That About Doesr’…

Wraps ‘er all up. We made it back to the states and are now easing our way into a groove as they say. What a sensational way to close out our travels! This entry will be substantially brief…honest! Well, maybe. We hope we can share stories and pics on a more personal basis now that we are roaming the 48 again.

We spent a majority of our European jaunt in Sevilla, Spain with my bro, currently wrapping up a year of study. He basically dropped everything and gave us a first rate tour of Sevilla…and well, the rest of Spain. We spent a solid early afternoon roaming the immense palace and grounds of Real Alcazar De Sevilla, a finely adorned stop (and home?) for nobility and administrators. We mustered up enough energy to leap fountains. One evening Ryan took us to see quintessential Spanish Flamenco. Something beautiful and quite impassioned.

Our next jaunt entailed renting a Peugeot, a ridiculously large map of Spain/Portugal and poop cookies. We set out from Sevilla late afternoon and headed towards the southern coast of Portugal. We camped out at a very posh camping community in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, just east of Faro and just west of the border and awoke early the next morn ready to see the coast. But alas, the weather was uncooperative, so we proceeded to head northeast, taking in some amazing scenery along the way. Lots of olive groves, rolling hills and open grasslands. We made our way to the Valle de Jerte, stopping at a few small towns along the way. We camped at the national park in Jerte, about 2 hours drive west of Madrid. We spent the afternoon strolling through the park’s trails and splashing around in the frigid, crystal-clear river about a 30-minute hike from camp.

The plan was to leave from Jerte early the next morn and pick up Mom and Dad from the airport in Madrid. However, Delta Airlines had other plans and their flight was cancel/delayed for a full two days! (We can wax airline industry incompetence and corporate welfare at its worst at some other time.) The three of us made it back to Sevilla to recalibrate our plans. Carrie and I took the next day to roam the fiendishly confusing and beautiful streets of central Sevilla and visit the Inglesa Cathedral de Sevilla …an enormous 12th century cathedral, that houses a spectacular wood-carved choir, beautiful stained-glass windows and the ashes of Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus)…so they say. The three of us also checked out the Plaza de Espana, an enormous palace-esque compound built for the 1929 World’s Fair. (pic of us at plaza de espana).

After some serious brain scratching, we decided to wing it and continue with our plans to meet Moms and Pops in Paris. Paris in 42 hours…GO! Carrie, Ryan and I arrived Friday afternoon and roamed around the Latin Quarter, circled Notre Dame and grabbed some coffee before crashing at the hotel. The folks finally made it to the hotel late that night (2 days of shuffling around the airport!). We celebrated with drinks and a late night dinner at a café around the corner.

Saturday, our only full day, we awoke, threw together some plans and got after it. The first stop was the Eiffel Tower and the long walk to get there. It’s one of those landmarks that borders on a large hunk of iron and grand splendor. (After its construction for the 1889 World’s Fair, many Parisians wanted it taken down). However, once you can get close enough to enjoy the staggering engineering feat, it’s pretty spectacular. After ogling and snapping pics, we strolled across town towards the Latin Quarter and had a tasty bite to eat at a Lebanese joint named Al Dar. From here we skipped across the River Seine wander Notre Dame de Paris (second link) and admire the premiere example of French Gothic architecture. The stain glass windows were absolutely breathtaking. And those flying buttresses! Afterwards we shared some enormous chocolate crapes and proceeded to relax before being completely overwhelmed. Welcome to the Musée du Louvre my friends. Possibly most famous for housing Leonardo da Vinci’s peculiar and moving Mona Lisa, but maintains over 35,000 pieces spanning several centuries. We checked out the Mona Lis, some Greek sculptures, a room full of Louis XIV’s extravagances and called it quit-sees. A truly amazing experience, but utterly overwhelming. (pic of triangle at Louvre) Here’s a pic of the pyramid in the center of the Louvre created by I.M Pei





By then it was about 10 pm and time for some dinner. So we consulted the all-knowing guidebook and found a terrific, classic-French restaurant called Vins Des Pyrenees. What a perfect way to celebrate the rents retirement, their anniversary and a spontaneous family vacation. Great wine, fantastic food and chipper people.

The next morn we loaded all our gear and headed back to Sevilla. Carrie and I had a full day left and then it was time to head back. Mom and Dad had another five days to explore. The five of us took a leisurely stroll through town until we found ourselves at a cozy outdoor eatery. Ryan made sure we all had a chance to enjoy a Spanish tapa dinning experience.

All told, Carrie and I had a bang-up time. Looking back on it, it already seems as if we dreamt the whole thing up…the places, sites, history, people. We hope you all enjoyed the random updates and we look forward to chatting and sharing in person whenever and wherever.

What’s next? Well, Carrie and I will be heading back to Brat at the end of July. Carrie will be returning to work with Woodward Design and I hope to continue working on energy, environmental and advocacy projects. We’ll be cruising the state of WI throughout the rest of June and July visiting fam and friends. Stay in contact, virtual or otherwise.

Paz!

Carrie and Chad

Can't Shake the Cold

Holy candlesticks Superwoman! Surely the Pink Panther is jesting when he says we now exist in the June, 2007! Hope the one and all of you are preparing for sun and fun up thar’ in the north. We have been shivering and huddling side by side avoiding at all costs the chill in the air, not to mention sucking back on copious amounts of Vitamin C beverages in order to ward off this silly, lingering sickness.

Oh my, my...HURRAH, HURRAH to the recent SIT capstoners and grads!! Carrie and I are damn happy and missed you all last weekend... taking that long walk off the edge of Black Mountain and back into the frightening world of serene capitalist bliss. Apply and reflect, so it goes.

Of course, huge, obnoxious shouts out to Mum and Dad Simmons for wrapping up their careers and cracking open a finely aged bottle of “retirement.” Carrie and I are so proud and can’t wait to celebrate. I suppose it’s about that time to barrel-role down the new path you two have in front of you.

Carrie and I have played it pretty mellow the last three weeks making only two stops. We wrapped up our short stint in Cordoba, but not without putting our legs to work. Our last afternoon, I finally had a chance to check out the regional historical museum, which included a good deal of information about the deep Catholic influences and the genesis of the city’s scholarly reputation. We couldn’t leave town without returning to a fantastic gastronomical find, Mandarina!, a Italian and Asian fusion joint(super-duper for vegetarians).

We then took the 16 hour, ultra uncomfortable, but ùber cheap train to downtown Buenos Aires. Now, we will be the first ones to admit that we did not initially “get” BA during our first four-day stay. We crashed at the HI affiliated Milhouse Hostel located in the city center. This was a cool place to stay if you enjoyed the stale stank of week-long frat parties and ear-numbing, drunk, open-mic sessions. Our dorm room resembled a typical freshman dorm...musical bunk-beds yo. So many we met here traveled half-way around the world to sleep all day and stay blissfully numb until 9 am the following morn. This place was honestly our first big disappointment of the trip.

We pretty much tried visiting the sites, museums, cafès around the city center, but had a difficult time figuring out when the city came alive. Seems as if the big cover up is that while yes, BA can be a thumping disco queen, they make up for it by sleeping until 5 pm the following day. We were hard pressed to find museums, cafès or stores open during daylight hours in the city central (primarily between Plazade Mayo and Plaza de Congresso).

On the brighter side, we did take some fantastic walks, enjoyed the amazing 18th and 19th century architecture and enjoyed some stellar coffee at some of BA`s most notable and historic cafès (outside the center). Here Carrie ignores the musical advice of Evita and sobs uncontrollably in front of Casa Rosada at the helm of Plaza de Mayo (more about Evita, Argentina’s social revolution to come).

On Saturday night, we decided to splurge and find out why BA is the Tango capital of the world. We were not disappointed. We joined an eclectic group of other tango novices and headed to Complejo Tango. We began the unforgettable night by actually learning how to tango. These two were our instructors and by Jove, did they emphasize the sexiness of tango. After substantially dirtying Carrie’s shoes, we enjoyed a very tasty meal with Andrea, a fellow traveler from Holland. Dinner was then followed by a very intimate and stunning tango performance. Musicians above played beautiful tango classics while the dancers amazed and awed us below. It’s no wonder there is such a romantic allure to this dance. The performance itself consisted of numerous skits, large, grand numbers, as well as quiet, intimate pieces. I have to admit, I am a sucker for the accordion.

Probably our favorite afternoon was on Sunday, when we took a stroll through the Plaza Dorrego Antiques Fair. The street closed it’s outlets to vehicles and opened up to hundreds of street vendors selling antiques, crafts, artwork and not to mention a plethora of tango performers, musicians and street artists. By far our favorite street performer was a couple posing as mad city slickers. (Ask us to show the other pics...they are hilarious). I also had a chance to speak at length with a woman from the Sam Telmo neighborhood cooperative “Asambleas del Pueblo,” an organization working to improve the economic situation of people in the area through small business assistance and local activism. It was really interesting to hear about their work since the economic collapse of 2001.

We spent a better part of the day camped out at “Plaza Dorrego Bar y Cafè,” enjoying great coffee, the tango performance just outside our window and a whole lot of people watching. (I added a picture at the end of this entry). We chatted for quite some time with a couple now living in Chicago, but looking to retire in Uruguay. It’s no wonder why the cafès of BA are so well renowned...you walk inside and are instantly slugged with a rich sense of history and their significance as pillars in their respective neighborhoods. Here Carrie and I relax at another, Cafè Tortoni

Longing to return to warmer days, we decided to make an extended trek (two weeks!) to Puerto Iguazu, home to the Iguazu National Park and Iguazu Falls. The falls sit in the far northeast corner of Argentina, in the Missiones region, bordering Brazil and Paraguay. It is part of the Paranaense rainforest, a fiercely protected area...and rightfully so. We had both been anticipating this visit well before we left, as brother Ryan had visited the park a few years back and passed on to us it is certainly a must see.

(The blue spec is Carrie). Our first of two visits was wet and cold, but completely worth it (it rained the first 8 or 9 days of our stay in Puerto Iguazu!). We called this one the behemoth...it coupled with its little sister were actually called “Salto Dos Hermanos.” The main draw was certainly “Garganta del Diablo” (Devil’s Throat), where the force of the water is truly unbelievable. The falls were created over 200,000 years ago by an abrupt split in the below fault where the Iguazù and Paranà rivers meet (today now referred to the three corners...where you can see the corners of the three bordering countries). The park as a whole is a fantastic trip, where you can stroll through a maze of trails and elaborate catwalks weaving through the diverse forest and dizzying amount of raging rivers and falls. We had a chance to roam with the surprisingly friendly Coatis. At the end of the day, we watched a very playful Brown Capuchin monkey and his buddy enjoy an orange and roll his/her eyes at the growing number of on-lookers. We also met a farmer from New Zealand traveling through a farmer-to-farmer exchange program. We had a great chat with him about GMO’s (illegal in New Zealand, but he seemed to be a fence sitter on the issue), food production, and food security.

The second day at the falls, one week later, was much more pleasant and there was a whole lot more water to watch. Some parts of the park were closed due to flooding. I must have taken 75 pictures or more...how often to you get a chance to get a raging river, a tropical forest and magnificent falls in one shot?!

Puerto Iguazu was all about recouping, roaming around town, catching up on movies, reading, cooking, and splurging on a daily basis on moka´s and chocolate mousse cake. We stumbled across a quaint little cafè and quickly became regulars...Cafè D’ Melanìo (for those of you in the San Fran vicinity, check out the sister local... 1314 Ocean Ave. Apparently the coffee is just as good, they have a good variety of food and tango performances), We ended up staying at a super little find, Residencial Uno

After two full weeks in Puerto Iguazu, we were ready to once again take on Buenos Aires and see where we went wrong the last time. It all made sense the second time around. Upon arrival, we found a quaint hotel in the San Telmo neighborhood. We then stuck soley to the cities eclectic and diverse neighborhoods and found our niche. We took a long stroll through the La Recoleta cemetery. The cemetery is the final resting place for hundreds of famous Argentines...presidents, poets, colonels and the very wealthy. No joke this cemetery rivals some small villages. Some grave plots have their own mini cathedrals. From here we made our way to the National Art Museum, honestly one of the best art museums I have been in...and it was free! Aside from works by renowned artists such as Renoir and Degas, there was also a fantastic Argentine display including two feature displays.

The following day we spent the afternoon in the park-abundant Palermo neighborhood. Here, we visited the Evita Museum and took a deeper look at the life and work of Eva Marie Parón (Evita). In the few short years she acted as first lady of Argentina, she pushed enormous social programs through her foundation, focusing on worker rights, women’s rights, health and education...taking a very non-backseat approach to her position...more like a presidential position. She is an immortal icon here in Argentina. Carrie and I found interesting the slight differences between her actions and life and the myth surrounding her dramatic journey through political and social ascent. We ended the afternoon with a walk through the botanical gardens and Palermo Woods.

The past couple, we’ve been revisiting our favorite haunts and reflecting on the events and experiences of the past four months. Today was a perfect way to sign off from South America...a leisurely stroll through the Plaza Dorrego Antiques Fair and appreciating the first warm day in what seems like months.

What’s next? Well, before we head back to the states, we thought, you know...what the hell...why not visit bro? Who knows how long he’ll be there and I don’t see my bro enough. So...the states must wait and Spain, are you ready? Plus...ding, ding, ding, Mums and Dads will be visiting around the same time, so it all works out yo. We’ll be kicking it with bro and fam for two weeks and then, we assure you, we will be making our way back. Honestly, we are badly missing our people back home.

Enjoy the Democratic debate Sunday! I’m sure many significant issues will be discussed...caving on Iraq policy, non-existent environmental policy, no health care, unattainable education...Close your eyes and make a wish. Better yet...let's not vote them into office!

We hope you all were entertained by our scriblings and photos...we had a great time putting it all together. I have not yet decided whether to keep the journal going or not...Maybe one from Spain, yeah?

Merry June!

Carrie and Chad