Dos semanas

Two weeks

Okay, so these past two weeks have flown by. I guess I will start with two weekends ago, and then talk about this last weekend. I will also try to update you a bit on the turmoil that is still here. Also, SO sorry again for not having pictures. I don´t have my camera with me, AND I will be leaving for Iguazu tomorrow, which is the northeastern most point in Argentina. I am working on putting my photos on snapfish.com and separating them into albums so that people can see, and if they really like a picture, say of a glacier o cataratas, they can order prints. I also will be [slowly] working on posting several on facebook; all of this is time - and energy - permitting. If push comes to shove, I will post them when I get back to the states. It is just that time is going by even faster and I am finding less and less time to do that which I want and would like to do. Sadly, I will leave here not accomplishing several things that I had intended, but I suppose I will have to come back and stay a week or two and do them then.....we´ll see. Only time can tell, and recently, time has not been my friend, so I don´t think it will tell me any time soon. :op Also, all of what I say may not be 100% accurate, but it is what I remember hearing, seeing, etc. So, I will do my best to tell you everything that I remember as accurate as I am able.

Bromas (jokes:)
Obviously there are inside jokes and funny stories that happen within groups, but there is one joke that is bigger than between two people. I went to Bolivia a little less than a month ago. I was only there for about 6 hours or so, but I bought a poncho there. Upon my return there were several people that were "jealous" that I had one and "everyone" was admiring it. Well, the joke goes that I am now a Bolivian...that as soon as I put on my poncho, I am now some Bolivian. I also bought a hand-made hat in Bolivia, and Romina - a gril in the program - has said that with both the poncho and the hat on, I really look like a Bolivian. So, whenever I wear the poncho, I am the Bolivian of the group. Even when we were flying out of Ushuaia, our trip coordinator, Marisa, noted to me, ´Okay, now the Bolivian,´ and patted me on the shoulder....I really am not Bolivian, they just like to poke fun at me. :o)

Humo....todavía (smoke....still:)
I haven´t seen much on t.v. recently, but I have seen and heard some more on the smoke. The smoke isn´t quite as bad as it was before, well, in Rosario that is to say, but it is back in Rosario, and is ever-present - or so it seems- in Buenos Aires. Currently, there is a place near B.A. that is causing many problems. We ran into a lat of smoke coming back from our trip this past weekend. Although there was much ash that was dispersed from the volcanic erruption in Chile about a week ago, the vast majority of the smoke here, on the east side, is from the campos (or the country/fields.)

Uruguay
No explination here. Two weekends ago, I went to Uruguay and met up with two other girls in the program. It was AMAZING! I had to first ride a bus to B.A. and then I had to go through Buquebus, a boat service that crosses the river to Colonia and/or Montevideo. I took it to Colonia. Upon arrival, I tried to find the hotel that the girls and I were to meet up at...that is a story or two in and of itself. I finally found it, checked in, and slept. The following morning, Friday, I met up with them for lunch. We walked around the town, walked by the river, walked around the shops and bought a few things, and just relaxed. We then went back to the hotel to rest a while. After a few hours, we met up in town for dinner. After dinner, they went back to the hotel to sleep since their boat back to Argentina left earlier than mine did. I walked around town a bit more and then tried some ice cream. Mmmmmm. The ice cream in Argentina is better, but the ice cream in Uruguay is pretty good. On Saturday, I spent a relaxing day around town, ate lunch -pizza panceta c/agua s/gas and cheesecake....yeah, they say cheesecake. And, btw, that is: baccon pizza with water w/o gas and....dessert - walked by the river, gathered some pretty stones and sand -just to say that I have sand from the Río de la Plata- and killed time (with a knife) whilst I waited to go to the boat station. I then crossed over the river, and we arrived faster than expected. Due to more smoke issues, of which I wasn´t informed, I was detained in Buenos Aires for the night. The most horrific thing for me was that I wasn´t prepared for this, almost all of the hotels were full due to a conference or something that was going on in B.A: that week, and there were/are hardly any cheap hotels....so, with much prayer and the help of a VERY kind Remis (taxi) driver, I was able to find something to tide me over for the night. I then took a taxi that following morning, as early as I could, to Rosario, and thus ended my....adventuresome weekend.

El fin del mundo (the end of the world:)
This last weekend, I went to the end of the world, literally. I visited the point near Ushuaia - will enjoy hearing people try to say that - where I was 1.000 km away from Antartica. Okay, don´t ask me how many feet or miles or whatever it is, ´cause I don´t know. I am just too used to the metric system.

Calafate
Anywho, we left Rosario early Thursday morning, the 22, and arrived in Calafate, southern, southern Patagonia - which is a region made up of 5 provinces in southern Argentina - and I was able to take a "trail ride" on horseback for 2 hours. We went through part of the stepp on which Calafate is located. There are smooth rolling hills, not big, but we went up "close" to el Lago Argentino (Argentina Lake,) which, if memory serves correct, is the largest - that or second largest - lake in all of Argentina. The water consists of pure glacier water and is actually more of a milky colour. As blue as it may seem, due to the runoff from the glacier over the rocks, sedements are carried down into the water and form a leche glacier...or glacier milk. Quite interesting. After the ride, we shared mate with the gaucho that led the gorup. It was quite nice. To end the day, we had pizza and empanadas for dinner....classic Argentine dishes/foods.
The following morning we went to go see el Glacier Perito Moreno. Oh my word! I was speechless the whole time and was left breathless. We first went on a boat that took us about 300 m or so close to the glacier. We even got to see a decent-sized chunk fall off. The cool thing about this glacier is that it collapses about every two years or so. From what the guide told us, it isn´t something that is normal or a routine, but it DID happen twice before, and they predict that next year, it will collapse again. (YouTube: Glacier Perito Moreno....you´ll see what I mean.) We then had the opportunity to go walking around a path that led us to see the north, south, and west (?) side of the glacier....basically the three points/sides that people are able to see. The total surface/immenseness of the glacier covers more than that of the city of Buenos Aires. Remember the grape I told you about? The glacier rises about 60 m, which is as tall as the Obelisc in B.A. standing at about 67 m, at peak and goes several hundrad meters below the surface of the water touching, I believe, the bottom of the lake - Lago Argentina. The lake is roughly 2º and only rises to about 5º at peak temp.
After spending a second night at el Mirador del Lago (name of the hotel...something like that - it actually overlooked la Bahía Rodunda: the Round Bay-) we left the next morning for the airport to fly down to Ushuaia: el fin del mundo.

Interesting factoid: Calafate is named after the calafate plant that gives a yellow flower in the summer, and berries in the fall. The wood, when dried, can be used for burning. From calafate, they make liquor, ice cream, jam, and other eatible products. The saying goes that if someone eats of the calafate berry, in whatever form, they will return to Calafate. I tried the berry and the ice cream. :o)

Ushuaia
We arrived in Ushuaia in the mid afternoon and enjoyed a nice lunch. We were able to explore the town some before we had to meet at the hotel lobby to walk to the carcel, or prison, to take our tour. Romina, a gril from the program, and I walked around and found an ice cream shop and both got cones. Yes: we ate ice cream in Ushuaia...at the end of the world. Oh! Did I mention that Ushuaia is surrounded by the Andes Mountains and that the Beagle Canal is right next to it as well? Yeah: it snowed two or three times whilst we were there, but mostly on Monday, the 26, when we were eating lunch and in the airport waiting for our plane.
The tour of the prison of Ushuaia was REALLY interesting. We then had the option of "staying in prision" and to just explore the jail. It was fun. We then went to a parilla for dinner. We ended up eating at this same parilla the following evening. For lunch the next day, though, I don´t know exactly what all I ate, all´s I know is that I loved it and the calabaza soup we had was the BEST soup I have ever eaten in my 20 years of life.
The following day, Sunday, we toured the National Park of Tierra del Fuego, one of the provinces of Patagonia. Most students, myself included, decided to take the trian ride through the park to where the prisoners went back in the mid-20 century to chop wood to bring back to both the town and the prison. It is known as the dead forest and we were able to hear the history behind that part of the park as we went through. Later that day, we toured the Beagle Canal and saw birds which LOOKED like penguins, but they weren´t and they could fly. Unfortunately, the penguins had just migrated for the winter and are roughly in the southern coast of Brasil....somewhere in there. Shucks!!!! I guess I´ll just have to come back and see them. ;o) But we saw the faro, or lighthouse, and two heards (?) of sea lions. There were SO many and we got really close to both groups. It was AMAZING. P.S. Check out a bit on the prision in Ushuaia...it has a really interesting history behind it.
In addition to all of this craziness, we had the opportunity to get our passports stamped with the "Ushuaia: el fin del mundo." Those that did also received a certificate. Same happened with the tour of the Beagle Canal.

Returning home was a different story, so I will save that for later, but I know that I LOVED going to Patagonia and will most definately put it on my list of places to return some day. I miss it terribly and don´t think I will ever lose the images that will ever be ingraved in my mind. We did SO much on our trip, I don´t think I even covered it all.

Taxis

Okay, so the night before we left for Patagonia, there was a taxi driver who was killed in Rosario. There was a paro, or a form of a strike, that all of the taxi drivers and coli (collectivos) drivers executed. From what we were told, the next day, the taxis blocked off Pelegrini, which is one of the major/main avenues in Rosario...at least el centro. It then moved to where the taxi drivers would only drive during certain hours of the day. Before we arrived back in Rosario, there was a fear that we, the students, would not be able to get home due to this situation. But we are all safe, but the taxi drivers are on edge and many radio in who gets in their car and where they are going.

There was also a protest on 25 de mayo, which is an important day in Argentina´s history. In both Salta and Rosario, there were demonstrations both supporting and opposing the government. In Rosario, there were about 300.000 people who gathered to protest the government and their treatment/attitude towards the campos. In Salta, though, they rallied for the government. In San Martin Plaza, Rosario, there are people camped out in protest, I believe. I didn´t hear the story about these people, but we all were warned not to walk near there so as to not cause any disturbances. Everyone is safe, but there have been, and still are, a LOT of disturbances in Argentina.

Empanadas

Probably the BEST food there is in the world; and they make the best empanadas here in Argentina. I learned how to make them today in my grammar class. Ahhh.....the things one learns in class. I have learned so much in my conversation and grammar classes alone here than I think I could ever learn from a book. We made empanadas de choclo (corn) and carne salada (salted meat.) Mmmmmm. They were delicious, and we shared them with the other professors and students in the program that had class since we made about 40 or so. :o) Rumour has it that there will be another class that will be making them next week. Maybe they will find it in their hearts to share. :op

Todo (everything:)
Thanks for enduring another long blog...and my spelling/grammar. The spell check doesn´t really work at all and I type these without much thought so as to tell everyone of where I am and what I am doing. Sorry, again, I have not been able to update more regularly with photos, but time, resources, and other circumstances - such as a time crunch - prevent me from doing so otherwise. I am sure there will be heaps more stories to tell upon my return. I also don´t really know what to day, ´cause I am afraid of repeating myself. I honestly don´t really remember what I have or have not said about my life down here, the culture, my thoughts which are endless now, or just about anything in general. So I will leave you with positive, happy thoughts about el fin del mundo, and I hope all of you have a chance to visit some day. It is well worth the time and energy. Until I visit again, take care and stay warm. It is finally starting to cool down here, and has even started to rain. Enjoy your sunny weather...or rain...whichever it is doing.