New Years' Eve in Mar del Plata

After working a half day on Thursday, I headed back out to Banfield with Vero to meet up with her friends Pablo, Paola, and Maru. The plan was simple: Pablo's parents loaned us their car, and his aunt loaned us her apartment in Mar del Plata for the weekend. Though it was already 3:30 pm on December 31st, we took off for the beach town 4.5-6 hours south of Buenos Aires to celebrate New Years' Eve.

There's a special kind of energy in a packed car at the beginning of a road trip, when it feels like nothing can stop you, and whether the wind blows in through the window or the air conditioner is on full blast, you feel fresh and free. No work for 3 days and a holiday to boot. Not too shabby. Already in Buenos Aires Province, we headed south through towns that reminded me more of the Latin America I was familiar with last year, and the farther south we headed the fewer the houses were, shanty as they seemed, and the older the cars got. Eventually we were in nothing but open fields, and all around us we were in the Pampas.

The pampas are what I imagine the Midwest of the United States to be like. Never having been, I have to use movies and pictures as a basis, but down this road in Argentina there was nothing but open space on the left and right, plain and flat as far as the horizon. A sky so wide and open that it felt like you could almost see the curve of the earth. Living in a city, the world is obscured by buildings, and the view is often only as far as the next block, but in the pampas, you have nothing to block your vision, and what you see is what extends for miles and miles beyond that. Other than some cows and a random house or two, there isn't much else going on.

Though I'd met Pablo and Paola a week ago when I went to their house for dinner, it was still like starting over again in terms of conversation. It's always going to be hard to jump into a group of old friends, especially in another language, so at first I sat back and mostly listened. This is also the best way to learn the language. An untold number of words have entered my vocabulary since Thursday, not only because I asked but because I listened. Soon enough the ice was broken and I got into the conversations just the same, though obviously giving space when stories were told that I was unfamiliar with. It's to be expected that you won't understand everything, and continuously asking what something means gets annoying.

The mate was passed around consistently, and I found myself totally comfortable and at ease with the process. Though I asked questions about it, nothing could be as simple as drinking a tea through a straw for a moment. Maybe I feel most immersed when I share mate, and I've gotten to the point where I look forward to drinking it and sharing the experience. Maybe one of the funniest things I've taught anyone since living in Latin America is "Fuggin' brown bears," which really means nothing. It's just a play on words originating from my friend Adam who once said, "Beers, fuckin' brown beers...fuggin' brown bears." "Fuggin' Brown Bears" went on to be my fantasy football team's name for two years.

For some reason, this came up in the trip, and everyone took to it, practicing it and getting it down well. It would keep coming up through the weekend. The hours passed by quickly and by 9:30 pm we were pulling into Mar del Plata, ahead of schedule. After dropping off our things, we picked up some food and drinks, and then had dinner at the apartment. It was a totally different New Years' experience than I'm used to. For years now, I've met up with friends early on, maybe 7 or 8 pm to begin partying and by midnight, it was practically a blur. With deep winter outside, we stayed in a house and went home at 1 or 2 am.

Here, it's a summer holiday and Argentinians don't even go out until after midnight. I found that most people will celebrate with a dinner with friends or family, toast at midnight, and then maybe go out dancing depending on the age group. We celebrated from the balcony listening to fireworks going off all around at midnight, and then joined the crowds heading to the beach. The fireworks, both personal and public, were deafening, and music was blasting loudly in one of the squares where hundreds of kids decked out in white were dancing. Apparently wearing white on New Years' is a tradition in Brazil that has recently made its way into Argentina.

We had another toast at the waters edge, freezing as the wind blew in ferociously. Mar del Plata gets very windy and cold at night, and with a sweater on, I was still freezing. Once we could take it no longer we stopped in the plaza for a bit and then went out to a street filled with bars to dance for a couple of hours before calling it a night. There was no need to rush anything, as we had the whole weekend to relax and go to the beach...

Above: From a plaza in the center of Mar del Plata, post midnight, January 1, 2010

New Years Eve Mayhem in Valparaiso

Fireworks after midnight

Someone is excited

Groups of friends sitting, drinking, talking, waiting

Setting up shop hours before midnight

After waking up and getting our act together on December 31st, we had to check out of the hostel and kill some time. The reason was that we still didn't know where the next hostel was, and we had to wait for a message from Adam's friend to find out where to go. They wouldn't be in Valparaiso until 3 pm, so we walked around trying to find Pablo Neruda's house. Though he rarely visited it, there's a museum up there.

Adam had already tried and failed to find it on his last trip, so we used the map carefully and though we passed it at first (it was horribly marked) we found it. Only going to the point where we didn't have to pay money, we sat around and eventually made our way back down the hill to get some lunch and sit in the park waiting to hear the news.

Finally at 3:45 p.m. Adam sent a text and his friend gave him the address. Oddly enough it wound up being the same hostel we'd gone to the day before but were told was booked. It turns out our own reservation was the reason we couldn't stay there the night before. The coincidence stunned us as we marched back up the hill to the hostel.

Meeting up with Adam's friends, we dropped off our things and walked around a bit, scoping out good places to hang out later on. Though it was only 4:30, people were already claiming their spots on the lookouts by the hills. We all got heavily stocked up on alcohol, walked around a little more, and eventually went back to the hostel to rest up. Just like in Kindergarten, all ten of us laid down at the exact same time in the room crammed with beds and took a 30 minute nap. Waking up at the same time we were ready to go.

We took in a drink on the balcony and watched the hordes of gringos and Chileans going by. Unfortunately it was overcast the entire day, because the sunset would have been incredible from the view by the hill. I'm writing a story about the New Years celebration for GoNOMAD, so I'm not going to spill the beans just yet on what the party was like. But it's listed as one of the top 5 parties in the world, and it definitely lived up to its reputation.

After the crazy night in Valpo, I had one day left in Chile before heading back to Ecuador. To be continued...

Out of Santiago, On to Valpo

Just to get the record straight so that the dates match up here. I am now back in Cuenca after a long travel day, but I'm going back in time to talk about what happened since I last updated. Here we go...

Several days of just hanging out in Santiago were good and relaxing. The guys had a great apartment and we were able to have a couple of barbecues on the roof, giving us a wide view of the city. The plan was to go to Valparaiso for New Years. We'd done some research and found out that the city is listed as one of the top 5 cities in the world for New Years Eve parties along with New York, Hong Kong, London, and Rio de Janero. Some of Adams friends were renting an apartment with a bunch of beds in a hostel, so we hopped on board even though it was a ton of money for the one night.

I wanted to see the city before all of the craziness, so Adam and I went to the city a day early. Zach couldn't go because he had work the morning of New Years Eve. There weren't many hostels left so we took the first one we could find online. When we got in to Valpo we could see that the weather was considerably different. Every day in Santiago is roughly the same--hot and no clouds at all. In Valpo, however, it was colder and overcast. Walking from the bus terminal to find the hostel, the city seemed ugly and cold.

Winding our way up the hills we got the hostel but were told that they made a mistake and they would have to walk us over to their sister hostel in the center. There was no room because everything was already booked. So we went to the new hostel and found a very friendly staff who even gave us a discount on the room. Dropping off our things we went to walk around the city. Adam had already been there twice so he was able to navigate more easily through the streets. Soon the sun broke through the clouds and it was hot. Without my hat or sunblock, I was an easy target and was starting to burn.

Walking down by the port we saw the Pacific Ocean, then headed up into the hills via one of the ancient "Funicular" elevators, which scale the incredibly steep hills to take you to the neighborhoods that surround the crest of the slopes that the city was founded on. We'd heard that the hills can be a bit dangerous, so we watched our backs as we explored the area, taking in all of the murals and artwork that the city is known for.

Once we'd seen enough we went back to the hostel to grab hats and sunblock, and then caught a bus to the neighboring town of Vina del Mar, where everyone goes to the beach. We walked past some fancy looking hotels and casinos and eventually sat on the wall by the beach for an hour or so taking in the sights. Earlier in the day the weather was lousy, but now everyone was out enjoying the sun in the sand. The sun doesn't set at this time of year in the area until 9:30 p.m. It threw me off the entire week and changed how I ate, usually making me eat later as a result. We headed back as the sun was starting to dip down and took a nap, tired after a long day of walking.

For dinner we went to a famous restaurant in an alley called J. Cruz, which is known for a dish made of fries, scrambled eggs, onions, and steak. We shared it and though we wanted it, knew it was terrible for our health. Just looking at it would give someone a heart attack. The place was completely packed, and they shoved people in at communal tables. We got there just in time though, because when we left we could see the line extended far down the alley.

Grabbing a few beers at a bar, we eventually called it a night in order to prepare ourselves for the mayhem that would take place for the New Years Eve party. It would rock our world in terms of crazy, city-wide parties. More to come on that tomorrow.

Above: Street murals which cover the city walls, the port of Valparaiso, a shot of the streets, sky blue house against sky blue