Punta del Este

I'm playing catchup---don't give me a hard time haha...

So I was in Montevideo, Uruguay for two weeks taking more spanish classes, which I'll talk about later. My friend Matthew his two friends from Chicago, came over the river to check out Uruguay as well. They rented a car and drove to Montevideo to pick me up on the weekend and we drove two hours to Punta del Este.
Punta del Este has been described as the South Beach or Saint Tropez...of South America. It definitely met all glamorous expectations. Its a peninsula on the north east coast of Uruguay on the way to Brazil and it is surrounded by el Rio del Plata on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other. The white sand beaches are plentiful, as are the fancy cars, high rise condos, tanned bottoms and boob jobs in thong bikinis.
Upon entering the area and while driving through, our faces were plastered to the glass windows of the car...which we rolled down to hang our heads and tongues out of the car like dogs drooling at the gorgeous scenery. Hmm...that def. says something if I relate gorgeous scenery to modernized glass condos and hot people on the beach and not some sort of natural landscape, whatevs I'm a city girl!
We stayed at a hostel in Manantiales which is like ten minutes outside of Punta and on Bikini Beach. Which was a good choice as we were out of the way of boardwalks crammed with tourists with way too much disposable cash. Our hostel, though not as nice as the one in B.A., was quaint, had a pool and a bar and a lot of guests from all over including a bunch of recently laid-off NYC investment bankers taking a loooong vacation.
First thing we did was find the perfect beach...which we didn't. The one we chose ended up being for ages 12 and under. Where were all the hot people?? We decided to stay anyway..tired from driving and tried to nap to the sounds of the ocean and screaming children. Later after a quick change at the hostel we headed to a night on the town. After choosing one of like a hundred restaurants all along the harbor, we came across one with amazing seafood, which I haven't had since I've been in SoAm. Unfortunately, a resort town resembling Saint Tropez also comes with the same price tags, well maybe more like South Beach prices but still...this is South America....everything should be cheap. Oh well, it was just for one weekend.
After eating we tried to go to the number one spot to drink at on the peninsula, Moby Dick, and Irish pub?! Which we didn't get into, because apparently we were in the US and needed to show ID to get in, which none of us had on because again, we are in SOUTH AMERICA and its usually safer not to walk around with your passport, duh....so we settled on the colorful club/bar/restaurant next door, Soho. After three expensive Caipirhinas later we hit the packed dancefloor until around 4 or 5 am when we decided to cut out "early." I forgot to mention, we sat down for dinner at around 1:30 am, when in Rome!

The next day, went to bikini beach, i think?, and took in the much needed rays and blackened my skin as much as possible while taking a quick break to brave the crazy waves breaking right on the beach. Of course, it was funny to sit back and watch all the other people get pummeled by the waves but once I stepped in and was knocked off my feet and ass dragged on the sharp shell covered ocean floor, it wasn't so funny....it was pretty funny though when we decided to get out before drowning, and tried to find a way to avoid exposing my bikini bottom that was filled with two pounds of sand, making me look like i pooped myself....hmmm...

*sorry I've run out of time, I'm late to be somewhere that I'll write about another time, as for this story....to be continued....

Buquebus

11:19 pm 13/2/09

So this is my return trip back to BA from Montevideo, UY. I'm aboard the Ana Silvia liner of Buquebus. I just found this out...I kept seeing the name Ana Silvia on my ticket and other papers and figured it was the name of the lady who helped me on the first day at the counter in BA, I thought it was strange that they kept such good tabs on customer service....it wasn't until I was walking onto the ferry an hour ago that I noticed her name in huge white block letters painted along the side of the boat...wow they really love this lady, I thought...just kidding...thats when it clicked.

The ferry ride is three hours from Montevideo to Buenos Aires, its the fast one. The cheaper ride is 300 hundred pesos less but also three hours longer...no thanks. I wasn't sure what to expect about taking a boat to another country. I've never done it before. The longest I've been on a ferry ride was when I was 11 and went on a class trip to Vancouver Island to the city of Victoria....I think that was two hours. I remember it being the funnest thing ever, they had food, arcades, you could basically run around inside and out, there were different levels...way cooler than a plane ride.

This ferry ride is not much different except for the running around part, I mean its possible, there are kids doing it, but I would look strange, plus I have no friends. Well, at first I thought that's what all the kids did, run around, but not quite. I noticed the last time and now the amount of kids on this thing was outrageous! I didn't think I would survive. As soon as I ate and found a row of three empty seats to occupy, I started reading my book and fell asleep. It wasn't long before I heard the faint laughter of children...I could hear but it sounded muffled...awakened and staring at the ceiling, it seemed like the sounds were coming from the vent above me... I looked around and noticed all the empty seats and other adults fast asleep. Hmm, weird, I wonder where they put them all...and then I discovered at the front of the plane they have a mini kindergarten, with clowns and everything! smart....also they have two Wii stations downstairs in the center of the boat. also smart. so now its relatively peaceful.

These boats are huge....two levels and a car deck below. There is a two-level duty free shop with Prada sunglasses, clothes, alcohol, American chocolate and a whole level for perfume and makeup. Its all in US dollars and people are spending like crazy. I have to say, when I first was told to take the ferry over I had my reservations. A boat? with hundreds of people? I was skeptical about the conditions....but it turns out this is the preferred method of travel for most wealthy Argentines. Riding the ferry there and back were the only times I ever saw Louis and Chanel bags, gorgeous tans, iPhones, blackberry, iPods, Macbooks....even the children were beautiful. Of course, when I got off in Montevideo I never saw these people again, until I went to Punta del Este and I discovered their hiding spot, but thats a different story.

All in all, this is definitely way more relaxing than flying, even if the flight would have been only forty-five minutes...with two plane crashes in a month the odds are really high and water seems like a way better alternative than a twenty person baby plane....I'm leaving the nice blue water of the Atlantic behind and heading into the brown, murky, familiar waters of el Rio de Plata... Ciao!

Tourists Beware

Thankfully -knock on wood- I haven't been robbed...
Personally I hate tourists, even though I am one I try to blend in, which is easy because I'm Latina

BUT for those who aren't so lucky here are ways you may get robbed (as explained by my teachers, and friends that were robbed on more than one occasion, more than once a week)

1. People who you would normally assume to be suspicious probably won't wrong you- Watch out for small children, the disabled, the old, and the pregnant----they will most likely rob you, obviously not all but if they fall into the above category AND look slightly sketchy then YES

2. Don't be stupid and carry your camera in your front backpack pocket, or anything important in your backpack for that matter...while you're gazing at the beautiful tall buildings someone is unzipping your bag and taking your shit

3. If you see a $100 bill on the ground, it isn't your lucky day. While you're bending over to pick it up, someone is coming up from behind to snatch your purse/wallet and knocking you over....oh and taking the hundo...

4. If a parrot, pigeon, or any strange winged creature happens to land on your shoulder, you are not the bird whisperer. Right when you swing your arms up to shoo it away, you'll feel your purse pulled off your shoulder and by the time the feathers have cleared...you've been robbed

5. You're in a taxi, its a hundred degrees, got the windows down, smoking a cigarette, enjoying the only breeze of the day. Cab comes to a stop at a red light, guy drives by on a motorcycle reaches in the window and jacks your new suede handbag....sweet.

6. Aaah the subway...you get on, find a seat (for once), put your ipod on and just as the doors are about to close, some little fucker jumps on, grabs your shit and runs off just as the doors close and the subway takes off into the tunnel. WTF!?

As shitty as it may ruin your day, or your life, for the most part it's never violent. They take your shit and it some how ends up your own fault. Stupid gringo.

Sometimes though,

7. You go to the ATM, take out money, and then decide to wait outside of the bank 'cause its too damn hot inside, while your friend is taking money out. From nowhere a group of drunk teenagers approach you and say that they're gonna kill you if you don't give them all your money...just as you stagger back, your friend aka now you're new Argentine boyfriend/knight in shining armor runs out of the bank and saves the day...scaring the little shits off
-well let's just hope you're with an Argentine lover, this was obviously only one true story

or you may laugh about it later....or not

8. You're walking down the street, minding your business, when all of a sudden someone chucks dog shit at your face. You freak the fuck out, start screaming not knowing if you should wipe it off 'cause you don't want to touch it, so you're just blinding wandering, flailing, horrified....could it get any worse....YES...whoever just threw the shit at you, is now robbing you. HA!!!


SO what did we learn? Basically never bring your wallet, have a photocopy of your ID/passport, only bring as much cash as you need that day/hour whatever, and get a 'decoy' purse: a shitty purse you bought on the street so when/ if you do get robbed it's no big deal 'cause its a shitty purse with nothing in it.

BA Orientation

So Monday morning we have our first day of school...
The new kids are put into classes and each class has about 2-6 people in it. My group had 3 all together, which was nice 'cause we got more attention. One guy was retired, from Quebec, Canada, and has been travelling for a while, then the other girl just graduated from UCSB with a masters and is from NorCal...way up there though, near Humboldt. Her boyfriend, who was in the class next door, and her dropped everything in the States and are travelling all South America for six months and planned on making BA a permanent home after they travel.
Classes are four hours, where we ONLY speak spanish, talk about ourselves/lives, do grammar out of the textbooks, and watch a cheesy Mexican soap opera and discuss everything they say. We get a break after two hours, and they rotate teachers everyday so that we don't get used to one persons accent or method of teaching.
After the first class we went to orientation, which I assumed would be about the school, the language, and meeting everyone.
It turned out to be an orientation on surviving BA....
First order of business: You will get robbed
Second: You will get ripped off
Third: You cannot wash your own clothes at the laundromat and they will mix them with other peoples
Fourth: Don't plan on eating dinner till 10pm or after and don't plan on going out till 1 am or after
Fifth: No one curbs there dogs so watch your step
Sixth: Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way

YAY BA!