La Plata

Day 4:
February 9, 2013

Hey guys it's Livia blogging here today! We were all really tired after staying up late at the carnival last night so we slept the whole bus ride down to Mar de Plata which is a city in the Pampas region. The Pampas is a region in Argentina that is right by Buenos Aires and is well known for its awesome beaches. It took us about an hour to get to La Plata via bus.

The first thing we did after was take a taxi fifteen minutes out to the Caballos a La Par, which is a  family owned horse ranch. They give people free two hour horseback riding lessons and it was a lot of fun! The horses were all really beautiful and well taken care of. Our instructor was really friendly and helpful, and before you knew it we were all off riding through the forest. It was so relaxing trotting through the forest on a horse. The horses were also so tame and well behaved, and afterwards we were allowed to feed them carrots and sugar cubes. I wish I could have taken my horse home but I don't think horses can get past airport security!

Afterwards we returned to the city of La Plata and went to the famous museum there. The Museo de la Plata opened in 1888 and it's collection has been growing ever since. They have everything there from fossils, bugs, artifacts, sculptures, and paintings. We walked around checking everything out for awhile. In the bug exhibit dead bugs were pinned everywhere for people to view. I thought that was really sad and gross to see all these dead bugs for display, but Sydney on the other hand seemed fascinated by all the beetles at different stages of development. Personally my favorite part was all the fossils. They had an original fossil of the Titanosaurus and it was amazing!

After we were finished exploring the museum we still had some time left in the day to visit the beaches of La Plata. The area by the main entrance to the beach was insanely crowded! We managed to grab a small chunk of sand to put down on our towels. We only stayed for an hour or two because it was so crowded it was hard to have a good time. We then gathered up our stuff and headed over to the nearest bus station. Our next stop is Peninsula Valdes and it's going to be a long seventeen hour bus ride to get there.

It's Carnival Day!

Day 3:
February 8, 2012

Hi, it's Lexie blogging today! All five of us slept in a little bit to catch up on sleep so we wouldn't be tired during the huge carnival we went to today. We got up and ready at eight and then we went downstairs for the inns' breakfast that comes along with the price we paid for the room. We made sure to eat a lot since there was a full day planned for us!

The first thing we did this morning was head out to Argentina's most historical theater. We were so happy that we managed to find affordable tickets to see the ballet performance "Onieguin" in the famous Colon Theater. The theater was built in 1857 and it's amazing what they managed to build without having all the technology that we have today. It is acoustically among the five best opera houses in the entire world! They had just finished refurbishing in 2010 so everything in there was really new and looked nice. Watching the ballet was a really cool experience even though we could barely see from our cheap seats. 

After the performance was finished we jumped on a bus and headed down to the city of Gualeguaychu to see the famous carnival! The carnival used to be a way for people who were Christian to have fun before Lent started. Now it has basically turned into an excuse for everyone to get together and have a great time. It took us three hours to get there but it was definitely worth it to see the carnival that has been compared to the Rio de Jeneiro. Crazy performances took place in tons of amazing, huge, colorful floats. We got tickets to sit in the grandstands so we could get a good view of all the festivities. All of us agreed that it was one of the best days in our lives! There were so many dancers, singers, and people everywhere, just being happy and partying on carnival day. We really got to experience the Argentinian culture and I think we all loved it. There is nothing that is this fun and crazy back in Apex. Anyways, we didn't get back to Buenos Aires until about two in the morning and now it's about three. I better get going to bed because who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring?

Exploring Buenos Aires

Day 2:

February 7, 2013

Hey, it’s Rachel here today! Tiffany gave us all the stink eye this morning because we all “accidently” fell asleep and she had to stay up late last night blogging. Anyways, now that our long day of travel is over with, we were able to spend today exploring the beautiful city of Buenos Aires! Oh, before I get started we are staying in the Posada Gotan Bed and Breakfast. It’s a pretty basic place because we all agreed on staying in cheaper places, this way we could afford to do more fun stuff. But the place is pretty clean and serves breakfast, so what more could you ask for?

The first thing that we did today was head over to the Lujan Zoo. This zoo is very controversial because you are literally hanging out with lions, tigers, and bears. I think we were all a little skeptical of this at first, but it ended up being a really cool experience! We got to pet and sit on all these animals which would normally be dangerous, but instead they were really calm because they had been raised in captivity and were very tame. You also had the option of feeding them and Livia was daring enough to let a bear use his tongue to eat a grape right out of her lips! We spent most of our day there because there were many other attractions like riding on camels. For lunch we bought some frozen hot dogs and grilled them using the grills in the park.

Cementerio de la Recoleta

After our day at the Lujan Zoo we didn’t have a whole lot of time left before it got late, so we decided to go check out the famous cemetery, Cementerio de la Recoleta. It isn't a typical cemetery with a bunch of gravestones, but instead it had tons of giant tombs and mausoleums. All of them formed what almost looked like a little city. It was a lot of fun walking through all the narrow allies in the cemetery, even if it was a little eerie. We got to see the tombs of famous Argentinians like Jose Hernandez who wrote the national poetry epic. It started to get pretty dark out so we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for tomorrow. We are all pretty excited about the big festival that starts tomorrow, apparently it’s like the Marti Gras of Argentina!

We made it to Argentina!

Day 1:
February 5, 2013

Hey, it's Tiffany blogging here today! Everyone else was really exhausted from our total 25 hours of flying from Raleigh to Buenos Aries, Argentina. So, it looks like I got stuck with blogging duties today. The five of us got to RDU at 3:15pm, caught our 5:15 flight to New York City. We had a fifty-minute layover until our next flight to Santiago, Chile. In Santiago we had a ten hour layover before we could board our final flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

While waiting in RDU, Sydney was freaking out about her very first flight. Despite her intial fears Sydney actually ended up loving the plane ride up to NYC! Rachel and Lexie both were feeling a little queasy while on the flight but luckily they didn't end up needing the airsickness bag. That would have been gross!

We got to NYC at 6:10pm and ate dinner at the airport while we waited for our flight to Chile. I can't believe how ridiculously overpriced our "New York style" pizza was. But then again, we were in an airport which are infamous for being overpriced.

We caught our flight to Santiago, Chile at 7:00pm. We couldn't really see much from above because it was night outside. With all time zone changes, we ended up arriving at 7:30am on February 6 Chilean time. We had to suffer a tourturous ten hour layover until our next flight. I think we were all exahusted and irritable from being on a plane all day long.

Finally, our plane landed in Buenos Aries, Argentina! The flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires ended up only being an hour and twenty-five minutes. We couldn't wait to get off of the plane and start our vacation.

The flag of Argentina!