awass
Amy Wasserman Joined: June 2nd 2007
Logged in: September 11th 2010
Logged in: September 11th 2010
Travel Blog Posts
View at Night from my balcony
Yes, I am still here. In case you're not jealous yet, I writing this entry on my laptop, sitting on my balcony. Today the temperature climbed into the high 70's, and now it has cooled about 10 degrees. From my seat here, I am staring directly at the Obelisk, which is lit up at night. Since today was the perfect Buenos Aires day, I guess it's the right time to write about my life since I've been in this apartment. For those of you who know the city, I have an apartment on the 1500 block of Avenida Corrientes, between Parana and Montevideo streets. That puts me one block from the Uruguay subte station, four blocks from 9 Julio and the oblelisk, and three blocks from Avenida Callao. In otherwords, I'm in the middle of everything. ... read more
He got a ring
I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in an Estancia in a town called Capilla del Senor, just south of San Antonio de Areco (see last year). I needed the R and R. There are two ways to visit the Estancias in Argentina. The most common is to take a Dia en Campo (day in the country). You arrive at the ranch mid morning and are treated to wine and empanadas. You then have about an hour and a half of free time where you can ride horses, take a carriage ride, and at some, take hay rides. Then comes lunch, which is a multi-course Asado with live entertainment. In the afternoon, there are demonstrations of Gaucho skills followed by a break for mate and alfadores (pastries with dulce de leche). Then the day trippers get ... read more
Rio de la Plata
Continuing... After we got back into Buenos Aires, we were picked up at the airport by Agustin and another friend named Mara. There are two airports that serve Buenos Aires. The larger, international airport is in the suburbs, and the smaller one for domestic flights is located between the neighborhoods of Palermo and Belgrano in the city, right on the river bank. It was a perfect day when we landed. As soon as we exited the airport we were in awe of how clear the water was. We took some photos by the bank, and then proceeded back into the suburbs. We went to Cecilia's house where she was hanging out with a girl named Romina. We ended up having dinner there and hanging out all evening. Cecilia has a karaoke machine, and we all took ... read more
Cataratas
Any weekend that starts out with nearly being kicked out of an airport Duty Free Shop is bound to be fun no matter what else happens. If they don't want you to take pictures of yourself trying on hats, they should post a sign, really. Anyhow, I spent the last weekend with my friend Sebastian in the semi-tropical rainforest that is the province of Missiones. Missiones is home to Iguazu National Park, the site of the largest waterfalls in the world. We arrived in time for dinner on Friday. The hotel was much nicer than I had imagined. The best part was the dining room (this lodging included both breakfast, which turned out to be a full spread, and dinner, which was a three course meal. To get from the hotel to the dining room, you ... read more
Me
I'm back in soggy, rainy civilization. Today was interesting as always. I started the morning with a mani-pedi. Here (or at least in Salta) this cost 25 pesos (a little less than $8). Yeah, don't hate, appreciate. My flight was delightfully uneventful, and I got back to BsAs exactly the time I'd planned. I went into the town of Adrogue to meet up with my friend at a coffee shop. I was surprised by the look of this downtown community. I could have sworn I was in Central San Rafael (CA). Anyhow, my friend Sebastian is getting his masters degree from Universidad de Adrogue. I had yet another unique opportunity today. I got to sit in on a graduate level class with him. As grad students here also have general education requirements, the subject was Art ... read more
Wanting badly to play in real snow
So now I know why this place is called Salta. I spent the day on an excursion to Salinas Grandes, the salt flats, high on the Puna (high altitude desert). We began the day by going back to Purmamarca to the same crafts market that we (ok, I) saw on Monday. As the others on the excursion were all different people from before, I used the opportunity to sit in the plaza and read. After Purmamarca we veered in a different direction in the Valley of Seven Colors and climbed (climbed sounds better than drove, right?) up and over a very tall mountain. Upon the descent, it looked like we had found the Tundra. But no, what appeared to be miles upon miles of pure, wind-driven snow was actually salt. Apparently, before the plate shifting that ... read more
Gauchito
Today is a federal holiday (somehow to celebrate Gaucho culture) , thus I did not go on any formal excursions. I slept in until 9, lazed around until about 11, and then headed over for mate at my favorite wi-fi zone. In the afternoon, I decided it was time to explore Salta. All of the shops were closed today, but there was a crafts fair in the park, so I walked through that. At the other end of the park there is a gondola that takes you up to the top of Cerro San Bernadino with panoramic city views. Today was very hazy and overcast, but I figured it would be my only opportunity as tomorrow I have another mega-excursion and Thursday I head back to Buenos Aires. The ride was nice, but the view really ... read more
Me all tropical like
Ok, you caught me, I'm actually writing this Tuesday morning. Ok, tuesday mid day. Yesterday again was incredible. I took a 14 hour excursion. We left Salta at 6:40 in the morning and headed to the province of Jujuy for a very full day of sight seeing. Our first stop was the pueblo of Pumamarca, in the Valley of Seven Colors. Pumamarca is famous for their artisean crafts market, which we got to explore. The craftsmen were very friendly and to my surprise, very knowledgeable in worldly matters. It always comes as a bit of a surprise how little attention our news in the United States really gives to international politics. Sure, grand scale disasters are covered, as are issues with countries we either are at war with or might be going to war with. But ... read more
Welcome to Salta Wine Country
The word for today is WOW! Once again, we started at dark o'clock, but this time we didn't get back until 6 or so. We traveled to the winery-laden pueblo of Cafayate (Cah-fah-ZHA-tay). To get to the town, one needs to pass through Quedabra Cafayate (Cafayate Canyon). If yesterday was Mt. Lemmon, today was Sedona. I'm not exaggerating. This new camera starts over numbering shots every time you empty the card. As I was looking through my photo organizer, numerically there was literally an alternation between photos from today and photos from Sedona last week. I had to look for the (a) after the number to be sure what was what at times! In fact, in my first draft, I accidentally included a Sedona photo on this blog. Anyhow, it was amazing. There were these handmade ... read more
Craftsman
Today I got up before the sun to be driven on a circuit through the Andean Northwest. The destination was billed as the colonial town of Cachi, but really the drive was the majority of the excursion. We drove through El Parque Nacional de los Cordones on a road that took us well above tree line. We stopped in the forementioned Cachi for two hours of wandering and lunch, and then headed back to Salta through Valle Encantado (Enchanted Valley). When the day started, I really didn't feel like I was that far from home. For large portions early on in the Journey, I could have sworn I was on Mt. Lemmon Highway in Tucson. Which I need to defend as being one of the most beautiful places I know, but, you know, not that far ... read more
