yesterday, we spent the afternoon in uyuni running various errands, internetting, phoning, having tea, dropping off luggage and the like. unfortunately, due to the weirdness of the ATMs, keith left his mastercard in the machine. ouch! foiled! thankfully he was able to cancel it (somewhat dubiously). i was able to talk to andy for 5 minutes - who knew that phone calls would be so pricey in the middle of nowhere, bolivia? actually, that makes sense. :P
we decided to take an overnight bus to la paz, and 11 hour journey costing 80 bolivianos (just over $10). we went with a company called touristicos omar, and opted for the semi-cama (3/4 reclining) option. in my mind, i thought it would be like the buses that kavitha and i took in argentina and brazil, which were very new, climate controlled, and had tvs and bathrooms. or at least like a greyhound bus. when the bus rolled up an hour late, we found a bus from the 1960s or 70s, with heavy duty wheels that were about 5 feet high. we had to tag our own bags in a giant suffocating cloud of diesel smoke before boarding the bus, which was dimly lit. there were alpaca blankets draped over our seats, and NO BATHROOMS. oy! the chairs reclined either fully, or not at all, and the bus was cramped and there was absolutely NO HEAT. i was sitting under a vent that cold air constantly blew out of, with water dripping on to the aisle beside me. kavitha took a gravel and was able to sleep, but me, cheryl, bossi and keith did not have much luck in that department!
when the bus got rolling, the only thing i could compare it to was being in an out of control massage chair in a tank with bullets constantly being fired outside. bolivian roads are not exactly in the best shape, so all the seats on the bus vibrated like nobody's business. it was not easy to sleep!
then, around midnight, we made our first unannounced rest stop. the windows were frosted over so we could not see outside. since my bladder was about to explode, i ran up to the driver and yelled "DONDE ESTA EL BANO?" and he pointed into a sketchy bar/restaurant. i was so disoriented and desperate to find a bathroom that i ran outside and into the bar like a madwoman. when i stepped in i got the strangest looks ever! thankfully, the owner of the restaurant was very helpful and directed me to the bathroom. many other passengers followed suit.
the rest of the bus ride was a bit less rickety,and we got in this morning around 8AM. the hostel we are staying at, the adventure brew hostel (recommended by kavitha's friend who also made the awesome BA hostel recommendation, props!!!) has been great! we had a solid breakfast (eggs, strange bacon, coffee/tea, and toast( for about $2 each, and then a pretty decent lunch (i had a vegetable soup and a banana juice for about $2). tonight - no plans yet. but there is a bar on the top floor of our hostel that has nintendo tournaments. random!
ever since leaving easter island, it has been insanely dry. we have been moisturizing with nivea (the heavy dark blue kind) and glysomed like nobody's business. la paz is definitely not as bad as the desert, which is a welcome relief. fortunately, i was also able to pick up some chapstick. chaps brand peach chapstick. fantastic!
lastly, being away for almost 2 months now, what is going on in the music world? any new artists i should know about?
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
bolivia - holy schmoly!
the past three days have seen their share of highs and lows. i will, as per usual, document everything in as fine detail as possible!
we left san pedro de atacama at 8AM in the morning, changed some money into bolivia bolivianos, and then took a van over to the edge of the chilean border. the driver dropped us off there, and we went through customs to get an exit stamp. while we were waiting for that, there were two dogs that were fighting and running into everyone in line. super scary! meanwhile keith was pretty much playing with them. on yet another scary note, when it was our turn with the customs agent, everyone seemed to notice (but me) that he had a gun beside his keyboard. lovely!
our driver then drove us to the bolivian border, where we had another breakfast of ham sandwiches and bread with jam, and we were introduced to our driver, alberto. he looked about 22 and drove a red land cruiser that looked like it had been through several beatings.
i rode shotgun for the day while the others sat in the back (and often times, smacked their head in the ceiling due to all the bumps in the road. actually road should be in quotations... it was more semi-well-worn dirt paths). we went to a lot of the sites in the park - there was the laguna blanca (the white lake), the laguna verde (the green lake), hot springs, a bunch of rock formations, and around 2:30 we ended up at laguna colorada, which had a bunch of flamingoes.
the night in laguna colorada goes down probably as my second worst night of sleep of all time. first of all, laguna colorada was high in altitude - 4528m to be exact. so, we were not feeling too hot between the headaches and dehydration and being winded. second of all, it was FREEZING!!! we were all wearing about 6 layers of clothing. outside it was about -10C at night, the common room where we ate dinner it was 10C, and our room was 0C. at one point, we were so desperate for warmth that we snuck into another building that some british people were staying in that had heat. sweet mother!!!
meals were very strange. for lunch we had tomatoes, cucumbers, and hot dogs. for dinner, we had vegetable soup and pasta, which many of us got heartburn from.
at night, the five of us shoved three beds together and made an elaborate sleeping bag. yes, keith was the lucky guy in the centre!!!! :P it was impossible to sleep - between it being really cold, and it being kind of hot under so many blankets, heartburn, headaches, altitude sickness and our various sleeping habits (moaning, my snoring, others heavy breathing, tossing and turning), and it being pitch black, it was a really really bad night. second only to me and amelia{s night in marrakesh when we had no air conditioning, it was 50C and our room was filled with bbq exhaust smoke.
in the morning, none of us were too happy and we got back into the 4x4. this second day, we saw lots of rock formations and geysers. we also ended up in a town called copacabana for lunch - another small indigenous town with lots of low adobe huts. at night, we ended at the salt flats and stayed at a cute salt hotel! everything was made out of salt, save for the bathroom (thank goodness for that). we were happy to have a hot shower and hot tea, as well as some fairly good food. (we had llama chops for dinner! whoa!) most of us had a very solid sleep - it was great to sleep on a mattress again! kavitha and i lucked out with a room with two single beds with SPIDERMAN sheets. sweet.
today we are in uyuni. we spent a lot of time on the salt flats taking ridiculous photos, taking advantage of the fact that it is a large white surface and perspective is completely skewed. the salt was really neat - it looked like an endless mass of snow - except that it wasn{t cold! it was a strange juxtaposition of salt and cacti! we also went to the original salt hotel, which has now been converted to a museum (it is loosely called a museum - it had a lot of salt sculptures). apparently, the salt hotel had been condemned because of sewage problems. using their bathroom for 5 bolivianos, i could see why - it was repulsive!
afterwards, we stopped at an area where there were piles of salt - this is where they do salt mining.
we ended up at a random town for lunch - there was chicken and pasta. keith managed to eat an entire chicken!
we also went to a train graveyard before landing in uyuni. tonight, we will be heading on an overnight bus to la paz - a solid 11 hours. eeek! until then!
we left san pedro de atacama at 8AM in the morning, changed some money into bolivia bolivianos, and then took a van over to the edge of the chilean border. the driver dropped us off there, and we went through customs to get an exit stamp. while we were waiting for that, there were two dogs that were fighting and running into everyone in line. super scary! meanwhile keith was pretty much playing with them. on yet another scary note, when it was our turn with the customs agent, everyone seemed to notice (but me) that he had a gun beside his keyboard. lovely!
our driver then drove us to the bolivian border, where we had another breakfast of ham sandwiches and bread with jam, and we were introduced to our driver, alberto. he looked about 22 and drove a red land cruiser that looked like it had been through several beatings.
i rode shotgun for the day while the others sat in the back (and often times, smacked their head in the ceiling due to all the bumps in the road. actually road should be in quotations... it was more semi-well-worn dirt paths). we went to a lot of the sites in the park - there was the laguna blanca (the white lake), the laguna verde (the green lake), hot springs, a bunch of rock formations, and around 2:30 we ended up at laguna colorada, which had a bunch of flamingoes.
the night in laguna colorada goes down probably as my second worst night of sleep of all time. first of all, laguna colorada was high in altitude - 4528m to be exact. so, we were not feeling too hot between the headaches and dehydration and being winded. second of all, it was FREEZING!!! we were all wearing about 6 layers of clothing. outside it was about -10C at night, the common room where we ate dinner it was 10C, and our room was 0C. at one point, we were so desperate for warmth that we snuck into another building that some british people were staying in that had heat. sweet mother!!!
meals were very strange. for lunch we had tomatoes, cucumbers, and hot dogs. for dinner, we had vegetable soup and pasta, which many of us got heartburn from.
at night, the five of us shoved three beds together and made an elaborate sleeping bag. yes, keith was the lucky guy in the centre!!!! :P it was impossible to sleep - between it being really cold, and it being kind of hot under so many blankets, heartburn, headaches, altitude sickness and our various sleeping habits (moaning, my snoring, others heavy breathing, tossing and turning), and it being pitch black, it was a really really bad night. second only to me and amelia{s night in marrakesh when we had no air conditioning, it was 50C and our room was filled with bbq exhaust smoke.
in the morning, none of us were too happy and we got back into the 4x4. this second day, we saw lots of rock formations and geysers. we also ended up in a town called copacabana for lunch - another small indigenous town with lots of low adobe huts. at night, we ended at the salt flats and stayed at a cute salt hotel! everything was made out of salt, save for the bathroom (thank goodness for that). we were happy to have a hot shower and hot tea, as well as some fairly good food. (we had llama chops for dinner! whoa!) most of us had a very solid sleep - it was great to sleep on a mattress again! kavitha and i lucked out with a room with two single beds with SPIDERMAN sheets. sweet.
today we are in uyuni. we spent a lot of time on the salt flats taking ridiculous photos, taking advantage of the fact that it is a large white surface and perspective is completely skewed. the salt was really neat - it looked like an endless mass of snow - except that it wasn{t cold! it was a strange juxtaposition of salt and cacti! we also went to the original salt hotel, which has now been converted to a museum (it is loosely called a museum - it had a lot of salt sculptures). apparently, the salt hotel had been condemned because of sewage problems. using their bathroom for 5 bolivianos, i could see why - it was repulsive!
afterwards, we stopped at an area where there were piles of salt - this is where they do salt mining.
we ended up at a random town for lunch - there was chicken and pasta. keith managed to eat an entire chicken!
we also went to a train graveyard before landing in uyuni. tonight, we will be heading on an overnight bus to la paz - a solid 11 hours. eeek! until then!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
san pedro de atacama
since our last update, we have had very sporadic internet services, and it looks like for the next week or so, this will be the same case. so an update since the last time.....
after our last update, easter island got extremely extremely rainy. so much so that as soon as you stepped out, it soaked through even the most waterproof of materials. in addition to that, it was so damp that everything was wet or damp. even my passport!
to pass the time, we played a TON of games of yanif (yaniv? according to bossmat), an israeli card game that kavitha and i picked up from the two young germans in ilha do mel. the interesting part of the game is, you rack up points over time, but if you hit a multiple of 50 in your score, then you go back down to zero. as it stands right now, kavitha is in the lead, while i am lagging behind everyone at something like 470 points. brutal!
with the games of yaniv, we drank a lot of cheap chilean wine to pass the time. $2400 pesos per bottle, which works out to about $5. we are certainly a classy bunch. and unfortunately, we also broke two of oscar´s wine glasses. eeeeeek.
overall, while the dampness sort of got to us, we enjoyed oscar´s breakfasts. there was always toast, eggs, and fruit, which i really enjoyed. near the end of our stay there, oscar´s niece (the daughter of miss chile) was there, as well as a random kitten named sofia. sofia was CRAZY - she climbed screen doors and was constantly seeking attention. what a ham!
similarly, because things were so expensive in easter island, we ate at the same empenada stand EVERY DAY. $1300 pesos for a pino empenada (or an empiñata as cheryl would call it), which was an empenada filled with beef and onions. the other popular empenada amongst our group was the napolitana, which was basically ham, cheese and tomatoes.
kavitha and i lucked out with our room, because it seemed that smutty and cheryl had a very unfortunate room with a terribly musty smell and a broken toilet that made random ¨PHOOOOOOOOOOOSH¨ sound every two minutes. it caused them intense insomnia, as well as extensive plumbing issues when they had to stick their hand in the tank and drain it. on that note, toilet water in the tank is like tap water!!!!! don´t think negatively of them!
the flight back to santiago was great of course, with the wonderful in-flight entertainment. however, sleeping overnight in the santiago airport was not so pleasant. first of all, people were super rude there. second of all, we did not check in in time and we had to sleep on the cold metal benches in the area before check-in. i managed to get in a couple of power naps (as the team can attest) however others were not so lucky. bossmat could not sleep and ended up being the ¨night supervisor¨ and the others amused themselves with the candy machine which had very stale fruit candy. also, there was some very loud music playing, probably so people would not sleep in the airport. but nothing could stop us!! (side note: some of the music was actually good. i was amazed to see that they were playing videos for lily allen and portishead...?)
we ate dinner at a diner called gatsby´s that was open 24h! the food was ok, and i seemed to enjoy the fries. i was also able to call my dad, whose birthday it was. the phone cards at the airport were ridiculously expensive (2000 pesos for 10 minutes! sheesh!)
in the morning, we were able to check in and go to the gates, where there was a starbucks with REALLY COMFY couches where most were able to doze off. when it came time to check in, we realized that everyone on the flight, very nearly, were MEN! WTF! we kind of inferred that calama is a mining town. (this is our guess)
when we got to calama, the airport was tiny. smutty says, ¨they get smaller and smaller!¨ we crushed into a cab to get into town, then took a bus over to san pedro de atacama, which took about an hour. they played a spanish version of schindler´s list.
when we finally got into san pedro de atacama, it was super tiny. the town has a population of under 5000, and it is made up of low, mud adobe buildings. very cute! we were able to locate the HI hostel, which was also very cute, and it turns out it is the first time that we have all been able to share a room! keith is the only guy in our room.
our first day we were exhausted due to our long night in the santiago airport, and we spent the day looking for tours and eating out. surprisingly, the food here is AMAZING! probably the best meal we have had in chile has been at a restaurant called la casona. i had a wonderful zucchini garlic soup that was out of this world! similarly, we are all very fond of the fact that they give customers salsa and bread at the beginning of the meal. so good!
the climate here has also been super sunny and dry, a very welcome change from easter island. bossi, cheryl and keith have been tanning as much as possible, while keith has been perfecting his v neck farmer´s tan. MUY attractive. however, at night, it gets insanely cold - it doesn´t help that there is a big hole in our wall. to the point that we wear about 5 layers. the cold weather, however, is great for sleeping - there are about 3 blankets on our beds. last night we went to bed at 10, and got up at 8 this morning - solid!!! this was probably one of the best sleeps, if not THE best sleep, we have all had.
today has been insanely busy with various tours. in the morning, we went sandboarding in death valley (thankfully this name was not as bad as it sounded, although at times i thought so), and it was actually kind of fun! it involved hiking up a giant 50 degree incline sand dune, and going down a hill on a board with socked feet only. i am insanely afraid of going down slopes at high speeds, so it was perhaps not the best thing for me to do. unfortunately, kavitha was having eye problems so she didn´t come. :(
keith, who snowboards, was super good at sandboarding. bossi and i were struggling a bit - i think i spent more time getting up off my butt then actually going down a hill. cheryl was quite the prostar!
afterwards, we got back, showered (some colder than others), then got some snacks and had lunch at a different restaurant than la casona (note we had gone there for lunch and dinner the day before). thankfully they still had bread and salsa! PHEW!
after lunch, we went on a tour to valle de luna, or valley of the moon. our first stop was death valley, which was somewhat disappointing because we had already survived it in the morning. afterwards, we stopped at various lookout points, and then another one where we had to hike up a giant sand dune/mountain. the girls and keith (KD from this point forward) walked on a very uneven surface to check out the sunset, while i meandered off to another lookout point that had a view of a giant sand dune that someone had written ¨I HEART P¨ in it. we were all petrified of the uneven surfaced area because there was a lot of loose gravel and there was a huge, steep, about 100m plunge below into some sharp rocks. not so good. but we all survived!
we got back in the evening, and we found that cheryl had been kicked out of her bed by a minnesotan - only because she made her bed so nicely (note: mr. and mrs. hooper, your daughter makes a real good bed). then we did some grocery shopping for our 3 day bolivia trip (including about 9 super 8 chocolate bars.... more on that later), purchased some crackers, and the like.
i have to add that super 8 chocolate bars are MUY GOOD. they are made by nestle, and are essentially crispy wafers covered in chocolate. not too sweet! not as sweet as a kitkat. and they are very cost effective. in santiago, i got them for 250 pesos (about 50 cents) while in san pedro they have only been 100 pesos! BARGOONS!
for dinner we went to a cute little restaurant where we ordered the menu del dia. for 2990 pesos, we got a great salad, salmon with rice and cucumber, and this amazing fruit salad, syrup and cereal on it. so good!!!
we also want to add that we have been on a mcdonald´s cono famine strike. we have not had ANY dulce de leche y vainilla conos since my birthday in buenos aires! HOLY! well, except for cheryl (which she yells ¨IT WAS ONLY VANILLA!! don´t add that!¨) we are hoping that in la paz they have these conos.
in san pedro de atacama, i have found that ATMs are very hard to come by. and if you do find them, they do not have any money in them!!!! sheesh!
to end our blog, we need to profile a couple of people.
our latest traveller to replace arti :( is keith. he is a virgo, and if he was an animal, he would be a cougar, however, i thought he more closely resembled a meerkat. keith is actually the most high maintenance traveller on the trip, demanding hot showers daily and having a highly regimented baseball cap and hair gel technique. he has the least amount of clothing and the most amount of first aid supplies. he even has iodine!!!
we would like to add that keith´s manliness has come in handy, including changing tires, driving standard, getting wine in the rain, carrying heavy bags, and helping us step down cliffs. however, he has been getting a little bit cocky, saying today that ¨you girls needed a man on this trip!¨ the four of us were dismayed and then proceeded to air punch him accompanied by a loud ¨DOOOOOOSH!¨
other people we have met on this trip in the douche category has been an australian chef who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about him being a chef. he was also travelling with his ex-fiancee, who was perceivably more successful than he was. eeek.
similarly, we met a spaniard who knew about 7 different languages, but lived in toronto in a homeless shelter for a month, lying about losing his wallet!!!! the homeless shelter gave him free room and board (including a big screen tv in a common room) as well as money every wednesday and he even begged for money. the homeless shelter even paid for his ticket back to colombia!!!! i could not believe that our canadian tax system paid for this shit. the four of us girls were COMPLETELY unimpressed, while keith tried to maintain the peace.
anyhoo, we are off on a 4x4 trek tomorrow to bolivia, and will hopefully blog soon. until then!!!
ps. we are expecting a mattress on the second night of our trip and a shower. can´t wait!
after our last update, easter island got extremely extremely rainy. so much so that as soon as you stepped out, it soaked through even the most waterproof of materials. in addition to that, it was so damp that everything was wet or damp. even my passport!
to pass the time, we played a TON of games of yanif (yaniv? according to bossmat), an israeli card game that kavitha and i picked up from the two young germans in ilha do mel. the interesting part of the game is, you rack up points over time, but if you hit a multiple of 50 in your score, then you go back down to zero. as it stands right now, kavitha is in the lead, while i am lagging behind everyone at something like 470 points. brutal!
with the games of yaniv, we drank a lot of cheap chilean wine to pass the time. $2400 pesos per bottle, which works out to about $5. we are certainly a classy bunch. and unfortunately, we also broke two of oscar´s wine glasses. eeeeeek.
overall, while the dampness sort of got to us, we enjoyed oscar´s breakfasts. there was always toast, eggs, and fruit, which i really enjoyed. near the end of our stay there, oscar´s niece (the daughter of miss chile) was there, as well as a random kitten named sofia. sofia was CRAZY - she climbed screen doors and was constantly seeking attention. what a ham!
similarly, because things were so expensive in easter island, we ate at the same empenada stand EVERY DAY. $1300 pesos for a pino empenada (or an empiñata as cheryl would call it), which was an empenada filled with beef and onions. the other popular empenada amongst our group was the napolitana, which was basically ham, cheese and tomatoes.
kavitha and i lucked out with our room, because it seemed that smutty and cheryl had a very unfortunate room with a terribly musty smell and a broken toilet that made random ¨PHOOOOOOOOOOOSH¨ sound every two minutes. it caused them intense insomnia, as well as extensive plumbing issues when they had to stick their hand in the tank and drain it. on that note, toilet water in the tank is like tap water!!!!! don´t think negatively of them!
the flight back to santiago was great of course, with the wonderful in-flight entertainment. however, sleeping overnight in the santiago airport was not so pleasant. first of all, people were super rude there. second of all, we did not check in in time and we had to sleep on the cold metal benches in the area before check-in. i managed to get in a couple of power naps (as the team can attest) however others were not so lucky. bossmat could not sleep and ended up being the ¨night supervisor¨ and the others amused themselves with the candy machine which had very stale fruit candy. also, there was some very loud music playing, probably so people would not sleep in the airport. but nothing could stop us!! (side note: some of the music was actually good. i was amazed to see that they were playing videos for lily allen and portishead...?)
we ate dinner at a diner called gatsby´s that was open 24h! the food was ok, and i seemed to enjoy the fries. i was also able to call my dad, whose birthday it was. the phone cards at the airport were ridiculously expensive (2000 pesos for 10 minutes! sheesh!)
in the morning, we were able to check in and go to the gates, where there was a starbucks with REALLY COMFY couches where most were able to doze off. when it came time to check in, we realized that everyone on the flight, very nearly, were MEN! WTF! we kind of inferred that calama is a mining town. (this is our guess)
when we got to calama, the airport was tiny. smutty says, ¨they get smaller and smaller!¨ we crushed into a cab to get into town, then took a bus over to san pedro de atacama, which took about an hour. they played a spanish version of schindler´s list.
when we finally got into san pedro de atacama, it was super tiny. the town has a population of under 5000, and it is made up of low, mud adobe buildings. very cute! we were able to locate the HI hostel, which was also very cute, and it turns out it is the first time that we have all been able to share a room! keith is the only guy in our room.
our first day we were exhausted due to our long night in the santiago airport, and we spent the day looking for tours and eating out. surprisingly, the food here is AMAZING! probably the best meal we have had in chile has been at a restaurant called la casona. i had a wonderful zucchini garlic soup that was out of this world! similarly, we are all very fond of the fact that they give customers salsa and bread at the beginning of the meal. so good!
the climate here has also been super sunny and dry, a very welcome change from easter island. bossi, cheryl and keith have been tanning as much as possible, while keith has been perfecting his v neck farmer´s tan. MUY attractive. however, at night, it gets insanely cold - it doesn´t help that there is a big hole in our wall. to the point that we wear about 5 layers. the cold weather, however, is great for sleeping - there are about 3 blankets on our beds. last night we went to bed at 10, and got up at 8 this morning - solid!!! this was probably one of the best sleeps, if not THE best sleep, we have all had.
today has been insanely busy with various tours. in the morning, we went sandboarding in death valley (thankfully this name was not as bad as it sounded, although at times i thought so), and it was actually kind of fun! it involved hiking up a giant 50 degree incline sand dune, and going down a hill on a board with socked feet only. i am insanely afraid of going down slopes at high speeds, so it was perhaps not the best thing for me to do. unfortunately, kavitha was having eye problems so she didn´t come. :(
keith, who snowboards, was super good at sandboarding. bossi and i were struggling a bit - i think i spent more time getting up off my butt then actually going down a hill. cheryl was quite the prostar!
afterwards, we got back, showered (some colder than others), then got some snacks and had lunch at a different restaurant than la casona (note we had gone there for lunch and dinner the day before). thankfully they still had bread and salsa! PHEW!
after lunch, we went on a tour to valle de luna, or valley of the moon. our first stop was death valley, which was somewhat disappointing because we had already survived it in the morning. afterwards, we stopped at various lookout points, and then another one where we had to hike up a giant sand dune/mountain. the girls and keith (KD from this point forward) walked on a very uneven surface to check out the sunset, while i meandered off to another lookout point that had a view of a giant sand dune that someone had written ¨I HEART P¨ in it. we were all petrified of the uneven surfaced area because there was a lot of loose gravel and there was a huge, steep, about 100m plunge below into some sharp rocks. not so good. but we all survived!
we got back in the evening, and we found that cheryl had been kicked out of her bed by a minnesotan - only because she made her bed so nicely (note: mr. and mrs. hooper, your daughter makes a real good bed). then we did some grocery shopping for our 3 day bolivia trip (including about 9 super 8 chocolate bars.... more on that later), purchased some crackers, and the like.
i have to add that super 8 chocolate bars are MUY GOOD. they are made by nestle, and are essentially crispy wafers covered in chocolate. not too sweet! not as sweet as a kitkat. and they are very cost effective. in santiago, i got them for 250 pesos (about 50 cents) while in san pedro they have only been 100 pesos! BARGOONS!
for dinner we went to a cute little restaurant where we ordered the menu del dia. for 2990 pesos, we got a great salad, salmon with rice and cucumber, and this amazing fruit salad, syrup and cereal on it. so good!!!
we also want to add that we have been on a mcdonald´s cono famine strike. we have not had ANY dulce de leche y vainilla conos since my birthday in buenos aires! HOLY! well, except for cheryl (which she yells ¨IT WAS ONLY VANILLA!! don´t add that!¨) we are hoping that in la paz they have these conos.
in san pedro de atacama, i have found that ATMs are very hard to come by. and if you do find them, they do not have any money in them!!!! sheesh!
to end our blog, we need to profile a couple of people.
our latest traveller to replace arti :( is keith. he is a virgo, and if he was an animal, he would be a cougar, however, i thought he more closely resembled a meerkat. keith is actually the most high maintenance traveller on the trip, demanding hot showers daily and having a highly regimented baseball cap and hair gel technique. he has the least amount of clothing and the most amount of first aid supplies. he even has iodine!!!
we would like to add that keith´s manliness has come in handy, including changing tires, driving standard, getting wine in the rain, carrying heavy bags, and helping us step down cliffs. however, he has been getting a little bit cocky, saying today that ¨you girls needed a man on this trip!¨ the four of us were dismayed and then proceeded to air punch him accompanied by a loud ¨DOOOOOOSH!¨
other people we have met on this trip in the douche category has been an australian chef who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about him being a chef. he was also travelling with his ex-fiancee, who was perceivably more successful than he was. eeek.
similarly, we met a spaniard who knew about 7 different languages, but lived in toronto in a homeless shelter for a month, lying about losing his wallet!!!! the homeless shelter gave him free room and board (including a big screen tv in a common room) as well as money every wednesday and he even begged for money. the homeless shelter even paid for his ticket back to colombia!!!! i could not believe that our canadian tax system paid for this shit. the four of us girls were COMPLETELY unimpressed, while keith tried to maintain the peace.
anyhoo, we are off on a 4x4 trek tomorrow to bolivia, and will hopefully blog soon. until then!!!
ps. we are expecting a mattress on the second night of our trip and a shower. can´t wait!
Friday, May 23, 2008
easter island....... long overdue post
our departure from santiago was super early - some of us didnt sleep very well, while some of us could barely get up (hi.) we were happy to escape santiago{s crappy crappy rainy weather and terrible pollution.
at the airport at our gate, lo and behold, we saw a fellow walking up to us with a hello - it was none other than keith davis! despite the fact that we lost our favourite giraffe (sadness!!!!) we gained another fifth person rather quickly.
easter island so far has been wonderful. the flight here was so pleasant - LAN really does a great job in terms of service and food. also, new planes help out a lot too - the seats and inflight entertainment were spectacular. in addition to the typical reclining seat and upright tray, there was also a separate cupholder, cell phone holder and the in-flight entertainment had all sorts of movies, tv shows, games, and music (example: they even had the magnolia soundtrack!?!?! way to get a jon brion fix.)
when we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by our residencial host (oscar) with a bunch of leis - what a nice touch!!! totally the aloha spirit at work (even though that is another part of the polynesian triangle. hum.)
oscar then drove us to his house, which was a lovely small place with a huge tropical garden in the front and back (read: mangoes, guavas, bananas), as well as a nice porch with a dining room table. the rooms were basic, but had everything we needed - beds, bathrooms, a table, a bedside lamp, clean sheets. unfortunately, keith was not able to stay with us, but luckily the HI hostel was about 100 m away.
oscar recommended that we hike up to rano kau crater - the hike was completely uphill, but very scenic. cheryl, keith and bossmat completely booted it all the way up, while kavitha and i were the herbies in the back (i of course was winded in about 2 minutes.) on the way, we walked through various fields of tall grasses (almost frolicking) and saw lots of random cows and horses. the views of the pacific ocean were just surreal - water for as far as the eye could see. the ocean was just glassy and blue and there were jagged pieces of lava jutting out of the water. there were rain clouds in the distance and you could see the rain pouring down. on the way up, i found a log overlooking the ocean and it was the jelly! probably my favourite place in the world.
when we finally did make it up to rano kau crater, it was super windy. but this crater was also surreal! it was very deep, and filled with fresh water and a lot of vegetation. apparently, they found naturally grown coffee plants, mango plants, and a very rare species of tree endemic only to easter island in this crater. it is pretty much its own biosphere!
the hike back down was extremely tiring - i had worn flip flops (not my smartest idea to date!) so my feet were killing me. when we finally did make it back down, we collapsed at the table on our porch.
for dinner that night, we made some pasta with no spices. innnnnteresting. oscar{s mom watched us closely to make sure that we would not blow up her kitchen!
the next day, we had breakfast that oscar made - banana taro cake, eggs, tomato, mango juice, tea, and toast - it was so delicious. afterwards, we went to the easter island museum to get a sense of how the island was formed and how the culture evolved and how the moai came about. the most interesting thing that i learned was that there were wars between the clans, and during that time, people pushed over the moai for revenge! so sad! also, the entire island was bankrupted due to an informal war of who could make a bigger moai. so crazy!!!
after that, we decided we would rent a car for the next day - so we spent the afternoon exploring the western side of the island. it was simply amazing! we saw tongairiki, the infamous ones in the mountain and quarry, and a ton of moais that had been pushed over. it is sad to think that in a couple hundred or thousand years, these statues will be eroded into the ground, only to reenter the cycle of life again. :(
after tongariki, we had a flat tire! thankfully, keith, who had been driving us around (thank goodness he knew how to drive standard) also knew how to change a tire. MUY MANLY!!!!! as we were finishing up, a tour bus saw us and they came out to help us with the tire. super nice!!!!
we got back to the residencial in one piece.
this morning has been a bit of a crapshoot because of a torrential downpour. i cannot even explain the volume of rain that came down!! more about that later!
at the airport at our gate, lo and behold, we saw a fellow walking up to us with a hello - it was none other than keith davis! despite the fact that we lost our favourite giraffe (sadness!!!!) we gained another fifth person rather quickly.
easter island so far has been wonderful. the flight here was so pleasant - LAN really does a great job in terms of service and food. also, new planes help out a lot too - the seats and inflight entertainment were spectacular. in addition to the typical reclining seat and upright tray, there was also a separate cupholder, cell phone holder and the in-flight entertainment had all sorts of movies, tv shows, games, and music (example: they even had the magnolia soundtrack!?!?! way to get a jon brion fix.)
when we arrived at the airport, we were greeted by our residencial host (oscar) with a bunch of leis - what a nice touch!!! totally the aloha spirit at work (even though that is another part of the polynesian triangle. hum.)
oscar then drove us to his house, which was a lovely small place with a huge tropical garden in the front and back (read: mangoes, guavas, bananas), as well as a nice porch with a dining room table. the rooms were basic, but had everything we needed - beds, bathrooms, a table, a bedside lamp, clean sheets. unfortunately, keith was not able to stay with us, but luckily the HI hostel was about 100 m away.
oscar recommended that we hike up to rano kau crater - the hike was completely uphill, but very scenic. cheryl, keith and bossmat completely booted it all the way up, while kavitha and i were the herbies in the back (i of course was winded in about 2 minutes.) on the way, we walked through various fields of tall grasses (almost frolicking) and saw lots of random cows and horses. the views of the pacific ocean were just surreal - water for as far as the eye could see. the ocean was just glassy and blue and there were jagged pieces of lava jutting out of the water. there were rain clouds in the distance and you could see the rain pouring down. on the way up, i found a log overlooking the ocean and it was the jelly! probably my favourite place in the world.
when we finally did make it up to rano kau crater, it was super windy. but this crater was also surreal! it was very deep, and filled with fresh water and a lot of vegetation. apparently, they found naturally grown coffee plants, mango plants, and a very rare species of tree endemic only to easter island in this crater. it is pretty much its own biosphere!
the hike back down was extremely tiring - i had worn flip flops (not my smartest idea to date!) so my feet were killing me. when we finally did make it back down, we collapsed at the table on our porch.
for dinner that night, we made some pasta with no spices. innnnnteresting. oscar{s mom watched us closely to make sure that we would not blow up her kitchen!
the next day, we had breakfast that oscar made - banana taro cake, eggs, tomato, mango juice, tea, and toast - it was so delicious. afterwards, we went to the easter island museum to get a sense of how the island was formed and how the culture evolved and how the moai came about. the most interesting thing that i learned was that there were wars between the clans, and during that time, people pushed over the moai for revenge! so sad! also, the entire island was bankrupted due to an informal war of who could make a bigger moai. so crazy!!!
after that, we decided we would rent a car for the next day - so we spent the afternoon exploring the western side of the island. it was simply amazing! we saw tongairiki, the infamous ones in the mountain and quarry, and a ton of moais that had been pushed over. it is sad to think that in a couple hundred or thousand years, these statues will be eroded into the ground, only to reenter the cycle of life again. :(
after tongariki, we had a flat tire! thankfully, keith, who had been driving us around (thank goodness he knew how to drive standard) also knew how to change a tire. MUY MANLY!!!!! as we were finishing up, a tour bus saw us and they came out to help us with the tire. super nice!!!!
we got back to the residencial in one piece.
this morning has been a bit of a crapshoot because of a torrential downpour. i cannot even explain the volume of rain that came down!! more about that later!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
santiago, valparaiso, globalization
unfortunately, we weren´t able to do a second group blog today, so i will update alone!
after our fateful day walking up san cristobal (the mary statue at the top of the hill), the next morning we woke up super early to take a bus over to valparaiso, described as ¨the san francisco of chile¨. the buildings in the city are made of coloured sheet metal, and dot the hills overlooking the ocean. gorgeous! unfortunately, we had overcast weather and a very chilly wind, which was not conducive to picture taking.
after catching the bus from pajaritos station, we made it there in under 2 hours. instead of being ripped off by the local tour, we made our own. we stopped off first at pablo neruda´s valparaiso house (i was never really into his poems, but in the time that he lived, he lived a very eclectic, bohemian life. were/are all diplomats like this?) afterwards, we walked down the hill, and took one of the city´s infamous elevators downhill. they were very old and rickety, very unique! they are very much like a funicular.
we then had lunch and afterwards went back to santiago for the evening.
the next day was very rainy.... i unfortunately fell very ill from the night before so missed the winery tour to concha y toro in the morning and opted instead to sleep and read. in the afternoon, we didn´t do much but sit in a cafe, and we hit up one of the museums. and we made dinner.
the days have actually been blurring together here because of the rain. last night we went to go out for drinks at a bar called ¨backstage pass¨ (slightly cheesy). they had the funniest pizza names - note that the pizzas were delicious - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, do sharp, and three other black keys. they also had a lot of regional drinks - i had one that was made of pisco, lemon juice, honey, and green chilli, which kind of tasted like a marinade for chicken, but was quite good. kavitha and cheryl, who have become inseparable as of late ;) both got pisco sours, and bossmat and arti had a mojito and an orange mojito each. we were amazed to find that we actually stayed out past 12:30AM, a new record!!
today, we went to unimarc and picked up a bunch of groceries for easter island. afterwards, arti left :( - we will miss our favourite giraffe! the girls went shopping, while i went to the concha y toro winery with helena (a girl from our hostel).
while waiting to catch the bus to the winery from one of the bus stops, i looked around me and got a little frightened and had a bit of an a-ha moment about globalization (i wish i had taken a picture of it). except for the backdrop of the andes, everything around me looked like america. pizza hut, mcdonalds, kentucky fried chicken, shell, esso. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! it was almost as if someone had transplanted this very american scene and then placed a green screen behind it that could easily be replaced by the mountains or a blue cloudless sky. and we talk about having ¨identities¨ today. eeeeeeeeeek.
tomorrow morning we take off to easter island - internet is apparently very expensive, so if we do not blog for awhile, it is not because we are in trouble!! we will do our best to update.
after our fateful day walking up san cristobal (the mary statue at the top of the hill), the next morning we woke up super early to take a bus over to valparaiso, described as ¨the san francisco of chile¨. the buildings in the city are made of coloured sheet metal, and dot the hills overlooking the ocean. gorgeous! unfortunately, we had overcast weather and a very chilly wind, which was not conducive to picture taking.
after catching the bus from pajaritos station, we made it there in under 2 hours. instead of being ripped off by the local tour, we made our own. we stopped off first at pablo neruda´s valparaiso house (i was never really into his poems, but in the time that he lived, he lived a very eclectic, bohemian life. were/are all diplomats like this?) afterwards, we walked down the hill, and took one of the city´s infamous elevators downhill. they were very old and rickety, very unique! they are very much like a funicular.
we then had lunch and afterwards went back to santiago for the evening.
the next day was very rainy.... i unfortunately fell very ill from the night before so missed the winery tour to concha y toro in the morning and opted instead to sleep and read. in the afternoon, we didn´t do much but sit in a cafe, and we hit up one of the museums. and we made dinner.
the days have actually been blurring together here because of the rain. last night we went to go out for drinks at a bar called ¨backstage pass¨ (slightly cheesy). they had the funniest pizza names - note that the pizzas were delicious - do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do, do sharp, and three other black keys. they also had a lot of regional drinks - i had one that was made of pisco, lemon juice, honey, and green chilli, which kind of tasted like a marinade for chicken, but was quite good. kavitha and cheryl, who have become inseparable as of late ;) both got pisco sours, and bossmat and arti had a mojito and an orange mojito each. we were amazed to find that we actually stayed out past 12:30AM, a new record!!
today, we went to unimarc and picked up a bunch of groceries for easter island. afterwards, arti left :( - we will miss our favourite giraffe! the girls went shopping, while i went to the concha y toro winery with helena (a girl from our hostel).
while waiting to catch the bus to the winery from one of the bus stops, i looked around me and got a little frightened and had a bit of an a-ha moment about globalization (i wish i had taken a picture of it). except for the backdrop of the andes, everything around me looked like america. pizza hut, mcdonalds, kentucky fried chicken, shell, esso. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! it was almost as if someone had transplanted this very american scene and then placed a green screen behind it that could easily be replaced by the mountains or a blue cloudless sky. and we talk about having ¨identities¨ today. eeeeeeeeeek.
tomorrow morning we take off to easter island - internet is apparently very expensive, so if we do not blog for awhile, it is not because we are in trouble!! we will do our best to update.
the canadian tuxedo debate, muy usage, and the perfect hostel
one of our residual questions that we kept forgetting to clarify was what exactly a canadian tuxedo is. this was prompted by the uniforms at argentinean mcdonald's, where employees wore denim shirts and mcdonalds jeans on the bottom. "AHHH! a canadian tuxedo!" i exclaimed, while cheryl said, "no way! that's double denim! a canadian tuxedo is a sweatsuit!"
i had been under the impression from andy that a canadian tuxedo was denim on top, and denim on the bottom. while cheryl was positive that double denim was the right name and the canadian tuxedo referred to the sweatsuit.
lo and behold, this morning i checked in google and the winner is...............
the denim on top, denim on bottom combo!!!! muy gasp.
on that note, i get the feeling amongst our group that the phrase "muy" is reaching a saturation point. usage has dropped off significantly. during a game of pool last night, it was only used twice!
lastly, kavitha and i, during a rainy day in ilha de mel, designed the characteristics of the perfect hostel that we will one day build:
and the list is to be expanded.
on the last note, today is artigas's last day - we are really sad to see her leave (especially since she is my pillar of strength). we will miss her "what are we doing now?" amongst many other arti-isms.
i had been under the impression from andy that a canadian tuxedo was denim on top, and denim on the bottom. while cheryl was positive that double denim was the right name and the canadian tuxedo referred to the sweatsuit.
lo and behold, this morning i checked in google and the winner is...............
the denim on top, denim on bottom combo!!!! muy gasp.
on that note, i get the feeling amongst our group that the phrase "muy" is reaching a saturation point. usage has dropped off significantly. during a game of pool last night, it was only used twice!
lastly, kavitha and i, during a rainy day in ilha de mel, designed the characteristics of the perfect hostel that we will one day build:
- structurally sound bunk beds
- mattresses with good support
- shelves
- lockers under the bed and for valuables
- secure locker-type spaces for charging ipods, phones, etc. around your bed
- showers with great water pressure
- hot showers
- some private bathrooms
- chairs in the room
- adjustable dimming lights in the room
- a fully equipped kitchen
- cleanliness
- good public transportation access
- phones for phone card usage
- free, fast internet and wifi
- a social area
and the list is to be expanded.
on the last note, today is artigas's last day - we are really sad to see her leave (especially since she is my pillar of strength). we will miss her "what are we doing now?" amongst many other arti-isms.
Friday, May 16, 2008
ps.
i was reading a duty free magazine, and there was an interview with an argentinean chef named narda lepes. she said that
a) the best fruits and vegetables are from uruguay, TOTALLY corroborating my tomato observations. (just call me cam jansen.)
b) that the best kept secret in cuisine in buenos aires is chinatown?!?!?!?! who knew.
a) the best fruits and vegetables are from uruguay, TOTALLY corroborating my tomato observations. (just call me cam jansen.)
b) that the best kept secret in cuisine in buenos aires is chinatown?!?!?!?! who knew.
santiago updates
in our post two posts ago, we forgot to mention that kavitha has been designated as a turtle. especially when she is shirking into her green sweatshirt and donning her backpack. meanwhile, i have been designated as a panda or a hippo?!?! it will be a miracle if i do not develop an eating disorder in the meantime. sheesh.
yesterday morning, we spent the day bumming about in montevideo. we packed, then wnadered around until about 1, when we checked out and walked over to the bus station. to get the airport, it was only $22 pesos, which is about $1. BARGOONS!!! DEALZZZZZ! however, the bus was extremely crowded and i spent the majority of the trip with people's crotches in my face (very unpleasant). at least i had a seat!
when we got to the airport, we nearly missed our stop - luckily, everyone on the bus was on our side, and as the driver almost drove away, they yelled, PARRADA! (stop i think?) and stopped him 5 times, for each time one of us got off the bus. super funny.
the flight to santiago we were all separated, except for the giraffe and turtle (arti and kavitha, for our readers). i sat beside a ginger haired chilean kid (!) and her mom, and they were surprisingly pleasant. cheryl had fun arm wrestling and elbowing her armrest neighbour and bossmat seemed to have a dandy time. they served a really yummy jam cookie on the plane.
when we got there, we were surprised to find that we had to pay a $132 US entrance fee. WHAT GIVES! it was the highest for canadians, $131 for americans, $23 for mexicans, and something like $70 for australians. no one else had to pay an entry fee. L-A-M-E.
because we had to pay that fee, we were late to pick up our bags, and they were tossed on the floor and investigated by sniffer dogs. unfortunately bossmat's was marked, and she was targeted for her dried fruit and nuts, and then interrogated for about half an hour in a one way mirrored room! a very unpleasant experience overall. cheryl was interrogated over her dulce de leche. luckily, the minorities got away scot free. woot!
as soon as we left the terminal, three were a ton of chileans harassing us for rides into town. then a random canadian (skyler) asked us if we wanted to go into town together, so we all took a transvip minivan together, amounting to $4.000 pesos each. there was MUY traffic coming in, so after the adouanes (customs) fiascos and finally getting money and transportation in, we got in around 8PM.
when we got to the hostel, we were all very overwhelmed. it reeked of incense, and there seemed to be an abundance of hippies. we were MUY colon S. :S ABC and skyler ended up in a room close to the entrance, while kavitha and i were exiled to the cold dungeon, a room in the back of the hostel in the basement with no heat. only fitting that that happens to the trolls. HMPH!
skyler ended up tagging along with us in the evening and for dinner we went to a muy sketchy bar and had a muy sketchy pizza and deep fried wonton wrappers. half of the crowd really liked it! (i think i was just muy jealous because i couldn't eat cheese). we were in the university district so there were a lot of students. also, we sat behind a video jukebox, and one guy insisted on playing three reggaeton songs over and over and over again. which is fine, except that reggaeton videos are MUY SCANDALOUS! lots of jiggling, scantily clad women, and thongs. :|
at night, i had a difficult time sleeping because of my sinus problems and being crazy dehydrated) and ended up switching beds midway through the night. i think my roommates thought i was insane. cheryl was stuck with a bright orange light radiating on to her bed, which is fitting considering that in buenos aires she had a huge billboard shining into her face (gerardo sofovich, for your reference). kavitha adds, "i wonder what easter island will bring."
this morning, we had an interesting breakfast (GYNORMOUS buns with jam as well as ceylon tea... kavitha adds CEYLON! WOOT! SRI LANKA!) and then wandered off to run a couple errands: cancelling hostels, laundry, groceries (kavitha and i stocked up major!), booking tours, research, the post office (ANDY!!!!!! and my sister), etc. by the time we finished, it was around 1:30, and at that time we walked to the parque metropolitan.
parque metropolitan is what you think it is - the metropolitan park. there is a zoo, a funicular, as well as a cable car. at the top is the virgin mary, a big statue much like christ the redeemer (but not quite as grand). we managed to hike up the giant mountain/hill (a mountain to me, kavitha and arti, a molehill to bossmat and cheryl who are WAY more in shape). we had a little picnic on a log.
at the top of the hill, we took lots of pictures, wrote postcards, meandered, and ate ice cream. there was also a dog that was a real ham. it would just limp about (we were thinking this was all an act) and then start making strange poses so people would pay attention to it. then it followed us to the gift shop!!! craziness.
on the way down, we took the cable car, which was lovely but a little scary as they did not close completely. very scenic! then we walked to pio nono through a very ritzy chilean neighbourhood and were
a) invited to a birthday party for what we think is a toddler (all of us really wanted to after we had walked by)
b) were barked at by a GIANT SHEEPDOG that looked like a muppet (it was quite frightening because it appeared over the top of a giant 10 foot fence and we thought it would attack us)
finally, we got back and now we are blogging. potential activities:
tomorrow: valparaiso, and sunday: wining. we will, of course, keep you updated.
happy victoria day to our canadian readers!!!
residual questions:
1) why do mirrors get black spots over time?
2) who reads this blog other than parents, siblings, and boyfriends? (and amelia and liz and emma)
yesterday morning, we spent the day bumming about in montevideo. we packed, then wnadered around until about 1, when we checked out and walked over to the bus station. to get the airport, it was only $22 pesos, which is about $1. BARGOONS!!! DEALZZZZZ! however, the bus was extremely crowded and i spent the majority of the trip with people's crotches in my face (very unpleasant). at least i had a seat!
when we got to the airport, we nearly missed our stop - luckily, everyone on the bus was on our side, and as the driver almost drove away, they yelled, PARRADA! (stop i think?) and stopped him 5 times, for each time one of us got off the bus. super funny.
the flight to santiago we were all separated, except for the giraffe and turtle (arti and kavitha, for our readers). i sat beside a ginger haired chilean kid (!) and her mom, and they were surprisingly pleasant. cheryl had fun arm wrestling and elbowing her armrest neighbour and bossmat seemed to have a dandy time. they served a really yummy jam cookie on the plane.
when we got there, we were surprised to find that we had to pay a $132 US entrance fee. WHAT GIVES! it was the highest for canadians, $131 for americans, $23 for mexicans, and something like $70 for australians. no one else had to pay an entry fee. L-A-M-E.
because we had to pay that fee, we were late to pick up our bags, and they were tossed on the floor and investigated by sniffer dogs. unfortunately bossmat's was marked, and she was targeted for her dried fruit and nuts, and then interrogated for about half an hour in a one way mirrored room! a very unpleasant experience overall. cheryl was interrogated over her dulce de leche. luckily, the minorities got away scot free. woot!
as soon as we left the terminal, three were a ton of chileans harassing us for rides into town. then a random canadian (skyler) asked us if we wanted to go into town together, so we all took a transvip minivan together, amounting to $4.000 pesos each. there was MUY traffic coming in, so after the adouanes (customs) fiascos and finally getting money and transportation in, we got in around 8PM.
when we got to the hostel, we were all very overwhelmed. it reeked of incense, and there seemed to be an abundance of hippies. we were MUY colon S. :S ABC and skyler ended up in a room close to the entrance, while kavitha and i were exiled to the cold dungeon, a room in the back of the hostel in the basement with no heat. only fitting that that happens to the trolls. HMPH!
skyler ended up tagging along with us in the evening and for dinner we went to a muy sketchy bar and had a muy sketchy pizza and deep fried wonton wrappers. half of the crowd really liked it! (i think i was just muy jealous because i couldn't eat cheese). we were in the university district so there were a lot of students. also, we sat behind a video jukebox, and one guy insisted on playing three reggaeton songs over and over and over again. which is fine, except that reggaeton videos are MUY SCANDALOUS! lots of jiggling, scantily clad women, and thongs. :|
at night, i had a difficult time sleeping because of my sinus problems and being crazy dehydrated) and ended up switching beds midway through the night. i think my roommates thought i was insane. cheryl was stuck with a bright orange light radiating on to her bed, which is fitting considering that in buenos aires she had a huge billboard shining into her face (gerardo sofovich, for your reference). kavitha adds, "i wonder what easter island will bring."
this morning, we had an interesting breakfast (GYNORMOUS buns with jam as well as ceylon tea... kavitha adds CEYLON! WOOT! SRI LANKA!) and then wandered off to run a couple errands: cancelling hostels, laundry, groceries (kavitha and i stocked up major!), booking tours, research, the post office (ANDY!!!!!! and my sister), etc. by the time we finished, it was around 1:30, and at that time we walked to the parque metropolitan.
parque metropolitan is what you think it is - the metropolitan park. there is a zoo, a funicular, as well as a cable car. at the top is the virgin mary, a big statue much like christ the redeemer (but not quite as grand). we managed to hike up the giant mountain/hill (a mountain to me, kavitha and arti, a molehill to bossmat and cheryl who are WAY more in shape). we had a little picnic on a log.
at the top of the hill, we took lots of pictures, wrote postcards, meandered, and ate ice cream. there was also a dog that was a real ham. it would just limp about (we were thinking this was all an act) and then start making strange poses so people would pay attention to it. then it followed us to the gift shop!!! craziness.
on the way down, we took the cable car, which was lovely but a little scary as they did not close completely. very scenic! then we walked to pio nono through a very ritzy chilean neighbourhood and were
a) invited to a birthday party for what we think is a toddler (all of us really wanted to after we had walked by)
b) were barked at by a GIANT SHEEPDOG that looked like a muppet (it was quite frightening because it appeared over the top of a giant 10 foot fence and we thought it would attack us)
finally, we got back and now we are blogging. potential activities:
tomorrow: valparaiso, and sunday: wining. we will, of course, keep you updated.
happy victoria day to our canadian readers!!!
residual questions:
1) why do mirrors get black spots over time?
2) who reads this blog other than parents, siblings, and boyfriends? (and amelia and liz and emma)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
tomatoes and carbon footprints
i have noticed that in the three countries kavitha and i have visited, i have had dishes containing tomato in each. brazil, they were somewhat anorexic, artificially ripened, bruised, mealy, pale on the inside, and bland. argentina, they were like brazil´s, but about three times worse. in uruguay, i have managed to have tomato in my meal over the past two days, and the tomatoes have been fantastic! ripe, firm on the outside and tasty. with three countries in such close proximity to each other, why is this? is the soil that different? do they import tomatoes from other countries?
before i left on this trip, i managed to go for tea with emma and we were discussing how people can justify travel given all of the carbon emissions. on this trip, kavitha and i will have taken about 7 flights - 5 short haul, and 2 long haul. this is in addition to all the trains, boats, buses, subways, taxis, and the like in each of the places we visit. these backpacking trips i see as an educational experience (i hear the choruses of ¨NERRRRRRD!¨ in the background) and i try to bring back all this knowledge to the people i know in as many forms as possible.
residual questions;
1) who is kavitha, REALLY?
2) what are the trade agreements between the mercosur countries?
3) who is artigas? is he the founder of uruguay?
4) why is there such a large shortage of coins in argentina?
5) why is argentina so hesitant to use credit cards? is it tied to their uber-inflationary period?
before i left on this trip, i managed to go for tea with emma and we were discussing how people can justify travel given all of the carbon emissions. on this trip, kavitha and i will have taken about 7 flights - 5 short haul, and 2 long haul. this is in addition to all the trains, boats, buses, subways, taxis, and the like in each of the places we visit. these backpacking trips i see as an educational experience (i hear the choruses of ¨NERRRRRRD!¨ in the background) and i try to bring back all this knowledge to the people i know in as many forms as possible.
residual questions;
1) who is kavitha, REALLY?
2) what are the trade agreements between the mercosur countries?
3) who is artigas? is he the founder of uruguay?
4) why is there such a large shortage of coins in argentina?
5) why is argentina so hesitant to use credit cards? is it tied to their uber-inflationary period?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
a veritable united nations
to many people´s surprise, all of us have only known each other for 8 months or less! we decided on this trip during project management class, hence the spreadsheets. (we would have added a gantt chart if we could). at first, it was just kavitha and i, but after much cajoling, the other three were convinced to come! WOOOT! we knew that we could all get along and didn´t annoy each other, but as a result, we are just learning about each other now along the way.
everywhere we have gone as a group, we have received many confused glances. when we say that we are canadian, they ask, ¨EVERYONE? really?¨ yes, it is true. we are the united nations, as aptly described by cheryl. some of you have asked who some of the thomas, hooper, mak, gal and davda travelling companions are. below, we will detail:
arti is a cancer (which i claim represents the flakiest astrological sign, apparently) and is from calgary. WOOT! if we were to describe arti as an animal, we would assign the giraffe due to her tall and slender frame. arti and the davda family will be hosting us for the calgary stampede in 2009. MUY EXCITING! MUY THANKS IN ADVANCE! and MUY INVITING OURSELVES OVER! we also need to add that arti was a pathfinder, has her canada cord, and does garba dancing (displayed at her brothers wedding two years ago, as well as random chinese new years events).
bossmat is a sagittarius, which allegedly is the smartest astrological sign (according to cheryl, who is also a sagittarius). she grew up in thornhill. bossmat packed a lot of colourful clothing, and even brought along a pair of khaki coloured sweat pants, which we call ¨fancy pants¨. (by the way, if you saw them, you would think they are fancy too) bossmat in general is definitely the fashionista of the group. anything she wears looks good. MUY JEALOUS!
cheryl is also a sagittarius, she is muy athletic and quite good at tango steps, which reflects her figure skating background. we learned that she used to be a troublemaker in her youth (i.e. grade school) and constantly was in detentions! WHO KNEW!? cheryl is from whitby. we also learned that cheryl makes lots of pies, and we are waiting for our share of the pie. MUY PIE! cheryl has not referred to us as her friends yet, rather, referring to us as her acquaintances, peers or esteemed colleagues. we hope the next 6 weeks will change this. we feel much pressure.
heather is a taurus, and recently celebrated her 26th birthday. (sigh. muy old.) because i am writing this, i am not very neutral. i am great.
Alright, to be fair...and after reading my profile, I (Cheryl) have decided to take over.
Heather is the lightest packer, which is great for her but bad for us as we have to look at the same outfit everyday. She is also a postcard freak! It is the first destination in every new city, and often involves a long trek around the city (thanks Andy). She is by far the best at providing random peices of information, for instances, she recently told me that glass is actually a liquid, which is why in really old glass it disforms and is pushed downwards in its frame.....MUY RANDOM). Heather also have many Mak-isms....we have all started to pick them up. Lately Heather´s addiction to Dulce de Leche has been all consuming...now it is a staple at every meal (she even steals "to go" packages for the road to satisfy her random cravings).
Now back to Mak:
kavitha is a libra and is our oldest travelling buddy but youngest looking by far. (for example, the old man in rio who thought she was not of age to drink yet.) the fact that she puts her hair in braids and pig tails does not help! we have learned that kavitha was a MUY bookworm in school, and went on an exchange to australia in high school. WHAT! kavitha loves burritos, and also has 5 pairs of shoes in her bag! she also has a bright yellow rain jacket. we feel (note that girls use ¨we feel¨ so as not to appear too decisive or harsh) we need to ply kavitha with wine tonight to get some more juicy gossip to give you in a further entry. MOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. to conclude, we would like to add that kavitha is often the ticket holder, because as the oldest, she is by default the most responsible.
and now, off to dinner. BON APPETIT!
everywhere we have gone as a group, we have received many confused glances. when we say that we are canadian, they ask, ¨EVERYONE? really?¨ yes, it is true. we are the united nations, as aptly described by cheryl. some of you have asked who some of the thomas, hooper, mak, gal and davda travelling companions are. below, we will detail:
arti is a cancer (which i claim represents the flakiest astrological sign, apparently) and is from calgary. WOOT! if we were to describe arti as an animal, we would assign the giraffe due to her tall and slender frame. arti and the davda family will be hosting us for the calgary stampede in 2009. MUY EXCITING! MUY THANKS IN ADVANCE! and MUY INVITING OURSELVES OVER! we also need to add that arti was a pathfinder, has her canada cord, and does garba dancing (displayed at her brothers wedding two years ago, as well as random chinese new years events).
bossmat is a sagittarius, which allegedly is the smartest astrological sign (according to cheryl, who is also a sagittarius). she grew up in thornhill. bossmat packed a lot of colourful clothing, and even brought along a pair of khaki coloured sweat pants, which we call ¨fancy pants¨. (by the way, if you saw them, you would think they are fancy too) bossmat in general is definitely the fashionista of the group. anything she wears looks good. MUY JEALOUS!
cheryl is also a sagittarius, she is muy athletic and quite good at tango steps, which reflects her figure skating background. we learned that she used to be a troublemaker in her youth (i.e. grade school) and constantly was in detentions! WHO KNEW!? cheryl is from whitby. we also learned that cheryl makes lots of pies, and we are waiting for our share of the pie. MUY PIE! cheryl has not referred to us as her friends yet, rather, referring to us as her acquaintances, peers or esteemed colleagues. we hope the next 6 weeks will change this. we feel much pressure.
heather is a taurus, and recently celebrated her 26th birthday. (sigh. muy old.) because i am writing this, i am not very neutral. i am great.
Alright, to be fair...and after reading my profile, I (Cheryl) have decided to take over.
Heather is the lightest packer, which is great for her but bad for us as we have to look at the same outfit everyday. She is also a postcard freak! It is the first destination in every new city, and often involves a long trek around the city (thanks Andy). She is by far the best at providing random peices of information, for instances, she recently told me that glass is actually a liquid, which is why in really old glass it disforms and is pushed downwards in its frame.....MUY RANDOM). Heather also have many Mak-isms....we have all started to pick them up. Lately Heather´s addiction to Dulce de Leche has been all consuming...now it is a staple at every meal (she even steals "to go" packages for the road to satisfy her random cravings).
Now back to Mak:
kavitha is a libra and is our oldest travelling buddy but youngest looking by far. (for example, the old man in rio who thought she was not of age to drink yet.) the fact that she puts her hair in braids and pig tails does not help! we have learned that kavitha was a MUY bookworm in school, and went on an exchange to australia in high school. WHAT! kavitha loves burritos, and also has 5 pairs of shoes in her bag! she also has a bright yellow rain jacket. we feel (note that girls use ¨we feel¨ so as not to appear too decisive or harsh) we need to ply kavitha with wine tonight to get some more juicy gossip to give you in a further entry. MOOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. to conclude, we would like to add that kavitha is often the ticket holder, because as the oldest, she is by default the most responsible.
and now, off to dinner. BON APPETIT!
day ? - montevideo
the past two days have been a bit of a whirlwind. in the morning, we were supposed to catch a ferry over to colonia. bossmat went for a brisk walk at around 7AM, that ended up being a marathon around buenos aires. we had previously thought that we were taking a 1 hour trip on buquebus to colonia, then a 2 hour bus to montevideo. however, it turns out that we were taking a whole other company´s servies (colonia express), with a 2.5 hour ferry ride and a 2.5 hour bus ride. it is also important to note that the bus smelled like stale urine, an upgrade from the bus tour that we had taken in buenos aires, which smelled like fresh urine. gross. or rather, muy gross.
anyway, we ended up getting into town at 3ish, and our first stop was at mcdonalds to get a sense of regional pricing. our base point is the cono con dulce de leche y vainilla, which is 2 argentinean pesos, or around 65 cents canadian. imagine our surprise when we got to the bus station, and it was actually $22! WHAT! twenty uruguayan pesos is equal to one canadian dollar. this was a surprise to cheryl, who took out 100 pesos from the bank machine, not realizing that it equalled $5. she has since spent that on her bank charges for that particular withdrawal.
we then took two cabs into town, which cost about $5 canadian, which is not too shabbo! (¨SHABBU!¨ adds cheryl) we then found our hotel, which when we walked in, was very dark, and the main reception area had very low carpeted ceilings. there was also a little doorway that resembled a hobbit hole. muy interessant. we were pleasantly surprised when we got our rooms, because they had 20 foot ceilings and adjoining door! talk about MUY GIRL TALK GOSSIP SESSIONS! pillow fights! braiding hair! and painting nails! girl guide singalongs (to-wit, to-wit, to-woo)!
it was also nice to get our own beds that were not part of a bunk bed. muy rolling! it was also nice not to have random people in our room, coming in in the middle of the night (cheryl adds, ¨WOOHOO! no random naked men!¨) we also got some heaters, which were a welcome addition given that the rooms were so cold that we wore about 4 layers. EEEK.
we ended up going to a diner called pasiva, which was very decently priced. i dont think that any of us spent over $5 on our meals. the waitress thought that we had scammed her and counted the money in front of us, and she was surprised to find that we had left her a nice tip. HA! the same cannot be said today with our rude waitress. eek.
afterwards, we ventured over to a grocery store called ¨ta-ta¨, which may or may not be affiliated with the indian conglomerate. (i am guessing not.) we stocked up on fruit and lots of cookies, and others picked up yogourt drinks, water and juice. i got some gross chunky soy milk by accident, which was muy gross.
for dinner, we ended up at cafe baccacay, which was a block over from our hotel, and was muy delicious. arti ordered an apple pancake with ice cream accompanied by a glass of white wine (she claims it was big and this is the reason why it took the evening to finish), bossmat ordered a salad and leche caliente, cheryl and kavitha ordered a cute meat/cheese/bread plate, as well as a 1/2 bottle of red wine (boozehounds!!!!!!!!), and i ordered some fish tidbits, which ended up being fish sticks. i was SO roped in by the tidbits. sigh. cheryl and i decided to go overboard and ordered some pear pie, which was a bit too heavy on the glaze, but had some good pear-ish moments. bossmat claimed there was some rum flavouring. lastly, we were quite impressed with our waiter, who had MUY GOOD english, and everytime we spoke to him in spanish/spanglish/sign language, he responded to us in english.
this morning, we all took showers (some colder than others) and then walked around town. we came across a store called ¨indian emporium¨ which was neither indian (and contained no indians save for arti and kavitha), nor an emporium. in fact, it was just a large clothing store. arti claims that some of the clothes were made in india, but no one can verify this. no one ended buying anything from the store.
something strange about montevideo is that you have to place all your bags in lockers before you enter stores. kavitha, arti, bossmat and cheryl found this very refreshing, meanwhile, i thought this was a bit of a nuisance and wondered if people could scam long term storage in the store.
we also walked along the rambla (the path beside the water) which was nice. bossmat and cheryl made full use of the rays while kavitha and i hid in our sweatshirts. arti was the perfect medium for sun exposure.
we stopped at a terrible restaurant for lunch (refer to previous note about no tip) and i had a terrible spaghetti bolognese that tasted like a leather wallet. muy gross. kavitha had a hot sandwich with MUY cheese, cheryl had a salad with hard boiled eggs, chicken, tomato, and cheese, and arti and bossmat shared a plate of papas fritas (french fries). the waitress was terribly brusque and as a result, we left her NO TIP. that is right, NO TIP. she literally asked us for one, but alas, NO TIP. we promptly left the scene while bossmat was left behind assembling her many bags (when we say many bags, we mean 2).
afterwards, we walked up to the mercado de puerto, which is where we should have had lunch, because it smelled MUY YUMMY. it was also super cute! it was essentially like a uruguayan st. lawrence market, but without all the produce.
right beside it was the tourist office, which was in a non-descript location. we wanted to come here to find out how to get to the airport, however the four ladies working there gave us that and BEYOND. they almost gave us a self-guided tour around the city. but we were clearly kindred spirits, because the ladies had a spreadsheet monitoring all the visitors that came to the centre. (our guess was that we were the only people on the spreadsheet).
after that, we attempted to go to a mall, but found it difficult. instead, we ended up going BOWLING!!!!!!!! when in uruguay, what do you do? bowl! uruguayan bowling does not require that you rent those gross smelly shoes. a girl in the adjacent lane was even wearing heels! the lanes were also very rough, and were not waxed in the slightest. arti was the top scorer, and you should have seen how gracefully she bowled. you could literally not hear the ball drop when she bowled. it must be her garba (indian dancing) training in full force!
on the way back, we stopped at ta-ta, and we all took photos of yerba mate and dulce de leche. as it turns out, they kicked us out of the store!!! MUY LOW POINT!
bossmat has been trying all day to get a photo of a uruguayan (perhaps a good looking one) drinking some mate in one of the special mate cups. even though there are many of these situations occurring throughout the day, it seems to be an elusive photo. the hunt continues.
now we are back to the hostel and will go to don peperone for dinner tonight. it better be muy good after that terrible meal today. cheryl and i have eaten a ton of dulce de leche wafers (i thought they were MUY bad) and me, cheryl and arti have inhaled all of cheryl´s vanilla arrowroot type cookies.
another thing we have noted in montevideo is that garbage collection occurs with horse-drawn carts. MUY STRANGE! some horses even wear straw hats for this endeavour! unfortunately we were unable to capture this on film (or rather, memory card)
below, we have detailed some of our expected vs. actual comparisons of south america thus far:
expected vs. actual comparisons (an ode to BO)
1) beans and rice - we were expecting a lot of beans and rice in the cuisine of south american countries, including burritos. instead, in brazil we found a lot of meat and deep fried meals. in argentina, it has been beef, chicken, and more beef, and a lot of pasta (who knew those italians were taking over?) in uruguay, there has been a lot of pasta, pizza, and oozy cheesy/meaty sandwiches.
2) squat and sit toilets - arti and i were fully expecting squat toilets, however, so far we have not come across one (to our excitement). showers, on the other hand, have been interesting in uruguay, following a somewhat ¨open concept¨ (aka the entire bathroom is flooded)
3) cold vs warm - being semi close to the equator, we expected south america to be relatively warm, i.e. mid 20s. yesterday night, we found ourselves wearing ski gear, including all our sweatshirts, gloves, hats, and (pashmina) scarves. we really blended in with the locals well. :S
anyway, we ended up getting into town at 3ish, and our first stop was at mcdonalds to get a sense of regional pricing. our base point is the cono con dulce de leche y vainilla, which is 2 argentinean pesos, or around 65 cents canadian. imagine our surprise when we got to the bus station, and it was actually $22! WHAT! twenty uruguayan pesos is equal to one canadian dollar. this was a surprise to cheryl, who took out 100 pesos from the bank machine, not realizing that it equalled $5. she has since spent that on her bank charges for that particular withdrawal.
we then took two cabs into town, which cost about $5 canadian, which is not too shabbo! (¨SHABBU!¨ adds cheryl) we then found our hotel, which when we walked in, was very dark, and the main reception area had very low carpeted ceilings. there was also a little doorway that resembled a hobbit hole. muy interessant. we were pleasantly surprised when we got our rooms, because they had 20 foot ceilings and adjoining door! talk about MUY GIRL TALK GOSSIP SESSIONS! pillow fights! braiding hair! and painting nails! girl guide singalongs (to-wit, to-wit, to-woo)!
it was also nice to get our own beds that were not part of a bunk bed. muy rolling! it was also nice not to have random people in our room, coming in in the middle of the night (cheryl adds, ¨WOOHOO! no random naked men!¨) we also got some heaters, which were a welcome addition given that the rooms were so cold that we wore about 4 layers. EEEK.
we ended up going to a diner called pasiva, which was very decently priced. i dont think that any of us spent over $5 on our meals. the waitress thought that we had scammed her and counted the money in front of us, and she was surprised to find that we had left her a nice tip. HA! the same cannot be said today with our rude waitress. eek.
afterwards, we ventured over to a grocery store called ¨ta-ta¨, which may or may not be affiliated with the indian conglomerate. (i am guessing not.) we stocked up on fruit and lots of cookies, and others picked up yogourt drinks, water and juice. i got some gross chunky soy milk by accident, which was muy gross.
for dinner, we ended up at cafe baccacay, which was a block over from our hotel, and was muy delicious. arti ordered an apple pancake with ice cream accompanied by a glass of white wine (she claims it was big and this is the reason why it took the evening to finish), bossmat ordered a salad and leche caliente, cheryl and kavitha ordered a cute meat/cheese/bread plate, as well as a 1/2 bottle of red wine (boozehounds!!!!!!!!), and i ordered some fish tidbits, which ended up being fish sticks. i was SO roped in by the tidbits. sigh. cheryl and i decided to go overboard and ordered some pear pie, which was a bit too heavy on the glaze, but had some good pear-ish moments. bossmat claimed there was some rum flavouring. lastly, we were quite impressed with our waiter, who had MUY GOOD english, and everytime we spoke to him in spanish/spanglish/sign language, he responded to us in english.
this morning, we all took showers (some colder than others) and then walked around town. we came across a store called ¨indian emporium¨ which was neither indian (and contained no indians save for arti and kavitha), nor an emporium. in fact, it was just a large clothing store. arti claims that some of the clothes were made in india, but no one can verify this. no one ended buying anything from the store.
something strange about montevideo is that you have to place all your bags in lockers before you enter stores. kavitha, arti, bossmat and cheryl found this very refreshing, meanwhile, i thought this was a bit of a nuisance and wondered if people could scam long term storage in the store.
we also walked along the rambla (the path beside the water) which was nice. bossmat and cheryl made full use of the rays while kavitha and i hid in our sweatshirts. arti was the perfect medium for sun exposure.
we stopped at a terrible restaurant for lunch (refer to previous note about no tip) and i had a terrible spaghetti bolognese that tasted like a leather wallet. muy gross. kavitha had a hot sandwich with MUY cheese, cheryl had a salad with hard boiled eggs, chicken, tomato, and cheese, and arti and bossmat shared a plate of papas fritas (french fries). the waitress was terribly brusque and as a result, we left her NO TIP. that is right, NO TIP. she literally asked us for one, but alas, NO TIP. we promptly left the scene while bossmat was left behind assembling her many bags (when we say many bags, we mean 2).
afterwards, we walked up to the mercado de puerto, which is where we should have had lunch, because it smelled MUY YUMMY. it was also super cute! it was essentially like a uruguayan st. lawrence market, but without all the produce.
right beside it was the tourist office, which was in a non-descript location. we wanted to come here to find out how to get to the airport, however the four ladies working there gave us that and BEYOND. they almost gave us a self-guided tour around the city. but we were clearly kindred spirits, because the ladies had a spreadsheet monitoring all the visitors that came to the centre. (our guess was that we were the only people on the spreadsheet).
after that, we attempted to go to a mall, but found it difficult. instead, we ended up going BOWLING!!!!!!!! when in uruguay, what do you do? bowl! uruguayan bowling does not require that you rent those gross smelly shoes. a girl in the adjacent lane was even wearing heels! the lanes were also very rough, and were not waxed in the slightest. arti was the top scorer, and you should have seen how gracefully she bowled. you could literally not hear the ball drop when she bowled. it must be her garba (indian dancing) training in full force!
on the way back, we stopped at ta-ta, and we all took photos of yerba mate and dulce de leche. as it turns out, they kicked us out of the store!!! MUY LOW POINT!
bossmat has been trying all day to get a photo of a uruguayan (perhaps a good looking one) drinking some mate in one of the special mate cups. even though there are many of these situations occurring throughout the day, it seems to be an elusive photo. the hunt continues.
now we are back to the hostel and will go to don peperone for dinner tonight. it better be muy good after that terrible meal today. cheryl and i have eaten a ton of dulce de leche wafers (i thought they were MUY bad) and me, cheryl and arti have inhaled all of cheryl´s vanilla arrowroot type cookies.
another thing we have noted in montevideo is that garbage collection occurs with horse-drawn carts. MUY STRANGE! some horses even wear straw hats for this endeavour! unfortunately we were unable to capture this on film (or rather, memory card)
below, we have detailed some of our expected vs. actual comparisons of south america thus far:
expected vs. actual comparisons (an ode to BO)
1) beans and rice - we were expecting a lot of beans and rice in the cuisine of south american countries, including burritos. instead, in brazil we found a lot of meat and deep fried meals. in argentina, it has been beef, chicken, and more beef, and a lot of pasta (who knew those italians were taking over?) in uruguay, there has been a lot of pasta, pizza, and oozy cheesy/meaty sandwiches.
2) squat and sit toilets - arti and i were fully expecting squat toilets, however, so far we have not come across one (to our excitement). showers, on the other hand, have been interesting in uruguay, following a somewhat ¨open concept¨ (aka the entire bathroom is flooded)
3) cold vs warm - being semi close to the equator, we expected south america to be relatively warm, i.e. mid 20s. yesterday night, we found ourselves wearing ski gear, including all our sweatshirts, gloves, hats, and (pashmina) scarves. we really blended in with the locals well. :S
Monday, May 12, 2008
an argentinean birthday celebration
before i talk about todays events, i will recap last night{s events. we went to a tango show at cafe tortoni, which cost us 60 pesos. the show was good, perhaps even MUY good. the first set was a bit confusing because all the women were wearing scandalous boudoir type outfits and not so much about the swishy dresses that we have seen in other tango routines. the food at cafe tortoni was not too bad either. i was happy to see that they sold churros at the venue, and of course HAD to pick some up! (shoutouts to a-beans. sigh.) what i thought was chocolate sauce with churros (chocolate con churros) ended up being hot chocolate and churros. my tummy was none too happy!
today was my 26th birthday (sheeesh!) typically, birthdays for me are bittersweet. another year older, another year wiser. i preferred to keep it rather low key, and in the morning the girls went shopping while i handwashed a load of clothing and then dried it at the laundromat. so nice to have (semi) clean clothes! then we met up and then went to san telmo, which ended up being a bit of a ghost town in terms of things being open. we ended up having some empenadas and various beverages in the square, and noticed that there were a lot of pigeons around us (note that cheryl LOVES pigeons.... not.) and a lot of americans who seemed to like using the word like a lot. like oh my god. like totally, like STOP! AHHHHH!
afterwards, we took the subway over to chinatown, which is 5 blocks a way from juramento station close to the end of the D line. the juramento area was super cute - very residential, with lots of cute boutiques and much less touristy. chinatown was behind some train tracks and consisted of maybe 5 restaurants and a couple of import/export type stores. but boy was i glad to have some chinese food!! i also want to add the strangeness that is argentinean chinese people. they speak what sounds like mandarin, but with a bit more of a twang! i have found communicating with them very careful. it is strange that as chinese people, we look similar, but can{t communicate!! between pigeon spanish, english, and cantonese, there was very little common language ground.
then of course, we went to mcds for a dulce de leche ice cream. YUM!
in bs as, we have not been able to go out, because we have been too tired to do so! it seems as though buenos aires is coming up as a big party city a la ibiza - i cant believe that people go out at 1, 2AM! so opposite to north america.
tomorrow morning we are going to uruguay, montevideo in particular.
last note: we also learned today that kavitha sometimes goes by the name of cavity.
today was my 26th birthday (sheeesh!) typically, birthdays for me are bittersweet. another year older, another year wiser. i preferred to keep it rather low key, and in the morning the girls went shopping while i handwashed a load of clothing and then dried it at the laundromat. so nice to have (semi) clean clothes! then we met up and then went to san telmo, which ended up being a bit of a ghost town in terms of things being open. we ended up having some empenadas and various beverages in the square, and noticed that there were a lot of pigeons around us (note that cheryl LOVES pigeons.... not.) and a lot of americans who seemed to like using the word like a lot. like oh my god. like totally, like STOP! AHHHHH!
afterwards, we took the subway over to chinatown, which is 5 blocks a way from juramento station close to the end of the D line. the juramento area was super cute - very residential, with lots of cute boutiques and much less touristy. chinatown was behind some train tracks and consisted of maybe 5 restaurants and a couple of import/export type stores. but boy was i glad to have some chinese food!! i also want to add the strangeness that is argentinean chinese people. they speak what sounds like mandarin, but with a bit more of a twang! i have found communicating with them very careful. it is strange that as chinese people, we look similar, but can{t communicate!! between pigeon spanish, english, and cantonese, there was very little common language ground.
then of course, we went to mcds for a dulce de leche ice cream. YUM!
in bs as, we have not been able to go out, because we have been too tired to do so! it seems as though buenos aires is coming up as a big party city a la ibiza - i cant believe that people go out at 1, 2AM! so opposite to north america.
tomorrow morning we are going to uruguay, montevideo in particular.
last note: we also learned today that kavitha sometimes goes by the name of cavity.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
an update on the towel, as well as gaucho-ness
strangely enough, the most comments we have received on a post has been my post on the smelly towel!!! i would just like to follow up with the fact that i purchased a 100% cotton towel at falabella for 12 pesos, and i have never been fresher. just in case you were wondering. smell factor = 0!!!
kavitha will update you on the occurrences of the past two days but i just wanted to update you on todays gaucho experience that me and cheryl went to. although it was muy expensive at $190 pesos (about $60 canadian), as soon as we got off the bus we were given empenadas (WOOOOOOOT!) and argentinean wine. best empenadas i have ever had! of all the ones i have encountered, these have included carne, pollo, and corn. carne is definitely the best. i quite enjoy the bits of hard boiled egg and olive in them. :D
after that, we went on a couple of horseback rides - quite short but a lot of fun. hooper had a blast as she had not been horseback riding before. muy shoutouts to liz, it reminded me of when we went in hawaii. sob.
then we had the meatiest meaty asado i had ever seen before. it included chorizo, blood sausage (not a repeat consumer of this), various cuts of beef (vacuno), and chicken. with some random salads - one of which i particularly enjoyed. i will discuss more in depth the blood sausage and salad.
the blood sausage, which is like black pudding, was semi repulsive. taste wise, it was good, but texture wise it was like eating meaty butter. not a fan! particularly gross was when you sliced into it - jets of it just squirted out. shudder.
one of the salads had mayo, potatoes, beets, hard boiled eggs, and tomatoes. a colourful and unlikely combo, but muy delicious!
overall, both cheryl and i had a major case of meat sweats AND meat coma. and we only had half a portion of what we were supposed to! i cant even imagine those people who had the full servings of meat provided.
also, there were a bunch of chinese peeps on the tour - they were cantonese speakers! so i had a nice conversation with them. this was in contrast to last night, which kavitha will speak to more in depth.
after the huge lunch, we ended up seeing a bit of tango and some gaucho performances. this included a lot of spinning of ropes and tapping and slapping and dancing. muy fun!
and after that, we ended up watching a mini-rodeo. it was muy dusty!!!
btw - i should add in our blog that the word of this trip so far has been MUY, and we try to use it as much as possible, even though it is incorrect. i think it actually means [very]. for example,
that guy is MUY cute!!!!!
you need to MUY ZOOM on to that soccer player!
i am so MUY tired!
sometimes we will use it with a proper spanish word, such as, MUY BUENO! but this does not happen often.
on that note, i am awfully dusty from the estancio gaucho party, so i am off to take a shower with my wonderful towel. i will talk to you later! tonight we are off to a tango show!
kavitha will update you on the occurrences of the past two days but i just wanted to update you on todays gaucho experience that me and cheryl went to. although it was muy expensive at $190 pesos (about $60 canadian), as soon as we got off the bus we were given empenadas (WOOOOOOOT!) and argentinean wine. best empenadas i have ever had! of all the ones i have encountered, these have included carne, pollo, and corn. carne is definitely the best. i quite enjoy the bits of hard boiled egg and olive in them. :D
after that, we went on a couple of horseback rides - quite short but a lot of fun. hooper had a blast as she had not been horseback riding before. muy shoutouts to liz, it reminded me of when we went in hawaii. sob.
then we had the meatiest meaty asado i had ever seen before. it included chorizo, blood sausage (not a repeat consumer of this), various cuts of beef (vacuno), and chicken. with some random salads - one of which i particularly enjoyed. i will discuss more in depth the blood sausage and salad.
the blood sausage, which is like black pudding, was semi repulsive. taste wise, it was good, but texture wise it was like eating meaty butter. not a fan! particularly gross was when you sliced into it - jets of it just squirted out. shudder.
one of the salads had mayo, potatoes, beets, hard boiled eggs, and tomatoes. a colourful and unlikely combo, but muy delicious!
overall, both cheryl and i had a major case of meat sweats AND meat coma. and we only had half a portion of what we were supposed to! i cant even imagine those people who had the full servings of meat provided.
also, there were a bunch of chinese peeps on the tour - they were cantonese speakers! so i had a nice conversation with them. this was in contrast to last night, which kavitha will speak to more in depth.
after the huge lunch, we ended up seeing a bit of tango and some gaucho performances. this included a lot of spinning of ropes and tapping and slapping and dancing. muy fun!
and after that, we ended up watching a mini-rodeo. it was muy dusty!!!
btw - i should add in our blog that the word of this trip so far has been MUY, and we try to use it as much as possible, even though it is incorrect. i think it actually means [very]. for example,
that guy is MUY cute!!!!!
you need to MUY ZOOM on to that soccer player!
i am so MUY tired!
sometimes we will use it with a proper spanish word, such as, MUY BUENO! but this does not happen often.
on that note, i am awfully dusty from the estancio gaucho party, so i am off to take a shower with my wonderful towel. i will talk to you later! tonight we are off to a tango show!
somewhere in week 3
To our loyal readers, we apologize for the absence of blogging over the past few days. I will attempt to re-cap all the juicy details of our recent adventures...
So Friday morning we all woke up bright an early ready to be the ultimate tourists on a bus tour around the city... however to our annoyance when we went to reception to pick up our voucher, we were told that we were bumped to the afternoon bus. grrrr. so we decided to go see what our tango options were. we ended up at a tango hall just around the corner from our hostel. We opted to take a 3hr tango lesson for 20 pesos (bargoons!). Clearly we were all beginners and were ushered to the very back of the tango hall where we were greeted by Roxanna, our instructor. The step-by-step instructions started off slow, but definitely picked up in complexitity by the end of the 3 hour session. Roxanna was great, giving each of us personal tips on how to improve. It was easy to get distracted by the more advanced dancers who were practicing in the middle of the hall... there was an adorable old couple who were probably in their 70s who were brilliant dancers - so fluid in their movement and clearly still in love (muy cuuttteee!!).
After the tango lesson we gave ourselves ´free time´(yes, the HK itinerary is that detailed) and split up to do our own thing. Heather, Arti and I hit up Florida street (shopping galore!)... where Heather ended up finally getting her much desired haircut. despite the hairdressers´lack of english, the cut turned out great and was el cheapo as well ($20!). Arti and I ended up shopping in one shoe store for about 40 minutes.. there were sooo many cute shoes, we couldn´t decide what to buy. I of course bought a pair (yes mom, i know there´s no more room in my closet!) and although Arti didn´t make a purchase, she´s inspired and is eyeing a pair of boots! Bossmat and Cheryl went exploring near the port... this is where I believe they discovered that they were both Sagitarius.
On a side note - the five of us have adopted a HUGE addiction to McDonald´s soft-serve ice cream. We just can´t help ourselves... it´s awful, but ooooh-sooo-delicious!!! We´re all loving the option of the dulce de leche flavour (caramalized condensed milk.. YUM!).
Thus far, we´d experienced planes, trains, vans, taxis and boats, so it´s only natural that we add the subway to our list of transportation methods. When asked to re-count her experience on the Buenos Aires subway, Arti flinches and says 'Oh God!' -- that just about sums it up. It was absolutely ridiculous. Three subways cars went by before we were able to shove ourselves on. We almost had to give it a running start to be able to cram ourselves in. Once inside we were so tightly packed in that you didn´t even have to hold on to anything. We were all hoping that we were hit a subway stop like Yonge&Bloor where half the people would exit and the subway car would free up... no such luck.
We took the subway to an artsy neighbourhood called La Palermo. We walked quite a bit before we a) got to the actual restaurant district and b) found a restaurant that was appealing/in a reasonable price range. Cheryl, Heather and I finally indulged in some good hearty Argentinean meat. Mak and I opted for steaks and Cheryl, a pork/roasted apple option. Arti enjoyed quesadillas and mozza sticks and Bossmat had a tuna salad. And although all our dinners were scrumptious, nothing could prepare us for what came next. We ordered 3 different desserts - tiramisu, apple crumble and the crunchy banana. The third dish was absolutely heaven on a plate (even for me, the non-dessert lover) -- deep fried banana wrapped in filo pastry with a coconut topping and vanilla ice cream on the side. Cheryl, Heather and Arti went at it like a pack of coutis.. it was hilarious and I sooo wish I had videotaped them devouring the plate. It was a wonder that Bossmat and I even got to taste it!! This dinner for me was a highlight of the trip so far -- a great 3 hours of eating, drinking, reminicing, devouring and laughing.
Saturday...
We finally got to take the bus tour. It took us all over the city.. to some neighbourhoods we had already been and others that we had been curious about. The one tidbit that we learned was that 'porteno', the word that described people from Buenos Aires, is derived from the fact that Buenos Aires is a port city. The bus stopped in La Boca -- the neighbourhood that is home to the fan-favourite ´La Boca´football team and to Caminito, an iconic street with very brightly coloured houses. After the bus tour we hopped off the bus early and wandered around the port, where we grabbed lunch. After that on our way back to the hostel we swung by a recommended tango hall to grab tickets for a Sunday night performance.
We were all pretty exhausted after a long day, and had big plans to go out on the town that night, so we decided to all take time to relax/nap before gussying-it-up for our night out. We initially wanted to hit up China town, but after a lengthy discussion with the guys at the reception about dinner options/club options, we decided to stay close to home. We walked a few blocks up the street and consulted about 15 menus along the way before we decided upon Oro d'Dragon - a Chinese restaurant that smelled divine when Heather and I first walked in. The restaurant also had Chinese staff, so the legitimacy meter rank high. We got quite a few strange stares as we made our way to our table. I didnt really think much of it as Heather and I have become accustomed to random stares. With our luck we were sitted behind a table of guys who were smoking non-stop. There were several empty tables near the front of the restaurant, so we attempted to make a move. Heather politely asked in Spanish if we could move to the front. That didn't work out so well. Then we figured perhaps she should try in Cantonese. We were of course assigned to the ONE Spanish waiter in the restaurant, so I asked him in Spanish if Heather could speak to a Chinese waiter. That didn´t work so well as we were then handed an all-Chinese menu (the ones we had previously were in spanish and chinese). So I asked again. woot.. it worked -- a Chinese waiter came over. However, the waiter interpretted Heather´s request as us wanting the guys at the next table to STOP smoking. So she went over to their table and told them to stop. we got the WORST death stares ever. UGH. I swear the guys started smoking even more. we could barely breathe at this point, let alone consider eating. So out of total frustration we high-tailed it outta there. We ended up at a Cuban restaurant... nice atmosphere - even had entertainment (Cheryl and I are convinced the MC was AB's Argentinean counterpart, appropriately decked out in white pants, white shoes and a red blazer). By the time we ate it was 1130pm... well that was when Heather, Cheryl and I ate... Arti and Bossmat, who ordered what we thought was a fairly basic meal choice of beans and rice had to wait and extra 45 minutes.. ridiculousness. All-in-all a very bizarre night.
On a personal note, Heather and I are suuuppppeeeeerrrr excited that both our siblings got engaged!!!!! (no, not to each other). Out of total coincidence Heather´s sister and my brother both got engaged last Thursday -- WOOT!!!!!!!
So Friday morning we all woke up bright an early ready to be the ultimate tourists on a bus tour around the city... however to our annoyance when we went to reception to pick up our voucher, we were told that we were bumped to the afternoon bus. grrrr. so we decided to go see what our tango options were. we ended up at a tango hall just around the corner from our hostel. We opted to take a 3hr tango lesson for 20 pesos (bargoons!). Clearly we were all beginners and were ushered to the very back of the tango hall where we were greeted by Roxanna, our instructor. The step-by-step instructions started off slow, but definitely picked up in complexitity by the end of the 3 hour session. Roxanna was great, giving each of us personal tips on how to improve. It was easy to get distracted by the more advanced dancers who were practicing in the middle of the hall... there was an adorable old couple who were probably in their 70s who were brilliant dancers - so fluid in their movement and clearly still in love (muy cuuttteee!!).
After the tango lesson we gave ourselves ´free time´(yes, the HK itinerary is that detailed) and split up to do our own thing. Heather, Arti and I hit up Florida street (shopping galore!)... where Heather ended up finally getting her much desired haircut. despite the hairdressers´lack of english, the cut turned out great and was el cheapo as well ($20!). Arti and I ended up shopping in one shoe store for about 40 minutes.. there were sooo many cute shoes, we couldn´t decide what to buy. I of course bought a pair (yes mom, i know there´s no more room in my closet!) and although Arti didn´t make a purchase, she´s inspired and is eyeing a pair of boots! Bossmat and Cheryl went exploring near the port... this is where I believe they discovered that they were both Sagitarius.
On a side note - the five of us have adopted a HUGE addiction to McDonald´s soft-serve ice cream. We just can´t help ourselves... it´s awful, but ooooh-sooo-delicious!!! We´re all loving the option of the dulce de leche flavour (caramalized condensed milk.. YUM!).
Thus far, we´d experienced planes, trains, vans, taxis and boats, so it´s only natural that we add the subway to our list of transportation methods. When asked to re-count her experience on the Buenos Aires subway, Arti flinches and says 'Oh God!' -- that just about sums it up. It was absolutely ridiculous. Three subways cars went by before we were able to shove ourselves on. We almost had to give it a running start to be able to cram ourselves in. Once inside we were so tightly packed in that you didn´t even have to hold on to anything. We were all hoping that we were hit a subway stop like Yonge&Bloor where half the people would exit and the subway car would free up... no such luck.
We took the subway to an artsy neighbourhood called La Palermo. We walked quite a bit before we a) got to the actual restaurant district and b) found a restaurant that was appealing/in a reasonable price range. Cheryl, Heather and I finally indulged in some good hearty Argentinean meat. Mak and I opted for steaks and Cheryl, a pork/roasted apple option. Arti enjoyed quesadillas and mozza sticks and Bossmat had a tuna salad. And although all our dinners were scrumptious, nothing could prepare us for what came next. We ordered 3 different desserts - tiramisu, apple crumble and the crunchy banana. The third dish was absolutely heaven on a plate (even for me, the non-dessert lover) -- deep fried banana wrapped in filo pastry with a coconut topping and vanilla ice cream on the side. Cheryl, Heather and Arti went at it like a pack of coutis.. it was hilarious and I sooo wish I had videotaped them devouring the plate. It was a wonder that Bossmat and I even got to taste it!! This dinner for me was a highlight of the trip so far -- a great 3 hours of eating, drinking, reminicing, devouring and laughing.
Saturday...
We finally got to take the bus tour. It took us all over the city.. to some neighbourhoods we had already been and others that we had been curious about. The one tidbit that we learned was that 'porteno', the word that described people from Buenos Aires, is derived from the fact that Buenos Aires is a port city. The bus stopped in La Boca -- the neighbourhood that is home to the fan-favourite ´La Boca´football team and to Caminito, an iconic street with very brightly coloured houses. After the bus tour we hopped off the bus early and wandered around the port, where we grabbed lunch. After that on our way back to the hostel we swung by a recommended tango hall to grab tickets for a Sunday night performance.
We were all pretty exhausted after a long day, and had big plans to go out on the town that night, so we decided to all take time to relax/nap before gussying-it-up for our night out. We initially wanted to hit up China town, but after a lengthy discussion with the guys at the reception about dinner options/club options, we decided to stay close to home. We walked a few blocks up the street and consulted about 15 menus along the way before we decided upon Oro d'Dragon - a Chinese restaurant that smelled divine when Heather and I first walked in. The restaurant also had Chinese staff, so the legitimacy meter rank high. We got quite a few strange stares as we made our way to our table. I didnt really think much of it as Heather and I have become accustomed to random stares. With our luck we were sitted behind a table of guys who were smoking non-stop. There were several empty tables near the front of the restaurant, so we attempted to make a move. Heather politely asked in Spanish if we could move to the front. That didn't work out so well. Then we figured perhaps she should try in Cantonese. We were of course assigned to the ONE Spanish waiter in the restaurant, so I asked him in Spanish if Heather could speak to a Chinese waiter. That didn´t work so well as we were then handed an all-Chinese menu (the ones we had previously were in spanish and chinese). So I asked again. woot.. it worked -- a Chinese waiter came over. However, the waiter interpretted Heather´s request as us wanting the guys at the next table to STOP smoking. So she went over to their table and told them to stop. we got the WORST death stares ever. UGH. I swear the guys started smoking even more. we could barely breathe at this point, let alone consider eating. So out of total frustration we high-tailed it outta there. We ended up at a Cuban restaurant... nice atmosphere - even had entertainment (Cheryl and I are convinced the MC was AB's Argentinean counterpart, appropriately decked out in white pants, white shoes and a red blazer). By the time we ate it was 1130pm... well that was when Heather, Cheryl and I ate... Arti and Bossmat, who ordered what we thought was a fairly basic meal choice of beans and rice had to wait and extra 45 minutes.. ridiculousness. All-in-all a very bizarre night.
On a personal note, Heather and I are suuuppppeeeeerrrr excited that both our siblings got engaged!!!!! (no, not to each other). Out of total coincidence Heather´s sister and my brother both got engaged last Thursday -- WOOT!!!!!!!
Friday, May 9, 2008
day 16, buenos aires
since our last update, we have settled into buenos aires nicely. yesterday, we got a bit of a late start adjusting to schedules and everyones morning routine. we had braekfast, then finally left the hostel at around 11. we spent about an hour searching for a tourist information office, and when we did find it, there was a sign that said "be right back" - 5 minutes later, we decided that a south american be right back might not be as immediate as we suspected. so, we walked back to the hostel, then walked over to the cemetary in recoleta.
people say that this cemetary is the main tourist attraction in buenos aires - kind of makes you wonder if a cemetary is the best thing to see in a city! it is similar to ones i have seen before in spanish colonies where the formerly rich and famous are buried with their families - lots of glass, marble and stone. one modern gravesite looked like the entrance to a club! very strange choice.
we went to find evita perons grave site, which took about half an hour. it was in a very nondescript location but was covered in tons and tons of flowers. this cemetary also had a lot of cobwebs and stray cats taking in the afternoon sun. some were a little bit creepy.
we had dinner at another cafe, and ate much better food than the night before. kavitha had a hamburgeusa, i had an arroz con pollo (my favourite latin american dish), cheryl and bossmat had an academica sandwich (bossmat{s without ham), and arti had her first empenadas (filled with creamed corn). after that meal, we rolled back to the hostel to get ready for the football match later on that evening.
the football match was the semifinal match for the south american cup (we think), featuring river plate and san lorenzo. it was insanely rowdy walking in, and i was shoved more than once. eeeesh. safety first? when we did get our seats, we did not leave them once - i had my first coke in ages, and they had some awesome candied peanuts. in terms of the game, the team we were cheering for (river plate) started off very strong and scored two goals almost immediately. however the reigning team (so we think) came back strong with two goals and tied the game. river plate played very sloppily in the second half. oy.
in addition to this, was the abundance of fireworks/sparkler launchers that people had! there were firemen all over the field with hoses ready to go in case a fire occurred. similarly, all the cheering was INSANE. in the upper decks, fans were jumping up and down and sitting in the lower deck, we could see that the upper deck was literally vibrating. (vibrating cement = interesting.) after the game finished, we realized that it was customary for the fans of the visiting team to leave first in order to avoid riots and fighting, so we had to wait for about 30 to 45 minutes before we could take off. the drive back to the hostel was much faster than it was to get there!
because we were craving churros and ice cream before we got to the venue, after the game we ended up at mcdonald{s (GASP!) and had some soft serve ice cream. delish! totally hit the spot! i was also impressed at how much mcdonalds has progressed with its mccafe venture. holy schmoly!
today we are going on a bus tour and doing some tango lessons. cant wait to flail!
more residual questions:
1) who is bartolome mitre?
2) where does one cut their hair in buenos aires?
people say that this cemetary is the main tourist attraction in buenos aires - kind of makes you wonder if a cemetary is the best thing to see in a city! it is similar to ones i have seen before in spanish colonies where the formerly rich and famous are buried with their families - lots of glass, marble and stone. one modern gravesite looked like the entrance to a club! very strange choice.
we went to find evita perons grave site, which took about half an hour. it was in a very nondescript location but was covered in tons and tons of flowers. this cemetary also had a lot of cobwebs and stray cats taking in the afternoon sun. some were a little bit creepy.
we had dinner at another cafe, and ate much better food than the night before. kavitha had a hamburgeusa, i had an arroz con pollo (my favourite latin american dish), cheryl and bossmat had an academica sandwich (bossmat{s without ham), and arti had her first empenadas (filled with creamed corn). after that meal, we rolled back to the hostel to get ready for the football match later on that evening.
the football match was the semifinal match for the south american cup (we think), featuring river plate and san lorenzo. it was insanely rowdy walking in, and i was shoved more than once. eeeesh. safety first? when we did get our seats, we did not leave them once - i had my first coke in ages, and they had some awesome candied peanuts. in terms of the game, the team we were cheering for (river plate) started off very strong and scored two goals almost immediately. however the reigning team (so we think) came back strong with two goals and tied the game. river plate played very sloppily in the second half. oy.
in addition to this, was the abundance of fireworks/sparkler launchers that people had! there were firemen all over the field with hoses ready to go in case a fire occurred. similarly, all the cheering was INSANE. in the upper decks, fans were jumping up and down and sitting in the lower deck, we could see that the upper deck was literally vibrating. (vibrating cement = interesting.) after the game finished, we realized that it was customary for the fans of the visiting team to leave first in order to avoid riots and fighting, so we had to wait for about 30 to 45 minutes before we could take off. the drive back to the hostel was much faster than it was to get there!
because we were craving churros and ice cream before we got to the venue, after the game we ended up at mcdonald{s (GASP!) and had some soft serve ice cream. delish! totally hit the spot! i was also impressed at how much mcdonalds has progressed with its mccafe venture. holy schmoly!
today we are going on a bus tour and doing some tango lessons. cant wait to flail!
more residual questions:
1) who is bartolome mitre?
2) where does one cut their hair in buenos aires?
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
the arrival of hooper, gal and davda in buenos aires
this morning, kavitha and i flew over to buenos aires from the puerto iguazu airport. LAN was not only on time (gasp! shock!), but had some awesome snacks and they even gave us some nifty airplane magnetic bookmarks! you can be assured that they are all stuck into kavithas lonely planet south america book.
we flew into the jorge newbury airport, which is the domestic airport in buenos aires, and lo and behold, as soon as we exited we were right on the water! what a great location! it cost us only $5.50 per person to get into town, and we were dropped right at the door of our hostel. hooray for this manuel tienda leon airport shuttle service.
we checked in (after a bit of kerfuffle) and were convinced to get a hostelling international membership. 43 argentine pesos, which is about $15, while at home the same membership costs $30. what gives?!
meanwhile, we had a bit of time to kill before arti, bossmat and cheryl got in, so we wandered about town trying to get a sense of the area. thank goodness, we came across carrefour and picked up some cookies and water. it felt like a slice of home and there were some major bargoons!
when we got back to the hostel, lo and behold, the girls were there with their backpacks! it was so surreal seeing them here in buenos aires. check-in took about 40 minutes (cheryl claims it was closer to 12 hours) because of all the various iterations of pricing, and we ended up getting two different rooms - kavitha and i in one, and arti, bossmat, and cheryl (from now on, referred to as ABC) in the other. we had some nice aussies and a lady from washington state in our room, while the other three ended up with a naked man with a towel.
speaking of towels, i am happy to report that i have found a replacement COTTON towel for my smelly quick dry towel. i am excited to use it and not smell worse after my shower than before my shower.
anyway, besides that, after the girls came in we went out for some beverages and a bruschetta sandwich (?) at a little cafe on florida street. this was followed by phone card purchases at farmacity (0.13 pesos per minute to canada - suspect?) and then dinner at a cafe down the street from our hostel. the meal left a little to be desired. i had a lacklustre turkey and tomato sandwich, while cheryl and kavitha had some ricotta cheese ravioli (their review: kavitha was hungry and it did the job - quasi.), arti had some fettucini with really lame tomato sauce, and then bossmat had perhaps the piece de resistance. the waiter brought her the wrong dish at first, which was fries, ham and egg, which did not jive seeing that it was not what she ordered, and that she is a vegetarian. so, the dish was sent back, and it was replaced with a tomato sauce with two raw eggs and several misplaced green peas. bossmats review: it did the job at the time, but now she is feeling some regrets.
at this point, i think we are all pooped from our flights and will get to bed soon. until tomorrow, goodnight!
we flew into the jorge newbury airport, which is the domestic airport in buenos aires, and lo and behold, as soon as we exited we were right on the water! what a great location! it cost us only $5.50 per person to get into town, and we were dropped right at the door of our hostel. hooray for this manuel tienda leon airport shuttle service.
we checked in (after a bit of kerfuffle) and were convinced to get a hostelling international membership. 43 argentine pesos, which is about $15, while at home the same membership costs $30. what gives?!
meanwhile, we had a bit of time to kill before arti, bossmat and cheryl got in, so we wandered about town trying to get a sense of the area. thank goodness, we came across carrefour and picked up some cookies and water. it felt like a slice of home and there were some major bargoons!
when we got back to the hostel, lo and behold, the girls were there with their backpacks! it was so surreal seeing them here in buenos aires. check-in took about 40 minutes (cheryl claims it was closer to 12 hours) because of all the various iterations of pricing, and we ended up getting two different rooms - kavitha and i in one, and arti, bossmat, and cheryl (from now on, referred to as ABC) in the other. we had some nice aussies and a lady from washington state in our room, while the other three ended up with a naked man with a towel.
speaking of towels, i am happy to report that i have found a replacement COTTON towel for my smelly quick dry towel. i am excited to use it and not smell worse after my shower than before my shower.
anyway, besides that, after the girls came in we went out for some beverages and a bruschetta sandwich (?) at a little cafe on florida street. this was followed by phone card purchases at farmacity (0.13 pesos per minute to canada - suspect?) and then dinner at a cafe down the street from our hostel. the meal left a little to be desired. i had a lacklustre turkey and tomato sandwich, while cheryl and kavitha had some ricotta cheese ravioli (their review: kavitha was hungry and it did the job - quasi.), arti had some fettucini with really lame tomato sauce, and then bossmat had perhaps the piece de resistance. the waiter brought her the wrong dish at first, which was fries, ham and egg, which did not jive seeing that it was not what she ordered, and that she is a vegetarian. so, the dish was sent back, and it was replaced with a tomato sauce with two raw eggs and several misplaced green peas. bossmats review: it did the job at the time, but now she is feeling some regrets.
at this point, i think we are all pooped from our flights and will get to bed soon. until tomorrow, goodnight!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
KT at 75%
all i have to add for today is: aaachhoooooo
i´ve been sneezing like MAD all day and night.. it´s brutal. potentially allergies - although mak and i have had a hard time deciphering what i´m allergic to. hopefully whatever it is, it wont exist in buenos aires. i'll have to pop some more pills and hope for the best. on a brighter note, my sunburnt lips are on the mend! woot!
i´ve been sneezing like MAD all day and night.. it´s brutal. potentially allergies - although mak and i have had a hard time deciphering what i´m allergic to. hopefully whatever it is, it wont exist in buenos aires. i'll have to pop some more pills and hope for the best. on a brighter note, my sunburnt lips are on the mend! woot!
the two week mark....
today is kavitha and i's last day in iguazu falls. we are celebrating by doing nothing! today so far, we have played a couple rounds of ping pong, foosball, and cards (crazy eights, yanif, and go fish). and we get our laundry back today too! we were planning to make a great dinner tonight, however it appears that many of our ingredients were either stolen or tossed out. sigh, the life of a hostel occupant.
as part of my doing nothing, i caught up on a couple of harvard business review podcasts this morning (i know, NERRRRD!). one was on engaging B players in your company, another was on the characteristics of gen y people entering the workforce, and another was on john elkington's latest book on the power of unreasonable people. i found the gen y one particularly interesting - one thing that i really hope is that in the future, the workplace will reflect the gen y's preference for work-life balance. 9-5 revolution!
another thing i would like to point out is the disadvantages of quick drying towels. although they are light and dry fairly quickly, after use they STINK! i think this is because they are made out of synthetic materials (nylon and polyester) and enjoy harbouring bacteria. i am not sure when someone will make some kind of anti-bacterial quick drying towel, because i am very close to picking up a normal towel.
as part of my doing nothing, i caught up on a couple of harvard business review podcasts this morning (i know, NERRRRD!). one was on engaging B players in your company, another was on the characteristics of gen y people entering the workforce, and another was on john elkington's latest book on the power of unreasonable people. i found the gen y one particularly interesting - one thing that i really hope is that in the future, the workplace will reflect the gen y's preference for work-life balance. 9-5 revolution!
another thing i would like to point out is the disadvantages of quick drying towels. although they are light and dry fairly quickly, after use they STINK! i think this is because they are made out of synthetic materials (nylon and polyester) and enjoy harbouring bacteria. i am not sure when someone will make some kind of anti-bacterial quick drying towel, because i am very close to picking up a normal towel.
Monday, May 5, 2008
day 13 - iguazu falls
kavitha and i spent the day today at the brazillian side of iguazu falls. while the trails were not as extensive as the argentinean side, they did a much better job in terms of organization (i.e. there were buses to transport people around) and presenting information (i.e. there was an explanatory exhibit at the beginning providing information on fables, rock formations and volcanic action). the highlight for me was seeing all the rainbows that formed over the falls after a crazy rainstorm. we also ran into some friendly people from salt lake city. (mormons? not too sure.) kavitha's highlight also included the rainbows and the use of our raincoats.
i should add that our raincoats held up really well in the rain today! hurray for patagonia and nike! (Y) (that is a thumbs up emoticon)
getting to the brazillian falls took awhile, as we went a bit too far. from our hostel, we are supposed to take a bus to the argentinean bus station (1 peso). then transfer to a bus that crosses the border between argentina and brazil (2 pesos). then transfer to another bus to the falls (2,10 reals). kavitha and i are now bus experts.
on the way back, it was a bit of a nightmare, mainly because we were given erroneous directions 3 times. for example, we stopped inside a hotel for directions, and they told us to get the bus across the street from "hotel mabu". when we got off the bus, there was no hotel mabu, but rather a chuck-e-cheese's type establishment called HOOBA. mabu, hooba? hum.
dinner tonight turned out to be a vegetable scramble, rather than an omelette. vegetables in argentina are terrible! tomatoes are anemic, bruised, and artificially ripened. green peppers are squishy. i suspect that people are not too into the 5-a-day fruit and vegetable requirement.
also today, kavitha and i caved in for the hostel laundry service. $6. which seemed a bit steep, but we have all been left with one outfit. i am wearing my nice clothing out of necessity, while kavitha is wearing capri pants and an athletic jacket. i believe i will also have to sleep in this attire, as our laundry is not ready until tomorrow before noon.
another element to consider in washing my clothes has been the fact that my right leg has all these strange red blotches on them. they do not appear to be mosquito bites and we have had trouble deciphering what they actually are! grody! one of them, oddly enough, is shaped like a heart! bahahahahaha. (that is for you, andy.)
in terms of mosquitoes, there have been virtually none here. what gives with this malaria business? (knock on wood) i suspect because it is winter here right now they have been a bit dormant. WOOT for us! (i don't think any of us particularly want to take the potentially hallucinogenic malaria medication)
updated questions:
1) what is cheryl's middle name? (we believe her first name should be heather)
2) how was cheryl's 10K?
3) who created playing cards?
4) why are native people not required to enter passport control between argentina and brazil? are native people frowned upon in south america?
5) what are the red blotches on my leg?
6) why is it mostly white people in argentina travelling? (kavitha and i are the only minorities at the hostel.)
i should add that our raincoats held up really well in the rain today! hurray for patagonia and nike! (Y) (that is a thumbs up emoticon)
getting to the brazillian falls took awhile, as we went a bit too far. from our hostel, we are supposed to take a bus to the argentinean bus station (1 peso). then transfer to a bus that crosses the border between argentina and brazil (2 pesos). then transfer to another bus to the falls (2,10 reals). kavitha and i are now bus experts.
on the way back, it was a bit of a nightmare, mainly because we were given erroneous directions 3 times. for example, we stopped inside a hotel for directions, and they told us to get the bus across the street from "hotel mabu". when we got off the bus, there was no hotel mabu, but rather a chuck-e-cheese's type establishment called HOOBA. mabu, hooba? hum.
dinner tonight turned out to be a vegetable scramble, rather than an omelette. vegetables in argentina are terrible! tomatoes are anemic, bruised, and artificially ripened. green peppers are squishy. i suspect that people are not too into the 5-a-day fruit and vegetable requirement.
also today, kavitha and i caved in for the hostel laundry service. $6. which seemed a bit steep, but we have all been left with one outfit. i am wearing my nice clothing out of necessity, while kavitha is wearing capri pants and an athletic jacket. i believe i will also have to sleep in this attire, as our laundry is not ready until tomorrow before noon.
another element to consider in washing my clothes has been the fact that my right leg has all these strange red blotches on them. they do not appear to be mosquito bites and we have had trouble deciphering what they actually are! grody! one of them, oddly enough, is shaped like a heart! bahahahahaha. (that is for you, andy.)
in terms of mosquitoes, there have been virtually none here. what gives with this malaria business? (knock on wood) i suspect because it is winter here right now they have been a bit dormant. WOOT for us! (i don't think any of us particularly want to take the potentially hallucinogenic malaria medication)
updated questions:
1) what is cheryl's middle name? (we believe her first name should be heather)
2) how was cheryl's 10K?
3) who created playing cards?
4) why are native people not required to enter passport control between argentina and brazil? are native people frowned upon in south america?
5) what are the red blotches on my leg?
6) why is it mostly white people in argentina travelling? (kavitha and i are the only minorities at the hostel.)
Sunday, May 4, 2008
day ? - we have already lost track of time
in our last blog post, we spoke about the wonders of rainy days on nice islands in brazil. as luck would have it, the day we were leaving ilha do mel, it was probably the nicest day ever. FOILED! in the morning, we went hiking over large grassy hills and on beaches, and came across lovely pink shells and huge sand dollars. one sand dollar we found was about 6 inches across! excuse the somewhat grade 3 nature of the comment, but it was super cool!
also, it was ridiculously hot that day and we were tempted to jump into the water - alas, we had already hiked too far without our bathing suits and had already checked out of our hostel.
on that hostel note, while the ilha do mel hostel was located on the beach, it was probably THE NOISIEST hostel of all time. walls were so thin you could actually see through them (and not because they were made out of glass). needless to say, we barely got a wink of sleep the last two nights because of
a) vomiting from our german roommates
b) the rowdy brazillian families who were on vacation for the long weekend (kavitha and i did not quite understand how they could stay up so late and wake up so early, i.e. 8AM)
c) the irritating casanova scots who bragged about dancing with all the girls and getting a VIP carriage on the serra verde express - kavitha and i were convinced that these two lads were bookish nerds (more so than we are) that are trying to prove themselves in some strange way. eeesh.
to leave honey island, you need to take the same boat you used to get there - barf city! the waves were gynormous midway through the inlet, and the leftover pasta that we ate for lunch that day almost went starboard yonder. thankfully, it was short enough that we got to pontal de sul in one piece.
from pontal de sul, we took advantage of el cheapo internet ($2.50 reals per hour, aka $1.75 an hour) and then i tried using up the rest of my phone card (to no avail). we then took a graciosa bus back to curitiba, which ended up picking up a bazillion people along the way. by the time we got back to curitiba, it was around 7:30PM and freezing - we all had to add on a couple extra layers and a toque.
we decided to splurge that evening on a meal in the rodoviaria diner - we ended up getting a $5 real dinner called the plato pronto - consisting of beans, rice, spaghetti, an unidentified meat with a carrot in the centre, "salad" (aka 2 leaves of romaine lettuce, 2 slices of anemic tomato, mushy cucumbers and carrots), and mashed potatoes. it was not bad for what it was!
after that filling meal, we took what we thought would be a 10 hour overnight trip to foz de iguacu, brazil. as luck would have it again, there was a screaming child on the bus who insisted on whimpering, screaming, wailing and yelling multiple times throughout the night. his mother's shushing had minimal effect. throughout the evening, i think we all wanted to strangle him or at least throw him in the luggage compartment. we ended up getting to foz do iguacu almost 2 hours early (530AM), and were completely disoriented. it was freezing! we took a bus into the main square of the town, then waited around for an hour until the brazil-argentina bus came. kavitha says, "WOOT! another stamp for our passport!" i add, "WOOT! another country to add in the 'where i have been' application on facebook!"
we got to our hostel at around 10AM, but were unable to check in. the hostel here is GYNORMOUS - it has a gorgeous pool in the front that is not being used right now due to the cold weather, however certainly when it is warmer it would be a huge hit.
instead of waiting around, we decided to go to the argentinean falls on our own. kavitha calls it "niagara falls' great great uncle. it was huge!" i thought it was very nice and got some great pictures, but i think because of all the hype it was given i was slightly disappointed. however, i was happy to get in a lot of hiking! WOOT!
we were also able to see lots of those gross raccoon type creatures called coatis that are native to latin and south america. they have the snout of an anteater and the body and habits of raccoons. GRODY! at one point, one of them attacked a bag of food that a lady was carrying and then a whole army of them pounced on her and the food, almost like a pack of lions. as a collective they made a high pitched squeal unlike anything we have heard before. it could only be described as grotesque. the carnage got so bad that when we walked past the scene of the crime later, a thermos had been broken by them. serious! ferocious!
for dinner tonight, we made a south american fried rice. aka, we used "integral" (?) rice, canned vegetables, eggs and an unknown sausage to make it. typically, day old rice is supposed to be used, however, we made do with what we had. i was amazed because
a) we had cooked rice in a pot!
b) it actually tasted alright!
i think it will be one of those things that will taste better after a day, much like the south american pasta we made on ilha do mel. we shall see!
we look forward to finally getting a decent sleep tonight. until then, we bid you adieu. over and out, officers mak and thomas.
residual questions that have come up over the past few days that we invite answers to:
1) what ARE sand dollars really? coral? invertebrates?
2) how did the portugese lose their power versus the french or english?
3) how do butterflies die? do they have any predators?
ps. shoutouts to cheryl, arti and bossmat, who we will see in 2 more days! WOOOOOT! remember to bring snacks and gloves for the cold weather!
also, it was ridiculously hot that day and we were tempted to jump into the water - alas, we had already hiked too far without our bathing suits and had already checked out of our hostel.
on that hostel note, while the ilha do mel hostel was located on the beach, it was probably THE NOISIEST hostel of all time. walls were so thin you could actually see through them (and not because they were made out of glass). needless to say, we barely got a wink of sleep the last two nights because of
a) vomiting from our german roommates
b) the rowdy brazillian families who were on vacation for the long weekend (kavitha and i did not quite understand how they could stay up so late and wake up so early, i.e. 8AM)
c) the irritating casanova scots who bragged about dancing with all the girls and getting a VIP carriage on the serra verde express - kavitha and i were convinced that these two lads were bookish nerds (more so than we are) that are trying to prove themselves in some strange way. eeesh.
to leave honey island, you need to take the same boat you used to get there - barf city! the waves were gynormous midway through the inlet, and the leftover pasta that we ate for lunch that day almost went starboard yonder. thankfully, it was short enough that we got to pontal de sul in one piece.
from pontal de sul, we took advantage of el cheapo internet ($2.50 reals per hour, aka $1.75 an hour) and then i tried using up the rest of my phone card (to no avail). we then took a graciosa bus back to curitiba, which ended up picking up a bazillion people along the way. by the time we got back to curitiba, it was around 7:30PM and freezing - we all had to add on a couple extra layers and a toque.
we decided to splurge that evening on a meal in the rodoviaria diner - we ended up getting a $5 real dinner called the plato pronto - consisting of beans, rice, spaghetti, an unidentified meat with a carrot in the centre, "salad" (aka 2 leaves of romaine lettuce, 2 slices of anemic tomato, mushy cucumbers and carrots), and mashed potatoes. it was not bad for what it was!
after that filling meal, we took what we thought would be a 10 hour overnight trip to foz de iguacu, brazil. as luck would have it again, there was a screaming child on the bus who insisted on whimpering, screaming, wailing and yelling multiple times throughout the night. his mother's shushing had minimal effect. throughout the evening, i think we all wanted to strangle him or at least throw him in the luggage compartment. we ended up getting to foz do iguacu almost 2 hours early (530AM), and were completely disoriented. it was freezing! we took a bus into the main square of the town, then waited around for an hour until the brazil-argentina bus came. kavitha says, "WOOT! another stamp for our passport!" i add, "WOOT! another country to add in the 'where i have been' application on facebook!"
we got to our hostel at around 10AM, but were unable to check in. the hostel here is GYNORMOUS - it has a gorgeous pool in the front that is not being used right now due to the cold weather, however certainly when it is warmer it would be a huge hit.
instead of waiting around, we decided to go to the argentinean falls on our own. kavitha calls it "niagara falls' great great uncle. it was huge!" i thought it was very nice and got some great pictures, but i think because of all the hype it was given i was slightly disappointed. however, i was happy to get in a lot of hiking! WOOT!
we were also able to see lots of those gross raccoon type creatures called coatis that are native to latin and south america. they have the snout of an anteater and the body and habits of raccoons. GRODY! at one point, one of them attacked a bag of food that a lady was carrying and then a whole army of them pounced on her and the food, almost like a pack of lions. as a collective they made a high pitched squeal unlike anything we have heard before. it could only be described as grotesque. the carnage got so bad that when we walked past the scene of the crime later, a thermos had been broken by them. serious! ferocious!
for dinner tonight, we made a south american fried rice. aka, we used "integral" (?) rice, canned vegetables, eggs and an unknown sausage to make it. typically, day old rice is supposed to be used, however, we made do with what we had. i was amazed because
a) we had cooked rice in a pot!
b) it actually tasted alright!
i think it will be one of those things that will taste better after a day, much like the south american pasta we made on ilha do mel. we shall see!
we look forward to finally getting a decent sleep tonight. until then, we bid you adieu. over and out, officers mak and thomas.
residual questions that have come up over the past few days that we invite answers to:
1) what ARE sand dollars really? coral? invertebrates?
2) how did the portugese lose their power versus the french or english?
3) how do butterflies die? do they have any predators?
ps. shoutouts to cheryl, arti and bossmat, who we will see in 2 more days! WOOOOOT! remember to bring snacks and gloves for the cold weather!
Friday, May 2, 2008
to add to that.... quality reading
while bored on this island, kavitha and i have been doing some reading. before i left on the trip, i found some leftover magazines from net impact that ian gave me that i hadnt had a chance to read yet:
a) the mbas without borders magazine january 2007 edition
b) corporate knights undated 2007 edition
not too shabbo, although one was definitely better than the other.
meanwhile, the hostel here has yielded two quality novels, including:
sugar daddy, by lisa kleypas
and
the house at riverton by kate morton.
let us take some quotations from the back of the first novel:
^hardy cates sees liberty as completely off-limits. his own amibitions are bigger than Welcome, and Liberty is a complication he doesnt need.^
^will they find their hearts desires - or will heartbreak tear them apart?^^
from the second novel:
^a shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.^
amazing.
a) the mbas without borders magazine january 2007 edition
b) corporate knights undated 2007 edition
not too shabbo, although one was definitely better than the other.
meanwhile, the hostel here has yielded two quality novels, including:
sugar daddy, by lisa kleypas
and
the house at riverton by kate morton.
let us take some quotations from the back of the first novel:
^hardy cates sees liberty as completely off-limits. his own amibitions are bigger than Welcome, and Liberty is a complication he doesnt need.^
^will they find their hearts desires - or will heartbreak tear them apart?^^
from the second novel:
^a shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.^
amazing.
day 9 (or is it 10?)
so i finally managed to kick heather off our blog... lol.. jk (she`s actually a much more entertaining writer than i am).
so we´re stuck here on paradise island and it´s been raining non-stop for the past 2 days.. boooo. the hostel is bustling with tons of people -- mainly consisting of middle-aged men who drink beer and caipirinhas all day long, their wifes who disappear and their children who enjoy following us around like little lost puppy dogs - assuming that we will miraculous start speaking portugese. not so much. instead they get blank stares and the occasional obrigado.
to entertain ourselves, heather and i have become quite crafty. we have fixed a broken window, a tempermental light, and created a mosquito net out of bedsheets. also, a dancing/mosquito killing ritual which consists of quick steps and clapping hands. heather is definitely a pro at this one (i think her waiting dance has helped her gain momentum). we have also learned that the game of War does have an end as we have finished it 3 times now (so sad).
our german roommates have thankfully taken some of the attention away from us. they´re fresh outta high school and best described as fresh faced youngens that have enjoyed the advances of the many brazilians suitors here. its quite entertaining for heather and i... however not so entertaining was the late (or rather super early morning) arrival of one roommate who had drunk copious amounts of caipirinhas in pineapples which resulted in several projectile vomiting sessions (btw, our ´ensuite bathroom´leaves nothing to the imagination) -- but thankfully no reminants were left in the morning. phew.
our squareness has come in handy to kill some time. heather and i have a created an intense menu-plan for ourselves which consists of a HUGE pot of spagetti that we made on the first night (with mashed up hamburger meat, peppers, garlic, tomato sauce and pasta), pate (we´re so high-class) ], nutella (which was temporarily misplaced but found again - woot!), bananas, Tatoo buns (possibly the worst bread i´ve ever eaten) and many, many snacks. our squareness also was displayed in our accounting session held yesterday at 5pm where we discovered that we have spent 33% above our budget. BO would not be impressed. we attribute the overspending to the Lonely Planets inaccurate estimates. we hope to reduce spending from $60/day to $50 by the time we enter Uruguay. So far, so good.
alrighty.. time to go get harassed by more brazillian children. woot.
so we´re stuck here on paradise island and it´s been raining non-stop for the past 2 days.. boooo. the hostel is bustling with tons of people -- mainly consisting of middle-aged men who drink beer and caipirinhas all day long, their wifes who disappear and their children who enjoy following us around like little lost puppy dogs - assuming that we will miraculous start speaking portugese. not so much. instead they get blank stares and the occasional obrigado.
to entertain ourselves, heather and i have become quite crafty. we have fixed a broken window, a tempermental light, and created a mosquito net out of bedsheets. also, a dancing/mosquito killing ritual which consists of quick steps and clapping hands. heather is definitely a pro at this one (i think her waiting dance has helped her gain momentum). we have also learned that the game of War does have an end as we have finished it 3 times now (so sad).
our german roommates have thankfully taken some of the attention away from us. they´re fresh outta high school and best described as fresh faced youngens that have enjoyed the advances of the many brazilians suitors here. its quite entertaining for heather and i... however not so entertaining was the late (or rather super early morning) arrival of one roommate who had drunk copious amounts of caipirinhas in pineapples which resulted in several projectile vomiting sessions (btw, our ´ensuite bathroom´leaves nothing to the imagination) -- but thankfully no reminants were left in the morning. phew.
our squareness has come in handy to kill some time. heather and i have a created an intense menu-plan for ourselves which consists of a HUGE pot of spagetti that we made on the first night (with mashed up hamburger meat, peppers, garlic, tomato sauce and pasta), pate (we´re so high-class) ], nutella (which was temporarily misplaced but found again - woot!), bananas, Tatoo buns (possibly the worst bread i´ve ever eaten) and many, many snacks. our squareness also was displayed in our accounting session held yesterday at 5pm where we discovered that we have spent 33% above our budget. BO would not be impressed. we attribute the overspending to the Lonely Planets inaccurate estimates. we hope to reduce spending from $60/day to $50 by the time we enter Uruguay. So far, so good.
alrighty.. time to go get harassed by more brazillian children. woot.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
honey island - day 2
yesterday, when we got to the hostel we were about 2 of 4 occupants staying here. there seems to have been a mass migration of brazillians to this hostel, because this morning we found it crawling with people. it turns out the next couple of days are a national holiday in brazil. in our room are now two germans.
today has been a bit rainy. this morning we made a mini hike to the top of a precariously windy hill overlooking the ocean. for some reason, it was ridiculously tiring.
afterwards, the tide came up - as our hostel is right on the beach, this posed a problem. in low tide you can walk on the beach right to the front of the hostel. during high tide, you are wading through water. unfortunately, we encountered the latter and our feet were soaked. i hung my socks out to dry, however unfortunately it started pouring!!!
the afternoon was filled with playing foosball, multiple card games, and the like. in the rain, it is hard to do much on the island except for what the hostel offers. the brazillians seemed to take a keen interest in the fact that kavitha and i were canadian and resembled indians and chinese people. sometimes, it feels like the equivalent of being a sideshow attraction!
today has been a bit rainy. this morning we made a mini hike to the top of a precariously windy hill overlooking the ocean. for some reason, it was ridiculously tiring.
afterwards, the tide came up - as our hostel is right on the beach, this posed a problem. in low tide you can walk on the beach right to the front of the hostel. during high tide, you are wading through water. unfortunately, we encountered the latter and our feet were soaked. i hung my socks out to dry, however unfortunately it started pouring!!!
the afternoon was filled with playing foosball, multiple card games, and the like. in the rain, it is hard to do much on the island except for what the hostel offers. the brazillians seemed to take a keen interest in the fact that kavitha and i were canadian and resembled indians and chinese people. sometimes, it feels like the equivalent of being a sideshow attraction!
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