Obelisco and Buenos Aires Zoo

Obelisco & Zoo

I ventured to the classic image of Buenos Aires- the Obelisco! It was built to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first founding of the city of Buenos Aires. It's in the middle of the the street called 9 de Julio which is supposed to be one of the biggest streets in the world. To cross the street it usually takes about 4 stops. After the Obelisco we ventured to the Buenos Aires zoo which ended up being free for us because we are students! ay ay ay! The zoo was pretty cool and has any animal you can imagine in it. I also got to see my first ant eater as well as some other random animals that are specific to South America. Really cool!

This poor little guy thought we were going to feed him, hence the open mouth

Hyena with his lunch

Flamingos and more of the zoo

An anteater-- never have seen one in real life!

A view of one part of the zoo

Llama at the zoo!

Me in front of Argentina's mini "Arc de Triomphe"

9 de Julio- one of the largest cross sections in the world

Me in front of the Obelisco

The Obelisco in all of its glory

Recoleta Cemetery and Mendoza!

1st trip: Mendoza-- wine country of Argentina

Thursday 8/12

Started the 14 hour bus trip to Mendoza. We had to leave at 8 PM.

Friday 8/13

We arrived in Mendoza at around 10 AM and to our surprise it was snowing! Legitimately snowing! At this point I was so out of it from the bus ride that I don't think I realized how crazy it was that I was literally just walking through the snow like it was no big deal. I understand this is only weird because I have lived in San Diego my whole life and there rain is a huge deal! We arrived at our hostel- there were 6 of us- but we had to wait to check in at 12:30. Luckily there was some breakfast still left over when we arrived so we were able to get some of that. After eating breakfast we just kind of hung out in the hostel for a little bit and tried to make our plan for the day. Apparently everything started earlier in the morning, but there was one thing we could still do and that was to go up to see the Andes, which was only about an hour away from us. The bus ride was only 12 pesos roundtrip (3 dollars) so we were pumped! We got to the mountains and it was freezing outside. I don't think I have ever been that cold in my entire life! We got to eat at a restaurant that was right next to the mountains, but this place was freezing inside too! We got some good food here and I had lasagna for the first time since being here! After eating we went down to go see the mountain which a had a lake right next to it. It was BEAUTIFUL! After this we had to flag down a bus to get back to Mendoza for the night. That night we just went out for dinner which was empanadas and had some dessert. We went to bed right when we got back because we were all so tired.

Saturday 8/14

Today we had scheduled our bike-wine tour. We had to catch a bus at 9 AM so that we could be taken to the place to pick up our bikes. When we arrived to the bike place, there was a man there who had already scheduled all of our stops at the wineries and had planned out our route. We took off on our bikes in search of the first winery. We got there eventually and along the way we got to see such amazing scenery. We biked right through the town, so there were cars along side us for the most part but on one side of our bike tour we got to see the Andes covered in snow! It was beautiful and made up for the fact that we were freezing. I don't think it is very common for people to do the bike-wine tour in the winter because we got a lot of weird looks from the locals, looking at us like we were crazy for attempting to bike in freezing weather. The first winery we got to was really small and family owned. We got to try 2 wines here and then we were off. The second winery was a lot bigger than the first and exported wine internationally including locations like the United States. We had lunch here which consisted of pizza, which was amazing! After lunch we had our tour around the whole winery. It's crazy to see how much wine can be held in one place and to just hear the process of how the wine is made. This second winery also made grape juice! We went to one last winery on our bike tour and this was an organic winery. They only made red wine because they were just started to prepare to make white wine. Once again, she walked us through the winery and talked about how wine is prepared organically. All in all the wine tour was fun and pretty enlightening on what goes into making just one bottle of wine!

Sunday 8/15

Today we had to leave our hostel at around 9 AM to take a shuttle to our adventure of the weekend. We had decided to do zip-lining today. I was very nervous about this trip because I hate the feeling of loosing my stomach and wasn't really sure how I was going to handle this. We got to the place where the zip-lining was going to go down, but had to wait about 30 minutes for another group to arrive so we could start. During this time I became even more nervous after seeing the zip-line that ran across the lake I was terrified! hah! Eventually it was time for us to get geared up and after asking a million questions of whether my equipment was on tight enough and pestering the poor instructor it was time for us to do the first zip-line. It was absolutely amazing! I didn't loose my stomach at all and it was just me flying in the air above the Andes! I still can't believe that I did it but am so glad I did. The last two zip lines that we did were over a lake and they were the longest ones. I can truly say that this was an experience that I will never forget and am so glad to have had the opportunity to have tried it! And I can officially say I have zip-lined in Argentina in the Andes!

The inside of the 2nd winery.

Me in front of the oldest wine in the 2nd winery.

Some grapes and the Andes in the background-- the view from the bike ride

Wine tasting at the first winery

Beautiful scenery

zip-lining over the lake

More zip-lining

Let the zip-lining begin!

I'm the little dot in there zip-lining

the group!

RECOLETA CEMETERY:

Last weekend I decided to venture to the Recoleta Cemetery. It is not just an ordinary cemetery, it is huge and there aren't really graves, it's more like a luxurious little house that people build for their whole families to be buried in. At first I was very excited because I had heard so much about this place, but as we got there I was a little creeped out just because the caskets aren't actually buried in the ground, but are placed inside the house that is built for that family. The cemetery is really cool though because a lot of famous people from Argentina are buried there like Evita, who was Peron's wife (the President at one time and who started the Peronist movement in Argentina). I'm not sure how much it costs to be buried there but when I asked my host mom, Matilde, she made it seem as though it is very very expensive. While walking around, I made a friend with a stray cat who I like to think lead us on a tour around the cemetery because he waited for us while we took pictures of some of the graves and then continued to walk with us. We eventually lost this little dude, but he kind of added to the creepiness of the place because he was a black cat. There was also a funeral that was happening while we were there, so that was kind of cool/weird. All in all a good day.

The cemetery-- It's huge!

Me in the cemetery!

One of the graves. I'm pretty sure this houses the caskets of the soldiers that died in the war against Paraguay.

Another one of the graves- Mom with 2 children in her lap

My friend from the trip trailing behind us

The grave of Evita

Me in the cemetery again!

Pictures and Friday 8/6

Ok so here's the pictures that I said were coming in the last post as well as yesterday's activities. There's also 2 videos from the San Telmo market! Enjoy!

Friday-8/6/2010

Yesterday I started off the day by going to Museo de Bellas Artes which is in Recoleta- a part of Buenos Aires. For one of my classes, I was required to go here to check out some of the paintings we have been talking about in class. This museum was really cool and it was free! From here a group of friends and I went to go eat some pizza which was probably some of the best pizza I have ever had! After lunch we strolled over to the United Nations Plaza. I didn't even know this existed, but we stumbled upon it! The U.N. Plaza is dedicated to being a free, welcoming green space that everyone can enjoy and it houses the Floralis Generica, which is a huge flower made out of metal. I guess it closes with the sun and opens in the morning like a real flower and it sits in a sea of water. After the flower we ended up going to Jardin Japones. Jardin Japones (Japanese Garden) is a garden that is really famous here. This place is beautiful and it exactly what it sounds like: a Japanese garden! So it has a lot of Japanese architecture and plants. It's a very tranquil space and just gorgeous. It has a huge pond running throughout the whole garden and there's tons of koi fish. There's also a museum and a Japanese restaurant in the garden. All in all this day was probably one of the best yet!

A whole view of Jardin Japones-- kind of hard to see

Jardin Japones continued

Jardin Japones (Japanese Gardin)-- very famous here!

Torrey and I in the midst of all of the beauty that is Jardin Japones!

Floralis Generica-- In the United Nations Plaza!

Recoleta (Part of the city)

In front of the Museo de Bellas Artes in Recoleta.

Sunday-- San Telmo Market

The first thing I have bought off the streets: they taste like honey roasted peanuts!

Some of the art being sold

Me with the Tango dancers of San Telmo

Mate gourds.. of course!

My new church! It's so beautiful!

Last Friday:

This is the art museum that we went to- MALBA

The group in front of MALBA

This was a bench that literally wound around the whole museum. Pretty cool!

My roommate Julie and I in front of Fabrica del Taco-Mexican food!

The inside of Fabrica del Taco- pretty festive!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Videos from San Telmo:

These are both just of some of the street performers that come to San Telmo!

Mas viajes y adventuras!

Well once again, I have neglected this poor little blog and now I have much to tell again! Where to start.

Last weekend:

Last Friday was a fun day even though it was pouring rain! Because of my Mexican food withdrawals here I decided for our group that we were going to go have some Mexican food. I searched online and came across a place called Fabrica del Taco. Apparently it was made by Mexicans who created it in Argentina to share the greatness of Mexican food. So we had to try this place out. It was actually really good and it definitely got the job done. I was able to enjoy some carne asada tacos and a coke! A great meal in my eyes! After this place we were off to an art museum called MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). This place was really cool to explore and it has 3 levels. My roommate Julie and I also had the opportunity to watch the movie, Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens) with our host brother Pablo. The movie is a really famous Argentine movie which shows some of the common robbing tactics here in the city. The movie was really good!

Sunday

Today I went to a Catholic church that my host mom had recommended that was really close to my house with another friend of mine. The church is beautiful, like most of the churches here, but I couldn't believe I was going to mass in this church. Mass here is for the most part the same here besides when you say "peace be with you" they give a beso (kiss) on the cheek instead of a handshake. I liked this church a lot and afterwards there's a little market outside of the church. After church, my friend and I ended up going to the San Telmo Market which is a really famous market here. This market is huge and really festive. It includes an indoor portion as well as covers a probably about 5 or 6 blocks. You can find anything at this market, including street performers and entertainment of all kinds. There's food, clothes, mate gourds, paintings, etc. This place was really fun and I definitely want to go back! It's open every Sunday and definitely a place to be. It took some time for us to walk the whole market and I'm not even sure we walked the whole thing because it goes on forever and it's on an open street which makes it even better. Sometimes a car will try and go through the streets where things are being sold and I don't know if they ever make it through because there's so many people. This was the day that I also tried Volta for the first time. Volta is a heladeria (ice cream place) really close to my house. This place is to die for. Really cool environment and really good ice cream so you can't go wrong.

This week- the third week and 2nd week of classes:

This week was pretty low key as it was just school. I only have class Monday through Thursday, so it's a pretty nice schedule giving me a 3 day weekend every weekend! I'm taking 3 of my classes in Spanish and 1 in English, so it is a little extra challenge to be taking so many classes in Spanish but it's what I need if I want to be completely fluent by the time I leave here!

picture to be added soon!