Cordoba, and my empanada reunion

As it turns out, the city of Cordoba is great, and the surrounding mountain towns are even better! It's been a blast exploring with Claire, being together again after so much time, and getting back into the Argentine groove (albeit, with a cordobes accent). I am also thankful for being reunited with (possibly in this order):

1. empanadas de carne (chau, vegetarianism)
2. piropos and the strange tipos that tirar them
3. the word boludo

The 22 hour bus ride from Iguazu to Cordoba actally wasn't so bad, because I splurged on a cama class seat on the bus, which is essentially an enormous leather chair that goes all the way back. Plus, it came with a delicious mystery meat dinner and coffee and a slightly stale medialuna for breakfast... practically perfect! Besides, I was too doped up on dramamine (should I start buying their stock??) to care whether or not I had been sleeping for 5 hours or 22 hours or 100. I slept almost the entire time... basically, I'm Rip Van Winkle with less facial hair.



Sundays in the city of Cordoba, I can assure you, are worth skipping, as the city essentially shuts down. Claire and I were still happy because we had both each other and approximately a million things to catch up on, so the day passed quickly, despite the closed store fronts and quiet streets. We're back now, and looking forward to a day of mid-week city exploration tomorrow, followed by a mate and asado reunion with my cordobes Scout friends I met in Machu Picchu! Can't wait.

(Here's an actual picture of the asado! Because I'm a late picture poster.)


We spent Monday and Tuesday exploring some of the surrounding areas. First we headed to the adorable Villa General Belgrano, a 1.5 hours bus ride from Cordoba (on a bus called Lep, which I would not stop serenading with "to the lep! to the lep!" because not only am I a Beyonce fan, but I am also my father's daughter and never miss a chance for a terrible joke), and home of Oktoberfest and about 10 microbreweries. Needless to say, it was a tiny little slice of small town paradise, and Claire and I had a perfect afternoon strolling the kitschy-but-still-cute streets, popping into shops, sampling some beers, dipping our toes in the river, and climbing 98 stairs of a tower for a nice city view. I would love to get back there someday for their famous Oktoberfest, which I hear is a great one.



We then took another bus about 20 minutes to the nearby Santa Rosa, where we planned to explore and spend the night. The town is also cute, though without half the character and charm of the first. Though we're sure they receive tourism, the spectacle of two redheads walking down the street with backpacks drew a lot of stares, and made for an interesting walk to the tourist office. Turns out, we really should have booked something in advance, and we ended up in a kind of even-when-its-clean-its-dirty type hotel room with a monster truck parked outside (couldn't make that up if I tried) and the smell of mold wafting lazily through the air. No matter, we had dinner, wandered a bit, and got some sleep. Sadly, in the morning, after putting on our bathing suits and planning to head to the river for a dip, it got really cold and started to rain, so we ended up in a cafe drinking coffee and scheming.

We eventually headed to our final destination, La Cumbrecita, another highly recommended town of dirt roads and a no-cars-allowed policy. The plan was to climb Cerro Wank (Wank Hill), or at least take our picture next to the sign (because the name RULES) but we arrived and it was raining torrentially by that point. We tried exploring, but although the town looked adorable, it was really not a rainy day spot, and we heard it would be raining for a couple days, most likely. We ended up enjoying some lunch and beers and heading back to Cordoba early. Though admitedly it is a total bummer that we didn't get to explore the hiking trails as planned, it honestly but still a great little getaway out of the city for us girls, and was not at all time lost.

Should be in Rosario by Thursday and Buenos Aires by Saturday! Can't wait for some more sweeet reunions.

Back in the Homeland

Honestly, if you had told me 3 months ago that I would be this happy to be back in Argentina, I would have laughed in your face. I was so excited to get out and do something different at the time. Now I´ve had this incredible trip, have experienced so many beautiful and different things, and frankly, it feels so good to be back in a country I know. Argentina might be insane and disorganized and have a billion problems, but it´s also a country that is a part of me. I settled here for a long and important part of my life, and it makes me laugh how crossing that border from Brasil back here made me smile, because I really did feel like I´d come home. And I´m not even in Buenos Aires!

No, I´m in Iguazu! And it is as good as I´d hoped. After a 15 hour bus ride from Florianopolis, I arrived on the Brasilian side of Iguazu arund 8:30 this morning. It took me 3.5 hours to get from there to my hostel on the Argentine side, as of course they make everything as complicated and disorganized as possible. First I had to buy a bus ticket for tomorrow to Cordoba, but naturally they only accept cash, and the only 2 banks in the entire town each had lines for their one worknig ATM that had about 40-50 people in them, so I waited for over an hour in the hot sun to get cash. Then I took one bus from the central bus terminal to another terminal. Then I took a bus to the Brasilian border, where I had to get off an get a stamp from customs to leave Brasil. The bus had left so I had to wait for another, which I then had to take to the Argentine border to get an entry stamp and visa. Then I got back on the bus, got to the Argentine side´s terminal, and then got another bus to the hostel. Confused? Yeah, me too. Anyway, I made it.

Oh, but the best thing happened! So Argentina apparently has finally gotten their act together and is now officially charging a US $131 visa fee (good for 10 years) upon entry into the country. They´ve been talking about doing this since like January of 2009, but in true Argentine style, it appears the guy who processes the paperwork fell asleep. Anyway, he finally woke up. Not sure which countries this effects, but it´s definitely for Americans. I found this out from several travelers along the way who´d had to pay the fee upon entry, and was quite unpleasantly surprised, as I´ve been entering for free for the past year. I don´t want to suddenly pay now, after so long! But then a beautiful thing happened-- the guy at customs never asked me for any money! And naturally I didn´t offer any. Not sure why or how this fluke happened, but I´m not asking questions. $131 saved, yay.

Anyway I arrived at the hostel in time to throw my things down and head over to the falls for a half day. I hopped on yet another bus, and afte paying my AR$85 entry fee, spent about 3 hours at Iguazu Falls today. They did not disappoint! They are just as magnificent as described! I walked/ trained out to Garganta del Diablo Devil´s Throat), which is the biggest and most impressive area of the falls, where water is just rushing everywhere from such icredible heights, and you just cannot believe your eyes or your ears. I also took walks to some of the smaller falls, which are all also HUGE. And every single one of them had its own rainbow. It was simply stunning, magical. I can´t wait to go back again tomorrow morning (for an additional AR$45, but who´s counting?) and take a boat ride under the falls!!

Once again, stupid blogspot won't upload my cool video of the water at Garganta del Diablo (maybe when I get back to the 1st world, these problems will just melt away), so here's some pictures instead:







After spending tomorrow morning and early afternoon enjoying the falls again, I will be hopping on a 21 hour bus to Cordoba, a city I´ve been meaning to visit forever and never did. And the best part is, my dear friend Claire is meeting me there! Colo reunion! I absolutely cannot wait. We´ll check out Cordoba and Rosario together and then head back to Buenos Aires probably by next weekend. I´m disturbingly stoked about it. I don´t even have a house of my own when I get there, and yet I still feel like I´m on my way home. :-)

Getting used to it

I'm going to refer to Vivian from now on by name, since she is rapidly becoming an important figure in many of my stories.

Vivian is my CRAZYPANTS boss, the one who sends me from here to there and all around, yells at me, acts all nuts-o, and who I have never actually met in person. (She's sort of like "Dr. Claw" from Inspector Gadget, because I picture her in a big chair, stroking her evil cat, and drumming her iron-gloved fingers on the desk, faceless.) That's Vivian.

Dr. Claw and MAD Cat (aka Vivian's iron fist of English-teaching death)


So the strangest thing has happened. I don't give a %$#& what she thinks anymore! It's very liberating.

Basically, over the past couple weeks Vivian drove me so completely nuts, was so totally gonzo, was so blatantly disrespectful to me, that I completely lost it. I broke down, cried about it, and got very worked up about it. Then about a week passed, and despite my threats to quit, as it turns out I'm broke, need the money, and am still working for her minimally. (The good news is that I did eventually get my money from her-- wasn't easy, mind you--and she and I are back to acting cordial on the phone.) I figure, whatever, the pay's not bad, and frankly, I now realize that she is the rule, not the exception. All English pimps (Vivian) treat their whores (Me) this way here. I'm moving on.

Truth is, Argentina is just like this! It's disorganized, chaotic, and mind-numbingly slow at all things. Employers are self-serving, and treat you as their pawn. Your needs are not important, only theirs. And as much as I hate this, I am also becoming hardened. Yes, I'm getting used to it, and the only way to survive is to stop caring so much.

Case in point: Vivian was supposed to call me yesterday at Noon to arrange a meeting (finally!) so she could give me some books I need for a class. However, the last time she told me she'd call me at noon, she didn't call until almost 5:00pm, only to cancel on me, yell at me, and then stiff me out of money. So my expectations were pretty low yesterday. So low, in fact, that I myself forgot about the whole thing! Me! And it worked out great, because when she finally called me around 1:00 (to cancel, of course), I didn't care! I hadn't been waiting by the phone, nor had I rearranged my day around her.

I had become, ahem, more Argentine.

This all probably sounds really nuts, but it's actually really good. It's a coping mechanism, and it's working. I think my blood pressure has gone back down to normal in the past couple days, and damnit, I'm going to last here a full year if it kills me! (which it might)

This means I need to stop having such "American" expectations of professionalism. I need to suck it up, lower the bar, and integrate. Working on it.