Welcome...

Best thing I seen all year.

2007-01-30T15:43:00.000-08:00

Cuy (Guinea Pig). A Peruvian Delicacy...

2006-10-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

In the Andes region of Peru, Guinea Pig or Cuy is a speciality. These cute furry animals were an excellent source of food for the Incans since they are small (can be carried easily) and breed very rapidly. But they are now considered a delicacy because they do not provide much meat and they take about 2-3 hours to completely skin before they can be cooked. The first time we tried Cuy was in Puno. It was in a nice restaurant and the presentation of the Cuy was was fancy. It was deep fried and the ends were wrapped, very nicely, in tin foil. It tasted like chicken, kind of, and there was not much meat so the main part of the meal was the potatoes. We joked about how we could imagine about 12 Cuy in a bucket (like fried chicken comes in the States). The other couple in our group did not try Cuy at that time so later they wanted to try it. The experience was totally different than the one in the gourmet restaurant. We drove outside to the country, about 40 minutes from the central of Cusco, to a Cuyiceria (a restaurant that specializes in Cuy). Actually it was more a women's house who sold/cooked Cuy for income. These places are popular on Sundays when whole families gather to eat Cuy together. The women's daughter was playing with a Cuy, perhaps it will be the meal of some person the next week. The Cuy was being cooked in a wood-burning homemade oven. It was stuffed with some spices, although I do not know what they are. The smell was horrible. The meat did not taste too bad but it wasn't appetizing since the smell was so bad. But there was so little meat anyways that it was not hard to not eat much meat. I mostly picked around and played with bones, and ate the potatoes. The potatoes were excellent. In Peru there are over 400 varieties of potatoes; I tried many types I have never tasted before. Of course we couldn't resist the urge to play with our food.

More Pictures...

2006-10-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

My pictures of Bolivia are now up and I am working on the Peru ones. Hopefully I will finish today.

Im a slacker....

2006-04-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

I have been slacking and not posting anything so I am starting again. Please look at my pictures from my last trip and I will be updating more (my goal is to post SOMETHING once a week).

Pictures

2005-12-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

To see my all pictures Click Here

Estancia La Catita

2005-11-19T06:17:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we visited an estancia (ranch in English). It was very interesting. We boarded a bus at 8 am and 5 hours later we arrived. We drove to the estancia which was in the middle of many fields, soy bean, wheat, and maiz (corn). After we rode horses for a little bit, we drove around town where I saw this on the road. Next we headed to another ranch that raised pigs, cows, and chickens. I learned alot about these animals, but most of all I confirmed many things I already believed; pigs are dirty and love to lay down in the mud is one of these. Pigs beieve it or not are also very cute when they are young. After the pigs we went off to the cows and the milking process. Stupid me, I thought that with technology all around us, there was still a guy sitting on a small stool all day milking the cows by hand. Not anymore. The cows are put into an area where they are fed. At the same time there are suctioned things put on their udders that suck the milk out into a tub which transfers the milk into a huge container that was in the other room. We tasted the fresh milk, very rich, kinda greasy, and warm. It tasted great.One interesting (or very gross) thing about cows is when they get nervous, they pee, so while we were watching the milking, a lot of peeing was going on. The next day was the exciting one. We saw about 20 bulls get castrated. It started off with 2 sprays of anti-bug spray on each cow so the bugs would not bother the soon to be fresh wound. Next a shot of iron in the body and a bull was released one-by-one to be pinned down and cut.

The cut was very small. After the incision was made, a testicul was pulled out from the sack, then cut; the process was then repeated with the other. The end result was a bucket full... After the un-maning of the bulls, we went back to the ranch to eat lunch. We had grilled cow and yep you guess it, grilled testicles (or criadilla in Spanish). I ate one. It had a wierd texture, like Tofu. I wouldn't eat it again but its cool to be able to say I have eaten it. What's next? Cow eye perhaps.

Football in Argentina.

2005-10-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

The Argentine people are very passionate about Football. (They should be, many of the best players come from here). Many have replaced religion for their favorite team, spending their Sundays at the stadium rather than church. Some teams, like River Plate, are owned by the fans and there are elections for the board that makes the team's choices regarding who to sign, trade, etc... I went to two games so far. Both were huge rivalries. The first was River Plate vs Indepedante, also known as "The Classic". The score was 3-1,with River Plate winning This is the opposing fans (Indepedante).The next game I went to is known as "Superclassic". It is the biggest rivalry in Argentine football (well besides the Argentine national team and their neighboring team Brazil). It is the game of Boca Juniors (the best team in the league) and River Plate. Unfortunely the score was 0-0 but it still was fun because of the fanatic fans. This is a picture of River Plate's fans at home during the game against Boca. All that white paper on the field was thrown by the fans a minute before this was taken. Their are hundreds of people under those flags, which are just unrolled for a few minutes before the game.

I added some photos...

2005-10-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

I took the time to seperate my pictures in albums by country or subject. I have went to Colonia, Uraguay since I last posted. Twice. Heres a few...

Tomorrow I am going to Boca Juniors vs River Plate soccer game. It is the biggest rivalry in Argentina and it is nicknames "Superclassic". I will post more tomorrow.

Everyone's favorite...

2005-08-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Graffiti seen around town:

"Bush does not step on the Argentine person!"

Milan's Dinner

2005-08-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

Before Milan left he cooked a wonderful dinner (he is a chef by profession). Here's the main course: Veal with a mushroom sauce and potatoes...

Mendoza, Argentina... The mountains and beyond

2005-08-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Mendoza for 4 days (see previous entry). We took a bus there through a company called Andesmar. Leaving from the bus station was a nightmare on a holiday weekend,; our bus was delayed about 45 minutes. The bus took 12 hours to get there once we were on board. 12 hours is a long time yes (we traveled about 900 miles) but actually it was not that bad. The buses are quite comfortable, especially in 1st class. It was extremely cheap too, $30US round trip; Grayhound has nothing on Argentine buses. We were told not to go #2 in the toliet on the bus. The bus in the morning was disgusting (it's only downfall) with pee almost overflowing out the the deep toliet. Some pee was on the floor most likely overflowed from the many stops the bus had to made (on the way back I did not drink too much water so I didn't have to witness that again). Argentine highways are privitized so stops have to made often to pay tolls. The movie they showed on the way there was unwatchable but I did watch the one on the return trip. It was Man on Fire with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning; I believe it should be called Creasy's Revenge.

We arrived in Mendoza and locked up our things in the locker at the hostel and on to rafting. Rafting was so much fun; even though we got soaked at the end and the weather was not warm enough to be pleasantly soaked. We had to wear blue (waterproof?) outfits and some guy who was not in our immediate group was whistling the Smurfs song. The other two people are Anna and Milan. Anna is here for an internship through her school M.I.T. and Milan is from Slovakia traveling Brazil and Argentina.

After rafting we walked around Mendoza and ended up at a street fair with Pepe's booth. Pepe made these simple wire puzzles that are so damn simple yet so damn complex. Milan was a puzzle solving machine while I have yet to solve any of them. Mike and I bought 5. Hey I am a glutton for self torture. Mike has two of the puzzles in his hand.

We got back to the hostel to find we had to sleep in a room with 10 people including ourselves. 10 people in a room is smelly (I'm glad the windows were open). The lentils we all ate at the vegetarian buffet we had for dinner didn't help the situation I'm sure. The room was only $6 a night though which was a big benefit.

The next day we went to Puente Del Inca. It was a beautiful drive with a variety of mountain scenery you can see in my pictures section. This was also a ski resort, looked like fun.

Return to Mendoza and perhaps the strangest part of the trip. The buffet. The previous dinner we had a veggie buffet; this one made up for all the meat that was missing and more. Picture the normal foods, salad, mashed potatoes, ect... and BBQ (yummy beef chicken and lamb). Now picture the organs in animals if you can: kidney, lung, tripe, hearts, etc... What about snails. Yup! In fact every meat you could name was there. No I did not see brain but I preety sure it was there too. Argentine's LOVE their meat. The strangest part wasn't the food (which was damn good by the way) it was the Mariachi Band. Yes a Mariachi Band. "But that's Mexican you may think". TRUE. "And the Argentine people do not have a clue on the preperation of Mexican food". TRUE. But Sombreros for all just the same. And even though Argentine's have no knowledge of Mexican food; Mexican music is cross cultural. It made me kind of homesick, perhaps because they were not going table to table singing.

Last day we went horseback riding into the mountains, which was great in the beginning. It began to snow lightly and I said to Mike, "I'm glad it's snowing because if it was raining we would be soaked". Boy oh boy did my snow comment come back to bite me in the ass. It began snow hard. Not snow storm hard but hard enough to have no visibility. I had to trust my life to a horse walking down narrow paths on a high mountain. Scary but fun. Fun if you call freezing fun. After changing and warming up we returned to Buenos Aires via bus.

Mendoza was very fun; I hope to be travelling often. Keep checking for posts.

I have always disliked titles...

2005-08-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

So I am supposed to give titles to everything but I have always disliked the process of assigning a title to anything, hence the Welcome... at the top. I know this is a cop-out but oh well. I just found my camera today out of the bag it was in. It was not hard to find, just did not bother to look. The battery is charging so starting tomorrow I can take pictures. Now actually doing it will be the hard part. Our house is still not together (we have been here for 2 weeks now). We still need a desk, futon, tv stand, desk, dresser, 2 nightstands, and outside table for our balcony. We just got light fixtures installed (thanks Mike for being an electrician). When people leave their places here they take their light fixtures with them; we had holes in our celings with wires sticking out. But now we have light.

This weekend is a holiday (3 day weekend). It is Kid's Day (a day where parents give their kids presents and there is no school, ect... Since everything will be closed we are going to Mendoza.

It is at the bottom of the Andes Mt. region. It should be fun. We are staying in a youth hostel for our first time. They have private rooms but since they are booked we have to share a room with 2 other people. Oh well its only for 2 nights. The best thing is the cost, $6 a night for each of us. The hostel looks nice though, check it out.

Check out the pictures section for pictures of Mendoza.

Also see my photo album. I have added some pictures for you to see.

Welcome...

2005-08-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome. This space was created so I could update my friends and family (you) about my travels and my life abroad. I plan to post pictures here so I do not have to send many copies out. If you are interested it is up to you to find out; I will do most of the work for you though. You are welcome to leave any comments you have.. I also got a U.S. phone number you can call me at. If you do not have it already, please email me at vanessa@vanessaschiff.com.

Thanks!