Matt Caldis
Matthew Winston Caldis Joined: August 11th 2008
Logged in: September 22nd 2011
Logged in: September 22nd 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Me during my first presentation
I figured after all of the blogs I have written recounting my travels in the past few months, it was about time to let you know a little bit about life and work in Paraguay. I am going to try to focus each entry on one or two things in an attempt to shorten the posts (I know, hard to believe after 8 months of 3000+ word entries ;-) I hope all is well with you and that you have been able to enjoy some nice spring weather (for those of you in the northern hemisphere). I arrived back in Paraguay on Friday, January 30, and got back to work almost immediately. I spent much of my first few months in Paraguay working on the language while compiling/writing educational healthcare materials that I hoped to present ... read more
Villarica Volcano from Pucón
Hello to my faithful readers, I apologize that I have gone AWOL from the blogosphere for quite some time. I have recently been juggling my volunteer work, my initial medical school application process, and a job search as I prepare for my return to the U.S., so I have had less time to do much of anything else. I promise this is the absolute last post I will be writing about my travels throughout South America (I realize it has my trip was about 3 weeks long and the blog process has taken more than 2 months). For any of you who may be wondering what I have been up to in Paraguay, I hope to write a few more posts about my daily life as well. When I last wrote, my friend Jason and I ... read more
March 21st 2009
Chilean border, where I spent way too much time
Hello to everyone and welcome back to my blog after a somewhat lengthy absence. Since I got back from my trip I have been working a lot more, focusing on my monthly public health presentations and my weekly radio program. I would like to write about these experiences, but I feel I need to finish recounting my travel experiences first. I still have a few unique things to write about and have quite a few pictures to share, so I will try to wrap up my travel experiences in the next few days. Afterwards I will put you all back in the know about what I have been up to in Paraguay for the past month and a half. So getting back to my trip, when I last wrote I was finishing up my time in ... read more
Fountain in Plaza Independencia
After saying goodbye to Ashley on the afternoon of January 18 I made my way from the airport to the large Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires. I intended to make my way across the country to the Mendoza region, the area that produces about seventy percent of Argentina’s wine. I searched the terminal for buses that left almost immediately and eventually found one that left around 9 pm. With that I was headed for Mendoza on an overnight bus, destined to arrive around 8:30 am the next morning. About an hour into the journey we were served a horrible, airplane-like dinner that was close to inedible. Afterwards I was sitting listening to music and the guy across the aisle struck up a conversation with me. I figured he spoke English because as we were boarding ... read more
Puerto Madero at night
Ashley and I made the six hour trip from Mar del Plata and arrived in Buenos Aires in the early evening on Thursday, January 15. From the bus terminal we caught a cab to our next hotel, The Dazzler Suites. Upon our arrival they told us our room was upgraded and asked if that was ok with us (to which I obviously sarcastically responded, no, please give us the smaller room). After relaxing for a little while we decided we felt like Mexican food for dinner (I had not eaten Mexican in all of my time abroad and Paraguayan food is nothing like it for those of you who may have thought otherwise). We decided on a place recommended by the hotel that was on Puerto Madero, the somewhat ritzy port turned restaurant and nightclub district ... read more
Waves hitting the rocks
Like I said in my last post, Ashley and I just caught our flight to Buenos Aires and were off on the next part of our South American odyssey. We arrived in Buenos Aires around 10:00 pm and jumped on a shuttle that took us into the downtown, about 45 minutes from the airport. From the shuttle’s central office we grabbed a cab that took us to our hotel, The Grand King on Lavalle Street, one of the main commercial areas of Buenos Aires. We checked in and tried to orient ourselves a bit, then just decided to wander the streets to find a restaurant for a quick bite to eat. Apparently Argentina is also renowned for its pizza and ice cream, to go along with its steak. We found a restaurant close to our hotel ... read more
Entrance of Parque Nacional Iguazu
Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of Matt Caldis. It has been more than a month since my last blog post and yes, I do have a good reason for not posting. From January 8 through January 30 I went on somewhat of a whistle stop tour of Argentina and Chile, spending part of the time with my girlfriend and part of the time on my own. I saw a lot of amazing places, had a lot of very unique experiences, and met a number of very interesting people. Because it would be hard (and probably unreadable because of sheer length) to describe all of my trip in one extremely epic post, I have decided to break it up into a few phases so I can describe it as best as possible and post ... read more
Christmas presents for kids
A very blessed and merry Christmas to all of you from Villeta, Paraguay. After what has seemed like weeks of almost triple digit temperatures, I am enjoying a coolish day of 77 oF as I write this post (it is supposed to get up to about 90 oF later, but that’s really nothing). It is rather different for me as I have spent 21 of my first 22 Christmases in cold weather climates with snow, the exception being the Christmas I spent in South Africa. I never thought I would say this and all of you dealing with northern hemisphere winter right now are probably going to hate me for this, but I actually kind of miss traditional winter and cold weather. I am going to go about a year and a half between real winters, ... read more
Our Lady of the Miracles of Caacupe
Hello to each and every one of you, I hope this post finds you all well. I realize that it has been ages since my last blog post and that many of you may think I dropped off the face of the earth, but that is not the case. The reality has been, for the past few weeks I have not had much of anything noteworthy to write about. I have been working, hanging out with friends, and finally settling into a semi-normal routine without health issues (knock on wood). I was going to write a blog about Asuncion, the capital city of Paraguay, but after an experience from this past weekend I have decided to save that for another post. Over the weekend I was fortunate enough to experience something truly Paraguayo, something that I ... read more
Me and Julian on my birthday (note, all drinks are shared, not just my beer)
So I just got done washing all of my clothes by hand, something I can say I have never done in my life, at least to the extent of full loads of clothes. I know you are probably thinking, this is the first time you’ve washed your clothes since you have been there? False. Contrary to popular belief, third world countries do have washing machines, ours is just broken right now. However, I have not encountered anyone with a dryer, so we use the good old fashioned clothesline. Besides the fact that it can literally take multiple days to dry clothes when it is cold out, it is not that bad if you plan ahead of when you will actually run out of clothes. I have to admit, I have run out of socks on a ... read more
