  Slightly creepy.
6) For a city, Buenos Aires is super green! Lots of parks and trees and mini lakes.

First Impressions

Touchdown in Buenos Aires!! After a long and grueling 24 hours of traveling, I made it safe and sound to EZE airport and immediately (thank god) found the ISA coordinator who was meeting us and the rest of the students flying in.  Our whole group bused to the University of Belgrano (where we will be studying), where we met our host families.  My host mum is an older woman by the name of Liliana who speaks little to no english, so hopefully my Spanish will be much improved by this experience!  In the past two days we have had three orientation meetings, a placement exam, and a city tour by bus so we could get to know the area! Im currently in a state of information overload and so have no idea what is going on.  Classes start tmrw, 5 hours of intensive spanish, 5 days a week...might as well kill me now.  But the city is beyond beautiful, an easy city to walk around, with tons of stuff to do.  Its also hot and humid so hopefully I will stop glowing in the dark soon. Im trying to plan everything now so I can fit everything in in just two months! Ahhh! So much to do, so little time!