South American Pictures

If you ever find that the pictures contained in the blog are not enough, don`t worry, there are more! In an attempt to keep this overwhelmingly lengthy blog as short as possible, we´ve created a separate page for photos. We`ll add pictures periodically to http://www.SLOtography.com - just click on the slideshow and you're there.

What can we say about Cordoba?

the answer...not much. But alas, it was a destination on our journey which is the only requirement for a post on this blog.



(Some Fountain)

However, underneath the blanket of litter, melted ice cream, and dog feces, lies a beautiful city, full of culture and rich with history. Our room, located in the center of town, had a balcony that overlooked one of the busiest shopping areas in town...which meant we didn't have to go far to explore. In fact, with our birds eye view, we spent hours just observing Argentinian culture. And here's what we found:

• Argentines must have seen the movie "children of men," because they are having children like they are going extinct. Babies having babies man.
  
• Once you have some babies, take them everywhere with you, anywhere...like a pub, and anytime...like 11pm. This also explains the suffering babysitting industry.
  
• Smoke delicious Lucky Strike cigarettes and Eat Meat!
  
• Shopping is more important than just about anything, except for looking good.

(Our View)

Iguazu Falls

The heat is overwhelming...but the misting water cools, not to mention the boat rides that gaurantee to get you drenched. Exotic animals run around freely, food is priced like it`s going out of style, and children (and adults) laugh and smile. It is the closest thing to a theme park you`ll find in Argentina. However, instead of rollercoasters and lemonade slush, there are hundreds of the gnarliest waterfalls you`ve ever seen. (And I have seen Niagara falls, but it was the Canadian side...)

(These falls are so massive that water mists up and then rains down on you)

(This guy looks like a croc to me, but Lauren swears it is a Lizard)

Mendoza, Come for the Wine, Stay because of the Food

How does 2 days (the plan) turn into 5? The answer: a violent stomach infection! And so goes our first experience in Argentina.

Our time in Mendoza began like any other stop, we arrived on a bus from Santiago, a beautiful trip over the Andes, on a Tuesday night. After our search for treap lodging, we settled on a seemingly decent hostel w/ a pool outside of our room.

We head out into the late evening in search of food, and came accross just that, a Mecca of fast food in the Mercado Central. I convinced Lauren that the Argentines would be able to make a decent rendition of my favorite food: the burrito. Wishful thinking of course, as they turned out snacks that were no bigger than a taco bell taco, and about as tasty (how does that sound Rusty?). So we found ourselves searching for a second dinner at 11pm; this time we went for the authentic Argentine cuisine, a better decision.

On our second day, we set out for the infamous Mendocino wine country, responsible for over 75% of the country´s booming wine industry. The rural wine country is a 40 minute bus ride from the center of the city, which happens to be free if you don´t have any change to pay, bonus! Once there, we rented bicycles so that we could cover more ground, however we still only made it to one winery. After one excellent tasting round, we found ourselves too impaired to ride our bikes...apparently a ´taste´is a bit bigger in Argentina.

Our next day in Mendoza, our supposed last day in town, began yet again with the sounds of birds chirping. Mendocinos were going about their days in their casual-busy style; children were playing world cup caliber games of soccer on the town square, and by 1pm, Lauren was throwing up her breakfast behind a park bench.

Fast forward to the next day, (skipping the details of the unpleasantries of the repeated trips to the bathroom), and we had outstayed our welcome at the hostel, a 3 night maximum. I proceeded to pack all of our stuff and move it to a hotel accross the street, as it was clear we weren´t going anywhere that day. Lauren managed to collect her self enough to make the grueling journey from one bed to the other. It was also very clear that something needed to be done, so I explained the situation to the kid at the reception desk. He assured me he´d take care of it.

They arrived, (two of them), about 40 minutes later in style - via ambulance. Their nurse uniforms appeared to be clean and legitimate, as well as their portable medical kit. The male nurse stood timidly in the corner once I invited him in. The woman did most of the talking, and doctoring for that matter. My first question to her: ¨Se habla ingles¨ was answered by a wave of the hand over the head, the international sign for Not a Chance. Upon listening to the sounds Lauren´s stomach with her stethoscope, she exclaimed, ¨Muy fuerte!¨ The last time I had heard that phrase was when our waitor tried to describe the gnarly lightning storm that hit in Puno. So I listened myself to the little war taking place in Lauren´s stomach, with amazement. The nurse administered a painful shot in Lauren´s backside to help with the vomiting, and wrote us a prescription for antibiotics.

The road to recovery included the aforementioned medicines, simple foods (like fruits), and episodes of Law & Order (Special Victims unit, the lamer one with the lamer theme music), CSI Miami, and some Jacki Chan movie (giving a specific name of the movie would not clarify any). We managed to escape Mendoza, having spent more time here than anywhere else, yet having seen and done nearly nothing. Oh well, it was time for a break.


The following

The Inca Trail, a Video Diary

Day 1 of our trek, keep in mind we didn´t get much sleep the night before.

R.O.U.S.´s

Rodents of Unusual Size still exist in South America. The Capybara maintains the title of the largest rodent world. It´s quite easy to see upon inspection that this animal is most closely related to the Guinea pig, it´s just the size of a fat Beagle (that´s for you Matt). Speaking of, check out all of these Beagles, and one Dachsund, reminds me of the good ol` days on Flora:

(A professional dog walker is in high demand in Buenos Aires, it`s also Lauren`s proposed future occupation)

Santiago...The whale´s blowhole

We arrived to Santiago around 7pm on Saturday night, after a not so grueling 24 hour bus ride (our butts must be getting flatter by the minute). After stepping off the bus and into the most amazing weather yet, literally perfect by definition, we jumped into a cab and were wisked away to Residential Londres, praying for vacancies. This beautiful old hostel is located on none other than Calle Londres, a side street from the main drag of Santiago. The cobblestone road is lined with trees and cafes and makes you feel like you´re in the countryside of Italy. To our delight the Hostel had room for us, so we decided to stay for 3 nights. Our room was at the end of the hall over looking the courtyard below, in my opinion, our best room yet. We didn´t stay here long before heading out to explore the nightlife Santiago had to offer. Santiago is broken up into Barrios: there is the Barrio Brasil, Barrio Londres/Paris, Barrio Central, and the Barrio Bellavista, etc. The Barrio Bellavista is acclaimed to be the up and coming restaurant area, so go figure, we headed there first. Now, since we´ve been in South America for what, like 3 weeks, we´ve began to adjust to the late night eating...and drinking. We walked around the Bellavista area, scoping out different restaurants, taking in the night life, and mostly killing time before settling at a place in a main square for some appetizers and wine (mind you it´s around 10:30pm...perfect). We stayed at this restaurant for about an hour, drinking and eating stuffed red peppers before we decided to head somewhere else. We left this square with nothing but the highest intentions of finding more food and wine in an even better location. Along the way to our next destination we bought a few gifts for loved ones (which didn´t seem to be such a good idea 2 days later when we attempted to send them home) and eventually settled in a little cafe on one of the side streets. We ordered pizza and wine and sat there with the feeling like we´ve been here before. That´s when it came to us (pretty much simultaneously), this looks just like Chorro Street and we´re right outside of Bulls.....hummm I think this may be a sad point in our lives. We stayed at our SLO gettaway for about 2 hours talking about home and our friends and family, then oddly enough, the clock struck 2 and back to the hostel we went.

(A view from Plaza de Armas)

The next morning we awoke to, quite literally, birds chirping outside our windows and a nice breeze flowing through our room. We got up, mulled around for a little bit then set off to really check out the city. Well, I guess one could call it poor planning on out part, but to our dismay, it was Sunday and the city is pretty much deserted on Sundays, really! We searched for over an hour looking for first, New York Bagel, which Blake found in an outdated guide book we borrowed from the hostel, then for food in general. We basically stopped at the first place that was open and had a not very impressive salmon and boiled chicken lunch. At this point, we decided our best option was to go back to the movie theater we´d pasted earlier and relax there for 2 hours. After the movie we headed back to bellavista area, grabbed some more food, again mediocre at best, did a little shopping then called it a day and went back to the hostel.

Monday was a whole different story. From the moment we stepped out of the hostel the city seemed back to normal, people everywhere, cars on the streets, all sorts of noises and smells, it was alive again. We spent the first part of morning checking out the Plaza De Armas (seems like every city in SA has a Plaza de Armas) and more importantly, searching for the illustrious post office that was said to be located in the plaza. After a never ending search (here we are back the never ending-ness) I found it! It seemed like the most difficult was behind us, all we needed to do was throw our stuff in a box and ship it off, not to be seen until we return in March. Well, as one may expect, there was a tiny problem with the throwing it in a box part...they didn´t have a box big enough. This is the point, which I alluded to above, where we began to regret buying our loved ones gifts off the street. After some quick thinking we decided to go back to a electronic store we past earlier and attempt to buy a box from them. We walked in and asked a man if we could buy a box, we looked at us, laughed and said, ¨that is your spanish?¨, we couldn´t do anything but laugh, too. This savior of a man took us downstairs and brought out box after box trying to fit these oddly shaped items. After continuing to fail, we all decided the best thing to do would be to combine 2 boxes. This may not seem like the smartest thing to do, especially with something fragile in nature, but we didn´t care anymore (Dad-this goes against everything you taught me about effeciently shipping things). But after cutting and folding and a whole roll of tape, it was perfect, ready for anything the post office was going to put it through.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city before settling down for dinner at a little cafe we found. This experienced proved to be the best dining experience not only in Santiago, but the whole trip so far. The food was excellent, our waiter was great and we got to chat with the owner/chef about his life and love for food.

(Felipe, our new best friend)

On our last day (Tuesday) we planned on taking a bus to Valparaiso, a local beach town, but that never happened. While we were at breakfast we met a Chilean man named Eduardo and wound up sitting and talking with him for over an hour. At that point we decided it best to just head over the Andes into Medoza. Ciao Chile.

Santiago Style

Santiago is a city of unparalleled style. Upon arriving, we first noticed that we had underestimated the power of (young) love when we were in La Paz. Santiago puts La Paz to shame; the make out sessions are more intense, the weather is nicer, the clothing more elaborate, and perhaps more noticable than all the rest, are the mullets. To any soul who endured the late 80´s, the single ¨Achy Breaky Heart,¨or a Monster Truck Rally, the mullet is well known. There are many theories as to why South America has just recently adopted the mullet as their own. Some say it´s the 20-year delay in television broadcasting, or the fact that Diego Maradona, the greatest Argentinian soccer player to ever live, still embraces the party lifestyle that any mullet wearer must abide by.

(Billy Ray Cyrus - the inventor)

Whatever the case, the mullet is an epidemic in South America, of which they offer no vaccination. Of course, my mullet-aphobia could only delay the inevitable, I desperately needed a haircut myself. I would have to summon up all of my available spanish skills to aviod walking out of a Santiagan barber shop with a look of shame on my face and a hairstyle reminiscent of Jeff Foxworthy (and all of the infamous rednecks). So I stumbled into a carefully selected salon: one in which no mullets were pictured in the window. Unfortunately, the stylist who appeared happened to be a proud carryer of the mullet virus, but it was too late. With my elementary level spanish and a lot of pointing at pictures of the various members of N-Sync who appeared on the walls, I explained the haircut that I desired.

Things were going farely well, at no point during the haircut did my hair begin to resemble a mullet. My stylist turned out to be gay, what do you know? He found out that we were travelling and began to list off the most ¨romantic¨cities in the world to see whether I´d been: Paris, Barcelona, San Francisco...etc. I realized at some point during the haircut that I hadn´t been to any type of barber shop in over 4 years, in fact my last experience was in New Zealand in 2003. I have gotten by for years with a $20 grooming kit purchased at your friendly neighborhood Rite Aid...I´d like to say that this is due to my fear of mullets, but it´s mostly just an attempt to save the $15 per cut (I assume that´s what Supercuts is charging these days). Whatever the case, I made it out of there with a $5 expert cut, that in no way implies that my weekends are spent watching Nascar.

(Diego Maradona)

greatest goal of all time