Long Weekend
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2010
1
3
Trip End
Nov 28, 2010
Buenos Aires, Tigre,
Argentina
Monday, August 18, 2008
My buddies and I were debating if we were going to go to Mendoza, Cordoba, or somewhere in Uruguay this weekend, but after a few discussions we decided to stay in good ol' BsAs.
*Friday night we went to see RENT! and then we went to the Karaoke Bar(see 1st entry for details of that night).
*Saturday, I didn't wake up till about 4:30, trifling, I know, but cut me some slack. It is customary for people here to eat around 9ish, take a nap, then head out for the clubs(Boliches) around 12-1 o clock
Caitlin, Brad & Denicia
. They usually don't make it in till about sunrise. I can't hang like that, around 5 I was drained and the party was still going strong. Anyways, after I woke up Ashanti & I met up with Caitlin & Denicia in Barrio Once which is garbage,harsh, but merely my opinion, I didn't like it at all. I'm still trying to figure out what I can compare it to. It had 1,000,000 people walking on cracked sidewalks with construction on the streets and people trying to sell random things to you as you pass. I'm sure the people were wonderful, but I'm cautious of big crowds because almost every porteno (native of buenos aires) has told us that you can get robbed without knowing it. One guy in our program got his laptop stolen by some con artists, here's what happened:
One guy came up to him and said, hey you dropped your wallet, and he told him, oh no that's not mine I have my wallet right here.And as they argued about the wallet not being his, the conny's right hand man came from behind and stole his laptop out of his backpack.
Another guy(let's call him Bill) in our program got his camera stolen but this is actually a funny story, here's what happened:
Bill had his camera out and this guy came up to him and told him to give him the camera
Denicia-post running into the poor porteno lol
. For some reason, Bill thought that giving your camera to strange people on the street was not a big deal so he gave it to him. Needless to say, the guy walked off with Bill's camera hahha. Butttt the guy who took the camera stayed in the vicinity of Bill, and Bill being innovative, walked up to the guy and told him he would show him how to use the camera,and then took it back.hahahhahaSo back to Barrio Once. I didn't like it, so we left and met with Brad at this cafe and eventually went to the movies. The movie theater we went to only offered two movies, "Un Novio para mi Mujer" (A boyfriend for my woman/wife) and The other Bolean Girl. We decided to be bold and went to see Un Novio para mi Mujer and it was beyyyoonnnddd difficult to understand. We got the basic concept, but it was a comedy and understanding cultural humor is completely different than understanding conversation. We went home after the movie because we had to be up early the next day.
Sunday we went on a Bici Tour of Buenos Aires! SCARIEST THING I'VE DONE IN ARGENTINA SO FAR!
One of the first conversations Dory and I had outside of our apartment was about how people drive crazy here and they don't respect the street lines
In el Bosque(Forest) lol
. BsAs for the most part is pretty simple to navigate because most streets are one way street, but boy do I tell you, these people are INSANE on the road. They drive soooo fast, and pedestrians don't really have rights here so it's kind of a known fact that you don't cross if the cars are coming because they will not stop for you. A few days after I arrived Dory's daughter, was telling me how some many was speeding and ran into 4 teens as the were crossing the street. And taxi rides are like rollercoasters, I never thought it would be acceptable or safe to drive that fast and that crazy on the busiest avenues in the city!So yeah, you can see that riding a bike for 3 hrs( 19 km, 11 miles i think) was quite frightening, but it was good exercise:)
My friend Denicia is hilarious! She's rather short and I think her bike was too big for her so she was having issues steering/breaking/etc...as we were approaching the Evita Monument, Denicia for some reason didn't see the man walking in front of her and she ran smack dab into his him. Fortunately he was mid step so it hit the bottom of his heel and he was a big guy so he didn't fly across the park. hahhahahahahah and the best part of the situation was Denicia laughing afterwards( she wasn't laughing in a mean way, but she allwwaayyyss giggles), it was soooo funny, I wish I could have caught it on tape.
Today(Monday) we took the train to El Tigre, which is an city on the river, about an hour away and only cost 2.50 pesos round trip:) When we got there we ate lunch and then took a boat through the islands to this place called 3 Bocas. When we got there a woman gave us a map and we went exploring. Somehow we ended up on this back path that was taking us through peoples backyards on the river haha
On the boat in Tigre
. We figured we were going the right way(to an unknown destination) because we were following the people about 40 ft in front of us. Eventually it got to a point where we stopped seeing houses and our path was leading us through this random brush. For some reason my friends thought it was a good idea to keep going through the plants and see what we were going to come upon. I was all for turning around for multiple reasons: 1) I had to go to the bathroom 2) I've seen way to many movies 3) We were crossing over 10,000 yr old bridges that wobbled(i'm exaggerating on the yrs but they did wobble!) 4) It only seemed right to turn around haha. But I continued with them because there was no way I was going back by myself and it was the middle of the day so I didn't think some masked murderer would be lurking on the river. We eventually passed through the forest lol and saw more houses. The houses were kind of cute, but I was quickly relieved when we saw this pastry shop on the path. I ran up immediately and asked for a bathroom. She pointed outside and so I walked out and looked for it but I didn't see it and I had to make sure she wasn't trying to play me so I went back in and asked her to show me where they were. She walked halfway down the stairs and pointed to these outhouse looking bathrooms that were in the side yard. I had no time to pass judgement on the restrooms bc i really had to use it. I tried to turn on the light switch but it wasn't working and I figured light wasn't really that necessary since I've kind of been using the restroom for about 20 yrs lol
The Outhouse
. All was well, I Purell'd it up after I left because there was no sink in there. (p.s. Purell is my new best friend, because there are very few places with liquid soap here, most restrooms have these metal sticks with a bar of soap attached and you have to stroke the bar to get a lather, it's really gross and I refuse to use it because I can SEE the germs on it lol. Anyways, after Ashanti & Caitlin used the restroom we were heading back and my darling friends were trying to convince me that the map said we were walking in a big circle so we should continue the way we were going, but fortunately enough for our lives I asked the woman at the pastry shop and she told us the place we were at wasn't on the map and we should go back the way we came. We took the boat back to Tigre and got on the bus. The bus that was there waiting was already packed and Denicia & I didn't want to stand the hour it was going to take to get back so we all waited for the next which was an excellent idea because it wasn't nearly as crowded and we all sat down. Ashanti got her seat by racing this man to the seat hahah she's so competitive, but she got the seat so power to her!I just finished eating dinner and now I'm going to get ready for bed. First day of school tomorrow:)
Ciao!
San Martin is kind of a big deal here in South America, here's a brief history of his life (this info is just what I comprehended from our multiple tour guides, so I'd do a little more research if you are really interested):
He was born in northern Argentina, but his mother sent him to Spain to get a better education(yeah boarding school!) When he was in Spain he enlisted in the army at age 11, crazy right? During this time, Argentina (and a few other South American nations) was under Spanish rule and he got word that his people wanted to be free he knew he had to go back and help them! Since he had been in the Spanish army for a few years he kind of knew what was going on and where their weakest points were, so he went back to Argentina and told them how to defeat the Spanish army. The Argentine's defeated the Spanish and all was well. BUUTTTT nextdoor neighbor's Chile & Peru also solicited General San Martin's help so they could become independent as well. He helped those lovely people out as well and they gained their independence. After he finished being the hero, he went home to Argentina, I'm sure he was a little tired lol, but when he went home Argentina was having a civil war. He was upset that he did all that work to free them and they were just going to fight amongst themselves, so he left Argentina and moved to France where he spent the rest of his life. He died on August 17.
