Above the Panadaria

In our second week here in Cordoba - big city of about 1.4 mil. We are staying in a one bedroom furnished apartment above a panadaria where we get our morning pastries each day. Our gestures and broken spanish is now well understood by the woman there and our order goes very smoothly these days. We have a small kitchen which is well used after 3 months of dining out. Simply making our own coffee in the morning is great and we eat dinner in every night!

We are back in school for a week of spanish lessons trying to pick up the differences in the language here in Argentina. People speak must faster here than in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, and the pronunciations and accents here are throwing us off. So... our mornings from 9 to 12:30 we spend with Carlos and Analee at Hablame. Lunch either at our apartment or out-n-about while walking the streets and getting to know the city.... we put a deposit on a bigger place to stay for the end of October, November & December. I't a 2 bedroom apartment on the 20th floor with a balcony and views to the East over the zoo and park. It's not above a bakery, but at 20 floors it wouldn't matter if it was. The girls are excited about the balcony and to be off the trundle-couch and into a bedroom.

For the next several weeks we will be taking a "vacation from the vacation" in Montevideo and Buenos Aires with my folks who will be here for 2 weeks. Dos mas Vancesinsouthamerica!

It is exciting to be moving again. Life in the city is a bit slow for long periods of time. Spanish classes have helped but I don't feel like a tourist in this town. On the weekends we sleep in without any pressure to get out since we will be here for a while. In our free afternoons we find ourselves in the apartment not doing much....... reading, drinking mate, playing charango, surfing the net, eating pastries and folding oragami frogs (in Argentina). We will have to pick up the pace a bit when we get back from holiday - at least it will be a further walk to get pastries.

The Zoo

Today we went to the Cordoba Zoo. There were many animals that I had never seen before, like buffalos, hippos, camels, kangaroos and anteaters. The anteaters noses were almost touching us.

The hippos were called pygmy hippos and they were small but they could open their mouths SO wide. We bought a small bag of animal food and threw pieces of it right in the hippo's mouth.

There was a water show that opened at 2:00. We went and it was so much fun!! The main character was a sea lion and he was named Marco. He could dive off a diving board and swim with a ball on his nose.

We also saw this very obnoxious monkeys who made a really loud noise a little like burping. But it sounded like screaming. I took a video so you could hear them.

It was very fun at the zoo, I had a good time.

Cordoba, Cordoba, Cordoba

Finally we got to... you guessed it, Cordoba!!! I love it here. There are tons of solo pedestrian streets and they're full of shops and people with their merchandice laid out on tarps on the street. They are my favorite type of street but we dont go on them much because we have been walking off the map to lots of crazy places. Today we walked to the University. On the way we passed the duck pond that was more like a lake and walked beside it. The ducks were taking siestas and didn't move until the dog that was walking behind us scared them away. We ate ice cream while we were waiting for the Suzuki office to open. We are looking forward to taking violin classes in spanish. Yikes!!! The lady we talked to said that we could take a private class and a group class each once a week. The problem is we still dont have violins(which is a problem when your looking for violin lessons!) I would have gotton one a while ago but there all made from china and the people here call them student violins because when your learning it doesnt really matter if the violin itself sounds good or not:) The campus is beautiful but since Cordoba is having a little drought its a little brown. However we fond these really cool kind of soocer ball looking thing but it wasn't all together in a ball. Helen and I are going to make neclaces out of them as our next project because there hard and a string could tie around them. Next week we are going to start spanish class. Dad, Mom and I are going to be in one class and Helen in the other. We took a placement test that was really hard. We had to conjugate verbs which was pretty easy until they made us start doing it in different tenses. I am no good at tenses so it drove me crazy. I can memorize any irregular verb conjugation but the tenses I just cant get!!! We are cooking in the kitchen(having salad tonight) and after we do the dishes we watch our direct TV which lets you take any dubbed show in spanish and turn it back to english. Helen and I love it!!! Our apartment is really nice but Helen and I get the noisy until we fall asleep because we sleep like dead people(even I admit it). Its nice to have internet, a couch, a kitchen, a real dining room table not in a restraunt ect. We will keep posting!!!
Left is a picture of the soccer ball things and right is of the Catedral.

We Made It!

Around 3 months ago, we set off for Cordoba, Argentina. Today we arrived. No fanfare, in fact, in a minor screw-up on my part - I booked a hotel in Cordoba before we left Salta yesterday. Only, when I was searching for hotels available to book - by using the word Cordoba to search - I was unaware I was also looking at hotels in Cordoba SPAIN!!! How embarassing to be told by the taxi-driver that there is no such street as the one you are referring to.

So, he dropped us off (with our 4 suitcases) in the main plaza. I took a moment to regroup (mind you, it was around 10AM on a Sunday morning here - for a city of over a million people it was a ghost town) and Meghan and I went in search of another hotel.

It didn't take long (thank goodness!). We spent the rest of the day walking around. We walked along a very pretty city sidewalk beside a stream in the middle of the city. We ended up in the park pictured. The building in the background is the Courthouse.

Later on in the afternoon, we found a theatre and the girls and I went to see Tinkerbell - Hadas del Rescate. Mike respectfully declined to view with us and decided to just walk around for the hour and save the brain cells. Thankfully for the girls and I, this was another movie where our lack of Spanish fluency was not a hardship to follow the storyline. :)

We are moving tomorrow into a small apartment where, hopefully, we can start making our own breakfasts. Argentine breakfasts consist of 1-2 pieces of toast with marmelade/butter or a medioluna (a small croissant-like bread with a sticky sugar on the top) and a cup of coffee or tea. We are really missing eggs (keep in mind, I don't really even LIKE eggs - I just miss eating them for breakfast!).

I think we are going to have to invest in some more Spanish lessons. The language here is very different to what we are used to - and beyond that it's pretty fast. I'm still translating the first 5 words in my head while the clerk, teller, salesperson, etc. is about 15 words ahead of me. It's like being back to square one - and it's a little daunting at this point. I'm hoping some more Spanish will help - it sure can't hurt at this point.

We hope to be able to do more exploring this week, not just focusing on the touristy stuff (although I really want to check that out too!).

Argentina!!!

We took a train from Uyuni down to the border of Argentina. The train was ten hours. It was a night train and we slept on it. In the morning there was a restaurant but it was on a different car, there were two platforms that were pushed together so it made a walkway. Inside the restaurant were waiters! caring trays! We ate their food/muffin, crackers and two pices of bread.

We got off the train and walked to the border of Argentina and Bolivia. When we got there, there was a big bridge that was labeled Welcome to Argentina. We waited in a long line and finally we caught a cab to the bus station. Once we got there many people started talking at once. Dad said we were going to Salta and they followed us everywhere and finally they walked away but one guy kept close to our side finally we got our tickets.

We got on the bus, it was a double decker but just when I took my shoes off, we had to get off and get our bags checked. When we got back on a disgusting movie came on. Dad didn't want me waching it so when I tried to peek at it, he gave me my book and told me to read. Then we got to Salta. In Salta, it is beautiful!!!

To the End of the World and Back

We are back in the small town of Uyuni after 3 long days in the car. We had a good time, but the long car ride of the last day was a little tedious. Today we are sleeping in, relaxing in the hotel, and buying our train tickets to head to Argentina tomorrow. The landscape here is stark. The Salar de Uyuni was amazing. The glistening white sand went on for miles in every direction (over 4,000 square miles of salt!). We ate lunch prepared by our cook (Santusa) and headed up the hill for a look. There were thousand-year-old cactus everywhere. A 15 foot one that had fallen had a sign that said it was over 800 years old. When I explained that the cactus was already here when Columbus landed - the girls were surprised. When we visited some rock formations, we saw an animal that was a relative of rabbits. It had a long fuzzy tail like a squirrel and ears like a rabbit, but smaller. It's called a viscocha. They were lightening fast and we were not able to get very close to them. This is one of the best photos we got of one - they were pretty skittish. We asked several times for our driver (Ismael) and cook to eat with us. Each time they politely refused. It was nice to be taken care of but I felt a little bad about all of the work they were doing while we played cards and went to bed early. We were able to snap a photo of the girls with them before we got in the car the last day. The image that totally blew my mind was when we pulled up to Laguna Canapa. We opened the car doors and were blown away by a frigid wind. As we walked toward the lake, we were stepping around small pools of ice and frozen mud. There were hundreds of flamingos in the water! They make such a cool noise. Bright pink tails and long bony legs. Watching them fly was probably one of the most grace-filled moments of this entire trip. Meghan and I shot a short video that makes me laugh every time I watch it.

We are all excited about finally heading into Argentina. We bought the train tickets and travel all night to the border and cross early in the morning. I think we might actually be a week or less from being in one place. We will be just short of 3 months of travel (we left 30 June) when we settle down. I'm looking forward to finally unpacking my suitcase and taking off these blasted hiking boots!

My Two Fun Days

Yesterday we stayed in the Hostal Laguna Colarado.When we got there it was very very windy and the lake was all red and there were patches of ice eveary where! flamingos were swiming in the water and dipping it's beak in the muddy water and getting small bugs. The next day we drove down to see geysers I stuk my hand in the steam it felt like my hand was burning it was soo hot! There were many geysers on the trail it was fun to wach them but some were to hot so we could not feel them. Our next stop we went to the Laguna Verde instead of green the lake was blue. There were no flamingos in it nor seagulls. Meghan said at once it was her favorite color. It was very pretty and the mountain behind it was beautiful. At the end of the trip we were exhausted and fell asleep.

Big Salt Flats

We left on Friday to our 2 night 3 day trip traveling around Uyuni. The first day we went to the train cementary and climbed on all the old trains.They were really rusty but really cool!!! There were lots of locomotives and just plain cars but it was awesome. It took us about one hour to drive onto the Salt Flats. It was blinding. Everything you saw was white except for the dark brown mountains. None of my pictures turned out well unless I put them inside my sunglasses!!! We ate lunch at Isla Pescado (Fish Island) and then took a hike to the top of the Island. From there you could see everything. The people there made doors, trash cans, and chairs out of the wood from the cactuses that grew on the island. . Once the cactus dies they let the needles fall off and then shaped the wood into what they wanted. The island acctually used to be an real island when all the salt used to be a sea.Right now you can just drive on the salt and walk onto the island. We arrived at our hotel at about 1 and Helen and I ran around glad to be out of the car. After it got cold we played card games and banana grams untill dinner. Our cook made us vegetable that had habas which are some kind of bean that look like a lima bean. We also had a whole chicken that was so good we thought had died only a couple days ago. It was so good!!! It was cold but we slept good waiting for tomorrow.

Back in Llama Country!

Left Sucre this morning for Uyuni, a 3 hour leg to Potosi and then 5.5 on to the desolate little pueblo on the edge of the salt flats - our primary destination. Once again we leave a town on the verge of festivities, Sucre was preparing for their anual Festival of the Virgin Guadelupe with several mock parades, fireworks, brass bands practicing and folks dancing in the parks. We thought of staying til the weekend but with each delay Argentina seems further away.... so we travel on.

The roads in Bolivia, or at least south of Cochabamba are bad. When they are improved from rocky dirt routes, they are cobblestone and neither make for a smooth ride on a bus. We have learned to sit toward the front of the bus for the smoothest ride and luckily got seats in the front 3rd on this trip, and as this was a day trip we weren't trying to sleep which would have been as difficult as our last overnighter. Instead we did get to enjoy some nice scenery while bumping south. We are back in llama country and I never tire of seeing herds along side the road grazing. Even as livestock, treated as cattle here, they make the trip more exotic and I wonder what the locals think of our facination with this food source.

We arive in Uyuni after a full day of travel, worn and ready for some food. Although the busses here on long trips stop for bathrooms and food, the choices and time are limited and we usually only snack on travel days - crackers, bread, tangerines, peanuts and lolipops today. Tomorrow we will search out a tour agency to lead us on our 3 day desert junket "Four Gringos, a Cook and a Chaufer" but tonight all I can focus on is beer and some food....Llama Curry and Quinoa, yum!

Sucre

We got to Sucre on a very long bus that was horrible. The seats didn't lean back and weren't comfortable. Finally we got to Sucre at 5:00 am. We waited in the bus station for and hour because mom thought that the hotel wouldn't be open untill 6 or 7. Everyone didn't sleep much (because of the bathroom break at 1:00 am) we were all grumpy. Getting a taxi to the hotel was easy but at the hotel we had to fill out forms that felt like they took hours (it was really only 5 minutes). We got the key and went to our room to sleep!!! Once we woke up, and had breakfast we walked down to town. Since Sucre was new to us we walked around and mainly took pictures. We went to the Catedral and looked at the alter and then went to the museum of the Virgen of Guadalupe. We found out that the Virgen wasn't in the museum and we had to go back into the Catedral. The reason that the Virgen was in the church is because this weekend is the festival of the Virgen of Guadalupe and she is having hundreds of visitors a day. After lunch we came back to the hotel and hung out for a while, watched the sunset and ate dinner at the restaurant. Yesterday we went to the Dinosaur Museum and saw huge life size replicas of different dinosaurs. We also saw tracks but from really far away and we couldn't touch them. After lunch we went to a mask museum and saw tons of really cool masks that were kind of scary too. We went back to the hotel and while dad was sleeping Helen, Mom and I played cards and had a drink. When dad woke up it was time to watch the sunset and we all sat on the roof while he had a Pisco Sour! We ate at the hotel again and went to sleep right after that. Today we went to the Gloreieta castle and saw were the princess and prince lived. All the furniture was gone but it was still beautiful and amazing. My favorite part was when we climbed to the top one of the towers and saw the princess tower. It had stained glass all over it but we weren't allowed to go up because the stairs weren't stable enough to hold a group. Tonight we get to see a water show and I'm really excited!!!

The Dinosaur Museum

Today we went to a dinosaur museum the place was covered with fake dinosaurs. We took the Dino bus on the way we saw a parade, many girls were dresed up as angels. 4 older girls were carrying a copy of the Virgen de Guadelupe (Mary wearing gold and holding baby Jesus).

The dinosaur museum we went into in the first room they had a enormous skeleton of a dinosaur. It was a copy and the real bones were found in Argentina. We went outside and all the dinosaurs were there. The museum had fake rocks that had radios in them that made dinosaur noises. Our guide took us through to a copy of a dinosaur that was a Sauropod. The biggest plant-eating dinosaur on the earth. We got to walk right through its legs. After the museum we went back to the Dino bus.

After we got back to town we went on a walk through Bolivar park. It has a small Eiffel Tower made by the same man who made the one in Paris. Meghan and I climbed to the top - we tried to find the hills behind our hotel but we couldn't find them.

Cochabamba

We are hours from saying goodbye to this town as we head south this evening, inching closer and closer toward Argentina. I have mixed feelings about Cochabamba but it wouldn't make any top 10 lists. It was our jumping off point to visit Torotora National Park - a definite headliner, but this town doesn't pack much as a destination. They claim this town to be the gastronomic capital of Bolivia but I think we ate better in La Paz. We have gotten used to the set meals that most restaurants here serve for Almuerzo, the big meal of the day. A small salad, soup, main dish and a small dessert. Sit down and dishes start to apear in front of you almost imediately, good food, but nothing spectacular. Beef has replaced chicken as the primary meat here and we are hesitant to order the unknown for fear of looking down at tongue or heart on our plates.



Yesterday was America day for us. We walked to the Cinecenter and watched Cats & Dogs in spanish. I couldn't even tell it had been dubbed, the lips of talking animals are very hard to read. The kids loved it and although we missed some of the jokes, it was pretty easy to follow the plot. The popcorn was good and thankfully Bolivians haven't learned to gouge you at the concession stand. Afterward we feasted on giant ice cream sundays and cake at Globos, a dessert chain here complete with an indoor playland.

Cochabamba is celebrating it's 200 year aniversary as a city, September 14th is the big day but we will be a couple hundred miles south by then. We have been getting a glimpse of the celebration festivities to come. Friday night we watched and listened to a marching band contest in one of the parks, preparing for the big parade. Today, as on all Sundays the streets downtown (probably a square mile) are closed to vehicles and full of folks walking and biking around. The plazas and parks are full of food and craft vendors, an impressive gathering for any city and it seems to be the weekly norm. A 200 aniversary celebration here is bound to be huge. Maybe it's best that we say goodbye now.

Full Day

Friday we came back from Torotoro to our hotel in Cochabamba and we got here late at night. We went out and ate dinner and then came back and had a good night's sleep.

Today we went to a convent where the nuns stayed, but they said we couldn't come back until 2:00. While we were waiting, we went to Blanco Christo which is the big statue of a white Jesus on the top of the hill. The statue is bigger than the statue in Rio de Janerio - its the biggest in South America.

We rode the cable car up to the top of the mountain where Blanco Christo was. Once we got up there, we took lots of pictures and found out that you couldn't go up inside of it unless it was Sunday. Instead, we had ice cream and then rode the cable car back down the mountain.

We ate lunch at a restaurant with 4 courses. I got a sardine salad, potato soup, spicy beef and a slice of watermelon for dessert. It was a lot of food but since I was hungry, I ate most of it.

After lunch we went back to the convent. Since the doors were closed, Mommy and Helen sat at the doors while Daddy and I walked around a bit. When it was time, we got a tour of the convent. I learned that some of the nuns came to the church from Spain. But there were only 21 nuns and when one died, she was replaced by someone in town whose family wanted to put them in a convent. The families wanted to put their daughters in the convent because they believed that if they gave their daughter to the church, they would have a sure place in heaven. We got to go up on the roof and look into the courtyards where the 12 nuns stay and grow plants.

Once we were finished with our tour, we came back to the hotel and looked up more about the convent. Mom and I went to the book store, and on the way back to the hotel got thoroughly lost. We finally made it back and went to dinner. We came home from dinner really late and I took my first bath since we left home. It's very nice (I am dictating this to my mom from the bathtub).

All in all it was a pretty good day and I hope I have another good night's sleep.

Above (left) is a picture of Blanco Christo and above (right) is Helen, Dad and I with the city behind us.

Dinosaur Footprints and 2 KM up up up

So, today was a good one. I'm probably a little too into the dinosaur footprints, but I have to confess I have been a big fan since childhood. So much so that when "The Land of the Lost" was on - it was worth every nightmare I ever had to watch it.

So today, I sat in footprint of a Diplodocus (quadrupedal vegetarian of massive size - Google it if you need a photo). Pretty dern cool, if you ask me. We also saw footprints of several carnivores (among them the Velociraptor) and some sort of Pteradactyl. Okay, so Way cool!

Afterwards, we took a little hike down a dry stream-bed until we reached the Mirador for the Torotoro Canyon. The colors of the stratas were phenomenal. Blues and purples and reds and browns. Gorgeous.


From there we walked to a series of stairs down to El Vergel. A set of waterfalls from an underground spring that emerge to ground level with warm water year round. This locale is bright green and full of moss all the time. It was lovely and the girls and Mike went for a swim.

The walk back to the top was harder than I had imagined. When we emerged at 2KM straight up - we were so happy to see the car and our driver I almost cried. From then an easy 4 hour drive back into the city (Cochabamba) for our "high end - wifi in room" hotel. Let's just say in Bolivia - $10US/night is a major difference in quality. :)

I think we are slowly coming to realize that we are tired of travelling. We have at least a week more planned in Bolivia - then I think we actually might be pleased to stay in one place for a while. We'll keep you posted as soon as we know ourselves for sure.

Buenas Noches!

Dinosaur Tracks and a Cave

Today we went to see dinosaur tracks and a enormous cave. Our driver,Fernando drove us down to were the dinosaur walked. The dinosaur tracks were smaller than my feet, some were big and some were small. Our driver was at the end of the field, he was cleaning out a dinosaur track. Meghan and I helped him. We used sticks and rocks to get all the dirt out. We walked back to the car and drove down to see the cave.
The cave was one of the favorite things in my life. We first went inside a small house, we ate our food and left our bags. They gave us helmets with headlamps. We walked down the path and went inside the cave. The cave was huge and very dark. The rocks were very slippery and I slipped several times. There were many stalagtites that hung down and bumped our heads. One of the best things inside the cave were the ladders and ropes. There was a small little tunnel too, which you had to crawl through. Our guide tied ropes around rocks when we needed them and we climbed down them. We had to crouch down and hold onto rocks beneath us to get down. It was a long walk. One room in the cave was called the theater. It had stalagtites and stalagmites that looked like curtains on a stage. There was a high place that looked like seats where rich people sat to see a show. When we got to a large space, many people who had entered the cave before it was a park, burnt out their candles and used the ash to sign their names on the wall. They had thought that was the end. Our guide told us to turn off all our lights to see how dark it was. We did and a moment latter it was pitch black dark. Then we turned back on our lights and our guide told us that the cave went on. We crawled through a very small hole with sand that felt good on our bare hands. We had to squish our bodies tight to fit through the small holes but we made it. After that we saw a small lake that had many small blind fish. Then we headed out and climbed up many slippery rocks crouching and crawling. We got through and saw a small hole with light. We were almost there. We climbed up more hard rocks and I slipped again. We climbed even more big rocks and the hole got bigger and bigger. Finally we walked out of the cave and Meghan and I climbed up on a flat rock and yelled "We did it!".