Back home.

Well, when I am out of the country, surrounded by new and exciting things, I managed to blog every day. When I get home, I can't even get on once in a week. Geez. Well, incase you were wondering, I made it home safely from Argentina last Monday, and spent the rest of the week at work, wishing I was still on vacation.

Over the weekend, I went to Avital's for the girl's shabbat sleepover...smores, makeovers, and pillowfights...right? =) Saturday night was DZ's birthday outing which also proved to be a ton of fun...maybe even too much...

but this week brings me back to reality and I have returned again to work for another week and a half before I leave for augusta...woot!

Argentina Day 15 &16 – Buenos Aires

Day 15 & 16: January 19 & 20, 2006

We woke up today in a calm manner since we were in no rush to go anywhere. First for the day, we took the bus into town and returned the rental cell we’d gotten and barely used. Then we went to the leather store to get fitted for jackets. Mom, moshe and I all wanted jackets, so we made sure to go with a few days to spare since sometimes they make them special for you. Originally, I wasn’t going to get one, but I liked the one I’d picked out for mom so much, I decided to get one too. Orders have been placed.

In the afternoon, we went to Palermo – the greenest part of this city, and often nicknamed “SoHo”. The botanical gardens, Japenses Garden, and the Rose Garden are all in this barrio of town. All three were lovely. The Japanese and Rose gardens were my favorites though.

We headed back and showered and got ready to go to shul for Friday evening services. After shul, we went to the house of Enrique “Kiko” for dinner. Kiko is 72, and was married for the first time 10 years ago, and now has a son age 8. his wife is 20 years younger than he, and already has grown children as well. Imagine, your dad is 82 years old when you graduate High School! Anyway, the dinner was nice, and the food delicious. We were there until 2:00 in the morning! We fell asleep easily that night, and I awoke grudgingly the next morning to go to Saturday morning services. They went by quickly, and we went over to Jaime “Miko” and Marta’s for lunch. They are the same people we went to the play with last week. Miko cooked an exquisite Chinese themed lunch, and we all sat and talked for a while afterwards.

In the evening, Dad and I walked around Puerto Madero – the old port where most of the buildings now have been converted into fancy lofts and restaurants. After that, we went to pick up the jackets. Er, they made the jackets too big. I felt bad, but I made them fix them once again, and we’d be back in the AM to pick them up again. I hope they get it right!

At 8:15, we were due to be at Café Tortonni – the oldest café in the city for a Tango show. We’d made reservations a week ago to ensure we got good seats, but once we got inside, we realized the place was nice and cozy and you could actually see from pretty much everywhere, but out seats were still some of the best. The show was really well done, with 3 couples dancing, and a live band with a great Tango singer. It was well worth the money, and I’d recommend the show to anyone coming to BA – a lot of places try to rip you off, but this was inexpensive and impressive. Then we went home for my last night of sleep in Buenos Aires.

Argentina Day 14 - El Califate day 3

Day 14: Thursday January 18, 2007

A day with nothing to do. How odd! the city of El Calafate is host of thousands of tourists per week, but still very few people live there, and it was just in the past few years that an airport was even built! There is construction everywhere - all the fancy hotels starting to build, and the town is growing, but until that construction catches up with the tourism, it remains a small town. So, what to do when you've seen the tourist site of the town?

2 options:
there were sheep shearing (or the accented man at the reception desk says: Jeep Jearing) demonstrations - since a lot of wool comes from this region - I guess they get all the wool they can, and then eat the sheep. OR we could go horseback riding - ranches are very popular in this vast area of land.

We opted for the horseback riding. It wasn't anything spectacular, but the scenery is beautiful, so it was fun. My horse had a baby horse that followed us the whole path. It was pretty cute. We went up to the top of a high hill, and saw some birds and took some photos. When we got back to the ranch, we tried some traditional fried bread, and they passed around a Mate cup. Mate is the national drink here. It is basically cup filled with this type of grass, and you pour hot water over it and drink it through a straw with a strainer at the end. Apparently, it is a form of hospitality to offer a cup of Mate to guests, and for all guests to partake. Upon leaving the ranch, we realized that we'd killed a fair amount of the day, and once we returned and had lunch, it was time to head to the airport.

Aerolineas Argentinas is the airline both that I flew with to Iguazu, and that we flew with to El Calafate. in total, there were 5 flight (one had a stopover), and the snack for every flight was a ham and cheese sandwich. yum. so we had to bring our own food for all the flights, which stank, but at least we had better food than the crappy ham and cheese sandwich. Also, after seeing all the processes of food provisioning on Delta flights after my last project at work, I was somewhat impressed with the simplicity of the drinks on Aerolineas - they had a few 2.5 liter bottles of coke, Diet coke, sprite, water, etc. ; coffee; red and white wine, and beer. And that is what you had as options. No individual cans, no 47 different drink options. simple.

We arrived back in BA at 11:00 and headed to the apartment.

Argentina Day 13 - El Calafate Day 2

Day 13: Wednesday January 17, 2007

We’d checked the weather report yesterday, and today was supposed to be just as bad – cold and raining. We awoke to see that somehow, the weather report was wrong, and instead, it was cold and windy! This is much better than rainy! We were picked up by the bus at 9, and headed out towards the glacier national park. Along the way, the tour guide said that around the next turn, we’d pass what they call “the curve of sighs”. I didn’t know exactly what that meant except when we went past the turn, we had our first sight of the glacier. We of course all piled out of the bus to get pictures, and I probably should’ve put some rocks in my pocket to keep from being blown away. It was SOOO windy. I honestly have never felt wind like this in my life. I am not sure if there are no trees here because the wind would knock them over, or if there is wind because there are no trees, but either way, I can’t even describe the amount of wind that is constantly blowing here. You can be walking right next to someone and not be able to hear them shout because the wind is so loud in your ears. Incredible.

After a 90 minute bus ride, we arrived at the park. This is where you can walk around and get as close as possible to the glaciers. Glaciers are basically a river of ice. Melted snow slides down the mountain to the valleys, and freezes again at the bottom, and does this continually as it builds the glacier. The faces of the glacier, the part closest to the lake, chip off every few minutes. Like I mentioned yesterday, you hear a thunderous sound with some pops like bullets, and then you might see something the size of a snowball fall off the front, or you might see an entire sheet of ice break off. It happens every few minutes in the summer as it is “warm” outside. Unfortunately, there is no where that you can get close enough to touch them because it is too dangerous. The pieces of ice breaking off can ricochet off as far as 30 meters! But today’s pictures are WAY better than yesterday since we didn’t have fog, shade, and rain getting in the way!

Once back at the hotel, we spent a couple hours trying to figure out what to do tomorrow since our flight isn’t ‘till 5:30, but we had no official tour. We went to dinner at a restaurant called “La Tablita” that was recommended by a taxi driver, a tour guide, and my book. OK OK, I guess we have to try it!

We arrived with a reservation, so we didn’t have to wait the 1 hour wait that walk-ins did. We ordered one serving of lamb, and planned to share it. Good thing, because It could’ve fed at least three. So, everyone was right. We got a ton of good food for really cheap, and went home full and sleepy.

Pictures

So, I am frustrated because Blogger won't let me upload pictures, and uploading my webpictures keeps going goofy too...

If you're the 1 person that might be on the edge of your seat, hopefully it'll be up soon!
boo for blogger.

Argentina Day 12 - El Calafate

Day 12: Tuesday January 16, 2007

We got up early this morning. When dinner is at 10, it’s hard to get up at 6. After developing a slight cough over the past few days, I woke up this morning with no voice. I also didn’t get a hot shower. It was also cold, windy and raining. Not the best way to start a day.

But what we had the opportunity to see made up for it. The bus picked us up at about 7:45 (even though they were supposed to come at 7:15), and we drove out to Califate National Park. I like that if you switch the l and f in that word, you’d have a Café Late =)

Anyway, we took a boat for the whole day around the lake here, and saying it was incredible is an understatement. This boat, which held about 100 people or so, went pretty fast for its size. Going along the water, we saw probably 50 icebergs of all different sizes. Icebergs are pieces of glaciers that have broken off and are drifting in the water. The neat thing about the icebergs, is how they look. For some reason, I’d always imagined them as pyramid shaped, with the peak above the water. In reality, they are of course all different shapes, curved, cornered, and beautifully white. They were gorgeous. Smaller pieces of icebergs floated by in the water, and it was like the lake was a huge cup of soda, with ice cubes floating around inside.

And then we saw it. The first of 4 stops to see glaciers today. I am not sure what I really expected to see when we saw the glacier, but what we saw was better. There is no way to really grasp the size of the glacier, in a picture or in words, but just know that they’re huge. We of course took a ton of pictures, which you can see here:

http://www.belanaomi.com/Argentina%20Pictures.htm

For lunch, we stopped and could get off the boat and walk right up to the lake shore, and touch little icebergs. Every few minutes, we heard what sounded like thunder, and noting the weather conditions - could have been; But it was actually the sound of the glaciers shifting and breaking, and every once in a while pieces of ice actually would break off the enormous glacier.

The tour lasted until 4:00 pm, and after the hour drive, we got back to town at 5, and we came back and took some time to walk around town. Tomorrow we take another tour, but rather than from a boat, we take it from a bus and get out and walk on the icebergs. Hopefully I won’t kill myself! =)

We came back to the hotel to rest up and have some supper, and this is when I am doing my posting and uploading, so enjoy.

Argentina Day 11 - Buenos Aires

Day 11: Monday January 15, 2007

This morning was our day to explore our neighborhood of Recoleta before catching our flight to Califate in the afternoon. We first went to the Bibliotequa National – The national library, which was…closed. Then we went to Recoleta Cemetary. In this cemetery, all the famous people are buried, and have a crypt dedicated for them and their family. It looks like a little town inside the walls of this cemetery, it’s pretty creepy. And when you look into any of these little crypts, you can often see the actual coffins, laying inside, on the shelves or in the middle. You’re standing 2 feet from a dead body from 100 years ago or from last week. This is also the place in which Eva Peron is buried. For those of you who don’t know, that is who Madonna played in the musical “Evita”.

We then walked down avenida Alvear, which is similar to Fifth Avenue. Which, once the conversion rate kicks in, it’s really just 1.75 avenue, right? =) This is where the Armani, Louis Voitton, Ralph Lauren, Cartier, and others have their stores. A bit too posh for us. Right off Avenida Alvear, there was a grocery store that reminded me a bit of whole foods – really clean and fancy. We then went back to the hotel to pick up our things, and go to the airport. Our plane had been delayed, but it took off about an hour late, and we arrived in Calafate’s one gate airport at 7:30. The airport had one runway, and no taxiway, so once the MD-83 plane landed, it did a U-turn on the runway to get back to the gate. For just having one gate though, I am not sure what took 25 minutes for our luggage to appear. But anyway, it was super windy here - so windy - that we were really being blown to the car. We arrived at our hotel, which is pretty nice, and ate here around 9:30. We got lamb in the restaurant, and it was good. The southern region of Argentina – Pategonia – is known for it’s sheep. For it’s wool, leather, and meat. It was only right to have lamb =) Our tour tomorrow leaves the hotel at 7:15 – when we have to be up and showered.

Argentina day 10 - Buenos Aires

Day 10: Sunday January 14 2007

I got up early to go to the airport and catch my flight back to Buenos Aires. After being a bit ripped off by the taxi driver – long story -, I got to the airport early. The agent wasn;t even at the counter yet, even though there were people waiting to check in. Once she finally arrived, I checked in at the counter, and proceeded to security. There was no one there either, so I waited another 30 minutes for them to open. When I did finally walk through security, I went straight through the line, and onto my flight. The flight actually left early, which has never happened to me in the states, and I arrived back at the apartment in BA at the time the plane was supposed to land. Nice. Dad and I decided we wanted to take the tour of the Casa Rosada that we missed last week, and it was at 3:00. So we left the apartment around 1:00 and walked around before picking a restaurant to eat at. ** We ordered a calzone to share. When it came out of the oven, the waiter brought it to the table, and it was the biggest calzone I’d seen in my life. He served us each a piece, and this picture is what remained. I wish we could’ve taken it home! It was delicious. After lunch, we headed to the Casa Rosada, but once we arrived, we found out (yet again) that they’re not offering tours right now because of some construction on the building. So we gave ourselves the tour of the one open room, and 6 minutes later, were done.

Where to next? Café Tortonni has Tango Shows every night, and they’re supposed to be really good, so we stopped by there to make a reservation for next Saturday night. I am looking forward to it. And well, it happened. Just as we were outside Café Tortonni, I ran into a friend of mine, Bernardo. He was down here visiting with his girlfriend’s family. Anyway, after that, we went back to our side of town, and I did a little shopping for myself, and afterwards, we had “High tea” at a famous restaurant called Biela. I got a “Submarino”, which literally is a chocolate bar placed in a glass of hot milk. Once I put some sugar in it to counteract the bitterness, it was pretty good! Dad got some café con leche and “medias lunas” (half moons = small croissants) which were warm and delicious. We met and talked to everyone at all the tables around us. Every single person we talk to in spanish has complimented how well we're speaking...we're so proud!

After tea, we met up with Jaime and Marta who dad at met at shul the day before, and we were going to see a play. It was set in the Recoleta cultural center, and so we had the opportunity to walk through there before the play, and there were a ton of art exhibits – some good, some bad. The play was a one woman show, and was supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t understand a fair amount of it, and Jaime said it was in really poor taste. Oh well, it was an experience. Jaime is an Argentinian, and has lived here his whole life, and overall is a cynicall type person, but we all had fun arguing over everything all night. After the show, we went and had some pizza for dinner at 11:00. We got home around 12:15, and I updated all my pictures on my webpage.

Argentina Day 9

Day 9: Saturday January 13

Today is Argentina Falls day. I went into town and bought a bus ticket, ran a few errands to the grocery and ATM, and went back to the hostel to grab my stuff and go. I caught the city bus into the falls, and then paid my entry fee to the park for the day. It was hot. Really hot. and Iguazu is a humid area, so it was hotter and more humid than Atlanta in the worst of the summer. At least it was beautiful out, and apparently when it's sunny, you get the best view of everything.

I still can not get over how beautiful and overwhelming these falls are. I couldn't stop taking pictures because everywhere I looked, they looked different and better than where I was looking before! the park has all sorts of nature trails to hike and see the falls from different angles, and enjoy the wildlife in the park. I saw meter long iguanas, monkeys in the trees, ants that were at least 5 cm long, animals that looked like huge gerbils, and some sort of animal in the racoon family, that they call "Coatis".

The trails range from 1.3 km to 3.1 km, and I completed all 4 of the trails. I was exhausted. The thermometer read 41 degrees, which *9/5 +32 = 106 degrees. I told you it was hot. I finally left the park around 4:00, and came back into town and had a really late lunch.

From lunch, I went to the hostel and sat by the pool for 30 minutes to relax, and met a girl named Patty from NY. She had just finished her PhD, and was taking a bit of time to travel. Together, we took a walk (about 5km round trip) to a point called "Tres Fronteras" which is where the rivers meet, and you can see Paraguay, Brazil, and are standing in Argentina (see photo)
That night, we came back and made ourselves a small dinner (as I'd had lunch at 4:00) of fruit and bread and yogurt, and then I read and went to sleep early, as I was exhausted.

PS - I hope you're enjoying that I am adding pictures now!

Argentina day 8

Day 8: Friday January 12

I awoke this morning to catch a plane to Iguazu falls. I opted to take a cab because the bus ride would require taking two busses, and having to awake earlier. The cab ride from the apartment to the local domestic airport cost me about $254 american dollars. Divided, that would be $4 for the ride and tip, and $250 for my stupidity. I managed to leave my camera in the rush to get out of the cab at the airport. I conveniently had no receipt, no cab number, nor the name of the driver, as I didn't relize I'd left it until I walked into the airport 2 minutes later. Writing this a day and a half later, I am still fuming. This is my new camera I just purchased 2 months ago. Well, since I now didn't have a camera, dad loaned me his (with a partially charged battery) and it would hopefully last me the weekend. I went through airport security, which amazingly enough, was the least hassle I've had in a long time. They allow liquids here, and you don't have to either undress OR empty your bag when going through. Just put your bag on the belt, walk through the detector. easy peasy. The airport was not too full, but even so, for no particular reason, my flight left 2 hours late. Upon flying over Buenos Aires, I looked down and noticed that all the rivers and channels flowing through the city were brown. Apparently, they say that their rivers are "latte colored" (see picture). I am not sure why they are all so brown, I don´t think it is pollution. The guy sitting next to me on the plane was traveling with his wife and another couple - both retired from Sweden. They now take a vacation once a year for over a month, and play golf all over the world. That´s their thing. He says they´ve played golf in 21 countries! Anyway, once I finally arrived in Iguazu, everything went pretty well. The shuttle service from the hotel to the town costs 8 pesos, and they actually drop you off where you´re staying if you ask. Not a bad deal. Upon arrival at the hostel at 2:00, I promptly wanted to find out how the best way would be to view the falls over the next day and a half. So I dropped my bags in the mildew smelling, but otherwise very clean and air conditioned room, and then met with the girl here that shows you tour options, and decided that today I would go see the Brazillian side of the falls. Iguazu falls is by magnitude, the largest waterfall in the world, and is in the top 5 in all other waterfall categories - yeah, I bet you didn´t know they rank them! they´re ranked in height, bwr, scenic, etc. From Brazil, the view of the entirety of the falls is much better that that from the Argentinian side. You look at the falls, and you can´t even see without a panoramic view of the area, all the falls that exist as part of this one waterfall. It is incredible. The amount of water falling, is beyond comprehension. Because going into Brazil requires a $115 visa, if you´re going in and out just for one day, you can get around it by paying a $30 temporary visa, forego the passport stamp, and hire a taxi instead of the bus to take you in. So, seeing this side of the falls requires the $10 entrance to the park, the $15 cab ride, and the $30 visa, but you´re only here once, and it was well worth it.

Trying to conserve battery, I was taking all the pictures I could without the display screen on, and minimizing the number of times I turned on and off the camera. I didn´t take any extra pictures in Iguazu, at the risk of it being my last picture to take before the battery died. I even looked into buying a disposable camera, but that would´ve run me $35 for 24 exposures... yeah...no. During my tour on the Brazilian side of the falls, I met a really nice Australian family - Jenny, Chris, and their College age daughter Amanda - who were extremely nice, and we spent about 1/3 of the time together talking and taking pictures. Trying to get as close as we could to take pictures, we got soaking wet from the water in the air that had richoched off the bottom. I also met a group of 7 Brazilians, who on first meeting them I thought they said Barcelonians...my bad, who were all about my age, but we had a really hard time communicating since they spoke very little Spanish, and I speak no Portuguese. Oh well. From what I could understand, one was a minister (the one making out with his girlfriend the whole time), and the one that I talked to the most (the only one that really knew any spanish) was in his third year of law school. They were just all on vacation together.

Upon returning to the hostel, I met a guy and a girl finishing up a three month vacation around South America, and we hung out for a while and had dinner together. We went to this restaurant that for 15pesos ($5) we got a choice of about 7 different salads, a steak that must've weight at least a pound and a half (I ate as much as I could and didn't come near half), and a dessert. it was nice meeting them, and we talked for so long, we didn't get home from dinner until after midnight.

Pictures posted

...and pictures are posted...
these are of Buenos Aires so far.
click on
www.belanaomi.com/photo
and then under Travels for Argentina.
Or Click Here

Argentina day 5, 6, 7

Day 5: Tuesday January 9

I am writing this from Mar Del Plata, but have no connection to upload it since we don’t have an internet connection here, so it’ll be posted a couple days late. Mar Del Plata is on the eastern coast of Argentina, and is known as a beach/vacation town for everyone in Argentina and even outside. We took a bus that left Buenos Aires at 9:00 am, and arrived here at 2:15 pm. I hate bus rides. My whole life I’ve hated them, and they always make me a bit nauseated. Well, the bus we took has two levels. The lower level is similar to that of a regular bus, but as luck would have it, those seats were sold out, so we got upper level tickets. Our seats are what they call “leitos”. It looks like a seat, but actually has the capability of bringing up a foot rest, and it lays flat like a bed. They gave a snack of a ham and cheese sandwich, a juicebox, and a few chocolate desserts. I hated the ride, but got about ½ hour of sleep. On arrival, we were being picked up at the bus station by a woman named Francisca. In another time, she was my dad’s friend/girlfriend in Brazil when he lived there. I am still not exactly clear on that. But either way, she and a friend of hers (a guy who owns a bookshop here) came to pick us up. I was actually a little surprised that she was black. I guess I just didn’t expect it with almost everyone here medium skinned south americans, but I’ll get back into that in a bit. We drove for a tour around the city, and then we checked into a hotel. We’re staying the first night in a hotel, and the second probably in her home because since it’s tourist season here, there are no available rooms closer to the weekend. Dad and Francisca left to take a walking tour of the city, and I went to the beach (across the street from the hotel). The hotel by the way was really swanky. I came back from the beach and showered, and dad and I got a drink in the bar before picking up Francisca for dinner. We had a long relaxed dinner, and ended up having to hail a cab back since it started pouring raining. We got some good steak and potatoes for dinner though. During dinner, Francisca was talking the entire time about when she knew dad in Brazil. Apparently, dad was quite the civil rights mover and shaker. There were multiple stories about them kicking her out of a restaurant or a swimming pool, and my dad telling them what he thought. Of course, with my dad’s fabulous memory, he didn’t remember any of it, but she couldn’t say enough good things about him. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel around 11:30 and went to sleep.

Day 6: Wednesday January 10

This morning we went to breakfast in the hotel, and were astonished by the spread for breakfast. There were all sorts of fresh baked breads, croissants, pastries, fruits, fruit salad, fruit tortes, yogurts, creams, meats, cheeses, made to order omelets, juices, coffees, milk…wow. It was good. After breakfast, even though it was an overcast day outside, I went to the beach for a couple hours while dad and Francisa went shopping for food for lunch and started cooking. I got bored of being chilly and windstruck, so I went over to Francisca’s. She made us lunch of Gnocchi! From scratch! Yum =) I watched her make it, and so hopefully now I can try to do the same once I go home.

After Lunch, I went back to the beach for a couple hours as it was much nicer and sunnier out. I’ve noticed that first off, “full coverage” bathing suits do not exist. The bottoms are either thongs or nearly thongs. Yeah, guys, you’re probably already booking your ticket to Argentina, but just as a heads up – just like the topless beaches, the ones who are wearing thongs or going topless aren’t always the ones that should be. Sitting next to me on the beach were what looked like a set of sisters and two friends, and a mom. What surprised me though, was that the girls looked about 13-16 years old in range, and they were all smoking, and not only that, but the youngest looking one also had a tattoo on her shoulder. All of them had at least five piercings that I could see. I came back from the beach when it started getting chilly out and then headed back to her place to shower. Francisca’s place is a one room apartment – a sleeping area and table in the main room, with both a small kitchen and bathroom on the side. Her apartment reminds me of a dorm room. There is nowhere to entertain at all. She purchased the apartment – just 4 blocks from the beach, in downtown – for $12,000. What a steal. However, within the apartment, it seems sterile. She doesn’t have a lot of things (I know, crazy! I have enough to share perhaps…) I have to assume she doesn’t entertain ever, or nearly ever, since there is nowhere to sit besides a single bed, a 4 chair table, and a small bench. I definitely would need more space than that. I also noticed a few framed pictures around her apartment. Three of the five were of members of my family. And this was the first time we’d met. Weird. Apparently, we mean a lot to her now that she knows us again. She seemed absolutely thrilled that we’d come and visited.

We then went to run errands before dinner. Once we returned, before dinner, I just needed some downtime. Francisca is very nice, but very high strung, and sometimes a bit overwhelming with insisting you do something or try something. I just needed a break, but with a one bedroom apartment, there is nowhere to go. So I attempted to take a nap. Conveniently, 10 minutes after I laid down, about 5 after I fell asleep, she awoke me by taking my picture while I was sleeping. Arrgggh. At least we head out tomorrow. Dinner was nice. Her friends Adelfo and Roxanne came to dinner, where we ordered some pizza and empanadas (vegetable and/or meat filled pastries) and we talked the night away. I even got a nice compliment from Roxanne on my Spanish speaking. Adelfo brought his guitar and played some songs for us during dessert. We’d had a bottle of wine with dinner, and then we opened a bottle of champagne with dessert. Francisca had made an orange flan, which probably would have been much better without the orange. After dessert, everyone went home, and Francisca went to her friend’s place to sleep. Dad slept on the single bed, and I slept on the bench. It was pretty uncomfortable, and it was really loud outside all night, so let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep.

Day 7: Thursday January 11

Francisca was supposed to meet us at 9ish back at her apartment for breakfast, and I was going to hit the beach one last time. I got up around 9:15, and she actually didn’t arrive till almost 10:30, but it was too cold outside to go to the beach anyway, so I didn’t have anything else to do. We took a walk around town, and soon it was already 1:00, and we hadn’t had lunch or anything before our 2:00 bus ride back to Buenos Aires! Side note: both Buenos Aires and Mar Del Plata so far do not have a lot of traffic lights. The intersections where there are no lights, you might expect a stop sign, but there isn’t one. It’s just – whoever stays alive when passing through the intersection wins. What a great driving game! We walked back to the apartment to have a quick lunch and rush to the station. We cut it pretty close, but we caught the bus back. Again, the sandwiches were ham and cheese, but this time, they were double decker sandwiches, so I could pull the top layer of cheese and bread from the four sandwiches, and make myself 2 mini sandwiches without the parts touching the ham =). The bus got in a little late, and then we caught the city bus 92 back to our apartment.

Argentina day 4

Day 4: Monday Jan 8

Apparently, today was not the day we were supposed to get anything done. Well, almost anything. Last night I booked myself a ticket online to take a trip to Iguazu falls between the trip to the beach and the trip to the glaciers. Somehow though, there was no option to pay online! Apparently, you had to pay in person or on the phone. So I called. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes or more, they said I could only pay with Visa or American Express on the phone. Unfortunately, I only have a Discover and Mastercard. So I had to go in person. We arrived at the headquarters in the main part of the city, and I took a number. I pulled number 89. I looked at the display, and number 87 was next. Hrm…then what were all these people doing in the waiting chairs?? It turns out that I was #89 of the second group of 100 people waiting. However, we found out that we could immediately pay if we had a confirmed reservation if we wanted to pay in cash. So that’s what we did. After our excursion to the Aerolineas Argentinas office, we walked for a couple hours on Florida Street. Florida street is a pedestrian only street, spanning kilometers through the city. There are shops, tourist stores, indoor malls, etc. on this street. Because leather is an important moneymaker for Argentina, supposedly you can get nice leather jackets for “cheap”. We went into 4-5 shops looking at different jackets, trying them on, touching them to see their quality, etc., and though the prices were good, they weren’t much better than one could get in the states on sale. We must be looking in the wrong place. I am determined to find a jacket for less. We had lunch and then wanted to see the Teatro Colon and the Historic Synagogue. This begins our stream of bad luck. Apparently the Teatro Colon which is a huge, gorgeous opera house has been closed, and will not reopen until 2008. Yeah, our trip isn’t quite that long. So we headed down the street to the historic Synagogue. A beautiful building from the outside, but apparently one can only get a tour on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons. Yeah, we’ll be out of town on all Tuesdays and Wednesdays during this trip. Go team. Time to head back. We’d been in the sun a while already. We took a break at the apartment, and then headed back out in our neighborhood to see the Museo De las Bellas Artes – the Fine art museum. Upon arrival, we discover that they’re closed on Mondays. Disappointed, we head to another part in our neighborhood (we live in Ricoleta by the way) to see the famous Ricoleta Cemetery. It is located near a bunch of restaurants we’ve been eating at every night. We get to the gate, and apparently it was closed for the day. Damn. 0/4. Dad had seen an ice cream shop in his guide book that was supposed to be really good, so we decided that instead of getting dinner, we’d have ice cream and have dinner later. I got a chocolate cone with a scoop of Dulce De leche con Brownie and a scoop of White chocolate. Yum. It was really good – and tasted good in the hot sun. We walked more around the yuppie neighborhood in which we live, strolling past the expensive stores and fancy restaurants, and then headed back to the apartment and packed our things for the trip in the AM. After packing, we leave to have dinner. We arrive at the restaurant at 8:00 pm, and we are the only people there. It’s amazing. It’s like being in the States and trying to eat dinner at 4:30. Sure you can get it, but the rest of the world won’t be eating for hours. Even when we left there was still just one other table filled in the restaurant. I get Gnocchi (I love Gnocchi and am determined to have my fill of it while here), and dad got fish. Including drinks and dessert and tip our bill totaled $10 US. We’re back in the apartment, and it’s time to hit the sack. We’ve got an early bus to catch in the AM tomorrow.

Argentina day 2 & 3

Day 2: Saturday Jan 6 con’t

We took a few minutes to unpack, and then headed out to find the supermarket near the apartment. Right on our block there is a small market, but we wanted milk, cheese, butter, etc., so we trekked over to the bigger one a few blocks over. Upon our return, I ate a snack of yogurt, cheese, and a couple crackers to hold me over until the late dinner, and then read/dozed for the next hour. Dad just dozed.

Once we got up, we went to dinner. Dinner here is late. While lunch is at a regular time – 1:00ish, people tend to go to have a “tea” of sorts around 5:00, and wait to eat supper until about 9:30/10. We went out to dinner and had some delicious Gnocci (which I never can find in the states), and shared a bottle of wine. I think I drank more of the bottle than dad, but he was certainly drunker than I. We walked home and slept great that night.

Day 3: Sunday January 7

I didn’t wake up until 9:00. dad had just gotten up a bit earlier, and when I finally got out of bed around 9:30 to shower, dad headed outside to the bakery to buy some bread for breakfast. We had breakfast and left the apartment around 10:30. we walked a few blocks and caught the 93 bus into town. So far we’ve discovered that the bus 92 goes to the bus/train station, and busses 17 or 10 go from town back to here.

As a side note, the greatest thing I’ve noticed is the price of things down here.

$0.25 for a bus ride, $3-5 for lunch, 20 bucks for dinner for two including a nice bottle of wine. In general, I’d say the cost of things here is about ½ to 2/3 the cost of what the same thing would be in the states. Another comment is that Argentina is well known for their meat. You can get steak or beef really really cheap.

Once in town, we visited the Plaza de Mayo district, which is where the famous Casa Rosada (pink house) is located. This is a famous government building that was made popular with Eva Peron and others preaching from its back balcony to thousands of people in the plaza. Later in the day we made way down to the San Telmo area of town. Where along the way we stopped at a street artisan market. We saw a bit of a Tango show in the Plaza Dorrego. The dancers were alright, but what I think kept people’s attention was that they were dressed the part. A suit and hat for the lead, and a sexy strapless dress for the follow. One thing – the girl’s dress was knee length, and flew up when she spun. For heaven’s sake, if you’re spinning for a crowd, don’t wear a thong!

Anyway, we walked some more (we did a lot of that – probably averaging about 5km a day) and then headed home. I want to take a trip to the Iguazu waterfall, and so I tried to get an airticket online, and book a hostel for when I arrive. Our internet connection here is so crappy though, that it kept going out. I will have to try again a little later. I am writing all these blog entries in word documents, and then uploading when I find a short window of connectivity. I am stealing someone’s unsecured network, but this apartment is supposed to have its own cable internet – to our luck, it is down. We have a tech coming tomorrow to take a look at it, so hopefully the connection won’t be so shoddy after that. After a rest for a couple hours, we headed back out to find some dinner. The area we ate in last night is a street about ½ a km from here, and kind of reminds me of the highlands in Atlanta. There are about 15 different restaurants and bars, and it is crowded with people. We didn’t head out for dinner until about 10:00, and upon arriving there, found that there was a 30 minute line for nearly every restaurant. We opted to eat in a restaurant that had a 30 minute wait for an outdoor table, but had available tables inside. Funny how that is. All the restaurants are facing a wide sidewalk, so they have about 15 feet deep of outdoor tables, and beyond that, there’s about 10 feet more sidewalk before you hit the street. It’s really nice to walk around in. At the end of the block, there is a McDonalds, which you wouldn’t catch me dead at; but Roberto told us yesterday that it isn’t a typical McDonalds, that the bottom floor is a “McCafe”, where they serve fancy café drinks and pastries, while upstairs is the “regular” Mcdonalds. Also, they have wifi and jazz concerts on Thursdays. How interestingly different from any Mickey D’s we know. Back on topic. We had a delicious pizza (Argentina has a very strong Italian influence) along with drinks, and ended up paying $12 for two.

Argentina day 1 & 2

Day 1: Friday Jan 5 2007

Time to leave for Argentina. I packed my bag and went to my parents’ house, and my mom drove my dad and me to the airport (yes, it is me, not I in this instance). The heavens were pouring down rain, and we were pretty worried about the flight schedule. But when we got to the airport, it was still on time. After going through check-in and security, we arrived at the gate an hour early for our 1:30 departure. Too bad it was delayed until 3:30. Once on the plane, dad and I got the window and aisle seat of a 3 row hoping no one would get the middle. No, we get a lady with her 2 year old “infant in arms”. Needless to say, it was not a quiet or comfortable flight, even though I did give her my aisle seat. We arrived in MIA at gate G. The FARTHEST gate from the gate we were to leave from later. After picking up our luggage, we walked all the way across the airpot to stand in a really long line to check our bags again. We surprisingly didn’t have almost a moment of spare time between the flights (where initially it was supposed to be a 5 hour layover). So aboard the flight to Argentina. It was really empty, and nearly everyone ended up with a row to themselves to sleep in. That was nice.

Day 2: Saturday Jan 6

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 6:30 am local time (4:30 am Atlanta time). Because we weren’t set to meet the apartment owner until 10:00, we ate some breakfast and got a rental cell phone at the airport, and then caught a taxi back to the apartment. We arrived at the apartment at about 8:45, and had to wait. Dad and I took turns watching the luggage while the other roamed the neighborhood. It’s actually quite a nice neighborhood, and our apartment is right next door to the British Embassy. We met a neighbor, Roberto, who spoke English to us as we tried to answer in Spanish. He said he was a lawyer by training, but never really practiced because his family had money and he didn’t need to because “life’s too short”. We finally got checked in, and saw the apartment. It is on the 5^th (6^th for Americans) floor of the apartment bldg, and consists of a bathroom, 2 single beds, a small dinette, and a teeny kitchen with 2 stove tops, a microwave and a small fridge. Once we got settled in, we wanted to see if we could connect to the internet to tell mom we were here and alive. Dad had the awesome idea of bringing a surge suppressor, and an adaptor so that we could have multiple plugs. We promptly blew the circuit. Good start. After we got all that taken care of, we went out and caught a bus to the main train/bus station. It was there that we reserved and bought tickets for the bus ride to Mar Del Plata – the beach we’re going to on Tuesday. It’s a 5 hour ride each way, but should prove to be fun. We’re staying there for a few days. After that, we went to a hardware store and bought a correct adaptor, and then went to get some lunch. Roberto had recommended a place right up the street that had just 3 tables, but was very good. After lunch, we found an artisan market with some really cool stuff. It was a huge market, and we didn’t even finish going through it all. They’re there every weekend, so I’ll probably go back and buy some stuff before I leave, there some nice handmade crafts. After that we came back to the apartment to rest since we are both beat.

New year...leaving town for Argentina!

Could it be? Could it really be 2007?
This is my first blog entry of 2007, and I am not entirely sure that I have much funny stuff or interesting stuff to write about, but I couldn't let you down and leave without an update.

Where to? I am leaving for Argentina tomorrow. I have worked hard and diligently for the past year not taking off any vacation so that I could take a long vacation at some point. Postponed from October to now, I am finally going! I leave tomorrow and will be gone until Jan 22. I will hopefully have email access, so I will try to keep y'all posted with entries and pictures.

In preparation for my trip, I have done almost nothing. I did research and found an apartment for $175/week. It sleeps two, has a kitchen, cable, and I think it has Internet, though I am not sure if it's free or not. That breaks down to $12.50 per person per night. I may not get hotel points for staying there, but you can't really beat the price. My dad and I also planned a 4 day trip to the glaciers, but other than that, we're going to play it by ear. I can't wait.

Between my last post and now fell New Years. New years eve was spent with my dad, putting molding and other final touches in the dining/living room that we'd floored the week prior. That evening, I was supposed to hang out with my friend Jeremy for new years, and actually was really excited about it, but he decided to go out to a club, which I wasn't interested in doing, especially on New years, so I opted to host people over instead. it sucked that I didn't get to see Jeremy as planned, but as a very last minute pursuit, and with just a day's notice, it actually turned out alright! Everyone who came seemed to have a good time, with an extra special firecracker display that DZ and Jonathan prepared.

Most people ended up sleeping over since it was raining and most of them were drunk. It worked out fine because I was planning on hosting people the next day to watch the GT bowl game anyway, so most just stayed for a straight 24 hour period. We made pancakes for breakfast and grilled during the game. It proved to be a lot of fun. Josh stopped by on his way through back to Pensacola, and Leah W. stayed over for a couple days after returning from NYC too.

I have been at work all week, trying to put closure on everything before I drop them cold for 17 days. Tonight I'll hit the gym and pack the rest of my stuff.