The Argentine preferred method of travel and Iguazu Falls

Bueno. First of all, thank you to those that are posting comments--it is so exciting to know folks are actually reading this thing!

In our last episode, the intrepid young travellers (or not so young, depending on how you look at it) were happy to be returning to Argentina, home of the hot men, from Uruguay, home of nasty dogs and not so hot men. The most exciting thing for us about Urugauay was the coffee service. $42 pesos (about $1.75) gets you your own coffee pot, steamed milk pot, sweet popcorn, juice, and small basket of sweets. Not shabby.

Anyway, we are done with that now. We took the rapid ferry back to Buenos Aires, which takes about an hour. The river was really choppy and it did occur to us that they had not played the safety video upon embarkation and here was a time in which it might be possible to need it. Although the only thing you really learn from the safety video is that if the boat goes down, you are going to drown.

Anyway, we went directly from the ferry terminal to the bus terminal to catch the 18 hour bus that would take us to Iguazu Falls. The bus was actually pretty comfortable and we had gone first class to get the seats that recline all the way (about $60). They serve dinner, wine, played a movie we couldn´t hear, and had a snafu with the reading light that would not go off. The steward guy finally came over and covered the light with luggage stickers to block out the intensity of it. The light finally burned out about a half hour before we reached Iguazu. Not a bad trip though. No comments necessary about the attractiveness of the on board bus steward.

At the bus terminal, there are a bunch of people trying to tell you about thier accomodation and we decided to take one that she said was just a few blocks away. This being only a week or less post dog, it was important that we not have to walk for an hour with our heavy packs to find a place. Of course, with her directions, it did take roughly that long to find it. Anyway, we finally found it, checked in, took cold showers--apparently adverstising caliente agua is more a hope than an actual reality sometimes--and took off for some lunch. Found a little place nearby that we could sit outside, have a bottle of wine for 6 pesos and a milanesa and just chilled out for a while.

That evening, we had arranged to meet with Rosina, a woman I met on the Lonely Planet website, and her friend Pam at the post office in town. We hung around about for about 15 minutes and this van pulled up and an attractive man (imagine that) got off and called my name. Expecting Rosina to be a woman, it took me a few minutes to realize she was in the van and this guy was the tour guide showing them around town! Anyway, we went with them to see the sites of the city and then have dinner. The night was a lot of fun as there were 4 people in the tour group, the others were 2 guys from Canada, and the personalities involved were all very different from each other so the conversation was really very interesting. You can´t ask much more than that as it makes things quite entertaining. I am glad that it worked out that we all got to meet in Iguazu and they were both really great ladies. They were on some kind of blitzkrieg 5 day tour of BA and Iguazu though, and must have slept for about 3 days upon return!

So the next day, we went to the falls. I am not going to really try to bother to describe them, because it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and words and pictures do not do it justice. I only recommend anyone who can go in their lifetime should do so! We had the most perfect conditions: The weather was sunny but partly cloudy to keep the direct sun off of you, temp around 68 degrees, no bugs, no humidity, and no tourists! This is the off season, although for the life of me, I can´t see why. Also, there was so much water in the falls that one of the islands was closed and some of the boating excursions were closed due to the embarkation points being under water.

I will attach the pictures here and let them speak for themselves:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Iguazu%20Falls/

We returned to Buenos Aires on another overnight bus, spent an evening there, and then got on another overnight bus--this one about 12 hours--to Mendoza, which is the wine capital of Argentina. Stay tuned for additional chapters in our continuing saga on why we loved Mendoza, the discovery of food other than steak, ham and milanesa in Argentina, and our attempt to get at the root of the good looking men conspiracy.

"No worries, you´re perfectly safe here"

So sayeth the man we rented the condo in Punta Del Diablo from......

Punta Del Diablo is a small beachside town in Uruguay about 50 kilometers south of the Brazilan border. Apparenlty in the summer it is full of tourists, and since it is mid fall here now, we were only 2 of about 6 tourists in town. Nice. We rented a 2 bedroom condo on the beach with a fireplace, cable tv and a kitchen for around $35 per day. Here we are, all set to enjoy some fine Uruguay wine ($2 for the boxed stuff that is actually decent), cooking some great meals, reading and writing on the beach for a few days, and in general chilling out and relaxing.

Should have known that first night when Shannon said "this is so lovely, perfect, and cheap, what a great time we will have here!"

Never tempt the gods by expressing your gratitude for something good as it all goes to hell after that!

So the next morning, as I am leisurely getting up, getting the coffee Shannon made, and stepping outside to check out the view and fresh air, I hear yelling from the beach. Shannon has left me a note saying she is going for a walk on the beach. I assume for a minute that the yelling is some people playing around and am about to sit down when it occurs to me that this is most likely impossible, since we are, for the most part, the only people in town. I step over to the fence to see what is up and see a small dark head moving and nothing else. I hear my name and recognize the voice as belonging to mi amiga. I run around the house and am getting on to the beach where I can see she is down on the ground with 2 dogs on top of her and a man is just arriving with a 2 by 4 to beat the dogs off her.

Shannon risked the wrath of the gods by expressing her appreciation for our oasis and was rewarded by being mauled by two dogs on the beach. The situation was pretty grave. She was covered in lacerations and there was blood everywhere. A few men showed up to help her, and I ran to find the owner of the apartment to see if they could call for medical help. When we returned a few minutes later the police were already there and quickly loaded her into the car to go for medical assistance. She was pretty much unable to walk, and understandably shaken and terrified. And trying to communicate what had happened in Spanish! Thank god she actually has the Spanish skills to be able to do so!

We went to the medical clinic where they dressed her wounds, which covered the entire backside of her legs and arms, and determined that she needed to go by ambulance to Castillos, the nearest town with a hospital. The ambulance is about a 1964 station wagon which was driven by one of the cops as there apparently is no one else to do so. We were accompanied by this woman Norma, who is some sort of elected official and liason for tourists. She is also the wife of the cop who was driving. In what has now been determined as typical South American behavior, she and her husband were all over each other in the hospital. I was tempted to tell them Shannon and I could wait in the hall if they needed to get a room. Sheesh. There are people making out everywhere around her. I am a little surprised that they even bother to sell clothes down here as presumably no one spends much time in them.

But I digress: We believe we are heading off for a tetnus shot and rabies treatment. Of course Latin America being what it is, we went to 3 different places before finding the right one where they then gave her the tetnus shot and argued about rabies. Apparently Uruguay has been rabies free for 20 years and so they simply don´t have the treatment. Shannon really wanted it for preventative reasons, as that is one of the first things one would do in the States if attacked by animals. After much arguing and discussion, she was told there would be no treatment and so she was left to further ponder whether or not this might be a problem, on top of the all of the bleeding wounds and fact that she could not walk.

We spent the next several days in our little condo watching bad American films, which I must admit was probably good for my Spanish to watch so many subtitles, as she started to recover. She was in a lot of pain and was really considering going back to New York instead of continuing on with the trip.

When we went out for the first time, about a day and a half later, it was raining and windy. Every stray dog in town, which were numerous, came around us and it was really freaky. In fact, ever since then, no matter where we go, she seems to attract dogs like she is carrying a steak around in her pocket. Creepy. Somewhat amusing though was her newfound fame in the town of Punta Del Diablo. People were constantly warning us that a tourist had been attacked by dogs and they could not understand what had happened, although they admited that the tourists feed the dogs all summer and now had been gone just long enough that the dogs were starving. They were simultaneously shocked and secretly thrilled (I think!) to find that they were meeting the victim in the flesh. Shannon´s most frequest phrase for a while became "yo soy ella". I am her.

There was also this political undercurrent of the fact that the police do not have the jurisdicition to get rid of the dogs and there are two opinions of the townspeople: one that they should get rid of the dogs, other that it is cruelty to kill them. We did hear though that they had gotten rid of the two dogs. I guess a posse went out in the middle of the night and made the problem go away...unofficially, that is.

We left PDD and went to Colonia, which is a small conlonial town across the river from Buenos Aires where people go to get their passport stamped when they need to extend their stay in Argentina past the 90 day limit. It is a lovely litte town, and we spent the night there an spent an obnoxious amount of money on a dinner that was average and had no alcohol. Colonia is a weekend getaway destination for porteños, so the prices are understandably inflated. It was lovely though and we are glad we spent a bit of time there.

Shannon decided to go ahead and stay after all as our next plan was to go to Iguazu falls and knew that if she returned to NY, she would no doubt feel better quickly and be really upset that she missed Iguazu. This turned out to be true, and maybe tomorrow I will write about that portion of the trip. For now I am going to act like a local and go take a sietsa!

Here are some photos of Uruguaÿ:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Uruguay/

The verdict is in

So we have assesed the situation and at this point have come up with a mutual decision. All the hot guys in Argentina are noticibly missing in Uraguay. Not that they are dogs, but it is much like being home in good old NYC where more often than not you are not going the check out the guy crossing the street towards you.

Yes girls, in case you are wondering, Buenos Aires is where all the attractive men in the world are living. We have decided that we have not seen one ugly one yet, even down to the little old men. We have decided that further investigation into Argentina is called for, so stay tuned for an update.

In other news, Shannon arrived about a week ago and we spent the time kicking around the city and me mostly stressing about my evening Spanish lesson. No studying during the day makes for more than a few dirty looks at night when I reach IBL and attempt to communicate in what passes for Spanish. Shannon is having a field day with all the new words down here though and the Catellano Spanish, assuming I am even spelling that right...but I digress. Yo is pronouced jo, and ella is ejja which to most Spanish speakers is completely foreign. Over several glasses of wine tonight we are going to need to consider whether the pronunciation contributes overall to the attractiveness of the people. Anyone with an opinion on that should feel free to weigh in.

So here we are today in Montevideo, Uraguay. We got here yesterday on the ferry-bus combination to be warned within the first half hour of our arrivial--both by the taxi driver who then ripped us off, as well as the woman at the hotel--to not leave the hotel with our purses and to only walk on certian streets. Today we can understand why. It is primero de Mayo, which is basically Labor Day to all you on the other side of the Equator and NOTHING is open. There are some shady people on the streets though, so at least we were not totally alone. We have found this internet cafe to be open as well as a couple of restuarants. The requirement for open restuarants seems to be that they must sell pizza. We are OK with this and so will probably head off for a pizza in a little while. We need to be heading to the bus station at 5 manaña, so will make it an early night....which is OK since there is nothing to do. Montevideo is cute and interesting, and perhaps it being all closed may contribute to our feelings, but we have decided we have seen all there really is to see.

Tomorrow we are off to Punta Del Diablo, a beach town near the Brazillian border that has come recommended by both my Spanish professor and my compañero, Fabian. It is off season, so we are assured no one will be there and that will be lovely as we want to spend a few days kicking back, reading, and staring at the waves. There will probably be very little email access and no food, so it should be an interesting time. We are looking to lose some weight anyway, and so will send pictures after our time at the beach!

In the company of a Bush twin....oh the shame of it!

And so begins another chapter in our continuing story on life in Argentina. This is a land where the term "live your life today because you could get hit by a bus tomorrow" needs to be taken quite literally. The sidewalks here are roughly a foot and a half wide, and god help you if you need to pass someone. The buses here are all on some sort of race to the finish and will come to within an inch of the curb. So if you step into the street to pass someone on the sidewalk and a bus comes up behind you, chances are quite good that you will not survive the encounter.

Not only do the buses speed through the street, ringing the bell for the bus to stop so that you can get off is more of a suggestion than anything. For the most part, as they reach your stop, they slow down to a crawl, the door opens, and you jump out, hoping that your feet make contact with the street before the door handle hits you on the head as the bus speeds off. If you are lucky, many people will be waiting at the bus stop to board the bus. In that case, the bus will actually stop--which is good. I am certainly learning some new skills for coordination.

What I am not learning, unfortunately, are new skills of observation. That's right friends, your favorite blonde traveller had her purse ripped off at dinner the other night. About a bottle and a half of wine into the evening in a very busy place, I got drunk, lazy, and careless, and stopped paying attention to the activities of my handbag, which took that opportunity to find something else to do. Biggest tragedy of the night is the loss of my little red book, that has all the contact info for everyone I know and everything I need in it. That and the fact that bank of America says it will take 7-10 days to get me a new ATM card. Huh?? What a joke--I would be in real trouble if it was the only ATM card I had as a week is a long time to go without cash! That and replacing my NY DL will be a pain. They will only mail it to me in NYC and it will take a couple of weeks, so by the time it is received up there and sent to me, I will be somewhere in the jungle of Ecuador. Oh well, guess I have to work it out. Biggest loss number two:: the loss of my favorite, and apparently irreplacable, lip balm. Can't find it in Argentina--but Shannon will be coming to my rescue in a few days with a supply.

Small comfort that one of the Bush twins had her purse snatched in Plaza Dorrego, which is here in my hood, right in front of the secret service a couple of months ago.

In related news, apparently the police officer who made the report for me was trying to pick me up, and I was busy living up to the blonde hairdo and totally oblivious. We went to the police late Friday night here in San Telmo and they told me to go to the tourist police on Corrientes Saturday morning to make the report (supposedly for my insurance, but my deductible is too high and I really just want the police report in the event that I end up with an identity theft situation). I got there and he proceeded to tell me in a mixture of Spanish and English that I had two choices. I admit I had a moment where I was wondering if he was going to tell me that for 20 pesos he could make it much simpler.

If I wanted to list the restuarant as the place of the theft, it was in a different district and we would need to make an appointment for later in the afternoon to go there with an interpreter, etc. to file the report. If I didn't care about the location, they would take me now to the closest precinct on Lavalle calle and file a report saying some guy grabbed it from me on the street. Not giving a shit about the location, I opted for the now option. He called in another officer to take me to the police station and there we filled out the report about my "attack", which apparently now had happened at the intersection of Florida and Cordoba streets.

He asked me if I was single, and then proceeded to tell me 4 times that he was too. He also advised that I should have some Argentine friends to help me practice my Spanish. This is true, and he was really attractive :) but somehow after having a hangover and only about 3 hours of sleep this went over my head......sigh. Maybe it is time to start a new blog about my life and the myraid of missed sexual opportunities because I just wasn't paying attention and seeing the signs...sorry mom, don't read that one. :)

OK, I am outta here for now as I have no money and need to buy a handbag--although thankfully I now have a comb! Roger was nice enough to lend me some money so I could comb my hair...pathetic, I know. Worse than all this is the look of disdain I will no doubt get from my Spanish instructor tomorrow while he tries to decide if I am telling the truth about my textbook being in my handbag when it was snatched, or if I am making up a story about why I didn't do my homework.

Buenos Aires

Photobucket Album

Spanish Torture Sessions...and other observations

Hola armchair travellers! (I like that one, Joanna!) And so it is time once again folks for an update on life in Argentina...so I have now been here for 3 weeks and in Spanish class for the past two. I must say at this point in relation to the Spanish--yeah, not going well. This would mostly be because my social obligations seem to outweigh my desire to actually study since I have been all about anti-work these past few weeks. Alas, my progress has been so dismal, that I am finding I have to switch to private classes next week as the rest of the class moves on since they are all apparently buckling down and learning something. I have actually spent the weekend getting my notes in order though, so hopefully that will help tomorrow! If not, at least one can hope for a new teacher, so that none of the others I have previosly had will notice my total failure to progress.

Let's see, other news to report: My total inability to get pictures uploaded to this site. I have been trying to connnect my camera to the computer here, and thus far with no success. This could be due to the fact that the computers are a little older, or due to the fact that I am completely inept at all things technological. I will wait until Roger comes home and try to have him help me with it this evening. :) I have scheduled to stay home this evening just in order to do this, so it better work out.

In the past week, I have done some interesting things. Last Sunday we did in fact get over to the cemetary--which is really fascinating. It is a bit like the cemetaries in New Orleans with everything being in it's own masoleum. Although I guess all the people buried here are rich and important, so it makes sense that they want to have their own little house of the afterlife. Shocking though, is that all of them have glass doors and you are just gazing in on several coffins set up in a variety of ways. Bizarre and a little creepy. Very different sort of architeture on all of them though, and asthetically interesting to look at. Eva Peron is actually buried with her family (not her husband's--he is in the second class cemetary for whatever the reason) and there is a big story about how it got to be here. Apparently her body was mising for a while, and then someone held it for ransom...so on and so forth. So it is just in the house of her father here. Of course many people were gathered around and such, and eventually perhaps you all will be able to see my picture of it! On our way back, Roger and I found a great grocery store in Recoleta--it had two floors and we were so excited (the grocery stores are nothing to write home about here) that we went shopping and had to lug the stuff into the subway and 15 blocks home.....ah just like being back home!

On Wednesday night, I went to this private sushi-Peruvian fusion party thing. I guess this guy owns a buidling that he does some events and things at and has a sushi night every once in a while. It is an invitation only thing, so not a restaurant where people just come in, and for 60 pesos it was all you can eat sushi. They had a great live band and it was a blast. The atmosphere is very dark, with candes and smoking! Guess that is something you can allow when it is your own private party rather than a business. I am not sure when the nonsmoking thing went into effect here, but the Argentines don't seem too thrilled with it.

Thursday night I attended a Mate tasting class here at the clubhouse. The event was hosted by a company called Maneras Argentinas www.manerasargentinas.com.ar and they do all kinds of instructional and informational programs regarding Argentine culture, food, etc. Mate is the the traditional drink of Argentina and we learned all about it's origins, how to serve it, so on and so forth. Pretty involved and a great time. Mate is like a very strong very bitter green tea drunk hot through a specific straw (called a bombilla) out of a gourd. Very interesting and I am now hoping to introduce it to the supper club in October when I come back for a few days! Something for you ladies to look forward to!

On Friday night, I went to an amazing jazz concert here in San Telmo with some of my classmates from the school. One of the guys in class has lived here for a while, and his daughter goes to school with the daughter of a guy who is apparently considered the one of the best jazz musicians in the country. He plays the bass, and had a 12 man orchestra with him. It was wonderful, and something I am sure I never would have thought to do if there wasn't someone in the know to point it out. Afterwards we went to dinner and I had the bife de chorizo, which is the Aregentine favorite cut of beef. It was incredible, although I am still getting used to the idea of going out to eat at 1 in the morning, which is standard here on the weekends. Even the kids are out with their parents eating that late--it is all a bit bizarre, but I am getting to be OK with it. On regular weeknights people go out for dinner around 10-11. Not sure I have gotten to bed earlier than 3 in a few weeks....

So, let's see. Last night I went to a tango show with a woman I met through Lonely Planet. She has been down here travelling with her husband who had to take off for San Diego yesterday for business, so she was here one last night before heading back to England today. She found a place she wanted to try that was near me, but turned out to be 180 pesos per person! She had already been to one of the big expensive tango shows and didn't want to do that again, and I was not really looking to drop that kind of cash, so we ended up at a small tango club near the main plaza in San Telmo. The show was free and we had dinner and wine for about 30 pesos($10) each. Definately better! They had musicans and dancers and although the whole thing has a little bit of a cheese element (just like Broadway) it was still a great fun touristy thing to do!

In general, I have to say I really love Argentina. The people are great, it is very laid back (although apparently everyone is in therapy here--I think it has to do with the loss of a sense of life since the history of the country is so riddled with corruption, etc. and they get to a point where they have faith in nothing--at least this is how one porteno explained it to me) and people seem to know how to enjoy life rather than always being so focused on how to get to the next step in thier career, or how to screw someone over, or whatever it is that we seem to think we must do in the states.

The attention from men is pretty much exactly what I expeted in a Latin American country, so no surprises there. They do the whole catcalls and calling out and lots of starting, but never to a put (at least thus far, knock wood) where you feel afraid they are going to follow you or something.

The middle of the night is like the middle of the day here--anytime I am coming home at 4 am, there are people and traffic all over the streets, and I haven't gotten a grasp yet on what time of the morning most of these folks go to work. I'll have to check on that and give an update next time. They do coffee or tea and a sandwich around 5-6 PM and that is how they are all able to go to dinner at 11, I guess.

OK, I think that is it for now. It is 8:30, so I have just enough time to take a nap before having to think about dinner :)

Week 1..and a Half

Wow--can't believe I haven't updated this since I first got here! How lazy am I? Much has happened and I have many oberservations to report. Better do so before I forget them all! My housemate here is updating his blog daily and putting up pictures and all kind of stuff...and here I am, realizing that now that I am in Aregentina, the blogger website comes all up in Spanish (which I have only studied for a week now) so I can't really read the instructions to upload photos or anything. So there will probably be no pictures until Shannon arrives and shows me what the hell I am supposed to do.......!

Last time we tuned in...I moved to the hostel. Interesting. Everyone there was 18 and travelling together as a group. What I found bizarre is that they never left. They spent all their time on the internet, or whatching TV, or whatever, but not going out and seeing the city. Granted it was raining for those two days, but not like a downpour or anything. Anyway, we will chalk it up to one of those things I will never understand, of which there are many in my life. The hostal experience was interesting to have, but not a place I care to have to stay at long term, like I guess many people do.

I am here now at the clubhouse and have been here a little over a week. I moved in last Saturday and then began Spanish classes on Monday. There are two guys living here with me, one is a guy from Tampa, Florida, who is also working here as an intern, and the other is a guy from Germany (whom I have only seen once so far as he went to Mendoza for the holiday weekend) who is studying abroad from a university in Berlin. They are both very nice, and Roger and I have been out several times over the past week--he arrived last Monday--for dinner and just to check out the neighborhood etc. We are currently without hot water at the clubhouse and have been that way since Thursday. Jen, the club manager, was out yesterday to try and see if she could get the pilot light to ignite as we could not, and has said she will need to contact the gas guy, so hopefully a hot shower will be back in my life again soon. They do some fun things for the club memebers here: last weekend we had a movie regarding the Malvinas war, as this is the 25th anniversay, and we also had a thai cooking class that I have attended. They have a Spanish conversation class on Tuesdays and Poker on Wednesdays.

I started my Spanish classes last Monday--5 hours a day for 4 days because of the holidays! It was intense, and I am not sure how much I have retained. I can recognize and understand a lot of words, etc. but am in no way ready feelink like I can put any sort of sentances together! In fact, but Thursday I was starting to feel like I was going backward instead of forward, but assume that is probably natural. The classes are good--we have two instructors and they each do half of the day and it is nice because they have different styles and you get used to hearing how different people speak, so I am happy with that. Our first week there were 6 of us--all English speakers. We have 2 guys and 1 woman from England, a guy from New Zealand, and a guy from Las Vages. Two of the guys are not continuing as they are taking off to travel, but I think the rest of us are going on. Apparently we will have different teachers next week as it varies as to how many students are in the class, etc. We will also probably have new people start--those with a little Spanish skills that don't need to start from the very beginning. We went from 2:45 to 8:30 last week and will do 2 to 6:30 from here on out, 5 days a week. My plan is to be there for the next 3 weeks and hopefully by then be able to say something! :)

I have done a lot of walking around BA and it is really a fun city. I have met a number of people who came for a little while and have ended up staying, so it is very interesting to meet people and find out what brought them here, where they are going afterwards, etc. Yesterday I went to the fine arts museum (Museo Nacional Bella Artes) which was lovely and free! They have a very nice collection of standard European art that is set up well, and a large Argentine art area. There is a Latin American art museum that I am looking forward to visitng. Today I am going out with some friends to check out the big San Telmo street fair (which is amazing-I walked around a bit at it last weekend) that they have on Sundays, and then perhaps we will go to the famous Recoleta Cemetario which is where Eva Peron and some other famous Argentines are buried. Roger and I went to a big dance club last week and that was a good time. We had to wait in line--something I never do for clubs!--but only for a few minutes. The cover charge was 20 pesos (about $7) and you are given a coupon for a free drink. It seems standard here that if you pay a cover charge it usually includes a drink.

So for now, I am off to get dressed and ready to go out, but will post later on regarding some of the more interesting observations I have had regarding Argentine life, culture, and food!