Chaska in South America

Well, our trip is over. It’s so hard to believe that I’m sitting in my old room in my parent’s house and that I dropped Matt off at the airport today and won’t be seeing him every day any more. I will probably write a couple more posts after this one and try to add some photos that aren’t already included, but this is the last one with new news about our travels. Our last week in Latin America went well and we had an interesting combination of extreme Central American experiences to some experiences that didn’t feel so Central American. After leaving Escipulas in Guatemala, we crossed the border into El Salvador where we spent four nights. We were told by people who had visited El Salvador that the best part of the country were the people and how incredibly friendly they were. Right after crossing the border, we were able to notice how true this was. Not very many people at all visit El Salvador, so the people are not as used to tourists as in other countries. We had taken a minibus to the border and walked over and then had to take a chicken bus (this is the term used by travelers to describe the North American school buses converted to city buses that are used in Guatemala and El Salvador) to a town called Santa Ana, where we planned to stay for a night. There were loads of buses and we were unsure which one to take. Several people offered to help us, including one guy sticking his head out of another bus to ask us what bus were looking for and telling us the bus number and location. Santa Ana is the second largest city in El Salvador, and we read that it was a nice place. It had a nice plaza and church, but that was really all that Matt and I found appealing about the town. Granted we were only there for one day and probably didn’t see everything. One thing that kind of shocked us was how the entire town completely seemed to shut down as soon as the sun went down. We decided we wanted some dessert at about 7 in the evening and wanted to just find a mini market to buy something, but upon leaving our hotel found that every single store that had just been open an hour prior was closed and the streets were almost completely empty. By the looks we got from the few people that were out, we got the feeling that it was just not safe there after dark, and we hurried back to the hotel. The next morning we got on a bus to San Salvador, where Matt’s friends live. Matt has two friends living in San Salvador. One of them is Matt’s old girlfriend from highschool, Jessica, who is there on a Fullbright scholorship and is interviewing several members of a Jewish communtiy living in San Salvador. She is the friend who we planned to stay with. The other friend is a childhood friend of Matt’s whom he hadn’t seen since he was about 10. She spent two years in the Peace Corp in El Salvador and then stayed afterward and has been working for another organization since then. The first night in San Salvador, we stayed at a hostel and went out in the evening with Stephanie, Matt’s childhood friend. We went to a pupuseria and had pupusas, a typical Salvadorian food (basically tortillas stuffed with beans, cheese, or other things.) We had a really nice time with Stephanie and her Salvadorian boyfriend, Eduardo. I wish we could have spent more time with them! The next day we met up with Jessica and spent the next two nights with her. The area of town where our hostel was was pretty nice, and I thought it was probably the wealthy part of town. I was wrong. It certainly wasn’t the poor part of town, but where we went the next day made it look like the slums. Jessica picked us up in her car and as we were driving to the area where she lived, she said “Just to warn you, you are now entering my world, and it’s pretty rediculous.” She was right, the world we entered was pretty surreal. We stayed in a neigborhood of houses that were basically fortresses…houses behind giant walls and metal gates and several with armed guards out front. The house that we stayed in belonged to a family that Jessica was friends with, but they weren’t there. The house was absolutey beautiful and had maids dressed in maid uniforms who, although were not supposed to be working, served us to the point of making us feel guilty. We spent two days of the good life, in which we ate at fancy restauaunts, drove around in nice cars, and even had a hired driver take us on a tour of several nearby towns on one of the days. This was definitely very different from most of the previous experiences we had in Latin America! After three days in San Salvador, we somehow never even saw the downtown but definitely had a unique experience and a really nice time!
After leaving El Salvador, we went back to Guatmemala for two last nights. We planned to go to a place called Chichi, where they have a huge market. We needed to by gifts for our families since we hadn’t bought a thing throughout our whole trip. I had a little issue though. I realized that a bunch of money was missing from my money belt. I didn’t think that it could have been stolen since not all of the money in the belt was gone, but regardless it was missing and I was kind of upset. I kind of had the feeling that I might have accidently dropped it somewhere, and it turns out I was right. Jessica later found it under the bed in the room we slept in…leave it to me to just drop money and not notice. Anyway, we ended up staying in Guatemala City the next two nights (definitely not our favorite city!) but went to Antigua one of the days to do our shopping. It was Semana Santa (holy week), and Antigua is famous for its Semana Santa celebration, so it was really cool to be there to see some of the excitement. It was way too expensive for us to sleep there, so that’s why we stayed in Guatemala City. We definitely had a truly awesome last Latin American bus experiece to and from Antigua! The trip is less than an hour, but it felt like much longer due to our condition. As I mentioned before, the buses are old school buses. They paint crazy colors and designs on the outside, but the inside is just a normal school bus. The seats are not very wide, but they pack up to three or four people into every seat, including the aisle also being absolutely filled. The law is that everyone is sitting, so at times the police stopped the bus and checked to make sure…it’s hilarious, everyone in the aisles just sit and don’t fall to the ground because everyone is packed in so tightly. The bus never fails to stop for more people either. Just when you’re absolutely sure not a single other person can fit, the bus stops and about 5 or 6 more people somehow squeeze on. Chicken buses certainly aren’t for anyone who needs to have any kind of personal space!!
Here are a few photos of our last week of our trip!

This is the day we had the hired driver in El Salvador take us to several small towns.  We stopped at an awesome restaurant and had some really good typical Salvadorian food.  Jessica is the one on the right side in the front.  Her Salvadorian friend Alesandra is next to her.  Next to Matt on the left is Jessica’s friend Karen who is from Boston and is also a Fullbright scholar.  Chomie, another Salvodorian friend of Jessica, is next to Karen.

These are two small towns that we visited.  I can’t remember the names at the moment!  They were not far from San Salvador.  You can see a vocano in the first photos…it is an active volcano and just errupted in October.  We saw some pretty intense photos of the erruption when we visited Alesandra’s uncle in the town.

We visited some aritisan shops and were able to watch some men weaving some large blankets and tapestries.

Here we are at Laguna Verde, a crater lake, that we also visited while on our day trip to the small towns.

These two photos are of the main plaza in Antigua, Guatemala the day we went on our shopping trip.  The plaza was absolutely full of people–both tourists and local people.  The indigenous people were dressed for Semana Santa in beautiful typical clothing.

We weren’t able to see any processions in Antigua since we had to get back to Guatemala City, but we were able to see a couple Good Friday processions in Guatemala City the morning of our last day.  This is one that we watched in the main plaza.

This was hilarious.  Immediately following the somber procession, and I mean immediately, there were TONS of vendors following behind selling everything you can imagine…including the guy shown here selling Dominoes pizza. 

This is a chicken bus.  We rode these several times while in Central America.  It brought back such memories of riding the bus everyday in Jr. High!  Almost all of them are painted bright colors like this and have names.

One last photo.  This was taken in Guatemala City, but it really shows what a typical street scene in any city in Central or South America looks like.  We’ve got the fresh fruit vendor, food vendors, bootleg CD’s and DVD’s on a blanket, and crappy immitation designer products.  I miss it already!

Well, that was our last week of an incredible journey.  Matt and I got back to California Friday night really late and both felt so strange…I still have to gather some thoughts, stories, and photos that I would like to include before I finish with this blog, so stay tuned over the next couple weeks.  Thanks so much for reading this and being a part of my adventure. 

Like my first week in Guatemala, my second was great too.  It started out really busy and ended a little bit more relaxed.  When I last posted, Matt and I were in Guatemala City waiting for a bus to go to Tikal.  Tikal is an ancient Mayan civilization set in the midst of the jungle in northern Guatemala.  We took an overnight busride of about 8 hours to town called Flores and arrived at about 6am.  We then got a small shuttle to take us to Tikal.  We were told by some other people that had already visited Tikal that the best time to see it was just before sunset and just after the sunrise because the park is practically empty and you’re able to see many more animals than during the day.  The town of Flores is about and hour from Tikal and many people stay there and take a day trip to Tikal.  In order to see Tikal in the evening and morning though, you have to stay within the national park, so Matt and I decided we would take our chances and hoped to find a place to stay there.  We were able to rent a tent at a  hotel that had tents set up in there courtyard, so things worked out really well.  We spent several hours in the ruins during the day, but it was really crowded and really hot, so we decided to save our energy for later in the evening.  Matt started to feel a little rundown though, so I went back into the ruins on my own in the late afternoon while Matt rested.  It was absolutely amazing how much better Tikal was after about 4 o’clock and most of the daytrip tourists were gone.  The park is huge and really amazing…the pyramids are enormous and are spread out a pretty far distance from each other with beautiful jungle throughout the whole place.  The trees are absolutely full of playful monkeys after most of the tourists leave and I spent a good half hour just watching them swing and play in the trees.  Most of the monkeys are small and the only noise they make is a squeeking noise every once in a while, but there are also howler monkeys that make the loudest, craziest noise you can imagine.  I now know where they got the noise that Chewbaca makes in Star Wars!  When Matt and I first heard the noise earlier in the day, we thought it was some kind of lion or something…it’s shocking when you see the monkeys and realize that they’re actually really small.  I was told by some people I talked to in Costa Rica that you can see parrots and toucans at sunset and sunrise, and that the best place to see the sunset was from the top of a pyramid.  There is one pyramid in particular that is supposed to be the best one to watch the sunset, so I found this pyramid and climbed the enourmouse ancient stairs to the top.  It’s pretty high up and a little bit scary, especially if you have any kind of fear of heights, so several people that had intended to watch the sunset from the top never made it.  This was an advantage for those of us who did make the climb because it ended up that there were less than 20 of us up there that had the whole thing to ourselves.  I’ve seen some beautiful sunsets (being from California and living right next to Sunset Cliffs in San Diego for several years), but I think this was the best one I’ve ever experienced.  Everyone who was on top of the pyramid with me was really cool and I talked to several of them for a while.  Just before the sun went down, all of the sudden, tons of beautiful parrots started flying all around, and then tons of toucans appeared and started flying all around us as well.  It was absolutely magical.  On top of this, there were so many wonderful jungle sounds, including the howler monkeys howling away in the nearby trees.  There was no way my camera could capture how amazing all of this was, so I didn’t even really try.  As soon as the sun went down, we all hurried down the pyramid and hurried outside of the park, but it’s about a 30 minute walk to get out, so it was pretty much pitch dark by the time we made it out…I’m glad I wasn’t alone!  There were fireflies flying all around though and the nighttime jungle noises and the stars were incredible. 

The park where the ruins are doesn’t open in the morning until 6am, which is after the sun rises, but several people that were at the sunset with me said that you could hire a guide to take you into the park before that so that you could watch the sunrise.  Since Matt didn’t get to see the incredibel sunset with me that night, we both decided along with a French guy Emanuel, who we had met earlier in the day, to wake up at 4:30 and pay a guide to take us into the park so that we could watch the sunrise from the top of a pyramid.  It wasn’t too dificult waking up that early since we were in a tent with no sleeping bags or blankets on the hardest ground imaginable and not really getting much sleep anyway.  Quite a few people had decided to do the same thing, bus somehow, even though our guide waited way too long to see if others would join us, we ended up being the first ones on top of the pyramid that morning and the only ones to actually be there when it was dark and experience the change from night to day.  We were on a different pyramid from the one I was on the night before–this one being the tallest one in Tikal.  About 30 or 40 people showed up before the sun was all the way up and spoiled our peace and quiet, but it was still absolutely beautiful.  After watching the sun come up, we decided to get away from the crowd and headed over to the pyramid that I had watched the sunset from the night before.  Emanuel, Matt, Jenna ( a girl I had met the night before during the sunset), and I were the only ones at the top of this pyramid and once again the parrots and toucans began flying all around and the monkeys howled like crazy in the trees.  I’m so glad that I didn’t just visit Tikal on a quick daytrip…I would have missed out on two incredible experiences.  Here are a few photos from Tikal.

 This is Templo I.  You can’t climb this one anymore, because I guess two people fell off and died.  I really don’t think it’s any more dangerous than the other though, and they let you climb almost all the rest! 

This is Templo II.  I think this is the easiest one to climb and the one that most people do climb.  There are wooden stairs that they built on the side, so you don’t have to climb up the stairs in the front.

 Here’s Templo IV peeking out from the jungle. 

 Here’s a monkey that was playing in the trees.  This one isn’t a howler monkey…they were too high up to get a decent picture of them. 

Matt and Emanuel at the top of Templo IV, waiting for the sun to rise.

The sun rising above the fog. 

A toucan in the midst of the morning fog.  I’m SO happy that I was able to see toucans.  They were incredible, and I didn’t only see one, I saw tons.

Matt, Jenna, Emanuel, and I at the top of El Templo del Mundo Perdido. 

After our second day in Tikal, Emanuel decided to join Matt and I for the next couple days.  We headed to Rio Dulce.  Rio Dulce is a long river that connects the lake Lago Izabel to the Caribbean Sea.  We were told by several people that it was amazing and shouldn’t be missed.  We left Tikal in the afternoon and didn’t make it to the town of Rio Dulce until early evening.  We decided not to stay directly in the town, which isn’t very nice, and stayed at a hotel that was a little ways down the river.  The hotel was really cool.  You have to take a boat to get there and it’s in its own little swamp with the the rooms sitting above the swamp.  We only stayed there one night and then went on to a town called Livingston the next morning.  Livingston is at the very end of the Rio Dulce, right where it dumps into the Caribbean.  The town can only be reached by boat and is more like Belize (which is just a short ways away) than Guatemala.  The Garifuna people (black Caribs) live here and the whole town has a more Caribbean feel than Guatemalan feel.  I really liked Livingston a lot.  Emanuel stayed with us for one night, and then he went on to Belize.  Matt and I stayed in Livingston one more night and just spent the entire day relaxing–mostly just reading in the hammocks at the hotel.  We were going to hurry to another really cool place that we were told about in another part of Guatemala, but then we just realized that another full day of travel was the last thing we wanted to do.  We decided to skip that place and just chill out for a couple days.  We then took another beautiful boatride back up the Rio Dulce back to the town of Rio Dulce and stayed there for one night, also just relaxing.  Today we woke up early and took a long bus ride to a town called Esquipulas, which is really close to both the borders of Hondures and El Salvador.  Tomorrow, we’re going to go to El Salvador.  Matt has two good friends that are living in El Salvador, so we’ll go visit them for a few days and then come back to Guatemala for a couple days before our flight back the States.  I cannot believe that we have exactly one week left of this trip!!!!  We fly back to Los Angeles on the evening of the 14th.  Well, here are a few photos from Rio Dulce.

 Matt, Emanuel, and I at the cool hotel we stayed at on the Rio Dulce.

These three photos were taken on one of the two boat rides we took on the Rio Dulce.  The river was absolutely beautiful and the boat rides were great.

 Here’s a picture of part of the main street in Livingston.

This is the church here in Esquipulas, which is rather famous for it’s Cristo Negro (black Christ.)  Lots of pilgrims come especially to see this and since next week is Easter, there are tons of people here now.  The plaza is packed with really poor and crippled people begging.  Matt and I walked into the church earlier and it was full of people all over the ground with candles burning absolutely everywhere.  I guess a lot of people enter on their knees, and most of the people in their were either on their knees or lying on the ground with candles burning on the floor all around.  It was actually kind of creepy!  Also, upon leaving the church, many people walk backwards so as not to turn their back to the church.  They do this while singing and chanting, which was also kind of strange. 

I had intended to make this post short, but as you can see, I wasn’t very successful…sorry!  The next time I post, I think I’ll probably be home in California.  This has been such an incredible journey, and I’m hoping for a great last week! 

When I last posted, I was on my way to the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. I didn’t have an exact plan when I left Monte Verde–I just knew I wanted to go to the Pacific coast and had a couple different towns in mind.  Monte Verde is tiny, and the only bus that leaves from there goes to San Jose, so I was told that I needed to get off along some highway and then just wait for a bus to come along headed to whatever town I wanted to go to.  These were the most detailed instructions I could get from anyone.  The bus ended up being completely packed, including the aisles full of people standing…it was claustraphobic, hot, and incredibly uncomfortable.  I luckily didn’t miss the spot I was supposed to get off, despite the fact that there was no indication as to where we were each time we stopped.  By this point though it was late afternoon and would be getting dark soon, so I was a bit worried about actually getting to the Pacific coast that day.  One other guy got off at the same spot as me and we started talking.  He was trying to get to the Pacific coast too and was trying to get to a town called Puntarenas to catch a ferry over to the Peninsula de Nicoya on the Pacific coast.  I decided that it was probably best to join him rather than trying to get over there on my own, so the two of us figured out what bus to get on and got ourselves to Puntarenas.  On the bus ride, we introduced ourselves–his name was Tony and was from Portland, Oregon..an architect interested in ecologically inspired architecture and had just finished a conference in the south of Costa Rica.  Once we arrived to Puntarenas, it was dark and we figured there was no way we would be able to get anywhere else that night.  We compared guide books and found a cheap place to stay for the night and decided to try and catch the ferry early the next morning.  We ended up getting the ferry at 8am and then were able to get a bus to a place called Montezuma at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula.  Montezuma was reccommended to both us by several people as being a cool layed back town where a lot of young travellers went.  It was a nice little town with beautiful beaches, but I just couldn’t get over how full of foreigners it was.  Like the rest of the places I had been to Costa Rica, I was a bit turned off at how overtaken it was by Ameicans and Europeans.  I spent two days there, hanging out with Tony, and then I decided that I wanted to see another place before heading back to San Jose.  I headed to a place not far from Montezuma called Malpais.  Malpais was a bit more remote than Montezuma and didn’t really have a town center.  I got off the bus at one hostel only to find it was full and then had to walk about 20 minutes to get to the next hostel.  Malpais is definitely a surf town, again just completely overtaken by foreigners (primarily Americans.)  It was a bit sad to find that practically the only Costa Ricans I encountered were the hired help at the American or other foreign owned establishments.  I had a nice time hanging out at the beach for a couple days in Malpais and met some cool people at the hostel I stayed at and had a nice time with them.  I spent the most time with a Canadian couple and Swedish couple, both who had been to Guatemala before coming to Costa Rica, and I got some good tips from them.  Both agreed with my feeling that Costa Rica was nice but had virtually no culture, and they assured me that I would not be disappointed by Guatemala.  After two nights in Malpais, I headed back to San Jose and was reunited with my poor sick travel partner.  Matt had spent the entire week in a bland hotel room, only leaving to eat and check his email. He made up for the months of being completely cut off from the rest of the world by watching cable television for a week straight and was able to update me on the occurences of the world.  He also was feelling A LOT better and felt like he definitely could finish up the trip with me (yay!!!)  Here are a few photos from the Pacific coast of Costa Rica before moving on the Guatemala. 

This is the beach in Montezuma.   The hostel I stayed in was directly on this beach. 

 This is another part of the beach in Montezuma.  The weather was great and it was really beautiful. 

The morning of the day I left Montezuma, Tony and I hiked to this waterfall.  It was really pretty.  When we got there, there was hardly anyone there, but soon after a tour group of about 30 senior citizen French people showed up!  

 Tony and I checking out some tide pools on the way pack from our hike to the waterfall. 

After spending one last night in San Jose, Matt and I took a really short plane ride over to Guatemala.  We had been told that Guatemala City is not very safe and not really worth seeing anyway, so we immediately took a shuttle bus to a town called Antigua, which is about an hour from Guatemala City.  Antigua is described in our guide book as being “impossibly cute”, and that’s a perfect description.  The town is seriously perfect looking…a huge difference from Guatemala City!  It’s a colonial town just as cute as Colonia, Uruguay and Paraty, Brazil but on a much larger scale.  Because of it being such a cute town though, it is FULL of tourists.  There are tons of language students there and a lot of rich foreigners, so things are not nearly as cheap as the rest of Guatemala.  We spent two nights there and basically just walked around and enjoyed the pretty town.  Here a few pictures of Antigua.

 Here is one of the main streets in Antigua.  I absolutely loved all the colors of the buildings there. 

 Antigua is surrounded by three different volcanoes.  Here is one of them…I’m not sure which one. 

 The main church in Antgua.  You can’t really tell from this picture.  But the white design on the church is really intricate and beautiful.

After two nights in Antigua, we headed over to Lago Atitlan, one of the biggest lakes in Guatemala with several nice towns surrounding the lake.  We went to the largest town on the lake first, called Panajachel.  Panajachel is also very touristy, but in a different way than Antigua.  In the 60’s and 70’s it apparantly was packed full of hippies.  It still retains much of the hippie vibe, although there are definitely more than just hippies there now.  We took a small shuttle bus from Antigua to Panajachel and on the way met some cool people.  One of the girls, Marilou from Quebec, was staying in Panajachel for a night as well, so the three of us went to the same hostel and ended up hanging out for several days after that.  After a night in Panajachel, the three of us took a small boat accross the lake to a small town called San Pedro de Laguna.  We were told by several people that this was a cool little town where a lot of young travelers went.  The town is tiny but has a ton of small language schools there, and a lot of people go there to learn Spanish.  There a lot of cool bars and cafes to hang out at because of this.  One of the days we were in San Pedro, Matt, Marilou, and I rented kayaks and kayaked over to another tiny town called San Marcos.  San Marcos is a town that has been taken over by people really into metaphysical stuff and the place is full of meditation centers, energy healing places, palm readers, etc.  It was really pretty there and we took a small hike and went swimming in the lake, which was much cleaner and nicer than it was in San Pedro. 

After two nights in San Pedro, Marilou went on her way to another part of Guatemala, and Matt and I went to one other town on the lake.  When my dad was a little younger than me, he spent about 6 months living in Guatemala in a tiny town called Santiago de Atitlan.  I decided that I wanted to visit Santiago while we were here, so Matt and I spent one night there.  Santiago is a lot different than the other towns on the lake in that it isn’t quite so full of foreigners.  Tourists come to the town usually just for a couple hours on tours of the lake, but not many people stay there.  There really isn’t anything to do there, but the lake is beautiful and you really get a more authentic view of the lives of the Mayan people and they way they live.  Here are some photos from the towns we visited on Lago Atitlan.  I don’t have any pictures of San Marcos since we kayaked over there and I didn’t want my camera to get wet on the way. 

 Matt and Marilou in Panajachel.  You can see one of the several volcanoes that are located on the lake as well.

 This is a photo of San Pedro, taken from the boat we took to get there from Panajachel.

It was really cool–the lake was full of Guatemalan women washing clothes in the river, as you can see in both the above photos. 

 On the same shuttle ride where we met Marilou, we had met two twins from England who were going to be studying in San Pedro for a couple weeks.  We happened to run into them again while we were in San Pedro and hung out with them and a friend of theirs one night. 

 Two photos of Lago Atitlan in Santiago.  In the bottom photo you can see the another volcano on the lake.  You can climb the volcanoes, but apparantly it’s really dangerous because of bandits and robbers on the trails.  Tourists are advised to hire a police escort (equipped with automatic rifles) to accompany them up the volcanoes. 

 The traditional dress of the women is SO beautiful.  The bottom picture is of a little girl who I bought some pillow cases from.  She’s standing in front of examples of the tops that the women where. 

Here is a women weaving a tapestry.  When my dad lived in Santiago, he learned to weave from an old woman there.  I stopped to talk to several women weaving and told them that my father had learned to weave there over 30 years ago, and they were all SO friendly and interested to know more. 

 Some photos taken in front of the church in Santiago de Atitlan. 

After Santiago, Matt and I went to a town called Quetzaltenango for two nights.  We took a hike yesterday up to some thermal baths but ended up not going in them.  The hike was beautiful though and all the people we met along the way SO friendly.  Today, we left Quetzal tenango and are now back in Guatemala City for a few hours.  We are headed up north to Tikal, the Mayan pyramids.  Tikal is supposed to absolutely amazing, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.  We’ve now been in Guatemala for just over a week, and so far I absolutely love it here.  It is so full of culture (a nice change after Costa Rica) and there are so many great places to see and things to do.  It is really cheap too, which is perfect since we’re at the very end of our trip.  Sorry for making this SO long.  I hope you are well!

Well, Costa Rica so far has been full of interesting developments.  First of all, we found out a few days ago that Matt’s “inflamed kidney”, according to the first doctor he went to see, is in fact hepatitis.  We found this out after leaving San Jose thinking that the doctor was right and Matt would feel better very soon.  We went to a place on the Carribean coast called Cahuita, which is a tiny little town that doesn’t even have a bank or pharmacy, let alone a hospital of any kind.  As I mentioned in my last post, I have been having some money problems.  My ATM card expired at the end of February and on the last day that I was able to get money out of the ATM, the machine in Brazil, didn’t give me my money but charged my account (I’ve disputed the charge…we’ll see what happens.)  Therefore, I have been without ANY money whatsoever for the past couple weeks.  My parents sent my new card to the main post office in San Jose, but as I mentioned before, it never arrived.  Having already borrowed way too much money from Matt, I had to have my parents wire me some money, but of course with my luck, not even that worked out!  The Western Union office in San Jose didn’t have any money both times I went on two different days (have you ever heard of a money wiring service not having money?)  So, since we already had tickets to Cahuita, where there is no Western Union office, poor sick Matt and broke Chaska went to Cahuita anyway. 

Soon after arriving, Matt felt worse than ever.  He got the worst pain in his stomach and just felt awful.  He decided he could make it through the night, but we decided that he should probably come to Limon with me the next morning.  Limon is the biggest town on the Carribean coast and, according to the internet, was where the nearest Western Union was and also where the nearest hospital was.  We got up really early in the morning and took the horrible, hot, bumpy bus ride to Limon with Matt just feeling terrible.  I was able to finally get my money from Western Union, but the hospital visit was not so easy and painless.  We arrived at the hospital before 10 in the morning and didn’t leave until after 10 at night.  After various tests and even an ultra sound to check out his liver, it was established that he in fact did have hepatitis…most likely hepatitis A.  He probably got it form something he ate or drank within the last month and a half, we have no way of knowing exactly what or where.  There is no treatment for hepatitis, just rest and time.  They gave him an IV for several hours because he was dehydrated and prescribed him some pills to treat some of his symptoms like nausea, but that’s all they could really do.  There is a pretty good chance that I could have hepatitis too because it can be passed from person to person, but so far I haven’t shown any of the symptoms (I’m REALLY hoping it stays that way!) 

So, after finding out that Matt has hepatitis, he had some serious decisions to make.  Many people said he should go home, but the truth is it doesn’t matter where he is as long as he rests, and making the arrangements to go home would be far more stressful and tiresome for him than just resting here.  We left Cahuita the day after the hospital for a town just a half hour away called Puerto Viejo de Talamanca and he mostly just stayed in bed all day.  After two nights there, we headed back to San Jose, where I had to do some more things about my money issues and where we had to decide what to do about Matt.  He decided that the best thing to do would be to check into a hotel and rest for the rest of the time we have in Costa Rica.  So, that’s what he’s doing now.  He’s in San Jose lying in bed and watching cable television while I travel on my own for this week we have left here.  I’m now in a place called Monte Verde, which is in the central highlands and has amazing cloud forrests surrounding it.  I went hiking in one of the reserves yesterday and it was absolutely beautiful.  Outside of San Jose, Costa Rica is incredibly beautiful…it’s just amazing how beautiful.  However, I feel like its beauty is somewhat spoiled by the amount of tourists.  It is beautiful though, and despite the money and illness issues, I’m enjoying my time here.  Here are just a few photos of the Carribean Coast and of Monte Verde. 

This is a photo in Cahuita.  The weather was pretty cloudy and rainy while we were there, but it was really a really cute town.  The Carribean coast is so different from the rest of Costa Rica.  It’s more like what I imagine Jamaica to be like.  There are a lof of people from African decsent. and they speak a Carribean style English or a Creole dialect that is imposible to understand.  Lots of rastafarians with dreads and lots of reggae music being played!

This is in the national reserve in Cahuita.  It’s a forrest right on the beach with dense trees and bushes just full of animals.  I took a walk through it on my own the morning of the day we left Cahuita, while Matt rested at the hostel. 

Monkeys!!!  This is the first time I’ve seen moneys in the wild, and they made me so happy.  Swinging from the branches, throwing the remains of the fruit they were eating at me, just having a great time being monkeys. 

 Just a couple other photos taken in the reserve.  It was just absoluely beautiful. 

This is in Puerto Viejo, the town we went to after Cahuita.  Puerto Viejo is a little bit bigger than Cahuita, but it also is really small and cute with a big rastafarian vibe.

This is Salsa Brava, the best surf break in Puerto Viejo.  As you can see, it wasn’t breaking very big this day, but there were still lots of surfers out every day we were there. 

 This is here in Monte Verde yesterday when I went to the Santa Elena Cloud Forrest Reserve.  It was amazing…so green, lush, and beautiful.  I didn’t see any animals except for a few bugs and birds, but I was completely alone on my three hour walk through the forrest and it was a really cool feeling to be in the middle of a forrest like this.

 Well, that’s it for now.  Needless to say, this part of our trip has been a little different than the rest…having to deal with hospitals, illness, money problems, and what not.  As my dad said to me though, just some more stories to add to the hundreds we already have from this trip so far.  I’m heading over to the Pacific coast today and will be over there until Thursday.  Then I’ll return to San Jose and see how Matt’s doing.  We will fly to Guatamala on Friday and if Matt’s feeling well enough, we’ll continue as planned.  Otherwise, we’ll see what we do.  I’ll keep you updated.  I hope you’re all doing really well.  I can’t believe I have just a month left of this trip! 

It’s only been a little over a week since I last wrote, but I’ve done so much that it seems like much much longer! Matt and I left Paraty on the last day of Carnaval and took a bus to Sao Paulo, where we were scheduled to leave from to go to Venezuela. We had a full day in Sao Paulo in which we basically just walked around and tried to see some of the city. Sao Paulo is enormous–the third biggest city in the world. Despite being so large though, there really didn’t seem to be that many cool things to see as a tourist. We took the metro and saw some different areas, but mostly we just walked around and sat around trying to pass the time. I think it’s a city that you really need to know someone who can show you around and take you to the cool spots. We were scheduled to leave from the airport on Thursday at 6am, which meant that we had to be at the airport by 3am. A taxi to the airport was really expensive, and the metro and airport bus shuttle only ran until midnight, so we decided to take the metro and just stay up all night at the airport.
So, we arrived to Caracas, Venezuela on Thusday afternoon not having slept hardly at all for over 24 hours. We felt SO out of it upon arriving, and Caracas is not exactly the kind of city where being “out of it” is such a great thing! Several months ago, Matt talked to some Australians in Lima who had just come form Caracas and kept describing it as “heaps dodgy”, and they were right.  Upon leaving customs and going out into the airport, we were immediately bombarded by people from all sides yelling at us trying to get us to change money, hire a taxi, book a trip, etc.  We managed to get through them, but being the ultra organized travellers that Matt and I are, we had no set plan for what we were going to do once arriving to Caracas.  We knew we wanted to go to a place called Merida as soon as we could, but we had no plane or bus reservations.  We walked over to the domestic terminal and inquired about plane ticket prices for that day or the next, but they were much more expensive than we were willing to pay. So, we took our chances and decided to get a taxi to the bus station and hoped to get tickets for a bus that night.  Getting into central Caracas wasn’t such an easy feat though.  A couple months ago, the highway going from the airport into Caracas partially collapsed into the ground or something like that, and now what used to take 45 minutes to get into Caracas was taking up to 3 or 4 hours.  We talked to a couple taxi drivers and were told that there was an alternative route, but it would cost us a lot more.  We decided to pay to take the alternative route, and I’m really glad that we did.  It was a really cool drive over a mountain and had spectacular views of the ocean, which the airport is literally directly next to. The surrounding scenery on the mountain was just beautiful…very tropical. We also went through several “barrios”, or shanty towns, and found an interesting trend. Even though most of the houses were made from scrap metal and other materials and often didn’t have proper doors or windows, they almost all had a Direct TV satelite dish sticking off the side. Although, we didn’t go into any “villas” in Argentina, we were told that it’s the same there. Another thing that was very evident while on the drive to the bus station was the military presence. Every couple hundred feet or so, there was a checkpoint with several military men just standing around with enormous guns. We were only stopped once by one of these check points, and the officer just looked in at Matt and I and asked how we were and then allowed the taxi to keep going. Our taxi driver was incredibly friendly and talked to us a lot about the current political situation and told us how he felt about the current president Hugo Chavez. Although he admitted that he’s a little crazy and excessive at times, he told us that he’s been an excellent president and has done some really good things for the “pueblo” or common people of Venezuela. It was really interesting to talk to him about all this. Oh, one other thing that was really evident as soon as we stepped out of the airport were the size of the cars in Venezuela.  They are all huge!  I hadn’t seen so many huge SUV’s and trucks since leaving the U.S.  The over abundance of oil that Venezuela possesses is definitely evident, and you won’t believe how cheap gas is.  It literally is cheaper than water there–97bolivares cents for a liter (about 5 cents a liter, which would be about 20 CENTS A GALLON!!!)  Once arriving to the bus station, we once more had to fight through tons of really sketchy looking people yelling things at us, and were luckily able to get a bus ticket for a bus that left just an hour and a half later. Once on the bus and on our way, we felt a lot better…a couple hours was enough of Caracas for us.
We spent almost 14 hours on the bus to get to Merida and didn’t sleep hardly at all. The buses in Venezuela are absolutely FREEZING because they keep the air on at full blast. Later we found that there was a warning about this in our guide book and then were warned by several Venezuelans to always have a blanket or big jacket when riding the buses. Once in Merida we booked into a hostel right away and slept a good part of the day. Merida is a nice town up in the Andes Mountains. It is absolutely nothing like Caracas! The area surrounding Merida is absolutely beautiful, and outdoor activities are the thing to do while there, which we did tons of.

Our week in Merida was full of really cool activities. There are tons and tons of travel offices offering trips to a bunch of different places around Merida. We really wanted to do a 2 or 3 day trip, but we ended up staying in Merida the whole time and just did a different activity everyday. One of the big things in Merida is the the “teleferico” (cable car). It’s the longest cable car in the world and takes you 12.5 kilometers and takes you up to almost 5,000 meters.  There are four stations and takes about 2 hours to get to the top.  The change from the bottom to the top is pretty incredible.  It starts off in a really green cloud forrest where it’s really warm and then changes to a really arid mountainous landscape, and finally at the top it’s FREEZING and just rock.  After the teleferico we went to another one of Merida’s claims to fame.  Merida has an icecream shop that is in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the most flavors–over 800.  The man who owns it is an older man from Portugal, and he was the one that served us while we were there which was really cool.  He has the craziest flavors, including spaghetti and meatballs, ham and cheese, shrimp, onion and a bunch of other discusting flavors.  He also had normal flavors, which we ordered…not till after he made us try the ham and cheese flavor though.  The place was really cool…like a museum.  
The day after our teleferico ride and icecream shop, we ended up talking to a guy in our hostel who had wanted to do the same 2 day trip as we did through a tour agency.  Not enough people signed up, so we couldn’t do the trip, but the guy at the agency suggested going to a small town about an hour away and then hiking down to another town.  We decided to do the hike with the guy at our hostel, Olaf. Then in the morning, just before leaving, two others asked if they could come.  The towns were really cute, and the two hour walk was in scenery that was absolutely beautiful, but our day was more or less completely ruined because of one of the guys that came with us.  He was an Australian guy that Matt and I hadn’t met before going on the hike, but we had heard him talking to others, and we knew that it was going to be awful to have hime come with us.  Having him along was FAR worse than I ever could imagine it could be.  I can honestly say that he is the most abrasive, offensive, and just downright obnoxious person I have ever met.  Matt and I got really close to just punching him in the face a couple times because he was so bad.  I’ve never felt that annoyed by anyone in my life!  Here are some photos from our hike that day…it was so beautiful, it’s too bad we had that guy with us!!

 This is the church in the main square of the tiny little town of Jaji, where we started our hike.

 Here are the guys walking through the beautiful green scenery.  The guy on the far left is the horribly annoying guy, John.  The others were Claudio from Italy and Olaf from Germany.

The day after our too long day with John, Matt and I signed up for a day long trip called the Mixed Tour.  It consisted of 4x4ing (which was really just the ride to the place in a jeep), mountain biking, and horseback riding.  There were 7 people that went and two guides, and after our previous day with the most annoying person in the world, this day was wonderful.  Everyone in the group was really cool and we all got along really well.  We actually went back the same area we had been the day before on our hike to do some of the mountain biking, so this time we could enjoy it without being annoyed.  We did about 5km of flat and downhill biking and then we stopped at one point and were told that the following 4km were straight uphill.  The guides told us that we had the option of putting our bikes on top of the jeep and riding up if we felt we couldn’t do it.  Despite feeling really out of shape on the previous 5km, I decided to at least attempt the uphill.  I surprised myself and I think everyone else by being the third to the top.  Dad, you would have been so proud of me. I didn’t get off and walk my bike once the entire way!  After getting to the top of the hill, we put our bikes on top ot the jeep and drove a pretty long ways higher up the mountain.  Then, we got out and got back on the bikes and had over 15km of straight downhill riding, which took us less than half the time of the 4km uphill.  What an adreniline rush!  After our downhill ride, we rode over to a restaurant and had lunch and then got back in the jeep and drove about an hour and half to a little village, where we started our horseback ride.  The weather at this point turned really bad and we ended up getting poured on and hurrying back to the village as soon as possible.  What a great day though, I got to mountain bike and horseback ride in one day…two of my favorite things to do.  Here a couple photos from our day.

Here are the seven of us about to start our uphill ride.  From the left, Catarina and Fausto (Italy), Camilla (Denmark), me, Morten (Denmark), Matt, and Sonny (Switzerland.)

Here we are just after our uphill ride, everyone looking all sweaty and flushed.

That night, after our full day of bike riding and horseback riding, we were really tired, but we had had such a great time with all the people we were with, that a few of us decided to meet up that night.  We ended up staying out almost all night and had the best time together.  The next day two of the guys we had gone out with, Sonny and Morten (Swiss and Danish) and Matt and I took a bus ride out to some nearby thermal baths.  We were all sore from our previous day and tired from our night out, so it was just perfect.  Matt and I got along so well with these two guys and we spent over two hours at lunch that day just cracking up at different stories they each had.  Morten and his two friends left that night, so we took him out for a goodbye drink and then Matt and I went to dinner with Sonny, who was wonderful and treated us to dinner because we would be leaving the next day.  After meeting such a horrible person on Monday, it was SO nice to meet such great people! 

On the day that Matt and I left Merida, I did by the far the most extreme thing I have ever done.  The latest craze in Merida at all the tour offices is this activity called canyoning.  It consists of doing some steep downhill climbing, repelling down waterfalls, jumping off huge rocks into the river, and going through small rapids.  Our Danish friends Morten and Camilla had done it the day before we met them and couldn’t stop talking about it.  Sonny, who is definitely the extreme sport type (he gashed his leg open kite surfing just a couple weeks prior) really wanted to go and tried to convince Matt and I to come along.  Matt decided he really would rather not, but despite being terrified, it sounded incredible to me and I really wanted to do it.  So, the morning of the day that Matt and I were scheduled to leave Sonny and I went canyoning with two guides.  It was by far one of the biggest highlights of my entire trip in South America.  I was scared out of my mind at times, but I did everything!  I had honestly never felt so much adreniline or felt so frightened and excited at the same time…it was awesome.  The scenery of where we were was the most beautiful you can imagine too.  We were in a river with amazing waterfalls, with trees with tarzan looking vines hanging down all around, and with beautiful buttrflies and birds flying around.  The guides had a water safe box they took with them and I was able to take my camera along so they could take pictures of me.  Most of them didn’t turn out that well, but here are a few potos.

 Here we are, starting our hike down to the river.  Sonny is next to me and one of our guides Eduardo is next to him. 

 Here I am being trained on repelling….just before our first waterfall.  The first waterfall was the smallest we did, but in some ways the most difficult because we repelled right through the water.  It was an incredible feeling, having water just crash down on you as you repel down the side of a rock.  Yes, I was more scared than I ever have been.

 That thing with the yellow helmet is me!!!  This is the second waterfall we did.  It took me a while to work up the courage to do this one because when you looked down from the top you couldn’t see the bottom because of a huge rock that stuck out.  At one point, I was going to go down with one of the guides, but then I did on my own.   

 This is a really bad photo because of the spray of the water, but here I am hanging down at the bottom unsure of what to do next.  The thing is once you reach the bottom, you find yourself in the water in a really strong current…you have to be realy careful.

 Sonny and I after our second waterfall.  Look at the water splash at th bottom of the fall behind us!

 We stopped for lunch in the middle of the river.  It was so beautiful all around.  The one in the helmet is our guide Hector, who was also one of our mountain biking guides.  The one cutting bread is our other guide Eduardo, and Sonny is sitting over to the right.

This is Sonny at the bottom of our third and last waterfall.  I tried to take pictues of the whole waterfall, but it was so big it wouldn’t fit and the splash of the water was so strong that I couldn’t get a good one.  We were told that this waterfall is about 30 meters high, and it definitely was the most dangerous one.  I cannot believe that I actually did it! 

Canyoning was so much fun, and I’m so glad that I did it.  I felt so good about myself afterwards…those of you that know me well, know that I’m not the most athletic or brave person when it comes to this kind of stuff.  After getting back from canyoning, Matt and I left on an overnight bus to go back to Caracas.  The next morning, when arriving to Caracas, I found that I could barely move.  My entire body was sore, from my legs all the way up fo my neck and shoulders.  Matt had to help me with getting my backpack on and off that entire day!  After arriving at the bus station in Caracas, we immediately got a bus to the airport and left for San Jose, Costa Rica, where we are now.  We’ve been in San Jose for two nights.  I have some major money problems at the moment.  A really long story, but my ATM card expired and I was supposed to have my new one waiting for me at the post office here in San Jose.  Matt has been absolutely wonderful and has been acting as my personal bank the past week.  The card’s not here, so I’m going to have to come back to San Jose in a few days and figure out what to do. Matt has been feeling horrible the past few days.  Last night was the worst and he thought he might have a kidney infection. He got up early this morning and went to the doctor and was told that his kidney is probably just inflamed, and that there’s not much to be done.  We are going to head over to the Carribean coast today because we can’t stand being in San Jose any longer…I really hope Matt starts to feel better soon though!  Costa Rica so far has been my least favorite country.  It’s SO Americanized here in San Jose, it’s kind of disgusting.  I know that the coast will be A LOT nicer…I’m looking forward to being there.  I hope you are well, and I will write again soon! 

Sorry for not updating this blog in such a long time!  Brazil has turned to be a pretty exciting, intense place, and spending time in an internet cafe has been one of the last things on my mind.  I’ve really fallen in love with this country and can definitely say that it may be one of the most beautiful places I’ve been.  The culture and people are wonderful, and I’m having such an incredible time.  After leaving the south of Brazil Matt and I moved up to Florianopolis.  Florianopolis is actually an island but is very close to the mainland and is connected by a large bridge.  We met a group of other travellers at a hostel that we stayed in in the island center and ended up all going to a small beach on the island called Barro do Lagoa that was absolutely wonderful.  A tiny beach town with a really fun atmosphere.  The “thing to do” there was to rent an apartment or house with friends and hang out for as long as you wanted.  The town was full of young travellers from all over, with a huge Chilean representation.  There were a total of 7 of us that had met at the hostel and so we rented two apartments together and it worked out to be a lot cheaper than staying in a hostel and also a lot more comfortable.  The 6 days that we spent there were amazing.  We spent both all day and all night on the beach.  Aside from being in an absolutely beautiful location, the nightlife was really good there too.  There were small beach bars and music on the beach all night long, and just a lot of really cool people to hang out with.  I’ve mentioned before that we continually run into people who we met in other locations along our travels and it happened again here.  We ran into several people who were at the same hostel as us in Mendoza, Argentina.  I had mentioned in my last post that we had met a lot of really cool people there, so it was really nice to run back into these people.  Florianopolis has something like 42 beaches that are all supposed to be just amazing, but somehow we ended up staying at this one tiny beach area the entire time.  Actually just before leaving, we were able to go out to one other beach called Campeche, and it too was wonderful…a lot less crowded than Barro do Lagoa and more of a place where locals went.  

Rio was Matt and my next destination after Florianopolis…as it was for just about every other traveller there.  The Rolling Stones were giving a free concert on the beach in Copacabana on the 18th, and EVERYONE was headed up there for it.  Matt and I, along with our new English friend Andy, took the 15 hour bus ride from Florianopolis to Rio and then again met up with some other friends once we were there.  We stayed in a really cool hostel in Rio in an area called Santa Teresa, which is quite a ways away from the super touristy beach areas.  Santa Teresa is a huge hill with amazing views of the city and and located close to the kind of grungy, bohemian neighborhood of Lapa.  I loved that we stayed here rather than the typical touristy locations of Copacabana or Ipanema.  We went out several times in Lapa and had the best time drinking caparinhas in the street with all the locals and dancing the night away at the local samba clubs.  Rio is an incredible city with so much life.  I really was impressed by it and think it may be one of my favorite cities now.  You hear so much about how dangerous it is and stuff, but I didn’t ever feel particularly unsafe while there.  Of course we were ultra cautious while there and never took out anything that we weren’t willing to lose.  Sadly I have no pictures of Rio since I never took my camera out with me, but I never felt unsafe since I never had anything on me that was valuable.  Matt did have a little experience in which he was robbed by a group of little kids (no older than 12), but he only had 7 reals on him, and the whole experience turned out to be more funny than terrifying.  The Rolling Stones concert was a crazy, chaotic experience and so much fun.  There were over a million people on the beach and it was an all day event even though the Stones didn’t play until 10 at night.  We were really far away from the stage, but we were able to watch the huge screens and heard the whole concert perfectly. We spent 5 nights total in Rio, and I definitely didn’t get much sleep while there. Pre-Carnival festivities are just as crazy and intense as Carnaval itself I think! I really would have liked to stay for Carnaval, but the prices shoot up to 3 or 4 times the normal prices during Carnaval, and Matt and my bank accounts are not doing so well at this stage in the trip. The other huge destination in Brazil for Carnaval is up north in Salvador, where many of our friends were headed after Rio, but again too far and too expensive for Matt and I. 

So, because of our financial situation, we are now in a small town about 5 hours south of Rio called Paraty.  Paraty is a cute little colonial style town that is set in the most beautiful location.  There are tons of small islands and amazing beaches nearby too.  Our friend Andy came with us to Paraty to stay for just 3 days before he headed back to Rio for Carnaval.  The three of us rented a small apartment together, and now that Andy is gone, Matt and I have the apartment until Carnaval is finished.  We’re in day three of Carnaval now.  It started Friday and ends on Tuesday.  The Carnaval here is nothing compared to Rio or Salvador, but the town is all decorated and there are festivities every night until 3am.  The crowd here is definitely a lot calmer than Rio, mostly older people and families.  I really would have loved to experience Carnaval in Rio or Salvador, but we’re enjoying ourselves here and really can’t complain…I mean we could be at home in the States working!  We have just a few more days in Brazil.  I really can’t believe how quickly our time here has gone by.  We leave from Sao Paulo next Wednesday for Venezuela, where we will spend a little over a week.  Well, here are a few photos from our time in Brazil.  I wish I had more, but as I said I didn’t take any in Rio.

 Here we are after just arriving to Barro do Lagoa…the weather was cloudy and rainy, but it was still really pretty.  These are the people we rented the apartments with.  From the left: Andy (England), Yohav and Liad (Israel), Kate (Australia), Matt, and me.

 This is the town.  It was a really laid back beach town…I loved it. 

 

This is a small, secluded beach in a another part of the town.  Andy is on the left side of me, Kate is on the right.

Here is view of the ocean while on a short hike to another part of the island.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Here are the four of us that stayed in the same apartment on our last night in Barro do Lagoa.

 

Here are a couple beach scenes from Barro de Lagoa, Florianopolis…

 

 

Actually, I do have just a couple photos that I took one day in Rio.  I forgot that I had them.  They’re not too exciting, but here they are…

 

The steps of Santa Teresa…some really cool mosaic steps that are supposedly very famous.  Lots of models pose on them for Vogue and stuff I was told.

 The Arches of Lapa.  They are a viaduct, on which a trolly car that goes up the hill of Santa Teresa passes over. 

 

Here are a bunch of photos taken over the past few days of Paraty and several of the nearby beaches that we’ve taken day trips to…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s it for now I guess.  My next post will probably be after Venezuela.  We plan to spend as little time in Caracas as possible and head to a place called Merida, which is supposed to be a really cool backpackers destination…and much safer than Caracas.  Thank you Germain for all your tips on Venezuela…too bad you can’t be there!  As always, I hope you are all well, and I would love to hear from all of you! 

Last week Matt and I left Argentina for the last time on this journey…then again we’ve said that before and somehow kept going back! This time I’m fairly certain that we’re done with Argentina though. Argentina became so familiar and comfortable to us…it was like going home each time we returned. The last few cities in Argentina were great, as the rest of our experience in Argentina has been. We spent a few days in Mendoza, and despite the extreme heat, I found that I think Mendoza is one of my favorite cities I’ve visited in Argentina. It’s not very big, but it has a lot going on and is set in the most beautiful scenery. We stayed at a fairly large youth hostel there and met a lot of really cool people. Sometimes it’s nice to meet others who are in the same boat as us…having quit their jobs and taken off to see the world with no real plan for what will come next. I sometimes find myself thinking and worrying about the fact that I really don’t have any idea what I’m going to do when all this is finished…no, I still haven’t received the revelation about what my purpose in life is as I hoped I would on this trip! Meeting others who are in the exact same position as me makes me feel like it’s ok that I’m still searching, and I’m reminded of the reasons why I took this trip in the first place…to feel like I’m really living my life rather than wasting it on a job or situation in life that really doesn’t make me happy. So anyway, we met a lot of cool new friends in Mendoza and had a really nice time hanging out and hearing all their stories. Sleeping was more or less impossible because it was swealtering hot in the dorm rooms, so we didn’t do much sleeping. I even got talked into going out dancing till 8am one night…I haven’t done that in a really long time! There are so many great activities to do around Mendoza, and I really would have liked to do some, but somehow we ended up not doing any. Matt and I along with an Australian friend attempted to take a bike tour of some wineries one day and even rented bikes and got started on the ride to the wineries, but we had horrible luck and the bikes more or less fell apart on us before we even made it out of the city! It was seriously like a scene out of a movie, one bike after the other had something terribly wrong happen. Matt and I each got a flat tire and our friend, Jason, had his chain fall off just as we were getting on a busy highway with cars and semi-trucks racing by. We took the bikes falling apart as a sign, and we walked our bikes back to the shop and luckily got all our money refunded without any problems. Despite not really doing any of the normal Mendoza activities, I had a really nice time there and would love to go back in the future.
Since our goal was to make it to Brazil by the first week in February, we really needed to get moving east and try to get closer to that part of the continent. We left Mendoza on Monday night and took a 13 hour bus ride over to Santa Fe, which is not too far from the Uraguyan border. We stayed in Santa Fe for a night, but we found that there really wasn’t much going on there. The people were SO friendly there though and that really made an impression on us. After a night in Santa Fe, we went just across the river they have there and stayed a night in a town called Parana. Parana was absolutely adorable. The town is really small and right on the river Rio Parana. The people here were also incredibly friendly. There aren’t many foreign tourists who come to this region of the country, so people aren’t as used to seeing foreigners as in other larger cities. They were all very interested to know where we were from and why we were there, and everyone was very hospitable.
From Parana, we took a short bus ride to a border town called Guay…. I really can’t remember what the name is. We were just in the bus terminal for a few hours before we got on a bus that took us over the Uruguayan border into a town called Mercedes. We had spent just part of a day in Colonia, Uruguay when we lived in Buenos Aires, and I thought it was the cutest town I had ever seen. I thought that it was just a touristy town though, and I imagined the rest of Uruguay to be a lot less cute. Mercedes was just as cute as Colonia though! Maybe not as picturesque in a touristy sense, but it’s an adorable little town, and the people are even cuter! We arrived to the town at about 10 at night and were a little worried about walking around the city at night trying to find an ATM to get some Uruguayan money and finding a hostel…I have never felt safer though. There were children playing in the playgrounds and streets, old people sitting and chatting on the sidewalks and plazas, and everyone greeted us with a huge smile as we walked by. It’s so funny too, I had heard that the mate drinking tradition was even bigger in Uruguay than in Argentina, but I thought that was impossibe considering every Argentine I’ve met is mate crazy. It’s true though, I think Uruguayans drink even more mate than Argentinians. Immediately after arriving, I couldn’t help but notice that they even drink it on the go…walking down the street, driving in a car, or even riding on a moped or bike! You have to understand that drinking mate requires a thermos and a mate “cup” and “straw” so it’s not the most convenient beverage to drink while in transit.
After a night in Mercedes, we attempted to leave early in the morning the next day but found out that buses don’t travel very frequently in Uruguay and had to wait until 6 that evening to leave. Our goal was to get the Brazilian border as soon as possible, so we chose a town called Paysandu which was about half way there, hoping to stay one night there and leave the next morning for the Brazilian border…only again, we found that buses really don’t travel at convenient times in Uruguay. When we got to Paysandu, we found that the only buses that left for Rivera, the border city we needed to get to, left at either 4am or 5pm. The reason we were in such a hurry to get Brazil is that we would be staying with our friend Samantha who lives right on the Brazilian border, and we really wanted to be there by Saturday since it was the most convenient day for her. Samantha was one of Matt’s roommates in Madrid and she was wonderful enough to offer to have us stay at her house when we arrived to Brazil. So considering our options, Matt and I decided to be troopers and take the bus at 4am. Doing this meant that it really was pointless to get a hostel room, so we checked our bags in the luggage storage at the bus station and hit the town for a Friday night on the town.
We left Paysandu at 4am and arrived to Rivera at 9am, and Samantha and her boyfriend Duda came to the bus station to get us in her car. We were so exhuasted from having stayed up all night, and it was SO nice to not have to worry about finding ourselves a hostel or anything. As I’ve mentioned before, in order to go to Brazil, Matt and I went through so much trouble. We had to pay $100 and go through a big process to get our visas at the consulate in Buenos Aires and also had to get yellow fever shots when we were in Lima. We honestly thought getting through the border was going to be a huge ordeal…we couldn’t have been more wrong! We had our passports out and our vaccination card ready, thinking we were going to go through some really strict border and customs control like all the other borders we’ve crossed in South America, when Samantha says as we’re driving, “We just left Uruguay and now we’re in Brazil!” Rivera and Santana do Livramento, where Samantha lives, are basically the same city. There’s a plaza in between the two cities and half of the plaza is in Uruguay and half of it is in Brazil. One side of the street has all the shops and signs in Spanish, and the other side is all in Portugese. There is abosolutely no border control or customs point…it’s crazy. Just for formalities, later that day, Matt and I had them take us to the police station to get our passports stamped, but if they hadn’t taken us, we would have had no idea where to go or what to do.
Since we arrived to Brazil on Saturday, Matt and I have been living the good life! I really can’t tell you what an awesome time we’ve been having staying with Samantha and her family. They have a big, beautiful home and have been SO wonderful. We sleep in really late, hang out in their pool, and they feed us amazing food…it’s honestly like being on vacation from being backpackers. The day we arrived we went to two parties with Samantha and Duda. One was a birthday barbeque, or “churrasco”, for one of their friends and we had such a great time. All of Samantha’s friends were great…it’s definitely true what they say about Brazilians being happy fun people! Finally getting to why I titled this post such a strange thing, Matt and I have discovered that all Brazilians we’ve encountered so far seem to know one phrase in English and say it to us when they find out we’re American…”The book is on the table.” At the party, this phrase was said to us so many times and it kind of became a big joke. Isn’t it hilarious that that is the first phrase that is taught to them? Not “Hello, how are you” or “My name is…”, but “The book is on the table!”  After the birthday party we went to a big music festival here in Livramento and heard some great samba…so much fun, but we were exhausted by the time we got home at 5am!  Since we’ve arrived to Brazil we’ve been enjoying ourselves so much with Samantha, her friends, and her wonderful family.  Since we’re right on the border of Uruguay most people speak at least a little bit of Spanish, so we’ve been able to commucicate ok.  We’re headed  north tonight though to Florionopolis, which is about halfway to Rio from here.  There are supposed to be some AMAZING beaches there–I can’t wait!  We’ll see how we do with the tiny bit of Portugese we’ve been taught since we’ve been here!  Here are some photos from the past week and a half….just kidding.  Bootsnall has apparantly changed the setup of the blogsight and how to insert photos.  I had uploaded a ton of photos yesterday to insert today, but I can’t seem to find them right now.  I will try to add the photos by tomorrow! 

Ok, I’m going to attempt to add some photos now…let’s see how it goes.

Ok, I guess I figured it out, but I’m still playing with it, so if the pictures are out of proportion…sorry.  Anyway, this is the group of us that went dancing all night in Mendoza.  Here we are just after the sun came out on the terrace of the “boliche” (club.)  Helen (England), our Argentine friend whose name I forgot (I feel awful), Patricia (Belgium), and me. 

Here we are on our attemted bike ride to the wineries. Matt was on his second bike at this point (his first got a flat), Jason’s hands are filthy from having to fix his chain on the busy highway, and I just discovered that my tire popped…what a mess we were.

Here is a group of friends we made at the hostel.  All really cool, interesting people…for example Gavin (the one in blue with longish hair) is an ex-rugby player from England and Josh (the one in green), from Australia, is cycling the world over the next two years.

Here’s a picture of me as we were leaving Santa Fe.  I realized that I had no photos of myself with my huge backpack on.  And since I had just gotten my hair done that day, I thought it was a perfect opportunity! Girls, salons in Argentina are sooo much cheaper than in the States…it’s great. For less than half the price of a haircut in the U.S. I got my hair colored, deep conditioned,cut, and blowdryed and it was a really nice salon. I made Matt wait several hours for me because I just had to get it done one last time before leaving Argentina!  Within an hour it looked like crap again though because of the extreme heat and humidity…oh well.  Dad, I’m sure you’re shaking your head at this photo because of the size of my pack…I know, I know…I have way more than I need.

This is the Rio Parana in the town Parana.  As I said, this was a really cute town and I like it a lot.

I guess Matt felt inspired by my haircut and decided to his cut while in Mercedes.  His was even cheaper than mine, 30 Uruguayan pesos–about a dollar.  Originally the plan was to give him a mullet and we even had arranged it with our friend Jason in Mendoza who is a hair dresser, but we didn’t end up getting around to it…to bad.  As I think I’ve mentioned before, the mullet is very fashionable in these parts!

Here is a street in Mercedes.  Everybody seemed to ride mopeds here…young people, old people, business men and women.  We even saw several families of four on one moped!

Here we were right in the middle of Brazil and Uruguay.  The righe side of the view outside of the windshield is Brazil, the left side is Uruguay.

 Here we are in at Samantha’s house hanging out in the pool.  Samantha, her boyfried Duda, me, and Matt.  Don’t worry, Matt is working on getting rid of the farmer’s tan! 

Samantha’s dad, Jose Luis, making us a delicious churrasco!  Samantha’s parents were so wonderful and really made us feel welcome.  This was the day after we had the churrasco at the birthday party.  Jose Luis made us a THIRD churrasco the night before we left too…we were SO spoiled.

The family took us out to dinner one night and we had a great time.  We’re actually in Uruguay here…we went between Brazil and Uruguay all the time.  From the left: Duda, Rachel and Jose Luis (Samantha’s parents), Felipe and Anibal (two of Samantha’s good friends), Simoane (Samantha’s sister), Matt, me, and Samantha.

 Samantha and her mom Rachel drinking mate by the pool.  The south of Brazil is very similar to Uruguay and parts of Argentina.  They call themselves Gauchos in this region and therefore follow many gaucho traditions like drinking mate.  Duda, Samatha’s boyfriend (and a super cool guy!) taught us a lot about the their state Rio Grande Sul and told us that most people here feel more Gaucho pride than Brazilian pride.

Here we are on our last night with Samantha.  Matt and I are wearing rival soccer team shirts.  Jose Luis is a Colorado supporter and gave Matt his shirt, and Duda is a huge fan of the opposing team, Gremio, and gave me my shirt.  I have a capurihnia (not sure of spelling!), a typical Brazilian cocktail.

I know this is one of the longest posts ever…thanks to those of you that actually read this blog!  Matt and I made to Florianopolis this morning, after a 16 hour bus ride.  It’s beautiful, but it’s really cloudy and raining.  Hopefully it clears up tomorrow! 

     

 

 

 

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Chile

January 28th, 2006

I just left Chile today and am now back in Argentina for a few days before heading over to Urugauay and Brazil. Matt and I spent two nights in Cordoba, Argentina before going to Chile. We had planned to make it to Mendoza, Argentina which is really close to the Chilean border, but bus tickets were sold out for several days, so we stayed in Salta an extra day and then decided to go to Cordoba instead. Since it’s summer here now, Argentineans are all travelling like crazy and transportation and accomodation are sometimes hard to get. Cordoba is a fairly large city, and while there we mostly just hung out and did “city stuff”, like went to the movies and walked around the center a lot. I liked Cordoba a lot, and like Buenos Aires, it reminded me a lot of Spain. At this point in our trip, I’ll have to say that I was really starting to feel the effects of travelling constantly for such a prolonged period of time. I honestly didn’t think it could happen, but I was feeling completely worn out from constantly moving and really didn’t feel like doing much. After two nights in Cordoba, we took a 16 hour bus ride to Santiago, Chile. My parents have some really good friends living there, so we were able to stay with them while there which was great. Santiago is a big city and is really modern…it actually is the closest to the U.S. of all the countries I’ve visited. A lot of really huge shopping malls with just about any American store or restaraunt you can think of, huge multiplex movie theaters, and a really nice modern metro system. It’s really expensive in Chile in comparison to other South American countries as well. The prices for food and stuff are just about as expensive as in the States. It was great that we were able to stay with my parents’ friends, because a week in Chile would have made us broke! We had a really nice time staying with the family there, and they took really good care of us! It was nice to just chill out for a few days and not be on the go. While there, we also went to visit Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, which are just about an hour and a half from Santiago. We stayed a night in Valparaiso. Valparaiso is a lot differnt from Santiago…a lot older and run down, but it also has a lot of character. I really loved Valparaiso because of all it’s character and thought is was a cool city. Viña del Mar is a city just next to Valparaiso, but it’s really different. It’s basically a beach resort style town with lots of big hotels and expensive restaraunts. It’s really pretty though, and it was great to lay on the beach for a day! Matt decided to leave Chile from Valparaiso and went to Mendoza, Argentina from there. I, however, decided to go back to Santiago for a few days and spent two more nights with my friends there. Today I left Santiago and met Matt here in Mendoza, where we are now. Mendoza is cool town, but it’s soooo hot here. It was super hot in Santiago also, but it’s definitely hotter here. Mendoza is famous for producing the majority of Argentina’s wines and there are lots of wineries around to go visit…however it’s so hot, I don’t know if we’ll end up doing any of that. The hostel we’re staying at has a pool (although it’s not much of a pool) and Matt spent the enire last two days he’s been here just hanging out at the hostel at the pool. We’re supposed to be in Brazil by early February, so we’ll probably end up leaving here pretty soon to try to get a little closer to Brazil. Here are some photos from our last week or so.

It turned out that we were actually really lucky that we had to stay in Salta an extra night. We found out that Boca Juniors and River Plate, the two biggest rival soccer teams from Buenos Aires were playing there that night. We went to the stadium and were lucky enough to be able to buy tickets at the last minute. We ended up in the River Plate section just because that was the only place there was room, but it turned out to be great because they beat Boca 3-0. The fans were absoulutely crazy, and it was so much fun to be there! We had been hanging out with these people while we were in Salta and went to the game with them…Lory (England), Hannah (England), Soren and Isben (both from Denmark), and Matt.

Here’s a really blurry picture of the game.

Each time River Plate scored a goal, the fans went SO crazy and started climbing up the fences and stuff. It was a lot of fun to be right in the middle of it all.

Here’s a plaza in Cordoba. Sorry, it’s a pretty boring picture, but I didn’t take hardly any pictures while there for some reason.

Here I am with Nelson (my parents’ good friend) and his daughter Camila. We had just arrived to Santiago, and they cooked a wonderful lunch for us. Ceasar salad and salmon…it honestly was the best meal we had had in a long time!

A street in the center of Santiago.

Another area in the center of Santiago.

Here’s a really nice park called Cerro Santa Lucia in Santiago.

This is Valparaiso. Similar to San Francisco, there are lots of hills there and a lot of really cool old buildings and houses.

There are several (15 still functioning I think) really old “ascensores” (elevators) in Valparaiso that take you up several of the hills and give you excellent views of the city. Here’s one of them that we went up.

Here’s the view from the top.

Up at the top, there were also great views of all the houses built on the sides of the hills. I loved all the old houses…some were super old and run down, others were well kept and really nice.

We decided to walk down the hill rather than ride the ascensor down. We were able to see a lot of really cute streets and cool houses and buildings.

Here’s Matt hanging out on the beach in Viña del Mar. It was kind of cool…while we were lying on there, this guy came up to me and asked if I wanted to get a free massage and be on the evening news. Of course I didn’t turn down a free massage! I got the massage on a chair right on the beach and then the evening news interviewed me. I didn’t get a chance to see if I made the cut for the news that evening though 🙂 .

Here’s another shot of the beach in Viña del Mar. As you can see, there are tons of huge hotels lining the beach.

Last night, I went out with Nelson and the family for my last night in Santiago. From the right is Camila, Nelson, Sergio (Constanza’s boyfriend), and Constanza. Nelson’s wife Carmen and his son Sebastian are living in the U.S. at the moment so they weren’t there. I had a really nice time in Santiago and am glad I was able to visit!

After being in a house for a few days and being able to rest a little, I feel a lot better and feel like I’m up for the next part of this big trip. As I said, we’re now in route to Brazil. One of Matt’s old roommates from Madrid lives on the border of Brazil and Uruguay, so we’re planning to stay with her for a few days when we arrive. I’m definitely looking forward to Brazil and all the beaches! It will definitely be a change for us with the language not being Spanish, but I’m excited to learn a little Portugese. I hope everyone’s well!!!

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Bolivia

January 17th, 2006

Matt and I spent almost a full week in Bolivia and managed to do a lot within this past week. We started off by leaving Peru on the 8th and first going to Copacabana, Bolivia, which like Puno is also on Lake Titicaca. It’s really beautiful there, and we lucked out and had really nice, sunny weather the whole time we were there. We stayed in Copacabana for two nights and pretty much just hung out and enjoyed the nice weather. We did take a trip to Isla del Sol while there, but we were really stupid and opted for a half day trip, which ended up only giving us like an hour on the island! It took us like an hour and half just to get there and another hour and half to get back…what a waste of time. There were TONS of Argentineans there in Copacabana and all over Bolivia for that matter…funny, because there were hardly any in Peru. There were also tons of hippies in Copacabana, which gave the whole town kind of a different feel from other cities in Peru and Bolivia.
After Copacabana, we went to La Paz and spent two nights there. La Paz is a big city with lots going on, and it was actually kind of nice to be in a big city after spending so much time in small cities and towns. We ate Burger King (I never eat that crap at home, but after 5 weeks straight of Peruvian and Bolivian food….), drank real coffee, and we saw a surprisingly really good Bolivian movie. We were also able to fix a big problem with our plane tickets…a much bigger problem than we even thought we had. Thank goodness we went to the TACA office there. I basically would have been stranded in Costa Rica without a ticket home otherwise because of a big mistake the travel office we went to in Argentina made. Anyway, now we’re free to skip our plane trip from Lima to Brazil and are on our way to Brazil by bus now instead.
After La Paz, we took off for Potosi, which was about a nine hour bus ride south from La Paz. Potosi is the highest city in the world, according to our guide book, and it was absolutely freezing!! We took an overnight bus from La Paz to Potosi and I thought I was going to freeze to death on the ride…I had like four sweatshirts and jackets on, a scarf, and gloves, and I was still freezing. We only spent one night in Potosi, but we did one of the coolest things I’ve ever done while there. We were able to take a tour of an enormous mine they have there called Cerro Rico. The mine is not modern at all. It’s probably what the mines in the States were like well over 100 years ago. It was an absolutely crazy experience. We spent over 3 hours underground, climbing through dark, narrow tunnels and down rickety latters. There were several times where we had to climb through parts on our hands and knees because the tunnels were so small. The brochure for the tour said in English “Not for wimps or woosies”…and they weren’t kidding! We were able to see the miners working and spent a lot of time just hanging out with them in the mine and talking to them…it was really interesting. Once out of the mine and back on top of the ground in the light, I couldn’t believe I actually spent all that time under there…it was really one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had.
After Potosi, we took another wonderful South American bus ride to Tupizo, which is in the south west of Bolivia. The bus ride was over 9 hours long on unpaved dirt roads…more bumpy than you can ever imagine! We also had the luck of getting a flat tire on the way and then got dropped off way far outside of town so that we had to walk forever with our huge heavy backbacks to get into the center…what fun. Anyway, Tupizo was a really nice quiet town in scenery that looks just like the American Southwest.
Two days ago we took another super bumpy bus from Tupiza to the Bolivian/Argentinean border and crossed into Argentina. It’s really nice to be back in Argentina. We immediately went and had some awesome pasta once we crossed the border…the food is definitely much better here in Argentina than in Peru or Bolivia! We then took an overnight bus from the border city La Quiaca to Salta, where we are right now. The bus was a million times nicer than any bus we took in Peru or Bolivia and we were so excited to have a smooth, relaxing bus ride for a change…it didn’t end up being quite as relaxing as we hoped. We got stopped two seperate times by immigration officials and everyone on the bus had to get off and get all our luggage from the bottom of the bus and stand in line to be searched. It happened once at about 12:30 and again at like 5 am…needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep on the bus! Anyway, we’re now in Salta which is a really nice city. We really haven’t done too much…we’re kind of just resting from all the the travelling we’ve been doing. We plan to take off again tonight though to Mendoza which is about 16 hours away. We’ll then go to Santiago, Chile for a few days and stay with some family friends I have there. Then, it’s across Argentina and Uruguay to Brazil! Here are some photos of our time in Bolivia.

Welcome to Bolivia! We had just walked over the border from Peru.

This is the “beach” in Copacabana. The town has a real beach town vibe. There were tons of people out this day because it was actually sunny and not raining.

We arrived to Copacabana on Sunday, so we got to see this really funny tradition they have there. Every Sunday at the church they have a “blessing of the cars.” Everyone brings their car to the church and buys holy water to poor all over the car. They also buy a bunch of flowers and things to decorate the car with. All over the city there were decorated cars that had been blessed that day. They also sold beer and champaine and people poured that on the cars too…not really sure why.

Here they are buying the holy water to pour on their cars.

Even huge buses get in on the action!

We climbed a small mountain they have there in Copacabana and there were awesome views of Lake Titicaca. The water was an amazing color of blue…it was so pretty.

A beautiful sunset in Copacabana.

Here’s La Paz. The city is pretty interesting. It’s basically a bowl shape. The center of the city in the middle of the bowl and hills going up on all sides. The altitude makes the hills brutal!

Just a little section of a HUGE street market in La Paz.

Plaza Murillo with the congress building in the back. I really liked this plaza, it was really pretty.

A candid shot of Matt being asked if he wants a shoeshine. The shoeshine guys are really interesting in La Paz. Notice that his face is completely covered. It makes them look really scary, but I guess they cover their faces because shining shoes is looked at as one of lowest class jobs and they don’t want people to know who they are and destroy their family honor.

This is something we saw all over Peru and Bolivia that we thought was so funny. These guys sit in the street or sometimes just on a plaza bench with typewriters and type out letters or forms for anyone who wants.

This next little segment is dedicated to Anthony. He thought it was cool that I was going to Bolivia right after all the chaos that went on with their recent elections. For those of you that don’t know, Evo Morales, the first “campesino”, was just elected president there. Anthony thought there might be some cool action going on and told me to practice some “extreme photo journalism” if so. Bolivia was actually super calm though and Morales wasn’t even in the country when we were there. However, one day while visiting Plaza Murillo, there was a rowdy group of protesters. Not really sure what they were protesting, but then all of the sudden this police guy told Matt and I to get out of the way because there was a suspicious looking backback just sitting against a pole. They thought there might be a bomb in it. Here’s my “extreme photo journalism” for you Anthony :).

The bomb force inspecting the suspicious backpack.

They put the backpack in a container and then drove off with it in this red truck.

Here we are in Potosi, on our way to the mine. We first stopped at the “miners market” to buy gifts for the miners. The suggested gifts are dynomite, alcohol, cigarettes, and coca leaves. Here’s Matt and my contiribution to the miners–crazy strong alcohol (96% they told us!?!), unfiltered cigarettes, and a bag of coca leaves.

Here we are with all our gear on just about to enter the mine.

Here I am coming down a super steep part of a tunnel.

The photos don’t capture the actual feel of what it was like down in the mine at all, but here’s an attempt. It was so dark and dusty the whole time.

Some of our new miner friends chomping on some coca leaves and chatting with us.

This is us just after coming out of the mine. I don’t think I have ever been so dirty and sweaty. The tempertures were super high down deep in the mine, and it was freezing cold outside. My throat hurt like crazy and my voice was hoarse from breathing in all the dust and toxins…I really can’t believe the miners work downthere 8 hours a day and breath that. According to some literature we read most miners die after 10 or 15 years of working in the mine because of inhaling all the toxins, but we talked to several who had been working for over 20 years.

Here’s our bus drivers trying to fix the flat tire on the way to Tupiza. This was only one of the difficulties the awesome bus had along the way. It also had a ton of mechanical problems, and I kid you not we stopped about every 20 minutes to check on one of the problems…it was awful!

Here’s the main plaza in Tupiza. It was a really cute town.

Tupiza was surrounded by this really pretty red rock.

Yesterday, here in Salta, we had this crazy summer storm where it just started pouring all of the sudden. I was in a cafe at the time and waited for the rain to die down to leave. As I was walking back to the hostel, the streets were completely flooded and I was trapped. I had to wade accross several streets in water up to my knees. The streets seriously looked like rivers and there was just complete chaos with everyone trying to cross.

Here are some friends we went out with last night. All three of them were at our hostel in Potosi and we all just happened to be at the same hostel again here. The two guys are Danish, Ibsen and Soren. The girl, Hannah, is English. We are contstantly seeing the same travellers in different towns along our route…it’s funny.

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Week 2 in Cuzco/ Puno

January 7th, 2006

My second week in Cuzco was a lot more quiet than my first. I’ve spent the past week just hanging out with my family in Cuzco and doing some stuff on my own…it’s been really nice! New Year’s Eve was a lot of fun. Matt, Kerstin, my cousin Fernando, and I went out and had a fun night. We didn’t stay out that late or do anything too crazy, but just being in Cuzco for New Year is pretty nuts. We spent midnight out in the Plaza de Armas with about a zillion other people and there was just complete chaos. The plaza was abosolutely packed and everyone was screaming, drinking champaine, and setting off fireworks all around us. They weren’t small firecrackers either…they were huge and really scary! They set them off right next to us contstantly and we would have to run off really quickly so we didn’t get hurt or go deaf. It was really fun to be in the middle of so much excitement and funny to see all the traditions. Hundreds of people ran around the plaza in a circle 12 times at midnight, there were ladies selling yellow underwear (good luck I guess), and grapes (they eat 12 right at midnight like in Spain), and there were men pushing around carts with any kind of alcohol you can dream of for the midnight toast.
After New Year’s Eve my week really wasn’t all that exciting, but I enjoyed myself. I went to see several relatives and family friends…many of which hadn’t seen me since I was about 3, and they were all very disappointed to see that my locks of golden hair have since turned brown (apparantly I was MUCH cuter when I was 3.) Also, just about every Peruvian relative I’ve seen since I’ve been here has one thing to ask me within the first few minutes of the conversation…why am I not married and when do I plan to get married? Apparantly 26 is way to old to be single and I better get married quick so I don’t end up an old maid. It’s been really nice seeing all these people again though, and I really did have a wonderful time in Cuzco getting to know my family better. My cousin Fernando and I went to Ollantaytambo, a small town close to Cusco, on Thursday and I abosolutely loved it. I had been to almost all of the other towns with ruins around Cuzco before, but for some reason I had never visited Ollantaytambo. I really think it’s some of the best ruins from all the ruins Cuzco contains.
Yesterday, I left Cuzco early in the morning and came to Puno, where I met up with Matt and Kerstin. They were in Arequipa the past few days. Matt and I were in Puno for one night just before going to Cuzco, but that was just because of our bus difficulties. We didn’t get to see any of the sites that time. Today we took a trip out to the Uros Islands, which are these amazing manmade floating islands on which several people live. It was a lot cooler than I thought it would be. The islands are made from reeds and constantly need to be added to and fixed up so that the islands don’t sink. We visited two islands and it’s so crazy, the ground is soft and it feels like you might fall through, but of course you don’t. All of the Uros people’s houses are also made from reed and we were able to look inside a couple houses and see what they looked like inside. They are VERY used to having tourists come to their islands daily so they of course have a bunch of little stands to sell their crafts and stuff. Super touristy or not though, it was still amazing to see how these people live. Here are some picture’s from my past week.

This is what the Plaza de Armas looked like more or less on New Year’s Eve…a lot of people, firecrackers, and chaos. I coudn’t really get any good pictures because the batteries in my camera kept dying.

Matt, Kerstin, my cousin Fernando, and Lindsey (Fernando’s friend) in the plaza on New Year’s Eve.

My Tia Margarita had us over for lunch on New Year’s Day. My aunt is so wonderful and loved all my friends so much. Here she is in the kitchen.

Here we are at New Year’s lunch. From the left…my Uncle Wilbur, Uncle Juan Carlos, my Grandpa, Aunt Margarita, cousin Fernando, Kerstin, me, and Matt’s taking the photo.

Here are some of my parent’s “compadres”. My parents are the godparent’s of their daughter. My aunt and I went over there one day and had so much fun. We played “sapo” (frog), which is a traditional game here. You throw coins at this wood thing with a metal frog in the middle and try to get the coins in the frog’s mouth. It’s super hard, but I did it twice!

These are the ruins in Ollantaytambo.

The town of Ollantaytambo was super cute too. Here’s the Plaza de Armas.

Here’s another picture of cute Ollantaytambo.

The busride from Cuzco to Puno yesterday was SO beautiful. It was such a beautiful, sunny day…after almost two straight weeks of rain and clouds. Here are some pictures of some scenery along the ride.

This is Puno this morning, along our walk to the dock to catch a boat to go see the islands. There were people selling fruit and other things all througout the streets. I kept thinking to myself, “You can’t feel anymore like your in South America than this.” I loved it!

These are the Uros Islands from afar.

This is the school where the Uros children go!

Here are Matt, Kerstin, and I on one of the islands. You can see that the ground is just straw and reed…it was so cool.

Matt and I each bought a drawing from this little girl…she was adorable.

These are the traditional boats the Uros ride around in to get from island to island.

You can see here how they have to constantly gather reeds and work at keeping the islands afloat. It really is amazing.

Oh, something really funny happened last night. Well, it’s really funny now anyway. Matt almost electricuted himself to death (not funny) and caused all the electricity in our hostel to go out for quite a while last night. He was downloading my photos from my camera onto his laptop for me and needed to plug the computer into the wall. It wouldn’t quite plug in, so he decided to use a metal knife to mess with the outlet and ended up with a huge shock and the electricity in the whole hostel going out…we seriously thought we were going to get in SO much trouble. Luckily we managed to pass it off like we had nothing to do with it, and eventually they were able to turn the electricity back on. It was pretty funny!

Yes, the whole hostel was this dark. Luckily, Kerstin had a flashlight, so we could work on hiding the evidence.

This was the evidence we were trying to hide. We’ve decided that Matt should become an electrician because he’s so skillful in this area.

Kerstin left this afternoon for Cuzco, where she’ll catch her flight home…so it’s just me and Matt once again. We’ve changed our gameplan for the next few weeks a lot, but now are having a few problems. We have a plane ticket to go to Brazil from Lima on February 2. However, we decided we would rather skip that flight and take a bus all the way to Brazil. We would do it over the course of about three weeks going through, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and finally entering Brazil from the very south. I was SO excited about this change in plans because it means that we’ll be able to go to Chile and back to Argentina to see places we didn’t get to see while there. We found out today though that we may not be able to skip that flight from Lima to Brazil…it’s really stupid, but there are all these restrictions on our ticket because we got it so cheap on this special route. We’re going to Bolivia tomorrow morning, and we’ll see what we can do once we get to La Paz in a few days…I really hope we can make these changes happen! Either way, I’m sure we’ll have lots of adventures over the next few weeks. I’ll keep you posted!

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