The final Domo Domingo. We fly back to Washington tomorrow night. We're sad to leave South America.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Our Final Week in BS.AS
Well we only have one full day here before we head back to Montevideo on Thursday morning. We met up with some of our friends from Valpo and explored the city a bit more. Unfortunately, this past weekend most places were closed due to El Gripe. Even my favorite Chinese restaurant has been closed for over 4 days. We didn't realize that El Gripe was a big deal until we googled it. Argentina is the second highest country, behind Mexico, in the number of cases and the number of deaths! So people are getting pretty paranoid about it. We've been doing our part to help create a super virus by using lots of hand sanitizers.
Anyway, when we did have a chance to visit the Jardin Botanico in Palermo last week. It was pretty nice, though since it is winter there weren't any flowers in bloom. There were however a ton of cats that lived in the garden. Most of them were really friendly and ran over to be petted. We even found an Artemis look a like sunbathing in the grass!
Here are some pics from the garden:
From the garden we walked to Recoleta where we stopped to see the flower statue. I thought it was going to be a glass statue, but it's actually metal. It opens and closes every day.
We also stopped into the MALBA museum; the art museum of Buenos Aires. It wasn't as large as I thought it would be, but it was very nice inside. They had a lot more modern art than I thought they would. I'm not a fan of modern art but since it was a Wednesday the entrance was only $5 pesos so I didn't feel like I wasted my money.
Since we've been here we have been trying to find some good, cheap places to eat. We have also been trying to find some decent beer. We found a delicious brewery in Recoleta called Bullers. They are pricey but if you go during happy hour their pints are half off. I had a sampler and found most of their beers to be quite good, especially their honey beer.
We also found some good food stands in Puerto Madero that serve delicious chorasquitos and bondiolas. They're sandwiches with either churasco or pork and man are they delicious! One of the places has a huge table full of condiments and the other puts tomato, lettuce, egg, and grilled onion and pepper on the sandwich. The sandwiches are only $8 pesos! Just a little more than $2usd and they fill you up for the whole day!
The first pic is of Que Parrillon, which has the long table full of fresh condiments. The second is of me with a bondiola completo from our second favorite stand.
We are going to a jazz club called Thelonious tonight. I'm really excited to watch some live jazz. The band playing tonight seems pretty cool. Tomorrow we're meeting with our friend for the last time before we leave BS.AS for good. It's crazy to think that we'll be back in Seattle in one week!
Anyway, when we did have a chance to visit the Jardin Botanico in Palermo last week. It was pretty nice, though since it is winter there weren't any flowers in bloom. There were however a ton of cats that lived in the garden. Most of them were really friendly and ran over to be petted. We even found an Artemis look a like sunbathing in the grass!
Here are some pics from the garden:
From the garden we walked to Recoleta where we stopped to see the flower statue. I thought it was going to be a glass statue, but it's actually metal. It opens and closes every day.
We also stopped into the MALBA museum; the art museum of Buenos Aires. It wasn't as large as I thought it would be, but it was very nice inside. They had a lot more modern art than I thought they would. I'm not a fan of modern art but since it was a Wednesday the entrance was only $5 pesos so I didn't feel like I wasted my money.
Since we've been here we have been trying to find some good, cheap places to eat. We have also been trying to find some decent beer. We found a delicious brewery in Recoleta called Bullers. They are pricey but if you go during happy hour their pints are half off. I had a sampler and found most of their beers to be quite good, especially their honey beer.
We also found some good food stands in Puerto Madero that serve delicious chorasquitos and bondiolas. They're sandwiches with either churasco or pork and man are they delicious! One of the places has a huge table full of condiments and the other puts tomato, lettuce, egg, and grilled onion and pepper on the sandwich. The sandwiches are only $8 pesos! Just a little more than $2usd and they fill you up for the whole day!
The first pic is of Que Parrillon, which has the long table full of fresh condiments. The second is of me with a bondiola completo from our second favorite stand.
We are going to a jazz club called Thelonious tonight. I'm really excited to watch some live jazz. The band playing tonight seems pretty cool. Tomorrow we're meeting with our friend for the last time before we leave BS.AS for good. It's crazy to think that we'll be back in Seattle in one week!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Buenos Aires-Our first couple weeks
Well we've been in Buenos Aires for a little over two weeks now, with a little less than two more weeks to go. We've been enjoying the city and exploring all the neighborhoods. It's a huge city with many different areas. We spend our days wandering around, discovering new plazas, cafes, mercados, and pizzerias. I already like Buenos Aires better than Santiago because 1) it's a lot cheaper since the ARS is low and 2) they have real Chinese food here! I can get delicious fried rice for only $3.40!
We also visited a town called Tigre this week, which was a 50 minute train ride away, to go to the Mate museum. A couple days ago we visited Chinatown in the Belgrano neighborhood. They had a couple Asian markets but the food was a bit expensive. Today we walked around the Sunday market in Recoleta. It's an artesanel market with a lot of crafts and paintings. We also go to see some people dancing Tango. This week we plan on visiting the Japanese Garden, Botanical Garden, a jazz club, and explore more of Palermo and Recoleta. We'll post more pics up before we leave Buenos Aires.
Here are a few of the many pictures we've taken so far:
Some pics from the downtown area. They have an Obelisk in the center of their main road. It was built in 1936 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires. There's also the congress building and Casa Rosada. Casa Rosada is where the president conducts business, the equivalent of the White House. On the balcony is where Eva Peron rallied her people (and in Evita sings Don't Cry For Me Argentina).
Here are a couple pics from San Telmo. It's right across the street from our neighborhood. We like walking around there. The first picture is of the Sunday Antiques Market. You can see how crowded it gets! The second pic was on an antiques store window in San Telmo. I just thought mom would like it. FYI: it translates into I Have The Best Father In The World.
We went to the Tortoni Cafe, which is the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1858 by a French immigrant. We ate there a couple of times. It's very fancy inside and the waiters all wear suits.
This picture is of the newest part of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero. It's also one of the most expensive areas to live. It's a nice place to go walk around and they have an ecological reserve and a huge plaza. The white bridge is called Puente de la Mujer.
We visited the Recoleta cemetery where all of Argentina's famous politicians, war heroes, artists, scientists and other rich people are buried. The cemetery was huge at 14,000 acres! It was packed with mausoleums decorated with beautiful statues and stained glass. The last picture is of Eva Peron's grave site.
Some pics from the downtown area. They have an Obelisk in the center of their main road. It was built in 1936 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires. There's also the congress building and Casa Rosada. Casa Rosada is where the president conducts business, the equivalent of the White House. On the balcony is where Eva Peron rallied her people (and in Evita sings Don't Cry For Me Argentina).
Here are a couple pics from San Telmo. It's right across the street from our neighborhood. We like walking around there. The first picture is of the Sunday Antiques Market. You can see how crowded it gets! The second pic was on an antiques store window in San Telmo. I just thought mom would like it. FYI: it translates into I Have The Best Father In The World.
We went to the Tortoni Cafe, which is the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1858 by a French immigrant. We ate there a couple of times. It's very fancy inside and the waiters all wear suits.
This picture is of the newest part of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero. It's also one of the most expensive areas to live. It's a nice place to go walk around and they have an ecological reserve and a huge plaza. The white bridge is called Puente de la Mujer.
We visited the Recoleta cemetery where all of Argentina's famous politicians, war heroes, artists, scientists and other rich people are buried. The cemetery was huge at 14,000 acres! It was packed with mausoleums decorated with beautiful statues and stained glass. The last picture is of Eva Peron's grave site.
Jeff and I put up an ad on Craigslist about walking dogs for free. We had one person respond to the ad and that's how we met Asha, the one year old mini schnauzer. Her owner was actually from Seattle but has been living in Argentina for the past 3 years. She took Asha back to Seattle for a couple months this weekend so we won't be seeing Asha again. She was extremely friendly, very soft, and absolutely adorable! I want a mini schnauzer now!
We also visited a town called Tigre this week, which was a 50 minute train ride away, to go to the Mate museum. A couple days ago we visited Chinatown in the Belgrano neighborhood. They had a couple Asian markets but the food was a bit expensive. Today we walked around the Sunday market in Recoleta. It's an artesanel market with a lot of crafts and paintings. We also go to see some people dancing Tango. This week we plan on visiting the Japanese Garden, Botanical Garden, a jazz club, and explore more of Palermo and Recoleta. We'll post more pics up before we leave Buenos Aires.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Montevideo, Uruguay
We spent only two days in Montevideo, Uruguay. The city was a lot smaller than Santiago but it was nicer in a lot of ways. The city itself seemed very laid back and we noticed that even though they didn't have marked lanes on their roads they still drove better than the people in Chile. It also seemed like more people spoke English; especially people at the bus stations and at retail stores. A lot of the people there looked white/European and were very tall; it was the opposite of the people in Chile. They also pronounce "ll" like "sh" like they do in Argentina. So, pollo ("chicken") is pronounced "po-sho" here, but it is "po-yo" in Chile. We weren't aware they did this so we had a hard time understanding them at first.
The first day in Montevideo we didn't do much. We only went to the bus terminal to buy ferry tickets to Buenos Aires. While we were out we noticed that everyone in Uruguay drinks Mate while walking around! We later asked the hostel workers about that and they said it's a Uruguay thing. They all carry around a thermos of hot water and their mate and drink it on the go.
The second day we spent out exploring the city. We went to the center of the city, the artesanal market, and the Ciudad Viejo. One thing I noticed about Montevideo is that they have a lot of statues and fountains. We visited the main on in Plaza Indepencia. There's a statue of General Artegas (pictured above), and underneath that statue is a tomb with his remains. It had information of his achievements on the walls and was guarded by two soldiers. It had a creepy vibe.
One of the main goals we had while in Montevideo was to eat a lot of meat. We accomplished this by going to the Mercado del Puerto in Ciudad Viejo. The whole market is a bunch of restaurants that have huge grills with every kind of meat imaginable on it. It was an amazing site as I've never seen so much meat being barbequed before.
Jeff and I got a parrillada for 2, which ended up being this:
That's a lot of meat! It had 4 small pieces of steak, 2 big pieces of mouthwatering chicken, 2 huge blood sausages, 2 pieces of chorizo, 2 pieces of delicious sausage, 2 cow kidneys, 2 small pieces of intestine, and 2 neck glands. We tried a bite of everything and most of it was absolutely amazing! We weren't big fans of the kidneys, intestines, and blood sausages though. I thought the kidneys and intestines tasted the same and the blood sausages were too sweet for my taste. We were completely stuffed afterwards and we only ate about two thirds of it. Here's a picture of Jeff after he couldn't eat any more.
After the huge meal we went to check out the waterfront. There were lots of people fishing on there. We thought that we were on the Atlantic Ocean but after talking with the hostel workers we found out we were actually on a river. Here's a pretty view of the city from the breakwater we walked onto.
Later that night we found out from our hostel that there was a football game going on. The worker told us it was their national team for the South American league and it was a quarter final match so it was going to be crazy. We decided to go experience a proper football game. The stadium the match was in was actually where the very first World Cup was played.
The match was against Brasil and luckily we won, even though the final score was 0-0. After seeing how crazy the fans were for their team we weren't looking forward to seeing how they were if their team lost. The fans went nuts during the game. People had flares going, were shooting off fireworks, had smoke bombs, and were throwing streamers. There were also several chants during the game. It was pretty cool to see because nobody gets that into our sports at home. Here are some pics of the fans having fun:
Currently we are in Buenos Aires for the month. We rented an apartment right in the middle of the city which is nice. The city is humongous! We are enjoying exploring the different neighborhoods. We'll post pics up soon!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Bolivia!!!
Yes, we made it to Bolivia! It was a very long and extraordinary day. It started with us being in a dubious immigration position. Americans need a visa to get into Bolivia, but the tour company we used has a "special" arrangement with the Bolivian border patrol where Americans can get in for the low, low price of $20! We're pretty sure that the $20 is a bribe. It made us feel particularly uncomfortable.
But, we made it into Bolivia! It's really only a short distance from San Pedro de Atacama. We made it from town to the Bolivian border in less than an hour. After making it through, we stopped at the edge of Laguna Blanca for breakfast. It was freezing cold! Most of our day was spent at 4,300 meters above sea level (13,780 ft.). We snapped this picture at the breakfast stop.
The Bolivian border is in the middle of the Andes Mountain Range. From there, we drove for about 100 km through desert terrain. We had a Bolivian driver in a 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser. There was also a Chilean woman and a Brazilian woman on the tour with us. This was our sweet desert ride:
The main part of the trip was a visit to Laguna Colorada. It's also at about 4,3oo meters above sea level and in the middle of the Andes! It's so bizarre: a colorful water oasis in the middle of colorless desert. Best of all there were lots of animals! We first saw a herd of nine vicuñas! This is a nice picture of one from pretty close.
There were also many flocks of flamingos and there were lots of llamas out there. Notice the llamas have cute hairdos? Well, they belong to people who live out here. They let them graze and eat at the lagoon. There was quite a few of them. We got pretty close, but they didn't seem to like us very much. Carly did get to almost touch the baby, but that didn't pan out.
It's hard to explain how big this valley was. It just went on forever and was surrounded in the distance by mountains bigger than Mt. Ranier! Standing in this valley really put in to perspective how small one person is:
Much of the water around the edge of the lagoon was frozen, but there were a few small hot springs scattered about. This one was probably about 75 degrees:
After we left the lagoon, we climbed to the maximum height of the day: just under 16,000 feet above sea level! I had a little trouble breathing during the day, and it was particularly noticeable when we reached the highest point. Carly said she didn't really notice until we made it to the highest point. Even though all we did was walk around, I got terribly winded!
At the highest altitude of the day is where we got to see some volcanic activity. There were a bunch of boiling pits of doom! Note the cool signs!
After our long day of exploring the Andes, we stopped for a late lunch and a dip in a hot spring. It was probably close to 90 degrees. It felt really nice to just relax in there for a while and enjoy the vast landscape.
After lunch, we made one last stop at Laguna Verde. It's very close to the Bolivian/Chile border. It has an intense green color ('verde' is green in Spanish). We didn't stay long because it was windy and terribly cold. The mountain behind us there is a little less than 20,000 feet tall! That's almost as big as Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska! It just doesn't look so high because we are at 14,000 feet in the picture!
We spent Saturday just relaxing and walking around San Pedro de Atacama. We had a very busy three days exploring the area, so it was nice to lounge in the hammocks. We met Cati, the hostel owner's daughter. She's five years old and oddly amusing. We practiced our Spanish with her. It was pretty fun!
We would've posted more while we were in San Pedro, but the internet was sketchy. Also, power was shut down to the entire town a few times while we were there. This morning we flew back to Santiago for a couple days. We fly to Montevideo, Uruguay on Tuesday morning.
Tomorrow, we're going to hang out with Nacho and our old New Zealand flat mate Ollie! She's from the Czech Republic. We're glad we get to see her one more time since we probably won't see her again before we go home for good.
But, we made it into Bolivia! It's really only a short distance from San Pedro de Atacama. We made it from town to the Bolivian border in less than an hour. After making it through, we stopped at the edge of Laguna Blanca for breakfast. It was freezing cold! Most of our day was spent at 4,300 meters above sea level (13,780 ft.). We snapped this picture at the breakfast stop.
The Bolivian border is in the middle of the Andes Mountain Range. From there, we drove for about 100 km through desert terrain. We had a Bolivian driver in a 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser. There was also a Chilean woman and a Brazilian woman on the tour with us. This was our sweet desert ride:
The main part of the trip was a visit to Laguna Colorada. It's also at about 4,3oo meters above sea level and in the middle of the Andes! It's so bizarre: a colorful water oasis in the middle of colorless desert. Best of all there were lots of animals! We first saw a herd of nine vicuñas! This is a nice picture of one from pretty close.
There were also many flocks of flamingos and there were lots of llamas out there. Notice the llamas have cute hairdos? Well, they belong to people who live out here. They let them graze and eat at the lagoon. There was quite a few of them. We got pretty close, but they didn't seem to like us very much. Carly did get to almost touch the baby, but that didn't pan out.
It's hard to explain how big this valley was. It just went on forever and was surrounded in the distance by mountains bigger than Mt. Ranier! Standing in this valley really put in to perspective how small one person is:
Much of the water around the edge of the lagoon was frozen, but there were a few small hot springs scattered about. This one was probably about 75 degrees:
After we left the lagoon, we climbed to the maximum height of the day: just under 16,000 feet above sea level! I had a little trouble breathing during the day, and it was particularly noticeable when we reached the highest point. Carly said she didn't really notice until we made it to the highest point. Even though all we did was walk around, I got terribly winded!
At the highest altitude of the day is where we got to see some volcanic activity. There were a bunch of boiling pits of doom! Note the cool signs!
After our long day of exploring the Andes, we stopped for a late lunch and a dip in a hot spring. It was probably close to 90 degrees. It felt really nice to just relax in there for a while and enjoy the vast landscape.
After lunch, we made one last stop at Laguna Verde. It's very close to the Bolivian/Chile border. It has an intense green color ('verde' is green in Spanish). We didn't stay long because it was windy and terribly cold. The mountain behind us there is a little less than 20,000 feet tall! That's almost as big as Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska! It just doesn't look so high because we are at 14,000 feet in the picture!
We spent Saturday just relaxing and walking around San Pedro de Atacama. We had a very busy three days exploring the area, so it was nice to lounge in the hammocks. We met Cati, the hostel owner's daughter. She's five years old and oddly amusing. We practiced our Spanish with her. It was pretty fun!
We would've posted more while we were in San Pedro, but the internet was sketchy. Also, power was shut down to the entire town a few times while we were there. This morning we flew back to Santiago for a couple days. We fly to Montevideo, Uruguay on Tuesday morning.
Tomorrow, we're going to hang out with Nacho and our old New Zealand flat mate Ollie! She's from the Czech Republic. We're glad we get to see her one more time since we probably won't see her again before we go home for good.
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