Wandering Through Argentina

So I woke up this morning and realized it was November 12th. This may not seem like any big thing, except that I now have one month and three days until I get on a plane to go back to Oregon. At least three times a day I think to myself, "where did the time go?" and I have yet to find an answer. And I plan on being too busy enjoying Chile to answer that question until I touch down at PDX on December 16th. My blog entries from here on out will probably consist of me checking things off my Chilean "bucket list," and one of the most important items on the list was having a chance to wander through Argentina and see some wonderful friends.

Those diehard followers of my blog will probably remember my Argentine friend, Viti, from the hostel during my first month in Santiago. We hit it off right away and I decided way back in April that I was going to do everything I could to make a trip to visit her before December. In planning m trip I knew that I wanted to go by bus (it's cheaper) and I wanted to see as many places as I possibly could in 10 days. Here's a synthesis of my itinerary with some pictures thrown in:

Buenos Aires, Argentina

My bus left Santiago on Friday, October 28th at 10:00am. The ticket I bought was supposed to take me from Santiago to Mendoza, Argentina and then from Mendoza to BA on a different bus. The total trip is about 22-hours so I had a good book and a fully charged iPod. The problem is that when we got to the border (at 14,000 ft. in the Andes) there was an enormous line of buses and cars to cross over.

The first 3 hours that we had to wait I was content to take pictures, read my book, and enjoy the sunshine. But after that I started getting hungry, tired, cranky, and sick from the altitude. Finally after 7 hours, I officially left Chile and crossed over to Argentina. We made it to Mendoza around 8pm and we greeted by a strike of all of the bus drivers in the terminal. It started at 7:30pm and the drivers had locked the gates preventing any buses in or out. I was terrified that I was going to miss my bus and have no way to call Viti (who I was meeting in BA), but I was incredibly lucky and made it on the last bus to BA at 11pm. The next 14 hours of the bus were fairly enjoyable. I watched some movies, read more of my book, and had a chance to take in the Argentine countryside.

I was shocked by how much of the interior of Argentina is filled with cattle/dairy farms! I guess it makes sense considering how much beef Argentines consume, but I felt as if I could have been in Marion county in Oregon. We finally arrived in Buenos Aires at 1pm and I asked a cute elderly man if I could borrow his cell phone to call Viti. She came to pick me up at the bus terminal with her mom and my adventure began!

Botanical Garden.

Anime convention in honor of Halloween.

Street vendor at Plaza Serrano.

Cemetery where all of the posh/elite Argentines are buried.

Evita's tomb (think: "don't cry for me Argentina....")

The "Pink House" where the President works.

Viti and I with Mafalda. See this link for the history of the cartoon.

Puerto Madero's fancy waterfront at sunset.

Casa Rosada lit up at night.

I was only in Buenos Aires from Saturday the 29th to Monday the 31st. It wasn't very much time, but it was enough to see Viti and her friends, which was obviously the best part. I'm definitely interested in going back to BA at some point because it has an intoxicating vibe that makes you want to learn tango and use "vos" when speaking Spanish (a verb conjugation special to Argentines).

Montevideo, Uruguay
Monday afternoon I packed up my bags and took a ferry across el Río la Plata. It's the river that separates Argentina and Uruguay and eventually flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The ferry ride took about an hour and it felt more like I was crossing an ocean than a river! Once I landed in Colonia, Uruguay I took a 2 hours bus ride to Montevideo where I would be staying with Amber, a fellow Fulbrighter that I met at the conference in Brasilia. Montevideo is pretty tranquilo compared to some of the other loud capital cities in South America. Even though it lacked some of the flashy attractions, it was a nice place to enjoy the sunshine. Amber took me to dinner on Monday night when I got in and then I spent Tuesday just walking around for hours in the city.

Plaza Independencia on the way to dinner.

Lover's Lock fountain near Amber's apartment.

The whole city is filled with these amazingly old trees from the colonial time.

Colorful building I saw during my walk around town.

Colonia, Uruguay
Colonia is the port town that my ferry arrived at from Buenos Aires and is also a World Heritage site. I decided to take an early bus from MVD to Colonia on Wednesday and have most of the day to walk around before taking the ferry back to BA. It was a really sunny day and the town was beautiful. The only drag was that I had to carry my luggage around with me until it was time to take the ferry.

The original bridge and entrance to the city.

All of the original buildings and cobblestone streets.

Córdoba, Argentina
So after I took the ferry back to Buenos Aires on Wednesday, November 2nd, I grabbed some yummy Peruvian food with Fulbrighters, Dan and Adrienne. We all met at the conference in Brasilia and I wanted to make sure I had a chance to see them before taking my night bus on to Córdoba to meet Devin. The night bus was ideal because I took at at 11:15pm and arrived at 8:15am rested and ready for my last destination! I walked from the bus terminal to Devin's apartment and woke the poor guy up after only 4 hours of sleep. Although it wasn't my fault that he was playing poker until 4am. :) We grabbed some breakfast at a cafe and then made plans for the day. Devin, by the way, is a Fulbrighter from Pepperdine and as it turns out, we have some mutual friends. We decided to take another bus to La Cumbrecita, a small pedestrian-only town outside of Córdoba with German influence and lots of hiking trails.

Swimmin' hole.

Devin, the fearless tour guide.

After hiking around we took the bus back to the city and met up with some of Devin's friends for their "Spanish and Beer" night that they have every week. It was really fun because there were people who were trying to learn English and others who were trying to learn Spanish just hanging out and having a good time.

Argentine beer.

Friday was my day to explore the city. For those of you who don't know, Córdoba was founded by Jesuit missionaries during the colonization of South America. There are numerous churches within the city and several other farms/retreats in the countryside surrounding the city. One of the biggest legacies of the Jesuit influence was the formation of the university in Córdoba. Because of this, the block where the university is located or the Manzana Jesuita has now been classified as a World Heritage site.

Monument in the courtyard of the university.

By the time Saturday rolled around I was pretty ready to make it back to Santiago. Devin and I had some delicious pizza for lunch, I bought some pretty earrings from a craft fair downtown, and then I packed up my stuff and headed to the bus terminal. The bus ride back was supposed to take 16 hours, but ended up being 22 due to delays at the border again. I finally made it back to my apartment on Sunday night around 6pm and was so happy to sleep in my own bed again! It was such a wonderful trip and I was thrilled to be able to hang out with some great people along the way....plus I added 2 more countries to my passport which is pretty exciting. :)