Wine Country

Over the last few days we have been exploring Mendoza, Argentina, a city in the west of the country, famous for its vineyards and close proximity to the Andes. It was a very untraditional place to spend the Christmas holiday since the weather has been about 90 degrees and the most common practice on Christmas eve is shooting off fireworks! Nevertheless, we made friends with some great people in our hostel and enjoyed the holiday playing cards and eating hotdogs.

Mendoza is a beautiful city with wide avenues, distinctive plazas, and a cosmopolitan atmosphere. We didn´t get to appreciate the latter until we ditched our lame hostel for a loft apartment in the best part of town. There are also a lot of adventure activities offered here. The most popular activity is definitely touring the vineyards, which we did by bicycle in a town called Maipú. It was not an easy ride, but very rewarding when we arrived at the different places and got to learn about the origins of the facilities and the whole wine making process. We spent other days touring the gigantic park and dining in fine restaurants far pricier than our backpackers´ budget should allow. Today we signed up for a white water rafting excursion in the nearby Andes mountains. Phil commandeered the raft so that none of the rapids could flip our raft! I was very glad they chose Phil to be in front since the other guys on our boat seemed a bit unaccustomed to physical activity. Anyways, take a look at some of the amazing pictures that we took over the weekend. Unfortunately, we were unable to take our camera along for the rafting since it was too EXTREME!

Mendoza photos

Back on the road again

Ever since Jen and I left Montevideo, we have been really enjoying ourselves. Now we have two and a half months to travel, and we feel as free as can be. In Buenos Aires we stayed with Tom from NJ, who is an excellent guy with a great apartment in the best neighborhood of BA. We spent our time there reexploring the city and treasuring the hip, fashionable neighborhoods. We used to compare Buenos Aires to Montevideo, but the truth is that they are nothing alike. Buenos Aires is much bigger and has much more to do. Anyway, Jen and I really connected with our host also. On Sunday, we took a bus to Rosario, which contends with Cordoba as Argentina´s second city. We spent Sunday walking along the riverfront, which was full of people enjoying themselves. There were tons of young people, and we stumbled upon a really high-quality art fair of all student artists. Later we saw a huge monument to the Argentinian flag, which was born in Rosario. We stayed with a couple of jock guys, Sacha and Zorro, who were great and funny, but we only got to spend a short time with them because they were working. On Monday, Jen and I went to a river beach called La Florida, where we spent the whole day relaxing and taking in the scene. This was a river beach, and Jen and I swam in the refreshing waters of the Paraná. We noticed that people in Rosario were exceptionally nice. After the relative rudeness of people in BA, it was refeshing to have contact with more down-to-earth people. Overall, I was really impressed with the layout and overall feel to Rosario, which struck me as a very livable city. Now, off to Mendoza.

Picture albums:

BA

Rosario

Last Days in MVD

As we get ready to take up the backpacker lifestyle anew, we look back on our 4 months in Montevideo with fondness. We made lots of friends, mastered a new dialect of Spanish, and taught many English classes at the London Institute! Teaching was an experience we will never forget, even though sometimes the planning and challenges of the job got the best of us. We developed fantastic relationships with many of our students and will not forget them. Several of our classes threw us going away parties and gave us gifts to remember them by. Overall, Montevideo worked out perfectly for our purposes. The city is one of the safest capitals in South America and we were able to earn a decent wage teaching English. Our goal was to teach for roughly 4 months, which we could do here, while throughly exploring the city and absorbing the culture since the city is of such a manageable size. Here are some pictures from my last week of work...unfortunately, there aren´t any from Phil´s classes at the moment:

Final MVD

See us dance...

Upon request from some loving family members, I have posted a video of Jen and me showing off our tango moves. For having had two months of lessons, I think you will be impressed with what we can do so far. So without further ado....

Punta del Este

Last weekend Jen and I took a two day trip to Punta del Este with our friend Laura. Punta del Este is a glitzy beach resort which is known as the Hamptons of South America. Each January this town fills with wealthy people from Argentina, Brazil, and all over the world. Lucky for Jen and me, our friend Lau´s family has a condo right on the beach in the main part of Punta. The three of us rented a car for the weekend and explored the whole city and it´s surrounding areas. We got a chance to est spectacular seafood and spend some time on the beach getting sun. It was great visiting with someone who summered there for many years, because she showed us all the best spots. The main tourist attraction is a gigantic hand statue coming out of the sand at the beach which you can see in this short video. Overall we had a great weekend and came back to Montevideo feeling relaxed and ready to finish out the school year. Here are some photo albums that we put together: Punta del Este and Punta Ballena.

In other news, Jen and I have moved to a new apartment for our last two weeks in Montevideo. We decided to splurge on a little more space and comfort before hitting the road again in mid December. Our new plan for post Montevideo traveling is to head over to the Andes and travel north seeing Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and maybe Ecuador. We are getting really excited to start backpacking again!

More Tango

Here is a quick video of our tango professors, Nazareno and Mariana, performing a show in Montevideo. Enjoy.

Tango & Camp

It´s been a while since we´ve posted so the following is a collection of some fun things we´ve done over the past month or so...

We recently decided to pick up Tango dancing thanks to our friends, Juan and Sandra, who guided us in the direction of free lessons with two excellent teachers. Our teachers are professional tango dancers and offer classes every Monday night as a city-funded thing! We are actually getting somewhere with the classes and have learned a little bit about how to make our movements less rigid and robotlike. We are still working on perfecting the famous "ocho atras" which involves me making a backwards eight several times while Phil guides me. The first part of our picture album shows us with some friends from tango class attending a show put on by our teachers. The event is called a Milonga which is not only a professional show, but also includes amateur dancers and musicians who participate in the night´s festivities.

The second part of the album includes pictures of our time as camp counselors for a private, Jewish elementary school in Montevideo. The school hired us to accompany about 45 ten-year olds to a beach town called Solís along with teacher supervisors and other counselors. It was planned as an English immersion camp which means that the kids had no idea that we spoke Spanish!! They rose to the challenge of communicating in English and we really got into our roles as counselors... Phil was the basketball guru while I led the kids in many cheers and songs that I enjoyed when I was at camp myself. Notice the bright yellow whistles that we were given to enforce our authority.

See our album here: Pictures

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family. We miss you!

Punta del Diablo

For Halloween weekend, Jen and I took a trip to Punta del Diablo, a small beach town some four hours away from Montevideo. We took advantage of the three day weekend and stayed Saturday and Sunday nights in a hostel called El Diablo Tranquilo. This hostel was staffed by mostly Americans and most of the travelers spoke English, so we got to speak more English than we are used to. Punta del Diablo is a small fisher´s village that has been converted into a tourist destination within the last five years, but still retains a quaint atmosphere. Unfortunately the weather was a bit rainy over the weekend, but we still enjoyed strolling along the beach when the rain let up and hanging out by the fireplace in the hostel. Here are a few pictures we took:

Punta del Diablo

Sorry we have been updating less frequently as of late. We have been busy with our teaching jobs and are still enjoying ourselves in Montevideo.

Piriápolis

On the brilliant suggestion of our friends Juan and Sandra, the four of us headed to a nearby beach town to enjoy the temperate weather. Piriápolis was founded in the 1930´s by an Argentine man named Piria who created the city to attract tourists. Although we consider ourselves as travelers rather than tourists, we were still thrilled explore the place. The giant Argentino Hotel is the biggest building in the city which includes a casino and many other luxurious amenities. After checking it out and declaring that it just wasn´t posh enough for our taste, we continued on to the large, boat-filled dock where you can take a chair lift to the top of the cities´ biggest hill. It was a rickety little chair lift that provided amazing panoramic views and surprisingly didn´t require a waiver to ride! On top of the Cerro San Antonio we found a small shrine devoted to the hill´s patron saint as well as some cactus that seemed a little out of place. We enjoyed the sun and studied our maps to help orient ourselves in relation to all the natural landmarks that we could see from the top. Our afternoon also consisted of a seafood lunch, lots of laying-in-the-sun action, and a beautiful sunset to top it off. We were so happy to enjoy the day that we didn´t even care that we were stuck sitting next to "the human cigarette" on the bus ride home. Here are some pictures from our day...

Piriapolis

Asado

In Uruguay, cows outnumber people three to one, and beef production is a key industry. People here are immensely proud of the top quality beef they produce. On Saturday night, Jen and I partook in a key Uruguayan tradition: asado. An asado is a cookout where friends get together and cook lots of beef over wood embers. The beef we ate was the most delicious I have ever tasted, and we ate until we could not take another bite. Take a look at some photos we took. At the end of the night, Jen took a spill when her plastic chair buckled and broke under the weight of the steak in her stomach. Ouch!

Carnaval in Montevideo

Little did we know, Montevideo is the Latin American capital of Carnaval for 2008-2010. Montevideo is known for having the longest Carnaval celebration in the world, lasting from September until February. Today Jen and I were lucky enough to stumble upon some full blown Carnaval parades downtown. These parades are all about Candombe, which is an Afro-Uruguayan musical tradition. Here is a photo album and video with a look at what we saw today:

Photos

Video

Tonight, Jen and I are attending a traditional Uruguayan Asado, or cookout. Uruguayans are crazy about beef and grill it by the kilos over wood fire. Tomorrow we will post an update with details on the gathering.

Montevideo Update

Here is a new picture album we compiled from the last couple of weeks here in Montevideo. A few weeks ago, Jen and I checked out the Tristan Narvaja market, which is the biggest in Montevideo. The vendors there sell just about anything, from peacocks to remote controls. Lots of remote controls. We also met Juan and Sandra, a nice young Colombian couple, while visiting the Cabildo museum downtown. They are also relatively new in Montevideo, and we have been hanging out with them and discovering this city together. They moved from Colombia to Uruguay to have a safer and more relaxed living environment and dream of one day living in Canada or Australia. Finally, we purchased a new Toshiba netbook (small laptop) and are very happy to now have our own computer! Anyone who wants to talk on Skype, just send us an e-mail.

Jobs Found

As soon as Jen and I got back from our second trip to Buenos Aires, we found solid work in Montevideo. We met with the International House London Institute and they gave us a variety of English teaching opportunities. The way this organization works is that they have classes in their institute and classes for private companies who want their employees to learn English. I give classes twice a week in Banco Republica, the main bank in Uruguay. This bank is a giant historic building and looks like a museum on the inside. I also give classes several times a week inside the institute. Jen is teaching in a special business park called Zonamerica which is located about 45 minutes outside of the city by bus. Zonamerica is a tax free zone where many multinational companies operate to take advantage of the well educated, cheap Uruguayan work force. The area where she teaches is connected to an old cathedral and is unbelievably nice. She is also giving classes in the instutute to a group of 11 year olds. Overall the teaching job has been a challenge, because Jen and I have only a little experience teaching, our online training was not that extensive, and the institute doens´t give too specific of a curriculum to follow. We are enjoying the challenge and learning more each day.
As far as our living situation goes, we moved in with one of our Couch surfing friends, Cecilia. She has a centrally located one bedroom apartment, and the space is cramped to say the least. Some uncommon amenities that we enjoy are a clothes dryer and hot showers that last more than five minutes. However, the computer situation is terrible, and I´m going to buy a laptop pretty soon. That´s all I have time to write for now, but Jen and I will be adding more shortly after this two week lag in updates.

More Photos

Jen and I have officially started working as English teachers for the London Institute in Montevideo, so more on that in the coming days. In the meantime, check out these photos our friend Brit put up from last weekend in Buenos Aires. (Not sure if access is granted to everyone).

Buenos Aires Part 2

After a week of promising job interviews and some initial offers in Montevideo, we headed back to Buenos Aires for the weekend to meet us with fellow Tulane alumnus Brittany Bjornerud. We stayed in Brittany´s posh Recoleta apartment for the weekend and got a second taste of BsAs. The weekend included a fancy dinner out to eat Argentininan asado, a late night Tango milonga, and lots of red wine. We also hit up two fairs, one in modern, trendy Palermo Soho, and the other in the old-style San Telmo neighborhood. This second dose of Buenos Aires left Jen and me wanting to stick around longer. There is so much to do and see in this huge city, as it is teeming with unique stores and bars. Due to the impressive European style architecture seen all over the city, it is often refered to as the Paris of South America. However, it reminds me a lot of Madrid with the bustling center and accessible, non-stop nightlife. Jen, Brit, and I took plenty of great pictures, but right now I am not able to upload them because my computer situation is terrible. I really wish I would have brought my laptop or a netbook along for this trip. I will be posting some pictures as soon as possible.

Finally.... pictures

Uruguay

Due to the fact that Jen and I have had access only to some of the slowest computers in the world, this update has been a bit delayed. Sorry for keeping you readers waiting! Just over a week ago, we arrived in Colonia, Uruguay via boat from Buenos Aires. Colonia is an interesting, old port city that was fought over by the Spanish and the Portuguese long ago. We really enjoyed exploring the old quarter, which sits right on the water. The only bad part of our stay was a nasty asado dinner we had out one night. They served us steak as chewy as gum accompanied by grilled cow organs. We were not happy. After checking out of Colonia, we came over here to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Here we have been enjoying the cultural treasures of the city, such as museums and artisan markets. Also we have been staying with an excellent hostess named Cecilia, who conicidentally has traveled to New Orleans twice. Jen and I have now started trying to find work as English teachers in earnest. We have been sending our resumes to various bilingual schools and hoping for the best. Ironically, Pan American also contacted me about a possible consulting opportunity. We´ll see what that amounts too... Anyway, here are some pictures from the past week:

Uruguay album

Buenos Aires: Round One

After much contemplation about where to spend our 24th birthdays, we decided to go all out and head for Buenos Aires. We took a luxurious bus ride that only lasted 17 hours and we were here! The city immediately reminded me of Madrid with its grand architecture and tall skyscrapers. Some good luck landed us in a place called Soho Suites in the Palermo disctrict of Buenos Aires, where we quickly got comfortable and became friends with the fabulous owners, Javier and Priscilia. These nice accomodations were our home for the next 4 nights!

On July 28th, a solid day for a birthday, we had a mission to find a good jacket for me. Phil gave me a warm black jacket that was a big style improvement over some of my other getups. Then we enjoyed a fancy sushi lunch and dived into our sightseeing plans. Among the amazing Argentine monuments, our favorites included La Casa Rosada, Recoleta Cemetary, and the Monumento a los Espanoles. When we got back from our day out, the hotel owners surprised us with a dulce de leche cake! It really made us feel at home away from home:) That night, we went out for a typical Argentine dinner which included steak, wine, and many good laughs.

Since then, we have been walking, and dodging dog droppings, and walking some more and we have seen lots of the city. Here are some pictures from our time in B.A.


http://picasaweb.google.ca/psprawls/BuenosAiresPart1#

Iguazu Falls

We got over some minor colds and headed off to Foz de Iguaçu, Brazil. The site itself is a world wonder (currently being voted on) and really takes your breath away! We were lucky to have time to visit both the Brazilian side of the falls and the Argentinian one. From my point of view, seeing the waterfalls from Brazil was more "panoramic" than Argentina with a bright rainbow over the water at all times. In Argentina, it is a bit more interactive than Brazil with a view of the Garganta del Diablo (the most powerful waterfall in the park) and more opportunities for hiking. Check out these pictures from both countries!

http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/IguazuFalls#

Look at our quick video of the Falls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOtu3JR8cqM

Now we are off to Buenos Aires!

End of Our Month in Brazil

After Florianopolis, we headed to some smaller cities in the state of Santa Catarina to see the German influence in Brazil. We spent a night in Blumenau, a city that has a giant Oktoberfest celebration, and made a day trip to Pomerode, the ¨most German city in Brazil.¨ Lucky for us there was a little winter festival going on in this tiny town. Here are some pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/Pomerode#

Then we took a stinky bus to Curitiba. Curitiba's claim to fame is that it is one of the best run cities in the world, where there are great public services. The city excells in public transportation, education, parks, environmental awareness, and internet access for all. We spent three nights with our host, Wanderson, who works for Exxon Mobil. He showed us around, taking us to the Botanical gardens and the Oscar Neimeyer museum. We met his friends and had a delicious meal at one of their houses. We also got to connect with Jen´s old floormate in Madrid, Carolina. She and her husband, Fabio, took us to other attractions in the city, including an outdoor theatre made of wire. Here are some photos we took:
http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/Curitiba#

São Paulo/Florianopolis

Here is a link to some photos we took last weekend in São Paulo:

http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/SaoPaulo#

After São Paulo, we headed to Florianopolis on the island of Santa Catarina. We spent one night in the downtown area, where we saw some historical sights and walked around the Ritzy Beira Mar neighborhood. The quality of life in this city is among the best in Brazil, comparable to first world countries. We moved in with a Couchsurfing friend named Davi and stayed with him for three nights. Davi showed us around the island, taking us to some giant sand dunes and beautiful beaches. He introduced us to a drink called Caldo de Cana, which is pure sugar cane thrown into a juicer. We spent some good time hanging out with Davi and his friends and got to see how our peers live in Brazil. We even went to their ping pong night, where we ate Pizza Hut pizza! Phil went on a disastrous mountain biking excursion which was fun but muddy. Here are a few photos we took:

http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/Floripa#

São Paulo

There are many words that can be used to describe São Paulo: Enormous, dirty, smoggy, overwhelming, dangerous...the list goes on. Most Brazilians we met before the trip advised us against going, but the truth is...we LOVED it!

From the fast-paced lifestyle of the bustling city to the posh, fancy shopping malls lining the street, we enjoyed our time so much. We stayed in the house of a friend named Igor who is a devout Buddhist and gave us the best peek into the life of a Paulistano. One of his best recommendations being a restaurant called Estadão, a famous 24 hour hangout which offers every kind of juice imaginable. We tried juices including melon, papaya, carrot, strawberry, soy apple, açaí, and others that don´t have English translations. We also tried the Pernil sandwich, a very flavorful pork concoction with cheese, onion, peppers, etc.

Despite heavy rains we visited the fascinating Japanese neighboorhood which had streets lined with red lanterns and countless sushi restaurants. We even went back a second time, with our new Brazilian friends Leonardo and Aline, to see a Japanese festival. There, we saw traditional dancing, a flea market, and participated in a special tradition of writing a wish on a colored card before tying it to a nearby tree.

We also participated in a special Buddhist ceremony with Igor that was meant for young adults and divided by gender. The people in the meetings were so welcoming and interested in giving us a taste of their Brazilian/Buddhist culture. Although we attended the meetings separately, Phil and I later agreed that we had shared a similar experience and were both apprehensive about speaking Portuguese in front of so many people!! Regardless, our hosts were accepting and kind.

The weekend was exceptional!! Now we are off to Florianopolis...

Next stop...

After Ilha Grande, we headed to Paraty, a colonial town some two hours away. We stayed in a rustic hotel in the old quarter and walked around on the cobblestone streets while seeing the old architecture. One the second day in Paraty, we took a quick side trip to Trindade to enjoy the beach. Check out a few pictures we took:

Paraty

Quick video of the beach:

Cachadaço

Brazilian nature

Jen and I spent last weekend checking out Ilha Grande, an island near Rio known for great eco-tourism. We hiked, swam, and kayaked in a pristine tropical environment. Check out some of the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/psprawls/IlhaGrande#slideshow/5356839810973111122

Jenny on a rope swing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDCNUKux8IM

First video post

Peter, Jen, and Phil enjoy a samba group on the way down from the Christ monument:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWscSNKsFLU

OK, I made this video public, so now you can watch it!

More Pics!

Check out the second half of our pics from Rio:

http://picasaweb.google.com.br/psprawls/RioTake2#slideshow/5354348636190655058

First week summary

Jen and I have made it through our first week in South America, and so far it has been a blast. We spent our first night in the grossest hostel room I´ve ever stayed in, but then upgraded to a full apartment for the remainder of the week. The apartment was totally worth the splurge, because it made a comfortable lauching point for our Rio exploration. Here´s a rundown of what we did over the past week:
Thursday - Flew into town and took the cab ride from hell to our dirty hostel. Jen and I were totally shocked. Later we met up with our friend Peter, who would spend the next five nights with us. Went to sushi and met a lady who would later rent us her old apartment.
Friday - Ran into some Tulane alums as we checked out of our nasty hostel and would hang out with them over the next week. Crappy weather so we all walked around Downtown Rio and had lunch at a fancy cafe which was from the early 1900´s. Hit up Lapa neighborhood at night and saw an awesome Samba show at Rio Scenarium. Then walked outside to a crazy street party. Hung out and drank and watched the madness.
Saturday - Walked around Ipanema beach and Arpoador, stopping to take a dip in the ocean. Still bad weather.
Sunday - Started the day by browsing at Ipanema´s hippy fair, where there was interesting arts, crafts, and food. Later took in a soccer game at Maracanã, the world´s largest soccer stadium. The fans were wild and the soccer was exciting.
Monday - Got up early and had Açai for breakfast at a juice bar (see the purple slushy in our photo album). Went to Corcovado hill and rode the cog train up to the gigantic Christ the Redeemer statue at the top. On the way down were entertained by an awesome samba group, of which we´ll be posting a video shortly. Then went to Santa Teresa neighborhood, where we rode the tram and had lunch. Many people would run after the tram and hop and hang off the side to avoid paying the cheap fare. Went out briefly at night.
Tuesday - Favela tour in the morning. Favela are the shanty towns on the hillsides of Rio that house the poor. We saw some of the more developed favelas on an optimistic tour. Went to Ipanema beach for a quick dip. In the afternoon, we rode the cable cars to the top of Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf mountain), where we got the best views of Rio. The sunset was amazing. At night we went out and had a last hurrah for our Tulane friends.
Wednesday - Went for a walk on Copacabana beach, when Peter realized he missed his flight to Buenos Aires. He quickly arranged to get on a later flight and quickly Jen and Phil were alone again. We rented bikes and rode on a bike path along Ipanema and Leblon beaches, watching the beautiful people and scenery. Had dinner at a Churrascaria, which was hilarious. It was a buffet, but also with guys coming around with gigantic skewers of meat which they shaved off onto our plates. We ate way too much and laughed at the absurd amounts of meat being served.

Right now we are planning how to spend our remaining time in Rio and where to go next. This place has been expensive, so we are eager to get to smaller more affordable cities in Brazil.

Photos!

Check out this first photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/psprawls/RioAlbum1

Hanging out in Rio

Jen and I got in on Thursday, and were completely caught off guard at first! It has been a while since we have traveled like this. Our first night was spent in a stinky, cramped hostel, but we have since upgraded to a full apartment for the week. So far we have been really enjoying catching up with our friend Peter and exploring the city. The beach here is beautiful, and today we went out for a swim. We also took in a soccer game at Maracana stadium, which was a blast. We will be posting photos of our weekend and bringing more details shortly!

Phil and Jen

All packed up!

Big Day

Tomorrow is the day that we fly out of Louisville. We are very excited!

Huge storm in louisville right now.

Welcome to our blog

In one week, Phil Sprawls and Jennifer Bassell will be hopping on a flight to Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Over the course of the summer, these two will be backpacking in South America, while looking for a spot to land jobs as English teachers. You are invited to follow their adventures on this blog: Philifer does South America. We will give periodic updates with our stories and photos.