Budget Travel to South America

February 3, 2012 – 12:38 pm
"Abrir los ojos es perderte un poco," reads a scrawled note on the wall of a bookstore cafe in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The phrase, meaning "to open your eyes is to lose yourself a little," perfectly describes the experience of anyone traveling in South America. If you want validation of this fact, just ask any of the many USD students who studied or travelled in South America during intersession. They will probably tell you that their experience at times pushed them to the edge of their comfort zone and in the end opened them up to a different culture, a bigger world. This world, which we have always known about but have never been fully aware of from the comfort of our homes, is full of wonder. There are people to meet, so different from ourselves yet still possessing innate similarities that make it easy to find connections anywhere in the world. ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, South America | No Comments »

Buenos Aires, founded on February 2, 1536

February 2, 2012 – 2:54 pm
On February 2, 1536, Spanish explorer Pedro de Mendoza founded the city he named Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire—Buenos Aires, Argentina. The new town was meant to spearhead the Spanish effort to colonize the interior of South America. It came less than two years after conquistadors had returned to Spain from Peru with treasures seized from the Inca empire. Spain’s Charles I was spurred by the vast Inca wealth to seek further riches in South America. He also wanted to block any effort by Portugal to expand its foothold in Brazil. Accordingly, he commissioned Mendoza to mount an expedition to explore and settle the Río de la Plata, a vast estuary in southern South America that had been sighted back in 1516. Monument to Pedro de Mendoza, Parque Lezama neighborhood of San Telmo, Buenos Aires Mendoza set out in August 1535 in command of 800 to 1700 men (accounts vary) in around ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, South America | No Comments »

Spiritual Gay Journey to Buenos Aires

February 1, 2012 – 3:34 pm
Why does a 49-year-old gay writer in Los Angeles pull up stakes and plan a big move to Buenos Aires next month? Is it a "midlife crisis" or does it cut deeper? The writer is Trebor Healey. He's a novelist ("Through It Came Bright Colors"). He's a poet (Sweet Son of Pan"). He writes short stories ("A Perfect Scar and Other Stories"). Trebor has also worked with a non-profit organization that advocates for economic justice. Clearly, he is on a profound spiritual search. I asked Trebor what motivates him. "You wake up one day and you're still only speaking your native tongue and still living in the state where you were born," he replied. "You wonder where the time has gone and think of all the things you haven't done, and how it's all slipping away rather quickly, and you can't talk yourself out of adventure." This isn't the era of Ernest Hemingway or ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, Gay Tourism Argentina, South America | No Comments »

Empanadas Recipe. One of classic argentine dishes

January 31, 2012 – 2:43 pm
Empanadas may have originated in Spain (the Spanish verb "empanar" means to wrap or coat in bread) but it was in South America that their popularity grew, particularly in Argentina. Essentially a small, semi-circular pastry stuffed with various fillings, empanadas are deceptively easy to make. Fillings vary from province to province based on the meats and produce that were historically available and include chorizo and cheese; beef with paprika, onion, eggs, and olives; and sweet corn. In Buenos Aires, you can find many more varieties at restaurants, which designate each pastry’s filling with a different pattern baked into the dough. Recipe To make the traditional beef filling, melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 2 tablespoons of corn oil and sauté 1 large onion until transparent. Add 1 pound of ground beef, 2 tablespoons of raisins, 1 tablespoon ground hot and sweet paprika, 1 tablespoon ground red dry spicy peppers, 1 tablespoon cumin, and ...

Posted in Argentina, Argentina Meals Food, Buenos Aires Argentina, Restaurants, South America | No Comments »

Why to travel to Argentina

January 31, 2012 – 1:55 pm
Argentina is a a country where just about anything can be found. From a sultry street tango on a bustling street in Buenos Aires to the enormous whip-cracking sound of a house-sized chunk of ice falling from a glacier in Patagonia, Argentina is a land with something for everyone. Finding a variety of things to see and do isn’t hard either. With the country’s wide array of gorgeous landscapes and cultural experiences a new and unique adventure is always just a bus ride away. Here are a few, but not nearly all, of the variety of experiences and places that can be enjoyed in this amazing land. Tango, Buenos Aires The tango is a gorgeous symbol of Argentina and the passion of its people. The dance has become almost a cliché, but still to see it in motion surrounded by the brightly-painted pastel buildings of the La Boca district of Buenos Aires ...

Posted in Argentina, Argentine Northwest, Buenos Aires Argentina, Jujuy Argentina, Patagonia, Perito Moreno Glacier, South America, Tango | No Comments »

British girl learns Tango in Buenos Aires

January 30, 2012 – 6:08 pm
'In Britain, the only time someone touches you like this, they're either your other half, someone you're about to get off with, or you're being sexually molested. Waiting at the gate to board the flight to Buenos Aires, an awful sense of disquiet creeps upon me. I'm making a huge mistake. I'm flying to Argentina for a week, on my own, to learn to dance the Argentine tango. What the hell am I doing? I don't speak a word of Spanish. I haven't danced a choreographed step since 1982, when I tapped non-rhythmically along to The Red, Red Robin in a community centre. The only things I know about Argentina are that it's very far away, we went to war with them once, and years ago I saw a film where their king appeared to be Jimmy Nail. And, worst of all, the Argentine tango (I've checked with YouTube) is a ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, South America, Study Abroad in Argentina, Tango | No Comments »

Expat in Argentina, feeling at home in Buenos Aires

January 27, 2012 – 1:24 pm
“I HAD A flight back to New York after six weeks and I just simply didn’t take it, says designer Susan Kennedy of her impromptu move from the Big Apple to Buenos Aires two years ago. For the Sandymount girl who left Ireland just weeks after her graduation in 1995, putting down roots in a foreign city was nothing new. While studying German and philosophy at UCD, a green card lottery win saw her move to San Francisco. She describes herself as the last of a generation of “presumptive emigrants”. While the job scene in Ireland had started to pick up, she says that, for her, emigration was “just a sort of well-beaten path. I was sort of raised in the culture of that.” Though always interested in fashion and design, in San Francisco Kennedy got sucked into the tech boom and spent the next 10 years working in Silicon Valley. Working for ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, Expats in Buenos Aires, South America | No Comments »

UK travellers to Argentina

January 26, 2012 – 4:09 pm
THIRTY years ago, a holiday in Argentina probably wouldn’t have been on the cards for most UK tourists. As controversial battles waged in the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, relations between Thatcher’s Britain and Argentina’s ruling military government were at an all-time low. Today, thankfully, an invasion of a much more positive sort is taking place. A flurry of boutique hotel openings, a roaring wine trade and the shifting global focus towards South America as a whole are all factors inciting British travellers to make their next stop Argentina. Walking through the streets of capital city Buenos Aires does feel strangely familiar: patisseries piled high with creamy cakes, cafes on street corners – it’s all very European and distinctly Italian. The ornate architecture, spanning colonial, art deco and neo-gothic styles, could easily have been lifted from Paris, Barcelona or Rome, and is a reminder of the city’s decadent past. A fine example of turn-of-the-century ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, Patagonia, Perito Moreno Glacier | No Comments »

Buenos Aires Horror Tour: Former torture chamber has been preserved as a memorial

January 25, 2012 – 4:43 pm
A former torture chamber in Buenos Aires has been preserved as a memorial to the victims of a brutal, right-wing dictatorship Hooded, tortured, handcuffed, chained by their feet to the wall _ that's the way prisoners at the Navy Mechanical School were kept at a notorious secret detention centre during the 1976-83 military dictatorship in Argentina. mid the horror they experienced, the detainees were aware of the bell ringing next door at a school. On one side there was pain, suffering and death. On the other, children playing, laughter, the school bell, the sound of a ball bouncing in the yard: the noises of life. "The prisoners kept careful note of the ringing of the bell at the school next door and of other sounds that could help them keep track of when it was daytime versus nighttime," said Debora, a guide at the Navy Mechanical School (Esma, to give it its Spanish ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, South America, Tours Buenos Aires | No Comments »

Eating and Having fun in Buenos Aires

January 24, 2012 – 12:07 pm
For the month of January, I am taking an intensive language course with eleven other students. In February our regular spanish classes in Buenos Aires start, and about 70 more students will arrive. This past Thursday, our professor, Jose Maria, came over for dinner. We have two professors, but Jose is by far the coolest. He is so open with his personal life, he will go out of the way to look up directions for us or call a hostel on the phone (since we can barely understand people), and isn’t shy about sharing the nitty gritty details about life in Buenos Aires. Every class I’d say we learn at least five new curse words or phrases. Elda, our house mother, made an amazing paella for dinner. She doesn’t usually make such elaborate meals, but it was a special occasion, so she broke out the big guns: the seafood. Although Buenos ...

Posted in Argentina, Buenos Aires Argentina, South America | No Comments »