más salteñas, porfa!

Greetings from Bolivia!

I arrived in Santa Cruz around noon on Thursday, welcomed with a nice 28ºC breeze. My flight to Cocha wasn’t scheduled to leave until 7:30pm that evening, so I decided to leave my bags at the airport and go into the city to explore for a few hours. Santa Cruz is more of an industrial city, but the center of town is filled with colonial architecture and traditional Bolivian elements (such as indigenous women roaming the streets wearing their conventional garb and pirated DVDs being sold on the streets alongside skewered papas and cow hearts). I explored the various mercados, tasted some of the local food, and enjoyed finally being able to wear a sundress.

It would be quite the understatement to say that Bolivia is a little less developed than Argentina; for one, the “bondis” are more like painted vans, a good decade older than I am, and whose ability to survive a crash test is doubtful at best. Traffic lights are more of a surgerencia than anything else, and you negotiate cab fares with the taxista, since none of the cabs have meters. It’s definitely a change of pace from life in Argentina (and especially life in the US), but I’m enjoying it!

I got to my hostel in Cochabamba very late on Thursday night, and after a very long day I was ecstatic to arrive to a very new and clean private room, with a private bath, double bed, and television...for the same rate as a dorm in any Argentine hostel.  I LOVE taking advantage of Bolivia’s underdeveloped economy.  These past few days I have really enjoyed exploring the city, while getting a serious bang for my buck.  My wallet has never been so happy with me.  

Cocha reminds me a lot of Mérida: colonial, indigenous, traditional, and tranquilo.  I have made my way to the mercado de artesanía, La Cancha (a HUGE market where they sell everything from manzanilla to dog food), but most importantly, countless salteñerías.  Salteñas are Bolivia’s empanadas, but are made out of corn meal instead of flour, so they are a lot sweeter than normal empanadas.  Inside the salteña, the filling is a lot soupier, and includes hard boiled eggs, olives, and some peas along with the carne (or pollo!).  They are significantly more filling than Argentine empanadas.  Like Paloma once said to me, I literally could have salteñas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and be completely satisfied.  (Except I was recently told that eating salteñas for dinner isn’t something they “do” here...quite stupid and senseless if you ask me.)

On Saturday I went up to El Cristo de la Concordia.  Think Cristo Redentor, but much, much smaller. Still amazing, though.  At first I was considering walking one way, but after seeing a sign that read in English In order to avoid getting mugged, we recommend not to use the stairs,” I was quickly convinced to use the teleférico.  Getting to the top was absolutely breathtaking, looking over the city of Cochabamba and the entire valley.  After spending quite a bit of time taking in the view, I went back down and obviously made my way straight to a salteñería.  After stuffing my face with three salteñas (which you know, if you are familiar with salteñas, is a LOT), I was wandering through Plaza Colon where I bumped into Ladi.  We decided to go to Cochabamba’s second annual Arabic festival, something I definietly was not expecting to do in Bolivia!  It ended up being a lot of fun; lots of good food (delicious baklava!), Sangria, and international dances, including a Hawaiian hula dance. 

Yesterday I went with Mariela to La Cancha, where we bought some fresh hojas de coca and sipped on some delicious tea in Plaza Colon.  We ended up drinking the coca tea out of my maté, a wonderful fusion of two Latin American cultures.  I am going to do my best to bring some coca back to Argentina, it is so delicious and really wakes me up!  

Unfortunately I have wasted all of today figuring out my money situation.  Bolivia is apparently on some list of restricted countries with both of my banks, thus both of my debit cards have been frozen.  I literally have $70 bolivianos to my name.  Tomorrow night I am supposed to be heading to La Paz, but unless I get one of my accounts unfrozen, it looks like I am stuck in Cocha! 

Chau,
audgentina.

todavía no gatitos

Time has started to fly by. Although the five-hour class periods have proven to get more and more boring, the excessive length is truly not that bad. Obviously I would easily give up these Spanish classes for, well, just about anything in the world, but it’s no longer a death sentence.

Uruguay is officially booked! Two weeks from right now I will be sitting a ferry taking me across the Río de la Plata. Yes, an overnight ferry/bus journey to Uruguay. I was a little hesitant at first but we get to save a night in the hostel PLUS we will be on the beach by 10AM. Not too bad. I have also begun planning weekend trips to Chile (for Lollapalooza!), Iguazú, Rosario, and Córdoba, and I hope to also squeeze in a trip to Mendoza before winter sets in!

Wednesday after school I went with Abbie and Paloma to the Jardín Japonés. It was a gorgeous,

sunny, 80-degree day…perfect conditions for an Asian landscape. On our way back we decided to be daring and take the Colectivo back to Belgrano. HOWEVER, we ended up getting on the right bus, but going in the wrong direction, and ended up in Puerto Madero…VERY far from Belgrano. The buses in BA don’t loop their routes like in most cities, so we were essentially stranded.

Feeling much more comfortable and familiar with the subway system, we sought out a Subte station and took two separate lines before finally arriving home! Luckily, public transportation in BA is very cheap ($0.27 USD for the Subte and $0.31 USD for the Colectivo), so no harm no foul. I guess the only way to familiarize myself with the Colectivo system is to take these joyrides and find my way back.

No, Harumi hasn’t popped yet. We found out the other day that cat labor can take up to 8 hours, so that will be fun. She was due on Friday, thus is now huge, uncomfortable, and meow-ing constantly. Silvia and I like to feel her stomach and feel the kittens move, but I guess earlier today when Harumi was sprawled out on the floor, Silvia could SEE one of the little fetus cats move!! Eek!

On Saturday Allegra and I had lunch at an organic restaurant called Natural Deli. The menus are seasonal and their muffins are the bomb. I love the pace of life here in Argentina. When you go to a restaurant or a café, you find that no one is in a hurry. They really savor life and relationships here, always greeting with a kiss on the cheek, spending hours in cafés and restaurants, eating slowly…the list goes on and on. Los mozos don’t even bring the cuenta until you flag them down and ask for it. At first it was a little unsettling, since I’m used to rushing out of a restaurant as soon as I finish my meal. But I am learning to live like a porteña, and savor life like they do here.

It has been raining nonstop for the past few days but today the sun came back out so I went to Las Barrancas de Belgrano—a park near my apartment—and laid out while “doing” some homework. I was out for an hour and a half TOPS and I got so much color. Sorry Northern Hemisphere for stealing your sunshine! When I got back from the park I chatted with my dear friend Meredith, who I miss ever so dearly.

Tomorrow night I am going to a percussion concert called La Bomba with some of my friends. I’m really excited; it looks like a lot of fun! Here's a video of one of their shows:



Chau y besos,
audgentina.

shots from the city tour

Tango in the streets of San Telmo.

Buenos Aires street art in San Telmo...otherwise known as aesthetically pleasing graffiti.

Colorful buildings in La Boca.

La Boca.

"El Gaucho Argentino."

Puerto Madero.

hola!

After an extra-long winter break—aka extra quality time with my beautiful friends and loving family (!!)—I am finally in Buenos Aires!  I still cannot believe that I am actually here, and that I will be here until December.  This has always been such a distant fantasy for me, so it’s hard to believe that it’s finally a reality!

The trip down was not as bad as expected; just one eleven-hour flight and I managed to sleep the entire time.  The flight itself, however, was pretty eventful; a passenger ended up getting ill mid-flight and upon arriving in BA was immediately rushed out of the plane to the waiting paramedics.   We got in a little after 11am and I was with my host family by 2.  After taking a much needed shower, my host mom, Silvia, (also known as Cydney’s host madre!! MISS JEW MI VIDA) walked me to the ISA center for our first orientation meeting.  Afterwards, I went with Kendall and Annalise to “Forest Gump Bar” (very Argentine…I know) where we split a $20 AR (around $5 USD) bottle of wine…I’m loving the exchange rate.  After a delicious dinner tart with my host family, I met up with some kids in my program to explore what Buenos Aires has to offer at night.  Let’s just say it is MUCH different than what we’re used to in Delaware, Ohio.

My neighborhood is absolutely beautiful; the sidewalks are lined with so many lush trees that it creates a canopy over the streets.  Today we had a city tour of Buenos Aires which was so incredible but also very exhausting.  We were able to see many different neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, including Palermo, Recoleta, and Puerto Madero.

Now I’m off to take a quick “siesta” before dinner.  Missing everyone dearly! XO