http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Matt-Caldis/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Matt Caldis en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:45:56 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:45:56 +0000 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-394743.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Rio-Negro/San-Carlos-de-Bariloche/blog-391652.html 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 qui http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-383644.html 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 Argentinarsquos wine. I searched the terminal for buses that left almost immediately and eventually found one that left around 9 pm. With http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Mendoza/Mendoza/blog-375909.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-372290.html 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 1000 pm and jumped on a shuttle that took us into the downtown about 45 minutes from the airport. From the shuttlersquos central office we grabbed a cab that took us to our hotel The Grand King on Lavalle Street one http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Mar-del-Plata/blog-370419.html 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 uniqu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/Iguazu-National-Park/blog-369989.html 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 thatrsquos 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Ciudad-del-Este/blog-358292.html 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 in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-353087.html 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 yoursquove 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 h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-346329.html Greetings to each and every one of you on this fine November afternoon. It is the day after Halloween and I am not in the least bit feeling the effects of last night. That is quite a strange thought as I have spent my last 4 Halloweens in Madison but the holiday is thought of in a much different way in Paraguay. They donrsquot call it Halloween Da de las brujas there are no costumes no http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/Asunci%F2n/blog-340979.html Hola hola hola I hope I am finding you all well at this moment. I am presently sitting in my family room in my extra comfortable shoulder brace that smells like absolute death part of that was true Irsquoll let you decide which part enjoying a little playoff baseball before my weekly dose of Monday Night Football. I guess you could say that I experienced my first real ldquosummer dayr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-334684.html Saludos from Paraguay It has been another few weeks since my last post so I figured it was about time to continue my riveting suspensefilled account of life as a Paraguasian I have been told that I am in fact a Paraguayo now but I still find it amusing to use butchered terminology. Again I would like to thank many of you for your emailsmessagescommentsthoughtsprayershellipthey a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-327216.html Greetings from far off Paraguayland a term Jimmy Voxman coined in a recent email. It has been about two weeks since my last post and I have heard from many of my friends and family members in that time. Your emailsmessagescomments have been much appreciated and have been bright spots in my days when I have felt a little lonely or frustrated. Also the questionsfeedback that I have received http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-321648.html For those of you who do not know I will be spending the next nine months doing volunteer work in a small city in Paraguay called Villeta. I am volunteering through a catholic affiliated organization called VIDESUSA. I hope to become fluent in the Spanish language while helping deal with health related issues that the people of the city are struggling with. I arrived at the airport in the capital http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Paraguay/blog-316489.html