Iguazú: The final chapter

The Devil's Throat, Iguazu

Sorry, this took so long but here it is. *********************************


I visited Iguazu for three nights and I'm so glad I made the trip.  Iguazu is known for its magnificent waterfalls, considered one of the natural wonders of the world, which attracts tourists from all over the world. Although I initally travelled on my own from BA to Iguazu, I met two great people at my hostel who were also travelling alone. One girl was from Australia, and another girl from Columbia. We all decided to visit the falls together and spent the entire day at the national park admiring everything the park had to offer from the exotic insects and animals to the devil's throat (the biggest waterful).  I hated the insects but the australian and columbian loved them. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of these exotic creatures as I hate insects. But seeing the Falls was definately an amazing experience. I was also very lucky to have met the Australian (named Katie) and the Columbian girl (named Yoli) as many people at the hostel travelled in groups or with friends.

I met Katie first at the hostel, shortly after I had arrived. Yoli arrived a little later. Having Yoli around made life a lot easier when it came to navigating our way around Iguazu and the National Park. Although, by then I knew enough spanish to get by and make requests, I was still terrible when it came to asking for directions in spanish. Katie knew even less spanish than I did, despite the fact that she had been travelling around South America prior to coming to Argentina.  She had taken spanish lessons in the past but because she wasn't practicing/using it she said she had forgotten most of it.  I, on the other hand had to sit through three months of intense group classes every day, so I had to know some spanish by then, right? 
**Some of words of advice to anyone thinking of taking intense group classes in another country, if the classes are every day only do about two months maximum. Any more than that and you may burn out**
Three months of spanish was definately the limit for me and by the third month my brain didn't want to take any more in.

Anyway, though Yoli was columbian, and spanish was her mother tongue, speaking and understanding english was not so easy for her. She would always keep telling me and Katie to talk more slowly so she could understand and I could immediately relate to what she was going through. When she couldn't understand what I saying, I would try to say it in spanish instead. Sometimes it worked, and other times it didn't. But what really amazed me was that Yoli had not used english for 10 years. She only knew what she remembered from high school but the fact that she hadn't practiced in ten years until now was really impressive.  But then, for spanish people learning english, it's a lot easier for them to pick up because there are not as many verb conjugations than there are in spanish so even though they only know a little english, its enough to get by and be understood. An english-speaking person learning spanish is much harder and even the spanish know this. Many of my language exchange partners I practiced with, said that english is not too difficult for them to learn but for us (those who speak only english) it will be more challenging because the spanish language contains many more tenses and verb conjugations than is present in english.

Iguazu

The National Park of Iguazu has all sorts of activities from boat tours to jungle safaris.  I was actually considering doing one of the safari tours until I saw the amount of insects and what not, in that park. No thanks!lol. These insects were not even small, they were huge. The butterflies were the prettiest and biggest I've ever seen. You can find them everywhere in the park and they land on you. So if you love butterflies or nature in general this is definately the place to be.  Even though Iguazu is generally warm/hot all year round, you have to go in the right season to get all the tropical insects, so around December time is perfect for that. In September, however it's slightly different as a friend from my spanish school had said that when she went to Iguazu, there weren't as many insects or butterflies. The weather is also slightly cooler during then as well.

Marcopolo Inn hostel, Iguazu

After spending most of the day in the park, we had dinner at a Parilla restaurant near the hostel. Katie and Yoli wanted meat and if you come to Argentina, they are famous for their steaks. They are indeed, the best I have eaten. Katie ordered a steak and Yoli ordered the stuffed Canneloni. I decided to go for something a little different and try a Burrito/Taco - it was crap! There was hardly anything on my plate and I was still hungry so Yoli gave me her fries. Next time I'm getting a steak, I made a mental note to myself.
The next day, Yoli and Katie left the hostel, leaving me at the hostel for that final evening. I forgot to mention that during the day at the park, I had gotten blisters on both of my feet because of my wretched flip-flops.
The next day, it was painful to walk so I knew I wasn't going anywhere and spent that whole day at the hostel with Katie and Yoli until they left. The blisters were horrible and I've never been in such pain from just a blister before. I could barely sleep because of the pain, and it took a whole week for the blister to close.

Now, I have a long story to tell regarding my bus journey back to Buenos Aires, although I'll probably cut it short anyway.  The bus service I had taken to Iguazu was a higher-class standard 'Cama' service which gives you more leg room and space and the food that is served is generally of a higher quality. On returning to Buenos Aires, the only available buses back at the time I wanted were 'Semi-cama' which is one class down from 'Cama'. The Semi-cama service is similar to the National express service in England, except the one in Argentina, you are served a meal. Roughly, half way through the journey, all of us on board had to change buses but before that occurred I had begun talking with a Argentine guy sitting opposite me. I can't remember his name so we'll nickname him 'Juan'.  He didn't know any english so I had to use as much spanish as possible - which was really difficult as I was only able to manage a very basic spanish conversation. Understanding him was the hardest as he didn't always annunciate his words when he spoke so he often had to repeat himself over and over... and other times we would just give up and change topic/conversation.

Juan lived in Buenos Aires, and was returning home from a short break in North Argentina.  He seemed really friendly and I jumped at the chance to practice my spanish. However, half-way through the journey we had to change buses. I had no idea what was going on as the bus drivers only knew spanish and Juan had to explain to me what was going on.  Once everyone was off the bus, we had to wait a while before the another bus had been arranged.  When we finally boarded the new bus, Juan called to me to sit with him in a different set of seats as oppose to our original seating. So I did. Later on, as the bus began picking up more people, the seats were filling up fast and seating arrangements were beginning to confuse the new passengers. The ones already onboard were having to tell them that they changed buses and that everyone just had to sit where seats were available. Finally, when the last passengers had boarded, Juan and I had to give up our seats to two other people. I still had no idea what was going on at this point, so as I began looking for spare seats I saw Juan at the back gesturing to me to sit next to him. I had no choice, as the seats right at the back were the only ones left.

Once, I had sat down I was beginning to feel frustrated with everything. I hadn't eaten and I couldn't sleep. So I asked Juan when they were bringing the food, and he asked one of the crew members who said they would serve dinner at 8pm.  When the food had arrived, there was a stark difference between the food I'd received on the 'Cama' service and the one I was about to have.  For the entire 18 hour journey I survived on a biscuit, coffee, and a cupcake. The crew served a small hotpot afterwards which was enough to sustain you for an hour only and that was my meal.  Lesson here is: pay the extra and get better food and service (Cama service).

After talking with Juan I found out he had a daughter aged 6 after I saw a picture of her on his phone. I thought it was really sweet. Things did start to get a little uncomfortable for me when I was about to go to sleep. He kept insisting me to sleep on his chest, or kept trying to put his arms around me to which I said a firm 'NO' and let him know that I wouldn't stand that. In the end, he fell asleep and I kept my distance. I hardly slept throughout the journey because of his loud snoring. When we had arrived in BA finally, I couldn't wait to get back to where I was staying - mainly to sleep.  Juan was saying something to me but I couldn't focus on what he was saying because of how tired I was. I muttered that I was taking the subway and then we said goodbye. Phew!
I got back to my host family's place in no time and I went straight to bed.    

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Sorry, for those who have been following my posts and have been wondering where I've been.
I've had a lot going on since I returned from Argentina as well as the fact that I've been having bad luck with laptops lately. Two of them broke down on me but now I have a brand-spanking-new laptop and its a Mac which I'm very happy about. 


My adventure in Argentina ends here and I hope to continue with my travels in the future. I plan to use this blog as my travel blog, however, I encourage all of you to visit my other blog Xena's blog which is my primary blog I use for general blogging in the UK.   

On a break...

Sorry about the long delay in posts recently. I've been doing a lot of travelling, from BA to Iguazu and then back to BA. It was 18 hours each way by bus which was horrible not to mention the trip back from Iguazu which I'll talk about in my next post.

Anyway, I now have the flu and so will be taking time out to recover. I will be posting about my trip in Iguazu and my last two days in BA very soon.

 

Latin men & mi última semana (my last week)

Calle 9 de Julio

Its my final week in the city, so I've been revisiting all my favourite places in BA and taking as many photos as possible which I have to admit has been quite difficult due to the bad weather. For the past week and half, its been really cloudy, rainy and very humid - horrible!  But I picked a great day to do my second tour of Buenos Aires.

25 de Mayo - Argentina's Independence

A house on top of a building - this one was really impressive

Anyway, the topic of latin guys/boyfriends got me really thinking after my final spanish class when one of my classmates (a girl) had said that she preferred to date men from other countries - Latin America in particular - than to date british guys because they're more romantic, passionate and expressive. And this wasn't the first time I heard a girl say this. My good friend H who I met here also said something along these lines however in comparison to men from the US. There was also another occasion where we happened to meet a woman (called D) from the States who had just recently moved to Buenos Aires to live permanantly. She adored latin culture and explained why she preferred it over living in the US. Again, we all got onto the topic of Argentine men or Latin men in general and just how the culture adores women and celebrates women whereas with US culture and UK culture as well, women are not treated with this same affection.  D said she believed that there's a general hatred for women in the States and also remarked how she felt that women's femininity had been taken from them as a result of extreme feminism.  Furthermore, male chivalry can be seen as sexist to some women or just simply not expected because it's not commonplace (also discussed this in a previous post).

I always find these kind of cultural differences really interesting.

Language Exchange

A friend of mine that I met whilst in Buenos Aires and I, have been partaking in language exchanges for the past month now and meeting porteños has never been easier. I have met six porteños so far via language exchanges and they have all been so interesting.
Most of my language exchange partners were in their mid-late 20s, however two out of the six were in their early 30s and its strange but the two that were in their 30s were the ones I enjoyed conversing with the most (in both english and spanish).  In the beginning, I only wanted to have language exchanges with those of a similar age to myself as I thought we would have more in common and therefore more to talk about. But it actually turned out to be the opposite.

The first guy I met called Alan was in his mid 30s and was a businessman who had to travel wherever his work took him. He's visited so many countries, its amazing. We had our exchange in a cafe and he paid for my coffee which was really sweet. What I liked so much about him was that he was so patient with me whenever I would speak spanish (because I'm still at a really basic level).  He spoke slowly enough for me to understand which was great and seemed much more cheerful than many of my other language partners.
Unfortunately, because Alan is frequently travelling, we couldn't arrange regular meetings so we only met just that once.

The next guy is my favourite up till now. His name is Alejandro (also in his 30s). He works as a lawyer, and has been working as a lawyer for the past six years, I believe. His english is not as good as many of my other language partners but this makes it so much better as it forces me to use more spanish where possible. (Most of my language partners had a decent command of english that sometimes we would end up speaking in english most of the time.)
I ended up getting lost on my way to meet him and was an hour late. He came and found me in the end and we went to a bar for drinks (non-alcoholic). And ice-cream afterwards which he paid for which was really sweet again. I think I just had a good connection with Alan and Alejandro whereas with the rest, I would be sitting with them wondering when the exchange was going to be over.
The fact that my english is with a British accent tends to intrigue a lot of Argentines because they're not so used to hearing this accent as much as American english.  Not only did this intrigue Alejandro, but the fact that I was also black fascinated him. He asked me if there were many black people in England to which I replied that there were, but mostly in London.
Alejandro then said it would be nice if there were more black people in Buenos Aires because they are generally very cheery people (the ones he's met) and he only knows of one black family living in Buenos Aires.  I then suggested to him that he should visit London, however he said the cost of visiting London for a month is the equivalent to half the price of a house in BA - I always forget about the conversion rates for Argentines. It works out to 6 pesos = 1 pound.  I guess I can understand now why so few travel to London unless its for work.

I also mentioned in a previous post how much I stand out in Buenos Aires, or for any black person in general. Its not unusual to get a lot of stares or cat calls on the street. It happens to me on a daily basis 'Hola Morocha', 'Hola Morena', 'Ay, Chocolita' etc. etc. The 'Chocolita' one was quite funny actually.

In spanish, they use a lot of diminutive terms in many cases to express endearment. For example, by just adding -ito(masc.)/ -ita(fem) gives the word a slightly different expression. Another example is the famous icon Eva Perón but who is frequently referred to as 'Evita'.

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I went to see Luna Nueva (New Moon) at the cinema here as I loved the first film so much.  As expected, there were hoards of young teenage girls going to see New Moon because its really popular here too. I thought the movie was good, maybe not as good as first because there was more action in the first movie.
I personally think Jacob is way hotter and better-looking than Edward but everyone always seems to go ga-ga over Edward whenever he's on the screen it would get really annoying. I was watching it with my friend H (who I've been hanging with the most here) and we both agreed on this.  Jacob is more built and very toned in New Moon because he plays the werewolf. If it were me, I would have chosen Jacob.

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My host dad and I are on good terms again. During dinner, he apologised for his impatience as he explained that he was going through a difficult time (family issues).  I was told about the family issue early on so I completely understood. Because of this occurence, he said he is usually very impatient with everything and everyone including his daughters.  And at dinner, he got a phone call from his son-in-law who was very worried about him because of an argument he had with his daughter earlier. The conversation was in english because his son-in-law is canadian and doesn't speak very good spanish.  My host dad was explaining how worried he was about his daughter and how difficult it is for him to handle. Basically, one of his daughters is pregnant but they fear that the baby may not survive and so its been really tough for the whole family. My host dad was literally in tears to his son-in-law.  I'm hoping everything turns out alright for them as I'm not entirely sure how severe the situation is, only that my host dad seems the most stressed out by it.

One more time and I swear I will crack...

Today, I'm not in my best mood. In fact, I'm fuming right now.

I am really beginning to dislike my host dad.  Not only is he rude but he's sexist at the same time.

Last night when I was having dinner, he made a comment to me about the maid saying that "she moves too slow". He had asked her to prepare something for him and he was being impatient about it.  After he made that comment, it reminded me of a couple weeks ago when I first arrived and I could have sworn I heard him click his fingers at the maid to either get her attention or to hurry her up. This doesn't happen very often, but after last night I really think he has no patience with anyone or anything.

This morning, however, really got me fuming to a point I don't think I can stand my host dad much longer.
I had taken a shower as usual and as soon as I had finished dressing, he knocked on the door while calling my name in a stern voice which I recognise to be when I've probably done something wrong. So I opened the door preparing myself for whatever s*** I'd done wrong (again). He took me upstairs and informed me that I had left the bathroom wet after I had finished. I thought he was saying I had flooded the bathroom again but then he showed me what he meant; the floor was wet from after I had stepped out of the shower. He told me I had to clean the bathroom every time I used it which was fine. So I asked him where I could find the mop to clean it with. He motioned towards the kitchen saying "its over there" without being specific so I went into the kitchen expecting to find it easily somewhere but it was nowhere to be found so I asked him again if he could show me.  After calling for him about three times, he finally dragged himself from whatever he was doing.

"Whereabouts is the mop? Because I can't find it," I was saying.
"It's there... in the kitchen," he was saying impatiently. "Look for it, its there," he kept saying.
So I went back into the kitchen and started looking in the tall white cupboards to see if they kept them there and then looked in the maid's laundry room where I saw the brooms and then the 'mop-scraper' thing (Its a like a rake that you attach a cloth to).  So I took it and asked which cloth to use as there were many lying about the laundry room and none looked very clean.
"...and the cloth, you need the cloth to wipe the bathroom," he was saying as if I was refusing to do it.
"Did my wife not tell you how to use it. Is this the first time its happened?" He was asking in his very impatient voice.
"No. I have used it but I was not told where its kept." I said, whilst remaining composed. My host mum usually leaves it near the bathroom in the mornings for me to use and then puts it away.
"You have to do it. I do it every mornings," he began lecturing yet again as if I didn't hear him the first time, "Its been you all this time that's been leaving the bathroom all wet. You have to get the mop and use it, its right there. It's no mystery..."
Of course, the conversation went along these lines, I can't recall word-for-word but it was the way he asked me to do it like he was giving me orders rather than asking politely, I just found him to be very rude. The whole time he never used my name, I was either 'lady' or 'woman' when I was mentioned, and it was never used in a polite way and he ended up coming across as quite sexist and demeaning. I have no idea if this was intended or not as I'm aware his english is not very good (as he keeps telling me) but I've witnessed him talk down to the maid and the way he talked to me this morning was very patronizing.  I'm not sure if he's like this with all women/girls but I'm pretty sure he doesn't talk to his wife like this. She was away when this happened as she is out of the city often for work.

Anyway, what I'm definately sure of is just how rude my host dad is. I no longer like him. If he talks to me in a rude manner again, I swear I will give him a piece of my mind.  I'm the sort of person who usually avoids arguments or confrontations because once I get going its difficult for me to stop. I've been told I'm quite stubborn and its probably true but sometimes I won't stop until I get my point across.
Let's just hope it never comes to that.

Buenos Aires & its pollution problem

I am now, into my third month in Buenos Aires and I think I've had enough. I've done everything I've wanted to do, seen the sights and now I'm ready to go back home. But not because of homesickness but because of how bad the pollution is in the city.

The pollution here is one of the first things I noticed when I arrived. But I never thought it would have such a bad effect on me. The past couple of weeks haven't been my best, and its starting to take away from my enjoyment. I've had to visit the hospital three times now (I had to go twice in one day). I thought it was just a bad cold or even flu as I was getting occasional bad headaches, I kept sneezing and with the city getting more and more humid it was even difficult to breathe. After the visit from the doctor, I found out that my asthma had returned after 10 years and that the sneezing was just allergies (hayfever). I never had any of these problems back home but it just shows how bad the environment is in Buenos Aires. For me to develop asthma again after so long is a major thing for me because I never thought I would suffer from it again having gone ten years without being on an inhaler or any medication for it.
I've lived in London almost all my life, so I come in contact with lots of air pollution on a daily basis but Buenos Aires is something else.  Whenever a bus, truck or huge vehicle passes, you'll see a huge fog of smoke left behind and with thousands of buses on the road, its everywhere and you're breathing this on a daily basis. Its disgusting.

So anyone who ever plans to stay in Buenos Aires, I recommend just two months. Its enough time to see everything there is to see. My first two months were the best but after that I've started getting bored and really need a change in location. Unfortunately, I only arranged accommodation in Buenos Aires for my entire stay and to change it now will only cost loads of money and too much effort that I've decided to just get an earlier flight back to the UK.  I really am anxious to return home at this point. Being ill in a foreign country is the worst feeling, especially when there's a language barrier.  Studying spanish is fun and interesting at times but I need a break. The whole 'language immersion' is beginning to wear me out and I'll have days where my brain will refuse to take in any more spanish up to a certain point. 

After coming here, I've realised the best way to learn and improve spanish (and maybe any language in general) is to take a beginner's class or at least get a basic understanding of the language before immersing yourself in that country. It really helps to have a solid foundation to build and improve on because when you don't, it makes life so much harder.  As I came here with no foundation or knowledge of the language, as you can imagine, I was struggling. I had to rely and depend on the friends I made in my student house where almost all of them had intermediate-level spanish. I was a little surprised at this as I thought there would be lots of people like myself who hadn't studied the language before. In some cases, there were people like this however, most had at least a GCSE or high school knowledge of spanish. I, on the other hand, never had the opportunity to learn spanish while I was in school so I literally had no foundation whatsoever.

My plan (for when I return to the UK) is to continue learning spanish and build a stronger knowledge and confidence in speaking because I definately want to keep travelling. Only next time, I'll be more prepared.

Homesickness & the not so good things about BA

Colonia, Uruguay

(before it started raining)

Today, I'm having one of those homesick days and its horrible. I'm feeling more and more isolated as the days go by. Even though I meet so many new people (every week), its difficult to form lasting bonds with anyone. You could meet someone great one day, and in the next two weeks they're leaving to go travelling elsewhere.
So far, there is only one girl who I've met who I've really enjoyed visiting loads of places with. We both study at the same spanish school however, she has only four weeks left in Buenos Aires. 

I only managed to take three pictures while in Colonia because it rained most of the day. Rather disappointing but it was still a fun trip nonetheless. To save on expenses, my friend and I took the slow ferry to Colonia which is three hours there and three hours back making a total of six hours altogether. When I think about it now, we probably spent more time on the ferry than in Colonia itself.  We did a package tour but by the time we had our tour and eaten, we only had a couple hours to explore the rest of Colonia so the day went really quickly.

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This month will be my final month of spanish classes and so I'm working my hardest this month to learn as much as I can. Spanish is proving to be more difficult than I thought with so many verb tenses to remember. I've found loads of helpful resources that explain the grammar. Even though I appreciate my spanish classes being taught in the native language, sometimes you just need a good explanation in english now and again. But today, was probably my worst day. My brain just was not functioning well in spanish. I think I was on Spanish Overload today because my brain would not take anything in nor build a simple spanish phrase without some difficulty which I had no problem with before. I think I just need a short break but its kind of impossible when you're in a spanish-speaking country.

My lessons are every morning, monday to friday and by the time I return to my homestay, I'm too exhausted to do any extra studying.
I have days where I feel like I was back at home. Today, is probably the most homesick I've felt so far. I know that when I eventually return home, I'll appreciate just being able to read the food labels in the supermarket, use the underground without getting lost, read books in english again, understand the menu in restaurants and best of all... breathe FRESH air.  Everywhere you walk in Buenos Aires, the strong stench of car fumes, smoke and dog s*** are hard to escape. A lot of the vehicles here use diesel, I've been told and a large proportion of Argentines are smokers so you come in contact with it on a regular basis. I might of mentioned in a previous post that people love dogs here and almost everyone has a dog. You will see dog walkers, walking up to ten dogs at a time along the streets. So yes, the streets are filthy and people rarely pick up after their dogs.

My meals at my homestay can be unpredictable at times and so far I've only had one meal which I can say I really enjoyed. The rest were either so-so or just plain terrible. My worst dish by far has to be the one I got served several days ago. When the maid gave it to me, I thought it was some kind of joke or that there would be some other food served with it but no, they were serious. For my main meal, I was served two fried eggs and some boiled rice...
The steaks in Argentina, however, are the best I've ever had. They're the tastiest and the most tender I've ever had in a restaurant. The steaks in Argentina is one of the things I will definately miss when I leave.

Also in Colonia

Seeing as I've visited most of the places I wanted to see in the city, I've been thinking more and more about when I should start taking trips to Mendoza and Iguazu which are in the list of must-sees in Argentina.
Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina one of the most beautiful places to visit in Argentina. Iguazu falls is meant to be one of the best experiences in Argentina, and everyone I've spoken to have said the exact same thing. So now, I really want to start planning my trips there.
My only problem is finding a good bunch of people to go with. Its actually harder than I thought it would be. My other option is to go alone and hopefully meet people along the way which I've heard does happen, however with my limited spanish I'm a little nervous about doing this. Once you venture outside of Buenos Aires, the number of locals' ability to speak english gets lower as these provinces tend to be more rural.  However, as my spanish classes officially end in a couple weeks time, I'm thinking that taking a trip to one of these provinces would be a perfect time to go. If I don't find anyone by then, I will probably just go alone.