We're Home!

We made it back home today and boy, does it feel great! While on the road, it didn't seem like we were gone that long since we were busy seeing and doing, but now that we are home, it seems like a million years! We had a great last week at the beach and a few days in Buenos Aires shopping the street markets and going to the zoo.

Cannot wait to see you all and catch up--we are currently downloading almost 800 pictures, but don't worry, we won't make anyone sit through them all! :)

All in all a great trip!

Cailin's post

hi everyone! i am having so much fun on this trip. i can't believe that we have been here four four weeks already. i miss you guys so much. right now, we are at a time share in San Bernardo. there is a beach and a pool. i went boogie bording in the atlantic ocean. we have done a lot of stuff over the time that we were here. one of my favorites was going on scooters all through the city of Colonia, Uruguay. i also liked the canopy tour that we did during the lake crossing. it felt like we were flying. when we went to Iguazu Falls, there were butterflys everywhere. you couldn't find a place there that wasn't covered in butterflys. alia claimed that they breathed fire, had horns, and charged at her. i thought that they were very pretty. the waterfalls were SUPER huge. when you were looking at the river, you could almost see how people used to think that the world was flat. it was so pretty. the river looked liked it was falling into nothingness. i don't know if nothingness is even a word but i am going to use it anyways. i wish all were here. charlotte- i guess that i was wrong. they really do have McDonalds in Buenos Aires.
well, i have to go now. see you in a week! love,CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL CAILIN JEWELL

Can't stop talking about food!

While in Buenos Aires we watched some tango in the street and then Cailin and Alia gave it a try...More practice, perhaps!

Yes, more on food and such!
I must say, as one who loves her carbohydrates, I am even getting a bit tired of bread. The South American day starts out with bread, sometimes toasted, a side of croissants and a cup of coffee or tea. Basically, it has been a 5 week carbo-load! It doesn't help that when we go to the market, we buy more bread since it has been made fresh, travels well and needs no refrigeration. On one of our overnight bus rides, we were served breakfast and it consited of 2 croissants and a scone. Bread, bread, bread...
After the huge meals at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, we can see why the breakfasts are small and simple, (read: Duncan is starving) but really, where is the cereal or fruit, not to mention proteins? A few of the nicer joints we've stayed in have had ham slices and/or yogurt as well, but that brings me to a different point. Ham is everywhere in this country, yet we haven't seen a single pig (we've seen a lot of different ones, but no pig). Hamburgers, empanadas, pizzas, steak sandwiches all come with 'jamon' (ham) in or on top. I even got a burger once time with beef, ham, cheese and a fried egg on top. It definitely countered my carbo-overload!
All the above, minus any exercise to speak of, really doesn't bode well for this last week on the beach!

The one other food comment I have is on coffee. While walking about town this morning, not yet having had a cup, I was missing the paper 'to-go' cups we see all over in the states. Then, I went into a cafe to get me a cup of cafe con leche while Dunc and the girls bought sand toys. When you get coffee, it is an experience here, not just a fix. They bring out coffee with frothed milk, a shot glass of water (not sure why, except the coffee is usually scalding hot so it is nice) and always some bite of something--a cookie, chocolate, bread. That is just what a coffee is. Pretty nice to slow down, sip and think, rather than sip and run!
We are now at our quasi-final destination, San Bernardo, which is on the coast of Argentina, about 300km south of Buenos Aires. It will be nice to spend 5 nights in one place—the longest anywhere yet. We do have to go back to BA for 2 nights before flying out, and even tried hard to cut that out and stay here, but apparently the other 13 million Argentines in the area want to beach it too so there are no rooms available.
Today, I dropped off most of our clothes at a laundry place and we get them back tomorrow night—a bit longer than I expected, but they will be clean! Now that is something to be excited about! We've only washed our own in the tub and they are a bit stretched out from the wringing and hang drying. I am so excited to have the clothes dried and hopefully shrunk back into shape—although, stretched out clothing did help for the above mentioned reasons! Just got interrupted typing this as a huge firework show just happened on the beach across the street from our place. It was akin to what Ivar's does on the 4th, yet, here it is, January 11, a Monday, at 9:30pm so we have no idea why!? Perhaps it is a holiday? Perhaps this will be a nightly event? Who really knows! We have come a long way with the language, but there is much that still escapes us!
Alia did recover from the stomach flu and other than Cailin and I feeling queasy for 24 hours, no one else was plagued. It was not a fun cab ride, wait in the airport, fight, other cab ride to Iguazu with Alia—who did manage to throw up in each of those locations. We were very relieved to find our hostel did have AC and was decent. It was so hot and humid in the jungle and with not being able to drink the water, it was not an ideal place to be sick.
Cailin and I went to see the falls (look up Iguazu falls on the internet for some amazing pictures—one of the top 1000 places to see before you die and is trying to be voted in as one of the new 7 wonders of the world.). Duncan stayed back with Alia who still didn't feel well enough to go. Cailin and I, and then Duncan and Alia the next day, all were amazed by the size and amount of water of those falls. They were enormous! One of the highlights, was taking a boat ride in which you got up close to 2 different sides of the falls and then had a 'baptisma' under some of the falls. It was a thorough drenching, as in wring out your clothes, but it was a blast! We all decided swim goggles would have been great as it was hard to keep your eyes open under such torrents of water. In the park were more butterflies than I have ever seen. It was like you were in the butterfly house, but couldn't leave! Not Alia's favorite part, so she sweated through with her windbreaker on! Cailin couldn't hold enough of them. There were also large lizzards, tons of birds (Derek, took a few pictures for you to i.d.) and coati, a cousin to the racoon. The coati came out in the later afternoon and had obviously been fed and were a bit eager to swarm you, but still pretty cute.
We were in Iguazu for two and a half days and were all so sticky and grimy with the heat and red clay that we were ready to leave when the time came. It was a long day of travel with our flight getting into BA at 7 and our bus didn't leave for the coast until 12:45 am. We all agreed that the airport was much nicer and cleaner then the Buenos Aires bus station so we hung out there as long as we could. Neither is in a neighborhood that you'd want to be out wandering about in. Alia was wiped out from being sick and pretty much slept through all the waiting, as you can see.

The girls have really been great travelers and seem to have no problem with long bus rides and long waits. Perhaps all those drives to Bend and Spokane have really done them some good! We use the wait time to do homework and catch up on our journals. Both girls went through the books we brought for them more quickly than we anticipated, but we did find one English book store in BA and they have been listening to the Narnia series thanks to my sister, Amy!

This might be my last blog--unless something really exciting happens! :) Thanks to all our friends and family who have read along with us--it really helped up all feel connected to you while out here! We loved reading your comments (Ben, we never went so far south that it stayed light all night--sorry!). We will be back next week!

If ever the chance to do something like this comes your way--grab it! It has been absolutely great!!

Adios!

pictures

Here are the photos I couldn't seem to upload from Uruguay. We are now in Buenos Aires (much better this time around as we are in a great neighborhood--San Telmo--and in a very clean and nice home). We are leaving today for Iguazu Falls with Alia who is currently vomiting! Our first illness and we hope it is a quick one that doesn't spread!!

Sierra de la Ventana, one of our favorite spots!

Uruguay was wonderful! Girls pictured here doing homework at the hostel.

A great breakfast that included crepes with ice cream for the girls and toast, chocolate cake and apple pie for Duncan and I! I think we must have orderd off the "posteries" menu (desserts!). Girls LOVED it!



Scooters were the way to go in Colonia! No helmets, which the girls thought was amazing. Everyone travels that way, so only a few cars on the roads. Fun bumping over the cobbled, narrow streets.

It was bound to happen...

We've had such an amazing trip with a great run of luck for the last 3 weeks that we were bound to hit a bump in the road sometime. January 4th it all came to a head! More on that in a minute! Our time spent in Sierra de la Ventana was just great, but there were a few early signs that our luck was running low.

On the 2nd, when transportation and stores opened up again, we headed out on the local bus line to the national park, Cerro Ventana, to go hiking. This is the mountain that the whole region is named for as it has a window (ventana) in the top of it. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late in the morning to hike to the top of it, but instead did a few other shorter hikes--it was a very hot day and these smaller hikes all were near water, which was nice. On the second hike (to yet another waterfall!), we saw a tarantula! A first for all of us! It definately changed the way Cailin was scampering all over the rocks we were on! After we were done, we knew we had a little wait for the bus as the driver told us he came back at 4:30. We wiled away the hour and a half playing "eye-spy" and "twenty questions" until we came to the realization that no bus was coming! As we were about 30 km from the town, our choices were to wait until 7:30, when the ranger said the next bus should come or take the situation into our own hands. In a place where only sub-compact cars are seen, and those are usually filled to the hilt, hitch-hiking for 4 seemed pretty unlikely! A kind family did take pitty on us, however, and put their son in the front with them and the 4 of us piled into the tiny backseat. The 10 year old boy was taking English in school so he could translate for his parents. We were very grateful!

After jumping into the pool to cool down, we headed out for our much-looked-forward-to meal of a Parilla Libre--an all you can eat grill. We had been craving meat and looking forward to the wonderful Argentine beef we'd all heard so much about. They brought out grill out, and it is a pile of beef and pork in a variety of ways--very few of which we recognized! After tasting, guessing and asking, it turns out our grill had ribs, roast, sweetbreads, kidneys, intestines, blood sausage and a few unknowns. We really didn't get our money's worth on the all you can eat part!

On the 3rd we headed out to Buenos Aires, as that is where all roads lead, but without the intent to stay there just yet. We took an overnight bus arriving at the largest bus station I have ever seen! The greater BA population is over 13 million and I think most were arriving in the city on the bus! It was hot and humid and we really didn't want to be there, except that everywhere we did want to be seemed to connect through the city. This is where our rough day began!

We had a really hard time getting tickets to anywhere. High season has begun and that is bad for us! We ended up not being able to go anywhere (after hours of waiting in lines, at travel agents and on the digusting bus station floor!) and were forced to stay a night in Buenos Aires at a hotel I really hope to forget soon. I bit it with my heavy pack on in the middle of a busy street (didn't see the hole) as we were walking to the hotel and now have a nice big scab on my knee. Finally the day was over and we had tickets out to Uruguay the next morning, we hoped we had a place to stay (Duncan called a random hostel and booked us all in Spanish)and we hopefully booked the rest of our trip so we didn't have another long day of lines and waiting. The girls managed very well--better than I!

Needless to say, Colonia, Uruguay (where we are now)has been great! It has been hot and sunny, our hostel reservations were there waiting for us, and we got to explore the whole town and historic district on scooters today! What fun!


From Duncan: Tonight the Three Wise Men came came cruising up main street in Colonia, Uruguay in the back of a beat up old pickup truck. Turns out tonight is the Twelfth day of Christmas. The kids waved and they threw candy, much like the Seafair pirates. Alia popped a sticky piece in her mouth and promptly discovered she had a loose molar. Having lost a tooth in Argentina, we mentioned it was too bad she wasn't going to lose this one in Uruguay so she could compare tooth fairies in foreign countries. Five minutes later she announced “Got it” and showed us the bloody molar in her hand. I guess we will see what the Uruguayan tooth fairy has to offer after all.



Buenos noches! (sorry photos wouldn't download!) Maybe next time!

Penguins!

One of our best adventures yet was going to see the penguins! I was a touch worried that it would be a hokey touristy thing, but it was amazing! We rented a car for the day and drove about 2 hours south to Punto Tombo--a protected reserve for penguins and other wild animals (cousin to the llama, rheas--small ostrich like bird, and other creatures). You are asked to stay on the paths or within the white rocks, but no one tells the penguins where to go or nest. They were everywhere! This is the largest colony of Magellen penguins (I think around 250,000). This time of year, the babies are up and about and both parents are going to the water to fish and feed the babies. The babies are still grey and fuzzy and so very cute! The parents were waddling back and forth to the ocean, and for some that was a huge distance and with a strong wind to boot. They would waddle right past you and brey like a donkey (they are also called the jackass penguin). It really felt unreal to be in the midst of so many birds like that. They are amazingly fast in the water and we could see them dart about. Polarized lenses on the sunglasses help! It was a great thing to see--one of the girls favorites!

We drove back to Puerto Madryn and said our goodbyes to the beach and headed to the bus station. This time, we were in 'cama executivo' or something like that. Buisness class--and was it nice! Huge seats, a hot meal served and we all slept soundly (until 4:30 that is, when we had to make a transfer!) We basically looked at the map and picked a place that seemed a logical distance and in the direction we wanted to go and bought bus tickets. We are now in Sierra de la Ventana and it is gorgeous! This tiny town has one main street and a handful of restaurants. We are in the foothills of some great mountains that we will explore tomorrow. Timing has a funny way of working--we got in on New Year's Eve morning, only to find everything closing early for the parties, nothing being open on New Year's day and then moving into the weekend. Basically, instead of a stopover, we are here 4 days! Our hotel is a huge old hotel on a hill above town and it is really funky. A bit like the Shining in ways, but clean and it has a beautiful pool that we have been enjoying. There must be 100 rooms and maybe 10 or 15 taken.

Last night, New Year's Eve, we didn't think we'd make it to midnight after the bus ride the night before, but when in Argentina....we all took a long siesta in the late afternoon and were ready for dinner by 8:30 or so. Unfortunately, no one else in the town was ready for dinner that early. We walked around and finally went in to the restaurant at 9 and they did serve us. It was a fixed menu for the night and it went course by course for 3 hours! At midnight, they gave us all a glass of champagne and fireworks went off in the street. We were so bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, we barely enjoyed it, but were glad we made it into the next decade!

Today, we all slept late, lounged by the pool and now are heading to dinner (earlier for a smaller meal).

Prices are still amazing us--especially wines. My 350ml bottle of wine last night was 9 pesos (a little less than $3). Hotels and hostels are all paid by the person, and we are usually paying around $14 per person.

People are very kind (even here where not one person speaks a lick of English and we are bumbling about). When anyone enters a room, they great everyone in it. Men and women alike give a kiss to friends and a handshake to a new aquaintance. The girls have been kissed a few times and while it makes them a little uncomfortable, I think it is great to see the culture first hand.

Feliz Nuevo Ano!