Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Settle in

Alright, it has been far, far too long. i hope you are in a comfy chair with some snacks and beverages, this may take a while.

My hostel in BA lacked character, but had probably the best location a hostel in BA could. My first room was inhabited by israelis, my second by asians, and my third by a large norweigen fellow, a aussie-looking guy who slept all day, and a cool couple from LA. 3 rooms in 4 days, dont ask me why. i ended up becoming pretty good friends with them. anyway, i have already done almost everything there is to do in Buenos Aires except go to a soccer game and see a drum show called "la bomba." well the only soccer game while i was there would have cost me $70, which is insane considering that tickets normally go for $10. so i skipped that. i was all ready to go to la bomba with the californians when the woman behind the front desk told us they cancelled the show till next season. i guess its a summer thing. brilliant. i ended up spending my time walking the streets and looking at things for sale, which i didnt buy. except sandals, i found a pair of trendy flip flops for $3, so i got those.

After four days i was ready to leave, and Santiago, Chile, was the destination. I got a fancy bus with my own TV screen, watched "Baby Mama" (hilarious if you like saturday night live), and got comfortable for the 22 hour ride. Made it to santiago, found my hostel (which didnt have free breakfast, something at which i was appalled!) and settled by the pool. for those of you who dont know, my mom and sister were do to arrive the next day for a 2 weeks of traveling with me. They showed up the next morning and we got our things together to find another hostel (the one that didnt serve free breakfast was a bit rowdy--and didnt have free breakfast!). amid the excitement and confusion i realized last night that i left my pen drive with 4GB of photos in the computer there, and when i went back an employee told me he found it and put it behind the reception desk, but it wasnt there anymore, again, brilliant. so thats something i have to sort out.

But we found our new hostel, had a delicous FREE panacake breakfast there, and then headed off for a walking tour of the city, after receiving not-so-good advice from a cynical owner. after many blocks and being lost more than once, we found the house of Pablo Neruda, a famous chilean poet. it was a very interesting muesum-house tour. the man collected everything from pictures of watermelons to colored glass to stamps to unmatching cutlery. he also built his houses (i say houses because he had 3, and we were lucky enough to visit 2 in total) like ships, a few rooms had slanted floors and low, narrow doorways. we also saw the government house and went to a museum about Allende (a democratically elected Marxist president) who killed himself after a CIA-backed coup overthrew him in 1973. Sidenote: Allende and Neruda were friends, and Neruda died just a few months after the coup.

Next day we were off to Mendoza, where we ate nice food (unlike in santiago, where we were unlucky with resturant choice) and rented a car and drove around to several wineries and an olive oil factory. that evening we drove up to Cerro de la Gloria (glorious hill, as the sign translated it) looked over the town as the sun set, and climbed on the statue at the top. A visit to the Mendoza Zoo was the next days activity. the zoo was quite large and varied, although, as with all zoos, pehaps, the animals didnt seem to be enjoying themselves fully. we took a night bus back out to the Chilean coast that night, to a town called Valparaiso, a very european, bohemien-esque city. the houses were all brightly colored and beautifully restored, and apparently UNESA declared it a world heritage site. we ate seafood (the thing to do, according to the guide book) and walked amoung the pretty houses and chic cafes. we took a bus down to another one of Pablo Neruda´s houses, one meant to be even more amazing, but it seemed a little less exciting than the first. perhaps because we had a downright boring old woman as our tour for this one, and the man who lead us around in santiago was cheerful, happy, and possibly a bit crazy, but an excellent guide.

Now it was time for kerewyn´s chosen activity...horseback riding!! we headed up the coast and were picked up by the company (really just a family with an unruley three year old, but who can blame him). the horses were quite nice, and i told him we wanted fast horses but mom made me say we (exept for kerewyn) didnt have much expierence. so he put me on what i found out to be a slow, fat, and slightly asmatic horses that was the slowest of the bunch and simply refused to go where i directed. renaming her hidalgo helped a bit, but kerewyn and her race horse left us all in the dust. after three hours of riding that was fine with me, the slower and less bouncy the better. we were all soar the next two days, but dinner in a revolving resturant helped a bit. i must say, it seems unfair that a 300 gram (or 10 oz) steak with shrimp, more tender than perhaps an steak i have ever had, should only cost $9 or so in a revolving resturant 23 stories above the waterfront. still, with sides and drinks the bill rises quickly, although remains much less than one would pay north of mexico.

Off to a place called Quillota the next day. the only responses we got when telling locals we were going to quillota was, "oh, its warm there," and "hmmm, why would you got to quillota?" the reason: my dearest cousin Sela is an exchange student in the "warm" town of quillota, and we couldnt very well not visit her. we headed out, found a hotel, and had chinese. i talked to sela that night and she said she couldnt meet with us untill 8:30 the following evening, so we would have all of the next day to kill. so it was back to the coast. we lay on the beach in the sun for a few hours, then headed back. we also had chilean enpanadas, meat or chicken or jam and cheese filled pies, usually fried, and a completo which is an extra long hot dog with tomatoe, avocado and mayonaise. they are actually quite delicous.

We waited around in the hotel room back in quillota and when my mom went down to check the lobby, guess who came back with her? sela!! hurray, we managed to meet, in chile of all places, after 2 years. in the words of borat (and say it like he would) very nice! we chatted and told stories and caught up, then headed out for dinner. we found a Pakistani resturant called K2 (i wonder of the average chilean knows what K2 is) and dinned there. the food was quite good, once we sent the chicken back to be properly cooked. back to the hotel to talk and catch up more, until sela´s host sister picked her up. it was very nice to see her again.

Off to santiago the next day, where we legged it around with our packs until finally finding a place with room. on the recomendation of a gay british couple we went to a place called "Las Vacas Gordas," or The Fat Cows to us english speaking folk. once again, delicious food for outrageously inexpensive prices, and (what appears to be a trend amoung more upscale resturants in chile) we recieved a liquor--amaretto, camomille, or mint--on the house. even kerewyn got one, although thankfully didnt drink it.

The next day mom and sister bought some things one can only find in chile or neighboring countires, we went bowling, found out our artesanal market was closed (it was sunday), got ice cream, and walked around the plaza by our hostel. i sent some things home with mom, traded her backpacks (mine is now smaller, lighter, and of a better quality) and the taxi picked them up and wisked them off to the airport. it has been a lovely two or so weeks, although it feels good to be on my own again as well. yesterday i took the 30 hour bus from santiago to the top of chile and tomorrow i am headed back to La Paz. hopefully the swedish couple and the british girl from the eltronic music festival will be there, we will see.

Hope your behinds arnt too soar, i know mine is :)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

An Amazing Adventure and Wild Weather

I arrived in Punta del Diablo with pretty high expectations, not a good idea when arriving anywhere new. All the hostels there are very expensive, except for one, so that was where i was planning on staying. i didnt know where it was, but i knew it was an HI--hostelling international--hostel. i saw a sign for an HI hostel with an arrow pointing up a dirt street, so i headed up there. a few blocks later i found a hostel and asked if it was the right one. they said no, i had to go up a few more blocks, to the left a few blocks, and up more. i did that and didnt find anything. it was very hot, my backpack was heavy and i was tired and frustrated, so i went back to the hostel to stay there for the first night and find the other place later. well, the "hostel" that gave me directions was $70 a night and only had single rooms, so i cancelled my plan. i tossed my big pack into some bushes and headed back to town to ask around there. the tourist office was closed (i didnt see it open once during the 5 days i was there) so i went to an internet cafe. i got more concrete directions and went back to get my backpack and headed off. it ened up being about a kilometer outside town, but i found it. very basic, cold water, broken computers, but it had a kitchen and a TV and it was half the price of the next cheapest in town.

i settled in and had a couple days of relaxation and easy beach going. then i met a really annoying swedish guy, and we went on the mission of all missions. he said there was a big fort (the kind people battle over in war) about 5 kilometers away (3 miles, or so) and we should walk there. i was up for it, even though he was annoying. we left at two or so, and walked along the beach for about 2 hours, then asked someone where to go. they said follow the road up there until you get to route 9, then take that and you'll see signs. so we did that, another half hour or so of walking, and started seeing signs. we followed the signs down a dirt road, through a campground, until the signs stopped. i asked someone where to head next. they said we had to walk all the way back to the main road and around to the fort. but let me explain something about south americans. if you ask one person you'll one answer, and someone else will give you a completely different answer, so you have to ask maybe 3 or 4 people to get an idea of where to go, and its best if they work in a shop or something, because they probably know the area better. we found someone who worked in a shop and for us answer number two was, "oh you're close, head up that road, take a left, and you'll be there soon." we went with that answer. we found the fort, which was massive, but all locked up. at this point it had been about 3 hours since we left the hostel. we walked around the fort and found a place to climb the wall. so we both climbed up the wall, saw some security guards walking around, and quickly scurried back down. there were cactuses where we were walking and the swede had never seen a cactus in the wild, and tried to pick the "fruit" that was growing on it. the "fruit" ended up being a pouch of those tiny thorns that you cant see but hurt like hell when they are stuck in your finger. he spent a while working on getting all those out, while i tried to pull one of the thorns off the cactus itself, and in the process got a cactus thorn splinter, which is still in my finger and hurts like hell.

we planned on taking the bus back but learned the bus didnt come during the week of the "off season" months, which includes march. so we started walking back. we got to a point were we could take the road or the beach. at this point it wasnt dark, but the sun was getting to the setting point. we decided on the beach, but we had to walk through a kind of wooded area to get there. ok, that will be fun, we though. its going fine until we get to a really thick part. i cant explain what happened next, because ive never seen anything like it, but ill try. the trees and plants were so thick you couldnt just walk through them. fortunatly for us, most of the trees in this part were very dead and dry, so we were physically kicking apart braches of trees and breaking through dead trees to keep going toward the sound of the ocean. we had to army crawl to get through some parts. now its getting darker. not dark, but the sun is setting, and pretty quickly. after fighting to get through one part, we would just find ourselves facing the same thing again, but it seemed to get thicker and thicker every time. there were parts we actually had to find our way AROUND, because without multiple machetes it wouldnt be impossible to get through. it took a solid 45 minutes untill we got to sand. and at that point we were scraped up and bruised and in pain. we headed toward the beach, which we could finally see. its dark now. the last part we have to get through are some tall reeds, which end up being about 8 feet tall, and so thick--and sharp, i actually cut my hand on them--that we couldnt push through. i was leading at this point. so i reached up and started pulling them down, and after i pulled enough of them low enough, i jumped horizontally on them, using my body weight to pass through. we swam through the rest like that until we could walk, and promptly found we were in a swamp, and sunk in the mud and water past our ankles. but we finally got out and onto the beach. then it was just another 2 hours back to town. we ended up getting to the hostel at about 11. upon arriving we poured hydrogen peroxide over our wounds, and made pasta. after 7 hours of walking we figured it was a solid 10-15 kilometes that we walked. insane.

the next day was grey and colder and wicked windy, but we headed to the beach anyway. people were fishing off the rocks where all the waves break, and i was convinced they wouldnt catch anything--what fish swim in that part of the ocean, right?--but one kid caught like 5 fish in 20 minutes or so of us watching. we headed back to the hostel and BBQ'd with some canadians and french people and a german. the next day i awoke to steady rain, which sounded nice on the metal roof. but it didnt stop. in fact, it just got worse. it rained and rained and stormed and was windy and cold all day and all night. in fact, it was so bad at night we lost power quite a few times, but it didnt stop the argentines from showing us more drinking games. im in a different town now, and headed back to buenos aires tomorrow. i think i can find cheap sandals there, which im still missing since my camping adventure.