We are at the half way point with our time in South America and thus the trip to Uruguay to renew the visas. We were reluctant at first, most of our students warned us that the country is very boring and dull. The trip started off on a bad note, when we were fined $100 pesos for staying 4 days past our visas allowed. But, we had no choice to go and arrived in Colonia de Sacremento after a 3 hour boat ride. By the way, I spent most of the time on the bus waiting around in the duty free [View Full Entry]

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I don't know if the big city blues made Mendoza my favorite side trip, but I do rank this city second to our Patagonia hiking excursion. Enjoying the beauty of the fall weather in Mendoza was a real treat; Sunny days, falling leaves, colorful surroundings and exceptionally friendly people, who spoke at a tempo other than a presto. Our activities were somewhat limited due to time. Regrettably, we didn't tell our language institutes, (where we work,) to bugger off. Instead, we did something completely North American and bended to the schedule of work and only had 3.5 days in this wonderful [View Full Entry]

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The first impression of the San Telmo market, was a draw dropping amazement at the astonishing amount of people and vendors packed into a street stretching for at least a mile. My favorite part of the San Telmo market experience were all the street performers. Apologies in advance for the somewhat shakey videos I've posted. Like I said, the market was packed with people and getting bumped from side to side was nothing I could avoid. [View Full Entry]

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Despite the rumor of La Boca neighborhood being overrated, Dain and I had to check it out for ourselves. The long, crowded bus ride and consumption of diesel fumes was enough to give Dain a headache before we even arrived. The short amount of time we spent (2.5 hours) in the area was enough to realize the crafts market was overpriced and the restaurants were desperate for customers. In fact, they forced flyers and verbal advertisements in our face relentlessly. Beyond the tourist are called Caminito, the streets were typically very poor. Most of the colorful photos (below) were taken within [View Full Entry]

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A very exuberant weekend in Mar de Plata followed the relaxing Easter Holidays. Over the Easter weekend my friends from Colorado and the CU Women's rugby team arrived bearing necessities and gifts from up north. The most exciting of them being a stockpile of peanut butter! A care package my Mom put together included a birthday gift of a fully loaded MP3 player (thanks Bro!), a lot of Tabasco, magazines in English, various spices to heat up our otherwise very sweet palate of food, my favorite snack foods including Craisins and Luna Bars and, of course, extra underwear. Thanks Mom! Thanks [View Full Entry]

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My long lasting birthday weekend was followed by an even longer Easter weekend, Semana Santa. Below you will find pictures from the St. Patrick's Day celebration and the side trips from Easter weekend. [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes Dain and I will just jump on the Subte and find a destination we have never been to. Usually, this proves very entertaining. At a stop called Constitution we found a hooker on every corner! Even witnessed a pick-up between a table of prostitutes and a pizza eating patron where we ate lunch. In Congresso de Tucuman we found an excellent Artesian market and ate the biggest calzone I have ever witnessed! Today we took a more organized approach to our city exploration and planned a visit to the famous Cemetario de la Recoleta. We arrived at the right stop, [View Full Entry]

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Ah yes...we have an address! A difficult week long search led us to our Buenos Aires home, in a neighborhood called Palermo. So far we love it. Our studio apartment has complete kitchen, all dishes, utensils, Tupperware, coffeemaker, juice maker and more come with the apartment. The bathroom has a nice shower, great pressure and temperature, a stock of fresh towels are in the closet. There is an expandable table, a love seat sofa, a divider curtain, wood floor, closet space, a dresser, bed with sheets, TV with shows in English, cd player and balcony with a very green view. Our [View Full Entry]

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At the tail end of our 2-Week-Patagonian-Backpacking-Adventure, we finish in El Calafáte. The hostel we stayed at was up a hill away from the center of town and difficult to find in the dark. Dain and I are discovering that if the Argentinians don´t know the answer to a question, they just make-up something. After a series of bad directions, we found our hostel just in time for everything to close and went to bed hungry. The next morning we spent booking a tour to the Glaciers on a boat and just strolling around town. El Calafáte is much more modern, [View Full Entry]

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Now as Dain and I trekked into town against a very powerful windstorm, we were fully prepared to board our bus to El Calafate. In fact, we were completly comfortable on the bus with books in hand and the ticket taker came to tell us that our tickets are for tomorrow. With much confusion we exited the bus and just admitted that we were a day ahead and had to stay another night in El Chaltén. k Pitching the tent did not work in the wind, we luckily found a room last minute at El Rancho Grande. We cooked dinner and [View Full Entry]

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