Uruguay: Fun, Fun, Fun. The trip that couldn't go wrong

As our plane from Asunción, Paraguay started to descend into the airport - supposedly located in Montevideo, Uruguay - I could not stop laughing as I looked out the window. I was looking for the city we were supposed to spend the next couple of days in but didn't see anything. (Some might call that nervous laughter.) There were no tall buildings, neighborhoods, busy streets, nothing-- Just an airport that appeared to be in the middle of the countryside. Our plan to get off the plane on our own, with absolutely no plans seemed a little precarious at this point.

Ok, hold up, explanation needed: So why in the world were we stopping here you ask? Well, our group had just spent 2 amazing weeks traveling through South America… our first week was spent all together in Porto Alegre, Brazil with a side excursion to Iguaçu Falls. Then, we split up, half of our program going to Uruguay and the other half to Paraguay (more blogging on these trips to come… yes, it will be a little bit out of order, but that’s just how my mind is working right now… everything’s a bit jumbled) Anyways, I was with the group that went to Paraguay, and on Thursday we were heading back to Buenos Aires via plane… BUT, the plane that we were taking back had a short layover in Montevideo. SO, my adventure buddies (Ben and Noah) and I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to explore Uruguay for the weekend.

We literally walked off the plane with absolutely no idea where the city was, no idea how to get to the city, no hostel reservation, no idea what there was to do, no tickets back to Buenos Aires, nothing. For someone who plans out every hour of her day back at Hopkins, this was a bit uncharacteristic….no, VERY uncharacteristic. But I was ready to just go with the flow… whatever happens, happens. It was adventure time! Our first task in the airport was to exchange some money for pesos Uruguayos: success! Second task, find a map: FAIL. No map to be found… this could make things difficult. But after talking to some man at some booth, we learned that we could take a bus into the city for a few dollars – and from there we could find our hostel… hopefully. (we had an address, but were unsure if there would be any beds available). As soon as we walked outside we realized how truly unprepared we were… especially me -- It was MUCH colder in Uruguay, people were wearing winter jackets… I had a dress on… and it was windy. This would be interesting. Luckily, we only had to wait about 2 minutes for the bus to show up and soon enough we were cruising through beautiful Uruguayan countryside. (So far, so good!) Eventually, we were dropped off in the middle of the city. Time to find our hostel. Still no map. Relying solely on the directions from people we asked in the streets, we successfully found Red Hostel. And better yet, they had room for us to stay! (On a roll!) The rest of our trip continued like so: start out with no plan, ask for a little advice, sort of make a plan, let everything work out much, much better than expected. EVERYTHING was in our favor this weekend - it was pretty incredible. (…also, it was a nice change from the typical Ferguson luck.)

On Friday, we spent the day walking all over Montevideo (the capital of Uruguay). It was a perfect day for walking around… apparently it had been really cold earlier in the week, but no joke, it was sunny without a single cloud in the sky as we explored the city. We walked to this older part of town with neat buildings and ate lunch at an awesome parilla - where we sat at a bar with a humongous grill right in front of us. A legit kinda grill…there was a wood burning fire next to it and they spread the coals from the fire underneath the grate to cook the meat. Everything was prepared right in front of us… it was a really unique setting and the smells were heavenly. (It smelt almost as good as my deck at home does when pulled pork is on the Big Green Egg…almost.) When we were deciding what to order, we saw a huge platter being prepared so Ben asked the cook, “Is that for 2 people or 4?”…. The cook looked up at him in a way that made us all feel kinda pathetic, and responded, “Este es para uno.” [This is for one.] haha… we were clearly not ready for this meal. The three of us ended up sharing the Asado Completo for 2, it came in a big tray with 5 or 6 different kinds of meat… in short it was delicious and more than enough for all of us. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the boardwalk next to the river and relaxing in a park… (…playing the nut game…you had to throw these little coffee bean nut things into a circle on the side walk, I was the only one who didn’t get one in, I hate losing, I was not happy,... but then I remembered we were in Montevideo, so I was happy again.) After a nice nap back at the hostel, we ventured back out to watch an acapella group perform outside city hall – they were actually really good! We then decided we needed a lighter dinner after our extra filling lunch. We ended up picking up some cereal from the grocery store and eating it at on the roof of our hostel… it was perfect. Oh, and we star gazed, my faave! And saw a shooting star!! Couldn’t have been happier.

This morning (Friday) we decided we wanted to spend the day in Colonia, a well-known city in Uruguay close to the Argentine border, and then take a boat back to Buenos Aires in the evening. As we headed to the bus station, it was looking like a pretty overcast, rainy day and it seemed as if the great weather, and our luck that had brought it, was coming to an end. That assumption was quickly proven to be wrong… we entered the bus station without any idea which bus to take or what the schedules for them were-- we walked in at 9:23 am, saw that a bus was leaving at 9:30, bought a ticket, casually walked over to where the bus was parked, hopped on and the bus pulled away only minutes later. Perfect. Two hours later we arrived in Colonia, the sky was clear and the sun was shining once again. As we explored Colonia we discovered that it was one of the most beautiful little towns. It was complete with gorgeous cobblestone, tree-lined streets, old rustic brick buildings, cute colorful houses, a lighthouse, and a marvelous rocky shoreline perfect for naps, reading, a bit of climbing, and getting your feet wet in the icy water.

We made it back to the port, got our Uruguayan passport stamp, got on the boat and arrived back in Buenos Aires at about 5:15pm. Although it was sad that this exciting adventure had come to an end, it felt good to know exactly where I was, where I was going and how I could get there. Traveling without plans was kind of thrilling, anything could have happened. We had luck on our side this time, but even if we hadn’t, it wouldn’t really have mattered -- I was with great friends who could make any situation that seemed “dumb, dumb, dumb” turn into one that was “fun, fun, fun.”

Argentine Oddities and Packing

Argentine Oddities

• Almost everyone in Argentina drinks maté, this tea made with maté herbs. It is the social drink here – people drink it everywhere. Sometimes a whole group of people will share the same cup/straw. People who drink mate tend to fill up this special cup with the herbs and then carry around a thermos full of hot water so they can keep refilling. There is a special kind of straw that keeps the herbs from actually being consumed (most of the time). I haven’t really tried it since I’m not much a tea person, but I think it’s an acquired taste.
• Dog Walkers –One really popular job in Buenos Aires is to walk dogs, 15 to 20 dogs at a time. No joke. These people literally have so many dogs that I have to get off the sidewalk to let them to pass. I also walk through a dog park on my way to class in the morning and there has to be a good 350 dogs in this little park. I’ll have to take a picture of this so you all believe me. It’s crazy. Also, these are not little city dogs that you can keep in your purse, these are the full blown, big kind of dogs.
• Lavandería – One of the biggest frustrations here has been laundry. I am not even a clean freak and can last a while without doing laundry (ask my roommates :) but when I want to do it here, I have to pick one of the laundromats nearby (there are a quite a few). Then, I drop everything off (pay a lot of money) and pick it all up 3 sizes too small. Trying to work the crop top look…
• - Sponge update – it’s getting musty again…eagerly awaiting a new one.

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• Oh and did I mention I took a hovercraft ride… (if this doesn’t make sense to you don’t worry about it… if you leave a comment about it, I might delete it…sorry tios ;))

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now for story time

“Our days are identical suitcases – all the same size – but some people can pack more into them than others”

I feel like packing a suitcase is definitely an art, you only have so much space to bring what you want and need. Though I certainly have not perfected the art, I still love packing … and smashing as much as I can into one little suitcase. This weekend I had lots of things I had to do, lots of things I wanted to do and 3 days to pack (we got Monday off for Columbus Day too!) We had a lot of homework and 2 midterm essays due on Tuesday so in between getting done what I needed to, I found space for a national soccer game, fresh juice and alfajores (delicious dulce de leche desserts) at a hip new café, Saturday night youth group and a trip to El Tigre.

On Friday night, Argentina played Chile as the start to the elimination rounds for the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil. From what I gathered, we’re still in the pool play stage to determine which countries will actually make it to the World Cup. But, it was a big enough deal to bring Messi back from Spain to play in the game. It was also a big enough deal that we decided to get tickets BEFORE we went to the game ;) At this game we absolutely would not have been able to get through with the wrong tickets (see boca junior post for details on how to make that work at a Boca game). I think I was patted down 4 or 5 times and my ticket must have been ripped and torn 7 different times. We were sitting…well, standing in the “populares” section, or the cheap seats with the rowdy crowd. But, our view of the field was great and allowed us all to see Messi’s spectacular skills – I feel like he was putting on a show for us. He had one goal and one assist! …my favorite cheer was “Olé, olé olé olééééé, Messsiiii, MEsssssiiii!!” …mostly because I could figure out all the words :) but he really was so much fun to watch! The final score was 4-1 with Argentina taking the W!

On Sunday I took a trip with Noah and Ben to El Tigre, a little town about an hour outside of the city. On our train ride there we couldn’t stop raving about how beautiful it was outside, and how we couldn’t have picked a better day to go - we planned to walk around one of the outdoor markets and then hang out by the river. But, we have a serious problem with jinxing ourselves. The moment we stepped off the train it started pouring! It was time to find a place to take cover to let the rain pass and in a moment of nostalgia/hunger/desperation we decided to get some all-American fast food – which turned into running back and forth in between Burger King and McDonalds (more than once – our plan to take immediate cover didn’t really happen and we ended up getting kinda soaked…) in hopes of finding the cheapest/fastest food. Burger King had the shortest line and the best deal so that’s where we ended up. Only a little ironic that we took an hour train ride to stop at Burger King… but I will admit the outdoor covered seating area was pretty nice. After the rain passed we headed to the market… it was alright. Then, we made our way to the little port area where we decided to take a boat ride through the delta. Being surrounded by nature in very picturesque setting, and having a chance to lean over the side to feel the water spray off the boat (just like I do when we go boating at home :) was exactly what I needed. Our trip to Tigre was completed with a stop at a churro stand. They were made right in front of us, filled with dulce de leche and topped with powdered sugar. Ohh man, they were SO delicious!! - can you say, life changing?!

Speaking of life-changing, can you say Lion King?? Haha. Yes, it is quite possibly The Greatest Disney movie of all time. El Rey de León en 3-D is being shown in theatres in Buenos Aires so we went to see if after class today –- it was all in Spanish, without any subtitles and I knew exactly what they were saying! Either my Spanish improved tremendously since class time when I only understood half the lecture OR I know almost every line by heart. Either way, I fully enjoyed Disney’s masterpiece.

Alright, well it’s time for me to get back to packing my suitcases (figuratively AND literally)… on Sunday I’m off to Brazil and Paraguay for 2 exciting and intense weeks. (We were just debriefed about the details today…yikes!)

Hope all is well in the US of A … or as one of our directors said today… “ooooosssah.”
And for my friends not in the states, hope life abroad is grand!

Miss and love you all,
xoxo, marie

Pujato - a true place

"It is not down in any map; true places never are." - Herman Melville

Pujato is a town of 3000 people, in the middle of the campo (country), surrounded by fields on all sides. This little island is the place the 22 students in my program called home for 5 days last week. Even though we went to this rural pueblo to simply experience everyday rural Argentine life, it wasn’t a place where I just "went through the motions” of life… even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. First of all, I generally had no idea what was happening/where I was being taken, which made going through any sort of motions difficult (ok, that's a slight exaggeration, I didn't have trouble moving there...moreso just knowing when and where to go) but even if I would have had a better idea about what was going on, there was nothing I could do about the fact that every day easily lent itself to spontaneity, and anything but simply motions. This past week there was spontaneous relaxing, playing, talking, listening and learning.

Instantly upon arrival we were welcomed to Pujato with a delicious lunch and mini concert by the local high school drum line. Then, sooner than I expected, I was being hugged and kissed by my new homestay mom Marcela. Marcela SanMartí. Marcela lives with her 2 children, Florencia (22) and Gastón (18), her mom, Nena and their dog, Greta and cat, Baltazar (or some name like that). We spent lots of time with the SanMartí family, (unfortunately Gastón wasn’t there for most of the week as he stays at the university during the week) and I have come to the conclusion that my 2 friends and I certainly lived with the best family in Pujato J

Like I said earlier, it was impossible to just go through the motions there. Throughout the week with our homestay family, my friend Anne and I jumped into the car or tagged along on a walk hundred of times (ok, maybe a dozen) with basically no idea where we were going – we would just start laughing when we were told to head towards the car because we never knew where we would end up. The drive was always funny for this reason and the destination always a good surprise. Here’s a quick summary of where our adventures in Pujato took us:

• - -Mini little grocery store to buy dulce de leche. Score! (We ate SO much dulce this week)
• - Different store to order new slippers for Nena… apparently the dog got a hold of her old ones
• - Bus station to pick up Florencia from school. YAY! Such a great sister!
• - Raúl’s house. This trip was particularly funny. (During our homestay we had to interview an important person in the city, we were assigned to Raúl, who is the director of the public health sector in the community. The interviews in Pujato were practice for our future individual research projects and part of the process required that we set up a time with our interviewee on our own.) Our mom decided to help us out and just drop us off at his house so we could talk to him face to face and set up a time. But, we, like normal, had little to no idea what was going on, so when were dropped off on the curb, we sheepishly walked up to his door, rang the doorbell and had an awkward encounter with Raúl. He was ready to have the interview right then and there. We were not prepared AT ALL, so we planned on meeting up at 2pm the next day. Luckily he was nice and it all worked out in the end.
• - Panadería – In some round-a-bout sort of way Anne and I ended up at a local panadería, or bakery where we were invited to help make bread, pies and cakes. To many of you, this probably sounds like a disaster waiting to happen considering my history in the kitchen, but fear not, I did not burn anything, including myself, I did not set a potholder or towel on fire, I did not leave peanut butter in the microwave for too long and no, thank goodness, I did not mix expired Crisco into a hopeful batch of cookies ;) Indeed, my skills were put to the test, but if I do say so myself, the dulce de leche I spread over the cake looked pretty dang profesh J

The week was also filled with guitar jam sessions, runs around the wheat fields, games of frisbee, attending a class with Flor about taxes in Argentina, visits to the local school and believe it or not, a half hour long, impromptu water- balloon fight with 5 little neighbor boys. SUPER BIEN!

It amazes me how much adventure and excitement there was considering the size of the town. Good things come in small packages, right? And, in addition to all the activities out and about in Pujato, the time spent inside the house with just our family was equally memorable. I think one of my favorite memories has to be about Nena, our quite little grandma, who cooked basically every meal for us. She didn’t say a whole lot but when she did, it almost always caught me off guard. So for lunch one day, Marcela decided to cook up some hamburgers, which was a pretty big deal considering she almost NEVER cooks. So, to remember the event, I got out my camera and snapped a few fun fotos. When Nena saw this, she came up to me, and said, “Hey! What is going on? Why didn’t you take any pictures of me? I'm the one who actually cooks!!” (She was legitimately a little upset haha) It was so funny, I was so surprised…. I mean here was quiet little Nena, dishin’ out the sass! I found it hilarious that she wanted to be photographed so badly but I also felt bad that I had neglected to photograph her and the asado (delish bbq she made the first night)… So, for the rest of the trip, we made sure to take lots of pictures of Nena and her scrumptious cuisine– she was such a diva! But, seeing her with tears running down her face as we pulled away in the bus broke my heart. Saying goodbye to everyone was sad, I certainly did not want to leave.

In one week I bonded with this family more than I ever imagined I would. In one week I learned a little bit about soil production, politics and health problems, but I learned a lot about community, family and generosity.

Hopefully, I can at some point return to this very true place.

Love you all,

Hope all is well!

Besos y abrazos,

Marie