It felt like it could go on forever, but of course it couldn’t. We had to face facts: it was time to go home – well back to North America anyway, we don’t actually have a home. Before we did though, we would wrap it up in style. Our last three destinations, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Sao Paulo were absolutely fantastic and the last few weeks of the trip were every bit as wonderful, unpredictable and exciting as any we’ve had this past year. I could write volumes on each destination, but I thought it might be better to combine them into one post to give you an idea of what the last month of our trip was like. It ended up being a little long, but hopefully it gives you some sense of our last days on the road…
Buenos Aires
Prior to our trip, I would have told you that two cities vie for the title of greatest city on earth: Montreal and Lisbon. Well, now there are three. Buenos Aires not only gets added to the list, it may even take the top spot outright. Why? It has all the attributes any great city should have, interesting history, vibrant culture, good food, appealing architecture etc. and has no shortage of tourist attractions. But Buenos Aires is not a gentrified city for yuppies and tourists only. It is vibrant, and alive, with plenty of imperfections to go along with its grandeur and refined sense of style. For me, the grand boulevards, public buildings, monuments and popular tourist attractions were just a backdrop (albeit an amazing one) for these much more interesting “imperfections”. The dilapidated buildings, surly bus drivers, and hole in the wall cafes and restaurants were the real stars.
Our month on Buenos Aires was amazing. We had a great apartment in a fantastic neighbourhood (Palermo Alto), and just as we had planned, Colleen and I slowed things down. It was nice to stay in the same place for a while, unpack, and spend time together without worrying about where we were going next. It was also nice to experience a new place without rushing to pack everything in. That’s not to say we didn’t get out and see the city, we did. We managed to get to just about all of the “must see” attractions as well as a bunch of off the beaten track ones. As with most things on our trip though, one of the best parts of our visit to Buenos Aires was unexpected: Colleen’s sister-in-law Zulima joined us for our last week there, and the three of us had a great time together.
Zulima was the perfect travel companion, easy to get along with and up for anything. We took her to most of the typical tourist spots (Recoletta, Caminita, San Telmo, etc.), did a few out of the ordinary things (including a 10 km road race), and spent a lot of time “areglando el mundo” – a Spanish saying Zulima taught us that literally translates as fixing the world, but whose real meaning has more to do with drinking and talking a lot of nonsense, two things the three of us excelled at. However, the main theme to her visit was definitely Tango. Turns out that while it may have originated in Argentina, Colombians (Zulima is Colombian) are mad for Tango, and for a Tango lover, coming to Buenos Aires is like a civil war buff going to Gettysburg or a an Elvis fan visiting Graceland. We did our best to take it all in. We visited the Carlos Gardel museum and grave site (Gardel is Tango’s answer to Elvis only more popular), went to a local Pena (sort of a restaurant / music venue that specializes in traditional food and music styles) to hear live tango, took tango dancing lessons, went shopping for tango shoes (yes, I bought dancing shoes), and went to a milonga (tango dance hall) to tango the night away. Zulima, purely by chance, even found the grave of Augustin Magaldi, the tango singer responsible for the song she was named after. I’m no tango aficionado, so none of this would have topped my list, but am I very happy we did it. Tango is a big part of Argentinian identity and culture, and experiencing it, even in a small way, was a window into that culture.
Buenos Aires was amazing, truly a highlight of the trip. This is the fourth post I’ve written about it, and I still have a hard time putting my finger on just what it is about this incredible city that I love so much. It was always a dream of mine to visit Buenos Aires, I’m not sure why. Having visited it though, I can say that it exceeded all of my expectations, and I can’t wait to come back.
Montevideo
The ways which travel destinations are chosen can be strange. For example, the first big trip I ever took was centered around Machu Picchu in Peru. My decision wasn’t based in any knowledge or research, I didn’t know the first thing about Machu Picchu, Peru or South America. I chose Machu Picchu because it was featured in a National Geographic coffee table book my mother had laying around when I was a little boy. I don’t think why you go somewhere is important. That you go is the important part, the rest just works itself out.
Our trip has had its fair share of odd reasoning behind destination choices, but Montevideo has to be the oddest: we visited Montevideo because of the Montivideo unit. Apparently in 1949 two physicians, Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia and Hermogenes Alvarez, both from Montevideo, created a method of measuring uterine performance during labor, and called their new unit the “Montevideo unit”. Apparently this unit is used all the time by obstetricians, and Colleen thought it would be hilarious to send a postcard from Montevideo mentioning Montevideo units to some of her colleagues. A funny postcard is as good a reason to choose a destination as any, so we took the three hour ferry from Buenos Aires and spent the day in Uruguay.
We were glad we did too. Aside from providing us with a couple of extra stamps in our passport, and postmarking Colleen’s “hilarious” postcards, Montevideo gave us a really nice afternoon. We only had the day there (we took the ferry back the same night), so we just sort of wandered around the city to see what we could see. From the busy port where the ferry let us off, to the crumbling architecture of Ciudad Viejo (old town), to the lovely Plaza de Indepencia in the heart of the modern city, it was all great. Each turn seemed to present us with another gem: a 100 year old café with great sandwiches and very cold beer, a beautiful promenade along the muddy Rio de la Plata, centuries old colonial buildings with the family laundry hung to dry from the bars on its dilapidated windows, narrow winding alleys, quaint shops, cafes, and beautiful old churches. You get the idea. My favourite was the cavernous mausoleum under the city’s main square that housed the ashes of Jose Artigas (father of Uruguayan nationhood). I didn’t even know it was there until I saw someone climb up a set of steps behind a statue.
This was no voyage of exploration, no attempt to gain cultural insight. It was just a pleasant day spent strolling through a new city, taking in the sights with the rest of the tourists. A stroll, a three course lunch at a nice restaurant, coffee breaks and a few souvenirs thrown in for good measure. We really enjoyed our visit to Montevideo. Thank you Messrs. Caldeyro-Barcia and Alvarez for suggesting it.
Sao Paulo
We have the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile and the good people at Continental airlines to thank for our unexpected visit to Brazil. Without going into too much detail, the ash cloud from the volcano forced our flight home to be redirected to Sao Paulo where we missed our connection on to the U.S. Of course by the time we landed the volcano had wreaked havoc with flights all over South America and we were informed (after waiting in lines for hours) that it would be several days before space would be available on a flight home. To make matters worse, we didn’t have Brazilian visas (we had no idea we would need them), and were detained for hours in the airport’s no man’s land while airline representatives and immigration officers sorted the mess out. It was a classic airport nightmare. I could go on about how bad it was, but that would be far less interesting than how good it was. We were in a new country, Continental was paying for our hotel and food, the visas eventually got sorted out and the three of us (Zulima was still with us) had nowhere else we had to be. We shook off the aggravation and had a great couple of days in Brazil.
The airport and our hotel were in Guarulhos, a neighbourhood about ten miles from central Sao Paulo. While we were tempted to rush off to the downtown area and all the tourist attractions, we decided to stay in Guarulhos. Ten miles doesn’t sound like much, but transportation was convoluted, and given our short stay we didn’t want to waste time in transit. Besides, if this past year has taught us anything it’s that, if you are open to them, some of the best experiences can happen in out of the way places, and that main attractions can often be a disappointment. Anyway, we ended up spending all our time in Guarulhos and were glad we did.
Guarulhos is a relatively nondescript place, a collection of shops, apartments, restaurants, schools and churches crowded along narrow streets slung over the top of a hill on the outskirts of a very big city. However, as with every place, it has its own character and appeal if you take the time to look. We started off with an exploratory walkabout. We were lucky enough to be there on a weekend, so the streets and shops were thronged with people. The main street felt more like an open air market complete with street performers, vendors and food. Next we found a little café at the end of the main street under the shadow of a cathedral for a late lunch. At Zulima’s insistence, we tried the feijoada com arroz, a delicious stew of black beans and hunks of pork meat served over rice with a side of fried and grilled pork (my mouth waters just writing about it). Of course what better way to wash down all that food than with some local drink? We found a bar that met our needs nicely, and spent the rest of the evening “areglando el mundo” over beers and my new favourite drink, the caipirinha. The next day the girls found a local salon and got themselves Brazilian blowouts, a hair straightening procedure that involved four hours of chemical treatment, hair pulling, blow drying, and ironing that look more like a form of torture to me. “When in Rome…” I guess. They did look great when it was done. Each of these experiences was great, but the best part was the reaction from and interaction with the people we met. Everyone, from people in the street to the waiters at the bar to the stylists in the salon were surprised to see us (I don’t think a lot of tourists stop in Guarulhos), and incredibly friendly with us. Almost nobody spoke English, but with a little broken Spanish and some hand signals, we were made to feel welcome everywhere we went.
We really enjoyed our short time in Brazil. We only spent a few days there, but we definitely got a sense of the place, enough to like it and know we would like to visit again. We also felt like we did it right, like maybe we were getting good at this travel thing. It’s funny though, how just when you get good at something you have to move on and leave it behind. Hopefully moving on won’t mean forgetting the lessons we've learned, because this year has been full of things I would hate to forget.
Anyway, the next day we left for home. Our flights were relatively uneventful (a small scare with an overbooked plane in Washington, but it worked itself out) and we arrived in New York safe and sound. Next destination: Montpelier Vermont. We drove to Philadelphia to pick up some stuff from our storage unit and a rental car, drove back to New York and then on to Montpelier. We’ve been here for a few interesting months now, but that’s another story…
Michael
Montpelier
Vermont USA
Buenos Aires
Prior to our trip, I would have told you that two cities vie for the title of greatest city on earth: Montreal and Lisbon. Well, now there are three. Buenos Aires not only gets added to the list, it may even take the top spot outright. Why? It has all the attributes any great city should have, interesting history, vibrant culture, good food, appealing architecture etc. and has no shortage of tourist attractions. But Buenos Aires is not a gentrified city for yuppies and tourists only. It is vibrant, and alive, with plenty of imperfections to go along with its grandeur and refined sense of style. For me, the grand boulevards, public buildings, monuments and popular tourist attractions were just a backdrop (albeit an amazing one) for these much more interesting “imperfections”. The dilapidated buildings, surly bus drivers, and hole in the wall cafes and restaurants were the real stars.
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| the 10 km race |
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| ready to tango |
Buenos Aires was amazing, truly a highlight of the trip. This is the fourth post I’ve written about it, and I still have a hard time putting my finger on just what it is about this incredible city that I love so much. It was always a dream of mine to visit Buenos Aires, I’m not sure why. Having visited it though, I can say that it exceeded all of my expectations, and I can’t wait to come back.
Montevideo
The ways which travel destinations are chosen can be strange. For example, the first big trip I ever took was centered around Machu Picchu in Peru. My decision wasn’t based in any knowledge or research, I didn’t know the first thing about Machu Picchu, Peru or South America. I chose Machu Picchu because it was featured in a National Geographic coffee table book my mother had laying around when I was a little boy. I don’t think why you go somewhere is important. That you go is the important part, the rest just works itself out.
 |
| a promenade along the river |
 |
| Jose Artigas |
This was no voyage of exploration, no attempt to gain cultural insight. It was just a pleasant day spent strolling through a new city, taking in the sights with the rest of the tourists. A stroll, a three course lunch at a nice restaurant, coffee breaks and a few souvenirs thrown in for good measure. We really enjoyed our visit to Montevideo. Thank you Messrs. Caldeyro-Barcia and Alvarez for suggesting it.
Sao Paulo
We have the Puyehue volcano in southern Chile and the good people at Continental airlines to thank for our unexpected visit to Brazil. Without going into too much detail, the ash cloud from the volcano forced our flight home to be redirected to Sao Paulo where we missed our connection on to the U.S. Of course by the time we landed the volcano had wreaked havoc with flights all over South America and we were informed (after waiting in lines for hours) that it would be several days before space would be available on a flight home. To make matters worse, we didn’t have Brazilian visas (we had no idea we would need them), and were detained for hours in the airport’s no man’s land while airline representatives and immigration officers sorted the mess out. It was a classic airport nightmare. I could go on about how bad it was, but that would be far less interesting than how good it was. We were in a new country, Continental was paying for our hotel and food, the visas eventually got sorted out and the three of us (Zulima was still with us) had nowhere else we had to be. We shook off the aggravation and had a great couple of days in Brazil.
The airport and our hotel were in Guarulhos, a neighbourhood about ten miles from central Sao Paulo. While we were tempted to rush off to the downtown area and all the tourist attractions, we decided to stay in Guarulhos. Ten miles doesn’t sound like much, but transportation was convoluted, and given our short stay we didn’t want to waste time in transit. Besides, if this past year has taught us anything it’s that, if you are open to them, some of the best experiences can happen in out of the way places, and that main attractions can often be a disappointment. Anyway, we ended up spending all our time in Guarulhos and were glad we did.
 |
| after dinner drinks |
We really enjoyed our short time in Brazil. We only spent a few days there, but we definitely got a sense of the place, enough to like it and know we would like to visit again. We also felt like we did it right, like maybe we were getting good at this travel thing. It’s funny though, how just when you get good at something you have to move on and leave it behind. Hopefully moving on won’t mean forgetting the lessons we've learned, because this year has been full of things I would hate to forget.
Anyway, the next day we left for home. Our flights were relatively uneventful (a small scare with an overbooked plane in Washington, but it worked itself out) and we arrived in New York safe and sound. Next destination: Montpelier Vermont. We drove to Philadelphia to pick up some stuff from our storage unit and a rental car, drove back to New York and then on to Montpelier. We’ve been here for a few interesting months now, but that’s another story…
Michael
Montpelier
Vermont USA
