Short trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina

In September 2016, I took a trip to Buenos Aires in Argentina for work and what an interesting city Buenos Aires was. It has a unique history that fascinated me.

Basically 100+ years ago, Argentina was one of the world's top 10 economies, and Buenos Aires' high society, architecture, and cosmopolitan culture rivaled the greatest European cities of Paris, London, etc. There was a rush of construction and migration of foreigners to Argentina that all collectively served to contribute to Argentina's label as the "Paris of the South" by the turn of the 20th century.

However, with the approach of the world wars in the mid 1900s, the country was exposed to changing trade conditions and political strife. The exact history is too much to put into one blog post (click here for a more comprehensive article with details), but essentially the country entered into an economic decline and never really recovered to its pre war state. Today, the country faces financial crises, corruption, inflation, and political unrest. The economy has slipped from its brilliance of the last century, but the city still maintains a vibrant Latin American culture and an uncommon beauty. Throughout the city there are visual reminders of this history. As you walk around, the architecture reminds you of Paris, but then the slight disrepair of the buildings reminds you of the city's recent struggles.

I managed to experience the city in a few different ways, first up with a Tango show in the oldest part of the city (San Telmo). Tango is a dramatic, romantic, and historically rich dance performed by expert dancers. There are many different varieties of the dance, and each dance tells a story. We went to El Querandi for a dinner + Tango show, where we discovered that 2 of the performers recently won the world championships of Tango! Sadly I wasn't able to take any pictures, but here is someone else's YouTube video so you can get a sense of the dance itself:

I also took a half day walking tour of the city and was able to hear about the architecture and history first half. Almost any large city will have free walking tours, and I always try to participate in them as it is a good way to learn quickly about a city and get your bearings. Take a look at the beautiful architecture:

By far my favorite part of the city though was the Recoleta cemetery. Let me explain. This is a cemetery for Buenos Aires' high society. Wealthy families build themselves huge, orange sarcophagi that celebrate their life before and after death. Each sarcophagi is uniquely designed and decorated, to reflect the personality and beliefs of that family or person. The cemetery itself is HUGE, it is literally a maze that you could spend hours in. It is beautiful and serene yet also slightly hair raising at times -- the cemetery and coffins are in various states of repair and disrepair which contributes to the overall eeriness of the place. In each of these pictures, check out all of the details that fascinated me...

The one obligatory photo with my face actually in it!

Here is a video I compiled from walking around the cemetery... it gives you a feel for just how massive and maze-like it is.

Overall, Buenos Aires was a fascinating city that I would love to explore more of in the future -- and I also would like to see the non-urban areas of Patagonia and Malbec. Maybe next time!

EAT: No where specific, but Argentina is known for its meat, so you must try it!

STAY: We stayed at the hotel Faena Buenos Aires, which had a cool vibe to it and was in the Puerto Madero area

PLAY: Do a walking tour and check out a tango show

Northern Ireland

I'm going to attempt to catch up on a few trips I have taken over the past couple of years, starting with Northern Ireland.

My job necessitates that I travel to Dublin every now and then. Coincidentally in August 16, 2016, the week I had to be there for work, one of my best friends Leah and Joel (who just got engaged by the way -- so excited!!) and Leah's sister and husband (collectively, the Boudreau crew) were also on vacation in Ireland the same week. So I took advantage of the opportunity and flew out the weekend before so that we could explore Northern Ireland together.

I flew into Dublin and took the Aircoach bus to Belfast, it was a cheap and quick way to get from point A to B. After getting to Belfast, the Boudreau crew picked me up and we drove straight to the very top of Ireland, through remote little towns and green meadows (so many in Ireland!) to Giant's Causeway, which is a beach covered with hexagon-shaped rocks and bright green meadows. The rocks give the beach a very mysterious and beautiful feeling. These rocks formed 50 to 60 million years ago, when molten rock was forced up through fissures in the earth to form a lava plateau, erosion then led to the creation of the hexagon rock formations, known locally as 'giants eyes'. A similar type of phenomenon can be see on a much smaller and less dramatic scale when a puddle of mud dries up and cracks into hexagon shapes. We spent a lot of time meandering around the beach, taking pictures and examining the view from different vantage points.

It was so windy that day!

Thanks for letting me crash your weekend Boudreau girls!

After Giant's Causeway, we headed to our hostel, which unfortunately I would never recommend to any travelers due to its abundant mold, but hey -- its the company that matters. We entertained ourselves by playing card games in a nearby bar and drinking Guinness -- a perfectly Irish evening!

The next day, we drove back down to Belfast and took one of the common "taxi tours" through the city, but first let me explain the background here. Belfast was the perfect example for me of how travel expands your knowledge and perspective. Maybe I missed that day in history class in high school or didn't pay attention to that part of the news when I was younger, but I was essentially unaware until visiting Belfast of the long, violent crisis in Northern Ireland (referred to as 'The Troubles'). Here is a short history lesson:

Between 1969 and 1999 the world watched in despair as Northern Ireland was wracked by unrest and violence that bordered on civil war. This three decade period is euphemistically referred to as ‘the Troubles’. Trouble had in fact been brewing in Northern Ireland for generations. Conquered by the English and divided in 1920, Ireland’s historical wounds had never fully healed. Northern Ireland evolved into a self governing member of the United Kingdom. Its population, however, was strongly divided along political, economic and religious fault lines. On one side stood Unionists and Loyalists: Protestants who identified as British and were determined to maintain British sovereignty over Northern Ireland. On the other side were the Nationalists, a Catholic minority who had endured decades of political and economic discrimination. These sectarian divisions were a potent recipe for conflict and disaster.

The taxi tours in Belfast are guided by taxi drivers that were often involved in The Troubles in some way, and they bring you to various sites around the city to provide a day long history lesson of the city's troubled past: the protestant and catholic sides of town, the "peace walls" that are still in place today to separate the 2 sides, the murals paying homage to leaders of the conflict, or individuals who passed away as a result of some violence during these years. It was eye opening to learn about such a terrible time in Ireland's history that I was previously unaware of. The sad part is that although the crisis is largely considered over now, tensions are still 100% apparent and there are still 108 walls across Northern Ireland today. The topic of Brexit is also bringing new dynamics to old wounds.

In memory of some individuals who died during The Troubles, on the Irish side

Signing the Shankill Road peace wall in Berlin

 

After the taxi tour, I headed back to Dublin while the Boudreau crew journeyed elsewhere in Ireland. I spent the rest of the week at work, but managed to squeeze in a brief walk downtown to see some of the unique buildings in town. Until next time Dublin! I'm looking forward to exploring more of this country one day.

Eat: No where particular, but a trip to Ireland would not be complete without fish and chips and Guinness!

Stay: Definitely not the hostel we stayed at! But in downtown Dublin for work I have stayed at both the Marker and the InterContinental, both great, standard hotel options.

Play: Giant's Causeway, the taxi tour in Belfast, take a walk downtown into the Trinity College yards

Adventuring in Moab, Utah

So....it has been almost a year since I posted to this blog and recently I realized that I miss having a living documentary of our travels and life. I love reading my posts from prior years and seeing not only what was going through my head during those days, but also having a way to remember the amazing places and experiences and various details that I would have otherwise forgotten. So I think I'll start blogging every now and then to cover some of our travels and lives, at least that's the intention for now, I'll see how it goes :)

First up, our trip to Moab, Utah last May! Andrew was living in Denver at the time and Ryan and I decided to meet him and his friend Sabine to check out Arches National Park and Canyonlands. Utah has always been on my bucket list because its scenery seemed so surreal in a desert-y way I had never experienced.

Ryan and I flew into Salt Lake City and rented a fantastic camper van. It was a Dodge minivan that was basically a rolling camp site. It had a fold out full size bed inside with pillows and sheets and in the back it had a sink, portable propane stove, all of the kitchen and cooking utensils you could ever need, a cooler, foldable table and chairs, etc. It was a fun and convenient way to go "camping" since we barely had to bring anything with us from CA. I would highly recommend renting a camper van when you are flying to a camping destination.

We ended up finding a campsite in the Sand Flats recreation area in the town of Moab. It had pre-set campsites with a fire pit, picnic table, and outhouse. There was no running water so we had to fill up big water jugs in town (and we basically didn't shower for 4 days, which Ryan was less than thrilled about)



Driving from salt lake city to Moab in the camper van


The inside bed of the van, it folded over the seats into a full size bed


The back of the van - with the sink and cooking area


Andrew and Sabine en route to Moab


Andrew setting up his tent at the camp site

On the first full day in the area, we did a short hike up to Delicate Arch which is probably one of the most photographed places in Arches National park. It was an easy and beautiful introduction to the area and the surrounding views.





Moab is known for getting excruciatingly hot in the summer, so even though we were there in late May, the temperatures were still around 90-100 degrees during the heat of the day. Luckily on the second day, we had booked a rafting trip on the Colorado River so we were able to escape the heat for a bit. It turned out to be a fairly tame, lazy river type of trip, until we got to the last set of "rapids" and our "intern" and very unexperienced guide decided to steer us directly into a massive wave, which she wasn't supposed to do. Our boat almost flipped over and the wave completely soaked us, but thankfully none of us were hurt and it was actually super fun. I recently found the stock photos that were taken of our group as we hit this wave, holy cow!! I have no idea how we didn't fall out, yikes!

The wave about to crash



Aftermath!


The rest of the ride was really calm!


After a fun day on the water we headed back to camp and made a feast for dinner!

On the second to last day in the area, we did another hike in the Devils Playground hiking area, a beautiful but HOT place to explore the otherworldly scenery and strange rock formations.









On the last day, on our way back to Salt Lake City, we took a short detour to Canyonlands National Park and we were surprised at the amazing canyon views. I wish we had spent more time at this park, it looked amazing. I couldn't get over the views... I can't believe places like this exist on planet earth, it looks like it should be Mars!



Overall, a fantastic trip to Utah. Beautiful scenery that you won't find anywhere else on earth. Some day, I would love to check out Zion and Bryce national parks on the other side of Utah.

Here is a parting video that shows the scenery on our drive into Arches National Park on one of the days:

Recommendations:
Eat: at your campground! We also liked "Love Muffin" cafe in the town of Moab for breakfast
Stay: Sand Flats recreation area, the campsites are first come, first serve, so make sure you get there very early to get a spot
Play: too many places to list, this whole area is one big playground!