Ok to get this blog started, the first thing you have to do is to think of the typical Italian accent in your head (you know, like Godfather, Sopranos…). got it? Now, instead of saying the words in English, say them in Spanish...now, you have an idea of what the Argentinan accent sounds like. Throw in some “sh”´s for ll´s or y´s and you are good to go! LOL It´s really funny to hear actually and quite difficult to understand at times as well!
On Thursday, (1/14), I took a 2 hour bus to Colonia, Uruguay. This is a SUPER cute tourist town. It has shops, restuarants, beaches (didn´t get to those though) and old artifacts/museums to see. I grabbed lunch and then walked around for awhille just enjoying the scenery.
I found the lighthouse here and spent the dollar to go up to the top. Here is a pic of the lighthouse and me at the top of the lighthouse.
After that I took a boat across the Rio de la Plata. Apparently this is the widest river in the world (haven´t actually checked that fact out yet though, but it was pretty wide!). It takes 3 hours to cross from Montevideo and 1 hour to cross from Colonia. Fortunately, it was a very calm ride!
In Buenos Aires, my friend Silvia had her younger brother come and meet me at the boat terminal and help me get to where was I staying. I was able to stay with single girl from church named Marina for the few days I was there. I hung out with her and another girl Silvia and somehow completely missed taking a pic of them…how did I manage that?
Since the next day was Friday and most people were working, Pablo (Silvia´s brother) came and met me again to take me on a tour of Buenos Aires (he is currently unemployed so he had the free time!) I can´t even begin to describe the journey we took that day. We just kept walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and..well you get the point. We started about 1pm and ended around 7pm, with only a few rest stops. To say I was exhuasted after walking in the heat for 5-6 hours, doesn´t quite describe it! LOL!
But I did get to see an amazing amount of the city. It is definitely bustling like NY, but the city has a very old european feel to it.
We started off at this huge cemetary they have.
Eva Peron is buired here (think “don´t cry for me argentina”). This is a photo of her site.
Photos of the city:
I met Silvia later and we went out and had a wonderful dinner together. We ended up eating at this local grill place. We got this HUGE piece of beef, chicken breast, HUGE plate of fries and a 1.5 liter bottle of Coke all for like $13/14 TOTAL! Unbelieveable deal! To our right were these two old guys who started talking to us after seeing all the food we had managed to order, without realizng it. Then there were two young guys (like 18/19yrs old) to our left who had a guitar. Alter they had finished their meal, the older guys asked them to play for everywhere. We then spent the next two hours just hanging out listening to them play guitar. They played everything from Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd (english songs for me) to Argentian artists. Another guy at a different table even joined in on the singing sometimes. It was like some movie where everyone breaks out into song and dance! SO SUPER fun!
**side note. People in PY seem to eat dinner around like 9/10pm. People in Uruguay and Argentina don´t eat dinner until like 11pm! Our dinner at this grill place started at like 11pm and we were there until like 1:30am!
Saturday we woke up to rain, so we actually didn´t do that much day at all. But after my 5 million mile trek the day before, I was more than willing to just chill out!
Sunday I got to go to the Buenos Aires church. Everyone was so sweet and so excited to say hello to me. After service, I hung out with a few singles and saw a bit more of the city. We went to this really pretty rose garden area. I would love to come back and visit in the spring when a) it wouldn´t be blazing hot like it was that day and b) I am sure more of the flowers would be in bloom. But there was a huge lake and just green area everywhere – so pretty!
Sunday night I hopped on an overnight bus to Puerto Madryn. The bus ride was fairly uneventful. The only downside was about an tour outside of Puerto Madryn, the police were pulling people over for a drug check - like 6 police officers and a dog all got onto the bus. Turns out two 20-something boys on our bus ended up having drugs. So we all had to sit there and wait for about an hour and a half. We finally ended up leaving them there.
But I did finally make it to Puerto Madryn.
The hostel here in Puerto Madryn, is SUPER nice. I got in and went and hung out at the beach for awhile. The area is so strange here because the land looks like this brown scrub brush desert (very AZ), but then next to it is the bluest of blue oceans! The contrast in colors is amazing!
For those of you not in the Facebook loop, I got up for sunrise this morning, since I knew it would be the last time for awhile I could see sunrise at the beach. yep 5:45am I was up and out the door. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous.
Here are a couple of pics.
Well somehow in that process, I dropped my camera in the sand (I have taken this camera with me to the beach a MILLION times by the way and NOTHING has ever happened!) and it is now ruined. To say I am sad/ticked off at myself would be quite the understatement. I had plans to see penguins and dolphins today, but ending up canceling it since I needed to use the money to buy a camera. yea, pretty much stinks. So I post this all on Facebook and my brother decides to "raise" $ for me to get me a new camera since apparently it is going to be quite expensive to buy one down here. He unfort knows since the same thing happened to him and Laura when they were traveling down here. I am truly humbled by his generous spirit - something I definitely need to learn to imitate. The penguins WILL be seen though, just not this trip. Apparently in Oct/Nov/Dec whales come over here to breed (or feed, not sure really) and I have already started planning that trip. So I will def be seeing the penguins when I return at the end of 2010.
So I have just been chillin´in Puerto Madryn today. I found a cool Oceanography museum and I will be off to the beach here in a bit after my photos are all downloaded. I am taking a 9pm overnight bus to Bariloche tonight. I will spend a day or two there before making my way up to Santiago.
Well off to the beach now!
love and miss you all!
Wonderful to hear about the time in Buenos Aires especially since you were staying with friends of friends. How fortunate is that! You are having a fantastic time without a doubt. Ouch with the camera issue which made you not get to see the dolphins and penguins. We'll all have to fix that! (<:) As always, love and hugs to you. Mom and Dad
ReplyDelete