So remember that time I went to Puerto Madryn?

So I'm going to try to backtrack a little and update about my travel adventures.
Two weekends ago (Oct 11/12-16) I went down south to Patagonia to Puerto Madryn. It was AMAZING. Definitely my best trip here.

It started out a bit rough. Michelle, Sarah, and I missed our bus. The 18-hour bus to Puerto Madryn. I had left late, Sarah had left with plenty of time, but not enough for the traffic, and Michelle was there early but didn't see the bus (and Sarah had our tickets...). When we asked where it should be (they give you a range, not a specific place for the bus), they said it had left a minute or two earlier, but that we should take a taxi to the station on the other side of the city. We ran through the station and hopped in a cab but, unfortunately, met the slowest, least aggressive taxi driver Buenos Aires has ever know. When we realized we'd never make it in time we just went back to my house. "Suprise, Elvira! We're back!"

We spent a few hours making phone calls and looking online, but most places had closed at that point. We found a few possibilities and decided we'd make the final arrangements in the morning. We went out to dinner to relax a bit, but first stopped by Sarah's house. We told her host dad what had happened and he said, " Hold on, let me go make you girls a drink." We had a really good dinner at a pizza place called Piolos and hten the girls spent the night at my house.

We woke up early Friday morning and called about flights, but they didn't have any spaces, so we decided to take the 1:00 pm bus. We could only buy the tickets at the terminal, so we hurried over from my house.

After the intial problems, the trip went really smoothly. Wonderfully. It was a loooong bus ride, but not terrible. Sarah brought chips and salsa she had found (not exactly common here) and mate to share. We got to our hostel at 7:30 am Saturday and asked about tours while we were checking in. There was a tour leaving at 8:00 am and we said "We'll do it!" So we changed clothes, brushed our teeth, and grabbed a few pieces of toast and left again. (On a slightly grosser note, we definitely didn't shower for a couple days because of our crazy travels. Definitely a record for me).

The tour was great. The first stop was Trelew, where we took a boat ride to see the toninas (black and white dolphins. Not sure what the name is in English?). When they had said it a dolphin tour I wasn't super excited since I've seen them before, but this was completely different. I felt like a little kid getting all excited on the boat when we spotted them. They swam really fast though, so I have lots of pictures of water without dolphins. =)

We continued on to Punto Tumbo--to see the penguins!! That was the main reason I wanted to go to Puerto Madryn. We got to walk among the penguins in their colony, it was incredible. It wasn't exactly what I had pictured for a penguin's habitat though. They make holes in the dirt or under bushes for their nests. One hill was filled with holes and looked like it should have prairie dogs popping out, but instead there were penguins. No ice. No freezing cold. We were right by the ocean though. Now is the time when the penguins are waiting for their babies to hatch, so we got to see lots of penguin pairs with their eggs. It was interesting as well that there were guanacos (in the llama family) wandering around, in between the penguins. Who knew.

The next stop was Gaiman, a Welsh town where they still speak a mixture of Spanish and Welsh. (A lot of Welsh people migrated to the U.S. and to Argentina. In Argentina they were more sucessful in maintaining their culture, as opposed to the U.S. where they integrated more). We had tea at La Casa de Te Gales (The Welsh Tea House) where Princess Diana visited in 1995. We had lots of tea and pastries.

During the tour we met some cool people, including 4 girls from Belgium, Germany, Israel, and Finland. (Learned that in Belgium the waffles are more of a little old lady's afternoon snack, but the fries are amazing)
Three are studying in Buenos Aires and the other is more or less touring the world (Asia, Australia, South America to be exact) for a year and has been working/living in Buenos Aires for a few weeks. After the tour was over we all headed over to a bar to watch the end of the Argentina v. Chile futbol game (Argentina won, woohoo!). We just continued on to dinner from there, which was quite tasty. By this point we were exhausted,so went back to the hostel to sleep. We had a few complications (lack of sheets, confusion over which beds were occupied/not) which were a bit frustrating, but after it was all cleared up we happily fell asleep.

Sunday we did another full-day tour, this time of Peninsula Valdes. The first stop was probably my favorite. We stopped on the beach and watched about 6-8 whales right off the shore. The whales are Franca whales and go to Peninsula Valdes every year on their way to Antartica and are apparently the biggest whales in th world. They have callosidades (callosities) on their head/face which is kind of a big white...skin.... growth... thing. We saw a grey whale as well (as in color, still a Ballena Franca), which are more rare. We were so close to them, it was really cool to watch. We stopped next to see a dead baby whale that had washed up to shore. Sad. Next we saw elephant seals! They were really cool too. Usually they live offshore a distance where the water is deeper, but they come to shore for a bit to have their babies. We were able to see lots of "little" elephant seal babies. When they're born they're all black and after 25 days they aquire their grey/white coloring. After 25 days their mothers also leave them--sad. The seals were all up and down the shoreline, sleeping in the sun. Some would throw rocks on themselves to cool off, which was kind of amusing to watch. On our next stop we saw some more penguins (same kind as the day before, definitely not as many) and then went on for our boat tour! It was an interesting process they had to get onto the boat and into the water: They had a tractor pull the boat and passengers along the beach and into the water (One of the other tours had the people being pulled on a platform with the boat behind it). You would think the whole process could start a little closer to the water, but I guess whatever floats your boat (or....gets it into the water? yea, sorry). It was nice to be out on the (very blue) water and we saw a decent number of whales, but not as cool as when we were close to them on the shore.

That evening when we went back to Puerto Madryn we went to the beach and had fantastic 6-peso rabas (calamari) from a beach-side stand and some vino tinto. After we got cleaned up a bit and went out for a nice dinner and then early to bed again.

Monday morning we woke up to watch the sunrise on the beach. It was beautiful. We slept for a bit more then got ready and checked out of the hostel. We wandered around town a bit for the morning, had a yummy lunch, and then headed back for the bus. We were tempted to miss it again to stay longer in Puerto Madryn, but decided we had better go back home to BsAs.
The most interesting part of the trip was sharing mate with the bus drivers. I can't remember if I've talked about mate or not, but a quick explanation: Its an Argentine tradition. You drink yerba (like a loose tea) with hot water poured over it out of the mate (a cup made out of a gourd usually) with the bombilla (metal straw). Its usually meant to be passed around and shared in a group of friends, etc. Anyway, the attendant guy (I don't really know what to call him) had commented to Michelle about it and a few minutes later, one of the bus drivers came and sat in the empty seats across from her. He commented as well and asked if we'd like to come down and share mate with the bus drivers. We decided this was too strange of a situation to pass up. (We've also decided that bus drivers have a thing for Michelle, as this is the 3rd time a bus driver has hit on her). We went into the front cabin where the driver is and shared mate with the 2 bus drivers and the assistant/attendant person. Only in Argentina.....

And that, my friends, is the story of Puerto Madryn =)

A Little Bit of Everything

So as I'm waiting for my tea to cool, I figured I could write for a few. It's raining today. It poured earlier, but fortunately I made it to my class before the sky opened up. A lot of my classmates weren't quite so lucky and were drenched after walking a few blocks.

I haven't been feeling great since I got back from Mendoza, but I'm starting to feel a little better. My ears were (kind of still are) clogged, which made life a bit more interesting (especially going to choir).

Yesterday my anthropology class went really well. We got our parciales (midterms) back and I got a 9--woohoo! We had some group work time during class and the professor came up to talk to me and for the first time really showed interest. She was asking about what other classes I'm taking, why I chose Argentina, what my exchange program is like, how I've adjusted, etc. It seems like she realized from my midterm that I do understand Spanish (more or less) so she could talk to me. I'm starting to know a lot more people in the class, which I like. I wouldn't say I'm good friends with anyone or anything, but its nice to be greeted by a lot of people and have them ask how I'm doing and how my parcial went, etc.

Nothing else too terribly exciting this week. My week days have been a lot busier since I've been traveling so much on my free days, but its been worth it.
My tango class this afternoon was cancelled (good thing I checked my email right before I was getting ready to leave!) but tonight there's a group of us going to a milonga (where the real tango takes place). I'm excited since I haven't been yet.

Tomorrow I have some meetings and whatnot and then Saturday my parents get here!

Pictures!

I finally made a site for pictures! They're not all organized/renamed/etc, but the internet is slow and who knows when I'll have the time.
So... see more of my adventures at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/beccawatts

Mendoza!

I'm home again!
This past weekend I went with Sarah, Alex, and Liana to Mendoza--wine country in the north, close to Chile.

As always, it started with an adventure. I slept over Sarah's house since we had to catch an early morning flight. I didn't go over until late and she didn't start packing until about 2, so needless to say we had more of a nap than a good night's sleep. We both set our alarms, but we awoke instead at 5:15 am to the taxi driver buzzing our appartment to say he was waiting downstairs. We were out the door in 4 minutes. We were pretty impressed with ourselves. We made it to the airport and fortunately everything went well with the flight.

We went from the airport to the hostel, only to find that we were at the wrong hostel. For some reason it make sense to give 2 hostels in the city the same name? We found the right one, dropped off our stuff, and headed out almost immediately for a tour we had lined up: BikesandWine. So, on limited sleep the four of us biked in the sun between wineries all day. It was fun, but left a little to be desired. All costs were supposed to be included in the tour price, but we still had to pay in order to do the wine tastings at most of the bodegas (wineries). The tours weren't amazing either. We did have an awesome lunch though (which was included). We had delicious food and ate outside on a shaded patio. We visited a place that made chocolates and liquors as well--yum . There was another place that made olive oil but it was just a bit too far for us to bike that day. At the end of the day we were (of course) rushing back to return the bikes and catch the van. We told Sarah to go ahead and let them know we were on our way--she's the fastest since she's a cyclist. She was so focused on her mission that she biked right past the place. We got there and a lady asked us, "Was your friend wearing a blue shirt?" She came back eventually though, so it all worked out.


We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel. Alex and Liana were staying in a hotel so we waited with them for a taxi. We called 3 times and even after an hour they never showed. They ended up waiting outside and still didn't find a ride until they met a couple who called a remise-driver friend of theirs. We had decided we'd just do dinner separately instead of our original plan of a nice restaurant. Sarah and I showered but then crashed in our rooms. We woke up late and thought about dinner, but decided to just sleep instead. It was a good choice.

Saturday we woke up nice and refreshed. It was definitely the best day. Sarah and I met up with her friend Christy at a nearby cafe. Christy is studying abroad in Mendoza and she and Sarah grew up doing triathalons together. Later, Alex, Liana, Sarah and I went to lunch at a bodega called Familia Zuccardi. Amazing. It was almost a 3 hour lunch. It was a set menu and the food just kept coming! We had empanadas, bread, salad and vegetables, asado (barbecue) with 5 different kinds of meat (steak, chicken, etc.), and creme brulee for dessert. With the different courses we tried their different types of white, red, and dessert wines. It was absolutely delicious. We ate outside again and our table overlooked a rose garden. (I'm turning into my mom--about half my pictures from my trip are of flowers!). After lunch we took a tour of the winery--much better than the previous day tours.

That night we went to rent a car for the next day and then all met up with Christy again and went out for "dinner," though we weren't very hungry. We split apetizers, wine and dessert. We went to a new restaurant in town with a somewhat creepy waitor. We weren't too impressed by it, but we had fun. Went to bed pretty early that night as well.

Sunday started out a bit complicated as well. Sarah and I went to pick up the girls (finding them was a little more challenging than planned) and then on a hunt for an ATM. We had lunch at a good mexican place (a bit hard to find in Argentina--good that is) and then went for a drive through the Andes mountains. It was beautiful. Stopped at a lake that was almost unnaturally blue and at a few points up in the mountains. That night we met up with Christy again for another great meal. (We ate a lot this weekend, if you hadn't noticed). I had a steak in a malbec sauce which delicious.

This morning we got up early again and flew back to BsAs. Overall, a fun trip. Mendoza is beautiful and we had great weather. If we had more time there it would have been fun to do some more outdoorsy type things--rafting, hiking, etc.

Unfortunately, I'm sick again. Boo. My allergies had been acting up during the weekend and after the drive in the mountains my ears clogged up and just never popped, which made dinner and the rest of the trip a bit more interesting. I was excited when they finally clear on the airplane, but then it all happened again. I went home with Sarah and her host mom said I'd better go to the doctor, so 3 prescriptions later (sinus infection, ears, etc) I'm on my way to getting better. Oh goodness.

Spent most of the afternoon with Alex and Sarah and then the evening relaxing, unpacking, etc. Wasn't quite as productive as I probably should have been, but that's usually how it is, isn't it?

This week is going to be pretty busy, but my parents come on Saturday! I'm excited =)

What a relief

Alright. I´m just going to write about my 2 viajes (trips) later. It´s decided.

I feel so relieved right now. This morning I had my parcial (midterm) for my Anthropology class in UBA (where I´m the only extranjera/foreign student). Its like a weight lifted now that its over. The system is a bit different here. Actually each class its a bit different for me. For anthropology I have 2 midterms and have to get at least a 4 (out of 10) on them to continue taking the class. If I get an average of 7+ (or maybe its 7+ on each?), I´m done. If not, I have an oral final. We shall see. I studied lots but wasn´t sure if I was prepared or not at all, I didnt really know what to expect. It was easier than I thought though and I feel good about it. Now we´ll just see about the grade I get. There´s not so much an "inflation" of grades here, so its a lot harder to get good grades. A 10 is pretty much impossible in UBA. Too bad my grades will be transfering back.

I had a parcial last Thursday as well in my Cuestiones Culturales class. I felt good about that one as well. Now I´m more or less done with tests for a little while, yay!

Ok. Enough about school. Its kind of consumed my life since last week though.

What else.

Friday was Elvira´s birthday (my host mom). I didnt see her for most of the day, as we were both running in and out of the house, but I bought her flowers and made a sign for the front door. That night Cata and Annie and her sister and her sister´s husband came over for dinner, which was fun. We suprised her with a cake we had bought (or a brownie with dulce de leche to be exact). A fun night.

Saturday night was "La noche de los museos" (night of the museums). A hundred or so of the city´s museums were open from 7pm-2am with free entrance and there were various live bands and other events as well. There were people all over the city. It was incredible to see how crowded the museums and even the streets were with people participating. I went with Elvira and Joaquin and their friends (the parents are friends with Elvira, the son with Joaquin). They have a car so we were able to go to various parts of the city. We went to el museo del traje (museum of clothing) which was kind of cool, but ridiculously crowded. We listened to the live band for a bit and Joaquin won the raffle for their CD. Afterwards we went to the Museum of Immigrants (where I had gone to get my Visa). Outside was a feria (theres really no good translation. Fair? Market?) with stands set up by countries selling traditional food and wares, which was really cool. I tried a German beer in honor of Alison studying abroad in Heidelberg and a Colombian coffee for my Colombian friends here. We tried to go to two others but the lines were ridiculous. We finished at the museum about the money/currency. By that point I was exhausted and just wanted to go home, but overall it was a good night. I´m not a huge museum person (though I would like to like them more?), but it was interesting to see everything that went into "la noche de los museos."

This weekend I went to a musical on Sunday that was fabulous. It was called "Las medias de los flamencos" (The Flamingo´s Stockings) and one of the guys I sing with in choir is in it. The plot is more or less a fable of why the flamingo´s legs are colored. What really made the show was the movement/dancing. All of the actors were playing animals and moved like the animals would move. Words don´t do it justice. The way they moved and danced was just incredible.

Anyway, now I´m off to choir. Yay. Tomorrow evening I leave for Puerto Madryn, which is down south on the coast. Should be fun!

I´m working on making a photo page as well so I´ll post the link once its ready (a bit more complicated with finicky internet)!