Thursday, December 07, 2006
Compare and Contrast
Hello all,
Because Matt is sitting right next to me extensively blogging the last bit of his trip...matchabailey.com/recently.html...(see Recently)....I feel a bit silly rewriting what he has written. So i encourage you to read it, and I´ll write on other things.
We are in our final hours of the Argentinian leg of our PUya hunt. We easily found the last species yesterday, just north of Cordoba, which was a welcome relief after a few days of fruitlessly searching for Puya smithii. There were four species in Argentina that we simply couldn´t find. Three were just too high and one we found, but it doesn´t match the description in the book. But that is certainly ok. Chile should be easier as most species live below 1000m in elevation and we have GPS data on many of them (unlike the information on Argentinas species...the monograph lists random names of mountain ranges that no one uses anymore...you pretty much have to find the oldest person in town to figure out what is going on).
I´m going to write now about things that my mother (and hopefully everyone else) would find interesting. They make GREAT coffee here....freshly ground espresso with milk...unlike in Ecuador, and the fresh squeezed orange juice really is amazing, though I do dearly miss the varieties of juices of Ecuador. All is tastier than our Tropicana in the US. So South America one, US none. But then we move on to the food...just a few little crouissantes or some stale bread (they like it stale and sweet down here), which is hardly the big steamy bowl of oatmeal or Wheetabix that I like to eat at home to start me off right. So now the score is evened.
People in Argentina and Ecuador are excessively neat and polite and there are loads of formalities that simply don´t exist in the States. While this can be quite charming, it can get very tiring. Matt and I are constantly worried we are offending Diego, because we tend to be more to the point and straightforward than people here. (Oh, and we are messier and look worse as a rule) But really, we don´t have much time or money to spare and so sometimes I have to draw the line and say this is what we are doing right now. I miss the laid back, take care of yourself, US attitude.
People (well, Diego which I extrapolate to all Argentines), are much more aware of rank and this creates situations in which you don´t call someone until you know for a fact if they are older or more educated than you so you know how to address them properly. Weird....again, I prefer the States where I call my professors by their first names and people find formality awkward.
So we are off to Chile soon. I really don´t know very much about Chile, but I did read an amazing book at the beach last year about Chile....The House of the Spirits, by Isabelle Allende, which I most highly recommend. I really don´t know what it will be like there....more expensive so they say (though they have this weird currency that is like 30000 to a dollar, so we probably won´t even know what we are spending...we do have to pay 100 dollars each to enter the country, which is ridiculous! Apparently they are just geting revenge on the US), better infrastructure (though i certainly wouldn´t complain about Argentinas...except a few very crazy roads we took up north), worse food (but good wine and that is all I really need), and Spanish more Andean than Italian (though Diego pretty much always wants to speak English, so we really are spoiled). They rent automatic cars, much to Matts delight, and so soon we´ll be zooming about the skinny, long country, in search of the biggest and prettiest plants to date. I think we are hitting a good bloom year too! I will collect them all, so there is none left for that sketchy German (just kidding...I love the plants too much to do that to them!).
Ok, off to retrieve our cleaned laundry. What a relief!! Will write again from Chile..."
Rachel
Because Matt is sitting right next to me extensively blogging the last bit of his trip...matchabailey.com/recently.html...(see Recently)....I feel a bit silly rewriting what he has written. So i encourage you to read it, and I´ll write on other things.
We are in our final hours of the Argentinian leg of our PUya hunt. We easily found the last species yesterday, just north of Cordoba, which was a welcome relief after a few days of fruitlessly searching for Puya smithii. There were four species in Argentina that we simply couldn´t find. Three were just too high and one we found, but it doesn´t match the description in the book. But that is certainly ok. Chile should be easier as most species live below 1000m in elevation and we have GPS data on many of them (unlike the information on Argentinas species...the monograph lists random names of mountain ranges that no one uses anymore...you pretty much have to find the oldest person in town to figure out what is going on).
I´m going to write now about things that my mother (and hopefully everyone else) would find interesting. They make GREAT coffee here....freshly ground espresso with milk...unlike in Ecuador, and the fresh squeezed orange juice really is amazing, though I do dearly miss the varieties of juices of Ecuador. All is tastier than our Tropicana in the US. So South America one, US none. But then we move on to the food...just a few little crouissantes or some stale bread (they like it stale and sweet down here), which is hardly the big steamy bowl of oatmeal or Wheetabix that I like to eat at home to start me off right. So now the score is evened.
People in Argentina and Ecuador are excessively neat and polite and there are loads of formalities that simply don´t exist in the States. While this can be quite charming, it can get very tiring. Matt and I are constantly worried we are offending Diego, because we tend to be more to the point and straightforward than people here. (Oh, and we are messier and look worse as a rule) But really, we don´t have much time or money to spare and so sometimes I have to draw the line and say this is what we are doing right now. I miss the laid back, take care of yourself, US attitude.
People (well, Diego which I extrapolate to all Argentines), are much more aware of rank and this creates situations in which you don´t call someone until you know for a fact if they are older or more educated than you so you know how to address them properly. Weird....again, I prefer the States where I call my professors by their first names and people find formality awkward.
So we are off to Chile soon. I really don´t know very much about Chile, but I did read an amazing book at the beach last year about Chile....The House of the Spirits, by Isabelle Allende, which I most highly recommend. I really don´t know what it will be like there....more expensive so they say (though they have this weird currency that is like 30000 to a dollar, so we probably won´t even know what we are spending...we do have to pay 100 dollars each to enter the country, which is ridiculous! Apparently they are just geting revenge on the US), better infrastructure (though i certainly wouldn´t complain about Argentinas...except a few very crazy roads we took up north), worse food (but good wine and that is all I really need), and Spanish more Andean than Italian (though Diego pretty much always wants to speak English, so we really are spoiled). They rent automatic cars, much to Matts delight, and so soon we´ll be zooming about the skinny, long country, in search of the biggest and prettiest plants to date. I think we are hitting a good bloom year too! I will collect them all, so there is none left for that sketchy German (just kidding...I love the plants too much to do that to them!).
Ok, off to retrieve our cleaned laundry. What a relief!! Will write again from Chile..."
Rachel
# posted by Rachel Jabaily @ 9:10 AM 
