School's Out!!

Hola, amigos! No, I have not forgotten about this blog... just postponed writing for a bit!

I'm backing up to one month ago, the week of June 12th.  It was Brittany's last week in Buenos Aires since her flight was the following Saturday night, so we wanted to plan some fun things to do!  On Sunday night, Britt and I decided to try to find a milonga (form of dancing that preceded the Tango in Buenos Aires, but sort of an informal version).  Since they start around midnight, we went to a place called Catedral to see what kind of event they had.  Unfortunately, we found out when we got there that Sunday nights are folk music nights, so Brittany wasn't going to be able to dance tango :( We had fun watching though, and got to hear some local folk artists perform while people got up from the crowd to dance the customary dances!
On Friday of that week, I showed Brittany the touristy "El Caminito" in La Boca where we walked around watching outdoor tango shows and got catcalled "Barbies" by restaurant promoters trying to entice us to eat at their locale.  After a while it got old, so we headed back to Palermo (where I lived) to check out the Museo Evita.  This museum is dedicated to showing relics from Argentina's Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina from 1946-1952 and most well-known for her social works, fight for women's suffrage, and the promotion of trade unions.  What I loved most about the museum was that it showcased her fashionable outfits from her days as an actress and politician's wife.  So glamorous!
After the museum, Brittany and I went out for coffee and medialunas with my porteña friend Trini, and then we treated my host mom Maritina to dinner at a restaurant called Bella Italia (and feasted on the best mozarella ever).
The next morning (Brittany's last day!) we went to the Galerias Pacifico shopping mall to take a tango lesson at the Centro Cultural de Borges.  The mall was SO beautiful- it could've been a museum! There was a water fountain in the main food court of the mall, with a Michelangelo-like mural on the ceiling above, complete with a kaleidescopic chandelier made out of hundreds of tiny glass rectangles.  Once we got to the tango classroom, Britt got right to work putting on her brand-new, red-hot tango heels and I mentally prepared myself to start the lesson.  The class was small so I got to work on beginner things while Brittany did more detailed moves and practiced with a more experienced partner.  Tango is definitely harder than it looks!! Towards the end of the class, I had made small improvements so I felt accomplished :) Afterwards, we treated ourselves to Gourmet empanadas/ medialunas from my favorite café Leonizzo, and then explored the Jardín Japones before Brittany had to be on her way to the Ezeiza International Airport for her flight back to the US. 
Later that night, I helped my friend Liz ring in her 21st Birthday by dancing till we dropped at the boliche (dance club) "Terrazas del Este."  In true porteña fashion, three of us made it until 6am and decided to go for breakfast afterwards! You really can't say you've clubbed in Buenos Aires until you've come out from a night of dancing to see the sun come up :)  After getting home at 8am and sleeping until noon, it was time to crack down on studying for finals which were coming up! Luckily, I had the Argentina National team vs. Albania soccer match to look forward to on Monday (Argentina's "Flag Day")!  It was just a friendly match before the Copa America started. After a looong study day on Sunday, Monday was a fun break since about 15 IES students went together to the River Plate soccer stadium together to watch the game. It was so fun to see everyone dressed up in Argentine blue and cheering on the team-- especially since we got to see Messi live and in action!! We were up in the nosebleeds, but we could spot the star player by his neon-yellow cleats! :)
They ended up winning 4-0 (as expected!) so it wasn't too much of a nail-biter but still a great time.
After getting home, I was starting to feel a little sick... I had unfortunately caught the IES strep throat that was going around. Just in time for finals :( I was ordered by a doctor that made house visits (totally normal) to fill a prescription and get as much rest as I could, and thankfully I recovered within a few days.
Finals went pretty well (I'm still waiting for results!) and it came down to one last final, which was for my partner university class at UCES.  I had to take it to make up for what I missed while I was in Brazil, so I was planning on taking an essay final just like the rest of the class had.  I showed up in my professor's office (at her second job, which was working for Argentina's National Parks) and started chatting with her about the class, Argentina in general, and overall my experience as an exchange student.  She asked me if I had any questions from studying the materials, and we talked through a few before she said, "Ok great. I'll tell them you passed!" Definitely a shock, but the best final ever!!
That night was the IES farewell dinner at Club Sirio Libes, which was a beautiful mansion used for special events with arabic catering. Yumm!! I got there early to practice with the choir, but soon friends and teachers began to flood in and the program began! The choir performed "Por Una Cabeza," "Mano Blanco," (both tangos) and "Cinco Siglos Igual." Afterwards, (by my friends' request) I performed my rendition of "Ridin' Solo!" The food was great, the music was fun to dance to, and all of our wonderful memories in Argentina were coming to an end, so it was definitely a bittersweet night.  The next few days were spent packing for our upcoming trip to Salta, and saying goodbye to friends that were heading back to the USA.  It was really hard to see some friends leave (the boys even cried!) but we all made plans to visit each other and we're all still keeping in touch.  What a wonderful 4 months in a beautiful city with incredible friends!! A small group of us left for Salta on Sunday though, and continued the adventure in Argentina. More about our trip to the Northwest in the next blog post!

Café con Medialunas! Never gets old :)

Evita's dresses!

Inside of the Evita Museum

Dinner at Bella Italia with Maritina

Inside the Galeria Pacificas

                                                                                

Tango Lessons at Centro Cultural de Borges

Gourmet empanada :)

Japonese Garden

 

River Plate Soccer Stadium

Ganadores!! (Winners)

IES Choir Performing!

To the Land of Ice, Snow, and...Ashes?! (Patagonia and Brittany's Arrival!)

SO MUCH has happened since I got back from Iguazú-- only 2 weeks have passed and it seems like forever ago!
It all started when I made the decision to join a group of 7 fellow IES students on a trip to Patagonia for the weekend, buying my plane ticket only two days in advance! My sister Brittany was still arriving on Sunday morning, so I made arrangements for a friend to hang with her for the day until I returned that evening from my weekend excursion.

The flight to Patagonia and Rio de Janeiro was about the same length (around 3 hours), so we arrived in the El Calafate airport around 10:30 in the morning.  From there, we took a small shuttle bus to the town of El Chaltén (trekking capital of Argentina) where we would spend the next two nights of our trip.  It was clear when we arrived that we were basically the only tourists staying there; in the winter seasons, even the locals empty out and go north to escape the normally freezing, rainy/snowy/windy weather.  Probably only a third of the population was still there, so it seemed like somewhat deserted.  We stayed in two small cabins, complete with our own kitchen!  The rest of the time that day was spent getting hiking boots and crampons (strap-on metal shoe spikes used to walk on ice) for our long hike the next day, as well as hike a shorter trail to get a glimpse of the town from the surrounding mountains.  We made it to two lookout points, and the view was absolutely incredible!! That night, we shopped at the local grocery store and made ravioli for a group dinner. Yummy :)

The next morning, we were greeted at 7am by our guides Nacho and Jesse.  We were equipped with backpacks filled with lunch and extra layers, and some of us had headlamps to see the dark trail (the sun doesn't rise in Patagonia until 9am in the winter).  After we got going into the wooded foothills of the mountains, you could see so many stars! We were definitely heading into the wilderness.  When the sun finally started rising, we could see an orange glow coming over the Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy Mountains, just like in the postcards!! In front of us was a frozen forest- all of the tree branches were bare and twisted from the extreme winds, and also covered in huge, flat ice crystals! The way they sparkled in the early light was breathtaking.

Next, we reached a river where we had to hang from a rope that stretched across (using a harness) and pull ourselves across! This was the beginning of the Cerro Río Fitz Roy that we had seen coursing around the town.  The water was so clear and almost turquoise-- and tasted fantastic!! After the river crossing, we had the hardest part of the trek ahead of us.  One by one we hiked slowly up the Cerro Solo into the forest, where we had to watch out for frozen rivers where we could possibly (and did!) slip and fall.  At one point, we were nearly being pushed up an 80-degree incline, avoiding a frozen stream AND extremely prickly bushes :( The last and final test before reaching the glacier was carefully walking across a sloping mountain covered in a rockslide!! We were terrified everytime a rock moved and we lost our footing, peering down into the freezing water below. After making it past one more frozen river, we stopped at the foot of Glacier Grande to strap on our crampons and get ready for the ice-trekking adventure!
The ice was nothing like I'd expected-- it was covered in huge ridges and almost turquoise in color besides the parts that were covered in rock deposits.  In order to walk correctly on the ice, we had to stomp down flat instead of walking heel-toe like normal.  Also, our guide tried to tell us to center our balance around our navel, but instead he said nipple!! Oops....

After a some walking around and exploring some smaller glacial caves, we settled in a bowl-shaped area where we sat to have lunch!! The walls were basically vertical though, so the guides taught us how to ice climb!!! We hooked up our harnesses to an anchor one of the guides set at the top (after free-climbing the wall-crazy!) and used 2 ice picks and our metal dagger shoes to climb. It was SO hard but 3 of us made it to the top (one being me!!!) After finishing our bagged lunch, we trekked back to where the glacier met the mountainside, took off our crampons, and began the trek home.  My muscles were screaming at this point, but we were motivated to go quickly so that we could get through the hard terrain before the sun went completely down and we couldn't see. When we made it back to the final trail, we got to watch one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen turn the mountains and clouds a rosy orange-pink.  It was a great ending to the day.  Twelve hours after we had started that morning and dark once again, we returned exhausted to our cabins, ate, and passed out asleep.

The next day we decided to to a smaller trip to see Laguna Capri, which was about a 3-hour hike there and back with mixed uphill and downhill trails.  I was down for anything easier than the day since I could barely lift my legs to climb the stairs that morning!! Ouch.
It ended up being completely worth it, and we got to see the Fitz Roy reflected on the smooth surface of the frozen lake.  Once we got back, we packed our things and headed on a bus for El Calafate, our next and final destination for the trip.

We arrived in our hostel around 9pm so we didn't do much that night, but the next morning we woke up early so we would have time to see the famous Perito Moreno glacier before our flights that afternoon.  Perito Moreno is a huge part of tourism in Patagonia, and it is the 3rd largest freshwater source in the world!! We're talking 97 sq. miles of glacier... or 19 miles long and an average height above water of 240ft!!! We took taxis to get to the Glacier National Park, and got there just as it started to snow! The taxis weren't exactly the best for driving in the weather  so it was a little scary driving on the winding roads towards the glacier but we all made it just fine! The glacier is on top of the Lago Argentino, which has beautiful turquoise water  that stretches for miles.  We couldn't stop taking pictures- it was an incredible sight!

I left first for my early flight, only to get to the airport to find that all flights for that day (and probably the next) would be cancelled!!! :( The Puyehue volcano located in the middle of Argetnina's neighboring country Chile had erupted after 50 years of being dormant!!  The resulting ash cloud from the eruption was being blown east across Argentina, blocking flights between the north and south.  Some ash even made it to Australia in a matter of days! Our group tried anything we could to get back to the city by plane, but after hearing they might not leave until Friday we finally had to buy bus tickets to BA... aka over a 40 HOUR TRIP! On Tuesday we packed our things, ran through town buying crafts (paper, glue sticks, puzzle/coloring books, connect four, etc.) and food (mostly wine) to keep us busy for the next 2 days.  The result was a trip I'll never forget-- making playdoh figures, paper animal hats, coloring pictures and solving brain teasers until we arrived in the city on Thursday morning.  The effects of the ash cloud were not yet dramatic in the city, but it looked like everything was covered in a layer of dust, and people were wearing SARS masks! So strange.

It was nice to finally see my sister (she had patiently waited 4 days for me to arrive) and hear all about her adventures in the city by herself, mostly to find tango lessons :)  I was excused from class for the day, so I spent Thursday and the rest of the weekend trying to show her my favorite things about Buenos Aires! We visited the Recoleta Cemetary, La Flor, the parks of Palermo, had an asado and wine dinner, explored the San Telmo outdoor fair, saw a Tango show and had chocolate and churros at the famous Café Tortoni, and visited a few confiterías (pastry shops) and heladerías (gelatto/ice cream shops) along the way!

Sunday we decided to make a trip to the Luján Zoo, which is one of the most famous and controversial zoos in the world.  Here you can pet lions, tigers, bears, and elephants, climbing right in the cages with them! We even got to hold baby lion cubs that were 25 days old!!! It definitely made my Lion King dreams come true to finally hold Simba :)  It was so weird to see people interacting so closely with the animals, but they didn't look like they were being maltreated, but more like extremely domesticated.  It was a very interesting and cool experience, even a little scary when you're right up next to a tiger and realize how big its teeth are!

Once the week started again, Brittany spent her days exploring and shopping for tango shoes while I started to prepare for my finals next week.  I can't believe I have less than two weeks left... all of the sudden the time flew by! We're making big plans for the weekend to help Britt see as much as she can before she leaves, and on Sunday I'll be attending an Argentine National soccer team match!!! I'm so excited :)
Until next time...
Besitos!
Taylor

Welcome to El Chaltén!

Cerro Fitz Roy

The "Frozen Forest"

Ready to go glacier trekking!

We finally made it to the glacier!

I MADE IT!

Beautiful Patagonian Sunset

Río Fitz Roy

Laguna Capri

Perito Moreno Glacier

Perito Moreno and Lago Argentino

Not the worst place to get stuck, right? :)

Britt and I exploring the city

Sweets at Café Tortoni

Petting a lion!!

Feeding a cub only a few months old

Cuddling with 25-day-old baby cubs!!

Britt and I hanging with the Tiger

From Tango to Toucans: La Boca & Iguazú Falls

Hello all!
I know you've been dying to know what's been going on down in Argentina for the past 2 weeks, so here it is...
Last Friday I explored more of La Boca, which is a southern neighborhood of Buenos Aires that is well-known for Tango and it's club soccer team Boca Juniors.  Most of the early settlers in La Boca (translation: "the mouth," like in a river) were immigrants from the Italian city of Genoa, and when they arrived in the area they used leftover ship paint for their houses which resulted in the colorful buildings which made the area famous.  The most colorful street in the area is called "El Caminito," or "the little walk."  El Caminito is a really touristy area, but outside of this the neighborhood is more rundown and thought of as dirty and sketchy compared to the rest of the city.
As soon as I stepped off the but I could hear the melancholy tune of the accordion from the traditional tango music, and there were tango dancers in full costume meandering around the cobblestone streets.  There were also a fair share of craft tents, so we browsed around before walking down El Caminito! It was (surprisingly) the first real Tango performers I had seen, so it was fun to watch them live and sometimes with a live band, as well.  It definitely has an old-world feel, and the blinding colors of the buildings are a sharp contrast to the run-down neighborhoods surrounding the area.  Overall, it was definitely a cultural experience that brought to life the history of the city and its Tango roots.

The following week, we had Wednesday off from classes for the Argentine Independence Day (May 25th).  In the city, there are usually many celebrations (and free hot chocolate & churros by the government buildings!).  One of my friends and I decided to take the opportunity to travel to Iguazú Falls for the rest of the week, since it definitely was a must-see on my Argentine bucket list!
Once again I found myself at the Retiro bus station (3rd time), so it was a little more relaxed than the previous visits since I knew how the system worked.  This was extremely fortunate since the bus company listed in the "Arrival" section of the screen you use to find your bus was different than the main one listed on our ticket! Luckily, we decided to check anyway and made it on safely :)  The bus ride was supposed to be 18-20 hours long, so we settled in for some movies and catered dinner before falling asleep for the overnight ride.  We arrived in Iguazú at 6pm the next day, so we decided to get some dinner after checking into our hostel (complete with a $4 Daiquiri!) before resting up for our early morning.
Iguazú falls are located right at the triple border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay;  it is commonly said that Argentina has the falls, Brazil has the view, and Paraguay got jipped!  The spectacle of Iguazú  includes 275 separate waterfalls over a stretch of 1.7 miles-- incredibly impressive and definitely hard to imagine without experiencing it in person. Apparently when Eleanor Roosevelt first saw Iguazú, she exclaimed "Poor Niagara!"  Iguazú Falls is also one of the 28 finalists in the new vote for the New 7 Wonders of Nature (currently receiving votes!! I voted to help the cause)as a part of the New & Wonders of the World, one of which being the Christ Redeemer in Rio which I just visited!!
On Friday, we decided to explore the entire Argentine side of the waterfalls (where 2/3 of the falls are located).  We first took a train to see one of the most famous waterfalls, La Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat).  The Devil's Throat is U-shaped and 82 meters high by 700 meters long. It also represents the border between Argentina and Brazil as this runs straight through the falls; half of the river's water goes through this route.  The rest of the falls are divided into an Upper Circuit and a Lower Circuit.  There are walkways constructed around both areas of the falls, so Liz and I got to view them both from the top overlooking the scenery, as well as at the bottom right up close!! We also took a boat ride on the Iguazú River and got to see (and get drenched by) the waterfalls.  We also learned that The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani or Tupi indian words y [ɨ], meaning "water", and ûasú [waˈsu], meaning "big". Legend has it that a God planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe on the day of her sacrifice. In rage the God caused the river to split, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall; Naipí became a rock so that she would feel the force of the water falling forever and Tarobá was turned into a palm tree so he could look over her and lament over his lost love.
After exploring the falls from all angles, Liz and I took a nature trail that was quieter than the normal tourist-filled circulation of the park.  At the end of the trail, there was also a small waterfall which is the only one in the park gentle enough to bathe in.  Sendero Macuco proved to be one of the best moments of the trip! Since it was less popular, the animals weren't scared away so we ended up seeing a lot of birds, butterflies, insects, and... MONKEYS!!  They jumped all over the trees and we even saw one up close when he came down to get some fruit from a bush close to the trail :) Another animal we saw in the park was the Coati, which unlike the monkeys, have no fear of tourists anymore and love to hang around near the restaurants and scrounge for food dropped (or stolen from!) tourists.  We watched helplessly while a Coati (which looks like a mix between a raccoon and an opossum) stole a man's sandwich and returned later for the plastic bag!  After a long day of walking and exploring the park, we went back to the hostel to rest up for visiting the Brazil side the next day.
Since Liz and I had already gotten our Brazilian visas for our trip to Rio, we were able to cross over into the Brazilian National Park.  We took a bus down to visit the first panoramic view, which was completely breathtaking and unexpectedly gigantic.  It definitely helped us get a true sense of the scale of the falls, since we had only seen everything up close.  We continued to move towards the beginning of the waterfalls, each view more impressive than the next.  Since it was a beautiful day and mist everywhere from the water, there we spotted many rainbows crossing over the river between the two countries.  Absolutely beautiful!!!  We did some more up-close exploring (getting soaked from just the mist alone) and then decided to visit a Bird Park nearby to see more rare flora and fauna.  Between the two parks, the Argentine side was more raw nature up close, and Brazil was better kept and touristy with a great view.  Liz and I both agreed afterwards that in order to get the full experience you have to visit both!
The park started out with showing off some impressive species like ostriches, macaws, flamingos and peacocks (although all behind cages), but soon we found open-air cages where we could walk in and see the birds up close!!  I finally realized my dream of seeing Toucans, and even petted one!  There were some of the most beautiful colorful birds I have ever seen in my life.  There was a parrot house as well, and they would soar right over the heads of the people inside, even getting close enough to make us duck out of the way!  Definitely got an adrenaline rush from that :) Other species we saw were the Harpie Eagle, emus, rare golden parrots, humming birds, alligators, snakes, and butterflies!  I've never seen anything else like the rainforest animals here.  It completely perfected the whole trip and was something great to end on.
We literally had to sprint back to the bus station in order to make the last bus back to our hostel so that we could have time to get our luggage before heading on another bus home... literally had only half an hour to spare! We were exhausted by the time we made it on the bus home, and fell asleep as soon as we finished dinner.
Overall, it was an unforgettable trip and something you have to see to believe! Absolutely incredible.
Now that I'm back in the city, it's time to start planning for my sister's visit next week!! I can't wait to share the city of Buenos Aires with her :)
Until then, hasta luego!
Saludos,
Taylor

Beginning of El Caminito

Colorful buildings and crafts for sale

Enjoying a Tango show during lunch

Garganta del Diablo

Crazy Coati!

Panorama from Argentine side

I Survived the boat trip!

ADORABLE monkeys

Beautiful butterflies