The last time I wrote in this blog, I was leaving Chile for Buenos Aires (12/21/08) to meet up with my real family, my grandparents on my father's side (my grandfather was born in Ecuador, while my grandmother grew up in La Plata, Argentina), my Dad's sister (my aunt), husband and their two kids who are from near Washington, D.C. I had been away from the United States and my family for so long. Our last time together had been with when I left from Hawaii on vacation directly to Santiago. Now I was meeting up with them as well as other members of my extended family after 6 long months of host-family lifestyle.
I took a LAN flight the same afternoon that my family arrived was due to arrive in Argentina, yet I arrived a bit later than them. After checking in at the front desk for my room keys, I bumped into my mother in one of the hotel elevators. Our hotel was located right in the San Martin Plaza in downtown Buenos Aires, with the statue of liberator San Martin on horseback in the plaza. And every fun spot is almost walkable. After finally connecting the rest of my family, we go to eat out together for dinner to catch up.
December 22nd: My grandparents arrived in the early morning to Buenos Aires, and since I was not thrown off as hard by the time-change/jet lag since Santiago is just an hour earlier than Buenos Aires, I was able to meet my grandmother for breakfast.
The rest of my family woke up a little bit later in the afternoon, and we took a tour of Puerto Madero(above) for lunch and scope out potential restaurants for Christmas eve. I decide to take my siblings back on a walk from Puerto Madero to our hotel by walking past the Casa Rosada(below, and the equivalent of the White House for the Argentine government) and the many other government buildings nearby, and then to the hotel. 
Upon returning to the hotel, we discover that my aunt, uncle, and two cousins had been stuck overnight in Toronto due to a number of technical difficulties and weather conditions. They would eventually arrive in the middle of the night/early morning the next day.
12/23: We together as a family go on a walk down Florida(below).
My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were able to take part as well, but they were just coming off an inconceivable number of hours of traveling. After our walk, we come to realize the championship match between the two best club teams in Argentina was the night of the 23rd and that we should try and get tickets. We end up organizing a van service, guide, and tickets to the club finals of the clausura between Boca Juniors and Tigre.
The game was quite an experience. My dad, uncle, both of my cousins, and all my siblings attended the match and we all left with similar impressions. We have tickets in the Tigre section and were told not to wear yellow or blue since those of the colors of Boca and we didn't want to start any trouble with the Argentine fans.
I was secretly cheering for Boca, but just watching also as a casual observer unlike the rest of the fans in the stadiums with their fireworks, flares, smoke, constant singing before, all during, and after the match. The stadium (that of the club 'Racing') literally shook during peak moments of the match. Just to enter the match, the bustling streets with Choripan stands and Tigre fans (BBQ sausage sandwich) created and anxious environment. We preceded to pass through 3 "checkpoints," where we were patted down. One of the checkpoints didn't allow people everyone to pass all at the same time, so they let people through in waves while a riot police member blasted shotgun shells in the air to keep in the people back. There were not many women who attended the match, but there were some, much more than many years ago where women either simply weren't allowed to go or it just wasn't safe. The match was very exciting, ending in a 1-0 win for Tigre, but because of the aggregate goals rule in Argentine playoff futbol, Boca Juniors were declared champions of the league since they had scored more overall goals. Tigre fans were still passionate even after the match was over, especially since they had beat Boca.
12/24: I go on a walking tour with my brothers and father of the Botanical Gardens (which I have earlier described in this blog here), and the they were just as I had remembered them: tons of cats lounging all over the grounds and are fed by someone working for the gardens, many species of plants from all around the world, and some classic sculptures, ponds, greenhouses, etc.
Afterward we headed to Parque Palermo, which felt very quiet considering it was the afternoon on Christmas eve and everyone was either at home or heading home to be with their families. I was still able to find an open Choripan stand with some awesome Chimichurri sauce. The park was followed up by an odd cafe stop in barrio Recoleta since there were about 3 m80 fireworks that went off in a 45 minute time span. That night we ate at a great Italian restaurant called Bice in Puerto Madero. They had prepared a nice multi-course meal and holiday program for all guests eating at the restaurant that night.
Christmas day was spent taking a short airline flight to the region Iguazu in Northern Argentina, on the border with Brasil and a bit of Paraguay. The weather was significantly hotter and more humid, and the views, vegetation, and life in this area are spectacular.
There is a reason that it is being considered as one of 7 most important/amazing/beautiful 'natural' wonders of the world (vote now here). We stayed at a very nice old hotel located inside the park of Iguazu on the Brazilian side with a view of the waterfalls from the front entrance.
I have visited this exact region of Argentina once before, but I was much younger and it was just my parents and one of my younger brothers. I do not remember much from the trip since it was so long ago, but I do remember some vague images of the park, butterflies, and feeding small, friendly jungle mammals.
12/26: I went on a walk through the dense part of the jungle with my brothers and one of my cousins to see what we could find. We followed along a path that had been cleared by some telephone lines but ran straight through the forest. We got scared by what are known as coatis, which turned out to be those small, friendly animals that I vaguely remember from last time.
We also saw many types of giant spiders, grasshoppers, butterflies, and all sorts of bugs. There were many sounds that were never identified, but probably just birds or bugs.
Later in the afternoon, everyone but my grandparents went on a boat ride up the Iguazu river to get an up-close look at the falls and get wet. We also got a brief jungle tour during the jeep ride to the boats, as well as a DVD copy of the boat ride.
12/27: My family and cousins take a tour of the Argentine side of Iguazu, which had some great views as well. We unfortunately weren't able to tour the whole park since we entered close to closing time. Still got some good pictures.
12/28: My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins fly back from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, but my family had planned to spend a couple days in the southern part of Argentina known as Bariloche. Once again, when I was younger, I traveled to this city as well. It is very similar to the High Sierras, but in the southern hemisphere. The town offers a lot of adventure sports, tours, and a nice downtown. We rented an apartment that overlooked the Nahuel Huapi Lake.
12/29: My dad and I take a walk downtown early in the morning to try and put together some rough plans for the next couples days. We decide it might be a good idea to take a boat ride later that afternoon to Victoria Island (Isla Victoria). We also try and find a good fishing trip deal offered by one of the sport stores downtown. My entire family ends up taking a wild public bus down to the boat where we were to board a boat for a island tour.
Once we get on the boat, we spend about 10 minutes waiting for the final passengers to board and decide that the trip would probably not be worth it considering how the trip was setup and how many people were on the boat as well. So we change our plans and spend the afternoon at the Llao Llao hotel. This place is over the top and incredibly expensive, but it is fun to pretend like you are staying there and soak in the great views it has from the property.
After coming back into downtown Bariloche, my dad finalizes a fishing trip the next morning early and practically all day. We eat dinner downtown and get to bed early for our long day.
12/30: Two pickup trucks, one towing a boat, 3 guides, and my entire family leave town early in the morning for a lake far outside the city limits of Bariloche.
The landscapes were incredible, and we took many beaten trails, roads, and mud ditches to get to this pristine trout lake. We ended up taking two motor boats, coolers full of lunch supplies, and fishing rods out for the afternoon. It was awesome.
12/31: Our final morning in Bariloche consisted of checking out of our apartment and doing some last minute shopping. We head to the airport for a flight back to Buenos Aires to meet up for New Year's with the rest of the family. We all had dinner that night at the same restaurant that we attended for Christmas eve, and this time they had a DJ and singer performing during dinner leading up to the countdown.
1/1/09: After a slow morning of hanging out by the pool at the hotel, I discover that there is a sports bar within walking distance from where we were staying: The Alamo, Shoeless Joe's. It is essentially the equivalent of the bar I worked at in Santiago, but much larger with a different layout. They had cable feed showing college football games and other sports. Had to try and catch SC whoop on Penn State in the Rose Bowl. The family met up for pizza that night, and then I went back to the Alamo bar for the rest of the nightcap. We thought there was a chance that my grandparents were going to leave this day, but they were able to hang out until about 8p.m., and then had to go to the airport for a red-eye.
1/2: My aunt, uncle, cousins, and my direct family all took a train ride the next early afternoon to the city of La Plata, where my father, grandmother, and grandfather all grew up more of less. We were able to explore the neighborhood where the lived.
The house was located across the street from a social club and we were even able to let the owners of the house give us a tour considering we were the relatives of former owners long ago. We later took a train from La Plata back to Buenos Aires, where we did a walking tour of the barrio, or neighborhood La Boca. This is the part of the town where Boca Juniors is from and where the stadium is located. There are a lot of tourist shops, port traditions, tango, and other fun stuff to do there.
After returning back to the hotel, my dad, mother, and brother went to a late night Tango show at a place that had been doing nightly shows since the 80s. We had some tasty wine and enjoyed an entertaining performance.
1/3: This was our final day in South America. We spent the early part of the afternoon shopping on the street La Florida, looking for souvenirs and gifts. Afterward, we walked around the neighborhood of San Telmo, which has a lot of antique shops and traditional gifts. That night we left for the airport to fly home.
It was such a great experience to have my entire family on the Latin American side of my family come visit one of the origins of the family heritage for the holiday season. Christmas and New Years dinners together were both great opportunities for us to get together. There was not a more perfect way for me to end my travels in South America, and I can't wait to come back one day. I just can't get enough of the language, culture, attractions, food, memories that both Chile, Argentina, and many other countries down south.
This concludes my blog on my over 6 month adventure in Chile and many other parts of South America. I hope you enjoyed reading about my travels and hopefully this serves as a good tool for anyone who wants a personal account of how living life in Santiago, Chile on a study abroad for 6 months.
Since I was in Chile for a semester, I should be graduating this quarter. I took 24 units over the course of the summer and what would have been my fall quarter had I been in Santa Cruz. So that gave me a bit of a units boost, and I will be able to fulfill all my requirements as a Global Economics major with an emphasis on Latin America. I will still wait to walk with the rest of my class in the Spring because there is an actual ceremony if I wait and I don't want to have to walk on my own in March. Should be a challenging but exciting final quarter for me and I can't wait to see where this path takes me.
I will try and continue a personal blog from here on out. However, finding time to write and update about my activities requires chunks of free time. Hopefully I can keep it going. I will post the the URL here when it is created.
