At first I wasn’t sure if I should go. The plane ticket was expensive, I would miss
out on two weeks of my exchange in Portoviejo, and my idea of traveling and my
host parents’ are quite different. But,
in the end I went for it and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of
my exchange. It was a completely different side of South America. We stayed the majority of the 2 weeks in
Buenos Aires, which was a mix of Europe and the states, but with the
unmistakable hint of South America. I
have always had this strange obsession with big cities. Every time I go into New York, Boston, Phili,
or DC I decide that I’ll have to live there at some point in my life. There’s art, businessmen, women with dreads
down to their butts, traditional native music, American pop—everything. That’s my idea of living. Buenos Aires was the same and even more
because of the mixture of cultures and continents that made up the city itself. I got to visit Jo, which was not only
incredible because I got to see her but also because I got to spend some time
with her family and see how people live down there. The culture is much more open-minded. Time is
also much more relaxed, and everything is pushed later—whether it be dinner or
what time to arrive at a party. It’s not
a big deal to go to bed around 2:30 and sleep in until 11. Jo’s host mom had to get up early—around 7
or something like that—to do some work or go to an appointment. She came home around 11, said she was tired,
and took a nap. Being a seasoned napper
myself, I was super impressed. After
lunch, they sit outside around the table and chat for hours, or lie down in the
hammocks and relax. I really loved it
(if you can’t tell yet).
Jo, embracing her inner American, had done planning. We had a list of things to get through before
I was allowed to return to Ecuador. We
had to go to hippie fairs, drink mate in the plaza, eat the famous chorripan,
have a true, Argentine family dinner, visit the Catedral, go to the best ice cream
store in the world with something like 150 flavors, etc. etc. Thanks to her and her family, I really ended
up having an incredible time and getting (at least a little part) the Argentine
experience.
One of my favorite
customs in Argentina was mate (mah-tay).
It was originally a type of ceremony, but now it’s more of a social
activity. It’s a traditional tea that you drink with a metal seive-straw
(bombilla), a gourd (the mate), and the lose tea leaves (yerba). Preparing it isn’t really complicated but
there are a few tricks and traditions.
You pour the yerba into the gourd, tilt it to the side, and then put the
bombilla in the upper side. Then, you
tilt the gourd back upright, and pour hot water (it can also be made with juice
or cold water, but usually hot water) in right where the bombilla is. You don’t move the bombilla (learned the hard
way) or else it fills with yerba and you get a mouthful of the tea leaves. The
person who prepares the mate drinks first, and then it’s passed around. The server pours for each person (you can
pour straight from the kettle, or we took a thermos of hot water to the plaza
and shared a mate there), and after the person finishes drinking, they pass it
back to the server. If you say thank you
after drinking, it means you don’t want any more.
The mate is a tradition native to Argentina, but a lot of the
food came from France and Italy because of the huge European population. We can
just say that I was in heaven most of the time.
At 7am, there were chorripans on the street (a huge, spicy
sausage in a hotdog bun that’s eaten with chimichurri sauce) for the early
risers and the sweaty, drunk partiers that are come trickling out of the
discotec. Later on, you can grab a mate in
the plaza, and then head to get a plate of your favorite pasta—raviolis, lasagna,
spaghetti with pesto sauce. OR you can
indulge in some of the best pizza in the world.
We discovered El Cuartito, arguably the best pizza in Buenos Aires. They had this pizza called fugazzetta, which
had a layer of cream cheese, mozzarella and then pounds of sliced onions on
top. And of course, you have to eat your
steak while your in Argentina. There’s
no avoiding the Argentina parrilla (grill/bbq) which is said to be some of the
best in the world.
One of my favorite things to do there was just walk around the
streets. The architecture was pretty
European, but there were so many interesting, different parts. We hit up all the different parts—Recolleta,
Caballito, La Boca, etc. The last day, I went with my host mom to do
“shopping”—purchasing clothing to later sell in their store in Ecuador. I’m not sure what the area was called, but
there were people from all over South and Central America, and it definitely
contrasted the ritzy, touristy areas that we had been to before. People went up
and down the street with huge suitcases filled with clothes, bargaining and
buying in bulk. There were vendors on
the streets and up against the buildings, taking every chance they could get to
sell you something.
Walking around at night was incredible (and sort of novel
because it’s not really safe to walk around Portoviejo even during the day) and
there were tons of cafés where you can sit down and grab a hot chocolate or
cappuccino, listen to music, and watch the street performers. We didn’t get to see much of the night life
because it picks up around 2 or 3 and goes on until the early morning, but we
had a nice, relaxing time checking out the glowing monuments and little
boutique stores.
We took a two-day side-trip into Uruguay to see Punta del Este,
which is a resort beach town.
Unfortunately, we ended up traveling about 2 hours by boat and 7 hours
by bus each way, and our few hours that we did have in the town were a little
disappointing. It was cold—no one could
swim, not sunny, and the only thing to do was eat over-priced food or go to
fancy brand name clothing stores. What I
really enjoyed about the trip was the bus trip.
It was different from Buenos Aires—tons of farms and much less
glamorous—but one of the most beautiful landscapes and sunsets that I’ve ever
seen.
We traveled with another family who had a 3 year old along
with them, so we ended up going to a zoo and an amusement park along with the
usual tourist sights. We also visited
this place called Tierra Santa. It’s
hard to explain, but it’s basically a kind of theme park (but not one with
rides and games) with a religious theme.
There was food, puppet shows (with huge mechanical puppets that would
repeat one movement over and over), reenactments, huge cement replicas of biblical
people and animals, etc. There were cement buildings where one or two stories
of the Bible would be replicated in some way—pictures, script, or more puppets.
Putting myself in a Christian person’s shoes (I’m not Christian myself) I think
I would have been somewhat offended. It
was poorly constructed, poorly organized, overpriced, and just altogether
strange. Even my host family was making jokes and taking obnoxious pictures
with huge cement sheep and donkeys or posing with their arm around the biblical
characters. The big attraction was this
giant cement and fiberboard mountain in the center of everything that you
climbed up to see more biblical figures and get a view of the entire park. I saw some incredible churches in Buenos
Aires and some beautiful religious art in the museum. I think those are incredible ways to honor
religion and faith. But, Tierra Santa did
not give me the same feeling.
I need to wrap this up—sorry about the length to anyone’s
actually read this far down. SO: nothing turned out quite how I had planned,
but it was a fantastic vacation anyway.
I got homesick and sick sick a couple days, I got to go to one art
museum for about two hours, and I would have liked to eat pizza about 7 more
times, but I shared the experience with my host family and we balanced the
activities accordingly. The culture was
amazing, and I really, really want to learn more about it. I’ve already searched airfare from the states
to Buenos Aires and study abroad options at Wellesley because I am determined
to get back sometime soon. Time to get
job searching…
