After more than 4 months of being in Colombia, Cally and I are finally getting involved with our host Rotarian Clubs. After meeting with them 3 times already and seeing that they are really nice and helpful, we began to wonder what the heck we've been doing these past 120-odd days and why we didn't start doing things with them sooner.
We had our first meeting on Tuesday, May 6, where we attended their gathering and gave a little presentation about ourselves. Then we were invited to celebrate Mothers Day with the family of my host, and today we had our 2nd Mothers day celebration with the whole club. They have been very helpful, especially when I was sick this past week. They were worried about me and offered to bring me to the hospital at any hour of the day, even if it was in the middle of the night. Today at the club's Mothers day celebration one of the mothers gave Cally and me little gifts, saying that she was our "adopted mother" since we are lacking family in this country. How sweet!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
A Colombian hospital
I have been sick for over a week now, with some strange icky feeling in my stomach that makes me want to throw up when I eat. Like a good American who has been trained to avoid clinics and hospitals due to incredibly high medical costs, I decided to try and wait out the illness and just hope it went away. Finally on Tuesday I said screw it....I had had enough and it was time to make my first trip to a foreign hospital!
I arrived at the Javeriana's hospital at 10am to a room full of sick people who had been waiting for hours already. It took me close to an hour to just fill out the papers, get myself on the list, and pay for the consult, then they told me it would be another 2 hours before I'd be able to see a doctor.
"Two hours" slowly dragged into three and a half hours, and finally at 2:30pm I had my meeting, with a doctor who looked like she was 20. Probably a recent graduate of the University....
I had to get a blood test, and not until AFTER they had taken my blood did they tell me that I could not leave that area until my test results came back, which would be ANOTHER 2 HOURS. But after I found out that it only cost 30,000 pesos (like $17USD) I was like "Take all the blood you want for that price!!!" (It would have cost me hundreds in the US).
After getting my results back, my doctor put a paper in front of me with random words and numbers on it and proceeded to tell me that I have an infection and that I have to take 2 different types of pills for it. But not really sure where the infection is or where it came from....
-6.5 hours total from arrival to departure
-$35 total for the consultation and the blood test
-a very lacking explanation about what is going on in my stomach
In the US I would have paid a GREAT deal more, but I would have been in and out in 1.5 hours, knowing exactly what was wrong with me.... Oh the joys of learning about the world....
I arrived at the Javeriana's hospital at 10am to a room full of sick people who had been waiting for hours already. It took me close to an hour to just fill out the papers, get myself on the list, and pay for the consult, then they told me it would be another 2 hours before I'd be able to see a doctor.
"Two hours" slowly dragged into three and a half hours, and finally at 2:30pm I had my meeting, with a doctor who looked like she was 20. Probably a recent graduate of the University....
I had to get a blood test, and not until AFTER they had taken my blood did they tell me that I could not leave that area until my test results came back, which would be ANOTHER 2 HOURS. But after I found out that it only cost 30,000 pesos (like $17USD) I was like "Take all the blood you want for that price!!!" (It would have cost me hundreds in the US).
After getting my results back, my doctor put a paper in front of me with random words and numbers on it and proceeded to tell me that I have an infection and that I have to take 2 different types of pills for it. But not really sure where the infection is or where it came from....
-6.5 hours total from arrival to departure
-$35 total for the consultation and the blood test
-a very lacking explanation about what is going on in my stomach
In the US I would have paid a GREAT deal more, but I would have been in and out in 1.5 hours, knowing exactly what was wrong with me.... Oh the joys of learning about the world....
Thursday, May 8, 2008
5 DAY GLOBALIZED SLUMBER PARTY IN FARC RED ZONE
TRAVELING WITH 9 WORLDLY WOMEN
So we just had a 5-day weekend because May 1st is Labor Day in Colombia, and May 5th is some saint holiday. So since the 1st fell on a Thursday a
nd the 5th fell on a Monday, they gave us Friday off as well, giving us 5 days of vacation.
Taking advantage of this long weekend, a group of friends and I made our way down to a town called San Agustin, which is located about 10 hours southwest of Bogotá. We were 9 girls, from various countries....4 from the US, 3 from Brazil, 1 Bolivian, and 1 from French Guyana. Our only common language was Spanish, but throughout the trip it was one big mix of Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, and in general we could all pretty much understand each other, even if it was in one of the languages we don't speak.
In order to arrive in San Agustin, we had to travel through one mountain range of the Andes, into a valley and up into the central Andes mountain range (in Colombia the Andes split into three mountain ranges, and Bogotá is located in the easternmost range). So the weather was changing from cold to hot to cold all the time.
DESIERTO TATACOA
Our first night we stayed in a town called Villa Vieja, which about halfway to San Agustin, and is located close to a desert called Tatacoa. This "desert" didn't really seem like a desert, since it was completely muddy (it rained the day before....but that usually doesn't matter in a desert, right??). So we walked through this "desert" barefooted, passing cacti but at the same time sloshing through the m
ud..
At one point we passed a tree called "the tree of desires". When you pass the tree of desires you are supposed to take one of the closed leaves from a branch, open it up and make 3 wishes. We all opened our leaves and thought about our three desires. Hopefully they will come true!
As you can see from the pictures, this wasn't any normal desert, and we came out of there with really really dirty feet. The picture above is of one of my Brazilian friends named Edna. Edna started the trek through the "desert" wearing her shoes before she decided to go barefoot, and afterwards her shoes were pretty much ruined.
SAN AGUSTIN
Our second day we continued on our way to San Agustin. In order to get to San Agustin, we had to go through a town called Pitalito, which, unbeknownst to me at the time, is controlled by the FARC. I thought this was pretty cool, and was hoping that I would get to see some guerrillas. And I DID get to see guerrillas (at least I think so). But I think I will refrain from putting details on the internet, it might not be safe......
In San Agustin, which is a town of only about 2000, we met up with two guy friends, one Colombian/Gringo and one Canadian from Quebec. They were familiar with the area and knew people in the town, so we were able to get deals on our hostel and horseback riding.
One of the days we went to an archaeological park with old indigenous ruins. This was pretty cool, but I felt like all the ruins looked pretty much the same. Nevertheless, it was still interesting. This indigenous group must have been obsessed with sex and phallic symbols and giving birth and stuff, because every statue we saw was either in the shape of a penis or was of a woman giving birth.
So in the picture of the ruins you will see two phallic symbols, which are supposed to signify the symbol of life, and in the middle is another character with a recently born child.
The last day there we all went horseback riding.
We rented the horses for 4 hours and went riding through the countryside, uphill, downhill, through a river, and to a valley with an amazing view. We started at around 9am and finished at 1pm. The weather wasn't the greatest, it was lightly misting, but it wasn't too bad. But towards the end it was pouring buckets of water and we were very far away from the hostel, so we had to do our best to gallop back as fast as possible while soaking wet. It was my first time ever horseback riding. Very cool, but OH MY GOD MY BODY HURT THE NEXT DAY!
The picture to the left is of the valley we rode to. Pretty sweet huh?
Then on Monday morning we made our way back to Bogota, leaving at 6:30am and arriving close to 6:30pm. Now it's back to my classes, for one more month before my next adventures begin!
So we just had a 5-day weekend because May 1st is Labor Day in Colombia, and May 5th is some saint holiday. So since the 1st fell on a Thursday a
nd the 5th fell on a Monday, they gave us Friday off as well, giving us 5 days of vacation.Taking advantage of this long weekend, a group of friends and I made our way down to a town called San Agustin, which is located about 10 hours southwest of Bogotá. We were 9 girls, from various countries....4 from the US, 3 from Brazil, 1 Bolivian, and 1 from French Guyana. Our only common language was Spanish, but throughout the trip it was one big mix of Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese, and in general we could all pretty much understand each other, even if it was in one of the languages we don't speak.
In order to arrive in San Agustin, we had to travel through one mountain range of the Andes, into a valley and up into the central Andes mountain range (in Colombia the Andes split into three mountain ranges, and Bogotá is located in the easternmost range). So the weather was changing from cold to hot to cold all the time.
DESIERTO TATACOA
Our first night we stayed in a town called Villa Vieja, which about halfway to San Agustin, and is located close to a desert called Tatacoa. This "desert" didn't really seem like a desert, since it was completely muddy (it rained the day before....but that usually doesn't matter in a desert, right??). So we walked through this "desert" barefooted, passing cacti but at the same time sloshing through the m
ud..At one point we passed a tree called "the tree of desires". When you pass the tree of desires you are supposed to take one of the closed leaves from a branch, open it up and make 3 wishes. We all opened our leaves and thought about our three desires. Hopefully they will come true!
As you can see from the pictures, this wasn't any normal desert, and we came out of there with really really dirty feet. The picture above is of one of my Brazilian friends named Edna. Edna started the trek through the "desert" wearing her shoes before she decided to go barefoot, and afterwards her shoes were pretty much ruined.
SAN AGUSTIN
Our second day we continued on our way to San Agustin. In order to get to San Agustin, we had to go through a town called Pitalito, which, unbeknownst to me at the time, is controlled by the FARC. I thought this was pretty cool, and was hoping that I would get to see some guerrillas. And I DID get to see guerrillas (at least I think so). But I think I will refrain from putting details on the internet, it might not be safe......
In San Agustin, which is a town of only about 2000, we met up with two guy friends, one Colombian/Gringo and one Canadian from Quebec. They were familiar with the area and knew people in the town, so we were able to get deals on our hostel and horseback riding.
One of the days we went to an archaeological park with old indigenous ruins. This was pretty cool, but I felt like all the ruins looked pretty much the same. Nevertheless, it was still interesting. This indigenous group must have been obsessed with sex and phallic symbols and giving birth and stuff, because every statue we saw was either in the shape of a penis or was of a woman giving birth.
So in the picture of the ruins you will see two phallic symbols, which are supposed to signify the symbol of life, and in the middle is another character with a recently born child.
The last day there we all went horseback riding.
We rented the horses for 4 hours and went riding through the countryside, uphill, downhill, through a river, and to a valley with an amazing view. We started at around 9am and finished at 1pm. The weather wasn't the greatest, it was lightly misting, but it wasn't too bad. But towards the end it was pouring buckets of water and we were very far away from the hostel, so we had to do our best to gallop back as fast as possible while soaking wet. It was my first time ever horseback riding. Very cool, but OH MY GOD MY BODY HURT THE NEXT DAY!
The picture to the left is of the valley we rode to. Pretty sweet huh?
Then on Monday morning we made our way back to Bogota, leaving at 6:30am and arriving close to 6:30pm. Now it's back to my classes, for one more month before my next adventures begin!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Academic Strikes, Changes in my objectives
ACADEMIC STRIKE IN THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
On April 9th, the National University down the street where Cally studies went on strike. I am not sure about the details of the strike, but I know that it started on the 60 year anniversary of the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a revolutionary from the 1940's whose face appears on the 1000 peso (about $.70) bill. I guess this is normal for the National University, which supposedly is full of revolutionaries or something (after seeing the huge painting of Che Guevara's face on a wall in "la plaza Che", I believe it). It is now April 25th and the University is still on strike, so Cally has had a good 2.5 weeks of vacation, while I continue to drag myself out of bed every morning at 6..
CHANGES IN MY ACADEMIC OBJECTIVES
This is my formal way of telling everyone that I will no longer be continuing with the specialization in Conflict Resolution. However, I will be taking other courses in different fields next semester. After nearly 4 months here I have realized that the coursework doesn't really interest me that much. Of course, some classes are interesting, but most of them I find it a chore to attend. My reasoning for taking different courses next year is the following:
1. I don't enjoy many of my classes
2. The diploma I would receive, the specialization, does not exist in the US or Europe, and therefore will not transfer. What will transfer will be the individual classes, so I might as well take classes that intellectually stimulate me.
3. 7am classes 6 days a week really sucks, especially for classes that don't grab my attention.
4. I miss taking language classes. I think this time I will take French.
So next semester I plan to take a few classes from the Conflict Resolution specialization, but also other humanities and language classes.
And that's my ever-so-tardy update for now.
On April 9th, the National University down the street where Cally studies went on strike. I am not sure about the details of the strike, but I know that it started on the 60 year anniversary of the murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a revolutionary from the 1940's whose face appears on the 1000 peso (about $.70) bill. I guess this is normal for the National University, which supposedly is full of revolutionaries or something (after seeing the huge painting of Che Guevara's face on a wall in "la plaza Che", I believe it). It is now April 25th and the University is still on strike, so Cally has had a good 2.5 weeks of vacation, while I continue to drag myself out of bed every morning at 6..
CHANGES IN MY ACADEMIC OBJECTIVES
This is my formal way of telling everyone that I will no longer be continuing with the specialization in Conflict Resolution. However, I will be taking other courses in different fields next semester. After nearly 4 months here I have realized that the coursework doesn't really interest me that much. Of course, some classes are interesting, but most of them I find it a chore to attend. My reasoning for taking different courses next year is the following:
1. I don't enjoy many of my classes
2. The diploma I would receive, the specialization, does not exist in the US or Europe, and therefore will not transfer. What will transfer will be the individual classes, so I might as well take classes that intellectually stimulate me.
3. 7am classes 6 days a week really sucks, especially for classes that don't grab my attention.
4. I miss taking language classes. I think this time I will take French.
So next semester I plan to take a few classes from the Conflict Resolution specialization, but also other humanities and language classes.
And that's my ever-so-tardy update for now.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Adventures in ARGENTINA
Lost
On Wednesday, March 19th Little Katy and I made our way from Montevideo down to Argentina to spend a couple of days in Buenos Aires. Our adventures started IMMEDIATELY when we got off the boat and realized that we had lost the little paper which had the address and phone number of our hostel on it. So there we were, at 11:30pm walking around Buenos Aires like two lost tourist fools with our backpacks, trying to figure out where we were supposed to stay. We stopped at 2 internet cafes, hoping to look up the address of the hostel, but for some reason the internet was out in both of them. Shoot. Finally the internet came back on and we were able to find our place...
Touristy stuff in BA
Thursday we got up early and spent the whole day walking around the city. We didn't have a map, so we just walked around hoping we would bump into important things, just kind of deciding along the way which way we should go. We saw the Casa Rosada (Pink House, kind of the equivalent of the White House), the Plaza de Mayo where the mothers of the desaparecidos from the dictatorship in the '70's march every week to demand information about their children who were taken from the government some 32 years ago, we saw soldiers from the Falkland Islands war demanding recognition from the Argentine government, we saw the Rio de la Plata which separates Uruguay from Argentina and flows out into the Atlantic Ocean, we went to Barrio Boca (which is where the soccer team Boca Juniors is from), and we went to the obelisk located on the widest street in the world.
Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo
This was definitely an incredible experience, and probably the highlight of our trip to Buenos Aires. Little Katy and I both had classes which covered social issues in Latin America, so this was one of the topics that we studied while at CSS. One of my loves of traveling is being able to be in the places that used to just show up in my homework... We talked with a couple of the mothers, and their stories were heartbreaking. During the dictatorship in the '70's, there was not a lot of freedom of speech, and many who spoke out against the government wound up disappearing, hence the name "desaparecidos" (disappeared). In Argentina alone there were more than 30,000 who disappeared, never to be heard from again. Most of these were college students in their early 20's, just like me and Little Katy. One particular mother we talked with lost her son and his wife in 1976. They were 23, and their only reason for being taken by the government was because they wanted a better world for their two children (at that time 1.5 years and 8 days old). This hit hard because Little Katy and I are 23 and 22, and we too are working for a better world, and can't imagine living in a country which doesn't allow dialogue among its citizens. If this mother's son and his wife were alive today, they would be 55 years old, yet they were taken in their prime, just when their lives were starting... None of the desaparecidos have surfaced since they were taken, and it is suspected that they were killed and dumped far into the ocean. Since 1976 many of these mothers have been marching in the Plaza de Mayo, which is right in front of the Pink House, demanding information on their sons and daughters. However, the number of mothers is diminishing as they are rapidly aging, with most being over 80 years old now. However, every Thursday at 3:30pm a group of mothers and numerous tourists show up to march for a half an hour, all the while yelling "la plaza es de las madres, y no de los cobardes!" ("the plaza is for the mothers and not for the cowards"...I'm assuming the "cowards" are the government workers since the plaza is situated directly in front of the pink house).
A night out on the town
Argentines and Uruguayans are CRAZY when it comes to nightlife. If you show up to a club at midnight you will be bored for the next two hours because it will be pretty much empty. Their nightlife starts between 2-3am, and ends any time between 6-9am. Thursday night we decided to go out with some friends we had met, but they were taking their time getting ready...Little Katy and I were getting impatient because it was already 2:00am and we still hadn't left. We didn't realize until we got to the club that this is ok. We arrived at 2:30am and it was pretty full, but didn't completely fill up until after 3am. It was a good time, lots of rooms with different types of music we could choose to dance to.
Throughout our entire trip we were constantly being approached by Argentine men trying to hit on us, and if we ignored them they would just try to hit on us in English. This got really really annoying and when it happened again at the club Katy and I decided to tell them that we don't speak English. So they asked us where we were from, and, having to think fast, I said the first country that popped into my head; I said we were from Germany. I didn't realize that this was a bad idea until the guy was like "hey!! my friend here is from Cologne!! Wait I'll get him for you!" Realizing that I'd have to defend myself in German if I stayed there, I quickly grabbed Katy's arm and told her we should scram, which was kind of funny because she was talking with someone else at the time and didn't know what was going on...Next time I'll tell them I'm from Slovenia or something (I mean, who's from Slovenia anyway?)
Zombies in the city
When we finally left the club, we walked outside and saw that the sun was already up...in fact it was almost 8am by that point. We returned to our hostel and crashed, only to be woken up at 11 by the hostel worker telling us that we had to check out. The only thing we wanted to do was sleep...but we no longer had a bed...so we walked around Buenos Aires in a daze, like zombies...everything was closed because it was Good Friday, so we just looked for a small patch of grass we could lay down on....we couldn't find one so we ended up going to a little park and sitting on the benches until we saw that in that park the police were apprehending a couple of guys who were doing drugs not too far from us, so we left....
Braving a storm in the Rio de la Plata
Friday evening we boarded our boat back to Montevideo, but we were held up at the port in Buenos Aires because there was a storm traveling through the Rio de la Plata. I had a huge headache at the time, so Katy told me that I should drink water, since I was obviously hungover from the night before. I drank a lot of water, which didn't help, so I went and bought a ham sandwich, which helped me feel better.
We finally left an hour or two after we were supposed to... The first half of the trip was very easy going and smooth, but once we got closer to Montevideo we hit the storm. The boat, which was fairly small, was being thrown this way and that, knocked around by the high winds and torrential waves. And of course here we are in the boat, tired, hungover, and dehydrated. I started to feel sick as the boat begin to go up and down, up and down, up and down, side to side, side to side, side to side, until suddenly, SPLAT! There went the ham sandwich.... And Katy, being the good friend she is, sat there and laughed, because at the same time she was also feeling sick but was being hit on by two workers on the boat. So I'm there vomiting, Katy's laughing and two Uruguayan guys are asking her for her number while we're being tossed every which way in the Rio de la Plata. What an adventure...
Impressions of Argentina
Argentina is Italy. That's really all there is to it. It's full of people with Italian descent. And Buenos Aires is CRAZY. It's like the New York of South America. In fact, the way I see it, Montevideo is like DC and Buenos Aires is like New York...Montevideo being much more laid back and smaller like DC, but then Buenos Aires which never sleeps and has huge buildings and famous monuments, with the same hustle and bustle and fast-paced craziness that New York has. I could definitely go back to that city.....
And now it's back to the early mornings in cold Bogota....
On Wednesday, March 19th Little Katy and I made our way from Montevideo down to Argentina to spend a couple of days in Buenos Aires. Our adventures started IMMEDIATELY when we got off the boat and realized that we had lost the little paper which had the address and phone number of our hostel on it. So there we were, at 11:30pm walking around Buenos Aires like two lost tourist fools with our backpacks, trying to figure out where we were supposed to stay. We stopped at 2 internet cafes, hoping to look up the address of the hostel, but for some reason the internet was out in both of them. Shoot. Finally the internet came back on and we were able to find our place...
Touristy stuff in BA
Thursday we got up early and spent the whole day walking around the city. We didn't have a map, so we just walked around hoping we would bump into important things, just kind of deciding along the way which way we should go. We saw the Casa Rosada (Pink House, kind of the equivalent of the White House), the Plaza de Mayo where the mothers of the desaparecidos from the dictatorship in the '70's march every week to demand information about their children who were taken from the government some 32 years ago, we saw soldiers from the Falkland Islands war demanding recognition from the Argentine government, we saw the Rio de la Plata which separates Uruguay from Argentina and flows out into the Atlantic Ocean, we went to Barrio Boca (which is where the soccer team Boca Juniors is from), and we went to the obelisk located on the widest street in the world.
Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo
This was definitely an incredible experience, and probably the highlight of our trip to Buenos Aires. Little Katy and I both had classes which covered social issues in Latin America, so this was one of the topics that we studied while at CSS. One of my loves of traveling is being able to be in the places that used to just show up in my homework... We talked with a couple of the mothers, and their stories were heartbreaking. During the dictatorship in the '70's, there was not a lot of freedom of speech, and many who spoke out against the government wound up disappearing, hence the name "desaparecidos" (disappeared). In Argentina alone there were more than 30,000 who disappeared, never to be heard from again. Most of these were college students in their early 20's, just like me and Little Katy. One particular mother we talked with lost her son and his wife in 1976. They were 23, and their only reason for being taken by the government was because they wanted a better world for their two children (at that time 1.5 years and 8 days old). This hit hard because Little Katy and I are 23 and 22, and we too are working for a better world, and can't imagine living in a country which doesn't allow dialogue among its citizens. If this mother's son and his wife were alive today, they would be 55 years old, yet they were taken in their prime, just when their lives were starting... None of the desaparecidos have surfaced since they were taken, and it is suspected that they were killed and dumped far into the ocean. Since 1976 many of these mothers have been marching in the Plaza de Mayo, which is right in front of the Pink House, demanding information on their sons and daughters. However, the number of mothers is diminishing as they are rapidly aging, with most being over 80 years old now. However, every Thursday at 3:30pm a group of mothers and numerous tourists show up to march for a half an hour, all the while yelling "la plaza es de las madres, y no de los cobardes!" ("the plaza is for the mothers and not for the cowards"...I'm assuming the "cowards" are the government workers since the plaza is situated directly in front of the pink house).
A night out on the town
Argentines and Uruguayans are CRAZY when it comes to nightlife. If you show up to a club at midnight you will be bored for the next two hours because it will be pretty much empty. Their nightlife starts between 2-3am, and ends any time between 6-9am. Thursday night we decided to go out with some friends we had met, but they were taking their time getting ready...Little Katy and I were getting impatient because it was already 2:00am and we still hadn't left. We didn't realize until we got to the club that this is ok. We arrived at 2:30am and it was pretty full, but didn't completely fill up until after 3am. It was a good time, lots of rooms with different types of music we could choose to dance to.
Throughout our entire trip we were constantly being approached by Argentine men trying to hit on us, and if we ignored them they would just try to hit on us in English. This got really really annoying and when it happened again at the club Katy and I decided to tell them that we don't speak English. So they asked us where we were from, and, having to think fast, I said the first country that popped into my head; I said we were from Germany. I didn't realize that this was a bad idea until the guy was like "hey!! my friend here is from Cologne!! Wait I'll get him for you!" Realizing that I'd have to defend myself in German if I stayed there, I quickly grabbed Katy's arm and told her we should scram, which was kind of funny because she was talking with someone else at the time and didn't know what was going on...Next time I'll tell them I'm from Slovenia or something (I mean, who's from Slovenia anyway?)
Zombies in the city
When we finally left the club, we walked outside and saw that the sun was already up...in fact it was almost 8am by that point. We returned to our hostel and crashed, only to be woken up at 11 by the hostel worker telling us that we had to check out. The only thing we wanted to do was sleep...but we no longer had a bed...so we walked around Buenos Aires in a daze, like zombies...everything was closed because it was Good Friday, so we just looked for a small patch of grass we could lay down on....we couldn't find one so we ended up going to a little park and sitting on the benches until we saw that in that park the police were apprehending a couple of guys who were doing drugs not too far from us, so we left....
Braving a storm in the Rio de la Plata
Friday evening we boarded our boat back to Montevideo, but we were held up at the port in Buenos Aires because there was a storm traveling through the Rio de la Plata. I had a huge headache at the time, so Katy told me that I should drink water, since I was obviously hungover from the night before. I drank a lot of water, which didn't help, so I went and bought a ham sandwich, which helped me feel better.
We finally left an hour or two after we were supposed to... The first half of the trip was very easy going and smooth, but once we got closer to Montevideo we hit the storm. The boat, which was fairly small, was being thrown this way and that, knocked around by the high winds and torrential waves. And of course here we are in the boat, tired, hungover, and dehydrated. I started to feel sick as the boat begin to go up and down, up and down, up and down, side to side, side to side, side to side, until suddenly, SPLAT! There went the ham sandwich.... And Katy, being the good friend she is, sat there and laughed, because at the same time she was also feeling sick but was being hit on by two workers on the boat. So I'm there vomiting, Katy's laughing and two Uruguayan guys are asking her for her number while we're being tossed every which way in the Rio de la Plata. What an adventure...
Impressions of Argentina
Argentina is Italy. That's really all there is to it. It's full of people with Italian descent. And Buenos Aires is CRAZY. It's like the New York of South America. In fact, the way I see it, Montevideo is like DC and Buenos Aires is like New York...Montevideo being much more laid back and smaller like DC, but then Buenos Aires which never sleeps and has huge buildings and famous monuments, with the same hustle and bustle and fast-paced craziness that New York has. I could definitely go back to that city.....
And now it's back to the early mornings in cold Bogota....
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Uruguay
My impressions of Uruguay...
I've been in Uruguay for 5 days now, and here are some of my observations:
-Montevideo is a very low-key city...very calm and quiet.
-It's like some type of mix between Southern Europe and Eastern US. Definitely lacks the typical Latin feel.
-They party LIKE CRAZY! People usually go out to the club around 2am and come back at 6am. You can't find anything going on before midnight.
-There is meat EVERYWHERE. Uruguayans eat more meat per person than any country in the world.
-People from this part of the world like to drink something called "Mate" (pronounced MAW tay). They take some type of plant and crush it up and put it into a little cup, then pour hot water (which they carry around in a big thermos) into the cup and suck it with a long metal straw. It tastes kind of like tea, and looks like this:
Tomorrow, ARGENTINA!
I've been in Uruguay for 5 days now, and here are some of my observations:
-Montevideo is a very low-key city...very calm and quiet.
-It's like some type of mix between Southern Europe and Eastern US. Definitely lacks the typical Latin feel.
-They party LIKE CRAZY! People usually go out to the club around 2am and come back at 6am. You can't find anything going on before midnight.
-There is meat EVERYWHERE. Uruguayans eat more meat per person than any country in the world.
-People from this part of the world like to drink something called "Mate" (pronounced MAW tay). They take some type of plant and crush it up and put it into a little cup, then pour hot water (which they carry around in a big thermos) into the cup and suck it with a long metal straw. It tastes kind of like tea, and looks like this:
Tomorrow, ARGENTINA!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
CHIVA! CARLOS VIVES! POLITICAL TRANQUILITY!
Writing now from the airport in Bogota, on my way to Montevideo...
CHIVA
About a week and a half ago I helped to celebrate the birthday of a friend in a CHIVA!!! A Chiva is a big Colombian bus that you can rent with a bunch of people and it takes you through Bogota while everyone inside drinks and dances. Traditionally the Chiva has been used to transport people through the countryside, and it is commonly packed with people...like this:
Dangerous? Hehe...
CARLOS VIVES
This last weekend I went with Cally and a couple of my roommates to a FREE CARLOS VIVES CONCERT in La Plaza de Bolívar (main plaza in Bogota). Carlos Vives, from the Caribbean coast, is a musical god here in Colombia, and is easily one of my favorite musical artists. 
You can listen to a sample of his music here: http://mx.youtube.com/watch?v=25o3XdgSSjY
POLITICAL TRANQUILITY
Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador resolved their little military dispute. Stop worrying.
Next stop...URUGUAY and ARGENTINA!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
