Argentina

Haven't updated in a while mostly because the purpose of my blog was to inform my family of my whereabouts and doings, but since they have been with me for the last few days there have been easier methods of communication. I showed my mom and my sister around Buenos Aires for three days and acted as a guide. On Wednesday we flew to Iguazu Falls which is the biggest waterfall in the world with over 5,000 cubic meters of water passing over the falls every second. To put that in perspective the next biggest falls, Victoria Falls, has 1,000 cubic meters of water pass over it ever second. And, according to wikipedia (a widely respected reference), Iguazu is the 4th most spectacular natural wonder after the Sergenti Migracion, the Galápagos Islands, and Grand Canyon. We took an obscene amount of pictures but unfortunately we don't have the cable to upload them. The falls were amazing, but the Disneylandification surrounding it was cringe worthy. We walked a shit ton, it was h...

the plane flight dad peter and michael, you have a long day ahead of you, the flight to georgia isn't too bad, everyone has personal tv's and there is inflight trivia which is very entertaining! then, the georgia airport is pretty weird and can only be descirbed as a giant mall with planes, but we found a pretty good restaurant on E level about halfway down the walkway. anyywayy The flight to Buenos Aires is verrrryyyy long, but i thought it was really interesting... unlike flights to mexico that are completely full of tourists and English orientated, on this flight you feel like you are going to a new place. Our flight was about 60-40 for spanish speakers which came as a surprise to me, also you cannot identfy argentinians from tourists except hearing someone speak(of course we will standout anywat on behalf of our height). Day 1: We rode a 45 minute bus into Buenos Aires, then from the bus stop took a taxi to taylors apartment, we arrived slightly earlier than taylor though...

40 basic things to keep in mind about Argentina in no particular order: 1) It's really hard to get change (coins) and you must guard any coins you do have with your life as you'll need them for buses 2) Almost all streets are one way, so watch the hell out 3) Dogs shit wherever they want so watch your step 4) Cross walks are little more than stripes of paint 5) There are rampant stray dogs and cats as Argentinians don't like neutering their pets 6) All keys are big brass old looking ones and I don't understand why 7) There are no black people... at all 8) If you buy something try to use a bill that is no more than double the price of the item. Only in select places can you try to use your $100 pesos notes 9) When you withdraw money from ATM's withdraw in odd amounts so you get smaller bills. For example instead of $200, withdraw $190 so you get a fifty, and two twenties. 10) Tipping in restaurants is more lax, around 10% is fine 11) Only take taxis that have Radio...

Before you leave: Pack light. By light I mean one carry-on that you can maneuver in airport/bus terminal settings. We will have washing machines in each place so just bring a few things. If you are curious about what to bring you can see the list of things I brought. Although it is summer, have a light water proof jacket as it can rain. The best is to bring generic clothing so that we don't stand out as much. The other day I saw a guy wearing a "Party till you Puke" t-shirt. Probably avoid stuff like that. People will know we are foreign, but they shouldn't be able to tell if we are from the United States or Europe. There is some anti-American sentiment, not much, but some. It's best to keep a low profile. Argentinians call Americans Yankees (pron. Jahn Keys), in case you happen to hear it. Bring a small towel as you will never be amazed by it's versatility. Don't bring things that are expensive/flashy. No computers, I already have one so we ...

Got back from Mar del Plata last night and it was amazing. We nearly didn't catch our bus because there was a Madonna concert right when we were leaving so every single taxi was full of people. I stood on the side walk for a solid 20 minutes without seeing a single taxi that was "libre." In the end to get the taxi, I had to run across the road with my luggage and flag down a taxi on the opposite side. We got to Mar del Plata at 8 a.m., took a morning siesta, and were at the beach by noon. The beach was freaking packed with people, and there was a bunch of beach venders selling hot dogs (panchos), ice cream, fruit salads, umbrellas, beach mats, ankle bracelets, and other beach related items. The beach was full of tourists but they were all Argentine tourists as I didn't hear one word of English the whole time I was there outside of our group. One of the guys in our group who was from Holland for some reason thought that his skin had adjusted to the sun even thoug...

Alright, we got our shit together and we're going to Mar del Plata, aka beach. We did this shit so last minute it's amazing. We reserved our hostel and bought our tickets today, both of which were the last ones remaining. We leave tonight at 3 am and we'll get there at 8 am, to sort things out/have breakfast, and then beach time. Bus tickets in Argentina are too good of a value. This 5 hour trip, ida y vuelta (round-trip), is $134 pesos (40 bucks). So I've packed my things up in my small back pack and I'm leaving in like 2 hours. Of course my legendary towel will be making the journey. I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone of the importance and multifuctionality of towels. 1) Head support for plane/bus rides 2) Useful for laying on beach 3) Wet and twist for use as weapon 4) Use as turban 5) Use a boat sail 6) Use for a picnic 7) To dry dishes 8) Stuff in pillow case for use in Pillow Wars (I did this) 9) Make shift pillow 10) Blanket for warmth 1...

First a random fact before I jump in with things: The Peacekeeper, below, was a MIRVed missile developed by the United States during the Cold War. Each rocket could carry up to 10 re-entry vehicles, each armed with a 300 kiloton warhead (twenty times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II). The reason I share this is that I think its awesome that we named the most destructive weapon ever developed by mankind that was 200 times stronger than the bomb used on Hiroshima The Peacekeeper. Here's another picture of the testing they did that shows how it delivered 10 different 300 kiloton payloads to 10 different targets. I finished with school today. I turned in my two essays, one on the roots and end of the Cold War, and the other on comparing Reagan's Rollback policy to the policy of Containment in the first years of the Cold War. In the end both reports ended up being 10 pages each double spaced and I devoted two days of my existence on this earth ...