South America 2019 Trip Journal

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Day 39: Santiago

Location: Santiago de Chile

July 1, 2019 – 9:20 PM Chile time

Today was my last full day in South America. It’s hard to believe this six-week adventure is coming to an end tomorrow. So, I made today count. I started kind of early, around 8:30 AM, and headed to the Cerro Santa Lucia, a hill in the middle of the city that offers incredible views of the skyline and Andes mountains. From the top, which was also a fortress of some sort that I believe was a part of the old defenses of Santiago, you can also see the tallest building in Latin America, the Gran Torre Santiago, a 64-story tall skyscraper that reaches nearly 1,000 feet into the air.

After the Cerro Santa Lucia, I walked to the Cultural Center under the presidential palace which had a mediocre art exhibit that I paid 2 bucks to get into. I would have gone to a different museum, but everything is closed in both Chile and Argentina on Mondays for some reason. I wandered around there for about 45 minutes, taking in the various watercolor collections there and then I left the cultural center around 1 PM and headed to the hostel for a couple-hours long rest.

I set out again, this time to get some food and do some souvenir shopping and then returned to the hostel for another hour or so before getting my final meal in South America, which was a delicious and cheap curry chicken with rice and naan at a small Indian restaurant near my hostel.  

Day 38: To Santiago

Location: Santiago de Chile

June 30, 2019 – 11:28 PM Chile Time

I left the colorful city of Valparaiso this morning after another breakfast of eggs and bread at the hostel. I booked a 3,000 peso bus ticket at the station and, two hours after buying my ticket, I arrived in the capital of Chile at the same bus station I left from four days ago, about 170 kilometers to the east at the foot of the Andes. I bought my bip! card, the mechanism used to enter the Santiago Metro. I initially was confused by the name “bip!,” but I soon discovered that when you tap the card on the kiosk to enter the station, it makes a high-pitched “bip” noise, so do with that information what you will.

I took the metro 13 stops from Pajaritos to Baquedano and then walked two blocks to the Hostal Forestal, my sixth and final accommodation in South America. This hostel is by far the largest I stayed in on this trip and probably had the nicest facilities, although from what I’ve seen so far, the atmosphere at my hostel in San Pedro was better. After dropping my bag at the hostel around 1 PM, I walked along the gorgeous Parque Forestal to the Mercado Central, a large fish market that, you guessed it, is in central Santiago. While there, I had paella for lunch with some incredibly fresh seafood accompanied by a pisco sour. Then, it was time for my free walking tour of Santiago, which met in front of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. This walking tour was run by the same Tours4Tips people as in Valparaiso and I liked the one in Valpo so much I decided to use them again.

This tour passed by the Plaza de Armas, the main square of Santiago and also the presidential palace. Our guide also talked a lot about the Allende and Pinochet eras of history in Chile and how everyone has a view on these two people and their effect on the country. In the 1960’s, at the height of the Cold War, Allende was the first ever democratically elected socialist leader in the world. His breed of socialism was different than that used in communist Russia and eastern Europe, but was still effective and governed people relatively well. In 1972, the workers even built a gigantic structure and community center known as GAM, which we visited later in the tour, in less than one year after being told it would be impossible to do so. Everyone, from engineers to the builders were paid the same and given the same hours and the building was a testament to the success of socialism. Despite this, the US didn’t like Allende (he was communist, remember) and sent agents into the country to destabilize the government.

In 1973, there was a food shortage in Chile leading to a military coup in which the head of the armed forces, whose name was Pinochet, took control of the country in a brutal dictatorship for 17 years. Allende was killed during the coup during the bombing of the presidential palace. Under Pinochet, many citizens were tortured and killed in large numbers and it was overall a dark time in Chilean civil rights history. Under Pinochet, the constitution was rewritten and allowed for the extreme privatization of assets within Chile, which lead to an economic boon which Chile is still feeling today. Under the new constitution, a particular company could own a river, lake, or mountain and use it as they will, which was very attractive for foreign investors. This capitalist-incentive economy made Chile the wealthiest country in Latin America, a title it still holds today.

However, given Pinochet’s human rights record, many businesses were wary to associate themselves with Chile. In order to prove that the people actually liked him as a ruler, Pinochet, the supreme dictator of Chile, held a general election in 1990 to prove that he was liked among the people. He ended up losing the vote 54% to 46% and the dictatorship ended, but the economic system and constitution Pinochet put in place are still used today and are constantly debated among Chileans about whether to change both.

After the tour, I went back to the hostel for a little bit to rest and then went out to dinner in the nearby neighborhood of Bellavista. Finally, I met some friends from San Francisco I made on the walking tour for drinks before returning to the hostel to go to bed.

Day 37: Festival of San Pablo

Location: Valparaiso, Chile

June 29, 2019 – 10:26 PM Chile time

I spent my last day in Valparaiso exploring the Playa Ancha neighborhood of the city, a part of the city I didn’t see yesterday. I discovered this morning that I wasn’t the only person staying in the hostel last night, as there were two French people at breakfast this morning, plus an unknown third person who didn’t show up to breakfast. The French people told me about the festival of San Pablo, or the festival of Saint Paul, that was happening today and because I didn’t have any plans, I figured why not go to the festival. After breakfast, I walked down the hill towards the flat part of town, then turned left towards Cerro Artilleria. Once there, I took an ascensor up to the top, which offered gorgeous views of the port of Valparaiso. I stood there for about 10 minutes, watching the cranes and trucks move hundreds of shipping containers in preparation for the next ship to arrive.

Then, I walked across the top of the hill over Playa Ancha and then back down the other side of the hill until I arrived at Caleta El Membrillo, some sort of community center that was taken over by dancing and music celebrating San Pablo. As I am not a Christian, I have no idea why today is San Pablo’s day or why there is a big celebration with tons of music today, but I do know is that it was quite fascinating to watch for about an hour and a half and I got free fish and potato salad for some reason. Overall, a good celebration.

Next, I walked along the coast to the Museo Maritimo Nacional, which was pretty boring and not worth your time. All it had was a couple old artifacts from the Chilean navy and a bunch of scale models of ships. I then went back to the hostel around 4PM and rested for a few hours before going out to dinner near my hostel, where I had a weird fish stew at an overpriced restaurant. Tomorrow morning I head to Santiago, my last South American stop before heading home.

Day 36: Street Art Capital

Location: Valparaiso, Chile

June 28, 2019 – 10:48 PM Chile time

There is so much art on these hills of Valparaiso. I woke up at 9 AM and Jose Luis, the manager of the hostel, made me breakfast, before I headed out to discover more of this gorgeous town. I walked down from the hill where my hostel is located to the flat part of town, then took a right along one of the busy streets and eventually made it to the share-cab terminal, where I paid about 75 cents to be taken up to La Sebastiana, the Valparaiso home of the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda.

La Sebastiana is an interesting place. For one, it has absolutely stunning views of the harbor and colorful houses of Valparaiso. Second of all, Neruda was quite the collector and hoarder, so he had a ton of random items in his five-story mansion. Picture Bucks of Woodside, except in house form. You can replace Shaq’s shoe with a punch bowl shaped like a cow, and a tiger-plane with a wooden horse from a carousel and now you have Pablo Neruda’s house. After wandering around this interesting place and listening to the audio guide for about an hour, I walked down the hill to the Museo a Cielo Abierto, or open art museum. This is a space of about 20 murals placed in the same general area, connected by stairs and narrow streets. The murals here are pretty incredible and unique. I examined these while walking down a staircase towards the flat part of town again.

After this art exhibit, I took an ascensor, or 100-year-old rickety trolley elevator, up to the top of Cerro Allegre, another hill in Valparaiso. I had lunch at the famous Café Vinilo, right near my hostel, and then walked to the Paseo Yugoslavo, yet another place with a gorgeous view of the harbor and houses of Valpo. I took a different ascensor down the hill and walked along the coast near the port until 3PM, when I went to the central Plaza Sotomayor where I joined a free walking tour of Valparaiso that you only pay what you think it deserves.

The tour lasted 3 hours and went to many of the same places I already explored earlier today but explained them in greater detail. I decided to give my guide 10 dollars (the average donation) because I thought the tour was really good, and then I went to a Welsh pub across the street from my hostel with two new friends I made from the tour to watch the Chile/Colombia Copa America game. These guys, one from Dallas and one from Buffalo, were in Chile for the Solar eclipse and went to Easter Island before this, which I thought was pretty cool. The soccer game was kinda boring until the end. Chile had two goals questionably waved off, one for offsides and one for a hand ball, and Colombia didn’t really have many chances, so the game went to penalty kicks after a 0-0 game for 90 minutes of play. The two teams traded PK’s until Colombia missed the last one and Chile made theirs, making the crowd here go absolutely bananas and sending Chile to the semi-finals of the tournament, where they will face either Uruguay or Peru.

Day 35: Travel

Location: Valparaiso, Chile

June 27, 2019 – 9:17 PM Chile time

Today was all about travel. I woke up at 8:00 AM and had breakfast at my hostel in San Pedro. Then, at 9:40 AM, an airport shuttle came to the door to pick me up and, after making a couple more stops in town, headed due west for 100 kilometers until we hit the town of Calama. Calama itself has nothing there, it’s just a coal mining town, but it does boast the closest airport to San Pedro de Atacama, so I saw a decent amount of familiar faces at the tiny airport before boarding my flight to Santiago.

You can really only go two places from Calama, Santiago and La Serena. Also, for all the tourists in San Pedro, the number of flights between Calama and Santiago was massive. My flight was at 1:10 PM on LATAM, but LATAM ran another flight 20 minutes later to Santiago and then another one an hour after that. Plus, smaller airlines like JetSmart and Sky Airways ran consistent flights to Santiago. All these flights would have been fine had the plane been full, but my flight was only 45% full and I guarantee you that the one 20 minutes later was also fairly empty, so who knows why they couldn’t just have cancelled one and put everyone on the other one.

Anyways, the hour and a half hop between CJC and SCL was nice and we landed in Santiago around 2:45 PM. I got my bags and then decided to store one of my bags at the bag check in the airport. Following that, I caught a bus to the outskirts of Santiago, and then another bus to Valparaiso, a jumbled, colorful city about 150 kilometers from Santiago along the Pacific Ocean. Valparaiso has a reputation for being one of the most colorful cities in the world and the street art capital of the world. I thought that people were exaggerating when they said that there was art on literally every wall and concrete surface, but they were not. Every single thing is covered in graffiti or color or some sort of mural.

I noticed this as I took my Uber from the bus station to my hostel, and even the stairs up to my hostel were painted in different colors. I checked into the hostel where I discovered that I was the only person staying in this hostel tonight, which was a little interesting to discover, but it’s ok because one of the things you learn to do while traveling solo is learning to live with yourself. I stayed in a B&B in Salta on my own earlier this trip for two nights. This is like the same thing but so much cheaper.

Edited on September 28th to reflect actual events of checking into the hostel:

So before, I said that I checked into the hostel and I was the only person staying there. Well, that wasn’t actually the whole story… After taking a bus from San Pedro to Calama, followed by a two-hour long flight, then another two buses and an Uber ride, I finally arrived at Hostel Casa Aventura, which translates to Hostel Adventure House. And boy was it an adventure checking into that hostel. I arrived around 8:30pm, walked up the mysterious and creepy looking art stairs up to the hostel door and knocked on the door. No one answered. I thought, “Ok this is weird, but maybe they didn’t hear me.” So I knocked again. And again. And again. Still no answer after five minutes, so I checked my email for the phone number and called them three times. No answer yet again.

At this point, I was tired from traveling all day and freaking out. What was I going to do for the night? I could always check into a hotel, but that was expensive and I didn’t want to give up just yet. Also, my other problem was safety. Valparaiso, although a gorgeous city, is not particularly safe at night, and I was sitting at the top of a narrow staircase with all of my bags and stuff. I was essentially a sitting duck for pickpockets or worse! I became wary of anyone walking by on the street below or up the staircase.

Eventually, someone came out of the distance and walked up to the door. She looked at me and said, “Are you Aaron?” in heavily accented English. I replied, “Yes.” She then said she worked for the hostel and apologized for the wait. She fumbled in her bag and pockets for something and then looked at me and said, “Me perdí me llave!” which means “I forgot my key!” So, she called her boss, turned to me and said, “I’ll be back in 15 minutes. Stay here!” and just left me once again before I could respond.

She then came back in about 15 minutes, like she said she would, and checked me into the hostel, which is when I discovered I was the only person staying at this hostel, which was quite the shock, considering hostels are supposed to be social environments where you meet new people.  

After checking in to the hostel, I got some dinner at a local café two blocks away and then headed back to the hostel where I rested before going to bed.

Day 34: Sandboarding

Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

June 26, 2019 – 10:26 PM Chile time

Today was a lazy day until about 3 PM. This morning, I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel and wandered around the town for a little bit before coming back to the hostel and relaxing for a while. I was looking for souvenirs, but I didn’t find any that seemed interesting. I then grabbed lunch with a British girl I met at the hostel before returning to the hostel and starting to pack up my things for my flight tomorrow.

Then came the fun part of today: Sandboarding. At 3 PM, the hostel staff took me to the offices of Sandboarding San Pedro, where we got fitted for helmets. The six of us, two Canadians, one Pole, a Costa Rican, a Portuguesa, and me, who signed up for the sandboarding tour then loaded up into a van with our guide, Nacho, and drove 15 minutes to the Valle de Marte, the Mars Valley (we’re really hammering it home with these extraterrestrial sights here in San Pedro), where we arrived at this massive dune that would be our home base for sandboarding for the next two hours.

Once at the sight, Nacho fitted us with our boards and boots and gave us a 20-minute tutorial on how to sandboard. First, we determined if we were right or left footed. Then, he told us that we always have our main foot facing forwards and to slow down you have to either lean forward or lean backwards. I expected to mainly be leaning forwards or backwards while going down the dune, but apparently sand has a ton of friction, so you don’t really move down the hill unless you have your feet in the middle. Now, because my balance isn’t the greatest, it was hard for me to stay in the middle which lead to constant falling on a soft pillow of sand.

“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, it’s rough, it gets everywhere.” This sand was neither coarse, nor rough, but it did get everywhere. After the lesson, we walked up the dune and Nacho more or less pushed us off the top. I probably did six or seven runs and fell literally every time but kept wanting to go more. I could do without the tiring 15-minute walk up to the top of the dune every time, but the thrill of boarding down was awesome.

At 6 PM, the sun set and we headed back to town, where I promptly got dinner with my Australian friends and then bought snacks for my flight tomorrow down to Santiago, which will be followed by a bus ride to Valparaiso.

Day 33: La Luna

Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

June 25, 2019 – 10:39 PM Chile Time

Last night I saw some of the clearest skies I’ve ever seen in my life. Rings of Saturn, that kind of stuff. You remember for yesterday. However, one prominent extraterrestrial object that was missing was the moon, which was a little unusual, but good because we got to see more stars without the light of the sun blocking the way. It turns out I could still see the moon while here, and it was well worth the wait of an extra day because I got to step on the moon’s actual surface.

This morning I slept in a little bit and got breakfast at the hostel around 8:30 AM. While at breakfast, I met some Australians from Melbourne visiting Chile for the solar eclipse in a week from now. However, while at altitude here in San Pedro, they decided to try and beat three Guinness World Records, for the highest ever 3D printed object, the highest ever boardgame ever played, and the highest ever skateboard run. I think that’s pretty cool and requires a decent amount of planning to be able to get the record certified. One of these Aussies already holds two world records, one for the longest ever day, at 49 hours (jumping between American Samoa and Samoa) and the fastest time traveled between the southernmost point and northernmost point in Europe only using public transportation.

After talking to these guys for about an hour, comparing travel stories and hearing about their incredible quest for three Guinness World Records, I took a shower and decided to rent a bike and head for the Pukara de Quitor, an ancient pre-Colombian fort used by the native people of Atacama until they finally fell to the Spaniards in the 1700’s. The bike ride was very bumpy but pretty nice overall and it took about a half hour to bike there. Once there, there was a little hike to see more of the ruins, plus an absolutely incredible view of the city and surrounding area.

Then, I went back to the hostel and made lunch with the remaining tuna and pasta I had. Following lunch, I went to the moon (valley). The tour company picked up me, the two Aussies, and the same German woman as yesterday’s tour before heading off to the Valle de la Luna, or the Moon Valley in English. I didn’t have high expectations about what this would look like, but it actually felt like I was on the moon or Mars. It was absolutely incredible. We did a hike for an hour and a half just exploring the different rock formations and it ended with an incredible view of the Amfitheater, a natural semi-sphere of sand and rock, and gigantic open area that looked like a lunar crater.

After the hike, we did a shorter hike to the top of the Big Dune, where we watched a vivid and spectacular sunset contrasted by clouds and the Moon Valley which was amazing. Then, we went back to town and the Aussies, a British travel writer, a Spanish traveler, and a German man all grabbed dinner together, complete with traditional Pisco Sours, a local Chilean (or Peruvian, jury is still out) drink made with egg whites and some sort of alcohol. Then, we went back to the hostel and had some hot wine (which really hit the spot on these cold Atacaman nights) and headed to bed.

Day 32: Out of this World

Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

June 24, 2019 – 10:57 PM Chile Time

Today felt unreal. Like I’m thinking back on the events of today and they were so spectacular that it feels like a dream. Definitely out of this world.

I woke up at 6 AM for my 6:30 AM tour of the Altiplano lakes and Salar de Atacama. When the bus picked me up, I discovered that there were seven of us on this tour: me, a German solo traveler at the same hostel as me, a Chilean family of three from Vina del Mar, right near Valparaiso, my next stop, and a Brazilian couple from Sao Paulo, and I feel like pointing out that the man looked strangely like George Bluth Sr. from Arrested Development. Plus, there was our guide, Fernando, and our driver, whom I have forgotten the name of.

Anyways, we drove for about 45 minutes due south of San Pedro until we hit the town of Socaire, where we stopped for breakfast of bread and eggs. Then, we continued, climbing up to 13,770 feet (4200 meters), and finally entering the Reserva Nacional de Los Flamencos. The majority of our day would be spent within different sectors of this national park. This section at 13,770 feet has two altiplano lakes with some of the most incredible views you’ll ever see. Clear blue water with snow and volcanoes all around you makes for a breathtaking sight to see at 10:00 AM.

The first lake we saw was the Laguna Miniques, at the base of the Miniques volcano. It is home to a colony of Horned Coots, a rare species of bird that is only found in altiplano lakes like these in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. We also saw vicunas, an sort of undomesticated alpaca, and foxes in this area, proving that life really does find a way to live in this harsh environment. The second lake we visited was called Laguna Miscanti, found at, you guessed it, the foot of the Miscanti Volcano. This lake was larger and, in my opinion more spectacular, but who am I to judge, the entire region was fantastic and otherworldly.

After the altiplano lakes, we descended back down to Socaire, where we saw a small little church made out of cactus bark and adobe and has survived basically every natural disaster known to man; rainstorms, earthquakes, you name it, it’s still standing. Then, we went to the Salar de Atacama, another section of the Reserva Nacional de Los Flamencos that actually contained flamingos. The Salar de Atacama, along with the Salinas Grandes (which I drove through yesterday in Argentina) and the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia contain 85% of the world’s salt, which is pretty incredible to think about. Besides tourism, the Salar is used for lithium mining, which then is turned into batteries (think lithium ion batteries) and other electronic parts.

But I was there for tourism, which was pretty cool too because I got to see flamingos living in the weirdest conditions possible. They are in a lake that is over half salt, with their only souce of water being said lake and only food being tiny brine shrimp. These flamingos have a special filter in their beak to take the salt out of the water and drink the pure water. They also do a funny little dance in a circle to stir up the water to find the brine shrimp and then eat them. Again, life finds a way. How insane.

After that, we headed back to San Pedro, where I rested for a while and then made my own dinner of pasta and tuna before heading out on a stargazing tour, which is when my day actually got out of this world.

The 12 of us on this tour (again, no Americans) and our guide drove 10 miles out of town to a small compound that this company owns with telescopes and a little briefing room too. We had about a half hour introduction to basic astronomy before a quick coffee snack and then some stargazing at some of the clearest skies I’ve ever seen. In fact, these skies are so clear that a multinational consortium of space agencies, including the United States, the EU, Canada, and Australia, operate several gigantic telescopes in the region, the most famous being ALMA, short for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. I even saw ALMA from a distance on the way to Socaire this morning. Our guide pointed out various constellations and stars we could see, including the Southern Cross (the stars on the Australia and New Zealand flags) and Alpha Centauri (the closest star to our solar system, 4.2 light years away).

However, the most incredible things I saw today was Jupiter and Saturn from a telescope. We could see both planets quite clearly with the naked eye, but with a telescope we could see four moons of Jupiter, plus the reddish-brown lines along the equator of the planet. With Saturn, we could see the rings. The rings! The freaking rings of Saturn!! How awesome is that!?!?! Even if you’re not into astronomy, you have to admit that seeing the rings of Saturn is pretty darn amazing.

Like I said, an otherworldly day.

Day 31: Into Chile

Location: San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

June 23, 2019 – 8:30 PM Chile Time

Today I did a decent amount of moving without actually moving at all. How you may ask? And I will answer you by saying I did this via the Pullman Bus from Salta, Argentina to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile over the course of 11 hours basically all day today. You may think that an 11 hour bus ride is really boring and there is nothing to do, and you would be right most of the time. But not for this bus. These 11 hours and 600 kilometers flew by with help from Breaking Bad, but mainly due to the incredible landscapes we passed. I probably took more photos today than any other day of this trip because it was so incredibly gorgeous. Let me walk you through this bus ride hour by hour:

Hour 1: I dropped my bag off at the back of the bus, the dude loaded it up, and then I headed towards seat 21, the front row of the top deck that had end-to-end forward-facing windows and the normal side windows. The bus was nearly empty, but all four seats were filled in the front row by, from left to right, me, a Chilean who lives in Antofagasta -a city on the northern coast of this country- who was visiting his brother and newborn nephew in Salta, an Irishman who has been traveling for the past two months with the most ridiculous itinerary I’ve ever seen. He went from Southeast Asia to Croatia to Argentina, and now Chile followed by Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia, all on the same trip. Lastly, there was a German woman who has been traveling South America for the past nine months with no end in sight; she also became fluent in Spanish just by traveling, which is incredible.

Hour 2: Passed by pretty slowly, we winded our way up from Salta to Jujuy, going almost directly northwards.

Hour 3: This is where it starts to get interesting. We past Jujuy and continue northwards until Purmamarca, when we make a hard-left turn onto Route 52 and begin weaving our way west towards Chile. At Purmamarca, we also see the Cerro de kos Siete Colores, a multicolored mountain that would have been cool to see up close but alas, we couldn’t stop because we had to get to San Pedro.

Hour 4: We take on many hairpin turns as this twisty road goes higher and higher, eventually reaching 13,705 feet, a tease for what’s to come later, but we eventually descend to a more reasonable altitude.

Hour 5-6: More high-altitude scenery

Hour 7: Here is where we pass the Salinas Grandes, a huge salt flat that the road just cuts directly through and making it look like we were just driving through miles and miles of pure white with no end in sight. It was really quite the breathtaking view.

Hour 8: We pass into a national park that borders Chile and pass the last road to turn off before the Paso de Jama, the high altitude mountain pass that separates the two countries. Here, we also pass by the Salar de Olaroz, a smaller salt flat in this national park. While alpacas abound, leading to signs warning us of alpaca crossings.

Hour 9: We finally arrive at the border! This town at the top of the Paso de Jama just appears out of nowhere and has a couple buildings, including Chilean and Argentine customs. The pass is at an altitude of 13,800 feet and we stop for about a half hour, so the agents have time to examine all of our bags. Almost instantly, I feel the effects of the altitude.

Hour 10: After we cross the border, the road changes names to Route 27 for some reason and we stay at altitude for another 140 kilometers, eventually getting to an altitude of 15,780 feet, which is pretty freaking high up. Snow is on the ground and the landscape gets a little more barren. And still, we see wild alpacas and foxes, plus a decent amount of shrubbery.

Hour 11: The end of the bus has arrived! We descent to about 6,000 feet in the span of about 20 kilometers, which is fast in case you’re wondering. San Pedro de Atacama also comes into view, an oasis in the middle of the driest desert in the world. Also, we pass quite close to the Bolivian border and see the famous Licancabur Volcano that straddles the border between Chile and Bolivia. It tall at18,000 feet a mere 25 miles from San Pedro de Atacama and is visible for miles around.

We eventually arrive in town and the motley crew of the front row kids goes their separate ways: me, the Irishman, and the German to our respective hostels, and the Chilean continuing on to Antofagasta. I walk about a kilometer into town with all my stuff and check into Hostal La Florida, my home for the next four nights. It’s a really nice place with hammocks, ping pong, and free breakfast, plus they book all the tours of the surrounding area for me, which makes things a lot easier.

After checking in, I head into “town” (it’s really just four blocks and a main square) to buy more water, one thing you just can’t get enough of here. Then, I grab some gigantic empanadas for dinner at Café Katarpe and go back to the hostel to relax for the rest of the night. I have another early morning tomorrow, as I have a tour of the Altiplano lakes and the Salar de Atacama leaving at 6:30 AM.

Day 30: Salta

Location: Salta, Argentina

June 22, 2019 – 9:30 PM

My only day in Salta started at 9:30 AM with breakfast at the bed and breakfast. Following that, I explored two incredibly ornate churches within three blocks of each other, one was painted red and called Iglesia San Francisco. It’s the one that’s on most of the postcards of Salta. The other is more stunning on the inside (and painted pink on the outside) called Catedral Basilica de Salta. After wandering around the two churches, I found a pedestrian only street named Calle Alberti with lots of shopping and street vendors, which was fun to wander around for a little bit.

Next, I went to the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana, or MAAM for short, located right along the central 9 de Julio square. This is one of the premier archeological museums in the region and probably the main sight in Salta town. Here, I learned that Salta and basically all of this part of Argentina were at one point a part of the Incan empire, which might explain why people here look more of Peruvian or Bolivian descent, rather than European like in Buenos Aires. Anyways, Incans worshipped high altitude places and built a massive network of sacrificial altars at the top of many Andean peaks. One of these peaks, an extinct volcano known as Llullaillaco, has an altitude 22,110 feet, which is the highest in the region, and is presently located on the border between Argentina and Chile. In 1999, German archeologist Johan Reinhard and his team of local experts discovered three mummified children at the summit of Llullaillaco (pronounced shushaishako or yuyaiyako, depending on your accent of Spanish) and ominously named them the Children of Llullaillaco. These children, known individually as El nino (the boy), La nina del rayo (the lightning girl), and La donacella (the maiden), were honorably sacrificed in the 1500’s by being dressed up in royal garb, drugged, buried 5 feet below ground, and then left to die at the top of this mountain. The reason the Children of Llullaillaco are so important is because they are considered to be the most well-preserved Incan mummies in the world, if not the most well preserved mummied in the world.

The museum also had various Incan artifacts that were cool to see, but the mummies were the main sight. After the museum, I took the gondola up to Cerro San Bernardo, a small peak near town that offers incredible views of the surrounding area. I could really see why they call this place Salta La Linda, or Salta the Beautiful. I had lunch while overlooking the gorgeous peaks of the surrounding area, and then walked down the peak rather than taking the gondola, which took about a half hour. Following that, I went to historic Cabildo, or government office, along Plaza 9 de Julio, which was interesting but not worth more than the 20 pesos I spent to get in.

Then, I got an iced coffee and rested at the bed and breakfast until 7 PM, when I went out again and got a delicious tamale for dinner inside the Mercado Municipal San Miguel. Next, I got some snacks and water for my very long bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile tomorrow and decided to turn in early because I have an early start tomorrow; my bus leaves at 7 AM.

Day 29: New Places, New Faces

Location: Salta, Argentina

June 21, 2019 – 11:10 PM Argentina Time

This morning was my final exam in Spanish. It all came down to this. One month, 100 hours of preparation all paid off during one three-hour exam. I did pretty well on the written exam and very well on the oral exam, which was good enough to give me an 8 out of 10 in the class, which translates to an A in the United States. Yippy, six credits and a quarter of my Spanish minor done! The test ended around 1:30, I said goodbye to all of my friends, and then I took the Subte for the last time for awhile back home.

While at home, I finished packing up my things and Raul came to pick me up around 3 PM to take me to Aeroparque Jorge Newberry, the small domestic airport in the middle of Buenos Aires. I said bye to Amalia before I left and then said bye to Raul at the airport. I cleared security, got two sandwiches from Le Pain Quotidien in the terminal, and boarded by LATAM regional flight to Salta, in Northern Argentina.

The flight was delayed about 30 minutes due to some sort of medical emergency, but we eventually took off and landed in Salta around 8 PM, two hours after wheels up and approximately the amount of time it took for me to watch Murder Mystery, the new Netflix movie starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston that was worth my time simply because I had nothing else to do for two hours.

I picked up my bag at the tiny airport in Salta and then took a taxi to Hotel Caseros 44, the bed and breakfast I’m staying at, which is named for its street address in case you’re wondering. I checked in and paid for the hostel with Jorge, the nice elderly gentleman who runs this place. He showed me around and took my breakfast order before going off to do his work for the night.

After I settled in, I went out to explore the town and I discovered it’s an absolutely stunning city architecturally. All of the buildings are painted white and have adobe bricks, plus the churches are very ornately decorated and painted in various hues of red and pink. I grabbed an incredibly cheap dinner at a hole-in-the-wall empanada place called La Tacita, where I tried Empanadas Saltenas for the first time. These bad boys differ from the empanadas I’ve been having at Chantilly and other places in Buenos Aires because contain onions and spinach in addition to the beef, while others have beef and hard-boiled egg. Plus, empanadas saltenas come with a spicy dipping sauce which I thought was unusual given that Argentines really dislike spicy foods.

Next, I grabbed some ice cream from a place around the central 9 de Julio Square and headed back to the bed and breakfast to relax and eventually go to bed before my full day in Salta tomorrow.

Day 28: Last day in BA

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 20, 2019 – 11:33 PM Argentina Time

Well, this is it. My month in Buenos Aires flew by and this is the last time I’ll be writing to you from Buenos Aires. Today started off right at midnight, with several hours of intense Jenga and Uno at Job’s Bar. I also shot a bow and arrow again, but unfortunately missed the balloon on all six of my tries. Jacob and I eventually got home around 3 AM and went straight to bed.

The daylight hours of June 20^th started for me at 1 PM, when I took a shower and then headed off to Callao Subte station to try and find the Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires. The building was there, but unfortunately it was under renovation and closed for the next few months. I ended up walking back to the house from Callao, which took about a half hour. Once I got back, I booked my accommodations for the rest of this trip and studied for my final, which is tomorrow.

Around 8:30, Jacob, Amalia, Orellana (Amalia’s niece) and I went to dinner at San Martin, a pizza place which we have been to before about three blocks down Avenida Santa Fe from the house. Then we got back home around 10:30 and I packed up all my things for my flight tomorrow.

Day 27: Empanadas

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 20, 2019 – 1:31 PM Argentina Time

Yesterday was class for the normal 5-hour block from 9:30 to 2:30. As the final for this class is on Friday, all of class was spent reviewing all that we had covered this past semester. It was a lot, to say the least, and I know that most of tomorrow will be spent studying. I also had what very well might have been my last Chantilly empanada for a while, which was a little upsetting, but I’m still holding out hope that I can get one on Friday.

After class, I picked up my laundry that I dropped off this morning and packed up all of my things into my big green duffel bag. After packing for about two hours, Jacob, John, and I walked to the medical school where our empanada making class would be held. The meat filling was pre-made but we made the dough for the outer shell and packed the empanadas ourselves. My group, consisting of Megan, Gordon (an older gentleman who was taking classes in Buenos Aires), and me, made over 30 empanadas to be put in the oven and deep fryer.

After about 15 minutes of cooking, they started bringing out the empanadas and boy were they good. I ate way too many empanadas and ended up getting a stomach ache, but that’s ok because they were really good. Following the empanada making class, a whole bunch of us walked to a bar to watch the Argentina/Paraguay Copa America game, which ended in a tie. After the game, we went to Job’s bar for my last night out in Buenos Aires and had a good time playing games and stuff.

Day 26: La Bombonera

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 18, 2019 – 10:31 PM Argentina Time

Today, classes resumed after our three-day weekend. It was the second-to-last actual class, as we have no class Thursday due to Dia de la Bandera (Flag Day, I wish we had that off in the States) and then Friday is the final exam and I leave for Salta that night. After class, we went to the Plaza de Mayo and saw the Casa Rosada for probably the last time this trip, but we didn’t linger there for a while because we took the 64 bus to La Boca, that same, semi-dangerous, colorful neighborhood we visited on the first day of the trip.

Except we didn’t go to Caminito, but beelined four blocks to La Bombonera, the famed home stadium of the Boca Juniors football club (or CABJ, Club Atletico Boca Juniors, for short). CABJ is one of the two major soccer teams in Buenos Aires, the other being the River Plate, who play on the other side of town, and most Portenos support one team and hate the other one. You know, normal sports stuff. La Bombonera literally means “the bonbon or chocolate box” and the blue and yellow adorned stadium has this nickname because of the steep walls and seats of the stadium, making it look like a box of chocolates when observed from above.

The tour consisted of a museum with lots of artifacts from CABJ’s history, then we were able to go onto the edge of the field and into the stands all over the stadium. We also saw the visitors’ locker room as a part of the main tour. One interesting thing about the stadium is the gigantic clock with 112 years and counting for the amount of time since the club was regulated and played its first match way back in the early 1900’s. However, Jacob, John, Neida, Ester, and I paid 600 pesos extra for the VIP tour, which I thought was the best part. We got a little wristband, which allowed us to go into the home locker room (much better than the visitor locker room) and a VIP box for yet another view of the stadium. But the coolest thing was the photo op with the Copa Libertadores, which is the most important soccer trophy in the entire Americas. The 32 best teams from all over the two American continents come to fight for the Copa Libertadores every year. Boca Juniors is one of the frequent competitors, and last won the tournament in 2007. The four trophies CABJ has won were on display on the field and just open for us to pick up and take photos with, which was really cool. “Campeon!!!”

After the tour, we took the bus back to Plaza de Mayo and got some food at Kentucky Pizzeria before heading home for second dinner with Amalia. Tomorrow is more class and an empanada cooking class.

Day 25: Montevideo

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 17, 2019 – 11:20 PM Argentina Time

Montevideo is quite similar to Buenos Aires, but it’s a lot more chill and laid back. Part of the reason behind that might be because weed has been legal here since 2013, so marijuana is readily available with dispensaries on almost every street corner. Another reason could be because… nah, I got nothing, it’s probably the weed thing. Anyways, the 7 of us in Montevideo woke up in our shared room at the Caballo Loco hostel around 9:15 AM, got our two-dollar breakfast at the hostel, and then checked out around 11 AM to go explore the city. The first thing I noticed, besides the numerous dispensaries, was that literally everyone was walking around with a mate in the hands. Probably 60% of the people do that in Buenos Aires, but more like 90% of locals had mates in Montevideo. It was ridiculous. Even the customs agent when we headed back to Argentina tonight had mate at his desk.

About six blocks from the hostel was the Plaza de Independencia, Uruguay’s version of the Plaza de Mayo, except smaller and with less impressive architecture. Instead of an ornate pink house, the president worked out of a dull office building from the 70’s. However, on the other side of the Plaza de Independencia was the Ciudad Vieja, or Old City. Here, the architecture changed from dull, 70’s-esq to old and European. Many streets in the Old City were pedestrian only, making it ideal for walking around. First, we stumbled upon the Plaza Constitucion, which seemed to be the main, tree-lined center of Ciudad Vieja. Following that, we took a left four blocks to the seaside drive known as Rambla Francia, which offered unparalleled views of the Rio Plata. We walked along the Rambla for several blocks until we hit the Mercado del Puerto, a main shopping center housed in an old warehouse near the Port of Montevideo.

We rested and shopped for a bit at Mercado del Puerto, and then walked back into mainland Ciudad Vieja, eventually stumbling upon a random restaurant for lunch around 1 PM. Everyone else had pizza or a burger, but I decided to be adventurous and try the Uruguayan specialty known as Chivito, a sandwich with thinly cut strip steak, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and sometimes ham. I thought it was pretty good but not great for two reasons; One: the steak was delicious, but too tough to eat without a fork and knife, Two: the bread was very soggy and I wasn’t able to hold the sandwich without it falling apart. Despite that, the meal was very good, I’m glad I tried it, plus the potatoes it came with were delicious and, even though I’m normally not a mayo fan, the carrot flavored mayonnaise was really great.

After lunch, we went back to the coast and walked out to the end of a surprisingly long pier just to see the end of it and then walked back. Then, we wandered some more, saw some cool street artwork, and took a break at a café where I got a delicious affogato as a snack. While Abby, MJ, and Jacob continued to rest at the café, the rest of us found the Museo de Artes Decorativas, which was really just an old house with lots of cool artwork and stuff. Next, we walked to the Buquebus terminal in Montevideo (FYI, the one in Buenos Aires is nicer) and waited around for our direct boat to bring us back home to BA. At 7 PM, we started boarding the Papa Francisco and found our surprisingly nice seats for the 2 hour and 15 minute ride across the Rio Plata. (Quick side note: Papa Francisco sounds more like the name of a South American mob boss than a ferry between Argentina and Uruguay. [*Italian accent* “Who ya workin’ for?” “Uhh, you know, the Papa, Papa Franciso.”] See, you get it). Back to the ferry, I watched the Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown episode about Uruguay, which was interesting to compare to what we did (apparently this was one of his favorite countries in the world) and relaxed until we got back to Buenos Aires around 10 PM, at which point Jacob and I promptly took an Uber back to Billinghurst street and prepared for school tomorrow morning.

Day 24: Colonia

Day 23: Teatro Colon

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 15, 2019 – 11:19 PM Argentina Time

This morning I slept in until around 9:30 and then headed off to the iconic Teatro Colon. There, I met Neida, Vanessa, and Raul for our hour-long tour of the opulent building. The Colon is the largest theater in South America and what amazed me the most is that everything needed for a production within the theater is manufactured in house. That included sets, costumes, dressing rooms, even food. On top of the gigantic, 2800 seat, six story auditorium, there is three below ground levels that house everything and stretches halfway below the gigantic 9 de Julio Avenue which faces the back of the theater. 9 de Julio is actually the main street in Buenos Aires, but because the theater was built in 1908 before 9 de Julio opened, the main theater entrance is on the neighboring street of Avenida Libertad. The Colon in it’s present state is also the second Teatro Colon, the first was built on the Plaza de Mayo near the Casa Rosada in 1857, but it quickly outgrew that location. The current Teatro Colon is considered one of the 10 best opera houses in the world and one of the five acoustically best buildings in the world.

After I absorbed all that information in an hour (plus some research on Wikipedia just now), Neida, Vanessa, and I trudged through the rain on Corrientes to go to Tostado for brunch. Eventually, I returned home around 2:30 PM and did my homework because I didn’t want to have that looming over me during my Uruguayan adventure over the next two days. Then, Jacob and I met Ester, Neida, Vanessa, and Maria Emilia at a restaurant in Recoleta to watch the Copa America of Argentina. Lionel Messi and the rest of La Albiceleste (the White and Sky-Blue, nickname of the Argentine national team) unfortunately lost to Colombia 0-2, which made the home crowd very upset. It was a very similar vibe to watching Croatia play in the World Cup while in Croatia last summer. Even though Argentina lost tonight, it was only a round robin game and it’s pretty likely they’ll win against Paraguay and Qatar. Additionally, Uruguay is playing Ecuador tomorrow while we’re in Montevideo, so I have a chance to watch another national team beat its opponent while in that country.

Anyways, I have to wake up super early tomorrow for our ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, so Buenos Noches, and see you tomorrow from a new country!

Day 22: Ecoparque

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 14, 2019 – 10:11 PM Argentina Time

There were only four people in my class today because the everyone else decided to go to Salta and Jujuy for the weekend. (Quick side note: Jujuy is one of my favorite words ever. It’s pronounced Hoo-Hooey. How awesome is that! Also, I’ll be in Salta next Saturday, so stay tuned for how that is). Anyways, because more than half the class skipped today, we started at 10:00 AM instead of the normal 9:30 AM. Class was pretty chill overall. We learned about the conditional tense and I did a 10 minute presentation about the song De Música Ligera (Of Light Music), an Argentine rock anthem by the famous band Soda Stereo. I believe it went pretty well because Mage is a big fan of that song, plus I prepared a lot over the past couple days for this.

After class, Jacob, Vanessa, Maria Emilia, and I stopped at this super hip, almost Bay Area-like brunch restaurant for a snack. I got smoked salmon with cream cheese on a bagel, and I learned that Argentines are absolutely horrible at making bagels. The texture was all off and it was almost like eating sliced bread, which was not what I was going for. For future reference, avoid bagels in this country. Stick to the meat and wine, what they’re good at.

Then, Jacob and I got off the Subte at Plaza Italia and went to the Buenos Aires Ecoparque, a rethemed zoo with a nice little pond and capybaras and peacocks roaming free. It was pretty cool, and I enjoyed wandering around this small, quiet park right next to the busy Avenida Santa Fe. However, 80% of the ecoparque was under construction and we couldn’t really see much. It was still 20 minutes well spent and I’m glad I went.

We eventually got home, I started packing for Montevideo (I’m going this coming Sunday!) and planning my part of this trip in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. I only have a loose idea of what I want to do, but holy cow does the Atacama Desert look incredible. I’m looking forward to being there in 9 days! Also, Montevideo and Colonia look very relaxing and nice, like a more laid-back Buenos Aires, and it’ll be nice to go somewhere new, even if it’s just for a weekend. Tomorrow is our tour of the world-famous Teatro Colon!

Day 21: Thoughts on Buenos Aires

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 13, 2019 – 11:15 PM Argentina Time

It’s Thursday folks, which means it was class for five hours and then mate club at 6:30, same as every other Tuesday and Thursday. This journal could basically write itself now, so instead of boring you with the same information as the previous five Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, I’ll instead write some of my thoughts on this city.

I recently noticed that the Subte runs on the left side of the tunnel, while cars drive on the right here. I’m not entirely sure why and it doesn’t seem to make any sense, but all the Subte lines and surface trains operate on the left side of the tracks. That’s different from the New York Subway and the DC Metro which operate on the right side of the tracks, the same side that people drive on in the United States.

Also, I’ve noticed that everyone smokes here, which is very European. I know I shouldn’t be surprised because I did know that Buenos Aires has some Italian and French influences, but holy cow they smoke a lot here. Buenos Aires means Good Air, but it certainly doesn’t feel like that.

Additionally, on the Subte, everyone tries to sell you either socks, gum, or tissue packets. They’ll leave them on your lap and then come back a minute later to pick it up if you didn’t want it. It’s pretty normal, but the first time it happened to me, I though the dude was just giving me free socks, which was weird.

People also constantly play musical instruments or put on a dance show in hope of a couple pesos, so you never know which song you’re going to hear each day. Yesterday was a version of Wonderwall by Oasis with messed up lyrics (the guy’s first language is Spanish, I’ll give him a pass). I’ve also heard several Queen songs and today was an absolutely horrible version of Careless Whisper, by George Michael. The dude singing had a very raspy voice, but his guitar was decent, so I gave him 20 pesos (about 50 cents).

Feel free to fill in the blanks with what happened at Mate Club and during my 5 hours at school today.

Day 20: Choripan

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 12, 2019 – 10:54 PM Argentina Time

You know when you like two things a lot and then combining the two of them together makes it even better? Like chocolate and peanut butter enhance each other in a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup. Well take chorizo, a delicious pork-based sausage chimichurri seasoning, and combine it with bread, or pan, as it’s called in Spanish, and the two items just become even better. That’s what a choripan is! Bread, chorizo, chimichurri, and happiness.

We had choripan at the group dinner for all Sol students, including my group and all the spring semester students. The spring semester people are going home on Friday, so this was their final opportunity to see Raul, Beatriz, and each other. So a little sad but, boy, what a fantastic dinner that was. This dinner was also held in a gorgeous house that acts as the school for the medical Spanish students.

Besides the dinner, today was just a normal day. Five hours of class at the University of Belgrano followed by a rest and homework at home until dinner started at 6:30 PM.

Day 19: Mate Club (Here we go again)

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 11, 2019 – 11:39 PM Argentina Time

Those loyal readers of my journal could probably write this entry on your own. If you’ve been following the trend, every Tuesday and Thursday I go to class and then I go to Mate Club. Some noteworthy things that happened today were:

• It was Mage, my Spanish teacher’s, birthday today, so, in addition to buying two empanadas for lunch from Chantilly, I bought a cake (that the entire class pitched in for) and we sang to her for her birthday. It was nice, and the cake was a delicious merengue with dulce de leche combination.
• After class, I got pizza with Vanessa, Maria Emilia, and Jacob at some pizza place near Olleros Subte stop.
• Mate club was fun and interesting, as usual. I talked to a Venezuelan and several portenos during my hour and a half there and their superb English ability made me feel bad about my mediocre Spanish ability. However, I still tried the best that I could and I got a lot out of it still. Any practice is good practice.
• Jacob and I got home late tonight because we went out on Corrientes after Mate Club, but we still ate dinner with Amalia.
• Finally, I booked (or am about to book) my first ever trip without any parental assistance. It’s just a one-day excursion to Montevideo, Uruguay for this upcoming weekend, tacked on the end of a pre-organized trip to Colonia, Uruguay, but still pretty exciting that I organized and bought all the tickets for my friends without any help. It’ll be good practice for later in life.
• That’s it for today. Just another fantastic day in BA!

Day 18: Kosher McDonald’s and Basketball

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 11, 2019 – 12:14 AM Argentina Time

Today was another normal day. I had class from 9:30 to 2:30, like usual. Unfortunately, Chantilly is closed on Mondays so I went to another place for lunch, a buffet place with empanadas and other hot foods like chorizo, rice with chicken, and potatoes. It was pretty good but no Chantilly. 

After school, there was no Sol activity so I decided to seek out the only Kosher McDonald’s outside of Israel. It’s located in the Abasto Buenos Aires Mall, which isn’t even in a predominantly Jewish area of the city. Anyways, I ended up taking 3 different subte lines and 45 minutes of my day to get to this McDonald’s, only for it to be closed because of Shavuot, a Jewish holiday. It was still a fun adventure but it did end in the disappointment of a closed McDonald’s restaurant. 

Then, I got home around 4:30 PM and worked on my Spanish project that’s due later this week, plus booked my bus from Salta to San Pedro de Atacama for later in this trip. 10 hour bus ride here I come!

Following that, I ate dinner with Amalia, John, and Jacob, then Jacob and I headed out to a sports bar with Abby and MJ to watch the NBA finals. Currently, the warriors and raptors are down to the wire; Toronto leads Golden State by three with two minutes to go. Should be a good finish. Goodnight y’all!

Update: Golden State beat Toronto 106-105, so there will be another game in Oakland on Thursday. The raptors lead the series 3-2.

Day 17: The Ranch

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 9, 2019 – 10:13 PM Argentina Time

“Home, home on the estancia. Where the deer and the antelope play.”

This morning we loaded into a bus and left Buenos Aires city and headed into the wild west of Argentina known as Buenos Aires Province. (I actually have no idea if this is the wild west of Argentina, I just typed it to sound cool…) Anyways, it took about an hour in the bus, but eventually we arrived at Estancia Santa Susana, a small ranch with horses, carriage rides, and lots of meat. And I mean lots of meat. Like imagine a very large quantity of meat, and it was more than that.

When we first arrived at 11 AM, we were greeted by the oldest and most important gaucho, plus a ton of delicious empanadas. Also, please let the record show that these empanadas are better than Chantilly, the place near University of Belgrano which I go to literally every day. After eating four empanadas (hey, I didn’t have breakfast), we got the opportunity to ride horses. So, naturally, I got the horses in the back, headed out to Old Town Road, and rode ‘till I couldn’t no more (like 10 minutes, other people were in line to ride horses). It was really fun, even though we went in a big circle and didn’t go faster than about 7 miles per hour (15 kilometers per hour for you non-Americans).

Following the horse ride, we took a carriage ride in the exact same route that we just took with the horses, so I really got a good look at the glorious countryside of Buenos Aires Provincia. Quick aside: I don’t mean that sarcastically; it was quite nice to get out of the city and into nature after two weeks straight of traffic and the Subte. Where were we? Ah yes, the carriage ride… After that, they rang the bell for lunch and everyone (except John, he’s a vegetarian) got a generous helping of chorizo, pollo, and asado. It was absolutely fantastic and one of the best meals involving meat I’ve ever eaten, and that includes Bobby Van’s Steakhouse and Sundance the Steakhouse. These Argentines really know how to cook their carne.

Then, we had a traditional dance and musical performance which was quite incredible. First, they brought out the accordion and guitar and two people danced the tango. It only got more intense from there. The performers brought out the drums following the tango, which meant they were getting serious. Two dudes did some crazy stomping/tap dancing stuff to the beat of the drums that was very impressive. But the piece de resistance was the ball swinging act.

In the ball swinging act (I really need to think of a new name for this), one dude had two ropes each with a plastic ball tied to the end. He then swung the two ropes all over the place knocking the balls onto the floor, creating a clicking noise. This guy did some pretty incredible stunts that I could not believe he did without hitting himself in the face with those balls. After the traditional dance performances, we went outside for a traditional horse show, complete with a game I’m calling pen-hole but probably has a more eloquent name in real life. In pen-hole, three gauchos are going full speed on a horse and have to put a stick the same size as a pen into a little tiny hole about the size of a ring. This game looks ridiculously hard, but somehow these gauchos managed to repeatedly stick the pen into the hole (trust me, that’s not a euphemism for something). If the gaucho manages to put the pen in the hole, he then proceeds to give the hole/ring to a lady in the crowd, who gives him a kiss, the lady proceeds to puts the ring on her finger, and they are legally married in the Country of Argentina. No, I’m just kidding, but the kissing part is real.

After our long day of doing ranch stuff on Estancia Santa Susana, we got some pastries and mate to go and took the bus back to Buenos Aires, where we got home around 7 PM. I had some homework to do, so I did that for the rest of the night to prepare for class tomorrow.

Day 16: Rugby

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 8, 2019 – 11:16 PM Argentina Time

Today was my first free day in Buenos Aires. No Sol activities, no school, just the entire day to explore the city. I slept in until about 11 AM and then Amalia bought some delicious, dulce-de-leche-infused pastries from the local bakery for brunch. Combine that with some coffee and you have a classic Argentine breakfast. We savored these pastries for about an hour and then Jacob and I headed out to see more of the city.

We decided to take the Subte to Callao station, then walk four blocks to El Ateneo Grand Splendid, an old theater that was transformed into the largest bookstore in South America about 20 years ago. This place is huge! Three whole floors of just books, plus the stage was transformed into a little café. It’s truly the literary nut’s heaven. Following El Ateneo, we went to Rapa Nui -not Easter Island- but a heladeria that probably had the best ice cream I’ve had here, and that’s saying something because I’ve had a lot of ice cream in Buenos Aires. I got the signature chocolate flavor along with dulce-de-leche, plus a mocha that came with a little chocolate bonbon.

After that delicious adventure, we went back to the house and then took an Uber to Estadio Jose Amalfitani, where we met up with Will, Ari, Jenna, and Gabby for a rugby game. These people are not from Sol but are our Spanish classes, in case you care (looking at you, mom…). We saw the local Jaguares take on The Sharks, a team from South Africa that for some reason is in the same league. Talk about a crazy road trip. This league also has teams from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, so travel must be absolutely insane for these players. On top of that, the Jaguares are the only South American team and play in a division with all teams from South Africa, so I doubt they get any fans at away games.

Anyways, we went to this rugby game and to be completely honest, I had no idea what was going on. It’s kinda like soccer how the clock never stops, except it does stop when a player is injured or during substitutions (which happens a lot). Also, you cannot pass the ball forward, you can only run the ball. Plus, they don’t wear pads and this seems a whole lot more dangerous than American football or hockey. Regardless, I had a really fun time and I would go to another rugby game. The jaguares ended up winning 34-7 and we were sitting in the bleachers, so the whole place was bubbling with excitement.

After the game, there was a fan rally in a parking lot near the stadium, featuring Argentine rapper Lit Killah, who may or may not be a big name in the South American rap community. He’s featured a few times on the Spotify playlist “Trapperz Argentina” that is advertised everywhere in the Subte, so who knows? We then took a public bus back to Palermo, where we walked to Williamsburg burger joint and got some dinner. It was absolutely fantastic and better than Dean and Denny’s, another burger place that is everywhere. Then, Jenna and Gabby had to leave, so Will, Ari, Jacob, and I took a little walk around the Palermo parks area and the US embassy, which was near the Williamsburg burger place. Finally, Jacob and I took a light rail train to the Subte and headed back home, where we decided to call it a night.

Day 15: Tango Show

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 7, 2019 – 11:57 PM Argentina Time

I’m halfway through my time in Buenos Aires already. Wow that flew by… It seems like just yesterday that I stepped off that airplane into Ezeiza International Airport. It feels so much longer, yet there is so much I still want to see in BA.

Anyways, being two weeks through my four weeks in this Spanish class, we had a midterm today in class. It wasn’t terribly difficult, mainly on preterit, imperfect, direct and indirect object pronouns and commands. However, unlike college in the US, you cannot leave once your exam is over, so we stayed for three hours afterwards until 2:30, which was kind of annoying.

After class, I went back home, watched some Netflix, and then went to San Martin, an Argentine pizza parlor near my house, with John and Jacob. I probably mentioned this before, but Argentine pizza is loaded with cheese and is eaten with a fork and knife. Also, it generally is garnished with three whole olives for some reason. Then, we took the Subte to Avenida Flordia, a large, pedestrian-only shopping street, where we met the rest of the Sol group and Raul for a tango show. The show lasted for an hour, from 8 PM to 9 PM, but it was absolutely incredible. The way the dancers move is amazing, plus it was accompanied by live music (including a great accordionist).

Next, Jacob, Claire, Charity, Natalie, Kylie, and I went to a bar for some post-tango snacks and drinks, plus Argentina was playing Nicaragua in a friendly soccer match before the Copa America starts next week, which was cool to watch while in Argentina. I’m definitely going to go to a bar or club during one of the Copa America games. At around 11:00 PM, we decided to Subte back home and Jacob and I ate second dinner with Amalia around 11:30 PM.  

Day 14: Movie Time!

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 7, 2019 – 12:59 AM Argentina Time

Sorry for the late post guys, I went to see Aladdin last night and the only showtimes the theater had were at 10 PM, so the movie got out around 12:30 AM. But other than the movie, today (well, yesterday) was a completely normal day. I went to class from 9:30 to 2:30, but I got a corn empanada for lunch today because they were all out of beef unfortunately. After class, I went home, did my homework, and then went to Mate Club along Avenida Corrientes, like I usually do on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I talked to some new people, this time entirely Argentinians (and other American’s learning Spanish) and had a great time drinking mate and eating bread with dulce de leche.

After Mate Club, Jacob, MJ, and I went across the street to the Palacio de la Papa Frita (Translation: Palace of the French Fry). With a name like that, I would have though it would have been a hole-in-the-wall, but it was by far the snazziest place I’ve been in Buenos Aires so far. They had huge steaks and large piles of sliced potatoes (which is how they do French fries here), but I got a salad because I needed to be healthy for a change, plus some Argentine Malbec.

The French Fry Palace was good, and I had a hearty meal, but then Aladdin awaits. We took the Subte to the Recoleta Mall, where we met Charity, Claire, and Autumn for the movie. I highly recommend. Will Smith as the Genie was by far the best part of the movie, however, Robin Williams in the original is still better. Take that as you will!

With that review of Aladdin, a seemingly unnecessary remake of a Disney classic, but who am I to talk because I’m absolutely seeing the remake of The Lion King when it comes out in July, I leave you for tomorrow. Buenas Noches!

Day 13: Immigration Museum

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 5, 2019 – 10:45 PM Argentina Time

I had the usual today, 5 hours of Spanish, broken up at first by tea from the local chain Havanna and second by empanadas from Chantilly. Today we studied los mandatos, the commands, so if you need to learn to say something more forcefully, come to me (“Venganme!”). Anyways, after class, my friends from Sol and I went to a Breaking Bad-themed burger place near the University of Belgrano called Heisenburger. Very good, I highly recommend their fries and burgers.

Then, we took the Subte to 9 de Julio, transferred to the C line and took that to the Retiro station before getting off, meeting the rest of the group, then walking to the Museo de Immigracion, a fairly interesting museum about the history of immigration into Argentina. It was called a hotel because everyone slept there while in processing on their way into Argentina. The most interesting part of the museum in my opinion was Albert Einstein’s immigration card into Argentina. While in Argentina, Albert Einstein lived in a house right across the street from the University of Belgrano, which is now the Embassy of Australia, which I think is a little interesting tidbit.

After the immigration museum, Jacob, Charity, Claire, Vanessa, and I decided to go on a quest for ice cream, which took us to Puerto Madero, the same old port of Buenos Aires that we went to on the first day here (remember Siga la Vaca?). The whole area is very nice and a great place to walk around, especially at night. It kinda reminds me of The District Wharf in DC. Eventually we found ice cream and we then stumbled upon the Casa Rosada, which is all lit up and quite a sight at night, and the Plaza de Mayo. We caught the Subte at Catedral station and headed back to the house, finally arriving at home around 8 PM, just enough time for me to do some homework and take a little break before dinner.

Day 12: Mate Club (AKA “Here we go again”)

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 4, 2019 – 10:20 PM Argentina Time

This is going to sound very similar to the other journal entries from when I went to mate club. Class went from 9:30 to 2:30, I took the Subte there, like usual. There was one difference, we, as a class, went to a new lunch place for variety’s sake. It was a buffet with rice, pasta, vegetables, and empanadas, and you pay by weight, so I got all of it for about 200 pesos. After class, I went back home, rested a little bit, started a new book (the sequel to the book Beartown, recommended by my mom, in case you’re wondering) and I seriously considered starting a new Netflix show in Spanish, but I didn’t today.

After my break, I left around 5:45 PM for Mate club, taking the Subte to Callao and then walking with other SOLmates (pun intended) along Avenida Corrientes to the bar where Mate club is held. I practiced my Spanish while sipping on mate with both Americans and people from Latin America (two from Buenos Aires, one from Uruguay, and one from Colombia). Most Americans at Mate club are my age, but one of the people I talk to was an older dude who’s lived everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I didn’t catch his name, but he said, and I quote, “I’ve lived in every town in Santa Clara county [California] and San Francisco over 20 years.” He also said, on separate occasions, that he’s lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Bogota, he owns a house in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and now he’s been in Buenos Aires for about 5 months. Oh and did I mention that he’s been everywhere from China to Australia to Thailand and beyond (well, so have I, but still…) He’s a retired chef and now just travels the world, and he went to Mate club to practice and learn Spanish. Jesus Christ, I want his life, that sounds like so much fun.

Following Mate club, we went back home, practiced more Spanish with Amalia over dinner of chicken and vegetables before finally doing my homework. I might actually start a Spanish TV show after this; I’m thinking Narcos, but I’m open to recommendations. Just DM me suggestions on Instagram @redjackettravels.

Day 11: Two types of Class

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 3, 2019 – 11:21 PM

This morning I had my normal weekday Spanish class from 9:30 to 2:30 with Mage and my eight other classmates at the University of Belgrano. Following that, I went home and took a short break before heading out for the evening around 6:30 PM. Jacob, John, and I took the Subte to station 9 de Julio and went to McDonalds for an evening snack. Now, before you say anything, I feel like everyone should try McDonalds in a foreign country at least once. For instance, how would I tell you not to get the Lamb Shank at McDonalds in New Zealand if I hadn’t been to a McDonalds in New Zealand, or how would I let you know that there are two different types of McDonalds in Israel, one for kosher and one for non-kosher. The Argentinian McDonalds was pretty good, it was cleaner than many of the ones you would see in the US, plus they had a separate counter for the McCafé and another counter for desserts and cookies. The fries here are different -they’re a little less salty- and you can order burgers here with guacamole, which you may be able to do in the US but I’m not sure because I haven’t been to McDonalds in a long time.

Anyways, after the McDonalds experience, we met up with the Sol group and went on the Subte Line B to our tango class. The Subte ride was very interesting because it was in a train with the windows rolled down and with overhead bin space, like an airplane. I think this train was from the 1960’s or something because it made so much noise. Once we got to Angel Gallardo stop, we got off and walked about 4 blocks to some art museum for our 1 hour long tango class. It was actually pretty fun, I’m not going to lie, but it was hard. I cannot dance, but I learned three tango steps and then our instructors gave us a little show that put our three moves to shame. After the tango class, we went back home via the Subte and had actual dinner with Amalia before doing some homework for my class tomorrow.

Day 10: El Tigre

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 2, 2019 – 11:00 PM Argentina Time

For those of you familiar with my trip to Costa Rica in Spring 2019, you might remember El Tigre as the super-friendly owner of the Riconcito Organic Farm near the Irazu Volcano. It was his son’s birthday the day we were there, he gave us cake and homemade ice cream, and the whole thing was incredibly generous and sustainable. Well, this El Tigre is not a person, but a place, and this place is about an hour’s drive Northwest of Buenos Aires city.

El Tigre lies along the River Lujan, a tributary of the ultra-wide River Plata which separates Argentina from Uruguay. We took the Subte to Callao station at 10 AM, where the entire group of SOLmates and Raul piled into a bus that would take us up to El Tigre. We got there around 11 AM and we saw a neo-gothic church built a while back and walked through yet another artisanal craft market before hopping back on the bus which we took to the El Tigre docks.

We grabbed a quick snack, then took a two-hour long boat tour of the surrounding waterways of El Tigre. What makes this area so special and unique is that all of the islands were formed from the buildup of sediment, but, as a result, the landscape is constantly shifting, so the houses are built above the ground on stilts. During this boat tour, we got to see the relaxed way of life on these islands and some of the infrastructure in place to accommodate this riverside lifestyle. (For instance, they have water buses and a floating supermarket). Most of these homes are summer houses for the wealthy citizens of Buenos Aires and were empty at this time of year because it’s winter down here.

After the boat tour, we went to lunch at a steakhouse, where we got a literal pile of meat and French fries. It was delicious and proves that the Argentines really know how to cook a cow (sorry, vegetarians). Following lunch, we went to the Puerto de Frutas market, which is the old shipping port turned into a huge shopping center with everything you could need. I bought mate and the gourds needed to drink mate for only 200 pesos.

Following the Puerto de Frutas, we headed back to Buenos Aires, where I did homework and rested for the rest of the evening. We ate asparagus soup and rice for dinner with Amalia around 9 PM and I’m about to go to sleep for the night. Tomorrow is just another day of school at the University of Belgrano.

Day 9: Clubs and Cemeteries

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

June 1, 2019 – 11:52 PM Argentina Time

Today started right at midnight, when I went out with people from Sol to some clubs. First, Jacob and I were given the wrong address on the other side of town, so we walked to a bar close by and had the first of many XXXXXX (redacted for personal reasons) that night. Then, we taxied to The Shamrock Club, where we met MJ, Ally, Meagan, Kylie, and Natalie from our Sol group. We had another XXXXX (redacted for personal reasons) there and then walked to a 90’s themed bar that I think is called You Know My Name or something like that. Finally, Kylie, Meagan, and Natalie left us and the rest of us went to Job’s bar, a place with a ton of board games and some exciting stuff like archery. We stayed there for a couple hours, playing Jenga, foosball, and Connect 4, plus I shot a bow and arrow at a target, which was fun. All in all, we got back to the house around 5 AM and took a short rest before heading to Recoleta for our activity with Sol for today.

We took the Subte to Facultad de Derecho and, from there, we walked along a weekend artisanal market (which was huge and something I definitely want to come back too) before going to La Cemetaria Recoleta. This cemetery is one of the coolest and most beautiful I’ve ever been too (granted, I haven’t been to that many cemeteries). All of the graves are covered by ornate mausoleums decorated by the families of the deceased with statues and such. Many important Argentines and foreigners are buried in this beautiful maze of a graveyard, including Evita Peron. (Side note about Evita: she was originally buried in Italy when she died in the 50’s, but then she was moved to Spain to be with Juan Peron, her husband when he died, and then both of them were moved here at the start of this century).

After the cemetery, we went to the Recoleta Cultural Center for a little bit before eating lunch at a pop up shop near the artisanal market. The lunch was so photogenic, be sure to check out the Instagram story of @redjackettravels to see it. Then, Jacob and I had a much-needed rest at the house until about 8 PM, when we went out to dinner with MJ, Abby, Claire, and Charity (people from Sol) at a surprisingly cheap steakhouse. Tonight, I decided to turn in early because I am exhausted and we’re going to El Tigre tomorrow for the day.

Day 8: Class again

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 31, 2019 – 9:30 PM Argentina Time

Today was another standard day here, although that doesn’t mean I love this city any less. I’m here for 28 days, there are bound to be some less exciting days than other ones. It was basically the same morning as every other weekday: wake up, Subte, class, empanadas, more class. Except today after class ended, our activity with Sol was at 3:30 PM, which didn’t give us enough time to go home from the University of Belgrano, so we just got some coffee before the activity at a café near Plaza Italia.

At 3:30, we met up with the rest of the group and took a tour of the parks of Palermo, a place I already explored on my own on Wednesday during the strike, but it was nice to revisit this area and see the park at a different time of day. Also, it was our first Sol activity in two days, so it was nice to see everyone because we’re all at different schools. Half of us (people like Jacob, John, and I) are taking Spanish classes, but everyone else is taking medical Spanish classes at a different school and we haven’t had the time to see them.

After the park tour, we ended up at a place in Palermo called Districto Arcos, which is gentrification at its finest. It’s squeezed in this formerly run-down part of town near the train tracks, and it has all this exposed brick and designer shops that scream kicking out the poor people for this. All the train bridges have chic shops under them now and its nice but it kinda reminds me of home. Oh well, capitalism works everywhere…

Jacob and I took the Subte back to the house around 6 PM and took a break before an early dinner (around 8 PM, early by Buenos Aires standards). We talked to Amalia during dinner, which is always a pleasure, and now we’re waiting to go out to celebrate the fact that it’s Friday night. Hasta luego, Red Jacket Travelers!

Day 7: Just another day in BA

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 30, 2019 – 11:20 PM Argentina Time

“I want to be a part of BA Buenos Aires, big apple,” said Madonna, as Evita, in the musical Evita, based on the famed Argentinian. Sorry, that song has been going through my head the entire day, but it’s applicable here because I actually feel like I’m now a part of BA (Buenos Aires, Big Apple). In the first entry of this journal, I said this is the first time I’ve lived in a city (besides the Bay Area and DC) throughout all my adventures abroad and today marks the longest I’ve spent in one place. I have a routine every morning and I commute using the Subte like everyone else, so I don’t feel like a tourist. We haven’t had activities with Sol for two days (because of the strike yesterday and bad weather today) but I’ve been able to explore the city on my own which is really nice, kinda similar to what I did in DC over the past eight months.

So, this morning, I took the Subte to class, had that for five hours, including an empanada break in the middle, and finally finished class around 2:30 PM. It’s not that I don’t like class –it’s actually really interesting and I feel like my Spanish is improving—but as I said earlier, five hours is a long time to devote to one subject. You could watch 40 percent of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in that amount of time. After class, I went with Jacob and a couple of my classmates (their names are Will, Jacob [yes, another one], and Ari, thanks for asking mom), to find some food. After much looking, we settled upon a café that was pretty modern and I forgot the name of. I got a choripan, a local dish that is chorizo (pork sausage) in between two pieces of bread (pan), so basically an Argentinian hot dog. They apparently sell these things on the street, and they’re probably much better and cheaper on the street, but I still wanted to try a choripan before I left Buenos Aires.

Jacob and I then returned to the house, relaxed for a half hour, and set off again to go to the Mate Club with three people from Sol, named Ester, Neida, and Vanessa. We met at the Callao Subte station and walked the six blocks along Avenida Corrientes to the bar with Mate Club, where my Spanish improved tenfold. Mate Club lasts for 90 minutes, 45 of which we speak in Spanish for. My group spoke to two different native Spanish speakers, one from Colombia and the other from Buenos Aires, and let me tell you, my Spanish was fantastic. Well, fantastic by my standards; I wouldn’t call myself fluent yet but I felt pretty good about it.

Normally, I have to translate phrases in my head before I say something, but today something just clicked. I just kind of thought in Spanish instead of translating English to Spanish and visa-versa. Estoy en fuego! After Mate Club, the group from Sol went to get some pizza from this traditional Argentinian pizza place called Pizzeria Güerrin. Remember how I said lots of Italians moved to Buenos Aires in the 1800’s? Well, they brought their cuisine as well and Argentines changed it a little bit. The crust here is thicker than in the US, but it’s lighter. They also use a lot more cheese here and, as a result, they eat pizza with a fork and knife. I know, I know, it’s ridiculous, but “When in Buenos Aires, eat like the Porteños.”

Next, the Mate Club squad (I made up that name just now) walked up Avenida Corrientes to La Plaza and went to the same bar as two days ago for XXXXXX, which was fun. (redacted for personal reasons) You know, after a long day of class and speaking Spanish, it’s good to unwind with a mixed beverage that may or may not have contained alcohol. Following that, Jacob and I returned to the house for second dinner with Amalia around 10 PM, which is about average for here. All in all, soy vivo la vida en Buenos Aires!

Day 6: Strike!!

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 29, 2019 – 11:30 PM Argentina time

So, I might have exaggerated the effect of the strike when I talked about it yesterday, but in my defense, I had no idea what it was going to be like. I stayed up quite late last night, so I slept in until 11 AM this morning. I had an actual breakfast of cereal with milk after taking a shower. I then left around 1:30 PM to walk to the Jardín Japonés, a Japanese garden that is a nice little oasis of peace and quiet in the hustle and bustle of this city. I had to walk there because the Subte was closed due to the strike, but I didn’t mind it. While walking there though, I didn’t notice many businesses closed besides banks and public transportation.

I wandered around the Jardín Japonés for a while, taking photos and enjoying the scenery of a country halfway across the world. After the Jardín Japonés, I walked through more parks in Buenos Aires to El Rosedal, the national rose garden. In contrast to the Jardín Japonés, El Rosedal, was a lot more European and bohemian, with wide, dirt paths, marble fountains, and a large lake surrounding the entire park. I thought this park was gorgeous as well and I am wowed by how much green space there is in this city. I walked about a kilometer between the Jardín Japonés and El Rosedal and all of that was a fraction of the total park space in Buenos Aires.

I started to walk back to the house after spending some time at El Rosedal, but first, I was hungry, so I bought some roasted peanuts some men were selling on the side of the street for a dollar. The whole walk was about three kilometers long and allowed me to see some more of Buenos Aires. Some highlights include La Plaza Italia, just a major intersection with a large statue and the United States embassy to Argentina, which has a surprisingly large amount of security and I got yelled at when I tried to take a photo of it.

I returned to the house around 4:00 PM, did some homework (just a short paragraph), and then watched some Brooklyn Nine-Nine before dinner of chicken and rice. After dinner, Jacob and I were still hungry, so we went to a pizza place just down the street from the house and had second dinner for a grand total of 17 bucks for the two of us, including two pizzas, a huge glass of red liquid that may or may not have contained alcohol, two bottles of water, and a coffee. (When I say a huge glass of red liquid that may or may not have contained alcohol, I mean a HUGE glass that’s about three times the size of one you’ll get in the US.) And that was it for today’s laid-back day. I talked to Sara just after she returned to California from Israel today, but that was all did really. Tomorrow, classes resume at the University of Belgrano.

Day 5: More Mate and a Protest

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 28, 2019 – 11:58 PM

Hands down, today was the best day I’ve had in Buenos Aires so far. It started at 8:30 AM, when I woke up for my 9:30 class. Jacob and I left the house and took the Subte to Olleros and barely made it to class on time (John left early because he wanted to use the Ecobici to get to the University of Belgrano). I initially thought five straight hours of class was going to be hard to survive, but in reality it wasn’t too bad. Mage kept the class interesting and engaging with lots of jokes and interactive activities, plus we took two breaks to divide up the class. During the first break, my entire class decided to explore the area, but we ran out of time before we could see much. However, I had my first Empanada Salteñas in Argentina at a place called Chantilly that Mage recommended to us. It was delicious and cost a grand total of 100 pesos, which is just over two dollars for two gigantic empanadas and an alfajor to go with it.

For those of you who don’t know, an empanada is basically a whole bunch of meat and spices stuffed in a pastry and is a staple of Argentine food culture. Speaking of Argentine culture, after class ended at 2:30 PM, John, Jacob, and I returned to the house via the Subte, took a small break, and then met some people in our program before heading together to share in another aspect of Argentine culture, Mate. We went to the Mate Club with the rest of Sol, where I learned more than I could ever need to know about the traditions of Mate, and I practiced my Spanish. Mate is a very social drink that is typically only drunk with friends, and the concept of Mate Club is you make new friends with both porteños and exchange students over mate and a need to practice a new language. In my case, I practiced my Spanish with the locals and they practiced their English with me. It was an amazing experience that I absolutely loved going to and it improved my Spanish as well. This happens every Tuesday and Thursday and it’s a great place to meet locals and practice my Spanish in a worry-free environment.

In case you’re wondering, some customs of mate are that it is only served in a special cup made from a gourd, with a straw that filters out the loose leaves of the Yerba. Hot water (but not boiling water) is poured in one spot (and only one spot) on the Yerba by one person, called el servador. El servador has the first cup of Mate to ensure it is prepared correctly, then refills the cup, and passes it to the person on their right who finished the entire cup, before returning it to el servador who then gives it to the next person. Mate is never served with sugar, so you just have to deal with the bitter flavor, but I liked it better after my first two cups.

Mate Club is located right off of the Avenida Corrientes, a huge shopping and walking around street that has lots of theaters and modern stores and stuff; it’s kind of like the Las Vegas Strip, Broadway, and Times Square all rolled into one. After Mate Club, Raul told a few of us about a secret spot just off of Avenida Corrientes called La Plaza. Corrientes is a huge, modern shopping street, but La Plaza is a nice, quiet escape from the main street with jazz clubs and lots of bars. Jacob and I would return to La Plaza, but first, the rest of the group returned to their host families while Jacob and I stumbled upon a huge protest for abortion rights in front of El Congreso Nacional. I’m talking about thousands of people wearing green bandanas and chanting and playing music trying to petition the government for more abortion rights. I bought a bandana for about a buck to show solidarity for the cause because I obviously support more abortion rights.

This protest was like DC level huge and one of the coolest experiences that I’ve had. We weren’t even at the protest at its height and it was still going strong. After we broke off from the protest, we walked up and down Avenida Corrientes looking for a place to go, eventually settling on returning to La Plaza for a drink from a craft brewery. I got a mixed beverage that may or may not have contained alcohol and specialty fries, as I am not a wheat-based fermented drink fan, but I tried a sip of Jacob’s wheat-based fermented drink and it was better than some other one’s I’ve tasted. (Side note: the drinking age in Argentina is 18, so it was perfectly legal for me to drink here. Future employers take note.) We walked back to Avenida Corrientes and headed towards the Plaza de Mayo, passing the Oblisco (aka the Washington Monument of South America), and walking along another shopping street known as Calle Florida. All the shops were closed because it was 11:00 at night, but we still managed to catch one of the last Subte trains at Catedral station before the system closed for the night. Tomorrow, I can sleep in because the entire country is on strike, which means no public transit, no businesses are open, and no school.

Day 4: First day of School

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 27, 2019 – 10:57 PM

I woke up late today and barely had time to eat a cereal with milk breakfast before heading out around 9:50 AM to the Bulnes stop on the Subte Line D, about 3 blocks from our house on Billinghurst. Jacob, John, and I took the Subte five stops to Olleros, where we met Raul and three other students in Sol where we walked about 15 minutes to the University of Belgrano, where we will be taking Spanish classes for the next four weeks. The University of Belgrano is completely different from other universities I’ve seen; it’s just one building that’s about 20 stories tall, with classrooms, offices, bookstores, and cafeterias. For comparison, American University is a campus with lots of green space and a huge, central quad.

Today was orientation, so we arrived later than usual, and we got our Spanish classes. I was put in Intermediate 1 with John and nine other international students, all from the United States except one was from Bulgaria. Class normally runs from 9:30 to 2:30, but today it started around 11 because of the orientation. Our professor’s name is Mage, and she is from Buenos Aires. Today was mainly getting to know the class and some basic conjugation stuff, you know, typical syllabus day in any class. The class seems like a good group and we all ate lunch together, but I’m not sure if I can deal with nearly five straight hours of class for five days a week. It’s gonna be a long, but informative four weeks.

After class, John and I returned home for about 15 minutes, and then we set out to meet Kylie and Natalie, some friends from Sol at a coffee shop near their homestay in Recoleta. In order to get there, we took the Subte to Callao station and then biked using the Ecobici -a free bikeshare system like Capitol Bikeshare- to get to the café. Then, we walked as a group about a mile to the Sol offices near the Plaza de Mayo for our group orientation and to try some mate. Mate is sort of like green tea that is local to Argentina but is a lot more bitter. Mate is actually the special cup that you drink the tea out of, typically made out of a gourd, and the tea itself is called Yerba. The cup also comes with a straw that filters out the tea leaves, leaving only the flavor in the hot water.

During the orientation, I had four cups of mate. I didn’t like the first two, but on the third cup, I loved it and just had to drink another one. I think it’s safe to say I’m hooked on mate now. Next, Jacob, me, and a couple other people from Sol went to a grocery store to buy some snacks, which took a little while, and then went back to the house to eat a home cooked dinner with Amalia. Amalia is originally from Venezuela, and we talked about President Maduro and other global political crises, entirely in Spanish, which made me excited because it means my Spanish is improving! Finally, I did homework for my class with John and then decided to go to bed early because we have an even earlier morning tomorrow for my 9:30 class.

Day 3: City Tour

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 26, 2019 – 11:45 PM

Freddy! That’s the name of Amalia’s dog! I asked her again today and she told us. Now I won’t forget his name again. This morning, Jacob, John, and I woke up around 9:45 AM, ate a quick breakfast of muffins and coffee with Amalia and Freddy before walking to the corner of Billinghurst and Santa Fe Avenue where Raul met us for our city bus tour of Buenos Aires.

On the bus, I met the other 13 people on our trip, all of whom are girls. Most of the people are from the Midwest or Texas, but there’s one from Denver and another Kentuckian besides Jacob. We drove for about 30 minutes, with Raul pointing out the noteworthy sites along the way. Already, I had fallen in love with this city. There is so much green space and so much history in this city. We stopped at the Plaza de Mayo, named for the 25 de Mayo holiday that occurred yesterday. Here, there is a gigantic Argentinian flag in front of the Casa Rosada, the offices of the Argentine president and where Evita Peron gave her famous balcony address to the people of Argentina.

Also, at the Plaza de Mayo, there is a monument to the 25 de Mayo revolution (the same revolution as the holiday from yesterday), led by revolutionary Jose de San Martin, the same man who freed Peru and Chile from Spanish rule. San Martin is buried at the nearby Catedral Metropolitana (which by the way looks more like a courthouse than a church) in a gigantic mausoleum. After Argentina gained independence in the 19^th century, architects were hired from France to make the city look modern and no city was more modern than Paris, so, as a result, the city has wide avenues and diagonal streets stemming from the Plaza de Mayo. After walking around a bit more, we got back on the bus and went to lunch at a restaurant called Siga la Vaca.

This restaurant is known for Asado and boy did they deliver. They had an all-you-can-eat meat buffet, with designated servers who would cut any slice of meat right off the grill for you at a moments notice. They also had salad, but we all know what’s really important here. (Sorry vegetarians). Argentines like to enjoy their meal and take a long time to eat everything, so we did as such and spend about two hours at Siga la Vaca, which was a great opportunity to get to know my new friends on this program with me.

After lunch, we took the bus to La Boca, one of the coolest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. Named for its location at the mouth of the River Matanza, a tributary of the gigantic River Plata which divides Argentina and Uruguay. La Boca was founded by Italian-Genoese immigrants and, if there is one thing you should know about Genoa, it’s that Genoa is very brightly colored. These immigrants wanted their new home to look like their old one, so all the houses are painted in bright shades of all sorts of colors. La Boca isn’t the safest neighborhood, but the touristy street of Caminito is adorable with all sorts of shops and restaurants. La Bombonera is also located in La Boca; it’s a gigantic stadium that’s home to the famous team Boca Juniors. There was even a game today (I didn’t get to go unfortunately), but La Boca had a jittery vibe today with lots of fans of the team coming out to support them.

We hopped back on the bus, made a quick stop at an outdoor artisanal market just to see it, then stopped again near the Plaza de Mayo to buy Sube Cards, the payment system used to get onto the Subte, or metro here in Buenos Aires. Each trip is 19 Argentine Pesos, or about 50 cents, which pales in comparison to the $2.50 plus price of the DC metro. Each morning we will use the Subte Line D to get to the University of Belgrano where we will be taking classes starting tomorrow. Then, John, Jacob, and I returned to our homestay where we rested for about two hours before eating a homemade dinner of sausage, avocado, eggs, and avocado. After dinner, around 9 PM, we decided to go out for a walk along Santa Fe street for about two hours, including a stop for gelato. Finally, we returned around 11 PM and prepared for our first day of school before heading to bed.

Day 2: Arrival!

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

May 25, 2019 – 9:38 PM Argentina Time

Who knew President George W. Bush was a complete buffoon? Everyone, tbh, but who knew that many of the important policies and declarations in Bush 43’s presidency, like the war in Iraq, were actually the work of Dick Cheney, his Vice President. I wasn’t aware of the huge impact Cheney had on US foreign and domestic policy until I watched Vice, which took the place as the second feature film I viewed on my flight down to Buenos Aires.

I finally fell asleep around 1 AM and stayed asleep until 5:30 AM, where I killed the last hour and a half of my flight binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine (very good show, highly recommend!). Then, American Airlines Flight 991 finished its 9850 km journey with touchdown at Ministro Pistarini International Airport—EZE for short—before the sun had even risen over the Argentinian sky. I quickly deplaned, cleared customs, and collected my bag before exiting and meeting Raul, the director of Sol Education Abroad for Argentina. (Quick side note: Argentina has the strangest customs declaration form. They ask you about what type of cell phone you’re bringing into the country, which was a little weird. I guess it’s to prevent the entry of Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s into the country, but is that really that big an issue that you need to include a box about it on the customs form?)

Raul seems like a nice guy. He’s a short, middle-aged porteño with white hair who helped me with the ATM and my bags. I waited with Vanessa, another student who arrived before me, for about a half an hour before leaving the airport and driving 23 km northeast to the Palermo neighborhood, where my homestay is located. I arrived at the homestay around 9 AM and was greeted by a hug and kiss in typical Argentine fashion by my host mom Amalia. Since I was the first one of the three guys staying at this home to arrive, I got my first choice of bed (I chose one on the far-left corner of the room, against the wall) and proceeded to unpack my bags in the small closet the three of us were to share.

Amalia comes into the room soon after I unpack offering pastries and coffee, which I graciously accept, as I am honestly running on fumes at this point, and it’s only 10 AM! I also hand her my gift from home, a box of San Francisco-branded chocolates and peppermints from See’s Candy. Then, I rest and read my book for a couple hours until my roommate John arrives around 1 PM. We talk, and I find out that he’s from Philadelphia and attends Boston College, plus he’s going to be in Argentina for 3 months and continuing to Ecuador after that until December. I thought my trip was long… We eat a pasta, meat sauce, and broccoli dinner around 4 PM and then rest some more before going for a walk around the neighborhood with Amalia’s niece (who I unfortunately forgot the name of) and dog (who I also forgot the name of :(, I’ll be sure to update this later when I relearn their names).

Palermo is a hopping neighborhood with lots of bars and shopping, in addition to being directly on the Subte Line D, which connects directly to the University of Belgrano where I’ll be taking classes starting on Monday. It was supposed to be a public holiday today, El 25 de Mayo, which celebrates the start of the process to declare independence from Spain, but from walking around you would not know that seeing as literally every storefront and shop was open like a normal Saturday night. Amalia’s niece spoke little to no English, which forced me to use my Spanish and I already feel more confident about my ability to speak and understand the language since I got here.

After our walk, my third roommate, named Jacob, had finally arrived. He was here from the past week spending time with his girlfriend before starting this program. He’s also from Lexington, Kentucky and studies at the University of Kentucky. We talked for a little bit while he unpacked, then I took a shower and now I’m heading to bed for some much needed sleep before my official orientation to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning.

Day 1: Goin’ down south

Location: Over Central Mexico, American Airlines 787

May 24, 2019 – 10:01 PM Argentina Time

Here I go again, off to a new place. Anyone surprised about that? Didn’t think so. Spending significant time in over 40 countries just isn’t enough to sustain my travel appetite. You see, I’ve got an affliction that I don’t think there’s a cure for; it’s called the travel bug. The cause: too much traveling. The treatment: even more traveling. The symtoms: a greater understanding of the world and more unforgettable memories than you can count. It’s not the worst condition to have in the world.

However, in my many adventures around this planet called Earth, I’ve never stayed in one place for more than a week consecutively, except for Redwood City, California and Washington, DC. I believe the record is Sydney, Australia, where I stayed put for seven days, but even then, I did overnight side trips out of the city. Now I’m about to study and live in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a full four weeks, which might explain why I’m more nervous about this trip than any other one I’ve been on recently.

It’s not the distance of the place. Going to Singapore was a longer flight by about 5 hours. Side note: I still cannot believe I survived a 17-hour-long flight in economy. Everything else seems so much shorter now. Anyways, nerves are normal; I was super nervous about going to college across the country in DC and that worked out fantastic. This trip will be one of the most incredible experiences of my life, plus (I hope) I’m going to learn so much Spanish.

About the Spanish, about half of the people on this flight are Argentine, and let me just say, their Spanish sounds so different from the dialect I learned back home in California. It’s like American versus British English, different accents and different slang, but same language. I wonder if I’ll come home with an Argentinian accent. I’ve heard from people from Mexico and Guatemala that Argentine Spanish es muy feo, but don’t quote me on that, I don’t want to offend my hosts for the next month.

The journey has been thankfully uneventful so far. I checked my large green duffel bag at Terminal 2 of SFO this morning (don’t worry, the red jacket is not checked so there is no risk in losing that), went through security, and waited for about an hour and a half before boarding the short shuttle flight to LAX. My seat ended up being in Main Cabin Extra, which is code for, “you’re special, but not too special.” Basically, I just had a bunch of legroom because my seat was the first row behind the First-Class Cabin. The flight was delayed by about a half hour, but that didn’t matter because I had a long layover scheduled in Los Angeles. We parked at the satellite terminal of LAX, took a bus directly to Terminal Four and within 15 minutes of deplaning I was at gate 43 waiting for the next, much longer flight to Buenos Aires. 300 miles down, over 6000 to go.

I bought an overpriced, mediocre pizza for lunch (airport food, am I right?) and waited at the gate until boarding. Another quick aside: I may have the travel bug, but one thing I still dislike is how expensive food is at nearly every airport, regardless of country or currency. Back to traveling, I got Main Cabin Extra seating (yay, 4 extra inches of legroom, but I must remember I’m not, dare I say it, first class special) once again and settled into this southeasterly bound flight from LAX to EZE. I watched the movie Green Book, had some pretty decent pasta, courtesy of American Airlines, and now I might catch some sleep before I land in Buenos Aires, the land of beef and Malbec wine, for my next Red Jacket adventure. The travel bug demands I go places, and thus, Argentina beckons. Hasta pronto Red Jacket Travelers!