Uruguay

On Easter, we headed down to the ferry dock in BA and bought tickets for the ferry to Uruguay. Buenos Aires sits on the estuary of the Río de la Plata, and at this point the river is so wide that it takes an hour to cross. We went through customs before getting on the boat. A man who looked a lot like Albert Einstein typed something on a computer and stamped my passport with an Argentine exit stamp. Then he pointed to a man sitting at the other end of the table and barked, "Uruguay!". He handed the man my passport, who glanced at the photo page and then stamped it with an entry for Uruguay. I thought it was neat that immigration officers from the two countries work in tandem like that. What do they talk about when no one is going through their line? Do they always work with the same partner? What if Argentina and Uruguay had a diplomatic crisis? Would they still work side by side, stamping and penning "90 días" (the period of permanency for tourists) into people's passports?

The ferry was a super-modern spaceship looking thing. Aboard we got our first taste of Uruguay: everyone was sipping mate out of hollowed-out gourds with metal straws. Every now and then they would add more hot water from thermoses to the gourds. Everyone was so low-key, happily chatting and sipping their mate. I got the feeling we would like Uruguay very much.

On the Uruguay side, we disembarked at Colonia. It is a very old port town with colonial architecture and cobblestone streets. We ate lunch and walked to the top of a lighthouse. You could just see the sunlight gleaming off the skyscrapers in BA far away across the river. I felt like we were worlds away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

At the bus station, we ran into a slight problem: all the buses to Montevideo were booked. However, we could opt to pay a slightly less fare and ride standing the whole way. The trip was 2 hours, and we already had reservations in a hostel in Montevideo. We agreed, and off we went standing while every seat was filled. We drove for awhile down a very beautiful two-lane highway lined with date palms. Soon the bus pulled over and the driver told us that there were two empty seats on the bus immediately behind us. I told PJ and Liz to go take them; I didn't mind standing the rest of the way to Montevideo. They walked to the other bus, which had pulled up behind us, and we were on our way again.

The Uruguayan countryside was composed of gently rolling hills with neat little farms and villages. It was extremely clean. I never saw any trash on the sides of the road, and the houses were immaculate. Now I see why Uruguay is known as the "Switzerland of South America". We pulled into Montevideo at dusk, and got a taxi to our hostel.

After unpacking, we set out to find dinner, accompanied by some other hostel guests (mostly Brits). It was Easter Sunday night and Montevideo was DEAD. There were very few people on the streets and even fewer businesses open. We finally found a restaurant that was open and ate. The walk back to hotel was even more devoid of other people. The place felt like a ghost-town. We saw an old building that was once the tallest in Latin America, testimony to the fact that Montevideo was once a very rich port city. Uruguay still is a wealthy country, but was hit hard in the economic crisis of 2001 in neighboring Argentina. Montevideo was recently voted the city with the highest quality of life in South America. I don't feel as though I got a very good picture of the daily lives of its citizens since we were only there for one night, but from what I could tell, Montevideo is an extremely laid-back city. The Uruguayan people are also very friendly. We managed to find a bar that was open (after a pointless and expensive cab ride whereby we were driven through a dark park and got directions from a prostitute) and mingled with a few Uruguayans and some Brazilians who were apparently there on vacation. Outside the bar, on the other side of the street, a lone policeman walked up and down the block making sure no one got too rowdy. I liked this very much: I felt very safe and yet the cop wasn't a threatening presence to anyone. He was just there, in the background, in the seemingly unlikely event that something should get out of hand. Montevideo definitely felt like a very safe city. Later, back at the hostel, we prepared some mate for ourselves to see what it was all about. It is a very bitter tea-like drink which would probably be an acquired taste for most. I took to it immediately.

The next morning, we caught a glimpse of the city coming back to workweek life as we headed back to the bus station for our connection back to Colonia and the ferry back to BA. The same quaint immigration procedures were in place before boarding the boat: a jovial Uruguayan officer working with a jolly fat Argentine woman who added more stamps into the old passport. I was disheartened to see that both of my Uruguay stamps were dealt with a rubber die so worn that the word "Uruguay" is barely legible. But I was there, nonetheless; in a country where seemingly so few visit. It's their loss.

más Buenos Aires

I just couldn't get over how European Buenos Aires felt. I knew that Argentina had been heavily influenced by immigrants from Europe, but at times I found myself forgetting that I was in South America. There were a large number of people with fair skin and light hair. I felt like I fit in by looks alone, which is something that does not happen in Chile. The architecture of the city was more reminiscent of cities in North America and Europe, with tall buildings creating a canyon-like effect in the streets. A couple of buildings looked like they were straight out of Paris. One of my favorites was the Casa Rosada, which is home to the offices of President Néstor Kirchner. It is an Italianate-style building painted a dusky pink (see picture).

The nightlife in Buenos Aires was much more exciting than in Santiago. No one goes out before midnight, and it isn't a proper night out unless you see the sun rise. We went to a club and danced one night, sat in a chic lounge and drank cocktails that were magically affordable thanks to the weak Argentine peso another night, and, my favorite, on our last night in BA we went to a tango hall and watched couples dancing Argentina's national dance. It wasn't a show, and the place was definitely not for tourists. It was just some neighborhood tango hall where locals could practice their steps. The tango is devastatingly romantic and looks to be an extremely difficult dance to master. The two dancers must move their bodies as one.

BA has a distinct charm to it. It has kind of a grainy grandeur; a facade reminiscent of other places, dates, and people, but at the same time distinct in its own identity. It is Argentine, and I feel like I understand what it means to be Argentine just by visiting the capital city. It really lured me in and I hope to return at least once during the remainder of my stay in South America.

de viaje, de nuevo

I am not finished posting photos/stories of Buenos Aires & Montevideo, so stay tuned. This weekend I am going with the program to Pucon, which is 10 hours south of Santiago. It is near Valdivia but further inland. It is basically an outdoor sports paradise. You can go whitewater rafting, mountain climbing, hiking, etc. there. It should be an active weekend.

Yesterday, while walking around campus, I spotted a Bip! card lying on the ground. The Bip! cards are contactless cards that one uses to pay public transportation fares in Santiago. The card I found was a student pass with some kid's name and picture on it. I used the university's online directory and found his e-mail address, then sent him an e-mail telling him I found it and would he like to meet me this afternoon so I could give it back to him? Of course, this was the right thing to do and I would have done it anyway, but while I was typing the e-mail an ulterior motive popped into my head. Maybe I could make a new (Chilean) friend! His reply came quickly and we agreed to meet this afternoon after my poetry class. I told him that I would be easy to spot in a crowd due to my gringo looks.

A few minutes before the appointed time, I arrived at the rendezvous point. I expected Andrés (the guy) to be a little late like everyone is here, but he surprisingly was on time. We chatted for a minute and he said to me: "If a Chilean had found it, they would have never returned it." I said in reply, "Then let this be a good impression of my country. God knows we need some people to make good impressions abroad for once." Andrés laughed. We chatted for a few more minutes; he's studying journalism and wants to go to film school in California. So it's possible that I made a new friend.

mi idioma nativo

Being surrounded by a foreign language 24 hours a day can do some weird stuff to your brain. I have noticed that my ability to speak English and form complex sentences in that language have diminished slightly since arriving in Chile. Here are two particular phrases that I remember uttering within the past week that demonstrate this state of linguistic limbo:

"On the other side of the hand..." I was trying to say "On the other hand" but instead mixed it up with the Spanish phrase "Por el otro lado" ("On the other side", literally)

I was trying to say "snow flurry" to my friend PJ, but instead ended up with this: "You know when it sprinkles, but it is snowing?"

More crazy phrases will be added as they arise.

Tierra Santa y cementerio Recoleta

On Holy Saturday, of all days, we decided to pay a visit to "Tierra Santa", a religious theme park in the north of Buenos Aires. It promised "a visit to Jerusalem without leaving Argentina!" From the minute we stepped out of the taxi I could see that on a list of tacky tourist traps done in very poor taste, the place would rank right up there with Gatlinburg, Tennessee, or perhaps one of the numerous "World's Largest Ball of Twine". According to our research, the park promised animatronic shows featuring the birth of Jesus, the Last Supper, and the Creation story. There are also reenactments of the resurrection of Christ every half-hour. I couldn't decide if the place was meant to be taken seriously.

A treat awaited us at the ticket booth. Two signs were posted. One said "There will be be no reenactment of the Resurrection from Good Friday until 7.00pm on Holy Saturday." I suspect that the park's owners thought it would be in poor taste to have the risen Christ make an appearance before Easter, but then I thought "What difference would it make? This entire place is in poor taste!" A second sign said: "Due to security issues with the nearby airfield, the traditional Holy Saturday reenactment of the Resurrection will not include fireworks." We quickly decided to leave without entering the park and return at 7 o'clock for the special Resurrection.

We went to Recoleta Cemetery in the meantime to see Eva Perón's grave. Or rather, her crypt. The entire cemetery consisted of these elaborate houses above ground with the coffins down below. It looked like a little city, but a city that I'd rather not have to spend the night in. Some of the crypts were in poor repair, and you could actually look inside of them and down into the basement where coffins sat on shelves. It gave me the creeps. Evita's crypt was just like everyone else's, except there were a lot of flowers on hers. There were also a lot of stray cats in the cemetery.

After some lunch, shopping, and a frantic attempt in an internet café to finish an essay due the next Tuesday, we returned to Tierra Santa for the special Easter version of the reenactment of the Resurrection. The park's architecture was stereotypical Middle Eastern, but everything was made out of this hard styrofoam which made the place look even more tacky. There were even fake animals and palm trees (although I don't know why they couldn't have just planted real palm trees, as there are indeed real palm trees in Buenos Aires) everywhere.

Apparently the inclusion of a reenactment of the crucifixion was what separated the Easter version of the show from the regular Resurrections on the half-hour. There were actors playing the roles of the Roman soldiers and an actor playing Jesus. There was a cross that he was actually tied to and "hung" on (there was a platform for him to stand on at the bottom) for all to see. It was awful. Then the "body" was taken off the cross and a woman playing Mary Magdalene sang a prayer. Then we went and stood in a plaza and we given candles by the park staff (dressed like Israelites). We lit our candles and a hush fell over the crowd as a styrofoam mountain in the middle of the park began to emit smoke and laser light. An Aerolineas Argentinas 737 coming in for a landing at the airfield flew by (hence the lack of fireworks). The mountain kept emitting smoke, and finally about 20 minutes later a huge puppet of the risen Christ rose from the mountain accompanied by a recorded chorus singing "Alleluia!" I grimaced while others in the crowd crossed themselves. Liz, PJ and I were so disgusted that we decided to leave soon after. It's not that I don't enjoy a good dose of tackiness every now and then, and it's not that my religious views were insulted; it was just that the place was so over-the-top it was disgusting. And people were taking it all seriously! Meanwhile I'm sure the owners got some fat profits that night.

Buenos Aires recap

Buenos Aires translates to 'good air' and, after the choking smog of Santiago, indeed it was rather like a breath of fresh air. The old cliché of it being "the Paris of South America" is true. It is a city that has managed to fuse European and Latin American elements into a big, cultured, savvy metropolis. I loved every minute of it and hope that I find another $80 round-trip airfare so I can return.

Thanks to the economic crisis of December 2001, when the country went through something like 4 presidents in a month, Argentina is a bargain for people with hard currencies. Everything was at least half as expensive here as it is in Chile. On Saturday night we met up with my friend Daniel from Georgetown, who is studying in BA this semester. He took us out to Plaza Serrano, which is the center of nightlife in the city. It was easy to pretend we were rich as we sat in chic lounges sipping cocktails which would have cost $10 or more in America, but only ran us $3 in Argentina.

While we sat sipping our drinks, we compared Santiago to Buenos Aires. I was afraid before the trip began that I would begin to have second thoughts about my choice to study in Santiago once I saw Buenos Aires. Here are a few of the conclusions that we arrived at:

1) Everything is cheaper in Argentina. Chile is about as expensive as America. (1 point Argentina)
2) Buenos Aires had a blue sky. In Santiago sometimes you can't even see the Andes because of the air pollution, despite the fact that they are right on the edge of the city. (1 point Argentina)
3) The people in Buenos Aires were better-looking than in Santiago (and there were fewer mullets - apparently someone hasn't informed most of South America that the '80s are over) (1 point Argentina)
4) There was a café culture in Buenos Aires, which meant coffee! (2 points Argentina, just because I feel so caffeine-deprived)
5) Los porteños (the term for people who live in Buenos Aires) seemed less friendly than people in Santiago. (1 point Chile)
6) Daniel said that in Argentine culture, one makes friends as a child and keeps those friends for life. Therefore, it is harder for a stranger to make friends with people as an adult. We decided that it seems fairly easy to make at least superficial Chilean friends. (1 point Chile)
7) Buenos Aires has a lot of fine arts. Chile is a desert when it comes to appreciating theatre, dance, art, etc. (1 point Argentina) However, Santiago does have an awesome jazz music club. (1 point Chile)
8) The people studying abroad in BA seem to always be partying. There are also ten times more Americans in the city than in Santiago. (1 point Chile)
9) BA has allowed something as god-awful tacky as "Tierra Santa" to be built. (Read about it later - 1 point Chile)
10) BA had a lot of mosquitoes. Santiago's dry air prevents mosquito swarms. (1 point Chile)
11) The tango beats the cueca (Chile's national dance) any day. (1 point Argentina)

So, in the end, we enjoyed Buenos Aires very much but also recognized the good things about Santiago.

semana santa

I thought I would update everyone on my plans for this weekend. It is "Semana Santa" and everyone is hauling ass out of Santiago. I don't blame them. There have been sundry protests over the last two weeks over the Transantiago fiasco; some of which have turned violent. I have not been even remotely close to being caught in harm's way since the Metro-gassing incident.

Friday I leave for Buenos Aires. I will be accompanied by two friends from the program. I have been in touch with a friend who studied in Buenos Aires last semester who told me of some places one cannot miss.

Easter Sunday will be spent in Uruguay, which is possibly the most random country on the planet. Seriously, how many people personally know a Uruguayan? I have met ONE in my life. How many news items do you hear about Uruguay? It is a country that I have probably spent only 10 minutes of my life thinking about, and I am very excited to be going there, just to say that I have been there.

Apparently, Buenos Aires has a big cafe culture, so maybe I'll finally get a cup of coffee!

I would be very rude to not thank my friend Eric, who sent me an older laptop that he refurbished. It is from said laptop that I write. I will try to upload pictures onto it for your viewing pleasure.

el camping con las vacas

I feel quite refreshed after a weekend away from Santiago's polluted air. We went to Parque Nacional La Campana, about an hour north of Santiago in the coastal mountain range. The scenery reminded me of the mountains of Southern California or maybe Israel. It was a semi-desert area with low scraggly trees and great huge Chilean palms. There were wild horses and cows running through the park, and there was cow dung everywhere. The cows eat the coquitos, which are small fruits which fall from the palms. They then spit the pits out, which, as we campers discovered, can be smashed open with a rock and eaten. The inside looks exactly like a coconut and tastes similar to one.

A few things were a little disappointing about the camping trip. First of all, we never had any big bonfires. When night fell there wasn't much to do except talk in the dark and drink pisco (Chile's national liquor, if I haven't mentioned it before). One had to step lively in order to avoid landing in a nice big cowpie. There was a bright full moon which helped to discern dark spots in the ground from the dirt. Another disappointing thing was that there was no coffee in the morning, which I have always considered a camping staple. I have just come to accept the fact that a decent cup of coffee is pretty much out of the question here. We DID, however, have s'mores each night. Never has a s'more tasted so good as it did in Chile.

However, for the most part the trip was a lot of fun. The night sky was so clear out there in the country that I could see satellites orbiting, and I was proud of myself when I found the Southern Cross constellation without any help from the program leaders (thank you, flags of Australia & New Zealand, for making me familiar with the shape!) On Saturday we hiked over 10km to a waterfall high up in the mountains. There were cow patties up there, too. On Saturday night, while making the 5-minute trek to the bathrooms (which did not have electricity or hot water - I loved the rusticity of it!) my friend Grace and I were astounded by the beauty of the place as the last pink hues of the sun shone from behind the mountains while on the other side of the sky, a full moon was rising above the palms and a few stars had just made their appearance. It was probably the single most beautiful moment I've ever experienced in nature. It reminded me that Chile (outside of Santiago) is a very beautiful country with a wide variety of landscapes. I look forward to seeing more of them in the months to come. Pictures to come later!