Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 2

So I rented a bike today to ride to Punta Lomo which is an observatory for sea lions. The lady who rented me the bike said that it would be about an hour each way. I had to hurry because the only window to view the sea lions was in exactly one hour when low tide would provide a small beach area for the sea lions to congregate and work on their tans.

An hour each way? Puleeeese, I’m in decent shape and I use to bike a lot - 30 minutes easily, 45 minutes tops. Ya ok so I forgot to consider that I wasn’t riding on well paved bike trail in Fairmount Park but on a path of gravel and large stones up and down extreme hills in sweltering heat. The gravel hills were like running full speed up an icy embankment with my bike tires constantly spinning and fighting to get some traction in the gravel. Then I hit a sandy hill where I basically sank into the sand. I walked the bike up the sand hill and then attempted to coast down the other side of the hill in the sand…bad idea. My tires promptly slid out and a nasty twisted ankle or worse was awaiting me at the bottom of the hill. Luckily I caught myself and that was the only major semi potential accident that I’d have to deal with during the ride. The rest of the time I just had to deal with the scorching sun and the random cars that would drive by, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt that would have me looking semi African by the end of the trip. And it only took me about 1.25 hours.

The sea lions just LAY there?? 2.5 hours of biking in the sweltering sun for 15 minutes of watching undulating blubber with whiskers roll over to toast a different section of fat? I can get this at the Jersey Shore. Ok so at least I got some much needed exercise.

On a side note, I learned that except for 19 days out of the year when they are weaning their current young, female elephant seals remain permanently pregnant.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 2

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 1

Today, I flew from Buenos Aires into Puerto Madryn which is the gateway city to a number of extraordinary animals on Peninsula Valdez, a Unesco World Heritage site, Punta Tombo, and Punta Norte among other places. You can see really cool whales, sea lions, dolphins, seals, and penguins.

I was really excited to see the animals but that would have to wait for another day. I arrived to a death metal band performing the park with head bangers and all the trimmings. Interestingly enough, there was a heavy influence of 80's paraphernalia and music permeating the town.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 1

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 6

Today was a lazy day of running errands. I needed to exchange out my Uruguay Pesos and get some more Argentinean Pesos. I wish South America would adopt the Euro approach so I wouldn't have to change money so often.

In the process of walking through a mall, I ran into a Indian cultural show and an art exhibit which were both rather interesting. It’s amazing what you bump into sometimes when you're not looking for anything.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 6

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 5

Today I ordered food in a restaurant without using any English! Ok so I cheated and found a Chinese restaurant in the very small Chinatown in Buenos Aires. It looked more like a tourist attraction with stores selling little collectables and jewelry, and a couple grocery stores populated by more locals than Chinese. I found some delicious meat buns at the grocery store that helped to satisfy my Chinese food craving and I ate a whole tray of 9 of them. Then I walked around a bit before settling into a Chinese restaurant and ordered fried wontons, beef with mushroom and vegetables, and mapo tofu. Each dish by itself could probably feed one hungry normal person or two slightly hungry people. I ate almost all of it and had to sit there in pain for 30 min pretending to read my guidebook before I could muster the intestinal fortitude to extract myself from my chair.

I also checked out the Recoleta Cemetery where Evita and other Buenos Aires elite have mausoleums and the nearby National Museum of Art.

Buenos Aires, Aregentina - Day 5

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 4

Today I did everything that a married couple with 2 young children would do. I went to the zoo, the Evita musuem, the Japanese Garden, and then out to dinner at a really nice steak restaurant. The restaurant was awesome and well recommended by my guidebook and a friend who lived in BA for a while. I've eaten at a lot of good steak houses in the US but this was right up there in a top 2 finish. The steak was perfectly done medium rare (is there any other way?), humongous, and very flavorful. The complementary sides were excellent with an expansive variety and almost stole the show. What a wonderful meal and at $35 a miniscule fraction of the cost at a top US steakhouse. I also had enough leftover meat for two more meals. I made a steak salad for lunch the next day and then for dinner the day after, I sliced the steak and added it to some beef ramen that I picked up in Chinatown.

Everything except the zoo:

Buenos Aires, Aregentina - Day 4

They have rideable rodents at this zoo. These guinea pigs on steroids get up to to 4ft and 140 lbs and are hunted for meat! Besides the usual lions, giraffes, and monekys, they also had an albino wallaby, albino tiger, seals, llamas, and random funny animals wandering around to feed.

Zoo:

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 4 Zoo

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 4

Today was a travel day from Montevideo to Buenos Aires, hence the light load of pics.

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 4

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 3

Today was musuem day as I treked to about 6 or 7 different musuems.

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 3

Punta del Este, Uruguay - Day 1

Punta del Este is an international beach resort in Uruguay about 1.5 hours from Montevideo. I was planning on spending 3 days there but a couple people mentioned that it's the slow season and that it would be dead there so I decided to take a tour and check out the town.

Some general observations from Punta del Este and Uruguay in general.

There is a flat fee for eating in a restaurant to cover the silverware, service, etc and it goes to house in addition to the tip

There is a typical Uruguayan dish which is a layered meat dish with steak, ham, sunny side up egg on top of French fries. Interesting but I do that at home with leftover food. The French fries in Uruguay are often not crispy…and slightly soggy and barely warm…like they put the fries in the fryer and took them out 3 minutes too soon as soon as they started to defrost.

The houses in Punta del Este are amazing. Like the coolest modern compilation of unique houses that I’ve ever seen. I wish I could have captured more of them but it was hard on the moving bus. I didn’t even get the best ones on top of the mountain.

Punta del Esta, Uruguay - Day 1

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 2

I rented a bike and rode around the city and along the bike path next to the ocean. I was so sore from riding the bike that I was waddling by the end of the day.

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 2

Montevideo, Uruguay - Day 1

The weather can be rather fickle here. Up to this point in the trip it has been around 85 degrees and extremely hot, sunny. So the next morning I have an 8 am boat to catch to Montevideo and I step outside and it feels like about 60 and extremely windy. By the time I get to Montevideo which is a 3 hour boat ride away – I’m in long pants, short and long sleeve shirts, and winter jacket. The weather remains cool and windy for the rest of the week in the 70’s but the sun is soo hot that people are still laying on the beach. I got two shades darker in about 15 minutes after laying out.

So I got to the ferry station an hour ahead of time and had some breakfast while waiting. The boat was supposed to leave at 8 am and get to Montevideo at 11am but for some reason the departure time got pushed back 2 hours. Shouldn’t boats leaving at 8 am already be there? It’s not like our boat was coming in from another port at 7 am. Well perhaps the delay was weather related. The boat was a large one; and it had space for cars and about 300-400 passengers, but as we started our journey the wind and waves were rocking the boat rather viscously. I decided to pick an aisle seat on a corner so that there were no seats in front of me or on the side for some extra leg room. Boy was that a mistake. Old people were falling all over the place, and one lady thought it would be a good idea to use my laptop screen as a rail.

I managed to fall asleep and when I woke up people were getting off the boat. Sweet we’re here! So I’m waiting for my bag at the carousel and noticed that there is an English tour guide. I know that the ferry is close to Plaza Independencia which is close to where I’m staying.

ME: “So how far away are we from the Plaza Independencia”?

HER: “Ummmm the Plaza Independencia is in Montevideo we’re in Colonia”.

ME: “WHAT?!? Did I get on the wrong boat in the chaos back in Buenos Aires? How am I going to get my bag in Montevideo? How do I get to Montevideo from here”?

HER: “Just get your bag and then you can catch the bus outside…just show them your ticket and they’ll put you on the right bus”.

So another 2.5 hour bus ride later, I finally make it to Montevideo and didn’t get settled down until about 4pm. That’s a long 3 hour boat ride.

Montevideo, Uraguay - Day 1

Le Tigre, Argentina - Day 1

I took the worst tour EVER! Le Tigre is about an hour north of Buenos Aires is a river district where there are supposed to be nice river house for a weekend getaway. So the tour was a boat ride up the river. Spent most of the day on a bus or boat and saw a ton of crappy houses on a muddy river. I wouldn’t spend a weekend here if someone gave me an all expense paid vacation here. Lovely! Never the less, I took tons of pictures since I was bored so I’ll let you come to your own verdict.

Le Tigre, Argentina - Day 1

Colonia de Santiago, Uruguay - Day 1

I went on a tour of Colonia de Santiago today. This UNESCO site is an old town which has been well preserved to show the old Portuguese and Spanish architecture. This town traded hands multiple times as this city was passed back and forth to settle disputes between the two countries.

One thing that I learned on this tour is that the cobble stones roads were designed in the Portuguese style of a slight “U” concave shape to allow the water to drain off in the middle. While it was efficient at draining the water, it can be somewhat difficult to traverse. Conversely, the Romans built their cobble stone streets in an upside down “U” shape to allow the water to drain off to the sides which is equally efficient and allows for easier transport.

Colonia de Santiago, Uruguay - Day 1

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 3

Today I went on a tour of Argentinean gauchos. The gauchos are a local group similar to the Native American Indians who sustain a living farming, ranching and hunting. They were originally looked down up upon but gained respect and power when they banded together against the government. The tour included some local dances, a bbq spread, and a riding demonstration.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 3

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 2

I took a city tour today which was disappointing since the "bilingual" tour guide gave a ton of info in Spanish speaking for like 5 minutes. Then in English, he would name the building that we passed a block ago and then switched back to his native tongue. So I was constantly trying to crane my neck to view the structures that the tour guide mentioned after we had already passed them. The highlight of the tour was the colorful La Boca area which had diverse multi colored houses.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 2

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 1

So I got into Buenos Aires and was told by the reception that I should check out the San Telmo street festival which happens every Sunday. It was about a 20 minute walk away and was a conglomeration of street performers, local artists selling wares, and various artistic shops. I had a very interesting day of wandering around and window shopping at the huge outdoor market.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 1

Rio de Janiero, Brazil - Day 3

So today, I walked around the downtown area, rode the subway, rode a local bus, talk to locals, viewed a couple street performances, hung out on the colorful tiled steps where Snoop Dogg filmed the music video “Beautiful Girl” and got robbed. Oh and ate every version of empanada possible – boy those things are tasty…I don’t know where they get all the different combinations of dough (corn, wheat, and stuffing combinations but they are amazing.

Oh so the robbing story…well I’m ok thanks for wondering. It actually was a blessing in disguise as I got a good lesson. I was waiting for the bus and had my money out and some guy just grabbed it and ran. By the time I realized it, he was half way down the block and I wasn’t about to chase him over cobble stone for $15 dollars. So it was very opportunistic, nobody got hurt, and I had more money in other pockets. That being said, I’ll just be more aware of my surroundings and careful while traveling. No worries mom :)

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 3

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 2

Today I took a city tour with some of the highlights being Christ the Redeemer, Sugar Loaf Mountain, and a huge cathedral. The views from the top of CtR and SLM were quite impressive. I also saw my first Asian in South America but unfortunately they happened to be Korean tourists so I don’t think they count as locals. I guess they don't have too many Asians here because two different groups of people stopped me at Sugar Loaf and CtR and asked to take a picture with me. Kind of funny.

The amount of diversity in Brazil is amazing with every shade of white, black and in between. Everyone seems unique but no one is really exotic in this melting pot. It seems like as long as you can speak Portuguese that people welcome you as Brazilian. Unlike in other countries, Brazilians don’t seem to view race as a factor in discriminating which is good; however, social class and background do appear to be a factor here.

I took a nap after getting back from the tour and I guess someone left the window open and it was raining so the mosquitoes were out in full force. For some reason mosquitoes like me. I go camping with my friends and I'll spray on a bottle of OFF, sit in a middle of a circle of Citronelle candles, and spray some Raid on for good measure and I still get the most bites out of all my friends. I think I got about 40 (no joke I counted them) bites in about 1 hours. Luckily on my last trip to South East Asia my aunt in HK too pity on me when I came over for dinner with a ton of bites and gave me this ointment from Japan that does wonders on mosquito bites and I brought it along. Thanks Aunt Evelyn!

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 2

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 1

So I made it after 16 hours of traveling. First day was rather uneventful as I walked wandered around the area trying to get a feel for the area and gather my bearings. One thing that I noticed was that were gyms on every block on the second floor of stores. You can also purchase protein and work out supplements in 2 or 3 shops per street – I guess in case you have a sudden craving mid block.

Rio de Janerio, Brazil - Day 1