Panoramics II - Andes Mountains.

Buenos Aires II

I thought I would type out a last note here in Argentina for everyone and to link some pictures from Buenos Aires for everyone. This city is one of the most beautiful that I have seen and each neighborhood has a distinct feel for it. The pictures posted below are from the microcentro. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the blog over the last few months and I will post new photos after I arrive back in the US.

Goodbye Mendoza / Adios Mendoza

I thought I would take the time to type out a quick note to say that I will be leaving Mendoza shortly. I have a presentation tomorrow and a farewell dinner and then I leave for Buenos Aires in the morning after (Friday). I will be there for a few days and return on Thursday the 18th. I will likely be taking pictures and uploading them as I have been the last few weeks. The easiest way for me to do this is through the Picasa program so I will link that for convenience.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Acquan

Buenos Aires

This last four day weekend has been a blur. I left last Thursday night for Buenos Aires by overnight bus and I got back this morning at seven for classes at nine. The weekend was quite fun and I visited Colonia, Uruguay (making a total of four countries that I have visited), I went to the cemetery in Recoleta, the zoo a football (soccer) game and some of the government buildings in the center of the city. Pictures to follow soon.

Uspallata

I realized I forgot to post from my weekend two weeks ago. The pictures have been up on my Picasa account, but they are linked here for reference. These are from the border town of Uspallata and Aconcagua National Park. Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in the world, outside of the Himalayas. Mendoza therefore has hundreds of tourists who come to climb the mountain in the summertime (January-February)(Recall that seasons are reversed in the southern hemisphere due to the tilt of the earth). The day before we left we went to a museum in Mendoza about the founding of the city.

Panoramics - Patagonia

Here are some Panoramic photos that I took while I was in Patagonia. These are all from the Arrayanes National Park.

Pictures from Patagonia

As promised:

Patagonia

I have been back from Patagonia for almost a week now, but I have not been able to post anything - homework has taken priority. However, I thought I would type out a quick note for everyone and let you know what we did. We left two weeks ago (20 hour bus rides are horrible) and we did several hiking trips which while fun and entertaining, are not my particular cup of tea (I'm not a tea fan either, although apple cider or hot chocolate on a very cold day is nice). We saw three waterfalls, had classes, had a very entertaining lunch in Bariloche, did some shopping, wrote two papers and enjoyed sleeping 100 meters from a very beautiful lake. Pictures to follow this weekend.

Cabalgata

This last week has gone by rapidly. I spent the last three days traversing the Andes on horseback. I really wanted to be able to share pictures and of course to take them as well, so I purchased a camera here in Argentina. Enjoy the pictures. I will probably post again in two weeks after I return from our class trip to Patagonia.

Edit: Ok, apparently the pictures won't publish correctly for whatever odd reason. Therefore, visit here: Pictures

The Lost and Broken

I am settling in well here in the city. My house is quite nice and classes have been progressing fairly well, with a slight exception. I figured out what was wrong with my camera this morning; the sensor that "sees" has some kind of factory defect. I will have to mail it to the US and to Nikon to get it fixed. Unfortunately, they cannot mail it back due to some odd tax laws and huge import fines, but I think I will try to find a very very cheap camera here and steal some of the pictures from the group. This may be my last post for the week. I am going on a horseback riding trip that leaves on Thursday and gets back on Saturday. I have had a few questions about food, so I will try to answer those next time.

Pictures...

I had a few other pictures to show, but I seem to be having a bit of trouble with my camera, so I cannot post the pictures that I took, they are too dark, and this is the only decent picture I have. The problem was just a small thing with the lens shutter, which is fixed now. Anyway... this is a picture of the University where our classes are, the name basically just says College of Philosophy and Letters. I might try to do some traveling this next weekend, we have four days off from school.

Safe

I arrived safely yesterday, despite some minor confusion in Santiago. Apparently it will cost you 130 dollars just to enter the country, but if you have a connecting flight to Argentina, you do not have to pay anything. There were absolutely no problems with luggage. (Fortunately) Customs was very quick, they just checked for fruits and vegetables, and did not charge anything to enter.(Thank God) We had a quick orientation this morning (Monday), just some general information about the trip, when classes would be, various excursions and then we settled in for a nice three hour lunch at a rather prestigious country club near the University. I have not taken any pictures yet, but those should be coming later this week. For those of you who have Skype, I can be online in the evenings, your afternoons, but send me an email or some kind of message first. I will not be available by telephone, it is too expensive.
More to follow,
Kevin

Universidad Nacional de Cuyo

This is the University in Argentina that I will be attending beginning in April.
(Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, facultad de filosofía y letras, the building that my classes are in, is the "L" shaped building in the top left corner of the picture. )
I will be taking five classes;
SPA 148S - SEC 002 Spanish Language Cinema
SPA 159S - SEC 002 Topics in Latin American Lit Culture
SPA 170S - SEC 001 Intro Latin American Culture
SPA 171S - SEC 001 Music from Latin America
SPA 198 - SEC 004 Directed Group Study

Skype

Another form of communication that I recommend that anyone get is the (free) program Skype. It lets you chat, call, or video call from computer to computer over the internet (VoIP, Voice over Internet Protocol). Using this, I could call you while I am in Argentina and assuming we both had webcams, we could even see each other. The only thing that is needed is the program, a microphone and an internet connection.

Welcome!

Welcome Everyone to the new blog...
I am going to be keeping a bit of an online journal of my time in Argentina. Depending on how much internet access I have will likely determine the extent to which that this blog may grow. In all likelihood I will probably just post pictures from my trip as the quarter progresses. Those of you who have Facebook accounts will be able to see pictures there as well.

Best,
Kevin Anderson