This is my first attempt at trying to keep a blog and I will do my best to give the full report without writing an entire novel. I'm sure those of you who have experienced my blow-by-blow e-mails are skeptical of this, but I am determined to reign in my verbose tendencies.
These past two weeks have absolutely flown by! I spent my first week in Argentina on a whirlwind tour of the Argentine side of Patagonia with Sujata. I honestly cannot imagine a better way to have kicked-off this semester!
So, our Patagonian adventure began bright and early on Sunday, Feb 8, when Sujata and took a taxi to the domestic airport, leaving ourselves plenty of time to check in and get through "security" before our flight. We arrived a full hour early, which of course would have given us ample time to relax and maybe even linger over a cafe con leche, but when we strolled into the empty airport, Aerolinias Argentina kindly informed us that our flight was leaving from the international airport conveniently located about 45 minutes outside of the city. After sprinting back and forth through the airport trying to find a taxi (somewhat weighed down by my 40 lb backpack!), we somehow managed to find a taxi driver crazy enough to get us to the airport in only 20 minutes! The lack of seat-belts did not help my alleviate anxiety, but fortunately he delivered us in one piece and we made it to our plane on time...only to find that it was, of course, delayed!
After that unexpectedly exciting start to our journey, it was pretty much smooth sailing. Our first stop was Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego and the absolute southern-most town in South America--just a short boat ride away from Antarctica! We spent our first afternoon at the bottom of the world on an island that is home to 5,000 penguins from Dec-Feb. We were allowed to approach within feet of them (it was hard to keep a greater distance because there were so many) and we spent almost an hour watching them play, swim, fight, flirt, cuddle, sleep, and even (quite graphically!) mate. Sujata and I froze in our tracks and marveled (and blushed!) as we watched nature take its course. I never thought I would feel scandalized by penguins.
The next day, we again put our lives in the hands of a crazy driver--but this time we asked for it! We spent the day on all day 4x4 off-road excursion through the forest and lake region of Ushuaia. As Sujata wrote in her mass e-mail, our guide drove like he was driving a car in a video game. Literally, his goal is to maneuver the car at impossible angles (as close to 90 degrees as possible), and then zoom through cavernous holes, rivers, and up and down steep rocky hills. There were times I was convinced we were going to flip over. It was completely crazy and so much fun! And it didn't hurt that our guide was pretty cute and a complete goof-ball. We enjoyed a wonderful 3-hour long Argentine asado (BBQ) on a mountain on the coast--I probably ate half a cow!--and made friends with a fabulous couple from Buenos Aires and a very cool 28 year old woman from Germany who we had dinner with later that night. After our bonding lunch we fought through our food comas and spent the rest of the afternoon canoeing on el Lago Escondido (the "Hidden Lake")--absolutely stunning! Sujata and I made a pretty fierce team on the water, and entertained the rest of the group with resounding renditions of some classic songs :)
So I realize that I am failing miserably at my attempt to keep this blog succinct, but there is so much more I want to include...this is very difficult! I am going to end this first entry here because I am meeting up with a few friends from my program to go to the crafts fair/artisan market in La Recoleta but hopefully by the end of this weekend I will make it through the Patagonia trip and the update on my first week in BA!
Les mando muchos besos! Ciao por ahora!
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