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!! 

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!

Iguassu Falls, HOLY COW!

Iguassu Falls  = AMAZING.

Seriuosly. Niagra Falls has nothing on this place. In fact, Niagra is more like a tiny trickle compared to Iguassu..alright, fine, it's still really big, but comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.

There are two sides to the Falls: the brazil side and the argentina side.    

The brazil side was basically like jumping into the river since the mist the falls were shooting up basically drenched anyone who didn't have a heavy duty rain coat on. The falls seemed pretty spectacular from the Brazil side but I knew the argentina side was supposed to better, although I wasn't sure how it could get better than walking on a walk way out over the river into the mouth of the falls.  I was soooo wrong though!! I spent my time at the falls with an aussie I met, who was not as cool as I thought she would be, but oh well. I`ve learned that meeting weird people is bound to happen on a trip like this, especially when you're traveling solo.

We spent the night at a hostel called Hostel Sweet Hostel. I should have known better than to stay there based on the name alone. The place was so gross--I`m pretty sure there was mold growing on the walls in my room and there was a really weird smell in my room, so I might have inhaled some fungal spores.  Another backpacking experience that I expected, but was hoping to avoid. haha. Oh well. No bed bugs, so I can't complain too much because I have heard some horror stories.

The next morning my aussie friend and I went to the Argentine side of the falls, and it was like a completely different world! The Brazil side is supposed to be really good for panaramic views, but the Argentina side has a lot more to do at their park, so it is wayyyy better! They had three different trails that took you to different parts of the falls, one of which was called Devil's Throat which was basically a HUGE basin where humongous waterfalls emptied.  It was loud and completely amazing! I want to upload video on to facebook of it, but stupid facebook takes FOREVER to upload things down here, and at internet cafes, that is extra dineiro I need to save. haha. I'll give it a shot though!

One of the cool things I got to do on the Argentina side was take a boat ride up into the falls! He took us right underneath two falls and obviously we were drenched, but it was so fun and felt amazing since it was so hot outside! I feel lucky in terms of weather on my trip so far. Nothing has been ruined because I haven't had bad weather at all! I need to knock on wood though. Hopefully the luck lasts. I know I am not in many of the pictures I am putting online--kinda hard to have pictures of yourself when you're out and about on your own. Also, I have gotten such a HUGE tan, that unfortunately, I need to use the flash to even show up in pictures. lol. Unfortunately, I am being completely serious. I'm going to avoid the beach for a few countries. haha.

Next stop, Buenos Aires!  Argentina buses are supposed to be great though since they give you wine and cheese and food on your bus. I don't think I will mind the next 20 hours if I get some good Argentinian wine! :)

              

Floripa, I will conquer your waves!

Florianopolis affectionately known as Floripa to Brazilians, is set on the coast in south Brazil, and is like a completely different world in Brazil if you compare it to Rio, Salvador, and Sao Paulo. The other cities I traveled to in Brazil had crime and danger lurking at every corner whereas Floripa was as relaxed and as safe as any other place in the world.  A complete 180, that was wonderfully welcomed by me because I was finally able to walk around the streets at night or during the day with any electronics and any amount of money without feeling like I had to hide things in my bra and constantly look behind me. haha.

I arrived at my hostel sweaty, hungry and tired only to find out that I couldn't check into my room for another three hours, I wasn't allowed to have breakfast, and to top it all off, there were NO girls in sight. All I could see were burly guys all shirtless with rugby shorts none of which said hi to me and or was talking in a language I could understand. I thought I had walked into a gay hostel. Seriously.  The only girl was the receptionist, and she didn't seem to care about the look of horror on my face.

The only thing I could do was head to the beach because I had no bed yet, so I figured I would kill some time and walk. What a horrible idea.  After about 20 minutes of walking through the intense humidity and heat, I FINALLY saw a sign for the beach only to turn the street corner and see a massive hill for me to climb.  The next sign showed that in about 2400 meters (1.5 miles) I would get to a really good picture point.  At this point, I can't even figure out where the beach would start considering I am walking up a hill.   The worst walk of my life probably.  I was sweating and so hungry and the beach didn't come for another 15 minutes of uphill climb!! Out of control.

The beach I went to, Praia Mole, is surf central! But only for experts.. not me. I spent the entire day  relaxing in and out of the water, until I had a 60  year old-ish senior citizen-esh type French man started to offer to buy me a drink. Um awkward. Didn't take me much time to leave after that.

I finally checked in at the hostel and found out from the new desk girl that there were two rugby teams staying at the hostel (one from Uruguay and one from Paraguay) and I really was the ONLY girl staying at the hostel that night. How does this kind of stuf happen to me??

Luckily I met a guy from Mexico who was doing a study abroad in Floripa so spoke English fairly well. We got some drinks and spent a few hours just talking about all of the food we miss from home. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, indian food of course!

I hung out at a different beach  the next day with this guy and we just chilled out. By the time we got back to the hostel some aussie girls had come to the hostel and so had some german guys.  I was somehow the only girl in the room I stayed though..that's the third time now.

I hit up the beach again on my last day with the german guys I had met and I learned how to surf!! No official lessons or anything.  Just those two guys giving me some pointers. Not exactly reassuring, but believe it or not, I got up a few times in the first hour, and since I only had 1.5 hours before I had to leave to catch a bus out of town, I felt pretty good!! Surfing is really fun but   hard! The waves bashed me around a bit and since I was using a long board, I had almost no control of the board half the time bc it was so big. haha. But I am SO HAPPY I tried!! One thing from my to do list in south america is done!

I am heading to Iguassu Falls next. It is supposed to make Niagra Falls look pathetic.  haha. I will see in 14 hours since that's how long my next bus ride is.