Iguazu Falls, Take 2!

Since we have now officially done about everything "touristy" there is to do in Buenos Aires, Steve and I took a break from sightseeing and went and saw the new Indiana Jones film the other night. For just 2 pesos more (about $0.60) we upgraded to the super-giant tub of popcorn (which here is served sweet, like kettle corn, rather than buttery) and then walked into the super-giant movie theater (looked like it could seat 2000 people at least-had two huge balcony levels, although there were only about 20 of us there to see the movie.) You can imagine our excitement when, towards the end of the movie, there is a scene involving several waterfalls, and we realized that we had been to those same waterfalls before- it was Iguazu Falls! It was strange to actually recognize waterfalls, but we double-checked our facts and because of a freak storm in Hawaii Steven Spielberg had to find another location to shoot those scenes and he selected Iguazu. Very cool.

So I am sad to report that our time in our wonderful little apartment in Buenos Aires is coming to an end. Tomorrow we check out of our apartment and head out to see a few more cities- Tigre and the Delta Parana in Argentina, then Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay. Last night we had our (French expat) landlord and his girlfriend over for Argentenian wine and pizza. There were 3 languages being spoken at any given time, mostly Spanish, but we had a great time trying to understand each other and it was fun to realize how much of the language we have picked up since being here. Now all we need to do is remember it once we get back to the States!

I think I have said this before, but it has been a completely different experience actually being settled in one place for this amount of time- we have learned to navigate the streets of our neighborhood- well a lot of the streets in the city really- without relying on a map. We had a great time showing our families around, catching a tango show in one of the most historic cafes in the city, visiting a milonga where locals go in the middle of a weekday afternoon to dance the tango, checking out the many wonderful museums as well as outdoor art installations, touring an estancia (farm) where we saw traditional dancing and amazing demonstrations of gaucho (like cowboy) skills, and of course eating lots and lots of delicious Argentenian beef. I am pretty confident to say that in the last month we have eaten more beef than we have in the last two years! We have enjoyed the Argentenian parrilla (type of grill) so much that we bought one of our own to take back to Atlanta. Now we have to figure out how in the world we are going to get the giant box back with us..... and the super-heavy box of tiles, too, ha!

So if you happen to decide to visit Buenos Aires (which you definitely should), here are some observations/things we've learned and seen that might help you get settled into the city easier:

Riding on the subway:
-at various times of the day, the subway gets VERY packed, and people have no problem whatsoever just pushing until they can pry their way into the car, too, making for a very tight experience like you might see in a deoderant commercial. our advice- wait for the next train, it's usually no more than 5 minutes behind and may be significantly less crowded
-people sell all sorts of stuff on the subway- from road maps to packets of kleenex to hair rubber bands, and they do this by passing out their items to everyone on a subway car, sometimes explaining the product, and then before the next stop picking all of the merchandise back up- we have yet to buy anything from them, but it is an interesting practice
-the A-line is the oldest subway line, complete with old wooden cars that you have to pull the doors open to exit. very fun experience, but the doors open way before the train stops, so keep your balance and hold on until you can hop out

Around town:
-Dog walking is a serious profession here. Everywhere around town you will see these folks walking 15-20 dogs at a time, from the smallest chihuahua to the largest great dane. Pretty comical when these are on the same leash! Go to any park on a weekday and you will probably see hundreds of dogs just lounging around as part of their daily walk routine- now if only they could clean up after all these dogs.....
-Most smaller intersections don't have traffic lights, or even stop signs. It is more a game of chicken, where the car going faster or is bigger has the right of way over the other vehicles. This gets really exciting when your taxi driver decides he should always have the right of way and flies through intersections without yielding to anyone. Pedestrians are the lowest folks on the totem pole in this situation, so you yield to EVERYTHING- even guys on bicycles, and even if you have a crosswalk.
-Protests can pop up anywhere, any time of day; just get somebody a flag, and someone else a drum, and you've got yourself a protest. The streets around the Casa Rosada (equivalent to our White House) are always jammed with some sort of demonstration- it is such a part of daily life that it seems odd if you don't see protestors out on the street. There was even a protest that marched down our little street in front of our apartment- they were carrying flags with Che Guevera on it banging drums on a Wednesday morning- not sure what they were promoting or protesting, but still interesting to watch.
-In the past, they have had a large problem with counterfeit bills, so almost everywhere you go they will check your money for the watermark to verify it is real. They do this even for a 2 peso bill (about $0.60), so paying for something with a lot of bills can really take a while!

Beverages:
-We were in a wine store and saw a ceramic penguin. Odd, we thought, so we asked. Apparently there is a tradition of pouring wine into a ceramic penguin, so that it can then be poured into a wine glass and mixed with soda water. Not to decant it, just to serve it. Now if you see a ceramic penguin pitcher, you know it comes from Argentina.
-Mate is consumed everywhere- on the subway, while touring Iguazu Falls, while walking around town, everywhere. It is a tea beverage, served by completely filling a hollowed out small gord with these leaves, pouring hot water into the gord, and then drinking with a silver straw fitted with a small filter on the bottom to keep from sucking up the leaves. People go everywhere with their mate cup and thermos of hot water. It is an acquired taste- as my mother described, it tastes like "wet tobacco leaves"- but a very interesting tradition nonetheless. We bought a mate cup and a bag of the tea, but not knowing how to prepare it properly our cup quickly sprouted some weird spores, so we have retired it to "dust collector" status as a souvenir from Buenos Aires. On the note of mate, we would like to give a very special thanks to our spanish teacher Juan, who shared his mate with us, explaining some of the practices surrounding it, and teaching us how to speak more like Argentenians!

Only a few more posts to go until we return to our casa in Atlanta......

Cheers,
Anna

Sort of "Fall" in Buenos Aires

Being in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are opposite from those at home. Simple concept, except it can be very strange to experience- going from summer one day to almost winter the next. After arriving in Buenos Aires from Paris, we were lucky that the transition wasn't that drastic. Literally every day in Argentina has been sunny and pretty warm- almost spring like.

The only sign that it was fall here were a few trees losing leaves (although those trees may have actually just been dead- hard to tell!) Today is the first official day where it is feeling like we are creeping into winter- cloudy skies, actually need a jacket during the day. It is going to be quite a shock to come home to Hotlanta in the middle of the summer!

We are currently enjoying a visit from my mom, and are looking forward to Steve's mom and sister arriving this weekend. It gives us a great excuse to get out and see more of those sights that we've had on our to-do list but managed to somehow not get around to seeing yet!

We just got back from a trip to Iguazu Falls, one of the most beautiful places on earth.... and that is coming from a couple of travelers who have been fortunate enough to see a LOT of beautiful places on earth :-) The first picture is of part of Iguazu Falls- from the Argentenian side. Some folks like to say that they are more beautiful from the Brazillian side, but I think they are amazing from where we were standing. The second is from our balcony in our hotel which was big enough to comfortably seat a family of about 20- randomly enough there is a Sheraton inside the Iguazu National Park.... which happens to be the ONLY hotel in the park, so this is what we got to enjoy waking up to every day! The third picture is what we look like going about 15 miles an hour (although it felt much faster) down a river getting ready to get drenched in the waterfalls. When we signed up the 3:45 time slot seemed like a brilliant idea, except we didn't take into consideration the fact that the sun sets pretty early- cold waterfall, sunset, speeding down a river, made for a refreshingly exhilarating experience!

We are heading out to our favorite lunch spot in Buenos Aires now, so I will write more soon about our experiences in the city and some of the (quirkier?) things you start to notice after being in a place for more than a few days!

Cheers,

Anna

From Paris to...... Paris?

Actually, we are in the "Paris of South America", but it is beautiful nonetheless. We have been in Buenos Aires for almost two weeks (I can't believe it's been that long!) and in our apartment for a week. After many trips to many different stores, we are officially settled into our temporary home. We have found an excellent butcher, a great produce guy (who happens to be literally outside our front door), and all the other important vendors that go along with helping you get settled. Steve has mastered the art of the "parrilla" (Argentenian for barbecue) and has successfully prepared the most delicious steak, chicken, eggplant.... the list could go on for much longer..... that I have ever had and to sweeten the deal everything is so cheap. Almost like Southeast Asia cheap. AMAZING Argentenian bife de chorizo (steaks) for $1.50 each from the butcher, a few pounds of vegetables for $2, great bottles of wine for $3 (and this isn't your two-buck-chuck stuff!) Needless to say, we are LOVING having a kitchen to cook in, a dining room table to eat at, and well, everything else that goes along with having a place to feel settled. Even watering the plants on our terrace is a daily activity I look forward to.

We spent this week taking some Spanish classes, learning the Argentenian style of Spanish. It turns out that they have some pretty big differences in pronunciation of basic Spanish words.... and after finding that out in class we understand folks a lot better. Italian immigrants have had a big influence here, so it is basically people speaking the Spanish language but with a lot of the gusto of Italian. Plus, we are using one of the weird conjugations of "you" that your Spanish teacher probably skipped over (like mine did) explaining "you will never, ever, need to know this, ever" except now we do need it.... it is "VOS" instead of "TU" for those interested. It felt odd doing homework for the first time in..... well, we don't need to mention HOW many years..... and it also felt odd that Steve had completely finished his homework while I was still procrastinating on even starting, ha!

Today we ventured out to do some sight seeing, and stopped at the Recoleta Cemetery. This turned out to be WAY cooler, and much less creepy, than expected. Being one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city I expected it to be interesting, but it really was fascinating. It is literally like a city, complete with "street" signs, except the buildings are all mausoleums and, well, you can kind of fill in the rest. This is where the city's elite are buried, including Eva "Evita" Peron. Her tomb was pretty normal compared to the rest, except there were LOTS of flowers piled around it, and according to the guide book if we had been there at a busy time (we accidentally went 45 minutes before it closed) there would have been a huge line of people waiting to get close to it. Also interesting is that right around the corner is the Hard Rock Cafe Buenos Aires..... not exactly where I would have expected it to be, but oh well..... we didn't go in, but if we are looking for a super shot of "American" culture in the near future we know where to find it!

We have had a great time just wandering the streets checking out all of the amazing architecture..... although we can't look up for too long because a) the sidewalks are pretty broken up in areas so it is easy to trip, b) in places the sidewalk is literally like a mine field covered with "presents" from the many dogs in the city. There are some great parks in the area, but apparently the dogs prefer to just go on the sidewalk.... and the ones that have owners aren't terribly concerned about picking up after their dogs.... So, if you visit, consider yourself forewarned.

I am not sure if I just happen to be outside a lot, or tuned into it, or what, but I have seen a very large number of blind people in the city. Steve and i both agree that Buenos Aires could probably be the most difficult city to be blind in. We haven't seen any seeing eye dogs, either. The other day we literally saw "the blind leading the blind" along a sidewalk in our neighborhood, and it wasn't pretty. The good news is that folks seem to be pretty helpful, strangers helping strangers navigate in the subways, crossing streets, etc.

Tomorrow is the first time in a long time where we will actually feel the difference between a weekday and the weekend, because we don't have class and we don't have homework! We haven't figured out exactly what we will do, but probably check out one of the great weekend markets (if anyone is in the market for an antique gramophone let me know, I have seen about 50 stores selling them just in our neighborhood!) There was a volcano eruption hundreds of kilometers away from us this week, but the ash has travelled all the way to BA giving sky a grayish tint. Hopefully that will clear up by tomorrow so we can go back to the perfectly blue skies and great weather we have been enjoying!

Cheers,
Anna