A Term With Plan Ceibal

6/11
After interrogating everyone in the hostel in Montevideo about how to maximize my one week to see some of Northern Argentina, I decided to go to Cordoba and then to Iguazu Falls. Thursday night, I took a cushy overnight bus from Montevideo to Cordoba, Argentina's second largest city. The bus had fully reclining seats and served free meals, soda, and martinis. (Although it did also break down for an hour and a half right outside of Montevideo.) I got to Cordoba at 10 am the next day and dropped my stuff at a lively hostel downtown, where I ran into my friend Niels from Montevideo. I checked out all the touristy sights downtown, like this cool looking church, and got a giant plate of tofu for $2 which made me pretty happy. Everything here seems to be about half the Montevideo price.


This morning, I took a bus to a town called Capilla del Monte, in the mountains about 2 hours from Cordoba. It has a sort of hippie vibe--lots of health food stores and advertisements for massages, yoga, and various Asian religions. I wanted to climb the closest mountain, Uritorco, which is supposed to have not only nice views, but also special powers that attract UFOs. Unfortunately, you have to start climbing by 11 am, and the early bus I planned on taking turned out to not exist, so I didn't get to town until 10:30. I'd found a hostel online, but didn't bother making a reservation because it's low season and none of the hostels seem to be full. This turned out to be a mistake--not because the hostel was booked, but because they weren't expecting anyone so the staff left to go watch the World Cup game with the rest of the town. I couldn't get into the hostel, I didn't want to hike anywhere with my overstuffed backpack, and most of the rest of the town seemed to have shut down too, so I postponed the adventuring and ate dulce de leche and watched Argentina beat Nigeria. By the time the game was over and I could ditch my stuff at the hostel, I didn't have time to do anything I'd planned, but the guy at the tourist desk told me to walk a few kilometers to a nearby dam that had nice views of Uritorco, the lake, and this odd shoe-shaped rock.


When I got back to town, I tried to check out the UFO museum, but sadly it's closed until next week. The sign says "The governments know...do you?"

I considered staying another day to hike Uriturco, but the only other people in the hostel were a middle aged Argentine couple, and the fact that you have to fill out a medical form to climb it made me think it wasn't something I should climb alone with no cell phone, no knowledge of the area, and very minimal hiking equipment. So, I'm going to head back to Cordoba tomorrow and catch a bus to Iguazu Falls.

6/15
I got to Puerto Iguazu about 10 am yesterday, and saw the three main sections of the Iguazu Falls park that day. The Lower Circuit runs along the riverbank at the bottom of the falls and allows for panoramic views, the Upper Circuit goes along part of the top of the falls, and a catwalk leads to the Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), the top of the biggest part of the falls. On the Lower Circuit, bands of coatis follow people. They seem pretty tame and cute at first, but once they saw that I had bananas, they started lunging at me! A little train takes you from the park entrance to each path, and I randomly met a Dartmouth '07 on the train back from the Garganta del Diablo.
Lower Circuit:

Upper Circuit:

Garganta del Diablo:

I went back today to take a motorboat trip that goes terrifyingly close to the bottom of the falls (you get completely soaked, so i didn't try to take pictures). Then I walked a 3 km trail to a smaller waterfall, and saw lots of birds and capybaras along the way. The tour bus groups didn't come to this part, so I was the only one there when I got to this waterfall:



6/17
I took an overnight bus from Puerto Iguazu to a town called Colon, near the Uruguayan border. I wanted to visit the cool-sounding national park nearby, full of huge palm trees and wildlife. I thought the bus would take me to the town bus terminal, like the other buses I've taken, but instead it dropped me off in the middle of a construction zone/giant mud pit on the side of the highway, and the driver pointed in the direction of town. A construction worker told me that town was seven kilometers away. But luckily, there was a gas station across the road, the guy there called me a taxi and it all worked out. In Colon, I looked for buses to the national park, and was told that I might not be able to get to the actual park, because the bus drops you off at the highway entrance which is 5k from the park. In high season, it's easy to hitch a ride in, but it's low season and I'm alone and don't have any camping stuff. So, I chickened out and bought a ticket across the river to Paysandu, Uruguay. From there, I was hoping to find a bus to Colonia, a historic town that's one of the places you're generally supposed to go when you visit Uruguay. I passed through on my way to Buenos Aires, but I hadn't gotten a chance to really see it.

I arrived in Paysandu and discovered that the next bus to Colonia wasn't for four hours, so I had some time to explore. Paysandu isn't a typical tourist stop, but it does have a tourist office, where I must have looked really lost because the woman at the desk started by pointing out where we were on a map of Uruguay. But eventually, she gave me directions to the hot springs (too far away to get to), a restaurant creatively named "El Bar" with truly terrible pizza, and points on the river with panoramic views. That sounded great, except that a torrential downpour began as soon as I started walking, and views seemed unlikely. So, I returned to the bus station to watch the World Cup and eat alfajores, which is hard to complain about. I got completely soaked though, and I don't think I'll be in one place long enough to do any laundry before I leave, so I will probably arrive in Boston really smelly.

I got to Colonia and checked into a hostel near the old city. I thought I probably wouldn't make many friends in my room by coming in smelling like a wet dog, but luckily, the room already smelled like a wet dog when I got there. One roommate kindly doused the place in cologne in an attempt to improve things, so now I smell like a very manly wet dog. Colonia is charming and tranquil, with lots of quiet cobblestone streets, white fences, and panoramic views of the river.

The map I had didn't give me much information about the sights I saw, but I'm sure they are very historic as well. I checked out the gate to the old city (from when it was a fort), the new lighthouse built on the ruins of the old one, the main plaza, the port, and the basilica. The most unusual thing listed on the map was the "Calle de los Suspiros"--Street of Sighs.

It's just a little one-block street near the plaza with especially bumpy cobblestones. I'm wasn't sure what inspired the name (Google suggests that condemned prisoners walked down the street to be drowned in the sea, that a woman waiting for her lover was murdered, or that it was full of prostitutes). It's a small town, though, and three hours seemed like plenty to see most of the sights. I got an early afternoon bus back to Montevideo, where I'm going to get my suitcase, say some final goodbyes, and stuff all the remaining space in my bags with dulce de leche and alfajores. My flight leaves at 9 tonight.

I guess this is the end of the travel stories, but I do have to write a sort of summary/reflection for ISTS/Neukom (the programs that funded me), so there will probably be one more post coming!

During my last week of the project, I took two trips out of the city and did some touristy things I've been meaning to do since I got here.

On Saturday, I took a trip with Flor de Ceibo to the country, north of Montevideo near a town called Tala. The trip was a "diagnostic visit," and the event was held in a community center next to a school, surrounded by farms. A few dozen community members showed up, and students from the College of Agriculture at the University of the Republic gave presentations about the geography and economy of the region and its needs. Afterwards, there were hamburgers, soda, and pastries. I'm not entirely sure what was being diagnosed, or really how it related to Plan Ceibal at all, but it was cool to see another part of the country and get to talk to the other students in the group more. Here's the gathering in the community center:


Monday, I went with Pablo and Cesar to another blogging workshop in the town of Salinas, about an hour outside of Montevideo. It was held at a large elementary school (with about 800 kids) in a suburban neighborhood just off the highway. When we arrived, we found a few groups of kids using their XOs. They were far too absorbed to notice us posing for photos.

A group of a few dozen teachers, all of them women, was waiting for us. Cesar and Pablo introduced Tus Ideas Valen and ceibalJAM! Pablo had created a test blogspot site, and asked them to comment on a post with their idea of what a blog was. Most of the teachers weren't familiar with blogs, or really the Internet in general. When Pablo put the URL of the test blog on the board, many of them typed it into Google instead of the address bar, and many of the comments they posted were along the lines of "we don't know, we're here to learn!" But they all seemed to be having a great time figuring it out, and by the end of the workshop had an idea of what a blog is and how tools like Blogger function.

Video coming soon!

Sunday night, I went with some friends to see candombe in a park near the hostel. Candombe is a kind of drumming musical style that originated with African-Uruguayans in Montevideo. On Sunday nights, neighborhood groups practice in the streets, and during Carnival there are competitions. Candombe is mostly performed by men, but the group we saw, called La Melaza, is all women. People surround the drummers and follow them through the streets dancing--lots of fun!


Tuesday, I took the bus across town to "El Cerro," a neighborhood on the edge of Montevideo. It's across the bay from downtown and has a large hill with great views of the city from the top. The guys at the hostel told me to take a taxi from the bus stop to the museum at the top of the hill because it wasn't a safe neighborhood to walk around in. So I did, and the taxi driver immediately told me that it was not advised to come here alone, but I figured that taking a taxi to a museum staffed by soldiers and then a taxi back to the bus stop was not exactly reckless. But when the taxi driver dropped me at the top of the hill, I discovered that the museum is only open Wednesday through Sunday, and I was all alone on top of the hill. So it was a pretty nervous walk back to the bus stop, but no one even looked twice at me and the views were worth it!


As promised, here's some photos of a panaderia (bakery). You can't go more than a few blocks here without passing one. I never learned the proper names for most of the pastries because there are so many--I just point and say "One of this, one of this..." They usually have plain rolls, croissants (called medialunas--half moons), empanadas, and alfajores. Then there are dozens of kinds of pastries, but every bakery seems to have something different. You can get mini ones, called masitas, which are sold by the kilogram so you can get a variety. Basically, every American coffee shop with 10 cookie/cake options is a huge slacker in comparison.


An alfajor is basically a sandwich cookie with dulce de leche in the middle. Usually, the cookies are sort of thick and cakey, not crunchy like an Oreo. There are a million variations--chocolate covered, with nuts or coconut, with chocolate or orange or lemon filling, triple-decker, etc. They are sold fresh in every bakery, or packaged in every convenience store.

Now I'm going to spend a week traveling in part of Northern Argentina before I fly home!

I'm way overdue for an entry. It's been harder than I expected to condense everything that happens in a week into a coherent entry that's simultaneously appropriate for friends at home, friends here, family, and random people searching for info about Punta del Diablo. Plus, things like the three hours I spent trying to get a Python update to install correctly do not exactly make for thrilling blog entries, even if they happen in a foreign country. But I will try to keep you all awake.

The work with Flor de Ceibo (the group from the University of the Republic) is slow going, and I'm slow to understand what does happen. For the Uruguayan students, Flor de Ceibo is a much longer program, so they're not in a rush. A few trips have been cancelled, and I missed one last weekend because the leaders didn't call to tell me until the night before, and I stupidly didn't have my phone on me, or even check it until Sunday. There's supposed to be one this weekend and then again next week before I leave Montevideo.

With ceibalJAM!, I've spent the last few weeks trying to put together a larger project, and I'll focus on it for the rest of my time here. The idea, called "blog-pals" is a website that will link the blogs of Uruguayan classrooms to each other, and hopefully to classes in the U.S. as well. There will be a theme for the entries every week or two, and games that teach some related vocabulary in English and Spanish that they can then use in their blog entries. Various logistical and technical issues (for example, Flash doesn't work great on the XOs) have made this a longer project than I envisioned. At this point, my goal before leaving is to modify a geography game ceibalJAM! volunteers already wrote called Conozco Uruguay ("I know Uruguay") to teach vocabulary instead. The website probably won't get finished before I leave, especially with the Flor de Ceibo trips planned, but hopefully my summer term classes will not control my life and I can stay involved via the Internet. There is another blogging workshop next week too, in the town of Salinas.

I'll probably have a lot more to write about work-wise in a week or so. Until then, here are some more snapshots of life in Montevideo...

A few of many painted benches along my walk home from the centro.







Nils from the Netherlands eating a "hamburguesa completa." In order for a hamburger to be complete here, it needs cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard, mayo...and ham, peppers, a fried egg, and peas (!).


Most famous Uruguayan dishes involve large amounts of meat, so I'm not exactly an expert on them. When I tell people I'm vegetarian, the most common response is "but you have to eat meat here, the meat here is really good!" followed inevitably by "do you eat chicken?" I'm still holding out. The guys who run the hostel tried to convince me that they take the blood for blood sausage without killing the pig and so therefore it's just like milk, but really they've gotten used to me and even started grilling peppers and onions along with the meat at the weekly barbecues. Plus, no one ever steals tofu from the hostel fridge. Luckily, there is a lot of Italian influence in Uruguay, which means you can get pizza and pasta everywhere. If you just ask for "pizza" it will come without cheese...you have to ask for a "muzzarella" to get cheese. All the pizza places also sell faina, a flatbread made from chickpeas. If you eat them together like this, it's called "pizza a caballo"--pizza on horseback.


People drink mate everywhere--at work, in meetings, at the park, in the supermarket. Often, signs that say "no eating or drinking" have to specifically add "and no drinking mate." It's a bitter tea that you drink out of a hollow gourd cup also called a mate. The tea goes in the top part and you pour hot water from your thermos over it, then sip from the metal straw, called a bombilla, that has a sort of strainer at the bottom. When you finish a cup, you pour more water in and pass it to a friend. It doesn't taste great (though it's not bad either), but I like the ritual of passing it around.


The warmth of the tea is also nice now that it's winter here and colder. It's more like October weather by Vermont standards, but everyone is shocked at me for still wearing flip-flops. Still, I'm looking forward to beach weather when I get back!

I was going to write about the desserts too, but I decided I didn't have any pictures that properly capture the amazing bakeries here. Next time!