Flashback: February in Argentina. Iguazu Falls & Misiones Province.

It's almost winter here in Buenos Aires. Yesterday it was 37F/3C and that's a bit too cold for me. Gavin and I are flying back to the US in just a few days, but before we leave, I have a few blog entries to write.

Back in February, Jeff H and Keven H made their way back to Argentina for one more visit. (They just couldn't get enough during their previous visit in November.) This time around, we didn't waste anytime playing tourist in Buenos Aires, but rather, we explored the the northern province of Misiones and Santa Cruz to the south.

At the same time, our friend Jason E from London was in Brazil celebrating Carnival and decided to fly down to BA to visit us and also check out Iguazu Falls. It was great seeing Jason again. The last time we got that opportunity was in London, last September. Jason is an amazing guy and he's always up for a pint of beer, so as you can imagine, we're natural friends. (Hmm ... it's 5pm. I think it's time for a cold one.)

It was a blast living it up in BA with Jason, Jeff and Keven. Fancy dinners, champagne, late nights out on the town and much much more.

We flew from Buenos Aires to Iguazu, which is located in Misiones Province. Misiones borders Brazil and Paraguay and is in the northeast corner of Argentina. It was a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of BA, but the heat and humidity was a bit much.

The actual Port of Iguazu didn't have much to offer, but that wasn't the reason why we were there. The gem of this corner of Argentina is Iguazu Falls. Vastly larger than Niagra Falls, Iguazu Falls rivals Victoria Falls in Africa and is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. Truly stunning.

In addition to the falls, we took a day trip to visit some stupid mine and also the ruins of a Jesuit mission. I would not recommend this day-trip, since it was close to a 4 hour bus ride in each direction and incredibly boring. (Not to mention that Argentinean drivers are crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy!)


Gav, Jason & Jeff in Jorge Newberry (Aeroparque) Airport, Buenos Aires.


Iguazu Falls.


Gavin in the ruins of the Jesuit mission.

Iguazu Photo Album

Jesus Coming Soon!

A few weeks ago Gav, Losida and I went to "Tierra Santa" which is a Christian theme park here in Buenos Aires. There are no rides at "Tierra Santa" (translated to "Holy Land", but we refer to it as Jesus-Land), but instead there are replicas of famous scenes from The Bible. I pretty much know squat about The Bible, so I can't really go into details over this. (I really wish JL was there with me so he could explain everything to me.)

We took a collectivo (public bus) to Jesus Land. It was a 80 centavo (28cents USD) ride from our house to the park's location near the domestic airport. We were right under the path for the ancient Aerolineas Argentina's Boeing 737-200 (those jets are so old and loud!).

Everything in the park was made of fiber-glass and the people working there were dressed in middle-eastern garb. We saw a re-enactment of The Creation, The Birth of Jesus, The Last Supper and at the top and bottom of every hour, Jesus rises from the giant fiberglass mountain. Gav took a video of it. Check out the youtube video below the fold.

One of the best parts of the park was that they served beer in the restaurants. If that park was in the US, there is no way in hell (no pun intended) that any form of liquor would be sold. That's one of the beautiful things about Argentina: Abusing Alcohol is just not in their culture. (This needs to be written about in another post, but I rarely see drunks here. It's amazing.)

Our day at Jesus Land ended up being a whole lot of fun. We had a riot posing with the fiberglass people that populated the park. Oh good times.


Jesus Loves Us!



Jesus and the air conditioning unit

More Pics!

E.S.L (English As a Second Language)

One of the most rewarding (and definitely frustrating) parts of this trip has been learning a new language. Gav and I have been in Buenos Aires for over 6 months now and I am impressed by the amount of Spanish that he and I have learned. When I got here, I could only say a few words (which I only knew because I memorized them) and order another beer. I am by no means fluent or even conversational at this point in time (my problem is understanding Spanish when I hear it), but I am no longer scared to venture out by myself. I can now go shopping and enjoy a day on the city by myself. Talk about a liberating feeling!

I can't believe how many years I spent learning the Japanese language. I thought that I had a small grasp on the Japanese language, but after trying to learn Spanish and actually living in a place where you are forced to learn how to communicate, I realize that my Japanese was complete crap! Yes, I could read hiragana and katakana pretty well and I knew a bunch of kanji, but I could never survive in Japan. (Granted, if I lived there I'm sure that I could pick it up in a few months). Being thrown into a new surrounding is a giant kick in the pants. Furthermore I have this incredible urge to "feel normal" and thus communicate with my peers, so my drive to learn the language is pretty intense.

We've been taking language classes and I have various ways of practicing my nearly learned skills (I can hold my own in a chat room!). I am going to focus on spending this last month in Buenos Aires on trying to better myself.

I'm going to complain for just a second now and complain about why I don't want to blog. The answer is fairly simple, but its rather difficult for me to articulate my words into English because I've been really busy trying to think in Spanish all the time. Overall, I'm not too worried about this because I know that when I return to the US and get a job, everything will come right back. It's kinda like riding a bicycle, right?

Well, it's been a bit difficult for me to compose my thoughts and put them online, but I'm going to try really hard to do that right now. Besides, won't writing in my blog give me a great chance to practice writing?

Oh the hardships of living in a foreign city and trying to learn a new language.

Heaven's to Murgatroid

I've been thinking about an episode of Drawn Together that I saw awhile ago that had a gay scene with a cameo by Snagglepuss. I was a kid when I last saw Snagglepuss on tv, but after doing a quick look on youtube, I found this gem of a clip:

Happy 204 Everyone!

Today is April 20th, which in the US is 4/20 (in the rest of the world its 20/4).

Feliz Cumpleaños a Losida

Sorry for the delay in blogging, but yesterday was Losida's birthday. Who the heck is Losida, you ask? Well, she's a lovely gal-pal that we met here in Buenos Aires. No, she's not a former Mexican maid or the daughter of a Latin American Dictator, but rather a temporary ex-pat (like Gav and I) who is from the Grand Canyon State who has been here in the city with us for the past few months. We originally met at the first Spanish school that Gav and I attended (horrible school, but we met a lot of fun people).

To celebrate her birthday, we joined the German ex-pats Celia & Kata and had a fab dinner at swanky Bar Uriarte. I had veal ravioli (yes, I eat veal), Gavin had adado (Argentinean bbq) with grilled veggies and Losida had saffron risotto with braised lamb.

After dinner (and desserts!) we went to see the drag show at Sitges Bar. Gavin and Losida are completely in love with this particular drag queen and I have to agree that the show (complete with a VegasShowGirl type Argentinean woman) is great. Its always fun seeing drag queens a foreign place, especially when they are speaking another language. At one point in the show, the drag queen came down into the audience, threw her scarf in my face (¡la concha de la lorra!) and started to sing to Gavin and I. Figuring out that I didn't know what the song was about (Gavin claims that he understood "most" of the song), she stopped the music and asked if we spoke Spanish. (For those of you who have never had a drag queen stop a show and ask you a question, I can tell you that it's a terrifying experience. I can hardly answer a 6' tall make up wearing man in English, let alone Spanish! ¡Que terible!

We got home around 3am and stayed up for awhile discussing various topics pertinent to our socialite lives. I love birthdays. They are a fun way to tell your friends how much you value their friendship!


Quick! What do get when you throw two guys and a girl into a jacuzzi tub with lots of bubbles and champagne?

You have lots of good ole clean fun!

You Must Be This Tall To Ride This Ride

For the record: I love being tall. "Some people" say that I am height-ist, but then I have to remind them that I have a lot of shorter friends. In fact, I'd say that most of my female friends are under 6'. See, if I really was a height-snob, I wouldn't have any short friends. Take that!

Also for the record: I am not complaining about my height. I'm constantly helping people put their luggage in the overhead bins on the airplane or reaching canned goods from the top shelf for little old ladies in the supermarket ... and I am happy doing it. I see it as my civil duty. Kind of like an ambassador of tall people (if Angelina Jolie can be the UN Goodwill Ambassador, then I can be an ambassador for tall people.)

Where am I going with this nonsense???

Oh yes. Now I remember.

Here in Argentina, I am unusually taller than most people. I am constantly the tallest guy at the bars and dance clubs (not to mention that there are pretty much no Asians or hapa people in this city). I constantly have to watch my head when I enter older buildings and a lot of things are built for shorter people. I have to bend my head a lot to fit under the shower and I'm always hunched over the kitchen sink since the counter tops are a bit shorter than what I'm used to. Just tonight, Gavin said that I need to stand on an "Un-box" or even better .. he was going to dig a little whole for me to stand in as I do the dishes.

Oh the price I pay for being tall.

Congratulations Julia!

Congratulations to my little sister who is graduated with a BS in Nursing from the University of Hawaii-Hilo next month. I'm extremely proud of her and I can't wait until she is making more money than our parents! (Making more money than her older brother is easy since he doesn't have a job now! Get a job you lazy bum!)

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend her commencement ceremony in Hilo since I'll still be in Buenos Aires. Now the pressure falls on our brother to finish his studies (hint, hint).

Way to go!


Kailee & Julia. Easter 2007. Hilo, HI

todavía estamos aca en buenos aires

Hola Chicos! Como estan?

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't updated my blog is almost 3 months (thank you JeffH, KathyK and JoeD), so I figured that it was about time that I got off of my lazy butt and did something. (In my defense, I've been busy going to spanish classes and other things that I'll tell you about later.)

We're are entering month 6 here in South America and we are still going strong. We have plans to be here until the end of May and then we're going to Peru to visit Cuzco and Machu Picchu. After that, the plan is to return to the US (via Washington DC and with a trip to visit Gav's fam in Norfolk) and then we're going to head west. (GO WEST! We saw the Pet Shop Boys live in concert here last month. So camp!)

I have so many things to blog about, so you'll have to excuse the mess if I start jumping around from date to date.

More to come.

The Boys of Summer

A few weeks ago, while Rich S was visiting Buenos Aires, he commented on the fact that the three of us have had three summers in 2006. We started off the year down in Syndey for Mardi Gras and then Gav and I spent summer vacation with JL and Rich in NYC and then here we are in Buenos Aires as the rest of the northern hemisphere is freezing.

We're such brats.


El Obelisco