200 years of independence from Spain. We were lucky enough to be in a country when they were celebrating a this wonderful occasion. There were events going on all week long all around town and our school also celebrated this wondrous occasion with many different presentations and activities. One activity that the whole school did together was a flag raising of both the U.S. and Paraguayan flags, and the singing of the Paraguay national anthem. On that same morning, the elementary had their Folklore Day. This day happens every year, but this year it was done as the culmination of the Bicentenario activities. The indigenous language of Paraguay is Guarani, and students are required to pass a proficiency test in Guarani before they can receive their Paraguayan diplomas. Guarani is the main language outside of the city. On Folklore Day, the students all learn traditional Guarani dances, wear costumes, and perform the dances for their family and peers. The students are really quite adorable in their traditional outfits! As a prelude to the festivities, the Paraguayan department and the PTA had gotten together and had decorated the school in celebration.
The first time Jenna and I went to Buenos Aires it was a couple months after arriving in Paraguay and we were accompanied by 4 female friends from our school. It was a fun trip, but I was not able to do one thing which I had really wanted to do in the city: attend a Boca Juniors game. Alex didn't suffer from the same lack of enthusiasm for soccer/supposedly dangerous neighborhoods and stadiums as the ladies did so he and I decided to hit the game. The reason I wanted to see Boca Juniors play is that they are probably the most famous (club) soccer team from South America and have had some extremely famous players including no less than Diego Maradona himself. Tickets are very difficult to get because all the tickets in the 49,000 seat stadium belong to "socios" or members of the club and apparently there are more members than actual seats. Our 2 options for going to the game were getting tickets through a sort of travel/tourist agency for more than $100 to sit in the 3rd level visitor's section and have stuff thrown at us all game or to do what people say you shouldn't and venture down to the neighborhood and try to find some "reventas" or tickets from scalpers while dodging the plague of fake tickets that apparently exist.
Thinking that it would probably be safe enough since Boca was playing a smaller team (Tigre from another neighborhood in Buenos Aires) and the crowd wouldn't be violent or dangerous. Despite some policemen looking us over, deciding we were tourists who were vulnerable, and basically telling us to leave the area we were able to find some tickets. After wandering around the stadium area for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get close since the police had the entire area closed off and you couldn't get within 2 blocks of the place unless you had tickets to the game, a guy approached us and asked if we were looking for tickets. We said yes and he told us to follow him to a more safe spot to show them to us... and yes this did sound as sketchy to us as the time as it sounds here now. After walking over to a different street he showed us the tickets under his jacket after looking around carefully and told us that we shouldn't let people see us buying them from him because people get killed for selling their tickets. (Alex and I both think he was exaggerating just a bit) He sold us the tickets for double face value but that was OK because it only ended up being about $20 each. We waited in line for a while with him and once the police opened up the stadium area we walked on in and found some seats under the overhang so the visiting crowd above us wouldn't shower us with unknown liquid substances the entire game. The entire buildup to the game was nerve-wracking because we had heard so many things which turned out to be untrue. We felt very safe the entire time and people were friendly to us before and during the game. The game itself was even more thrilling as Boca fell behind 2 - 0 early, scored 2 goals in the last 5 minutes of the first half to tie it, and then went back and forth in the second half before falling behind again and ultimately tying it up at 3 - 3. One of the goals from the first half was even scored by one of the club's living legends Juan Roman Riquelme! One other observation from the game before we move on to the pictures. When people around us in the crowd would yell something negative about one of the Boca players, other people in the crowd would tell them to basically shut up and stop being negative toward the team. That attitude was very refreshing to hear as I'm far more used to hearing people watching sports saying less than flattering things about the players mothers! It really was a spectacular experience, possibly my favorite part of the trip, and I would recommend that any sports fan traveling to Buenos Aires give it a shot.
Shout out to Dan and the FBM!
Before the game members of the crowd climbed over that fence topped with barbed wire to hang the banners you can see all around the stadium. If you look closely in the second picture above you can see the attitude that the police take to this.
The club's all-time leading goalscorer Martin Palermo saluting the crowd which was chanting his name before the first kick of the game.
The Tigres goalkeeper with a goal kick. Imagine how intimidating it is to be playing so close to that wall of rabid fans! The top picture shows just how steep the sides of the stadium really are.
Short video here showing some of the chanting of the fans during the end of the first half of the game. For those of you who don't habla espanol the main idea is they are basically saying that the team should "poner un poquito mas de huevos" which roughly translates to "put a little bit more balls (testicles)" meaning try harder. Yes I find it funny too.
On the bus and subway rides home from the game Alex and I even found time to take a look at the Pink House (famous from the movie Evita with Madonna) which was repainted since I last saw it for Argentina's bicentennial (May of 2010) and had some pretty sweet pink lights on it at night!
Spending a few days in Maipu really allowed us to tour all kinds of different vineyards, drink all kinds of wine, and go to two different olive oil factories. As Jesse had control of the camera for most of the vacation, we don't have that many pictures of our wine tours, but here are some of my favorites. We toured two wineries the first day, five wineries and one olive oil the second day, and one olive oil factory the third day. I had no idea how different olive oils could be. The first place we stopped at had three different species of olives there, including a native tree to Argentina. The oils were very different, and it made me realize that the quality of the oil really can change the taste of what you are eating. And I never knew that black olives and green olives came from the same tree- green olives turn black as they stay on the tree!
We bought a few bottles of wine to bring back to Asuncion with us, and I am currently having a glass of one of them. I wish we could have brought back more, but transporting them back to the states or to Colombia would have been difficult.
There might not be anything better than drinking good wine with good friends!
Before I start in on all the wonderful things we did in wine country, I thought I'd give some of the information on wine that we learned on this trip first.
First, red and white wine can all made from purple grapes. While some green grapes are used for some white wines, others are made from red/purple grapes. What determines whether a wine is red or white is if the juice of the grapes had been in contact with the skin of the grapes. The skin gives the pigmentation of the wine and releases tannins into the wine. The different grape varieties give the wine its name; cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec, cabernet franc, syrah, etc. (All of the above types of wine we sampled during our tastings)
I think everyone has seen the I Love Lucy episode where she stomps on the grapes. As much fun as that would probably be, its not very economical or practical. The grapes are squeezed to release the juice. The first pressing is the best one, and is usually used for the top line wine that the winery makes. Then the grapes are pressed again, and again. Usually grapes are only pressed three times. If the grapes are squished too much, then the seeds break and the flavor can turn bitter. After the juice has been extracted from the grape, the juice needs time to ferment, usually a few weeks. During this time, the sugars in the juice turn to alcohol. The wine is usually stored in big tanks that will allow the carbon dioxide that forms to escape. Then, if it is a lower quality red wine, white wine, or rose, the wine is bottled. Some red wines however, get put into oak barrels to age. The longer the wine is in the oak barrel, the more flavors get drawn out of the wood into the wine. There are two kinds of oak that are used, French oak and American oak. Each oak gives a different flavor to the wine. Each barrel is used just three times before it is discarded. The first use of the barrel is the best one, and is usually used for the top line wines. Some wine is aged in the oak barrels for two years, others for 3 or 6 months. It depends on what flavors or undertones the winemaker desires in the wine. The different flavors that sophisticated palates can taste in wines come out during the fermentation and storing process. Those flavors (tobacco, blueberry, cherry, citrus, smoke, cinnamon, etc) are not added to the wine, but simply come out of the juice and sommeliers (wine tasting experts) use these flavors to characterize wines.
In Latin American countries, the traditional spring break is a bit different. It coincides with Easter and is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Since Easter was a bit late this year, so was our week of vacation. We were definitely ready for a break from school, and a relaxing vacation is just what we needed.
A plus of all of Latin America having the same week off is that we were able to spend the week with friends, Alex and Caitlin, who are currently living in Ecuador. Mendoza, Argentina had popped up a few times in conversation, so that's where we decided to go.
Since A & C hadn't been to Buenos Aires yet, we decided to meet up there first. They got there a few days before Jesse and I did, so they went around and did a lot of the things we had done last year. Look under the tag Buenos Aires to read our posts from last year.
We hung out for a few days, did some shopping and had some great Porteno food. Buenos Aires is just an amazing city to be in, and its fun to just walk around and look at the different architecture that each neighborhood brings. It reminds me of New York City in that way- each neighborhood has its own distinct feel and character. This time we stayed in the Recoleta neighborhood in an old apartment building, and spent a whole day in the Palermo Soho neighborhood, which we didn't get to see last time.
I realized as I am writing this post that Jesse didn't take any pictures of our time in BA except for the soccer game that he went to. So I have no pictures to share. :(
With the 200th anniversary of Paraguay's independence from Spain, there have been a lot of tourism and culture videos created to spark patriotism for the celebration in a few weeks. Here is one video that our librarian shared with us. It shows some beautiful scenery and things to do in Paraguay. We actually haven't been or done most of what is displayed, so it was informational for us too! Click on the link below to enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URch_tOeVlo&feature=player_embedded
For the last few weeks, there has been an epidemic of dengue in Paraguay. For those unfamiliar with this disease, it is spread by mosquitoes and is accompanied with high fevers, headache, rash, joint and muscle pain, and with some strands, hemorrhaging, especially in the gums. It can be life-threatening, especially if you've already had dengue before.
There has been a lot of rain lately in Paraguay, which helps the mosquito population. Once a mosquito has bitten an affected person, they can spread the disease by biting another person, and thus, an epidemic has spread. Last week, soldiers and health officials started house searches, looking for stagnant water in some of the neighborhoods with the highest number of cases. Families are liberally spraying their students with Off! before coming to school, and local pharmacies are selling bracelets that have citronella to ward off the insects. At the local park where I run after school, there have been ladies offering to spray patrons with Off! before they enter.
I had one student who had it at the beginning of March and now, many people are afraid that they have it when they exhibit any of the symptoms. My Spanish teacher, Maria Elena, has been telling me that on all the Paraguayan TV stations there have been commercials educating people on dengue prevention. Hopefully, Jesse and I can escape this year without any severe illnesses.
Live music is always a good time, and living abroad can sometimes make it difficult since musicians like we like aren't always coming to Paraguay. Jesse went to a Franz Ferdinand concert last year, and this year, Shakira came! It was her first time in Paraguay, and there was excitement in the air for weeks. Here's a few photos of her concert. Ziggy Marley (Bob's son) opened for Shakira. Only downside of the concert, it was on a Tuesday. And we had to work the next day. It was worth it.
As a culminating activity for our trip, we decided to do something neither one of us has ever done before- sailing! All we've ever heard about the end of the world, the Beagle Channel, we wanted to get on the water, and since those big touristy boats aren't really our style, this is what we decided. Once we got out on the water, the view of Ushuaia was amazing! The boat only had space for 10 tourists, so our little group of five had half the boat. Part of the trip through the channel was getting close to the sea lion island so that we can take a look. We have seen sea lions before in the wild, but never in these numbers! Even though it was summer, Ushuaia tops out around 50, 55. On the water, there was wind. And splashes of icy water. Despite bundling up, it was cold!!! The main attraction of our journey through the channel was a trip to H island. This tour company is the only company with permission to land and take tours on the island. The island is the nesting ground for cormorant birds. Here's our trusty vessel. Here, we are walking on one part of the H, with the other side there. Cormorant colony! The cormorants use this island to create their nests, which are made out of their poop. The smell was a little overpowering as we neared the colony, but it was pretty amazing to see all the birds. The Yamana people used this island as a resting area from bad weather, or to spend the night during fishing trips. The Yamana lived on the southern tip of the continent. The Yamana were very interesting because of their lifestyle and how they adapted to life in these extreme conditions. One, they didn't wear any clothes. They covered themselves in animal grease, which prevented body heat from escaping. Since they spend much of their lives in their canoes, they were in a huddled position. Therefore, there was less surface area in contact with the wind. Women were divers for clams and mussels. Since they didn't have any clothes, they were able to quickly raise their body temperature after contact with the 48-50F degree water. They kept warm by constantly having small fires around them, even in their canoes. The name of this region, Tierra del Fuego, is from Magellan spotting their fires. It was cold, but absolutely beautiful and a wonderful way to end our trip. After we got off the boat, we thawed out with chai lattes, something was quite a treat!
Perhaps the most anticipated part of our month-long journey was the opportunity to see penguins in the wild. Most tourists get on a boat and take a tour of the Beagle Channel which includes their boat pulling up on the shore of the penguin island and all of the tourist herding to the front of the boat to take pictures because they are not allowed to get off on the island. This did not sound like fun to us so we instead booked a tour where we could walk around the island and see the penguins up close.
We hopped on a bus on the morning of our second day in Ushuaia and took a windy 1.5 hour drive to the Estancia Harberton where our tour would begin. Along the way we stopped to check out some evidence of the harsh weather conditions that are the norm in Tierra del Fuego. The trees below are perfectly normal Southern Beech trees which had the bad fortune to be growing on the top of a ridge where they are exposed to extremely strong and consistent winds. The winds force them to grow almost parallel to the ground and for this they are called "Flag Trees" by the locals because they appear to be blowing in the wind. The start of our tour, Estancia Harberton (Estancia roughly means ranch in English), is an interesting place for several reasons. First because it was established by one of the first missionaries (and therefore first foreign people) to settle in Tierra del Fuego and has remained in the Bridges family since 1886. The son of that original missionary, Lucas Bridges, was raised there and did a great job documenting and translating the language and history of the local Yamana people who were an extraordinary example of survival in an extreme climate with very few resources. The Estancia currently houses a small museum of local marine life and some researchers who monitor the local populations of whales, dolphins, penguins and other seagoing birds. Among the collection of things in the museum are skeletons of lots of different types of whales and penguins like the one below. The researchers also have a "Bone House" where they are in the processes of removing the flesh and skin from the skeletons of various whales, porpoises, dolphins and whatever else they found. The smell in this house was quite interesting as you might imagine, but it was very cool to see the dirty work that goes into preparing all of the clean skeletons you see in museums. I'll spare you the pictures as they are a bit gruesome.
From there we took a walk across the grounds of the Estancia which contain the original buildings built by the Bridges family and hopped onto our little Zodiac to cross to the penguin island in the Beagle Channel. There are two types of penguins on the island. The first type, of which there are only something like 24 mating pairs, is the Gentoo penguin. These penguins are the 3rd largest in the world behind the Emperor and King penguins and can grow to be up to 3 feet tall. Others of the Gentoo species do live as far south as Antarctica, however the ones we saw will probably never go their in their lifetimes. The second type of penguin, of which there are thousands on the island, is called the Magellanic penguin. These penguins also never go to Antarctica, but rather migrate between the strait of Magellan (hence the name) and Brazil. They are rather small for penguins as they only get to the range of 2 or 2.5 feet tall. All over the island the penguins had dug out their burrows as it was mating season. The males dig burrows and then the females choose males to mate with based on the size, location, and quality of their burrows more-so than the "beauty" or other characteristics of the males themselves. We had to walk on designated paths very slowly and carefully so we did not disturb the penguins or their nests. As you can see, they were quite used to their giant visitors and were not too scared of us. Many of the penguins were in the process of molting during which time they must remain on the island for about 5 days without going into the water to feed while their old feathers fall off. We saw both juveniles (like the one being fed by its mother below) and adults going through the molting process. You can tell the difference between the juveniles and adults by the coloration of their feathers. It's hard to show with pictures just how cool this place was so I'll let the two videos below do some of the talking (along with the sound of the wind in both videos). The first video shows a good part of the area where we could walk and you can see both types of penguins with burrows in the area along with a territorial warning call to us from one of the Magellanic penguins.
The second video should give you some idea of the beauty of the Beagle Channel along with the number of penguins running all over the island.
On that same morning, the elementary had their Folklore Day. This day happens every year, but this year it was done as the culmination of the Bicentenario activities. The indigenous language of Paraguay is Guarani, and students are required to pass a proficiency test in Guarani before they can receive their Paraguayan diplomas. Guarani is the main language outside of the city. On Folklore Day, the students all learn traditional Guarani dances, wear costumes, and perform the dances for their family and peers. The students are really quite adorable in their traditional outfits!
As a prelude to the festivities, the Paraguayan department and the PTA had gotten together and had decorated the school in celebration.
