couchsurfing | Infused exposures

Nov 9

Discovering Jupiter and our inner gaucho in Cordoba

Did you know you all have an inner gaucho? Well you do and I recently discovered mine. In case you don't know, gauchos are the South American version of the North American cowboy. Riding over the pampas on their horse with no name, the nomadic gauchos lived their lives by hunting cattle. Much like the cowboys, guachos were thought to be the honest, strong, silent types, but proud and capable of violence when necessary. Gauchos often carried a faćon (ginormous, sharp knife) tucked into their pockets and they often used only their faćon for eating. They ate, almost exclusively, meat. Even though I am a former vegetarian, I long to be a gaucho. Waving around my faćon, eating my beef and laying in the sun. I finally had the chance.

Oct 25

Welcome to Montevideo; how I fell in love with Uruguay part one

The taxi came for us around 9 pm to take us to Retiro. Retiro is the main bus terminal in BA, quite the unsavory place to be at night but this time we were smart not to take mass transit and instead the taxi driver dropped us off right in front of the bus terminal. It was pouring. We (gratefully) carried a lighter load and were off to Uruguay. We left many of our heavier and very annoying- to -carry Antarctica clothes with one of the couchsurfers we stayed with. Yes, it is already annoying to carry all these winter clothes!!

Traveling light was a blessing. We boarded an overnight bus that would take us over the border of Uruguay at around 2 am and we would arrive in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, at 8 am. Sleep came pretty easy, surprisingly, even though we had to wake up for the border crossing (a simple process). Bus travel in Argentina is pretty luxurious and cheap. You get a tray of food when you arrive. Just some sandwiches and cookies but it's all pretty tasty. Then there are the seats. We slept through the bus ride on our cama seats. Cama seats mean that the seats recline back pretty far (almost flat) and they are very wide, oversized seats. They feel like they are made out of some thick memory foam, so comfy! With a smooth ride, the gentle rocking lulls you right to sleep. Greyhound needs to take some lessons!!

Oct 25

A week in Buenos Aires; making new friends and painfully learning Spanish

After our relaxing stint in Tigre and our arrival to Buenos Aires, we had a full week ahead of us trying to learn Spanish. The week was really crazy, waking up every morning at around 7 am, taking classes at a formal school from 9 am til 1 pm and then usually a 2 hour lunch break followed by more Spanish lessons with a private tutor. These would go on for usually 3 hours total (not including travel time). Sometimes we met with the tutor at night instead of the day. We also couchsurfed three different times, which caused us to pack up our bags and move to different neighborhoods. Suffice to say, it was a busy week but I really enjoyed it all. It felt like a real life had already begun for us. We had new friends, classes to attend and places to go all the time. I really felt like this was a new life for me.

Oct 24

Dulce de leche, empanadas, milanesas and more meat! An introduction to the foods of Argentina

I am so behind in writing my posts! We had some technical difficulties with connections and honestly, we spent a lot of time just relaxing. As I write this, we are still in Uruguay but will be leaving tomorrow to head back to Buenos Aires for two more days. We spent an amazing time here and I really fell in love with this country. But more on that later, for now I want to tell you all about some of the foods I tried in Buenos Aires before too much more time passes!

Oct 19

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Buenos Aires…how to look like a gringo and get yourself into trouble

Whew! What a week! After a tranquil weekend in Tigre, Buenos Aires was a whirwind! Actually it was completely ca-ray-zee! Sometimes in a good way but other times it was just too much.

We took the train from Tigre to Beunos Aires (BA) on Saturday (sigh..almost 2 weeks ago....I am really behind on blog writing-hoping to catch up while I am here relaxing in Uruguay). We had made arrangements for the entire week at various couchsurfer's homes. Except the first night, we decided to just stay in a hostel. We also signed up for Spanish classes (4 hours a day) at a school in downtown BA, Expanish. And if that wasn't enough, we arranged to meet with a tutor for 2 hours every day as well. All of this in a brand new city where we didn't know where anything was and had to learn our way around. I get tired just typing it!

Feb 22

Planning the trip: Top 5 ways to stretch your travel budget

It's about time I wrote something useful. Not that the last post wasn't useful in some way, but I think it was more useful to Laurent & I than to all of you readers out there!

Thanks to all of you who are reading and who voted in our poll. I still don't have a decision on the sailboat and I'm still occasionally watching youtube videos of the Drake. I've curbed the habit a bit though. I think I'm down to about 2 a day. Is there a Drake's Anonymous anyone knows about? I think I have until April to decide about the sailboat. Until then, stay tuned.

Nov 9

Beginnings: the big bang

Stories always start with a beginning and move through to the ending. But often (if not always) the story starts somewhere else. Stories come with many different origins. And so it's true with this story. This is the beginning of the story that this blog will tell. This story starts here with these words in the present moment as it's emerging and unfolding each day. But the real beginning started sometime else.