Argentina

Trials of the Yoga Park…

Posted by on May 3, 2011 in Argentina | 4 comments

The first night in the tree house was tranquil. Having arrived late the night before, we had a dinner and went to bed with a full stomach. The yoga park was silent and dark, a huge change from the bustling city. It was warm enough we didn’t need any blankets…. We got up early had an amazing breakfast: banana cake, oranges, oatmeal and apples.Here is a picture!! We headed into the garden to work for our 4 and 1/2 hours. The sunrise was gorgeous as we hoed, shoveled, and weeded in the garden with our new friend Maria. Maria is from Bolivia and lives right down the street from the Yoga Park. She isn’t Hare Krishna and doesn’t do yoga. She manages the organic garden to help support her 3 children. She speaks little english, but that didn’t stop her from having a good time with all the volunteers in the garden.   Just like Yoga classes in the states, the yoga park was mostly women. They were looking to detox after eating unhealthily while traveling. Maria liked having a guy in the garden. Which meant I got to do all the fun jobs like tilling the land with a shovel or chopping down small shrubs and bamboo with a machete. We had a great time working and talking in the garden will all of the fellow volunteers. There were about 12 of us volunteering at the park, along with 4 or 5 non-volunteer guests there just for a weekend get-away from Buenos Aires. The non-volunteer guests spent the mornings reading or relaxing around the park. In exchange for our help, we were given a discount at the park. (for us the total was $12 each per day, for them $40 or $50). Lunch was fantastic! Very colorful, flavorful, and delicious. It was great to have some fresh vegetables after eating some unhealthy meals while on the road. Each meal was served with a hot tea made from fresh fruits and mint from the garden. We were loving the yoga park. After lunch we relaxed a bit in the hammocks, read, practiced our spanish, went to a yoga class,watched a movie in the cinema, and then went to bed early. Sunday was great! No work, all play. We relaxed a lot! Took in the sun and enjoyed our day off. To be honest, I was a little sore from working in the garden. My hands were blistered and my back was a little achy. It was good to have a day off. We got our blankets and went to bed… when I woke up Monday morning, I realized I was allergic to the blankets! What?!? yes, completely and totally allergic. My eye had swollen completely shut in the night. It looked like I had been in a fight We thought it was pretty funny, and I got some Allegra D from the pharmacy (prescription strength) and tried that the next night. Nope, that didn’t work, and the nights keep getting cooler. I tried various methods of keeping warm… Here is Leah’s favorite, where I look like some kind of war prisoner wrapped up in my sheet and wearing a bandana over my eyes for protection from the evil blankets. (and as a hat) We had a lot of fun with it for a couple of nights. But it kept getting colder! And as the week progressed, there were no longer any “regular” guests… and our meals started to get less and less appealing. We had squash. Lots and lots of squash and zucchini. Maria was taking full advantage of...

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Life in a Tree House – memoirs of a 2-week vegetarian

Posted by on May 2, 2011 in Argentina | 0 comments

Life in a Tree House – memoirs of a 2-week vegetarian

I had been surfing the internet, looking for a volunteer opportunity that would allow us to stay in Buenos Aires for a couple weeks. We thought it would be good to get our hands dirty again, stay in a place for a while, and meet some fantastic people. We were right! We saw the website http://www.ecoyogapark.com/ and thought we’d give it a try. From the name, it was a little risky, here are my immediate, unfiltered thoughts: eco – will we have warm showers? Will we be allowed to wash our clothes with detergent, are we going to be surrounded by pot smoking hippies Yoga – sounds good, we spend a lot of time on the bus it will be nice to stretch out a bit. I’m with Leah, so I won’t be the creepster at the back of the class. Park – Park like i need to bring a tent and we are camping in Yellowstone? Or park like there will be a water fountain, pigeons, and a slide? A world away from Buenos Aires, nestled in a small farming community is the yoga eco park. Our taxi drove a mile down a dirt/mud road to bring us to our yoga sanctuary. It was pretty late by the time we arrived, so the guy who ran the place Thankur. (ta – coor) ta like ta-da i pulled a rabbit out my hat and coor like coors light. He is extremely friendly, and proud of the eco yoga park he has been managing and building for 6 years.           We got to our treehouse late Friday night, took a shower, climbed up our ladder, and were instantly relaxed and excited at the same time. Relaxed to be away from the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires and excited to see what was in store for us the next two weeks. We got up early, 7:30am and went to the restaurant to see if we could help. Instead, Thankur took us on a tour of the property. There was our tree house, 6 other dormitory houses were other guests could stay, a restaurant, a cinema, a huge organic garden watched over by 2 more completed tree houses and 2 under construction, and a temple. Wait what? A temple? Don’t worry no kool-aid, no Nike shoes, and no sermons =) This yoga park, and many others like it, are operated around the globe by people of the Hare Kirshna faith. They are basically a fact of Hindu that got lots of publicity from the Beatles. You can read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Krishna But the core beliefs will squander most of your wandering minds thinking we joined some crazy cult for 2 weeks: No illicit sex No eating of meat, fish or eggs No gambling No intoxication (including alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and other recreational drugs) So those are the basics of it, and the basics of why I didn’t convert, too many no’s. They had philosophy classes a couple of times a week, and hare kirshna music playing in the kitchen all the time, but that was as far as they went. We stayed for a total of two weeks. Each morning we worked roughly from 8:30am to 1pm. The evenings were open for yoga classes, field trips to the nearby town, and relaxing. There were animals everywhere! Dogs, cats, chickens, cows, and ducks. We had a great two weeks at the park, and I’ll follow-up this post with a couple additional stories about the...

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Blog Update!

Posted by on Apr 24, 2011 in Argentina | 2 comments

Hello Everybody! Hope you are having a great time with family and friends over the Easter holiday. Holidays are always hard while traveling, Leah and I miss everyone from home very much. We are planning an Easter egg hunt today for the two of us, to keep the easter spirit alive. We’ve just arrived in Buenos Aires after two weeks of living at a yoga retreat. We had a great time there, posts to come soon! As you can see, we’ve updated the blog layout! Let me know what you think. Unfortunately, the subscription list was reset, so I’d kindly ask you to re-subscribe! Thank you!...

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Maria’s Homestay, San Fernando, Argentina

Posted by on Apr 13, 2011 in Argentina | 4 comments

We stumbled upon Maria’s homestay on couchsurfing.org. After an exchange of emails, viewing Maria’s website (http://www.mariahomestay.com.ar/ ), and the promise of an Argentinian Asado, our minds were set. We were headed to Buenos Aires. Nestled just north of Buenos Aires is the nautical capital of Argentina “San Fernando.” Maria’s homestay is a beautiful guesthouse seperated from the main house by a lush garden. Song birds, cats, and dogs all wander around happily in the warm Argentianian sun. Maria’s homestay is a sanctuary of sorts, all of the cats and dogs are strays Maria has taken into her home much like us =) The first night in San Fernando, Maria’s son, Luicano prepared for us a traditional Argentinian Asado (BBQ). The meat sizzled on the barbie, while we chatted with Maria and her two sons, Mario and Luciano. Mario works teaching people how to use Apple computers. He absolutely loved coca-cola and Ireland. Mario and Luciano are very much into rock music. Maria brought out some of her home made pickles and an eggplant dish in oil and spices, both were delicious. We ate more meat than I thought humanly possible, before we headed inside for a night full of Argentinian wine, Fernet, and conversation. We spent nearly six hours chatting, eating and drinking. The next day Maria gave us a tour of the River through San Fernando. She showed us all the plants and trees of the area. The river through San Fernando is polluted so the fish really should not be eaten. However, there were plenty of fisherman there ignoring that information. Leah held some of their catch. The night we left, Maria prepared another meal for us! She also had some Dutch sailor friends visiting. We played rummikub with the Dutch couple and Maria. They have spent the last 11 years sailing around the world. They just came back from Ushria. Coined “the end of the world” Ushria is as far south as you can go in South America, and only a short boat trip from Antartica. Leah and I plan on going there, but maybe not this trip =) After games, Maria brought out another feast. We started the feast with some homemade hot pepper jam from Mia (The Dutch Lady). It was sweet, spicy and delicious. The food in Argentina is not very spicy, so it was good to finally get some spice. Maria brought out a platter of perfectly seasoned, baked chicken empadas! The empadas were amazing! We’ve had quite a few in restaurants and from street vendors. But all were put to shame by Maria. We could not have been any luckier. It was like having a home cooked meal from your own mother while in a forgien land. We chatted long into the night before heading to bed, it was our last night in San Fernando, and as always we were full of emotions when we went to bed. Staying in Maria’s homestay was an amazing experience, the food was better than I could have ever imagined, the garden was tranquil, but the best experience of all was the loving home Maria provided for us! Thank you! PS San Fernando is just south of Tigre, a town on the delta north of Buenos Aires. Many sailors frequent the area to get their boats fixed. The rates are much better than in Europe or America. Sailors will spend anywhere from a few weeks to months waiting for their boats to be repaired, or just relaxing in the warm Argentinian sun. Maria’s homestay provides them a place to stay....

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