Cuzco ended up awesome. We stayed Friday night so we would be able to travel relaxed after Machu Picchu, and I wanted to get some nightlife back in my life, and Cuzco turned out to be the perfect place for that. Kenj and I went out for dinner, she got tired and I was itching to do something, so I went to the bar we had previously visited and there were a few more people, so I sat down for a drink. Before I finished my beer, this guy came over and invited me out with his friends because they were going to a different bar. Just the kind of thing I was hoping for! So we went to this place off the Plaza de Armas, which is not only the main square of the city, framed by 2 cathedrals and colonial architecture, but becomes a zombie haven after dusk. Drunk tourists turn into zombies after a few drinks under a full moon, in case you weren´t aware. So we had a drink in this nice little place and chatted for a while, and his friends were really funny. One chick got pretty drunk and kept mentioning that she´s an attorney, and everyone kept making fun of her because she doesn´t really work, she sits in her house all day. Good company, good drinks, then we got up because the group had this collective antsy-ness that made us move on quick. We walked to the other side of the plaza which is full of dancing places, too small to be clubs, but playing music too loud for it to be considered a bar. Thennnnnn all of a sudden the streets exploded with madness, people kicking, screaming, pulling hair, punching... This one guy opened the passenger door to a police car, held on to the roof of the car and started kicking the cop in the face. Then a few more cops showed up, tried to calm everyone down, I waited for tear gas to start flying because it was like a scene from a zombie movie, like a real mob, but then the cops left and never came back. Eventually the people stopped fighting and the night continued, more or less. The thing is, it was other tourists fighting, what´s up with people on vacation fighting each other?? It´s vacation! Must have been the moon. Anyway, the crew I was with decided they´d had enough and went home, but it was still too early for me.
I walked away from the Plaza de Armas and stumbled upon a little street that I hadn´t noticed before, but I could hear music from around the corner, and found myself in another little hub of bars and clubs, no zombies here though, just my luck. So I was really just meandering, listening to everyone yelling at me to come into the club (they hire people just to do that at clubs, restaurants, massage parlors, everywhere) and one kid caught my attention, I don´t really know why. His name is Germán anyway. So I went over and talked to him for a second, wiped my dripping nose (it´s cold) and he thought I was asking for cocaine. He told me he didn´t have any but could help. It was funny because that´s not what I was doing, but I guess I was sort of giving that universal signal. He was a really nice guy anyway, we talked for a while and whatever. Next day we hung out, he took Kenj and I to this great restaurant and he showed us some awesome Cusco things. He´s an artist, so naturally has some hippie friends, one of which makes artesenal woven things and sells them in the street. This kid was hilarious and a hell of a nice guy who had too much love in his heart for his own good, and it was actually touching because he really meant it. Then we went and drank Chicha with them at this other awesome place. Chicha, the Cuzco variety, when stripped down to its essence, is a fermented corn drink. It´s foamy and a little bubbly thanks to the fermentation, tastes just like fermented corn, and is supposed to be really good for your system. They serve it in glasses that must hold a liter and a half and require two hands to drink from. Germán hung out with us the rest of the day, gave me one of his drawings for a keepsake, then we parted ways to catch our bus to Arequipa. I really love traveling and meeting new people all the time, but it´s starting to wear me out saying hello and goodbye in the same twenty-four hour time-span. I really hate saying goodbye!
We got into Arequipa this morning an hour and a half early, after almost missing the bus as it pulled out a while before it was supposed to, then they made us feel like assholes for holding everyone up. Things rarely happen early here, so it came as a shock. Anyway, got in to Arequipa, found a hostel by 6 so we dropped our stuff, found an Argentinian guy that was coming home from his Saturday night out, and hung out til breakfast was served. Another really nice hostel, with breakfast included in the price and HOT water. Met these characters at breakfast...well the one has enough character to outweigh the blah-ness of his friend, and sort of set off with them to sight see. The city´s beautiful, got a little taste of it, then went to see this museum that holds a mummy that was found on a volcano in 95, the last time it erupted. This mummy had been frozen since it was sacrificed by the Incas, so it was in nearly perfect condition when they found it as the eruption melted the ice at the peak. Fascinating. They speculate the Incas sacrificed around 500 bodies every major ceremony, and this was normally done on mountain peaks or volcanoes for spiritual reasons. As the earth is warming up, the ice on these peaks is melting, so they´re finding more stuff like this these days. Looking on the bright side of global warming, archeologists should have plenty of work in this continent.
So that was awesome, I have never learned so much from a museum, and it was thanks to a great guide. The guide then recomended us a place to eat, but told us it was where she brings all her tourists. Red flag, we didn´t really have to desire to over pay for shitty food. So we fell back to the usual MO, went to the central market, and I got ceviche again, along with this stuffed pepper, roasted with ground beef, spices, and cheese. We were just talking, the four of us, and this lady sitting with her daughter interjected as we brought up wanting to eat cuy, a regional specialty more associated with Ecuadorian cuisine, but familiar here as well. So this lady was like, you´re crazy to pay so much for it in a restaurant, why don´t we go buy some, you guys come over, and I´ll cook it. We raced around the market, buying fruits and vegetables, cuy, and crammed in a cab to her house. Overjoyed to have found someone local so quickly, Kenj and I were all smiles in the cab on the way there. So we got to the house, chopped, cleaned, and chatted for a few hours, then lunch/dinner was ready. I haven´t had a big Sunday meal in a while so it really hit the spot. Oh yeah, so maybe some of you had a little cuy as a pet as a kid, but I tore it apart tonight...it´s guinea pig. Prepared simply enough, with salt and lime juice, then fried, there´s not a ton of meat on the little guy, but the crispy skin makes it all worth it. Then we had a couple huge salads comprised of these massive, creamy avocados that were really different than what grows in Mexico or California, or the kind that Dominicans eat for that matter. So that was exciting. The other two guys left a little early because the one didn´t feel well. Turns out he went to the hospital and ends up having eaten something toxic that´s rotting his stomach... he´s gonna be fine though, he got some medicine. We stayed, washed dishes and shot the shit with Mari for a couple hours more and had a great time kicking it, practicing the Spanish a little more. Such a great time with such a warm, welcoming, open-minded Catholic middle-aged woman. Annnnnnnd, next time I eat Sunday dinner it´s gonna be with my own family! Pretty excited about that, actually. Like I said, as much as I love meeting new people all the time, I´m sick of goodbyes, and I actually miss some stuff back home! Guess I got summoned for Jury Duty in New York, which I´ll have to work out. Lucky for me, I´m out of the country, HA! Feel like it´s going to be complicated anyway though.
So tomorrow we go to Lima, to stay in Kendra´s Aunt´s neighbor´s husband´s aparment in Miraflores. How exciting. I hope we have some sunny weather that´s warm enough to hang out at the beach a little bit!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Cheap Transportation Alternative from Cuzco to Machu Picchu!!!
This is for the backpackers that are desperately searching for some way to get there without paying the outrageous PeruRail prices. Doesn´t help with the admission fees to the site itself, but hopefully someone will find this while they´re freaking out like I was.
You can get transportation from near Avenida de Sol in Cuzco. Start walking down, away from Plaza de Armas, and ask people because they know where these buses stop. It should cost 5 Soles but the drivers sometimes try to charge you up to 70. Don´t let them screw you! That takes you to Ollantaytambo. That´s where the train to MP stopped before the mudslides, but take another bus from the terminal there to KM82 which is another couple soles. Make sure you get there, it´s important. Then walk along the tracks to Aguas Calientes, which falls at around km 112. It´s quite a hike, and always along train tracks which get uncomfortable, but you can save about U$ 75! If you get nervous, just ask the guard at the station if you can walk along the tracks a little, he told me, ´of course!´ really nicely.
You can get transportation from near Avenida de Sol in Cuzco. Start walking down, away from Plaza de Armas, and ask people because they know where these buses stop. It should cost 5 Soles but the drivers sometimes try to charge you up to 70. Don´t let them screw you! That takes you to Ollantaytambo. That´s where the train to MP stopped before the mudslides, but take another bus from the terminal there to KM82 which is another couple soles. Make sure you get there, it´s important. Then walk along the tracks to Aguas Calientes, which falls at around km 112. It´s quite a hike, and always along train tracks which get uncomfortable, but you can save about U$ 75! If you get nervous, just ask the guard at the station if you can walk along the tracks a little, he told me, ´of course!´ really nicely.
Epic Feats and whatnot
Man oh man, where to start. I´ve been out of the reach of broadband for the past few days again, and for a good reason again. I´ll start at the beginning, I guess, as most stories tend to do.
Tuesday we took a bus about 8 km out from Cuzco and walked through a bunch of archeological sites on the way back. It was really cool, a nice day with perfect weather for walking. Along the way, we met a dog friend and named him Brahma. Brahma´s the beer I drank all through Brazil and Argentina, and the slogan is ´Brahma, Buena Onda´ which basically translates to good vibes, but not quite. I don´t know exactly how to say it but anyway. So this dog was a goofball and I shared my lunch with him, he led us along a horse path to some ruins, then we followed him along this other path trying to find another site. We ran into some mean dogs going that way, and Brahma was just really chill, and basically let us know it wasn´t worth it to pass because those dogs were nasty. He just turned and walked away. But he stayed with us all day until the last ruin, and he was dead tired. Every time we stopped, he would lay down and fall asleep. Every time we left though, he would come chasing after us, to the point that I was worried he´d lose his way home. Finally he realized he had to leave, and it was a sad goodbye, but he was a great companion for the day. Everyone else loved him too. He came and saw all the ruins with us, bounding around old Inca rocks and trying to get other people to feed him... too cute. He did try to bite me though, when I tried to pull some spikey things out of his leg, but I didn´t blame him, he didn´t know any better.
So then we went out on Tuesday night, had an awesome dinner and looked into how exactly we were to get to Machu Picchu. Turned out to be a LOT more complicated than I had thought. First of all, the prices to enter have doubled since whatever we read was researched. Then even getting there is a disaster. It´s insanely expensive to take the advertised transportation to the stupid town of Aguas Calientes, the place you have to go to get to MP. But when something sounds ridiculous, sometimes it is. We paid the equivalent of a couple dollars (rather than around $40) to get to the halfway point. After a little talking with locals, we were told that from there, you can walk along the train tracks no problem. So that´s what we did. That saved us about $75. We started walking from the town, Ollantaytambo, first through some farmland, past bulls, through grain, across irrigation ditches, etc. The scenery, first off, is stunning. The valley is really deep, and the mountains surrounding us were just... monumental, amazingly huge and beautiful. We eventually made our way to the tracks, snapped a few pictures to document our excitement, and carried on because we knew we had about 30 kilometers to walk, and didn´t want to be doing so in the dark. So we walked and walked, along the tracks, and after about an hour, my feet felt pretty hammered thanks to the pebbles that line train tracks. And to give you an idea of my hiking gear, I have one of those silly llama backpacks I bought in Bolivia for a couple bucks, shoes with the Adidas label, but they´re actually called Adalid because they´re knockoffs from Argentina, then jeans and a wool sweater... and it was raining. I´m a huge baby about the rain, then the fact that I was wearing wool made me even more of a baby. The walk was really easy anyway though, mostly flat, and the scenery, breathtaking to the point that it made me stop a few times just to stare. After a while, it looked like scenes from Jurassic Park-huge mountains covered with brilliantly green trees, cacti, sheer rock faces, and the rushing water of the Rio Urubamba hundreds of feet below us. At the start, we passed the KM 68 marker and were a little apprehensive considering Aguas Calientes was at KM 104 or something like that. No one gives you a real map because I think they want to keep it a secret how you get to the town in order to keep the ridiculously high prices. So we set off with a good idea of what we were getting ourselves into.
Around KM 78 we got pretty hungry and stopped for lunch. At that point, we went over what we had been told the day before, and that was to make sure to take the bus to KM82, then walk. So we had added about 13 extra kilometers to the walk at that point. We got to the provisional train station at KM82, which was built recently since the mudslide of a few months ago literaly wiped the tracks into the river. We got to see that first hand on the first 13km of our walk. We were worried that the train people would tell us we weren´t allowed to walk along the tracks, so we tried to sneak around the train station, but the geographic setting sort of makes that impossible unless you can fly. We tried anyway, by scaling this massive mountain side, passing more bulls again, and barely stopping to appreciate how amazingly beautiful everything around us was. But in the end, we just walked back down, I asked the guard if we could walk along the tracks a little bit, and he said of course. So then we kept on trucking. After a certain point, my joints started hurting like crazy and every time we stopped for a rest, it got worse. So Kenj and I both agreed, without actually speaking it, to stop resting. Around KM 90 I think I had thoughts of death running through my mind. I don´t think it would have been quite so bad if we hadn´t been walking on slippery pebbles, but it was rough! Totally worth it though, we just kept thinking about how much money we were saving. Then around km99 we saw some guys with some 2x4s nailed on top of some train wheels, trying to get enough momentum to carry them down the slight descent in the same direction we were trying to go. They told us to hop on. They had a machete and a smaller knife because they appeared to have been cutting some weedy stuff in the jungle beyond the tracks. Despite the tools/weapons, I didn´t care if they killed me, I just wanted to get on some wheels and give my legs a rest, but they didn´t really build their little mobile thing well and we kept derailing. From them, we learned that we had about 2 hours more to Aguas Calientes, and it was already getting dark. When they couldn´t get us anywhere fast, we decided to just walk, FAST. The guys were really nice anyway though.
So then there we were, in the middle of the jungle, in the bottom of a valley, beneath thick clouds, with night tightening its grip on us. Anyone who knows me knows I haven´t really spent too much time in the great outdoors, as great as I think it all is. Not to say I was scared, just saying if something like a Puma or a snake or a nasty spider had jumped out at me, I wouldn´t be sitting here chronicling the story right now. At a point, I was waiting for the joints in my legs to just snap and leave me there stranded. I wondered if anyone ever died from walking at my age, and wondered if, at my age, this feeling was normal. Then it was basically pitch dark and all I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. I stumbled, I heard Kendra stumble behind me, and no breath was wasted by talking. For a while we saw some lights illuminating the clouds, and assumed that it must be the town because there is literally nothing else in this valley. Once we actually saw the lights, we got really elated, picked up the pace a little, and came to a bridge! It was a dam. Bummer. Keep going, forget about the pain, forget about dying, hunger, thirst, all that. Just go!
There´s more to tell, but obviously we made it to the town, and suffering is only interesting when you´re in the middle of it, not writing about it. So yeah, we stumbled into the first hostel we found, Kendra sounded like she wanted to shop around for a price, and I wasn´t having it, so we put our bags down, I laid down in bed, and passed out. No dinner, no nothing. Laying down didn´t even feel good, my legs were throbbing! Oh yeah, I fell into an uncovered sewer ditch before that, but it wasn´t deep. Pissed me off a little bit though.
So the next morning, we woke up at 6 and went to the ticket office, which is where we realized they had doubled the price. I mean, damn Peru. They didn´t even build this thing, it was there before Peru was Peru, but they still charge us so much for it! So we paid for the ticket. Then went to buy bus tickets and for whatever godforsaken reason, the bus station lists prices in dollars instead of the local currency. This is the only place that does this. So we hand over the already expensive 14 soles to the lady, and she looks at us and says ´no, it´s 40 soles, 14 dollars´. Kendra gave her some sass and so did I. We then realized that if we had eaten dinner the night before we wouldn´t have had enough money to make it to Machu Picchu because neither of us could withdraw cash in that town. So I paid 40 soles in as many coins as I could, halfway to be a pain in the ass, but halfway to drop some weight. Got on the bus, then the lady chased me down and said, or yelled rather, to the bus that I short-changed her. Went back, taught her how to count really quick, gave her a really aggravated look with maybe a little too much attitude and threw my hands in the air like a little biatch, then got on the bus. As soon as we got to the top of the hill, the attitude dropped and even though both of us had legs as stiff as a WASP-y dinner party, we enjoyed the hell out of Machu Picchu. How could you not.
First of all, the ruins really are fascinating. No one knows what exactly the purpose of the place was, so it´s all speculation. The town itself is really cool, but there are a ton of hikes around it that you can do, so we climbed around mountains a little bit for some better views. It´s amazing because the place is completely hidden..the way it´s situated on this mountain you would never find it if you were looking for it from below. Maybe that´s why it wasn´t rediscovered until 1911. The huge mountains and deep valley around it make it a truly amazing site to take in even if you aren´t into old archeological stuff, and the plants and animals all around are really incredible too. Big lizards, these things that look like rabbits but have raccoon tails, and llamas/alpacas are everywhere. There are massive orchids growing out of the side of the mountain, humming birds, cactus with fruits, tropical looking trees... amazing. Then the trails that link all the little sites to each other are amazing, and it´s impressive people don´t die following them because they´re narrow! Even from thousands of feet up, you can still hear the rushing water of the river below, and you´re not really restricted from too many areas within the site so even though there are a lot of other tourists around, you can still find a way to sneak off for some quiet spot to admire from. So that´swhat Kenj and I did after a while, and I took a little nap.
We got back down, decided that it was worth it to pay for a train ticket rather tahn walk again, and crossed or fingers that we could pay with a credit card. We could, so we booked it and were happy happy happy. Then we read about this restaurant in our lonely planet book, which has totally sucked so far, but was finally dead on about something. This place was sooo damn good! A great 3 course dinner, nice bottle of wine, and a few long hours later, we were fat and happy, had seen Machu Picchu, knew we had a train home the next day... it felt really good. We found out this morning, boarding the train, that all in all, we walked 50 km yesterday. That´s 30 miles.
So now we´re back in Cuzco, taking it easy. We´ll chill out and eat tonight, and they have a lot of good happy hours here, so I think it´s time to treat ourselvesa little. Then we´ll go out and see what goes down in Cuzco on Friday night... hopefully I´ll get what I´m looking for. We tried this place that was up my alley on Monday but it was dead, and they told us to come back on a real night and there would be people there. Then we head to Arequipa tomorrow night on an overnight bus, hopefully see some canyons and stuff, then on to my final destination on this continent, Lima. Thanks Pops for helping me out and making it possible to enter my country again without any trouble. Sometimes I feel like an Easter Egg you find in October.... spoiled rotten.
Tuesday we took a bus about 8 km out from Cuzco and walked through a bunch of archeological sites on the way back. It was really cool, a nice day with perfect weather for walking. Along the way, we met a dog friend and named him Brahma. Brahma´s the beer I drank all through Brazil and Argentina, and the slogan is ´Brahma, Buena Onda´ which basically translates to good vibes, but not quite. I don´t know exactly how to say it but anyway. So this dog was a goofball and I shared my lunch with him, he led us along a horse path to some ruins, then we followed him along this other path trying to find another site. We ran into some mean dogs going that way, and Brahma was just really chill, and basically let us know it wasn´t worth it to pass because those dogs were nasty. He just turned and walked away. But he stayed with us all day until the last ruin, and he was dead tired. Every time we stopped, he would lay down and fall asleep. Every time we left though, he would come chasing after us, to the point that I was worried he´d lose his way home. Finally he realized he had to leave, and it was a sad goodbye, but he was a great companion for the day. Everyone else loved him too. He came and saw all the ruins with us, bounding around old Inca rocks and trying to get other people to feed him... too cute. He did try to bite me though, when I tried to pull some spikey things out of his leg, but I didn´t blame him, he didn´t know any better.
So then we went out on Tuesday night, had an awesome dinner and looked into how exactly we were to get to Machu Picchu. Turned out to be a LOT more complicated than I had thought. First of all, the prices to enter have doubled since whatever we read was researched. Then even getting there is a disaster. It´s insanely expensive to take the advertised transportation to the stupid town of Aguas Calientes, the place you have to go to get to MP. But when something sounds ridiculous, sometimes it is. We paid the equivalent of a couple dollars (rather than around $40) to get to the halfway point. After a little talking with locals, we were told that from there, you can walk along the train tracks no problem. So that´s what we did. That saved us about $75. We started walking from the town, Ollantaytambo, first through some farmland, past bulls, through grain, across irrigation ditches, etc. The scenery, first off, is stunning. The valley is really deep, and the mountains surrounding us were just... monumental, amazingly huge and beautiful. We eventually made our way to the tracks, snapped a few pictures to document our excitement, and carried on because we knew we had about 30 kilometers to walk, and didn´t want to be doing so in the dark. So we walked and walked, along the tracks, and after about an hour, my feet felt pretty hammered thanks to the pebbles that line train tracks. And to give you an idea of my hiking gear, I have one of those silly llama backpacks I bought in Bolivia for a couple bucks, shoes with the Adidas label, but they´re actually called Adalid because they´re knockoffs from Argentina, then jeans and a wool sweater... and it was raining. I´m a huge baby about the rain, then the fact that I was wearing wool made me even more of a baby. The walk was really easy anyway though, mostly flat, and the scenery, breathtaking to the point that it made me stop a few times just to stare. After a while, it looked like scenes from Jurassic Park-huge mountains covered with brilliantly green trees, cacti, sheer rock faces, and the rushing water of the Rio Urubamba hundreds of feet below us. At the start, we passed the KM 68 marker and were a little apprehensive considering Aguas Calientes was at KM 104 or something like that. No one gives you a real map because I think they want to keep it a secret how you get to the town in order to keep the ridiculously high prices. So we set off with a good idea of what we were getting ourselves into.
Around KM 78 we got pretty hungry and stopped for lunch. At that point, we went over what we had been told the day before, and that was to make sure to take the bus to KM82, then walk. So we had added about 13 extra kilometers to the walk at that point. We got to the provisional train station at KM82, which was built recently since the mudslide of a few months ago literaly wiped the tracks into the river. We got to see that first hand on the first 13km of our walk. We were worried that the train people would tell us we weren´t allowed to walk along the tracks, so we tried to sneak around the train station, but the geographic setting sort of makes that impossible unless you can fly. We tried anyway, by scaling this massive mountain side, passing more bulls again, and barely stopping to appreciate how amazingly beautiful everything around us was. But in the end, we just walked back down, I asked the guard if we could walk along the tracks a little bit, and he said of course. So then we kept on trucking. After a certain point, my joints started hurting like crazy and every time we stopped for a rest, it got worse. So Kenj and I both agreed, without actually speaking it, to stop resting. Around KM 90 I think I had thoughts of death running through my mind. I don´t think it would have been quite so bad if we hadn´t been walking on slippery pebbles, but it was rough! Totally worth it though, we just kept thinking about how much money we were saving. Then around km99 we saw some guys with some 2x4s nailed on top of some train wheels, trying to get enough momentum to carry them down the slight descent in the same direction we were trying to go. They told us to hop on. They had a machete and a smaller knife because they appeared to have been cutting some weedy stuff in the jungle beyond the tracks. Despite the tools/weapons, I didn´t care if they killed me, I just wanted to get on some wheels and give my legs a rest, but they didn´t really build their little mobile thing well and we kept derailing. From them, we learned that we had about 2 hours more to Aguas Calientes, and it was already getting dark. When they couldn´t get us anywhere fast, we decided to just walk, FAST. The guys were really nice anyway though.
So then there we were, in the middle of the jungle, in the bottom of a valley, beneath thick clouds, with night tightening its grip on us. Anyone who knows me knows I haven´t really spent too much time in the great outdoors, as great as I think it all is. Not to say I was scared, just saying if something like a Puma or a snake or a nasty spider had jumped out at me, I wouldn´t be sitting here chronicling the story right now. At a point, I was waiting for the joints in my legs to just snap and leave me there stranded. I wondered if anyone ever died from walking at my age, and wondered if, at my age, this feeling was normal. Then it was basically pitch dark and all I could do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. I stumbled, I heard Kendra stumble behind me, and no breath was wasted by talking. For a while we saw some lights illuminating the clouds, and assumed that it must be the town because there is literally nothing else in this valley. Once we actually saw the lights, we got really elated, picked up the pace a little, and came to a bridge! It was a dam. Bummer. Keep going, forget about the pain, forget about dying, hunger, thirst, all that. Just go!
There´s more to tell, but obviously we made it to the town, and suffering is only interesting when you´re in the middle of it, not writing about it. So yeah, we stumbled into the first hostel we found, Kendra sounded like she wanted to shop around for a price, and I wasn´t having it, so we put our bags down, I laid down in bed, and passed out. No dinner, no nothing. Laying down didn´t even feel good, my legs were throbbing! Oh yeah, I fell into an uncovered sewer ditch before that, but it wasn´t deep. Pissed me off a little bit though.
So the next morning, we woke up at 6 and went to the ticket office, which is where we realized they had doubled the price. I mean, damn Peru. They didn´t even build this thing, it was there before Peru was Peru, but they still charge us so much for it! So we paid for the ticket. Then went to buy bus tickets and for whatever godforsaken reason, the bus station lists prices in dollars instead of the local currency. This is the only place that does this. So we hand over the already expensive 14 soles to the lady, and she looks at us and says ´no, it´s 40 soles, 14 dollars´. Kendra gave her some sass and so did I. We then realized that if we had eaten dinner the night before we wouldn´t have had enough money to make it to Machu Picchu because neither of us could withdraw cash in that town. So I paid 40 soles in as many coins as I could, halfway to be a pain in the ass, but halfway to drop some weight. Got on the bus, then the lady chased me down and said, or yelled rather, to the bus that I short-changed her. Went back, taught her how to count really quick, gave her a really aggravated look with maybe a little too much attitude and threw my hands in the air like a little biatch, then got on the bus. As soon as we got to the top of the hill, the attitude dropped and even though both of us had legs as stiff as a WASP-y dinner party, we enjoyed the hell out of Machu Picchu. How could you not.
First of all, the ruins really are fascinating. No one knows what exactly the purpose of the place was, so it´s all speculation. The town itself is really cool, but there are a ton of hikes around it that you can do, so we climbed around mountains a little bit for some better views. It´s amazing because the place is completely hidden..the way it´s situated on this mountain you would never find it if you were looking for it from below. Maybe that´s why it wasn´t rediscovered until 1911. The huge mountains and deep valley around it make it a truly amazing site to take in even if you aren´t into old archeological stuff, and the plants and animals all around are really incredible too. Big lizards, these things that look like rabbits but have raccoon tails, and llamas/alpacas are everywhere. There are massive orchids growing out of the side of the mountain, humming birds, cactus with fruits, tropical looking trees... amazing. Then the trails that link all the little sites to each other are amazing, and it´s impressive people don´t die following them because they´re narrow! Even from thousands of feet up, you can still hear the rushing water of the river below, and you´re not really restricted from too many areas within the site so even though there are a lot of other tourists around, you can still find a way to sneak off for some quiet spot to admire from. So that´swhat Kenj and I did after a while, and I took a little nap.
We got back down, decided that it was worth it to pay for a train ticket rather tahn walk again, and crossed or fingers that we could pay with a credit card. We could, so we booked it and were happy happy happy. Then we read about this restaurant in our lonely planet book, which has totally sucked so far, but was finally dead on about something. This place was sooo damn good! A great 3 course dinner, nice bottle of wine, and a few long hours later, we were fat and happy, had seen Machu Picchu, knew we had a train home the next day... it felt really good. We found out this morning, boarding the train, that all in all, we walked 50 km yesterday. That´s 30 miles.
So now we´re back in Cuzco, taking it easy. We´ll chill out and eat tonight, and they have a lot of good happy hours here, so I think it´s time to treat ourselvesa little. Then we´ll go out and see what goes down in Cuzco on Friday night... hopefully I´ll get what I´m looking for. We tried this place that was up my alley on Monday but it was dead, and they told us to come back on a real night and there would be people there. Then we head to Arequipa tomorrow night on an overnight bus, hopefully see some canyons and stuff, then on to my final destination on this continent, Lima. Thanks Pops for helping me out and making it possible to enter my country again without any trouble. Sometimes I feel like an Easter Egg you find in October.... spoiled rotten.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Alrighty then
Finally I´m here, the place that books say myth and fact intertwine, where the history of one civilization is built atop the one that came before it...I´m in Peru! The guy at the border almost didn´t want to let me across because of my provisional passport, but I just stood there long enough for him to decide that it was legit. The last couple days in Bolivia were awesome, and beautiful of course. We went from La Paz to Copacabana, and spent a night there. Copacabana was a little bit reminiscent of the town in Puebla where I got haunted, no joke, and the central square near the cathedral totally spooked me out. Won´t dwell on it, but there was definitely something going on there, and I didn´t like it. So Kenj and I walked around the town for a while, got to the outskirts, and hopped along these pretty huge rocks along the water´s edge for a couple hours. We saw some really ugly hogs that sounded like they wanted to eat us, walked past some houses and felt weird, like we were walking through someone´s back yard, until everyone smiled and said hello. People in Bolivia were really something. So anyway, we had to chase the sunset because I was thinking we could loop all the way around on these rocks and make it back to the docks of the town, but instead there was a cliff face and we had to run back before darkness fell and who knows what kind of boogie men would have come out.
Next day we woke up early to do this hike we had read about. We brought all our bags because the hike would have us end up in this other town with docks, from which we could get to the islands in the middle of the lake. The hike was 17 km, so like 10 miles or something, and there were a lot of hills and rocks and gravel to walk over, eucalyptus groves, and cliffs, plus we both had our two bags. The scenery rocked, just like the book said, and we were both pretty obsessed with ourselves for making it with the luggage. We met a couple girls from Denver, and took a boat to the Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, with them. First off, the island was a draw for both me and Kendra because, in Inca mythology, it is the site of creation, and the birthplace of the sun. There are some ruins there, which we didn´t see because we´re goofballs, but being there was cool. It´s a decent sized island with a population of around 5,000, no cars, only gravel or cobblestone paths. Donkeys do the heavy lifting because the island is basically the peak of a mountain poking out from the lake... it´s steep! All around the island were those awesome-looking terraces, made from rock walls with no mortar. Hope you know what I´m talking about, otherwise I´ll just have to show you the pictures. The real treat though, was just the lake surrounding us with amazingly blue water, the snowy mountain tops in the distance, and the sunset with a few beers, from the top of this mountainous, mythical island at the end of the day. Perfect! Then we slowly made our way to Puno, Peru the next day. Border crossing, like I said, was pretty uneventful, and from Puno, we took a quick little tour to the Islas Flotantes, Floating Islands. I guess people have lived on these man-made floating islands for centuries. It started out as a means of defense against the Incas and other agressors but now they still live there, and it´s become really touristy. It was interesting anyway, to be walking around on them and seeing all their reed houses and reed boats and reed handicrafts. Everything was made from reeds except for the people.
And now I´m in Cuzco. I woke up this morning a little grouchy. We got here on the bus last night at 4am, got a hostel through this guy making rounds at the bus station, and even though we sorted mostly everything out (money-wise) before we passed out, I was still ready to get ripped off, thanks to what I´ve heard about Peru. So far, so good. But anyway, the mood passed before I even showered, when I went outside to grab an OJ from the guy across the street and stood there a minute to take in the scenery from the street outside the hostel, and appreciate the fact that SHIT, I´m in Cuzco! The city´s awesome, I had the best shower in probably 2 weeks this morning, then we explored. It´s always fun exploring with Kendra because we do the touristy bit really quick, snap our pictures, and then instantly find that we´ve wandered to the place where no tourists are around. Here, that meant this massive maze of street markets that radiate out from the Central Market of the city, which is just as awesome but a little more touristy from what we gathered. There, we just wandered around, marveling at all the meat and vegetables and fish... cow heads, stomachs, intestines, balls, sheep heads, pig hooves and ears, and of course the pieces that are more familiar to us. Then we stopped off in this one section with all the tropical fruits to get some juice. We each had a juice of aloe vera with egg white. It´s supposed to be good for your digestive tract. I hope it´s good for that because it´s not really good. Then, sitting there, I spotted the ceviche counter. One of my favorite foods, which I rarely eat, was sitting right in front of me. So obviously, I had to get knee dip into that, and it was sooooo damn good. It was different than other ceviche peruano I´ve had before- there was lettuce and red onion, the cured fish, THEN some fried squid, seawead, rice, then these toasted beans... holy hell, I was in heaven again.
So anyway, we´re here. Nightlife seems to be a little more interesting and varied than in Bolivia, so I might have to take advantage of my last couple weeks of real, fun night life (shakin it til the sun comes up) before I go back to Atlanta. Tomorrow we´re planning a day trip to a few different Inca sights, then Wednesday we´ll probably go to a couple more ruins on the way to Aguas Calientes, the jump-off point to Macchu Pichu. We decided to sleep there one night, even though we heard stupid things about the town, so that we could catch the first bus up the mountain, watch the sun rise before the buses of tourists come to ruin the scene, then stay as long as we want. Doing a trek up a trail will have to be on my next-time-list for a lot of reasons, but we´ll see what we came to see!
Well, that´s that. I´m here, I´m elated, I´m seeing some awesome shit and having a great time.
Next day we woke up early to do this hike we had read about. We brought all our bags because the hike would have us end up in this other town with docks, from which we could get to the islands in the middle of the lake. The hike was 17 km, so like 10 miles or something, and there were a lot of hills and rocks and gravel to walk over, eucalyptus groves, and cliffs, plus we both had our two bags. The scenery rocked, just like the book said, and we were both pretty obsessed with ourselves for making it with the luggage. We met a couple girls from Denver, and took a boat to the Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, with them. First off, the island was a draw for both me and Kendra because, in Inca mythology, it is the site of creation, and the birthplace of the sun. There are some ruins there, which we didn´t see because we´re goofballs, but being there was cool. It´s a decent sized island with a population of around 5,000, no cars, only gravel or cobblestone paths. Donkeys do the heavy lifting because the island is basically the peak of a mountain poking out from the lake... it´s steep! All around the island were those awesome-looking terraces, made from rock walls with no mortar. Hope you know what I´m talking about, otherwise I´ll just have to show you the pictures. The real treat though, was just the lake surrounding us with amazingly blue water, the snowy mountain tops in the distance, and the sunset with a few beers, from the top of this mountainous, mythical island at the end of the day. Perfect! Then we slowly made our way to Puno, Peru the next day. Border crossing, like I said, was pretty uneventful, and from Puno, we took a quick little tour to the Islas Flotantes, Floating Islands. I guess people have lived on these man-made floating islands for centuries. It started out as a means of defense against the Incas and other agressors but now they still live there, and it´s become really touristy. It was interesting anyway, to be walking around on them and seeing all their reed houses and reed boats and reed handicrafts. Everything was made from reeds except for the people.
And now I´m in Cuzco. I woke up this morning a little grouchy. We got here on the bus last night at 4am, got a hostel through this guy making rounds at the bus station, and even though we sorted mostly everything out (money-wise) before we passed out, I was still ready to get ripped off, thanks to what I´ve heard about Peru. So far, so good. But anyway, the mood passed before I even showered, when I went outside to grab an OJ from the guy across the street and stood there a minute to take in the scenery from the street outside the hostel, and appreciate the fact that SHIT, I´m in Cuzco! The city´s awesome, I had the best shower in probably 2 weeks this morning, then we explored. It´s always fun exploring with Kendra because we do the touristy bit really quick, snap our pictures, and then instantly find that we´ve wandered to the place where no tourists are around. Here, that meant this massive maze of street markets that radiate out from the Central Market of the city, which is just as awesome but a little more touristy from what we gathered. There, we just wandered around, marveling at all the meat and vegetables and fish... cow heads, stomachs, intestines, balls, sheep heads, pig hooves and ears, and of course the pieces that are more familiar to us. Then we stopped off in this one section with all the tropical fruits to get some juice. We each had a juice of aloe vera with egg white. It´s supposed to be good for your digestive tract. I hope it´s good for that because it´s not really good. Then, sitting there, I spotted the ceviche counter. One of my favorite foods, which I rarely eat, was sitting right in front of me. So obviously, I had to get knee dip into that, and it was sooooo damn good. It was different than other ceviche peruano I´ve had before- there was lettuce and red onion, the cured fish, THEN some fried squid, seawead, rice, then these toasted beans... holy hell, I was in heaven again.
So anyway, we´re here. Nightlife seems to be a little more interesting and varied than in Bolivia, so I might have to take advantage of my last couple weeks of real, fun night life (shakin it til the sun comes up) before I go back to Atlanta. Tomorrow we´re planning a day trip to a few different Inca sights, then Wednesday we´ll probably go to a couple more ruins on the way to Aguas Calientes, the jump-off point to Macchu Pichu. We decided to sleep there one night, even though we heard stupid things about the town, so that we could catch the first bus up the mountain, watch the sun rise before the buses of tourists come to ruin the scene, then stay as long as we want. Doing a trek up a trail will have to be on my next-time-list for a lot of reasons, but we´ll see what we came to see!
Well, that´s that. I´m here, I´m elated, I´m seeing some awesome shit and having a great time.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Stones and Bones
Writing from my last day in La Paz now. I really like this city! Kenj and I wandered basically to the polar opposite side of town today, and it´s really cool. No tourists, just straight up barrio. There´s this massive market (Fairway style for the NYers) with nothing but hanging carcasses of llama, cow, chicken, everything that is edible, then the next section is fish (I guess from lakes around because we´re landlocked) and then every vegetable ever invented. Upstairs is a cafeteria, so Kenj and I grabbed our first coffee in a while up there. It´s funny how damn good coffee is once you haven´t had it in a while. Habits like that will never die for me, scary. I´m kind of searching out whatever distribution center all the street vendors pick up their hand-crafted wares because I´m thinking how insanely profitable it would be to sell this stuff back home. Literally, stuff would go for 10 times the price on the street, and considering those guys get it from somewhere.... I could make a fortune and be back to Nyc in a second. Well, at least I could make some drinking money. Figure if I hang out in Little 5 Points (ATL) for a week, I can probably sell all of it and get a new tattoo. Anyway, I´m not in the position to be spending money on anything but a bed and food at this point (there´s too much to see) so all that speculation is on the back burner.
Yesterday I went to this old Inca site a couple hours outside La Paz, Tiahuanacu. The spelling varies, and that happens with a lot of words here, as they incorporate other languages with Spanish. Bolivia is really cool. I definitely want to come back here when I have more time and money to spend. A lot of things about Argentina came off as kind of goofy-the people, the attitudes sometimes, just in general. But Bolivia seems to just be. It is the way it is because that´s their way. The city, while being so crowded, is so subdued. People, for the most part, speak slowly and softly, and although we stick out like sore thumbs, we never really get stared at, even in non-touristy parts. It´s interesting because I guess Bolivia is, by numbers one of the poorest countries on the continent, and while things here are relatively basic compared to Argentina, you see a lot less poverty day-to-day. It´s hard to speculate on shit like that as a tourist, but from that perspective, that is how it looks. There aren´t the street children and families here like in Buenos Aires, and the city also lacks a lot of the silly things like pickpocketing and taxis robbing you that the Paris of the Americas was loaded with. The attitude of vendors in general is just amazingly nice, calm, never pushy, always saying nice things like ´joven´ or ´usted´ just being respectful.
At the Inca site, I had to buy a bajillion trinkets from the little artisan fair they have. Kendra was in a museum that I didn´t want to pay for, so I moseyed over there like a good little southern boy. All the stalls basically have the same things, so you really just choose who you want to buy from. There was this little old lady, napping in her chair, who snapped up as I walked past and started talking. She had a really nice face so I decided I´d buy from her. There are a ton of little animals and symbols carved out of stone, and I learned the significance of some the other day in Uyuni. So I asked her about the other ones, and figured they´d make nice souvenirs for my kid cousins and baby bro. There´s one to help you earn money, one to guard your path (maybe that´s my next tattoo, opposite the sphinx) one for a happy journey, health, love, to ward off bad things, all kinds of things. Then I bought a couple old Inca symbolic things, the same things that everyone who has been to Bolivia will undoubtedly have, because it´s all the same. Cool, nonetheless. Then I asked the lady about the hats that so many women wear and she explained that it´s just a hat, and their word for it is ______ which of course I don´t remember, but in Spanish it´s sombrero. I was hoping for some mystical significance, but I guess sometimes you just have to let your imagination go.
Then I ran to catch up with Kendra, who had passed me while I was shooting the shit with the lady. I caught up and realized that I was in a part of the site that you were supposed to pay for, but I was slick and walked past the guards. I mean, they were lazy and didn´t check my ticket. I really had no idea. Anyway, we saw an old pyramid, or what´s left of it, and some cool old statues of dieties and the puerta del sol, the door to the sun, which does something funny with the shadow on the day of the summer solstice. The symmetry on these sites is really cool-there´s a small opening in a wall made of solid rock, one stacked upon the other, perfectly straight, without mortar, and if you stand dead center in the opening, different figures line up perfectly. I´m obsessed with all this ancient stuff, and can´t get enough. I guess that was just a little teaser compared to Peru though.
Before we left the ruins, we wandered through a field. I don´t know why, but I´ve been picking up random bones that I find on the ground. They´re Llama bones or something, so I´m using them as souvenirs. Then we kept finding tiny random pieces of ceramic, like the pieces you see in museums of the Incas. The field was sort of a site that hadn´t been excavated yet, and it felt like we shouldn´t have been walking in it, but no one told us anything otherwise. So anyway, I grabbed a few pieces of ceramic, hoping that maybe they came from an old Inca relic. I mean, it´s totally possible, but I also saw a bunch of broken beer bottles too. Whatever, to me, it´s the ceramic of the Incas.
Alright, well tomorrow I go to Copacabana, which has a beach but should be nothing like the famous one. It´s our jump-off point into Lake Titicaca, this massive lake in the mountains. We´ll see the Isla del Sol (the Inca creation site) among other islands there, and this lake divides Bolivia and Peru. So it´s possible that I won´t be online again until I get to Cuzco. Oh, the street food here is decently good. Not overly greasy, there are some spicy salsas, and it´s delish. I´ve been eating these steak sandwiches with this onion-pepper-spice mix on top, with a spicy tomato salsa and fries. It´s pretty amazing, and costs about 80 cents if we´re talking US standards. Get outta town with that, Bolivia is a good place to be when the cash flow is waning.
Yesterday I went to this old Inca site a couple hours outside La Paz, Tiahuanacu. The spelling varies, and that happens with a lot of words here, as they incorporate other languages with Spanish. Bolivia is really cool. I definitely want to come back here when I have more time and money to spend. A lot of things about Argentina came off as kind of goofy-the people, the attitudes sometimes, just in general. But Bolivia seems to just be. It is the way it is because that´s their way. The city, while being so crowded, is so subdued. People, for the most part, speak slowly and softly, and although we stick out like sore thumbs, we never really get stared at, even in non-touristy parts. It´s interesting because I guess Bolivia is, by numbers one of the poorest countries on the continent, and while things here are relatively basic compared to Argentina, you see a lot less poverty day-to-day. It´s hard to speculate on shit like that as a tourist, but from that perspective, that is how it looks. There aren´t the street children and families here like in Buenos Aires, and the city also lacks a lot of the silly things like pickpocketing and taxis robbing you that the Paris of the Americas was loaded with. The attitude of vendors in general is just amazingly nice, calm, never pushy, always saying nice things like ´joven´ or ´usted´ just being respectful.
At the Inca site, I had to buy a bajillion trinkets from the little artisan fair they have. Kendra was in a museum that I didn´t want to pay for, so I moseyed over there like a good little southern boy. All the stalls basically have the same things, so you really just choose who you want to buy from. There was this little old lady, napping in her chair, who snapped up as I walked past and started talking. She had a really nice face so I decided I´d buy from her. There are a ton of little animals and symbols carved out of stone, and I learned the significance of some the other day in Uyuni. So I asked her about the other ones, and figured they´d make nice souvenirs for my kid cousins and baby bro. There´s one to help you earn money, one to guard your path (maybe that´s my next tattoo, opposite the sphinx) one for a happy journey, health, love, to ward off bad things, all kinds of things. Then I bought a couple old Inca symbolic things, the same things that everyone who has been to Bolivia will undoubtedly have, because it´s all the same. Cool, nonetheless. Then I asked the lady about the hats that so many women wear and she explained that it´s just a hat, and their word for it is ______ which of course I don´t remember, but in Spanish it´s sombrero. I was hoping for some mystical significance, but I guess sometimes you just have to let your imagination go.
Then I ran to catch up with Kendra, who had passed me while I was shooting the shit with the lady. I caught up and realized that I was in a part of the site that you were supposed to pay for, but I was slick and walked past the guards. I mean, they were lazy and didn´t check my ticket. I really had no idea. Anyway, we saw an old pyramid, or what´s left of it, and some cool old statues of dieties and the puerta del sol, the door to the sun, which does something funny with the shadow on the day of the summer solstice. The symmetry on these sites is really cool-there´s a small opening in a wall made of solid rock, one stacked upon the other, perfectly straight, without mortar, and if you stand dead center in the opening, different figures line up perfectly. I´m obsessed with all this ancient stuff, and can´t get enough. I guess that was just a little teaser compared to Peru though.
Before we left the ruins, we wandered through a field. I don´t know why, but I´ve been picking up random bones that I find on the ground. They´re Llama bones or something, so I´m using them as souvenirs. Then we kept finding tiny random pieces of ceramic, like the pieces you see in museums of the Incas. The field was sort of a site that hadn´t been excavated yet, and it felt like we shouldn´t have been walking in it, but no one told us anything otherwise. So anyway, I grabbed a few pieces of ceramic, hoping that maybe they came from an old Inca relic. I mean, it´s totally possible, but I also saw a bunch of broken beer bottles too. Whatever, to me, it´s the ceramic of the Incas.
Alright, well tomorrow I go to Copacabana, which has a beach but should be nothing like the famous one. It´s our jump-off point into Lake Titicaca, this massive lake in the mountains. We´ll see the Isla del Sol (the Inca creation site) among other islands there, and this lake divides Bolivia and Peru. So it´s possible that I won´t be online again until I get to Cuzco. Oh, the street food here is decently good. Not overly greasy, there are some spicy salsas, and it´s delish. I´ve been eating these steak sandwiches with this onion-pepper-spice mix on top, with a spicy tomato salsa and fries. It´s pretty amazing, and costs about 80 cents if we´re talking US standards. Get outta town with that, Bolivia is a good place to be when the cash flow is waning.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Back down to Earth
Sobre las nubes, en un otro mundo, bajo el mismo sol...
Wow, so there aren{t any words to describe the past four days on this tour through Southern Bolivia. It could have been another planet, or 12 other planets for how diverse the landscapes were, and how utterly desolate some of the places are! Never has desolation looked so beautiful! So like I said before, we saw some beautifully toxic lagoons, flamingoes, llamas, all kinds of other high altitude creatures, dunes, deserts, mountains, a TON of volcanoes and the rock formations that came from their lava flows thousands and millions of years ago, through tiny villages that have been around for centuries where population is quoted by the number of families that live there.... too many things to describe and too many things that the photos won{t even come close to doing justice to. If youre down for roughing it a little bit and like that kind of stuff, you HAVE to do this. We had an awesome guide and cook, and joined a French pair who turned out to be really awesome. No one in the car spoke English, so it was finally an opportunity to only speak Spanish in South America... ridiculous! Bolivia is different though, because it isn{t made for tourists like Argentina is, and that is awesome. The smaller towns where the tours depart from are naturally really touristy, but it{s as if tourism is separated from town life, because the streets are still full of stalls selling typical food, crafts, kitchenware, clothes... anything you would ever need.
The first night, we stayed at a hostel that was a little over 4000 meters up, and freezing. The night was perfectly clear and the moon was waning, and I saw more stars than I{ve ever seen in my life, it was breath-taking! The next night, we topped out at around 4800 meters... almost 3 miles!... and got to the hostel in time to see an amazing sunset as it dropped between two mountain peaks. Pretty much every sight we saw took my breath away so I can{t really even summarize what the coolest thing was.
Now we are in La Paz. We came on an overnight bus with our companions from the tour, and that bus ride was pretty incredible too. The first half or so was on a rode so bumpy that the light and panel above Kendra{s seat broke and fell off! She didn{t even wake up, and I was sleeping too when one of the passengers behind us sort of lept over me and caught the light before it smacked her face. Then one of the bus workers came by and said sorry and ripped off the rest of the panel that was bouncing around. It was funny. Mostly funny that we slept so well on a bus that made it feel like we were having a seizure for 5 hours. The ride was around 12 hours in total, or something like that, so we got in this morning, went to a hostel that our new friends had recomended, took our first shower in a week, and now Kenj and I are walking around La Paz. It{s a really cool city so far. We walked alongside a protest-march which we couldn{t figure out the purpose of, but it was pretty chill. They passed a bunch of older ladies in the street who were arguing against the protesters and throwing bits of bread and confetti at them and laughing their asses off while yelling at them to shut up. La Paz lives up to its name so far. Plus you can buy literally almost anything in the world on the street. The city is only a million people, but maybe due to the mountains squeezing it all into a relatively small valley, it feels like it could be 12 million. The traffic and driving is nuts, it{s crowded with winding, hilly streets, and just really distinct all around! Street food is everywhere so I{m about to have my way with whatever I find out is typical here. THere is a witch market where they have a ton of natural cures for every malady, so I might as well stroll through and pick up something for diarrhea because it{s inevitably on its way. I don{t even care, as long as I enjoyed everything on its way down!
The way the trip is going is really nice because for every few days in a city, we take a few days out, way out, from a city. It makes me appreciate nature and urbanity so much more! Driving through the bolivian wilderness is probably the coolest thing I can say that I{ve seen in my life, and so moving! They seem to be really conscious of maintaining the natural beauty of the place too, which is really nice. The tours have their track, they don{t ram through any vegetation or leave garbage around, you{re only aloud to get so close to certain things so people don{t destroy what is there, and all the buildings get power from solar panels. It really is amazing to be surrounded by so much natural beauty and considering that our society in general doesn't really pay any respect to it. I'm not crazy, I've never been one to feel the earth bleed or hear a tree cry, but ever since the movie Fern Gully sufficiently ruined my childhood, I get a little maniacal about the destruction of nature for some short-term profit making and some serious long term damage. Being here, in the midst of such awesomely powerful forces of nature, I started thinking that maybe we aren't exactly destroying earth, but rather destroying our ability to inhabit it. After we're gone, some other creatures must be coming to take our place, and the scars we've left will fade away...this shit isn't going anywhere, but we're like dinosaurs walking.. maybe I'm wrong though. I don't think so, but science finds a way to support both sides... who can say.
So anyway, I just realized how quickly time has flown and how soon I am going home. Every time I realize that I get a little shock because I really haven't seen nearly the amount of things I would like to! I'll have to come back here, duh, and take a lot more time in Bolivia and places further north. I would like to see the extremes of this country - I guess the Amazon basin sort of dumps itself in Northeast Bolivia, so that would be an awesome contrast to the miles-high deserts and volcanoes of the other side of the country. It really is nice to be in La Paz now though, where I can take care of my eyes, sleep warm (by the way our hostel costs $3.50 a night) be out of moving vehicles for a few days, and eat some hot food! The people here are awesome too.. not that I've talked to too many (yet) but our guide, Oshin, had really cool perspectives about things and the general feeling you get is just... I don't know, very warm, chilled out, and you can see a lot of cultural elements and traditions that go back centuries at least, probably millenia! It's really cool being here, and I´m totally going to come home looking like that American kid that goes on vacation and tries too hard. Meaning, I have a ton of stuff from Bolivia and Argentina because since I got robbed in BA, literally everything I have-luggage, toothpaste, contacts, sweaters, shoes, are all from down here. They sure do make nice stuff though!
Wow, so there aren{t any words to describe the past four days on this tour through Southern Bolivia. It could have been another planet, or 12 other planets for how diverse the landscapes were, and how utterly desolate some of the places are! Never has desolation looked so beautiful! So like I said before, we saw some beautifully toxic lagoons, flamingoes, llamas, all kinds of other high altitude creatures, dunes, deserts, mountains, a TON of volcanoes and the rock formations that came from their lava flows thousands and millions of years ago, through tiny villages that have been around for centuries where population is quoted by the number of families that live there.... too many things to describe and too many things that the photos won{t even come close to doing justice to. If youre down for roughing it a little bit and like that kind of stuff, you HAVE to do this. We had an awesome guide and cook, and joined a French pair who turned out to be really awesome. No one in the car spoke English, so it was finally an opportunity to only speak Spanish in South America... ridiculous! Bolivia is different though, because it isn{t made for tourists like Argentina is, and that is awesome. The smaller towns where the tours depart from are naturally really touristy, but it{s as if tourism is separated from town life, because the streets are still full of stalls selling typical food, crafts, kitchenware, clothes... anything you would ever need.
The first night, we stayed at a hostel that was a little over 4000 meters up, and freezing. The night was perfectly clear and the moon was waning, and I saw more stars than I{ve ever seen in my life, it was breath-taking! The next night, we topped out at around 4800 meters... almost 3 miles!... and got to the hostel in time to see an amazing sunset as it dropped between two mountain peaks. Pretty much every sight we saw took my breath away so I can{t really even summarize what the coolest thing was.
Now we are in La Paz. We came on an overnight bus with our companions from the tour, and that bus ride was pretty incredible too. The first half or so was on a rode so bumpy that the light and panel above Kendra{s seat broke and fell off! She didn{t even wake up, and I was sleeping too when one of the passengers behind us sort of lept over me and caught the light before it smacked her face. Then one of the bus workers came by and said sorry and ripped off the rest of the panel that was bouncing around. It was funny. Mostly funny that we slept so well on a bus that made it feel like we were having a seizure for 5 hours. The ride was around 12 hours in total, or something like that, so we got in this morning, went to a hostel that our new friends had recomended, took our first shower in a week, and now Kenj and I are walking around La Paz. It{s a really cool city so far. We walked alongside a protest-march which we couldn{t figure out the purpose of, but it was pretty chill. They passed a bunch of older ladies in the street who were arguing against the protesters and throwing bits of bread and confetti at them and laughing their asses off while yelling at them to shut up. La Paz lives up to its name so far. Plus you can buy literally almost anything in the world on the street. The city is only a million people, but maybe due to the mountains squeezing it all into a relatively small valley, it feels like it could be 12 million. The traffic and driving is nuts, it{s crowded with winding, hilly streets, and just really distinct all around! Street food is everywhere so I{m about to have my way with whatever I find out is typical here. THere is a witch market where they have a ton of natural cures for every malady, so I might as well stroll through and pick up something for diarrhea because it{s inevitably on its way. I don{t even care, as long as I enjoyed everything on its way down!
The way the trip is going is really nice because for every few days in a city, we take a few days out, way out, from a city. It makes me appreciate nature and urbanity so much more! Driving through the bolivian wilderness is probably the coolest thing I can say that I{ve seen in my life, and so moving! They seem to be really conscious of maintaining the natural beauty of the place too, which is really nice. The tours have their track, they don{t ram through any vegetation or leave garbage around, you{re only aloud to get so close to certain things so people don{t destroy what is there, and all the buildings get power from solar panels. It really is amazing to be surrounded by so much natural beauty and considering that our society in general doesn't really pay any respect to it. I'm not crazy, I've never been one to feel the earth bleed or hear a tree cry, but ever since the movie Fern Gully sufficiently ruined my childhood, I get a little maniacal about the destruction of nature for some short-term profit making and some serious long term damage. Being here, in the midst of such awesomely powerful forces of nature, I started thinking that maybe we aren't exactly destroying earth, but rather destroying our ability to inhabit it. After we're gone, some other creatures must be coming to take our place, and the scars we've left will fade away...this shit isn't going anywhere, but we're like dinosaurs walking.. maybe I'm wrong though. I don't think so, but science finds a way to support both sides... who can say.
So anyway, I just realized how quickly time has flown and how soon I am going home. Every time I realize that I get a little shock because I really haven't seen nearly the amount of things I would like to! I'll have to come back here, duh, and take a lot more time in Bolivia and places further north. I would like to see the extremes of this country - I guess the Amazon basin sort of dumps itself in Northeast Bolivia, so that would be an awesome contrast to the miles-high deserts and volcanoes of the other side of the country. It really is nice to be in La Paz now though, where I can take care of my eyes, sleep warm (by the way our hostel costs $3.50 a night) be out of moving vehicles for a few days, and eat some hot food! The people here are awesome too.. not that I've talked to too many (yet) but our guide, Oshin, had really cool perspectives about things and the general feeling you get is just... I don't know, very warm, chilled out, and you can see a lot of cultural elements and traditions that go back centuries at least, probably millenia! It's really cool being here, and I´m totally going to come home looking like that American kid that goes on vacation and tries too hard. Meaning, I have a ton of stuff from Bolivia and Argentina because since I got robbed in BA, literally everything I have-luggage, toothpaste, contacts, sweaters, shoes, are all from down here. They sure do make nice stuff though!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Another sunrise, first FREEZING morning!
Dude, we made it! For all the people that said we wouldn´t get into Bolivia... suck it!
So yesterday we hit Tucuman, like I blogged about in the previous post, then that night we headed out on the bus for the border town, La Quiaca. There seems to be a recurring theme on these buses, and it is that a kid next to me or in front of me is always throwing up! I used to get really grossed out by puke, but that faded a little bit once I got to college and started doing it a lot.. but when it´s everywhere, it´s kind of like stepping over dog shit in the street, no big whoop. But still, gross!
Back tracking a little bit, at the last night in Mendoza at our amazing hostel, Kendra and I had decided to have a quiet night since we were set to wake up early for the bikes and wine tour the next day. We were in bed by midnight, amidst the drunken rambling of the Irish and American kids hanging out in front of our door. Fell asleep like a rock but around 3.30 we woke up because everyone was fighting-like MTV show style-for about an hour and a half. It was pretty hilarious so I wasn´t really bothered by it at all, until it dragged on and one girl shoved me. I was sooo ready to get all Jersey Shore, but whatever. It ended with one guy passing out in a chair and peeing on himself, and everyone else thrown all around the hostel in different parts. It was funny but sad at the same time, but it did restore my faith in reality TV because before that, I didn´t really believe grown ass people could act like such animals. Anyway, that was our last night in Mendoza. Then we had that overnight bus after the bike tour. The tour wore me out so I slept like a rock on that bus. Then the few hours in Tucuman, then the overnight bus which brought us to La Quiaca early this morning. That one didn´t give me or Kendra much chance to sleep. So we rolled in, already in a different world in one of the farthest Northern reaches of Argentina, caught a taxi to the border checkpoint, and signed out of Argentina for good. Then all the little people with backpacks walk to the Bolivia side, and if you´re from the US you pay a decently hefty fee and fill out some paperwork to enter, and bam you´re in. Only thing is, they need a photocopy of your passport, or a picture of you. I was lucky enough to be carrying a few pictures of myself that my roomy had sent me. One was from Halloween when I dressed the part of Samantha from Sex and the City. Another was my face on a different body, with a hysterical outfit and a great haircut. hmmm what to do. Then I did actually find one normal one, that I really liked, of me Michael and Drew from one of the Christmas parties, so I had to give that up. They laughed, but I kind of wished that I would have had to give them one of the others.
So then we took the bus from Villazon, Bolivia´s border town, to Tupiza, which was absolutely incredible. The scenery is out of this world. Started out as desolate mountains and sand, then cactus plants started popping up, then the mountains evolved from blank walls of rock into forest covered peaks. There is a river bed, which is dry for the season, and a lot of really amazing colors to see. I was dead tired and wanted to sleep but couldn´t keep my eyes shut in case I missed something. All this is while driving down a road that is currently being paved, maybe repaved, so a lot of the trip was this huge, double decker bus, bouncing around the desert. Awesome. Then we came up to this tunnel that cut through two mountains, and it was miraculous that the driver didn´t hit the sides! It was like the tunnel was made to perfectly fit this bus and nothing more. The rocks in there looked like those Disney World fake rocks, they were so clean and precisely cut. So a little more breathtaking scenery over about 3 hours, I think, and then we landed in Tupiza. Feels just like it should. I guess we´re about 3000 meters above the sea, so what, 9000 feet... you can feel it a tiny bit, like I have to walk slow because I feel like I might pass out. So we walked out of the bus station, with no idea what this town held in store for us, only knowing that we want to see the salt flats, the Salares de Uyuni, named for the town about 4 hours north of here, but within reach nonetheless. So the long and short of it, we signed up for a four day tour, starting here, ending in Uyuni, where we´ll stop by some tiny villages, swim in some thermal springs, see two volcanoes, one of which is active and smoking, geisers, desert, lagunes of all colors, and salt flats. If my excitement dial went from one to ten, I´d be at eleven.
So anyway, I´m off the map for the next four days. No nothing. Hopefully I can pick up a couple more disposable cameras before this trek, but that´s looking a little doubtful. I tried to buy contact solution but the lady at the pharmacy told me ´not in this town´. So in the worst case, I´ll end up with crusty eyes and no pictures, but it really won´t matter because just being here, feeling Bolivia, it´s like breathing in a whole new adventure. I was ready to leave Argentina, and now I´m really happy to be here. As usual, it´s hard to put it into words, but the vibes here are so different from everywhere else. The people are really cool, really slow, quiet... it´s definitely a break from the pace of Buenos Aires. There are a lot of people milling around right now, but it´s just so quiet and chill! All the women are bundled up with so much wool thrown over their shoulders, the top hats, the mountains in the distance... it´s like every book or movie made the place out to be. But it´s only going to get better.
Funny twist of fate again. I met this cool chick from San Francisco in Iguazu, and now she´s staying in the exact same hostel as me here. That was over 2 months ago, how random! Especially considering Kenj and I ended up at this hostel because a girl chased us down the street and asked us if we would stay there. Funny.
Alright, well I have a lot of feelings right now, hence the long entry. But I still can´t say how freaking excited I am for this 4 day thing and for the rest of the awesomeness that this country and Peru have in store. All of this high altitude excitement is kind of making my head spin though. They say to walk slowly, eat a little, and sleep all by your little self while you get used to the altitude. No fun. I ate a massive lunch today and couldn´t have felt better. I am heeding the other two pieces of advice though, not happily! But I´m excited to really get into the country, chewing coca leaves, freezing, treking, and pretending to be tough.
So yesterday we hit Tucuman, like I blogged about in the previous post, then that night we headed out on the bus for the border town, La Quiaca. There seems to be a recurring theme on these buses, and it is that a kid next to me or in front of me is always throwing up! I used to get really grossed out by puke, but that faded a little bit once I got to college and started doing it a lot.. but when it´s everywhere, it´s kind of like stepping over dog shit in the street, no big whoop. But still, gross!
Back tracking a little bit, at the last night in Mendoza at our amazing hostel, Kendra and I had decided to have a quiet night since we were set to wake up early for the bikes and wine tour the next day. We were in bed by midnight, amidst the drunken rambling of the Irish and American kids hanging out in front of our door. Fell asleep like a rock but around 3.30 we woke up because everyone was fighting-like MTV show style-for about an hour and a half. It was pretty hilarious so I wasn´t really bothered by it at all, until it dragged on and one girl shoved me. I was sooo ready to get all Jersey Shore, but whatever. It ended with one guy passing out in a chair and peeing on himself, and everyone else thrown all around the hostel in different parts. It was funny but sad at the same time, but it did restore my faith in reality TV because before that, I didn´t really believe grown ass people could act like such animals. Anyway, that was our last night in Mendoza. Then we had that overnight bus after the bike tour. The tour wore me out so I slept like a rock on that bus. Then the few hours in Tucuman, then the overnight bus which brought us to La Quiaca early this morning. That one didn´t give me or Kendra much chance to sleep. So we rolled in, already in a different world in one of the farthest Northern reaches of Argentina, caught a taxi to the border checkpoint, and signed out of Argentina for good. Then all the little people with backpacks walk to the Bolivia side, and if you´re from the US you pay a decently hefty fee and fill out some paperwork to enter, and bam you´re in. Only thing is, they need a photocopy of your passport, or a picture of you. I was lucky enough to be carrying a few pictures of myself that my roomy had sent me. One was from Halloween when I dressed the part of Samantha from Sex and the City. Another was my face on a different body, with a hysterical outfit and a great haircut. hmmm what to do. Then I did actually find one normal one, that I really liked, of me Michael and Drew from one of the Christmas parties, so I had to give that up. They laughed, but I kind of wished that I would have had to give them one of the others.
So then we took the bus from Villazon, Bolivia´s border town, to Tupiza, which was absolutely incredible. The scenery is out of this world. Started out as desolate mountains and sand, then cactus plants started popping up, then the mountains evolved from blank walls of rock into forest covered peaks. There is a river bed, which is dry for the season, and a lot of really amazing colors to see. I was dead tired and wanted to sleep but couldn´t keep my eyes shut in case I missed something. All this is while driving down a road that is currently being paved, maybe repaved, so a lot of the trip was this huge, double decker bus, bouncing around the desert. Awesome. Then we came up to this tunnel that cut through two mountains, and it was miraculous that the driver didn´t hit the sides! It was like the tunnel was made to perfectly fit this bus and nothing more. The rocks in there looked like those Disney World fake rocks, they were so clean and precisely cut. So a little more breathtaking scenery over about 3 hours, I think, and then we landed in Tupiza. Feels just like it should. I guess we´re about 3000 meters above the sea, so what, 9000 feet... you can feel it a tiny bit, like I have to walk slow because I feel like I might pass out. So we walked out of the bus station, with no idea what this town held in store for us, only knowing that we want to see the salt flats, the Salares de Uyuni, named for the town about 4 hours north of here, but within reach nonetheless. So the long and short of it, we signed up for a four day tour, starting here, ending in Uyuni, where we´ll stop by some tiny villages, swim in some thermal springs, see two volcanoes, one of which is active and smoking, geisers, desert, lagunes of all colors, and salt flats. If my excitement dial went from one to ten, I´d be at eleven.
So anyway, I´m off the map for the next four days. No nothing. Hopefully I can pick up a couple more disposable cameras before this trek, but that´s looking a little doubtful. I tried to buy contact solution but the lady at the pharmacy told me ´not in this town´. So in the worst case, I´ll end up with crusty eyes and no pictures, but it really won´t matter because just being here, feeling Bolivia, it´s like breathing in a whole new adventure. I was ready to leave Argentina, and now I´m really happy to be here. As usual, it´s hard to put it into words, but the vibes here are so different from everywhere else. The people are really cool, really slow, quiet... it´s definitely a break from the pace of Buenos Aires. There are a lot of people milling around right now, but it´s just so quiet and chill! All the women are bundled up with so much wool thrown over their shoulders, the top hats, the mountains in the distance... it´s like every book or movie made the place out to be. But it´s only going to get better.
Funny twist of fate again. I met this cool chick from San Francisco in Iguazu, and now she´s staying in the exact same hostel as me here. That was over 2 months ago, how random! Especially considering Kenj and I ended up at this hostel because a girl chased us down the street and asked us if we would stay there. Funny.
Alright, well I have a lot of feelings right now, hence the long entry. But I still can´t say how freaking excited I am for this 4 day thing and for the rest of the awesomeness that this country and Peru have in store. All of this high altitude excitement is kind of making my head spin though. They say to walk slowly, eat a little, and sleep all by your little self while you get used to the altitude. No fun. I ate a massive lunch today and couldn´t have felt better. I am heeding the other two pieces of advice though, not happily! But I´m excited to really get into the country, chewing coca leaves, freezing, treking, and pretending to be tough.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
So long, VOS, welcome back TU
I survived the bike tour! I knew I would, I just wanted to put a little cliff hanger for the faithful readers out there. It was really nice, got to taste a lot of wines and see how all the magic happens, and we finished off at this crazy beer garden. It was basically a wooden hut with a bar and a bathroom, a field, and couches. The beer was good, but the vibe was really awesome. We got the bikes around 11 in the morning, went around and did our thang, then ended at the beer garden, after several vineyards, at 7:05. We were supposed to have the bikes back by 7 or else be charged a fee for making the guys stay late, so we rode back like bats outta hell. Right before we pulled out of the gravel street from the beer garden though, the friend we had picked up along the way rode right into a ditch and did a little mini-flip over the handle bars. There was a cop on a motorcycle who watched, and he followed us all the way back to the bike place, telling us when to go when we were waiting at stop signs. It was really fun getting a police escort but he was probably just hoping another one of us would fall so he could laugh about it some more.
So I´m writing from the bus station in (San Miguel de) Tucuman right now. We have a bus that leaves in about an hour, which takes us to the border town La Quiaca, at which point we cross into Villazon, Bolivia hopefully, then straight up to either Uyuni or Tupiza! Bolivia is possibly what I´m most excited about, but there are a lot of discrepancies in the information detailing what is actually needed to enter the country. Sooo we´ll find out tomorrow. If not, we´ll take a bus and backtrack a bit, go through Chile and straight up to Peru along the coast. Hopefully Bolivia wants us to go though, because I really want to see it. The change of scenery from Mendoza, 14 hours away from where I am now, is really different. We´re pretty much surrounded by mountains now, and looking out the bus window, you get these killer views of farmland that appears to stretch endlessly until it hits the foot of the Andes, it´s really nice. There are no clouds in the sky, it´s nice and crisply fresh, and everywhere you go, a Cumbia beat follows. Kenj and I walked around a bit tonight just to kill time as the sun was setting, and the nightlife was already picking up. If you like dark clubs and hookers, this is THE place to be! For real though, the town is really nice. It´s where the first constitution of Argentina was drafted so it holds some serious patriotic value.
Alright, well it´s burning up in this kiosk and I´m about to freak out, so I´ll leave this there. Now that I´m perfectly used to the Argentinian accent and funny words they add to the language, it´s time to get back to some basics, hopefully. Can´t wait to see what comes next, hopefully the following update is from Bolivia! Don´t cry for me, Argentina!
So I´m writing from the bus station in (San Miguel de) Tucuman right now. We have a bus that leaves in about an hour, which takes us to the border town La Quiaca, at which point we cross into Villazon, Bolivia hopefully, then straight up to either Uyuni or Tupiza! Bolivia is possibly what I´m most excited about, but there are a lot of discrepancies in the information detailing what is actually needed to enter the country. Sooo we´ll find out tomorrow. If not, we´ll take a bus and backtrack a bit, go through Chile and straight up to Peru along the coast. Hopefully Bolivia wants us to go though, because I really want to see it. The change of scenery from Mendoza, 14 hours away from where I am now, is really different. We´re pretty much surrounded by mountains now, and looking out the bus window, you get these killer views of farmland that appears to stretch endlessly until it hits the foot of the Andes, it´s really nice. There are no clouds in the sky, it´s nice and crisply fresh, and everywhere you go, a Cumbia beat follows. Kenj and I walked around a bit tonight just to kill time as the sun was setting, and the nightlife was already picking up. If you like dark clubs and hookers, this is THE place to be! For real though, the town is really nice. It´s where the first constitution of Argentina was drafted so it holds some serious patriotic value.
Alright, well it´s burning up in this kiosk and I´m about to freak out, so I´ll leave this there. Now that I´m perfectly used to the Argentinian accent and funny words they add to the language, it´s time to get back to some basics, hopefully. Can´t wait to see what comes next, hopefully the following update is from Bolivia! Don´t cry for me, Argentina!
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Mothers
First off, happy mothers day to all you mothers out there. Hope your kids make you really damn happy today, and I hope all the kids are suffering a little bit on account of their mothers. It was always my least favorite ´holiday´ ever because I hate doing yardwork.
I´m in Mendoza now! Cordoba was a flash, but I´m really glad we stopped there. We got in on the bus around 7am and got a hostel for one night. Nightlife is supposed to be really great there because like 90 percent of the population (don´t quote that stat) is below 25 yrs old. I wouldn´t know because I passed out in bed before I was supposed to go to some party with some Israeli guys I met. L-A-M-E! So I can´t tell you anything about nightlife there, but the city is really nice. At just over a million people, it was like being able to breathe again after BA. I think we probably walked around the entire city too, from the bus station to the hostel, through a big park, through all the plazas, to the river (which was mostly a grassy field) and everything. So that´s Cordoba.
We went out last night in Mendoza, which is even smaller than Cordoba, and considerably more charming. The urban layout is very Philly-a central main square surrounded by four smaller squares, and the city sort of radiates out from there. It´s really pretty, calm, quiet, and the food is good. Anyway, we ended up at this club last night, and it ended up being really fun, and funny. Argentina is really funny in general. Can´t say why exactly, it just is. So now I´m back on the backpacker schedule and lifestyle. The only responsibility is to try to get up for breakfast, and make sure I don´t miss any more buses, like I did in Puerto Iguazu. At least I didn´t pull a Tommy-boy there, the driver stopped and waited. This hostel I´m at is insane. It´s called Dama Juana (not to plug or anything) and it´s like a resort! Relative to hostels anyway. There´s a nice TV room, a little pool, everything is kept up nice, and the bathrooms have freaking granite countertops! Honeymoon-on-a-budget, hello. Mendoza is just really pretty in general-the mountains in the distance make a great background anywhere, and there are palm trees right next to pine trees-it looks awesome! Almost like a more tropical Italy. Tomorrow I´m going on a bicycle tour between a bunch of vineyards. How perfect. If I don´t update within the next 3 or 4 days, assume I met my demise smiling because nothing sounds better-wine, mountains, biking, fall weather... what else could you need?
I´m going to leave the computer for someone else now and go watch Tomb Raider on the big TV they have.
I´m in Mendoza now! Cordoba was a flash, but I´m really glad we stopped there. We got in on the bus around 7am and got a hostel for one night. Nightlife is supposed to be really great there because like 90 percent of the population (don´t quote that stat) is below 25 yrs old. I wouldn´t know because I passed out in bed before I was supposed to go to some party with some Israeli guys I met. L-A-M-E! So I can´t tell you anything about nightlife there, but the city is really nice. At just over a million people, it was like being able to breathe again after BA. I think we probably walked around the entire city too, from the bus station to the hostel, through a big park, through all the plazas, to the river (which was mostly a grassy field) and everything. So that´s Cordoba.
We went out last night in Mendoza, which is even smaller than Cordoba, and considerably more charming. The urban layout is very Philly-a central main square surrounded by four smaller squares, and the city sort of radiates out from there. It´s really pretty, calm, quiet, and the food is good. Anyway, we ended up at this club last night, and it ended up being really fun, and funny. Argentina is really funny in general. Can´t say why exactly, it just is. So now I´m back on the backpacker schedule and lifestyle. The only responsibility is to try to get up for breakfast, and make sure I don´t miss any more buses, like I did in Puerto Iguazu. At least I didn´t pull a Tommy-boy there, the driver stopped and waited. This hostel I´m at is insane. It´s called Dama Juana (not to plug or anything) and it´s like a resort! Relative to hostels anyway. There´s a nice TV room, a little pool, everything is kept up nice, and the bathrooms have freaking granite countertops! Honeymoon-on-a-budget, hello. Mendoza is just really pretty in general-the mountains in the distance make a great background anywhere, and there are palm trees right next to pine trees-it looks awesome! Almost like a more tropical Italy. Tomorrow I´m going on a bicycle tour between a bunch of vineyards. How perfect. If I don´t update within the next 3 or 4 days, assume I met my demise smiling because nothing sounds better-wine, mountains, biking, fall weather... what else could you need?
I´m going to leave the computer for someone else now and go watch Tomb Raider on the big TV they have.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Don't Cry for me, Buenos Aires
Alright, so the going away party last night was really tame, but a really nice goodbye. Everyone at Piola was really nice. Whenever someone leaves here, everyone has to give a little speech, like a toast. I personally love toasts, and this goodbye process has made me be a little bit more comfortable making one - having to do it in Spanish made me realize I shouldn't be self-conscious to do it in my own language ever again-at least I'll know what I'm saying. Anyway.
In a couple hours, we leave this view behind forever
The photo is from my friend Justin's album of his visit here. It's looking out from our balcony. I like that balcony. There are also some new photos up on Kendra's picasa web album, HERE! I've been snapping with a few disposable cameras, so once I get home, I can show a few of my own pictures from this leg of the trip. I can't believe that we're already heading out! The time here has been so nice but I am pretty excited not to be having to dodge buses and rich ladies' big purses every time I step out the door. The purses more-so - a lady with a big purse, hiding her eyes behind a big pair of sunglasses, can be much more daunting than a big bus. And more dangerous, statistically speaking.
So yeah, tomorrow this time, I'll be in Cordoba. A couple days from now, I'll be careening down some street in Mendoza, lips purple from wine. Then who knows.
Monday, May 3, 2010
A Quicky from La Matanza
I´m sitting in Sylvia´s house now, just hanging out on the internet while the people who live here are doing normal night-time things. Sylvia is the one in charge of the cooperative I´m volunteering at. We´ll eat dinner soon-ish, I guess, then I´ll go to the bakery for my last time. As much as I want to say I won´t miss those overnight shifts, I kind of will! The stories told by Alejandra that hurt my brain, heart, and soul, the smells wafting from the oven, buttery dough between my fingers, the delirium that tightens its grip around 5.30, the sunrise and the knowledge that sleep is soon to follow, and the euphoria that comes with that realization....drinking mate, smoking cigarettes, trying not to fall down. It´s been really fun, and a crazy experience. I don´t mean to be a baby or a martyr about it, it was just definitely more intense than what I had anticipated! But I came here for experience, and that´s what I got, and I would have had it no other way. These hours have worked out perfectly because I´ve been able to hustle a few things at the market between English classes and bakery shifts. K Gotta run.... later
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OK, now here I go to finish that. I had to go buy some dinner stuff last night, so that's why I got cut off. I just had a great last day at the coop, it was so much fun. I slept 3 hours in Alejandra's bed this morning, as usual, and I'm about to go to my going-away party in a couple hours, but I'm really energized! I'm always a little excited to be leaving or arriving somewhere, and this time that is going to have to get me through a few days w/ no sleep... because when you go out with Argentinians, you can't even think about getting home before sun-up. That's for bitches!
Anyway, last week I told my regular students that this would be my last week so they brought money today para tomar gaseosa y comprar facturas, to get some soda and pastries from the bakery where I work. They're between 10 and 12, I was blown away! Then I hung out with Nico, the 18 yr old kid that works at the bakery during the day to sell the stuff we make all night. When we sit around, there are usually just a few guys and we drink mate and they blow kisses and whistle at almost every single girl that walks past. Nico kissed at this one girl earlier, and this older lady came back and asked who kissed at her, joking, laughing her ass off. Then he said te amo, blanco to this girl (he was referring to the white sweater she was wearing) but I am also blanco because I'm white, so this other older lady made fun of him because she said it was like he was telling me he loved me. I ended up selling a few things (a couple CDs I took from the apartment, a can of tomato paste, a couple pairs of pants) and made a few pesos, then did my last round of goodbyes and thankyous to everyone. I was saying bye to Sylvia and Alejandra (Sylvia is Ale's aunt) and she was really sweet. First off, she's just an awesome lady - determined to make the coop a success, and in doing so, she does amazing things. It was me, Sylvia, and Ale holding her baby. Sylvia told me that whenever I come back, the doors to the coop are open to me. Then she added, the door to my house too, of course! And Alejandra-And to my bed too, haha (nothing scandalous, obviously) then her baby said y la teta! Saying that Ale's tit is always open to me... everyone was offering me something, and I guess his thought process was that he should offer me his mom's breast. It was hysterical.
So now I'm basically packed up to go. I'm going with almost nothing this time! Not that I have a lot after the first night in BA kicked my ass, but I got rid of a few things anyway just because I don't need a lot. So now I look like I'm going to the gym. I met this really awesome chick yesterday, Amanda from Canada, who's 33 and teacher, and is volunteering at La Juanita. She's helping them out with the Kindergarten that just started. An amazing feat actually, which I can't type about because it's too long a story. Anyway, she's one of those people that I think I blogged about before-you know them for an instant, but they give you a little idea that you carry for the rest of your life. We just talked for the almost-hour bus ride but she left a big impression! I don't know how to explain without sound a little crazy, but we talked about following feelings and staying focused on a goal while trusting that the directions you are pulled in are drawing you for some purposeful reason. Then we talked about The Alchemist, one of my favorite books, a gift from my bro Nick one xmas, and one of the better presents I've ever gotten. Read it if you're into somewhat sappy, transcendental, follow your dreams shit, but if you're not, you'll hate it. We talked about the game monopoly, in relation to the coop vs. business set-up, and it was such an interesting conversation! OK so here's the summary-take the game monopoly but instead of playing for yourself, play with the goal of everyone ending with the same amount of money. The closer you get to having the same amount of property and cash, the closer you all are to winning. Once the board is filled with houses and hotels, and you can't develop any more, the game is over, and everyone is good. From an urban planning standpoint, it's an exciting way to think about this game that I hate-fill that board up! But it's a great metaphor also-play the same game under a different set of rules (or ideology) and it's totally different, and everyone wins! So duh, normally the game ends because one person, with enough money to do so, buys everyone else out and once you have no more capital, you're S-O-L. But this way, every time someone cashes in on something, all the players conspire for the next player to cash in as well, so the cash at hand grows and grows, in the hands of everyone, rather than one person being the fat cat and everyone else being miserable. Hmmm the metaphor could go really far but due to the diverse readership (hopefully) of this blog, I'll cut it there. Interesting thought anyway. It's all mostly to say the point of a coop is that it functions like that. That's why I loved working there, and during money-talks it was really amazing to see people not being greedy. Solidarity...if only it was so easy.
Alright, I'm going to make some rice with this butternut squash I snagged from the farm, then get ready to go to my going-away party! Last night in BA, it's going to be crazy!
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Oh yeah! Uruguay was nice! It was Labor Day May 1, and nothing was open at all, not even buses! So we got there at 6am and passed out on the beach for a few hours. Amazing. Then we walked across almost the entire city and found a hostel. It was really calm, just like a vacation from vacation should be. We met a couple kids from BA and had a good time, then took the boat back on Sunday night with one of the girls from the hostel. That was after I left my book, with all of our return tickets in it, on the bus that took us from Montevideo to Colonia. I'm an idiot, and I told Kendra to get ready for plenty more of that on the trip we have ahead of us. It was a good warm-up. I bought some wool socks at this huge market there, and caught this guy in the middle of opening my backpack to rob me. He was really charming about it, actually. Today, walking to the convi from La Juanita, I caught a girl opening up my friend's bag. On the way back to the apartment the other night, there was a massive bloody mess, CSI style, on the sidewalk leading away from the ATM I used to go to when I had money in the bank. Like, a carnal bloody mess, really, you could even smell the blood. I don't know if it's a sign to watch my ass for the rest of the trip, which I'd be doing anyway, or a sign that I will continue to miss out on the bad things like that. If I get robbed again, no one will be impressed.
This post has taken a total of about 38 hours because it's now 5 am and after my goodbye party. I had planned on doing something crazy but we didn't end up leaving Piola. The guys at the bar sent us a bottle of champagne for a goodbye gift, and that made me reeallllly happy. Then Lorena came back w/ Kenj and I to drink that, and we watched Brazil carnaval videos on YouTube for about an hour, which made me REALLY happy. That was really the best week ever, I hope I can do it again sometime really soon. So tomorrow we go. We both have a lot of things to get together for the trip, but don't have to leave this apt. til 6 at night, so I can see myself sleeping until around then. I'm not sure how I'm still awake right now, but I'm even more impressed that my companions at the bakery pull the same hours every night. Raul has a 2 hour commute to this job, and Ale has a baby. Neither of them ever sleep, and I'm on autopilot on a joy-ride thru delirium just from working one night like that. Buenos Aires has kicked my ass, but I could have used a good ass-kicking before I came.
------
OK, now here I go to finish that. I had to go buy some dinner stuff last night, so that's why I got cut off. I just had a great last day at the coop, it was so much fun. I slept 3 hours in Alejandra's bed this morning, as usual, and I'm about to go to my going-away party in a couple hours, but I'm really energized! I'm always a little excited to be leaving or arriving somewhere, and this time that is going to have to get me through a few days w/ no sleep... because when you go out with Argentinians, you can't even think about getting home before sun-up. That's for bitches!
Anyway, last week I told my regular students that this would be my last week so they brought money today para tomar gaseosa y comprar facturas, to get some soda and pastries from the bakery where I work. They're between 10 and 12, I was blown away! Then I hung out with Nico, the 18 yr old kid that works at the bakery during the day to sell the stuff we make all night. When we sit around, there are usually just a few guys and we drink mate and they blow kisses and whistle at almost every single girl that walks past. Nico kissed at this one girl earlier, and this older lady came back and asked who kissed at her, joking, laughing her ass off. Then he said te amo, blanco to this girl (he was referring to the white sweater she was wearing) but I am also blanco because I'm white, so this other older lady made fun of him because she said it was like he was telling me he loved me. I ended up selling a few things (a couple CDs I took from the apartment, a can of tomato paste, a couple pairs of pants) and made a few pesos, then did my last round of goodbyes and thankyous to everyone. I was saying bye to Sylvia and Alejandra (Sylvia is Ale's aunt) and she was really sweet. First off, she's just an awesome lady - determined to make the coop a success, and in doing so, she does amazing things. It was me, Sylvia, and Ale holding her baby. Sylvia told me that whenever I come back, the doors to the coop are open to me. Then she added, the door to my house too, of course! And Alejandra-And to my bed too, haha (nothing scandalous, obviously) then her baby said y la teta! Saying that Ale's tit is always open to me... everyone was offering me something, and I guess his thought process was that he should offer me his mom's breast. It was hysterical.
So now I'm basically packed up to go. I'm going with almost nothing this time! Not that I have a lot after the first night in BA kicked my ass, but I got rid of a few things anyway just because I don't need a lot. So now I look like I'm going to the gym. I met this really awesome chick yesterday, Amanda from Canada, who's 33 and teacher, and is volunteering at La Juanita. She's helping them out with the Kindergarten that just started. An amazing feat actually, which I can't type about because it's too long a story. Anyway, she's one of those people that I think I blogged about before-you know them for an instant, but they give you a little idea that you carry for the rest of your life. We just talked for the almost-hour bus ride but she left a big impression! I don't know how to explain without sound a little crazy, but we talked about following feelings and staying focused on a goal while trusting that the directions you are pulled in are drawing you for some purposeful reason. Then we talked about The Alchemist, one of my favorite books, a gift from my bro Nick one xmas, and one of the better presents I've ever gotten. Read it if you're into somewhat sappy, transcendental, follow your dreams shit, but if you're not, you'll hate it. We talked about the game monopoly, in relation to the coop vs. business set-up, and it was such an interesting conversation! OK so here's the summary-take the game monopoly but instead of playing for yourself, play with the goal of everyone ending with the same amount of money. The closer you get to having the same amount of property and cash, the closer you all are to winning. Once the board is filled with houses and hotels, and you can't develop any more, the game is over, and everyone is good. From an urban planning standpoint, it's an exciting way to think about this game that I hate-fill that board up! But it's a great metaphor also-play the same game under a different set of rules (or ideology) and it's totally different, and everyone wins! So duh, normally the game ends because one person, with enough money to do so, buys everyone else out and once you have no more capital, you're S-O-L. But this way, every time someone cashes in on something, all the players conspire for the next player to cash in as well, so the cash at hand grows and grows, in the hands of everyone, rather than one person being the fat cat and everyone else being miserable. Hmmm the metaphor could go really far but due to the diverse readership (hopefully) of this blog, I'll cut it there. Interesting thought anyway. It's all mostly to say the point of a coop is that it functions like that. That's why I loved working there, and during money-talks it was really amazing to see people not being greedy. Solidarity...if only it was so easy.
Alright, I'm going to make some rice with this butternut squash I snagged from the farm, then get ready to go to my going-away party! Last night in BA, it's going to be crazy!
----------------------
Oh yeah! Uruguay was nice! It was Labor Day May 1, and nothing was open at all, not even buses! So we got there at 6am and passed out on the beach for a few hours. Amazing. Then we walked across almost the entire city and found a hostel. It was really calm, just like a vacation from vacation should be. We met a couple kids from BA and had a good time, then took the boat back on Sunday night with one of the girls from the hostel. That was after I left my book, with all of our return tickets in it, on the bus that took us from Montevideo to Colonia. I'm an idiot, and I told Kendra to get ready for plenty more of that on the trip we have ahead of us. It was a good warm-up. I bought some wool socks at this huge market there, and caught this guy in the middle of opening my backpack to rob me. He was really charming about it, actually. Today, walking to the convi from La Juanita, I caught a girl opening up my friend's bag. On the way back to the apartment the other night, there was a massive bloody mess, CSI style, on the sidewalk leading away from the ATM I used to go to when I had money in the bank. Like, a carnal bloody mess, really, you could even smell the blood. I don't know if it's a sign to watch my ass for the rest of the trip, which I'd be doing anyway, or a sign that I will continue to miss out on the bad things like that. If I get robbed again, no one will be impressed.
This post has taken a total of about 38 hours because it's now 5 am and after my goodbye party. I had planned on doing something crazy but we didn't end up leaving Piola. The guys at the bar sent us a bottle of champagne for a goodbye gift, and that made me reeallllly happy. Then Lorena came back w/ Kenj and I to drink that, and we watched Brazil carnaval videos on YouTube for about an hour, which made me REALLY happy. That was really the best week ever, I hope I can do it again sometime really soon. So tomorrow we go. We both have a lot of things to get together for the trip, but don't have to leave this apt. til 6 at night, so I can see myself sleeping until around then. I'm not sure how I'm still awake right now, but I'm even more impressed that my companions at the bakery pull the same hours every night. Raul has a 2 hour commute to this job, and Ale has a baby. Neither of them ever sleep, and I'm on autopilot on a joy-ride thru delirium just from working one night like that. Buenos Aires has kicked my ass, but I could have used a good ass-kicking before I came.
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