Uruguay

Devon and I decided to would be a good idea to take a Vacation… from our strenuous travels, and spend a few days relaxing on the many beaches Uruguay has to offer.

We arrived in Montevideo Uruguay around 4:30 pm Wednesday January 21^st and Montevideo greeted us with 90 degree weather accompanied by tons of humidity. Great tanning weather… bad walking weather.

Although we spent a brief amount of time in Uruguay, 5 days, relaxing and trying to make our skin darker on various white sand beaches in Uruguay, we still made some great cultural observations and epic adventures.

Observations

Mate City: Mate without a doubt is Uruguay’s drank… Argentineans consider Mate their staple drink, but Uruguayans take Mate, a leafy, highly caffeinated tea, to a new level. 1 out of every 6 people in Uruguay can and will be seen sipping their leafy green beverage from their fancy bombillas, straws, placed inside their hallowed out gourds and while holding a large thermos, filled with hot water, underneath their armpit. Uruguayan Mate sippers can be spotted walking through busy streets, sitting on beaches, strolling through grocery stores and malls, or even driving their cars. I decided to become paparazzi for a day and secretly snap pictures of mate sippers in their different environments. Below are a few Mate sipping Uruguayans.

Beaches: The beaches in Uruguay are great.

Devon and I spent a lot of time on various beaches in Montevideo and Piriápolis, and very tiny swimsuits are very popular amongst Uruguayans, this observation was made for strictly cultural purposes, nothing else.

Tiny swimsuits can be great, but they aren’t for everyone, which definitely didn’t register for many Uruguayans hanging out at the beach. For instance, while Devon and I were lying on towels awaiting UV rays make our skin darker, I noticed, with my well trained cultural eye, that the girl to our left was definitely blessed with beauty and wearing a teeny weenie bikini and it’s safe to say the bikini fit her nicely. Since I was making cultural observations of Uruguayan women’s beach fashion and nothing else, my eyes didn’t linger on the woman to our left for more than 3 minutes. So, I quickly glanced to my right, to obviously make more observations on Uruguayan fashion and a woman, whom I’m sure has a great personality, was also wearing a teeny weenie bikini. After glancing in her direction for roughly 3/10’s of a second I came to the conclusion that the person who invented the teeny weenie bikini was probably not thinking of this woman when he/she invented. As I spent more time on the beaches in Uruguay, I noticed the small swimsuit pleasant looking or not was worn by people of all shapes and sizes.

I'm sure there are some interesting swimsuits in this picture

Epic Adventure

Piriapolis, an epic name for a town, and the area where our Epic "Homeless" Adventure took place.

I’m not sure why we went to Piriapolis, it is a small town and there are quite a few more tourist friendly towns in Uruguay with bigger beaches and bluer oceans, but as said a few times before, I am an Economical person, and the hostel in Piriapolis was 230 Uruguayan pesos, 10 dollars, compared to 660 Uruguyan pesos, 30 dollars, in more tourist friendly towns like Punta del Este or Punta del Diablo. Also, I know you are probably already thought of this or are thinking this right now, but Piriapolis is such a fun name. Just say it in your head two more times… Piriapolis… Piriapolis. It’s so fun.

Now to the Epic Adventure. We arrived in Piriapolis, and we walked around the hot hot heat with out large backpacks for 30 minutes trying to find our prospective hostel. After finding the address of the hostel in an internet Café and asking for directions from a guy renting bicycles on the street we finally found Hostel Piriapolis, which turned out to be 2 minutes away from the bus station. Hostel Piriapolis is a huge hostel with 204 beds, a beach volleyball court, 2 minute walk from the beach, and a cheap price.

Unfortunately, 25 seconds after our grand entrance in Hostel Piriapolis, the receptionist informed us, there was absolutely no space available. Zip Zero, 204 out of 204 beds were occupied. The receptionist told us a hotel could… maybe have space, but straight up there was no way I was going to spend 50-100 dollars to stay in a hotel for one night in Piriapolis. So Devon and I decided to sit at the beach, and think of a plan.

We threw out numerous ideas of where to sleep that night, such as in a tent on the beach, without a tent on the beach, in a tent in a park, on a park bench, in Macdonald’s play place, or maybe just rough it and not sleep at all. After talking over the many illegal and unappetizing potential spots to lay our heads, I suddenly remembered seeing a supposed campsite while looking up the address to Stupid Hostel Piriapolis. I quickly threw on a wife beater and decided to find this mysterious campsite.

After walking around for 30 minutes, I finally found the campsite. So I gleefully jogged to our Home on the beach and informed Devon of the good news. We eventually made our way to campsite, set up our tent, which is a bug tent which means it is made of pure mesh, so it is see through and doesn’t block rain, but either way it was a legal place to spend the night.

Devon and I slept 2 inches apart and with pillows made out of rolled up jeans and dirty t-shirts, despite these less than ideal sleeping conditions, mostly just the close proximity to Devon, talk about eww, I slept very well. Unfortunately my good sleep was ended by tiny rain drops, and within ten minutes it was down pouring. Great Luck! We packed up or stuff as quickly as we could, and sat in the bus station for the next two hours trying to dry off. We spent the rest of the day, sitting on the beach and in the bus station, and using Macdonald’s bathroom when we had to dispose some stuff from our bodies. After being homeless for the entire day we finally made our way back to Buenos Aires.

Overall, Being Homeless for a day was more than enough Homelessness for me.

Our home on the beach

Peace out Uruguay, thanks for the cultural observations, epic adventures, and most of all thanks for providing a nice golden brown base coat for my tanning excursion in Brasil.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires… a large city, alive with culture, filled with massive parks, gorgeous architecture, beautiful monuments, lots of eye candy, incredible shopping / sense of fashion, and great gastronomy especially in terms of red meat, which I had not experienced, and Pizza, which I had many times… because I LOVE Pizza.

Schtuff We Did

These are in no particular order, just a simple list of things we did/ experience, and stuff we saw while hanging out in Buenos Aires.

1. Plaza de Mayo: Last year in my Spanish literature class, I was assigned a small reading over Las Madres de La Plaza de Mayo, a group of woman who convene at La Plaza de Mayo every Thursday at 3:30. After they group together, the woman march around the plaza holding pictures of their sons and husbands who “disappeared” after the military coup in Argentina. Despite the swarm of tourists, it was a very powerful event to witness. You can read more info about the mothers of the plaza de Mayo on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madres_de_la_plaza_de_mayohttp:// es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asociaci%C3%B3n_Madres_de_Plaza_de_Mayo

2. Museums: Devon and I decided to get our sophistication on and visit a couple art museums in Buenos Aires. The first museum we visited was El museo de Bellas Artes. A museum full of beautiful art. The second museum we visited was the museum of Marcel Duchamp, a very influential/ interesting French artist from the early 1900’s. Overall the museums were pretty sweet. Side Note- Previously I had not been a big museum guy, but the pieces in these two museums laid a very small foundation for an interest in the world of Art.

3. Ferias: Thanks to some great recommendations from Jessica, Devon and I visited a ton of different Ferias, street fairs, in the streets of Buenos Aires. We went to the ferias in La Boca, Recoletta, and San Telmo. The San Telmo feria was incredible, multiple streets were lined with shops, tango dancers, bands, street performers, and tourists. Seriously, there were more high tech telephoto lenses strapped to $1,000 digital cameras in 1 square kilometer of the fair than I had ever seen in my life. I’m sure all those amateur photographers snapped some national geographic worthy photos.

4. The Cemetery: The cemetery in Buenos Aires was fascinating; it truly felt like a little city. The graves, called homenjaes, were large buildings with very complex architecture. It is extremely expensive to be buried in a homenaje, thus only very rich and powerful people, such as Evita, are buried in the Recoletta Cemetary.

5. Monuments: We saw a ton of different Monuments, especially generals sitting on horses. Apparently a lot of General’s who most likely spent a lot of time sitting on horses made a huge difference in the fight for Argentina’s independence… who knew. My favorite monument was a huge metal flower that automatically opens and closes when the sun comes out… it was sweet.

6. Walkabouts: Although we did get lost a handful of times, Devon and I graduated from previous walker status of Amateur Strollers… to Professional Walkers during our time in Buenos Aires. On average we walked 7+ kilometers a day, which doesn’t seem like a lot but in 90+ degree weather, walking around is not an easy feat. Our Walkabouts were great for getting to know the city, we wouldn’t have seen a lot of the gorgeous buildings, stores, and parks in Buenos Aires had we decided to take cabs, or metros everywhere.

7. La Bomba Drum Show: Every Monday night in Buenos Aires there is a huge drum show on a street called Sarmiento. Devon, Casey, a good gal from San Diego we met in our hostel, and I decided to listen to everyone’s advice and go to the show. The show started at 8:00, so we decided to arrive a little early so we could get a good spot for the show. Apparently everyone in Argentina decided arriving at 7:45 was a good idea, so walked for two blocks and made our way to the back of the entrance line. After 45 minutes of waiting we finally got into the drum show. The energy of the entire scene was remarkable, 15 different people pounded on different styles of African drums while a crowd of 2,000 moved their hips and arms to the pulsing rhythm. All in all La Bomba was one of the best events I experienced in BsAs.

8. Steak and Grilled Veggies: One thing everyone has to do in Argentina is have a steak. I have heard that from at least 14 different people and poor Devon is traveling with a vegetarian, me, and because of this in the first 2 ½ weeks we have been in Argentina he hasn’t had the pleasure of devouring a huge Argentine steak. So we decided the night before we left for Uruguay we would go out to a nice restaurant and Devo could finally bite into and experience the hype of Argentine meat. So Tuesday January 20^th Devon, myself and 4 friends from the hostel went to a restaurant, which I have spaced the name of, but it was very famous for having some of the best cuts of meat in all of Buenos Aires. After waiting for more than two hours, yes two straight hours of standing outside a restaurant waiting to just get a table, we were finally sat at 11:30. Everyone, minus me, I ordered grilled vegetables, finally received their gigantic cuts of red meat yumminess around 12:20 and after their first bite everyone agreed the outrageous two hour wait was completely worth it.I topped off my fine grilled veggies with an amazing chocolate lava cake.

9. Night Life: Night Life in Buenos Aires is nuts. Dinner doesn’t start until at least 10:00 and parties don’t get hype until about 3 am, and clubs close at 6 or 7 in the morning. Devon and I teamed up with a bunch of people we met in our hostel went to a couple different bars, a hip hop club, which was great because hip hop is hard to find in South America, and a house party with a bunch of people much older than us. Devon and I are 21 years old, the majority of the people at the party were 30 years old. We must be really classy... and mature. Anyways, Argentines most def know how to party and stay up really late…
   

10. Hung out at the Hostel: We stayed at a pretty sweet Hostel in Palmero Soho, the most urban area of Buenos Aires. We met a bunch of great people in the Hostel, and spent a lot of time eating, talking, partying and hanging out with our fellow hostel mates.

11. Celebration for Mr.President: I haven’t been in America for any of the Obamaness, I was in Santiago, Chile when he smashed John McCain and Ms. Sarah Palin in the Presidential Election and I was in Buenos Aires when, Mr. Obama took oath to become America’s 44^th president. Although I have been thousands of miles south of the United States Border for the past 6 months, I have truly got to experience how important Obama’s election is to the entire world. Cab Drivers, Hostel Managers, Waiters in restaurants, and indigenous farmers have all expressed to me how excited they are for America’s New President. Mr. Obama is not only bringing hope and change to the United States; he is bringing hope to the world.

With that said, Tuesday January 20^th all the Americans in our hostel gathered together and went to a bar called Sugar to watch our new leader take office. The bar was packed with people; the room honestly looked like a package of sardines. Devon and I had to get creative to find a spot to see the TV, luckily I spotted a cozy little spot more or less above the bar and we sat in a hunched over position for 1 ½ hours to watch the inauguration. It truly was a special moment, and I am glad I was able to experience and witness the significance of this event through the eyes of another group of people: with foreigners, from all parts of the world, who are truly hopeful for America’s and the World’s future. Now we will have to see how everything turns out.

Buenos Aires: Randoms

This is a random story, that really doesn’t have any relevance, but read it if you’d like.

I am certain, the bus ride from Mendoza to Buenos Aires, will go down as one of the most memorable bus rides I have and most likely will have experienced throughout my South American Adventures. The bus was a monster, a double decker beast, with the capacity to hold 55 plus people, in semi-cama, and cama seats. Side Note—both of the semi cama and cama seats have the capacity to learn back much further than the standard clasico seats, resulting in a better environment for sleeping, and a more comfortable trip.

Back to the reasons this bus trip was unique… Devon and I boarded the bus took our seats, then immediately were bombarded by a fury of families, with little girls. There were three girls no more than five years old sitting in front of us, and beside us. Another Side Note—little kids crack me up. For instance at least 6 of my top ten favorite youtube videos are short clips of little babies laughing, singing, biting their brother’s finger, or doing other dumb things you secretly wonder why their parents captured on that specific moment on camera and put it up on one of the world’s most visited websites for everyone to laugh at. Anyway, the children were pretty well behaved for the majority of the bus ride, although one of the younggins decided to occupy her first complete hour of the bus ride by sitting on her seat, then slowly inching, or to be more worldly “centimetering,” to the edge of her seat cushion until she, and the cushion quickly tumbled to the floor, she would then look around and laugh hysterically for 30 seconds, wait for someone to put the seat cushion back on, then do it all over again. It probably didn’t help that nearly every time the girl would complete her advanced routine and tumble to the floor I would let out a brief but loud chuckle, then hit Devon’s shoulder to make him aware that, yes, the little girl sitting in front of us had fallen of her chair for the 27^th time, and then anxiously stare at the girl until she did it again. The good behavior of the kids, especially during the sleeping hours, was quite a blessing, especially after having to sit in front of the wheezing old woman for eight hours on our trip from Santiago to Mendoza. I was not prepared to suffer through a 16 hour bus ride filled with unnecessary noise, which would prevented me from sleeping more than three hours.

After 6-7 hours of pure tranquility, we were served a great ANDESMAR meal, and during our fine first in bus fine dining experience, one of the little girls sitting next to Devon and me, started to become curious as to who these two foreign boys were sitting next to her, and her young mother. I knew this because she was asking her mom, quite loudly, if we could speak Spanish, so I seized the opportunity to start using the Spanish I have been practicing for the last 4 months, and I began to talk to the little girl and her mom. This brief conversation was the impetus for the most amazing 5 hour bus friendship I have ever experienced. The girl gave me an alfajor, a tasty Argentinean treat, talked with me about her mom, and even gave me a hug goodbye before we got off the bus. It was definitely a memorable bus experience.

Sorry for wasting your time with that story, upon further reflection, I realized you really didn’t need to know any of that… My B. Now to the great adventures of Buenos Aires. Actually that is a lie and I am going to tell you another pointless story...

Story Number Two: (Feel Free to Skip this Part As Well)

Due to problems with obtaining the tourist visa to enter Brazil Devon and I arrived in the Buenos Aires much earlier than I initially had anticipated, nevertheless we quickly fell in Love with the city and ended up staying for roughly 13 days.

So far our time spent in Buenos Aires has been filled with a lot more monotony and routine than I ever would have expected, the main/ only factor of the constant routine here in Buenos is the Brazilian Embassy and getting the tourist visa, which is imperative if someone from America wants to enter Brazil.

I am going to take you on a short digression of the struggles of obtaining this visa. This marks the start of the second story that is going to waste five minutes of your day...

Attempt 1: We go to the Brazilian Embassy in Santiago de Chile, wait for a little while, no more then twenty minutes, I walk up to the counter, hand the worker my passport, a passport sized photo and travel itinerary. He counters my paper work with a small sheet of 6 different requirements that must be met before we could obtain the visa. He then informs me I have not met the first requirement which is to have proof of both entrance and exit from Brasil. I try to explain to the man we are going to take a bus out of Brasil, thus this isn’t possible. He brushes my paper aside and says I have to have proof of return.

Attempt 2: After messing around on the internet and making multiple trips to the bus station and Lan headquarters. Devon and I decided it would be a better to just book another series of flights getting us out of Brazil, and practically all over South America. I booked the flights, and was sure we were on our way.

Friday January 9^th we stroll into the embassy, fill out the paperwork on the computer, walk up to the front desk, and get rejected again, because we didn’t have the phone number of the hostel we will be occupying in Sao Paulo.

Attempt 3: Monday January 12^th, Devon and I walk into the embassy, extremely nervous. We fill out all the paper work, present our itinerary, hand over our passport photos, and yes… we get approved for the Visa. The woman signed off all the paper work, then told me to come back on Wednesday between 1 and 7.

Next Day: Devon and I had to go to the bank to pay for our Visa.

Attempt 4: Wednesday January 14^th, Devon and I walk into the Brazilian Embassy at 1:05 with our proof of payment ready, I confidently walk up to the security guard, and tell him we are here to get our visas, he looks at my paper, then looks at his watch and says come tomorrow. I try and argue with him saying, look at the paper it says we should come from 1-7 on Wednesday, he responds, no it says 12-1. Either people down here write their ones like sevens or… that guy was having a bad day and wanted to exert some authority over a couple of Americans, so he could feel better about himself… either way, 4 trips to the embassy and still no actual visa.

Attempt 5: Thursday January 15^th, Devon and I walk into the embassy wait in a long line, and finally get our visas. Side Note- The woman working the desk at the embassy recognized me… that is when you know you have been to an embassy too many times.

Stupid Visa

Our constant trips to the embassy made our days scheduled accordingly:

1. Wake up, eat breakfast.
2. Read and mess around on the internet for a little while.
3. Take the metro to the embassy or to a bank by the embassy.
4. Do something touristy/ walk around for 5 hours.
5. Eat Lunch at 5:30
6. Hang out with the other Americans in our hostel/ read/ go on the internet
7. Eat Dinner around 10 o’clock
8. Hang out and go to bed.

Despite the forced routine of our first week spent in Buenos Aires Devon and I have seen a lot of Buenos Aires.

Mendozzzersss

After New Year’s Eve we slept in until about 3:30 ate a fantastic breakfast with Gerardo. Sat at the beach, and then headed back to Santiago…

The last few days I spent in Santiago were amazing. Devon and I filled up our days with a lot of relaxation and getting to know/ hanging out with my host brother Joel… He is awesome.

On Sunday January 4^th I finally packed up all my bags, ate one last dinner at my home in the southern hemisphere and said goodbye to my host family and took an overnight bus to Mendoza.

The bus ride to Mendoza… not so good, an elderly woman conveniently located in the seat right behind us had some problems with her respiratory system, and when she was awake she would wheeze non stop and when she was asleep she would snore… really loud. Alrighty now for Mendoza Round 2.

Highlights

Bike and Wine Tour Round 2: Devon and I decided we needed to do the famous Mendoza bike and wine tour, since it was my second time doing the tour we decided it could only be done the right way, with a tandem bike, then cruise through the many vineyards in Maipu on our tandem wonder… our dreams were shattered when we arrived at the bike rental company and saw they had no tandem bikes left. Either way the day was fantastic.

We went on the tour with two Canadians we met in our hostel, Steve and Conor, and one American, Zach.

The group @ Tempus Alba

The first vineyard we went to had a huge museum and a very informative tour about the wine making process, I stayed around and listened to the information on the tour while my co bike and wine adventurers tested how well La Bodega Rural actually produced their wine. Their consensus was, the cabernet sauvignon was great.

Next we went to a Chocolateria, a place where chocolate and many different types of liquors are made. They have chocolate liquor, dulce de leche liquor, orange liquor, absinthe, tia maria, whisky, vodka, pepper liquor, chocolate con café liquor, and a bunch of other stuff. After a quick tour we paid 10 pesos, 3 dollars to try a variety of their chocolates, 3 different kinds of sauces they produce, and a sample of one of their liquors. Most the group members were very bold and decided to try the absinth, which is made of 60% alcohol. I ate a bunch of chocolates.

After the Chocolateria we road our bikes on a very small and cluttered street towards a very fancy small scale vineyard called Tempus Alba. Tempus Alba was definitely my favorite place we went to. Upon arrival we were greeted by a beautiful Argentinean who told us to take a walking tour of their vineyard then, to head upstairs to sample some of their great wines. We took the tour… everyone in the group ordered the 3 cup sampler of wine, a basket full of olives and some cheese and crackers. We sat on an the deck of the building where their wine was produced sipped on fabulous wine, and in my case lukewarm water, talked about politics, different types of cheese, and we spent a decent amount of time talking with the owner of the vineyard a very friendly Italian/ Argentinean. We spent roughly 1 ½ hours at Tempus Alba then went to Vina Cerno.

Vina Cerno… not cool, NEXT!

The last vineyard we went to was quite the experience. The vineyard, Di Tommasi, offered a tour and a tasting for 10 pesos, 3 dollars. Most the members of our group were sufficiently buzzed, but decided this would be a great place to finish up our wonderful day. Although the picture displayed of our guide from Di Tommasi don’t quite do her justice, she was absolutely gorgeous… seriously she was Schgreat. I am sure every person with a chromosomal makeup of XY, aka men/ boys, had never paid as much attention to a wine tour as they did on this one. I wish I had a picture of everyone’s face, I am pretty sure no one even blinked… not even once. After the tour we headed upstairs to try some of the award winning wines Di Tommasi produces. Devon, being the great friend that he is drank all my tasters. Not only was he being a good friend by drinking my tasters, I think the extremely gorgeous guide was very impressed with his display of pure manhood. He was chugging the tasters like an 8^th grader chugs four shots of Skol Vodka in their parents basement before sneaking out to TP someone’s house at 11 pm. Anyways, the girl was seriously mad flirting with Devon… actually she wasn’t at all, but anyways her and Devon were sending real good vibes back and forth until Devon attempted the most amazing wine tasting feat, ormaneuver ever. He tried to drink the red elixir from both my glass and his glass simultaneously; this resulted in a lot of Malbec on his bright yellow T-shirt.

I was very interested in her... wine expertise

After the tasting, every guy from the tour… minus Devon and myself bought a bottle of the most expensive wine the vineyard had to offer. A 2004 Malbec, which according to the best wine guide ever, was one of the best wines that particular vineyard had ever produced. I’m pretty sure she could have pointed to 20 dusty boxes of White Zinfandel made by Franzia and said it was Di Tommasi’s top wine and every guy on that tour would have forked over the money to get their hands on that wine… because somehow buying wine from this girl, who just as a reminder is very good looking, would obviously make her to more partial to them. Devon and I decided not to fall for her trap, and we made it out without buying a 30 dollar bottle of wine, and Devon got her to laugh by lip-syncing Jesse Mac’s Leavin.

Overall Good Day.

The Parque: Devon and I went to the park in Mendoza not once… but twice. The park in Mendoza is huge…During my last trip to Mendoza I decided it would be a good idea to run through this park, and I got lost for 3 hours. It’s safe to say the park won that fight by TKO first round.

I did not want to lose another battle with the park so this time I came well equipped, I had a map, a friend, water, some snacks, and a cell phone. It’s safe to say Devon and I walked all over that park. During our strolls through the park we saw a lot of neat things.

1. Trotters: Argentineans put their own style into their jogging technique… they don’t quite extend their legs long enough to really Jog… so they trot. Trotting is very similar to the more conventional and well known activity called jogging, but trotters generally do not move very fast, nor do they truly pick their feet up of the ground. We saw a myriad of trotters throughout our walks in the park.

2. Trees/ Grass: The park had a lot of trees… and a lot of grass.

3. Cerro Gloria: This Cerro was awesome and had an incredible statue on top of it.

4. Rally Car Fanatics: On our second stroll some really big rally car event was going on there were people everywhere… it was crazy.

5. Health Clubs: There were a lot of health clubs in this park.

We did some other things in Mendoza… but my explanation of the bike and wine tour was far too long, so I am going to close the Mendoza chapter of this blog. It was fun.