Week 27: Day Trip to Colonia, Uruguay

To renew our tourist visas Emily and I took a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.  It is just across the river and has an interesting history.  It was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese.  During the 18th century the city went from Spanish rule to Portuguese rule 7 or 8 times and mainly by force.  There is an interesting mix of colonial Spanish and Portuguese homes and beautiful beaches.  Finally in 1828 Uruguay was created putting an end to the power struggles between Portugal and Spain.     

Beach just outside the city

The old city

Old Portuguese road with Portuguese homes

Light house that was built on the ruins of an old convent (or monastery...I can't remember) destroyed during one of the conflicts between S and P.

Old part of the city

Uruguayans are known for collecting antique cars...this is just one of many that we saw all over town

Inside the main and oldest church in the city

Week 26: Retiro de Voluntarios en Sierra de la Ventana

The trail head right across from our camp site

Sierra de la Ventana (Window Mountain) Can you see the window?

For our second YAGM volunteer retreat of the year we got to go camping for five days in a National Park about 9 hours south of Buenos Aires.  We all had a great time sleeping in tents, cooking our own food, roasting smores (Kate and David brought marshmallows especially for us from their time in the US), hiking, and recharging.  

The swimming area

The first full day we headed over to a dammed river that was built for a place to swim and enjoy the river.  We spent the day enjoying the sunshine and talking.

As part of our retreat we wanted to go on a 5-6 hour hike to the top of Cerro Ventana and actually get up close to the ventana.  This national park was very cautious about letting hikers go on the trails because they said when it is a cloudy and/or rainy day the trails are dangerous and it is easy to loose your way.  That trail ended up being closed all the days we were there so I was a little bummed that we could not climb to the highest point in the Buenos Aires province.  BUT despite the cloudy days we got to hike the two other trails in the area and we had a blast (and still got to climb part of the mountain).  

The first hike was really cool.  We were basically climbing up rocks the whole way until we got to a waterfall area.  The waterfall was barely falling but it was still gorgeous!

Me at the top of the first trail

Everyone taking a little break at the top of the hike :)

The next trail took us up part of the mountain and then lead us down again to a low valley with little pools.  We all had a great time talking, spending time together, and getting some exercise in the fresh air!! 

(L to R) Matt (Kate and David's son), Krystal, me, and Erin on the top point of the second hike

Me hanging out near the end of the trail with Cerro Ventana behind me

View from the top of the second trail

On our last day we headed on an excursion with a guide to two caves deep inside the national park.  It was a enjoyable time spent alone with nature.  We were the only people out there (that I saw) and we had a great guide (kinda cute too) who knew a ton about the plants, animals, and land around us.  He told us lots about some of the plants and helped us find animals; like native frogs that we probably would have missed.  

Some wildlife: 

View from the top after visiting the first cave.

Cave paintings dated around 400 AD that we visited in the second little cave...no one is really sure what the paintings mean.  They only know that they were painted by a nomadic people probably passing through the cave on a hunting trip.

View on the way back to the ranger station.  Overall the retreat was a big success!!  It was great to see everyone and catch up plus I got my nature fill!!

Week 25: Parents Visit Buenos Aires!!

Dad, Mom, and me at Wanda precious gems Mine
 

WELCOME PARENTS!! I was lucky enough to get a visit from my parents! They stayed for about 10 days and the time went by in the blink of the eye. My parents arrived on a Monday night and the next morning we went on a mini-trip to Iguazu Falls located North of Buenos Aires near the Brazilian and Paraguayan boarders.

We visited for 3 days and had a great time. We stayed in a hotel called the Aldea Lodge and we felt like we were staying in the jungle!! There were wooden boardwalks that lead to sections of rooms surrounded by jungle and each room had a specific name relating to the jungle.

Our hotel room


Mom and Dad on the balcony that lead to our room


Me hanging out in one of the many jungle areas surrounding our hotel


THE FALLS!!
 

On our first day we headed into the Iguazu National Park and went on some trails that provided spetacual views of the different parts of the falls. We first headed over to the strongest falls known as la garganta del diablo (Devil's throat). The power behind that water was amazing!! The mist was so strong that we came back almost all wet!!

Then we visited two other trails showing us the upper and lower falls! Breath taking views! In the afternoon we went on a boat tour that brought us right up to the falls and soaked us!! It was a lot of fun getting so close to the falls! Then the boat took us down river a few miles and we had a jungle jeep ride back to the visitor's center area. We didn't see any panthers but we saw a lot of huge spiders, lots of colorful butterflies, many coatis (a raccoon relative), and a toucan.

A coati


Sorry Niagara Falls...Iguazu Falls out powers you
 

The second day we took a day trip to Wanda Mines and San Ignacio ruins. We stopped at the Wanda Mine first and had a personal tour of the open air mine. It was a great tour because our guide took us all over and we even got to see a worker extracting one of the mineral gems. Our guide told us that the mine is pretty small employing only 50 works but they predict that in the coming years it will grow larger as they need more workers to dig deeper.

Mineral at the Mine
 

After the mine we drove 200 kilometers to a small town where the San Ignacio Jesuit ruins are located. San Ignacio was one of the many missions founded in 1632 by the Jesuits during the Spanish colonial period near present-day San Ignacio valley, located in the Missiones province of Argentina.

The ruins are one of the best preserved among the several build in a territory today belonging to Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and one of the most visited due to its accessibility. Lost in dense vegetation, the remains of the "Guarani baroque" (architectural style created by the fusion of the indigenous people's architectural styles and European baroque) style constructions were found in 1897, and gained the interest of the population after the 1903 expedition by poet Leopoldo Lugones, but its restoration didn't begin until 1940.

During the time of the founding of the mission the indigenous people of South America basically had two choices: join a mission or be sold as a slave by the Portuguese (I recommend watching movie "The Mission." It provides a great history the missions and shows the Falls!). So obviously many people chose to join a mission.

San Ignacio mission ruins

On our last day I went on an eco-tourism excursion that included hiking in the jungle, zip lining through the jungle, and repelling down a waterfall in...yep you guessed it...the jungle. I had a great time! My first time zip lining and repelling turned out to be successful and full of fun! Plus the people that went along on the excursion were amusing.

I could tell that I was in a different country during the hike...everyone was really loud (probably scaring away any animal nearby) and one guy was smoking. We hiked to the first point in the zip line and climbed steps 20m to the tree stand. We did a total of 800 meters broken up into 3 sections (400m, 200m, and 200m). After that we went over to the waterfall (just a beautiful place!) and repelled down 20 meters! It was very slippy but fun!!

Me repelling down the waterfall 

After our mini-trip we returned to Buenos Aires and my parents got to attend my church and see how the after church program goes. It was interesting being the translator!! Then on Sunday night we went to dinner and a tango show! The food was great (Argentine stake) and the show was full of energy!! There were many couples of dancers and they made it look so easy!!

Tango Dancers

Waiting for their ride to the airport

I hope my parents had a good time! It was great to see them and to show them my little world here. Now when I talk about people and places they have a good idea of what I am talking about! Unfortunately they did not get to go to MAMA with me because my boss had the flu but other than that I bombarded them with Argentine culture and food!! I even made them drink mate (tea-like herb that Argentine people always drink).