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.