Movies

I have finally figured out how to post videos to my blog, and along the way I learned how to post videos to youtube. It takes forever to upload one though, but I will try to post some. In the meantime, enjoy this one of a tango show on La Florida, Buenos Aires. I have also added some more, larger pictures down at the bottom.

La Plata, Chascomus

Saturday and Sunday I was in La Plata. On Sunday I went to church in a Romero, which was my second area. When I was here they were meeting in a rented building. Everyone in Romero was mad at the church because they had bought a nice piece of land with a very nice house on it, then they tore down the house. The assistance fell a little bit so they couldnt build a chapel. As a result, the land just sat there and weed grew up. The people were mad that the church bought the land and then let it go to waste. Well, there is now a beautiful chapel and the rented building is now a little supermarket. The ward is doing well so it was a good Sunday. I came with German to Chascomus on Monday. Today I went to Castelli where some the members still remembered who I am which was nice but surprising to me. Tomorrow I will be visiting people in Chascomus.

Suiza

Yesterday I met up with Daniela, a friend that had been an exchange student in Baker in Highschool from Switzerland. She is doing a study abroad in Buenos Aires. I don´t think we really imagined we would ever see eachother again and even less in Buenos Aires. We went to see parts of Buenos Aires together. We saw the Cemetary of Recoleta which is where Evita Peron is burried. It is a pretty big tourist site because of the ornate grave sites and because the large quantity of famous Argentines burried there. Besides Evita, there are numerous other past presidents of Argentina burried there. After the cemetary we went to the Museum of Art which had a mixture of international art but also quite a bit of Argentine art. They had a Van Gough, a few Monet´s, Manet´s, and a whole exhibit dedicated to modern Korean Art which was interesting. We finished off the day seeing the new Indiana Jones movie which was pretty good. Of course I have to recommend seeing it because quite a bit of it was filmed in Argentina at the Iguazu Waterfalls. There are some pretty good shots of the Devil´s Throat which will further convince all to visit the Falls.

Going at it Alone

As of today I am a lone traveler. Leland and Natasha are flying home from Buenos Aires today. This morning we went and did a session at the temple and then they took a bus to the airport and I took a bus back into the city. Sad to see my traveling companions go. Yesterday we went to the center of Buenos Aires to see some touristy stuff. We walked down La Florida which is a pedestrian only street that has shops on both sides. We saw a tango show that they were doing and as soon as I figure out how to link the blog to youtube I will post a video of it. We went to La Casa Rosada which is the Executive Branch of the Argentine government´s headquarters. Kind of like the White house. Across the plaza from the Casa Rosada is the San Martin Cathedral. A very ornate Cathedral which houses the coffin of San Martin, the liberator of several South American Countries. We went out to lunch at an all you can eat buffet. I had mostly asado but Natasha absolutely loved the sushi. I didn´t know that you could eat that much raw fish and not get sick. Tomorrow I am going back to La Plata and from there go with German out into the country to Chascomus.

New Fotos

I finally downloaded a bunch of pictures. Enjoy them because it took a long time to download each photo. I have been recieving a couple of comments on my blog which will serve as an indication as to who gets souvenirs from South America. Just a reminder. Today I am off to Capital Buenos Aires to look around and get Leland and Natasha from the bus station. They are going home on Thursday so we only have a couple of days to see everything in Buenos Aires.

Like Santa Clause

First of all I would like everyone to know that I have linked my blog to Google Analytics. I therefore know the number of people that are visting my blog and where they are visiting from. It doesn´t tell me who you are but sometimes I can figure it out. Therefore, I can use this as a measurment to see who will receive gifts from South America. Be ware. If you want to make sure to get a gift, you have to leave comments on my blog. The last couple of days I have been visiting people from my areas in Buenos Aires. Yesterday I went to church with a family that I had baptized which was awesome, except it was the first time in a while that they had gone. Still awesome to be there with them. I have to say something about the hospitality here. I have lunch and dinner all lined up for months to come. I could stay here forever and I think people would fight to give me food. Absolutely amazing. Last Friday night I went to a place (I guess it would be a type of a bar) were people dance folklore. There was a live band and performers dancing. It was really cool. I didn´t take my camara so no pictures, but I might go back. We stayed til 4 30 in the morning which I´m not used to, but it was a lot of fun.

La Gran Buenos Aires

I have finally returned to the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires. It has been great to return. After leaving La Colonia, we went to Montevideo. While in route to Montevideo we still had no idea where we would be spending the night. We arrived in Montevideo around 8 pm at the bus station. Luckily, we had a lead of where we could stay. Natasha´s grandma grew up with who is now the mission president of the Montevideo, Uruguay mission. Natasha has never met him before though. However, her grandma had given her his number before we came on the trip. So we told Natasha to call him up and tell him about how we were stranded in the rain without anyplace to stay. She called him up and told him how her grandma had told her that we should go by to say hi, and with a little bit of handy work she got us invited to stay the night. What a great family. We stayed up late talking to President Ashby and his wife about the mission and about our trip. We slept in very confortable beds for the first time since leaving Chile and he had breakfast ready for us when we woke up the next morning. We also got banana creme pie that a senior missionary couple had made. For a day I didn´t feel like the backpacker that I was trying to be. He helped us check into the temple hostal, even paid for us (10 bucks for the 3 of us), and we went off to tour the old City part of Montevideo. Montevideo was alot like a miniture Buenos Aires, alot of the same architecture but a lot smaller. The central cathedral was pretty impressive. It was very ornate and very well kept. We walked down the peatonal which is a streat closed to vehicles with shops on both sides. It goes right by the central square and cathedral. The peatonal is one of the things I like best about Latin America. The peatonal is about 10 blocks long and cuts just short of leading out to the fishermans wharf. We walked out to the end of the breaker which was a couple hundred yards long. We watched people fish for a while, which is much more interesting than actually fishing. After wandering around the rest of the center we headed back to the temple, accidently taking the wrong bus which resulted in a mile walk and a taxi ride. We went to a temple session where Leland and I were the only men. It was pretty empty. Then we went to bed and enjoyed a nice night in the temple hostal. The next morning I seperated with Leland and Natasha. They are going norht in Uruguay and I came down to Buenos Aires. I took a fairy across the river to Buenos Aires. It turned out to be an all day trip before I finally got to the house of the Alfonso Family where I will be staying for a few days. Today I went around and visited people. It was great to see some of the people from my mission. I now have a place to eat for the next week as everyone I visited invited me to eat at their house. Great hospitality.

Cataratas, Uruguay

It has been a while since posting. So to bring everyone up to date. We are now in La Colonia, Uruguay. It is a really pretty, old city. Originally it was a fort, bastion, or something of the sorts to keep people from invading the Rio de La Plata region. Originally it was in Spanish hands but I think it also was in Portuguese hands for a while. There are still parts of the old fort which we are going to tour this afternoon. We came into Uruguay last Saturday and spent all sunday a little bit outside of the city of La Colonia in a place where Leland had served. We stayed with a family that he knew and they were very nice to us. They now live in Montevideo and were just visiting for the weekend but let us stay in their house the second night by ourselves even though they had to return to Montevideo. Last week we went to the waterfalls at Iguazu. A place that should definately be on everyone´s bucket list. Probably one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Especially since the Argentines have built a walk way that litterally goes and overlooks the falls. It is built on a little island that has waterfalls falling hundreds of feet on both sides. I am going to try to upload some photos but it will probably be later on in the week. The bus rides to and from the waterfalls were long but they were overnight so we didn´t have to get a place to stay. However, we weren´t able to shower for a little while, not so convenient in that regard. Later today we are off to Montevideo then I will part ways with Leland and Natasha while they go northward to Tacuarambo and I´ll cross the river to Buenos Aires.

First Day in Argentina

Today was our first full day in Argentina. Yesterday we left Santiago around noon on a bus headed toward Mendoza, Argentina. Crossing the Andies was amazing. Hard to imagine without seeing the photo, which I will upload later, but at one point we went up 34 switchbacks to get to the top. It was crazy. There really isn´t much of a mountain pass, just a place where the mountains are a little less tall. The road just goes up and over. For those Eastern Oregonites out there, it puts Cabage Hill to shame. We got into Mendoza around 7 at night and our bus left at 10 which left us little time to look around the city. We went down town for a while and looked around the central plaza, got some empanadas, changed some money and got on the bus headed for Cordoba. The trip from Mendoza to Cordoba lasted all night and we got into Cordoba at 8 this morning. Sleeping on the bus saves us the hassle and money of finding a place to stay. Today we looked around Cordoba. We looked at some pretty cool churches that are among the oldest in the hemisphere. We also looked around alot of the shops around and rested a while in the central plaza. We decided to take it easy so we went to a movie, Iron Man. Tomorrow we are leaving Cordoba around noon for the Waterfalls of Iguazu. It is a 22 hour bus ride so we will once again get our transportation and hotel at the same place.

Last Day in Chile

Today was my last full day in Santiago. Tomorrow we will be moving on to Cordoba, Argentina. Yesterday I went to see another friend and I stayed in his house last night. We had an asado which was very good. The asado has two parts, first come the choripanes which is a sausage which is followed by the full course of meat, potatoe salad, tomatoes, and salad. I got so full on choripanes that I almost couldnt eat any of the main course. I was very full. Today I went to church with him then we went to San Cristobal which is a hill in the middle of Santiago that gives an excellent view of the whole city. On top of the hill is a huge statue of the Virgin. All in all, I have loved Chile.

Vina, Cartagena, Santiago

It has been a fun couple of days here in Chile. We went to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso which are two coastal towns right next to each other about an hour from Santiago. In the summer time the beaches are full of people and Vina hosts one of the biggest music festivals in the world. However, now in the fall it is a little more abandoned. Even though abandoned, it is still beautiful. Hopefully I will be able to put up some photos later. We were going to travel further north to La Serena but my traveling companions wanted to see some other friends in Santiago and then travel further south to visit a friend. So... we returned to Santiago and my companions went south to Talca. Last night we had an asado with some friends from daniel´s ward who are getting sealed in the temple. Today we are going to the temple and then I will be going to stay with another friend from my mission.

Yesterday we had a little scare when someone told us that the Cordillera was closed due to snow and that it wouldn´t be open until September. If that were true it would mean we would have to travel about 8 hours south to cross the Andes were they are quite so tall. That would take a lot of time and complicate our trip quite a bit. We called the bus company and they told us that the cordillera still isn´t closed so we are in luck.