March 2nd 2011
Goodmorning everyone!
So my parents left Argentina this morning. I woke up early at the hotel and had breakfast with them before they took their cab to the airport. Half of the day yesterday was spent buying a few things for my new place, among other things a new mattress and pillow, gracieusite des parents, since the ones the landlord had brought in for me were…ummm lets just say old, smelly and kinda gross ahaha. My mom chose the house, and the room here. I live with a girl named Fabianna. She is 37 and was just recently divorced. She has 4 daughters but they are with the father right now…and a guy named Ugo who is in medical school. They both seem really really nice and speak no English, which is perfect for my Spanish!
So I sit in my new room right now, which has amazing daylight, a new mattress and pillow still in their plastic, my open suitcase and several other bags everywhere; it’s a mess and today is cleaning and organizing day ahaha. Oh boy. Its only 8:30. ahahaha
But I have decided to first update you all back home on the last month I have spent in Argentina.
The Sunday I was meant to leave was spent: sleeping (due to drinking the night before ahaha), hanging out by the river with a bunch of people from Villa Maria (1h30 outside of Cordoba city) and nearly missing the bus to my first destination: Puerto Madryn. My transfer bus was 2hs late and so finally at 3am I get onto the next long bus to the eastern coast. I spent the next few days diving (yes with a hot Argentinean ahahaha) and visiting the Natural Park called the Peninsula Valdes, where I got to see sea lions, penguins, guanacos and different birds all in their natural habitat. On the bus from Puerto Madryn down, I met an Austrian chick called Vera, and little did I know she would be my travel buddy from then on. We got along amazingly and traveling together was really great.
My second stop was el Calafate, which is very south and where the famous Perito Moreno glacier is. This glacier is the only one in the world that produces as much ice as it looses. I didn’t really like this town, mainly because of the touristy Mont Tremblant style ambience, but bigger, more expensive and worst ahaha. This was near my birthday. That night I did not do anything actually, because Vera and I had booked a ice trekking day on the glacier the next day and had to leave at 7am. However, that nightttttttttttt was a very drunken night with some Israelis we had met on the bus and did the trek with also. We left the next day because there was not that much else to do and the other tours were quite expensive. So we decided to go to the newest town in Argentina called El Chalten, where the Fitz Roy glacier is and all the trekking can be done on your own, we stayed for about 4-5 days due to the first day being very windy, cold and rainy. Vera and I split at this point, as I left to Bariloche. However, this 30hour bus was 3hours late and I ended up getting off at el Bolson instead because I was just sick of being on the stupid bus. The ride was mainly on unpaved road et j’en avait mare. LOL. I met this guy on the bus and so we got off in this hippie village and found the campground and put the tents up at 2am lol. We didn’t do much here, there was a huge market, lots of good foods, jams, arts etc. After two days, we hitched a ride to Bariloche. The man who picked us up did not speak English so I did all the talking. He was a sweetheart, really. He had gone to vetenarian school and told me he used to hitch to university everyday and so when he sees people hitching rides that don’t look sketchy he picks them up. He is on the road a lot because he works for the ministry of agriculture and has to go to farms. Bariloche is a pretty big town but it is by a huge lake and its surrounded by mountains. The area is called the Lake District but it is still considered Southern Argentina. Here I met up with Vera again and we rented a car with 3 guys and did the 7 lakes route, which is beautiful, yes it has 7 lakes and lots of mountains ahaha. There is a tons of skiing here during the winter (yay!!), amazing chocolates and lots of camping. Unfortunately, this is all I did here because I had to meet my parents in Mendoza on the 24th of February. So Vera and I hopped on the bus. The night of the 24th, my parents finally arrived. They were tired, but being in Mendoza we still drank 2 bottles of wine and ate some appetizers. The next day, we visited a bodega (where they make wine) and had lunch there. Ruca Malen had a 5 course meal with 6 different wines to accompany it. I think it might have been the best meal of my life, except for moms food of course ahahaha. The next day as well we visited WineLand. The first place we went to was called O’Fournier and the winery had very high techonology and used gravity rather than pumps for their wine. The place is only 6 years old but it will definitely be HUGE. Keep your eyes open and SAQ or LCBO for their wine ahaha. The architects that build it won awards and apparently their kitchen as well. Had we known, because the next place we went to was a complete disappointment. Well I ended up sick and did not even eat and my mom returned her meal to get something else and my dad only ate half of his. This was a 5 course meal as well, with their top wine, but I guess we had something amazing the day because and so all around it was not great. After paying for the meal, my dad asks if we can visit the place and they wanted to charge us again and told us to catch up with the group that had already started the tour, so we just left. Two days ago we came to Cordoba, I showed my parents the city, we ate very well, talked and spent time together and yesterday we got me a little more set up in my new place.
I tried to keep this short and sweet but realized its quite long, so for now, this is the update that I have. As for what is to come, well for today, cleaning, tomorrow maybe finding curtains, and organizing everything for university because I have not yet opened the documents they sent me…oh and starting work and maybe I should go to the ministry and get my visa,…ummm…ya that shit might be expiring soon…ahaha. Hopefully they don’t kick me out!
So that’s all for now,
More to come soon!
La chola 