Jon Glick

Eva Perón

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:00:06 -0800

Eva Perón

Obelisco de Buenos Aires en la distancia.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:00:06 -0800

Obelisco de Buenos Aires en la distancia.

Don’t know what this building is but it looked sweet.

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:08:35 -0800

Don’t know what this building is but it looked sweet.

This is chimichurri, the a staple of a good Argentinian BBQ....

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0800

This is chimichurri, the a staple of a good Argentinian BBQ. It’s made from a mixture of garlic, parsley, oregano, red pepper, olive oil and vinegar that’s left in the fridge to set up for a bit. Most meat here isn’t marinaded at all so this is served as a sauce on the side. It’s also usually served on Provoleta, delicious grilled provolone cheese. I’ll eat it on anything.

The trip back from Cabo Polonio was an adventure that left me...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:58:16 -0800

The trip back from Cabo Polonio was an adventure that left me wondering if Uruguay was trying to keep me there, allowing me to leave or teaching me an altogether different lesson.

Our flight to Buenos Aires was leaving from the Laguna del Sauce airport, just south of Punta del Este, at 11:59pm. Now, it’s a two hour drive from Cabo Polonio to the beach house in Manantiales and another hour drive from the house to the airport. The catch was that we had to return the rental car before the office closed at 11pm. Our departure from Cabo Polonio was delayed becuase of the Sunday night crowd that all needed to take the truck back over the sand dunes to the parking lot. After waiting in line for a few trucks we got back to the parking lot around 7:30 and set about getting mate water so we could hit the road. Time was already tight.

But the car wouldn’t start. Apparently, the cheap model we rented didn’t automatically turn its lights off and we left them burning all day and drained the battery. The decision was laid out: Martin would look for a jump for the car and, as my spanish was second best, I would look for warm water to fill the mate thermos. Well, we were in Uruguay, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that one question later I had found a woman for just that purpose. Waiting for water to boil, I feebly made small talk but mostly communicated that I didn’t want to leave. The real surprise was that by the time I got back to the car with a piping hot thermos, a $100 peso transaction had been made and the car was idling, charging its battery and ready to roll. Adversary aside and time increasingly tight but feasable, we hit on the road in high spirits, bad jokes abounding.

Given our current timeline, it was decided that we would only have 15 minutes at the beach house to pack and clean in order to get to the airport on time. Then, right after the sun set, the right rear tire went flat. My brain’s first attempt to explain the change in sound and vibration, that we’d hit a different patch of pavement, was quickly dashed when the shimmying didn’t stop but increased. We immediately recognized the gravity of the situation and, rather than lamenting our bad luck, we operated with extreme efficiency sharpened by the deflating tire of hope that we might still get to the airport on time. Martin and Evan did an excellent job jacking up the car and replacing the wheel despite the pnumatically-tightened nuts that required them to literally jump, with forcefull finesse, on the tire iron to loosten. All told, I don’t think we stopped for more than 10 minutes. Adversary number two had reared its head receeded just as quickly as the first.

Driving no more than 70kmh, as dictated by the spare tire, we made it back to the beach house, packed, did dishes and staightened up. Somehow we were back out the door in about 10 minutes. Rather than going through the center of Punta del Este at 10pm on a Friday night, we tried to take a shortcut to the airport but quickly found ourselves in what felt like the middle of nowhere. The dire situation left us slap-happy, lost with the clock ticking and a car that’s already running on its toddler-sized spare wheel, internally doubting we’d make it and outwardly laughing manically at each earnest repetition that “the next road we’ll come to is the main one”.

Somehow, somehow, we found the main road and with the clock reading 10:52pm decided to screw filling up the gas tank, opting to make it to the airport and deal with financial consequences. We actually made it, pulled up to the terminal at 10:56pm and rushed Martin and Jon in to the rental office while the rest of us unloaded. The late-night rental employee was closing up but we were actually able to return the car. He even decided to “charge” us $30 to fill up the gas tank and fix the tire himself, saving us the fees and making him a quick buck.

In the end, we got our tickets, went through security and were sipping celebritory bourbon from Evan’s backpback while we waited in disbelief for our flight, coming down from the adrenaline buzz that was our adventure leaving Uruguay.

Another shot of the houses in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay.

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:17:56 -0800

Another shot of the houses in Cabo Polonio, Uruguay.

Cabo Polonio down the beach.

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:06:51 -0800

Cabo Polonio down the beach.

Photo

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:05:05 -0800

This is the obligatory cape-lighthouse on the tip of Cabo...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:06 -0800

This is the obligatory cape-lighthouse on the tip of Cabo Polonio. The rocks around the point are much loved lounging locations for sea-lions and people like me.

The truck groaned out of the parking lot and over sand dunes...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:00 -0800

The truck groaned out of the parking lot and over sand dunes covered in scrub grass and hardy bushes before leveling out onto a wide beach. To the south there was nothing man-made in sight, just the slowly tumbling ocean and a lightly curved plane of sand arcing into the distance. Grumbling, the truck carried us north towards the cape’s shack-peppered outcropping, passing a decomposing sea-lion, dreaded hitchhikers and wandering sunbathers along the way. Our arrival and first exploration of town was similar to one’s first experience at the Oregon Country Fair. It takes a while to settle into being a part of the scene instead of observing it in awe and wonder.

Though it took time to settle into the groove, Cabo Polonio was one of the places I knew, almost instantly, I didn’t want to leave. Populated only during the warm months, it’s a little vacation town on a cape in a national park in Uruguay. Most of the town doesn’t have electricty and the rustic appeal of the vacation houses sprouted around the cape is incredibly attractive to me. Many are just a single room while others have two small floors but they all seemded to be scarcely more than a sleeping area, a cooking area and a porch. With hammocks. So what if you have to heat water for a shower? I’ll let my hair get saltwater crunchy from swimming in the ocean instead. I can only imagine the calm one would feel after a few days of simple food, afternoons reading in a hammock, lounging on the beach and mingling with the travelers and hippies that give the town it its distinctive flair.

We only had time to stay for about six hours but the jokes about changing our midnight flights back to Buenos Aires started almost immediately. We made friends with some benignly loony hippies that were intent on having us stay the night. The prospect of going fishing for dinner and a partying on the beach at night wouldn’t have required persuasion under any other circumstance. We said goodbye and parted for the ride back, fuzzy brained and sun kissed from a day-trip that felt like a vacation. My giant reset button was sufficiently pushed.

Our last day in Uruguay we took the day off, jumped into our...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:44:31 -0800

Our last day in Uruguay we took the day off, jumped into our rental car (tiny, 5 people, 3 of us are taller than 6 feet. yeah.) and headed up the coast on a road trip. We passed the mate gourd and let the wind blow our hair as we cruised through the Uruguayan countryside towards our destination two hours north: Cabo Polonio.

Except for Martin, none of us knew what to expect of our destination except that it was: 1) some kind of fishing village that 2) didn’t have electricity and 3) was only accessible by riding on the back of a truck through sand dunes. Sounded good enough for me!

During our time in Uruguay we stayed in a house on the beach...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:18:22 -0800

During our time in Uruguay we stayed in a house on the beach about 45 minutes north of Punta del Este in a little town called Manantiales. Although the internet was slow, we worked from the house for 3 days and then took the fourth off to travel. I thoroughly enjoyed my evening runs through the town, down the coast and back on the beach. Upon returning, I would grab my towel and immediately jump into the ocean waves. The water wasn’t too warm or cold but exactly refreshing for the situation. On at least on occasion I got to watch orange and pink shards of sunset reflect on the ocean while bobbing among the waves. Very nice.

My work view for the day.

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:54:19 -0800

My work view for the day.

On Sunday we flew from Buenos Aires up to Punta del Este,...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:27:55 -0800

On Sunday we flew from Buenos Aires up to Punta del Este, Uruguay and I snapped this picture of Buenos Aires on our ascent.

Evan Lovely snapped this picture of me with the bottle of OMBU...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:00:05 -0800

Evan Lovely snapped this picture of me with the bottle of OMBU cane liquor we found in the grocery store. Ombu is the name of an Argentinian tree and the name of our company, Ombu Web. But for just under $12 pesos, it’s a little frightening.

On Sunday we also took a day trip to a suburb town called Tigre....

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:00:06 -0800

On Sunday we also took a day trip to a suburb town called Tigre. The trains here are heavily subsidized so the half-hour trip from BA to Tigre cost about a peso. The current exchange rate is ~4.2 pesos to the dollar. Yeah.

Tigre seemed like a cute little town. We stopped to get beer, pastries, and coffee for the wifi to get the address of the river house we were going to. Our friend was having his birthday weekend at a house that his family owns on one of the islands. Tigre is on a large river delta that has tons of little islands and rivers flowing between them. The islands are full of cute little houses on stilts, accessible only by boat. The rivers are lined with docks and trees. Strange conifers and weeping willows. Every few hours a ferry “bus” makes a pass through the rivers but we opted for a water taxi since there were 4 of us, making it cheaper and more convenient. There’s also a floating store that you can flag down to buy things so people don’t have to leave their island paradise for every little thing.

I would love to stay at one of these places for a few months. Hammocks everywhere, people canoeing, rowing and swimming all along the river and enjoying everything from the little gazebos on the ends of the docks. Martin and I went canoeing for a long time and I got a little burned on my shoulders. But it was great fun, especially when a few boats would pass at once and the water got turbulent! The water was the perfect temperature for swimming, too.

We stayed for about six hours and then started the journey back to the city to go to the Onda Vaga concert on the correct night. It was a seriously full day.

Dulce de Leche ice cream after we showed up for the concert on...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 07:07:45 -0800

Dulce de Leche ice cream after we showed up for the concert on the wrong day. This stuff is delicious.

Here’s some video Martin shot at the Onda Vaga concert....

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:06 -0800

Here’s some video Martin shot at the Onda Vaga concert. So much dancing!

On Saturday night we walked the 4.5 km from our house in...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:51:43 -0800

On Saturday night we walked the 4.5 km from our house in Palermo to the Ciudad Cultural Konex, an outdoor venue where we were going to see Onda Vaga, a sweet Argentinian alternative folk band that we’ve been listening to since we got here.

It took longer than we expected to walk there so we picked up the pace since we were already an hour late. Turns out, the concert wasn’t until the next day. We’d all managed to look on the ticket for the address without seeing “Domingo 22 de Enero” witten largely on it! Being all sweaty and hungry from the walk, we got ice cream and made the best of the evening.

But the Onda Vaga concert was awesome. Great music, attractive crowd, a liter of beer served in a single large cup, and a lot of dancing.

The neighborhood we live in is actually like the Pearl district...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:49:25 -0800

The neighborhood we live in is actually like the Pearl district of Buenos Aires. It’s very trendy and it has a lot of travelers. So I went for a long walk on Saturday to check out some other parts of the city. I headed along Av. Cordoba towards downtown before meandering through the neighborhoods. The city is fairly spread out with a constant mix of houses, apartment buildings, stores and restaurants. You never have to go more than a few blocks to find the necessities: fruit shop, carnicería, panadería, etc.