Uruguay

I spent Sunday in Colonia, Uruguay, with my group from Expanish. It was an early morning (I had to wake up at 6 am, which is fairly early considering that I had only returned home from the previous night's milonga an hour and a half before,) but we got there early enough to spend the entire day. The first part was a tour of the old city. Colonia is very much a city trying to expand its tourism. It was given the classification of world heritage site, at least the small part that consitutes the old city. It is the oldest town in Uruguay: quaint, with Portuguese roads intersecting Spanish roads (after the Portuguese conquered the natives...the Spanish conquered them.) I think our tour guide was being paid both by us and the Uruguayan government to help boost their economy, "This is the church...a lovely place to get married. A French couple was married here in 2007...an couple from the United States last year with 80 wedding guests that all stayed in our town for three days...if any of you are getting married or know anyone who will soon be marrying please come marry here in Colonia. It is very good for our economy and tourism. The priest will be done with the service in 15 minutes and you may speak with him about marrying here in our church." She was very keen to plug Colonia and all of its wonderful attractions on many occassions.

Myself and a friend from class--ironically another environmentalist from about an hour and a half away from where I go to school on Long Island who goes to a school, Oberlin, about an hour and a half away from where I live in Ohio--rented bicycles and road around the city. We saw the more modern areas of the city, the more spread out parts (because it is really more of a village than city,) and the long sandy coast. We enjoyed some time on the beach, despite the cold, and crawled through a hole in the fence around the old, crumbling bull fighting ring (as bull fighting was outlawed in Uruguay after the Argentians had it built for their wealthy looking for a vacation spot to enjoy.)


As Noelia (my couch surfing host,) told me, they DO drink matte even more in Uruguay than in Argentina. In the evening, it seemed that at least half of the population was carrying around their thermos under one arm with matte in hand.

While walking back to wait the last couple of hours at the boat (as it is winter, wandering around outside, especially in the evening, is only enjoyable for so long) we passed a group of men on a site street with a fire in the road and a dozen drums laying around it. We walked over to talk to them and learned that twice a week at night they get together to play traditional Uruguayan music in a mini parade in the old city. It was the best part of our day! We spent the whole day as Americans LOOKING at Uruguayan houses, beaches, food, people, and matte, but finally we got to talk with them and experience a little bit of their culture from their side.

While walking down the central block full of outside restaurants with hosts sweet talking you to come in (think Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy,) there are dancers on small stages out front of the restaurants dancing traditional Tango (the passionate dance originated in La Boca and now spread throughout the world) and Chacarera (the folklore dance more traditional to the rest of Argentina, but with almost always at least one song to be found at the end of a milonga in Buenos Aires.) While walking past, one of the sweet talkers told me that I should dance tango. He was surprised when I told him I did, and promptly told the professional on stage. I took of my bag and got up on stage and to dance with him, for the audience surrounding, and got myself a nice picture.




Boca Juniors Soccer Match in La Boca! Soccer here is huge, and Boca Juniors probably have the most loyal fans of them all. We saw a match between Boca and River Plate, posibly the most intense rivalry within Argentina. That smoke that you see: that would be fans setting off fireworks of their own in the stadium during the game. It was pretty intense, although Ohio State's stadium has thoroughly ruined any potential awe that most people would get from stadiums of La Boca's size.


More pictures in La Boca! I spent last Saturday in La Boca with a group of couch surfers that meets every two or so weekends in a different part of the city to take pictures. It's the perfect way to photograph the city: there are BA natives who a.) know where to go and b.) know intersting facts about each place! La Boca is one of BA's oldest barrios, initally filled with immigrants who had originally come hoping for land from much of Europe and mostly Italy. The traditional style of brightly colored buildings started when La Boca's residents were too poor to purchase fresh paint for their homes. Indtead, they would take scrap paint from boats coming in to port and paint their houses using the various colors of left-over scrap paint. Today, it has held through as tradition...and mostly for tourism. La Boca is a large barrio, but it has a very distinct tourist trap area with the prettyist colors, full of street artisans and tango dancers and tourist shops selling chinsy junk, usually catering to the tourist's enthrawlment with tango.


Boca Juniors Soccer Match in La Boca! Soccer here is huge, and Boca Juniors probably have the most loyal fans of them all. We saw a match between Boca and River Plate, posibly the most intense rivalry within Argentina. That smoke that you see: that would be fans setting off fireworks of their own in the stadium during the game. It was pretty intense, although Ohio State's stadium has thoroughly ruined any potential awe that most people would get from stadiums of La Boca's size.

View from San Telmo, a barrio of BA, by night.


A couple of saturdays ago I spent at the horse racing track with a group of couch surfers, before going to a cultural festival in the evening. The moment I arrived to the track my allergies skyrocketed, but luckily I was in the company of an allergetic English man, like myself, so with his allergy blockers and my Visine, we were a mean team. I really have no idea what happened at the event...horse racing is pretty far from my realm of wanting to decipher. Horse races are fairly lame themselves: every 35 minutes or so a new race begins, and you see a bunch of horses run past you once. Woohoo. I was the only one who didn´t bet (I figure there is no reason for an addictive personality to even begin,) but I definitely enjoyed the nice day in the sun with friends.

Downtown BA at night!





A nighttime Buenos Aires Milonga, or nightclub specifically for tango music and dancing with a live band and a performance. The band was at least nine strong with FOUR accordian players, and the overall musicians/ music/ performance couple made a performance that was about as intense as any other genre of music could possibly invoke.




This was my first milonga after two classes here and one at home in New York, and I'd say it went pretty well! Other than the fantastic ambience, I got some good dancing practice in with my snazzy new tango shoes. Luckily my stars aligned: I met Aljosha, a guy from Berlin here in BA specifically to learn tango, and he showed me where he takes lessons. Then I met him to go to a milonga: he had already done all of the scouting out, so the worst work has all been done for me. From there I met his tango friend and she danced with me a good portion of the night, giving me great practice (later I found out she gives tango lessons and I got all of that for free--no wonder she knew so well how to lead!)

Photos of Buenos Aires

Noelia and I in La Plata in front of the Cathedral, a city an hour south of BA.





I spent some time walking around La Boca, a working class district known for its bright colors and its tango.

7 Days in Buenos Aires!

It has been one week today since I stepped off of the airplane and into the southern hemisphere, into a Latin American country with a European flavor, and into winter in Buenos Aires.

So what is there to say after a week here in BA? It's big. It is full of concrete, cement, noise, and lots of rush. So, ...basically like New York. ...And any other big city in any other country in the world, with its own quirks of individuality.

Now after my first full week, due to a solid amount of aimless wandering and sore feet, I am becoming familiar with its size (looking at point A and point B on a map and estimating the real space between can only be realized after a suficient amount of actual practice and losing and refinding oneself.) I'm getting used to the public buses here while hardly using the subway at all; traveling above land in a bus, watching through the glass as the city warps and shifts with the individuality of different neighborhoods is the best way to see and become familiar with the different areas of a city, difficult as the buses here may be to decode. After Argentina's numerous catastophic economic crisis the most pressing one now is making sure you have the change to pay for each individual bus ride with change in coins...seemingly a silly matter until you actually have to try to do it. All told, however familiar with BA's public transport I may be becoming, I cannot wait until I finally am able to buy a used bike!

I've begun regular tango lessons and just today bought myself some classy tango shoes (that I should be able to ski, swim, and mountain climb in, as well, for what they charged me) and it even looks like I'm starting to find some dancing partners. In fact, I'm hurrying through this blog entry to go meet a friend out at a milonga--or Argentine tango club--and tomorrow I am taking salsa lessons with someone I found through couch surfing because of our similar interests.

Speaking of which, I have met a truckload of fun, interesting people through couch surfing: there could not exist a better way to meet a wide range of people while traveling, and I could not have come to a better place to do it (BA has the most active couch surfing group in existence. Fact.) Through couch surfing, I have experienced more culture thus far than I could have in three months any other way, just from gaining from the knowledge of native Porteño (a Porteño is to Buenos Aires as a New Yorker is to New York) and travelers who have already learned the ropes of the city.

TRAFFIC
BA is in that unfortunate group that developed driving norms in a haphazard, lack of rules-manner. It is not bad everywhere, necessarily, and not all the time (I don´t think they can hold a candle to New Dehli) but it appears that on the frequent intersections where there are no stop signs at all it is a formal game of chicken to see who gets to go first. I was in a taxi as the driver barely lifted his foot from the petal to fly through these intersections: I'm not sure if there is a completely safe but subtle rule of the road that I'm missing...or if he just liked the exhileration of knowing that he was on top, and that if any car happened to be coming but not intending to stop there was no real way in hell he was going to be able to stop his taxi in time. And street signs are either quite clear or they are awful, stuck to the side of a building at one corner of the intersection, visible to no one but the car coming toward it...and only readable once driver is quasi mid-intersection.

HOMELESS
I do not see the streets teaming, as I've heard was true after 2001's economic crash. On a scale between New York and New Delhi, it is a good bit closer to the Big Apple. (Keep in mind, however, all noted cases are only including what is visible on the surface.) I do not see much recycling here or general awareness for doing so, and it seems that the homeless may play the role, similar to in some circumstances in India, interestingly, of the post-sorters, both making their living and giving the environment a hand by sorting bags of trash out ready to be collected.

PEOPLE
This is the first time in a while that I haven't stuck out like a sore thumb while traveling! (I could just give up and resort to traveling only in Scandanavian countries.) Argentina is a mix of a rather small percentage of indigenous Americans, Lots of Italians and Spanish, Germans, and a scattering of other, particularly European, immigrants. Compared to Asia and Mexico, I blend in much better [although I´m told that I do have some native American in me somewhere.] That's not to say that I'm getting around completely cat call-free, but I'd say it's a step up.

SPEAKING SPANISH
Going well! my Spanish is very sufficient: probably at a ¨five months in Italy¨ level. I can pretty much find a way to express anything that I want and am even getting good at understanding that Argentine accent (who knew how innapropriate a place BA was to go if I wanted to learn unaffected, universal Spanish?) My progress daily is doing a lot to get me prepared for classes to begin and after only Spanish 1, quite impressive if I may say so myself. I am sure it will continue as such...as long as I don´t revert to speaking English with other surfers (which is easy as long as their Spanish isn't worse than mine, which is, in fact, sometimes the case.)

Hola Buenos Aires!

Five day in Buenos Aires already! I have taken no pictures. Now that I am in the same place for a while, I am going to take it in a bit differently. BA is certainly an interesting city; I am quickly becoming accustomed to it. It is far less of a stretch from the ordinary for me than some of my last travels, so when taking everything in I need to remember to keep my eyes open extra wide for every small cultural nuance.

Already I have had an interesting experience; not your typical first week alone in a new country. I have "surfed" the couch of about four different "friends" (they become friends sometime between your introducing yourself and your sleeping on their couch) and have met many more. I have bicycled around Buenos Aires, I have gone to a birthday party and experienced an Argentine asado (or barbeque,) I have figured out the city bus system, and I have gotten a tour from a guide (meaning an Argentinian friend who, like all other Argentinians, has studying Argentina´s history and can both accompany me as a friend and be my guide.) I have drank hot chocolate and eaten churros in Cafe Tortoni (the most quintessential tourist thing to do in Buenos Aires,) I have been fed typical Argentine meat by various affectionados, and I have cooked vegetarian food already for several different carnivorous friends. Not bad for the first five days!