tierra santa

Below are photos of Tierra Santa and it's in Buenos Aires. We read about this magical place in Lonely Planet and the description "the world's only religious-themed amusement park" intrigued us. Neither of us are religious, which will become more and more obvious as this post goes on. In fact, before I came here, my mom told me I should be careful with my indifference towards God considering 95% of this continent is Catholic. I knew that but it was confirmed when I found the "Jesus pier" in Montevideo where every piece of graffiti is Jesus/God related. Too bad my camera was taken before I could grab some shots of that. Anyway, please enjoy these photos below and stop reading if you are easily offended.

The entrance. Tori is the knight.

When you first go in, there are plaster sculptures of stories from the bible. This is Adam & Eve and the precise point where I lost it.

The light show. Everyone is very serious and quiet. I peed my pants.

A good over-all view of what the place looks like, plastic palm trees and all.

This is me. With black hands.

These women asked us to take a photo of them with their camera. Luckily, Tori got one with hers as well. The one in the pink reminds me of my grandma.

Tigre, BA, Colonia, Montevideo, BA again, Asunción, La Paz, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Ft. Lauderdale, Detroit, Philly!!

Just so you can keep up, these are the travel plans-

Tigre - a river town in Argentina 45 minutes north of Buenos Aires, where I will meet my girl Victoria for a night until we head down to

BsAs!!! - I am so jazzed to go back to this city as I could not get enough last time I was there. It's definitely going to be different without Tori but I'm still expecting many good meals and sunrises. This is also where I will meet Mom and Steve who are coming down here on the 5th of March.

Colonia - a quaint little Uruguayan town on the way to Monty-V

Montevideo - to show them how I lived (beer bottle depository, food stamp office, free clinic, beach)

BsAs - to hang out a little bit more until I take a very long bus to

Asunción - the capital of Paraguay where I will see my first South American friends Diana and Nati! Fun fact - the unnecessarily long, actual name of this city is "La Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción."

La Paz - to meet Josh and do the Camino de la Muerte (death road), a 40mile downhill bike ride on a skinny, half-unpaved road from the highest city in South America into the Amazon

Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada - two weeks in paradise for a wedding of someone I've never met

Ft. Lauderdale - to visit my dad and various other family members who reside in and around Ft. Lauderdale proper

Detroit - just a layover on my way back to Philly, but it sounds pretty bad ass, huh? although, now that I think about it, I don't think it can compare with Colombia

Philly!!!!!!! - April 22, I come home to no job, no money, no place to live but I couldn't be happier

doing stuff

I'm on my ninth consecutive day of twelve in a row at the hostel and I'm tired. My eyes hurt. Last night when I was falling asleep behind the bar, my lovely boss told me to go home. And I get to leave early tonight, too. This is my own fault for taking two days off last week, but Punta del Diablo was worth it.

In other exciting news, I went to the Paraguayan embassy today. Paraguay is one of those countries down here that acts in exact accordance with what the U.S. makes their citizens do to enter in our country. What that means for me is that I have to get a visa that costs $65, proof of entering and leaving Paraguay, 2 passport-ready photos, a letter from my friend saying that I will be visiting and staying with her and since I don't have a credit card (an essential), I will have to sit down and have a formal interview. Then, if all is in order after 24 hours, I will be permitted to enter Paraguay for 4 days. Well, I can technically stay longer, but such is the duration of my trip. Hopefully this all works out because I have a flight that leaves from Asunción to La Paz on March 20 and I know Josh will probably freak out if I leave him alone too long in Bolivia.

Along with this unbelievably annoying process, I am also applying for a new license so that I can rent a car when I get to Florida. This involves filling out a certain application, then getting said application notarized (still working on explaining that concept in Spanish), sending app to mother, mother going to DMV, mother sending new license to father y ya está. Thanks for the help, mom.

In total I have about a week and a half left in good ol' Monty-V to be spent running around and getting things in order, saying goodbye to all 5 of my friends, packing and planning. I will return briefly in March with Mom and Steve in tow, which will be fun. I'm looking forward to showing them the little life I've built here and also to eating in all the restaurants that I've wanted to try.

It is going to be hard to leave my South American home base, the only other place I've lived outside of the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, but I'll save the sentimentality for a later post when my departure seems more real.

my paycheck

**Please keep in mind that all monetary units are in Pesos Uruguayos. The current exchange rate is 20 pesos to $1 US dollar. To help those that are as mathematically challenged as I am - $1,000 pesos = $50 dollars.

base monthly salary - $6,200

+ commission (negligible percentage of bar sales) - $315

+ extra commission (given to me because my commissions were less than negligible) - $1,000

+ hostelworld mentions ("Francesca makes the best caiprioskas in town") - $200

= $7,715

- two advances of $1,500 each

- an advance of $2,000 taken out as a personal loan from my boss so I could go to the beach this past weekend, which still wasn't enough. (Thank you Victoria and Michal, I owe you dinner back in Philly for sure. Shaun, you can come, too.)

- $2,400 in back rent that I owed (Thank you Emily and Andrea for being so understanding.)

= $315

and just to put that into perspective for you - I bought a 120mL bottle contact solution last weekend that set me back $340 pesos!

I'm not complaining. Really. I'm actually getting a kick out of it. A good life lesson, too. I'm continually impressed by the kindness of strangers and my friends. A beer here, an empanada there, communal dinners at the hostel. Life is simple. A popsicle or a cold coca cola is a major treat. Two months of this is nothing - an accident, an experiment, a wake-up call. What really gets me is that there are plenty of people who are actually living off of this. I don't understand how those making a typical Uruguayan salary are able to travel, buy a car, feed a family.

I feel really fortunate.

excuse me miss?

These are actually questions that I have been asked while working at the hostel.

1. Do you know where we can get something to smoke? (No, but others have had luck asking a random person on the street.)

2. Will we get in trouble if we smoke that here? (There's a terrace, don't let me see you go up there.)

3. Can we eat the bread that's sitting on top of the refrigerator? (Not mine.)

4. Are you really going to confiscate our alcohol that we bring in from outside? (No, as long as you pour me a glass and save me the bottle.)

5. Do you speak English? Un poquito? (Sí, better than I speak Spanish actually.)

6. Why is you English so good? So you're not Uruguyan? Why are you here? How long? How'd you get the job? You don't live in the hostel? Where are you from? When are you going back? (In answering these questions, I sound like a robot in both English and Spanish. I really need to think of a new story to keep things exciting like I'm in hiding with a Columbian drug lord or my parents kicked me out and I hitchhiked all the way down here. Maybe I was captured and sold into white slavery, and they're forcing me to bartend for pennies.)

7. Why isn't the shower working? (Because we're in South America, where that occasionally happens.)

8. Can I stay in a dorm where there's not a lot of people? (Um, no because this is a hostel so it's impossible to predict what might happen.) This guy was later found naked, laying on beds in three different rooms by Martin.

9. Is there an egg cup that I can use? (What's an egg cup?)

10. Do you have a South American boyfriend? (This answer really depends on who is asking the question.)