bariloche.. swedish wanna-be town

so, after seeing the beautiful view from the bus terminal, we could only imagine what else bariloche had to offer us. After a long trip, we arrived at the hostel run by an Irish couple, PUDU. Pudu is actually a super small deer looking thing only found in southern argentina. We relaxed and pretty much just went to the super market the first day since we were so wipped..oh and the laundromat. That night was ASADO night and the hostel was hopping. I cooked up some sausage, broccoli and pasta while everyone else paid 40 pesos for loads of meat. We enjoyed reuniting with our friend micheal from our program in BA and his friend Nico. THere were also some guys from switzerland who had awesome accents. WE ended up just watching TV that night and taking it easy. Going to bed while a full fledged shin dig is going on...is quite hard..an ipod helps :) the morning brought clouds and the thought of snow, but really just cold weather. It was nice to catch up with the family on skype that morning while enjoying the amazing view. We decided to do a little "hiking" and headed up Cerro Oto. The 2 hour walk up was on a dirt road that switched back and forth about 12 different times. The views just kept getting better even though it was super cloudy. The sun penetrated through the clouds in one spot and highlighted a little island in lake Nahuel Huapi. At one point, i ripped open a massive pine cone and filled my nostrils with the burley scent of pine...it was amazing. so much so i brought the pine cone with me to continue sniffing it haha..katie followed suite. We FINALLY got up to the top and wouldnt you know, we couldnt see a darn thing. This was supposed to be one of the best views and the lowlying, thick, white clouds was all we could see. Cold, hungry and tired, we sat for a minute in the revolving restaurant thinking about whether food could even cheer us up..no was the answer. So we took the cable car down in silence and luckily got a free bus ride back to the hostel. I decided to act on my newfound infatuation of chocolate by making a submarino..hot chocolate. I went to the nearby kiosk with dylan (the dog named after bob dylan who looks like a golden retriever but needs to grow a foot). The sweet owner proceeded to debate about which chocolate would do a submarino justice and came to the conclusion that none would, but i bought some anyways. There was some tension between katie and i as we were both frustrated with our somewhat waisted day and for that, i bought her a chocolate milk. This was pretty much a low point out of the whole trip. For the rest of the afternoon, i watched TV and katie hung out downstairs for a while. IT came time to cook..chicken, cauliflower and potatoes were on the menu. It was a little hectic trying to cook everything at the same time in a small space..as usual. I enjoyed talking to jim saturday night before he took off to South Africa for a week and 1/2. Sunday morning, we were rudely awoken by the same family screaming at 7 am. Enduring the chaos until about 9 30, we got up and got ready for church. You know how they say when in Rome, well when in South America, you have to go to a catholic church, so we did. It was a very tastefully decorated church, unlike the rest we've seen. The mass was very good and I enjoyed being in church for once..its been 7 weeks almost. Hugo, our mexican friend, accompanied us there as well. On the way back, all I could think about was getting into some warmer clothes.. it was about 40 degrees F there..but they go by celsius. After dilly-dallying some, katie came in and asked if i'd like to go get a choripan for lunch, 5 pesos..deal. I didnt know what that was or who was going but it was one of the best decisions we've made so far. A dutch guy, Eddie, is the one who got everyone excited. Hes in argentina with his friend Mariska doing volunteer work and hanging out. Hugo is just traveling around and like I said, he's from mexico, super nice guy. There were some swiss snow boarders at our hostel as well, and they just looked like they're ballers in the snow. Our other friend micheal from GA and his friend Nico from Mar del Plata came along on this adventure to get choripans (sausage with chimichurri). Unfortunately, the choripan man wasn't at his spot and we searched some some other food. Before that though, we went in all the chocolate stores and tried to get free samples and then leave without buying something :) haha it was fun. After lunch, hugo and i continued to walk around the town alittle as i needed some time away from the group. He told me alittle bit about some theories he's been thinking about..how most of your problems are all mental and can be changed..somewhat true. I had the most rich hot chocolate ever..tasted like straight up melted chocolate but it was perfect for this freezing day. When we parted ways with the others, we decided we'd make our OWN choripans and have a big hostel dinner together. I was in charge of the salad, Eddie and Hugo the choripans and Katie, the entertainment. THis was the beginning of what we like to call "the choripan clan"...we had so much fun together we decided to recall our adventures in story form:

Chapter 1 Choripan clan forms

Once upon a time in a Swiss-looking village called Bariloche there were two American chicks, a Mexican, and a Dutch guy. These foreigners stayed at the fabulous, luxurious 5 star hostel Pudu overlooking Lago Nahuel Huapi. One rainy Sunday afternoon they all got hungry. The Dutch guy, named Eduardo had had a religious experience the day before when he met The Choripan Man. “Guys, this sandwich is delicious. You got the chori, you got the pan.” “Mehhhhhh.” The others said. “And there’s a show! It’s only one euro! Which is like five pesos.” “Ooooooo! Yeah! Let’s go have choripan.” So the new friends got bundled up to venture outside. While they waited for Holly, they accosted arriving hostel guests, trying to convince them to join the group for a delicious lunch of choripan. But no one else understood how awesome the sandwich would be.

Holly soon arrived and the group began to walk. They were all so excited – their empty bellies would soon be full of choripan! But when they got to the plaza, The Choripan Man was so where to be found. “Unbelievable! The Choripan Man should be here. The fact that it is Sunday is no excuse,” said Katie. “What are we going to do now?” asked Hugo. “My tour guide will take us to another place,” said Eduardo, coming to the rescue. The group followed Mariska to Rock Chicken and they had a delicious meal of lomito and Sprite. But it just wasn’t the same as choripan. “I know what we can do! We will have a choripan party tonight. Everyone is invited! We are the Choripan Clan!” “That’s a great idea, Eduardo!” said Holly. Katie was bent over laughing and unable to speak.

Holly and Hugo went off to find Milka chocolate while Katie went with Mariska and Eduardo to the supermercado to buy supplies for the choripan party. They bought some chorizos and some pans and went back to the hostel Pudu to get everyone excited about choripans.

At 8 PM Hugo and Eduardo got the BBQ started and they were ready for some entertainment. That’s where Katie came in and she gave a great show with her choripan song and dance. Around 9.30 PM the BBQ was hot. The choris were on the fire, the pans were cut and the salad was prepared. So it was time to enjoy the choripans and they were f’ing great.

Chapter 2 Signing the contract

The choripan clan went on an adventure today. At 10.30 AM they were looking for car rental place and fortunately found one. They paid 300 pesos and the got a white fiat punto. After seeing the car they had to sign a contract, which scared them. The guy from the rental place told them that if they hit somebody with the car they had to pay 2000 pesos and if they are flipping over they had to pay 6000 pesos. That scared the clan a little bit. But there was no way back and the got in the car.

Chapter 3 The map

The Mexican was the first one, who got into the car and got behind the steering wheel. They actually didn’t have a lot of good tunes, only one cd with reggaeton music. That’s wasn’t an option for them, so they tried to find a nice radio station, which they found. Unfortunately when they got out of Bariloche there wasn’t any signal anymore, so there wasn’t any music.

The plan they had was to see the 7 lakes in the area. So they found the map in the car and went in the right direction. The way up to the 7 lakes was real nice and they stopped a couple of time for some pictures. ‘PPPOOOWWWWWWW’ ‘POOOOWWWWWW’ Eduardo screamed. This was because they were playing the game buffalo and they had to shoot us much animal as they can. During this trip they were talking a lot. They were a lot things to discuss and be talked about.

For example about the stereotypes of there countries. When they discussed that subject, they had to make the decision which road they should get. They took this crucial decision very quick, they kept on talking and laughing. After 40 minutes of driving they still haven’t seen a lake and they start worrying. So they parked their car and looked at both map they had of the area. The maps were completely different from each other and that was real confusing. They decided to turn around and the Dutch guy was up to drive.

Chapter 4 The bridge

They were speeding to get back to the point where they had to decide which road they had to take. The guy from the car rental mentioned they had to take a dirt to get to the lakes. So they took one of the dirt roads they saw. Entering this road there was a massive sign that said the bridge was closed. But the clan just ignored that sign and went on. It was a real dirt with a lot of holes and puddles. All of a sudden Katie screamed ‘EMOEEEEE!!!!!’ Eduardo stalled the car and the rest of the clan saw to emoes, which ran away when we finally got all our cameras ready. Fortunately Holly was able to make one picture. They kept on going on this road and they were just ignoring the signs. After 3 minutes of driving the saw a boar and they called him Pumba and they were also looking for Timon, but they couldn’t find him. They took some pictures and continued their safari. They were waiting to see an elephant or a lion, but instead they saw a whole family of Argentinean cows. So they said ¡Hola! and drove on. So we drove on and there was fork in the road, which leaded the clan to a house or the bridge. They took the road to the bridge, while they were driving the road got bumpier and more watery. They drove till the point the bridge was supposed to be there, but actually it wasn’t. So they had to turn around and almost ruined the car with that trick and went back. The clan decided to go to that house to ask for some directions to the lakes.
(written by eddie with his dutch-english phrases)

Chapter 5 Nazis

So they drove on for 5 more minutes and they got to a little sketchy village (more like a farm). What could this be? A village where the Nazis are living. Hugo got out of the car to ask for some directions. They told him to get off their property, if not they will kill us and have us for diner. So Hugo jumped back in the car and Eduardo pulled an U-ie to get the F… off the property.

Chapter 6 Chased!

On their way out they saw 3 gauchos, so Hugo asked them for directions. The gauchos didn’t know and we had to get of their land. We figured we had to get as fast as possible of their land, so, with a bit of speeding they took off. On their way out they saw the cow family again. The clan said goodbye to them and drove on. After 5 minutes Katie just screamed: ‘LLAAMMAAASS’. On the top of the mountain there were a couple of lama’s. They couldn’t make a good picture of them so they started chasing the lama’s. But lama’s can run pretty fast, so actually the run was useless. While chasing the lama’s they saw the gauchos again and they didn’t look so happy. They pretended to make pictures of the lovely land, but the gauchos weren’t that pleased. The clan got escorted of their property. If they had guns, they would definitely killed the clan. But fortunately they didn’t have the guns on them.

Chapter 8 The drop off

After this scary part of the day they decided to sing songs with each other. All the all-time favorites were sang. For example beatles, rolling stones, queen etcetera. There isn’t a song they didn’t sing. Unfortunately they had to drop off Eduardo at the Mercado de la Estepa, where he had to do some volunteer work. But the rest of the clan went on.

Chapter 9 Chilean border?

Earlier Eddie mentioned how the map was just a little bit below par..that fact comes into play now. After dropping off our beloved dutch friend, we scarfed down lunch, filled up the tank with gas and started on another adventure. This time we were headed north along the coast of lake Nahuel Huapi to see some other lakes (because we'd only seen about 2 or 3..instead of 7). After driving for a while, we stopped to make a few pictures. After chatting with a man at the view point, he told us mirror lake was up the road just a bit. So we continued on..and on.. and wouldn't you know we come to a security checkpoint. Since they are randomly all over argentina, we didn't think anything of it until the woman said "why are you going to Chile"...we laughed, looked at the map and realized where we had gone..OOPS. Hugo pulled a UUIIE and we jetted out of there. THis part of the adventure um poco mas tranquilo because we were so whipped from earlier in the day..or maybe it's because we'd been laughing constantly??

Chapter 10 Teresita

Katie and I developed strong feelings towards the hitchikers here in bariloche..and because we had a male with us we decided it was ok to act on those feelings. Our first hitchhiker was Teresita, not Teresa, but teresita. She had a brother who was going to the Paul McCartney concert in New York..Hugo caught this info because he's a native speaker but Katie and I just picked up on that we were taking her to work :) After she hopped out, Hugo mentioned it was quite weird she introduced herself as Teresita..the equivalent is, say, me hopping in the car and saying, "oh just call me hollybear" haha the "ita" in spanish is diminutive and usually just used among friends.. i guess she was pretty comfortable with us :)

Chapter 11 If you AIN’T Dutch, you AIN’T much

After a great day of following their hearts they got real hungry. A real good friend of the clan Mariska made a Dutch dinner for them and the rest of the hostel. The dish is called Hutspot met gehaktbal. They all real enjoyed the dinner and partied after.(by partying, Eddie means we taught them how to play nertz and the others played Jenga)

Chapter 12 Bring the coffee in the car

at 6:00 we heard the alarm go off. I don't think we've every not wanted to get up so bad..the thing that did get us up though was the pure excitement about seeing LAGO HESS.. hollys lake. The girls tried to coerce Eddie and Hugo into coming with them the night before and sure enough it happened..except Hugo. HOWEVER, he was sweet enough to get up at 6, explain to Eddie that he was going skiing, then went downstairs to send his regards along with the girls on their adventure. The rental car was due at 11 and we left at 6 45. Holly began the drive with her somewhat jerky stick skills but it worked fine. Eddie meanwhile was still waking up in the backseat accompanied by coffee all over his lap :) sorry Eddie. The clan decided to stop on the side of the road to check out the amazing array of stars..it was FREAKING MONKEYS outside though, so they quickly hopped in the car and continued. Katie thought for a split second that the light dusting of white on the road was indeed the salt that had already been put down...yeah right! Holly agreed and they both realized their american mindset was WRONG. Once again, the maps were sketchy and it was hard to decide which road was the one the clan was in search of. Katie acting as the navigator, and Eddie the backseat driver, were arguing whether the road we found was correct...the wager was a Choripan. The seemingly thick snow postponed the clan for just a few minutes seeing as how their fiat hadn't won much trust. The need to see lake hess as the sun rose was imenint and they decided to test the waters. The views kept getting better and better as the night sky brightened to welcome the new morning. The radio of course didn't work and gave the clan a chance to test their vocal cords this early, frosty manana. "sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da" Eddie then took it away with "They're my, blue eyed girls"... some songs that debuted were: man, i feel like a woman, save tonight, ive got friends in low places, roll black water and it's a marvelous night for a moondance. The best was when eddie broke out in song with some outlandish and somewhat offensive words that katie couldnt place with a song. Singing to the tune of the snowflakes, we quickly forgot it was only 8 30am. The sun doesnt really rise until about 8 45 which allowed the clan to marvel at the sun's daily job unfolding. Lago Hess was just splendid..the mirror image of the mountains was breathtaking. Eddie and Holly were engolfed in capturing the moment while katie had found some energy and went running to a boat on the edge of the lake. After some silence, eddie decided to taunt katie with a snow ball of fresh powder.The clan took one last picture..eddies camera, paired with hollys tripod, and an extra arm for hugo. Katie and eddie patiently waited for holly to wrap up her nature photo shoot which left all three not able to feel their toes. Eddie wanted to drive, Holly wanted to take pictures and katie wanted to sing so we did all those things. The things that weren't allowed was: smoking and throwing up..which we didnt do!

Ch 13 We almost died!

Eddie got a little excited about the agility of the car and almost made the clan take an adventure down the side of the hill..almost. Once arriving to the beginning of the one way street (until 10 am its either way, from 11-1 its IN and from 2-6 its OUT only)..holly realized she had left her tripod right there in the prestine snow.. The clan was in a pridicament.. they needed a phone to extend their car rental but didnt have signal..There was no way they could go in a retreive the tripod: holly decided it was best to lay it to rest at the side of her lake anyways. As we approached the security gate, something went wrong in eddie's head. He figured since there was no one coming in the left (in) side that he'd go through that..mid decision though katie and holly hollered at him to take the right path. Instead of choosing one way, he came to a sliding hault right in front of the security gate (meanwhile all three woman security guards in the other hut watched with crossed arms). After scolding the indecisive dutch, we explained to the ladies he was just a little confused..we then proceeded to ask for a phone to use. They didn't have a phone (or at least thats what they told us) and so we headed on our way back to bariloche in hopes of finding singal. Again holly and katie wanted to act on their hitchiker passions, and because it was pouring snow, the clan stopped to pick up a man. Oscar was his name and he had a phone! Katie quickly put it to use and extended our rental car one hour to allow for our return. Oscar informed me that his son was a ski instructor at Cerro Catedral (the famous ski resort in barilcohe) and that if we wanted lessons, he could get them for us. Eddie contiued to be somewhat of a skatterbrained driver and when oscar told me directions, i tranlasted them to eddi and then he got flustered :) We said goodbye to oscar and searched for the rental car's home. By this time, eddie had not smoked ALL morning and was getting to be a little grumpy. The girls enjoyed teasing him and testing his patience. After finally finding the rental car garage, eddie pulled in with much regret. He began to pull forward, and as a family sternly watched he began to scrap the side mirror on the wall.. the girls screamed and he viered away from the stone barrier. After hearing the words "todo bien" (meaning we were cleared from the rental) the clan headed to get some ice cream (not sure why because it just finished snowing).

Ch 14 Ice cream the night before

The actual reason they went to get ice cream was that eddie and holly had ventured there the previous night. They were sent on a mission to buy ice cream for the hostel patrons and could only find expensive gas station ice cream. Emma, the hostel owner told them all the ice cream shops were closed and so they believed her. After searching bariloche up and down, they consented to buying the expensive dulce de leche cones at ESSO gas station. BUT, right after that, they passed an ice cream shop that was OPEN. THey had to go in.. and shared a wonderful mixture of bariloche chocolate and americana. When holly suggested americana flavor, eddie replied with "just becuase its american doesnt mean its good.." and ongoing joke between the clan. The hostelers didn't even notice they'd been gone for 45 mins and scarfed down the pre-made cones.

after our adventures we grabber some lunch :choripans and empanadas. The day kind of just slipped away as we worked on uploading pictures and what not. That night we enjoyed a nice dinner at Parilla Tranquilo. Katie, Eddie and I shared lomo, patagonian lamb, and tomato ravioles. For dessert I had my own chocolate fondue and it was AMAZING. Tom, our english friend accompanied a Mariska, Eddie, Katie and I to dinner and he is hilarious. His speech is rough to the ear but accompanied with his accent, his "french" words seem harmless. We rallied up our sleeping friends to enjoy one last night with the americans. Our last day in Bariloche, we headed up to Cerro Campaniero which is decalred one of the top 10 views in the world (according to National Geophraphic). Indeed, it was the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.. We enjoyed the presence of a magnificient bird and captured some great pics of him. Eddie and I shared a wonderful peice of dulce de leche cake at the top of the mountain while the girls enjoyed some rich hot chocolate. It was there I decided I want to be a nature photographer..or rather take postcard pictures :) I found some amazing ones but will wait to send them from the US becuase argnetina will loose them! We reluctantly left bariloche and headed for puerto madryn. The bus worker offered to share mate with me and you never turn that down..we chatted about all kinds of differences between america and argentina..he was the first person that, even after I told him to talk slowly, didn't so there was alot of repeating. That brings me to Puerto Madryn, patagonia technical which I will recount later!

houses on a hill

So Valpariso is a great place...except when you arrive just after dusk to a place you've heard nothing but bad about. We jumped in a taxi and quickly arrived at a staircase leading to the darkness above. The taxi driver told us our hostel was just up the stairs...catch is there were 2 staircases, one of which was about 60-70 stairs (only a problem when you have ALLL your valuables on you) We hiked up those 60 stairs to find an iron gate and nothing else, except of course a pounding heart both of exhaustion and fear. In a calm panic, we walk back down and take the stairs that veared to the right. The only sign we could see was a WIND AND SURF hostel sign..not ours. THen i walked up to the door and above it, etched in iron said MILLENIUM HOUSE..ah hah! ours indeed. The place was wonderful, we showered (which was more like a game that i'll explain later) and headed out to eat. Eduardo, the son of the family running the hostel, told us to go to a place just across the plaza so we took his word for it.. absolutely no one was in there and they had videos blaring american 80s music. Katie and I both opted for the shrimp seeing as how we were on the ocean.. it was quite amazing! Our dinner cost 1100 chilean pesos which is a shocker when you're used to argetine pesos (80) much less american dollars. It was a nice treat to eat out because usually I do the cooking of the meals :) The first glance as i slowly awoke one one filled with bright sunlight bouncing off the orange comforters. THe comforters were a treat because typically they give you coarse wool blankets. I was filled with joy in the morning and it only got better beacuse teresa (house mom) brought out fresh baked bread, homemade strawberry and peach marmalade and great coffee. We took the morning slow and katie chatted with our finnish roomates while i took some alone time. We changed money, headed to the laundromat (suprisingly they aren't on every corner here like in BA) and walked to the main plazas. We also headed down to the terminal for cruise ships but couldnt cross the railroad tracks that was acting as our barrier. So instead we turned around and walked the length of the tracks hopping to find a crossway...didnt happen. The weather was BEAUTIFUL..t shirt, jeans and flip flops. we took a bus up to pablo nerudas house (the poet) and the bus was crazy! First of all, the houses are built right up on the hills and are stacked one on top of the other. So you can imagine a bus climbing up all those switchbacks at breakneck speed :) it was fun though. The musueum house was closed so we meandered through the vendors. We both found some great jewelry for relatively cheap. The decision not to actually see inside nerudas house was made and instead we sat on the balcony and peered over the city..i tried to offer my advice to katie as she was thinking about some decisions. After a while, we got up to leave. I offered to take a picture of a solo traveler and it ended up he wanted photo shoot :) haha it was hilarious because he kept asking me, una vez mas (one more time) and would pose differently. I suggested a flash because of the shadows and he proceeded to tell me differently and show me examples. I responded with quite the same showing him examples on my camera..vs his 4 year old kodak point and shoot. WE came to agree on disagreeing about the flash. The walk down Cerro Bellavista was magnificient. So many colors and niches. One old womans door was open and she was knitting fervently in front of the tv. There was an amazing church as well but it just happened to be closed (probably the siesta that lasts from 12-4). In search of the open sky museum, which is painted houses, we only found the arch saying museo cielo abierto..no luck. The rest of the night was spent taking care of things like money and laundry..and eating :) I cooked us up some pasta and soup and we enjoyed it while watching Night at the museum with an Australian couple. I was frustrated because i couldn't get my computer to work or connect to the internet and finally just gave up. The next morning was early indeed..We headed out at 7 and ended up taking a shared taxi (great concept!) to the bus terminal. The ride back was similiar to the one there..beautiful scenery, so beautiful you get a headache haha THe border control was a bit past the chile control and for just a minute i thought we escaped that process.. not so lucky. It is a dreadful process, getting stamped out, stamped in, and waiting forever! Thankfully i bought a ham and cheese sandwhich while waiting because lunch was pimento cheese..hardly my favorite. After arriving to mendoza we searched the bus terminal for a bus to barlioche. Finally we found the one we were looking for and booked the next 21 hour ride (making for 29 hours on a bus in about 32 hours) for just an hour and 1/2 later. Andesmar is who we rode down with and they do a wonderful service. We had reclining leather chairs and hot pot roast for dinner. Not quite the same as winning bingo and having wine with dinner, but enjoyable none the less. The ride ended at 2 and from 8 until arrival, the view was amazing. WE drove through the northern lake district into bariloche..the bus terminal is right next to the lake, backed by snow covered mountains.

past few stops..

ok so i admit, i've lost alot of the details of our last few stops because i didnt write them down on here... GOOD news is i have them, just somewhere else. What that means to you faithful readers :) is that when you ask for stories, the unwritten ones and the details come to face so get excited. Anyways, what you SHOULD know is that we went on a long tour around the vicenity of salta which i will expand upon in a minute. Afternoon one, we took a teleferico (cable car) up to the san bernardo look out and it was great, but the city has a lot of smog. We ended up watching the sunset over the mountains to the sweet tate of a submarino (hot chocolate). We met some isrealies on the way up and kept running into them on the tiny mountain outlook. What we didn't realize was that when the sun goes down, so does the temperature by about 15 degrees..in line, a sweet old man offered katie and I his jacket: I first refused because thats what you always do, decline once and then accept.. when i declined though, he replied with "i am with my wife" haha so then i had to take it. We met some really awesome girls on the way down in the gondola, one from Missouri and one from New Jersey (Misa y Ariel). WE convinced them to go on the tour the hostel offered in place of "el tren a las nubes" which is one of the highlights of argentina. I also need to mention that in between all of this, we wrote our final essays for our class and turned them in with about 5 minutes to spare, but they got done :) The tour left at 7am and lasted until about 9 30 pm. Basically we took the same route as "el tren" but went alot faster, paid alot less, and met some great people. In our camioneta (bus/van) there were girls from spain, our friends, bri from ohio, Niels from germany and a super sick girl named paris from france.. Our first stop was in the Quebrada del torro which was awesome.. cacti covers the mountains like a sheet. the jagged mountain tops are a sight especially combined with ancient power lines at the base..gosh its just pretty. Our guide fede told us about pacha mama (the pre-incan God or something in which you find various shrines on the sides of the roads..people leave half empty bottles of water so "she" wont get thristy and they (truckers and other argentines) also leave trash inside the shrine. To me, it was an excuse to litter but to them it's custom. So after purchasing the softest alpaca scarf and some 1 peso empanadas we continued on our way. The stop for lunch was interesting because the menu was in our waiters head..always a dangerous thing. I asked for pollo and they brought a whole rotissery chicken to me.. not quite what i was expecting but it was good. We got scammed with the price and so when katie and i left, we took all the bread possible off the table and stuck it in our purses..because we had ultimately paid for it and then some. Anyways, I was pretty darn tired so i managed to fall asleep. Funny thing is that we were on the bumpiest road known to man, but it wasnt just for 30 mins or so, it was about 2 and 1/2 hours. At one point before falling asleep breifly, i had to go to the bathroom SO bad. I asked if we could stop and we did.. only problem was there are NOOO trees..so i found a medium size bush and made it work. after i broke the ice by asking to stop, many other enjoyed the break as well haha..anyways, i awoke to a world of white..the salt flats! possibly one of the coolest terrains. Its like when you're in colorado looking at the beautiful rockies and then you arrive to the massive sand dunes..kind of random. Fede told us that the salt planes (also some in bolivia and chile) were not from the ocean, but from the volcanoes..and that every year they get covered with water ( a big lake forms) and then they dry up again. Pentagon-ish shapes covered the earth as far as you could see to the mountains around you..I tried to think of a reason why while applying my chemistry and I came up with this: maybe salt NaCl has a traingle shaped crystal and that after the forces act with the other crystals, they all together form a large pentagon shape! Also in the salt planes, you can take crazy optical illusion pictures, which we did. Neils the german guy got a little out of line with his creativity but it was funny none-the-less. We passed through Jujuy on the way back which was a really cool little place. It also is the home of the rock of seven colors. It was there i bought my beloved alpaca sweater and some other super cheap dessert empanadas. That night we decided to eat out and possibly to go check out a pena (a spanish folklore show popular to salta)...but we were too tired. We felt like true argentines because we ended up eating dinner at 11 30. I had the best meal out of my entire stay in argentina.. it was lomo (the best cut of meat) covered in onions, peas, bacons pieces, ham and a fried egg, surrounded by circular potatoes at the perfect hardness..it was heavenly. One of the most interesting things about eating with katie is that she is SUPER slow..i mean like SLOW. Every time i sit down to eat, i have to pace myself with katie and make sure i dont get too far ahead because if i finish too much before she does, i'll still be hungry and want more JUST because she's still eating. The balancing factor is the same when it comes to drinks..You only get one and it doesnt matter if its coka, pepsi or water..all the same price and all small. This is one of the only things i REALLY miss about the states, no free safe water and no free refills..they also dont use ice :( but back to salta. The next day we walked around town a while, saw some quirky latin american churches and took a bunch of pictures.
MENDOZA
Then we headed to the bus station and hopped on..it was the smoothest transition from hostel to bus that we had experienced yet. Our bus to mendoza left at 3:45 and was supposed to arrive at 9:30 am. During this wondeful ride with Andesmar, we played bingo. Now i love bingo and so does katie, so we were trash talking to each other about who was going to win. It didnt even occur to me, rules could be different in argentina. Also, katie has a problem with understanding numbers so everytime he called one out, i translated it for her in english. I got a whole row across so I yelled out BINGO!.. he then proceeded to call out all my numbers and told me i was missing one..41 in the corner..that would link 3 edges together for a triple bingo in american standards. YOu know what happened next, katie was about to win and then he called 41.. i was so pumped..and my gift was a bottle of white wine from mendoza, perfect welcoming gift to our next desination. Our guide friend Pablo from our previous mendoza trip made plans to pick us up from the bus terminal and go from there. Apparently he got confused as to when we were arriving and went there at night, therefore he wasnt there when we actually did arrive in the morning. I ended up walking around the entire terminal searching for a very argnetine looking pablo and wasnt successful. This man tried to get us to go to his hostel and it was actually the one we had already planned on going to. We couldn't get a hold of pablo and so we used this mans knowledge of dialing in argnetina to check to see it pablos number was valid. It was indeed and we heard from his after we camped out in a cafe for a while. He picked us up and we crammed our things into his car only to go, as the crow flies, across the street. However, by road it took about 30 mins with traffic and a confused driver :) it was good time to catch up with him though and we enjoyed the brief reunion. As we walked in our hostel room for the next two days, we were met with a horrible smell. We realized later it was our roomies that hadn't showered recently. Ryan, from san diego, more specifically 2 blocks from where drew and I surfed alot, and his traveling parter Charlie from argentina but residing in Spain. We chatted with them a while and then headed out to do our own thing. We were on a mission: find me a towel! I had been using katies towel after she showered up until this point because we hadn't run into any towels...and i did not want to "hire" or rent a towel from the hostels we'd been at. Anyways, we were successful only after a wonderful lunch of hamburgers! I eat almost exactly twice as katie so when she didnt finish hers, I did and continued to have 2 alfajores as well :) I am in love with milka..its a chocolate here and i usually am not a HUGE chocolate lover..but now i am addicted..thats right addicted. I also have taken a strong liking to pepsi. You may think, well holly, you already had a huge liking...but now its much more strong. Word on the street, or in the hostel lobby, is that they make pepsi sweeter here, with real sugar and in the states they make it with sweetner..not sure if thats true but it sounds good :) Afterwards, we did indeed find a towl like i said, and also a really great argentine jersey type shirt that i'm very attached to. We decided to walk down and see the main plaza and it was beatiful. When we were in mendoza about a month ago with our group, we saw a very different side of the city so it was good to see the other part this trip. Katie wasn't feeling well so we headed home after taking a look around. I of course had to get a pepsi and some chocolate on the way home. Everyday I think about the amazing sale we found on this chocolate in puerto igazu..6 pesos for a huge bar and now everywhere else, its double that :( I'm even a bargain shopper in argentine pesos. Anyways, i tried to catch up on uploading pictures for a while and chatted with some girls in the tv room. Later Ryan and i headed to the supermarket to grab some things for dinner. Katie and Charlie weren't eating so ryan and i put our food toghether and charlie cooked it (bc his brother is a chef and hes knows how to cook well too). I broke open the bottle of white wine that I won on the bus and shared it with our newfound friends. I still however don't enjoy the plain taste of white or red wine and always taint it with sprite. People mince at this..but thats fine with me. We had a wonderful meal, chatted with a guy from france and a woman from chile for a while, and then continued with adventure stories. The stories lead to showing pictures and that lasted for a while. Ryan and I talked about aspirations with our majors and what not and he told some pretty funny stories about how life goes in california. Charlie was educated after the night on what he needed to go see in the states. That night was pretty rough..katie was doing things in the bathroom that aren't considered fun..meaning she had water sickness. Ryan was moving around alot... and i woke up suppper hot. Needless to say, morning was a welcome sight. We jumbled our things together in 30 mins and headed to the bus station. The 8 30 bus to chile was full so we got a ticket for 9 30 and drank coffee in the cafe once again. Katie and I always have nice chats at the coffee shops. It amazes me however how many people eat solo here. I mean maybe i just never analyzed that at home but i have taken notes here..and i will soon compare :)
VALPARAISO CHILE
Oh dios mio...thats equivalent to "oh my gosh" Pretty much this day was the longest day ever. the drive was splendid but we'd actually already seen the first 3 hours before when we went trekking at aconcagua. The difference though was the snow slopes were open and teeming with people. The andes look soo much more spectacular dotted with white powder. For whatever reason, katie and i were feeling pretty lousy for the whole ride up until the border. Before we know it, we're headed through a tunnel and see a "welcome to chile" sign! I high five the man sitting next to me and we do a little victory dance. Katie was on the opposite row next to the sweetest middle aged woman. Well we shouldn't have done that little dance yet because the border control took FOREVER. First we waited in a line for about 45 mins..then we were allowed to get off and walk around a bit. The only piece of comic relief here was we could see the ski slopes running across the way. So, after we wait for a while, we all get in line to get stamped out of argnetina, and then stamped in chile. During this process we met our new friends Elizabeth and Russ who have a sheep farm in Australia. They didn't speak a lick of spanish and had been travleling all around..quite an inspiration but not what i prefer. The next thing was to get all your things off the bus, have them look through then, and also pass ALL the luggage through a screen. IN the mean time i met one of the detectives and his dog nino..just in case we needed some help :) haha Passing the time in conversation was much appreciated as it took about 1.45 to finish all this. Well wouldn't you know some stupid woman tried to bring eggs across the border and instead of just throwing them in the trash, they have to go through a 2 hour long process of who knows what...scolding?? Anyways, our bus waited another 2 hours for the woman to get on and then we continued to valpariso. The andes continued to stand with dignity, looking majestic. The road we took to decend from the frontera (border) had about 12 switchbacks. Because we were sitting on a two story bus in the front seat, going around the corners just about gave us heart attacks. Chile had much different terrain than argentina. It is SOOOO green.

half way through week 2..

sorry for the long delay in updates..its been a crazy few days. We ended up missing the 9th of july party in san ignacio because our bus left too soon. We actually had to go to Tucuman which was about a 20 hour drive and then hopped on a bus to Salta 10 mins later making for a full 24 hour trip. We met some cool kids on the bus and we talked about donald miller books. I had just finished "through painted deserts" and it was AWESOME. I was one, proud i finished it, and two, happy i liked it. We enjoyed talking with those kids from NC about their volunteer activities in Peru and what God's been showing them. When we got to salta, our real adventure started. We couldn't find the address for the hostel we were planning on staying at so we found the tourist representative and asked him. He said he knew it and took us out to the taxi. Mistake one: he told the taxi driver the address and not us. The taxi took us to a ridiculous hotel and tried to drop us off there. I got frustrated with him and told him he needed to take us where the other man told him. I finally found the address that wasnt supposed to be in my purse and read it to him. He FINALLY understood me.. "backpackers hostel" no wonder he didnt recognize that word...its always a bad idea to name a spanish place an english name. So we got to one of the 3 backpackers hostels and got out all our junk..leaving him with a pretty nice tip...only seconds later to find out that it was the wrong backpackers and we needed to walk 7 blocks with ALLLLL of our stuff..can you say prime target? It was super hot at this point and in addition to our packs, i had on pants, boots, a long sleeve and a feather vest. I was fully sweating when we finally got to the right hostel. A hot shower is always the first thing on the list after a long bus ride.

stop 2- san ignacio

This morning we woke up, got ready and hoped on the bus to san ignacio. The bus ride was rough and stopped SOO Many times. We were literally dropped off in the middle of the street and walked 2 blocks to our hostel now. Its very nice, a tiny little city though. We went to various different places to get groceries for a tasty dinner in tonight. We aslo saw the jesuit mission ruins which were interesting. THe main roads are paved with sidewalks but all around are muddy streets to the houses.. the transportation of choice is a dirt bike which i like.. im just waiting for someone to let me ride theres :) haha jk Thats all the updates for now, we're headed to salta tomorrow probably but FIRST, we were invited to a july 9th party (their july 4th) and we shall enjoy with the locals, celebrating their independence. chau chau

stop 1- Igazu Falls

so its definitely a task to pack for 3 weeks when you´ll be experiencing all of the climates possible on your trip. we packed the best we could and headed to the bus station. we were so excited to go we mistook the departure time an hour before it was actually leaving :) rookie mistake not to be made again. we boarded onto a bus reeking of foot smell, but other than that, it was very nice. While we waited we met some other kids from America and chatted with them. Throughout the night we went to the 1st floor of the bus and said hello. The meal...we were served a airplane quality meal of a sandwich, some crackers, and some other little stuff so we scarfed it down thinking that was our meal. THEN he comes around with a hot meal of rice and pork in gravy. We also were served wine. When done with dinner, he came around and gave everyone champagne..typical protocol for argentines. anyways, it was just funny. One of the guys we met just graduated from a college in Tennessee and is a mechanical engineer. They didnt have any champagne left, so he got a cup of whisky...i just think its so strange they give that out on a bus but whatev.. they do alot of things in argentina i dont understand. The ride wasnt too bad.. about 18 hours but we slept alot of it and they had movies playing all the time as well. Breakfast was the typical argentine breakfast of a medialuna, some toast and cafe. I was super excited though becaus the cafe was black, and i drank it.. i dont have to tell you that somehow it was super sweet.. it was black and thats all that matters ;) once we arrived in igazu, a beautiful, tropical, warm city, we jumped in a cab and came to our hostel..puerto canoas.. Its awesome! there's hammocks hanging all over, very colorful, the owners are friendly, there are hummingbirds all over..its just great. The city itself is very small and friendly. After katie and i showered, ate our peanut butter sandwiches, and took a rest in the hammocks, we headed out to see the tres fronteras, where the rivers converge. It was pretty sweet to look across the river and see paraguay and brazil. We walked down a muddy trail and saw a little waterfall but the trail tetered off into nothing. At this point i was sad i didnt have my chacos, but they didnt make the cut because the purpose was minimal here and they're clunky..i still love them though :) On the walk back to our hostel, we got whistled at, BARKED at, hissed at.. haha at one point I hissed back and gave an "are you serious" look. We usually just ignore it and keep on but I felt compelled to give a response at that moment. We encountered a man trying to sell his companies boat ride but we regretfully declined as we had just walked the entirety of what we would've seen from the water. IF he would've said you can stop and get out in paraguay and brazil, then it would've been a deal! haha we tried to find el gardin de los picaflores (gardin of the hummingbirds) but it was closed.. a huge bummer :) but on the bright side, we were experts at the city. When we stopped to find this other museum of the forest, it had apparently shut down and moved.. haha The little town of puerto igazu was very friendly and everyone knew everyone. When we were just around the corner from our hostel, we saw some teenagers playing soccer, they said Hola chicas which gave us the perfect opportunity to respond and ask to play. They said yes and we changed. There was actually an older man out there (Netti was his name and he was 52) and then 3 younger boys (Jose, Jose and Johnie). We were aprehensive at first but took off our flip flops, and jumped on in. 2 other girls from down the street came to play in regular clothes ( they were 14 year old twins) and then before you know it, we had a game of 4v4. My team was up for a while and then the others came back, I was focusing on not busting my but because I had on stark white shorts, and the ground was bright orange, kinda like GA. THe highlight was the teamwork between us even though we weren't really talking.. and then of course my header goal :) haha thank you ernse for all your patience (an old high school coach). Afterwards, we sat around and chatted a while. The boys had run across the street and brought back a pitcher, a tin cup with a straw and were passing it around. I declined at first for many reasons and kept to my water. Then katie tried it and was amazed so i had to. It was mate (the herb they are crazy about here thats usually mixed with hot water) and pear juice..gosh it was good! We continued chatting for a while and then the boys asked our plans for later. Katie and I had met some kids on the bus the night before and texted them but hadn't heard back. We're always up for a safe cultural experience so we decided to meet them for dinner.. We went our seperate ways and met back up later. We went to this little ourdoor resturant called Carrito 5 and they had a promo going on.. cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and a drink all for 10 pesos (like$ 2.50 am) and it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! gosh i was soo relieved to have a solid american meal :) haha afterwards we hung out at the tres fronteras and just chatted. When i would get frustrated at my lack of vocab, i reminded myself we'd been communicating and hanging out all afternoon and they had been understanding, and i had been too. THey boys were somewhat younger and knew we weren't interested in their romantic sides so it was just a cool culturing time. The moon was beautiful and we had contemplated going on a moonlite tour of the falls but it was a little too pricey for us. We went back to our hostel later, had a quick chat with the guy who worked there (Diego) and headed to bed. Breakfast was great, a slow nice wake up with coffee, medialunas and strawberry jam!! exciting because thats never offered. we got ready and headed to the FALLS! We caught the bus and arrived about 20 mins later. It's tropical here so the temperature as perfect..about 77 and sunny. we checked out the visitors center, took the green trail and started then on the superior trail. The feeling while walking out the bridge to the overlook is similiar to that when you're about to see the grand canyon.. you dont know quite what to expect but its gonna be good you know! and it was good.. we actually ran into that kid chris there and chatted for a bit. We later decided to join him and his friends at another hostel and make dinner. But before that, alot of exploring happened. we hit up the inferior trail next and saw coaties (koo-A-ties) tearing up the trash cans.. they look a bit like racoons but have long snouts like ant eaters. The butterflies were flocking all around.. all types, some orange and brown, some red white and black, some camo.. just lots! The view of the falls was amazing, just so much water. APparently there isnt as much water as there usually is and for that we couldnt take the ecological tour. BUT we still got to get in a boat that took us up into the falls and got pounded by the freezing water! haha it was great. We were about 15 feet from brazil..and definitely on the brazilian side of the river :) My favorite part was after this though.. we asked about the train and some workers told us we better run to catch the last one out to DEVILS THROAT...la garganta de diablo..so we ran. WE took a rickety train about 15 mins out to see where all these falls originate from..and it was AWESOME! the multitude of water falling ever so delicately into the midst..and mist..you cant see where it goes but you know its going far down there. it was absolutely breath taking. once again you could see brazil on the other side which is just cool. WE were kicked out after about 30 mins because the park was closing and the train needed to go back. We passed some people staying at our hostel and some kid we'd met on the bus a couple days before..its funny that igazu felt small because of this. The 20 minute bus ride home was a rough one.. my feet hurt SO bad from walking a ton and the guy in front of me smelled so bad! there were couples all around kissing and its just ridiculous.. they have no filter for PDA! anyways, we showered, hit up some supermarkets, and tried to find the bus stop. funny thing, there are no bus stops..the corner is just it..definitely insider knowledge needed. We got that knowledge and then the bus never came. So we got a taxi :) he said 12 pesos but i told katie to just give him 10 and he was happy. IN reality it was like a 5 peso ride but taxis are few and far between here unlike BA so whatev. We were like an hour late according to our prior plans with CHris and for that, our dinner was waiting for us. THe pollo we brought to contribute was then cooked by me and added to the meal made by the boys. Edgar and brett, two other guys were at the hostel and we all chatted for a while. THe hostel was like an american resort..not for me. I'm in another country, i want to meet locals more than other americans.. really a mix of both is best we had a nice time playing pool (which my team won haha) pool, and foosball.

wrapping things up

so, unexpectedly, on thursday we had a meeting. we all walk in joyous that we get to hang out again as a group and then betina dropped a bomb.. she explained how gripe A was a big deal.. as we all knew.. and then said our program was ending..like saturday. a full week early which is a huge bummer because we had so many fun cultural activities planned! (including a futbol game). However, the city of buenos aires has considered this gripe A an epidemic and is in an emergency state. Basically when you have thousands of people commuting on the same dirty buses everyday, living so closely and breathing the nasty air, you have to be careful.. SO, besides the disappointment of everyone scattering starting saturday, there is good news..katie and i's adventures start a week early and last for 3 weeks now instead of 2.. But before i can clear my head and focus on my future adventures, i have to finish, finally, explaining uruguay. brevity is where im at now, so yeah. So i mentioned all the people we met at the hostel and their stories.. While we were eating breakfast, i went to get an apple and it was almost completely rotted on one side but conveniently sitting next to another apple so one could not tell the severity of its nastiness..i grab it and show the hombre running the place.. he makes a joke to ease the situation.."we like to eat them like that here" haha polite way of dismissing it and i join and just toss it in the garbage. we headed out to see the city a little including some cool plazas, an old church, a fountain with hundreds of locks locked on it, and a super interesting building with about 20 resturant inside (all of which claim to be the best but the one right next to it..has the same menu) Outside this chaotic eatery katie and i invested in some sheep guantes (gloves) that will be much appreciated come time to hike in bariloche. The man was soo sweet who was selling them and once we paid, he randomly went in to talking about the meaning of life and how it was short so you need to enjoy it (in spanish of course). The city was feeling a little, no a lot, desserted because it was cold, windy and elections day. THey take elections serious so much so that from sat night at 12 am to sun at 12 am no alcohol is sold and none is really consumed..because you need to be aware and vote coherently. anyways, when we were walking through the city, 2 out of the few people we saw told me to be extremely careful with my camera (nikone d200 is not easy to hide).. i was being careful but decided that i had enough warnings and would suspend my pictures for the rest of the tour. next: grabbed our luggage, bus to the bus terminal, bus to colonia. On the side of the highway were people playing soccer..this country LOVES soccer. after a wonderful 2 hour nap on the bus, we arrived in colonia. apparently the bus ride was somewhat strange because we kept stopping in the middle of nowhere and people were getting on and off..this was weird because we were on an intense motor coach, not just a city bus. Anyways, hostel viajero welcomed us and we were excited to be there. We met some girls there later on, Joanna and Sabina who had been traveling for 4 months because they just graduated college and there were no jobs..so they went traveling! There was also another woman, uanna who is a teacher in france who was meeting her friend in brazil. One of the girls on the trip with us, jenny, had randomly started speaking with a boy in french earlier at breakfast so she did it again with this woman.. I was just thinking how cool it'd be if, when hanging out with my friends and we came across someone of another language, say chinese, all the sudden i just had a full blown conversation with them..then i'd be cool :) hostel viajero was very nice, had a balling fire and spacious lobby to watch tv..not to mention the plethora of movies to chose from. My time there I watched more movies than i have in the past 1/2 year probably..Wall E (which i thought i'd seen, then realized i had fallen asleep the first time, and then feel asleep in the last 10 mins this time) Tropic Thunder (dont waiste your time!) Australia (somewhat cute) and thats all. For dinner we headed to the USA supermarket, bought some pasta and spinach sauce complete with sprite and chocolate for dessert. I was the cook and it was challenging to read directions.. i just hoped i knew enough to wing it. Jenny and I succeded and feed the 5 of us with just the right amount. we went to bed satisfied and tired..i wish i could say warm but that wasnt the case..the place was very very chilly but luckily i used an alaska trick (laying your clothes on top of your blanket for extra warmth). When we awoke, we had an awesome breakfast of dulce de leche and pan! as always, extremely healthy :) it was rainy outside and still very cold so we weren't in a hurry. thats when we experimented with tropic thunder and australia.. after, we headed to the market for lunch. On our way, we saw a shoe store and you know me, we had to go in. I've been itching for some converse like shoes so i could fit in while in buenos aires (running shoes or hiking shoes do NOT cut it). anyways, we found some knock off brand for about $16 US dollars and called it a deal. 4 out of 5 of us got shoes, i call that successful :) We waited the rain out and then braved the wind. The little town of colonia was even more desserted than montevideo the day before. We continued being tourists none-the-less and it was SOO windy, bone chilling really. We saw the town lighthouse and climbed up to the top for 20 pesos (not even a US dollar). It was super super windy up there but a nice view! on the way back to the hostel, we stopped for some coffee and baileys to warm us up. The hot chocolate here is funny because they warm up milk and then put a stick of chocolate in the bottom.. inovative. We decided to be on time for the ferry this time instead of late so we headed on at about 6. There were 2 indian guys at our hostel hanging out who hadnt stayed but were waisting time before their ferry. We said goodbye and ended up seeing them later on the boat. SO now heres the fun part.. the buque bus (ferry). We were seated and ready to go, i just wanted a nice hot, constant shower and my own bed. At about 7 45, 45 after planned departure, a woman speaking spanish rapidly came on the speaker. We all gathered about the same info, canceled, leaving tomorrow...crap. I need to mention that because we were leaving uruguay, we spent all our uruguayan money. We asked if we could sleep on the boat and originally they said no. they ended up letting us stay and we moved to first class..along with the rest of the boat. We were chatting away with the indians from texas when another group of guys started chatting. They were a band from holland but made up of very different people. They were all between 30-35 and some of them had real jobs, but they all looked like punks. Anyways, we started chatting, they were drinking their wine, offered us some and i gave some reasons as to why i declined. Religion was a small mention in there and that started it.. the door opened and stayed open for about 4 hours. THere we were: 11pm, in the uruguayan port, on a boat, and they started asking about religion. I always like to see where other people are coming from after i tell them my perspective so i returned the questions to alonso once i had answered mine. We decided this would be a full blown, very civil and calm conversation as religious conversations are usually not carried out that way. I went first, and told my beliefs, then jenny who is also chrisitan. we ended up answering questions for a while. THen some of the boys went, Alonso told us how we was criticized as a boy because when he was going through catholic school, he started asking questions about why things didnt match up and parents got made. For this, he decided to denounce all religions and actually write against them.

uruguay continuted..

this morning was one of those, when you just want your mom to kiss you and tell you that you don't have to go to school today..i dont know why, it just was. too bad that didnt happen to me :) I went to the supermarket yesterday so this morning i had a great breakfast and was prepared foodwise for the rest of the day! Anyways, I want to continue with uruguay adventures so that you all can know our about our great moments there. So, I started to explain about Leila, the woman saturated in politics..quite the interesting character-she is divorced, doesnt have a lot of money, is older, and super mad about the US being the way it is..therefore she moved, and is trying to decide where to live, uruguay or argentina..she picked uruguay because the politics "are stable there" haha i mean they are somewhat but its just funny reasoning. We also met a man named matais who was from Germany but has been living in Cordoba for seven months now. He wants residence but doesnt have it so he had to take a leave from the country just to be able to renew his tourist visa. He works with the German INstitute about culture or something..i guess germany needs to make their culture known to south america?? anyways, he was nice to chat with. Then we met another american to the mix, Andrew, who spoke almost no spanish who was there in montevideo working on the computers that all the school kids have. Apparently every child in school has one of these alien looking labtops that are theirs to keep and they always have internet because they can grap it from another one of their friends laptops whose near..sounds strange but they were funny little things. The idea behind this is, well its a non profit organization who funds it, and when the kids cant make it to school because buses dont function or something tragic, they can just read their books and submit things via their notebooks.. this organization is called something like one computer for every child.. interesting. One other thing interesting about Andrew is that he went to a boarding high school and lived there..its called north carolina school of sciences..a magnet school but basically he just lived one big party for high school..a strange concept for me...i wouldnt dare want to LIVE high school! One of the owners was brazilian who was in uruguay studying spanish..very nice guy. WE also met 3 other girls there, hannah, kelsey and maggie who had just graduated high school and were touring south america..talk about being brave..man! Quinten was a new comer as we were heading out for the day but he was from france traveling all over studying various countries politics. WE had a nice breakfast in which most of the people jsut mentioned ate and chatted.. some of the interesting conversations were about: woofing- working on organic farms all over for free!, caretakers.org is a website to find out where you can watch peoples houses all over the world and get paid for it..