Chau Buenos Aires... it's been fun!

My last couple months in Buenos Aires were spent taking in the city in my favorite ways: walking around the cobblestone streets, enjoying the parks and cafes, and partying. a lot. I felt like I had to take advantage of the late-night-to-early-morning clubs before becoming a recluse in the mountains, so it was justified.

But when I woke up midday, I made sure to tie up all my loose ends in BA which included seeing all the touristy places I had never been to and buying the necessities for my upcoming snow adventures (well, the leather boots are not for the snow but I couldn't pass them up!).

Argentina had it's own party for the country's 200th birthday. The city closed down the largest street, which is 20 lanes across, and built exhibitions & stages for concerts & dancing. On the final day of the 4 day bicentennial celebration, there were almost 3 million people in the area! Check out these pictures from Boston.com:


I have very mixed feelings about leaving the city that has been my home for the past 8.5 months (crazy right?). On one hand, I have had an incredible experience here and have met some friends that will last me a lifetime. I have gotten used to the lunfardo, or slang, which won't do me any good if I am speaking Spanish to somebody from any other country, but it sounds cool so oh well.

On the other hand, I am ready for a change. The hustle-bustle of the city always kept me on my toes, but I have really been missing nature. I am so excited about moving to Bariloche to enjoy the fresh air, see the stars, eat lots of yummy chocolate, watch incredible sunsets against snow capped mountains and lakes, and most of all to SNOWBOARD!!!!

I don't have too many more new pictures of the Buenos Aires, so I'll leave you with some shots from my 2nd trip to Colonia, Uruguay in May. I had to get my passport stamped to renew my tourist visa (again) so my friend Jenny and I took a day trip! It is always nice to get out of the city and explore...







Coming soon...... photos of nature's paradise a.k.a. San Carlos de Bariloche!

B-loche

It was my first stop in Argentina and it will be my new home from June until the snow melts... Bariloche is a cool mountain town with a lot of German and Swiss influence (think lot of St. Bernards and chocolate) that has some of the most breathtaking views you will ever see. We were lucky enough to stay in a friends' log cabin with a gorgeous view of the lakes/mountains, and all the neighbors helped us with everything we ever would have needed. The Argentines (in general, but I have noticed it more outside of the city) are extremely generous people. They want to help you in any way they can, and they will call everybody in their phone book to hook you up in some way, shape, or form!

Our backyard:


Our first stop, Cerro Campanario, has some of the most magnificent views I have ever seen. The lakes go on for MILES and they are all different shapes and colors. You can see mountain peaks in Chile from here, and luckily the first dusting of snow happened the night before so it was even more picturesque.




The next day we took a boat excursion to Puerto Blest. We walked to Lago Frias, which is a bright sea foam green color due to the minerals from the nearby volcano. We packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed the peace and quiet.





Then we walked up a bunch of stairs to this waterfall "cascade" thing that wasn't really that cool. But it was a fun, adventurous day nonetheless. For dinner we had a 7 course meal at a restaurant called Butterfly which consisted of soup in shot glasses, fish with faces, and lamb cooked for 16 hours. It was super gourmet and super delicious!

The next day was probably my favorite day of Mom and Dad's whole visit. When I was 15 I wouldn't believe you if you told me that a mere 8 years later, my favorite day of a trip would be spent in a car with my parents for 7 hours... but it's true! We drove all around the national park region of Bariloche. We passed tons of lakes, rivers, rock formations, and brightly colored trees. Without music. Or drugs or alcohol. Who would've thought huh?





As for an update on my life.... I will be moving to Bariloche in early June for the winter. I don't have a job yet, but I am hoping to be a waitress, bartender, or snowboard instructor (none of which I have any background in with English, let alone Spanish, but I think it will be a learning experience!). Since I am leaving Buenos Aires soon, I have convinced myself that I need to take advantage of the party scene because it will be a real change moving to a mountain town. This "last hurrah" is similar to my schedule when I initially arrived in BA, and involves going clubbing at least twice a week. Why not, right?

Oh p.s. people- I am not sure what my internet situation will be like when I move (not sure if my lake house will have wi-fi) so skype me while you can! xo Raquel OUT

Vino Country: Mendoza with the Padres

Apparently there is a song about Mendoza in the fall, and now I know why. The crisp air and the vibrant colors of the leaves against the background of snow-capped mountains is really a beautiful sight. And let's not kid ourselves... the wine was awesome!


The trip started when our plane got delayed a few hours so then we missed our connecting flight and then the next plane we got put on was delayed again... and when we arrived in Mendoza we found out Mom's bag had been sent to Brazil. BUT that didn't mean the next 2 days (a.k.a. the last few days of Mom and Dad's visit) were ruined.

We spent our first day in the local wine region of Maipu laughing at the name and riding bikes to different wineries. It was a 9 km trip along narrow roads with big trucks wizzing by, and it's a miracle that more drunk backpackers don't get hurt. There are a bunch of wineries along the way, and you can pop in for tours and tastings for the equivalent of about $4 at each one. Some of the wineries were old and traditional from the 1860s, and others were super modern, but I would have to say I enjoyed the vino at each one.





We got home with the help of the bike rental lady chasing after us and screaming at us for about 5 minutes because we rode too far, thanks to Dad's slight misreading of his iPhone GPS (he must have been pretty buzzed at this point because we all know about his map reading skills). Anyways after a nap we went to the most amazing parrilla (Argentine bbq). Seriously if you are ever in Mendoza you have to go to La Barra- it was the best meat I have had in this country, and that is a pretty hefty claim.


After a trip to the casino, we got a good night's sleep in order to wake up early and....... go wine tasting again! This time we got a ride about 2 hours outside of the city close to the base of the Andes.

The region: Valle de Uca
The winery: Salentein
The vibe: sophisticated
The wine: really good





After a multi-coarse lunch in the middle of the countryside, we headed to the airport and back to the big city. Mom and Dad had one more day in BA but because they were such super-tourists the first week, they had already seen all the important stuff. We spent their last 24 hours eating meat, drinking wine, and walking around- my favorite things to do in Buenos Aires :)

mom & dad visit: buenos aires edition

The past 7 months of my life have been spent exploring new territory and experiencing new traditions in a country far away from home. The past 7 months of my parents' life have been spent missing their only child. BUT, even though I have been having an amazing time, the truth is that I have really missed Mom and Dad. I think we were equally excited to see each other and sad when they left (yes, there were tears on both occasions). There were so many amazing aspects of their visit- from showing them around MY new home to traveling to places in Argentina I had not yet seen. They were super-travelers! They saw so much in their 2 weeks that I don't think we could have packed anything else into the trip.

They arrived to Buenos Aires on a Sunday, and I was excited to take them to the antique market in San Telmo. You can never get sick of people-watching there, and if you have the patience for rummaging through old crap you can find some cool stuff. Dad couldn't get enough of the old maps, navigation tools, cameras, and martini shakers from the 1930s (?) and of course it was my practical mom that made him realize he didn't need any of that junk.









Then I had to work for a few days, so I let them loose to explore the city. I felt like the roles had switched- now I was the supervisor and they were the unknowing 'children.' I was SO nervous they were going to get lost or robbed or not be able to ask for something they needed in Spanish! I constantly sent them texts/emails to make sure they were ok. Now I understand what it was like for them when I was a teenager :)

They had a busy first week: they flew to Iguazu and back in a day, and then went to every tourist (and nontourist) haven BA. They did tours of everything- double decker bus tour, walking tours, and even a graffiti tour. They probably know more about BA than I do. Some places that I took Mom and Dad that I will never get sick of:

La Boca: named for the 'mouth' of the old port, where the poor people used to paint their homes with the left-over paint from the shipyard. This created an eclectic neighborhood with multicolored shacks. Nowadays there are a couple cool streets that remind me of Disneyland and the rest of the neighborhood is really sketchy. Also a photographer's candy store.






Puerto Madero: the new fancy port




Plaza de Mayo: the historic plaza where Argentina finally separated from Spain and had many other important political and social demonstrations. Please note the completely sacrilegious and utterly inebriated-looking blow-up Jesus next to the Church of Buenos Aires on Easter.




Street art in Palermo and Villa Crespo: always cool






Tango: it tends to be more popular among the older crowd, but impressive nonetheless. We went to both a tango SHOW and to a MILONGA, which is basically a dance hall where real people go to dance tango with different partners. If you think drunk Americans bumping and grinding at a club is sexual, you haven't been to a milonga.



We also went to Tigre, the delta inlet of the Rio de la Plata where people live on little islands.

And I can't leave out all the great meals we ate. Dad wasn't happy if we didn't have steak once a day. We definitely drank wine EVERY night (even Mom, which is out of character for those of you know that Tina is normally the sober one while Ira takes it down like a champ). I strategically planned to take them to all the best restaurants in the city so they could enjoy the all food here (and because, let's face it, I work for pesos now which doesn't allow me to indulge all that often even though a steak/wine dinner costs less than $20 per person).

My personal favorite parts of the trip were traveling to Bariloche and Mendoza. It felt a lot more like traveling since now I live in BA, and it was great to get out of the hustle bustle and into nature. The next 2 blog posts will cover the rest of the trip. Stay tuned.

Gualeguay-what?

GUALEGUAYCHU (pronounced wall-uh-why-chew) is a city about 3 hours away from Buenos Aires that annually puts on the "Carnaval de Pais" a.k.a. the raddest Carnaval celebration in all of Argentina.

Thanks to their good timing, my Californian visitors happened to be here on one of the weekends of the celebration in February. Historically and religiously, Carnaval is the festive season that comes immediately before Lent. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no idea what this means and went purely for the amusement.

So it was Friday morning and we thought the bus and all accommodations in Gualeguaychu were full... Lauren, Evan, Kacy and I were hungover from a big night out in Buenos Aires, and we were about to give up on the pending adventure when I got a message from my friend saying that the trip was on! Jules, my Ozzie friend, and her Colombian boyfriend Jonathan went to Gualeguaychu last year for Carnaval and knew all the ropes (thankfully). We had a couple hours to shower, pack, buy a tent for camping, and get to the bus station. Surprisingly, we made it and arrived in Gualeguaychu 3 hours later.

When we got there, there was a slight misunderstanding about the campsite, so we talked to the tourist office and ended up renting a house for the first night. Now, when I say we rented a house, I don't mean we rented a "luxury vacation home." The woman at the tourist office literally called her friend, asked if she wanted to make some extra money, directed us into a cab headed towards the concrete 'projects' of the city, and booked us a night in a nice lady's house complete with pictures of her family and the Pope. We had basically kicked this lady out of her house, and she said she would be back in the morning to get the keys. Weird.

View from inside the iron gates of the concrete house:


After a night of live music, wandering the streets full of debaucherous people in costumes, and playing on see-saws, we woke up early to get the hell out of that creepy house and set up camp. Boy-scout Evan helped us set up our 100 peso tent, and then we headed to the "beach"! "Beach" is in quotes because it was actually a river bank, but it was nice to enjoy the sand and water on a sweltering hot day nonetheless.



The "beach" scene? Similar to Spring Break in Mexico... Drunken frat-ish guys in sombreros and Borat unitards (you thought that only happened in the U.S., didn't you!), a lot of fake boobs, and everyone in thong bathing suits. We didn't get the memo that normal bathing suit bottoms were like wearing granny panties.



After a day in the sun, we geared up for the CARNAVAL PARADE! Now I know this parade dwarfed those in Brazil and other countries, but it was incredible!!! The colors, the costumes, and the dancing were amazing. You could really see the amount of effort that went into the parade. The dancers were wearing boobie tassels, thongs, and crazy feather headdresses and probably danced around for 4 or 5 hours. Every now and then came massive floats with more people dancing on them. And the entire time they played the same song over and over again.









All in all, it was a really cool and unique experience, and I'm really glad to have actually made it there. Brazil next year, anyone?

I leave you with this poorly made video I threw together of girls shaking their booties in crazy feather costumes: