Ahh, home life! No more shower sandals, no more skimping on soap, shampoo and toothpaste to make it last, no more carrying around a heavy backpack, and no more packing and unpacking every two or three days! Oh yeah, now I get a big comfy bed, clean bathroom, and home-cooked meals three times a day. It is not going to take long for me to gain back any weight I might have lost. haha.
I've been home now for about a month, and except for my first day back, not a day has gone by where I haven't wished I was still adventuring in South America. To have something new and exciting to do everyday, someone new to meet in every place, some spectacular bit of scenery to see, the sights, the smells, the sounds, and the crazy driving...I miss it all. I've come home to friends and family who are genuinely excited to have me back, but who also have lives--I'm back to that being-unemployed-while-all-my-friends-are-in-school-or-have-jobs thing. I'm bored out of my mind, and I can't understand how I ever thought shower sandals were something to complain about. haha.
I suppose after traipsing through half a continent, suburbian life in small town America could never be exciting, but I can't help but to wish it was. I spend my days daydreaming about Brazilian beaches, the Argentine nightlife, and the Andes mountains. Another chapter in my life is about to begin with school, and I should be excited about that, which I guess I am in a small way, but it's hard to be after my three months abroad. It was too short. I should have gone earlier or I should have stayed longer. I feel like there is so much left to do and see in this world and spending five years of it dedicated to school seems like an utter waste of time. Ugh. Perhaps this is just what happens to people when they return from a trip like this. Perhaps this is mostly a product of my boredom at home, and if I had more to keep myself busy with than I wouldn't miss traveling so much.
I think I've caught the travel bug anyway, and now it's just a matter of time until my next trip! Southeast Asia Summer of 2011 anyone? =)
A big thanks to everyone who kept in touch with me and kept up with my adventures through this blog! I'm not sure if I was entertaining enough, but I hope you found it fun to follow along as I traveled through the 5 countries in South America. I'll most definitely be making a return journey!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Lima Bean.
We shopped around the rest of the afternoon, hit up our favorite grocery store three more times and headed in to the hostel to pack and get some sleep before leaving for our way too early flights the next day. I even ran into a few more travelers that I had seen, including my friend Chris.
Overall impressions of Lima: not the prettiest place, but it has potential. Definitely not the most fun I've had, but it was nice to relax before heading back home.
Next stop: Home. Yeesh! Haven't been there in 3 months, and I'm finally going back! I'm excited about not wearing shower sandals, that's for sure, but I am really going to miss traveling.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Buenos Aires Part Dos!
Back to BA with Nina for the week! No shower sandals necessary this time! Woo hoo! We've rented out an apartment in Palermo Chico. It feels so nice to just walk around without shoes on, to sit around and watch tv, and it's great not to deal with random people who snore or are annoying. haha.
Our first day started with us getting stopped on the street (within 5 minutes of leaving the apt) by an old lady who was absolutely shocked with our clothing choices. While everyone in BA is dressed for the "fall", Nina and I were dressed like it was summer time (it was like 73 degrees and sunny). Fitting in in BA on day 1: FAIL. We already stick out bc of our looks, but our clothing choices pretty much solidified our tourist status. lol.
We started every one of our mornings the same way: searching for a breakfast spot for at least 1 hour. For some reason Argentinians love drinking coffee and eating wack little pastries, but what about eggs and fruit and yogurt? I don't think I was ever fully satisfied after breakfast. =/ We explored Recoletta, San Telmo, Mancerat, and Palermo. We also attempted to go shopping on a Saturday only to discover that it was Labor Day in Argentina, which meant that almost every shopping store, including the massive mall, was closed..on a SATURDAY. What the shit? Why don't they just give people off on Monday!? The stupid holiday kept us from getting tickets to a soccer game, too. Really depressing. Just like we spent hours searching for breakfast in the morning, we spent hours trying to figure out how to eat dinner at a decent time. I didn't realize that restaurants close at 4:30pm and although they reopen at 8:30pm, no one is at the restaurants to actually eat dinner until 10:30 or 11pm. How do people wait that late to eat? Since I didn't eat out at all the first time I swung through BA (I was on an ice cream and guacamole diet), I had no idea this is what happened, and Nina and struggled to wait until late at night to eat dinner, especially since we spent at least 6 or 7 hours a day just walking after a crappy breakfast.
We spent one night at a tango show. WHAT A WASTE!! First we get charged a ridiculous amount to go to this thing (we heard it was good, so we figured why not?). Second, we show up to this show and there are only TWO other people in the place. Right, so there are only four people at this show and it's Friday night. We bought a bottle of wine thinking we would need it to get through the show since we were so tired. The bottle of wine ended up being a mistake since it made us get stuck there when we wanted to walk out. The Asian girl sitting next to me was falling asleep during the show! She was asleep during some of it, and the people who were working were laughing at her. Then, I got called up by one of the tango dancers to dance with him. Umm..no thanks? That didn't work, obviously. So now, I'm stuck at a show that is SUPER LAME and BORING, and I'm being forced to dance tango and look like a retard while attempting in front of two strangers, and Nina who was recording the entire thing. Thanks sis. Wait until it's your turn. Sometime during that, one of the girls watching the show managed to escape by pretending she was going outside to smoke. SO LUCKY! We got stuck there until basically the end, but Nina did get pulled up to dance. Unfortunately, the camera battery ended up dying at that exact moment! Ugh! We tried to make a quiet exit after her dance since the Asian chick got pulled up to dance, but one of our shopping bags caught onto something, and Nina ended up knocking over the bottle of wine and our glasses making a massive mess on the floor and all over the white table cloth. So much for a quiet exit. haha.
Overall, BA the second time around was a nice chance to relax and rest up after the Machu Picchu trek. We did get to shop a bit, so I was definitely happy about that, and even though we had some wack food experiences and a ridiculous tango time, it was really nice to re-visit the city. I realized that the city was not as amazing as I thought it was the first time I went. Not sure I'd want to go back again. lol. Still great to visit though, so you should go!
Next up, my final stop, Lima. :(
Our first day started with us getting stopped on the street (within 5 minutes of leaving the apt) by an old lady who was absolutely shocked with our clothing choices. While everyone in BA is dressed for the "fall", Nina and I were dressed like it was summer time (it was like 73 degrees and sunny). Fitting in in BA on day 1: FAIL. We already stick out bc of our looks, but our clothing choices pretty much solidified our tourist status. lol.
Next up, my final stop, Lima. :(
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
Twenty-nine miles over 4 days way past sea level--I figured it would be one of the hardest things I'd do physically on the trip, and I figured I would be lagging in the back of the group the whole way. Instead, I was basically in the front most of the time, and I was finishing the day and getting to the campsites before 98% of my group! SWEET! Talk about a self-esteem boost. haha.Nina was a rockstar during the entire trek too! I was worried when she told me she stopped running on the treadmill and went to bikram yoga classes instead and really improved her breathing. Seriously nina? You opted for bikram yoga instead of building your endurance? But that bikram yoga is no joke (i know now that i've tried it.) We became friends with an aussie couple, an irish guy and an english guy, and it worked out so that she had company and i had company any time we were separate from each other since I was like a mountain goat when it came to hills and stairs. I never thought I would be happy to compare myself to a mountain goat, but in this case, DEFINITELY PROUD to be a mountain goat.
Proudest moment on the trek: Finishing the dead woman's pass in less than an hour.
Happiest moment: Getting to the sun gate and seeing MP with Nina for the first time.
2nd happiest moment: eating a snicker's bar while at MP bc 1. we had saved it for days 2. i was REALLY hungry since our breakfast was at 4am, and we trekked for another 3 hours before even getting to MP 3. i knew my dad would appreciate the picture. :)
If you get a chance to go to MP, even if it's via the train, DO IT. Doing a trek would be my first recommendation bc the views are absolutely stunning while getting there and because the feelings of accomplishment and happiness when you finally get there after days of hard hiking, camping, and being dirty are amazing, and you realize all of the sweating (blood and tears if it happens to you) was totally worth it. The Incas floor you with their craftsmanship, architecture and skill that is hard to imagine hundreds of years ago. And if you have the energy (or if you don't, find it) climb Waynapicchu (big green mountain in my blog picture). It is at least another 45 minutes (35 for me!) of sheer uphill climbing to the top that will really burn your thighs, but the views from the top are amazing and inspiring.
Cusco: Is your mama a llama?
I'm in Cusco, which means that my trip is rapidly nearing its end! boo. I feel like I need to see and do everything and anything to make sure that I maximize on my time down here! And at the same time, I want to do nothing more than lounge around on the sunny lawn at my hostel with all of the other sunbathers so I can get back some sort of tan to show people at home, or to just sit inside and catch up on emails, or take naps in my comfy Loki bed. The smarter decision would probably have been to run out and do a million things, but I chose to go down the lazy road. I figure, Nina will be joining me in two days, I might as well just rest up before Machu Picchu. So that is basically what I did. I spent my first day in Cusco sitting around, catching up on emails and getting acquainted with three south african guys who were in my room. Ended up going out and having a great time with them, and happened to also run into some familiar faces from La Paz.
I spent my second day in Cusco doing something worthwhile.: I went to volunteer at a boy's home that was about 40 minutes outside of the city. A group of us from the hostel took some taxis out to this random place, and after what felt like ages, we finally got dropped off and then walked another 15 minutes to the actual location. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like it was a very fulfilling experience. The intention was the spend the day laughing and playing with young children and helping with school work at an orphanage, but no one in the group knew that it was a boy's home, and that the ages ranged from 9-16. Now, I could be wrong, but my initial thoughts are that young boys only really feel like bonding with older guys. They don't really see me and think, I want to spend time with her! Boys are way cooler for boys..does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is that is it's easier for young boys to connect with older guys, and our group of 10 only had 2 boys. And there were actually only 9 or 10 kids, and since there were two other volunteers coming from somewhere else, the ratio of volunteers to kids was too high. Is that even a bad thing? I think it was considering the fact that only 4 of us had any spanish speaking skills and they were still crap in comparison to the spanish we were receiving from the kids. We had to wait almost 1.5 hours just to start interacting with the kids since they were at school when we got there and then had to eat lunch when they got back to the home. Once all of that was said and done, and everyone realized how hard this was going to be time really slowed down. I must sound like a horrible person for saying that I basically wanted to go back to the hostel as soon as we got to the home, but when I tell you that the sitting around doing nothing for the first 2.5 hrs was followed by being assigned garden work in the green house, I think you can agree with me. The most worthwhile thing I did the entire day was weeding in the green house that they had, and let me tell you, I WORKED. I had a pickax and even though I was in sandals and I had an infected cut on my foot, I was all up in the dirt making sure to get rid of those weeds so they could plant their veggies. (I did accidentally kill a tomato plant, but don't judge me too harshly! I tried to put it back together again...and failed.) After we finished the gardening, we all went inside to help the boys with their homework, and somehow I got put next to the boy whose homework was to read. How am I supposed to help someone with their reading homework if it's in spanish? And it was about how the digestive system works. What the shit? I mean, I can sound things out and stuff, but I'm pretty sure the kid didn't need any help from me considering he only had 3 pages to read. So I ended up just sitting their and chatting with the two other volunteers who weren't with our group. We finally left and ended up spending the next 30 minutes walking into the town and waiting around trying to find a taxi to take us all the way back to Cusco. Finally settled on taking a 45 min bus ride. What a GREAT day. No, really, as much as I'm complaining about how unfulfilling the day was, I am happy I went. After all the time I've spent down in South America and all of the different people I've seen, I needed a day to give back to a community. I think I'm a little addicted to community service anyway. haha. Even though the most helpful thing I did was to pull out weeds, everyone I was with definitely commented on how much effort I put into it, so at least I can say that I helped provide some sort of food for these boys.
Nina came in super early on my day 3, and instead of letting the poor girl sleep and rest after her 24 hours of traveling, I made her shower and get revved up for a day of walking in the city. We mostly just hung out in the main plaza in the city catching up since all we've talked about for the last 2.5 months is machhu pichu things, and then we checked out some artisan shops for llama and alpacha gear. Some random guy took a picture of me while we were walking down the street...creepy. He did said thanks, but I still think that was weird, and now there is a picture of me at some stranger's home..or on the internet somewhere. She crashed at around 6pm and was out for the rest of the night, and I figured it was my last night to do anything in Cusco, so I might as well go out and make the most of it! I ended up having a bit of a ladies night with two lovely girls I had become friends with in La Paz. Basically got no sleep since Nina had plenty of energy, so after breakfast and some more time down at the Plaza de Armes, Nina and I spent our last day in Cusco getting ready for our trek to Machu Picchu which was going to start bright and early the next morning with a 5am pickup.
I'm really excited to do the Inca Trail with Nina. There are some cool people at the hostel coming on our trek with us, so it should be a good time, and it will be interesting to see how hard this trek gets and how much I can handle. I'm a little weary considering my last trekking experience, but I figure since I have someone to carry everything for me except some spare rain gear, snacks, and water, I should be ok. Hopefully the last few months of being with super in-shape people has whipped me into shape a bit. :)
I spent my second day in Cusco doing something worthwhile.: I went to volunteer at a boy's home that was about 40 minutes outside of the city. A group of us from the hostel took some taxis out to this random place, and after what felt like ages, we finally got dropped off and then walked another 15 minutes to the actual location. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like it was a very fulfilling experience. The intention was the spend the day laughing and playing with young children and helping with school work at an orphanage, but no one in the group knew that it was a boy's home, and that the ages ranged from 9-16. Now, I could be wrong, but my initial thoughts are that young boys only really feel like bonding with older guys. They don't really see me and think, I want to spend time with her! Boys are way cooler for boys..does that make sense? What I'm trying to say is that is it's easier for young boys to connect with older guys, and our group of 10 only had 2 boys. And there were actually only 9 or 10 kids, and since there were two other volunteers coming from somewhere else, the ratio of volunteers to kids was too high. Is that even a bad thing? I think it was considering the fact that only 4 of us had any spanish speaking skills and they were still crap in comparison to the spanish we were receiving from the kids. We had to wait almost 1.5 hours just to start interacting with the kids since they were at school when we got there and then had to eat lunch when they got back to the home. Once all of that was said and done, and everyone realized how hard this was going to be time really slowed down. I must sound like a horrible person for saying that I basically wanted to go back to the hostel as soon as we got to the home, but when I tell you that the sitting around doing nothing for the first 2.5 hrs was followed by being assigned garden work in the green house, I think you can agree with me. The most worthwhile thing I did the entire day was weeding in the green house that they had, and let me tell you, I WORKED. I had a pickax and even though I was in sandals and I had an infected cut on my foot, I was all up in the dirt making sure to get rid of those weeds so they could plant their veggies. (I did accidentally kill a tomato plant, but don't judge me too harshly! I tried to put it back together again...and failed.) After we finished the gardening, we all went inside to help the boys with their homework, and somehow I got put next to the boy whose homework was to read. How am I supposed to help someone with their reading homework if it's in spanish? And it was about how the digestive system works. What the shit? I mean, I can sound things out and stuff, but I'm pretty sure the kid didn't need any help from me considering he only had 3 pages to read. So I ended up just sitting their and chatting with the two other volunteers who weren't with our group. We finally left and ended up spending the next 30 minutes walking into the town and waiting around trying to find a taxi to take us all the way back to Cusco. Finally settled on taking a 45 min bus ride. What a GREAT day. No, really, as much as I'm complaining about how unfulfilling the day was, I am happy I went. After all the time I've spent down in South America and all of the different people I've seen, I needed a day to give back to a community. I think I'm a little addicted to community service anyway. haha. Even though the most helpful thing I did was to pull out weeds, everyone I was with definitely commented on how much effort I put into it, so at least I can say that I helped provide some sort of food for these boys.
I'm really excited to do the Inca Trail with Nina. There are some cool people at the hostel coming on our trek with us, so it should be a good time, and it will be interesting to see how hard this trek gets and how much I can handle. I'm a little weary considering my last trekking experience, but I figure since I have someone to carry everything for me except some spare rain gear, snacks, and water, I should be ok. Hopefully the last few months of being with super in-shape people has whipped me into shape a bit. :)
Monday, May 10, 2010
Copacabana, Bolivia & Puno, Peru: Lake Titicaca is big.
After arriving to Copacabana and escaping our new "friend", we checked into our hotel and decided to take a walk around the town. After catching up with some people we ran into that we had traveled with on the Salt Flats, we decided to climb up a ridiculously steep mountain to watch the sunset over the lake. The bad part about that decision was that Scotty and I had just wolfed down a pizza together in less than 10 minutes so we could see the sunset, and while we were climbing this vertical mountain face, my stomach did not appreciate the lack of rest and digest time. I stopped 3/4 of the way up and watched the sunset from my own rock, while the others went up another 200 or so meters.
Next day, we headed to Isla de Sol, birthplace of the Incas..at least that is what they believe. We spent the day hiking from one end of the island to the other, and along the way, we met fake toll collector people who were trying to tell us we had to pay to walk down the section of the trail. Umm where did we miss the park entree fee signs? Oh wait, there weren't any. We had one woman go as far as running after us for at least 100m after we hopped the fence next to her gate and walked past her without paying, and she grabbed my arm to get me to stop walking...so not cool. Basically after all was said and done, and none from my group paid, each of us would have had to pay an additional $50 bolivianos just to walk from one end of the island to the other. I only brought $14 with me.
Puno: Home to the floating islands
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| El Presidente |
Puno was my last stop with Candace, Scotty, and Chris, so we spent our last night fulfilling a 1.5 month goal of finding a karaoke bar and singing the night away. I actually only sang once..TLC waterfalls was the choice for me, but it was a lot harder than I thought since I forgot about the rapping part. A good night overall though. We had the entire day to hang out before our respective buses (mine to Cusco, theirs to Arequipa) so we walked around, and Scott and I randomly found a lookout point right next to our hostel. We also saw about 50 girls there practicing some sort of hula hoop and poms number for a school competition. We ended up hanging out their and attempting to speak to 11 and 12 year old girls about what they were doing and where we were from for the next 2 hours while they practiced their dances. Unfortunately Scotty and I are terrible at speaking spanish, but luckily those little girls were learning english so we could mostly figure out what the other person was saying. The best part: the screams of surprise and shock and the giggles when we told them how old we were. I never used to feel old, but they made me feel it that day...haha. Lucky for me, Scott is older than me, so his age was an even bigger deal.
Only two more days until Nina gets to South America. I'm pretty excited! It should be an interesting first vacation together!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Jungle Fever in the AMAZON!!
The Amazon. Omg. I think this was probably the number one place I wanted to visit on this entire trip!! And I am so happy I picked Bolivia as my place to see it! The amazon basin is massive there, and apparently the most bird species in the world are found here!
Chris and I planned to do the trip together because Scotty and Candace had already done it in other places, so we hopped onto a 9 row (total 19 seats) passenger plane that was so small that I was too tall to stand up straight in the plane, there was no door to the cockpit, and the plane was ancient enough that the pilots were using a real map and compass to track where we were. What the shit? lol. I won't lie, I definitely did a praying session before the plane took off, and definitely before it landed because it was landing on a dirt runway. There are only about 2000km of paved roads in Bolivia. I've already been on buses driving through these roads, I've biked down these roads, been in taxis on these roads, but doing a plane landing seems like a bit too much especially because Chris had some friends who almost died in this type of plane because the wheels wouldn't come out before landing. OMG. I was definitely nervous about this flight.
The flight was only 40 minutes long, and went without any troubles (thank God), and once we got to Rurrenebaque, we settled into finding a place to stay and grabbed some dinner since the next day we had to drive 3.5 hrs to get to point where we would start our 3 day Pampas tour, which is basically a tour that goes through the Amazon all on boats. The car ride was pretty painful--we had 11 people in our jeep that should only fit 8 at a max. Chris and I were sandwiched into the front seat, and since the windows wouldn't roll up, and it was too hot to want to roll them up since there was no AC, the car was constantly filled with dirt and dust. My nose and lungs hate me right now because of all the work they've had to do to make sure I'm breathing semi-clean air. I became friends with our driver since everyone else in the car was from Korea and Chris went to sleep, so I had a nice conversation with him (well, I attempted a conversation), and he even pointed out plenty of animals for me to see!
We got to the boat eventually and hopped on with another group of english speakers and set off for a 2 hour ride before we got to our lodge in the jungle. It was pretty much amazing. haha. Different birds everywhere, lots of awesome trees, amazing weather, and we even got to stop and feed some monkeys!! After we got settled into the lodge, we went to watch the sunset, which basically means we went to the mosquito feeding grounds, and so began the endless cycle of getting bitten for me. The sunset was cool, but I was not a fan of the bites I got through my clothes even though I had 40% deet on me. At night we got back into the boat and went to find some caimens (alligators/crocs of the amazon) because in the dark, their eyes shine red in the light. We actually saw a few, but most were babies.
Day 2:
Woke up this morning after a night of listening to a bat fly all around our room and I think mice scamper up and down the beams of the ceiling...ee! First thing to do was pick out waterproof boots that went almost up to my knees because the morning's activity was ANACONDA HUNTING! Woah! So cool!! Well I thought it was until we got to where we were looking: a swampy field with grass basically as tall as me, with no visibility by my feet. Umm..how am I supposed to see the anaconda exactly?? Most of the time I was afraid just to accidentally step on one, I wasn't even sure what I would do if I actually found one! It was so hot out that it become more of a journey just to trek to the other side of the field where there were trees and shade. We were supposed to look around for 3 hours, and most of us were at the trees by the end of the first hour. haha. I saw no anacondas, but I got plenty of mosquito bites, got really tired walking through that grass, and got my pants permanently stained with mud and mosquito repellant. I guess I did see a cool looking lizard, an owl, and I saw the maggot that lives inside the Brazilian nut that apparently tastes just like coconut---I did not try the maggot (but others, including our guide, did. ew.).
We got back to the lodge and everyone decided to go swimming in the river since it was so hot, but the crazy part about that is a certain caimen named Frederico. Frederico sits on the bank of our lodge to get sun, and that afternoon he was in the water at the edge of the bank. Umm, you want me to go swimming while there is a caimen at the edge of the water?? Everyone else did it, so I did too! haha, peer pressure. And people standing near Frederico to make sure he was still on the edge before we jumped off the rope into the water. It took me a while to jump into the water, but it was mostly me just being afraid of swinging off a rope, not the caimen. I thought about the caimen once I was in the water trying really hard to swim back to the shore but struggling against the current. I did it once more, but that was enough for me. Didn't want to take too many chances with Frederico, although we all figured since he got food scraps from the kitchen, trying to eat one of us was way more work and not worth it.
After our afternoon siesta we went PIRANAH FISHING!! COOL!! We didn't actually have real fishing poles--it was just a piece of wood with a long wire wrapped around it and then a small hook--but I guess I shouldn't have expected more. I spent the first 30 or 40 minutes of this outing getting really excited because I thought I felt a pull, only to pull out twigs and sticks. So sad. I was providing most of the entertainment for our boat because of this, but eventually I caught one!!!! It was so exciting! Although, I did cringe away from it, and I basically didn't touch it at all. haha. We put it back into the water because it wasn't super big. I also managed to lose my sunglasses in the river. Adios sunnies! Lo siento Madre de Monde! For dinner later that night, the cook fried up the fish, and so I tried some piranha. It wasn't bad..although it was hard to really taste anything since there is almost no meat on the fish anyway.
Day 3:
Woke up to watch the sunrise this morning. TRANSLATION: got a lot more mosquito bites to add to the two nights worth from the sunsets. After some breakfast, we set out to go swimming with pink dolphins! They are really hard to spot and pretty shy...I thought it would be like something out of Sea World. haha. Nope. We did find them, and we got into the water with them and whatever else was swimming in that river, but no one got to actually touch one. It was still pretty cool though, and the water felt amazing, even though I've only swam in salt water and I forgot how hard it is to carry your own body weight in the water. I got tired pretty quickly and hung off the side of the boat a few times. haha. I did get a little nervous because I accidentally swallowed some of that water..parasites, bacteria, omg, sickness! But I was fine. I think--knock on wood--my stomach is super immune now.
We re-did our two hour boat ride and then our 3.5 hour jeep ride back to Rurrenebaque, and Chris and I hopped back onto a plane to La Paz to meet up with Candace and Scott to enjoy a few more nights there before heading to Copacabana! Yes, I said Copacabana--it does exist in Bolivia, too. I wonder if it will live up to the expectations normally associated to that place.
Chris and I planned to do the trip together because Scotty and Candace had already done it in other places, so we hopped onto a 9 row (total 19 seats) passenger plane that was so small that I was too tall to stand up straight in the plane, there was no door to the cockpit, and the plane was ancient enough that the pilots were using a real map and compass to track where we were. What the shit? lol. I won't lie, I definitely did a praying session before the plane took off, and definitely before it landed because it was landing on a dirt runway. There are only about 2000km of paved roads in Bolivia. I've already been on buses driving through these roads, I've biked down these roads, been in taxis on these roads, but doing a plane landing seems like a bit too much especially because Chris had some friends who almost died in this type of plane because the wheels wouldn't come out before landing. OMG. I was definitely nervous about this flight.The flight was only 40 minutes long, and went without any troubles (thank God), and once we got to Rurrenebaque, we settled into finding a place to stay and grabbed some dinner since the next day we had to drive 3.5 hrs to get to point where we would start our 3 day Pampas tour, which is basically a tour that goes through the Amazon all on boats. The car ride was pretty painful--we had 11 people in our jeep that should only fit 8 at a max. Chris and I were sandwiched into the front seat, and since the windows wouldn't roll up, and it was too hot to want to roll them up since there was no AC, the car was constantly filled with dirt and dust. My nose and lungs hate me right now because of all the work they've had to do to make sure I'm breathing semi-clean air. I became friends with our driver since everyone else in the car was from Korea and Chris went to sleep, so I had a nice conversation with him (well, I attempted a conversation), and he even pointed out plenty of animals for me to see!
We got to the boat eventually and hopped on with another group of english speakers and set off for a 2 hour ride before we got to our lodge in the jungle. It was pretty much amazing. haha. Different birds everywhere, lots of awesome trees, amazing weather, and we even got to stop and feed some monkeys!! After we got settled into the lodge, we went to watch the sunset, which basically means we went to the mosquito feeding grounds, and so began the endless cycle of getting bitten for me. The sunset was cool, but I was not a fan of the bites I got through my clothes even though I had 40% deet on me. At night we got back into the boat and went to find some caimens (alligators/crocs of the amazon) because in the dark, their eyes shine red in the light. We actually saw a few, but most were babies.Day 2:
Woke up this morning after a night of listening to a bat fly all around our room and I think mice scamper up and down the beams of the ceiling...ee! First thing to do was pick out waterproof boots that went almost up to my knees because the morning's activity was ANACONDA HUNTING! Woah! So cool!! Well I thought it was until we got to where we were looking: a swampy field with grass basically as tall as me, with no visibility by my feet. Umm..how am I supposed to see the anaconda exactly?? Most of the time I was afraid just to accidentally step on one, I wasn't even sure what I would do if I actually found one! It was so hot out that it become more of a journey just to trek to the other side of the field where there were trees and shade. We were supposed to look around for 3 hours, and most of us were at the trees by the end of the first hour. haha. I saw no anacondas, but I got plenty of mosquito bites, got really tired walking through that grass, and got my pants permanently stained with mud and mosquito repellant. I guess I did see a cool looking lizard, an owl, and I saw the maggot that lives inside the Brazilian nut that apparently tastes just like coconut---I did not try the maggot (but others, including our guide, did. ew.).
After our afternoon siesta we went PIRANAH FISHING!! COOL!! We didn't actually have real fishing poles--it was just a piece of wood with a long wire wrapped around it and then a small hook--but I guess I shouldn't have expected more. I spent the first 30 or 40 minutes of this outing getting really excited because I thought I felt a pull, only to pull out twigs and sticks. So sad. I was providing most of the entertainment for our boat because of this, but eventually I caught one!!!! It was so exciting! Although, I did cringe away from it, and I basically didn't touch it at all. haha. We put it back into the water because it wasn't super big. I also managed to lose my sunglasses in the river. Adios sunnies! Lo siento Madre de Monde! For dinner later that night, the cook fried up the fish, and so I tried some piranha. It wasn't bad..although it was hard to really taste anything since there is almost no meat on the fish anyway.
Day 3:
We re-did our two hour boat ride and then our 3.5 hour jeep ride back to Rurrenebaque, and Chris and I hopped back onto a plane to La Paz to meet up with Candace and Scott to enjoy a few more nights there before heading to Copacabana! Yes, I said Copacabana--it does exist in Bolivia, too. I wonder if it will live up to the expectations normally associated to that place.
La Paz, La Paz, La Paz!
La Paz! Wow, this city is insane! Not a whole lot of sights to see, but a fantastic array of restaurants for almost no money, and an awesome night life!
I spent a few days in the city just relaxing during the day by spending my time walking through the Witch's Market, which had llama and alpacha EVERYTHING for sale! I bought hats, mittens, socks, leg warmers, and jumpers all for $2 or $3 each. What a bargain!! Yes, I will be wearing items of clothing that have llamas on them. You all better still walk down the street with me. haha.
I had Indian food for the first time in ages at a restaurant that claims to have the spiciest vindaloo in La Paz. I had it twice bc it was pretty good, and both times, my entire meal was less than $10. So amazingly cheap! I loved it! I thought that I was cool enough to try this spiciest vindaloo, but I heard from some guys that the portion is huge and that it is extremely spicy! I opted for chiken tikka masala again instead of the vindaloo, and I am so happy I did!! There was a group of 18 yr old english boys at the table next to us, and a few of them thought they could handle the heat, but they definitely couldn't! They were red in the face, crying, and basically in pain within the first 2 bites, and the entire time they tried to eat, it didn't look like their plates were getting any emptier. We had the waiter bring us out a small sample so we could see what it was like, and I basically felt like my mouth was on fire for a good 5 minutes after washing the food down, and I barely had a teaspoon. All you could see were chili seeds in the vindaloo though, so I am not surprised that it was so hot!
I also attempted to get some thai because I have been craving pad thai, but the first thai restaurant I checked out had a questionable looking picture of pad thai on the their menu, and the second restaurant didn't even have it on the menu! What the shit!? How can you not have the most famous dish of a country on the menu? We opted to eat at an international cuisine house, and that was much better.
Met some really fun people at my hostel, too, that hopefully I can meet up with later on in my trip. And randomly, I ended up seeing someone I hung out with in every single city I went to in Brazil except one! I guess once everyone gets through Argentina, they have to head north again sometime.
I also biked down the ¨World's Most Dangerous Road¨ which is basically 64km of downhill biking (you descend 3000m in altitude) on a road that has claimed more lives than any other in the world, not just cars and buses, but also bikers. An isreali girl actually died doing the road 2 days before I did it because she lost control of her bike and fell down a 250m cliff. Craziness! I was pretty much praying right at the start of the bike ride, but it was all on concrete so I relaxed quite a bit and just went really fast. Once we got to the actual Road, which is all dirt and gravel and rocks with no edge and 200-300m cliffs, I started to pray a lot and I thought about that israeli girl a lot. She had a really bad day for weather where there was no visibility, so I can understand how she lost control going to fast if she tried to take a turn. I went as fast as I felt comfortable, which was pretty fast, and managed to stay on my bike the whole time, although twice during our stops, the guides kept eyeing my bike and touching my brakes! I was like umm...is my bike ok? And one guide didn't think so and thought I should change it, while the other was like, ´´eh, how do you feel on it?´´ Turns out my left brake (the most important brake) was not tight enough, and after going down 40km of the road, including the most dangerous part, they tightened my brake. Thanks a lot guys. Haha. I´m just glad I got down to the bottom without any problems. :)
Overall, La Paz was a great time because I got to do some fun things, plus I got to go out for the first time in over a month!
Heading to the amazon via La Paz, and I am SO EXCITED!!! It's going to be sweeeeet!!!
I spent a few days in the city just relaxing during the day by spending my time walking through the Witch's Market, which had llama and alpacha EVERYTHING for sale! I bought hats, mittens, socks, leg warmers, and jumpers all for $2 or $3 each. What a bargain!! Yes, I will be wearing items of clothing that have llamas on them. You all better still walk down the street with me. haha.
I had Indian food for the first time in ages at a restaurant that claims to have the spiciest vindaloo in La Paz. I had it twice bc it was pretty good, and both times, my entire meal was less than $10. So amazingly cheap! I loved it! I thought that I was cool enough to try this spiciest vindaloo, but I heard from some guys that the portion is huge and that it is extremely spicy! I opted for chiken tikka masala again instead of the vindaloo, and I am so happy I did!! There was a group of 18 yr old english boys at the table next to us, and a few of them thought they could handle the heat, but they definitely couldn't! They were red in the face, crying, and basically in pain within the first 2 bites, and the entire time they tried to eat, it didn't look like their plates were getting any emptier. We had the waiter bring us out a small sample so we could see what it was like, and I basically felt like my mouth was on fire for a good 5 minutes after washing the food down, and I barely had a teaspoon. All you could see were chili seeds in the vindaloo though, so I am not surprised that it was so hot!
I also attempted to get some thai because I have been craving pad thai, but the first thai restaurant I checked out had a questionable looking picture of pad thai on the their menu, and the second restaurant didn't even have it on the menu! What the shit!? How can you not have the most famous dish of a country on the menu? We opted to eat at an international cuisine house, and that was much better.
Met some really fun people at my hostel, too, that hopefully I can meet up with later on in my trip. And randomly, I ended up seeing someone I hung out with in every single city I went to in Brazil except one! I guess once everyone gets through Argentina, they have to head north again sometime.
I also biked down the ¨World's Most Dangerous Road¨ which is basically 64km of downhill biking (you descend 3000m in altitude) on a road that has claimed more lives than any other in the world, not just cars and buses, but also bikers. An isreali girl actually died doing the road 2 days before I did it because she lost control of her bike and fell down a 250m cliff. Craziness! I was pretty much praying right at the start of the bike ride, but it was all on concrete so I relaxed quite a bit and just went really fast. Once we got to the actual Road, which is all dirt and gravel and rocks with no edge and 200-300m cliffs, I started to pray a lot and I thought about that israeli girl a lot. She had a really bad day for weather where there was no visibility, so I can understand how she lost control going to fast if she tried to take a turn. I went as fast as I felt comfortable, which was pretty fast, and managed to stay on my bike the whole time, although twice during our stops, the guides kept eyeing my bike and touching my brakes! I was like umm...is my bike ok? And one guide didn't think so and thought I should change it, while the other was like, ´´eh, how do you feel on it?´´ Turns out my left brake (the most important brake) was not tight enough, and after going down 40km of the road, including the most dangerous part, they tightened my brake. Thanks a lot guys. Haha. I´m just glad I got down to the bottom without any problems. :)
Overall, La Paz was a great time because I got to do some fun things, plus I got to go out for the first time in over a month!
Heading to the amazon via La Paz, and I am SO EXCITED!!! It's going to be sweeeeet!!!
Sucre is the capital? Really?
Sucre was a beautiful city--it is called the white city--and it was full of students and professionals so it didn´t really feel like Bolivia at all. The streets were clean, the buildings were a blinding white because apprantly it is a law to white wash them every year, and although there were a fair amount of beggars on the street, for the most part, it seemed like most of the people in the city were quite well off.
Side rant: I did get a bit annoyed that the beggars never asked Bolivians for money though. I mean, I get that I am a tourist and they think I have money, but so do the other Bolivians walking past. It was a pretty big turn off to the country in the sense that it seems like they really don´t take care of their elderly since those were the majority of beggars that I saw. It was really sad, and definitely put a damper on all the happiness Bolivia was making me feel. Bummer. I just think the beggars should ask everyone for money instead of just tourists, because if they really need it, then it shouldn´t matter who help comes from, right? Maybe I am not getting some cultural part of the begging though..who knows. This country has so much potential, I really hope that it can get on its feet soon. I read up on the history of Bolivia, and basically every other South American country has taken advantage of it, which really sucks and is totally unfair because the people are so wonderful here and they really deserve so much more.
Next up is La Paz...should be interesante to say the least!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Salar de Uyuni: Woah.
Welcome to Bolivia! After my painful bus crossing my friends and I hopped onto another bus to head to Tupiza where we would start our Salt Flat tour. Four days of driving through some intensely dramatic landscapes and no showers. Ew. haha.
Day 1:
We left bright and early in the morning with two other jeeps after meeting our driver, Diete, and our cook, Carmen. The day was full of red landscapes and jagged terrain. We ascended up a crazy amount and the altitude just kept getting higher and higher and higher. I am pretty happy that I am not affected by the altitude, because even though we are well past 3000m, we are going higher later during this trip. The best part of the day was the fact that we started to see LLAMAS!!!!! Lots and lots of llamas! In fact, for lunch we stopped at a field where llamas were grazing! And then I tried llama. haha. It was in a tamale which is a traditional food found in Bolivia made from corn, potatoes, veggies, and meat sometimes and they are wrapped in the corn stalk and cooked somehow. Super tasty, and the llama meat was pretty good too! Bolivian food is 91047891234798132748923 times BETTER than any of the food I have had in South America bc 1. it is vegetarian friendly, which even though I am not a vegg, it is nice to have options that don't involve only red meat, and 2. they make their food spicy!! FINALLY, some flavor in food and not just salt! I was beginning to really question South American cuisine since Brazil and Argentina are obsessed with ham and cheese and cows. Ended the day at our first refugio--a super basic hostel that has no showers and just two toilets. I tried to climb up a mountain to watch the sun set, and after huffing and puffing my way up this mountain in my sandals for 15 minutes, I thought I was finally at the top and then I saw that if I wanted to see the sun set I had to hike another 20 minutes at least, which my body was basically incapable of doing at that altitude. haha.
Day 2:
We started the morning super early jamming out to some Michael Jackson, courtesy of Diete, and caught some of the sunrise before driving up to one of the highest altitudes I have been so far: 4,855m. That is REALLY high! Walking 10 ft is tiring when you are that high. haha. We kept driving through and the highlight of my day once again involved LLAMAS!! We stopped at this beautiful meadow with this perfect view of a snow capped mountain. Omg, they are probably my favorite animal, and I even met an Indian couple where the girl was as obsessed with The Emperor's New Groove as my brother, sister, and I! Super cool!! I got close enough to one to touch it!!! Probably the best moment of my life! haha. We started to see our first glimpses of ¨salt¨on this day, although it wasn't really salt, it was actually something called Borax. I had to wiki that since I had no idea what it was but figured it involved Boron in some way. My friends were a little disappointed that I didn't know what it was since I took so many chem classes, but I was at least able to recite the first line of the periodic table to them. Wow, I am such a nerd. We also got our first glimpses of flamingos today! I really had no idea that there were any in South America, but I guess I never really thought about where they lived. We kept on driving through and we got to see the area of desert that inspired the Salvador Dali painting with all the clocks. Then we stopped off at Laguna Verde, which translates to Green Lake, and it was DEFINITELY green!! After that we drove up to our highest altitude yet, a bit over 5000m, to go see guysers (sp??). Smelled like sulfur (eggs..ew), but they were pretty cool and you could hear the bubbling of the sulfur even though you couldn't see it through the steam. We even got some snow flurries up there!
Day 3:
Flamingo day!!! And what day would be complete without LLAMAS!! Went to Lagoa Colorada which is actually up to be voted for one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! It is flamingo central and the red mountain that is directly behind the lake reflects onto the lake to make the whole thing look red. Pretty amazing. We spent the day driving to 3 or 4 different lakes, all incredibly beautiful and filled with three different species of flamingos. My camera is unfortunately really crappy and my pictures aren't as amazing as the boys' pictures since they have professional cameras basically. Going to have to take those from them so you all can see the flamingos instead of squinting to see them. haha. We also got to see some volcanos--non active and semi active. No smoking tops or anything even though the active side of one of the volcanos is on the Bolivian side while the non active side is on the Chilean side...not sure how it can be half and half, but I will go with it since that is what Diete told us. Ended the day by driving to a hotel made entirely of salt! Third day without a shower, and I could have paid 10 bolivianos (basically $1.30US) but Candace and I opted not to and figured the giant dreadlock forming on our heads could get one more day and we just used wet wipes again. Sounds really dirty, and it is, but we were wearing the same clothes for four days since there was so much dirt and dust on the road. Four days of driving on unpaved dirt road is not very pleasant.
Day 4:
On the salt flats finally!! We woke up to watch the sun rise on the salt flats and it was pretty spectacular since you can only see salt in every direction you look! We spent the day driving across about 30km of salt flat to an island that had over 3000 cacti! After eating our final amazing meal courtesy of Carmen (whose cooking probably helped me gain some of the weight I've lost back) we started to take some super sweet perspective photos that make us look like giants eating each other or me posing on a can of beer. We spent the entire afternoon doing that and stalling for time because it was election day in Bolivia and apparently it is illegal to drive on the roads at all. Our driver told us if he got caught driving that day, he could get thrown into jail for up to 3 days. What the shit! I really love Bolivia so far, but what a ridiculous system! The entire country shuts down--nothing on the roads, almost nothing open--just for these elections. How much money is lost in that one day because no businesses are open?? We ended our journey in Uyuni, the town where I have to get my visa. Hopefully that all works out.
It has been so hard for me to keep up with this blog as more time goes on and more things come up to do. I really enjoyed my time and Brazil and Argentina, but after my first four days in Bolivia, I am pretty sure that this country is going to blow me away more than the other two. I never expected to see such beautiful landscapes---and all of them so completely different!---and the people here are absolutely lovely. So sweet and friendly (not the best smelling) and always helpful. The people here look more like they are Nepalese than what I expected Bolivians to look like, and they look completely different from the people I have seen throughout the rest of the continent. The children are so round and chubby, and apprently the women wear tons of layers on their hips to make them look bigger, because once again, bigger is better. The women mostly wear their hair in two long braids with bowler hats, and they wear long skirts with apron like coverings. They carry their babies on their backs in big shawls. Everything is so different from what I have seen. There has only been one ATM in the last two towns I have been in. One ATM that has a line of gringos a mile long. haha.
I am really really really excited about my time in Bolivia. After the last four days, I am pretty sure that this country is going to blow me away. I have a five year visa for this country now, so hopefully I want to come back! Next stop is Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia even though everything government related is in La Paz. The boys are heading up to La Paz, but Candace and I are going to spend a few days there.
Day 1:
We left bright and early in the morning with two other jeeps after meeting our driver, Diete, and our cook, Carmen. The day was full of red landscapes and jagged terrain. We ascended up a crazy amount and the altitude just kept getting higher and higher and higher. I am pretty happy that I am not affected by the altitude, because even though we are well past 3000m, we are going higher later during this trip. The best part of the day was the fact that we started to see LLAMAS!!!!! Lots and lots of llamas! In fact, for lunch we stopped at a field where llamas were grazing! And then I tried llama. haha. It was in a tamale which is a traditional food found in Bolivia made from corn, potatoes, veggies, and meat sometimes and they are wrapped in the corn stalk and cooked somehow. Super tasty, and the llama meat was pretty good too! Bolivian food is 91047891234798132748923 times BETTER than any of the food I have had in South America bc 1. it is vegetarian friendly, which even though I am not a vegg, it is nice to have options that don't involve only red meat, and 2. they make their food spicy!! FINALLY, some flavor in food and not just salt! I was beginning to really question South American cuisine since Brazil and Argentina are obsessed with ham and cheese and cows. Ended the day at our first refugio--a super basic hostel that has no showers and just two toilets. I tried to climb up a mountain to watch the sun set, and after huffing and puffing my way up this mountain in my sandals for 15 minutes, I thought I was finally at the top and then I saw that if I wanted to see the sun set I had to hike another 20 minutes at least, which my body was basically incapable of doing at that altitude. haha.
Day 2:
We started the morning super early jamming out to some Michael Jackson, courtesy of Diete, and caught some of the sunrise before driving up to one of the highest altitudes I have been so far: 4,855m. That is REALLY high! Walking 10 ft is tiring when you are that high. haha. We kept driving through and the highlight of my day once again involved LLAMAS!! We stopped at this beautiful meadow with this perfect view of a snow capped mountain. Omg, they are probably my favorite animal, and I even met an Indian couple where the girl was as obsessed with The Emperor's New Groove as my brother, sister, and I! Super cool!! I got close enough to one to touch it!!! Probably the best moment of my life! haha. We started to see our first glimpses of ¨salt¨on this day, although it wasn't really salt, it was actually something called Borax. I had to wiki that since I had no idea what it was but figured it involved Boron in some way. My friends were a little disappointed that I didn't know what it was since I took so many chem classes, but I was at least able to recite the first line of the periodic table to them. Wow, I am such a nerd. We also got our first glimpses of flamingos today! I really had no idea that there were any in South America, but I guess I never really thought about where they lived. We kept on driving through and we got to see the area of desert that inspired the Salvador Dali painting with all the clocks. Then we stopped off at Laguna Verde, which translates to Green Lake, and it was DEFINITELY green!! After that we drove up to our highest altitude yet, a bit over 5000m, to go see guysers (sp??). Smelled like sulfur (eggs..ew), but they were pretty cool and you could hear the bubbling of the sulfur even though you couldn't see it through the steam. We even got some snow flurries up there!
Day 3:
Flamingo day!!! And what day would be complete without LLAMAS!! Went to Lagoa Colorada which is actually up to be voted for one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! It is flamingo central and the red mountain that is directly behind the lake reflects onto the lake to make the whole thing look red. Pretty amazing. We spent the day driving to 3 or 4 different lakes, all incredibly beautiful and filled with three different species of flamingos. My camera is unfortunately really crappy and my pictures aren't as amazing as the boys' pictures since they have professional cameras basically. Going to have to take those from them so you all can see the flamingos instead of squinting to see them. haha. We also got to see some volcanos--non active and semi active. No smoking tops or anything even though the active side of one of the volcanos is on the Bolivian side while the non active side is on the Chilean side...not sure how it can be half and half, but I will go with it since that is what Diete told us. Ended the day by driving to a hotel made entirely of salt! Third day without a shower, and I could have paid 10 bolivianos (basically $1.30US) but Candace and I opted not to and figured the giant dreadlock forming on our heads could get one more day and we just used wet wipes again. Sounds really dirty, and it is, but we were wearing the same clothes for four days since there was so much dirt and dust on the road. Four days of driving on unpaved dirt road is not very pleasant.
Day 4:
On the salt flats finally!! We woke up to watch the sun rise on the salt flats and it was pretty spectacular since you can only see salt in every direction you look! We spent the day driving across about 30km of salt flat to an island that had over 3000 cacti! After eating our final amazing meal courtesy of Carmen (whose cooking probably helped me gain some of the weight I've lost back) we started to take some super sweet perspective photos that make us look like giants eating each other or me posing on a can of beer. We spent the entire afternoon doing that and stalling for time because it was election day in Bolivia and apparently it is illegal to drive on the roads at all. Our driver told us if he got caught driving that day, he could get thrown into jail for up to 3 days. What the shit! I really love Bolivia so far, but what a ridiculous system! The entire country shuts down--nothing on the roads, almost nothing open--just for these elections. How much money is lost in that one day because no businesses are open?? We ended our journey in Uyuni, the town where I have to get my visa. Hopefully that all works out.
It has been so hard for me to keep up with this blog as more time goes on and more things come up to do. I really enjoyed my time and Brazil and Argentina, but after my first four days in Bolivia, I am pretty sure that this country is going to blow me away more than the other two. I never expected to see such beautiful landscapes---and all of them so completely different!---and the people here are absolutely lovely. So sweet and friendly (not the best smelling) and always helpful. The people here look more like they are Nepalese than what I expected Bolivians to look like, and they look completely different from the people I have seen throughout the rest of the continent. The children are so round and chubby, and apprently the women wear tons of layers on their hips to make them look bigger, because once again, bigger is better. The women mostly wear their hair in two long braids with bowler hats, and they wear long skirts with apron like coverings. They carry their babies on their backs in big shawls. Everything is so different from what I have seen. There has only been one ATM in the last two towns I have been in. One ATM that has a line of gringos a mile long. haha.
I am really really really excited about my time in Bolivia. After the last four days, I am pretty sure that this country is going to blow me away. I have a five year visa for this country now, so hopefully I want to come back! Next stop is Sucre, the official capital of Bolivia even though everything government related is in La Paz. The boys are heading up to La Paz, but Candace and I are going to spend a few days there.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Salta; Didn't see too much in town, but saw a lot outside of it!
Salta, Argentina. I am not sure what this place is known for. Just seemed like a good place to stop before heading into Bolivia since the bus ride from Mendoza took almost 12 hours anyway. We started our day walking about the city and we decided to rent a car again for the next day to drive to a town about 3 hours away called Cafayate. I cooked lentils that night! No Indian spices available, but it came out pretty darn good! And it was nice to get away from eating sandwiches.
The drive to Cafayate was absolutely stunning, and I'm pretty sure it took us almost 7 hours to do the drive. I haven't done it, but I imagine the drive to Cafayate was comprable to what driving through the Grand Canyon would be like. Lots of red and lots of amazing rock formations. After finally arriving to the town, we did a quick drive through--like 5 minutes--and stopped off at an ice cream place that is special because it makes ice cream from red and white wines. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor, but it was ice cream (more of a sorbet, really) so I can't complain considering the heat. We stopped off at a winery where we did a tasting and after relaxing a bit and enjoying a bottle of wine, we got back into the car, and drove back to Salta.
My second day in Salta was a relaxing one. The boys just slept and hung around the hostel while Candace and I spent the day walking around the city. It was a good day to plan for what to expect for the rest of our trip since most of us are coming down to the end of our trips.
Scott, Candace and I spent our last day in Salta doing another day trip out of Salta to a town called Cachi. This was a guided trip, which really just consisted of someone driving for us and telling us about some of where we were stopping. The Cafayate drive was completely red, brown and blue, whereas the Cachi drive was full of green hills and mountains, and lots of altitude.
After getting back from Cachi we basically just got on our next bus which was going to take us to the border of Bolivia. What a nightmare!! We opted for the cheaper Bolivian bus vs. the more expensive Argentine bus, and it was probably the worst mistake we could have made. 1. Bolvians smell. 2. The bus reeked of BO and just musty nastiness. 3. Candace and I saw fleas, yes FLEAS, crawling in our seats. OMG GROSS! 4. Bolivians enjoy traveling with babies on buses who like to cry. 4. There is no heating even though it is freezing cold, but there is AC. It was a pretty painful 10 hour bus ride, and we got to the border at almost 5am and had to wait another 2 for the crossing to open.
After getting through the line to exit Argentina and making it inside to the Bolivian border crossing station hours later, I am not granted a visa into Bolivia. Apparently, they don't issue visas at the border, they give them to you in a town that is another 4 hours inland. What the shit!? So I entered into Bolivia with no visa and there was no record of my entrance put into the system, so you can bet that the first thing I did when I got to a computer was register with the State department so they knew I was in Bolivia. Ridiculous.
Traveling from Brazil, Chile and Argentina is definitely going to be a huge shock since it is like going from the first world to the legit third world. Bolivia is the poorest country in south america. But that also means things are really cheap here which is awesome because I am going broke!
Next up, Salt flat tour!
The drive to Cafayate was absolutely stunning, and I'm pretty sure it took us almost 7 hours to do the drive. I haven't done it, but I imagine the drive to Cafayate was comprable to what driving through the Grand Canyon would be like. Lots of red and lots of amazing rock formations. After finally arriving to the town, we did a quick drive through--like 5 minutes--and stopped off at an ice cream place that is special because it makes ice cream from red and white wines. I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor, but it was ice cream (more of a sorbet, really) so I can't complain considering the heat. We stopped off at a winery where we did a tasting and after relaxing a bit and enjoying a bottle of wine, we got back into the car, and drove back to Salta.
My second day in Salta was a relaxing one. The boys just slept and hung around the hostel while Candace and I spent the day walking around the city. It was a good day to plan for what to expect for the rest of our trip since most of us are coming down to the end of our trips.
Scott, Candace and I spent our last day in Salta doing another day trip out of Salta to a town called Cachi. This was a guided trip, which really just consisted of someone driving for us and telling us about some of where we were stopping. The Cafayate drive was completely red, brown and blue, whereas the Cachi drive was full of green hills and mountains, and lots of altitude.
After getting back from Cachi we basically just got on our next bus which was going to take us to the border of Bolivia. What a nightmare!! We opted for the cheaper Bolivian bus vs. the more expensive Argentine bus, and it was probably the worst mistake we could have made. 1. Bolvians smell. 2. The bus reeked of BO and just musty nastiness. 3. Candace and I saw fleas, yes FLEAS, crawling in our seats. OMG GROSS! 4. Bolivians enjoy traveling with babies on buses who like to cry. 4. There is no heating even though it is freezing cold, but there is AC. It was a pretty painful 10 hour bus ride, and we got to the border at almost 5am and had to wait another 2 for the crossing to open.
After getting through the line to exit Argentina and making it inside to the Bolivian border crossing station hours later, I am not granted a visa into Bolivia. Apparently, they don't issue visas at the border, they give them to you in a town that is another 4 hours inland. What the shit!? So I entered into Bolivia with no visa and there was no record of my entrance put into the system, so you can bet that the first thing I did when I got to a computer was register with the State department so they knew I was in Bolivia. Ridiculous.
Traveling from Brazil, Chile and Argentina is definitely going to be a huge shock since it is like going from the first world to the legit third world. Bolivia is the poorest country in south america. But that also means things are really cheap here which is awesome because I am going broke!
Next up, Salt flat tour!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Mendoza: sunny with lots of wine!
Mendoza. Wine country. Yum. haha, well I wasn't a wino, and I don't think Mendoza has made me into one, but it was an awesome place to visit since it only rains 12 times a year there and I was tired of the patagonian wind.
Travelled up to Mendoza and spent my first day walking around the city and taking a nap in the biggest park in argentina. It wasn't spectacular--looks like they haven't mowed the lawn in ages--but it was nice to get some sun and relax. I even attempted a modern art museum--not a huge fan of the art, but we took some fun pictures and made the most out of the 12 piece collection. Unfortunately, I got sick sometime during the day and ended up spending the rest of the evening sleeping in bed. Nothing major..just a nausea wave that wouldn't pass. Popped some pepto and was ready to roll the next day!
My friends from Patagonia--Candace, Mike, Chris, and now Scotty (candace's friend from NZ)--and I spent the afternoon lounging in the main plaza and eating some avocado, salami, and tomatoe sandwiches. Something I have grown quite accostumed to eating in Argentina. I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick of it. haha. The next day, we rented a car, and drove to Aconcagua, the second highest peak after the Himalayas. Who knew that it was in South America?? I never expected to rent any sort of car in South America, but it was awesome! Some near death experiences due to the crazy Argentine driving, which is pretty similar to India, but we got there fine after about 4 hours of driving. The altitude we were at was past 4000m and the mountain peak itself is close to 7000m. Pretty tiring to walk around at such a high altitude, but there wasn't much to do but walk around a 2km circiut explaining the park. After about an hour and a half, we got back into the car and drove back another 4 hours. Dinner that night was supposed to be an exposure to steak for me, but unfortunately, the cut of meat that was purchased by the boys was absolutely horrendous, and 4 people who are steak experts basically said that the meat was the worst piece of meat they had ever had in their entire lives. So I had one bite, couldn't quite chew it all the way, and spit it out into my napkin and just ate the vegetables. Yum.
Next day, we headed over to do a bike tour of the vineyards in Mendoza. You basically rent a bike and ride around to as many vineyards as you can (there are 1500 in Mendoza) and do wine tastings and winery tours. Lots of fun and lots of wine. The main wine produced in Mendoza is a red called Malbec. I am not usually a red fan, but I might be converted after having had so many glasses. A great day even though I basically dehydrated myself like crazy. I spent the evening video chatting away with my family, which was amazing, and such an amazing pick me up since it had been so long since we had talked outside of gchat. After that, I just packed up and got my stuff ready because our next stop was going to be Salta. My last stop in Argentina before heading into Bolivia!
Travelled up to Mendoza and spent my first day walking around the city and taking a nap in the biggest park in argentina. It wasn't spectacular--looks like they haven't mowed the lawn in ages--but it was nice to get some sun and relax. I even attempted a modern art museum--not a huge fan of the art, but we took some fun pictures and made the most out of the 12 piece collection. Unfortunately, I got sick sometime during the day and ended up spending the rest of the evening sleeping in bed. Nothing major..just a nausea wave that wouldn't pass. Popped some pepto and was ready to roll the next day!
My friends from Patagonia--Candace, Mike, Chris, and now Scotty (candace's friend from NZ)--and I spent the afternoon lounging in the main plaza and eating some avocado, salami, and tomatoe sandwiches. Something I have grown quite accostumed to eating in Argentina. I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick of it. haha. The next day, we rented a car, and drove to Aconcagua, the second highest peak after the Himalayas. Who knew that it was in South America?? I never expected to rent any sort of car in South America, but it was awesome! Some near death experiences due to the crazy Argentine driving, which is pretty similar to India, but we got there fine after about 4 hours of driving. The altitude we were at was past 4000m and the mountain peak itself is close to 7000m. Pretty tiring to walk around at such a high altitude, but there wasn't much to do but walk around a 2km circiut explaining the park. After about an hour and a half, we got back into the car and drove back another 4 hours. Dinner that night was supposed to be an exposure to steak for me, but unfortunately, the cut of meat that was purchased by the boys was absolutely horrendous, and 4 people who are steak experts basically said that the meat was the worst piece of meat they had ever had in their entire lives. So I had one bite, couldn't quite chew it all the way, and spit it out into my napkin and just ate the vegetables. Yum.
Next day, we headed over to do a bike tour of the vineyards in Mendoza. You basically rent a bike and ride around to as many vineyards as you can (there are 1500 in Mendoza) and do wine tastings and winery tours. Lots of fun and lots of wine. The main wine produced in Mendoza is a red called Malbec. I am not usually a red fan, but I might be converted after having had so many glasses. A great day even though I basically dehydrated myself like crazy. I spent the evening video chatting away with my family, which was amazing, and such an amazing pick me up since it had been so long since we had talked outside of gchat. After that, I just packed up and got my stuff ready because our next stop was going to be Salta. My last stop in Argentina before heading into Bolivia!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Bariloche, A Chocolate Lover's Dream
Welcome to Bariloche, land of amazing Argentine chocolate!! I never thought about going to this place, but I had heard so many people talk about it that I finally asked a guy I met a guy in my spanish school who mentioned it what there was to do there. He listed some stuff like biking and hiking, and then he said it had amazing chocolate, and I basically cut him off right there and told him he didn't need to tell me anymore because I was completely sold on the place.
The four of us got a bus over to Bariloche from Puerto Monte, and unfortunately, since me and the boys hadn't booked a hostel before jumping onto the Navimag, we had to stay in a different hostel than Candace. We met up the next day and went on a fantastic hike up a huge mountain, that someone told us would only take 1 hour, but took us 2 hours. It was completely up hill--just a winding road around a mountain--but since I didn't have a humongous bag on my back, it was no problem at all, and I definitely got a bit of a self-esteem boost since I basically lost all of it during Torres. haha. Towards the end of the hike we were starting to get tired and annoyed since it had started to rain and was cold, and our only rewward was basically grabbing a beer at the top of the mountain at the refugio (basically a hostel in random places) but we got to the top and found out it would cost $25 pesos per person just to enter the refugio and on top of that we would have to pay for whatever we ate or drank inside. What the shit? No thanks. We descended the mountain a different way which basically entailed walking straight down the mountain in the dirt and rain which was getting progressively worse as the hike went on. Woo hoo. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were pretty soaked and lucky enough to catch a bus most of the way back to the hostel. But my day got so much better because we grabbed dinner at this AMAZING mexican restaurant where I basically inhaled my dinner. And I met a Canadian guy at Candace's hostel, who was half Bengali, but looked nothing close to it. So we had loads to talk about since we could reminice about indian food. yum.
Next day, we did a bike circuit outside of Bariloche, and it was yet another reminder of how unfit I really am. We donned some ridiculous orange vest things and helments and set off for a 4 hour bike ride after hiking up ANOTHER mountain for 40 minutes which was literally a vertical climb up a hill with no set path. The bike ride was fantastic and full of some great scenery, it just stunk that I was wayyyy in the back of everyone. haha. We had 3 boys who could speed up hills that basically once again made my thighs scream ¨WE HATE YOU!!!!¨ and I just kinda ambled along up the hills and even stopped to walk up the hills with my bike a few times. Stopped at a microbrewery along the way too, and that was pretty cool.
Spent my last day eating empanadas and chocolate samples and ice cream before hopping on a bus to Mendoza. It was heavenly. I bought a box and cannot wait to devour each piece!!!
Next stop is wine country.
The four of us got a bus over to Bariloche from Puerto Monte, and unfortunately, since me and the boys hadn't booked a hostel before jumping onto the Navimag, we had to stay in a different hostel than Candace. We met up the next day and went on a fantastic hike up a huge mountain, that someone told us would only take 1 hour, but took us 2 hours. It was completely up hill--just a winding road around a mountain--but since I didn't have a humongous bag on my back, it was no problem at all, and I definitely got a bit of a self-esteem boost since I basically lost all of it during Torres. haha. Towards the end of the hike we were starting to get tired and annoyed since it had started to rain and was cold, and our only rewward was basically grabbing a beer at the top of the mountain at the refugio (basically a hostel in random places) but we got to the top and found out it would cost $25 pesos per person just to enter the refugio and on top of that we would have to pay for whatever we ate or drank inside. What the shit? No thanks. We descended the mountain a different way which basically entailed walking straight down the mountain in the dirt and rain which was getting progressively worse as the hike went on. Woo hoo. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain, we were pretty soaked and lucky enough to catch a bus most of the way back to the hostel. But my day got so much better because we grabbed dinner at this AMAZING mexican restaurant where I basically inhaled my dinner. And I met a Canadian guy at Candace's hostel, who was half Bengali, but looked nothing close to it. So we had loads to talk about since we could reminice about indian food. yum.
Next stop is wine country.
The Navimag: I'm on a boat!
Not much to say about the Navimag boat ride, unfortunately. It was a fantastic four days to unwind and relax, and if I had finished the W trek at Torres, I would have most certainly appreciated the time to sit around and do nothing, but since I did that for two days before getting onto the boat, I was pretty bored the entire time and pretty antsy to get off the boat and do something. But that also could have been because the weather was horrible and rainy and cloudy making us stay inside the boat in one of two rooms: the bar area or the dining hall. To the Navimag's credit, they did show movies and have lectures on fauna and glaciers and other educational things. And I did attempt to sit through one of those lectures--but I did not last through the first and I never made it back for lectures 2 - 4.
The four of us, plus a kid from NYC, Brad, spent a lot of time reading and playing cards. One good movie that was played was an Argentine film called The Secret of the Eyes (or something close to that in spanish). Great movie, nominated for an oscar this year--watch it if you are bored and make a trip to blockbuster.
Spent four days on the boat eating and playing cards and reading. Never saw a whale or dolphin or any other animal for that matter except for the cows that were also on our ship being transported. We arrrived into Puerto Monte and headed straight to the bus station to head back into Argentina to go to chocolate lovers Bariloche. YUM! I can't wait!
The four of us, plus a kid from NYC, Brad, spent a lot of time reading and playing cards. One good movie that was played was an Argentine film called The Secret of the Eyes (or something close to that in spanish). Great movie, nominated for an oscar this year--watch it if you are bored and make a trip to blockbuster. 
Torres del Paine, I can feel the burn!
I arrive to Puerto Natales, the launching ground for the trek through Torres del Paine National Park, and head straight to a free talk given by my hostel that basically gives you the run down about what this trek entails. Holy crap. I show up to hear this American guy telling us that we can encounter 80 - 100 km/hr winds, rain, snow, sleet, and sun all in ONE day. Are you kidding me?? So after an hour of basically being terrified about what I am about to do, Candace (my new friend from New Zealand) and I make a shopping list and get on our way to get prepped for this trip. We have to carry four days of food on us, plus a little gas burner to cook with, plus a pot and cups and bowls and utensils, plus a sleeping bag, and clothes. But we were advised to only take two pairs of clothes: one pair to hike in all day which get wet and sweaty and tortured through the weather, and one pair of dry clothes to change into after we get our tent set up. Yup, I said tent. This is serious camping and trekking.
Torres day 1:
We ended up meeting two guys on our boat ride over to the park (one englishman and another new zealander) and we decided to do the trek together with another aussie. Within 20 minutes of starting the trek, and I am basically all the way in the back and totally out of breath thinking to myself, ¨What the hell am I doing and what have I gotten myself into!?¨ I knew trekking was harder than hiking, and I knew the weather would be questionable, and I knew I would have to carry a lot of stuff, but I never put all three together. So we show up to the park with 70 km/hr winds, sun, and I am carrying an extra 10 kilos of weight on me. Pain. Pain. And more pain. Especially on the up hills. Omg, I never realized how hard it was to be fat, but if that is how it feels, than I do not understand how obese people go anywhere. The only time I was happy was when it was my turn to lead the group since I wasn't a speed walker like the rest of the people in my group, and the first time I went to lead the group, I got knocked down by the wind! If anyone ever considered me athletic, than you can change that opinion of me right now. I AM NOT ATHLETIC or anything close to it. I am grossly out of shape and cannot trek for the life of me.
The scenery was absolutely fantastic on day 1, and we say this awesome glacier, Glacier Gray, and after 6 hours of continuous hiking, we added another 2 on to get to the free camping site, and so we could be at a spot that was overlooking the top of the glacier. That was possibly the most amount of pain I have ever been in in my entire life. Seriously. My calves and feet started to cramp up within the last hour of the hike, and the entire last hour was basically a vertical climb up a mountain. My thighs are NOT muscular. I totally felt the burn and by the time we finally got to the campsite, it had started to rain. Candace and I got our tent up, but realized it was ridiculously small and was going to be incredibly cramped. After a quick look at the glacier and a bite to eat, I got a much needed massage (in exchange for one) and attempted to sleep in my tent fully clothed.
Torres day 2/3:
An early and cold start with our first attempt at cooking with our portable burner. Porridge with mixed nuts. YUCK. I hate oatmeal if it has no sugar and artificial flavoring, and we definitely had none of that. I stomached as much as I could since we had another 8 to 10 hours of hiking to do, and we set off. I was way better at trekking today, but that was probably because the majority of it was downhill since we had to backtrack the entire way we came since the trek we were doing was in the shape of a W. We stopped for lunch pretty exhausted, and set off to our next campsite which was about 2 hours away and again, with lots of hills. Unfortunately, it started to rain when we started this part of our trek, anbd of course the wind picked up. Like the first day, I basically fell behind, but I fell really behind today, since I was so tired. Luckily for me, one of the guys, Chris, was nice enough on both days to take it upon himself to make sure I was never left behind or alone. He trekked by my side and kept my spirits lifted. That second day was pretty much completely mentally and physically exhausting, and by the time we arrived to our campsite (a full 12 hours after we started) it was raining and freezing cold. We got our tent up and had a quick cup of instant noodles and then hung out with the guys in their tent and I learned how to play a game called 500 while attempting to get warm. I never got warm, but I did learn a cool new card game. Went back to our tent hoping to get some sleep and recover from the day, and instead, I was up ALL NIGHT because my tent flooded and our sleeping bags got absolutely soaked. I was so cold I was shaking, and my friend finally pointed out that my socks were completely soaking wet. I had no idea because I couldn't feel anything. There was rain being blown through the tent somehow, and at some point we ended up turning to sleep horizontally in the front third of the tent. A horrendous night to say the least. I finally got some sleep at like 8am when I moved into the sleeping bag of one of the guys in the next tent for 40 minutes. Woke up to discover the mountain was freshly coated in snow, and we were absolutely broken that day. With a soaked tent and saturated sleeping bags, Candace and I packed up and backtracked back to the boat that got us to the trail and headed back to Puerto Natales.
Back in town we spent the next 2 days waiting for the guys to get back and relaxing with hot showers and cozy down blankets at our hostel just reading books and chilling out. I tried to cancel my bus ticket, and the lady who booked it for me proceeded to steal 200 chilean pesos from me and even though I got the police involved, I never got it back. Technically, it was only $7 that she stole, but it was the principle of the matter! Just because I am from America, it does NOT mean I am rich. After getting through that ordeal, I had a tasty piece of fish at a restaurant for dinner with a new set of friends so I could say that I have had sea food from Chile (it is as good as they say), and got on a boat, the Navimag, to head up the coast of Chile with Candace and those two guys, Chris and Mike. The beginning of a lasting set of friends to travel with I think. The boat is kinda expensive, but as long as the weather holds up, it should be a really fantastic way to see the coast of Chile, some volcanoes, and hopefully some whales and dolphins over the next four days.
Torres day 1:
The scenery was absolutely fantastic on day 1, and we say this awesome glacier, Glacier Gray, and after 6 hours of continuous hiking, we added another 2 on to get to the free camping site, and so we could be at a spot that was overlooking the top of the glacier. That was possibly the most amount of pain I have ever been in in my entire life. Seriously. My calves and feet started to cramp up within the last hour of the hike, and the entire last hour was basically a vertical climb up a mountain. My thighs are NOT muscular. I totally felt the burn and by the time we finally got to the campsite, it had started to rain. Candace and I got our tent up, but realized it was ridiculously small and was going to be incredibly cramped. After a quick look at the glacier and a bite to eat, I got a much needed massage (in exchange for one) and attempted to sleep in my tent fully clothed.
Torres day 2/3:
An early and cold start with our first attempt at cooking with our portable burner. Porridge with mixed nuts. YUCK. I hate oatmeal if it has no sugar and artificial flavoring, and we definitely had none of that. I stomached as much as I could since we had another 8 to 10 hours of hiking to do, and we set off. I was way better at trekking today, but that was probably because the majority of it was downhill since we had to backtrack the entire way we came since the trek we were doing was in the shape of a W. We stopped for lunch pretty exhausted, and set off to our next campsite which was about 2 hours away and again, with lots of hills. Unfortunately, it started to rain when we started this part of our trek, anbd of course the wind picked up. Like the first day, I basically fell behind, but I fell really behind today, since I was so tired. Luckily for me, one of the guys, Chris, was nice enough on both days to take it upon himself to make sure I was never left behind or alone. He trekked by my side and kept my spirits lifted. That second day was pretty much completely mentally and physically exhausting, and by the time we arrived to our campsite (a full 12 hours after we started) it was raining and freezing cold. We got our tent up and had a quick cup of instant noodles and then hung out with the guys in their tent and I learned how to play a game called 500 while attempting to get warm. I never got warm, but I did learn a cool new card game. Went back to our tent hoping to get some sleep and recover from the day, and instead, I was up ALL NIGHT because my tent flooded and our sleeping bags got absolutely soaked. I was so cold I was shaking, and my friend finally pointed out that my socks were completely soaking wet. I had no idea because I couldn't feel anything. There was rain being blown through the tent somehow, and at some point we ended up turning to sleep horizontally in the front third of the tent. A horrendous night to say the least. I finally got some sleep at like 8am when I moved into the sleeping bag of one of the guys in the next tent for 40 minutes. Woke up to discover the mountain was freshly coated in snow, and we were absolutely broken that day. With a soaked tent and saturated sleeping bags, Candace and I packed up and backtracked back to the boat that got us to the trail and headed back to Puerto Natales.
Back in town we spent the next 2 days waiting for the guys to get back and relaxing with hot showers and cozy down blankets at our hostel just reading books and chilling out. I tried to cancel my bus ticket, and the lady who booked it for me proceeded to steal 200 chilean pesos from me and even though I got the police involved, I never got it back. Technically, it was only $7 that she stole, but it was the principle of the matter! Just because I am from America, it does NOT mean I am rich. After getting through that ordeal, I had a tasty piece of fish at a restaurant for dinner with a new set of friends so I could say that I have had sea food from Chile (it is as good as they say), and got on a boat, the Navimag, to head up the coast of Chile with Candace and those two guys, Chris and Mike. The beginning of a lasting set of friends to travel with I think. The boat is kinda expensive, but as long as the weather holds up, it should be a really fantastic way to see the coast of Chile, some volcanoes, and hopefully some whales and dolphins over the next four days.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
El Calafate: I'm on a glacier!
Patagonia is not the land of the ice. haha. Obviously I did not do enough research about this area. It does have glaciers and is quite windy, but the weather is actually pretty decent down here. The landscapes are stunning--mountains, lakes, and even flamingos!
I paid a fortune, but the coolest thing I did down here (the only thing actually) was stomp around on the Perito Moreno glacier for 3 hours. And it was not easy at all!! Got up to start my day at 7am, and hopped onto a bus that took us to the boat that would take us to the glacier. But we stopped off at the national park first to get some photos of the glacier from a distance. After that, we hopped on a boat and got to the zone of no pollution where the glacier was. That basically means any trash we bring onto the island leaves with us, and no smoking allowed!
I got fitted from crampons (yes, crampons) which are what you wear on your shoes so you can walk on the ice properly. They didn't seem to fit right, but the guy seemed to know what he was doing when I said something so I figured it was all good. Then we basically hiked up a mountain for 45 minutes and I was basically dying because who can walk up hill for that long!? It wasn't even a steady grade..this was like 60 degree climbing and at a really brisk pace. I had lots of layers on thinking glacier = cold, but I was so wrong. I was hiking on this plush green mountain while I stared down onto a glacier. It was unreal, and sweaty. By the time we stopped to give me enough time to take some layers off, we were basically at the glacier so I left them on.
We therw our crampons on and got to stepping/stomping on the glacier and of course, within 5 minutes, something is wrong with my set, and I fall way behind my group and hold them up for 10 minutes while one of the guides tries to fix it. But it was so not my fault. Basically there was no fixing it, and unless I wanted to hike back down the mountain to do the smaller glacier trek, I was shit out of luck. So I just sucked it up and stomped around that glacier for 3 hours, walking up and down hills (bc the tour guides seemed to want to just waste our time on the glacier..why we had to go up and down constantly was beyond me--why couldn't we just go around those hills?). My knee killed, but it was SWEET!!! OMG, I was on a glacier!! Not just any glacier, one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing!! COOL!! Pretty much one of the most amazing things I will have done on this trip. And at least I got to see a glacier before it melted so much that it causes Maldives to become flooded and sink below sea level. There was even a mountain in the distance called Lion's Head, bc. you guessed it! It looks exactly like a lion's head. Nature at it's best.
Besides seeing the amazing glacier and some flamingos (who knew they were in Patagonia?) I did some chocolate eating and I met some really fun people. Met some Irish brothers on my shuttle who ended up stopping by my hostel just to hang out bc they knew I was traveling solo. So considerate! Then I randomly ran into a girl who I had seen at my first hostel in Salvador, Brazil, and after staring at her for a really long time, I finally remembered where I had seen her, and basically made myself out to be a little stalkery when I met her, but now we're super good friends! haha. We are actually going to head over to Chile together to go trekking for 5 days at the Torres del Paine. I am not sure what that entails, but I am pretty sure it should be fun. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
I got fitted from crampons (yes, crampons) which are what you wear on your shoes so you can walk on the ice properly. They didn't seem to fit right, but the guy seemed to know what he was doing when I said something so I figured it was all good. Then we basically hiked up a mountain for 45 minutes and I was basically dying because who can walk up hill for that long!? It wasn't even a steady grade..this was like 60 degree climbing and at a really brisk pace. I had lots of layers on thinking glacier = cold, but I was so wrong. I was hiking on this plush green mountain while I stared down onto a glacier. It was unreal, and sweaty. By the time we stopped to give me enough time to take some layers off, we were basically at the glacier so I left them on.
We therw our crampons on and got to stepping/stomping on the glacier and of course, within 5 minutes, something is wrong with my set, and I fall way behind my group and hold them up for 10 minutes while one of the guides tries to fix it. But it was so not my fault. Basically there was no fixing it, and unless I wanted to hike back down the mountain to do the smaller glacier trek, I was shit out of luck. So I just sucked it up and stomped around that glacier for 3 hours, walking up and down hills (bc the tour guides seemed to want to just waste our time on the glacier..why we had to go up and down constantly was beyond me--why couldn't we just go around those hills?). My knee killed, but it was SWEET!!! OMG, I was on a glacier!! Not just any glacier, one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing!! COOL!! Pretty much one of the most amazing things I will have done on this trip. And at least I got to see a glacier before it melted so much that it causes Maldives to become flooded and sink below sea level. There was even a mountain in the distance called Lion's Head, bc. you guessed it! It looks exactly like a lion's head. Nature at it's best.
Besides seeing the amazing glacier and some flamingos (who knew they were in Patagonia?) I did some chocolate eating and I met some really fun people. Met some Irish brothers on my shuttle who ended up stopping by my hostel just to hang out bc they knew I was traveling solo. So considerate! Then I randomly ran into a girl who I had seen at my first hostel in Salvador, Brazil, and after staring at her for a really long time, I finally remembered where I had seen her, and basically made myself out to be a little stalkery when I met her, but now we're super good friends! haha. We are actually going to head over to Chile together to go trekking for 5 days at the Torres del Paine. I am not sure what that entails, but I am pretty sure it should be fun. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Buenos Aires, te amo!
BA BA BA BA BA!! I LOVED Rio de Janeiro, but Buenos Aires is a city that I unexpectedly fell in love with! I can't even understand it myself, how I came to enjoy the city so much, but I think the combination of people, beauty, experiences and history in the city really just made for the perfect combination.
Right...so I wrote that paragraph about 3 weeks ago, and I can barely remember all of the things I wanted to write about this city!! Arghh! I'll try my best to remember what I can about what I did..
Friday:
Got into the city after a ridiculously long bus ride that actually played some good movies (Crossing Over or Crossing Borders is a recommendation I have--it's just like Crash except it has to do with immigration). Got to my hostel and after settling in to my dorm room where I was the only english speaking person, I realized that Coldplay was in town and I could still get a ticket!! A miracle!! I bought an insanely expensive ticket from my hostel and ended up convincing a Brazilian guy, Vinny, to get ripped off as well and he came along with! An amazing night minus the fact that I could barely see the band unless I watched the screen or Vinny picked me up! I do think that Coldplay needs to step it up a bit though since the show hasn't changed much since the last time I saw them.
Saturday:
A day of shopping on the famous Florida Ave. Not very impressed but I managed to buy some things and all at great prices since the currency exchange rate is amazing here. I spent the day on my own just walking around, taking in the sites and sounds of the city. At night I met a great group of friends--2 americans, 2 english, 3 israelis and 2 aussies--to go out with for a night on the town in the famous BA. Unfortunately for us, BA actually enforces building code regulations and the clubs we tried to get into were full. So no crazy night out for me.
Sunday:
Spent the day with two californian girls I met in my dorm room in the posh neighborhood of Recoletta. We hit up a hippie market for the afternoon looking through stands of hats, pants, matte cups, shoes, and every other kind of trinket available in the world. After that, we went to this huge metal flower that opens and closes with the sun! Pretty neat, except I think you would have to sit around all day to watch this thing open and close, and I am not sure I have the patience for that. Then we went to this huge cemetery that was basically like a neighborhood of coffins. Creepy but cool in a way. But also a huge waste of space. I really think cremation is the way to go. Wasn't a huge fan of these girls from Cali. They tried to pretend like they were European too much. SO ANNOYING!! Just accept it ladies: you're American. No cool accent or funny ways to talk. Just plain old American.
Monday:
My first day of Spanish classes started today! I signed up for one week of class to try to pick up the language. First class went really well. I am definitely the star pupil in the class. =) After class, I just relaxed a bit and caught up on some picture transfers and I got a ticket to go to a show called La Bomba de Tiempo. Super cool drum show where a lot of people were most certainly getting high, but the beats were awesome and it was definitely a good time. The hostel provided a crazy party bus back and there was party that night, but I ended up missing it bc I booked my Inca Trail trek that night!
Tuesday:
Second day of class--one of the German girls has a tattoo of two squiggles on her finger that look like a mustache when she puts her finger under her nose. WOW. I just had to share that. Not sure why someone would get that kind of tattoo, but then again I have heard of worse (i.e. a Lays Chip on a shoulder..chip on your shoulder..get it??) After class I headed down to Puerto Madero and walked endlessly and in the relentless sun basically wanting to fall over and die because I thought I would melt. The port had a cool retro looking ship, and if I had waited to go by a day or two, I would have seen a lot more bc BA was celebrating it's 200 year anniversary. While doing my homework that night I made my new best friend for the week, a guy named Daniel from Australia.
Wednesday:
Today in class my teacher told me not to talk during an exercise. Seriously? Yup. She wanted to give the other 3 girls in class a chance to answer the questions. Not cool. She was totally holding me back. After class I met up with Daniel and he took me to San Telmo, another cool neighborhood of BA, and he took me to some great shopping places!! Oh this city totally made me go broke. haha. Spent the afternoon walking about the neighborhood shopping, and just hung out at night. It's too hard to go out at night when you have to get up for class in the morning. What was I thinking??
Thursday:
Another day in class. But I've made a friend from a different class who I might hang out with later. Spent the day with Daniel again in San Telmo. I really like this neighborhood even though I heard of some people getting robbed here. We spent a lot of the day just trying to find an ATM for him to get some money out of bc he wanted to buy a painting. A waste of the day for me?? Kinda. But I didn't mind. It's nice to have someone to hang out with. Decided to go out on the bar crawl my hostel was advertising. Omg. Met up with my new spanish class friend, but he was definitely interested in me more than I was interested in him. So the night was mostly spent artfully avoiding him or trying to hang out with as many people as possible, which was do-able since we met this great group of Aussie girls who managed to rescue me anytime I needed it. Got home in time for sleep for about 2 hours before heading to spanish class.
Friday:
Last day in class was a nightmare. I could barely stay up and I'm pretty sure everyone could tell I was a little hungover. Or just extremely tired. What a bad day to not bring my A game to class--we were learning the verb 'tenir.' haha. After class I realized that I only had one full day left to see two more neighborhoods in this amazing city so I skipped the nap and headed straight to the super ghetto neighborhood of La Boca. Ghetto because if you walk of the one main street you are pretty much guaranteed to get robbed. That is why there are police at every side street telling you not to go down the road. The main street is awesome though! The buildings are so colorful and beautiful, it's hard to imagine that every other street is so crime ridden. Sad. After that, I hopped on the subway and headed to Palermo, the land of beautiful parks and good shopping. I got off the incredibly hot and sweaty, non-airconditioned subway and walked into the first park I saw. I was met by an entire population of stray cats that scared the crap out of me and a swarm of mosquitoes that basically ate my alive. The mosquitoes here are rabid! I swear! They are HUGE and I was killing them while they were biting me!! So horrible! I basically ran out of the park only to see a sign about Dengue Fever at the entrance. Fantastic! I basically upped my chances of getting Dengue fever and have no vaccination for that. I got back to the hostel bitten up thinking about the relaxing evening I was going to have, but somehow got convinced to go out with two of the guys who worked at my hostel and their friends. So I hop into a car with these two guys and their friends and the driver is doing some questionable things while driving and I am not so sure about what I've signed up for since the other 3 ppl invited from the hostel are in cab, but we manage to make it to the club in one piece. After a night of dancing the guys, Guestan and Ale (short for Alejandro) took me to the park next door to the club where I managed to get 65 (not exaggerating at all) mosquito bites in 15 minutes. Probably the worst ending to my stint in BA, considering I already had 10 dengue fever bites from that evening. I got back to the hostel in time to shower and hop into a cab to catch my flight to the next part of my trip which was El Calafate in Patagonia.
Even though I basically almost got dengue fever or malaria or yellow fever (extreme exaggerations) from my time in BA, I still loved it there!! I didn't blend in as well as I did when I was in Brazil, and old Argentine men were quick to tell me they thought I was pretty...ew. Don't they have wives?? But I learned some espanol, and I met some amazing people, and I definitely got to experience what Buenos Aires has to offer. I am happy excited to see a new part of South America though when I go to Patagonia. No more cities and pollution..just nature. It's supposed to be like another world. Can't wait!
Right...so I wrote that paragraph about 3 weeks ago, and I can barely remember all of the things I wanted to write about this city!! Arghh! I'll try my best to remember what I can about what I did..
Friday:
Got into the city after a ridiculously long bus ride that actually played some good movies (Crossing Over or Crossing Borders is a recommendation I have--it's just like Crash except it has to do with immigration). Got to my hostel and after settling in to my dorm room where I was the only english speaking person, I realized that Coldplay was in town and I could still get a ticket!! A miracle!! I bought an insanely expensive ticket from my hostel and ended up convincing a Brazilian guy, Vinny, to get ripped off as well and he came along with! An amazing night minus the fact that I could barely see the band unless I watched the screen or Vinny picked me up! I do think that Coldplay needs to step it up a bit though since the show hasn't changed much since the last time I saw them.
Saturday:
A day of shopping on the famous Florida Ave. Not very impressed but I managed to buy some things and all at great prices since the currency exchange rate is amazing here. I spent the day on my own just walking around, taking in the sites and sounds of the city. At night I met a great group of friends--2 americans, 2 english, 3 israelis and 2 aussies--to go out with for a night on the town in the famous BA. Unfortunately for us, BA actually enforces building code regulations and the clubs we tried to get into were full. So no crazy night out for me.
Sunday:
Spent the day with two californian girls I met in my dorm room in the posh neighborhood of Recoletta. We hit up a hippie market for the afternoon looking through stands of hats, pants, matte cups, shoes, and every other kind of trinket available in the world. After that, we went to this huge metal flower that opens and closes with the sun! Pretty neat, except I think you would have to sit around all day to watch this thing open and close, and I am not sure I have the patience for that. Then we went to this huge cemetery that was basically like a neighborhood of coffins. Creepy but cool in a way. But also a huge waste of space. I really think cremation is the way to go. Wasn't a huge fan of these girls from Cali. They tried to pretend like they were European too much. SO ANNOYING!! Just accept it ladies: you're American. No cool accent or funny ways to talk. Just plain old American.
Monday:
My first day of Spanish classes started today! I signed up for one week of class to try to pick up the language. First class went really well. I am definitely the star pupil in the class. =) After class, I just relaxed a bit and caught up on some picture transfers and I got a ticket to go to a show called La Bomba de Tiempo. Super cool drum show where a lot of people were most certainly getting high, but the beats were awesome and it was definitely a good time. The hostel provided a crazy party bus back and there was party that night, but I ended up missing it bc I booked my Inca Trail trek that night!
Tuesday:
Second day of class--one of the German girls has a tattoo of two squiggles on her finger that look like a mustache when she puts her finger under her nose. WOW. I just had to share that. Not sure why someone would get that kind of tattoo, but then again I have heard of worse (i.e. a Lays Chip on a shoulder..chip on your shoulder..get it??) After class I headed down to Puerto Madero and walked endlessly and in the relentless sun basically wanting to fall over and die because I thought I would melt. The port had a cool retro looking ship, and if I had waited to go by a day or two, I would have seen a lot more bc BA was celebrating it's 200 year anniversary. While doing my homework that night I made my new best friend for the week, a guy named Daniel from Australia.
Wednesday:
Today in class my teacher told me not to talk during an exercise. Seriously? Yup. She wanted to give the other 3 girls in class a chance to answer the questions. Not cool. She was totally holding me back. After class I met up with Daniel and he took me to San Telmo, another cool neighborhood of BA, and he took me to some great shopping places!! Oh this city totally made me go broke. haha. Spent the afternoon walking about the neighborhood shopping, and just hung out at night. It's too hard to go out at night when you have to get up for class in the morning. What was I thinking??
Thursday:
Another day in class. But I've made a friend from a different class who I might hang out with later. Spent the day with Daniel again in San Telmo. I really like this neighborhood even though I heard of some people getting robbed here. We spent a lot of the day just trying to find an ATM for him to get some money out of bc he wanted to buy a painting. A waste of the day for me?? Kinda. But I didn't mind. It's nice to have someone to hang out with. Decided to go out on the bar crawl my hostel was advertising. Omg. Met up with my new spanish class friend, but he was definitely interested in me more than I was interested in him. So the night was mostly spent artfully avoiding him or trying to hang out with as many people as possible, which was do-able since we met this great group of Aussie girls who managed to rescue me anytime I needed it. Got home in time for sleep for about 2 hours before heading to spanish class.
Friday:
Last day in class was a nightmare. I could barely stay up and I'm pretty sure everyone could tell I was a little hungover. Or just extremely tired. What a bad day to not bring my A game to class--we were learning the verb 'tenir.' haha. After class I realized that I only had one full day left to see two more neighborhoods in this amazing city so I skipped the nap and headed straight to the super ghetto neighborhood of La Boca. Ghetto because if you walk of the one main street you are pretty much guaranteed to get robbed. That is why there are police at every side street telling you not to go down the road. The main street is awesome though! The buildings are so colorful and beautiful, it's hard to imagine that every other street is so crime ridden. Sad. After that, I hopped on the subway and headed to Palermo, the land of beautiful parks and good shopping. I got off the incredibly hot and sweaty, non-airconditioned subway and walked into the first park I saw. I was met by an entire population of stray cats that scared the crap out of me and a swarm of mosquitoes that basically ate my alive. The mosquitoes here are rabid! I swear! They are HUGE and I was killing them while they were biting me!! So horrible! I basically ran out of the park only to see a sign about Dengue Fever at the entrance. Fantastic! I basically upped my chances of getting Dengue fever and have no vaccination for that. I got back to the hostel bitten up thinking about the relaxing evening I was going to have, but somehow got convinced to go out with two of the guys who worked at my hostel and their friends. So I hop into a car with these two guys and their friends and the driver is doing some questionable things while driving and I am not so sure about what I've signed up for since the other 3 ppl invited from the hostel are in cab, but we manage to make it to the club in one piece. After a night of dancing the guys, Guestan and Ale (short for Alejandro) took me to the park next door to the club where I managed to get 65 (not exaggerating at all) mosquito bites in 15 minutes. Probably the worst ending to my stint in BA, considering I already had 10 dengue fever bites from that evening. I got back to the hostel in time to shower and hop into a cab to catch my flight to the next part of my trip which was El Calafate in Patagonia.
Even though I basically almost got dengue fever or malaria or yellow fever (extreme exaggerations) from my time in BA, I still loved it there!! I didn't blend in as well as I did when I was in Brazil, and old Argentine men were quick to tell me they thought I was pretty...ew. Don't they have wives?? But I learned some espanol, and I met some amazing people, and I definitely got to experience what Buenos Aires has to offer. I am happy excited to see a new part of South America though when I go to Patagonia. No more cities and pollution..just nature. It's supposed to be like another world. Can't wait!
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