I finished up my last week here at INTA Balcarce, and I am heading to Rosario, Santa Fe province for the International Rangeland Congress next week.  I gave a charla, or a seminar, about my Master’s thesis project during my final week here.  One of my goals was to give a short seminar about my project in Castellano, and I did it! the following photos are taken with the scientists and professors I have worked with here in Balcarce.  I have also posted a few fotos of the house I have been living in with 4 other grad students.  It has been an amazing experience!  I am sad to leave.

Hola Todos!

Lauren Svejcar, good friend and fellow grad student came to visit me for a weekend here in Balcarce, Buenos Aires province from Santa Rosa, La Pampa.  Lauren accompanied me to INTA Balcarce on Friday and we went with my director, Miguel Brizuela, to visit a nearby “campo” or ranch that is sometimes used for research projects and tours.  On Saturday we enjoyed a rare warm sunny day in Mar del Plata (Playa!).  On Sunday I ran a 5 km race in the central park of Balcarce in celebration of el Dia de las Mujeres.  My “coach”, a local bakery (confiteria) owner and Lauren cheered me on!  We also had time to climb a nearby Sierra.  En fin, fue un fin de semana muy lindo!!

I´m enjoying my last few weeks in Argentina, working as much as I can with the scientists and professors at INTA and traveling and visiting my Argentine friends on the weekends. I´m going to try and post a link to the most popular music that is common to hear on the streets (por las calles) here in Argentina and the rest of America Latina! There are several versions of this song, but the most popular version is written in Portuegues. Disfruten!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po2guiyYZ88

I will try and post more fotos pronto!

Vane

Asado with the Santa Rosa team!

Hola todos!

I took a short trip to visit Lauren Svejcar, a fellow grad student (and co-recipient of AGG scholarship) and good friend in Santa Rosa, La Pampa, where she is working.  We had a great weekend exploring the shops in Santa Rosa, experiencing small-town Carnaval and enjoying a wonderful asado with Raul Peinetti, a scientist collaborating on en ecological site description project with ARS Jornada in NM.  It was wonderful to get together and see how my fellow AGG amiga was doing on the Pampa!  Enjoy the fotos!

Asado La Pampa en la casa de Raul Peinette

Carnaval!

La ropa mojada despues de Carnaval bajo la lluvia!

We found a Carnaval festival at the fairgrounds near Santa Rosa, but all of a sudden the heavens opened up and rain poured down and lightning flashed and everyone ran for cover. But this didn’t stop Carnaval! The party continued under the gas station ramada, drummers drumming and shavnig cream flying! We were soaked (with rain and shaving cream) when we dashed through the downpour going home!

Cafe con leche....por la mañana despues de Carnaval...

Mate en la plaza

Mate en la plazaLo normal en la cocina

I have begun the second phase of my studies in Argentina in the small city of Balcarce, near Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast south of the capital Buenos Aires.  I am working with a team of scientists (Drs. Miguel Brizuela and Silvia Cid) at the INTA Balcarce station, and we are working together to discover how best to analyze the data I have collected from my site in NM, basing ideas off of the data analyses conducted on the sites in Corrientes and Buenos Aires provinces.  This team of scientists is looking to provide some opportunities for students who want to study abroad, perhaps an exchange between Ag students here and in the U.S.  There is an Agriculture campus here at the INTA station, part of Universidad del Mar del Plata, so there are many undergrad and grad students. 

I’m living in a house in Balcarce with 4 other grad students, 3 of whom are here studying from Colombia and one from Argentina. They are studying to become veterinarians, agronomists and animal scientists.  Pretty cool!!  They are all very helpful and are great friends to me.  We all take the bus every morning to work/school at INTA. So far we have cooked an asado at the house and climbed a nearby Sierra during the first weekend!

I will be here in Balcace til the end of March, and I will try to post as many fotos as I can!

Chao!

Vaneeee

During my second week of working at INTA Bariloche, I had the chance to do some kayaking with a good friend from work (Emilio) and his very generous friends who run a kayaking/outdoor expedition company.  I really was working during the week, learning how to do microhistology, even though it appears I am having way too much fun! 

During Week 3 Guillermo, Marcolin and I traveled to Parque Nacional Lanin to monitor the summer range (veranada) that was being grazed by some small producers.  It was beautiful and the gauchos managing the herds were incredibly interesting to meet.

Finally I have started this blog for those of you who are not on Facebook.  As

Adelante el campo de investigacion!

most of you already know, I am doing some work in Argentina for my Master of Range Science degree. I began the Master’s program in Jan 2010 and I chose this specific program at New Mexico State University under the direction of Dr. Andrés Cibils in order to gain a better understanding of livestock grazing behavior and extend my network to Argentina, a country which I have come to love and hope to pursue more work in the future.  My Master’s project analyzes free-ranging livestock grazing behavior across different ecotypes.  We have one site in central NM (semi-arid woodland savannah), and three sites in Argentina. The sites in Argentina include analyses in Patagonian semi-arid steppe (Bariloche, Rio Negro, AR), subtropical grassland (Corrientes, AR) and temperate grassland (pampas, Buenos Aires province, AR). Each site is located at a research ranch facility managed by INTA (Instituto Nacional Tecnología Agropecuaria), kind of like the Agriculture Research Station system in the US.

I will be working at each of the sites in Argentina, rotating through each until April.  At that time, I will end my adventure here by attending the International Rangeland Congress in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, a professional organization dedicated to rangeland research across the globe.

I have been in Argentina since Jan 14th, beginning the adventure with close family friends in Buenos Aires.  After a week in BA, I traveled to beautiful mountain city Bariloche in northern Patagonia next to the Andes to assist with research sampling on the Patagonian site.  I am working out of the INTA station in Bariloche. It is a wonderful place to work and practice my Castellano! I have been living in a hostel called “El Gaucho” and it has been a fantastic place to live so far. I will try to post as many fotos as I can. Disfrutate! Enjoy!

Vanessa