Yearly Archives: 2011

Sunday night – Iguazu day 1

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Greetings from Puerto Iguazu in northeren Argentina.. Gabe and I got here mid afternoon… after a busy morning packing and moving our of Buenos Aires.. Interestingly, the guy who checked us out of the hotel has Diane’s Last name.. and Gabe, Max and Sam’s middle name.. for his first name..

 

 

We took an hour anda half flight instead of a `7 hour bus ride (good call) and got her pretty refreshed.

 

TOmorrow is a holiday.. and we were having a bit of trouble finding a free room yesterday.. In the end we settled on this place.. The Hotel de la FOnte.. and it counldn’t be nicer.. it’s very quiet.. about 8 rooms.. and a good ten minute walk from downtown.. a realy nice base for our visit.

the grounds are covered with cool lants.. lie this tree right out of Dr. Suess.

Lot sof bunnies sharing the smae space, too.

 

 

By the time we got settled here, it was about 4 and too late to hit the falls.. which are a good 20 KM away.. instead GFabe and I went running to explore the place.. First stop was the three boarders area abotu a half mile from here.. it’s the place where the three countires, Argentine , Paraguay and Brazil come together aroudn the three rivers.. a very cool spot.. and full of tourists.

here;s brazil across the river..

 

here you can see all three countires.. we’re in argentina.. the land on the left is Paraguay,.. the land on the right is Brazil. .how cool is that ?

 

here’s paraguay..

there was anice little market there at the crossing .

gabe and I took a short cut through the woods and came out in a cool town.. we found this old statue laying in someones yard.

we eventually circled back and ran into town.. first stop was an heladaria to sample gabes favorite dulce de leche ice cream

 

 

 

we spent an hour or s checkign out the town.. We both really liked it.. even if the tour books didn’t

 

mate is such a big deal here.. evey store had collections ofgiards , teas a and straws.. but strangly.. tehre was no place to buy a glass of tea..

We found a cool resturant and settled in for a feat.. Here’s gabe wearing my stupid replacement glasses..

of exercise moving around.

 

and here he is wiht his pile of meet..

 

after a great dinner we walked aroufd the town for another hour or so.. it’s a cute place..

 

 

at one point we saw an add for Mate ice cream.. we just had to try it.. yum !

 

we walked intoll the stores we passed.. fnally one actually offered us some mate.. sharing their straw of course.. it was so yummy

 

we stopped in to buy soem soft drinks and saw this local ligour.. actually an appertif..

 

it’s so unsmooth in make jagermeister tast smooth and mild..

 

spaking of smooth and midl.. I nede my beuty rest.. so more tomorrow..

we’re wakign early to see the falls… Shoul dbe good..

 

Until later

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

 

Saturday night – Buenos Dias !

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Gabe and I are having fun here in Buenos Aires. We decided o spend another day here in the city before heading north.. .  We’d had a late night last night… just walking around and eventually eating .. We found a good sushi place around 11pm.    It was great to have something other than cheese to eat..

We both managed to sleep until almost afternoon… It was a a mix of clouds and sun.. and pretty cool.. maybe in the mid 40’s.. We put on shorts and sweatsirts and headed out for a run.. I managed to loose my glases (!@#% !) soon after we started.. I have an old spare pare.. but basically I’m pretty dependent on them.. I can’t read at all . without them..   with these old ones.. I can sort of read.. but… it’s just making things more interesting..

 

Gabe took me on a tour of this part of the town on our run.. we hit several cool old buildings then walked through two street fairs.. Eventually we ended up at La Ricoletta Cemetery.. what an AMAZING place.. our pics from that trip are on Gabe’s camera… and that’s formatted for a MAC.. so I’ll post those pictures when we get back.. We did place a few samstones… pictures of that coming soon
We came back to the hotel and both fell asleep for a couple of more hours.. Eventually we headed back out for dinner.. we found a great thai fast food place.. . then brought that stuff back to the room. For old times sake we set out the food on an ironing board.. Gabe and I remember doing that oen day when he was a little kid.. We got stuck in Washington DC on the way back from Florida.. and ended up making a feats in a hotel an and set it up on an  ironing board..

 

Now we’re watching ‘shark week’ on Discovery.. Oh, speaking of Discovery.. I just found these dubbed versions of the colony videos on Tu Discovery.. very cool

 

OK.. more from the road tomorrow..

nite all, nite sam…

-mc

 

 

Friday evening – Obrigado Sao Paulo. !

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At the Sao Paulo Airport headed back to Buenos Aires.. I’m going to meet up with Gabe tonight and that will start our vacation. I’m really looking forward to hanging out with him.

I’ve really enjoyed my visit to Sao Paulo.. I can’t explain it really.. its a huge and busy city.. but somehow it radiates warmth.. .. Obrigado Sao Paulo. !. I’ll come back soon !

I woke today around 5 AM .. unable to sleep for some reason.. I think it was the 2 tons of cheese I’d had as part of my great dinner. with friends duarte, wilson , julie and liggy. .

 

I dozed a bit.. but around 7 I dragged myself out of bed and went for a run.
I ran through a spaghetti of overpasses and underpasses to get to a footbridge which lead to Ibirapuera park.. a huge green oasis in the city.

 

 

I was amazed to see the place packed with runners, walkers and cyclists at 7am. There wer eall sorts of folks there.. lots of runners my age and older, kids, running teams, dog runners.. it felt like a party..

 

though the day was gray and warm/hot (high 70’s ?) ,, the place was full of bright flowers.. It felt so good to get some exercise. I put two samstones in the park… one in the mouth of a lion sculpture and anoth in one of the three lakes in the park.. I know that my freind Wilson had placed one in one of these lakes a few years ago…

 

after placing the stones.. I headed back to work.. . My freind Duarte picked us up at the hotel and took us the short 15 minutes to IBM. I spent the day meeting wit friends about work..

 

here is Duarte and Luana

We grabbed a good lunch.. I was pleased to see they even had a word for vegitarian here.. even more pleased that they had food for them 🙂

 

 

.. Around 1 I gave my last talk of the trip…  then took the long ride back to the airport.. It was cool seeing Sao Paulo by daylight ..

 

 

Over the past two weeks, I’ve visited 4 ibm sites in 4 cities, , given 5 IBM talks, 5 university talks (about 1000 student toal, I think) and one customer visit.. All my talks but one went pretty well.. I’m happy and tired.. and eager to goof of with Gabe.. My flight leaves for Bueonos Aires in an hour.. I may be offline for a couple of days..It’ll be nice to slow down…

 

OK.. we’re boarding soon.. More from Argentina tomorrow

Nite all, nite sam

-me

Thursday night – calor humano

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Hello from Sao Palo.. one of the worlds largest… and (in my opinion) friendliest cities.. I really have fallen in love with brazil.. the people here are so warm and genuine..  I remember my freind Andy coming back from here talking about ‘calor humano’ .. ‘human heat’.. it’s evident everywhere , everyone is hugging and kissing all the time.   Even my breakfast was smiling !

 

 

My day started with a big ibm meeting….I just love these types of event.. I got to meet many folks from all over the country.. they were here to network and exchange stories.. Events like this are what make our company great..   My talk went very well..

 

From there I took off to visit one of the local customers.. getting driven through the streets of this giant city was an adventure in itself.Heres a scene of folks learning brazilian kic boxing..

Id’ liek to say my customer meeting went great.. but it didn’t.. .. not sure why.. but perhaps it was because I wasn’t nervous before

Luckily .. things turned around went to visit  Senac.University.. I was nervous ( a good sign. I think).. because I had to give my tlak via simultaneos translation. I gave a talk on science careers and my time on the colony.. it went great… which put me in a better mood.. despite the tranation, the whole group stayed with me and then hung out after for talking and pictures..   I won’t put all the pictures here.. but here are a few…

I won’t go into it here.. but I was feelign a bit down

 

Around Wilson, Julie, Duarte and lLggy met for a really great dinner.. .. great conversation, great food …

OK.. gotta sleep now more tomorrow..

thanks for everything brazil !

nite all, nite sam

-jc