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.

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!!!

Sucre is the capital? Really?

After finishing a long 4 days in the jeep for the salt flats, Candace and I decided to split off from the boys a bit to head to Sucre, which is apprently the capital of Bolivia.  I thought it was La Paz, but apprently not.  La Paz basically usurped the title from Sucre, but the supreme court still convenes there, so I guess that counts for something, and plus, it is still listed as the capital in the constitution, so cool beans..or frijoles frio..haha. My amazing spanish skills coming into use.

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.

Candace and I spent our time exploring the city and checking out this massive market of food where I got some amazing fresh fruit juice (strawberry, pineapple, passion fruit is the best juice combo ever!!!!), that unfortunately made Candace sick and she spent most of her night in the bathroom throwing up. Ew. I must have third world stomach or the milk her fruit lady used was bad.  Who knows. I had two glasses though, and they were sweet as! ´´Sweet as´´ is an expression used by my New Zealand friends. haha. Thought I would try it out, but I´m not sure I like it.

We spent the next day horseback riding through the valleys of Sucre.  My horse, Mancerat, was basically amazing and he totally navigated us down hills and rocky slopes no problem. I even galloped!! It was a fun day, minus the extreme sunburn I got on my neck, but a horse pooping onto Candace´s pants and shoe pretty much made up for it. haha.  Apprently our guide is the only person in Sucre who owns horses, and unfortunately, a few years ago, he was riding his stallion and rounding up his horses and car deliberately hit him while he was on his horse and he was robbed while he was lying unconcious on the road!!! Probably the craziest story I have ever heard.  His horse died, too. So sad.

We ended the afternoon at this little old lady´s house where she made us chachi, a homebrewed beer made from corn, and really bad bread and cheese.  I got my cup and noticed a bug floating in it. haha. Tradition is to spill the first bit out before starting to drink, but I couldn´t get the bug out of my cup when I did that! Dammnittttttttttt.  I had to spoon it out, and then after I stirred in some sugar, I noticed more black specks (bug parts possibly? eww!) and just had to try to drink around it because the little old lady was so nice and I didn´t want to be rude.  I should have declined the drink in the first place because it was brewed in a rusty looking vat in the yard, plus it was made with water which is definitely not something I should be drinking in Bolivia.  I took the smallest sips I could and tried to make it look like I enjoyed it. haha. The best part of that afternoon with the little old lady was basically me and another girl having to explain to her the Israel¬Palestine conflict.  What the shit??  I can barely speak spanish, and now I am trying to talk about WWII and the holocaust?? What was my life? haha.  The funniest part (well funny now, shocking then) was that she and our guide had no idea what the Jewish religion was. WHAT??!! The girl and I didn´t know the word for Jew, but we could not get the other two to say the religion when they started to list some off.  They said Muslim, Catholic, and even Mormon, but there was no concept of Judism. It was crazy. Just goes to show how isolated some people are in the world.  She was an absolute sweet heart though, and I´m really happy I didn´t get sick from drinking that beer.

Next up is La Paz...should be interesante to say the least!

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.

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!

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!

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 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!

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.