9/12/2005 - Then end of another trip

Well, another Paraguayan trip has come to a close. As always, the South Americans did not disappoint me. Some final comments on the trip...

Needless to say, the cake for Amy's birthday was still good. Half was cooked properly and half was a little undercooked but still good. But as they say in Paraguay... igual.

As always, the Paraguayan piece of the trip is laid back. A good chance to unwind. In my few days, I read an entire book. Good for the soul but bad because I had nothing left to read on the plane.

El Senor had Amy and I riding la striata... his horse. I was put on a saddle and Amy behind me rode bare back. We went up to the instituto and saw kids and staff. Pretty funny to just go through the gates on horseback. Guards saw nothing unusual about it.

Amy and I went all over Itagua and Asuncion looking for shawls for Julies Bridesmaids. I swear everyone looked the same to me. We went to this place which was sort of like reading terminal market. It had fresh fruits, meats, seafood, everything. We grabbed some fresh juice for 5 mil which is less than 1 dollar. Amazing juice too. You just tell them the kind you want and they will mix any flavors you ask for.

The Guarambare family was happy to see me and even happier to feed me. Got a good look at Wilma's new place and as the tradition has become, put down a few 40's of Brahma. Good stuff.

Now back in the US and adjusting to civilization again.

Until next year...

9/6/2005 - In Paraguay... Again

How do you know you are in Paraguay?
When you are at an internet cafe that is as slow as a dial up connection?

How do you know you are in Paraguay?
When you are typing on a standard (american,english,etc) keyboard only it is set up for spanish. So shift-9 is not open parenthesis but close perenthesis. The underscore next to the 0 is really a question mark. You just have to know this stuff.

As you can tell, I am now in Paraguay. Buenos Aires finished up pretty good. My sister and I made it to Paraguay and Smarda made it back to the states. Over all, Buenos Aires was a really good time. The amount of beef consumed this past week was crazy but delicious.

A wrap up of Argentina

We got pretty dressed up for the opera on Friday night. It was a good experience but not as great as I originally hoped. It was a german opera with spanish translation on the screen. So I was not understanding any of it. One of the funny things that happened while there is that in a perfectly acoustic theater I guess the audience is also close to perfectly acoustic. So in the begining you could hear the shhhh! shhh! And the sneezes and coughs. The other unfortunate thing was that the sometimes the music overpowered the words. Which for me was no big deal since I dont understand the words anyway. Looking back I probably should have gone to the symphony or something that required no translation at all.

Saturday during the day was spent just walking the city and eating coke, drinking beer, and the such. We went to dinner at a place that we were closed out of on Monday night. The food was spectacular. The waiter suggested a malbec that cost 42 pesos. After uncorking the wine he put it in a decanter for a while and then we drank it. The cuts of beef were also really good hand picked by the owner. The best cut of meat on the menu was 25 or 30 pesos. A great place for Annmarie to vacation.

Return to Paraguay

Sunday Amy and I flew to Paraguay and Smarda to the states. Somehow, when I flew down to South America Smarda and I checked 3 suitcases and were not over the weight limit. But when Amy and I checked in the same 2 suitcases (with nothing added) and Amy's back pack(replacing smarda's suitcase) put us over the limit. The reasoning by the staff... you are going to paraguay. Then upon arrival in paraguay, amy negotiated down the price of a taxi to her house from 150,000 guarani to 130,000. And all the cab drivers knew amy and her house. So they knew a tip was coming and were willing to drop the price. In us dollars the price for a 45 minutes went from 25 dollars to 20 dollars.

For Amys birthday yesterday we made kebobs on the grill. They were amazing. I also baked a cake with instant cake mix brought from the us. Directions called for measurements and amy has nothing to measure amounts with. So we estimated. Then it called for a temperature of 350. Amy lit the oven with a match and I asked if it was about 350. She just looked at me like I had horns and said the oven is on. You are in paraguay. On or off is all you are getting.

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9/2/2005 - More to Report from B.A.

I am really getting annoyed with these computers. Not only are certain keys in different locations but the keyboard sticks like crazy. And it is smokey around here

Some random experiences and observations the past few days...

We went to a Tango show on Wednesday night. Tickets were 170 pesos ($60) per person. That price included pick up at and drop off to your hotel, 3 course meal with bottled water and bottle of wine, and the tango show. This one was a lot different than last years show. The show we went to last year was a refined theatrical broadway type performance. This one was a just opened this year show with a lot less polish. However the place was smaller so we were right in the middle of the action. I could feel the wind from their dancing and a few times thought I would get hit in the face. And as luck would have it, I was asked to tango with one of the dancers. Shame I didn't waltz over to kingsley's desk last week to get ready for this. Oh well. All and all the evening out was good.

On Thursday we went to a place north of Buenos Aires called Tigre. It is a big tourist destination with an amusement park, casino, safari boat ride, shops, restaurants, stores, jet ski and canoe rentals. So we went mid week in the middle of the winter. Couldn't have been a worse day to go. It was still interesting though. Tigre was created by sediment being dropped from the Rio de Plata. So there are hundreds or thousands of islands. The only way to get to the various islands is water taxi or water bus. There are super market boats, and hospital boats, and gas boats. Pretty interesting. The school bus is even a boat as 6000 people live in these islands full time. The bus goes to docks to pick up and drop people off and it seems that every piece of property on the main waterways have docks. So anyone can be picked up. Then there are smaller canals and streams too. It is almost like a rural venice except not nearly as nice.

The train ride home was an interesting one We got on the subway during rush hour and were jammed in like sardines. I was pinned against the door and could not move. Than some lady starts hitting this guy in the head and a fight almost breaks out. Somehow we were able to get out of the train at our stop but it took a lot of pushing. We then transferred to another subway line which was a lot less crowded. This train was almost something out of Dickens. Best part was that doors on this subway open manually. There are handles on the door. So you can open the doors while the train is in motion if you want. True safety measures in affect. If this were the case on the first subway, I think people would have been thrown out the door.

Today, Amy and I purchased 1 way tickets to Asuncion for Sunday. $105. Not bad for an international flight only 3 days away. Anyway, tonight we have the opera and that is all for the scheduled activities. Tomorrow will be a relaxing day for me. Amy is getting up early and doing a home visit for one of her students. Sunday I fly to Paraguay where I will be until Friday when I fly back.

8/31/2005 - South America Update

Well, now that Amy (my sister living in Paraguay for those who don't know) has arrived, things are going even more smoothly than before. Don't get me wrong, Smarda and I were doing fine. We successfully booked a hotel upon arriving, had no issues using cabs to get us where we wanted to go, and easily navigated the various menus when ordering food. We also took a bus tour of the city to get familiar with the sites.

Then the Paraguayan translator arrived. True to form, Amy began chatting up the cab drivers when she got here. The cabbie's tip has a direct correlation to the conversation had in the cab. We initially were heading to the Guido Palace Hotel which was our home base last year. However the cabbie informed us we were being ripped off. And he brought us to a different hotel where we could check it out and if we didn't like it, he would take us to the Guido Palace free of charge. Well, we stayed at the hotel he brought us to. The room is interesting in that it is a loft. A spiral staircase is needed to get up to the beds. We are not positive we are going to stay at this location the entire time but we might. It is only costing us 140 pesos a night or $50. The guido palace would have cost us 180 pesos or $62.

On monday night we picked a restaruant out of the frommers book and went for a 9pm dinner which is supposed to be early. We didn't have any reservations and didn't get into the joint. So we walked around the corner to a local place. It was a pretty good restaurant. Old school oven where the ambers were shoveled from the furnace to the oven. The cook adjusted the height of the grill to the flame to control the heat. When we didn't understand the cut of beef being explained, the waiter brought us over to the kitchen and showed us. The steaks were good. Not outstanding but at 8 pesos ($3), not too bad. We asked the waiter a good place for coffee and dessert in the area and they gave us directions to 2 or 3 places. And if none of them met our standards, we should come back as they finish at 2 and would be more than willing to show us some places.

Tuesday entailed an entire day of shopping. Amy and Smarda were enjoying themselves. I would have preferred to limit it a bit. For dinner on Tuesday night we picked a neighborhood to eat at and jumped in the cab. We asked the cab driver his favorite restaurant and that is where we went. I can't remember the name of the restaurant but it translated to follow the cow or something like that. It was buffet and ok. The dessert was really good. In the cab ride home, we asked the cab driver his favorite restaurant and he named the one we were just at. Now it has become a game for us. We asked the front desk person at our hotel their favorite restaurant and he named follow the cow also. And today we asked yet another cab driver and he named the same one too. Its almost comical that everyone names this place. It is good but not so great that everyone should be naming it.

Today we took a tour of the Teatro Colon. During the tour we went into the main auditorium and listened to the Buenos Aires Philharmonic rehearse. It was pretty cool. I am getting excited for the opera on friday. Along with the opera houses in Vienna, Paris, and Milan, the Colon is a perfectly acoustic opera house (i believe other places like carnegie hall are perfectly acoustic too but don't house an opera company). Something to do with the horshoe shape and the combination of hard and soft surfaces. No audio equipment is needed in such a theater. Random fact that we also learned on the tour is that to tell the difference between marble and fake marble is to feel it. Real marble is always cold.

For lunch today, we went to a chinese restaurant. Having Smarda with us was a plus in this place. There is the front of the menu which is in spanish and the back which is in chinese. Almost everything we ordered was not in the front part of the menu. It was really good too. Amy enjoyed trying the different types of food. I have had all of them in flushing, ny but it was still good. Smarda decided to chat up the owner and there is not a large chinese community in buenos aires but a decent amount of tours come through and they all stop at this place because he has authentic chinese food.

Unfortunately, there will be no soccer game this year. Although I saw games online for this week, there aren't any. Tonight we are going to a Tango show. Tomorrow we are going to a city about 1 hour outside of Buenos Aires called Tigre (assuming it doesn't rain). Friday we have the opera and Saturday there is nothing planned. On saturday, amy will be heading to some city 2 hours outside of buenos aires to do a home visit for one of the boys in the instituto. Apperently the dad isn't even aware that the boy is in the social services care.

That is all for now.

8/28/2005 - Pre Translator in B.A.

South America 2005 is under way and I am here in one piece. No entiendo is in full force. As many of you know, I am doing this journey in reverse from previous years. I am going to a civilaized city first (buenos aires) and then will continue the adventure in Paraguay where the stories are usually better. Two days in and nothing too exciting so far. Smarda used the Brookstone Pillow on the plane and has confirmed its powers of sleep. I, as usual, was not relaxed on the plane. It had to have been the worst flight attendants on this flight. All the tv´s and screens worked except for the one that my section of the plane was too watch. So I saw no movies on the 10 hour flight down.

We took it pretty easy these past two days as our translator (amy) arrives tomorrow. Basically walking around the city, dinner, and a bus tour today. In one restaurant, we walked in the door and they sat us down with an english menu. Guess it is pretty obvious. The prices around here are still cheap. 40 minute cab ride from the airport on the meter was less than 60 pesos ($20).

Hopefully it gets a little warmer down here in the next few days but no big deal. Good start and will write more when I get the chance.

Robert