Interesting sites of Argentina

Mothers of some of the tens of thousands of Argentines who "disappeared" during the military government walk counter clockwise in a circle in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo (in front of the presidential "pink house" - Argetine's White House). They hold pictures of their loved ones as they walk...hoping to get answers from the government about what happened. Anyone who spoke out against the government during 1976- 1983 would disappear...

Dog walkers are everywhere and usually have 10+ dogs at once!

MEAT, MEAT, and more MEAT:

Parrillas are like barbeques, but for meat lovers.

Most houses have separate outdoor dining rooms for parrillas. In this picture, you can see the large brick grill in the back.

They even eat meat with fruit... (a very common dish in Argentina)!

Naked women are everywhere. The kiosks on the sidewalks are filled with play-boy like magazines.

Velez or Central ????

Argentines are crazy about soccer! Every Argentine chooses one of the 30+ soccer clubs and remains a passionate fan for life. Damian's team is Velez Sarsfield (Velez). Velez's club is in Buenos Aires, a 10 minute walk from where Damian's parents live. He states that it is the only team where you can bring children and women to the stadium. Other teams, such as Boca or River (the two most commonly known teams of Argentina), have fans that get out of control... setting garbage on fire, throwing urine, and using inappropriate language.

The following is a brief summary of how I chose an Argentine soccer team...

1. My first game in Argentina:

When we arrived in Argentina, it was the last weekend of games of the year. Damian and I went to see Velez vs. Rosario Central (Central). Central just happens to be the team of Damian's mother. Damian's mother is from Rosario, a large city 3 hours from Buenos Aires. It is called the Chicago of Argentina (because of the history of the mafia)!!!
Following are three photos from the game and one video. I wanted to share the video of the fans singing because they sing LOUDLY throughout the ENTIRE game (and this game had no significance)


















To the left is the opposing team (Central) setting fire to something after they scored a goal! Now remember, Rosario is 3 hours away and there were still that many people at the game.


Below is the video of the Velez fans.




Central won the game - Damian's mom was very happy about this!
At this point, I was not yet convinced of which team I preferred... Velez or Central.

2. Santa Claus
Christmas came along and Santa Claus brought me a Central soccer ball - I was leaning heavily to the Central side - Santa obviously knows best, right?


3. The 100th anniversary of Velez - the Caravan.

Velez turned 100 on January 1, 2010 and there was a parade that lasted 4 hours, extended a mile, and included over 30,000 people (and Velez has a very small fan following compared to other teams).

I included pictures from the parade. We walked for 2 miles until we ended at the stadium where we watched videos of the history of Velez and saw a fireworks show.
















I also included two videos of the fans singing along the caravan. The singing lasted for the duration of the parade - Argentines are passionate about their soccer!



At this point, I was pretty close to picking Velez - the energy and the passion of the fans had me almost sold.

4. But then we took a trip to Rosario!
Damian's aunt and two cousins still live in Rosario where his mother grew up. We rode a bus to the city one morning to visit them. His cousin Alejandro picked us up from the bus station and from that moment on, I was a solid Central fan.

You see, Alejandro has Central in his blood. He is living and breathing Central and his energy immediately convinced me that I needed to be a Central fan too.
Alejandro's father (Damian's uncle) was a famous soccer player from Argentina. He started off playing for Central and played for a number of other Argentine teams. He even played on the national team and competed against players like Pele!

Alejandro played for Central too and currently coaches a team in the lower divisions of Central.

In included pictures of Alejandro showing me the Central stadium and a view of the river with the curb painted in colors of Central.

Alejandro gave me a Central jersey and asked me to take pictures of the Central fan in Chicago at different famous Chicago sites.

In the picture of Alejandro and I: The wall behind us is decorated with pictures of Alejandro's father playing for various teams. The black and white photo behind my head is of Pele shaking his hand before a game.




















Soooo... with my Central soccer ball, jersey, and ticket stub to their last victory, I am an official Central fan.
VAMOS CENTRAL!!!!!!!!!

Geography 101: Usuhaia

The city of Ushuaia is located in the island of Tierra del Fuego in the southern tip of South America. See the orange arrow in the map.

In the native language of the yamán aborigene, Ushuaia means ush (at the bottom of) and waia (a bay). The city was founded in 1884 by some lunatic who thought it would be a good idea to build a city 620 miles north of Antartica.

With an estimated population of 60,000 inhabitants, it is the southernmost city in the world. There are other smaller towns south of Usuhaia but the technical definition of city in Argentina and Chile requires a stable population of at least 5,000 people.

Therefore, everything in Ushuaia is considered to be "at the end of the world". For example, you can find the train at the end of the world. As you may imagine, it does not run very often so you can take a nap on its tracks while waiting for it. There is also the jail at the end of the world and a replica of The Lighthouse at the End of World (which incidentally, the original was not located in Ushuaia but in an island west of the city and it inspired Jules Verne to write his famous novel) . In a nutshell, everything is advertised as "the end of the world".

The food in the city is very good and pricey -remember the end of the world thingy. One of the specialties in the island is centolla (king crab). It is one nasty looking animal but tastes really well with potatoes and onions.

We took a boat to travel along the Beagle channel where we saw penguins and sea lions.

We hiked to the top of the Cerro Martial to see the Martial glacier and to have a wonderful

view of the city and the bay from the mountain top. In the picture you can see the city behind us.

We visited beautiful lakes hidden between mountains like Lago Escondido (hidden lake, very original name) and Lago Fagnano.

There is outstanding beauty in Ushuaia and we tried to see as much as we could. We couldn't visit as many places as we wanted but we can always come back in the future. After all, it's not the end of the world...

El Cafate

Sorry for the delay in writing...we barely have enough time to sleep, let alone blog....
We have left the end of the world and arrived in Calafate where we just came back from a 7+ hour boat ride seeing impressive, massive, glorious (indescribable) glaciers and ice bergs. I would upload photos but we forgot our camera cable in Buenos Aires and even if I did upload the pictures, there are no pictures or words to describe the experience... imagine being in a boat below a MASSIVE river of ice, the color of bright blue, that is a football field high. Even though the boat is filled with 100+ people, no one is speaking. The only noice is the load, thunder like sound that is coming from the ice (it´s the noice of the ice moving). At Perito Moreno, the most famous of the glaciers in the Patagonia, a huge chunk of ice came crashing down. It looked like a monster was coming from underneath the water with a huge roar. It was spectacular (also very said because the Perito Moreno used to be growing, but is now retreating due to global warming)!!

Some other things we have been up to in the south of Argentina...
1. Glacier trekking - In the last blog, I had stated that we were off to go mountain climbing. We actually climbed a mountain and part glacier (Glacier Martial). In two days we´ll be climbing the Perito Moreno glacier as well.
2. Horseback riding overlooking the Lago Argentino (largest lake in Argentina)- On this trip, we had a real gaucho guiding us and his hunting dogs came with too. The dogs actually caught a wild hare that the guide was planning to cook for dinner! Poor hare, I had to look at the poor dead rabbit hanging for the guide´s horse the whole ride home!
3. Eating meat - Yes, I´m eating meat! I actually ordered a whole entree of meat the other night (a cut called ternero, which is a really thin cut of the cow). I have also been eating pieces of whatever meat Damian orders (except morcilla which is blood sausage - No Thank You!)

While sitting here, I fill like I´m still rocking on the boat.
Tomorrow morning we´re up early for a full day of hiking the marvelous Fitz Roy mountain.
Muchos abrazos y besos a todos!

El Fin Del Mundo

Damian and I are in the beautiful city of Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego region of Argentina)

Interesting facts about the city:
1. It´s the southern most city in the world!!
2. When we were strolling through the city last night after dinner at 11:00pm, there was still light from the sun. And, this morning, I woke up in a panic, thinking it was 9am (late for our daily excursions), when in fact it was sunny at 4am! Not much darkness!!!
3. There is some delicious seafood. We ate Centolla (King Crab) and Trucha (trout) last night for dinner - yum!

We have been on the sea, trekking in the forest, and, this afternoon, we are going up a mountain (the end of the Andes).
Will post pictures later...