Nuestros Viaje a Mendoza!

Mendoza itself was incredible, I wish we could have spent more time there. The city has a beautiful park with some amazingly sculpted monuments. We arrived on Saturday morning at 10AM and immediately went to the hotel "Puerta de Sol" - the experience at the bus station is an entire email in itself. In short, it's summer time here so there are A LOT of people traveling. After breakfast at the hotel we went on a wine tour of the 4 most famous wineries in Mendoza (really, in all of Argentina) - CAP, VIstalba, Nieto Senetiner and Cava de Cano - and at each we got to taste three different wines, and we learned how to properly wine taste (hold by the stem, sniff, swirl, sniff, drink, swoosh in mouth) :). I had never been to a winery nor have I ever seen how wine is made and so seeing these HUGE vats full of wine was mind blowing. At the winery Cava de Cano we had an enormous feast. It is no exaggeration when I say feast. I attached some pictures of what was on the table when we walked in. We thought what was on the table was our lunch so we ate all of it - little did we know there were THREE more courses not including dessert. It was quite a treat. At CAP, named after the owner and maker of the wine (Carmelo Patti), we were able to meet and snag photos with Carmelo Patti who is apparently very famous in Argentina for his wine (don't worry mom and dad - I got you a bottle!) After the wine tastings we had dinner at a restaurant named Decimo where we could see the entire city of Mendezo. We felt pretty cool sitting in a restaurant over looking the city (pictures of the food attached too - it was DELICIOUS).

Yesterday morning we went on a city tour which is when we saw the park (where they hold free exercise classes!) and where people go to drink maté and have picnics. It was really beautiful. After we visited the monuments and saw the city we went rafting in the river of the ANDES MOUNTAINS. I can't even describe how crazy this experience was. I've been rafting before but never like this. There were times it got so rough we had to all jump into the boat to make sure we wouldn't fall off! Yani bought the CD with pictures (which are hilarious) so I attached some of the ones from my group.

Enjoy :)

Video of our trip to Cascada Escondida

Click here to see our video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djDSDfJ1ti8

Una experiencia gratificante

Prof. Angulo-Cano

Iba de prisa por la calle Caseros a reunirme con los chicos para un tour del casco histórico de la ciudad. Ellos ya se hallaban reunidos frente al lugar acordado cuando, al acercarme al grupo, ví una cara conocida…era Josh.

Conocí a Josh durante mi primer semestre en Eckerd College, él sacaba una doble especialización en Relaciones Internacionales y Castellano; sin duda, era uno de mis mejores estudiantes. En los próximos años Josh tomó varios cursos conmigo. Recuerdo el día que entusiasmado me contó sus planes de pasar un semestre académico estudiando en la Universidad Católica de Córdoba, Argentina. Un viaje de 6 meses que, sin anticiparlo, cambiaría su vida. Al regresar de su estadía en Córdoba, Josh volvió a mi salón de clase, esta vez para tomar un curso de Literatura Cubana en el cual se lució por su dominio del idioma y su sensibilidad ante los textos leídos. Hablaba con tanto entusiasmo de su nueva ciudad adoptiva, que me motivó a mí a planear este programa para el 2010.

Hace un año estuve presente durante su graduación de Eckerd y conocí a sus padres y a su hermana. Aunque nos hemos mantenido en contacto no nos habíamos visto hasta hoy. Josh ahora vive aquí en Córdoba. Es él quien me ha dado la bienvenida a Córdoba y entusiasmado me recomienda los mejores lugares para visitar…todo al compás de un castellano insuperable con acento argentino. Como profesora, ésta ha sido una experiencia muy gratificante. Josh, thank you for giving me such a rewarding experience!

Our First 2 Days in Argentina!

So we've been in Argentina for officially two whole days and I've already fell in love with the country. The people are nice, the food is delicious, and our dollar is equivalent to 3.8 pesos. Regardless of the heavy argentino "ja" accent, I'm doing well understanding people and every opportunity I get, I am practicing mi español. Alessandra and I living with a woman named Laura who is the sweetest woman in the world. She's a 35 year old doctor and her brother and sister live in the same building. It's a great apartment in downtown Córdoba and walking distance to the school - we've also got wireless internet :) . The only bad part is that its summer time here and there is no air conditioning.

After traveling for 24 hours we were pretty exhausted two nights ago so Laura cooked us a dinner of bistec y ensalada con lechuga, tomate y huevos. The meat was so fresh as was the salad - hay supermercados everywhere and so Laura is able to buy fresh food for almost every meal! For the entire trip, we're going to be on the Atkins diet! Todos los restaurantes sirven carne y no hay otros opciones. Es bueno que yo no soy un vegetariano!

Yesterday we went to the Cascadas Escondidas which was fun and really beautiful. It was an underground waterfall you had to hike to get to. The scenery the entire day was incredible.

We started classes today and then went on a tour of the city - we have class for 4 hours every day and than the rest of the day to do what we want! Now we're back at the house just relaxing and uploading pictures etc - maybe we'll do some shopping tonight! I'm excited for Mendoza this weekend!

Adios!

Jamie Preira

Vivencias para disfrutar y recordar

Prof. Angulo-Cano

Al llegar a la ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina, hemos sentido el calorcito veraniego, dejando atrás uno de los inviernos más fríos de St. Petersburg. Es así que hemos pasado del invierno al verano en menos de 24 horas.

En verano, los cordobeses suelen escaparse los fines de semana a las Altas Cumbres. Buscando experiencias de montaña, nosotros hemos hecho lo mismo. Ha sido un día sin pausa. Muy temprano ascendimos 2,100 metros por el cordón montañoso de las Altas Cumbres maravillándonos ante las impresionantes vistas del Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito. A medida que subíamos notábamos el cambio de clima, flora y fauna.

Después de sobrevivir el sinuoso camino, llegamos a nuestra primera parada, Cascada Escondida. No la veíamos pero oíamos el estrepitoso caer del agua. Para llegar debíamos emprender una caminata que resultó ser dificultosa por la altura y la rocosidad del suelo. La cascada se encuentra dentro de una caverna, una formación precámbrica de unos 600 millones de años. Lograr acceso a la cueva resultó toda una odisea resbaladiza. Uno a uno, paso a paso, siguiendo las instrucciones de nuestro guía, Beto, logramos penetrar por la pequeñísima entrada. La impresionante belleza de la Cascada Escondida nos maravilló a todos. Disfrutamos cada momento de su agua cristalina y refrescante. Cerca de la cascada pudimos nadar en pozones de aguas más templadas.

De regreso en el trafic (mini-bus para los cordobeses) emprendimos descenso, haciendo breves paradas en puntos panorámicos, hasta llegar al parador donde degustamos una merienda en un entorno de ensueño.

Un poco más descansados continuamos la excursión hasta Paso Tiroles…ahí vivimos pura adrenalina. Con arnés y casco de seguridad tuvimos la sensación de volar sobre el Río la Suela…vivencias para disfrutar y recordar.