Sorry I never follow through on my promises. I'm moving to NYC soon, maybe I'll pick this back up then. In the meantime, this is super accurate and I enjoyed it so I wanted to share. You should read it, even if you can't relate:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/how-to-survive-living-in-a-foreign-country/
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
November update
As expected, I haven't posted in about 5 weeks. I've been getting pretty nostalgic of all my incredible adventures and good times lately. I'm going to try to live vicariously through those memories and through writing on this blog in the coming weeks (hopefully). I plan on writing some stories during my 2 hour train commute (each way) to/from work everyday, but be mindful that I need to finish a book or two as well and that quite often I'm so exhausted after work that I sleep the entire ride. So don't hold your breath. I'll do my best, honestly, I really want to re-inspire myself to grind grind grind and make some money so I can head off for some new adventures. Stay tuned everybody.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Two in a row?!? It can't be!
Actually, it can. I told you I don't have much to do, so I'm trying to stay committed to this blog for at least a few days. After a long time of saying I should do it, I finally went to a crossfit gym today. Rather than typical weightlifting, as I've been into for a couple years now, crossfit basically aims to get you into top shape in every sense- strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, agility, power, etc. I would say 8 of about 12 people in the class were women, and so naturally I thought I was gonna be the man and show everybody whats up. Wrong. I got my ass kicked. My endurance is awful and I'm SOOOO slow. This dainty little 30 year old woman made me feel like I was walking when we had to do sprints, so needless to say, I'm going to get into crossfit so that never happens again.
When I left off, we were in a stranger's truck in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia, about 3 hours away from civilization, surrounded by scrubby brush and some seriously horrifying looking cattle, with no idea of where we were headed or control of the situation (Dad, check on mom, is she still breathing? Good). Finally, we pull up to what appears to be a small campsite at a river basin, and there are about 15 30-foot long motorized canoes tied up to the shore. Our driver tosses our bags off the roof onto the ground and speeds off. As we struggled to grasp the reality of how absurdly hot it was outside, a small Bolivian man named Jose walks up and introduces himself as our guide. Let me take a second to describe Jose. He was about 5'5", had ripped muscles, wore a black sleeveless undershirt, camouflage cargo pants, had at least a couple gold teeth, a flattop haircut, big black combat boots, and a solid 10" knife hanging from his hip. If he had a machine gun, he would be Rambo. Jose led us and 3 young Belgian girls down to one of the canoes and told us to load it up with our stuff. At this point, after a flight, a bus ride, and a 3 hour Land Rover expedition, we thought we were already there. We were wrong.
We took the canoe for a casual 3 MORE HOURS up the river. As we headed deeper into the wilderness, the scary desert wasteland mentioned earlier quickly turned back into a semi-tropical forest, and we found ourselves surrounded by alligators, caimans (another type of alligator, just as scary), monkeys, capybaras (literally just 200lb guinea pigs), exotic birds, turtles, and more. Alligators/caimans were not a rare species, and by that I mean there was probably one of them every 10 feet or so as we traveled along...for 3 hours. It was pretty scary because you could see them swimming towards the boat and suddenly they would submerge and completely disappear. Truly horrifying. Here are a few pictures I took during the canoe ride:
We had a blast exploring the camp for a while and getting a small amount of rest after a seriously long day. We were called into the dining cabin for dinner, where a woman had prepared an excellent meal for us. As she put the plates down on the table she said with a wink and a smile, "Cuidado con los monos" which means "Be careful with the monkeys". Now you would think that by this point, after all of the stuff we had been through and seen, we would no longer assume that everybody was joking with us and we would actually take people seriously with such a warning. Well we didn't. A few minutes pass and we start to hear a light pitter-patter on the roof towards the other end of the cabin. Suddenly a couple branches on an outside tree start swinging and we see some monkeys climbing around and being monkeys. As we are all watching these adorable little animals play around, their friends sent a flank attack from the other direction and stole our food right off of our plates. I didn't actually see it happen because they were so quick, but a girl shrieked and as I turned around I saw 2 or 3 monkeys scramble up a support post and climb out the window with some biscuits and veggies in hand. I'm pretty sure I saw one of them smiling and giving us the finger as he ran away, too.
The series of events that follows were some of the coolest I have ever experienced, so I'm going to save them for another post. Plus I might give Mad Men a shot before I pass out tonight. Cheers everybody, goodnight.
When I left off, we were in a stranger's truck in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia, about 3 hours away from civilization, surrounded by scrubby brush and some seriously horrifying looking cattle, with no idea of where we were headed or control of the situation (Dad, check on mom, is she still breathing? Good). Finally, we pull up to what appears to be a small campsite at a river basin, and there are about 15 30-foot long motorized canoes tied up to the shore. Our driver tosses our bags off the roof onto the ground and speeds off. As we struggled to grasp the reality of how absurdly hot it was outside, a small Bolivian man named Jose walks up and introduces himself as our guide. Let me take a second to describe Jose. He was about 5'5", had ripped muscles, wore a black sleeveless undershirt, camouflage cargo pants, had at least a couple gold teeth, a flattop haircut, big black combat boots, and a solid 10" knife hanging from his hip. If he had a machine gun, he would be Rambo. Jose led us and 3 young Belgian girls down to one of the canoes and told us to load it up with our stuff. At this point, after a flight, a bus ride, and a 3 hour Land Rover expedition, we thought we were already there. We were wrong.
We took the canoe for a casual 3 MORE HOURS up the river. As we headed deeper into the wilderness, the scary desert wasteland mentioned earlier quickly turned back into a semi-tropical forest, and we found ourselves surrounded by alligators, caimans (another type of alligator, just as scary), monkeys, capybaras (literally just 200lb guinea pigs), exotic birds, turtles, and more. Alligators/caimans were not a rare species, and by that I mean there was probably one of them every 10 feet or so as we traveled along...for 3 hours. It was pretty scary because you could see them swimming towards the boat and suddenly they would submerge and completely disappear. Truly horrifying. Here are a few pictures I took during the canoe ride:
Exotic bird (a hoatzin), a bad shot, but this thing was sweet. There were tons of them.
Adorable little monkeys. The little guy up at the front walked down that branch almost onto my shoulder, but when I stuck my arm out and touched his head he scrambled away.
If you click this for a larger view, you can see some capybaras hangin out by the shore, apparently trying to get snacked on by some gators.
Either gators or caimans, doesn't really matter, neither of them likes you anyway. I bet that if I took a picture every 15 seconds as we traveled along, 3 out of every 5 photos would have a similar number of gators in it. Also, you can see some turtles climbing on rocks/logs in the foreground.
Finally, we pulled up to our very humble abode- a camp sitting atop a small hill next to the river. The camp was comprised of about 3 sleeping cabins, a bathroom cabin, a kitchen/dining cabin, and a hangout cabin- all connected by catwalks raised about 6 feet off the ground "so that you don't stumble across gators in the middle of the night" according to Jose. Here's some more pictures:
Our sleeping cabin on the right, catwalks in the foreground, and bathroom cabin in the back left.
Our sleeping cabin. The green things come down as mosquito nets, of course.
The hangout cabin
View of the river from the camp
The series of events that follows were some of the coolest I have ever experienced, so I'm going to save them for another post. Plus I might give Mad Men a shot before I pass out tonight. Cheers everybody, goodnight.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Gonna make a brand new start of it in old New York
Friends, family, confidants, and potential employers who found this blog from my LinkedIn page,
I'm moving back to New York. Yes sir and madame, you aren't just drunk, I did actually say I'm moving back to New York. My internship at WePay is coming to an end this Friday, and I have decided that there is much more for me, in many regards, in old New York. California has been a total blast, I made some awesome friends, saw and did some very cool things, learned an absolutely tremendous amount, and apparently, realized that I belong on the East Coast. As much as I wish things at WePay could have worked out better (because its an incredible company with some incredible people, and WILL be the next big thing), I have always been a firm believer in "Everything happens for a reason", and so I am entirely optimistic about what the future will bring me and extremely anxious about what my next adventure will be.
All of that said, let's tell some stories! Since my gym membership is now finished, I have nothing to do, so grab a beer or eight, this might be a doozie of a post.
Back when I actually used to write things on this blog, I left off right as the boys and I had left Cusco, Peru and headed back to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. La Paz is an incredible city, sprawling across the valley and surrounding hills in much the way San Francisco does (a great sight at night when all of the lights are on). La Paz's physical infrastructure is a bit...dilapidated. Streets are filthy and super overcrowded, hundreds of wires look like giant bird nests atop telephone poles (see photo, click it for a larger view), people are peddling any sort of item they can acquire, and the smell of dirty, delicious street food pervades throughout.
We spent a day or two exploring the city, particularly the Witch's Market, where I bought Marie and myself each a pair of the coolest pajama pants I've ever seen. We also headed to the Coca Museum, an entire museum dedicated entirely to the coca plant, famous for its role in the product of cocaine. Coca apparently is a very useful and versatile plant; it's used in Coca Cola, teas, for curing altitude sickness, in soaps, of course for drugs, and much more. The hostel we stayed in was awesome- a giant house with a courtyard, of course filled with drunk American and Australian students. Some of the BC girls that studied in BsAs with us were traveling as well, and we were fortunate enough to spend a few nights in the same hostel with them.
Here's where the cool part starts (don't give up yet!):
One of the biggest attractions of La Paz is "La Ruta del Muerte", or Yungas Road. This is considered the most dangerous road in the world, and was closed to all vehicles but pedestrians and bicycles back about 16 years ago. From the time of closing until the time that we went, about 1 year ago, approximately 27 people had died on foot or bicycle (I don't believe that estimate included the bus that fell off a cliff on an opened stretch of road about 4 days before we were there). So naturally, we road our bikes down it. There are tons of tour companies that will take you on a 4 or 5 hour tour along the route, after you sign a mountain of paperwork. We suited up in helmets, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, etc. and set off with 3 guides and about 5 other daredevils on a nice cool morning. The route started on regular open highway roads, where one guy lost control and ended up covered in road rash, but it wasn't really dangerous (he sucked at riding a bike). A little later on it got sketchy. We went under waterfalls, around hairpins, across super narrow land bridges, and all on some seriously rugged dirt roads along massive cliffs. It was awesome. We got to the end and were completely exhausted, so we hopped in the van and drove over to a "spa" nearby. We got some good food, hung out by the pool, and took showers- much needed break after an intense ride.
We got back to the hostel and had some celebratory beers (nobody died!) and went to bed. Because we hadn't had even close to enough adventure, we hopped on a plane at 6am the next morning and flew to a little place on the edge of the Amazon called Rurrenabaque. That is actually the airport in that photo on that Wikipedia page, it is not a joke. And this is actually the bus that came to pick us up and bring us into the town, although that photo makes it hard to see the bulletholes (also not a joke). The landing strip at the airport was literally just a strip of blacktop in the middle of a small rainforest. Here's a photo I took:
The bus took us into a small town that looked like a Vietnamese village from a Rambo movie, filled with Jeeps and Land Rovers, thatched huts, animals running around, and people playing soccer, of course. We checked in with our tour company and they told us to wait a bit for our ride to come. We headed off to find some food, and with a little luck, I found a friendly Bolivian woman who offered to make me some sort of meat thing with a side of some other kinda stuff, cooked on some sort of dirty fire-producing mechanism placed behind a tarp, designating the kitchen. It was scrumptious. After a few more minutes of waiting, our ride shows up. A stern-looking Bolivian guy grabs our bags and straps them down to the roof of his Land Rover, and we set off...for 3 hours into the middle of what appeared to be absolutely nothing. I used this time to crush through the end of The DaVinci Code, although I have no idea how I didn't throw up on the insanely bumpy dirt roads. We continued further and further until we were outside of the tropical-looking area and more into a desert-looking area filled with small streams and frighteningly ghastly cattle. Finally, we arrived...or so we thought. Stay tuned!
I'm moving back to New York. Yes sir and madame, you aren't just drunk, I did actually say I'm moving back to New York. My internship at WePay is coming to an end this Friday, and I have decided that there is much more for me, in many regards, in old New York. California has been a total blast, I made some awesome friends, saw and did some very cool things, learned an absolutely tremendous amount, and apparently, realized that I belong on the East Coast. As much as I wish things at WePay could have worked out better (because its an incredible company with some incredible people, and WILL be the next big thing), I have always been a firm believer in "Everything happens for a reason", and so I am entirely optimistic about what the future will bring me and extremely anxious about what my next adventure will be.
All of that said, let's tell some stories! Since my gym membership is now finished, I have nothing to do, so grab a beer or eight, this might be a doozie of a post.
Back when I actually used to write things on this blog, I left off right as the boys and I had left Cusco, Peru and headed back to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. La Paz is an incredible city, sprawling across the valley and surrounding hills in much the way San Francisco does (a great sight at night when all of the lights are on). La Paz's physical infrastructure is a bit...dilapidated. Streets are filthy and super overcrowded, hundreds of wires look like giant bird nests atop telephone poles (see photo, click it for a larger view), people are peddling any sort of item they can acquire, and the smell of dirty, delicious street food pervades throughout.
We spent a day or two exploring the city, particularly the Witch's Market, where I bought Marie and myself each a pair of the coolest pajama pants I've ever seen. We also headed to the Coca Museum, an entire museum dedicated entirely to the coca plant, famous for its role in the product of cocaine. Coca apparently is a very useful and versatile plant; it's used in Coca Cola, teas, for curing altitude sickness, in soaps, of course for drugs, and much more. The hostel we stayed in was awesome- a giant house with a courtyard, of course filled with drunk American and Australian students. Some of the BC girls that studied in BsAs with us were traveling as well, and we were fortunate enough to spend a few nights in the same hostel with them.Here's where the cool part starts (don't give up yet!):
One of the biggest attractions of La Paz is "La Ruta del Muerte", or Yungas Road. This is considered the most dangerous road in the world, and was closed to all vehicles but pedestrians and bicycles back about 16 years ago. From the time of closing until the time that we went, about 1 year ago, approximately 27 people had died on foot or bicycle (I don't believe that estimate included the bus that fell off a cliff on an opened stretch of road about 4 days before we were there). So naturally, we road our bikes down it. There are tons of tour companies that will take you on a 4 or 5 hour tour along the route, after you sign a mountain of paperwork. We suited up in helmets, gloves, knee pads, elbow pads, etc. and set off with 3 guides and about 5 other daredevils on a nice cool morning. The route started on regular open highway roads, where one guy lost control and ended up covered in road rash, but it wasn't really dangerous (he sucked at riding a bike). A little later on it got sketchy. We went under waterfalls, around hairpins, across super narrow land bridges, and all on some seriously rugged dirt roads along massive cliffs. It was awesome. We got to the end and were completely exhausted, so we hopped in the van and drove over to a "spa" nearby. We got some good food, hung out by the pool, and took showers- much needed break after an intense ride.
We got back to the hostel and had some celebratory beers (nobody died!) and went to bed. Because we hadn't had even close to enough adventure, we hopped on a plane at 6am the next morning and flew to a little place on the edge of the Amazon called Rurrenabaque. That is actually the airport in that photo on that Wikipedia page, it is not a joke. And this is actually the bus that came to pick us up and bring us into the town, although that photo makes it hard to see the bulletholes (also not a joke). The landing strip at the airport was literally just a strip of blacktop in the middle of a small rainforest. Here's a photo I took:
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Surprise! Update post! With actual content!
Hello everybody! At this point, if you haven't given up on this blog and are actually back here reading- Thank you! I owe you a hug and a beer. I'm sorry for being a lazy liar and never continuing to write. Life outside of work these days is a bit slow so I'm hoping that taking the initiative for this first post back may help kickstart things again. Click the words in blue, they're links to some visual aids for my stories :D
As you may know, I moved to California! Graduation came and went in a blur, a month long Eurotrip with some roommates happened somewhere in there, I moved out to the West Coast almost 3 months ago, already switched homes out here, and suddenly the real world is in full swing. Things have been great. I'm working in sales for a company called WePay (you should check it out, its awesome! www.wepay.com), just moved into a nice big house (this link literally puts the little red marker exactly where I'm sitting in my bedroom right now- technology is crazy) with 5 roommates all about the same age, bought a car (thanks Lynn and Sal), am making friends, and am loving the never-ending sunshine. I'm super homesick too, but hopefully I'll be back in NY to see most of you in a couple weeks (Mid-post update! Mother just called to tell me she booked tickets for me to come home Columbus Day weekend. See you then!). Those of you reading from Boston- be there on 9/23! I can't really complain about anything though, its been an awesome time thus far and I'm glad that even to this extent its been another fantastic character-building experience.
Today is a gorgeous Saturday. I'm planning on heading up to San Francisco (about a half hour drive North) to meet my friend Pat from BC to watch the game against Central Florida, hopefully have a great night out in the city, and then just sitting and watching football all day tomorrow. I've been doing awesome things like this all summer long. Although day to day out here may not be as exciting as can be, whenever I do something fun it always seems to be to the extreme. For example, my first weekend out here was spent with my roommate Charlie exploring SF and some festivities (Gay Pride Parade was that weekend- very interesting experience in San Fran). Two weeks later I spent 4th of July at the estate of the guy who founded the Gap- his grandson is my age and invited about 50 people over for the weekend. That was incredibly fun. The next weekend I went to Lake Tahoe, where about 22 of us (WePay interns and friends) rented a big house. We spent the weekend on the beach, kayaking the lake, renting boats, tubing, jet skiing, partying, drinking margaritas, etc. One of the best weekends I've ever had. Two weeks ago, my friend from high school, Lance, came to visit. We spent Friday in SF then drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Cruz on Saturday, and then spent all day Sunday on the beach in Capitola trying to imitate the seals napping on the pier. In short, things have been good.
I'll try my best to keep this going this time. I have some seriously awesome stories left from South America, as well as a whole new batch of Eurotrip adventures that I think you guys will enjoy. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, go watch BC and the Giants kick some ass. And keep your eye on Giants LB #58 Mark Herzlich- the Giants just picked him up out of BC, after he made a triumphant return from battling cancer the year after he was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Peace kids.
As you may know, I moved to California! Graduation came and went in a blur, a month long Eurotrip with some roommates happened somewhere in there, I moved out to the West Coast almost 3 months ago, already switched homes out here, and suddenly the real world is in full swing. Things have been great. I'm working in sales for a company called WePay (you should check it out, its awesome! www.wepay.com), just moved into a nice big house (this link literally puts the little red marker exactly where I'm sitting in my bedroom right now- technology is crazy) with 5 roommates all about the same age, bought a car (thanks Lynn and Sal), am making friends, and am loving the never-ending sunshine. I'm super homesick too, but hopefully I'll be back in NY to see most of you in a couple weeks (Mid-post update! Mother just called to tell me she booked tickets for me to come home Columbus Day weekend. See you then!). Those of you reading from Boston- be there on 9/23! I can't really complain about anything though, its been an awesome time thus far and I'm glad that even to this extent its been another fantastic character-building experience.
Today is a gorgeous Saturday. I'm planning on heading up to San Francisco (about a half hour drive North) to meet my friend Pat from BC to watch the game against Central Florida, hopefully have a great night out in the city, and then just sitting and watching football all day tomorrow. I've been doing awesome things like this all summer long. Although day to day out here may not be as exciting as can be, whenever I do something fun it always seems to be to the extreme. For example, my first weekend out here was spent with my roommate Charlie exploring SF and some festivities (Gay Pride Parade was that weekend- very interesting experience in San Fran). Two weeks later I spent 4th of July at the estate of the guy who founded the Gap- his grandson is my age and invited about 50 people over for the weekend. That was incredibly fun. The next weekend I went to Lake Tahoe, where about 22 of us (WePay interns and friends) rented a big house. We spent the weekend on the beach, kayaking the lake, renting boats, tubing, jet skiing, partying, drinking margaritas, etc. One of the best weekends I've ever had. Two weeks ago, my friend from high school, Lance, came to visit. We spent Friday in SF then drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Cruz on Saturday, and then spent all day Sunday on the beach in Capitola trying to imitate the seals napping on the pier. In short, things have been good.
I'll try my best to keep this going this time. I have some seriously awesome stories left from South America, as well as a whole new batch of Eurotrip adventures that I think you guys will enjoy. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, go watch BC and the Giants kick some ass. And keep your eye on Giants LB #58 Mark Herzlich- the Giants just picked him up out of BC, after he made a triumphant return from battling cancer the year after he was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Peace kids.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Hello!
Hi everybody! After a long time away, I have (once again) decided to come back and keep writing. I have so much I would love to put on this blog that I really hope I can put some time aside for it. I'm going to try as hard as possible to finish up some South American tales, including the mythical final reflection that I wrote on my way to the airport as I headed home back in August, probably some thoughts on my time here at BC and looking ahead to starting my career out in California, some stories of my travels through Europe for a month with some roommates (I leave in 8 days!), and after that hopefully I'll use this as a journal of my wonderful life.
Unfortunately, I started this post too late and I have to go to a dodgeball tournament now (rough life), so nothing today, but tomorrow all I have to do is get out of bed at some point, so I'll put some stuff down then. Later!
Unfortunately, I started this post too late and I have to go to a dodgeball tournament now (rough life), so nothing today, but tomorrow all I have to do is get out of bed at some point, so I'll put some stuff down then. Later!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Machu Picchu and more!
After a pleasant train ride through the country, we arrived at Aguas Calientes- a tiny tourist trap of a town where everything is priced six times too high and you can't walk 3 feet without bumping into somebody trying to sell you an alpaca sweater. We found a decent cheap hostel and got some food and headed to bed early, the next day held some adventures in store.
Machu Picchu is on top of a mountain that overlooks Aguas Calientes, and overlooking Machu Picchu is a mountain called Wayna Picchu (the big cone-shaped one in the picture from Wikipedia). The first 400 people who enter Machu Picchu everyday get their park entrance ticket stamped so that they can climb up Wayna Picchu; this arrangement makes for a town-wide race up the mountain every morning. The park opens at 530am, and so the line to board the buses which take you up the mountain start forming around 330am. The other option to that insanity is to wake up at 4am and climb the mountain on foot, hoping to beat the buses so you can get your ticket stamped. We decided to climb. I can confidently say that running up the stone steps in the pitch black (the sun wasn't up yet) for an hour without a break was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. By the time everybody reached the top we were all dripping in sweat, legs shaking, and ready to pass out. I'm glad to say that we made the cut though.
Machu Picchu was nothing less than breathtaking. The stone architecture, mountain views, ingenuity, and history of the city are incredible. We took some time to explore parts of the city before heading over to the entrance to Wayna Picchu. While we were waiting in line, we watched the sun come up over the rim of the surrounding mountains and rested our legs a bit (they were exhausted from so much hiking before 7am). The climb up Wayna Picchu was equally as difficult and slightly sketchier. The mountain is literally like a spike coming out of the ground with extremely steep sides covered in trees and such (By the way, you can go to my photo page and follow these narrations with pictures if you want). The stone steps are about 3 feet wide and wind back and forth all the way up to the peak, making for a dangerous climb. The view from the top was easily one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen, but my knees were in such an excruciating amount of pain and I was so dehydrated that I just sat on a ledge and hung out while my friends explored the peak. After a bit we climbed back down, finished exploring Machu Picchu, laid in the grass for a while, and then got some food. I swear I've never tasted anything as delicious as the $6 Gatorade I got after doing so much hiking. By just after noon we were exhausted and headed back down to the village to nap.
We caught a train back to Ollantaytambo and another cab back to Cusco later that day. We spent another or two in Cusco, passing the time by doing some reading in the big city plaza, exploring some museums, walking around an amazing outdoor market that sold everything from almonds to full skinned pigs to organic soaps, and generally having a wonderful time in the city. That day was Dave's 22nd birthday and luckily, there was a Paddy's Pub right in that big plaza. We spent the evening drinking in the pub with a bunch of other Americans before heading to the bus station for our ride back to La Paz, Bolivia. Those stories soon to come! Enjoy the snow everybody.
Machu Picchu is on top of a mountain that overlooks Aguas Calientes, and overlooking Machu Picchu is a mountain called Wayna Picchu (the big cone-shaped one in the picture from Wikipedia). The first 400 people who enter Machu Picchu everyday get their park entrance ticket stamped so that they can climb up Wayna Picchu; this arrangement makes for a town-wide race up the mountain every morning. The park opens at 530am, and so the line to board the buses which take you up the mountain start forming around 330am. The other option to that insanity is to wake up at 4am and climb the mountain on foot, hoping to beat the buses so you can get your ticket stamped. We decided to climb. I can confidently say that running up the stone steps in the pitch black (the sun wasn't up yet) for an hour without a break was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. By the time everybody reached the top we were all dripping in sweat, legs shaking, and ready to pass out. I'm glad to say that we made the cut though.
Machu Picchu was nothing less than breathtaking. The stone architecture, mountain views, ingenuity, and history of the city are incredible. We took some time to explore parts of the city before heading over to the entrance to Wayna Picchu. While we were waiting in line, we watched the sun come up over the rim of the surrounding mountains and rested our legs a bit (they were exhausted from so much hiking before 7am). The climb up Wayna Picchu was equally as difficult and slightly sketchier. The mountain is literally like a spike coming out of the ground with extremely steep sides covered in trees and such (By the way, you can go to my photo page and follow these narrations with pictures if you want). The stone steps are about 3 feet wide and wind back and forth all the way up to the peak, making for a dangerous climb. The view from the top was easily one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen, but my knees were in such an excruciating amount of pain and I was so dehydrated that I just sat on a ledge and hung out while my friends explored the peak. After a bit we climbed back down, finished exploring Machu Picchu, laid in the grass for a while, and then got some food. I swear I've never tasted anything as delicious as the $6 Gatorade I got after doing so much hiking. By just after noon we were exhausted and headed back down to the village to nap.
We caught a train back to Ollantaytambo and another cab back to Cusco later that day. We spent another or two in Cusco, passing the time by doing some reading in the big city plaza, exploring some museums, walking around an amazing outdoor market that sold everything from almonds to full skinned pigs to organic soaps, and generally having a wonderful time in the city. That day was Dave's 22nd birthday and luckily, there was a Paddy's Pub right in that big plaza. We spent the evening drinking in the pub with a bunch of other Americans before heading to the bus station for our ride back to La Paz, Bolivia. Those stories soon to come! Enjoy the snow everybody.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everybody! I know what you're all thinking, "I shouldn't even be reading this because its been 4 months since this clown updated with a REAL post, I shouldn't waste my time anymore." Well, in the spirit of the holiday season, and because I have a ton of free time everyday, I'm going to give the gift of actually continuing this blog. Last time on Dan's South American Adventure, I had just spent a few days on Lake Tititcaca and was headed towards Puno and Cusco in Peru. Here we go:
We boarded the buses in Copacabana, Bolivia and crossed over the Peruvian border (where we were greeted by a sign that said "Welcome to Peru: Country free of the avian flu") and drove along the seemingly endless shores of the lake until we reached a small city named Puno. There we boarded some boats which took us out to the "floating islands"- islands built out of reeds and mud that "float" and are anchored to the lake's floor with ropes. There were a ton of these islands all tied together, each with a bunch of huts and other structures on them so it looked like a small town. It was a pretty intense tourist trap, so we left pretty quickly.
Our bus to Cusco wasn't schedule to leave for about 4 hours and there's literally nothing to do in Puno and the power was out in the entire city for some reason, plus there was no heat and it was nighttime and the middle of the winter- so we sat, freezing cold in the dark, in the bus station and played Hearts for 4 hours. Finally our bus came and rescued us.
We arrived in Cusco at about 330am and walked around for a bit before we found a hostel. The hostel actually had hot running water, so I took my first shower in what had been 5 days or so. My hair was quite long and curly, and the lack of washing it combined with an abundance of filth and sweat buildup from sleeping in a mud hut and/or on a bus/bus station floor had turned it to dreads, so that was kinda cool, yet annoying to try to wash out. The next day we explored Cusco a tiny bit. Cusco is an incredible city, my favorite of the trip. It has a lot of big beautiful plazas, ancient Spanish influence, amazing architecture, and delicious food. We got breakfast in this tiny little cafe with incredible food and good music. The famous composition Bolero by Maurice Ravel came on, which I hadn't heard since I played it in my high school's concert band during freshman year, and it reminded me of my grandma, so that was really cool. I digress. After breakfast we walked around for a short time and then grabbed a cab to our next leg of the trip.
It was a 2 hour cab ride to a place called Ollantaytambo. On the way our cab driver took us to 2 sites, one was a giant outdoor market where natives sold the same blankets, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, and other things made in China that we saw everywhere else in South America, and the other was a place called Moray. The market was a waste of time, but Max and I walked around the town a bit and it was super interesting. Old buildings, windy cobblestone streets, an old church, soccer fields (obviously, although the altitude was about 11000ft) gave it some genuine character. Moray was incredible. Click here for info and a picture. The big circle-ish thing in the picture was unbelievably huge and had perfect acoustics, so good that Max and I had a conversation at normal speaking volume while he was at the top and I stood at the center of the bottom. It wasn't used as an ampitheater though, it was used to do research on ideal climates for different crops. It was about 300 degrees out that day, so we hurried back to the cab and continued to Ollantaytambo.
The ride was breathtaking to say the least. The roads we took wound through mountains, farms, meadows, over rivers, and more. It was really beautiful and made the 2 hour ride fly by. There's nothing in the town of Ollantaytambo except a train station, so upon arrival we boarded the train and took a ride to Aguas Calientes, home of the famous Macchu Picchu. Those stories and more tomorrow! Enjoy the snow everybody!
We boarded the buses in Copacabana, Bolivia and crossed over the Peruvian border (where we were greeted by a sign that said "Welcome to Peru: Country free of the avian flu") and drove along the seemingly endless shores of the lake until we reached a small city named Puno. There we boarded some boats which took us out to the "floating islands"- islands built out of reeds and mud that "float" and are anchored to the lake's floor with ropes. There were a ton of these islands all tied together, each with a bunch of huts and other structures on them so it looked like a small town. It was a pretty intense tourist trap, so we left pretty quickly.
Our bus to Cusco wasn't schedule to leave for about 4 hours and there's literally nothing to do in Puno and the power was out in the entire city for some reason, plus there was no heat and it was nighttime and the middle of the winter- so we sat, freezing cold in the dark, in the bus station and played Hearts for 4 hours. Finally our bus came and rescued us.
We arrived in Cusco at about 330am and walked around for a bit before we found a hostel. The hostel actually had hot running water, so I took my first shower in what had been 5 days or so. My hair was quite long and curly, and the lack of washing it combined with an abundance of filth and sweat buildup from sleeping in a mud hut and/or on a bus/bus station floor had turned it to dreads, so that was kinda cool, yet annoying to try to wash out. The next day we explored Cusco a tiny bit. Cusco is an incredible city, my favorite of the trip. It has a lot of big beautiful plazas, ancient Spanish influence, amazing architecture, and delicious food. We got breakfast in this tiny little cafe with incredible food and good music. The famous composition Bolero by Maurice Ravel came on, which I hadn't heard since I played it in my high school's concert band during freshman year, and it reminded me of my grandma, so that was really cool. I digress. After breakfast we walked around for a short time and then grabbed a cab to our next leg of the trip.
It was a 2 hour cab ride to a place called Ollantaytambo. On the way our cab driver took us to 2 sites, one was a giant outdoor market where natives sold the same blankets, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, and other things made in China that we saw everywhere else in South America, and the other was a place called Moray. The market was a waste of time, but Max and I walked around the town a bit and it was super interesting. Old buildings, windy cobblestone streets, an old church, soccer fields (obviously, although the altitude was about 11000ft) gave it some genuine character. Moray was incredible. Click here for info and a picture. The big circle-ish thing in the picture was unbelievably huge and had perfect acoustics, so good that Max and I had a conversation at normal speaking volume while he was at the top and I stood at the center of the bottom. It wasn't used as an ampitheater though, it was used to do research on ideal climates for different crops. It was about 300 degrees out that day, so we hurried back to the cab and continued to Ollantaytambo.
The ride was breathtaking to say the least. The roads we took wound through mountains, farms, meadows, over rivers, and more. It was really beautiful and made the 2 hour ride fly by. There's nothing in the town of Ollantaytambo except a train station, so upon arrival we boarded the train and took a ride to Aguas Calientes, home of the famous Macchu Picchu. Those stories and more tomorrow! Enjoy the snow everybody!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Mid-Semester Life Update
Its been a month and a half since I updated on here, and the last update was to tell you that I was going to finish my stories at some point, and a month and a half before that I updated to tell you that I would at some point finish my stories. So its been 3 months since I last told you that I would, at some point, finish my stories. Well my plan is to work diligently over Thanksgiving break to finish my stories. So if you weren't excited enough for Thanksgiving already, now you even have wonderful tales of adventure and excitement to look forward to.
This semester has been what I believe to be the most challenging time of my entire life. For what is really the first time in my life I've put in 110% effort to everything I've done and not succeeded. My GPA is hurt, I still don't have a job, I'm out of shape, certain friendships have sacrificed due to increased focus on other areas of life, and I can't seem to stop questioning what my life is/will be all about. I just can't seem to figure out career paths, life decisions, future studies, relationships, and many other things right now. Its been a tremendous personal struggle for me lately. And as pessimistic as this all sounds, I'm super thankful for all of it. I feel that all of this struggling and weighing of options and searching for meaning and fighting for success has helped me to grow as a person more than I ever have before. I've been forced to recognize what I need and want to do, and really just go for it. My priorities have had to adapt and I've learned what it means to really be determined. At the same time I'm beginning to see how my mind really works and how it is affecting the person I've been, am, and will become. I think I'm turning into an adult. Gross.
I guess this whole growing up thing is cool, but its super difficult and I really just want it to be winter break so I can snowboard and play my drums already. Plus I think next semester is going to be way cooler. I'm only going to have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and I'm finally going to be able to take my first elective in college (a psychology/neuroscience/biology class called Mind and Brain).
That's my current life in a nutshell. I'm happy I got to write all that down, these are the types of things I'd like to use this blog as after I'm done writing about South America. Maybe I'll see some of you next week. I'm super excited for Thanksgiving, its easily my favorite holiday. Thanks for reading, please stay tuned!
This semester has been what I believe to be the most challenging time of my entire life. For what is really the first time in my life I've put in 110% effort to everything I've done and not succeeded. My GPA is hurt, I still don't have a job, I'm out of shape, certain friendships have sacrificed due to increased focus on other areas of life, and I can't seem to stop questioning what my life is/will be all about. I just can't seem to figure out career paths, life decisions, future studies, relationships, and many other things right now. Its been a tremendous personal struggle for me lately. And as pessimistic as this all sounds, I'm super thankful for all of it. I feel that all of this struggling and weighing of options and searching for meaning and fighting for success has helped me to grow as a person more than I ever have before. I've been forced to recognize what I need and want to do, and really just go for it. My priorities have had to adapt and I've learned what it means to really be determined. At the same time I'm beginning to see how my mind really works and how it is affecting the person I've been, am, and will become. I think I'm turning into an adult. Gross.
I guess this whole growing up thing is cool, but its super difficult and I really just want it to be winter break so I can snowboard and play my drums already. Plus I think next semester is going to be way cooler. I'm only going to have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and I'm finally going to be able to take my first elective in college (a psychology/neuroscience/biology class called Mind and Brain).
That's my current life in a nutshell. I'm happy I got to write all that down, these are the types of things I'd like to use this blog as after I'm done writing about South America. Maybe I'll see some of you next week. I'm super excited for Thanksgiving, its easily my favorite holiday. Thanks for reading, please stay tuned!
Monday, September 27, 2010
September Update
Dear Followers,
I understand that over a month ago I promised to finish my posts on the roadtrip. This school year has been incredibly busy and stressful. I've been struggling to get more than 6 hours of sleep each night, let alone time to continue to write. To be honest I really wish I could not only finish my tales, but write leisurely on this page. The next few weeks are packed with tests, job applications, interviews, information sessions, group projects, homework, and general oddjobs to take care of. That being said, I do promise to finish my stories. While waiting for the shuttle to take me to the airport in Buenos Aires the day I left South America, I wrote what will be the final reflection post of my blogs for the South American Adventure. The post is something that means a lot to me and I want to share it with all of you, but I can't post it until I have finished the stories. That is my motivation to fulfill my promise to you.
Until leisure time arrives, head over to my photo page to look at a brand new album containing all 547 pictures I took while driving across the continent and back again.
Have a wonderful fall, and really, stay tuned for more stories.
-Dan
I understand that over a month ago I promised to finish my posts on the roadtrip. This school year has been incredibly busy and stressful. I've been struggling to get more than 6 hours of sleep each night, let alone time to continue to write. To be honest I really wish I could not only finish my tales, but write leisurely on this page. The next few weeks are packed with tests, job applications, interviews, information sessions, group projects, homework, and general oddjobs to take care of. That being said, I do promise to finish my stories. While waiting for the shuttle to take me to the airport in Buenos Aires the day I left South America, I wrote what will be the final reflection post of my blogs for the South American Adventure. The post is something that means a lot to me and I want to share it with all of you, but I can't post it until I have finished the stories. That is my motivation to fulfill my promise to you.
Until leisure time arrives, head over to my photo page to look at a brand new album containing all 547 pictures I took while driving across the continent and back again.
Have a wonderful fall, and really, stay tuned for more stories.
-Dan
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Summer Update
Hello everybody. I'm really sorry that I haven't continued to post on here since I got home. I was busy with family for a while, then I was away, then more family, and now I'm studying for a final I have on Friday. Right after the final guess what, I'm going away with family. Crazy, right? Luckily, once Sunday comes around I have absolutely no obligations except to sit by my pool and listen to music. That's when I'll probably continue to write these fantastic stories. So stay tuned!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Lake Titicaca and my last post written in South America
August is finally here! As much as I would love this incredible experience in South America to continue, I cannot wait for my flight home in 2 days. It's been over 6 months since I left the USofA and I don't think I could miss it more. Thoughts of warm weather, the beach, family, and friends have taken over my brain and made me extremely eager to come home. Right now we're driving from Tucuman to Cordoba, Argentina where i'll catch a bus back to Buenos Aires to grab my stuff and say my final farewell before my flight on Wednesday night. Now to continue my tale:
On July 15th we arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It's a small town entirely run off of tourism. We talked with an agent for a few minutes and planned out the next couple of days, which would be spent on the Isla del Sol in the middle of the lake.
We took an hour and a half boat ride out to the island where we were met by a swarm of local businesschildren who all told us glorious fabrications of how their hostel was better than the rest. We followed one particularly portly young boy up some winding staircases to a house overlooking the port and lake.
This is when we learned the facts of the Isla del Sol. Lake Titicaca (which honestly should be considered a sea because even after driving for literally hours along its coast, you can't seem to find where it ends) is located at 3800 meters of altitude, or over 12000ft. Imagine putting a sea at the top of the Rocky Mountains and you'll get the idea. Climbing the stairs to the hostel with our bags almost made us all pass out, and the hostel was maybe a tenth of the way up one of the massive mountains that comprise the island.
We dropped our bags off and decided to go explore the island. At the pace of mud and with stops for air every 7 steps, Dave, Max, and I checked out the Incan ruins of the Templo del Sol for a bit and then hiked back towards the village located at 4060 meters (13000+ feet) high at the top of the mountain above the port. There we met Malcolm, who had made some friends who invited us to have a beer and watch the sunset from the peak overlooking the hilly western end of the island and lake, so we did that. It was beautiful. As the freezing cold and blinding darkness set in we headed back to the hostel, getting semi-lost and almost dieing on the climb down. When we arrived a pleasant old lady made us a delicious dinner of fresh trout and rice.
The next day we took another long boat ride to the north end of the island, again almost passing out as we found a hostel. We decided to take a nice hike, however I was actually fairly sick with a fever and congestion from the lack of showering/heat at night/oxygen in the preceeding few days, so Max and I decided to make a shorter loop around the top of the island and come into the port from the other end as Dave and Malcolm continued on. We ended up finding some big rocks towards the peak where we sat and talked and relaxed for a long while before going to find lunch by the port.
That night we learned the further truth of the island: there's only one set of powerlines connecting the island to the mainland, and the wind often disrupts them. As if no heat or hot water (or barely even running water) were not enough, now there was no electricity on the entire island. The restaurant we went to was the only one open and only had soup for food left, so we enjoyed that by candlelight. That night I slept wearing my alpaca-wool hat, gloves, and socks because our mud hut with thatched roof wasn't exactly warm or conducive to my healthy recovery.
The next morning we took the boat back to Copacabana and there boarded the bus to Puno, Peru. Those tales in the next post. See you in 3 days!
On July 15th we arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It's a small town entirely run off of tourism. We talked with an agent for a few minutes and planned out the next couple of days, which would be spent on the Isla del Sol in the middle of the lake.
We took an hour and a half boat ride out to the island where we were met by a swarm of local businesschildren who all told us glorious fabrications of how their hostel was better than the rest. We followed one particularly portly young boy up some winding staircases to a house overlooking the port and lake.
This is when we learned the facts of the Isla del Sol. Lake Titicaca (which honestly should be considered a sea because even after driving for literally hours along its coast, you can't seem to find where it ends) is located at 3800 meters of altitude, or over 12000ft. Imagine putting a sea at the top of the Rocky Mountains and you'll get the idea. Climbing the stairs to the hostel with our bags almost made us all pass out, and the hostel was maybe a tenth of the way up one of the massive mountains that comprise the island.
We dropped our bags off and decided to go explore the island. At the pace of mud and with stops for air every 7 steps, Dave, Max, and I checked out the Incan ruins of the Templo del Sol for a bit and then hiked back towards the village located at 4060 meters (13000+ feet) high at the top of the mountain above the port. There we met Malcolm, who had made some friends who invited us to have a beer and watch the sunset from the peak overlooking the hilly western end of the island and lake, so we did that. It was beautiful. As the freezing cold and blinding darkness set in we headed back to the hostel, getting semi-lost and almost dieing on the climb down. When we arrived a pleasant old lady made us a delicious dinner of fresh trout and rice.
The next day we took another long boat ride to the north end of the island, again almost passing out as we found a hostel. We decided to take a nice hike, however I was actually fairly sick with a fever and congestion from the lack of showering/heat at night/oxygen in the preceeding few days, so Max and I decided to make a shorter loop around the top of the island and come into the port from the other end as Dave and Malcolm continued on. We ended up finding some big rocks towards the peak where we sat and talked and relaxed for a long while before going to find lunch by the port.
That night we learned the further truth of the island: there's only one set of powerlines connecting the island to the mainland, and the wind often disrupts them. As if no heat or hot water (or barely even running water) were not enough, now there was no electricity on the entire island. The restaurant we went to was the only one open and only had soup for food left, so we enjoyed that by candlelight. That night I slept wearing my alpaca-wool hat, gloves, and socks because our mud hut with thatched roof wasn't exactly warm or conducive to my healthy recovery.
The next morning we took the boat back to Copacabana and there boarded the bus to Puno, Peru. Those tales in the next post. See you in 3 days!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
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.
-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.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Don't Worry, I'm Still Alive
What's happening everybody? Not much has happened on my end, surprisingly. Its been 3 weeks of just living since my last post. We've been partying a lot on weekends, watching the NBA finals, working a little bit, and generally just hanging out otherwise. We're heading to Iguazu Falls on the 17th with finals starting shortly afterward, so the second half of this month will be a little busier.
Post-finals plans are being discussed, and I think mine may be the coolest ever. I may or may not have mentioned, Max's dad owns a 25 square kilometer farm in Uruguay. He's going to be away for a while, so he told us we could take his pickup truck if we want it for a bit. Max, Dave, Malcolm, and I have decided to take him up on the offer. Starting approximately July 9 (depending on tests and how Argentina does in the World Cup), we will be heading off from the farm on a 3 week road trip. The plan is to head west through Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru until we hit the Pacific Ocean, then drive south down the coast through Chile, then back east across Argentina, eventually making our way back to Uruguay. Places we are intending to see are the Argentine cities of Cordoba and Rosario, the Bolivian salt flats (which are visible from space!), Bolivia's capital La Paz, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco, Lima, and Machu Pichu in Peru, and the Atacama desert in Chile. Very little is set in stone for now and there's a lot of little places in between, so the guys may completely disagree with everything I just said, but we're workin on it. It should be an amazing trip to say the least.
I've got a fun post lined up, but I have to cook some dinner now. Stay tuned!
Post-finals plans are being discussed, and I think mine may be the coolest ever. I may or may not have mentioned, Max's dad owns a 25 square kilometer farm in Uruguay. He's going to be away for a while, so he told us we could take his pickup truck if we want it for a bit. Max, Dave, Malcolm, and I have decided to take him up on the offer. Starting approximately July 9 (depending on tests and how Argentina does in the World Cup), we will be heading off from the farm on a 3 week road trip. The plan is to head west through Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru until we hit the Pacific Ocean, then drive south down the coast through Chile, then back east across Argentina, eventually making our way back to Uruguay. Places we are intending to see are the Argentine cities of Cordoba and Rosario, the Bolivian salt flats (which are visible from space!), Bolivia's capital La Paz, Lake Titicaca, Cuzco, Lima, and Machu Pichu in Peru, and the Atacama desert in Chile. Very little is set in stone for now and there's a lot of little places in between, so the guys may completely disagree with everything I just said, but we're workin on it. It should be an amazing trip to say the least.
I've got a fun post lined up, but I have to cook some dinner now. Stay tuned!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Bariloche
And after that circus of a weekend, we're back. Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of Argentina's independence, so this whole weekend was one gigantic celebration. There were no classes Monday or Tuesday, so the parties stretched day and night from Thursday at noon until about 2am this morning. We went to some bars and clubs, had a few friends at our place, went to some friends' places, went to the Argentina vs. Canada soccer game (Argentina won 5-0), and went to the gigantic celebrations on 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world. Last night there was a crazy parade, the coolest one I've ever seen (it was created by the guy who produced the off-broadway shows De La Guarda and Fuerza Bruta). I honestly think the whole city came to see it, there was no end to the people. The floats consisted of people flying, giant burning objects also flying around, a gigantic snowglobe with tons of people and confetti in it, flying cars, and the best float imaginable- a traditional Argentine folkdance party, with an actual asado on it. I mean the people were having a blast dancing and singing to the music, in cool costumes, all the girls were super hot, they had a fire pit on one end with giant slabs of steak, chicken, and sausage cooking, giant jugs of wine, and a live band. It literally was just my dream party placed on a platform and towed through the city. They were even handing out food to people in the crowd. Best thing ever.
Now for Bariloche. Sorry if this is a long post, but we spent 5 days in Bariloche and I want to cover them all now. We met a lot of ex-pats from around the world who had told us they visited Bariloche once and decided to move there. If you have ever been there or ever do go, you'll understand why. Bariloche is a gorgeous ski-town in the middle of the Andes and a ton of lakes near the Chilean border of Argentina. The people are very laid back, extremely friendly, and love to have a good time. We arrived there around 1pm on Wednesday after our ridiculously long bus ride from Chalten. We headed immediately to the chocolate factory because Bariloche is famous for its chocolate. Afterward we just walked around exploring for a bit.
Thursday a few of the girls went paragliding while the rest of us relaxed in the hostel or did a little more exploring. Max, Madeleine, and I wanted to ride the alpine slide, but it was closed. Instead we hung out by the lake and found a cool cat too play with. Later, the guys, Laura, and I headed to a nearby go-kart track to do some good old fashion, American-style racing. The place had a loft with a really nice bar, tv's, couches, and more, where we had some beers while the guys prepared the karts. They were super fast and it was a fun track, so we had a blast. Max won and I took second, I choose to blame the weight disparity for that. The place even gave us a printed time-sheet with everybody's lap times, it was great. That night we played some games, went to a Mexican restaurant, then went to a bar and played some games with a few guys from England. Great day.
On Friday, Dave, Malcolm, Max, Hannah, Brenny, and I went paragliding. There are a few guys in Bariloche who are good friends and have their own private company, so we went with them. We drove for about an hour and a half south to a place called El Bolson to do it. We pulled up and parked in the front lawn of somebody's farm, and Max and Hannah hopped in the pickup truck with the guys and headed up the mountain. They flew down fairly quickly, then Dave and Malcolm went. They had great luck and caught some rising warm air columns which carried them so high that we almost couldn't see them. Malcolm got so high into the clouds that he has pictures of the other side of the mountain range, it was unbelievable. Brenny and I went last. We also had some good luck. Brenny got about as high as Malcolm and Dave, and I was up there too but not as far. Paragliding is so cool. You basically sit in a little chair and literally just float around wherever you want, looking for rising air columns so you can stay up as long as you want. Our rides were only about 30 minutes because there 6 of us that had to go, but that was enough because it was freezing that high in the air. I posted a bunch of pictures taken during my flight on my photo page. I'll try to find a way to post some videos too. Friday night we had a wine tasting party at the hostel with all the other guests. That was fun because we got to hang out with some cool people from all over the world.
Saturday was the guys' day out. We rented bicycles from a local place and headed off on Bariloche's famous "circuito chico". A few miles in, we got off our bikes and went for about an hour hike up a hill to our first incredible view of the day. We continued on and stopped at the magestic Hotel Llao Llao, which a few of the girls chose as their future wedding spot. If I could afford it, I'd probably agree (what a guy thought). We went a bit further and stopped at a little cove with a beach on the lake, where we saw a bunch of hawks or eagles or something. A bit further and we ran into trouble. While riding my bike through some woods earlier on, I had taken a small tumble and bent the derailer on my bike. After that it was making this weird clicking sound when I pedaled. Well on my way up a hill, the chain snapped. We were really far from town so I just walked/scooted the bike or Dave and Max would push me until I reached downhills which I would bomb at terrifying speeds. Eventually, we reached our haven- a microbrewery in the middle of the woods. We called the bike shop, and they sent a guy with a new bike for me. Meanwhile, we ate some good food and tasted the local brews (which included a pale ale- extremely rare in Argentina and my favorite kind). A few more miles and one gigantic hill later, we arrived at the most breathtaking view I have ever seen in my entire life (seen in the picture at the top of this page). For miles around you could see lakes and mountains and the Hotel Llao Llao right in the middle. And it was just as the sun had set behind the mountains directly in the middle, so the whole sky was light up bright orange (unfortunately my camera didn't capture the light very well). I literally wanted to stay there forever and just keep looking at it. Instead we went up some more hills until we arrived back at the rental shop. That night we went to dinner and hung out. Sunday we relaxed and then took the bus back to Buenos Aires, arriving about 16 hours later in Buenos Aires.
All in all, the trip was amazing. Fresh air, incredible views, physical activity, and no stress at all. I'd do it again in a second. Now go buy your plane tickets.
PS- Do you guys look at the links that I post inside these stories? I add them whenever I feel they could add something. Somebody other than my mother, please post a comment and let me know.
Now for Bariloche. Sorry if this is a long post, but we spent 5 days in Bariloche and I want to cover them all now. We met a lot of ex-pats from around the world who had told us they visited Bariloche once and decided to move there. If you have ever been there or ever do go, you'll understand why. Bariloche is a gorgeous ski-town in the middle of the Andes and a ton of lakes near the Chilean border of Argentina. The people are very laid back, extremely friendly, and love to have a good time. We arrived there around 1pm on Wednesday after our ridiculously long bus ride from Chalten. We headed immediately to the chocolate factory because Bariloche is famous for its chocolate. Afterward we just walked around exploring for a bit.
Thursday a few of the girls went paragliding while the rest of us relaxed in the hostel or did a little more exploring. Max, Madeleine, and I wanted to ride the alpine slide, but it was closed. Instead we hung out by the lake and found a cool cat too play with. Later, the guys, Laura, and I headed to a nearby go-kart track to do some good old fashion, American-style racing. The place had a loft with a really nice bar, tv's, couches, and more, where we had some beers while the guys prepared the karts. They were super fast and it was a fun track, so we had a blast. Max won and I took second, I choose to blame the weight disparity for that. The place even gave us a printed time-sheet with everybody's lap times, it was great. That night we played some games, went to a Mexican restaurant, then went to a bar and played some games with a few guys from England. Great day.
On Friday, Dave, Malcolm, Max, Hannah, Brenny, and I went paragliding. There are a few guys in Bariloche who are good friends and have their own private company, so we went with them. We drove for about an hour and a half south to a place called El Bolson to do it. We pulled up and parked in the front lawn of somebody's farm, and Max and Hannah hopped in the pickup truck with the guys and headed up the mountain. They flew down fairly quickly, then Dave and Malcolm went. They had great luck and caught some rising warm air columns which carried them so high that we almost couldn't see them. Malcolm got so high into the clouds that he has pictures of the other side of the mountain range, it was unbelievable. Brenny and I went last. We also had some good luck. Brenny got about as high as Malcolm and Dave, and I was up there too but not as far. Paragliding is so cool. You basically sit in a little chair and literally just float around wherever you want, looking for rising air columns so you can stay up as long as you want. Our rides were only about 30 minutes because there 6 of us that had to go, but that was enough because it was freezing that high in the air. I posted a bunch of pictures taken during my flight on my photo page. I'll try to find a way to post some videos too. Friday night we had a wine tasting party at the hostel with all the other guests. That was fun because we got to hang out with some cool people from all over the world.
Saturday was the guys' day out. We rented bicycles from a local place and headed off on Bariloche's famous "circuito chico". A few miles in, we got off our bikes and went for about an hour hike up a hill to our first incredible view of the day. We continued on and stopped at the magestic Hotel Llao Llao, which a few of the girls chose as their future wedding spot. If I could afford it, I'd probably agree (what a guy thought). We went a bit further and stopped at a little cove with a beach on the lake, where we saw a bunch of hawks or eagles or something. A bit further and we ran into trouble. While riding my bike through some woods earlier on, I had taken a small tumble and bent the derailer on my bike. After that it was making this weird clicking sound when I pedaled. Well on my way up a hill, the chain snapped. We were really far from town so I just walked/scooted the bike or Dave and Max would push me until I reached downhills which I would bomb at terrifying speeds. Eventually, we reached our haven- a microbrewery in the middle of the woods. We called the bike shop, and they sent a guy with a new bike for me. Meanwhile, we ate some good food and tasted the local brews (which included a pale ale- extremely rare in Argentina and my favorite kind). A few more miles and one gigantic hill later, we arrived at the most breathtaking view I have ever seen in my entire life (seen in the picture at the top of this page). For miles around you could see lakes and mountains and the Hotel Llao Llao right in the middle. And it was just as the sun had set behind the mountains directly in the middle, so the whole sky was light up bright orange (unfortunately my camera didn't capture the light very well). I literally wanted to stay there forever and just keep looking at it. Instead we went up some more hills until we arrived back at the rental shop. That night we went to dinner and hung out. Sunday we relaxed and then took the bus back to Buenos Aires, arriving about 16 hours later in Buenos Aires.
All in all, the trip was amazing. Fresh air, incredible views, physical activity, and no stress at all. I'd do it again in a second. Now go buy your plane tickets.
PS- Do you guys look at the links that I post inside these stories? I add them whenever I feel they could add something. Somebody other than my mother, please post a comment and let me know.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
El Chalten
After sleeping plenty on Saturday night, we headed off early Sunday morning to Chalten. It was about a 3 and a half hour ride through the barren land of Patagonia (there are plenty of mountains and lakes and stuff there, but a huge amount of this whole country is just empty desert) before we arrived in the quaint village of Chalten. We received a quick welcome at the Chalten visitors center, then checked into our hostel. After a quick run to the supermarket to grab lunch supplies, we headed off on a hike that we had chosen to do.
Chalten is the national hiking capital of Argentina, so the entire 200 person village is located at the center of all of the trails spidering out through the surrounding area. The hike we had chosen for Sunday was supposed to take us 3 hours to a lake at the end of a glacier in the mountains, a place called Laguna Torre, then 3 hours back. We headed out through some scattered brush and hills, through a valley between some massive mountains. After passing through fields, marshes, forests, and streams, we arrived at the huge basin of Laguna Torre. The lake is located at the base of some mountains, with a small glacier at one end of it. The air was super fresh and everything was absolutely gorgeous there. We took tons of pictures, ate lunch, and rested our legs for a bit before heading back towards Chalten. On the hike back we found some really cool gigantic woodpeckers on a tree, there's some pictures of them on my photo page. That night we were exhausted from the hike, so we just made some dinner in the hostel and took it easy.
On Monday we headed out early once again. This time, we had chosen a hike to a place called Laguna de los Tres. We were told it was significantly more difficult and longer than the first day, about 4 or 5 hours each way (we had actually done the first day in about an hour less time than predicted, but we were warned this one actually takes 8 or 9 hours). We left around 845am, before the sunrise because we were so far south. The first 45 minutes or so of the hike was super difficult with a lot of uphills and lingering sleepiness. Eventually things flattened out as we continued through more forest, streams, valleys, and marshes. About 2 hours in, we saw a huge mountain in the distance with a squiggly looking stripe going up it. Dave joked saying, "Hey guys, that's where this path ends up, straight up the mountain." We all laughed at how ridiculous that would be, and kept truckin onward.
Apparently, Dave was right. About 45 minutes to an hour later, we arrived at a little rest stop at the base of that mountain, a place for the courageous to refill their water bottles in a little stream and for the smart to turn around. The cool thing about Chalten is that it's very removed from any cities and all of its water is sourced from glaciers, so you can literally drink any water you see- waterfalls, streams, puddles, dew, or lakes- and it all tastes super cold, clean, and delicious. I didn't carry a waterbottle, so I would just kneel down and drink from whatever water was flowing past me at the moment. Anyway, after a quick rest we headed up the mountain. At first it was just an aggressively steep hike for about 20 minutes, then it turned into almost a full-out climb. The trail disappeared, and using our legs and hands to climb over boulders and huge rock piles, panting the entire time from exhaustion and altitude, we continued. After about an hour of climbing and literally almost passing out or falling off a cliff or 5, we reached the peak. But the peak had a little dip and then another peak on it. We tossed around the idea of stopping there, but decided we hadn't come that far for nothing.
As we crested the second peak, we caught our first glimpse of the coolest place ever. A blast of cold glacier air met us as we glared in disbelief at a huge lake situated in between several jagged mountain peaks. The water was unrealistically blue, 2 glaciers converged from opposite sides of the lake, massive teeth-like rocks towered over us, and the snow-capped peaks just higher than us gleamed in the sunlight. We sat and ate lunch next to the lake, discussing how incredible the place was (we concluded that the words I'm using right now to describe the place with are 100% inadequate, and you can't begin to grasp how breathtaking it is until you're there). Dave saw a trail running around the lake, so he went to explore. A minute later he was screaming for us to come over. As we approached, the sound of water flowing grew louder, and the reality of a several-hundred-foot cliff slowed us a bit. The lake was pouring over the cliff creating a massive waterfall, which then flowed down to a second, even larger lake a few hundred feet below. My pictures really don't capture any of this unfortunately, but I can assure that I have never even dreamed of a place as massive, isolated, and peaceful as this was.
We needed to catch a bus that evening, so we started climbing back down the mountain. A few hours later we arrived at our hostel, where I downed some Advil for my knees and ankles. We took the bus back to Calafate (Argentina's famous Route 40 is closed in the south during the winter, so we couldn't go anywhere except Calafate from Chalten) and hung out at a hostel for a few hours. Our 34-hour bus ride (yes 34, as in thirty-four) to Bariloche left at 3am, so we had a few drinks for Max's 21st birthday to get us feeling nice and relaxed before we boarded. After a day and a half on the bus we arrived in the magical town of Bariloche. Highlights of that story include chocolate factories, go-karts, paragliding, bicycles, and kittens, so stay tuned. Click here for pictures!
Chalten is the national hiking capital of Argentina, so the entire 200 person village is located at the center of all of the trails spidering out through the surrounding area. The hike we had chosen for Sunday was supposed to take us 3 hours to a lake at the end of a glacier in the mountains, a place called Laguna Torre, then 3 hours back. We headed out through some scattered brush and hills, through a valley between some massive mountains. After passing through fields, marshes, forests, and streams, we arrived at the huge basin of Laguna Torre. The lake is located at the base of some mountains, with a small glacier at one end of it. The air was super fresh and everything was absolutely gorgeous there. We took tons of pictures, ate lunch, and rested our legs for a bit before heading back towards Chalten. On the hike back we found some really cool gigantic woodpeckers on a tree, there's some pictures of them on my photo page. That night we were exhausted from the hike, so we just made some dinner in the hostel and took it easy.
On Monday we headed out early once again. This time, we had chosen a hike to a place called Laguna de los Tres. We were told it was significantly more difficult and longer than the first day, about 4 or 5 hours each way (we had actually done the first day in about an hour less time than predicted, but we were warned this one actually takes 8 or 9 hours). We left around 845am, before the sunrise because we were so far south. The first 45 minutes or so of the hike was super difficult with a lot of uphills and lingering sleepiness. Eventually things flattened out as we continued through more forest, streams, valleys, and marshes. About 2 hours in, we saw a huge mountain in the distance with a squiggly looking stripe going up it. Dave joked saying, "Hey guys, that's where this path ends up, straight up the mountain." We all laughed at how ridiculous that would be, and kept truckin onward.
Apparently, Dave was right. About 45 minutes to an hour later, we arrived at a little rest stop at the base of that mountain, a place for the courageous to refill their water bottles in a little stream and for the smart to turn around. The cool thing about Chalten is that it's very removed from any cities and all of its water is sourced from glaciers, so you can literally drink any water you see- waterfalls, streams, puddles, dew, or lakes- and it all tastes super cold, clean, and delicious. I didn't carry a waterbottle, so I would just kneel down and drink from whatever water was flowing past me at the moment. Anyway, after a quick rest we headed up the mountain. At first it was just an aggressively steep hike for about 20 minutes, then it turned into almost a full-out climb. The trail disappeared, and using our legs and hands to climb over boulders and huge rock piles, panting the entire time from exhaustion and altitude, we continued. After about an hour of climbing and literally almost passing out or falling off a cliff or 5, we reached the peak. But the peak had a little dip and then another peak on it. We tossed around the idea of stopping there, but decided we hadn't come that far for nothing.
As we crested the second peak, we caught our first glimpse of the coolest place ever. A blast of cold glacier air met us as we glared in disbelief at a huge lake situated in between several jagged mountain peaks. The water was unrealistically blue, 2 glaciers converged from opposite sides of the lake, massive teeth-like rocks towered over us, and the snow-capped peaks just higher than us gleamed in the sunlight. We sat and ate lunch next to the lake, discussing how incredible the place was (we concluded that the words I'm using right now to describe the place with are 100% inadequate, and you can't begin to grasp how breathtaking it is until you're there). Dave saw a trail running around the lake, so he went to explore. A minute later he was screaming for us to come over. As we approached, the sound of water flowing grew louder, and the reality of a several-hundred-foot cliff slowed us a bit. The lake was pouring over the cliff creating a massive waterfall, which then flowed down to a second, even larger lake a few hundred feet below. My pictures really don't capture any of this unfortunately, but I can assure that I have never even dreamed of a place as massive, isolated, and peaceful as this was.
We needed to catch a bus that evening, so we started climbing back down the mountain. A few hours later we arrived at our hostel, where I downed some Advil for my knees and ankles. We took the bus back to Calafate (Argentina's famous Route 40 is closed in the south during the winter, so we couldn't go anywhere except Calafate from Chalten) and hung out at a hostel for a few hours. Our 34-hour bus ride (yes 34, as in thirty-four) to Bariloche left at 3am, so we had a few drinks for Max's 21st birthday to get us feeling nice and relaxed before we boarded. After a day and a half on the bus we arrived in the magical town of Bariloche. Highlights of that story include chocolate factories, go-karts, paragliding, bicycles, and kittens, so stay tuned. Click here for pictures!
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