Friday, December 14, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Colonia, URUGUAY!
Hi everyone,
Greetings from Uruguay! It feels like forever ago that I wrote my last entry from Bolivia. After leaving Bolivia, Rachel and I traveled to Argentina and spent two weeks volunteering on a small organic farm near Mendoza. We had a great time and wished that we could have had more time there. The family that we stayed with was really nice and we spent a few hours sitting around with them every day discussing politics and history (among other things). Ruben, the dad, loved to ask us impossible questions and thought that I should know all the answers since I was an international studies major...I think he was a little disappointed that I didn't.
Cherry season usually only lasts a few weeks so we were lucky that the season started a few days before we got to the farm. We spent many mornings picking cherries and then often spent the afternoons sorting them. We also planted corn, squash, and learned to bake delicious bread. Our friend Rebecca, who we met while volunteering on the farm in Costa Rica, came and met us on the farm our second week there and got to spend a couple days picking cherries before it was time to move on. After leaving the farm, we spent two days wandering around the beautiful tree lined streets of Mendoza and hanging out with my friend Dominic and his sister. I originally met Dominic while volunteering back in Peru and he and his sister were traveling in nearby Chile so they came to see us for the weekend. We loved Mendoza and would have liked more time there, but had to catch an overnight bus to Buenos Aires on Sunday to meet up with Leah. We hadn't seen her in almost a month so it was great to catch up with her and hear about how everything is going back in Pisco. She has taken on more responsibility now that Marc, the operations director, left about a month ago to respond to a disaster in Bangladesh. She agreed to stay through the end of the project in mid January with the condition that she could have this week off to come and visit us.
We spent a couple days in Buenos Aires, but quickly realized that none of us liked it there very much and the people were unfriendly compared to how nice everyone was in Mendoza. We woke up on Wednesday morning planning to go to the beach, but once we realized how far away it was, we decide to go to Uruguay which only took an hour to get to by boat. For me it was a dream come true because I've always been fascinated by Uruguay, though I'm not sure why and everyone was happy because it meant getting out of Buenos Aires. So far we like it a lot here. Colonia is a small colonial town and we've enjoyed just taking it easy and catching up with each other. We love everything about this place except for the food.
Tomorrow we're headed back to BA and then on Sunday Rachel flies to Panama, Leah flies back to Peru, and Rebecca flies to Costa Rica. The next day I fly to Colombia. We were all planning on going to Colombia originally, but plans change and now it turns out that I have to go by myself. It's not ideal, but I'm hoping to have a good time anyway and maybe meet up with a few people I volunteered with in Peru. Rachel and I will meet back up in Nicaragua in early January and then after about 10 days there we'll head to Guatemala and meet up with Leah and volunteer at Safe Passage until May. As much as I am loving seeing new places, I am also really excited to go back and spend a significant amount of time working with the kids that I care about so much.
Love, Katie
p.s. To see some pics from Argentina, click here. To see some from Uruguay, click here.
Greetings from Uruguay! It feels like forever ago that I wrote my last entry from Bolivia. After leaving Bolivia, Rachel and I traveled to Argentina and spent two weeks volunteering on a small organic farm near Mendoza. We had a great time and wished that we could have had more time there. The family that we stayed with was really nice and we spent a few hours sitting around with them every day discussing politics and history (among other things). Ruben, the dad, loved to ask us impossible questions and thought that I should know all the answers since I was an international studies major...I think he was a little disappointed that I didn't.
Cherry season usually only lasts a few weeks so we were lucky that the season started a few days before we got to the farm. We spent many mornings picking cherries and then often spent the afternoons sorting them. We also planted corn, squash, and learned to bake delicious bread. Our friend Rebecca, who we met while volunteering on the farm in Costa Rica, came and met us on the farm our second week there and got to spend a couple days picking cherries before it was time to move on. After leaving the farm, we spent two days wandering around the beautiful tree lined streets of Mendoza and hanging out with my friend Dominic and his sister. I originally met Dominic while volunteering back in Peru and he and his sister were traveling in nearby Chile so they came to see us for the weekend. We loved Mendoza and would have liked more time there, but had to catch an overnight bus to Buenos Aires on Sunday to meet up with Leah. We hadn't seen her in almost a month so it was great to catch up with her and hear about how everything is going back in Pisco. She has taken on more responsibility now that Marc, the operations director, left about a month ago to respond to a disaster in Bangladesh. She agreed to stay through the end of the project in mid January with the condition that she could have this week off to come and visit us.
We spent a couple days in Buenos Aires, but quickly realized that none of us liked it there very much and the people were unfriendly compared to how nice everyone was in Mendoza. We woke up on Wednesday morning planning to go to the beach, but once we realized how far away it was, we decide to go to Uruguay which only took an hour to get to by boat. For me it was a dream come true because I've always been fascinated by Uruguay, though I'm not sure why and everyone was happy because it meant getting out of Buenos Aires. So far we like it a lot here. Colonia is a small colonial town and we've enjoyed just taking it easy and catching up with each other. We love everything about this place except for the food.
Tomorrow we're headed back to BA and then on Sunday Rachel flies to Panama, Leah flies back to Peru, and Rebecca flies to Costa Rica. The next day I fly to Colombia. We were all planning on going to Colombia originally, but plans change and now it turns out that I have to go by myself. It's not ideal, but I'm hoping to have a good time anyway and maybe meet up with a few people I volunteered with in Peru. Rachel and I will meet back up in Nicaragua in early January and then after about 10 days there we'll head to Guatemala and meet up with Leah and volunteer at Safe Passage until May. As much as I am loving seeing new places, I am also really excited to go back and spend a significant amount of time working with the kids that I care about so much.
Love, Katie
p.s. To see some pics from Argentina, click here. To see some from Uruguay, click here.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
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