Buenos Fucking Aires

Ok, so my outrageously overpriced bus ride was quite nice. i had seats that recline almost 180 degrees and the movies were in english and dinner was a slice of cold meet in a pretty good sauce with bread as a first course, followed by hot chicken breast and mashed potatoes, and i had red wine to drink, all gratis. then at around 11 they came around with whisky, champagne or tia maria for a nightcap, gratis. so it was a pleasant change from the bumpy bolivian buses (nice alliteration there) where your lucky if the person sitting next to you doesnt have a live chicken in a plastic bag pecking at the sleeves of your shrit. i got to my hostel in BA with no problems and that night was hanging out with some of my new roomies. the next nights were tranquilo, and then christmas came round. well, i guess i should say christmas eve, because thats the night that they celebrate, not christmas day so much. my options were pay 40 US dollars to get into some fancy nightclub, or have some beers with some israelies at the hostel. i went with the latter, keeping in mind my financial situation. the next day, christmas day, EVERYTHING was closed. mcdonalds was closed, the mall was closed, the 24 hour phramacies were closed, it was crazy. i decided to head south to the atlantic coast the next day.

so i got to the small-ish town of Villa Gessell, which is really similar to any town on cape cod. its very strange. it even seemed to have the same kinds of grass and trees, it was wild. my two days here were very relaxed. unfortunatly surfing didnt end up happening, as there wasnt much surf. the waves just werent breaking. the first night i had a terrific seafood dinner, with every kind of shell fish you can imagine. and although it was good, it wasnt really up to the quality of what i would have back home. which is fine, since i have been down here, i have come to realize that i probably wont have food as good as what i could get when i worked at the country club until i am back on vashon, or at least in the US. that changed 2 nights ago. i sat down at a very expensive looking resturant, just cause they had artisanal beer (i had a dark wine beer that was very good) and looked over the menu. i was gonna leave but something caught my eye, "salmón del pacifico" in a lemon sauce. it wasnt much more that the seafood at the other resturants around, so i decided to get it. the whole dining expierence was delightful, except the uncomfortable chair i was sitting in. it was a massive salmon filet over a pile of mashed potatoes and cooked spinach on the side. lemon sauce was poured over it, and it even had a light almond crusting. unbelieveable. it was so good.

i got back to BA last night and it must have been 10:31, because they stop running the subway at 10:30 on sundays, and i saw the last train leave as i walked down onto the platform. so i got on bus that someone told me was going to the right neighborhood and got off after 5 people all were giving me advice on how to get to my hostel in fast castellano. after wandering around a few minutes i got in a cab and the cab driver didnt know where the hostel was, but that didnt stop him from asking police officers on the sidewalk and other taxi drivers while we were stopped at traffic lights. finally i got out by an internet cafe, and within 2 minutes of being on a computer had the address. i took another cab there. keep in mind now that the day before i emailed them making sure there was room, they responded yes, and i confimed the response, saying i would be there around 11 pm sunday night. i got there just after 11 (not bad for the hassel it was to find the place, which is in an unmarked building, have you) and was told to wait while they check the room. the guy (who spoke english) came back and said they didnt have room. i said i emailed them, they said they would have a bed, yadda yadda yadda. he said since i didnt pay a deposit it wasnt a real reservation, and they gave my bed (the last one in the entire hostel) to someone who walked in just a few minutes ago. i withheld my anger, and asked if there would be room tomorrow. he said he need the computer to help someone else, wrote down the name of another hostel, and practically kicked me out the door. i was a bit upset, especially when the hostel he told me to go to informed they were also full, and told me of another hostel, which had room, thank goddness. anyway, i got the hostel buisness squared away today.

Well, thats all for now, im off to explore more of the city that i havent already seen. its massive, so this could take awhile.

Salta

So after walking just 2 blocks--during the course of which i stopped for a fabulous ice cream--i found another hostel. it had dorm beds and all the same emenities (although the computer is a bit slower) for 10 pesos less per night. its been very tranquilo. as i was walking towards the square Marie-Louise and Tom, the Irish couple i had befriended on the salt flats tour walked out of a bookshop. what a coincidence. i joined them for a couple beers and we decided to meet later for some more. i went home and had a delicious spinach and cheese ravioli in a homemade (by me) alfredo sauce. it totally hit the spot, after a lot of cheap local food and street hamburgers. and i had the rest the next day for lunch. i ventured out at 10:30 or so and promplty found the irish where we decided to meet. we had few drinks here, a few there, and before we knew it, it was 3 am and the bar was closing, so we ventured back to our respective hostels, after exchanging emails and facebooks. the days have kind of blurred together here, and not cause i have been constantly drunk. quite the opposite, im saving my party money for christmas in Buenos Aires. either way, what counts is i had to buy an outrageously overpriced bus ticket (although the trip is 20 hours) to BA, and that i talked to a friend who is living there and i may have a bed in a house for as long as i want, when i want. we´ll see. so im off tomorrow, not much else to say now, although stories should be coming soon. its bloody hot here too, almost too much so. i wouldnt mind 7 inches of snow right now...maybe...

¨Well, we are in Bolivia¨

Wow, so its been awhile, and i have a bit to cover. I think this will be a pretty good post, although dont get too excited to read it, just know that im excited to write it.

So after accomplishing nothing but relaxation and a wierd prison tour in the La Paz area for a week, it was time to move on. Our last night in La Paz was Natasha´s (one of the girls from london) birthday. Unfortunatly that day and the night before i had developed a bit of a belly bug, so much so i was forced to call home and seek advice. And here´s my piece of advice: never doubt the amazing ability of Cypro. it cured my problem in 3 days instead of 3 weeks. But before i was cured i came down with a bit of a fever as well, and with the help of my madre/doctor and the people i was with i became quite convinced that i very may well have malaria. everybody gave me malaria pamphlets and info about doxy, the drug you take for malaria. that night i decided that the next day i would go to a clinic. however, 10 hours of Vicodin induced sleep did me well, and instead i made the 20 minute walk across town to the brazilian embassy. the woman gave me a list of visa requirements and the forms to fill out. all i had to do was go back to the hostel, get a photo, my yellow fever paper, and a printout of my bank statements and $130. the only complication: the embassy was closing in one hour. so i hoped a bus back to the hostel, ran around finding everything and finishing the forms, and went back out looking for a bus. i got one going the right direction, but not to the exact street. after sitting in the aweful La Paz traffic for a few minutes, not moving at all, i jumped out and ran the last few blocks to the embassy. i got there at 12:42, three minutes before the closed, and the woman who worked there saw me come in. i dropped off my papers and ran across the street to an ATM, waited in a short line and ran back with the money. the doors were closed, but all my stuff, except passport and debit card, were inside. i pointed and mouthed to the guard that i had to get my papers, and he opened the door. i picked up my stuff and ask the woman if we could do it. she said they were closed. i looked at the clock, it was 12:47, two minutes late. i tried to explain what happened, and she said in very slow and rather loud spanish, ¨we close at 12:45.¨ so that was it, i walked out with everything i need for a visa but not able to turn it in. the next day was thursday, and they take 48 hours to go through, so if i did it then i would have to wait till monday. screw that. when i get to Buenos Aires, ill go to the brazilian embassy there. oh, the reason i even want this visa is that everybody i met in La Paz is going to Bahia de Salvador in brazil for carnival. this city has the biggest carnival celebrations in the world, and i figure that im down here, may as well not miss this event.

so that night i took a bus to the colonial town of Sucre, hoping for warm weather. it was raining when i got there, and there isnt much to do in sucre, so after 20 minutes in the bus station, i got a bus to the once prosperous silver mining town of Potosí. it was raining there, too, but i wanted to visit the mines, so i got a hostel and slept and read the rest of the day. the next day i had a tour starting at 9, and after doning our mining clothes (just nylon pants and a jacket and helmet to cover our regular clothes), my private guide and i set off. i asked him if i could leave my jacket (with passport and debit card) in the locked closet with our other clothes, and if it was safe. his reply to that wasnt reassuring: ¨Well, we are in bolivia,¨ was all he could say. so i grabbed my passport and card and shoved them in my jeans pocket under the nylon pants, nice and safe. the outside of the mine was bad enough, ill put photos up when i can, but the inside was insane. they are working in the same conditions as they were when the mine opened, many, many, many years ago. there is no map, the tunnels are only about as high as my waist in some places, and almost everything is done manually, with a shovel, axe, wheel barrels...they miners work 10 hours a day with no lunch break, and with the price of silver down they are only getting 50 bolivianos a day, about 7 dollars. last year they were making 300 bolivianos a day. anyway, you cant really get the idea reading about it.

i took a bus from 7pm to 2am to a town called Unyni, where the world´s highest and largest salt flats begin. i set up a tour leaving the next day, and bought a train ticket out of town the night we would get back, it worked out perfectly, something that doesnt happen very often, and got me really excited. having banana juice served to me in a plastic bag with a straw sticking out also got me excited. the tour was cool, the salt flats go on for-EVER. we took a couple funny pictures and drove on. this tour cancelled all the tree planting i have ever done. there were 6 of us plus our driver in an old Toyota Land Cruiser, with a big rack on top with our bags. we drove something like 600 km in 3 days on 2 full tanks of gas. anyway, the next day we saw some cool lakes and load of flamingos. that night was very cold, but we had lots of blankets. day three we were up at 4:30 to see the sunrise by massive geisers and nasty sulfer pools and vents, producing an aweful smell but were a brilliant thing to see. that day was ALL driving, for 10 hours almost. the group consisted of an irish couple, a brazilian couple, and a swiss guy. the brazilian couple was from Salvador, where i am planning on being for carnvial, but they wont be there when im there, unless i stay longer or come earlier. the irish couple joined me in going to the argentine border, but they had emergency passports because their real ones were stolen in La Paz, and i guess argentina doesnt accept emergency passports without a visa, so when i walked across the border no trouble, they had to go back to town and get a visa from the consulate. so we would meet at the bus terminal, where i waited for a few hours with no sign of them. i got my bus to Salta, where i am now, and where its very warm, and unfortunatly havent seen them since. maybe in BA, cause they were planning on being there for xmas as well.

ok, im getting kicked out of an overpriced hostel and have to find somwhere else to stay, so, chau.

The official translator

so ive been hanging out in la paz for almost a week now, its a great place. i met some british girls who i knew from peru and we met 2 more british girls and 2 aussie guys. so the 7 of us have been kicking it around la paz for a while. we took an aweful 3 hour mini-bus ride to this little town that is on the edge of the rainforest, with hopes of going mountain biking and horseback riding. well, niether of those happened, but we did lounge by the pool for a couple days, and drink lots of wine. a nice little trip away from the city, but with all the bugs that were there, we are all very happy to be back in the city. tomorrow is one of the british girls birthday, so we are going to bbq or go out to a nicer resturant. after that ill move on south to the salt flats and then into paraguay, so that i can get to buenos aires by christmas, which is my goal, we'll see if it happens.

oh, i know what i did that exciting. i was about to be quite depressed if the previous paragraph was all i had to talk about. ok, so after a couple days in la paz, i heard that the San Pedro prison is a cool place to check out. its in the middle of the city, and from the outside you wouldnt even guess its a prison. so the 7 of us waited around the gates for a few minuets, and a south african woman who worked there came over and told us it was 250 bolivianos to see the bolivian side, and 300 to see the gringo side. there is one part which is massive and thats where the bolivians that smuggle drugs or murder go. then there is a smaller gringo side where the foriengers that get arrested for smuggling or whatnot get sent to. and this is why: you have to pay for everything. your cell, your food, your protection, whatever. so there is a fund that the foriengers put together and they buy a new forienger a cell on their side, cause a young guy in the bolivian side would get ripped up, or so they say. so the whole thing is corrupt. the money we paid was to pay off the guards. then we had to tip our guide and our body guards, and pay extra to take photos. inside its like a housing market, you pay everymonth for your cell, and you can get cable tv, a fridge, anything you want if you have money. and the property value changes. you can also buy a cell, and rent that out to others, its all done very formally. if you dont have money they put you in a cell with no bed, no toliet nothing, and with a bunch of other guys. but the cells dont have bars, they are just doors. everybody is free to do whatever they want inside. there are shops that prisoners have started, and resturants, and all that. families come into the prison to live with the father/husband who is in prison. so its more like a community than anything else. there is soccer pitch (cement) several rooms of pool tables and all that. and heres the doozie: they make and manufacture cocaine inside. its supposed to some of the best in the world, 96% pure. and they send it out to be sold, or they sell it to each other, or to tourists. its crazy. there is a book called Marching Powder all about, i want to get it, cause it sounds fascinating.

anyway, so thats what i have done in la paz. oh, and im the only one that really speaks spanish in the group, and thats why i am the official translator. and the only god damn american, but i wont be for long, and not becauce somebody is joining us, but because i have become more and more british and aussie everyday. they're converting me.

Bolivia

So i went to the consulate on monday morning and the man told me he couldnt give me a visa. they only give 15 per month, and they used all of novembers visa stickers. i reminded him it was december 1st (with this i thought i had won straight off), and he told me the new stickers for december hadnt arrived yet, it might be a day or a week or two weeks until they came, he said. so i would have to pay $135 at the border anyway. sonofabitch. so i copied my pictures to a CD for backup, had a delicious alpaca steak in a wonderful sauce, and went to get my bags from the hostel. they had let me store them in the security place. i had about 45 minutes till my bus left, and your supposed to be there about half an hour early. well, when i got to the hostel and asked for my bags, the guy working started running around swearing under his breath like a cracked out man with terets. it turns out he lost the key and couldnt find it. i examinded the heavy metal door and decided it would be unwise to attempt to kick it in like a bad ass. now i have half an hour to get to my bus. i was calm. a few minutes later he proclaims it was in his shoe. i got my bags and got a cab to the station. we got to the border, i had to photocopy my cedit card, yellow fever form and passport, and fill out an application (which i dont think they even looked at) and had to pay $135. but other than that it was an easy crossing, and the bolivian visa is cool.

the rest of the bus ride was interesting. i talked with a resident of La Paz for a while, he told me what to see and all that, and then we stopped by the shore of lake titicaca. we all got off the bus, onto a little boat, and crossed from the peninsula we were on to the other side. the bus drove onto a flat wooden rickety barge and crossed as well. we got to la paz by 10 and i walked to the hostel, called the Adventure Brew Hostel, because...noah, nathan, keller and corey, you'll like this...they brew beer there. its a micro brewery, and you get one free beer every night. tonight i think ill try their english stout, it looks pretty good.

tours and excursions are expensive here, although everything else is cheap, so in a few days all have some things to talk about...hopefully.

also, i posted new pics, all of peru thats worth looking at, and some that isnt.

The Bees´ Knees

Ok, here we go again. to begin, i will use the saying of a good friend when i say that Machupicchu really is the bees´ knees. its the shit. its undescribable. photos dont say enough, video doesnt say enough, you have to go there to know.

My first few days in cusco were fun. i was staying at a party hostel that had a bar called The Horny Llama, so that probably says enough there. but just a tip, no matter who you are, i dont care what you weigh or how tall you are, dont drink 10 rum and cokes in an hour and a half, especially when the rum is cheaper than the coke, and that makes the drinks extra strong.

I left on my 4 day trek with no problems. 2 other americans were in the group as well, along with 2 danish girls, but one had her bag stolen (complete with passport, clothes, camera...you name it) at the bus station the morning we were supposed to leave, so they decided to rethink the plan. so,
Day 1:the two americans and i headed on our 4 hour bus ride with the guide through amazing scenery on some wild roads, but they were all paved. we then got off, hopped on our mountain bikes and started the ¨downhill¨ mountain biking portion of the trip. ¨downhill¨ really meant down a bumpy ass road that made my male parts hurt, along with my ass, back, arms, head, and my body in general. this part of the journey got some curses from me, and i was miserable enough after 2 hours of riding i was just about ready to make them take me back to cusco for a refund, but i stuck with it, and the coke i had at the hostel after the biking never tasted so good. *note: i brought 25 soles (peruvian currencey--3 soles=1 dollar) because i would have to buy water and a 10 sole entry to some hot springs. i didnt account for the fact that others would want to drink some beers and have a good time.*
Day 2: the danish girls joined us today, so we were a full group again. we headed off at 6:30am and walked a total of 22km that day. it started with easy road walking, then hard uphill, then the rest was 80% flat (words of the guide). we got to some hot springs an hour from our destination, and they were terrific. the hostel was nice as well, and while we were having dinner our guide gave us our options for the next day: walk 7 hours (19km) or take a bus 30 min and walk 3 hours. my only problem was i had 10 soles left, and the bus was 8, and i needed 5 for a bus back after my train on the fourth day (that was new news to me). we agreed i would borrow money from the americans, and that way i wasnt mooching beer the whole time as well.
Day 3: another early start, nice bus ride, and 3 hours of walking along train tracks, which is quite hard on your ankles. we got to aguas calientes (the town closest to machupicchu, and the most expensive and touristy town in all of peru, according to the guide), and had lunch. then we got some drinks in a bar and watched two movies. that night the guide told us he would not come to machupicchu with us, we would have a guide when we got there. he gave us a breakfast (banana, bread, oreos, juice) and we bought some snacks for lunch. i got 2 bananas and two lemon sweets, which was all i could afford.
Day 4: at 4:30 we left the next morning and climbed steps for an hour and a half. but machupicchu was amazing (once the cloudy mist of the morning cleared). after our guide, the americans and i climbed another mountain called hynapicchu (which means young mountain, machupicchu means old mountain). the view from the top was amazing, you would see 360 degrees and all of machupicchu below. that climb was another hour of steps as well. it was there we had thanksgiving breakfast, juice, oreos and a banana for me. we chilled out till about 1 and had thanksgiving lunch, bread, banana, oreos for me. then they left for their train, and i hung around for another few hours. the americans gave me 10 soles then, the bus from where the train would drop me off cost 5 soles (according to my guide) to get me to cusco. so i was drained when i got to aguas calientes, and got a coke and a water (which i hadnt had for 2 days...of hiking). that left me with 5 soles. when i got off the train at 8:30 the only buses going to cusco cost 10 soles. my genius self thought to jump on with another tour group on their bus, and act like i was with them all along. i got in line with the first one i saw, group lucy. it was 20 asian people, and 2 white people, not including me. great...the bus company asked the tour guide (who was busy and flustered) if i was part of the tour. he gave me a quick glance (i was sitting in the back with my hat pulled low, and asians behind me) and said yes. ok, so i got away with it, now i would have 5 soles for a cab when i got back to cusco. not yet--they did a thorough inspection of who was in what group, and i was found out. i offered to pay 5 soles to stand in the aisle for the 2 hour bus ride back but the ass-hole bus guy said no. so now im facing sleeping in the bushes and getting a bus or hitchhiking back the next day. i am running around the bus lot, asking everybody if i can go for 5 soles. finally one guy said i could sit in the back of his mini-bus (a bit bigger than a dodge caravan). i jumped on. the back means the space between the back of the back seat and the tailgate. it was actually quite nice, there were blankets on the floor and just enough room for me to stretch my legs out. we got back in 40 minutes, passing everybody else on the road, it was crazy. i was dropped off a block from my hostel, where i had my thanksgiving dinner (at 10pm) of a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

The next day was relaxing, and i left cusco happy. im now on lake titicaca, and i did an island tour today. it was pretty cool, many people live on floating islands that they made. its cool. im off to bolivia tomorrow, and still upset that i have to pay $100 for the visa, but whatever.

good lord, that was long. sorry. time to go eat some alpaca steak.

damn internet cafe computers

i just spent an hour writing an amazing tale of my last week and when i tried to publish it, it deleted the whole thing. sorry guys, i dont have it in me to rewrite it right now, maybe tomorrow.

Be Back in a Bit

Im off to the first real World Wonder today, on a four day trek to machupicchu, so ill have a good post in a few days.

Cusco and the desert

alright, for those of you who dont know (and i cant imagine there are many of you who do), south west peru is real worthless. really they just have a lot of desert, and a few worthless towns built where there must be a natural spring or something, because it certainly doesnt rain out here. on our 10 bus ride from nasca to arequipa, i saw lots of sand, and some hills of sand out in the distance--for 10 hours (execpt when i was sleeping). arequipa is a cute little (almost a million people makes it a bit bigger than ¨little¨, but it feels small) colonial town. the new yorker and i found a private room for pretty cheap, but it was very basic, and the south african opted to find somewhere more expensive, mission number one completed! we slept for awhile before getting some food and checking out the markets. they have some fabulous cakes and pastries here, which will be my demise, and i had a good latte too (first one in 6 weeks).

that night we found a local disco with not a gringo in sight. after a pitcher of bad beer a couple locals helped to show us how to dance, which didnt go drastically well, but was a blast either way. we spotted some drug deals in the club and on the way back to the hostel as well, so that was kinda exciting. next day was more wandering and more coffee and more pastries. we bumped into alli and her friends (the crazy aussies) but were lucky enough avoid being stuck walking around with them (alright, maybe im a little harsh, but whatever). at 3 my friend from new york took a bus to puno, by lake titicaca and i got one to the coast. i would have liked to stick around with her longer (shes one of the funniest people i have met here, and we didnt stop laughing for more than a few minutes the whole time we were travelling together) but she was moving way to fast, and had to be in Rio by december 17th.

i missed the stop to the town i planned to go to because the bus was stopped for all of about 15 seconds so one person could get on, and a few minutes later the bus attendant came and told me that was where i wanted to get off, isnt that helpful...so i got off at the next big town about half hour away and stayed the night and went back the next day. it was real worthless excursion, but i guess it gave me something to do. now im in cusco taking it easy (at 3300 meters). i had a delisious bacon avacado bbq burger for lunch. ummmm.

ill post again before i head up to machupicchu, if theres anything to post about.

Sandboading

wow, its been a while. this might be long...

took the night bus from huaraz to lima (yes, of course there was a screaming baby for the first half hour of the ride, and yes, i did realize that the sound that makes me want to punch a baby (dane cook fans...) is that of a baby screaming). arrived at 5, got a bus to ica at 6, and was in the hostel in the small oasis town of hacachina by noon, ready to pass out. the hostel was 5 dollars a night and had a pool in middle of the court yard, and plenty of recliners. that night we had an all you can eat, all you can drink (rum and cokes) BBQ. i met some cool aussies, brits, and an irish guy. i soon found out they were all alcoholics, as they managed to go through 16 strong cocktails (like long island ice tea strong) before heading back to the hostel to drink more. i chose to pass on all but sips of the various kinds of cocktails they were drinking, and went to bed early (1 or so) that night. the aussies and irish guy left the next morning, but i hung out with the brits the next day (they both resembled jesus to some extent) and we went sandboarding.

the concept is they take about 6-8 of you up into the desert (amazingly beautiful) in dune buggies that sound like old V-8 fords. i was all ready to ride in the one with the brits and some girls from london, but they moved me into one with 5 isrealis and a brazilian. fun. the drivers are totally insane, making the trip a blast, as you cruise over the dunes and down very steep slopes. then we get out at the top of maybe a 50 foot dune, and stap out waxed pieces of plywood (really they are big skateboards with now trucks) to our feet and cruise down. you pretty much have to go straight and keep your balance to be sucessful at all, but it was totally fun. we did six dunes like that, then went to some 150-200 foot ones, that you couldnt go straight down on or you would die (or break your back, dont laugh it happened to someone, although not while i was there). next day alli and i went to the peruvian galapagos (which isnt really like the galapagos at all, mostly because its not where charles darwin lived and experimented, in fact the islands are uninhabitable for the most part). they are called the peruvian galapagos because they have thousands and thounsands of birds. and hundreds of sea lions and some penguins and other stuff too. all in all, it was fun, but not spectacular.

sandboarding was so great that i did it again the next day. this time i was with a cute 19 year old girl from bellvue, and some cool (and totally totally hilariously un-pc) women from london. it was even better, and i was able to make some turns, and look semi-suave while doing it, although thats not so say i didnt wipe out pretty bad, and am still sore from it. another barbeque that night where i met a cute girl from NYC, so we hung out till quite late playing pool (with the hilarious women from london) and such.

i managed to convice alli and her friend to leave early, so i am now awaiting a 10 hour night bus ride to my next destination with the new yorker and a real annoying south african guy. he thinks he knows everything (doesnt speak a word of spanish) and is right about everything. he also has lots of money (a banker from living in london) so he´s not on the same wave length as us. hopefully we´ll be able to ditch him soon enough.

phew, more as it develops, im off to machupicchu in about 10 days.

So i have been in Huarez, the mountain town of almost 100,000 people (but you wouldnt guess it if you were just walking around town) for 4 or 5 days now i think. the german i met actually turned abou to be an isreali, although his accent sounded quite german, and he didnt like being told so. to adjust to the altitude he and his friend and alli (the somewhat insane aussie) and i headed up to another ¨must see¨ in the guide books, Laguna 69. we took a 2 hour taxi ride that left at 6am and got to the trail head at 8:30 (a timid taxi driver made the ride take longer) and hit the trail. we walked past a sign that said it was 8 km up to the lake, whoa. and of course the aussie, living in her own little world, says, ¨oh 8 km is nothing,¨ even at more than 3000 meters, with one day to acclimatize. so we begin, and the first bit is flat and easy, and then we have to go over a ridge. that took some time for me and one of the isrealis (who i still think of as german) but the other one and the alli cruised up. then another flat bit and another steeper ridge, which took almost an hour to get over. i finally set eyes on the lake 3.5 hours after we started, and its supposed to be a 2.5 hour hike. it was beautiful though, bright teal blue water surounded by snow capped peaks. (pictures will come when i have a faster computer.) at that point i had a pretty bad headache. alli went swimming in the glacial lake, and when she got out it started to snow for a few minutes, followed by intense sunshine that made me take my jacket off. i found out from a guide that we were at 4600 meters. thats 700 feet higher than mt. rainier, for those of you who didnt know, and twice the hight of the highest mountain on the east coast. we had started the journy at 3800 meters so we had an incline of 800 meters, or 2600 feet. walking down resulted in more headaches and nausea, that only resided with some tylenol that i took at the bottom. that night me and some guys from the hostel made a great pasta marinera meet sauce, which i also had for lunch the next day.

the day after that was a relaxing one, in which i managed to watch 3 movies with 3 sets of different people. dinner that night was a delicious spagettie shrimp alfredo, which i also made, but cost more than going out would have if i had wanted chinses or peruvian food, which i didnt. that day i also met alli´s friend who is half malaysian and half australian, as they were preparing for the 4 day santa cruz trek, which i decided to pass on, since the laguna 69 was pure hell, and they would not have donkeys, and thus would be carrying their 30 pound packs on their backs the whole time. screw that, to this day im still not fully acclimtized, or way out of shape, cause i find myself breathless after 3 flights of stairs.

yesterday i went mountain biking with a british girl, a british woman, and a wierd guy from seattle, who didnt tell us what he did, just that he had been travelling for the last 2 years. we were supposed to get a bus ride to the top of the trail but the bus driver was apparently an ass hole and dropped us off a 40 minute uphill ride from the trail. the ride down was a blast though, but i have to say the best part was being chased by rabbid dogs and having to yell and throw rocks at them to keep from contracting rabbies myself.

today has been very tranquilo, and i booked by trek to machupicchu for november 24, where ill meet the british girl from the bike ride, if all goes to plan. tonight im headed to lima and then to ica, a small town in the sand dunes where you can go sandboarding, which i plan to do a lot. all in all, i have enjoyed hanging out in this town, and i have met some pretty cool people in the hostel here. trekkers going to peru, you´ve got to check this place out.

Fuck expensive mexican food

The womens world tour of surfing was very cool. i just sat on the beach for some time and watched these people surf, they are really good. and the aussie girl i have been travelling with for the last week or so went to school with one of the women competing, so that was cool. other than that there hasnt been much to do, except swim and lie in the sun, which i have no problem with.

but his girl, her name is alli, is very very very stingy with her money. which i guess its good, but sometimes its just ridulous. anyway, so we have spent like 25 dollars in 2 days, so we thought we would go to a nicer resturant before we left at 10 pm our last night. we decided on a mexican resturant that looked good. the food was delicious, i had a huge tortilla with veggies and chicken and shrimp, very satisfying. then i got a piece of apple pie at another resturant and we finished up the night with drinks before we got on the bus.

it was all going fine for the first couple hours, i slept, and then i woke up feeling nauseas. i had trouble getting back to sleep because i was focusing entirley on not throwing up. after an hour or so i lost this battle and had to retreat to the bathroom on the bus, and revisited it a few more times throughout the night. sleep didnt come easy. we got to the city for our connecting bus at 6 am to find the bus didnt leave unitl 9 pm, so we dropped off our bags and went to check out some pre-incan ruins. had i not been feeling like shit i think it would have been more fun. then we went to a beach were i passed out in the sand for 2 hours, and that helped a bit. then we headed to a movie, where i came down with a fever. we drag ourselves back to the bus station and i manage to sleep for a few ours on our second 8 hour overnight bus ride in a row. now im at the hostel at more than 10,000 feet up and just waiting to be struck by altitude sickness. i met a german today and i think were going on a four day trek with him and a friend in a few days.

Peru

I had plans to stay in a little town near peru for a month, working and volunteering and living for free, but that ended up not working out. i did however meet and aussie in cuenca and again in vilcabamba (where i was going to stay) so we headed for peru. our bus to the border town was held up for 3 hours by a parade in celebration of the virgin, i have no idea why they chose to have 1000 people parade in the middle of the highway 25 km from the city they all lived in, but that had apparently been the plan. played hacky sack with some american girl travelling with their family and then we got moving again. 6 hours later we got off and took a taxi to immigration, although at this point it was 11:30 and we were advised (if we wanted to not be robbed and possibly killed) to stay there and go the next morning. we had dinner with an irish and a chilean doing the same think, and at 8 the next morning walked 4 km from ecuador to the peruvian immigration, and were set to go.

another 2 hour bus ride (i slept for most of it, despite Transformers being played, in spanish with spanish subtitles) got us to mancora, a small surfing town on the north coast of ecuador. tomorrow is the womens world tour of surfing, so that will be fun, and the water is warm and the sun is out. after that we´re headed to a mountain town very very far away to do some trekking with the irish guy we met at the border. more as it develops.

Cuenca

Well, the guide books suggested this town was quaint and colonial. so far i would describe it as confused and busy and ugly. not to be mean. there are spanish colonial style houses here and there, but between them are ugly cement structures or metal garage doors. but maybe i have just not been to the nice parts of town. lets start from the beginning.

Baños is the shit. its very touristy, but i was meeting great people at the hostel and the town was celebrating--and had been for 3 weeks--the virgin. so all day long bands could be heard marching the streets and fireworks going off. the fireworks were, however, much more about sound than looks. they were more like giant bottle rockets which made an expolsive sound louder than a gun shot. this, of course, set off car alarms, so after the KA-BOOM of the fireworks we all laughed as a car alarm went off for minute or so. the first day i was in baños i met my roomates at the hostel, a 31 year old german and a 40 (or so) year old isreali. we went to the thermal hot springs and ran into some aussies, english, and americans from our hostel (the most popular in town). we left at 8 or so and signed up to go canyoning the next day. canyoning is pretty much repelling from watefalls. so the next day at 9 we donned our wetsuits and hoped in the back of the pickup headed to the falls with our 2 guides. they showed us how to do it (lean back, lean back!! they were always yelling) and we started with a 6 meter waterfall. we reach the bottom to find we were behind a 15 person group, and would be waiting a while--at every fall. next was a 20 meter fall, then a 35 meter fall (extremely frightening because it was the only one where we didnt have a safety line, so my life was literally in my own hands), and then an easy 20 meter fall. all very fun, but our hands were hurting after the tallest one, and the german was actually bleeding a little, from rope burn. (granted, we was 6´4¨ and prolly 260+.) it was a great time tho, and i would recomend it to anyone that has the chance, although it wasnt hot that day, and the water was cold, so maybe try to find a dry one.

that night (saturday) we went out as a group of 8 from our hostel, i had great indian food, and we hit the bar. i´ll ommit the details, but got up at 11 the next morning (no hangover, thank god) but not knowing where my t-shirt was. (i found it in the corner of the room, away from all my other stuff...) had a massive breakfast with some of the people we went out with, and a girl (about my age, unlike most of the travellers i have encountered thus far) approached us asking if anyone wanted to do a swing jump. being the low level adrenline junkie i am, i said i was up for it. we met at 12:30 at the company that offered it, and headed to the bridge. she said it as a 50 meter jump, and she was excited because yesterday she did an 18 meter jump and wanted more this time. the bridge we were going to jump of was 100 meters of a raging river, and the wind was blowing hard enough to knock your hat off. we were both kinda scared shitless as we looked over the edge, and her friends came and were laughing, asking if were were actually going to do it. it was really a 60 meter jump with a 20 meter free fall. she went first, and was hysterical as she climbed the railing and stood on the platform. apparently insane tourists dont do this often, because we had attracted quite the crowd. all went well and it was my turn next. i have done this kind of thing at wildwaves before, but nothing was quite like looking over 300 feet off a bridge getting ready to throw myself into the abyss. on the count of 5 i dove off. it was definelty crazy, but totally fun and i would do it again.

i left baños later that day, taking a night bus (bad idea, as it arrived at 4 am) to cuenca. found a hotel at 6, slept, walked around, got caught in the rain, went home, read...not a very exciting day. i found a different hostel today, which is really just a families house, but they gave me a room in the back for 5 bucks a night. im off to see a movie i think, since its raining and thundering again.

Ok, here we go...

So its been a while and a fair amount has been accomplished in the time since the last post, so this is going to be in to parts.

Part One, sometimes getting there is half the fun, or all of it: My last two days and nights in canoa were interesting. I somehow managed to play 3 games of ¨mission¨ Risk (yes, we played two games in one day) with a dutch fellow, an irishman and an englishman who worked at the hostel where we were all staying. i also played my first truley sucessful game of poker (and by that i mean that i didn´t loose, which was imparrative since i was betting money (just a one dollar buy-in to keep things friendly) that i didnt have. After my various expenditures, which included internet cafes, a call to peru, food and drink, and a couple spanish lessons which were of no help, i had $43.25. i owed the hostel 43, and had to borrow a buck for bus and ferry fare from the very kind alaskan owner.

After saying goodbye to the guys i had met, i headed to the bus stop. i caught the last bus out of canoa (at 7pm) and got to san vincint a half hour later. i found the place where i was to catch the passenger ferry (and i use the term loosely) to the town from which buses depart to quito. the ferry docked and we all got aboar. at this point it was pitch black and i was suprised there was still service between the two towns. the ¨ferrry¨ turned out to be a 35 (or so) foot long boat wooden boat that rocked back and forth (especially to the left, dont ask me why) despite fairly calm seas. as we boarded i noticed that the engine was quite similar to that of an old truck, and was sitting in the middle of the boat with little walls around it. the capitain (or whoever was driving) only steered, and he honked the horn once when he wanted the deckhand to put the boat in gear (or into netural on the other side) an honked twice when he wanted to speed up or slow down. i had to laugh. no only that but the hot radiator water (after cooling the engine) spilled out into a bucket in the boat, and every 5 min or so the deckhand would refill the reservoir with a yogurt cup from the bucket. but we made it and i got the bus to quito.

From quito to tena, a jumping off point for amazon tours (which i had no plan on doing because of cost and the need to find a group of 4 or more) is a ¨must see¨ in many guide books. the dirty, shitty little town is anything but something that i ¨must see.¨ its only redeeming value is that the amazon is easily accessible from it, and it has a park with monkeys that will steal your camera if your not watching out, which i find slightly hilarious. i found a dank hostel for $4 a night and i had plans to leave the next day, but the guy that worked at the hostel (for $3 a day, plus room and board) was a guide and trying hard to learn english, so he talked to me a lot. i mentioned i would have liked to go on a tour. he disapeared and 5 min later said a big group had just gone up and i could join them on the 3 day tour for $100. thats a good deal, considering im spending close to $30 a day anyway. ok, we leave tomorrow at 6 am and we´re going on a jungle tour, hike to waterfalls, and take canoes to see monkeys and butterflies.

Part two, the tour: we arrived at 8 am at the lodge, after travelling by car, bus, and canoe, and breakfast was pancakes with chocolate, bananas, fruit, coffee, and bread. but there were only 4 people there when i got there, all elderly french people. i was hoping for some families on the tour, with kids, maybe some that spoke english...no luck. i left on my personal jungle hike with my guide jacob, and he showed me what plants are pain killers, what do do if your lost, we ate ant eggs out of leaves, and some other stuff. jacob is a indigenous indian, his parents live a 2 day motorized canoe ride from the nearest town, and his father was a healer. he did brief little ceremony that is supposed to harness good energy and release bad energy. all very cool. a few hours later we return to find 15 sweaty old french people who just got back from their activity for the day. a few hours later, those who wanted to took canoes (with guides) to a small community to see how they make a special alcohlic drink, called teechwa. it was on this brief excursion i met a guy named Pims from holland. thank god. we talked the rest of the day and he told me how being with these french people the last 2 days had been like living in a cartoon, they were so ridiculous. but they were all leaving in the morning and new tourists were coming.

next day me and the two new tourists, from italy and a local, went on a 6 hour round trip hike to some water falls were we encountered an asian tour and we all went swimming. the walk back was long, but in exchange for english lessons for jacob he helped me with spanish. the third day was a canoe trip to a animal preserve, were we saw monkeys, mini jaguars and mini leapords, all kinds of birds, and some snakes. then to a museum about the indigenous tribes. then lunch, then to a ceramics place and a woodworking place, all indigenous indian run. it was good. we got back to tena and i hoped on the 6 o´clock bus to baños, a touisty town that brags hot springs and an active volcano that you can go see at night. thats tonights activity.

Coco Loco

The last week or so has been nice. the first 3 days i had a dorm room to myself in a hostel that is literally on the beach. well, its actually across the street (dirt road) from the beach, but the ground around it is all sand. yesterday (i think, im kinda loosing a sense of time, which is nice) a canadian travelling with an irishman and two dutch guys showed up. they´re all nice, and the brit that works at the hostel is cool. and there is a aussie woman staying there too. we got a little game of soccer going on the beach today too.

not much else is going on, life right now is very tranquilo. ive been surfing a couple times, once on a long board and once on a really small board, which is harder, and i thought i would totally fail, but for some reason i was able to get up on it, maybe my history of snowboarding. im headed back out in a few minutes, while the sun is shining, which doesnt happen too often here. ive been making all my food lately, which is kinda fun, and gives me something to do when theres not much else going on.

headed back to quito tomorrow, and then into the amazon, so that should produce some fairly good posts, sorry this one is kinda boring.

The night bus from Esmereldes

I managed to kill the rest of my time in esmereldes in a chinese restuarant, where i was finished eating and had paid after a half hour of walking in, but that didnt stop me from sitting there for 2 hours and watching bad chinese cartoons dubbed in spanish from far enough away that i couldnt here what they were saying. once the waiters started giving me really wiered looks--i had been recieving questioning looks for about an hour--i grabbed my stuff and headed to the bus station. and none to soon, as everything was beginning to close (strange, since it was only 8 or so) and i took that to mean that this is a dangerous city after dark. the bust station was just a few blocks away and i got there and sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs for the next 2 hours reading. of course at this point i was hungry again, but had $3.50 to get me from esmereldes to canoa, a small beach town more than 10 hours--and a few buses--away. so i bought some baked good from a guy in the terminal and ate my cliff bar from back home, i now have only one left.

the bus wasnt particularly bad, but i had somebody sitting next to me, which made it harder to sleep. and of coures, 5 minutes outside of the city the police stopped up, made everybody get off and searched everything. nobody was carrying contraband, and no guns were pointed at anybody. we left and about 10 minutes later the lights in the bus were turned off so we can sleep. of course that was accompanied by ear-drum-shattering bad spanish music blasting from the speakers. i guess this was the only way the bus drivers would be able to stay awake for such a long drive (since they couldnt bring the copius amounts of cocaine i would have expected would be needed to make such a drive, because of police checkpoint). finally the turned the music down and i fell asleep. everytime i woke up however, the bus was getting hotter and hotter, and more and more humid, until i was sticky with sweat (along with the guy next to me, and everybody else). then after 5 hours of hot and humid somebody must have opened the window because i was quickly chilly and needed my jacket to keep warm.

now we were in Manta, a town similar to south beach (yes, another one) with its row of tall hotels lining the beach. i didnt even go check it out because a very helpful--and extremly excited--guy told me to get on this other bus to canoa. i took me to another town similar to manta bust smaller, were i walked along the river and hopped on a boat going to the other side. then it was another bus, and a short ride in the back of a pickup to my hostel. but its lovely here, with a private room and TV downstairs and a Wii. All right on the coast. although much of yesterday was spent inside due to the light rain and wind. unless its gets really nice by tomorrow, im outta here and headed back to quito to try a different route to peru (i was going to go down the coast, but that hasnt been what i hoped it would be: sunny skies and warm water).

Bad Weather

So, Atacames...lets just say that every citizen of quito that can afford it goes every weekend. what that meant for me was way to many people that were old and kinda fat and ugly, that didnt speak english. i arrived at 6:30 am at the bus station and somebody ran over to me and from what i was able to understand of his yelling and pointing is that he was going to give me a ride to the strip (picture an ecuadorian version of south beach) where the hotels and hostels and restuarants are. not in a taxi though, in a motorcycle turned into a rickshaw (which, for those who dont know, is like a 3 wheeled motorcycle with places to sit in front of the driver). He wanted $15 but i only had 5, so of course thats what he took. (i found out later that it should have been $3.)

i walked around looking for a hostel cause i was a little tired from the bus ride. oh speaking of which, at 3 am i awoke and a few seconds later the bus driver slammed on the breaks. the response was gasps from those around me, and i immediatly grabbed the armrests, crossed my fingers and told myself i would make it atacames. we got through whatever encouraged such a maneuver and were on the way again, and i did make it. anway, i found a hostel with a private room (shared bath) for 6 bucks, so i got it and hit the hay (almost literally, the mattress wasnt the most supportive). a few hours later i got up and took a cold shower and went to check out the beach, which was the reason i came here. it was cloudy but the sun came through sometimes and it was hot enough. i got lunch and noticed a group of 8 blonde haired people with backpacks walking down the street with volleyball. when i finished my food i headed in the same direction as them and saw that some where swimming and some were sipping fresh smoothies at a bar. i sat in the back and got a beer and watched for a few minutes (i had plenty of time, as this place was obviously their permanant hang out spot for the day. once everybody but 2 blonde girls were on the beach i went up and struck up a conversation. one was american, the other german. the rest of their friends filtered back from the beach, and they were all german but one who was dutch.

we went swimming and played vollyball and drank smoothies until about 6, when i went back to change clothes and shower and they did the same. i didnt know where they were staying but said i would find them around 9 or 10. i went back out then and had dinner (both lunch and dinner were under $5 each, for a good meal, but i cant keep up that spending forever). i then wandered the street for almost an hour until i found them. they bought rum and coke, and we went to the beach and drank (you guessed it) rum and cokes until around 2, when we hit the bars. a few cheap cocktails later, those of us left (half of them went home) were dancing and singing to the bad reggaeton that was blasted from every bar on the beach (about 15 total). then back to the beach, and home when the music shut off at 4. i saw the guys the next morning (during which i was not hungover because i wasnt really drunk, just buzzing, mom and dad) and we went our seperate ways after exchanging email addresses. btw, they were all volunteers in quito, so maybe i have a free place to stay in a reletivly expensive city.

i was off to mompiche next, ecuadors best kept surfing secret, in search of sunshine. all i found was wind, light rain, and clouds, so i left the next morning and i am now in an internet cafe in a bad city waiting 6 hours for my bus to the south coast, where i will hopefully find the sun i am ever-searching for.

The center of the world

So i had this great plan to wait to right before i left quito to post and put up all my photos. but this computer is extremely slow (although its free, so i cant really complain) and the photos take forever to upload, so im going to wait until i get to a faster connection. but ill still post.

Im headed off to Atacames, on the northwest coast tonight. the last few days have been alright, albeit a bit slow because there isnt that much to do in quito. but today a couple aussies and i went to ¨la mitad del mundo,¨ or the equator, in english. it was a 40 cent 1 hour bus ride out there, and we paid 2 dollars to get in and took our cheesy tourist photos standing on the line and in front of the sign and monument and everything (which i find a bit ridiculous because modern GPS actually showed that they are off with everything by about 300 feet, even though the Incas were able to build a monument on the correct line thousands of years ago...). They also had really ridiculous other attractions, like a planitarium, an insectarium, and a small muesum of france and spain. Not really that exciting, but something i felt semi-obligated to do, since its not every day that i can hope back and forth between the northern and southern hemispheres--on one foot, if i wanted...

Yesterday was nice, checked out more churches in the ¨old town¨ (some of which i would have had to pay to see, but using large crowds that can often be avoided, although maybe thats stealing money from god...). had lunch again for $1.50 and then that night went out with an aussie girl, a limey guy, and a...*insert nickname or semi deroggatory term for an irishman here*. we got appetizers (at 11 pm) and then went bar hopping until we found a nice little dance club playing music from the 70´s and 80´s. everybody there (mostly locals) seemed to be loving it, but they were all pretty messy*, especially the girls. after only 5 hours of sleep i was awoken by 2 more aussies that had just arrived at the hostel (at 7:30 am) and were apparently staying in the same dorm room as me and another american, who was also awake.

all packed up and excited to hit the sun and surf, i just hope that former shows itself on the northern coast. its been mostly overcast here, so i would love to just sit in the sun for a few days, keeping my fingers crossed. more in the next few days, although if internet is expensive, maybe not.

The Blue House

Recap: Yesterday morning i got to LaGuardia Airport with little difficulty, and spending just $2 on the subway. I was there early enough that they actually put me on an earlier flight so that my luggage could be sent all the way to Quito so that i wouldnt have to go to the baggage claim in Miami. So i arrived in Miami 3 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave, which ended up being good, becasue there were some difficulties getting my boarding pass. The Columbian man behind the dest of Avianca Airlines didnt speak excellent english and kept asking me for a blue envelope from american airlines with my luggage information. i told him i didnt get anything like that. as i was about to leave and go talk to american i pulled out my boarding pass from the flight down to Miami and that seemed to satisfy him. He then looked at my eticket and asked me where my return ticket was. i dont have one, because i dont know when im returning. that wasnt ok. so he sent me to go wait in a half hour line to BUY a return ticket from ecuador, just so i could enter the country. i told the woman i wasnt about to buy a ticket unless i could change the date and the location, so she printed me up information that looked like i bought a ticket, but i didnt pay for it. that also satisfied the man who spoke broken engish (despìte being an employee in an american airport). finally i got my tickets, although he said they overbooked the flight from Bogota, Columbia to Ecuador, so i should go talk to somebody at the gate. she tried to help me but couldnt, so i got ont he plane to columbia not knowing if i would be able to leave columbia, even though no matter what, my luggage was going to ecuador. so i got through immagracion in Bogota and ended up getting a seat, much to my relief.

The Blue House is my hostel. Dont ask me why its not called La Casa Azul, but the ecuadorian owners decieded to go with an english title...its beyond me. but there is free internet and good beds and free breakfast and its right near bars and restuarants, so tonight should be fun. Today i walked down to the historical distirct, or the old town, and saw some pretty amazing churches and monasteries, but of course forgot my camera so ill be going back again tomorrow. i stopped in a little hole-in-the-wall restuarant and asked for a lunch menu. 5 minutes later a woman came out with silverware and a bowl of soup. then came fresh orange juice and a plate with salad, meet, potatoes and rice. it was all delicious but i was a little worried it was going to be expensive. when i asked how much, she said $1.50. my jaw dropped. other than that, i havent found much to do here, and i think ill be heading to the coast in a few days.

Its only one o´clock but after walking around since 9am im really tired. i think its because Quito is at 10,000 feet above sea level. periodically i had to stop and sit for a few minutes. also, it was raining lightly when i left the Blue House so i was wearing my jacket. 10 minutes later it was sunny and 25 degrees celcius, which is hella hot when your wearing jeans and a coat. that made it more tiring walking around today too.

Agua Con Gas

Finally arrived in Quito tonight. it was a long day of travelling, going from NYC to Miami to Columbia and finally arriving in Ecuador. the owner of the hostel i booked was waiting for me at the airport with a sign that said my name, which made me feel pretty important. The internet is really slow here and its 12:30 so im not going to write much. also the ¨shift¨button does things on this keyboard that arnt displayed on the keyboard, and i had to think back to when i was in Argentina to realize that the only way to get an ¨at symbol¨ is to press ¨alt·6·4.¨

so there will be more tomorrow i guess, once i have a little more energy. but for those of you who read this please dont expect much care with my puntuation and spelling and capititalization.

Hasta manana...

Packing

All packed up, as of 2 days prior to my departure.  i think thats pretty good.