It is so hard to believe that we now have less than two weeks here in Montevideo.
I'm excited to come home and see everyone, but I know I'm going to miss South America a TON.
People here have been getting ready for Christmas for the past couple weeks, which has felt so weird since it is now summer here.. And it definitely feels like it! The past few days it has been in the lower to mid 90's outside. Since they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here, they do not have a starting point to begin putting out decorations.
Speaking of, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home!!! We aren't celebrating Thanksgiving until tomorrow. Weird, I know, but it is because of our Ministry in Latin America class. About half of us have been taking this class since last friday, and today was our last day. Our teacher, Bio (pronounced Bee-you) flew here from his home in Brazil and has been teaching it as an intensive week-long course. It has been a busy week, but Bio is an amazing teacher and we have all been so blessed to have him here with us. I'm going to be sad to see him leave tomorrow morning.
Yesterday morning was an interesting day for our Ministry class. We were instructed to pair up with one other person and go out onto the streets and find two homeless people to ask a list of questions we were given. At first, this made me extremely nervous and even a little angry. I was not comfortable with approaching a random homeless person and asking them questions like if they thought God was the reason they were on the streets - much less in a language I'm not fluent in! Needless to say, I was doing a lot of praying as Kelly and I walked towards downtown, for both courage and safety. We had decided to only approach women, preferably older women if possible. We finally found a group of three people sitting on the sidewalk and nervously approached them. I asked if I could ask the oldest lady of the three some questions, and with the help of her friend we finally were able to have a conversation. She was SO sweet, and eager to talk to us. She hoped that God would someday allow her to get off the streets, but viewed her setbacks as trials, not curses from God. As we left, we gave her and her friend sandwiches. She was SO thankful, and kissed our hands, asking us to come back and visit her again. We made her day, and it felt so rewarding. Kelly and I are hoping to be able to go visit her again this next week, at least once.
The second person we approached was a lady who was probably in her early thirties and sitting with two of her children. We found out that she has three other children and she answered our questions, even though she was much more reserved than our first friend. We gave her a sandwich as we left as well, and as we were walking back to Casa ACU I turned back to see her two children eating the two sandwich halves. That made the whole day worth it.
That morning definitely stretched me, but my only wish is that we had had this class earlier in the year so that we could have done more things like this throughout the entire semester.
In addition to being busy with our Ministry class, those of us who are in the Latin America and the Arts have been frantically trying to finish all of our art papers that are due pretty soon. I have been writing non-stop for the past couple days, and just finished today!! It feels like such a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, it is amazing. After writing five papers in the past day and a half, I don't really know what to do with myself now that I'm done!
...I know there were a lot of things I was planning on writing about, but now I can't remember all of them. We might be going out of town this weekend to Rocha, but we might not. I find out tomorrow, so we'll see. I'm sure I will be remembering some of the things that I've forgotten, so I'll be updating more soon probably.
If not, though... see you guys in two weeks!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Fin del Mundo
It's about time I updated about our ten-day free travel break!
So, as you all know, I went to Ushuaia, Argentina with five others...
Our trip had an interesting start. We left Casa ACU at about 6:15am, allotting plenty of time to take taxis to the airport and get situated before our flight left at 8:30. However, after riding in our taxi for a little while, Aaron, who was sitting up front with the driver, asked what the name of the airport we were going to was because it seemed like we were not going in the right direction. Thank goodness he did! Our driver responded by saying, "Aeropuerto?! I thought you said, 'Al puerto!'" He was taking us to a port by the ocean instead of the airport! Luckily, he was extremely nice about it and turned around, getting us to the airport with plenty of time before our flight left.
After a connecting flight in Buenos Aires and the worst airplane food I've ever experienced, we finally made it to Ushuaia. I don't even know how to begin explaining how beautiful it was. We were flying over the bluest water I've ever seen, splattered with white dots that we knew could only be glaciers floating in the ocean. The water was surrounded by the snow-capped Andes mountains. All of this coupled with the sunny/partly cloudy skies was just incredible... I don't know how to describe how we felt, other than that we were awe-struck. I couldn't help but turn around to face the other five and say, "Good choice, guys."
We made it to our hostel without any problems and were met with some of the most helpful and friendly people I have been privileged to meet during my time in South America. We dropped off all of our things in our room and received a tour by Lucas, one of the guys working at the hostel. After our little tour, he asked to see the tours we had planned for the week, proceeding to tell us, "No no no, these will not work. These are for old people, they are very boring." A little panicked, we told him that we weren't sure if those tours could be changed. But Lucas was determined. He helped us call the tour agents and after a bit of effort, we had ourselves a new and improved tours schedule.
<- Sunny Ushuaia
<- Snowy Ushiaia
Our first major event for the week was a boat tour of the Beagle Canal. We went about 17km to see sea lions, Imperial Cormorants (birds that look similar to penguins but can fly), and the southernmost lighthouse in the world. Then we traveled another 50km in order to reach the penguins! The ride there was really amazing. The boat had an upper deck that you could go to hang out and take pictures, and the view was so beautiful. We were surrounded by Andes mountains and sailing through deep blue water that you could tell had to be freezing. Argentina was to our left and Chile was to our right. So even though I won't be able to make it to Chile this semester, at least I was able to see it! The penguins were adorable.. they were all waddling around and playing in the water. It was SO cute. I tried to lure one into the boat for you Steven so I could bring you one back, but they just couldn't be fooled! Tricky little guys.
The next day we went on a tour to two lakes, Lago Escondito and Fagnano. This was originally planned to be a bus tour with a couple stops at various lookout points, but Lucas helped us get that changed to a tour in a 4x4 truck that would take us down to the actual lakes through all the off-roading terrain which ALSO included lunch! Our driver came to our hostel to pick us up that morning and picked up a couple from London and Northern Ireland who would be riding with us. They were really cool and we had a great time getting to know them.
Side note: While I'm on the subject of meeting people from other countries... That was one of my favorite things about this trip. Ushuaia is a popular spot for people to travel to from all over the world, so we were able to meet and talk with all kinds of different people! This was especially true in our hostel - we met people from Australia, France, England, and other parts of the US, to name a few. It was so fun to cook, eat, and just sit and talk with people from all ends of the world. Not to mention listening to their accents! So cool.
Anyways, back to the 4x4 tour. We first stopped on the side of the road overlooking Lago Escondito, which means "the hidden lake." So beautiful. After spending a bit of time looking out at the view, we began our descent to the actual lake. We immediately started going down a steep pathway, laughing at the number of yellow "PELIGRO" signs we passed by. [Peligro means danger.]
We spent some time down by Lago Escondito and then headed to Lago Fagnano. Along the way, there were tons of dead trees and dams everywhere... Apparently Ushuaia has a big beaver problem. Small fact: in 1946, Canada brought over 25 beaver couples. Now, there are around 125,000 beavers. The government even started giving people fifteen pesos per beaver they can get rid of! Crazy, eh? ;)
Once we passed through Beaver Land, the 4x4 ride became really exciting. At times we would nearly be driving straight up or straight down - at one point my window was almost level with the ground because we were driving sideways! Claudio, our driver, was a lot of fun. He was crazy though! He got out of the vehicle at one point and just laughed as the car continued to drive even though he wasn't driving anymore! We drove through huge puddles and ditches filled with water or mud, and once we finally made it to Fagnano, he drove INTO the lake, as well as up a VERY steep hill. It was so fun! We got some great videos of that drive.
Lago Fagnano was huge. And freezing. But just as amazing as the previous lake, if not more!
our 4x4 truck and driver!
For lunch we headed to this random ranch house where there was a fire in the fireplace and a huge table set up for us. It was so cozy and wonderful. We ate asado, a South American dish that basically means meat barbecued outside on the grill. It was SO good. We spent a lot of time sitting and talking amongst the six of us and our two European friends.
We ate some pretty great food during our ten day trip, along with some interesting selections I wasn't too fond of. One night we ate out at a seafood restaurant, which was amazing. However, another day for lunch we decided to be adventurous and order a seafood pizza. It was disgusting. The others didn't mind it too much, but man did my stomach hate me for trying that one! Though I must say, it was good to know that my taste buds haven't completely turned upside down.. I had begun to get worried since I have been eating so much seafood and enjoying it. I'm glad there is still some seafood I just plain do not like. Other than those instances, we did a lot of our own cooking, which was definitely a good plan. We spent less than $35 on food for the entire ten days!
We also visited Tierra del Fuego, the National Park. That was definitely an interesting day. Which by the way, we had decided to rent a car! So we were able to save some money instead of relying on taxis for some of the longer trips such as the one to Tierra del Fuego. That was definitely an excellent decision. It was so fun to have a car for a few days! We have all missed that. However, it was a standard, which meant that Tanner was the only one who could drive us around, since he is the only one who knows how to drive a stick shift well. Although that did not stop us from trying! We did not run into many people in the National Park since the weather was incredibly cold and snowy! -But I'll get back to that part. Since we were the only ones out there at times, we took turns driving around one of the parking areas, with Tanner's guiding help. Which means.... I drove. A car. Which was a standard. In the snow. AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Epic.
Another side note: [I know, this post is ridiculously long. I just had to accept and surrender to that fact.] We grew accustomed to putting "at the end of the world" to everything we did. We found that this addition instantly made whatever you were doing at the moment about a billion times more awesome. "I'm hiking up to a glacier...at the end of the world." "I'm walking down the street...at the end of the world." "I'm eating a sandwich...at the end of the world." ;D
Anyways, Tierra del Fuego. We explored around and got all excited when it began snowing, even though we were already FREEZING. [with the exception of Joanna, our whole group was from Texas. so snow is basically always going to be a big deal to us.] However, as we continued on, the snow only continued to fall harder. It wasn't until we were beginning to become real live snowmen that we decided we should probably head back to the car. On our way out we stopped by a small building that turned out to be the southernmost post office in the world, where we got our passports stamped, indicating that we had made it to the end of the world. Amazing.
Driving back home, [it's amazing how quickly we're able to call different places "home" now...] it was still snowing, so what did we do? We sang Christmas Carols. While everyone back home was engrossed in Election Day, we decided to celebrate Christmas! That night we watched Christmas movies, then looked outside to discover that it was yet again snowing, and this time sticking to the ground! We had a great time playing in the snow outside in our pajamas. The woman at the front desk of the hostel thought we were crazy, saying, "Estas loco!" when we walked back into the door after we'd had enough. [meaning, "y'all are crazy!"] We simply agreed, and went back to our room. :)
The next day we decided to go climb a glacier! It was beautiful. The higher we hiked, the harder it snowed. We passed a few hikers on our way up and they proceeded to tell us that we would not be able to make it to the actual glacier because there was too much snow. However, we weren't going to just give up without a fair fight! We decided to keep going and just see how far we could make it. We eventually had to stop once the snow got too high, but we definitely made the most of our surroundings. We made snow angels, had snowball fights, slid down hills, and fell into waist deep snow!
Eventually we had to start walking back to our car before the snow got bad enough to make us stuck up there. Even though we didn't get to climb the actual glacier, we made it far enough to say that we climbed up to a glacier!
There is a prison in Ushuaia where they used to send the worst criminals in South America. Since it's literally at the bottom of the earth, there was no way for any of them to escape - and if they did, they would certainly die from the cold before they got anywhere. The prison is now a museum, so we went and explored around in there one day as well. There was a section devoted to to pieces of art, but we definitely stayed FAR away from that area. Dang Art class. It probably would have been really interesting to me had I not been completely burned out on art museums.
I think that about covers all the main things that we did. It was so strange - every time we walked outside I would look up and all those mountains would surprise me. I never was able to get over how incredible they were. I just remember thinking to myself, "God, how are you this incredible??"
There is no way we would have been able to have as much fun as we did had we decided to stay at a different hostel. We were so lucky and blessed throughout our trip. With safety, by the people, and just the way that all the events played out.
goodbye, Ushuaia
After leaving Ushuaia, we spent the night in Buenos Aires before coming back to Casa ACU. Let me just say, our hostel there only furthered our appreciation for La Posta. This hostel was nowhere near as nice, and instead of having our own room, we shared one big, hot room with about five other people. The hostel in general was just dirtier. But it was nice to have that as a contrast... I would hate to have the mindset that all hostels are like La Posta only to one day find out how horribly wrong that assumption is.
We did eat at TGIFridays in a mall in Buenos Aires. We were pretty excited because the menu showed that they serve different kinds of salad, which is not something that happens very often in the places we have encountered in South America. Even when there is variety in the salad selection, it is still very different from salad in the US. However, keeping that in mind, we were really disappointed to find out that those salads were more expensive than the steaks! We still ate there though - I think all our Christmas spirits from that week made us all a bit homesick and excited to see everyone back home. It was nice to have US food, even if it was still a bit different.
Our taxi to the airport on the way back to Casa ACU.... ask me for that story sometime. It's pretty intense. The short and sweet version though, is that our taxi driver kept trying to take us to the wrong airport by the time we finally convinced him to take us to the correct one, our taxi fare had gotten to be 80something Argentine pesos, when it should not have been more than 20. So we had an interesting time arguing with him over how much we would pay him, given that collectively we only had 17 Argentine pesos left. And by "we" I mean mostly Tanner. And by "interesting" I mean awful. It kind of worked out in the end... I mean, we obviously made it back to Casa, but it was definitely a frustrating ordeal.
However, we all made it back to Casa in one piece, excited to share our stories with our fellow casa mates and hear what everyone else had done. It was weird to not be surrounded by everyone for a whole ten days.. It makes me wonder what being apart for all of Christmas break is going to be like. I was defintely excited to be back home in Uruguay.
I have so much more to talk about that has absolutely nothing to do with free travel, so check back in a couple days and I will hopefully have time to update yet again. Next time it definitely will not be this long, though, don't worry. haha :)
EDIT:
Mom wanted me to put these two pictures up as well... here ya go Mom :)
See that little strip in the water? Yeah, that's where our airplane landed.
So, as you all know, I went to Ushuaia, Argentina with five others...
Our trip had an interesting start. We left Casa ACU at about 6:15am, allotting plenty of time to take taxis to the airport and get situated before our flight left at 8:30. However, after riding in our taxi for a little while, Aaron, who was sitting up front with the driver, asked what the name of the airport we were going to was because it seemed like we were not going in the right direction. Thank goodness he did! Our driver responded by saying, "Aeropuerto?! I thought you said, 'Al puerto!'" He was taking us to a port by the ocean instead of the airport! Luckily, he was extremely nice about it and turned around, getting us to the airport with plenty of time before our flight left.
After a connecting flight in Buenos Aires and the worst airplane food I've ever experienced, we finally made it to Ushuaia. I don't even know how to begin explaining how beautiful it was. We were flying over the bluest water I've ever seen, splattered with white dots that we knew could only be glaciers floating in the ocean. The water was surrounded by the snow-capped Andes mountains. All of this coupled with the sunny/partly cloudy skies was just incredible... I don't know how to describe how we felt, other than that we were awe-struck. I couldn't help but turn around to face the other five and say, "Good choice, guys."
We made it to our hostel without any problems and were met with some of the most helpful and friendly people I have been privileged to meet during my time in South America. We dropped off all of our things in our room and received a tour by Lucas, one of the guys working at the hostel. After our little tour, he asked to see the tours we had planned for the week, proceeding to tell us, "No no no, these will not work. These are for old people, they are very boring." A little panicked, we told him that we weren't sure if those tours could be changed. But Lucas was determined. He helped us call the tour agents and after a bit of effort, we had ourselves a new and improved tours schedule.
Although it was sunny upon arriving to Ushuaia, it began to rain during our tour of the hostel. Lucas laughed, saying, "It's Ushuaia! The weather is crazy here - it's true! We get everything - sun, rain, wind, and snow all in one day!" Little did we know how true that statement was... Before visiting this city, I had thought the weather in Texas was crazy! But sure enough, his words rang true. There were days it would be sunny and a bit warm at one point, then rain for fifteen minutes or so, become windy, AND snow! All in one day! It even hailed for a little bit on one of the days! Talk about crazy weather..
<- Sunny Ushuaia
<- Snowy Ushiaia
Our first major event for the week was a boat tour of the Beagle Canal. We went about 17km to see sea lions, Imperial Cormorants (birds that look similar to penguins but can fly), and the southernmost lighthouse in the world. Then we traveled another 50km in order to reach the penguins! The ride there was really amazing. The boat had an upper deck that you could go to hang out and take pictures, and the view was so beautiful. We were surrounded by Andes mountains and sailing through deep blue water that you could tell had to be freezing. Argentina was to our left and Chile was to our right. So even though I won't be able to make it to Chile this semester, at least I was able to see it! The penguins were adorable.. they were all waddling around and playing in the water. It was SO cute. I tried to lure one into the boat for you Steven so I could bring you one back, but they just couldn't be fooled! Tricky little guys.
The next day we went on a tour to two lakes, Lago Escondito and Fagnano. This was originally planned to be a bus tour with a couple stops at various lookout points, but Lucas helped us get that changed to a tour in a 4x4 truck that would take us down to the actual lakes through all the off-roading terrain which ALSO included lunch! Our driver came to our hostel to pick us up that morning and picked up a couple from London and Northern Ireland who would be riding with us. They were really cool and we had a great time getting to know them.
Side note: While I'm on the subject of meeting people from other countries... That was one of my favorite things about this trip. Ushuaia is a popular spot for people to travel to from all over the world, so we were able to meet and talk with all kinds of different people! This was especially true in our hostel - we met people from Australia, France, England, and other parts of the US, to name a few. It was so fun to cook, eat, and just sit and talk with people from all ends of the world. Not to mention listening to their accents! So cool.
Anyways, back to the 4x4 tour. We first stopped on the side of the road overlooking Lago Escondito, which means "the hidden lake." So beautiful. After spending a bit of time looking out at the view, we began our descent to the actual lake. We immediately started going down a steep pathway, laughing at the number of yellow "PELIGRO" signs we passed by. [Peligro means danger.]
Lago Escondito
Once we passed through Beaver Land, the 4x4 ride became really exciting. At times we would nearly be driving straight up or straight down - at one point my window was almost level with the ground because we were driving sideways! Claudio, our driver, was a lot of fun. He was crazy though! He got out of the vehicle at one point and just laughed as the car continued to drive even though he wasn't driving anymore! We drove through huge puddles and ditches filled with water or mud, and once we finally made it to Fagnano, he drove INTO the lake, as well as up a VERY steep hill. It was so fun! We got some great videos of that drive.
Lago Fagnano was huge. And freezing. But just as amazing as the previous lake, if not more!
Lago Fagnano
our 4x4 truck and driver!
We ate some pretty great food during our ten day trip, along with some interesting selections I wasn't too fond of. One night we ate out at a seafood restaurant, which was amazing. However, another day for lunch we decided to be adventurous and order a seafood pizza. It was disgusting. The others didn't mind it too much, but man did my stomach hate me for trying that one! Though I must say, it was good to know that my taste buds haven't completely turned upside down.. I had begun to get worried since I have been eating so much seafood and enjoying it. I'm glad there is still some seafood I just plain do not like. Other than those instances, we did a lot of our own cooking, which was definitely a good plan. We spent less than $35 on food for the entire ten days!
We also visited Tierra del Fuego, the National Park. That was definitely an interesting day. Which by the way, we had decided to rent a car! So we were able to save some money instead of relying on taxis for some of the longer trips such as the one to Tierra del Fuego. That was definitely an excellent decision. It was so fun to have a car for a few days! We have all missed that. However, it was a standard, which meant that Tanner was the only one who could drive us around, since he is the only one who knows how to drive a stick shift well. Although that did not stop us from trying! We did not run into many people in the National Park since the weather was incredibly cold and snowy! -But I'll get back to that part. Since we were the only ones out there at times, we took turns driving around one of the parking areas, with Tanner's guiding help. Which means.... I drove. A car. Which was a standard. In the snow. AT THE END OF THE WORLD. Epic.
Another side note: [I know, this post is ridiculously long. I just had to accept and surrender to that fact.] We grew accustomed to putting "at the end of the world" to everything we did. We found that this addition instantly made whatever you were doing at the moment about a billion times more awesome. "I'm hiking up to a glacier...at the end of the world." "I'm walking down the street...at the end of the world." "I'm eating a sandwich...at the end of the world." ;D
Anyways, Tierra del Fuego. We explored around and got all excited when it began snowing, even though we were already FREEZING. [with the exception of Joanna, our whole group was from Texas. so snow is basically always going to be a big deal to us.] However, as we continued on, the snow only continued to fall harder. It wasn't until we were beginning to become real live snowmen that we decided we should probably head back to the car. On our way out we stopped by a small building that turned out to be the southernmost post office in the world, where we got our passports stamped, indicating that we had made it to the end of the world. Amazing.
Driving back home, [it's amazing how quickly we're able to call different places "home" now...] it was still snowing, so what did we do? We sang Christmas Carols. While everyone back home was engrossed in Election Day, we decided to celebrate Christmas! That night we watched Christmas movies, then looked outside to discover that it was yet again snowing, and this time sticking to the ground! We had a great time playing in the snow outside in our pajamas. The woman at the front desk of the hostel thought we were crazy, saying, "Estas loco!" when we walked back into the door after we'd had enough. [meaning, "y'all are crazy!"] We simply agreed, and went back to our room. :)
The next day we decided to go climb a glacier! It was beautiful. The higher we hiked, the harder it snowed. We passed a few hikers on our way up and they proceeded to tell us that we would not be able to make it to the actual glacier because there was too much snow. However, we weren't going to just give up without a fair fight! We decided to keep going and just see how far we could make it. We eventually had to stop once the snow got too high, but we definitely made the most of our surroundings. We made snow angels, had snowball fights, slid down hills, and fell into waist deep snow!
Eventually we had to start walking back to our car before the snow got bad enough to make us stuck up there. Even though we didn't get to climb the actual glacier, we made it far enough to say that we climbed up to a glacier!
There is a prison in Ushuaia where they used to send the worst criminals in South America. Since it's literally at the bottom of the earth, there was no way for any of them to escape - and if they did, they would certainly die from the cold before they got anywhere. The prison is now a museum, so we went and explored around in there one day as well. There was a section devoted to to pieces of art, but we definitely stayed FAR away from that area. Dang Art class. It probably would have been really interesting to me had I not been completely burned out on art museums.
I think that about covers all the main things that we did. It was so strange - every time we walked outside I would look up and all those mountains would surprise me. I never was able to get over how incredible they were. I just remember thinking to myself, "God, how are you this incredible??"
There is no way we would have been able to have as much fun as we did had we decided to stay at a different hostel. We were so lucky and blessed throughout our trip. With safety, by the people, and just the way that all the events played out.
our group with Lucas, right before we left
goodbye, Ushuaia
We did eat at TGIFridays in a mall in Buenos Aires. We were pretty excited because the menu showed that they serve different kinds of salad, which is not something that happens very often in the places we have encountered in South America. Even when there is variety in the salad selection, it is still very different from salad in the US. However, keeping that in mind, we were really disappointed to find out that those salads were more expensive than the steaks! We still ate there though - I think all our Christmas spirits from that week made us all a bit homesick and excited to see everyone back home. It was nice to have US food, even if it was still a bit different.
Our taxi to the airport on the way back to Casa ACU.... ask me for that story sometime. It's pretty intense. The short and sweet version though, is that our taxi driver kept trying to take us to the wrong airport by the time we finally convinced him to take us to the correct one, our taxi fare had gotten to be 80something Argentine pesos, when it should not have been more than 20. So we had an interesting time arguing with him over how much we would pay him, given that collectively we only had 17 Argentine pesos left. And by "we" I mean mostly Tanner. And by "interesting" I mean awful. It kind of worked out in the end... I mean, we obviously made it back to Casa, but it was definitely a frustrating ordeal.
However, we all made it back to Casa in one piece, excited to share our stories with our fellow casa mates and hear what everyone else had done. It was weird to not be surrounded by everyone for a whole ten days.. It makes me wonder what being apart for all of Christmas break is going to be like. I was defintely excited to be back home in Uruguay.
I have so much more to talk about that has absolutely nothing to do with free travel, so check back in a couple days and I will hopefully have time to update yet again. Next time it definitely will not be this long, though, don't worry. haha :)
EDIT:
Mom wanted me to put these two pictures up as well... here ya go Mom :)
See that little strip in the water? Yeah, that's where our airplane landed.
SNOW!!
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