LOVIN' LIMA

Where to begin?!  The last few days have been just crazy, moving and starting all over again!  We had to meet at 4 in the morning on Saturday to be taken to the airport for our flight to Lima.  AND, after stressing, griping, and then deciding to deal with it, planning on paying $200 just to get my bags here...the guy at the airport didn't charge me a dime!  For any of the three of my bags!  Lima was destined to be a wonderful trip!

Day One - Airport reception by the wonderful ISA Staff.  A tasty lunch at a typical local restaurant that costs about 9 soles or 3 dollars ish that includes your drink, an appetizer, your meal, and a dessert! Food is super cheap here! I had tuna stuffed eggs on a vegetable salad and meat with tacu tacu which is rice and black beans cooked a special way...hard to explain.  But one thing everyone noticed that this place has that BsAs doesn't: SPICE! Praise the Lord! So glad to have a little picante back in my diet!!  We followed our lunch by a super long program orientation and were finally introduced to our host mamas who took us to our new homes! :) My host mom's name is Ana Maria Fernandez Revoredo and she is too sweet.  The house is actually two houses side by side connected by the front patio/garden and the back terrace.  On our side is Ana Maria, me, my two roommates Carlin and Kristen from Texas and Kentucky, and Ana Maria's youngest son, Gonzalo.  On the other side is Ana Maria's mom, brother, sister, oldest son and his wife.  We also have a maid that comes Monday through Saturday that is named Magdalena.  So after arriving to my new home and dragging my luggage that weighs as much as I do up the stairs, I unpack and eat dinner while needing toothpicks to hold my eyes open.  What a day.
  

My new room!



Our front patio area!

Day Two - FREE to explore but first I sleep in to get some well needed rest.  After brunch, Ana Maria takes me around the area in her car to show me a few of the sights..including the ocean!  And after we returned home, I set out on foot with a map in hand and go to find my friend's houses.  We live a lot less spread out here than we did in Buenos Aires.

Day Three - Tour of central Lima!  We walked (and it was quite a hike..and the sun happened to be out and now we all have red noses and foreheads) from the University to the center of Lima.  We visited the Plaza de Armas, had amazing churros with manjar blanco (the peru version of dulce de leche...doesn't look like I will be losing weight anytime soon ha), and ate at a Chifa (Chinese food restaurant).  Afterwards, for my friend's 21st birthday, her host mom invited some of us over for dinner and a cake and we all had the best time!  It felt so traditional..greeting everyone with a kiss on the cheek, sitting down for dinner around the table, having wonderful conversation IN SPANISH of course, and singing happy birthday in english and spanish!  It was a great time!

In front of the cathedral in the center of Lima!

Day Four - We all went bowling and to Larcomar, a huge open air, multi story mall built into the coastline of Lima that overlooks the Pacific!...I could definitely get used to shopping there....



View from the Larcomar shopping mall

BUT, this is only the beginning!  I absolutely LOVE LIMA so far...Peru seems to just scream Latin America! In contrast to BsAs, that was much more European feeling.  The people here are so friendly, genuine, not in a hurry, have time to talk, its nice.  There is color everywhere and I just love the feel of it.  We head to Machu Picchu on Thursday and I can't hardly wait!

And tomorrow?  I'm going surfing.  My idea of surfing may be more of standing on the beach with a smile on my face taking a picture with my surfboard...but I'm going to give it a try!

Super tired, gotta get to bed to be well rested for my surf lesson! More later!! Chau chau!

Welcome to LIMA :)

Hola todos!

Buenos Aires was fabulous but my time there finally reached its end.  It's amazing how fast 8 weeks flys by!  My program is already halfway over!  But, I'm super excited for Part Two of this dream I am living!  I've just arrived in LIMA, Peru!  And, so far?  I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS/OBSERVATIONS!
1.  Much more Latin American, a lot less European (than BsAs)
2.  The people are incredibly nice.  Latin hospitality at its finest.
3.  I'm realizing all over again (the first time was in CR) that throwing your toilet paper in the toilet is a hard habit to break...it goes in the trashcan here.
4.  The buses can be anything from a 9 passenger van (that they squeeze 20 people into) to a painted/decorated school bus and taxis can either be a taxi or a guy driving a three wheeler with a covered seat on the back (not recommended!).
5.  No worries about stepping in dog poop on the sidewalk (BsAs, you really need to learn to pick up after your dogs).
6.  Lots of fast food restaurants for being international - Pizza Hut, Papa John's, KFC, Burger King, McDonalds, and its not fast food but a Chilis, too!

SOOOOO MUCH MORE TO TELL!  This place is awesome!  Much more soon!!! :)

Living the good life..Being a city girl..

After almost 7 weeks here in Buenos Aires, I feel like I am finally getting the hang of it!  Only to go someplace new in a couple weeks right?  When I first got here the noises kept me up at night or early in the mornings and I have finally adapted to sleeping on the 8th floor of an apartment building in the heart of the city.  I feel like I know my way around the Belgrano neighborhood, where I live, and the neighborhoods nearby, such as Palermo and Recoleta.  I am familiar with the subte, more or less with the buses, know where the trains are, and have been in my share of taxis.  It's weird to think that I haven't driven since July and won't until December.  I have become accustomed to the smell of fresh baked bread on every block when passing the panaderias, watching for the dog poop that is always on the sidewalks, and dodging the cars when crossing the street.  Last night, we went to the movies and it cost a cheap US$4.50 but the majority of things in Buenos Aires, dinner, clothes, necessities, are comparable to the prices in the US if not even more expensive.  Hence why I have not done a lot of clothes shopping during my time here.  My literature class is going well.  I don't like it as much as the grammar course I took when I first got here but it definitely beats a literature course back at home.  We read very little, discuss a lot, and take a lot of field trips.  Last week I went out more than I have since I have been here.  With the nightlife starting so late, its sometimes hard to get in the mood to go anywhere.  But last week we went to a concert called La Bomba and it is held in a large warehouse and is a group of musicians that play mostly different types of drums.  It was very fun and interesting.  Jobs is a bar we have been going to on Tuesdays.  There are a lot of Argentineans but also a lot of international students and they have darts, board games, pool, etc.  On Thursday we went with a guy from our group that is gay to the Buenos Aires "Out and About Gay Pub Crawl"..it was interesting and a good time!  And, Saturday we finally did it the Argentine way and went to bed when the sun was coming up.  I can check that off my list, I don't think it will be happening again...I like my sleep too much!  This week has been relaxing and the weather here has been so pretty.  Yesterday after class we were headed to a park to enjoy the outdoors and instead stumbled upon a Polo scrimage and sat and watched it.  Looking forward to my last few days in the big city!  I have a few more things to check off my list before I go on to conquer Peru!  More pictures of Uruguay soon!  Besos!

Sea Lions, Elephant Seals, and Whales, OH MY!

Last week was our "free" week off of classes after finishing a month long Intensive Spanish course of 5 days a week and 5 hours a day.  So in taking full advantage of a free week here in Argentina we planned a 7 day trip to Bariloche and Puerto Madryn, both in Patagonia!  Bariloche is to the southwest in the Andes and is close to the border between Chile and Argentina.  Puerto Madryn is almost directly across Patagonia from Bariloche on the coast of the Atlantic.

So, on Friday Holly, Caty, Lindsey and I, hauled our stuff to our last class then flagged a taxi and headed for the Retiro bus terminal for our 22 hour bus ride to Bariloche!  This..however..was not the best bus ride...apart from it being 22 hours long.  On all of our previous trips we were on the second floor of the omnibus and this time we had the pleasure of being on the first floor.  Next to the kitchen and the bathroom.  Needless to say it felt like a very loonnngggg bus ride.  But, totally worth it! 

In Bariloche, we checked in at our hostel and went for our first activity of the week - ziplining!  The scenery was beautiful, tall trees, snowcapped mountains, and Lake Nahuel Huapi, and it is even snowing on us.  We were all having a great time until the "cankle incident."  That is, 7 out of 9 platforms are completed...Holly is ahead of us already on the next platform, through the trees so we can't see her..and it's Caty's turn, she goes, and through the trees we hear a very loud bang.  Lindsey and I laugh it off, knowing she had a rough landing but then feel bad for laughing when we make it to the next platform and see the pain on Caty's face.  On that line, she had lost her glove with the brake on it and slammed into the platform.  We make it back to the hostel, Caty gets out of her skinny jeans that are about to burst at the seams because of the swelling, and the bruising has already begun.  Poor Caty, we weren't laughing then, but by the end of the trip we were all joking about her "cankle!"  Her leg was swollen to twice the size of the other one from below her knee all the way to her foot.  However, she was a trooper!  The only activity she missed was horse riding the next day.  Francisco picked us up at 10 on Sunday for a few hours of horseback riding through the mountains and an asada.  Him and his dad, Chango, do horseback riding tours around the mountains next to their house.  So, while Lindsey, Holly, and I rode horses with Chango, Caty hung out with Francisco while he cooked our lunch.  This time my horse's name was Hidalgo!  We had a good ride around the countryside and when we came back the food was amazing!  I never like flan until now.  See the pictures below :)

Holly and I ready for some zip-lining!

Group pic of all of us...right after Caty practically broke her leg...such a trooper!

Left to Right:  Holly, Lindsey, Caty, and Me

 Hidalgo and I :)

           This is why I now love flan. I mean really just how delicioso does that look?!

All of us with Francisco and Chango!

So after a whole 2 days in Bariloche, we head out on another overnight bus to Puerto Madryn!  Aside from spending our days enjoying the seaside town, perusing through the shops, eating too much ice cream, and endulging in dinners out on the town, we kayaked with the sea lions in Punta Loma, and went on a tour of the Valdes Peninsula where we also did a whale watching tour...my personal favorite!  Kayaking...my first time...was a challenge.  But, nothing was going to stop me from getting as close as possible to the sea lions!  Not even my kayaking partner, who the whole time that i am sweating and panting and paddling as hard as my rookie kayaker arms can paddle to get to the sea lions is sitting behind me back paddling.  She was slightly afraid of them despite me telling her over and over again that they would not hurt her!  If only I had had my dive certification then there wouldn't have been a kayak in between me and the sea lions...but, I guess I will save that for another day!  It was still awesome.  The next day was a tour of the Valdes Peninsula, which besides the coast and one tiny town was made up of field after field after field of sheep farms.  Besides sheep, we saw wild alpacas, emus, elephant seals, and my favorite, the whales!  One of the most amazing things I have ever done.  We were on a boat for about 2 hours watching them and the entire time there wasn't a second that passed that somewhere around us there wasn't a whale.  They were friendly and have more of a personality than you would think a whale would have.  They would surface on one side of the boat, go under, and resurface on the other side.  I could have stayed on that boat all day long.  It was such a great experience getting to see all of the animals in their natural habitat...loved it! What a great week! :)

 Sea Lions (lobos marinos) in Punta Loma, Puerto Madryn

 We saw Southern Right Whales....I was amazed and in love :)

An elephant seal (elefante del mar)...more like a giant slug!

NOWHERE, ARGENTINA…

I don’t know if I have ever been somewhere where I felt so out in the middle of nowhere, so far away from everything, that I couldn’t even point to where I was on a map.  Our trip to Córdoba changed that.  Córdoba, the city, is the second largest city in Argentina, but we didn’t visit the city so I am referring to the province.  After a 12 hour overnight bus ride (which I am getting used to) we arrived in Capilla del Montt and from there took a very rickety old van for an hour drive down very curvy, rocky, washboard roads to arrive at the Ongamira Estancia…I felt like I had been dropped into a history book.  The estancia was established in 1597 by Spanish settlers that came to the area and it is now run by Europeans and a chef from Australia.  It was small and cozy and with 19 people in our group we had the entire estancia to ourselves.  For the next three days, we huddled by the fire whenever we could to keep warm, enjoyed the best homemade food (including pizza, lemon cake, grilled veggies and meat, and yogurt and oatmeal with fresh fruit and dulce de leche for breakfast), and trekked across central Argentina exploring the outdoors. 

Day 1 – After the rickety van ride…we set out on foot for a 4-5 hour hike.  It was great exercise.  Especially the last part, when we started up a mountain and every time we thought we were at the top we would have to continue climbing, it was a vicious cycle but the views were worth it in the end.  Along the way we stopped for lunch by a stream and there were horses there that kept us company.  After the hike, we came back to the estancia, enjoyed dinner, and gathered in a circle to sing and play the guitar.  There were actually some very talented people in our group.  One of which happened to know an old NSync song that was a favorite amongst all the girls and we all sang along.  Then, I had briefly mentioned to one of my friends that earlier this year my brother taught me to play a few lines of Johnny Cash “I Walk the Line” and she feels the need to speak up and say “Audrey, play Johnny Cash!”…ha…to which I politely reply “NO.”  I was not about to sit there and pick out a whole 6 notes of Johnny Cash after NSync was such a big hit.  One more thing to note, I slept the best I have slept since being in Argentina while we were at the estancia.  No sirens, no dogs barking, no children screaming, no horns honking. Just silence.  It was awesome.

Day 2 – We pile back into the rickety old van and head for the salt flats.  This is where the “nowhere” part really comes into play.  It was a three hour ride there, the direction I couldn’t tell you, and when we arrive there is nothing. Nothing.  For miles and miles and miles there is only salt.  It makes you feel so small, just a speck, in an ocean of salt.  You could scream and stop and the silence would be immediate because there is nothing for the sound to bounce off of.  Juan our guide, told us to just walk and enjoy it because chances are we will never be somewhere like that ever again…but he also added don’t go so far that you can’t see the fire to get back.  We were there at sunset and you could get awesome silhouette photos.  I tasted it, and yes it tasted like salt.  We walked for probably a couple of miles and stayed out until the sun went down and the stars appeared.  Some of the brightest stars I have ever seen.  After dark, we all gathered around the fire and made a homemade stew and played some more on the guitar.  It was a great evening…one of my favorites for sure here in Argentina.

Day 3 - I try to hide the nervousness I have for riding a horse to the top of a very tall mountain.  After all, considering half of the people I am with it seems have never even been on a horse, I am one of the more "experienced" ones although I am really not "experienced" at all.  I rode some in middle school at my aunt and uncles house...on flat land...in a pasture.  Not up a mountainside.  But, after the first 15 minutes I felt pretty good.  And, after the entire ride up and back down again I felt like a pro.  The thing is though that these horses have probably walked the same trail up and down the mountain several times and because there were over 20 of us with the guides they were pretty much just following the leader.  But still, I felt like a pro!  The only trouble I had was not being able to get back on my horse after lunch...not because I ate too much!...just because my legs are too short!  We rode up the mountain in a little under 2 hours, parked our horses, and began to climb (and this time I literally mean "to climb") up to the top peak of Colchiqui Mountain.  After that I felt not only like a pro horse rider but also a pro rock climber :) .  At the top, we ate lunch, Juan shared with us the history of the mountain and the indigenous people of the area, called the Comechingones, and we saw some of the Condors that live there.  The views were incredible and I wish we could have spent more time at the top.  But, after scooting down the mountainside, having help to get back on Picasa, and after Picasa returned me safely to the bottom of the mountain, we got back in the rickety van to head to the bus station. 

What a weekend.  There really aren't enough words for it.