These are a few of my Favorite things...

So I realized that even though I have been living in Buenos Aires for 4 months now I havent really written too much about it. For the sake of time I am just going to write some of my favorite things about this great city. For some this will mean absolutely nothing to you, for others maybe it can be a good reference for when you travel to Buenos Aires someday, and finally I am sure my fellow gringo-porteños will be able to appreciate most of these things and even add a few more....Shall we begin?

-Buenos Aires-

Alfajores*Dog walkers*Dulce de Leche*Pimped out colectivos*
Hand Gestures*Parillas*Wachiturros*Cheap food*No serious rules*Malbec Wine
*Automatic crosswalks*Cobblestone streets*San Telmo fair*Recoleta Fair*
Recoleta Cemetary*Delivery 24/7 of anything*Empanadas*Ice Cream
*The Office*Subte*Mate*Medialunas*Cafe con leche*Barrio Chino*Milongas
*A night out in Buenos Aires*Tango*Boliches*Swing Dancing*Flash Mobs
*Retiro Bus station*Architecture*Porteñas*Castellano*Musicians playing anywhere*El Boulder
*Late nights in La Boca*Being lost all the time*Gotan Project*Movie nights @ Von Kelsing
*Happy Shakes*Random Rallies/Protests*Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts
*No carding for alcohol/clubs*Futbol*Dancing*Food Conventions*Being the weird foreigner*
*Boca de Rio*Choripan*Chimichurri*Speed&Vodka*Pasta*Fernet&Coke*Cool Parks
*Recoleta Fair*Meat*PDA(only when you have someone)*Breakfast at 8 in the morning after a night out*Casa Rosada*Cafe Tortoni*La Bomba*River Stadium*Those nuts you get from the street venders*Styled Mullets*Lunfardos*The BK Stacker*Rocklets*Finding anything that is somewhat spicy*Puerto Madero*Tigre*Los Choclos*Avenida de Julio*Avenida de Mayo*Teatro Colon*Madres de Plaza de Mayo*Plaza San Martin*Subte A line*Calle Florida*Day trips to Uruguay*good conversations with the locals*Live music*The bandeon*Using the word Che & Boludo
*Mixture of cultures*Public transportation*los Fileteados*Peru Beach*
.....There are tons more things and know that this list will be continually added to.
What are your favorite things about Buenos Aires?


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5 o clock shadow adventures: Mar del Tuyu

You ever go to those places where there really is nothing uber special about it, but you still end up having the time of your life? Ya my weekend adventure to Mar del Tuyu was exactly that. It was one of those places where I would tell a local(someone from Argentina) that I was going there and they would either ask a)Why would I go there? or b)Is that in Argentina?
So why did I go to Mar del Tuyu? Well remember the amazing host family I am staying with?(yes the one that I found on Craigslist, thanks Craig!) Well they just so happend to have a beach house, and did what cool host families do best and invited my roomates and I to come!
So off we went, half of us in the car and the other half on the bus. We really did not do too much, one because of the on again-off again rain, but also because we were too busy eating. Let me break it down for you. Everyday for lunch and/or dinner we would have an amazing home cooked meal. The main courses in order from meals was a 12kg corvina fish, meat and chicken empanadas, steak and choripan, and homemade pasta from scratch. Not to mention all of the side dishes like salad, potatoes and of course wine. The food was spectacular but that was not the best part about it. The best part for me was the people. Each meal there was anywhere from 20-30 people eating and the meals would last for hours on end. Most of the people were older, about the age of my host parents, but they were some of the nicest people you would ever meet. One lady name Stella cooked the best food I have ever tasted, but the coolest thing about her is her dance moves. She is married to this big guy named Rodolfo who just sits down and cracks jokes all day. While it is hard to understand jokes in spanish I did understand when he called me a smurf. So I fired a few word jabs back, and thus began the relentless bantering of the weekend. This was the excitement of Mar del Tuyu, nothing done but everything beautiful.



I also had the opportunity to connect more with my host family and roomates. We see each other all of the time but on a vacation you find new things out about people. For instance, I learned my host mother Alicia is true to her Argentine roots and thinks of rules more as "guidelines". But if you talk to her she will complain about Argentinos never following the rules but if she rolls up to a sign that says no tresspassing she will get out of her car and move it.




Since it was raining it gave me a good amount of time to journal and to think on my trip so far. Just thinking back on everything I am just feeling really blessed. God has been so good, and everything has been provided for. My great host family, great friends, amazing food, and many adventures. My spanish has come a long way and so has my understanding of the Argentine Culture. If you are reading this and have been wanting to travel I say do it. It is a great life experience and I promise you will not regret it.
As of today I am about half-way done with my trip. The next phase will be me traveling down south to Patagonia to a 5 day hike on a trail called the "W". After that I plan to head up north through Salta and into Bolivia where I will continue traveling and will wind up in a place called Cochabamba where I will be volunteering with a hospital for two weeks. The final phase will be me taking a bus up to Peru to hike Machu Pichu with my good buddy Zack, where I will be finishing my trip. Final day in South America=January 15?? So the countdown is 3 weeks and counting for me in Buenos Aires, after that, bring on the road...

Beardless Adventures: Iguazu Falls

Que pasa amigos? I apologize for the lack of blogging but unfortunately my computer was stolen so that disconnected me from the blogging world for a bit. In other news I shaved my beard so now the title says beardless adventures, that is all.
My latest adventure took me 1076 km(thats 669 miles for all my fellow yankees) to a place called Iguazu Falls. It is right in between Brazil and Argentina and the Iguazu river creates the boundry for the two countries. The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani(a tribe from Argentina) or Tupi words y [ɨ], meaning "water", and ûasú [waˈsu], meaning "big". Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.[2] The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, who I am convinced insta-pooped his pants when he discovered it. (wikipedia)(yes I just cited wikipedia) The total width of this beast of a waterfall is about 1.7 miles with about 275 separate waterfalls varying in heigth from 200-270 feet.
So you can imagine that after hearing these amazing facts and stories about gods slicing rivers and Europeans soiling themselves that I was pretty pumped for this trip. But first I had to take a grueling 20 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires where I had the entire bus to myself. Cant say that I slept much on that bus ride.
6 movies later I arrived in Puerto Iguazu to a hostel called Che Lagarto. Cool hostel, just watch your stuff. There is not much to do in the town other than walk around and see the tourist shops. Most people are there for one thing only, Iguazu Falls.
When the next day finally came I was up at the crack of dawn waiting in anticipation for my taxi. Once on our way the taxi driver explained to me that the Falls were about 40 minutes away...and to be careful because there were Pumas in the Park. Perfect. Thus began my secret goal of encountering a Puma. So for the record the Park of Iguazu is pretty toursity, there is no getting away from the lines you have to wait in for the entrance, train, and taking photos. But hey that just means its good right? So finally I made it past those lines and into the park and on my way to the Garganta Del Diablo,(The Devils Throat) which is part of the waterfall that has over half of the water flow. The walk to the edge is the coolest thing. You walk on these metal platforms that are built into the river and are built on top of the water fall where you are literally on the edge looking down.



On my walk there I had to keep myself from skipping. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning, or maybe more like a dog waiting to go on a walk, but either way I was pumped. And then I saw it. Well actually first I heard the thunderous roar of thousands of gallons of water pouring over cliffs, but then I saw it. There really is no way to describe it except that it is like Avatar. It was a whole new world for me, but it was real life which means it was way better than Avatar. (and I dont care how good 3D is)

So I spent the next 30 minutes ferociously taking pictures of the waterfall convinced that each picture would be better than the last. Finally I gave up on the pictures and then just tried to soak it in. The idea of thousands upon thousands gallons of water pouring over each second is infalliable to the human mind and watching it seemed to put me in a hyptonic state. When I let go of trying to understand the vastness of the falls I arrived to a place of peace. I realized not being able to understand something does not mean I cant enjoy it for what it is. I think the same goes with my relationship with God. As a human being I cannot begin to understand the vastness of who God is, his ways, and where he came from. If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can.(Francis Chan)
But even though I cant understand everything, I can still sit in his presence and take pleasure in who he is. Just a cool thought.
After a day of exploring and hiking the whole Argentine side I ended with a hike through the jungle to a secluded waterfall. It was an awesome plae and there was even a pool at the bottom to swim in. And even though I did not see a Puma it was still an adventure and whoever you are you have to go there.