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.