catching up part 2....Argentina

I also wanted to write about my work trip down to Argentina. I took this between my vacation to Costa Rica at the end of November/beginning of December. I was down there for a total of 8 or 9 days. I went down there for a start-up at a paper mill called Alto Parana. The mill is located in the northern area of the Misiones province. It's about 40 minutes from Iguazu. This was actually my first foreign start-up and I think I was very lucky to have the chance to go to this particular location.

I didn't have a rental car while I was there, the mill has drivers that it pays to get everyone around. Since the mill had just had a shut-down, there were quite a few service people (like me) getting shuttled from the mill to the mill's hotel to the airport and such. The driving wasn't too crazy, they pretty much stayed in their own lanes and the 2-lane highway was in good condition. This area is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and when the mill decided to build, they built three small towns in order to provide a place for the employees to live. I drove through two of them, Wanda and Esperanza (I think that was the name...). They are really nice little towns, very organized and clean. All of the engineers I worked with and met lived in housing provided by the mill. And they all get bussed back and forth.

Anyway, when I first arrived at the mill, I was greeted by Griselda (the engineer for the project), Cecilia (another engineer that works with Griselda, but spoke very good english) and Celia (my translator). I was immediately greeted with two kisses, one on each cheek by each of them. And as I found out, that is what they do every time they greet. I had lots of cheek kisses while I was down there. There were only a couple of people that just greeted me with a handshake. The work part of it all wasn't all that exciting, there was a lot of waiting around while they were finishing up the construction part and then a few troubleshooting items that came up. It was actually pretty smooth. We mostly had to wait for other parts of the mill to get up and running. I did a couple of training sessions with the operators (and Celia translating). The system we supplied was pretty simple, so it wasn't too difficult to train on.

me and Griselda and then me and Ricci

The weirdest part of being in the control room (this is where the operators work and control all the processes with computer screens) was all the posters of scantily-clad women. It really made me uncomfortable because they covered all the walls and were the screen savers for a couple of the computers. I asked Cecilia and Celia if it made them uncomfortable, but they just blew it off and said it was just the men being machismo. I told them about sexual harassment in the US and they thought that was weird. Very different. Luckily, I didn't feel like any of the men treated me differently down there. The operators were very friendly and I tried communicating with them with the few things I know how to say in Spanish. I was surprised how much I could understand when everyone around me was speaking it, though. I wish I could spend more time in a spanish-speaking country so I could learn to speak it.

The other thing they love in Argentina is mate (pronounced ma-tay). It's a tea that they drink hot or cold in a gourd with a bombilla (straw with a filter at the end). I only tried a cold mate sip, it was ok. They drink it down there all day and it's more of a social drink that everyone drinks from. They pass the mate around and everyone takes a sip and they have a container of hot water on hand to keep filling it up. I guess the reason I wasn't too into having it, was the fact that I'm a germ-a-phobe. Cecilia especially loved her mate and was always looking for a time to sit and drink it, but she didn't like drinking it alone, only with other people. I thought that was interesting. They thought I was weird because I didn't drink mate or coffee and I only wanted water.

They also don't really eat breakfast down there. The hotel I was at didn't really have a breakfast, but they would give me bread and a bowl of canned fruit. The bread ended up being delicious because I had it with dulce de leche. I now LOVE that stuff. It is so much better than caramel. They also have these little cookies that are chocolate on the outside with layered crunchy cookie inside between layers of dulce de leche. Those were so good. Their big meal is dinner and they normally eat it very late, like at least 9pm. I would get back from being in the mill all day and want to eat at 6pm or 7pm, but the hotel only served dinner at 8pm! I couldn't believe it, so most of the nights, I just had them make me a sandwich. I was invited to an asado (bbq) which a few of the head guys put on for some of the guys that were there for the start-up. They have the best beef down there. I also tried some "black" sausage, not a good idea. It was a blood sausage and a little too much for me, I only took a bite, but I think they thought it was funny that they got me to take a bite. yuck.

On the Saturday night I was there, I took a bunch of the engineers to dinner to the only restaurant that took credit cards, the Casino Wanda. It was really fun and cheap. Everyone had dinner, drinks, dessert and it was only $80 US.

This one is Cecilia, me and Griselda

On Sunday, I only had to work a few hours and then Carmen took me to the Cataratas (the falls). I love saying that word. The Iguazu falls are amazing, if you are ever in Argentina, you have to see them. I haven't ever been to the Niagara falls, but I think these are even better. We spent around 4 hours walking around the trails and seeing all of the falls, there are so many of them and it is so loud, especially by the main one, Diablo. You can see Brazil, which borders the other side of the river. From that side, you mostly get a general view of the falls, but from the Argentine side, you can walk through and near the falls.

Me and Carmen on the train that takes you to the trail head

DiabloThere is a boat ride you can take which gets very close to this fall. We watched the drivers for a while and I wasn't too interested in going, since they were crazy drivers. Everyone was guaranteed to get soaked if they took the boat ride. This is it from the upper trail:

And from the lower trail:

Quite an amazing place. I'm glad we were down near the water on this day, it was over 100 deg F. After leaving the mill and my new friends, I spent an afternoon/evening in Buenos Aires on my way back to CR.

I really liked this city, the small part I was able to see. I stayed near Florida Avenue in the Sheraton Libertador (work was paying). Florida Ave is a very long street that is lined with shop after shop of great little clothing stores and other types of stores. The dollar goes a long ways down there, it was something like 3 pesos to the dollar. I wish I could have had some more time to shop because I found such great deals. I ate dinner at a true Argentine hour, near 11pm at this little restaurant, close to my hotel. The waiter was very friendly and even wrote me a note on his business card, but I couldn't read his hand-writing. I think he thought I could speak spanish, boy did I have him fooled. Anyway, my favorite meal down there (which I had that night) was the milanese (it's a thin piece of steak topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese), yum.

vegas

I was in Vegas this past weekend hanging out with my sister and her husband. They were down there for a huge construction equipment expo. We were hoping for sunny weather, which we had most of the time, but it was a bit chilly. It didn't stop us from sitting out at the pool, even if we had goosebumps part of the time. I stayed with Tish and Brett at the Mandalay Bay hotel. It's very nice and of course, has everything you could think of, it is Vegas. We even ate at the Strip Steak, very fancy place. They have a Kobe filet mignon for $190. I wasn't too hungry that night, so only had a salad and some mac and cheese. Both were very good and I'm sure the filet is delicious, too, I just won't ever be the one to tell you so. We also ate at the Border Grill a few times, which is a hip mexican place. I loved the cochinita pibil (which was a marinated pork slow roasted in banana leaf with grilled onions, orange, and cinnamon; served with red rice, organic black beans, plantain orange salsa, and handmade corn tortillas--I found the description on their web-site). I'm not much of a fan for plantain, but everything else was so yummy. So good, I ate this dish twice over the weekend.

It's funny to think about how trashy vegas is. I mean, where else do you see a group of men in their 50s hanging out at 11am in the hotel lobby with their bud light? Vegas has stretch-everything running up and down the strip. I had the lucky experience to ride in this bad boy--stretch hummer. We decided to take a taxi back from our walk down the strip and since a bunch of other people were heading over to our hotel for the big fight, we all grouped together in this monstrosity. It was pretty funny. The guy even had the music real loud with lots of bass. Of course, there were tv screens inside showing the video of the music. I couldn't even fit the whole thing in the picture before he took off.

What's even funnier is how many bridal parties I saw while I was there and I wasn't even trying to see them. We went to the Bellagio to see their greenhouse display (pics below) and while we were over there for about 1/2 hour, I saw three separate bridal parties. Who are these people that want to be married in vegas? I don't understand. At least they had a free backdrop for some pretty pictures. I really like this display at the Bellagio, I've seen it once before around the 4th of July.

The weirdest part of this trip was when we were out and about in the hotel and noticed all the people heading for the big fight at the arena there. It was some Mexican and another hispanic guy that were fighting, I guess a big match-up, but I'm not into boxing. Anyway, as we're watching people walk by, most of them (probably 85%) were hispanic males, there were a handful of asians and some white guys and then a few women. We also saw them all leaving the fight. I'm not surprised at the low number of women, because honestly, who really wants to watch some guy beat up another guy? Not me. But I really thought there would have been more white guys. It was just interesting. I did get a picture of this guy's jacket while we were people watching before the fight. It's awesome. Who knew anarchy could be so blingy?

We rented a car and headed to the Hoover Dam since neither Tish or I had ever seen it before. It was amazing. It's kind of scary looking over the side and seeing how high up you are from the ground.

We also took the dam tour and saw the power plant. Cool stuff. What is most amazing about this dam is that they built the dam in 2 years. I only wish things could be built that fast today.

catching up....Costa Rica

I have have been thinking about starting a blog for some time, now and what is better than blogging about a trip? Lots of things, I'm sure, but I haven't had a chance to talk about an interesting trip I was able to take in November. I will start there and then go forward.
Costa Rica
I went to CR for 10 days at the end of November and the beginning of December, with a trip to Argentina (for work) stuck in between. Costa Rica was a very beautiful country and a lot cleaner than most of the other central American countries I've been to. I was primarily going to Costa Rica to visit my friend, Eva and her husband, Jim. They retired down there a little over 2 years ago. They live in this nice little home and Eva has created quite the garden.

They live in Playa Chiquita, which is just south of Puerto Viejo (on the Caribbean side). This is the beach they can walk to everyday, if they wanted to. We only swam a couple of times. The water is much rougher in November and the water was up much higher than even the month before, so there wasn't a lot of beach left to sit on.

Playa Chiquita is a very small, quiet town. It was relaxing there. Eva and I went on bike rides (since that is their main mode of transportation, but it is actually easier to ride a bike than to drive. The roads have so many potholes). One night we went into Puerto Viejo to see Jim's band play at El Loco Natural (a great restaurant) and we missed the only bus going in. We were lucky in our hitch-hiking attempts and got a bumpy ride in with this nice woman and her very drunk boyfriend. Here's Jim rockin out.

We also took a bike ride down to Manzanilla. It is the last town on the road south of Chiquita. It was quite hot and humid this day, but worth it.

We ate at the restaurant that is literally at the end of the road (I can't remember the name) and had some yummy fried yucca and oh and we had the pleasure to witness a local couple having sex in the ocean. Everyone had full view from the restaurant. We were wondering why we weren't getting any service, but with that kind of a show going on, who can blame them?
We also went to the botanical garden in Puerto Viejo (another long, sweaty bike ride). But, well worth it. There were tons of great plants in the garden, but the best thing we saw was this colony of leaf-cutting ants at work. I took a video, but it was taking too long to upload, so you only get a little picture. The video is really cool, so if you're ever over, you should watch it. These ants were working on three trees and then carrying the leaf parts down a path, at least 200' and then down an incline, over a stream (by going over a fallen tree) and then up another hill to where we couldn't see them any longer.

And of course, here are some of the plants and creatures we saw in the garden. There are so many varieties of plants down there. These are only a few of the pictures I took.

The next part of my Costa Rican adventure was spent on the Pacific side in the Guanacaste region. I ended up staying in Playas del Coco in a studio apartment I found on vrbo.com. It was nice to spend some time here by myself. I walked anywhere I needed to go, which from the apartment to town was about 15 minutes. They had a nice, wide beach. This is the bay and you can see some fishing boats. The town used to have a lot of fishing, but they over-fished and now all those fishers are out of work. I think most of them hang out in town all day and make cat-calls to the tourists. No, some of them are working, since there was a huge project going on while I was there, they were putting in a new water line to the town, since there are a lot of new condos and other buildings coming in. Most of these buildings are for retired people and tourists. I guess I only took a picture right before a storm was coming in. I only got stuck in one downpour here. This area is actually very dry starting around the time I was there for 6 months. The Caribbean side where Eva lives is much wetter all year round.

I also saw a lot of howler monkeys. Here's a couple I watched for a while in Coco. They were just hanging out in the backyard of this house next to the beach. They are quite loud, but they normally keep that for the mornings. Speaking of loud mornings, the apartment I stayed in was behind a local's house. They had lots of chickens and roosters, so every morning, I could hear the rooster at the crack of dawn, along with every other bird down there. It isn't the easiest place to sleep in.

I liked it in Coco, it was pretty low-key and not too touristy and I felt safe the whole time, although, I didn't ever walk around once it was dark out. Luckily I had a tv in my room. I caught up on all my latin pop music. Who knew Enrique was so hot, again? Watch out, though, all the videos they show down there are pretty sexy.

One thing that wasn't too pleasant about my stay in CR were the bug bites I got all over my legs. I had quite a few while I was in Chiquita and thought they might have just been mosquito bites, but they were the biggest, reddest mosquito bites I had ever had and I thought that was weird. So, after the first night in Coco when I woke up with a few bites my left leg, I checked all the sheets and re-made the entire bed to make sure there weren't any spiders or other bugs sharing the bed with me. It didn't help anything, though. I ended up with even more bites on my right leg the next night and one especially large bite on my ankle. These were different than the ones I had in Chiquita. I thought they may have been spider bites, but they could have been bed bug bites and I think that is what I had in Chiquita. Anyway, I had the BEST solution. I slept with the AC on in the room and wore my jeans with socks pulled over the bottoms. It was like a tiny miracle in CR. No more bug bites after that! So, if you ever find yourself being eaten alive and you have the convenience of AC in your room try wearing more clothes.
I did get out on a few runs while I was there, I decided not to run along the road to town, since too many guys would stare at me and yell out things in spanish that I didn't understand. I felt safer on the beach, even if it was harder to run on it. I met a nice retired Canadian couple that lived in the house next to the apartment I was in. I don't remember their names, but he told me a lot of how the town has been turning into more of a retirement destination and how the locals have been out of their normal fishing industry. He said a lot of the construction workers there were actually from Nicarauga since the locals don't like working all that much. Sad.

Anyway, I think that about wraps it up, except for the bananas. The bananas in CR are so delicious. I ate at least one every day, since they only cost a penny, but now when I eat bananas at home, I only think of how much better they were down there. The banana trees down there grow like weeds, everywhere you go, there are more banana trees. My favorite variety was the manzana (apple). It was a small banana and sweet like an apple. yum.