TravelStream™ news feed for member alexp02 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/alexp02 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:06:57 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1192395600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1192395600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1192395600/tpod.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:06:57 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Uyuni, Bolivia

So here I am, in Uyuni, after a 4-day tour of the Southwest Circuit and the Salar de Uyuni. It was a fantastic trip, I highly recommend it for everyone. The accomodations are very basic, the temperatures very cold, and it's really windy -- but what you see is amazing and unusual. So it's roughing it, but very worth it.

We left Thursday morning at 9 from Tupiza, with a company called Tupiza Tours. Other than Tobi, our Toyota Land Cruiser included our guide/driver Hilario, our cook Hortencia, and a French couple around my age, Mathieu and Perrine. The tour was conducted in Spanish, so that was good practice. We paid a little bit more having just 4 passengers, but I'm gald we did -- the back seats in the SUV were comfortable with 2 in each, but would have been uncomfortable with 3 in each seat, especially since the ride was extremely bumpy at most times. It cost me $150 and would have been less with more people in the jeep (something like $125 with 5 and $115 with 6). But again, very worth it to have just 4 people, and also very worth it to pay a bit more to do the tour from Tupiza as opposed to from Uyuni (where most tours originate) since Uyuni tours miss out on what we saw on the first day (and the first day was great -- as were the others).

For all 4 days, I saw such spectacular scenery, and while we did stop several times each day to take pictures, etc., I didn't take too many pictures from the moving SUV (that was hard with all of the bumps anyway). So I'll post some pictures here, but there is much more to see from the road that you'll have to experience yourself. Here's a summary of each day.

Day 1. We left Tupiza and climbed higher up into the mountains (starting by going through the Quebrada de Palala, where I had hiked two days earlier). There were amazing views, but the road itself was quite scary, your typical one-lane dirt road with hairpin curves hugging the side of the mountain and going up. It seemed like we were about to fall over the edge sometimes, which would have been very bad, given how high we were and how steep the sides were. After going around one of these hairpin curves, I asked the driver if it was a one-way road and I thought he said yes, but we ended up passing several cars later on heading in the opposite direction (with only one slightly close call). Our first stop was at El Sillar, which is a bunch of large, strange rock formations. We also stopped on the side of the road for lunch, which included tamales with dried llama meat -- really tasty! Overall the food was good and there was always more than we could finish.

As we were driving, we saw many llamas going about their daily business. We also saw some clusters of these black circles -- Hilario explained that these were llama feces and they returned to them at night to sleep (since they get warmed by the sun). So llamas sleep right on top of where they shit. We stopped at a few small villages (Cerolla, Polulos and San Pablo) which weren't too exciting, but interesting to see, and then stopped at the village of San Antonio where we were going to spend the night (at an altitude of 4,200 meters -- almost 14,000 feet). These villages are all so isolated, but the few people who live there carry on with their lives. The only other tourists we saw that whole day were 6 others who had gone on a tour with our same company -- the following days we would see more tourists, but still not that many, except for the very last day (because you can do what we saw on the last day as a one-day excursion). And by many, I mean I saw 10-15 SUVs parked where we had lunch today.

We walked around San Antonio (250 inhabitants) and its surroundings a bit when we got there, but it was so cold and windy that we didn't stay out too long at all. The night continued to be cold, we were told it was 5 degrees below zero (Celsius). I wasn't quite prepared for it to be so cold, but I got a lot more of it over the next couple of nights as well. By the way, I think all of the small villages we saw had a basketball court (or two), which was quite funny, and there were often little kids playing there too.

Day 2. We were woken up at 5am, ate breakfast at 5:30, and hit the road at 6 in the morning. Our first stop was at Pueblo Fantasma (also known as San Antonio del Nuevo Mundo), which were the ruins of an old village that was, if I understood correctly, abandoned 500 years ago. That was also the first time we saw a vizcacha, which is like a giant rabbit. Right afterwards, we also had our first vicuña sighting (we would see many vicuñas in the following days). Vicuñas are part of the llama family, but smaller and with less fur. Unlike llamas, they can not be domesticated.

As proof of how cold it was the previous night, we had to drive over some frozen streams. One time, the ice was cracking right underneath of us as we drove over the stream. We passed through another couple of small towns (Quetena Chico and Quetena Grande) and saw a couple of lakes (Lago Morejon and Kollpa Laguna). We then went down to Laguna Verde, a very impressive lake that is green, with three volcanoes next to it. It's green because it contains arsenic, copper, and sulfur from the three volcanoes (the main one is called Volcan Licancabur and is nearly 5,900 meters tall). This combination makes it toxic and no animals can drink from it. Laguna Blanca is right next to it, and there you can see flamingos in the water, which is luckily not contaminated by the neighboring lake. But this combination of minerals makes it an incredible color and it's really quite beautiful. This was also one of the times that we could see Chile, as we were very close to the border. Afterwards, we passed through the Dali Desert, with strange rock formations, like something out of one of his paintings.

We then stopped at some hot springs, where we took a bit of a swim. The water was around 38 degrees Celsius and it was nice to be in there, but cold when we got out. We had lunch there and then went on to see some geysers at Sol de Manaña, which were cool to look at but scary considering that tourists had previously gotten seriously burned at this site (they are approximately 300 degrees Celsius). Our cook had someone on one of her tours last year get burned, so we while we did get close to them, we were very careful. While looking at the geysers, we were standing at 5,000 meters above sea level (which is more than 3 times higher than Denver, by the way). Lots of steam and bubbling mud.

Afterwards, we went to one of the highlights (even though lots of things could count as highlights) -- another strangely colored lake, this one called Laguna Colorada. While this one contained a few different colors, it was mostly red. The red color is due to microbes and algae and is really quite amazing -- when you're up close it looks like the lake has been filled with tomato soup. Really just beautiful. Lots of flamingos here (as with most of the lakes that we saw) and also some llamas. We spent another cold (probably colder than the first) night right near Laguna Colorada at another place with several dorm rooms. This was also the night I noticed the incredible number of stars you could see at night. Too bad it was too cold to sit out there and look at them for long.

Day 3. Up at 7, on the road by 8, after breakfast. We started out going through Desierto de Siloli, which looked like a typical desert surrounded by mountains, except for it had lots of interesting volcanic rock formations. We stopped at one, Árbol de Piedra (the Stone Tree) to take pictures. We then went past a series of 5 lakes -- Lagunas Ramaditas, Honda, Charcota, Hedionda, and Cañapa (stopping at two of them). Laguna Honda was interesting because it was pretty much all frozen. At Laguna Hedionda, the flamingos were fearless. At most of the other lakes, the flamingos flew away as you got too close, but at this one, you could get within 10 meters before it bothered them. Although we didn't get out at Laguna Cañapa, we did stop the car because we saw a fox (who came right up to us since we threw him some crackers). We stopped for lunch with a view of Ollague Volcano, which, though extinct, had smoke coming out of it.

We then stopped at the town of San Juan, where we hung out for a little bit. There turned out to be a girls' futsal (5 on 5 soccer) game going on with a neighboring village. The level of play wasn't quite the same as the Boca game a week and a half ago, but it seemed like half the town had turned out to watch (this was not a big town). There was even a small band playing before the game! We stayed the night at a small village called Puertochuvica, which is right at the edge of the Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flats (approx. 12,000 square kilometers), that we would be seeing the next day. The room we stayed in had beds made of salt, and the floor was salt as well. This was the first place where we could take a shower (for 5 bolivianos) but none of us did since it seemed too cold to get fully undressed, and we figured we could wait till the next afternoon (yes, today I did have my first shower today since Thursday morning).

We woke up early today (5am) to see the sunrise over the Salar. At 6am, we stopped the car, in the middle of the Salar, and watched the sunrise. It was cool, but not as amazing as I had hoped. It was also freezing cold. We then drove across the Salar to Isla del Pescado, an island in the middle of the salt flats made from rock and coral, with lots of cacti. We spent some time here (along with other stops on the Salar) to take pictures, taking advantage of the vast white nothingness behind us. The Salar is just amazing to see, the ground is flat and white and goes on for a long time, but the mountains in the background seem much closer than they are, since nothing is in between. After a couple of other stops (a salt hotel and a village on the edge of the Salar where salt is extracted, Colchani) we drove to Uyuni, where we were dropped off and said goodbye to our guide and cook. Not much to do here in Uyuni, using the internet now, will spend the night, and then take a 10am bus to Potosí with Tobi (approximately 7 hours). At least the altitude is a bit lower here, only 3,675 meters above sea level.

OK, I'm going to attach pictures now. Probably a lot, as I saw some incredible things. But I might not be able to as the guy at this internet cafe seems against that idea. So if you don't see many pictures posted, check back in a few days, hopefully I can do it from Sucre.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1187884800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1187884800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1187884800/tpod.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:33:55 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States

So now that I've had time to recover from two months in Russia, I'm off on Phase II of my travels: South America. Here's my general plan:

I fly to Buenos Aires on September 5. I plan to spend a month in and around Buenos Aires, taking Spanish classes. I've already rented a studio in the Palermo neighborhood. Once my month-long lease is up, I'm planning to hit the road for a couple of months, backpacking to northwestern Argentina, Bolivia, and southern Peru. This is one part of the trip where it would be great to travel with some friends, so please let me know if you think you can join (even for parts).

I'm not going to have a set itinerary, but I have a general path in mind. I might spend a few days in northern Argentina on the way up, but the bulk of the first month will be in Bolivia -- Tupiza, Salar de Uyuni (the salt deserts), Sucre, Potosi, La Paz and Coroico, Copacabana and Lake Titicaca.

Then I will cross into Peru, where definites will be Cusco, the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu (the one thing I've already booked since you have to do it well in advance), Arequipa, and the other side of Lake Titicaca. There are a few other places on my list I'll hope to get to as well.

In northwestern Argentina, which I'll come back to after Peru, I'm planning to visit Salta and its surroundings, places in Jujuy province like Quebrada de Humahuaca, and Cafayate (and more if I have time).

I need to be back in Buenos Aires at least a few days before December 16, when my parents fly in. I'll fly with them to southern Argentina, where we'll visit Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. After they leave on December 25, I'll make my way back up to Buenos Aires over the course of 10-15 days through the Lakes District of Patagonia (these 10-15 days in the Lakes District is a small chunk of time if any of you working folks want to join...).

I'm still deciding on the rest of January after I get back from Patagonia, but likely I might be basing myself out of Buenos Aires again (where I'm flying out of on January 28 back to the States) and possibly taking some trips to Uruguay or other parts of Argentina or even Brazil. I might also push my departure date back a couple of weeks until mid-February.

Anyway, that's the plan. Hope you enjoyed reading the Russia blog and hope that you'll enjoy reading this one as well once it gets underway. And let me know if you want to come down to South America!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203913800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203913800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203913800/tpod.html Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:42:57 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States

So this is it, the last entry for this blog. I flew into Philadelphia this morning (from Buenos Aires, with a layover in DC) and my family (Mom, Dad, and Natalie) met me at the airport and we drove to Cherry Hill. Luckily, they brought a jacket, as I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and it was quite cold. Quite different from the Buenos Aires/Montevideo/Rio de Janeiro weather I'd experienced the past few weeks. I spent the afternoon and evening with them and the rest of my family (grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins), which was great.

It was an amazing trip to South America, both lots of fun and a great learning experience. I was able to see and do so much, but at the same time was able to be down there long enough to feel less like a tourist and more like a resident almost. But, all good things come to an end, and it's great to be back home now. Of course, I also realized how much more there is to see down there (not to mention other parts of the world), so we'll see what happens in the future...

Overall, I was down there for more than five and a half months. If I'm not mistaken, I spent 92 nights in Argentina, 23 nights in Peru, 21 nights in Bolivia, 15 nights in Brazil, 10 nights in Chile, and 9 nights in Uruguay (and of course 2 nights flying in between North and South America).

I'm attaching here some pictures from my last week in South America. I'm also going to soon put up online all of my pictures from South America (I think there will be a lot...). If you're interested in taking a look at them, send me an email and I'll send you the links.

Not sure right now what exactly lies ahead for me, but now that I'm back in the States, I hope to see or hear from many of you soon (by the way, my cell phone number is still the same as it was before I left). Thanks for reading the blog and for the comments and emails while I was away. Hasta luego,
Alex
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203202800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203202800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1203202800/tpod.html Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:52:11 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hello -- I'm back in Buenos Aires, flew here yesterday from Rio de Janeiro. In exactly one week, I'll be flying back home to the States. I can't believe that's all I have left on this trip! Anyway, here's an update on the past several days in Rio.

After arriving from Ilha Grande on Sunday and using the internet, I got back to my hostel at around 6pm and decided to try to go to Sugarloaf, one of the mountains towering over Rio. The weather had been terrible and cloudy my first week in Rio and since the weather seemed decent at that time, I thought it was best to get to Sugarloaf in case the weather turned bad again the next few days. The bus stop was right by my hostel, but I had to wait 20 minutes for the right bus to come by and then the ride was about half an hour. By the time I got off, there was a rainstorm over northern Rio, and it seemed likely to be headed in my direction.

But I was already there and hopeful it would stay away from my location. So I took the first cable car up to the intermediate hill (you get to the top of Sugarloaf by taking a cable car to a smaller hill and then another cable car to the larger one -- you can also hike up the first hill, which I did two years ago). The cable car was swaying in the heavy wind, which was quite scary. And once I got off and walked around that first hill, I realized how strong the wind was up there -- everything on the ground was getting blown into the air and it was hard to keep your hand steady to take a picture (or even to open your eyes too wide). However, there were some great views of the lightning over the northern part of the city. Anyway, no rain had hit yet so I went to the second cable car that actually takes you to the top of Sugarloaf. There were only a few of us in line, but when we were about to go up the employees said it was temporarily closed due to the storm. At this point I started asking if I could get my money back if I went down (it was expensive to get up there, 35 reais, or US$20) but they didn't really understand me and said to just wait a few minutes.

Sure enough, 10 minutes later, they decided it was OK to take the ride up (note that there have never been any accidents when the cable car fell or anything -- ever) and up we went. Two minutes after getting to the top, it started raining and the few remaining people up there hid under a roof. Luckily, it turned to a light drizzle a few minutes later and I was able to go out and get pictures. Actually, I stayed up there a while taking pictures (until my battery died) and was one of the last people off (was in the last cable car to go down with a handful of others). I had been hoping for some sunset pictures, but that didn't really happen, though I got some good nighttime shots. There were actually two professional photographers next to me and I got some tips from them, which was helpful. One was actually Russian, so I ended up practicing my Russian with her quite a bit, especially since we shared a cab back after waiting at the bus stop for a while. I hadn't spent too much time speaking Spanish down there, so it felt funny speaking a foreign language again (at least one where I could be understood, unlike Portuguese).

Anyway, at first it seemed like a good day to go up there, but then the weather turned bad. But it turned out pretty well, at least a lot better than it seemed from atop the first hill, in between the two cable car rides.

The next day I took a trip to the famous Christ statue that sits on one of Rio's big hills (Corcovado). My guide book recommended taking the small train up to the statue, so that's what I ended up doing. Although I got there at 3pm, I was sold a ticket for 3:40, which left after 3:50 -- lots of waiting around. Both the waiting area and the train itself were packed with tourists. The train ride was slow and hot and though there were a few nice views, the views did not compare to what you saw at the top of the mountain. You can also just take a car or taxi directly to the top -- I'd recommend doing that instead of taking the little train.

But on top of the mountain, the views are incredible. It's of course cool to be near the giant statue that you can see all over the city, but my favorite part was the views. After being on top of Sugarloaf and Corcovado, I truly think Rio must be the most beautiful city as seen from the air. Just an incredible combination of ocean, bays, lakes, forests, mountains and beaches with a city interspersed. Of course, up close, not everything in the city is quite as beautiful.

Later that night, I met a relative of mine whom my immediate family has never met. Let me explain. My grandfather's father had four brothers and one sister. In the 1920s, one brother moved to the United States, to New York. Another brother and sister followed him there. One other brother did not like the cold, so instead of moving to the United States, he moved to Brazil (apparently, he originally moved to the Amazon region and sold ice cream there -- before settling in Rio de Janeiro). My great-grandfather's last brother followed this brother to Brazil (first he tried to get to the United States, but was not able to get in at that time). My great-grandfather was the only one who stayed in the Soviet Union/Latvia. So from this side of my family, there was always the American contingent, the Brazilian contingent and the Russian contingent (my immediate family). Our names are slightly different too -- Peretz in New York and Pereçmanis in Brazil.

My grandparents took a trip to Brazil in the early 1980s to visit our Brazilian family, but that was a long time ago. My parents, my sister, and I had never taken a trip to visit them yet, though we had met a couple of them in the States (about 15 years ago). Anyway, I got in touch with them a month or two ago and arranged to meet some of the family. So on Monday night, I met Felipe, the son of my grandfather's cousin (I think that means my third cousin once removed), about 6 years older than me. I went to a bar in Ipanema with him and his friend, and we had a great time (luckily, they speak English).

On Wednesday, I went to their apartment in Leblon to meet more of the family. I met Felipe's parents, Josef and Eleanora, and his uncle, Roberto (Roberto and Felipe are my grandfather's first cousins). Again, we had a lot of fun talking and I learned a lot about this side of my family and some of the family history that I had not previously known. It was great.

The same day that I had dinner with my family, I went to the Santa Teresa neighborhood in the afternoon. It's a cool neighborhood to walk around in. There are lots of old mansions that have gone into decline since Santa Teresa stopped being the neighborhood of Rio's upper class in the 19th century. It fell into neglect in the early 20th century but had a revival as artists and bohemians moved there in the 1960s and 70s. From there I ended up walking to the Lapa neighborhood and on the way passed by a really interesting street. The street is all stairs as there is a big drop downhill from one end to another (the staircase is called Escadaria Selarón). About 20 years ago, an artist starting tiling the stairs and the walls. He is there every day working on this thing (even Christmas and Carnival apparently) -- I even met him. It's really cool to look at the different tiles, many of them are sent by tourists and they represent over 100 countries. There are also just regular one-colored tiles and ones that that the artist has designed. It's a well-known place and celebrities come to have their picture taken there, etc.

Oh, I also went hang-gliding here in Rio. It is something that I really wanted to do here two years ago, but the weather was never right for it. It wasn't as high on my priority list this time after doing paragliding in Chile, but after talking to some people here who had done it, I decided to give it a go. It was awesome -- I liked it better than paragliding, though it was much shorter. Of course, it was a tandem flight. We jumped off of a mountain called Pedra Bonita and landed at the beach at Sao Conrado. Though we were in the air for about 10 minutes, it felt like less. I didn't have any of the motion sickness problems that I had experienced with paragliding (which was why I liked this better). But it felt too short, it would have been great to have been up there longer. There was a camera on the wing of the glider and I bought the CD of pictures.

And of course I also spent some good time on the beach at Ipanema. It's funny how one day the water can be fairly calm and a couple of days later the waves make it nearly impossible to swim. Another thing I had liked about Rio from two years ago were the juice bars with many different types of fruit juices, so I went often this time around. I had all kinds including some like umbu, which had in parentheses "amazon fruit." I also tried a popular Brazilian soda called guaraná -- the funny thing about it, it tasted to me just like Inka Cola in Peru!

I was maybe getting more used to Portuguese than I thought. Since arriving yesterday, I've almost said "obrigado" (Portuguese for thank you) instead of "gracias" every time I need to thank somebody. Overall, it was a mixed bag in terms of understanding their language. Sometimes someone would say something where nearly every word corresponded to Spanish I could understand it easily. But usually, it was completely incomprehensible. Written it is very similar to Spanish, so it was easy to read things.

OK, that's all for now.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202680800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202680800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202680800/tpod.html Sun, 10 Feb 2008 14:01:08 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Oi from Rio de Janeiro. I just got back from Ilha Grande and thought I'd write about it before spending the next several days back here in Rio. So this past Wednesday Tom and I split up -- I headed towards Ilha Grande and he headed later that day to the airport to fly back to the US. I left the hotel around 9 and got a cab to the main bus station. It took a while to get there, as the traffic was really bad towards the end. Though it was already a bit later than 9:30, I bought a ticket for a 9:30 bus, but didn't end up leaving the station until almost 10:30. The bus took me to Angra dos Reis (it took almost 3 hours), from where I took a 2:30pm boat to the actual island of Ilha Grande (getting there almost two hours later).

I had really been hoping for better weather at Ilha Grande than I had had in Rio, but it was terrible when I got there. The sky was filled with black clouds and it surely was going to rain later that day (which it did). Ilha Grande is apparently the third largest island in Brazil, but even though it occupies a lot of space, it feels very small. There is really just one town and in that town there are no cars and no banks. The island is mostly mountained jungle, with many beaches along its shores (and some settlements and guest houses along these beaches).

I had been to Ilha Grande almost exactly two years ago when I came to Brazil to visit my friend Mahbod, but we had gone for only one day. It was a crazy day -- leaving Rio at 5:30am to catch an 8am ferry from Mangaratiba, doing a two hour hike to get to a beach, and then only having a couple of hours on the beach before needing to catch a boat back to the ferry back to the bus back to Rio. And that day I promised myself I would come back for a longer trip -- and now I did! I had just loved the vibe of the island and the beach we had gone to was amazing.

Nothing too exciting the day I arrived. I was staying at a hostel at the edge of town and we had a fish BBQ, which was good. The next day the weather continued to be lousy, so I just walked around town for a while. As it started to improve and the sun came out, I hung out at a small beach right next to the hostel. It was cloudy, but there were a few five or ten minute intervals of sun. Still, very relaxing, got some reading done.

It rained heavily overnight (actually it rained every night of my stay on the island) but cleared up by the next morning. Since the weather was nice, I wanted to repeat my experience of two years ago and hike to Lopes Mendes beach -- but this time spend more than just a couple of hours there. Lopes Mendes is considered the best beach on the island (and some say in Brazil or in the world). A group from the hostel was taking a boat to Lopes Mendes and the lady working the front desk was trying very hard to convince everyone to take that boat (she must get a cut of the cash...). But I wanted to hike there and take a boat back, not take a boat both ways. I met an Irish guy named Alan at breakfast who was also interested in walking there, so he came with me. The lady told us it was "too dangerous" to walk there that day since it rained heavily the night before, but it seemed like she just wanted to sell boat tickets. So we decided to take the chance.

It was definitely a muddy trek and very slippery in some places, but not too bad. It took less than two hours. Lots of ups and downs and after the first major climb you are rewarded with an amazing view of the main town and its bay. When we finally got to the beach, it was just as amazing as I remembered it (though more crowded). We spent about 5 hours there (mostly in the shade, though I still managed to get burnt a bit). We knew there was a boat leaving from a beach 20 minutes away at 6:30, so we had just planned to take that one back, while the boat from the hostel left that other beach at 4:30 (boats can't leave or come directly from/to Lopes Mendes because the waves are too strong). The crowd did thin out quite a bit after around 4pm and the beach was fairly empty when we left at 6. It's a beautiful beach -- really long and backed by jungle. There are no houses of any kind, just a few people with coolers selling drinks and a bit of food.

The boat back was small and it took a while. There were a couple of guys in charge, but most of the way, we were piloted back by a 6-year old kid (presumably one of their sons). Rain clouds started to gather and we figured we'd be in for more rain that evening.

The next day though the weather was again nice. This time, the lady at the hostel was trying hard to sell a snorkeling trip that went around to a few different beaches, and we decided to do it. The first stop was Blue Lagoon, which was a decent boat ride away. When we got there, there weren't enough snorkeling masks for everyone who had paid for one, so people had to share. It wasn't the best snorkeling I've done, as I only saw a few different types of fish. The boat stopped at a few other beaches (including one where we had lunch at a restaurant) before heading back to the hostel around 4:30pm. Again, though it was a beautiful day, the clouds started turning black on our way home. There was another BBQ at the hostel last night, though this time there were more sides and it wasn't just fish on the grill, but beef, chicken, cheese, pork and one huge fish.

Saturday night someone had told me about a better way to get back to Rio than just backtracking on the way that I had arrived at Ilha Grande. So I walked to the main dock in the center of town and a woman was there screaming about Fast Connection to Rio, which was what had been described to me. Basically, Fast Connection is a combination of boat and van that takes you right to a specific address in several parts of Rio. And if you were to count taxi costs from the bus station, it actually costs less. So our boat left at 10am for Mangaratiba, where we were quickly transferred to a van, waiting less than 10 minutes. This van then took us to where we wanted to get in Rio -- I was standing in a hostel in Ipanema by 2:15pm (though it was full and I had to walk to another one).

Anyway, here I am back in Rio. My flight back to Buenos Aires is on Friday, so I have several days here post-Carnival. Hopefully the weather cooperates.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202238000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202238000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1202238000/tpod.html Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:27:44 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hello from Brazil! I've been here in Rio de Janeiro since last Thursday. It's been great (except for the weather). I left Buenos Aires Thursday morning and everything was fine with my flight to Rio. After I arrived at the Rio airport and got my bag, I went over to where Tom was meant to be arriving and waited there for him. Meeting him worked out smoothly and we got on a bus to head to our hotel in the Ipanema neighborhood. Again, great to see a familiar face from back home. The bus ride took a really long time, as the international airport is far from Ipanema and there was a lot of traffic. We were probably on there about two hours, but it did give us a nice tour of the city (getting to our hotel around 5pm).

We're staying in a place called Ipanema Inn, basically at the end of the first block from the beach. Really an amazing location and we got a great deal on our room relative to what most people are paying down here. So everything with the room ended up being more or less perfect. Thursday night we went to one of the Carnival balls at Rio Scala (the Mangueira Ball) -- it was an informal affair, since it was much cheaper than the several balls which are really pricey. It was interesting, with good samba music, but because it was indoors it ended up getting really hot inside once everyone got in.

On Friday, we went to the beach right next to our hotel. The beach was packed when we got there, but it's great that we went since it's been the only sunny day so far. It has rained a bit every day (not today yet, but it's still early). A little bit later, Tom and I met Tim, an American friend I made in Uruguay, and took a bus towards the Centro area. We were planning to go to a bloco, basically a big street party and procession, that was in that area. We didn't know exactly where to go, but with some difficulty (due to our lack of knowledge of Portuguese) managed to ask the bus driver where to get dropped off exactly for that. She let us know and told us in which direction to walk a couple of blocks.

We arrived at a square packed with people and with a large stage, on which some samba music was being performed. I think this was the Cinelândia, where there is a big party every Carnival day (but not really sure since we got there a bit randomly). The energy of the crowd was amazing and it was such an experience to be there. Seemed to be an almost all Brazilian crowd, different from the crowds at places like Ipanema. And it actually seemed much safer than so many people had warned me. We hadn't brought our cameras for fear of getting them stolen, but wished we had (and did bring them around with us sometimes on the following days). I was surprised by how safe things seemed over the past several days here after the horror stories I had heard.

After a while of listening to the music there, a sort of converted bus entered the plaza. There was a samba band playing on the roof of the bus and people surrounding it, dancing. We walked over to it and joined the crowd of people following it through the streets. It was such a cool experience, following the bus and dancing with all of the people. Eventually we got to another plaza-type area with aqueducts which I recognized as Lapa -- the neighborhood we had planned to go to later that night! We were wondering earlier the best way to get from where we were to Lapa and it had worked itself out just by following this procession through the streets. There was a huge street party in Lapa that night and we spent the rest of the night there. At one point it started pouring rain and everyone ran to hide under the aqueduct.

On Saturday, our own neighborhood was meant to have a big bloco, so at 4pm we wandered over to a plaza a few blocks away. Again, filled with people drinking, eating street food, dancing, singing, etc. The crowd was a bit different, since many guys were dressed in drag (apparently done by gay and straight men alike for these Carnival celebrations). After hanging out there for a while we followed the procession down the avenue in Ipanema that runs along the beach and also spent the rest of the night in Ipanema at a bar where all the people spill outside onto the sidewalk and street. We thought there would be a big beach party that night in Ipanema, but it did not happen.

Sunday was a really rainy day, killing our plans to go see the Christ statue or go to the beach. Though it did clear up later in the afternoon for another exciting bloco procession right in our Ipanema neighborhood. We also tried to figure out where to watch the Super Bowl later that night. Someone had told us about a bar a block away from our hotel that should show it. We went there and the bar confirmed that they would have the game on later that night. I went there with Tom and Tim quite a bit earlier than kickoff. Though the place was packed, I think we were the only ones there to watch the Super Bowl. We started getting worried when there was no pregame show on the television and it took a really long time for us to get them to switch channels to see if it was on another channel. None of the staff spoke English really and weren't all that helpful in finding the right channel. Eventually we just paid our bill and left for an English pub on the other side of Ipanema that would definitely have it. Of course, as we got there, the place was so full of people watching the game that they wouldn't let anyone else in (but also insisted that they were the only bar in town showing the game).

It actually turned out for the better since that would have been a very uncomfortable way to watch the game. We went to a bar down the street a bit to have some caipirinhas and figure out the next step (we had already tried all the channels on our TV in the hotel too). The bartender at this bar said there might be one other bar in Ipanema that would be showing the game and we asked another employee there to call them to see what the deal was. Well, he first checked the small TV in the bar there and ended up finding a channel with the Super Bowl! It was great -- we were able to sit at the bar very comfortably right in front of the TV and caught all of the second half. And what a surprising outcome in the actual game! By the fourth quarter, lots of other people had come into the bar and were watching the game too.

There was more rain on Monday, but we were really hoping that it would stop by the evening, when we were planning to go to the Sambódromo, the stadium through which the really famous Rio Carnival parade marches. This is the Carnival that you see pictures of, with the amazing floats and dancers. First though, we headed towards a churrascaria restaurant in the Flamengo neighborhood, set on the bay overlooking Sugarloaf mountain. Churrascarias are all you can eat restaurants specializing in meat, which they bring to your table. Basically, waiters come around with different types of meat on a sword or skewer and if you want some, they cut a piece onto your plate. There was also a help-yourself buffet where you could get other kinds of food. We spent about 4 hours there, getting completely stuffed. From there, after walking on the beach for a bit, we took a taxi to the Sambódromo.

Sunday and Monday nights are the best nights to go, as on each night 6 of the top 12 samba schools perform. Our sector (11) was fairly full already when we arrived, but we still had good views of the parade road. It was truly an amazing show, something you just need to experience to understand. The floats were remarkable and all of the dancing and music was very well organized. I took a ton of pictures, though they don't do the whole production justice.

Anyway, today is the last day of Carnival and tomorrow Tom will head home and I will head to Ilha Grande, an island several hours away from Rio. Being here for Carnival was a great experience and I'm really glad that I did it. The show at the Sambódromo is an amazing event, but there is a lot more to Carnival than just that, with blocos every day in different neighborhoods.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201723200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201723200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201723200/tpod.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:24:46 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hello all. I leave tomorrow morning from Buenos Aires, heading to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This past week in BA has been great and again, it was nice to be in one place for longer than just a few days. Mostly I just hung out and enjoyed being back in Buenos Aires. I stayed at Hostel Estoril again (the same place I stayed at in December), which was fun. I also hung out a bit with a couple of locals that I knew from earlier in my travels. I took two one-hour Spanish lessons with Cecilia, the teacher with whom I had 4 lessons during my first month in BA. I also studied a bit of Spanish by myself, buying a local newspaper and reading it. And of course ate some great steak.

I also finally made it Palacio Barolo, which is right across the street from my hostel. It was built by the same architect who built Palacio Salvo in Montevideo and also was apparently the tallest building in Latin America when it was built (around 1920). The building itself was constructed as a monument to Dante's Divine Comedy and there is usually a tour guide there during the week. When I went on Monday, the tour guide wasn't there, but a maintenance man went with me to the very top, where you get great 360 degree views of all of Buenos Aires. I'll post a picture from there with this blog.

I also made it one day to Tigre, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires. I went with two friends from the hostel and we took the longer, more scenic route to get there (passing by some incredible mansions). Basically, we took a train from Retiro train station and then had to switch to another train -- the journey would have taken about an hour and a half in total, but we got off at the San Isidro stop and walked around there for about an hour. It's amazing, even though you're not that far away from the city itself, San Isidro has a completely different feel than Buenos Aires, it's so much more quiet and relaxed. A nice town to walk around in, with some beautiful houses and an impressive new church.

Tigre also is very different from BA -- not only is it also more quiet and relaxed, but it's a delta town, basically a series of islands separated by the Paraná River and various offshoots of it. We got on a boat that spent an hour floating through the delta and later on just walked around along the river. It's really a cool place and so completely different from Buenos Aires itself. All of the houses and hotels along the river have docks, and you see lots of people in boats and some people even swimming. On the way back, we took a more direct train, getting back to BA in less than an hour.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon I'll be in another country (for about two weeks). I had originally planned to do Brazil back in August/September with my friend Saul, but those plans fell apart recently. Luckily, my friend Tom (who also came to Siberia with me this past summer) was able to take his place on very short notice (since I had already booked a hotel room for two) -- thanks Tom! There are also some people I've met down here traveling that will be in Rio for Carnival -- so it should be a great time. The plan is to stay in Rio until next Wednesday (right after Carnival ends) and then head to Ilha Grande for a few days, an amazing island which will be the perfect spot to recover from the craziness of Carnival. Then a bit more time in the Rio area (during which I'm planning to meet some of my Brazilian family whom I've never really met -- more on that in a later post) before flying back to Buenos Aires.

OK, next time from Brazil!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201136400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201136400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1201136400/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:36:12 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hola, I just got back to Buenos Aires after about a week in Uruguay. I went to a few different places there, but I'm combining them all here in one post.

During the one night I had in Buenos Aires after Rosario (when I wrote my previous blog) I met several people at my hostel who had just come back from Uruguay, and none of them seemed to have liked it that much. That wasn't the best sign for my upcoming trip, but most of them had only been to Punta del Este and their main problem was that it was too expensive and overpriced. So I wasn't too concerned, especially since I'd be seeing a couple of other cities and I already knew Punta del Este would probably be overpriced. As it turned out, Uruguay well exceeded my expectations, which might have been lowered that night.

I took the Buquebus ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento (the slower one -- 3 hours). The ferry is huge and even carries a bunch of cars across. By the time I stepped into Colonia, it was about 3pm. I walked towards the historic center and got some lunch -- a chivito, which is basically a Uruguayan steak sandwich. But in addition to plain toppings like lettuce and tomato it also has fried egg and fried ham. It was really good, but because the steak was so juicy and everything was overflowing out of the tiny bun, I had to eat it with a fork and knife. I had a few more of these during the course of this past week, as you can find them everywhere (though they can be quite different from one another though).

Colonia was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese in order to smuggle goods into Buenos Aires. I think it's the oldest settlement in Uruguay. The historic center of Colonia is awesome to walk around in, I loved it. Cobblestone streets, old stone houses, lots of (various) trees and flowers, right on the water, plazas, an old wall. And it wasn't as crowded with tourists as I thought it might be. It just really has a great feel and vibe. I also climbed up a lighthouse, from which you got good views of the whole old center. Actually, from the lighthouse (and even from the ground really) you can see a few highrises in Buenos Aires across the Rio de la Plata! It's about 30 miles away and there are only a few buildings that you can make out, but it's pretty cool to be able to see into Argentina from there.

A restaurant I went to that first night (with a friend from my Córdoba hostel and a couple of other people ) was right on the water and had a great view of the sunset, which turned out to be really nice. It's funny that you're on the East coast of South America but you can still watch the sun set over the West on what looks like an ocean (of course, if you see the highrises in BA you know that land is not too far away). Later that night, we also saw a band practicing for Carnival, walking the streets of town, playing music and dancing.

The next day I wanted to rent a moped and ride around, which I had been told was a fun way of seeing Colonia. So I went with two other people from my hostel to the rental agency right after lunch and we each rented a moped. It was a great day of riding around, most of it spent outside the small town itself. We stopped a couple of times at some beach-side cafes at two different beaches. Also, while driving on a very country road we came across this place with tons of antique cars. Most were in bad shape, but the place fixes them up and then sells them (or just sells parts too). Really a cool place to see, and very unexpected, at first it looked like a graveyard for old cars. Overall, fun to ride around on a moped, reminiscent of riding the motorcycle in Bolivia, but a lot easier since all you have to do is accelerate and brake, you don't need to worry about the clutch and switching gears.

The next day I took a 2.5 hour bus to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Again, after checking into my hostel I went to walk around town a bit. I like Montevideo, it's an interesting city with some great architecture and plazas. And it helps that it's right on the ocean, even though I didn't go to any of the beaches. But some of the neighborhoods are very run down and there are a lot of beggars (and aggressive ones too) -- though much of the center is in really good shape.

The next day I rented a bicycle and drove around town with a friend from my hostel. It was a bit disappointing having to pedal again, after riding around Colonia in a moped. But probably for the better (since you actually get some exercise) considering the lunch that we had. We biked from the rental place to Mercado del Puerto, which is not really a market anymore, though it used to be. Now it's more like a collection of small restaurants under the same roof. Some of them have tables and chairs, but for many you just sit around the bar. Pretty much all of the restaurants are parrillas, selling all kinds of grilled meats (like in Argentina). We sat at one bar and ordered a full parrillada, getting a trayful of various meats. We agreed to just get chicken, pork, and beef and to stay away from blood sausage, guts, etc. It was a ton of food.

After that we rode towards the waterfront and continued along the shore in the other direction. The road that goes along the shore has a good bike/pedestrian trail. Got to see a lot of Montevideo, and even passed by a couple of the beaches in town. Before returning the bikes we also stopped at a cemetery and took a look around there. Not quite as impressive as Recoleta in Buenos Aires, but still had some amazing tombs.

The next day I got on a bus for a couple of hours and headed to Punta del Este. Punta del Este is a serious beach resort and is the place to go for Buenos Aires residents in the summer. Apparently during the summer there are more Argentines there than Uruguayans, with people even joking that it's a suburb of Buenos Aires. It's well known for beaches and nightlife.

After getting to my hostel, I went to spend a bit of time at the beach right nearby. It was approx. a 5 minute walk from the hostel, which was great. The day I arrived was the NFC and AFC championship games and I managed to watch both at the hostel with some other Americans (including a couple of guys that I'd hung out with before on my travels).

The next day, I took a bus to a place called La Barra which has several beaches that are supposed to be a bit nicer than the ones right in Punta del Este. It was great, though the weather was cloudy and windy. Stayed there for a few hours and then went back to Punta del Este. During the bus ride, I saw some amazing houses, which I guess are either rented out to or owned by rich Argentines. Yesterday I took a bus back to Montevideo and spent one more day and night there, and then today took a bus to Colonia and got back on the Buquebus ferry to Buenos Aires. This time I had bought a ticket for the ferry which only took one hour to get to BA, as opposed to the cheaper 3 hour ride I had taken the first time.

I will be around here in the BA area until the 31st of January, when I fly to Rio. I'll have two weeks in Brazil, starting with Carnaval. What's crazy is that as of today, I have exactly one month until I fly back to the States. Seems like so little time after the several months I've already been here.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200452400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200452400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200452400/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:35:40 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hello again from Buenos Aires! This is just a short stop here, I have a ferry ride tomorrow morning to Colonia del Sacramento, in Uruguay. A country I've never been to! My bus this afternoon left Rosario at 2pm and got to BA around 6:45, a bit longer than I thought it should have taken. After checking into my hostel, I went to the ferry terminal to buy tickets for tomorrow. There was an incredibly slowly moving line to get the tickets, so slow that I thought that there might be some problem, e.g. the computers weren't working or all the tickets were sold out until next month. But when I finally reached the counter, it took just a minute or two, so I don't know what the big hold up was. Especially since you actually have to then go to another counter to pay, you don't even pay at the first one.

Anyway, now I'm all set and can write about the past couple of days in Rosario. So yesterday was my only full day in Rosario, and it was really hot and humid. Weather.com gave a reading of 97 degrees, with a humidity-adjusted Feels Like 106 degrees, as of 6pm local time. Again, that was the reading as of 6pm, I imagine it was more earlier in the afternoon. After getting a bus ticket for the next day, I walked around town a bit. Rosario is situated right on the Paraná River and near the waterfront there is a huge monument called Monumento Nacional a la Bandera, which contains the crypt of Argentine flag designer Manuel Belgrano. I mostly walked around the waterfront and that area, and also along some pedestrian streets not too far away.

So Rosario is famous for being the alleged birthplace of Che Guevara (I didn't go see the building where he grew up) and for being the city where the flag was designed. It is also considered Argentina's second city after Buenos Aires (although Córdoba also considers itself Argentina's second city and is actually bigger).

Anyway, after getting sufficiently hot, I walked to a ferry terminal on the river and took a ferry to an island just across the river. There's a nice river beach there and I hung out for several hours, most of the time in the river. I'm not sure that I've ever been to a river beach before. The water was really warm, it actually would have been better if it were a bit colder. It's also not clear at all, and a brownish color from a distance, but swimming in the water was the perfect thing to do on a day like that. After sitting on the beach for 5 minutes, you felt like you had to go back in and cool off.

Today, since I had some time before I had to go to the bus station, I walked back to the Bandera monument because you can go to the top and get panoramic views of the city. The viewing station is 70 meters high -- at first there are a series of stairs and I was worried I'd have to walk the whole way up, but after about 5 or 6 turns, there was an elevator. Rosario's not the most beautiful city to view from above, but it was still a good view, with the city on one side and the river and empty land on the other. By the way, this day was as hot and humid as the previous.

OK, that's all for now. I'll post just a couple of pics of Rosario with this entry. I'm going to spend approximately the next week in Uruguay and then come back to Buenos Aires.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200276000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200276000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/alexp02/south_america/1200276000/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:54:10 -0500 Alex's Trip to South America (2007-2008)

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Rosario, Argentina

Hello from Rosario, the alleged birthplace of Che Guevara. I just got here at around 7pm after taking a 12:30pm bus from Córdoba. I'm planning to stay here two nights, so I'll write about Rosario next time. Now Córdoba.

My overnight bus from Mendoza got me to Córdoba at 7:30am, another smooth journey. Soon after getting on the bus: dinner (even though the bus left at 10:30pm), wine, Die Hard 4.0 on the TV and off to sleep. This bus was nearly empty, not too many passengers at all. I checked into a hostel in Córdoba and then went to walk around town a bit. There's a nice main plaza with colonial architecture nearby. Also went into a few churches with impressive interiors. Córdoba is Argentina's second largest city after Buenos Aires and it is quite old, founded in 1573.

Afterwards, I met a friend of mine from the States, Geraldine, for lunch. She had come to Córdoba for a family wedding and the day that I arrived to Córdoba was the same day she had a flight out of Argentina (bad timing that we couldn't overlap more, but good timing that we were at least able to see each other for a bit). One of her cousins, Gerard, came to lunch too. It was great to hang out with her, even if for just a little bit, and nice to see a familiar face. I met some more of her family too at their apartment as she was leaving for the airport. And I ended up going to a couple of bars with Gerard a bit that night and the next as well.

I had some logistical stuff to take care of the next day and also just wandered around to some other parts of the city. But the day after that was really interesting. I went with a couple of friends from the hostel to a town called Jesús María, about 50km outside of Córdoba city. It was approximately an hour bus ride out there and we arrived around 4pm. First we walked to an old Jesuit mission (Lonely Planet calls it the best Jesuit mission to see). It was interesting, it had been converted to a museum with artifacts, etc. and the setting and buildings were quite pretty.

Now, apparently I wasn't really visiting the city of Córdoba during the right season, as it's a university town and these are the summer holidays -- so it doesn't have the same vibe as it usually does. But while being unlucky in that, I was lucky to have come to Córdoba during Jesús María's big annual festival, the Festival Nacional de Doma y Folklore. The Saturday that I went was actually the second to last day of the 10 day festival.

There were lots of food and drink booths set up, along with stalls at which to do some shopping. The main event was held in a big stadium. There were also lots of cars and tents around, as it seems many locals drive there and camp overnight. So after getting back from the Jesuit mission, we bought tickets for the festival, sat around for a bit, and then entered at around 7:15pm. The festival itself is like a combination of a concert and a rodeo -- it celebrates the gaucho (Argentine cowboy) lifestyle. Basically, it went something like this.

When we entered, a game of pato was being played. It's a game where guys ride around on horses and try to throw a ball through a net. You can pass the ball to your teammates but if it hits the ground, the other team gets the ball. Those are the basic rules. Then there was some live music from the stage. Basically, all of the following events were separated with a few songs by a band or two. Next, there was a strange race where about 5 gauchos were pretending to sleep on their saddles. Once the race started, they ran to the other side of the field, grabbed a horse, ran back with the horse and then had to put the saddle on the horse and ride to the other side. Whoever did it the fastest won.

The next event was funny too. There were two poles in the middle of the field with 3 gauchos standing next to each one. Two riders were on one end of the field. As the race started, they each rode to one of the poles and as they turned back around, one of the other gauchos jumped on to the horse. The two of them rode back to the start and the second gaucho jumped off. Then the original rider continued and picked up the second and then the third rider. They weren't always able to jump on the horse on the first try. The one after that was hilarious, basically a race with one rider on a horse pulling another gaucho who was lying on a leather sled. Like waterskiing using a horse.

After that we had something like an American rodeo with the gauchos needing to stay on a bucking horse. Then there were some fireworks. And then an event where two gauchos would ride side by side with a cow in between them, needing to use their horses to guide the cow through two goal posts. From there, it just continued alternating between the rodeo-like bucking horse competition and live music.

We decided to leave at 2:30am, even though the stadium was still packed (little kids, babies, old folks -- everyone was still there). The Argentines continue to amaze me with how late everything goes. We walked around outside the stadium for a bit, where there were even more people. I guess if you come to the festival for a few days, you don't necessarily go see the show in the stadium every night. I'm bad at estimating numbers, but there were probably at least 10,000-15,000 people inside the stadium (with some more walking around the outskirts of the stadium) and probably at least that many sitting around the festival grounds outside of the stadium. We caught a bus back to Córdoba at 3:15am, not making it back to the bus station until 4:30, at which point we quickly got a taxi back to the hostel. It was a crazy festival, lots of fun, better than I had expected. I should also mention that many of the spectators were wearing the typical gaucho clothes, which was cool. There really were not that many gringos at all. We saw what seemed to be a group of Germans, but otherwise I don't remember anyone who stood out as not from Argentina, or at least South America.

OK, that's it for now, ciao.
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