Chris and I are back in Buenos Aires. We took an hour long ferry from Colonia in Uruguay and arrived yesterday. The pictures from Colonia are up on the website here. We’re staying in the neighborhood of Palermo which is the trendier part of town with lots of cafes, restaurants, shops, bars, etc. It’s nice and much cleaner and quieter than the other parts of Buenos Aires we stayed at in February. BA is the land of dog poop all over the sidewalks, so we’ve been watching out for that, as well as crazy drivers. So far, neither one has gotten us.
We’re staying in Casa Esmerelda hostel with a shared room. After living it up in actual hotels with TVs and private bathrooms, we need to save some money and stay in the shared rooms/bathroom places. We’ve got one Australian guy in our room that’s been riding motorcycles around the world for four and a half years. On this leg, he rode down the coast from Oregon. He’s ridden through Africa and Europe, and makes my travels seem lame by comparison.
Today was a national holiday (kind of like a Labor Day) so it was pretty dead. Last night we went out with a couple from Colorado that we met in the hostel and Chris and I put away 4 (!!!) bottles of wine so it was good that things were quiet today as we didn’t feel like doing much anyway. The couple had been traveling through South America since June and their Spanish was awesome, which made me jealous. They had lived in BA previously on this trip and took us to a really good vegetarian restaurant and I had some broccoli ravioli in a cream sauce that was glorious. When you can find fresh veggies in a restaurant in South America, it’s time to celebrate. The Colorado people had lots of good things to say about Colombia, which is great. We haven’t heard anything good about Venezuela so we’ll probably skip that and spend more time in Colombia.
Tomorrow is our last full day in BA so we should probably venture out and actually do something… although I’m not sure what that will be. Maybe I’ll finally make it to the Evita Museum, and Chris wants to check out a big book fair to look for books to learn Spanish. Our friend Seth from Paraguay is in town with his parents so hopefully we can meet up for dinner or something.
Saturday morning we fly to Lima, Peru. We have a hostel booked and someone from the hostel is picking us up at the airport, which is helpful. We’ll probably stay in Lima for only a few days and then go north, up the coast. We want to surf and lay around on a beach. There are also some ruins that apparently rival Macchu Picchu but I think it involves a lot of jungle and nature to get there, so I don’t know how excited I am for that.
And I guess that’s it. Things are fine; I’m just a little boring right now.
Showing posts with label Buenos Aires. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buenos Aires. Show all posts
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Uruguay: So Hot, It's Smokin'
Chris and I arrived to Montevideo yesterday morning on time and ready to go. Actually, we were pretty tired because our flight left Asuncion at 5:40AM. We flew TAM airlines again and were again greeted with hot free food, free drinks, and pretty stewardesses. If you ever need to fly local carriers near Brazil, I’d go with TAM.
We had a stopover in Buenos Aires and were greeted with some heinous smoke. Farmers were setting fires to clear fields and the flames got out of control on Friday and totally messed up most of Buenos Aires. We were feeling very smug that we missed the smoke but in the afternoon, the winds shifted and Montevideo got nailed. So we spent most of yesterday hiding indoors from the smoke.
Montevideo seems like an OK place. We are in the downtown area and it’s a little rundown in some spots, but nothing horrible. The town is close to the ocean and we hope to take a bus to some of the beach resorts later in the week.
We have some time to kill before we fly out of Buenos Aires for Peru on May 3rd so we’re just seeing what comes up. This blog would be longer but we’re at a café and I need to stuff my face with a waffle with dulce de leche (basically sugary/buttery carmel warmed up).
We had a stopover in Buenos Aires and were greeted with some heinous smoke. Farmers were setting fires to clear fields and the flames got out of control on Friday and totally messed up most of Buenos Aires. We were feeling very smug that we missed the smoke but in the afternoon, the winds shifted and Montevideo got nailed. So we spent most of yesterday hiding indoors from the smoke.
Montevideo seems like an OK place. We are in the downtown area and it’s a little rundown in some spots, but nothing horrible. The town is close to the ocean and we hope to take a bus to some of the beach resorts later in the week.
We have some time to kill before we fly out of Buenos Aires for Peru on May 3rd so we’re just seeing what comes up. This blog would be longer but we’re at a café and I need to stuff my face with a waffle with dulce de leche (basically sugary/buttery carmel warmed up).
Monday, April 14, 2008
Bolivia. Boo. Hiss.
Chris and I booked a ticket last Friday to fly out this Friday to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We had about one month to kill in the country before my best friend Liz met up with us in La Paz. We discovered last month that as of December 2007, all US citizens need a visa to enter Bolivia. We figured it wouldn’t be a big deal and took a taxi to the Bolivian Consulate today in Asuncion.
We arrived with our application form, proof of a yellow fever vaccination, proof of a hotel reservation, proof of a returning flight to the US (out of Brazil), $100 in cash (each), and bank statements to prove that we had sufficient funds to travel. And all of this nonsense was not good enough. We were told we needed to have proof of a flight or bus out of Bolivia (which we usually don’t get until the day before we leave a place), a complete written itinerary, and we needed to go to INTERPOL and get a printout that proves there are no warrants out for our arrest anywhere in the world. We were also told this application could take ten days to process, even though the Bolivian Consulate website states 24 hours.
Sooooooo frustrating. And it’s 100 million times more frustrating when you speak and understand the language on the same level of a three year old. Apparently Bolivia hates the US with some extra passion right now and they are making it really hard for Americans to get in, because they just don’t want us there. My friend Seth that works in Asuncion at the US embassy was cautious to come with us to the Bolivian Embassy because he thought they’d get paranoid and think he was sending spies into their country. He was afraid we might get tailed and spied on when we went to Bolivia, that our rooms would get searched while we were out. Combine with the State Department website mentioning things like kidnapping by strangulation and shallow graves containing some Austrian tourists and we decided that Bolivia can shove it. So this American is giving the Bolivian Consulate a solid two thumbs down and one solid middle finger. On top of us canceling our plans to Bolivia, now Liz and her travel buddy Matt have to do the same thing, and they’ll have to meet us in Lima, Peru.
After the consulate mess, we had to return to the travel agent and book a different flight out of Paraguay. Their elections are happening this Sunday and there are some fears of things getting a little crazy and borders getting shut down, so we have to go ASAP. Thankfully, we booked through a Brazilian airline called TAM that allows you to change flights and apply the money you paid for the original flight to your new ticket. We flew TAM from Chile to Paraguay and they gave us a hot meal, free booze, and six matching, very cute stewardesses. I appreciate it when they all have cute matching hair and outfits and aren’t fat and old and haggard like the majority of the flight attendants I find on US carriers.
Anyway, we thought about flying to the north of Brazil and sitting on some lovely tropical beaches for a bit, but to get there and get to Peru in time for Macchu Picchu and my Liz, would mean thousands of dollars that we don’t have. So on Saturday at 5:40AM (!!!) we are flying to Montevideo, Uruguay. From there, after we get done looking around Uruguay, we will take a ferry over to Buenos Aires, Argentina. On May 3, we will fly to Lima, Peru from Buenos Aires. After reading that paragraph, you might need an atlas for reference.
We’ve already done Buenos Aires and this whole thing is a total headache, but we’re too broke to do anything else. My advice to anyone traveling through South America for an extended time is to either be really really fluent in Spanish or have a ton of money to just throw at any inconvenience; having neither is a real letdown.
Tonight, Chris and I take an overnight bus into Brazil to visit Iguazu Falls. We’ll only spend the day and then head back to Asuncion. I must say that I’ve really enjoyed Paraguay, even though I’ve really only seen Seth’s house, a mall, and some bars and restaurants. The people here are really nice and helpful and patient with two people that can’t speak Spanish well. This is a place that no one visits (unless you have a large shipment of bootleg DVDs or cocaine to move into Brazil) and there aren’t many tourist sites, but the food’s good and it’s pretty easy to get around.
Anyway, check back in a couple of days for some giant waterfall pictures.
We arrived with our application form, proof of a yellow fever vaccination, proof of a hotel reservation, proof of a returning flight to the US (out of Brazil), $100 in cash (each), and bank statements to prove that we had sufficient funds to travel. And all of this nonsense was not good enough. We were told we needed to have proof of a flight or bus out of Bolivia (which we usually don’t get until the day before we leave a place), a complete written itinerary, and we needed to go to INTERPOL and get a printout that proves there are no warrants out for our arrest anywhere in the world. We were also told this application could take ten days to process, even though the Bolivian Consulate website states 24 hours.
Sooooooo frustrating. And it’s 100 million times more frustrating when you speak and understand the language on the same level of a three year old. Apparently Bolivia hates the US with some extra passion right now and they are making it really hard for Americans to get in, because they just don’t want us there. My friend Seth that works in Asuncion at the US embassy was cautious to come with us to the Bolivian Embassy because he thought they’d get paranoid and think he was sending spies into their country. He was afraid we might get tailed and spied on when we went to Bolivia, that our rooms would get searched while we were out. Combine with the State Department website mentioning things like kidnapping by strangulation and shallow graves containing some Austrian tourists and we decided that Bolivia can shove it. So this American is giving the Bolivian Consulate a solid two thumbs down and one solid middle finger. On top of us canceling our plans to Bolivia, now Liz and her travel buddy Matt have to do the same thing, and they’ll have to meet us in Lima, Peru.
After the consulate mess, we had to return to the travel agent and book a different flight out of Paraguay. Their elections are happening this Sunday and there are some fears of things getting a little crazy and borders getting shut down, so we have to go ASAP. Thankfully, we booked through a Brazilian airline called TAM that allows you to change flights and apply the money you paid for the original flight to your new ticket. We flew TAM from Chile to Paraguay and they gave us a hot meal, free booze, and six matching, very cute stewardesses. I appreciate it when they all have cute matching hair and outfits and aren’t fat and old and haggard like the majority of the flight attendants I find on US carriers.
Anyway, we thought about flying to the north of Brazil and sitting on some lovely tropical beaches for a bit, but to get there and get to Peru in time for Macchu Picchu and my Liz, would mean thousands of dollars that we don’t have. So on Saturday at 5:40AM (!!!) we are flying to Montevideo, Uruguay. From there, after we get done looking around Uruguay, we will take a ferry over to Buenos Aires, Argentina. On May 3, we will fly to Lima, Peru from Buenos Aires. After reading that paragraph, you might need an atlas for reference.
We’ve already done Buenos Aires and this whole thing is a total headache, but we’re too broke to do anything else. My advice to anyone traveling through South America for an extended time is to either be really really fluent in Spanish or have a ton of money to just throw at any inconvenience; having neither is a real letdown.
Tonight, Chris and I take an overnight bus into Brazil to visit Iguazu Falls. We’ll only spend the day and then head back to Asuncion. I must say that I’ve really enjoyed Paraguay, even though I’ve really only seen Seth’s house, a mall, and some bars and restaurants. The people here are really nice and helpful and patient with two people that can’t speak Spanish well. This is a place that no one visits (unless you have a large shipment of bootleg DVDs or cocaine to move into Brazil) and there aren’t many tourist sites, but the food’s good and it’s pretty easy to get around.
Anyway, check back in a couple of days for some giant waterfall pictures.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Paraguay Bound
This weekend Chris and I took a bus to the coast and spent three nights in Viña del Mar. In the summer months (January and February) the place is boomin’ and we caught it on an off time. Our hostel/hotel was pretty close to the beach and we spent a lot of time wandering around. It was too cold to go to the beach and the water was too cold to even touch, so we had a lot of time to walk. I think in the summer months, the water is pretty cold too (probably a lot like northern to southern California).
Viña del Mar itself is a little run down and kind of dirty. I’ve never been to Atlantic City so I don’t know if I can compare it to that, but I have been to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and I got that same vibe; the kind of place that used to be ritzy and then got a little trashy. But since I’m in Chile, ritzy and trashy take whole different meanings and from what I’ve heard, everyone still has lots of love for Viña del Mar.
We arrived on Saturday after a two hour bus ride through some wineries. The next day we used the local bus system to take us to a small fishing village called Horcon. All of the fisherman line their boats up on the small harbor and use horses to pull the boats back in. It was Sunday so we missed the horses, but we did have a pretty good seafood lunch with shellfish soup, fried white fish, potato salad, and tomatoes and onions for around $3 each. After that, we wanted to take another bus to a town called Concon that’s closer to Viña, but we missed our bus stop, our Spanish is too crap to argue, and ended up back in Viña del Mar.
On Monday, we took the train into Valparaiso. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar basically run into each other but Valparaiso is a much larger town. It has the most important harbor on the entire west coast of South America. It also has the illustrious history of getting raided by pirates a bunch and destroyed by several large earthquakes. After Chile won their independence, Valparaiso got super popular with America and we used it as a major trading port. But then we started using steam ships and used the towns that produced coal, we built the transcontinental railroad and then the Panama Canal, and after that, America stopped loving Valparaiso. A few giant earthquakes completely leveled the place and it got poor and dirty and sketchy.
Presently, Valparaiso is the official cultural center of Chile (don’t ask me why) and UNESCO declared it a world heritage site. Along the hills that line the bay, there are huge collections of brightly painted shacks, stores, mansions, and homes all jumbled together on cobbled stoned streets and narrow alleyways. You can take little trains (ascencors) up the hills and wander through the neighborhoods. Apparently at night, everything gets a bit dangerous, hence Chris and me staying in Viña del Mar.
Today, we took the bus back to Santiago and tomorrow fly to Asuncion, Paraguay. From what I’ve heard, going to Paraguay is like going to the US to visit Kansas, while places like Rio and Buenos Aires are the Disneyland’s and New York City’s of the bunch. So why Paraguay? Well, my friend Seth from college lives there and works at the US embassy. He has enticed us with the promise of a free place to stay with a pool. He probably also has a bathroom with toilet paper and I won’t have to wear sandals while in the shower (this is a big deal down here). I plan on taking a vacation from my vacation. My feet are disgusting and in need of some serious TLC by someone willing to give them a pedicure, I need a haircut, and I need to get caught up on TV and movie watching. Plus it’s so nice to be in a place where someone knows what’s up. We won’t have to spend the time finding a place to eat or a place to do laundry, all of the scouting has been done. And I like the off the beaten path places (the Nebraskas of the world) because the people are usually a lot nicer.
Seth also has a new immunization card for me that states I have been vaccinated for yellow fever. When my backpack was stolen in Buenos Aires, I lost my immunization card and I can’t enter Bolivia or Brazil without it. My doctor mailed a new one to my parents and they sent it to Seth’s fancy APO address at the embassy.
So it’s off to Paraguay. We’re even flying and not taking a 45 hour bus ride. I feel so fancy.
Viña del Mar itself is a little run down and kind of dirty. I’ve never been to Atlantic City so I don’t know if I can compare it to that, but I have been to Cocoa Beach, Florida, and I got that same vibe; the kind of place that used to be ritzy and then got a little trashy. But since I’m in Chile, ritzy and trashy take whole different meanings and from what I’ve heard, everyone still has lots of love for Viña del Mar.
We arrived on Saturday after a two hour bus ride through some wineries. The next day we used the local bus system to take us to a small fishing village called Horcon. All of the fisherman line their boats up on the small harbor and use horses to pull the boats back in. It was Sunday so we missed the horses, but we did have a pretty good seafood lunch with shellfish soup, fried white fish, potato salad, and tomatoes and onions for around $3 each. After that, we wanted to take another bus to a town called Concon that’s closer to Viña, but we missed our bus stop, our Spanish is too crap to argue, and ended up back in Viña del Mar.
On Monday, we took the train into Valparaiso. Valparaiso and Viña del Mar basically run into each other but Valparaiso is a much larger town. It has the most important harbor on the entire west coast of South America. It also has the illustrious history of getting raided by pirates a bunch and destroyed by several large earthquakes. After Chile won their independence, Valparaiso got super popular with America and we used it as a major trading port. But then we started using steam ships and used the towns that produced coal, we built the transcontinental railroad and then the Panama Canal, and after that, America stopped loving Valparaiso. A few giant earthquakes completely leveled the place and it got poor and dirty and sketchy.
Presently, Valparaiso is the official cultural center of Chile (don’t ask me why) and UNESCO declared it a world heritage site. Along the hills that line the bay, there are huge collections of brightly painted shacks, stores, mansions, and homes all jumbled together on cobbled stoned streets and narrow alleyways. You can take little trains (ascencors) up the hills and wander through the neighborhoods. Apparently at night, everything gets a bit dangerous, hence Chris and me staying in Viña del Mar.
Today, we took the bus back to Santiago and tomorrow fly to Asuncion, Paraguay. From what I’ve heard, going to Paraguay is like going to the US to visit Kansas, while places like Rio and Buenos Aires are the Disneyland’s and New York City’s of the bunch. So why Paraguay? Well, my friend Seth from college lives there and works at the US embassy. He has enticed us with the promise of a free place to stay with a pool. He probably also has a bathroom with toilet paper and I won’t have to wear sandals while in the shower (this is a big deal down here). I plan on taking a vacation from my vacation. My feet are disgusting and in need of some serious TLC by someone willing to give them a pedicure, I need a haircut, and I need to get caught up on TV and movie watching. Plus it’s so nice to be in a place where someone knows what’s up. We won’t have to spend the time finding a place to eat or a place to do laundry, all of the scouting has been done. And I like the off the beaten path places (the Nebraskas of the world) because the people are usually a lot nicer.
Seth also has a new immunization card for me that states I have been vaccinated for yellow fever. When my backpack was stolen in Buenos Aires, I lost my immunization card and I can’t enter Bolivia or Brazil without it. My doctor mailed a new one to my parents and they sent it to Seth’s fancy APO address at the embassy.
So it’s off to Paraguay. We’re even flying and not taking a 45 hour bus ride. I feel so fancy.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Buenos Aires bound
After almost two weeks in Rio, Chris and I are off the Buenos Aires... Argentina (for those of you who didn't pay attention in Geography class). We wanted to leave earlier, but the plane tickets were too expensive, and the bus tickets were sold out until Tuesday. Mara and Rodrigo were nice enough to let us stay even longer so that was great. It was so invaluable to have them to take us around and translate for us and tell us where to go and where not to go... and that was just in the bus station. We're going to be screwed in Buenos Aires.
Our bus tickets to Buenos Aires were 230 reais (about $140) and that gets us a 42 (!!!!!) hour bus ride. Forty two hours! But our seats recline all the way and once we get into Argentina, they feed us. But not until then, which is weird. I think they're punishing their people for leaving the country and rewarding them for returning, plus I hear they kinda hate Brazilians.
We have hostel booked for our first night in BA. When we get there, we want to get a bus ticket ASAP to the southernmost tip of Argentina, to a town called Ushuia. There, we hope to get a last minute cruise to Antarctica on the cheap. Apparently, it's the high season down to southern Argentina right now, so getting a bus ticket to Ushuia might be difficult. But we'll do our best.
Now I just need to switch gears in my head and stop spitting out sentence fragments in Portuguese and spit out fragments in Spanish. Good times. There is much packing to be done and we're leaving behind a bunch of stuff at Mara's place as we totally overpacked.
Chris also needs to stop fighting me and get out and buy a sunga before we go. A sunga is the tiny teeny bathing suit worn by all the men here, it's like a speedo without the bikini cut. When Rodrigo's brother Rafeal had lunch with us a few days ago he was shocked to find out that that type of bathing suit is considered a bit gay in the USA. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that in some countries, tiny bits of lycra stretched over a dude isn't considered masculine. He was seriously upset. Anyway, we have things to get to, wish us luck on the 42 hours in a bus. Yikes!
Our bus tickets to Buenos Aires were 230 reais (about $140) and that gets us a 42 (!!!!!) hour bus ride. Forty two hours! But our seats recline all the way and once we get into Argentina, they feed us. But not until then, which is weird. I think they're punishing their people for leaving the country and rewarding them for returning, plus I hear they kinda hate Brazilians.
We have hostel booked for our first night in BA. When we get there, we want to get a bus ticket ASAP to the southernmost tip of Argentina, to a town called Ushuia. There, we hope to get a last minute cruise to Antarctica on the cheap. Apparently, it's the high season down to southern Argentina right now, so getting a bus ticket to Ushuia might be difficult. But we'll do our best.
Now I just need to switch gears in my head and stop spitting out sentence fragments in Portuguese and spit out fragments in Spanish. Good times. There is much packing to be done and we're leaving behind a bunch of stuff at Mara's place as we totally overpacked.
Chris also needs to stop fighting me and get out and buy a sunga before we go. A sunga is the tiny teeny bathing suit worn by all the men here, it's like a speedo without the bikini cut. When Rodrigo's brother Rafeal had lunch with us a few days ago he was shocked to find out that that type of bathing suit is considered a bit gay in the USA. He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that in some countries, tiny bits of lycra stretched over a dude isn't considered masculine. He was seriously upset. Anyway, we have things to get to, wish us luck on the 42 hours in a bus. Yikes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)