There and back again: a spinster's adventures in South America

Although you may think I only ate in South America, I actually did other things. Like be a tourist. I flew into Fortaleza and met up with Becca and her parents. We stayed there two days and then Becca and I flew down to Rio. Two days later we went to Sao Paulo and met up with Corinne and headed over to Iguazu Falls. From there it was several adventures on buses, Resistencia, a wonderful day in Salta and then down to Mendoza. And then home. There was an earthquake the day I left in Mendoza and in Chile (where I was flying to before flying home) and my flight was still not canceled. It was a sad day. But South America was great!

Fortaleza from the mission office. Any city that overlooks the ocean is a great city. Says me.

This is where we spent my birthday. It doesn't get any better than this.

We took a boat ride along the coast of Fortaleza.

Me and a shark.

The views flying into Rio. The pictures I took from the plane don't do it justice. It is really one of the most beautiful cities I have seen. Lush green mountains, white beaches...

...and Jesus overlooking the city.

On Sugarloaf Mountain, overlooking Rio and Jesus above my head.

Up close.

I have great luck with tourist attractions and scaffolding. However two days later it was up to his shoulders.

We just missed Carneval, but still got to try on some of the costumes.

 When in Rio...go to a soccer game. We saw the Flamencos play at Maracana Stadium.

I posted this already, but it was a highlight of Rio. Marcelo and the juice bar. Mostly the juices. 

Sorry Marcelo.

 Copacabana Beach. I even played the Barry Manilow song while there.

We heard Sao Paulo was dangerous but didn't believe it until we saw weapons for sale at the bus terminal. They were cheap too.

We saw these guys browsing and then saw some white guy come up and buy a Chinese star. If we had more time we probably would have bought one too. Just so we could get a picture of it.

Lailton was a flight attendant on the flight to Iguazu Falls. 

He's Mormon and single. 

And not happy about the later.

Iguazu Falls. Amazing. It makes my top 10 list. 

(So I'm posting a few of the 300 pics I took there)

Garganta Del Diablo or Devil's Throat

Right before they took us under the falls and we got drenched.

Of all the 460+ statues in Resistencia we only saw the "superman" statue. Called Victoria (Victory).

We were trapped in a sweat lodge called the bus for 6 hours. We made a sign for help. No one came.

"Soap on a stick, soap on a stick,
If you wanna get sick use soap on a stick....
Got a disease?
Share it please with soap on a stick!" 

(copyright Rebecca Batt, 2002)

Mountains near Salta

Salta

The best two hours I spent on a bus (out of the 40 total we spent riding buses). 

Thank you San Juan Mar del Plata for the ride of a lifetime.

I had to experience a South American Wal-Mart. 

It was like here, but with wide aisles.

The restaurant had all you can eat pasta and steak (to name a few). 

Chuck O Rama has nothing on this place.

Vineyards of Mendoza

Eating my way through South America

As most of you know, I love to eat. As I was going through my photos from South America, I realized that there were a lot of photos involving me and food. So I thought I'd share some of my experiences in Brazil and Argentina, one dish at a time.

First there was my birthday dinner at Habib's in Fortaleza. We enjoyed some fun company behind us.

Then there was some delicious cupcakes for my birthday. 

We made some pasta with an interesting name (Fagottini)

Becca is modeling all the amazing snacks you can get on Azul airlines. They were so good we went shopping for the brand.

Enjoying cold dogs at Maracana Stadium (soccer) in Rio

The juice bar we visited multiple times a day in Rio. Marcelo knew us by name. This is food stop #1 (and #5) from the hostel to the beach and back.

Food stop #2: fresh coconut water on Copacabana Beach

Food stop #3: Meat on a stick from a guy grilling on the street. 

Food stop #4 (and 6): tapiocas

Corinne brought an entire suitcase full of snacks. I love her.

Lunch in Salta: gnocchis,

Some spinach roll,

...and some chicken fried delight with ham and cheese

Alfajores-we had them daily in Argentina

Best buffet restaurant ever: unlimited pasta and steak. 

It was a small miracle that I didn't gain weight when this is what tempted me every day in Argentina

I think I should submit this to the Food Network. Maybe they would give me a show where I would go and eat food from around the world. Not like that Andrew fellow on the Food Network who eats gross things. I lose my appetite watching his show.

Things to avoid when drinking, or Things I learned from staying in hostels and other nonsense

I just got back from Brazil and Argentina (amazing), and we had the pleasure of staying in hostels. We also had the pleasure of meeting some interesting people. They shared with us some

"Don't drink and have a camera. Bad idea."
(Our bunk-mate Helen lost her camera at the bar after a heavy night of drinking. Luckily she had taken the memory key out of the camera and hidden it in her bra, per our suggestion.)

"Always take the bottom bunk. Got drunk one night and fell off the top. Fallen off the bottom bunk too, but you don't fall nearly as far."
In one of the hostels I took the top bunk and woke up several times at the edge of the bed (there was no bed-rail), so maybe this is just good advice in general. 

"Take a taxi home from the bar. Not the metro. You'll never find home that way."

Other things I learned from hostels:

• I could pack a lot lighter if I didn't have to worry about modesty. I could fit everything into a backpackers backpack if I only wore short shorts and tank tops. 
• Europeans either get paid really well or in a lot of debt. Most of the Europeans were traveling for at least 8 months. One of our bunkmates had already been traveling a year and had another year and a half to go. Lucky.
• Don't ask Canadians about healthcare. They have a lot to say about it. Enough that they will wake you up after the lights are out in the room to tell you more.

Other things I learned in South America

• Not everyone in Brazil looks like Giselle. In fact, most don't.
• There are single Mormon guys in Brazil equally frustrated with dating
• You can hide the following in your bra without anyone noticing: a camera, two credit cards, a coin purse and an iTouch.
• Not only is there an armpit of Paraguay, there is also a butthole. It is right across the Brazilian border from Iguazu Falls
• There are varying degrees of quality of South American "luxury" buses. Some have cockroaches. Others are so nice you'd rather stay there then a hotel. 
• You can be in an earthquake and not even feel it. 
• WalMart really does have low prices. Everywhere.

Thank you, Invisalign

I was able to convince my orthodontist that my appointment should be moved up from March 1 (when I should have been done, but will be on vacation), to February 25, so I wouldn't have to wear my last tray for my entire trip. Lucky for me he's pretty laid-back and didn't see the harm. I went in, got the 'ok' from him and had a permanent retainer put on my top teeth.

 Before:

(the small "growth" on the left tooth is added for Invisalign and is not some actual tooth tumor)

After:

 

You might say that the gap I had wasn't that bad, but the gap kept getting larger, and the before photo was actually taken a couple of days after I had started wearing the trays.  Plus, they are my teeth, not yours.  I couldn't be happier. Other than being told I shouldn't bite into a whole apple or raw carrots with my front teeth, I think the permanent retainer is great. No more gross removable retainer (not like it fit anyway). And no more food getting stuck in the gap. Now I'm off to the beach!

It's definitely time for a vacation.

I cried at work today. Within an hour of being there. It was my "third twelve" in a row. I was averaging 5 hours of sleep each night. Yesterday I was there 14 hours. And I walked in today to have the nurse I was getting report from tell me, "I had a night from hell. They are a horrible team [of patients]. They should have split up your assignment." Well, then why didn't you ask the charge nurse to split them up? I had some of the team yesterday and was swamped. I was already exhausted, which means I'm usually emotional. By 7:45 I'd already been approached 3 times for things my patients wanted. I could barely keep it together and when one of the aides came up and hugged me I had to excuse myself to cry for a minute in the bathroom. It felt good. And then I was ready to better face the chaos.

By 8:15 one of my patients was in respiratory distress. I spent two hours in the room getting her stabilized.

I finally saw my last patient at 11am. I had been there 4 hours already. Thank goodness he was stable.

And the madness continued for 8 more hours...

The silver lining is that today was my last day for two weeks! And I'll be enjoying this in 4 days:

Happy Birthday to me.

The scariest show on TV

Last weekend I was at home flipping through the stations. I saw that Hoarders was on. It is a show on A&E about people who can't throw things away and the stuff/junk/food/animals that collects in their house. We had been talking about it at work and I decided to watch. I made a huge mistake. The episode I watched featured a lady whose house had been "cluttered" (that's putting it mildly) for over 20 years.

This wasn't her house (I couldn't find a pic), but it was worse than this. Much worse.

They hauled 8000 lbs of trash from her house.

They found 3 flattened, dead cats in her house-at the bottom of some of the piles.

There were open cans of rotten food.

I can't even begin to describe the bathroom...

They found packages/junk/trash at the bottom of the piles from 25 years ago.

I felt sick to my stomach watching it. Physically ill. I know that extreme hoarding is a psychological disorder and that people need treatment for it. But it was still really hard to watch. And because I was still a little curious, I had to wait to see what happened at the end. My house is not cluttered, but watching it made me feel like I had too much stuff. I wanted to go home and throw everything in my apartment away and then drench my apartment in bleach. Luckily I was in Medina and couldn't go right then or my house would be barren now. I'm shuddering just thinking about it. Don't watch this show unless you want to feel ill.

Not Hoarders. Horror-ders.

How do I love thee?

Socks: $2
Boots: $12
Christa accidentally buying two right boots and being "all right": priceless

I bought a pair of these galoshes in Costa Rica. They were $12. We were in the middle of a tropical storm and these boots were a lifesaver. They're comfortable too. I've worn them a few times in Ohio when it has rained. This week I discovered another use for them: snowstorms. I have shoveled the sidewalks three times in the last 24 hours. I even dug Sarah's car out of my driveway. My feet were toasty warm and dry. I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing them everywhere in the next few days till everything is plowed.  I never thought I'd love a pair of $12 shoes so much and get so many uses out of them.

Action packed short month

This is going to be a great month.

Lost starts tomorrow. The beginning of the end...

 For you Losties, Claire is in the pic. Crazy.

Groundhogs Day

That is Phil in the pic with us

Sadly we're not going this year

My Invisalign is done in 23 days

I leave for Brazil in 27 days

I'm going to Bolivia in August on a humanitarian trip 

(I got accepted on the trip today, so I'm including it in this month)