The book is on the table (with photos now)
Last week Matt and I left Argentina for the last time on this journey…then again we’ve said that before and somehow kept going back! This time I’m fairly certain that we’re done with Argentina though. Argentina became so familiar and comfortable to us…it was like going home each time we returned. The last few cities in Argentina were great, as the rest of our experience in Argentina has been. We spent a few days in Mendoza, and despite the extreme heat, I found that I think Mendoza is one of my favorite cities I’ve visited in Argentina. It’s not very big, but it has a lot going on and is set in the most beautiful scenery. We stayed at a fairly large youth hostel there and met a lot of really cool people. Sometimes it’s nice to meet others who are in the same boat as us…having quit their jobs and taken off to see the world with no real plan for what will come next. I sometimes find myself thinking and worrying about the fact that I really don’t have any idea what I’m going to do when all this is finished…no, I still haven’t received the revelation about what my purpose in life is as I hoped I would on this trip! Meeting others who are in the exact same position as me makes me feel like it’s ok that I’m still searching, and I’m reminded of the reasons why I took this trip in the first place…to feel like I’m really living my life rather than wasting it on a job or situation in life that really doesn’t make me happy. So anyway, we met a lot of cool new friends in Mendoza and had a really nice time hanging out and hearing all their stories. Sleeping was more or less impossible because it was swealtering hot in the dorm rooms, so we didn’t do much sleeping. I even got talked into going out dancing till 8am one night…I haven’t done that in a really long time! There are so many great activities to do around Mendoza, and I really would have liked to do some, but somehow we ended up not doing any. Matt and I along with an Australian friend attempted to take a bike tour of some wineries one day and even rented bikes and got started on the ride to the wineries, but we had horrible luck and the bikes more or less fell apart on us before we even made it out of the city! It was seriously like a scene out of a movie, one bike after the other had something terribly wrong happen. Matt and I each got a flat tire and our friend, Jason, had his chain fall off just as we were getting on a busy highway with cars and semi-trucks racing by. We took the bikes falling apart as a sign, and we walked our bikes back to the shop and luckily got all our money refunded without any problems. Despite not really doing any of the normal Mendoza activities, I had a really nice time there and would love to go back in the future.
Since our goal was to make it to Brazil by the first week in February, we really needed to get moving east and try to get closer to that part of the continent. We left Mendoza on Monday night and took a 13 hour bus ride over to Santa Fe, which is not too far from the Uraguyan border. We stayed in Santa Fe for a night, but we found that there really wasn’t much going on there. The people were SO friendly there though and that really made an impression on us. After a night in Santa Fe, we went just across the river they have there and stayed a night in a town called Parana. Parana was absolutely adorable. The town is really small and right on the river Rio Parana. The people here were also incredibly friendly. There aren’t many foreign tourists who come to this region of the country, so people aren’t as used to seeing foreigners as in other larger cities. They were all very interested to know where we were from and why we were there, and everyone was very hospitable.
From Parana, we took a short bus ride to a border town called Guay…. I really can’t remember what the name is. We were just in the bus terminal for a few hours before we got on a bus that took us over the Uruguayan border into a town called Mercedes. We had spent just part of a day in Colonia, Uruguay when we lived in Buenos Aires, and I thought it was the cutest town I had ever seen. I thought that it was just a touristy town though, and I imagined the rest of Uruguay to be a lot less cute. Mercedes was just as cute as Colonia though! Maybe not as picturesque in a touristy sense, but it’s an adorable little town, and the people are even cuter! We arrived to the town at about 10 at night and were a little worried about walking around the city at night trying to find an ATM to get some Uruguayan money and finding a hostel…I have never felt safer though. There were children playing in the playgrounds and streets, old people sitting and chatting on the sidewalks and plazas, and everyone greeted us with a huge smile as we walked by. It’s so funny too, I had heard that the mate drinking tradition was even bigger in Uruguay than in Argentina, but I thought that was impossibe considering every Argentine I’ve met is mate crazy. It’s true though, I think Uruguayans drink even more mate than Argentinians. Immediately after arriving, I couldn’t help but notice that they even drink it on the go…walking down the street, driving in a car, or even riding on a moped or bike! You have to understand that drinking mate requires a thermos and a mate “cup” and “straw” so it’s not the most convenient beverage to drink while in transit.
After a night in Mercedes, we attempted to leave early in the morning the next day but found out that buses don’t travel very frequently in Uruguay and had to wait until 6 that evening to leave. Our goal was to get the Brazilian border as soon as possible, so we chose a town called Paysandu which was about half way there, hoping to stay one night there and leave the next morning for the Brazilian border…only again, we found that buses really don’t travel at convenient times in Uruguay. When we got to Paysandu, we found that the only buses that left for Rivera, the border city we needed to get to, left at either 4am or 5pm. The reason we were in such a hurry to get Brazil is that we would be staying with our friend Samantha who lives right on the Brazilian border, and we really wanted to be there by Saturday since it was the most convenient day for her. Samantha was one of Matt’s roommates in Madrid and she was wonderful enough to offer to have us stay at her house when we arrived to Brazil. So considering our options, Matt and I decided to be troopers and take the bus at 4am. Doing this meant that it really was pointless to get a hostel room, so we checked our bags in the luggage storage at the bus station and hit the town for a Friday night on the town.
We left Paysandu at 4am and arrived to Rivera at 9am, and Samantha and her boyfriend Duda came to the bus station to get us in her car. We were so exhuasted from having stayed up all night, and it was SO nice to not have to worry about finding ourselves a hostel or anything. As I’ve mentioned before, in order to go to Brazil, Matt and I went through so much trouble. We had to pay $100 and go through a big process to get our visas at the consulate in Buenos Aires and also had to get yellow fever shots when we were in Lima. We honestly thought getting through the border was going to be a huge ordeal…we couldn’t have been more wrong! We had our passports out and our vaccination card ready, thinking we were going to go through some really strict border and customs control like all the other borders we’ve crossed in South America, when Samantha says as we’re driving, “We just left Uruguay and now we’re in Brazil!” Rivera and Santana do Livramento, where Samantha lives, are basically the same city. There’s a plaza in between the two cities and half of the plaza is in Uruguay and half of it is in Brazil. One side of the street has all the shops and signs in Spanish, and the other side is all in Portugese. There is abosolutely no border control or customs point…it’s crazy. Just for formalities, later that day, Matt and I had them take us to the police station to get our passports stamped, but if they hadn’t taken us, we would have had no idea where to go or what to do.
Since we arrived to Brazil on Saturday, Matt and I have been living the good life! I really can’t tell you what an awesome time we’ve been having staying with Samantha and her family. They have a big, beautiful home and have been SO wonderful. We sleep in really late, hang out in their pool, and they feed us amazing food…it’s honestly like being on vacation from being backpackers. The day we arrived we went to two parties with Samantha and Duda. One was a birthday barbeque, or “churrasco”, for one of their friends and we had such a great time. All of Samantha’s friends were great…it’s definitely true what they say about Brazilians being happy fun people! Finally getting to why I titled this post such a strange thing, Matt and I have discovered that all Brazilians we’ve encountered so far seem to know one phrase in English and say it to us when they find out we’re American…”The book is on the table.” At the party, this phrase was said to us so many times and it kind of became a big joke. Isn’t it hilarious that that is the first phrase that is taught to them? Not “Hello, how are you” or “My name is…”, but “The book is on the table!” After the birthday party we went to a big music festival here in Livramento and heard some great samba…so much fun, but we were exhausted by the time we got home at 5am! Since we’ve arrived to Brazil we’ve been enjoying ourselves so much with Samantha, her friends, and her wonderful family. Since we’re right on the border of Uruguay most people speak at least a little bit of Spanish, so we’ve been able to commucicate ok. We’re headed north tonight though to Florionopolis, which is about halfway to Rio from here. There are supposed to be some AMAZING beaches there–I can’t wait! We’ll see how we do with the tiny bit of Portugese we’ve been taught since we’ve been here! Here are some photos from the past week and a half….just kidding. Bootsnall has apparantly changed the setup of the blogsight and how to insert photos. I had uploaded a ton of photos yesterday to insert today, but I can’t seem to find them right now. I will try to add the photos by tomorrow!
Ok, I’m going to attempt to add some photos now…let’s see how it goes.
Tags: Travel
Administrator
February 14th, 2006 at 3:57 am
Cuamta saudade, en el meo corazao.. tudo legal menina y menino?
Jolines, ya casi van a alcanzar el carnaval, van a bahia? ayayayayyyyy
Un abrazo para los dos y un besazo para ti Chaska.
Good Travels.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:33 pm
hola chask,
great post. you make me so jealous of your experiences in south america. although maybe you haven’t discovered your “purpose”, i don’t know if any of us really ever do. so, you might as well be traveling and doing amazing things without a purpose then stuck in a boring day-job without a purpose, right? : ) the brazilian phrase is hilarious, i was wondering through the whole email why you named your post that actually. haha. miss you lots and hope to see you soon!!