Author Archives: admin

Iguazú – Natural Wonder

Posted on by
3

After a comfortable, 18 hours long night-bus ride, I arrived to Puerto Iguazú, the last city in the Provincia de Misiones before the Brazilian and Paraguayan frontier. My first impression of this region was that it is much greener but also a lot poorer than the Provincia de Buenos Aires, where I have lived for almost 5 months.

I stayed there three days in the Hostel Inn Iguazu, which is in fact rather like a real resort hotel with a very big swimming-pool and lots of French guys …. the hostel, and also the whole region is very international, means it is the first place in Argentina where everybody speaks English, of course due to the main tourist attraction here: the Cataratas del Iguazú:

We went there two consecutive days, the first one to see the falls from the Argentine side and the other day to watch them from the Brazilian side. We also took a helicopter to see them from above, a water-boat to get a wet shower from underneath, and you are allowed to swim in the river at a place with only little flow. This natural wonder is absolutely unbelievable and indescribable, the photos only can give you a small glimpse of the size and the tons of litres that are falling down every second. You really HAVE to see this great place once in your life!

I was really impressed by the intactness of the nature, you are really feeling like as if you were at the Amazonas with lots of jungle plants and animals. And also the tropical rain is simply crazy: the sun is shining, and one minute after it is raining in a way I’ve never experienced before, and 10 minutes later the sun comes back again, as if nothing had happened.

By the way, I have fulfilled one of my challenges, because a “remis”-driver asked me whether I am from Argentina (that was such a great feeling). And right now I have just arrived to Salta in the equally named province …. let’s see what expects me here! Continue reading →

Vamos

Posted on by
3

So finally that’s it. Tomorrow I’ll leave my beloved Tandil towards Buenos Aires, then I’d like to see the Cataratas del Iguazú and later I will hopefully travel to the Provincia de Salta ….

Thank you very much everybody for having made my exchange semester to such a wonderful experience with innumerable memories I won’t ever forget. I will definitely come back to visit you and your awesome country!

Chicos, no puedo creer como el tiempo pasó tan rapido, pero mi intercambio en Tandil ya se acabó y hoy es mi última noche en esta ciudad tan buena …. MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS a todos por todo: venir a Argentina siempre fue un sueño mio pero nunca me hubiera imaginado que iba a tener una experiencia tan hermosa, sobre todo con ustedes en la pensión. Sinceramente encontré un lugar donde me sentí como si fuese “en casa”, viviendo con una familia. Espero que tuvieran también un tiempo lindo, la verdad que yo la pasé barbaro. Jamás los olvidaré y los quiero mucho. Tengo que irme pero una parte de mi corazón se queda acá, y estoy seguro que volveré pronto. Les deseo mucha suerte, que les vaya bien y hasta luego. Abrazo grande!
Marisa y Marcos, no sólo dueños sino más padres de la pensión – les agradezco por todo y a ustedes los voy a extrañar muchísimo :( Continue reading →

Necochea y San Cayetano

Posted on by
Reply

Hey there, how are you in good old but cold and snowy Europe? If you are freezing, maybe I have some warming thoughts about my short trip from this “fin de semana”, when I visited Nico’s family …. I hope that it will help you facing out this difficult period!

We started our extended weekend last Thursday and went to Necochea, a nice seaside town where his aunt and her husband live. We had a great evening with them, talking about nearly everything you can imagine, and then spent most of Friday at and around the beach (unfortunately VERY VERY windy). In the evening we took the “colectivo” to Nico’s home town San Cayetano (a village in the pampas, much more “gauchesco” than everything I had seen until now), where we visited his grandmother and great-grandmother and where we met some of his old friends and his brother Santi (studying Electrical Engineering in Mar del Plata). We stayed there until this Monday relaxing, watching the Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo with Adolfo Cambiaso’s team “La Dolfina” (despite the elitist character, polo is really popular and some kind of national sport here in Argentina), eating “asado” and above all enjoyed the sun and the sea (which was not as cold as expected – you could swim without any problems) a whole day long with an amazing and hot weather.

Regarding my Spanish skills, I have learned that there are some important expressions you should really know if you ever plan to travel to Argentina, but luckily you can more or less summarize them like follows: We are all “boludos” or “pelotudos”, sometimes also “muchachos” or “chabones” but definitely always “buena onda” making lots of “quilombo” and “joda”, maybe except when playing football just like the opposite of the (deservedly so) nation’s pride and hero Lionel Messi, in which case we would be called “pechos frios” …. “¿viste che? qué sé yo …. ¡ya está!” Continue reading →

Aquí me pongo a cantar

Posted on by
4

Aquí me pongo a cantar
Al compás de la vigüela;
Que el hombre que lo desvela
Una pena extraordinaria,
Como la ave solitaria
Con el cantar se consuela.

This is how José Hernández’ “El Gaucho Martín Fierro” begins, and it resumes at least a little bit how I am currently feeling. Okay, actually I must admit that I’m still really fine and now that all exams are over, I can enjoy the hot and sunny weather by going to the “piletas al aire libre” (outdoor swimming pool) very often :-) But it also became very real that this amazing stay here in Argentina is about to finish very soon. We had a few “fiestas de despedida” (where we had to finish lots of bottles of Fernet :P ) and many of my friends have already gone back home or are travelling.

For my part on Thursday I will go to Necochea and San Cayetano with my (former) room-mate and now one of my best friends Nico, brilliant student of international affairs, Argentina’s next Minister of Foreign Affairs, future best-seller author and founder of the multidisciplinary socio-anthropological movement of the “Tedoldism” :D
We will go to the beach, visit his grandma and try to enjoy the last few days together before I’ll leave …. hopefully after having finally received all the certificates from the university! (but why on earth do I have some doubts about that?) Continue reading →

“Tandilia” race and some other unsorted thoughts

Posted on by
3

Okay, despite my suboptimal shape and my increased weight, I survived the “Tandilia” race :P It was probably one of the toughest race I’ve ever participated to, but also one of the most beautiful ones. As I previously told, we had to run 11.111 km through the whole city from one end to the other, following a REALLY hilly track (at least ~250m altitude both up and downwards, with one steep ascent of 100m). Fortunately almost all the inhabitants were outside making an great atmosphere, which was very helpful to forget the pain and “enjoy” the sightseeing tour!

Out of 1500 participants I was able to finish 190th in the overall classification and 85th in my age-group with a time of 48:38 (4:25 per km). To give you a small idea of the extremely high level of this race: the winner needed 35:00 (3:10 per km) to accomplish the race, which is simply incredible regarding the difficulty of the track, and the first woman had a time of 41:15 (3:45 per km). But I was told that both of them were Olympic athletes in London ….

Apart from that everything is still going at the best. Until now I had really good results in my exams, and the very last one is on next Wednesday. However, I haven’t totally realized yet that my stay here in Tandil is almost over and I should start thinking about what to do and where to go next, but since I have always made good experiences with being spontaneous, why should I change that relaxing way of life? Continue reading →