End of this Adventure

I'm sitting in my bed for the last night in Chile, and I can't help but be a little nostalgic and sad. I've been here in Chile for five months, and my time has been full of great friends, a wonderful family, enough Spanish for and Chilean slang for anyone, classes, great travels, and daily adventures. All in all it's been a fantastic semester, and I couldn't have asked for it to go better. I've been able to get to know Chile as well as I can in five months, and I've made friends and relationships that will last a long time. The past couple days have been full of packing, saying goodbye, and doing things for the last time in Chile. I went to the zoo in Quilpue yesterday, which was a good time, and tonight we had a big going-away dinner. I'm sad to go, but I'm also excited to get back to the US and my family and friends there. I guess I'm in a good place, because I'm sad to go, but I'm not sorry to leave, if that makes sense. Thanks to all of you for having interest in my adventures these past five months, and my adventures will continue. Next Monday I go to Jamaica with Nicole and two friends for a week, and then I go to Michigan with my family for a few days. After that, I'm looking forward to seeing my college friends at my house for a weekend, and then I'm off to my new apartment and grad school. Classes start the last week in August. Wish me luck!

Near the end

Well, I'm back in Vina del Mar, and it definitely feels like home at this point. I spent all of yesterday traveling, and arrived back at my host family's house in the late afternoon. It's good to be back, but I'm also looking forward to getting back to the USA and starting classes. Anyway, yesterday I just traveled and spent a little time with my host family. Today is more relaxing, packing, and maybe going to a little local zoo. I'll try to post some pictures tonight.

Buenos Aires II

Buenos Aires is a fantastic city, and full of things to do, places to see, and delicious and cheap food to eat. Today we slept in the latest we have the entire trip (around 9:00), and Elijah and I spent the morning walking to a park near the water, eating choripan, stopping by a bookstore, and generally having a great time seeing the city. It reminds me a lot of New York, in that it’s full of skyscrapers, bustling streets with people going every which way, lots of trendy shops, restaurants and cafes every corner, and people from all over the world. However, it definitely has its own distinct feel, and it’s similar to Valparaíso in a way. You can easily wander down just about any street and discover something interesting, and it’s easy to see the old European architecture, history, and uniqueness of this city.
The place where we bought choripan (which is basically a delicious sausage in a roll with fixings) was awesome. It was a street vendor’s grill, but it had an entire charcoal grill, huge roasts, a heap of sausages, and anything else barbecued you could want. The choripan we bought was a full-sized sub roll, and it only cost $1.50. Needless to say we went back the next day. After coming back to the hostel to pick up Elijah’s brother, Boris, we walked down the main shopping strip in town (avenida Florida) and drank in the sights and people watched. Buenos Aires is also famous for its cafes, and we spent a couple hours in one of the more famous ones, Café Richmond, where we drank coffee, played pool, and had a couple chess matches. We then grabbed another bite to eat, headed back to our hostel, hung out for a couple hours, and turned in early for the night.


July 20, 2010
Elijah and I headed out early in the morning to go back to the park we visited yesterday. Most of the park was closed yesterday, and we could walk around much more of it today. The park takes up a large part of an island next to the city called Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is also the up-scale, trendy section of town, but the park is an ecological reserve that is mostly huge impoundments full of marshes and wetlands. We walked along the dikes for a couple hours, saw some good ducks and birds, and enjoyed the first day of nice weather we’ve had in a week. It’s beautiful today, and it was great to see such a big green space for wildlife in the heart of one of the biggest cities in South America. We then walked back to our hostel, checked out, and made our way over to the bus terminal.
In order to get back to Montevideo, we decided to take a combination bus/boat ride. The ferry was a modern, high-speed deal which only took an hour to get across the Rio de la Platte bay, and then a three hour bus ride to Montevideo. The boat terminal was set up like an airport, complete with customs and immigration, departure gates, and duty-free shops. It was also complete with a delayed departure due to technical difficulties, and we ended up waiting in the terminal for two hours. However, the ride was nice, and we then took a short bus trip the rest of the way to Montevideo.
We didn't do too much this evening, other than Elijah found a good pair of leather shoes to buy, we cooked a nice dinner in the hostel, and we chilled out and enjoyed each other's company for the last night together. Tomorrow we head back to Vina del Mar, and then only a few days left before back to the USA.














July 19

Buenos Aires

After an all-night bus ride, we arrived in the capital of Argentina at about 6:00 a.m. The bus terminal we chilled in for an hour was the biggest I've ever been to. It had three stories, huge complex of restaurants, and boarding slots for 75 buses. We left after it got light out, took the metro into downtown (which costs $0.25 per person) and then checked into a very nice hostel. I don't know why they're called hostels because they are so nice, but I guess it's because they have dorm rooms. It was raining all day, but we saw the city anyway, and we started off by walking to the Museo de Bellas Artes, the national fine art museum. It was a beautiful museum, and we enjoyed seeing the exhibits of european, argentinian, pre-colombian, and modern art.

We then took a taxi ride to a certain market/fair that is only open on Sundays, and we walked around for an hour or so. This particular market is set up as an antique's market, and I saw more old glass seltzer bottles yesterday than I have in the rest of my life combined. I bought a couple of gifts, and we splished and splashed our way back to our hostel. One of the things that Elijah and I have been craving more than anything is mexican food, and so we made a 14 block pilgrimage to a California Burrito Co. It was amazing and well worth the trip, and after coming back again to the hostel, we took a pleasant nap.

We woke up in time for dinner, and one of the things that we had to do while we were still in Argentina was go out for a big steak dinner. Argentina is known for its beef, delicious and cheap, and last night it definitely lived up to its expectations. We went to one of the many "parrillas" that line every street, and it was both delicious and cheap. A huge steak costs about 6 dollars, and Elijah's brother said it was the best he's ever had in his life. After dinner we talked with some Australians who were also in our hostel, and then had a wonderful night's sleep.

Esteros de Iberá

We went to the middle of nowhere, we made it back, and it was amazing.

On the 15th, we woke up early and caught a bus down to the city of Posadas. The bus took a while, but they did give everyone a small cup of chocolate liquer; only in Argentina. We ended up getting there in the afternoon, but after that, we weren´t too sure how to procede and get all the way to the town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini. Colonia is a town of 600 people in the middle of the National Reserve Esteros de Iberá, and it is difficult to get to. There is one bus a day that goes there, but from the other direction than Posadas, and it would take a day and a half to get there. I spent about an hour on the phone, and miraculously we were able to hire a pickup truck to take us down the 150 mile long dirt road to the town. We got into the town at about 10:00 pm, and we were taken to a cheap, but very nice, hostel to stay in. The owner made us dinner, and we slept very well that night.


On the 16th, I got up earlier than the other two because I wanted to go birding a little before breakfast. I saw a lot of great birds including a Southern Screamer, Red-crested Cardinals, and Maguari Stork. Esteros de Iberá is one of the largest wetlands in South America, and the protected area of it is 13,000 square kilometers. After breakfast, the three of us went out on a two-hour boat ride into the marshes. We got really close to a lot of animals including lots of caimans and capybaras. I´ll upload a video later of me chasing a capybara, they´re deceptively fast. After the boat ride and lunch, we went on a walk around the trails of the park, and saw a few more interesting things, but nothing too crazy. I think all the animals were pretty shut down because today is the coldest day in the region in ten years. We then went to a fun little antique shop in town, and the owner talked our ear off. After another great dinner cooked by our hostess, we got to bed nice and early.

17th - I went birding again a little before breakfast, but it was raining today, and there wasn´t too much out and about. We lucked out again and got a pickup truck ride down south to Mercedes and it only cost about $20 per person for a two hour drive. We left at lunch time, and the scenery on the way was beautiful. The park is enormous, and it´s just long stretches of wet grassland to the horizon in every direction. There´s trees that dot the landscape every once in a while. The most exciting part of the ride was the Greater Rheas that we saw on the way down. There were quite a few, and I asked to stop for a little while to watch them. After arriving in Mercedes, we went gift shopping for a little while, and now we´re waiting for our bus down to Buenos Aires. We leave at 8 and will get there at 6 in the morning. The internet is slow here, so I´ll post pictures later.


Red-crested Cardinal


Capybara


Southern Screamers


Similar to the boat we were on in Esteros de Ibera


Black Caimans

Iguazu Part II

Well, I’m writing this from my own laptop, which is pretty exciting because it at least booted up one more time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get another month or so out of it :). Today I succeeded in meeting up with Elijah and his brother, Boris, and the bus station at around 8:30 am. After checking them in to the hostel, we bought some empanadas for lunch, and headed out to Iguazú falls. We wanted to go today because it’s gorgeous weather, about 60 degrees and sunny, and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. We got to the park at around 10:30, and we stayed there until around 5:00. We mostly just walked around on the various paths overlooking the falls, and we had gorgeous views all day. The sun was out, so we saw lots of rainbows, and the vistas were simply incredible all day. We hiked to some views that I hadn’t gone to a few days ago, and it was a beautiful sunny day with lots of rainbows. That's what we did most of the day, and we got back to town around 6:00. We chilled around the hostel, and afterward went to dinner at a buffet nearby. It was a great dinner, and I still feel full a couple hours later. We chilled some more, and tomorrow hopefully head out on our way to Esteros de Ibera. Meanwhile, here's a bunch of waterfall pictures:

All of the rain that we had yesterday was apparently a cold front coming through because it was 40 degrees this morning! I said goodbye to Andrecito and went on my way back to Parque Provincial Urugua-í. It was sunny today, and it made it much easier to see all the new birds! I had a great time walking around the park, and then traveled back to Iguazu. That took about three hours, and after checking back into my hostel, I went back to the Hummingbird Garden. It was a pleasant afternoon, and I saw two new beautiful birds at the garden as well. A pretty relaxed day overall, and I´m sorry I don´t have too much more to report. I´ll meet up with my friend tomorrow morning, and maybe go back to the Iguazu falls.



Violaceous Euphonia and Sayaca Tanager


Chestnut-bellied Euphonia


Green-headed Tanager


A stream in Regional Park Urugua-í

Birds birds birds

First of all, my laptop finally kicked the bucket yesterday, so my posts might be a little less frequent during my travels. It had been threatening to go for about a year now, so it´s no surprise, but still a bummer. Fortunately I backed up all my stuff before I left on this trip!

July 11th
I woke up early in the morning to try to find a special place just outside of town that a guy at the hummingbird garden had recommended to go birding. I did find it, and it was some great dirt roads through the jungle outside of town. I found some good birds, and I also met up with two other birders who are nature guides for the area, and they were scouting out places to take their clients. They were very friendly, and we birded together until it started to rain. I kept birding some, then went back to the hummingbird garden to hang out out of the rain, but still watch birds. After shopping for some food, I caught a bus in the afternoon to the town of Andrecito, a little town about two hours away, but it is close to another park in the area. The bus ride was pleasant, and after arriving in Andrecito, I found a hostel, chilled around in my room for a while, and had a good night´s sleep.

Andrecito is a town that´s based on the production of yerba mate, a drink that I´ve mentioned before. It´s a holly, and they grow it as a bush. I was told that they can harvest 10,000 kg of leaves out of a hectare each year. After the bushes get too big, they cut them all down to their stumps, and then they re-grow. I also bought some "andrecito" brand yerba mate, so you all can try it when I get back.


July 12th
I got up really early to catch a bus before dawn to the Provincial Park Urugua-í. It´s a huge reserve of jungle, and a fantastic place to visit. Unfortunately it was raining all day, but I still managed to see a wide variety of birds, and I got up to my 1000th species! The lucky bird was a Chestnut-headed Tanager skulking around in the bushes. My book says that they normally,"stick to the shadows", go figure. I walked around the park until early afternoon, when I got tired of the rain, and took a bus back to Andrecito. I ended up walking around the town for a couple hours, and I also walked around a yerba mate plantation. I´m pretty tired from walking around all day, but I enjoyed it a lot. Tomorrow I´ll go back to Urugua-í, then go back to Iguazu, and hopefully meet up with a friend and his brother who I´ll be traveling with for the next week.




Yerba Mate bush


Hummingbird Garden


Gilded Hummingbird

Cataratas de Iguazu

Today was a great day, but a long one. I´m tired, but a well-deserved, saw-lots-of-stuff kind of tired. I woke up early to get a good start on the day, and headed out of the hostel at around 8:00. I decided to just walk along the road for a while, to see what I could see, but there ended up being a lot of traffic, and it was pretty noisy. I then got a ride to the entrance of the park, and paid the $20 to get in for the day. I talked a little bit with a guide in the park, and he said that the park gets approximately 5,000 visitors a day, and around a million each year.
I ended up walking down a trail that was recommended to see wildlife and birds, and it was almost empty of people. I only saw a few people there, as opposed to hundreds in the other areas of the park. I ended up seeing a lot of great birds, some agoutis, a couple monkeys, and plenty of rainforest.

After walking around some more, I headed towards the part of the falls called the Devil´s Throat. There´s a train in the park that shuttles people back and forth, but the line was really long so I ended up walking. I got there sooner than the train anyway. To get out to the falls, there´s a long causeway that goes from island to island for about a kilometer. The end of the causeway is an observation platform that is literally right on top of the falls. The water flows under the platform and immediately falls down a long way. I couldn´t see the bottom of the falls because there was so much mist, but the falls itself is a huge horseshoe-shaped falls that plummets 270 ft. The entire park, so says wikipedia, consists of 275 falls along 1.6 miles. It was an incredible view, and I´m excited to go back once my friend gets here on the 13th.

After hiking back to the visitor center, I took a bus back to town, and spent the last little bit of daylight at a hummingbird garden in town. The garden is a person´s backyard who converted it into a hummingbird garden for visiting tourists. The woman who runs and owns it was great, and I spent some time talking to her son who is studying tourism. Her other son is a park ranger in Iguazu National Park. The son said that they use three kilograms of sugar each day feeding the hummingbirds. I´ll definitely go back tomorrow to try to see some more stuff in better light. Tomorrow, I´m just going to hang around town, but the next day I might take a little trip to another park about an hour to the east.


New birds for today: 25 in total! Versicolored Emerald, Violet-capped Woodnymph, Gilded Hummingbird, Planalto Hermit, Violaceous Euphonia, Toco Toucan, Ultramarine Grosbeak, White-bearded Manakin, White-shouldered Fire-eye, Yellow-fronted Woodpecker, Guira Tanager, Magpie Tanager, Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet, Ochre-breasted Foliage-gleaner, Ochre-collared Piculet, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Planalto Tyrannulet, Robust Woodpecker, Saffron Finch, Black-crowned Tityra, White-eyed Parakeet, Checkered Woodpecker, Chopi Blackbird, Crested Hornero, and Great Dusky-swift.
Also, tomorrow I will probably hit 1,000 life birds. I´m at 989 right now :)


A nice turtle near the causeway out to the Devil´s Throat


A sampling of the butterflys that were around the park


Coatis begging for some bread


White-bearded Manakin


Toco Toucan


Falls


Yes, he´s wearing a hawaiin shirt, and yes, he has a blow gun sticking out of his backpack


Devil´s Throat


Devil´s Throat


More of the Devil´s Throat

Travels to Iguazu

Well, I finally arrived in the town of Puerto Iguazu! After traveling all last night and all morning by bus, I made it here to the border between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. I don't know if I'll be able to get over into Brazil to see their side of the falls, because sometimes you need a visa, but I will definitely see the Argentinian side plenty. I found out why the buses were all full. It's because today is the Argentinian Interdependence Day, and everyone is traveling for their three day weekend. However, I made it into a nice hostel, and it's a chill place to be. I just spent this afternoon walking a little around town by the river, saw some new birds, and talked to some people on Skype. Tomorrow I plan on doing a lot of hiking, and hopefully see some real wildlife! It should be a good day, and I hope it won't be rainy like today. Today is also the first time that I've worn shorts in a couple months, and it's been very nice. I'm excited to be here, and I'll be in town for at least the next four days, plenty of time to rest and explore!

New birds for today:
Purple-throated Euphonia, White-lined Tanager, Red-rumped Cacique, Chestnut-vented Conebill, Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, Greenish Tyrannulet, Double-collared Seedeater

El Palmar

Today was a long and eventful day.

I started off waking up at 6:30 and collecting my stuff, eating a quick breakfast, and heading over to the bus station. I found out that the bus left at 6:55, and I didn’t get there until 7:20. The next bus left at 10:20, so I had the opportunity to walk around town and see some of the sights. I ended up finding exactly what I was looking for (a nice wetland with tons of birds) and had a hard time pulling myself away from it all to make it back to my bus on time. I saw some great birds, which I’ve listed for your viewing pleasure below.
I then took the bus to the town just to the north of El Palmar National Park, and then a taxi to the visitor center (although it ended up costing me much more than I thought it would, which I was pretty upset about, $25 in total, but it was all worth it). I ended up getting to the park at around noon, and despite the visitor center being closed, it had some great trails with numerous interpretive signs. The trails were mostly close to the river, but the main road winded its way through the palm plains that constitutes most of the park. I hiked it all, and saw another batch of great birds, although no rheas today (Frustratingly enough I did find rhea tracks). It was a beautiful park, and I highly recommend it.
I then went back to the bus station, and I wanted to get to the town of Mercedes, where I could then go to another town near the Esteros de Iberá National Reserve, but all of their buses were full. This is the first time that I’ve encountered a full bus, and I don’t know why it was so. Instead I took a bus to another town a little to the north, because there are a lot more bus companies there. THEY were all full too, and the first bus I would be able to get to Mercedes would be tomorrow at noon. I didn’t have too much time as it is, so I’m just going to go ahead to Iguazú, and spend a couple of extra days there :). Right now I’m sitting in the bus terminal at Concordia, and it so happens that they have free wifi! The bus to Iguazú takes about twelve hours, so I’ll get there at around noon tomorrow. Hopefully my next post will include pictures of the falls!

Life birds for today:
Brazilian Duck, Giant Wood-rail, Large-billed Tern, Picazuro Pigeon, Spot-winged Pigeon, Green-barred Woodpecker, Rufous Hornero, Brown Cachalote, White-crested Tyrannulet, White Monjita, Plush-crested Jay, Masked Gnatcatcher, Chalk-browed Mockingbird, Yellowish Pipit, Great Pampa-finch, Hooded Siskin, Spotted Tinamou, Grey-fronted Dove, White-barred Piculet, Field Flicker, Narrow-billed Woodcreeper, Variable Antshrike, Drab-breasted Pygmy-tyrant, Blue-billed Black-tyrant, Crested Black-tyrant, Rufous-bellied Thrush, Creamy-bellied thrush, Epaulet Oriole, Ruby-crowned Tanager.
A pretty good day over all ::).



The famous palms of El Palmar


Plush-crested Jay, they were pretty friendly


These machines are at all the public places, and they dispense hot water for you to refill your mate thermos.


White Monjita


Large-billed Terns


Green-barred Woodpecker

Zoo

This morning, it was raining pretty hard, so I took a taxi to the bus station in Montevideo. From there, I left at 6:30 to my first destination of Paysandú, the third largest city in Uruguay. I got to the bus terminal without a problem, and I then purchased a ticket to the Argentinean town across the river, Colon. While I was waiting for my bus, I had the opportunity to walk around town and see the local sights. One accidental surprise was a short visit to a zoo. I was just wandering around when I found a municipal park on the outskirts of town. Inside the park was a free zoo that had a lot of local animals and birds as well as some lions, monkeys, and peccaries. It was a nice surprise and I hung out there for a while. One thing I noticed around town was that the number of people riding motorcycles, scooters, and dirt bikes outnumbered the cars by at least two to one. Sometimes the entire street would only have scooters going up and down it.

No description of Uruguay would be complete without mentioning the mate. “Mate” is an herb (usually a member of the holly family) that is mixed with hot water to make a tea. However, it’s drunk in a special way, specifically in a small gourd and a straw with a strainer at the end. There’s even a whole set of social customs that go along with drinking mate. It completely replaces coffee, and if you can imagine Seattle, but with every coffee cup replaced with a mate gourd and a small thermos of hot water tucked into the crook of an arm, you get the idea of how popular it is. If you have any more questions about it, you can ask Nicole because she once wrote a report about it.

I eventually made it to the town of Colon in Argentina, and found a cheap place to spend the night. I didn't end up doing too much else today because it took a while to cross the border and then find a hostel to stay in. Mostly I wandered around town for a little while and then ate dinner and wrote up stuff online. Tomorrow I'll try to get to the Parque Nacional El Palmar.


Rio Uruguay on the bridge between Argentina and Uruguay


The zoo in Payandu

Montevideo pictures

Plaza Independencia before the crowd got there.


During the game!


A building in the old section of Montevideo


A view of the point that Montevideo sits on

Soy Celeste

Well, I'm here in Montevideo, and today was the semi-final match between Uruguay and the Netherlands. The city set up a huge tv screen in the main plaza, and thousands of Uruguayans came out to watch the game there. I went too, and while Uruguay lost 2-3, it was an awesome experience and definitely was a crazy time. I'll put up a little video clip once I get to a faster internet connection.

I also walked around the city quite a bit, and it is a great place, very chill, and has beautiful old buildings and architecture. I would definitely recommend it, and I'm glad I'm coming back for at least a night. The Uruguayans make all their "ll" and "y" sound like "sh", so it's a lot of fun listening to their accents. La plasha estaba sheno de Uruguashans. Also, the weirdest thing about walking around today was the lack of stray dogs. I only saw two all day, and it is so weird after being in Chile for four months.
Tomorrow I head out early to get to Argentina, and we'll see what adventures await!

Wrapping up in Viña

After much pressure from my general public, I am updating once again.

The last couple weeks have been spent generally hanging out in Viña and Valparaíso, finishing up classes, and spending time with my host family. The past two weeks have been about the only point in the semester when I've had any sort of significant amount of school work, and so I was forced to spend a few evenings writing papers and memorizing terms :). I had several tests and a handful of papers to write, but as of last Thursday, it is all done! Although my classes weren't hard this semester, it is great to be done with undergraduate college, and begin to really move on to the next step. I'm now starting to seriously think about VIMS next semester, and I've been looking at housing and other things like that recently. Classes start at the end of August, and I'll be moving into the area in the middle of August. It's exciting to be starting grad school, and I'm sure that it will be much harder but more enjoyable.

Also, the World Cup has been consuming a large amount of my time recently, especially when Chile was still in it. For those of you who haven't been following the World Cup as much as 99.999% of Chileans and the Latin American world (the 0.001% are people still in comas and wombs). Chile, like the US, made it out of group play, but got eliminated in their first game. On game days, the country is basically paralyzed, every business is closed, public transportation stops, and after every game, the entire city goes to the main plazas in town to celebrate or riot (depending on what happened). Some of the games were at 10:00 in the morning here, which is obviously much too early for any self-respecting Chilean to wake up for, so many people solved this problem by staying up the night before drinking until the game started the next day. I think this may have been a contributing factor to some of the riots.

A couple of different days I went with some friends to explore Valparaíso and see some of the city I haven't before. It's a very interesting and unique city, something they're all very proud of, especially because the entire city was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of its most distinctive features are the ascensores, the crazily placed houses on the hills, and the random graffiti and murals that are all over the city. The graffiti is usually pretty artful, and I've added some photos of some of the more striking murals.

The past few days have been full of asados, get-togethers, and goodbyes. It's been good looking back, but I'm also getting excited for some more traveling and adventures I have to come. I am not flying back to the US until the 24th of July, so I have a whole 20 days to travel and see more of South America. As a result, I am flying out tomorrow to the Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. From there, I will travel to north-eastern Argentina, see several national parks, and then get all the way up to Iguazu falls on the border with Brazil. I'm meeting a friend from my program here in Chile and his brother at Iguazu, and we're going to hang out there for a few days, work our way back down to Buenos Aires, take a ferry back over to Montevideo, and head out back to Santiago on the 21st. It should be a great trip, and I'm really looking forward to it.


Graffiti in Valpo


More graffiti


Vista of the colorful houses of Valpo


A fruit market in Valpo


A little taste of home that drove by last week.


An original Moa imported from Easter Island and stationed outside a museum in Vina


A huge mural in Valpo


A good example of Chilean Spanish. I challenge anyone to translate it and post their answer here!