Escrito en tranvia

Right now I'm on a train from Oruro to Villazon, Bolivia. We're heading into the last leg of the trip- returning now to Salta to get the truck and then heading west into the Chile for about 5 days before making our way back east. A ton has happened in the past 2 and a half weeks and it feels like we left on this trip 2 months ago.  I'll pick up where I left off last time.

We arrived in Uyuni after that tortuous bus ride and searched out a hotel with some space. Bolivia is about as third world as you can get in most of it, so our hotel had no heat or hot water, and it's located at about 10000ft in a desert so nights get a little chilly. First thing we did was outfit ourselves head to toe in winter alpaca clothes, for a total of about $15 US dollars.  That night we went to a bar called Extreme Fun Bar which was actually extremely fun. They had some pretty crazy drinks and very crude names/ways of serving them.   

The next day we headed out on a tour of the famous Bolivian salt flats. A local guy picked us up in a Land Cruiser and first drove us to an old train cemetary where there were tons of old broken down locomotives laying in the middle of the desert. Then we drove to where they had a small village of salt packaging houses, which were also made out of salt.  We discovered some of the coolest hats ever in a store back in Uyuni, and in this village there were plenty more of them so each of us got some (8 between 4 of us).  We continued on and saw a salt hotel (building, beds, etc made of salt) that is now a museum, and then drove about 45 minutes more across the salt flats to the center (I think our guide said the flats we were on were about 11500 square kilometers, but I have no way of checking that on this train so I could be way off) where there is a spot of actual earth called Fish Island.  There we had lunch and took some perspective pictures and played cards for a bit before returning to Uyuni. After a tasty 2 course dinner that cost us $1.45, we took a bus to Bolivia's capital city of La Paz, using it as a transfer hub to continue directly to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  That and more stories to come.

Things I want to say but don't know how to include in the post:
- We are way too big for Bolivia. We hit our heads an average of 2.5 times per day. I hold the record high with 6 times in one day.
- As we have now traveled a large amount in Bolivia, weve discovered that there is almost no comfortable way of transporting yourself around the country.
- Bolivian authorities are not nice. I have a long story to support that claim, if I can manage to fit a reasonably sized version of it in a post, I'll do it. 
- Bathrooms are not often sanitary here and there is rarely hot water. We have gone a few days at a time without showering or comfortably relieving ourselves to this point. With my long hair (which is actually pretty curly) and not showering for 5 days at one point, it turned to kind of loose dread locks.
- I finished The Sound and the Fury. Tough read, but enjoyable. I also crushed the Davinci Code in like 3 days, that book was incredible. I tried to start The Road to Jerusalem, book 1 from the Crusades Trilogy, but after 45 pages of incredibly dry text and a warning from my friend that it doesn't change too much I abandoned that. I think tomorrow I'm gonna start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

That's all I can think of for now. There's wifi in our hostel in Salta so I'll have this and hopefully another post up within the next day. Later          

Another update from the road

What's happening everybody?  Right now I'm in the bus terminal in Puno, Peru with the guys waiting for our bus to Cusco. Playing cards has gotten old so I'm gonna start writing some posts on the trip thus far.  We were supposed to leave last Friday but there were some complications with the truck and the insurance company, so we left on saturday morning. We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay then a bus to Montevideo then another bus to a small town in the north of Uruguay called Melo. We stayed with a man named Mauricio who is the manager of max's dad's farm in the town. He was super hospitable and helped us prepare the truck, our route, and gave us some advice on where to stay. 

We took off in the truck on Sunday morning, driving all the way across Uruguay to a place called Salto where we crossed the border into Argentina. From there we went north to Corrientes and spent the night. Monday we drove from Corrientes straight west to Salta, stopping in a few tiny pueblos for food along the way.  We found a long term garage for the truck which cost us only $50 for 2 weeks, about the same as you pay for a beer at a Yankees game.  We hung out and explored Salta for a few hours before our bus to La Quiaca on the Bolivian border.  Max and I found this cool 99 year old liquor store that had hundreds of old beer cans and liquors and other cool stuff. I think my dad would have found it really interesting. I also had lost my copy of Fahrenheit 451 on the bus, so we stopped in a bookstore to get something for the long bus rides. I got The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. If any of you have read it you'll know that it's a very difficult read, so I'm pushing through it with a little bit of trouble.

We arrived at La Quiaca at about 630am and it was unimaginably cold. We walked across the border to Villazon only to find out that Bolivian migrations doesn't open until 730am, so we stood, extremely unprepared for the cold, on the sidewalk for a while until they let us in.  There's absolutely nothing to do in Villazon so we just grabbed some food and outfitted ourselves with a ton of winter alpaca clothes for a total of about $15.

We then took a bus to Uyuni, Bolivia. The bus ride there was more than interesting. It was supposed to be 8 hours long, but as not a single road in Bolivia is paved, it took about 11. And 11 hours of very twisty off-roading across the mountains in seats that we absolutely didn't fit in. It was really miserable. 

I need to head down to the gate for the bus now, but next time I'm sitting around and don't feel like tormenting my brain with that book I'll post again. Enjoy the summer everybody, don't take it for granted. Trust me, you'd miss it if you couldnt have it.

Ps- I actually wrote this post a few days ago, we've explored Peru and are actually back in Bolivia now.  The problem is I can only update this blog with these posts from my ipod when I have wifi, which isn't exactly a common thing here, so the posts will all be kinda far behind.  I'll keep writing when I have time. Real time update- we're in La Paz until Saturday then doing a 3 day tour in the Amazon.    

One for the road

I've got some extra time now as we drive through gaucho country in the middle of nowhere, Uruguay. I figure I can use this time to write that long awaited post using my iPod touch. So here it goes. I'm going to make one list of all the things I can't wait for in the USA and another list of all the things I'm going to miss about Argentina.  Enjoy!

Things I'm excited for in the USA:
-My own house
-Family and friends
- the beach
- my pool
- little vincents at 2am
- delis
- my drums!
- blueberry pie
- my bed
- toilets that flush with some force/toilets that flush/toilets that stop flushing
- efficient/reliable banks
- peanut butter
- ny pizza and bagels
- driving in my car
- good gyms
- milk in cartons
- fast reliable Internet
- text messaging without worrying about wasting your credit
- clean sidewalks
- not having to say "como?"
- word variety
- life being in English
- good old fashioned greenbacks (that's US dollars)
- an abundancy of coins, or the fact that i don't have to stress about not having any
- clean air
- unlimited free water in restaurants
- canned beer
- not wearing the same clothes all the time
- having a printer
- never being at a loss for words (it actually happens to me down here)
- Boston College!
- people not looking at me funny because something about me or something I'm doing is clearly foreign
- not having a marching band wake me up at 8am every day


Things I'm going to miss about Argentina:
- All of the incredible people I've met here
- the never ending parties
- choripans, milanesas, and the beef
- incredible patriotism
- not having any responsibility
- monopoly with the guys
- boliches
- sporadic vacations to amazing destinations
- asados
- low prices
- situations that make me say "what the HELL is going on right now?"
- everybody being laid back and doing there own thing without having to worry
- being taller than everybody
- alfajoreos
- real dancing
- quilmes
-such an enthusiastic and passionate culture
- being excused from stuff because I'm the stupid gringo that doesn't know what's going on
- kissing hello/expected bro-love and affection
- hostels
- living simply
- being able to have anything at all delivered to your door
- not having to shave or cut my hair
- cheap cabs
- 30 minutes away being close by
- crazy futbol fans
- the view from my apartment
- generally never worrying about anything and people that don't either
- hanging out being the national pasttime
- empanadas
- my cell phone not being a necesity

That's all I can think of right now (and i assume that's all anybody wants to read) but I assure you theres more i could think of for both lists. We're crossing the border into Argentina soon and spending the night in Corrientes before heading to Salta tomorrow morning. Catch up with you later.    

Hasta luego!

The guys and I were supposed to leave on our road trip today, but plans got a little messed up, so we're leaving tomorrow instead.  I'll be heading to Max's farm in Uruguay by boat and bus then spending tomorrow night there.  Sunday morning we head out in the pickup truck to Cordoba in the middle of Argentina.  Then we stop in Salta where I went a few months ago for a day or 2, then we're going to travel to one or two cities in the very north of Chile to see the Atacama desert.  A quick stop back in Salta to park the truck, then we're taking buses around Bolivia for a about a week and a half to places such as Uyuni, Potosi, Cochabamba, and Lake Titicaca.  After we may take a bus to Cusco, Peru and spend a few days there and at Machu Picchu.  From there we head back down Bolivia through the giant salt flats and back to Salta to grab the truck and head back to Buenos Aires in time for my flight at 830pm on August 4.  I'll see many of my readers in New York on August 5.  I'm expecting a blueberry pie to be warm and ready when I arrive at my lounge chair next to my pool.  See you then.  Stay cool out there and enjoy the next few weeks!
-Dan

PS- If I wake up early enough tomorrow I'll try to type a quick version of that fun post I promised a gazillion years ago.  But don't hold your breath.

Iguazu, Finals, World Cup, and more!

Hola todos.  Sorry I haven't updated this in a long time, its been a mix between laziness and lack of material to write about (sort of).  I've got some motivation right now and the material has piled up long enough that this will probably be another long post.  That cool post I promised almost a month ago is still coming, I'll use it as an excuse for a study break sometime this week.  Basically, here's what's been happening in my life- We went to Iguazu from June 17-21, since then we've hung out a lot, partied a lot, done a little bit of work, and watched a LOT of soccer.

For those of you less informed, Iguazu is a city/town on the Brazilian border of Argentina and also about a 30 minute bus ride from the border of Paraguay, and it is famous for its waterfalls.  Its on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, so the weather was nice and warm and the animals are very cool.  We took a 17 hour bus ride there on Thursday afternoon and checked into the hostel Friday morning.  The hostel used to be a casino, so it was more like a resort with a pool and tiki bar and all that fancy stuff.  Friday afternoon Hannah, Malcolm, Dave, and I headed to a small zoo/sanctuary down the road.  We saw some cool animals like toucans, monkeys, eagles, falcons, and some other strange creatures I can't name or describe.  Our tour guide was hysterical and the rainforest was super cool, so we had a great time.


Saturday we headed to Iguazu National Park, where the waterfalls are.  We first walked around the catwalks and balconies set up over the top of one side of the falls.  You can literally stand inches above the water right where it drops over the edge, pretty sweet.  We snapped some pictures and soon headed to the Great Adventure, a truck and boat tour we had paid for.  They loaded about 25 people into an open-top truck and drove us for a few miles through the middle of the rainforest, pointing out cool plants and animals the whole time.  Eventually we reached the river where we boarded the boats (and where an alligator was hanging out in the sun).  We stripped down, threw our valuables in waterproof bags, and headed off down the river.  The boat twisted and turned around some rapids until we reached the falls, which it drove right up to and under.  Of course the falls would crush us if we went right under them, but I was about an arm's length away from a couple hundred gallons a second washing me away.  We took a turn or two going under each side of the falls (they kind of twist around so its split between the Argentine side and the Devil's Throat which is half Argentina and half Brazil) and eventually docked and hopped of the boat.  We walked around the walkways around the bottom of the falls for a bit drying off, then headed back to the hostel.


That night we had a big bbq dinner at the hostel with the 200 other British and Americans that were staying there.  They put on this risque Latin dance show during dinner, which Brenny, Dave, and our friend Julian were volunteered to be part of, and which eventually turned into a hostel-wide party that lasted until morning.  On Sunday, Dave, Hannah, and I just hung out and studied for our final all day/watched soccer.  We took a bus back to BA that night, studied some more on Monday, and took our literature final on Tuesday.  It went pretty well, I felt great about how I did afterward, hopefully I actually did well.  We also had a take-home final for history due Wednesday that I think went fairly well also.  Now I just have a huge paper and one final left this week.


The World Cup has been a ride.  This country LOVES soccer, and every single aspect of life in Argentina has been dominated by the Cup since it started.  Its all anybody talks about, stores have Mundial sales, everything closes for games, etc.  Argentina played incredibly well all the way until today when they played Germany in the quarter finals (and got crushed 4-0).  During the games the city just makes as much noise as possible- people constantly chanting, horns honking, vuvuzelas vuvuzeling- and its just an unbelievable atmosphere.  I took some videos from my balcony the other day of my neighborhood all out on their balconies at halftime chanting Argentine soccer chants in unison.  Its just so cool.  As for USA soccer, we dressed up as American as we could and headed to the bar and heckled other fans for the games (That's the stereotype.  Might as well embrace it).  The American bars are a ton of fun for US sporting events, just too bad we lost to Ghana, again.


That's basically all that's been happening for a month.  Things are really starting to wind down now, tonight is my last Saturday night in Buenos Aires (!!!) so we're going to celebrate a bit.  Next weekend the guys and I leave on that awesome road trip for a few weeks, and a month from tomorrow I hop the big metal bird and head home for some NY pizza, bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, the beach, my drums, my pool, and of course, mom's blueberry pie (Marie, Michael, and Kristen- I'm not sharing, you've got like a 2 month head start on pie eating).


Here's a few pictures from the last month, click here for my photo page which now has an Iguazu album.  Click photos below for full size.

A view of the Argentine falls from one of the balconies.

 Some falls at the edge of the Devil's Throat, taken from the boat.  Brazil is about 7 feet to the left of where I took this picture.

An awesome fort we made in our common room with some friends at 4am after a fantastic night out for Malcolm's birthday.

 The guys dressed as American as possible getting ready to head to the bar for the game.

An awesome sunset from our balcony.  I've been living in this apartment for 4 months and this still doesn't get old.

That's all for now.  Happy 4th of July everybody, enjoy the weekend.