An Encounter with the Andes

Coming from North American society we are instilled with the idea that faster is better. And in the world of travel, for the most part it is true. If one can cut their travel time in half, then why not?  However there are times when there are hidden gems to be discovered if you are willing to take a slower unconventional path. Like taking a bus from Buenos Aires to Chile instead of flying into Santiago. It may have been a 20 hr ride but that bus ticket gave me a front row seat to see the famed Andes mountain range.

The bus starts from Buenos Aires and then goes to Mendoza Argentina. From Mendoza, the coach takes you directly through the middle of the Andes mountains.   I have heard that the Andes mountains is very diverse but I didn't realize how diverse it was until I sat there glue to the seat my eyes fixated as the sights flashing before my eyes.


The landscape literally changes about every 10 mins. It would go from massive rock formations to seeing snow capped mountains and then to lakes and rivers. The scenery would go from crevices to jagged edges in the blink of an eye.  There is nothing like it in the world.  Seeing the Andes upclose was better than any onboard movie you could ever watch....

Click here to view the full album:


Andes Mountain pics

From One Small Step to One Giant Leap

I've mentioned in previous post the increasing difficulty of living in Buenos Aires due to radical changes that took place after Cristina Fernandez Kirchner was re-elected.  Within the past yr and a half the abuse of political power, inflation, peso devaluation resulted in a large exodus of expats from the country back to their homelands or other places in the world.

Life here is like hanging onto a mechanical bull. The one where you have to cling on to it for dear life as it gets faster and faster until you get flung off involuntarily or you choose to hang your hat and surrender to force of gravity. For many expats, it was a combination of both. They voluntarily left simply because they knew if they were on the verge of being flung off.

Inner Beauty....Outer Beauty and Everything in Between

Luisana Lopilato @ Ele Multiespacio (Photo credit: Bruno Belcastro)

While spending time at the house of my friend on New Years day, an interesting conversation burst forth about weight, clothes, and what beauty means in different cultures.  My friend was born with dark hair, and like me she has a belly, a bust, and a roundish face.  She is the farthest thing from the stereotyped idea of what Argentine women look like.

And she has the same problem as me here in this culture buying clothing is a nightmare for her. Most clothing shops have clothes for sizes 2-6. Recently the gov't passed a law saying that all clothing shops are supposed to carry a variety of sizes. But walking into any one of those clothing shops and you'll realize that the law and its impact is one big joke.  Katie Alley of Seashells and Sunflowers tackles this subject on this article she wrote on her blog:  On Being Fat in Argentina

The Serpentine Saga Continues: Finding Love in A Hopeless Place

At one point in my journey of trying to understand the Argentine Serpentine, I stumbled upon a revelation that would change the course of how I viewed her actions forever. Previously I had been under the presumption that it was just her and she's like that. However as I started delving deeper, reading blogs and articles, having chats with other foreigners it started to appear that many of the experiences I've had with her are typical of what many others have had with Argentines.

Through trial and error, I am discovering that the value system of Argentine society is entirely different that the North American value system. In Argentina people are very friendly and open when you encounter them but whether they are trustworthy is an entirely different story. Whereas in North America people aren't taught to be open to people they don't know and we are a little closed off at first encounter. But once people break into our worlds alot of us are taught to value our relationships.

I kept hearing over and over again the theme that foreigners here were having a hard time making Argentine friends, even having lived here for years some of them have only one person they would say is a friend. In addition to that, I heard it said that even Argentine women have difficulty finding good girlfriends. There is something in the culture that seems to block foreigners from entering into the world of many Argentines as well as making it difficult for Argentines to form genuine life long relationships.