Soy Celeste

We yet again interrupt the Ushuaia saga to update you on happenings here in Montevideo.

I have mentioned the fact that Uruguay has been trying to make the World Cup. They placed fifth in the South American group so they had to go to a play off against Costa Rica, the fourth place finisher in the North and Central American group. Uruguay won the first game in Costa Rica last Saturday. That meant they needed to at least tie on Wednesday night to make the World Cup.

The game was at 9. Around 6 we started getting ready decking ourselves out in Celeste (skyblue) many of us in Uruayan jerseys and started the face painting.

At 7:30, all but four of us met 7 of the youth from church and headed toward the stadium. We got there an hour early, but it was already almost full. Rain had been predicted for the night, but with exception of the fog rolling in the weather was pretty good. Although later I read on ESPN.com that rain was lashing down in Montevideo. We still don't understand that.

We were very excited for the game. We were up near the top of the stadium. Well after an hour of taking pictures of ourselves. It was time for the game to begin. One strange thing that happened was that during the Uruguayan National Anthem, the Costa Ricans took the field. Admittedly, it was going on and on, but still. There is also a big controversy because apparently the version that was sung was really pepped-up.

The game was pretty tense with lots hanging on it. Dara (in the picture above) and I were cheering partners, we were both way too into the game. Dara plays on the ACU soccer team. Anyway... Uruguay came close to scoring sooo many times. On one near goal Dara and I screamed like little girls. Then we giggled for a good 5 minutes over that girly moment. (We've decided since then that that was our favorite moment of the game.) Uruguay finally did score early in the second half (at I believe the 69th minute.) The crowd went into a frenzy. But a few minutes later Costa Rica scored... which was totally lame. That left us all on the edge of our seats for the rest of the game. However, the game ended in a tie and so Uruguay is going to the World Cup.

So the celebration began. The players came around and celebrated around the field. If you look closely you can pick out some of the more famous players on the team. Lugano, the team captain, is the one without a shirt, the guy in the jersey to the right of Lugano is Forlan, better known as Rubia, who is maybe the most popular player, and number 9 is Suarez. He's to the left of Lugano.
Jaimie and Amanda celebrating with two of our Uruguayos friends, Natalia and Ema.

The walk back was fun with people celebrating in the streets. Walking down Colonia, everyone would honk at our big group of people clearly decked out for the game. We would all yell and cheer back at them.

Oh to explain the title... at the game of the songs that we could sing has the deep lyrics: "Soy Celeste. Soy Celeste. Celeste Soy Yo!" Or "I am sky blue! I am sky blue. Sky blue am I!"

In other news from this week... this weekend is free travel weekend. Six of the students went out of town. The rest of us stayed here. Friday I went to the Old City and visited Mercado del Puerto for the first time this semester. I was going to go to a ferria today... but it rained, so that kind of ruins outdoor plans. I did get work *gasp* done today. I cleaned my apartment and started working on things for next semester. I know craziness. But since I'm not getting home until a week before school starts next semester, I have to get some stuff done while I here. Its a rough life.

Ushuaia Museum Day

So back to the story of our trip to Ushuaia...

On Tuesday, the weather was supposed to be not so great so we decided to stay in town and visit the museums. We went to the Museo del Fin del Mundo (The End of the World Museum), the Yamana (native) Museum, and the Prison Museum.
We headed to the Museo del Fin del Mundo first, where we got an End of the World passport stamp, which was pretty exciting in and of itself. This museum mainly talked about the settling of Tierra del Fuego (the island Ushuaia is on) and Ushuaia itself. It had some fun stuff including the masthead from the Duchess of Albany which sank near Ushuaia, which sounds tragic, but it may have sunk on "accident" for insurance purposes.

We then went to visit the Yamana museum. The Yamana were the main native tribe of the area and have virtually all died out due to the whiteman's diseases. Some interesting facts about the Yamana: 1. They didn't usually wear clothing because the clothes would just get wet and so they'd be colder than before. Instead they went naked and covered themselves in sealion fat. 2. Only the women could generally swim. 3. When they got married they got a canoe/ boat and not before. 4. They were basically nomadic traveling from place to place in their boat, in which they always had a fire going. The boats leaked a lot so that they were continuously having to bail them out... but it meant there was not a big danger of the boat catching on fire. 5. They would kill cormorants in one of two ways. The first was that they would distract the bird with a fire from a torch and then club the bird over the head. The second is that they would climb down cliffs, sneak up on the bird and then break its neck. I'm sure I don't have the skills to do either of those things.

After the Yamana museum we split up to go to lunch, the Walkers wanted to go one place and the kids and I went to another. The one we went to claimed to have fast food. If by fast food you mean an hour plus for lunch... yes it was fast. Luckily we were not in a hurry. After lunch we decided to hit some souvenir shops. Our groups broke down even further into pairs: the Walkers, the girls, with Matt and I making up the third pair. We were supposed to meet at the Prison museum at 3:30.

After having a good time looking through the shops, Matt and I decide to head to the museum. We get to the driveway leading up to the museum at 3:25. Well, we had seen the Walkers in a store we left, and clearly we'd get there before the girls, so we decided to wait at the driveway. After 5 minutes, no one else has shown up. So we decide maybe there is a remote possibility that the others got there first... sure enough we get to the entrance and everyone is waiting on us. (Whoops!) Matt and I forgot that after we had seen the Walkers we had gone to another store.

Ushuaia was started as a penal colony and had a big prison that housed some of Argentina's worst offenders. The prison is now a museum that has a pretty random assortment of things. One wing is mostly about the settling of the area , artic exploration, and the history of the museum including some of the more famous prisoners. In that wing there is also stuff about prisons around the world. We skipped most of those cells. Two wings were mostly art. The fourth wing was preserved as it had been when it was actually a prison. It was pretty chilly in that wing.

Our favorite part of the museum was probably the English translations on the signs. It was barely understandable much of the time. This one is blurry but was our favorite. It says, "Some people believes that Amundson arrived first to the South Pole because he carried sled dogs instead the ponnies of Scott." Yes it would be lighter to carry sled dogs than ponnies... although I'm not sure what ponnies are. :) (By the way, I have no doubt that, this is what I sound like in Spanish.)

Matt, Amber, and Karaline were not excited to be in prison. This is in the preserved wing.

We of course had to take pictures of ourselves in jail. Karaline went first. Now you have to understand that Karaline is one of the world's nicest people. If you are reading this you probably know me and know that I am not. Well, while we were taking pictures, I realized there was a latch on the door, so I... um... well locked Karaline in. We unlocked it after 30 seconds or so after we had a good laugh. The Walkers decided that they wanted to have their pictures taken and decide to go into the same cell. Now those of you who know me well know this is not a wise decision, if I've already locked one of the nicest people in the world in a prison cell, I won't hesitate to lock 2 people in. This time however, we locked it and walked off a bit. Before we let them out, Matt made Wimon promise to quit quoting Gregor, the Latin American Philosophy teacher. (Matt is taking this class and Wimon is sitting in on it and quotes Gregor, particularly to Matt, all the time.)

It was then my turn to go into a cell. I (along with Matt and Amber) found cells that did NOT have a latch on them. :)
Every good prison museum has a cut out for tourists to pose in.

After the museum, we went to have free hot chocolate. (We had gotten a coupon for them when we went on the boat tour.) From there the Walkers and Amber went back to the hostel, her ankle was starting to get to her, and Matt, Karaline and I did a bit more shopping.

The three of us had also volunteered to go to the corner shop near our hostel to pick up empanadas for dinner. Since we only had to walk half a block we didn't particularly bundle up. Well we get to the shop and they look at us like we were crazy for thinking we could get empanadas there. Well we thought Matt (who speaks excellent Spanish) must have misunderstood where the empanada shop was, so we tried several corners in the area looking for another store. We gave up and went back to the hostel. The first store was the one they were talking about, so we still aren't clear on how there was confusion about the availability of emapadas. We gave up and got in the car to go to a place further off... which seems easy except there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the one way streets of Ushuaia. After about 15 or 20 min of driving around (all in about 10 blocks of the hostel) and much talking to the mountains and the weather and the empanada shops of Ushuaia, we finally found a place. We were quite proud of ourselves! :) I know fascinating story...

Punta del Este

Hi, I'm taking a break from telling you about the trip to Ushuaia to tell you about our day trip last weekend. Not much else,exciting has been going on... which is good. After having spend a week in constant company with people in Ushuaia, when we returned I kind of went into hiding. Classes are also hitting high gear, so the students are having to study more... poor kids...

Saturday, we got up early and piled into a bus and headed east to Punta del Este. I've often heard it described as the Hamptons for Buenos Aires. Its a resort town where the rich (and famous?) come to play in South America. I've been told it has the most expensive real estate in South America.

Our first stop was just before we got to Punta del Este at CasaPueblo. This is the house of the Uruguayan artist Carlos Páez Vilaró. He was "fighting against straight lines" in his design of the building. It is certainly interesting, and very pretty. It is at Punta Bellena which is a beautiful stop on Rio de la Plata. Part of the house is open to visitors where some of Vilaró's art is on display.

After we left CasaPueblo we headed into Punta del Este. We drove through the town. At the point of Punta del Este, the Rio de la Plata officially hits the Atlantic. We stopped at Los Dedos, the fingers in the sand, and stopped and took group pictures. (Rosalinda took them... so I don't have a copy.)

We then went to port to see if we could take a ferry over to an island near Punta del Este. Apparently the last few times the group couldn't go because it was too windy for the ferry. I was really confused about this until we saw the boat. Luckily it wasn't too windy, although it was still a pretty wavey ride.

When we got to the island, we had a picnic lunch and headed to the beach. I was originally just going to wade in the water. (It was barely warm enough to go swimming and the water was pretty cold.) Then I thought well I'm in shorts, I might as well go knee deep. Well I had on my swimsuit, so why not go at least waist deep. Well sure enough, I finally went all the way in. I had soooo much fun playing in the waves. I'm not sure the last time I played in real waves, maybe when I went to Fiji 6 1/2 years ago. 7 or 8 of the students and I had the best time.

After an hour and a half in the water we finally decided to get out and for some reason we decided to bury several members of the group. I guess we had enough of them. :)

One other important note, Saturday night/ Sunday morning, Uruguay won the first of the playoff games with Costa Rica for the World Cup. The other play off game is tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Most of the group and 7 of the youth group members are going. We are super excited!

Off-roadin' in South America

Our big plan for Monday was to go on a 4X4 Tour. Now these aren't 4-wheelers, but big 4x4 range rover type vehicles. At about 9 on Monday our driver picked us along with two other people from our hostel. We were seated one passenger in the front seat, 3 in the middle seat, and 4 sitting in the back 2 and 2 facing inward with our knees crashing together. :)

From the hostel we headed out of town and towards the mountains... well I guess you head towards the mountains from every direction in Ushuaia, but anyway... we headed out of town. We drove for about 45 min or so on the highways getting beautiful views of the mountains, although those of us in the back did have to duck down a bit to see them.


One interesting thing we saw was a ski resort where the ski lift and the ski slope went over the highway. They built a special bridge so the skiers could just keep going. Although there were lots of fences and stuff to keep people from skiing into the highway, I still think it would make me really nervous. Of course, I'm not what you would call graceful on skis.

We then stopped at Paso Girabaldi. The top of the pass over that part of the Andes. We could really tell we had increased altitude because we got out and there was snow. This pass over looks a big lake, Lago Escondido. This is also the only place that you can cross the Andes and still be in Argentina. (Every other pass that starts in Argentina goes.)

Well, after 45 min or so we turned onto a dirt road (which doesn't mean its a minor road... many, many road in Tierre del Fuego are dirt) and headed toward Lago Fagnano. Along the way our driver pointed out some of the features of the area. For example, a moss called "old man's beard" grows there. Apparently it only grows where the air is really clear. We were informed of this several times. Also the soil isn't very deep (8 inches), so the trees blow over easily, but when they do, because it is so cold there, they tend to take a long time to decay. Our driver said the trees can live to be about 500 years old (if they don't get blown over) but they take 400 years to decay. (I have no idea if that is actually true or not.)

When we reached Lago Fagnano,which is huge, we drove along side it or in it and the ride became much more exciting, esp. for those of us in the back. By this time we had caught up to the other two 4X4's in our caravan... this is when I realized we were a caravan. We drove through deep mud, and watched the driver in front of us drive his 4X4 sideways. Our driver did it too... but its actually not as impressive when you are in the vehicle.

One of the strangest moments was when we were driving on a deeply rutted path very slowly and a guy from the 4X4 in front of us got out. He came back and walked a long beside our driver talking to him. Then climbed up on the hood and rode until our driver caught up to the other vehicle. When he did, the man got off and climbed back into the other vehicle... IN THE DRIVERS SEAT!!! Yup, the ruts were so deep that he could just let the ruts steer the vehicle.


After awhile of splashing through the water and going up and over hills and through mud puddles and generally being jostled a lot, we stopped at a beautiful spot along the lake. We got out to stretch our legs, settle our stomachs, and take pictures. The drivers also told us that if we needed to go to the bathroom that this was a good time because it would be another 20 - 30 minutes until the cabin where we were eating lunch. They also told us that the forest was our bathroom. Rosalinda and Amber couldn't wait. I thought surely he was kidding and decided to wait for the cabin we were going to. Just for the record he wasn't. All the girls (and I guess guys too) got to take solitary walks in the forest. I think this is clearly a man's idea.


Anyway, we hopped back in the vehicles and drove by and through the lake some more.

After more excitement, we arrived at a strip between the big lake and another one we were excited to learn was named Bombilla (that's the straw you drink mate through). From there we got out and walked the last half mile or so while the drivers went on and started on lunch. Our group was the slowest as we stopped to take many, many, many pictures.

After taking a bajillion pictures we arrived at the cabin. The drivers had set out snacks for us while we were waiting for them to get done grilling. After the appetizers, we had choripan which is a sausage, more like a bratwurst than anything else, on bread. This was followed by steak. Many of you know that I don't generally like steak. BUT OH MY GOODNESS this was by far the best steak I've ever had. It was oh so good.

We took a few more picture of views from the cabin, then it was time to head home again.

This time, I took someone's offer of a trade and moved up to the middle seat. Of course the way home was also an exciting ride through mud and water. When we got back to the hostel, while we enjoyed the ride we were grateful to be still again. It was another great day in Ushuaia.

Getting to know Ushuaia

Ok... I'm back and am going to quit being too lazy to update you on our Free Travel Week.

We got up early on Saturday morning to catch our flight South. Our driver was supposed to pick us up at 6:30. At 6:40 Wimon called our driver, to see where he was and he said he was on his way. We were already with our stuff outside CasaACU. When our driver finally showed up, he confessed to Wimon waking him up when he called. But he was really friendly, and got us to the airport in plenty of time, although not quite as early as we had planned.

We managed to get checked in and made it through security, although Wimon did not make it through with his yerba mate. For future reference, the security in the Montevideo in theory will not let you take any foodstuffs through, not granola bars, not alfajores, not yerba... sometimes people can get stuff through, but if you want to be sure you have it, check it. We then flew to Buenos Aires where we switched planes and of course had to wait on delayed planes. Oh one funny thing that happened... all the planes we had to go up steps to get to the plane. Because Amber was on crutches, they made alternate arrangements. Because I was carrying her backpack, I got to go up with her. We got to ride in a lift truck that is what they use to load the food on and stuff.

After a long flight with a stop in some town, we finally made it to Ushuaia in El Tierro del Fuego. Ushuaia is a town surrounded by mountains which claims to be the Southern Most City in the world. Technically Port William, Chile is further South, but apparently nobody counts it. After getting our first views of Ushuaia, we picked up our rental cars and headed to our hostel. After getting checked-in, we headed to the grocery store. By this point it had started raining, which amazingly enough it was the only real rain we had all week. The Walkers had an apartment, so we gathered there for dinner every night.

Sunday was beautiful and we got our first real views of the city. Its a quaint little city and very beautiful. Our activity of the day was a boat tour of the Beagle Channel and while the weather was a bit cold, it couldn't have been more beautiful.

Our first stop was an island of cormorants. The are black and white like penguins. But don't be tricked... they fly! Cheaters!

Nearby was an island of sealions... which is Spanish is los lobos del mar (wolves of the sea... I love that name.) The big one in the center of this picture is the male. You can see his mane. We happened to be standing near one of the guides, and she says, "Get ready we are about to go down wind." We just looked at her... then all of a sudden the smell hit us. Yikes! :)

We then went past the Southern Most lighthouse. (There's a whole lot of Southern Most going on the area.)

It really was a gorgeous day. I have hundreds of mountain pictures, but this one does show how blue the water was.

We then got to go to an island of penguins. They were so fun to watch. There were three species there that day... but I must confess to remembering none of the names.

After dropping most of the passengers off at an estancia, we headed back. It was still beautiful although because we were going into the wind it was even colder. (The boat was really nice and had an indoor well heated part that we could go into when we got too cold.) We got to visit with a couple of bundled Brazilians, they were a father and son pair on vacation. The above picture is signficant in a few ways... That's Chile over there, the boat is from Chile, and the water is so blue.


After 5 fantastic hours of the boat tour we headed back into Ushuaia. This picture does a good job of showing how it is nestled between the mountains and the channel.

When we got in we were ready to eat lunch. But it turns out that all the restaurants are closed from 3 to 6 or 7. So we headed back to the hostel and ate sandwiches in the Walkers apartment. After taking long naps, we headed back into town at sunset to eat at a nice restaurant so that some of our group could king crab, which by the way was much more expensive in Ushuaia where it is readily available then in Texas... hmm.... They assured me it was good though.